I’m thinking today about the trappings of authority, and what our proper response should be when we are faced with them. We are raised, of course, to respect our elders, our betters, the people who have some greater skill or knowledge than us, or some kind of moral or actual power over us – people
It’s Friday and in the last two weeks, I’ve been in four cities and three time zones. In the next week, I’ll add another city. As much as I love driving, most of that has been by plane, so I’ve been spending a lot of time in airports, which means I’ve been doing a lot
We’re just about at the tail end of summer here. August is nearly over, and September brings with it a shift in the air, a change of seasons. For many of us, fall means a new school year, whether for ourselves, our families, or our remembered childhoods. Although it is nearing the traditional end of
Victim blaming is problematic. It places the burden and the blame of a crime on the person against who it was committed, and excuses the perpetrator as someone merely subject to the pull of temptation. It allows us to ignore the fact that people have choices about whether or not they do bad things to
Between my day job, On Her Own, gym time, and the rest of my life, my days are packed and my nights are short. With work, family, and hobbies, I’m sure the same is true for many of you, so that sleep is in short supply for all of us. We function, even do well,
A year ago today, the world lost Dr. William Aprill. In the self-defense community, we miss him as a scholar and teacher. I miss him as a mentor and friend. Regularly, I think of issues personal and professional that I want to discuss with him, get his take on, hear his encouragement about. I’ve been
In a few days, I’m headed out to do something I haven’t done in a while: a solo road trip. For some time there, they were a regular part of my life as I packed up my car and drove an afternoon or an entire day to spend a weekend somewhere training or hanging out
Yesterday, I shared a post from Caleb Giddings where he called your cell phone “a bank vault full of PID.” PID – Personally Identifiable Data – and every other acronym that boils down to “stuff that’s specifically about you” is a hot topic right now, as technology has created more and more information about each
The other day, Citizen Operating Systems sent me this video clip that’s been in the news. A woman walking down a street noticed a man following her, paused, and turned on to a new street. The man not only followed her, but tackled her from behind almost immediately after she turned, then sexually assaulted her
On Wednesday evening, I was on Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus’s Caucus Live, talking about bogus self defense products. One of the areas of discussion was how you can tell if a self defense product is worth carrying. I want to expand on that topic a little, because I think it’s too complex to really get
