Dorner and the Mad Trapper Story

Finally, after weeks of nothing, a cornucopia of things to writer about. First, the Chris Dorner standoff last night reminds me of the famous true story of the manhunt for the Mad Trapper of Rat River.

Mad Trapper's destroyed cabin.

Several years ago while flying from Inuvik to a lake at the headwaters of the Porcupine River our bush pilot took a detour over a stretch of wilderness. Our pilot wanted to see the the place where the hunt for Albert Johnson, the Mad Trapper, had begun.

In the winter of 1931, fur trappers in a remote region of the Yukon complained to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police that a rogue trapper was messing with their equipment. Johnson shot at the Mounties sent to investigate then barricaded himself in his 8 by 10 foot cabin.

Mounties retreated and returned to Johnson's cabin with reinforcements and dynamite. After a short siege in minus 40 degree temperatures the Mounties tossed dynamite on the roof of Johnson's cabin. The explosion destroyed the shelter (see above). When Mounties approached the ruins of the cabin to remove Johnson's corpse the very much alive Albert Johnson fired at the officers from a bunker he had dug under the floor of his cabin.

The Mounties retreated to their barracks for still more reinforcements. The returned to find that Johnson had set out on foot towards Alaska during one of the coldest winters in Yukon history.

Mounties tracked Johnson from the ground and air for weeks. Johnson was traveling by snowshoe faster than experienced guides could follow him on dogsleds. The Mounties blockaded the only passes over the Richardson Mountains so Johnson climbed a 7,000 foot ridge during a blizzard without any climbing gear.

Johnson couldn't hunt or light a fire because either action would reveal his location to his pursuers. In less then three days he traveled over 85 miles across rugged wilderness, in darkness (at that latitude and time of year the nights are 22 hours long), in temperatures so cold spit would freeze before it hits the ground.

Airplane pilots finally found Johnson's fresh trail on the frozen Eagle River. They trapped Johnson in the open. A firefight broke out where one Mountie was seriously wounded. It took nine bullets to kill Albert Johnson.

During the manhunt, Johnson killed one Mountie and wounded two. He performed feats of survival that natives to the Yukon considered impossible. And to this day nobody knows who Albert Johnson was, even if that was his real name, or where he came from. He has become a Canadian legend.

A painting hanging in the Mad Trapper Pub, Inuvik, Canada

What I Believe

I believe...

The Pope is resigning because he is sick. I've thought that homophobic misogynist was a sick, deeply disturbed individual since he was a 14 year-old Nazi.

Chris Dorner is a murderous sociopath. At the same time I believe the LAPD is and has been a corrupt street gang that routinely engages in recreational torture.

President Obama is most similar to Grover Cleveland. Both were far better than any of their Republican opponents but both surrendered too easily to Wall Street aristocrats.

Malala Yousufzai deserves the Nobel Peace Prize. She is the Pakistani girl shot by the Taliban for advocating the education of women. Her courage and dedication deserve to be celebrated and encouraged.

Republicans hate Americans. They intend to trash the economy to punish America for reelecting the President. Republicans would filibuster an Arbor Day resolution if it were proposed by President Obama.

Dorner: the Unusual Suspect

The hunt for the cop killing ex-cop would be farce if innocent people weren't getting shot and killed.

Police, armed for war, have been going door-to-door in Big Bear during a bitter blizzard searching for Chris Dorner even though he is almost certainly nowhere near that mountain resort. Dorner knows police tactics - if he leaves an obvious clue, like his burned out truck, it is because he wants the police to overreact to it. Dorner likely had another car, unregistered and probably bought for cash, stored in Big Bear waiting to swap out for his easily identified truck.

Every clue the police are chasing is something Dorner left behind deliberately. They are false clues. The police themselves are behaving like imbeciles - shooting at innocent citizens and running around like Keystone Cops.

If Dorner's goal was to embarrass the LAPD, he has succeeded.

