A reputational black eye

You knew that inevitably, somebody was going to come to Michael Vick's defense:

About 200 people braved rain and thunderclaps outside the Georgia Dome on Sunday to condemn the country, the media, Nike and, most of all, the Atlanta Falcons for treating Michael Vick like a dog.

"We Support Vick a Human Being Over Dogs," was the message of one placard to honking passing cars on Northside Drive. Other supporters said they believed Vick should be given the benefit of the doubt until his day in court.

They just don't get it.

Back in college (the first time) I was in a fraternity, only it wasn't the normal type of social frat. Sure, our parties consisted of plenty of booze - and interestingly, a keg of Mt. Dew - but there were no community/school pranks. Usually the parties would end up with brothers discussing politics, classes, and forcing pledges to do the dirty work of cleaning. In other words, we dodged the stereotype of a fraternity. All of us except for Shmo.

Shmo liked to show up late to meetings, show up to big events tipsy, denigrate pledges and brothers, and pretty much doing what he pleased, fraternity name (and reputation) be damned. Until one day when a woman cried rape.

The first meeting I ever had as a brother (as well as the rest of my pledge class), a vote was called for to consider his expulsion, and eventually to actually expell him. During discussion, there was much consternation about the fact that he hadn't been found guilty of anything. What our president (and my big brother through the pledging process) said next has stuck with me through the years - and I think it applies to this situation with Michael Vick:

"It has less to do with whether he's guilty or not; it has everything to do with how you reacted when you first heard the news. And when I first heard about it, and heard that he was implicated, my first thought was, 'Huh... that figures.' Had it been anybody else in this room, I would have immediately thought and said, 'No way!'"

That's really what this boils down to for me. When reports of this started to surface, my first thought wasn't total shock and denial - but acceptance.

Award Winning "Better Than a Wendy's Frosty" ice cream

4 quart recipe:

2 and two-thirds cup of sugar
2 tablespoons cornstarch
half teaspoon of salt
6 cups of milk - skimp on the fat, skimp on the taste
4 eggs, beaten to within an inch of their lives
6 squares semi-sweet chocolate, melted
1 and a third cup of half and half
2 cups whipping cream - again, skimp on the fat, skimp on the taste
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

In a large pot, combine sugar, cornstarch, and salt. Slowly stir in milk and put over medium heat til relatively warm, but not boiling. Stir in a cup of the hot mixture with the eggs - thoroughly mix. Add egg mixture to the rest, stirring constantly til thickened (about 2-3 minutes). Stir in chocolate - best to use a whisk at this point to get the chocolate nice and mixed in. Add half and half, whipping cream, and vanilla - stir some more to mix it in. Cover and refrigerate for at least two hours, preferably longer - makes for shorter churning time.

A few notes - 1) I have only ever done this using an "old fashioned" type of churn - motor, ice, and lots of rock salt. Not sure how it would turn out in one of the newer kitchen-top makers. If anybody tries it with one of those, please post back or email me and let me know how it turns out. 2) After about a dozen times of making this, I can tell you that if there is a secret, it's stirring.

Hybrid-hatin'

I'm not a fan of hybrids in any flavor - especially in electronics and automotives. The best reason I can give for my dislike: you're taking two pieces of technology that were designed separately with different components and were then mated together with a power supply and control circuitry (usually built for only one of them) b/c somebody saw sales dollars with the "convenience over quality" crowd. However, consumers have shown they're willing to pay more for this - in electronics, it's multi-functionality (cell phones that surf the web, check email, play music, take pictures, etc.)

Automotives, though, the convenience is more green (or so we're told). Better gas mileage, better for the environment... or not?

CNW Marketing Research, Inc. will be releasing a detailed study later this month that shows that the overall energy consumption, which includes building, transporting, driving and disposing of hybrid vehicles is actually more than the overall energy consumption of their non-hybrid counterparts. These results are quite significant.

