The best $10 I ever spent at sea

 was for a can of Top rolling tobacco, 400 cigarette papers and a little hand roller. It was a few years ago and the can is still in the generator room and about half full.

It's still there in case it's needed. I suppose the tobacco is pretty dried out but a small slice of apple dropped into it would likely freshen it up a bit.

I think the last time anyone dipped into it was about a year ago and that was a guy that had run out of smokes an hour before we were relieved to go home.

The story behind it is that I had gotten called in a few days early to relieve my mirror because he had something come up and there was a checkout on board that wasnot being hired. He didn't fit in because he couldn't take care of himself.

Of course, he was a heavy smoker and of course he had almost run out and of course he was broke and so on.

Anyway, it took me about ten seconds to figure out which way this was heading. I simply handed a $20 to a shoreside inspector and told him to snag a can of Top, some papers and a roller. He did and handed me my goods and $10 in change.

I took the man aside and told him that he was not to bum from anyone and that if he needed a smake he could damned well roll his own with the Top I had bought.

He was grateful and after he was put ashore one of the guys asked why I had done this.

I told him that for ten bucks the peace was worth it because I didn't want to watch the cycle of bumming to begging to stealing to fighting take place.

The guy that had questioned me told me that he understood and asked me why I had not just simply laid the law down.

Truth is that when you are dealing with addicts they are only interested in feeding a habit and the liklihood of obeying an order to stay away from a supply of whatever isn't likely to be obeyed. The guy was leaving and we'd be done with him.

Sometimes it is a lot wiser not to have to bring out the whip in the first place, especially when you are talking about using it on someone that has nothing left to lose.

Besides because it was my tobacco I had control of the man. All I had to do was threaten to take it away which is what the government does to keep the people taking government money in line.




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I have been pretty busy lately and have not had much time to make a decent post

for a few days.

I have taken a 75% pay cut for this.

Of course, 75% of nothin' is nothin' because I don't get paid for doing this at all. It is just a way of me keeping my sanity and venting a little.

Anyway in the next couple of days things are due to slow up a bit and I can continue ranting and raving.

Stay tuned!



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Do YOU know how to do this?

It really doesn't matter what it is but there is always someone out there that's being critical of someone doing something they can't do themselves.

It could be anything. 

Quite often someone will jump in and comment about something that is in the rough stage and start telling you what you're doing wrong even if they have no idea what you're trying to get done.

I generally stop and ask them if they know how to do this work.

It generally stops them and reduces them to hemming and hawing.

It doesn't generally take a whole lot to shut someone up.



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Went to a ham fest and a gun show earlier today.

I bought a backpacker's pup tent at the hamfest for $15 and a slingshot for $2 at the gun show.

FWIW there wasn't a whole lot of .22 LR for sale. The little I saw there was grossly overpriced.



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I shot today and did OK.

393 -14X out of a possible 400 points.

My X count sucked and I dropped 5 in a single shot when a piece of hot brass went down my neck a nanosecond before my shot broke. That made me send one straight into the 5 ring which ruined my day.

Then I dropped two more by shooting a pair of 9s.

Still, I think I was high scorer though which means nothing because it was a bring anything match.

It was funny watching a small woman shooting a big Garand, though and she did pretty good with the venerable old work horse.

Still, the worst day shootin' is better than the best day working any way you slice it.





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Update. My quest for the return of my birthday.

I have obtained the proper army personnel form and filled it out. I am requesting the return of my birthday which my First Sergeant took away from me many years ago. It has been mailed and likely is in the Pentagon now as if has been a few days. We'll see how that one goes.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

Seeing we're talking about the army today I seem to recall another stupid incident involving a female second lieutenant that was salute happy.

I passed her from a distance and she tried to reprimand me for not saluting her. I approached her and when I got to the appropriate distance I saluted and explained that the rules said salutes should be exchanges from a distance of 6 paces or closer and that I had been about 15 paces away.

She grumbled a bit and walked off in a huff.

Part two.

A month later I was detailed to take a young private named Linski to be out processed on a Chapter 11 or some damned thing. 

Linski was being administratively separated and was eager to get out.

I was required to be armed for reasons I can't fathom.

I made it clear to the higher-ups that I had no intention of shooting a dumb 19 year old kid that was only guilty of not liking the Army. I was surprised when my battery commander told me that my attitude was the reason I got the job. He told me that he agreed with me and that the reason I got the job is because he knew I wouldn't do anything stupid.

I drew an M-16 and carefully cleared it to make damned good and sure it was unloaded and stuffed the (loaded) magazine into my back pocket and buttoned it. Twenty round mags fit nicely into a fatigue back pocket.

I took the rifle and my 'prisoner' and I headed off to the admin building.

When we cleared the battalion area I threw the rifle at my prisoner and told him I had no intention of lugging it all over hell and that if he wanted to get out of the army then HE could carry the damned thing.

He shrugged and took the rifle and we walked along side by side.

Every time we saw someone that looked an officious clown he would get behind me and hold the rifle at port arms with a serious look on his face like he was ready to shoot me if I stepped out of line.

Then we passed the female lieutenant I had crossed sword with a month or so earlier and she asked why we hadn't saluted.

Linski popped to attention and told her he was on a guard duty detail and not supposed to salute officers and that I was a prisoner and therefore was not permitted to salute officers. She nodded.

Then she asked Linski what I had been charged with.

"Disrespect for an officer, Ma'am. He's facing a General courts-martial. He failed to salute an officer." The stone-faced way he said it made someone know it just HAD to be true.

She looked at me. "I recognize you," she said. "Looks like you're getting what you have coming."

Linski looked at her and said," By your leave, Ma'an. I have to get the prisoner there riki-tik."

We left and as soon as we got out of sight of her I snatched the rifle from him and said, "Give me that damned thing!"

I carried it the rest of the way.

When we got there I hung around until he got squared away and then we returned to the battery. I turned the rifle in and returned to duty.

A couple of days later I got sent somewhere else to do something I have long forgotten what. I crossed paths with the lieutenant again and because I was inside the proper radius I saluted. It was returned by her and in a condescending tone of voice she asked me how I had fared in my recent court martial proceedings.

