Nielsen's ra(n)tings

Politics, guns, homeschooling for the gifted, scuba, hunting, farming and somewhat coherent occasional ranting from your average Buckeye State journalist/dad/farmer/actor.

Monday, October 31, 2005

Do a good deed....

My father has a small farm on the edge of Geneva, Ohio. A long-time housing development on the edge of the city has had water drainage problems since its inception. Finding other alternatives impossible, the city finally asked my father if they could clear some ditches through his property and divert some of the water there. He was assured the water would be passed through his land via the ditches, then to other existing drainiage features and eventually to Lake Erie.

My father agreed. The ditches were cleared last week. This week my father's farm has been turned into the everglades. Anyone got a spare alligator that needs a cushy, new home?

The stormwater comes from this development into the ditches, then stops at my father's far property line as the ditches downstream are clogged. It has backed up and flooded his fields. The authorities' response? "Oooops! There's nothing we can do about it."

Another of the problems: He lives in the township, the project was completed by the county but was funded by the city. Confusing enough?

He plans today to meet with the city manager to show him the problem and arrive at a solution. Absent cooperation on the city's part, he will proceed through the courts to get a solution. I've googled up some court precedents involving Ohio drainage cases and will be spending more time on the internet if a solution is not forthcoming.

Wednesday, October 19, 2005

First Amendment protection "unfortunate?"

Toledo Police Department Chief Mike Navarre this week characterized free speech protection for demonstrating neo Nazis as unfortunate. This came in the wake of riots spawned hours after the demonstration concluded.

Ohio Politics
As Buckeye Firearms Association's Ken Hanson reminded readers in a recent op-ed, chief Mike Navarre's Toledo Police Department has a rough history when it comes to the Second Amendment.

Having once told store owners enduring a wave of violent robberies they should not take up arms to defend themselves but instead just try to "get away from the bullets", having arrested a man for exercising his right to carry in a city park, and having confiscated a handgun from a citizen who had gone out and obtained an emergency concealed carry license to protect himself from gangs in his neighborhood, the evidence of his disdain for the Second Amendment could not be more clear.

Navarre's latest opposition to the Bill of Rights may not come as a surprise to people who are aware of his views on the right to bear arms, but Toledo police chief Mike Navarre is bound to turn a few heads...

The following are Mike Navarre's October 17 comments to the Toledo Blade in reference to a small group of Nazis who attempted to hold a march in a Glass City neighborhood:
    "Unfortunately, they [the marchers] have the right under the First Amendment, and as distasteful as it is, we have to protect them," he said.
Their message is indeed distasteful, but it is hardly "unfortunate" that American citizens, no matter how hateful, have the right to free speech.

The rioting that broke out during a counter-protest (which incidentally had been promoted as an "Erase the Hate" event) has highlighted Mike Navarre's incompetence for a whole nation to see.

To wit, when a citizen repeatedly complained that gang activity was happening in his neighborhood, Toledo police called his claims "exaggerated" and confiscated the gun he had purchased for his own protection to provide a "cooling off" period.

To wit, last week, Navarre told the Toledo Blade that the neighborhood where the riots occurred is a "relatively quiet neighborhood," and that his officers have not had many complaints of gang activity.

Yet immediately following the riots, we learned that Navarre and other city officials had learned of the potential for a gang violence outbreak before it even began. From the Toledo Blade:
    ...When a dispatcher reported that gang members wearing colors were gathering along Stickney, Central, and Ketcham avenues, Chief Navarre began to worry.

    “This is not going to be pretty,” he predicted. “I’m starting to get a pretty bad feeling.”

    Residents in the neighborhood had even earlier signs of trouble.

    Ramon Perez, a Lagrange Village Council member, said he was canvassing the neighborhood for days before the planned march.

    “Even Friday night, at Bronson and Stickney, that’s all we were hearing: ‘We’re taking this place down.’”
And later in the story:
    “There’s a lot of unrest, there’s a lot of anger among young people living in that neighborhood,” [Navarre] said. “...
So which is it? A quiet neighborhood with few reports of gang activity, or a tinderbox where angry young gang members loiter on street corners?

After advocating gun control policies that would eradicate the Second Amendment in the name of safety, and after now calling the First Amendment rights of a few extremists "unfortunate", Mike Navarre and other city officials have a lot of explaining to do about why they failed to keep this neighborhood safe.

The Buckeye Firearms Association has more on Navarre and his problems with the Bill of Rights.

Thank you, Katrina

If, in the view of the "glass is half full" crowd, every cloud has a silver lining, then Hurricane Katrina's silver lining has been that it has focused attention on runaway spending in Congress. Congressional leaders who had heretofore crowed about their lean spending record were, under pressure from constituents and bloggers, forced to admit there's still a lot of pork to be pared from the budget.

Glenn Reynolds of Instapundit has been invaluable in keeping track of progress on the tight budget front with his Porkbusters updates...just scroll down.

Monday, October 17, 2005

More grapes to be picked

I've been migrant farm labor for most of this month (in between performances at the nearby theater.)

