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Don’t know when this poster dates from, but it’s still an important  message today.

One Got Fat

I’ve previously posted Boards of Canada’s surreal, but strangely fitting video for “Everything You Do Is A Balloon”. It culls imagery from the weird 1963 bicycle safety film, “One Got Fat.”

Decided that I wanted to see the actual film itself, narration, explanations of what the hell is going on and all. Yup, it’s wacky all right. While the core message is undeniable, it’s unfathomable that something like it would be produced today.

It’s Not An Accident

As you have no doubt heard, Oscar Pistorius shot his girlfriend.

I hold him in much the same regard as I hold most sports figures and media darlings: I don’t. Sure, he runs fast and he does so on a pair of high tech prosthetics. That’s pretty neat. But compared to Army Ranger Sgt. Joseph Kapacziewski, who returned to active combat duty serving four deployments with a prosthetic leg (meaning he went through selection not once, but twice - once with a prosthetic leg - that’s what you call hard as woodpecker lips), he seems like just another pampered, rich athlete.

Besides the fact that he shot a woman to death, his legal team getting in front of the media in an effort to sway public opinion by trying to paint this tragic event as an “accident” is what is really pissing me off.

They are trying to claim that shooting through a door several times at what he believed to be an intruder he couldn’t actually see, meaning he couldn’t positively identify, was an “accident.” That’s “negligence” at best, plain old “murder” at worst.

Now I should preface this by saying I think people should be allowed to own firearms of any size and description. Someone tries to harm you, your loved ones, your property, you should be allowed to stop them, in any way you see fit. Having said that though, with great power, comes great responsibility. 

I’ve posted them on here before: Colonel Coopers 4 Rules of Firearms Safety. Rule #4: Be sure of your target and what is beyond it. Clearly, he did nothing of the kind in this instance. Given the shocking level of criminal brutality in South Africa, I think people should definitely be allowed to employ a means of not becoming a victim. But a basic premise that needs to be followed is that you need to be 100% certain of what it is you are shooting at, (daughter sleepwalking or prowling rapist?) and also an awareness of what is beyond that target (kindergarten playground or brick wall?). A flashlight is a mandatory accessory on or with a home defense weapon to see what it is you are shooting at in the dark. Being able to actually see what that potential threat is, is crucially important. A closed door would also deter one from seeing what that “target” actually is.

To not have been 100% certain of that fact before pulling the trigger is not an “accident”. Stop calling it that. If people aren’t by this point convinced he is a femicidal asshole, they should be convinced he is a negligent asshole. To continue trying to prop up this tired cliché that this was all some regrettable mishap is not doing him any favours.

When I read in the paper that Pistorius nearly shot a friend at a Johannesburg restaurant recently when a pistol he was looking at “accidentally” went off, it just confirms it all for me. He was looking at a friend’s gun when the firearm “discharged accidentally”, Kevin Lerena told the Afrikaans-language Beeld newspaper on Monday. “For some reason it got caught on his trousers, flipped the safety pin and a shot went off. I wouldn’t say he was negligent.”

Oh I would. How the hell does a pistol just “accidentally” go off? Oh that’s right, you violated rules #3 (keeping finger off the trigger) and probably #1 and #2 as well (treating a firearm as though it is always loaded, and not allowing the muzzle to cover anything you’re not willing to destroy). There’s no mystery to a firearm discharging.

The military is right. It’s a “negligent discharge”. There’s no accident involved. Do that in the military and bad things happen to you. It always pisses me off when the police refer to it as an “accidental discharge” when one of their own does it. There’s no accident involved. Obey Colonel Coopers 4 rules. I realize full well that they say that as an ass covering ploy to avoid culpability in cases where someone is hurt by those sorts of acts. Again, it’s an effort to manipulate public perceptions and opinion. And I don’t like it.

I’m all for people being allowed to own firearms. Yes, it’s a right, but that that right also needs to come with a very high expectation of responsibility. If you pull a stupid move with one, you should be punished for it. Or have the damn thing taken away from you because you just proved yourself to be incompetent  No matter if you are a rich and famous sports figure. And if that stupid move leads to someones death, it should come with at the very least a negligent homicide conviction.

An accident is walking along a trail and a boulder at that very moment comes loose on a cliff above you, plummeting silently down and landing atop you. That is an accident.

