Stupid People are Stupid

I really don't know which part of this story gets my goat more - the fact that the local NBC station is going into PSH over it or the guy thought he could bring a loaded weapon (even if the weapon itself was not loaded, his magazines were, ergo...) in his carry-on luggage. Note - I wanted to include the TSA in that little rant, but it appears that the TSA found it during screening, before the passenger could board a plane.

To summarize - a passenger attempted to bring a Ruger .45 and ammunition past security at Richmond International Airport earlier this morning.  Why this qualifies as BREAKING NEWS 5 hours after the fact ... I'll leave that for y'all to figure out.

Now, the guy could've very easily forgotten it was there if he routinely carries in the bag he had on the plane.  I know I've had items in my laptop bag that would've made airport security rather ... excited ... if they'd found them.  :P  While explanatory, it's not exculpatory.  It was a stupid move.  If you're transporting your weapons (and yourself) by plane, follow the rules and procedures.  Yes, it's a pain in the butt.  Yes, it's an intrusion into privacy, etc. etc.  But (and it's a big but), it prevents you from violating any number of federal laws.  Which means, you'll be able to keep that nice, shiny CHP (oh, and the firearms, too) that the Commonwealth of Virginia was nice enough to issue to you.

The local station is starting to get on my nerves with the hysterical rants about guns, lately.  Now, I know this isn't a change for them, it's just that I've started paying more attention to articles/stories about gun usage.  We've had several stories over the past couple weeks that the hysteria became in-your-face-obvious.  The first was a local deputy that used a personal weapon (not even his duty sidearm) to defend himself and his home from a burglar.  The local papers and TV news tried to play the story off as a vigilante mission by the deputy and were making calls for something to be done to the deputy.  Now, VA is NOT a Castle Doctrine state (yet, that is).  The legal precedents in the local courts strongly lean that direction, however.  The deputy was doing what any homeowner should be allowed to do - protect himself.  Almost two weeks later, the state police are still investigating, but likely won't do anything to the deputy.  However, the article makes it sound like the homeowner was in the wrong for shooting someone WHO BROKE INTO HIS HOUSE and THREATENED HIS FAMILY.

The second story happened just this past weekend and is making the rounds of the gun blogs.  Sebastian at Shall Not Be Questioned is just one example of the reaction.  Now, the guy was carrying a loaded Glock in his waistband without a holster.  Definitely falls into the category of Less Than Intelligent Moves.  Guy did something stupid and paid the price.  His wife is quoted as seeing him move it around when it went off.  GAAAAH!  Modern firearms (yes, even Glocks) don't just "go off".  On a bad day, surrounded by idiots, *I* am more likely to "just go off" than your standard firearm.  Holsters, in this case, are good for two things - making sure that the weapon doesn't randomly drop out and keeping outside objects from interacting with the bang switch.  Especially your finger.  The local coverage of this story played up the "evil gun decided to take the guy's life" angle instead of using it as a reinforcement of the importance of safety.  Yes, the man was less than bright for carrying that way.  A $10 piece of cheap plastic would've done him better.  Playing to peoples' fear, instead of using it as a means to instruct, is just sad.

I better stop this here, because the more I think on this, the angrier I get, and my co-workers would rather I keep the angry mumbling to a minimum.

Days that suck

You ever have one of those days that just truly suck? Days that suck your energy, patience, and desire to accomplish anything right out of you? Well, today is one of the days for me.


My fibro limits me in various ways. When I overextend, like I did this weekend wtih laying tile in one of my mom's bedrooms and the helping my son stay up prepping for a sleep deprivation EEG and then taking him to said EEG. When I overextend, my body reminds me of it for several days. Aches, dizziness, cramps and muscle spasms, heavy fatigue, and loss of appetite all are ways my body (because of the fibro) remind me that I over did it. The flare hits worse the day after but normally lasts for several days. The severity diminishes somewhat as my body manages recover from the overwork that I out it through.

That's something that a lot of folks don't understand. I can do a lot of things that are considered normal. They don't see the torment that I go through on the following days. That's why I have to be careful and pick and choose which activities I will do.

