Land of Oz

Orders - Good and Bad

The military is between a rock and a hard spot in more than one way. Following orders is one of the tricky ones. Part, a big part after all, of the military is following orders. However these days, more and more questions about just what orders to follow are coming up. One thing that has changed is stop-loss. If you don't know what that is, it's a program that allows the military to keep people from getting out at their prearranged time. I've seen many comments where people said the GIs have agreed to be in, so they should just follow orders and suck it up.

But there's more and more GIs who are getting legally prosecuted for following orders under the caveat that they shouldn't blindly follow orders. The GI is going to have to get some training in legalese just so they can determine what orders they should really follow. Say they're ordered to call in fire on a map location. Do they immediately follow that order and take an enemy mortar team just packing up after an attack, or do they wonder that maybe those coordinates are actually those of a Seven-Eleven and their commander misread the coordinates. How far in questioning an enemy (if it's really an enemy) prisoner can you go before you've gone too far?

There's going to be GIs getting into firefights and having to pause just too long to think and they're going to get killed. I mean, I know you have to make sure of your target, but think about it. Once again, there's no uniforms for the bad guys here. There's no cowboys in white hats and Indians in feathers and breechclothes. There's no coal-scuttle helmets or quilted jackets to help tell the good guys from the bad guys. There's been car bombs with little kids in the back seat for camoflage and women wearing vest bombs walking into mess halls. Man, I'm glad I'm not in the military right now.

Labels: military

Virginia Shootings

Here's a line from a yahoo news article about the shooter:

"I guess the thing that is most startling to me, I say startling, surprising, is a young man who's 23 years old, that's been here for a while, that seemed to not know anybody," Flaherty said.

From my experience, I don't think this is that surprising. There's lots of us out there who seem to know no one. We aren't noticed for that reason. All through life there's a lot of folks out there who are on the fringes. Most of us manage to get through life without shooting a school full of people. Of course you don't notice those of us who don't. We're not noticed until or unless something like the Virginia shootings happen.

If you try hard, you can all remember somebody like this from high school, college or your job. You probably remember them, if at all, because of something someone did to them. The slightly odd kid who everyone either at best, ignored, or more likely tormented in some shape or form. Movies often identify them, Milton from Office Space, Carrie from her movie, and Arnie from Christine. Folks who just exist on the edge of society. Most of those who do notice them, just figure they're odd. Honestly, it surprising there aren't more Chos who snap and run rampant. There's a lot of them out there. You met a lot of them and you've probably even laughed at some of them. I'm one of them and even I laugh at others who are worse than I.

Labels: crime, gripes

White Castle

For those of you who aren't familiar with White Castle, they're a hamburger chain that started in the twenties if I remember and basically started all the stuff that Macdonalds does now. The had their own butchers, their own paper company and even had their own building company that would erect new White Castle buildings - that surprisingly enough look like white castles. This was an urban business and many of the restaurants today are in the not so good parts of town that were once the better parts of town. They had, and still have, wannabe competitors like White Tower and other similar sounding names in similar looking buildings. And like Macdonalds, they often took them to court to protect the name.

The burgers, also called sliders (based on the grease content) are tiny little things with holes in them that are steam fried in dehydrated onions. The reason for the holes by the way isn't to save meat, but so the grillers don't have to flip them. They're tiny enough so that buying and eating a dozen isn't much of a feat. When I was a kid I can remember buying the burgers by the 40s and 50s when we visited my grandparents in Chicago. Each teeny burger comes in a cardboard box that probably costs about the same as the meat in the burger. I have tried making them myself with limited success, but you can't really match the restaurants. See my recipes section for directions.

Anyway, we drove to an Ikea this weekend for my wife and there's a White Castle across the street from Ikea. The trip is good for both of us, as she gets to go shopping at Ikea and I get to pig out at White Castle. What really prompted this post was a sign advertising the latest White Castle sandwich - a bologna, egg and cheese breakfast sandwich. I'd always thought that sliders were about as greasy as you could get and they come out with something like this. No, I didn't have a chance to try one - it being too late, and I'm not sure I would if I could. This sounds like something that would make one of the Burger King meat monstrosities almost healthy. Bon Appetite.

