Hatred

I wear this comparison out,but it's apt,and involves a not so happy tale from my past.

I used to be a statistic.A Battered Woman.

It was 20 yrs ago,and to this day,if I hear this man's name,my heart beats a bit faster and I have to catch my breath.I sometimes still have nightmares that he stars in.

The day I decided to leave was the day I almost died.But it didn't end there,because as any woman in that position can tell you,THE most dangerous time is after you manage to escape.Abusive pieces of shit don't just quit or find another victim when their current one is unavailable.She will pay,if he has anything to say about it.And many times he has alot of say in the outcome.I was lucky,and there isn't a day that goes by I don't remember how lucky I am.That brand of hate doesn't dissipate,it tends to grow and spread,like a particularly nasty infection.Defeating it takes a particular sort of tenacity mixed with smarts and courage.

Instead of just taking their toys and going home(as normal people do once a relationship ends),they amp it up a few notches.First they try the sweet approach,with you,your family,your co-workers and friends.When that doesn't work,they revert right back to threats,violence,and when possible,they'll get others in on the act.

He found me about two weeks after I left him,I still was recovering from having my head bashed into a concrete floor,repeatedly until I was unconcious.I hurt him(with a hammer)and he threatened to take me to court and file charges.I dared him to,because I would make damn sure it got on the public record what a rotten prick he is.Cowards rarely make good on their threats,but that does not mean they won't ever try.It's the Power Over You they want,and they will stop at nothing to get it back once they begin losing it.I had to move.Again.And of course he never filed a charge one against me,that would have exposed him outside his circle of nasty little cohorts.He called my boss,I called his boss,he lost his job,I kept mine.He called my parents spouting filth,I called his parents and told them he beat me and started to begin turning on my daughter.Every time he did something designed to take my power away,I did something to take it back and a little more.

I spent a year being escorted every place I went by one or more large manly types.My daughter was always with people I trusted when I wasn't around with instructions to not let her out of sight for even a heartbeat.Because he was trying to find me,by sucking up to my parents,fishing for info,by calling my boss and trying to charm her(and when that didn't work,he made shit up to get me fired.I worked with kids,he said I beat my daughter),he wasn't about to give up.After I got married the first time and moved to another state,he moved to the same state.I was lucky,he never found me after I fought him off the last time.Many women are not so lucky.

The calls from the Republican Right Wing for the stalking and deaths of NYT photographers,editors and reporters is not a lick different than the same pathology that drives the abuser.The Conservative Movement is in trouble,and they know it.Hence the ratcheting up of eliminationist rhetoric.As these "ideas"of theirs prove to be completely full of blithering fucktitude,they can feel the power they once held and wielded like a club slipping away.It will get worse before it gets better,we cannot EVER dismiss this.As more people wake up and realize they've been lied to,as proof of those lies comes to them in the form of a harder and less prosperous life,as more and more of our options as a free people dry up at the hands of the Conservative Movement,the more unhinged and violent the Right Wing will become.This level of pathology runs very deep,and it won't go away,even if we win all the right elections in November and in '08.It will get worse.We have to accept that,never forget it,and be ready for it.

The formula is simple:
For every inch of Power they lose,they want two inches back to make up for it.And they will not stop until they get it.Or Something stops them.

Now,how do we stop this madness?

Well,for one we keep doing what we're doing.It's working,but it's a slow process,that's ok.Whatever they throw at us,we confront it,expose it and move forward.Relentlessly,because our opponent is relentless.

Next,we don't allow intimidation and threats to work.What they want is for us to cower and accept what they're doing.Most of them are cowards,and alot of the rhetoric is nothing but bluster and hot air.BUT,you never ever dismiss any threat,take them seriously and take the needed means to protect yourself.Common sense generally rules here,you amp that up in accordance to the threat.The idea is to be safe and not alter your life any more than you have to.

This isn't for pacifists, kids.Turning the other cheek has gotten us nowhere,nothing but two bruised and bloodied sides of the face.This doesn't mean you go down the same road they chose,but it does mean you make it damn clear you're not going quietly and you're not backing down and that you will defend yourself if it comes down to it.You do all of that by continuing on,you may have to do it with more support and by surrounding yourself with people who have your back,but you go on.Don't go quietly.Ever.That's what they want,the only other result they want is for you to be just like them,don't go there either.

