At Home Defense

The mighty Brigid, of Home on the Range and Barkley fame, has a solid post on self defense in the home.

I encourage you to go over and read the whole thing, not that she'll register a couple of clicks from us.  It's easier than paraphrasing all she wrote. 

To summarize, you are the weapon.  Use whatever tool you can find to stop an attacker.  There's no such thing as a fair fight. 

I want to point out, too, that Brigid approaches the defensive use of the knife in a way that is somewhat similar to my view.  I love knives, but I don't care much for all the fancy moves as if you were in a duel.  It's not a boxing match.  It's not a game.  There is one reason to use a knife on another human, and that's if your life or an innocent life which you are responsible to defend is in imminent danger. Everything else is bull.  If it comes to that, there is, in my opinion, basically one way to use a blade.  Brigid states it quite well:

A knife is a stealth/deception weapon. Show it just to threaten, and you've already lost. Have it ready, but hidden, even in your palm, behind your shopping bag, in your pocket, on a shelf above their eye view but within easy ready. Big blades look impressive, but are only marginally more deadly than a small palmed razor knife used with confidence. [bold added by me]

Should I ever have the misfortune to be in such an unlikely life-and-death struggle, my intention would be for an attacker to realize I had a knife only after he had been cut.  Remember her words:  stealth weapon. 

I would take any knife over nothing, but there is a reasonable lower limit on blade length.  Of the knives I commonly carry, my barely-legal CRKT Crawford Kasper would be my first choice as it has a bowie-style blade just under four inches in length, plus a good deal of width with a very solid pommel for striking.  The other extreme would probably be my Folts Minimalist with its two-inch Wharncliffe blade.  I'd figure on being there a while with the little one.     

Honestly, around the house, I'm more likely to be carrying the Minimalist, in addition to a friction folder like a stockman, trapper, or one of my SAKs.  Of course, a non-locking, traditional folder can be an effective weapon.  It has two drawbacks.  First, most are not one-hand openers so it's a little more difficult to deploy.  The second disadvantage is that a non-locking blade may decide to fold up in the middle of a melee.  I would more or less pretend it was a razor and slash.  A knife with a larger choil, like a full-size folding trapper, is probably a little safer for stabbing than, say, a SAK.  I might get by with the edge up and a thumb on the choil.  After all, I'd only consider using it in a desperate situation.  I might not worry too much about a cut finger.   

Choking Off Choke Point

I'm trying to get back on track from all my recent personal turmoil.  Meanwhile, we'll talk about the news.

The Daily Signal reports that the FDIC is changing its tactics with regard to legal, legitimate business, such as gun shops, that are in disfavor with the Obama regime.  Congressman Blaine Luetkemeyer of Missouri's 3rd Congressional District has taken the lead in challenging the FDIC's involvement with the Justice Department's Operation Choke Point. 

Now, supposedly, Operation Choke Point was meant to target things like ponzi schemes and mass market consumer fraud.  In reality, Holder pressured the banking industry to "choke off" financing for completely legal businesses such as coin dealers, payday and title loan companies, firearms and ammunition dealers, and even home-based charities. 

Rep. Luetkemeyer had real jobs before he became a legislator, including working in banking.  He's not a lawyer.  He has a business degree from Lincoln U. in Jefferson City, MO, which is more or less his hometown.  I don't know him personally, but I know of him and his family.  They are good people.

Anyway, Luetkemeyer is on the House Financial Services Committee and has led the fight against this operation: 

Emails unearthed by investigators showed employees scheming to influence banks’ decisions on who to do business with by labeling certain industries “reputational risks,” ensuring banks “get the message” about the businesses the regulators don’t like, and pressuring banks to cut credit or close those accounts, effectively discouraging entire industries.

FDIC officials were also seen inserting their personal and moral opinions into banking decisions.

“The FDIC has allowed a culture within their agency to blossom that they believe it’s OK to impose their personal opinions and value system in a regulatory way,” says Luetkemeyer. “They are not a regulatory police—their job is to enforce the law.”

The policy change means that bank examiners will be required to put specific concerns and recommendations for termination of accounts in writing.  The accounts will be reviewed on an individual, case-by-case basis.  Industry or business sector "reputational risk" will no longer be an acceptable reason for account termination.

With regard to the FDIC's response, Luetkemeyer told the Daily Signal:

“We’re very pleased they’ve acknowledged their wrongdoing and they’ve accepted our suggestions to put in place measures to stop this activity.” 

This is the kind of stealth attack that epitomizes the Chicago Way of Holder and Obama as well as the nanny-staters and collectivists like Bloomberg.  I'm glad to see it being exposed.  

Mob Rule

I went into town last night to visit my daughter.  She gets moved to rehab today -- finally.  They've been letting her have real food, and she was craving barbeque, so I went by and got her some pulled pork, beans, and mac-and-cheese.


