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Dear Person Sending Emails

Thank you so much for your kind email.  I am honored to know that after you just “stumbling” upon my little blog, your clients are excited to create an advertising relationship with my collection of brain droppings.  I must be doing something right if you can accidentally find my rants, musings, and bad jokes and immediately associate it with your customers advertising requirements.  

Unfortunately, I decided long ago to only put links on the blog for causes and companies with whom I have a relationship.  For example, I donate to Soldier’s Angels, so there is a link for Soldier’s Angels.  I know the proprietors of Michael’s Custom Holsters and Dragon Leatherworks, and I am a customer of those fine companies, so I put up links to their sites.  I think you get the idea.

But I draw the line at putting up advertising for companies with whom I don’t have much of a connection beyond a monthly check.  This is pretty much a hobby and self-administered catharsis for me, so I don’t put up advertising for companies I have only a slight connection to.  And to be honest, making this a commercial enterprise would create ethical issues for me.

However, if your clients wish to send me examples of their wares so that I can test them and put up a review, I’d be more than happy to do so.  Heck, I’ll even ship the product back when I’m done if they want. But I’m not interested in being paid for advertising space on the blog.

If you truly like my blog and are now reading it, you’ll see this message.  If you think we can do business on mutually agreeable terms, then please contact me again. If not, then I wish you luck in the future, but I don’t need to continue to get emails on a regular basis from you and your associated websites.

Again, good luck, and I hope to hear from you again soon.

Sincerely

Daddy J. Bear

by daddybear71 on April 25, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Uncategorized

Posted by daddybear71 on April 25, 2012

https://daddybearsden.com/2012/04/25/dear-person-sending-emails/

Shout out

To the guy who dropped a few dozen roofing nails in the parking lot, I hope you live a long and painful life rotating the horse waste piles at Churchill Downs.  And don’t worry, I picked them all up, thankfully not with my brand new tires.

by daddybear71 on April 25, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in shout out

Posted by daddybear71 on April 25, 2012

https://daddybearsden.com/2012/04/25/shout-out/

30 Days of Shakespeare – Day 21

How far that little candle throws his beams!
So shines a good deed in a naughty world. — The Merchant of Venice, Act V, Scene I

My Take – To a lot of people, a good act, even just a kind word to be polite, can mean a lot.  We are bombarded, both by the media and in our lives, by darkness and conflict.  By being good to someone, you bring a little light into their lives.

by daddybear71 on April 25, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Shakespeare

Posted by daddybear71 on April 25, 2012

https://daddybearsden.com/2012/04/25/30-days-of-shakespeare-day-21/

Quote of the Day

We’ve got to quit stabbing ourselves in the eye with an ice pick and then complain we can’t see. —Ted Nugent, in the Washington Times, discussing the “War on Poverty”

H/T to MaddMedic for the link

by daddybear71 on April 24, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Quote of the Day

Posted by daddybear71 on April 24, 2012

https://daddybearsden.com/2012/04/24/quote-of-the-day-3/

Repost: ANZAC Day

This is a repost from April 25, 2011.  H/T to Julie over at Jigsaw’s Thoughts for reminding me of the date.

Today is ANZAC Day.  Today we commemorate the brave men of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps’s involvement in the Gallipoli campaign of World War I, which was an attempt to knock Turkey out of World War I and open the Bosphorus to Russian, British, and French shipping.  By the time that the British high command realized that the fighting at Gallipoli was going nowhere, almost 150,000 Australian, New Zealand , British, French, and Indian soldiers were dead or wounded.

As far as I know, I have no familial ties to Australia or the rest of the Commonwealth.   But I do remember my mother and her mother making ANZAC Cookies every April.  It was only later in life that I learned just what those hard, sweet cookies meant.  I did serve with some outstanding Diggers from Australia once or twice, and if their great-grandfathers were half as resourceful, professional, and friendly as the soldiers I met, then a lot of good men had their trial by fire on the shores of Gallipoli.