A Honda Civic has a dust-to-dust energy cost of $2.42/mile, compared to the Honda Civic Hybrid which has a dust-to-dust energy cost of $3.238/mile. This means that although the hybrid version has better fuel efficiency, over the entire life of the car, the Honda Civic will be using less energy than the Honda Civic Hybrid.

Most folks simply buy a hybrid vehicle thinking they're helping the environment - but in reality, they are making things worse. Batteries, in their current form and without a rather remarkable breakthrough, are not a solution to powering cars. Chemical composition, disposal, weight, size, expense... pick your poison - bottom line is they're just not a viable enough option (yet).

The fog is starting to clear

First of all, no, the title is not a reference to my previous post about my anti-biotics and there side effects. Though, while I'm on the subject, it is safe to come around me again with open flames.

Instead the title reflects the past 3 or so weeks of extreme busy-body-ness brought on by school, work, a Braves game, a back injury (to Mrs. Misawa), and one heckuva surprise party (a little more on this later). It also refects the fact that after 8ish tonight, I will be three classes away from graduating. Tomorrow morning I'm going to wake up and, for the first time in 10 weeks, have a sweet, sweet answer to the question that has been ingrained in my brain over said time period: "What do I have due tonight?"

Answer: "Abso-freaking-lutely nothing."

Do I need a permit for this?

Book review: Inside Delta Force

The basis for the CBS show The Unit, Inside Delta Force tells the true story of the formation of the 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment - Delta from the eyes of one of it's first members, Eric Haney.

The first half of the book details the Selection process, where candidates, most of whom are from Army Special Forces or the Rangers, are put through their paces under very watchful eyes. While the physical fitness is definitely important, that's not the primary reason they're being watched so carefully. At odd intervals, a random test of some sort is given - anything from simple math or reading, to map-reading, or psychological evaluations.

The crucible of this initial process is a series of hikes, done alone with a starting rucksack weight of 40 lbs. A map is handed out, coordinates given, and then they're off to determine the best course for them to get to their objective. Once finding said objective, they do it again, to somewhere else. And again. And again. And again. At the end, they have made it - and real training begins.

This is the beginnings of Delta force, a group of men who's sole job is counter-terrorism. In fact, according to the Army, they don't exist. Delta operators grow beards, have longer hair, and dress as regular citizens - allowing them to blend in easier. They have been deployed, according to Haney, to nearly every hotspot around the world and have been involved in every bit of combat since it's inception, including Iraq, Afghanistan, and Mogadishu - the fateful town of Blackhawk Down.

There are two main things I pulled from this book. First and foremost is being a Delta operator ages a man. The book begins with Haney and most other candidates in their twenties and ends when most are in their mid-thirties - not exactly what one would call a career. But the constant toil and mental awareness coupled with seeing terrible things done to human beings in other parts of the world is too much to keep anyody functioning at the high caliber that these men do their jobs.

The second thing is about our wonderful government. Haney really doesn't mince his words well when talking about the number of missions where they'd have a hand on the door to a hijacked airplane only to recieve a stand down from Washington. He makes a strong case for who we really should be going after in the war on terrorism - the Saudis - as well as explain why we never will - oil. In the end, our own bureacracy is what trips them - and us - up.

Haney's book has drawn considerable criticism, mainly for sharing too much. He does share a lot - you will never look at a chalk mark on the sidewalk or see a pinhole in a tail-light and think nothing of it ever again - but he also holds back considerably in many cases.

In all, it's well worth a read, especially for fans of the TV show.

Ever seen a French runner?

Apparently not:

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has fallen foul of intellectuals and critics who see his passion for jogging as un-French, right-wing and even a ploy to brainwash his citizens.

Attacks on Mr Sarkozy's pastime, which he has made a symbol of his presidency, began on the internet as soon as he bounded up the steps of the Elysee Palace in shorts when he took office in May. That has become the icon of his hyper-energetic administration. The grumbling has now moved to television and the press.

"Is jogging right-wing?" wondered Liberation, the left-wing newspaper.

Alain Finkelkraut, a celebrated philosopher, begged Mr Sarkozy on France 2, the main state television channel, to abandon his "undignified" pursuit. He should take up walking, like Socrates, the poet Arthur Rimbaud and other great men, Mr Finkelkraut said.

"Western civilisation, in its best sense, was born with the promenade. Walking is a sensitive, spiritual act. Jogging is management of the body. The jogger says I am in control. It has nothing to do with meditation."

Leave it to the fat-frog, cheese-eating-surrender-monkeys -who-would-be-speaking-German-if-it-wasn't-for-us crowd to make jogging something more than it really is. Then again, the French don't run... anywhere.

Gotta hand it to them on mayonaise, though...

Wait for it...

Saw this avatar on another site. It just makes me laugh.

Conga Line O' Death

Active Shooter Training?

"The Fulton County Sheriff's Office held a special exercise called Active Shooter Training on Saturday.

The Commander of Court Services, Captain Thaddeus Lee asked the sheriff's SWAT Team to conduct the seminar to help train deputies on responding effectively to a gunman in the courthouse."


But, but, but, how could a gunman get inside the courthouse when guns aren't allowed inside the courthouse?

Ok, now that I've got that out of my system...

What the heck kind of training exercise is this? It looks like some horrid cross between teaching kindergarteners how to walk in a straight line and how to commit mass murder-suicide among a group of idiots. I count at least six, possibly seven in the line, all pointing their guns at the head of the person in front of them (!!!) while some "instructor" stands off to the side watching the Idiots on Parade, and apparently approving of what he sees! Note the non-waving-his-hands-non-sweaty-non-screaming "STOP!!" not coming from his mouth. I'm only cutting them a small break simply because I can't see if their fingers are on the triggers or not (rule #3).

Let's honestly break down what would happen if these bozos were suddenly confronted with a Bad Guy. First of all, they have no cover walking down the middle of the freaking hallway EXCEPT the person in front of them. The whole line and their reactions will be dictated by what the people in the front three positions do, because right in the middle of the line is where they decided to place the tallest member of the group, effectively blinding everyone behind him to anything that does occur - they won't know whether to go left or right unless they've been previously told what to do, and if they were, they wouldn't be walking like a line of elephants under a circus tent to the slaughter.

The shooting starts - person number One goes down, left, right, back, maybe (but probably not) forward. Number Two literally has the crappy choice of waiting to see what One does; even if she doesn't and reacts, what happens if she goes the same direction as Number One - answer, she's inneffective. Number Three - henceforth referred to as Sasquatch - is the only one in the entire line to actually have a semi-good position; he can plainly see the events in front of him, has a (human) shield, and regardless of what happens to One and Two, he can make a decision on his own to end the thing... if numbers 4 through 6 don't accidentally shoot him in the back.

Bottom line (err...): by choosing to practice this formation, they've rendered anybody beyond the first couple of shooters to be ineffective or decisive if a gun battle were to erupt. Which we all know it's not, because the law says you can't have a gun in a courthouse.

So, what would work better? (Thanks for asking)

For starters, put the guns to the ground and for crying out loud (rule #2) don't ever point the gun at anything you're not willing to destroy! Stopping the baddie is the objective - perforating a coworker, not so much.

Next, give the bad guy more than one target to shoot at - spread out! Hug the walls, use a doorway, duck in to the alcove, drop to a knee - anything to 1) make yourself a smaller target and 2) open up more shooting lanes for the guys around/behind you.

Also, no more impersonating the Germans moving in to France - the bad guy will probably be a heckuvalot more dangerous than Frogs anyway. Move station to station, cover to cover. Big point - it's not necessary to have every gun shooting if it all goes down. True, you want superior firepower, but if it's done by compromising the safety of others, what's the good? Keep a few shooters to the rear to overwatch everything, but most importantly, to make sure there isn't anybody else!

Lastly, arrange from shortest to tallest. That way, the tall shooters could, if the need arose, fire over the heads of those in front. This is important anytime, most especially in cramped hallways where space is limited.

Oh, and for heaven's sake, get a real gun, not a brick.