I was a 6-year-old in a war zone. It felt safer than life in the mass shooting zone called America
During the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah War, my family and I visited our friends in Kfar Vradim, a small village in northern Israel within close proximity to Lebanon where Hezbollah was situated. Throughout our visit, sirens routinely went off when a conflict broke out near the town. The alarms indicated that we needed to enter the bomb shelter.
I was petrified. I vividly recall hearing gunshots being fired from afar. It sounded as if 1,000 pistols were shot every minute.
I was a 6-year-old in a war zone. It felt far from ideal. But at least I had the bomb shelter as an escape – unlike the 12 people who were murdered and the several others who were injured in Virginia Beach 10 days ago.
Haykeen “feelz” less safe in America than in a war zone where he had to retreat to bomb shelter. He cites an incident 2,721 miles away. He never cites any instance of himself being a victim of “gun violence;” apparently the closest he got to that was a lockdown years ago, because “three presumably-armed burglary suspects were near the school.”
“subjectively unpleasant feelings of dread over anticipated events, such as the feeling of imminent death. Anxiety is not the same as fear, which is a response to a real or perceived immediate threat, whereas anxiety involves the expectation of future threat.”
Has Haykeen ever had to hit the deck due to shots fired since that Israel trip? I have; it wasn’t in America… either time.
Has he ever stared down the barrel of a gun aimed at him? I have; it wasn’t in America.
I prepare for the possibility of violence, but I don’t live in unreasonable dread.
Overall, Americans have a 0.012% chance of being a “gun violence” fatality. You can improve those odds by not considering suicide (approximately two-thirds of firearm-related fatalities). You can also improve odds by not living in a major city, or being a gang member, or being involved in the drug trade.
He appears to be a white male living in Los Angeles, CA.
2017 White Male, Homicide, Firearm; Overall 3.41/100k
Urban area: 3.49/100K (1 chance in 28653)
He can improve those odds by getting the heck out of Dodge Los Angeles.
Non-urban: 2.99 (1 chance in 33445)
Ah, but Urban Black Males: 36.06/100K (1 chance in merely 2773). Fortunately for Haykeen, he isn’t Black. And hopefully he’s avoiding certain lifestyle choices involving drugs, guns, and gangs.
If you narrow that down to Urban Black Males, age 15-30yo: 81.50/100K (1 in 1227)
Myself? For my area and age, the rate is so low that WISQARS warns not to trust it. 6 is not a good statistical universe.
Statistically, should Haykeen really be living in dread of dying by “gun violence”? Unless he knows something about himself that he didn’t share in that column, it isn’t rational. Perhaps he needs treatment; I just hope it doesn’t involve SSRIs.
[Permission to republish this article is granted so long as it is not edited and the author and The Zelman Partisans are credited.]
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This year Jerusalem Day was a quite emotional experience. Friends had urged me to read The Hope and The Glory both by the late Herman Wouk. I’ve not had much free time to read of late, and so I did something I haven’t really done before. I bought a book on, well, not tape, but a audio book. In fact, since I’ve got a mountain of work to do, I considered the books good bribe value. The Hope is the story of pre-state Israel on up to the 1967 Six Day War. I have to tell you, it is an incredibly moving experience to be listening to the battle of Jerusalem scene during the Six Day war from The Hope on Yom Yerushalyim, Jerusalem Day.
Initially Israel had not planned to recapture part of Jerusalem and reunite it. They begged Jordan to stay out of the war. But the King of Jordan was a fan of cnn and msnbc (#FakeNews) so when Camel Abdel Nasser (yes I meant to spell it like that) lied about the damage Israel’s air force inflicted on the Egyptian air force, he believed him and wanted to be a dog in the fight tearing tiny Israel to shreds.
Prime Minister Levi Eshkol sent a message to King Hussein on June 5 saying Israel would not attack Jordan unless he initiated hostilities. When Jordanian radar picked up a cluster of planes flying from Egypt to Israel, and the Egyptians convinced Hussein the planes were theirs, he ordered the takeover of the UN headquarters located near Talpiot and the shelling of West Jerusalem. Snipers were shooting at the King David Hotel and Jordanian mortars had hit the Knesset. It turned out that the planes were Israel’s and were returning from destroying the Egyptian air force on the ground.
Jordan attacked.
The fight to reclaim Jerusalem was fierce. Ammunition Hill was one of the toughest battles of the war.
Eventually Israel prevailed and it’s eternal capital was once more reunited. The Jews living in Jerusalem had been forced to flee in 1948. Yes, there were Jews living in east Jerusalem before Israel was declared a state.
Jews fleeing Jerusalem
Who can forget Motta (Mordachai) Gur’s famous pronouncement: הר הבית בידינו
Har HaBeyit B’Yadenu, the Temple Mount is in our hands. It gets me every time.
But when it comes to Israel, the world doesn’t play by the same rules they expect Israel to play by. One of the threads running through the book was the constant struggle to get arms, ammunition, tanks, planes, all the weapons a state needs to defend itself. Where Britain and other countries would sell or give arms to the arabs, pressure was put on countries not to sell any arms to the Jews. In fact, when Britain was there, the Jews had to hide their weapons, if they had any. In one part of The Hope, the character Yossi Nitzan gives a speech talking about how the Jews of Europe were defenseless. They had relied on the Goyim Police to keep them safe, and they had no weapons. He said that’s why it was so important Israel be able to defend herself, and why he was a tank commander. Darn skippy! That’ll do it.
Another one of the events the book talked about was the building of the “Burma Road” and the siege of Jerusalem. The arabs held the fort at Latrun and so controlled the road down below. They had cut off Jerusalem from food and water. Part of The Hope talked about Col. David “Mickey” Marcus. Col. Marcus went to Israel under the name of Michael Stone to help in the siege of Jerusalem. But for a period of time he went back to the US. In this film clip it talks about how the Jews had almost no weapons to fight with. Since the book recounted Colonel Marcus’s contribution, I felt like the puppy and I needed to watch Cast A Giant Shadow again. The puppy had never seen it, and what kind of derelict mother would I be?
MUSLIM VIOLENCE & POLICE RESPONSE ON THE TEMPLE MOUNT TODAYThis is a compilation of a number of short video clips taken and uploaded onto social media by Muslims on the Temple Mount today, showing scenes of Muslim violence and the Israel police response.
The Syrian army used the Golan Heights, which tower 3,000 feet above the Galilee, to shell Israeli farms and villages. Syria’s attacks grew more frequent in 1965 and 1966, forcing children living on kibbutzim in the Huleh Valley to sleep in bomb shelters. Israel repeatedly protested the Syrian bombardments to the UN Mixed Armistice Commission, which was charged with policing the cease-fire, but the UN did nothing to stop Syria’s aggression — even a mild Security Council resolution expressing “regret” for such incidents was vetoed by the Soviet Union. Meanwhile, Israel was condemned by the United Nations when it retaliated.
What other country is told to give back land it won fair and square in a war that it didn’t start? The UN also wanted to make Jerusalem a “international city”. But not allow Jerusalem to be Israel’s capital. Try that with the Germans and Berlin, or the French and Paris!
Moshe Dayan’s mistake still haunts us. Is the Temple Mount really in our hands? This year Jerusalem day came during the month of Ramadam. During Ramadan non-muslims are not allowed on the Temple Mount. But this year the Police did allow a few Jews to ascend the Temple Mount, but only on Jerusalem day. After Jerusalem day they closed it to non-muslims.
The late Rabbi Kahane points out, it isn’t really in our hands, is it?
In this day and age I also think what John Wayne’s character was saying at the end of the clip is equally true. Stand up. Stand up and be counted. In this day and age of BDS-BS and falestinians and biased news reporting. The answer is stand up.
Well, the 14th is recognized as Israeli Independence day יום העצמאות, Yom HaAtzmaut and in 1948 the 5th of Iyar was. This year it was not, this year it was the 10th of May. I was fortunate enough to be at a table in my local JCC, nope I wasn’t eating. The Shaliach (emissary from the Jewish Federation) asked if I would like to teach about Israel at Yom HaAtzmaut. Oh yes! YES!! What did he want me to teach, since I am pretty sure there are far better qualified, though perhaps not more enthusiastic. I ended up having a table with a map and some post cards from Israel dating back to the 60s and 70s, as well as some of my own photos. I have an idea for a presentation I would like to work up and have on hand for the future. I called my presentation “Israel Past and Present”. I met some very interesting people, and had a great time. I loved it, just loved it.
In my Hebrew class we learn all kinds of things, and in one lesson my teacher who grew up on a Kibbutz was teaching us a song that was in our school book. It’s called Boker Boker Ba. It means “Morning morning comes”.
It you want a real treat you can listen to this one, I think she said it was recorded on a Kibbutz. The words of the song are basically about celebrating morning coming because they were going off to work on the kibbutz, lunch was for a meal, evening was to rest and at night they assembled. She explained that they were just so glad to have land of their own, that they couldn’t wait to get up of a morning to go work it. I might mention in a kibbutz no one actually owns land, it’s owned by the kibbutz. Many of the Jews that came to Israel came from communist and socialist counties where they hadn’t been allowed to own land, and they were used to the big government where no one owns anything. It’s all property of the state. I understand the feeling. Having land that you love, that you want to work and don’t want to lose. I get it. They are the Israeli version of Scarlett O’Hara,
It’s the land Katie Scarlett, it’s the land~~Gerald O’Hara
So, according to the Falestinian lip flapper, no, not sarsour, the other one, tlaib, those Jews coming after the Holocaust are among the first Jews in Israel. Tlaib #AntisemiticLiar and omar #AntisemiticLiar seem to be having a contest as to who can spout the most outrageous lies, then claim persecuted victim status the quickest. This last week I guess it was tlaib. One of my favorite writers, Jack Engelhard has picked up on their pattern.
