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.

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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.

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

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