Do you ever read Police Blotters, or Law Enforcement sites?

I do. I suppose some would say it’s morbid curiosity. Others might infer that I’m “Looking for trouble”.

I don’t look at it that way. I use this information to keep myself informed about the myriad ways that criminals work.

I’ve been interested in carjackings, follow home robberies, and street crime that I’m likely to encounter in cities.

Living near a large metropolitan area like Los Angeles, and knowing that we’re going to have a lot of Winter tourists in the small town I live in from that area, I just want to have a slightly heightened awareness of the possibilities.

After all criminals like to play in the snow too, don’t they? Some criminals might prefer to operate in an area full of visitors taking advantage of the chaos and confusion to steal from the unwary.

Some of the things that have caught my interest are “Bump & Rob”, “Follow Home Robberies”, and the clever ways criminals are inciting altercations as cover for theft.

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There’s an article in Law Enforcement Today about a rise in Bump & Rob/Carjack accidents in MN. The article is here It’s interesting. The criminals bump into a victims car, then get out while the victim driver is collecting their wits. In the momentary confusion, the criminals point a gun at the victim and then steal his or her car with all the contents.

There have been similar incidents in Los Angeles. The MN police have gone so far as to issue public warnings. I doubt that Los Angelino’s will see warnings. The LAPD and City council seem to be far more interested in sweeping rising crime under the carpet.

“Follow Home Robberies have been reported in LA and the surrounding communities. Some of the more high profile follow home robberies have involved celebrities and people in wealthier neighborhoods around Los Angeles.

Recently, there was a rather shocking smash and grab in Cucamonga. That one got my attention because it was relatively close to my home. 

Reading about the methods of both, and some of the precursor behavior I feel, makes me a little better equipped to avoid the situation before I become a victim. That’s not a guarantee but at least I’m more aware of shady behaviors that might be leading up to something.

A follow home situation is unlikely given where I live. I doubt criminals will want to follow me to where Jesus lot his other sandal, and given the rural nature of my community, criminals might think twice, assuming that rural people would be well armed and more likely to give them lead poisoning. (Generally True!)

Smash and grab might also be less likely even during the Winter because avenues of escape are few and choked with traffic. Home robberies on the other hand might become more of an issue. It’s not uncommon to see strange vehicles in my neighborhood because of lost people looking for snow play areas or the ski resort. 

In Winter there are so many strange vehicles and people occupying rental properties it’s become difficult to determine who belongs where.

The point I’m making is be aware, keep an eye on your surroundings, and report shady stuff to the police. Depending on where you live, you might have quick response or as in my case, the police are at minimum 15 minutes away. If you know or suspect your’e being followed, don’t go home. Find a police station. In the case of bump & rob, keep your eye on the occupants of the other car until you determine they’re not armed. If you see a weapon and your vehicle is drivable, I’d say  leave. You other choice it to comply (as the MN officer suggested).

I’m gonna leave! I’ll call 911 as I’m exiting and ask where the nearest police station is. Yeah my car is covered by insurance, but lets face it, the insurance company is gonna try to put you in a roughly used gardening truck with what they pay out if your car is totaled.

If I didn’t live in California, I’d be more likely to greet a carjacker with a weapon of my own. Oh, to live in a constitutional carry state!

That’s another story…

This holiday season, keep your head on a swivel and be very careful out there.

I’ve been reading articles from American Thinker for a while…

Yes it’s a conservative publication.

Since I’m conservative leaning, I’ve been interested in what other conservative’s thoughts may be.

Because Twitter, Facebook, Google and others have made a habit of, as Mark Zuckerberg recently told Joe Rogan, Significantly reducing article views… The places where one can see what conservatives are thinking have become increasingly rare.

This is why freedom of speech is such an important thing. We should be able to see and read anything, then be adult enough to choose what is factual and what is hyperbole.

Twitter had become an echo chamber of vitriol and extreme leftist ideologies so I left. Facebook had become a Russian Nesting Doll of weekly privacy updates that required an inordinate amount of time on my part to manage. How many privacy updates or resetting of my privacy settings should I have to endure per week to see the latest cat photo or “Curated News” feed? For this reason, I left Facebook many years ago.

We all know Google had forsaken it founding motto, “Don’t be Evil” for a more progressive motto of sell everyone to everyone else, privacy or accuracy be damned.

So, I read a fair number of articles from their sources. I don’t pay for any subscriptions because what’s on one publication behind a pay wall is probably available on another site for free.

