Warrior School Fails Again...

So I was scheduled for a pistol class this weekend at Warrior School of unreliable people who do not conduct scheduled training. Had originally planned to do one there about a month back. They canceled it at the last minute. Not a huge deal; frustrating but I suppose things can happen. Figured I would just catch the next one. Well fast forward a month or so. Today I got an email saying this course was canceled also. I am seriously underwhelmed with these people. In fact I am frustrated and angry. Basically I've been jerked around by them for over a month.

Based on my experiences I recommend staying far away from these people. They accepted my money and twice failed to do what they said they would do which left me hanging for months. I never trained with them but generally people who are professional in one thing tend to be professional in another which really does not bode well for the Warrior School. Best case these folks do good training but are terminally unreliable.

Hell maybe they are in the business of holding onto peoples money for a couple months at a time in some interest based Superman/ Office Space type scheme. That is the best explanation I can come up with 'cuz they sure don't seem to actually want to frickin train people. There is a saying of uncertain origin that 'a satisfied customer may tell one person but a dissatisfied customer tells everybody' and it is certainly true in this case. In fact thanks to them I am starting a new 'Black List' label. All rambling aside I simply cannot suggest a student throws down their money then frees up their schedule expecting to actually conduct some training.

So that leaves me looking for a sanely priced 1-2 day pistol class to attend. Money is a consideration. I don't mind paying the going rate of $200ish (or $300 for a big name type instructor) a day for quality instruction but a 5 day course with first class lodging and gourmet chow that costs more than most used cars isn't in the cards. It looks like I am going to play hell getting anything done now that it's heating up. This wouldn't have been an issue if I hadn't been jerked around by 'Warrior's School' of people who do not conduct scheduled training throughout the spring.

Anyway now it seems I am looking for a defensive type pistol shooting course within reasonable driving distance of southern Arizona. If a place was a bit far I could make the drive the night before then sleep over someplace but I cannot spend a whole day to driving on both ends. If you have suggestions they would be appreciated.

Looks like my weekend just freed up. Fail.

Economic Crack Binge and Coming Effects

The best comparison to our countries economic situation and coming problems I can think of is Charlie Sheen. Our problems with massive deficits are like Charlies problem with crack cocaine and alcohol. Lets call derivatives the Charlie equivalent of prostitutes/ porn stars.

Now I cannot predict the specifics of Charlie Sheen's next breakdown/ meltdown/ fail. I can however confidently say 100% that there will be one. Maybe he will shoot his celebrity fiance, hold a knife to the wife's neck at Christmas dinner, manage to mess up staring in the top rated sitcom on tv, who knows. (These are all things Charlie has actually done;)

 Disturbingly our upcoming economic problem is like Charlies upcoming breakdown/ meltdown/ fail. Just maybe we will manage to kick the proverbial can a ways down the road. Maybe it will be 70's era stagflation. Could be the standard South American currency devaluation/ hyperinflation or an all out Argentina like economic collapse. The old adage that big powerful countries do not go broke, they go to war (a la Germany) could prove accurate again. Maybe a combination of crumbling infrastructure and weakened defense makes an attractive time for an old enemy to attack or just use an EMP to keep us distracted internally. Maybe one of the dreaded black swans pops up in the time we are able to handle it the least.

What can we do about this? Well the usual advice to buy bullets, silver , gold and emergency food is always sound. Things like water filters might become important as infrastructure crumbles or breaks and standards just plain drop. (Yes that is a lot of linkeage in a paragraph. Got to keep the bill payers happy.)

Being as healthy as possible is prudent. Get fit, take care of lingering issues you may have, go to the dentist, order a couple spare sets of glasses and stock extra medication.

Buy food. Yes it is getting more expensive but basic staple food, even the long term stable stuff, is still a great deal. Right now food is ridiculously cheap by historic percentage of income. Most people here can probably make some choices to put a few bucks into food and fill up the pantry.

Learn skills. Specifically learn skills that will let you do things yourself instead of paying somebody else to do them.

Get ready to protect yourself. Things aren't getting better. Have realistic and sustainable (if it's not comfortable you will not do it) plans to carry weapons while still going through your normal life.

Most of these things are not new. In fact they are generally the same stuff I talk about. Best get too them before they are more expensive and harder to do.

A Great Book and a Terrible Light

I have been reading Max Velocity's new book Patriot Dawn: The Resistance Rises. I am very impressed, the book is downright awesome. Will do a full review but to save you some time just buy it. Onto a less pleasant subject.

