An American Tradition

The Felps Phreaks* have crawled out from under their rock again, this time getting gratuitous news coverage over an Appeals Court decision in their favor. With their reappearance in the public eye comes the renewed calls for bans on protests at funerals.

Look, I probably agree with your assessment of them. I think they're scum. I think they give religious fundamentalism a bad name. I find their protests at funerals to be among the most un-Christian of activities possible, short of murder. As a means of encouraging change it ranks up there with flag burning. The group's actions diminish the message of its protests.

But here's the rub: Political protest is one of the fundamental elements of the American way of life. The heroes at whose funerals these inbred wastes of oxygen protest pledged to defend that way of life. Thousands of men, women and children died to bring forth that way of life, and to continue its existence.

Political protest is firmly ensconced in our Constitution in the First Amendment. Remember...the Bill of Rights doesn't give us rights - it specifies rights that the Federal government is not allowed to take away from citizens.

Political protest done correctly is always going to be ugly to someone. You may think this form of protest is over the line and should be banned, but odds are pretty good that some form of protest YOU find acceptable is over the line to someone else and THEY think it should be banned! (Hint: Tea Parties!)

Think about how a protest ban could be used against an issue you are passionate about. A law against protests written too specifically will be easy to challenge in court and/or get around, a law written broad enough to resist challenge will be easy to use against other forms of protest!

Political protest, though protected, isn't unlimited. It's quite common for 'protest zones' to be established at political conventions and international conferences. Often times these zones are well away from the venue. This may be a better solution to the funeral protests than trying to ban them altogether.

These idiots feed on press coverage. Deny them the publicity and they'll either become more and more outrageous in their attempts to capture the spotlight, thereby exposing themselves to more legal scrutiny and/or public ridcule, or they'll run out of money and go away. Paying attention to them just fuels their cause.

* Yeah, I know it's spelled the other way around, but why feed them search engine hits?

Same Shirt, Different Day

I've often said that I disliked living in the San Diego area because the weather didn't have variety.

I'm pretty well at that state with western Iowa and eastern Nebraska.

If there's a bright spot in our recent weather it's that at least we are nearer to normal on temperatures.

And, of course, it could always be worse...I could be living on the eastern seaboard waiting for a storm that's forecast to drop 24 inches of snow...that's as much snow in one storm as we've received since Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Blizzard of 2009 Edition!

The kids generously allowed us to sleep in until 8:02 AM. Thanks kids!

The 3-way simultaneous paper-shredding orgasm lasted about 30 minutes including the time spend getting a contractor-sized trash bag and a relatively sharp knife (well, sharper than most of my relatives).

I ducked out most of the way thru the frenzy and started a pound of ground sausage browning in my big cast iron skillet. I love biscuits & gravy and thought I'd share my passion with my family.

I hold great respect for tradition, however the brood would have to settle for refrigerator biscuits. At least I sprang for genuine name brand, not generic store brand, so I'm not a TOTAL heretic! (I'm also not a Southerner, so y'all can just say whatever bad things you want about me, as long as you finish with 'Bless his heart'. I know the code!)

Anyway...sausage browned, a measure of drippings reserved, remainder drained, biscuits into the oven. Drippings back into the skillet with the sausage, an equal measure of flour and a little heat to cook the roux. Rotate the biscuit pans in the oven. Stir the roux and cook a bit longer. Add milk and start stirring. A few grinds of black pepper. Stir. Pull the biscuits out of the oven, depan, back to the gravy and stir. Suddenly the gravy began to thicken. A little more stirring, a yell to the kids to get the table ready and it's breakfast time.

The kids have had creamed beef on toast (SOS) so this isn't a totally new experience for them but they're used to sausage in links and patties - ground sausage is new. We ended up with biscuits left over. Just about the time I was thinking about grabbing a biscuit and mopping up the gravy left in the skillet the wife reached over and did it. Sometimes we think so much alike it's SCARY!

She thinks this would make a fine new Christmas tradition. I don't know...it's a lot of work to accomplish after being kept awake by the fat guy in the red suit rustling around out in the living room in the wee hours...

The kids are happily entertaining themselves with the new loot. The wife is cocooned in front of the TV waiting for football, and I'm trying to get up the motivation to dig out vehicles and sidewalks.

Merry Christmas to you and yours!

Isn't It Amazing...

...what you find when you are not looking for it?

Case in point: Some time back another blogger and I had a short email exchange regarding author Dean Ing and one of his books, Single Combat.

Suddenly, I had a desire to re-read the book, but I couldn't find my copy. Considering the number of moves we've made in 20 years, it's not surprising that it got misplaced. My worst fears were that it had been sold at a garage/tag/rummage sale for next to nothing, that it was in one of the boxes still in storage at the folks' place or that it was in one of the boxes that got tossed when the basement flooded a few years ago.

A quick search online showed that while not made of unobtanium, it did tend to be a bit tough to find, so my urge to read it was offset by immediate unavailability.

Fast forward to today. I'm moving stuff in the storage shed to put the window AC unit away for the winter. I open up a storage tote to see what's in it, and lo and behold, here are several books I thought I'd lost, including my copy of Single Combat.

Now I gotta put more effort into finishing the "Honey Do" list so I can sit down and enjoy a good book!

Ammo Day

Today is National Ammo Day.

Pick up 100 rounds of your favorite boomstick fodder - it's just after 4 PM here so there's still a few hours to get in on the fun!

Details here.

Out of STEAM

Just returned from a weekend in Marshalltown IA at ABATE of Iowa's annual training gathering, Iowa STEAM (Seminar To Educate And Motivate).

It was a great weekend of learning and socializing, biker style.

After a 3 hour drive home, a quick trip to the grocery store, and dealing with a dead router on the home network, now it's almost time to get ready to go to work.

At least I got a good night's sleep Saturday night...instead of enjoying mass quantities of adult beverages around the hotel pool. Sometimes it sucks to be a responsible adult.

Why?

Why is it that even though I objected, we still got a dog?

Why is it that she's supposed to be the kids' dog but I ended up feeding and caring for her the most?

Why is it that it's my job to take her to the vet now that her hips are shot and she's having bladder and bowel issues?

Why is it that I feel like crap having her put down even though I don't particularly like the damn dog?