- If you’re a health care provider, don’t open a discussion with “Well, I guess we won’t have to cut that <insert appendage> after all.” in a deadpan way if that’s the worst case scenario for the reason your patient is seeing you. Especially if you meant it as a joke.
- I need to restock my larder at work. I’m down to a packet of tuna in spring water, a couple packets of graham crackers, and some breath mints. Remarkably, I wasn’t quite that hungry.
- When things go wrong and you’re working alone, it feels really good when your co-workers actually answer their phones after work hours.
- Apparently all hell is going to break loose around here weather wise tonight. I for one welcome a visit from Thor the thunder god. At this point in the summer, I would welcome an invasion of ice giants.
- BooBoo has a new fascination with firearms. He picked out a stainless pistol in the last sporting goods store flyer, and has announced that he wants a ray gun. I swear I had nothing to do with it.
- Efforts to convince Koshka that she does not, in fact, like Italian food have so far been fruitful this evening.
- I hear rumors that one of my gun stores has Russian SKS’s in stock. I think I may be wandering down there this weekend.
Thoughts on the Day
Posted by daddybear71 on July 26, 2012
https://daddybearsden.com/2012/07/26/thoughts-on-the-day-40/
An Open Letter
Dear President Obama,
Like you and most other Americans, I was shocked and saddened by the recent massacre at the movie theater in Aurora, Colorado. I hope that the wheels of justice grind very finely upon the perpetrator of this atrocity.
I know it must have been difficult for you to not add your voice to the immediate calls for additional restrictions on gun rights, and I guess it must have become too much for you to resist. I read this morning that you are making noises about pushing for restrictions on modern sporting rifles and carbines, or as you call them “assault weapons”.
I won’t go into the technical reasons that most civilians can’t and don’t own an “assault rifle”. I will point out that the AR-15 pattern rifle has become one of the most popular guns in the United States, and an entire industry has popped up for creating accessories to use with them. If you want to try bailing out the ocean with a spoon, that’s your business.
I do want to thank you for making up my mind. I have resisted purchasing a modern carbine for my own use due to some personal reasons. But to be honest, if you’re going to be ignorant enough to try to outlaw them, I’m going to make it my personal goal to own one of each model of weapon you are talking about outlawing. I may not start with an AR-15 or an AK-47 clone, but I will work my way up to them.
Since I don’t own much ammunition in the calibers used by these carbines and rifles, I will have to start stocking up. Just to add insult to injury, I will purchase as much of it as I can in bulk and on-line. A penny saved is a penny earned, as a wise man once said, and every cent I save in ammunition is a cent I can put toward buying another gun.
Again, I, my local gun dealers, and the American gun industry thank you for helping me and thousands of other people make this important decision. Even if you are just pandering to your support base, you’re the best booster the gun industry has had in generations.
Sincerely,
Daddy J. Bear
Louisville Kentucky
Posted by daddybear71 on July 26, 2012
https://daddybearsden.com/2012/07/26/an-open-letter-12/
30 Days of Marcus Aurelius – Day 22
How much time he gains who does not look to see what his neighbor says or does or thinks, but only at what he does himself, to make it just and holy. — Meditations, Book IV
My Take – What my fellow man does is none of my business so long as they don’t harm anyone else. I find it saves me a lot of energy and time to not care about my neighbor’s politics, personal habits, or hobbies.
Posted by daddybear71 on July 26, 2012
https://daddybearsden.com/2012/07/26/30-days-of-marcus-aurelius-day-22/
Today’s Earworm
Posted by daddybear71 on July 26, 2012
https://daddybearsden.com/2012/07/26/todays-earworm-190/
News Roundup
- From the “Stop Touching It!” Department – A man in Texas is in police custody after his concealed carry gun went off, wounding him and two other people. Apparently it fired when he reached into his pocket for his wallet, hitting him in the butt and sending fragments into a woman and a child. I hope it hurts to sit for a long time. People, get a holster. Get a few. Use them. These stories are getting old.
