Sorry, It's Been a Long Time

Well, here it is almost July of 2011. I last posted way back in 2010. Tons happening, going to try and revive this blog with new material. Stand by for news and other stuff.

JD

Haitians Calling for Help...We Should Help Them

As reported by Peter Slevin of the Washington Post on February 1 (Haitians implore U.S. to ‘take over’) Haitians are imploring the U.S. to take over the island nation to help speed restoration of infrastructure, government services and quality of life. While it may appear to the Haitian people that the U.S. is well-equipped to help the island nation move from rescue to recovery, they may want to think twice about offering up their souls and look at a recent, real-life experiment with the concept of a government in receivership played out right here in the Nation’s Capital.

In the mid 1990s, the District of Columbia faced an unprecedented financial crisis. The Capital of the Free World had a budget deficit of more than $700 million; a bloated city workforce that wasn’t delivering service; an off-site prison that was draining resources; a court-ordered receivership for an essential child-centered agency and no access to the financial markets or to a state government to levy state taxes.

While death from violence and political rubble compounded after years of bad leadership by Mayors Marion Barry and Sharon Pratt Kelly plagued our streets, we experienced nothing on the scale of devastation faced by the Haitian people. The District was simply broke.

Thus, Public Law 104-8 and the creation of the District of Columbia Financial Responsibility and Management Assistance Authority (“Authority”) in 1995.

The Authority was given legal authority to dictate the operations of the District until it could pull itself up by the bootstraps. The Authority controlled public works, emergency services (police and fire), the school system, employment services, and the health and human services agencies to name a few. No law was passed by the city council that didn’t require Authority approval. No contract above a very small threshold amount could be signed without Authority approval. No judicial review existed for Authority decisions.

Within two years, the Authority had seized total control over the District’s government and its departments and, notably, was easily the most hated entity in the District. Ultimately the mission was accomplished and D.C. emerged economically stable. The Authority’s “authority” came to an end on the last day of the fiscal year in 2001 and D.C. earned back the right to govern itself. But a steep price was paid by local leadership that I think few want to repeat.

The Haitian’s are asking for more of everything they have received since the earth shook so violently beneath them. More rescues, more food, more water, more rubble cleared, more shelter, more people saved. The Haitian people calling for a U.S. takeover of their country see U.S. uniforms and people and think we are the saviors. But the price of giving over control of every aspect of their government is something they should consider carefully.

If the U.S. is serious about helping, let’s propose to the United Nations a mechanism that gives us the power to help rebuild, help repair, help save, help feed, and help clothe those in need. But we should also do something that the framers of the Authority’s enabling legislation were smart enough to do. We must put into place triggers and language clearly stating what our goals are, how we will measure them and how we leave.

Snow in Shenendoah National Park

Went to see the Fall leaves today, got stuck in a 6 inch snowstorm instead. Closed the road for a time, so we hiked. Here are several photos, not in any particular order. Will post many more to my Webshots page tomorrow.

Enjoy!

This interview says it all...

http://www.foxbusiness.com/search-results/m/25952317/right-to-protest-with-a-gun.htm

Even the FOX news people (arguably the most conservative folks pretending to be "journalists") wimp out and join Ed Henry in the "Pansy" category during this interview with survivalblog.com author Jim Rawles. Well, at least one of them seemed to be OK with it all, the gentleman on far stage left...but long hair hippie guy (WTF is up with this weirdo...) and blondie...I mean, even Robert Gibbs (yes, Prez. Osama's press flack) spoke better of the guys with the guns that these two did...and that is hard to believe.

When you listen to the interview, the shrill speck in the middle starts out saying what a horrible thing this is, how she's against it, then she moderates to a "well, it's ok" then to another position all together.

Their questions were idiotic, and showed both their lack of knowledge and preparation.

Media Hysteria about Guns...

Please. Ok, so a few people take their legal firearms to an Osama..I mean, Obama rally. What the FK?

On CNN today, the story is here...http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/08/17/obama.protest.rifle/index.html

And, when Ed Henry was interviewed by an anchor (from my time in TV, when anchors start interviewing reporters, or reporters start interviewing reporters, then, there is truly SOMETHING terribly wrong with their story) this morning, Henry meekly said "I've never been that close to an ASSAULT rifle before." What a pansey (urban dictionary - look it up)...grow a set and get to a gun range someday, you'll see plenty of them, legally in the hands of American citizens, being used lawfully and thoughtfully.

At least the US Secret Service spokesman in the CNN print story said that the person(s) with firearms at rallies were NOT breaking the law and were allowed to LAWFULLY carry the firearms openly.

Henry made much about how those carrying rifles and firearms at the rally were "quietly surrounded by law enforcement officers "just in case anything were to happen." Give me a F'kng break. Law abiding citizens legally carrying firearms are not the problem.

