big brother – Page 3 – Weary Wretch

House of Guns

January, 2014

There was an ER doc at The Med in Memphis, Tn. and later at Emory University in Atlanta, Ga. that was nationally famous for his anti-gun stand. Athur Kellerman had published some anti-gun articles in prestigious medical publications that I (and many others) challenged and thought was basically false.

I scared them. They sent out “spies” to check me out and invited me to speak on subjects to small audiences to see what I would say. Two such instances come to mind.

I was asked to give a lecture to trauma surgery residents on ballistics and gun shot wounds in humans. You have to understand my theory of Medicine first. Doctors are assholes. Surgeons are really big assholes and trauma surgeons are really, really big arrogant assholes (there are exceptions). That said, one might understand that I wondered why they would ask a Pediatric Emergency Medicine physician to talk to a group that obviously knew more on most subjects than I.

But I persevered and researched the subject, but from a perspective they had not entertained. The audacity I showed shocked them all. I even used resources such as the NRA, the Marine and Army armorers data and gun magazines. Sources they didn’t even know existed. I started with a brief review of the types of firearms, from the blunderbuss to the M-16, rifles and pistols and then discussed bullets, powder, the flight of a lead projectile through air, ballistics “jello”, watermelons and flesh. Some of what I said contradicted what they had been taught in their training. Man was it a quiet audience.

The second encounter involved the spy issue and was much more obvious. The media staff for the Department of Pediatrics set up an interview with me to discuss the dangers of having a gun in the house if there was a child in the home. It was almost humorous, if it hadn’t been so sad. The interviewer used leading questions, Kellerman’s publications and anti-gun sources in such an obvious attempt to get me to join their hysteria. Leading questions are adroitly formed questions meant to lead the responder to a desired answer such as, “Don’t you agree, Doctor, that if there is a gun in the home, there is always the possibility a child could get it and harm himself or others?” You can’t disagree with the statement, but you can construct your answer in a way that brings its relevance to the fore front.

Well, the interviewer got distressed after the 3d or 4th question. Her questions came more rapidly, she cut off my answer before I had finished and finally snapped her notebook closed stood up and said that the interview was over. I’m sure she meant to thank me for my time, but just forgot. Anyway, my interview never made any official publication or saw the light of day anywhere.

Today I read on Fox News about ABC presenting almost the exact same data that Kellerman started way back then. ABC did what Kellerman did frequently; cherry picked statistics, falsely represented data and lied about the results.

Back in the day, we did not have Fox News or any other media avenue for our opinion to be heard.

Proudly posted by your grumpy Uncle/Brother Dave.

Steven Milloy, “Gun Control Science Misfires”, Fox News, 10/31/2002, http://www.foxnews.com/story/2002/10/31/gun-control-science-misfires.html

John R. Lott, “ABC News reports on guns mislead Americans”, Fox News, 1/07/14, http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2014/02/07/abc-news-reports-on-guns-mislead-americans.html

An Army of Many Genders

June 18, 2017

Lest you think I’m joking, go read the article cited down below. It is absolutely true. Our esteemed US Army has done it again. Again?

Yes, remember the recruiting slogan a couple of years, “An Army of One.” Bet that one put fear in our enemies hearts. Or, “Be All You Can Be.” Where the Army was willing to take anything as long as it was as good as it could be. Not necessarily up to any particular standard, you see, just the best it could be.

The slogan writers for the USA are not the cream of the crop. Well now, the same standards are leaking over into the official US Army gender department, or whatever it is called.

To keep abreast of modern trends, the Army of Many is becoming gender tolerant. It has issued guidelines for personnel to deal with the myriad of gender choices it faces. Like when a guy becomes a girl and vice versa. Quoting the guidelines, “All soldiers will use billeting, bathroom and shower facilities associated with their gender marker.”

Like what, a tattoo on the forehead? I thought gender markers were the presence of 2 X or an X and Y chromosome. Silly me.

It even cautions that one gender may find themselves showering with a soldier of the opposite anatomy, anatomy that just hasn’t had the surgical correction yet. “… there will be ‘mixed genitalia’ in military showers and sleeping quarters…”

“Moms and dads in America need to know this before they send their sons and daughters to military service.”

Shouldn’t the Army be at least as up to date as the elementary schools of San Francisco?

The guidelines even “…cover all sorts of scenarios – from shower stall etiquette to “transfemale” soldiers deployed to anti-LGBT countries.” I know, I know, you thought that armies were supposed to kick collective asses not kowtow to social mores of the lesser nation. What the hell is shower stall etiquette besides don’t drop the soap?

But the coup de grace is, “The Army has begun mandatory transgender sensitivity training for…dealing with a male soldier who becomes pregnant.”

I think someone in the Army watched Junior and thought it was a documentary.

From your grumpy male Uncle/Brother Dave, sharing guidelines “…mandated during the Obama Administration.”

Weary

http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2017/06/16/armys-transgender-policy-includes-guidelines-on-male-pregnancies.html

http://dailycaller.com/2015/09/08/san-francisco-elementary-school-switches-to-gender-neutral-bathrooms-for-little-kids/

Aluminum Foil and RFIDs

7/2017

RFID, radio frequency identification (or maybe, radio frequency idiot), chips are here and more will come. You think cell phones, wifi, and computers are easy to hack? This makes that kind of hacking seem like child’s play.

