Over at KFI, Bryan Suits does a weekly show called “Dark Secret Place“.  It’s an audio news magazine for military stuff.  Normally, he does two hours of short blurbs about current events, military hardware, and a bit of politics.  This week, he devoted his second hour to a program about how the Fisher House program supports wounded service members and their families.  This charity touched my life when Little Bear decided to be born in September instead of January.  His mother stayed at the Fisher House on Fort Bliss while he was in the NICU, and knowing that she had a safe place to stay while he was in the hospital took a load off my mind as I took care of his older brother at our post in Arizona.  There’s a link at the side of the blog for Fisher House if you’d like to learn more, and I heartily suggest you listen to Mr. Suit’s program.  The portion about Fisher House starts at about minute 37.

Brigid and AD give us wonderful reminders that this weekend isn’t about tire sales and auto races.  I think that as the more overt parts of the war wind down, at least for now, we will see more and more people look at Memorial Day as just another excuse to not go to work, but thoughts like theirs, if spread far and wide, might do some good in keeping the reason for the holiday in the front of everyone’s mind.

Over at The Ghostfighters, a commencement speech by a radio commentator kept me nodding for a long while.  I think a lot of young people could be helped by hearing that speech during freshman orientation.  I encourage every kid I meet who is going to start college to try and make sure their studies support actually keeping them out of the poorhouse.  One good thing about the economy being in the toilet is that the example of who is getting a paying job with a usable degree versus who is working part time at three jobs to keep from starving with a bunnies-and-unicorns degree is becoming very clear.

During the last Squirrel Report, Breda, Jay, Weerd, and Alan brought up two near and dear subjects – Jerks and gun dreams.   As for the jerks, a kerfluffle has erupted over two firearms/self defense instructors taking to the internet to pick the open carry/concealed carry scab in a way that doesn’t seem to have much point other than to start a kerfluffle.  Here’s my take –  I carry my weapon discreetly no matter which choice I make.  The manner in which I carry is decided based on my location, activities, and environmentals such as temperature. It also depends on whether or not Irish Woman will be with me, as she is still unsure about open carry, and I respect her enough to not want to make her uncomfortable.  In the two years or so that I’ve occasionally open carried here in Kentucky, I’ve had two people talk to me about it.  One was an older gentleman who asked if open carry was illegal, and seemed enthused when I told him it was perfectly legal in Kentucky, and the other was a country sheriff’s deputy who asked me what model of 1911 I was carrying.  But if someone chooses to never open carry, for whatever reason, I have no problem with that.  If someone chooses to exclusively open carry, again, not a problem.  Don’t impose your wishes or issues on me, and I’ll stay very well centered in my lane.    As for gunnie dreams, I have precisely two kinds:  The ones where everything is wonderful, all shots are true, and all guns function flawlessly, and the ones where I can’t find my gun or it fails to function.  I don’t have dreams about large masses of zombies coming at me, and while I have shot someone in my dreams, when they get shot, they’re shot and react accordingly.  I’ve also been shot in my dreams, but it’s never that “watching your own death” experience.  Not sure what that says about me, but there you have it.

One other thing that Breda and company talked about was the “Warrior Mentality”, and how it might not be what an IT guy with four kids needs to get through his life.  I sort of agree with them in that most people who go through a self-defense firearms course will never have to utilize the skills they learn, and that the practice drills after the course are  at least as important as going to the training itself.  However, if someone wants to have a reputable instructor guide them toward a certain skill set or mindset, it’s no skin off my nose, and it might do them some good.  Let me put it this way:  I knew a lot of Military Intelligence officers in the Army with a Ranger tab.  That didn’t mean they were door kickers and name takers, it meant that they had successfully completed Ranger school.  I can count on one hand the number of them who actually served in a Ranger battalion, but I can tell you that an officer  I served with who wore a Ranger tab is more likely to be on the short list of men I would follow to hell than one without it.  It wasn’t the tab or the school that made them that way, it was who they were both before the training and afterward.  Did they walk around saying “Hooaah!” all the time?  No, we were military intelligence, not mobile infantry.  But they did have an idea of what they could accomplish and how they could get others to accomplish what was needed.  Is a weekend class in basic defensive handgun or a carbine class the same as the Ranger course?  Of course not, but the training itself can open doors for the student.  In the civilian world, I’ve seen people who go to training and come home puffed up for a few weeks and then get back into their daily routine.  I’ve also seen people who come back from training with new fledgling skills that they nurture into good habits and a little more confidence in their outlook.  Some people can do it on their own, most need someone a bit more experienced to show the way, or at least the first few steps.  Again, whatever works for you is fine with me.  The warrior dentist might not keep many of those weapons handling and room clearing skills after his class, but he will have an idea that, yes, he can indeed hit a target if he applies himself, and maybe he can put that new confidence and resolve to good use elsewhere in his life.

Since 1775, approximately 848,163 Americans have died in combat, with an additional 437,421 who died in uniform under other circumstances during a war.  That’s a little over 1.3 million people who paid for our freedoms with their lives.  That seems like a lot, but consider that at this moment there are a little over 300 million people in the United States.  One half of one percent of the number of people who live in our country right now have laid down their lives for us and our children.

This is a debt we can never repay, but one that we can honor.

I honor the fallen by remembering them, by doing my best to live so that their sacrifice has meaning, and by raising the next generation to continue the tradition.

For those who have come before, you will not be forgotten so long as there is life in the last American.  For those who were left behind, we will always be there to help where the lost husband, father, son, daughter, mother, and wife would have been.  For those who are yet to come, we will be there to teach you our history and the duty we have to remember and honor those to whom we owe so much.

