Merry Christmas!

I would like to wish you a Merry Christmas to you and yours.

Mental Health Services in a Correctional setting

Inmates often have better access to medical and mental health services while they are incarcerated than when they are out on the street.  (Of course I will state that often most seem to not bother to seek services while they are out.)  In a correctional setting, treatment is regimented and defined.  It may not offer the celerity or convenience of a doc-in-a-box, but  you will get treatment.  

I would like to point out on an aside that treatment is regulated on an "As Needed" basis.  Heart attack or broken leg?  You get to ride the ambulance to the hospital, along with matching silver bracelets and a guard to match.  Back pain or toothache?  You aren't going to die from it so we'll get you some ibuprofen until the doctor can see you and determine if you are a drug seeker or are in valid need.  

Today, I want to talk a little about Mental Health Services.  At one time, there was a lot of money flowing from the state and there was a large number of beds at the forensic unit.  Then the funds dried up, and bed space was lost.  Currently, getting any type of mental health involves a lot of waiting.  We had one violent, destructive inmate take approximately 8 months before he was picked up for housing in a proper forensic environment.  

Recently we have been holding the son of a rather... influential family.  They have money, connections, and resources.  But the "kid" was caught red handed, and he confessed to his string of crimes.  I'm not comfortable with discussing the specific mental health treatment he was receiving, but I will only state that it can easily be classified as "minor."  (This requires a lot more discussion, but for his privacy and the fact that this issue/case is ongoing I shall refrain from expounding upon it.)  

Long story short, a few weeks prior to his court case the "kid" stops taking his pill.  And then he acted up in court.  And thus the defense requested a mental competency evaluation.  Normally we see a turnaround of months before an inmate will be picked up for such an evaluation.  BAM!  Pretty boy is out and receiving treatment.  

Money talks, and in the courts you get what you pay for.  

Is New Jersey "White Republican?"

I'm from the South.  My wife is from the North.  On the political spectrum, I lean to the Right while my wife leans to the Left.  But neither of us is what the media portrays right wingers and left wingers to be.
But I found the following sentence to be oddly...  Jarring.

"To all the people who have given me advice to stay away from white Republican places like Jersey, Florida, Texas and the South, let me say this."  

Jersey?  White Republican?  Well, some parts of it are.  But even in those areas, it's pretty left leaning for me.  Oddly enough, I find more signs of racism there than where I live in the South.  And don't get me started on the gun laws.  

Obviously, each person has their views skewed by their own perception.  They can perceive something better or worse dependent upon their own personal views.  Thus, the view that white/Republican = Racist.  Quite disappointing.  It merely shows that the writer has preconceived biases, which places them on the same level of perception as the racists that they decry.  

Traffic

I keep finding things to post about, but I rarely have time to post them.

For example, before Thankgiving I had a close brush with death.  It was about 4am and I was headed north to work.  There is a portion of the highway that raises into a curving bridge.  It curves right, then left.  Yes, there are a large number of accidents on this bridge when the weather is bad.

So, tooling to work, not many vehicles out that early in the morning.  I saw some headlights and in my sleep addled mind they were in the other lane, separted by a jersey wall.  But I thought "man, those lights are bright."  Normally, they lights get blocked by the jersey wall as they get closer...  But not this time.  I was in the far right lane, the oncoming driver was in the far left lane.  I only had a moment of realization before they passed me.  Heart was beating a million miles an hour, and the only thought I could get out was "Oh S***!"

I was a little rattled and there is no place to pull off for a few miles.  I did not have my bluetooth in.  (I rarely have it in that early in the morning.)  I pulled my cell phone, but I was shaking and dropped it under the seat.  (I didn't find it until I was on lunch break.)  It was 25 minutes before I got to work, so when I called the State Police they thanked me for my input but advised me that there was little they could do.  I knew as much.  Obviously, no accidents reported.

Green Top Sporting Goods, still kicking it after all these years.

Green Top used to advertise itself as the "South's Largest Outdoor Supply" or something like that.  And at the time I believed it.  Then came the large chain stores and they took that slogan down.  In approximately 2007, the announcement was made that a Bass Pro and a Gander Mountain were opening in the area of Green Top.  

And Green Top was scared.  To talk with the employees, they thought that their shop would be put out of business and they would all loose their jobs.  

But brand loyalty and customer service won through.  Gander Mountain garnered a lot of complaints about high prices and bad customer service and it closed.  Green Top moved in to their location and now operate an even BIGGER store than before.  And it is awesome.  It makes me feel good that the "little guy" survived and is doing even better.  

Oddly enough, I have not made it out to the new Green Top location since they took over the Gander Mountain site.  There are a million reasons, mostly because I just don't need the temptation to spend more money.  

But I finally made it over there, and it is awesome!  They have made great use of the space.  The organization is quite similar to Gander Mountain.  The majority of their long guns are out on display where they can be looked at easily.  They have a number of collectible shotguns locked in the case, and they also have a number of their higher end rifles kept behind the counter.  And all of their pistols are behind the counter.  They seem to have a lot more long guns than pistols.  Their pistol counter was very crowded, but their selection seemed a bit off.  More specifically, they didn't have the pistol that I was looking for in stock.  But, nothing is perfect.  

