A Review

I recently picked up a DVD from the freebie bin at work. I do that a lot, not just when I see items from my favorite authors/artists, but also when I see someone I hadn't ever heard of but which looks interesting. There are huge piles of unopened movies, CDs and books all over my house, unfortunately. There's just too much for me to get around to looking at until such a time as I have a month or two of free time to dedicate to it.

I worked all night last night, and damned if I was going to work today. So I picked up this DVD from the pile and proceeded to very sleepily watch it this morning. The title is Kate Rusby - Live at Leeds and is, of course, a concert. Kate Rusby is a folksinger, and has a pretty good band built around her. The girl has one hell of a voice, but probably the CDs do not do justice to her. She's a comely woman, and her expression while performing uplifts her in ways that no sound system possibly could. I'll keep a lookout for her in case she ever performs near me. And I'll keep an eye out for more of her work, preferably on DVD.

In the meantime, I'll gladly watch this DVD a couple of more times so I can memorize it. It's great to be surprised by an unknown talent like this when you expected far less. Must be how the lucky talent scouts feel, on the rare occasions where they strike paydirt.

Mainframe Odyssey

Tonight we'll be attempting to upgrade our mainframe's operating system for the umpteenth time. The past attempts (for more than a year now) have all had to be backed out and the vendor has been clueless as to what's causing the problem. We've added capacity and tweaked the settings since last time, and everyone's sort of confident it'll work this time around.

I sort of think it won't. We'll know in a few days if it's good, or we'll probably know if it's bad a whole lot sooner. Either way, I have the dubious honor of staying up most of the night babysitting the upgrade and fielding the customer's questions.

I'll post any funny stuff that happens during the upgrade sometime tomorrow, if and when I get up.

Justice for all

The concept of justice has died a quiet death in America, mainly as a result of the vermin infesting the legal profession. There are some good lawyers around, but they're powerless to uphold the spirit of the law against their far more numerous brethren who delight in taking advantage of the letter of the law. That's what it's come down to, when you take a good look.

Our forefathers had a very clear intent when they stipulated that every man would have a right to have his case heard in court, and would be judged by a jury of his peers. This was back in the time when what usually passed for justice was that the King, or his representative, meted out justice according to his own preference and with little if any regard for laws, rights, evidence or anything else one would expect a judge/jury to use. Hence the saying that so and so was judge, jury and executioner. A single person often carried out all 3 roles in those days. Maybe not the final one, but he'd at least send the accused off swiftly to meet with one.

So our forefathers, disliking this scenario, set forth that every man accused of a transgression should be considered innocent till proven guilty, have a chance to plead his case in court, and be afforded a jury made up of his peers to determine his guilt or innocence.

All that's pretty good, isn't it? And it was, up to that point. You see, back then, if 10 people saw someone hack apart his wife with a butcher's knife then there was no way in hell that some sleazy lawyer could get away with cross-examining the witnesses, and trying to delude a jury into thinking that the witnesses really hadn't seen what they all so clearly did see. And any lawyer who made that attempt would have probably ended up hanging right next to his client, when all was said and done.

In a recent case heard on the radio, a deaf girl who was raped by 4 thugs had to "listen" to a defense lawyer asserting that it hadn't been rape but consensual sex despite a lot of evidence to the contrary. The girl is now refusing to testify further as the whole thing had been turned into a circus by the defense and it was causing even further trauma for her to have to put up with the whole charade. This means the perps will probably cop a minor plea and be on the streets again soon, hopefully to go on to rape the defense lawyer's daughter, if there's even a sliver of justice left here.

That would have been an open and shut case in the old days. They'd have been granted their day in court, of course, but no one would have dared try to make it out as consensual sex. Of course, in today's legal system, it's not a matter of proving innocence, or even guilt, but just a contest to see who can muddy the waters more in order to win the case for their client. It's become an exercise in sophistry. Justice isn't being served. Hell, it's not even in line waiting for a table at this point.

On the upside, the worse it becomes, the sooner it will be reformed, and hopefully lawyers made as illegal as pedophiles are today. If not, we'll see a progressive increase in vigilante type crime as people start to take the law into their own hands, upon seeing how plainly naive it is to trust in the legal system.

Thoughts or suggestions, anyone?

The solution was so obvious!