I told her the case had been thrown out because I had three witnesses on my behalf and that the officer that had preferred charges against me was now being charged with issuing a false report.

From that point on she stayed the hell away from me.





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I am not a professor of languages

 but being on the air with people from all over the world is interesting.

The language of international radio communications is English unless the two communicators speak another common language. 

I suppose an example of this is when a pair of South American hams speak Spanish to each other, yet as soon as they are through the one that is host station will switch straight back to English for the benefit of everyone else.

One of the things I have noticed that seems to show up a little more among Arab hams is that there are a lot of people out there on the air that speak true unaccented American English.

The other day I made contact with a Saudi ham that I would have sworn was an American in Ohio except for the fact that he had a Saudi callsign. I have spoken with Kuwaitis that are in the same boat.

English is a gold plated sonuvabitch to learn to begin with and when you add the American idioms to it that are constantly changing it is nothing less than a miracle that someone with a different native tongue can learn to speak it much less sound like a native.

I recently spoke with a young girl in China that spoke American English like an American and marveled at that.

Incidentally after I QSO'd the Saudi I listened a while and he mentioned that he also spoke several other languages. 

While I do not know how well he spoke the others I will say that if he speaks them half as well as he speaks English he's fluent in them.

It humbles me to realize that American education left me able to speak English and High School Spanish.

High School Spanish is worthless anywhere but in American high schools. When I tried to order a steak and fried spuds in Mexico once the waiter brought me a baked stuffed elephant and all the trimmings.

There is also a Russian ham I communicate with from time to time and I listen to him jump from one language to another with seemingly no problem.

Sometimes I think our educational system is a travsesty when I see people from other places. We graduate from our schools without even learning how to so much as count and the fact that this country is so far in debt is proof positive of that.




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Match rifle is now good to go.

I tried out my recently built long range match rifle the other day with a few handloads left over from another rifle.

It shot pretty good with the new trigger I installed.

There was a recall on the rifle over safety/trigger group issues. Instead of sending the rifle back I simply replaced the safety/trigger group with a match grade trigger that I should have done anyway.

There is a slow fire match coming up this coming Saturday and I think I am going to shoot it. 

The new trigger is on the borderline of being scary good. It breaks like glass and surprises me when it goes off. That is a good thing.
It shoots the handloads pretty good, a little under a minute of angle and that's good enough for the win at Saturday's match.

It was also good to get a GOOD focus on the scope. You really have to have the rifle out and a place to steady it to get it truly focused. It's not an expensive scope, but has a reputation of being a damned good deal for the money.

There were no Fudds at the range, thank God as the Fudds generally have no clue as to how to check handloads for accuracy. I generally reset the scope so the rounds impact to the right or left of where I hold the crosshairs. I'm not interested in hitting the center of a target. It's the shot group size that matters.

The Fudds, meaning hunters seldom know the ins and outs of match shooting and run their mouths and I have to explain what I'm doing. Sometimes they still don't understand.

For those of you that do not understand why I do this it is simple. I do not want to tear up my point of hold. The more you tear it up the harder it is to get a decent sight picture.

After you have shot your groups all you have to do is reset your sight and you are dead on.

Anyway, the rifle shoots pretty good and I'm ready for the upcoming match.



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Vlad has now showed up in Paraguay

which doesn't surprise me anymore.

So who is Vlad?

Vlad is the Third Most Interesting Man in the World.

The Most Interesting Man in the World sells beer on TV. Everybody know him.

Ever since I grew my beard back the guy on TV calls me when he wants a day off so I guess that makes me number two.

Vlad comes in at number three because he shows up more often than a bad penny in some of the most off-the-wall places in the world. He's a ham operator with the ability to get permission to go on the air from governments all over the world.

He's a Russian but never seems to be in Russia. He has a Russian call sign. When he is operating out of Russia he generally is told to use the host country's prefix followed by a slash and then his Russian call sign, UA4WHX.

Many parts of the world are hard to get in a ham's logbook. While, for example, there are a lot of Brazilian hams, there are only a couple of them in Bolivia. Most of them are not very active.

Enter Vlad. He got the OK to set up shop in Bolivia and went on the air and because of him I have a legitimate contact from Bolivia in my log. Same for South Shetland Islands and Egypt.

I just bagged him last night from Paraguay. He was running under the call sign ZP9/UA4WHX. ZP9 is the Paraguay prefix.

How he does this is beyond me. He just seems to pop up anywhere with no rhyme nor reason.

QSL with Vlad is a snap because he requires no QSL card from the receiving station. You simply send him a PayPal for the price of postage, note the contact details in the message box and wait for the mailman to show up.

Normally the procedure is you send the station a QSL card, a return envelope and a couple bucks for return postage and wait. When you add the $1.20 for the overseas stamp things add up pretty quickly. Sending Vlad a couple bucks via PayPal is actually a savings when you add everything up.

The QSL procedure is secondary over my curiosity about this man.

What I want to know is where he is going to show up next!










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A bunch of smalls.

Yesterday I was on the air and fielded a call from what turned out to be a 10 year old kid. I looked the call sign up and there he was, all ten years of him behind a nice looking rig. My guess is that it is his father's.

That kid gets a QSL card from me and a note attached that he doesn't have to return one if he doesn't have any.

Too bad there are not more ten year old kids like him. He is a sharp operator.
&&&&&&&&&&&&&

Yesterday I was looking for something and being Easter Sunday, everything was closed. Finally I checked the local convenience store and scored.

A woman in her mid 40s was in my way and I asked her to move with a polite "Excuse me, young lady."

I generally address most women 8 to 80 with the term 'young lady'. If they are young it fits and if they are old it is appreciated.

It's the middle aged you have to watch out for.

She snapped back that she wasn't a young lady.

I readily agreed with her, dryly telling her she was neither young nor a lady and said that I just didn't have the heart to call her a rotten old c*** on Easter Sunday. 

Her lack of breeding brought it on herself. I try to be pleasant and kind but know when enough is enough. More people ought to lash out like that. It might make us more mannerly as a society.

