What the...?

Am I the only one who thinks that it's a tiny bit hypocritical of the left-wing loonies out in California to waste taxpayer money, not to mention the carbon emissions, to try to force those two stupid whales back out into the ocean?

There seems to be no limit to the lengths people will go to trying to save these whales. No amount of (tax) money that is too excessive. The Coast Guard is out there too. That's taxpayer money. Not to come across as heartless, but wouldn't it have been better to just let nature take it's course? Haven't we humans messed around with nature enough? Wasn't Al Gore just winning an Oscar for telling us how horrible it is when human activity affects nature?

For crying out loud, which is it?!?!

So in this case not only are these people inserting themselves into the natural cycle of life and death (the circle of life, right Simba?), but they are using fossil fuel powered boats to do it! And topping it off, of course, are the wasted tax dollars. Money which, obviously, should be going to rebuild New Orleans below sea level; in order to ensure a steady supply of victims during the next hurricane or when the icebergs all melt next year.

I can't even begin to imagine how a person can rationalize this kind of hypocrisy. But I guess they have plenty of practice, as highlighted by this blog report from an Al Gore speech. Scroll down to the pictures of the trucks in the parking lot.

I guarantee that I could write a blog about the hypocrisy of rightwingers too, but lefties make it sooooo easy.

53:10

My unofficial time for the Bolder Boulder was 53:10. I was pretty happy with that. I wanted to break 55 minutes and I did that. I would have liked to break 50, but maybe next year.

It was pretty crazy. 50,000 runners entered the race this year, the biggest field ever. There were bands on nearly every street corner and people lining the sidewalks spraying us with water as we ran by. At the end we ran into the Colorado University football stadium, around the track and over the finish line, with everyone cheering. It was awesome. Here is a link to some photos of the race.

Next goal is a triathlon later this summer. Before that though, my son wants to run a 5K with me on the 4th of July. Should be a good time.

Support the troops?

There is this concept I can't get my head around. I have heard several different times and from different people this idea that doesn't make sense to me. It's that if you truly support the troops, you should want them to come home from Iraq as soon as possible. I suppose that if you are among the growing group of people who believe the Iraq war should never have been started, you might believe that this is "support." But I don't think it is.

For one thing, when the war started, the majority of people here were in support. You can say, as some Senators have, that you have changed your mind now for whatever reason. If you are one of these people, you should know that your lack of resolve is not support, as pulling out of Iraq without leaving a stable situation will be a victory for the groups who desire to harm us. These groups will surely continue to attack us anywhere they can, with attacks in the U.S. being a high priority. So at best, the early pullout of troops would be a pause in the war, maybe a short one and maybe a long one; but only a pause.

The war would continue, but the attacks would happen at random, with high civilian casualties being a goal of the terrorists. Which brings me to my second point. The U.S. Army exist to protect American citizens and defend the United States. We have made it our business, since World War II at least, to extend this protection to the rest of the world. Whether this is a good idea or not is another debate, and whether we have been mostly successful or not is as well. I would argue that the U.S. has brought peace and respect for human rights to more people in the world than any other entity in the history of civilization. Maybe I'll blog that one day. Not now.

My point is that we Soldiers, mostly, believe that we are defending the U.S. in Iraq. I feel pretty confident in saying that although I haven't spoken to all the Soldiers in the Army. The war has been going on since 2003, Afghanistan the year before and 9/11 was in 2001. The normal active Army enlistment is 4 years, some more, some less. The normal Army Reserve enlistment is 6 years. This means that the vast majority of Soldiers in the Army have either joined since the war began, or have reenlisted during the war.

Anti-war groups (like the New York Times), and the media play up "stop loss" as a "back-door draft" that forces poor, unsuspecting troops to stay in the service long after they should have been set free from their bondage. Stop loss is used to keep units together from the time they recieve their deployment order until they come back from the deployment. Yes, some Soldiers are kept past their date of separation, but they are allowed to leave as soon as the unit gets back. This was true during the Gulf War and it makes sense. This may have caught some young Soldiers off guard at the beginning of the war, but everyone else knew about it and accepted it as part of being a Soldier. At this point, no one is being kept in the Military against their will past their normal date of separation, unless they are currently on a deployment order. If they choose to get out after the deployment, they will be allowed to do so. Anyone who says different is either ignorant of the regulations or is lying.

