Author Topic: Have You Read Any Good Books Lately?  (Read 7535 times)

Big Frank

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Have You Read Any Good Books Lately?
« on: April 22, 2019, 01:34:49 PM »
Have you read any good books lately, or not so lately?

I'm reading FBI Miami Firefight: Five Minutes that Changed the Bureau by Edmundo Mireles, Jr. and his wife Elizabeth Mireles. They were both FBI agents and Ed Mireles was the one who ended the shootout single-handedly. Literally single-handedly because half of his left arm was hanging by a narrow ribbon of skin and muscle. The bones in his forearm were shattered and after several operations and using bone grafts from his hip they were able to put his Humpty Dumpty arm back together again.

If anyone thinks the FBI was outgunned consider this. The good guys had an AR-15, an H&K MP5SD, 6 shotguns, 4 pistols and 14 revolvers for a total of 26 guns. One of the bad guys had a Mini-14 and the other had a shotgun, plus they each had a revolver, and that's it. 26 guns and I don't know how many men against 2 men with a total of 4 guns. But it seems like fate was against them and everything that could go wrong did. One guy was out of commission when his pistol took a round to the middle of the slide and couldn't cycle. Another guy couldn't reload his revolver because it was full of blood and jammed with pieces of his hand or arm.

This book is a real page-turner if any book deserves to be called that. It's not very thick but it's very interesting and hard to put down. You can get a copy at edmireles.com. The one I'm reading has been autographed by Ed Mireles.
""It may be laid down as a primary position, and the basis of our system, that every Citizen who enjoys the protection of a free Government, owes not only a proportion of his property, but even his personal services to the defence of it, and consequently that the Citizens of America (with a few legal and official exceptions) from 18 to 50 Years of Age should be borne on the Militia Rolls, provided with uniform Arms, and so far accustomed to the use of them, that the Total strength of the Country might be called forth at a Short Notice on any very interesting Emergency." - George Washington. Letter to Alexander Hamilton, Friday, May 02, 1783

THE RIGHT TO BUY WEAPONS IS THE RIGHT TO BE FREE - A. E. van Vogt, The Weapon Shops of Isher

Big Frank

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Re: Have You Read Any Good Books Lately?
« Reply #1 on: April 22, 2019, 04:41:44 PM »
I forgot to mention that he calls the Mini-14 an assault rifle in the book. And there are a few things that he says too many times. But if you focus on the big picture it's an amazing story. He was the first living FBI agent to have a building named after him. Later there was another FBI agent that had a building named after him, former Navy SEAL Thomas R. Norris. The movie Bat*21 was based on him and another guy rescuing a pilot downed more than 2 miles behind enemy lines in North Vietnam. Norris and Mireles were roommates at the FBI academy.
""It may be laid down as a primary position, and the basis of our system, that every Citizen who enjoys the protection of a free Government, owes not only a proportion of his property, but even his personal services to the defence of it, and consequently that the Citizens of America (with a few legal and official exceptions) from 18 to 50 Years of Age should be borne on the Militia Rolls, provided with uniform Arms, and so far accustomed to the use of them, that the Total strength of the Country might be called forth at a Short Notice on any very interesting Emergency." - George Washington. Letter to Alexander Hamilton, Friday, May 02, 1783

THE RIGHT TO BUY WEAPONS IS THE RIGHT TO BE FREE - A. E. van Vogt, The Weapon Shops of Isher

billt

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Re: Have You Read Any Good Books Lately?
« Reply #2 on: April 22, 2019, 04:55:51 PM »
I believe they renamed the streets where the gunfight took place after the 2 agents that died in the gun battle. This is the address if you punch it into Google Earth.

12201 Southwest 82nd Avenue, Pinecrest, Miami, Florida

If you explore the area around where the shootout took place, there is a memorial plaque for agents Dove and Grogan who were killed.

