Most of this writeup is poorly written crap.  But there is one part with which I concur, and it wasn’t said by the author of the article.

“I am not so anxious to wear a martyr’s crown as to sacrifice my life when God requires me to use means to preserve it. It is no evidence of a preacher’s want of trust in God when he carries a gun to shield his life in the time of peril. It would be the most sinful presumption not to do so. Indeed, I do not carry a gun because I am afraid to die, but because it is a duty to use means to preserve life.” – Jack Potter

I’ve avoided writing this post.  I knew it would be painful, but I’ve just now been able to formulate what I wanted to say.  At least, sort of.  I need to say just enough, but I can’t say too much.

I’ve had a hard four months.  At the end of November, 2018, I was hit with a reduction in force (RIF) where I worked, which of course, means I was laid off.  I’ve always hidden my employer from my writing, never even once mentioning my company.

This is what I did with Duke Energy.  I’m a nuclear engineer, at least I was, and a very specialized one at that.  My major was in mechanical engineering, but I haven’t done that since my days at a plant early in my career.  I have a number of observations to make that hopefully will help you as you ponder these things, and then some prayer requests to make for myself.

Dealing With Loss of Work

I recommend that you do this – today.  Write down a list of, say, 25 people in your life, mostly professional, upon whom you can rely for recommendations for work, offers for work, assistance, general counsel, and continued support by simple things like phone calls, text messages and emails to see how you’re doing and tell you they’re praying for you and thinking about you, perhaps that they even miss you.

Now, sit and think about that list for a while, QA the list, remove names if you must, add more as replacements.  Here’s the thing.  Of that list of 25 names, probably 24 shouldn’t even be on the list.  You don’t know that when this happens, and it’s surprising and even embarrassing that your list was so badly built.  But a few other names appear on the list that you never would have considered had this not happened.  You learn a lot about your trusted and valued colleagues.  Some of them don’t turn out to be so valued after all.

I’m a poster child for getting so specialized that you can’t do anything else.  Don’t let this happen to you.  I recommend that you think hard about your work, and decide where you want to be in five years.  Do what it takes to make it happen.  Burnish your CV, expand your capabilities, prepare for the worst, and be ready to make a change.  I’m living proof for those who don’t that there will be pain and suffering for the lack of vision and planning.

I’ll deal with trying to find new work in a moment, but first I wanted to mention a few other things.  I have been thrown into a situation where I don’t know where my next paycheck is going to come from.  I was given a severance package, but that will eventually run out.  It may all work out for the better nonetheless.

I cannot say too much, but my director and I had begun to clash on a number of different issues that I consider to be of ethical import.  I was ripe for layoff anyway, given that I’m 59 years old, white and male.  Those same things would appear to prevent me from being hired today by virtually everywhere I apply.

This was all made worse by the fact that I simply will not be unethical in my work.  I will not tell unjustified lies (Rahab’s lie was just, most are not), I will not violate my ethical obligations as a registered professional engineer, and I certainly will not communicate material false information to the federal regulator.  My clashes with my upper management chain were becoming burdensome.

The first couple of seasons of the TV series “Alone” saw some of the contestants “fighting their demons,” as they all said.  Aloneness does that to you, they said.  I never really understood that before, but I do now.  I’ve had my demons to fight.  I’ve had to deal with the fact that I allowed myself to become so specialized in what I do.  I’ve had to deal with the fact that I didn’t burnish my CV with advanced degrees.  While it’s good for me that I have a PE license, there was a time when I had begun to study for other certifications that would have been helpful to me.  For instance, I had begun a serious course of study to become a CHP (Certified Health Physicist), and had begun to think about studying to become a CIH (Certified Industrial Hygienist).

I stopped.  I simply gave up.  You can call it laziness, and maybe it was, but life does happen.  You get busy with work, with all the overtime that entails in a professional job, you have duties at church, your children require your attention, and you deploy a son to war.  When you deploy a son to war, you stand at the doorway of your home at 0300 hours because you can’t sleep, waiting and watching for that Marine Corps officer and Navy Chaplain to show up.

I’ve had to deal with the fact that I put my wife in this position, and I swore in front of God and man that I would provide for her.  Those demons run through your mind and do serious mental damage.  But if that all wasn’t enough, there was other loss to deal with.

