August 2011 – Page 9 – Shall Not Be Questioned

The Horror

Maxim Lott, who comes from a family friendly on the issue, is reporting from Fox News notes:

Would you let your kid touch a machine gun?

Photos of officers from the Santa Rosa Police Department letting kids handle the departmentâ€™s SWAT team weaponry at a community event has sparked a debate over how much exposure to guns is healthy for kids.

The people who are getting hysterical really need real problems to worry about. It never ceases to amaze me, that there’s no problem so unimportant or trivial, that a busy body who doesn’t know enough to mind their owned damned business won’t worry about it. Personally, I have enough problems of my own to sit around worrying about other people’s problems. I’d love to be one of these people who has time and energy to worry about other people’s kids.

I’d not only let my kid touch a machine gun, I’d actively encourage the interest. But I do have to chuckle at this:

“Our goal is saying to people, â€˜hey, don’t be intimidated by the police.â€™ We want to break down that barrierâ€¦ Once these events are over, people will be more comfortable having conversations with officers.â€

Well, you might want to start by not sending the SWAT team in to take down grandma for growing a few pot plants in her backyard. Or for, “Sorry, wrong house. And we’re really sorry about your dog.”

Plainfield Touts Buyback, Gun Shot Detector

Plainfield, New Jersey is yet another community to install gunshot detectors. I don’t honestly have much of a problem with this technology, as if I have to fire a gun within a city’s limits, I want the police showing up quickly. But does it actually work? I’ve yet to hear these systems revolutionizing police work, and their deployment, as best I can tell, has been pretty limited. New Jersey law enforcement seems to be keen on them, however. My guess is the system probably provides a lot of false positives, and doesn’t buy you much in terms of crime prevention for the cost. Cities would probably do better to spend the money on more police.

UPDATE: Interesting study:

Police response times to technology-generated reports of gunfire wereÂ compared to response times to citizen-generated reports both before andÂ during the test period. For the most part, there was little differenceÂ between response times to technology-generated reports of gunfire duringÂ the test period and response times to citizen-generated reports before theÂ test period. However, the mean response time to citizen-generated reportsÂ of gunfire during the test period (about 30 minutes) was about 30 percentÂ less than the mean response time to technology-generated reports (aboutÂ 45 minutes). Nonetheless, the overall mean response time during the testÂ period (to the technology- and citizen-generated reports combined) wasÂ about 41 minutes, just 2 minutes longer than the mean response timeÂ before the test period (to citizen-generated reports only). ResearchersÂ concluded that using the technology did not change in any substantial wayÂ the speed with which the police responded to reports of gunfire.

Also:

There are two possible explanations for this significant increase in policeÂ workloads: First, gunshot detection technology may generate some falseÂ alerts. Given the design of the evaluation and the relatively early stage ofÂ this technology’s development, this first possible explanation could not beÂ explored in more detail. Second, Dallas may have a high rate of unreportedÂ gunfire, at least in the Oak Cliff neighborhood; if so, this finding couldÂ have significant ramifications for future crime analysis and crimeÂ prevention activities that seek to control the random gunfire problem inÂ Dallas.

Given that, it seems to me this technology is a net negative, if it’s not resulting in a better response and is consuming police resources. Yet the conclusion is still relatively positive. But then again, our society likes easy solutions to complex problems, so I guess it’s not surprising.

Paranoid for Body Armor?

Heather from Alaska doesn’t think it’s all that paranoid to own body armor. My test for this is pretty simple, if you own body armor, and had a reason to actually put it on, you’re probably not paranoid. Heather shares her story of having to put it on.

Fantasy Land on Microstamping

I’m not sure what planet New Yorkers Against Gun Violence lives in, but it’s not this one:

Microstamping legislation is supported by more than 100 mayors and 80 police departments and law enforcement organizations from across New York who know it would provide an additional tool to help solve gun crimes and get violent criminals off the streets.

