Either the economy is back or we're doomed, so pay attention small businesses.

The last four years have been a case study in frustration for my wife and myself, as well as many of our friends.

We keep hearing about the bad economy, the joblessness, the struggles of small business owners, etc etc.

But as we gear up for the November elections, I want to share some observations and experiences.

• Joblessness? Have you seen the way the majority of people show up to apply for a job? Holy cow! Maybe I'm old, but in my day, you put on clean slacks, a pressed or starched shirt, and maybe even a tie, and polished/shined shoes before going to inquire or apply for a job--and that was even for something as simple as a grocery sacker job.

I was in a retail store the other day that had "help wanted" signs on the door and saw two different job-seekers waiting to speak with a manager. I chatted with both of them, mainly out of curiosity. They were guys, one a senior in college the other in his mid-twenties. Both were wearing faded jeans, t-shirts, dirty tennis shoes. . . but both had high-dollar smart phones, of which both were fiddling with.

No surprise that the manager came out, took one look then told the two that the position had been filled. Neither applicant had a resume in hand, neither said "sir" or even stood up straight when the manager was addressing them.

I wonder how often this scenario presents itself each hour of each day?

• My wife just got off the phone, slamming it in frustration, with a carpet cleaning service. We had made an appointment to have a specific individual with this franchise come out and clean the only carpet we have in the downstairs area of our house.

Most of these franchises try to charge us--belay that, rip us off--by claiming this area encompasses two or even three rooms. It does not and a tape-measure proves it. I've escorted more than one of these salesmen to the door who cannot read a tape measure. The carpeted area downstairs covers part of our living room and part of the dining area immediately adjacent to the living room. Essentially, the area is only slightly larger than the area in our master bedroom--which, thankfully, is now tiled.

Yet these small franchises continue to insist that such an area is two or even three rooms. Bull Stink.

But what's really rich is when I see these same idiots at our local chamber of commerce meetings and breakfasts and they're moaning and wringing their hands about this horrible economy and how bad business is and how nobody needs their carpet cleaned.

• I've been trying to get bids to have a fence company come out. What I want are bids to remove a section of old fence, haul it off, and then set steel posts in concrete. That's all. I'll do the rest.

For some reason, this is a problem with both large and small fence contractors alike. The idea that I'll haul out my table saw, mitre saw, air compressor tools, etc., and finish out the fence exactly the way I want it befuddles them.

That is, it befuddles them whenever I can get them to even come out to give me an estimate.

We get these doorhangers all the time from fence companies. We get coupons in the mail from fence companies. We get homemade flyers taped to our front door and garage door from fence companies. But when we call them, they rarely show up. Those that do hem-haw around and insist on finishing out the fence themselves even in spite of how clear I made it that we'll finish out the fence.

To date, two different fence companies have given me estimates which have the same costs whether they finish the fence or I do. That's more Bull Stink.

What these geniuses forget is that I can go down to my local rental place and rent an auger and cement mixer and do the job myself. Problem is, my back is acting up again and I really don't want to subject it to all of that. I will if I have to.

I do have another option, however. We have an area of town where the illegals and immigrants hang out looking for work each day. I have zero compunction about hiring and paying them to do what I need done.

• We hired a tree service to cut down a half-dozen trees on the property and to trim up the others. We took bids, chose our company and gave them the job. We're talking four-figures here.

The job was done as sloppy and half-ass as anything we've ever seen. Repeated calls to the company garnered us zero satisfaction and our check had already been cashed. I filed the obligatory negative Better Business Bureau reports, which also have done zilch, and found every internet survey/feedback site I could find and wrote an honest assessment of the experience.

Yet. . . the principle of this tree company is an alum of my old college and I read in the last month's ex-student association publication how this guy commented about "business being so bad that he may go out of business."

News flash, pal. It ain't business that's bad--it's you that's bad.

And these are but just a few examples of poor small business experiences the wife and I have had. I won't even go into the experience our consulting group is having with vendors and contractors except to say that is much of the same.

Have we simply accepted, over the past four years, that mediocrity is acceptable and that is WE can't make it in business, then it's Bush's fault and therefore the responsibility of the Ozero administration to now take care of us?

Have our job-seekers decided that for some reason, they are so awesome and indispensable with their whopping no years of experience and incomplete college education that retailers and restaurants can't live without them, and therefore no reason to even shave or shower before casually strolling in and literally demanding a job?

What the hell is going on here?

Small business IS the backbone of America, but from what I'm experiencing, it is rather indicative of why this country is broke.

The people I hear who aren't constantly griping about the economy aren't doing so because they're too busy working their butts off. They're getting up early and staying late, they're answering their phones and returning messages to their customers and clients. They're giving their customers one-hundred percent satisfaction and they're doing it for a fair price.

When they need help or have a position open up, they're looking for like-minded applicants--not people with surly attitudes and pants dragging the floor.

So, I don't know. Judging from experience, we either have fantastic news and that being that the economy is back to one-hundred percent, or we have some not so good news, and that is, we're doomed.

Either way, the one thing for certain is that we simply cannot continue on in the status quo.

The idiocy of Uncle Sam.

A friend of mine met me for lunch today and was shaking his head in utter disgust mixed with disbelief.

He'd just returned from an appointment he and his wife and his three-month-old son had with the State Department to get their passports.

His was rejected because the State Department official said he was smiling. My friend told me that he argued he was not smiling, and in fact, was grimacing over the bureaucratic stupidity of the gov't drone reviewing his application.

The wife was rejected because the same gov't drone could not see her ears in the picture.

At least she wasn't smiling.

And just to make it a three-strikes and you're out typical government experience, their three-month old son's passport application was rejected because. . . get this--his eyes weren't open enough.

Did I mention my friends are Korean?

My friend got a little agitated with the gov't drone and explained that A) 3-month-old babies tend to spend a lot of time with their eyes close, B) All Asian 3-month-olds pretty much look all the same, and C) Even at three YEARS of age, the severe "slant" of a Korean youth's eyes are going to make them appear almost completely shut.

"Oh, I didn't realize that," said the gov't drone.

Best part about this idiot? He was assigned to the Asian desk.

