Thoughts Out Of Season

I'm hanging out at my Uncle Gino's house, doing nothing much just bullshitting. He tells me "I'm going to go put this away". It's a beautiful 45 caliber handgun. "OK" I say and sit back. About 10 second later a hear a loud "Boom" come from the bedroom. I jump up and hear my uncle say, in a low but hurried voice to my Aunt Barbara who's also in the bedroom ' blast the fucking television". She readily complies. Next moment, full blast I hear a woman, I could tell immediately it was coming from the television. "Lower that! Lower that! What the fuck is wrong with you?!" My aunt yelled back "you told me to turn it up full blast". LOL. Apparently my uncle emptied the the gun of the clip. He would always empty the chamber and as an added precaution would point the gun into the mattress. Problem this time was he skipped step 2, emptying the chamber. That's  causing the discharge. About 2 minutes later he...

One night I'm hanging out in this club, after hours joint. Wasn't one of my native joints. Crowd of wanna be wiseguys with an actual wise guy mixed in here and there. Having a cool time. Comes about 4:30 am, got a few drinks in me ( feeling good amount, not stumbling drunk). I turn at the bar and accidentally knock a drink over. The guy who was the owner of the drink, a guy we called "Ghost" takes umbrage at me spilling his drink. He pushes me, I push him back but level heads step in and it's stopped before anything serious starts. I walk away, again apologize and go over to the other end of the bar and order a drink. I kept up my awareness because these weren't the most evolved group of people you'd usually find yourself hanging out with. As I'm sipping my drink I'm looking away from Ghost but not really looking away. I see him whisper into one guys ear, than another, then two more. All now are giving me glances that are not designed for b...

Man, it was about 35 years ago. I'm 17 and hanging out in a place called Country Club in the Bronx. Up pulls a car I recognize as my friend Marco's car. He pulls up to me drivers side, rolls down the window and says to me "Rocco, do you have an uncle named Gino?" I can't speak, I'm paralyzed because I know whatever he was about to tell me was not going to be good. I nod yes and he tells me "He just beat the shit out of Tommy Jojo's son over at the gym".

There are stupid terrorists (smart terrorists would be an oxymoron with the emphasis on moron) and there are really stupid suicide bombers. Take the following: A group  of Syrian fighters sit on a couch loading their weapons, talking politics, the woman across form them, one lifts his leg to pass some gas. Far to the left there a man sitting apparently with nothing to do. Suddenly he gets a bright idea "I'm going to take a selfie of me and the group". Little does he know and to his friends deadly astonishment the phone is actually a rigged as  an explosive! You can guess what happen next. Follow the link you'll see the photo of the man on the left side of the couch. It even gets better. If you want to see the video in its glorious entirety wait until the film loads on the bottom right. I can't be sure but I thought I heard someone yell "Allah he fucked-up.

Add Hindustantime.com Lewis Ludow of Kent UK, an ex- Royal Postal worker planned to "Go Postal" and kill up to 100 people while undergoing a de-radicalization program. The ISIS supporter and sympathizer was admitted to the program after numerous other incidents where he showed sympathy and attempted to aid terrorist organizations. In fact, on his way to meet with his prevention officer ( in the US prevention officers are known as prison guards) he found he was running ahead of time and decided to scout out a few places to hit including Oxford Street, a very crowded area that's daily filled with those damned happy infidels that most get under the skin of ISIS. Mr. Ludlow, known to himself as The Wolf ( apparently one without a den as he looks homeless) expressed his hate for the UK and it's people. He'll soon appear before a judge and be sent somewhere where they have REAL preventative officers. BTW: The "Going Postal" is an American expressio...

I guess most of my fellow New Yorkers are keeping an eye out for the upcoming snowstorm. Forget it. It you have a soft spot for rain storms then enjoy. Warm air will surge in from the south and spoil all you snow lovers day. Sorry

In 2008 I was part of a Master degree class in Emergency and Disaster Management in NYC. Part of the curriculum was a month long trip to Israel to learn how the Israeli's practice the craft. Part of the curriculum included being bussed around Israel visiting trauma hospitals, being lectured by high ranking military officials on their experiences and what they learned through decades of brutal acts of sudden terror attacks, bombings and how the Israeli people always kept vigilant of what was going on in their surroundings. They did not look overly concerned or scared. So for us it was more an exercise in abstraction, for me and the rest of my classmates. That is until one day I was riding on the bus.