Observations



So you think all this governmental over watch will protect you? 



Good luck with that.






Emily Harris loves unicorns.  So much that she presented her toy passport with a picture of a stuffed unicorn to customs at Turkey’s Antalya Airport.  Emily was traveling with her parents, so I hope the agent merely had a sense of humor, but he stamped it and passed Emily through security.







 No!  I could not bring myself to post a picture of a unicorn, not even a tactical unicorn.


Her parents worry it demonstrates how easy it is to smuggle a child out of Turkey.  I see it differently.  I see how easy it is to get access to the world’s airports through Turkish security.  You want access to Kennedy in NY or Dulles in DC?  Don’t worry about TSA. Get on a plane in Turkey, make your connecting flights and you’ll find yourself standing in a secure area in any airport you want.



Still feel safe?




I walked out of the office to turn in a report and when I came back I was told “Give ‘em one of your training fliers.”  The speaker pointed to a man in a maroon shirt.  

“CCW or tactical shotgun?” I asked.

“I know how to shoot a shotgun.”  He clearly thought the idea of training with a shotgun was for simpletons.  

I know a lost cause when I hear the bugle blow, so I just gave him a CCW flier chatted a few seconds and let it go.  After all, didn’t Vice president Joe Biden say something like “...just pickup a shotgun and shoot through the door…”  If you take that advice, try to make sure Joe will serve your prison time for you.  

It’s clear, at least to me, that everyone thinks they know how to use a shotgun.  It’s only after you get them out on the firing line and tell ‘em load three rounds, shoot those targets, move to a new location while loading and shoot three more targets, do they discover it isn’t as simple as Vice President Biden suggests.

God forbid you need to replace a round of bird shot with slug or beanbag under duress.

Yeah, everyone knows how to shoot a shotgun until the clay pigeons start fighting back and then it’s another story.

As Archilochus, the Greek poet warrior said, “We don’t rise to the level of our expectation, we fall to the level of our training...”





Two of my friends just flew in from out west and landed at the Detroit airport.  They jumped on I-75 south to Toledo and ran into a traffic jam in the Toledo area.  Familiar with the highways, they got off and continued on other surface roads.  At a stop sign someone took a shot at them.  They missed but left a streak across the front windshield.



“Don’t fly into Detroit.”  I suggested.

“Don’t fly into Detroit unless your armed,” he countered.



I’m not sure it would have helped.  What would you do?  Just roll the window down and blast away at the bushes?



Still, I understand his feelings.  I came out of martial arts one night and found someone had thrown a rock at my new pickup truck.  I wanted to use my truck for bait and hide in the bushes with my 30-06 for the rock thrower.  I calmed down after a few weeks, but I would never shoot anyone for damaging property.



I guess the moral of this is you never know when trouble will strike.  Have the tools you need to solve problems with you.  Cell phone, awareness of surroundings and address, a flashlight, knife, CCW tool and reload, and a firm grounding in your moral principles make a good start.  These are just a few of the components you might need.



You never know when you might need them.

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