| After watching all the videos end yesterday with the noose being placed around Saddams neck, I smelled conspiracy. This is the only other footage taken, filmed with a camera phone. I am still not terribly convinced. | |
Sunday, December 31, 2006
Saddam Hanged Poor Quality
Saddam Hanged Poor Quality
| After watching all the videos end yesterday with the noose being placed around Saddams neck, I smelled conspiracy. This is the only other footage taken, filmed with a camera phone. I am still not terribly convinced. | |
Saturday, December 30, 2006
Friday, December 29, 2006
Saddam Hussein executed in Baghdad
The infamous double gallows at Abu Ghraib. It was said by his mistress that Sadamn would sit back at night, smoking a cigar, sipping Johhny Walker Black and watch the days execution. Laughing often, he seemed to show glee and excitment while watching the tapes she said. I wonder what he was thinking as they slipped the noose around HIS neck.
U.S.-backed Iraqi television station Al Hurra said Saddam Hussein had been executed by hanging shortly before 6 a.m. (0300 GMT) on Saturday.
Saddam Hussein executed in Baghdad
The infamous double gallows at Abu Ghraib. It was said by his mistress that Sadamn would sit back at night, smoking a cigar, sipping Johhny Walker Black and watch the days execution. Laughing often, he seemed to show glee and excitment while watching the tapes she said. I wonder what he was thinking as they slipped the noose around HIS neck.
U.S.-backed Iraqi television station Al Hurra said Saddam Hussein had been executed by hanging shortly before 6 a.m. (0300 GMT) on Saturday.
Sunday, December 17, 2006
PRICELESS...
Found on MSN's rating pages as of today:
30 members! Outanding job Mr. Dimwittie! So I guess, if my math is correct, less than half your members showed up for the big "convention" you held.
Allbounty.com (30 members)
Bail, Bail Enforcement, Collateral Recovery, Private Investigation, Skip Tracing... You should know that this group is strictly for agents in this area of expertise. All members are verified and those who are not verifiable are kicked. If you are a true professional and want to join a winning team of professionals please sign up and tell us a little about yourself and your credentials. We need QUALITY agents to expand our network. In order to make this group a success, we count on quality licensed agents Hope to see you and your company soon in our group forum. You must list your name, phone number, company name and license numbers when signing up
30 members! Outanding job Mr. Dimwittie! So I guess, if my math is correct, less than half your members showed up for the big "convention" you held.
PRICELESS...
Found on MSN's rating pages as of today:
30 members! Outanding job Mr. Dimwittie! So I guess, if my math is correct, less than half your members showed up for the big "convention" you held.
Allbounty.com (30 members)
Bail, Bail Enforcement, Collateral Recovery, Private Investigation, Skip Tracing... You should know that this group is strictly for agents in this area of expertise. All members are verified and those who are not verifiable are kicked. If you are a true professional and want to join a winning team of professionals please sign up and tell us a little about yourself and your credentials. We need QUALITY agents to expand our network. In order to make this group a success, we count on quality licensed agents Hope to see you and your company soon in our group forum. You must list your name, phone number, company name and license numbers when signing up
30 members! Outanding job Mr. Dimwittie! So I guess, if my math is correct, less than half your members showed up for the big "convention" you held.
Thursday, December 7, 2006
WARFARE WEAPON OF THE WEEK
Ok, so imagine your company is making a raid on a suspected insurgent hideout in Ramadi at a house in the middle of a narrow street. You are taking small arms fire from guards posted along your route. Two members of different squads advance forward and clear the street with their new FRAG-12's.
Two more squads hustle down to the door of the suspected hide out and bust the door in. Barrels from various rifles point into the room, but no one enters. they are waiting for a team member to step to the threshold and burst a few rounds from the Warfare Weapon of the Week; Silly String. Yep, that neon string crap that kids shoot at birthday parties.
Apparently some Grunt came up with the idea that, if he could spray a few blasts of Silly String into a room (it shoots like 15 feet or so), that he could tell that the room was trip wired if the string hung suspended or clear of a booby trap wire if the string fell to the floor.
I saw this shit at a Dollar Store for, well, a dollar. Last year I sent 12 dozen pairs of socks over. Maybe I should start a Silly String Charity this year.
Two more squads hustle down to the door of the suspected hide out and bust the door in. Barrels from various rifles point into the room, but no one enters. they are waiting for a team member to step to the threshold and burst a few rounds from the Warfare Weapon of the Week; Silly String. Yep, that neon string crap that kids shoot at birthday parties.
Apparently some Grunt came up with the idea that, if he could spray a few blasts of Silly String into a room (it shoots like 15 feet or so), that he could tell that the room was trip wired if the string hung suspended or clear of a booby trap wire if the string fell to the floor.
I saw this shit at a Dollar Store for, well, a dollar. Last year I sent 12 dozen pairs of socks over. Maybe I should start a Silly String Charity this year.
WARFARE WEAPON OF THE WEEK
Ok, so imagine your company is making a raid on a suspected insurgent hideout in Ramadi at a house in the middle of a narrow street. You are taking small arms fire from guards posted along your route. Two members of different squads advance forward and clear the street with their new FRAG-12's.
Two more squads hustle down to the door of the suspected hide out and bust the door in. Barrels from various rifles point into the room, but no one enters. they are waiting for a team member to step to the threshold and burst a few rounds from the Warfare Weapon of the Week; Silly String. Yep, that neon string crap that kids shoot at birthday parties.
Apparently some Grunt came up with the idea that, if he could spray a few blasts of Silly String into a room (it shoots like 15 feet or so), that he could tell that the room was trip wired if the string hung suspended or clear of a booby trap wire if the string fell to the floor.
I saw this shit at a Dollar Store for, well, a dollar. Last year I sent 12 dozen pairs of socks over. Maybe I should start a Silly String Charity this year.
Two more squads hustle down to the door of the suspected hide out and bust the door in. Barrels from various rifles point into the room, but no one enters. they are waiting for a team member to step to the threshold and burst a few rounds from the Warfare Weapon of the Week; Silly String. Yep, that neon string crap that kids shoot at birthday parties.
Apparently some Grunt came up with the idea that, if he could spray a few blasts of Silly String into a room (it shoots like 15 feet or so), that he could tell that the room was trip wired if the string hung suspended or clear of a booby trap wire if the string fell to the floor.
I saw this shit at a Dollar Store for, well, a dollar. Last year I sent 12 dozen pairs of socks over. Maybe I should start a Silly String Charity this year.
Wednesday, December 6, 2006
WISH LIST PART 2
JD Allen got a kick out of the auto shotgun video and asked what is is? Well JD, after some research I found that it is called the Auto Assault-12 (AA-12) Full-Auto Shotgun manufactured by Military Police Systems, Inc. (MPS). It has a 20 round drum, but fires at a rate of 300 rds. per min. MPS is joining forces with Experimental Cartridge Company, Ltd. and Action Manufacturing Inc. to create what is now called the FRAG-12.
I have found a few other manufactures of full auto shotguns, but the one described above is the one in the video.
I have also found that they are developing a drone helicopter equipped with the FRAG-12, called the AutoCopter Gunship. They have a video that I am trying to get of the copter doing a test fire. If I can't get it to play on here, I'll post a link.
Overall, I would say that the AA-12, and it's 20 rd. drum, would clear an alley in Ramadi fairly quickly. The FRAG-12 would have endless possibilities in warfare.
More on this later...
"There are three members of the FRAG-12 munition family: the FRAG-12 High Explosive (HE), FRAG-12 High Explosive Fragmenting Antipersonnel (HEFA, or HE-FA), and FRAG-12 High Explosive Armor-Piercing (HEAP, or HE-AP)."
I have found a few other manufactures of full auto shotguns, but the one described above is the one in the video.
I have also found that they are developing a drone helicopter equipped with the FRAG-12, called the AutoCopter Gunship. They have a video that I am trying to get of the copter doing a test fire. If I can't get it to play on here, I'll post a link.
Overall, I would say that the AA-12, and it's 20 rd. drum, would clear an alley in Ramadi fairly quickly. The FRAG-12 would have endless possibilities in warfare.
More on this later...
WISH LIST PART 2
JD Allen got a kick out of the auto shotgun video and asked what is is? Well JD, after some research I found that it is called the Auto Assault-12 (AA-12) Full-Auto Shotgun manufactured by Military Police Systems, Inc. (MPS). It has a 20 round drum, but fires at a rate of 300 rds. per min. MPS is joining forces with Experimental Cartridge Company, Ltd. and Action Manufacturing Inc. to create what is now called the FRAG-12.
I have found a few other manufactures of full auto shotguns, but the one described above is the one in the video.
I have also found that they are developing a drone helicopter equipped with the FRAG-12, called the AutoCopter Gunship. They have a video that I am trying to get of the copter doing a test fire. If I can't get it to play on here, I'll post a link.
Overall, I would say that the AA-12, and it's 20 rd. drum, would clear an alley in Ramadi fairly quickly. The FRAG-12 would have endless possibilities in warfare.
More on this later...
"There are three members of the FRAG-12 munition family: the FRAG-12 High Explosive (HE), FRAG-12 High Explosive Fragmenting Antipersonnel (HEFA, or HE-FA), and FRAG-12 High Explosive Armor-Piercing (HEAP, or HE-AP)."
I have found a few other manufactures of full auto shotguns, but the one described above is the one in the video.
I have also found that they are developing a drone helicopter equipped with the FRAG-12, called the AutoCopter Gunship. They have a video that I am trying to get of the copter doing a test fire. If I can't get it to play on here, I'll post a link.
Overall, I would say that the AA-12, and it's 20 rd. drum, would clear an alley in Ramadi fairly quickly. The FRAG-12 would have endless possibilities in warfare.
More on this later...
Friday, December 1, 2006
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
GOT THE MONEY SHOT
I finally found a picture of Dimwittie on a website. To coin an old school phrase, "What a Dweeb"! I have heard that his huge convention had a turnout of less than 15 people. Rumors are, he booked a block of 50 rooms, not at the original, swank hotel, but an upscale Motel 6. If they doubled up, I calculate Randy is out for about 40 rooms. My source says that the raffle winner won a monstrous computer desk valued at $1000. A guy in Colorado won it and will probably have to spend about that much to ship it.
My insider also said that Randy squats when he pees and hasn't been inside a woman since he visited the Statue of Liberty in High School.
The only good thing I can find about this guy is the quote about me that sits on my Home page.
GOT THE MONEY SHOT
I finally found a picture of Dimwittie on a website. To coin an old school phrase, "What a Dweeb"! I have heard that his huge convention had a turnout of less than 15 people. Rumors are, he booked a block of 50 rooms, not at the original, swank hotel, but an upscale Motel 6. If they doubled up, I calculate Randy is out for about 40 rooms. My source says that the raffle winner won a monstrous computer desk valued at $1000. A guy in Colorado won it and will probably have to spend about that much to ship it.
My insider also said that Randy squats when he pees and hasn't been inside a woman since he visited the Statue of Liberty in High School.
The only good thing I can find about this guy is the quote about me that sits on my Home page.
GUN OF THE WEEK
Awhile back, JD ALLEN asked about my Remington model 1200. He didn't know that they made a pump action 1200. Well, here it is. I tried to get a good shot of the factory stamping, but my digicam sucks. Just below the Remington stamp, it is stamped "RIOT" and I believe these were originally issued as a Military/Police weapon. It's well worn and used, but cleaned after every outing and will always remain in my arsenal.
I did get rid of my Mossberg Maverick pump with just a pistol grip (only to help finance a trip to California). I prefer the shoulder stock AND pistol grip as it is easier to sweep an area with more accuracy and comfort.
GUN OF THE WEEK
Awhile back, JD ALLEN asked about my Remington model 1200. He didn't know that they made a pump action 1200. Well, here it is. I tried to get a good shot of the factory stamping, but my digicam sucks. Just below the Remington stamp, it is stamped "RIOT" and I believe these were originally issued as a Military/Police weapon. It's well worn and used, but cleaned after every outing and will always remain in my arsenal.
I did get rid of my Mossberg Maverick pump with just a pistol grip (only to help finance a trip to California). I prefer the shoulder stock AND pistol grip as it is easier to sweep an area with more accuracy and comfort.
Sunday, November 12, 2006
Friday, November 10, 2006
SUPER SIZE THAT PLEASE...
(AP) ALBUQUERQUE Two New Mexico police officers have sued Miami-based Burger King Corp., alleging personal injury, negligence, battery and violation of fair practices after they were served hamburgers that had been sprinkled with marijuana.
'It gives a whole new meaning to the word 'Whopper,' " plaintiffs attorney Sam Bregman said Monday. "The idea that these hoodlums would put marijuana into a hamburger and therefore attempt to impair law enforcement officers trying to do their jobs is outrageous.'"
The civil lawsuit was filed Friday in state district court in Bernalillo County by Mark Landavazo and Henry Gabaldon, officers for the Isleta Pueblo tribal police.
Officials at Burger King declined comment, citing a company policy against discussing pending litigation.
The lawsuit says the officers were in uniform and riding in a marked patrol car when they purchased meals through the drive-through lane on Oct. 8 at a Burger King restaurant in Los Lunas, N.M.
The officers ate about half of their burgers before discovering marijuana on the meat. They used a field test kit to confirm the substance was pot, then went to a hospital for medical evaluations.
Three Burger King employees -- Justin Armijo, 19; Robert Nuckols, 21; and manager Joseph Ledesma, 33 -- were arrested and charged with possession of marijuana and aggravated battery on an officer, a felony. They subsequently were indicted.
The lawsuit seeks punitive and compensatory damages to be determined at trial, along with legal costs.
The incident has been publicized in late-night television jokes by comedian Jay Leno and others, and Bregman acknowledged the situation ''seems somewhat humorous'' at first glance. But he also called it ``deadly serious.''
"God forbid these officers didn't realize their burgers were laced with pot and then were called to a violent situation where they'd have to draw their firearms," Bregman said. "Their lives were placed in danger because of these idiots and Burger King."
'It gives a whole new meaning to the word 'Whopper,' " plaintiffs attorney Sam Bregman said Monday. "The idea that these hoodlums would put marijuana into a hamburger and therefore attempt to impair law enforcement officers trying to do their jobs is outrageous.'"
The civil lawsuit was filed Friday in state district court in Bernalillo County by Mark Landavazo and Henry Gabaldon, officers for the Isleta Pueblo tribal police.
Officials at Burger King declined comment, citing a company policy against discussing pending litigation.
The lawsuit says the officers were in uniform and riding in a marked patrol car when they purchased meals through the drive-through lane on Oct. 8 at a Burger King restaurant in Los Lunas, N.M.
The officers ate about half of their burgers before discovering marijuana on the meat. They used a field test kit to confirm the substance was pot, then went to a hospital for medical evaluations.
