It doesn't sink in until I hear it from my own kid

I was explaining this afternoon to Firstborn why I was off work today, picking her up from a playdate instead of concluding an exercise working for a fighter jock who thinks he knows more about the CONOPS than I do.

I told her that a former President of the United States died recently, and today was the day that our government chose to remember him as his body was put to its final resting place. On such days, the government releases everybody from work so they can pay attention to that person and pay respects to him. I was one of the many people who were given the day off for that reason.

"He was a great person, wasn't he, Dad?"

"Yes, he was."

"People really liked him."

"Sure did."

"But some people hated him."

"Sure did."

"Did as many people hate him as they hate George W. Bush?"

"That's hard to tell. Reagan seemed to be able to deflect or simmer down a lot of the hate that was directed at him."

"A lot of people hate George W. Bush, don't they?"

"Unfortunately, yes."

"My friend So-and-so from school says that George W. Bush wants to start six wars."

"Oh really?" This was a different So-and-so from another kid, whom Firstborn told me said that George W. Bush is the worst man ever and that he wants the world to end so he can have all the oil.

From this I conclude that Firstborn has two friends at school with holes bored through their skulls, so their parents can funnel hateful mush directly into their brain cases. Parents who, by the way, dropped Big Dollars to enroll these same kids into a Montessori education so they can figure things out for themselves. It's painful to contemplate.

"Yeah. He wants, uh, the other guy to win."

"Firstborn, how much of this do you think So-and-so actually believes, and how much do you think he just repeats from one of his parents?"

"Probably he's repeating his dad. He says his dad says George W. Bush wants to start six wars."

"Okay."

"And he says---his dad says that the newspapers are all full of lies. But So-and-so, reads the paper every day like his dad does. He wants the other ... guy ... to win."

"To win what?"

"President."

"Ummm humm."

"But George W. Bush already won once, didn't he?"

"Yes, he did."

"Did George W. Bush start any wars?"

"There's one he didn't start. I fought in that one. There's another one, that I guess you could say he started. I haven't fought in that one, but I might. I don't think he started any wars without good reason though."

I'm going to be more proactive in figuring out the ideologies held by my kids' friends from now on.

Farewell to Ronald Reagan

All of the commenters on Reagan's passing away, to a person, smile as they recount their experiences with him. Those whom I cannot see, because they're on the radio, speak with voices that resonate with admiration for him. In a way they seem to be happy, both sharing in his widow's relief from the agony of watching him wither away, and sharing with each other the pleasure of having served or met him.

It is fitting that we pause from our lives and our affairs to pay last respects to him.

Another movie for the list

DavidMSC raves about Down With Love.

A noble contribution of tissue

FuturePundit (no relation) reports that Duke University researchers have discovered that a certain population of fat cells is in fact a sort of adult stem cell, that can differentiate into nerve cells.

This discovery suggests the ability to treat neurological disorders without the political or ethical concerns of using stem cells from other sources.

For example, Michael Moore could donate several kilos of his midsection to treat Alzheimers disease.

The question remains, however, whether anyone would knowingly accept into their own bodies any sort of cells from Mr Moore.

Wait! This isn't how I die!?!

After countless urgings from me, Barbaloot now enters her shopping lists into her Palm 125. "But what if we don't need butter on this trip?"

"Why then, Sweetheart, we don't buy it. At least it asks whether we need it so we won't forget it."

Another of our lists records what movies we want to rent. Big Fish was next on the list.

It's a hit. But on the video, there were trailers for Hellboy. Barbaloot added it to the list.

time to make the doughnuts . . .

My keyphrase for drudgery, taken from a very old TV commercial by Dunkin' Donuts, and how they were made fresh every few hours. The doughnut baker never got enough sleep, he was always trudging out the front door, muttering "time to make the doughnuts."

Why the drudgery? Since Angelfire blocks the loading of images from their pages to any other, we can no longer use their ad-suppored free service to store photos and just load them here at WUTT! Not surprising that they'd have such a policy, because their webpages are ad-supported, and remote loading denies them revenue (as if they're getting any from my web page there, but that's another topic).

So I'm building, slowwwwly, the same page on Comcast so I can load it from there instead. The Comcast web server is bought and paid for, but their page builder is a draaaaag to use. No way I can see to just directly edit the index.html as a text file, like on Angelfire.

I have about two-fifths of the photos moved over. So you can see the latest ones again, plus a new one or two. In another six weeks, they'll all be moved and the web page over there will be torn down.

However, I'll be putting all of the fiction up over there, at Ditchweed. More Wise Turkey stories, plus some Scaaaaarrry Stories.