Where is Dorner now? 
Possibly living in an SRO in one of those dangerous neighborhoods where police are afraid to go except in groups with tactical backup. He is probably not far from Los Angeles because Dorner knows he is most vulnerable when he travels. He would choose a place with few security cameras, Beverly Hills is out, and he has probably established his presence there so he wouldn't be a scary new face.

That said, Dorner is holed up. He has supplies of food and water for several weeks. He'll have enough cash to stay off the grid indefinitely. Having made his intentions known, Dorner will now lie low while police agencies exhaust themselves in the manhunt. He will not venture out of his room where he might be accidentally spotted unless it is absolutely necessary. When his hunters are tired and bored Dorner will strike again then retreat back into hiding.

Dorner probably has an extensive arsenal stored in several caches. He likely bought the weapons legally, with cash. Since background check information (as an ex-cop Dorner would pass background checks with ease) is quickly destroyed, there will be no records of what and where he bought his weapons and munitions.

A Note to the Police
I don't have any actual knowledge here, only what I have learned from movies (the Bourne trilogy), books (1984), and TV police procedurals. Also, if one wants to learn how to be a successful murderous lunatic one ought to study the Beltway Sniper, what worked and where they failed. Their success hinged on striking quickly and disappearing. Their failure came in driving around too much and sleeping in their car where they could be stumbled upon and arrested. 

American Police State: Beserker Division

It's safe to say the LAPD is scared shitless. Yesterday morning police in Torrence shot up a car carrying two petite Latino women, wounding both, who they had mistaken for a 277 pound black male. The police made no warning before they riddled the car with bullets. The women had made the critical error of delivering newspapers from a blue pickup truck in a neighborhood where a Los Angeles police officer targeted by a lunatic ex-cop lives.

A short time later other police officers spotted a similar truck nearby and emptied their weapons on it also without warning, their panicked gunfire failed to hit the driver.

The Madnesss of Chris Dorner

I am a lunatic with lethal combat skills. ~ Xena

The cause of this hysteria is a rogue police officer who has vowed to kill as many Los Angeles police officers, and their families, as he can.

Simply put, Dorner broke the Blue Code of Silence and ratted out fellow officers who had abused prisoners. The LAPD ignored Dorner's accusations and then fired his ass for being a disloyal cop. Dorner thought about things for a couple of years and decided his best course of action was to go batshit insane.

I want him DEAD! I want his family DEAD! I want his house burned to the GROUND! ~ Al Capone, the Untouchables

He has published a manifesto announcing his plans to kill corrupt Los Angeles cops, up to Chief of Police Charlie Beck. He also plans to kill their families because Dorner has no family of his own. To the joy of conservative commentators, Dorner used his manifesto to praise Piers Morgan and Barack Obama.

Dorner has already put his plan into action, killing the daughter of one of his police targets and her fiance. He has ambushed a few cops as well, killing one.

Dorner is not some jihadist or KKK survivalist. He is not an amateur wacko. He is a government trained killer determined to take as many police with him to his grave.

As of now police forces have Dorner pinned down in the San Bernardino Mountains. Or Las Vegas. Or San Diego. Or Arizona. Or Mexico. Basically they have Dorner trapped somewhere between the North Pole and the Equator.

Until Dorner is caught (fuck that, they intend to shot him down like a mad dog, collateral victims be damned) nobody in Southern California is safe either from Dorner or the police hunting for him.

Tool Using Animals

Orangutan spearfishing.

We humans like to think we are so damn smart, you know, we make tools and such. Some claim human toolmaking is proof of God. The fact is, a whole plethora of animals are adept at making and using tools.

Building Houses

Humans make houses and even build whole cities. So do birds and prairie dogs. Weaver finches make elegantly constructed nests. Octopi will take a stone and carve out a proper den for themselves. Termites build temperature controlled highrises.

Manipulating The Environment

Beaver dam complete with spillway.

Human scientists are still trying to figure out why beavers build dams. Theories include underwater food storage, protection from predators, to create an environment for the growth of yummy tubers, and because they just hate the sound of running water. Damsel fish plant, tend, and harvest fields of a particular fungus. Ants, of course, care for herds of aphids like tiny sheep ranchers.