Three Burger King employees -- Justin Armijo, 19; Robert Nuckols, 21; and manager Joseph Ledesma, 33 -- were arrested and charged with possession of marijuana and aggravated battery on an officer, a felony. They subsequently were indicted.
The lawsuit seeks punitive and compensatory damages to be determined at trial, along with legal costs.
The incident has been publicized in late-night television jokes by comedian Jay Leno and others, and Bregman acknowledged the situation ''seems somewhat humorous'' at first glance. But he also called it ``deadly serious.''
"God forbid these officers didn't realize their burgers were laced with pot and then were called to a violent situation where they'd have to draw their firearms," Bregman said. "Their lives were placed in danger because of these idiots and Burger King."
SUPER SIZE THAT PLEASE...
(AP) ALBUQUERQUE Two New Mexico police officers have sued Miami-based Burger King Corp., alleging personal injury, negligence, battery and violation of fair practices after they were served hamburgers that had been sprinkled with marijuana.
'It gives a whole new meaning to the word 'Whopper,' " plaintiffs attorney Sam Bregman said Monday. "The idea that these hoodlums would put marijuana into a hamburger and therefore attempt to impair law enforcement officers trying to do their jobs is outrageous.'"
The civil lawsuit was filed Friday in state district court in Bernalillo County by Mark Landavazo and Henry Gabaldon, officers for the Isleta Pueblo tribal police.
Officials at Burger King declined comment, citing a company policy against discussing pending litigation.
The lawsuit says the officers were in uniform and riding in a marked patrol car when they purchased meals through the drive-through lane on Oct. 8 at a Burger King restaurant in Los Lunas, N.M.
The officers ate about half of their burgers before discovering marijuana on the meat. They used a field test kit to confirm the substance was pot, then went to a hospital for medical evaluations.
Three Burger King employees -- Justin Armijo, 19; Robert Nuckols, 21; and manager Joseph Ledesma, 33 -- were arrested and charged with possession of marijuana and aggravated battery on an officer, a felony. They subsequently were indicted.
The lawsuit seeks punitive and compensatory damages to be determined at trial, along with legal costs.
The incident has been publicized in late-night television jokes by comedian Jay Leno and others, and Bregman acknowledged the situation ''seems somewhat humorous'' at first glance. But he also called it ``deadly serious.''
"God forbid these officers didn't realize their burgers were laced with pot and then were called to a violent situation where they'd have to draw their firearms," Bregman said. "Their lives were placed in danger because of these idiots and Burger King."
'It gives a whole new meaning to the word 'Whopper,' " plaintiffs attorney Sam Bregman said Monday. "The idea that these hoodlums would put marijuana into a hamburger and therefore attempt to impair law enforcement officers trying to do their jobs is outrageous.'"
The civil lawsuit was filed Friday in state district court in Bernalillo County by Mark Landavazo and Henry Gabaldon, officers for the Isleta Pueblo tribal police.
Officials at Burger King declined comment, citing a company policy against discussing pending litigation.
The lawsuit says the officers were in uniform and riding in a marked patrol car when they purchased meals through the drive-through lane on Oct. 8 at a Burger King restaurant in Los Lunas, N.M.
The officers ate about half of their burgers before discovering marijuana on the meat. They used a field test kit to confirm the substance was pot, then went to a hospital for medical evaluations.
Three Burger King employees -- Justin Armijo, 19; Robert Nuckols, 21; and manager Joseph Ledesma, 33 -- were arrested and charged with possession of marijuana and aggravated battery on an officer, a felony. They subsequently were indicted.
The lawsuit seeks punitive and compensatory damages to be determined at trial, along with legal costs.
The incident has been publicized in late-night television jokes by comedian Jay Leno and others, and Bregman acknowledged the situation ''seems somewhat humorous'' at first glance. But he also called it ``deadly serious.''
"God forbid these officers didn't realize their burgers were laced with pot and then were called to a violent situation where they'd have to draw their firearms," Bregman said. "Their lives were placed in danger because of these idiots and Burger King."
Thursday, November 9, 2006
Monday, November 6, 2006
Movie Night...
Can't find a good movie at the video store for movie night? Grab some popcorn and watch "Wet Back Theater"!
Now we need to add THIS feature.
NOTE: I am not anti-mexican. I am anti-illegal.
"Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free." Just enter our country the proper way.
Now we need to add THIS feature.
NOTE: I am not anti-mexican. I am anti-illegal.
"Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free." Just enter our country the proper way.
Movie Night...
Can't find a good movie at the video store for movie night? Grab some popcorn and watch "Wet Back Theater"!
Now we need to add THIS feature.
NOTE: I am not anti-mexican. I am anti-illegal.
"Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free." Just enter our country the proper way.
Now we need to add THIS feature.
NOTE: I am not anti-mexican. I am anti-illegal.
"Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free." Just enter our country the proper way.
Thursday, October 19, 2006
JEFF COOPER AND HIS COLOR CODES
My tribute to Mr. Cooper and a code I have always followed.
Most people stumble through life, blissfully unaware of the world around them. They remain preoccupied with thoughts of work, or personal problems, or how to get a date, or other trivialities, with no thought to their immediate environment. By not paying attention to their surroundings, they place themselves in needless jeopardy.
Go sit in the intake area in your neighborhood hospital emergency room one evening, as an educational exercise. Observe the unfortunates who come in for treatment, and you will get an excellent illustration of this point. About twenty percent of the customers are actually sick-discount them. The remaining eighty percent are there because they were inattentive to their environment. These will be people who walked off loading docks, or stepped off ladders twenty feet up, or backed into running machinery, or stepped into the path of a vehicle, OR allowed a thug to walk right up to them un-noticed and bean them with a brick. You can be stupid, inattentive, and oblivious in your work environment day in and day out and get away with it until one day the odds catch up with you and you are injured. The same applies on the street. You can be stupid, inattentive, and oblivious and get away with it until your path happens to cross the path of a criminal. The vast majority of criminals are opportunists, who only strike when presented with a viable opportunity. Remove the opportunity and you remove the risk to you!
By learning to observe your environment, constantly evaluate it, and react appropriately to what you see, you can achieve a large degree of control over your fate. This requires you to learn to shift up and down a scale of readiness, just like shifting gears in a car, so that you can match your level of awareness/readiness with the current requirements of your situation. In a car, you shift gears based on the grade encountered or the speed desired. On the street, you must learn to "shift gears" mentally, to match the threat level encountered. There is a sliding scale of readiness, going from a state of being oblivious and unprepared to a condition of being ready to instantly do lethal violence if forced. One cannot live stuck at either end of this spectrum.
If you try to live at the bottom of the scale, you will fall victim to an accident or to a criminal, eventually. It's just a matter of "when", not "if". On the other hand, you can't go through your daily routine with your hand hovering over your holstered pistol, ready to shoot if anything moves! What you must learn to do is escalate and de-escalate up and down this scale as the circumstances around you dictate. This is an easily learned system, and one that will help you be in the right frame of mind to deal with any conflict you encounter.
If you should find yourself faced with a life-threatening attack by a criminal, as a typical normal person, you will be faced by three enormous difficulties. They are:
1. Recognizing the presence of the predator in time;
2. Realizing, internalizing, and accepting that THAT MAN, RIGHT THERE, is about to kill you for reasons you do not understand; if you don't stop him; and
3. Overcoming your reluctance to do lethal violence against a fellow human being.
Let's look at each of these in turn. First, you have to see him and realize that he is a threat. Thugs are flesh and bone, and are not invisible. Contrary to public opinion, they do not beam down from the mother ship, attack you, and beam back up. They typically walk right up to you un-noticed because of the fog most people operate in daily. Learn to lift that fog and see the warning signs earlier, so you can be prepared.
Second, it is very difficult for normal, rational, socialized, civilized people to grasp that they live cheek by jowl with people who are NOT normal, rational, socialized, or civilized. There are people out there who do not care about your hopes or plans for the future, they do not care about your family, they do not care about the pain and suffering they inflict-they just don't care. They may kill you for the contents of your wallet, so they can buy one more day's supply of drugs. They may rape you because they feel powerless, degraded, and abused except while they are degrading and abusing someone else. They may kill you simply to move up one rank in their street gang. Guess what? It doesn't matter "Why?". A typical victim reaction is, "But why would anyone want to hurt me?". Who cares why?
Third, it will be difficult for you to put your sights in the center of a human being's chest and press the trigger, knowing that you are turning a vertical, living, breathing person into a horizontal pile of meat. Don't let anyone tell you that will be easy. As a society, we don't want it to be easy, do we? This is why legally armed citizens don't shoot people over arguments, or traffic accidents, and so forth. In fact, shootings by armed citizens are almost always ruled justifiable by the authorities, while almost a third of police shootings are ruled questionable or improper. Private citizens are reluctant to actually shoot, even when it is necessary. You must overcome this obstacle if your life is on the line. You will have to realize that there are times when lethal violence is not just excusable, or justifiable, or acceptable, but actually required.
Fortunately, there is a system available to help you overcome all three of these problems. By learning to use this system, practicing it, and making it part of your daily routine, you can be assured of seeing an attack in its developing stages, and become both mentally and physically prepared to defend yourself. Jeff Cooper, who taught it at ‘Gunsite’ and later gave an excellent videotaped presentation, first publicized this system, called the Color Code. I had the great good fortune of being taught this by Jeff early in my career, and I can say without reservation that this system saved my life on several occasions. Not what kind of gun I had, nor the brand of ammo, but this mental system. I feel so strongly that this is one of the most important weapons in your arsenal, that I feel it is my duty to share it with you.
I mentioned earlier learning to move up and down a scale of readiness, just like shifting gears. The scale consists of four mental states, which Jeff gave color names. The colors simply let us conceptualize and discuss the basic mental states. You must learn to go up and down this scale as the situation and circumstances around you change, as they invariably do as you go through your daily routine.
CONDITION WHITE- White is the lowest level on the escalator. In Condition White one is unaware, not alert, oblivious. This state can be characterized as "daydreaming" or "preoccupied". People in White tend to walk around with their heads down, as if watching their own feet. They do not notice the impending danger until it literally has them by the throat.
You see examples of this frequently. When was the last time you saw someone in traffic roll right up to a barricade or stalled vehicle, then expect you to stop and let them into your lane? They're operating their vehicle in Condition White. When a motorist runs over a motorcyclist and kills him, what are the first words out of their mouth? "I didn't see him." They're not lying. They were so inattentive and complacent that they did not notice a 200-pound man on a four hundred pound machine right in front of them. When this same guy runs past a stop sign and broadsides your car, killing your child, he will say, "I didn't see it.".
These same guys will be the victims of violent crime, because the criminal targets the inattentive, the complacent, the lazy, the distracted, the preoccupied. Why? Because the criminal wants to get to him, get what he wants from him, and get away from him, without being hurt or caught. Who would be the easiest person to do that to? Someone in Condition White. I'm sure you've seen or read about the Miranda card police officers carry. From it they read off a suspect's rights before questioning him. Dedicated victims carry a similar card in their pockets. If they are still alive when the police arrive, they take this card out of their pockets and read from it, as follows:
" Geez, it all happened so fast.
He materialized right next to me.
I never saw him.".
So, when would it be acceptable to be in Condition White? When in your own home, with the doors locked, the alarm system on, and your dog at your feet. Then, you can turn off your mind, if you wish, because you have sufficient layers of protection and warning to enable you to get up, get your gear, and get your head running. If you leave your home, you leave Condition White behind. The instant you leave your home, you escalate one level, to Condition Yellow.
CONDITION YELLOW- This is a relaxed state of general alertness, with no specific focal point. You are not looking for anything or anyone in particular; you simply have your head up and your eyes open. You are alert and aware of your surroundings. You are difficult to surprise, therefore, you are difficult to harm. You do not expect to be attacked today. You simply recognize the possibility.
Here's an excellent analogy. You are on a small naval patrol vessel in the middle of the Mediterranean. You are not at war with anyone today, so you do not expect to be attacked. You do, however, recognize the possibility, so you have your radar on twenty-four hours a day, making a continuous 360 degree sweep of the area, looking for potential problems. Suddenly, there is a blip on your radar screen. You cannot tell by looking at the small, greenish-yellow dot on the screen whether it is a good thing or a bad thing, so you ask a fighter plane to intercept the blip and check it out. If it is an Al Italia airliner a hundred miles off course, the fighter pilot will wave at it. If it's a Libyan MIG headed toward your boat, he will shoot it down. He won't know whether to wave or shoot until he first assesses the blip as a threat. This is exactly the same process you go through on the ground. When you leave home you turn on your radar, and it continually sweeps the area around you for potential hazards. When something catches your attention, you assess it. If it's not a threat, dismiss it. If it is a threat, start getting ready mentally to deal with it.
Anything or anyone in your immediate vicinity that is unusual, out of place, or out of context, should be viewed as potentially dangerous, until you have had a chance to assess it. Someone who looks out of place, or someone engaged in activity that has no obvious legitimate purpose, should be looked over carefully. When your mental radar picks up on a blip, you immediately escalate one level on the scale, to Condition Orange.
CONDITION ORANGE- This is a heightened state of alertness, with a specific focal point. The entire difference between Yellow and Orange is this specific target for your attention. Your focal point is the person who is doing whatever drew your attention to him. It might be the fact that he is wearing a field jacket in August. It might be that he's standing by a column in the parking garage, instead of going into the building, or getting in a car and leaving. It might be that you have been in five stores at the mall, and saw this same guy in every one of them. His actions have caused you to take note of him, so you must assess him as a potential threat, just as the fighter pilot assessed the blip earlier.
How do you assess someone as a threat? You have to take into account the totality of the cues available to you. His clothing, appearance, demeanor, actions, anything he says to you, are all cues. The single most important cue is body language. About 80% of human communication is through body language. Predators display subtle pre-aggression indicators, which are obvious once you learn to look for them.
When you shift upward to Orange, you begin to focus your attention on this individual that caught your eye, but do not drop your general over-view. You don't want to be blind-sided by his associates. You begin to watch him and assess his intentions, again looking at all of the cues available to you. Nine times out of ten, after a few seconds of observation, you will be able to see an innocuous reason for his behavior and then dismiss him. Once you figure out he's not a threat, dismiss him and de-escalate right back down to Yellow. Who is the tenth one? He is the predator, who would have got you if you had been inattentive. Now that you are aware of him, you are in far less danger.
As you assess this individual, and you see things that convince you he has evil intent, you start to play the "What if…." game in your mind, to begin formulating a basic plan. This is how we get ahead of the power curve. If he acts suddenly, we must have at least a rudimentary plan for dealing with him already in place, so that we can react swiftly enough. By saying to yourself, "That guy looks like he is about to stick me up, what am I going to do about it?", you begin the mental preparation vital to winning the conflict. With even a simple plan already in place, your physical reaction is both assured and immediate, if the bad guy presses his intentions. If, after assessing him, you believe he is an actual threat, you then escalate to the highest level, Condition Red.
