2004-08-22 - 4:05 a.m.
Night shift
It�s wicked hot in North Carolina, and to counter this condition, I like to work at night. It�s a lot easier to cool my shop now than during the day, and for the most part I have long, uninterrupted hours of time to work while the rest of the world is asleep.
The only problem with this system is that there are a couple of days during the week when I need to be awake. Sunday is one of those days. I usually just stay up until after church, catch a nap and continue with my normal schedule. But today I got completely out of whack by staying up until 3:00 pm helping some friends with their house. Then I slept until 8:00 pm and now my body has no idea what time it is. I�m probably going to go try and sleep now and hope that I can get reoriented tomorrow.
I watched �The Fog of War� this evening. It is an interview with Robert MacNamara concerning his time in Washington during WWII and Vietnam. Interesting stuff if you are politically minded. Well done as a documentary, gives you a good idea of how some very controversial decisions were made in war time. It is also pretty scary to get a peak into just how absurd our leadership has been in recent times. There really is someone with his finger on the button, and he is not the best man for the job.
I may come across as a radical political type; it�s not really true. I have no desire to over throw the government in favor of communism, anarchy, or other such nonsense. I am simply well informed as to what is really going on, and well sir, I don�t like it.
I think most Americans wouldn�t either if they would simply take a little time to look for themselves. Don�t rely on the media to give you the whole story, and for crying out loud don�t get all your info from one source, right, left, or center.
I�m not much of a conspiracy theorist either; the things that I am truly angry about are going on in plain view. Raise your hand if you are surprised that Halliburton has been accused of inflating the cost of the �services � they provide. Are you shocked that the official finding of the Abu Ghraib investigation is that is was �junior enlisted personnel acting outside of orders�
I�ve seen this government from the inside out. It really is as screwed up as you think it is. There is no such thing as a �surprise inspection� in the military. Bases are on a schedule, and the entire base goes into �look busy, the boss is coming mode� Patrols are doubled, �embarrassing personnel� are shuffled around to be completely hidden from inspection. The best and brightest are scheduled for duty when the inspectors are coming through. The inspectors know this by the way, everyone does. What comes out in the inspection report is a picture of the base in much better condition than it really is, with much brighter personnel than it really has, and in a better state of readiness than it every is from day to day. These reports are what the pentagon uses to determine how wars are to be fought by the way. Seems kind of reminiscent of the �Star Wars, Missile Defense� that we are currently spending billions on, it can�t hit the target more than 50% of the time, and that is when we tell it where the target is!�
If the military really wanted to know what was going on, (and they don�t by the way) they would send an inspector by on Sat, out of the blue, and not let anyone know that he is an inspector. Heads would roll, commands would be lost, and best of all, we would have a clear picture of what is wrong with our military.
I am not anti-military, those are my friends over there, I was over there. The problem is a failure of leadership, from the top down. You can look at the numbers for yourself by the way, the defense budget is public record (most of it anyway) take a look through it and see if you agree with how your money is being spent. I guarantee you it�s not being spent on the troops.
Anyway I�ve ranted enough for this installment. It�s hard to stop when I get started though, I�ll probably be muttering to myself for the next day or so.
Justus