God help us all.

Hurricane Obama. You happy now, Sheila Lee Jackson?

The local Texas race-bait idiot in the central Houston cesspool, aka Sheila Lee Jackson--CONGRESSperson Sheila Lee Jackson--once bemoaned the fact that hurricanes were not given "African American names," and thus decreed that by only naming them "white names," somebody was being racist.

The idiot (Jackson) couldn't name who was being racist, just that someone was being racist.

Well congrats, Idiot Jackson. You now have your hurricane and it's called Obama.

As depicted in the picture above, what else would you call a storm that spins to the left, leaves millions powerless and cuts a path of destruction and mayhem everywhere it goes?

The 'Bama Media, or BM for short, is having a field day with Hurricane Obama bearing down first on the Republican National Convention in Tampa, and now forecast to clobber the Louisiana and Mississippi coastline.

I mean, they're freaking giddy.

Forbes is howling about how Obama could rival Katrina. Other BMs are crowing about what a disaster, PR-wise, it could/would/should be for the Republicans.

Quite honestly, all this does is give (yet more) irrefutable proof to the bias of the BM, Dems and hardcore libs.

Me? I say we should just sit tight and let's see what happens. We've already seen Bam Bam and how he handles a crisis. It's called V A C A T I O N.

Ad nauseum.

In the meantime, read Murphy's sound advice to the inmates of New Orleans.

An old fashioned butt-kicking.

Ted Cruz didn't just beat David Dewhurst here in Texas yesterday in a primary runoff election. He kicked his butt.

 Several things were proven beyond doubt in the Cruz stomping:

1. Conservative voters have long memories. Dewhurst has never been a strong conservative and his record reflects it.

2. If you're going to run negative advertising, it better be factually correct.

Cruz pointed out Dewhurst's liberal voting and legislative record, which was a matter of public record. From the outset, Dewhurst ran from his record and instead tried to paint Cruz as an evil Washington insider trial lawyer protecting the Chinese.

The most despicable of the ads, however, came when Dewhurst ran ads insinuating that Cruz was defending a "cash for kids" detention facility scandal. That entire campaign was wrong and intentionally distorted and was far below the belt, even by dirty Texas political ad standards.

Note to politicians: We are not stupid. We know how to use the internet that "government built so businesses could make money off of it" to check facts.

3. The Tea Party is anything but over. Hell, we're just getting cranked up.

I wrote on Twitter that I hadn't seen a butt-kicking like Cruz over Dewhurst since the Cowboys laid the smack on the Buffalo Bills in successive Super Bowls.

The victory also tells you how full of pork excrement Obama is. Not too long ago, he slithered into Texas (Austin, which is where we tolerate our more radical liberals but only because they run the music bars and restaurants on East Sixth Street) and proclaimed that Texas "would soon become a battleground state."

He was right on several accounts.

In just the past two years, we've had a couple of major high-profile battles that pitted establishment politicians against local-values politicians. Our embarrassment of a (retiring) senator, Kay Bailey Hutchitson got her butt handed to her by Rick Perry in a classic "Texas values versus Washington values" gubernatorial race.

Just last night, David Dewhurst suffered a similar fate.

The battle was on and here in Texas, we threw the big middle finger at the establishment RINO Republicans.

Battleground state indeed.

There will be some upcoming battles in Texas beginning at the borders, which will include not just the Rio Grande River, but also the Red River.

On illegal immigration, we're fed up. We'll give Romney a chance to shore up the borders, but he'd better act quick. Otherwise, if he doesn't, we will. "Remember the Alamo?" Hell, we've never forgotten it. We WILL defend our southern border.

On the northern border (the Red River), we're getting tired of liberal yankee carpetbaggers coming down here seeking work and a better life but insisting on bringing their Chicago and Detroit and Boston values (oxymoron) with them. We are a solid Tea Party state and if the liberals, yankees and Californians don't like it, tough cow patties.

The Ted Cruz victory also reaffirmed something else the mainstream media refuses to acknowledge--that Sarah Palin is VERY relevant in conservative politics. Her endorsement and campaigning for Richard Mourdock in Indiana helped Mourdock stomp his own mudhole in one of the biggest frauds to suck air in Republican circles since Olympia Snow and Arlen Spector.

God Bless the Hoosiers, who also epitomize Tea Party values and strength.

Take a look around, my fellow conservatives. The Ted Cruz victory last night in Texas is affirmation that we are not just strong, but an undeniable force to be reckoned with.

If Romney is smart, he'll get the message and campaign accordingly.

Bullying. You know the solution.

It dismays me to no end that there is a growing legion of people in this country that rely on the government to do everything for them.

Everything.

I keep reading and hearing of this "bullying" problem, and quite frankly, I don't see where the problem is.

Actually, I do and it is with the person or people being bullied.

It's called cowardice. But here is a nice video showing the reality of 99% of all bullying situations.
Bully gets his ass kicked.

That's the way I was taught to handle bullies when I was growing up five decades ago. It worked then, it works now.

It's not necessarily "laying hands on someone" that is the point--it's standing up to the bully and giving it right back to them with the implied PROMISE that you will kick their ass by and with whatever means necessary to end the harassment or threats or bullying they are laying on you.

I was a pretty small guy growing up and the bigger, older neighborhood kids kicked my ass now and then just for the hell of it. My grandad, a WWII vet, encouraged judo lessons. From there, I added karate and in a couple of years, I found myself going after a couple of guys who'd shoved down a kid on crutches.

It infuriated me, and I went after the two guys without thinking. About fifteen seconds into the brawl, it dawned on me that this judo and karate stuff really DOES work. When you focus your discipline and power into your punches and kicks and use your opponent's momentum (and ignorance) against him, you can deliver a fearsome ass-kicking.

But today, we as parents run to the principal's office crying and sobbing and demanding that THEY do something about the bully who is bothering our precious Percy or Priscilla. As adults, we go crying to human resources or EEOC demanding THEY do something about a bullying co-worker or supervisor.

