Armament and Such

I don't actually want a surface to air missile. But there are times when I could be talked into it.

Like when someone decides to fly a helicopter past the house at a fairly low level -- not roof-top low, but low enough so that the sound is thud-a-thud-THUD-THUD-THUD-THUDTHUDTHUDTHUDTHUD. That's when I daydream about flipping open the laptop, accessing the Home Defense System, the camouflaged shutters at the top of the roof whispering open, nose of the missile coming into view as the targetting heads comes active, and, WHAM! flinging one skyward, startling the birds, singeing the leaves as it roars past. Or, if the weather's nice, just stepping out onto the deck for a moment, resting one foot on the wooden barrel, hoisting the launcher up on my shoulder, and letting fly with a flaming arrow. WHOOSH! followed closely by panicky radio calls he shot my goddam tail off, I'm going down! Followed by the ker-WHUMP!!! as the fuselage hits the ground, and the occupants scurry from the burning wreckage. I don't want to hurt anyone; I just want them to keep from interrupting my life. Fly higher, you bastards -- that's all I want. Lifeflight, medical evacuation, fine, any altitude you need, but some local yokel choppering to the house at the lake? No special emergency? Ignition set, targeting mode selected......

Apparently, Barack's got another cabinet appointee who thought that the - makes whisking motion with hands - staff was handling his taxes, who had no idea that he owed money at all, let alone that much, but hey, here's a check, lets move on with our lives. I'm thinking that the chances are one in three that the IRS will decide to audit me just because they have a thing about TurboTax users, never mind the puny amount we have on which to pay taxes, but this guy has so much money he can just write a check for more than a hundred thousand dollars, and now he wants to just keep on truckin' toward being a Cabinet member? I think not. I think that if you're found to be a scofflaw -- which is what he is, and a damned egregious one -- you shouldn't be in line for a Cabinet job. Hell, you shouldn't be in line for any government job except, perhaps, dog catcher. Can him. That kind of behavior, he might as well be a Republican. That's most assuredly not change that we can believe in.

I see where the cops have discovered a new toy. Now, they want the ability to shut down cell phone networks at will, because evil people have used them to do evil things, and so what if you've just inconvenienced ten thousand people, so what if you've just kept people in an emergency from calling home, telling family that they're all right? I have a real problem with that. It comes down to level of paranoia, and level of trust. I don't have the level of paranoia that these people have -- truth to tell, if I knew what they knew, I likely would -- and I don't trust them to use the ability wisely. It's like all those little towns that now have a gleaming SWAT truck, just in case Miss Milly gets a little uppity when her cats in a tree and the local fire department isn't responding fast enough for her. Cuff her! And, Sorry about burning down the tree, but hey, we got the cat! Well, what's left of it... Older I get, the more I don't trust people in authority. Weird.