Stay safe.
17 March 2012
16 March 2012
Lyndon Johnson and our longest war...
From Steve in Arizona...
A good read about the political mindset that probably caused the Vietnam War to go on much longer than it needed to. Also shows the distrust that politicians have for the military professionals who advise them. Think General Stanley McCrystal and the "arrogant one". When political motivations trump military reality, we all lose. People die. Deaths caused by arrogant, powerful men for political gain.
Anyway...
Lt. Gen. Charles Cooper, USMC (Ret.) is the author of "Cheers and Tears: A Marine's Story of Combat in Peace and War" (2002), from which this article is excerpted. The article recently drew national attention after it was posted on MILINET. It is reprinted with the author's permission.
"The President will see you at two o'clock."
It was a beautiful fall day in November of 1965; early in the Vietnam War-too beautiful a day to be what many of us, anticipating it, had been calling "the day of reckoning." We didn't know how accurate that label would be.
The Pentagon is a busy place. Its workday starts early-especially if, as the expression goes, "there's a war on." By seven o'clock, the staff of Admiral David L. McDonald, the Navy's senior admiral and Chief of Naval Operations, had started to work. Shortly after seven, Admiral McDonald arrived and began making final preparations for a meeting with President Lyndon Baines Johnson.
The Vietnam War was in its first year, and its uncertain direction troubled Admiral McDonald and the other service chiefs. They'd had a number of disagreements with Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara about strategy, and had finally requested a private meeting with the Commander in Chief-a perfectly legitimate procedure. Now, after many delays, the Joint Chiefs were finally to have that meeting. They hoped it would determine whether the US military would continue its seemingly directionless buildup to fight a protracted ground war, or take bold measures that would bring the war to an early and victorious end. The bold measures they would propose were to apply massive air power to the head of the enemy, Hanoi, and to close North Vietnam's harbors by mining them.
Read it all here.
Some things never change. We involve ourselves in wars that we lack the willingness and fortitude to fight to their proper conclusions. (assuming that we fight wars with the intention of winning them) Politics always trumps common sense. We may start out with the best of intentions but we quickly lose our way. Before you know it ten years have passed and we no longer remember what our goals or reason for being were.
Stay safe.
A good read about the political mindset that probably caused the Vietnam War to go on much longer than it needed to. Also shows the distrust that politicians have for the military professionals who advise them. Think General Stanley McCrystal and the "arrogant one". When political motivations trump military reality, we all lose. People die. Deaths caused by arrogant, powerful men for political gain.
Anyway...
Lt. Gen. Charles Cooper, USMC (Ret.) is the author of "Cheers and Tears: A Marine's Story of Combat in Peace and War" (2002), from which this article is excerpted. The article recently drew national attention after it was posted on MILINET. It is reprinted with the author's permission.
"The President will see you at two o'clock."It was a beautiful fall day in November of 1965; early in the Vietnam War-too beautiful a day to be what many of us, anticipating it, had been calling "the day of reckoning." We didn't know how accurate that label would be.
The Pentagon is a busy place. Its workday starts early-especially if, as the expression goes, "there's a war on." By seven o'clock, the staff of Admiral David L. McDonald, the Navy's senior admiral and Chief of Naval Operations, had started to work. Shortly after seven, Admiral McDonald arrived and began making final preparations for a meeting with President Lyndon Baines Johnson.
The Vietnam War was in its first year, and its uncertain direction troubled Admiral McDonald and the other service chiefs. They'd had a number of disagreements with Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara about strategy, and had finally requested a private meeting with the Commander in Chief-a perfectly legitimate procedure. Now, after many delays, the Joint Chiefs were finally to have that meeting. They hoped it would determine whether the US military would continue its seemingly directionless buildup to fight a protracted ground war, or take bold measures that would bring the war to an early and victorious end. The bold measures they would propose were to apply massive air power to the head of the enemy, Hanoi, and to close North Vietnam's harbors by mining them.
Read it all here.