To be fair, though, the blogging tool at Angelfire is not half bad. Whose engine are they using?

Memos I've written, never meaning to send

Department of Defense
UNITED STATES AIR FORCE

Prairie AFB

XXX Civil Engineer Squadron, Readiness Flight

---

TO:
XXX Mission Support Group/CC/CCT/CCF

XXX Medical Group/CC/CCT/CCF

XXX Logistics Group/CC/CCT/CCF

All Readiness Support Team members

All Squadron FSTR Representatives



SUBJECT: C-CW CONOPS Functional Area Training Completion Tracking

1. In January 2003, AF Civil Engineer Support Agency released training packages introducing the Counter Chemical Warfare Concept of Operations (C-CW CONOPS) to selected functional areas. These packages include CerTest training modules that generate a percentage score of the Airman's mastery of the subject. AFCESA intended for all applicable Squadrons to install the training packages and begin training all of their Airmen with them. The packages were originally published through AFCESA's HTTP secure web site. By May 2003, AFCESA distributed these packages on CD-ROM, through MAJCOMs to all units AF-wide.
   
   
2. No tracking or visibility mechanism was instituted to ensure that Squadrons in fact conducted this training or that Airmen retained the training. The packages were intended to introduce the CONOPS to the functional areas, describe the functional areas' unique responsibilities under the CONOPS, and provide a basis for later integration of the CONOPS into each functional area through longer-term revisions to job qualification standards (JQS) and career field education and training plans (CFETP).
   
   
3. HQ USAF Air Staff directed all applicable units to train their Airmen through their respective functional area C-CW CONOPS training packages prior to their next deployment to CENTAF AOR. In any event, all applicable Airmen must complete the functional area CONOPS training packages no later than 1 August 2004. This deadline represents a slippage from the original suspense of 1 July 2003.
   
   
4. Operational readiness inspections, compliance inspections, exercises, and MAJCOM rollups of staff assistance visits indicate that some Squadrons and even some MAJCOM directorates are not completing the subject training packages. Air Staff consequently has directed all Civil Engineer Readiness flights to track completion of these training packages at the base level, to provide visibility of this effort to HQ level via MAJCOMs.
   
   
5. Air Staff has not issued comprehensive guidance on the metrics or reporting format for CE Readiness to report completion of C-CW CONOPS functional area training. Our flight is merely charged with reporting a percentage of completion, monthly until further notice, for each applicable Squadron assigned to XXX Wing.
   
   
6. CE Readiness Flight has determined that metrics and reporting format for this tasker are of paramount importance to assure thorough, verifiable, and authenticable documentation of the completion of this training. If we reported completion of this training without absolute certainty that it is completed, it would be only a matter of time before the results are invalidated by investigation from IG or Air Staff, and a more stringent tasker eventually would be issued for the same task.
   
   
7. XXX CES Readiness Flight developed the following criteria to estimate and report your Squadron's completion of the subject training packages in the interest of saving all stakeholders, including your Squadrons, considerable effort in the long run:
   
   
   
   1. By close of business 1 June 04, each Squadron Training Manager will submit a memorandum for record stating whether the Squadron is encompassed by one of the functional areas for which AFCESA has release a C-CW CONOPS training package. XXX CES/CEX website lists the training packages, as does AFCESA's website.
      
   2. For each Airman assigned to or eligible for assignment to a mobility position, in a functional area for which AFCESA has published a C-CW CONOPS training package (as determined in the preceding paragraph), the CerTest provided with that training package will be completed by the Airman and graded results will be printed. The printed results will be signed and dated by both (a) trainer or supervisor and (b) training evaluator, and forwarded by unit training manager to XXX CES/CEX.
      
      
      
      1. A CerTest certificate indicating that the Airman has not completed the entire series of training modules will be reported as zero percent complete.
         
      2. Only original CerTest certificates, printed in color with completion date and signed in ink, will be accepted. Photocopies and faxes will be rejected.
         
      3. A crisp, unmarked $20 bill will be paperclipped to each certificate.
         
      4. All certificates for all Airmen assigned to the Squadron will be forwarded at the same time in a single package, accompanied by a roster of assigned personnel, signed and dated by the First Sergeant or Squadron Training Manager. Rosters will be derived from only PCIII, MILPIDS, or ACES products, and will be generated within 5 calendar days of the print date of the first CerTest certificate.
         