American Thinker had been known to me for interesting takes on events. Andrea Widburg is a writer whose articles on American Thinker I’ve found particularly engaging. Much of her writing is light, gets the point across, and often there’s a certain wryness that helps a bitter truth go down easier.

I’ve enjoyed most of the posts on American Thinker over the past 4-5 years. I don’t recall when I stumbled up them or when I became a regular reader.

Lately however, the tone of American Thinker has changed for the worse. A recent article Why are Children Coming down with Monkeypox? By Mark A. Hewitt is a prime, if extreme example of the tone I’m referring to.

I can understand the author’s outrage at attempts to have pedophiles normalized. I can understand the author’s fear, or annoyance, at the LGBT community at large for fueling the monkeypox spread. I totally get why the author is pissed off and annoyed at the endless messaging about LGB and specifically Trans people and their endless silly pronouns.

My personal thoughts on pedophiles are that they should be shot if found guilty, possibly after brutal disfiguring torture. I’m very pissed at the LGBT community for not stepping up to do what they can to curb the spread of monkeypox. 

In these very pages I’ve written my thoughts, here, here, here, here, and here, and elsewhere in this blog. The Hewitt article above, for me personally, is beyond the pale. He draws conclusions that demonstrate the kind of religious zealotry the Taliban is known for.

I’ll defend Mr. Hewitt’s right to speak, but I don’t have to read his material. Had he done 30 seconds of research by going to the CDC.gov website and looked up smallpox and monkeypox then read and comprehended the associated articles he’d have realized that both have pretty much the same transmission routes. As I’ve said elsewhere in this blog it looks like the Smallpox vaccine also covers Monkeypox.

Monkeypox What to Know About Vaccines Tests and Treatment 1024x536 1

Mr. Hewitt jumped to the conclusion, that has been, to some extent reinforced by the media, suggesting that monkeypox can only be spread via sex. In point of fact, smallpox and monkeypox can be spread by prolonged contact such as kissing or cuddling. Or coming into contact with bedsheets or other items contaminated with secretions from one of the pox pustules.

What child doesn’t heedlessly jump into their parent’s arms if they’re upset or have a boo boo? Would Mr. Hewitt suggest that a child getting smallpox from a parent had obviously been sexually molested? Would he say the same of a child who got a staph infection from a parent recently in the hospital? 

Anyone who has ever had a child in their house knows that keeping a child out of specific areas such as dirty laundry, or the parents bed or even the household pet’s bed can be challenging. Additionally whatever is on a child’s hands inevitably ends up all over them and other nearby items. 

I’m not discounting Mr. Hewitt’s entire theory about potential pedophiles having access to children. I do dispute his apparent assertion that all cases of children contracting monkeypox, are evidence of child molestation. 

The problem for me is that it’s not just Mr. Hewitt’s article. This tone, in a more subdued fashion seems to be permeating the entire publication. 

It is for that reason, American Thinker is off my personal reading list. Right next to Twitter, Facebook, and many services provided by Google. I choose to be selective in how I spend my time. I choose not to waste any of it on extremists of any persuasion. Left, Right, or Religious.

Perhaps the editorial staff of American Thinker should send out some style/content guides that inform their contributors to stick to facts in articles, and present opinion in their blog area. They probably won’t, in this regard American Thinker appears to have become like every other publication. Money and Advertising clicks versus measured, reasoned, dissemination, or discussion, of verifiable facts.

It’s too bad, I’ll miss Andrea Widburg’s articles.

The so called Student Debt Forgiveness isn’t forgiveness.

On the one hand I have to say that some of the lending practices are predatory.

How can they not have been? You’ve got kids graduating from High School, without much in the way of financial knowledge. I’ve known kids who couldn’t balance their checkbook. In some cases they don’t understand how credit cards can suck you down the tube if you’re not paying attentions to interest rates.

For a High School graduate to show up on a college campus, someplace they’ve been told all their lives they have to attend, and seeing how much it’s going to cost, then being offered a loan that pays for it all. This is perhaps predatory by its nature.

Maybe the 101 classes for a new college student should be basic money management and understanding how compound interest works. Those classes should be attended before they’ve committed to anything.

Then with the student armed with real world useful information they can make an informed decision about taking out the loan and perhaps this would inform the student’s choice of major.


All that being said, this Federal Loan Forgiveness isn’t forgiveness.

Loan forgiveness would be the lender says “We’re reducing your existing loan by 10,000” and the lender would take the loss.