Labels: food

Guns

I suppose I should add my little voice to the torrent of pro-antigun rhetoric. Simply put, I'm for gun ownership if you want one. In fact, any weapon you want to own is fine with me. Where I draw the line is what you do with that weapon. The kid in Virginia was already identified as a nutcase - and he is one who shouldn't be owning a weapon. But that doesn't mean no one should own a weapon.

One thing to think about is that had a couple of law-abiding students, teachers or guards, been packing guns, the whole VTI thing could've ended up much differently. Think about what would have happened if that kid's first stop was in a marksmanship class where everyone was armed. I think the body count would have been much smaller.

One of the cliches that I believe in is, "guns don't kill people, people kill people." And it's true. You put a loaded gun in the middle of a room full of people and nothing's going to happen unless someone stupid picks up the gun and shoots someone - preferably himself. That gun will sit there until it rusts into a pile of ferric oxide and no one will be hurt.

What I'd like to see is a clampdown on gun crime. Do a crime, any crime, even stealing a slice of stale bread and if you have a gun with you I'd like to see a minimum of 25 to life. Hurt someone with the gun, and I don't care if you drop it and the victim trips over it, you get life - period. A gun can be a deadly force, just like a knife or baseball bat. If you pick one up, you need to acknowledge certain responsibilities. Like I said, I see no problem with owning a gun as long as you're prepared to accept the responsibilities of ownership.

To me there's no such thing as an "accidental shooting." If you're holding a gun and it goes off, you're responsible. Every time I pick up a gun, I consider it loaded and I don't point it towards anything (or anybody) I don't intend on shooting. I don't care if you've just rebuilt it and it's still warm from a bluing bath, I consider it loaded until I check for sure. If you're carrying a gun and trip and shoot someone, you're responsible (unless you're a vice-president) because it wasn't an accident.

Labels: crime, freedom

Danish

No, not the sweet cake you eat with your coffee, but the folks who live in Denmark. The BBC just had an article that was saying how happy the Danes appear to be. I guess most surveys in Europe put the Danes near the top of the list as far as contented people. It was kind of a funny article since the writer kept hinting that the Danes really weren't that happy and that the real reason was only because they have such low expectations. I don't know - the descriptions of Danish culture seem pretty nice to me. The story even had one picture showing the inside of a spotless public transportation vehicle that was captioned, "Public transport is ominously clean," as if clean buses is a bad thing. I guess that makes our dirty Michigan buses that are full of unwashed and ill-dressed malcontents a good thing?

From what they said, I don't know why there's a suspicion of Danish happiness. They work their 37 hour week and go home using convenient, even if ominously clean, transport. There's subsidized child care and the streets seem to be safe and clean - though not reported as ominously clean. As ominous as it may appear to the writer, I don't think I'd mind swapping my 45 hour week; dirty, broken down, practically non-available buses; and streets and schools echoing with gunfire and the smell of arsoned buildings for the low expectationed reality of the Danes.

Time

I've recently noticed something odd about looking at time - especially in these days of digital readouts. No one thinks it's odd if you ask to meet someplace at eight in the morning, or have lunch at one-thirty. But try asking someone to meet you at twelve oh three, or have lunch at one-eleven. You will almost always get a strange look. I, for example, almost always set my digital alarm for something 12:34 or 7:57.

But if you think about it, what's the difference? One-eleven isn't any more or less accurate than saying one. If you tell someone to meet you at noon, you are telling them to meet you exactly as 12:00 - no later or earlier. So noon is just as picky as saying twelve oh three, except it's three minutes earlier.

So I wonder. Are terms like quarter to twelve and half-past eight going away? How about clockwise and counter-clockwise? I think as long as there are loose screws around, clockwise will still be around.

Samosa Speakeasy

I was visiting Toronto this past weekend and ran into a rather odd place to buy food. In a office park area there was what looked similar to a strip mall for offices. It looked that about three-quarter of the places were abandoned and those that were left were on hard times.

Some of the folks who work at a nearby office told me about this place to get good cheap samosas. For those who don't know, samosas are a type of Indian dumpling stuffed with meat or potatoes and peas and little spicy. They are usually deep-fried and served as an appetizer. You go up to the door. The place had a small sign, but nothing you'd ordinarily notice. I guess they often go there to order up a few bucks worth of samosas and naan for office lunches.