What they want is a Civil War.They aren't happy about the outcome of the first one,and they want a do over.They'll stop at nothing to get that,and the only way to stop them is to stand our ground and not concede another fucking inch.They've had more than enough time to prove themselves"superior" and they've failed.That pendulum will swing left again,and it's up to us to push that pendulum with all the force we can muster.

And in the end we will win,because what is truly best,and real and true doesn't need to be sold to anyone.Is America broken?Yes,but not to the point She can't be repaired and made better.And really,in the end,most of us want the same things no matter what our politics or race or religion.Many of those things we all share just haven't had a liberal label slapped on them for public vilification.But if you took the labels away and could present those ideas without a party affiliation,alot of us would agree on pretty basic and key issues.

The Right Wing Noise Machine is a loud,obnoxious pest that looks much bigger than it really is,like when my cats fluff up their fur to look bigger than they are.It's all show(ok,it's got fangs and claws too,but it don't change the size of the cat).This machine is barely a third of the country.And of those 1/3,many are starting to look for a new place to call a political home.And many of those former or close to former BushCo supporters,while they'll never vote for a Democrat(not easily at least)they are in fact much more liberal than they currently realize.At the time this nation was founded it was one of the only progressive places on earth,liberal compared to the Kingships of Europe and The Church at the time.We were founded on Liberal goals and ideals.Read the Constitution,The Bill of Rights,the Declaration of Independence(and what's more liberal than independence I ask you?),the language may be a bit stuffy,but it's all spelled out pretty clearly.

We will win this,as long as we remember that all they have is fear,anger,hostility and violence wrapped in a thick blanket of lies and criminal acts.This is still America,and they are Un American,and that's where our strength resides.

Oh, the ironicalness of it all...

Ironic Times

Bin Laden Releases Video Praising Zarqawi
"He did a heckuva job," says Al Qaeda's leader.

Exploding Laptop Incident Being Investigated by Dell
Computer maker warns users not to press Ctrl-Alt-Delete until further notice.

Study: Coffee Makes You More Open-Minded
White House switches to tea.

Many more. Note: Site is in "Permanent Liquid Alert" status.

How Conservatives Turned Liberalism into a Tax-Raising, Latte-Drinking, Sushi-Eating, Volvo-Driving, New York Times-Reading, Body-Piercing, Hollywood-

Book review (and sales pitch) at BuzzFlash:

How can you not love a book with the line: "It's hard to think of any leading right-wing broadcaster whom even his most devoted fans would welcome having as a brother-in-law." We would add the individual horror one would experience of having Ann Coulter as a sister-in-law!

If I pour the bleach directly in my ear, will it cleanse that thought faster?

"As it happens, the majority of brie consumers are Republicans," Nunberg writes. "But whoever actually buys the stuff, it stands for the Right's stereotype of liberals - soft, pale, runny, and French." Remember Rove's successful effort to "Frenchify" John Kerry?

Of course, the Democrats could fight back, but that would take stamina and the ability to stay on message for a very long period of time. It would be helpful if the Dems could get everyone who has an income below $100,000 a year to realize that "when it comes to the crunch, the 'freedom' that conservatives champion for working Americans amounts to no more than the right to take a job and shove it." That is if they can find a job that hasn't been sent overseas.

I'm so far behind in my reading that I'd appreciate it if one of you guys would read it and tell me if it's worth adding to my book pile.

Is he, or isn't he?

From LamontBlog via Maru:

In announcing he [Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman] would run as a petitioning candidate in November if he loses on August 8th, he has clearly stated he is no longer a member of the Democratic party. The only thing he is concerned about right now is his own desperate attempt to hold on to power.

Members of a party abide by primary results. There is no such thing as an "petitioning Democrat." If there was, Joe could accept the Republican endorsement and run as a "Republican Democrat."

...

In addition, Joe has just created a world of shit for his supposed friends Harry Reid, Chuck Schumer, Chris Dodd, Diane Farrell, Joe Courtney, and Chris Murphy. I wonder what they all think of this.

