Wandering, copying and posting for y'all...

I really liked this. Since I really hadn't thought about where Laconic reply came from. I learn so much from the internet and am missing breakfast. Thanks to J. Huff.

The best and the brightest and the results...

Well, I was proud to go and cover for Doug, who is on a well deserved vacation, at the Washington Corrections Center for Women. Remember I do try to avoid them, and my wife admonished me not to wink at anyone while there today, laughingly. So I drove off and reported on time, in uniform (pocket protector and tie - the things I hide behind). I found I could open Doug's locker, and leave my keys, and I got to come back and leave my wallet, too. But I had no chit to turn in for library keys, and when confronted with the irregular and unexpected the institution shut me out. The shift Lieutenant couldn't issue me a temporary chit, and I could have hung around all day and collected my pay - but the library never would have opened. Sigh

I called the Associate Superintendent to report that I had been there and couldn't help their library, but I tried. I drove off, paid my four dollars for crossing the bridge over the Narrows - if it weren't so cold and the octopi so large I might try swimming to save the money next time. Anyway, I stopped at the Western State Hospital to report, request a leave and report that I have managed to keep two library branches closed instead of only one. Somedays, I should just stay in bed it is always warmer there than the cold, cruel world awaiting me - but then I could try to warm it up for the rest of humanity - start with a smile, a gentle attitude and sure knowledge that I am going to be loved by someone today. My supervisor sent off quick emails and got the corrections requested - she was going to cover tomorrow and Thursday, and I will try again on Friday --- wish me luck.

Keeping and bearing arms... normally...

there is a bear loose on McNeil Island, and for some fool reason they are going to try and trap it and release it in another better area. The bear swam to the island, because it saw it as a better area already... no body is asking the bear. But they aren't discussing the location of the bear on the radio anymore -- do you think there is a ranger missing?

I was host and trainer for a visiting Library Keeper from the Women's Corrections Center, he normally has twenty patrons when he is open. He was visiting for familiarization and preparing to replace me for a few days while I go off to tropical paradise with my much better half. He told me that once he has replaced me that I will be expected to replace him some time - I have ducked working in the women's facility for many years now, I hope to continue the streak. It was interesting to see my facility and what I do from another's eyes. So we had a good time, got a lot of work done and the differences in the patrons and the interlibrary loan load was quickly obvious. The Institutional Library Service is understaffed, and any illness, family emergency, general time off for exotic vacations or NRA conventions has to be answered by some coverage (normally by the Supervisors that have their own work) or just closing the library - and a closed library sucks (according to one irate inmate).

There was the kind of frenzy with Acquisitions about purchase order shopping for McNeil Island's library, but they came through with the faxed authority and amounts and I put up the signs saying that the library is closed on Thursday so Earl can go shopping for books. They gave me $2400 plus to spend, I will be hitting two bookstores and have made the coordination calls and have a shopping list, which helps but never enough. Still I know what will fill in the dollars I haven't dedicated yet.

Home to wife and Summer, the motorcycle purring under me, an admiring comment from an observer as I wait by an intersection, keeps me smiling, ya know? Oyster stew last night, and clam chowder tonight all from the shores of Washington State, thank you beachcombing wife. I finish my evening with more work on the M1 Garand, study, disassemble, maintain and reassemble. Having so few rounds left for the Paratrooping Red Monkey Zombie hordes, I will have to start shooting the Stevens target rifle again, and rebuild the supply of 30-06.

I heard a story at the range, seems a young woman came into (inherited upon the passing of a family member) some firearms, and not being involved in shooting nor politically as aware as she is now -- she got rid of them, safely. Sigh, reminds me of the Corvette Stingray in the barn behind the old rusting junk... and makes me wish I had been there to see what the firearms were. Well, she is a Rifleman now, and will be looking seriously for a rifle - if she shows up at your shoot, encourage her to try your rifle out and tell her about it. She will only need two - one that shoots twenty-two and one of larger faster bullets - I thought a .223 would work, but what would I know?

Violence Never Solved Anything...

