Good skill-set for children to develop as they grow

1. Grow vegetables from seeds
2. Have local edible and medicinal plant foraging skills
3. Make a fire and know fire safety
4. Cook on an open fire
5. Open a can of food with and without can opener 
6. How to safely use a knife
7. How to shoot a sling shot
8. How to hunt small game with snares, traps and sling shot
9. How to fish and hunt (bow & gun) when old enough
10. How to clean fish and wild game
11. Find and purify water
12. Basic first aid
13. Find or build a shelter in the wilderness
14. How to stay warm, cool and dry in the elements
15. How, Why and When to stay hidden
16. Self defense
17. Marksmanship (rifle, shotgun, revolver and pistol) 
18. How to make a basic weapon and how to use it
19. Be able to run and walk a good distance and be in generally good shape
20. How to read a map and use a compass
21. How to read the sky and clouds for directions, time and approaching bad weather
22. Know where family and friends live if they need to find them
23. How to sew so they can mend clothing or any fabric and even make things such as bags or scrap quilts
24. How to bargain and trade (Kids naturally do this with their toys so teach them at garage sales.)
25. Develop strong situational awareness
26. Have a natural curiosity and good problem solving skills
27. Be hard working and a self starter and a family helper not a complainer!
28. Have a strong faith in God (morals, memorize Bible verses, prayers, songs, and have a hope for heaven)

The future of law enforcement

911... What's your emergency?

There'a a man trying to steal a bicycle from the rack outside my apartment building.  I need the police to come.

Can you describe the man?

He's black.  About 6 foot 3.  Weighs about 240 pounds.  Wearing a dark green hoodie.

Okay ma'am... As soon as we have a free two-man patrol with at least one black officer, we'll send it over.

Why a two-man unit?  It's just one guy.

Might be a cop ambush ma'am.  Can't be too careful.  We have two single-man units but that's two cop cars and that's excessive show of force for just a simple bike robbery.  We'll get there when we can.

An hour later (the department will get sued later for their slow response to a crime in a black neighborhood).

Dispatch this is One-Adam-Five. We're approaching the scene.  Can you describe the suspect?

It's a male.

Anything else?  That's sort of vague.

Negative.  The info I sent you is all I can transmit without profiling.

Roger.  We'll see who we can find.

Hey buddy?  You see anyone stealing a bike around here this evening?

Fuck you pig!

I'm sorry I micro-aggressed you.  Have a nice night.

Hey... check out that guy pushing that bike.  Does he seem a bit big for such a small bicycle?

Yeah.  He does.  Let's stop him and see what's what.

Sir!  Police Department!  Please set the bike down and come over here for a minute.

WHAT?  Black man can't walk down the street with a bike?  Gotta be stolen right?  Can't no black man possibly be walking at night, with a bike, unlessen it be stolen?  Fuck you!

Sir!  A bike was reported stolen near here.  We're trying to find out who stole it.  Please stop and answer our questions.

Fuck you!  I'm walkin!

No!  Stop!

Ain't you gonna chase him?

No.  Can't.  He's unarmed.  I can't shoot him.  He's a big man so I can't place my life in danger by trying to wrestle him down.  I can't tase him if he doesn't pose a threat.  As long as he is unarmed we can't draw down on him.

But that looks like a gun butt sticking out of his hoodie pocket.

May-be.  Can't be sure though.  Might be a toy gun.  Wouldn't want to shoot a guy who was carrying a toy gun.  If he pulls it out and shoots somebody with it, call us back.

Don't assume and don't take for granted.

I saw this posted on the internet and found it to be a true reflection of the chaos and hard work a stay-at-home mom faces:  

As I scrolled down through the comments, I found this.  It is also a true reflection of what a working dad brings to the table:

A woman went to the store to buy a few things. When she got to the check out she pull out her credit card and swiped it in the pay station. I came back with an error "Invalid account" so she tried another and another with the same result. Surprised but not yet concerned she pulled out her check book but the cashier, upon checking, said there was insufficient funds in the account. Now upset, she pulled out her cell phone to call the bank but her phone wouldn't connect to anything but customer service who told her the bill hadn't been paid. So she went home where she found her husband sitting on the couch playing a video game. When she finished telling him what had happened at the store he smiled and said, "You know everyday when I come home and you ask me what in the world I do all day...?"
"Yes" she answered.
"Well today I didn't do it."

I guess it's easy to assume that a clean house in good order and a bank account with money and paid bills is a thing that just happens but it takes work to maintain a family.  We would do well to appreciate before we criticize.

The Dark Tower as a film and/or miniseries.

The following came from: http://movieseum.com/10-films-trapped-in-development-hell/

 

To many, The Dark Tower series is Stephen King’s best work. Spanning eight novels, some nearly as thick as his thirteen-hundred page epic The Stand, The Dark Tower tells the story of Roland Decshain, the titular gunslinger of the first book, and his search for the Dark Tower and its emissary The Man in Black. To say this project is ambitious would be the equivalent of saying Stephen King is just a horror writer: obvious, but not the whole story. Director Ron Howard, and his producing partner Brian Glazer, are the men who have put it upon themselves to transfer this magnum opus from page to screen. For a while it looked as if it would happen with a deal that included both films and television miniseries and actors such as Russell Crowe and Javier Bardem rumoured to be playing the Gunslinger. Unfortunately, it is still too rich for the Hollywood money men’s blood and things have gone quiet again. You have to feel for King’s fans who have to deal with five Children of the Corn films and not even one Dark Tower film.

