30 Days of Shakespeare - Day 27

This above all — to thine own self be true;
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man. Hamlet, Act I, scene III

My Take - If you can't keep promises to yourself, how well will you honor promises to others?  If you're not honest with yourself, can you be honest with the people in your life? 

Conversely, if you are dishonest with others, can you be honest with yourself?

Today's Earworm

It's going to be one of those days.

News Roundup

• From the "Hubris" Department - A rich man from Australia is contracting with a shipyard to re-create the Titanic.  He plans to follow the plans for the original ship but utilize more modern technology.  Here's hoping he tweaks the hull plating and lifeboats.  Anyone want to bet the Titanic II only sails in the tropics?
• From the "WTF?" Department - Two Pennsylvania teenage girls are in the hospital after they were struck by a car.  What makes this noteworthy is that the girls maintain that they fell asleep while sunbathing on the road before they got run over.  Not sure how much of that I believe, but stranger things have happened.  Here's hoping they recover fully and learn to sunbathe somewhere with a little less traffic.  People of Pennsylvania, please resist those who will have a knee jerk reaction to pass a new law making sunbathing on a public thoroughfare a crime.
• From the "Government Solutions In Action" Department - Efforts by the federal government to kill unwanted species have killed more than 50,000 non-targeted animals, including animals on the endangered species list.  There are also allegations of cover-ups to keep the public from knowing the extent of the problem.  Think about that:  If we as private citizens try to root out a pest, say feral hogs or coyotes, and instead we kill a rare animal or someones dog, we're going to jail.  I wonder how many members of the government will even get a stern look over this?
• From the "I need Oreos stat!" Department - A truck driver in Texas is recovering from injuries sustained in an accident with his milk truck.  Several thousand gallons of milk were spilled on the roadway, causing a need for a detour so that motorists did not skid out of control or hit one of what must have been hundreds of cats who showed up for free milk.  I wonder if the driver will be charged with a mooooving violation?

Musings

CNN is running a piece on "Stand Your Ground" laws, and gives four cases where they have been exercised to protect people from prosecution or to acquit them:

• A mentally handicapped young man was shot and killed at a restaurant drive-thru after a close call between him and a car became violent.  The shooter maintains that he thought the man had a weapon and meant to do him harm.  He has not been charged with a crime.
• A man shot and killed someone who rushed into his trailer after asking for a drink of water.  The shooter maintains that the man was threatening his wife when it happened.  The man who was shot had contact with the police earlier in the evening, and they believed he was intoxicated.  An autopsy showed that the man had a skull fracture, which might explain his behavior.
• A man shot and killed a teenager after a group of young men broke into his home looking for snack food.  The man maintains that after he had subdued the group of teenagers, one of them lunged at him and he shot him.  He was prosecuted, but acquitted by a jury.
• A man learned that someone was robbing his car, grabbed a knife, and gave chase.  When he confronted the robber, the robber swung a bag full of car radios at him, and the man stabbed the robber in the chest, killing him. He was charged with a crime, but a judge dismissed the charges.  That dismissal is under appeal.

CNN goes on to express editorial opinions, drawing on the opinions of a law professor at Loyola, several prosecutors, and police officers to assert that the laws being examined are bad.

Here is my opinion, and please keep in mind that I am far from being a lawyer:

Where I have a right to be, I have a right to defend myself.  To go with that right, I have a responsibility to stand before the law if my judgement is wrong.

Sounds simple, doesn't it?  If only it was.

In two of the cases above, the cases of the man defending his wife and the man who stabbed the thief, the situations are very clear cut to me.  When confronted with someone acting aggressively and not giving you time to think, you react.  A man who rushes a woman in her home or turns around and swings a heavy object at its owner is presenting a clear threat, and in both cases, I have no doubt that the people who defended their lives did so with good reason. In the case of the man with the skull fracture, the homeowners had no way to know that he was hurt.  All they could know was that he appeared to be trying to harm them.