Bullies do what they do because they do not respect the person they are picking on. Fear generates a healthy dose of respect. If you don't believe me, ask any veteran who went through boot camp. We feared our drill instructors and knew, without a doubt, that they could kick our ass seven ways sideways to Sunday.

But because THEY also knew it, the need to "bully" wasn't there. By the end of our eight or twelve weeks of basic military training, mutual respect had been achieved.

You can achieve the same thing in the civilian world in eight to twelve seconds if you simply stand up to the SOB who is bullying you and promise what we called "violence of action" and have every intention of following through.

It's a mindset you have to acquire, which is why we're such a spineless nation ruled by bullies. It's much easier to run whining to the government to make more laws against bullying than it is to stand up to them and/or teach our kids how to stand up to them.

Spare me the talk about lawyers and courts and police. Simply STANDING UP to a damned bully will win three-fourths of the battles. Tell them to kiss your ass and howl at the moon.

If you live in fear, it is because you choose to live in fear. Bullies are nothing new, nor is standing up to them.

But again, we choose to be spineless.

And to prove it, our U.S. Government is the biggest bunch of bullies there are, and we don't even have the guts to vote their asses out of office.

I have no words to describe this.

Except for "BRILLIANT."

The growing irrelevancy of the mainstream media is now being proven.

I'd like to think I was a bit of a prophet when I wrote this in my novel:

The major networks and metropolitan newspapers largely ignored all facets except for the president’s grandstanding and camera hounding in which he promised to veto a bill that never should have made it past the House, let alone into the Senate. The editorials and commentaries from the major media moguls favorably regurgitated all of this, then waited for the onslaught of negative feedback on their websites. Positive or negative, it didn’t matter because as long as the feedback was significant, it would support their advertising rates. But unlike in recent weeks, very little feedback occurred, giving a case for serious concern to network management and newspaper publishers alike. No feedback meant nobody was listening, nobody was reading. Nobody cared what they had to say.

The real action was elsewhere, like on talk radio where callers lit up the lines with national talk-show hosts Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Mark Levin and Laura Ingraham, with the overwhelming majority of callers strongly favoring a national castle doctrine. Even faster and more furious was the internet with the bloggers and discussion forums. More and more of America had finally learned to disregard the so-called “news” that emanates from the networks with the exception of the Fox News Channel. One feedback submission to MSNBC pretty well summed up the feelings of most when it read, “You’re simply not relevant anymore, therefore, what you in the media think doesn’t matter.”

Fact is, rather than being prophetic, one would have to be blind to NOT see the growing irrelevancy of today's mainstream media.

Of course, the overwhelming majority of liberals ARE extremely "sight-challenged."

Having spent almost two decades in the world of Madison Avenue, I'm familiar with advertising and how it is the sole supporting source of revenue for television news programs. On TV, you have sitcoms and sports and things that people actually ENJOY viewing. Not so much with news. Don Henley had it right when he penned "Dirty Laundry."


Adding to that experience is the fact that my lovely wife was a veteran television reporter for almost a decade. Towards the end, before she left for the far more financially lucrative pastures of public relations, she often bemoaned the fact that newsroom budgets were being cut because of falling advertising revenues.

When the internet began truly roaring around five to seven years ago, we both predicted that the mainstream media would begin taking major-league hard hits.

We were right.

The local birdcage liners around here are the Dallas Morning News and the Fort Worth Star Telegram--huge papers serving a huge population. Ten years ago, the Morning News was actually tolerable until they brought in some wild-eyed radical woman from an Arizona paper to take over as Editor. The paper went to hell in a matter of months.

Subscriptions have been plummeting faster than the deck chairs on the Titanic. Rather than re-assessing the problem, the newspaper did the typical liberal thing--raised prices for advertisers and then began charging "subscription" rates for online viewing.

Now, not only did subscription continue to plummet, so did readership.

I've been seeing this all over the country. Newspapers are just about extinct. Sad, on one hand, but on the other. . . well, they did it to themselves.

In advertising, we determined rates by CPM--which is Cost Per Thousand, translated this means how much does it cost to reach one thousand viewers/listeners/readers. There are more formulas we used, such as Reach and Frequency and Weight, but at the end of the day, it all boiled down to CPM.

When you lose readers, that means your "thousands" go down, which means your advertisers are reaching LESS people for the same advertising rates. That, incidentally, brings up another nefarious problem that liberals are completely blind to, and that would be ROI--Return On Investment.

So what we have are advertisers reaching LESS readers, but the newspapers wanting to charge MORE for the readers that ARE being reached. I'm sure this makes perfect sense, somehow, to the managers at the New York Times and Washington Post and Dallas Morning News and other fish-wrappers. But it makes absolutely zero sense to the advertisers.

Unlike government, we were in business to make a profit. After all, someone has to support the career politicians and their career welfare constituents. Paying more to get less only makes sense inside the Beltway and those who worship the left side of the aisle in Washington, which is why we're so screwed up.

But according to this story in today's Drudge Report, even the lame-brained newspapers are finally starting to accept the BIG FACT behind their plummeting readership rates.

People are tuning them out. They don't matter. We already KNOW what they're going to say and how they're going to say it before an event even happens. It's either going to be Bush's fault, or we're all racists, or we support feeding children and senior citizens cat food, or we're all part of greedy big business.

Good is bad, bad is good. It's the liberal mantra parroted by mainstream media sources for decades, and this dodo bird is finally coming home to roost.

That is only fitting that such an idiotic bird come home to poop on the mainstream newspapers who line its bird cage.

Hanoi Jane. Ready, Aim, Fire.

I got an e-mail the other day. It was one I've seen circulating for a few years, and some of the stuff in it was largely false.

But it still burned my ass.

It was an e-mail reminding me of the Left's incessant and unending love affair with one of the more notorious, infamous traitorous pieces of slimy human sewage we've had in several centuries.

That would be Hanoi Jane Fonda.

Lot of the younger generation have absolutely no idea who she is. But since Clinton liked her and Obama likes her and the sagging-boobed bra-burners of the 60's like her, they think she must be cool.

She's not.

Anyone who goes to the enemy in the middle of a war, gives aid and comfort to the enemy, speaks out against her own country, speaks out against the military men and women of her country, and then who volunteers for numerous photo-op propaganda pictures with the communist North Vietnamese is a traitor.

