... and the kids don't know their ass from their elbow!
Mark Schiff interviews students at UCLA (sorry I couldn't get this video to embed)
Friday
Alarm at the office
I watched a massive trophy buck canter boldly across an Alabama clear cut in broad daylight. The excitement built within me as I placed the crosshairs of my riflescope on his shoulder and my finger caressed the trigger.
The phone by my bed rang insistently and I was yanked from my pleasant dream into hearing my company’s alarm service telling me that there were multiple motion sensors being activated at my office; the police had already been notified.
Damn!
I jumped out of bed, pulled on my britches (the ones that did NOT contain my wallet with my DL and CWP) and headed for the door. The clock on the wall said 12:17 a.m.
My 21 year-old son was still up playing video games and I asked him if he wanted to respond to what seemed to be an obvious break-in at my office. He quickly dropped his game controller and grabbed his Glock and we headed out the door.
Twelve urban miles, and 18 minutes later we rolled up into the parking lot and found that there was a power outage in the area; everything was pitch dark except for a few battery powered lights inside the building.
There were no police to be seen as we circled the building looking for signs of forced entry. After a few minutes, and a brief discussion between us of how neither one could prove our identity (he’d left his wallet at home too), we wondered whether we ought to back off - or go in.
That’s about the time we spotted Barney Fife’s spotlight down the street searching for the address – and going the wrong direction.
Let’s do this.
We entered the front entrance and locked the door behind us. No sense in allowing Barney to come back and enter the building behind us!
By this point the power outage is no longer even on my mind. There is sufficient lighting from the emergency lights that we can see well enough. What IS on my mind are the three previous burglaries we’ve had in the previous eight years, one of which where the burglar surgically removed a pane of glass from an out of the way spot not easily seen from the parking areas.
I disable the audible alarm and we both think we hear something in the ensuing silence. Carefully we make our way down the main hallway with flashlights and pistols at the ready.
Suddenly the power comes back on.
In a microsecond the building goes from being quiet as a tomb to the sound of dozens of printers, copiers, fax machines, and PC’s powering up. In just a second or two it registered what was happening. But for the first half of that initial second as we listened to whirring, clicking, and assorted and sundry odd sounds from all around us, there was an involuntary puckering of the anus accompanied by the hair on the back of our necks standing straight up!
We cleared the building with no further incident and locked up and left.
The police department never made an appearance, and on the way home we had a good laugh at ourselves, but for that split second we both agreed:
“That scared the sh*t outta me!”
The phone by my bed rang insistently and I was yanked from my pleasant dream into hearing my company’s alarm service telling me that there were multiple motion sensors being activated at my office; the police had already been notified.
Damn!
I jumped out of bed, pulled on my britches (the ones that did NOT contain my wallet with my DL and CWP) and headed for the door. The clock on the wall said 12:17 a.m.
My 21 year-old son was still up playing video games and I asked him if he wanted to respond to what seemed to be an obvious break-in at my office. He quickly dropped his game controller and grabbed his Glock and we headed out the door.
Twelve urban miles, and 18 minutes later we rolled up into the parking lot and found that there was a power outage in the area; everything was pitch dark except for a few battery powered lights inside the building.
There were no police to be seen as we circled the building looking for signs of forced entry. After a few minutes, and a brief discussion between us of how neither one could prove our identity (he’d left his wallet at home too), we wondered whether we ought to back off - or go in.
That’s about the time we spotted Barney Fife’s spotlight down the street searching for the address – and going the wrong direction.
Let’s do this.
We entered the front entrance and locked the door behind us. No sense in allowing Barney to come back and enter the building behind us!
By this point the power outage is no longer even on my mind. There is sufficient lighting from the emergency lights that we can see well enough. What IS on my mind are the three previous burglaries we’ve had in the previous eight years, one of which where the burglar surgically removed a pane of glass from an out of the way spot not easily seen from the parking areas.
I disable the audible alarm and we both think we hear something in the ensuing silence. Carefully we make our way down the main hallway with flashlights and pistols at the ready.
Suddenly the power comes back on.
