The Promised Float pics

Ok, as promised: pics of the float that had me running around like a lunatic:

First off, the finished float in the garage (and before it started frelling SNOWING)...



Next, a rather dark shot of the float as we staged:



Here's the bigger kids, in the back of the truck. Obviously, I've blocked out faces for confidentiality:


And the other side of the float, with the kids aboard:



We had members around the float on bike (in the SNOW!), and a supporter in front of everything with our banner.

This lil' exercise finalized that I'm replacing the grips on my bike: they're basically sponges, which meant they were VERY wet during the parade. Which meant that I pretty much had a frostbitten left hand by the end of it. Despite that (and all the running to pull it all together), it was fun. The kids had a blast, and we showed ourselves as part of the community...

Hopefully, the 4th of July parade will be easier...

A Call to Action

Ok... I know the three of you like AD and all. He's been writing a novel, and publishing it a chapter at a time. Unfortunately, he posted the last one on 27 October.

I know he's a busy man, but this just ain't nice. He's got LOADS of us just hanging there!

So... I'd like to make a modest proposal. We need to find a pink gorilla (a suit would be perfect, but a small stuffed animal would work fine). Then someone needs to get an address on AD, and get the thing delivered (with a card signed "From the fans of Star of Life").

What do y'all think? Might he get the message? >:)

Ya know... some things just SHOULDN'T be tried against the power of Google...




If you're looking for this on Google, maybe you should just give up. All the "hotter" you're going to get is Rosie & her daughters...

HT to Stingray

Sorry for the absence...

Life has been... hectic. Short version(s):

-We're working on having a float in the Thanksgiving Parade here in Manty: this is our second year. Last year's float, due to poor planning and execution, literally fell apart at the last minute... resulting in the Chapter marching. This year, by gawd, thing's will go better (I'll post pics Thursday or Friday). So far, I've covered the trailer with batting ("snow"), created two "white glue and glitter" signs (one thanking the company that donated the truck and trailer, and one reading "riding in a winter wonderland"), mounted signs over the wheel wells... I REALLY hope there's more of us next year to work on this...

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-I broke down and bought an iPod. Used, on Evilbay. Got all excited, and spent a few days transferring CDs over to the hard drive in anticipation. Thing arrived on Monday: I plugged it in and... nothing.

ok... dig around on the web, and find a piece of software that I might need. load it and... nothing.

Reboot the computer (it HAD asked if I wanted to reboot). And...

Blue Screen of Death

Several hours later, after breaking down and reloading Winders, I was back up (not totally: I'm STILL reloading software). And a couple friends offered to help with the iCrap.

Nada... nothing... zip. Seller claims it was working before he sent it, so I'm saying "died in shipping". And of course, he hasn't responded since I sent the email saying "No dude: it dead". We'll see how THAT pans out...

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-Ahh yes... BACA news. Having some trouble getting certain folks to get back in touch with me, so we can get a count for our Holiday Party and State BoD Meeting. This one has me pulling my hair out: communication has always been a problem in this state, everybody agrees that it's been a problem, but nobody wants to work on correcting it...

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-Squeeker took me to see the Crucible last weekend. Staged by the local college. VERY well done! just wish I could actually get out to see more stage productions...

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With all that, on top of our normal extra helping of drama, has been kinda keeping me away from here. i promise I'll try to do better...

Oh... Heller. The USSC has agreed to hear the case. I'm half joyful (there hasn't ever really been a clear USSC ruling on the Second Amendment), and half terrified (they could totally screw us over). But at least they're gonna finally (maybe) make a ruling on the damned Amendment's meaning!

Some authors...

So... everyone hooked on Star of Life yet? Ya are? Good!

So... do we have to get AD a pink gorilla suit, to convince him he needs to update occasionally?

Knock-Knock

A post over by Wyatt, as well as a thread on the High Road, got me to thinkin'. And, as you all know, that's NEVER a good thing...

Now, this is gonna ramble a bit. But don't worry, we'll get there...

We seem to be having an issue in our society with something called a "no-knock warrant". This is where the police show up at a house where wrongdoers supposedly are, announce "WE"RE HERE!", then bust the door in and preform a "dynamic entry". The main issues I'm talking about here are two:

1)Cops get shot while doing this

2)Sometimes, the police get a wrong address, resulting in an innocent citizen getting scared silly/hurt/killed

Sound like a good battle-plan to ANYONE? Add in that, in many cases, the reason a no-knock is used is to "preserve evidence"...

Isn't there a better way?

Creating the problem in issue one are the "insubstantial" dangers of police work: lil' things like IA, tort lawyers, and political-minded superiors (not to mention trigger-happy bad guys). Quite often, officers conducting a raid have the question bouncing in the back of their head "is it (legally) safe for me to shoot?"... sometimes while being shot at. And all of the above-mentioned (as well as news reporters and John Q Citizen) are going to second-guess whatever decision Officer Friendly makes while under fire.

Usually, the question ("Was deadly force necessary in this situation?") will be self-answered ("No... Officer Friendly should have come up with a different solution while the suspect was attempting to kill him."). This is not optimal (read: "This sucks the sweat off a dead man's balls!")...