CONDITION RED- In Red, you are ready to fight! You may, or may not, actually be fighting, but you are MENTALLY PREPARED to fight. In many, or perhaps even most, circumstances where you have gone fully to Red, you will not actually physically do anything at all. The entire process of escalating from Yellow, to Orange, to Red, then de-escalating right back down the scale as the situation is resolved, occurs without any actual physical activity on your part. The key is that you were mentally prepared for a conflict, and thus could physically act if the situation demanded.
When you believe a threat is real, and you have escalated to Red, you are waiting on the Mental Trigger, which is a specific, pre-determined action on his part that will result in an immediate, positive, aggressive, defensive reaction from you. This is how you achieve the speed necessary to win. By having a "pre-made decision" already set up in your mind, you can move physically fast enough to deal with the problem. Without that pre-made decision, the precious time in which you could have acted was wasted on trying to decide what to do after he starts his attack.
The Mental Trigger will differ depending upon the circumstances. It could be, "If he swings that gun in my direction I will shoot him", for instance. It could be, " I have told him to stop, if he takes one more step toward me with that (knife/tire iron/screwdriver) in his hand, I'll shoot him". Whatever trigger is selected, it is a button that, once pushed, results in immediate action on your part.
Your main enemy is reaction time. If you are not aware of your surroundings, and fail to see the suspicious character, he may overwhelm you before you can marshal an effective defense. On the other hand, if you are thinking to yourself, "I may have to hurt that guy if he doesn't wise up"; you've probably already won that fight, because you have a better understanding of what is transpiring than he does! The best fight is over before the loser fully understands what just happened. If you're caught in Condition White, you will need five to six seconds to realize what is happening, get your wits together, and respond. You simply don't have that much time.
There are a couple of mental tricks you can use in the early phases of your training to assist you in this. Remember that one of the three problems I mentioned earlier in this chapter will be actually "doing it", actually employing lethal force when required. To help with this, each morning when you put your gun on, remind yourself, "I may have to use my gun today". This plants in your subconscious mind (which drives 90% of your life) that there is a reason we wear these guns-we may actually need them to save our lives! When you pick up on that potential threat and escalate to Condition Orange, tell yourself, "I may have to shoot him today!". Believe me, if you have internalized that a specific person is an actual threat to your life, but that you have the means to stop him if need be, it gets easier to mentally deal with the situation.
Let's work through a scenario to illustrate these principles. Let's say you are working in a jewelry store today, a small storefront shop in a strip mall in suburbia. All of the other employees went to lunch and left you here alone. There are not even any customers in the store at the moment, you're alone. What mental state are you in? (Yellow. You are not ensconced in your home; you're out in the real world.) So you keep your head up, and occasionally you scan out through the glass storefront and check out the parking lot. Since there is no one else in the store, any problem will have to come from outside. You want to know about a problem while it's out there, not when it's standing across the counter from you.
As you glance through the glass, you see two men in their early 20's back up an old car to your store, get out in identical jogging suits, enter your door, and split up. Immediately, you go to Orange. They have done nothing illegal, and nothing aggressive, but they are out of place, out of the ordinary, so you escalate your mental state, and begin to think. "This looks like a hold-up in the making. I may have to hurt these guys. What should I do know? If things go bad, I'll drop behind this safe and I can shoot into that wall without endangering anyone on the parking lot. I have a plan." At this point you watch them, and continue to monitor their movements. If they leave, you de-escalate to Yellow once they are gone.
If they stay, they will probably get together on the far side of the store and briefly discuss what they have seen. They will then move toward your position at the counter, and after trying to distract you (Can I see that ring back there?) pull their guns and announce a stick-up. If you have been using the system, you went from Yellow to Orange when they came in, and went to Red as they approach your counter. You are ready. Because criminals have to be adept at reading body language (their lives depend upon this skill), they will see that you are prepared and simply leave. About nine out of ten pairs will leave at this point, without a confrontation. As they drive away, de-escalate from Red, to Orange, to Yellow.
What about the tenth pair? They are drugged, drunk, or both, and failed to recognize your level of readiness. They may go ahead foolishly with their hold-up. According to FBI studies, probably 80% of the ones you will actually have to fight will be under the influence of drugs/alcohol/drugs and alcohol at the time. What's the good news? They're drunk and/or drugged, which plays Hell with their reflexes, reaction time, and motor coordination. They'll be relatively easy to deal with, IF you are mentally prepared (Condition Red) and have done your homework.
If they come in, and upon observing them you go to Orange, then as they approach, to Red, but then they leave, and you de-escalate, you will have gone all of the way up the scale without even reaching for your gun, which is very common. The point is, you would have been ready to reach for your gun if necessary. This is how you win fights, by being mentally prepared to win.
Most people stumble through life, blissfully unaware of the world around them. They remain preoccupied with thoughts of work, or personal problems, or how to get a date, or other trivialities, with no thought to their immediate environment. By not paying attention to their surroundings, they place themselves in needless jeopardy.
Go sit in the intake area in your neighborhood hospital emergency room one evening, as an educational exercise. Observe the unfortunates who come in for treatment, and you will get an excellent illustration of this point. About twenty percent of the customers are actually sick-discount them. The remaining eighty percent are there because they were inattentive to their environment. These will be people who walked off loading docks, or stepped off ladders twenty feet up, or backed into running machinery, or stepped into the path of a vehicle, OR allowed a thug to walk right up to them un-noticed and bean them with a brick. You can be stupid, inattentive, and oblivious in your work environment day in and day out and get away with it until one day the odds catch up with you and you are injured. The same applies on the street. You can be stupid, inattentive, and oblivious and get away with it until your path happens to cross the path of a criminal. The vast majority of criminals are opportunists, who only strike when presented with a viable opportunity. Remove the opportunity and you remove the risk to you!
By learning to observe your environment, constantly evaluate it, and react appropriately to what you see, you can achieve a large degree of control over your fate. This requires you to learn to shift up and down a scale of readiness, just like shifting gears in a car, so that you can match your level of awareness/readiness with the current requirements of your situation. In a car, you shift gears based on the grade encountered or the speed desired. On the street, you must learn to "shift gears" mentally, to match the threat level encountered. There is a sliding scale of readiness, going from a state of being oblivious and unprepared to a condition of being ready to instantly do lethal violence if forced. One cannot live stuck at either end of this spectrum.
If you try to live at the bottom of the scale, you will fall victim to an accident or to a criminal, eventually. It's just a matter of "when", not "if". On the other hand, you can't go through your daily routine with your hand hovering over your holstered pistol, ready to shoot if anything moves! What you must learn to do is escalate and de-escalate up and down this scale as the circumstances around you dictate. This is an easily learned system, and one that will help you be in the right frame of mind to deal with any conflict you encounter.
If you should find yourself faced with a life-threatening attack by a criminal, as a typical normal person, you will be faced by three enormous difficulties. They are:
1. Recognizing the presence of the predator in time;
2. Realizing, internalizing, and accepting that THAT MAN, RIGHT THERE, is about to kill you for reasons you do not understand; if you don't stop him; and
3. Overcoming your reluctance to do lethal violence against a fellow human being.
Let's look at each of these in turn. First, you have to see him and realize that he is a threat. Thugs are flesh and bone, and are not invisible. Contrary to public opinion, they do not beam down from the mother ship, attack you, and beam back up. They typically walk right up to you un-noticed because of the fog most people operate in daily. Learn to lift that fog and see the warning signs earlier, so you can be prepared.
Second, it is very difficult for normal, rational, socialized, civilized people to grasp that they live cheek by jowl with people who are NOT normal, rational, socialized, or civilized. There are people out there who do not care about your hopes or plans for the future, they do not care about your family, they do not care about the pain and suffering they inflict-they just don't care. They may kill you for the contents of your wallet, so they can buy one more day's supply of drugs. They may rape you because they feel powerless, degraded, and abused except while they are degrading and abusing someone else. They may kill you simply to move up one rank in their street gang. Guess what? It doesn't matter "Why?". A typical victim reaction is, "But why would anyone want to hurt me?". Who cares why?
Third, it will be difficult for you to put your sights in the center of a human being's chest and press the trigger, knowing that you are turning a vertical, living, breathing person into a horizontal pile of meat. Don't let anyone tell you that will be easy. As a society, we don't want it to be easy, do we? This is why legally armed citizens don't shoot people over arguments, or traffic accidents, and so forth. In fact, shootings by armed citizens are almost always ruled justifiable by the authorities, while almost a third of police shootings are ruled questionable or improper. Private citizens are reluctant to actually shoot, even when it is necessary. You must overcome this obstacle if your life is on the line. You will have to realize that there are times when lethal violence is not just excusable, or justifiable, or acceptable, but actually required.
Fortunately, there is a system available to help you overcome all three of these problems. By learning to use this system, practicing it, and making it part of your daily routine, you can be assured of seeing an attack in its developing stages, and become both mentally and physically prepared to defend yourself. Jeff Cooper, who taught it at ‘Gunsite’ and later gave an excellent videotaped presentation, first publicized this system, called the Color Code. I had the great good fortune of being taught this by Jeff early in my career, and I can say without reservation that this system saved my life on several occasions. Not what kind of gun I had, nor the brand of ammo, but this mental system. I feel so strongly that this is one of the most important weapons in your arsenal, that I feel it is my duty to share it with you.
I mentioned earlier learning to move up and down a scale of readiness, just like shifting gears. The scale consists of four mental states, which Jeff gave color names. The colors simply let us conceptualize and discuss the basic mental states. You must learn to go up and down this scale as the situation and circumstances around you change, as they invariably do as you go through your daily routine.
CONDITION WHITE- White is the lowest level on the escalator. In Condition White one is unaware, not alert, oblivious. This state can be characterized as "daydreaming" or "preoccupied". People in White tend to walk around with their heads down, as if watching their own feet. They do not notice the impending danger until it literally has them by the throat.
You see examples of this frequently. When was the last time you saw someone in traffic roll right up to a barricade or stalled vehicle, then expect you to stop and let them into your lane? They're operating their vehicle in Condition White. When a motorist runs over a motorcyclist and kills him, what are the first words out of their mouth? "I didn't see him." They're not lying. They were so inattentive and complacent that they did not notice a 200-pound man on a four hundred pound machine right in front of them. When this same guy runs past a stop sign and broadsides your car, killing your child, he will say, "I didn't see it.".
These same guys will be the victims of violent crime, because the criminal targets the inattentive, the complacent, the lazy, the distracted, the preoccupied. Why? Because the criminal wants to get to him, get what he wants from him, and get away from him, without being hurt or caught. Who would be the easiest person to do that to? Someone in Condition White. I'm sure you've seen or read about the Miranda card police officers carry. From it they read off a suspect's rights before questioning him. Dedicated victims carry a similar card in their pockets. If they are still alive when the police arrive, they take this card out of their pockets and read from it, as follows:
" Geez, it all happened so fast.
He materialized right next to me.
I never saw him.".
So, when would it be acceptable to be in Condition White? When in your own home, with the doors locked, the alarm system on, and your dog at your feet. Then, you can turn off your mind, if you wish, because you have sufficient layers of protection and warning to enable you to get up, get your gear, and get your head running. If you leave your home, you leave Condition White behind. The instant you leave your home, you escalate one level, to Condition Yellow.
CONDITION YELLOW- This is a relaxed state of general alertness, with no specific focal point. You are not looking for anything or anyone in particular; you simply have your head up and your eyes open. You are alert and aware of your surroundings. You are difficult to surprise, therefore, you are difficult to harm. You do not expect to be attacked today. You simply recognize the possibility.
Here's an excellent analogy. You are on a small naval patrol vessel in the middle of the Mediterranean. You are not at war with anyone today, so you do not expect to be attacked. You do, however, recognize the possibility, so you have your radar on twenty-four hours a day, making a continuous 360 degree sweep of the area, looking for potential problems. Suddenly, there is a blip on your radar screen. You cannot tell by looking at the small, greenish-yellow dot on the screen whether it is a good thing or a bad thing, so you ask a fighter plane to intercept the blip and check it out. If it is an Al Italia airliner a hundred miles off course, the fighter pilot will wave at it. If it's a Libyan MIG headed toward your boat, he will shoot it down. He won't know whether to wave or shoot until he first assesses the blip as a threat. This is exactly the same process you go through on the ground. When you leave home you turn on your radar, and it continually sweeps the area around you for potential hazards. When something catches your attention, you assess it. If it's not a threat, dismiss it. If it is a threat, start getting ready mentally to deal with it.
Anything or anyone in your immediate vicinity that is unusual, out of place, or out of context, should be viewed as potentially dangerous, until you have had a chance to assess it. Someone who looks out of place, or someone engaged in activity that has no obvious legitimate purpose, should be looked over carefully. When your mental radar picks up on a blip, you immediately escalate one level on the scale, to Condition Orange.
CONDITION ORANGE- This is a heightened state of alertness, with a specific focal point. The entire difference between Yellow and Orange is this specific target for your attention. Your focal point is the person who is doing whatever drew your attention to him. It might be the fact that he is wearing a field jacket in August. It might be that he's standing by a column in the parking garage, instead of going into the building, or getting in a car and leaving. It might be that you have been in five stores at the mall, and saw this same guy in every one of them. His actions have caused you to take note of him, so you must assess him as a potential threat, just as the fighter pilot assessed the blip earlier.
How do you assess someone as a threat? You have to take into account the totality of the cues available to you. His clothing, appearance, demeanor, actions, anything he says to you, are all cues. The single most important cue is body language. About 80% of human communication is through body language. Predators display subtle pre-aggression indicators, which are obvious once you learn to look for them.
When you shift upward to Orange, you begin to focus your attention on this individual that caught your eye, but do not drop your general over-view. You don't want to be blind-sided by his associates. You begin to watch him and assess his intentions, again looking at all of the cues available to you. Nine times out of ten, after a few seconds of observation, you will be able to see an innocuous reason for his behavior and then dismiss him. Once you figure out he's not a threat, dismiss him and de-escalate right back down to Yellow. Who is the tenth one? He is the predator, who would have got you if you had been inattentive. Now that you are aware of him, you are in far less danger.
As you assess this individual, and you see things that convince you he has evil intent, you start to play the "What if…." game in your mind, to begin formulating a basic plan. This is how we get ahead of the power curve. If he acts suddenly, we must have at least a rudimentary plan for dealing with him already in place, so that we can react swiftly enough. By saying to yourself, "That guy looks like he is about to stick me up, what am I going to do about it?", you begin the mental preparation vital to winning the conflict. With even a simple plan already in place, your physical reaction is both assured and immediate, if the bad guy presses his intentions. If, after assessing him, you believe he is an actual threat, you then escalate to the highest level, Condition Red.
