Thursday, October 26, 2006

Bleg

I MUST HAVE THIS SHIRT

Tuesday, October 24, 2006

Cake!

Miss Fluffy is getting pretty good at making custom cakes.

Yesterday was my birthday. I had a Dairy Queen Blizzard (Heath bar in chocolate ice cream .... mmmmm ..... Heath bar.....) I thought I could do without a cake.

I was wrong.

I'd post a picture of the cake, but Blogger turns into an uncooperative asshole when I try to get it to post a picture from a URL. Screw you, Blogger.

If Miss Fluffy can duplicate that one, I'll be truly impressed.

Survival musings...

... courtesy of Kim.

It’s a funny thing: I always feel kind of silly making these preparations, or even thinking about them. But I’d rather feel silly now, than be hit with catastrophe and dying with “If only...” as my last words.

Sheeple of New Orleans, call your .... oh, never mind.

Thursday, October 19, 2006

Interesting and Timely

... a dangerous ambition more often lurks behind the specious mask of zeal for the rights of the people than under the forbidden appearance of zeal for the firmness and efficiency of government. History will teach us that the former has been found a much more certain road to the introduction of despotism than the latter, and that of those men who have overturned the liberties of republics, the greatest number have begun their career by paying an obsequious court to the people; commencing demagogues, and ending tyrants.

From Federalist #1

The above could very well apply as a criticism of the Bush administration's foreign policy. For those who would do so, I'd say:

I always hear Democrats arguing in favor of more government involvement for what they define as the good of the people. They call Bush a tyrant.

The irony is choking me.

It just kills me that - for the vast majority of Bush's presidency - the left has railed against Bush, claiming that his administration has trampled civil rights under the dubious claim of protecting the American people, yet they turn a blind eye to the racism of "affirmative action" or the class warfare of taxation or the imposition of powerlessness-to-the-people via gun control. The left flips out when the NSA monitors their phone calls, but they support every other form of surveillance imaginable under the guise of anything from "public safety" to "consumer protection." They claim they want "social justice" ... whatever that means. They call it "progress." All for the good of the people.

They hate Bush for what they claim he's done to America in the name of the people, but they make no bones about the fact that they'll do a different shade of the same thing. I think Senator Obama (Soc., IL) phrased it as something like, 'We believe government can help' or something like that.

Hypocrisy is where you find it.

Wednesday, October 18, 2006

The Decline

School bans tag, other chase games

ATTLEBORO, Massachusetts (AP) -- Tag, you're out!
Officials at an elementary school south of Boston have banned kids from playing tag, touch football and any other unsupervised chase game during recess for fear they'll get hurt and hold the school liable.

Recess is "a time when accidents can happen," said Willett Elementary School Principal Gaylene Heppe, who approved the ban.

I was going to say something alarmist and somewhat snide about the nanny state, but I don't think it's necessary this time.

Tuesday, October 17, 2006

Why on earth...

... is this remarkable?

BURLESON, Texas (AP) -- Youngsters in a suburban Fort Worth, Texas, school district are being taught not to sit there like good boys and girls with their hands folded if a gunman invades the classroom, but to rush him and hit him with everything they've got -- books, pencils, legs and arms.

It shouldn't be remarkable at all. We drive defensively. We have the right to defend ourselves in court. How did we ever get to the point that self defense was a bad idea -- in a classroom or anywhere else? The fact that we've instilled in our children the idea that they should sit there and get shot is remarkable - and profoundly sad.

"Getting under desks and praying for rescue from professionals is not a recipe for success," said Robin Browne, a major in the British Army reserve and an instructor for Response Options, the company providing the training to the Burleson schools.

Part of me is so stunned by the obvious nature of such a statement that I'm at a loss for words.

The rest of me is like, "thanks for the tip, Captain Obvious." Check that .... Major Obvious.

Or course, the moonbat peaceniks have their 2 cents:

Hilda Quiroz of the National School Safety Center, a nonprofit advocacy group in California, said she knows of no other school system in the country that is offering fight-back training, and found the strategy at Burleson troubling.
Um, no -- her minset is troubling. Have we not yet had enough of these ninnies who willingly turn a blind eye to the obvious? Has this moron been living under a rock? Sitting quitely has been a pretty good strategy lately in schools - if you want to see kids executed before the cops can do anything about it.

"If kids are saved, then this is the most wonderful thing in the world. If kids are killed, people are going to wonder who's to blame," she said.