Weapons
We pride ourselves in thinking that nothing is more human than making and using weapons.

A lot of animals have come up with clever ways to create weapons. You've already seen the orangutan spear. The blanket octopus (above) will take the tendrils from a Portuguese Man O'War and wield them like a poisonous whip. Several birds are know to steal human bread and use bread crumbs as bait for fishing. Elephants will use their trunks to throw rocks at predators or annoying humans. The cleverest weapon user is the dolphin. He will grab a poisonous sea snake by the mid-section and swim through a school of fish swing the snake around. The angry snake bites at the fish. The paralyzed fish make an easy feast for the dolphin.

Tool Boxes

Crows and ravens have long been observed choosing and using twigs as tools to get at nutritious insects. What is less well known is that if they find a particularly useful tool they keep it and use it again and again. Some birds have collected a number of twigs and keep them together in a kind of tool box.

A fascinating blog on the subject is Animals Don't Think, kept by someone who knows animals are, in fact, very good thinkers.

The Drone Wars

There is a violence that liberates, and a violence that enslaves; there is a violence that is moral and a violence that is immoral. ~ Benito Mussolini

There are countless reasons to be disturbed by America's reliance on armed drones to assassinate our enemies.

These drones are inhuman robots flown by nerds with joysticks thousands of miles from the actual carnage. To these nerds it is just another video game to enjoy and the targets are nothing more than pixels to be obliterated.

One group of horsemen resembled a budding rose as bombs fell in their midst. ~ Vittorio Mussolini describing bombing villagers in Ethiopia

It is dishonorable. These are not people being killed in battle but victims ambushed in their sleep. Assassination has been a weapon of war since the dawn of civilization and it all those thousands of years it has always been considered the vile action of cowards and brigands.

Supporters claim these drones strike with laser-like efficiency but they are still blunt cudgels not sharp spears. More innocent children have been killed in the drone attacks than bad guys.

Let your plans be dark and impenetrable as night, and when you move, fall like a thunderbolt. ~ Sun Tzu, The Art of War

It is an act of war for a manned bombers to fly over sovereign airspace to drop bombs on people. It is, somehow, something less than war for the CIA to send unmanned drones to do precisely the same thing. Mostly this is because all sides, the US government and the foreign nations that have been violated, have a vested interest in pretending that acts of war are not acts of war.

California In the News

Texas Poachers

If I owned both Texas and Hell, I would rent Texas and live in Hell. ~ Gen. Philip Sheridan, 1866

Texas Governor Rick Perry is using Texas tax money to seduce businesses to leave the Golden State and move to Baja Oklahoma. It makes sense. While California is a strong pro-union state, Texas has a massive slave (prison) labor resource. While California has a highly educated workforce, Texas schools teach creationism - a dumb worker is a happy worker.

State Budget Balanced

Now that the state has a Democratic governor and super majorities in the legislature, California was able to balance its budget easily. They did it by eliminating corporate tax breaks that paid companies to build useless structures like sports stadia. Oh, and we raised taxes on golfer Phil Mickelson.

Gaseous Prices

The price of produce is going up as the quality declines. This is because of a combination of drought and hard freezes. Gasoline is breaching $4.00 a gallon because this is California and the oil companies don't need to explain themselves to us peasants.

Black Bear Sighted in Desert

The bear on the California flag is a grizzly bear which was hunted to extinction in the state in 1922. A black bear was sighted recently in the high desert in eastern San Diego County. Don't know yet if it had migrated from the San Bernadino Mountains or was an illegal alien from Mexico.

The Next Great Republican Purge

Joe Stalin (left) and three friends from the Russian Revolution. By 1938 all three had been purged from the Communist Party by their old friend Joe and executed on his orders.

One thing that endlessly amuses me is the habit of the Republican Party to emulate their old adversary, Joseph Stalin's Soviet Union, and hold periodic party purges. Often they attack those who stray from orthodoxy in some small way and become RINOs.