Some things never change. We involve ourselves in wars that we lack the willingness and fortitude to fight to their proper conclusions. (assuming that we fight wars with the intention of winning them) Politics always trumps common sense. We may start out with the best of intentions but we quickly lose our way. Before you know it ten years have passed and we no longer remember what our goals or reason for being were.
Stay safe.
Al Qaeda hates Fox News...
From HuffPost...
I suppose that you can take this article several different ways. Personally, I find it somewhat humorous....
Materials taken from Osama bin Laden's compound following his death in May 2011 reveal that Al Qaeda has major issues with Fox News.
Columnist David Ignatius, who had a huge scoop in Friday's Washington Post, reported on his exclusive look at documents taken from bin Laden's compound. The main thrust of Ignatius' piece described that bin Laden was plotting to kill President Barack Obama and Gen. David H. Patraeus.
Ignatius also wrote that the documents revealed information about al Qaeda's media plans surrounding the 10-year anniversary of the September 11th attacks.
Ignatius wrote that al Qaeda's U.S.-born media adviser, Adam Gadahn, detailed where bin Laden should send his anniversary video. "It should be sent for example to ABC, CBS, NBC, and CNN and maybe PBS and VOA. As for Fox News let her die in her anger,” he wrote. Gadahn also described the networks as "all on one level — except [Fox News] channel, which falls into the abyss as you know, and lacks objectivity, too."
Read it all here.
I love it! It sounds like Al Qaeda likes (loves?) the liberal MSM and apparently trusts them to get their word out with the appropriate slant. It seems that they don't feel the same way about Fox News. I hope that the Conservative media uses this to show how the MSM is the mouthpiece for most of what's bad about the world today. I suppose that some silver-tongued wordsmith could make the case that the MSM aids and abets Al Qaeda.
They seem to act like a typical Liberal. The only people that they associate with are those with whom they agree, or those who agree with them. And we wonder why we are where we are. :)
Anyway, Happy Friday...
Stay safe.
15 March 2012
14 March 2012
13 March 2012
More CRT...
In November 1985, the Harvard Law Review published an article by Derrick Bell that was a "classic" in the development of Critical Race Theory. The article was edited by then-student Elena Kagan, and was cited by Prof. Charles Ogletree in support of her nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court by President Barack Obama in 2010. The article makes clear that Critical Race Theory sees the U.S. Constitution as a form of "original sin"--a view later embraced by Obama as a state legislator, and reflected in his actions and appointments. The following is an excerpt from the non-fiction portion of the article; much of what follows is a fictional story that Bell intended as a parable of racial "fantasy." (99 Harv. L. Rev. 4)
Read the rest here.
Stay safe.
12 March 2012
Critical Race Theory...
Last week, Breitbart.com released video demonstrating Barack Obama’s close relationship with Derrick Bell, the father of Critical Race Theory (CRT). And we’ve seen Soledad O’Brien try to twist the definition of critical race theory in order to protect Obama by grabbing a quick definition from Wikipedia. But just what is CRT? Why is it so dangerous? And what role does it play in President Obama’s thinking?
Read the rest here.
Stay safe.
Don't know what to think...
A few thoughts bouncing around in my head today. I apologize if they seem disjointed and out of order. Or make no logical sense.
I'm angry. This has really set me off.
The soldier who went outside the wire in the middle of the night and murdered 16 Afghan civilians, mostly women and children...
The first thought that went through my mind is that you don't just go out and kill non-combatants. Every soldier knows that. There are so many reasons why it's wrong.
Then I thought about how I would feel if it happened here, to my family. Not pleasant to consider. How would I respond? What "justice" would I wish for?
I have no idea what was going through his mind. I can't even imagine. He was serving his fourth combat tour. I'm surprised it doesn't happen more often when soldiers are forced to serve combat tours again and again. It has to wear on a person. It has to change a person. Yes, I realize that they're all volunteers. Perhaps that's part of the problem. Fairly decent pay and benefits. (not great, I know) A shitty job market and a shitty economy here at home. Whats a guy to do, right?