Dealing with Loss of my Heidi-Girl

On New Year’s Eve of 2018, when we were cleaning to get ready for visitors, I noticed an unusual amount of blood in the walls of one particular room downstairs.  Heidi was dripping with blood.  In fact, she was spewing blood when she would sneeze, only to begin the hemorrhaging over again.  Heidi, for those who may remember, was my 90-pound Doberman “lap dog.”  I had noticed that she had begun to withdraw from me over the past couple of months, was tired, and eventually the last several days she had stopped eating.

I immediately put her in the truck to take to the Vet.  I covered the back seat with a sheet, including the bench cover I had for her in the truck.  By the time I got to the Vet, the entire sheet was covered in blood.  I’ve never seen so much blood in all of my life.  She had grown a very large tumor in her mouth that had forced its way into her sinus cavity, and when it finally broke through, the bleeding was intense and unending.

When I put her into the truck I somehow knew she wouldn’t be coming home, and that’s one of the hardest drives I’ve ever made.  The Vet told me that she had lived a long life for a Doberman (10+ years), and that he’s seen dogs with this come back with half of their snout removed.  If I chose chemotherapy or radiation for her, she would have to be sedated every time, and she wouldn’t understand why.  He wouldn’t do that to his dogs.

On that awful day, we put her down.  I lost one of the best friends I’ve ever had.  I’ve hiked with her, camped with her, she’s protected me, we’ve played thousands of hours together, loved on each other, and walked enough miles to have travelled America coast to coast.  When camping we slept together, as we did when she got bitten by a Copperhead.  And in an instant, I lost her.

I didn’t love the company I worked for.  But I truly loved my Heidi-girl, more than you can imagine.  When I love a dog, she’s part of my family.  As I type this, there are tears in my eyes.  I miss her so much, and never so much as when I walk my wife’s dog, or go hiking and see other people with their companion dogs.  Oh, I miss her so much.  So very much.

Looking for New Work

It’s an awful experience to look for new work.  The job boards are ridiculous.  LinkedIn is only mildly useful.  When HR or recruiters call themselves “talent search” professionals, they’re lying, and they know it.  It only takes you a few weeks to figure that out too.

First of all, no one is interested in hiring a 59 year old, white male.  No one.  I’m either over-qualified for jobs, or under-qualified for jobs, or exactly-qualified.  In the first and third cases they have an excuse.  In the second case, there’s always someone more attractive than a 59 year old, white male.  My brother, who is a lawyer, tells me that many of the postings over the job boards are fake, intended only to enable meeting EEOC requirements.  To HR, you’re just a bean-count.

They hide the contact information for the hiring managers, and it takes moving heaven and earth to find it if you ever do.  HR has set up a fire wall around the hiring managers.  At some point in the past, HR told companies  that “You’re too stupid for this, you need us to do this for you.  You don’t know how, and we’re ‘talent search’ folks who can move mountains and walk on water.”  And then everyone simply accepted what they said.  Presto.  That’s job security for “talent search” people.

They aren’t looking for talent, no matter what they say.  They’re looking for process knowledge.  Being smart, or a hard worker, isn’t enough.  You need to have “Fifteen years of experience with AutoCAD, the same with design of variable air volume systems in commercial buildings, in-depth knowledge of the codes and standards of such-and-such state and county, and 10+ years experience with the specialized computer software so-and-so.”  In other words, no one wants to invest any resources in startup or training.  They all want plug-and-play workers, as if you’re a circuit board that will work; the previous one failed.  Is it any wonder millennial workers have no sense of commitment or loyalty to companies any more?

I’ve completed some 66 applications, a couple of which may actually amount to something, Lord willing.  I don’t know.  I just don’t know where I stand with any of this any more.  I do know that stasis if a killer.  Staying mired in the demon-fighting mode is death.  It destroys the joy of life, and I cannot do that any more.

The Future

I don’t know what the future holds.  If something comes of the couple of irons I have in the fire, then so be it.  I’d like that to happen.  If it doesn’t, eventually I’ll have to find an hourly job doing something (selling guns at the counter, working in hardware, doing lawn service).  I cannot continue to be a drain on our bank account while my wife is the only one putting money into it.

