The Nanny State sinks to a new level....

Just when you think it can't get more intrusive; http://freebeacon.com/issues/epa-wants-to-monitor-how-long-hotel-guests-spend-in-the-shower/

In the last several years there have been stories about laptops issued by school districts that will monitor the users' actions without their knowledge, a school district in San Antonio with GPS chips in their student ID cards (mandatory for all of course), thermostats for home usage that can be remotely controlled and these are just what comes to mind as I sit here with my coffee trying to kill time while the kitchen floor gets tiled.

When the hell did we go from enjoying our individual lives and liberties into a hive existence? Because thats what it seems like, everyones' life becomes an open book for whatever intrusive cube ape working for the government wants to peer into.

Drones in the air, monitoring of Internet purchases (I WILL NOT buy that pressure cooker now!), cameras at every traffic light, intrusive searches at any major airport terminal, where does it all end?

A lot of it is done in the name of "public safety". Hey, the public will take care of itself when given half a chance. Look at how many would-be jihadists have been taken down by their fellow airplane passengers.

As for monitoring how long my shower might last when at a hotel, do ya think it stops there? I've already mentioned remotely controlled thermostats (which very thankfully were walked back after a public outcry). They started, IMHO, when the management of some hotels began limiting what a tenant could do with their room temperature.

Its the vigilance of the public that limits these things and quite often John & Joan Q. Public are asleep. Remember the last census and how it initially was criticized by Michelle Bachmann and others for being too inquisitive? Had it not been for her sounding the alarm the asshats in Foggy Bottom would know a lot more about the general public than they absolutely need to. If that doesn't seem to be an issue, look to Germany in the 1930's after Hitler took over. There was a VERY detailed census put out and all the good Germans did what they were told. Consequently when it came time to start rounding up the undesirables all the necessary data was at hand.

It's nobody's damned business if I take a long hot shower in a hotel. My kids don't need to be constantly monitored by strangers. If I want to buy a cooking utensil most people don't use these days it shouldn't be any concern of the government. End of story.

The list goes on and on, add to it as you like.

Bottom line: we're trading our freedoms for a false security. Yes, it even extends to how much water I use in the shower.

Autism, ADHD and my children.

I definetly don't get on this blog like I used to. My family is more my focus, as a matter of fact it wasn't too long ago I swore I'd give this blog up. Since the wife expects me to leave her alone occasionally I need some way to vent. Throwing the cats against the wall won't work, they're too quick for me. So it goes.

What brings me back now are the topics of autism & ADHD. My three children have both, as a matter of fact ADHD has been placed on the autism spectrum, so when someone claims their child has it they're automatically considered autistic. My kids have other sprectrum related issues, normally I try to go with the flow. Best to focus on the solution, not be a part of the problem.

But lately I keep running across web articles or radio shows where some self appointed expert will hold forth, never letting his ignorance stop him from bleating out his opinion.

Some of the trash I hear is; A) autism is caused by the MMR vaccine. B) there is no such thing as autism, the children just need firm discipline. C) ADHD is just a sinister plot the feminazi establishment in league with Big Pharmacy cooked up to emasculate our sons. D) ADHD is merely a lack of discipline.

Any one of these rants make my blood boil. Seriously. My children all exhibited anomalies while in the womb, long before they could receive the MMR vaccine. The citing of a plot by the feminazis of our nation along with Big Pharmacy is something of an insult to anyone's intelligence. C'mon, the same folks solemnly pontificating about that sort of a conspiracy would probably have no qualms about downing pills for cancer or heart disease. So it's funny how selective their belief in a nefarious Big Pharmacy entity is. As for feminazis, they exist but every one I've ever dealt with sooner or later crashed and burned due to their hubris.

As for discipline or it's lack, that takes my ire to a whole different level.

I know more about discipline than most. 22 years in the military is a good start. I also had a very abusive father who justified his actions as "discipline". How abusive? Well as a child until the age of 20 I would wipe my ass by taking a stream of toilet paper off the roller, tearing it off sheet by sheet and stacking those sheets one atop the other. Them I'd wipe, peeling away the paper a sheet at a time.