‘There’s always kind of a calming feeling I tell folks when I think of the Holocaust, and the tragedy of the Holocaust, and the fact that it was my ancestors, Palestinians, who lost their land and some lost their lives, their livelihood, their human dignity, their existence in many ways, have been wiped out, and some people’s passports. I mean, just all of it was in the name of trying to create a safe haven for Jews, post-the Holocaust, post-the tragedy and the horrific persecution of Jews across the world at that time, and I love the fact that it was my ancestors that provided that, right, in many ways. But they did it in a way that took their human dignity away, right, and it was forced on them.’”
The first wave, known as the “First Aliyah,” took place prior to political Zionism, in the late 1800s….
The Second Aliyah , prior to World War I, ….
After World War I and until 1923, the Third Aliyah came to Israel. …
The Fourth Aliyah, which took place over a short period of time from 1924 to 1929,….
The Fifth Aliyah coincided with the rise of Nazism in Germany and extreme nationalism across Eastern Europe
And just who were the Jews that came prior to WWII buying the land from? The Ottoman Turks. Who didn’t want to sell it to them, and made it very difficult legally for them to buy land, that did ease up later. So what were the arabs doing in Israel prior to the Jews buying the land? They didn’t own the land, they worked it for the Turks. The Ottoman census of 1875 has Jews listed as the population majority of Jerusalem, by 1905 Jews made up two thirds of the population majority of Jerusalem. This has a lot of interesting goodies.
So tlaib shoots off her ignorance, and shares her comforting feelings about the Holocaust and Republicans including President Trump are outraged. Steny Hoyer and San Fran Nancy Pelosi were outraged as well, outraged I say! At Republicans and President Trump, not tlaib, her they stood up for.
Predictably, tlaib rushed to get her “victimhood prize” happy meal.
Shall I say it again? Demoncrats are not our friends. Need I point out that the arabs collaborated with hitler? History doesn’t appear to be tlaib’s strong suit.
”President Truman, by granting immediate recognition to Israel, led the world in extending friendship and welcome to a people who have long sought and justly deserve freedom and independence.
We pledge full recognition to the State of Israel.
Yes, some arabs may have rescued Jews at different time. But I have a feeling these Jews experienced the “rescue” of tlaib’s family.
Hevron & Safed riots
There were riots in Israel in 1929, for example in Hevron (and here) and Safed. Long before 1948 when she was attacked by the five arab nations at once after Ben-Gurion declared statehood. These things were easy to pull off because the British didn’t allow the Jews to have guns. The arabs? Whatever.
Map of attack on Israel 1948
It’s not that way today. The British don’t control Israel, and the people are less helpless. Though gun control for citizens is not good and until Moshe Feiglin is Prime Minister that is not likely to change. Maybe in a couple of years.
British plaque
You may remember one of my heroes Ari Fuld was killed not long ago. His brother Hillel put out a statement that fellow writer Y.B. ben Avraham shared with me.
“It is impossible to address the problem of rampant crime without talking about the moral responsibility of the intended victim. Crime is rampant because the law-abiding, each of us, condone it, excuse it, permit it, submit to it. We permit and encourage it because we do not fight back, immediately, then and there, where it happens. Crime is not rampant because we do not have enough prisons, because judges and prosecutors are too soft, because the police are hamstrung with absurd technicalities. The defect is there, in our character. We are a nation of cowards and shirkers.”2
Jeff Snyder
“So long as assault rifles (sic) like the AR15 are legally sold in this state, so long as they are not banned, their threat to civilians will remain in every school, every mall, every movie theater, every nightclub, and in every place the public gathers.”3
Oscar Braynon, State Senate Democrat Leader, Miami Gardens, Florida.
Dressed all in black, including ski mask, he pointed a gun not hesitating to shoot me in the chest. With sounds of screaming, people scrambling to escape, and the gun shot echoing in my ears, I wondered how it had come to this. I had been a police officer trained in dynamic entry,4 hostage negotiation, and firearms but here I was, shot down in a public school. My thoughts drifted back to early morning, 3 November, 2015, where it all began.
Students had the day off but not teachers. High school administrators herded us into the Lecture Hall. What was up? We were being trained to repel attacks by terrorists and active-school “shooters” (sic). Teachers sitting around me, mostly from the English and Math departments, expressed apprehension because none had ever held let alone fired a gun. What did colleagues in my socialIST studies department think? I had no idea. Convicted of being a conservative, I was subjected to the Amish-Shun Syndrome. They sat as far from me as possible. Trainers included city police officers, teachers, and administrators trained in the latest techniques. Considering current policy was assuming the fetal position in classrooms, waiting to be saved or shot, whatever they had in store must be an improvement. Finally this large suburban school district was getting serious about fighting back. Filled with optimism, I scanned the room looking for racks of hangers festooned with body armor, boxes bulging with smoke bombs, tear gas canisters, and flash bang grenades. Maybe there were sign-up sheets for teachers to check out Glock 17s and AR15s. I called dibs on Spikes’ Tactical AR sporting a Crusader on the receiver, the last icon ammonium-nitrate reeking Islamic Jihadi terrorists would see before cashing in on the 72 virgins deal…or is it raisins?5 But I saw none of these.
Presenters not only led off with scare tactics and propaganda, they also used students to spew wanton misinformation. For example, they claimed school shootings were on a marked upswing, getting worse, and our lives were in peril. They displayed graphs and charts mounted on easels to drive the point home. For once, gabby teachers were silent. As the student sock-puppets read off alarming statistics, teacher’s brows furrowed their heads nodding in grim unison. But what the sock-puppets and teacher string-pullers were saying wasn’t even true. It was all lies.6 It stank like a truck load of fish heads spilled on a Los Angeles freeway.
“Facts” presented about the epidemic rise in school shootings came from Everytown for Gun Safety, a faux grassroots gun control organization. It’s the brainchild of and funded by liberal gun confiscationist former New York City Mayor, Michael Bloomberg.7Everytown claimed 74 school shootings had occurred since Sandy Hook, Elementary, in 2012 and this was the basis for the present state of crisis. Everyone assumed the statistic referred only to mass shootings inside schools. No one seemed aware this statistic had been exposed as bogus. Its definition of “school shootings” included “isolated arguments between students [a gun was discharged but the suspect had no intent to shoot anyone] accidents, suicides, and gang activity.” It included every incident in which a gun was discharged, accidental or not, even if no one was struck. And it included shootings occurring near, but not actually on school property, having nothing to do with the school and or its students. Worse, it included gang related shootings in Baltimore and Chicago’s inner cities, with schools nearby, dramatically ratcheting up the statistic.8 If thugs shot it out in an alleyway, or fired at a rival’s homes in a drive by, and a school was in the neighborhood, Everytown counted it as a “school shooting.” But as far as teachers were concerned, based on this statistic, there was an epidemic of “school shootings.” Is it appropriate to harness students to promote a fraud? Appalled, I began telling those around me this information was false, lies. A few looked at me but none responded. No one speaks to those upon whom the principal’s disfavor rests. Why didn’t I take the floor and address this charade of indoctrination and idiocy? Being the victim of a witch hunt (May, 2015) taught me, when they’re looking for witches, they find witches. I was on step three of a three step termination process, for being a conservative in public, and on double-secret permanent probation. As far as I knew, no one had ever been placed on permanent probation before.9 One mistake and I was fired. That pressure, and a heart attack, forced me into retirement that year. I could say nothing.
Training began with presenters passing out black cords resembling fat shoestrings. For the next quarter or an hour, maybe more, we practiced tying knots so complex they’d have given sailors fits. Fire department codes prohibit classroom doors that open inward eliminating the ability to barricade them against intruders. The solution is tying one end of the plump shoestring into a complex knot and attaching the other end to chairs and desks. The idea is, once the attacker(s) shot the lock off the flimsy door, and yanked it open, the cord would drag school furniture along with it blocking entry. Stop laughing, I’m not making this up. Even if this wasn’t an appallingly stupid idea, I wondered how panic stricken teachers would remember let alone be able to tie complex Gordian knots while Jihadis were banging away at them with AK-47s.
Hands shot up. Teachers wanted to know what they were supposed to do if bad guys defeated the knots. A tall young blonde female to my right raised her hand and suggested a solution. When the bad guy pokes his gun through the open door, grab it by the barrel and pull it out of his hands. I stopped breathing. An involuntary response. Shocking. Breathtaking. Unbelievable. Like when the news reported President Ronald Reagan had been shot. I looked around waiting for someone to explain to her why, besides becoming an instant bullet-bag, this was a terrible idea, beyond stupid. To my utter amazement no one did. Instead teachers agreed heartily it was indeed, a good idea. This from teachers who had never held and even loathed guns. My jaw dropped so far open, I was certain colleagues could hear its horrified tendons distend. My life and the lives of your kids are in the hands of shepherds such as these?
