September Blog Meat

Time for another Monthly Blog Meat. This is where I defer relating embarrassing personal foibles, eschew ranting about abrogation of civil rights and/or IPSC rule books, minimize Geek-Length Musings and instead share with you some of the interesting things OTHER people say, or do.

You may think I do this because I'm too lazy to write anything original, and in large part you would be right. More important, though, it's because sometimes I'm just a poor but honest reporter of news, situations, events and opinions I discover in my casual surfing of the Internet.

Let's get started, shall we?

One in a row....: Explanations

Hat tip to Geek with a .45 for this short story about one father's effort to explain the consequences and ramifications of the New Orleans Gun Grab. Elder Geek is correct, it's difficult to resist the temptation to give away the punchline.

Kim Du Toit is GONE!
That's right, the link over there on the sidebar is no longer operative. Kim took a sabbatical from blogging a week or two ago because his new job no longer allowed him the personal time to maintain his prodigious blogging output. Instead, he posted 'The Best Of' from his archives.

Then, yesterday, it was just . . . gone! Apparently he locked it up, because attempts to open that URL returns a 403 "Directory access is forbidden" screen.

Tonite, however, Elder Geek provided this link. There's a forum available with a format (and URL) which looks hauntingly familiar. Given that the first post is dated 12/24/04, the huge number of posts and bloated hit-counter, it must have been running for some time although this is the first time I have ever heard of it.

Which only proves my own ignorance. [sigh]


Geek Blog DOWN!
Yup, I was offline last night. Saw that right off. I mentioned it to The Hobo Brasser, told him how much I was going to miss it, sniffed a couple of times and then realized I had nothing to say so I wasn't missing much.

I did send a Trouble Report to blogger.com, however. This evening they confirmed my suspicions that they had a server error and this compromised several (though not all) blog accesses. They say it was cleared up by midnight, but i was in bed catching up on my reading. I finished "Banker" by Dick Francis, one of my favorite easy-reading mystery writers, this morning. Thanks, blogger.com, for giving me a guilt-free night off.


Presidential Pee!


According to one of my favorite tell-it-like-it-is sources, snopes.com, POTUS actually did (probably) ask 'permission' to leave the room at a UN meeting last week. Actually, it was a question of protocol, but as far as I'm concerned any man with such a sever regard for protocol under . . . ahem . . . uncomfortable circumstances deserves my vote.

News Two Hours Old: God Is My Co-Pilot

After three hours of tension and fear a passenger airplane landed safely at LA International Airport despite landing gear which would not retract because the nose-wheel had locked perpendicular to its normal attitude. I got home from work just in time to hear the live broadcast on the radio describing the landing. Disaster adverted, Al Queda apparently not involved.

With 146 souls on board, who are now alive due to the experience and skill of the pilot, I can only say "Thank God!"

Can I say that without the ACLU forcing me to a Supreme Court confrontation?

Screw 'em. "Thank God" I say, and "Thank God" is what I mean.

(And thanks to World Net Daily for the link.)


Can't We All Just Can't Get Along?
John Wayne Bobbitt (was there a more appropriate surname?) is up to his old tricks.

After being arrested last weekend for spousal abuse, Bobbitt posted bail and filed for divorce.

This article is only of interest to people who just can't resist the lure of bad puns.

Knock yourself out. Here's my punchline:
(Some men need SOMETHING to abuse, I guess, even if they can't indulge in 'self abuse')


Fish (or Man) Walks?

Last December I mentioned the case of a Washington (state) resident who was arrested for open carry of a firearm.

The latest news, dated July of 2005, suggests that charges may be dropped because the laws which the Ellensburg, WA, Police applied to arrest him may have been contradictory to other law and common sense, and badly written.

Nobody seems to be tracking this, and FISHORMAN isn't posting very often these days, but it seems worthy of at least a brief follow-up.

Jeff Cooper for September, 2005
The Colonel is UP!

Once again, I heartily encourage reading the comments of The Colonel.

Not only is he pithy and confrontational, but he provides a wealth of information which is not generally available. This is probably due to his longevity and active life-style (I hate that word!) when was a much younger man.

