OK, I’m a nerd.  I admit it. 

I was doing some thinking today while I was cutting up and splitting wood for the fireplace.  Try to follow this:  (Remember, I’m not a real historian, just a putz who likes to read about history)

1. France and England fought numerous wars in the Americas, Europe, and India during the 17th and 18th centuries.
2. After losing her colonies in North America, France stuck a thumb in England’s eye and helped the Americans in their revolution.
3. France went into an economic depression that was caused at least in part by the money it spent on the American Revolution, bringing about the French Revolution
4. The great powers of Europe declared war on France following the revolution, which gave rise to Napoleon.
5. Napoleon fought a series of wars with the rest of Europe.  These wars started the disintegration of the Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman empires.  They also started the ball rolling on Italian and German unifications.
6. Europe created several multi-lateral mutual defense accords, at least in part to keep a balance of power on the continent and keep another country from creating a new Napoleon.  These agreements also ushered in a united Germany and Italy.
7. These interlocking mutual defense pacts led almost directly to the escalation of an assassination to the beginning of the First World War, with new empires (Germany and Italy) fighting against old empires (France, Austro-Hungary, Russia, Britain).
8. Russia’s lack of ability to fight a long war with the Austrians and Germans led to the conditions that Lenin used to hold the October Revolution, establishing Communism in Eastern Europe.
9. The aftermath of the First World War and the Versailles treaty created the conditions for the Second World War.  It also destroyed the large stabilizing influences of the Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman empires on Eastern Europe and the Mid-East, contributing to the problems we have in those areas to this day.
10. The aftermath of the Second World War put the final nail in European colonialism, which pretty much died in Africa and Asia within 30 years of the end of the War.  
11. The Soviet Union and the United States faced off in a stalemate in Europe, but fought a series of proxy wars in other parts of the world, such as Asia, Central and South America, the Mid-East, and Africa.
12. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, the stabilizing stalemate between the United States and the Soviet Union disintegrated, bringing fights that have simmered for a long time back to the forefront in much of the world.
13. The United States has strived to remain a relevant stabilizing force in world that is rapidly returning to the fragmented semi-chaos that ruled throughout the 18th and early 19th centuries.

So basically, I somehow came to the conclusion that the issues we are facing today are directly related to wars that France and England fought 300 years ago.

Sometime my mind wanders. I’m just surprised it finds its way back.

The Russian Duma recently publicly admitted that the Soviet Union, under direct orders from Josef Stalin, was responsible for the massacre of Polish soldiers at Katyn Forest.  For decades, the Soviets blamed this horrific incident on the Nazi’s.  After the fall of the wall, evidence came to light placing the blame squarely on Stalin and the NKVD.  This has been a bleeding sore in relations between Russia and her neighbor, Poland.

Over the past couple of years, Russia has been moving closer and closer to admitting its role in the massacre and the cover-up.  With this declaration, most of the darkness surrounding it has been shed.

Russia seems to be learning, at least in part, from what Germany has done since the end of the Second World War:  Admit everything, hide nothing, apologize profusely.  If Germany had not completely come clean about what happened in Germany and Nazi-occupied Europe during WWII, then I cannot see how Germany could have become as central to Europe as it is today.  Countries that now ally themselves with Deutschland economically, politically, and militarily could not do so in good conscience if the Germans denied the camps, the ghettos, and the massacres.

Likewise, as Russia reaches out to Europe for integration and influence, it must admit to past abuses.  Mending fences with Poland over Katyn is a good first step.  I see several more years of Russia admitting to how badly it treated the members of the Warsaw Pact for 45 years.   As sunshine cleanses the history of Russia and her neighbors, hopefully it will allow Europe to truly heal from the World Wars and their aftermath.

I just got back from running Girlie Bear and Little Bear to their moms house for the weekend. I was gone about an hour, give or take.

During that time, BooBoo was able to accomplish the following:

– Carry one small cat around by the tail
– Carry the other larger cat around with a two hand carry around the neck
– Drive the Siamese to higher ground

– And last but not least, discovered aerosol whipped topping. Irish Woman was putting away the leftovers from dinner, and heard him giggling. She came out to find him with a spray can in one hand and a handful of whipped cream in the other. She was able to talk him out of using it as hair gel or finger paint, but apparently it was a close call.

It’s a good thing he’s cute. And yes, we do live on the edge of madness.

– Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

H/T to Tundra!