CONDITION RED- In Red, you are ready to fight! You may, or may not, actually be fighting, but you are MENTALLY PREPARED to fight. In many, or perhaps even most, circumstances where you have gone fully to Red, you will not actually physically do anything at all. The entire process of escalating from Yellow, to Orange, to Red, then de-escalating right back down the scale as the situation is resolved, occurs without any actual physical activity on your part. The key is that you were mentally prepared for a conflict, and thus could physically act if the situation demanded.
When you believe a threat is real, and you have escalated to Red, you are waiting on the Mental Trigger, which is a specific, pre-determined action on his part that will result in an immediate, positive, aggressive, defensive reaction from you. This is how you achieve the speed necessary to win. By having a "pre-made decision" already set up in your mind, you can move physically fast enough to deal with the problem. Without that pre-made decision, the precious time in which you could have acted was wasted on trying to decide what to do after he starts his attack.
The Mental Trigger will differ depending upon the circumstances. It could be, "If he swings that gun in my direction I will shoot him", for instance. It could be, " I have told him to stop, if he takes one more step toward me with that (knife/tire iron/screwdriver) in his hand, I'll shoot him". Whatever trigger is selected, it is a button that, once pushed, results in immediate action on your part.
Your main enemy is reaction time. If you are not aware of your surroundings, and fail to see the suspicious character, he may overwhelm you before you can marshal an effective defense. On the other hand, if you are thinking to yourself, "I may have to hurt that guy if he doesn't wise up"; you've probably already won that fight, because you have a better understanding of what is transpiring than he does! The best fight is over before the loser fully understands what just happened. If you're caught in Condition White, you will need five to six seconds to realize what is happening, get your wits together, and respond. You simply don't have that much time.
There are a couple of mental tricks you can use in the early phases of your training to assist you in this. Remember that one of the three problems I mentioned earlier in this chapter will be actually "doing it", actually employing lethal force when required. To help with this, each morning when you put your gun on, remind yourself, "I may have to use my gun today". This plants in your subconscious mind (which drives 90% of your life) that there is a reason we wear these guns-we may actually need them to save our lives! When you pick up on that potential threat and escalate to Condition Orange, tell yourself, "I may have to shoot him today!". Believe me, if you have internalized that a specific person is an actual threat to your life, but that you have the means to stop him if need be, it gets easier to mentally deal with the situation.
Let's work through a scenario to illustrate these principles. Let's say you are working in a jewelry store today, a small storefront shop in a strip mall in suburbia. All of the other employees went to lunch and left you here alone. There are not even any customers in the store at the moment, you're alone. What mental state are you in? (Yellow. You are not ensconced in your home; you're out in the real world.) So you keep your head up, and occasionally you scan out through the glass storefront and check out the parking lot. Since there is no one else in the store, any problem will have to come from outside. You want to know about a problem while it's out there, not when it's standing across the counter from you.
As you glance through the glass, you see two men in their early 20's back up an old car to your store, get out in identical jogging suits, enter your door, and split up. Immediately, you go to Orange. They have done nothing illegal, and nothing aggressive, but they are out of place, out of the ordinary, so you escalate your mental state, and begin to think. "This looks like a hold-up in the making. I may have to hurt these guys. What should I do know? If things go bad, I'll drop behind this safe and I can shoot into that wall without endangering anyone on the parking lot. I have a plan." At this point you watch them, and continue to monitor their movements. If they leave, you de-escalate to Yellow once they are gone.
If they stay, they will probably get together on the far side of the store and briefly discuss what they have seen. They will then move toward your position at the counter, and after trying to distract you (Can I see that ring back there?) pull their guns and announce a stick-up. If you have been using the system, you went from Yellow to Orange when they came in, and went to Red as they approach your counter. You are ready. Because criminals have to be adept at reading body language (their lives depend upon this skill), they will see that you are prepared and simply leave. About nine out of ten pairs will leave at this point, without a confrontation. As they drive away, de-escalate from Red, to Orange, to Yellow.
What about the tenth pair? They are drugged, drunk, or both, and failed to recognize your level of readiness. They may go ahead foolishly with their hold-up. According to FBI studies, probably 80% of the ones you will actually have to fight will be under the influence of drugs/alcohol/drugs and alcohol at the time. What's the good news? They're drunk and/or drugged, which plays Hell with their reflexes, reaction time, and motor coordination. They'll be relatively easy to deal with, IF you are mentally prepared (Condition Red) and have done your homework.
If they come in, and upon observing them you go to Orange, then as they approach, to Red, but then they leave, and you de-escalate, you will have gone all of the way up the scale without even reaching for your gun, which is very common. The point is, you would have been ready to reach for your gun if necessary. This is how you win fights, by being mentally prepared to win.
JEFF COOPER AND HIS COLOR CODES
My tribute to Mr. Cooper and a code I have always followed.
Most people stumble through life, blissfully unaware of the world around them. They remain preoccupied with thoughts of work, or personal problems, or how to get a date, or other trivialities, with no thought to their immediate environment. By not paying attention to their surroundings, they place themselves in needless jeopardy.
Go sit in the intake area in your neighborhood hospital emergency room one evening, as an educational exercise. Observe the unfortunates who come in for treatment, and you will get an excellent illustration of this point. About twenty percent of the customers are actually sick-discount them. The remaining eighty percent are there because they were inattentive to their environment. These will be people who walked off loading docks, or stepped off ladders twenty feet up, or backed into running machinery, or stepped into the path of a vehicle, OR allowed a thug to walk right up to them un-noticed and bean them with a brick. You can be stupid, inattentive, and oblivious in your work environment day in and day out and get away with it until one day the odds catch up with you and you are injured. The same applies on the street. You can be stupid, inattentive, and oblivious and get away with it until your path happens to cross the path of a criminal. The vast majority of criminals are opportunists, who only strike when presented with a viable opportunity. Remove the opportunity and you remove the risk to you!
By learning to observe your environment, constantly evaluate it, and react appropriately to what you see, you can achieve a large degree of control over your fate. This requires you to learn to shift up and down a scale of readiness, just like shifting gears in a car, so that you can match your level of awareness/readiness with the current requirements of your situation. In a car, you shift gears based on the grade encountered or the speed desired. On the street, you must learn to "shift gears" mentally, to match the threat level encountered. There is a sliding scale of readiness, going from a state of being oblivious and unprepared to a condition of being ready to instantly do lethal violence if forced. One cannot live stuck at either end of this spectrum.
If you try to live at the bottom of the scale, you will fall victim to an accident or to a criminal, eventually. It's just a matter of "when", not "if". On the other hand, you can't go through your daily routine with your hand hovering over your holstered pistol, ready to shoot if anything moves! What you must learn to do is escalate and de-escalate up and down this scale as the circumstances around you dictate. This is an easily learned system, and one that will help you be in the right frame of mind to deal with any conflict you encounter.
If you should find yourself faced with a life-threatening attack by a criminal, as a typical normal person, you will be faced by three enormous difficulties. They are:
1. Recognizing the presence of the predator in time;
2. Realizing, internalizing, and accepting that THAT MAN, RIGHT THERE, is about to kill you for reasons you do not understand; if you don't stop him; and
3. Overcoming your reluctance to do lethal violence against a fellow human being.
Let's look at each of these in turn. First, you have to see him and realize that he is a threat. Thugs are flesh and bone, and are not invisible. Contrary to public opinion, they do not beam down from the mother ship, attack you, and beam back up. They typically walk right up to you un-noticed because of the fog most people operate in daily. Learn to lift that fog and see the warning signs earlier, so you can be prepared.
Second, it is very difficult for normal, rational, socialized, civilized people to grasp that they live cheek by jowl with people who are NOT normal, rational, socialized, or civilized. There are people out there who do not care about your hopes or plans for the future, they do not care about your family, they do not care about the pain and suffering they inflict-they just don't care. They may kill you for the contents of your wallet, so they can buy one more day's supply of drugs. They may rape you because they feel powerless, degraded, and abused except while they are degrading and abusing someone else. They may kill you simply to move up one rank in their street gang. Guess what? It doesn't matter "Why?". A typical victim reaction is, "But why would anyone want to hurt me?". Who cares why?
Third, it will be difficult for you to put your sights in the center of a human being's chest and press the trigger, knowing that you are turning a vertical, living, breathing person into a horizontal pile of meat. Don't let anyone tell you that will be easy. As a society, we don't want it to be easy, do we? This is why legally armed citizens don't shoot people over arguments, or traffic accidents, and so forth. In fact, shootings by armed citizens are almost always ruled justifiable by the authorities, while almost a third of police shootings are ruled questionable or improper. Private citizens are reluctant to actually shoot, even when it is necessary. You must overcome this obstacle if your life is on the line. You will have to realize that there are times when lethal violence is not just excusable, or justifiable, or acceptable, but actually required.
Fortunately, there is a system available to help you overcome all three of these problems. By learning to use this system, practicing it, and making it part of your daily routine, you can be assured of seeing an attack in its developing stages, and become both mentally and physically prepared to defend yourself. Jeff Cooper, who taught it at ‘Gunsite’ and later gave an excellent videotaped presentation, first publicized this system, called the Color Code. I had the great good fortune of being taught this by Jeff early in my career, and I can say without reservation that this system saved my life on several occasions. Not what kind of gun I had, nor the brand of ammo, but this mental system. I feel so strongly that this is one of the most important weapons in your arsenal, that I feel it is my duty to share it with you.
I mentioned earlier learning to move up and down a scale of readiness, just like shifting gears. The scale consists of four mental states, which Jeff gave color names. The colors simply let us conceptualize and discuss the basic mental states. You must learn to go up and down this scale as the situation and circumstances around you change, as they invariably do as you go through your daily routine.
CONDITION WHITE- White is the lowest level on the escalator. In Condition White one is unaware, not alert, oblivious. This state can be characterized as "daydreaming" or "preoccupied". People in White tend to walk around with their heads down, as if watching their own feet. They do not notice the impending danger until it literally has them by the throat.
You see examples of this frequently. When was the last time you saw someone in traffic roll right up to a barricade or stalled vehicle, then expect you to stop and let them into your lane? They're operating their vehicle in Condition White. When a motorist runs over a motorcyclist and kills him, what are the first words out of their mouth? "I didn't see him." They're not lying. They were so inattentive and complacent that they did not notice a 200-pound man on a four hundred pound machine right in front of them. When this same guy runs past a stop sign and broadsides your car, killing your child, he will say, "I didn't see it.".
These same guys will be the victims of violent crime, because the criminal targets the inattentive, the complacent, the lazy, the distracted, the preoccupied. Why? Because the criminal wants to get to him, get what he wants from him, and get away from him, without being hurt or caught. Who would be the easiest person to do that to? Someone in Condition White. I'm sure you've seen or read about the Miranda card police officers carry. From it they read off a suspect's rights before questioning him. Dedicated victims carry a similar card in their pockets. If they are still alive when the police arrive, they take this card out of their pockets and read from it, as follows:
" Geez, it all happened so fast.
He materialized right next to me.
I never saw him.".
So, when would it be acceptable to be in Condition White? When in your own home, with the doors locked, the alarm system on, and your dog at your feet. Then, you can turn off your mind, if you wish, because you have sufficient layers of protection and warning to enable you to get up, get your gear, and get your head running. If you leave your home, you leave Condition White behind. The instant you leave your home, you escalate one level, to Condition Yellow.
CONDITION YELLOW- This is a relaxed state of general alertness, with no specific focal point. You are not looking for anything or anyone in particular; you simply have your head up and your eyes open. You are alert and aware of your surroundings. You are difficult to surprise, therefore, you are difficult to harm. You do not expect to be attacked today. You simply recognize the possibility.
Here's an excellent analogy. You are on a small naval patrol vessel in the middle of the Mediterranean. You are not at war with anyone today, so you do not expect to be attacked. You do, however, recognize the possibility, so you have your radar on twenty-four hours a day, making a continuous 360 degree sweep of the area, looking for potential problems. Suddenly, there is a blip on your radar screen. You cannot tell by looking at the small, greenish-yellow dot on the screen whether it is a good thing or a bad thing, so you ask a fighter plane to intercept the blip and check it out. If it is an Al Italia airliner a hundred miles off course, the fighter pilot will wave at it. If it's a Libyan MIG headed toward your boat, he will shoot it down. He won't know whether to wave or shoot until he first assesses the blip as a threat. This is exactly the same process you go through on the ground. When you leave home you turn on your radar, and it continually sweeps the area around you for potential hazards. When something catches your attention, you assess it. If it's not a threat, dismiss it. If it is a threat, start getting ready mentally to deal with it.
Anything or anyone in your immediate vicinity that is unusual, out of place, or out of context, should be viewed as potentially dangerous, until you have had a chance to assess it. Someone who looks out of place, or someone engaged in activity that has no obvious legitimate purpose, should be looked over carefully. When your mental radar picks up on a blip, you immediately escalate one level on the scale, to Condition Orange.
CONDITION ORANGE- This is a heightened state of alertness, with a specific focal point. The entire difference between Yellow and Orange is this specific target for your attention. Your focal point is the person who is doing whatever drew your attention to him. It might be the fact that he is wearing a field jacket in August. It might be that he's standing by a column in the parking garage, instead of going into the building, or getting in a car and leaving. It might be that you have been in five stores at the mall, and saw this same guy in every one of them. His actions have caused you to take note of him, so you must assess him as a potential threat, just as the fighter pilot assessed the blip earlier.
How do you assess someone as a threat? You have to take into account the totality of the cues available to you. His clothing, appearance, demeanor, actions, anything he says to you, are all cues. The single most important cue is body language. About 80% of human communication is through body language. Predators display subtle pre-aggression indicators, which are obvious once you learn to look for them.
When you shift upward to Orange, you begin to focus your attention on this individual that caught your eye, but do not drop your general over-view. You don't want to be blind-sided by his associates. You begin to watch him and assess his intentions, again looking at all of the cues available to you. Nine times out of ten, after a few seconds of observation, you will be able to see an innocuous reason for his behavior and then dismiss him. Once you figure out he's not a threat, dismiss him and de-escalate right back down to Yellow. Who is the tenth one? He is the predator, who would have got you if you had been inattentive. Now that you are aware of him, you are in far less danger.
As you assess this individual, and you see things that convince you he has evil intent, you start to play the "What if…." game in your mind, to begin formulating a basic plan. This is how we get ahead of the power curve. If he acts suddenly, we must have at least a rudimentary plan for dealing with him already in place, so that we can react swiftly enough. By saying to yourself, "That guy looks like he is about to stick me up, what am I going to do about it?", you begin the mental preparation vital to winning the conflict. With even a simple plan already in place, your physical reaction is both assured and immediate, if the bad guy presses his intentions. If, after assessing him, you believe he is an actual threat, you then escalate to the highest level, Condition Red.
