I still am writing my "NASA" post with Pictures..*Yay*!!, but I decided to throw some humor out there.....because I am like that.....
I saw this in my morning surfing and I decided to google it and get some more stuff..
This is a humorous rendition of a brain of a SJW. Those creatures that exist on pure emotion and live in the here and now....Logical thought and long term insight are lacking in these creatures.
I always to shock people by making comments about my clubbing baby seals in the early 80's. The look of horror is so worth it. I almost feel sorry for the SJW's, their cause is so fleeting and always looking for the next cause to feel relevant in today's world. They have forsaken honor and integrity in their search for the next great cause, and when they can't find them..they turn angry and bitter and are further excluded by their fellow humans.....they turn to this...
Ask Murphy about the crazy cat people down the street ...
I decided to roll with this song partly because I always liked it, it has a cool beat and the video is interesting also. We went and visited NASA at the Kennedy Space center and my inner geek did rejoice. So since we went to NASA and saw some really cool stuff, I figured to use this song.
I remembered this song when it hit MTV, you know MTV...back when they played Music video's
They used an astronaut in their promo's on the TV, the flag would change colors as the music played, and you tube even has it on file...Yay...
This was back when MTV was good...before it sucked...
Sorry I was distracted....*Ooooh a shiney!* Like I was saying, this song made a lot of runs on MTV, this helped push the song up to number 14 on the American charts in 1983.
Error in the System is the first English album by German singer Peter Schilling, and is literally the English counterpart to the German album Fehler im System. The English and German version have been combined and sold as a single box set in several parts of the world.
"Major Tom (Coming Home)" (German: Major Tom (völlig losgelöst), translation: "Major Tom (totally disconnected)"), is a song by singer Peter Schilling from his album Error in the System. With a character unofficially related to "Major Tom", the theme of David Bowie's 1969 album Space Oddity, the song is about the character being caught in an accident in space.
The song was originally recorded in German, and released in West
Germany on January 3, 1983. It reached #1 in West Germany, Austria and
Switzerland. The English version was first released in the United States
on September 24, 1983. It reached #1 in Canada, #14 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 Singles chart in late 1983, and #4 in South Africa. The English-language version of the song also reached number two on the dance chart in the U.S.
In 1994, Schilling made and released a remixed version along with
Bomm Bastic, titled "Major Tom 94". Another remix was released in 2000,
titled "Major Tom 2000", and yet another in 2003 titled "Major Tom
2003".
Major Tom is a fictional astronaut referenced in David Bowie's songs "Space Oddity", "Ashes to Ashes", and "Hello Spaceboy" (particularly in the remix by the Pet Shop Boys).
Bowie's own interpretation of the character evolved throughout his
career. 1969's "Space Oddity" depicts an astronaut who casually slips
the bonds of the world to journey beyond the stars. In the 1980 song
"Ashes to Ashes," Bowie reinterprets Major Tom as an oblique
autobiographical symbol for himself. Major Tom is described as a "junkie, strung out in heavens high, hitting an all-time low". This lyric was interpreted as a play on the title of Bowie's 1977 album Low,
which charted his withdrawal following his drug abuse in the United
States. Additionally, the choked and self-recriminating tone used in the
lyrics "Time and again I tell myself I'll stay clean tonight."
reinforces an autobiographical and retrospective interpretation. A short
time later, there is another reversal of Major Tom's original
withdrawal, turning 'outwards' or towards space.
In 1983, Peter Schilling continued the story of Major Tom in his hit single "Major Tom (Coming Home)". Other artists who have subsequently made substantial contributions to the Major Tom story include K.I.A. and The Tea Party, among others. Due to some similarities in Elton John's "Rocket Man",
there is a possible connection between the Rocket Man and Major Tom, a
connection notably made by Bowie himself, who while singing Space Oddity
in concert would sometimes call out, "Oh, Rocket Man!"
In "Space Oddity", from the 1969 album David Bowie (later retitled Space Oddity),
Major Tom's departure from Earth is successful and everything goes
according to plan. At a certain point during the travel ('past one
hundred thousand miles'), he thinks that "my spaceship knows which way
to go" and proceeds to say "Tell my wife I love her very much." Control
then informs him, "Ground Control to Major Tom: your circuit's dead,
there's something wrong" and attempts to reestablish contact with Major
Tom. Tom's final words in the song (possibly not heard by Ground
Control) are: "Here... am I floating in my tin can, far above the Moon.
Planet Earth is blue and there's nothing I can do."
In the 1969 music video version, David Bowie plays as Major Tom,
Ground Control (GC), and the Countdown Announcer. When the lyrics "And
the stars look very different today" are said, two lovely women appear,
portraying either angels or aliens,
or perhaps both. The moment "Though I'm past one hundred thousand
miles, I'm feeling very still" are said, the two women can be seen
removing Major Tom's helmet and spacesuit. Later a still fully outfitted
Major Tom can be seen spinning around in space, with a panicked Ground
Control attempting to contact him; the spinning Major Tom is either the
reality of the situation, or Ground Control's imagination. The music
video ends with Major Tom sitting in his tin can, far above the Moon,
with the two women by his side in a ménage à trois style.
In 1980, Bowie created a sequel entitled "Ashes to Ashes". The song was a Number 1 hit single and also appeared on his Number 1 LP Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps).
The song doesn't actually say much about Major Tom, except to call him a
"junkie" (slang for a person with a heroin addiction or other
compulsive habit). The context of the lyrics seems to indicate that the
song is mainly about Bowie's own soul searching, rather than a literal
continuation of the Major Tom story. There is an inclusion of saying
"strung out in heavens high, hitting an all time low" referring to him
getting high on heroin, while his life is low.