One bright thing that has made me happy over the last several days is that I placed a call to a very nice lady about my qualifications to sit for the CIH (Certified Industrial Hygienist) examination, and they will allow me to take it.  I’ve started studying for it, reading through a 1000-page book, with another one like it just behind this one.  It will be a long haul, and I figure that my preparation time will amount to somewhere around 600 -800 hours.  I won’t take it until next year.

I am not asking for sympathy.  I’m not asking for anything, really, except that you learn from my mistakes and ensure that you don’t make them.  But I do covet your prayers for my examination preparation, and if you think about it, that God would bless my efforts at finding meaningful and fruitful labor.

I’d also ask that you be patient with my blogging.  There will come a time in my preparation that my writing will be less essay and more quick-links, with me relying on commenters to fill in the gaps.

I appreciate your being understanding about this.

USA Today:

Days after threatening to close the U.S. border with Mexico, President Donald Trump suggested Thursday that his administration would slap tariffs on autos long before it considered sealing the nation off from its southern neighbor.

“I don’t think we’ll ever have to close the border,” Trump said in the Oval Office.

Trump’s statement marked a significant departure from his position  last week, when he said there was a “very good likelihood” he would close the border this week. The White House faced sharp blowback from business groups and Republicans on Capitol Hill for the threat. A closure would disrupt the flow of roughly $1.5 billion in daily trade.

White House aides sought to soften the language through the week as the president prepared for a visit Friday to the border in California. Trump said earlier Thursday that he would give Mexico a year to halt the flow of illegal drugs coming into the USA. If the drugs didn’t stop, he said, the United States would impose tariffs on Mexican-made cars.

Seeking the Latino vote, is he?

There’s a crisis at the border!  There’s a crisis at the border!  There’s a crisis at the border!  Oops.  Not so much.  There will be a year from now.

What a blowhard.  In other news, a brand new gang appears.

The Cártel de Santa Rosa de Lima (CSRL) emerged from a 2017 split from the CJNG which is led by Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, aka “El Mencho.” As a result, this new cartel—the CSRL, led by José Antonio Yépez Ortiz, aka “El Marro”— now dominates the illicit fuel trade in Guanajuato

But be of good cheer.  Maybe they won’t charge too much for “protection” and fuel when they get here.  And Trump will have his Latino voters for the next election.  And America will be the land of “bring all the people here, we’re rich, we can afford it!”

This comment was made at WRSA.

Fool.

“For I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is no one like me, Declaring the end from the beginning, And from ancient times things which have not yet been done, Saying, ‘My purpose will be established, And I will accomplish all My good pleasure.’ ” (Isaiah 46:9-10)

It is God who “works all things after the counsel of His will.”  (Eph 1:11)

“In Him all things hold together.” (Col 1:17)

“And He … upholds all things by the word of His power.” (Heb 1:3)

“For in Him we live and move and have our being.” (Acts 17:29)

The number of breaths this fool takes on earth has been pre-ordained from before the foundation of the world.  His eternal state has been predestined.  The order of the words he wrote today were ordained from before he was born.  Whether he tied his right or left shoe first was determined for him by the Almighty.  The seconds of sleep he got last night, the thoughts he would think, and what he would eat today, were all decided for him from ancient times.  The number of hairs on his head have been pre-determined, each and every day of his existence.  Without the very thoughts of God upholding his constitution every second, his very body and soul would vanish like a vapor in the wind.

However, this man does serve one useful function.  He supplies the fool at which God may scoff (Ps 2:4).

Reuters:

“I don’t think we need military-style weapons in our society. I definitely don’t need them in my job,” he says. “It’s like driving around in a Ferrari, you don’t need it.”

Yea, you’d better check that nice bolt action long gun you’re sporting, boy.  For military snipers the world over, that’s a military gun.  It’s used differently than the AR-15 which is for CQB.  That’s a stand-off weapon.

Sooner or later, the government won’t allow you to have it.  Say, right about the time somebody sits in a tower or tall building or the bush somewhere and shoots enough humans to cause emotional outrage.

When you let the government go after other people because you aren’t affected, not only is that selfish and cowardly, it’s bad strategy.

