Friday 08-26-11

A hero and his dog

Rockford, Ia. - Jon Thomas Tumilson wrote a class paper when he was 15 about how he wanted to spend the next 20 years as a Navy SEAL, an elite member of the U.S. armed forces.

On Friday, an estimated 1,500 mourners paid their last respects to Petty Officer Tumilson, a Navy SEAL whose helicopter was shot down in Afghanistan on Aug. 6, about 20 years after Tumilson wrote that paper. He was 35 when he died in one of the deadliest attacks on U.S. forces in the decade-old U.S. deployment to Afghanistan.

"J.T. was going to be a Navy SEAL come hell or high water," friend Scott Nichols said of Tumilson, who was born in Osage on July 1, 1976, the nation's bicentennial year, and grew up in Rockford.

Outside the service at the Rudd-Rockford-Marble Rock gym, two cranes hoisted a huge U.S. flag in Tumilson's honor.

"If J.T. had known he was going to be shot down when going to the aid of others, he would have went anyway," said Boe Nankivel, another friend.

Tumilson was the baby of the family, the son of George and Kathleen Tumilson of Rockford.

His older sisters, Joy McMeekan of Taylor Ridge, Ill., and Kristie Pohlman of Cedar Rapids, sent many in the audience scrambling for tissues when they explained how crushed they were when they learned that the Taliban had shot down a helicopter with SEALs aboard.

McMeekan said she immediately thought her baby brother was dead. She could feel it. And when she went to bed, she felt like someone was in the room with her.

"Was it you coming to say goodbye?" she asked, as her brother's body lay in a flag-draped coffin in the front of the gym.

Pohlman said her brother had a big heart. "Your dreams were big and seemed impossible to nearly everyone on the outside," Pohlman said of her brother's desire to join one of the world's elite military units. "I always knew you'd somehow do what you wanted."

McMeekan and Pohlman walked back to their seats hand in hand as many onlookers in the stands sobbed. The sisters could be heard crying in the arms of other family members as the sound system played "Homesick," by MercyMe.

The song begins:

"You're in a better place, I've heard a thousand times

"And at least a thousand times I've rejoiced for you

"But the reason why I'm broken, the reason why I cry

"Is how long must I wait to be with you."

One other song had a special place in the service: Tumilson had picked a song for his own funeral, having no idea when that day would come. Early in the service, the sound system played that song, "If I Leave This World Alive," by Flogging Molly.

One of its lines promises a presence after death: "If I ever leave this world alive, I'll come back down and sit beside your feet tonight."

(more to the story at)
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20110820/NEWS/108200313/-1/AMES/Mourners-recall-SEAL-s-big-dreams-big-heart

Two more articles that show a growing trend of common sence, just because you own a gun does not mean you are going to do bad stuff.

No gunfights at the saloon

Whether it’s the economy or gun control, liberals rarely consider the consequences of their misguided schemes. President Obama wants more “investment” spending to help the economy even though his nearly $1 trillion in supposed stimulus did nothing to reduce unemployment. Keynesian economics didn’t work under Franklin D. Roosevelt or Jimmy Carter, either, but the left refuses to learn the lesson. Now we know that gun-grabber complaints about concealed-carry in bars and restaurants are nonsense too.

Earlier this month, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reviewed Virginia State Police records and found the number of firearms-related crimes committed in establishments that serve alcohol dropped 5 percent a year after concealed-carry permit holders could legally pack heat while out on the town. There were 145 gun crimes reported in taverns and eateries a year after the law took effect, compared with 153 before. The Times-Dispatch could only identify a single permit holder who had misbehaved, though gun charges later were dropped against that person.

This shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone. Gun owners tend to be law-abiding members of their communities. Allowing concealed-carry at the local watering hole did nothing to change that. The Virginia Association of Chiefs of Police worked overtime to defeat restaurant carry, urging Republican Gov. Bob McDonnell to veto the bill in March of last year. “Allowing guns in bars is a recipe for disaster,” Virginia Beach Police Chief Jake Jacocks Jr. wrote. “We can fully expect that at some point in the future, a disagreement that today would likely end up in a verbal confrontation, or a bar fight, will inevitably end with gunfire if you sign this legislation into law.” The shootouts never happened.