Um, the gunman will be to blame. Duh.

"How much common sense will a student have in a time of panic?"


More common sense than you have, you spineless worm. Sitting there and allowing yourself to be executed - in my not-so-humble opinion - shows a complete, drooling-in-your-lap lack of common sense. Lets teach 'em to fight back.

Saturday, October 14, 2006

Can



This dude is made of iron, and has a heart of gold. I'd do well to have a tenth that much heart.

Go Team Hoyt!

h/t to Xavier for the link

Wednesday, October 11, 2006

On the other hand...

In my prior post, I expressed doubt over the possibility of arming teachers.

Dave Kopel has other ideas.

A sample:

Some people who do not like the idea of teachers being armed to protect students simply get indignant, or declare that armed teachers are inconsistent with a learning environment. I suggest that dead students — and the traumatic aftermath of a school attack — are far more inconsistent with a learning environment than is a math teacher having a concealed handgun.

Bingo! We have a winner!

I'm still not sold on the idea that most teachers would choose to be armed. However, I've also recalled several recent events on airliners in which an unruly passenger, after attacking or threatening the flight crew, was "detained" by other passengers. 9/11 made people who fly very, very aware of the fact that they must take a role in protecting themselves if they want to arrive alive. Teachers may be, generally and on the whole, a bunch of pacifist nancies, but every pacificst nancy has buried deep inside that inate sense of self-preservation. I'd like to think that this recent rash of school shootings could awaken that sense, just as 9/11 did in airline passengers. Maybe - just maybe - teachers aren't too far gone.

H/T to the Geek for the link. I liked his take on the issue:

We can no longer afford to be a nation of the craven, allowing our public policies to be driven by the cowardly and the pusillanimous who seek the illusion of zero risk and absolute safety. We are called to be a nation of heroes, each and every one of us, to practice in our everyday lives the traits we find noble and admirable, until we awaken one day to find that we accept and embrace our own magnificence.

In so doing, we serve ourselves and our nation well.

Friday, October 06, 2006

A solid idea...

... which will never see its day here in America. At least not until we see firearms presented in a more level-headed manner by the media and both sides of the political aisle. Until then, the discussion of firearms - in pretty much any context - will be nothing more than an exercise in hyperbole for news anchors and most Democrats.

Aside from that, when I think back to my time in school, I can't think of more than one or two instructors that would have been psychologically capable of being armed. That includes my instructors now in nursing school. Most people in education just aren't the self-defense type. They most likely don't own guns as it is -- they don't have the self-defense mindset, much less the mindset that would prepare them to protect a classroom full of students. They'd just surrender the gun to the first terrorist/wacko who came through the classroom door. They've bought the "books-not-bombs" idea, and - frankly - educators are a lost cause. To them, peace can only be achieved when we're all castrated.

Armed guards? Well, maybe, but never forget that Gary Coleman worked for a "home-security" (and I use that term loosely) company. I'm a proponent of self-defense, not more externalization of our safety mechanisms. I don't want to rely on the police or 9-1-1 dial-a-prayer, and I don't believe armed guards are the answer, either. It may be better than nothing, though, when you have to protect a room full of 10-year olds somehow.

On the bright side, in the last few years, many states have passed right-to-carry and "castle-doctrine" legislation. The idea of guns as necessary tools has been making somewhat of a comeback. That's been under the influence of a Republican administration, though -- and the G.O.P. is taking a beating right now. Considering how hard the Republicans are trying to screw this up for themselves, their days of influence are numbered. Once the Democrat party is back in power, the pendulum will start swinging the other way. Mark my words.

Anyway, I'd love to be in love with the idea of arming teachers, but it ain't gonna happen.

Thursday, October 05, 2006

Fall Break!

I'm on Fall Break through the weekend. Whew! After 2 exams (Anatomy & Physiology and Pharmacology) and medication administration check-offs - all over the course of a 3 day week - I'm ready for a break.

I was supposed to work out this morning with Big Tex. He's the other guy in my nursing program, and we've been working out together. He seems to have bailed on me today. Am I in a position to make him do 15 push-ups for bailing next time I see him?...

We'll be heading out when Miss Fluffy gets off work to visit her family for the weekend. I need to get the car packed so maybe we can stop by CCA (I may pick up a reloader - though I don't really need a "reason" to stop in and drool). Don't know if we'll have time to go to Bass Pro, but I haven't been in their Knoxville location, and I'm itching to do so...

