Is it really about the Koran?

I just want to make a short point on this whole desecration of the Koran thing.

They are all up in arms and killing people over unconfirmed stories of alleged Koran abuse. For example, the US has had to close down the embassy in Indonesia because of threats.

My question is this: Where's all the freakn' outrage by the Muslim community when one of their fellow Muslims blows up a bomb, at a mosque killing people, and most likely damaging many Korans, Where's the demonstrations and outrage? What? It's ok to blow up your holy book, as long as you don't set it next to a toilet?

My other question is, what other country in the world would be even allowing these suspects to have a Koran besides the USA?

In my point of view, these people will use any excuse at all to be violent and malicious towards us. This places and extra burden of responsibility on our media at home, and they need to recognize it. The free ride for them is over.

Common Sense Prevails

Well, I am happy to report that the Union met and voted on Tuesday morning, and we will not be striking. We voted to ratify the new contract in a landslide. This was a good contract, and I am glad to see most union members had their heads screwed on straight despite the fanatical rantings of some of the members. The Union President told us that some PACE national representative actually saw our figures and said that it was an astounding raise in pay, one of the best he's ever seen, and it should be an automatic ratification. Without going into actual numbers, I can say that over the next five years, my pay will be 28% higher than it is now. That's incredible!

It completely blows my mind that there were members campaigning for a strike! I am sure they would give their reasons, but jeeze la wheeze! When is enough, enough for some people? This is one of my problems I have with unions. Some members get really greedy and think they can strike and get whatever they want.

Anyway, it's all good now. Now we all have some healing to do. A lot of ugly things were said throughout the whole ordeal.

I must be sick

I am referring to the video to come out recently of a sixty six year old substitute school bus driver getting into a physical altercation with some teens on his school bus. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,157351,00.html

I was just getting ready for work yesterday afternoon and turned the TV on to Fox News just in time to see the video and a "panel of experts" discussing what had happened. In the video you basically see the bus driver in an attempt to control two boys, who happen to be brothers, basically flip out. He turns and slaps one brother who yells an obsenity at his back, and then grabs him by the neck and walks him back to his seat by the neck. Then he proceeds to go to the back of the bus and pushes the other brother against the window, and I think he puts a seatbelt on the kid.

I know it's probably wrong to sit here and try to justify what this driver did. Yes, he should have remained calm despite the outrageous desrespect these boys were dishing out to him. But, as someone who has had my share of dealing with little spoiled brats like that, I secretly took much gratification watching this driver dish out to these kids what they needed. The look on the little snot's face when that driver grabs him by the throat was priceless.

Anyway, it just kinda goes to show you how things in this world are changing. If this had happened to me when I was a kid, my parents would be more ticked off at me for being a little shi# than they would at the bus driver. My parents would have probably made me go mow the guy's lawn for a summer as an apology.

Kids these days don't have to worry about getting what's coming to them, and they know it. This is a problem. I can't imagine being a school teacher these days with no disciplinary options available.

If you're that desperate, I have some good ideas...

Watching the last episode of Everybody Loves Raymond last night, I saw a trailer for the new Tom Cruise movie coming out, War of The Worlds. I now have to ask what in the heck is going on? Has Hollywood lost all of its creative talent and ability? I can’t believe all the remakes going on recently. A list just from off the top of my head.

War of The Worlds
Dukes of Hazard
Starsky and Hutch
Amityville Horror
The Haunting (not so recent but still...)
Flight of The Phoenix
The Longest Yard
The Incredible Hulk
The Exorcist
The Stepford Wives
Dawn of The Dead
Magnificent Seven

I am sure there are a ton more that I’m not aware of. So, what’s the deal here? Has Hollywood lost its ability to create something new and imaginative? Or are they just unwilling to take a risk or gamble on something new and imaginative? Surely there are screenplays out there being written that are brilliant. I can’t imagine all the ideas are used up.

It seems the trend here is to either remake an old classic, make a movie stemming from an old 70s era TV show, or make a movie out of a Comic book hero. Is anyone out there having any original ideas? Even George Lucas has fallen prey to cashing in on previous success with his new Star Wars movies.

I guess I am not really complaining all that much. In a lot of cases the remake is awesome and definitely needed to be done. But, in so many other cases it drives me nuts when the new remake isn’t as good as the original, or even worse, it is EXACTLY IDENTICAL to the original and you walk away wondering, why did they even bother?