This is how he treats his friends. This is how he treats his party. On the slowest news day of the summer.

These are the actions of a very weak candidate, and a selfish and cowardly man.

...

That about says it.

"Republican Democrat" ... is that something like a Ford Camaro?

On the Fourth, Read the Declaration of Impeachment

From AfterDowningStreet

Veterans for Peace has drafted a Declaration of Impeachment using nothing but excerpts from the Declaration of Independence (plus a few words in parentheses). It reads as follows, and should be read at picnics and protests on the Fourth of July:

Excerpts therefrom:

...The history of the present King (George)...is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny...To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has...deprive(ed) us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury...transport(ed) us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences

A (President) whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

We, therefore...do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People...solemnly publish and declare, That these...Free and Independent (People)...are Absolved from all Allegiance to the (Bush Administration), and that all political connection between them and (this Administration), is and ought to be totally dissolved...And for the support of this Declaration...we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor."

Note that the colonists did not just write these words. They also fought and died for them.

Supporting our troops and working to ensure that they not have died in vain are notions that no longer apply to the soldiers who died in the fields around my house in Virginia. The statute of limitations has expired, and the 4,435 who died to rid America of a King George are now in fact required - as a matter of patriotic duty - to have died in vain.

All in vain, all unsupported. Welcome to the world of free speech zones, detention without charge, no access to a court of law, no prohibition on torture. Welcome to the end of the veto and the birth of the signing statement. Welcome to an executive branch that neither obeys Congress nor so much as informs Congress of its actions. Welcome to wars of aggression for a theocratic plutocracy. Welcome back, King George.

Strong stuff, a "must read". Entirely fitting for, and in the spirit of, the anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.

Can't Win the War? Bomb the Press!

Daddy Frank hits the nail on the head once again. Go get 'em, Pop!

The real news conveyed by The Times and its competitors was not the huge program to track terrorist finances, but that per usual from the administration that gave us Gitmo, the program was conducted with little oversight from the other two branches of government. Even so, the reporting on the pros and cons of that approach was, as Mr. Snow said, balanced.

Or so he said Friday morning, June 23. By Monday, the president had entered the fray and Mr. Snow was accusing The Times of putting the "public's right to know" over "somebody's right to live." What had happened over the weekend to prompt this escalation of hysteria? The same stuff that always happens when the White House scapegoats the press (or anyone else): bad and embarrassing news that the White House wants to drown out.

List of "bad and embarrassing news that the White House wants to drown out" follows. Take a lunch.

It's not only the White House that has a vested political interest in concocting a smoke screen by demonizing the fourth estate as a fifth column. The Democrats were holding their hearing because Pat Roberts, the chairman of the Senate intelligence committee, has for two years been stalling his panel's promised investigation into how the administration used intelligence before the war. Hoping that we'd forget about that continuing cover-up, Mr. Roberts last week made a big show of calling for an investigation into the Swift story's supposed damage to national security.

The assault on a free press during our own wartime should be recognized for what it is: another desperate ploy by officials trying to hide their own lethal mistakes in the shadows. It's the antithesis of everything we celebrate with the blazing lights of Independence Day.

For all his insight and writing skill, Mr. Rich left out one teeny little part of the equation: it's an election year. The Repub turds are circling the drain and desperately need to divert attention away from themselves across the board. This is all about "Don't look at me committing despicable crimes! Look at them tellin' about it!"

Most definitely go read the rest.

The Pork Barrel Protection Act

Will Durst

With flags aflame across the nation, the time to protect other American icons is now

The pork barrel protection act So the Flag Desecration Amendment fell a single vote short of passing in the Senate. And all the liberals are celebrating way too long into the night if you ask me. I imagine the Republicans are laughing so hard right now, their drool guards are spilling over capacity. Because now, they get to bring it up again and again and accuse Democrats of dooming old glory to an ignominious fate over and over. The only problem is flags are so the-day-before-yesterday. Might as well be wearing patchouli scented elephant bells. There's a whole plethora of American icons in danger of being bespoilt that Republicans can exploit. Let's take a look, shall we?

