Archive for April, 2009

It’s been a long time since I got all lectury and started an argument. And It’s been a bad week for me.

I think that many of the things our government has done in the pursuit of actionable intelligence against terrorist threats constituted torture. I think that the agents that participated in torture should face legal punishment, as should the lawyers who advised that it was legal. By that, I mean they should stand trial.

Following orders is not an excuse for committing a crime. We established that during various war-crimes trials after WW2. We teach it to our soldiers in Basic Training. I think that government agents can be held to at least the same standards of conduct as a 17 year old who has been in the military for three months.

I appreciate what a bad situation some interrogators found themselves in. I do not envy their position. But they did wrong.

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THIS IS AWESOME! (Thanks CCO)

Zombie Bible

Worried about swine flu? Check out Doihavepigflu.com

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So you are checking your email one day and every single person in your family, including the Aunt you haven’t heard from or spoken to in more than 9 years, sends you an email that says the same exact thing…

What the (random explicative) is Skippy’s List?

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Ah, yes, the Combat Life Saver Course.

I went to that course with a bunch of guys from my SF unit. Shortly thereafter, I went to a civilian EMT course. In the EMT course, they refer to the NPA (naso-pharyngial airway) as the “Bugle of Truth”.

Apparently, in the civilian world, a whole lot of EMS calls involve junkies playing unconscious possum in order to get cool meds. Well-practiced junkies can even feign unresponsiveness to the Sternal Rub, which is the standard method of determining Level Of Consciousness; and if you’ve ever experienced the Sternal Rub, you know how bloody painful that is (Hell, we use that in my martial arts practice to torment people all the time, but we call it some cool Japanese name).

But nobody, not anybody, according to the EMT cadre, can feign unconsciousness during the insertion of an NPA. Just the threat of such insertion will supposedly rouse any junkie who has previously tried to bluff their way through an NPA insertion during a prior med quest. Thus the name “Bugle of Truth”. If you want to know if somebody is faking unconsciousness, stuff an NPA up their rose sniffer and see what happens.

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(Submitted by M578Jockey)

1. Do not try to lay a perimeter of powered CS around your bivouac site when the wind is blowing.
2. Especially not when the cooks are in the middle of making breakfast.
3. Do not steal the Battalion Commander’s sleeping bag.
4. When you are under a jeep and the third person trips over your feet, erectile make sure it’s not the Brigade Commander before you start cussing the person out.
5. An M113A2 does not have B.U.T.T. plug.
6. Do not tell the motor sergeant that the M113 is down because the Flux Capacitor is broken.
7. Even if he is dumb enough to believe you.
8. There is no such thing as a metric adjustable wrench.
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Break out the teeny tiny violins.

Now that her over paid husband, who did not realize the huge financial mess he was creating, is living on my tax money, she has to hide that she is shopping at high end boutiques, otherwise people might say mean things about her.

I hope her and her husband both get horrific cancer.  I’m talking sci-fi channel movie cancer.  The kind of cancer that achieves sentience, and strikes out on a tri-state killing spree.  The kind of cancer that cannot be reasoned with and will hunt down and kill everything she holds dear.

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The Muffia has been spotted in the Greater Seattle Area.

Some of you may remember my first skirmish with the dreaded Muffiaso. I thought I escaped them when I moved out here a few years back. Apparently not, because this morning, the HR manager at my new job related a tale to me which, unbeknownst to her, informs me that they have managed to push past the Rockies. As a result, I feel it necessary to pass this tale on so that all of you in the area fighting the good fight can be on the lookout.

But first, in order to fully appreciate the story I am about to relate, you need to know something about its original teller. My new HR manager is a Russian immigrant (no, she wasn’t a mail-order bride), which means she’s hard-working, level-headed, and a sarcastic bitch. In a good way, of course.

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Chris Says:

I’d missed “lon” the first couple of reads, but that was used for clones in “The Jesus Incident” and “The Lazarus Effect”. Other books in the series are “Destination: Void” (the original book in the series) and “The Ascension Factor”, neither of which I’ve read (only read TJI after seeing it on a relative’s shelf).

So he get’s to hold his head up high, on account of his literary awesomeness.  Everybody else, hang your heads in shame.

And apologies to Minty for teasing her with N. Fillian.

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A while ago Lt Ron wrote this piece.

I was getting ready to post what I felt was a clever comment on the subject.

My wife read the comment over my shoulder, and didn’t get it.  She felt, perhaps correctly, that I was referencing something too obscure, even for the kinds of sci-fi nerds that tend to frequent my site.  So I made it into a contest.

My post was the following.

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(edit: Oops, I accidentally forgot to put the actual author in here.  My bad.)

It all started with being in the wrong place at the wrong time. If I’d been in the gym and out of sight of my platoon sergeant, I wouldn’t have witnessed it. As it was, I was in line-of-sight when he needed to send people to Combat Life Saver class, intended to teach regular soldiers vital life-saving skills. It ends up being a chance to stab each other with needles and inflict large bruises without fear of UCMJ action.

I was sent to the class with several other soldiers from my company. One of these, was That Guy. Everyone has seen this person. They aren’t too bright, and yet they think they are. They’re the butt of the unit or the workplace teasing, and yet they still continue doing things that just keep them seeming to ask for it. This person was also my partner for the IV stick, a temporary case of insanity on my part.

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