I have added TC 3-21.76 Ranger Handbook to the training materials page on this blog. If you haven’t checked out our useful training manual library, I suggest that you do.
Education
Department of Education
Although the Department is a relative newcomer among Cabinet-level agencies, its origins goes back to 1867, when President Andrew Johnson signed legislation creating the first Department of Education. Its main purpose was to collect information and statistics about the nation’s schools. However, due to concern that the Department would exercise too much control over local schools, the new Department was demoted to an Office of Education in 1868.
Over the years, the office remained relatively small, operating under different titles and housed in various agencies, including the U.S. Department of the Interior and the former U.S. Department of Health Education and Welfare (now Health and Human Services).
Beginning in the 1950s, political and social changes resulted in expanded federal funding for education. The successful launch of the Soviet Union’s Sputnik in 1957 spurred nationwide concern that led to increased aid for science education programs. The 1960s saw even more expansion of federal education funding: President Lyndon Johnson’s “War on Poverty” called for the creation of many programs to improve education for poor students at all levels—early childhood through postsecondary. This expansion continued in the 1970s with national efforts to help racial minorities, women, people with disabilities and non-English speaking students gain equal access to education. In October 1979, Congress passed the Department of Education Organization Act (Public Law 96-88). Created by combining offices from several federal agencies, the Department began operations in May 1980.
In the 1860s, a budget of $15,000 and four employees handled education fact-finding. By 1965, the Office of Education had more than 2,100 employees and a budget of $1.5 billion. As of mid-2010, the Department has nearly 4,300 employees and a budget of about $60 billion.
In 1868, there was concern that the DoE would exert too much control over local schools, so it was demoted to an “Office of Education” with four employees and a budget of $15,000. It was made into a cabinet level department in 1979, under Jimmy Carter. Since then, it has grown to 4,300 employees and a $60 billion budget. It now issue orders to local schools encompassing everything from curriculum to what they must serve for lunch. I would say that the fears of “too much control over local schools” was well founded.
It’s well past time to get rid of the Department of Education. There is no reason for this bloated department to make decisions for each state and how it will run its schools. You can’t say that test scores are any better or worse, because it is impossible to know. There is no way to measure performance of students in 1979 and compare it to now. Tests that were taken by students have been changed several times over the years, so that it is impossible to determine whether or not students today are any better or worse off than counterparts from other time periods.
Communications
SARNET
In Florida, SARNET is a network of HAM radio repeaters in the 70cm band (. They are all connected, so activating one repeater ensures that your traffic will be heard statewide. A list of SARNET repeaters can be found here. Anyone who is a licensed HAM radio operator can use it in analog mode only, as long as the state disaster centers haven’t closed the net due to an emergency or other disaster, but it’s important to remember that anything you say will be broadcast across the entire state. Here is the coverage map:
It’s a great way to find someone that is a HAM operator, and then direct them to another means of communication. Long conversations are discouraged on SARNET. The network voice radio usage is intended to be short communications between users. During long conversations you are activating all of the SARNET repeaters across the state for an extended period of time, subjecting all of the hams in the state to a conversation that they have no interest in. Long local conversations are encouraged to move off of SARNET and onto another repeater that does not activate the net. Still, it’s a great way for a HAM in Key West to quickly contact one in Pensacola. Here is a video to explain it:
Another great use is calling a Mayday if you are in an emergency, because you are guaranteed to get a response if every HAM and EOC in the state can hear you.
Silence the opposition
Michigan and the First Amendment
Democrats in Michigan have proposed a bill that would replace Michigan’s existing Ethnic Intimidation Act and make it a hate crime to cause someone to “feel terrorized, frightened, or threatened.” Under the bill’s framework, “sexual orientation” and “gender identity or expression” are included as classes protected against intimidation. If passed, the hate speech legislation would make violators guilty of a felony punishable by up to five years in prison and a fine of $10,000. The law also allows victims of hate crimes to bring civil lawsuits against the offender. Successful plaintiffs can recover three times the actual damages or $25,000, whichever is greater, along with reasonable attorney fees and costs.
