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Every day I have my Man Purse close by which contains a very robust first aid kit. But there are some places I go to which I don’t carry the Man Purse; mall, Costco, where ever. When I’m not at work, I always have my gun on me because I consider it a major aspect of my personal safety and the safety of those around me (family and friends). Why shouldn’t that rationale be carried over to personal first aid? Answer, it should.

The first aid kit in the Man Purse is not appropriate for carrying, say, in one of the pockets on my particular pant of choice; 5.11 TacLite Pro, because it’s more of a field first aid kit. It’s too damn big.

A good friend of mine who is a fellow preparedness geek put together a personal carry first aid kit of his own using the Adventure Medical Kit .5 as a foundation. which has inspired me to follow suit. I might make some changes to accommodate my personal family situation, for example my wife has a borderline allergy to bee stings. I might want to stick an EpiPen in mine. Probably not, though, because most every place we go that she would be subject to bee stings, I have my Man Purse with me. Which reminds me, I don’t have an EpiPen in the Man Purse!

That will soon change. Also, maybe a zip-tie or two. I’m not sure yet. I’m still thinking on it.

Hey, because you never know, right? If you ever find yourself handcuffed to a chair … Or whatever. Just follow these steps.

Today we’ll be showing you how to pick your way out of handcuffs using only a bobby pin. We realize this may be a sensitive issue to some out there, as this information in the wrong hands could be detrimental; here’s our take.

It’s an undisputed fact that handcuffs can be picked with a simple bobby pin, which reveals a fundamental problem with the lock design. We feel the more awareness that is brought to this issue, the better.

The main take away for me is that now I no longer have to roll my eyes in derision every time that I see someone pick their way out of a set of handcuffs in a movie.

I bet that many of us, when looking back on our lives, can remember someone who, if someone would’ve just been there to drive them home, would be alive today.

So imagine the abject stupidity it takes for a school to suspend a student for driving a fellow student home who had been drinking.

Two weeks ago, a 17-year-old Massachusetts girl got a text from a friend at a party saying she was too drunk to drive, and could she come get her? Erin Cox, who is an honor student by the way, went to the home, but the cops showed upbefore she could find her friend.

She was cleared by the police, who said she was not in possession of any alcohol, but officials at North Andover High School claim she violated their strict zero-tolerance policy. She was stripped of her role as captain of the volleyball team and suspended for five games.

Really? No, really? The people responsible for this idiocy should be fired and publicly humiliated.

And then beaten about the head and shoulders with a rubber hose.

Then waterboarded …

I’ve been watching season 18 of The Ultimate Fighter. A couple of things come to mind: 1. The 18th season of a show that’s only been in existence since 2006? That spells success. 2. The women fighters on this show are impressive. I mean way impressive. MMA is an amazing sport anyway and to see Dana White open up the UFC to women is welcomed indeed.

Another thing that can’t go unnoticed this time around is the fact that Ronda Rousey is a silly, pissy, way underwhelming little bitch. I’m talking in the personality department, not her fighting skills. No doubt about it, Ronda Rousey’s fighting skills are top notch. Ask Miesha Tate whose arm Rousey treated like al dente pasta the last time that they fought. Even so, Ronda Rousey is one of the most unprofessional people you’ll ever witness.

Fellow Ultimate Fighter, Peggy Morgan (who, by the way, is an adjunct professor at Southern New Hampshire University), sort of defends Rousey in this blog post.

Some of you probably think Ronda is bat crap crazy. Okay, maybe Ronda is bat crap crazy. But I genuinely like her, and here’s why: she doesn’t bother trying to pretend like she isn’t completely insane. In fact, she doesn’t bother trying to pretend anything at all. … if Ronda feels like kicking a hole in the door, she’s gonna kick a hole in the door. If she feels like crying, she’s gonna cry. If she feels like telling you you’re a miserable bitch faced —-, she’s gonna do that, too.

And that’s supposed to be an admirable thing? Sorry, it’s not. It’s called not having any self control. The next step from this is, I have the urge to take a crap in my pants, during a public gathering, and holding your finger up in a “one moment” gesture and grunting one out.

Doing what you want, when you want, no matter what anyone thinks is the epitome of selfishness. Unfortunately, in today’s world, it seems to have somehow morphed into some sort of admirable thing. I’d like to know when childish behavior became admirable.

Keep in mind that making calculated life decisions appropriate for you with little or no regard for what others think you should do is not the same thing as acting like a pissy bitch and throwing your middle finger up in someone’s face, and screaming, “fuck you!” The former is doing what’s right for you, the latter is behaving like a self centered, unprofessional idiot. It takes a real self centered ass hole to live that way; the same kind of person who would pull down their pants in the middle of a sidewalk and pinch a loaf with people walking all around simply because they felt like taking a crap.

Get it?

On the other hand, it shows poise to keep yourself from acting on simple, boneheaded impulse. Ronda Rousey is a boneheaded simpleton.

But, boneheaded simpleton or not, damn, she can fight.

Rousey and Tate are scheduled to take out their hate for each other in UFC 168 on December 28th. No matter who wins, it really should be a great fight. And, I have to admit, I do hope that Tate puts an ass whoopin’ on Rousey. But, either way, Ronda Rousey VS Miesha Tate should be an awesome fight.

I remember reading John le Carré’s The Spy Who Came in from the Cold many years ago and thinking to myself that this was probably as close to the real thing as I was ever going to get regarding spy fiction. After all, John le Carré (David John Moore Cornwell) really was a spy. Well, at least a former spy.