The other two, on the other hand, are much more murky.  The case in Texas basically comes down to who you believe, the man with the shotgun or the youths who broke into his home?  Did he execute a boy or even just have a negligent discharge while pointing his shotgun at a home intruder who had surrendered?  Or did he shoot a teenager who initiated an attack against him after initially surrendering?

The Arizona case is also difficult for me, because I've been on both sides of it.  I've almost run over people because one or both of us weren't watching where we were going, and I've almost been run over.  It doesn't help that the shooter maintains that the man he shot had a pipe or some other weapon, and none was ever found.  Did he take the time to load his pistol and then shoot the man out of malice or fear?

The calls to use a deadly weapon to cause non-deadly injuries are of course specious.  I carry a gun to stop a threat in the most effective way I know.  I am under no illusions about my skills, reflexes, and capabilities to do much more than center mass shots when I am under stress.  Center mass shots on humans tend to be fatal.  After the fact questions about why a person was killed instead of wounded are unrealistic.

Would CNN and the academics, police, and prosecutors who are complaining about these laws prefer that we second guess ourselves when confronted with danger?  Is it preferable that a woman be harmed in her own home while her husband try to figure out why she is being attacked?  Is it preferable for a man to be bludgeoned with a bag of electronics while he tries to decide if he is really in danger?  Should a man with his pregnant fiance in the car wait until they are actually being harmed before he reacts?

I guess where I'm getting at is that "Stand Your Ground" laws have a place in our society, but we have to remember that our rights come with responsibilities.  We have a responsibility to use deadly force only when absolutely necessary, and we can aid ourselves in that by not letting ourselves be rushed into the decision to use it.  Stay aware of what's going on around you and you won't fall into non-thinking reflexes.  But we also have the right to defend ourselves when we feel threatened, no matter where we may find ourselves. 

To me, there is only one answer:  I am going home to my family every night, and we are going to be safe in our home.  What that costs me and someone who threatens me is much less important to me than that simple goal.

30 Days of Shakespeare - Day 26

Cry Havoc! and let slip the dogs of war. -- Julius Caesar, Act III, Scene I

My Take - You know, sometimes it's just more appropriate to just quit the pretense of civility and let them have it with both barrels.

Thought for the Day

Ladies and gentlemen, what you see here is all a homeowner needs to keep things up and running:

• WD-40
• Velcro
• Expanding foam spray
• 550 cord
• Duct tape
• Multitool

Only other things I need is a six pack of something cold, a radio with a baseball or football game, and solitude, and I can fix just about anything around here.  Might not be pretty, but it'll be 'fixed'.

Rough Few Days in Kentucky

Not for me, although Irish Woman has been working me like a rented mule.  There has been a lot of shootings in the local news, and I thought I'd give y'all my dva kopeka.

• A Louisville man is in custody custody after shooting two other people in a car they were all travelling in.  Since the only picture the news has of one of the victims is a mug shot, for the moment, I'll notch this one up to possible criminal-on-criminal violence.  Only other possibility I can see is self-defense if the shooter was grabbed and stuffed in the car for some reason.  I use that off-ramp to go to Knob Creek.
• A Louisville police officer shot someone this weekend.  Not a lot of details on this yet, but the person who got shot survived and was arrested.  Irish Woman drives by the Cannon's Lane exit on I-64 every morning.
• A woman was hit by gunfire after two men started shooting at each other in the parking lot of a business.  The two shooters ran away and are being sought by police.  I chalk this one up to being in a bad neighborhood and not having a chance to duck.  There are no details on this, but it sounds like she was just struck by a stray bullet when two assholes started blazing away at each other.  I take this tone when describing the two guys with guns because if it's a legitimate shoot, one of them (the one defending his life) would more than likely have stuck around.  My gut tells me this was more criminal-on-criminal foolishness, and the lady just happened to be there.  No word on whether the men actually hit each other.  One of my hardware stores is across the street from there.
• A man in Guston, Kentucky, is dead after the son-in-law of his girlfriend shot him with a shotgun.  The man had decided that he wasn't going to let his girlfriend walk way from him after a domestic dispute, so he crashed his car into a mobile home and forced his way inside, where he met Mr. Buckshot.  Not going to celebrate this one, but I'm not exactly going to weep over it either.
• A 13 month old child is dead in Radcliff, Kentucky, after being shot in the head by a 3 year old sibling.  This one has me seeing red through a tunnel.  I know people who vehemently argue with me that it's quite all right to leave a loaded gun in drawers, on shelves, even under furniture when there are small children around and unsupervised.  Their reasoning seems to boil down to "I told them to leave it alone, and they know better than to do something I told them not to".  I need to print off the details of this one and just hand it out.  