Big Frank

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Re: Have You Read Any Good Books Lately?
« Reply #3 on: April 22, 2019, 05:36:22 PM »
I don't have Google Earth on my computer anymore. I took a quick look at Google Maps and didn't see those street names but I looked mostly at main the roads.

The FBI created a new medal, I think it was the Medal of Honor, and gave the first one to Ed Mireles. Later on they gave them to the whole team and he was happy about that. When he was taken to the hospital President Reagan called to talk to his wife who was there with him, but she wasn't ready to talk to the president. After Ed got out of the hospital he got a tour of the White House and met the president. I think there was only one other agent with him for that, maybe his boss.
""It may be laid down as a primary position, and the basis of our system, that every Citizen who enjoys the protection of a free Government, owes not only a proportion of his property, but even his personal services to the defence of it, and consequently that the Citizens of America (with a few legal and official exceptions) from 18 to 50 Years of Age should be borne on the Militia Rolls, provided with uniform Arms, and so far accustomed to the use of them, that the Total strength of the Country might be called forth at a Short Notice on any very interesting Emergency." - George Washington. Letter to Alexander Hamilton, Friday, May 02, 1783

THE RIGHT TO BUY WEAPONS IS THE RIGHT TO BE FREE - A. E. van Vogt, The Weapon Shops of Isher

PegLeg45

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Re: Have You Read Any Good Books Lately?
« Reply #4 on: April 23, 2019, 01:04:13 PM »
I can't remember, but wasn't the Mini-14 illegally converted to full auto?

You are the second person to recommend this book. I just might order it.
"I expect perdition, I always have. I keep this building at my back, and several guns handy, in case perdition arrives in a form that's susceptible to bullets. I expect it will come in the disease form, though. I'm susceptible to diseases, and you can't shoot a damned disease." ~ Judge Roy Bean, Streets of Laredo

For the Patriots of this country, the Constitution is second only to the Bible for most. For those who love this country, but do not share my personal beliefs, it is their Bible. To them nothing comes before the Constitution of these United States of America. For this we are all labeled potential terrorists. ~ Dean Garrison

"When it comes to the enemy, just because they ain't pullin' a trigger, doesn't mean they ain't totin' ammo for those that are."~PegLeg

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Re: Have You Read Any Good Books Lately?
« Reply #5 on: Today at 01:44:53 AM »

Big Frank

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Re: Have You Read Any Good Books Lately?
« Reply #5 on: April 23, 2019, 08:25:48 PM »
Knowing how good the book is I would have bought it if I couldn't borrow it. I have the book in front of me right now and it's only 175 pages. I have less than 30 pages to go and I don't recall anything about the Mini-14 being full auto. I was going by the picture when I said how many guns everyone had. Here's a little of what it says from what I read last night.

Of the 10 people involved in the shootout 9 were wounded and 4 died, 2 agents and 2 bank robbers.
"First of all, out of the fourteen agents, five were SWAT agents and had SWAT-type weapons."
The SWAT agents all carried high capacity 9mm semiautomatic pistols.
Regular agents carried six-shot revolvers.
"Bob had in his possession a full auto Colt M-16."
"Terry had in his possession an H&K MP5 submachine gun..."
"Most of the remaining agents had shotguns with them on the surveillance."
"In total we had one assault rifle, one submachine gun, and seven shotguns, along with 20 handguns. We were each armed with everything we were authorized to carry that day."

So The FBI agents had 29 guns against the bank robbers' 4 guns, but not everyone was in a position to use them. I deleted what I typed after that. You'll all have to find out on your own what happened.
""It may be laid down as a primary position, and the basis of our system, that every Citizen who enjoys the protection of a free Government, owes not only a proportion of his property, but even his personal services to the defence of it, and consequently that the Citizens of America (with a few legal and official exceptions) from 18 to 50 Years of Age should be borne on the Militia Rolls, provided with uniform Arms, and so far accustomed to the use of them, that the Total strength of the Country might be called forth at a Short Notice on any very interesting Emergency." - George Washington. Letter to Alexander Hamilton, Friday, May 02, 1783