I remember all too well the Hanoi Jane urinal targets. Many, many, many a beer at various NCO clubs was recycled into useful ammunition and then fired appropriately at this skank's likeness.

A while back, Hanoi Jane got all pissy because QVC cancelled an appearance by her on its show at the behest of thousands upon thousands of infuriated vets who promised to boycott the channel forever. QVC did the right thing. Fonda was pissed and bemoaned the "mentality of a boycott."

Isn't that ironic? The left is constantly calling for boycotts of ANYONE they disagree with. Well screw them and screw Fonda.

So, for some of us, a trip down memory lane. For some of the younger generation, an educational experience.

There are some things that you just never forget.

This is one of them.

Drug-crazed, Nude Man Breaks Into Marine's Home--Met With Three Bullets.

From the "Not just good news, but damn good news" stacks. . .

We need more of this.

Don't mess with a man who's been trained to improvise, adapt, overcome.

I wonder if someone is going to challenge "stand your ground" on this. . .

Autopsy reveals Trayvon Martin had drugs in his blood and urine. What an incredible surprise.

ABC just released the story.

Shock me.

When this whole mess first broke, Zimmerman was portrayed as a 300-pound hulking mass of black-hating right-of-the-Ku Klux Klowns wannabe Nazi.

Trayvon was portrayed as having sprung straight from Mother Theresa's own holy-lined uterine womb.

NBC was one of the first perpetrators in turning this into publicity chum for race-baiting asshats like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton. Selective editing of the 9-1-1 call between Zimmerman and the Sanford police dispatcher proves that beyond reproach.

I hope Zimmerman sues NBC out of existence. I wish advertisers had the balls to walk away from NBC for the duration of this entire trial fiasco.

Yeah, I know. I also wish the tooth fairy was real.

Of course, back to the media, it was ABC who rushed to broadcast some crappy footage in which they claimed they didn't see any blood or dangling appendages from George Zimmerman as the police were taking him inside the station. Now ABC breaks the story about Martin being doped up. Go figure.

I read on John Lott's blog where the medical report listed off Zimmerman's injuries and they were one-hundred percent consistent with his story of self-defense.

Now the autopsy on Saint Trayvon indicates the gunshot wound to ALSO be consistent with Zimmerman's story.

In other words, everything that is coming out that can be PROVEN as factual is supporting Zimmerman. The assertions offered by Saint Martin's race-baiting ambulance-chasing "show me the TV cameras and cash, baby!" crowd is systematically being proven to be nothing more than the typical bullshit Sharpton is famous, er INfamous for.

What a surprise.

How many years has it been since Tawana Brawley?

Do NOT be a victim.

I have read this before on several gun-forums, but it is a good read and even better advice for all of us.

Don't be a victim.

This comes from a cop who is still on the job. I'm sure his/her superiors would have a bowel movement in the shape of a brick if they knew who this cop was. . .

Read. Enjoy. Learn. Live.

Good advice from a cop about robbers

"I am going to attempt to provide some insight into street encounters. Other may have different viewpoints. I am not here to argue. I will say some of the comments I have seen posted in the threads about this sort of matter make me realize that while some ARFCOMMERS are clearly street veterans others are not. This is really for those who are not.

Background

First, my info. I worked in the street of one of America's most violent, dangerous cities for 15 years. I usually worked in the worst part of that city. I spent 15 years in patrol. I liked patrol. It was wild. Most of the time I worked in areas covered in ghetto. By that I mean large housing projects combined with run down slum housing. I have worked all shifts. Later I became an investigator including a robbery investigator. I have spent countless hours in interrogation rooms talking to hold up men. I know them. I am still an investigator but have quit playing the Robbery game because my family was starting to forget what I looked like.

The Enemy

Some may object to me calling hold up men "the enemy". You can call them whatever you like. I can assure you however they are as deadly an enemy as you will find anywhere but the battlefield. Even many soldiers probably lack the viciousness and utter disregard for life most hold up men possess.

No one wakes up in the morning one day and decides to become an armed robber. It is a gradual process that requires some experience and desensitizing. Before a man will pick up a gun and threaten to kill people who have done him no harm in order to get their usually meager possessions he has to get comfortable with some things.

He has to get used to seeing others as objects for him to exploit. He has to accept he may be killed while robbing. He has to accept the felony conviction for Robbery will haunt him all his life. He has to accept he may need to kill a completely innocent person to get away with his crime.

This is a process that starts with stealing candy at the corner store as a child. It progresses through bigger property crimes that may also involve violence. But one day G gets tired of selling his stolen property for nothing and decides it would be better to steal cash. Cut out all that tiresome sales stuff.

Keep in mind many petty thieves, auto burglars, residential and commercial burglars, paper thieves, and hustlers will get to that point and decide not to become armed robbers. Most will. It is a special group of outliers who decide threatening to kill people for a few dollars is the way to go.

Once a man starts armed robbing he has crossed a line most won't. Don't forget that when you are looking these bastards in the eye. Their decision to kill you is already made. Your life means nothing to him. Only his does. His sole motivation for not killing you is he doesn't want a murder case. He has already accepted he may pick one up though.

We hunt hold up men around the clock once they are identified. We send teams of fire breathing fence jumper/door kickers to find them. We will bring their mother to the office and convince her she is going to jail if we don't have Junior in our office in an hour. We have her call her son crying hysterically for him to turn himself in before she is arrested and held without bond as a material witness and her home seized for harboring him. Most of the time they won't. Fuck their own momma.

We will hit all Juniors friends and family's houses. We make it so no one will harbor him. He is so hot no one will let him in their house or even talk on the phone with him. We put money on him so he knows he is right to be betrayed and set up. We do this because of one thing.

That thing is they WILL kill someone if they keep robbing. That is why the city is willing to pay all the overtime. They don't want the murders. Think about that when you see Junior coming. The more robberies he does the closer he is to killing someone. Maybe you.

