Covering Your Ass

 When I joined the army, I pledged to obey all the lawful orders of the president and the officers appointed over me.  The thing is, you better be damn sure that an order is unlawful before you disobey it.  Then you immediately report the incident to the next officer above in the food chain to cover your ass.  In the event that the order turns out to be lawful after all,  having reported the incident will make it look like you acted in good faith.  If the order turns out to be indeed unlawful, reporting the incident makes sure that no one can say it was your fault if someone else comes along and carries out the order.  This procedure only applies to an order that would cause death or bodily harm to an innocent person or persons. There is a different procedure for orders that would only result in property damage.  In this case, you would say "I am obeying this order under protest and will report it to your boss afterwards." Then do it. If the officer knows that he's in the wrong, he will likely rescind the order and tell you to forget it.  If he believes that he is right he may put you up on charges, and you will be glad that you covered your ass. More often than not, if your boss suspects he is on shaky ground, he will phrase his command more like a suggestion than a direct order.  If you are in doubt, you ask him if this is a direct order.  This covers your ass if you get caught and he tries to say that he never told you to do that.  Of course, it will help your case if there are one or more witnesses to the conversation. 

On nice early spring days, hibernating animals like skunks, possums, and ground hogs may venture out of their dens and wander sleepily about for a while.  When the weather conditions deteriorate, as they most surely will in these parts, the creature will return to his den and go back to sleep until another nice day.  This is probably the origin of the Ground Hog Day myth, although February 2 is at least a month too early for this to happen in our neck of the woods. If we only had six more weeks of winter to look forward to on Ground Hog Day, it would be an early spring for us.  

sticking by their guns

 

This was taken about a week ago.  If it happened on the equinox the sun would be equidistant between the IBM building and the London House.  Unfortunately on that day the view was wrapped up behind clouds.  I kind of like the photo though, I think it has that misty morning vibe which I have to admit is probably because my windows are coated with winter dirt.

Us early risers are no fans of daylight savings time.  As the days grew longer the sun came earlier so that I could see a little glow after a shower and a coffee and a brief scan of the news.  But daylight time shut the door and now it is another cup of coffee and the Sun-Times before the glow arrives.  Kind of lonely those long dark hours when the city is asleep, though there are always cars crossing the Lake Shore Drive bridge.  Who are these people?  Where are they going?

Though I wish it was shorter, I do like the two changes every year.  A little cheap thrill I think.  I think spring forward, fall back, but then if I think about it too long I always get a little confused.  But it's probably a good thing, that little queasy feeling when you are secure in space, but a little adrift in time.

Way back in the dawn of the blog Beagles and I were discussing being in the army and I said one of the things besides shining my shoes and polishing my brass that I didn't like was the fact that your superior could order you to do anything.  And Beagles said that if you think your superior is asking you to do something wrong or illegal you can refuse to carry out the order.

That stopped me in my tracks.  Apparently there is a procedure or something, something like a hearing I think, and if you adjudged to have properly disobeyed the order you can leave free as a bird.  I have to admit that I am a little unsure how that would work in the real world, but the fact that such a thing exists and that they tell the recruits about it, that makes me think more highly of the army.

And I thought still more of the army during Trump 1 when they stuck by their guns, so to speak, and didn't break down like shotguns for Orangey.  But now that their ranks are riddled by Trumpy scalawags can they still stand tall?  When Trump decides to toss Joe Biden or John Roberts into jail just because and the orders go down from the men in suits to the men in uniforms to the men in lesser uniforms what will happen?

Marching along

Egads!  The Vernal Equinox has come and gone without me paying any attention to it.  I did see that lunar eclipse, though, with just a little hint of red.  That other celestial event with all those planets lining up was another thing I missed; too overcast as I recall.

But now we're back to Daylight Saving Time, a pointless exercise if you ask me.  There is no reason for it except for some nonsense about it being too dark for kids in school.  Think of the children!  How about changing the school hours instead?  I prefer the old meaning of noon when the sun is at its highest point in the sky.  The notion of "High Noon" being nearly 1:00 pm is stupid.

-----

And speaking of stupid, how is the "news" looking to you guys?  I never thought I'd ever see anyone like a real-life James Bond villain but now we have Elon Musk, a singular character, to be sure.  The richest guy in the world (allegedly) prancing around the White House with his chainsaw, doing god knows what, really.  Shouldn't he be worrying about his exploding rockets and crappy cars?  And the less said about the other guy, the better.

-----

The Cheboygan Tribune said something about it being skunk mating season.  Anything to report, Mr. Beagles?

-----

The only other thing worth mentioning is Happy Birthday, Uncle Ken!

Taking it easy

 

Do you want advice...?

Nothing specific, perhaps some insight of yours that you consider unique, some idea that you haven't seen anyone else express.  At this point in time I think I can find the answer to almost anything, except the reason why people are so stupid these days.  If I go any further on this topic I'll just make myself goofy so I'm stopping and will continue to ponder the view from the sidelines.

