My new short term goal is to reach a point in my life where I can treat the children like children and the adults like adults, and expect that they will each act accordingly.
Thought for the Day
Posted by daddybear71 on October 12, 2011
https://daddybearsden.com/2011/10/12/thought-for-the-day-59/
Today’s Earworm
Posted by daddybear71 on October 12, 2011
https://daddybearsden.com/2011/10/12/todays-earworm-102/
Today’s Earworm
This is from MTV’s old program “Unplugged”. I’d never heard of this group before they did the show, and I ran out and got their CD the next day. Unplugged was one of the last things I watched regularly on MTV. I really like hearing what artists really sound like and seeing if they have the musical talent they claim to have.
Posted by daddybear71 on October 12, 2011
https://daddybearsden.com/2011/10/12/todays-earworm-103/
Adults Behaving Badly
A Navy SEAL stationed in California has been convicted of trafficking smuggled weapons, military gear, and explosives:
Prosecutors accused Bickle of controlling the sale of military hardware ranging from ammunition to night-vision goggles and high-tech rifle targeting scopes. They made closing arguments to the jury amid an array of AK-47 and M92 machine guns, a sniper rifle, a wheeled footlocker with a false bottom and handguns including Ruger 9mm weapons of the type used by the U.S. military.
Not sure if the “Ruger 9mm weapons” is a mistake or if some unit of the military are indeed carrying Rugers instead of Berettas. From the sounds of it, someone was either buying stuff on the open market and smuggling it into the country or was re-directing military aid intended for the Iraqi armed forces. Either way, he’s going to be spending a long time trying to figure out where he went wrong.
Next, the son of the Louisville police department chief has been arrested for allegedly assaulting his wife:
According to a police report, White, III and his wife got into an argument about divorce in the 13,000 block of Aiken Road and he slapped his wife in the face with the back of his hand. His wife tried to get out of the car, but White, III grabbed a hold of her arm and wouldn’t let her out of the car. He then punched his wife in the face with a closed fist. He then threatened to kill his wife and her family. His wife managed to escape by jumping out of a the moving car.
I have lot of respect for Chief White. I’ve seen a lot of deadwood finding its way out of the LMPD since he came along, and he seems to run a pretty clean shop. It will be interesting to see how things go now that his son is on the wrong side of a cell door.
An Iranian American is in jail and a member of the Iranian Qods Force is on the run after being caught conspiring to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to the United States and bomb other locations in Washington. The Obama administration seems to be taking the radical steps of clearing its throat repeatedly, giving a dirty look across the hall at the United Nations, and possibly even huffing a bit. I mean, it’s not like the Iranians were planning on using a mass casualty weapon in a public place to murder a foreign diplomat under our protection or anything.
The trial of the Nigerian man who tried to blow up an airliner using explosives hidden under his wedding tackle has begun. He has apparently decided to represent himself in court, because setting his genitals on fire wasn’t enough evidence of him being a fool, I guess. I hope he gets a fair trial, good deliberation by his jury, and then spends the rest of his life looking at the mess he made of his junk. Dude, Semtex and Underoos just don’t mix!
Posted by daddybear71 on October 11, 2011
https://daddybearsden.com/2011/10/11/adults-behaving-badly/
Privacy, or lack thereof
In other news, the privacy war marches on.
In California, Governor Brown vetoed a bill that would have required police to get a warrant before searching someone’s cell phone, including using it to access on-line information such as emails, journals, location data, mobile banking data, and cloud storage. Let’s say you get arrested for drunk driving. Fair enough, you did it, you got caught, you get arrested. No problem so far. The police search your car, find nothing illegal in it, so they open up your phone, find out everyone you’ve talked to recently, read all of your emails, look at where you’ve taken your cell phone in the last few weeks, and take a look at all of the things you read online or the files you keep on the net. Those alarm bells you hear is your mind reminding you of how easy it is to break some little portion of some obscure law these days. Maybe all they’ll do is snicker at your browsing habits on Amazon, or maybe they’ll report to DHS because you have been emailing back and forth in tech speak to your co-worker from Pakistan. Either way, they’re going to use the portable magic elf box to dig through a lot of the nooks and crannies of your life.
People, even if all you have is the default security software on your phone, use it. Set your phone to lock when not in use, and use an unlocking code that isn’t easy to guess. Yeah, it won’t keep a determined guy in a lab out, but it’ll keep the nice officer on the side of the road from reading your text messages.
Next, we have something that really pisses me off. The Justice Department has forced Google and another on-line service provider to give up the contact information of everyone a person, who may or may not be associated with the WikiLeaks organization, has corresponded with for two years. The full text of the emails sent was not requested, so the government is apparently doing a bit of network and schedule analysis on the email traffic. What gets me is that they didn’t have to get a warrant to do this. All they had to do was get a court order that states that the companies have to turn this information over. For a bonus point, they did this without informing the person that they were under surveillance. So we’ve got a government agency forcing two companies to provide surveillance information on a citizen without a warrant and without informing the citizen that the order has been made. For me, that’s a non-starter breach of the 4th Amendment. If the government wants to know who I’m communicating with, then they should have to convince a judge that I’m breaking the law and have them issue a search warrant, which should be served to me so that I know that the government is poking around in my life. Getting the exterior information of my communications and using it to figure out who is talking to whom and when is just as intrusive as reading the actual content of the traffic itself. The law that authorizes this behavior needs to be declared unconstitutional and thrown in the river with a cement block tied to it.