Yet Another Modest Proposal

The internet used to be chock full of information (a good percentage of it either false or true but utterly useless), porn and pirated copyrighted material. Lately, though, I've noticed a sharp increase in yet another category, that of Al-Qaeda snuff videos. Not too long ago snuff movies were an Urban Legend. That is, no one had ever been able to prove that any movie had been shot for commercial purposes AND included actual footage of a person being killed as an integral and planned part of the sequence of the film.

A few very corny films had been offered up as evidence, one of them being Cannibal Holocaust, that such a genre really existed. The truth is, all those movies were the product of Special Effects. All the people who "died" in the films were tracked down later and proven to be still among us. Actors, all of them. Now, we have the Al-Qaeda sons of bitches filming themselves each time they behead one of their abducted victims. I propose we call these the first actual example of snuff films. Al-Qaeda's goals are simply a decrease of non-Islamic control and a subsequent increase of (their brand of) Islamic control over the world. We in the West are making the fatal flaw of judging these people by our own standards. While their goals do not classify as commercial the way we would see it, I state that it is a direct equivalent.

I've been dumbfounded these past weeks at the way the misguided but very vocal Liberal minority here in the United States is still insisting that we should backtrack and appease these folks. I like the way the South Korean government responded to Al-Qaeda, basically stating that the beheading of their countryman would not affect their sending 3,000 troops to Iraq. It would have sent an even clearer message had they said that now, instead of 3,000, they'd be sending 6,000 troops. It's a sad statement on the cluelessness of people nowadays that some South Koreans are holding protests against sending those troops AFTER news of the beheading of their countryman was released. I just can't understand why anyone would even consider caving in to a request from Al-Qaeda delivered in such a manner. It's the exact same scenario as when raising children. If your child comes to you requesting permission for something via a threat, you say no! Even if you had planned on granting permission beforehand. You cannot show weakness in these cases or you'll be a hostage to such demands forever after. See Spain.

Now, my countrymen here in the U.S., that's a whole 'nother can of worms... It has become fashionable (politically correct) to see everyone else's point of view and try to comply with it even if it comes as a detriment to our own interests. Another thing that has become fashionable is to spin every piece of news so it shows us and our government in the worst possible light.

Fact: Saddam tortured a hell of a lot more people in Al Ghraib (and many other facilities he had) than we could ever manage even if we're given the same amount of time he had.

It's not that we can't, it's that it's not in our nature. Now, I'm not using Saddam's actions to justify ours, but let's keep this in context. We took down someone who was systematically murdering and torturing his own people, and might I add, with nary an outcry from the same fools who are now howling for Rumsfeld's head for a few isolated incidents, and we are in the process of handing over autonomy to the Iraqi people.

Fact: Some Islamic Extremist assholes hijacked 4 airplanes 3 years ago and killed upwards of 3,000 people while using said airplanes as manned missiles.

We can go back and forth, looking for causes behind this, and how we pissed off the Arabs, and then go back and see how they pissed us off, and ultimately arrive at a couple of apes with bigger than normal braincases facing off with antelope jawbones in their hands, but at the end of the day 9/11 was still a cowardly attack by a terrorist group against unsuspecting civilians. The United States has a right to go after the people responsible for the attack, and anyone aiding, abetting or supporting these folks to make sure they are taken down. During these efforts we'll certainly make some mistakes and piss other people off, and we'll apologize for it. While Saddam did not directly participate in 9/11, he can certainly be classified as a supporter and it's good that we took him down. How do I know he's a supporter? Next fact, please...

Fact: Saddam Hussein paid money, 10 thousand U.S. dollars, if I recall correctly, to the families of every suicide bomber attacking Israel.

Now, I'm not a huge fan of Israel, but if that doesn't make Saddam a supporter of Islamic Extremist terrorists, then I don't know what does.

Fact: The Saudi Royal Family is involved to the hilt in all this Al-Qaeda stuff. Financing them and refusing to take them down when they most probably can.

Taking down Saddam was nice, but I think we need to roll through the region. My proposal? An ultimatum given to the Saudi Royal Family. Clean your act within a certain time or you're toast. If they don't comply, don't even waste troops, just nuke their sorry asses. The oilfields are nowhere near Riyadh, so who cares? I think it's time for us to take this whole thing to a new level and prove to the extremists that it's not in their best interests to mess with us.

I know my proposal will shock a lot of folks, but it's something that needs to be done. I hope Bush has the balls to at least give this some serious thought, and hopefully carry through with it once the inevitability sinks in.

Anyone reading this feel free to comment.

Dismay!

I have at least 2 very long posts/comments brewing in my mind, but just haven't had the time to post (Thank the Gods that I'm not syndicated yet).

