Some of the questions on the clearance renewal were just bizarre, to the point of the guy who asked going into a long prelude about it wasn’t his idea and he was required to ask the question and he wasn’t the sort of person who would ask this kind of question if it wasn’t required.

It is really bad when you hang around with cops who can tell if they are being tailed, and you have to tell them that you are the one being tailed, so ignore them and they will go away. It would have been mildly annoying if a DoD investigator got shot by a half dozen inebriated cops.

It is rather amazing how the ‘free press’ censors itself to get along with the government. No one wants to disturb the status quo, even though it usually needs a good seeing to.

😆 Yeah… After I left DIO, I was given a Gov embossed card with a phone number and a an ID code. Whenever people asked ‘What have you done recently?” I just handed them the card and told them to call. I got several curious, or surprised looks. Very few people have ever seen a card like that. Usually, when someone called that number and quoted the code, they got told to hold whilst it was looked up. Then they usually got told “Mr. **** worked for the Government and that’s all you need to know.” Eventually when DIO became less *Top-Secret* and was known to the public (early 90’s). the response changed to “Mr. ****** worked for Military agencies including the Royal Australian Army and DIO in various capacities and served with merit and distinction.” (Which I guess was nice of them, even though nobody will ever see the commendations or ribons etc.) *shrug*

Whenever I used the phone at home or my office from the late 80’s to mid-90’s (when it was still mostly analog exchanges), I’d here a telltale click and a slight delay before a call was connected. Most Gov agencies around the World are totally paranoid about ex high-level staff. A couple times when I was annoyed sufficiently, and I was calling a friend who knew what was going on, I’d say something like ” Hey, did I ever tell you that one of the Russians I used to deal with once showed me a photo of my boss in pink ladies underwear with a guy holding a whip behind him?” The first couple times, I quickly received a phone call, to which my usual response was “F*** O**! I don’t work for you clowns any more. And if you continue to invade my privacy, against my common law rights, I’ll sue the pink undies of the lot of you!” Eventually, they gave up. But they did make my life pretty hard during the 90’s. Until a few embarrassing rumors started circulating around the press. 😀 They finally got the hint!

I am definitely going to write that book! But I’ll have to self-publish. No publisher would have the balls to publish it without redaction. *shrug* One of the great things about the Internet! 😆

Hell.. Maybe I’ll do a *Snowden*! 😈

It looks like there are three major groups within the Republican caucus – the establishment, Tea Party, and libertarians. There are a lot more libertarians than I would have guessed, which means that Boehner actually belongs to the smallest of the three segments.

I have had people spying on me for so long I ignore it. When I went into law enforcement the guy who did the background check got spooked about the reaction when he started asking questions about me. I told him to relax unless there was something in his background he was hiding.

Now that I’m an official old guy I get to say whatever I want, and to hell with them.

he got a new va clinic built here (or maybe just expanded, i forget), which was probably the one good thing he’s ever done for this area. i don’t expect him to ever do anything else, not even accidentally, that would benefit the voters, but i’m still a little bit surprised he didn’t take this opportunity to (appear to) side with the paranoid right.

i’ve marched in antiwar demonstrations, resisted arrest with (minor) let’s just call it pushback 🙂 and hung out with anarchists and occupiers both in social media and in real life. i’m probably on a lot more agencies’ radar screens than anybody who’s got that much separation between themselves and some terrorist.

One of the things I noticed is that all of the establishment and the Tea Party are one short of a majority of 218. I figure the 205 are committed, so they just need 13 more Americans who believe in the Constitution. The votes are there with a little work, and the establishment should realize it. You don’t need to convince the wafflers to vote for it, just not vote if it makes them nervous, because 205-204 is still a win.

Every time they bring this up, people will be reminded.

If I couldn’t read much, it would give me a heady rush to be mentioned in the same sentence as Charles Pierce. But I can read his column and my post, and know the only resemblances are subject matter and position… Pierce is a helluva good writer.

(In his hat, beard and glasses, Pierce looks a great deal like T.B., a true conservative friend of mine. Neither would be caught dead advocating the other’s positions, though.)