I will state that I've been to the new location twice this month.  On that note, when I went there on Friday it looked like someone's ex had sold off a nice extensive AR collection.  There were multiple AR's in different configurations.  There was one with a forward grip, green laser, and optics for a really good deal...  So good I tried to figure out how to buy it right then and there!  (Couldn't buy it without gutting the Thanksgiving/Christmas budget.)  So, good deal missed, but I'll be back!  

Did I miss Halloween?

I forgot to make a Halloween post.  I like to post a few spooky music videos I find off of YouTube, but Halloween just kind of snuck up on me.  I had a very busy month and I even got my car in to it's annual inspection at the last minute.  (It was not what I had planned!)

I have a bit I'd like to talk about.  Several incidents involving inmates with mental health issues or disabilities that should not be incarcerated but are, training at the Academy, life in general, et al.  I had more to write but I just spaced out.  Of course, life is busy and I don't have time to post as often as I'd like, nor am I as creative in my posts as I would like to be.

Well, at least I have a quick post up.  I recently got another comment to my blog and that was much appreciated.

Until my next post!

The gun show in Downtown Richmond

I made it up to the C&E Gun Show in Downtown Richmond today.  This was the first time that they held the gun show at the Greater Richmond Convention Center.  Previously the C&E Gunshow was held at The Showplace on Mechanicville Turnpike.  But, that location was sold and something new is to be built there.

The big issue for that location is that the attached parking charges $6.  One big issue is that so few people are used to paying for parking.  That was a big drawback for the Sixth Street Marketplace when that was in operation.  But, if you go to Downtown Richmond, you will probably have to pay for parking.  And they wonder why people don't come.  Fortunately I was able to find some free on street parking.

The crowds were not as heavy as I'm used to when it was at The Showplace.  Also, there were a number of empty tables.  On that note most of the tables did consist of firearms or firearm paraphernalia.  There were very few tables of artsy/craftsy stuffs as I've become used to.  For the most part I don't go to a gun show to purchase firearms, as I find them very overpriced.  However, I did find some good deals that made me stop and think.

I don't think that the Greater Richmond Convention Center is a good place for the gun show.  Hopefully a better location will come available to them.

Marine Cutbacks.

Business Insider has an article about a funny video that was posted in a response to military cutbacks.

Marines Use Nerf Guns In Video To Lampoon Government Shutdown

It's pretty funny.  "No First Sergeants Were Actually Used in the Making of this Video."

Deathinger

This.

Deathinger

I can't figure out how to post the actual video to this site.  Blogger makes it easy to post from YouTube and not Vimeo.  (Of course, Google owns Blogger and YouTube so that's a pretty straight forward set up right there.)  But go watch it.  It's an awesome short animation about "Death School" for the harvesters of souls in the afterlife.

Stick Shifts. I love them. I hate them.

When I was 15, I got my crash course in driving stick.  My dad told me to get in the driver's seat of our F-150, and take it on down to the cow pasture.  

Now, I'd had very little experience in driving any vehicle up to now.  And the concept of using the clutch was very hard to understand.  Plus I was getting on streets that were not known for slow traffic.  The pasture, maybe ten minutes down the road, took almost a half an hour for me.  Between taking forever to turn onto the main road (too much traffic for me) and having the engine cut off almost every time I tried to shift...  By the time I got their my grandmother had already fed the cows and was leaving.  I don't really recall the trip back, but I'm sure that it wasn't any better.  

But, I eventually figured out how to drive stick shift.  And I became pretty good too!  The rescue squad that I volunteered for needed drivers, so I took the course and became certified.  When I got hired in corrections, I took the EVOC course for cruisers and vans.  The instructors kept making the van course tighter for me because I could do some fun stuff with the transport van.  

There were some interesting incidents.  The first time I was put in the drivers seat of a massive moving truck, I had to get used to the idea of "Reverse" in the far upper left position.  I was exceptionally used to First Gear being in this spot.  I only confused the two once...  Unfortunately I was at a stoplight driving uphill.  It was pretty scary.  

So...  About two years ago we bought a new car.  My wife's car was having back to back EXPENSIVE mechanical issues.  When the transmission went, so did the car.  We were fortunate that we had a friend who was a manager at a local Hyundai dealer.  We got a great deal on a used Elantra.  One of the reasons that we got such a good deal was that it was manual, and not automatic.  Apparently there is not a huge demand for an Elantra that is not Automatic.  

I hate that car.  

Shifting is such a pain.  I'll grind gears or place it in the wrong position.  I'm just terrible at using it.  The manual transmission for this car is just so different from the larger trucks that I'm used to driving.  In the trucks, I had the feeling of power when I was able to shift myself.  In this car, I think it's built for speed but with four cylinders it doesn't seem to work.  Now, my wife has absolutely no problem with it.  She is in love with her car.  Well, I guess it's good that I have no desire to drive her car.  

Dusk Maiden of Bones

Because I haven't posted and AMV in a while, here is one that I like.