      
      
   3. Readiness Flight will calculate your Squadron's percentage of completion by dividing number of CerTest certificates, by the total number of Airmen assigned to that squadron per the roster. Any discrepancy noticed between certificates and the roster constitutes cause for the return of the entire Squadron package, minus the $20 bills. Discrepancies include but not limited to (a) more than 5 calendar days elapsing between printing of the first CerTest certificate and generation of the Squadron roster, and (b) including a CerTest certificate for an Airman not appearing on the roster.
      
   
   
8. Due to the manpower loading that this reporting tasker places on the Readiness Flight, the following normally-scheduled activities of the Flight are cancelled until further notice:
   
   
   
   1. NBCC Defense Refresher training
      
   2. Explosive Ordnance Reconnaissance Training
      
   3. Mobility equipment issue by Prime BEEF
      
   4. Sizing of Airmen for Mobility equipment
      
   
   
9. Because this tasker has been imposed on all Readiness Flights Total-Force-wide, other Readiness Flights will not be available to provide these services in lieu of ours. In short, these services will be totally unavailable at this base or any other, until all Squadrons are visible at 90% complete on subject training.
   
   
10. We apologize in advance for the short suspense on this tasking. Please understand that all stakeholders in this process will be making comparable sacrifices to achieve the high level of readiness expected by Air Staff.
    
    

[[ SIGNED ]]

FUSILIER N. PUNDIT

MASTER SERGEANT, USAF

Civil Engineer Readiness

Excused absence

There's a damned good reason I am blowing off the Rocky Mountain Blogger Bash. In fact, there are four. Here are three of them:




This is the third one I could have made. Kinda bummed but I would have ended up with a lampshade on my head anyway. I have enough to live down as it is.

There'll be a balm in Gilead

Somebody's copping from the Free State Project's playbook: gather your peeps to one state, where they become a competitive single-issue political force, and take it over peacefully.

However, theirs differs by seeking complete independence from the United States. All to stand athwart the scourge of homosexual marriage.

Margaret Atwood saw this coming, and offered a name for their new entity: The Republic of Gilead.

Quote for the day

Hat tip to In-Cog-Nito at ChicagoBoyz:

Jack Ryan is the kind of character that a former insurance salesman who has never been in the military would have created.

Fred Schoeneman

How 'bout some milfs on trampolines?

After another of Mlle. Sklodovska's doctor appointments today, I took her to a friend's birthday party. The party was held at an indoor playground---one hell of a simple business model. Take two parts vacant warehouse, one part labor, and a bunch of inflatable slides, climbers, and obstacles. Throw in a Pilates ball or two, do your legal paperwork, paint in primary colors, and charge better than ten bucks a kid. Not a license to print money, but respectable creation of wealth nonetheless. What else are you going to do with empty warehouse space? Shoot music videos?

A dozen kids bounced around, slid down slides, swung inflated boxing gloves half their own size, climbed a ten-meter inflated volcano, or scaled a fifteen-meter climbing wall, or ran from one to the other. In two hours they were exhausted and statically charged from sliding across the vinyl and plastic.

I noticed, however, as I always do, a Man Show angle in this. As in, some of the other kids' moms bouncing on or climbing the equipment with their kids. "How 'bout some milfs on trampolines?"

Dads, you might be missing out on a vital and rewarding part of fatherhood by not taking your kids to certain birthday parties.

The effect was spoiled later, when one of these women addressed me as "sir."

What's playing? (updated)

I've been posing these music questions lately to friends:

1. At what age did you first begin to appreciate popular music?
   
2. Is that age at least 15 years ago? If yes, proceed.
   
3. Can you think of two performers or groups who couldn't get your attention then, but for whom you have a deep appreciation now? Who are they?
   

Update: Andrew Ian Dodge asks just what constitutes "popular" music. I admit, I had reservations about my choice of terms. So for the purposes of this post, popular means "easily accessible through broadcast at the time." That can include country and western, bubblegum, classic rock, all fine with me.

Dare I eat a peach?

My first pair of bifocals arrived in the mail today.

Provided under TriCare, they are not the gradient kind. A sudden blur occurs at the boundary between magnified and non-magnified portions of the lens. This will take some getting used to, but they're only for the few hours a day after I take out contact lenses.

On the upside, the ophthalmologist says I'm an ideal candidate for LASIK, my corneas are about 580 microns thick so there's plenty of meat for the surgery. Uncle Sugar would pay for it if I were in the right status. Alas, I am not. As Advon puts it, "you're not Active Duty, you're just on active duty."

* * * * *

Firstborn and Middlechild are sleeping their second consecutive night in a tent pitched in the backyard. It's colder tonight, so they get thicker sleeping bags and a blanket tossed over the both of them.

* * * * *

Boy's stitches were removed today. I wasn't there to hear that one either.