Sadly, to the media, anyone who owns, wants to own, wishes to own, dreams of owning, used to own, owned(s) through marriage/divorce/death/inheritance a firearm should be stopped. Maybe we should be stopping the media...or maybe we should pay far less attention to them.

It's a simple equation, like the one my fellow Louisiana native coined during Slick Willie's first campaign...instead of "it's the economy stupid" we, the gun owning public need to be saying loud and clear "it's the constitution stupid."

Alaska 2 Years Later

Just returned from a trip back to Alaska. We were there almost 2 years ago to the week, and the changes were interesting. First, we stayed at Alyeska again, which since last time has been purchased by the guy whose dad owns GEICO. He has promised to build a new chair up to the glacier bowl (you still have to hike a traverse up to it now...) and to make the resort a more attractive place for vacationers and snow lovers. It looks the same right now on the outside, but the bed was wayy less comfortable. Last time we had the most comfortable bed I have ever slept in, and this time, not so much.

We went to Portage Glacier, one of the most spectacular sights I've ever seen, expecting the worse after seeing what the Mt. redoubt ash cloud had done to the Alyeska Snow, but were pleasantly surprised...here is what it looks like last week...
This is what it looked like in 2007...not much change, even when we got up close to it.

However, Exit Glacier just outside Seward had changed, and the ash from the volcano could clearly be seen coating the glacier...Here it is last week...

And this is what the "toe" of the glacier looked like in 2007, a pretty dramatic difference.

Just south of Portage Lake and Glacier is Byron Glacier, a place we really love to hike. The weather was horrible this time, rain, sleet, windy and about 35 degrees, but we hiked it until our gear was soaking. Looking up at Byron glacier, this is the scene last week...

And this is what it looked like in 2007. There was much more snow 2 years ago, even though the time difference of our visit was just one week.

The biggest surprise for us was what the volcano, which is only about 70 miles away from Alyeska, did to the top of the resort. Last time we were there, the top of Alyeska still had tons of snow and even was running a ski and snowboard camp for local schoolkids and teens. You can even see someone on the chairlift in the middle of my photo...

This time, the ash from the volcano settled onto the snow one day in mid-May, and that same day the resort got about 20 inches of volcano-laced snowfall. When the sun came out a couple of days later, the reflective nature of the glass-pumice fragments made the snow all but disappear completely, closing the resort weeks earlier then normal. Here is a shot of what it looked like last week.

Take-aways? Alaska is an amazing and wonderful place, and Alyeska is an excellent location from which to stage your explorations on the Kenai Peninsula. Oh, and the Chair 5 restaurant in Girdwood has great pizza. While we were at Alyeska we also experienced a volcano-related 5.6 earthquake, so it's a great place to visit, but as we drove around the Kenai, we were keenly aware of the "Tsunami evacuation route" signs and the "volcano safe-location" indicators...

Thanks for looking, and you can find the rest of my shots at my webshots page...click the link on the right to access it.

Gun Registration in TV Shows

The Campaign to make us think that Guns are Already Registered…

I’m a fan of the CSI shows (even though CSI Miami is really shot in Santa Monica or some other “hilly” location, we don’t have hills in Miami…but I digress). One factor I noticed in their dialogue is when one of the CSI’s is “tracing” a gun or bullets used in a crime. It is very common for them to access a “database” of “registered” firearms to determine that the perpetrator of the crime has or has not registered a weapon.

Soooooo, the United States has a database of “registered” firearms? No, it does not. However, there are ways for the Federal government (BATF) to at least guess. Each time anyone purchases a gun from a Federal Firearms Licensed (FFL) dealer (an individual already cleared by the US Government to buy and sell weapons) a record of the transaction is kept as long as the dealer is in business (BATF form 4473).

Even licensed gun dealers that sell at gun shows must, by federal law, strictly adhere to background checks through the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS).

However, sellers who are private individuals are not bound by law to use the NICS, thus the “Loophole” of sorts, though many State Laws may mandate such a screening. Additionally, some states have laws requiring that a purchaser observe a waiting period before taking possession of a firearm from even private sellers, unless the buyer is a concealed firearms permit holder. These waiting periods typically range from 3 to 10 days depending on the state where the firearm is purchased.

Now – to a reason for this post…on FOX, CNN and the other stations is a news story about some stupid moron who has threatened our Chief Executive with violence. In the story we are told that the suspect has at least “8 registered guns.” Really?????

With which government agency are they registered? I see that this freaks car is registered in New York, one of only a handful of states requiring registration of handguns (the type of weapons he is supposed to possess) so perhaps those guns are registered in New York. If that is the case, the NY “licensing authority” for the borough in which he obtained the license for the guns should, by law, have the caliber, description and serial numbers for his guns.