Currently, the Republican Politburo has pointed its long knives at the Tea Party. Karl Rove, the Bush family's longtime executioner, has been tasked with driving Tea Party radicals from the Republican Party. There may not be show trials followed by firing squads, but with Rove you never now for sure.

Superbowl Stats of the Day

• There are 48 minutes of commercials in the Superbowl.
• There is eleven minutes of actual action in the average NFL game. 
• There are 450 minutes of pre-game shows before Superbowl LXVII.
• They could broadcast every minute of action in every Superbowl from 1967 to 2010 in that time.
• Watching every minute of every commercial in every Superbowl game take a day and a half.

They say an actor hasn't truly made it until he has appeared on Broadway and a singer isn't truly washed-up until she performs on the Superbowl halftime show. So sorry, Beyonce.

The NRA's "Death List"

The National Rifle Association has published a list of its enemies. A well thought out list. An extensive list. When the NRA published such a list there is certainly the implied threat that "you're dead to me" will simply be translated to "you're dead!" The NRA's death list is frighteningly extensive.

• The Elderly (the AARP, Grey Panthers)
• Jews (American Jewish Committee, B`nai B`rith, Union of American Hebrew Congregations)
• Minorities (NAACP, La Raza, Congress of National Black Churches)
• Women (National Organization for Women, General Federation of Women`s Clubs, League of Women Voters, YWCA)
• City Dwellers (Urban League, United States Conference of Mayors)

Just about every association of doctors and nurses is targeted. School and teachers groups are bulls-eyed. Religious institutions including the Catholic Conference and United Methodist Church are listed.

Scores of actors are on the hit list including tough guys like Sean Connery, Mark Harmon, Sylvester Stallone, and George Clooney. They also are targeting American sweethearts like Tara Lipinski and Mary Lou Retton. Britney Spears is on the list, which is just cruel given her troubles.

The Hallmark Greeting Card company is on the list, as are the Kansas City Chiefs and St. Louis Rams football teams. Alan Colmes is pissed he didn't make the list.

They were careful not to put any sitting government officials on their list but the NRA does target a couple of retired judges. Just a hint, you know.

National Review Defends Hitler

Nazism may have been an ideology to which the United States was — and to which the president is — implacably opposed, but it is hardly “senseless.” ~ Eliana Johnson, National Review Media Editor

If ever there was an opinion by a conservative spokesperson that deserves extensive repetition it is these words from an employee of the flagship publication of American Republicanism.

[The Nazi Party's] political leaders campaigned on a platform comprising 25 non-senseless points, including the “unification of all Germans,” a demand for “land and territory for the sustenance of our people,” and an assertion that “no Jew can be a member of the race.” ~ same woman, same publication

Let's see what National Review considers "sensible."

• The conquest of Germanic peoples in Austria, Sudetenland, and Poland.
• The invasion and occupation of France and Russia to obtain "lebensraum," living space.
• No German can be a Jew; no Jew can be German.

The actual text quoted by Ms. Johnson reads, "Only a member of the race can be a citizen. A member of the race can only be one who is of German blood, without consideration of creed. Consequently no Jew can be a member of the race."

I have read three days of National Review Online (a painful activity) and found none at the magazine willing to contradict Ms. Johnson's position although I give credit to the readers who are nearly unanimous in their condemnation.

I won't say that Ms. Johnson is anti-Semitic, although her other writings show a clear hatred of Semite Arabs. Ms. Johnson does senselessly hate President Obama to the point that when the President criticized the Holocaust she felt the need to irrationally defend Nazism.

To Ms. Johnson, if Obama condemns the Holocaust then Hitler must have been right.

A gigantic hat tip to TeamSarah4Choice at Daily Kos for discovering this.

