MatthewMaynard.net

Jim Webb isn’t impressing me very much, and at this point he should be very worried about that. First, its bad enough that he writes smut and adult topics in his books, but that is really beside the point. True, it reflects poorly upon his character. But his reaction is worse.

Lets lay aside the point of Allen’s dignity in bringing it up at the end of a campaign. Webb should not have said that the one particular passage describing an oral sexual act was not, in fact, an oral sexual act. But it gets worse.

He dragged Lynne Cheney into the debate over a passage she wrote in a book of hers 25 years ago. Yes, her passage was somewhat racy, but it did not go into nearly the detail that Webb’s several passages did. More to the point, Lynne Cheney is not running for public office; she has no official power in regards to the law. Jim Webb wants to have that power.

Jim Webb wrote distasteful and smutty work. That was bad enough, as it reflected on his character. He then went on to attack someone totally unrelated to the issue his writings brought up, instead of admitting that his writing was smutty and not worth reading. This reflects worse on his character than does his writing, as he demonstrates that he is a blameshifter rather than a responsibility-taker.

At this late date, he has demonstrated to the undecided voters that he doesn’t have what it takes to be senator. Sometimes the most interesting things about October Surprises is the reaction people have to them.

I am listening to David McCollough’s book on John Adams via my Audible subscription. It is an excellent work, and I recommend it to any student of the Revolution. Whether you read or listen, it is worth your time.

One thing the Continental Congress did that struck me as truly understanding of authority was their vote to disarm the loyalists, which occurred in 1777. Now, this might strike gun rights absolutists as an infringement on their rights, but one needs to take into account the greater perspectives of war and authority. This was well after Lexington and Concord, when the British tried to remove the weapons of the patriots and retain them under their authority. Further, it was well after the Declaration, when the patriots decided to retain their weapons and declare themselves outside the authority of the crown.

When Congress decided to disarm the loyalists, it took the position that loyalists were dangerous to them and their authority. Further, by not applying the same law to patriots, it declared (implicitly) that the patriots were not a threat to the same authority. Congress trusted the patriots, though armed, and distrusted the loyalists.

In a larger sense, though, democratic principles dictate that the people be armed. Arms are a means of force, and there’s no two ways about it. By disarming those loyalists whom they could lay hands upon, Congress declared that loyalists would have no authority over Congress, but that patriots would be allowed such authority. This is an extrapolation, but I think a fair one. For whomever one allows to have authority, that same person allows the means to enforce said authority. Enforcement takes many forms, but the surest (although most brute and uncivilized) form is the weapon. Congress was, in essence, declaring that power comes not from the barrel of a gun, as Mao Zedong would later write, but from him who wields it. Through a combination of action and inaction that today some would see as unjust, they were ensuring justice to those who would come later. They were ensuring that power remain where it belongs, in the hands of the people.

Further, we can generalize that any government that does not trust its people with weapons does not trust its people with power. And that government is not one to be trusted itself.

• Go Tigers. I have no particular affiliation or affection for them, beyond the fact that my dad was born there and is rooting for them. Such is my typical attitude towards championships where I don’t have a dog in the race. And I don’t particularly have a reason to like the Cardinals.
• Ben Rothlisberger needs some furnace time. He’s not refined enough, and that’s why he isn’t doing so well this year. The motorcycle and abdominal surgery incidents shook him up, and it shows. Nevertheless, I will root for them, Hugh Hewitt’s objections to the Steelers notwithstanding.
• Arizona football and UVA football seem to be having similar seasons. Just goes to show that the more things change, the more they stay the same.
• Arizona faces off against Virginia to open the basketball season. We’re going to try to get tickets. I hope Lute likes the sight of two wildcats in the heart of the Old Dominion.

Ugh. That’s all I have to say about yesterday afternoon.

There was a ladybug crawling across the ceiling in our bedroom yesterday. Jennifer wanted me to take it outside. So I was about to open the window and toss it out, but I realized it would be too much trouble to deal with the screen. So down the stairs I go, with the ladybug in hand.

In socks.

I grew up in a one-story house, and never had much experience with stairs that didn’t move. I know there’s this thing called a bannister (a.k.a. handrail) that you are supposed to hold. I didn’t.

I slipped and landed on my butt, then rolled onto my side. My POW bracelet somehow decided to do the courageous thing and stop my fall by digging itself into my wrist.