You might already think, thanks to the liberal media and “crime” shows that all guns are registered with law enforcement. They are not. Yes, some states do require some form of registration to purchase a handgun, so here are a few notes about relevant states and registration requirements – as far as I’ve been able to determine.

DC (where legal ownership of handguns was just recently provided, though the permitting and registration process is quite onerous – plus there are no LEGAL gun shops in DC as of yet.)

Hawaii – you can submit a permit request, get fingerprinted by the FBI (yes, THAT FBI) and then purchase a handgun, though you cannot have it loaded in your car.

Illinois requires those interested in purchasing a handgun to get a state permit, and the city of Chicago and several other smaller cities have outright bans on handgun possession (unless you are a criminal).

Maryland allows its residents to own guns; it just requires them to watch a video about gun safety before the state issues a registration card in their name, which allows them to purchase guns. Additionally, the completely useless Integrated Ballistics Identification System is used in MD so that all guns have a ballistic “fingerprint” of a round fired from the gun registered with the State Police – which by the way, has resulted in 0 arrests…that is Zero, yep, the big Goose Egg.

Massachusetts, Michigan and Minnesota all require handgun purchasers to be licensed by a law enforcement authority in order to purchase or transfer a handgun.

Nebraska and Nevada require some form of registration to purchase as well and in Clark County; handguns must be registered with the police.

NJ, while strict, is nothing compared to New York, which is by far the strictest in the US, even making it impossible for police to own certain firearms and high-capacity magazines.

South Dakota requires purchasers to obtain a license from law enforcement that allows purchase of a handgun and Wisconsin just plain hates anyone with a gun, which is weird, since you’d think that lots of people own them up in the woods…and in Wyoming, they, like Texas, give you a gun when you land at an airport or cross the borders into the state.

Now, why is all this registration language making its way into popular media entertainment? Is it so we will already know the terms and be aware of the process when the Government decides that it has to register all firearms? Is it being done so that we think it is already law, and thus, when it becomes law we will readily accept it?

The conspiracy theorist in me thinks all of the above are true, and that perhaps, we have already let the genie out of the bottle. The Supreme Court ruling about gun ownership in DC, DC vs. Heller, seemed to put our right to keep and bear arms in stone, but, think about this, any ruling by the Supreme Court can be overturned – yes, the Supreme Court has the last word, within the American judicial system, on questions of constitutional interpretation. However, a Supreme Court decision regarding interpretation of the Constitution (like, say, the 2nd amendment) can be overturned by a constitutional amendment. A Court decision on interpretation of federal laws can be overturned by Congressional enactment of a new law.

So, vote early and often, and only for the RIGHT candidates…

Louisiana Honor Air

Group of WWII Veterans from Louisiana travel to DC
One Veterans Story

According to the historian for the U.S. Coast Guard, two hundred and thirty one thousand men and 10,000 women served in the Coast Guard during World War II. 3.5 million WWII veterans still live.

My dad, George W. Davison of Shreveport, was one of the 231,000 men serving their country during WWII in the Coast Guard. He enlisted at 20, traveled by train to New Orleans where his ship, the USCGC Grand Rapids had finished its outfitting at Plaquemine Shipyards. Commissioned in New Orleans, the Grand Rapids and its crew of 190 soon joined the war. During the war, the Grand Rapids was stationed in the North Atlantic, home of constant 40mph winds, sideways blowing snow, rogue icebergs and 20 foot seas. Though the weather was quite a shock for the southern-raised 20 year-old, he took his duties as a gunners mate very seriously, regardless of the weather or seas.

“You know, we had to be ready, as we sent reports back to the mainland about weather and patrol events, we were always aware that German U-boats were looking for us,” he told me once. “So, even if we had to chip the ice off our guns, we held practice sessions so that we’d know what to do if a sub ever did find us.”

Dad’s never been too vocal about his WWII service, other than to tell me a funny story about a fishing competition he won by catching a shark and that no matter how the cook prepared it, it tasted terrible. Honestly, he’s just not very talkative in general, and so, when he expressed interest in traveling to Washington, D.C. to see the newly built WWII Memorial on the National Mall, my family was supportive and we all encouraged him to go.

So, for the second time in his 87+ years, he got on a plane (with100 other WWI veterans this time) chartered by the Louisiana Honor Air group, in Shreveport and came here to DC to see the memorial.

Opened to the public April 29, 2004, the World War II Memorial sits in the heart of the National Mall, between the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument. It honors the 16 million men and women who served in the U.S. armed forces, the more than 400,000 who died and all who supported the war effort from home.

