Just keeping you posted...

Seems our Program Manager is caught in Florida, flight grounded by high winds which we shan't name. She has to catch a later flight this week. The rains will be here, although they say Thursday will have a break. The rains come in bands like waves upon the beach and I did jog and walk yesterday but then was well soaked in the evening drive. I have lost, last week, one of my better workers to the Chain Bus, he had to move on to Monroe Corrections Complex. That made me short, and sure enough one of my other better workers has two afternoons of group counseling to attend every week before the end of December, and yesterday they had the Veterans Banquet - yes, we have Veterans inside our fences that are in State issue serving time, we also have them in Corrections Officer uniform and admin - there are Veterans everywhere - just not as many as there were at the end of the draft in 1973. The Republic of Korea, Israel and Switzerland still have almost universal military service for various reasons.

I had attended for eighteen weeks Infantry OCS at Fort Benning, GA, in the Fall of 1967. Got pretty close with the rest of the platoon. Years later as a First Sergeant I was running the streets of Fort Bragg and saw one of my platoon mates, now a Major in Special Forces and we talked in his office. He had once been visiting a Federal Prison on some mission or other, and had run into one of our platoon mates in the administration of the institution and they talked and caught up, then the administrator, called on a telephone and they brought in a prisoner, who just happened to be one of our platoon mates. Strange, no guarantees of how well you will do, just because you had a chance it all comes back to what you choose to do and act.

Back to reality of today, I had best take out the garbage and get ready to run, have to make better choices, my wife told me no early retirement - I have to keep on keeping on... but the government wants my tax contributions, so I already know. Do remember to honor the service of our vets tomorrow - from this vet it is embarrassing to see free meals and such, but tears flow when the children who I hope never know war say thank you. Their future has always been what it was about, we don't want to dwell on our past.

Hey, Old Timer...

I am very aware of how near retirement and impending doom I am, but I was walking down to the dock in Steilacoom when a bright red BMW pulled off the road and stopped. I walked up and leaned towards the open window, hoping it would be the mythical long legged red head looking for guidance. It wasn't but was a young soldier with sunglasses perched on his head and three metal qualification badges on his digital Desert Camo Uniform, he leaned towards me and asked "Hey, Old Timer, would you like a lift?"

As soon as "Old Timer" came out I was thinking Gabby Hayes and cringing internally in denial. I had just slipped in the movie of my mind from leading man, the hero, to comic relief sidekick, how had that happened? I kind of smiled and told him the walk was my exercise and thanks for the offer, as he sped off I hoped he just wanted to be nice and show off his ride - not that he thought I really needed a ride, I hadn't been limping nor lumbering on. I was enlisted for the Vietnam War in 1967 and stuck around through other military operations to including Desert Shield and Storm in 1990 and '91. But I started putting that life together with riding my motorcycle up behind a car waiting at a stop light, and reading the Memorial tribute in the window, of a young man, born in February of 1991, when I was getting prepared to invade Iraq with the French, that died in our current wars in 2009, he hadn't gotten to nineteen. So in honor of those Veterans, the "Old Timers" everywhere I will tell you about Samuel.

He was born before the turn of the Century, the Eighteenth Century, and grew up big and strong and joined the King's Dragoons to fight in wars on the Continent, against France or Spain. After the first little war he came home and everyone admired the fine Calvary saber with the gold inlay and shining sharpness -- asking how he had come by such a fine saber. He said modestly that a French officer had no further use for it and he had. His military career had gone on and the places would change but Samuel didn't for he went to the sound of the guns. In one of the many wars against France he rode off and came back with a fine pair of horse pistols,matching French pieces. When asked to tell the tale about that, he again replied that the French officer having no further need for them had given them up to him. He couldn't go on being a gallant dragoon forever, so he settled down to a small farm and small wife, raising crops and children and getting old. His years were wearing and he limped a little and later a lot, but there was no quit in him.

On April 19th, 1775 with the country rising up in arms to stop the British regulars Samuel Whittemore took up his musket, his horse pistols and cavalry saber and went out to do battle for his family and neighbors. He took up a strong position behind a stone wall about a hundred and fifty yards from the road and began to fire upon the advancing British redcoats. His fire was effective for they sent a squad of flankers to eliminate the position believing there were several rebels there. Samuel got several shots off from his musket before he had to pick up the pistols, and he got two shots off wounding with one and the other, he was drawing his saber when one of the regulars shot him in the face, taking away part of his jaw. the others quickly bayoneted him about a dozen times and left him for dead, then hurried back to the marching column, not wanting to be left behind in the coming darkness with the rebels everywhere.

