Flash Back!

A little way into the Korean Basic, once we had gotten to the point that we could manage more advanced grammar, we had a lesson in which "Dad" came home from work to find his sons brawling, and yelled "POK DONG AH! SSA-OOH JI MA!"; colloquially translated, "What is this riot?! Stop fighting!" 

Only we thought he was calling one of his sons "Pok Dong" -- riot or civil disturbance -- and did not quite grasp yet the nuances of Korean grammar; in this case, the imperative forms indicated by the "AH/MA" verbs endings.

(Confession digression: I are grammaring goodly in English, written or spoken, but if you require me to diagram a sentence, I'm heading for the door. I still have a hard time telling the difference between an adverb and an adjective, and I'm not clear on what a gerund is.)

So several years later I'm in Korea on my second tour, my first at the Second Infantry Division, and one weekend I scored a day pass to head down to Seoul. Maybe I was Christmas shopping, I don't recall, but I don't remember it as being particularly cold, so may not. 

Anyway, the bus route went by several universities, including Yeon Sei Dae Hak ("tae hak" = university; commonly referred to as "Yeon Dae", which, confusingly, is also the word for "regiment".)

The student body was participating in their favorite intramural activity, loudly proclaiming their opinions on various and sundry matters of great concern, featuring a variety of special effects and training aids by both said student body and their critics, to wit: bricks, rocks, fire bombs, and tear gas.

In other words, rioting.*

I caught a whiff of said tear gas, leaving me a bit hoarse for a day or two. When a Korean acquaintance asked if I was well, I explained that I had gotten too close to the "pok dong" near Yeon Dai.

And was promptly corrected: "Not a pok dong, it was a demo!"

And that, boys and girls was my first exposure to the concept that, if the cause is exalted enough, any amount of riotous, destructive, behavior can be excused by the simple process of designating it a "demonstration" or "peaceful protest."

*See P.J. O'Rourke's hilarious essay "Seoul Man" from Rolling Stone, reproduced in his collection Holidays in Hell.

 

"I'm walkin' heah!"

About a year ago I started making a concerted effort to "get my steps in" every day.

Fun fact: "10,000 steps a day" is marketing, not supported by scientific/medical research. (Not directly, that is. No research says "10,000 steps a day is the key to health!" Or any other count.)

So it turns out that, as of my last visit to the doc (for what turned out to be the flu, a month or so ago) I had lost 30 pounds in a year. Which isn't a lot, but as long as I keep moving, and watching what I eat, is also not likely to reappear...

Anyway. I have figured out how to get those 10,000 steps in while at work -- if I can, I simply do two "tours" of the Salt Mines, but if it comes down to it, I know how often I need to make a quick tour of the closest sections.

I have an app on the smartphone, and last year for my birthday Mrs. Drang got me a smartwatch, so I track my steps, and heart rate, that way.

So I was off yesterday, and decided to go for a walk on one of the local walking trails. (It's named for a major local power company, and the trail runs along the course of some high tension lines.) (Imagine my flabbergastedenss -- I'm telling you, my gast is downright flabbered! -- to learn that the BPA Trail has a Wikipedia page...)

Anyhoo.

I was walking over to the start of the trail.  Now, I have to cross a major 4-lane surface street to get to the trail, and there are three places I can do so conveniently; one is the intersection at the end of my street, one is a couple blocks down in front of the library (the site of a modern, American take on a  Belisha Beacon) and another is down the street further, a major intersection, the site of an apartment complex, and commercial development across the street.

Mrs. Drang swears that the only safe place to make the crossing is down by the shops -- Safeway, among others -- so I headed down, got to the intersection, and hit the button to let the traffic lights know that there was a pedestrian waiting to cross...

...and the lights changed, I started across, and some little old lady in a Caddy plowed right through the intersection, taking a left and passing within a foot or so of me.

This, by the way, is not only extremely unsafe, but also (and therefore) illegal.

Here in the 9-8-double-ought-3 it will come as little surprise, but up in Seattle I'm sure it would come as a shock to learn that the 9mm in my holster didn't even think about jumping out of it's holster and teaching her a lesson.