If you’ve seen one of the modern movies, like a James Bond flick, where they put this little capsule under his skin, that is a RFID. They aren’t all that large. Or maybe you’ve seen retailers brush your intended purchase across a scanner before you leave a store so that the alarms don’t go off? Some companies put one in the hand of it’s employees so they can automatically log in/out, charge food at the commissary or track their movements.

The RF part means that the chip puts out a radio signal when stimulated by a scanner. It broadcasts whatever information is on the chip.

A simple radio scanner can read and reproduce said information. The scanner can be as small as a cigarette lighter with a remote antenna that is as inconspicuous as a small coil of wire. A small computer (like a raspberry Pi, the size of a pack of gum) can overwrite the information on the chip to what the hacker wants.

RFID chips are everywhere – companies and labs use them as access keys, Prius owners use them to start their cars, and retail giants like Wal-Mart have deployed them as inventory tracking devices. Drug manufacturers like Pfizer rely on chips to track pharmaceuticals. The tags are also about to get a lot more personal: Next-gen US passports and credit cards will contain RFIDs, and the medical industry is exploring the use of implantable chips to manage patients. According to the RFID market analysis firm IDTechEx, the push for digital inventory tracking and personal ID systems will expand the current annual market for RFIDs from $2.7 billion to as much as $26 billion by 2016.”(1)

That was the news 11 years ago.

From your Grumpy Uncle/Brother Dave, wrapping my credit cards in aluminum foil as I lament my Maui experiences.

Weary.

1. The RFID Hacking Underground, Annlee Newitz, 05.01.06, https://www.wired.com/2006/05/rfid-2/

12/19/2020, Edit; The following links are YouTube videos on how easy it is to defeat RFIDs in your credit cards and key fobs. The Lock Picking Lawyer has a video showing that the shielding sleeves are easily defeated.

How to Bypass RFID Badge Readers (w/ Deviant Ollam and Babak Javadi). The Modern Rogue. January 29, 2020. Retrieved 12/17/2020 from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ccm1caB6bao
How Hackers Steal Card Info, Just by Standing Nearby. The modern Rogue. March 27, 2020. Retrieved 12/17/2020 from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qt2Gn2CoJ74

TSA and the Terrorist

7/2017

I’ll bet you probably could have guessed what the US Transportation Security Administration was intended to do without my giving you this link. (1) And if you are too lazy to read it yourself, I’ll summarize the salient points here.

Mission
Protect the nation’s transportation systems to ensure freedom of movement for people and commerce.
Vision
Provide the most effective transportation security in the most efficient way as a high performing counter-terrorism organization.
Core Values
Integrity. Innovation. Team spirit.

But read it anyway, it is illuminating. Especially in light (no pun intended) of this report about an 82-year-old woman who got arrested in the Wichita airport for assaulting a TSA officer. (2)

All of this 120 lbs and 5’5″ of lean, mean, fighting machine with 82 years of combat experience was viewed as a threat to the transportation security of the largest superpower in the existence of the world using only her closed fist. See, watching those Bruce Lee films of the 1970s paid off (eg. Fists of Fury 2, 1976).

So, with respect to the Mission, they were able to ensure freedom of movement for the poor lady from the airport to the Sedgwick County jail. The Vision, maybe they succeeded in striking fear in the hearts of terrorists around the world since this made international media and now terrorists will think twice before coming to America. Ya think? And, the Core Values were upheld in that it did take more than one TSA officer to apprehend the 82-year-old woman.

And you wonder why I don’t like to fly.

Respectfully submitted by your grumpy Uncle/Brother Dave.

Weary.

The Devil You Don’t Know

7/2017

Disclaimer: This is NOT a political comment but an example of poor financial planning and a lesson learned in life.

OK now. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, I owned a 1972 Cheby Nova (spelling intentionally incorrect) with a V-8 engine. My wife would run along beside it with a gas can to make sure we didn’t run out of gas between home and the store 2 blocks away. Well maybe not really, but you get the idea.

A young (to the US) upstart Japanese car company (Subaru), Jimmy (then President), and a lot of the national media strongly urged everyone to ditch their gas guzzlers for a new, more fuel-efficient vehicle. Kinda sounds familiar, doesn’t it? “You will save money,” they said.

Young and stupid was I, I traded in the perfectly functional but less than efficient Nova.

The new Subaru did indeed get better fuel mileage. When it ran. Unfortunately, it was one of the first vehicles (at least for Subaru) to have computer control of the engine. It didn’t work too well. In addition, the little 4 cylinder engine didn’t have enough oomph to make the hills of Kansas without downshifting, if there was more than one adult in the vehicle. The car was in the shop almost every week for months. Subaru finally threw in the towel and said, “We don’t know what is wrong and you are on your own. Sue us if you want.” This was before the current impotent Lemon Laws,

I ended up trading the Subaru, on which I still owed a significant amount of the original financed note, for a new Jeep Wagoneer. Loved that Wagoneer, but wish, even now, that I had the Nova and all the money wasted in finance charges, maintenance, lost equity and rental expenses for substitute vehicles. If I had, instead of following this woe-some path, invested in say Walmart, lookout Donald. I’d of been firing people on TV instead of him.

Me thinks what I am saying is consider carefully, the devil you know versus the devil you don’t know.

Your grumpy Uncle/Brother Dave, who didn’t fall for it the second time around.

Weary.