One of my mother's favorite "I know so much better than you" quotes to squander upon my bold boy being brutal mind... I didn't believe it then and I still don't. I grew up fighting, and that was a good thing. Watch most mammals you Evolutionists and see the dominate males snap, push and shove the younger males into line - playfully, until they later have to drive them off to keep the fertile females for themselves. For those looking for religious reasons for little Johnny to fight it is in almost every religious text, myth and fairy tale. Fighting for the benefit of the pride, the clan, the community is heroic and necessary for the survival of the species, so God and Science do approve.

So I have been worried about this constant chatter from the more wonderful thinking folks of the Left (mostly) that have zero tolerance for school yard squabbles. Force young boys to spend eight hours somewhere and not clench one's fists and toss a quick punch in frustration - why you might have to drug them into better behavior. Without the release of those fight and flee chemicals in violent conflict you could get some sick puppies -- now I do know the difference between fighting and killing, and I don't hold with the young folks running around killing each other, but then I see someone that hasn't fought jumping to picking up guns and blasting bullets as the only way to settle those strange thoughts, so sad.

If you fight, with fists and fury, you will often lose and that is an important lesson. If you fight you will notice that bigger, smarter, faster and competent makes a big difference but ready and willing still counts. You will notice after large numbers of attitude adjustments that sometimes diplomacy is required to live to fight another day, that the kid with guts that stood up to your best punches and kept coming is exactly your type of guy and if you were old enough you would buy a beer for him - so he might become your best buddy instead. There are many male life lessons that depend on the fighting and the growth of other ways to settle conflicts - which only come from fighting in that famous free school - the School of Hard Knocks.

About the picture - around Christmas 1968, I am twenty and a sergeant and I left my date twice to go outside and fight at the Battery party. She thought that a little strange. In 1993 at another formal function (Senior NCOs, Officers and dates) another Command Sergeant Major asked my wife if she would like to dance, she said he would have to ask her husband, her husband asked him if he would like to fight before or after the dance, he didn't - so my wife had no dance and I got no fight, sigh. The proper answer was to fight after the dance... I do wonder if those that want to have only peace understand the light that a woman might have in her eyes when her man is fighting for her and the things they believe in... ah, I only know a little about the fighting and nothing about the romance stuff, but I do think there could be a connection...

Conversations with my self... the guy I hardly know...

I wake early, dreams of running roads in the military (do they still do that?) individuals, pairs, groups, clumps and platoon to brigade formations running in the morning calling the Sun up, getting the sweat out of the alcohol before the shower will take the stink of Strawberry Hill away. Loved that part of the Army, my life was five mile minimums for so long. I have returned to road work, the foot feels fine the weather is almost perfect and my body protests weakly but that has to do with overcoming the Gravity of the LazyBoy recliner and the Winter fat. I am not going to get seriously into shape - no racing, competitions, Mister Hardbody calls, nope, I am an old man and being able to move is all I want now. You all know that walking thirty miles a day, or jogging with the dogs on the hunt for twenty to twenty-five miles is the base humans were designed for, seven days a week, fifty-two weeks a year until your teeth were ground down or fell out or competing tribes of other peoples attacked and ate you if you weren't better armed or aggressive. Someone out there thinks we should have talked about it, but there are only so many women around to take and convert to our way.

This is the birthday of several people and the Earth, I guess. Happy Birthday, Wyatt! Melissa! I have only awe of a planet that would put up with me and the rest of Humankind, which aren't too much (kind). Wyatt provides my look at beautiful women that I would never be brave enough to talk to (my favorite war story is when the Miss America contestants were flown into our firebase, and we had to put shirts on, and they were so nice and friendly and I couldn't say one word - not even thanks for being here and being you - nothing, I was so unworthy). Melissa is another Library Keeper, and she called for some of my knowledge yesterday, she didn't get much but not her fault. I found out that she has been to a Boomershoot in her past -- now that makes two library women that are not within their stereotype, the world has more surprises if I just pay attention.

