Politifact: “Let’s make something clear: The Nazis did deny guns specifically to Jews. But, given the size of their forces and their methods of confiscation and extermination, this is a trivial factor. The notion that it would have made any difference is unreasonable.”

Let’s make one thing clear: yes they did.  This isn’t even a variant of the old “Nazis had gun control for all, not just the Jews” argument.  It’s the same thing, just rehashed on Politifact.

We’ve dealt with it before.  The Nazis used the very firearms registry that had been created to disarm “enemies of the state.”  Jews were included on that list, as were many Christians.  The Nazis hated Christians as much as they did Jews.

That’s why you should ignore Politifact.  Nothing they do is right.  They get everything wrong, as if they’re actually trying to do that to be a joke.  Snopes is their equal.  Both sites are complete trash, as are their “researchers.”

From Wirecutter’s Place, this disturbing piece from California.

Quite some time ago, the Sinoloa drug cartel took up shop in Humboldt County, CA. Today, they are controlling much of the marijuana trafficking from a region that is now often referred to as the Emerald Triangle. They engage in illegal water diversion to irrigate their crops courtesy of Nancy and Paul Pelosi. They have trouble with rodents and small animals eating through the PVC piping. Subsequently, the Sinoloas spread and extreme toxin on the perimeter of their property to kill all-would-be invaders that would destroy their PVC piping. The United States Forest Service has become aware of this practice because of the threat to both the drinking water for millions of Californians as well as the dramatic effect this can have on the food chain.

Besides using rodenticide, the pot growers liberally spray their plants with highly concentrated insecticides such as carbofuran, a chemical that can seep through soil and enter ground water….

“The water lines get gnawed on primarily by rodents, so they scatter rodenticide pellets along
the pipe,” Thompson said. “But the water catchment pond and the actual camp are draws for all kinds of critters, so we find rodenticide pellets as well as open cans of tuna and cat food laced with insecticide. The tuna and cat food targets species like foxes, bears, and ravens.  ”The killing effects can spread up the food chain, in a process called bioaccumulation, as larger predators  feed on the smaller, poisoned animals. In one memorable case of bioaccumulation that Thompson observed,  a fox died from consuming insecticide-laced bait. All the fleas, ticks, and flies on the fox died as well, and a  vulture that fed on the dead fox also died. A recent study (link is external) by California State researchers  on owls further validates that toxic levels of rodenticides and insecticides are entering the terrestrial food web.

Carbofuran’s chemical formula is C₁₂H₁₅NO₃.  “Carbofuran has one of the highest acute toxicities to humans of any insecticide widely used on field crops … Since its toxic effects are due to its activity as a cholinesterase inhibitor it is considered a neurotoxic pesticide.”  Cholinesterase serves as a neurotransmitter.

There is also this potential side effect.  In one study of rats, Carbofuran in sublethal amounts decreased testosterone by 88%.  Great.

Other insurgents know how to use water as a weapon of war.  Whether intentionally or accidentally, diversion of water supplies is open warfare.  Too, poisoning what remains of the water supply is serious business.  Call it was it is: warfare on all accounts.  Don’t look for the folks in California to do anything about it.

So just to be sure, if you’re smoking pot, you could be inhaling rat poison and Carbofuran.  The rat poison can make you very sick in nonlethal doses, and the Carbofuran suppresses your testosterone.  If you smoke that stuff (I don’t), enjoy your doobie and have a good cry.  I’m also glad I don’t live in California.

I sincerely appreciate all of the comments and notes I’ve gotten in response to that post.  It means more to me than you know, and it has convinced me that although some of you don’t comment on the blog (arghh …), it’s worth it to spend the effort writing.

I think I’ve responded to all of the email sent, if not, please forward your email again because I’ve just overlooked it.  I should have stipulated one thing.  It’s one thing to find work anywhere (unlimited relocation or travel).  It’s another thing entirely to look for work locally.

