7-time Tour De France winner, and proven cheater, Lance Armstrong offered what is being reported as a tepid apology today. It is being said he wasn't completely forthcoming, and made that same old excuses used by most in the athletic world; everybody was doing it.
I have heard those saying we can't forget the good done by Armstrong, that I will grant you. I venture a guess that no one outside of the scientific or medical communities has done more to advance the fight against cancer world wide. Certainly a lot of lives have been saved indirectly by his fierce advocacy for cancer research and the fundraising he provided.
I was a fan of Armstrong. I was much more into mountain biking than road cycling in the 90's and early 2000's but Armstrong was a great advocate and role model for the cycling world as a whole. I bought his book and read it more than once. I admired his will to live and fight for survival. I respected him. He clearly, despite any performance enhancing drugs, worked his skinny, white ass, off to reach the levels he did.
I'm not even that upset about the PED use. I don't condone it, but I think society as a whole demonizes any drug use as bad no matter what. The rule breaking bothers me a bit. This was more than just a stray elbow whilst in the peloton. That's gamesmanship, and while illegal I hope you can see the difference. It's like a catcher missing a tag but trying to convince the ump he got it. It's just part of the game.
But the thing that gives me the most trouble? The thing that makes me loathe the man I once revered; the lying. He is no different than all the little and big turds I have dealt with on the job over the years. He has postured and blustered and bullied those who would report the truth and try to hold him to the same standard as the rest of the world. He threatened Floyd Landis, he sued a news organization for slander (and won). He lied under oath, repeatedly. He has no credibility as a human being. He is a loathsome person, and he is not sorry for lying...He is sorry for being caught.
Tuesday, January 15, 2013
Friday, January 11, 2013
Dodge City High School
Judging from my pageviews and comments section; no one probably noticed my absence, but I am back. Why did I come back after such a long respite? So much has happened; the fiscal cliff "compromise", the premier of "Zero Dark Thirty", Hurricane Sandy, Newtown. A lot of stuff that has brought about unreasonable rhetoric on the left and the right.
Today a teenager walked into a first hour classroom in a California High School. He shot one,who at this writing is in critical condition, and at another. With the gun-control debate raging, if that's the right word, I couldn't stand mute. I have to give my point of view.
First of all; the NRA and the gun lobby are as anti-American as they come. They are completely off of their rockers! I will grant; the mentally ill need to be addressed. But, right wingers...you gotta make up your mind! Calling for Congress to "do whatever it takes put an armed police officer in every school" goes against the idea of limited government and low taxes. Who's going to pay for all that? The salary, the training, the equipment...as a police officer, I know how much that adds up. Not to mention insure; both medical and liability. The cost of such a plan, while I would LOVE to see it, would be staggering.
Another option I have heard a lot about is the idea of arming teachers. This idea, sadly, seems to have more momentum. This is a bad idea, for a lot of reasons, with the best of intentions. And I really do think this is an instance where the law of unintended consequence comes into full effect.
Let me tell you teachers; as an officer I have to sign all kinds of forms from my agency. Affirming I have been trained in low-light shooting, target discrimination, force de-escalation, any number of things. I sign these because I'm ordered to do so. I'm ordered to do so in case I use deadly force. When the lawsuit comes, and it always comes, my employer pulls out my form and says to a judge, "You can't hold us liable, we showed him how to do it, look right here your honor." And if you think a school district won't do the same to you....
Let's set aside the liability issues. This is an attempt to get around the expense of using actual police officers. The teachers who participate in such programs get all the responsibility, all the liability, of a sworn and certified, uniformed policeman without the cool uniform or crappy hours.
The real issue, as I see it, is one of public safety. You are reading the words of a person who has been involved in an actual gunfight. One where a police officer got shot and a bad guy checked out for good. I have been a police officer for very nearly 20 years. I have been through countless hours of training, both officially and unofficially. I have rehearsed scenarios in my head, and in real life. I've even had the chance on many occasions to to do a sort of "dry run"; by using real tactics in situations that turned out to be not as dangerous as originally thought. Stuff like that is critical, so when the real event comes you know what you are dealing with physically and psychologically.
And that's my point. The police are required, just by virtue of their job, to constantly train. At work. In their own heads. Many times, my shift-mates and I would get together when it was slow and work as a team practicing scenarios. We have to be trained to perform in deadly force situations, because we are more likely to face them. And when we do this preparation and training helps us deal with the stress encountered both during and after such an incident.
I'll give you an example. I don't want to paint every single person with this brush, but I believe it is true for 90% or better of our society. As police trainers we spend a lot of time convincing new officers; being shot does not equal being dead. Just because you are shot, the fight is not over. You must persevere, you must push on, you must win! The 90% are conditioned to believe otherwise. TV and movies show us time and again; one shot, one kill. When John Wayne shot a guy, that guy was no longer a threat. So the inverse must be true. It takes a lot of training to teach this to new guys. But I digress.
There are dynamics at work within a body when encountering the kind of horror one would see in Newtown, CT. Dynamics that cause dangerous situations; inaccurate fire, indiscriminate fire, tunnel vision, vapor lock. These are all real things that happen. And they happen to highly trained police officers. So much more so to more marginally trained educator.
