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Curt: I understand your professionalism. I often cross borders and have guards get upset with me when I don’t respond right away. I almost always counter this by cupping my hand around one ear, they then realize that I am hearing impaired, they will look at me while they are talking or speak louder and become more patient.
I was driving at night during a rainstorm in Utah on I15, I realized I was having trouble with my tail lights grounding out so I pulled off on a country exit to try and get the lights working. In my usual mode of being in a hurry I jumped out to run around to the back. A car had pulled up behind me, but I didn’t think anything about it; although, he just had his headlights on it was a State Trooper and he had just got out of his car when I jumped out of my car. He had his weapon drawn and was visibly shaken, Hell, he was scared to death. You can’t tell what kind of car is behind you when they have their high beams on. I just told him I had electrical problems and crawled under my car, he came over and held the light for me and I could tell he was still visibly shaken.
There could have been a terrible accident, I figured he should have turned on his red lights at least for a moment to let me know he was there; oh well, it was a learning experience for both of us. A car pulling up behind you on a deserted road might prompt someone else to get out with a weapon, but I am not afraid of those types of encounters, thank goodness. He was a good man and helped me in the rain for a few minutes. He made sure my lights were working and we parted on good terms.
1. You don’t need to get special permits for knives.
2. You don’t need to buy ammo.
3. They are much quieter.
4. The best reason of all, why get in a gun fight?
Just being silly, but I don’t own a firearm in the US and I only own one in Canada, it is seventy years old and I have owned it for 50 years (new nickel barrel and fiberglass stock). Now, don’t give up on me. I am far from an anti-gun Liberal, I am just more secure with a knife and a smile. If I owned a weapon down here, it would be a .308 M14, no selector switch or a 44 mag pistol, I always thought that one could stop a Grizzly, but I never tested my theory, thank goodness.
@Nan G: Completely understand. So the guy was just drunk or was he mentally instable?
@Skookum: Regarding the lights, we’re human. Sometimes we just forget or get complacent. As far as the hands shaking, thats also a human reaction and if I believed you had identified me as a police officer and then you ran to your trunk, my first thought would be that you’re going for a weapon…would of scared me too. We all get fear, its how we react to that fear. Instead of him running, or trying to get away from you he was ready to engage you if indeed you were going for a weapon.
The human instinct of fight or flight is a strong emotion but we can’t listen to the flight side of that emotion.
@Skookum: All good reasons but I was making the point that if someone engages me with a knife then he just brought a knife to a gunfight. This ain’t no movie and I won’t be pulling out a knife to get into some jet li scene with him. Rounds will be going down range.
Old Trooper 2
12 years ago
A Sign of the Times in this Big Booming Obama Economy!
Kids write Santa this year for basic needs instead of toys
“The need is greater this year than I’ve ever seen it,”
he says. “One little girl didn’t want anything for herself. She wanted a winter coat for her mother.
At more than 20 post offices, workers log every
letter, black out identifying information except first
name and age, and ask the public to respond. Lobby
displays promote the program. People return with
gifts and letters, which carriers deliver.
Cesar, 7, wrote for himself and his baby sister.
“This year my moom don’t have much money to
spend on Christmas gifts so I’m writing to you,”
Cesar told Santa. “It would make us very happy if
you and your elves would bring us toys and
clothes.”
There are more letters from unemployed parents
asking for kids’ gifts they can’t afford, says Darlene
Reid of New York City’s main post office.
One mom sent a turn-off notice from the electric
company, Fontana says. A single mother of a girl, 8,
and a boy, 2, wrote that she recently lost her job. “I
am unable to buy my children toys and clothes,” she
said. “Santa may you help me with my family?”
Tough times are shrinking the number of Secret
Santas, Fontana says. Meanwhile, “the percentage of
people who need help has increased,” says Mark Reynolds at the Postal Service’s Chicago district, and about half the letters won’t get answered.
Melanney, 9, asked Santa for a coat and boots. “I
have been a very good girl this year,” she wrote.
Santa Claus and his elves are seeing more
heartbreaking letters this year as children cite their
parents’ economic troubles in their wish lists.