I propose for your consideration the following two comments (Quoted, but not necessarily quoted in full)

First quote: Hiroshima

When we dropped the bomb on Hiroshima, there was certainly no reluctance for this dire act. Amongst the men involved in the fight in the Pacific, we gathered the idea that the Nips were simply not going to surrender, and that if we went forward with the invasion of the Japanese homeland, we could expect to suffer about 1 million American dead, at the same time killing about 20 million Japanese. That was the figure that I gathered in my job as an assistant G2 for the landing on Kyushu. It meant to me that the only way that I could avoid being killed in the invasion would be to suffer a critical injury and be evacuated alive - not a pleasant prospect. Historical review seems to agree that Japan had been so reduced by our submarine campaign that, coupled with the B29s, the Emperor might actually have decided to surrender. We did not know this, nor did we suspect it, and we were prepared for a very nasty campaign - on both sides.

Further research discloses the presence of a Japanese policy directive which called for the murder of all American prisoners being held at the time. This comes to the number of 144,000, all to be put to death immediately upon the landing of the first allied soldier on the homeland of Japan. I thought the decision to drop the bomb was fully justified at that time, and I think so even more now. The atom bomb was a dreadful thing, but its use turned out to be an enormous life-saver.

Note that this was included in his September, 2005, contribution. The Japanese surrendered on September 2, 1945, almost exactly 60 years before the Cooper comment.

Approximately (according to news reports) 80,000 Japanese died in the initial bomb blast on August 6, 1945, and a further 60,000 died from the resultant effects. This estimate of 120,000 Japanese casualties, due to the immediate and post-immediate effects of the American attack on Hiroshima,is markedly less than the slaughter of 144,000 Americans which Cooper postulates.

Other references cite the dead at Hiroshima at 135,000, at Nagasaki 64,000. This is a horrendous casualty count, especially considering that these were predominately civilian casualties.

Compared with the Fire bombing of Dresdon (Germany, estimated at 40,000) . . . there is no comparison in terms of casualties. Yet these wartime actions are all to be deplored.

But who was at fault?

The Japanese deaths at Nagasaki are the sole responsibility of the Japanese authorities.

I don't propose to question the figure of millions of Japanese casualties from nuclear bomb, or the estimated 1 million US casualties (added on to the slaughter of POWs), which Cooper cites.

I only remind us that the Japanese military then in power were responsible for the initial attack at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1940, and thus were responsible for all loss of life incurred by both American and Japanese citizens afterward.

It is a matter of historical record that Truman considered the deaths of thousands of Japanese preferable to the deaths of thousands of Americans. I expect never to be in the position of making such a fatal decision. It's to the credit of President Truman that he was able to do so, and thus end the war with Japan. It's to the credit of Colonel Cooper that he can so succinctly provide us with the perspective of one of those Americans who could expect to die during the landings on Japanese beaches if Truman's decision had been otherwise.


Second quote: Medal of Honor Recognition

We are delighted to learn that our suggestion about income tax remission for winners of the Medal of Honor has been accepted by various persons of consequence. This is such a nifty idea that we can't see why it has not been acted upon long ere this. It is a no-lose proposition without any negative aspect. Anyone who holds the Medal of Honor has paid in full for his membership in the Liberty Club, and his individual periodic contribution is too slight to dent the budget.

The idea needs important support. The President is the one to act. Write him!

The Colonel. I don't always agree with him, and occasionally I find myself in dramatic opposition to his opinions.
But he is always . . . ALWAYS . . . worth reading.

Go thou and do likewise.

New Orleans Survivors - The Bad Guys?
We resort to The Michael Bane Blog and New Orleans, LA. (NOLA) for the Parthian shot.

THR (The High Road) features an excellent summary of the NOLA Survvors Experience. Maybe, just maybe, having the foresight, resources and courage to stay behind in a disaster and defend your home is NOT the very best choice.

Don't count on your 'friends and neighbors'. When SHTF happens, you may find yourself back in the Bomb Shelter conundrum envisioned in the 60's. It ain't all "Blast From The Past" or "Farhnam's Freehold", but it's bad enough.

. . .

That's it for tonite. Hope you found it as interesting as I did.