Propaganda Piece

From the article, I Was a TSA Agent for 2 Years—and This Is Why You’re Getting Stopped at Security - there are some interesting concepts in this article. I believe it reads more like a "justify the unconstitutional actions of the TSA" service announcement. 

We're trained to look at your eyes

Their "training" sucks. 

We can tell if you've had too much to drink

Bad news - that is not a superpower. 

Avoid tank tops

I cannot believe these words and the "explanation" made it past an editor. 

We might make you do squats

Pure propaganda to make wine moms feel better about giving up their civil liberties. Have never seen this, nor have I seen a video of it. This would have become a viral video if true. 

Don't be wary if the alarm goes off
Most of the metal detectors are designed to go off as every tenth passenger walks through them regardless of if they detected metal or not. Try not to be offended if you are selected for an additional security check. If you are, try to always treat people positively and be humble and do everything that's asked of you. If you cause any trouble, that's the largest suspicion.

We already knew this was the case. 

We can—and will—make you miss your flight

Yes. we knew this. It is not something to brag about. 

Some metals don't beep
For gold to set off the scanner, you'd have to carry more than ten pounds of it, so keep your gold chains on. If you have a knee held together with aluminum bolts, that won't set off the scanner either, so no need to tell us about those.

Not true at all. Sometimes scanners don't work. But they do go off for small amounts of gold occasionally. As well as aluminum bolts in people's joints. 

Don't be embarrassed by the full-body scans
We really aren't looking for anything private (in the way you might be embarrassed about) and we can't see anything specific in that area. All we see is your outline and any metal or suspicious item that you may be carrying.

What were you lying about again? 

6 Things Airlines are Changing

From the article, 6 Things You Won’t Be Able to Do on Airplanes Anymore, and my thoughts on each:

1. Board without a mask

Funny - I was on 4 airplanes last week. A total of 3 people were wearing masks. None of the rest of us did. 737 aircraft, mostly full (fewer than 10 total empty seats on the four flights). 

2. Fly that airline again if you flouted that mask policy

So, in other words, even though we all know now that masks were a scam, the airlines are not going to admit they were wrong? Double down it is, then. 

3. Get fancy meals

I had not seen these to begin with. Dozens of domestic flights. They may not have ever existed. 

4. Order alcohol on some airlines

The ones that used to offer alcohol, now do again. I saw them selling alcohol several times in the past 8 months. 

5. Read magazines

This might be true. Haven't seen a magazine on an airplane since I resumed flying. 

6. Hand over your ticket

Hit and miss. American allows you to scan your own. Southwest - you hand them over. Delta - don't know, don't care - I hate Delta. 

Do No Co-Sign A Loan

Saw this video -  don't co-sign a loan. 

Agreed 100%. There is a reason the borrower doesn't qualify to borrow the money for the loan.  That reason is, the person will not repay the loan! Hence the need to get a co-borrower.  If you are the co-borrower, just know that you will have to pay the entire thing back. 

Yes? There are exceptions.  Exceptions prove the rule. 

Weekend Towing Fiasco

Last Friday and Saturday, January 20 and 21, Global Vision Bible Church hosted the following event:

According to Pastor Greg Locke in a Facebook video, there were over 3000 tickets sold to the event. Even with recent property acquisitions, the parking lot there holds barely 700 cars, max (ask me how I know). If each car had 2.6 people in it, that means 1100 cars would have needed to park. Based on what I saw, that adds up pretty close. 

The county put out cones along Old Lebanon Dirt Road on Thursday night, as well as signs that parking along the side of the road was prohibited. Residents pulled cars down to the edge of their driveways. They had seen all the parking debacle at the New Year's Day service at GVBC, and they didn't want to repeat the difficulties. 

This past weekend, people parked all over the campus, and then overflowed into neighboring properties and roadways. A couple of enterprising folks with land were charging $20 - $40 for parking. Most were not, and yet, people still parked there. Mt. Juliet police, Wilson County Sheriff's deputies, and local tow companies were out working overtime. A great many parked in my neighborhood along the sides of the road - over half a mile away! 

Online, the anti's went ballistic. They shared all sorts of memes. Their phrases were so predictable, one could have made a bingo card with them. A few of the more entertaining things shared:

My thoughts?

Well, among the more common complaints were that Locke and GVBC ought to have to pay for the police work. I disagree. This was a perfect use of police. When idiots parked in front of people's driveways, that is an appropriate need for the officer. Officers can hit their quotas, and there are no victims as people legitimately needed their cars ticketed and towed. 

Holding Locke responsible for poor parking decisions is disingenuous. That is an individual deciding to not use their brain. It has nothing to do with Locke. 

About the only time in my life I felt police and tow trucks were doing the right thing as they towed cars off. 

Where Are the Attack Police?

From a reader: "So I read that you left Global Vision. What do you think about Pulpit & Pen since you have left?"

Excellent question - worthy of a blog post. 

In prior posts, I referred to Pulpit & Pen as "PP" and stated they were #FakeNews. Those statements still stand, because those statements are fact.

Seth Dunn is their primary source of articles of late. The self-described insufferable autistic accountant continues PP's historical attacks on people of the faith. Not very Christian actions. Occasionally, he writes something with some fact. I would suppose that if you are of a similar opinion, then his writings would be interesting to you. 

JD Hall filed for bankruptcy in 2021. Reason? He badgered and defamed someone, with utter and complete fabrications, got sued for Libel, and could not afford the mounting costs of the suit. This from the same individual who badgered a young person on twitter, leading to the youth committing suicide. Not very Christian-like behavior. Speaking of not being Christ-like, Hall also was charged with DUI, and subsequently removed from his position as pastor, being disqualified for such a position due to his actions. 