U.S. Postal Service workers who handle letters
addressed to Santa at the North Pole say more letters
ask for basics — coats, socks and shoes — rather
than Barbie dolls, video games and computers.
At New York City’s main post office, Head Elf Pete
Fontana and 22 staff elves will sort 2 million letters
in Operation Santa, which connects needy children
with “Secret Santas” who answer their wishes.
Fontana, a customer relations coordinator for the
Postal Service, has been head elf for 15 years.
Be Generous this year if you can manage to do it.
Volunteer to make a difference in your community.
A LOT of Folks are struggling to pay the Rent, Utilities,
buy Groceries, provide winter Clothing…the just Basics.
Make this Season a joyous one and Do It Anonymously
like I do. It warms the soul and adds Holiday Spirit to the lives of those less fortunate.
In the portion of the call played for reporters the caller told a dispatcher that a man with a gun was sitting on his neighbor’s second-story landing and swaying back and forth.
“It looks like a little tiny six-shooter,” the caller said, describing what he thought was a gun.
When the first officers arrived on scene they saw Zerby — who appeared intoxicated — sitting on the landing on the staircase to an apartment that was not his residence, the chief said.
The officers also saw what appeared to be handgun and could see Zerby playing with the handle, which sounds similar to that of a handgun.
The officers immediately called for back-up and began trying to contain the area in case the subject fled and posed a danger to the public, McDonnell said.
As they were preparing to confront the man he put his hands up and pointed the item with both arms straight forward, as though he were taking aim with a gun, in the officers’ direction, the chief said.
The officers never spoke to Zerby, but opened fire, “due to the actions of the subject,” McDonnell said.
Later, they found the item in Zerby’s hands turned out to be a “black pistol grip water (nozzle) with a metal tip,” McDonnell said.
Mark Zerby admitted his son had problems with alcohol and had been in and out rehabs. But he insisted his son was never a dangerous or violent man.
His sister said her brother was doing the right thing by not driving while intoxicated and staying at his best friend’s home.
The chief estimated 10 to 15 minutes passed between the time the officers got the call and the shooting.
Call came at 4:40PM and the sun is going down by then.
10 to 15 minutes later and it is fairly dark.
I’ll let you all know if anything new comes out at tonight’s meeting with LBPD.
I’m equally entertained by your rebuttal. Luckily, I already used the bathroom before I came here! 😉
Skookum
12 years ago
Curt: Roger the Jet Li knife fighting. No doubt, if you are unfortunate enough to get in a knife fight you are going to need stitches if you win, but in a pinch they can mean the difference in survival and cashing in your chips.
It is all academic, because it is not the citizen like me that is the danger. Once you have skinned, field dressed, and processed thousands of animals, you develop a certain dexterity with a knife and become proficient at sharpening. If you think about how much knife work is required from a three inch blade to field dress, skin, and quarter a moose to load it on three pack horses in 45 minutes, that is some serious knife work. But I am not likely to challenge a police officer, no siree Bob!
oil guy from Alberta
12 years ago
Got both sons Macmillan 50 cals for Xmas. I do reloads so we’re gonna be chasing casings.
My best friend lives in Montana, so we used the Don’t ask, Don’t tell method.
The Canadian Firearms Act and Registration is the biggest joke in the world. We got the land so let’s try for world class shots. Like the movies say, no animals were killed or maimed in this picture.
Is that similar to the 50 the snipers use. I was talking to a custom reloader, yes it’s the first one I ever heard of, but he gave me his card and his wife is a customer, he said those rounds cost $5.00 a piece. Don’t waste time getting them sighted in. I thought I’d like one of those for shooting moose out my window, leisurely hunting at 800 meters, but I didn’t think 50’s were legal in Canada. My old 8 mm ’06 might get jealous, but she is 70 YO and I am still a vibrant young man.
Usually, big-name authors plug their books on a nationwide book tour. President Barack Obama took a lower-key approach Friday, reading selections from his new children’s book to a group of delighted second-graders in suburban Virginia.