Its a good thing its edges are rounded, otherwise we would have had a much more serious problem and the explanation would have been hard to believe for some people. Oh, and the carpet cleaning bill would have been troublesome. Fortunately, there was a surprising lack of blood, despite the depth of the wound. If it hadn’t been painful, I might have tried peeling back the skin to take a look inside my arm.

On the bright side, however, the scientific part of me was very curious as to why fat globules are yellow. It was the first time I’d seen them in real life, let alone seen my own, and it was slightly interesting. Once the shock wore off.

Four stitches and two hours later, we exited the hospital with instructions to keep it dry and clean, and to return in a week to have them removed. Of course, the bandaging was so loose that the wound was exposed within two hours, and I had to rebandage it. Hopefully the adhesive pad holds better than gauze taped around my arm.

Health lesson learned: always replace your divots, even if you have to go to the doctor to do so. And don’t wear only socks on the stairs.

Robert C. Borton was a Marine Private First Class who served in Vietnam with the 1st Platoon, Company K, 3rd Battalion, 1st Marines, 1st Marine Division. On August 28, 1966 he was ordered with three other Marines (John E. Bodenschatz, Jr., Robert L. Babula, and Dennis R. Carter) to set up an ambush outside their fire base and return by 0900 hours the next morning, regardless of circumstances. None of the four returned.

A search was initiated the next day, which resulted in a few leads that didn’t turn into anything more. He was listed as missing, presumed captured by the enemy, but never repatriated at the end of hostilities. His family never knew what happened to him.

In 1995 a set of teeth was returned with the claim that grave robbers dug his body up, looted it, and left the teeth behind. Supposedly it was all that could be found of him. His family didn’t buy it, because what grave robber takes the time to extract teeth and leave them behind, taking the rest of the body? Grave robbers don’t do that, they take the loot they can get, then extract the teeth if they are filled with gold. It didn’t add up, and his family still considers him missing.

I bought a POW bracelet with his name on it on our trip to Washington a few weeks ago. Until yesterday I wore it, but I’m going to have some dog tags made with his name on it – though not as a sign of disrespect, as the details of yesterday’s adventures will make clear. Personally, I believe he is probably dead. But if so, he deserves a proper recovery, his family deserves to be comforted, and it reminds me to pray for them.

Remember the missing. Pray for them and theirs.

DFA has their new “Stick It” get out the vote stickers.

This is despicable.

The Bronze Star Medal is the fifth highest award that can be received for valor in combat. If you were a reporter writing up an awarding of such to an Army soldier, would you refer to the award as:

1. a valor award
2. a combat award
3. a bravery award
4. a merit badge

Guess what Bryan McKenzie of my local “news” paper called it?

Absolutely. Toothless. They pulled out the language that allowed for military action and left in what, exactly, as a stick? Its all carrot. The UN’s idea of a stick is to threaten to meet to discuss, to plan, to resolve, perhaps to act, upon their strong determination to not see weapons of mass destruction get into the hands of terrorist states. Unfortunately, it seems their only means of doing this is to cover their eyes.

There are no means of unilaterally inspecting North Korean exports – the language allows only for inspections North Korea approves of, as it reads in part (emphasis added)

“cooperative action including through inspection of cargo … in particular to prevent illicit trafficking in nuclear, chemical or biological weapons, their means of delivery and related materials.”

Umm, back the truck up, cooperative? Since when have the North Koreans cooperated with anyone for world peace? Why do we expect them to cooperate with us now?

We let the Chinese and Russians talk us into letting the North Koreans off easy. This is not a good thing. Even if it passes tomorrow, North Korea will have gotten away with nuclear bullying, assuming, of course, that their explosion was in fact successful. Even if it wasn’t, nothing will stop them from wrapping a plutonium ball in explosives and shipping it off to wherever they want.

This is unacceptable. Talking does no one any good unless the parties involved stand by their word, and North Korea doesn’t. If they did, this would be a more acceptable development, but the despot tyrant we’re dealing with makes it impossible to deal squarely.

(And for you lefty trolls, no, I’m not referring to George W. Bush.)

In the days of lace-ruffles, perukes, and brocade
Brown Bess was a partner whom none could despise -
An out-spoken, flinty-lipped, brazen-faced jade,
With a habit of looking men straight in the eyes -
At Blenheim and Ramillies, fops would confess
They were pierced to the heart by the charms of Brown Bess.

—Rudyard Kipling, 1911

1) Washington Monument (Jen took this one)
2) Moses, East side of the Supreme Court Building
3) WW2 memorial (duh)
4) George Mason (who?)
5) Displayed at Smithsonian Air & Space.