&&&&&&&&&&&&

It is a Monday and it looks pretty calm. I might try out my long range rifle today and see if it works. There was a recall on the rifle over safety issues. I fixed the problem myself by replacing the trigger with a match trigger. Twenty minutes worth of work and it was good to go.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

I worked two new ones, Uzbekistan and American Samoa the other day. It's at the point where with 185 entities logged and about 155 confirmed that it is a case of all of the easy ones are gone. New entities now are like pulling teeth.

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

All I can say to our elected officials is to get off of your ass and LEAD. Harry Reid should have been at the very front  of the BLM people during the Nevada incident. 

This is a new age. They make Depends now and he could just wear brown pants.

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

For what it's worth, I have found the proper Army forms and my request to get my birthday back is in the mail.





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Sometimes I wish people would just get their heads out of their asses.

The other day I was in a hurry and needed a 75 cent item. 

I grabbed it, looked at the checkout and saw that Sally was on duty and cringed. I waited my turn, let her ring the item up, slapped a buck down, said 'keep the change' and started to walk out.

Of course, she looked at me and said, "Wait! I don't understand!"

Oh, no! Not this again. I don't have time for this crap.

"What is the problem? The item is 75 cents. I gave you a dollar. That's more than enough."

"But your change..."

"Throw it away," I snapped. I was running late and didn't have time for this kind of stuff.

"I can't," she said.

So I returned, took my change and dropped it on the floor. "Was that hard?" I asked. I was really annoyed. I was running late.  Time, tides and the sun wait for no man and I wanted to get this job done before dark.

"But you just threw your change on the floor!" 

"Correct. I asked you to but you wouldn't so I had to do it myself," I shot back. "Listen, that nineteen cents don't mean squat but the daylight I'm burning does. Time is money and you are costing me money. Adios." 

I left. I finished the job in the dark.

The next time I went there the manager saw me and asked me about the incident. When I explained it to him he nodded. He understood. It's the little aggravations that make a day go to hell.

Today I have faced a bunch and it isn't even 9 AM yet.

I have had computer glitches and a few other things.

One thing brought me satisfaction, though.

There is a floor drain in the basement with a trap in it. It dries out about every year or two. It did it this morning and I got a waft of stink from it.

I grabbed a bucket, put it in the laundry sink, filled it and simply dumped it on the basement floor.

The water hit the floor, went straight to the drain, filled the trap and that was it. Quick fix!

In about an hour the wet spot on the floor will go away and that's done and over with for another year or two.

This hasn't been a good starting day but maybe it will change.


















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Match season has started for me.

There's a pretty good .22 offhand 100 yard match scheduled for this morning and although I'm coffeed and breakfasted up, I think I'll pass.

My .22 plinker is set up for 50 yards and my .22 match gun is set up for 200 yards and I don't want to have to sight them in under pressure at the beginning of the season.

Besides I do poorly in offhand matches. 

I have to figure out which way I want to go this year. I'm thinking of simply figuring out a holdover for the plinker and using that later in the season so I can keep it set at 50 yards.

The match gun is actually set for 200 yards on the advice of Jim Land. I met him a while ago at Quantico and when I asked him how they managed to operate with the junk they used back in the 60s he laughed. "All the Marines ask me that. That was state of the art equipment back then," he replied.

I laughed and asked what I could do to improve my windage skills. He suggested using a .22 at 200 yards. I sighted my match .22 in for 200 yards and left it there.

Next weekend there is a 40 shot slow fire match, any position and I think I'll take my long rifle to that. I just re-triggered it because of a recall. The manufacturer wanted me to send it in and let them replace the trigger mechanism but I refused the offer. Instead I dropped in a good match grade trigger.

A slow fire match will be better to get me started and ought to give me a chance to get the match season started.

I don't think I am going to get into it as much as I did several years ago when I shot just about every match inside a 5 or 6 state area. I simply can't afford it. 

My biggest expense that year was gasoline. I was either driving to or from a match, shooting it or reloading for the next one. I was a busy boy that year. The season went from March to November.

I think the slow fire match next weekend ought to give me a pretty good chance to wring my long gun out a bit and get rid of a few things.

After the match I'll the NATO load and if that works OK, I'll just chrony it and use that as my match load for this year. It should stay stable out to 1000 yards. 

Anyway, happy Satiddy mawnin'.













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Today is going to be a very busy day.

I might get back to post something later on


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Home at last

after a thrilling tour at sea.

This time home I have a small issue to deal with.

I have a Remington 700 that I have been working on to turn it into a long range competitive rifle and found it is on the recall list because of a faulty trigger mechanism. 

While I suppose the trigger is OK I have decided that sending the rifle to Remington to repair isn't all that good of an idea. 

First of all, I have taken it out of its original configuration and added a few doo-dads here and there. Remington's policy has been reported that they strip everything off, put it in a plastic bag and send you back the rifle in its original configuration.

I suppose I can see why. It's a liability issue that was likely caused by a greedy lawyer and a stupid jury. Most likely they got sued for someone else's stupidity.

Anyway, a lot of people are griping but I am taking this as an opportunity to tune the rifle up a bit.

The truth is that the instant I altered the rifle the day I got it I voided the guarantee. I knew it and did it anyway as do a lot of serious shooters. A rifle fresh out of the box is generally only a platform to build what you want on.

In reality this is the same as a guy buying a vehicle and modifying it for another purpose. In the case of the rifle it is a case of taking an excellent hunting rifle and turning it into a target rifle. It's just a matter of polishing it up a bit.

The fix in this case is not to send the rifle back to the maker. The fix is to simply replace the factory trigger with a better one.

I simply ordered a good match grade trigger and I will install it when it arrived. I have been meaning to do this anyway and this recall is just the excuse I need.

Sometimes you have to look at something bad as an opportunity to make something better.

I'll tell you what happens after I install the damned thing. 




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Planning ahead and simple solutions

Ya gotta think every so often.

When I was small I lost mittens which I suppose most small children did from time to time. My mother installed a 'runaway strap' which was a cord tied between the mittens. One mitten was then fed up one sleeve and down the other and presto! 

When I took off my mittens they hung off the cord and were there when I wanted to put them back on. They were not stuffed into a pocket that they fell out of and got lost.