Samuel's friends and neighbors came out after they left and went to see what they could do, expecting to find him dead, but they found him trying to re-load. They got a door off a home, laid Samuel on it and took him to Doctor Tufts. They begged the doctor to save him, but the doctor said it was too late, they asked him to try anyway and he did. When he finished he did tell them quietly that Samuel was going to die, he was seventy-eight years old. The doctor was correct Samuel Whittemore died, eighteen years later - scared horribly but always proud of his service to his adopted country and sure that he would do it again if called. A very dangerous old man, the oldest combatant on the field that day.

So the next time you see someone old and almost ancient, smile before you call him "Old Timer", it would be kinder to ask if he could help you -- for he would be glad to be the leading character in the movie of his life.

What are you worth to your government?

Well, except for the fact I pay taxes and obey the law, I am sure the government doesn't really care that I am alive and wouldn't pay anything for me. But then I know that the government is only a thing - without a heart and a mind (yes, there is no intelligence in the government only in the people working behind the curtain - and sometimes that needs to be proven), and certainly no soul.

As I approach that magical age of 62, early retirement opportunity under the Social Security program, I downloaded the free calculation software, and started filling out the data and their forms - isn't anything simple in the government regulations? See comment on intelligence above. I ran the data, found an entry error, corrected it and ran the data again. I expect I will get a paper copy of their annual estimate in a couple of days (end of October for me) and the two will be very close to exactly.

In the end as I discovered when talking to my wife about it last night, her greatest benefit from my Social Security is if I die and go to Heaven, she would get more than I would for staying alive. So since the rule is you pay people in the direction you want them to move - the government is trying to get my wife to off me, lawfully, and quietly. I don't have any fear of that happening, she started to worry about what would happen to my guns if I died, seems she thinks my son shouldn't get them since he drinks, or better reason - he isn't really interested in them. He only shoots professionally, which in the military isn't as much as the civilians would know. I will have to figure something out that would work well for those firearms.

I will pretend I have time to work on a plan, but my doctor's office called up and they want me for consultation and examination this afternoon in follow up to the fainting (?) incident on the fourteenth, maybe they found something else?

Okay, for all of those that believe that the government loves us and is only trying to make our lives better - I will admit that as long as I pay taxes, work productively and obey those people behind the curtain, they probably won't try to trick me into breaking a law, put their ski masks on to hide their faces and break into my home nor shoot my wife through the door. I do doubt seriously that they will tell the media that I live in a fortified compound and try to smoke me out, and I am almost positive (not living in Philadelphia) that they aren't going to drop a bomb on my home and burn out the neighborhood. But I do remember that our government, American, has done all those things to the least of us. I mean, they even got Martha Stewart, for falsification of evidence? I need to stay below the radar, don't we all?

Remember what I wrote about government not having a mind, and the level of intelligence of those behind the curtain, and always that there are over three hundred million Americans most of whom don't work for the government except for that tax thing. Back to coffee mug.

Back from jog, just a quick note before church...

My cousin, a minister in New Zealand currently, was born and raised in South America, and she is now visiting Argentina and Uruguay and friends and family that are still living there. That was the background.

The picture is from the efforts of the current government to say that a previous government was so wrong. The reason I bring this up, is for those that still think one needs a King, or a Czar to get things done and have law and order.... re-read 1 Samuel 8, should be part of Civics 101, but the book doesn't cost $75.00 a copy.

Watching in the wrong direction... aren't they?

Maybe we all are looking in the wrong direction, and that is when something to really fear jumps out and gets you... cougars anyone?

Looking at my last morning post and seeing the cheering over the breaking the 10,000 point barrier on Wall Street - one would think all those investors had read what I wrote and went out and spent wildly trying to get those big bonuses that Congress is worried about. I know that the market is only displaying the price offered and accepted by the buyer and the seller. I am glad there is a resurgence of confidence in the Economy, and if you really know what that means and what I meant you are going to make money.

Congress is worried about big bonuses in high finance - they are looking in the wrong direction - they have a taxing power, which I think they abuse, but they can fix the big bonuses quickly - tax them away. But they are looking in the wrong direction, the government is bleeding in money being thrown around, debt climbing and money printed in excess of good sense (that last is way too easy for Congress to overlook). If their books were my family finances I would throw up my hands and go a little more crazy. I am responsible and wonder why Congress isn't, they do look like pigs at the feed, but that says bad things about the pigs and that wouldn't be nice of me. They are looking in the wrong direction.