CONDITION RED- In Red, you are ready to fight! You may, or may not, actually be fighting, but you are MENTALLY PREPARED to fight. In many, or perhaps even most, circumstances where you have gone fully to Red, you will not actually physically do anything at all. The entire process of escalating from Yellow, to Orange, to Red, then de-escalating right back down the scale as the situation is resolved, occurs without any actual physical activity on your part. The key is that you were mentally prepared for a conflict, and thus could physically act if the situation demanded.
When you believe a threat is real, and you have escalated to Red, you are waiting on the Mental Trigger, which is a specific, pre-determined action on his part that will result in an immediate, positive, aggressive, defensive reaction from you. This is how you achieve the speed necessary to win. By having a "pre-made decision" already set up in your mind, you can move physically fast enough to deal with the problem. Without that pre-made decision, the precious time in which you could have acted was wasted on trying to decide what to do after he starts his attack.
The Mental Trigger will differ depending upon the circumstances. It could be, "If he swings that gun in my direction I will shoot him", for instance. It could be, " I have told him to stop, if he takes one more step toward me with that (knife/tire iron/screwdriver) in his hand, I'll shoot him". Whatever trigger is selected, it is a button that, once pushed, results in immediate action on your part.
Your main enemy is reaction time. If you are not aware of your surroundings, and fail to see the suspicious character, he may overwhelm you before you can marshal an effective defense. On the other hand, if you are thinking to yourself, "I may have to hurt that guy if he doesn't wise up"; you've probably already won that fight, because you have a better understanding of what is transpiring than he does! The best fight is over before the loser fully understands what just happened. If you're caught in Condition White, you will need five to six seconds to realize what is happening, get your wits together, and respond. You simply don't have that much time.
There are a couple of mental tricks you can use in the early phases of your training to assist you in this. Remember that one of the three problems I mentioned earlier in this chapter will be actually "doing it", actually employing lethal force when required. To help with this, each morning when you put your gun on, remind yourself, "I may have to use my gun today". This plants in your subconscious mind (which drives 90% of your life) that there is a reason we wear these guns-we may actually need them to save our lives! When you pick up on that potential threat and escalate to Condition Orange, tell yourself, "I may have to shoot him today!". Believe me, if you have internalized that a specific person is an actual threat to your life, but that you have the means to stop him if need be, it gets easier to mentally deal with the situation.
Let's work through a scenario to illustrate these principles. Let's say you are working in a jewelry store today, a small storefront shop in a strip mall in suburbia. All of the other employees went to lunch and left you here alone. There are not even any customers in the store at the moment, you're alone. What mental state are you in? (Yellow. You are not ensconced in your home; you're out in the real world.) So you keep your head up, and occasionally you scan out through the glass storefront and check out the parking lot. Since there is no one else in the store, any problem will have to come from outside. You want to know about a problem while it's out there, not when it's standing across the counter from you.
As you glance through the glass, you see two men in their early 20's back up an old car to your store, get out in identical jogging suits, enter your door, and split up. Immediately, you go to Orange. They have done nothing illegal, and nothing aggressive, but they are out of place, out of the ordinary, so you escalate your mental state, and begin to think. "This looks like a hold-up in the making. I may have to hurt these guys. What should I do know? If things go bad, I'll drop behind this safe and I can shoot into that wall without endangering anyone on the parking lot. I have a plan." At this point you watch them, and continue to monitor their movements. If they leave, you de-escalate to Yellow once they are gone.
If they stay, they will probably get together on the far side of the store and briefly discuss what they have seen. They will then move toward your position at the counter, and after trying to distract you (Can I see that ring back there?) pull their guns and announce a stick-up. If you have been using the system, you went from Yellow to Orange when they came in, and went to Red as they approach your counter. You are ready. Because criminals have to be adept at reading body language (their lives depend upon this skill), they will see that you are prepared and simply leave. About nine out of ten pairs will leave at this point, without a confrontation. As they drive away, de-escalate from Red, to Orange, to Yellow.
What about the tenth pair? They are drugged, drunk, or both, and failed to recognize your level of readiness. They may go ahead foolishly with their hold-up. According to FBI studies, probably 80% of the ones you will actually have to fight will be under the influence of drugs/alcohol/drugs and alcohol at the time. What's the good news? They're drunk and/or drugged, which plays Hell with their reflexes, reaction time, and motor coordination. They'll be relatively easy to deal with, IF you are mentally prepared (Condition Red) and have done your homework.
If they come in, and upon observing them you go to Orange, then as they approach, to Red, but then they leave, and you de-escalate, you will have gone all of the way up the scale without even reaching for your gun, which is very common. The point is, you would have been ready to reach for your gun if necessary. This is how you win fights, by being mentally prepared to win.
Most people stumble through life, blissfully unaware of the world around them. They remain preoccupied with thoughts of work, or personal problems, or how to get a date, or other trivialities, with no thought to their immediate environment. By not paying attention to their surroundings, they place themselves in needless jeopardy.
Go sit in the intake area in your neighborhood hospital emergency room one evening, as an educational exercise. Observe the unfortunates who come in for treatment, and you will get an excellent illustration of this point. About twenty percent of the customers are actually sick-discount them. The remaining eighty percent are there because they were inattentive to their environment. These will be people who walked off loading docks, or stepped off ladders twenty feet up, or backed into running machinery, or stepped into the path of a vehicle, OR allowed a thug to walk right up to them un-noticed and bean them with a brick. You can be stupid, inattentive, and oblivious in your work environment day in and day out and get away with it until one day the odds catch up with you and you are injured. The same applies on the street. You can be stupid, inattentive, and oblivious and get away with it until your path happens to cross the path of a criminal. The vast majority of criminals are opportunists, who only strike when presented with a viable opportunity. Remove the opportunity and you remove the risk to you!
By learning to observe your environment, constantly evaluate it, and react appropriately to what you see, you can achieve a large degree of control over your fate. This requires you to learn to shift up and down a scale of readiness, just like shifting gears in a car, so that you can match your level of awareness/readiness with the current requirements of your situation. In a car, you shift gears based on the grade encountered or the speed desired. On the street, you must learn to "shift gears" mentally, to match the threat level encountered. There is a sliding scale of readiness, going from a state of being oblivious and unprepared to a condition of being ready to instantly do lethal violence if forced. One cannot live stuck at either end of this spectrum.
If you try to live at the bottom of the scale, you will fall victim to an accident or to a criminal, eventually. It's just a matter of "when", not "if". On the other hand, you can't go through your daily routine with your hand hovering over your holstered pistol, ready to shoot if anything moves! What you must learn to do is escalate and de-escalate up and down this scale as the circumstances around you dictate. This is an easily learned system, and one that will help you be in the right frame of mind to deal with any conflict you encounter.
If you should find yourself faced with a life-threatening attack by a criminal, as a typical normal person, you will be faced by three enormous difficulties. They are:
1. Recognizing the presence of the predator in time;
2. Realizing, internalizing, and accepting that THAT MAN, RIGHT THERE, is about to kill you for reasons you do not understand; if you don't stop him; and
3. Overcoming your reluctance to do lethal violence against a fellow human being.
Let's look at each of these in turn. First, you have to see him and realize that he is a threat. Thugs are flesh and bone, and are not invisible. Contrary to public opinion, they do not beam down from the mother ship, attack you, and beam back up. They typically walk right up to you un-noticed because of the fog most people operate in daily. Learn to lift that fog and see the warning signs earlier, so you can be prepared.
Second, it is very difficult for normal, rational, socialized, civilized people to grasp that they live cheek by jowl with people who are NOT normal, rational, socialized, or civilized. There are people out there who do not care about your hopes or plans for the future, they do not care about your family, they do not care about the pain and suffering they inflict-they just don't care. They may kill you for the contents of your wallet, so they can buy one more day's supply of drugs. They may rape you because they feel powerless, degraded, and abused except while they are degrading and abusing someone else. They may kill you simply to move up one rank in their street gang. Guess what? It doesn't matter "Why?". A typical victim reaction is, "But why would anyone want to hurt me?". Who cares why?
Third, it will be difficult for you to put your sights in the center of a human being's chest and press the trigger, knowing that you are turning a vertical, living, breathing person into a horizontal pile of meat. Don't let anyone tell you that will be easy. As a society, we don't want it to be easy, do we? This is why legally armed citizens don't shoot people over arguments, or traffic accidents, and so forth. In fact, shootings by armed citizens are almost always ruled justifiable by the authorities, while almost a third of police shootings are ruled questionable or improper. Private citizens are reluctant to actually shoot, even when it is necessary. You must overcome this obstacle if your life is on the line. You will have to realize that there are times when lethal violence is not just excusable, or justifiable, or acceptable, but actually required.
Fortunately, there is a system available to help you overcome all three of these problems. By learning to use this system, practicing it, and making it part of your daily routine, you can be assured of seeing an attack in its developing stages, and become both mentally and physically prepared to defend yourself. Jeff Cooper, who taught it at ‘Gunsite’ and later gave an excellent videotaped presentation, first publicized this system, called the Color Code. I had the great good fortune of being taught this by Jeff early in my career, and I can say without reservation that this system saved my life on several occasions. Not what kind of gun I had, nor the brand of ammo, but this mental system. I feel so strongly that this is one of the most important weapons in your arsenal, that I feel it is my duty to share it with you.
I mentioned earlier learning to move up and down a scale of readiness, just like shifting gears. The scale consists of four mental states, which Jeff gave color names. The colors simply let us conceptualize and discuss the basic mental states. You must learn to go up and down this scale as the situation and circumstances around you change, as they invariably do as you go through your daily routine.
CONDITION WHITE- White is the lowest level on the escalator. In Condition White one is unaware, not alert, oblivious. This state can be characterized as "daydreaming" or "preoccupied". People in White tend to walk around with their heads down, as if watching their own feet. They do not notice the impending danger until it literally has them by the throat.
You see examples of this frequently. When was the last time you saw someone in traffic roll right up to a barricade or stalled vehicle, then expect you to stop and let them into your lane? They're operating their vehicle in Condition White. When a motorist runs over a motorcyclist and kills him, what are the first words out of their mouth? "I didn't see him." They're not lying. They were so inattentive and complacent that they did not notice a 200-pound man on a four hundred pound machine right in front of them. When this same guy runs past a stop sign and broadsides your car, killing your child, he will say, "I didn't see it.".
These same guys will be the victims of violent crime, because the criminal targets the inattentive, the complacent, the lazy, the distracted, the preoccupied. Why? Because the criminal wants to get to him, get what he wants from him, and get away from him, without being hurt or caught. Who would be the easiest person to do that to? Someone in Condition White. I'm sure you've seen or read about the Miranda card police officers carry. From it they read off a suspect's rights before questioning him. Dedicated victims carry a similar card in their pockets. If they are still alive when the police arrive, they take this card out of their pockets and read from it, as follows:
" Geez, it all happened so fast.
He materialized right next to me.
I never saw him.".
So, when would it be acceptable to be in Condition White? When in your own home, with the doors locked, the alarm system on, and your dog at your feet. Then, you can turn off your mind, if you wish, because you have sufficient layers of protection and warning to enable you to get up, get your gear, and get your head running. If you leave your home, you leave Condition White behind. The instant you leave your home, you escalate one level, to Condition Yellow.
CONDITION YELLOW- This is a relaxed state of general alertness, with no specific focal point. You are not looking for anything or anyone in particular; you simply have your head up and your eyes open. You are alert and aware of your surroundings. You are difficult to surprise, therefore, you are difficult to harm. You do not expect to be attacked today. You simply recognize the possibility.
Here's an excellent analogy. You are on a small naval patrol vessel in the middle of the Mediterranean. You are not at war with anyone today, so you do not expect to be attacked. You do, however, recognize the possibility, so you have your radar on twenty-four hours a day, making a continuous 360 degree sweep of the area, looking for potential problems. Suddenly, there is a blip on your radar screen. You cannot tell by looking at the small, greenish-yellow dot on the screen whether it is a good thing or a bad thing, so you ask a fighter plane to intercept the blip and check it out. If it is an Al Italia airliner a hundred miles off course, the fighter pilot will wave at it. If it's a Libyan MIG headed toward your boat, he will shoot it down. He won't know whether to wave or shoot until he first assesses the blip as a threat. This is exactly the same process you go through on the ground. When you leave home you turn on your radar, and it continually sweeps the area around you for potential hazards. When something catches your attention, you assess it. If it's not a threat, dismiss it. If it is a threat, start getting ready mentally to deal with it.
Anything or anyone in your immediate vicinity that is unusual, out of place, or out of context, should be viewed as potentially dangerous, until you have had a chance to assess it. Someone who looks out of place, or someone engaged in activity that has no obvious legitimate purpose, should be looked over carefully. When your mental radar picks up on a blip, you immediately escalate one level on the scale, to Condition Orange.
CONDITION ORANGE- This is a heightened state of alertness, with a specific focal point. The entire difference between Yellow and Orange is this specific target for your attention. Your focal point is the person who is doing whatever drew your attention to him. It might be the fact that he is wearing a field jacket in August. It might be that he's standing by a column in the parking garage, instead of going into the building, or getting in a car and leaving. It might be that you have been in five stores at the mall, and saw this same guy in every one of them. His actions have caused you to take note of him, so you must assess him as a potential threat, just as the fighter pilot assessed the blip earlier.
How do you assess someone as a threat? You have to take into account the totality of the cues available to you. His clothing, appearance, demeanor, actions, anything he says to you, are all cues. The single most important cue is body language. About 80% of human communication is through body language. Predators display subtle pre-aggression indicators, which are obvious once you learn to look for them.
When you shift upward to Orange, you begin to focus your attention on this individual that caught your eye, but do not drop your general over-view. You don't want to be blind-sided by his associates. You begin to watch him and assess his intentions, again looking at all of the cues available to you. Nine times out of ten, after a few seconds of observation, you will be able to see an innocuous reason for his behavior and then dismiss him. Once you figure out he's not a threat, dismiss him and de-escalate right back down to Yellow. Who is the tenth one? He is the predator, who would have got you if you had been inattentive. Now that you are aware of him, you are in far less danger.
As you assess this individual, and you see things that convince you he has evil intent, you start to play the "What if…." game in your mind, to begin formulating a basic plan. This is how we get ahead of the power curve. If he acts suddenly, we must have at least a rudimentary plan for dealing with him already in place, so that we can react swiftly enough. By saying to yourself, "That guy looks like he is about to stick me up, what am I going to do about it?", you begin the mental preparation vital to winning the conflict. With even a simple plan already in place, your physical reaction is both assured and immediate, if the bad guy presses his intentions. If, after assessing him, you believe he is an actual threat, you then escalate to the highest level, Condition Red.
CONDITION RED- In Red, you are ready to fight! You may, or may not, actually be fighting, but you are MENTALLY PREPARED to fight. In many, or perhaps even most, circumstances where you have gone fully to Red, you will not actually physically do anything at all. The entire process of escalating from Yellow, to Orange, to Red, then de-escalating right back down the scale as the situation is resolved, occurs without any actual physical activity on your part. The key is that you were mentally prepared for a conflict, and thus could physically act if the situation demanded.