You Might Be a Survivalist If…

You have a cookbook all about Spam.

You consider your extra large ham radio antenna as “broadband”.

You know how to cook leather.

You’ve ever been on a Soviet “Potential Threat” list.

SWAT has ever asked to borrow a few of your guns.

Your new girlfriend comes over for the first time, and when she walks into the living room, the first thing she sees is your CHL regulation Man sized target with 50 holes in the chest area.

Your dog has more Emergency Rations than 95% of the U.S. population.

You’re the first person at the gun range on Dec 26th to try out your new toys, and the clerk knows you by your first name

The local supermarket manager knows to go ahead and open up the back dock doors when he sees you on a shopping trip.

Your home and property are more secure and better lit than Fort Knox or Area 51.

All the local restaurants know to save you all their 5-gallon buckets on Mondays and Thursdays.

None of your vehicles have electronic ignition or pollution control.

You know the tail numbers of all the helicopters in your area.

The magazines on your coffee table include American Survival Guide, Guns and Ammo, Soldier of Fortune, American Rifleman, Shotgun News and 4 -Wheeler.

You welcome a “mild” El Nino storm because you know its going to fill your cistern.

The power fails in your local movie theater, and you pull your flashlight from your belt and show yourself the way out.

You use your Gerber Tool to cut your steak at a fine dining establishment.

Your knife collection has its own footlocker.

When people ask about all those colorful maps on your walls, you tell them that you are planning a “Fishing Expedition”.

You can recognize the sound of a generator from four blocks away, but you also can tell the brand, horsepower and kilowatts per hour that it is putting out.

You have to kill a snake in your front yard, but then you skin and eat it.

You stock up on kerosene and firewood in 102 degree summer heat.

Your homeschooled children score in the 99 percentile on their SAT’s.

Your To Do list includes changing the batteries on the seismic ground sensors surrounding your home.

Your shopping list includes numbered items like .22, .308., .357 and 7.62

Your shopping list includes body armor.

Your scanner includes the frequencies of every law enforcement agency within 100 miles, including the ones that don’t officially exist.

Those maps on your wall have every bridge marked in red, with an alternate path marked around it.

Your paper boy throws the paper into the barbed wire just for the heck of it.

You have a key fob that says, “What Would John Wayne Do?”

Your fence posts double as range markers.

The window shutters have firing ports included in their design.

You have “ammo” on your Christmas list.

You’re on a first name basis with every vendor at a gun show.

You can’t put your groceries in the trunk of the car because its already jammed full with emergency kits, first aid supplies, and fully-stocked BOBs.

You have emergency rations for your pets, and view your pets as potential emergency rations.

You know the news three days before it hits the mass media.

You have back-up plans for your back-up plans.

You’re convinced you’ve been exposed to so many chemical-trails, you consider it a form of birth control.

You’ve ever bought antibiotics for human use through a vet or grains for human consumption through a feed store.

You’ve got more than one grain mill.

You’ve ever wondered how you might filter the used water from your washing machine to make it fit for human consumption.

You have a kerosene lamp in every room.

Your living room coffee table is actually a board with pretty cloth over it to disguise your food storageunderneath.

Your box springs are Rubber Maid containers filled with rice and beans.

You save dryer lint to make fire starters.

Your most commonly used fuel additive is Stabil, instead of Gum-out.

You automatically choose the heavy duty flatbed cart upon entering Sam’s or Costco.

You know the shelf life of tuna fish, but don’t know how long you’ve had that open jar of mayo in the fridge.

Your basement walls are insulated with crates of toilet paper, from floor to ceiling, all the way around.

Other people are saving money for new furniture or vacations, but you are desperately saving to get solar panels put on your house.

You were excited beyond all reason when they came out with cheddar cheese in a can.

You’ve ever served MREs at a dinner party.

You can engage in a spirited debate on chemical vs. sawdust toilets for hours on end.

You’ve ever considered digging an escape tunnel from your basement to the nearest stand of trees.

You know how to use a vacuum cleaner in reverse to filter air in your designated bio-chem attack safe room.

You’ve ever considered buying an above-ground pool for water storage purposes.

You know what things like ‘TSHTF’, ‘BOB’, ‘GOOD’, and ‘TEOTWAWKI’ mean and routinely use them in conversations.

You have different grades of BOB’s.  And re-stock them twice a year.

You know the names, family histories, locations, and degree of readiness of over a thousand fellow doomers on the internet, but you’ve never met your neighbors.

The best radio in the house is a wind-up.

You have better items in storage than you use everyday.

If the SHTF, you would eat better than you eat now.

Your significant other gave you a sleeping bag rated at -15 degrees for Christmas, and you were moved beyond words.

You’ve sewn secret mini-BOBs into the bottom of your children’s school backpacks.