# Cheeseburger Anti-Desecration Crusade. The only proper cheese on a cheeseburger is yellow. Either Wisconsin Cheddar or good 'ol American. That's it. You can take your Mexican Pepper Jack and your Baby Swiss and your French Gorgonzola and shred them where the sun don't shine. Like on a salad. And it's a butter grilled sesame seed bun, not sun dried tomato focaccia bread.

# Chocolate Simplification Act. It's chocolate for crum's sake. It don't get more basic than a Hershey Chocolate Bar. If it was good enough to for our brave boys in WW2, it should be good enough for those attention deficit rug rats of yours.

Many more, most of which you won't agree with any more than you did those two!

Making stupid a policy ...

WASHINGTON -- Students across the nation will have to pay thousands more in college loans beginning Saturday, according to a series of reports released today by the research arm of the Campaign for America's Future. College students and graduates will be pushed deeper into debt as interest rates on Stafford loans -- the basic student loan -- rise from 5.3 percent to 7.14 percent on old loans and to 6.8 percent on new loans at the end of this week.

...

I have a harder time believing this is due to ineptitude more than a desire to deny an education to the public. Ignorant people are easier to control.

Tip o' the Brain to C&L.

Iran

Seymour Hersh has a new article out about the coming (presumably) invasion of Iran and a couple things struck me.

...

Iran's geography would also complicate an air war. The senior military official said that, when it came to air strikes, "this is not Iraq," which is fairly flat, except in the northeast. "Much of Iran is akin to Afghanistan in terms of topography and flight mapping - a pretty tough target," the military official said. Over rugged terrain, planes have to come in closer, and "Iran has a lot of mature air-defense systems and networks," he said. "Global operations are always risky, and if we go down that road we have to be prepared to follow up with ground troops."

The U.S. Navy has a separate set of concerns. Iran has more than seven hundred undeclared dock and port facilities along its Persian Gulf coast. The small ports, known as "invisible piers," were constructed two decades ago by Iran's Revolutionary Guards to accommodate small private boats used for smuggling. (The Guards relied on smuggling to finance their activities and enrich themselves.) The ports, an Iran expert who advises the U.S. government told me, provide "the infrastructure to enable the Guards to go after American aircraft carriers with suicide water bombers" - small vessels loaded with high explosives. He said that the Iranians have conducted exercises in the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow channel linking the Persian Gulf to the Arabian Sea and then on to the Indian Ocean. The strait is regularly traversed by oil tankers, in which a thousand small Iranian boats simulated attacks on American ships. "That would be the hardest problem we'd face in the water: a thousand small targets weaving in and out among our ships." [my ems]

...

Take a look at the map below in light of reading the above.

Click to embiggen

To quote an old song, 'do you see what I see'? You don't need to be a professor at the Naval Academy or the Army War College to see the difficulty of defending a naval force in the Gulf, let alone getting other units in and out by sea. Iran would be our Waterloo. And that's not even asking the question, 'where would we get these extra ground troops from'?

[If it helps, think of the Strait of Hormuz as the road from Baghdad Airport to the Green Zone, only wet. - F ]


Update:

Soto has a take on the interplay between the flag officers and the civilians at the Pentagon.

Thanks to Steve Soto for the Hersh link.
Map courtesy of the University of Texas Libraries.

On 'outing' 2

Okay. I've talked about Armando's problem at Kos' place, and the fact his ego was probably as much to blame as the putz who outed him. Now it seems as if the wingnuts are going on an outing (as well as trolling*) spree (I'm not linking to their sites, but if you check the comments over the last few days you'll find 'em). Seems some on our side are doing it too.

I'll say this once.

I don't care if you leave me a link in 'comments' to Bill O'Reilly's home address, or any other wingnut (Coulter, Malkin, Assrocket), I'm not going to print it and I'm gonna delete the link. I'll beat them with facts, and I'm not lowering myself to their level, whether they're on our side or not. Just because 'they do it' doesn't mean I will.

Update:

Easy enough to find me. The link's been in the left sidebar for 2 years.

Update:

More Greenwald. Seems some folks have egg on their faces:

...

Although I haven't heard yet from Kilborn, I received an e-mail from Spillers this morning, in which she said:

Ironically, photos were taken with Secretary Rumsfeld's permission.