In Peter Schilling's 1983 song "Major Tom (Coming Home)"
Tom sends a final message, "Give my wife my love..." with no
transmissions back to Earth from that point. He then declares that he's
"coming home", being commanded by the light, which can be taken to refer to the afterlife.
The associated music video also shows an object falling back through
the atmosphere, presumably either Major Tom or his ship. In this song
the word "light" in "now the Light commands" is often heard or
transcribed as "life" but the liner notes of the Error in the System
LP (and the original German) confirm the word "light." The
German-language version "Völlig losgelöst" is contained in Schilling's
1983 German LP Fehler im System. Both albums also contain a
different song without lyrics entitled "Major Tom, Part II". In 1994,
Schilling teamed with Bomm-Bastic to record a sped-up Techno-Trance Mix
of "Major Tom (Coming Home)" that was released in English and German
versions under the EP title of Major Tom '94. A recent cover, renamed "Major Tom", was released in 2009 by the American rock band Shiny Toy Guns and later featured in a commercial for the Lincoln MKZ.
We went on on another cruise with Disney,we left from Port Canaveral, I saw this on the side of the bank near where the cruise ship was leaving,
I wonder why there is a sub tower in the bank of the Port Canaveral harbor. Something for me to research...Hello "Google"...
USS Nathanael Greene (SSBN-636), a James Madison-class submarine, was
one of three ships of the United States Navy to be named for Major
General Nathanael Greene, who served in the Continental Army during the
American Revolutionary War. Both ships of the name USS General Greene
were also named for him. Nathanael Greene's sail has been restored and is now on display in Port
Canaveral, Florida as a memorial to the original 41 fleet ballistic
missile submarines.
The memorial looks what is the word I want to use......."Neglected..".?
We had a coast guard ship escort us out. I never seen that before....but it is logical, a cruise ship is a very soft and squishy target. I was talking to Old NFO about it while the ship was leaving port.
and we had a stop over in Nassau in the Bahamas:
Nassau/ˈnæsɔː/ is the capital, largest city, and commercial centre of the Commonwealth of the Bahamas. The city has a population of 248,948 (2010 census), 70 percent of the entire population of the Bahamas (353,658). Lynden Pindling International Airport,
the major airport for the Bahamas, is located about 16 kilometres
(9.9 mi) west of Nassau city centre, and has daily flights to major
cities in the United States, the Caribbean, Canada, and the United Kingdom. The city is located on the island of New Providence, which functions much like a business district.
Nassau is the site of the House of Assembly and various judicial
departments and was considered historically to be a stronghold of
pirates. The city was named after Nassau, Germany in honor of William of Orange-Nassau.
Nassau's modern growth began in the late eighteenth century, with the influx of thousands of American Loyalists and their slaves to the Bahamas following the American Revolutionary War.
Many of them settled in Nassau (then and still the commerce capital of
the Bahamas) and eventually came to outnumber the original inhabitants.
We walked around and had a good time despite the humidity, the rain kept threatened to make an appearance. We visited a few shops
This was a high end store, I went in there to get my 15 year old Fossil watch repaired. Man the prices I saw on watches, bags, electronics and jewelry definitely showed me how the upper crust lived. And speaking of upper crust, there was a heavy police presence, the local bobbies still wore the British style uniforms
I saw both unarmed and armed police, apparently there has been an uptick in crime against tourist and tourism is a big part of the countries income stream. I saw a couple of bobbies making an individual doing the perp walk...so he must have done something I suppose.
We saw several street performers and it was neat seeing their performance and dodging the people pushing cuban cigars and other cigarello's, apparently cannibus is still very popular.
We also went over to Senor Frog for a light lunch.....I saw the menu.....very expensive....reminds me of outback or something else.
It was a good trip, we enjoyed it and I always liked traveling over the water, we had sun whereas here in Georgia where I live, they had rain the entire week we were gone.
Next stop.....Kennedy Space center....!!!! My Inner geek rejoices!!!.Will blog about that in a few days...
And on a different note, I saw something on a suburban at the hotel we were staying at,....
I guess he is tied in with some of the government unions, and also to keep the benefits coming, shafts the American public to keep his nest feathered. I for a moment considered carving "asshole"on the side of his ride and cutting his valve stems on the tires....but my better angels of my nature stopped me....but I considered it.......for a moment.
I have this on the scheduler thingie...When certain people ask "Why do you NEED an AR15?"
Now that being said...This is a very good pic of a NICE AR pattern rifle. I tell people that the 2nd amendment isn't about duck hunting. It is about our inalienable right to live free of tyranny, government or private. We have the means to defend our selves. When they again ask, "why do you need an AR15?" I then show this picture:
These are scratches from the "Death showers" in the concentration camp at Auschwitz. This is what happens when the government decides to shove you into an oven and you have no recourse to protect yourself because the government by imperial fiat stripped you of your right and codes you as an "undesirable" and an "Enemy of the state". Us having an AR or any other rifle makes the government attempt to shove us into a camp, a very expensive endeavor.
I had this picture in my stash for a while, to me it shows that even though times change, some things still remain the same.
I remembered joining the Army and joining my ancestors as they say, every male in my family if they were able, were in the Military, it is part of how we honor the privileges of being a citizen of the republic and what we do to be good citizens. People whom served tend to know the sacrifices that are necessary to be a good informed citizen of the republic. We don't take stuff for granted.
I also am using this to show something else. Bob Hope came to see the troops in the middle east in 1990. I was not fortunate to see him. My dad was in Vietnam the same time Bob came to do his U.S.O shows. Even though he didn't see Bob Hope, it was heartening to see something that the G.I's in WWII saw. It shows a history if you will, something that is in the timeline and that is very comforting to a G.I.
