Tens of thousands of police officers and military personnel go their entire careers (several decades) without a negligent discharge. The “negligent discharge crowd” is a small group. I’m not saying it’s impossible. I’m saying that the likelihood of it happening is so low as to be statistically insignificant. I’m saying that it’s like liberals that want swimming pools and cry about how firearms put children at risk. Well Mr. Mrs. liberal with a swimming pool, your child is more likely to die in your pool than from a firearm…

As usual gun related statistics are hard to find. I’ll do us both a favor and steel man your side of the argument with what I find. Here’s the best I can do.

a) According to the CDC, in the most recent reporting year, there were 606 accidental firearm deaths. Not all of these were really accidents and not all were negligent discharges. However, for the sake of this argument, I’m going to pretend every single one of 606 accidental deaths was caused by a CCW with a round in the chamber. That is a a .005 % chance of what you are claiming actually happening. 5 thousandths of a percent.

b) If all I do is adjust for population, there are 11 million CCW holders in the USA and an adult population of around 240 million. So worst case possibility would be that CCW holders (4.5% of the adult population) could have caused 28 accidental deaths. Now we are down to 2 TEN THOUSANDTHS of a percent. You’re going to say, “but that doesn’t provide numbers for ALL accidental gun discharges, just the ones that result in death.” You are absolutely right. And I’m going to say, “remember I counted EVERY SINGLE accidental discharge that resulted in death as the result of a CCW with a round in the chamber…”

If you want something more than just a YouTube video providing anecdotes… https://www.officer.com/tactical/firearm-accessories/ammunition/article/10711536/negligent-discharges-preventable-or-inevitable The best part of what this officer has to say: “Forcing cops AND other gun carriers to perform some kind of kabuki dance where they are constantly handling their guns in a non-shooting fashion is setting them up for failure. We are either armed and prepared to face deadly threats or we are not. Antiquated Weapon Codes and the Clearing Barrel Mentality will eventually lead to mistakes and sometimes tragedy.” If you like to wear guns as jewelry, feel free to. But don’t tell me that carrying a round in the chamber is “risky.” That claim is absurd when I consider the evidence.

Out of boredom, I did a little informal poll. I asked recruiters of the 4 branches of service the same question. “Why are there questions related to mental health when someone is joining your branch of service?” The answer consistently was, “recruits are going to be trusted with weapons,” as the first thing out of their mouth.

AS THE FIRST THING OUT OF THEIR MOUTH. Why not “state secrets?” Because 11B infantry don’t require that level of security clearance but operate many different types of firearms/weapon systems.

If I present you something as fact, you have options. One of the options is to accept my claim. If you do this without requiring evidence, we call this believing. To believe is to accept a claim without evidence. If you continue to believe after being provided evidence to the contrary of the claim, we call this having faith.

So how do I provide evidence for the claims I have made above? Easy. Did you accept the claims I made without evidence? If you did, we say you believed me. If you did not, then we say you did not believe me. If I showed you something that made it clear I was wrong, and you accepted the claims anyway, we would say you have faith in what I said.

Suppose we use another example. Suppose we have someone that has just been diagnosed as an alcoholic. They tell you that they are giving up drinking, right now, forever. The issue you have is NOT one of belief. Why? The evidence shows they can not control their drinking. They are addicted. The determination has been made that given an offer of alcohol they will accept, to excess, and endangerment (to themselves and others). The evidence is clear. The only question is, do you accept their claim despite the evidence. Do you have faith in the person that claims, “never again.”

Assume that they get on the bandwagon, and are there for a while. Then they fail, end up drunk, and call for help. Are you going to accept, “never again,” again? And the next time? And the next time? And the time after that? How many times would you accept, “never again?” At what point are you being foolish for accepting the claim, “never again?” How many times will you have to deceive yourself into accepting the claim?

A delusion is a version of reality that does not reflect reality. It is a personal thing. Something that people use to protect themselves from responsibility, or realization. The more you accept a claim of a reality that is different than what can be demonstrated, tested, and verified, the more you encourage delusion to the detriment of all involved. You literally harm the person claiming that “it will never happen again.”

Why does this rant about faith matter, and what does it have to do with believing?

Belief is a symptom, faith is the disease. If you are in a relationship with someone that is an alcoholic, you did not just arrive at the day they were diagnosed without belief getting you there. Believing them when they said they were fine. Believing them when they said it was all under control. Believing them when they said they can stop whenever they want to… First you are required to believe. Then, after investing with emotions and money, you are required to have faith.