And Scalia Murdered It

[The Constitution is] not a living document. It’s dead, dead, dead. ~ Supreme court Justice Antonin Scalia, Jan. 28, 2013

If the United States Constitution is truly dead it was an assassination performed with malice aforethought by Scalia and his pet Clarence Thomas with their insistence on bizarre interpretations of the text that make no sense in either logic, language, or the law.

Image is Satan tempting John Wilkes Booth to kill Lincoln, a 1865 lithograph by John Magee.

NRA Fantasies

It's almost cute, the fantasies that gun enthusiasts have about themselves.

Concealed Carry Heroes

Concealed carry advocates picture themselves as an amalgam of James Bond, Philip Marlowe, and Simon Templar. They see themselves as heroes walking our streets ready at a moments notice to whip their weapon out to defend a damsel in distress or helpless citizen from agents of evil. Most would be lucky to not to come off like Maxwell Smart and shoot themselves in the leg frantically reaching for their gun.

Open Carry Machismo

Then their are the guys who picture themselves as Wyatt Earp or Rambo and demand the right to openly flaunt their weapons. These displays are purely cosmetic and serve exactly the same purpose as the penis gourds worn by New Guinea tribesmen.

Thin Red Line of Freedom

Ah, yes, the Wolverine wannabes. The people who are convinced that it is their arsenal of AR-15s that is holding off the FEMA Death Camps and preventing our invasion and conquest by North Korean Muslims. The only thing FEMA would have to do to imprison these guys is open the gates to the camps and advertise free beer.

It's kind of darling, really, the romantic delusions these guys have over their deadly weapons. Almost as cute as this

fully functional Hello Kitty AK-47, on sale for just over $1000.

Conservatives Consequences

Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. ~ Gal 6:7

Utah Smog - Air Thick Enough to Eat

Utah is one of the most politically conservative state ever. It is part of their Mormon ethos that nothing should stand in the way of a corporation's right to to profit whatever the cost to society. As a consequence, Utah is the most business friendly state in the Union and Salt Lake City the most polluted city in North America. Utahans may be griping now about unhealthy air but it is nothing more than what they asked for.

Jindal - Stupid Is As Stupid Does

Gov. Bobby Jindal famously said recently that the Republicans must "stop being the stupid party." This is the same Gov. Jindal that somewhat less famously promoted teaching young earth creationism in Louisiana schools. One state funded school actually teaches that a mythical creature (the Loch Ness Monster) proves that dinosaurs and man coexisted. You can't become the "not-stupid party" if your leaders are uneducated dolts.

Football Concussions

Why is it that modern football players with their expensive high tech padded helmets are sustaining more debilitating concussions now than back in the days of leather head gear?

The safest helmet ever made.

Actual testing has shown that the leather helmets are just as safe as the gladiator head gear being worn. 

Steroids Cause Concussions
Pump so many performance enhancing drugs into people they begin to resemble prize bulls at the county fair.  Add in chemically induced 'roid rage. Then set them on full speed collision courses and watch the mayhem.

Helmets Cause Concussions
Hit someone wearing a leather helmet in the skull with a hammer and it's going to hurt, a lot. Hit someone wearing a modern helmet with that same hammer hand he probably won't feel a thing (I'm not testing this theory). Making the head impervious to tactile pain does not make it immune to brain sloshing damage.

Prolonged Seasons Make Things Worse
Colleges used to play eight games a year plus one bowl game. The NFL used to play ten games a year with a single playoff game. Now, colleges have twelve game seasons plus bowls. The NFL is up to 16 games a year with up to three play-off games added on. And the NFL is talking about expanding their schedule to 18 games. More impact, less time to recover.

Helmets Are Used As Weapons

Modern football helmets are armored weapons. I'm actually surprised they have resisted the urge to attach spikes to them. Players know to lower their heads and lead with the most threatening weapon they have, the helmet. In every football game you will see several collisions that mostly resemble two rutting rams fighting.