What is also a feature is the possibility of “Alternative penalties” under the proposed law.
An alternative sentence may include an order requiring the offender to complete a period of community service intended to enhance the offender’s understanding of the impact of the offense upon the victim and wider community. Community service ordered under this subdivision must be performed with the consent of and in support of the community targeted in the violation.
I can’t see how this isn’t a violation of the First Amendment. Let’s see how it plays out.
Race baiting
Cops Are Not Referees
Too many people think that calling the police is the adult equivalent of telling your mom that someone is being mean to you. This guy had a black man approach him with a knife, and while brandishing it, scream “Die!”
So the man called the cops. The cops arrive and arrest him, so the caller begins sobbing because he didn’t want the black suspect to think he was a racist. Holy shit.
Tranny Insanity
Mass Psychosis
The fads of the last few decades:
- The 50’s: Duck’s Ass Haircut
- The 60’s: Gogo boots, Hippies, birth control means screwing anything that walks
- The 70’s: the Disco craze, Leisure suits
- The 80’s: Big hair, parachute pants
- The 90’s: The information superhighway
- The 00’s: sucking dicks
- The 10’s: cutting off your dick, having your tits removed.
- The 20’s: teaching kids to play with your dick
Note that the new fad is claim to be a faggot. According to recent surveys, 1 in 5 young people claim to be transgender.
Antifa
The Question
The left likes to pretend that the road is public, and
- they have the same right to stand there and block the road as drivers have to drive on the road
- this is a ‘peaceful protest’
- until someone tries to get through, then this is considered “violence” against the crowd on the part of the driver that permits them to attack that driver in self defense through a twisted interpretation of “stand your ground”
In other words, allow them to block the road, or get physically attacked by the “peaceful” crowd. They have taken Ghandi’s tactic of sitting there and waiting for the government to use force in removing you- a so called “sit in” and turned it up to level 11 by using force to hold their position.
This is, in my opinion no different than the person who engages in a “peaceful rape,” a peaceful armed robbery, or a peaceful occupation of your house by an armed home invader. It’s the “or else” that changes the act of peaceful protest into an act of violence. This is the threat of force in order to get the public to capitulate to their demands. They are holding the ability to travel and engage in commerce hostage while holding a metaphorical gun to the heads of those who refuse to comply.
They claim that they are unarmed. False. They are armed in that the amount of force that can be brought to bear by a large crowd is far in excess of the capabilities of individuals that would oppose them. The only choices that an individual has is to:
- Try and reverse down the highway, which is unsafe and impractical or
- sit there, or
- Drive through.
Once the person attempts to sit there, the crowd will usually try to disable and/or gain entry to the passenger compartment by breaking the glass. This means that there is only one remaining option is the last one: floor it.
This is nothing more than holding someone against their will. The legal term for this false imprisonment. In Florida, false imprisonment is a felony.
787.02 (1)(a) The term “false imprisonment” means forcibly, by threat, or secretly confining, abducting, imprisoning, or restraining another person without lawful authority and against her or his will.
(b) Confinement of a child under the age of 13 is against her or his will within the meaning of this section if such confinement is without the consent of her or his parent or legal guardian.
(2) A person who commits the offense of false imprisonment is guilty of a felony of the third degree
Since it involves the threat of force, or if the crowd has already used force, a person has the right to use a reasonable amount of force in order to prevent the imminent commission of that felony. That would be the case that I would make, were I forced to drive over the crowd that was attempting to hold me against my will.
Blog News
Security Upgrades
Now that we have registration, there has been a large number of users attempting to register from fake email domains, and there are even a few that have registered from government accounts in the Ukraine. I went through and deleted a large number of fake registrations. If I deleted you by mistake, please let me know by email. I got an alert from my server that someone attempted to install malware on the site, so I am going to tighten security a bit.
I have installed a number of security plugins that should be invisible to readers, but will greatly enhance the blog’s resistance to spam and to malware. Email me with any concerns or problems.
Prepping
PM Usefulness
There were a lot of comments in response to the PM post the other day, too many comments to address individually, so I figured I would make a post about it. Points made in comments are bold, my response follows.