He volunteered for sniper training after he returned from his last deployment to Iraq. He passed the psych eval for that training. He then suffered a brain injury, recovered from it, and again passed a psych eval.
We still had a draft when I served. Perhaps we should have it again? Spread the load. Share the love. "You get lower quality soldiers with bad attitudes who don't want to be there so they don't perform". Yep, some of them. You have some of those in the volunteer ranks, too. The vast majority shoot back when being shot at, though. That "self preservation" thing. That's another topic for another time. :)
There is a good article here regarding this man and this incident. Read the entire article. It isn't very long. Pay special attention to the last paragraph.
E-6 with 11 years of service. 4th combat tour. Some have served more time in Iraq and Afghanistan. Some less. Some none at all. Wife and 2 kids.
He will be charged with murder and other crimes in the next few days. The charges will be levied in Afghanistan. I don't suppose that's unusual. The Afghan government has already stated that they want this soldier brought to "justice" in Afghanistan. They don't want this soldier taken out of their country to be tried in America. They do not trust the Americans to come to the right verdict in America. Afghanistan is a different world. They don't do things the way we do.
I believe that it will now become a political circus. We don't want to piss our Afghan allies off any more than we already have. We have to satisfy their need for justice. It's their country, their citizens who were murdered, after all.
I can see the trial taking place in Afghanistan. They won't listen to any defense regarding mental illness. They want blood. That's the way it works. I'm not saying whether that is right or wrong. I'm not judging that at all.
No person in their right mind would do what he did.
I'm afraid that if it happens this way, if he is tried by Courts Martial in Afghanistan, he will be found guilty. No extenuating circumstances. No insanity defense. Guilty plain and simple. What he did was wrong by any normal standards.
Except that we continue to send these people over there time and time again to satisfy a political need. This man's actions, no matter how abhorrent, no matter how uncivilized, no matter how wrong, are an indictment of the system that put him there. Like the psychiatrist in the article said... His leaders knew or should have known that there was something wrong. He didn't snap. He berserked.
Again, I firmly believe that what this soldier did was wrong, based on what little any of us know about the incident.
I'm concerned that this soldier's fate is already sealed. And that it is a political decision. Our government is going to send a message on this one. They are going to appease our Afghan allies.
10 years at war in that country. The same small group of people serving. Multiple tours. War and more war. We have no idea how it's going over there. I'm sure that there are successes, but we rarely, if ever, hear about those. Whenever an American soldier screws up we hear about it.
I had a young Second Lieutenant who became my platoon leader straight out of Officer Branch Basic during my second tour in Germany. I was the Platoon Sergeant at the time and we became friends but lost touch after I came back home. He retired as a Colonel and then became a civilian contractor. He is back in Afghanistan right now. (3rd or 4th time) He's there for the money. Wife, kids, grandkids back home in Ohio. Actually, I think he's there for something more than the money. He's a believer. Always has been. Anyway, he emailed me one morning last month and said that two American officers were executed in an Afghan government building. Shot in the back of the head. This was the day after the koran burnings. A few hours later it was all over the news. He said it's getting crazy over there. And dangerous. He never said that before. That it was dangerous. He's too old to be doing the shit he's doing :)
Anyway...
I have a bad feeling about this one. I believe that Eddie Slovik was the last American soldier to be executed by the US Military. Desertion. If he wasn't the last, he was one of the last. Doesn't matter. The only soldier executed for anything other than rape or murder since the War Between The States. Message sent.
102 soldiers were executed during WWII for rape or murder. 35 in WWI. Slovik is the one you hear about. Not that it matters.
You have no idea how much I hope I'm wrong about this. No idea.
I'm torn. I don't know what to think. Don't even know why I think this way.
He went through the wire. He pulled the trigger. He set the fires. He alone is responsible for his actions.
Or, is he?
Your thoughts?
Stay safe.
I'm angry. This has really set me off.
The soldier who went outside the wire in the middle of the night and murdered 16 Afghan civilians, mostly women and children...
The first thought that went through my mind is that you don't just go out and kill non-combatants. Every soldier knows that. There are so many reasons why it's wrong.