- From the “Taking It A Bit Far” Department – A man in Utah created a bit of a sensation recently when he dressed up in a ‘goat suit’ and crawled around a hillside up in the Wasatch. He is apparently trying it out for a hunt later this year. He plans to use the suit to try to sneak up on mountain goats for an easier shot. Part of me hopes he’s successful. I look forward to a story on the hunting shows about the maniac who took down a bighorn sheep with a bowie-knife.
- From the “Get A Rope” Department – A New Hampshire man has been arrested after he admitted to setting two fires on the nuclear submarine U.S.S. Miami in order to get off work early. Captain Success was apparently going through some of the things that life throws at all of us, and rather than taking a mental health break to get his head right, decided to set a couple fires so that he could go home. One of those fires gutted the submarine. He’s up for a life sentence and a stiff fine if he’s convicted. If he is indeed convicted, I say he should spend the rest of his life cleaning out the septic systems of dry-docked Navy vessels with his toothbrush, preferably while they’re still in use. He’s just lucky that no-one was killed putting out his fires.
- From the “All Righty” Department – Michael Bloomberg, mayor of New York and international star of necrophiliac furry snuff films, is backing away from a wish he made that all of the police in the United States go on strike until stricter gun laws are passed. You know what, Mikey? I’m for that. Let the thin blue line disappear for a few weeks, and we’ll see what happens. I’m guessing that the Dead Goblin Count will skyrocket in the first few days until a Darwinian process causes the rash and stupid to die off. Also, let those who live in a walking sleep wake up when Officer Friendly isn’t there to keep the predators in check. Maybe then they’ll stop looking at those of us who take responsibility for our own safety like we were Martians.
- From the “Shocked Face” Department – Federal and state investigators in Kentucky are putting people in jail after a long-held tradition of vote-buying got out of hand in eastern Kentucky. I wonder how long this has been going on. My guess is that the first vote was bought in the United States about 15 minutes before the polls opened back in 1792.
- From the “Stepford Wife” Department – The mystery woman recently seen in public with North Korean leader and all around good egg Kim Jong Un has been identified as his wife. I’ve got 20 bucks that says she’s an advanced robot/sex toy illicitly imported from Japan. Then again, there’s someone for everyone. Even Quasimodo had a lady love, so I congratulate the young lady on landing the leader of a backwards, repressive, starving asylum of a country. Mazeltov!
- From the “Engineering by Litigation” Department – A lawsuit against Glock is moving forward in California after an appeals court ruled that a jury should be able to judge whether or not the lack of a grip safety and the ‘light’ trigger on the popular pistol made it possible for a three year old boy to shoot his father in the back after he found it under the seat of a car. Apparently it’s too hard to keep a pistol away from three year olds, and pistol manufacturers need to put in even more doodads to save us from stupidity. Just what we need, a Glock with a zit.
- From the “Jet Set” Department – A young boy in Britain has a story to tell when school starts. It seems he decided to run away from home, found his way into the secure area of the Manchester airport, and boarded a plane to Rome. Security personnel and flight crew were clueless until other passengers reported the young man. He is safe and sound back home after being put on the next flight back to Britain from Italy. The young man is said to have enjoyed his trip, and is now asking his mother what a Turkish prison is and if he can watch gladiator movies.
Posted by daddybear71 on July 25, 2012
https://daddybearsden.com/2012/07/25/news-roundup-141/
Thought for the Day
It is good that I know how to swear in several languages, for it allows me to blow of steam in a rather effective, but non-violent, way without someone calling Human Resources or Child Protective Services. Lately, my favorite word has been “Perkele“, followed closely by “Donnerwetter!”.