Most of our family is in the area, and all of our grandchildren are.  I do still have one job possibility out of state (and I mean, way out of state) that is open.  I need to let that run to completion.  There are two other possibilities within the area that need to run to completion as well, one of which is contracting.  The other one would be a true Godsend if it works out (contracting, for a longer period of time, assuming that the company wins the bid).

I’m sure God will take care of us, but we’re going through a time of testing.

The National Interest:

The U.S. Army’s standard infantry weapon repeatedly overheated and jammed during a bloody 2008 battle in Afghanistan. The Washington Times reported last week on the reported failure of the M-4 carbine during the fierce firefight in Wanat, during which the Taliban nearly overran an Army outpost.

A direct descendant of the Vietnam War-era M-16, the more compact M-4 is the Army’s standard-issue weapon. The ground combat branch has half a million of the semi-automatic weapons in service and has signed contracts for 120,000 more.

The Army and manufacturers are improving the M-4 to reflect battlefield lessons, but it’s unclear whether these upgrades will prevent another near-catastrophe like occurred at Wanat.

In the early morning hours of July 13, 2008, a Taliban force of between 100 and 200 fighters attacked an American Forward Operating Base guarded by 48 soldiers of 2nd Platoon, Chosen Company—part of 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment.

The paratroopers had just arrived in the area five days prior. The Taliban had been watching—and attacked before the platoon could finish setting up its defenses, which typically include walls, razor wire and machine guns.

Firing machine guns, rocket-propelled grenades and mortars, the Taliban swarmed the American position. The U.S. soldiers called in Apache attack helicopters, 155-militmeter howitzers and even a B-1 heavy bomber to pound the attackers.

The Americans held their ground. But nine soldiers died and 27 suffered wounds. Around 50 Taliban died and evidence suggests 40 were wounded.

In stand-up fights like Wanat, whichever side is able to generate fire superiority—in other words, throw out more lead—has the advantage. This is particularly important for the defenders, as sheer firepower can slow the attackers’ advance until help arrives.

The paratroopers had brought to the outpost two heavy machine guns, two automatic grenade launchers and an anti-tank missile. These were supposed to be the linchpins of Wanat’s defenses, but accurate Taliban fire disabled most of these heavier weapons early in the battle.

Fire superiority fell to the M-4s. In the Army’s report on Wanat, one soldier described alternating between three M-4s, using each until it jammed.

“My weapon was overheating,” another soldier said. “I had shot about 12 magazines by this point already and it had only been about half an hour or so into the fight.” In other words, the soldier fired approximately 360 rounds in 30 minutes. That’s 14 rounds a minute—one every four seconds.

This one was originally published by War is Boring.  In my experience The National Interest produces click bait and nothing more.  Most of their articles are un-serious.  When they publish someone else in entirety it’s usually better, but in this case I cannot believe they are publishing this claptrap this late in the game.  There are so many errors in this commentary it’s hard to believe they went ahead with it.

To begin with, the Taliban force was near Battalion size, not 100 to 200 fighters.  They fielded nearly 600 fighters.  The Taliban weren’t just watching them as they set up the COP, they knew a full one year in advance what was going to happen and where it was going to be based on the felt-need of the Army to get “permission” from tribal elders.  Contrast this with the USMC in the Helmand Province where they would go in and set up a COP overnight with no permission from anyone.

This wasn’t a “stand-up” fight.  No one was standing (at least, not U.S. forces unless behind barriers).  The majority of the heavy losses were suffered at Observation Post Topside, which was poorly positioned and improperly manned.  The US force size was too small.  It was in a valley.  They had no CAS, the ring-knockers from Joyce let them down while they sipped coffee or played video games.

Blaming it on the M-4 is the stupidest thing they could have done, and articles written that way are looking to place blame somewhere other than squarely on the shoulders of flag and staff officers.  Finally, how many videos of run-to-failure full automatic fire with AR-15s do we have to show you to convince you that no one needs a piston AR, and that the direct impingement Eugene Stoner design does just fine.  How can we post videos of ARs shooting full auto for 800 rounds before the barrel melts without a single FFT / FTE before they stop blaming the rifle and start blaming upper command for the failure at Wanat?

