I'm back

Hey I have been gone for awhile and been very busy, However I have some down time now so I will start publishing again soon. If you have any requests for topics that you would like me to write about please let me know.

A business proposition

"I'd like to make you a business offer.

Seriously. This is a real offer. In fact, you really can't turn me down, as you'll come to understand in a moment…

Here's the deal. You're going to start a business or expand the one you've got now. It doesn't really matter what you do or what you're going to do. I'll partner with you no matter what business you're in – as long as it's legal.

But I can't give you any capital – you have to come up with that on your own. I won't give you any labor – that's definitely up to you. What I will do, however, is demand you follow all sorts of rules about what products and services you can offer, how much (and how often) you pay your employees, and where and when you're allowed to operate your business. That's my role in the affair – to tell you what to do.

Now in return for my rules, I'm going to take roughly half of whatever you make in the business each year. Half seems fair, doesn't it? I think so. Of course, that's half of your profits.

You're also going to have to pay me about 12% of whatever you decide to pay your employees because you've got to cover my expenses for promulgating all the rules about who you can employ, when, where, and how. Come on, you're my partner. It's only "fair."

Now… after you've put your hard-earned savings at risk to start this business, and after you've worked hard at it for a few decades (paying me my 50% or a bit more along the way each year), you might decide you'd like to cash out – to finally live the good life.

Whether or not this is "fair" – some people never can afford to retire – is a different argument. As your partner, I'm happy for you to sell whenever you'd like… because our agreement says if you sell, you have to pay me an additional 20% of whatever the capitalized value of the business is at that time.

I know… I know… you put up all the original capital. You took all the risks. You put in all the labor. That's all true. But I've done my part, too. I've collected 50% of the profits each year. And I've always come up with more rules for you to follow each year. Therefore, I deserve another, final 20% slice of the business.

Oh… and one more thing…

Even after you've sold the business and paid all my fees… I'd recommend buying lots of life insurance. You see, even after you've been retired for years, when you die, you'll have to pay me 50% of whatever your estate is worth.

After all, I've got lots of partners and not all of them are as successful as you and your family. We don't think it's "fair" for your kids to have such a big advantage. But if you buy enough life insurance, you can finance this expense for your children.

All in all, if you're a very successful entrepreneur… if you're one of the rare, lucky, and hard-working people who can create a new company, employ lots of people, and satisfy the public… you'll end up paying me more than 75% of your income over your life. Thanks so much.

I'm sure you'll think my offer is reasonable and happily partner with me… But it doesn't really matter how you feel about it because if you ever try to stiff me – or cheat me on any of my fees or rules – I might break down your door in the middle of the night, or threaten you and your family , seize all your goods and even throw you in jail.

That's the offer Amerika gives its entrepreneurs.
And the idiots in Washington wonder why there are no new jobs…"

This was taken from a friend of mine over on another website and I thought that I would share it as it makes sense.

Weakness in America

"Our Country won't go on forever, if we stay soft as we are now. There won't be any AMERICA because some foreign soldier will invade us and take our women and breed a hardier race!"
LT. GEN. LEWIS "CHESTY" PULLER, USMC

This quote was made my a military legend many years ago. Chesty puller was awarded 5 Navy Crosses for valor and there is not a doubt in any Marines mind today that he is one of the finest Marines to ever live. He made this quote almost as if he could see into the future to where America is at today. I don't forsee an foreign force invading per se but what I do see is America giving herself away to the rest of the world and making herself weak to appease the rest of the world and make them happy.

It sickens me to see the squalor and disgusting levels that our country has allowed herself to fall to. When HALF of the country pays taxes to support the other half, because they either do not, can not, or refuse not to work because it is EASIER to ride the system for everything that they can get out of it. Social Security was designed to be a supplement to what people had saved over thier lifetimes NOT an actual retirement account. 

America has become a country full of a lazy and selfish attitude towards everything that does not benefit one's self. What happened to the days when a man went out of his way to hold a door open for a lady, or the days where if a man attempted to hit or otherwise harm a lady, he was beaten and driven out of town as a lesson to any other person who would atempt such a thing?

Combat Mindset and Self Defense #7

This is my 7^th post on Combat Mindset and Self Defense.

I have received this question in many variations over the years that I have been carrying and it is, “why do you carry your pistol Condition 1? (Round in chamber, safety on).

My answer is simple, the fewer weapon manipulations that I have to conduct prior to firing the fewer chances of malfunctions, stoppages, and less time before lead is headed downrange. This invariably brings up the next question “Do you think it is as safe to carry a round in the chamber especially when your hammer is cocked?” My answer to this is a little more complex

If I carry my pistol Condition 3 (mag inserted, NO round in chamber, hammer down safety off the 1911’s safety does not engage unless the hammer is to the rear) then I am not ready to engage in a moments notice and I have to rack the slide to chamber a round which invites failure to feeds (FTF) and other malfunctions. Also if I am already hit before I draw my weapon I may not have the use of both hands to chamber a round which will then cause me to have to rack the weapon off of my belt or off the edge of a hard surface, all of which takes a lot more time to get my weapon ready.

