There are few cardio-vascular workouts more effective than chasing down a wet, sudsy two year old who has done a Fosbury Flop out of the bathtub and is running for his life away from finishing his bath.  After that warm up exercise, you must return the toddler to the tub, rinse him off, remove him from the tub, dry him off, and put him into his pajamas.  After all of this you should be at your target heart rate, and can continue other activities to keep it up for the prescribed period of time.  These may include, but are not limited to, trying to read a story to an uncooperative toddler, picking up toys faster than the toddler can remove them from the toy box, and doing a dozen reps of the “put toddler to bed, catch toddler after he escapes, put toddler to bed” exercise.

Some express their love for their mate with poetry.
Some express their love by lavishing them with expensive gifts.
Last night, I expressed my love by going to Walmart at 10:30 PM to purchase printer ink and Mountain Dew for the Irish Woman so she could complete a project for the zoo.

Ah, love is a many splendored thing

I haven’t commented on this yet because I wanted to see the end of it before formulating and expressing an opinion.

Recently, General McChrystal, the commander of U.S. Forces in Afghanistan, did an extended interview with Rolling Stone magazine, during which he and his staff made several disparaging remarks about the civilian leadership team in regards to Afghanistan, principally the president, vice-president, and ambassador to Afghanistan.  General McChrystal was summoned to Washington, and today tendered his resignation before he was fired.

This was not his first time catching flak after criticizing the administration over war policy.  Last fall, he was brought on the carpet when he complained to reporters about a lack of troops.  So no-one can say that he wasn’t warned.

Do I agree with what I’ve heard he said?  Mostly.  I believe that President Obama and his civilian leadership team want the war to just go away, and are willing to make whatever deal with the devil is necessary to make that happen.  I believe that Ambassador Eikenberry has, at least from the stories that I’ve read, not been a good partner to the military professionals sent to Afghanistan to stabilize and protect the Karzai government.  I believe that Vice President Biden is a buffoon who was added to the ticket so that Obama could disguise his hard left leanings.

But I’m a former sergeant with no military subordinates, and I have no responsibilities to these civilian leaders other than to pay my taxes and vote.  General McChrystal is a flag officer in charge of prosecuting the war in a critical theater.  His attitudes and comments can poison the critical need for the military to respect the office of the president, even if they don’t respect the person occupying it.  The recognition that the military is subordinate to, and not separate from or superior to, civilian leadership is a bedrock principle that has kept our republic from becoming a military dictatorship for over 200 years.

It’s a basic tenet of leadership.  You don’t complain in front of your subordinates, and you don’t air out dirty laundry with people outside of your organization.  No matter if you think the boss is an incompetent, glue sniffing, vote buying snake, you don’t say it in front of your troops, and for the love of God, you don’t say it in front of a reporter.

General McChrystal manned up and resigned, taking responsibility for his conduct and that of his staff.  I’m sad to see him go.  I’ve monitored reports from Afghanistan, both in the press and through friends who are still in the military, and what I’ve heard convinced me that he was the right man for the job.  I hope that General Patraeus has one more good campaign in him to see the mission through to conclusion.  I wish both of them luck in the future, because our country needs men like them to contribute enough positives to overcome the negatives heaped upon us by other men and women in positions in power.

By the way, reports are saying that General Patraeus has to be confirmed by Congress to fill the position.  When did the military start needing Congressional approval to fill a personnel need?

Took Girlie Bear for a treat at Starbucks a few weeks ago.  While they made her a “Tall double chocolate extra whip hot cocoa with sprinkles of cinnamon powder and fairy dust”, I sipped my cup of hot, strong brewed coffee with cream and sugar while I browsed their sale rack of coffee stuff. I’ve been looking for a ceramic cup with a locking lid to use at work, and I found this one on clearance:

There,  I think that displays what I want in my coffee every morning.

Today, I drove over to the FedEx facility in Indiana and picked up two packages that my fairy gun-fathers at the CMP sent to me:

Two cans of 250 rounds each, all nicely linked up in cloth machine gun belts:

The website says it was manufactured during the late Truman / early Eisenhower administration:

M2 Ball, .30-06, belted in 250 rd Ammo web belts, in .30 cal cans. Manufactured by KYNOCH WORKS (British). Corrosive primers. Manufactured 50-53.