I was going to write about the war...

but I couldn't even sign into Blogger this morning without hitting an extra i in hotmail.com and getting refused. Well, I found it and corrected it and I am under two ten this morning and I have a mug of coffee so I will ramble on...

The United States is not at war, our Commander in Chief has received the Noble Nobel Peace Prize, I suspect he kept the same Secretary of Defense as the last Commander-in-Chief since he wasn't serious about continuing the war and could use the cover until he could get back to it. It really is still Bush's War, and President Bush will tell you that he is our last Wartime President, not that he was doing it any better than the current One of Wonder.

The reason I even mention it was a post from Frank James, about the M-4 (M-16) failures again ..., he wrote well about the problem and I just had to point out what I saw looking at the same problem. He knows his weapons, hunting and farming and I learn every time I read about his corner of perception. Having had my own personal experience with trying to get the system to improve the current pistol I know that the system just doesn't care, one voice, ten bodies, two thousand dead because of a mess in the Pentagon, or any other headquarters will be swept under the blanket of History. To be read and commented on by people that do care but aren't in control nor on a battlefront.

The reason we aren't going to win a war in the Middle East is that we aren't going to go to fight a war in the Middle East. Israel survives because Jerusalem and Tel Aviv aren't in California nor New York - they may get lots of bond buyers from there, but the leadership of the country, the people of the country and the reason for surviving are all inside Israel. So they pay close attention, and even when offering peace to stupid folks that think the problem could just be gone when the Jews are, they certainly are passionate and serious about trying. They are also serious about fighting wars to win them, not sustain their armament industry, Boeing and GM.

There was passion and concern from the citizens in the American Revolutionary War, the War between the States, World War II and just cheering and flag waving patriotism on all the others. If we would just move the Commander in Chief and Congress in session to the center of our international conflicts, and allow them to drag their lobbyists with them, we would have such better results, really. And if for whatever reason we still couldn't win, like Alexander the Great in Afghanistan of his era, make it look like he had and leave to conquer something easier.

Nice thing about rambling is that I expend all the heat and mind mumbling that raced through my head in the darkness. What was my point? Oh, yeah, that old Vietnam thing that is still unresolved in my heart. I personally remember my life then, and I didn't like what we were about to do with our professional army in Bush's War (do you remember all the reasons we are fighting it, still?). Yes, I like a professional military - keep the MBAs away from our officer corps and it could really be great.

I do want the best military to perform the Defense of America, and I don't want it expended (they are willing to fight to the death for the best of reasons and it isn't money) in stupid political paybacks and favors for friends in odd places. It just won't be there when America really needs its pointy end. Thank you for looking for meaning in all this, I am on the second mug of coffee, sure the current President is totally wrong on Iraq and Afghanistan and so much else, sure that those going back to the Middle East for the third, fourth or fifth time are wondering what is the point and they are the ones that have to tell the first timers what to do to survive, do well and win battles --- and it really isn't exactly like it was before, the new Commander in Chief has other things on his table to work on and look good about. Yes, you will be getting Turkey on Thanksgiving, read a copy of a book about the Marines in North Korea, they knew that only the Marines cared.

In addition: I am so glad my wife is off for her doctor's checkup, if I had to go my blood pressure would make him change my medication or admit me to the hospital, foolish waste of good money, best be about better stuff than worrying at what I couldn't fix no matter.

Okay, it is a strange day, maybe Mega Millions...

maybe Mega Millions will have my numbers for the grand prize! Why not, seems that I worked just fine at the WCCW with the women patrons and inmate clerks. Moved lots of mail, requested lots of ILL materials, and cleared many soon to be released inmates and did get the books back from Segregation and issued a new bunch of books, into a locked box on a heavy cart. I am certain there aren't as many women in solitary as there are men in the corrections centers.

But that isn't the big deal, not by a long shot. I remember telling everyone to write their Congressmen, Senators and the incoming President about how you felt about the 2nd Amendment or gun control or anything that you felt they needed to know about. Well, I did, and from one of my Senators I keep getting long messages about health care and other things that interest her -- from the other I get silence, hope she isn't ill. My Congressman is always there inviting me to the next town hall meeting, he does that all the time, not just because the Democratic Party sent him out for health care.