The guys who hit you on the street are gang members. They are Gangster Disciples, Vice Lords, Crips, Sureonos, many others. They do not see themselves as part of society. The street is all they know. They don't expect to live long or stay out of prison. They take a delight in your fear and suffering. They are warped individuals for the most part. They can be extremely dangerous.

One time we were locking up a hold up man and having a conversation about how they target their victims. I was saying they pick easy ones, another guy was saying they preferred easy ones but would take anybody.

I pointed out a uniform Officer there was an NFL size guy to that hold up man. Frankly the dude was a monster. I asked hold up man if he would rob him. He said "If I needed the money."

You

Chances are good you are a law abiding person except for maybe a little light weed smoking and maybe driving a little drunk every once in a while. Most of your life you have been taught to be nice and don't point guns at people. You are the exact opposite of your enemy who was taught just the opposite. Remember a lot of street life is like prison life. Who's the man is everything. Violence is the currency of the street.

You do not possess total disregard for the lives of others and do not want to kill anyone. You are concerned about the ramifications of shooting someone. Your family, your possessions and finances on the line. Your enemy has none of these concerns.

The laws that keep you from carrying your gun in bars or where ever mean nothing to your enemy. Your reluctance to shoot someone works to is advantage. His greater experience in street violence and the element of surprise is on his side.

Everyone should call their local FBI office and get a copy of Law Enforcement Officers Killed and Assaulted. When it first came out it was ground breaking because it demonstrated to academics and other elites what street police knew all along. What did it show in interviews with cop killers? Nice guys finish dead. That's right. Most of those offenders commented that the Officer they killed set himself up to be killed because of reluctance to use force early in the encounter.

You can probably find it on line now. A lot of the victim Officers were a lot like a lot of other people, normal people. They were the opposite of their enemy.

Am I advocating becoming the enemy? No. I am saying the person who is robbing you has certain traits, attitudes, and background. That is all.

Dynamics of Encounters

Hold up men target victims on the street in an impulsive, opportunistic manner. They see someone and make a quick judgment call on whether to rob them. The time between when you are targeted and they are on you isn't long. Therefore, situational awareness is everything.

If you see G coming you are in good shape. If you don't you will be the victim who says "He came out of nowhere". No he didn't. There are many tricks to watching out but simply watching your back is the main thing. Watch your back. If you do it enough it becomes second nature and you won't even realize you are doing it.

Watching out is great but unfortunately many self defense courses stop there. You have parked you car in a well lit area, are aware of your surroundings, and looky here, here comes three guys across the parking lot and they start to kind of fan out.

When you lock eyes with G the very first thing you need to do it indicate you have a weapon. It doesn't matter if you do or not. If you are a woman put your gun hand in your purse and keep it there. If you are a man fan your shirt or coat tail with your gun hand. Make it clear to dude you are mentally prepared to draw and making sure your gun is clear. This will many times result in an about face by dude. It is the single best robbery avoidance tactic IMHO.

Not long ago I was walking down the sidewalk in my town to go get my car. I was holding a folding chair in my gun hand. A car slow rolled past me with 4 heads in it. The guys in the back seat turned around as they went by looking at me. They went a little farther and U turned in the street.

Here they come back. As they started to slow down I looked at them with as contemptuous a look as I could muster and switched the chair to my left hand and flicked my shirt tail with my right hand. They just drove on mad dogging me.

In another case I was at a Christmas party and walked a girl to her car about 3 am. As we said our good-byes two guys were walking across the parking lot. One went behind a dumpster. I though he was peeing. He came out from behind the dumpster with a bottle.

As they got closer I stepped clear of that girl and unzipped my jacket at those two guys. When I did the guy threw down the bottle and they walked by cussing at me. If someone challenges you after you indicate you are armed, say "I don't have a gun." Then they will know you do.

Here is an opposite story. A girl my brother knows was walking her dog when a guy approached her. She was polite. Mistake. He talked to her about the dog and said she had pretty hair and reached out and touched her hair. She did not slap his hand down or aggressively object. Mistake. He asked her if her dog bit and she said "No". At that time he slapped the shit out of her, drug her into a wooded area, and raped her.

The answer in the street is always "No". Can I ask you something? No. Do you have a cigarette? No. Can you tell me what time it is? No. The answer is always "No". Don't be nice. Stop the encounter as soon as it starts.

When to draw

Despite warnings I often see on the Net I have yet to encounter an instance in which a hold up man called the police to report his intended victim threatened to shoot him. Thugs do not want to come into contact with the police. They may already be wanted or realize chances are good they have been identified in a recent robbery. Or what ever. They are not going to call the police if you draw on them.

Supposed two guys are approaching you in a parking lot and do the classic fan out maneuver. You indicate you have a weapon by clearing your gun hand and fanning your jacket at them. They are not discouraged. DRAW!

I am not saying you should pull your gun out, assume a Weaver stance, and scream "That's close enough motherfuckers!" What I am saying is draw your gun and hold it beside your leg as you start to move to cover. I am very fond of telephone poles. Anything will do though. They will see this. They will remember they have to be somewhere else. They will not call the police.

Then you can just put your gun back in the holster and go back to whatever you were doing like nothing happened. Why? Because nothing did happen. A happening is when shots are fired.

Do not hesitate to draw. If you are somewhere you are supposed to be and someone appears who is not supposed to be there like a closed business show him the end of your gun. Could it be Mother Teresa looking for her lost cat behind your closed business? No it is some motherfucker up to no good. He won't call the police to report he was prowling a location when a guy ran him off.

When to shoot

The time to shoot is immediately upon seeing his weapon. You are not a policeman who has to try to arrest the guy. No need to scream at him. No exposure while you yell for him to drop the gun.

In deer hunting the experienced hunter takes the first good shot. May not be the perfect shot but it never is. Novices pass up a doable shot waiting for a better shot and then the deer is gone. Take the first good shot you are offered. Hopefully your alertness and hostile cues will prevent you ever having to fire. But once you see his weapon, shoot.

If a guy is coming at you with a gun in his hand shoot him. Shoot him right then. If you don't shoot first you may not shoot at all. I have known more than one person who was shot and received life changing injuries and also shot their attacker. Their only regret was not shooting sooner. Like Bill Jordan said "Nothing disturbs your enemy's aim like a slug delivered to the belt buckle area".