But wait, certainly those in authority, those with a modicum of common sense, would speak out against this absurdly dangerous notion of grabbing the barrel of an AK-47 trying to wrestle it away from the bad guy as it’s fired in your face. Right? Considering teachers are responsible for so many lives, this couldn’t’ be more important. Certainly the proverbial “adults in the room,” were obligated to speak up disabusing colleagues of such reckless notions. I looked at the trainers in the front of the room waiting. Some were cops. Good. They would know what to say. They remained silent. This was probably because they were composing the kindest way to tell the teacher her idea was ill advised…and nuts. Instead, several presenters actually agreed with her. Having worn the blue, I stared at the cops in the front psychically imploring them; please, step in and save us from this train wreck. They said nothing. Principals can also destroy SRO jobs.
A student high on insanity, mayhem, meds, and rage, or Islamic Jihadis fueled by violent berserker blood rage, shoves their gun through the door, or bursts into the room blasting anything that moves and twice if it doesn’t, and you’re going to run over and pull the gun from his hands!? Are you kidding me? Could it get any worse?
Hands went up again. Okay, the bad guys defeat the knots, get the door open, and we’re too far away to grab the barrel. Now what? Trainers instructed teachers to repel the attack by rushing the bad guy, throwing books and staplers to distract him, and then wrestle the gun away. Let me see if I understand this. It’s World War I and the French are huddled in trenches awaiting the German assault. Instead of letting artillery and bullets fly as they cross no-man’s land, the French wait until the Boche are upon them and then bean the Krauts with boiled beef and biscuit cans, wrestle their guns away, and kill them. Or, unarmed, rush German machine gun nests, flinging ration cans as they go, and then take the guns from the Huns. I’d call this moronic but, as the saying goes, it’d be an insult to morons. I prayed retirement came before such a tragedy.
Presenters then revealed if an attack occurred and SWAT nailed the scumbag scrote (my words) and we were no longer in any danger, we’d remain under lockdown. No one would be allowed to leave until authorities had searched and cleared every classroom, office, and nook and cranny, one by one. This would take hours. Several teachers asked what to do if students had to go potty. Presenters said, have them pee in a trash can. What about the girls, another teacher asked. Use T-shirts, sweatshirts, and jackets and hold them up around her, providing a privacy curtain, while she tinkles in the can, came the response.
When did man-hides get turned in for sheep hides? Schools could avail themselves of a voluntary cadre of armed ex-cops and military, and trained citizens. They could open up an irresistible can of whoop-a#% on bad guys taking them out before anyone had to pee in trash cans. I could barely sit still wanting to speak out against this self-inflicted victimhood and cowardice. But, step three of a three step termination process…
Next, in order to be properly trained, completion of role-playing scenarios was required. In addition to the black cords, we were given handfuls of miniature orange whiffle balls. They only had a couple left when they got to me. Teachers were assigned areas in the school where they pretended to be milling about as they would during class passing times. A signal over the PA would announce we were under attack by active “shooter(s)” (sic) and now under lockdown. We were to run to the nearest room, shut and lock the door, employ our newly mastered Houdini-defying knot tying skills, and hide in the dark, maybe peeing on our shoes, until given the all clear.
I wondered, what if the bad guys seized administrators and forced them at gun point to give the all clear? On probation, I said nothing. Once locked in the rooms, police, teacher, and administrator role players, dressed in black including ski-masks, and armed with CO2 paint ball guns, would assault our rooms. If they defeated the knots, they would shoot us. But not to worry, although each gun was loaded with a CO2 canister, there would be no paint ball. We would feel a strong “puff” from the gun. It wouldn’t hurt.
Several young female teachers near me became very emotional, visibly upset. One began to cry in fear. It took presenters several minutes to calm and talk them off the ledge. They were scared. Mortified at being shot by a puff from a paint ball gun? Are you kidding me? This was role playing. Acting. Hadn’t any of them ever played capture the flag, hide and go seek, or at least tag? If they were falling apart over the prospect of being shot by a puff of air from colleague role players, what would they do if confronted by the real deal!
I was assigned to loiter in the lobby of the junior varsity building. It’s an area forming the gaping black mall of the SocialIST Studies Department also known as Mordor. When the alarm blared, everyone stampeded toward my department supervisor’s room. This did not augur well. He called me, and anyone brave or stupid enough to associate with me, the Career Suicide Gang, with me leader for life. He and other teachers warned colleagues, especially rookies, being seen so much as speaking with me was toxic to their careers. I was radioactive and everyone should stay far away from me. This they did. For years. The isolation was so bad, I declared myself a school. I was the principal, teacher, nurse, guidance counselor, custodian, and lunch lady all rolled into one.10 Back to the story.
Everyone made a mad dash for the room. By the time I got there, last, colleagues were trying to Pontius Pilate me, shutting the door in my face. Forcing my way in, I found most teachers were hiding in the office of this former science room, whose door they had shut and locked. The remainder hid in the classroom as the knot-tiers worked their magic. With no place left to hide, I stood along the wall near the door. Defeating the knots and cords, the black-clad shouting role players burst into the room. One pointed a gun at and shot me. For a brief moment I thought I recognized the maniacal blue eyes behind his goggle lenses. Naw, couldn’t be. Was I bothered? No. Running and locking myself in a classroom isn’t what I would have done in the first place. It’s like chickens, fleeing a butcher, running and locking themselves in their coops or, fleeing a monster, a teen girl runs up to the second floor of a house and hides in a closet or under the bed. Instead, taking as many kids as possible, I’d have run down another hallway toward various doors, or up to the second floor, drop down from a window onto the breezeway, and gone. Terrorists shooting to inflict as much carnage as possible will fire into the center mass of stampeding hysterical people. They might notice a few peeling off but the economy of inflicting mass casualties as quickly as possible dictates letting them go. Hide in a room?
I got into trouble at my police academy in California while practicing nighttime vehicle stops. Coppers, role playing as bad guys, were behind the wheels of the cars trainees pulled over. Each time trainees approached the car, asking for drivers’ license and registration, the bad guys got the drop on and disarmed them. Except for me. I’m no former Force Recon Marine, Navy Seal, or a Billy Bad a*%, but every time they pulled a gun on me, I did the same, shooting back. Role players became exercised over my response. The expectation was, anyone with a gun in their face would surrender theirs and, if shot, be dead. I reacted without thinking, looking to escape and evade, fight if I must. Hey, I lived in Baltimore and Philadelphia. Back to the school active “shooter” (sic) training.
I finally learned the purpose of the miniature orange whiffle balls. They simulated the staplers and books we were to throw at bad guys in order to distract them and take away their guns. Oh brother. We ran the drill two more times and each time colleagues slammed the door in my face as if I was a Jehovah’s Witness. With ceremonial hands washed, I was Pontius Pilated each time, gunned down in the hallway. One lesson became immediately clear beyond the inevitable failure of knotted black cords keeping bad guys out of classrooms. Hysterical code red lockdown stampedes for classrooms meant not everyone would make it. Kids, your kids, would be trampled and or abandoned in halls.
Following these melees of madness, teachers reported back to the Lecture Hall for de-briefing. Presenters said, once we in our classrooms, and the doors shut and locked, under no circumstances were we to open them. Teachers asked, suppose a kid, for whatever reason, was slow to get to a classroom and the door already shut and locked. Can we let them in? No. Don’t open it, came the curt reply. A bad guy could be holding a gun to a kid’s head directing him or her,11 to say the coast was clear. An older teacher, whose daughter was in one of my classes, became upset voicing her opposition to this policy. She was certain her daughter, for physical reasons, wouldn’t make it in time. Trainers wouldn’t budge on this policy. I whispered to her that, no matter what, I’d make sure she was safe.
Instead of orange whiffle balls, staplers, and books, wouldn’t it make more sense to arm the appropriately qualified teachers with Glocks? For the idiots who keep lying claiming school districts want to arm “all” teachers, no one ever suggested that. No one. Suggestions have been made to arm those motivated to go through the extensive training in order to qualify. An “informal” poll suggested, out of 200 teachers, maybe 3 or 4 at my school might be willing. But the point is moot. Tremulous districts that teach the best course of action when faced by a grave threat is to curl up in a ball and hide, aren’t about to allow armed teachers, even if in so doing, lives are saved. Political correctness and the liberal’s masculinity drain will not allow it. No one had the moral courage to call out the district’s plan for the hollow feel good sham that it was.
The post Hide and Cower in Place debriefing filled me with equal measures of chagrin and a sense of doom. Teachers, especially those so fearful of the hide-and-go-see game we played, expressed relief saying they felt much better now that we’d been “trained” to fight back. They no longer needed to fear a terrorist/active “shooter” assault on the school. Armed with magical cords, trained to throw books and staplers at bad guys and grab guns away from them, they felt “empowered” to defeat bad guys. Unarmed. I was sick to my stomach. Isn’t it irresponsible, even negligent, to train people for life and death situations with strategies that will get them killed? Isn’t it equally irresponsible filling their heads with an extremely dangerous false sense of security? People who believe they have the answers, don’t search for more. When did Americans, especially men, genetically wired to protect families and the vulnerable against harm, become such Henny Penny’s? When did the idea of fighting back become a notion impossible to consider?