Having PM’s will get you robbed or killed by government agents or criminals: Of course they can. Anything of value may get you robbed or killed by those who want to take it from you- food, ammo, guns, cash. People have been killing each other in order to take their stuff ever since Oog hit Org over the head with a rock and stole the rabbit he was eating. That’s why there are a couple of things you need to do:
- The number one thing about all prepping, or owning anything of value, is- don’t talk about what you have or ostentatiously flaunt it. You wouldn’t wear a Rolex into a bad neighborhood (unless you are hunting), so why would you flaunt your PM, ammo, or stored food collection?
- If critters notice what you have, that’s why you have guns. To keep critters from stealing your stuff.
- If we are at a point where government officials are stealing your PMs, they will steal anything else you have, as well.
- If things have degenerated to the point where there are roving bands of criminals wearing colander facemasks are raiding homesteads like a Mad Max movie, none of your preps or stored stuff is going to help you any more than PMs.
- I can hide 20 ounces of assorted gold coins/bars inside of an electrical box installed inside of the wall with room to spare. $40,000 inside of a 22 cubic inch box is a density that you can’t match with many other means of storing value.
You can’t eat/shoot/use PMs in a TEOTWAWKI situation, so you are better off hoarding beans/ammo/whatever: Being prepared for disasters isn’t just a binary choice between everything is fine and cannibalism. As I said in this post here, there are many things that fall between those two extremes, and this is what I said:
The most likely disaster that we are likely to affect is a personal one. A disaster that affects just you, or your family. A personal disaster may be something as small as a flat tire, or as personally destructive as cancer, or simply being laid off from your job. We cannot know what that disaster will be, but there is a pretty good chance that the best way to fix it will be… money.
A variation of the above claim is The government/grocers/car mechanics/whomever don’t accept PMs. While this is true, PMs are convertible into cash far more readily, at a larger fraction of their acquisition cost, and hold that value better than a jar full of dried beans or a cigar box full of cash.
Having PMs serves a number of purposes:
- It allows me to save a significant amount of money ($15-16 thousand) that won’t lose value due to inflation.
- It is difficult enough to get to that I am less likely to dip into my savings for all but emergencies.
- I am far more likely to need money to deal with any given emergency than I am to need a week’s worth of freeze dried Mountain House. Does that mean storing emergency food is not a good idea? Of course not, but a 6 month emergency fund is far more important and more likely useful for preparedness.
There are people who fake/counterfeit PMs, and are so good at it that even central banks are fooled, so you are better off buying ammo. There are ways to detect fakes by looking at density and using “ringers” or gold analyzers. It can be done using magnetic properties, or even metal analyzers. For example, commenter Fido informs us about this analyzer that costs about as much as a one ounce coin. Using reputable dealers is also an excellent way of preventing yourself from being ripped off. If fake gold is so good that a central bank is fooled, then how would anyone know? If I buy and then sell such a fake, would the person I sell it to be any better equipped to detect the fake than I was? If not, then how does it matter? To the best of my knowledge, I have never bought a fake PM in the 15 years that I have been buying them. As far as being better served buying ammo, see my comments above.
The big problem here is that everyone in the prepping community likes planning for the day when you will be engaging in firefights and car chases through their neighborhood over the last can of baked beans and cans of canned butter, but few people like planning for the day when you are out of work for six months because you ruptured your Achilles tendon while playing tennis with the neighbor, a scenario that is a lot more likely than a scene from “One Second After.” In such a scenario, you can’t convert a case of baked beans or a few bricks of .40 ammo into your property tax payment as easily as you can a couple of quarter ounce Gold Eagles.
That is why you are better off setting up an emergency fund of at least 90 days’ expenses before you do any other prepping. Money is the single most useful prep you can invest in. I’ve been a prepper since 2003 or so. In that time, I have faced a lot of disasters, including hurricanes, job loss, car breakdowns, and even bankruptcy. Not once did I have to dig into the freeze dried foods or the ammo stash. In every one of them, having a couple of months worth of rent money was a life saver. Take the advice for what you paid for it- but there it is.