Sunday, January 30, 2011

A Brief Glimpse of Spring

One of the reasons we moved from New Jersey, where my wife was born and raised and had always lived, to South Carolina was to get away from the brutal and harsh Northern winters. The last 5 years we lived there we lived in Wantage, a small town in Sussex County which is right on the foothills of the Pocono Mountains, so when the weather called for 3 inches of snow in the flatlands (the Paramus area), we could count on getting 3 times that much up in the hills. And trust me, we did. One of the first things we did when we moved up there was trade in my wife's Pontiac Grand Am for a Dodge truck with four wheel drive, and that truck saved our bacon many a winter!

But after living in the cold country all her life, my wife was ready to move to warmer climates. She wanted to move to Florida but I didn't want to go quite that far south; actually, I wanted to be closer to my folks so I could visit them more often. So we settled on South Carolina, a place where we both thought we could ride at least ten months out of the year.

And so it was...for the first two winters we were here. We've been here for almost 5 years now, and for the past three winters it has been unseasonably cold here, and it has snowed - that's right, friends and neighbors, snowed - for the past two winters, having snowed twice this winter alone. So needless to say, the chances to ride for ten months out of the year have been few and far between for the past two years.

As things would have it, my wife had to sell her bike last spring so I've been a Lone Wolf for the past nine months or so. I ride every chance I get, and today I had the chance. The weather has been cold as shit for the past three months, so "Junior" - my 2008 H-D Nightster - has been sitting in the garage hooked up to a trickle charger for most of the winter. The weather forcast for this weekend was calling for it to be "unseasonably warm," with the highs for Saturday projected into the low 60s and the highs for today being in the high 60s.

When the temperature outside hit 65, that was it - I'm on the bike and gone!

It's nearly impossible to describe the feeling of riding to a non-rider, especially if you're trying to explain how it feels to get "knees in the breeze" after being stuck in a car for the past three months. For some it can almost be a religious experience; for me it wasn't quite that thrillling, but I gotta tell ya that I was riding around for the better part of an hour with a stupid smile plastered on my face. Just the feeling of the bike rumbling beneath me, the wind going past my face shield, and feeling the road beneath the tires as I zipped along the back roads is just...well, those of you who ride know; those of you who don't will just never understand.

That's what it is about bikers and their love for riding. It's a sense of freedom, a sense of blending in and becoming one with the scenery instead of just driving through it, the sense of motion and movement that you can only get when leaning your scoot into a fairly sharp turn on a back road, your eyes scanning ahead around the curve for what's up ahead, the feeling of being zoned in to the bike, the scenery, what's happening...it's a feeling of being alive that you just can't get by driving a car.

Like I said, if you ride then you understand; if you don't ride, then you need to start. Then you'll understand.

So now "Junior" is parked in the garage again, although I haven't hooked the battery charger back up quite yet. I'm waiting to see what the rest of the week's weather looks like; maybe I'll get a chance to go grin some more, who knows?

IHC

Friday, January 21, 2011

Sergeant First Class Martin "Marty" Maher, US Army

I had a chance to watch one of my all-time favorite movies yesterday, that movie being "The Long Gray Line" with Tyrone Power and Maureen O'Hara, and if you've never seen it I highly suggest you rent the DVD and watch it. It's directed by who I think was the greatest director of all time, that being John Ford, and the messages that the movie carries and portrays to the viewers are timeless and oh-so-important, especially in this day and age. The acting is superb, the scenery is wonderful since it was filmed on location at the US Military Academy at West Point, and it was all the more significant and meaningful to me because of my military background, and the fact that I've been to West Point and have walked the areas shown in the film.

Out of all of the things in this movie that impress me, I think the one thing that impresses me the most is the story of the main character, a man you've never heard of but who is a legend at West Point, and with good reason. That man was Sergeant First Class Martin "Marty" Maher (pronounced ma-her, with a very slight emphasis on the second syllable). While the movie does an excellent job of portraying what the USMA is all about - duty, honor, country, devotion, patriotism - it does an even better job of portraying the love and devotion that Sgt Maher had for the Army, West Point, and the United States.

Martin Maher was an Irish immigrant who came to this country in 1898 and got a job as a waiter at West Point. After working there in that capacity for two years, he enlisted in the Army and remained at West Point, serving in various capacities over the years but ending up assigned as a swimming instructor under the Master of the Sword, Colonel Keeler. Not every cadet who came to West Point knew how to swim, but they knew how when they left; Maher made sure of that.