So what do we have here?  One probable criminal-on-criminal shooting, an officer involved shooting, a self-defense shooting, a lady who was in the line of fire unexpectedly, and a child dead because of stupidity.  In several of those cases, they happened at places that I or Irish Woman frequently pass through.  One hits close to home because I have kids, I have guns, and I try to be responsible with both of them.  The self-defense reminds me that I can have the safest, most stable home in the world, but I'm only a couple of levels of separation away from other people who might come to us for help and have someone who views other people as objects follow them.

All of these situations happened unexpectedly.  I'm sure that the young soldier from Fort Knox didn't think he would be shooting someone this weekend, and I'm absolutely certain that the parents of that child didn't put the gun out in hopes that the three year old would find it.  The person who called 911 about the dead people in the car most likely was just trying to get through their day, same as I do when I drive by that intersection.  The woman who got shot just minding her business in the parking lot of a store didn't expect to be rushed to the emergency room this afternoon.

Life throws things at us, and while we can't be on high alert all the time, there are some things we should keep in mind:

• No matter how high you put it, no matter how well you hide it, they will climb and they will uncover it.  A child will figure out how to work the trigger on a double action pistol.  A child will figure out how to work the slide on a shotgun.  A child will figure out how to work the selector switch on a rifle.  They are curious, they are geniuses when it comes to mechanical items, and a child that young CANNOT BE TAUGHT TO NOT TOUCH SOMETHING EVERY TIME, ALL THE TIME. I very much support and practice the keeping of firearms for self-defense, but leaving a loaded gun out where a young child can get to it unsupervised is irresponsible and stupid.  Get an easy-for-an-adult gun safe and keep your children out of the ER, morgue, and Michael Bloomberg's radar. 
• Be aware of your surroundings as much as you can.  Like I mentioned, we go to several of the areas where these shootings happened.  Louisville is a relatively peaceful city for its size, and we still had all of these shootings in different areas this weekend.  Keep your head, and watch what's going on around you.  Remember, there is no such place as a place where bad things don't happen.  Assholes have cars now, and some of them come from 'nice' neighborhoods.
• Know when to take yourself up a notch.  If a family member is coming to your home for shelter from an abusive relationship, take the time to arm yourself and be watchful before they show up to continue whatever it was that caused their partner to run.  And no matter where you are going, if it is legal to do so, carry your gun and know how and when to use it.

I'll end by saying that this set of shootings is an anomaly in this area.  Like I said, Louisville isn't that bad crime and violence wise, especially when compared to other cities in the South and Mid-West.  It just goes to show that bad things can happen anywhere. We owe it to ourselves and our families to use our heads and be prepared for the curve balls that are always being thrown.

Update - Edited to update the link on the officer involved shooting.  Looks like the guy not only got shot, but also got introduced to a land shark.  Oh, and BTW, not only was he shot along the route that Irish Woman usually takes to work, he robbed one of the gas stations I use.  Either I go a lot of places in Louisville and happen to go a lot of places where these people got shot, or I'm a jinx.