Within a week of training, an assistant principal sent an email asking teachers to report any unsecured aspect of their classroom so it could be fixed. Teaching in a bunker-like room with no windows, I was also blessed with two doors, one of which did not lock. I promptly reported this. Several weeks passed in which I received no response to my email nor was the door fixed. Students aware of the unsecured door became upset so I sent a second email in November, 2015. It still had not been fixed when I walked out the door for the last time in May, 2016. Stay tuned. More tales from the files of the CSG to come.
99 I taught Advanced studies American history. At the time, we used two books, Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle, and Steinbeck’s, The Grapes of Wrath. It was easy to recognize that both books pushed a very socialist to communist perspective. Colleagues taught the novels as fact. I contacted the Ayn Rand Institute. I procured a deal wherein the Institute would provide students editions of Atlas Shrugged and teacher’s guides, free. I presented it to my Advanced Studies colleagues, who rejected it even though it would cost the school nothing.A parade of teachers (his words) had gone to the principal demanding I be disciplined and or fired. He called me in, accused me of being a conservative, said the two novels were necessary to teach kids about socialism, and angrily dismissed me from his office. Subsequently, I was demoted by the principal from Advanced Studies to teaching Regular Education American history. I remained part of the American history test writing team. We designed a standardized common test to be used by both Advanced and Regular Education American history teachers. When the young team leader, hand-picked by the principal, asked my opinion about the test questions, I demurred. I didn’t want to be accused of being controversial or non-collegial, for which I had already been written up, step one of a three step termination process. She insisted I share my concerns. I responded it sounded like the test was almost set and I had no problem taking it up the following school year. Again, she insisted I voice my concerns. Because I compose thoughts better in writing than verbally, I asked if I could forward my concerns in an email. She said that would be fine. This I did, because, like anyone else, I make stupid decisions. I pointed out some questions reflected a liberal bias and were historically inaccurate. They mirrored the point of view promoted by the two novels, asking for factual responses based on fictional material. When I was still an Advanced Studies teachers, I had contacted history professors asking them if my conclusions about bias and historical inaccuracies in the two novels was correct. They said “yes.” I reluctantly submitted my concerns, being as respectful as possible…and then she, at the urging of liberal colleagues, promptly ran to the principal with them. I asked her why she had done that. She said my concerns were over her head so she had no choice. He was furious. After school he came unannounced to my room, slammed and locked the door, and proceeded to shout in my face and pound his hand on my desk. He yelled he had been a good social studies teacher (there was no context for this rage filled comment), and accused me of attacking the team leader. I told him he was wrong. My son attended a school in a different district and the team leader’s sister taught at that school. During Back to School Night, I approached and told her what a great teacher and team leader her sister was at my school. I had gone overboard in being careful in phrasing my concerns. He yelled this was only to mask my passive-aggressive behavior! He told me were “through” and he was “finished” with me. He stormed out of the room and then we went on Thanksgiving Break ruined by worry over what would happen. When I returned, he wrote me up for alleged conservative bias not being “collegial,” and for using too many free market sources in my class (I counted, this was a lie). Step One of the Three Step Termination Process. I was also suspected of being a “Libertarian,” and from that point on would have to turn in every assignment, homework, quiz, test, and all materials to him to scan for conservative bias. And what I said in class? No sweat, socialIST studies colleagues had already been hiding outside my room listening, (students told me so and I caught them), and liberal teachers questioned mutual students over what I said in class. And they pawed through every article, hand out, and assignment I turned into the copy clerk for copies (she told me). Less than two years later, I was demoted again. Don’t tell me about tenure. I was in my 21stth year.
1010 This list is not intended to represent a hierarchy. I spent much more time talking with custodians and lunch ladies than I ever did colleagues and administrators…once the shunning began. I never had to worry about walking away from conversations with them and having to check my back for a knife.
1111 Yes, Virginia, there are only two sexes. Gender refers to the masculinity/femininity of words, not people.
The first Holocaust Remembrance Day in Israel took place on December 28, 1949, following a decision of the Chief Rabbinate of Israel that an annual memorial should take place on the Tenth of Tevet, a traditional day of mourning and fasting in the Hebrew calendar. The day was marked by the burial in a Jerusalem cemetery of ashes and bones of thousands of Jews brought from the Flossenbürg concentration camp and religious ceremonies held in honor of the victims. A radio program on the Holocaust was broadcast that evening. The following year, in December 1950, the Rabbinate, organizations of former European Jewish communities and the Israel Defense Forces held memorial ceremonies around the country; they mostly involved funerals, in which objects such as desecrated Torah scrolls and the bones and ashes of the dead brought from Europe were interred.
In 1951, the Knesset began deliberations to choose a date for Holocaust Remembrance Day. On April 12, 1951, after also considering as possibilities the Tenth of Tevet, the 14th of Nisan, which is the day before Passover and the day on which the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising (April 19, 1943) had begun, and September 1, the date on which the Second World War had begun, the Knesset passed a resolution establishing the 27 Nisan in the Hebrew calendar, a week after Passover, and eight days before Israel Independence Day as the annual Holocaust and Ghetto Uprising Remembrance Day
As it is not that long past Pesach, Shimshon my puppy and I recently watched the movie The Ten Commandments starring Charlton Heston. For a few reasons I wanted to see this movie again. It really is still an amazing movie. In an age of Star Wars effects, the Ten Commandments special effects still awe me. But in the substance department, well, there is no comparison. What I do not remember ever seeing though was the opening.
And I think that is a question well worth considering in this day and age. Will we be ruled by G-d’s laws or the whims of a dictator? There are many in this divided country that very much want to see a President elected by the people deposed through any means, but all of them foul. They want power, and they planned to rule over us and his election upset their apple cart. Those forces have much help from the media, the useful idiots like #MoneyHogg and they will push their agenda of socialism and communism at all costs.
“According to reports that have come from the entire breadth of the Soviet Union … central Russia, White Russia, Ukraine, Volhynia, the Caucasus, Bukhara, Georgia, Dagestan, the Donetsk Basin—flour for matzah cannot be found,” he wrote. “ … This year marks a new era in the lives of the Jews of Russia, a bitter era, one that has not occurred since the beginning of this deluge of suffering and troubles—G‑d should have mercy—and at this time the question of kimcha dePischa [“flour for Passover”] is a burning question.”
The Soviet grain shortage was not unintended. In a process that began slowly in 1925 and now, at the end of 1928, was picking up steam, Joseph Stalin was forcing through his national collectivization campaign and introducing his first Five-Year Plan for the economy. Farmers and peasants who had worked the land and fed Russia for generations were being forced into state-run collectives, with countless arrested, exiled or executed for resisting or to make an example for others. Productivity inevitably plummeted, bringing about food shortages, but it was not an accident.
“Coercion was the only way to attain wholesale collectivization,” writes historian Stephen Kotkin about Stalin’s position, which he took as a believing Marxist-Leninist. “The extreme violence and dislocation would appall many Communists. But Stalin and his loyalists replied that critics wanted to make an omelet without breaking eggs.”
You can hear #LipstickLenin (Alexandra Occasional-Cortez) or “Feel the Bern” millionaire Sanders saying that way all in the past, it just wasn’t perfected yet. It was in infancy.
Let’s take a look at what a reporter from MSNBC let slip. I have no idea if he still has a job or not.
While covering Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro’s efforts to hold power, MSNBC reporter Kerry Sanders noted Maduro has the advantage of guns against an unarmed populace.
The MSBNC segment, published by The Washington Free Beacon, begins with anchor Andrea Mitchell expressing surprise that Maduro is still holding on.
Sanders responds, “Not only hanging on, but he appears to still control the military. You have to understand in Venezuela, gun ownership is not something that is open to everybody. So if the military have the guns, they have the power.”
Sanders adds, “So as long as Nicolás Maduro controls the military, he controls the country.
The average citizen of Venezuela lost around 19 lbs in 2017 and 24 lbs in 2018 I believe is what I heard.
Food, it’s such a great way to control a populace. Cow farts must be eliminated or the earth will self destruct in 10 or 12 years. Depending on if it’s Lipstick Lenin or Bozo O’Rear. Demonize food, demonize those that produce it, and how they do so, and then regulate them into starvation production.
Ruled by the whims of a dictator the citizens are reduced to attacking by hand and Molotov cocktails if the supplies can be procured. They are attacked and literally run over by the dictators troops and tanks.
Ari Fuld HY”D pointed out in a 2016 radio broadcast that “Never Again” doesn’t mean anything. Because “diplomacy” triumphs over “decency and morality”. How many countries signed peace treaties with hitler? How many dead Jews since Oslo was signed? More than in all the years before it. Not even the US would bomb the train tracks into Auschwitz. People place diplomacy above morality and doing the right thing. But you can hear the whole podcast. Fools who want peace but get war.
In these days of anti-semitic cartoons and condemnation of Israel by left-wingers of all strips, countries and religions I found Moshe Feiglin of Zehut’s Yom HaShoah post very very powerful and moving. Ari pointed out how many Jews tried to reach the safety of Israel in those horrible days before and during the holocaust only to be turned away by the British. They were sent back to be murdered by the nazis. Israel, their home, the home that had lived in their hearts and the desire of their souls to return there always burned through every generation. It’s part of our identity. Here is his post translated into English.
The Holocaust is threatening us with our Jewish identity.