I Ain't'nt Ded Yet

So it's been almost three months since I posted a post here. When I got started, they said you should post every day if you wanted your blog to be successful.
I guess I must not have been interested in a successful blog.

Anyway, yes, I'm still here, and if any of those spam comments were really from people, well, sign your comment next time. And make sure it makes sense.

Reasons for not posting are various, personal and general. The personal doesn't seem like it would be of interest to anyone, assuming I wanted to share outside family and very close friends, and the general... well, you know why Tom Lehrer* allegedly gave up his singing career and went back to being a math professor, right? 

Not that I make any claim to being on a par with Tom Lehrer. (Despite having a related MOS in the Army.)

Anyhoo. I'm still here, if anyone cares, and I'll probably start posting again Real Soon Now...



*He denies it, basically says he got bored with it. And there's a thought: Better to die in  obscurity, or have your obit read "Author of 'Poisoning Pigeons In The Park' and inventor of the jello shot"?

That time of year...

The flowering plum trees are in bloom. I've been meaning to get and post pictures since I started the blog, but never did.

Add caption

 Flowering plums do not, allegedly, produce fruit.

These don't, but the one at Alte Schloss Drang does. Granted, it is more like very large cherries than plums, but still.

This one is a "volunteer", growing out of the hedge. We decided to let it grow, partly out of curiosity, partly out of not being sure how to do away with it without having to replace the hedge...

Darned overhead power lines...

Of course, the utility company says the same thing about trees. Every couple of years they come along and trim trees away from the lines, which is fine by me, because I regard reliable power as preferable to having that particular tree in that particular place.

They started blooming last week, and I suppose if trees could think they'd have been wondering what the heck was going on with the weather. Here's a picture of the front yard when I got home last Saturday morning:

Out and About

Not sure which surprised me more today:

• Safeway sells "Frozen, Pre-cooked Chitlins."* 
• Safeway sells caviar. 
• Trader Joe's was playing Toby Keith and Alan Jackson as muzak. 

Also, this happened semi-locally: Mango Used As Weapon In Bellevue Assault | Bellevue, WA Patch.  (H/t SayUncle.

Mrs. Drang is still disgusted with me because my first reaction was "Come at me with this banana!"



*Yeah, it's probably "supposed" to be spelled "chitterlings." Guess what? Spell check agrees that "chitlins" is also acceptable.

Alabama

Expanded upon from elsewhere, because, as Tamara likes to say, why waste it at an away game?

I'm laughing at all the people acting like Roy Moore was the GOP-anointed candidate for Alabama's Senator.

They clearly paid no attention to this race until last week.

I have spent little time in Alabama, too little to parse these events from the POV of a resident of The Heart of Dixie, but I have some thoughts on what this means, (some supplied or inspired by others):

• The US Senate is now 51 (R) 49 (D). 
• Since Harry Reid introduced "The Nuclear Option", this means less than it might.
• Long will be a two-year Senator. Alabama is still the reddest of states
• The Ds cannot, now, accuse the Rs of harboring a pedophile. (Whether you believe those claims about Moore or not.) I expect Franken will be out in the coming days, not weeks.
• Steve Bannon's influence is much diminished, if not completely eliminated. He owns this.
• I've been seeing items to the effect that Mike Pence, not Donald Trump, is the head of the GOP. 
• Normally, the sitting president is considered the head of the party, but Obama had little or no interest (or was an even bigger SCOAMF than we thought) and Trump has little or no influence over the GOP, being an outsider. (Arguably, being an outsider is what got him elected.) 
• So the question is, can Mike Pence take the bull by the horns elephant by the tusks and force them into a coherent, effective strategy?
• The Seventeenth Amendment to the United States Constitution should be repealed. 
• Ironically, it was implemented in Alabama before it became national...
• Any suggestion that the mainstream media is even remotely impartial and unbiased should be met with derision and howls of laughter, followed by "...oh, wait. You're serious. Maybe you should get that looked at." 
• (Addendum)  Part of the objection to Roy Moore seems to be that he was removed from the bench for allowing his religious convictions to interfere with his judicial decisions.
• If Judicial activism is wrong for Conservative Christians, it is wrong for Progressive... Progressives. 
• Granted if it wasn't for double standards the left would have no standards at all.
• Time for a revival of A Man For All Seasons, perhaps. (I prefer the Charlton Heston version, for esthetic reasons. The Scoville version is probably more likely to get a hearing these days, though...)