Don’t get me wrong. If law enforcement feels that someone needs to be checked out as part of a criminal case, then they should have the tools to look for evidence of these crimes. But the principle of the warrant should be followed at all times. Prove that there is cause for someone’s privacy to be violated, get a warrant, and follow it. All other things seem to erode the part of the social contract that says that the government should stay out of our lives unless it is absolutely necessary for them to intrude.
Yes, I know that it is absolutely trivial in a technical sense for anyone to see anything we do on-line. But there’s a big difference between what is technically feasible, what is legal, and what is ethical. The government should have big, clear, bold lines that say “Further than this, thou shalt not go” on them when it comes to the privacy of citizens. Anything that makes those lines fuzzier adds grease to an already slippery slope.
Posted by daddybear71 on October 11, 2011
https://daddybearsden.com/2011/10/11/privacy-or-lack-thereof/
Travel Tips
Fox News has an article about what to do if you get into trouble with the law while travelling abroad. I thought I’d add my two kopeks.
- Don’t be stupid. That means educate yourself. Learn how to contact the local consulate or embassy. Know a few words of the local language, starting with the words your grandma wanted you to use: Sir, ma’am, please, thank you. Learn a bit about the local customs and laws. Look to see if there’s a European or American expatriate community in the country, and use their resources to learn about the country, the customs, and places you can get food and water that won’t kill you. If you’re going to a third world country, learn how to contact Doctors Without Borders so you don’t get treated for eating the wrong food by someone who has to consult the bones before making a diagnosis.
- Don’t travel to countries that don’t have diplomatic relations with the United States. If we’re not talking to the government of the People’s Republic of Douchebagistan, then that should be an indicator that Americans just aren’t that welcome. That means don’t try to get into North Korea on the sly, or go hiking in the mountains on the Iranian border.
- Tell people where you’re going, where you plan on staying, and how you’re getting there and back. Bonus points for having a GPS and an international or satellite cell phone. I hate to tell someone to tell the government anything, but registering with the local embassy or consulate will at least let them know you’re in the country and they can tell you areas you probably should avoid.
- Stay in the tourist areas unless you know the local language very well and know the local customs and laws almost as well as you know the ones in your home town. And then be prepared for a lot more hassle and danger of doing things that you didn’t know were illegal.
- Stay away from the seedy part of town. Yeah, you’ll never be in that little city again, and you want to see some of the local night life. But going to a dive bar in Singapore that’s not frequented by anyone but locals will tend to get you in trouble. Bad parts of town are considered bad for a reason.
- Stay in a reputable hotel. First, there’s better security. You’re less likely to be arrested for assaulting someone for trying to take everything you have on you. Second, if you tip well and are decent to the staff, they’re more likely to help you get the heck out of Dodge in the event that the country goes pear shaped.
- Budget for bribes. You can call it a “Warning Fine” in Germany, or you can call it “Mordida” in Mexico. They’re all bribes to me. But hey, if passing a 20 euro note along with your passport to the nice gentleman in the uniform clears things up that quickly, what’s a little official corruption between friends? Interestingly enough, most of the time that I’ve had a cop hassle me for a bribe was right around either lunch time or shift change. The only place I’ve had to deal with law enforcement that a bottle of booze or a bit of cash didn’t smooth the waters was the United Kingdom or most of the United States.
- Don’t break the law. This goes back to not being stupid and staying out of the seedy parts of town. If you’re in a Muslim country, stick to water and soda. If you’re in a country that frowns on the use/trafficking of narcotics, stay clean and don’t carry any packages for anyone. Don’t speed, don’t run from accidents if you’re not in danger, and for God’s sake don’t handle weapons unless you’re absolutely sure you can do so without ending up in a Turkish prison.
- OPSEC is your friend, and be respectful. Unless you’re fluent enough in the local language and customs to pass as a native and you look like one of the locals, you’re going to stick out as a tourist and as an American. But walking around in your “America, F*** Yeah!” tee shirt or having your kid walk around in miniature ACU’s yelling “Airborne Ranger Hoowah!” will make it even easier for the locals to play “Pick out the Gringo”. Also, if the country has a dress code for your sex, follow it. You can argue about your grrrllll status when you’re back home. No-one gives you bonus points for getting beaten up on the street by the local morality police because you just had your hair done did and you’re not wearing a head scarf for any man.
- Follow your POW training. If you are arrested, and a little silver crossing a palm or two isn’t working, name, nationality, and “I want to speak to the American government” is all that should come out of your mouth. Don’t argue with them, don’t try to talk your way out of it, and don’t admit to anything. The embassy staff isn’t going to act as your lawyer, but they’ll at least make sure you get what amounts to a lawyer and try to make sure you don’t get strung up by your thumbs while two guys with a deep well battery play “Make the Tourist Twitch”.