I didn't ride my motorcycle while I was Appleseeding, but the last two days have been right in the perfect and don't miss the opportunity zone (so I haven't), I keep wondering if anyone that doesn't ride a motorcycle understands when I wiggle the bike that it is a reflection of the great fool grin hiding under my face shield? I pick up and load out the Caravan and depart for Idaho today - so my blogging will slow to a stop, I don't have a portable PC which is one step I might make to being electronically leashed, but being frugal (or just plain cheap, take your pick) I travel light. I do have to work on my community service today, the yard must be attacked, clipped, edged and groomed. So I have things to check off my list so the world according to Earl will be as good as he can make it. I tried to clean up the McNeil Island Library yesterday, I had started my day with a little briefing for four visiting ladies, about the library and what we offered the inmate patrons in materials and services, then worked the day through with my three almost four man crew, we haven't seen the last hired since they took him off for mental evaluation. As I am going to Boomershoot I worried about the library, but the Program Manager and my Librarian Supervisor are covering the three days, so all services will remain - and some will be done so much better than I could ever manage. I will get questions about why some things are the way they are, I will get some kind of mention of that isn't the way something is supposed to be done (I miss a lot of memos), but I am always glad if they still let me have the job when I return with all my faults found. My crew has been admonished to report to work on movements not earlier, and I told them that I expect them to report to work and to do the best they can in the library and working with the ladies (they keep saying they want more time in the yard but they aren't serious). They will reveal secrets about their versions of the library operations that I don't even know, and since they are a more mature crew I likely won't hear about how I appear to them from my supervisors when I return. I do know that they will tell me everything that the ladies do that is better than I (okay with that) and all that the ladies didn't do while I was gone that I would have (I do keep explaining that the supervisors still have their own jobs to do at the same time they are keeping the library open - there isn't any slack in our operating staff, everyone has to do more than the Governor and government pays for).

And just to wrap this up, those wonderful women that visited my firebase in Vietnam, had more Field Grade support in cool uniforms with Black Ops guns and air coverage than the poor under strength Infantry platoon that came out of the bush to secure our base while we packed up and departed. I was very proud to lend our shower to the Grunts and show them how to heat the water in the fuel barrel, so they could have a hot one. Would have done it for the ladies but they were flown back to the civilized section of the warzone, with airconditioned trailers, hot water and hot meals. Still thanks for coming by, it is good to remember what we were fighting for.

Economic Stimulus passed in Earl's era... and area

Well, the President wasn't doing it, the Treasury wasn't doing it, Congress grilled the Banker Boys (soon to be replaced by women!) about busying the bucks Bush blew their way, and HR 45 hasn't died a decent death (stomped deep into the mud works for me) --- so I went and stopped at the local retailer and looked for new shoes, bought two pair and that should be my fair share. The economy should be shaken and stirred now. One pair made in China and one pair made in Vietnam, help the W.O.G.s out of their slow down.

I came home and found my package from USAMidway, with 5 rd clips (2 ea), spotting scope (1 ea) and a Master Catalog #32 (dare I open it?). Wife was away, I heat the soup and wonder why my brother lives in a city with nut cases in charge of schools and fears of tape, wood and looks like a weapon of massive destruction.

I do know that everything the government regulates slows progress down - how fast can you go through an intersection with blinking red lights, as opposed to one with a timed signal, depends on the time of day, doesn't it? Just trying to read the instructions for the tax code a perfect example, that is a government program and a true performance indicator. Now, if you want to get the economy going - get a job, start a business (do both even better), buy essentials and something special for those you love and care for, go to bed, get up every day and repeat. You don't need credit to do this (nice to be able to borrow, but...) the economy is really the movement of goods and services, having real money and sound credit make it easier than bringing home an elephant you traded your labor for. If Newsweek and the new improved, ignoring the Constitution, government of President Obama think that socialism is the wave I want to ride - they aren't leading me anywhere -- and I don't push well either, old cranky man to be avoided. We have a Department of Education, and the high school graduates have more sex than I did at their age - but gosh, I had a real education and a future without having to try Community College - I didn't really have to do the first two years of college in 1972 when I started thinking about it, I could pass all the courses offered. But then the Federal government didn't have an education department - are we and y'all sure the government can handle this crisis? or are they going to make noise and allow us to fix it?

Remember: get a job, start a business (do both even better), buy essentials and something special for those you love and care for, go to bed, get up every day and repeat.