In the wagons to Auschwitz, the complete assimilationists from the west were crowded together with the ultra-Orthodox from the east.
When the doors opened to the smoke rising from the chimney, they realized that the decorations of heroism from the First World War would no longer benefit the civilian identity they had adopted –
And these – because here prayers and mitzvot will no longer benefit, will not be religious identity.
They took their names from them and turned them into numbers, took the family, the honor, the clothes, the hair, the human image.
In the gas chambers, devoid of any other identity, there was only one, final, absolute and unifying – like death alone, Jewish identity.
Germany, where we lived in that “gun-free” (except for the special friends) utopia where we died at the dictator’s whims.
The last two days of Pesach are observed as the first two, in that they are holidays. This means I’m not on the computer, and I’m not listening to the radio. On Shabbat I don’t anyway. On Shabbat I’m where I’m suppose to be, in Beit Knesset, Shul, my place of meeting and prayer. I’m learning, I learn from my Rabbi and from the other people there that I have grown to care about very much. I have a huge sense of gratitude every single time I walk in, whether it is for Shabbat or a class I’m taking. I learn about
G-d, his love for me, for us, and his direction manual for us to grow in our relationship with him, how he wants us to live our lives, and how to live in peace with each other. And every time I go, I realize how much more I have to learn.
So it was late Saturday evening when I logged onto my computer and saw my first notification of the shooting at another Chabad in Poway Kalifornia. Before I could read the details my mind had already flipped back to the attack at the Chabad house in Mumbai India in November 2008. Mercifully, this was not that. The song that Y.B. had me post, Vehi She Amda is part of the Pesach seder, it’s a song I love, and most days I sing it because I love it that much. I love what it says.
This attacker was a 19 year old “Bucket O’Chum” who was in nursing school. And if that doesn’t scare you, it should. He self identifies as a 19 year old Kalifornia native and a nursing student. ‘I’m just a normal dude who wanted to have a family, help and heal people, and play piano.’ He also self identifies as a human being. I would disagree with that. Around 1130 on Shabbat during the service “Chum” walked in and began shooting any and all he could. There was a family there that have moved from Israel a few years before after the rockets fired from the “Two-state solution” known as Gaza had hit their home more than once. They had lived in Sderot. Another family member visiting from Sderot managed to save his nieces and a neighbor girl despite being wounded in the leg. Little Noya was wounded by shrapnel, and her hero uncle was hit in the leg. Both will survive. He also intended to kill Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein, and although the Rabbi required surgery on both hands, and I believe lost a finger he is alive. He is alive because of his longtime friend and Chabad attendee Lori Gilbert-Kaye, 60. Lori flung herself between the killer and the Rabbi. A doctor began to perform CPR on her, when he realized it was his wife, he fainted. I can not even begin to imagine. As the Rabbi was wheeled into surgery he kept saying to let everyone know Lori saved his life.
Chum entered Chabad with a rifle, does what kind really matter? He was wearing a green vest and a helmet. He planned to stay awhile. Which might give rise to the question why is only one person dead. And in asking that, I do not mean to imply one is not significant. It is, it is one too many. From all I’ve read Lori was amazing, and it is a very significant loss not only to her family but the community as well. But you would have expected a higher death toll with the amount of preparations he seemed to have made. I have a couple of answers.
During the shooting, a brave off-duty border patrol agent, who was working as private security for the synagogue, fired at the shooter and chased him. Other members of the synagogue, who carried licensed concealed weapons, also went after him. Miraculously the killers’ gun jammed and he ran off. The heroes and G-d hand prevented the killer from claiming more lives.
The fact that there were armed congregants there and they went after him is not something I’ve seen brought out much.
And because to the left, one dead Jew isn’t enough, there is a list of the predictable responses of the usual victim disarmament crowd including Duke Nukem and Kamala Harris, who by the way, has her own gun and carry permit. Because you see that’s how elitism works. My life and family are valuable, yours aren’t. Like obamacare, we will legislate laws affecting your and your family’s life, but we will exempt ourselves from those laws. A small list is included in the “Anti-Gunner Call for Gun Control” link above. The killer ran off partly because armed members and the off duty Border Patrol agent came after him. The agent firing four shots at his car. So we can’t have armed citizens stopping a slaughter, correct progressives?
The left and its comrades in the mainstream media have taken the Jewish vote for granted for years. Jews are one of the most reliable constituencies of the Democratic Party. A CNN poll last fall found that nearly 80 percent of Jews voted Democratic in the midterm elections. Only 17 percent voted Republican. Yet anti-Semitism on the left in the U.S. has increased recently, including in the media.
And speaking of the media, and all the news that’s fit to lie about, The New York Slimes #FakeNews is becoming more brazen in their antisemitism having recently published a cartoon of President Trump, blind and wearing a kippah being led by a dog with a Magan David collar and Benjamin Netanyahu’s face. They finally removed it after a large outcry. Know what I find somewhat interesting? I’ve yet to see the name of the “cartoonist”. If it was a conservative that had done such a thing, their name, picture and family history back to the Mayflower would be all over the net by now. Say, where’s Omar Barghouti about now? Did the Slimes hire him?
Like Tarrant in his own writings, the manifesto author states that his end goal is to prompt the U.S. government to begin confiscating guns, predicting that a civil war will ensue. The author said he had been planning the attack for four weeks.
Obviously a Duke Nukem supporter.
As long as we don’t look at this honestly, as long as people continue to embrace the big government control of citizens offered by people like #LipstickLenin-Cortez, this will continue. Because excuses are being made for the left, to more easily blame the right.
I admit, I’m having a very hard time with this. I’m trying to understand and make some sense of it. I know I need to work towards something a Rabbi I very much admire wrote,
The solution therefore is to a. Love!
b. a practical mechanism which has helped many is the implementing of the sage advice of the Jewish masters, such as:
1. When you wake up in the morning (as the first thought influences the rest of the day) Express Gratitude (and as research shows, gratitude culminates in hope and happiness)
2. Forgive nightly (yes, before you go to bed – the first part of our bedtime prayers is: we forgive everyone.)
When those that hate and come to kill are met with that kind of a response (without the naughty words) from a hard target things will change. I believe and understand there is a purpose to everything in G-d’s world, but I want to see beautiful souls like Lori Gilbert-Kaye around for a long time, to mentor other women, and continue making the world more beautiful. I want to see people like Almog Peretz who saved the children have a beautiful visit and only happy memories of his Pesach in America. We are not cowards, look at Lori and Almog’s responses. What courage! Which is good, because it’s going to take courage, clarity, wisdom and honesty to admit what the left is offering is not our friend.
For now, all I know to do is pray for healing. And that more places of worship will begin to consider armed security among their attendees.
Years ago in a galaxy far far away, I served on the board of a couple of Second Amendment groups. One of them very much a grassroots group and it was very active in the legislative process and citizen lobbying. Contrary to what people are sometimes lead to think, “lobbyist” is not a dirty word, or a bad thing. Many people have jobs, employers seem to expect that their employees will be at those jobs. So, when there is legislation that matters to gun owners be it a bill to expand gun rights or a bill proposing further infringement of a law-abiding citizens rights with yet another gun control scam disguised as “gun safety” it would seem fair that the law-abiding citizen should also have their voice heard. Ahh, the conundrum. What is the law-abiding citizen to do? They have a job, but they also have rights that need to be defended. Well, the Second Amendment groups in the state went together and hired a lobbyist to be present at the hearings and speak on behalf of the voters that held opinions most firm about further infringement of their G-d given rights, namely self-defense. From time to time the lobbyist would be accompanied to these hearings by the leadership of the Second Amendment rights groups, and I was privileged to be one of those. A citizen lobbyist, who also happened to represent a passel of voters. I had the high heels and a sparkly barrette. I considered these vital, but not as vital as a couple of other things I possessed. A mission, and resolve. I enjoyed this mission, legislators can be quite tasty if bar-b-qued with BBQ sauce. /snark, remember, I’m a vegetarian.
It’s been a while since I’ve attended a rally day. In my state there has been a Second Amendment day at the Capitol for years. Usually towards the end of the season, and usually there is a major bill or two we are wanting big time bad, or a big time bad bill we want to see die an inglorious death. I started going back before my state had concealed carry, the lobby was packed full that day, it was standing room only. For years I went every year, even spoke at a couple of them. The last few years I haven’t made it, for various and sundry reasons. But I’ve made it the last couple of years, and this year was just grand.
I did the hike from the parking lot to the capitol and entered the door to the meeting area. The police were there with the airport style scanning machine. I was met by a young police officer when I placed my purse on the table. He regarded my purse dubiously.
Sir: “Ma’am, are you lawfully carrying concealed?”
Me: Yup
Sir: “I’m going to need a driver’s license and a concealed carry card”.
Me: You are an officer of the law, you should already have these credentials.
After a second for my brain to catch up with my mouth, I grinned at him and said, I’ve got to get them out of my purse, ok?
Sir: “Yep, I have a concealed carry. My friends ask me why I bother and I tell them because it’s the right thing to do.”
Me: I like you, I like the way you think.
He regards the depths of my purse skeptically after he studys my cards.
Sir: “Do you carry in your purse?”
Me: Nope.
Sir: “Good, I worry that if a purse was stolen you’ve now lost your defensive tools.”
Me: Oh I do like you, nope, no purse carry.