Local food pantries have come to depend on donations from your larder when you rotate stock in the spring and fall.

You’re still using up your Y2K supplies.

You have enough army surplus equipment to open a store.

The local army surplus store owner knows you by your first name.

When you  fill up when your gas tank, it’s already 3/4 full.

You call Rubber Maid for wholesale prices.

You have several cases of baby wipes and your kids are all grown.

You carry a pocket survival kit, a sturdy folding knife, a Sure Fire flashlight and a small concealed handgun to church every Sunday.

You start panicking when you are down to 50 rolls of toilet paper.

You keep a small notebook to write down any edible plants you happen to see along the road.

You shop yard sales, store sales, and markdown racks for bartering goods .

You own a hand-operated clothes washer and a non-electric carpet sweeper.

You have at least two of every size of Dutch oven (the ones with the legs on the bottom), and 20 bags of charcoal, although you have a gas grill.

You have rain barrels at each corner of your house although you have a city water hookup, and a Big Berkey to purify the water.

You have sapphire lights, survival whistle, and a Swiss Army knife on every family member’s keychain.

The people in line at Costco ask if you run a store or restaurant.

You require a shovel to rotate all your preps properly.

You no longer go to the doctor’s because you can either fix it yourself, make it at home, or know and understand the physicians desk reference better than he does, and can get the goods at the vets or pet store for MUCH less money anyway.

You know that GPS has nothing to do with the economy.

You track your preps on a computer spreadsheet for easy reordering, but have hard copies in a 3-ring binder, ‘just in case’.

You’ve thought about where the hordes can be stopped before entering town.

You start evaluating people according to ‘skill sets’.

You view the nearest conservation area as a potential grocery store if TSHTF.

You know *all* the ways out the building where you work.

You have enough pasta stockpiled in your basement to carbo-load all the runners in the New York marathon.

You know that you have 36 gallons of extra drinking water in the hot water tank and your 2 toilet tanks.

You know which bugs are edible.

You have a hand pump on your well.

You have #10 cans of ‘stuff’ that the labels fell off of, but you won’t throw it out or open it because it, ‘may be needed later’, even though you haven’t a clue as to the contents.

You know where the best defensive positions and lines of fire are on your property.

You’ve made a range card for your neighborhood.

Your toenail clipper is a K-BAR.

The Ranger Handbook is your favorite self-help book.

You’ve numbered the deer romping in the yard by their order of consumption.

You must move 50 cases of food for the plumber to get to that leaky pipe, and you have your own hand truck in the basement to do it. 100

You own more pairs of hiking boots than casual and dress shoes combined.

You have more 55 gallon blue water drums than family members.

You have a backup generator for your backup generator, which is a backup for your solar energy system.

You go to McDonalds and ask for one order of fries with 25 packs of ketchup and mustard.

You have ever given SPAM as a serious gift.

You’ve had your eye out for a good deal for a stainless steel handgun to conceal in the bottom of the magazine rack next to the toilet.

You are single male over 40, but you still have an emergency childbirth kit, just in case you have to deal with that possibility.

You have two water heaters installed in your basement, but one is a dummy that’s been converted to a hideaway safe.

You’ve made bug-out cargo packs for your dogs.

You have a walking stick with all sorts of gadgets hidden inside.

You’re a substitute scoutmaster, and you taught your son’s troop to set mantraps and punji pits, and haven’t been asked to stand in since.

You’re on your fifth vacuum sealer, but you keep at least one of the worn out ones because you can still seal up plastic bags with it.

You haven’t bought dried fruit in years, but you buy fresh bananas, apples, peaches and pears by the case and have three dehydrators.

Your UPS man hates you because of all the cases of ammo he’s had to lug from his truck to your front door.

You have duplicates of all your electronics gear, solar panels and generator parts in your EMP-shielded fallout shelter.

You have set aside space for your live chickens in the fallout shelter.

When the power goes out in your neighborhood, all the neighbor’s kids come over to your place to watch TV on generator power.

You must open the door to your pantry very carefully for fear of a canned goods avalanche.

You have a ‘Volcano’, you know you can cook anything, and you cast evil glances at your neighbor’s annoying, yappy poodle, muttering, “Your day will come, hotdog”.

You’ve learned to make twine from plant fibers to be used for snares  because you fear that all of your preps and hard work will be confiscated by FEMA troops or destroyed by earthquakes, tsunamis, nuclear blasts, ravening hordes of feral sheeple or reptiloids from ‘Planet X’

The Police Chief calls you to find out what guns to buy for their officers.

Thanks to Bob Mayne over at Today’s Survival Show podcast for putting this together and for giving me permission to post it.  How did he know I save my dryer lint??

If you’re not sure of some of his abbreviations, check out The SurvivalBlog Glossary.

There may be links in the post above that are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission, which does not affect the price you pay for the product. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will add value to my readers.

I had the most vivid dream last night...