The LED Lenser P3 AFS flashlight I have been carrying around. I didn't link to it because somebody might not read this carefully and end up buying this piece of junk. I got the small 1 AAA version which in fairness may be part of the problem.

The only nice things I have to say about this product are that it is small and looks like it's well made. However looks can be deceiving.  This light has a lot of show and very little go. Maybe if they put a bit more energy into making the light actually work instead of making it look like a quality product this review would be different.

The run time could be measured in seconds. Also the darn thing will just run out of batteries spontaneously without even being used. Can't count how many times I have grabbed it to use and found it dead. There are more problems.

The pocket clip has fallen off leaving it floating in my pocket. The darn adjustable front piece somehow worked its way off once. Basically pieces fall off the darn thing randomly.

I would use it as a backup but since it (even turned off) goes through batteries like Charley Sheen through coke and hookers it wouldn't even work to live in the glove box of a car or something.

My expectations would be very different if it was a $15 light but it isn't. This piece of junk cost me about $40 (can't remember exactly) which puts it in range of a lot of many Streamlight and a couple Surefire offerings. Offerings I should have purchased instead. At this price point for a stupid flashlight it should frickin work.

Can't say everything made by these folks sucks thought I will be avoiding it all. In any case I can say the LED Lenser P3 AFS definitely sucks a lot. This is a firm do not buy.

Does anybody have a smallish flashlight with a pocket clip they have been using for awhile that actually works? In a perfect world if would be reasonably affordable.

Fiscal Cliff Family Edition

Range Fail and Gun Shop Trip

So funny story. Before packing up all of your stuff, getting bullets and driving for a half hour to get to the range you should check their schedule as they may be closed on Thursday. Anyway the gun shop was interesting. The two semi automatic rifles in stock were an M1 Carbine and an AK pistol, I think in 5.45. The only military pattern semi auto mags they had were some (#)*Q(* #*$) polymer AK mags only an idiot would buy. As to ammo they were out of .308 and had less than 200 rounds of .223 in the place. One can of 175 rounds of federal 12 gauge was the only 12 gauge ammo in the place. They were doing OK on pistol ammo but awful short on mags. Out of Glock 17, down to 2-3 Glock 19 mags.

This is a big shop shop that normally has about 4 AK's, 10 AR's, 2 complete lowers, 4 stripped lowers and 5-6 various other military pattern weapons.

I was there pretty early and the guy behind the counter was BSing with 2 guys. They were both hoping for things to come in via the daily FedEX drop. Picked up my targets and ammo then wished them luck in finding what they were looking for.

Today we were at China Mart picking up some things and for kicks went to the gun section. All the evil black guns were gone but a variety of other guns were selling like pitchers of beer at last call. The ammo shelves were looking bare but not totally empty.

It was interesting that people seemed to be in two groups. The first group seem to pretty much have their ducks in order and are trying to grab the last item or two. The others were totally behind the power curve. Some of these folks wanted to catch up and grab an AR as well as some mags (good luck!) or more curiously get 2-3 boxes of ammo for their house gun. Maybe some of the 2-3 box people were going for the usual weekend plinking but there were too many to explain that phenomena. I guess more ammo is better but "OMG everything might be banned I need 100 rounds of FMJ ammo for my pistol" seems odd to me. Was thinking about picking up a couple of boxes of this or that. Not that I needed them exactly but a couple boxes more never hurts. After seeing these folks I decided not to. Somebody with a mag of ammo needs those boxes more than I do.

After kiddo went to bed I looked at the inventory sheets. All in all we are doing OK. Spending a few grand a year for several years can do that. Sure I would really like an AR pistol and a Glock 17 but things could be worse. Right now I am really counting my blessings that Project AR Upgrade finished up when it did. Would like some more .223 ammo and will work on that as availability and finances allow.

Anyway I hope you are all pretty squared away. Hopefully this is a false alarm but who can tell.

What are the gun (as well as mag and ammo) buying conditions in your area?

I Hate Blogger

Yeah the main page of the blog changed and I am not sure why. Trying to figure it out. Sorry for any weird changes.

Mo Molle, Mo Problems

They are airsoft guys which I don't get and is not my thing but the video is hilarious and makes a good point. Just because you can attach a pouch does not mean you should. Every piece of MOLLE webbing does not need to be filled with a pouch.

You need ammo, some basic survival stuff like a knife, fire starter and whatnot, water to last until you get back to camp/ your ruck and that is about it. Figure out what fits your situation and put it all together then use the thing. Shoot and move in the kit you plan to fight with. You may find out that it gets heavy fast which means you should cut out some unnecessary stuff and or do more PT.

