- John Richardson over at “No Lawyers – Only Guns and Money” brings up the latest ride of the Glock family drama llama. It’s pretty sad to watch a family that literally built their business up from nothing tear itself apart.
- John also points us to a new video series from the NSSF. The first few look pretty good, and are good reminders for experienced shooters and great resources for beginners.
- Speaking of which, Kathy Jackson points out the importance of following basic safety when training others. Monkey see, monkey do, and those whom others will model need to get it right. She also has an excellent follow-up.
- Looks like the Army is firing up the old “Let’s make a new helicopter” machine again. Let’s hope they have more success this time.
- Brigid talks about the importance of work, no matter what that work is. The only thing that’s missing from her post is a snapshot of the elf costume incident.
- I was wondering when we would start seeing this.
- A.D. had himself a squib. Luckily he figured it out before the earth-shattering kaboom.
- Tam has found that 1827 shots from her PPX is about what it takes to make it need a bath before working again. I’m impressed. Also, I have to admit that I think this is really cool.
All posts by daddybear71
Blogs Roundup
Posted by daddybear71 on October 16, 2014
https://daddybearsden.com/2014/10/16/blogs-roundup-49/
Movie Quotes – Day 289
I’m a parent. I haven’t got the luxury of principles. – The Patriot
A lot of things change when you have people depending on you. The jobs that were beneath you are welcomed, so long as they put food on the table. Suddenly that pack of smokes or that cup of designer coffee become a lot less important when the money could go to shoes or the light bill. You can survive on absolute crap for years when it’s just you, but you put a baby in a high chair, and suddenly you’re pricing fresh fruit and milk.
And yes, that minivan suddenly starts to look like a better option than the sports coupe when you have to find space for multiple car seats.
When others depend on you for the necessities of life, you’ll sacrifice a lot of who you think you are to make sure they are OK. That’s what being a wife, a husband, a father, or a mother is about. When someone else is more important to you than you are to yourself, then you’ve finally grown up.
Posted by daddybear71 on October 16, 2014
https://daddybearsden.com/2014/10/16/movie-quotes-day-289/
Deja Vu
My father served in Vietnam. Through him, I met men who were exposed to defoliants, and were fighting against cancers and other problems. I have many friends who served in the First Gulf War. A lot of them had odd illnesses that were lumped under the rubric “Gulf War Disease”.
Veterans from both of those conflicts had to work for years, sometimes decades, to have their maladies recognized as being real, much less service related. Administrations from both parties, along with a military establishment more worried about bad publicity and dwindling budgets than rewarding those who served, stonewalled them. I’ve watched strong, proud men cry out in pain and frustration as they try to deal with the issues caused by living and working in a contaminated environment.
Now, the New York Times is reporting that a new generation of fighters is getting the same treatment:
The New York Times found 17 American service members and seven Iraqi police officers who were exposed to nerve or mustard agents after 2003. American officials said that the actual tally of exposed troops was slightly higher, but that the government’s official count was classified.
Servicemembers, from EOD technicians to just the poor, unlucky men and women who stumbled across the infernal things, are dealing with the aftermath of exposure to chemical weapons. This isn’t residue, nor is it a trace amount. This is people, as part of their job, accidentally picking up a leaking artillery shell and getting bathed in the stuff. At least two were hit with sarin, and are still dealing with the damage that caused.
A lot is being said about how this either justifies the 2003 invasion of Iraq because the weapons were there or how it proves it was unjustified because the weapons were years old.
I don’t care about that.
What I care about is that right now, as we sit here, there are at least dozens of men and women out there who have had the fact that they were even exposed to chemical weapons branded a state secret. It appears that most of them did not receive the care they needed when they were hurt, and now they are fighting to get the care that they still need.
This has to stop. I do not want another generation of veterans to go without because it’s inconvenient or embarrassing. The Department of Defense and the VA need to do an exhaustive search for people who were injured by these poisons and make sure that they are OK. If they’re not, they need to get all the support that the most powerful nation in the world can give.
We sent them there. They did their job. It’s time we paid up.
Posted by daddybear71 on October 16, 2014
https://daddybearsden.com/2014/10/16/deja-vu/
Movie Quotes – Day 288
You know, you can remove men like Alan and me from the system, but we helped create it. And our spirit remains in every program we design for this computer. — Tron
Everything you create has a piece of you in it. Every cook makes things just a little different; every painter uses the brush in their own way. The world and history will remember you by what you leave behind, whether you like it or not.
Posted by daddybear71 on October 15, 2014
https://daddybearsden.com/2014/10/15/movie-quotes-day-288/
Overheard on the Sidewalk
Total Stranger, Dealing With His Demons and Self Medication (TSDWHDASM), yelling at pigeon: What did I tell you? Stay off my sidewalk! You got feathers everywhere!
Me, internally: Better give this guy a wide berth.
TSDWHDASM, seeing me and my polo shirt with my companies logo embroidered on it: You work for COMPANY? I used to work for COMPANY! I helped build COMPANY!
TSDWHDASM points at me and starts walking toward me.
Me, walking straight forward and keeping TSDWHDASM in my line of vision: Who, me? Nah, I just got this shirt off a dead guy the other night.
TSDWHDASM, turning back to his pigeon: Did you hear that? Man got his shirt off a dead guy! Let’s get out of here!
I know I shouldn’t mess with the mentally impaired, but I wanted to find a way to deescalate without running. He was starting to move toward me, and because of my destination this afternoon, I had no weapons that I wasn’t born with. This got him to stop what he was doing and do something else, and I got to go on with my business. I call that a win-win.