By the way, I’m still proud to have three URLs associated with the Army report on Wanat.  PDF warning.  Page 255.

Prior: Battle of Wanat (category)

I noticed that to this post and this one, tfA-t made some remarks.  I sent a note to his posted email address, which of course bounced.  So I have no way to communicate with him.  I don’t concur that he has a “right” to make comments except on his own blog (which probably doesn’t exist).  The First Amendment says no such thing about a right to post comments.  But the note I sent says this.

I want to moderate your comments, I really do.  But I’m having sort of a problem.  I need to know more.

You see, I have no respect for “Gray man.”  I use my real name, I told my readers where I used to work, and I own every post I’ve ever made.  They’re mine, they represent my views, and those views can be connected to a name.  My own.

Now, I’m sure that your real name isn’t tfA-t.  No momma actually names their baby that unless she hates him.  Maybe your momma hates you – I don’t know.

So I need some information from you, and if you give it to me, I’ll moderate your comments, giving you full access after the first one so that you an trash my web site until your heart is content.

[1] Real name

[2] Place of employment

[3] DD214 form (since you claimed to be former military).

I need all of this in a verifiable system, which means that you copy your response to this email to your work email, and then forward the same note from your work email to this address.  Please send me the URL associated with your place of employment so that I can verify you are who you say you are.

Otherwise, you’re just another boy sitting in her momma’s basement.

So are you bold and proud, or are you afraid and cowardly?  Which is it?  Send this information to me and get on board trashing my web site.  Do it.  Just do it.

So let’s get this party rolling, tfA-t.  I can be reached.  You know how to do it.

News from South Carolina:

Bills on either side of the gun debate have gone nowhere. That includes legislation by Sen. Marlon Kimpson, D-Charleston, to extend the FBI background check period from three days to five days — versions of which he’s pushed in every session since the 2015 shooting at Charleston’s Emanuel AME Church, when nine black parishioners were gunned down. Kimpson managed to get a hearing last month, but the bill didn’t advance. Neither has any other bill expanding gun background checks in this gun-friendly state. But neither have various “constitutional carry” bills that would allow adults to carry a gun, openly or concealed, without getting a weapons permit.

South Carolina = California = New York = Hawaii = New Jersey.

I know that hurts my SC readers.  That one is a kick right to the balls.  I’m sorry.  But I have to tell the truth.

David Codrea:

It’s a sign of the age of fake “toxic masculinity” that New Zealand men would so readily give up their guns. We’re talking about a people whose ancestors tamed a wilderness now being evacuated in panic from a music festival after someone misidentified a tattoo as a sign of “right-wing extremism.”

[ … ]

She knows that because in 2008, she was elected president of the International Union of Socialist Youth, an affiliate of Socialist International, which unsurprisingly is “heartened” by the March for Our Lives “movement” and its young useful idiot figureheads.

Among IUSY’s goals: “Building a new world order” (just like George H. W. Bush called for at the UN).

“We strongly point out that the right to migrate freely in the world is fundamental,” IUSY declared in its 2009 resolutions, speaking in that case to the European Union.

Oh really?  Unlimited migration is a “fundamental right?”    If so, then I demand you give me chapter and verse from the Holy Scriptures where God stipulated that countries have no right to control over their borders.  I’m waiting.  And I’ll eat my hard hat if you can do it.

Is there any doubt that unlimited migration is a pretext for disarmament and government control over every aspect of life?

Ammo.com:

Hollywood has a clever way of distorting our perspective on history, and a great example of this is Western film – a movie genre we’ve all come to love. Cattle rustlers, guns blazing, outlaws running loose, and vigilantes dishing out vengeance indiscriminately. These scenes have become more synonymous with the American Frontier than Winchester and their “Cartridge That Won the West.” But these fictional tales have produced more than entertainment for over a century; they’ve also contributed to an ongoing, subtle push for gun control, all while making Hollywood millions.