In the library of Long Branch Elementary School, some four dozen youngsters giggled and squirmed as Obama gave voice to passages from “Of Thee I Sing,” an illustrated volume in the form of a letter to his daughters describing the lives of 13 great Americans. It was written in 2008 but just came out this fall, with proceeds going to a scholarship fund for the children of fallen and disabled soldiers.
“I wanted to borrow you guys, and read to you,” Obama explained, sitting down on a wooden chair as the children sat cross-legged on the carpet.
He began with entries on Albert Einstein – “he was one of the smartest men ever” – and Jackie Robinson – “he was the first African-American to play in major league baseball” – before skipping to the end, and the entry on Abraham Lincoln.
“Everybody know who Abraham Lincoln is?” Obama asked, to a chorus of “Yes!” from the youngsters. “He helped to end slavery in the United States.”
Obama left behind a signed copy for the school library. “You can read about all these other different people who are brave and imaginative and creative and smart, just like you guys are,” he said. “I hope you enjoy it.”
Obama also read the Chrismas poem “‘Twas the Night Before Christmas” by Clement Moore, pausing so the kids could jump in at key points and making side comments on things like the couple of inches of snow Washington was dusted with Thursday. “I’m surprised you guys are in school ’cause a lot of times in Washington people don’t go to school when there’s even an inch of snow,” he said.
He also answered a few questions on life in the White House and whether it’s fun being president, before posing for pictures, shaking hands and wishing the children and their teachers happy holidays.
“I hope you guys have fun,” he said. But he said as they open their Christmas presents he hopes they spend time thinking about the less fortunate. “Not everybody is as lucky as we are. There are a lot of kids out there who may not be able to get a lot of presents for Christmas because their parents don’t have a lot of money.”
“Of Thee I Sing” has done well in early sales. With a list price of $17.99, it sold 50,000 copies in the first five days, which its publisher, Random House Children’s Books, said made it the fastest-selling picture book in company history. The volume was part of a $1.9 million, three-book deal Obama signed with Random House in 2004.
HIS VERY OWN BOOK. Hmm I wonder who really wrote it…? Bill Ayers maybe???
Just saw this quote in a harmless article about PCs vs Macs (which inspire just about as much vituperative passion as the usual Right vs Left political stuff):
Part of Mark Zuckerberg’s genius was to push this country towards a real-name culture. To use his site is to use your real name—no pseudonyms, no anonymity—and to use your real name is to be forced to stand by your words.
That may be about the only thing about Facebook I like, but I’d never realized it before: Facebook is about the only place on the Internet where people are real people.
– larry weisenthal (really here in Huntington Beach)
Old Trooper 2
12 years ago
Milestones
Just as I was about to remind you of a very significant American milestone occurring on January 4, 2011, El Jefe reminded me of another. So this is a two-fer. First mine.
The 112th Congress will be the first in 64 years (JFK’s first term as a Representative from Massachusetts) that not a single member of that family will be seated. None. All gone. We will be serving free champagne on 4 January, so be here or drink beer.
Now Jeff’s.
“This coming year, both Groundhog Day and the State of the Union address occur on the same day.
It is an ironic juxtaposition of events; one involves a meaningless ritual in which we look to a creature of little intelligence for prognostication, while the other involves a groundhog.”
😉
Nan G
12 years ago
Genetic analysis of the cholera that has caused an epidemic in Haiti shown to have probably originated in South Asia, that is to say Bangladesh.
So, the U.N. comes through again!
Way to go!
But to be fair, the Bangladeshi U.N. workers are victims too!
(Of the U.N. that is.)
Millions of Bangladeshis suffer from chronic arsenic poisoning; and one in four deaths in Bangladesh has now been attributed to it.
UNICEF dug the wells that served up the arsenic-laden water.
Gee, I wonder if the Bangladeshi government is getting their people water some other way now or are they still allowing this poison to be drunk by their public?
