Greetings Sheepdogs,
"Don't have a gun? Buy one.
Don't know How to use it? Learn.
Don't believe in guns? Get ready to hide behind someone who does."
-- Charlie Daniels
“Profiles of Valor” honoring American Patriots
by Mark Alexander
Monty Fritts for Governor of Tennessee
Monty Fritts for Governor
Merry Christmas from Nashville, TFA friends
(Tennessee Firearms Association)
*************************************************************************
Table of Contents:
Software --
Prevention
Mindset
Situational Awareness
Safety
Training
Psychology
Practice
Intervention
Strategy
Tactics
Techniques
Postvention
Aftermath
Medical
Survival
Education
Legal
Instruction
Hardware --
Gear
Intelligence --
Signals Intelligence
Cryptology
Religion and Politics --
"No freeman shall ever be debarred the use of arms."
-- Thomas Jefferson
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***** ***** ***** Prevention ***** ***** *****
Things you can do to avoid the lethal force incident.
“To those who have fought for it,
freedom has a flavor that the protected will never know.”
― P. McCree Thornton
Table of sections:
Mindset
Safety
Training
Psychology
Practice
*************************************************************************
"The defensive world loves the word mindset. Warrior mindset. Defender mindset.
Survival mindset. Tactical mindset. Mindset has become the catch-all explanation for everything
from situational awareness to performance under stress. But mindset, by itself, does not create
action. It does not create decisions. And it does not create readiness.
Mindset is intention, not execution. Intentions don’t save people. Actions do.
And action only occurs when you have a functional Decision Engine — a cognitive system
that turns awareness into purposeful behavior.
Mindset Is the Spark — Not the System"
-- Jim Shanahan
------------------------------ Mindset and Attitude --------------------------------
Figuring out the correct way to think.
"I do not carry a pistol so that I may impose my will on others.
I carry a pistol so that others may not impose their will on me."
-- Tom Givens
"Mass attacks and what to do" by CarryTrainer
---
As the Marine Corps taught us, immediately counter attack on any attack.
There is no other way to deal with violence.
"Before all else, be armed." -- Nicolo Machiavelli
FaceBook.com post by Tom Givens, 20 December 2025 A.D. --
Just a few days ago, an elderly man walking his dog was attacked by three
large pit bulls who had “escaped” from their yard. Both the gentleman and
his pet were killed. A couple of hours later, the same dogs attacked a woman
and her two-year old child, sending both to the hospital with life threatening
injuries. This week a university professor was shot to death in his own home.
Also this week, a woman was shot seven times by a total stranger in a WalMart
parking lot. Surgeons said it was a miracle that she survived, and that her
recovery will take at least a year. What did all of these victims have in common?
Two things.
First, they were engaged in mundane, routine tasks. None were doing
anything risky, or criminal, or in “bad areas”.
Second, they were all unarmed. That is a choice.
The first step in taking control over your own life is to accept that violence
can occur anywhere, at any time. Then, understand that being a victim is a
choice. You can be chosen without your consent, but you cannot be victimized
without it. Jeff Cooper put it very well in 1996:
“It is not as difficult as playing the violin, but it is a bit harder than riding
a bicycle. When it is achieved, adequate pistolcraft produces in its owner a
peace of mind unknown to other people—as long as he is armed, awake and
aware. He may never have to use his pistol in a lethal encounter, but the fact
that he knows that he can do so better than any adversary he may meet gives
him a serenity that is the envy of the rabbit people.”
-- Tom Givens
"The line between everyday life and sudden violence is thinner than most realize."
-- Tim Larkin
“The Man in the Arena”
by Theodore Roosevelt (1901-1909), 26th President of the United States
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how
the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have
done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in
the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who
strives valiantly; who errs, who comes up short again and again,
because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who
does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms,
the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at
the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and
who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so
that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who
neither know victory nor defeat.”
"Survival is a mindset, not a skill set."
-- Greg Shaffer
***** This is important. Please read this. *****
"Gun Ownership in America:
Surprising Statistics and What They Mean for 2nd Amendment Advocates"
by Mitch Goerdt
Excerpt:
". . . only 32% of Americans report owning a firearm personally.
That means nearly 7 out of 10 Americans don’t own a gun.
For those of us entrenched in gun culture, this is a startling reality to confront.
It not only forces us to reevaluate our assumptions about the general population
but also compels us to rethink how we advocate for our Second Amendment
rights in a country where the majority views gun ownership as non-essential or
irrelevant."
"Your gunfights will always be anomalies.
So are those of all the instructors you venerate.
It’s useful to keep those facts in mind."
-- Greg Ellifritz
"Handgun Capacity: How Much Is Enough?" by Richard A. Mann
Excerpt:
"Paul Harvey once offered,
“If there is a 50-50 chance that something can go wrong, then 9 times out of 10 it will.” "
[Murphy's Law is a law, like gravitation. Doesn't matter whether or not you believe it.
It will kill you as surely as jumping off the top of a tall building. -- Jon Low]
"You also don’t have to be a tactical savant to recognize that conducting
a reload during a gunfight could get you killed."
“You need to have the capacity for danger. You need to be ‘dangerous’.
Yet, you need to learn how to not use it except when necessary.
And, that is not the same thing as being harmless.
There's nothing virtuous about harmlessness.
Harmless just means you’re ineffectual and useless.”
-- Jordan Peterson
"3 Welcome Surprises of Concealed Carry
What the author thought were invisible hurdles to CCW
turned out to be welcome surprises . . . you may find the same!"
by Frank Melloni
‷If you look at someone bigger, faster, and stronger and immediately think,
‶I'm at a disadvantage″,
I have news for you: you are.
But that's only because you just put yourself there for no reason.
The truth is that anyone can do debilitating violence to anyone else.
Your size, your speed, your strength, your gender --
all the factors that untrained people think make the difference when it comes to violence --
all matter far less than your mindset and your intent.‴
-- Tim Larkin
"A Christmas Reckoning in Pistolcraft" by Jeff Boren
The house was quiet in that way it only gets on Christmas Eve. The kind of
quiet that feels earned. My wife and son were asleep, the lights were low, and
the noise of the year had finally stepped back far enough for me to hear my own
thoughts again. Earlier in the evening we had watched Scrooged (Bill Murray’s
version, which matters more than it probably should) and laughed more than I
expected. Then we moved on. But the idea stayed. Not the movie. The reckoning.
I did not sit down intending to think about pistolcraft. It showed up on its own.
It usually does when things slow down. When there is no class to prep for, no
standard to chase, no student waiting for an answer. Just an honest moment to
take inventory of what I used to believe, what experience has taken from me,
and what it has given back in return.
I have been doing this long enough now to know that growth does not always
look like adding something new. Sometimes it looks like letting go. Letting go
of certainty. Letting go of clean answers. Letting go of ideas that worked once,
in a narrower version of the world, but do not survive contact with real people
under real pressure. Christmas Eve felt like the right time to admit that out loud.
'The Ghost of Shooting Past'
The first version of me to show up that night was younger. Not naïve, but certain.
Certain in the way people are when doctrine feels like a compass instead of a
constraint. I wanted answers that fit cleanly inside boxes. I wanted standards I
could chase, numbers I could hit, lines I could cross and know, without question,
that I was getting better.
That version of me gravitated toward structure because structure felt honest.
There was comfort in it. Comfort in the idea that if you did the work, followed
the method, respected the lineage, competence would follow. And to be fair,
a lot of it did. I learned how to handle a gun correctly. I learned to respect
consequences. I learned that mindset mattered long before marksmanship ever did.
Those things were not wrong. They were necessary.
Back then, pistolcraft felt like a thing you could master if you were disciplined
enough. The answers seemed finite. Shoot this fast. Hit this standard. Pass this test.
There was a sense that once you crossed a certain threshold, you had arrived.
Not finished, maybe, but established. Legitimate.
Looking back, what strikes me now is not that I believed those things, but why
I believed them. I was searching for certainty in a craft that deals in uncertainty.
I wanted clarity in a domain that ultimately lives in judgment. Doctrine gave me
language. Metrics gave me confidence. And confidence, early on, can masquerade
as understanding.
That younger version of me was not reckless. He cared deeply about responsibility.
He understood that guns were not games. But he still believed, at least subconsciously,
that performance could stand in for wisdom. That if you could shoot well enough,
fast enough, clean enough, the harder questions would somehow resolve themselves.
They didn’t.
What that ghost reminded me of was this: I didn’t know less back then.
I knew narrower. My world was smaller, my exposure more controlled, my stress
mostly voluntary. The framework worked because the environment allowed it to work.
And for a while, that was enough.
But it was never the whole picture.
'The Ghost of Shooting Present'
The next version of me did not arrive quietly. He showed up carrying students
with him. Faces, moments, pauses that lasted just a little too long. Rounds fired
too quickly. Rounds fired too late. Decisions made cleanly on paper that came
apart under pressure.
This version of me lives in the middle of it. Teaching. Watching. Interpreting.
Trying to translate what looks simple into something people can actually do when
their heart rate spikes and their hands stop feeling like hands. This is where
pistolcraft stopped being theoretical and started becoming personal. Not because
the techniques changed, but because I started seeing what actually survives contact
with stress.
The metrics I used to trust started revealing less than I thought they would.
Time, standards, pass/fail. They told me what happened, but not why. And if I
stopped at the number, I missed the lesson entirely.
Somewhere in that transition, a simple idea began to matter more than any
metric I was tracking. It is a line from Justin Dyal, one Aqil Qadir has reminded
me of more than once: When we miss, we should be curious.
That sounds obvious until you realize how rarely we practice it. Most misses
get treated like problems to be erased as quickly as possible. Adjust the grip.
Fix the sights. Slow down. Speed up. Do something. Curiosity takes time.
Curiosity asks questions that do not fit neatly into drills or diagnostics. It wants
to know why before it decides how.
Once I started looking at misses that way, the timer lost some of its authority.
A miss stopped being an indictment and became a clue. Was the shooter behind
the visual problem? Ahead of it? Was the decision late, rushed, or unnecessary
altogether? Was the miss mechanical, perceptual, or cognitive? Those answers
mattered more than how clean the next string looked.
That shift changed how I watch shooters now. Not hunting errors, but patterns.