Revisionist history books tell us that the “Wild West” was an anarchic period of time that was not conducive to human prosperity. Images of a Hobbesian nightmare – a life that is brutish and short – are ingrained in our consciousness thanks to decades of public schooling and violent images on the silver screen which are light on actual history and heavy on creative license.

However, individuals who believe in liberty and developing their critical thinking faculties should be skeptical of most mainstream narratives regarding history, especially American history. After all, these narratives by and large have been created by Hollywood, a legacy institution that has historically advanced politically correct content with the support of Washington in order to perpetuate the cultural status quo.

When the curtain of political correctness that’s been draped over this particular period of history is pulled back, we see a much more nuanced picture of the American Frontier. In fact, research by historians such as Peter J. Hill, Richard Shenkman, Roger D. McGrath, Terry Anderson, and W. Eugene Holland shows that this period was rather indicative of a “not so wild, Wild West.”

For the purposes of this article, the Wild West will now be referred to as the Old West. This is by no means a pedantic distinction, but rather an acknowledgment of the fact that this time period was not “wild” by any stretch of the imagination when compared to other chaotic periods in human history. Indeed, the Old West had its fair share of challenges for American settlers. But as we’ll see below, crafty settlers found ways through ingenuity and mutual cooperation – all done with very limited state interference – to create a stable order for generations to come.

So let us delve into the “not so wild, Wild West.”

The Old West was not a paradise by any stretch of the imagination. There existed conflict between groups, such as American settlers and Native American tribes, once they came in contact in the Great Plains and other parts of the frontier. This was natural due to the cultural differences that existed between these groups and the lack of defined property rights in those regions.

However, in more settled towns on the frontier, there was not as much violence as the Hollywood flicks would like you to believe. One of the most important texts disrupting this depiction of the Old West was W. Eugene Hollon’s Frontier Violence: Another Look. Hollon argued that “the Western frontier was a far more civilized, more peaceful, and safer place than American society is today.” Additionally, historian Richard Shenkman makes the case that the popular depictions of the Old West belong more in a movie script rather than a real-life historical account.

Shenkman noted:

“Many more people have died in Hollywood Westerns than ever died on the real Frontier.”

Dodge City has become a landmark for Western movies, but its portrayal is more fiction than reality. Shenkman also dismantled the Dodge City myth:

“In the real Dodge City, for example, there were just five killings in 1878, the most homicidal year in the little town’s Frontier history: scarcely enough to sustain a typical two-hour movie.”

Well, most stuff that comes out of Hollywood is pure crap, and almost always with a purpose in mind.  Say, maybe they should start making movies about the violence in Chicago and Detroit?  May they should take a hard look at what socialist policies have done to those cities, and then turn to Venezuela for a followup, perhaps?

Don’t hold your breath.

Most of this writeup is poorly written crap.  But there is one part with which I concur, and it wasn’t said by the author of the article.

“I am not so anxious to wear a martyr’s crown as to sacrifice my life when God requires me to use means to preserve it. It is no evidence of a preacher’s want of trust in God when he carries a gun to shield his life in the time of peril. It would be the most sinful presumption not to do so. Indeed, I do not carry a gun because I am afraid to die, but because it is a duty to use means to preserve life.” – Jack Potter

I’ve avoided writing this post.  I knew it would be painful, but I’ve just now been able to formulate what I wanted to say.  At least, sort of.  I need to say just enough, but I can’t say too much.

I’ve had a hard four months.  At the end of November, 2018, I was hit with a reduction in force (RIF) where I worked, which of course, means I was laid off.  I’ve always hidden my employer from my writing, never even once mentioning my company.

This is what I did with Duke Energy.  I’m a nuclear engineer, at least I was, and a very specialized one at that.  My major was in mechanical engineering, but I haven’t done that since my days at a plant early in my career.  I have a number of observations to make that hopefully will help you as you ponder these things, and then some prayer requests to make for myself.