Of course, the first time my mother did this she didn't think and made the cord about eleven feet long. I was maybe four feet tall. The mittens dragged on the ground where they snagged on things.

My dad fixed that problem in a nanosecond. He simply grabbed the bight of the cord and tied an overhand knot in it, effectively shortening it to the proper size.

Two quick lessons here. First one should think ahead and plan things and try and foresee the problems before theyhappen.

The other lesson is that quite often there is a simple solution to a problem.






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I read that

it looks like Remington is leaving New York after all.

They're headed to Alabama and most likely the final nail in the coffin was the SAFE act, but I'm pretty sure taxes and other governmental meddling sure pitched in to make the final decision.

I understand that Remington is relocating a number of workers which is both generous and smart. Machinists and other gunmakers with experience are probably hard to retrain.

I suppose some people will stay in New York but that makes no sense to me as Ilion is likely on their way down the tubes with the largest business in the area leaving. They are taking an awful lot of jobs with them.

If I were running Remington I suppose I would do the same  thing. Taxes in Alabama are lower and so are wages and the cost of living. There's a willing workforce there eager to take the work. Alabama is also a lot more gun friendly.

Corporations generally don't want to move. They enjoy being in a friendly place and being a part of a community. There are a lot of pretty upset people when they do leave and that's not good for public relations.

Corporations are usually forced to move. They seldom want to. Moving is expensive. Like almost all businesses they have to make a profit and when the bottom line goes down they have to make a decision.

Ilion, New York is about to take a pretty big hit because one has to remember that it isn't just Remington employees that are going to get hurt, it's the entire local economy. Most likely Ilion is going to be hurting and hurting pretty bad.

Besides the Remington employees that stay behind being out of jobs there are quite a number of other businesses that are going to feel the impact of the move.

People need gas to get to work. They eat. They go to movies and do all sorts of things. In short the trickle down effect is going to be pretty noticible on the community.

For example, the gas station owner might have to lay off one of his helpers because business is down. The local diner near the factory might have to shrink or may even fail. That's more jobs gone.

Even the supermarkets are going to feel things as the local economy changes. They'll be selling fewer steaks and more tuna noodle casserole ingredients.

The city will also see revenues decrease as the taxes Remington paid locally disappear. People that used to buy things and are not anymore are now no longer paying sales taxes. Wage tax income will also drop off. 

For two centuries Remington has been in New York and has been a local source of pride. Adios.

Of course, when jobs disappear, crime tends to go up and the neighborhoods seem to crumble a bit more and begin the downward spiral. Welfare and EBT applications will increase. People will go on unemployment until thae benefits run out.

On the other hand, down in Alabama Remington will be met with open arms, likely be given tax breaks and the local economy there will pick up.

The employees will pretty much be buying the things they used to buy back in New York. A number of small businesses will open. I suppose that some shrewd guy named 'Sarge' will open a diner outside the gate ot the factory and will do well.

Sarge would be smart to learn a few New york favorites to put on the menu until the displaced New Yorkers acquire a taste for grits, biscuits and gravy.

Then again it probably won't take New Yorkers very long to discover some pretty good southern cusine. 

In a few months the former New Yorkers will be wondering why Remington didn't move down south twenty years ago. Most likely it will take a winter or so before they discover they don't have to go outside in freezing weather to shovel snow.

Meanwhile, back in Ilion.......

Nice work, New York. You brought it on yourselves.




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One of the things they train leaders

 is that you never tell somebody to do something you wouldn't or can't do yourself.

Yet for some rather odd reason we let our politicians do just that. The enact laws and then send someone out to enforce them.

A while ago there was a lieutenant colonel who got his legs shot up doing a routine house sweep over in Iraq. He was leading from the front as an officer should every once in a while to set an example for his men.

While he's not really supposed to be doing things like that on a daily basis because he's supposed to lead and make decisions for his battalion, he is supposed to be able to show his people how its done.

The officer was simply leading by example. It's not the first time it has been done and it's certainly not going to be the last time an officer leads from the front.

Truth is, by soldier standards a lieutenant colonel is an old man and when the younger guys see the old fart out there shooting it out with the bad guys the will generally follow a guy like that anywhere.

Of course you do not see politicians do a whole lot but sit on their fat asses in Washington or their state capitols and tell the rest of us how to live.

Right now governor Cuomo in Albany is looking at the recently enacted SAFE law's registration period coming up and it looks like the citizens of upper New York state are going to ignore it. The state police and the county sheriffs have already stated they will not bother enforcing it.

I don't think that we are going to see Old Andy suit up and lead a SWAT team on house to house searches. We're simply going to see him sit in Albany and pound a table in frustration. 

Well, Governor, you can sit there and pound the table and make an ass of yourself and rant and rave or you can suit up and put together a SWAT team and lead them from the front.

We'll see how this one is going to work. Of course if I were a New Yorker I'd see that the governor got a pretty solid oak table installed in his office because it's likely going to take a pretty good pounding.

He ought to ask governor Dannel Malloy of Connecticut for a recommendation because he's already pounding a table.

Then again maybe Malloy is smart enough to quietly sit there with egg on his face and realize he made a mistake. Cuomo isn't likely to sit there quietly as his law is ignored. He'll rant and rave and make a fool out of himself. He simply can't keep his mouth shut.

Watch. You'll see. In a couple of days he'll be standing on the state house steps making all sorts of empty threats to upper state New Yorkers.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

In other news, if you read yesterdays post about how my First Sergeant took away my birthday, a reader has responded.

A serving US military officer has offered to send me the proper paperwork to appeal to the army to have them give me my birthday back.

Just in time. I have been worried about that recently because I am getting close to retirement and I'd have a hell of a time applying for social security still being only 21 years old.


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How does one get his birthday back?

One of the things that has created a sore point for people in my family since the early 70s is my birthday. People try to celebrate it only to find I haven't had one since I was in the army.

My First Sergeant took it away from me because some idiot major with nothing to do wrote me up for having my hands in my pockets. At the time I was caught with my hands in my pockets I was at a vending machine fishing for a quarter to buy a coke with.