This was all done at my father's behest because he felt I was to blame for an excessive plugging up of the toilet. You get slapped around enough as a kid you'll pick up the damndest habits, like I said that one lasted till I was 20.

Thats one very small example of my exposure to "discipline".

My brother had it worse, he was a chronic bedwetter. On more than one occasion he got to wear his pissed on sheets around his face. Yeah, he knew about "discipline" too.

It isn't just these trips down Memory Lane that fire me up, it's the thought of  some asshole trying to lecture me on child rearing some day. In order not to believe in autism there would be several things they'd discount.

That would include the tears of my wife when she's hit hard with another situation brought about solely by autism and knowing our child will never be free of such things. Ever. For my part I slam my fist into something, tears don't work for me but rage does.

It would include seeing the frustration in my childrens' eyes as they realize they're different from their peers and have no way to comprehend the how and why.

It includes knowing that their best friends will always be each other, none of their peers express any intrest in dealing with them. So they're left with their siblings and whatever pets we have. Someday, as they grow older, that is very likely to all change and I don't see how for the better.

It's things like having an 11 year old who still can't cross a street unsupervised.

Having lunch with my kid and wanting to smack another kid who innocently asks, "So what happened to Joe's brain that he's the way he is?" That question gets asked in Joe's presence too.

It's going to Mass and staring down anyone who looks too long at my family when the children get rambunctious.

It's telling my boy he can't have a bicycle this year because I know it'll really hurt to tell him he'll never be safe on a bike.

It's always being on guard against having my children stuffed off in a corner to keep them quiet by their Sunday school teacher who has no training on dealing with autistic kids and won't own up to it.

Its starting every school year off with a lengthy meeting with the teachers, making sure they have some kind of handle on dealing with my children. This is in addition to meetings we have at least twice a year per child to discuss their problems and Individual Education Plans as referenced in the regulatios stemming from the ADA that covers them.

It's literrally spending years of saying the same instructions over and over, every day, every week and hoping that one day it will suddenly "click".

It's looking into their eyes when they have a four star meltdown and seeing theres a part of them that will never understand the world as it is.

It's knowing that no matter how well I take care of them, no matter how long I live, its inevitable that the day will come when they'll be on their own and I may not have done enough.

Last and certainly not least, it's praying to God every fucking day for the safety and happiness of my family and hoping desperately those prayers get answered.

So when someone wants to rant about how ADHD/autism doesn't exist, I wish I could have about 20 minutes alone with them.

Thanks for listening.

The NYPD and our nation's police...

California used to be considered a national trendsetter. Let some cultural innovation catch on out there and supposedly it was only a matter of time before the required thought processes traveled north and east. It may still be that way for many things, I sure hope not.

However other states & cities are also harbringers of things to come. One of them (IMHO) would be NYC. For those of you who detest the Yankees in general and inhabitants of the Big Apple in particular, my condolences. It is what it is.

So that may be why so much attention is currently being paid to the strife between Mayor DeBlasio and the NYPD. If a grand jury verdict for a case like the death of Garner and the following chaos happened in Seattle would anyone pay as much attention? Methinks not.

So when the cops openly defy Hizzoner at a funeral by turning their backs to him; it gets a lot of attention. It seems folks are shocked, shocked I tell you that the rank and file don't appreciate the recent comments made about them.

Imagine, in an occupation where threats to life are to be expected (http://dnainfo.com/new-york/20141231/civic-center/nypd-investigating-threats-kill-officers-on-new-years-eve-sources-say)
the lowly badge wearer expects support from his supervisors.

Obviously it's the fault of the police themselves, they should know their place (http://thefederalist.com/2014/12/31/the-nypds-revolt-is-a-direct-threat-to-democracy/) lest they put us all on the road to Third World anarchy. Noted. Never mind that this sort of threat to the police is spreading (http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2014/12/31/one-look-at-the-graffiti-image-scrawled-near-a-police-station-and-its-clear-why-officers-are-so-upset/).