Then I thought about how I would feel if it happened here, to my family. Not pleasant to consider. How would I respond? What "justice" would I wish for?
I have no idea what was going through his mind. I can't even imagine. He was serving his fourth combat tour. I'm surprised it doesn't happen more often when soldiers are forced to serve combat tours again and again. It has to wear on a person. It has to change a person. Yes, I realize that they're all volunteers. Perhaps that's part of the problem. Fairly decent pay and benefits. (not great, I know) A shitty job market and a shitty economy here at home. Whats a guy to do, right?
He volunteered for sniper training after he returned from his last deployment to Iraq. He passed the psych eval for that training. He then suffered a brain injury, recovered from it, and again passed a psych eval.
We still had a draft when I served. Perhaps we should have it again? Spread the load. Share the love. "You get lower quality soldiers with bad attitudes who don't want to be there so they don't perform". Yep, some of them. You have some of those in the volunteer ranks, too. The vast majority shoot back when being shot at, though. That "self preservation" thing. That's another topic for another time. :)
There is a good article here regarding this man and this incident. Read the entire article. It isn't very long. Pay special attention to the last paragraph.
E-6 with 11 years of service. 4th combat tour. Some have served more time in Iraq and Afghanistan. Some less. Some none at all. Wife and 2 kids.
He will be charged with murder and other crimes in the next few days. The charges will be levied in Afghanistan. I don't suppose that's unusual. The Afghan government has already stated that they want this soldier brought to "justice" in Afghanistan. They don't want this soldier taken out of their country to be tried in America. They do not trust the Americans to come to the right verdict in America. Afghanistan is a different world. They don't do things the way we do.
I believe that it will now become a political circus. We don't want to piss our Afghan allies off any more than we already have. We have to satisfy their need for justice. It's their country, their citizens who were murdered, after all.
I can see the trial taking place in Afghanistan. They won't listen to any defense regarding mental illness. They want blood. That's the way it works. I'm not saying whether that is right or wrong. I'm not judging that at all.
No person in their right mind would do what he did.
I'm afraid that if it happens this way, if he is tried by Courts Martial in Afghanistan, he will be found guilty. No extenuating circumstances. No insanity defense. Guilty plain and simple. What he did was wrong by any normal standards.
Except that we continue to send these people over there time and time again to satisfy a political need. This man's actions, no matter how abhorrent, no matter how uncivilized, no matter how wrong, are an indictment of the system that put him there. Like the psychiatrist in the article said... His leaders knew or should have known that there was something wrong. He didn't snap. He berserked.
Again, I firmly believe that what this soldier did was wrong, based on what little any of us know about the incident.
I'm concerned that this soldier's fate is already sealed. And that it is a political decision. Our government is going to send a message on this one. They are going to appease our Afghan allies.
10 years at war in that country. The same small group of people serving. Multiple tours. War and more war. We have no idea how it's going over there. I'm sure that there are successes, but we rarely, if ever, hear about those. Whenever an American soldier screws up we hear about it.
I had a young Second Lieutenant who became my platoon leader straight out of Officer Branch Basic during my second tour in Germany. I was the Platoon Sergeant at the time and we became friends but lost touch after I came back home. He retired as a Colonel and then became a civilian contractor. He is back in Afghanistan right now. (3rd or 4th time) He's there for the money. Wife, kids, grandkids back home in Ohio. Actually, I think he's there for something more than the money. He's a believer. Always has been. Anyway, he emailed me one morning last month and said that two American officers were executed in an Afghan government building. Shot in the back of the head. This was the day after the koran burnings. A few hours later it was all over the news. He said it's getting crazy over there. And dangerous. He never said that before. That it was dangerous. He's too old to be doing the shit he's doing :)
Anyway...
I have a bad feeling about this one. I believe that Eddie Slovik was the last American soldier to be executed by the US Military. Desertion. If he wasn't the last, he was one of the last. Doesn't matter. The only soldier executed for anything other than rape or murder since the War Between The States. Message sent.