Oh, by the way...Martin Maher couldn't swim a stroke.

He met another Irish immigrant who came to work at the Point, an Irish lass named Mary O'Donnell. He married her and a year or so later they had a son, but the child died a few hours after he was born. Mary could never have another child, so from that point on they both came to look upon the Corps of Cadets as their children, devoting themselves to the cadets and West Point, with Marty leading the way.

He must have done a pretty good job, because he was named an Honorary Graduate of not one, not two, but three graduating classes - the Class of 1912, 1926, and 1928. He also had a role in helping train the class that became known as "The Class The Stars Fell On," the Class of 1915. That class turned out several graduates who would later become household names, with one of them becoming President of the United States. Those two graduates were Omar Nelson Bradley and Dwight David Eisenhower, both of whom attained the rank of 5 star General of the Army, with Eisenhower later becoming President. Out of the class of 164 graduates, 59 of them (36%) attained general's rank.

And Marty Maher helped train all of them.

Marty retired from the Army in 1928 after serving nearly 30 years in uniform, and promptly got a civilian position at West Point, where he stayed for the next 20 years before retiring again, this time for good. All in all, Marty Maher stayed at West Point for more than fifty years!

And he's still there to this day. He lies buried in the West Point Cemetary overlooking The Plain, the large grassy field where the Cadet Parades and Reviews are held. Marty Maher died in 1961, six years after his life story was told in a book called "Bringing Up The Brass" and then made into a movie - "The Long Gray Line."

There's something about both the story and the movie that just touches my heart and soul in a way that I sometimes find hard to portray, and I fear I may have failed in writing this post about it. Sometimes it's hard to explain things like this to people that have never served, never loved something so much as to devote your entire life or the majority of your life to it, to love something so much that you would sacrifice all - including your life, if need be - for it. If you've never served, then you may not fully understand what I'm trying to say, and I don't think I could say anything else that would make it clear.

But if you've served, then you know exactly what I'm talking about, and I need say nothing more.

IHC

Friday, January 14, 2011

A Message To "Anonymous"

I just deleted a comment from "Anonymous," and in this message to him you'll see why.

Dear Anonymous,

I've deleted your comment to my previous post for two reasons, but let me highlight the most important one first: you're an asshole. Not only are you an asshole, you're also a cowardly asshole. If you weren't a cowardly asshole, you'd have put your name to your comment. Had you done that, you would no longer be a coward - just an asshole.

The other reason is that you're also a moron. Anyone who would call the Arizona gunman "a hero" just has to be a knuckle-dragging, inbred, slobbering, no-toothed moron. Personally, I think somebody peed in your gene pool.

And that's about all of my time I'm willing to waste on you. Have a nice life.

Oh, yeah - fuck off and die.

IHC

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

More Proof that Gun Control Doesn't Work

For the past several days the news has been full of stories about the shootings in Arizona that killed 6 people, including a 9 year old girl and a Federal judge, and critically wounded a female Senator from Arizona. And before the last shell casing had hit the ground, two things began to happen: the news media began flooding the airwaves and the web with inaccurate, poorly researched (if at all) stories, and the Demoncrats started blaming everyone EXCEPT the shooter for the tragedies, centering their attention on the Republicans, the Tea Party, and all Conservatives.

And now, as can be expected, the knee-jerk reactions have begun. A female Demoncratic senator has announced she plans to introduce a bill similar to the Clinton-era gun ban that expired in 2004, and all of the gun control nuts are clamoring once again about the evils of guns.

And as usual, they're all missing the point. Every last mother-loving one of them.

First, let's get the obvious out of the way, and this is directed to the news media. Pay attention, Geraldo, okay? Ready? Here it is: a "clip" and a "magazine" are two entirely different things. A "clip" is used to hold loose rounds together until they are loaded into a rifle, at which point the "clip" is usually discarded, and a "magazine" is used to contain the rounds and is actually loaded INTO the weapon, where it remains until it is empty and is removed by the shooter. Got it? Good. Now try and remember it, willya? (All that time in journalism school gone to waste...)

And now for the main point of this entry. If ever there was a case in point that proves without a shadow of a doubt that gun control laws don't work, THIS IS IT. The shooter had NO criminal history, so he passed a background check. The pistol he used was purchased LEGALLY and was not stolen; the ammunition was purchased LEGALLY, and the MAGAZINES he used (there's that word again, Geraldo - remember what I said?) were LEGAL and were purchased LEGALLY.