As the group exited the plane, they looked spry and chipper, ready to tackle the city and its monuments to their heroism. The WWII monument was their first stop, where they were greeted by former Senator Bob Dole, who was the national chairman of the group responsible for securing funding to build the memorial. Dole spoke to every person that came up to him, as did his wife, Elizabeth Dole.

I looked at my dad, as he took it all in. He and I decided to go ahead of the group and just meander around the monument.

As he looked around, tears formed in his eyes. Each state and the Atlantic and Pacific theaters of war is represented on the monument and dad walked over to where the word Louisiana is etched into the wall and I took a quick photo. Then, we went over to the Atlantic Ocean portion of the monument. The North Atlantic is where he spent his war-time service, and he just stood there, looking at the water. He’s always had affection for water of all kinds, and I could tell that just being there with men and women who had also served their country at its time of greatest need was an emotional thing for a man not accustomed to emotional displays.

After lunch, the group hit the FDR Memorial. This is by far one of the largest memorials on the mall. It sits on the Western edge of the enclosed tidal basin, just next to the Jefferson Memorial and our famous cherry trees. Anyone who served in WWII called President Roosevelt Commander-in-Chief, and as the group and dad walked the monument, I could hear comments about the WPA and the Civilian Conservation Corps, his wife Eleanor, and the Manhattan Project. I watched dad as he took in all the data about Roosevelt that he had forgotten or not known.

Poignant to me was dad’s comments about the statues (seen above) of men in line waiting in line for food during the depression. He said that he still remembers those things happening, as if it were yesterday.

From there, we went to Arlington National Cemetery, where we saw the changing of the guard in front of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. It was an emotional ceremony, and dad strained on his tiptoes to see the soldiers as they changed places and as a wreath in honor of the Louisiana veterans was placed in front of the Tomb.

After that, we went over to the Korean/Lincoln/Vietnam monument area, and dad walked around the Korean memorial. It is one of the coolest I think, with the soldier statues walking through a rice field. He really liked that, and he also really liked the ice cream sandwich we got him at the refreshment stand!

Off to the Iwo Jima, where, as dad walked around, he quietly told me the story of a boyhood friend, a third base heavy hitter on his high school baseball team, who died as an infantry man on Iwo Jima. I had never heard the story, but as dad told it, he had tears in his eyes.

Back at the airport, and as he and the other veterans shuffled up the escalator to the special TSA lines, he smiled, looked over at me, and said quietly “thanks son for meeting me here, it was a special day” and in those 11 or so words is how I wanted my dad to feel at the end of the day. He and his generation prevented the Nazi’s from dominating the world, they liberated the Jews from the concentration camps, and they produced the means to end the war.

Who really knows how to judge the measure of a man? Is it in how much love he has for his children, his wife, for life itself? I don’t know the answer, but, I do know that in many ways my generation is very different from my dads, as is the current generation different from my own, and I am thankful to have my father and the measurement of his life by which to measure my own. I only hope that if I am fortunate to reach the wonderful age of 87 as he has, I will be as aware of the people who love me as he is of the people who love him.

I want to thank the Louisiana Honor Air staff, and the person(s) who made the trip possible through their generous funding. My dad, and the other veterans were well cared for and the level of detail and thoughtfulness was amazing. They did a hell of a job!

Did Lewis and Clark have permits for their guns…

OK, it is beyond question that the Washington Post is a gun-hating rag, known herein as the “GHWP”, and is intent on editorializing and opining as much as possible about their perceived inherent evils of gun ownership and that anyone who deems it necessary to own and use a firearm is obviously a criminal in need of rehabilitation or re-education.

Over the past two weeks, they have had articles or editorials every-other-day about the above statement. Even gave that nut job Bloomberg from NY a ton of ink space when he was here to talk about all the illegal weapons his criminals in NY are buying, ostensibly at Virginia gun shows. I’m sure that when he and his liberal friends (especially the ones in the White House and DHS right now) are successful in shutting down what they perceive as the “gun show loophole” then they’ll go after gun shows in Wyoming, or Alaska, or they’ll find some way to make it totally illegal for someone who is “legally able to own a firearm” to sell another person who is legally able to own a gun that they no longer need…in other words, a face-to-face transaction (which by the way is still legal – I can sell a firearm to a resident of my own state who is not prohibited from owning a firearm—someone who is over 18, no felony convictions, etc., and yes, there are ways I can check to make sure the person buying the gun is not prohibited from owning it)…

Just today in the Post, is an article about how Mexico would be a paradise; all beaches, coronas and tiki huts, were it not for all the illegal guns, especially the “assault weapons” streaming across the border from the U.S., being used in numerous drug cartel murders. They even have a neato name for it, the “iron river.” The Mexican ambassador to the U.S., Arturo Sarukkhan (uh, is it just me or does that last name sound vaguely middle-eastern…just saying…) is quoted saying that U.S. law enforcement officers on the U.S. side need to be given a “more prominent role” on the border.

