Saw our carrot munching four legged neighbors tonight.  It was a doe with two yearlings, probably her fawns from last year.  They were in the yard at the end of our street, having a light snack before dark.  It was light enough that I could see them with the naked eye, but not light enough that the pictures I took with my phone could make them out.

I saw more as I was driving down the highway on my way into town.  Guess they’re out and about now that the food is starting to grow again.

Good to see that the little ones made it through the winter.  Hopefully there will be a good crop this year.

Here’s one for you folks:

When walking through a crowd in Dublin, do not look at your dear Irish Woman of a wife and remark rather loudly “Man, there are a lot of Mics in this country.”

It tends to annoy the locals.

Happy Saint Patrick’s Day!

I hope all of you with a little Irish in you have a good day.  And if you don’t, fake it.

Drown the shamrock one time for everyone who loves you, and twice for those who wish you ill.

The iPad is up for pre-order, with delivery in April.

Want, but not enough to drop a car payment on.  I’ll wait until 2.0 comes out and then re-evaluate.

Speaking of the Supreme Court, a group of workers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory is suing the government for forcing them to go through an intense background check, including looking at subjects such as their physical and mental health, their financial situation, and even their sexual orientation.  They object to having these aspects of their personal lives pried into by their employer.

I had a clearance when I was in the military.  The initial paperwork weighed in at almost 30 pages, and included questions about my sex life, health, financial situation, and even my political affiliations.

When the government  investigated my background, they spoke to people who never even occurred to me when I started the paperwork. These included my pediatrician, my first grade teacher, and my first priest.

Yes, that’s intrusive and a bit paranoid.  The idea was to check my character and background as far back and as thoroughly as possible in order to accurately assess the risk of giving me access to classified information.

These checks are used more to weed out those who might be tempted or forced to divulge what they know.  The obvious threats of people who want to be hostile spies are easy to find.
If I was a closeted homosexual, then my fear of being exposed could be used as blackmail material.

If I was chronically bad with money, and was deep in debt, it would be easy to tempt me with money to betray the country.

If I was a member of the Communist party, my loyalty to the international struggle against capitalism might trump my loyalty to the country.

These federal employees are being asked to submit to a similar process.  Why?  Because they want to work on projects that can have dual uses.  If you can design a rocket that will deliver a communications sattelite to orbit, you can design a missile that will deliver a nuclear warhead to another continent.  If you work on the design of a surveillance satellite, you know its capabilities and can sell them to the highest bidder.  Even the receptionists and janitors at these facilities need clearances.  Understanding of technology is not necessary if you decide to steal it.

These scientists have no right to work for the government at the JPL or anywhere else.  If they don’t want to go through the process of proving their reliability and stability, they can work somewhere else.  Of course, if you want to work in aerospace research without at least working indirectly for the government, your choice of employers is pretty limited.  But I’ve heard that Richard Branson is hiring.

Hat Tip to Slashdot, the keeper of all news geeky.

The Supreme Court recently agreed to hear a case in which a man whose son’s funeral was picketed and intruded on by a “church” run by some scum named Phelps sued said scum.  Mr. Scum is saying that his rantings are protected 1st Amendment speech, and he shouldn’t be sued for them.

Doing something like this at a Marine’s funeral doesn’t seem to be political speech to me.

There’s been a bit of talk on the blogs that even though Phelps is roundly disliked and no one would cry if he were put into a portapotty and set ablaze, his speech should be protected.  Reminds me of the case back when I was a kid when neo-Nazi’s wanted to demonstrate in a predominantly Jewish city.  The cry then was “If we restrict the speech of one, we restrict the speech of all”.

I kind of agree.  I may hate what Phelps and his followers are spewing, and hope that the Almighty drops a frozen chunk of airliner sewage on his head, but I believe that the state should not do anything to restrict his spewing.

But what if the father of that slain serviceman could walk over to Phelps and his followers and demand satisfaction on the field of honor?  LawDog discusses the 18th century understanding of dueling and how it was a way for people other than the government to curb such antics.

Would Phelps and morons like him think twice about making a general nuisance of themselves if they knew that the people they were insulting could force them to put up or shut up with their own life?

If screaming “God Hates Fags!” at a family that is mourning the loss of their son could get you shot, stabbed, or beaten to death, would you stop bothering people at the funeral of their child?

Would the streets run red with the blood of the annoying?  Maybe.  But if being impolite or insulting becomes a potential death sentence, then maybe society would become more civil.  And families that are already mourning the violent death of their son or daughter could mourn in peace. 