THE RIGHT TO BUY WEAPONS IS THE RIGHT TO BE FREE - A. E. van Vogt, The Weapon Shops of Isher

Majer

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Re: Have You Read Any Good Books Lately?
« Reply #6 on: April 23, 2019, 10:45:16 PM »
Massad Ayoob did a write up of what happened that day that went into detail of how the shoot out played out. There were mistakes made by the agents and one of those was that they underestimated the bank robbers abilities with their chosen weapons.
"If violent crime is to be curbed, it is only the intended victim who can do it. The felon does not fear the police, and he fears neither judge nor jury. Therefore what he must be taught to fear is his victim." - Jeff Cooper
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The problem with society today is that not enough of us drink wine from our enemies skulls”.

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Es gibt keine Notwendigkeit zu befürchten, Underdog hier ist.
Great nations rise and fall. The people go from bondage to spiritual truth, to great courage, from courage to liberty, from liberty to abundance, from abundance to selfishness, from selfishness to complacency, from complacency to apathy, from apathy to dependence, from dependence back again to bondage. Where are we now??????

Big Frank

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Re: Have You Read Any Good Books Lately?
« Reply #7 on: April 23, 2019, 11:29:16 PM »
How does he know everything that happened in detail? Ed Mireles was there and he only knew a small fraction of it until he read all the reports and statements from other agents. Unless Ayoob had access to all those FBI documents as a civilian/part-time police officer and talked to the surviving agents like Mireles did, he must have been speculating. If he really did know that much about it I'd like to read that too. There were definitely mistakes made, but when they happened to drive right past the bank robbers they decided to stop them.
""It may be laid down as a primary position, and the basis of our system, that every Citizen who enjoys the protection of a free Government, owes not only a proportion of his property, but even his personal services to the defence of it, and consequently that the Citizens of America (with a few legal and official exceptions) from 18 to 50 Years of Age should be borne on the Militia Rolls, provided with uniform Arms, and so far accustomed to the use of them, that the Total strength of the Country might be called forth at a Short Notice on any very interesting Emergency." - George Washington. Letter to Alexander Hamilton, Friday, May 02, 1783

THE RIGHT TO BUY WEAPONS IS THE RIGHT TO BE FREE - A. E. van Vogt, The Weapon Shops of Isher

Big Frank

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Re: Have You Read Any Good Books Lately?
« Reply #8 on: April 24, 2019, 12:27:04 AM »
This is just a little thing I copied a couple days ago after the made up word "uncleftish" came to mind. I read this in a science fiction book years ago and couldn't remember what the heck uncleftish meant. After the first few sentences you should know if you want to spend time reading it or not.
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Uncleftish Beholding

Uncleftish Beholding (1989) is a short text written by Poul Anderson. It is written using a form of 'Anglish' or pure English, using almost exclusively words of Germanic origin. Where most of the Germanic languages retain their own words for scientific concepts, English has adopted a huge number of words from other languages. This essay was intended to illustrate what the English language might look like if it had not received its considerable number of loanwords from other languages, particularly Latin, Greek and French.

For most of its being, mankind did not know what things are made of, but could only guess. With the growth of worldken, we began to learn, and today we have a beholding of stuff and work that watching bears out, both in the workstead and in daily life.

The underlying kinds of stuff are the *firststuffs*, which link together in sundry ways to give rise to the rest. Formerly we knew of ninety-two firststuffs, from laterstuff, the lightest and barest, to ymirstuff, the heaviest. Now we have made more, such as aegirstuff and helstuff.

