Southwest PA Self-defense Network Blog

  When I first started the book, I had high hopes for it. Although it stated from the outset that it was a semi-expose on the dysfunctional culture of the CIA I was hoping for more ' interesting ' stuff.  Like most biographies, he details his time in the Marines, his life before the CIA, how he joined, some of the recruitment, advice he was given and overall thoughts on directions his life took....Getting married, having kids.  He does a good job of highlighting the main part of the book - CIA dysfunction.  The culture within the CIA is one of risk aversion so you don't lose your job or get stuck for years in some dead in, cubicle in a basement somewhere; layers of management that have to approve any type of meeting or outreach; slowness on even getting things approved or reviewed. For example, being a YEAR behind in having current paychecks.  The book details meetings, moving to other countries, trainings, turf battles, who pissed off who.  Although critic...

Because I have an interest in women's rights issue and self-determination I wanted to watch this to see how things were presented and I was not disappointed. It was eye opening on a number of levels.  It presented a brief history of the issue of women driving in Saudi Arabia and how it went from no driving allowed to the repeal of the dreaded Guardianship. Guardianship rules set the idea that Saudi women would need permission to do certain things like drive or travel outside of the country.  The issue of driving was both a civil rights and women's empowerment issue and in some areas was a point of civil disobedience. Several women drivers were arrested and branded as traitors.  In time, the King overturned the No Driving Rule and allowed for women to drive and it gave rise to the largest driving school in the world. Over 700 female instructors were on staff to teach women from all over Saudi Arabia.  Some notable points: - The cities are fully modern and most signs a...

  Review of Alternatives to Domestic Violence; A Homework Manual for Battering Intervention Groups  by Kevin Fall and Shareen Howard This was an usual read for me as it is actually  a work book for adult male abusers involved in a ( usually ) court mandated batterers group.  The book assumes one thing - that batters and abuses can change if they are willing to put in the work.  It progress from one topic to another in increasing complexity.  The book starts off with the expected introductions over " Why are you here" and " what can be expected" with a good chapter on Myths and realities of a group. There are 14 chapters and the chapters are centered around a power and control topic the abusers is supposed to utilize to look inward and adjust their thinking and behavior.  Chapter topics are pretty in depth such as Negotiating a Partnership Trust Relationships, Giving and Receiving Respect, Taking Responsibility for Yourself, Positive Sexual Relationship...

 Holy Spider ( 2022)  11-12-23 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugq_aTKMh4U https://www.imdb.com/title/tt18550140/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_8_nm_0_q_Holy%2520Spi I just finished watching Holy Spider, an Iran based crime drama based on the true life serial killer  Saeed Hanaei (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saeed_Hanaei ).  This was a great movie which showed the attempts by an Iranian Journalist to investigate and uncover the truth about the string of prostitutes death in a smaller city in Iran. The killer ends up with 16 victims and in the end claims to be doing Allah's work cleansing the world of the evil women.  Unlike American made movies, this focused a lot more on the journalist efforts in making connections, talking to people rather than the exploits and and showing of the crimes.  Although the movie does shows the crimes and a brief but graphic oral sex scene at the beginning, they are tame compared to American fare.  The journalist has to navigate ...

 Walk the Blue Line  by James Patterson and Matt Eversmann c2023, 341pgs Of all the first hand account books that I've read about being a cop, this one is the gold shield.  The  book is broken up into 30 -40 short 3-5 page stories of various officers in various departments.  Young and older, new patrolmen sometimes days on the job to 30 year veterans getting ready  to retire, detectives, sheriff's deputies, US Marshalls, state police and FBI so it's a very  nice cross section of people. The book doesn't go into, or maybe I missed it, of how the authors got the stories. Are these all first hand, interviewed accounts that they then took and wrote up using their own talent for creating drama ? Or are these written by the officers and the collected and edited by the authors ?  The stories they bring to the table are also varied but compelling.  Tense traffic stops that are de-escalated and everyone goes about their evening.. Foot pursuits... Pres...

The Unknown Darkness: Profiling the Predators Among us by Gregg McCrary c2003, 324 pages Another profiling book.  This author was a contemporary of John Douglas and although not one of the founding fathers, he was there in the beginning so all the information is almost 20 years old.  His writing style is simple and straight forward and doesn't jump around as much as Douglass so it was easy reading. He reviewed and highlighted several cases like the Buddhist Temple massacre, the Waco disaster, and the international killer Jack Unterweger.  He brings up some interesting bits of information like they DO do forensic profiling on arson, rape and other cases which I didn't know.  He brings up the 7% statistics that 7% of convicts are the bad ones who commit most of the crime, are the repeat offenders and simply can't be helped.  Overall a fine book for those interested in profiling.   

 These are some great, quick reads for when their intuition was kicking off.  40+ Times People's Spidey Senses Ended Up Being True Article was originally published on our site 5dwallpaper.com Have you ever had a gut instinct that something bad was about to happen? Intuitions are powerful things and they can happen to anyone at any time, especially when you least expect it. While most of the time we completely ignore them until it's too late, these people took to Reddit to share times they listened to their intuitions and it ended up saving lives. You won't believe these amazing stories. Life Saving Call U/Donutsareagirlsbff: "When I was 19 I was walking home at midnight from a tram stop and I got the feeling I should pretend I was on the phone. A minute after doing so a car pulls up next to me on the empty road. It's four guys all leering at me, the one in the passenger side starts saying things…and his tone is predatory. I try to keep it cool…and start telling my ...