I'm in uniform (ACUs).  I'm walking between two old beachfront hotels, all whitewashed stucco and palm trees, down to a beach that looks like Daytona or maybe Jacksonville.  Feels like late morning and the breeze is warm but it's not really hot yet.  I am standing there at the edge of the concrete where it meets the sand.  I am approached by an older couple (late 50s to early 60s) that start to chat me up.  They thank me for my service and I say "thank you" as I bow my head slightly.  "I appreciate that."  (This is a true depiction of how I usually react to such thanks.)  They continue speaking and it soon becomes apparent that they are making a pitch for a retirement community there in the beach city I'm in.  I demur and say, "Thanks but I live in the barracks.  Uncle Sam gives me a place to stay.  I'm cool but thanks anyway."  They appear to be well trained salespeople and begin to "handle my objection" as we say in Recruiting Duty.  I continue to remonstrate politely and turn to go.  I find myself facing a one story cinder block building fronted by a shady thatched roofed patio cabana.  I step into the shade of the cabana and go through a set of glass double doors into what seems to be a USO-type lounge crossed with an open-bay barracks.  Lots of day-room rec equipment, couches and a big T.V. up front with two long rows of bunk beds down the length of the room.  As I am milling around one of the beds, the persistent condo sales folks are still with me, dump-trucking all the reasons why their condo community is the perfect place to spend the sunset years.  All I keep thinking about is "Cocoon" or "The Green Mile" and thinking, No way.  They ask me if I think I deserve to get treated right in my retirement?  After serving my country all these years, don't I deserve to get something back?  A thought pops into my head.  A way out of this clingy sales pitch.  I say, "No.  But I do think about all those guys who never got the chance to have any golden years.  And the ones whose golden years will be spent suffering the effects of horrible wounds and trauma.  That stops them cold.  I continue, "I bet they sure could use some peace and easy living."  I begin to choke-up and my eyes fill with tears.  I look down at a bag between my feet and squat to zip it up, averting my eyes.  It's all crocodile tears, of course.  I'm just trying to find away to throw them off and get them to go away.  It works.  The woman chokes up herself and pats my arm saying how sweet I am and how grateful she is for all we've done.  They quietly turn and leave.  I am happy to have pulled off a tactic that defeated the two smarmy hucksters and woke up feeling both haughty and guilty.

Gun Violence vs. Gun Rights

The Daily Beast had this article:  http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/05/14/a-former-navy-firearms-instructor-and-proud-gun-owner-on-why-we-need-common-sense-gun-control.html

A Former Navy Firearms Instructor and Proud Gun Owner On Why We Need Common Sense Gun Control

A gun owner and former Navy firearms instructor makes the case for common sense gun control and why we need to adopt it now, before the next tragedy.

Why do we only talk about gun control after the most unbearable national tragedies? Why don’t we adopt the common sense gun control regulations that have broad public support and might actually prevent the next tragedy?

Before half the country decides that I am a crazy liberal and stops reading here, let me note that I am a security professional, and a 12-year veteran of the Navy, where I served as a weapons system technician, base police officer, and firearms instructor. I am a proud gun owner. I’m also a single father. I do not want to ban guns but I do want to protect my son from the dangers they pose.

Our nation has settled into a very predictable routine of public discourse regarding firearms. A deranged individual—a neo-Nazi, a disillusioned ex-employee, or even a disturbed child—commits an act of public violence. The 24-hour news cycle obsesses on every morbid detail, speculating on motives and puzzling over “who’s to blame?” The righteous left preaches “never again” by way of tighter restrictions and more regulation, and the fringe right accuses them of politicizing a tragedy and warns that the government is coming for our firearms.

And then, nothing changes.

Depressing as this picture is, however, the gun control conversation should be happening even more frequently. Deaths due to poor knowledge of firearms happen on the small scale every day; just this past weekend, 11-year-old Hunter Pederson was accidentally killed by his uncle, who was showing off a laser sight by pointing it at the boy’s forehead.

The fact is that thousands of deaths all across our country can be prevented with solid intelligence sharing and common sense regulation. Between 83% and 91% of the country supports background checks for all gun purchases and yet, somehow, this simple provision is consistently written out of proposed legislation. It is time that we make this a permanent policy priority rather than a set of talking points to be rolled out alongside the names of our next shooting victims.

I am proud gun owner. I’m also a single father. I do not want to ban guns but I do want to protect my son from the dangers they pose.

I love my guns, and I’m no hypocrite. But I love my son more. I love taking him to school, a movie, or simply around the block without fearing for his life. It is dangerous and shortsighted to require so little of our fellow gun owners, because—as 11-year-old Hunter’s case tragically shows—they hold the very lives of those around them in their hands.

So what can we do? The best proposals are all about common sense and moderation—too often four-letter words in politics. Background checks and mental health evaluations for all gun owners, on a five-year verification cycle, would be a great first step.

Requiring licenses and negligent discharge insurance would be part of common sense reform. Much like vehicles—which are also key pieces of personal property that can take lives when they are operated irresponsibly, firearms should require a license to own and operate. A tiered licensing system could apply to different types of weapons. Insurance could cover any damages caused by negligent discharge, and skyrocketing rates might prove discouraging for repeat offenders.

Prudent limits need to be imposed. We should consider putting a cap on the number of firearms purchased for personal use. Allowances could be made for licensed gun dealers, but home protection and hunting require don’t require individuals to keep an arsenal. At the very least, misdemeanors such as DUIs, drug charges, and white-collar crimes should be added to the list of crimes that preclude offenders from owning firearms.