When you believe a threat is real, and you have escalated to Red, you are waiting on the Mental Trigger, which is a specific, pre-determined action on his part that will result in an immediate, positive, aggressive, defensive reaction from you. This is how you achieve the speed necessary to win. By having a "pre-made decision" already set up in your mind, you can move physically fast enough to deal with the problem. Without that pre-made decision, the precious time in which you could have acted was wasted on trying to decide what to do after he starts his attack.
The Mental Trigger will differ depending upon the circumstances. It could be, "If he swings that gun in my direction I will shoot him", for instance. It could be, " I have told him to stop, if he takes one more step toward me with that (knife/tire iron/screwdriver) in his hand, I'll shoot him". Whatever trigger is selected, it is a button that, once pushed, results in immediate action on your part.
Your main enemy is reaction time. If you are not aware of your surroundings, and fail to see the suspicious character, he may overwhelm you before you can marshal an effective defense. On the other hand, if you are thinking to yourself, "I may have to hurt that guy if he doesn't wise up"; you've probably already won that fight, because you have a better understanding of what is transpiring than he does! The best fight is over before the loser fully understands what just happened. If you're caught in Condition White, you will need five to six seconds to realize what is happening, get your wits together, and respond. You simply don't have that much time.
There are a couple of mental tricks you can use in the early phases of your training to assist you in this. Remember that one of the three problems I mentioned earlier in this chapter will be actually "doing it", actually employing lethal force when required. To help with this, each morning when you put your gun on, remind yourself, "I may have to use my gun today". This plants in your subconscious mind (which drives 90% of your life) that there is a reason we wear these guns-we may actually need them to save our lives! When you pick up on that potential threat and escalate to Condition Orange, tell yourself, "I may have to shoot him today!". Believe me, if you have internalized that a specific person is an actual threat to your life, but that you have the means to stop him if need be, it gets easier to mentally deal with the situation.
Let's work through a scenario to illustrate these principles. Let's say you are working in a jewelry store today, a small storefront shop in a strip mall in suburbia. All of the other employees went to lunch and left you here alone. There are not even any customers in the store at the moment, you're alone. What mental state are you in? (Yellow. You are not ensconced in your home; you're out in the real world.) So you keep your head up, and occasionally you scan out through the glass storefront and check out the parking lot. Since there is no one else in the store, any problem will have to come from outside. You want to know about a problem while it's out there, not when it's standing across the counter from you.
As you glance through the glass, you see two men in their early 20's back up an old car to your store, get out in identical jogging suits, enter your door, and split up. Immediately, you go to Orange. They have done nothing illegal, and nothing aggressive, but they are out of place, out of the ordinary, so you escalate your mental state, and begin to think. "This looks like a hold-up in the making. I may have to hurt these guys. What should I do know? If things go bad, I'll drop behind this safe and I can shoot into that wall without endangering anyone on the parking lot. I have a plan." At this point you watch them, and continue to monitor their movements. If they leave, you de-escalate to Yellow once they are gone.
If they stay, they will probably get together on the far side of the store and briefly discuss what they have seen. They will then move toward your position at the counter, and after trying to distract you (Can I see that ring back there?) pull their guns and announce a stick-up. If you have been using the system, you went from Yellow to Orange when they came in, and went to Red as they approach your counter. You are ready. Because criminals have to be adept at reading body language (their lives depend upon this skill), they will see that you are prepared and simply leave. About nine out of ten pairs will leave at this point, without a confrontation. As they drive away, de-escalate from Red, to Orange, to Yellow.
What about the tenth pair? They are drugged, drunk, or both, and failed to recognize your level of readiness. They may go ahead foolishly with their hold-up. According to FBI studies, probably 80% of the ones you will actually have to fight will be under the influence of drugs/alcohol/drugs and alcohol at the time. What's the good news? They're drunk and/or drugged, which plays Hell with their reflexes, reaction time, and motor coordination. They'll be relatively easy to deal with, IF you are mentally prepared (Condition Red) and have done your homework.
If they come in, and upon observing them you go to Orange, then as they approach, to Red, but then they leave, and you de-escalate, you will have gone all of the way up the scale without even reaching for your gun, which is very common. The point is, you would have been ready to reach for your gun if necessary. This is how you win fights, by being mentally prepared to win.
MY MENTOR PASSES...
Michael Clancy
The Arizona Republic
Oct. 5, 2006 12:00 AM
Jeff Cooper, one of the nation's leading experts in firearm techniques and gun safety, died Sept. 25 at Gunsite Academy, the training academy he founded in Arizona's high desert almost 30 years ago.
He was 86 and in ill health. He was retired, teaching courses part time since 1992.
"I was proud to have worked with him," said Jane Anne Shimizu, director of marketing for the academy.
He is credited with creating the modern technique of pistol shooting, popularized in countless movies.
A retired Marine Corps colonel, big-game hunter and outdoorsman, he developed the technique by staging a series of pistol matches near his home in Big Bear Lake, Calif. He observed and codified the best techniques, and out of these observations, he built the tenets of what would become the "Modern Technique of the Pistol," a system the academy says has saved the lives of thousands of law enforcement personnel, military operatives and private citizens.
The technique incorporated a two-handed Weaver stance, named for a Los Angeles policeman, a large-caliber handgun and quick acquisition of the sight picture. The technique also stressed safety, compressing the so-called 10 Commandments into four simple rules: all guns are always loaded; never let the muzzle cover anything you are not willing to destroy; keep your finger off the trigger until your sights are on the target; and identify your target and what's behind it.
Cooper moved to Arizona in the late '70s because Arizona's firearms laws were less restrictive than California's.
"The idea that a man is somehow unusual because he shoots or wishes to shoot or enjoys shooting is foreign to Arizona," he told The Arizona Republic five years ago.
Over the years, Gunsite Academy has become one of the best-known firearms training facilities in the world.
A columnist for Guns & Ammo magazine and a longtime member of the National Rifle Association, Cooper was a leading advocate of the Second Amendment's right to bear arms.
John Dean "Jeff" Cooper was born in Los Angeles on May 20, 1920. He left the Marine Corps in 1955 and resided in Big Bear Lake from the late 1950s until he moved to Arizona. He was a history teacher until he came here.
A private service was held Monday. Cooper is survived by his wife of 64 years, Janelle; three daughters, Christy Hastings of Prescott, Parry Heath of Denver and Lindy Wisdom of Tempe; five grandchildren; and five great-grandchildren.
The Arizona Republic
Oct. 5, 2006 12:00 AM
Jeff Cooper, one of the nation's leading experts in firearm techniques and gun safety, died Sept. 25 at Gunsite Academy, the training academy he founded in Arizona's high desert almost 30 years ago.
He was 86 and in ill health. He was retired, teaching courses part time since 1992.
"I was proud to have worked with him," said Jane Anne Shimizu, director of marketing for the academy.
He is credited with creating the modern technique of pistol shooting, popularized in countless movies.
A retired Marine Corps colonel, big-game hunter and outdoorsman, he developed the technique by staging a series of pistol matches near his home in Big Bear Lake, Calif. He observed and codified the best techniques, and out of these observations, he built the tenets of what would become the "Modern Technique of the Pistol," a system the academy says has saved the lives of thousands of law enforcement personnel, military operatives and private citizens.
The technique incorporated a two-handed Weaver stance, named for a Los Angeles policeman, a large-caliber handgun and quick acquisition of the sight picture. The technique also stressed safety, compressing the so-called 10 Commandments into four simple rules: all guns are always loaded; never let the muzzle cover anything you are not willing to destroy; keep your finger off the trigger until your sights are on the target; and identify your target and what's behind it.
Cooper moved to Arizona in the late '70s because Arizona's firearms laws were less restrictive than California's.
"The idea that a man is somehow unusual because he shoots or wishes to shoot or enjoys shooting is foreign to Arizona," he told The Arizona Republic five years ago.
Over the years, Gunsite Academy has become one of the best-known firearms training facilities in the world.
A columnist for Guns & Ammo magazine and a longtime member of the National Rifle Association, Cooper was a leading advocate of the Second Amendment's right to bear arms.
John Dean "Jeff" Cooper was born in Los Angeles on May 20, 1920. He left the Marine Corps in 1955 and resided in Big Bear Lake from the late 1950s until he moved to Arizona. He was a history teacher until he came here.
A private service was held Monday. Cooper is survived by his wife of 64 years, Janelle; three daughters, Christy Hastings of Prescott, Parry Heath of Denver and Lindy Wisdom of Tempe; five grandchildren; and five great-grandchildren.
MY MENTOR PASSES...
Michael Clancy
The Arizona Republic
Oct. 5, 2006 12:00 AM
Jeff Cooper, one of the nation's leading experts in firearm techniques and gun safety, died Sept. 25 at Gunsite Academy, the training academy he founded in Arizona's high desert almost 30 years ago.
He was 86 and in ill health. He was retired, teaching courses part time since 1992.
"I was proud to have worked with him," said Jane Anne Shimizu, director of marketing for the academy.
He is credited with creating the modern technique of pistol shooting, popularized in countless movies.
A retired Marine Corps colonel, big-game hunter and outdoorsman, he developed the technique by staging a series of pistol matches near his home in Big Bear Lake, Calif. He observed and codified the best techniques, and out of these observations, he built the tenets of what would become the "Modern Technique of the Pistol," a system the academy says has saved the lives of thousands of law enforcement personnel, military operatives and private citizens.
The technique incorporated a two-handed Weaver stance, named for a Los Angeles policeman, a large-caliber handgun and quick acquisition of the sight picture. The technique also stressed safety, compressing the so-called 10 Commandments into four simple rules: all guns are always loaded; never let the muzzle cover anything you are not willing to destroy; keep your finger off the trigger until your sights are on the target; and identify your target and what's behind it.
Cooper moved to Arizona in the late '70s because Arizona's firearms laws were less restrictive than California's.
"The idea that a man is somehow unusual because he shoots or wishes to shoot or enjoys shooting is foreign to Arizona," he told The Arizona Republic five years ago.
Over the years, Gunsite Academy has become one of the best-known firearms training facilities in the world.
A columnist for Guns & Ammo magazine and a longtime member of the National Rifle Association, Cooper was a leading advocate of the Second Amendment's right to bear arms.
John Dean "Jeff" Cooper was born in Los Angeles on May 20, 1920. He left the Marine Corps in 1955 and resided in Big Bear Lake from the late 1950s until he moved to Arizona. He was a history teacher until he came here.
A private service was held Monday. Cooper is survived by his wife of 64 years, Janelle; three daughters, Christy Hastings of Prescott, Parry Heath of Denver and Lindy Wisdom of Tempe; five grandchildren; and five great-grandchildren.
The Arizona Republic
Oct. 5, 2006 12:00 AM
Jeff Cooper, one of the nation's leading experts in firearm techniques and gun safety, died Sept. 25 at Gunsite Academy, the training academy he founded in Arizona's high desert almost 30 years ago.
He was 86 and in ill health. He was retired, teaching courses part time since 1992.
"I was proud to have worked with him," said Jane Anne Shimizu, director of marketing for the academy.
He is credited with creating the modern technique of pistol shooting, popularized in countless movies.
A retired Marine Corps colonel, big-game hunter and outdoorsman, he developed the technique by staging a series of pistol matches near his home in Big Bear Lake, Calif. He observed and codified the best techniques, and out of these observations, he built the tenets of what would become the "Modern Technique of the Pistol," a system the academy says has saved the lives of thousands of law enforcement personnel, military operatives and private citizens.
The technique incorporated a two-handed Weaver stance, named for a Los Angeles policeman, a large-caliber handgun and quick acquisition of the sight picture. The technique also stressed safety, compressing the so-called 10 Commandments into four simple rules: all guns are always loaded; never let the muzzle cover anything you are not willing to destroy; keep your finger off the trigger until your sights are on the target; and identify your target and what's behind it.
Cooper moved to Arizona in the late '70s because Arizona's firearms laws were less restrictive than California's.
"The idea that a man is somehow unusual because he shoots or wishes to shoot or enjoys shooting is foreign to Arizona," he told The Arizona Republic five years ago.
Over the years, Gunsite Academy has become one of the best-known firearms training facilities in the world.
A columnist for Guns & Ammo magazine and a longtime member of the National Rifle Association, Cooper was a leading advocate of the Second Amendment's right to bear arms.
John Dean "Jeff" Cooper was born in Los Angeles on May 20, 1920. He left the Marine Corps in 1955 and resided in Big Bear Lake from the late 1950s until he moved to Arizona. He was a history teacher until he came here.
A private service was held Monday. Cooper is survived by his wife of 64 years, Janelle; three daughters, Christy Hastings of Prescott, Parry Heath of Denver and Lindy Wisdom of Tempe; five grandchildren; and five great-grandchildren.
I AM A CHEAP BASTARD...
I finally broke down and purchased a cell phone today. I always laughed at people with cell phones when there used to be a pay phone on every corner. I find it hard to find one that is not vandalized and working nowadays.
I really bought it for my wife and son to take when they leave the compound so that they can call me if trouble comes their way.
The reason I made this post though is that it said in my manual:
What fucking idiot would do that? I am now going to start a warning label of the month thread.
More on my cheapness to follow.
I really bought it for my wife and son to take when they leave the compound so that they can call me if trouble comes their way.
The reason I made this post though is that it said in my manual:
Should your phone become wet, do not attempt to dry the phone in a microwave oven.
What fucking idiot would do that? I am now going to start a warning label of the month thread.
More on my cheapness to follow.
I AM A CHEAP BASTARD...
I finally broke down and purchased a cell phone today. I always laughed at people with cell phones when there used to be a pay phone on every corner. I find it hard to find one that is not vandalized and working nowadays.
I really bought it for my wife and son to take when they leave the compound so that they can call me if trouble comes their way.
The reason I made this post though is that it said in my manual:
What fucking idiot would do that? I am now going to start a warning label of the month thread.
More on my cheapness to follow.
I really bought it for my wife and son to take when they leave the compound so that they can call me if trouble comes their way.
The reason I made this post though is that it said in my manual:
Should your phone become wet, do not attempt to dry the phone in a microwave oven.
What fucking idiot would do that? I am now going to start a warning label of the month thread.
More on my cheapness to follow.
Sunday, October 1, 2006
Typhoon Xangsane - Viet Nam
Some of you know my connection with Viet Nam and that my Brother-in law has made it his new home and married a beautiful Vietnamese woman some 40 years his junior (high-five bro). I emailed him last night about Typhoon Xangsane hitting the coast at about 1:00am their time and told him it looked like he would be safe in Ho Chi Mihn City (Saigon)in the south and that his wife's family would be safe in Hanoi in the North. I just received this email from him at 10:00am:
I have been reading wire reports and it seems that Danang has been very hard hit with several deaths reported so far, electricity and communications are out and the "streets have become rivers".