As you can see, most of these are preventive in nature. Remember, the best way to survive a gun fight is to avoid it in the first place, and the same goes for dealing with foreign legal processes.
Posted by daddybear71 on October 10, 2011
https://daddybearsden.com/2011/10/10/travel-tips/
A New Front
This weekend, Governor Jerry Brown of California signed AB144, which bans the open carry of firearms in a public place. Since California is a “shall may issue” state, where applications for a concealed carry license must be approved by an agent of the government even if the applicant meets all other qualifications, the legal carrying of a firearm for defense is now open only to the connected and the rich. Basically, as it stands now, if a citizen wants to carry a firearm for self-defense, even if they have a squeaky clean criminal record, they have to convince a local official that they need the permit. If the official doesn’t feel it’s necessary, or doesn’t like the looks, politics, or ethnicity of the applicant, or just isn’t in a good mood that day, the request can be denied, with little or no recourse to appeal.
This is why we need to support organizations like the Second Amendment Foundation, CalGuns, and the NRA. This is why we need to fight on all fronts, through the ballot and jury box, to protect our rights. This is why we need to stay engaged with our elected representatives and make sure they know just how important civil rights, not least of them our rights to keep and bear arms, are to us.
The outcome here is going to be one or two things: either this law will be struck down as being unconstitutional under the 2nd Amendment, or California will change its laws to become a “may issue” state. If open carry of firearms is illegal, and legal concealed carry is contingent on the whim of a sheriff or police chief, then the right to keep and bear arms is being infringed when someone is denied a CCW permit.
If you’ve got a few extra drakmas, please consider hitting the SAF link on the side of the blog, or sending them to CalGuns or the NRA. Court fights aren’t cheap, and everything we do to fight for our rights in other states enhances our rights at home.
Posted by daddybear71 on October 10, 2011
https://daddybearsden.com/2011/10/10/a-new-front/
I did not know that
Here in the United States we are celebrating Columbus Day, but in France, the anniversary of a turning point in the history of Europe is noted. The Battle of Tours happened on October 10, 732. In that battle, a seemingly beaten Frankish army defeated an unbeaten Muslim army from the Andulusian caliphate, now known as Spain.
I’d read several accounts of the battle, but in glancing at the Wikipedia page I noticed something: Tours is in the northwest corner of France, almost in Normandy. Abdul Rahman Al Ghafiqi had marched across the Pyrenees and deep into Frankish territory before being turned back by Charles Martel and his Christian army. To me, it was reminiscent of the penetrations the German army made in 1914 before being stopped by the Allies.
https://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=tours+france&aq=&sll=38.230859,-85.455573&sspn=0.009102,0.018582&vpsrc=6&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Tours,+Indre-et-Loire,+Centre,+France&ll=47.394144,0.68484&spn=8.03272,19.02832&t=h&z=6&output=embed
View Larger Map
Coincidentally, the king and queen of Spain, Ferdinand and Isabella, who financed Columbus’ expedition, also forced the last of the Muslim rulers of Andulusia off of the Iberian peninsula in 1492.
So while we enjoy a day off to celebrate a European discovering the Caribbean Islands, let’s take our hats off and drink a bit of wine to remember a battle that helped to stop the conversion by the sword of Europe over 700 years earlier.
Posted by daddybear71 on October 10, 2011
https://daddybearsden.com/2011/10/10/i-did-not-know-that/
Weekend Shoutouts
- To the mother of two young boys on Saturday – Ma’am, thank you for raising your kids right. When you spotted the funeral procession with a Marine Corps seal on the door of the hearse drive by, and you learned from me that that meant there was a Marine being buried today, you smacked your kids upside the head and told them to show some respect. You are better than 99% of the parents I know.
- To the parents of the other children at McDonalds – I sincerely hope your children choose to not procreate. It should say something that I climbed up into the habitrail to get Boo out after only a few minutes rather than sit and listen to your kids scream. Plus, I didn’t want to be there to administer first aid when one of them finally figured out why they’re not supposed to climb on the outside of the habitrail.
- To the police officer at the on-ramp this afternoon – Sir, thank you for stopping your cruiser and directing traffic at the broken stop-light. I especially thank you for doing it after three of your co-workers used their flashing lights to get through the intersection and speed on to wherever they were headed.
- To Burger Joint Franchise #2141111 – Thank you for being open late on a Sunday evening. I thought I had some noodles and such in my desk, but I was mistaken. Being able to get a snack before driving home from work was nice.
Posted by daddybear71 on October 10, 2011
https://daddybearsden.com/2011/10/10/weekend-shoutouts/
Thought for the Day
When painting with a three year old, you should be aware that they are influenced by the Impressionists, Jackson Pollack, Picasso, and Salvador Dali. You will not see much from the Renaissance or Dutch masters. Easily recognized forms and structures will not be evident, but taken as a whole, their work is quite complex and satisfying when posted on refrigerators and cubicle walls.
Posted by daddybear71 on October 9, 2011
https://daddybearsden.com/2011/10/09/thought-for-the-day-60/
DaddyBear
DaddyBear’s Den 