It’s Turkey Day again campers, and I thought I’d share some of the things I’m grateful for:

• I’m grateful that my family is together and healthy.
• I’m grateful for all of the friends that I’ve gained over the past year.
• I’m grateful for all of the old friends who’ve put up my grouchy butt over the years.
• I’m grateful that in this time of uncertainty, both Irish Woman and I both have good jobs.
• I’m grateful that good men and women in the armed services, police, fire, and EMS are giving up their holiday to make sure that me and mine are OK.
• I’m grateful that my ancestors chose to leave their home countries to come to America.  

If you’re traveling for the holiday, stay safe.  It’s better to be late than to be a statistic.  I need every reader I can get.  If  you’re flying, turn your head and cough.

I list a few cop blogs in my sidebar.  I really don’t want to recognize anyone in their entries about this weekend.  I’m the designated driver this year, so there may be funny tipsy Irish Woman quotes on Friday. 

Everyone have a Happy Thanksgiving, and remember how fortunate we all are.

This weekend was our annual hunting trip to Fort Knox.  Girlie Bear accompanied me again this year, so she’s officially part of the tradition.  My hunting/shooting buddy also brought his daughter, and they hunted in the same area as us.

Saturday morning was clear, brightly moon-lit, chilly, and had almost no wind.  After finding our way to our hunting area and checking in, Girlie Bear and I picked a place on the map and hiked in.  We were assigned the area next to where we hunted last year, so the terrain was pretty similar.  We were at the top of a ridge, with multiple draws and spurs running down to very steep valleys.  This area had been spared the fires at Fort Knox last month, but was relatively clear of the heavy undergrowth and blown-down trees that we ran into last year.  After a quick hike into the woods, we found a small spur looking down to the convergence of two small creeks and set up our blind.  We settled in about 45 minutes before shooting light, which gave time for things to quiet down.

About 10 minutes before shooting light at 7, I noticed two small spike bucks pawing and huffing at one another in a patch of scrub about 50 yards from us.  They were too small to shoot according to the rules at Fort Knox, but it was fun to watch them for a few minutes.

About an hour later, I heard some noise in the woods behind us.  Girlie Bear looked out and quietly but excitedly told me it was a doe, and she was coming our way.  I took a quick look, and she was coming down the creekbed to our left.  If I waited, she would pass about 30 yards or so from us.  I eased myself out of the front of the blind to try and get a broadside shot on her, and Girlie Bear watched her from the blind.  Just as I was able to see her and bring the scope up to my eye, Girlie Bear made a small sound of excitement.  The doe noticed both my movement and the noise, and off she went. 

Girlie Bear was almost in tears, but I comforted her and got control of my own emotions.  Remember, this is only the second time she’s been hunting.  Luckily, she learned her lesson. Unfortunately, that was the last deer we saw all weekend, unless you count the doe we almost hit half a mile from home on Sunday morning at 3 AM.

Saturday afternoon we left the blind at the truck and went a little further back into the area.  We set up under a huge old oak and watched a couple of game trails for several hours, but no soap.  While we were sitting there, I noticed a difference between our area this year and the one we hunted last year.  Last year the area was covered up in rubs and scrapes.  This area, less than a mile from where we were last year, had none.   There were lots and lots of trails running through it, mostly running east to west. 

Sunday morning was markedly warmer, and even more brightly lit by a full moon.  We set up at the same draw/spur we were at on Saturday, but didn’t see anything.  At about 10, the wind really started coming up, and it got warm enough that we started to sweat.  We packed up and had lunch at the truck.  Hunting Buddy and his daughter decided to call it a day after lunch.  Girlie Bear and I walked down the road a piece and climbed to the top of a knob to watch a different part of the area.  It was warm enough that we took off all of our jackets and extra shirts.  I never thought I’d hunt in late November in a short sleeved shirt.

The afternoon was a bust, but Girlie Bear enjoyed herself by using my binoculars to spot along the multiple trails that led to the meadow we were watching.  She especially enjoyed watching a pair of huge red squirrels play tag across several oaks and hickories.  We packed it in at about 2 and took a long route back to the truck.  I made sure to make a lot of noise, but we didn’t even see deer to spook. 

When we were checking out, the Fish and Wildlife representative said that no-one had gotten anything on Sunday, but Saturday he’d checked out a lot of does and two bucks that he estimated would score 140 or better on the Boone and Crockett scale.

Again, I love going out to Fort Knox.  It’s a treat to hunt such well-kept land that’s not crowded.  The staff is very professional and the area guides were, as usual, very friendly, informative, and helpful.

One change this year was that before being drawn to hunt on-post, we had to submit to a criminal background check.  Our guide told us that so many long-time hunters were eliminated for prior DUI’s, domestic violence, or whatever that everyone who applied and passed the check got drawn for the hunt.  My guess is that this security procedure will bring in a lot of new hunters.  I also feel bad for the hunters who lost a chance to hunt in a wonderful environment because of something they did years ago. 