Anyway I hope you enjoyed the video.

Be Advised- Commenting Down

Either the blog hasn't received a single comment in several days, which is rather unlikely, or there is some sort of a technical issue. Not really sure how to trouble shoot this but I will give it a shot over the weekend. If you want to contact me for whatever reason please do it via email to theotherryan@yahoo.com.

Survival Blog Down

JWR sent me an email about Survival Blog being down. Below is the pertinent info.

This weekend, our server in Sweden was put under a "ping flood" Denial of Service (DOS) attack that resulted in 65% packet loss for a few hours.

This attack was most likely orchestrated by the man in Texas who last week anonymously sent me a racist rant and threats against both my blog site and my books. (His e-mail began: "You ni**er lover you have five days to take all links and any [sic] metion for [sic] links below off your site. If you [sic] dont [sic] do it I will post [sic] everyone [sic] of [sic] you [sic] cr***y books on [sic] prirate [sic] sites and kiss your ni**er loving income from them good [sic] by [sic] .")

The attack was timed for a three-day holiday weekend, because the miscreants expected that the staff at our ISP would be unavailable to help up reconfigure.

OBTW, the attack did not initially include our dotted quad backup address: 95.143.193.148 (Which is explained here.)

At least this provided a good test for our Continuity of Web Services (COWS) defenses. Obviously, we are now going to need multiple mirror sites as well as an adaptive cloud server that can handle any future DOS onslaught.

The other lesson this teaches is the importance of having a backup. We provide an offline archive of the past six years of SurvivalBlog posts, available for a modest price.

~Jim Rawles~
Editor, www.SurvivalBlog.com

TOR here: I tried to go to the site this morning and couldn't get there. I figured it was just one of those internet things that just happen. You know the kind where a little something is off on one side or another and you just can't get to a site, happens all the time. Apparantly it wasn't. Obviously this is lame. Hopefully it will get figured out sooner instead of later.

I guess this is a good lesson about relying on online information or resources. Between Survival Blog, stuff I have in the cloud and various sites I go to for this or that I am guilty of this. In the immediate future I will look to pull some stuff off the web. In particular I  will be ordering the Survival Blog archive and copying stuff out from other places.

Life is What Happens When You Turn The News Off

I seem to go into a sort of cycle with the news. Right now I am about sick of it. I still check out the drudge daily and if things get boring cruise the BBC. Instead of listening to the news at work I have been using a comedy show as background. I keep up enough to have a clue what is going on but really am having a hard time pretending to care.

The issues of police abuses has been weighing pretty heavily on my mind lately. Over a short time (since my being able to pay attention to these things at a relatively adult level) the changes which have occured are widespread and universally negative. Right now I do not have any additional thoughts on this topic which I am willing to share in a public venue.

Gang/ Mob attacks seem to be on the rise. The perpetrators, victims and area demographics seem to be quite consistent. The only thing that concerns me more than this is the total ambivalence of law enforcement about these crimes. The widespread efforts of government and media to conceal these events does not weigh positively into the mix either. I am not personally concerned about this. I do not frequent the kind of areas where this sort of thing has been happening. Also my life patterns, like being home at 7 to put the kid to bed, drops the odds even further. In any case it is still troubling.

Greece getting out of the Euro may almost be a foregone conclusion at this point. The idea of Euro bonds is laughable. Like cosigning for a loan your deadbeat brother in law/ whatever to get a loan it would require Germany be on the hook for things in the end. Like cosigning in general it is just a terrible idea. Banks or private markets are far better judges of who is a worthwhile risk than friends and family. I get what is in it for everybody but Germany, who actually has their financial house in order.

Also to complicate things there is significant risk to the Euro itself. As Tam put it "So Greece's profligate habits are threatening to drag the Euro under. Germany, the only wino at the bar keeping a squinty eye on the tab, is urging some restraint on Greece's part, which makes the Jerries the no-fun bad guy of the story."

The biggest way this inconveniences me is that it means I am not going to Greece which sucks. It was definitely on our short list before the mess of the last few months. Now the risk of getting stuck somewhere with a toddler in tow makes it a no travel zone for us. I guess it is a significant global risk, blah blah blah but I don't care about that.

So what did I do today?

After getting off work I came home for some quiet family time. For no clear reason I decided to make home made pizza. I had never done this but with some help from Wifey utter disaster was averted. I learned to do something new and we had a pretty good dinner. It was a nice quiet evening and I got something out of it.