Not fixing outcomes, but understanding decisions. Because if we treat every miss
as something to erase instead of examine, we train people to avoid information
instead of learn from it. And in a craft where judgment is the whole point, that is
a dangerous habit.
'The Ghost of Shooting Future'
This one did not come to warn me about someone else. It came to warn me
about myself.
I have chased the pins and made the finals. I can meet the standards, from
concealment, on demand. The industry has a way of telling you that means
something. And it does. But not what I used to think it meant.
The future I worry about is not one where I lose skill or stop training.
It is one where I stop questioning. Where my conclusions harden into dogma.
Where the things I arrived at through experience turn into rules I no longer feel
obligated to test. Where performance becomes identity, and identity stops asking
questions.
The industry rewards what can be measured. It celebrates speed, precision,
efficiency. It builds stages and standards and leaderboards that tell us who is
serious and who is not. I am not above that. I have wanted those validations.
I have worked for them. But somewhere along the way, I started to notice that
the things we measure most easily are not always the things that matter most.
Pistolcraft does not reward rigidity. It punishes it. The world is not consistent.
People are not predictable. Context shifts faster than drills can account for.
Any future version of me that claims to have solved this is someone I do not
want to become.
If there is hope in that future, it lives in restraint. In curiosity. In a willingness
to keep asking whether the thing we are measuring is still the thing that matters.
It lives in remembering that pistolcraft is not about winning drills or preserving
legacy. It is about making the least wrong decision possible in a moment that will
never be clean.
That is the reckoning Christmas Eve offered me. Not regret. Not nostalgia.
Just an honest accounting. Of where I started. Where I am. And who I am still
trying to be when the noise dies down and there is nothing left to perform for.
-- Jeff Boren
---
Yes indeed. Combat is messy, ambiguous, never clean. -- Jon Low
"Have your affairs in order."
-- John Hearne
"An unarmed man can only flee from evil and
evil is not overcome by fleeing from it." -- Jeff Cooper
"Your life is as good as your mindset." -- Nicola Cavanis
"Safe gun handling and knowing how to operate the gun competently is one thing.
How to fight with the gun is a whole other plane of knowledge."
-- Tiger McKee
"Fairy tales do not tell children the dragons exist.
Children already know that dragons exist.
Fairy tales tell children the dragons can be killed."
-- G.K. Chesterton
---
"There Are Monsters Among Us, and That’s Why I Carry"
by Mitch Goerdt
https://www.concealedcarry.com/firearms-ownership/there-are-monsters-among-us-and-thats-why-i-carry/
‟If violent crime is to be curbed, it is only the intended victim who can do it.
The felon does not fear the police, and he fears neither judge nor jury.
Therefore what he must fear is his victim.”
It is high time for society to stop worrying about the criminal,
and to let the criminal start worrying about society.
And by "society" I mean you.
-- Col. Jeff Cooper, "Principles of Personal Defense"
"Be so focused on watering your grass that
you don't have time to check if someone else's is greener."
-- Nicola Cavanis
Excerpt from "Principles of Personal Defense" by Jeff Cooper --
George Patton told his officers,
"Don't worry about your flanks. Let the enemy worry about his flanks."
‟Fear is an instinct. Courage is a choice.”
-- Rear Admiral Joseph Kernan, U.S. Navy
*************************************************************************
------------------------------ Situational Awareness --------------------------------
How to avoid being taken by surprise.
"Many people don't realize that your awareness skills
are more important than your marksmanship skills.
Well, you can't shoot something you don't know is there,
or don't know it needs to be shot!" -- Tom Givens
"Jeff Cooper's Color Code exists to help you get your head
around the need to kill someone in the immediate future."
-- John Hearne
---
Jeff Cooper's Color Code of Mental Awareness
UNAWARE - of what's going on around you. (White)
AWARE - of who is around you and what they are doing. (Yellow)
ALERT - to a POTENTIAL threat and taking action to avoid the threat. (Orange)
ALARM - by a REAL threat and taking action to escape the threat,
which might include shooting to PREVENT the attack. (Red)
COMBAT - front sight, press. Shooting to STOP the attack. (Black)
The colors are meaningless, requiring a level of indirection.
So you should use meaningful words instead. So the student doesn't
have to decode the meaning of the color. Using insider jargon is WRONG!
"An officer may be forgiven for losing a battle,
but never for being taken by surprise."
-- Jeff Cooper
*************************************************************************
Kendel Kay
------------------------------ Safety --------------------------------
How to prevent the bad thing from happening in the first place.
How to avoid shooting yourself, friendlies, and innocent bystanders.
How to prevent unauthorized persons from using your guns.
"The Chances?" by John Farnam
Excerpt:
When a “bad outcome” is sufficiently grievous, mathematical probability
of it actually happening becomes irrelevant, and a farcical argument!
---
The question is not, "How could this happen?"
The question is, "Why didn't they shoot the dogs?"
Because they didn't carry guns, because they didn't believe it was important.
A person's behavior is a direct result of their beliefs.
Jeff Cooper′s Rules of Gun Safety
RULE I: ALL GUNS ARE ALWAYS LOADED.
RULE II: NEVER LET THE MUZZLE COVER ANYTHING
THAT YOU ARE NOT WILLING TO DESTROY.
RULE III: KEEP YOUR FINGER OFF THE TRIGGER
UNTIL YOUR SIGHTS ARE ON THE TARGET.
RULE IV: BE SURE OF YOUR TARGET.
---
RULE V: Maintain control of your gun. -- Stephen P. Wenger
“There's a price for delegating your own safety to somebody else.”
-- Iryna Terekh
"Helpless at your Peril!" by John Farnam
John Farnam's rules to keep you out of trouble:
Don’t go to stupid places.
Don’t associate with stupid people.
Don’t do stupid things.
Have a “normal” appearance.
Be in bed by 10:00 PM (your own bed).
Don’t fail the attitude test.
"Bondi Beach Terror Attack--Lessons Not Learned" by Docent
Excerpts:
So where were the police in all of this? According to one report, there were
four police officers present during the shooting, but they froze and did nothing.
"It wasn’t until a good Samaritan, a local fruit seller, disarmed one of the terrorists
that police appeared to return fire, taking out one of the shooters, video shows."
The Good Samaritan that did the job the police wouldn't do turns out to be
Ahmed el Ahmed, a 43-year-old father of two from Syria.
---
"Keystone Cops" by Docent
Excerpt:
"Bondi Beach hero helped disarm terrorist before police mistakenly shot him: report"
--New York Times.
No wonder the police sent threatening messages out about people releasing
video of the shooting. Per the article, the unnamed man was shot after he had
raised his hands and yelled "don't shoot".
---
"Aussi Police Are Cowards: Change My Mind" by Docent
---
---
On a not so tangential note, you can buy a Glock pistol in the U.S. for ~$600.
You can sell that pistol in Australia for ~$7000. (When last I checked a few years
ago.) Any market will respond to demand. The question is, "Why is there such a demand?"
If there were no need for the pistols for self-defense, there would not be such a demand.
---
"John Correia, Steph Weidner, and Neil Weidner for a live panel discussion
on the Bondi Beach murders" by Active Self Protection
"Not allowing law-abiding citizens to carry guns on the pretext of public health
or safety makes as much sense not allowing sober people to drive cars in order to
protect them from drunk drivers."
-- Stephen P. Wenger
"He Shot 3 Armed Robbers and Was Charged with MURDER!"
by Colion Noir
He could not walk away. He correctly feared for his life and the lives of his family
members (and the lives of community members), whom the criminals had threatened.
The threat does not have to be imminent, it only has to be inevitable (as articulated in
the battered spouse syndrome in every state in our union). You don't have to wait for
the criminals to come to your house to murder your family before shooting them. That
would be stupid and result in the death of your family. No, the police will not protect
you. They can't even protect themselves. No, the courts won't protect you. The judges
had released those criminals many times in the past.
"Safety is something that happens between your ears,
not something you hold in your hands."
-- Jeff Cooper
From email from Patriot Post --
Brown University update:
A prime suspect in the Brown University attack has finally been identified and found.
Portuguese national Claudio Neves Valente was identified by law enforcement as the
assailant, and police on Thursday found him dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound
in a storage facility in Salem, New Hampshire. Authorities have also connected
Valente to the murder of a top nuclear scientist, MIT professor Nuno Loureiro,
who was shot in his Brookline, Massachusetts, home on Monday night, dying from
his injuries the next day. Valente had studied with Loureiro in Lisbon, Portugal,
between 1995 and 2000. Valente also attended Brown between 2000 and 2001 for
a graduate program in physics, so he would have been very familiar with the campus
building where he perpetrated the attack. Valente was living in the U.S. legally,
having been granted a green card sometime after 2017. No motive has been established.
"It's easier to stay out of trouble than to get out of trouble."
-- Claude Werner
“Till an arrow pierce his liver, as a bird hastens to the snare,
he realized only too late that it would cost his life.” -- Proverbs 7:23
"Readiness!" by John Farnam
“Duplicity fades when it reaches the ears of the wise.
Deceit is sparked by the resentful, spread by the gullible, and accepted by the naïve.”
-- Investigator’s Axiom
---
Tyranny is not started by force. It is started by fear. So, do not fear, and certainly
don't call on government to protect you from what you fear. Because government will,
at a terrible price.
"You are not responsible for negative reactions to your boundaries."
-- Nicola Cavanis
"Trigger Press Casualty" by tacticalprofessor
Hat tip to Docent.
"To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of people always
possess arms and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them."
-- Richard Henry Lee
"The 3 Most Common Safety Violations At The Gun Range" by Jacob Paulsen
1. Unsafe Reholstering
Don't Muzzle Your Hand
Don't Muzzle Your Body
2. Unsafe Direction During Administrative Handling
[Any administrative action should have your muzzle pointed down or down range.
Pointed up into space is wrong. -- Jon Low]
3. The Lingering Finger
[Off target, off trigger.]
"Gut feelings are guardian angels."
-- Nicola Cavanis
"Can Armed Civilians Stop an Active Shooter Better Than Police?"
by Jeff Gonzales
Somewhat easier to read than Lott's primary source.