This situation our Government is going to pay 10,000 to the lenders. Where does that money come from, from the American Taxpayers.

What this means is that folks who’ve paid their loans off, and folks that went to trade schools, and folks who just went to work out of High School will in fact, be paying for college. Not for themselves, but for other people that made poor or uninformed decisions.

At its core, this is indentured servitude.

Taxpayers are being forced to work for someone else.

I was reminded of the quote from Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged.

“I swear by my life and my love of it that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine.”

– Ayn Rand

This one also sprung to mind;

“The moral justification of capitalism is man’s right to exist for his own sake, neither sacrificing himself to others nor sacrificing others to himself.”

– Ayn Rand


This is not to imply that I’m heartless. Although, I can be.

The question that springs to my mind is; “Would people respond well to a stranger walking into their home and simply taking one of their possessions?”

I’d suggest that most people would react poorly. I believe that most people would get angry even if the person “Needed” the item.

Yet we’re expected to accept precisely this proposition via our taxation process. As if the taxation process somehow changes the basic wrongness of theft. Taxation like this is just theft with extra steps.

I’ve always been skeptical of those who’ve expressed the concept that Taxation is theft. But in light of this loan forgiveness plan coming out of the Biden Administration, I’m rethinking my former skepticism.

Alright, I’m late to the party.

I literally stumbled across this video from Jordan Peterson.

For more information on Jordan Peterson, Here is the link to his Website

Unfortunately, I cannot embed the video link directly in this page.

I assume this limitation is due to copyright and most probably the potential misrepresentation that could/would occur should the video end up in some kind of editable format residing on the computer of one of Dr. Peterson’s enemies.

It is unfortunate that the world we live in is such that a Man’s words cannot simply stand on their own merit and be presented in context without the possibility of fabrications being added, or context being removed.

The background is that Jordan Peterson had his Twitter account suspended over a tweet he made describing a fact. Ellen Page did have a mastectomy to become Elliot Page.

This made small headlines several weeks ago. I noticed the waves but thought little of it at the time. Conservative voices are always being censored on Twitter.

Jordan Peterson commented and Twitter chose to suspend his account.

I urge you to go to The Daily Wire and view Jordan Peterson’s video wherein he discusses the matter. When you land on the page click the “Watch Now” button in the banner labeled Twitter Ban

It’s worth your time. Peterson eloquently and succinctly discusses the problems of dealing with the woke mob, arbitrary pronoun usage, and gender issues.

I have spent thousands of words discussing and describing my personal thoughts on this phenomena.

Nothing I have written comes close to Jordan Peterson’s evisceration of the subject.

America’s Fascism at its finest… In Texas? In Freakin Texas?

The San Marcos Daily Record published a very troubling article on Sunday July 17th.

The headline read, FBI Raids Retired San Marcos Couple’s Home

At first you might miss the significance. I thought to myself, “What could a retired couple possibly have done to warrant the FBI raiding their home.

The thoughts that went through my mind were, Human Trafficking, Drug manufacturing or sales? Were these folks involved in organized crime? Had the FBI found some fugitive who had escaped and managed to live quietly for years in an average community?

All of which would be good reason for the FBI to raid a place.

I was completely wrong.


The article is linked to the headline above. Click on it, I dare you!

This couple was raided for nothing other than having been part of a peaceful protest in Washington D.C. on Jan 6th 2020. They were not inside the capital, they were on the other side of the Capital from where the crowd, (was Invited in, Stormed the Capital Police, Broke into the Capitol Building,) that seems to depend on whose narrative you’re reading.

For my part, I tend to believe the eyewitness accounts of many of the protesters themselves. They all describe a very chaotic confusing scene. Each of them saw things slightly differently. But there are commonalities in their narratives. The doors were open, many saw people walking through the building, many thought it was okay. The Capital Police were talking with protestors on the steps. Then everything went to shit. (I suspect the trigger was the gunshot from the Capital Police Officer who killed Ashli Babbitt. I could be wrong…)

I believe the vast majority of the protestors really had no idea that they were doing anything “wrong” and that would be somewhat supported by the remarkable lack of destruction in the building. Compare Kenosha with The Capital Building.

Burning cars? Nope! Fires inside the building? Nope! There are pictures of people inside the building next to vases, portraits, and fabrics, mind you, all intact.