Now, while this is a bit of a rant, I want to make it clear that I do not ever intend for this disease to keep me from doing what I want to do. I will do what I need to do and accept the consequences. At that point, it's my choice to be a stubborn, pigheaded Polack. Everyone else just needs to get out of my way. I don't need to be babied. I am learning the new limits that my body has decided to enforce. I am also aware of the consequences of going beyond those limits.

I will not let this disease beat me. I will not let it dictate to me how I should live my life. I acknowledge the limits and their consequences. I will not let them stop me from helping my family and doing things with my family. My family is too precious to me for me to allow it to take them and activities with them away from me.

I apologize that this is a little ranty and a lot incoherent. I'm dealing with the consequences of overextending this weekend. My brain and body are barely functioning today. I'm lucky to have made it into work today.

-- Sham


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Not quite ready for the Wookie suit

The other night, She Who Must Be Adored (bka my wife of almost 17 years) and I were having a discussion on political views. She made the comment that a lot of my views were in line with what Penn Jillette promotes (an atheistic Libertarianism.

I got to thinking. Having done some research on the Libertarian Party in the past, I've found that I agree with much of their stated viewpoint on things. It can be simply boiled down to "Everybody's treated like an adult. I stay out of your business and you say out of mine.".

However, there are a few things that I disagree with them on. I believe that a minimal government is a necessary evil while they want no government. I believe that the fastest and longest lasting way to handle some issues is with violence and overwhelming force. The LP is so non-violent that you have to sign a vow to that affect when joining the party. My disagreement comes from the fact that evil exists in this world. Sometimes, it takes a use of force to stop that evil or to protect me and mine from the evil.

I decided (on a lark) to take the Libertarian Purity Test located here. I scored 89/160. According to the test's author, that puts me as a "medium-core Libertarian".

No need for a Wookiee suit yet (but, man would that be cool!)

--- Sham

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9/11 Remembrance

This was originally posted on September 11, 2006 on another blog site for the 5th anniversary of the attacks on the World Trade Center.  I'm reposting it to remember, on the 10th anniversary.

We survived

Well, Hurricane Irene's been and gone. And we survived. Other than not having any power (along with over 1 million other households statewide), we're fine. Our house (and my mom and in-laws as well) escaped damage. One of my neighbor's wasn't as lucky. Nothing catastrophic, but they've got a nice hole in their roof.

Got our debris cleaned, helped our neighbors get the worst picked up and managed to clear the roads out of the neighborhood. Now, I'm already exhausted and hurting. Bleh.

Tomorrow's not going to be pleasant.


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New employee

Well, after the earthquake yesterday, we had a couple more employees join the staff.




Little fruit bat that was living somewhere decided try and escape. Too bad he ended up on our floor instead. Third one since yesterday.

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And the earth moves under my feet

With apologies to Carole King for the horrible misuse of song lyrics ...

As most of you are aware, the East Coast just got hit by a pretty hefty earthquake.  5.9 on the Richter Scale, it was located just outside of the Charlottesville, VA area.  That's about an hour away from where I'm sitting (as the crow follows the road).  It got interesting.

I work in a nice, secure building that's entirely made out of concrete and rebar.  No windows.  When a quake can make this building move ... the occupants scatter like ants out of a smashed anthill. 

Now, today's been one of those days where I've been fighting dizzy spells.  A couple of them were rather nasty.  When the building started shaking, I was trying to figure out why my dizzy spells were getting so bad, suddenly.  Now, they DO get that bad, but they usually work their way up to that point, and they hadn't yet.  When the soda machine started trying to dance with me ... well, I figured at that point it wasn't just my head acting up.  Of course, my next thought was, "What did the contractors hit the building with this time?"  They'd already taken several good chunks out of one corner with a bucket lift, so it was possible.

Oh, well.  Family's all safe - even though my mom slept through it until her dachshund started going bonkers over the quake and my mother-in-law needs to learn to turn her cell phone on while babysitting ... Other than that and an overloaded phone system, it looks like we've managed to avoid major damage.

Now, if we could only keep that trend when Irene pays us a visit this coming weekend.

As one of my coworkers said, "We've had forest fires (Great Dismal Swamp), earthquake and a hurricane this coming weekend.  Any other natural disasters want to come join in the fun?"

Oh, well.  Time to get back to work.  Time to cut of the stream of conciousness ramble.

-- Sham