"Do Armed Civilians Stop Active Shooters More Effectively Than Uniformed Police?"
by John R. Lott and Carlisle E. Moody
"Carnival Atmosphere!" by John Farnam
*************************************************************************
*************************************************************************
------------------------------ Training --------------------------------
Figuring out the correct tasks to practice.
"Those motivated by a desire to improve their
gunfighting skills as opposed to a quest for trophies,
must be willing to bleed ego on the match results
to avoid shedding blood in combat."
-- Andy Stanford
"Why Games Teach Faster Than Drills—And How to Design Them
The reason your athletes forget everything on game day—and the design shift that fixes it."
by Sam Elsner
"Stop Practicing. Start Playing.
The Belief Shift That Makes Skills Transfer"
by Sam Elsner
Hat tip to Greg Ellifritz.
Excerpt:
"They [the coaches] can’t stop talking."
"The struggle that would have produced learning gets short-circuited by a cue."
---
"In the Emergence Model, skills are not stored—they emerge. A skill is a
relationship between the athlete, the task, and the environment. It arises in
real-time from the interaction of constraints. Your job as coach is not to [instill]
technique but to design conditions where effective technique must emerge.
Errors are information. Practice is exploration. Performance is adaptation."
[Ya, the problem is that best technique doesn't necessarily emerge.
Expedient technique emerges. Easy technique emerges. Minimum energy
technique emerges. Which then has to be corrected.
-- Jon Low]
You need training because:
You don't know what you don't know.
Much of what you know is false.
It's good to the have the answers before the criminal tests you.
-- Claude Werner (paraphrased)
"Training Your Trigger Finger Muscle Memory" by Richard A. Mann
Excerpt:
"What you’re actually doing is conditioning your brain to drive physical
activity without deliberate and conscious thought."
"However, the mistake many make is combining the initial learning
of the trigger press with sight alignment during dry practice. Isolating
the trigger press and learning to do it, singularly—without moving the
handgun—is key."
---
So what is the "correct trigger press"?
Touch the trigger.
Take the slack out of the trigger (this is trigger movement without sear movement).
Smoothly increase pressure on the trigger, without intentionally firing the shot.
Recite the mantra to yourself, "Keep pressing, keep pressing, keep pressing, . . ."
The pistol will fire. Hopefully with a surprise break.
Keep pressing the trigger. Trap the trigger to the rear.
Keep aiming. Get the sights back on the target that you just shot.
Reset the trigger.
Take the slack out of the trigger.
Yes, there will be slack between the reset and break dawn (sear movement).
Assess.
If you need to shoot the target again, do so.
If not, trigger finger to the register position and move to the next target.
Leaving your finger on the trigger is an excellent way to get a negligent discharge.
Remember, we are talking combat, not competitive shooting games.
If there is no threat, trigger finger to the register position and pull
the pistol back into a close contact retention position. Keep your
wrists straight; bent wrists cause a weak grip. Pivot from your elbows
to point the pistol down at the ground in front of you.
-- Jon Low
"Without discrimination,
you're going to shoot the wrong person really fast."
-- Paul Howe
"Why You Should Use Visual Range Control" by Dustin Salomon
Hat tip to Greg Ellifritz.
Also at,
"If you’re not measuring your training,
what you’re doing is called playing."
-- Chris Sajnog
"In order to measure, we must be able to quantify."
-- Aaron Cowan
"Make Ready with Matt Little: PCC Skill Development"
Hat tip to Greg Ellifritz.
Not pistol, but Pistol Caliber Carbine. You might be interested in it.
"When you're training to protect yourself and others, speed always comes last.
In the more than twenty-five years I've been training people in self-protection,
I've never heard from someone who used self-protection tools in the field and
felt like they suffered from a lack of speed at the moment of truth. In fact, I
usually hear the opposite: it's much more common to suffer from a lack of
accuracy or force."
-- Tim Larkin
"Essential Practice: Malfunction Drills
Because if something can go wrong, it will, and usually at the worst possible time."
by Chris Cypert
Hat tip to Greg Ellifritz.
It's beautiful how clearing the type III malfunction (failure to extract the case)
gets simpler and simpler over time. I remember when the gun schools taught:
Lock (the slide to the rear, because it's impossible to remove the magazine with
the cartridge half-way in the magazine on some pistols).
Strip (the magazine out of the magazine well and discard,
because the mag might be the problem).
Rack, rack, rack (to clear the chamber).
Load (insert new magazine, rack slide).
Point (line up the sights with the target and take the slack out of the trigger).
Decide (whether or not to shoot).
"In reality, we are training for an unknown event, against unknown threats,
by developing as many known skills as possible."
-- Jeff Gonzales
Rangemaster JANUARY 2026 NEWSLETTER
"Having a gun is important.
But knowing WHEN to use it is even more important."
-- Greg Ellifritz
"Most deadly force encounters occur spontaneously, without warning and
at extremely close ranges. Realistically, you may not have the time or the
space to effectively draw, no matter how fast your drawstroke."
-- Jeff L. Gonzales
"There are three different areas, or disciplines,
in which the armed person must train.
These are mindset, gun handling, and marksmanship.
Each is equally important, and you must be at least
competent in all three areas."
-- Tom Givens
"A mistake that makes you humble is better
than an achievement that makes you arrogant."
-- Nicola Cavanis
"Shoot sooner, not faster."
-- Matt Little
“The secret of success is this.
Train like it means everything when it means nothing –
so you can fight like it means nothing when it means everything.”
-- Lofty Wiseman
"Proper training ingrains the proper responses. Repetition is the mother of all skill.
With skill comes confidence. With confidence comes the ability to think under pressure
and make sound tactical decisions." -- Tom Givens
*************************************************************************
------------------------------ Psychology --------------------------------
"Be stronger than your strongest excuse."
-- Nicola Cavanis
“Training deals not with an object,
but with the human spirit and human emotions.”
--Bruce Lee
"Train and practice so that you can stay in your rational mind,
and force your enemy into his emotional mind. The emotional
mind makes bad judgments which will allow you to win."
-- John Hearne
*************************************************************************
"Classic"Weekend Knowledge Dump- December 26, 2025
-- Greg Ellifritz
Notice ejected case above the brim of her hat while she gets her sights back on target.
Great follow through.
Better than having great jeans, though she has those too.
*************************************************************************
------------------------------ Conferences --------------------------------
Attending classes and conferences is required for growth.
Stagnation is complacency. Complacency kills. Even worse,
your complacency will kill your students.
"The supreme power in America cannot enforce unjust laws by the sword;
because the whole body of the people are armed, and constitute a force
superior to any bands of regular troops that can be, on any pretense,
raised in the United States."
-- Noah Webster
The AOR Association Conference 2026, $120
Friday, February 20th – Saturday, February 21st, 2026
Mesa Convention Center | Mesa, Arizona
263 N Center St, Mesa, AZ 85201
2A Freedom Fest, Free
9TH ANNUAL 2A FREEDOM FEST (2026)
February 21, 2026
9:30 am - 5:00 pm
7700 SE 129 Place, Summerfield, FL 34491 United States
Organizer: Kevin Sona
Email: kevins@2afreedomfestival.com
Rangemaster Tactical Conference, $639
TacCon26 is scheduled for
March 27-29, 2026
at the Dallas Pistol Club in Carrollton, Texas
Security Operations Summit 2026, $150.00
July 23-25, 2026 A.D.
With hands-on pre-event options on Wednesday, July 22nd!
Wednesday to Saturday, so as not to interfere with church on Sunday.
Southeast Christian Church
920 Blankenbaker Parkway
Louisville, KY 40243
Bullets & Bibles 2026 (The registration fee is a tax deductible charitable donation).
Friday, August 21, 2026 – Sunday, August 23, 2026
Hosted at Living Water Ranch, north of Manhattan, KS.
Food and lodging included in registration price.
The Guardian Conference, $700 early bird, $800
September 18th - 20th, 2026 in Oklahoma City, OK.
*************************************************************************
------------------------------ Classes --------------------------------
Attending classes and conferences is required to avoid teaching
obsolete material, and to ensure you are teaching best practices.
"Shooting With Xray Vision – Instructor June 13-14, 2026", $695.00
James Williams and Chuck Haggard.
Mead Hall Range.
Gunsite Academy
Classes,
Lee Weems
Massad Ayoob Group
Blog
West Coast Armory North
Active Response Training, Greg Ellifritz
Rangemaster Certified Instructors
Map of Rangemaster Certified Instructors
Dustin Salomon
KR Training
Kari Grayson
Citizens Safety Academy
Carry Trainer, Mickey Schuch
Paladin Training, Inc.
Citizen-Defender, John Murphy
Virginia Private Firearms Training (for private lessons), John Murphy
Defensive Training International, John Farnam
Rangemaster, Tom Givens
Trident Concepts, Jeff Gonzales
Apache Solutions, Tim Kelly
"Low Light One: Defensive Application In Compromised Lighting Conditions"
by Tim Kelly
Harris Combative Strategies, Randy Harris
Mead Hall Range & Tactics
Two Pillars Training, John Hearne
Classes,
YouTube.com channel
Mike Seeklander
NRA Instructors and their classes.
‟Training is NOT an event, but a process.
Training is the preparation FOR practice.”
-- Claude Werner
*************************************************************************
*************************************************************************
------------------------------ Practice --------------------------------
How to get proficient at that task.
"Remember, the day you plant the seed is not the day you earn the fruit."
-- Nicola Cavanis
How much do I need to practice?
You need to practice clearing your concealment garment and drawing so much
and from so many awkward positions and from all of your possible wardrobe
combinations, that when Pookie and Ray Ray jump you, your pistol automagically
appears in your hand.
"Your speed doesn't matter. Forward is forward."
-- Nicola Cavanis
“Willingness is a state of mind. Readiness is a statement of fact!”
-- Lt. Gen. David M Shoup, USMC Commandant 1960-1963
"Remember, growing may feel like breaking at first."
-- Nicola Cavanis
"You have to be lucky to win. And the more you practice, the luckier you get."
-- Col. Lones Wigger
Why practice?
“To each there comes in their lifetime a special moment
when they are figuratively tapped on the shoulder and
offered the chance to do a very special thing,
unique to them and fitted to their talents.
What a tragedy if that moment finds them unprepared or
unqualified for that which could have been their finest hour.”