More on 9/11

As information starts trickling out of the 911 Commission, people start going wild all over. Stupidity must always have its say. I heard on the news today that the Commission has stated that 13 valuable minutes were wasted by the Air Traffic Controllers before they requested that fighter jets be scrambled. Had these minutes not been wasted, jets could have overtaken the planes and shot them down.

Ha!

We would not have shot the hijacked planes down even if the terrorists had unequivocally said they were going to crash them into the Twin Towers, much less on that morning when their plans weren't know. I can just imagine the outcry from all the clueless liberals if the planes had been shot down. Why, Bush would have been forced out of office before the day was over. He'd have been tarred and feathered.

And then there's all these other morons trying to make something out of the fact that the Commission said that Saddam had nothing to do with 9/11. No one ever said he had anything to do with it, you liberal idiots!!! That doesn't mean he wasn't allied with terrorism in general, and maybe Al-Qaeda in particular. It is a known fact that Saddam furnished funds to Palestinian terrorist groups, and also sent a fixed amount, $10000 US, to the families of every suicide bomber dying on the job in Israel.

It's all spin, and a lot of people are stupid enough to fall for it.

Luck changing?

I spent the whole day visiting my new account. It's closer to home than my other account, but I probably won't have office space there. Some other people from my company flew in for the kickoff meeting, too.

After being on two very crappy accounts for the whole of my stint with this company, I was very impressed with this new customer. They seem to be reasonable, intelligent, knowledgeable people, and to top it off, they were actually nice.

After my initial shock, I struggled to remember how I used to behave when I had the good fortune to work at a great company and enjoyed my job. I used to smile at my colleagues, treat the users well and give my all without any complaint. I did my best to recover that attitude quickly and I think I managed it, hopefully giving a good impression.

This company manufactures fragrances for the perfume, food and household products market. The office I went to is their main one for North America, and has a huge warehouse/production complex stuck to it. We got the tour. They have every conceivable chemical, essence, oil, etc. needed to mix and produce the fragrances used in products such as perfumes, toothpaste, soap, air fresheners, foods and a gazillion other items. Their offices are kept smelling of different fragrances via the airconditioning system, I guess, with the fragrance changing in every section. I'm going to score some free perfumes next week, thanks to a buddy I made there. Goes along well with the free books, movies and music I score daily at my old account. Now if I could get an LSD manufacturer assigned as my 3rd account...

The IT Management there is composed of a couple of Dutch folks who were given North America as their territory by the company who owns this one, and moved from Holland to the U.S. It's nice to deal with cultured people every now and then. The IT staff whose work we'll be transitioning to my company really soon were told this past Monday that their jobs are going away. Despite that, they appear eager to help. Good professionals. I told them I'd do my best to get them a job within my company. I hope I can make good on that offer. One of them is from the country I used to live in, before relo'ing back to the U.S. We switched to Spanish when the rest of the crew left and we talked for an hour or more. People from that country really open up when they see you as being a fellow national. He's the one who'll hook me up with the free perfumes next week.

Overall, a good start. I'll try to spend more and more of my time on that account as opposed to the old one. The only good thing about the old one is free books, movies and CDs. Other than that, it's a horror house and they run a sweat shop. They resent me because I will not align with their stupidity.

Before my colleagues left to take their flights back home yesterday, we went off for a quick lunch. We chose one of those Chinese buffet places. This one had a Sushi Bar. Now, normally, the only good stuff in these places is the crabs' legs, some of the other seafood, the soups and the battered chicken. I avoid the rest like the plague, and that includes the sushi which is usually just left on the bar for Gods know how long till someone makes the mistake of taking it. In this joint, though, they had an Asian guy who looked Japanese actually preparing it on demand, and all still for 6 bucks per person!!! I went for a first roll, got it, and left a dollar tip in the guy's jar. He sure looked Japanese...

When I went for my second sushi roll and got it, I thanked the guy profusely in Japanese, using the most formal form, too. He answered in kind, and we exchanged a few niceties. I bowed and left for my table again. I have this thing with sushi. I can easily eat 10 rolls in one meal, so I knew I was going back for more. Knowing Japanese culture, I knew what would happen, too. The Japanese consider everyone else to be no better than animals. A gaijin (non-Japanese) who makes the effort of learning to speak Nihongo, while still being an animal, is nonetheless elevated to almost human status, and as such, deserving of special treatment. The next sushi rolls I went for were noticeably better than the first ones, more elaborate and with better sashimi in them. I don't know what that guy was doing in a Chinese run restaurant, nor how long he'll remain there, but I plan on making it a regular stop from now on.