I use the Viking prayer to show the same thing...our forefathers doing the same thing we are doing and that is comforting.
I have been very busy, between work and scouts. My apologies for not posting sooner, life got very busy real fast. Now we are going on a Disney cruise. I spent Saturday running a .22 range for the Boy Scouts.
When I had some slots open up, the Adult leaders had a shoot off, I will not throw my brother from another mother under the bus and announce the results;)
We had a good time and the boys shot a lot...We went through about 3000 rounds of ammo for the event. I think the boys had a good time.
We got home and packed up and rolled out Sunday and the drive was top filled with adventure, from my getting my first speeding ticket in years....then discovering that the ticket was for naught when I had to return and head back home when I realized I forgot the one thing I couldn't forget...no not the kid....my CPAP machine. Nothing like wasting 5 hours of time, luckily my brother from another mother went to my house, got the machine and so it saved us a couple of hours. We will try to get on the ship today:) I will post some stuff on the scheduler thingie and keep my blog active.
I decided to roll with KC and the Sunshine Band partly because we are in Florida and I was listening to some disco on my music stash in my car and decided to roll with it.
I have this album in my LP stack...what can I say.....
"(Shake, Shake, Shake) Shake Your Booty" is a song recorded and released in 1976 by KC and the Sunshine Band for the album Part 3. The song became their third number-one hit on the Billboard Hot 100, as well as their third number-one on the Hot Soul Singles chart.[ The song was met with a degree of controversy, since the lyrics were interpreted or likely speculated by many as having sexual connotations. However according to KC it had a lot more meaning and depth. During his performance he would witness the entire crowd having a good time except for some minority. The song inspired people to "get off their can and get out there and do it". The B-side of Shake Your Booty was "Boogie Shoes", which later became a hit on its own when it appeared on the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack in 1977.
"(Shake, Shake, Shake) Shake Your Booty" holds the record for being the only number-one song title with a word repeated more than three times in it. The chorus consists of the title expression with the word "shake" appearing eight times.
The styles of the Disco era can't be duplicated. It is a unique time on our music history.
I ran across this article in our local paper, I was surprised to see a liberal paper actually print an article that wasn't gushing over "Dear Leader". I have known since the 80's that the democrats were the original apologist for the Soviet Union, they would take the side of the Soviets over the American issues. I guess they would rather be "Red than dead". The stuff continues, from my history it was the democrats that shafted the South Vietnamese when they wanted help and aid against the North Vietnamese and this culminated in the "Easter offensive" where the North overran the South and South Vietnam ceased to exist as a country.
It was the Democrats that had all the hearings against the U.S. in the Vietnam war with the "Winter Soldier" where Flipper A.K.A. John Kerry made a bunch of lies against the U.S. Military because it was politically expedient for his budding career as a politician. I always commented that to the democrats, it is Party First, then self, followed by Gaia and the country is the last priority.
* The cartoons come from my stash
The Democratic Party has been weak-minded on defense for decades, but
with the Iran capitulation, they've achieved a new threshold of
cowardice and treachery.
While it's true that an honorable handful
of Democrats have resisted the president's pressure, the overwhelming
majority have chosen to go over the cliff with Barack Obama, a president
who never met an enemy he didn't wish to conciliate or an ally he
didn't seek to betray.
Democrats have long tended toward
appeasement of aggressors. Throughout the Cold War, they scared
themselves (and everyone else) silly conjuring specters of nuclear
holocaust. Then-Sen. John Kerry was one of many prominent Democrats who
endorsed the "nuclear freeze." It wasn't America's enemies that we
should fear, the Democrats argued, but the weapons themselves.
Democrats
rejected the insight of Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher and others
that the surest way to prevent war was "peace through strength." Reagan
was regularly accused of courting Armageddon because he described the
Soviets accurately (something liberals were too intimidated to do) and
because he declined unilaterally to disarm. The dumbfounding reality is
that the Democrats have never acknowledged that Reagan's approach
succeeded. Instead, with Iran as our chief enemy now, they hope to
replay the Cold War so that this time, we fully surrender.
At
least the Soviets made it easy for them, playing up the "peace" angle at
every opportunity and investing heavily in organizations with names
like the "World Peace Council" and the "International Institute for
Peace." Soviet leaders and propagandists of the 1970s and 1980s spoke
silkily of their desire for "peaceful coexistence" with the West even
as, behind the curtain, they were engaged in every form of subversion,
terror, espionage and violence.
Iran, by contrast, doesn't bother
to disguise its hatred for our country. There is no disingenuous talk
of coexistence. "Death to America" is their motto, and the Supreme
Leader (not some mythical "hardliners" in the background) has repeated
it with grinning audacity even as his negotiators sat across from Kerry
in Vienna.
No regime on Earth has been as diligent in executing
attacks on Americans since 1979 as Iran. By itself or through proxies,
the Islamic Republic took Americans hostage, bombed our embassy and the
Marine barracks in Beirut, bombed our embassy in Kuwait, and destroyed
the Khobar Towers complex in Saudi Arabia housing U.S. servicemen.
Hezbollah's tentacles extend far beyond the Middle East, with a
flourishing branch in the tri-border area (Argentina, Paraguay and
Brazil) of South America. During the Iraq War, Iran's IEDs accounted for
up to a quarter of the 4,400 casualties we suffered there. Even members
of the Obama administration acknowledge that Iran has an ongoing
cooperative arrangement with al-Qaida -- though the administration
declines to publish the extended evidence discovered at Osama bin
Laden's bunker.