Opponents will no doubt ask how we intend to pay for all of these new requirements. A tax on ammunition and weapons manufacturers and end-users seems like a relevant place to start. With $617 billion spent to fund our national defense, we can certainly grab a billion or two to fund these lifesaving reforms.

For some gun-rights advocates, no amount of smart budgeting will change their mind because for them any attempt to restrict firearm ownership amounts to an assault on liberty. But most sensible people, even those who own guns and value the 2nd Amendment, understand that the exercise of rights requires some trade-offs. After all, a majority of NRA members support background checks too.

Tragic assaults on public safety by dangerous people are only part of the problem in the United States. A good guy with a gun can turn into a bad guy due to one slip up or a simple misunderstanding and an itchy trigger finger. It’s time we prioritize the debate on gun control and see some real change.

I responded thus:

Are we required to receive training to determine our fitness to vote?  Are we then required to pass a screening periodically in order to maintain that right?  There are certain restrictions placed on the right to vote:  Must be of legal age.  Must be a member of the local, county, state or federal population in which you are casting a vote.  There are even limitations of voting by convicted criminals.  These things are not the same as having to prove you are responsible enough to vote.  Or saying you can't vote because your vote might be dangerous.

Do we have to have approval of our message before we exercise our right to free speech?  True, often we must request a permit to peaceably assemble but the permit may not be denied because what we have to say is not acceptable to some.  If the permit is denied, the speech can still be uttered, just not in the center lane of the San Francisco Bridge.

Do I have to have anyone's approval in order to justify being secure in my person, house, papers and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures?  What committee of panel should decide such a thing for each citizen? Only allowing acceptable people to have such a right means your collection of vegetarian cookbooks meets the annual rights renewal review but my collection of Jewish holocaust concentration camp photos might be deemed too subversive or potentially harmful.

Don't tell me it's different with guns because they kill people.  It is not.  It is as much (or more) dangerous to require burdensome proof and acceptability screening to vote or exercise any right... it only seems reasonable because the horrific harm is incremental and not so shockingly abrupt.  Ask those who are doing cheetah-flips over something as seemingly benign as voter ID.

If no amount of blood spilt was too much to stop the fledgling American nation from establishing these rights, no amount of blood spilt can justify giving them up.

And I WILL say it.  Your 6 years olds life is not MORE important than any of the rights established by the Bill of Rights... no one's child... not even mine... ever.  It is for the very safety of our children and their future that I will denounce and defy anyone attempting to take away any right.  Be they trying to seize it whole-cloth or trying to chip-away at its edges.

Undocumented, but otherwise law-abiding immigrants

"Undocumented, but otherwise law-abiding immigrants."  I hear this a lot in defense of immigration reform.  What it translates to is:  Broke a law to get here but have not broken any more.

Cool!  So I can break one law and get a mulligan?  I choose Bank Robbery.  That's the one I want to be able to break and not get prosecuted.  I should net about a million bucks if I pick the right bank.  After that one episode of criminality I promise to obey all other laws forever and ever.

Ferguson: This man says what I think... so I'm putting it here.

The Ferguson Fraud

By RICH LOWRY

 

November 25, 2014

The bitter irony of the Michael Brown case is that if he had actually put his hands up and said don't shoot, he would almost certainly be alive today. His family would have been spared an unspeakable loss, and Ferguson, Missouri wouldn't have experienced multiple bouts of rioting, including the torching of at least a dozen businesses the night it was announced that Officer Darren Wilson wouldn't be charged with a crime.

Instead, the credible evidence (i.e., the testimony that doesn't contradict itself or the physical evidence) suggests that Michael Brown had no interest in surrendering. After committing an act of petty robbery at a local business, he attacked Officer Wilson when he stopped him on the street. Brown punched Wilson when the officer was still in his patrol car and attempted to take his gun from him.

The first shots were fired within the car in the struggle over the gun. Then, Michael Brown ran. Even if he hadn't put his hands up, but merely kept running away, he would also almost certainly be alive today. Again, according to the credible evidence, he turned back and rushed Wilson. The officer shot several times, but Brown kept on coming until Wilson killed him.

This is a terrible tragedy. It isn't a metaphor for police brutality or race repression or anything else, and never was. Aided and abetted by a compliant national media, the Ferguson protestors spun a dishonest or misinformed version of what happened—Michael Brown murdered in cold blood while trying to give up—into a chant ("hands up, don't shoot") and then a mini-movement.

When the facts didn't back their narrative, they dismissed the facts and retreated into paranoid suspicion of the legal system. It apparently required more intellectual effort than almost any liberal could muster even to say, "You know, I believe policing in America is deeply unjust, but in this case the evidence is murky and not enough to indict, let alone convict anyone of a crime." 

They preferred to charge that the grand jury process was rigged, because St. Louis County prosecutor Robert McCulloch didn't seek an indictment of Wilson and allowed the grand jury to hear all the evidence and make its own decision. This, Chris Hayes of MSNBC deemed so removed from normal procedure that it’s unrecognizable.