The firststuffs have their being as motes called *unclefts*. These are mightly small; one seedweight of waterstuff holds a tale of them like unto two followed by twenty-two naughts. Most unclefts link together to make what are called *bulkbits*. Thus, the waterstuff bulkbit bestands of two waterstuff unclefts, the sourstuff bulkbit of two sourstuff unclefts, and so on. (Some kinds, such as sunstuff, keep alone; others, such as iron, cling together in ices when in the fast standing; and there are yet more yokeways.) When unlike clefts link in a bulkbit, they make *bindings*. Thus, water is a binding of two waterstuff unclefts with one sourstuff uncleft, while a bulkbit of one of the forestuffs making up flesh may have a thousand thousand or more unclefts of these two firststuffs together with coalstuff and chokestuff.

At first is was thought that the uncleft was a hard thing that could be split no further; hence the name. Now we know it is made up of lesser motes. There is a heavy *kernel* with a forward bernstonish lading, and around it one or more light motes with backward ladings. The least uncleft is that of ordinary waterstuff. Its kernel is a lone forwardladen mote called a *firstbit*. Outside it is a backwardladen mote called a*bernstonebit*. The firstbit has a heaviness about 1840-fold that of the bernstonebit. Early worldken folk thought bernstonebits swing around the kernel like the earth around the sun, but now we understand they are more like waves or clouds.

In all other unclefts are found other motes as well, about as heavy as the firstbit but with no lading, known as *neitherbits*. We know a kind of waterstuff with one neitherbit in the kernel along with the firstbit; another kind has two neitherbits. Both kinds are seldom.

The next greatest firststuff is sunstuff, which has two firstbits and two bernstonebits. The everyday sort also has two neitherbits in the kernel. If there are more or less, the uncleft will soon break asunder. More about this later.

The third firststuff is stonestuff, with three firstbits, three bernstonebits, and its own share of neitherbits. And so it goes, on through such everyday stuffs as coalstuff (six firstbits) or iron (26) to ones more lately found. Ymirstuff (92) was the last until men began to make some higher still.

It is the bernstonebits that link, and so their tale fastsets how a firststuff behaves and what kinds of bulkbits it can help make. The worldken of this behaving, in all its manifold ways, is called *minglingken*. Minglingers have found that as the uncleftish tale of the firststuffs (that is, the tale of firststuffs in their kernels) waxes, after a while they begin to show ownships not unlike those of others that went before them. So, for a showdeal, stonestuff (3), glasswortstuff (11), potashstuff (19), redstuff (37), and bluegraystuff (55) can each link with only one uncleft of waterstuff, while coalstuff (6), flintstuff (14), germanstuff (22), tin (50), and lead (82) can each link with four. This is readily seen when all are set forth in what is called the *roundaround board of the firststuffs*.

When an uncleft or a bulkbit wins one or more bernstonebits above its own, it takes on a backward lading. When it loses one or more, it takes on a forward lading. Such a mote is called a *farer*, for that the drag between unlike ladings flits it. When bernstonebits flit by themselves, it may be as a bolt of lightning, a spark off some faststanding chunk, or the everyday flow of bernstoneness through wires.

Coming back to the uncleft itself, the heavier it is, the more neitherbits as well as firstbits in its kernel. Indeed, soon the tale of neitherbits is the greater. Unclefts with the same tale of firstbits but unlike tales of neitherbits are called *samesteads*. Thus, everyday sourstuff has eight neitherbits with its eight firstbits, but there are also kinds with five, six, seven, nine, ten, and eleven neitherbits. A samestead is known by the tale of both kernel motes, so that we have sourstuff-13, sourstuff-14, and so on, with sourstuff-16 being by far the most found. Having the same number of bernstonebits, the samesteads of a firststuff behave almost alike minglingly. They do show some unlikenesses, outstandingly among the heavier ones, and these can be worked to sunder samesteads from each other.