News from the Northwest:

A baggage handler who worked at Portland International Airport admitted Wednesday in federal court to stealing six guns from checked bags over several weeks last year.

Deshawn Antonio Kelly, 27, pleaded guilty to five counts of possession of a stolen gun before U.S. District Judge Michael H. Simon. The fifth count covered taking two guns on one day.

Kelly acknowledged he stole the guns from five people who checked their bags at the Portland airport last August and September. All of them reported their handguns missing after getting their luggage back at their final destinations.

The guns were stolen on Aug. 19, Aug. 29, Sept. 9, Sept. 11 and Sept. 17: three 9mm pistols, two .40-caliber pistols and one .45-caliber pistol, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Hannah Horsley.

Had the case gone to trial, prosecutors would have presented the court with surveillance tapes and witness statements to support the charges.

Following reports of stolen guns from airport baggage, a Portland police detective placed replica guns in bags twice — on Sept. 11 and six days later — as bait to determine who was swiping them and narrowed it to Kelly, according to a probable cause affidavit initially filed in Multnomah County Circuit Court.

The second time, Kelly was seen taking a bait bag and a passenger’s bag with a gun and later putting them back. The police bag had damaged locks, the affidavit said, and looked as if someone tried to pry the locks off the gun case.

Investigators searched Kelly’s home and found five of the six guns reported missing, and Kelly admitted taking them, the affidavit said.

Kelly previously had been convicted of attempted possession of a rented or leased motor vehicle, a felony that barred him from having or handling guns.

I don’t lie to y’all.  It’s like I’ve said before.

“Let’s face it, folks.  Since we are dropping off the luggage and we are picking it up, the only necessity for the luggage to be locked up is what happens behind the wall.  The only good of locking up the gun is theft by airport employees.  We know it, the TSA knows it, and the airlines know it.  It’s the truth.  None of this has anything to do with security.  It’s all about airport theft by airline or airport employees.”

Prior: Baggage Handler Steals Firearms In Austin Airport

The Washington Post:

Senior White House officials are exploring ways to exempt commercial trade from President Trump’s threat to shut down the U.S. border with Mexico, three people briefed on the discussions said, amid warnings that blocking the flow of goods between the two countries would have severe consequences for the U.S. economy.

Hmm … what costs would that be?  Maybe these costs?

“The findings of this analysis show that the average cost of a deportation is much smaller than the net fiscal drain created by the average illegal immigrant. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) reported the average deportation cost as $10,854 in FY 2016. In FY 2012, ICE removed 71 percent more aliens with a similar budget, creating an average inflation-adjusted cost of $5,915. This compares to an average lifetime net fiscal drain (taxes paid minus services used) of $65,292 for each illegal immigrant, excluding their descendants. This net figure is based on fiscal estimates of immigrants by education level from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NAS). The total fiscal drain for the entire illegal population is estimated at $746.3 billion. Of course, simply because deportation is much less costly than allowing illegal immigrants to stay does not settle the policy questions surrounding illegal immigration as there are many factors to consider. Steven A. Camarota is the director of research at the Center for Immigration Studies, 8/3/17   (Reported in www.CarryingCapacityNetwork.org)

How about this sobering figure as to LEGAL immigration?

29,000 LEGAL Immigrants per Week Cost Us U.S. Taxpayers $6.3 BILLION per Week, NET!

Unsustainable 1.5 Million Annual Legal-Immigrant Influx  Costs U.S. Taxpayers $330 Billion NET (i.e., after subtracting Taxes Immigrants Pay) per Year NET, i.e., $758 MILLION per Year for EACH Congressional District   (does not include State & Local Costs to Taxpayers)
See CCN’s Cost of Immigration Study

David Durham, director at CCN, said, “If the 1.5 to 1.6 Million Annual Legal Immigrant Inflow were cut to 150,000/Year (i.e., Zero-Net Annual Immigration = Emigration), Federal Deficit could be reduced by One-Half Trillion $ in a Decade!

And to be sure, screwing with health care subsidies means alienating the Latino population.