You KNOW they are not fine. You KNOW there is no control. You KNOW they do not want to stop. But because you have traveled this far, and invested this much, you MUST deceive yourself to continue in faith. The evidence says one thing, but you put your ego ahead of the evidence, and convince yourself that all that is needed is a greater investment. In for a penny (belief), in for a pound (faith) you tell yourself.

So you drink the Fool-Aid with them, and reap your reward. And you tell yourself it is your fault because, “I did not believe enough, I did not pray enough, I did not understand enough…” The reality is, you put yourself in a position to be deceived, and once the evidence was presented that you were in fact deceived, you chose to continue to expect your wants to be fulfilled, while reality shook its head.

So what am I saying at the end of this? Belief shows nothing. Faith shows nothing. Belief and faith are tools of con men bent on taking from you. If you expect something for nothing, you will get nothing for the something that is asked of you. And what is most frequently asked of you, is to believe, and when the evidence shows that does not work, you are expected to have faith.

There is no such thing as, “blind faith.” It is literally an impossibility. In order to have faith, you must have the evidence. And if you have the evidence, you were not blind. The correct term, would be “blind stupidity.” You blind yourself to the evidence you were presented, and pretend, hide in delusion, and then find out to your detriment, that you will be paying.

This is what makes religion such a dangerous weapon. It convinces the uneducated to ignore the evidence. It convinces the educated that their ego is more important than the evidence. It makes good people do bad things.

Reality is that good people do good things and bad people do bad things. To make bad people do good things, you need education. To make good people do bad things, you need the opposite of education, it is called religion.

Charlottesville.

There has been much said regarding what happened in Charlottesville. Some, say that it was a group of people that filed a permit to peaceably assemble to protest a statue coming down. Others, say a group of people standing up for minorities fought against a tyranny.

And both of these positions are wrong.

What happened in Charlottesville was a group of people, that represent what should be a dead ideology, used the pretense of filing for a permit to peaceably assemble, to draw out a group they knew would show up, to be physically combative. I am against the unnecessary use of violence. If this had been a rally for speech purposes only, I would have defended it.

The group that showed up to respond to the “peaceful protesters,” represent what should be a dead ideology, used the pretense of representing minorities, as an excuse to be physically combative. If this had been a rally for speech purposes only, I would have defended it.

When the two groups got what they wanted (a fight), someone died, and many were injured.

These “rallies” were not about right and wrong. They were about wrong in disguise of white robes and wrong in disguise of black robes doing wrong and someone died. That’s it. There were no good guys on the field. No one was there stopping this madness. No one was there saying “children, please, let’s use our words.”

So when you pretend that one side or the other was in the right, because a small part of what they represent agrees with a position that you hold you are ignoring the fact that people are being injured and killed and property is being destroyed because of temper tantrums. “Good” goes out the window when you are unnecessarily using violence to try and show that a position that has no evidence to support it is in the right. There is no excuse for the physical violence, and you are wrong.

I am on the side of stopping unnecessary violence. I am on the side of freedom of speech. I am on the side of there being no right to not be offended. I am on the side that I am no better or worse than anyone regardless of any demographic. I am on the side of the Constitution.

If you prefer to violently represent an ideology that is based on claims without evidence, I am better than you, and will stop you. I do not accept claims without evidence. I will not represent claims without evidence. I will interfere and intervene in your attempt to push claims that do not have evidence. I represent the “other.” I have been in the military. I cast my lot defending the Constitution of the United States. I swore to defend against all enemies foreign AND DOMESTIC.

I am not alone. If you (National Socialists and Anarcho Communists) continue down the road you are on, you will hit a stop sign.

And I (and those like me) will be holding it. You have been warned.

Belief is the acceptance of a claim without evidence. Faith is the acceptance of a claim despite the evidence. A person experiences stress when belief and faith do not meet expectation. What I mean is, that when my expectation is based on a claim that has no evidence, or is based on a claim I choose to hold despite the evidence, I experience stress. The world does not care about my expectation, my choice to accept claims without evidence, or my choice to accept claims despite evidence.

It would be nice if everyones life was based on accepting claims that are based on evidence. Psychology provides tools to help people align their perspective of reality with what is, not what they want or assume reality to be. When your view of reality is different than reality you are referred to as deluded. A delusion is literally accepting and acting on a claim that has no evidence, or acting on a claim that is contrary to the evidence.

