Unless life has REALLY sucked for you lately, you probably have things to give thanks for this year. I certainly do, and so does my significant other, the Evil Princess.
Please stay alert, for things like over-partied drunk drivers who partook too much of holiday cheer, as we cops have advised the citizens we’re sworn to protect since long before I pinned on a badge for the first time.
In my last entry here (see it below this one), I said “Defy the terrorists and have a great Thanksgiving.”
One of our regular blog commentators said, “I’m going to defy the terrorists by not allowing concern about them to change anything I am going to do tomorrow. I’m going to have Thanksgiving dinner, unarmed, with my family and friends at a major hotel in a major American city and I have no fear that any harm will befall us, except to our waistlines, our cholesterol levels, and my wallet.”
He and I are more in tune with each other’s way of thinking than he may realize. The EP and I aren’t going to change much, either. Wherever we go, we’re both normally armed. If we are someplace where I’m “legal to carry” and she’s not – as we were on Thanksgiving Day – she knows that the backup gun I normally carry will be readily available to her in the sort of exigent circumstance that triggers the ancient Common Law principle known as the Doctrine of Competing Harms, which will make it legal for her to wield it in defense of herself or others. The only change in that plan at the moment is that it is a second 9mm Glock instead of the usual five-shot backup .38 that lives in one of my pockets.
The next time reliable weather forecasters predict a hurricane or a monster blizzard, perhaps I shouldn’t bother to make sure the generator is working and the food and water supplies are up to date. I guess that would mean the terrorists weather won.
Umm…no. It doesn’t hurt anything, nor violate my normal routine of enjoying life immensely, to take common sense precautions when danger threatens. The reliable terrorism forecasters have given us a warning. I hope that nothing comes of it…but if anything does, we’ll be more ready than the commentator. I won’t accuse myself of paranoia if nothing happens this weekend, any more than I’ve ever done so when I took precautions after reliable weather forecasters warned of an impending hurricane or blizzard and the hurricane blew out to sea or the blizzard fizzled. When the blizzard or hurricane HIT, though, every time I was glad the extra precautions had been taken.
At the moment, the EP and I are in Chicagoland, and thankful along with millions of others that protests after the release of the dashcam video of the death of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald simmered, but did not explode into flame…yet. Today, local activists plan to demonstrate by blocking the most active retail business area of the city, on the single busiest shopping day of the year, so the potential for conflagration still exists. (And throngs of mostly unarmed shoppers present an invitingly target-rich environment to any terrorists modeling off the Nairobi incident.)
Here’s hoping that we all have a pleasant, meaningful, and PEACEFUL Thanksgiving weekend!
Mas, although I couldn’t agree more with what you wrote, do you know of anyone who teaches advanced shooting, like yourself. I’m living in Greensboro, NC. Training to me is important.
Mas, you wrote, “It doesn’t hurt anything, nor violate my normal routine of enjoying life immensely, to take common sense precautions when danger threatens.”
I agree. I’ve been a “prepper” since April 2010. Lately I’ve been thinking that a disaster which affects all fifty states is not very likely. Then I remember “The Carrington Event” in 1859. That was a totally natural solar flare (EMP) which wiped out all the electronics on earth. Of course, the only electronic thing at that time was the telegraph system. There were fires at various sub-stations, I think, and the whole system had to be rebuilt. That could happen again, irrespective of any of mankind’s activities. It might take a year to restore electricity. So, even though life seems to go by in a normal fashion here in the USA, ANYTHING can happen, man-made or natural.
Thoughts and prayers to the victims and responders of the latest mass shooting, still unresolved as I type this, in Colorado Springs!
Will be anxious to get your thoughts on this, Mas, when apropos…be safe in Chi-Town!
TXCOMT
Mas (and EP) as you know most of Chicagoland is not inhabited with low morons. Just folks that have lived in an environment that has reinforced that the law of the jungle ‘can’t exist here’ attitude.
Too bad. They now live in the literal jungle.
Spoken from someone who has lived there and knows the difference.
Bolingbrook By The Sea.
P.S. It was fun watching my dad catch a yellow school bus to go to the train station to get to the Sears Tower.
In Texas he yelled at me ‘the bus is coming!’. In Bolingbrook I got to say ‘ Dad you better hurry, you’re going to miss the bus.’
To me Fox ‘news’ is no friend of ours. It seems every minor shooting among Caucasians and especially Caucasian against non-Caucasian is worthy of headline coverage.
When liberal darlings are the target it is Armageddon above the fold.
“CHAOS IN COLORADO: 3 dead in clinic shooting”.
obama sees that as a sign of too many weapons in the hands of non government personnel and with the help of Fox ‘news’ he WILL convince many people of that yet he cannot bring himself to say islam and terrorist in the same sentence. (How many Christians have muslims beheaded today??)
We need Fox ‘news’ to stop throwing fuel on the fire.
Hi Mas, Hope you had or are continuing to have a great time here in Chicago. As have you and your EP, my EP and I have adjusted things a bit in light of recent events – but not to the level of paranoia or inconvenience. I now always carry my backup gun to hand off to her, and most times I’m now carrying an extra two magazines (total of four extras now) plus and extra for the backup gun (it’s a 9mm). This is easy since I use a shoulder holster for my 1911 .45 ACP in cooler weather anyway.
By the way, I think my EP is the original of the two, as I have referred to her as that since around 1999. 🙂
Happy Thanksgiving!