Back on the Island in the Library...

I keep forgetting the thousands of people that are waiting for news about the Library, so here goes. I have had my annual evaluation: I am found to be in compliance more often than not, I am a bit better when working with others, I am keeping the Gang of Three posted and aware, will have to check the banned books list more often, and I have weeding priorities scheduled with my monthly reports. I feel much better this year than last - since being thought of (and on record) as not polite shamed my parents' best efforts and myself. Only five more to go?

The Audit team for the ACA certification had their three day visit, and the entire prison glowed - but I am mostly proud of two and a half of the library work crew and the Corridor Porter as technical expert in the wax, fast buffer (red pad, white pad), cold water or snapback. They put a mirror finish on the library floor yesterday morning that was remarkable - and so I am remarking about it. If the bakery were open I would be buying them a dozen doughnuts apiece, might even plug in the coffee pot if I didn't fear it would spoil them. The Audit went well, the Superintendent sent us an email saying so and I forwarded it to my bosses.

We have been hitting the weeding hard, and finding way too many books with pages missing, pictures removed and in general destroyed for petty gratification. Discouraging, since there was a comment posted on our Institutional Library Services blog about how Washington Prison Libraries have a reputation for quality materials and service, if we are a bit discouraged what is it like caring for a library that is completely falling apart? The destroyed books are removed from the collection, the ones that wore out are replaced - and I love replacing books that have been read a few hundred times to the point un-repairable. But I almost cry about the ones that Stupid destroyed for his personal pleasure - and it doesn't help when someone says - well we are in a prison everyone here is a lawbreaker. Our recently re-elected Governess has been scrabbling to find a couple tons of money - she will be right behind the next bailout plan - since most of her tax money is from latte sales and they aren't hot except at the bikini bottomed Latte stand. Overall she is looking at cutting services and programs and although prisons can't be cut - she says - the stuffing inside of them is up for grabs. The inmates will get cheap comic books and boring government manuals for self improvement in their future.

Which brings me back to the coming new Hope, I am thinking the heat under the pot we have all been swimming in will get turned up. Don't know if it will boil us before we jump or not, but I have seen two comparisons that remind me about how fragile civilization is for a country and voter choice having dire results - the election of Hitler (he didn't seem to have bad things in mind for Germany) and the elections in Rhodesia that produced Zimbabwe - going from a country that fed millions to one that can't feed itself. If pirates from Somalia, that fine country of gangs and clans and tribes, can take ships at sea and the civilized world looks on fearing insurance rates might go up, I wonder if it isn't time to allow the whole thing to collapse. Lets us all go hide under our beds until the uglies get hauled off by the enlightened government of goodness sakes. Then I remember that I am working in a prison library, the shelves and patrons are full of fantasy and ugly reality, I have to bring some order find the correct information and attempt, one patron at a time, to make a difference -- my posterity depends on it. Yours does, too. Be careful out there.

No more credit? Delayed gratification rules...

I worked in high school, made enough money that I could buy a well abused Harley-Davidson as old as I was - seventeen years old. My father helped get it home and we tore it apart to rebuild it - he was flying corporate and could visit old Harley shops around the country and pick up parts - my only talent was sanding and removing old layered paint and holding stuff that needed two extra hands while a bolt was run in or through. It was one of the best things I was doing during those years, and it was with my Dad.

Funny, that threat of no credit to buy cars doesn't mean that much to me. My father bought his last car, used, and paid in cash I guess. His problem with the cost of the car wasn't the total price, what he had problems with was that it cost more than the home he and my mother lived in - inflation is an amazing thing. My first car was used, I was spending all my money on a new wife, not that we had a lot - I wasn't borrowing for that either, paid cash or waited to buy when we could afford it.

The thought of not having people trying to get me on a new credit card, a new car loan, and a new improved mortgage is wonderful. The idea that if I wanted to travel I would have to have a bunch of money in the savings account works well for my wife, she is going to her homeland next year to help rebury family, but it is all cash - she hates it when I borrow money.