Quote for the day

To me, the fact that the FBI is pursuing the wiretapping issue with respect to VOIP is just one more reason to doubt that the Bureau is the right agency to fight terrorism. I would have more confidence in a security agency that is working with the latest technology, not against it.

Arnold Kling

AFAIK, Skype is still available.

Sauce for Lott, sauce for Hollings

Pressure Fritz to resign from office in disgrace. You have to bid higher than you're willing to take. We'll accept his resignation from the Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee.

TIC: He should be aware that Jews relinquished control of the world economy nearly two months ago. Don't Senators read the friggin papers?

He will not lack gainful employment---his current constituency surely could cast him in some upcoming projects.

FrankenBoy

This is what ten stitches on the forehead look like, 36 hours later.



I wasn't there to see this, or hear the stitches going in. Barbaloot surely would have appreciated the help.

The '05 Grosstod

About 15 years ago, National Lampoon printed a spoof car review---a central African dictator strained his broken English to praise his Grosstod, a conspicuously-consuming 4X4 behemoth, a precursor to the SUV because his corrupt, impoverished country lacked roads suitable for better-known luxury marques. Countless Google searches have failed to turn up a version of the spoof online. Perhaps a gentle reader who has a print version could scan it up for me.

I think of the Grosstod every time I hear the smooth-jazz string riff that is now the theme for Chrysler's TV commercials, and cast my eyes on the '05 restyling of the 300.



It is almost as if Daimler-Chrysler brought German designers over from their MB division, and committed thems to make a vehicle so Big'n'Ugly that it has passed the pale and is beginning to look cool again. In turn, it looks like a bronze brick with wheels and a grille; a lowered Dakota with a trunk; what Peterbilt would deliver if they secretly entered the passenger car market, repeating aloud to themselves in the skunkworks, "not a Hummer . . . please God, don't give us a Hummer."

It is a broad-shouldered post-post-modern car copped from the Adventures of Batman, sans fins. Like the new Thunderbird, I like the look, though I will pay for several college degrees, maybe one of them my own, before I will ever afford one. By then the design will be obsoleted, then retroed, like the cycle of skirt lengths. (Hmmm, wait a minute. Rental fleets will carry a few of them. Maybe in four years . . . )

Me gusta. Now what it needs is a turbodiesel and a receiver hitch. And central tire inflation.

Full faith and credit, privileges and immunities, and so forth

NPR's analysis of same-sex marriage, found through Volokh Conspiracy, inspires us to ask:

Some supporters of same-sex marriage argue . . . that the DOMAs are indeed unconstitutional, and the Full Faith and Credit Clause mandates recognition of out-of-state marraiges.

Okayyyyyy, so if all States are mandated to recognize any official public act of any State, why wouldn't the State of New York recognize my Pennsylvania CCW? That's an, um, extremely official act that the Commonwealth made, my paying the fee, their running the background check and all . . . Assuming that having to get a license to do so is legit, that license should be as portable as any other. And mind you, my Commonwealth CCW was a license, not a permit. Let's hope that's a genuine difference rather than a semantic distinction.

If by public we presume that this State act is a matter of public record, much like a real estate transaction, say, then this cements further that a CCW license would be even harder to ignore by another State, if it was issued by a State that makes the identities of licenses applicants and holders public.

Oooops. Licenses to practice medicine aren't portable either, are they? Acupuncture? Law? Pharmacy? Massage therapy?

Still, this deserves some exploration. All of the conditions, hoops, pitfalls and minefields applied to CCW legislation by those who want to defeat it must be turned into countervailing legal strategies to liberalize CCW.

If same-sex marriage can be used as a tool to demand CCW reciprocity from intransigent states like New York or California, then I could change my position on the matter from apathy to active support.

Let the Left's activists be careful what they demand in Court.

They pay us to do this?

My boss Advon and I just finished a week at Undisclosed CRTC, working for Cadre. We tested out the USAF Counter Chemical Warfare Concept of Operations on a Reserve wing.

We worked some long days, and I was cast as a Czech coalition partner so I was in the muck with the exercised unit, MOPP 4, with an accent that made me sound more like Dexter than former Warsaw Pact.

Now we're at a hotel near MSP, overnighting for a flight back to Colorado tomorrow morning.

TCM and LCG go to the Million Mom March

(What's in the CD player, you ask? -- "Black Math", The White Stripes...)

Hi all. It’s The Cabinet Man (TCM) here. The Little Chinese Girl (LCG) and I went to the MMM with some flyers I typed up in an effort to harass, errr, uhhh, I mean, convert the Moms. Here’s my report.