As for the area we were in, I think that we were sandwiched between a bedding area and a feeding/nighttime activity area.  All of the deer that people saw in our area were moving to the west in the direction of where we were last year, with a lot of bedding areas, rubs, and scrapes.  The area to our east was rich with oaks, hickories, and what appeared to be some sort of persimmon tree.  Maybe with the abnormally warm weather and nighttime illumination from full moon got the deer to move through our area to their bedding area.  Since they could move easily at night, my guess is that the three we saw on Saturday were the stragglers, and we missed the last of them on Sunday.

Girlie Bear has begun to learn how to walk in the woods without sounding like the pachyderms on parade and to sit quietly and listen, or at least read her book quietly.  I plan on getting her a muzzleloader of her own for next year.  Maybe she’ll get a deer at Knox before her old man does.

One last thought:  Technology rocks.  Saturday morning, after our incident with the doe, I got the iPhone out and saw that I had 3G coverage.  I was able to email and Facebook with my hunting buddy and other folks who were hunting 6 states away.  I didn’t even know how to imagine doing that 5 years ago.

Dear Commissioner Goodell,

I am a lifelong NFL fan.  I started out as a child watching the Vikings play at Metropolitan Stadium in Minneapolis.  I stayed up late when stationed overseas so I could watch Monday Night Football and the Superbowl.  I have made watching football on television a family experience, and hope that my enjoyment of the sport continues in my childrens’ generation.

I currently live in a market where I rarely see one of my favorite teams, the Washington Redskins, play on Sunday afternoons.  This afternoon, Fox switched to the Tennessee/Washington game after their regularly scheduled game ended.  It was a close game, and went into overtime.  Needless to say, this was an unexpected treat for me

Imagine my surprise when at 4:15, Fox broke into the game to announce they had to drop coverage of the game due to an NFL rule that forced them to stop 15 minutes after the end of their allotted time slot.  Washington went on to win the game within a few minutes.  How they did this, I do not know.  I will have to wait and hope it’s available on the replays NFL Network puts on later this week.

I am the creator of all of the revenue that the NFL depends on.  I watch football for enjoyment.  I pay for the NFL Network to catch every game I can get.  If my cable operator offered a package that had all of the games the same way that the satellite folks do, I would buy it.  When I can afford it, I buy NFL jerseys, hats, and other items.  If I can ever afford it, I will be attending live games.

I. Am. Your. Fan.

I have looked past the NFL allowing convicted criminals such as Michael Vick back into its ranks.  I have looked past the almost monthly reports of sex, drugs, and bad behavior scandals with little to no enforcement of a morals clause by the League or the teams.  But cutting into an exciting game at its climax is not how you continue to get my support. 

Commissioner, I want the NFL to reconsider this rule, and explain to the public why it is in place.   I want it removed from the contracts the NFL has in place with the broadcasters. Please re-examine and eliminate this silly rule immediately.  Then we can start working on the reputation the NFL is getting via its personnel problems.

Sincerely,

DaddyBear

Vikings Fan  (I’m Thumbbody!)
Redskins Fan
Packer Backer
Raider Nation

One should not use the term “signal to noise ratio” when explaining why you didn’t hear what your wife just said.

– Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Today is the anniversary of Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address.  This simple, rather short, but extremely powerful speech was made by President Lincoln at the dedication of the cemetery at the Gettysburg battlefield.  When I was a child, we were made to memorize and recite it, along with the Declaration of Independence and the Preamble to the Constitution.  I hope that children still have to learn it, because it stresses why individual and collective sacrifice is necessary every single day to preserve and defend our Union.

At the time of giving this address, our country was mid-way through the Civil War.  The Confederacy was either at or very near the high water mark in its efforts to sever itself from the Union.  Union forces had won at Memphis, and had turned Lee back at Gettysburg, but at a horrible cost at both places and to both sides.  After the battles of Gettysburg and Fredericksburg, Lincoln must have known just how bloody our soil would become if he was to carry the Union to a victory.  Napoleonic tactics of closing with the enemy, exchanging some musket fire, then charging with fixed bayonet had run head long into new technology of faster loading rifles with Minet balls and repeating rifles.

As he wrote these words, the thought of all the men who had died and the men who would die must have crossed his mind.  In his speech, you can hear the sorrow he must have been feeling at the sight of all of the newly dug graves in Gettysburg.

I will not debate the morality of the Civil War, nor its causes, nor of either side’s methods towards victory, nor of Lincoln’s culpability in any of it  This speech commemorates all of the men who fought and died for our country and its principles. 

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation, so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate, we can not consecrate, we can not hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.