The area in which I live is home to many Concord Grape vineyards as well as wine grape vineyards and wineries. My cousins have a large grape vineyard and pick grapes for many other area grape farmers. When we moved back to the area three years ago, I got drafted to help with the harvest.

So, for 14 of the 17 days this month, I've been helping pick grapes.

Now this is mechanized grape picking...none of that stuff with pruning shears and boxes. My cousing drives this great lumbering 35-year-old grape-picking machine which straddles the rows of grapes and proceeds to slap the grapes off the vines with little paddles. The machine catches these grapes, feeds them onto a conveyor and up and onto a chute which feeds into a bin being carried on another tractor (which I drive.) We can pick about 10 tons of grapes in an hour - two hours to fill the bins on a 20-ton semi. That sounds like a lot of grapes until you realize that the vineyard we're picking at now will probably have 300 tons of grapes this year. It's a great year for grapes here - a record year according to my cousins.

Anyway the grapes are put on a truck and sent to a plant in Coca Cola Pennsylvania to be used in Hi-C drink products. We've just found out the plant is to close for the season at the end of October and we've still got about 400-500 tons of grapes to pick - it sounds like there are going to be a lot of disappointed farmers who won't get their grapes harvested before the plant closes.

Just finished Eragon, Eldest

I read Christopher Paolini's "Eragon" and "Eldest" this weekend.

I very much enjoyed them. I found them to be very polished fantasy works in the tradition of the Lord of the Rings trilogy and the Sword of Shannara books. The fact they were written by a teen makes them all the more impressive. I recommend them highly. I particularly liked the depiction of the relationship between dragons and humans.

I read the critical reviews on Amazon.com after I read the books, and I have some reflections on them.

First: Who ever said that books must be wholly original to be good? There is a reason the oft-used heroic journey storyline is so popular - it works. People like to read about heroes and imagine themselves to be the foreordained savior cutting their way with bloodstained sword through legions of evil foes. Who cares that the storyline is well-used if the work is well-crafted?

I get so tired of heroes who spend too much time wrestling with their inner demons. Quit gazing at your navel and get the job done!

Second:
The condescension among the oh-so-learned reviewers at Amazon was cloying. I don't care if Paolini is 17 or 57, a good book is a good book and should be acknowleged as being so.

Third: When the hell is the third book due out?

Friday, October 14, 2005

Too old

What the hell was I thinking?

I returned to karate last night after very spotty atendance for about three months and it just happened to be sparring/grappling night to help prepare some of the dojo members for an upcoming national-level ju-jitsu tournament. The dojo at which I train is a combined martial arts facility, incorporating karate, judo, ju-jitso, aikido and a little kung fu. So the entire two-hour session was devoted to tuning these guys and girls up for the weekend tourney.

It turns out most of the work was on grappling. Now I'm a big guy in fair shape, 6-5 and 220 pounds, but I'm more of the basketball/tennis/volleyball mold. I look like a claymation figure from a Tim Burton film. A grappler I am not. I also just turned 45 years old.

But since I'm big, I get paired with the big guys in class. The roster of who got to twist me into a pretzel last night included: current police officer, 34, 6-2 and 240 pounds; stunt man, 27, 6-0 and 240 pounds (looks like an NFL running back); and a high school wrestling coach, 37, 5-11 and 220 pounds. There were joints cracking and popping last night that I didn't even know I had.

And I'm feeling every one of those cracks and pops this morning. I have the feeling its going to get worse through the day...I hope it leaves me enough mobility to perform well in the play tonight.

Tuesday, October 11, 2005

Ohio "carry" very awkward

I have a Concealed Carry Permit from the State of Ohio.

I took the 13-hour course, aced my test and drilled nice tight groups through the targets to demonstrate my gun handling skills. I also passed a thorough background check including fingerprints before being granted the permit.

I also had a concealed weapons permit from the State of West Virginia when I resided there. Eight-hour class, no range time, same background check.

So why did I carry so much more often in West Virginia than I do in Ohio? The "plain sight" vehicle carry provision in Ohio's carry law makes carrying a weapon a chancy and onerous chore. The plain sight requirement was included in the bill at the insistence of the Ohio State Highway Patrol, over the objections of other law enforcement groups, and basically says that while in a car, the weapon must be plainly visible. The term "plainly visible" is not defined and presumably means whatever each district attorney and arresting officer decide it means. It also says the weapon must be on the permit holder's person (another plain sight conflict) or locked in a container also in plain sight or locked (not placed) in an onboard glove box or other storage bin.

I don't know what "plainly visible" means and I'm unwilling to be arrested for a difference in interpretation. Likewise, I'm unwilling to leave my weapon locked in a plainly visible storage container in the vehicle while it's not on my person. I'm also loathe to keep moving the carry gun from an open carry to concealed carry position every time I enter or exit the car. The OSHP was crazy to insist on this provision and our weak-kneed RINO Governor Bob Taft deserves a long prison term with a cellmate named Romeo for insisting it be included in the law.