The Owners Don't Give a Fuck
When I say "owners" I also include college presidents. The people who profit from football don't give a rat's ass about the players. They are merely chattel, highly replaceable chattel. There is always another young star on the rise to replace a fallen warrior. The pro owners may officially ban PEDs and they even, rarely, punish a player. The punishment is usually slight and meant to convince him to use more advanced masking agents and not to get him clean. College owners don't even pretend to care about steroid use.

Players Don't Give a Fuck Either
Glory, money, women. Many, maybe most football players, even at the high school level, don't care if their sport is causing permanent injuries to their bodies or brains that will eventually leave them crippled or addled for life. 

Conclusion
I guess I'm supposed to come up with some recommendations here but I can't. I do fully hate college football with it's slave gladiator similarities. But, the fact is I enjoy watching pro football even though it is people dressed like robots facing each other. I would probably enjoy it more if they took the players out of that armor and humanized the sport. Then again, I don't watch rugby so maybe not.

Old Things and Me

I like old stuff. It doesn't hurt that I'm old and like myself, but I really believe that many things were better in the "Good Ol' Days."

Clean Sports

The death of Stan 'The Man' Musial reminded me that athletes used to be human beings before the days of chemical enhancement. Barry Bonds (above) used to be a svelte gazelle before he discovered steroids and bulked up to the point he could crack walnuts with his forehead muscles. There is not an offensive tackle in professional football who doesn't have more PEDs in his system than blood.

Old time sports was far from perfect. Aldolph Rupp coached the University of Kentucky basketball team for 39 years before succumbing to the pressure to integrate in 1969. Mickey Mantle was a drunken womanizer who liked to play naked golf.

Jazz Age Jazz

New Orleans jazz in the 1920's might sound like a cacophony of instruments but the sounds merge into rich story. Modern fusion jazz, even from masters like Herbie Hancock, can also sound like a cacophony but the whole is often just an endless repetition of cords with minor inflections.

Impressionism

Give me a Monet landscape over the just about every art movement that followed. Cubism and most abstract art merges geometry with nature, both lose. Abstract expressionism is remarkably similar to finger painting while blindfolded. Most 21st century art is big on fractals and is just a retelling of what computers do only computers do it better.

Chess

Another thing ruined by computers. For centuries chess was an artistic endeavor requiring creativity and vision. Thanks to the Soviet School of Chess and computers chess has been reduced to a game of memorization.

Guns

Hunting used to require skill. I could respect that. Taking down a deer with a single bullet from a Kentucky long rifle took patience, you only got one shot and you had to make it count. Even 100 years ago, if a hunter went out with five bullets he was expected to return with five ducks. Modern hunters take their automatic rifles and hundreds of rounds. They find a target and keep throwing lead around until they hit something. Any drunken slob can do that.

On Guns in Schools

• Every year some 500 children are killed accidentally by guns.
• Law enforcement is diligent about not compiling statistics on accidental police shooting but they happen.
• Hell, they happen a lot. 
• WTF, police will accidentally shoot each other. 
• Police are already accidentally discharging their weapons in schools.
• Frequently.

Put 100,000 armed individuals in our nation's schools and we will probably see more children killed accidentally by their guards than would be killed deliberately by lunatics.

If that doesn't make you feel safer, nothing will.

Dream Wisdom

A couple of nights ago I had a dream where I composed a profound set of observations that can only be described as transcendental political wisdom.

These simple but deep observations, if put into practice, would revolutionize the ways to achieve political success. We are talking about wisdom on the level of Lao Tzu here.

Even though I was asleep I was aware of how difficult it is to hold onto dreams after waking so, in my sleep state, I worked hard at memorizing as many of the nuggets as I could.

It worked! At least partially. I remembered a few things which I shall now share.

KnightErrant's Guide to Political Wisdom

• Never cut across the grain, always with the grain.
• Compromise is not surrender but surrendering is a form of compromise.
• Your friends are often your biggest enemies and vice versa.
• Big fights always come from the small fights you ignore.
• Losing is better than....(something, I forgot the rest).

That's all I can remember. Profound, yeah? Reminds me of this old story.

NRA Wants a Police State

The National Rifle Association wants nothing less than to turn America into an armed camp.