Rumor from Asia, there was a general that took charge of his country, wanted to build it up like Japan had done after WWII. He went to America to get some financing, and the Democratic President said NO, there would be no money for dictators. Well, that was the rumor, and so the guy in charge went and gathered all the wealthiest men in his little country. He told them how much money they needed to come up with to start his industrialization program. They listened and thought about it, and then almost decided that they weren't going to find that money. But he was the guy in charge and rumor has it, that they weren't every going to leave that room if they didn't come up with the financing. So they put together a package and left the room and the industrialization began, and the exporting of talented people so they could send hard currency to the home country, the exporting of contractors, engineers, products and ships. They exported a couple of Divisions of military and gained cash from that. The economy grew and the country remade itself from sleepy agricultural to industrial manufacturing. Almost everyone wanted to own a business instead of working rice paddies. I knew he was in charge, but what amazed me was when he declared that rice straw couldn't be used for roofing anymore - they were a modern country and not that poor. So the straw came down and tiles, metal and other kinds of roofing went up. Yep, he was definitely in charge and transformed his country.

I am sure America is much farther along in the development cycle, and losing weight from our flabby self indulgence might be a very healthy thing. Forbes had a list of the 400 richest Americans, didn't it? How much are they going to pay to prop up the Banking industry? Much more than I can, I am sure, I am more consumer than investor. I will keep paying my bills and adding what I can to the Credit Union accounts so they can lend it out. If the man from Omaha can come out and invest money, I am sure some of those other names with too many dollars of worth could, too. Saving banks is a rich man's game, my job is saving my family.

I do know that a major Depression changed a whole generation into savers and 'do without' and 'make do' and pay cash. My grandmother wouldn't allow my grandfather the money for a new car, she was waiting until the bad times returned. Those that don't study History are doomed to repeat it. And for her, once was more than enough.

Just a muse or two....

The Neo-Neocon has a post that I found interesting, seeing that McCain is an almost failure for graduating near the bottom of his class at the Naval Academy - doesn't the Left know that getting into a service academy puts you in the elite? Oh, they do think that only losers serve in their country's military don't they? They jumped on "go to jail or go into the Service" for a certain son - remember the previous sentence only losers go into the military service of their country, and remember why they stay - because they can't get a job on the outside. Or so they say, I remember watching a basketball game and talking with a guy that was going to go work for something like the CIA since the war was over, I decided to stay in the Army and get ready for the next one - it was 1973. Just couldn't stand the unemployment lines on the outside, I guess, but then I wasn't of the Left. Of course the idea that the military forces that serve the country might just be a very important unique elite never is understood by those sipping Latte and talking about the latest in doctorate degrees and cites. I do not think much about stereo-typing, Rednecks, Country bumpkins, or Ridgerunners and many of the other common folk the best families seem to come from, so I shouldn't be so hard on the Left. In Asia, the cultures believe that manners, sympathy and empathy are critical to being a Human Being, and anything less is just an animal aping a real person.

I was looking at some words on the internet, you should recognize them:

A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.

Political tags -- such as royalist, communist, democrat, populist, fascist, liberal, conservative, and so forth -- are never basic criteria. The human race divides politically into those who want people to be controlled and those who have no such desire. The former are idealists acting from highest motives for the greatest good of the greatest number. The latter are surly curmudgeeons, suspicious and lacking in altruism. But they are more comfortable neighbors than the other sort.

My mother told me to always give credit where due, and she might not know that Robert A. Heinlein wrote both those quotes. I said it on a comment on another blog: The Lady with the Rifle and the Dead Caribou didn't do it to impress me, but it does.

I would have settled for Obama and hunting and cleaning ducks, but I guess he doesn't do that.

End of the World

Political certainty aside, the Mayan Civilization (which isn't working well anymore) predicted the end of the World by water or whatever in 2012, or MMXII. Having lived through the Y2K destruction of cybers spaced by short sighted programmers, I am not really concerned except for the WATER thing. Seems I have read a book that said Earth would not be destroyed by water, again. We have rainbows to remind us, unless you believe Scientiphick envidence that there never was a great flood during the last great Global Warming, caused by Cavemen with uncontrolled fires, hot climates with lots of green growing things eaten by large mammals that never returned after Cavemen started hunting with dogs and Clovis pointed spear tips. All always gored aside, the water thing still haunts me.