And yet, this nutjob still went out and killed people with a handgun, which proves two things: One, you can't legislate crazy, and two, GUN CONTROL LAWS DON'T WORK.

And just for giggles, let's talk about a part of the story that you haven't heard about on CNN, NBC, CBS, ABC, or MSNBC. Some of you may know this and some of you may not, but Arizona has one of the most liberal concealed carry/weapons laws in the land. Open carry is legal, and it also has a "must issue" law for concealed weapons permits. In short, LOTS of people in Arizona carry guns. So, with all of those people walking around in Arizona with guns, you'd think one would have been there when the shooting went down, don't you?

There was. And what he did - or more specifically, what he didn't do, is just more proof that all of the crap that the anti-gun nuts are saying is just that - crap.

After the media descened on the town and people started interviewing witnesses for the evening news, none other than Geraldo Hererra interviewed a man who was there and who helped restraing the gunman for the arrival of police. During the interview the man told Geraldo that he was armed at the time, but did not draw his weapon. When Geraldo asked why not, the man said that the gunman was restrained, the danger had been removed, and that he saw "no reason to end this man's life." So he left his pistol in its holster and went to help hold the gunman down until the police arrived.

One of the things that the anti-gunners have been saying, mostly the asshats in the Brady Bunch, is that if you turn the public loose with firearms that they'll "shoot first and ask questions later." What they refuse to realize (and I use the word "refuse" intentionally) is that the people who choose to carry guns concealed are trained before the permit is issued, and have proven to the state that they have the maturity and ability to both use the weapon when they need to, and NOT used it when they don't. And this man's actions prove the point quite well.

But you won't see that on the evening news, I can guarantee you that. And why not?

Simple. Because all of the major news networks with the exception of Fox News, are on the side of the anti-gunner and will refuse to air ANYTHING that proves them wrong. So much for "truth in journalism."

As much as the Brady Bunch and other like them would like to see the Clinton-era gun ban reinstated or for one similar to it to get passed into law, I don't see that happening for two reasons: One, the Congress is now controlled by the Republicans, and two, NObama wouldn't take this one on because he's sucking ass in the popularity polls now, and this would only make things worse. After all, it's only two years to re-election, and he's got to start laying the groundwork for his campaign. Which is one of the reasons he was so quick to jump on the sympathy bandwagon after the shooting, but that's just my humble opinion.

In closing, one would expect that this shooting in Arizona would finally prove to the anti-gunners out there that NO, gun control doesn't work, and NO, it never will. After all, any sane, reasonable person can see that, right?

Oh, riiiiiiight...we're talking about politicians. Silly me.

IHC

Sunday, January 9, 2011

What NOT to Say to a Biker

Every biker has one, no matter who you are, no matter what you ride, no matter where you work - every biker has one. And if you're a biker, you know just what - and who - I'm talking about. I'm talking about the guy who will always, and I mean ALWAYS, say the exact same freakin' thing every time, and I mean EVERY TIME, the weather outside sucks.

If it's raining, he'll come up to you and say, "SO, YOU DIDN'T RIDE THAT BIKE TODAY, DID YA?"

If it's cold as hell outside, he'll come up to you and say, "SO, YOU DIDN'T RIDE THAT BIKE TODAY, DID YA?"

If the wind is blowing in gale force strength, he'll come up to you and say, "SO, YOU DIDN'T RIDE THAT BIKE TODAY, DID YA?"

If it's snowing like hell outside and only a moron would be driving much less riding, he'll come up to you and say, "SO, YOU DIDN'T RIDE THAT BIKE TODAY, DID YA?"

I've got one at my store, and I'm just about ready to pop his head like a zit the next time he says that to me.

And that time was almost tonight when, on the way out the door and it's cold as hell outside with snow being predicted for later tonight, Mr. Happy walks up to me and says.....well, you know what he said by now, right?

So for those of you who don't ride and have a biker where you work, for your own safety here's a short list of things NOT to say to a biker.

1) First and foremost, if the weather sucks outside, don't ask us if we rode the bike today. Only a very small percentage of us will willingly ride in the rain, so your chances are better than average that if it's raining outside, then no, genius, we didn't ride. So don't ask. DON'T. FUCKIN'. ASK.

2) If you see us ride up and the name "HARLEY-DAVIDSON" is emblazoned on the gas tank of the bike, don't walk up and ask, "SO, IS THAT A HARLEY?"