In a microsecond the building goes from being quiet as a tomb to the sound of dozens of printers, copiers, fax machines, and PC’s powering up. In just a second or two it registered what was happening. But for the first half of that initial second as we listened to whirring, clicking, and assorted and sundry odd sounds from all around us, there was an involuntary puckering of the anus accompanied by the hair on the back of our necks standing straight up!
We cleared the building with no further incident and locked up and left.
The police department never made an appearance, and on the way home we had a good laugh at ourselves, but for that split second we both agreed:
“That scared the sh*t outta me!”
Thursday
If ONLY he had let the thief come on in the house!
This story leaves me absolutely speechless!
Man facing 105 years in prison for shooting at would-be thief
UPDATE: They've dropped the charges, but too late to recover ANY semblance of a normal life.
Man facing 105 years in prison for shooting at would-be thief
UPDATE: They've dropped the charges, but too late to recover ANY semblance of a normal life.
Wednesday
Thieves!
This morning my receptionist came to work as usual. Apparently she had a doctor’s appointment around mid-morning and realized she’s left her insurance card at home. So she drove home to get it. She found her home burglarized and vandalized! What the thieves couldn’t steal, they destroyed. The bastards even killed the family cat. I have never met her husband, but she is a sweet girl that doesn’t deserve this kind of heinous act.
As you might imagine, this is the talk of the day around my office. The #1 big boss man then told me that last weekend the son of the #2 big boss man was laying on his couch dozing on a Sunday evening. His wife was in the shower. A sneak thief eased into the house thru an unlocked sliding glass door and tiptoed right past the man sleeping on the couch. He was awakened to the sound of his wife’s screaming as she encountered a strange man standing in her bedroom when she came out of the shower. The crook bolted past the dazed homeowner and was gone in a flash.
I hear that the FBI’s crime statistics report shows crime steadily decreasing these days… but that’s certainly little comfort to these homeowners who have had their very sense of security ripped away.
Come into MY home uninvited, and I promise you… if I am there, you will die a most wretched death!
As you might imagine, this is the talk of the day around my office. The #1 big boss man then told me that last weekend the son of the #2 big boss man was laying on his couch dozing on a Sunday evening. His wife was in the shower. A sneak thief eased into the house thru an unlocked sliding glass door and tiptoed right past the man sleeping on the couch. He was awakened to the sound of his wife’s screaming as she encountered a strange man standing in her bedroom when she came out of the shower. The crook bolted past the dazed homeowner and was gone in a flash.
I hear that the FBI’s crime statistics report shows crime steadily decreasing these days… but that’s certainly little comfort to these homeowners who have had their very sense of security ripped away.
Come into MY home uninvited, and I promise you… if I am there, you will die a most wretched death!
Thursday
War dead abominations
The Empire has well-conditioned it’s subjects to honor the armed forces, and rendering homage to the uniform is a basic tenet of civic religion among the warlike right. I should know as I was a rock-solid believer for most of my adult life.
Unfortunately, the Empire doesn’t practice the same degree of honor that it preaches for its war dead. Whether its gross mismanagement at the cemetery, or equally gross mismanagement at the mortuary, America’s war dead are not given the careful treatment and respect we’ve been taught they deserve.
Unfortunately, the Empire doesn’t practice the same degree of honor that it preaches for its war dead. Whether its gross mismanagement at the cemetery, or equally gross mismanagement at the mortuary, America’s war dead are not given the careful treatment and respect we’ve been taught they deserve.
Best book I've read in quite some time
I know we are all inundated with books giving reasons for why our society is swirling in the bowl, but this one is particularly good.
Tuesday
Cop versus Cop
This is unusual to say the least. A Florida Highway Patrol unit pulls a Miami County officer over for speeding, and pulls him from the car at gun point.
The FOP is coming down on the side of the Miami Cop, and FHP is standing by their patrolman.
A cursory read of the various comments trailing these articles reveals that the cops (as expected) are all firmly of the mindset that one cop should cover another cop – no matter what!
Conversely, the typical citizen commenter sees cops as being subject to the same laws they are subject to.