Much has been made of the Army Reserve forcing recently separated Soldiers to return to service, but this is overblown. Soldiers incur an 8 year obligation when they join. If they do 4 years on active duty or 6 years in the Reserve, they can opt to serve the balance in the Inactive Ready Reserve. Meaning, for most, that they do nothing and never hear from the Army again. During a time of war (which, in case you missed it, is now) the Army can call on the Soldier again, especially if the Soldier has a special or critically short skill. This happens, but much less often than I have heard reported in the media. Based on media reports, I would expect that half my platoon would be IRR Soldiers forced back to service. Not the case, I'm afraid.

This is a long way of saying that none of us are here against our will. We choose to serve our country. We don't serve our President, we don't serve to fight in a particular war that we happen to believe in. We believe our country is worth defending and we want to be a part of the team. I don't understand why that's so hard for people to grasp. Some of the comments I've read in other blogs online are sad. They come right out and say that anyone who joins the military is 'stupid and deserves what they get' to paraphrase. If you don't want to serve, don't. But why criticize those who choose to serve? Unless maybe you're feeling guilty about your choice?

Fortunately most Americans are great supporters of their military. And for the record, I don't think anyone should feel guilty about not serving. If it doesn't feel right, don't do it. The Army is stronger for being made up of men and women who are there because they feel that it is right for them. Be an entrepreneur, start a business that will help keep America's economy strong, that's important too. (And give a military discount!)

Back to my point. What was it again? Oh, yeah, support the troops by pulling them out of harms way. The reason this is not supporting the troops is because going into harms way IS OUR JOB! We go fight the bad guys so you don't have to. This sounds the same to me as saying: "We should stop sending police officers in to high crime areas because they might get hurt." That's what cops DO! They understand and accept the risk involved in their jobs, same with firefighters.

Leaving Iraq will cause the terrorists to believe that they have won, and that they can get away with attacking America, because we don't have the resolve to fight back. This will result in more attacks against American civilians. This is an unacceptable outcome.

So to recap: We didn't start the war, we were attacked. We decided to fight the terrorists in Afghanistan and Iraq. At the time, a majority of the American people and our Representatives and Senators were in support of the decision. It's a knife in the back of all of the men and women in the military to start us on this mission and to want to quit now.

That's not support, that's treachery.

Military Appreciation Month

Just found out May is Military Appreciation Month. It's the 23rd. Not really a media blitz on the Military Appreciation, huh?

I run into people all the time who shake my hand and say thanks. I know the majority of people in America appreciate their military men and women. But the guy I saw in the PX yesterday, in a wheelchair with burns on his face and arm that I could see, he might have liked seeing a newspaper story or a TV show acknowledging Military Appreciation Month.

Brit Iron Rebels

I just got accepted into the Brit Iron Rebels! This is a, still pretty small, group of men and women who enjoy vintage and retro-styled British motorcycles. Not an outlaw club, but with some of the "rockers" mentality. There are less than 200 in the group, and we are spread out world-wide. We get together through an online forum.

Here is the website Brit Iron Rebels.

So in the five years since I wrote this, I sold my Thruxton and stopped participating in the BIR.

We had a pretty fun get-together in Gunnison in 2008. And I had a good time hanging out with the guys in the 5280 chapter, but I'm not a part of this group any longer.

56:30

I'm getting ready for my first 10K race. I ran race distance last night, 6.2 miles and did it in under one hour, 56:30. That's my goal for the race, under one hour.

That's a pretty slow time for serious runners, but I'm not a serious runner. I'm not really a runner at all, I have to run for my Army physical fitness test. Once I retire, I'll probably quit. Take up biking to stay in shape, it's easier on the joints.

This is the race: The Bolder Boulder. Wish me luck.

Read this article

Read this article in U.S. News and World Report.

U.S. News article

Better yet, buy the magazine and show them that stories like this, an honest account of the life and death of a Soldier, are what the American people want and need to see. This story paints a picture of an intelligent, thoughtful man; not a victim.

We make our choices and we take our chances. All of us, Soldier and civilian alike. Portraying Soldiers as unknowing victims of a deceptive government is an insult that I take very personally.

National Guard

Am I the only one who thinks the first job of the National Guard is to fight wars? I keep reading stories about how the Guard is being misused in Iraq when they should be at home ready to respond to natural disasters. That seems kind of ass-backwards to me. I would be pissed if the Guard were kept out of the fight just in case they were needed to clean up after a tornado.

What are the police and fire departments for? And do the people who choose to live in areas prone to hurricanes and tornados bear no responsibility for their choice? Why is this the Army's problem? Shouldn't it be the people, who choose to live in an area that has a "season" for natural disasters, who have to deal with the inevitable consequences of their choice? For that matter, why is it that my tax dollars are going to rebuild a city that is below sea level, when Al Gore clearly states that the level of the sea is going to rise even higher soon?