The world's leading terror state is expanding
its hegemony and contributing, through its brutal support of Syria's
Assad, to the horrific refugee crisis now swamping Europe. Even the
grotesque Sunni extremist group ISIS owes part of its success to Iran,
which has so frightened the Sunnis that some have been willing to
support such monsters of their own sect. And the Islamic Republic has
threatened, unabashedly and consistently, to annihilate the state of
Israel.
This is the regime the Obama Democrats propose to enrich,
to grant international legitimacy to as a nuclear threshold state, and
to invite to monitor its own nuclear sites. No other signatory to the
nuclear non-proliferation treaty is permitted to enrich uranium. This is
beyond naivete -- it is sheer lunacy. The Democratic Party has
forfeited any claim to national leadership.
Republicans cannot
simply shrug and announce that they lack the votes to stop this
catastrophe. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has a reputation as a
shrewd inside player. He has many possible options. 1) Pass a rule by
simple majority declaring that the filibuster cannot be used for grave
matters of national security. 2) Announce, as David Rivkin and Rep. Mike
Pompeo have proposed, that because the president is not in compliance
with the Corker/Menendez legislation (which requires that all side deals
be submitted to Congress), the 60-day review period has not yet begun.
3) Decide (as Andy McCarthy has suggested) that this agreement -- so
crucial to the security of the nation and the world -- is clearly a
treaty and can only be considered by Congress as such, requiring a
two-thirds vote in both chambers for passage.
If this is not a
time for considering every possible congressional strategy, what is? The
Democrats trashed the filibuster for some second-tier appointments.
Republicans can revive it to prevent terrorists from getting the bomb.
I have been real busy and wasn't able to check the technical issues with Blogger.
I have been working a lot of $$overtime$$ and I have no complaints. We are doing some major interior mods to the 757 series of airplanes upgrading the older interiors to give the customers a better interactive flying experience.
I remembered this song hitting in 1982 while I was a sophomore in high school. When the song first came out, I didn't care for it much. But the song kinda over the fullness of time grew on me. Now I like hearing the song, partly because it reminds me of my high school time and the optimism of the Reagan era.
"Africa" is a hit single by rock band Toto, and is one of the band's most recognizable songs. It was included on their 1982 album Toto IV, and reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in February 1983 and number three on the UK Singles Chart the same month. The song was written by the band's keyboardist/vocalist David Paich and drummer Jeff Porcaro.
The initial idea for the song came from David Paich. Jeff Porcaro
explains the idea behind the song: "... a white boy is trying to write a
song on Africa, but since he's never been there, he can only tell what he's seen on TV or remembers in the past."
David Paich said: "At the beginning of the '80s I watched a late
night documentary on TV about all the terrible death and suffering of
the people in Africa. It both moved and appalled me and the pictures
just wouldn't leave my head. I tried to imagine how I'd feel about if I
was there and what I'd do."
Musically the song took quite some time to assemble, as Paich and Porcaro explain:
"On 'Africa' you hear a combination of marimba with GS 1. The kalimba is all done with the GS 1; it's six tracks of GS 1 playing different rhythms. I wrote the song on CS-80, so that plays the main part of the entire tune."
"So when we were doing 'Africa', I set up a bass drum, snare drum and
a hi-hat, and Lenny Castro set up right in front of me with a conga. We
looked at each other and just started playing the basic groove. ... The
backbeat is on 3, so it's a half-time feel, and it's 16th notes on the
hi-hat. Lenny started playing a conga pattern. We played for five
minutes on tape, no click, no nothing. We just played. And I was singing
the bass line for 'Africa' in my mind, so we had a relative tempo.
Lenny and I went into the booth and listened back to the five minutes of
that same boring pattern. We picked out the best two bars that we
thought were grooving, and we marked those two bars on tape...Maybe it
would have taken two minutes to program that in the Linn, and it took
about half an hour to do this. But a Linn machine doesn't feel like
that!"
The music video was directed by Steve Barron. In the video, a researcher in a library (portrayed by band member David Paich)
tries to match a scrap of a picture to the book from which it was torn
out. As he continues his search, a black female librarian (Jenny
Douglas-McRae) working at a desk takes occasional notice of him, while a
native in the surrounding jungle begins to close in on the library.
When the researcher finds a book entitled Africa, the native throws a spear, toppling stacks of books. Africa
falls open to the page from which the scrap was torn, but a lantern
lands on it and sets it on fire, after which the librarian's eyeglasses
are shown falling to the floor. The scenes are inter-cut with shots of a
spinning globe and the band performing atop a stack of hardcover books,
in which Africa is the topmost.
This video also features Mike Porcaro on bass, replacing David Hungate, who had already left Toto before the video was made.
I posted late, apparently "Google" took a dump and I lost 3 years worth of pics that I have used on my blog. I had to look for my favorite picture. Better wordsmith than I have said what was necessary.
This is my favorite picture....to me this shows the resiliency of America after the tragedy of 9-11.
Honor those that served and died and those that still serve.
For some reason Blogger has been uncooperative....I have several post including Monday Music in limbo right now...One of them involved "Labor Day". I may have to schedule that one for "Next year" or something.....
But I digress. I will make a quick post on the Kentucky clerk issues and what I see going on with that. The Federal Judge had her locked up for a week after she refused to issue marriage licenses to gay couples. I have had people tell me.."Well the Supreme Court is the supreme law of the land...so she has to do it......". Well lets get technical....the Supreme Court issued a ruling...not a law. The last time I checked my handy civic book....the Legislative branch makes law not the Supreme court. The supreme court can rule if a law is "Constitutional". They cannot make the law.