All the tongue-in-cheek commentary aside, this blowback by the police was to be expected. Did everyone believe they would meekly go their way, bowing heads in shame whenever some wingnut on the street started screaming, "Racist cops!"?

I believe they've had enough, not just in NYC but all over the nation. In the Big Apple they're starting to NOT enforce the laws. Who can blame them? They'll get paid regardless and if the higher ups are going to swing at them like a bunch of kids at a pinata why stick their necks out? Why put themselves in the line of verbal abuse?

The consequence of this will be the spread of crime throughout the land. As New York goes, so goes the nation.

Stock up on ammo, go to the range more often. Be aware of your surroundings at all times.

Welcome to the 21st century version of America.

Reading the tealeaves of our time.

Let's see if this can come together in some sort of coherent fashion.

1) Our southern border is now more porous than a sieve. I'd say we'll soon seen ICE providing free rides to the city of choice for anyone coming north but that bit of sarcasm may be more true than not.

2) The Dumbass-In-Chief is committed to closing Gitmo. Supposedly he always favored this but is now more committed since he's looking to leave a "legacy". Maybe the increased possibility of more 9/11 style attacks will be that legacy. Something to look forward to I'm sure.

3) Our military's morale is dropping quickly as their hands are tied by asinine rules of engagement for any combat roles they're involved in, they're treated like a sociological petri dish for any wingnut experiment in the name of gender/sexual orientation equality. Let's not forget how there has also been an increased animosity displayed towards Christianity in general.

4) The local police forces throughout the nation are being targeted as racist bigots every time some dumbass decides to commit suicide by cop. Some nutjob academic has even gotten acceptance of the idea that the racist attitudes of police may be entirely subconscious in nature, therefore they should be aggressively addressed by deliberate avoidance of busting minority lawbreakers. No, I'm not making this up.

Then theres the other items such as sucking up to the Castro brothers, downplaying any slaughter of Middle Eastern Christians by Muslims, the abandonment of traditional allies in favor of traditional enemies, the list goes on and on.

We have two more years at a minimum to endure this. I say "at a minimum" because I still have the firm belief we'll see some "crisis" justifying the imposition of martial law and suspension of any national elections. Tin foil hat thinking? Let's hope that's all it is.

But with all these items in mind I'll be putting in more time at the range. The wife is also getting her CHL class paid for by me as a late Christmas present. Call me paranoid.

Merry Stinking Christmas, God's will be done and may He have mercy upon us all.

"Torture" doesn't yield results?

So why have we haven't had any followup attacks by the Muslims in the last 13 years? Just wondering.

Seriously, I take with a huge grain of salt any information coming out of DC via the MSM. We have a highly partisan Congress selectively doling out information to biased news organizations and we're supposed to take at face value anything we're told? It reminds me of an old joke supposedly making the rounds in Soviet Russia during the Cold War. Their two major news outlets were Pravda & Ivestia, words that mean "Truth" and "News".

Anyway the joke went that in Pravda there was no Ivestia and in Ivestia there was no Pravda. Lucky them, the Soviets only had two government mouthpieces to deal with.

Even if everything being screamed from the rooftops is ironclad fact, my reaction is "so what"?  Yeah it's a whole different ball game when you're the one being water boarded, I got that. I also roger up that Catholic teaching expressly forbids torture, got that one too.

But one thing I've consistently had trouble wrapping my mind around is how does refraining from certain practices that result in saving innocent lives constitute Christian practice? Do we then view any lives saved due to "torture" as fruit of a forbidden tree? Do we consider those innocents saved from extinction to be somewhat morally flawed? How many lives of innocent civilians are acceptable to be lost if we refrain from "torture", is it fifty, a hundred, how about an entire metropolis?