I may have to buy the album from this, MS MR "Secondhand Rapture."  The video is from "Dusk Maiden of Amnesia" which I have not watched.  (I'll have to post a review of "Another" at some point in the future.)

We protect the guilty. But what about the innocent?

I merely must vent my frustration in that the criminals have more rights than us law abiding citizens.

While I shall not go into the details of the issue at this time, I will state that it looks like everything has turned out in my favor.  Unfortunately the whole situation has left a sour taste in my mouth.

That is all.

I have updated My Blog List.

I have added Grandma's Recipe Books and The Steel Bookshelf to "My Blog List."  Jon had been kind enough to leave a comment on my blog so I felt that I should at least help him out by adding a link to his sites.  It won't be much, but maybe it will add him a little higher on a Google search.

The term "illegal" can not be used at college.

Change the language and you change the conversation.  Groupthink out of UCLA:

UCLA Student Government resolution bans derogatory term.

And I had forgotten that the AP had removed the term "illegal immigrant" from their lexicon a few months back.

AP Stylebook rejects the term illegal immigrant.

Things that make inmates go "huh?"

I love watching an inmates brain go into vapor lock, especially when they are on a whine session about some trivial matter that I can't really discern.

Inmate: "This is a violation of my Constitutional rights!"
Me:  "What about your Constitutional lefts?"
Inmate: (Quizzical look, and then they walk away.)

Obama is dissapointed.

Obama "dissapointed" that Russia granted asylum to Snowden

Wow.  Great international relations there, Commander-In-Chief.  I'm sure your "disappointment" will have the Russians quaking in their boots and not laughing at your impotence.

I found new shorts!

One drawback of carrying concealed is that it restricts the type of clothing that you can wear.  Being that I'm a big collector of clothing from Wal-Mart (you can't beat the prices) I tend to wear pants that are one size too big and shirts that are 2XL.  I'm not exactly a fashion model.

Of course, that was focused on CCW at a 5 O'Clock position.  Between martial arts in college and a career in Corrections, I am not quite the paragon of health.  Most significant of my health issues is back pain...  So I've stopped carrying IWB.  Sitting with a firearm in that position became most painful.  Once I drove to my destination, I didn't want to be there anymore.

Thus, I've been doing Pocket Carry for a bit.  I prefer my S&W 5 shot.  Short barrel, but very accurate.  I've got a nice Don Hume holster for it.  (I don't think that they make that style any more.)  The draw back is that most pants now have short pockets which can be quite annoying.

"Is that a pistol in  your pocket?"
"Yes, you can tell by the grip sticking out."

Recently, I've been catching some sales at Bass Pro.  Still a bit more than Wal Mart, but not by much when they are on sale.  The RedHead shorts that they sell are awesome!  (RedHead is the Bass Pro house brand, I believe.)  I love the deep pockets, and they allow me to carry concealed in the pocket with no issues.  Most are cargo style so that makes it easier for me to carry extra items, such as my iPod.

Bass Pro RedHead Shorts

In regards to the proper care and feeding of chemical agents.

Don't store it in direct sunlight.  Check the canister for damage and leaks.  And take it out of service by the listed expiration date.  

That being said. let's mosy on to a similar topic.  

Oleoresin Capsicum.  O. C.  Pepper Spray.  Basically this is the "weaponized" version of a hot pepper.  The oils of the peppers converted by modern science into a pressurized agent used to disorient a subject.  It's almost as au-natural and hippie friendly as a hickory shampoo.  Ha ha, I kid, I kid.  

It is known as "less than lethal" due to the fact that it sits lower on the use of force chart.  However, "less than lethal" can be lethal at times without intent.  (See studies on positional asphyxiation in conjunction with use of chemical agents.)  Nothing is 100% safe.  (Remember that radio contestant who died from drinking water?)  

On that note, pepper spray is a bit of an area-of-affect tool.  Let's say that you are going hands on with an inmate.  Unless the situation goes pear shaped, you should not deploy pepper spray.  Not only are you hitting the inmate with the chemical, you are hitting the officers also.  Not every one is affected by O. C. the same way.  Take me for example.  I've had a lot of exposure to it and I can work through it.  Also, it makes me very angry.  And my anger is not directed at the inmate, but he officer who made a very poor decision.  

International Cat Speculators

International Cat Speculators.

Apparently it's a thing now.  

It's a joke on Instapundit, by the way.  My family has a good handful of cats plus a number of strays that hang around.  If there was a way to make money off of them then I'd be rich.  

Update:  Apparently someone has bought a web domain and set it up as International Cat Speculators.  Read the comments, they are so funny!

On that note, leave a comment on my blog.  Just say hi or something.

DC Celtic Events

Anyone remember Yahoo Groups?  I'm still a member of several Yahoo Groups.  Sometimes I get some really interesting info on them.  I actually prefer getting info over text based e-mail than using Facebook.  It's a simple format, where in Facebook they will sometimes hide posts and you won't know that anyone wrote anything.

Recently, the DC Cetlic Events group was updated.  I was happy to see this.  I was so used to the groups fading away and being forgotten.  Plus, the moderator included a nice note explaining why the news group had been "ignored" for so long.  That was a nice touch.