Most samesteads of every firststuff are unabiding. Their kernels break up, each at its own speed. This speed is written as the *half-life*, which is how long it takes half of any deal of the samestead thus to shift itself. The doing is known as *lightrotting*. It may happen fast or slowly, and in any of sundry ways, offhanging on the makeup of the kernel. A kernel may spit out two firstbits with two neitherbits, that is, a sunstuff kernel, thus leaping two steads back in the roundaround board and four weights back in heaviness. It may give off a bernstonebit from a neitherbit, which thereby becomes a firstbit and thrusts the uncleft one stead up in the board while keeping the same weight. It may give off a *forwardbit*, which is a mote with the same weight as a bernstonebit but a forward lading, and thereby spring one stead down in the board while keeping the same weight. Often, too, a mote is given off with neither lading nor heaviness, called the *weeneitherbit*. In much lightrotting, a mote of light with most short wavelength comes out as well.

For although light oftenest behaves as a wave, it can be looked on as a mote, the *lightbit*. We have already said by the was that a mote of stuff can behave not only as a chunk, but as a wave. Down among the unclefts, things do not happen in steady flowings, but in leaps between bestandings that are forbidden. The knowledge-hunt of this is called *lump beholding*.

Nor are stuff and work unakin. Rather, they are groundwise the same, and one can be shifted into the other. The kinship between them is that work is like unto weight manifolded by the fourside of the haste of light.

By shooting motes into kernels, worldken folk have shifted samesteads of one firststuff into samesteads of another. Thus did they make ymirstuff into aegirstuff and helstuff, and they have afterward gone beyond these. The heavier firststuffs are all highly lightrottish and therefore are not found in the greenworld.

Some of the higher samesteads are *splitly*. That is, when a neitherbit strikes the kernel of one, as for a showdeal ymirstuff-235, it bursts into lesser kernels and free neitherbits; the latter can then split more ymirstuff-235. When this happens, weight shifts into work. It is not much of the whole, but nevertheless it is awesome.

With enough strength, lightweight unclefts can be made to togethermelt. In the sun, through a row of strikings and lightrottings, four unclefts of waterstuff in this wise become one of sunstuff. Again some weight is lost as work, and again this is greatly big when set beside the work gotten from a minglingish doing such as fire.

Today we wield both kind of uncleftish doings in weapons, and kernelish splitting gives us heat and bernstoneness. We hope to do likewise with togethermelting, which would yield an unhemmed wellspring of work for mankindish goodgain.

Soothly we live in mighty years!
""It may be laid down as a primary position, and the basis of our system, that every Citizen who enjoys the protection of a free Government, owes not only a proportion of his property, but even his personal services to the defence of it, and consequently that the Citizens of America (with a few legal and official exceptions) from 18 to 50 Years of Age should be borne on the Militia Rolls, provided with uniform Arms, and so far accustomed to the use of them, that the Total strength of the Country might be called forth at a Short Notice on any very interesting Emergency." - George Washington. Letter to Alexander Hamilton, Friday, May 02, 1783

THE RIGHT TO BUY WEAPONS IS THE RIGHT TO BE FREE - A. E. van Vogt, The Weapon Shops of Isher

PegLeg45

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Re: Have You Read Any Good Books Lately?
« Reply #9 on: April 24, 2019, 11:55:34 AM »
I recall Ayoob's essay in one of his gun mag columns. I think he interviewed Mireles and others about that day, but it has been quite a few years and I don't recall 100%.

I may have recalled the Mini-14 bit from one of the several video commentaries on the shootout made back in the 90's.
"I expect perdition, I always have. I keep this building at my back, and several guns handy, in case perdition arrives in a form that's susceptible to bullets. I expect it will come in the disease form, though. I'm susceptible to diseases, and you can't shoot a damned disease." ~ Judge Roy Bean, Streets of Laredo

For the Patriots of this country, the Constitution is second only to the Bible for most. For those who love this country, but do not share my personal beliefs, it is their Bible. To them nothing comes before the Constitution of these United States of America. For this we are all labeled potential terrorists. ~ Dean Garrison

"When it comes to the enemy, just because they ain't pullin' a trigger, doesn't mean they ain't totin' ammo for those that are."~PegLeg

 

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