I have no great love for Trump, but he is still a vast improvement over either Sanders or (shudder!) Clinton.

I have even less love for Roy Moore. His emails go directly to my spam folder, where they belong.

I don't know if his personal politics go over well in Alabama these days, but I do know they do not play well on the national stage. (FWIW, I noted that while in Alabama this past September on my way to Florida for a date with Irma, I saw only one sign for Judge Moore, and that was handmade.)

I'm not sure the fact that he has (or had) a habit of dating women young enough to be his daughters matters; I note that the "evidence" of his one alleged relationship with an underage woman is, to say the least, dubious. (And is now admitted to have been altered. Anyone who actually used the term "pedophile" should probably be leery of lawsuits, just sayin'...)

I do know that this election in and of itself is not a great victory for the left, and hardly spells the death knell for the right. There are aspects of this election, however, that could be symptoms of just what is wrong with politics in the USA.

I am glad I live in a country where we can hash these things out in public without resorting to wholesale violence.

So far.

Read The Label

So, did you hear the one about the two women who set sail from Hawaii on a three hour week trip to Tahiti, and got rescued of Japan five months later?

Two women rescued after 5 months adrift in the Pacific - CNN

This being the 21st Century, the story started unraveling rather quickly.
Questions raised about sailors' story after months stranded at sea

The best analysis is found here: 19 REASONS THIS “SURVIVAL” STORY SMELLS FISHY – UNREASONABLY DANGEROUS ONION RINGS (h/t Insty.)

Aside from the fact that I may have to start reading the Unreasonable Dangerous Onion Rings blog just for the name, this is essentially a detailed fisking of the entire story. In this case, go ahead and read the comments. (Note: If you're going to click through to the Daily Mail's coverage, you might want to warn your spouse lest she look over your shoulder when you reach the part about how one of the principles in this story led a "Shades of Grey" lifestyle. AMHIK.)

Anyway.

What brought me here was that, out of curiosity, I looked up de-salinators on Amazon, because, 5 months at sea you'd obviously have to have one.

The search returned 29 hits, most of which are filters or purifiers, not de-salinators.

Removing bugs and contaminants from salt water doesn't do you much good if you still can't drink the water...

Anyway, two rules:

1. Always read the product description. 
2. Never read the comments. 

Exception to 2. above:

• Unless you still have questions about the product description.

AAR, Great Eclipse of 2017

So, Drang, how was it?
Beats me.

Whaddaya mean, you're in the Pacific Northwest, totality, man!

Yeah, I'm 200 miles north of the totality zone, and, it was overcast this morning, and in my 'hood it was foggy.

It was light out, it got darker, and then it was light again.

Then the fog and the clouds cleared, and the sky turned that funky bloo color people are always on about. Plus, Yellow Sky Demon was still there.

So did anyone go blind?

Don't know yet. There were sure a lot of [people standing on sidewalks  staring at the clouds through cameras and things, so... maybe?

The Boss gave me crap when I posted the third "Eclipse Safety" briefing on the intranet last week; I pointed out that he might thank me when some idiot filed for disability after going blind.

Helpful Hint

At the moment, we are getting heavier rainfall in the 98 double-ought 3 than is usual.

So it may be worth noting that, when attempting to use colorful colloquial expressions, one should use less than prefect grammar.

The phrase is "Rainin' like a cow pissin' on a flat rock". Note the vulgarism and the dropped "g's".

Saying "Precipitating like a bovine urinating on a planar stone" will win you no street cred at all.

On this day...