Anyway, today (the day the President learns he is important in the Peace process) I got my personal (as they can make it) letter from the President - I do have to admit his signature is artful and kind of cool. Mine and my father's signatures in script are flowing and can be read (okay, I have lost the last two characters in my flourish, but I could put them back in for clarity) but the President's is artful and therefore just a pretty thing without much substance, but it is pretty.

Well, the first mistake is he called me "Dear Friend" and I gave him my name, we don't have a relationship. He thanked me for sharing my views about firearms policy. He appreciates me, ah, if only all politicians appreciated me. He told me that he is committed to making his Administration the most open and transparent in history (why capitalize Administration and not History?). He also wanted me to know that my concerns will be on his mind for the days ahead. I would rather he fixed the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan or at least gave the nation a policy about them worth fighting for (don't hold your breath).

He told me thanks for writing and wants me to visit the virtual WhiteHouse.gov to learn more about his Administration or to contact him in the future. Sincerely,

Okay, I have the winning ticket, it has been that strange a day, best check email and answer and fall asleep in front of the fire place - it is getting cold enough to cause wood piles to shrink in the dark. I did tell y'all to write, the Post Office can always use the business.

Thoughts on Registration...

Among the chores for today, was getting my updated car tags for the Caravan, and the kind benevolent government only asks thirty dollars for the tags, and then adds on bunch of fees and donations (?) until it totals out to $105.75. I went to a commercial place and paid them three more dollars for instant ratification. So I can legally run the roads of Washington and reciprocal governments that recognize the plates and want my lawful conduct doing good things in their neighborhood (Idaho, Canada, Oregon, Mexico and such). Since it has also been seven years that I have owned and operated the car, I get new plates with a new number - glad I don't use many motels that want me to remember that old number cause it is gone now. The Caravan is now 571 ZPP, and that could be for Zippy, but we all know about Caravans and Earl, Zippy might be correct for the Trusty Triumph but only on Earl's wilder days.

Then onward for registering my two rifles on Fort Lewis, and since I have a new tag number updating that on Fort Lewis, too. So I am giving the clerk all the forms, cards, numbers and best guesses, yes it is a twenty inch barrel, overall maybe thirty eight or thirty six inches. They didn't care about magazine capacity, and I didn't either. When they ran the Provost Marshals Office Ft. Lewis, WA Weapons Permit it runs onto a second page, I now seem to have too many firearms - fifteen is all that went on page one, one slid onto page two. I know there are many gun toting folks upset or straight out fearful of the government having too much knowledge about what weapons are where, and since the Commander at Fort Lewis (who has never thought through the implications of having registered weapons coming on and going off base - and not allowing unregistered weapons on base unless they belong to law enforcement folks) doesn't allow me to use the Post Ranges for my recreational shooting without being registered - I am content to register. When you look at my long history (over fifty years worth) with firearms and the number of crimes and injuries I have inflicted with the same --- I have to admit only when issued a weapon by the United States government has any living thing come to an end or grief, all my personal registered firearms haven't hurt anything that I wasn't hunting, with permission. So you see, registration does work - not that Earl would be a responsible sane adult male - some may think that was an oxymoron - but registering my firearms has kept them from terrible acts and accidents - 100% of the time registered. It really does work.

Now last point of today is that as mis-read and understood as the 2nd Amendment of the Constitution seems to be (I have family members that don't read it the same way I do, and my mother has a whole different set of views about law) isn't the government glad that we didn't write something like "The government has no Right to keep or bear arms against the People, every assumption of such a Right by the government must be infringed". Yeah, and when you think about that just a bit, can you truthfully tell me why POLICE have fully automatic weapons? I understand the military use and the tactics and training to make them effective, but POLICE?

We have a two for... Library and Guns and foolishness...

So young person goes to the library to find information - which is a good thing - wants to know about guns and concealed carry - which in New York and Frequent Fearland a BAD thing. AND SOMEONE IN THE LIBRARY RATS HIM OUT TO THE POLICE! Telling anyone what someone else is borrowing or reading will get one fired and maybe charged with the CRIME in my modest library. What is going on?

The ANNOYED LIBRARIAN explains the New York law violated, and just the normal trust betrayed for those interested. And then says you can contact them by email on the Pelham Public Library website. Which I did just because I am shocked! I would still think that librarians should be allowed to carry their personal weapons - I trust them, although not as much as I did yesterday.

So you did remember 19 April, 1775, yesterday?

The day the people of Massachusetts got very serious about restoring their rights to govern themselves, very serious. You can Google it, and the Wikipedia covers it a bit, but don't go to most American High Schools for any detail, go to your libraries and know they wrote books differently in the 18th and 19th Century about which we continue to write about in the 21st Century. It must have been important and my question is where would you have been on that day?