102 soldiers were executed during WWII for rape or murder. 35 in WWI. Slovik is the one you hear about. Not that it matters.
You have no idea how much I hope I'm wrong about this. No idea.
I'm torn. I don't know what to think. Don't even know why I think this way.
He went through the wire. He pulled the trigger. He set the fires. He alone is responsible for his actions.
Or, is he?
Your thoughts?
Stay safe.
11 March 2012
P.C....
"Don't you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of
thought?... Has it ever occurred to you, Winston, that by the year 2050, at the
very latest, not a single human being will be alive who could understand such a
conversation as we are having now?... The whole climate of thought will be
different. In fact, there will be no thought, as we understand it now. Orthodoxy
means not thinking-not needing to think. Orthodoxy is unconsciousness."
~~George Orwell
1984
Stay safe.
~~George Orwell
1984
Stay safe.
Dream, baby. Dream...
Federal Reserve, banking, and basic finance simplified. They were smart to call it the "Federal Reserve". Makes folks think it is a government entity.
Stay safe.
07 March 2012
Rescue...
"A U.S. Marine rescued a boy who fell into the lion cage at the National
Zoo. He jumped over the fence, punched the lion, and snatched away the boy. The
next day the Washington Post reported that a Marine attacked an African
immigrant and stole his lunch." --comedian Argus Hamilton
Stay safe.
06 March 2012
Osama...
So...
Was Osama bin Laden buried at sea after being killed by U.S. Navy Seals in Pakistan just 1/2 mile from a Pakistani Army base where he had lived, unknown and undetected by us or our Pakistani allies, for 5 years?
Did the US Navy Seals really kill him?
Did he die of renal failure in the mountains of Afghanistan sometime in the last 9 or 10 years?
Or was he killed in Pakistan and his body moved to the US Military Mortuary in Dover, Delaware? Where is his body now?
Does it matter?
Perhaps he's alive and well in Miami?
Huffpost says that Anonymous hacked some high level security company's server and gave the purloined emails to WikiLeaks who then published them.
If true, or even partly true, this could be embarrassing to the obama administration, right? Or not. obama is a sociopath. He doesn't get embarrassed. No feelings.
More questions than answers.
Anyway...
Next topic.
Did you notice how the media is questioning everything about the current Republican candidates for their parties presidential nomination? I mean everything. I wonder why the same media failed to vet obama in the same way 3 1/2 years ago? They didn't ask obama any hard questions. The made no hard accusations. Free ride for the pothead.
Stay safe.
Was Osama bin Laden buried at sea after being killed by U.S. Navy Seals in Pakistan just 1/2 mile from a Pakistani Army base where he had lived, unknown and undetected by us or our Pakistani allies, for 5 years?
Did the US Navy Seals really kill him?
Did he die of renal failure in the mountains of Afghanistan sometime in the last 9 or 10 years?
Or was he killed in Pakistan and his body moved to the US Military Mortuary in Dover, Delaware? Where is his body now?
Does it matter?
Perhaps he's alive and well in Miami?
Huffpost says that Anonymous hacked some high level security company's server and gave the purloined emails to WikiLeaks who then published them.
If true, or even partly true, this could be embarrassing to the obama administration, right? Or not. obama is a sociopath. He doesn't get embarrassed. No feelings.
More questions than answers.
Anyway...
Next topic.
Did you notice how the media is questioning everything about the current Republican candidates for their parties presidential nomination? I mean everything. I wonder why the same media failed to vet obama in the same way 3 1/2 years ago? They didn't ask obama any hard questions. The made no hard accusations. Free ride for the pothead.
Stay safe.
05 March 2012
Monday...
A man from Minnesota went and cut his entire left side off. Whoa! Don't worry though, he's all right now.
McThag presented me with the Liebster Blog award. Thank you! I don't have a speech ready yet so I'll have to get back to you on that. :) Seriously though, thank you.
I'm not sure of 5 people to pass it on to....