Carry holders are already required to tell officers during traffic stops if they are carrying a weapon. Despite the fact that permit holders are among the most law-abiding citizens in the state, and research shows they DO NOT get into altercations with the police, the OSHP insists on treating them like criminals. At the same time, they are ignoring the fact that criminals pay no attention to these rules (hint: that's why they're criminals.)

There are some stirrings in the statehouse aimed at fixing the problems created by the OSHP and Taft. Hopefully, they'll get this straightened out before someone goes to jail because an overzealous cop and prosecutor decide to use the "plain sight" requirement as justification for pursuing a vendetta against permit holders.

Friday, October 07, 2005

When is the Right not the Right?

I'm on the right on most issues.

Gun control, tax-and-spend, amnesty for illegal aliens and affirmative action are all phrases that will get you sent to the bathroom at this house with a bar of soap and a brush. "And don't come out until you've washed the stench of those words from your mouth!"

I'm not of the Religious Right, however. I don't line up with any ideologues and have trouble identifying myself as a member of any group larger than my immediate family. I'm a pragmatic, pro-choice, Bible-out-of-the-government guy who is also a strong advocate of traditional marriage and abstinence. I don't want people to tell me what to do, outside of the minimal framework needed for societal interaction, and have no interest in telling others what to do.

I believe in hiring the best people for the job - lay the resume's out in a color-blind, gender-blind, connections-blind manner and pick the best one.

That's why President Bush's nomination of Harriet Miers to be a Supreme Court Justice makes me very nervous and makes me question my decision to support a Republican agenda. It shows a collossal lack or respect for the office to which he's been elected and hints at an ego which places the man above the office and politics above the good of the country.

Miers' nomination miserably fails the pragmatic criteria in choosing the best candidate for the job. She's not in the major leagues of jurisprudence; she's a friend of Bush's who was chosen for her close ties and to fill the seat offered by outgoing Justice Sandra Day O'Connor with another female. I think Bush has nominated the best judicial candidate for him, not for the country as a whole. He has betrayed the trust of the voters who chose him to lead this hugely diverse country in the best manner possible, not tailor it to his own liking. He owed it to the country to nominate the best...he showed himself to be a very small man in a large office by nominating his toady.

The nomination fiasco is all the more glaring, coming as it does on the heels of the confirmation of John Roberts as Chief Justice. Roberts, a widely-acknowledged legal all-star, is the mold Bush should have been seeking to fill. Instead, he has used spin and personal anecdote to make the case for a second- or third-tier candidate. "Trust me" on Miers will become Bush II's "Read My Lips."

I DON'T want reassurances from "confidential sources" that Miers is an evangelical Christian who will **wink, wink** overturn Roe V Wade. I have no interest in that being overturned. I DO have interest in U.S. Supreme Court Justices deciding cases based on a strict interpretation of the U.S. Constitution and not through interpretation of international law. I have an interest in a court which will limit the growth of government control and will strike down outrageous governmental injustices like the Kelo eminent domain case and the countless others cropping up like wildfires in its wake.

I want someone with the resume' of a towering legal mind sitting on the U.S. Supreme Court, anything less is a slap in the face of the American people by a man who puts himself above the welfare of the country.

Tuesday, October 04, 2005

"Ender" author sings Serenity praises

Orson Scott Card, author of "Ender's Game" and subsequent novels, some of the best science fiction ever written, has given "Serenity" a BIG thumbs up.

Now if he can just find someone to bring "Ender's Game" to the big screen in a worthy manner...that's a film I've been waiting to see since first reading the book more than a quarter century ago. And now, of course, I'm eagerly awaiting the "Serenity" sequels.

First deer is in the freezer...mmmmm!.....venison!

My first deer of the season is in the freezer...a mature, well-fed doe that was traveling with a group of four other, smaller, deer.

The other three deer came right under my stand and milled around about 10 feet from the base of my ladder stand. She, on the other hand, circled around and, with nose to the ground, followed my steps down the path toward my stand, coming in behind me. Luckily, I brought the crossbow instead of the compound bow, so twisting around for a shot wasn't a big problem. She ran about 150 yards and then collapsed. Due to the excessive temperatures (80 plus degrees in October, fer cryin'outloud), we had to butcher and freeze her immediately. We corned two roasts, had the inside tenderloins for supper and boned and froze the rest of the meat.

Good shot, quick kill, meat in the freezer...it just doesn't get any better than that.

Saturday, October 01, 2005

Serenity makes the jump to bigscreen

Well, we finally got out to see the big damn movie...and it was worth the wait.

As well-crafted as the ill-fated series and thunderous in it's theatrical incarnation, the movie blew away the four diehard fans of Firefly who call this house home. Whedon and company wrapped up a lot of the loose ends left dangling when Firefly closed after 11 episodes on the Fox network. We learned the origins of the Reavers and got a glimpse into Shepherd Book's previous life as part of the bigscreen adventure.

The drawbacks, if any, to the movie were the many bridges Whedon burned in his characters and storylines for this production. Gone are Wash and Book, River Tam's utility to the Alliance is tarnished and Inara is back in the Serenity fold (maybe.) They fought the good fight and won, but the next challenge is not on the horizon. I hope the movie merits the hoped-for sequels.