-- Winston Churchill
"Good habits and skill beat luck every time."
-- Sheriff Jim Wilson
‶Practice is the small deposits you make over time,
so that in an emergency, you can make that big withdrawal.″
-- Chesley Burnett Sullenberger, III
Be careful what you practice.
Because you will do in combat whatever you have practiced,
no matter how ridiculous.
-- "Shooting in Self-Defense" by Sara Ahrens
"Why are the little things called little things?
They are everything."
-- Nicola Cavanis
"People rust faster than equipment."
-- John Hearne
*************************************************************************
*************************************************************************
***** ***** ***** Intervention ***** ***** *****
Suggestions on how to deal with the incident that you failed to avoid.
Table of sections:
Strategy
Tactics
Techniques
*************************************************************************
------------------------------ Strategy --------------------------------
Deciding on the end state and how to achieve it.
"You win gunfights by not getting shot."
-- John Holschen
"Never let fear decide your fate."
-- Nicola Cavanis
“How do you win a gunfight?
Don't be there.”
-- John Farnam
*************************************************************************
------------------------------ Tactics --------------------------------
Maneuver and fire in support of your strategy.
“When you’re in the dark, stay in the dark;
when you’re in the light, light up the dark.”
-- Stephen P. Wenger
If your enemy has thermal imaging, you have a problem.
"The Death of the Triangular Patrol Base?" by Charlie Phelps and Benny Jenness
Excerpt:
"Noise and light discipline, long the bedrock of infantry professionalism,
no longer compensates for thermal visibility. A silent unit still radiates:
Warm weapons, the residual heat of recently fired brass, sweat evaporating
off clothing, and boot prints in recently disturbed soil all glow to even modestly
capable thermal devices.
Visual camouflage, from face paint to ghillie suits, works primarily against
the human eye rather than thermal sensors. Thin brush, nylon fabric, and wet
vegetation offer little protection. In an age of omnipresent thermal surveillance,
the disciplined soldier may still be tactically proficient, but no longer invisible
even when attempting to employ thermal mitigating equipment."
---
Do you have the equipment to hide your thermal signature?
"You brought a gun to the fight. That doesn’t mean it’s YOUR gun.
The gun belongs to whomever can keep it. Think about that before
intervening in other folks’ problems. When is the last time you practiced
your in-hand weapon retention skills?"
-- Greg Ellifritz
---
When was last time you practiced your in-holster weapon retention skills?
Have you taken a class to learn such techniques?
-- Jon Low
---
". . . if the assailant has a gun, it may actually be the easiest
gun for you to access, if you know how to take it from him."
-- Stephen P. Wenger
"Perp Caught on Camera Using a Back Up Gun!" by Active Self Protection
---
Lots of malfunctions. Do you carry a back up gun?
“You are no more armed because you are wearing a pistol
than you are a musician because you own a guitar.”
from "Principles of Personal Defense" by Col. Jeff Cooper, USMC,
(1920 – 2006 A.D.)
"Think you know Ready Positions? You don't." by Alston Trainings with Aqil Qadir
Hat tip to Greg Ellifritz.
Ready position are for when you have made contact (low ready, high ready,
compressed ready, etc.), as opposed to positions for movement to contact
(Sul, cheek index, etc.).
Holstering is the most dangerous thing you will do.
". . . only shoot as fast as you can assess, and . . . assess after each shot,
both of which we should be training to do all the time anyway."
-- Ralph Mroz, "Street Focused Handgun Training"
"Superior judgment trumps superior skills." -- Dan Millican
"Real fights are short." -- Bruce Lee
"The shorter the fight, the less hurt you get."
-- John Holschen
"You often don't know where the bad guy is who is shooting at you."
-- Phillip Groff
“People shoot you because they see you.
They see you because you let them.
Don’t let them see you.”
-- Clint Smith
“Fortuitous outcomes reinforce poor tactics.”
-- Chuck Haggard
*************************************************************************
------------------------------ Techniques --------------------------------
Ways to execute a given task in support of your tactics,
especially when disabled or under stress.
“What’s the number one reason for reloading?
Missing the target!”
-- Claude Werner
"Grip first, then press."
-- Mike Seeklander
Great exercise for lower shooting positions.
"Use only that which works,
and take it from any place you can find it."
-- Bruce Lee
"Can YOU Spot 4 EASY SIGNS It’s Time to Punch First?"
by Fight SCIENCE
"Denn jedes Mal, wenn was geht, ist Platz für Neues.
Und wenn es gestern nicht sein soll, dann klappt es heut 🦋"
-- Nicola Cavanis
There are many techniques for doing any given task.
Search and experiment until you find one that you can perform reliably.
"To Catch Or Not To Catch?" by Ralph Mroz
Hat tip to Greg Ellifritz.
Opposing opinion by Gabe Suarez --
"MORE SCARY GUN LORE"
It seems that some people need to find a way to sift fly poop from pepper
and joust at things that have no real bearing on anything.
Here is an article that sifts fly poop and pepper. The author - Mroz is saying
that you MUST let the chambered round fall to the deck lest all manner of
darkness and danger befall you. Sorry Ralph, you are wrong.
I was taught by men who had more gunfight experience than I ever did
that the rounds you carry to shoot men with are an integral part of your gear
and must be treated with the same attention and care as the pistol, holster
and magazines. They went as far as to test each round in the barrel of the
disassembled pistol to make certain they were the right fit. Obsessive?
Maybe for game shooters for who ammo is an afterthought, but not for a
hunter of men who would be using that ammo that very night against a killer.
So hear is my POV. There is nothing wrong with catching the round as
long as you do it like a first world educated person. What is foolish is
allowing your street rounds to repeatedly hit the deck and sustain micro
damages and reducing their potential because some one said you should
let the round drop.
And what the sporting folk allow or don't allow is totally irrelevant to me.
More "scary gun handling" is something none of us need.
If you do it properly (just like anything else) there is no danger in catching
the round in your cupped hand. I teach it, use it and will continue to do as
I have not heard a compelling reason from any credible sources to cause me
to change.
-- Gabe Suarez
"The foundations of your grip are established
before you even draw the pistol from the holster."
-- Tanner Denton
"Do you really do that with your thumbs?" by Ben Stoeger
Excerpt:
"I can always do nothing more consistently than I can do something."
[The brilliance of this statement should not be underestimated. -- Jon Low]
Letting the thumbs float off to the side prevents the thumbs from
interfering with the controls.
"Shouldn't they DQ people for that?" by Ben Stoeger
No, because it's a fun game. It's not realistic. It's not combat training.
"Ineffective and potentially dangerous, point shooting should be avoided
at all costs and aimed fire employed in any lethal-force scenario."
-- Massad Ayoob
"Targeting" by Tim Larkin
"The secret is applying extreme force with the pinkies and
working your way up the rest of the digits."
-- Jeff L. Gonzales
NEVER use your trigger finger to manipulate the light switch! This will cause
Task Overload Confusion. Lots of documented cases of firing the pistol when the
officer intended to turn the light on or off. Take Chuck Haggard's class to understand.
"Pistol Light Switchology" by Erick Gelhaus
"Weapon-Mounted Lights and Concealed Carry:
From Impractical to Inevitable" by Jacob Paulsen
"Weapon Light Tactics That Save Lives" by Travis Pike
Excerpt:
"Auto brightness settings rarely behave the way you want during a
sudden flash from your WML — manual settings are better."
Hat tip to Greg Ellifritz.
"It's not daily increase but daily decrease - hack away at the inessentials!"
-- Bruce Lee
"Concealed Carry at Work" by Kevin Creighton
Hat tip to Greg Ellifritz.
Email from Tim Larkin --
10% of officers killed in the line of duty were murdered with their OWN weapon.
Think about that . . . One in ten. Highly-trained law enforcement officers. With regular
firearms training. With weapon retention drills. And the bad guy STILL got close
enough to grab their gun and kill them with it.
These aren't weekend warriors. [I don't know about that. After World War II,
the police were warriors. Now days, they are all social workers, many of whom
wouldn't carry a gun voluntarily, and only do so because they are forced to by their
department policy. -- Jon Low]
These are professionals who train for this exact scenario. [It's rare to find a
police officer willing to train on his own time, on his own dime. -- Jon Low]
And it still happens. Here's the brutal truth . . . Your firearms training has a
massive blind spot. It works great at the range. It works great at 21 feet.
But inside 10 feet? When someone's in your face before you can draw? When
there's no room for your perfect stance? When you have 1.5 seconds to solve the
problem or die trying? Most people freeze. Or worse . . . they try to draw and
get their own weapon used against them.
That's the nightmare.
---
If you don't know how to handle the described situation, better fix yourself.
-- Jon Low
*************************************************************************
*************************************************************************
***** ***** ***** Postvention ***** ***** *****
Suggestions on how to treat your wounds or the wounds of your loved ones.
Suggestions on how to avoid prosecution, conviction, and prison time.
Suggestions on how to avoid the civil law suit and judgment.
Table of Sections:
Aftermath
Medical
Survival
*************************************************************************
------------------------------ Aftermath --------------------------------
You must be alive to have these problems: criminal and civil liability.
This is why you must have an insurance policy that actually pays your attorney
in full, up front; and that actually gets you a competent attorney.
If you can't afford a competent attorney, YOU WILL LOSE!
In the right hand column, click on the link labeled "Self Defense Insurance".
Or, the link is,
Read this before you buy insurance. You need to make an informed decision.
The various policies are drastically different.
"You need to read the fine print." -- Massad Ayoob
"The Lion and the Risk-Takers" by Douglas Deaton
Excerpt:
"That is simply how things are."
“Your understanding and consent are not required
for someone to take your life, kill your loved ones,
and destroy all you hold dear.”
-- William Aprill
"How To NOT Get Shot by Responding Law Enforcement" by Rullo
In the right hand column of this web page, click on "Never Talk To The Police"
or use the address,
“The true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him,
but because he loves what is behind him.”
― G.K. Chesterton
*************************************************************************
------------------------------ Medical --------------------------------
"If you prepare for the emergency,
the emergency ceases to exist!"