The patrolwoman Donna Watts is taking some fierce fire from her fellow officers it seems. She obviously has more belief in her principals than the typical tax feeding state-pensioner wanna-be.
Kudos for her I say!
The FOP is coming down on the side of the Miami Cop, and FHP is standing by their patrolman.
A cursory read of the various comments trailing these articles reveals that the cops (as expected) are all firmly of the mindset that one cop should cover another cop – no matter what!
Conversely, the typical citizen commenter sees cops as being subject to the same laws they are subject to.
The patrolwoman Donna Watts is taking some fierce fire from her fellow officers it seems. She obviously has more belief in her principals than the typical tax feeding state-pensioner wanna-be.
Kudos for her I say!
Wednesday
Pure communism!
These are the demands of the Occupy Wall Street (bowel) Movement as posted on their website:
Demand one: Restoration of the living wage. This demand can only be met by ending “Freetrade” by re-imposing trade tariffs on all imported goods entering the American market to level the playing field for domestic family farming and domestic manufacturing as most nations that are dumping cheap products onto the American market have radical wage and environmental regulation advantages. Another policy that must be instituted is raise the minimum wage to twenty dollars an hr.
Demand two: Institute a universal single payer healthcare system. To do this all private insurers must be banned from the healthcare market as their only effect on the health of patients is to take money away from doctors, nurses and hospitals preventing them from doing their jobs and hand that money to wall st. investors.
Demand three: Guaranteed living wage income regardless of employment.
Demand four: Free college education.
Demand five: Begin a fast track process to bring the fossil fuel economy to an end while at the same bringing the alternative energy economy up to energy demand.
Demand six: One trillion dollars in infrastructure (Water, Sewer, Rail, Roads and Bridges and Electrical Grid) spending now.
Demand seven: One trillion dollars in ecological restoration planting forests, reestablishing wetlands and the natural flow of river systems and decommissioning of all of America’s nuclear power plants.
Demand eight: Racial and gender equal rights amendment.
Demand nine: Open borders migration. anyone can travel anywhere to work and live.
Demand ten: Bring American elections up to international standards of a paper ballot precinct counted and recounted in front of an independent and party observers system.
Demand eleven: Immediate across the board debt forgiveness for all. Debt forgiveness of sovereign debt, commercial loans, home mortgages, home equity loans, credit card debt, student loans and personal loans now! All debt must be stricken from the “Books.” World Bank Loans to all Nations, Bank to Bank Debt and all Bonds and Margin Call Debt in the stock market including all Derivatives or Credit Default Swaps, all 65 trillion dollars of them must also be stricken from the “Books.” And I don’t mean debt that is in default, I mean all debt on the entire planet period.
Demand twelve: Outlaw all credit reporting agencies.
Demand thirteen: Allow all workers to sign a ballot at any time during a union organizing campaign or at any time that represents their yeah or nay to having a union represent them in collective bargaining or to form a union.
These demands will create so many jobs it will be completely impossible to fill them without an open borders policy.
===========================================
GR4U - These idiots want all the conveniences of living in a 21st century First World nation with none of the individual responsibilities associated with such a society!
Demand one: Restoration of the living wage. This demand can only be met by ending “Freetrade” by re-imposing trade tariffs on all imported goods entering the American market to level the playing field for domestic family farming and domestic manufacturing as most nations that are dumping cheap products onto the American market have radical wage and environmental regulation advantages. Another policy that must be instituted is raise the minimum wage to twenty dollars an hr.
Demand two: Institute a universal single payer healthcare system. To do this all private insurers must be banned from the healthcare market as their only effect on the health of patients is to take money away from doctors, nurses and hospitals preventing them from doing their jobs and hand that money to wall st. investors.
Demand three: Guaranteed living wage income regardless of employment.
Demand four: Free college education.
Demand five: Begin a fast track process to bring the fossil fuel economy to an end while at the same bringing the alternative energy economy up to energy demand.
Demand six: One trillion dollars in infrastructure (Water, Sewer, Rail, Roads and Bridges and Electrical Grid) spending now.