Anyway, here's to a 4-day weekend of no studying, some car-camping, day-hiking and .22 plinkin'!

Another insta-classic rant...

... courtesy of Lawdog.

Here's a mere sample:

Who the hell was the jackass that gave your vomitous mass -- spewed forth onto a handy rock by some nauseated, parasitic flatworm -- a birth certificate?

It just gets better from there. This one is hilarious on the scale of Chevy Chase's character's rant in "Christmas Vacation."

Nobody deserves it more than Mr. Stone.

Monday, October 02, 2006

Again?!?!?

What's this .... the third school shooting this week?

The calls for more gun control will be coming soon...

Sunday, October 01, 2006

Dodging bullets

I'm just a couple of months into my nursing coursework, so I still have days when I sit in class and second-guess my decision to quit my former job to go back to school. I only doubt myself until I remember that I changed careers for long-term reasons, only one of which was future job security.

I was working for a government programs contractor - a good company to work for, mind you, which seems to be a rarity these days - and I had started with them about a week after graduating from college. Since I had double-majored in Spanish and Political Science, I was mainly thrilled to have a job that didn't require me to say, "would you like fries with that?" My reasons for leaving didn't have anything to do with dissatisfaction over the way I was treated by the company. Far from it, actually; in 8 years, I had been given enough opportunity to go from a customer service position to processing appeals to my last position here in Kentucky as sort of a liaison between the government program and medical equipment suppliers. The position afforded me a tremendous amount of autonomy - I was the only person doing my job in the entire state, and my manager was several states away. I had monthly reports to file, conference calls - that kind of thing - but I was otherwise on my own. I got to travel. I attended conferences in New Orleans and Las Vegas. No complaints about that.

In January 2006, things changed. The contract under which I was employed had changed slightly, and our region was to no longer include KY. My territory would now include VA and WV. Now, I'm originally from VA, but I'm from southwestern VA -- Richmond (where I'd probably have to live) may as well have been on another planet. In short, I wasn't going to go to VA. I've only been to Richmond once, but it was enough to convince me that I didn't really want to live there. I didn't want to have to drive to Newport News or - God forbid - the DC area to do inservices. No, thanks.

Now, whether or not to leave KY wasn't exactly presented as an option. My job in KY would soon cease to exist - period. I would go to VA, or I'd find another job.

I chose Option #2.

Now, there was far more than that on my list of reasons to leave the company. One of them - a reason which wasn't near the top of the list - was that I was suspicious of the directions I saw government programs heading - especially for people in positions like mine. If it were my program to run, and I was under pressure to have to save money (and that pressure is constant in government programs,) I'd first look at things that were costing my program money which could be eliminated. Say, individuals in home offices in their own states who have office and travel expenses. That kind of work doesn't necessarily have to be done from field offices. In short, I didn't want to end up in VA and have my company decide my job was too much of a luxury in a year or so.

Anyway, back to the present -- I was in class Friday under quite a bit of pressure to get "checked-off" on performing physical assessments. It had been a long day, and I was pretty frazzled. After class, my wife gave me a phone message. It was from someone I had worked with in the contractor's home office. In short, the message said...

The company lost the contract.

They lost the contract. Not just eliminating a few positions. Not just downsizing. The whole contract. The entire thing. Everybody just lost their job.

I picked my jaw up off the floor and nearly lost my composure.

The epiphany hit my like a dump truck. If I hadn't quit, I'd be sitting here at home, having just gotten the news, trying to figure out what to do, knowing that the rug's gonna get pulled out from under me in real short order. Not that my situation would have been much different - Miss Fluffy and I are still living on one income - but I'd be totally without a plan. Without preparation. I live in a very rural area. I have job skills, but there are no other jobs around here that need skills like mine.

Everyone is telling me, "See? You made the right choice" and that kind of thing. That may be true to some extent, but I can't honestly say that I saw this coming. At least not on this scale. The company I was working for really had their ducks in a row -- they'd bend over backward to try and accommodate more-and-more finicky government requirements. I thought my job was at risk - I didn't really think the contract as a whole was in jeopardy.

So, as luck or divine intervention or whatever you want to call it would have it, I seem to have dodged a little bullet.

I hate it for my former counterparts, though. They hadn't jumped ship like I had. They probably didn't have backup plans. Actually, I know quite a few of them who had new babies at home, aside from mortgages and car payments.

Holy smoke. That could've been me.