-- Sherman House
Tactical Emergency Casualty Care Course - NAEMT Certified, $495.00
Tracey Mendenhall | VP of Operations
(Life Saving Ninja)
DEFEND SYSTEMS
(615) 480-7758
Floss your teeth correctly. If you don't know how, ask your dental hygienists.
Dental health is essential for general health. You must scrape the plaque off of
your teeth below the gum line. Otherwise, the plaque will turn into tartar, calculus,
and destroy your teeth.
"I got implants. I don't have to worry about that."
WRONG! The plaque and tartar will attack your gums. And your breath
will stink to high heaven.
“Your character is what you do when no one is looking.”
-- Thomas Jefferson
*************************************************************************
------------------------------ Survival --------------------------------
"If you stay fit, you do not have to get fit.
If you stay trained, you do not have to get trained.
If you stay prepared, you do not have to get prepared."
-- Robert Margulies
"Survival is a mindset, not a skill set."
-- Greg Shaffer
‟We don’t decide what is necessary to survive a
lethal force encounter initiated by someone else.
That person decides what’s necessary for us to survive.”
– William Aprill
"Survival is not based solely on technique. Survivability may hinge on the use
of the correct technique appropriate to the environment you are fighting in.
Oh, and yes, marksmanship is always valuable."
-- Clint Smith
*************************************************************************
*************************************************************************
***** ***** ***** Education ***** ***** *****
Table of contents:
Legal
Instruction
Gear
*************************************************************************
"Cogito, ergo armatum sum." (I think, therefore armed am I.)
-- John Farnam
News2A.com
Citizen-Defender, John Murphy
Blog posts,
Rangemaster Newsletter, Tom Givens
Active Self Protection, John Correia
"My Gun Culture" by Tom McHale
Quips, John Farnam
Active Response Training, Greg Ellifritz
The Tactical Professor, Claude Werner
American Handgunner Magazine
Tactical Science
International Association of Law Enforcement Firearms Instructors
Alien Gear blog
Shooting Classes Blog
"You will never get smarter or broaden your horizons
if you're unwilling to learn from others and read."
-- Becca Martin
*************************************************************************
------------------------------ Legal --------------------------------
“Laws are made for men of ordinary understanding and should, therefore,
be construed by the ordinary rules of common sense. Their meaning is not
to be sought for in metaphysical subtleties which may make anything mean
everything or nothing at pleasure.”
— Thomas Jefferson (1823)
From an email from the Patriot Post --
Appeals court rules nonviolent felons don't lose gun rights:
A panel of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 that a man convicted
of a felony over his failure to pay child support should not be stripped of his
Second Amendment rights for the rest of his life.
Judge James Ho wrote,
"There's no historical justification to disarm him at that moment — never mind
for the rest of his life." Ho contended that the Founders did not intend that those
found guilty of nonviolent felonies should automatically have their Second
Amendment rights stripped. "Historical analysis determines whether a particular
individual can be disarmed for life," Ho wrote. "And we are unable to find a
historical basis for disarming [Edward Cockerham] for the rest of his life,
just because he was once convicted of failure to pay child support."
"Jelly Roll Just Exposed a MAJOR Gun Rights Problem in America"
by Guns & Gadgets 2nd Amendment News
Gun rights for Jelly Role (Jason DeFord)
“Is there no virtue among us? If there is not, we are without hope!
No form of government, existing nor theoretical, will keep us from harm.
To think that any government, in any form, will insure liberty and happiness
for a dishonorable population represents the height of self-deception.”
-- James Madison, 1788
"The Tennessee Department of Safety has proposed a set of rule changes
to the Enhanced Handgun Carry Permit class."
"Tennessee Department of Safety trying to enact new rule
that has Tennessee's firearms instructors angry ... again."
I went to testify as an instructor. It was Wednesday, 17 December 2025.
I'm not an elite, so I can't park anywhere near the building that houses the House
and Senate meeting rooms. Though with my TN Enhanced Handgun Permit, they
did allow me to carry in the building.
The hearing began promptly at 13:00. No crowds. No protests. The TN Department
of Safety testified that they were changing the rules because an instructor had shot a
student in the classroom during the classroom portion of the training for the
Tennessee Enhanced Handgun Permit. So their solution was to prohibit any functioning
firearms in the classroom portion of the training.
I got to testify at 15:00. I told the committee how it was impossible to teach
trigger control without using the student's pistol. I testified that the student's pistol,
magazine, and dummy ammo were required to teach loading and unloading. Simply
racking the slide could not be taught with the blue guns (inert solid pieces of plastic
molded into the shape of the pistol).
Another gentleman from Royal Range (a local range in Nashville, TN) testified
as to the difficulty of teaching a class of as many as 50 students the fundamentals in
the classroom without the students being able to handle their pistols. He pointed
out that the TN curriculum teaches not to store your pistol in your car, and yet the
rules mandated by the TN Department of Safety required the students to leave their
pistols in their cars during the classroom portion of the course. The police department
statistics show that leaving your pistol in your car is an excellent was to get your
pistol stolen. The many contradictions in the TN Dept. of Safety's positions and
rules was highlighted to the amusement of the Senators and Representatives.
I thought the lady testifying for the TN Dept. of Safety was going to have a fit.
Then a Representative moved to table the rule changes for 30 days, because
he had received a lot of citizen complaints about the rule changes. Another
Representative asked what the citizen complaints were. The Rep. who had made
the motion refused to say, causing all the legislative persons to laugh. I missed
the joke. So they voted, and postponed for 30 days. So I will have to waste another
day at the TN State Legislative building in a month.
"A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State,
the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."
-- Second Amendment, Constitution of the United States of America
" 'COOKING THE BOOKS':
Police chief RESIGNS after being accused of cooking crime data"
by Fox News
"Firearms are second only to the constitution in importance,
they are the people's liberty's teeth." -- George Washington
"Understanding the Castle Doctrine:
Protecting Your Family and Defending Your Home"
by Emma K. Wittmann
Excerpt:
"For example, in Colorado, the intruder cannot be on your back porch;
the intruder must already be inside the home before the use of force is
justified. In other states, individuals do not need to wait until the intruder
is inside the home to employ deadly physical force. In some states, the
attempted intrusion into the house is enough. Arizona and Missouri are
examples of this type of Castle Doctrine."
This is why people call for defunding the police.
"UPDATE! Corruption Continues | Felonies for Self-Defense Against Town Official"
by Liberty Doll
"DOJ Sues DC Over AR-15 Ban" by Stephen Gutowski
"Trump Administration Argues Second Amendment Doesn’t Protect Pocket Knives"
by Jake Fogleman
"Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people.
It is wholly inadequate for the governance of any other."
-- John Adams, October 11, 1798
This is significant.
"Montana’s Gun-Free School Zones Just Collapsed,
And Lawmakers Did It to Themselves"
by Scott Witner
Hat tip to Stephen P. Wenger.
Excerpt:
The U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that because Montana statutorily
authorizes concealed carry for eligible citizens, those citizens qualify for the federal
licensing exception.
In plain terms: if everyone is licensed by law, then everyone qualifies for the
exemption.
The court dismissed the charges and made it clear that the outcome wasn’t an
accident; it was the logical result of Montana’s legislative choices.
The ruling emphasized that Montana did not delegate licensing authority to
agencies or local officials. The Legislature itself granted the authority.
. . .
Montana did not nullify gun-free school zones by design.
It did something more powerful.
It treated the right to carry like a right, and federal law couldn’t keep up.
*************************************************************************
------------------------------ Instruction --------------------------------
"Remember,
the students who require the extra effort
are the ones who need us the most!"
-- John Farnam
*************************************************************************
----- Instructors -----
“He who dares to teach must never cease to learn.”
-- Richard Henry Dana
"Why Games Teach Faster Than Drills—And How to Design Them
The reason your athletes forget everything on game day—and the design shift that fixes it."
by Sam Elsner
"Stop Practicing. Start Playing.
The Belief Shift That Makes Skills Transfer"
by Sam Elsner
Hat tip to Greg Ellifritz.
Excerpt:
"They [the coaches] can’t stop talking."
"The struggle that would have produced learning gets short-circuited by a cue."
---
"In the Emergence Model, skills are not stored—they emerge. A skill is a
relationship between the athlete, the task, and the environment. It arises in
real-time from the interaction of constraints. Your job as coach is not to install
technique but to design conditions where effective technique must emerge.
Errors are information. Practice is exploration. Performance is adaptation."
[Ya, the problem is that best technique doesn't necessarily emerge.
Expedient technique emerges. Easy technique emerges. Minimum energy
technique emerges. Which then has to be corrected.
-- Jon Low]
"Every time I teach a class,
I discover I don't know something."
-- Clint Smith
"Why You Should Use Visual Range Control" by Dustin Salomon
Hat tip to Greg Ellifritz.
Also at,
Be careful what you teach.
Because your students will do in combat
whatever you have trained them to do,
no matter how ridiculous.
-- "Shooting in Self-Defense" by Sara Ahrens
My 3 year old granddaughter asked me to help her put her panty on, because she was
having a hard time getting it on. They were obviously too tight and would not fit over
her thighs. I told her that they were too small and that she should get another pair.
I was going to leave the panties on my daughter's desk and write a note that Kate had
panties that were too small for her. Then I noticed that Kate had been trying to get the
leg opening over her waist, instead of the waist opening. The panties actually fit fine.
Sometimes you must stop and look at what you're doing? Especially when helping
others.
"You must teach skill sustainment as part of training."
-- John Hearne
"Your curriculum needs to be recent, relevant, and realistic."
-- Austin Killmer
"The limited time you spend with students may be the only training they ever receive!"
-- John Farnam
“The most valuable resource that all teachers have is each other.
Without collaboration, our growth is limited to our own perspectives.”
-- Robert John Meehan
“The student’s purpose is to expand their body of knowledge and social network.
The instructor’s purpose is to help the student achieve the student’s goals.”
-- Amy Schwartz
"A false path will always be tensely, angrily, violently defended by those
it has deceived, because who are so easily deceived are ever too arrogant to repent.”
-- Instructional axiom
Colonel Robert Lindsey to his fellow trainers:
"We are not God's gift to our students.
Our students are God's gift to us."
“Qui docet, discet.” (Who teaches, learns.)
-- American Society of Law Enforcement Trainers
************************************************************************
----- Students -----
“It may seem difficult at first but everything is difficult at first.”