If you’re interested in learning a bit about the Battle of Gallipoli and the soldiers who fought on both sides, the 2005 documentary “Gallipoli” was very well done.  I also came across this poem a few months ago, and thought I’d share.  It was written by an Australian soldier who was convalescing from wounds received at Gallipoli.

Gallipoli
The new dawn lights the eastern sky;
Night shades are lifted from the sea,
The Third Brigade with courage storm
Thy wooded heights, Gallipoli
Gallipoli ! Gallipoli !
Australians tread Gallipoli.

Thunderous bursts from iron mouths –
Myriad messengers of death,
Warships ply their deadly fire
Watching comrades hold their breath
Gallipoli ! Gallipoli !
There’s hell upon Gallipoli.

Serried ranks upon the beach,
Courage beams in every eye
These Australian lads can face
Giant Death, though e’er so nigh,
Gallipoli ! Gallipoli !
There’s death upon Gallipoli.

On they press in endless stream,
Up the heights they shouting go;
Comrades fall; but still press on
They press the now retreating foe
Gallipoli ! Gallipoli !
The Turks flee on Gallipoli.

One by one the brave lie low,
Machine Guns, shrapnel do their work;
Brave Australians know no fear,
Never have been known to shirk,
Gallipoli ! Gallipoli !
Their names carved on Gallipoli.

Reduced, cut up, there numbers show
The murderous fire that swept thy field;
But still victorious they stand,
Who never have been known to yield
Gallipoli ! Gallipoli !
Thick dead lie on Gallipoli.

For days they hold with grim set grip,
Their feet firm planted on the shore,
Repelling every fierce attack
And cheerfully they seek for more
Gallipoli ! Gallipoli !
Their trenches line Gallipoli.

 For thirty weary days they fight,
For Britain’s sake they give their best;
With uncomplaining voice they stand
And neither look nor ask for rest
Gallipoli ! Gallipoli !
They’ve conquered thee, Gallipoli.

The waves break on thy wave swept shores,
The breeze still blows across thy hills;
But crosses near and far abound,
A sight that deepest grief instils
Gallipoli! Gallipoli !
Their graves lie on Gallipoli.

For those brave hearts that died to show
Australia’s worth in this dread war,
The far off tears and sighs for those
Who sleep beneath the cannons roar
Gallipoli ! Gallipoli !
Thou still, shalt pay, Gallipoli.

The few that valiant still remain,
War worn but grim and anger yet
To hurl full vengeance on the foe.
Because they never can forget
Gallipoli ! Gallipoli !
They ask the price, Gallipoli.

Gallipoli I warn you now,
Australia’s sons and Turks shall meet
Once more, and then our onslaught yet
Shall sweep the ground beneath your feet
Gallipoli ! Gallipoli !
Thy end’s in sight, Gallipoli.

Upon the Graves of those that sleep,
Upon thy wooded slope and vale,
We shall avenge. Remember then,
Australians cannot, will not fail,
Gallipoli ! Gallipoli !
Thy doom is sealed, Gallipoli.

Staff Sergeant Sydney Bolitho.
6th Battalion A.I.F
by daddybear71 on April 24, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Uncategorized

Posted by daddybear71 on April 24, 2012

https://daddybearsden.com/2012/04/24/repost-anzac-day/

Repeat after me

  1. All guns are always loaded.
  2. Never let the muzzle cover anything you are not willing to destroy.
  3. Keep your finger off the trigger until your sights are on the target.
  4. Be sure of your target and what is beyond it.

A man and his wife are being treated for gunshot wounds after he shot himself in the hand with a pistol, the bullet passed through him, and then it struck his wife in the leg.   This negligent discharge happened during a handgun safety course at a residence in Virginia.  The instructor reports that he had left the room when the gun discharged.

