I use this place for a form of therapy, since it is too expensive to head out and “punch paper”, i.e. shoot at targets. When I was hand-loading it was a good way to burn off the aggravation of life, but ammo is too dear, and it is a long drive with expensive fuel to go to the only truly safe range. There is an indoor range a couple of blocks away, but the guy who owns it is a bit strange, and I don’t trust him with weapons. Some people get careless when they deal with weapons too often, and he is one – passing a weapon with a closed breech, not aware of where the barrel is pointing – it’s too easy to have an accident.

I’m stuck working on a computer, waiting for clients to respond to changes, so blogging is what I do to fill in the blank spaces.

The hurricane season is starting, and that’s one of my obsessions. There is also the Iditarod.

I’m also aware of the world, and realize it is important. It’s amazing how little attention Americans pay to the rest of the world, and how little traveled they are as a group. They don’t understand what their government has been up to, and why others may not like the US all that much. I don’t know how they can expect to have global pretensions with a parochial mindset, but that sums up the US government for all too long.

You blog about what’s important to you and what you care about. I understand and respect that, and I am sure the others do also. I even like the Friday Cat Blogging! 😉 (Not too sure about the license plate thing though! It must be a Florida thing.) 😀

I have learned a little about you and your history. And I like what I see. You blog about things you understand, things you believe in and things you want others to know and maybe get angry about! 🙂 That’s what a good blogger does. I have learned things here, and I really had given up on the whole US situation. I just couldn’t be bothered, I figured everyone just deserved whatever hell they chose. But I’ve changed that opinion somewhat now. But you showed me that there are still some decent people who are trying to to what little can be done to educate people and possibly make things a bit better. 🙂 That’s a lot more than many there are doing. Given your background, I think I can safely say that you have done your bit for the USA!

Can’t ask for more than that. 🙂

I know you are angry and frustrated, I was the same here with Howard. It was harder for us, because we had to contend with Howard AND Bush! 😀 Now that Howard is gone, we have to keep Rudd honest! And we damned well will!

I don’t have the answers for the USA. I don’t know that anyone does. Short of a true Revolution, I honestly don’t see how anything will really improve I am sad to say.

But, you never know! It just may be that whoever wins will gave you the chance you need to begin waking up the sleepers and begin to fix things. 😉 There is always hope! 🙂

FWIW, that’s my humble opinion in a nutshell. 🙂

Cheers m8.

Oh, I’ve had a few, some who rated reporting to “appropriate authorities” as being a “danger to themselves or others” as we used to say when we gave them a canvas cardigan with the extra special sleeves, but they don’t hang around.

It’s probably because I don’t have any special “loves” that can be attacked. I’m not tied to a candidate or politician, or an ideology. I just want things that work. I don’t much care what you call yourself if you have something that actually solves a problem.

We were taught in military interrogation school that torture was a waste of time and totally ineffectual for getting information. It was highly effective to getting people to tell lies, but truth wasn’t part of the package.

If you know what you are doing, you can learn as much from lies as the truth, but you have to speak and understand the subject’s language to be effective, which is why the job title for my secondary proficiency in the Air Force was linguist/interrogator. A little time and careful observation, and they really will tell you anything.

It is sometime difficult to deal with people who are earnest and serious. I often feel compelled to lighten up the exchange. After a while you begin to realize that much of what you assumed was “serious business” actually wasn’t. I have to watch that.

And yes, old habits are hard to break. 🙂 I just try to ensure that the targets are well deserving! I much prefer surgical strikes to shotgun blasts. 😉 LOL

It is one of the reasons I am against this Admin’s penchant for wholesale torture! I did torture 101, and it is ONLY useful in certain rare and specific circumstances. The best way to get accurate and honest information, including all those bits of info that torture would miss, is to truly befriend them. Nobody is more useful than an *enemy* that wants to prove how helpful and useful he can be to his new friends. 🙂 One of the reasons (I was taught) why one would want to torture and destroy another physically & mentally is as a terror weapon against others. Only terrorists torture by definition. Even in Cambodia, where I wanted to do that to every Khmer Rouge bastard I saw, we never did. We won a few over (and even then I just wanted to rip their heads off) and they proved useful. But only because they understood the alternative. Nothing was black and white there. Nothing ever is anywhere.

hipparchia: You pretty much know what I know at this point! 🙂 It finishes in November, and she asked in her email if it was OK for her to contact me with follow up questions & for clarification, which I said was fine, of course. 🙂 I’ll let you know as we go along. 🙂

Cheers! 🙂

Have fun, and don’t play with her mind. [I know, old habits are hard to break.]

I received an eMail finally with all the documents attached. I have to fill out a questionnaire about my relationship to a particular blog and blogger. There are some constraints (of course). 😉

The thesis title is: “An Exploration of the Relationship Between Bloggers and Their Readers from the Readers’ Perspective”. It appears to be an investigation into a side of ‘weblog culture’ that I haven’t come across before. That appeals to me, so makes my participation of interest to me. 🙂

She says: “I am specifically looking for readers who are not bloggers themselves and are unknown to the blogger offline. Therefore, the purpose of this survey is to gain insight into this relationship from your perspective.”

So, there you go hipparchia & Bryan! 😉 😀

Some of the questions are interesting. I’ll actually have to think about some of them. 🙂

And, given the constrants, including that it has to ba a blog I currently visit and a blooger I know online, you are it Bryan. 😀

I’ll try not to give away all your secrets! LOL I might not mention the cats… 😉

Cheers! Should be fun. 🙂

However… it’s dead simple to use, so that’s no problem. The EN site does give a lot of info on it and why etc. 🙂

UltraReach Internet

Heres the main Chinese page:
UltraSurf Download (Chinese)

Cheers. 🙂