It was more like the Few Thousand Mom March, actually...

Short Story: I was told to leave.

Long Story: LCG and I got down there late: ~1:45. We missed most of the speeches (Thank God!!) but we did hear Boxer, Conyers, and some (unknown?) author/writer spew vitriol. LCG and I split up (bad move when so vastly outnumbered) to hand-out the flyers. I handed out just a few then I saw this big quilt with pockets in it. I'll call it the Guilt Quilt. So, I go check out the Guilt Quilt. Seems people could stuff these pockets with supportive messages for the MMMs. Cool!! I promptly start stuffing it with flyers. At this point a very stern woman with an "event organizer" laminated badge charges at me, waves a flyer in my face, and says (and I quote):

"We don't like this kind of thing. You're not welcome here. Leave NOW."

Before I could utter some smarmy response, she turned and headed-off. Unfortunately, she was headed in the general direction of one of the many John Q. Laws and I chose not to wait and see where that was headed. I withdrew to the edges on the crowd and tried to keep an eye on LCG. Apparently, she did rather well. She's pretty bold and, unlike Yours Truly, not one to turn a back to confrontation. Unfortunately for her, she got corralled on at least two occasions and, later, one lady asked for a whole stack of flyers. LCG unwittingly gave her many of them. (The woman promptly tossed the whole lot in the trash.) So, in a sense, LCG was braver than I. [feelings of shame] Perhaps she was treated differently because she lacked a 'Y' chromosome. Who knows. Next time it's going to be "pack mentality" when attempting a similar feat.

Just before the MMMs began their march on the White House, LCG and I high-tailed it down to where the Second Amendment Sisters (2ndAS) had their shindig. We got there just as the last remnants of the stage and PA were being carted off. No joy. So, back to the Metro and home.

Notes:

There were many people at the MMM rally wearing t-shirts with pictures of "gun victims" on them. There was typically some verbiage about how this person was a son, aunt, acquaintance, whatever, and how/when they died. The part about this that really made me sad was that these people wore this trauma as a badge of honor. It was almost as if they were proud these people were dead/killed. Victim nobility. It was quite disheartening and I'm not entirely sure I understand it. The founder of Armed Females of America started that organization after her son was shot and killed. No less a tragedy but she doesn't wear it on her sleeve. Diametrically opposite reactions to an identical situation.

The MMM is definitely emotion-driven. The speeches were full of hate and the bile regurgitated upon the NRA's name was disgraceful. They did everything short of compare the NRA to Al Queda. (Actually, Mr. Unknown Author tried real hard to do just that -- fortunately a weak and pointless effort on his part. At least to this rational mind...) The speeches were simply rehashes of the same tired, incorrect "facts"
we always hear from this crowd. There was the requisite "No one needs an AK-47 to hunt ducks or an Uzi to hunt deer" speech.

There were "organizations" there, all wearing their colors. "Minnesotans Against Being Shot" was my favorite. There was the usual signage tripe:

"30,000 kids dead per year"
"That's why it's called an ASSAULT weapon"
"Bush Lied. People Died."

and the long-ago debunked

"AK-47. A.K.A. 47 times more likely to be killed."

There were MMM t-shirts being sold for $5. I thought about buying a few to use as gun cleaning rags (HAR!!) but I didn't want another $20 in the MMM coffers. There were a plethora of "Kerry in 2004" hucksters.

The LCG actually wasn't too proud of the flyers I put together. She thought them too blunt/abrasive. Perhaps so but I've never been one to be politically correct. I used the image of the Ukrainian policemen shooting the Jewish women from the (defunct?) GunTruths.Org site. On the backsides were four different "The MMMs have lied to you about..." where I tried to debunk the biggest lies we hear from The Other Side. I thought they were pretty good, as did a few previewers I recruited. I admit that at one point I was tempted not to go, thinking my presence would somehow lend credence to their "cause". Obviously, I got over that thought.

In all honesty, I got nauseated once. Boxer was spewing from the podium and I literally became sick listening to her. At that point I was really wishing I was at the 2ndAS rally. (I heard the 2ndAS rally was only about 200 or 300 people. Can't tell you for sure...) I was amongst the enemy and they were keeping a watchful eye on me.

The good news is that the MMM resulted in a paltry turn-out. Every time one of the speakers tried to rally the crowd, there was an anemic response. Only the die-hards showed up yesterday and, because of the small turn-out, there was very little momentum. If this is the best they can do, then we have few worries.

On another note, I have a few "gear tests" to post. I'll trickle them out as soon as I consult with Fuz about how to post pictures. Until then, Ciao!!

TCM