I do have several questions.....This lady said she couldn't sign her name on these certificates because it violated her religious beliefs and Kentucky Law. I am surprised that there was no attempt for an administrative compromise? Have somebody else sign their name on the certificate. I am amazed that the feds had her arrested, perp walked and booked then keep her in the pokey for a week? This screams of "Agenda". The feds move fast on this lady...but Hillery is still out and campaigning...?
We have 11 million illegals running around, we have people out there pushing for other people to kill cops....and they are still free..we have a presidential candidate that violated federal laws on handling of classified documents...but the Fed colossus has to pile on thie lady from Kentucky?...This is totalatarianism. When laws are selectively enforced...not applied equally, the age of the Banana Republic has arrived.
There is a part of our legal system that recognizes the "moral law", where you can't do something that you really believes is immoral and against your belief system. You don't have to do it. The German officers during WWII used the "Dienst ist Dienst" defense at the Nuremberg trials ...Basically "Dienst ist Dienst" is "Job is Job." and they did the horrible things despite their misgivings because it was their job. Same with the U.S. military....you can disobey an immoral order if it violates your moral code. This is what separates our military system from the Prussians.
From what I saw, there was no attempt to work an administrative compromise....to move her somewhere else.....they had to instead have the Obama's department of Justice have her arrested....This wasn't from the state level...this was the federal level. I personally don't care for the gay issues...but my libertarian streak also believes that what is done in the bedroom between two consenting adults ain't my business. That being said, this is pure muscle flexing by the LGBT lobby, they put political pressure on the feds and they had to lock this women up...to teach her a lesson, how dare she defy her federal overlords...
This is done to teach a lesson to any body else that will not toe the line. 20 years ago, I remembered the gay lobby was preaching "tolerance" of their lifestyle....be accepting. Now the pendulum has swung the other way...if you are not accepting of their lifestyle...they will destroy you.....Where is the tolerance that they were preaching? I guess be tolerant until you get political power and influence...they can force obedience at the point of the sword.
I saw this article from this Website and in the past I will shamelessly snag something that I think is cool or that the people that read my little corner of the internet might like. Having Situational awareness and what I call "Heighten Time Awareness" are crucial for living in today's world. I had posted some stuff as had Momma Fargo, Old NFO, Murphy and others about bad things catching up with you when you least expect it.
This a funny video that shows somebody being totally absorbed to their own world and ignoring the "Real World", and she pays the price for her inattention. We laugh at the video, but it does highlight a fact that many people are totally self absorbed and not paying ATTENTION...Stuff like this does set my teeth on edge, how can somebody be totally uninvolved...people like this are PREY when the bad things come knocking.
There is always what I call a "tell" or a premonition of a bad thing coming and you ignoring the feeling due to social pressure. You know that "Gut" feeling...it is your subconscious giving you a nudge that something is wrong. The primitive part of you is more aware of your surrounding than the "civilized" part of you. if you are on top of your game, you will realize it and quickly depart the area or make preparations so you are not surprised and caught flat footed. I have spent many years developing mine. I surprise people all the time by the things I notice. I just pay attention. I quickly learned in Europe that we need to pay attention....there were bad people that liked to beat up or injure GI's like Turks for example.., they liked to stab you in your butt cheek, something about taking your manhood in their culture. I don't know if it was true but I have had Turks come at me in clubs, and they always wanted to fight and I always had a German beer stein in my hand.
They got the Stein upside the head.(Talk about wasting good beer). and I have heard stories of "snatches" of certain people with certain military specialties or skills. I don't know if it was true or the imaginations of the G-2 and S-2 at *SAEDA briefings. But I paid attention to my surrounding back then and my occupation after I got out of the service as a pizza delivery guy really affirmed it.
I do remember one time I got robbed in a "nice" area. This was the early 90's and I was much younger than now. I wasn't expecting it and got an ugly surprise, 15 stitches later I swore I would never get surprised again. What did I do wrong? I made an ASSUMPTION that all was OK...and let my guard down. I paid the price. I got lucky....Thugs tend to shoot pizza drivers...it helps them build street creed with their fellow thugs. I only got stitches....I could have got a bullet. I continued to deliver on and off until 2007 when my present employer hired me. I swore I would never do that kind of job again, I used to love meeting the people and interacting with the customers, but the times have changed. it was getting more dangerous,
I had several robbery attempts since the early 90's...they failed.....they discover that Pizza boy carries a revolver and I was ready. After the 3rd robbery attempt, I got hired by my present employer and I turned in my 2 week notice and quit. I was afraid that the next time I faced a robbery attempt, I would find myself having to shoot...and I didn't want all that headache. Can you see the headlines "White Male shoots African American youth" Yes I am making a blanket assumption, but the prior attempts were by black teens and the odds of the next one being committed by a "Minority Urban Youth" were high in my favor. I knew that the black grievance industry would have a field day and I didn't want to deal with all the B.S.
I saw what happened to Zimmerman 5 years later and I felt vindicated in leaving that profession. I told myself that I would never do that kind of job again..I had done it on and off for 21 years and if I needed extra money I would get hired to deliver Pizza. But truth be told, if the wolf was at my door, I would do it again...reluctantly.
*Sabotage and Espionage directed against Army
There’s a scene at the beginning of The Bourne Identity
where the film’s protagonist is sitting in a diner, trying to figure
out who he is and why he has a bunch of passports and a gun stashed in a
safety deposit box. Bourne also notices that he, well, notices things
that other people don’t.
That superhuman ability to observe his surroundings and make detailed
assessments about his environment? It’s not just a trait of
top secret operatives; it’s a skill known as situational awareness, and
you can possess it too.