Guns and weapons

The handgun is the best weapon you can carry easily. I understand it is not always possible to have one due to laws, restrictions, whatever. I am not telling anyone to disregard laws about carrying weapons. Each person has to decide for themselves what they are comfortable with. I will say there is no substitute for a pistol when you need one.

Also if you can not be trusted with a pistol after a few drinks you can't be trusted with a pistol period. Booze is liquid bad judgment no doubt but it shouldn't make you into a damn moron. If you are a moron sober I don't know what to tell you.

Types of guns and ammo are always debated and probably always will be. I have seen people shot with all common calibers. My conclusion is if you hit someone between the collar bone and the tip of their ribs three times with anything, they are handled. Bigger is better but something is better than nothing. Get your front sight on his shirt and stay on him as long as he is standing with whatever gun you have.

Just have a gun with sure fire ammo. Draw early and fire immediately upon seeing his weapon. That course of action is about all you can do to up your odds of ending things favorably. Guns like the Ruger LC9, SIG 239, Glock 26/27 are examples of guns small enough to carry but with enough power and capacity to be useful. Do not be afraid to use a French Lebelle if that is the only gun you have. A gun is a gun. I like a Glock 19.

Training

We all want the best training. It can be expensive if you are having to pay for it and it can be hard to find the time to do it. There is a whole lot of BS out there. What can you do? First, pistol handling is not rocket surgery. If you will learn the basics and practice on your own you can be fine. Smooth draw, quick pairs, reload. If you know those things well you can be OK.

I know a young man who shot down two hold up men in 2010 at very close range while he and his GF were walking home from the store. He in Wyatt Earp like fashion ignored the fire coming from the gunman and killed him and wounded his accomplice. He nor his GF were injured. He like many was willing to give them the money until he picked up on nonverbal cues that because of his GF they were not quite satisfied with the money. He had a Glock 27.

He had only the most basic of training in gun handling but did do some draws and some dry fire a couple times a week and live fired maybe once a month. That basic skill combined with knowing what to do was enough. He shot at the first possible moment despite having let the guys get the drop on them. When the gunman turned his head because a car drove by that was the opening. A split second is a long time sometimes.

Work on some one hand shooting at close range. That is a skill not as popular as it once was and you want to use two hands when you can. Often you can find yourself doing something with your off hand though so be able to shoot with one hand out to 5 yards or so.

After

If it comes to pass you are forced to shoot someone do not feel bad. When the police come just tell them a guy threatened you with deadly force and you were forced to fire. I know there are bad police out there in some parts of the country who don't support self defense. I can't help you with that.

Do not talk to them until you have your attorney present. Now most young guys don't have an attorney on retainer and you may have no idea who to call. That is OK. You will figure it out but in the mean time don't talk about what happened other than to say you were forced to fire. You don't have to be an asshole just remember wait for your attorney.

Hopefully you will not give a statement for a couple days. Remember if you are put in jail that doesn't mean you are charged. Most places can hold you 48 or 72 hours on a felony before charging you or letting you go. Breath deep and get an attorney.

Expect to never get your gun back. You may get it back one day but maybe not. Do not buy expensive guns for the street. Buy yourself a nice sporting gun if you want a nice gun. Keep your street guns basic. The factory Model 10 Smith and the GI 45 have done a lot of work over the years and aren't fancy.

Worlds

We all live in different worlds. My world is filled with felons and gang members. Violence is common place. No one would be surprised if one of their friends called and said they shot a hold up man at a place of business or parking lot. In the past when I made calls the fact that the guy who is beating his GF is also on parole for 2nd degree murder flavored my world.

You may live in a smaller, less violent place where shootings seldom occur and it would be a rare to shoot a hold up man. I envy you and will be moving to a place like your town as soon as I can.

But be advised no matter where you are a hold man is going to be about the same. Whether he is a home boy or a guy who just exited the interstate into your town and needs some quick money. He is going to have a vicious streak and no regard for your life. Treat him like he treats you.

Giving them the money, doing what they say, all that may work but there is no guarantee. If you have never read Jeff Cooper's book The Principles of Personal Defense. I suggest you order a copy immediately. It is a short book but summarizes a lot of important things.

Last year we had a trial here regarding an armed robbery that occurred. Three or four guys took a young couple from a parking garage near a college out by some railroad tracks where they raped, shot, and beat them. Their lives will never be the same.

The lesser thugs all turned on the trigger man at trial. The trigger man's statement in the paper was after all that had happened he felt like he was a victim. Think about that. That is the mindset you are up against. "

Arm yourself, then let the kangaroo court of all kangaroo court trials begin.

First, arm yourself. To the teeth.

In case you need a refresher as to what happens when race-baiting sewage like Jackson and Sharpton and other sloughed off bacteria so vile that even the body's own rectum rejects it spur on hate and divisiveness.

Anyone here remember 1992?

Los Angeles, to be more specific. April 29th, 1992 to be exact.

Now we have a repeat performance on the table for Orlando, Florida thanks to an absolute asshat airhead of a so-called "prosecuting attorney."

First off, I'd like to know which law school lowered its standards to allow such a legal nincompoop to steal oxygen from them for the three years it takes to earn a JD degree. Secondly, since it is more than obvious that her appointment, Corey's that is, is politically fueled so as to gain favor with the blacks and the liberals, just how STUPID can the liberals actually be?

So Angela Corey grandstands and charges Zimmerman with second degree murder.

Only one problem: Intent.

Oh, and motive.

Corey will have to prove that Zimmerman had intent to murder Trayvon Martin on the night in question, which means it was a pre-meditated act. If that is the case, then what was the motive?

Manslaughter? Absolutely. I will not back away from the fact that Zimmerman was and is a bonehead. He thought he'd just trot right out there and play Superfly with Martin and instead (apparently) got his ass kicked--and kicked bad enough that he was forced to use lethal force to defend himself.

