The Need for Personal Protection

February 12, 2007 - Salt Lake City. A Bosnian immigrant kills five at a shopping mall before before being shot down by an off-duty police officer.

April 2, 2007 - Seattle. A distraught ex-boyfriend kills a University of Washington researcher before killing himself.

April 4, 2007 - Atlanta. A woman is shot and killed at point-blank range inside the CNN Center. The attacker is then shot and wounded by a security guard.

April 9, 2007 - Troy, Mich. A recently fired employee of an accounting firm shoots three people, killing one, at his former workplace. He is later apprehended.

April 16, 2007 - Blacksburg, Va. A student murders 32 people at Virginia Tech before turning the gun on himself.

April 20, 2007 - Houston. A NASA employee who received a poor performance review kills his supervisor and takes another employee hostage before killing himself.

Never as far as I can remember have there been so many public shootings in such a short span of time. People question whether such acts are preventable. They question whether they saw warning signs of the murderer's intent prior to the shooting and could have raised the alarm. Much second-guessing goes on, but the fault is clearly the murderer's and his alone. If one is determined to harm people, he will find a way. That is why it is so important that law-abiding citizens exercise their right to arm themselves for personal protection. If even 10% of people carried handguns, do you think criminals would think more carefully about brandishing a gun, not knowing who around them may too be armed?

Consider the Salt Lake City incident, in which the actions of the officer likely saved many lives. How many other lives could be saved in the other incidents if a few of the employees or students were armed? In order for this to happen, workplace and campus rules must be updated to allow for the concealed carrying of handguns. Is this controversial? No doubt. But as long as weapons for personal protection are banned from workplaces and campuses, innocent people will be at the mercy of another would-be murderer.

I am using these incidents as motivation to pursue obtaining a handgun as well as a concealed carry license. I would encourage anyone living in states that allow CCW to do likewise.

Remember Biff?

Remember Biff from Back to the Future? Watch this.

King of the Hypermilers

I read an interesting article about a guy who takes fuel economy to the extreme. And as it turns out there are competitions for this sort of thing.

I like March

March used to be my least favorite month. When I lived in more northern climates, March always represented the last gasp of winter, and more often than not March would be a miserable, cold month. I was so desperate for warmer weather by mid-February, but lousy March stood in the way. If I could just survive March then warm April days would be all mine.

But now I live in Austin and it's 75 every day in March. So I like March now. ^_^

One of life's finer pleasures

I know the warning on the Q-Tips box says, "Do not insert into ear canal," but how can something that feels so good be wrong?

The End of DRM?

What do you think of Steve Jobs' pronouncement that the world would be better off without DRM? (Click here to read it.) Is this the beginning of the end for DRM? What struck me as most interesting is his claim that less than 10% of all songs bought worldwide are from digital music stores. That means 90% of songs still come from CDs. If that's true, it seems pretty hard to believe.

Vocabulary Lesson #4

whelm (v.) - to neither impress nor disappoint. What happens when you're neither overwhelmed nor underwhelmed. Saying "I was whelmed" is pretty much like saying, "this occurrence may as well not have taken place and left no lasting impression."