Thoughts on the Weekend

• Whoever came up with the idea of giving away samples of food at the grocery store on a Saturday morning ought to be drug out into the street, beaten with a frozen carp, and then left to die while tied tightly to a storm drain cover.
• I never thought I'd be glad to see $3.65 a gallon for gas.
• Apparently me wearing a gun to the grocery store and other errands is becoming normal to Irish Woman.  She asked if I was going to carry the revolver, the CZ, or the big gun (1911) yesterday.
• My grandfathers are spinning in their graves.  I went out and paid good money for dirt this weekend.  Granted, it was compost, topsoil, peat moss, and potting soil for the garden, but it was dirt.
• Pro-tip - Do not wear contact lenses while mixing up compost, topsoil, peat moss, and potting soil in a big garden bed, or you will have the sudden and immediate urge to scratch the back of your eyeballs out.
• Lightning, thunder, and flickering lights might just be nature's way of telling you it's time to shut off the computer and go to bed.
• Hint to history professors who do podcasts:  Do not try to do a podcast while eating your dinner.  Seriously, dude, I could hear you chewing as you looked at your notes and the clinking of silverware on crockery was a dead giveaway.
• Bad thing #1 - The tub was draining very slowly and I couldn't find my drain snake after drain cleaner and a plunger didn't work.
• Bad thing #2 - After acquiring a new snake to clean out said drain, I fished it down the drain about two feet and proceeded to get it well and truly stuck.
• Bad thing #3 - While trying to remove said drain snake from said drain, the snake broke.  So I had a clogged drain and a sharp pointy piece of metal sticking out of it.
• Bad thing #4 - Growling at Irish Woman as I came back up from the basement with a set of vise grips to get hold of that sharp piece of metal and by God drag it out of the drain.  I think I said something along the lines of "My hair isn't long enough to clog a !#!@ drain."
• Good thing #1 - After dragging that piece of sharp metal out of the bathtub drain, I realized that there was an access port for that drain in the basement.  I got it off with no issues, drained off the resultant water into a bucket while only getting about 1/3 of it on me and my clothes, and found the clog.  It was quite intricate and gnarly.  I think I will call it Herman if it survives its first night out in the trash and gains sentience.  It may have a future in Kentucky politics.
• Good thing #2 - I got the plumbing back together without causing Irish Woman to call a plumber, a first in our relationship.
• Possibly bad thing # 5 - I informed Irish Woman and Girlie Bear that I expected both of them to report to me by 0800 tomorrow morning with regulation high and tights and that they were henceforth forbidden to use anything but baby shampoo to clean what was left of their hair.  I based this directive on the fact that I don't have hair as long as what I found in the drain, and that it was all held together with what can be best described as the remnants of too much feminine hair care product.
• Possibly good thing #3 - Irish Woman didn't knife me in the kidney when I didn't laugh with her after directing her to stop using conditioner and to get a Marine haircut.
• Is it ominous to you other married men when your wife comes to you and asks how many board feet of 2x4 you have in your work area?

Garden Update

After a month and a half of weekends, the new raised garden beds / retaining wall is complete.  We've even got some things planted.  More will go in if we can ever get a good stretch of warm weather.

Probably going to be watermelon or cucumbers

250 Strawberry plants.
Irish Woman and Boo harvested a few berries from the plants that were
transplanted from the old bed

Carrots are sprouting

Tomatoes will probably go here

Onions are coming along well.
The other side of the bed will be either cucumbers or watermelon

 Our fruit trees are doing OK.  Some are doing better than others.  We had hopes for another great harvest of cherries, but we had a false spring and even with draping canvas and such around the trees at night, we didn't have very many cherries out of a whole lot of blooms.

It's a good year for peaches

and grapes

Not such a good year for cherries

Our big cherry tree
It was covered in blooms, but has very few cherries on it

We also cleaned up a couple of the beds in the front of the house.  It's amazing what a shovel, a rake, a few yards of weed barrier, and some mulch can do.

I saved some volunteer flowers and sunflower plants when I put down barrier and mulch

24 hours ago, this was overgrown with weeds 

Two new peach trees
It's also a great year for tiger lillies

We are definitely going to have to thin and split the tiger lillies next spring.  They are taking over.  They grow wild here, so any place you give them a little cultivation and attention they run rampant.

The tiger lilly thicket
In a couple of months, you won't be able to see the house through all the orange

The false spring that hurt our cherry crop also burned some of the shrubs

We have a few critters in the yard.