-- Miyamota Mushashi
"Why Games Teach Faster Than Drills—And How to Design Them
The reason your athletes forget everything on game day—and the design shift that fixes it."
by Sam Elsner
"Stop Practicing. Start Playing.
The Belief Shift That Makes Skills Transfer"
by Sam Elsner
Hat tip to Greg Ellifritz.
Excerpt:
"They [the coaches] can’t stop talking."
"The struggle that would have produced learning gets short-circuited by a cue."
---
"In the Emergence Model, skills are not stored—they emerge. A skill is a
relationship between the athlete, the task, and the environment. It arises in
real-time from the interaction of constraints. Your job as coach is not to install
technique but to design conditions where effective technique must emerge.
Errors are information. Practice is exploration. Performance is adaptation."
[Ya, the problem is that best technique doesn't necessarily emerge.
Expedient technique emerges. Easy technique emerges. Minimum energy
technique emerges. Which then has to be corrected.
-- Jon Low]
"It's better to be wrong than to be vague."
-- Freeman Dyson
"Why You Should Use Visual Range Control" by Dustin Salomon
Hat tip to Greg Ellifritz.
Also at,
“Train, Practice, Compete
are the key elements in the development of humans.”
-- John M. Buol, Jr.
"How to Spot a Fake Firearms Instructor | Ben Stoeger" by Dalton Fischer Podcast
"Keep in mind that this is some seriously next level material.
It is totally normal that the first time you see this stuff, you find
it confusing. You find it difficult to understand. So, confusion
should not discourage you. It does not represent any intellectual
failing on your part. Rather, keep in mind that it represents an
opportunity to get even smarter."
– Tim Roughgarden, Professor of Computer Science and other
stuff at Stanford University
"Try.
Try again.
Try once more.
Try differently.
Try again tomorrow.
Try and ask for help.
Try find someone who's done it.
Try to fix the problem.
Keep trying until you succeed."
-- Nicola Cavanis
*************************************************************************
----- Andragogy (as opposed to pedagogy) -----
"Growth is uncomfortable because you've never been there before."
-- Nicola Cavanis
"Why Games Teach Faster Than Drills—And How to Design Them
The reason your athletes forget everything on game day—and the design shift that fixes it."
by Sam Elsner
"Stop Practicing. Start Playing.
The Belief Shift That Makes Skills Transfer"
by Sam Elsner
Hat tip to Greg Ellifritz.
Excerpt:
"They [the coaches] can’t stop talking."
"The struggle that would have produced learning gets short-circuited by a cue."
---
"In the Emergence Model, skills are not stored—they emerge. A skill is a
relationship between the athlete, the task, and the environment. It arises in
real-time from the interaction of constraints. Your job as coach is not to install
technique but to design conditions where effective technique must emerge.
Errors are information. Practice is exploration. Performance is adaptation."
[Ya, the problem is that best technique doesn't necessarily emerge.
Expedient technique emerges. Easy technique emerges. Minimum energy
technique emerges. Which then has to be corrected.
-- Jon Low]
"Thinking is the hardest thing a person can do.
That's why so few people do it."
-- Henry Ford
"Why You Should Use Visual Range Control" by Dustin Salomon
Hat tip to Greg Ellifritz.
Also at,
‟An instructor should not expect any learning to
take place the first time new information is presented.”
-- ‶Building Shooters″ by Dustin Salomon
*************************************************************************
------------------------------ Gear --------------------------------
And the safe storage thereof.
“Your car is not a holster.”
-- Pat Rogers
"Straight Talk: Fits and Starts
As with clothing and footwear,
serious consideration should be given when choosing a handgun for self-defense."
by Sheriff Jim Wilson
“Mission drives the gear train.”
-- Pat Rogers
Using a ported barrel as your self-defense gun is a very bad idea. Because in a
close contact situation when you are holding your pistol in a retention position with
your elbow pulled as far back as possible to prevent the bad guy from grabbing your
pistol, and your firing-side hand pressed tight against your rib cage, the ports will
blow hot gas and burning propellant up into your eyes, blinding you. Yes, even if
you tilt the pistol away from your body to avoid fouling the slide on your clothing.
If you haven't practiced shooting from close contact, the concussion may shock
you, causing you to fall a tempo behind in the fight. So better practice. Get right
up to the target, protect your head and face with your support-side arm, and fire
from a close contact (retention) position. You will feel the blast in your face.
Rather like riding a roller coaster, but without the motion sickness.
The purpose of a high capacity magazine is NOT to let you shoot more;
it is to let you reload less.
-- Tom Givens
"There are no dangerous weapons, only dangerous men."
-- Robert A. Heinlein
Ammo sources:
Unlimited Ammo
Target Sports USA
GunMag Warehouse
SGAmmo
True Shot Ammo
True Shot Academy
If you know of any others, let me know.
*************************************************************************
*************************************************************************
***** ***** ***** Intelligence ***** ***** *****
Always cite open source.
"The Death of the Triangular Patrol Base?" by Charlie Phelps and Benny Jenness
Excerpt:
"Noise and light discipline, long the bedrock of infantry professionalism,
no longer compensates for thermal visibility. A silent unit still radiates:
Warm weapons, the residual heat of recently fired brass, sweat evaporating
off clothing, and boot prints in recently disturbed soil all glow to even modestly
capable thermal devices.
Visual camouflage, from face paint to ghillie suits, works primarily against
the human eye rather than thermal sensors. Thin brush, nylon fabric, and wet
vegetation offer little protection. In an age of omnipresent thermal surveillance,
the disciplined soldier may still be tactically proficient, but no longer invisible
even when attempting to employ thermal mitigating equipment."
"Making PSYOP Great Again – Hegseth Reinstates Name, Dumps MISO"
by Soldier Systems
"Governor Of California PANICS After Phillips 66 Gas Refinery Begins Shutting Down!"
by Pump Report
Venezuela was the wealthiest country in the Western hemisphere per capita.
Its people were thriving by all measures. Then the socialist took power by
arresting and imprisoning, and killing political opposition. Venezuela fell into
abject poverty by every measure. That is why its people have been begging
the U.S. to help. At least Trump cares enough to act. Perhaps not the most
elegant regime change, but we obviously don't already have the necessary
assets in place in Venezuela.
"Officials have confirmed that zero of the 1,200 cameras on the
Brown University campus recorded the suspect entering or leaving the scene."
Do you understand?
"Former Russian Sex Spy Exposes the Dark Reality of Honeypot Training"
by Shawn Ryan Clips
"Aliia Roza - Russian Sex Spy on Seduction Perfumes,
Sexpionage and Honeypot Tradecraft | SRS #262"
by Shawn Ryan Show
From Soldier Systems email --
One of the things that the authors haven’t quite yet grasped is that most
of those drones you are buying won’t be sticking around. They are essentially
munitions and you’re going to use them up. No need for bench stock and
repair parts, they are only sent in suicide missions, and you likely won’t be
happy if they somehow find their way back home.
"Russian general killed by bomb under his car in Moscow
Russian investigators said Monday they were looking into whether
Lt. Gen. Fanil Sarvarov was assassinated by Ukrainian intelligence services."
"Miss Universe Mogul Implicated in Arms Pipeline
from Guatemala Supplying CJNG, Mexico City Cartels"
by Ildefonso Ortiz and Brandon Darby
Stephen P. Wenger's comments --
Legacy media in the US would have us believe that Mexico's drug cartels rely
almost entirely on guns smuggled into the country after purchase at US gun stores.
The fact is that the cartels have always had multiple sources of weapons,
including Mexican government armories, some of which are sources for item
not sold at retail in the US such as select-fire Kalashnikov rifles and grenades.
-- Stephen P. Wenger
"Eternal vigilance by the people is the price of liberty."
- Andrew Jackson, Farewell Address, March 4, 1837
"Why Troops say their XM-7 is a disaster" by Cappy Army
XM7 fit for service? (show notes)
What do you think the bribe from Sig to U.S. Army procurement officers was?
The XM-7 is so heavy (13.26 lbs.), soldiers can't hold it up for more than a few moments.
Heavier than the M-14 (9.2 lbs.).
But there are no Marine Scout Snipers. The Marine Corps disbanded the Scout Sniper
School and eliminated all Scout Snipers from the Marine Corps. THANK YOU Commandant
General Smith.
The Dispatch
Strategy Page
"The Merge"
Breaking Defense
Intrigue
1440
29155
Global Recaps
Timber Sycamore
Ground News
Soldier Systems
*************************************************************************
*************************************************************************
***** ***** ***** Signals Intelligence,
Ground Electronic Warfare,
Cyber Security,
(sometimes Air Electronic Warfare too) ***** ***** *****
Always cite open source.
"Military Meets Academia in US Quest for Next-Gen Signals Intelligence
AUARI (Auburn University Applied Research Institute) researchers are developing
rugged signals intelligence and communications tech that links units and collects
data even where radio and GPS signals fail."
by Ethan M. Encarnacion
Basil says --
Ciao brother,
I like pasta like rigatoni, ziti, made same today!
Goes great with all types of sauces, veggie’s, and meats!
Spaghetti with clams, angel hair with vodka sauce, all good,
even with butter, . . .
"A free people ought not only be armed and disciplined,
but they should have sufficient arms and ammunition to maintain
a status of independence from any who might attempt to abuse them,
which would include their own government."
--George Washington
False negatives and false positives result in death. Trusting Artificial Intelligence
is an act of criminal stupidity.
Excerpt:
Police responded to the Florida middle school minutes after the alert arrived
last week: Security cameras had detected a man in the building, dressed in
camouflage with a “suspected weapon pointed down the hallway, being held
in the position of a shouldered rifle.” The Oviedo school went into lockdown.
An officer searched classrooms but couldn’t find the person or hear any commotion,
according to a police report. Then dispatchers added another detail. Upon closer
review of the image flagged to police, they told the officer, the suspected rifle
might have been a band instrument. The officer went to where students were
hiding in the band room. He found the culprit — a student wearing a military
costume for a themed dress-up day — and the “suspected weapon”: a clarinet.
