Thor’s Hall

Lex has taken the time to put life in perspective.  In his usual unique way he has found the silver lining that puts it all in perspective.  Go here to digest it all.

I became a father three months before 9/11.  Since that time I have become extremely focused on what takes place around me, and what I have in my bag of tricks to protect my family in times of trouble.  Having been an active duty Marine during some of the troubling times of the last century, simple counter terrorism actions, and counter defensive measures and awareness have been burned into by synapses.  I’ve mentioned before some of my experiences with Iran and Iranian friends that I had in the 70’s.  Even though I was thousands of miles away, Beruit had a serious impact on my views of the world.  Subsequent events in the Balkans, Somalia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Spain, Britian, Germany, and the United States have reinforced the concept of evil and it’s existence on this planet.

Evil comes in many forms, from the all-powerful dictator, to the “petty office tyrant” that makes your business life miserable.  Defending ourselves, our families, and our way of life from evil should be a fundamental calling of each of us.  There are many tools available to us and for the majority of Americans voice, mannerisms, body language, and persuasiveness can deal with most of the situations that occur on a daily basis.  For other situations, something else is needed.  It goes beyond tools it reach for a mindset.  If you do not have the awareness of your surroundings, and the situation then you cannot possibly mentally accelerate to combat someone is meaning to do you harm no matter what tool you have at your fingertips.  Finally, when we, as a society, are able to combat evil “beings” we have to be able to deal with them a bit more permanently than we have.

Why do I write all these things… well a couple of incidents have occured that have reinforced by thought process here.

You should go here and read this post in total.  Phil does a nice job of tying together the whole thread.

Just under two years ago, a Thurston County middle school teacher was made to resign after she was found to have brought a firearm to school. The teacher had told both the school administration and the police that she had only brought it to protect herself from her husband, for whom she had recently gotten a protection order on after he threatened her with a gun.

They ignored the clear and present threat, patted her on the head and told her not to worry her little self over it. Shortly afterwards, they said that if she refused to resign, they’d fire her and have charges pressed against her. Yes, she had a valid Washington State Concealed Pistol License at the time.

Then we have this article from the Chicago Sun Times.

A convicted sex offender died Sunday during a struggle with a father who found the naked man in or near his 17-year-old daughter’s bedroom, police said.

Police responding to a call from the city’s northwest side about 3:20 a.m. found 64-year-old Robert McNally on the hallway floor with his arm around the neck of 52-year-old David T. Meyers, who was pronounced dead at the scene.

From personal experience, and I wish I could find a link for you on this, a Marine Captain of my acquaintence took his family on a camping vacation in the upper Midwest.  When he failed to return from leave a search turned up the bodies, murdered by two ex-convicts.

Bottom line – evil exists, not just in books and movies but in everyday life.  Prepare for it, and hope that it never finds you.

This one sort of goes with the “Better Off” post. In various places around the web you can find comparisons of platforms, planks, and various issue positions. Unfortunately the world has become a very complex place and it seems that for a large portion of Americans voting is more of an emotional exercise than a considered, thought out, decision making process.

In the hopes of stimulating the thought process I offer you a post from DANEgerus.

Go read it, it has a lot of good stuff in it, like this:

George Bush has been in office for 7 1/2 years. The first six the economy was fine.

A little over one year ago:

1) Consumer confidence stood at a 2 1/2 year high;
2) Regular gasoline sold for $2.19 a gallon;
3) the unemployment rate was 4.5%.
4) the DOW JONES hit a record high–14,000 +
5) American’s were buying new cars,taking cruises, vacations overseas, living large!…

But American’s wanted ‘CHANGE’! So, in 2006 they voted in a Democratic Congress and yes–we got ‘CHANGE’ all right. In the PAST YEAR:

1) Consumer confidence has plummeted ;
2) Gasoline is now over $4 a gallon & climbing!;
3) Unemployment is up to 5.5% (a 10% increase);
4) Americans have seen their home equity drop by $12 TRILLION DOLLARS and prices still dropping;
5) 1% of American homes are in foreclosure.
6) as I write, THE DOW is probing another low ~~ 2.5 TRILLION DOLLARS HAS EVAPORATED FROM THEIR STOCKS, BONDS & MUTUAL FUNDS INVESTMENT PORTFOLIOS!

Full disclosure, I worked with a subprime lender on an IT project for a couple of years back around the turn of the century.  Even then, we were seeing the risks inherent in moderate scale defaulting on those loans and the impact that it had on the securitization pools because of the built in covenants in those securities.

Fast forward to the present day and we find a bunch of folks out there boiling down the history of the subprime crisis that is now at hand.

Explanation 1

Explanation 2

Explanation 3

Explanation 4

I don’t know what your opinion is but if I was campaigning for a job that essentially requires a 24 x 7 commitment I would make sure that my record on following through on a commitment was stellar.

Get out and vote for Soldier’s Angels.

Squidoo has $80,000 to give away. It wants people to vote on which charity (from a long list) should get some of that money. For every vote cast for a specific charity, that charity receives $2.00, up until all of those $80,000 are gone.   Two or three mouse clicks is all it takes and Soldier’s Angels gets $2.  Easiest donation that you have made all year.  Get to it.

There is a new position comparison survey out there to help you make up your mind about the presidential candidates.

Go take the test and see where you stand.  It is a well written piece of code / survey, even if the way the questions are stated are biased.  I found that I disagreed with the BHO position in 96% of the questions.  Not too much of a surprise there.

Very interesting, targeted message. It will be interesting to see how this plays in California, Florida, and other heavy Latino states.