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Alternative Tool

Psychos

I guess this answers the age-old question, “If guns are outlawed, can we use swords?” — this time in Sweden:

An 18-year-old man armed with a sword unleashed his violent rampage at the Brinell School in Fagersta, northwest of Stockholm on Friday, just days after the school had resumed from its summer break. 

‘The person killed in this incident is a young 17-year-old female. Her family has been informed,’ police said on their website without giving any other identity details.

Minnea, a Brinell student who went to the school to honour the victims on Saturday, told the SVT broadcaster: ‘It’s terrible to think that someone you sat at the same table with, someone you talked to, is suddenly dead.’ 

Two boys, a 12-year-old and a 17-year-old, were seriously injured, with one requiring emergency surgery. 

A third person was also wounded, but police did not give any details on them. 

Police said the suspect had been arrested after being shot at by officers, and that the case was being investigated as murder and attempted murder. 

The alleged perpetrator was not injured during his arrest.

…which means that the Swedish fuzz need to spend a little more time at the range. methinks.

Here was an earlier such event, only in Britishland, so of course the cops there weren’t carrying guns — probably because all the ARMED POLICE! in the area were busy taking down people who had been posting Bad Things on Teh Intarwebz.

What’s also disturbing is the apparent random nature of all these things — I mean, as opposed to Muslim assholes going crazy on the infidels they encounter in their “adopted” countries.  It seems as though these psycho swordsmen could pop up just about anywhere for a little gladiatorial practice.

So it’s one more reminder for us here in Murka to carry our guns every time we walk out the front door.  (But I’m preaching to the choir here, aren’t I?

Keeping Up With The Times

Surveillance Society, Technology

I have often been accused of being an old fuddy-duddy, very set in my ways and against the concept of “change”.

Mostly, I would plead guilty to such charges — and proudly, at that.

However, I am very open to change in one circumstance, that being on the issue of this godless system known as “flocking” — you know, those seemingly-ubiquitous cameras installed to spy on people’s cars and movements thereof.  I proudly created this little picture, in fact (and feel free to copy or pass on, as the mood inspires):

I purposely used the word “grex” (Latin word for flock) because as a generic collective term for sheep, it doesn’t refer to any company or individual.  Also, I’m a cultural snob (likewise by self-admission) and have an abiding fondness for classical allusions.

Anyway.

So great is my hostility to these fucking things that I may once even have suggested a DIY method for their de-installation:

Of course, as any fule kno, this was merely a tongue-in-cheek suggestion because counter-surveillance (cameras spying on cameras — does it ever end?) makes such an action foolish, even though as a curmudgeonly man of the elder demographic, using something as old-fashioned as a shotgun to take down something so horrible and offensively-modern would give me great pleasure.

But no, we should move with the times, methinks, especially when contemplating the “delenda” part of the above suggestion.  So how about something like a “loitering munition“?  (I love that particular euphemism, by the way.)

Now, this is also a tongue-in-cheek suggestion, because it’s easy to see that objects like this are waaayyyy overkill — there’s no need for a loiter function, for example, and given the typical fragility of a small camera device, there’s no need for any munitions, per se.  Even a kamikaze drone (as used by the military) would be overkill, for the same reasons — and in both cases, too spendy for Mr. Average Citizen to use.

So looking at the matter from a clinical perspective, there’s no need for such things.

But blessed as we are by living in the U.S. of A., there are always other options, such as this one, at only $40 per pop (so to speak):


(link in pic)

I would imagine that an accidental collision between a flocking camera and a drone controlled by a fumbling amateur first-time user might indeed compromise the camera’s operation somewhat.

If you see what I mean.

Progress:  not always a Bad Thing, no?