It's amazing how people will go the extra mile for you if you make an effort to appreciate their culture instead of forcing them to be American. That melting pot has to work both ways. We Americans can certainly do with a bit more culture on our side.

Many things, all conjoined

I apologize for the skimpy posting these past days, I've had a lot on my plate. Here's some of what I've done, in no particular order...

* Drove around last night some 60 or so miles, around 9pm, on Interstate 80. That's not unusual in and of itself, I usually drive around at odd hours.This time, though, I took along a black cat and let him loose in the car with me. He's an unneutered, ornery cuss but usually quite calm when with me. We've reached an agreement, you see. I don't spray on his stuff, he doesn't spray on mine. At first he was quite nervous, walking all over inside the car and digging in his nails to avoid being knocked loose. Except when he perched on my shoulder for a while, waving his tail in front of my eyes as if daring me to pick a fight with him while doing 90mph. At some point he discovered that the flat space above and behind the rear seats, and under the rear glass, afforded him the best perching spot, as well as the best view. He spent the rest of the trip stretched out there, glaring at the cars I passed and causing many a doubletake.

* I was assigned a new account last week. This is a new client who has only just made the mistake signed on with my company. I'll be working closely with them to transition their IT operations over to our facilities in the next few months. It's a small account, and probably won't generate a much grief, but with some of the clowns I'm forced to use as support, that's never a given. I'll be meeting the client's IT Managers later today, so I'll post any first impressions if they're noteworthy.

* Spent half the night looking for some tomfool of a kid who got lost in the mountain. His family wasn't too upset, despite the fact that the kid had been lost for almost 4 hours by the time we were called, though. They kept saying he was very familiar with the woods thereabouts, and not prone to do stupid things. The truck he'd been in had broken down, and when they called for relatives to pick them up, he'd said he'd start walking out and meet them halfway. When the relatives arrived at the broken down truck he wasn't there, and they hadn't seen him along the way, so he must have taken a wrong trail. There are some pretty steep and deep dropoffs, as well as some mudholes that can swallow you up whole, so they were a little concerned. About 40 people showed up, between us firefighters, ambulance crews, mountain rescue folks, assistance groups and plain JAFOs. The kid was found, eventually, safe and sound. After walking for hours he'd shown some sense and backtracked to the broken down truck, which we were checking on every so often. The family was relieved and grateful, so that worked out.

* My sword's in the shop for repairs. It's a bit loose so Sensei's putting some more seppa on it. I miss it. Hope nobody attacks me while I'm bladeless. Not that anyone's attacked me in years, but still. I've gotten used to knowing there's a blade close by again. Ah, well. Bokuto and shinai can still cause severe damage. Sensei should have loaner swords available, like they do with cars at the better shops.

And that'll be all for today. Gotta go get ready to meet the new customer and all that.

Grip on reality

Some people will insist on expecting an apple tree to produce pears. And they'll get quite upset when the damn tree insists on producing bushel after bushel of apples.

New job

Starting a new job on Wed. Frightfully busy. I'll write about it sooner or later.

News

Oh, blast. I actually have some news to post, but I didn't get the time. Not today, and not yesterday, so it'll have to wait till Monday. On that suspenseful note I bid you all adieu, with many wishes for an interesting weekend...

Gullibility

I have a hard time talking to most people who express belief in the paranormal. Yeah, I know, ironic, isn't it? Here I am, an avowed necromancer, I've been practicing my own brand of black magick for untold years, and there's only a few people out of the multitude that would actually believe my claims that I am willing to talk to.

The problem is, these people are willing to believe absolutely anything without wanting or even needing a shred of proof in return. Talk to them and you'll see that it's an anything goes mentality. I am a very skeptical necromancer, and I am very empirical, while at the same time making sure I research those waho've gone before me in these matters to learn from their experience. But just because John Dee said something was so doesn't mean I'll accept it on his authority. I have to try it out. In just such a manner, I've discovered how much of Dee's work is hogwash, and how much is actually valid. Same for other sources, such as Crowley and his crew, Hermes Trismegistos, Cornelius Agrippa, Fulcanneli and many others. This isn't something exclusive to me. Anyone willing to spend the time can follow the scientific method even in apparently unscientific endeavors. And I really enjoy discussing these matters with people who take the time to experiment, and then arrive at a conclusion.

