Someone just had their signing ceremony to play power forward for Satan’s basketball team today.  The main refrigerator compressor at the Dare to Care food bank in Louisville was broken into last night and the copper coils were ripped out.   That freezer holds 100,000 pounds of meat, which is distributed to needy people and soup kitchens in the area.  I’ve done some volunteer work for Dare to Care, and I can confirm that they’re good people trying to do good works.

It’s sad that I’m not shocked.  People are starting to get desperate, and things like this are beginning to become commonplace.  But in this instance I just have to shake my head.  Dare to Care is one of the few charities that I’ve seen actually make a positive impact.  People that are desperate enough to steal parts of a refrigeration system are only a couple steps up the ladder from needing their services.

The TV news reports that Kroger has committed to helping out with cold storage if necessary.  Hopefully repairs will be in place before that becomes necessary.  I imagine that the new compressor will come with a security cage.

And I hope the goobers who stole the coils enjoy doing two a days for Beelzebub.

Who Watches the Watchers Department

• The chief of Immigration and Customs Enforcement in South Florida is being investigated for child porn
•  A judge in California is in trouble for allegedly making traffic tickets disappear for relatives and friends.
• A former leader in Michigan politics and talk radio host has been arrested on child molestation charges.
• Yet another air traffic controller was asleep at the switch while planes were landing, this time in Reno.

Money Don’t Buy  Class Department

• A group of Hollywood celebrities made a series of ‘funny’ commercials in an inane attempt to stop trafficking in women for sex.
• An NFL football player was arrested, along with his passenger, after leading police on a high speed chase.

Servicemembers United, an advocacy group for gay military members, is scratching their collective head about why they’ve been rejected by the First Ladies office after they asked to be included in an event for military families.

“They just made it abundantly clear we weren’t welcome there — which is strange,” Nicholson said. His organization put out a written statement attributing the White House decision to “lingering political homophobia.” 

Dude, it’s not political homophobia.  Your group supported Obama in the election, and then had the temerity to believe he should make good on the promises he made to get elected.  He didn’t get rid of “don’t ask, don’t tell”, the Congress did.  Hint:  The Democrat controlled Congress could have done that all the way back in 2006.  Pelosi and Reid did it as a poke in the eye to the Repubs just before they lost power in the House and weakened in the Senate.  Obama didn’t call for Congress to do this, and they didn’t do it because, as a block, they tend to get a lot of support from gay people.  He needed you for some photo-ops yelling “Yes we can!”, and then dropped you like a hot rock as soon as the votes were tallied.  Don’t feel bad, Bush did the same thing to fiscal conservatives back in 2001 and 2005.


So now you’re getting an icy reception from an extremely political White House, and you’re surprised?  Sorry, but you helped put him in the office, now you can deal with how he acts.   But while you’re under the Obama Bus, could you check for loose joints?  It’s starting to rattle and squeak a bit. It’s been driving over a lot of people shaped bumps over the past few years.  

I’m not trying to be a ghoul here, but I’m not surprised that Hosni Mubarak has been put in the hospital with an unspecified condition.  My guess is that he will quietly die in his sleep in the next few days, which will miraculously keep all the dirty laundry of the Egyptian government from being aired.  His family will decide that the best way to deal with their grief will be to move en masse to a small country with no extradition treaties and a warm climate.  The Egyptian mobs will have a temper tantrum, then a middle-management group of scapegoats will be offered up and hung.

Why do I get the feeling that all of this is going to play out in this manner?  Because I’ve seen this movie before.  When the communist regimes in eastern Europe dissolved, a lot of the dictators or their close advisors died of some quick acting malady and were blamed for a lot of the repressive behavior.  Look for this formula to be repeated as dictators in the mid-East are pushed from power.

OK, I’m not a car guy.  I love the way that Corvettes made in the 1950’s and 1960’s look, and I love early model Mustangs, but who doesn’t?  The sportiest car I’ve ever owned was a 1991 Dodge Shadow, and I didn’t even get the V6 model.  I drive a mini-van or a bare bones pickup truck.  I also know that with a small kid in the picture, I will probably be too old to enjoy a sports car by the time my family is sized right for a two-seater.  Sadly, I will never be in a position to, as Tam puts it, “haul nothing but ass”.  I’ve been hoping that my next car will be a little more fun and less of a dad-mobile, but my hopes aren’t that high.

But the other day I saw one of these, and I discovered automotive lust:

I’ve never been that impressed with German cars.  I drove Opels, VW’s, and BMW’s in Germany, and they didn’t trip my trigger any more than driving a Dodge or a Chevy.  Mercedes were nice, but not nice enough to pay Mercedes prices.

This little honey, though, looked like polished sex on wheels.  I will have her.  Oh yes, she will be mine.  I’ll just have to find someone who wants a 40 year old kidney and lung in great condition.

Bluesun has a good post up about a Christian group that is advocating gun control.  The central theme seems to be that a good Christian will not defend himself, instead “turning the other cheek”.

Here’s my response:

   ⁹And he brought him to Jerusalem, and set him on a pinnacle of the temple, and said unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down from hence:
   ¹⁰For it is written, He shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee:
   ¹¹And in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone.
   ¹²And Jesus answering said unto him, It is said, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.

As Christians, we trust in the Lord to do the right thing for us, even if it’s not always pleasant, but we understand that the role of God is not to provide for us, nor is it to protect us in every way.  He made us thinking, reasoning creatures, so we are responsible for ourselves.  We should always strive towards the ultimate goal of loving our fellow human beings as we would want to be loved, but that does not mean we should let go of our responsibility to protect ourselves and those dear to us.

The “turn the other cheek” thing has also been explained to me as “Don’t give the bastard the satisfaction of a response”, as opposed to “Stand there and take it rather than fight back”.  The chaplain that gave that sermon to soldiers certainly knew his audience.

If this is a repeat of the Great Depression, we’re only in 1932.  Buckle up, it’s going to be a bumpy ride.

Today, Confederate forces under the command of General Beauregard began the bombardment of Fort Sumter.  This action was the spark that lit the powderkeg of the American Civil War. 

The South spent the next four years learning the hard lesson that no matter how well led or how brave your soldiers are, if you can’t feed them, arm them, and replace losses in both privates and generals, you will lose in a long war against a foe that has a deep bench of generals, a huge pool of young men, and an industrial base that can crank out guns, wagons, shoes, uniforms, and food as fast as it is needed.

The family legend I heard growing up was that my Irish ancestor got off the boat, learned that there was money to be made signing up for the Army, and signed up with one of the local regiments for the bonus.  He then moved over a few blocks, signed up with another regiment, took the bounty, and moved on again.  The third time his timing was a bit off, and there wasn’t time for him to slip away to continue his entrepreneurship before he was marched south.  Thus began my tradition of military service and being sneaky.

The Civil War was the bloodiest war in American history, and saw the transformation of warfare from a gentleman’s pursuit to an industrial endeavor.  By the end of the war, at least on the Union side, muzzle-loading rifles and muskets were being replaced with breech loading single-shot and repeating rifles.  Telegraphs and railroads were being used as weapons of war.  Military leaders were learning that destroying a field army was easier if you destroyed the supply chain that fed it first. 

Every so often, someone on the Internet spouts off about the necessity of another Civil War.  I’ve heard the family legends, read the histories, and walked the battlefields and cemeteries.  It is my earnest hope that it will never be necessary for Americans to kill Americans again.  We are better served with reform and elections in Washington than we would be with bullets and bombs in Los Angeles.