Posted by daddybear71 on October 14, 2014
https://daddybearsden.com/2014/10/14/overheard-on-the-sidewalk/
Musings
- If I ever find the guy who designed the wiring for this house, I’m going to stake him out, cover him with honey, and let the anteaters clean up the mess.
- I swear, Rube Goldberg and Wyle E. Coyote must have been subcontractors on this job.
- I finally stopped looking for zebras today, and after changing out a circuit breaker, the lights in the basement work again.
- Every so often, I remember why the ex’s are ex’s.
- Today, I was reminded of why I don’t live in the downtown area. The used bandages in the bushes outside the sheriff’s office were a hint.
- I need to read the transcript of last night’s debate. I’m sorry, but I just can’t watch that, live or delayed.
Posted by daddybear71 on October 14, 2014
https://daddybearsden.com/2014/10/14/musings-78/
Movie Quotes – Day 287
Winnie: Where are the rivers of blood, and the mountains of bones? I was promised rivers of blood! – The Boxtrolls
You can’t let civilians carry guns! There will be rivers of blood!
You can’t let citizens have semi-automatic rifles! The streets will run red!
You can’t let people have pistols! Think about the children!
How long have we heard things like this? 20 years? 30? Every time we take a step forward, we hear about how the streets will flow with the blood of children, and yet it doesn’t happen.
Imagine what would be said if other civil rights were opposed with such histrionics? Oh, right, they are. People have lost their minds about black people, gays, and women demanding recognition of their rights. Those instances were no different from the gun rights movement – the cataclysm failed to materialize.
Posted by daddybear71 on October 14, 2014
https://daddybearsden.com/2014/10/14/movie-quotes-day-287/
Hubris
Ladies and gentlemen, this is why we’re severely boned if Ebola or some other horrible disease ever gets a real foothold in North America:
NBC medical correspondent Dr. Nancy Snyderman issued a statement tonight apologizing for reported violations of the quarantine she and her NBC News team were placed in after freelancer photographer Ashoka Mukpo, who was working with the NBC team in Liberia, was diagnosed with Ebola.
This wasn’t a lab technician who broke protocol while handling infected blood, nor was it a tired, overworked nurse who somehow got Ebola while treating a single patient. This was a TV personality, who happens to be an MD, who couldn’t be bothered to take what most of us would consider necessary, maybe onerous, but necessary precautions to make sure that she doesn’t inadvertently spread the disease. She wasn’t tired or stressed from working day in and day out in an Ebola ward. She wasn’t short on supplies and personnel.
She wanted soup.
Now, imagine how things will be when there are more patients than doctors and nurses, when basic hygiene items like latex gloves, much less isolation suits, are in short supply. Think that a necessarily strict and meticulous infectious disease protocol is going to be followed by every medical professional, every time, no matter what?
We have to keep this disease out of the country. Period. Dot. We need a quarantine on countries that have had an active outbreak, starting about a month ago. The chairman of the CDC seems to think that telling people from Western Africa that they just can’t come here is the wrong thing to do, and will help Ebola spread. His reasoning seems to be that telling people to stay away from our shores if they come from the infected zone will somehow keep those who want to go to help out of the epidemic area, along with the humanitarian aid the region requires.
Here’s my idea: Any American citizen or permanent resident who wants to return to the United States from Western Africa needs to be put into quarantine for 21 days. If you’re not showing symptoms after 21 days, you go on about your business and we apologize for the inconvenience. Anyone who shows symptoms receives immediate treatment, which is better than the usual “I’ll see if it’s better in a couple of days, then I’ll go to the emergency room and expose a couple dozen strangers to the virus.” approach we’ve been trying so far.
If you’re not a citizen or permanent resident and you’ve been in Western Africa in the recent past, sorry, but you’re not coming in.
If we feel the need to pour resources into the countries impacted by the epidemic, so be it. Any personnel we send over can spend time in quarantine just like everybody else.
But we do everything we can to keep the virus off our shores.
If we don’t do something, and soon, attitudes of “I’m fine, no really” are going to start getting people killed.
Posted by daddybear71 on October 13, 2014
https://daddybearsden.com/2014/10/13/hubris/
Movie Quotes – Day 286
I am fearful when I see people substituting fear for reason. – The Day The Earth Stood Still
The herd is restless tonight. Loud-mouthed morons in the Middle East and a President who can’t figure out how to follow the anti-epidemic techniques of the 10th century are sending ripples of fear through the country. It won’t take much to really spook the cattle and get them stampeding. We have to figure out a way to do more than live from crisis to crisis. We need to stand up and say “This is what we are, and this is what we are going to do”, and we need to stick to that. Governance by reaction is going to destroy us, and if we don’t head this off soon, things will get ugly.
Posted by daddybear71 on October 13, 2014
https://daddybearsden.com/2014/10/13/movie-quotes-day-286/
Today’s Earworm
This one goes out to Mitch McConnell and Alison Lundergan-Grimes, who will be holding a debate tonight in Kentucky’s Senate race.
What I want to say to KET, the ‘public’ television station that is holding the debate and decided that a candidate who doesn’t mortgage his ethics to get elected doesn’t deserve to be heard, I can’t say on a family friendly blog.
Posted by daddybear71 on October 13, 2014
https://daddybearsden.com/2014/10/13/todays-earworm-551/
DaddyBear
DaddyBear’s Den 