Anyway, you walk through a glass outside door and inside there's another wooden door with a small sign that says ring the outside doorbell. There are a couple of handwritten signs on the wall that say Vegi Samosas 4/$1 and mutton samosas 3/$1. There is also a bread ad but it doesn't mention price. So I stepped out, rang the bell and waited. Pretty soon some Indian guy dressed in whites with a hairnet answered the door. I told him 4 veggies and 3 meat and handed him $2. He closed the door and in a few more minutes handed out two paper bags full of samosas. While some people have said this is the equivalent of crack house for food, I couldn't help but think of Al Capone and the speakeasies of days gone by.

Unfortunately the samosas I got this time were a bit cold, but still tasty, especially when I got them home and warmed them up. I guess most of the time they are served hot and fresh.

Labels: food

Spares

No, not bowling. Today I had a flat tire. I was at my desk when someone came over and said my car had a flat. I went out to check and sure enough it was going down. The first thing I saw was a nail in the sidewall and thought someone must be screwing with me.

I went into the trunk and pulled out the spare and toolkit and got to work. I even checked the manual to make sure I remembered where to put the jack. I kept a piece of pipe in the car that fit the lug nut wrench to make it easier to remove the tight nuts.

It didn't more than a few minutes to pull the tire and replace it with the spare - I do check the spare tire pressure by the way. The surprising thing was that there were a total of three nails in the tire. Two in the tread and one in the sidewall. That made me a little less apt to suspect fowl play (yes, rampant chickens could have done it).

I drove over to the tire store where I bought the Goodyear tires - Northwest Tire & Services on Tittabawassee in Saginaw - and they took care of it all in about 45 minutes. I had the extra warranty so the tire was replaced for free and after $35 for sundry labor fees and parts I was on my way. I finally have something good to say about a tire dealer.

The funny part is that when I told my tale of woe at work, everyone wondered how I made it to the tire store. No one even seems to think about putting on a spare anymore. One person asked if I called AAA and another wondered who took my flat to the tire store. I told them that I was actually able to change to the spare all by my lonesome - I may be getting up in age, but I'm not quite totally decrepit yet.

Labels: driving

Spam - again

I've bitched about spam a lot over the last couple of years - not that it does any good except to give me a chance to blow off steam anyway. The latest issue seems to be sending out multiple identical copies of a spam. This makes even less sense to me than the misspelled and typo-ridden spams do. Does anyone actually think that reading Summer is coming, time to tone up four times instead of once will get me to buy?

Maybe it's the spam version of an infomercial. The companies on TV figure that if you're not going to buy the Miracle Ear Growth Stimulator after a thirty second commercial, you're sure apt to buy it after a thirty minute commercial. Which brings me to why anyone would watch a thirty minute commercial anyway. Now that I think about it, I suppose it's the same people who will read four or five identical spams and send away for a new copy of "Summer is coming, time to tone up," which by the way is selling some weight-loss product from Oprah with written testimonials from illiterate people.

The other annoying spam I get comes in about 2 to 3 times a week and exhorts me to "please update your data" and about every third week changes bank titles. Currently, it is BB&T, but in the past has been the Third and U.S. Bank -- all of which get tagged by the spam/virus filter in my email program. The strange thing is the virus filter warns against me downloading the contents, but then never gives me an option to do so. One time I finally extracted the supposed virus, and it turned out to be a gif image that links somewhere.

Put and Putting

Here's one of those odd English lessons. You can put something away by putting it away. Tiger Wood can make a good putt by putting with accuracy. Should Tiger be puttting? By the way, when I Google "puttting" I get 43,900 hits. "Puttting" brings it down to about 8.

It's similar to using polish to polish the Polish eagle emblem. How is one to know the difference in pronunciation? The capitalization could be a clue, but then, "Polish that shoe!" puts (putts?) and end to that.

And how many people do you know who would be willing to desert the desert for dessert? Would that be their just deserts?

How about a fish that makes a low frequency noise? Would that be a bass bass?

Does two does make a pair if they're standing in a pear orchard?

And looking into the Wikipedia, I find these are called heteronyms - and a pretty deserted entry it is.