Their acolytes want to make entering a house of worship similar to entering a military base. The weapons tech, not the preacher, will be the most important person in the church.

Of course, the NRA is all about getting guns in schools. Armed guards defending classes,

barbed wire fences protecting the children,

militarized check points. Nothing is too much for the safety of our kids.

Mothers going to the grocery store and

teens gathering at the food court will make everybody feel safer if they are packing heat.

Sure several dozen kids will be accidentally shot in the course of being made safe. The occasional gun will be accidentally forgotten in the school bathroom after the guard took a dump. But this is all collateral damage. These deaths are simply the price of freedom in a police state.

Remember,

an armed citizenry is never, ever threatening and can

never, ever, ever end badly.

John Wilkes Booth at Lincoln's Inauguration

One of the strangest stories in American history is the fact that John Wilkes Booth attended Lincoln's second inauguration.

Booth, a notorious womanizer, had been canoodling with Lucy Lambert Hale (r), the daughter of Lincoln friend, Sen. John Hale of New Hampshire. They were supposedly secretly engaged although it is more likely that had Booth lied to her to worm his way closer to Lincoln to further his plots. When Booth died he had the pictures of five women with him, including Lucy.

Booth had wrangled a prime ticket to the inauguration from Lucy and ended up surprisingly close to the President. If the above picture is accurate in identifying him, Booth was within pistol shot range of his target. A month later, Booth was trying to recruit fellow actor Samuel Knapp Chester into the plot and told him, "What an excellent chance I had to kill the President, if I had wished, on inauguration-day."

Here is a fascinating website on all things Booth.

Open Letter to Anti-ObamaCare CEOs

Clarence Otis, CEO Darden Restaurants
John Schnatter, CEO Papa John Pizza
John Mackey, CEO Whole Foods Market

Dear Sir:

I used to be a customer of your until you decided to speak out against ObamaCare. You have claimed to have been misquoted or misspoke but I doubt words like "fascism" can be misunderstood.

You have implied that providing health care to your employees will drive you out of business. I certainly do not want to make you into a liar nor prolong your agony as a business owner by spending money at your establishment.

I believe that basic health care ought to be a right. You believe health care is a privilege reserved only for wealthier Americans. I had become afraid to enter your establishment knowing that you are unconcerned whether your employees are carrying undiagnosed illnesses.

You would not have been so open about your beliefs if you had not been disgusted that people like myself had been sullying your establishment with out liberal thoughts. In truth, you were probably as uncomfortable having me as a customer as I was.

I have successfully replaced you with other businesses. It is true that I don't know if these new owners are as vile and hate filled toward their employees as you. They may be, but at least they are not open and boastful about it.

May I suggest you reread Atlas Shrugged and consider "going Galt." It is quite probable that the world will be better off if you do.

Sincerely,
Alan Sakarias (Knighterrant)

P.S. I actually have never been in a Darden restaurant but I had been Red Lobster curious.

How Republicans Hate America

Republicans Hate Prosperity

Ginger Rogers singing "We're In the Money" in pig-Latin.

There can be no doubt that the economy is improving. Jobless claims at at a five year low. The stock market is at a five-year high. Things are really beginning to look up. Republicans think that now is the perfect time to crash the economy by forcing the government to default on its debt.

Republicans Hate Uteri

Two-thirds of Americans believe women should have the right to an abortion. Those numbers cross demographic boundaries, race and gender don't significantly change the responses. The only outliers are white evangelicals and Republican legislators.

Republicans Hate Peace

Whether it is calls for civil war over attempts to limit gun deaths or demands for war with Iran, Republicans have a never ending, insatiable desire for blood.

Republicans Hate Fair Elections

Republicans are redoubling their efforts at voter suppression. And they have a new, cunning plan. Take states where Obama won but Republicans control the legislature because of gerrymandering and use that same mapping skill to flip future elections. Under Republican plans for the Electoral College, Mitt Romney would have won the Presidency even though he lost the popular vote by five million votes.

