Blue Crab Boulevard

So, today the family went to see my son’s Army Reserve unit “Coin and Flag” ceremony. The men and women will be heading to Fort Riley soon to begin training for their deployment to Iraq. They give the soldiers a coin to exchange with the family members as a way to remember and think about one another. My son is giving his coin to his fiance - I think that’s right.

It was great to see the families and friends stand and applaud from the time the first soldier entered the auditorium until the last one sat down. There was a lot of clapping and cheering throughout the ceremony.

It was great that the Governor and the district Congressman were there to speak. They also stayed all the way through the ceremony - they didn’t duck out. They shook the hand of every, single soldier and spoke a few private words to each one.

A bit less than great was the absence of both Senators although they did send representatives which at least helped. Hell, maybe they really couldn’t be there.

After the ceremony, they did a briefing for the families and the troops. It took a bit too long, but it was thorough and did cover a lot of things that dependents need to understand. Not being a dependent, it didn’t really matter to us, but we sat through it anyway. I got to meet several of his fellow NCO’s - people he has spoken highly of. They seemed sharp and on the ball. He will have good company again.

After it was all done, we took our soldier out to dinner. Old Chicago, his favorite place. Then we left him and his fiance alone and went home. The kids need some time to themselves.

I have a bunch of financial things to take care of for him in the next few days. He needs to concentrate on his squad, so I’ll happily do that for him. Since this is his second deployment, he’s actually more experienced than some of the nominally more senior NCO’s in the company and he gets looked to for answers a lot. It’s so odd to see the boy you changed diapers for being addressed respectfully as “sergeant”.

Then I blogged this entry.

Speaking of changing tactics. This is probably not a really smart thing to do. Not that I advocate whaling, just that I think “Human Shield” activities are , well, stupid. I think there are better ways to address things like this than the publicity stunts Greenpeace routinely endulges in.

Yeesh. The spin on this is getting a little sickening. The "sick old man" thing avoids the fact that he is a sick old man because of the legal delays. This guy order three people killed from prison where he was already in for a life sentence. I have no sympathy for him. He should have been executed 25 years ago or so. Before he was a sick old man…… This is the quote that kind of defines it for me:

"The big crime is that he wasn't executed many years ago. Nobody ever thinks about what the victims go through waiting. Until the sentence is carried out, the victims — the families of the people whose lives he took — live this nightmare continuously because they never know what is going to happen or when the laws will change."

Remember the victims. Don't feel sorry for the murderer, regardless of his age. If the people who want the death penalty stopped really want it changed, use the ballot box, not endless legal appeals and celebrity nonsense (a la Tookie). I honestly think the existing tactics are making for MORE support of the death penalty, not less. Trying to make heroes or generate sympathy for these guys doesn't work real well with average people. Most people I talk to wonder why it takes so damned long to carry out the sentences. The tactic of trying to exonerate an already executed man a few days back really damaged your cause, too.

They are hiding files on your system….. Cute.

After several problems on several different computers, I stopped using Norton and switched to Kaspersky. Which I have found to be trouble free so far.

Yet another case of falsifying scientific data. In the wake of the Korean cloning scandal, this is very troubling.

Sudan is whining that it should chair the African Union. With what is happening in Darfur, this is a disgusting thought.