Today is the Boston Marathon, and since I am on the West Coast and three hours back from the East except on Mainstream Media (tape delay with Live printed on it), it should be starting soon. It was once on the same day as the celebration of Patriot's Day, the 19th, but the race got more important than the day and so was placed for coverage, advantage and tourist bucks. More people KNOW about the Boston Marathon than the 19th of April, 1775, but that is how the world works. It is still one of my un-run marathons, but I would be so far back that the support crews would be sweeping the chutes up and packing the timing machines by the time I got in. It would be more interesting to walk from Charleston, to Lexington, to Concord, the North Bridge, and back to Meriam's Corner, to Parker's Revenge, through Lexington (again!) to Charleston and safety, but following those poor British flankers tracks would wear me out, but it could be done in a couple days well. Seems the military is always cursed with LONG interesting days.

I find returning home after time spent on the ranges with shooting stuff doesn't cure me of my addiction to finding out how the normal people of the world are behaving. Looking for email about my far-flung family relations and relations that are only friendly is justified but most other things, can wait for my devotions, exercises, sweating, cleaning up and going to work. It is Monday and the Library calls. My second PC is spinning and chirping at me, and I thought it was using electricity for power - it couldn't be wind up, could it?

Gosh, what was all the fuss about?

Friday night and I am alone, packing for the weekend. I bought some new work shirts, six, two colors of blue, work trousers four pair, I will wear them out in the wash more than in the work, but that happens when one isn't using the rocks by the stream to beat the wash out once a week, love washing machines. My wife laughed that all the new clothes look the same - I will change the ties, although if I really found four or six that were the same but basically perfect - I would be wearing them all the time. Black paisley, in silk?

I checked our financial situation, and thank you investors in Wall Street, our mutual funds and some other investments are going up in price, like gasoline. I am sure that Washington DC would like me to blame their efforts in the corrections, but I figure the Chinese are buying in while things are cheap. The more they own of our souls the harder it will be to say NO to them, but they are still Communists thugs aren't they? Don't buy real estate in Taiwan. For sure it wasn't the twenty extra bucks (forty in two worker families) that showed up in our paycheck. Remember that, at the next Tea Party - the government does understand that reducing taxes does stimulate the economy - they also know if they don't keep their fingers around your throat that you might start to think you are boss, and they wouldn't like that. They do want you to petition the government, not tell them what to do and when, just ask them nicely and they will see if they can help. Anyway, we are a few thousand dollars ahead of the debts, better and better. But then our home wasn't in an Economic Crisis - just those real smart types in the big cities, they don't buy their clothes at Dickies.

Lots of Appleseeds going on across the nation this weekend, and we will work on everyone's safe shooting and paper punching perfections - hope to see lots of Riflemen recorded for our Nation's future. This is one of those special weekends: April 19th, 1775 is to be remembered the day that your neighbors stood up to the terrible government that was trying to snatch their leaders and take away their cannon, ammunition and military stores (and we can't even have machine guns now without a tax stamp - and our founding fathers had cannons of their own?). I do so think that everyone should read deeper into the Revolutionary War - it was not something to gloss over, it was a painful birth of a new independent nation, one without a King, one where you would be what you could make of yourself. Yep, good shooting out there and have a safe weekend, hope the farmers get the temperatures they need for planting and all those you love are safe and healthy, no matter where in the world they serve, y'all sleep sound for somewhere our service people are on watch and awake and aware to protect us.

Gun News and then back to battle... long ago...

I did watch Diane Sawyer and her co-host presenting a show "If I only had a Gun", and I don't think she is going to carry a gun any time soon. She wants to protect those children that she won't teach to behave from having drugs, poisons, prescription drugs, guns and damn fool stunts watched on other media that children seem to want to copy and improve on; "Fast and Furious" anyone?

I had one of the inmate workers look up causes of death in the United States - and firearms were not the leading reason children die, but they do seem to be something the government should be able to control. The government can't control illegal immigration, alcohol and drug abuse, can't stop murder by other means (not of firearms), illegal gambling, tax evasion, rape, child rape, arson and a few other crimes against people and property, but somehow the media believes that the government can control firearms. Our government can't even protect us from its agents when they decide to kill everything that moves and let God sort them out. Not often moral is our government, but then government isn't a being with a soul and a real relationship with God.

