09:47 – I see the underclass scum in Charlotte spent the evening rioting, looting, and burning. They even shut down a segment of I-85. No cops dead, but a bunch hurt. As usual, the cops were allowed only tear gas to fight these scum. Whatever happened to 12-gauge buckshot? They call a short-barrel 12-gauge shotgun a “riot gun” for a reason. Anyone can tell the difference between a peaceful protest and a riot. In the former, groups of people are marching around holding signs and shouting slogans. In the latter, groups of people are throwing bricks or shooting at cops, destroying police cars, breaking windows, looting, and starting fires. The former is Constitutionally-protected Free Speech, and should be not just tolerated but encouraged. The latter is a bunch of violent felons destroying property, looting, and endangering innocent civilians, and should be dealt with using lethal force. And what if the former turns into the latter? If you’re a peaceful protester, get the hell away from that riot, as quickly as possible. As Larry Niven famously advised: “Don’t throw shit at an armed man. Don’t stand next to someone who’s throwing shit at an armed man.”
What I’d like to see the next time there’s such a riot–any time there’s such a riot–is for the cops to cut loose with their riot guns and keep shooting until all of the rioters are dead or have fled. A hundred dead scum bags, or a thousand, would serve as a wakeup call for these scum bags, pour le découragement des autres. And it would be, as they say, No Great Loss.
Barbara is due back sometime tomorrow. Colin and I can’t wait. The gasoline situation is starting to resolve itself, although there are likely to be shortages in North Carolina and other affected states for at least the rest of this month and probably into the first part of October. There’s a Beroth Oil tanker truck in the parking lot of the 4 Brothers/Liberty across the road right now, although they still have the pumps blocked off. There’s also a lot more traffic out on US-21 and on our road than there’s been for the last few days. Things appear to be gradually getting back to normal, but I hope people remember this event and take it as a warning of the same or worse to come.
I’m spending today making up chemicals, printing labels, and so on for more forensic kits. We have a pending bulk order for those from a large school district, and we’re down to fewer than a dozen in stock. Tomorrow and Friday will be occupied by building more.
I put in a small order with WalMart.com on Monday, including 32 standard-size cans of chili beans, two one-gallon jugs of pancake syrup, ten pounds of yellow corn meal, a 5.5-ounce jar of cumin, and one 22-ounce test jar each of Prego alfredo sauce and Prego roasted garlic alfredo sauce.
Email from Jen this morning, with a telling observation. With riots, bombings, and shootings continuously in the news lately, Jen says she’s changed her former practice. It used to be that when she heard news of such an event she’d go down to the basement and do an inventory of their preps to decide what they needed to add. Now, she says, this stuff happens so often that there’s no point to doing that because she’d be down there every day counting stuff that she’d just counted.