Dealing With Loss of Work

I recommend that you do this – today.  Write down a list of, say, 25 people in your life, mostly professional, upon whom you can rely for recommendations for work, offers for work, assistance, general counsel, and continued support by simple things like phone calls, text messages and emails to see how you’re doing and tell you they’re praying for you and thinking about you, perhaps that they even miss you.

Now, sit and think about that list for a while, QA the list, remove names if you must, add more as replacements.  Here’s the thing.  Of that list of 25 names, probably 24 shouldn’t even be on the list.  You don’t know that when this happens, and it’s surprising and even embarrassing that your list was so badly built.  But a few other names appear on the list that you never would have considered had this not happened.  You learn a lot about your trusted and valued colleagues.  Some of them don’t turn out to be so valued after all.

I’m a poster child for getting so specialized that you can’t do anything else.  Don’t let this happen to you.  I recommend that you think hard about your work, and decide where you want to be in five years.  Do what it takes to make it happen.  Burnish your CV, expand your capabilities, prepare for the worst, and be ready to make a change.  I’m living proof for those who don’t that there will be pain and suffering for the lack of vision and planning.

I’ll deal with trying to find new work in a moment, but first I wanted to mention a few other things.  I have been thrown into a situation where I don’t know where my next paycheck is going to come from.  I was given a severance package, but that will eventually run out.  It may all work out for the better nonetheless.

I cannot say too much, but my director and I had begun to clash on a number of different issues that I consider to be of ethical import.  I was ripe for layoff anyway, given that I’m 59 years old, white and male.  Those same things would appear to prevent me from being hired today by virtually everywhere I apply.

This was all made worse by the fact that I simply will not be unethical in my work.  I will not tell unjustified lies (Rahab’s lie was just, most are not), I will not violate my ethical obligations as a registered professional engineer, and I certainly will not communicate material false information to the federal regulator.  My clashes with my upper management chain were becoming burdensome.

The first couple of seasons of the TV series “Alone” saw some of the contestants “fighting their demons,” as they all said.  Aloneness does that to you, they said.  I never really understood that before, but I do now.  I’ve had my demons to fight.  I’ve had to deal with the fact that I allowed myself to become so specialized in what I do.  I’ve had to deal with the fact that I didn’t burnish my CV with advanced degrees.  While it’s good for me that I have a PE license, there was a time when I had begun to study for other certifications that would have been helpful to me.  For instance, I had begun a serious course of study to become a CHP (Certified Health Physicist), and had begun to think about studying to become a CIH (Certified Industrial Hygienist).

I stopped.  I simply gave up.  You can call it laziness, and maybe it was, but life does happen.  You get busy with work, with all the overtime that entails in a professional job, you have duties at church, your children require your attention, and you deploy a son to war.  When you deploy a son to war, you stand at the doorway of your home at 0300 hours because you can’t sleep, waiting and watching for that Marine Corps officer and Navy Chaplain to show up.

I’ve had to deal with the fact that I put my wife in this position, and I swore in front of God and man that I would provide for her.  Those demons run through your mind and do serious mental damage.  But if that all wasn’t enough, there was other loss to deal with.

Dealing with Loss of my Heidi-Girl

On New Year’s Eve of 2018, when we were cleaning to get ready for visitors, I noticed an unusual amount of blood in the walls of one particular room downstairs.  Heidi was dripping with blood.  In fact, she was spewing blood when she would sneeze, only to begin the hemorrhaging over again.  Heidi, for those who may remember, was my 90-pound Doberman “lap dog.”  I had noticed that she had begun to withdraw from me over the past couple of months, was tired, and eventually the last several days she had stopped eating.

I immediately put her in the truck to take to the Vet.  I covered the back seat with a sheet, including the bench cover I had for her in the truck.  By the time I got to the Vet, the entire sheet was covered in blood.  I’ve never seen so much blood in all of my life.  She had grown a very large tumor in her mouth that had forced its way into her sinus cavity, and when it finally broke through, the bleeding was intense and unending.