Let’s see here:

  • Rule 1 violation – Why was a loaded gun being handled at someone’s house during firearms safety instruction? Why was live ammunition even in the room?
  • Rule 2 violation – The guy muzzled himself and his wife.
  • Rule 3 violation – Unless the gun malfunctioned, it didn’t “just go off”
  • I’m sure there’s a rule 4 violation in here somewhere, but I can’t articulate it, so I’ll give him a pass on that one. 
  • Why were inexperienced shooters being left alone with a loaded gun?

Ladies and gentlemen, this wasn’t a “stupid accident”.   A “stupid accident” is when a normally responsible driver hits a patch of black ice and slides into a bus stop.  A “stupid accident” would have been if the gun was faulty and discharged on its own.  Based on what I can see here, I don’t call this an “accident”.  I call this “negligence stacking”.  There was live ammunition in the gun during non-firing training, there wasn’t proper supervision of a new shooter, the shooter pointed the gun at himself and his wife, and he probably had his finger on the trigger.

Ladies and gentlemen, I’ve said it before:  We will not be judged based on our most responsible and safe gun owners.  We will be judged by the mistakes, negligence, and damage done by those who are not responsible and safe.  We owe it to ourselves to be safe and to police up those who have a lapse in judgement.

Update – Jake does an excellent job summing up the situation.

by daddybear71 on April 24, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Guns

Posted by daddybear71 on April 24, 2012

https://daddybearsden.com/2012/04/24/repeat-after-me/

Conflicted

Californians will be voting this fall on whether or not to continue the death penalty in their state.  Proponents of the change in the law cite the cost in time and money to carry out an execution and possible racial issues with who gets the death penalty. 

I’m conflicted.  At a gut level, I believe that if you intentionally take the life of another human being without mitigating circumstances such as self-defense, then you should pay with your life.  The death penalty in the United States has become rare and used for only a very narrow range of crimes, and the restrictive manner in which a person can be condemned helps to ensure that it will only be used in the most egregious circumstances.

But if the point of the death penalty is to punish the offender and deter crime, it’s a failure.  If someone commits murder today,  and is then arrested, tried, convicted, and condemned to death, they’re almost as likely to die of old age as they are to get a needle in their arm.  How do decades of time spent in a special wing of a prison, with food, shelter, health care, and entertainment taken care of, punish someone?*  How does the occasional news report or celebrity protest against an execution deter someone who has absolutely no connection to either a crime that happened years ago or an execution that is done behind concrete walls and out of the public square.   If the purpose is to punish and deter, then executions should be done in public in the community where the crime happened and done as soon after the crime as possible.

Another issue is the small, but not insignificant, number of people who are exonerated** years after their conviction, sometimes after spending years on death row.  I know that they are a small percentage of those who are convicted of crimes, but I still believe in “better that ten guilty persons escape than that one innocent suffer“.  Add to that the fact that once a person is executed, no amount of new DNA evidence or confessions by the actual killer can bring bring them back.  Giving the state the power to take a citizen’s life puts the most critical responsibility in the world, the responsibility to only take the life of those who truly deserve it, in the hands of a group of people who couldn’t make a profit with a whorehouse. 

So to make a long blog post short, I have mixed feelings about the death penalty.  My emotions and values tell me that there are indeed those who deserve to have their lives ended because of their crimes.  I don’t believe that the way we do it currently is the correct way to do it if we are going to do it at all.  I don’t think it’s effective as a deterrent for others, and I don’t believe that the state does a good enough job in making sure that those who get the death penalty truly deserve it.

If I still lived in California, I’d probably vote for this measure.  If the way we administer the death penalty in this country was more effective and better at sorting the sheep from the goats, I would probably feel different.

*Of course, the same could be said about life in prison with no parole as it is practiced today.