Of all of the officer ranks I had to deal with, majors seemed to be the biggest pains in the ass. Likely because they were not captains anymore and couldn't run company sized units. They were not lieutenant colonels, either and hence there were no battalions for them to run.

Majors seemed to be people with nothing to do unless they were lucky enough to be battalion XOs.

I wasn't the first one in the battery to get written up for this dastardly deed, nor was I the last. I suppose most of the people that were nailed for this criminal act were guilty because they were diddly-boppin' along.

My case was legit. I was fishing for a quarter.

I got hauled into Top's office and asked what getting popped by the major was all about. I told him the truth that it was a case of the major being chicken$hit and pulling a cheap shot by hanging out at a vending machine.

I think he was getting ready to rant and rave at me until he heard my side of the story. When my platoon leader came in and backed me up. Top grew a lot softer. He knew that the charges were bogus and although he could be a pretty tough cookie, he was fair.

He also respected my platoon leader, a second lieutenant, which was rare for an senior NCO. Second lieutenants are generally fresh out of school and inexperienced. My platoon leader was an exception. I often saw the lieutenant and Top eating lunch together in the officer/NCO section of the mess hall.

"OK," he said. "I have to do something about this to keep battalion off my back."

"Hell, First Sergeant, just tell them you took away my birthday," I said. He turned at me for a second and glared.

My platoon leader, a second lieutenant, grinned. "First sergeants can do anything, Top. I'd love to see how you can take this man's birthday away." 

"You're no help, Sir!" snapped the old First soldier to the young lieutenant. There was no rancor in it. After he said that he grinned. Top then turned to me.

"When's your bitrhday?" he snapped.

He grabbed a bottle of white-out off of the clerk's desk, went to the calendar and lifted the month-pages until he got to November and whited the 12th out.

"That, Lieutenant,is how you take a man's birthday from him!"

The lieutenant chuckled. I was smart enough not to. I figured there was more to come. Top looked at me. "Dismissed!"

I popped to parade rest, relaxed and started to leave.

"Pic," said Top in a kind tone. I turned.

"I'll take care of this." he said. ''You didn't do anything wrong. Just keep your eyes open the next time you want to get a coke."

If I am not mistaken that was supposed to have been my 22nd birthday and I have stayed 21 years old since.

As I write this I just had a thought. I am still 21 years old because I haven't been able to have birthdays since then yet I am nearing retirement.

I wonder how I am going to explain this to the social security people?

Maybe I'll write the army to see if I can have my birthday given back to me. Maybe there is a form I can fill out.

Hmmm. I wonder if the Sergeant Major of the Army can help me out.






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Ever watch what happens to a handicapped guy

 that leaves mixed company and hangs out with the guys? Notice how the guys fawn all over him?

Fact is they don't.

They treat him like an equal and although most of them do keep an eye on him they don't do a damned thing for him that he can't do for himself. He's expected to pull as much of his own weight as he can.

If a guy in a wheelchair is opening the refrigerator to grab a beer or something he is likely as not to hear someone ask him to grab him one while he's at it.

The guys will cut him no slack and only do for him what he can't do for himself and if he asks for help in doing something he damned well can by himself he's going to often get a dirty look.

The loss of a couple of legs or something doesn't mean he's not one of the guys.

Say what you will about this but the truth is that the guys generally leave their handicapped buddy with the things that matters most, his dignity, pride and independence.



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Throw money at it!!!

As I get older I look and see that we are getting stupider and stupider as time goes on.

We think that enacting more laws will cure our problems.

Yeah, right.

Someone recently defended keeping abortion legal by saying that if it becomes illegal that people will ignore it as being a bad law and get abortions illegally. I tend to agree with him.

Recently Connecticut enacted legislation requiring the registration of a certain type of firearm. Right now the government of Connecticut looks pretty stupid because only about 10% of the owners of these firerms have registered them.

As I write I see that the deadline in New York state is arriving in a few days and there are no long lines of people filling out forms to register much of anything.

Give it a couple of weeks and the governor of New York will be seen standing there making all sorts of meaningless threats. The New York state police and almost every county sheriff have already said they are not going to waste time enforcing these laws.

I'm no different than most Americans in that there are a few laws out there I flout regularly. My guess is the reason I am not in jail now is simply because the police can't be bothered to take their time out to enforce petty bull$hit.

Truth is I live a fairly responsible life and that's enough as far as I can see.

Thomas Jefferson once said something to the effect of that if something neither picked his pocket nor broke his leg it's not a problem.

I don't hurt people, endanger other people's lives and I don't steal so I suppose that's a pretty hefty part of why I'm not in the clink.

Drugs are actually one of the biggest examples of laws being flouted.

Anyone that wants to do drugs now probably is even though they have been outlawed for decades and decades. There is no shortage of pot or cocaine on the street and it is unlikely that there is going to be a major shortage in the forseeable future.

We have spent billions and billions on the War on Drugs and have had little if any success eradicating the drug problem. We'd be a whole lot better off if we just gave up and saved the money we squander on this annually and let Darwin's Law take its toll.

Right now President Obama is asking for another billion or so to promote gun control. You can kiss that money goodbye. We won't see taxes increease because of that. It will just get added to our multi-trillion debt.

Like everything else, if a ban goes through people will wind up out of work. Poverty will increase and crime will rise because the fatheads in Washington have no idea of how much people spend in this country on firearms and ammunition.

Of course, the laws will be flouted by most firearm owners. Personally I have heard more than one policeman talk about stocking up before a ban comes along. I seriously doubt that too many policemen are going to be too interested in doing house to house searches of people that are otherwise law abiding citizens.

We'd be a whole lot better off if the people in government got their heads out of their asses and started looking around and insuring our personal liberties instead of taking them away from us because if the reduced the number of laws on the books and enforced the ones that they ought to enforce we'd likely be a whole lot better off.

Neither party is worth a damn. The Republicans want to snoop into out bedrooms and be the moral police and the Democrats want to snoop in our closets and protect us from ourselves.

Both of them simply ought to dry up and stop spending money that we don't have. 

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Poor people have poor ways.

I heard that said a while ago and as time passes the more I believe it. 

