NYC's 5th Avenue is one of THE shopping destinations in the world but it's shuttered and boarded up.
Saw a bit about the Victoria's Secret store down that way. They pay something like $800,000 a month in rent, but haven't been paying it since
The Burn-Loot-Murder folks are trashing Michigan Avenue in Chicago and big-name stores are suffering huge, huge losses. Ms. Steve Urkel was saying that those stores have insurance, but insurance doesn't cover rioting and looting.
Perhaps Amazon will start to deliver Gucci and Versace and [insert the big designer label here] but you won't be able to shop for them in the big cities for much longer, not at this rate.
And if you want to know why this is happening, Second City Cop has the perfect example.
"Here we are again demanding justice. We know that this ain't right," said Jada Vance, member of the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression. "The police cannot find a way, they cannot figure out how to stop shooting Black people, and that ain't right!"The police know what it takes; it is your people who apparently can't figure out that if you shoot at police, they will shoot back. It is your people who apparently missed the memo that if you resist arrest, you might be injured or killed.
The way to avoid these entanglements with the police is painfully simple: stop committing crimes. Despite what the Democrat party, the media, and the left (Venn diagram: single circle) keep telling you, the simple fact is that the police have enough to do without hassling black people who obey the law.
"I got pulled over for 'driving while black'!" No, you got pulled over because you're driving a $500 car with $3,000 worth of wheels on it, with limo tint on all the windows, one headlight out, and heavy bass rattling windows for six blocks in every direction. Even if you're 36 years old and just coming back from the grocery store to get bread and peanut butter for your kids' lunch tomorrow, you're acting like a thug, driving a thug's car, listening to thug music the same way a thug does; and that combined with your complete lack of concern for the fact that you're speeding through a residential neighborhood after 9 PM on a weeknight is enough to make a cop think maybe something else is going on. It's not "racial profiling" but "playing the odds", because the entire picture you present adds up to you all but getting in the man's face and screaming "I'M A CRIMINAL!" Certainly your near-total and obvious disregard for the law is enough to prompt his suspicion.
Do you think the police will pull you over if you're driving a largely unmodified pickup truck, radio off, everything working fine, at the speed limit?
Second City Cop knows what the prescription is.
How about you idiots stop making criminals your "heroes" and perhaps look to a father who stayed with his wife, held a job, worked extra shifts, raised decent kids, volunteered with his church or Park District teams and was a credit to society? We know hundreds in our line of work.It really is that simple.
* * *
It really, honestly makes the sound you would expect it to. To be honest, it's actually kind of funny.
Although it has been a very long time, when I think about being in such a situation myself I immediately want to take up the "ready" position I learned for staff use in Aikido: you hold the staff over your head at an angle, so your head is protected. You attack not by swinging the staff, but by pistoning it out while moving your rear hand in a circle, downward, and taking a half-step forward. The idea is to strike your assailant in the torso, hard. Done properly it will not cause any lasting injury but should nonetheless dissuade an assailant. Not that I think I could do it properly in a for-real fight, of course, because that was years ago and I'm overweight and out of shape. But if I were approached the way that guy was? Probably an entirely different story.
Though that technique wouldn't really work with a two-by-four, at least the guy was holding his improvised weapon in a ready position, so when she made ready to swing he got there first. *BONK* What did she think would happen? Did she think he would just stand there and wait for her to swing at him before he did anything?
* * *
As for me, I have three staves. One is essentially a prop, being the trunk of a maple sapling some 1.5-2" in diameter; this is a wizard's staff,and while it's really strong, it's also heavy and would not be my first choice for combat. The second is a stout broom handle, bought specifically for the purpose of practicing Aikido at home, with its ends cut off and varnished; it's a bo staff. Fine for Aikido practice and I'd grab it first because it's light and strong. The third is really more of a long club than a staff, and I keep it in the truck. Its advantage is that it's both short enough to swing like a club but also long enough to do that Aikido move with.
I desperately hope I am never in a position to need any of them. I would prefer a good handgun but I don't live in a free state.
* * *
They say it's supposed to rain today.
I did not sleep well last night. Having only just started the medication, I think I had another episode of GERD last night, and so woke up wheezing and coughing; and every time I've gotten up I've been frustrated and exhausted and completely fed up with it all.
The problem is that when you're sleeping, if the stomach acid gets up high enough, you inhale it. It's just a little bit, but the stomach acid's not going to do your airways any favors. This is what makes it feel like athsma.
And so I'm laying there, wheezing asthmatically, unable to sleep, sick and fucking tired of this horseshit that's been going on for almost six months now, and I have to get up to take some medication and so forth--well, you know how it is when you're dead tired and something like that happens to you.
Went to the inhaler first this time, but it wasn't quite enough so I took half a tab of Xanax, and then I was able to get a few hours of quality sleep. But I need more.
Still--
One of the times I woke up in the early morning, I happened to see the crescent Moon and Venus in close proximity. That prompted me to dig out the binoculars to see if I could see the phase Venus was in. I could not, but I got a nice look at the Moon, and as a bonus I took a good long look at the Pleades. Then I spent some time looking for the Andromeda galaxy.
Lacking a star chart, I hunted for it around Cassiopeia (because, as I know from my near-total memorization of The Sure Thing, Cassiopeia was the mother of Andromeda) and failed to find it. Naturally, upon looking just now, I find that the galaxy is in Pegasus, which is south of Cassiopeia. I did scan the sky around Cassiopeia, going pretty far away, but didn't see good old M31.
The Andromeda galaxy is not easily seen, even in a dark sky, but with binoculars it should be visible. It might help to look in the right place.
"What about that fancy telescope your wife gave you?" I tried to use the telescope to look at the recent comet but couldn't find it; Andromeda has been in the same place in the sky approximately forever and I've never seen it, either. If I can't find it with binoculars, I'd never find it with the telescope.
*sigh*
* * *
I stopped reading "Not Always Right" some time ago. Not sure why. But from time to time I can't help but recall the story told there about the clerk working at the gas station convenience store who got in trouble for something really, really ridiculous.
As I recall, a kid comes in with a friend or two. Acting in a suspicious fashion, they browse around the store, and the guy keeps an eye on them, to make sure they don't steal anything. They don't; and eventually they come to the counter with a bottle of malt vinegar and a couple of other items, none of which are age-restricted, so he rings them up and takes their money.
A couple of hours later, an angry woman storms in and demands to know why the clerk didn't warn her son not to drink the malt vinegar.
Fucking dumbass thought "malt" meant "alcohol", because after all over in the beer section you can buy "malt liquor". They thought they'd get in trouble for trying to buy it, but wow he didn't try to card us, and now we can get drunk!
Of course, drinking that much vinegar will make you sicker than a dog but I don't know if it will cause any lasting harm. But this woman was pissed because the clerk had not been able to read her precious snowflake's mind and warn him that malt vinegar has no alcohol in it.
Anyway, the woman made a big to-do about it, getting corporate involved and making a big mess. WTF, if that were my kid, I'd just point and laugh at him for being such a dumbass. "You drank how much vinegar thinking you'd get drunk? AAHH HA HA HA HA HA," and then start crying because obviously my genes are shit.
Why do these things always end up with me being depressed??