I am sure it’s all about the money. Capitalizing on the success of the original will always be too much of a temptation for Hollywood I guess. For some of us these remakes are blasphemy, like the Muppet version of the Wizard of Oz. For others it’s an exciting opportunity to see their old favorites with better special effects, and newer, hipper actors and scripting.

For me. I’d rather see something new and fresh. Leave the originals alone. And don’t even get me going on the remaking of SONGS!

The Forger's Fire

The union and the company have negotiated an agreement. We aren’t out of the woods yet, but it’s nice, at least for me, to see both sides talking and agreeing on something.

The company wanted a fifteen day extension to the contract really bad. We weren’t going to give it to them. The company is not ready for a strike. They don’t have what they call a contingency force ready yet to take over in the event of a strike. You have to understand that this is national security. If we strike, the plant still must be protected. So, what the company does is send out an “all call” to other DOE sites across the country hoping they will send extra security officers they can spare, to make up part of the contingency. Well, I guess they haven’t gotten much of a response this time. Probably because everyone is already taxed trying to meet post 9/11 standards.

So you can see that we had pretty good leverage. Giving them fifteen days was basically almost giving them everything. But, we gave it to them. In exchange we got, what I would call a pretty decent pay raise. Also, they agreed to change the wording of our official job category. I wasn’t aware of this, but for ever we have been officially described as “unskilled labor”! This is unbelievable to me. It’s not like they hand me a shovel and ask me to dig a ditch! I have more qualifications to keep up than most people out there. Everything from pistol, rifle, hand to hand combat, first aid, CPR, to working in radiological environments, and wearing a gas mask. That isn’t even the half of it. So, I am glad to see that we are now described as “skilled workers” which will justify more pay down the road.

A lot of security guys - guys who’ve been there for twenty years - are ticked off at our union for giving in. I think these guys don’t realize that this is how things are done. Both sides must give a little. That’s why it’s a negotiation instead of a gang rape. Who wants to see a strike? Anyway, I hope this is the end of all the talk of striking. Who knows though. A lot can still happen by the 30th.

Thought of the day:

I was just thinking the other day about that old commercial for the USMC. (Marines) It starts out showing a black smith hammering away on a red hot lump of metal. Huge molten sparks fly through the air as the hammer smashes away. A voice comes over, saying something like; “ You begin with raw steel. You shape it. You form it “. At this point you can see the steel taking on the shape of a sword. The voice continues on about the pounding required to form this sword. The transition from fire to water over and over, and the constant smashing of the hammer. At the end you see a Marine Corps officer holding the sword, and the voice tells us how it’s now polished to a fine perfection, and razor sharp.

I have always loved this analogy. I like to think that we are “raw lumps of steel”. If we are to realize our true potential, and become what we were meant to be, we have to endure a certain amount of time in the forger’s fire, and put up with his constant pounding. It is life’s trials and difficulties that shapes us and makes us stronger. Personally I take it further, and like to imagine God as the forger. We don’t often see the reasoning or purpose for our hardships or difficulties in life. Perhaps, we are being forged. Perhaps we are being polished and prepared for greater things to come. Perhaps, this particular moment in our life that we find so hard, is just exactly what we need. The difference between real steel and us, is we have a choice on how we will react and respond to the forger’s attempts at shaping us. I like to hope that some day I will be that razor sharp, finely polished sword. But, I am kind of afraid of the process.

The Big Face Off

Well, it's down to the wire now. Looks like my union is most likely going to strike soon. Negotiations with the new contractor are not going well at all. All the other security officers that I talk to are grumbling and rumbling about striking. We've never striked before. The company doesn't believe we'll do it. I think they are in for a major surprise.

I don't want to strike. In fact, I am pretty content with my pay and benefits as they stand now. But, it seems I am alone in this thinking. I hear stories from both sides, and in my opinion both sides are being stubborn and stupid. But, I have to lay most of the blame on this new company. They could have pacified us by doing very little, and we would have settled for not much at all. But, they showed up ready for a fight, and have seemed to go out of their way to antagonize the union.

This sucks! I can't afford to go without pay for very long. This is the best job I've ever had, and I can't stand the thought of it being jeapordized by something this stupid!