It's unusual, yes, but not unheard of for prosecutors to present a case to a grand jury without a recommendation to indict. Regardless, who could really object to a grand jury hearing everything in such a sensitive case? If any of the evidence were excluded that, surely, would have been the basis of other howls of an intolerably stacked deck.

It’s a further travesty, according to the Left, that Officer Wilson was allowed to testify to the grand jury. Never mind that it is standard operating procedure. As former prosecutor Andrew McCarthy points out, guilty parties usually don't testify because they have to do it without their lawyer present and anything they say can be used against them.

It is also alleged that the prosecutor McCulloch is biased because his father was a cop who was killed by a criminal. Follow this argument though to its logical conclusion and McCulloch would be unable to handle almost all cases, because of his engrained bias against criminality.

Finally, there is the argument that Wilson should have been indicted so there could be a trial "to determine the facts." Realistically, if a jury of Wilson's peers didn't believe there was enough evidence to establish probable cause to indict him, there was no way a jury of his peers was going to convict him of a crime, which requires the more stringent standard of beyond a reasonable doubt.

Besides, we don't try people for crimes they almost certainly didn't commit just to satisfy a mob that will throw things at the police and burn down local businesses if it doesn't get its way. If the grand jury had given into the pressure from the streets and indicted as an act of appeasement, the mayhem most likely would have only been delayed until the inevitable acquittal in a trial. 

The agitators of Ferguson have proven themselves proficient at destroying other people's property, no matter what the rationale. This summer, they rioted when the police response was "militarized" and rioted when the police response was un-militarized. Local businesses like the beauty-supply shops Beauty Town (hit repeatedly) and Beauty World (burned on Monday night) have been targeted for the offense of existing, not to mention employing people and serving customers.

Liberal commentators come back again and again to the fact that Michael Brown was unarmed and that, in the struggle between the two, Officer Wilson only sustained bruises to his face, or what Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo calls an "irritated cheek." The subtext is that if only Wilson had allowed Brown to beat him up and perhaps take his gun, things wouldn't have had to escalate.

There is good reason for a police officer to be in mortal fear in the situation Officer Wilson faced, though. In upstate New York last March, a police officer responded to a disturbance call at an office, when suddenly a disturbed man pummeled the officer as he was attempting to exit his vehicle and then grabbed his gun and shot him dead. The case didn't become a national metaphor for anything.

Ferguson, on the other hand, has never lacked for media coverage, although the narrative of a police execution always seemed dubious and now has been exposed as essentially a fraud. "Hands up, don't shoot" is a good slogan. If only it was what Michael Brown had done last August.

Rich Lowry is editor of National Review.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/11/ferguson-fraud-113178.html#ixzz3KAyqMNBC

The rise of homophilia

For every use of the word "homophobe" I will also try to use the word "homophile."  Homophobe is thrown at anyone who might dare to take even the smallest issue with even the tiniest aspect of the LGBT agenda.  The opposite is also true of those who would embrace any aspect of that same agenda without any criticism or scrutiny whatsoever.  Just as an Anglophile can't shut up about all things British or a Bibliophile goes on endlessly about how good old books smell or how e-book readers are for morons.  It's the same with Homophiles.  They love all things Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender.  Their dialog seems centered only around that aspect of their lives.  It influences their fashion choices, grooming standards and home décor.  They assess potential friends by that criteria first.  They seem eternally to be searching for gay-friendly things and railing against homophobes.  Just like I get sick of looking at a guy's collection of pub glasses from all over the U.K.... I also get sick of hearing about how a guy you know didn't get a job because the interviewer seemed to have a problem with him talking about his "husband."  Maybe the umpteenth time you try to invite my family back to the Gay Pride parade and we don't want to go is because I had to spend the entire ride back last time trying to explain to my child why that one man had a dog leash tied to his winkie and was letting another man lead him down the street with it.  Or having my wife look on in horrified shock when she answered a woman's proposition that she "Come on over to our side." by saying, "But I thought people were born this way?  Now you're trying to recruit me?"  Then getting cussed out for being a homophobe and bigot.

New Office

Back on April 5th 2013 I posted a picture of my office at the 30th AG Reception Battalion on Fort Benning.  I have been at my new assignment at the Naval Construction Battalion Center in Gulfport Mississippi for over a year and thought I'd post a picture of my new digs.  It's a bigger office but it is an interior room so it has no window.  Although this is a Navy Base I am at the Army 12W Carpentry/Masonry School as it's Reserve Component Liaison.

Let's talk about the penis for a minute. Should it be adjustable?

This subject is making me uncomfortable before I've even begun but this thought occurred to me and I didn't want to lose it to memory so it goes here.  Since nobody reads this web-log but me, it's tantamount to still being in my head.  The subject is the male penis.

Medical science can work miracles.  They can transplant almost any organ.  They can take a woman from an A-cup to a D-cup with an out-patient boob-job.  They can lipo-suck away a lifetime's worth of unhealthy eating and return our washboard abs.  They can sculpt away our turkey wattle necks, our crows feet, our jowls.  They can even restore a woman's virginity by reconstructing the hymen.  All these things are possible and yet there is no procedure to increase a man's penis size.

