Mr. Speaker, Mr. Speaker

 "It's not that I'm smart. It's that I stay with the questions much longer." Albert Einstein.

What memories do you have of your father?

My father was no ordinary man. He grew up in the city, but loved the country. He was small in stature, but backed down to no one. In 1943 he and a friend patted the side of the Liberty Bell in his home town of Philadelphia and then enlisted in the Marine Corps. He survived a battle in a place called "The Meat Grinder," among the many other places he fought. He came home from the war to work in the US Space Program, raise a family and retire.

He was Irish, the grandson of a man who moved his family from Donegal.  Consequently, he had something of the poet in him. He had committed to memory countless verses, which he could recite seemingly at will.

Lest one think they were some of the better known of Yeats, or Joyce... Usually, they were ribald limericks about a man from Nantucket, or a hermit named Dave. He had a sufficient repertoire that, while on guard duty after Japan surrendered, he would write them on the outsides of the vehicles he was supposed to be guarding without being repetitious. The company commander was unamused.

And then, there was the free verse poem about a legislator from Arkansas who took offense at how the name of his state was being pronounced. My dad would burst forth: "Mr. Speaker, Mr. Speaker you bald-headed old son of a bitch. I've been trying to get your goddamned attention for the last half hour..."

My mother, who grew up in a more refined part of Philly, was openly horrified at the things my father could recite. One, a Christmas poem based in a penitentiary, made her swear.

Out of curiosity, over many years, I tried to locate the source of my father's Arkansas poem. Even in the internet age, it eluded me. Then...

I purchased a book on Kindle recently, On the Warpath in the Pacific, the life story of Admiral Joseph James "Jocko" Clark. Born in Cherokee Nation in pre-statehood Oklahoma, Admiral Clark was the first Native American to graduate the US Naval Academy, in 1918. Navy was a bit rough around the edges, something the blue blood regular Navy officers tried to remedy. Jocko found himself caught up in a hazing scandal in which plebes were made to memorize and recite a poem called "Change the Name of Arkansas."

Mr. Speaker, Mr. Speaker, Goddamn your ornery soul all to hell.

No wonder I could never find it. That is the most marginally re-printable sentence. That, and one suggesting that comparisons between Kansas and Arkansas is like comparing the "gentle oscillations of a little June bride to the frantic clutches of a Klondike whore."

I can hear the echoes of my mom... "Daaaaavvvve."

According to legend, and owing to the significant passage of time, the version recited by Naval Academy plebes was but one version, my father having access to a varient, perhaps one embraced solely in the Marine Corps. Whatever, over the course of fifty-six years knowing the man, his memory of the poem never wavered.

I miss the old guy, for no other reason than he could be obnoxious, he could be irritable, he could get under a person's skin. But, he was never dull. As we approach the tenth anniversary of his passing, I can only say that he was one of a kind. 

 

Happy Turkey Day

 Consider a turkey who is fed every day. Every single feeding will firm up the bird's belief that it is the general rule to be fed every day by friendly members of the human race "looking out for its best interests" as a politician would say. On the Wednesday before Thanksgiving something unexpected will happen to the turkey. (On the problems of inductive reasoning), The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable,(2010), Nassim Nicholas Taleb

In 2020, is WuFlu the Black Swan moment? Or, is the election?

Imagine you're some guy who is a politically engaged resident of a so-called Red State. You walked the soles off of several pairs of shoes, banging on doors. Spent hours on the phone, wore your hands raw pushing in lawn signs. You got your boat out for the parades, fired up the F250 on the weekends for the socially-distanced meets. Your wife made sandwiches, your kids pulled wagons full of pamphlets. Maybe you made the sandwiches and your wife banged on the door. Maybe your husband watched the kids. Whatever it was, you played your part, and cast your ballot.

Around you, something like 65% of your neighbors agreed with you. Upwards of 100% of your neighbors understand that, in a Constitutional Republic, the only way for the people to steer the Ship of State is for the ballot count to be fair. Your candidate wins because they got more votes. They lose because the other person did better. You sleep soundly.

You wake up the next day only to hear that "the other guy" is being dragged across the finish line because individuals in other states aren't nearly as principled as you. There are wild, unexplained swings involving hundreds of thousands of votes - almost all (99%?) in favor of "the other guy." The national press seems eager to play along, and social media blocks any attempt to call bullshit on what may be, or may not be, fraud.

There are real issues at stake in this election, fundamental to how you think America should work. You did your thing in Iraq, helped load a couple of your friends into plastic bags. Got a lot of their blood on you in the process. Maybe you were there when it happened, to hear them plead with God to let them live. And, here you are. Some asshole in some other state tipped the scales with a box of fake ballots and you're left asking yourself if your buddies died for all of this.

There are a very few Americans left who know what an existential threat to America feels like. We think it is our birthright to be fed by friendly politicians who are "looking out for our best interests." Candidate A wins, or Candidate B wins. We're all Americans, right?

If you say so, brother. I just wonder about that guy, his candidate's flags hanging from his porch. At what point does he drop "The Deuce" and start to seriously ask if it's time to cut ties with people who will lie, cheat, steal, murder, burn... Maybe he goes in to work in the morning and just figures "Fuck it, I'm okay."

What if he, and a lot of guys like him, don't? What happens when they get tired of playing the game straight, only to get fucked over without anyone giving a good goddamn? Countries have come and gone through history. Eventually, that guy gets pushed too far.

  That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

If you don't know where that paragraph comes from, you don't read enough.

I am advocating nothing. Just a cautionary tale - civilizations rely on one of two things to succeed. Force, or an unshakable belief among most of the citizenry that the system is equitable. You will win some, and lose some. The playing field is level, at least as level as humanly possible. In the absence of equity, the question becomes how much force leaders are willing to exert to stay in power. If you're interested, I wrote an excellent book about just how awful governmental violence looks, close up.

Happy Thanksgiving.     

Election Day 2020

 "They should be taught to deescalate. Shoot 'em in the leg."

Bikecopblog attempts to be non-partisan. We are not afraid to express an opinion. You are not required to like it, commit to it or even respect it. This is America. You are free to do your own thinking.

A vote for the Biden/Harris ticket is a vote against law enforcement. It is a vote to empower the Marxist Left who have advocated defunding and disbanding police departments all over the country. Both of the candidates have expressed their support for the defunding movement. Extreme radical members of the House have already stated they believe a Biden Presidency will be pliable enough to accomplish their agenda.

You don't have to take my word for it.

There is a reason the NYPD Union endorses Donald Trump. There is a reason the National Fraternal Order of Police endorses Donald Trump.

There is always room for improvement, reform. Hell, I just wrote a book about that. On these pages I've discussed police misconduct and the need for change. And, I know - Orange Man Bad.

What good are the millions of dollars spent on body cameras, if politicians stand by bleating anti-police rhetoric and facilitating unrest when officers clearly are defending themselves against a person with a weapon? What good is the "rule of law" when officers who are clearly responding to a lethal threat are indicted for political purposes? How many good men and women have turned their backs on a police career because they don't want to land in jail for the mere fact they went home at the end of their shift, instead of to a hospital, or a morgue?

We are not endorsing a candidate, or telling you how you should vote. All we're saying is this - the Biden/Harris ticket has expressly stated their support for the defunding/disbanding movement. And that's a fact.