The Evil That Men Do

...sing it with me, you know the words...what does it do?

People can change. They do it all the time. However, some don't and some do not deserve the chance to prove that they can. I am a proponent of fast (not to be confused with rushed) and harsh punishment for criminals. This is because crime is a choice and because I believe that once a person harms another without justification (i.e., self defense), the game is over and that person no longer has the right to live with the rest of us. If a person can not leave their fellow man be, I want them in chains, making big rocks into little rocks, or in a pine box.

In 2000, then Governor Mike Huckabee commuted the sentences of several violent criminals. I felt that this alone made him unfit for presidency. The violent criminal can have no mercy. If there is a demonstrated capacity for violence in a person, young or old, they can't live with the rest of us any more. This was shown when Wayne Dumond, a serial rapist, raped somebody after he was released from jail with Gov. Huckabee's approval. Gov. Huckabee said that he could not have known the results of releasing a serial rapist from prison. I disagree. I think the behavior of a serial rapist is quite predictable.

Yesterday, another one of Gov. Huckabee's misguided mercy cases murdered four police officers. He walked into a coffee shop and shot them. First off, it's stuff like that that led me to go nearly everywhere armed. Secondly, this guy should not have been walking around with the rest of us. He went to jail in 1989 for aggravated robbery. That, for the record, means that he stole by force or threat of force. I will denounce the Jean Valjeans of the world, but I understand them on some level. They do not use force. The Maurice Clemmonses of the world do not have my sympathy on any level. They are willing to kill and hurt for the stupidest things. They don't deserve to breathe free air.

So why was Maurice Clemmons breathing free air? He violated his parole the first time we let him out of jail. He was reincarcerated for that one, and we let him go again after a while. More recently, he was charged 8 felony counts including assault on an officer and rape of a child. He was out on bond for those charges when he murdered the police officers yesterday. Out on bond with child rape in the wings? Seriously? With a past history of violence? Our mercy has been turned against us. Our willingness to give second... third... fourth chances has been used as a weapon. Why do people tolerate such injuries?

This is why I do not believe in separate charges for juveniles, parole for the violent, and why I do believe in the death penalty. When a person harms another or even threatens harm, why should we let them be free? They could change, but I don't think that we can afford that chance. Crime is a choice. Nobody is forced into it. One can always decide not to harm others. If a person is so defective that they can't help but harm others, then they still can't be allowed to be with the rest of us. Those who harm others must not be tolerated. Toleration of that kind of thing can get you killed. I may forgive, but I will never forget.

Tina Griswold
Ronald Owens
Mark Renninger
Greg Richards
RIP

Simple Rules: Small Bullets and Big Cars

When handling firearms, there are four simple rules. If you follow them, you will never hurt anyone or yourself, barring acts of God...

Always assume a firearm is loaded.
Do not point a firearm at anything that you are not willing to destroy.
Know your target and what is behind it.
Keep your finger outside of the trigger guard until you are ready to fire.

I like to add a few more, like wear eye and ear protection, perform all operations positively with determined follow through, and don't be a dumbass.

Why am I writing about this now? A while back, I used to regularly shoot a range just outside Colorado Springs/Manitou. I stopped because people there were not following proper safety rules. People waved guns around, carried guns to and from the firing line with fingers on triggers, and few regarded firing line protocol and would simply open fire without telling anyone. Also, the place was trashed. People did not follow pack it in/pack it out and I always felt obligated to haul away what trash I could, but I got really sick of cleaning up after other people.
I stopped going, and a while later, a man was killed. His "friend", and I use the term loosely, had his finger on the trigger of a loaded pistol. He swept the victim with the muzzle (as in pointed a gun, albeit in passing, at a person) and the gun either discharged accidentally or the man who was holding put enough force on the trigger to fire. One man lies dead because of some dumbass.