As the names implies, situational awareness is simply knowing what’s
going on around you. It sounds easy in principle, but in reality
requires much practice. And while it is taught to soldiers, law
enforcement officers, and yes, government-trained assassins, it’s an
important skill for civilians to learn as well. In a dangerous
situation, being aware of a threat even seconds before everyone else can
keep you and your loved ones safe.
But it’s also a skill that can and should be developed for reasons
outside of personal defense and safety. Situational awareness is really
just another word for mindfulness, and developing mine has made me more
cognizant of what’s going on around me and more present in my daily activities, which in turn has helped me make better decisions in all aspects of my life.
I’ve spent months researching and talking to experts in the tactical
field about the nature of situational awareness, and below you’ll find
one of the most complete primers out there on how to gain this important
skill. While the focus is primarily on developing your situational
awareness to prevent or survive a violent attack, the principles
discussed can also help hone your powers of observation in all areas of
your life.
How to Develop Situational Awareness
Many of the resources out there on situational awareness say it can
be cultivated by generally keeping tabs on your surroundings — “checking
your six” and “keeping your back to the wall.”
This definition isn’t wrong. That’s exactly what situational
awareness is: knowing what’s going on by scanning your environment. But I
always found this explanation lacking. What exactly am I looking for?
How do I know if I’m paying attention to the right things? Are there
behaviors or warning signs of an imminent threat that I should know
about?
Today we’re going to start by discussing the general principles of
increasing your observational abilities, and then dive deeper into
situational awareness itself to answer these important questions.
Observe + Orient = Situational Awareness
The thing that helped me finally understand situational awareness was
framing it within the OODA Loop. For those of you who haven’t read my in-depth article on this important cognitive tool, here’s the CliffsNotes version:
The OODA Loop is a learning system and decision-making process that was first laid out by Air Force fighter pilot and military strategist John Boyd.
The four steps of the OODA Loop are Observe, Orient, Decide, Act. In a
head-to-head competition, like air-to-air combat, a violent
confrontation in a parking lot, or even political contests, the person
who can cycle through the OODA Loop the fastest wins.
Obviously, the Observe step in the loop is what most people associate situational awareness with.
But it’s the second step in the OODA Loop – Orient — that answered my
questions about what developing situational awareness actually
involves. Orientation tells us what we should look for when we’re observing, and then puts those observations into context so we know what to do with the information. So Observe + Orient = Situational Awareness.
But how can we become better observers so that we can improve our
situational awareness? And how should we orient ourselves so that we
observe the right things and understand the context for what we’re
seeing?
Observe: Stay in Condition Yellow
In his seminal book, Principles of Personal Defense, gun-fighting expert Jeff Cooper laid out a color code system to help warriors gauge their mindset for combat scenarios. Each color represents a person’s potential state of awareness and focus:
For optimal situational awareness, Cooper recommends that we always stay in Condition Yellow.
Condition Yellow is best described as “relaxed alert.” There’s no
specific threat situation, but you have your head up and you’re taking
in your surroundings with all your senses. Most people associate
situational awareness with just visual stimulation, but you can also
learn a lot about a particular scenario from the sounds (or lack
thereof) and even smells in the environment.
Even though your senses are slightly heightened in Condition Yellow,
it’s also important to stay relaxed. By adopting a calm demeanor, you
won’t bring any unnecessary attention to yourself. If you look antsy and
your head is swiveling frantically while you scan your surroundings,
people are going to notice you. Additionally, staying relaxed ensures
that you maintain an open focus, which allows you to take in more
information about what’s going on around you. Research shows that when
we get nervous or stressed, our attention narrows, causing us to
concentrate on just a few things at a time. A narrow focus can therefore
cause us to miss important details in our environment.
Situational awareness isn’t just for times when your enemy is of the human variety…
Look up from your smartphone, don’t zone out, open your eyes, ears,
and nose, and calmly scan your environment to take in what’s going on.
Besides staying in Condition Yellow, here are a few more tips to improve your observational abilities: Put yourself in a position for optimal observation.
To achieve effective situational awareness, you need to be able to
observe as much of your surroundings as possible. Positioning yourself
in obstructed spots will inhibit the flow of information coming in. For
example, something might be in your way that prevents you from seeing a
bad guy enter a theater or restaurant. You also don’t have eyeballs in
the back of your head, so you can’t see what’s going on behind you.
So whenever you enter an environment, put yourself in a position that
will allow you to see as much as you can. My buddy Mike Seeklander at Shooting Performance
recommends finding a place where you can view all or most of the exit
points, and that allows you to put your back to the wall. This position
readies you to make a quick getaway, and eliminates the possibility of
failing to see a threat materialize behind you.
Granted, this isn’t possible in all situations. You don’t have much
control as to which table a restaurant hostess seats you at on a busy
night, and you’d likely get a lot of strange looks if you stood with
your back in a corner while you’re waiting in line at Five Guys. So do
your best within the given circumstances. In that busy restaurant, you
might not have control of your table location, but you can choose which
seat you take. Pick the chair that gives you the best view from your
table. When you’re standing in line at a fast food restaurant, just
nonchalantly look around and take in the scene. Hone your observation skills by playing the A-Game.
Mike plays a game with his kids called the “A-Game,” or Awareness Game,
to help them (and himself) strengthen their observational skills. To
play, when you go into a business, make note of a few things about your
environment: the number of workers behind the counter, the clothing and
gender of the person sitting next to you, how many entry/exits there
are, etc. When you leave and get into the car to head home, ask your
kids questions like “How many workers were behind the counter?” “Was the
person sitting next to us a man or a woman?” “What color was his/her
shirt?” “How many exits were there?”
