Cannibalization Point

Another day on detail here at good old Ft. Sill, beginning with one of the odder games of football I've played. We decided to use a football, as well as a Frisbee. Both are in play, and either one can be used to score. It did make things more interesting. After that, off to detail again. We drove over multiple interesting terrain features in a Humvee with about enough shocks to keep it from cracking the oil pan, but not a lot else. Fun? You bet! There's nothing quite like bouncing around through grass up past the windows, plowing crossways across ditches, while your TC is sitting next to you saying, "I'm pretty sure the road goes through here, it's just overgrown...". Well, the good news is, it's very hard to get lost in a field, so just sit back and enjoy the ride! It was a lot of fun though.

We also passed a number of interesting sites along the way- there was the prison, which has tons of razor wire along the fence as well as the outside top edge of the building, and a large sign right over the door saying "FIRM BUT FAIR". I've never found out quite what they meant, and don't really want to, and doubt I'll ever be in enough trouble to find out.

There's also the cannibalization point, with a sign out front advising you that this is the cannibalization point. What do you do at the cannibalization point? Though this idea is preferable to MREs, it rather refers to the process of stripping down vehicles that have been damaged, worn out or otherwise rendered inoperable for usable parts. The usable parts then wind up in training vehicles, or put into another, operable vehicle. Still, it's a pretty cool name.
In other news, I watched a really good movie last night. A change from my usual fare of horror films, (Henry Rollins as a priest employed by the Vatican... I just don't know). The movie I saw was Coraline, a stop-motion animated film that was both good and weird. The title character is a little girl who moves into an old house, discovering a concealed door leading her to a kind of parallel world, where people have button eyes (this is never adequately explained) and it seems everything she wants is right there. However, things go south as she realizes the controlling force behind this world, her "Other Mother", is not exactly the benevolent lady she seems. I won't give the ending away, as it's frankly on the bizarre side. But it's very good, and I'd recommend it for adults and children alike. There's a talking cat (of course) who for some odd reason makes me think of the long-gone Wolfman Jack. But the movie is kind of standard fairy-tale stuff, but extremely well-done, though watch it from the beginning for it to make any sense at all.
Apart from that, looks like the Arizona immigration laws are still up in the air. Which makes me ask the question, who wants to go to Arizona anyway? Though I guess I can see the interest, I've driven the trackless wastes of Nevada and found a certain strange beauty in it. An hour's drive at 80 miles an hour from anywhere is both a frightening and thrilling prospect. I don't claim to know the whole of the law, but it seems to me that basically what you have here is that the police or similar law enforcement can ask for proof of citizenship when they have a cause to investigate, say, they pull someone over for a traffic stop. I can see both sides of this issue- if you're in the country illegally, the operant word here is illegal. But on the other hand, I can see how this would kind of single out people of a darker complexion than others. Your ancestors are never something to be ashamed of, I've learned. Nor is your ethnicity. But at the same time, what jurisdiction does this change? Do the taxpayers of Arizona have the financial clout to prosecute every last case of illegal immigration? And besides, why not allow a more lax immigration policy, if people want to get into this country so bad? The last time I checked, people employed in this country pay taxes in this country. Taxes mean additional governmental revenue. But if you're in this country illegally, chances are you don't pay taxes, and this presents a problem, if you're getting paid under the counter. Then the IRS comes knocking, and it's time to head for the hills. Clearly, it's a complex problem being painted in black and white by politicians. A difficult problem- this is why I don't like politics!
Once upon a long time ago, a professor told me I should go into politics. I originally held to this idea- yes, I thought, I could make a difference! I could turn things around, make the world so much better with my idealistic goals and aspirations! And surely I can convince everyone that the short-term gains are to be eschewed for the long-term benefits!
Enter reality. I was pretty disillusioned when I found out how politics actually work, and I'm sorry to say it made me a bit of a cynic. But in some small way, I'd like to think trying to do good wherever and whenever I can makes the world just that much of a better place. It could be giving a friend a ride, picking up a bill for lunch, or some small thing like that.