Be thankful for the cold weather in Chicago. Had it been 75 degrees plus, the residents would have been out in force and ready to rock and roll!
Since I already carry 24/7 and avoid places where I can’t, having my piece is just SOP and I’m not allowing the Uentermenschen to change my way of life.
I may be going out on a limb here but I’ll take a wild guess that the terrorist defier either doesn’t carry or may not have been allowed where he was going. Either case his declaration of defiance was hot air.
Mas.
Considering that our borders are wide open, and terrorist threats are high, why haven’t we seen anything substantial since 9/11? This seems counter-intuitive, and makes no sense. Is it possible that the terrorist threats are way overblown for political reasons? I’m not a terrorist, nor am I trained, but I could wreak havoc without much effort. Not sure why someone else hasn’t done something.
I still plan to be prepared, but the whole thing seems to make no sense.
On the shooting of Laquan McDonald by officer Jason Van Dyke: the state’s attorney has charged the officer with 1st degree murder after 14 months of investigation and just before the judge made the video public. That seems like an overreach. Proving premeditation would be nearly impossible. The video at a nearby BurgerKing was examined by the police and afterwards 86 minutes of the video was missing. Approximately 5 police dashcam videos exist but none of them have any audio. The police say that a technical issue occurred. Laquan had a pocket knife but I don’t believe this fits into the prerequisites to invoke the Tueller drill. Laquan seems to be running away, not towards the officer.
When officer Van Dyke is found to be not guilty, the threat of riots will again arise.
Well, the long holiday weekend is over and the only politically-motivated mass attack that we’ve seen was domestic. (To quote Walt Kelly’s Pogo: “We have met the enemy and he is us.”)
@Marc-Wi: I’ll try to keep this brief, but as the regulars here know, I’m a gun-owning liberal. I do not carry, it is true, but it’s not because of some ideological opposition to guns but because I simply do not feel the need to do so.
Mas says, above, “It doesn’t hurt anything, nor violate my normal routine of enjoying life immensely, to take common sense precautions when danger threatens.” The question is this: _is_ carrying common sense? I don’t have flood insurance on my home because I don’t live within a 100-year flood plane, though I suppose a flood might still be theoretically possible even though I live near the top of a hill. On the other hand, I have intentionally bought a vehicle which warns me when I get too close to things in blind spots while backing up and warns me when there’s a car in my blind spots when I go to change lanes; that’s a real risk that is worth the cost to reduce. I do not see the need to carry because I do not feel the risk is sufficient to justify the cost (both in dollars, time, training, and the like) and, so far, 60 going on 70 years of living has proven me to be right, at least for me and mine. That does not mean that other people do not have objective life circumstances or subjective risk evaluation that, to them at least, justifies those costs.
The foreign terrorists want us to be sufficiently concerned that we worry enough that we’re willing to change things. Those worries begin with the little things, like the question of whether to carry on holidays, and then build to the point that we’re willing to change our stance towards them (or so they hope, at least). That’s the intent I’m defiant of but, yes, my defiance is because I believe that the real threat to me, personally, and to my family and companions, is negligible and _that_ is the point: by neither starting to carry or by avoiding public places I defy the _unreasoning_ fear that they wish to cause. For those of you who customarily carry, continuing to carry in the face of their threats is a neutral act, not paranoia; it’s just what you do, though you may take a bit of additional comfort in it.
Thanksgiving for my family has taken a new and wonderful turn the last few years. I carry on that day. so terrorists or no, it doesn’t matter. But what’s been really neat is that for the last few years, it seems that one of us usually has something new for an impromptu “show & Tell” 2 years ago, my older boy’s GF was looking for her first pistol. we went down to our host’s Wine cellar, and I unloaded and showed off my M&P Shield. Last year, She showed off the pistol she had settled on, Ruger LCR. And this year my younger boy showed off his first AR-15. a RRA carbine. As is always the case, we checked with our host first, and I double checked the items were unloaded. I’m thinking of showing my new G30S next year. I can hardly wait!
Dave, our experiences do much to shape our lives. You have been either right (or lucky) in your threat assessments. My having a gun present has been a blessing more than once in my own experience, and not just in law enforcement, which I why I’ve carried for my adult life.
I wish you and yours continued safety and peace.
Liberal Dave,
You said it right. You explained why you do not carry, then you left the option open to others who do wish to carry. You said they are not paranoid to do so. That is the American spirit, liberty under law, freedom, live and let live, not imposing our beliefs on others. I salute you for your stand.
Most people, and even most cops, will never even un-holster their guns in a tense situation. But for some of us, having a gun means the difference between life and death, or serious bodily harm.
I’ve worn a seat belt all my life, but I’ve never needed it. Even in the three accidents I’ve encountered, the seat belt played no role. But how wonderful it is to live in a country whose government trusts its citizens with guns! Yahoo!
Mas, the same to you my friend: The happiest, safest, and most peaceful of holidays to you and your family.
And the same to all the other posters here, best wishes for the holiday season and the new year.
Chris S. Says: Considering that our borders are wide open, and terrorist threats are high, why haven’t we seen anything substantial since 9/11?
A lot of hard work by the FBI and other agencies. The NYPD has its own intelligence service monitoring “the religion of peace” and scouting for threats.
And this work has had results. If you think back, you’ll recall a lot of stories about would-be jihadis arrested, tried, and convicted for plotting terror attacks.
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