Courtesy The Strategy Page, TODAY IN MILITARY HISTORY

BORN 323 BC Alexander IV of Macedon (323-309 BC), son of Alexander the Great 742 Charlemagne, King of the Franks, Holy Roman Emperor, d. 814 -- Learn More 1348 Byzantine Emperor Andronikos IV Palaiologos (1376-1379), deposed, d. 28 June 1385 1514 Duke Guidobaldo II della Rovere of Urbino (1538-28 September 1574), Condottiero, patron of Titian 1725 Giacomo Casanova, adventurer, lover, librarian, who somehow found time to soldier, d.1798 Learn More 1826 Philip Dale Roddey, Brig Gen, C.S.A., d. 1897 1833 Thomas Howard Ruger, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1907 1838 Léon Gambetta, French politician, Member of the Government of National Defense (1870-1871) who escaped from Paris in a balloon; later Prime Minister (1881-1882), d. 1882 1840 Émile Zola, French author and journalist, defender of Dreyfus, d. 1902 1914 Alec Guinness, naval officer, actor ("Lawrence of Arabia," "Bridge on the River Kwai"), d. 2000 Learn More 1920 Jack Webb, sometime B-26 crewman, actor ("The DI"), d. 1982 1925 George MacDonald Fraser, soldier, author ("Flashman", "Quartered Safe Out Here"), d 2008 They inexplicably left out 19xx ThatGuy, retired solider, obscure blogger

If I had the buck$ to spend...

...on fellow bloggers, including those I haven't actually met...

I'd buy Bobbi one of these keyboards.

Of course, I don't know how good of a keyboard it would be, so she'll probably need a spare computer, too, so maybe it's just as well I don't have the buck$ to spend on fellow bloggers...

(Although for a mere $100+ they will sell you a set of keycaps that work with other keyboards if they use certain switches. I'm ignernt about that switchology, though, so I'll hold off...)

I think I also need to buy a cup of coffee for whoever at Blogger added an "Emoticon" drop down menu to the tool bar. It can easily get out of hand, but I've never been able to figure out how to use ASCII codes to make © or ¢ or ≠ symbols.  Plus, typing in an ampersand usually gets all jacked up, but this automagically fixes it.

#TrendingOnTwitter

#trudeaueulogy - Twitter Search

So, Canada had to elect their own SCOAMF, and now he's a world-wide laughing stock because he failed to realize that nil nisi bonum doesn't mean you should praise the evil dead.

We mourn the death of Vlad the Impaler, who spearheaded initiatives which touched the hearts of millions. #TrudeauEulogies #trudeaueulogy pic.twitter.com/z1pznoHj7P

— Conservosaurus (@conservosaurus) November 26, 2016

Thought For The Day, 03/03/2016

Thought for the day: Donald Trump's popularity represents the return of the Know Nothing Party.

— Drang (@DWDrang) March 3, 2016

If you're unfamiliar with the term, read up on it here: Know Nothing - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Native American Party, renamed in 1855 as the American Party, and commonly known as the Know Nothing movement, was an American political party that operated on a national basis during the mid-1850s.
The movement arose in response to an influx of migrants, and promised to "purify" American politics by limiting or ending the influence of Irish Catholics and other immigrants, thus reflecting nativist and anti-Catholic sentiment. It was empowered by popular fears that the country was being overwhelmed by German and Irish Catholic immigrants, whom they saw as hostile to republican values, and as being controlled by the Pope in Rome. Mainly active from 1854 to 1856, the movement strove to curb immigration and naturalization, but met with little success.