All too often, though, one runs across people who believe in Angels because, period. And those believing that aliens walk among us and that the government has actual UFOs hidden away in Area 51. Okay, I'll say, that's interesting, and even possible, but what makes you say it's true? Oh, I read it. Or I saw a show on the SciFi channel.

Hell, if that's all the proof we need, then Batboy does exist, I guess! And he probably screwed your mother, too.

In the not too far off past, I had someone believing for months that I could 'coil'. I took the word out of a Roger Zelazny/Fred Saberhagen novel called, appropriately enough, 'Coils'. The premise of the novel revolves around a man who could mentally connect to the internet with no hardware required. He would get near a network point of presence and psychically 'log in'. Once there, he'd hack his way through and control the computer, modifying data at will, or simply reading it for his purposes. This novel came out way before anyone even knew what the internet was (except Al Gore, of course, bless his soul), by the way, and is an excellent read.

At the time, I used to connect to my instant messenger client as 'invisible', which prevented me from getting bombarded by insane requests at work. My employer uses instant messaging in much the same way a neurotic and recently ex-girlfriend uses the phone. So I'd be logged in so I could get messages, but invisible so people wouldn't know I was online and they wouldn't expect an immediate reply. This person I'm talking about would often receive a post or two from me and being oblivious to the fact that one could mark oneself invisible, would often ask me why I appeared offline. After a couple of times, I answered, "It's because I'm not yet at my desk, but I'm close enough to 'coil' into the network and access instant messenger, see you're online and start posting at you". After a couple of minutes, I'd mark myself 'visible' and say, "Hi! Finally got here. Sorry about that." This absolute idiot actually believed this story for months, no proof asked for, none received.

Let the government say they've reduced pollution by whatever percentage and you'll have the whole population requesting proof, doublechecking the numbers, buying test kits to try it out at home and so on. But let some kook state that aliens are coming in a year to pick him up, plus any followers, and take them to paradise and you'll get scores of people believing it without question, and willing to suicide on command in order to get to the mothership.

Why are people willing to suspend disbelief in direct proportion to the outrageousness of the claim? One would think the opposite would hold true, but it's seldom so. Must be part of that human condition people so often talk about and which I despaired of ever understanding a long time ago.

Ladies' Night

Some stupid idiot in NJ sued on the grounds of discrimination he'd suffered at a bar simply because he appeared to have balls. Seriously. This moron sued because he had to pay regular cover charge and regular price for drinks on Ladies' Night. Most bars not dedicated exclusively to the all male or gay crowd offer Ladies' Night, when the fairer sex gets to go in without paying a cover charge and also receive a discount on the girly drinks they prefer. But that's not the punchline.

Apparently, an even stupider judge found in his favor, and the bar was forced to stop this discrimination. Other bars in the state are following suit, since the judgment has enough force to be broad in its application, that is, it covers all bars and similar venues, not just the one sued.

I guess I can finally start that lawsuit I've been thinking about for so long, against those stupid, unreasonable bastards in wheelchairs who hog all the good parking spots. And just wait till I'm on a sinking ship. Women and children first? I think not. Screw them. Okay, seriously, folks, how stupid can we get? I mean, at some point these people just have to stop breathing due to lack of available brain power, no?

There are probably still valid uses for anti-discrimination laws, and this is not one of them. Just another example of the frivolous lawsuits eating up taxpayer money and clogging the already overtaxed court system, as well as the type of clueless judge who not only lets these cases advance, but actually finds in favor of the stupid.

Somebody needs to take a close look at all the flaws in our legal system and make some very needed corrections soon, before it's too late. Hopefully, there's still time, although I'm really starting to doubt it.

Finesse

Handling a broadsword requires little finesse. It's comparable to clubbing an enemy, with the advantage that this club cuts. If you're strong enough to wield one, you can probably become quite good at it quickly.

The Japanese katana is much flimsier. The way it's made guarantees that it is a flexible weapon, capable of bending way more than one would imagine before snapping. But if not wielded properly, you'll ruin the sword*. You'll probably kill your enemy if you land the blow on him, a katana can hold a wicked edge, but it'll be the last blow you'll hit with that sword. The katana is a precision instrument.

I could make a lot of comments about what this reveals regarding the differences between the Japanese way of thinking and the Western one, but I won't. I'm too busy right now. Maybe later.