Is it that surprising 100 mayors and 80 police chiefs in New York are fools? These are the same folks that convinced New York State that CoBIS, New York’s ballistic database, was absolutely an essential law enforcement tool as well, and even USA Today admits it’s been pretty much worthless, and Maryland’s database doesn’t fare much better.

Our opponents aren’t experts in much of anything these days, except hysterical rantings. But this is new, and better technology. Just trust them. It’s essential. And it won’t cost much.

Food Advice for the Jobless

Gun news is a little slow today, so I thought I’d share some of what I’ve been doing, and solicit ideas from others. A big problem with unemployment is eating. If you have a reasonable income, chances are you eat out a lot, and when you do cook at home, often enjoy cooking meals with expensive ingredients. Here’s some things I’ve discovered when it comes to eating cheap:

First step we took was to stop going out to eat regularly. When we do go out now, it’s either a date to Chick-fil-a, with a coupon, or to hamburger joints like Cheeburger, Red Robin, or anywhere else where two people can eat for about the cost of a Jackson. And we only do this every few weeks to celebrate good news, or some accomplishment in my job search.
No purchase of alcohol when out of the home. Ordering drinks at a restaurant is what runs the bill up. Purchase of alcohol for consumption for in the home during periods of joblessness is highly encouraged. You need something to help forget about the suck. There are plenty of bargains out there for wine, though I do not recommend cheap beer or liquor. If you find yourself without a job, you will probably be drinking both, however, but much like the economy, I don’t have much positive to say about it. For cheap liquor, Margaritas can be made for 10 dollars a pitcher with booze so cheap you wouldn’t strip paint with it, but will produce a very drinkable beverage.
Pork is the best friend you have in the whole wide world if you don’t have a job. If you’re Muslim, or Jewish, sucks to be you. You’ll have plenty of time on your hands, and if you have a BBQ, Â you can take some pretty cheap cuts of meat, run them low and slow on the Q, and feed yourself for a week. Pork chops on the grill can also be a good substitute for steak, and are much less expensive.
If the other white meat isn’t your thing, then your next best friend is ground beef. A nice pot of chili will feed two people for several days, and for lunches offers the possibility of chili dogs. While many consider it an abomination in the eyes of Texas, beans added to the chili will help it stretch. The beans are good for you, and cheap. Ground beef can also get your burgers and dogs, hamburger helper, spaghetti with meat sauce or meat balls.
Not to be overlooked are various members of the sausage family. 82 million Germans can’t be wrong, can they? There is a wurst for every occasion, and they are the most versatile of the cheap foods out there. Hot dogs are among this family, and they are classic cheap eating. Italian sausage is a great addition to pasta dishes. Brats and sauerkraut with a side of mashed potatoes is a great meal, and it’s tough to find cheaper or easier.
Chicken can be used to provide you with a more elegant meal at home, as there are many good and varied recipes out there for chicken. My favorite dish in this category is Chicken Marsala. Marsala wine is a fortified wine that even the PA state monopoly sells for under ten dollars, and you can make a few batches with a bottle. Bread some chicken, fry it in butter and olive oil until it’s nice and brown. Remove the chicken, toss in some sliced baby ‘bella ‘shrooms, some shallots, a little bit of sage, a little bit of salt, pepper to taste. Then toss in the marsala wine and some chicken broth and reduce. Add the chicken back in before the reduction is finished to finish it off. The breading from the chicken will help thicken the sauce. It’s good served with garlic rosemary small red potatoes, halved and baked, or with rice pilaf, which is also cheap to make at home.

You can still eat pretty well, even on a budget. There’s no reason the hope and change has to reach all the way to your stomach. While the price of food has been going up, the cost doesn’t compare to thinks like your mortgage, keeping two cars on the road, or even the electric and gas bill. What cheap foods do you know of that are great for people on a budget?