And as Abraham Lincoln is my witness, I wrote that before I read this: Will this year be an 1860 moment? No such luck | Power Line

Officer Involved Shooting, Seattle, 02/21/2016

From the Seattle Police Department Blog:
SPD Releases Dashcam, Photos From Officer-Involved Shooting of Armed Felon In North Seattle

The Seattle Police Department is releasing photos and video from a fatal officer-involved shooting, which occurred Sunday as officers attempted to arrest a felon illegally armed with a handgun.
Around 3:30 PM police were conducting surveillance in the 2200 block of Northeast 85^th Street as part of an ongoing investigation. Officers observed a man with a holstered handgun, and identified him as Che Taylor, 46, a convicted violent felon, legally prohibited from possessing a handgun. Taylor’s criminal history includes convictions for assault, robbery and rape.
At approximately 4:15, officers called for additional units to assist in taking the suspect into custody. As Taylor stood at the passenger door of a white Ford Taurus, a marked patrol vehicle with emergency lights on pulled up facing the Taurus.
An SPD arrest team then approached the vehicle to take Taylor into custody. Officers ordered Taylor to show his hands and get on the ground. He did not follow officers’ commands, and instead leaned into the Taurus.
According to officers, as well as a civilian witness interviewed by investigators, Taylor reached for his handgun, leading officers to fire.
Officers detained the other two people in the car and called for medics. Police performed CPR on Taylor at the scene until medics arrived. He later died at Harborview Medical Center.
Detectives are still serving warrants as part of the investigation, but have recovered Taylor’s firearm, When Taylor arrived at Harborview Medical Center, he was carrying approximately 6 ounces of suspected crack cocaine and black tar heroin. Officers booked one of the other people in the vehicle into the King County Jail for possession of a significant quantity of suspected heroin.

This is the OIS I referred to in the intro to my previous post, that has local activists all riled up.
‘Black Lives Matter’ protesters demand firing of police chief after fatal shooting | The Seattle Times
Mayor, police chief promise timely update on fatal shooting of black man | The Seattle Times
Because a known convicted felon open-carrying a pistol during a drug deal is obviously in the clear...

Observations from a rainy day

This isn't a Pineapple Express, which is heavy rains caused by fronts out of Hawaii; I guess when the weather comes to us from Japan, we call it the Sushi Express? (Virtuously avoiding tasteless jokes regarding the date it hit...)

Anyway. Traffic through Tacoma hasn't gotten any better.

Tactical Tailor is one of those stores where it pays to know what I'm looking for, get in, get it, and get out. Bunches and bunches of gear I no longer have any need for...

Quantico Tactical offers manufacturer's LE/MIL prices at all retail locations. Speaking of spending money...

Despite recent events and hyperbole from the gun-banners responding to same, there does not seem to be a shortage of guns or ammo in stores.

Except .22LR. Again.

Or still, if you prefer.

The Emperor's Speech

So, I looked at the transcript of His Imperial Majesty, Barack Hussein Obama's speech.

For anyone else who couldn't be bothered to tune in his blather -- unless they were waiting to see if he was going to pull a Heidi on Sunday Night Football -- I herewith provide the TL;DR version:

1. We shall continue our current, highly successful strategy in the war on terror.
2. The No Fly List we all hated 10 years ago for it's secretive nature and lack of due process would be just dandy if we added "can't lawfully own a gun" to "can't take a commercial flight."
3. If Congress doesn't act to restrict the right of law-abiding Americans to own certain guns we think are icky then they're a bunch of poopy-heads.

oops

Accidentally hit "publish" when I meant to hit "save draft." I hit "revert to draft", but an incomplete training review/AAR may show up in your newsfeed, if you use one.

In the meantime, Tam has fortuitously published a post on a related topic: I see a pattern forming...

Inboxing

Some things that have been gathering electronic dust in my inbox...

Source: Instapundit.
Story: Global eavesdroppers: In World War II, dozens of radio operators in Scituate dialed into enemy conversations worldwide - News - providencejournal.com - Providence, RI
In case you ever wondered how a US Army unit that never left the Continental United States could win a Presidential Unit Citation for the battle of the Atlantic, this related story gives a clue, although only part of one. (I thought I'd posted this one before, but I guess not...)

Source: Dunno.
Story: Why Science Fiction Pioneer Hugo Gernsback Matters 131 Years Later | Inverse
Could be more fact-heavy, and the author is pretty clearly in the CHORF camp of the Sad Puppies controversy (if you don't understand, congratulations!), but, while I'm not sure Hugo Gernsback invented Science Fiction As We Know It, he sure laid the groundwork.