...

And that ain't the best part.

*Please familiarize yourselves with the Alternate Brain Spam and Troll Policy in the left sidebar. The same technology that allows you to 'out' people allows me to find out who, where, and what you are. I'm not kidding, playing around, or bullshitting. I don't make idle threats. Got it?

Quote of the Day*

Jane:

I think God, Darwin and the rest of us are all happy about that wingnut abstinence thing right about now, eh?

*A feature that is becoming more daily than not.

Setting an example ...

A long piece at Yowling from the Fencepost with an important point:

...

Of my more difficult students, I find that their capacity to appreciate the importance of their means justifying their ends is minimal at best. In ways similar to our political representatives, it isn't how we achieve a goal that is important, it is simply that we achieve it and pay little mind to the cost to others around us. If they are challenged on their grounds that their methods to achieving a goal were -- putting it generously in some cases -- unethical, they either ignore the charge and state that they at least got 'r done or argue that their means was not unjustifiable.

Look at the model that they have to follow: The president can make a dodgy case for war, conduct it, claim success when success has been far from assured, and argue that he at least got it done when people challenge him on how he went about making that case as details of his dodge come out. Is it any wonder that more and more students are not bothered so much these days with cheating on tests via text messages and unaware of or unconcerned about their plagiarizing of material from the internet for papers or projects? We have a president who is allowed to say whatever he wants and have it rubber-stamped or rationalized by his poodles in Congress and allies in the right-wing media.

...

The attitude (begun during the 'Greed Orgy' of the Reagan years) has permeated every part of our society. There is no accountability and everyboody goes around as if it's their world and everybody else is a nuisance. You see it on the roads, in the stores, and eveywhere else. The 'Me Generation' is alive and well.

... Until people can see the value of working to build a strong society and world that offers the prospects of a decent, if not better, future for all our children, we will struggle under the oppressive millstone of such things as war, impoverishment, and ignorance, where only the few in power -- political and financial -- have any say in our future.

In other words, there are too many self-centered pricks making decisions.

Those damn lefty bloggers ...

Tom Tomorrow via Atrios.

Don't talk to me ...

About criminalizing flag burning while it remains legal for people to wear the flag as clothing. If you're gonna protect the flag, protect it from people who think it's a fashion statement.

Update:

And if this isn't desecration of some sort or another, I don't know what is. Do you know what that does to a New Yorker?

Born on the Fourth of July

[I'm gonna leave this up top for a couple days. New posts begin below this one. - Fixer]

This blog is two years old on Tuesday and it's a damn shame we're still doing it. A damn shame we still find material (a lot of it) every day to vent about. By golly, if you would have told me, on the Fourth of July 2004, that Bush and his henchmen would still be in power, that the Congress would still be a rubber stamp for those same fascists, that we'd still be fighting a war in Iraq, I'd have said you're crazy. Two years ago, I figured at this point I'd have an occasional rant about the Dems making some bonehead move or another, but never still be trying to fight these crooked, inept, morally-bankrupt Republicans.

...

[I moved the rest below the fold for brevity's sake.]

Terrorism? Puh!

Bush wasn't interested in catching any terrorists. Like I've been saying for five years, 9/11 was a gift from Allah for the Chimp. It gave him cover to do what he planned to do all along:

I've been wondering what story the wingers were trying to distract us from, with all their yammering about Rummy's vacation homes and the usual death threats.

This is the story.

We've always thought that Bush and the rest of his criminal regime were determined to trash the Fourth Amendment, and the Constitution, from the beginning.

But now we know. Bloomberg:

...

Update:

Neiwert get's in depth on this, evidence Abu Gonzalez lied to Congress.

There's Just Something About Larry....

Larry Flynt.Yes,THAT Larry Flynt.

I just started reading the book he wrote in 2004(before the "elections")called Sex,Lies,and Politics: The Naked Truth.If you've not read it,see if you can find a copy.If you think he's just a smut peddaling pervosaurus,you're sadly mistaken.He's really funny,and very smart.He may be a smut peddler,but he loves America.