Demand seven: One trillion dollars in ecological restoration planting forests, reestablishing wetlands and the natural flow of river systems and decommissioning of all of America’s nuclear power plants.
Demand eight: Racial and gender equal rights amendment.
Demand nine: Open borders migration. anyone can travel anywhere to work and live.
Demand ten: Bring American elections up to international standards of a paper ballot precinct counted and recounted in front of an independent and party observers system.
Demand eleven: Immediate across the board debt forgiveness for all. Debt forgiveness of sovereign debt, commercial loans, home mortgages, home equity loans, credit card debt, student loans and personal loans now! All debt must be stricken from the “Books.” World Bank Loans to all Nations, Bank to Bank Debt and all Bonds and Margin Call Debt in the stock market including all Derivatives or Credit Default Swaps, all 65 trillion dollars of them must also be stricken from the “Books.” And I don’t mean debt that is in default, I mean all debt on the entire planet period.
Demand twelve: Outlaw all credit reporting agencies.
Demand thirteen: Allow all workers to sign a ballot at any time during a union organizing campaign or at any time that represents their yeah or nay to having a union represent them in collective bargaining or to form a union.
These demands will create so many jobs it will be completely impossible to fill them without an open borders policy.
===========================================
GR4U - These idiots want all the conveniences of living in a 21st century First World nation with none of the individual responsibilities associated with such a society!
Thursday
Stocking up taken to a whole new level
My eldest son, his pregnant wife, and his infant daughter moved back into my house a few weeks ago. What can I say - sign of the times!
Having just finished reading Mark Steyn's After America, which includes an in depth look into declining Western birthrates contrasted starkly with rising Islamic and African birthrates, it occurred to me that I'm actually in the process of stocking up on Americans.
Having just finished reading Mark Steyn's After America, which includes an in depth look into declining Western birthrates contrasted starkly with rising Islamic and African birthrates, it occurred to me that I'm actually in the process of stocking up on Americans.
Here's the proof!
Friday
I just found an old friend
About 30 years ago I was a young Marine who had managed to make some bad decisions and gotten myself in trouble with the Corps. Being relieved from duty at the American Embassy in Kingston Jamaica, I was transferred to Beaufort SC and stuck in an office.
The Marines (as I assume is true of the other services) have a very long memory. If you ever screw up - it's never forgotten. There's an old saying: One aww shit wipes out a hundred attaboys. But in the service, one aww shit tends to wipe out all past AND future attaboys! And so I checked in to a new duty station and found myself very nearly a pariah among my "brother" Marines.
However there was a crusty old Staff Sergeant who watched me for a time, took my measure as a Marine, and decided that I was one of the good guys. He took me under his wing made me feel like I was still part of the team. That is NOT to say he coddled me. Far from it! He was a demanding hardass who had no compunctions about straightening out human error by getting loud and in your face. But he evaluated a man on his conduct in the here-and-now, as opposed to what one had done in the dim misty past.
For the record, my "crime" was to have a woman in the Marine House - a woman I eventually married and had two kids with. The Corps can be quite prudish you see.
Ssgt Dennis Hendry had once been a drill instructor on Parris Island. His tour of duty was not successful and he was - like me - relieved from this highly prestigious duty. I suppose that's why he tended to identity with me. He was destined to remain forever a Staff Sergeant, just as I was destined to never progress beyond the rank of Sergeant (and it took a ridiculous 3 years as a Corporal to get THAT far)
I don't know the circumstances of his relief from the drill field. I imagine his drinking problem played a role, though I have no direct knowledge that it did. By the time I knew Dennis in 1981, he had been off the drill field for a couple of years, and his drinking could well have been the result of his feelings about being relieved.
I do however know the circumstances of how Dennis handled himself in the office where I worked with him. He took care of his people! He was a Marine Staff NCO and those young enlisted Marines belonged to him. They looked to him for leadership - and he gave it. During working hours Dennis was all business and all Marine.
After working hours ... well... he came down among the troops and comported himself as one of them.
He knew that I loved to hunt, and that I had a personal rifle stored in the armory. So one Friday he asked me if I want to go hunting with him. Sure!