Nope, they ”dilute” it by adding MORE water to it!
openid.aol.com/runnswim, hi, I dont think It’s right to demand the real name of the commenters,
because they can be singled out by sicko peoples for any reason they can find,
and don’t think they don’t exist, we have some here sometimes, a person take an awfull chance to encounter trouble by listing his real name, and why would you think that we are not real people giving our comment on a fictive name? the importance is what is in the comment,
and not all are please with it, some like it and some not, it’s okay that way is very normal.
bye
Wm T Sherman
12 years ago
ilovebees, the arsenic is naturally-occurring in the groundwater. Not throughout Bangladesh, but here and there.
There were civilizations in South Asia there long before the British colonization, long before the UN. And for thousands of years, people all over the world have dug wells; it isn’t rocket science. I would speculate that if the native people there went for so many centuries without tapping the groundwater with wells, it may well have been the result of ancient experience with poison water from underground, not because it had never occurred to them to try it.
One of my posting buddies from the past used his first two initials and his last name, the sight we used to post on was invaded by trolls, they were very, very evil. He had mentioned his city and state in past postings and with that they tracked him down, harassed him, even contacted his college trying to get into his records. It was a miserable situation for him.
My law enforcement son-in-law was upset with me because I exchanged ph #’s with some of my internet friends, got quite a scolding. He used to peek in on two blogs I post at, I had bookmarked this blog and another on their computer during one of my visits out there, my daughter even commented once. Now I’m only allowed to give out the area of my state that I live in, not the real city, no more giving out my name, phone number, address, etc. He really put his foot down with me. If they only knew, chuckle. 😉
They just had another new baby and they are way to busy for monitoring now. 😀
MISSY , hi, yes, I’m sure the danger is there, otherwise the people would do it with their name, ; IF FACEBOOK DO IT, THEY KNOW WHAT THE DANGER IS ,AND I ALSO
HEARD STORY IN FACEBOOK HAPPENING IN THERE, once the nut target one it can be very hard to get out of it,
thank you for that, bye
Randy
12 years ago
OT2 #68 Are the tax payers paying a salary to authors who hawk their books on government time?
Old Trooper 2
12 years ago
@ Randy, Ha Ha Ha! Only if You believe that Obama was smart enough to write a children’s book.
He has proven to be not so scholarly on the Constitution, Economics, government from the ‘governing’ role, however he does throw pretty grand parties that cost more than his salary very often. He travels like a Rock Star with a Complete Aircraft Carrier Group as a yachting adventure…
I don’t know about the authorship but he is getting paid and spending like Royalty!
This is a great article.
The only problem with our 20th Amendment was that is did not foresee air travel.
Skookum
12 years ago
OT, I laughed so hard I may have internal damage.
“This coming year, both Groundhog Day and the State of the Union address occur on the same day.
It is an ironic juxtaposition of events; one involves a meaningless ritual in which we look to a creature of little intelligence for prognostication, while the other involves a groundhog.”
@ Cary
#27
?
??
Bhahahahahahaha
I gotta go change my shorts, I think I peed a little. 😆
Curt: I understand your professionalism. I often cross borders and have guards get upset with me when I don’t respond right away. I almost always counter this by cupping my hand around one ear, they then realize that I am hearing impaired, they will look at me while they are talking or speak louder and become more patient.
I was driving at night during a rainstorm in Utah on I15, I realized I was having trouble with my tail lights grounding out so I pulled off on a country exit to try and get the lights working. In my usual mode of being in a hurry I jumped out to run around to the back. A car had pulled up behind me, but I didn’t think anything about it; although, he just had his headlights on it was a State Trooper and he had just got out of his car when I jumped out of my car. He had his weapon drawn and was visibly shaken, Hell, he was scared to death. You can’t tell what kind of car is behind you when they have their high beams on. I just told him I had electrical problems and crawled under my car, he came over and held the light for me and I could tell he was still visibly shaken.
There could have been a terrible accident, I figured he should have turned on his red lights at least for a moment to let me know he was there; oh well, it was a learning experience for both of us. A car pulling up behind you on a deserted road might prompt someone else to get out with a weapon, but I am not afraid of those types of encounters, thank goodness. He was a good man and helped me in the rain for a few minutes. He made sure my lights were working and we parted on good terms.