It is worth noting that Dave Duffy wrote an article that inspired this one but was much better.

Anyway I hope you all have a nice quiet evening.

Quote of the Day

"The bottom line, predictably, is that it is the American Taxpayers who are the ultimate guarantors for the losses caused by their folly. In the millennial era, the banksters consistently bet big, knowing that if they lose, then there will always be another bailout. They have a the certain knowledge that they have the Federal government in their back pocket. (The lack of a criminal indictment of MF Global Chairman Jon Corzine was clear evidence of that.) The "Too Big to Fail" mantra is now so engrained that the bankers feel invulnerable. This is one reason that the derivatives casino has grown tremendously. Of course they are willing to gamble when it is a "heads I win, and tails you lose" proposition! Banks that have their losses guaranteed by the government (and ultimately, by our tax dollars) shouldn’t be sitting at a casino table, slurping down liquor. But in effect, that is just where they are. "
-JWR
This sort of thing makes me consider canned food and shotguns as investments. Just saying.

Friday Randomness

Well it seems President Obama's view has evolved to where he now supports Gay marriage. My thoughts on that issue are on the record and I am pretty much ambivalent about this new development. I suspect it is about firming up his base and making Romney look like an evil hate monger.

If you have been waiting to buy PM's at a dip it might be time to pull the trigger.

In case you were wondering 2 year old girl scout cookies taste just fine.

If you are short on doom and gloom there is an outbreak of whooping cough in Washington State. In case you needed any more reason to vaccinate yourself and your children.

JP Morgan lost a couple billion dollars in the last few weeks.

Greek leftists want to stay in the Euro but avoid any sort of austerity.

France's economy isn't doing so well.

I have been enjoying the show Person of Interest lately. It is a bit big brothery and will make you want to delete all social networking stuff then smash your laptop and cell phone but those may not be thoughts worth fighting anyway. There is always action and the good guys win which makes for an enjoyable show.

Dewars Scotch whisky has found a place in our liquor cabinet.  It is smooth and affordable enough to drink whenever the mood strikes me.  It isn't going to be mistaken for a nice single malt but at half the price that would not be a reasonable expectation. One of the downsides of scotch is that a decent blend is the price of a bottle of Crown Royal or a good burbon.

Have a good weekend,

Ryan

Sometimes Crooked Cops are Funny

Trying To Be Positive

This would probably be a more popular and successful blog if I agreed with people that plans I believe to be seriously flawed were just great. Things like "Sure 10 minutes of callistenics and a 20 minute walk 3 times a week will have you into peak fighting shape" or "everyone knows popping off a few rounds 3 times a year with your buddies is the peak of firearms training" or "yeah a High Point 9mm is the best handgun on the market today for self defense."

I thought about it a lot and realized that I just don't really care. I have certain beliefs that I hold pretty strongly. They stem from my background, personal and professional experiences. Heck often I have tried these things and found them to be wanting. Also my nature is such that I tend to share and call stuff that is wrong when I see it. If I wasn't that way this blog probably wouldn't exist.

I thought about it a lot and think I have come to an answer. Part of the issue is that I am coming at things negatively instead of positively. Really folks doing something is seriously better than nothing. The last thing I want to do is to discourage anybody.

So I am going to try and be a bit more positive when I call it as I see it. Anyway that is all for today,

Ryan

Sometimes You're The Windshield, Sometimes You're The Bug

It has been a heck of a week and it is not done yet. No one specific terrible thing happened it was just one thing after another. Forgetting to do things and having them bite us in the behind then some bad luck and work being far more annoying than usual throughout. To top it off I got a cold and brought it home to Wifey so we both feel like trash. In case things weren't bad enough Walker is teething. I can't explain how much I am ready for tomorrrow to be over and for it to be the weekend.

Also I am working on a pretty long post and just didn't have the desire/ time/ energy to finish it today so you get this whining drivel instead.
Anyway I hope your week is going a lot better than mine.

Facebook Shaming Your Kids

Some mom decided to facebook shame her kid and it made the news. It seems to be pretty comparable though less dramatic than the dad who shot his daughters laptop with a .45.

Am I the only one who thinks these parents are doing something terribly stupid albeit probably well intentioned?

Somewhere along my meandering life I heard a phrase "praise in public and admonish in private." In my brief experiences leading men and a lifetime of having all manner of relationships I can say this is just really great advice. (I am not saying parenthood and leading soldiers are the same thing but some elements are similar) The one time I have really chastised (vs a normal correction) a soldier in public I regretted it. I realized later that I let my emotions get the better of me.