All recently manufactured pistols have some sort of built in safety function in them and they are designed to be carried condition one with a round in the chamber. Many people do not feel comfortable carrying their weapon in this condition as they cannot feel safe knowing that there is a round in the chamber. To me this just means that they do not trust themselves usually due to lack of practice on their part. I have spent the last 5 going on 6 years carrying all my weapons in combat, Condition one and would never feel safe unless it is in this condition. Your primary safety is in between your ears and if you follow the 5 safety rules you will never have a problem.

The five safety rules are as follows.

1.      Treat every weapon as if it were loaded

2.      Never point a weapon at anything you do not intend to shoot

3.      Keep your finger straight and off the trigger until your are ready to fire

4.      Keep your weapon on safe until you intend to fire

5.      Know your target and what lies beyond it.

If you follow these 5 simple rules you will never have a negligent discharge or shoot someone that you do not want to. THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS AN ACCIDENTAL DISCHARGE!! The only other type of discharge of your weapon other than a planned or negligent discharge is caused by the complete failure of the weapons safety system or in the case of automatic weapons a cook off where the round pre-ignites due to the residual heat of the barrel due to prolonged and sustained firing.

Combat Mindset and Self Defense #6

This is my 6^th post on Combat Mindset and Self Defense. In my previous posts I have primarily focused on firearms as that is primarily what I know. I live, work with and love firearms, and I practice as often as possible to maintain my proficiency with them.

Knives are a viable alternative for self defense and I maintain profanely with them as well, however for me they are a last resort before I have to fall back to strikes and kicks as in my opinion only a fool goes to a knife fight in the first place.

I do not practice disarmament techniques as I see them as a simple way to get myself killed by a more skilled or stronger opponent and with all knife and disarmament techniques that require you to be with in the lethal radius of the edged weapon that is being used against you. I do have one pistol disarmament technique that I practice regularly as it is simple, quick and effective for any one of any size, however I do not recommend it as in my opinion, for the reason anyone that has crossed the line of pointing a weapon at me or my wife has made a very poor life choice that, if I am given the chance, will hasten the end of said life by accurate gunfire.

Having a weapon for self defense does not make you effective. Practice makes permanent and if you do not practice with your weapon of choice you are simply carrying around the tool of your own death. Either your weapon will be used against you by your assailant(s) after they take it from you or you will attempt to use it and miss or have a malfunction that you do not know how to correct giving them the opportunity to kill you as easily as if you had no weapon in the first place.

As I have said in earlier posts you have to square away within yourself your natural propensity for violence and lethality and if you cannot find it within yourself to kill someone else even in self defense or in the defense of others that you love then DO NOT bother carrying a weapon as it will be simply taken from you and used on you or your loved ones after you fail to pull the trigger.  

It is incredibly vital that you realize the mess and smell caused by killing someone. It is not like the movies in which a person gets shot and they immediately drop or the hero gets shot 5 times and blown up and still walks away. Even if a person is shot in the heart they can still function for 15 seconds at least, that is 15 seconds where they can still kill you.

You need to settle within yourself that no matter the outcome of the fight, whether you live or die you WILL kill the person assaulting you or the ones you love. If you live in fear of losing your life then you will not be effective in defending yourself or your loved ones. The lyrics of a song that I heard on my first deployment to Iraq really hit home with me. “The wounded man shall say to his assailant, if I die you are forgiven, if I live I WILL KILL YOU!! Such is the rule of honor”. What I took from this is that no matter what happens to me I will kill or “stop” the threat to myself or my wife whether I die doing it for if I don’t that person will survive to do it again and again to other less prepared individuals (i.e. SHEEP).

Combat Mindset and Self Defense #5

In this 5^th installment of my posts on Combat Mindset and Self Defense I am going to cover a scenario with you that should show you why having situational awareness and a tactical posture all the time is so important and this scenario can be modified to fit pretty much anywhere along with a corresponding pistol shooting drill that I developed while training in a Protective Services Detachment (protection of important people like movie stars, state governors, and even musicians) course in Kuwait to go along with it.

            The scenario is as follows: You are exiting a building with your wife, the building could be a grocery store, your house, or pretty much anywhere, she is walking on your weak side (i.e. the side of your body that you don’t use to write with), probably holding your hand or your arm (because hopefully you are still in love and normal people in love do these things) ;). And you notice upon  exiting the building and walking for about 5-10 meters, that there are 3-4 young males quickly approaching you and you begin to feel a little uncomfortable with the fact that they are all staring at you and your wife as they close the distance with you. When they are approximately 20-25 feet away from you they begin to pull weapons of varying types from under their jackets and you realize that their intent is to rob or hurt you and your wife. WHAT DO YOU DO!?!?!?! The weapons can vary with the scenario but the purpose of this scenario is to get back inside the building under some form of cover and to protect your wife or other person with you at all costs.