3) If you see us walking around wearing a Harley-Davidson shirt, a Harley-Davidson hat, and boots with a Harley-Davidson logo on them, don't walk up and ask, "SO, DO YOU RIDE A HARLEY?"

4) If you see us getting ready to walk out of the door to our bike and we've got on a full rain suit because it's raining like hell outside and we got caught at work in it when it wasn't supposed to rain and we have no other way to get home BUT to ride the bike, don't walk up and ask, "SO, ARE YOU GONNA RIDE THE BIKE IN THE RAIN?"

5) On the flip side of the coin, if it's raining outside and we walk in dripping, soaking, sopping wet, if you value your life don't walk up and ask, "SO, IS IT RAINING OUTSIDE?"

6) Don't ask us if we're in the Hell's Angels. Chances are better than average that if we're not wearing the colors, we're not in the Angels.

7) If you see us walking around carrying a helmet, don't walk up and ask, "SO, DO YOU RIDE A MOTORCYCLE?" This will get you killed in some states.

8) And last but not least, don't ever, and I mean EVER, ask a biker if you can sit on his bike. The answer is a big, fat, fuckin' NO!

OK, I feel better now!

IHC

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Random Thoughts on a Wednesday Night

So now the Republicans are in control of the Congress, and the session of the 112th Congress has officially begun. Already the Republicans are talking tough and following through, setting new guidelines for conduct and stripping two representatives - namely those from DC and Puerto Rico - of their right to a floor vote. And when you get right down to it, they're right - Puerto Rico is a territory, not a state, and DC is a district, also not a state. So why should they have a floor vote just the same as a recognized state? I'm with the Republicans on this one. But as for the 112th Congress being any different than the 111 before it - time will tell.

And the news from New York is that Brett Favre is being sued to hell and beyoned by at least five girls...well, all I can say is that Karma's other name is "Bitch," because sometimes when it comes back around to you, it sure is. As Brett is about to find out.

Looks like "Obamacare" is about to go on life support...the Republicans have vowed to get it repealed, and after the massacre that was the last elections there are a hell of a lot of Demoncrats who are more than willing to jump off of the Good Ship NObama, just like rats leaving a sinking ship, and vote with the Republicans. Just goes to show you that ANY politician ANYWHERE will do or say ANYTHING in order to get elected. How do you think we got screwed with Obamacare to begin with?

And speaking of the Good Ship NObama, yet another of his "chosen few" is leaving. The White House Press Secretary has announced that he will leave the NObama administration. One cannot help but wonder why...I mean, really, who in their right mind leaves a post in the WHITE HOUSE? Gotta be more to this story than meets the eye...

Saw on the front page of USA TODAY that Pelosi now says that "Jobs are our number one priority!" Huh, that's nice...where the fuck were you two years ago after the Charlatan In Chief got elected and unemployment was rising faster than Katrina's floodwaters? The public was screaming about unemployment and clamoring for jobs, and all she and her band of merry idiots wanted to do was shove Obamacare down our throats. The people spoke loud and clear last November, and Pelosi - along with every Demoncratic politician in existence - heard them and got the message, loud and clear. Now that her ass is on the line, she's all about "jobs." Right. Another example of a politician who will say or do anything in order to get elected. Good luck with that, you bitch.

And the U.S.-backed President of Iraq has now stated that his country doesn't need the US anymore, and he wants ALL of the US troops out immediately. Well, that's gratitude for you, ain't it? Maybe we should have left Saddam in power and never have gone over there in the first place, huh? OK, so yo want to go it alone? Fine, no problem. I say pull ALL of our troops out of EVERY BASE in the Middle East and let the rag-wearing, stinky bastards kill themselves off. And don't give me that "we either fight them over there, or we fight them over here" crap either, 'cuz I ain't buyin' it. Besides, Americans have proven time and time again that we fight hardest when it's defending our OWN land, not a patch of sand on the other side of the world. So I say pull ALL of the troops out of the Middle East and put them someplace where they're REALLY needed - like on the Texas/Arizona/New Mexico border with Mexico.

And lastly, one of the main reasons - okay, THE main reason - we moved to South Carolina was to get away from the cold weather and be able to ride more than 5 months out of the year. So it's been cold as crap here for the past month, my Harley is sitting in the garage hooked up to a battery tender and just aching to be ridden, and I'm gettin antsy as hell to get my knees in the breeze again. WTF, over? Enough with the cold, let's get warm again and GO RIDE!

IHC