Recent Comments

Here are the last few comments on the blog. Please remember to read the comments and privacy policy for the blog before jumping into a discussion.

Comment on Why a Black History Month? by Chris February 9, 2019 21:44
By the way, I am well aware of the privilege I have over many. I am presently reading The Chagres: River of Westward Passage by John Easter Minter, a history of Panama published in 1948. The language is horrifying. The escaped African slaves are referred to as "savages." It is definitely a bit of a scary time travel. Unfortunately there are those who are still stuck in that time warp (most recent "Be Reasonable" where Michael Marsh interviewed Jared Taylor, who is very annoying).
Comment on The Parent Ren, Part VIII: A Man Raising a Woman by Chris December 8, 2018 20:34
"She did. Like a little Supergirl, she lifted the chair and wiggled her way out." 🙂 I created some playground rules when my kids were little. First, they had to climb the structures by themselves. I was not going to lift a kid up a ladder. Obviously no hitting. Plus after I spent most of a day cleaning out sand from a toddler's face, I made throwing sand a "going home" offense. I only had to do that once for oldest, the second took about three times. I got a bit tired with the youngest, the kid just ended up confined to a stroller while the other two played (why punish them?).
Comment on You Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Badges by wzrd1 December 3, 2018 03:43
I wear my work badge on the way to work, as I need it at the gate and it must be exposed when one is on the base anywhere. Indeed, I need that badge just to get into my building and again to get into my office, as all doors are keycard doors. I leave work, I still have to drive a couple of miles across the base to get to the gate, so the ID has to be out. I'm not about to stop the car to pull off the badge once off of the base. I usually then stop at a supermarket that's about a quarter mile off of my path home to pick up odds and ends, with a serious shopping trip every couple of weeks. The ID stays out, as I'm less than a mile from the base and well, I've forgotten about the blasted thing. That, despite a gigantic sign that reminds base personnel, "Don't make yourself a target! Remove your ID when off base". If someone wants to target me, that's their worst mistake ever. I'm essentially the worst target ever. I'm blackmail proof, don't do affairs, not about to do anything shady. If the risk is kidnapping or being killed, well, I'm still pretty much the worst target ever, as I bite back. So, they'd better use real artillery, as that'll be the only way to safely cause me harm.
Comment on Surprise! Cops Are People Too! by wzrd1 November 14, 2018 04:39
Hence, "stay off of my side!". I'm not alone and indeed, the skin color of the entire cloud of people is highly mixed and alarmed over multiple overrepresentation numbers. And we know both the demographic in some regions and the arrest and death rates. Veterans are also overrepresented. We're a solid minority of the minority of minorities.
Comment on The Goalposts They’re Going to Move. And by “They” I Mean Antivaxxers. by Mark November 14, 2018 03:15
(Editor's note: The following comment is full of inaccuracies and even spam. It's been edited accordingly. Don't like it? Don't care. This is not a platform for anti-vaccine propaganda.) I'm not a showman, or seeking attention from people, just a parent who cares about his kids. And now that we got that out of the way I do however believe that there has not been adequate safety testing of vaccines, if any at all for 30+ years and there should be some kind of reform for vaccines, at least to spread them out more, don't give more than 1 at a time, give people an insert about whats in the vaccine being injected, just something other then inject multiple at the same time and pray for the best. [You may think that, but that doesn't make it real. There has been plenty of safety testing of vaccines in the last 30+ years, and their safety record is outstanding.] Before you talk down about people who oppose vaccinating their children, or themselves you should go ahead and watch [spam] and then tell me that you still think it's ok to force [which no one is being forced at all] all these vaccines on people, very young kids especially. [I don't watch anti-vaccine propaganda. If there is actual evidence, scientific evidence, it would be out there in the mainstream, like all scientific evidence. And the evidence that is out there says that, yes, it's okay to follow the current vaccine schedule.] Toxins such as aluminum nano particles in the environment that are practically in everything including the air we breathe now perhaps did not exists 30 years ago to nearly the levels they do today. [Aluminum is one of the most abundant elements in the world. You are covered in it right now. Fall and scrape your knee? It's in the wound, in your blood. Drank water today, even filtered water? You got more aluminum there than you'll get from a vaccine. Breastfed your kid? Then you fed them more aluminum than they will ever get from any and all vaccines on the schedule. It always has and always will be in the environment. It's not a recent thing. It's an e-l-e-m-e-n-t.] Then injecting kids with vaccine cocktails such as the MMR that have aluminum [<a>Here's more info on aluminum in vaccines</a> and, guess what, the MMR vaccine has no aluminum in it] in them on top of that is just plain dangerous. No wonder the number of autism cases keep going up. [Actually, the numbers are pretty steady. What increases is the prevalence, and there's a difference.] Please watch the documentary and then form your opinion about the safety of vaccines. If you're a parent you owe it to your kid(s) to at least watch it. [Website deleted for spam] you can stream it for 48hrs for $3.99. Small price to pay considering the alternative. (Additional comment, Mark. Just like I'm not welcomed to comment in anti-vaccine blogs, you're not welcome here, especially if you're going to spew anti-vaccine nonsense and post links to spam and propaganda. Four dollars? There's a sucker born a minute.)
Comment on Surprise! Cops Are People Too! by René F. Najera, DrPH November 14, 2018 03:06
We had a discussion about smart guns, and, yes, they are no where near where they need to be for widespread adoption. There was also discussion about the kinds of holsters/harnesses that would prevent this from happening, and even the kind of training that would need to be adopted... But, again, it got derailed with the BLM question.