It’s fun to play, but more importantly it’s training your kids (and you) to be more mindful of their surroundings. Master memorization. Another fun activity that will
help improve your situational awareness is to practice memorizing
things. Bourne knew all the license plate numbers of the cars outside
the diner. You can gain this skill by practicing with a deck of cards, or strings of numbers. Here’s a guide on how to gain the ability to memorize anything you want.
Orient: Baselines, Goals, and Action Plans
Being more observant isn’t enough to master situational awareness.
You have to know what you’re looking for, and then put that information
into context so it has meaning and becomes actionable. That’s where the
Orient phase comes into play.
The Orient step provides three things to help us achieve situational
awareness: 1) baselines and anomalies for our particular environment, 2)
mental models of human behavior we should look for, and 3) plans of
action depending on our observations.
Establish a Baseline Wherever You Go
Every environment and person has a baseline. A baseline is what’s
“normal” in a given situation, and it will differ from person to person
and environment to environment. For example, the baseline at a small
coffee shop will usually entail people reading a book or working on
their computer or speaking in hushed tones with their friends. The
baseline at a rock concert would be loud music and people looking at the
stage while either jumping up and down to the music or swaying their
bodies to the beat.
We establish baselines so that we can spot anomalies. According to
Patrick Van Horne, situational awareness expert, instructor of the
Marine Combat Profiling system, and author of Left of Bang,
“Anomalies are things that either do not happen and should, or that do
happen and shouldn’t.” Anomalies are what direct our attention as we
take in our surroundings and what we need to focus on to achieve
situational awareness.
So the first step in orienting ourselves is to establish baselines so
that we can direct our attention to anomalies. How do we do that on the
fly? Van Horne suggests that you mentally ask yourself these questions
every time you enter a new environment:
Baseline Questions: What’s going on here? What’s
the general mood of the place? What’s the “normal” activity that I
should expect here? How do most people behave here most of the time?
Anomaly Question: What would cause someone or something to stand out?
Behavioral Clusters to Look For
Our inability to pay attention to everything all at once makes it
impossible to obtain complete situational awareness. The human mind can
only handle so much information at a given time. Thus in the domain of
personal safety, where things unfold quickly and seconds are often the
difference between life and death, how we direct our attention is
paramount.
So we need to focus on a few things at a time that provide the most
bang for our attentional buck. And we do that, Van Horne argues, by
relying on heuristics. Heuristics are quick and dirty problem-solving
and decision-making mental shortcuts our minds use to figure things out
when minimal information is available and time is limited. Decisions
made from heuristics aren’t always perfect, but in the context of your
personal safety, they’re usually good enough.
In Left of Bang, Van Horne lays out six domains of human
behavior that Marine Combat Profilers use on the battlefield in order to
quickly determine whether someone is a friend or foe. To get an idea of
what civilians should look for in everyday situations, I interviewed
Van Horne for this article. He told me the most important category of
clues is what he calls kinesics, an area of behavior that involves
people’s conscious and subconscious body language.
Within the domain of kinesics, three clusters of body language are of
particular interest for situational awareness. They are:
dominance/submissive behavior, comfortable/uncomfortable behavior, and
interested/uninterested behavior. Dominance/submissive behavior. Generally, most
people try to get along with others, so for the most part people act in
accommodating and submissive ways. Van Horne writes that dominant
behavior “is an expression of the limbic system’s fight response” and
often manifests itself in “gestures and postures that make a person look
larger to intimidate ‘smaller’ individuals into submission.” Smaller
vs. bigger here doesn’t just apply to physical size, however, but also
relates to relative positions of power.
Because most people get along to get along, dominant behavior often
constitutes an anomaly, and the person displaying it deserves more
attention. If someone acts in a pushy, authoritative, or overbearing
way, it doesn’t necessarily mean they’re a threat; context matters.
You’d expect a boss to act dominant in relation to their employees and
the employees to act submissive to their boss, but seeing extreme
dominant behavior exhibited by a customer towards an employee isn’t as
common. That’s something to keep an eye on. Comfortable/uncomfortable behavior. Most people are
going to look relatively comfortable in most situations. Think about a
bus or a subway ride — passengers generally appear pretty relaxed while
they stare out the window or read a book. If someone looks
uncomfortable, that’s an anomaly that warrants extra attention, but it
doesn’t mean they’re necessarily a threat. They could be distressed
because they’re late for work or maybe they just heard some bad news
about a relative. Again, it’s just something to keep your eye on.
Van Horne says that a common display of uncomfortable behavior you’ll
see from individuals up to no good is that they’re “checking their
six.” This is when a person looks over their shoulder to see what’s
behind them or generally scans their surroundings. People who are
comfortable generally don’t do this because they don’t feel any threat.
So if you see a guy looking over his shoulder a lot when he should be
standing there aloof, that’s an anomaly that should get your attention.
Now obviously, “checking your six” is something that situationally
aware good guys do too. If you’re doing it right, it shouldn’t be
noticeable to others, but it takes practice, and some guy with his head
on a swivel might still be green. But until you verify that through
further observation, be suspicious.
On the flipside, someone acting comfortable when everyone else is
uncomfortable would be an anomaly. One of the ways law enforcement was
able to identify the Boston Marathon bombers was that they noticed in
surveillance footage that the men looked relatively calm while everyone
else was running around in a panic. The reason they looked calm was
because they knew the explosion was going to happen and thus weren’t
surprised by it, while everyone else was caught off guard. Interested/uninterested behavior. Most people aren’t
paying attention to their environment. They’re too caught up in their
own thoughts or whatever it is they’re doing. So individuals who are
showing interest in a particular person or object that most people
wouldn’t be interested in is an anomaly that warrants further
observation.