Iowa is trying to pass an amendment to our constitution protecting the rights of law abiding citizens to keep and bear arms. It passed the House on a strict party line vote, save one. Representative Brian Quirk, a Democrat, voted with the majority to pass it. Thank you Brian! Now on to the Senate. It won't be so easy there. Representative Lance Horbach from Tama gave this speech before it was voted on in the House..
Good job, Lance!
Iowa is one of only 6 states that does not have a RKBA amendment to it's state constitution. Iowa's motto is "Our Liberties We Prize, Our Rights We Maintain." How ironic.
There is also Stand your Ground/Castle Doctrine legislation that was passed out of the House and is going on to the Senate. It's gonna be interesting to see how it goes.
The entire Democratic Caucus walked out of legislative session for 6 hours one day last week in protest of this legislation. Apparently when Democrats don't want to debate legislation that they may not like, they get up and leave. Happened in Wisconsin and Indiana recently. Wow. Way to get things done, er, I mean, "Listen here kiddies, sit down and do the job that you were elected to do! You aren't going anywhere until you've finished eating your peas and carrots".
I can only assume that the Democrats don't like it because they would prefer to give criminals more rights than law abiding citizens.
In my mind, the most important thing about the Stand your Ground/Castle Doctrine legislation is the protection it gives you after the fact if you have to use your firearm to protect yourself or others. If no charges are filed against you, or if you are adjudicated not guilty in criminal court, you cannot be sued in civil court.
"There will be blood in the streets. People will go toe to toe and use their guns to settle their arguments". Whatever. That's the same thing they said when Iowa became a "Shall Issue" state. Hasn't happened. Isn't going to happen.
Our Sheriff and several Prosecutors don't like the Stand Your Ground/Castle Doctrine legislation. In the words of our Sheriff (paraphrased) "The bangers are good liars. They will be quick to tell you that they were in fear for their life, so they shot". I can see his point. The other scenario is that the banger gets shot by the citizen. No charges are filed because it was a good shoot. The banger's family sues the citizen and wins, thereby forcing the citizen to financially support the banger's family forever while destroying the citizens life. Why should I have to pay the family of some low-life who died while trying to kill me?
Its an imperfect world that we live in.
Anyway...
Stay safe.
McThag presented me with the Liebster Blog award. Thank you! I don't have a speech ready yet so I'll have to get back to you on that. :) Seriously though, thank you.
I'm not sure of 5 people to pass it on to....
Iowa is trying to pass an amendment to our constitution protecting the rights of law abiding citizens to keep and bear arms. It passed the House on a strict party line vote, save one. Representative Brian Quirk, a Democrat, voted with the majority to pass it. Thank you Brian! Now on to the Senate. It won't be so easy there. Representative Lance Horbach from Tama gave this speech before it was voted on in the House..
Good job, Lance!
Iowa is one of only 6 states that does not have a RKBA amendment to it's state constitution. Iowa's motto is "Our Liberties We Prize, Our Rights We Maintain." How ironic.
There is also Stand your Ground/Castle Doctrine legislation that was passed out of the House and is going on to the Senate. It's gonna be interesting to see how it goes.
The entire Democratic Caucus walked out of legislative session for 6 hours one day last week in protest of this legislation. Apparently when Democrats don't want to debate legislation that they may not like, they get up and leave. Happened in Wisconsin and Indiana recently. Wow. Way to get things done, er, I mean, "Listen here kiddies, sit down and do the job that you were elected to do! You aren't going anywhere until you've finished eating your peas and carrots".
I can only assume that the Democrats don't like it because they would prefer to give criminals more rights than law abiding citizens.
In my mind, the most important thing about the Stand your Ground/Castle Doctrine legislation is the protection it gives you after the fact if you have to use your firearm to protect yourself or others. If no charges are filed against you, or if you are adjudicated not guilty in criminal court, you cannot be sued in civil court.
"There will be blood in the streets. People will go toe to toe and use their guns to settle their arguments". Whatever. That's the same thing they said when Iowa became a "Shall Issue" state. Hasn't happened. Isn't going to happen.