With problem two, we have a whole 'nother ball of wax: places where no-knocks (with attendant "dynamic entry") are used, but the wrong address is arrived at. Compounding that are the would-be home invaders who will shout "POLICE!!!" while breaking down their victim's door. Let's address those as points A (wrong address) and B (goblins).

A) Wrong address. Rumor has it, the Baltimore PD has so many occassions of mistaken no-knocks, that the city has a crew whose job is to repair damage done during such mistaken raids. Wow...

Some are also familiar with the Atlanta case, where a mistaken no-knock resulted in the death of an innocent citizen, and was followed up by a police cover-up (and there are quite a few cases lying around that can be pointed to demonstrating the inherent danger in these raids to innocent citizens). Yes, the number of "bad" no knocks is a percentage of all no-knocks. But, if we applied the same "reliability requirements" to such warrants as we do to our defensive arms, such warrants would be an absolute last-line...

B) goblins. Bad guys pretending to be good guys. Lemmie set the stage:

It' early AM, and you've just been woken by something heavy breaking in your front door. You've taught yourself to grab your defensive tools (in this case, a handgun and flashlight), and assume a defensive position (say, kneeling beside the bed with your weapon aimed at the door). Folks come busting through said door: all you can really say is that there are lights, folks shouting, and man-shapes. What do you do? are they:

a)Police officers, conducting a no-knock warrant at your address (possibly based on bad intel)? Or

b)Bad guys preforming a home invasion, while impersonating officers?

some decision to face, huh?


So let's think about this again. We're going to have our police conduct actions that automatically put them at heightened risk, and have a track-record of having severe (sometimes deadly) mistakes, all to preserve evidence (that we might be able to save some other way)?

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?

When this gets discussed on internet fora, the world polarizes into two camps. Those (usually non-officers) who feel there's just too much blatant police power, and those (usually police) who feel that officers have too many restrictions, and that the few anecdotes of "bad raids" shouldn't be mentioned.

To an extent, both are right

To my mind, no-knocks have a VERY specific place: when someone's life is IMMEDIATELY in danger, and that's the only way to save them. At no other time does the risk (on all sides) justify their use. ESPECIALLY not simply for "the preservation of evidence"... we can come up with something better. By the same token...

Support the police in legal activities (this is kinda two-part). (CITIZENS) Don't automatically assume that the police are acting like latter-day SS, looking for Jews. And (POLICE): don't "cover" for illegal actions/sloppy work/mistakes. This "thin blue line" stuff? It creates an "Us v Them" atmosphere, which doesn't need to exist...

Of course, I have to ask: why ARE no-knocks still used (and being used more frequently)? And I think the answer can be found in the No-Knock to End All No-Knocks: Waco. Yep... there are a LOT of better ways these things could be handled. But those in positions of real authority want flash and splash. "Who cares if a few peons (uniformed or otherwise) get hurt? We'll show 'em all who's boss, by Gawd!"

And THAT idea scares the Hell out of me.

Cold Season

Ever'body's posting recipes, which is cool. But Cranky Professor posted something for colds, and there, I have the best...

Mom swore by this stuff. In fact, many of the girls I dated met Mom because of it: they'd come over to get dosed when they got sick...

This makes about 2 liters. You want to drink it as hot as you can, as fast as you can. If Mom was serving you, you'ld only get to stop to breathe...

Spiced Tea

1/2 tsp whole cloves
1/2 cinnamon stick
3/4 tsp black tea
1 1/2 qts cold water (6 cups)
1 1/2 cups OJ
3/4 cup lemon juice
3/4 cups sugar

In the first pot, bring water to a boil and remove from heat. Add cinnamon stick. Steep teabag w/ clove for 5 minutes. In a second pot, heat OJ, lemon juice, and sugar. Stir frequentally until sugar is dissolved. Add the contents of the juice mixture to the tea. Serve hot!!!!

I don't do political commentary here usually...

because, in all honesty, I suck at it when compared to others.

Oh, I'll get into a political discussion with someone, no problem: I used to spend a LOT of time at a coffee shop, doing just that (and managing to educate some kids as to what their rights actually ARE). But on here? Seems that, whatever I might want to say, others say it better (and quicker).

One such is Marko, the Munchkin Wrangler. And he hits another one out of the park here. So go give him a read...

Me? I'm gonna go back to reading Freehold...

A touch of perspective

I'll admit, I've been having a shitty couple of weeks (longer actually, but mostly just the last few weeks). While sitting here feeling sorry for myself, I took a read over at Support your Local Gunfighter...

Seems this past week has sucked for Wyatt: he lost a brother officer. Good news being that they caught the bastard that did it. Don't know if PA has the death penalty, but I hope they throw the proverbial book at this trash.

And Wyatt? If you're reading this, the ONLY "joke" that went through my mind about where this all happened is "Who would be stupid enough to rob the doughnut shop down the street from the police station?". And that was BEFORE I realized that an officer had lost his life in the process.

My sympathies, bro.