Chief Jacocks said in his letter that he didn’t presume to interpret the Second Amendment but that he knew it would be irresponsible to allow “anyone other than a law enforcement officer” to carry a handgun in a bar. Allowing people other than police to protect themselves with firearms is exactly what the right to keep and bear arms is all about. When Mr. Obama took office, the public flocked to gun stores, fearing the imposition of new gun-control measures. Despite the unprecedented number of new gun owners, FBI crime statistics showed violent crime decreased 5.5 percent nationwide between 2010 and 2009. In Virginia’s major cities, the drop was 9 percent.

The arguments of the gun-control crowd are like an annoying barfly that needs to be sent home. Expanding the rights of lawful gun owners makes everyone safer.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/aug/22/no-gunfights-at-the-saloon/

Parks No Less Safe with Legal Concealed Carry

In early 2010, National Parks opened their doors to those carrying concealed firearms. Naturally, the Brady Campaign went nuts and started prognosticating about the trees of liberty being refreshed with not so metaphorical blood of patriots. Now, over one year later, a Freedom of Information Act request submitted by Herschel Smith has the hard and fast facts about reported crimes in our nation’s parks. And I have to say, the numbers don’t look good for the Brady bunch.

That’s not to say the numbers are outstanding, but they don’t definitively support the Brady campaign’s statements that “The Bush Administration’s last-minute gift to the gun lobby, allowing concealed semiautomatic weapons in national parks, jeopardizes the safety of park visitors in violation of federal law.” If their hypothesis were correct, then we would expect to see a jump in violent crime in National Parks. On the contrary, the total number seems to be remaining pretty stagnant.

(there is more to the article and the has several graphs, worth a look)

http://thetruthaboutguns.com/2011/08/foghorn/new-numbers-indicate-national-parks-no-less-safe-with-legal-concealed-carry/

I guess this could fit under abuse of power or stupid stuff, but when i read it i thought you cant make this stuff up, unless you were a political appointee we a hunderd grand plus a year salary.

Team Obama Regulates Goat Herders' Workplaces

The Obama administration is setting new workplace regulations to assist foreign workers who fill goat herding positions in the U.S. , including employee-paid cell phones and comfy beds.

These new special procedures issued by the Labor Department must be followed by employers who want to hire temporary agricultural foreign workers to perform sheep herding or goat herding activities. It describes strict rules for sleeping quarters, lighting, food storage, bathing, laundry, cooking and new rules for the counters where food is prepared.

“A separate sleeping unit shall be provided for each person, except in a family arrangement,” says the rules signed by Jane Oates, assistant secretary for employment and training administration at the Labor Department.

“Such a unit shall include a comfortable bed, cot or bunk, with a clean mattress,” the rules state.

Diane Katz, a research fellow in regulatory policy at The Heritage Foundation, unearthed the policy in the "Federal Register​," the massive daily journal of proposed regulations that Washington bureaucrats publish every day.

Under the Obama Administration, the nanny state has imposed 75 new major regulations with annual costs of $38 billion.

“This captures what is wrong with government,” Katz said. “I could not have made this up.”

With unemployment holding steady at 9% and government regulations adding more burden to small businesses, such as those run by ranching families, Katz said, bureaucrats aren’t helping.

“Instead of remedying the problem, the regulations make it that much harder,” Katz insisted. “We may need a whole set of regulations just to define what a comfortable bed is. I imagine it’s not straw."

The new lighting standards say that in areas where it is not feasible to provide electrical service such as tents or mobile trailers, lanterns must be provided. “Kerosene wick lights meet the definition of lantern,” the regulations say.

“When workers or their families are permitted or required to cook in their individual unit, a space shall be provided with adequate lighting and ventilation.”

“Wall surfaces next to all food preparation and cooking areas shall be of nonabsorbent, easy-to-clean material. Wall surfaces next to cooking areas shall be of fire-resistant material,” the regulations say.

“It makes you wonder,” Katz said, “how they ever did this before the government got involved?”

“Who knew we needed all of this federal help for herding goats?” Katz quipped.

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=45722