I'll update later and explain what the "EMW" is. I know that some of my readers are very familiar with VN, but how many of you know what the country is like today?
Hey David,
You are correct in your geography but it is such a huge storm and the footprint is so big, we are all getting a taste. But what we are seeing is nothing compared to what so many of our best friends have endured in Danang, many of them very poor.
We spend a lot of time there naturally because our EMW home office is in Danang and 70% of our project work stretches in the Central Highlands from Kon Tum in the south to Quang Binh in the north. It is absolute devastation there today, and we cannot get there to help our poor friends, relatives in Hoi An and fellow EMW employees. The photos coming out and verbal reports indicate it is much on the order of Andrew and Katrina.
Not a lot of lost life because the army forces them to evacuate or go to jail. But the property damage will be catastrophic....and worst of all, when you have so little to begin with, no income, no savings and no insurance, loosing your home and possessions means you have gone from extremely poor to hungry, cold, wet and destitute....with no chance of it ever changing.....like living on the edge, and then the storm just washes you over!
I have been reading wire reports and it seems that Danang has been very hard hit with several deaths reported so far, electricity and communications are out and the "streets have become rivers".
I'll update later and explain what the "EMW" is. I know that some of my readers are very familiar with VN, but how many of you know what the country is like today?
Typhoon Xangsane - Viet Nam
Some of you know my connection with Viet Nam and that my Brother-in law has made it his new home and married a beautiful Vietnamese woman some 40 years his junior (high-five bro). I emailed him last night about Typhoon Xangsane hitting the coast at about 1:00am their time and told him it looked like he would be safe in Ho Chi Mihn City (Saigon)in the south and that his wife's family would be safe in Hanoi in the North. I just received this email from him at 10:00am:
I have been reading wire reports and it seems that Danang has been very hard hit with several deaths reported so far, electricity and communications are out and the "streets have become rivers".
I'll update later and explain what the "EMW" is. I know that some of my readers are very familiar with VN, but how many of you know what the country is like today?
Hey David,
You are correct in your geography but it is such a huge storm and the footprint is so big, we are all getting a taste. But what we are seeing is nothing compared to what so many of our best friends have endured in Danang, many of them very poor.
We spend a lot of time there naturally because our EMW home office is in Danang and 70% of our project work stretches in the Central Highlands from Kon Tum in the south to Quang Binh in the north. It is absolute devastation there today, and we cannot get there to help our poor friends, relatives in Hoi An and fellow EMW employees. The photos coming out and verbal reports indicate it is much on the order of Andrew and Katrina.
Not a lot of lost life because the army forces them to evacuate or go to jail. But the property damage will be catastrophic....and worst of all, when you have so little to begin with, no income, no savings and no insurance, loosing your home and possessions means you have gone from extremely poor to hungry, cold, wet and destitute....with no chance of it ever changing.....like living on the edge, and then the storm just washes you over!
I have been reading wire reports and it seems that Danang has been very hard hit with several deaths reported so far, electricity and communications are out and the "streets have become rivers".
I'll update later and explain what the "EMW" is. I know that some of my readers are very familiar with VN, but how many of you know what the country is like today?
Thursday, September 28, 2006
FINALLY...
Now here is a SLOT MACHINE I'd put some quarters into. I always pass them by and head for the Sports Book.
FINALLY...
Now here is a SLOT MACHINE I'd put some quarters into. I always pass them by and head for the Sports Book.
Tuesday, September 26, 2006
For the Sock Rocker...
"A Small Victory" - Faith No More
and
"Toobin" - Bumpin' Uglies - A song where my cousin, who managed the band, can be heard in the middle of the song, speaking the words "Toobin, toobin right now"
And a song by the lead singer of Bumpin' Uglies doing an rendition of "Wagon Wheel"
and
"Toobin" - Bumpin' Uglies - A song where my cousin, who managed the band, can be heard in the middle of the song, speaking the words "Toobin, toobin right now"
And a song by the lead singer of Bumpin' Uglies doing an rendition of "Wagon Wheel"
For the Sock Rocker...
"A Small Victory" - Faith No More
and
"Toobin" - Bumpin' Uglies - A song where my cousin, who managed the band, can be heard in the middle of the song, speaking the words "Toobin, toobin right now"
And a song by the lead singer of Bumpin' Uglies doing an rendition of "Wagon Wheel"
and
"Toobin" - Bumpin' Uglies - A song where my cousin, who managed the band, can be heard in the middle of the song, speaking the words "Toobin, toobin right now"
And a song by the lead singer of Bumpin' Uglies doing an rendition of "Wagon Wheel"
FOR SOME FRIENDS...
Per our discussion, here are some of the songs we talked about.
Everlast - "Then you really might now what it's like"
Faith No More - "Easy" - "Epic" - "War Pigs"
[Edit] Forgot one Mike - "Falling to Pieces"
Enjoy.
Everlast - "Then you really might now what it's like"
Faith No More - "Easy" - "Epic" - "War Pigs"
[Edit] Forgot one Mike - "Falling to Pieces"
Enjoy.
FOR SOME FRIENDS...
Per our discussion, here are some of the songs we talked about.
Everlast - "Then you really might now what it's like"
Faith No More - "Easy" - "Epic" - "War Pigs"
[Edit] Forgot one Mike - "Falling to Pieces"
Enjoy.
Everlast - "Then you really might now what it's like"
Faith No More - "Easy" - "Epic" - "War Pigs"
[Edit] Forgot one Mike - "Falling to Pieces"
Enjoy.
Sunday, September 24, 2006
THE BERLIN WALL...
After an almost 25 year search for someone very dear to my heart, I was sent a piece of the Berlin Wall by his wife. It was a piece she had obtained and when we finally reunited, she broke it in half, giving each of us a piece. It was a very moving and appropriate gift. I came across THIS site today. Breaking down barriers takes time. In the end, we realize that it should have been much sooner.
THE BERLIN WALL...
After an almost 25 year search for someone very dear to my heart, I was sent a piece of the Berlin Wall by his wife. It was a piece she had obtained and when we finally reunited, she broke it in half, giving each of us a piece. It was a very moving and appropriate gift. I came across THIS site today. Breaking down barriers takes time. In the end, we realize that it should have been much sooner.
Wednesday, September 20, 2006
Crackpot from Carackass...
So what if Venezuela is our third largest supplier of oil. I saw one statistic that stated oil would jump 4-6 dollars a barrel and pump price would go up 10-15 cent per gallon if we lost the Venezulian crude. Fuck, I would gladly pay 50 cents more per gallon to fill up my 2005 Earth Fucker (if I had one) if Bush would tell Chavez to get stuffed and slap an economic embargo on them like we did his "hero" in '61. Read the UN's Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Hugo Chavez has violated articles 1 thru 30 (all of them) and had no right to stand before the UN to begin with.
Please Dear God, grant President Bush the cahones to say "Fuck Off"!
Please Dear God, grant President Bush the cahones to say "Fuck Off"!
Crackpot from Carackass...
So what if Venezuela is our third largest supplier of oil. I saw one statistic that stated oil would jump 4-6 dollars a barrel and pump price would go up 10-15 cent per gallon if we lost the Venezulian crude. Fuck, I would gladly pay 50 cents more per gallon to fill up my 2005 Earth Fucker (if I had one) if Bush would tell Chavez to get stuffed and slap an economic embargo on them like we did his "hero" in '61. Read the UN's Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Hugo Chavez has violated articles 1 thru 30 (all of them) and had no right to stand before the UN to begin with.
Please Dear God, grant President Bush the cahones to say "Fuck Off"!
Please Dear God, grant President Bush the cahones to say "Fuck Off"!
DESPERATELY SEEKING...
Have you just recovered, own or are remarketing one of the following vehicles? Call me ASAP.
Toyota Camry LE, 2.4 litre, 2006, black exterior
Toyota Camry LE, 2.4 litre, 2006, desert sand exterior
Toyota RAV 4, 2006 (Prefer unit with rear jump seat to seat 7) silver exterior.
Dave Branch - 336-342-7515
Toyota Camry LE, 2.4 litre, 2006, black exterior
Toyota Camry LE, 2.4 litre, 2006, desert sand exterior
Toyota RAV 4, 2006 (Prefer unit with rear jump seat to seat 7) silver exterior.
Dave Branch - 336-342-7515
DESPERATELY SEEKING...
Have you just recovered, own or are remarketing one of the following vehicles? Call me ASAP.
Toyota Camry LE, 2.4 litre, 2006, black exterior
Toyota Camry LE, 2.4 litre, 2006, desert sand exterior
Toyota RAV 4, 2006 (Prefer unit with rear jump seat to seat 7) silver exterior.
Dave Branch - 336-342-7515
Toyota Camry LE, 2.4 litre, 2006, black exterior
Toyota Camry LE, 2.4 litre, 2006, desert sand exterior
Toyota RAV 4, 2006 (Prefer unit with rear jump seat to seat 7) silver exterior.
Dave Branch - 336-342-7515
Thursday, September 14, 2006
GUNS AND BLOGS...
Apparently I am a threat to society. Kimveer Gill had guns on his blog. He's the gunman who opened fire at Dawson College on Wednesday near Montreal, killing one and injuring 19. I listen to talk radio while I work and people were calling in say that people should have seen this coming since he had over 50 pictures of him with firearms on his blog. "Anybody with guns on their sites are obviously a threat to society" said one woman. So I guess I am a threat according to this lady.
Yeah, I am a threat. I am a threat to any mother fucker that wants to break into my house, hurt my family or steal my shit. I am a threat because I have 8, 2 3/4in rounds of 000 buckshot in my shotgun next to my bed. I am a threat because I have a .45 and prefer it over a 9mm pea shooter. I am a threat alright. Just not to society. And having pictures of myself and a weapon on my blog does not make me one. I now intend to put more on here.
This little fuck Gill was a putz. Not to make light of the dead or injured, but this loser couldn't even pull his stunt off without fucking up. Reports state he had a Beretta CX4 Storm semi-automatic rifle and two other weapons and he only killed one person in the whole crowd. This guy was a loser from birth and a loser in death.
Guns and blogs don't kill people. Guns and Idiots kill people without warrant.
Yeah, I am a threat. I am a threat to any mother fucker that wants to break into my house, hurt my family or steal my shit. I am a threat because I have 8, 2 3/4in rounds of 000 buckshot in my shotgun next to my bed. I am a threat because I have a .45 and prefer it over a 9mm pea shooter. I am a threat alright. Just not to society. And having pictures of myself and a weapon on my blog does not make me one. I now intend to put more on here.
This little fuck Gill was a putz. Not to make light of the dead or injured, but this loser couldn't even pull his stunt off without fucking up. Reports state he had a Beretta CX4 Storm semi-automatic rifle and two other weapons and he only killed one person in the whole crowd. This guy was a loser from birth and a loser in death.
Guns and blogs don't kill people. Guns and Idiots kill people without warrant.
GUNS AND BLOGS...
Apparently I am a threat to society. Kimveer Gill had guns on his blog. He's the gunman who opened fire at Dawson College on Wednesday near Montreal, killing one and injuring 19. I listen to talk radio while I work and people were calling in say that people should have seen this coming since he had over 50 pictures of him with firearms on his blog. "Anybody with guns on their sites are obviously a threat to society" said one woman. So I guess I am a threat according to this lady.
Yeah, I am a threat. I am a threat to any mother fucker that wants to break into my house, hurt my family or steal my shit. I am a threat because I have 8, 2 3/4in rounds of 000 buckshot in my shotgun next to my bed. I am a threat because I have a .45 and prefer it over a 9mm pea shooter. I am a threat alright. Just not to society. And having pictures of myself and a weapon on my blog does not make me one. I now intend to put more on here.
This little fuck Gill was a putz. Not to make light of the dead or injured, but this loser couldn't even pull his stunt off without fucking up. Reports state he had a Beretta CX4 Storm semi-automatic rifle and two other weapons and he only killed one person in the whole crowd. This guy was a loser from birth and a loser in death.
Guns and blogs don't kill people. Guns and Idiots kill people without warrant.
Yeah, I am a threat. I am a threat to any mother fucker that wants to break into my house, hurt my family or steal my shit. I am a threat because I have 8, 2 3/4in rounds of 000 buckshot in my shotgun next to my bed. I am a threat because I have a .45 and prefer it over a 9mm pea shooter. I am a threat alright. Just not to society. And having pictures of myself and a weapon on my blog does not make me one. I now intend to put more on here.
This little fuck Gill was a putz. Not to make light of the dead or injured, but this loser couldn't even pull his stunt off without fucking up. Reports state he had a Beretta CX4 Storm semi-automatic rifle and two other weapons and he only killed one person in the whole crowd. This guy was a loser from birth and a loser in death.
Guns and blogs don't kill people. Guns and Idiots kill people without warrant.
Friday, September 8, 2006
POSTING COMMENTS...
Apparently, my one reader told me that my comment function was disabled. It is now operational.
Thanks Rooster.
Thanks Rooster.
POSTING COMMENTS...
Apparently, my one reader told me that my comment function was disabled. It is now operational.
Thanks Rooster.
Thanks Rooster.
Monday, September 4, 2006
QUESTION...
In car commercials, they show people driving cars. Why do they show people playing tennis or riding bikes for condom commercials?
QUESTION...
In car commercials, they show people driving cars. Why do they show people playing tennis or riding bikes for condom commercials?
Friday, September 1, 2006
FLASH BACK...
Here is a cool LINK to some old album covers and what the location looks like today.
I believe I have every one of these minus the Spirit's The Family That Plays Together.
I believe I have every one of these minus the Spirit's The Family That Plays Together.
FLASH BACK...
Here is a cool LINK to some old album covers and what the location looks like today.
I believe I have every one of these minus the Spirit's The Family That Plays Together.
I believe I have every one of these minus the Spirit's The Family That Plays Together.
Sunday, August 27, 2006
JAKE NEEDS YOUR HELP...
Hey Guys,
Jacob needs your helping doing something if you can take a moment to help him. Apparently, he wins cash points and is buying autographed jersey and bat cards which in the end, doubles his money.
Here is the link: http://www.exodus3000.com/?r=jacobbranch
He says it takes about ten minutes to register and make 250 “moves”
Thanks, it’ll make the young man happy!
Jacob needs your helping doing something if you can take a moment to help him. Apparently, he wins cash points and is buying autographed jersey and bat cards which in the end, doubles his money.
Here is the link: http://www.exodus3000.com/?r=jacobbranch
He says it takes about ten minutes to register and make 250 “moves”
Thanks, it’ll make the young man happy!
JAKE NEEDS YOUR HELP...