The first thing to usually happen unless you train her otherwise is that your wife will panic and unintentionally cling to your arm, which is why it is so important that she always walk on your weak side of your body so your gun arm is free to complete your draw stroke. (it would probably be a race between me and my wife as to who can get their gun out first and as she is a better shot than me I really have to hurry to get it out and get a couple of hits before she does).

            There are several ways that you can take here and the first being you use your weak hand to grab the front of your wife’s shirt and pull her behind you while you draw and engage while simultaneously back peddling towards the door. This is the least preferred as it just makes the two of you a nice big target and rounds that hit you can still pass through with enough velocity to kill her as well. Also it is a lot of movement and many chances to trip and fall.

            The second method and more preferred is to push your wife away from you and sidestep away from her at the same time to open up distance between you and hopefully draw the attention to you and away from her (at this point she should be running back inside to get cover and call the police). As your sidestepping away you should be drawing your weapon and engaging the threats in order of the precedence of the threats imposed by their various weapons (i.e. a knife at 30 feet is not as much of a threat as a pistol or a shotgun that is closer) take the biggest threats first and shoot until you know you scored a good hit and then shift. You can always come back to re-engage the threats if you see that they were not totally incapacitated by your hit. Speed and accuracy are both very important here but accuracy is always more important. Remember that typically the bad guys will most likely try to run away once they see you are armed and ready to defend yourself, however this is not always the case. Also never stop moving once you have committed to action as a moving target causes anyone shooting at it to constantly shift their aim to hit you. It is also necessary to point out that you should be practicing drawing and shooting on the move.  

            Remember that once you commit to action there is no turning back and whether you live or die will depend on your violence of action. You never rise to the occasion you simply fall back to your level of training.

Combat Mindset and Self Defense #4

This is my 4^th installment of the posts on Combat Mindset and Self Defense. In the previous posts I have covered marksmanship, the actual definition of combat mindset as it applies to self defense, and lightly covered knowing your house from a tactical standpoint. In this post I will cover home invasions and things of importance that you will need to take into consideration when planning your home defense.

            First off when planning for home defense, I assume you have already gotten the poor idea of “This won’t EVER happen to me” out of your head. Home invasions are a fact of life now and the trend of home invasions, while the target house is occupied, is on the rise. The reason for this startling change of events is simple. Thieves have figured out that when the homeowners are home so is their wallet, checkbook, and jewelry ect. Not to mention if it is someone that is after more than your possessions, i.e. they want your wife, the best time to hit you is when you and your loved ones are at home in your comfort zone, where your guard is least active, especially after dark in the evening after you have had a nice big dinner and are lounging in your comfortable easy chair watching TV.

 There are no official home invasions statistics due to the fact that these are usually characterized under robbery, rape, assault ect. The best estimate though is that every year this variant of robbery accounts for 11% of incidents of theft that takes place in the United States. This is a startling figure as 11 out of 100 incidents of theft involve an occupied home being forcibly entered and robbed typically with weapons of some sort. Some other statistics taken from www.articlebase.com show that 1 out of every 5 homes will have a home invasion at some time.

Some of the more common ways for someone to break into your house includes posing as a delivery man, an utilities inspector, or someone looking for donations, also there is the obvious one where they just kick down your door (which is the one way that I prefer for them NOT to get into my house since I will not only have to clean up their blood from everywhere after I have shot them, I will ALSO have to fix my door which will piss me off). Here are a couple of simple ways to foil the first three methods. Have a chain on your door engaged before you open it and ask for official identification, if you are not expecting a package or an inspection call the company that they are from to verify that they are legit. Package delivery service persons are trained to show their ID upon request even to your peephole on your door or simply leave the package on your doorstep upon request. One of the major DO NOTS is for you to swing your door open all the way immediately upon hearing the knock.  Follow the above steps will have huge impacts upon your safety. If they kick down your door then you can assume that they are not there to chat or borrow a cup of sugar, so deadly force then becomes applicable if you feel your life is in danger.

Some people may call me paranoid but I have never really cared what people think, and that is why I always carry my weapon around the house with me. Every one that comes over to my house knows this and seems to be comfortable with it, and if not, well it IS my house after all. I refuse to be a victim, or have harm come to the woman I love, and in a violent home invasion there probably will not be time to grab your weapon and defend yourself, so instead of paranoid I prefer the word PREPARED. The way that I think about this is simple, how would I feel if something did happen and I wasn’t prepared and as a result my wife was hurt or even worse? I owe it to her to be as prepared as possible and if you have children then you owe it to them as well. Violence of action will carry the day in whatever precarious situation that you are in. Knowing within yourself that you have the capacity to kill to ensure the safety of yourself and your family is the singular most important thing in preparing for home defense. If you have not resolved this within yourself then the firearm that you possess will just be a liability to yourself and your family, no matter how much you train with it.