While the economy is usually the top voting issue among the electorate, when asked about the most important issue facing their community, 31% of Latinos viewed health care costs and access to care as the number one issue, according to Latino Decisions American Election Eve Poll findings. Moreover, Latinos feel strongly about securing Obamacare, with a large majority of 71% agreeing that the Affordable Care Act should be strengthened compared to only 15% of Latinos disagreeing with such efforts.

That’s about the percentage opposition (70%) to second amendment rights found in the Latino community, so there’s that to consider as well.

Then of course there is the drug gang violence to consider.  But we could go on all day about this, yes?

But be of good cheer.  I’m sure the “cost” Trump is trying to avoid won’t be incurred, and Monsanto and Archer-Daniels-Midland will get their low paid workers somehow.  That means the boards of directors will have their ocean-front and mountain retirement homes.

Via Uncle, this.

Most local and area law enforcement agencies aren’t seeing a flood of bump stocks, attachments that allow shooters to continuously fire semi-automatic weapons, being turned in as a result of a federal ban that went into effect a week ago.

Only one agency reached by The State Journal-Register had reported a bump stock being turned over.

As of March 26, owners had 90 days to surrender the devices to local law enforcement agencies or to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives or to destroy them on their own.

On Thursday, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a one-sentence order upholding the ban.

In October 2017, a gunman used a bump stock to rain gunfire down from a Las Vegas hotel room, killing 58 people and injuring hundreds of others at a country music festival.

The novelty of the device — and some say its inaccuracy — have made it a bit of rarity among gun owners.

“I don’t think it’s a popular item,” said Sangamon County Sheriff Jack Campbell, adding that none have been turned into his office.

“It’s a possibility (some could still be turned in). I don’t know how many were purchased in Sangamon County, and we don’t track the sales.

“You’re going to have a few holdouts. There were gun owners who were adamant that this was part of their Second Amendment right to keep it.”

“What I’ve found out about bump stocks is that they’re unique,” Morgan County Sheriff Mike Carmody said.

Carmody’s office also hasn’t handled any since the ban, though he expects the issue to come up in conversation with gun advocates.

Carmody also said he was unsure if owners would strictly adhere to the ban, but “I guarantee that anyone who has a bump stock knows the law.”

Menard County Sheriff Mark Oller said the only bump stock turned into his office was done so weeks before the ban took effect.

“Someone was going through a person’s estate (when it was found),” Oller said. “It had never been used. It was still in the package.

“It’s not surprising that only one was turned in because I don’t think there are many out there.”

Yea, you keep telling yourself that.  Nationally, some 550,000 of them.  But here’s the real question, Sheriff.  If America is going to make felons out of innocent and peaceable men, what’s the purpose in stopping with bump stocks?  Why not SBRs, suppressors and fully automatic weapons?

From a reader, news from Virginia.

Though one of the men in the group was ineligible to buy a gun — and had been previously convicted of making a false statement on a firearm consent form — he made the purchase without a hitch.

Police took the video footage from the gun store in the course of investigating a homicide, according to search warrants filed in Danville Circuit Court.

Days after seeing the video, police found the man riding in a Buick with a Glock 45 tucked under his seat — a round in the chamber — and a magazine on him. Court records show police arrested and charged him with possessing a gun as a non-violent felon, carrying a concealed weapon and felonious possession of ammunition.

Though federal and state laws prohibited him from possessing ammo, there were no background checks required to buy it, as there are when purchasing a gun at a store.

In fact there is no background-check infrastructure in the state to stop a felon from purchasing ammo, Virginia State Police public relations manager Corinne Geller said.

The state police handles background checks for firearms purchases, referring applications to the Virginia Firearms Transaction Center in Richmond. The center combs through four state databases and one national database maintained by the FBI to check a buyer’s criminal history, mental health history, protective orders and other disqualifying factors when they go to buy a gun.

But of course.  Instead of reversing the unconstitutional gun sales background checks, since they don’t stop crime, just expand it to ammunition as well.  When a process fails, double-down on it, the progressive way.

They are eventually going to implement a new AWB, and they will eventually come after ammunition too.  Without ammunition, a gun is a paperweight.  Get it now while you can.  Otherwise, red flag laws may sweep you into their net.

By the way, I fear that the good folks of Virginia are going to fall victim to the progressives in Northern Virginia, just as North Carolina has to Mecklenburg and Wake Counties.