The gaffe occurred because an artificial-intelligence-powered surveillance system
used by Lawton Chiles Middle School mistakenly flagged the clarinet as a weapon,
according to ZeroEyes, the security company that runs the system and contracts
with Lawton Chiles’s school district. Like a growing number of school districts
across the country, Seminole County Public Schools has turned to AI-powered
surveillance to bolster campus security. ZeroEyes sells a threat-detection system
that scans video surveillance footage for signs of weapons or contraband and alerts
law enforcement when they are spotted. The appetite for such systems has grown
in an era of frequent, high-profile school shootings — such as the attack at Brown
University on Saturday that killed two students and injured nine. Some school
safety and privacy experts said the recent incident at the Florida middle school is
part of a trend in which threat detection systems used by schools misfire, putting
students under undue suspicion and stress. “These are unproven technologies
that are marketed as providing a lot of certainty and security,” said David Riedman,
founder of the K-12 School Shooting Database... They have sometimes made
mistakes. In October, parents and officials in Baltimore County, Maryland, called
for a review of a different AI threat-detection system after it confused a bag of
Doritos chips for a gun and sent an alert that led to a high-schooler being
handcuffed. In 2023, a high school in Clute, Texas, went into lockdown after
ZeroEyes falsely alerted that a person was carrying a rifle, according to
News 4 San Antonio. In one case, a different threat-detection system failed to
avert a fatal school shooting. Antioch High School in Nashville was equipped
with AI surveillance software to detect guns in January when a 17-year-old student
killed a classmate in a shooting, according to CNN. The system missed the
shooter because he was too far away from surveillance cameras to detect his
weapon, CNN reported...
"EVERYTHING you need to know to ACTUALLY get a cyber security job
in 2025 (what they DON'T tell you)"
by Cyb3rMaddy
Cyb3rMaddy
---
Sir,
Is Maddy correct in her assessment of how to get a job in cyber security?
---
Spaceman,
She is correct on a few items - a bit simplistic on others.
Lots of people want jobs in cyber - and there aren’t many people hiring.
IMHO - the best thing one can do is to learn a tool, e.g. Crowdstrike.
There is lots of free training. Become the master at this tool. Use that to
land your first job. Find a smaller company where you can expand your skills.
If you go to a big company as a Crowdstirke expert - you’ll do that job forever.
We are constantly looking for what we call, “Tool jockeys.’
Companies buy expensive tools but then have no one to run them.
SF
JPL
Comment from Soldier Systems --
"I take issue with two former DIRNSAs making a call like this. There’s no better
time to start catching up than right now and these two guys kicked the can down the
road while they were in charge leaving us even farther behind than we should be.
They helped create the situation we are in and their answer is to keep doing more
of the same that hasn't worked. Gotcha."
*************************************************************************
Gratuitous picture of pretty girl for the steganographers.
Anastasiia Volkova
*************************************************************************
"Manipulating Minds: Security Implications of AI-Induced Psychosis"
www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RRA4435-1
Hat tip to Soldier Systems.
[Artificial Intelligence doesn't just hallucinate, it causes psychosis in humans.
Who would have guessed? -- Jon Low]
---
In the Wall Street Journal, you will find an article,
"AI Chatbots Linked to Psychosis, Say Doctors
People and their artificial-intelligence companions are entering into
shared delusions, psychiatrists say; chatbots can be ‘complicit’ "
by Sam Schechner and Julie Jargon
Ya, it's behind a pay wall. Ya, you can ask me.
---
"Special Report: AI-Induced Psychosis: A New Frontier in Mental Health"
by Adrian Preda, M.D.
Breaking Defense has a weekly newsletter, "Networks & Digital Warfare" at
Crypto-Gram by Bruce Schneier
2600
Soldier Systems
*************************************************************************
*************************************************************************
***** ***** ***** Cryptology ***** ***** *****
Always cite open source.
All of our cryptology occurs in the real world. Many don't understand this.
They think that if their math is correct / secure / proven that all is well. But the real world is
not the realm of forms. Cryptology is a science, an engineering effort, not pure thought in
the world of mathematics, in the field of philosophy.
Cryptosystems are considered "arms" by federal law, ITAR,
International Traffic in Arms Regulations. That means cryptosystems are
protected by the 2nd Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Never let the
government infringe on your right to keep and bear cryptosystems, to
include home made cryptosystems, to include sharing cryptosystems with
others.
"Arms discourage and keep the invader and plunderer in awe,
and preserve order in the world as well as property.
Horrid mischief would ensue were the law-abiding deprived of their use."
-- Thomas Paine
Check out "Law of Form" by G. Spencer Brown
SBN 04 510028 4
Lord Russell. The Primary Algebra.
"Computer science has nothing to do with computers or science."
-- Donald Knuth
University of Tennessee at Martin
"Premature optimization is the root of all evil."
-- Donald Knuth
"Nothing in life is to be feared; it is only to be understood.
Life is not easy for any of us. But what of that?
We must have perseverance and above all confidence in ourselves.
We must believe that we are gifted for something,
and that this thing must be attained."
-- Marie Curie
"There Is Something Faster Than Light" by Veritasium
Madam Wu was my professor at Columbia. She flunked me out of her class,
based on the final exam. She told me that I was not properly prepared.
I asked her if I had the wrong answer on any of the questions. She confessed
that all of my answers were correct, but I didn't show my work. Actually, I didn't
work the problems the way she wanted. But she is long dead, so it doesn't matter.
From "Modern Physics", 5th edition, by Paul A. Tipler and Ralph A. Llewellyn, 2008 A.D.
Library of Congress Control Number: 2007931523
ISBN-13: 978-0-7167-7550-8
ISBN-10: 0-7167-7550-6
TCP Invariance
It is a property of any relativistic quantum theory in which signal speeds cannot
exceed the vacuum speed of light, that the combined operations of Parity (r → ─r),
Time reversal (t → ─t), and Charge conjugation (particle to antiparticle) leave any
wave function unchanged:
TCP Ψ(r, t) = +1 Ψ(r, t)
or
TCP = +1
It makes no difference in what order the operations are performed. Invariance under
these combined operations requires that particles and their antiparticles have the same
masses and lifetimes. It was long thought that the invariance under the combined
operations was the result of invariance of physical laws under each of the operations
independently, i.e., T = +1, P = +1, and C = +1.
However, as we described in the previous section, it was discovered that parity
was not conserved in weak interactions. For the weak interaction the parity operation
yields P = ─1. That immediately implies that one of the other operations must not
be conserved in the weak interaction. Yee and Yang's solution to the τ - θ puzzle
revealed that there are two Κ⁰ mesons (kaons) with nearly identical mass but very
different decay modes and lifetimes. The Κ⁰ₛ (s for "short") decays to two pions with
a lifetime of about 0.9 × 10⁻¹⁰ seconds. The Κ⁰ₗ (l for "long") decays to three pions
with lifetimes of about 0.5 × 10⁻⁷ seconds.
Then in 1964 J. H. Christenson and his collaborators showed that in about 1 of
every 1000 decays, the Κ⁰ₗ also decayed into just two pions. This result means that
for the Κ⁰ₗ decay, the combined operations CP = ─1 because the two-pion final system
has CP = +1 and the three-pion final system has CP = ─1.
The implications of this result are enormous and continue to be a focus of intense
theoretical and experimental research. For example, within the framework of the
Standard Model, CP violation requires that there be three generations of quarks and,
correspondingly, the very large number of hadrons that can be assembled from them.
The observed matter-antimatter asymmetry in the universe also requires CP violation.
If TCP = +1 and CP= ─1, T = ─1 also, which establishes an absolute direction for
the flow of time.
[This may or may not be correct physics, but it is definitely math. Math that we
can use. -- Jon Low]
Even more astonishing is what passes for knowing."
-- Philip Roth
"After eight months, administration signals a potential leader for NSA, CyberCom
The White House has asked senators to confirm a promotion for
Army Lt. Gen. Joshua Rudd, deputy director for U.S. Indo-Pacific Command."
by David DiMolfetta
Hat tip to Soldier Systems.
Comments by Soldier Systems --
Army Lt. Gen. Joshua Rudd Nominated for DIRNSA
I am of two mindsets regarding the good news that LTG Joshua Rudd has been
nominated to lead the National Security Agency and US Cyber Command.
On one hand, he’s not an intelligence officer or cyber and has no intelligence
experience, particularly with neither SIGINT nor Cyber. Considering how vital
these two agencies are to our national defenses that’s a serious issue. It also
continues to indicate that our nation is not serious about its Information Warfare
capability.
On the other hand, he has extensive JSOC as well as current PACOM experience.
As a consumer of intelligence, he’ll have an idea of what he expects the organization
to produce and he comprehends the pacing threat we face in the Pacific. An additional
advantage is that as an ARSOF General, he may gain a better appreciation for the
“Cyber” element of the SOF-Cyber-Space triad currently so popular with his
compatriots. In particular, I’m hoping he realizes that Electromagnetic Spectrum
Operations are what they are really interested in and not the Cyber buzzword.
Maybe he’ll also gain an appreciation for the authorities and expertise needed to
provide the services associated with EMSO and why it’s best to defer to the pros
from Dover and that the Cyber Electromagnetic Activities (CEMA) penguins
don’t really need thumbs (a Madagascar reference) as they have their own.
If anything, SOF needs more of them within their formations.
"Never memorize anything. Rather, study it until it becomes obvious."
-- Norman Christ
"Why AC Electricity Doesn’t Behave the Way You Think" by The Action Lab
Reality rarely behaves as theory would predict.
"You don't have to memorize theorems.
Because you can always derive them from first principles."
-- Sven Hartman
"Harvard Scientist Beautifully Explains Quantum Entanglement and Non-Locality"
by Curt Jaimungal and Jacob Barandes
Mathematical theorems are floating around in math space, not tethered to reality.
Only the experiment in the real world connects the theorem to physics. If it does.
"The biggest lie about the double slit experiment" by Looking Glass Universe
"What is a Passkey?" by Computerphile
"Handbook of Applied Cryptography"
by Alfred J. Menezes, Paul C. van Oorschot and Scott A. Vanstone
"Computer Security and the Internet:
Tools and Jewels from Malware to Bitcoin", Second Edition
by Paul C. van Oorschot
ISBN: 978-3-030-83410-4 (hardcopy), 978-3-030-83411-1 (eBook)
"An Introduction to Error Correcting Codes with Applications"
by Scott A. Vanstone , Paul C. Oorschot
Research and Publications (P. Van Oorschot)
Alfred J. Menezes
Scott A. Vanstone
*************************************************************************
*************************************************************************
***** ***** ***** Religion and Politics ***** ***** *****
Rest In Peace
"Those Lost to the Gun Community in 2025" by Chris Eger
Hat tip to Stephen P. Wenger.