To be sure, there are snake oil salesmen, hucksters and hawkers galore.:  All of them promising to increase the size of the male penis.  Pumps and pills and ointments that can cause inflammation and swelling but that do not permanently change a thing.  That's the penis responding to being attacked with harsh chemicals or pounded mercilessly by vacuum pressure.  It's nothing more than self-inflicted injury.  The fact that men do it to themselves willingly says something about how desperate we are, as a gender, to be bigger.

The harsh reality is this:  At some point in adolescence, a young man will reach what is to be his permanent size.  Some will be massive.  They will have what are called clubs, hammers, coke-can dicks, babies arm holding an apple... that sort of thing.  Others will watch in horror as their childhood peanut grows hair around it, as the testicles grow and drop but that is all.  They are to be cursed with a small member for life.  Most men fall somewhere in the middle of the spectrum.  Of average size and girth.  Between four and six inches.  Adequate but not spectacular.  And this is where we obsess.

Like women, we don't want to be average, plain, or regular.  We want to be spectacular, incredible, remarkable.  No woman wants to be cute.  She wants to be gorgeous.  She doesn't want narrow hips or a flat chest or anything other than a heart-shaped bottom.  Men have the same attitude.  We don't want a penis that can get the job done.  We want a penis that will do the job better than anyone else.  The best job possible.  A job so good that our woman will flush and get a wistful, faraway look in her eye at the mention of our name.  

We can learn to be skillful lovers in other ways.  I suggest that men do this... it can only help your case.  A well educated mouth can bond a woman to you.  Not just what it can do but what it can say.  We can gain favor by being well dressed, well mannered, charming, well groomed, considerate, thoughtful, attentive... the list goes on.  We can workout to sculpt our bodies into the likeness of Michelangelo's David or Brad Pitt from "Legends of the Fall."  We can grow our hair long or short as a woman prefers.  If our hair is falling out, there are options to change that.  Most of our body can be changed, sculpted and improved.  Alas... not the one-eyed trouser snake.  We can make a woman love us for all the good things we do, have and are.  What we also want to do is make her gasp in a mixture of amazement, apprehension and pleasure as we enter her with our python.  Not our little buddy, our cute fireman, our pink noodle.  We want it to be known as Thor's hammer, our purple headed warrior, a fire hose, a salami... you get the picture.

Women say this is not the primary factor in choosing a man.  They say we obsess about it way more than they care about it.  I believe this is true.  I don't think any but, perhaps the smallest of the small, are insufficient enough to be unable to give a woman any pleasure.  She can work with most anything  presented to her.  It's all about the angle.  That may be true but I think most men want to be so large as to make her a little bit afraid.  Not terrified like, "Keep that thing away from me!" but sort of an anxious trepidation.  "I want to but I'm not sure it will fit.  I'll try."  Those are the words we want to hear.  And we both know... if you can deliver a baby, you can fit us in.  We just want to make you doubt for a moment.

I suppose it's a good thing that there is no surgery to increase penis length and girth.  If there was, men the world over would mortgage all they own to get a foot long loaf of French bread between their legs.  Woman would rebel.  It would backfire and we'd be left alone with our massive members.  Perhaps it's better not to have any choice and to just learn to work with what you have.  Although...

In my own experience... in those moments of pillow talk when you feel safe enough to bring up very intimate issues... I've had women confess that there is a pleasant sensation of "fullness" that comes from a man who is big.  Not so much long as thick.  Too long can be painful but seldom has thickness ever been anything but pleasant.  Maybe what men long for is not a larger penis but an adjustable penis.  A penis for her every mood.  We do everything with women in mind anyway.  Every advance of civilization, everything we wear, everything we say and do is motivated by a desire to win the favor of women.  We often fail to be worth the favor they grant us but that is a sad story for another day.  Perhaps we would really love to present her with the penis she is in the mood for.  The little buddy that is fun to play with.  The flexible flyer that hits just the right spot or the monster that impales her and makes it hard to breathe.  Medical science needs to start working on "The Adjustable Penis!"

Oh.  pssst... While you're at it... can you work on... um... "reconditioning" a woman's lady box too.  Like she can do with a smaller than optimum penis; we fellas can compensate for a spacious den by working the angle for maximum sensation.  But... it would be nice to get back to the original factory settings... if ya know what I mean.  She wants that too but she does NOT want us fellas talking about it.  If she asks, just say she is perfect the way she is.  That's what she's been telling us all this time.

The Christmas Quilt

Not that this is a particularly Christmas-like quilt.  More that it was given as a gift at Christmas time. I made it for my Step-Daughter and Son-in-Law.  I included this letter:

                                                                                                                                       Christmas 2014

Dear Ashley & Ben,

          This is a quilt I made from t-shirts.  It is a simple design that takes a piece of felt and sandwiches it between the front and back of a t-shirt.  In this case I sacrificed one of those U-Haul moving blankets that have been a part of every move the family made since 2001.  Between moves they served as dog blankets.  Not to worry… I washed them before they became quilt squares.  Once I had 42 such squares, I sewed them together and added a border made from the only two colors of scrap cloth in the closet in sufficient quantity to serve the purpose.  Voila!  An instant family heirloom.

