The Wild World of TB!

So I got approached to post this article written by JT "Lonegunman" Rudolph. Seems like this might need to be said, but we shall see what others think of it. So here it is.

Being a cadet in the police academy, I belong to a lot of emailing lists, and get a buttload of press releases from companies that manufacture LE products, medical supplies, and stuff of that nature, to the stores that carry those products. I received a rather interesting one this afternoon, from an LE/EMS supply house. Apparently, there are a bunch of fake tourniquets floating around the market, which are not only here in the U.S., but are winding up overseas in the hands of our military personnel.

Yes, there are a lot of fakes and counterfeit products in the world, however, these being made for the airsoft/mil-sim market.

The company, Element Airsoft (http://www.world-element.com/), specializes in making cheap airsoft/mil-sim products, from sights, pistol accessories, AEG accessories, microphones, you name it. However, the item in question is this (Click here to see it), their Combat Application Tourniquet.

A group called the Coalition For Tactical Medicine released a safety alert in regards to these fake tourniquets, and posted a PDF comparison between the counterfeit and the authentic product (PDF Here) to highlight the minor differences between the real and the fake. These fake tourniquets aren't made to the proper specs, and when used, will break and fail to save the life of whoever it is being used on.

Now, you may be wondering why these fakes are winding up in the hands of servicemen abroad and being sold through other official channels. Simply put, as shown in the above PDF, Element Airsoft is using the same National Stock Number on their fakes that the real company (NARP, Inc) uses on theirs. If you punched in the NSN and ordered whatever popped up, it could be the real ones, it could be the fakes.

This is taking it way too fucking far. They were made for airsoft/mil-sim weekend warriors to poke in an IFAK or stick in an entry vest and look cool, however, it is having disastrous consequences. It isn't about looking cool anymore. There has already been one reported case of a fake tourniquet failing, resulting in a fatality, and until supplies can be checked, there may be even more.

One person lost their life, supplies will have to be rechecked all over the world, all in the name of playing dress up on the weekends. Whatever line there was, they just crossed it.

I read your editorial about the Blackhawk Down game TB. Here is where I stand. I am all for it on moral and ethical grounds. We all have our own standards and some of us may approve of things other do not. For example, you will never catch me at the Oklahoma D-Day game. Those guys seem to enjoy it just a little too much. Not that I have anything against a D-Day game in general. Is it honoring or defiling? I don’t know. Some players are certainly there to honor the battle and it’s heroes (some may be there to “honor” it’s villains as well) yet the veterans could take it either way and some may see it as defiling the memory of their comrades. My guess is that most players are just in it for a good time and haven’t even considered any moral implications. Most veterans are probably unaware of what we do, and could hardly care less if they did know.

So I’m fine with the game on moral grounds. My problem is this. It’s totally impractical.

First of all, most players come to a game and put down hundreds of dollars expecting a “fair” game. Well here’s a newsflash, war isn’t fair. I wasn’t in the Marines like TB, but I was raised by one, and I learned early – never get yourself in a fair fight. Any good scenario player will agree. Norman Schwarzkopf didn’t hold back divisions of tanks or order that the A-10s stay behind in order to make it fair for the Republican guard. Would anybody want to play the Iraqis in that game? I didn’t think so.

So how does this apply to a Blackhawk Down game? Well first of all, the numbers in the battle were not fair. Estimates vary, but let’s say that the number of combatants involved is something like 200 vs. 5000. Bringing that down to a paintball game scale, let’s just call it 20 vs. 500. How long is that going to take? Is it fair? What are we going to do for the next twenty three hours and forty five minutes?

OK, OK, the Americans were elite forces, Delta, Rangers and SEALs, so let’s put all the best players on that side and give the other side all scrubs and walk-ons. That might get us another 10 minutes. Hey don’t worry that the elite guys have NODS. They can’t use them this game, remember the Rangers left theirs at home and this is mil-sim, as in simulation. The D-Boys had theirs, so we’ll let Cilio hang on to his. Still, everyone is gonna be dead by one o’clock. Let’s get the whole Somali side drunk to simulate chewing khat all day then the Rangers might last until two. What else can we do to put the sim in mil-sim? We’re gonna need helicopters and lots of them. We’re also gonna have to change the rules so that the ‘copters can shoot. A lot. That’s really gonna make the scrubs mad, so we’d better have a lot of refs and hole-punchers. At this point, nobody is thinking this game is fair, but how much farther can we take this? Well, the Somalis can shoot down choppers with RPGs, but in the context of the scenario game, the RPGs will actually have an advantage. They have the same top speed as the choppers, maybe more since it’s hard to run while holding a rope. New rule – all RPG players have to have their shoelaces tied together.

Does this sound like a mil-sim? Well it isn’t. First of all, nobody should know what the fuck is going on (I can say fuck on WOTB can’t I?). Second, we should be on a MOUT site that makes Blanding look like a model of a MOUT site. Third, there should be civilians everywhere so you can’t just shoot everyone you can see. Finally, if we want to simulate a war, everyone should care if they die or not. Let’s have them all put $1000 in escrow and they can’t get it back if they get shot. Maybe that will keep some of them from dancing around in the middle of the street like idiots.