Sir: “Which side are you carrying on?”
I answer him, and he tells me after I set off the machine the officer at the other end will wand me. I go through, set off the machine get wanded and I’m good to go. I thank them both for what they do.
I went in, said hi to a lobbyist I’ve worked with, sat with some dear people that I haven’t seen for awhile and listened to some great speakers. The MC is well known in the Second Amendment arena as the guy that wrote the book on gun laws. Which is fair enough, he did write the book on gun laws.
It was interesting, the speakers were great, acoustics are always challenging in that room, but still it was good. Two floors up there was some sort of school event going on. A bunch of school children, I’m guessing pre-teen, or early teens must have disapproved of us being allowed to speak in public. When one of the speakers would start to speak, they would start yelling trying to drown out the speaker. Think there is much indoctrination going on in the tax payer funded schools? I’m telling you, Zehut has the right idea, school vouchers for everyone.
After rally we all split up to go speak with our legislators about the bills we want passed, and I also wanted to mention my extreme aversion to “Guilty until proven innocent” Red Flag gun confiscation. I had mentioned my aversion to my former lobbyist mentor and he said while of course the misogynistic mad mommies are pushing for it, it hasn’t gained traction. Good to hear. I don’t know why mad mommies hate women so much that they want to deprive them of a tool that even elderly women can use to equalize the situation, but they do.
Our MC ended the rally with his trademark line, “It’s a good day for liberty”. He always opened his monthly column with that line. And it was a good day for liberty, every day is a good day for liberty. But we must fight for it, there are forces that will not be happy until they have all the power they want, and as long as there are armed citizens, they know that won’t happen. They use whatever tactics they think will work, whether it is going after politicians sympathetic to us with blatant lies and accusations that their allies in the mainstream media help them spread or lies about “ghost guns” or citizens that defended themselves. Be it vote fraud or illegal immigrants voting, they will use it.
We must remain strong in our convictions and our determination. Where the room was packed a few years ago when we wanted, demanded, concealed carry it was now not as full. Attendance was good, but it needs to be bigger. I saw one old friend, he and his young son were there. This man and his wife want their children to learn about freedom and the legislative process and how the two go together. Those kids have been citizen lobbyists since they were probably 4 or 5 years old. Maybe even younger. The legislators sit up and take notice when large groups of people have taken the day off work and showed up to demand their rights be honored. G-d gives rights, legislators recognize or infringe on them.
My lobbying mission finished, I headed for the exit for the drive home. As I walked by the door to the exit I passed the door you enter, Sir and his partner were still there checking people, I smiled and waved at them and said thank you, they both smiled and waved back. It never hurts for the Second Amendment people to be the nice polite friendly ones.
So if you have a chance, and your state has a rally day yearly, go. See friends, network, make friends, talk to your legislative critters. Don’t let bloombergs paid harpies be the only voice being heard at your capitol.
Tonight starts Pesach, Passover. We each leave our own slavery in Egypt behind. I believe it is a constant process, sometimes easier, sometimes harder. But I don’t want to be one of the Jews that chose to stay behind in Egypt rather than face the unknown. I believe that G-d does want freedom for us. This year is a very meaningful Pesach for me, and I hope that you all will have a very blessed holiday as well. Thank you for being with us, The Zelman Partisans as we travel this path together.
Leaving Egypt and slavery
My friend used the line “It’s a good day for liberty” to open his columns, I wrote him and told him I was poaching it for a column. He wrote back fried, poached or boiled, if it’s for the cause it should be used.
I always ride for the brand and I always ended my columns with my own sign off.
I have a girlfriend that recently got a e-mail at her job. She works in a very safe, secure building and profession. It’s a gun-free zone. It’s a two story building with lots of great nooks, crannies and places where people could hide. But hey, they do have a armed security guard. One.
She recently got a email talking about the shooting of a healthcare worker in another state and urging people to keep their eyes open, be aware and take the deescalation classes offered. Oh, well, at least there is a sound plan in place. And there is a plan in place. If they can get to a phone, they can have a page sent out warning and letting security know where the problem is. Then everyone is to hide in place and try to protect their patients.
Officials say within minutes the suspected gunman was in custody. The hospital immediately issued a code silver and locked down the hospital as law enforcement went door to door to ensure the safety of all patients.
Hospital President Charles Williams gave a statement
“As you can imagine…It’s difficult,” Williams said. “Whenever you have someone of your family, we’re family here it’s tough”
Well, I’m sure that is reassuring to the healthcare worker and their family. Might have given them more of a feeling of warm fuzzy if your facility actually made some policy change that didn’t designate them to being a fish in a barrel wearing the proper color of scrubs. FYI, many hospitals have gone to color coding employees. All nursing wears only X color of scrubs, all lab wears only Y color of scrubs, X-ray wears only Z color of scrubs. Most patients don’t seem to realize what it means, but the hospital feels like it’s “done something” from what I heard.
SC hospital security conversation revived after 2 shootings in 2 days. They are discussing making enhanced penalties for attacks against healthcare workers. That was removed as part of sentencing reform in 2010. I’m sure that schizophrenic, or meth head, or pissed off drunk, abusive but “loving” father who just almost killed his toddler, vengeful ex-louse spouse, upset family member will certainly be deterred by increased penalties. That will no doubt stop them cold. I’m not saying they don’t make sense, they do.
But S.C. Hospital Association spokesman Schipp Ames argues health care facilities are a different working environment than anywhere else.
“They’re open to patients and visitors. We have open facilities people can come in and out of. We have sensitive actions with people,” he said. “Why are we not treating them differently?”
The idea, Ames said, is to put enhanced penalties in hospitals that would establish them as designated safe zones.
I’m saying they won’t make a bit of difference. And, I think there is another element that either isn’t being reported yet, or experienced in the US to the degree it has been in Europistan and Englandistan.
The female anaesthetist said the German health service has been completely overwhelmed by the influx of Muslim asylum-seekers who are REFUSING to be treated by female medics. …
She also claimed huge numbers of the asylum-seekers have Victorian diseases including TB, which they risk passing on to locals. …
The doctor, who wished to remain anonymous, wrote to the press back home in the Czech Republic to express her shock at the “unsustainable” situation which she says is now affecting the medical care received by taxpaying Germans. She said: “Clinics cannot handle emergencies, so they are starting to send everything to the hospitals….
“Since last weekend, migrants going to the hospitals must be accompanied by police with K-9 units….
“They abandon the children with pharmacy staff with the words: ‘So, cure them here yourselves!’ So the police are not just guarding the clinics and hospitals, but also large pharmacies.”…
In one shocking incident medic also claimed how migrants STABBED the doctors who tried to save a tiny eight-month-old baby which had been “dragged across half of Europe for three months”.
She said: “The child died in two days, despite having received top care at one of the best pediatric clinics in Germany.
“The physician had to undergo surgery and two nurses are laid up in the ICU. Nobody has been punished.
“The local press is forbidden to write about it, so we know about it through email.
“What would have happened to a German if he had stabbed a doctor and nurses with a knife?
But, lest you think that it’s only the stress of being ill or having a sick family member that brings this out.
Then in Multi-cultural Swedenistan there was the 2016 murder of Alexandra Mezher. The Swedes sent a stern message of warning to any other “refugees” that might thing about doing anything like that in the future.
In August, 2016 he was sentenced to psychiatric care, ordered to pay SEK 300,000 in compensation to Mehzer’s family. If discharged he will also be deported and forbidden from returning to Sweden until 2026. After appeal, the court of appeal upheld the sentence, except extending the deportation until 2031.
Yep, he’d be allowed to return. It’s sort of like the laws making attacking a healthcare worker stiffer. Pointless, but we “did something”.
But it’s not just healthcare clinics and hospitals that feel their employees are a dime a dozen and easily replaceable, despite their being “family” and all.
We’ve all read the stories of Pizza drivers, Uber and Lyft drivers that are expected to be easy targets or face the wrath of their employers.
A pizza deliveryman won’t face charges for fatally shooting a would-be robber several times when he was approached in a high-crime area, but his employer, Pizza Hut, has fired him for violating a company policy against carrying firearms.
“We’re doing all that we can to help him with the transition,” Pizza Hut spokesperson Chris Fuller told the Des Moines Register. The driver, James William Spiers III, was offered two months pay (without tips, naturally) and counseling in exchange for his resignation.
A pizza delivery driver who shot and killed a man who stabbed him during an attempted robbery in Beaver Falls has been fired from his job.
Full disclosure here, I haven’t eaten at a PepsiCo owned joint in years since I found out about their anti-Second Amendment stance. No Taco Smell, No KFC, No Pizza Hut, etc.
But it’s not just pizza delivery drivers that are sitting targets.
Law enforcement sources tell the Problem Solvers surveillance video shows a 14-year-old suspect sticking a gun in the face of the clerk. Moments later the clerk, who has a conceal carry permit, took out his own gun and fired once, hitting the suspect in his stomach.
Nor is it just using a gun that will get you fired.