Mistakes are made by those who practice this stuff for a living. The chance for those mistakes are simply magnified by a well-intentioned person thinking to themselves, "if only I had been there with my gun, I would have saved them." Maybe, a big maybe. What if that well meaning teacher accidentally engages the police? A parent holding something that is mistaken for something for more sinister.
Now, as I said; I am not opposed to the police officer in schools. This is a good idea, but a pipe dream. Arming teachers is just a bit short sighted. There are other ways to address gun violence, and we must do it. We need to get away from the rhetoric; gun grabs, the new Hitler, United Nations takeovers. These are ALL figments of your imagination. There are common sense steps we can take to help prevent these things, and I really hope we can engage in a mature dialogue without all the talk of banning guns, national registries, spot inspections. There is a common ground if we can all just dial it back a little bit and try to see it from the other side.
And, BTW; kudos to my Texas A&M Aggies. They really showed something in that Cotton Bowl game. This may be my last chance for a while to enjoy some dominance. Johhny Football/Heisman will probably find success a bit harder in 2013.
Today a teenager walked into a first hour classroom in a California High School. He shot one,who at this writing is in critical condition, and at another. With the gun-control debate raging, if that's the right word, I couldn't stand mute. I have to give my point of view.
First of all; the NRA and the gun lobby are as anti-American as they come. They are completely off of their rockers! I will grant; the mentally ill need to be addressed. But, right wingers...you gotta make up your mind! Calling for Congress to "do whatever it takes put an armed police officer in every school" goes against the idea of limited government and low taxes. Who's going to pay for all that? The salary, the training, the equipment...as a police officer, I know how much that adds up. Not to mention insure; both medical and liability. The cost of such a plan, while I would LOVE to see it, would be staggering.
Another option I have heard a lot about is the idea of arming teachers. This idea, sadly, seems to have more momentum. This is a bad idea, for a lot of reasons, with the best of intentions. And I really do think this is an instance where the law of unintended consequence comes into full effect.
Let me tell you teachers; as an officer I have to sign all kinds of forms from my agency. Affirming I have been trained in low-light shooting, target discrimination, force de-escalation, any number of things. I sign these because I'm ordered to do so. I'm ordered to do so in case I use deadly force. When the lawsuit comes, and it always comes, my employer pulls out my form and says to a judge, "You can't hold us liable, we showed him how to do it, look right here your honor." And if you think a school district won't do the same to you....
Let's set aside the liability issues. This is an attempt to get around the expense of using actual police officers. The teachers who participate in such programs get all the responsibility, all the liability, of a sworn and certified, uniformed policeman without the cool uniform or crappy hours.
The real issue, as I see it, is one of public safety. You are reading the words of a person who has been involved in an actual gunfight. One where a police officer got shot and a bad guy checked out for good. I have been a police officer for very nearly 20 years. I have been through countless hours of training, both officially and unofficially. I have rehearsed scenarios in my head, and in real life. I've even had the chance on many occasions to to do a sort of "dry run"; by using real tactics in situations that turned out to be not as dangerous as originally thought. Stuff like that is critical, so when the real event comes you know what you are dealing with physically and psychologically.
And that's my point. The police are required, just by virtue of their job, to constantly train. At work. In their own heads. Many times, my shift-mates and I would get together when it was slow and work as a team practicing scenarios. We have to be trained to perform in deadly force situations, because we are more likely to face them. And when we do this preparation and training helps us deal with the stress encountered both during and after such an incident.
I'll give you an example. I don't want to paint every single person with this brush, but I believe it is true for 90% or better of our society. As police trainers we spend a lot of time convincing new officers; being shot does not equal being dead. Just because you are shot, the fight is not over. You must persevere, you must push on, you must win! The 90% are conditioned to believe otherwise. TV and movies show us time and again; one shot, one kill. When John Wayne shot a guy, that guy was no longer a threat. So the inverse must be true. It takes a lot of training to teach this to new guys. But I digress.
There are dynamics at work within a body when encountering the kind of horror one would see in Newtown, CT. Dynamics that cause dangerous situations; inaccurate fire, indiscriminate fire, tunnel vision, vapor lock. These are all real things that happen. And they happen to highly trained police officers. So much more so to more marginally trained educator.
Mistakes are made by those who practice this stuff for a living. The chance for those mistakes are simply magnified by a well-intentioned person thinking to themselves, "if only I had been there with my gun, I would have saved them." Maybe, a big maybe. What if that well meaning teacher accidentally engages the police? A parent holding something that is mistaken for something for more sinister.
Now, as I said; I am not opposed to the police officer in schools. This is a good idea, but a pipe dream. Arming teachers is just a bit short sighted. There are other ways to address gun violence, and we must do it. We need to get away from the rhetoric; gun grabs, the new Hitler, United Nations takeovers. These are ALL figments of your imagination. There are common sense steps we can take to help prevent these things, and I really hope we can engage in a mature dialogue without all the talk of banning guns, national registries, spot inspections. There is a common ground if we can all just dial it back a little bit and try to see it from the other side.
And, BTW; kudos to my Texas A&M Aggies. They really showed something in that Cotton Bowl game. This may be my last chance for a while to enjoy some dominance. Johhny Football/Heisman will probably find success a bit harder in 2013.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)