Posted by daddybear71 on July 25, 2012
https://daddybearsden.com/2012/07/25/thought-for-the-day-160/
30 Days of Marcus Aurelius – Day 21
Never esteem anything as of advantage to you that will make you break your word or lose your self-respect. — Meditations, Book III
My Take – It’s not uncommon for me to have an opportunity to get ahead, or make a bit of money, or make my life easier if I would only cheat someone else or break one of my personal taboos. Being able to look at my face in the mirror every morning means that I don’t take advantage of them. Basically, I try to not do anything that I wouldn’t want my wife, kids, or grandmother to know about. My wife, because I don’t want to betray her trust, my kids, because I don’t want to lose their respect, and my grandmother, because I’ve seen her stare down my 6’6″, 250 pound outlaw Viking of a cousin without even having to raise an eyebrow. Seriously, that woman was like a ninja with a wooden spoon.
Posted by daddybear71 on July 25, 2012
https://daddybearsden.com/2012/07/25/30-days-of-marcus-aurelius-day-21/
Quote of the Day
Now I realize that California liberals fleeing their State couldn’t get a clue if they smeared themselves with clue musk and did the clue mating dance in a field full of receptive clues at the height of the clue mating season, but here’s to tilting at windmills:
California is doing something wrong. Texas is doing something right. Quit trying to turn Texas into a carbon-copy of California. Leave us the hell alone.
— Lawdog, “This Is My Surprised Face”
I lived in the Bay Area for 18 months at the end of high school and was stationed in Monterey for a year. I love Monterey, but every time I go back to California I leave like my hair was on fire and my ass was catching. There are things about living in California I miss, but not many of them, and none of them are important enough for me to try to model my adopted home of Kentucky on that waste of good beaches.
Posted by daddybear71 on July 24, 2012
https://daddybearsden.com/2012/07/24/quote-of-the-day-83/
30 Days of Marcus Aurelius – Day 20
It is man’s peculiar duty to love even those who wrong him. — Meditations, Book VII
My Take – Even the worst of us are still human beings, and deserve treatment that fits that status. It’s easy to dehumanize those who oppose us, or those that wrong us, but to do so takes away from our own humanity.
Posted by daddybear71 on July 24, 2012
https://daddybearsden.com/2012/07/24/30-days-of-marcus-aurelius-day-20/
An Idea and Request for Comment
The subject of police militarization has come up with increasing frequency over the past few years, and the troubling trend of police officers who act more like an occupying army than law enforcement continues.
Radley Balko has devoted a large part of his career to pointing out how the use of federal dollars to beef up paramilitary police units nationwide has led to a long list of deaths, innocent people under arrest, and worse. His essay “Overkill” is an excellent synopsis of the current state of the use of SWAT teams in ways that seem to run counter to the idea of police being a part of the solution.
In the latest installment of his podcast, Common Sense, Dan Carlin does an excellent job of laying out the problem, how we got to where we are, and its roots in the war on drugs. I suggest you give it a listen.
Blackfive brings up the subject of Marine units that are expressly trained and organized to supplement and train civilian police. This troubles me because, as he points out, all it would take is the stroke of a pen to put them on the streets of America in a way that doesn’t violate Posse Comitatus.
Heck, even podcasts of just a bunch of friends getting together to shoot the breeze for a few hours have discussed the subject.
One thing that hasn’t been brought up in all these discussions recently occurred to me. All of these discussions talk about SWAT raids to arrest drug suspects or deliver no-knock warrants to look for evidence, but no-one talks about the judges who take part in the process that makes them possible. Would it make sense to make efforts to convince the judges that authorize no-knock search warrants that their use is detrimental to our society and system of justice? There have to be professional organizations for those who sit on the bench. Could outreach to these organizations be a good step in finding a way to cut down on the overuse of paramilitary tactics and equipment to go after non-violent offenders? A lot of the judges in this country are elected, and advertisements during an election cycle that bring to light the judges’ involvement in the death of citizens when police use overly aggressive tactics or make mistakes that lead to tragedy might get them to re-evaluate their cooperation when the police come asking for a no-knock warrant.
What do y’all think?
Posted by daddybear71 on July 24, 2012
https://daddybearsden.com/2012/07/24/an-idea-and-request-for-comment/
DaddyBear
DaddyBear’s Den 