Do these companies have a right to determine their policies? Certainly. Do they have a right to make a condition of employment that you forfeit your life willingly if attacked a condition of you working for them. Well, I suppose they do. But are those companies and institutions that do this being honest about it? No, no they aren’t. If they were the employment contract would read something along the lines of
In case of emergency, such as being attacked whether by animal or human beast we expect you to willingly leave your spouse alone to raise your children, or in the case of a single parent to leave your children orphans. We expect you to willingly leave your elderly parents grieving the loss of their child and without someone to look after them in their “golden years”. Under no circumstances, and in no way are you to fight back or attempt to preserve your life, or the life of your co-workers or those you take care of, be it school children or patients. But, we will give you two weeks paid vacation, five days of sick time and a mediocre heath-care plan and you can join our credit union.
Naturally the benefits offered would be institution or company specific, but you get the idea.
So, why would it be this way. I suspect it is for the same reasons business have been told by their insurance companies they have to be “gun-free” zones for their insurance. I recently read something that just ticked me right off.
I have been told that many employers ban carry by their employees because they’ve been told that it is less costly to let workers compensation pay for injury or death of the employee than to deal with a lawsuit from someone the employee felt forced to shoot.
All this is because insurance companies want the cheapest way out. Your lives don’t matter to them, your spouse, parents and children don’t matter to them. Remember, the insurance companies supported obamacare.
There are many times I long for a “gun-free zone” liability act. This is one of those time. It’s not that I don’t support the right of a business to make their own policies, I do. I had a conversation with a jeweler one time after I started patronizing his business. At one time he was posted “gun-free” and I wouldn’t go in there. When I noticed the sign was down, I went in to look for a watch band and asked him about it. He said he supported the Second Amendment, he had his CCW and carried, but his insurance company told him he had to do it if he wanted insurance. So how is that giving business owners the right to make their own policies?
Life is precious, even in tough times it can be sweet, there can be good, there can be blessings if we are open to seeing them. That it can be sold out so cheaply by an entity with a bias against it’s preservation by use of an effective tool is just wrong. And it’s evil. That so many young people have been indoctrinated to believe “violence is never the answer” is wrong and evil. Sometimes violence is not only the best answer, it’s the only answer. Because life does matter, don’t ever sell it cheap.
It’s an Opioid epidemic. You hear it all over the news. I read articles about it in my Farm Bureau magazine, it seems to be the “deadly German Shepherd/Doberman/Pit Bull” stories of the day. I’m so old I can remember how different decades had their designated “deadly dog” breed. Which of course is utter bull. Of any breed.
But this Opioid epidemic is so bad, it even has it’s own Wiki entry (/snark). What do we learn?
The worry surrounding the potential of a worldwide pandemic has affected opioid accessibility in countries around the world. Approximately 25.5 million people per year, including 2.5 million children, die without pain relief worldwide, with many of these cases occurring in low and middle-income countries. The current disparity in accessibility to pain relief in various countries is significant; the U.S. produces or imports 30 times as much pain relief medication as it needs while low-income countries such as Nigeria receive less than 0.2% of what they need, and 90% of all the morphine in the world is used by the world’s richest 10%.America’s opioid epidemic has resulted in an “opiophobia” that is stirring conversations among some Western legislators and philanthropists about adopting a “war on drugs rhetoric” to oppose the idea of increasing opioid accessibility in other countries, in fear of starting similar opioid epidemics abroad
Well, clearly something must be done. The government must step in. I know, more snark.
Which has led to many states passing “Prescription Drug Monitoring Program” PDMP. The government given reason is to catch people doctor shopping. The government, in addition to your doctor, feels they need to be aware of every prescription you are given. It will no doubt stop this current epidemic.
In 2016, the medical news site STAT reported that while Mexican cartels are the main source of heroin smuggled into the U.S., Chinese suppliers provide both raw fentanyl and the machinery necessary for its production. In British Columbia, police discovered a lab making 100,000 fentanyl pills each month, which they were shipping to Calgary, Alberta. 90 people in Calgary overdosed on the drug in 2015. In Southern California, a home-operated drug lab with six pill presses was uncovered by federal agents; each machine was capable of producing thousands of pills an hour.
Or not.
So what is the real reason for this intrusive action? Well, I could let Missouri’s Rep. Lynn Morris tell you about it, he’s all in favor of it.
Seems to me like this will mostly prevent people from going to their doctor and getting help when they need it. Depressed? Don’t go to the doctor, or don’t tell them. Want to quit smoking using Wellbutrin like your neighbor did? Not any more. Why not? Because those too, are medications that obama listed as being medications that should deny someone the right to own a gun. The data in the PDMP will of course be shared with other states. And of course it’s going to wind up in the federal government’s hands. I don’t care what they tell you. For example, Missouri has a law that the data obtained to get a driver’s license, for example you had to supply a copy of your birth certificate, was not suppose to leave the state. When Jay Nixon-Demoncrat was governor he betrayed the people of Missouri and turned over the data to MorphoTrust. Most assuredly not in Missouri. And then he lied publicly many times about doing it. They’re politicians, they lie. I’ve met a few honest ones, but so far Moshe Feiglin of Zehut, while on track to enter the Knesset in the next round of elections has still so far refused to come to America and enter the political arena.
But if the medical field is to be the arbiter of what is good, acceptable, legal, and kept private I would wonder how they handle other situations where they have that much power over people’s lives. I mean denying someone their G-d given and Constitutionally guaranteed rights is a pretty big thing. So, how do they acquit themselves?
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has placed gun restrictions on thousands of veterans without due process, and Congress needs to address the matter. It is quite ironic that under VA policy, the men and women who protected our nation in the armed forces are effectively becoming disarmed by unaccountable government employees.
Justina’s plight had become international news in Marty’s backyard. One fateful winter day in February 2013, Justina traveled with her mom to BCH from her West Hartford, Conn., home, seeking relief from a severe case of the flu. Ordinary sickness compounded Justina’s rare medical conditions, including mitochondrial disease and postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome. But those illnesses hadn’t stopped her from participating in school, competitive ice skating, and an active family life.
Instead of receiving top-notch care and attention at BCH, however, Justina was snatched from her parents and recklessly rediagnosed with a psychological condition, “somatoform disorder.” She was dragged from BCH’s neurology department to its infamous psych ward, where she was reprimanded for being unable to move her bowels or walk unassisted in her weakened state. At Wayside, she was harassed by a staffer while taking a shower. The physical and mental torture lasted 16 months.
The family is now suing the gold-medallion-adorned, scandal-plagued Boston Children’s Hospital.
It has been more than 4 years since the most infamous case of medical kidnapping in the United States occurred when the state of Massachusetts, together with Boston Children’s Hospital, seized custody of then 14-year-old Justina Pelletier over a medical disagreement.
The story exploded across mainstream and international media after her father Lou Pelletier courageously defied an unconstitutional gag order and risked prison to tell his family’s story. With heavy hitters in the national media like Glenn Beck, Mike Huckabee and Dr. Phil giving them exposure, as well as an army of advocates by their side, it still took 16 months to get their daughter home.
Justina, to this day, still suffers physical, mental, and emotional trauma from all that happened to her during her captivity.
And from the above story, here’s a little tidbit I had no idea, so in case you didn’t know either:
When Justina Pelletier’s story came to light, the world learned the horrifying reality that children who are wards of the state, including foster children, may legally be used in the United States as medical lab rats or guinea pigs in drug trials and medical research without their parents’ knowledge or consent.
We learned that Boston Children’s Hospital and other hospitals around the country engage in this type of practice that would ordinarily be thought of as something only the Nazis during WWII would have done.
A 2014 article by Matt Barber at WND exposed the written policy of Boston Children’s Hospital that:
“Children who are Wards of the State may be included in research that presents greater than minimal risk with no prospect of direct benefit.”
Well, but that was a few years back, so perhaps the medical field has reined in their abuse of power after things like this came to light, right?
Child Protective Services (CPS) personnel attempted to kidnap Maryanne’s 13-year-old daughter. They accused her of not giving her child psychiatric medication prescribed by her doctor.
Maryanne says the medication caused side effects in her daughter and made her condition worse, which is why she refused to give her daughter the medication.
The medication was Risperdal, a neuroleptic antipsychotic medication known for causing serious side effects such as abdominal pain, vomiting, aggression, anxiety, dizziness and lack of coordination
Child “Protective” services called the police to take the child away, a SWAT team got involved, it was just ugly.
In this one, a Mother took her flu-stricken 2 year old to a “doctor” who decided since the child wasn’t vaccinated it must have meningitis and told the Mom to take it to the ER. Child’s fever broke shortly after that and was soon playing with it’s siblings. Mom called the “doctor” said child was ok and they didn’t need to go to the ER. Doctor told them to go anyway. Mom disobeyed the “doctor” and didn’t. This resulted in a 0100 door busting entry by the local SWAT team to remove all 3 children.
And now you understand the term M. Deity complex.
But hey the judge that signed off on this offered some great words of encouragement.
Despite arguments from the family’s lawyer that they did what they believed to be the best thing for the child who had the fever, the judge ultimately sided with the state and DCS, telling the parents that they needed to “remember” that the state had a “family-reunification plan” in place, whatever that means.
And this is the same government that is going to monitor the medications you or your family members do or don’t take. It matters not to me if you take vaccines or not, I realize there are strong opinions on both sides of the debate although I notice the people that choose vaccines seem to be much more hostile about it. Calling those that don’t want them “anti-vaxxers” while those that don’t want the vaccine don’t seem to care what anyone else does, they just don’t want it themselves.