So how about this great Jupiter size drop of water, all H2O, sailing through space and striking the Moon and then Earth and why not? Maybe intelligent alien life was sending it to irrigate Mars and they missed by a bundle of miles and eons of time. It reads better than that old Y2K fear.

Well, all else being equal - high gasoline prices, food prices and taxes - I am all for washing it away to get down to the good stuff.

Sunday Sharpening

Fighting knives today, with my current carry boot knife on the far right for a size comparison. The one next to it is a NATO fighting knife, which when most NATO rifles are issued with a bayonet, makes me wonder who gets issued the fighting knife? The officers with their 9mm pistols won't wear a knife, so who gets the fighting knife? Maybe machine gunners and medics? I don't know, it is a lower carbon blade and gets sharpened with a file like a bayonet and can't be used to shave. It will cut in a slash and loves to be a stabbing weapon.

Next to it is the Gerber, with the angle so the handle would stay away from the body and sheath. It was one of the surprise great things that came out of Portland, Oregon. It came with a sharpening steel, and the serrated wasp waist edges in both directions - a great design but not necessary, a bit artsy for the true cutter and gutter - but one has to have soul. Gerber doesn't get made there anymore (Gerber isn't really Gerber any longer either). I picked it up during the Vietnam years, but it didn't go there with me, the Army and mail order got me many other blades, all left in country.

The famous Fairbairn from Britain, mine is marked England, but without the British Armory marks so it is only a great copy. A fully functional, if I had one worry it would be that the blade might snap near the point under pressure of the moment and a bone or hard joint in the way. Simple design, sharp edges in both directions and a point picked for ease of entry - slides into meat well.

Last is my prized possession from Fort Bennings School for Boys (Infantry OCS), a real Randall, from Orlando, Florida. My first "made for me" knife. I ordered it in 1967 and waited, went to Korea, and waited and finally got it in 1969, before Nam. I didn't take it to any wars, it with the Rosewood handle is waiting for that maple inlaid library desk, to sit posing as a large letter opener for the day some fool thinks I am under-armed. Nice knife, but an inch too long, I didn't know as much as I thought did then and I ate more ice cream, too. Eyes bigger than my stomach or any good sense. Still a lovely weapon, utility is important but I will never love an electric carving knife nor vaporal blade as much as my Randall.

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.

Nothing to Fear, but have you looked at...

The Twenty-first Century will be Asia's as the Twentieth was America's. America didn't finish off the second half as well as the first half promised - but I blame that on lazy and comfort and materialism - otherwise we would have permanent scientific establishments on the Moon and perhaps Mars. Our national priorities were too small, our government loves to dwell on what it can control and count, not enough dreamers and challenges to be met.

It doesn't matter, but one thing about the coming conflict with China has always been that the Chinese don't have a Navy and can't march their millions over to the United States to conquer us. That answer made me happy years ago, but as I travelled the country last week I watched the invasions that are already happening. Why, the Chinese are going to buy airplane tickets and we will fly them into our country and allow them to establish beachheads and bring on the following waves. The government already owes them Billions (I don't really know that, but politicians use that word all the time, so I will, too). That makes them our partner in international events, and even in consideration of our internal matters. The adoption of Chinese children and raising them as good Americans (which I support) doesn't sit well with the racists and Han Centerists of Asia. All this because we want cheaper goods to keep the restless American consumers happy and less likely to question the government's ineffectiveness and perhaps revolt some day. Not that I think there are that many revolutionists left... being willing to fight for something isn't a core value taught in schools where "Run, Duck and Cover" is taught before basic weapons safety and marksmanship. Although, if the American education system, where no child is left behind, were in charge of marksmanship I might have trouble finding combat experts and future snipers...

Nothing to worry about yet, but between our government and the possible future enemies in the world the chance for our best is at risk. One thing I do know, there are more good people doing the best they can, in our less than perfect system. So when the polishing and sharpening of the people comes in the times of trouble, we will be alright, just tired and older and saddened by the effort to survive.