Shortly after working hours he picked me up at the barracks and we drove to Yemasee SC. Even though it was only an hour or so after we got off work, Dennis was already pretty well sloshed. That was a car ride I will never forget!
Arriving at a little isolated fishcamp / bar out in the South Carolina boonies, it was instantly apparent that a) Dennis was a regular patron, and b) hunting was NOT the primary purpose of our mission. For the next several hours we drank, played pool and socialized. As the night slipped away into the wee hours of the morning, and it was clear we were going to "close the joint", I began to seriously wonder where I would be laying my weary head.
Closing time did indeed come, and Dennis and I were escorted out the back by one of the bar matrons to a one room cabin that she occupied. I'm no shrinking violet, but I really did NOT want to assist my drunken boss in his coming carnal episode with this ... woman!
Inside I was shown the floor at the foot of the bed, and handed a rolled up towel for a pillow. Dennis flopped on the bed with his new friend, and the lights went out. To say I was uncomfortable on a variety of levels really wouldn't be doing it justice. I expected any moment to hear the symphony of dueling bedsprings accompanied by the sound of the beast with two backs.
There were some indistinguishable sounds, some muttering, and then a loud exclamation: "What? You ain't gonna gimmie no head?! Well F*uck you then!" In less than a second (it seemed) there was loud snoring to be heard and I was free to settle down somewhat restfully for the remainder of the night.
Being a natural early riser, I was awake at a hunting-appropriate early hour, and so I got up and flicked on the light (being somewhat trepidatious about what exactly I would see). My bleary eyes beheld a buck naked Staff sergeant spread-eagled and occupying 90% of the bed; his previous evening's temporary girlfriend forced to the very edge.
I slapped him on the foot, we got dressed, and hit the door in under a minute. I marveled at the man's ability to get moving apparently so effortlessly under the conditions of so little sleep and so much booze. But Dennis showed no signs of being discomfited. In fact, I'm pretty sure he was still drunk.
On foot we crossed the highway in front of the fishcamp / bar and set out down a dirt road for a short distance - me with a .30-30, and Dennis with a 12 gauge shotgun.
Maybe five minutes down the road an old cow bird rose up from a ditch off to our left and to my amazement Dennis shot at it.
He missed.
Not knowing what to say (remember he's my boss) I stood there noting the look of disappointment on his face. In a moment his remark was "Hell... there ain't no deer 'round here no how".
Without another word he turned around and led us back up the road, across the highway, and back into the now open bar. I think you know how the rest of this tale plays out.
Yes... Dennis was a character alright. I recognized his faults, but they were truly overshadowed by his good qualities. It was with genuine sadness that I rec'd the news of his death about four years later. His drinking mixed with his driving just one time too many, and he wrapped his car around a South Carolina oak tree.
Today he lies in the shade of another South Carolina oak tree in the Beaufort National Cemetery.
Rest in peace Staff Sergeant Hendry
Semper Fi my friend
The Marines (as I assume is true of the other services) have a very long memory. If you ever screw up - it's never forgotten. There's an old saying: One aww shit wipes out a hundred attaboys. But in the service, one aww shit tends to wipe out all past AND future attaboys! And so I checked in to a new duty station and found myself very nearly a pariah among my "brother" Marines.
However there was a crusty old Staff Sergeant who watched me for a time, took my measure as a Marine, and decided that I was one of the good guys. He took me under his wing made me feel like I was still part of the team. That is NOT to say he coddled me. Far from it! He was a demanding hardass who had no compunctions about straightening out human error by getting loud and in your face. But he evaluated a man on his conduct in the here-and-now, as opposed to what one had done in the dim misty past.
For the record, my "crime" was to have a woman in the Marine House - a woman I eventually married and had two kids with. The Corps can be quite prudish you see.