Tim Weakley has managed to keep out of the news since his trespassing and disrupting a meeting at Benchmark Church in Oliver Springs, TN. It is unknown if he faced charges for those actions. 

Summary

What's left of the "publication" is continuing in its ways. They seem to be but a shell of what they once were; and, if true, that is a good thing. Prior to research for this article, I had not seen anything by them for quite some time. And I didn't miss a thing. 

Get It Straight

Was watching this video recently, and a point needs to be made. Joshua Fluke, with whom I so frequently agree, makes the statement that SalesForce "fired" 7000+ employees. The fact is, to be very literal, that SalesForce laid off  7000+ employees. 

Although all words are made up, the fact is that language is an agreement upon specific words having specific meaning. When meanings are conflated, or when the same word has multiple, unrelated (or even conflicting) meanings, the word loses its value. And someone who uses words to mean what they do not mean is certainly not an effective communicator. 

Therefore, for the sake of clarity, let's define these words. Yes, it could be argued that these words are HR buzzwords. Nevertheless, it is important to make the distinction. 

Fired: "to terminate an employee's employment" - often with what the employer considers to be "with cause." 

Laid off: "to terminate an employee's employment due to lack of work. The inherent understanding is that the termination is unrelated to the employee's performance. 

Why is it important to make the distinction? Because, when you are interviewing for a new job, you MUST get your verbiage correct!  My brother was laid off from Dell some years back. Although he interviewed a lot, he was not getting calls back. After discussing with him at length, I learned that he was telling people he had been fired from Dell. A quick change of the term he used to "laid off" and he was getting calls back and offers in short order! 

The Better Toy

For this week's installment of iFails, let's talk about the Zoom app on iPhone and what it cannot do. 

Zoom became a major market force during the "pandemic" as it offered a reasonable platform for communication via internet when people were sheltering inside. This author prefers Teams due to functionality, but Zoom is certainly a fine platform and has been used many times to communicate with persons of all sorts. 

A network outage beyond this author's control forced attendance on a Zoom meeting with a client. As it was one of the first Zoom meetings since being hired by this employer, the name displayed was this author's first initial and last name. When the attempt was made to change the name displayed (usually using the triple dots on a laptop/desktop or on an Android), it was discovered that there were no triple dots. Nor did the iPhone have any other buttons available to mute, unmute, turn camera on/off, or any of the other rudimentary functions the app has. 

A Google search on this author's android yielded many search results. Some said to pull down from the top to access. That just brought up the control screen (which that action usually does). Some search results said pull up from the bottom. That just brought up the primary screen where the apps are accessed. Sometimes, pulling up from the bottom also had the same effect as pulling left to right, and sometimes, pulling down can also have the same effect. Evidently, the iPhone arbitrarily decides what the next screen will be when you swipe in one of the four major directions. 

Nevertheless, it was discovered that the Zoom app simply didn't have these functionalities. Now, extensive Google searching will say that these functionalities exist on the iPhone Zoom app, but personal experience showed that to be a fabrication. Ironically, these buttons were available on the next call. And they were used. But then they went away for a third meeting. No prompts could pull it up. 

You would think such a popular platform would fix these relatively small UX issues. But, this author has noted that most iPhone users have no complaints because they simply don't know that there is better out there. And, funny enough, they think their platform is somehow better. 

This author observed in 2012, and it still holds true to this day:

"The iPhone is better as a toy - for playing games. The other platforms are better for working."

Firearms and Empty Hands

From a reader - "How do you justify the transition from teaching martial arts into teaching firearms?"

Perhaps this question arose after the reader read this post. 

Nevertheless, it is a good question, and one I am happy to answer. 

My martial arts background:

• Started Judo in 1982, but did not attend anywhere near enough. 
• Started karate in 1985. Discontinued teaching it in 2021. Still practice to this day. 
• Started jiu-jitsu in 1987. Discontinued teaching it in 2020. Still practice it to this day. 

Needless to say, my Senseis have been very impactful in my life. And it is from them that I draw the inspiration to teach what I teach. John Suarez taught the Wado-Shiho-Kai style of Wado-Ryu. The tenets of that style are Kata, Kihon, Kumite, and Koshin. Most karate styles stop with kata, kihon, and kumite. For clarity:

• Kata - traditional forms. Prearranged patterns to practice muscle memory. 
• Kihon - fundamentals. The building blocks of fighting technique.
• Kumite - sparring. Live practice. Usually against a resisting opponent. 
• Koshin - self defense study. Also sometimes written as "Goshin." 

A karateka (practitioner) either believes in the effectiveness of these tenets, or does not. It is that simple. I personally believe in learning the fundamentals, building muscle memory of the fundamental movements, practice of likely self-defense scenarios, and live practice. And let's see how that translates to firearms instruction:

• Kihon - fundamentals - a person must learn the fundamentals of marksmanship, gun handling, malfunction clearing, and presentation. 
• Kata - a person must practice muscle memory of the fundamentals. Although not as elaborate, there are several gun "kata" a person should practice: the draw, the ready-up (from multiple positions), the "tap-rack," and more. 
• Koshin - self defense is at the heart of gunfighting. A person needs to practice implementation in realistic situations. This includes adverse conditions, different positions, different positions, and more. 
• Kumite - sparring. A person should practice safe Force-On-Force. In addition, a person should practice live fire and not just dry fire. Live fire practice should cover the self defense scenarios mentioned above. And a person should practice these with a partner. 

There is a natural connection, and that is how the transition is justified.