On the way in, I had the local talk radio station on.  It was running Mark Levin.  A caller was essentially trying to shift blame for the current fiscal situation away from Obama.  The caller said that it was "what the people" wanted.  Levin countered by saying he did not care what the people wanted.

That probably is troublesome to a lot of my fellow countrymen.  We tend to think if people vote for stupidity, they ought to get stupidity.  On a local scale, that's mostly true.  But at the national level, that is exactly why we have a Constitution and constitutional limits on the federal government.  That those limits are almost completely ignored these days doesn't mean they do not exist or that they are not binding.

On a related note, I see that the Huckster is starting to stake out his territory.  Huckabee says he experienced significant culture shock from all the “trashy” women swearing in a professional setting. ... “My gosh, this is worse than locker-room talk,” Huckabee continued. “As we would say in the South, that’s just trashy.”

Last I checked, Dallas is in the South.  I knew a number of nice, professional women when I was working down there in the '80s and '90s.  They talked like the men talked.  Now, I didn't talk that way, but I didn't think much about it.  Actually, those who knew me tended to tone it down around me, or at least throw in a "pardon my french" if they forgot.  The Huckster has lived a sheltered life.

Plus, his record as Arkansas governor indicates that he has the big-government mindset.  Sure, Huckabee Nation might be more "Christian", but it would be just as oppressive and intrusive as the current one. 

Here's the thing.  I would like to have Mike Huckabee as a neighbor.  We would get along fine.  We'd be buds.  He's got a decent sense of humor.  His taste in music isn't bad.  He has the same Christian values that I have.  As a person, I like Mike Huckabee.  I wouldn't vote for him for dogcatcher, but I like him.

 This is Mrs. Huckabee, a lovely lady.  I grabbed the picture from ABC News.

 Megyn Kelly, of course, one of Governor Huckabee's colleagues at Fox, and not even one of her better pictures (credit: Wikipedia).

Do I even need to add this?

Losers

We're the losers.

Hoft, and others, are reporting that Bergdahl will be charged with desertion.  He deserted not once, but twice and sought to aid the enemy. Obama, you recall, brought him back in exchange for the release of five terrorist leaders.  What a deal.

Meanwhile, again via Gateway Pundit, and Stars and Stripes, we hear that one thousand paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne at Fort Bragg are headed back to Iraq:

Now, more than three years after the U.S. military presence in Iraq was thought over, about a quarter of the Panther Brigade will return with a new mission to help train Iraqi forces to fight the Islamic State.

Trainers.  We know what that means.  It also means that there will Special Forces going back in.  Of course, we won't, and shouldn't, hear about that.  Stars and Stripes spoke with the brigade commander, who offered this bit of wisdom:

"It's a sophisticated enemy," Buzzard said. "There's limits to what air power can do.

"I think it's been very effective so far targeting leadership and headquarters, but it will require a ground force to control the terrain," he said. "The Iraqis have that ground force."

They have been doing so well at that lately.  I don't mind being lied to as much as I take offense at the implication that I am that stupid. 

Asking Politely

Breitbart reports Jeb Bush says we need to control the border by politely asking illegals to leave.

Mr. Bush, would you please go away?

It will probably work just as well on Jeb as it does on the illegals.

So what would that be in Spanish?:   

¿Sr. Bush, por favor márchese? 

¿Emigrantes ilegales, por favor márchese?

Spanish isn't my language, so I'll trust the translator.  I hope I didn't say something obscene.

Food Nazis

"It was all meant with the best of intentions."

That's what they always say.

A substitute teacher in the Kirksville, MO school system sent a note home with second-grader Alia Puckett to her parents, Dr. Joel Puckett and his wife.  The note read:  “Please see that she packs a proper lunch tomorrow.”   

My note would have read:  "Please see that you mind your own business tomorrow.  Whatever that is."  My father would not have sent a note.  He'd have been waiting in the parking lot.  There is just no end of people in the world today who are begging to have some sense beat into them.

See, the eight-year-old had some marshmallows and chocolate in her lunch.  She also had some ham and string cheese, but the school informer employee didn't see that.  It's a wonder that the education gestapo didn't sic Child Protective Services on Dr. Puckett, who, according to the article, is double board certified in osteopathic family medicine and obesity medicine.  Somehow I doubt his kid's nutrition is going to be a problem long-term.

One day a kid decides to eat something fun, and they come down like she was biting a Pop Tart into the shape of a gun or something.  

Ponzi Socialism

Lovely Venezuela has a problem or two:  Robbers are targeting food delivery trucks.

The late and little lamented Hugo Chavez could play Robin Hood when the oil revenue money was flowing into his resource-rich country.  Now, with the margin severely reduced, things have gotten a little tight. 

Government controlled markets inevitably end in shortages.  It's happening in Venezuela.  It happened in Argentina.  It will probably happen in Brazil and China.  It could easily happen here in the U.S., especially in the urban centers.