HUH??? What does the border Patrol do? And, isn’t that what we sent two fine U.S. Border Patrol agents to prison for, their “more prominent enforcement” of the rule of law and their unfortunate shooting of a criminal (a Mexican drug smuggler, who in the early afternoon on February 17, 2005 escaped after eluding several Border Patrol agents and in the process of abandoning on a dirt road his van containing 743 pounds of marijuana was shot in the ass by the agents - he sadly survived both their poor judgment and marksmanship).
Today’s article ends with two long paragraphs about the evils of guns, and how the Clinton era Assault Weapons ban needs to be re-implemented so the U.S. can “shut down these weapons and the bulk cash that is providing the drug syndicates in Mexico the where-with-all to corrupt, bride and kill.”

Wow – all that is happening because of the Assault Weapons Ban??? Come on, U.S. gun laws, all 20,000 of them (state and federal) are not the reasons for the Mexican cartels, drug barons, drug problems or drug related murders.


Now, to Lewis and Clark…

The GHWP ran a short blurb about how the Library of Congress (protected by federally trained gun-toting police officers…what, are they afraid that someone is going to walk off with the entire “one-hit wonders” CD collection???) is planning to display a newly located supply list from the Lewis and Clark expedition of 1803-1806. Prominent on the list is the following:

1. 15 Prototype Model 1803 muzzle-loading .54-caliber rifles "Kentucky Rifles"
**************OMG THEY HAD GUNS!!!!!!!!!!!!************************
2. 15 Gun slings
**************OMG THEY HAD GUN SLINGS!!!!!********************
3. 24 Large knives
**************AND KNIVES!!!!!!!!!!!*************
4. Powder horns
5. 500 Rifle flints
6. 420 Pounds (191 kilograms) of sheet lead for bullets
7. 176 Pounds (80 kilograms) of gunpowder packed in 52 lead canisters
8. One Long-barreled rifle that fired its bullet with compressed air, rather than by flint, spark, and powder
*******THIS IS JUST TOO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!***********

Hmmm, that’s a lot of firepower and ammunition…I wonder if the prototype muzzle-loading weapons and the special long-barreled rifle that used compressed air were considered the “assault weapons” of the time, let’s just for the sake of argument, say yes.
Some questions to ponder…

1) Did Lewis and Clark stop and think about the fact that they were taking assault weapons into another nation (the Native American Indians, into whose territories the expedition was to travel already had nations, governments and trade routes…); maybe the Indians didn’t want the intruders with weapons in their lands…

2) Did Lewis and Clark have permits for those guns?

3) If they wanted to have a gun at their side, did they have a concealed carry permit that allowed them to “conceal” the firearm from sight?

4) Would their expedition members be under surveillance by DHS agents?

In 1803, we were a boisterous and expansive nation, not the evil purveyor of death as we are described the GHWP today. We had just completed the Louisiana Territory purchase (in which I was born…many years later) and were setting about to study and colonize our newly acquired property, so I guess the boys (L&C) felt it necessary to be protected, so they brought an arsenal of weapons on their little expedition.

I feel a little like Lewis and Clark when I get into my car and head out to the wilderness of Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, etc. to explore, so, much to the consternation of the GHWP (oh, what they don’t know…), I pack heat…legally of course, so that I don’t end up crosswise to federal, state or local laws about guns.

Lewis and Clark – if you lived today, perhaps your expedition would be described as a “radical extremist” group by the Department of Homeland Security, and you’d most likely be in prison – or maybe Bloomberg would be doing press conferences in your states of residence talking about how you were possibly importing weapons to the Indians and how a better regulatory climate would make it impossible for you to continue feeding the violence in the Indian nations, and make it impossible for you to possess those weapons of mass destruction.

But, perhaps L&C would be busy clinging tenaciously to their religion and their guns...

Kauai resident's have it right...

Won't post the entire story, here is the URL...http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/04/09/hawaii.volunteers.repair/index.html

which details how some regualr people did something for themselves...GOSH!!!! WHAT A FREAKING GREAT IDEA - hope it doesn't get them thrown in jail, cause we all know that the government does not want us doing anything for ourselves...dammit, they want to do it ALL for us, right???

Ok, daddy's better now...but really, this is a cool story, enjoy it...

and don't try this at home (uncle sam will be pretty pissed).

:-)

The Gun Issue

The headline is "At least a dozen people are dead after a shooting rampage in Binghamton, N.Y." and in these simple words are the roots of what's to come.

In the last week many have died, including seven of my police brothers killed in the line of duty, three yesterday in Pittsburgh, and four in Oakland, CA.

