It started with a small event for our PM company. Then on both Saturday and Sunday, I had sold out firearms classes. Sweet!
Saturday was a Pistol Orientation class. I set my new record for student age - 11 years old. The young man was absolutely fantastic. I really wish more parents would put their kids through these classes if for no other reason than the kids learning about gun safety. What to do, and what not to do.
Sunday was an advanced Practical Defensive Pistol class. We put in our website that the folks will be taken out of their comfort zone. Indeed.
Now, this class is not some uber-tactical, rappelling from black helicopters, hut-hut-hut class. It is standard techniques you'd need to defend yourself in your home. Shooting around barriers, shooting weak side, shooting one handed and some shooting while moving drills.
It's nothing earth shattering, but we teach skills and set up scenarios where multiple skills are needed for different scenarios. Just like real life.
Here's a tip: Learn and practice shooting with your weak hand. This is an incredibly easy skill to practice every single time you go to the range.
But when people go to the range, they practice what they're already good at doing: Two hand, strong-side grip at a target 7 yards away.
Think about someone coming into your home: How often do you think they're going to present you with such a target? Answer: About never.
If you can't shoot accurately from your weak side with one hand, you are giving the bad guy a bigger target (you) at least half of the time. You will have to expose more of your body depending on which side of the corner you are approaching from.
Practice, folks. Practice the skills you don't have.
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Did you see reason number 1,394,937,223 why California is broke? Los Angeles, which is also broke, just paid for the most expensive public school in America. Ever.
With an eye-popping price tag of $578 million, it will mark the inauguration of the nation's most expensive public school ever.As the article note, this isn't the first big-bucks public school in the LA area.
The K-12 complex to house 4,200 students has raised eyebrows across the country as the creme de la creme of "Taj Mahal" schools, $100 million-plus campuses boasting both architectural panache and deluxe amenities.
The RFK complex follows on the heels of two other LA schools among the nation's costliest — the $377 million Edward R. Roybal Learning Center, which opened in 2008, and the $232 million Visual and Performing Arts High School that debuted in 2009.Notice the dates? These were all built since the
Yeah, let's dump more money into the education system. It seems to be doing wonders.
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Rahm Emanuel's famous saying about never letting a good emergency go to waste must be the official slogan of this administration.
People get sick eating bad eggs, and the government tells us the answer to fix this problem is to grow itself larger -
"We need better abilities and authorities to put in place these preventive controls and hold companies accountable," Hamburg said as she discussed the approximately 1,300 cases of salmonella poisoning and the recall of roughly a half-billion eggs from two Iowa egg distributors.Well, that's a shock.
How about this - we let the market determine our food quality. In a market-driven economy, these 1300 people would all sue the egg companies for whatever costs they had incurred as a result of consuming their products.
These egg companies would be put out of business, and the other egg producers would learn a lesson: Don't sell crap or it will cost you your business.
It would also get people to buy more of their food from local sources. Personally, I only buy eggs from egg farms that are an hour away in the town of Petaluma. I figure at the very least, they've got to be fresher!
Instead, all of the good egg producers will now be saddled with more and more regulation and fees because one producer messed up. Of course, those fees will be passed along to us, so the price of eggs will increase.
The ONLY thing the FDA should be doing with regards to this stuff is setting standards for imported food. If the food is bad, it is next to impossible for an American to sue a Chinese cheese factory, for instance.
If it's American food, back the hell off.
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We saw this very type of thing happen with the BP oil well disaster. A government agency gave BP permission to drill and run the well. BP got the feds permission for every action they took with regards to drilling, operating and well safety. The feds received and approved their spill recovery plans.
The false sense of safety was in place because everything had a Nanny Seal Of Approval on it. How well did that work out?
Government does not make you safer. They give you a false impression of safety. YOU are responsible for yourself.
Accept The Challenge
Please, those of you that have chosen to defend yourself with handguns, get some training. Even if that means getting on the internet and watching a video or reading a website. Take that information and put it to practice in a range.
If you have the ability to take a class that gives you the ability to put those new skills to use, all the better. Just don't take the "milk run" approach - the path of least resistance. Don't be caught under-trained if you're ever placed in a situation where you need to defend yourself or loved ones.
With regards to government spending and expansion, it would be interesting to see how many federal dollars went into building these LA schools. I'm sure it was a substantial amount.
Non-Californians: LA thanks you for your donation.
This is what happens when you have career politicians responsible for spending our money. They have no concept of value or proportion. I heard on a radio station this morning that LA flew someone over to Europe to look at 4 different basketball court designs being considered for the new school.
WTF? My blood boils when I hear stuff like this, yet it happens every single day, thousands of times a day.
Hide your money, folks. They will be coming for it. Some bureaucrat is eying an all-expenses-paid trip to Tahiti to gather shells. Their government agency heard something about the public being "shell-shocked" and they're conducting a much needed study, dontcha know?
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You can tell by the description and pictures that the school was far more extravagant then it should have been thus causing a much bigger cost. What you cannot tell is that every government construction project from schools to highways is required to pay "prevailing" wages. Sounds innocent enough doesn't it. It is in fact a HUGE kickback of YOUR taxmoney to labor unions. Everything the government builds costs 30% more to pay the excess labor costs. That means a school that should have cost $100 million costs $130 million. This is everything federal, state and local governments build everywhere in the 50 states. You pay 30% more in your taxes. Think you are getting your money's worth? You are getting screwed. Every politician signs on to this "screwing" so they get votes. The unions own your congressmen and local politicians and they squeeze them to get YOUR tax money. Taxes are going up. Think about that the next time you pass up the good cut for hamburger or hotdogs. Do you REALLY think your politicians are working for you???
ReplyDeleteAnon,
ReplyDeleteDo you REALLY think your politicians are working for you???
Not even close! My little town - which is normally very fiscally responsible - just went through this with a new civic center. The unions got some sort of deal where everyone that works on the center must be paid union wages. The kicker is that the companies must pay into the union retirement fund, even though their employees are not union members!
Since they're not union members, they will never draw a union retirement, so that is simply free money for the unions.
Our city's citizens went nuts over this. If I remember correctly, none of the city council members that voted for it, nor the mayor, are running for re-election. They'd get crushed.
But what's done is done. We're stuck with their decision.
My wife had to work in a union at our previous residence, or so we were told. We later found out she didn't need to be IN the union, but still had to pay dues. As soon as we found that out, she was out.
ReplyDeleteUnions had a time, but that time has passed, and all they do now is drive up prices and drive small businesses (or entire industries = U.S. auto!) into the ground.
Suburban, their time has passed, indeed. They are the epitome of the socialist/collectivist mentality. They take away the drive and ambition of the individual. Hard work is not rewarded, so why work hard?
ReplyDelete