There will be no crossing the line. The company, for the sake of national security, will lock us all out in the event of a strike, despite this being a "right to work" state.

So here I sit wondering what my situation will be like in the next week or so.

= 0

It's all good

Well, life moves on. thanks for the sympathetic comments made by those who purused my last post. For those interested, the little tyke is just as good as ever. I worked on throwing and catching a football with him today. Funny, how I seemed to so much more appreciate that little moment now.

I must have bruised some of my ribs in the fall. I didn't workout yesterday, and will most likely skip tonight as well. My abs and left arm are tremendously sore after my incident. I feel like I've done a thousand one-armed pushups. I will probably give my body a few days to recover. Plus, the day after the accident I had to go to a hand-to-hand-combat class for work that lasted all day. It consisted of kicking and punching bags, and throwing each other around on a mat. So, I am actually pretty sore from all that too.

Can't wait to get back into the groove

Peace

Angels Among Us

I’ve always thought of myself as a pretty tough guy. I never cry. I’m a big weight lifting guy. I work as an armed security guard for the government. I’ve been trained to shoot to kill, to arm bar someone to the ground, apply pressure point compliance, and handcuff them. There are firearms in my home, and not far from reach. ( for me, NOT THE KIDS ).

Today, I found out I’m not as tough as I thought. Today, I discovered there is a chink in my armor, a breach in my fortifications.

I live in an old farm house out in the country, and when we moved in there was a lot of reminders around the place of the old farm, which for the last four years I have been slowly cleaning up, mainly fencing. Today, I was unbolting and old cattle gate from a post. My wife was trimming weeds nearby, as the kids played in the yard. I finally got all the nuts from the u-bolts and was attempting to yank the gate - which probably weighs around one hundred pounds - from off the u-bolts. It was sticking. I gave it one really good yank, and to my much surprise it slipped free with ease. This put me completely off balance. The corner of the gate dropped to the ground, causing me to take a stumble forward. Being off balance and the weight of the cattle gate pulling me forward, I completely lost my balance, and began to fall, holding onto the gate in front of me. To my absolute horror I saw my two year old son standing right in front of me, completely in the path of the gate and myself!

It all becomes a blur at this point. A blur in slow motion. The worst part is it took a couple of seconds to fall. An eternity to contemplate the worst of which was about to occur, and completely out of my control to stop it. I heard my wife screaming. I realized I too was yelling incoherently. It was like I wasn’t even in my body. I remember trying to reach through the bars of the gate as I fell, trying to grab my son and actually throw him out of the way in time. I think I managed to push him, but I can’t remember. My final thought was, This is going to kill him or really seriously injure him at the least.

The next thing I knew the cattle gate and I were both atop my son. the top bar was right across his throat. He was screaming. I can’t convey in words my horror. I couldn’t get off! I was sprawled on the stupid gate, and couldn’t get off! “ I can’t get off “! I yelled, as my son continued to struggle and scream beneath what must have been over three hundred pounds of weight. I distinctly remember a small bit of blood trickling from his lower lip. At this point my wife and I had one of those adrenaline moments. I just knew I needed to get the weight off of him..somehow! Holding on to the gate with my right hand and holding it close to my chest, I extended my left hand and basically did a one armed pushup, pulling the gate and myself off my son. My wife at this point did her best impersonation of Xena Warrior Princess, and lifted the full weight of the gate and myself even higher.

We got clear of the gate, and I scooped up my boy into my arms. I was so afraid I’d crushed his tiny rib cage, or collar bones. upon examination, I am glad and grateful to report he was perfectly ok except the bloody lip. He keeps trying to wrestle with me even as I type this.

I have always believed in God, and I think he was there with me today. Maybe it wasn’t adrenaline that allowed such an exertion of strength. Which I have to add must have been a major effort. My left triceps is as sore after that two three seconds as after any major workout. My abs feel like I did a thousand sit ups today.

I wanted to take this chance to thank the Big Guy Upstairs in as public a way as I know how. I think about what a disaster this could have been. I should have been rushing to the emergency room at the very least. To get off scott free like this...

What more can I say? I got a second chance. I hope that by posting this maybe I can reach out to some of those in the blogosphere in need of a little boost. As Alabama the country band once sang. “ I believe there are angels among us...”

Peace to all.