I have a friend that doesn't make very much money but seems to do fairly well. He has a decent place to live and a decent vehicle. He and his family eat and seem to get by nicely. 

His vehicles he generally buys used, generally somewhere around 5 or 6 years old and he runs them until the wheels fall off. He maintains them well, changes his own oil and does all of the simple work on them he can.

Two years ago I helped him do a brake job and in return he helped me with a project I needed help on.

Recently he managed to pay off his house a few years early.

He doesn't smoke, a beer on rare occasions is considered a treat. There's a small garden in his backyard and it gives him some tomatos and other veggies during the summer and fall.

He once borrowed ten bucks from me when we met at the hardware store and repaid me the minute he got home. He spotted something he had been looking for on sale unexpectedly and was a couple bucks short on cash.

He repaid me with interest, a nice summer squash from his garden. I wish he'd borrow ten buck from me again. The squash was pretty good.

He does as much of his own work and maintenance as he can even though he's not the most talented person in the world. He's just patient and breaks the job down to a series of simple steps and does them one at a time in order until the job is done.

Both of his kids have gotten educations the scholarship route and are out and employed although one still lives at home. The man makes a little above minimum wage. While not a rich man, he is far from poor.

He is not poor because he doesn't have poor ways.

On the other hand I know a fool that made six figures last year. He always seems to be in dire straits. He's generally behind on payments, is often borrowing money from people and being chased by creditors.

Of course, he dresses in $75 slacks and laughs at people that shop at K-mart. He gets new vehicles often and generally lives in a lifestyle he can't afford. He's constantly working overtime to pay for his fancy lifestyle which he seldom gets to live because he is always working overtime to be able to afford it.

The only thing keeping this guy out of total poverty is the fact that he works a lot of overtime. He is in effect poor.  He chose to be this way.

The reason he lives this way is because he makes poor choices. He has poor ways.

The reason my friend seems to live so well is because he makes good choices.

It strikes me that the truth here is simply that poor people have poor ways.



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Funny how we throw money at things to solve problems

. Lots and lots of money.

We have a problem and some senator comes up with a solution and throws a pile of money at it and creates a program we get stuck with for all eternity and they brag that the problem is solved when the only thing that is solved is that the American taxpayer gets poorer.

One great problem I see is education and there is a simple solution to that. It is to do away with most federal level educational programs and leave things to a state or local level.

For example, if you drop the college loan program enrollment in colleges will drop and as a result tuition prices will drop.

Yeah, a lot of college professors will be angry and have to start teaching more classes. Yeah, a lot of intellectual dead wood will have to find a way to support themselves. So what?

If you drop federal subsidies to schools they will likely raise local taxes to compensate but you can bet your ass there will be more accountability. Local school boards will be forced to account for their local dollars and a lot of frivilous extras will go away most riki-tik.

The teachers unions will raise holy hell for a while but if the locals stand fast you can bet that most of them will get back into line. Either that or find something else to do for a living.

Teachers are there to teach, not retire after 20 years and spend the rest of their days on the golf course at taxpayer's expense.

Holding teachers accountable for teaching well is something teachers unions have fought for years. The taxpayer ought to stand fast on that one, too.

Most likely we'll get rid of the teachers that are there to ride the taxpayers gravy train and be left with people that are there to teach.

Yes, wealthier neighborhoods will have better schools. So what? Generally that's because success breeds success. If you want better schools in your neighborhood, deal with your local school board and tell them to get rid of the dead wood.

Dead wood also includes those students that disrupt classes and slow everyone else down. Boot them out. If the law requires they are there, simply warehouse them. Let them sit in a room somewhere until they either learn not to disrupt class or they reach the age where they can drop out.

The next step is to cut back or eliminate social programs that allow people to do nothiing and still get by. Either install a serious work requirement or drop the welfare system altogether and make people either work or starve.

You can bet that if you do that there will be a lot of poorer people deciding that they are tired of living that way and they will learn that education is important if they don't want to live with their backs bent in toil for their entire lives.

With the easy way out supplied by social programs gone, it won't take people a whole lot of time to figure out that the difference between just getting by and living comfortable isn't a whole lot.

There will likely be quite a number of the poor that will see the results of the success of others and decide, "I'm going to get me some of that" and look at educating themselves to make themselves more marketable.

Many won't but some will. It will be their choice.

The process of getting our nation educated again isn't going to take place just because a bunch of idiot congresscritters throw a pile of money at it and call it good.

It isn't going to happen overnight, either. It's going to take about as long to get out of this mess as it took to get into it.

It's also going to be a lot more painful getting out of this than it was getting into it.




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Catholic education for non-Catholics

 is something I hear about from time to time. Might be worth looking into.

Actually it makes sense when you think about it. Before you reject it out of hand and scoff you ought to give it some thought. It's just one more thing to look into.

Catholic schools from what I have heard are pretty tolorant to those that are non-Catholic. In general it's a pretty good education.

A while back I was talking to an immigrant from India that was sending his two children to a local Catholic school. I believe he was Hindu, but I know his family was not Catholic.

I asked him why he would do this and he explained to me that he thought his kids would get a better education there than they would in the local public schools.

I asked him about the differences in his religion and the Catholic church. He commented that the school doesn't require extensive Catholic religious training. I suppose that's true. While some schools may have a lot of Catholic religious training, some don't.

I can't say I disagree with him. It makes sense to me.

I like people like him. He thinks out of the box and truly is looking out for his family. Like a lot of immigrants raising families here he's a somewhat strict disciplinarian. He has set a standard and by hell or high water his kids will live up to the standards he's set for them.

Asian families well are known for this. Most of the stories about the Asian kids coming home and doing their homework at the kitchen table under Mom's watchful eye are likely true or close to it. You seldom find an Asian immigrant's kids dropping out or majoring in sports. Sometimes I think that some of these families take some of this a bit too far, but that's OK. Their kids generally do well and that's about all that matters.

 This guy said the local Catholic school sets a pretty high bar for graduation and sticks with it. He figures his kids stand a better chance of getting into a decent school upon graduation. He's probably right because colleges know that Catholic schools tend to have higher academic standards than public schools do.