Yes, John le Carré really did work for the British Intelligence Services, but as far as The Spy Who Came in from the Cold having any semblance to the world of a real spy, well, not so much. To be sure, this wasn’t a case of an author purposely pulling the wool over anyone’s eyes.

As it was, they (British Intelligence Services) seem to have concluded, rightly if reluctantly, that the book was sheer fiction from start to finish, uninformed by personal experience, and that accordingly it constituted no breach of security. This was not, however, the view taken by the world’s press, which with one voice decided that the book was not merely authentic but some kind of revelatory Message From The Other Side, leaving me with nothing to do but sit tight and watch, in a kind of frozen awe, as it climbed the bestseller list and stuck there, while pundit after pundit heralded it as the real thing.

Along with ordering the deaths of dissidents, hating Jews, and turning back the Nazis, Stalin was quite capable of wielding the literary editor’s blue pencil.

Djugashvili (later Stalin) was a ruthless person, and a serious editor. The Soviet historian Mikhail Gefter has written about coming across a manuscript on the German statesman Otto von Bismarck edited by Stalin’s own hand. The marked-up copy dated from 1940, when the Soviet Union was allied with Nazi Germany. Knowing that Stalin had been responsible for so much death and suffering, Gefter searched “for traces of those horrible things in the book.” He found none. What he saw instead was “reasonable editing, pointing to quite a good taste and an understanding of history.”

 

Stalin had also made a surprising change in the manuscript. In the conclusion, the author closed with a warning to the Germans lest they renege on the alliance and attack Russia. Stalin cut it. When the author objected, pleading that the warning was the whole point of the book, Stalin replied, “But why are you scaring them? Let them try. …” And indeed they did, costing more than 30 million lives—most of them Soviet. But the glory was Stalin’s in the end.

Colin McGinn lost everything.

Colin McGinn comes from a long line of coal miners without a history of university degrees, and somehow worked his way to Oxford. After going on to win prestigious awards, write acclaimed books, form a group of philosophers called the “New Mysterians,” and garner plum academic appointments, including his latest at the University of Miami, the famous philosopher of mind has lost everything because of a 26-year-old woman.

I don’t know if I would lay all of it at the feet of a “26-year-old woman,” but the whole thing does vaguely remind of Jim Harrison’s story, The Beige Dolorosa, in the book, Julip.

Aside from the fact that some d-bag initiated a firefight with a cop, one thing of interest to me in this video is that it almost perfectly demonstrates a common misconception of someone getting shot. Most of the misconceptions are created and perpetuated by film, TV, and literature. Think about it, in almost every movie, when someone gets shot the blood flies, and the person shot is blasted from their feet and thrown some distance to land in an instantly dead as dead can be heap. It’s almost as if they’ve been smote by Zeus or something.

Believe it or not, the perp in the video was fatally shot in the chest. After he ran to his car and drove away he finally died a few miles down the road.

I’m not certain what the cop was shooting, but, for example, a large number of LEOs carry a gun that shoots the .40S&W. A common round is Federal Jacketed Hollow Points throwing out a 155 grains of lead. It’s safe to assume that this perp was hit by a round very similar to that. Notice that he wasn’t “blown away” or didn’t drop like a wet sack. Sure, often times if the shot hits the right place, it will result in instant death, but it will never result in someone being blasted off of their feet. And note that you didn’t see blood splatter and fly by the bucket loads. In fact, with the volume down, you wouldn’t even imagine that he was shot at all. And this all after he’d been shot in the chest. Now, think of all the people you’ve seen shot in the chest in Hollywood movies and compare it to this.

I remember as a kid watching old westerns made pre-1960s and people used to smirk at how silly they were compared to modern movies because of the lack of blood when shot. Modern movies were generally accepted as being more sophisticated in part because people getting shot were presented more realistically. In reality, bad guys getting shot in Shane …

died more realistically then they did in The Wild Bunch where buckets of blood were thrown about like ketchup at a trailer trash cookout.

Movies aside, what I’m talking about is also important for those who carry a concealed weapon for protection. If you’re ever in a position that you need to shoot someone for your own safety know that chances are that you will probably have to shoot them multiple times. Here is an interesting piece written by a trauma surgeon with first hand knowledge of bullet wounds. In a nutshell the article points out that stopping someone instantly is only going to happen if a:

person has experienced enough brain or spinal cord damage to interrupt regular neurologic impulses from reaching vital areas of the body or the person has hemorrhaged enough blood to lower his or her blood pressure where the brain no longer is able to function well. You can also stop a person if a major bone shatters after a bullet injures it …

So, unless you’re carrying around a 30mm cannon, no matter what round you’re shooting, shot placement is absolutely vital.

Now, back to creators of fiction.

1. Stop having your characters getting “blown away” when shot. Really, stop it.
2. Stop representing guns as if they are the power of God. Yes, guns are deadly, but not Zeus lightening bolt deadly.

Those are the biggies, but, although guns are generally not Zeus lightening bolt deadly, when one is shot non-fatally, it’s serious. Very rarely is someone going to take a round in the leg, shoulder, etc and just plug the hole and carry on once the adrenaline has faded. I personally know a LEO who was shot in the leg and it took him nearly a year to recuperate after reconstructive surgery and months of physical therapy. That LEO was just as stopped during the fight as if he’d been shot in the head because his leg was shattered making it impossible for him to carry on.

Lastly, no post pertaining to guns in film, no matter how remotely, would be complete without this: