It’s Saturday, January 2, 2010 and I spent most of the day organizing the 2,000 plus images I’ve used to make the pictures I put up in my blog. As expected, I came across several that for whatever reason didn’t make it past the editing team. So without further ado, here’s a few that got left on the cutting room floor:
The Posters
The MK19 is a belt-felt, fully-automatic, 40MM grenade launcher. It’s custom-made for bad craziness and is perfect for making large areas of real estate quite unpleasant for anyone there.
DISCLAIMER: This wasn’t MY idea. I just put it together at the behest of one of my readers. I wouldn’t use a “mute” button on a woman, although it would be nice if the buttons, switches and dials were labeled.
Borrowed Comix
I have no idea what the original strip is or what it’s about, only that it lends itself nicely to my sometimes weird adaptations.
Me
This was supposed to be a “come hither” look, but instead looks like I’m about to stab somebody.
This was supposed to me looking skeptical, but I again look like I’m about to grab someone by the throat.
And Assorted
In other news, we’re coming up fast on the 1-year mark of the Obama presidency. I wonder if the president is having the same thoughts that at least some of us are:
I do kinda feel for the guy. He worked awfully hard to get that job. Is it possible that he realizes just how bad a job he’s doing? I’m sure he does, but like any political creature, he’s gonna try his best to put the blame on someone/something else. There’s some speculation that the democrats will try to give the George W. Bush shammy one more good twist.
The one think I hope he IS realizing is that he’s made some pretty lame appointments and at least some of them chickens are coming home to roost. I mean even some democrats are calling for Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano to resign.
At least the president did say that he was going to hold some people accountable for this latest debacle, but given the weird way the White House is defining things these days, “accountable” could mean literally anything. Suffice it to say, I have my doubts.
I’m also deeply troubled that there isn’t more of a sense of urgency concerning the failures that made the Christmas day attack possible. Members of both houses of congress have expressed outrage and promised to hold hearings over this “serious” matter. Yet, not a single one of them suggested they cut their holiday recess short over it. The president stayed on vacation too, although in this day and age, you can pretty much president from anywhere. I would be a good deal less anxious if this was being approached with the same exigency that was used to push the economic stimulus bill through.
The threat of terror extends to all our citizens, regardless of race, color, sex, creed, national origin, or sexual orientation. This is a truly equal opportunity enemy we face here and you know the scariest part?
These aren’t people that we can sit down at a table and negotiate with. Even if we could, their opening position is “Death to America.” There just isn’t a heck of a lot of places to negotiate to from there. Our only way this enemy will be satisfied is when we cease to exists. Dreadfully sorry there, old bean but that’s just not a viable option for us.
I’ve been giving this considerable thought of late and in all honesty, I’m not entirely certain what a win for us looks like here. Is it the American flag flying over Mecca? If so, then why haven’t we done that yet? As I understand it (to the degree that I even want to) their position is that we (the US and its allies) must withdraw from their sacred lands, namely Saudi Arabia. I would very much like to see us do exactly that. However, there’s a hell of a lot of oil under that sand and as long as we’re dependent upon that very oil, we’ve got to look out for our national interest.
I’m serious. If we withdrew our forces from that region, you could bet the ranch (and that’s precisely what we’d be doing) that Al Qaeda would soon be in direct control of that oil and would use that control to wreck economic chaos upon every infidel nation on the planet. As much as I hate to boil it all the way down like this and give credence to the “blood for oil” loonies, that is pretty much it in a nutshell.
So least ways part of the solution is to eliminate our dependence on foreign energy. Yeah, that means drilling right through speckled caribou if necessary, but it also means finding ways to squeeze every inch out of every drop of oil and find cheaper, (cleaner too would be nice) more efficient ways to move ourselves and our stuff around. I mean it. Find a way to run my truck on lawn clippings and I’m all there.
For now though, we pretty much have got to look out for the free world’s oil supply. Since it doesn’t seem that the Al Qaeda types will get used to that, we’re really limited in our options. We have to make them dead, or dead enough that they don’t want to fight any more.
In other news, the bedside nurses at ST Vincent hospital will be voting on Monday and Tuesday about whether or not to form a collective bargaining (union) unit. It’s sad that it’s come to this. There was one and only one thing the hospital administration needed to do to stop this in it’s tracks…. Over you you, Captain:
This all got going and got to this point when the hospital administration stopped listening. Look, you idiots! The nurses don’t want to run the damned hospital. They want to take care of patients. That’s it. That’s the sum of their desires. But when you implement policy/procedural changes that affects this without at least getting their take on it, you kindled their anger. Each subsequent change done like this fanned the flames. I mean was THIS your intention? You’re gonna treat like schleps the people that most directly provide patient care?
What did you think they were gonna do? Every last one of them has a college degree, so it’s not like you’re dealing with a bunch of uneducated rabble who are just gonna roll over. If a nurse tries to tell you something is a bad idea, guess what? IT’S A BAD IDEA!
I’m not talking about the general policies that apply to everyone who works there. Although that’s now ALL in play with these nurses and it’s 100% from the administrators being idiots. I’m talking about policy, procedure and protocol that affects how these nurses provide patient care. I’m no hospital admin, but I’m at least smart enough to know that if I wanted to change something involving patient care, I’d damn sure run it past the people directly responsible for it.
And I’d listen to what they had to say about it. It’s a little number I like to call… Over to you Yelling Man:
Good leadership, hell even adequate leadership would have made this union business as necessary as a bicycle is to a fish. I hope, I really, really hope the Board of Directors is paying attention here. Somebody let the wheels come off of this and now you very well might have another union shop to deal with. The administration will damn sure listen then. I know if I was running the Board, I’d be punting administrators for the next month.
So that’s it for this thoroughly wasted Saturday. I’ll probably do something more productive tomorrow, but you probably shouldn’t count on it.