If only he'd stayed in the damned SUV. . . but he didn't and now he's been arrested on second-degree murder charges. He'll beat those charges, and if a Florida jury somehow manages to act like a California jury and he IS found guilty, an appeal will overturn it faster than you can say "No justice, no peace" in your best mushmouth Sharpton imitation.

Then Florida will burn and be looted.

But then again, maybe not. Floridians are armed. Heavily. If rioting and looting occurs and the Black Panthers fulfill their threats, then look for an open season on that one certain breed of cat and afterwards, "endangered species" will not even begin to describe them.

But a race war is what Jackson and Sharpton and others of their ilk want. Race race race race. It's a hate crime. White on black crime is always a hate crime and always racist.

Me? I'm still waiting on prosecution and civil rights investigation and apologies from Sharpton and Jackson and other rectum-rooters for this little incident in 1992:

Trust me--a lot of folks still have this image burned into their mind and will not, I repeat WILL NOT, allow such a travesty to happen again.

Be it black on white or white on black or black on black or white on white. . . it will not be tolerated.

Those who want a race war, fine. Get on with it. Just go do it in another country and leave my country alone.

I propose that all the blacks and whites and hispanics that want a race war be given the opportunity, weapons and real estate to do so. The rules will be simple:

Last idiot standing loses.

America wins.

If you are one, you will relate to this.

The year is 2016 and the United States has just elected the first woman president. A few days after the election the president-elect, whose name is Debra, calls her father and says, "So, Dad, I assume you will be coming to my inauguration?"

"I don't think so. It's a 10 hour drive."

"Don 't worry about it Dad, I'll send Air Force One. And a limousine will pick you up at your door."

"I don't know. Everybody will be so fancy. What would your mother wear?"

"Oh Dad," replies Debra, 'I'll make sure she has a wonderful gown custom-made by the best designer in Washington ."

"Honey," Dad complains, "you know I can't eat those rich foods you eat."

The President-to-be responds, " Don 't worry Dad. The entire affair will be handled by the best caterer in Washington ; I'll ensure your meals are salt free. You and mom just have to be there."

So Dad reluctantly agrees, and on January 20, 2017, Debra is being sworn in as President of the United States . In the front row sits the new president's dad and mom.

Dad, noticing the senator sitting next to him, leans over and whispers, "You see that woman over there with her hand on the Bible, becoming President of the United States ."

The Senator whispers back, "You bet I do."

Dad says proudly, "Her brother is a Pilot!"

A picture is worth a thousand race riots.

Unbiased media?

Question for the race-baiters leadership: Why isn't THIS being shown?

This changes nothing--and a proposal regarding the New Black Panthers.

Glad that some more facts are coming out in the Trayvon Martin/George Zimmerman fiasco.

It seems that unlike the portrayals by the rabble-rousing asshole Al Sharpton and other race-baiters of his stinking ilk, little Trayvon Marin wasn't quite the angelic altar boy they portrayed him out to be.

He was in the midst of a four-day suspension from school because of possession of drugs, according to the Miami Herald. Another report claims this was his second suspension from as many high schools in as many years.

There are some stories circulating with links that allegedly show Trayvon Martin's "gangsta alias" profiles on MySpace and Twitter and Facebook. Lots of pictures of guns, his tattoos (autopsy report should show conclusively how many--if any--tattoos Martin had) and comments.

If true, Martin was no angel. Sad, because other links to sites hosted by his (alleged) family members show a pretty typical All-American family. Unfortunately, good kids sometimes go bad. Our jails and prisons--and cemeteries--are full of such examples.

But recent reports are also showing something else about the Zimmerman/Martin incident.

It seems that according to witnesses, Zimmerman was getting his butt kicked.

But this changes nothing.

The facts are, and always will be, Zimmerman was in his SUV and had a cell phone and his gun. He was in direct contact with the police. He was in absolutely zero danger.

He chose, willingly, to exit his vehicle and accost Martin. Zimmerman put his own well-being at risk.

It is my sincere hope that any closet "hero-wannabe" who has their CHL and fantasizes about chasing down bad guys learns something from this case.

Now, for the New Black Panthers who put out a bounty on Zimmerman. . .

I propose a bounty be put on the head of every single active member of the New Black Panthers. And if a member of the black community itself turns one of these racist alpha-hotels in, then I propose the reward be tripled.

Never forget that such groups like the New Black Panthers, the Ku Klux Klowns, Aryan Nazikooks and other race-baiting hate-groups exist to divide--not unite.

And never forget that the mainstream media will always give them attention and coverage if it means or presents the opportunity to cause yet more controversy and division between the races.

People of ALL races are smarter that than. Do not fall prey to the antics of those who make their living by creating, stirring up and feeding hate, division and controversy.

If you go looking for trouble. . .

George Zimmerman apparently wanted to be a cop.

He found out, the hardest way of all, it ain't so easy--and sure as hell isn't like the bullshit you see on all these equally bullshit "reality" TV shows like Cops and SWAT and other such crap.

Welcome to the real world, George.

For anyone, besides me, who has been living in a cave for the past few weeks, George Zimmerman is the guy who chased, confronted, fought and then shot a sixteen-year-old kid by the name of Trayvon Martin.

This happened in a popular third world resort town's suburb, Sanford, Florida, just outside of Orlando, Florida just south of the United States of America.

Anyone familiar with the story already knows all the details and "facts" as reported by the drive-by, race-baiting media. I won't bore you with those.

What's important for those of us who have CHLs (Concealed Handgun Licenses for the pacifist liberal readers) is that the old adage of "If you go looking for trouble, you'll probably find it" was once again born out to be true in this case.

Zimmerman saw something, he called 9-1-1. Great. End of story. He did his job as a concerned citizen playing watchdog for his gated community. Should've stopped while he was ahead.

Unless Trayvon Martin drew down on Zimmerman or decided to rush Zimmerman's SUV or something else, Zimmerman wasn't in any danger. He had a gun and a phone. Good enough--and hell, he was on the phone to 9-1-1 who told him to hang around and wait for a (real) cop.

Nobody was dying.

A CHL is not a license to go hunting. It's a license to defend yourself, lethally, from the hunters--those criminals and psychopaths and human sewage who prey on (seemingly) innocent and (seemingly) defenseless people.