Ah, well, ABC News is related to Time magazine and Disney, they do live in a fantasy world and this was supposed to be a real test of what would happen if.. isn't this the network that does Super Nanny? - and I know my son never lacked for rules, reasons and care - what is going on in America? Are there any responsible adults out there?

Teach a chosen few how to handle a pistol, give them a pistol to conceal (?) put them in a classroom of undercover (working for ABC) folks and bring in a bad guy to kill them all. The bad guy knows where the cameras are, which of the folks has the gun and that he has to take out, the tested person has to pull the gun that they think is loaded with something that won't kill and take out the bad guy (which is not really a surprise! today you are going to die scenario - but closer than I practice). Okay, and they did get the results they wanted, no one was able to survive the attack or kill the attacker. They didn't put everyone in the classroom without a gun and see how many survived, but that wasn't what the show was about.

The show was designed to convince the Oprah crowd that carrying a firearm for your own defense won't work - you aren't good enough, don't train enough and the killers always have to win so we can sell advertising time on television so we get rich and you are just another victim - of so many things that you should fear... hmm, that last must all be mine. Yep, my errant thoughts have intruded. I have always said, I did all my killing in cold blood and tried to teach that, but not being in the killing business now I don't mention that, I do stress that emptiness and becoming one with the weapon, the target and the moment will work - but that is Zen and y'all are anxious Americans, always in a hurry to get to the point you can never reach. Take care out there, go gently, focusing front sight on target, squeeze. Diane Sawyer can't hit with her own skill set and production team, but then we did watch the last election didn't we?

Comment from other blogs: One Sensible Progressive Tam's Recommendation John the Texaner

I watched Zulu this morning, cough lingers, I drink more liquid and wonder if it is time for Cromwell; what do men fight for, what is the cost and what is freedom - standing on your own and doing the best you can for all that you love, works for me.

And don't blame it on that...

Tuesday night a patron asked me something and I told him it happened on Monday - which seemed like several days ago - I was loading my days with lots of work, which is good, and the motorcycle rides were like a vacation, but you might not understand. Still for the last few days the rumor mill and local newspapers have talked about the closing of McNeil Island Corrections Center to save money because we aren't taxed enough when we don't spend the money for purchases. Now the Federal Government sent out the software to give us some of our money back to stimulate the Economy (but they know if the economy is stimulated that they will get more from the rich fat cats that will rake it all in). But in Washington, they would like to add an income tax to get more money to spend, and yes the voters will get to turn it down, and the politicians will pass it anyway - someone has to pay for sports complexes in Seattle, don't they?

Back to my work days, the inmates are saying that forty of them are going to Connell, Washington as part of the closing of McNeil Island (could be they are going to add to the population at the new facility at Coyote Ridge Corrections Center, so they can get operating at full speed.) That rumor is as good as the one where everyone is going to get an earlier release date because they can't afford to keep everyone locked up. The drug offenders like that one the best - they are always sure that the drug laws don't protect anyone and drugs never hurt anyone - but then everyone believes in fairy tales when they are young and foolish, or old and foolish. Still, everything inside the library is finishing with "it doesn't matter they are going to close this place soon", no matter what the subject, the problem, the service, the END is near.

So, I am looking at changing work - or just retiring at sixty-two (nah, I would die if I retired too early), but this whole economic downturn might be designed to move me into another field (I am so self centered). If I wasn't so good at paying my taxes properly I could have worked for Obama in Washington, DC. Now I will have to see what is out there I can help with in America's future, which is where I seem to have spent most of my life. All because the elected representatives couldn't manage a budget - is there a message there?

I may never have mentioned it but...

I was broken by the end of the Vietnam tour, or molded into the fellow I fool the world with, doesn't matter about the carving me out of the boy and grinding me into a man, but I remain very interested in the military, history and arts of war and will. I follow most of the space combat, good fantasy adventures and techno-thrillers. I have followed Stephen Hunter since Master Sniper - love both Earl (my Name!) and Bob Lee Swagger (Robert E. Lee is one of my heroes) and in the 47th Samurai I find another Vietnam Vet that is sixty and still a dangerous old man - certainly more dangerous than I could ever claim to be - nice story, fairy tale ending, but nice story.