I am glad he was a professional.
Curt: Why bring a knife to a gun fight?
1. You don’t need to get special permits for knives.
2. You don’t need to buy ammo.
3. They are much quieter.
4. The best reason of all, why get in a gun fight?
Just being silly, but I don’t own a firearm in the US and I only own one in Canada, it is seventy years old and I have owned it for 50 years (new nickel barrel and fiberglass stock). Now, don’t give up on me. I am far from an anti-gun Liberal, I am just more secure with a knife and a smile. If I owned a weapon down here, it would be a .308 M14, no selector switch or a 44 mag pistol, I always thought that one could stop a Grizzly, but I never tested my theory, thank goodness.
@Nan G: Completely understand. So the guy was just drunk or was he mentally instable?
@Skookum: Regarding the lights, we’re human. Sometimes we just forget or get complacent. As far as the hands shaking, thats also a human reaction and if I believed you had identified me as a police officer and then you ran to your trunk, my first thought would be that you’re going for a weapon…would of scared me too. We all get fear, its how we react to that fear. Instead of him running, or trying to get away from you he was ready to engage you if indeed you were going for a weapon.
The human instinct of fight or flight is a strong emotion but we can’t listen to the flight side of that emotion.
@Skookum: All good reasons but I was making the point that if someone engages me with a knife then he just brought a knife to a gunfight. This ain’t no movie and I won’t be pulling out a knife to get into some jet li scene with him. Rounds will be going down range.
A Sign of the Times in this Big Booming Obama Economy!
Kids write Santa this year for basic needs instead of toys
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2010-12-15-1Asantaletters15_ST_N.htm
Be Generous this year if you can manage to do it.
Volunteer to make a difference in your community.
A LOT of Folks are struggling to pay the Rent, Utilities,
buy Groceries, provide winter Clothing…the just Basics.
Make this Season a joyous one and Do It Anonymously
like I do. It warms the soul and adds Holiday Spirit to the lives of those less fortunate.
Just do it…
Curt, more details slowly emerge.
Call came at 4:40PM and the sun is going down by then.
10 to 15 minutes later and it is fairly dark.
I’ll let you all know if anything new comes out at tonight’s meeting with LBPD.
@Aqua:
I’m equally entertained by your rebuttal. Luckily, I already used the bathroom before I came here! 😉
Curt: Roger the Jet Li knife fighting. No doubt, if you are unfortunate enough to get in a knife fight you are going to need stitches if you win, but in a pinch they can mean the difference in survival and cashing in your chips.
It is all academic, because it is not the citizen like me that is the danger. Once you have skinned, field dressed, and processed thousands of animals, you develop a certain dexterity with a knife and become proficient at sharpening. If you think about how much knife work is required from a three inch blade to field dress, skin, and quarter a moose to load it on three pack horses in 45 minutes, that is some serious knife work. But I am not likely to challenge a police officer, no siree Bob!
Got both sons Macmillan 50 cals for Xmas. I do reloads so we’re gonna be chasing casings.
My best friend lives in Montana, so we used the Don’t ask, Don’t tell method.
The Canadian Firearms Act and Registration is the biggest joke in the world. We got the land so let’s try for world class shots. Like the movies say, no animals were killed or maimed in this picture.
Is that similar to the 50 the snipers use. I was talking to a custom reloader, yes it’s the first one I ever heard of, but he gave me his card and his wife is a customer, he said those rounds cost $5.00 a piece. Don’t waste time getting them sighted in. I thought I’d like one of those for shooting moose out my window, leisurely hunting at 800 meters, but I didn’t think 50’s were legal in Canada. My old 8 mm ’06 might get jealous, but she is 70 YO and I am still a vibrant young man.
Give me some feed back.
Obama reads his children’s book to 2nd graders
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2013702821_apusobamabook.html?syndication=rss
HIS VERY OWN BOOK. Hmm I wonder who really wrote it…? Bill Ayers maybe???
