Nov 15, 2014

Nautical Distractions (5): One More Sunday

Naaah, not  John D. McDonald's "One More Sunday" laying bare the absolute corruption of the teevee-preacher industry.

I mean the final boot camp Sunday of the youngest heir to the Estates of Camp Jiggleview. Tomorrow he will ensure his fellow sailors have their chance to worship with whatever congregation they prefer, attend his own services, chow down at the "noon meal," and then, I wouldn't be too surprised, finally kick back for a couple of afternoon hours.

You see, he is now a sailor rather than a recruit, according to the United States Navy. That happened sometime in the past day or two when Company 018 completed "Battle Stations," the final test, the SHTF drills aboard a mockup ship. To prove it, the Navy confiscated his blue ball cap emblazoned "RECRUIT" and handed him one announcing "NAVY."

It's a bigger deal than it sounds like. Every piece of boot camp literature I can find suggests that the new cap means his superiors -- still meaning almost almost everyone in the service -- will return to him at least a smidgen of the respect  they have demanded for themselves since he was tossed from the O'Hare bus into the whale belly some eight weeks ago.

He earned a  meritorious bump to E2 early in the game and may -- I don't know yet --  have snagged another to E3. Nevertheless a very junior sailor has  a long row of elephant turds to shovel. We hope to help fortify him for it. Seven days from today some of the people who love him will be out there for his first actual day-long liberty call after formal graduation.

All the cheeseburgers and fries you can handle, Pardner. And I understand your dad is bringing a cigar. :) 

Nov 14, 2014

The Only Ones: Load that Glock, Barney; I Gotta Clean It.

The subject line may be too rough on the police officer involved. It depends on what , exactly,  happened that day on the Iowa City cop training range, and it's unlikely his boss cops will ever report more than that a shooting accident happened.

You've heard it before, but maybe some firearms newbies  -- and reporters -- will stumble across this.

Two Iowa  City police officers were injured when a gun went off while it was being cleaned. 

(1) Dammit, you can't clean a loaded gun.  The bullet thingie gets in the way of the stick thingie with the rag gizmo on it.

(2) No properly working firearm ever "went off."  It was placed in a firing condition by a human being and the sear tripped by a human being.

The department says officers were in the process of cleaning and conducting maintenance on their weapons at a department substation Monday after a day of special training.

Which training failed to get a concept or two across, or got it across to an officer who couldn't be bothered to  pay attention to what the hell he was a doing.

The shooter and another  officer were slightly injured.

It was a negligent discharge, or an accidental one if you care to parse the subtlest meanings of the two words and give the shooter the benefit of every possible doubt.  I won't.  I've had a ND, and I can't blame it on a mysterious Count von Wentoff who spooks around, invisibly loading guns and  pulling triggers.

Nov 6, 2014

The pollsters look silly now. Obama looks sillier than ever.  Pelosi looks silliest of all in vowing to hold onto her Boss-Democrat job because of her sterling performance in the 2014 House campaigns.

But no one will look sillier than some of our new Republican leaders if they play true to form. i.e. get elected, start scouting around for nations to "build," tune up the abortion drums, and schedule four hours per day for schmoozing mega money which -- with the right tax breaks, subsidies, and artificial  markets  -- might just become available to their next campaign fund.

Ladies and Gentlemen, you campaigned as champions of smaller government, reduced intrusion into personal lives, and a less adventurous policy of sending our kids off to get killed in far places.

Put up or shut up.

Nov 4, 2014

Off to exercise my franchise this morning. The plan is to vote for all libertarians on the ballot and ignore all races without one.

With a single exception, Joni Ernst, the lady who cuts 'em and makes 'em squeal.  She is  a socon, neocon Republican, but she's in an apparently close race with a real howler of a statist Democrat. She also carries "S&W 9mm," and that tips the scale.

I'll take my shower after I vote.