Been awhile since I have stopped by the old blog. Figured I should pay it a visit, drop some news and jot some thoughts done that have been roiling around in my head for a few days.
- I returned from San Angelo TX in mid-April after a three and a half month stay to do some retraining for my Air National Guard career. My first military career specialty, Air Transportation–which is kind of like Fed Ex, UPS and a major airline all rolled into one–for the most part evaporated from the local Air Guard base. I didn’t really feel like heading back to Minneapolis again to finish out my career, so I decided to go through retraining into a different career field. I am finishing off that training back here in Fargo now, and will be off orders in early July. After that, I start the next phase of my career. I’ll be assuming a position in the 119th Wing’s Inspector General office, in charge of the Wing’s Self Assessment Program. I am extremely excited for this opportunity and looking forward to getting started on it.
- Now, onto those thoughts roiling around in my head. This last Sunday morning we watched in horror as a lone gunman, who happened to is a US born citizen of Afghan decent, walked into a night club in Orlando that happened to be popular among the cities gay community, and killed 49 innocent people, wounding 53 others. The attack is now the worst mass shooting (in modern times) in U.S. history. While the attacker referenced ISIS, and had been on the FBI’s terror watch list, he also may or may not have been repressing homosexuality of his own. And he was almost certainly dealing with growing up in a rough, hard, household. In short, it was likely a variety of matters that put him on the path to dealing out death Sunday morning in Orlando.
- The shooting has reopened the gun control debate with a new intensity. The vast majority of mass shooting incidents like this in the new recently have seen the firearms purchased legally. Most of you who might happen to read this know the baseline of my thinking on firearms. I don’t think that weapons based on or modeled after military models have a place in mass production for sale to the public, for a variety of reasons to long to get into right now. You can preach all you want that a .22 assault style rifle is just the same as a .22 hunting rifle. B.S. It is made to look military, and designed to appeal to the “tough guy” complex that so many of our men seem to suffer from. It is also likely to have a higher magazine capacity. We will never in this country go the route of Australia or some European countries, but there are steps that could be taken to toughen things up a bit. Common sense steps.
- I am reading a book right now entitled “The 2nd Amendment — A Biography” by Michael Waldman. Part one deals with the creation and selling of the Constitution, and it is fascinating. We have a somewhat glorified, almost religious view of the Founding Fathers, when we should be trying to learn who they really were. They had flaws, some serious. Yes, they had a vision, but none of them could have imagined what our country has become over time. They wrote FOR THEIR DAY, crossing their fingers that the basic notions would stand the test of time. It is abundantly clear they had no trust of standing armies, and the 2nd was only included in the Bill of Rights (which itself was only written due to protests made by States during the passage of the original Constitution) to assuage State government weary that the Federal Government would disband local militias which the State controlled. It guaranteed the right for a man to own a gun for the exclusive purpose of that man being conscripted into the local Militia. Lord how we have hashed that one up.
- Park Rangers in Yellowstone busted a Chinese tourist for hopping the boardwalk, cracking open the thin crust of a thermal vent and filling up some bottles with water. He was fined $1000. This comes after a rash of serious incidents involving reckless individuals, including on fatality in a hot spring. What are we going to do with morons who continue to feel the need to do whatever they want in our National Parks? No one seems to get the “look, don’t touch” philosophy anymore.
- Earlier this week the Senate passed a military policy bill that included requiring women to register for the military draft. This is long overdue, in my opinion. Especially since not so long ago DoD opened up all specialties, including combat roles, to women. This is equality, long overdue. And I am sorry, but I have a problem with politicians, and anyone, really, who says “we can’t send our precious young girls to war” buy finds it okay to send our young boys off all to easily.
The #UnlockCommonSense hashtag stems from a reply to a comment of mine on a Facebook friend of mine who I respect a great deal. While I’ll be writing up space stories again here, I’ll also be looking for common sense topics to comment on.
So stay tuned, this is gonna get interesting.