Sad that shootings have become a "usual" thing but, they are. As far as I can glean from a pretty thorough search of news databases, here is a list of the "worst" of the worst for multiple shootings...

The Bush Years:

October 2002. A series of sniper-style shootings, some carried out from the trunk of a car, claims 10 lives, mostly in the Washington area. Many of the attacks were carried out with a semi-automatic assault rifle. (I was a part of the team responding to these attacks, and still think of what occur ed during the sniper attacks every time I drive here in DC)

August 2003. A worker who was laid off shoots and kills six of his former co-workers with a semi-automatic pistol. The shooter had a lengthy arrest record, including for weapons offenses.

November 2004. A hunter opens fire with an SKS assault rifle, killing six other hunters and wounding two after an argument.

March 2005. A man fires 22 rounds during a church service, killing seven people.

October 2006. A truck driver armed with two rifles, a semi-automatic handgun and 600 rounds of ammunition kills five schoolgirls execution-style in an Amish schoolhouse, and seriously wounds six others before shooting himself.

April 2007. A student shoots 47 people at Virginia Tech, killing 32 before he commits suicide, in the deadliest mass shooting in the United States.

December 2007. Nine people are killed and five others injured after a 20-year-old shooter armed with a military-style assault rifle attacks shoppers in a mall.

December 2007. A woman and her boyfriend shoot dead six members of her family, including two children, ages three and six, on Christmas Eve, using large-caliber pistols.

February 2008. Six women are tied-up and shot at a suburban clothing store. Five of the women die. The gunman has not been found.

February 2008. A man opens fire in a lecture hall at Northern Illinois University, killing five students and wounding 16 before turning his weapon on himself.

September 2008. A mentally ill man who had been released from jail a month earlier shoots eight people, killing six.


December 2008. A man dressed in a Santa Claus suit opens fire at a family Christmas party at his ex-wife's home and then sets fire to the house. Nine people are killed in the home. The gunman later kills himself.

The Obama 3-Months:

April 3, 2009: Five children were found shot to death in a home near Tacoma, Washington, their father committed suicide off-site from where he shot and killed his children.

April 3, 2009: Three Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, police officers became the first department fatalities since 1995 to fall to a crazed gunman with an AK-47, a long rifle and a handgun.

April 3, 2009: The death toll from the shooting in Binghamton, New York is 14, with one of the dead believed to be the shooter. The chief said the gunman used a car to block a back exit at an immigration services center before opening fire inside, so he had thought this through pretty thoroughly.

March 29, 2009: A man shot and killed eight people at Pinelake Health and Rehab in Carthage, N.C. before a police officer shot him and ended the rampage.

March 29, 2009: A man shot and killed his two children and three other relatives, then killed himself in an upscale neighborhood of Santa Clara, Calif. Kalathat's wife was critically injured.

March 11,2009. In a shooting spree that moves through several towns, a 28-year-old out-of-work man kills 10 people, including his mother and a toddler.


March 10, 2009: A distraught man killed 10 people, including his mother, four other relatives, and the wife and child of a local sheriff's deputy, across two rural Alabama counties. He then killed himself.

Feb. 14, 2008: A former student opened fire in a lecture hall at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, fatally shooting five students and wounding 18 others before committing suicide.


OK - Some things I think of when I read of these incidents:

1- LEGAL gun owners like myself should be prepared, for these incidents to spark increased calls for new and more stricter Gun Control Measures. It's a fact of life, that these shootings bring gun issues to the forefront of the news and news makers and politicians love to screw with anything that gets them attention.

2 - We should be careful when talking about how much ammunition or how many firearms we own. Especially know that if a reporter is in a gun store doing a story, it's certainly not going to read like this: "I'm speaking today with a wonderful, thoughtful and intelligent personal friend who is purchasing a weapon. He (she) has a glorious concealed carry permit and plans to teach his (her) children about safety and responsibility as well as its use while plinking at a well-loved shooting range with friends and family..." It more likely will read thusly..."scary god-loving cooters in gun-crazy burbs are buying assault weapons and ammo in preparation for the pock-a-lipse at an alarming and possibly illegal pace - they say that Obama scares the hell out of them and they'll be ready when his gubment comes to git their AK-47's."

3- Stay informed about gun rights news, and about what the anti-gun crowd is saying...do what I did, go to the anti-gun web sites and sign up for their update newsletters...then, be prepared to smartly speak about the issues when the opportunity presents itself. Remember, the foundation of our governing principles is the Rule of Law not the Rule of Men...which means that the application of governmental authority is legitimately exercised only in accordance with written, publicly disclosed laws adopted and enforced in accordance with established procedural steps that we call "due process." The principle is intended to be a safeguard against arbitrary governance, whether by a totalitarian leader or by mob rule. Thus, the rule of law is hostile both to dictatorship and to anarchy, but it puts the burden onto us, the citizens who participate in the process.