Bit of a change-up in this article from The Atlantic: How JSOC Became a Manhunting Machine, From Panama to Iraq - The Atlantic

Speaking of which, Insty pulls a few related pieces fom the archives: Instapundit » Blog Archive » AS WE FIGHT THE WAR ON TERROR DOMESTICALLY AGAIN, A FEW RELEVANT PIECES FROM OVER A DECADE AGO…

Sometimes coming back is pretty much the point:  A ‘monumental’ rescue: Coast Guardsman swims a mile in choppy seas to save four fishermen, one at a time - The Washington Post

A further change of pace: How to reclaim your privacy in Windows 10, piece by piece | PCWorld (Beware auto-play!)

QOTD, 08/01/2015

I actually saw this yesterday, but I already had a QOTD for yesterday, so it got deferred to today.

At what Tamara likes to refer to as "An away game", and while discussing the Cecil The Lion "scandal", which in the way of these things devolved into a free range discussion of hunting, and what was Right And Proper and Pure, and What Was Evil and Wrong And Bad, David S. observed

How is it that so many of us in the gun community, who distrust the "liberal media," are so willing to accept this story at face value?

I've never been on an African "Safari"¹. If I had the money for same, I'd probably invest half and spend the rest on an Alaska hunt instead.

So here's what I know from talking about it with people who have been on Shikar²:

• You pays your money, you hires the Professional Hunter and his staff.
• The PH takes you around, and tells you when and where and which animal to shoot.
• That makes you the sport, not the, or a, "hunter."
• You have the option of paying "trophy fees" and getting a mount of the head.
• The meat is distributed among local communities.
• Hunting is controversial, especially among those whose knowledge of actual ecology ended at viewing Bambi at a young age.
• Hunting different from the way you/I do it is also controversial. 
• Mid-Westerners who "stalk"with a rifle or shotgun are liable to view those who hunt from a stand as some kind of barbarian, regardless of whether hunting from the ground there is practical, or even legal.
• People who have a scope on their shootin' 'arn feel the same about those without, and vice versa, ditto regarding legality.
• (EDITED TO ADD:) That goes double for weird styles of hunting involving strings and pointy sticks, guns that load from the front, or guns that look... icky.
• Also, some idiots are so much more concerned about the fate of a wild (well, semi-wild) animal than the facts that the "sport" in this case has received death threats, and the enlightened government of Zimbabwe (!) is demanding that said "sport" be extradited.
• Cecil was 13 years old. 
• The Average Life Span Of A Lion in the wild is 10-14 years.

Clearly, it's time to move to a cave in the mountains with a pile of "dead tree" books and give up on the human race.

***

1. Safari: A long overland trip, usually for diplomatic or trading purposes.
2. Shikar: Hunt, hunting.
This pretty much exhausts my knowledge of Swahili.

ATTENTION, EURO-WEENIES!

After hitting "Publish" on my previous post, I noticed on the "Dashboard" that Google has the following advisory:

European Union laws require you to give European Union visitors information about cookies used on your blog. In many cases, these laws also require you to obtain consent.

As a courtesy, we have added a notice on your blog to explain Google's use of certain Blogger and Google cookies, including use of Google Analytics and AdSense cookies.

You are responsible for confirming this notice actually works for your blog, and that it displays. If you employ other cookies, for example by adding third party features, this notice may not work for you. Learn more about this notice and your responsibilities.

The only cookies I know anything about are the ones my wife bakes, or, under extreme duress, we purchase at the store.

If any cookies end up on your computer (or whatever you call it in Euro-speak) they were put there without my knowledge.

Especially since that apparently means you're too stupid to block cookies and the like. Sheesh, it's the Twenty-First Century, people! 

I deny any responsibility for anything that may happen to you or your devices while visiting my subversive, pro-liberty, anti-authoritarian blog.

Unless you start agitating for your country to ditch the EU and EC, and start organizing on libertarian principles.  I'm all over taking credit for that.

And Google can go take a flying leap, too. Paying Word Press is looking better every day.