President Trump made a statement about “both sides.”

If only this issue were so simple. I have many angry friends that are making it very clear that what happened in Charlottesville was the fault of supremacists, of racism, of free speech. From what I understand a human was killed by another human. From what I understand, at least one of the humans accepted claims that were either not supported by the evidence, or contradicted the evidence.

My observation is that beliefs are not worth killing for. They are also not worth dying for. No claim without evidence is worth the taking of a life. No claim that is made despite the evidence, is worth the taking of a life. The tragedy… that’s not a strong enough word. “Tragedy” is thrown around without regard. It is not powerful enough. What I’m looking for is a word that defines the end of humanity. Not only as a race, but individually. I’m looking for a word that explains the inability to remember the person you are talking to is no less human than you.

I don’t agree with people about ideas. Matters of opinion, things not based on fact. Orange is my favorite color. That does not make blue worth any less. My wife is my favorite woman. That does not make the hundreds of women in my life worth any less. My children are my favorite kids, that does not make your son or daughter worth any less.

It also does not make these people worth any less TO ME. They (we) are human. Some day we may meet aliens. I doubt they will be impressed by the way we treat each other. I am not impressed that someone died, for an opinion. Worse, is that our concern, is how to place blame. Person that died, I never met you. I do not know who you are. You were someone’s mother or father, sister or bother, son or daughter. And I am sorry that your death has devolved into blame, anger, and violence.

I swore to uphold the Constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic. I never believed in my lifetime I would be more concerned about domestic enemies of the Constitution, than I would be about the foreign ones. Please, if you disagree with me, do so loudly and vehemently. Exercise your right to freedom of speech. But do not think for a moment, that freedom of speech allows you to take the lives or liberty of others, based on your acceptance of claims that have no evidence, or claims that are contrary to the evidence.

I am human, I may be wrong. I give you permission to be wrong too.

I was waiting to see what was going to be the “New iMac.” My laptop is getting old, and I wanted something to replace it. I use my iPad Pro as my portable system. It is compatible with the work I do, the college classes I take, and the media content I create. I no longer have a need for a laptop.

What the desktop would do for me is provide access to a larger monitor and MacOS software. That is all I need it for.

So when the Apple event happened at the beginning of November, I watched with anticipation. I wanted to see what my new future desktop was going to look like. I waited with anticipation through… the entire event. I waited to see what Apple had in store for the Mac.

Nothing. In fact, Apple made it very clear there would be no desktops in the future. Did Apple SAY, “today we have determined that desktops are obsolete?” No. Apple did say they were not producing monitors any more. This likely means no iMac’s (the monitor and computer are a single unit). The Mac Pro was not updated, and has not been for three years. The Mac mini saw no update.

If Apple were to come out and say, “we do not make enough money off the desktop world any longer,” people would get scared. Stock owners would sell. Rather than approach the public saying, “it’s time to move on from 40 year old equipment,” Apple just didn’t update. The server line is gone, the desktop line hasn’t been updated, and the updates to the laptop line, are unimpressive. This leaves the iOS line.

What Apple is counting on is moving more capability to the iOS line. When you are 90% served by the iOS line, there will be no reason for MacOS anymore. Most of the “Pros” will have migrated to another system. Linux has become powerful enough, with enough software, that is MacOS disappeared tomorrow, a migration could occur. Do you think it’s coincidence that Swift works on Linux?

What does computing look like now?

I don’t use my Mac Book Pro anymore. I’ve closed it up and put it away as an experiment. I use my iPad Pro and Xbox One S. I could sell my MBP and cover the cost of the XBox One AND pay off the iPad Pro. What, exactly, do I need a desktop or laptop for anymore? I have an Apple TV connected to both of my television sets. I can enjoy media/play games on them. I can throw what is on my iPad screen up on to the TV screen.

Apple needs to add some functionality. I need to be able to decide what is done with video. When I display on a monitor that is not my screen, use the correct ratio. Allow me to decide if I need the screen mirrored or not. Allow me to throw what is on my iOS device on to other iOS devices (one or more). Allow me to use split screen to determine what I see, and what others see (I can see my notes, while they see my pictures/video).

Make iOS devices replace MacOS computing. I don’t care if I do a task the same way, I just need to be able to do all the tasks. Then, how would I even know that MacOS devices no longer exist?