MuD & PHuD

Methinks this is was not the first time Mr. Autry had been faced with violence:

ATLANTA -- Five robbers picked the wrong victim in Midtown Atlanta last night and one of them paid with her life.
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The five suspects pulled up in a car and confronted the victim in the 500 block of Penn Street just before midnight.

Autry began running down the street yelling for help. Residents who heard him called 911. While he was running, Autry pulled a pocket knife from his backpack.

Two of the robbers jumped from the car. When one of the robbers pointed a shotgun at him, the Autry kicked it out of his hands.

At that point two of the robbers jumped on the victim. During the struggle he stabbed both of them. One, a teenaged female who has been identified as Amy Martin, died of her wounds. Officials say Martin was pregnant. A second is in critical condition.
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Thomas Autry, who is a former U.S. Marine, will not be charged since police say he was acting in self defense. Officials say Autry is extremely remorseful.

Guess some dirtbags picked the wrong Marine.

BTW, I agree with Uncle re: the Rambo reference.
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Pansies:

In what some are referring to as the "Cochran rule," the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference football committee passed a score management policy to be instituted next season. The rule says if a team wins by 50 or more points, the coach is suspended for the next game.

I'm nearly speechless. At least the rule's namesake isn't a girly-man:

"It won't change anything with how I prepare for a game," Cochran said. "Where it's going to run into problems is when you've got your second team in or you've got your freshmen in; what do you tell them? One coach is saying he's just going to have his guys take a knee. I would never do that. I would never tell a kid to run out of bounds instead of scoring.

Getting beaten badly on any sports field sucks...but then that's a risk you take when you suit up. If you can't win, or even hold your own on the football field, give tiddlywinks a try.

This is just absolute crap. What does this teach kids? If you're really good, try to hold back to you don't hurt anyone's feelings. That's what.

I played baseball in high school and our team sucked. We tried real hard, but we just weren't that good. We used to get beat very badly. And remember, there's no clock in baseball. I distinctly remember being pissed when we lost...but I was absolutely insulted when the other team decided to be 'nice' and not take extra bases, force themselves to swing at every other pitch, etc. That got under my skin more than anything else. There's nothing more condescending than being offered pity like that. I didn't want it then and I don't want it now. The difference now being that the pandering is being codified by a high school athletic organization.

I'm sure this will help us breed real men to lead this country into the future. Lessons learned on the playing field will certainly serve them well. They'll be tough, just so long as nobody tries to run up the score.
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I've lost an awful lot of respect for our neighbors to the north for many reasons, mainly their total abandonment of freedom. No time for that now because there may still be hope (pdf):

"It is one thing for someone to come back from seeing reality in a place like this and to say, `I'm a pacifist. I don't want Canada to have an army.' I can respect that, even if I don't agree," says Schamuhn.

"But if you're born in Canada and that's all you've ever known, your words mean nothing to me. Because you haven't seen the other side of the world. You haven't seen the necessity of conflict. There are people who are fighting against peace, against stable government.

"And Canada, whether they want to know it or not, has a very strong warrior class. I guess that is what the front-line soldiers really want Canadians to understand. We want Canadians to get on board, to realize we are out here and to allow us to do what we are prepared to do."

Read the whole thing. It's long but flies by. Well written and quite uplifting.

(via Michael Yon)
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A short while back I ran into a great new blog, OK so I’m not really a cowboy. He's got a post up right now that really hits the nail on the head. Check it out.
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It's been said many times: There's no such thing as an 'Ex-Marine'.

As an outsider I am in awe of our warriors, whether they be Soldier, Seaman, Airman or Marine. I know enough only to know that the bond of brotherhood they share is something I will likely never experience, and that makes it all the more tragic in my eyes when a warrior betrays his own. Certainly discharge from the Service does not make one an Ex-Marine...but there are lines in the sand that to cross is unforgivable.

Don't take it from this life-long civilian, though. Ask Doc Russia.
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Over the past few months I've been giving a lot of thought to being prepared. For what, you ask? Well, just about everything. 'Everything' can be more or less broken down into everyday situations and extreme circumstances. Within each of these categories there are both personal/physical and material preparations that are important. As I work my way back into blogging I plan to discuss these topics both in theory and practice.

For now, however, I wanted to direct your attention to a truly great, and quite new, website that focuses on self-defense from the female prespective. Some of the pages are still under construction, but that really only serves to bring you back to see what's new. So, go pay Kathy at The Cornered Cat a visit. You won't be disappointed.
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If you've read this blog over the past year you know how I feel about eminent domain abuse. Well, it's still going strong on the CT coast:

BRIDGEPORT, Conn. (AP) -- A Superior Court judge has rejected an attempt by United Illuminating Co. to block the city's plan to take 11-acres of power company property for the planned Steel Point development.
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"In weighing the equities, this court concludes that the condemnation proceeding will indeed expedite UI receiving just compensation for the property being taken and agrees with the city that a delay in obtaining this portion of land may, in fact, jeopardize this project, which the mayor considers the most significant in the history of the city," the judge stated.
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Last November, the City Council adopted a resolution authorizing the mayor and the city's Redevelopment Agency to acquire UI's property on Steel Point to make way for apartments, shopping a hotel and a marina.

Oh, well I stand corrected. I mean if the mayor thinks it's really really important, than it's certainly ok to steal private land and give it to another private entity.

At the risk of repeating myself, this is government running roughshod over private individuals and companies and it cannot be allowed to stand. Period.
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As I'm sure literally millions have noted, I've dropped off the face of the blogging earth of late. The reason is that life is busy. While it's not slowing down any, I plan to get back into blogging in the near future, albeit with a slightly different focus.

Railing against The Man in the abstract leads, for me anyway, down the road to apathy. So, the new focus (to go along with a new phase in my life, more on that later) will involve things a bit closer to home. There will still be a smattering of railing against The Man, but with hopefully a different flavor and more useful point of reference.

So, until the near future...
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