I felt compelled to put this to "cyber paper" today, watching the news, and feeling that the killers in our society are wresting control of the gun rights issue away from us - the legitimate, law-abiding gun owners - and when that happens, well, it won't be a pleasant day.

We should remember that even though in the DC v Heller case, the Supremo's affirmed the 2nd amendment right to own firearms for private use, it's just a ruling on legal-regulated-registered gun and ammunition possession in a home for personal defense...it doesn't speak to the polling which says that 50% of Americans favor owning a gun as well as a similar percent saying that we need stricter gun control laws...

JAD

BSG Finale

Well, I looked on the "internets" (thanks GWB for so mannny weird new phrases) and discovered that I, along with others, were somewhat unhappy with how the last season of BSG evolved, and how the finale dealt with many of the unanswered questions.

On reading the comments people posted to other blogs about the show, I see that I am not alone.

Recall the temple of Athena, back on Kobol, where the survivors were looking for a map to earth, using an Arrow that Starbuck goes back to Caprica to secure? In the temple, when the arrow is put on the statue, the entire temple interior changed into a grassy field where the 12 constellations were easily visible. One burning question, where was that holographic kind of technology on Galactica or anywhere in the fleet??? And, if that kind of technology, after thousands of years, was still on the planet and functioning, why not start knocking down some walls and see what else is there? I sure would have, trust me, started making little rocks out of those big ones in an attempt to uncover the technology and use it somehow, to maybe fool the cylons into seeing something other than was really in front of them...just a thought

Maybe what Hera brought to the "human" gene pool was a genetic trait obviously missing from the "humans" of the 12 colonies - the ability to be curious about life.

PS - the finale fight scenes were great, the flashbacks with Laura in a nighty, Adama taking a polygraph, etc., were useless. Give me Asimov any day. Oh, and after 150,000 years, where is Adama's gold ring he put on Laura - since gold does not rust or degrade? He was on a mountaintop in the southern latitude of western Africa, it wasn't covered by glaciers in the Little Ice Age...Or their bullets, or axes, or any glass they brought down? It would have been much more interesting if the paper headline had read "African settlement had glass beakers 150,000 years ago" or maybe "Unknown metals found in girl's African grave site, bones appear to be made of an unknown metal" or something equally dramatic...

She missed the Mark...

OK, so Nadya Suleman's 8 babies join her other 6, which means she will be the "mother" of an entire team, and she isn't limited to one sport anymore either, she has her pick...

If she were smarter, she'd have done this at a time when we were all fat, when we had money, when we might have not have thought "what a selfish, foolish, stupid bitch" and not immediately retracted the thought and called ourselves bad people. She is, of course, all three of those words, and more. And, who is going to be paying for her team as they grow up? why, we will of course. She has so many of the little monkeys that we'll be paying for them for a very long time, unless, of course, it truly is the "end of days," and then, well, we'll only be paying for them for between 4 months or three years, your guess is as good as mine...

Anyway, it's not the kids fault, it's their mothers fault, so we can't fault the kids. But, I'm sure at some point soon, we'll see a line item in the congressional quarterly, authorizing a non-year appropriation to support her and her brood, which, in retrospect, might be one of the only legitimate line item additions to the budget actually tied to a living, real and measurable expense...

But, who's watching?

Oh well -

Guess it was predestined anyway. More later.

this is the election to define our future.

OK - sorry to usurp this usually tranquil and photogenic space for some crass political comments. Please click on the following link...http://www.investors.com/editorial/editorialcontent.asp?secid=1501&status=article&id=302137342405551

for an interesting and informative Op/Ed from Investors Daily about the future under Barak Obama's white house. Sorry Ann, but everyone who isn't fooled by his calm and pleasant demeanor needs to work to make sure he does not win the presidential race.

Perhaps at some point I will return with nice photos and comments, but for now, I'm using this space to promote AnyOne But Obama.

Love of Nature - Virginia Style

Been a long time since my last post. I have provided the link to my webshots page for anyone interested in seeing the other photos that I cannot post here (it'd just take too long).

We've been busy, been to Florida to deal with some house issues, been hiking the Shenandoah National Park too. To look at the photos, please go to my webshots page.

Thanks for looking, and enjoy the summer!


http://community.webshots.com/user/alwaysbprepared?vhost=community

Hiking the Shenandoah

Greetings from Northern VA. So, almost summer. To compensate for our lack of ocean kayaking, we have decided to become hikers, bikers and fishers...will update with bike and fishing photos when we do them. But, this past weekend, we hiked up to Cedar Run falls in the Shenandoah National Forest (http://www.nps.gov/shen/). The area is beautiful and the water was very cold. I have added a link to my webshots page, where I have loaded a few of the better photos (http://community.webshots.com/user/alwaysbprepared).