And Then There Were Three

Got turned down by one of my three top choices today. This is not the same outfit I interviewed with yesterday. My phone interview with this outfit went very well, but it was a couple of weeks ago. I pinged them back Tuesday and they replied back with your standard template of liking my qualifications, but not really having a position that’s an exact fit right now.Â Number two I had a third round phone interview with yesterday, and number three, the in-person interview went well with them, but it’s been two weeks and I haven’t heard a peep. That’s never a good sign, but I’m reluctant to bug people if the issue is just something is taking a long time with HR, or they just have more candidates to interview before making a decision.Â I have a fourth possibility, but it’s a decade step back in my career, and even that’s not certain. I am facing the prospect of failing at all the top companies, and having to take a huge step back. But hey, you gotta pay the bills somehow.

I had started posting here about the job hunt situation mostly as an outlet, and to give people an idea of how things are out there, if you might be worried about your job. There are still a lot of jobs out there, but I’m finding the going much much harder than it was a decade ago, when I was last looking. I’m going to need to step it up a notch very soon.

If any of the rest of you find yourselves hitting the unemployment line, my advice is to use a breadth search, not a depth search. I started off with a depth search; identifying top employers, and spending the time and effort to try to get in to those, but which had a high probability of not panning out. That may turn out to be a strategic mistake on my part. We shall see.

The Chicago Way

He pulls a knife, you pull a gun.

Reverting to Your Level of Training

Spent the past several days brushing up on elegant ways to do various kinds of operations in shell scripts. Learned quite a few new things. Under the pressure of the interview, I reverted back to the quick and dirty ways of every day writing of shell scripts. Now that the pressure is off, I’m also thinking of the mistakes I made. Doing a pre-increment when I really should have used a post-increment. The kind of mistake I wouldn’t make except when I’m under the gun and second guessing everything I do.

We’ll see how things go. If it ends here, at least it ends. I can move on and start looking for other work. Tomorrow the free ice cream will once again flow.

Pretending We Didn’t Say That…

I know plenty of gun folks get all giddy when they see a newspaper-written editorial headline like this. “Gun control: Misfire” And then to see that the piece goes on to talk about how gun control advocates are completely unwilling to admit they are wrong on the blood in the streets predictions no matter how much evidence is thrown in their face – that’s just happy dance territory.

I guess the pessimist in me just had to come out and play. Because it seems rather odd that the newspaper staff would condemn anti-gun groups & politicians for not being willing to concede when they are wrong when traditionally the media has been wrong on this, too. Google, being my friend, helped me out in quickly finding an editorial in the very same paper pulling out the lethal mix rhetoric.

In Virginia, those who possess concealed-carry permits cannot possess their weapons in establishments that serve liquor or beer. Some in the state legislature believe it’s time to scrap that restriction. Yet guns, booze, anxiety, and stress can combine for a deadly mix.

Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate the side they are taking today. I don’t expect them to publicly lash themselves for engaging in the same kind of rhetoric they now condemn. But, just remember that if you’re doing the happy dance now, they could bring back the blood-in-the-streets rhetoric depending on who mans the editorial desk.

Snazzy Videos

I don’t know what possessed me, but I decided to go check out one of the blogs I monitored before our trip to Hawaii last year. Turns out, there’s been some pretty nifty video captured from the volcano lately. Since Sebastian is too busy preparing for an interview today, you’re stuck with this crazy stuff before I go looking up gun, legal, or political news for the day.

Unfortunately, the video linked isn’t embeddable (yet*) so I’ll just embed this one from March that shows something else kinda cool.

In this video, the lava lake’s disappearance drops the entire crater floor more than 250 feet & brings down a section of the crater wall. Amazing little things, these webcams.

*Consider that of the embeddable videos, they were posted in July even though they were captured in March. Yes, the local government agency office can get video posted within a day of an event, and the division of the agency with keys to the YouTube account takes 4 months to upload 30 second videos. Yay, government!