But for those that choose to put every vaccine available in themselves and their children and insist everyone else do the same at the point of a governmental gun or have their children seized. Have you considered what happens when the government, chooses to do something you disagree with? You want to home school? Too bad. You want to send your child a home made lunch rather than buy the obama lunch? Too bad. Will child protective services take you child? When you demand government make laws affecting other people’s children, someone else is demanding laws that will affect yours.
But with the medical field showing itself to be rabidly anti-gun does anyone think the PDMP will not be abused to compromise the Second Amendment? What form will that abuse take and how far will it go?
What an unholy alliance! The BATFE, the AMA and adding in a PDMP. Yesh. The cherry on top? The “red flag” ERPOs, that alphabet soup should be enough to give anyone indigestion. But whatever you do, don’t call your doctor!
Actually there may be a cure.
Missouri is called the “Show Me” state, and they may be showing us the way to handle some of this. They currently have legislation being heard called the Second Amendment Preservation Act. They’ve been trying for a few years to get it passed. The VNRA (Bear, I poached your term) lied about it one go round and killed it. But they are trying again and it’s a fabulous piece of legislation.
And here is a good video to explain it. It won’t help with the states that are foolishly enacting ERPOs and PDMPs but it may help with some other things. Like for example, government agencies that make gun rules on a whim.
I recently renewed my CPR certification, it’s required for my job. In it, in every scenario it was stressed over and over again that one of the main factors determining survival rates was the speed with which CPR was started and the effectiveness of the CPR.
So, anti-gun medical people*, explain to me a faster and more effective self-defense tool than a gun? Oh yes, prevention is important. But just as vaccines do not prove effective every time, home defense prevention doesn’t always work. Will you wait for the ambulance to come rather than starting CPR (because after all, that should be left to the professionals) even though that wait may prove fatal? Well, why do you expect me to wait for the Deputies to come when I could have had something more effective and faster? Hypocrisy much?
*I most certainly realize not all medical people are anti-gun. Not all doctors ask patients and parents “Do you own a gun” and make it part of the patients medical records. But many do, and it’s part of the patients records, records no longer kept just at the doctors office due to obamacare. If you think these Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs won’t be abused? You possibly have a fever and are delusional, or have meningitis. Take two aspirin and skip calling the doctor in the morning. Just have some nice coffee.
So International Women’s Day was a few days ago. This international woman spent it working.
I had a conversation with a girl friend recently. She said her boyfriend teases her about being a “manly woman” because she is able to do all kinds of things for herself without asking the help of a big strong man. I guess he thinks that would be him, snerk. Since I’m about 12 years older than she is I told her back in the 70s or so, that was called being a feminist. You could grow up to be whatever you wanted to be. Women became lawyers instead of the legal secretary, they became doctors instead of the nurse, they started becoming fire fighters and paramedics. Now when it comes to farming, the women have often, probably usually, worked as hard as the men. So really, the feminists were a bit behind the times there. But in general, it was more of a opening up of career choices. I still remember a interview with Stefanie Powers in which she talked about being with William Holden because she loved him and chose to be, not because she “needed” him. There were female police officers, female investigators and they carried guns, used them and it was part of the job.
My my, how feminism has deteriorated. As has the Demoncratic party, the party of “tolerance” as long as you agree with them. The party of “diversity”, as long as you hold all the opinions they tell you to. The party of “freedom”, as long as you are content with the scraps they are willing to let you keep. A few years ago when I wrote for another group it was gently suggested to me that I quit chewing up demoncrats and spitting them out in my columns. I was astonished. They are tasty with BBQ sauce, and besides, I could see what they were becoming. To be a demoncrat you have to sign on to their party platform. Which means you must be in favor of defenseless citizens. A demoncratic candidate may tell you they “support the Second Amendment” and maybe they do. But if they have any hopes of any committee appointments or advancement within the party, or support of the party, they will tow the line.
President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Office of Violence Against Women believes that arming women in domestic violence situations is key to their safety, despite experts’ warnings that the introduction of guns into abusive relationships can imperil victims.
Shannon Lee Goessling, a former Florida prosecutor, has argued that women in domestic violence situations should take up arms against their abusers.
Perhaps President Trump doesn’t fully grasp the concept of being a misogynist?
Carol Bowne knew her best shot at defending herself from a violent ex was a gun, and not a piece of paper. And it was paperwork that left her unprotected when Michael Eitel showed up at her New Jersey home last week and stabbed her to death, say Second Amendment advocates, who charge local police routinely sit on firearms applications they are supposed to rule on within 30 days.
More recently there was a group of male legislators in New Hampshire that wore pearls to a hearing on confiscate guns first ask questions later “Red Flag” laws. A group of harpies lead by astro-turfer Shannon T.Watts were “outraged”, upset, angst ridden, miffed, full blown hissy fit pitching over it. Then a bit more came to light. Far from being anti-women or mocking towards women, these men had the audacity to believe that all people have rights. You don’t take things away from people because you don’t like the things they have. Unless you’re Mikey Bloomberg and it’s a 32 oz. Soda pop. Then you do. But gun rights activist Kimberly Morin of the Women’s Defense League of New Hampshire set the record straight.
Online, members of the Women’s Defense League of New Hampshire, a pro-guns organization, have said Watts and other Moms Demand Action members have it all wrong: the pearls symbolize opposition to the bill itself and support for the Second Amendment and the Women’s Defense League — support for women, not denigration of them.
“The PEARLS are in support of the Women’s Defense League. Women who ACTUALLY PROMOTE GUN SAFETY and WOMEN’S RIGHTS,” tweeted Kimberly Morin, president of the group.
Morin told a local newspaper that they’ve been wearing pearls for this reason since 2016. She accused Watts, who lives in Colorado, of being an out-of-state “paid hack” who is lobbying for gun control legislation from afar and whose group doesn’t understand local politics. In a day-long Twitter offensive, Morin also called the Moms Demand Action volunteers “harpies,” a reference to a creature from Greek mythology that had the body of a bird and the head of a human woman.
The harpies of course, don’t think women should have the chance to choose which defensive tool they can wield to their best advantage in being safe. Boy howdy, that’s some “open-minded” isn’t it?
Speaking of open minded, the Occasional-Cortex has chimed in on the gun control debate. Being the good little socialist-communist she is, she is keeping a “list” of her enemies and harangued the Demoncrats that didn’t vote lock step on gun control as San Fran Nan wanted. Occasional-Cortex apparently can’t read about what is going on in Venezuela these days. But considering she’s a “Post Turtle” and how she got where she is, hardly shocking. She won an audition…..
Which probably explains why she thinks her “Green new/raw deal” is great.
The Occasional-Cortex speaks
Not only is she arrogant, she’s easily led. From the founder of Greenpeace believe it or not.
Demoncrats were once a time thought of as the party of Jews. As demoncrats celebrate their incredible diversity with the addition of 3 antisemitic women it is becoming ever more obvious, they never were in the first place. Its the new position of the left, and it’s not just an American phenomena. Democrats’ Support for Israel in Rapid Decline. Israel, the one and only Jewish state in the world. The left has no problem with the many muslim states (including Franceistan, Germanyistan, Swedenistan and Englandistan) only the one Jewish state it seems. One of these things is not like the other?
But hey, they’re women, and now they’re powerful, so celebrate right? Sexist much?
The daughter told the emergency dispatcher the man was hitting her mother and was trying to shoot her mother. The woman took the phone from her daughter and related what happened.
“I asked him to leave,” she said to the emergency dispatcher. “He will not put his hands on me or my children. He’s still in my house. I tried to do this nicely.”
When the dispatcher asked the woman whether she shot the man, the woman said, “Yes ma’am, I did…. He needs an ambulance.”
What happened to “If it saves just one life”? Was that mother’s life not important? The children’s lives not important?
I ask you, what in all that above is cause to celebrate anything about International Women’s Day? Well, excepting Kimberly Morin. These women have done nothing good, noble or even mildly helpful! Where is the feminism in putting other women in a position where they are less secure and able to defend themselves? Ok, they’re women, so what?
I say if we’re going to celebrate women’s day, that we have models of good, courageous, noble women to hold up. Not just some flotsam or jetsam that someone tripped over. So I’ll give you some amazing women.
17-year-old Lepa Radić was a Bosnian Serb who fought with the partisans during WWII but never got to see the Nazis lose the war. In February 1943, Lepa was captured. The Nazis tied a rope around her neck but offered her a way out. All she has to do is reveal her comrades’ and leaders’ identities.
Lepa responded:
“You will know them when they come to avenge me.”
AMAZING: #Kurdish female soldiers dancing in #Raqqa after defeating ISIS, on streets where #ISIS bought and sold women. A great video!
These kinds of women, now these women deserve celebrating and being remembered!
I’m not all that crazy about “Women’s Day”. I think there are fine and noble people of both genders that should be celebrated. The idea of celebrating people just because they are women regardless of how they act as humans bothers me. Perhaps when they have “International Men’s Day” I’ll rethink the issue. Feminism has become a perverse image of what it was supposed to have been. Instead of truly empowering women, it strives to weaken them, to instill a victim mindset. The left’s idea of power is wearing a stupid pink hat with ears or a hashtag. Geez. Maybe I’m just cranky and need to spend some time with my emotional support animal.
My Emotional Support Animal
Jews. Guns. No compromise. No surrender.
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