Comment on Surprise! Cops Are People Too! by wzrd1 November 14, 2018 02:59
I'm solidly in BLM's court, save when the individual(s) present lose all sense of reason and insist that every LEO in the world are evil or simply bad. Then, I simply ask them to kindly stay off of my side, they're damaging a worthy cause with unreason. As for LEO members losing control of their weapon during an interaction or arrest, there are two primary categories to consider. Weapon holstered and weapon unholstered. Retention holsters have largely addressed the problem of an LEO having his weapon taken from his holster, as there are a series of motions one must engage in to remove said weapon or the weapon remains locked inside of the holster and with any duty class holster, the trigger isn't available until the weapon is drawn. So, that leaves weapon unholstered. If the officer is in pursuit, there's a problem and not a single "smart gun" technology is ready for prime time, otherwise I'd own one. If the technology ever is ready for prime time, we'll then have another discussion on fail secure or fail insecure, or fail safe or fail lethal. If the technology fails, dead battery, dead control circuit, how does it fail? That's an argument in physical security, essentially each and every day. Do we let the doors fail locked and unopenable? Do we let the doors fail unlocked and anyone can come in? From a fire safety standpoint, it'd be a no-brainer, fail open. But, if the area is an arms room or area with classified information, we want to fail secure, but permit escape. Welcome to a corner of my world of information security. And a corner of being a military veteran, who also was trained in weapons retention in close quarters. As for powerful weapon, most law enforcement officers are still armed with 9mm pistols, which are fairly anemic as far as lethal cartridges go. Which is a good thing, as anything actually powerful could penetrate wooden walls and kill that child sleeping peacefully on the other side and every good cop I've known has nightmares of such a thing happening. The round is actually a fair bit weaker than the ancient .38 special round that preceded it, less powder, slightly smaller projectile, shorter or equal barrel. To gain full appreciation, one has to look at energy at specific ranges of the projectile from the appropriate length barrel, then if you've ever saw a gun shot wound, you'll need guts of steel, because we'd then go into penetration, fragmentation, tumbling of intact remainder of projectile, tissue destruction and the theory of hydrostatic shock (I subscribe to it, but not the way some do, it ain't a magical death ray, it's a shockwave traveling through tissues, causing cavitation bubble/collapse damages).* *I had some modest input on the selection for a SOCOM round, which eventually was adopted as the mk318 mod1 5.56 x 45 mm penetration round. Not armor piercing, but it will defeat a windshield or car door, drywall (see nightmares) and other light barriers and still stop a terrorist with a button connected to an even bigger nightmare. Gee, I wonder why I like civilian life so much, now that I'm tagged REF...** **REF, you know. Retired, Extremely Flatulent.
Comment on What’s the Best Language to Use When Addressing the Public About Public Health and Healthcare? by wzrd1 November 14, 2018 00:17
Yep, sea monkeys are a real thing. They're now an artificial hybrid species of brine shrimp. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea-Monkeys The trick is to evaluate the audience continuously and adapt the presentation to meet them halfway.
Comment on What’s the Best Language to Use When Addressing the Public About Public Health and Healthcare? by René F. Najera, DrPH November 13, 2018 17:03
I’ve never seen sea monkeys... They’re actually a thing? The most educated man in the town where I grew up in Mexico was the pharmacist. When I learned to read (age 2), my grandfather took me to him to show me off. Grandpa told “the doctor” that I would be a doctor one day, too. The pharmacist passed away since then, and two or three physicians work in the town since it’s grown exponentially. Anyway, one of the things that the pharmacy always advocated for in the summer was the sale of hydrating solution (electrolytes and sugar) for people who would undoubtedly come down with diarrheal disease in the summer. They even had a local artist make all these cartoons of babies getting bottle fed with the solution. I was in high school when my grandfather asked about diarrheal diseases. I told him all about chlorinted water, boiling water, and filtering water... Well, as much as I had learned in high school bio. I remember not having to “dumb it down” for grandpa. He was a big advocate of education, even if he and his children were not fully able to get one beyond elementary school. He bought my aunts and uncles books and magazines, and he encouraged them to read. Dad started fixing cars because of some how-to manual for an old VW beetle. It is from these experiences that I don’t immediately assume that lack of formal education means lack of understanding. Some of the brightest people I know don’t even have a high school degree. This also makes it hard for me to give antivaxxers the benefit of the doubt when I know they’re not epidemiologists nor biostatisticians.
Comment on What’s the Best Language to Use When Addressing the Public About Public Health and Healthcare? by wzrd1 November 13, 2018 04:57
You address your audience and captivate them, either for professionals, data filled information, didactic method or with "civilians", via creative metaphors and anecdotes, with data on screen and pointed to references. With teens, I disagree, one adapts the "civilian" mode with more creative and via common expressions and references utilized by their generation, to captivate their attention repeatedly, before the attention span drifts, with pauses while they Google the reference placed on the screen (with the URL prominent in the image). The, with "civilians" and teens alike, recite the names and images, with parental permission, of the dead this year from vaccine preventable disease in a thundering voice, quietly closing with asking for a moment of silence and contemplation for those needlessly lost and the pain for their families. But then, I am the guy who addressed trailing edge Boomers and those younger in field sanitation classes, explaining how to purify water and how to initially determine some parts of the evaluation on clarity, turbidity and color, saying, "Is it cloudy, does it have sea monkeys in it, is it yellow?". 20 years later, a successful field sanitation NCO approached me and reminded me of his attendance at the class and memorable to him, as intended, as eyes began to glaze after palatable and non-palatable vs potable and non-potable water and uphill going down and downhill going up water, remembered the entire session, courtesy of the antics of sea monkeys. Still remembered clarity, color and turgidity. And sea monkeys.