When I put her into the truck I somehow knew she wouldn’t be coming home, and that’s one of the hardest drives I’ve ever made.  The Vet told me that she had lived a long life for a Doberman (10+ years), and that he’s seen dogs with this come back with half of their snout removed.  If I chose chemotherapy or radiation for her, she would have to be sedated every time, and she wouldn’t understand why.  He wouldn’t do that to his dogs.

On that awful day, we put her down.  I lost one of the best friends I’ve ever had.  I’ve hiked with her, camped with her, she’s protected me, we’ve played thousands of hours together, loved on each other, and walked enough miles to have travelled America coast to coast.  When camping we slept together, as we did when she got bitten by a Copperhead.  And in an instant, I lost her.

I didn’t love the company I worked for.  But I truly loved my Heidi-girl, more than you can imagine.  When I love a dog, she’s part of my family.  As I type this, there are tears in my eyes.  I miss her so much, and never so much as when I walk my wife’s dog, or go hiking and see other people with their companion dogs.  Oh, I miss her so much.  So very much.

Looking for New Work

It’s an awful experience to look for new work.  The job boards are ridiculous.  LinkedIn is only mildly useful.  When HR or recruiters call themselves “talent search” professionals, they’re lying, and they know it.  It only takes you a few weeks to figure that out too.

First of all, no one is interested in hiring a 59 year old, white male.  No one.  I’m either over-qualified for jobs, or under-qualified for jobs, or exactly-qualified.  In the first and third cases they have an excuse.  In the second case, there’s always someone more attractive than a 59 year old, white male.  My brother, who is a lawyer, tells me that many of the postings over the job boards are fake, intended only to enable meeting EEOC requirements.  To HR, you’re just a bean-count.

They hide the contact information for the hiring managers, and it takes moving heaven and earth to find it if you ever do.  HR has set up a fire wall around the hiring managers.  At some point in the past, HR told companies  that “You’re too stupid for this, you need us to do this for you.  You don’t know how, and we’re ‘talent search’ folks who can move mountains and walk on water.”  And then everyone simply accepted what they said.  Presto.  That’s job security for “talent search” people.

They aren’t looking for talent, no matter what they say.  They’re looking for process knowledge.  Being smart, or a hard worker, isn’t enough.  You need to have “Fifteen years of experience with AutoCAD, the same with design of variable air volume systems in commercial buildings, in-depth knowledge of the codes and standards of such-and-such state and county, and 10+ years experience with the specialized computer software so-and-so.”  In other words, no one wants to invest any resources in startup or training.  They all want plug-and-play workers, as if you’re a circuit board that will work; the previous one failed.  Is it any wonder millennial workers have no sense of commitment or loyalty to companies any more?

I’ve completed some 66 applications, a couple of which may actually amount to something, Lord willing.  I don’t know.  I just don’t know where I stand with any of this any more.  I do know that stasis if a killer.  Staying mired in the demon-fighting mode is death.  It destroys the joy of life, and I cannot do that any more.

The Future

I don’t know what the future holds.  If something comes of the couple of irons I have in the fire, then so be it.  I’d like that to happen.  If it doesn’t, eventually I’ll have to find an hourly job doing something (selling guns at the counter, working in hardware, doing lawn service).  I cannot continue to be a drain on our bank account while my wife is the only one putting money into it.

One bright thing that has made me happy over the last several days is that I placed a call to a very nice lady about my qualifications to sit for the CIH (Certified Industrial Hygienist) examination, and they will allow me to take it.  I’ve started studying for it, reading through a 1000-page book, with another one like it just behind this one.  It will be a long haul, and I figure that my preparation time will amount to somewhere around 600 -800 hours.  I won’t take it until next year.

I am not asking for sympathy.  I’m not asking for anything, really, except that you learn from my mistakes and ensure that you don’t make them.  But I do covet your prayers for my examination preparation, and if you think about it, that God would bless my efforts at finding meaningful and fruitful labor.

I’d also ask that you be patient with my blogging.  There will come a time in my preparation that my writing will be less essay and more quick-links, with me relying on commenters to fill in the gaps.

I appreciate your being understanding about this.