Nobody said a word about my pants being on backwards

A shipmate and I were sleeping when someone opened the door and said loudly, "We're almost on the gear!" This meant time to go to work.

I was on the top bunk and slipped and landed on top of my shipmate and we became a mass ot tangled up humanity on the deck.

We were both kind of punchy and panicky and started to both put on the same pair of pants ala Laurel and Hardy. When it was discovered they were my pants he pulled his leg out and I turned them and put my other leg in the other pantleg and pulled them up. It was then I realized they were on backwards.

I simply reached around and buttoned the top button, called it good and raced for the galley where breakfast was already on the table. I chowed down and spent the rest of the workday with my pants n backwards.

Nobody said a word about it.

All I can say about the incident is that there's a lot to be said about a job where nobody looks twice at a coworker that shows up for work with his pants on backwards.

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

Don Lemon can't hide behind the First Amendment.

He's not being charged with for covering the news. He's being charged with his conduct while covering the news. 

There's a saying. Journalists report the news. If they make the news they haven't done their jobs.

Lemon was not being arrested for reporting the news at all. This is just a bullshit smokescreen. His conduct before and in the church made him one of the participants (and possibly one of the ringleaders) of the unlawful invasion of the church.

The analogy someone made was two guys get pulled over for drag racing. One of them whips out a camera and a notebook and tells the cop "I'm just a journalist doing a piece on the dangers of speeding"

Surprise! He's getting a ticket just like the other guy and he deserves one.

The First Amendment doesn't apply here and the beauty of it is that Lemon has provided his own case against himself by having the whole thing on film. 

About 50 years ago I took a couple journalism courses and that was pointed out to me during a class on journalistic law. You're only there to report the news.

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Manslaughter. Fined $1 and given a carton of cigarettes and immediately transferred.

This was one of my father's favorite WW2 stories. 

This is before the UCMJ became law in 1948. This is Old School stuff. I mean serious Old school.

At the time he was a flight officer for a brief time in Mississippi. He had officer of the day duty and part of his duties included being responsible for the guards guarding the flight line. He said he was a little nervous handing teenagers loaded rifles and made it damned clear during guard mount that they were supposed to follow the rules. 

The guard was supposed to challenge whoever tried to get onto the flight line three times before he was clear to fire on the person.

To make a long story short, that night a guard shouted three challenges, fired once and a teenager lay dead on the tarmac. 

Dad said it was a tragedy and it certainly was. Some dopey kid had gotten himself killed for no good reason.

The guard had done his duty. He had done nothing wrong so to protect the soldier was pulled off his post, told to get some sleep and the following morning a courts-martial board was put together. 

The guard was charged with manslaughter. The courts-martial found him guilty, fined him $1 and schlepped him a carton of Luckies and told him to pack his bags. By noon he was on an airplane headed to Texas earmarked for overseas assignment.

He said the officer assigned to defend him filed the paperwork immediately reporting that the courts-martial board did not follow the proper procedures pointing out some of the shortcuts the board had taken.

Shortly after the reviewing board investigated the complaints and the findings of the courts-martial were set aside. The man now had a clean record. 

I was wide eyed kid and asked why they let a guy off that had shot someone.

Dad explained how guard duty worked. Lawful orders were given and obeyed. The man on post had done his job and the results were a tragedy. A teenager was killed for being a dopey kid. There was a war on and the teenager was a casualty. The flight line had to be guarded. 

To punish the guard would mean guard duty would become a joke had the guard been punished for doing his duty. He had been ordered to guard the flight line, had done so to the best of his ability.

The courts-martial was convened to protect the man. He had been tried, convicted, sentenced and the sentence had been executed. The carton of Luckies was an unofficial gift. They also mistakes in the proceedings had done on purpose to clear the man's name because his defending officer was expected to file a complaint and get the courts-martial findings overturned by higher authority.

The man had been tried, convicted, sentenced and the sentence had been executed. The matter was now closed and he couldn't be retried by a state or any other level court. 

He was transferred out of state so that the base could not turn him over to the state to face any additional state charges. The base commander could truthfully say the man was being sent overseas.

It took me some time to figure that one out and later as a soldier I realized that Article 15 gave a servicemen some serious protection. 

Nowadays a felony can be punished under Article 15 and not be a felony conviction. It can also be thrown out afterwards.

What's also interesting is that 30 years later when I was in the army we had a Sp/4 transferred to my battalion from Germany. 

Tensions at the time in Germany were running high as the Baader-Meinoff gang was running around blowing stuff up. He had been on guard duty on an ammo dump and some idiot 2LT wanted to see if the guards were on their toes and decided to sneak past his post. 

Seems the lieutenant didn't take his challenge seriously that night and would up getting shot in the leg by my new found friend. A courts-martial found him innocent of any wrongdoing. The story seemed somewhat off to me and I admit I was dubious. 

A few months later he showed me a letter that came in from Germany a day earlier. In the letter from one of his friends in Germany it said that the lieutenant he had shot was supposed to be resigning as soon as he had fully recovered.