**Yes, I know that that website is horribly biased in this debate, but that particular page seems to have empirical data as opposed to emotion and opinion.

by daddybear71 on April 24, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in death penalty, Politics

Posted by daddybear71 on April 24, 2012

https://daddybearsden.com/2012/04/24/conflicted/

30 Days of Shakespeare – Day 20

The evil that men do lives after them;
The good is oft interred with their bones; — Julius Caesar, Act III, Scene II

My Take –  What will you be remembered for?  Are the acts you commit and the way you live your life going to cause you to be remembered as a good person or as an oxygen thief?

by daddybear71 on April 24, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Shakespeare

Posted by daddybear71 on April 24, 2012

https://daddybearsden.com/2012/04/24/30-days-of-shakespeare-day-20/

News Roundup

  • From the “Crossing Palms and Taking Names” Department – Walmart seems to be in a bit of hot water after being accused of paying millions of dollars in bribes to officials in Mexico.  Apparently you can’t build large stores and offer cheap consumer goods in the third world without having to wet someones beak.  The Obama administration has stepped up enforcement that restricts U.S. companies from taking part in foreign corruption.  To me, this raises the question of how can one do business in countries where the wheels of bureaucracy and law enforcement are greased with liberal doses of bribery?  We want U.S. industry to compete on international markets, but have the vapors if a few dollars are given to encourage the local potentate to do the job he was ‘elected’ to do in the first place.  Something tells me the Chinese don’t have any such qualms.
  •  From the “Second Verse, Same as the First” Department – The North Korean military is threatening grave consequences for South Korea.  This is probably connected to the failed launch of a ‘peaceful scientific rocket’ by the North, which appears to me and everyone else in the world who noticed to be more along the lines of “they tried to launch an ICBM, but it blew itself up in mid-air”.  The North is also expected to conduct another atomic weapons test soon.  The North has quickly become the guy who gets drunk at the party and threatens to beat the crap out of the school boxing champion just to show he’s no wuss.  Maybe if we could get Japan to friend them on Facebook, they’d settle down and finish that circling of the drain they’ve been on since 1949.
  • From the “Free Range Dumbasses” Department – Two men in Utah have been arrested for setting booby traps along a popular walking trail.  When I first saw the headline, I thought these two had set up some sort of IED, but it turns out it was sharpened sticks and tripwires.  While these can be deadly, I fail to see the point of what these two numbskulls were doing.  Someone ought to tell them that “Pitfall” was just a video game, not a computer training simulation.  Maybe they were watching “Raiders of the Lost Ark” while stoned and thought it would be a good idea to create some of the traps Indiana Jones found in the Mayan temple.
  • From the “Friendly Skies” Department – Fox News has posted a list of things that most people didn’t realize they can take on a commercial flight, either as checked baggage or carry-on.  The list includes sporting equipment, service animals, and firearms.  Of course, the list doesn’t include “dignity”, since the TSA has been taking that away from travellers for over a decade.
  • From the “Goaaaaaaalllllllll!” Department – A soccer ball lost during the Japanese earthquake and tsunami last year has washed up in Alaska, and is on its way back to its owner.   A man in Anchorage found the ball, along with a volleyball, while walking on the beach.  It is believed to be the first of many finds as the field of debris from the tsunami reaches North America.  Hopefully more mementos can be returned to survivors of the disaster in the coming months.  
by daddybear71 on April 23, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in news

Posted by daddybear71 on April 23, 2012

https://daddybearsden.com/2012/04/23/news-roundup-5/

30 Days of Shakespeare – Day 19

A fair face will wither; a full eye will wax hollow: but a good heart, Kate, is the sun and the moon; or, rather, the sun and not the moon; for it shines bright, and never changes, but keeps his course truly. — Henry V, Act V, Scene II

My Take – My wife is beautiful, and she always will be.  But what makes her beautiful to me is more than her soft red hair and flashing green eyes.  It’s the size and depth of her love for me and my children, her forgiving nature when I inevitably mess up, and her ability to look beyond my failings to see the man she thinks I am that keeps her beauty as the years go by.

by daddybear71 on April 23, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Shakespeare

Posted by daddybear71 on April 23, 2012

https://daddybearsden.com/2012/04/23/30-days-of-shakespeare-day-19/

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