Over at This Aint Hell, there is a discussion about the high cost of an education in the US, and specifically about how there is a large portion of the population that think that higher education should be cost-free.  The author reports that at one point he was told that his GI Bill benefits were just welfare.  I’ve heard that before. 

When I was attending college after I left the Army, several of my classmates expressed similar feelings.  These young people still received checks from mumsy and dadsy every month, drove cars paid for by their parents, and were regularly absent from class because they were spending mom and dad’s money on beer instead of studying.  And they always whined when their Pell Grant money was a couple of days late.

I found a way to shut down the conversations when I blurted out that the money I got every month from my investment in the GI Bill was repayment for all of the crap that I had done while in the Army.  And if they wanted some, they were welcome to get a haircut, show some guts, and take the oath of enlistment.  Until then, they were nothing more than leaches on the butt of society.

I got a reputation as being “hard to approach”.  Qel Surpris.

Once a month, money was put into my bank account by the government in repayment for the 9 years worth of bad hours, forced labor, cold food, crappy co-workers, and time away from everyone I loved.

Every month, I’d look at my statement, and think “This one pays for X”, where X was something like:

• those 3 days I spent laying in a snow bank watching a road
• eating MRE’s for 35 days straight because my captain thought a field kitchen was for wimps
• the 63 days in a row that I went without a shower and eventually bathed myself by rubbing newly fallen snow on my bare skin to get some of the funk off
• almost getting shot by a moron who turned his rifle sideways across the firing line and banged it on the ground to clear a failure, thereby shooting a 5.56mm bullet between my elbow and my nose while I was in the firing position next to him

Eventually, I graduated, and I feel that I’m paid in full for those 9 years.

The benefits that veterans get are paid for in blood, sweat, and heartache.  Anyone who feels differently ought to man up and enlist so that they can have an informed opinion.

Robert Heinlein – “Writing is not necessarily something to be ashamed of, but do it in private and wash your hands afterwards.”

I’ve been writing since I was very young.  A lot of it amounts to not much more than navel gazing or spleen venting.  I try to keep a lot of both off of this page.

I try to keep things fun here, and when I’m serious about something, I want it to be something that readers will think is important too.

For your sake, I try to not let this become a surrogate Facebook page.  If I ever go that route, please let me know.  I may need an intervention.

Yesterday morning, after everyone had gone off to work or school, I put on my sneakers and took our two labs out to the 1/2 acre they enjoy as their play yard.  Since I was only going to be out for a few minutes, I went out in a tee shirt and a pair of pajama pants.

Plans for coming back in and getting ready for work were thwarted when Bluegrass slipped her leash and took off like her butt was on fire.

For the next 1/2 hour, I tried to catch up to her.  She would run for a while, then stop to sniff whatever needed sniffing.  When she noticed that I was within 10 feet of her, she’d take off again.  Kind of like the “Fox and Hounds” runs I remember hating when I was in the Army.

Imagine if you will, a yellow labrador retriever running through a neighborhood, being pursued by a spitting mad Norwegian wearing old tennis shoes, checkered flannel pajama pants, and a ratty old tee shirt and shouting “Blue, come here Blue!”.

Blue eventually made her way back to our house, and waited patiently for me to catch up before nuzzling my hand.  “Aren’t I a good girl?  I came home.   Can I have a bone?”

I bit my tongue, praised her for coming home, and took her out back to spend the day with Shadow.

I then took my bruised public image in, got ready for work, and headed in.  I haven’t run that much since I left Fort Campbell.  And I don’t plan on doing it again soon. 

As for the dog, she is getting a new, tighter collar and will be on a much shorter leash.  But she is a good girl for coming home rather than running out into traffic.

The CMP Store has .30-06 ammunition for sale again! 192 and 200 round spam cans in en-bloc clips for $96 and $120 respectively. 

I bought two cans from them last year when I bought my Garand, and they had just started limiting customers to 10 cans a year.  They ran out during the great guns and ammo rush of ’09, and have been advertising that they would get more ‘soon’ for about 6 or 8 months.  I guess ‘soon’ is now.

It’s good ammo, and was specifically designed for the Garand.  Something to do with the burn rate of the powder.  I’ve been advised to get an adjustable gas plug if I want to use commercial ammunition so that I don’t bend the op-rod.  I haven’t used up the rounds I bought last year, so I haven’t invested in one yet.

The price has gone up a bit from last year, but not much.  I’ll have to start adding this to my list of things to save up for and buy periodically.  The Garand is so much fun to shoot that it is easy to burn through ammunition.

And for the record, I have no connection to either the CMP or Midway USA other than being a customer.