Now this is not to say I do not believe in correcting children. Quite the opposite in fact. The thing is that whenever possible I believe in doing it in private. If that Dad had done the exact same thing giving the speach and shooting her laptop with is wife and daughter in their yard I would think it was reasonably acceptable.

There are multiple issues in play. Kids are stupid. My toddler Walker who should probably be named Curious George or Attilla the Hun is a little terror. At some point closer to 2 than fifteen kids become capable of some level of self control and awareness. A 15 year old might make stupid decisions but they typically know those decisions are at least somewhat stupid. The phrase sinking to their level comes to mind.

I really do not think it is impressive to outwit or mock your teenager. Again they are stupid. Being mature and not sinking to their level is part of a parent's job. I think it is important that even if you have to punish them they can see that you are actually on their side. To varying degrees kids will rebel or be little jerks or otherwise test boundaries. These days some or all of this will involve multi media. I believe they should be held accountable for their actions but in the right way.

For the sake of full disclosure I have a child but not a teenager.

Am I completely off base on this?

Blogger Fail

Sometimes I schedule a post and forget about it then write another post post. If I am running low on extra stuff I then shuffle things around which is a minor hassle. Other times I just don't bother. In any case you all get an extra article today.

The Zimmerman/ Martin Affair

I hadn't done a post on this yet, not for any particular reason. This evening I stumbled into Gabe Suarez's post on the matter and it got me thinking. First of all I am going to put in some good quote from Gabe's post. "I (seek) and teach my students that they should seek “distance from disorder” in their lives, and unless something shocks the consciousness of humanity, to mind their own business. Now I will also tell you that there is a vast gulf of difference between a suspicious black kid walking around the neighborhood, and an active shooter killing people in a restaurant. One is none of your personal business and more of a job for the police, the other…if you happen to be there, is in fact your business and your action can save many lives. The difference between the two extremes is also one of timing. In the former, nothing has happened. In the latter, the bad guy has already opened the game."

My random thoughts on the matter in no particular order:
Hindsight is always 20/20.
I know next to nothing about neighborhood watch but if I ran one the first rule would be that nobody ever goes on watch alone. The second rule would be to always have a video camera. The third rule would be to be clearly marked. I would  buy We would have road guard type vests or hoodies or t shirts that say Such and Such Street/ Lane/ Whatever Neighborhood Watch in huge bright letters. Had this neighborhood watch been 2 or 3 people clearly identified as neighborhood watch with a video camera this whole thing would have almost surelygone down very differently.
I don't believe for a second that this was at all racially motivated. It sounds like Zimmerman was a pretty good guy and there are reports that he tutored some neighborhood kids who were black.
I believe Zimmerman was probably in fear of his life when he pulled the trigger. If just because there was a gun present and potentially they were fighting over it, or things were headed that way.
To paraphrase somebody over at Tam's place "You can follow the law and be doing something really stupid."

All goblins or potential goblins are not 28 year old weightlifting gang membercovered in prison tats, happen to be multiple felons on parol eand high on crack. All good guys are not cops or absolutely perfect beyond reproach pillars of the community who have never been arrested or made a mistake and are on the boards for the group promoting every racial or social agenda. Had Martin been a 28 year old gang banger out on parole for armed robbery and Zimmerman an off duty cop this would not have made it beyond a footnote in the local evening news.

Zimmerman was probably at fault in that he seems to have created a situation which lead to the confrontation that resulted in Martins death. This whole thing might have been entirely avoidable.

Martin is not an entirely innocent victim in all of this either. Of course we don't know the whole story yet but he probably could have done a lot of things differently. If he had stepped into a coffee shop or corner store and said "some crazy man is following me, please call 911" or just plain ran like hell in the other direction things would have ended very differently. It doesn't really matter that Martin was 17. He was adult sized and probably started got into a street fight with an adult man. It doesn't get any more big boy rules than that.  At 17 I was really stupid about a lot of things but I knew that if I got into a fight with a stranger in a dark alley that at least one person would likely be seriously hurt or even killed.

Once the fight got going Zimmerman did what a cop or pretty much anybody else who refused to be a victim would do. He fought back and well, you know the rest.
I don't think Zimmerman had evil in his heart or meant for this to happen but this is definitely a cautionary tale. Again we do not know all the details and hindsight is 20/20.

GSA Video and Lavish Retreats-Waste and Abuse at their Best

Read the story.

In Case The News Hasn't Gotten You Down Already

Greece default credit event leads to the payout of credit default swaps.
What does and America without a Middle Class look like?