Just wanted you to know, they were paying attention

I check what is written, and blog posts, and I watch for real people I would have loved. Got to be happy in life, there are so many Great Ones. Yeah, and he knew about shooting, well and for cause. Hope Heaven is happy, another good one to man the walls, watch from the towers and hold back the darkness.

Do read the story about the M1.

Just Getting Started...

Came home to hot supper, hot coffee and mail. Too cool. Two motorcycle magazines, One renewal request from the AMA and look -- Birthday wishes, my mutual funds want more investment for 2008, my Credit Union sends me a Birthday Card - with good wishes, my sister sends me a Birthday Card with good wishes in spite of knowing me, and the Neptune Society wants to help me, too. Ah, well, WWE RAW rules my time this evening, take care out there.

Poetry day in the library...

I know, no one really understands poetry - which is why Rap works for them that don't want to strain to understand. No, I really don't listen to Rap, and cannot say it isn't music nor poetry - if I had heard it I might say that, but I haven't. Still, one of my inmate workers wanted to know which poet said something like "To strive, to seek, to find, and..." or something like that. I have Google and I found it quickly and was amazed at how the poem spoke to me. That guy was almost me telling my story.

I am a big follower of Kipling, and e.e.cummings and Kim Addonizio but I am always willing to listen and read another that someone finds fine and listen to another melody in life's verses. So this should be on my epitaph - it won't be, too many words for the veterans marker, but if I think it should be required reading for all Social Security applicants, it would be a fine tribute to what I thought of this older elder me.

Tho' much is taken, much abides;
and though We are not now that strength
which in old days Moved earth and heaven;
that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.

Isn't it nice not to shoot anyone today (or want to)?

One of only two humans on the planet Earth that I would shoot to death without question has raised his ugly head again. No one is giving me the shot and so I don't take it, but someone should, actually if I feel those two deserve my best shot, then they should have been taken out a long time ago - normally one doesn't know the name nor the history of the people one kills in war - doesn't that fact make it all so much more proper. You didn't really know who you just killed, only that it was okay at the time in the place.

These evil people aren't forces of nature, but certainly when compared to the worst natural disaster they have longer lasting effect, why don't enlightened civilizations destroy them before they become such? Well, they will die of their mortality, but never soon enough and you don't need their names - if they died suddenly you might have been part of a conspiracy and there are better things to do with our lives - give love a chance.

Nice thing about being dangerous is...

Not too much. I think babies have it right, the first line of defense is a smile, the second is the loud red faced crying to gather helpful adult attention. I did grow out of the baby thing, and took to being me - fighting wasn't automatically a sin in a boy growing up - so I fought for fun, dominance or fright. I often wished I was still working on that smile, but other boys don't tolerate boys smiling at them... but they respected me when I could take my lumps or dish them out in return. I started carrying knives somewhere along the Cub Scout Boy Scout period, by junior high and high school there was no doubt that I would have a folding knife in my pocket, even owned a switchblade once, but never carried it - that was against the law.

I did get cast out of my second family's home for almost a year, because someone said I had used my knife in a fight or scuffle - I hadn't, and I don't really remember a fight or a scuffle with the people that said I had been there and had pulled a knife. When I was growing up a knife was something a Mexican would use in a fight, and like kicking (before Martial Arts boom) wasn't a MANLY way of fighting. The truth came out and I was re-invited to my second family's home again - which was always wonderful for me.

As an Airborne Artillery First Sergeant I allowed my paratroopers to carry knives and drape them on their combat gear. For three years we never had difficulty doing rigging nor de-rigging our equipment for or on airborne operations. Of course there would be excesses in size of the blades, cost of the blades, numbers of the blades - but I never had a problem with the blades being used in anger or assault of another paratrooper. Two First Sergeants after me didn't change the knife situation, but finally a good First Sergeant showed up and in six months he had them back to a proper size, and number of blades for real work instead of posing as some really bad airborne dudes.

In Hawaii, when my mother wanted to peel an apple she asked for my knife, my brother wondered how I had gotten a knife through the airport security, and I wondered how my mother knew I would have a knife to borrow. Some things are probably certain about some people, and I will have a blade or a reasonable replacement - I have been watching inmates with their house key, what they can cut through is almost amazing... technique not edged. Rogue Gunner has a nice blade and story I think worth the time.

So now in the days of the Second Amendment, and the contest between the gun lobby and the anti-gun gaggles (yes, I am allowed to chose the terms I label them with - they will do it to me) I am still encouraging responsible knife ownership and use. You see, I know about cutting flesh and blood flow - do it every time I really get to sharpening my blades, and I also know that one must get close and personal to fight with a knife - Jim Bowie is one of my heroes, he was great with the blade. The problem I see with pistols, in today's age, is that most people haven't gone to that level where they understand death done with guns, bullets striking flesh and breaking bones, and such -- too much Hollywood, and not enough time in the field taking down animals in the hunt (then picking them up and gutting them or butchering them for food). Somethings just don't happen as cleanly nor as ugly as film has made it.

But to be really dangerous one should know how dead a human will be when shot properly - they won't come back in next week's episode, or the next blockbuster hit - they will be waiting for you when you go to sleep and dream, as you start to accept them being there -- then you will be dangerous.

Went to say good-bye today and wondered...

A memorial, a celebration of a woman's life, was held in my church and I attended. For she was a great little old lady, she had a heart that would have been crowded in a giant and she loved her world well with it. I normally duck mentions of death, especially if I know the person and want to remember them alive -- in my mind they never leave, their memory and spirit are always present. I find the pictures of her as a young woman with a short skirt and a hulking dashing boy friend leaning on a truck interesting - I certainly didn't know her then, looking at her grand-daughter I can imagine her young and lovely, but I knew her as elder and frail and interested and happy. Her husband is going to be lost for a bit, she was the center of his world.

I keep reading about war, for I pretend that I understand it too well, and I found this on the Rogue Gunner's blog. My concerns about cultures that risk their women fade as I read and wonder at this pilot and her duty well done. Never doubted their bravery, never doubted their skills, only wonder at our culture's wasting warriors and wenches for fat politicians... I am probably wrong to value women as potential mothers, there are so many of them that won't be, shouldn't be, and can't be... but still, I think a loving mother is the best thing for a baby and child, and no government program will ever match nature's.