Moving on, a friend of mine also had a recent firearms accident. He, however, is not a dumbass, so nobody was hurt, but his experience is another illustration of why you must follow the rules without exception when you are dealing with anything that can concentrate or deliver energy. He was function checking some new ammunition is his Kahr CW45. What he didn't know was that his firing pin had caught on another part of the gun and was stuck forward. When the slide closed on the round, the gun fired. Fortunately, this guy is religious about safety. The gun was pointed in a safe direction, so the bullet plowed through the wall and buried itself in the gravel drip course outside. A bit of spackle, some sealant, and some fresh paint and all was well.

You see the difference in these two cases? Anything that concentrates or delivers energy is potentially lethal, whether it's a gun, a car, or a hammer. Think first always. We are surrounded by people these days and we all have responsibilities when handling powerful things. When you have a gun, follow the rules because your life and the lives of others do depend on your actions. Same for cars. You may think that you don't have a gun, so how can you endanger others? A car can deliver way more energy to a human body than any gun. Treat your car as such and maybe there will be fewer collisions. The way I see folks slinging their cars around, especially when it's icy, leads me to believe that people really don't think that they are piloting a three-ton bullet and that they have no regard for the lived of others. If pressed, these people will not admit to any desire to endanger their fellow man, it's just that they have not thought about it and don't realize the power that they have to destroy.

Think and be safe.

Remember...

I remember where I was 20 years ago. I was playing with the old Hammerlund shortwave set in the living room that night when I heard a broadcast from somewhere in Europe. The speaker was excited, talking about how The Wall was coming down. I didn't need clarification. I became excited too. I imagined all kinds of pomp and circumstance that must have been happening over there. I wanted to party myself. A few days later, I saw the pictures. One in particular sticks in my mind, and that's what looks like a gaggle of metalheads (100% denim, the Metallica kind) swinging hammers and looking as if they were ready to tear up that cursed concrete with their bare hands if needed.

I'd grown up scared to death of the Soviets. I remember watching F-4 Phantom fighter jets screaming eastbound over my house on full afterburner... and coming back sometimes with fewer missiles. I saw the photos of the bombers that the ANG pilots snapped on their scrambles... they showed them off in the barber shop... I had read the U.S. War Machine and knew what the triad was, what MAD was, and the precise effects of a 22 kT tactical warhead detonated at 300 meters AGL. I knew about the Soviet political prisoners, the Iron Curtain, the secret police... those people scared me and I felt so bad for the average Joes that had to live with it. I wondered when the nightmare would end, only I thought it would end in holocaust.

Instead, The Wall came down. That was one of the best moments of the last century. I rank it ahead of Armistice day, V-J day, and V-E day. The forces behind the Iron Curtain are responsible for far more death and mayhem than the World Wars combined, but when The Wall came down, they seemed unraveled.

There are still walls today, though. The Koreans have been waiting for their wall to fall. The Chinese and Iranians have virtual walls that cut off a lot of information and box them into to certain narrow behavior. We as free people need to do what we can to bring down those walls. No human really likes to be caged and those of us who can freely act need to do so until all the camps are empty and all the walls are look like the one in Berlin: a memory, an artifact, an obsolete tool of a tyranny dead and gone.

Good enough for me...

...is good enough for "them".

I will state this as simply and politely as I can: When I have insufficient money for all I want and need, I have to cut spending. I hate doing it, it sucks, but I have so much money and it goes so far. When it ceases to go, I stop. I don't buy what I can't pay for in reasonable terms.

Let's contrast this with the various governments out there. It applies to nearly all of them, unfortunately. When, say, the State of California runs out of cash, they write IOUs or just go out and take it. In this case, taking it.

As seen in the L.A. Times, The State of California will withhold even more from people's paychecks. The taxpayers had no say. This sounds like theft. It is claimed that the extra withholding will be repaid in April. Wow. That makes it all better. Meanwhile, If I want extra money that I repay in April, I get charged interest. I will be very surprised if Californian taxpayers will be reimbursed with interest. Back to the analogy of myself, if I need a loan, lenders loan to me at their discretion. Nobody asked the Californian tax payers, they are being forced.