Ssgt Dennis Hendry had once been a drill instructor on Parris Island. His tour of duty was not successful and he was - like me - relieved from this highly prestigious duty. I suppose that's why he tended to identity with me. He was destined to remain forever a Staff Sergeant, just as I was destined to never progress beyond the rank of Sergeant (and it took a ridiculous 3 years as a Corporal to get THAT far)
I don't know the circumstances of his relief from the drill field. I imagine his drinking problem played a role, though I have no direct knowledge that it did. By the time I knew Dennis in 1981, he had been off the drill field for a couple of years, and his drinking could well have been the result of his feelings about being relieved.
I do however know the circumstances of how Dennis handled himself in the office where I worked with him. He took care of his people! He was a Marine Staff NCO and those young enlisted Marines belonged to him. They looked to him for leadership - and he gave it. During working hours Dennis was all business and all Marine.
After working hours ... well... he came down among the troops and comported himself as one of them.
He knew that I loved to hunt, and that I had a personal rifle stored in the armory. So one Friday he asked me if I want to go hunting with him. Sure!
Shortly after working hours he picked me up at the barracks and we drove to Yemasee SC. Even though it was only an hour or so after we got off work, Dennis was already pretty well sloshed. That was a car ride I will never forget!
Arriving at a little isolated fishcamp / bar out in the South Carolina boonies, it was instantly apparent that a) Dennis was a regular patron, and b) hunting was NOT the primary purpose of our mission. For the next several hours we drank, played pool and socialized. As the night slipped away into the wee hours of the morning, and it was clear we were going to "close the joint", I began to seriously wonder where I would be laying my weary head.
Closing time did indeed come, and Dennis and I were escorted out the back by one of the bar matrons to a one room cabin that she occupied. I'm no shrinking violet, but I really did NOT want to assist my drunken boss in his coming carnal episode with this ... woman!
Inside I was shown the floor at the foot of the bed, and handed a rolled up towel for a pillow. Dennis flopped on the bed with his new friend, and the lights went out. To say I was uncomfortable on a variety of levels really wouldn't be doing it justice. I expected any moment to hear the symphony of dueling bedsprings accompanied by the sound of the beast with two backs.
There were some indistinguishable sounds, some muttering, and then a loud exclamation: "What? You ain't gonna gimmie no head?! Well F*uck you then!" In less than a second (it seemed) there was loud snoring to be heard and I was free to settle down somewhat restfully for the remainder of the night.
Being a natural early riser, I was awake at a hunting-appropriate early hour, and so I got up and flicked on the light (being somewhat trepidatious about what exactly I would see). My bleary eyes beheld a buck naked Staff sergeant spread-eagled and occupying 90% of the bed; his previous evening's temporary girlfriend forced to the very edge.
I slapped him on the foot, we got dressed, and hit the door in under a minute. I marveled at the man's ability to get moving apparently so effortlessly under the conditions of so little sleep and so much booze. But Dennis showed no signs of being discomfited. In fact, I'm pretty sure he was still drunk.
On foot we crossed the highway in front of the fishcamp / bar and set out down a dirt road for a short distance - me with a .30-30, and Dennis with a 12 gauge shotgun.
Maybe five minutes down the road an old cow bird rose up from a ditch off to our left and to my amazement Dennis shot at it.
He missed.
Not knowing what to say (remember he's my boss) I stood there noting the look of disappointment on his face. In a moment his remark was "Hell... there ain't no deer 'round here no how".
Without another word he turned around and led us back up the road, across the highway, and back into the now open bar. I think you know how the rest of this tale plays out.
Yes... Dennis was a character alright. I recognized his faults, but they were truly overshadowed by his good qualities. It was with genuine sadness that I rec'd the news of his death about four years later. His drinking mixed with his driving just one time too many, and he wrapped his car around a South Carolina oak tree.
Today he lies in the shade of another South Carolina oak tree in the Beaufort National Cemetery.
Rest in peace Staff Sergeant Hendry
Semper Fi my friend
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
![[Most Recent Quotes from www.kitco.com]](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_vlk17q76plTPw6BAoUFtnLpJx7jGWgcP36CNlVzhIhr286Nl1Km9xDKKHNfNTloXwBlm8EesCcf0iq3msBGTZlgncLQ8EsvuHcU8X5gOFvWKGrdGttK-74kiqqjCw5PbUxxQ=s0-d)