But, here are a few as well...

Ann, looking like a seasoned hiker...

Cedar Run Falls and Whiteoak Canyon Falls are two of several multi-mile trails that connect Skyline Drive (http://www.byways.org/explore/byways/60646/) with the outside world. We didn't actually drive onto Skyline, we took a few country backroads to a trail entry point that is in the valley and hiked up the mountains to the falls...which means, we hiked DOWN the mountain on the way back - which I highly recommend!! Here is a map of the hike area:


Once hiking, we came across many beautiful locations. Here is my favorite...


It was clear that the water can be much higher, as seen in all the huge trees acorss the stream in some places...like this...

And this...

As we were climbing up to have a look at another falls area, we happened to come across some local wildlife...needless to say, we gave this critter some space...

So, here is where it was "rocking out"...

And, one last little pool awaited us before we had a snack and started back to the car.

I will post more photos as we have the adventures. Thanks for looking, and let me know what you think, ok?

JD

Great Falls and Miami

Hey Everybody! So, sorry it's been along time since last posting, but it's been busy up here in Yankee Land...

For more recent photos, you can go to my webshots page at webshots.com and put into the search function "alwaysbprepared." If you do that, you'll see the photos I have uploaded.

Now, to recent activity.

Went to Great Falls National Park yesterday afternoon, we've had a ton of rain and the river is just huge. Judge for yourself...
On to other news. Recently, I turned a glorious 48 years young...yes, hard to believe, I know...but, where else to celebrate that accomplishment but working on the "house that apparently freaking cannot be sold," to make it more appealing to someone down there in cuba-north??? So, the main problem, as stated to our real estate professional by people looking at the house was that the dining room was too dark...so, to combat that, I took a few minutes and decided to repaint. Here are the before and after shots...

Before - with the original blue paint scheme...you can see where I have put a little yellow paint to see what it would look like.

And after, with the yellow that I painted in the living room...does seem a bit brighter, huh? (that's blue painters tape on the crown lolding.)


The next issue was that the Bougainvillea on the back covered patio has been allowed to go TOTALLY out of control...so, I thought I would just cut it back a bit, not knowing that the plant would fight back to completely that I'd have to eventually just cut it all down...



Before the Battle of the Bougainvillea - view from the back of the property...

And from the covered patio - once again, much cleaner...

So, with that battle behind me, I then took on the easier task of cutting back the banana trees. Last year, these four banana trees produced about 500 banana's...I had people driving by and stop, knocking on the front door asking if they could cut a few banana's off the tree...The trees had grown substantially, and were about to sprout the buds to produce fruit, so it was a good time to cut them back...

Here is a shot of the front of the house, with the trees...

Cutting them down was pretty easy, here is what the front of the house looks like now...


Cutting them also made the living room and dining room brighter as well...Ihope someone likes it, cause it was a long couple of days for the birthday boy...er, man...

So, on to the fun in the birthday trip...went to Fairchild, Bill Baggs, Long Key and Bahia Honda.

Here are a few fun shots from the weekend...this is the walkway at Bill Baggs State Park - headed out to the beach and the ocean.

It was almost sunset, and on the back side of the island I found a couple of nice photo opportunities. Here is a palm with the sunset.


And this is a rare sight, we don't really have too many sea oats on the Atlantic/Miami side...so, it was fun to find these...

Next day, went down to Bahia Honda and Long Key...Here is my favorite view from the island that is offshore of the park...

And, what trip to the Keys is complete without a stop at Long Key, to enjoy the beauty and lack of crowds? Here is a shot of the Jeep, with my Yak on top, at Long Key beach.


At dusk, after eating our fill at Wahoo's on the Ocean in Islamorada, saw this beautiful site and had to shoot it. The ocean was so calm and the colors were just very calming...


Well, that was the excellent adventure to Miami for my birthday. I hope that the freaking house is sold by the time my next one rolls around...if not, well, I guess you will find me there again, to cut back the banana trees, repaint, etc. etc. you get the picture...

Enjoy your summer, and write sometime, ok everyone? PS - Cathy - post more photos to your blog...HEY - that goes for you to Jessica!!!!

JD

Cherry Blossom Time!

Here are a few photos from my recent walk through the cherry blossoms on the tidal basin here in Washington, DC...

A nice view of the Washington Monument

Looking up the Cherry Tree

Love these tiny buds...

The Jefferson Monument, surrounded by the blossoms.

A brief rain shower made these blossoms very moisture laden.

Macro of a small clump just trying to grow up to be bigger...

Nice.

Very crisp and cherry blossom like.

Another view during the cloudy part of the day.