He said he was offered the transfer and suggested he take it to give him a clean slate. He took it even though he liked Germany because he figured he'd be a target for officers if he stayed in Germany.

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What's a kitchen table?

It's a place where life takes place.

It's  place where kids do homework and build model airplanes. It's where lunch is yaffled down so you can get back to whatever it is you're doing. 

The scratches and nicks on a kitchen table don't detract from it. They show that a real family has lived there and raised a family. Kitchen tables are where memories are made. They show character.

Some time ago a woman was talking about getting a new table when the last of the kids leave the house. I told her not to.

I told her for the first ten years you will enjoy the newness of the kitchen table but as the years pass she's going to regret throwing away the memories.

There's something special about a kitchen table.

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Don Lemon is hiding behind the First Amendment.

Don't be fooled. His jailing has nothing to do with the first Amendment. It has to do with his personal conduct. Journalists are responsible for their conduct just like everyone else. They're not privileged characters.

If a journalist is in the middle of a riot and is interviewing rioters he's probably on safe ground. 

The minute he participates in any act of rioting he loses his protection.

For example if a journalist is in the middle of the chaos simply interviewing rioters he's pretty much on solid footing. If he asks a rioter to do something illegal he's crossed the line. He's instigating.

The question over his upcoming trial is simply did he participate in the church invasion in any way or didn't he. If he had anything to do with the invasion itself he belongs in jail. 

The First Amendment has nothing to do with his trial. It's a separate issue. Don't be fooled. 

He hasn't been hauled off by the Gestapo to some dank dungeon. He's simply been arrested by federal law enforcement and has been charged with conspiracy and interfering with the first Amendment rights of worshippers. 

If/when his defense attorneys bring up the first amendment in his trial it will be a false deflection and will serve as an effort to confuse the jurors.  

If Lemon can hide behind freedom of the press for invading a church service then what I ought to do is make myself up a press pass and then do what I want. It would be the ultimate Get out of jail free card. 

It would be legitimate. After all I have 101 followers which makes me as legitimate as the New York Times.

(Why anyone is interested in the ranting and raving of an old man is beyond me)

Anyway, nobody's rights are being violated here. Don Lemon let his ego run away with him and let himself believe he is untouchable. He's finding out otherwise. I see he's thrown the race card into the equation, too. That's really worn out. It means nothing.

FWIW three other people have been arrested for the church invasion and my guess is that one, two or maybe all three are going to decide that testifying against Lemon is a pretty good deal because they'll be offered a chance to walk or at least escape jail time. 

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I have not met too many people that had a calling.

I did have a calling from the sea where I want to eventually be buried. I worked on the water and finally retired at the age of 71. Had it not been a calling of sorts I probably would have left at 62 like may sailors do. If I my body hadn't slowed down I'd still be working. I enjoyed working.

I thought of this because I saw a picture of a cowboy and it reminded me of two working cowboys I worked with for a couple of months.

The pair of them had a calling. They loved simply being cowboys and would do so for however long they lived. I can't explain it other to say that they had a calling from God. 

I'm sure they were more than aware that they would probably die young and possibly die as cripples as there's a jillion ways to get crippled up working with large livestock.

I think of those two occasionally and saw two of the happiest men I have ever seen. They worked every hour God gave them, lived in a spartan bunkhouse and had a very simple life and wanted nothing more out of it.

The pair of them lived for the brief periods of time they did 'cowboy stuff', moving the herd to another grazing area. In the saddle moving cows around they were kings of the world.

I could get on Old Paint and get from one place to another, but these two could ride! It was something magic to watch.

I guess now they use dirt bikes and quads to move cattle but looking back on it I feel honored to have worked with some of the last of the real cowboys.

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Mail delivery is a mess now.

I have USPS Informed Delivery and under normal circumstances it's great. It lets me know what's going on. 

It shows pictures of what is going to be in your mailbox that day.

Today I was supposed to get 5 letters and nothing showed up today. I don't believe the mail man ever showed up which is rare. I did run into another letter carrier yesterday and she told me they were delivering parcels only. Letters would be resumed in the next day or so.

I kept my eyes peeled for the mailman and apparently he never showed which I mildly expected. 

If I get nothing tomorrow I'll head off to the post office and have them get it for me.

Normally I don't sweat things like this but there's a lot of tax information that's due in. 

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I do believe I am going to have my water freeze up this winter.

While my incoming water is buried deep enough there is a spot where it enters the house where it's a bit shallower than it probably should be. 

Cold snaps don't drive the frost line down far enough to freeze things up but this long term of cold weather probably will. 

Generally we get cold snaps that last about a week and then there's some respite and things recover  bit. The current cold weather according to the 30 day forecast says it's going to be cold as hell until the middle of February. That means a deep frostline.

We shall see what we shall see.

I had an early February trip to Florida planned but I cancelled because of wanting to make sure everything here is OK and the fact that the cat is getting sick and it's a matter of time before I lose him.

If I have to put Kitty to sleep that's strictly on me. It's not fair to dump that on someone else.

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