Considering its age, it appears to be in pretty good shape.  There’s some surface corrosion, but it doesn’t appear to be deep.

 I’ll unbelt it all one of these weekends and inspect each round before using it.  The price was right.  $75 a can, plus $9.95 for shipping.  That’s $170 total, or about $.35 a round.  I’m glad I got it when I did.  It sold out at the CMP a couple of days ago.  The cans can hold it until I shoot it up, then they can be used to store the brass or something else.  The cloth belts I’m not so sure of.  There’s a WWII reenactment outfit around here somewhere (they were at the Knob Creek machine gun shoot), so maybe I’ll just donate them.  If I can’t find them, then they might fetch something at a gun show or something.

A section of the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge in Arizona has been closed to the public because the government feels it’s too dangerous.

Is it too dangerous because of volcanoes?  Maybe unstable land formations that fall over in a stiff wind?  Or perhaps it’s full of old mines that kooky old men are using to hide their illicit activities from a group of teenagers and their dog who travel the country in a green van looking for mischief?

Nope, it’s been marked off as a denied area because of the violence brought to our territory by drug and human smugglers.

That’s right.  Our government has ceded access to a part of our country by citizens to foreigners who are entering the country illegally. They are either bringing poison into the country, or they are bringing in people who have not gotten permission from the American people to enter the country.  Either way, the government is letting go of its responsibility to protect not only the borders of our country, but to protect American citizens from foreigners who are doing them harm.

What is the definition of the “foreign” enemy in “enemies, foreign and domestic” in the oaths they take if it’s not a foreign citizen who comes across our border and causes so much grief that a section of our country is considered too dangerous for civilians to enter?

If the government does not want our citizens to be hurt by foreign criminals on American soil, it should remove those criminals who are on our soil, and prevent more from entering.  It should not just give up territory because it’s hard to provide the security that is one of its fundamental duties.

If the government won’t do it, then someone else in the country should.  I’m not for vigilantism, but if a group of armed Americans wants to stroll through this area and see if anyone threatens or takes a shot at them for being there, then I’m OK with that.  If the government doesn’t want that to happen, then they should substitute “U.S. Marshalls” for “armed Americans” and execute.

According to ITWire, an Italian study shows a correlation between the amount a person drinks and inflammatory diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and psoriatic arthritis.

As some of you know, I have arthritis.  I go through some very costly and time intensive treatments to keep it under control, and so far, it’s working very well.

What this does for me is give me yet another avenue for possibly keeping arthritis at bay, and enhancing my life.  Heck, if I drink enough to keep the aches out of my fingers, I’ll also be a heck of a nice guy to live with.  I can now explain why I had no symptoms of Arthritis until I was 28.  I was partying and drinking like a fish until about 3 years prior to that.

But I have to run.  I need to go to the ‘pharmacy‘ for my ‘arthritis medicine‘. Maybe I could get some whole-grain supplements to go with it.  Got to have my vitamins!

I can’t give any details because I don’t talk about the job here, but this graphic will tell you how my day started:

This is how I wish it would end:

Get the picture?

Last night, we let BooBoo watch “Shrek” after he had read two books and colored.  There’s a scene in the movie where the titular character and his annoying sidekick enter the city of Duloc, which is a heavy handed allusion to DisneyLand.  There’s even an annoying song that is sung by puppets as they enter. 

I’ve had the following song running through my head all night and all day ever since, and I thought I’d share.

Enjoy

Welcome to Duloc, such a perfect town
Here we have some rules, let us lay them down
Don’t make waves, stay in line
And we’ll get along fine
Duloc is a perfect place
Please do not walk on the grass
Shine your shoes, wipe your… face.
Duloc is, Duloc is, Duloc is a perfect… place!

Am I a racist for being surprised that Martha Stewart had Al Roker making watermelon margaritas today?

Or do I just need coffee?