OLD TROOPER 2, HI, WHAT AN IDEA FOR A WRITER TO DELIVER HIS BOOK IN PUBLIC PLACES,
START BY THE CHILDREN, AND SELL WITH A COUPLE MORE BOOKS,
BYE
Just saw this quote in a harmless article about PCs vs Macs (which inspire just about as much vituperative passion as the usual Right vs Left political stuff):
That may be about the only thing about Facebook I like, but I’d never realized it before: Facebook is about the only place on the Internet where people are real people.
– larry weisenthal (really here in Huntington Beach)
Milestones
😉
Genetic analysis of the cholera that has caused an epidemic in Haiti shown to have probably originated in South Asia, that is to say Bangladesh.
So, the U.N. comes through again!
Way to go!
But to be fair, the Bangladeshi U.N. workers are victims too!
(Of the U.N. that is.)
Millions of Bangladeshis suffer from chronic arsenic poisoning; and one in four deaths in Bangladesh has now been attributed to it.
UNICEF dug the wells that served up the arsenic-laden water.
Gee, I wonder if the Bangladeshi government is getting their people water some other way now or are they still allowing this poison to be drunk by their public?
Nope, they ”dilute” it by adding MORE water to it!
Nan G ; hi, why arsenic in those wells, could that have been a mine of some kind before?
bye
openid.aol.com/runnswim, hi, I dont think It’s right to demand the real name of the commenters,
because they can be singled out by sicko peoples for any reason they can find,
and don’t think they don’t exist, we have some here sometimes, a person take an awfull chance to encounter trouble by listing his real name, and why would you think that we are not real people giving our comment on a fictive name? the importance is what is in the comment,
and not all are please with it, some like it and some not, it’s okay that way is very normal.
bye
ilovebees, the arsenic is naturally-occurring in the groundwater. Not throughout Bangladesh, but here and there.
There were civilizations in South Asia there long before the British colonization, long before the UN. And for thousands of years, people all over the world have dug wells; it isn’t rocket science. I would speculate that if the native people there went for so many centuries without tapping the groundwater with wells, it may well have been the result of ancient experience with poison water from underground, not because it had never occurred to them to try it.
Wm T Sherman, thank you, for the info, where I am we have also a well, so IT got me curious
on why would a well get poison, bye
@ilovebeeswarzone:
One of my posting buddies from the past used his first two initials and his last name, the sight we used to post on was invaded by trolls, they were very, very evil. He had mentioned his city and state in past postings and with that they tracked him down, harassed him, even contacted his college trying to get into his records. It was a miserable situation for him.
My law enforcement son-in-law was upset with me because I exchanged ph #’s with some of my internet friends, got quite a scolding. He used to peek in on two blogs I post at, I had bookmarked this blog and another on their computer during one of my visits out there, my daughter even commented once. Now I’m only allowed to give out the area of my state that I live in, not the real city, no more giving out my name, phone number, address, etc. He really put his foot down with me. If they only knew, chuckle. 😉
They just had another new baby and they are way to busy for monitoring now. 😀
MISSY , hi, yes, I’m sure the danger is there, otherwise the people would do it with their name, ; IF FACEBOOK DO IT, THEY KNOW WHAT THE DANGER IS ,AND I ALSO
HEARD STORY IN FACEBOOK HAPPENING IN THERE, once the nut target one it can be very hard to get out of it,
thank you for that, bye
OT2 #68 Are the tax payers paying a salary to authors who hawk their books on government time?
@ Randy, Ha Ha Ha! Only if You believe that Obama was smart enough to write a children’s book.
He has proven to be not so scholarly on the Constitution, Economics, government from the ‘governing’ role, however he does throw pretty grand parties that cost more than his salary very often. He travels like a Rock Star with a Complete Aircraft Carrier Group as a yachting adventure…
I don’t know about the authorship but he is getting paid and spending like Royalty!
Lame-duck sessions supposed to be a thing of the past, historians say
This is a great article.
The only problem with our 20th Amendment was that is did not foresee air travel.
OT, I laughed so hard I may have internal damage.
Oh, my goodness! 😛 🙄