We here at DaddyBear Industries are happy to announce our new cologne for men:  Eau de DaddyBear.  It’s a manly scent with notes of gunpowder, cigar smoke, CLP, Hoppes #9, motor oil, gasoline, and just a hint of dirt.  It’s what a man smells like after he goes to the range, cleans his guns, tunes up a PT Chrysler, and does yard work all in one day.  It’s an ephemeral scent that disappears after 10 minutes in a hot shower, and it’s only for men who want to make sure that their wife stays at least five feet away from them.

With Father’s Day coming, remember Eau de DaddyBear for that special man in your life.  It’s available at gun ranges and automotive supply stores everywhere.

Dear Secretary Clinton,

I read with interest your claims that technology specialists from the State Department have hacked servers used by al Qaeda and changed ads recruiting jihadists to reflect the death toll terrorists have had on Muslims.  I applaud their efforts to demoralize the enemy and inform the Muslim world about how much damage is done to them by those who use terror to control them.  I have always agreed that it is better, although usually harder, to convince someone not to fight than it is to kill them.  I wish them and others like them who serve in our government success in the future.

However, Madam Secretary, I have one thing to say to you and other members of the administration who publicize these crucial, but sensitive, ways we are fighting against terrorists who want to harm us:

Shut up.  No, please, shut the F!@#$! up.

I’m sorry for using such harsh language, but I feel it is necessary to break my habit of not cussing on this site in order to convey the strength of my convictions on this matter.  You see, every time you all open your mouth to chat up the latest operation or break through, you alert the enemy to our activities and capabilities.

Examples:

• When you talk about how easy it is for our special operations forces to HALO jump into a normally denied area and attack a terrorist stronghold, you make it more likely that the enemy will pay attention to airplanes that are flying miles away or be more vigilant on guard duty.
• When you talk about efforts by the U.S. government to penetrate, exploit, and disrupt enemy computer systems, you remind the enemy that they need to upgrade, patch, secure, and more closely monitor their systems.
• When you televise animations, or sometimes actual footage, of strikes against terrorist targets, you teach our enemies how to better prepare for them.

I’m sure there are other examples, but I think you get the idea.

When you discuss the details of how you find, fix, and confirm high value targets, you put the assets we use in danger, and you show the enemy where his infrastructure, tactics, and strategies have weaknesses.  Every time you take a victory lap in front of the news cameras, you are putting real people in danger.  Usually it’s either an American in uniform, but it can also be a person who is putting his or her life in danger to help us.  If it becomes known that we do not keep the identities of our allies a secret, we lose the ability to recruit new ones when your loose lips lead to the murder of the current ones.

In short:  The enemy may know what happened to them, but we don’t have to confirm to them that it was us who did it, and we certainly shouldn’t be telling them how we did it.  Shut.The.F!@#$!.Up.

I’m not saying we shouldn’t do these things.  We should be doing them and more.  However, please consider how much damage you do to our cause before you use things that should be kept in the shadows to promote yourself and the administration.  The blood of our people is too precious to be hawked on the street in exchange for political points.

Respectfully,

Daddy J. Bear

Louisville, Kentucky

I have been perusing the news lately, and I need to make sure the media is aware that there are several things which care nothing about:

• Who is hooking up with whom, whether or not they want to make it permanent, and the reasons for and against, so long as they’re all consenting adults, no-one else is harmed, and they don’t make it my problem.
• Which company is trying to make a trunkful of money and how they’re doing it.
  • This includes how much someone who started out as an entrepreneur and grabbed the brass ring at just the right moment is making.
  • It also includes when some company loses the GDP of some small 3rd world country on the stock market.
  • This not-caring attitude will change as soon as my money is used to influence any of these activities.
• When someone climbs a mountain, walks across some a chasm on braided dental floss, run 26 marathons in 26 days, runs 26 marathons back to back, parachutes to the wilds of Africa from a LaGrange point, or has a litter of children because they found some quack to implant half the population of Bangor, Maine, in their womb.
• The suntan, dress, mating habits, infidelity, money, grooming, or diet of someone who has the musical talent of a canary or the acting ability of a chimp.
  • I seriously don’t care about their political beliefs or cultural opinions either.
• Political turmoil inside countries that are hostile to the interests of my country and her allies.  I especially don’t care if the people causing the turmoil aren’t going to be any friendlier to us.
• The position of any politician on anything other than the following:
  • Defense
  • Criminal Justice
  • National Defense
  • Border Security
  • Paying down the national debt
  • Cutting government spending
  • Equally protected and respected civil rights
• The latest neato plastic doodad for sticking onto your gun or your car that doesn’t do much to improve performance or safety.

This list should not be considered complete, and is subject to expansion and change at any time.  Thank you.  We now return you to your previously scheduled bad jokes and snarky comments.

For those of you in uniform, deployed, CONUS, or whatever, thank you for what you do.  It’s because of people like you that my family can sleep soundly at night.

Irish Woman, after noticing that I’ve put my gun on my belt – Why are you putting that on?  You’re just taking Boo to the hardware store and dropping Girlie Bear off at the mall.

DaddyBear – Because, darlin’, you won’t be there to protect me and bad things can happen

Irish Woman – ………..

Yeah, I’m a smartass, but that one got her thinking.

Does anyone know of a good restaurant in Annapolis Maryland?  Nothing too nice and definitely nothing too expensive, but somewhere I can get some of the local fare. Looks like I’m heading there for business soon.