Our Sheriff and several Prosecutors don't like the Stand Your Ground/Castle Doctrine legislation. In the words of our Sheriff (paraphrased) "The bangers are good liars. They will be quick to tell you that they were in fear for their life, so they shot". I can see his point. The other scenario is that the banger gets shot by the citizen. No charges are filed because it was a good shoot. The banger's family sues the citizen and wins, thereby forcing the citizen to financially support the banger's family forever while destroying the citizens life. Why should I have to pay the family of some low-life who died while trying to kill me?
Its an imperfect world that we live in.
Anyway...
Stay safe.
02 March 2012
Don't piss her off...
This was brought into the shop my son works at in Arizona. She musta been really mad. Yes, she removed the crankcase oil filler cap and squirted a bit of spray-foam in there, too.
She got his Benz, too. Thought he was cheating on her.
My son says "If we had a female president who went to work with this attitude everyday, no one would mess with us". I think he's right.
Stay safe.
01 March 2012
Not Applicable...
| Referring URL: |
(No referring link)
| |||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Host Name: | gate1-hawaii.nmci.navy.mil | Browser: | IE 7.0 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| IP Address: | 138.163.128.41 — [Label IP Address] | Operating System: | WinXP | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Location: | Honolulu, Hawaii, United States | Resolution: | 1920x1080 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Returning Visits: | 1 | Javascript: | Enabled | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Visit Length: | Not Applicable | ISP: | Navy Network Information Center (nnic) | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Referring URL: | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Host Name: | gate2-sandiego.nmci.navy.mil | Browser: | IE 7.0 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| IP Address: | 138.163.0.42 — [Label IP Address] | Operating System: | WinXP | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Location: | San Diego, California, United States | Resolution: | 1024x768 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Returning Visits: | 11 | Javascript: | Enabled | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Visit Length: | Not Applicable | ISP: | Navy Network Information Center (nnic) | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Referring URL: | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Host Name: | Browser: | IE 8.0 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| IP Address: | 140.194.140.11 — [Label IP Address] | Operating System: | Win7 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Location: | Sacramento, California, United States | Resolution: | 1536x960 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Returning Visits: | 0 | Javascript: | Enabled | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Visit Length: | Not Applicable | ISP: | Headquarters, Usaisc | |||||||||||||||||||||
Visit Length: Not Applicable. That's a new one to me. Never saw that before.
Stay safe.
Chardon, Ohio...
I received this in today's email from Bob at Ohio Ordnance Works. It bears reading. A voice of reason.
Firearms, whether directly or indirectly, impact everyone’s life in some way. In the wake of the recent events at Chardon High School, the impact of firearms was felt on an entire community when a fatal shooting occurred in the high school- which is in the middle of this idyllic town, not far from my home, other homes, offices, and other schools.
Being a resident of Chardon almost my entire life and an alumni of the high school, I was shaken that such violence could happen in our community. Chardon was a place I have always felt safe from the kinds of evils that happen elsewhere in the world. In one morning, that peace of mind was stolen. The little town on the hill known for snowfall and maple syrup, where you could leave your doors unlocked and roam the streets safely at night, became the epicenter of a national news story. Somebody, or something, had to be the cause of this unsettling- and someone or something had to bear the blame.
As always with these kinds of unthinkable violent acts, the involvement of a gun caused a strong response. There seems to be an emotional connotation attached to any conversation involving firearms, and the nature of the discussion leaves no middle ground. People either want them or hate them, and both to the extreme. After the events of the past week, the time had come to reassess the role of firearms in my life, and whether or not I would condemn them as a vessel of death and destruction or reaffirm their need as a fundamental right and last line of defense.
To research firearms statistically is not an easy task, but one that is necessary if you are going to truly form an educated opinion on the subject. I looked for evidence that was empirical and unbiased, though finding it proved difficult.
First of all, are people carrying around more guns these days?
Read the whole thing here.
Like I said, a voice of reason. Yes, I realize that reason means nothing to some folks.
Stay safe.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)