Old Mr. Frog is slowly becoming one with the earth
We've had him as long as we've had the house

A giraffe finds his way out of the jungle

The Giraffe was done by YardBirds
We have a few of their sculptures scattered around the yard.
Once I get the tiger lillies under control, maybe I'll find them.

Not all of our landscaping is edible.
Some of it is just pretty

We started out with one yucca, which Irish Woman unsuccessfully tried to kill
We now have 12
I keep them around because they remind me of Arizona

Today's Earworm

This one's dedicated to NavyOne, who has the most interesting picture of a frog I've seen in a long time.

30 Days of Shakespeare - Day 25

My conscience hath a thousand several tongues,
And every tongue brings in a several tale,
And every tale condemns me for a villain. -- King Richard, Act V, Scene III

News Roundup

• From the "Mama's Little Snowflake" Department - A family in California is suing their school district after their son was kicked out of an honors class for cheating.  The young man admits to copying the homework of another student, and the parents and student signed a form stating they understood what it would take to get bounced from the program.  But the parents are pointing at a conflicting policy and suing to get their kid re-instated.  Apparently he can't go anywhere in his life and will end up living in a van down by the river if he isn't in the super-dooper high speed, low drag English program.  I guess you can tell where my sympathies lie.  Don't want to get kicked out of a highly selective, competitive educational program?  Then don't cheat.
• From the "All That Is Old" Department - A rancher in California is reporting that using shepherding dogs to watch over their flock has cut down on predator attacks.  Those of you who pay attention to human history should not be shocked by this.  Who would have thought that putting a dog that's been bred for a few thousand generations to protect sheep would be successful in keeping mountain lions and coyotes off the herd?  Pretty soon we should be hearing that having a few cats around the house is a better way to control mice and rats than poison and traps, and thousands will faint over their morning coffee at the shock.
• From the "Cyber-Dumbass" Department - A Kentucky man is under arrest after allegedly ordering a pound of marijuana from someone he met while playing video games on-line.  He is accused of paying $2300 for the weed, and was caught when it was sent to an incorrect address.  He then admitted to the crime, and his intent to sell the contraband to pay bills.  Folks, this is so full of fail I don't know where to begin.  First and foremost, he used the mail to smuggle drugs.  Second, he either did it with someone dumb enough to not triple check the address before mailing it, or he was dumb enough to admit that the package was his when it was delivered and the mailman asked specifically if he was the person to whom the package was addressed.  Finally, he opened his mouth and admitted everything.  Of course, he bought pot from somebody he met on XBox Live, so we're not exactly talking about a criminal mastermind here.
• From the "No Kidding" Department - A study shows that 30% of civilian-employed U.S. adults get less than 6 hours of sleep a night.  For those of you with small babies, I know you dream about getting six sequential hours of sleep.  I normally average between five and six, but that's why the good Lord gave us coffee.  It would be interesting to see what the percentage of the participants take sleep aids, and how many of those are in the 30% that don't sleep much.

30 Days of Shakespeare - Day 24

Misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows.  -- The Tempest, Act I, Scene II

Picture of the Day

Saw this up on the Wikipedia main page. 

United States Navy personnel engage in Special Patrol Insertion/Extraction (SPIE) training between a Sikorsky SH-60 SeahawkUSS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN-69). SPIE involves either a person or goods being lowered from or raised to a helicopter via a cable above terrain on which landing would be difficult.

Not shown is the the method used to keep the man at the end of the tether from clanging when he walked.

30 Days of Shakespeare - Day 23

When sorrows come, they come not single spies,
But in battalions.  - Hamlet, Act IV, Scene V

My Take - Most of us can handle one thing coming at us at a time without breaking much of a sweat.  But it always seems that the world shotguns us.  I know several people who found out their wife was pregnant, their parents were sick, and they were being outsourced within the space of a couple weeks.  When life throws that much crap at you, all you can do is your best and lean on the help of your friends and family.  Don't worry, you'll be there for them to lean on when life inevitably sucker punches them at the same time it's shanking them in the back.  That's yet another reason to always have a tribe.