When I went through basic training the active duty, Reserve and National Guard troops were all together. The Guard guys were never taken off and given seperate training on how to respond to a hurricane or tornado. They were trained in the same things the rest of us were: how to shoot, move and communicate in combat.

It's great that the National Guard can help when needed. The Reserves has pitched in many times as well as troops from active duty units. No problem, glad to do it, too. But we shouldn't forget that the first job of the Army is to close with and destroy the enemy, not save people who choose to live in "Tornado Alley" from the consequences of their poor choice.

Update on the truck

We got the truck fixed in Tucson and drove it back to Denver. It cost a small fortune (to me.) The rear differential basically destroyed itself. We have no one to blame but ourselves, we knew we had a problem in there but we just tried to ride it out. No such luck.

It's a lesson in rationalization for us. We were basically trying to wish away a physical reality. Turns out that you can't do that. Who knew?

We are know looking at a few other areas where we have been doing the same thing. Our house is the biggest issue. Being in the Army, we could be moving pretty much any time. We need to get some things done in the house to make it ready in case we need to sell.

So we will spend less time playing this summer and more time doing the work.

Ft. Dix plot

So is there still any doubt that we are in a war? That group that was going to try to kill Soldiers at Ft. Dix are Muslim extremists. If we pull out of Iraq, there will be more attempts like this one. We are keeping the bulk of the terrorists occupied in Iraq, they want to defeat us there and give the U.S. a black eye.

The worst part is that our own "leaders" are trying to declare defeat and give the terrorists the victory, just to win political points. They are making us less safe.

If those men had gotten their weapons, and struck Ft. Dix this summer, there is a good chance I would have been there. My Reserve unit is scheduled to train at Ft. Dix for three weeks this summer. I don't think I'm being paranoid when I say I am no longer comfortable giving exact dates for our training.

I wonder if this will register with the majority of Americans? I already saw on the CNN site that the plot was being downplayed as "not that serious" of a threat. I think the mainstream media is going to try to blow this off as no big deal. They have been trumpeting for years that the U.S. is the problem in the world. It wouldn't look very good for them if the real bad guys (muslim extremists) reveal themselves.

Let's watch and see.

Broken down in Tucson

Well our old (97) Dodge broke down in Tucson. We were taking Kate's horses to a new home for a while in Marana, outside Tucson. The rear differential on the truck sort of ate itself. It needs to be rebuilt and it may take a couple of days to get it done.

We wanted to be back in Denver by Tuesday, it doesn't look like we will make it back until Thursday. And that's if they get the parts in tommorrow, if not it will be longer. Next truck will be a Toyota.

Combatives pictures

I had mentioned previously that I would put up some pictures from my Combatives training. I am hoping to get into the two-week long Level II Combatives class in June. I'll be able to teach Combatives to the company and possibly the Battalion, if they want to do it.

Here are some shots. Getting ready to start:



Goofing around a bit:



Here are a couple of guys going at it:



That's me on top:



The "final" was to get inside a boxer's guard and get him in a clinch. They were really hitting:



My turn:



Had to do that three times total. Hopefully I'll get some good pics when I go to level II.

What's the problem?

This may sound overly simplistic and maybe a little cynical, but here it goes. I have trouble getting all worked up over global warming. Obviously I want to live on a clean planet and have clean air to breathe and all that. But other than being concerned about the immediate effect that pollution has on our quality of life, I really can't make myself get too worried about what might happen to the planet some time in the future. Even if that time is within my lifetime.

First of all there is too much to worry about already. Paying the bills, raising the kids, going to the dentist, fixing the car, saving for retirement, watching out for that car with the drunk at the wheel... I don't even live on the coast, if the level of the ocean rises or falls a couple of feet, not my problem.

And whoever said life was going to be exactly the same in 50 years as it is right now anyway? Why does there have to be a city at the site of New Orleans, forever? There used to be a city at the foot of Mount Vesuvius, life goes on. Speaking of life going on, who made the rule that humans have to always be the dominant form of life on the planet? In fact this has only been the case for about 10,000 years, a drop in the bucket relatively speaking.

I believe we will invent our way out of this problem. I'll do my part to use less fossil fuels, for several reasons - including for the environment. But I refuse to worry too much any longer about this. We MAY end up living in a drastically different world in 50 years because of global climate change. But I believe that we for sure will be living in a drastically different world in 50 years for any number of other reasons (war, economics, technology...) that we would be better off focusing our attention on today.