Jerry Pournelle answers a question about an Introduction he made to a David Drake book titled Hammer's Slammers. It is titled "Mercenaries and Military Virtue" and worth the read, but then I am not giving up my copy of that book. I hear rumblings that Andy Rooney doesn't see any heroes now in America, and I laugh knowing where they all are - and they aren't in the media circles that Andy hangs with, the celebrities and politicians of note (they aren't risking anything for others, are they?). Andy saw heroes, he knows they exist but knows the current culture tries to make them out fools and foolish -- the stuff of myth and legends - fairy tales. In the age of Reason one needs the Romantic, in the era of Romance only those ruled by Reason prevail... or something like that. The heroes are all out there, getting up every day to fight the dragons, to bring in the treasures, to risk it all for someone else, for others in need, for the fears before the deed. But when victory is in the number of dollars one has control of - there isn't a culture appreciating heroes - just the greedy grubbers that haven't been caught. Shame - less, and without Honor - not the stuff of my heroes.

My wife doesn't understand my laughing...

I have proof of Global Warming, the upper left old guy pushing the bagger cleaning up the yard was from February and he was so proud that he had done something to make Earth more Eden-like. Now it is March, he traveled over 280 miles this weekend through rain, sleet, hail and snow to help train three new Riflemen, and about twelve soon to be's, getting up early after a wonderful dreamfull sleep to check the blogging community and notice they never missed me - and my wife awakes to cancel her doctor's appointment to stay home until the snow melts. One would think as fast as Congress and the President are burning money in Washington there wouldn't be any snow anywhere - carbon foot prints of Giants, just ask them. Anyway, I must drop back into the real world, I didn't fire one round the entire weekend but I was talking targets, history of America, and helping teach and coach America's future Riflemen. Isn't the snow beautiful? God loves us.

Just two thoughts to share while standing in line...

the line at the Courthouse for my renewal of my Concealed Carry License.

Thought number one - why are all these normal looking people here in this line - so many in front of me and as I move forward, so many behind me. An Obama effect? nah, couldn't be.

Thought number two, having been in the Driver's License line at DMV and now this line at the Courthouse - how is government providing/support/control of medical care going to make my world better? Well, yours anyway, I have been receiving government assistance on my medical care for a long time --- and as it was noted when I was a Drill Sergeant and they took me to the head of the treatment line -- when a Drill Sergeant goes on Sick Call he is really sick.

Get the young into the woods, not virtually...

You know what derivatives are? They are a bet by a banker, and they don't call them bets because they are bankers and they don't gamble, although they take some risks - and then want bailed out when their risks go bad. My point is that urban living and technology have deprived the young of the romps in the woods, I don't think many are manning a trap line for money, I helped a friend on his when I could (pre-1964) - us city slickers didn't know how many muskrats were around to trap. modern man (Me?) seems locked into Super Market bargain shopping, and my father (as a boy) brought squirrels home for the pot, my grandfather introduced me to picking bird shot out of pheasants. So I thought about that Master Hunter program of Washington State, and translated it into German immediately, JaegerMeister. Which someone remembers is a fine alcoholic beverage. That isn't it and I was looking at it for the wrong reasons (those German dinner jackets are so cool), I just wanted another excuse to go shoot the best I could. They do want you to qualify with your hunting weapon. Well, I was oriented yesterday in Olympia and I am really happy with the program. So I am sending in my application today, and after church I went to try my hand at the rifle qualification and passed the off hand at fifty yards, but not the hundred yard one, yet. See, I am only in it for the challenges and am willing to work on passing all of the requirements. Then the fun stuff comes along, assisting in hunter educations, repairing elk fences, chasing strays (city folks keep moving to the woods), and wildlife projects . I am big on hunting, just not on being a blaze orange target during season and I really like the idea of helping young men learning how to shoot safely and hunt with care the land and its bounty.

Civilian Marksmanship Program

Civilian Marksmanship Program :

 Normally, we average receiving 2,000 - 3,000 sales orders per month
 and ship an order in 2-3 weeks. However, these are not normal times.
 Since October, 2008 we have been receiving 5,000 - 10,000 orders per
 month, which is several times normal. As a result, we are very back-
logged and running several weeks behind on processing orders. Our
 staff is working up to 12 hours per day 7 days a week, and only to-
day finished the 4,000 orders we received on 1 December alone (except
 for those 1 Dec orders with credit card or other problems).

Well, we can start over, can't we?