Incidentally, the days of the nasty old sexually frustrated bitter lesbian nun slicing recaltricent student's knuckles open with a steel edged ruler have been long over with for decades.

I'm not some closet Catholic sitting behind my keyboard espousing the goodness of Catholicism by a long shot. I'm just a guy that looks around and tries to see a little truth in things around me. I've posted it before. I am Catholic in dogtag only.

I simply see a local Catholic school as a possible option for someone that isn't impressed with their local school system.

One thing non-Catholic Christians might want to consider. Catholics are a Christian faith and share something with other Christian faiths. It's a lot closer to their values than a lot of values taught in public schools today.

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I just read where New Jersey

 is having a budget crisis which is getting worse because a lot of the wealthier people are moving out.

Can't say as I blame them.

With high taxes, high insurance and high basic costs people would be foolish to stay there if they had a choice. Even car insurance is so high that a couple of elections ago it was the main issue in the election for governor.

The movie industry moved out of Jersey almost a century ago for two things. Taxes and a sunnier climate. I have to be honest and say that it was mainly the latter but instead of keeping a company office in northern Jersey they moved out lock, stock and barrel.

Today the movie industry is trickling out of California to avoid high taxes. Funny how that works.

The truth is that people tend to want to keep what they have earned and tend to move to a place that is cheaper to live.

I think in the future you are going to see an increase in wealthy people turning in their US passport and becoming citizens elsewhere.

It makes sense to move to a place that will allow you to keep your money instead of staying where they take it away from you.


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One of the things I notice as a ham radio operator is that there are an awful lot of educated people overseas.

Virtually all of the Arabs I have spoken with, for example, speak pretty damned good unaccented English. When I look up their callsigns I see evidence that they are educated men.

The other day I spoke with a Chinese girl that sounded pretty young. I ventured a guess that she was in her early teens. She spoke clean, unbroken unaccented fluent English. It wasn't anything like the English you hear in Chinese restaurants stateside.

American English for most Asians is a gold-plated sonofabitch to learn, yet here was this youngster that seemed to have mastered it.

She had a lot of confidence on the air and I spent time listening until the bulk of the pileup subsided to the point where I could work her with my little barefoot rig.

While waiting I looked up her callsign and found she was a part of a middle school radio club. Why was I not surprised? A lot of other countries encourage activities like this and start teaching other languages at an early age.

An Egyptian immigrant I was talking to the other day told me that in Egypt they have started teaching kids Engilsh and other languages at an early age because it's easier for little kids to learn than waiting until the kids are older.

Then I think for a second that the United States is something like 57th in education.

Of course, we used to be top dog, but as usual the other countries saw what we did and started doing it. We  have been slacking off and it is going to come around and boot us in the ass in the not so distant future.

I think a part of this is because the NEA is too busy worrying about fat paychecks, early retirement benefits, better medical coverage and avoiding responsibility and accountability for their membership. Looking out for the kids seems to have been forgotten somewhere along the line.

Another thing I think has something to do with this is the rising cost of education. Part of which I attribute to the college loan programs.

Colleges started raising their costs. People started griping and the government interceded by offering college loans. It didn't take colleges a long time to realize that with the loan programs they could raise their tuitions even higher.

It seems that every time the government steps in to help people they just make things worse for everyone. One of the most common subjects I hear from college aged kids and their parents is how to get an education without having to stay in hock for a couple of decades afterwards.

Of course, another thing I hear is people complaining that a master's degree in something like puppetry only nets a job at Starbucks but that is a different gripe altogether. It is not the fault of the system but of the dumbass that wasted a small fortune on a useless degree.

Some dumbass gets a master's in pupperty yet here we import an awful lot of engineers from overseas and he wants sympathy. I think not. At least from me.

Back in the day there were a number of things a youngster could do to get through college. A friend of mine several years ago told me a pretty funny story about living with seven other guys for almost three of his four years in college. Six of the eight were using GI bill benefits.

I met another guy that lived in a Ford Econoline van for a couple of school years.

These guys bought used textbooks and generally scraped by.

One enterprising and mechanically talented guy I met worked summers as a logger and during the course of the school year would assemble and sell Volkswagen bugs out of salvaged parts. They even came with a list of 'ingredients' so the new owner knew what tune up parts to purchase to maintain his new set of used wheels.

"This bug is a '62 body with a '58 transaxle, a '65 engine and sheet metal between '56 and '70" His personal VW had no sheet metal parts that matched in color.

I suppose he made a few bucks maintaining them too.

I'll admit these were a little on the extreme side but the point is none of these guys graduated with college debt.

Back then you could get through college without any debt if you were motivated. 

These days a college degree often costs you a decade or two of being in hock after you graduate.

Part of the costs of today's education is likely greed on the part of the schools. When the loan program started up they knew they could raise prices even higher. I'd bet that if you eliminated the student loan program that enrollment would drop and that would be followed by a drop in tuition costs.

Another part of the reason we see a national drop in education in this country is that there isn't the motivation to get ahead that there used to be. No education generally meant you did something hard and unappealing for a living and for short money. Now it more often than not means you get money from the government to sit around and do nothing.

These days our social welfare programs enable someone to get by on the rest of the taxpayers. That does little to motivate people. Eliminate a lot of these programs and you are likely to see a resurgence in education and the trades.

You would also see an appreciation for education return.


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This post written last night with the TV on in the background.

The show is Tosh O. It is on a so-called Comedy Channel.

I just saw a clip of a skateboarder rolling down the street, lower his trousers, squat as he was rolling along and move his bowels.

Yup, the guy dropped a duece while rolling along in his skateboard. It was just plain nasty.

I didn't need to see that and consider the clip totally tasteless.

It has no place on prime time television. 

Tosh, they ought to boot you off the Comedy Channel. It's NOT funny. It's just plain disgusting.




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One day in high school

I remember that in high school one of our teachers quoted Lenin or one of the early Soviet leaders and said that 'Drink is the curse of the working class.'

I  said to the teacher that it sounded like he had gotten that one 180 degrees off and suggested that perhaps work was the curse of the drinking class.

Fortunately the man had a sense of humor and told me that I very well may be spot on.

Maybe I was onto something.