Warming Doesn't Stop in Winter

By now you probably heard they had to add a new color to the weather maps in Australia to account for temperature above 50^oC (122^oF). Here in the Northern Hemisphere things also are not as cold as they ought to be.

Snowless Heartland
Chicago set a record for most consecutive days without snow (320 days). Omaha set a record as well at 295 days. While both cities have gotten some snow there is currently nothing on the ground. The total snowfall in Omaha this season is only 7.4 inches to date, half normal. The lack of snow in the winter means drought in the summer.

Mudless Mississippi
The Mighty Mississippi River has gotten so shallow continuing barge traffic is a day-to-day concern. Rainfall upstream of St. Louis (when it should be snowing) is cheered for raising the river a few inches. The Army Corps of Engineers is frantically dredging the river but that is at best a temporary fix. Water level is water level, lowering the bottom of the river does not increase the water in the river.

Arctic Ice
Things are no better to the far north. Winter sea ice is at its second lowest level in history. The Labrador coast is ice free. Apparently (re:DailyKos) stratospheric warming has shattered polar weather systems causing bizarre weather from Japan to Greenland.

Warm winters, hot summers. The new normal.

Topics I'm Avoiding

For two days now I've been searching in vain for something to write about.

• There's the debt crisis, but that trail is so well trod it is nothing but a muddy quagmire now.
• Gun control is a topic but the distance between what should be done, what can be done, and what will be done is redefining the concept of infinity.
• I looked at the history of massacres in America but that was just too depressing.
• Sports led me to Junior Seau's suicide and the knowledge that football players fully know they are sacrificing a lifetime of health, happiness, and sanity for a few fleeting years of glory.
• And that led me to realize that football and MMA cage fighting are blood sports no less barbaric than ancient Roman gladiatorial spectacles. Now I'm really depressed.
• And that, oddly, led me to discover the "Stadium Pal" which is a urine bag football fans wear so they don't have to leave their seats during the game to pee.
• Totally depressed about all of humanity I thought about going silly and investigated "proof of UFOs." Unfortunately, almost all the videos just look like passing meteors to me.

I give up. It's a sunny, beautiful day and I'm going outside to play.

Register Guns and License Owners

This week I paid my annual auto registration fee. The same logic should be applied to firearms.

The Case for Mandatory Gun Registration
Cars are registered because they are deadly weapons frequently used in crimes or responsible for the accidental injury or death of others. It is vital to the security of a free state that automobiles and their responsible owners be readily identifiable by law enforcement. For this reason cars are registered and all transfers of ownership recorded with the state.

Registration will not prevent outlaws from getting guns any more than it prevents outlaws from getting and using cars. But it will make it more difficult and give law enforcement tools to restrict the trade in illegal arms.

The Case for Mandatory Gun Insurance
Cars kill and injure people and damage private property. To operate a car I am required by law to have insurance to pay for the destruction my car may do.

It is absolutely insanity that I am not required by law to have liability insurance for each and every gun I might own. More potentially destructive guns, like AR-15s, should require more insurance than less dangerous weapons like a single-action Colt. Moreover, gun owners must be held financially responsible for any and all damage done by their weapons.

The Case for Mandatory Gun Licenses
To legally operate a car I have to prove to the state that I am old enough to be a responsible operator (16 years-old in California). I must prove I have a minimal intelligence (pass a written test). And I must demonstrate a minimum competency by passing a supervised hands-on test. Further, doctors are required by law to report if I am no longer competent to operate a car (such as visual defects or dementia).

There is no rational reason why gun operators should not be required to prove they are responsible, knowledgeable, and competent to own a gun.

In Brief

•  All gun ownership must be registered with all ownership transfers reported to the government so that law enforcement can protect law abiding citizens.
• All gun owners must be required to have sufficient insurance to be financially responsible for any and all damage done by their weapons.
• All gun owner/operators must be licensed to prove they are responsible, knowledgeable, and competent to own a gun.