These three body language clusters establish baselines for every
situation in which we find ourselves and allow us to direct our limited
attention towards things that are potentially more important and/or
dangerous. If a person’s behavior across these clusters fits the
baseline for that particular circumstance, you can pretty much ignore
them. If their behavior doesn’t fit the baseline, they’re an anomaly and
you should observe them more closely.
Other Behavioral Threat Indicators
Besides the above three kinesic clusters, Marine Combat Profilers are
taught to look out for a couple other behaviors that could apply to
civilian situations as well: Shifty hands. Military and law enforcement officers
typically check the hands first on any person with which they’re
engaging. This is for two reasons. First, “checking the hands of a
person ensures that the person is not holding a weapon and is not
preparing to strike,” writes Van Horne. Second, hands often telegraph
hidden nefarious intentions. People who are concealing something they
don’t want discovered, like a gun, knife, or stolen object, “will often
touch or pat that area on the body where that object is concealed, as if
to ensure the object has not been lost or is still hidden from view.” “Acting Natural.” It’s difficult to “act natural”
when you’re not completely focused on whatever it is you’re really
supposed to be doing. People “acting natural” will appear distracted and
over- or under-exaggerate their movements. Insurgents in Afghanistan
will often try to act like farmers, when they’re in fact attempting to
collect information on U.S. military patrols. Marine Combat Profilers
are trained to look for these “farmers” who appear to be trying too
hard.
Have a Plan of Action Based on What You Observe
You visit your favorite coffee shop and a bad guy with a gun decides
to drop in as well. But because you’ve followed the principles above,
you’re the first to see him as a threat. Great. But what are you going
to do about it? Seconds matter here. You don’t have time to formulate a
well-thought-out plan. What’s more, the stress of the event will muddle
your thinking and decision-making.
In addition to asking yourself the baseline and anomaly questions
every time you enter an environment, Van Horne suggests you ask yourself
a third question: “What would I do if I saw an anomaly?” In other
words, come up with an action plan.
So let’s go back to the coffee shop example. Let’s say the anomaly
for which you want to create an action plan is “guy comes in with a
gun.” The best course of action in this scenario depends on a few
things. And knowing what those few things are requires you to be
situationally aware. If the robber came in from the front door and
you’re near the rear exit, your best action would be to book it out the
back door right away. On the other hand, if he entered through the back
exit near you, according to the Department of Homeland Security, your
best action would be to immediately close the gap between him and you
and incapacitate him.
Establish baselines. Look for anomalies. Have a plan.
That’s what situational awareness comes down to.
Situational Awareness as a Preventive Tactic
Animals are creatures of opportunity. They’ll typically only attack
another creature if they look vulnerable. Lions will go after younger,
sicker, or older gazelles because they’re easier to catch. The same goes
with humans. Criminals are typically going to go after a person who
looks vulnerable, whether the victim is physically weaker or will simply
be easy to catch off guard.
Practicing situational awareness goes a long way in keeping you from
appearing like an easy target. When you’re out and about, look alert.
Get your nose out of your smartphone. When you’re walking back to your
car at night, have your keys at the ready and constantly scan your
surroundings. The less vulnerable you look, the less likely someone is
going to mess with you.
Here’s another tip on not looking like a victim, from the guys at Sage Dynamics: Always keep a tactical flashlight on you
and bust it out at nighttime. Having a light allows you to better
observe in the darkness, but it can also act as a deterrent to would-be
bad guys. Because law enforcement officers are usually the only ones
shining flashlights down alleys and under cars, if you’re shining your
light as you walk to your destination or back to your car, the bad guys
are probably going to think you’re a cop and will likely just leave you
alone. If worst comes to worst and you do end up getting jumped, you can
use the tactical flashlight as a defensive tool by blinding your
would-be attacker with the bright beam or even hitting him with the
beveled edge that’s often built into the handle.
Practice, Practice, Practice
Situational awareness is a mindset that you have to purposefully
cultivate. You want to get to the point that it’s just something you do
without having to think about it. To get to that point, you have to
practice it regularly. Starting today, consciously remind yourself to
look for entry/exit points whenever you enter a new building. Start
observing people and establishing baselines and generating possible
anomalies while you’re at work, at the gym, or on a date. And then start
coming up with action plans on what you would do in that specific
situation if you see a possible threat. Don’t be paranoid, just mindful.
Do that day in and day out, and situational awareness won’t be
something you have to intentionally think about, just something you do
naturally. And not fake farmer natural, but Jason Bourne natural.
Until next time, keep your head on a swivel, check your six, and keep your back to the wall.
Oh, and stay manly!
__________________________ Further Reading and Resources on Situational Awareness Left of Bang
by Patrick Van Horne and Jason A. Riley. Patrick has spent his career
researching and teaching situational awareness to Marines through the
Marine Combat Profiling system that he helped create. This book, coupled
with the articles at his site cp-journal.com and a personal interview with him went a long way in helping answer my questions. www.cp-journal.com. This is Patrick’s company website. He has tons of
free content that provides insanely useful information on developing
your situational awareness. If you’re looking for something more
structured, he also offers online courses. “Toward a Theory of Situation Awareness”
by Dr. Mica Endsley. Dr. Mica Endsley is the Chief Scientist at the
U.S. Air Force. While Dr. Endsley’s paper is pretty technical, she does a
fantastic job explaining the minutia and nuances of situational
awareness that helped clarify a few things for me. I highly recommend
you check it out. Streetlights and Shadows: Searching for the Keys to Adaptive Decision Making by Gary Klein The Gift of Fear by Gavin de Becker