          There are t-shirts that have some meaning; Ben’s Training Squadron t-shirt, for example.  Your mother wore that shirt proudly but it was given to the project because of its relevance.  Other shirts where added because I thought they were funny or poignant. The Callahan Auto Parts shirt from the movie “Tommy Boy” or the one that says “Gone to my Happy Place.  Be back soon.” are such candidates.  Others I only selected for the color variety.  In this case you can remove them and replace them with others that mean something to you as time goes by.  It’s a fitting end to those t-shirts you really love but that have finally worn out.

          The quilt is tested and proves to be quite warm.  I suppose it is a bit heavy but that could not be helped.  In future quilts (if any) I could opt for poly-fill instead of felt… we’ll see…  Anywhooo… it was made and given with much love from me to you.  Hope it is snuggly enough.

          Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!  Be warm.

                                                                             Love,

                                                                          Chris    

P.S.   Do NOT wash it.  The felt will shrink like mad and you’ll be left with a wrinkled wad of multicolored fabric the size of a washcloth.  If you must wash it; line dry it instead of using a clothes dryer.

This is how it turned out:

The quilt's flip-side is nothing more than the other side of the t-shirt from which the front image was cut: 

Some were chosen for their relevance such as this one.  It's Ben's Air Force Basic Training Squadron t-shirt: 

Some were picked from my old shirts that are now too small or too worn-out: 

Some were included because they were funny: 

The remainder were picked up at the Goodwill store for a buck apiece and chosen for their cool colors: 

Sewed on a tag with her name and the year, wrapped it up with twine and it's ready to be mailed to Okinawa.

I am rather proud of my little instant heirloom quilt.  I might make another or I may move on to other grand projects.  I've been thinking about a lawn-mower shed made from old shipping pallets.

A letter I would have liked to recieve when I was a young man, full of questions...

These are not my words.  They are the words of Thomas Jefferson.  This is a man both revered and reviled.  Some dismiss him as unworthy of any praise because he owned slaves.  Others, because they see this part of his letter as a rebuke of the exsistence of God.  I admire the man as a creative genius, critical thinker and a man of high moral character.  In 1787, in a letter to his nephew, Peter Carr, advising him in matters of religion, he wrote:

“4. Religion. Your reason is now mature enough to examine this object. In the first place, divest yourself of all bias in favor of novelty & singularity of opinion... shake off all the fears & servile prejudices, under which weak minds are servilely crouched. Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call to her tribunal every fact, every opinion. Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blindfolded fear. You will naturally examine first, the religion of your own country. Read the Bible, then as you would read Livy or Tacitus. The facts which are within the ordinary course of nature, you will believe on the authority of the writer, as you do those of the same kind in Livy and Tacitus. The testimony of the writer weighs in their favor, in one scale, and their not being against the laws of nature, does not weigh against them. But those facts in the Bible which contradict the laws of nature, must be examined with more care, and under a variety of faces. Here you must recur to the pretensions of the writer to inspiration from God. Examine upon what evidence his pretensions are founded, and whether that evidence is so strong, as that its falsehood would be more improbable than a change in the laws of nature, in the case he relates. For example in the book of Joshua we are told the sun stood still several hours. Were we to read that fact in Livy or Tacitus we should class it with their showers of blood, speaking of statues, beasts, &c. But it is said that the writer of that book was inspired. Examine therefore candidly what evidence there is of his having been inspired. The pretension is entitled to your inquiry, because millions believe it. On the other hand you are astronomer enough to know how contrary it is to the law of nature that a body revolving on its axis as the earth does, should have stopped, should not by that sudden stoppage have prostrated animals, trees, buildings, and should after a certain time have resumed its revolution, & that without a second general prostration. Is this arrest of the earth's motion, or the evidence which affirms it, most within the law of probabilities? You will next read the New Testament. It is the history of a personage called Jesus. Keep in your eye the opposite pretensions: 1, of those who say he was begotten by God, born of a virgin, suspended & reversed the laws of nature at will, & ascended bodily into heaven; and 2, of those who say he was a man of illegitimate birth, of a benevolent heart, enthusiastic mind, who set out without pretensions to divinity, ended in believing them, and was punished capitally for sedition, by being gibbeted, according to the Roman law, which punished the first commission of that offence by whipping, & the second by exile, or death in fureâ.

...Do not be frightened from this inquiry by any fear of its consequences. If it ends in a belief that there is no God, you will find incitements to virtue in the comfort and pleasantness you feel in its exercise, and the love of others which it will procure you... In fine, I repeat, you must lay aside all prejudice on both sides, and neither believe nor reject anything, because any other persons, or description of persons, have rejected or believed it... I forgot to observe, when speaking of the New Testament, that you should read all the histories of Christ, as well of those whom a council of ecclesiastics have decided for us, to be Pseudo-evangelists, as those they named Evangelists. Because these Pseudo-evangelists pretended to inspiration, as much as the others, and you are to judge their pretensions by your own reason, and not by the reason of those ecclesiastics. Most of these are lost..."

I see no rebuke of God in this letter.  I only see a man telling a questioning young man to do his own work and draw his own conclusions.