Dear Jonathan:
After the Bondi Beach massacre, which left 15 people murdered and 43 wounded,
Australia’s gun laws returned to the spotlight. Democrats ranging from Barack Obama
and Hillary Clinton to Joe Biden have long held up Australia as a model for the
United States, and Democrat Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer praised
Australia’s
approach just two days after the attack. In response, I wrote an article
for The Federalist
and a shorter piece with an Australian academic for
The Australian Spectator.
Those articles explain why Australia’s 1996–97 gun
confiscation failed to deliver the benefits gun control advocates promise—such
as lower firearm homicide rates, fewer firearm suicides, or a reduction in mass
public shootings. In fact, the evidence shows that these regulations contributed
to higher levels of these crimes.
. . .
Meanwhile, The Wall Street Journal published a series of four lengthy front-page
articles warning about the dangers of people carrying concealed handguns.
Carl Moody and I submitted letters to the editor, but when it became clear that
the Journal would not publish them, I wrote a detailed response in RealClearPolitics
addressing the Journal’s claims directly.
Do people who legally carry concealed handguns accidentally shoot bystanders
when defending themselves? No.
Is it harmful that justifiable homicides increase when people gain the legal right
to defend themselves? No — and, importantly, murder rates fell.
Are Stand Your Ground laws racist because blacks are disproportionately involved
in justifiable homicides? No, because blacks overwhelmingly use firearms
defensively to protect themselves.
The Journal also repeatedly fails to explain accurately when the law allows
individuals to use a gun in self-defense.
John Lott
Crime Prevention Research Center
358 S 700 E, Ste B, B409, Salt Lake City, UT 84102
johnrlott@crimeresearch.org
(484) 802-5373
"Please teach your boys to be men before the world teaches them to be women.
And not just men, but gentlemen. And not just gentlemen, but Godly gentlemen."
-- "Church of Christ find information and studies" on FaceBook.com
Abortion is racist.
Why reasonable persons call for defunding the police.
"Cop Fired for Arresting Paralyzed Man for Kicking Down Door"
Charles Read, a paraplegic, was wrongfully arrested for allegedly chasing
down and assaulting a woman, despite being in a wheelchair for over 25 years.
"Chicago police arresting Black legal gun owners for personal gain, source says"
by Dorothy Tucker, Samah Assad
"Airman Held at Gunpoint During False Traffic Stop" by Liberty Doll
"The truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it."
-- Mary Flannery O'Connor
The purpose of war is not to die for your country.
The purpose of war is to ensure that the other guy dies for his country.
—George S. Patton
I have 2 thank you letters from President Donald Trump. I have zero thank you
letters from any Democrat President. So I know what he's talking about and I know
he speaks the truth.
“You can’t truly call yourself ‘peaceful’ unless you are capable of great violence.
If you’re not capable of violence, you’re not peaceful, you’re harmless.
Important distinction.”
-- Stef Starkgaryen
If you are more loyal to a political party than to the U.S. Constitution, you are
effectively violating your oath to uphold and defend the Constitution from all
enemies foreign and domestic.
Freedom of speech means you defend speech you disagree with. Any idiot
can defend speech he agrees with.
"We should not forget that the spark which ignited the American Revolution
was caused by the British attempt to confiscate the firearms of the colonists."
-- Patrick Henry
In case you still think the ATF is a legitimate law enforcement agency.
"Illegal aliens bought 183 guns — while ATF targeted law-abiding gun stores"
by Legally Armed America
This is why people call for defunding the police.
"Cop Costs Taxpayers $4 Million for Blinding Innocent Man, Gets Promoted"
by The Civil Rights Lawyer
From an email from Patriot Post --
Retribution for turncoat Sinema:
In early 2024, members of Joe Biden's DOJ Criminal Division discussed
potentially opening a criminal investigation into then-Arizona Senator Kyrsten Sinema,
who had left the Democrat Party the year prior to become an independent.
According to recently released documents, then-FBI Special Agent Walter Giardina,
who was also involved in the controversial Arctic Frost probe, sought to investigate
Sinema for potential campaign finance violations, which Sinema's chief of staff,
Daniel Winkler, described as a probe driven by "partisan political reasons."
Winkler observed, "It's disappointing, though not surprising, to learn that
Walter Giardina, who led politically motivated investigations at the FBI,
also sought to investigate Kyrsten for partisan political reasons after she
defied Biden and the Senate Democrats to protect the filibuster."
Ultimately, moving forward on an investigation was rejected by
then-Assistant U.S. Attorney Elizabeth Aloi.
[FBI Special Agent Walter Giardina. It's important to name the bad guys,
so they can't hide. Because they are still around causing trouble. Oh, did you
think he would go into retirement?]
“Communism is perpetually ‘just one murder short’ of Utopia”
"The True Goal" by John Farnam
"The media is not the handmaiden of the Democratic Party;
the Democratic Party is the handmaiden of the media."
by Ann Coulter
***************************** Begin Psychology ***********************
"Here’s Why You Shouldn’t Live With Your Significant Other Before Marriage"
by Jordan B Peterson
"Death of the lady: where are all the real men?" by Orion Taraban
"Modern women: you can't have it both ways" by Orion Taraban
From an email by Orion Taraban, Psy.D. --
Wednesday, December 17th, 2025
It's very easy to lament the current state of society – and many certainly
choose to do so. However, I'm going to explain why the world looks the way
that it does with a very simple thought experiment. It goes like this.
Imagine that you stumble upon a magic lamp. You rub it, and – as expected
– a genie pops out. He tells you that he's willing to grant you three wishes,
no strings attached. Presented with this miraculous situation, how would you
respond? I'm fairly confident that the vast majority of people would not say,
“thanks, but no thanks, genie. I prefer to earn things the hard way. It's obviously
more difficult and uncertain, but I believe that forgoing the easy path is more
rewarding long-term. In any case, I'm much more likely to build character,
resilience, and virtue by working hard for the good things in life. So I'll have
to pass on your easy solution to my current problems of living.”
If you're like most people, the only real moral difficulty you'd have is
prioritizing which three of your desires you'd like to satisfy first. And that is
why society looks the way that it does. Our technologies are genies in bottles.
We're getting better at granting wished and satisfying desires and fulfilling
needs than we ever thought possible. If you wouldn't turn down the genie,
then why expect others to forgo the easy solutions to their current problems
of living?
This week's behavioral experiment:
What easy solution are you prepared to forgo? Do so.
Warmly,
Orion
"Sex and attention: the most reinforcing good" by Orion Taraban
An explanation of the Muslim custom of covering women head to toe when in public.
"Women walking away: "are men to blame?" by Orion Taraban
"Why women get ghosted: they're not worth it" by Orion Taraban
"Women, Here’s The Only Question That Matters On A First Date" by Matt Walsh
Hey, wait a minute, a 46" waist is not indicative of being obese.
"Staying at home: no one wants to do it" by Orion Taraban
***************************** End Psychology ************************
"I hate it when I'm trying to eat a salad and
it falls in the trash and I have to eat a taco instead."
-- Nicola Cavanis
This is 100% AI fake real news. Unapologetically funny.
"White Liberal News: Move to the Left ep 86"
by Nothing Was Learned
God works in mysterious ways.
What's orange and sounds like a parrot?
Email from Orion Taraban, Psy.D. --
"Reconnecting with the divine."
Wednesday, December 24th, 2025
If you look closely, you'll find a fascinating detail in Leonardo da Vinci's
"Creation of Adam". It's an image I'm sure you'll recognize: a languid Adam
reaching up toward God's heavenly hand. The detail in question is precisely this:
though God's finger is fully extended toward the first man, Adam's finger extends
only through the second knuckle. This results in the small gap that serves as the
centerpiece of the tableau.
However, if Adam were to fully extend his finger, he would cross that gap and
make contact with God. In my estimation, this is the message of this masterpiece,
hidden in plain sight. God is always reaching out to us, but we are not always
reaching out to God. And it is our responsibility to go to Him, not His to come to
us – though He may, in his infinite grace and mercy, choose to do so.
In today's world, it's easy to lose sight of the true meaning of Christmas.
Even a phrase like “the true meaning of Christmas” has become cliché. However,
I believe it is fundamentally an opportunity for each one of us – if we so choose –
to make an effort to reconnect with God, on this day of days when He extended
Himself all the way down to earth. Merry Christmas.
Warmly,
Orion
"VANESSA MAI - Ich sterb für dich @Starnacht am Wörthersee -16.07.2022"
by DimaVideo
J Presper Eckert, co-inventor of the first general-purpose electronic digital computer:
"When you were working on ENIAC did you have any inkling these things would be
laptop sized and everyone would own one?"
Eckert: Mauchley thought the world would need maybe 6 computers. No one had
any idea the transistor and chip technologies would come along so quickly. It is
shocking to have your life work reduced to a tenth of a square inch of silicon.
Jules Verne predicted we’d go to the moon, but he never had any idea we’d all
sit at home and watch it on TV. In every technology, there are inventions that go
off at a right angle that change the path, there are new ideas that you can’t see coming.
Ken Olson, CEO of DEC, 1977:
"There is no reason for any individual to have a computer in their home."
Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft on IPhone vs Zune, 2007:
"Steve, let me ask you about the iPhone and the Zune, if I may.
The Zune was getting some traction and Steve Jobs goes to Macworld
and he pulls out this iPhone. What was your first reaction when you saw that?"
Ballmer: (laughs) $500 full-subsidized with a plan! I said that is the most
expensive phone in the world and it doesn’t appeal to business customers
because it doesn’t have a keyboard which makes it not a very good email machine."
Yogi Berra: "it's tough to make predictions , especially about the future."
-- Sidney Ontai
Semper Fidelis,
Jonathan D. Low
Email: Jon_Low@yahoo.com
Radio: KI4SDN
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