Now, most of the people I know aren't completely overwhelmed by Bush's and Obama's Economic Crisis. Tulips just aren't that critical to most of our fortunes, so contracts for tulip bulb potential values aren't going to sink us when the Federal Government decides not to honor them nor subsidize them. Honest, and when my wife and I decided to buy a home (in every one of the five we have owned over thirty-seven years of marriage) we never bought one that I couldn't manage to pay the mortgage insurance and taxes and still buy food and utilities and clothing from my income. I also never thought of my home as my retirement income (reverse mortgage) nor as potential for borrowing against the ever increasing value of the home (have lived in too many homes that didn't increase in value - one is always enough for me). I don't know what my credit score is, I don't care, if you don't want to lend to me - then we are in agreement, cause I have only enough time left on this side of Paradise to pay off what I owe now, not some new debt (no, I am not supporting the debt of foolish Congresses and Presidents). Because I have been observing that Americans are supposed to live well above their means, to borrow and pay back forever (according to the commercials on television, and the infomercials, the current situation comedy - daily dramas and Oprah). My truth is that I have to be responsible and pay my way, I expect y'all will, too.

Now, that fine looking country over there, los Estados Unidos de América,(that has been blamed for selling all those guns to the Mexican Drug gangs, and buying all their drugs), that country is going to have a real problem living as high as they have been. Borrowing money on income they don't have and squandering what they have so they can do less and live largely lazy watching idiot boxes telling them how to be younger and beautiful and sexy. I see a bunch of debts coming due, needing to raise their credit limit and having to pay higher interest to borrow to pay off current debts and operating costs, and people and businesses going elsewhere for opportunity - instead of the land of higher taxes and more regulations and imprisonment and fines. Oh, you think you can sell this "I know what is best for you and you will do it my way or the highway!" I won't buy it, I have lived elsewhere, and I can again. Anyway, it will be interesting to see America fold to the pressure of their bankers (foreign nations of different values and opinions) to be perceived as a strong independent superpower (trying to stay ahead of the Chins, Li's and Saudis?).

And is it only I that see the terrorizing bubble-headed budgets that the Presidents have been playing with and proposing being an indication that even the government is going to live far beyond its means? I mean, if the President were serious he could rent those other rooms in the White House, charge more for his signature and photo opportunities and have special days at the mansion like they do at the ball fields and football stadiums. He could get his own bullet proof vest and concealed weapon and allow the Secret Service to go back to finding the counterfeiting criminals. But then where I would find a second job or start a business to add income in a personal family economic crisis, or all the adults and almost adults would get work or do more in the home and 'chip in' to make all the ends meet for our lives and our dreams - well, I guess some people just go out and party larger and harder, and hold up signs saying they will work for food while hoping to get a twenty in pity. What were they thinking, or weren't they?

I am too hard on the GOOD INTENTIONS of the people representing me in government, because I don't have faith that they will pay the price for their mistakes, they really expect me to pay the price - cause I am just that good a guy.

Well, because I am who I am, a quick story update about the prison library. The fellow I banished from the library for his behavior, the one that tried to kill me with my own bad blood pressure, tried to start some fights with my workers and was such a pain the Corrections Officers made sure he got his medications and was put in solitary for his security and everyone else's peace of mind. Yeah, the one I picked three special books for him to read while he was there and the information he had been looking for the night before. That guy walked up to my counter in the library and said that he wanted to say he was "Sorry". He had just been released from his two weeks in the Hole and was making things right. So we talked a little about why he was acting that way (drugs and fright flight) and how he was doing now. My big question was did he get the books I had picked especially for him, he had and he proudly told me that he read them all. Works for me!

What I learned at work today...

Newsweek has another bright red cover, and declares that Obama has a Confidence Game going... working with inmates that always have a confidence game going I knew I recognized the entire Economic Stimulus Program as one of the biggest Confidence Games going... but I won't be the sucker, I didn't sign the promissory notes, nor vote on passage of the total foolish package. President Obama should have lined out the bad parts and sent it back. Not to worry, it doesn't matter to the inmates nor I.

Lots of good work done in the library, and the crowning point of my day was during the last thirty minutes. I got called a name, okay, not such a big deal, but I like being called Earl and I don't like being called "Boss" not by my crew or anyone else trying to "con" me (not that President Obama ever could - doesn't he smoke?) anyway an inmate approached and said "Jefe, the other Jefe over there said I had to make it right." and I was laughing in my heart so hard it cracked my best grin out over my face. I fixed his status so he could borrow books again and went over at closing and talked to that other Jefe about our new titles - and he denied he was a Jefe... I don't like Mexican and Mexican-American gangs, but I do like real people doing the best they can, more Mexican readers the better. Another Absent Father wants some good books on Creative Ways to teach his children ABCs and Numbers, and now I am, too. Good day, better night.