What this shit licker did is not an accident. Stop calling it that. In general there needs to be a serious rethinking of what we casually refer to as an “accident”, but this case in particular makes the point crystal clear for me.

Break-Away Necklace

I guess it’s important to have some kind of a break-away if you wear something around your neck. Even though I’m not ashamed to state that I’m a bit of a safety ninny, I have worn a neck knife for years on just a piece of 2mm cord. I guess on some level I have a problem with weak points. But I do realize that it is probably a good idea. I’ve looked at some of the little plastic break-away hardware, and wasn’t so impressed with it. It came undone too easily for my liking.

Was in a dollar store recently and saw this. For a dollar, I figured I’d give it a try.

Will all dollar stores have this? I have no idea. Are these super popular and available everywhere? I have no idea. Are they available in longer than 18" lengths? I have no idea.

Don’t know if there is a proper name for this kind of closure. I call it Ball and Loop.

Now, 18" makes it a choker on me. A choker with a break-away to avoid choking, but a choker nonetheless. I guess these are marketed towards 8 year old girls, not burly adults who carry knives around their necks. Thought of getting a second one to lengthen it, but that would then add two weak points.

So far so good. Mind you, three days of wearing it isn’t that much of a test. Although I have worn it while I slept, and if all that tossing and turning I do hasn’t ripped it loose, that’s a hopeful sign. I can see this being problematic if you carried a knife that required you to really yank on the handle to get it out of the sheath. But what I carry has been fine so far.

Why are people reticent to wear safety gear?

Why are people reticent to wear safety gear?

I know not everyone fits this description, but I find it really curious why so many people appear to have a real problem donning safety gear.

Maybe I’m a bit of a ninny, but I have always been big into safety and protecting the assets I have. I like that my fingers can create things. I like that my eyes show me amazing things. I like being able to listen to music. I like being alive to experience all those things.

My pal Andrew tells a great story of working in construction with some utter meatheads. He had spent 15 years in the army, and they understand the value of safety equipment. Eye protection so hot brass doesn’t come flying out of the ejection port right into an eyeball, hearing protection to dampen the deafening sounds of rifles firing, kneepads to ward off injuries, etc. He was derided by his co-workers who showed up to job sites in regular running shoes, didn’t believe in the need for a helmet when someone was working above them on a scaffold, etc. One day his boss came to him and said “Hey you were in the army right? You know about first aid right?” Turns out the dolt had a 1½” shard of mahogany sticking out of his eyeball, and wanted to know if he could pull it out.

“Uh…no! You need to go to the hospital. An ophthalmologist needs to look at that.”

Dude kept bitching that he didn’t want to go as that would cost him money.

“Oh I don’t need to wear this PFD. I’ll just put it on if I fall in the water” translates into “I’m working hard to win the Darwin award.” I want to grab these people, throw them into a large body of water, throw their PFD in after them and see how well they do. Their bravado that they’re great swimmers, I think is often more idea than reality. I figure that if USN SEALs and USCG Rescue Swimmers wear PFDs, it is probably a smart idea if I wear one as well. I believe a detective would call it a “clue.”

It seems to me there is this subtext of “I won’t look “cool” wearing this.” While shopping for a bicycle years ago a girl looking at helmets said to her friend “I don’t think I’m gonna bother with a helmet. They make me look goofy.”
I couldn’t resist.
“Yeah cause you’ll look totally awesome when you’re sitting in a wheelchair with drool running down your chin.”

Whether it’s seat belts, ear plugs, or a pair of safety boots, the excuses and the rationalizations for not using them just blow me away. Very little in the way of safety gear is expensive. Most of it surprisingly comfortable. Yet the consequences of not wearing personal protective equipment is often excruciating and will end up costing you an unfathomable amount.

Drowning Doesn’t Look Like Drowning

I spammed everyone in my email account with this, posted it on FaceBook, and not that I’m naive enough to think that very many people read this blog, I suppose every little bit helps.

Drowning people don’t look the way movies and television portray them. Not just people with small children should read this, but I think it’s important for everyone to be able to recognize the signs of someone drowning. Given that 10 kids drowned here in Ontario in the past week or so (one of them right near where my sister lives), I figured this was very topical. Thank you to Mario Vittone for writing this.

Drowning Doesn’t Look Like Drowning