Xanderland

My little corner of the intar-web.

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  • Keeping threats in context.

    It’s amazing to me how much money we’ll spend, how much time and effort we’ll waste, how many liberties we’re willing to give up in the name of “the war on terror” which in reality is one of the more minor dangers we face in the world today.  

    The truth:  "We need to keep terrorism in some kind of context," he said. "For example, every year in the UK, more people die in road accidents than have been killed by terrorists in all of recorded history."

    That’s a quote from Nigel Inkster, former Assistant Chief and Director of Operations and Intelligence of MI6, as reported in The Register via Schneier on Security.

  • Colleges confront shootings with training

    Hundreds of colleges across the nation have purchased a training program that teaches professors and students not to take campus threats lying down but to fight back with any "improvised weapon," from a backpack to a laptop computer.

    From this article:  http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26410431/

    To that, I ask:  "Why not just let them carry real, effective self-defense weapons, instead of making them improvise weapons in the middle of an attack?"

    That aside, I have to say that I'm hearted by the fact that it seems like the general population is, to some extent at least, starting to take tentative steps towards taking self-defense seriously.   Understanding that  capitulation and waiting for the calvary to show up isn't the only or the best option would be a pretty significant change to the "give them what they want and hope for the best" philosophy that we as a society have lived by for so long at such cost.  It may be a baby step, but I'd say that it's definitely a step in the right direction. 

  • Carry Permit Holders save lives.

    Say Uncle has compiled a list of handgun carry permit holders who have interjected themselves into dangerous situation to save lives.   Doing my part to drain the BradyBunch's Google-juice on the term "carry permit holders" :-) 

    Via Snowflakes in Hell.

  • This is bizarre.

    I have to say, I've never heard of a "fake" governmental office popping up in the States.  That's one more industry India's taken the lead in.  

    http://www.marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2007/12/faux-indian-gov.html

  • Si vis pacem, para bellum.

    "If you seek peace, prepare for war."   It's a sad fact of the current state of our tapioca-brained liberal politically-correct society that these ageless words of wisdom have been replaced with something more akin to "If you seek peace, bury your head in the sand, and maybe then you won't notice that bad things can still happen." 

  • He has a magnificent beard, so he must be right.

    The beard aside, however, what he's saying makes sense.  http://www.newsweek.com/id/110937

    I'm going to have to check out his book.

  • Give them what they want...Or not.

    "Give them what they want."   It's been the standard weak-kneed liberal drivel for dealing with bad people for ages.   It's stupid, counter-productive, and while it may be a slightly less dangerous option for a specific individual in a specific case, as a whole it's bad for society and makes the world less safe for us all as we abdicate control of our streets to muggers. 

    What should you do if you're mugged?  How 'bout beating the muggers up with their own shovel?  These two women get a hearty "well done" from me.  

  • Some interesting analysis...

    Of the recent airline security "threat".

    http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interes... (via Bruce Schneier)

    and http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/08/17/flying_toi...

    Aren't you glad our security is being assured by complete morons? 

  • Most nurses are nice.

    But some are downright strange and bizarre.  Story here.