Pictures of protestors inside The House Chamber, and Nancy Pelosi’s office show that the room and indeed most of the furnishings were remarkably untouched. For there to have been such horrific violence you’d expect there to be a lot more damage. I’ve seen barroom brawls that did more damage than the so called Inserrection.

This is counter to what The Jan 6th Committee would have us believe.

Reviewing photographic evidence of the, “Mostly Peaceful Protests,” in cities across the nation reveals a rather stark difference.

Billions in damage, whole neighborhoods razed and yet we’re to believe that somehow The Capital riot was worse?

We’re to believe that The Capital riot was on par with Pearl Harbor, or 9/11?

I’ll quote Ilhan Omar, “Some people did some things…”


The troubling aspects of this FBI raid in Texas are many.

Unmarked cars?
No sirens, or lights?
The homeowner directly requesting to see a warrant in accordance with his Fourth Amendment right being responded to with flashbang grenades?
Drones & Planes circling overhead?
Excessive force, 20 to 30 vehicles, perhaps 100 agents, and an armored vehicle?
FBI, ATF, and SWAT?

What precisely did the FBI think was going on? All this to not arrest two retired law abiding citizens?

All of this to confiscate a couple of cell phones, and Trump memorabilia?

You’re probably thinking, “But the man was on his front porch with gasp an Assault Rifle!”

First, it’s Texas! Second, since the Biden Administration has opened the border. People rolling up on your home in Texas, unannounced and unmarked could just as easily be a bunch of Cartel Thugs looking to take your place over as a base of operation. Third, Texas has a stand your ground law that includes your property, (in this case all 7 acres). Fourth, an older man in his underwear greeting intruders on his property before dawn with a rifle isn’t at all surprising.


I’ve greeted police at my door late at night with a baseball bat. I’ve also greeted police banging on my door at 3 a.m. with a gun in my hand. Both times, there was a moment of tension.

With the baseball bat, I apologized and set the bat to the side of the door, then stepped back.

With the gun, (Not aimed at the officers,) I asked how we could extricate ourselves from this awkward situation. They were very polite and simply asked if I would place the gun on the table and step away. I did, and invited them in.

They legitimately were doing their duty, asking that we evacuate due to a fire. They didn’t ask for me to unload the weapon, nor did they touch it. One officer did discreetly place himself between me and the gun. I acknowledged his discretion with nothing more than a smile, he smiled back and nodded.

It’s amazing what a little civility and common sense can accomplish!

In either case, had an officer presented me with a Warrant, I’d have stood down in the same fashion. That’s called being a law abiding citizen.


What troubles me so much about this article is that it comes on the heels of high profile arrests such as James O’keefe with the FBI supposedly in search of Biden’s daughter’s diary.

O’keefe didn’t have Biden’s daughter’s diary. He’d said so publicly prior to his arrest and raid. Even if he did have it, he hadn’t stolen it. The diary was offered to, and reviewed by O’Keefe. But he chose to pass on it.

Jeffery Clark’s home was raided where the FBI seized electronics and held him outside in his pajamas until they’d finished tossing the place. Thus far, the only crime(s) Clark appears to have committed were questioning the election and working for former President Trump.

The tactics increasingly displayed by the FBI and the DOJ are nothing less than those of the KGB or Stassi.

My concern, beyond the obvious issues with our government stomping all over The Constitution, is that someone is going to get hurt. I’ll guarantee you that it’s not going to be an FBI agent. It’s going to be some local officer doing what he or she has been told to do by the FBI. Or it’ll be a innocent person or bystander

The FBI, ATF, or DOJ will call it collateral damage and use the situation as an excuse to execute someone.

These raids can only be seen as nothing other than intimidation.

I ask you. If these raids were happening at The Clinton Foundation, or Hunter Biden’s home, or Jim Biden’s home, or McCabe’s, Strozk’s, Page’s, Clinesmith’s, Sussmann’s, Elias’s, Omar, or Comey’s homes, what would you call it?

Would you say it was justice, or would you call it the weaponization of the DOJ against the players in the Democratic party?

Believe what you want. Just remember that once we’ve allowed this sort of behavior to become normal, once we’ve allowed the ruling party to forge this kind of weapon, then any ruling party can use it.

If the GOP seizes power and decides to pick up this weapon, using it against Democrats and their allies, don’t be surprised and don’t come whining to me about it.

What’s been allowed to happen at the DOJ is not much shy of a nuclear bomb dropped on The Constitution. It took a long time for us to crawl back from McCarthyism, this is far worse.