-----

But you never know what you'll find while you're looking for something else, like this quote from John Adams, one of those Founding Fathers folks are always talking about.

"Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide."

Eerily prescient, no?

-----

A while back there was a story about a fat snapping turtle in the Chicago River and lately there's news about a fat beaver, also in the Chicago River.  I'm not saying there is something about living in Chicago that enhances bodily girth but I recently saw a bathroom scale in my local CVS that had a maximum weight of 660 pounds.  Yikes!

Thoughts on longevity and big house diversions

I will be reaching my big 8 oh one March 22.  Do you want advice like my workout and diet regimen or do you want to hear that I begin the day with a bloody Mary for breakfast, inhale cigars all day and only get off my Lazy Boy to use the john and get a beer out of the fridge, or how much time I devote to reading scripture to get myself an in with the Big Guy up in the sky?

You know it is nice to be born into wealth, and be good looking, and strong, and wise, but the best thing of all is to be lucky, and I guess that is a biggest factor on reaching the 8 oh.

Kind of on two minds on that prisoner thing.  I may be wrong but I think those guys are fighting fires voluntarily and are maybe glad to break up the tedium of prison, and those few bucks will buy plenty of cigs at the commissary.  But I'm guessing they are not allowed to smoke cigs.  I wonder what that is like for a three pack a day man.  10, 15 years of making license plates and no cig at getting off work.  Do they dream of the day when they get their clothes back and there is that pack of cigs, stale and all but likely smokeable and what a thrill as they step into the sunshine and that crumby little book of paper matches still works just fine.  Oh happy day.

Remember how when they built the soon to be reclaimed Panama Canal and they used prisoners as guinea pigs for yellow fever research?  If they survived they were given their freedom or years off their sentence and many of them took the deal.  I think I would have.  Seems like not the source of thing my fellow libs would approve of but I think it was alright.

Loopholes Debunked

The "subject to the jurisdiction thereof" clause does not apply here because anybody in the U.S., or any country for that matter, is subject to the law of the land.  If a non-citizen is accused of a crime, he can be arrested and prosecuted just like anybody else.  Okay, foreign diplomats cannot be prosecuted, but they can be expelled from the country, which means they are still under the jurisdiction thereof.  

The "Indians not taxed" exception was originally applied to members of tribes that used to be considered sovereign nations under the law.  The sovereign nation thing has been modified a few times in history and, while the tribes that have been re-recognized under the Indian Reorganization Act of 1932 are commonly referred to as sovereign nations, I believe that "autonomous" would be a more accurate description.  Be that as it may, all Indians in the U.S. currently pay some kind of taxes, so the term "Indians not taxed" is moot anyway.

We get some wildfires here in Michigan, but nothing like they get out west.  There have certainly been some disastrous fires in the state's history, but not lately.  I can remember one fire in the Upper Peninsula that burned all summer some years ago, but that was in a big swamp, and I don't believe any areas of human habitation were impacted.  Our fire season is early spring, after the snow has melted but before "green-up".  I believe that you can indeed be conscripted into fire-fighting duty because that happened to one of my paper mill colleagues many years ago.  He did get paid for it, but not enough to cover the money he lost by not going to his regular job that day.  

I credit my long life to tenacity.  Tenacity is like stubbornness, except that tenacity is a virtue while stubbornness is a fault.  Other people may be stubborn, but I am tenacious. 

The wheel turns

 

If I'm not mistaken, both of you gents will be attaining the status of octogenarian this year.  Any tips, tricks, or warnings for the youngster of the group?

-----

Wildfires have been in the news lately, both in the Los Angeles area and North Carolina, and I was wondering if Beaglesonia could ever be in danger.  Lots of trees up there but I don't know how dry it gets or if wildfires are a threat to the reasonable prepared homeowner.  Do you have a plan, Mr. Beagles?

-----

There's an interesting aspect of the citizenship dilemma, hiding right under our noses.

All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.

Please note the highlighted loophole, "and subject to the jurisdiction thereof..."

Now check out this link:
https://www.yahoo.com/news/excluding-indians-trump-admin-questions-164312466.html and see how Native Americans can be denied citizenship.

I would never imply that the United States government is corrupt (and always has been) but here's another bit of Constitutional sleight of hand regarding slavery.  It's illegal, right?  Not so fast, Citizen!  Let me quote the relevant amendment:

    Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

Again, notice the highlighted loophole.  There are a lot of firefighters working for a few dollars a day on the West Coast and they may not have had a choice.  There is a scandalously large business of employing inmates in the private sector, places and businesses we are all familiar with.

Maybe this is all part of a grand scheme to  replace the deported illegal aliens with prison inmates that will cost employers even less.  Such a deal!  And no worries about immigration, all perfectly legal.

-----

It's going to be quite a ride as the former "policeman to the world" evolves into the "bully to the world."  Sure, let's screw the economy with tariffs, seize the Panama Canal and grab Greenland while we're at it.  It has been said that we get the government we deserve but I wonder what we did to end up in such a place, but here we are.  The chickens are coming home to roost, if the price of eggs is any indication.