*There's a great example of this in a not overly good movie, although it has its moments. Its name is The Challenge. It's worth watching, as they do show some good moves.

The End of an Era

One of the few really accredited dojos in the United States is closing its doors. If you go on to the web, or open your local Yellow Pages, you'll find a gazillion dojos advertised. Bob's Flying Dragon Karate School. John's Shadow Ninja Assassin Training Academy. Splinter's Teenage Ninja Mutant Turtles Kyokushin Ryu. And so on. Most of the dojos here are owned and operated by some moron who at some point took a martial arts lesson, or watched a Bruce Lee movie for 10 times straight, and decided to hang out his shingle, billing himself as the authentic recipient of some famous master's lore. Some of these even state that they are the authorized American branch of some ancient Japanese school, which when you go to Japan and check up on these credentials, you either find that the Japanese have never heard of their American branch, and in one memorable case I was privy to, the Japanese school didn't even exist.

And then you have a few dojos here in the U.S. who are actually run by someone who knows his stuff. I'm privileged to belong to one of these, and I also had the chance recently to attend the dojo that I am writing this post about, as a visitor at the beginning of the year. Now this dojo didn't specialize in what I'm actively training in, but it is a sister school whose Sensei is highly respected by my Sensei. I had even hoped at a later stage in my training to crosstrain in this other dojo, as a complement to my regular curriculum.

The owner of this dojo is a man already advanced somewhat in years, who makes a living solely through teaching his art. Unfortunately, he's here in the U.S. where people don't give a shit for this, instead of somewhere like Japan, where he'd be treated like a God. Over here, he's got a gaggle of students who show up whenever they feel like it, and give him promises of payment instead of money. And they're probably convinced that they're learning the same crap as is offered at any of the other so called dojos littering the neighborhood. In reality, this Sensei is probably the only one in the East Coast teaching his specialty at that sort of level. Once he closes shop, anyone in the area wishing to learn this is basically screwed. If they know enough, they'll realize they can't learn it locally anymore. If they don't know enough, they'll be deluded into training with a false sensei which is worse than not training at all.

He's shutting down because the place where he operates charges like 4,000 dollars a month, which he's been managing to scrape up, despite his money woes, but the final straw came some months ago when the owners requested he clear out because the building's being razed. The whole area of New York City where he's located is being renovated, beautified. A comparable place would cost him way more than what he pays now, so it's out of the question, he was barely getting by. And moving out of the city would make him lose the few students he still has anyway. Hence, he'll retire, a sad man as he wasn't ready to do so yet.

Wishful thinking

The Liberalization of our school system and media are swiftly producing a new kind of idiot here in America. These folks have been told that the facts may safely be ignored. It's what feels right that's important.

An example of this can be seen in a recent discussion where I was explaining to someone from outside the United States my views on the National Guard and why I disagreed with the Liberal tendency to belittle them as part of their ongoing attack on the President. The person I was discussing with had very little knowledge of the Guard itself, but he did have other knowledge and views pertinent to our general discussion, as well as a willingness to admit to the gaps in his knowledge and listen.

At this point one of these new kinds of idiots I mentioned in the first paragraph felt the need to butt in. Among the idiotic comments this person made about the National Guard was the following:

They are citizen-soldiers, unlike Regular Army and Reserves, and we need them here. When we need protection during riots, when we need help before, during and after natural disasters, it is their training and expertise that we rely on. From handling heavy machinery to move earth and debris, to rescuing people stranded in floods, to getting supplies to impassable areas---this is what they are trained for and what they do best.

There are so many factual errors in that small paragraph that one would be hard pressed to find something correct in it. I am fairly sure the above is what this person wishes the National Guard might be, but it certainly isn't what the National Guard is, as defined by our nation's laws.

I answered back to this person with the facts, not out of a need to educate another idiot, but on the off chance that someone honestly seeking knowledge might stumble upon the discussion at some future date, and upon not seeing any response to the idiot, might take the idiot's statements for the truth. If it weren't for that, I'd have ignored the idiot and not responded a single word. It shouldn't be my job to educate absolute morons, I don't get paid for that. I do like intelligent discussions, though, because I am as likely to learn something of value as I am of giving value in return.

For those wishing to understand the National Guard's Charter, please look here, and look closely at the Dick Act of 1903.

And as a word of advice to everyone, before you jump into a discussion and try to push your views, make sure you understand the subject being discussed, at least a little bit. Ignorance isn't a good way to sell an argument.

Toy

I can spend hours and hours playing with this... LOL