Hey Guys,
Jacob needs your helping doing something if you can take a moment to help him. Apparently, he wins cash points and is buying autographed jersey and bat cards which in the end, doubles his money.
Here is the link: http://www.exodus3000.com/?r=jacobbranch
He says it takes about ten minutes to register and make 250 “moves”
Thanks, it’ll make the young man happy!
Jacob needs your helping doing something if you can take a moment to help him. Apparently, he wins cash points and is buying autographed jersey and bat cards which in the end, doubles his money.
Here is the link: http://www.exodus3000.com/?r=jacobbranch
He says it takes about ten minutes to register and make 250 “moves”
Thanks, it’ll make the young man happy!
Monday, August 21, 2006
LACK OF POSTS...
I have been negligent in making any entries for several reasons. One is that on two seperate occassions in the last month I have broken 2 ribs on either side of my body. The first happened at the reunion about 3 weeks ago... that was on my right side. Then this last week, while carying some laundry upstairs, I ran into the square edge of the bannister post on the downstairs landing. I broke two more on my left side, but my 6th rib broke completly with one edge rsting against my lung. I was put on Vicodin and told to stay in bed for at least a week and avoid any falls or blows to the left side. Well, being Dave Branch, I didn't listen and last night was spent in shear agony. Went to the doctor today, was thoroughly admonished, and put on Dilaudid for 10 days. I am on my second dose and can tell you this; I won't be doing anything physical for awhile. I did some research and found this:
I don't care...at least I can take a full breath of air without the pain.
The second reason for not posting as much is that I am working on Volume one, Issue one of The American Repossessor. More on that later...gonna lie down for a few.
Hydromorphone (Dilaudid®) is marketed in tablets (2, 4, and 8 mg), rectal Suppositories, oral solutions, and injectable formulations. All products are in Schedule II of the CSA. Its analgesic potency is from two to eight times that of morphine, but it is shorter acting and produces more sedation than morphine. Much sought after by narcotic addicts, hydromorphone is usually obtained by the abuser through fraudulent prescriptions or theft. The tablets are often dissolved and injected as a substitute for heroin.
I don't care...at least I can take a full breath of air without the pain.
The second reason for not posting as much is that I am working on Volume one, Issue one of The American Repossessor. More on that later...gonna lie down for a few.
LACK OF POSTS...
I have been negligent in making any entries for several reasons. One is that on two seperate occassions in the last month I have broken 2 ribs on either side of my body. The first happened at the reunion about 3 weeks ago... that was on my right side. Then this last week, while carying some laundry upstairs, I ran into the square edge of the bannister post on the downstairs landing. I broke two more on my left side, but my 6th rib broke completly with one edge rsting against my lung. I was put on Vicodin and told to stay in bed for at least a week and avoid any falls or blows to the left side. Well, being Dave Branch, I didn't listen and last night was spent in shear agony. Went to the doctor today, was thoroughly admonished, and put on Dilaudid for 10 days. I am on my second dose and can tell you this; I won't be doing anything physical for awhile. I did some research and found this:
I don't care...at least I can take a full breath of air without the pain.
The second reason for not posting as much is that I am working on Volume one, Issue one of The American Repossessor. More on that later...gonna lie down for a few.
Hydromorphone (Dilaudid®) is marketed in tablets (2, 4, and 8 mg), rectal Suppositories, oral solutions, and injectable formulations. All products are in Schedule II of the CSA. Its analgesic potency is from two to eight times that of morphine, but it is shorter acting and produces more sedation than morphine. Much sought after by narcotic addicts, hydromorphone is usually obtained by the abuser through fraudulent prescriptions or theft. The tablets are often dissolved and injected as a substitute for heroin.
I don't care...at least I can take a full breath of air without the pain.
The second reason for not posting as much is that I am working on Volume one, Issue one of The American Repossessor. More on that later...gonna lie down for a few.
Thursday, August 10, 2006
AMERICA NEEDS TO WAKE UP!
This showed up in my email yesterday and after waking up to the news this morning, I decided to post it as a spot on statement.
That's what we think we heard on the 11th of September 2001 (When more than 3,000 Americans were killed -AD) and maybe it was, but I think it should have been "Get Out of Bed!" In fact, I think the alarm clock has been buzzing since 1979 and we have continued to hit the snooze button and roll over for a few more minutes of peaceful sleep since then.
It was a cool fall day in November 1979 in a country going through a religious and political upheaval when a group of Iranian students attacked and seized the American Embassy in Tehran. This seizure was an outright attack on American soil; it was an attack that held the world's most powerful country hostage and paralyzed a Presidency. The attack on this sovereign U. S. Embassy set the stage for events to follow for the next 25 years.
America was still reeling from the aftermath of the Vietnam experience and had a serious threat from the Soviet Union when then, President Carter, had to do something. He chose to conduct a clandestine raid in the desert. The ill-fated mission ended in ruin, but stood as a symbol of America's inability to deal with terrorism.
America's military had been decimated and down sized/right sized since the end of the Vietnam War. A poorly trained, poorly equipped and poorly organized military was called on to execute a complex mission that was doomed from the start.
Shortly after the Tehran experience, Americans began to be kidnapped and killed throughout the Middle East. America could do little to protect her citizens living and working abroad. The attacks against US soil continued.
In April of 1983 a large vehicle packed with high explosives was driven into the US Embassy compound in Beirut When it explodes, it kills 63 people. The alarm went off again and America hit the Snooze Button once more.
Then just six short months later in 1983 a large truck heavily laden down with over 2500 pounds of TNT smashed through the main gate of the US Marine Corps headquarters in Beirut and 241 US servicemen are killed. America mourns her dead and hit the Snooze Button once more.
Two months later in December 1983, another truck loaded with explosives is driven into the US Embassy in Kuwait , and America continues her slumber.
The following year, in September 1984, another van was driven into the gate of the US Embassy in Beirut and America slept.
Soon the terrorism spreads to Europe. In April 1985 a bomb explodes in a restaurant frequented by US soldiers in Madrid.
Then in August 1985 a Volkswagen loaded with explosives is driven into the main gate of the US Air Force Base at Rhein-Main, 22 are killed and the snooze alarm is buzzing louder and louder as US interests are continually attacked.
Fifty-nine days later in 1985 a cruise ship, the Achille Lauro is hijacked and we watched as an American in a wheelchair is singled out of the passenger list and executed.
The terrorists then shift their tactics to bombing civilian airliners when they bomb TWA Flight 840 in April of 1986 that killed 4 and the most tragic bombing, Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland in1988, killing 259.
Clinton treated these terrorist acts as crimes; in fact we are still trying to bring these people to trial. These are acts of war.
The wake up alarm is getting louder and louder.
The terrorists decide to bring the fight to America . In January 1993, two CIA agents are shot and killed as they enter CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia.
The following month, February 1993 , a group of terrorists are arrested after a rented van packed with explosives is driven into the underground parking garage of the World Trade Center in New York City. Six people are killed and over 1000 are injured. If the idiots driving the truck had known where to park it, they could have blown a hole in the "bathtub" and flooded the subway system. Still this is a crime and not an act of war? The Snooze alarm is depressed again.
Then in November 1995 a car bomb explodes at a US military complex in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia killing seven service men and women.
A few months later in June of 1996, another truck bomb explodes only 35 yards from the US military compound in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. It destroys the Khobar Towers, a US Air Force barracks, killing 19 and injuring over 500. The terrorists are getting braver and smarter as they see that America does not respond decisively.
They move to coordinate their attacks in a simultaneous attack on two US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.. These attacks were planned with precision. They kill 224. America responds with cruise missile attacks and goes back to sleep.
The USS Cole was docked in the port of Aden, Yemen for refueling on 12 October 2000 , when a small craft pulled along side the ship and exploded killing 17 US Navy Sailors. Attacking a US War Ship is an act of war, but we sent the FBI to investigate the crime and went back to sleep.
And of course you know the events of 11 September 2001. Most Americans think this was the first attack against US soil or in America . How wrong they are. America has been under a constant attack since 1979 and we chose to hit the snooze alarm and roll over and go back to sleep.
In the news lately we have seen lots of finger pointing from every high officials in government over what they knew and what they didn't know. But if you've read the papers and paid a little attention I think you can see exactly what they knew. You don't have to be in the FBI or CIA or on the National Security Council to see the pattern that has been developing since 1979.
We have been in a war for the past 25 years and it will continue until we as a people decide enough is enough. America needs to "Get out of Bed" and act decisively now. America has been changed forever.. We have to be ready to pay the price and make the sacrifice to ensure our way of life continues. We cannot afford to keep hitting the snooze button again and again and roll over and go back to sleep.
After the attack on Pearl Harbor, Admiral Yamamoto said ".. it seems all we have done is awakened a sleeping giant." This is the message we need to disseminate to terrorists around the world.
This is not a political thing to be hashed over in an election year this is an AMERICAN thing. This is about our Freedom and the Freedom of our children in years to come. You have to read the catalogue of events in this brief piece, ask yourself how anyone can take the position that all we have to do is bring our troops home from Iraq, sit back, reset the snooze alarm, go back to sleep, and no one will ever bother us again.
In case you missed it, World War III began in November 1979. The alarm has been ringing for years, if you believe in this please spread the word to as many people as you can especially to the young people and all those who dozed off in history class and who seem so quick to protest such a necessary military action. If you don't believe it, just forget about it -- and go back to sleep!
Michael R. Gow
AMERICA NEEDS TO WAKE UP!
This showed up in my email yesterday and after waking up to the news this morning, I decided to post it as a spot on statement.
That's what we think we heard on the 11th of September 2001 (When more than 3,000 Americans were killed -AD) and maybe it was, but I think it should have been "Get Out of Bed!" In fact, I think the alarm clock has been buzzing since 1979 and we have continued to hit the snooze button and roll over for a few more minutes of peaceful sleep since then.
It was a cool fall day in November 1979 in a country going through a religious and political upheaval when a group of Iranian students attacked and seized the American Embassy in Tehran. This seizure was an outright attack on American soil; it was an attack that held the world's most powerful country hostage and paralyzed a Presidency. The attack on this sovereign U. S. Embassy set the stage for events to follow for the next 25 years.
America was still reeling from the aftermath of the Vietnam experience and had a serious threat from the Soviet Union when then, President Carter, had to do something. He chose to conduct a clandestine raid in the desert. The ill-fated mission ended in ruin, but stood as a symbol of America's inability to deal with terrorism.
America's military had been decimated and down sized/right sized since the end of the Vietnam War. A poorly trained, poorly equipped and poorly organized military was called on to execute a complex mission that was doomed from the start.
Shortly after the Tehran experience, Americans began to be kidnapped and killed throughout the Middle East. America could do little to protect her citizens living and working abroad. The attacks against US soil continued.
In April of 1983 a large vehicle packed with high explosives was driven into the US Embassy compound in Beirut When it explodes, it kills 63 people. The alarm went off again and America hit the Snooze Button once more.
Then just six short months later in 1983 a large truck heavily laden down with over 2500 pounds of TNT smashed through the main gate of the US Marine Corps headquarters in Beirut and 241 US servicemen are killed. America mourns her dead and hit the Snooze Button once more.
Two months later in December 1983, another truck loaded with explosives is driven into the US Embassy in Kuwait , and America continues her slumber.
The following year, in September 1984, another van was driven into the gate of the US Embassy in Beirut and America slept.
Soon the terrorism spreads to Europe. In April 1985 a bomb explodes in a restaurant frequented by US soldiers in Madrid.
Then in August 1985 a Volkswagen loaded with explosives is driven into the main gate of the US Air Force Base at Rhein-Main, 22 are killed and the snooze alarm is buzzing louder and louder as US interests are continually attacked.
Fifty-nine days later in 1985 a cruise ship, the Achille Lauro is hijacked and we watched as an American in a wheelchair is singled out of the passenger list and executed.
The terrorists then shift their tactics to bombing civilian airliners when they bomb TWA Flight 840 in April of 1986 that killed 4 and the most tragic bombing, Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland in1988, killing 259.
Clinton treated these terrorist acts as crimes; in fact we are still trying to bring these people to trial. These are acts of war.
The wake up alarm is getting louder and louder.
The terrorists decide to bring the fight to America . In January 1993, two CIA agents are shot and killed as they enter CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia.
The following month, February 1993 , a group of terrorists are arrested after a rented van packed with explosives is driven into the underground parking garage of the World Trade Center in New York City. Six people are killed and over 1000 are injured. If the idiots driving the truck had known where to park it, they could have blown a hole in the "bathtub" and flooded the subway system. Still this is a crime and not an act of war? The Snooze alarm is depressed again.
Then in November 1995 a car bomb explodes at a US military complex in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia killing seven service men and women.
A few months later in June of 1996, another truck bomb explodes only 35 yards from the US military compound in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. It destroys the Khobar Towers, a US Air Force barracks, killing 19 and injuring over 500. The terrorists are getting braver and smarter as they see that America does not respond decisively.
They move to coordinate their attacks in a simultaneous attack on two US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.. These attacks were planned with precision. They kill 224. America responds with cruise missile attacks and goes back to sleep.
The USS Cole was docked in the port of Aden, Yemen for refueling on 12 October 2000 , when a small craft pulled along side the ship and exploded killing 17 US Navy Sailors. Attacking a US War Ship is an act of war, but we sent the FBI to investigate the crime and went back to sleep.
And of course you know the events of 11 September 2001. Most Americans think this was the first attack against US soil or in America . How wrong they are. America has been under a constant attack since 1979 and we chose to hit the snooze alarm and roll over and go back to sleep.
In the news lately we have seen lots of finger pointing from every high officials in government over what they knew and what they didn't know. But if you've read the papers and paid a little attention I think you can see exactly what they knew. You don't have to be in the FBI or CIA or on the National Security Council to see the pattern that has been developing since 1979.
We have been in a war for the past 25 years and it will continue until we as a people decide enough is enough. America needs to "Get out of Bed" and act decisively now. America has been changed forever.. We have to be ready to pay the price and make the sacrifice to ensure our way of life continues. We cannot afford to keep hitting the snooze button again and again and roll over and go back to sleep.
After the attack on Pearl Harbor, Admiral Yamamoto said ".. it seems all we have done is awakened a sleeping giant." This is the message we need to disseminate to terrorists around the world.
This is not a political thing to be hashed over in an election year this is an AMERICAN thing. This is about our Freedom and the Freedom of our children in years to come. You have to read the catalogue of events in this brief piece, ask yourself how anyone can take the position that all we have to do is bring our troops home from Iraq, sit back, reset the snooze alarm, go back to sleep, and no one will ever bother us again.
In case you missed it, World War III began in November 1979. The alarm has been ringing for years, if you believe in this please spread the word to as many people as you can especially to the young people and all those who dozed off in history class and who seem so quick to protest such a necessary military action. If you don't believe it, just forget about it -- and go back to sleep!
Michael R. Gow
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