I'm just a retired submarine mechanic who feels the people should know whats done in their name for their safety. For that reason I'm glad the results of the investigation are starting to see light. Don't bother me with analogies such as the popular one regarding making sausage, i.e. everyone likes the result but no one wants knowledge of how you get it. If we need strong stomachs when presented the information than so be it. But lets own up to being damned glad of any positive results from these practices and lets protect the ones working in our names. They deserve that much loyalty.

As it stands now I've no doubt we'll see a parade of sacrificial lambs led to the bloodied altar of political correctness and hypocritical self righteousness.

Dissing the cops and consequences thereof.

Watching the steady parade of race hustlers run their yaps about Ferguson and NYC brings to mind the 70's and the hollow military we had then.

For anyone reading this who might be unfamiliar with the term, "hollow military" refers to the post Viet Nam military. It was when the armed forces were often held up for contempt and ridicule in popular entertainment, the MSM and even on the floors of Congress, where one Representative who was pushing for reduction in military pay & benefits contemptuously opined, "...they can vote with their feet if they don't like it." when told of the inevitable detriment to morale his actions would have.

"Vote with their feet" is exactly what many good men did back in those days. Whether they couldn't support their families properly, didn't like being treated as second class citizens or they just got fed up with being portrayed in a bad light, many just left. Some of them ended their service well after the ten year mark, the point at which it's often assumed if you go past it you're making the service a career.

Consequently we had undermanned boats which often had crew members that were in the Navy because they couldn't cut the mustard in civilian life. There weren't TOO many men like that, just more than we'd had in times immediately prior and after that interesting decade. In many minds there was the feeling if war broke out we'd be getting our butts kicked from here till breakfast until a draft was instituted and the nation played "catch up" as had happened initially after Pearl Harbor was bombed.

So how does this tie into the denigration of our nation's police in general and specific spots like Ferguson & NYC in particular? Stay with me please, I'll try explaining.

If our nation's police keep getting slammed you can bet there will eventually be an exodus of a lot of qualified men and women. Their places will be filled all too often (after the recruiting standards are lowered) by less than optimum candidates. There will also be a fair number of police departments undermanned and it won't be coincidence that they'll be the ones in the worst areas experiencing crime.

Therefore crime will increase, John & Joan Q. Public will avail themselves of their 2nd Amendment rights, corruption will increase with the attendant increase in bad press from the MSM, vigilante committees will begin cropping up in various hot spots.

We'll either get a national police force (not a good idea, I'll explain in a bit) or we'll descend into permanent chaos, much like out national neighbor to the immediate south of the border.

The idea of a national police force, controlled from D.C. would be bad due to a few factors: A) With such an entity local problems don't get solved locally, they get taken care of by some desk jockey hundreds of miles away from the problem. How effective has that ever proven in other areas? B) Inevitably the members of a national force will be shuffled around, the idea of a local cop who grew up in the same part of the state he presently works in will die off. Along with the end of that locally rooted cop goes a lot of empathy on both his part and that of the local populace for him. C) A national police force is just a bit too much like an occupying army, for proof of that look to Spain under Franco when the Guardia Civil kept firm control of the nation. It wasn't pleasant, at least according to the locals I spoke with at that time.

So it's time for the American people to take a collective deep breath, step back a bit and think of where we're heading. It's time to shut down the professional scaremongers that fan the fires of popular indignation every time some dumbass commits suicide by cop.

Because unlike a "hollow military" where all problems with it are a bit removed from the public eye, a nationwide plague of "hollow police departments" will have immediate and very evident effects.

And it won't be pretty.

Filming females aboard subs? Gee, who didn't see this one coming?

Here is the link:http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2014/12/04/top-navy-brass-mum-about-suspected-filming-of-naked-women-on-submarines/

Maybe its a case of assuming too much but speaking as a retired sub sailor I can say this was to be expected. Especially given the close quarters aboard a boat.

You can also bet this is just the tip of the iceberg and a small taste of things to come.

Lord, I am SO GLAD to be retired from the sub force right now!