I've had several "licenses" to carry firearms during the course of my life. The first was when I was in the military. Go figure. The second was when I was in law enforcement. Go figure. I now have a CHL as a private citizen and I have about as much interest in going around hunting bad guys as I do in being a research subject for some new strain of syphilis.

Been there, done that. Hunting bad guys, that is, not the other.

Hell, it was scary enough kicking doors and peering around corners of houses and going up stairs and into dark rooms looking for bad guys--even when I had other law enforcement folks with me.

Why in the bloody blue hell would I want to voluntarily do that on my own simply because I have a license to legally carry a firearm?

In Texas, I have the right to defend myself, my family AND my property using lethal force.  I'll do it, too, if I have to. But what I won't do is see some schmuck rummaging around the neighborhood and then go chasing him down and doing the Sergeant Joe Friday dragnet routine. My taxes pay our cops to do that. And even though they rarely do a very good job at it, I ain't doing it anymore.

I'm all for neighborhood watch groups. In one myself. I walk the Doberman at various times during the day in our little development and know most of the folks who live here. However, this is still America and I don't know them all, nor do I know all of their friends or relatives which means I'm not going to be dialing 9-1-1 everytime I see someone I don't know. In America, you're (for the time being) still free to come and go as you please pretty much wherever you please.

Message to Zimmerman: This is still America, son. You want to go chase bad guys, here's what you do.

You lose some weight, get yourself in shape and go join the United States Marine Corps--the best outfit in the world for chasing down bad guys and taking care of business.

But something tells me that you wouldn't make it past four or five nights on the Island, which would be good for the Corps.

In the meantime, you dickhead, your stupid-ass antics are making life a bit more difficult for millions of law-abiding CHL holders who have no aspirations to play hero. Thanks to you, we're being judged as though we're all of your challenged IQ and abilities.

Thanks a lot, asshole.

So, your neighbor pays you to have sex with his beautiful wife. . .

(from the e-mail stack)

You just can't make some things up. . .

So this Arab gets into a taxi. . .

(From the e-mail stack)

SO, this Arab gets into a taxi.

Once he is seated he asks the cab driver to turn off the radio "because he must not hear music as decreed by his religion and, in the time of the prophet, there was no music, especially Western music which is music of the infidel's and certainly no radio."

So the cab driver politely switches off the radio, stops the cab and opens the back door.

The Arab asks him: “Watt are you doing man?”

The cabby answers: “In the time of the prophet there were no taxis. So get the hell out and wait for a camel.”

Translation: If you don't like the way we do things here, get the hell out and go back home. Nobody made you come here, and for sure, nobody is making you stay.

Throw the CEO's ass in prison.

I read about JP Morgan getting fined some $200,000,000.00 for some scam or another, so I decided to google them.

Holy cow. Lots of fines.

Lots.

In googling for other companies with big fines levied against them, I found CVS and Walgreens, interestingly enough, being fined for everything from blatant OSHA violations to Medicaid and Medicare overbilling.

My question is this:

Why not throw the CEO's asses in prison along with fining these companies?

Hell, it's not the CEO's money being lost. With companies like JP Morgan, it's the investors' money being used to pay fines. With CVS and Walgreens, it's the shareholders' money, the employees' money and the customers--you and me--being used to pay the fines.

The CEO and senior executives get off scot-free.

I suspect if we started tossing CEO's asses in prison for these blatant schemes and huge fines, a lot of that nonsense would stop.

As in immediately.

Anyone want to bet against me?

Meet Chump of the Decade, Terrell Owens.

Why did the headline not surprise me?

Terrell Owens says he's broke, "in hell."

According to the story in Yahoo, and with excerpts taken from an interview with GQ, Owens made somewhere in the neighborhood of $80 million during his tumultuous, controversy-filled career.

For those of us that will never see eighty-million dollars, the figure looks like this:

$80,000,000.00

Lot of zeros in that figure, but the biggest zero is Owens himself.

For the record, I thought TO sucked. As an athlete and especially as a human being. I had a minor business dealing with him some ten years ago, a very minor business dealing and he was a complete ass. One of our clients thought they might consider an endorsement from this overhyped nimrod. It took us less than ten minutes to realize the monumental mistake and walk out of the meeting.

To listen to him that day, you would've thought he had a friggin business PhD from MIT. He has a PhD all right, it's a Piled Higher and Deeper degree, and it's from BSU--Bull Shit University.

To listen to TO talk about his athleticism, you would've thought the Heisman was going to be re-named the Oweisman. I--and legions of others--know better. I saw him drop passes in Dallas that should've been caught. For the money the Cowboys' idiot owner wasted on TO, those passes should've been caught, branded, BBQ'd and personally stagecoached into the endzone by TO.

I always thought TO should've tried catching passes with his mouth. Big target and always open.

And now the idiot's broke, and as usual. . . blaming everyone but himself for his problems.

Funny thing is, who can he blame for the four kids he sired by four different women that he admits never having really dated? He refers to three of them as "repeat offenders."

All four are suing him because he has no job, no money and can't pay the combined $44K the courts ordered him to pay. (On a side note, any woman who claims to need $10,000 a month in child support is every bit as full of crap as the idiot who impregnated her. I have no sympathy for these women and consider them little more than prostitutes who are suing for breach of contract.)

No NFL teams will even talk to him, and TO claims it's the media's fault.

Maybe he wants to look at the calendar? The stupid arrogant SOB is 38-years-old, which is ancient in the NFL, save for Brett Favre. What idiotic owner (shhhh, Jerry Jones might be reading this today) would pay an over-the-hill, loudmouthed, locker-room wrecking has-been with concrete hands any sort of money at all to come join his team?

But Terrell says it's everyone else's fault. He even goes so far to say that even knowing all the mistakes he made, he wouldn't change a damned thing because it would "disrespect his grandmother, who raised him."

He blew $80,000,000.00 dollars and has stooped to blaming his grandmother.

What a chump.

Unfortunately, in the NFL and professional sports, Terrell Owens isn't alone. But at least for once, he stands at the top of something.

Stupidity.