The State of California is unwilling to live within its means, so taxpayers there are about to get a reduction in take home pay. That could affect their budgets. What about this isn't criminal? If I need money and take a few bucks from my neighbor, I am a thief. Even if I give it back, I'm still a thief because I did not ask. Just because a government is a government, it does not have the right to arbitrarily take money from taxpayers on a whim. At very least, this should have been voted on by the taxpayers. I really don't care how good the cause is, this sort of behavior is unethical.

I must live within my means and while I may earn more, I may not take it. Any State should do the same. We are all taxed more than enough. Our belts tighten, the State's should too. I prioritize and budget, the State should too.

Finally, remember how nobody voted on this? In a very indirect way, people did. When we elect people that believe that the government is there to manage the people, this is what we get: a graby, greedy, gluttonous, insatiable beast and we lose our freedom and money. Next election, try voting for the people that believe that the government serves the people... not the ones who say that, but the ones who actually mean it. Remember slights like this and vote the bums out into the real world where the rest of us have to live.

11/10/09

I guess that's how most Americans would write yesterdays date. We tend to remember dates associated with trauma and yesterday will be remembered for that reason. A man decided to kill a lot of people and made fair progress toward that goal. Such is the evil we all live with. I am referring to Maj. Hasan at Ft. Hood, TX.

Something very unusual happened, however. The culprit is alive. Usually, mass killers kill themselves or LE does it for them. An LE type did shoot this guy, but did not kill him. I am very interested to see what this guy has to say for himself. I expect that it will be the usual tripe about how horrible all those innocent people were to him or how horrible the U.S. is, but I'm hoping for real insight into a mind that gave in.

Meanwhile, my thoughts and prayers are with the Ft. Hood and Killeen communities.

Now meanwhile, is there something in the water? Some guy in Orlando just shot a bunch of people. This is one of those increasingly frequent times that introduces the thought into my mind "why do I bother?". It is hard to work hard to try to keep people safe and then to hear news like that once I'm back out under the sun. I still keep on, but this stuff is frustrating.

Sick Call

Sick Call

So my base finally has a sick call because people were a bit angry that it was generally faster to just get better than it was to get a doctor’s appointment… for those of you who have not experienced “free” heath care yet, you’ll get what you pay for… So now we have Sick Call. Again, for the non-military, let me define: Sick Call is a walk-in clinic where one can be seen immediately for illness, but it only operates in the early morning and generally those considered well enough to make it there are considered well enough to return to duty.

I went in there this morning and the doc told me, “yeah, you’re pretty sick… still contagious, in fact. Stay away from people and wear this mask at work. Here’s 5000 dollars worth of drugs, have fun with ‘em.”

….riiiiiiiiight…. my fellow Airman are already aware of the situation and are trying to leave before I arrive so they don’t catch anything. This is so amusing in a dark Shakespearean sort of way.



Just amusing…



Stay healthy out there… I recommend kombucha. I should have been drinking it before I got sick.

Open for Business

I'm back. I had to do some interesting things to get into my old account, but I figured it out.

Anyway, I have decided to pick this up again. I have changed a lot in three and half years and so has my life. I'm married, have a house, two cats, and a dog. I'm driving my almost dream car (VW Jetta TDI... 45 mpg and runs circles around the Smart, Prius, and Insight) and am a responsible NCO type. Life is very different.

Some things have not changed. I'm still working on the stargate, though in a much different capacity, and I have become involved with some R&D down at Black Mesa Research Facility. I'm still a rabid right winger, though I have repented of being a Republican... the rat bastards sold me out.

My wife and world events convinced me to write again, so here I am. It's good to be back. I wonder if Liam will return... not only did he read a good chunk of this blog, but I enjoyed his comments.