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One of the things that I see now is that there are fewer Americans

 out there that are willing to fend for themselves, although there are a few out there.

Many people in the 40 year old range have said that they wish they could opt out of social security and manage their own retirement. They very well may be right so long as the government prints an honest currency and doesn't rob them blind through inflation.

As I sit here behind my keyboard looking at history I think I'm going to have to pin our current fiscal headaches on LBJ. Actually it was FDR when he started social security but that, surprisingly enough, was working even though it was doomed to begin with.

Had LBJ not plundered the social security fund in the 60s it likely would have lasted pretty much until the boomers died off. Still, eventuallly it would have collapsed.

I guess we could say that FDR cracked the treasury door a bit, but it was Johnson that opened it wide open with his (failed) Great Society programs.

All these wonderful Great Society programs have done is create more government dependency and it gets worse with every administration.

The older I get the more I realize the Founding Fathers wanted us to take care of ourselves and not to create a monster to take care of the people.

I live in a country founded by geniuses but run by idiots.


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With a 45th high school reunion coming up

 I am sitting here wondering if any of my former classmates have a clue as to how I have lived my life on the road less traveled. Most of them I have not seen since I left the graduation ceremony.

For example, I seriously doubt that any of them have lived in bear country and had to have either a .375 H&H or a 12 gauge loaded with slugs in their hands just to go outside and take a leak. If they have it has been for a very brief period of time.

I spent 14 months in a tipi in the Rockies when I got out of the army because I wanted fo follow a childhood dream. When that adventure ended I hitch-hiked to Alaska and adventured there for over the next decade, hunted, buillt houses, fished both for subsistance and comercially, dabbled with airplanes, and bought a sailboat and adventured on board her.

For quite a lot of this period I suppose I could have legally been considered among the ranks of the homeless, but I was anything but. I always had a place to park myself come evening.

I was probably cosidered to be dirt poor by some, yet I always seemed to be well fed, fairly clean and I took care of myself with no real outside help. I didn't need the government and the truth is all the government could do for me at the time was interfere with me.

What should be noted is that when I wanted something I simply went to work, lived frugally and saved. When I decided to save for my sailboat a lot of people thought it was a pipe dream until I showed up with it.

I learned that I could do whatever I wanted to if I decided to buckle down and work at it.

From the time I got out of the service until the time I embarked on my present career I lived the bulk of my life in a subsistance lifestyle. For a big part of that I fed myself. A lot of my food I either caught or shot myself.

It made me into a pretty self-reliant person that didn't have to rely on much more than myself. The only thing I took from the government was the money from my GI bill and that I had earned. It was a part of my compensation package for serving in the army.

When I was just shy of forty I embarked on the career I am still working at. I went to sea and learned to move oil and these days that's what I do. I run a 50,000 barrel tank vessel.  

I didn't opt for safety and I suppose I'm lucky to have made it to the ripe old age of 62. 

While some of this can in fact be attributed to dumb luck, the bulk of it has come from making good decisions while being involved in risky ventures.

I think the reason I am making this post is because I have noticed that a lot of my classmates seem to have opted for much safer careers. Many have decided to become government employees which actually isn't a bad choice if you want to go that way.

Still, a lot of these people have opted to let government take care of them and seem to think that it is the job of government to take care of individuals. My experience says otherwise.

It is the duty of the individual to take care of himself. I have come to the conclusion to that based on my own personal experiences.

To those that keep trying to drag people to their level of their definition of happiness I say, butt out!

People are about as happy as they want to be and will live at whatever standard they choose if they are left alone to achieve what they want to achieve. 

Most of the people I grew up with seemed to have taken other somewhat safer paths in life and it is pretty likely that they will try and put me into some sort of category based on the path most commonly traveled. It's hardly fair.

I have simply taken my life, lived it as I see fit and have come to the conclusions I have based on what I have seen and my instincts.

As I age I get more and more convinced that I have done myself justice by taking the path I chose. I have been places and done things few of my classmates have. It's pretty satisfying having done things and been places most people only get to see on the Discovery Channel.

I have also lived life with a flavor those that took the safe road will never enjoy the taste of.



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Another day has passed and is over with and I have to start thinking about the next one.

Yesterday went well until I had to listen to a guy bragging about having a daughter headed to law school. Just what we need. Another lawyer. I grew tired fast and asked him how he managed to raise a daughter with the morals of a hammerhead shark.

He looked shocked and demanded an explanation. I told him that lawyers were not known for their fine moral character.Most of them are legalized thieves. 

He got pretty upset and said he ought to sock me.

I said to him, "Please feel free to do so. I will then hire an attorney with fewer morals than your daughter is displaying my attending law school and sue you for everything. I will then proceed to squander her tuition money on hookers and blow and she will have to wait tables for a living."

He wandered off with smoke pouring out his ears.

One of my cohorts was behind me and told me I could be downright dry.

The truth is we have too many lawyers in this country as demonstrated my my mouth. While I admit I ran off at the mouth because I get tired about hearing about people's kids, I (arguably) should have been punched.

Thirty years ago I would have been smacked upside the head and if I had complained the cop would have said I deserved it.

On the other hand I suppose I am tired of listening to parents brag about their kids so maybe it's a wash of some sort. 

About 25 years ago one of my cousins went to law school. I asked my uncle why he hadn't taught his son a sense of honesty. My uncle looked shocked for about a second and then looked at me sheepishly.

"It really is a license to steal," he confessed.

Of course, everyone goes into law with visions of defending the poor man accused of the murder he didn't commit.

That generally lasts until the third year of law school when they see that the people that followed the ideals of law are buying their cars off of Craigslist and the lawyers that went into legalized theft are driving BMWs.

For the record, I have made a few posts about their children. Generally I listen and I respect the fact that a parent that has raised a kid well ought to be proud. It's not the fact that you brag about your kids that I tend to get sarcastic about. It's the way you do it.

Don't be so uppity about it.

To find out why the blog is pink just cut and paste this: http://piccoloshash.blogspot.com/2009/12/my-feminine-side-blog-stays-pink.html NO ANIMALS WERE HARMED IN THE WRITING OF TODAY'S ESSAY