So again, I’m all for these sorts of games, but let’s chose games that can make a reasonable leap to paintball. Let’s be open-minded and creative with the rules to make the game fun. Scenario has been around forever, and I’m sure it started as mil-sim. I’ll bet that the first day those guys ran around with paintball guns in New Hampshire somebody thought of playing “downed pilot” and I’ll bet it was quite sometime later before anybody thought of playing center-flag. Let’s honor those guys in New Hampshire and keep scenario ball alive.

Erik 'Epic' Timmerman

This was so good it had to get put here in the first ever Guest Blog. This one was sent by Allen Martin, also known as Indy. One of the 'accused' goons by Mother and the MXS 'faithful'. BTW, Ensign Dave, I hope you enjoy it. ;)

Okay guys... here's your dictionary word for the day...

Occam's Razor

A rule in science and philosophy stating that entities should not be multiplied needlessly. This rule is interpreted to mean that the simplest of two or more competing theories is preferable and that an explanation for unknown phenomena should first be attempted in terms of what is already known. Also called law of parsimony.

Basically, what that means, if you make an assumption, your hypothesis is flawed in relation to one that makes no assumptions.

So, lets apply it to the Kool-Aid Drinker of the Day, everybody's dear friend "Dave". I'm taking snippets out of his comments. Anybody interested in the full text can go to PBNation and read for themselves and make sure I'm not taking things out of context.

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I thought this was a forum about paintball, not who ass raped who 20 years ago. Isnt there another forum for a topic like that

He could've bothered to check instead of ask a rhetorical question he doesn't even know the answer to. False assumption, discarded.

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Was he convicted of rape in a court of law? Sure, but does that mean he is really guilty or not - no one knows for sure because again, none of you were there.

Retarded assumption. The court documents state specifically what happened, backed by medical reports. You don't have to know the actions to know what the end results were.

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Hell, half of you were like 4 years old when it happened.

More assumptions. You'd have to have demographics numbers to support that assertion. I can say for certain many scenario players were adults by this time, and many were not even born yet.

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Instead of flooding our community with all of this doody slingin' to sell tickets to games, why not try conventional methods like advertising, or coupons like every other buisness? Only in paintball I guess...

More assumptions. Nobody has tried to sell anything. Individual players have spoken their minds, but there's no proof there even is financial gain to be made from this. If anything, this could easily drive people away from all scenario paintball events, and not just MXS games.

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This is about buisness, and personal fueds between the involved people. Of course no one is directly selling anything, what they are selling is the idea of MXS being evil and that we shouldnt give them our money anymore. Its really not that hard to see.

Assumption. Being able to prove this would require proof of who sent out the original packages, which nobody has. It also refers again to "selling something". You don't sell event registrations by spreading information that has the potential to damage the entire sport. That's retarded.

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If Pacman was a child molester, Id be singing a differet tune because paintball is a kids sport.

Another assumption, completely lacking of demographics, and ignoring the lower age limit keeping young kids from participating.

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Would a boycott of MXS be benificial to Viper? Why yes it would - very much so. How many big producers are there in the country, like 7.

Again, an assumption. One, there's less than 7 major producers. Two, as said earlier, it's just as easy to imagine this costing all of them business.

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since TB is in bed with Viper

Speculation. I've never seen any evidence of homosexual activity.

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Bear, if you cant see there are 2 distinct camps here, I dont know what to tell you.

He's referring to a MXS camp vs Haters camp. This is slightly confused. Reading the thread shows it to be a Pacman is Alright vs I'm not giving money to a rapist camp.

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So Viper wasnt directly involved, his staunch supporter was, and how convienient that it was someone who wasnt a producer, or field owner to do the dirty work.

More conspiracy theories that don't fit any of the posted information.

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"when someone is convicted by a court of law that settles it as to if the incident happened or not. "

So then you think OJ is innocent then, right?

OJ was not guilty in criminal court, so Pacman didn't rape that woman because he was poor at the time.

Holy shit I'm not even going to touch that arguement. My head will explode.

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So 23 years later, and with ZERO repeat offences, you say he hasn't changed?? Beleive me, if there was ANY other offence commited by Pacman, dont you think TB would be posting it on his Rosie O'donnel style blog?
Why does he not deserve a second chance again? Oh thats right, because TB and all of his "bitches" (thats what they are called on his forum for some ghey reason) are out to get him and destroy his buisness.

Wait... I thought he was not-guilty because he was too poor to afford a good lawyer. Shit! I promised myself I wouldn't touch that last topic.

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And TB, if you want to try to "smack me around", PM me and Ill tell you where we can meet.

Internet toughguy syndrome. Not in the same state, never gonna see each other, ever? CHALLENGE THEM TO A FIGHT! (I'll still taking action on that. 1:1 TB by RNC round 1, 2:1 TB by armbar round 1, 4:1 TB by triangle choke round 1, 100:1 TB by gogoplata in round 1).

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and notice that there is even a "Coping with Weight Gain" thread too!

This is flat out retarded. One, the original BMI charts were created by mathematician very early in this century. He was not a biologist or physician. Shows how bright our government is. Two, anybody that's known TB over the years can see he's been dropping weight. Can't win an arguement, call them fat. Oh yeah that's a brilliant tactic.

I guess if you can't properly debate something, you should just drink some more Kool-Aid, spout easily debunked nonsense, and then resort to insults that would've only worked 3 or 4 years ago.

wow... just... wow.