I'm from Ohio,so I got to be quite familiar with Mr Flynt's run ins with the law there,back in the early part of his,shall we say,colorful career. He was splashed all over Ohio news programs back then,and many a preacher on many a pulpit in Ohio raged about Larry's outspoken and often flamboyant retorts to the hypocrites in power.His First Ammendment battles in the court system have set precidents that have kept the right wing loonies at bay for many years,and those precidents are in peril.Again.Which goes to show ya,ya can never rest when it comes to keeping a democracy healthy.

I also remember the day he got shot in Gwinnett County,GA.I live a few counties west of there these days,I was still in Ohio back then,I believe.I used to have the issue of Hustler that showed Larry's wounds in all their gore,I kept it for many years.How he even survived that is way beyond me.There was alot of outrage over that issue of Hustler,but Larry's whole point has always been to get us to look at what we as a culture consider dirty and taboo.He takes sex and holds that up against real atrocity,crimes and hypocrisy.People will rail and scream over the sex,but accept and tolerate the results of violence that goes on all around them daily.They just don't want to see the blood and gore(unless it's as entertainment) or try to fix the causes of it.

Larry even wrote Ken Starr a very nice letter offering him a job to write for Hustler after the Starr Report came out.Which is hysterical.And wickedly clever.

Here we are in today's world,America, teaching kids abstinence only as sex education,we go in and mess with humanitarian efforts in Africa's AIDS crises with the same stupid assed faith based sex ed policies,which IS killing people by the way,we're completely ridiculously sexually repressed,which is being allowed to determine our reproductive health care choices,and YET:

We spend TEN BILLION DOLLARS a year,as a Nation,on various and sundry forms of pornography and "adult entertainment".Now,last time I checked,somewhere around probably 85% percent of America would ID themselves as"christian"of one stripe or another.And why is it that it's almost always some faith based group trying to portray sex as being something bad and dirty?Seems to me that it just cannot be only 15 percent of Americans spending all that money on porn and porn accessories.That means there are actually some christians who also use porn,it stands to reason.And I'm not even taking into account all the file sharing and other porn trading going on that's not counted in that 10 billion dollars.It's kinda mind boggling,lol.

My guess is that most christians who do use porn are Big C Christians,who realize being a sexual being is perfectly normal,and actually kind of nice.To them,and most normal people,porn is like a little ketchup on some really good french fries.Not so much ketchup to drown the fries,just enough to make things tastier.Who eats just ketchup?Eww.But then you have the repressed,small c christians,who were most likely somehow traumatized sexually as kids.It happens,probably alot more than we like to think about.And the more damage and rage there is folks,the bigger The Kink.I shudder to think what genres of porn a guy like James Dobson,Rush Limbaugh or Falwell has stashed away.And because they're twisted,they think the rest of us are too.It's a very odd pathology,and unfortunately,it has power in the halls of government and in the minds of way too many of The People.

Anyhoo,if you've not read the book,it's a fun read,even if it's stuff(most of which us informed liberal types know anyway,there's nothing new here really)that pisses all of us off about today's conservatives.

As Larry would say himself,he's a smut peddler who cares,and one hell of a business man.Especially when you consider his humble beginnings.

Love and Hate

As most of you know, I'm a mechanic. Before I started working for Harry, I was an engine builder at Ford Motorsport. It doesn't take much imagination to know I love high performace cars and racing. I got into the life early, my dad racing a car at Islip and Freeport Speedways on Long Island.

That said, much as I love NASCAR, I find myself becoming more averse to it. The problem is their close association with the Republican-Conservative-Neocon agenda. It's things like this that turn me off, as well as the blatant displays of 'patriotism' that are nothing more than the use of our troops as props. After being a die hard fan for over 40 years, I'm not so much of one anymore. If NASCAR is losing me, I'm sure they're also losing a lot of others who love the sport but can't abide the politization of it.

Isn't this illegal?

Glenn Greenwald:

...

He's urging people to find the names and addresses of New York Times editors and reporters in order to "hunt them down and do America a favor." And he said that right after he posted the link to the address of the Times photographer. And this is just the beginning of this syndrome, not the end.

Come on, you legal beagles, people have threatened to sue me for saying a lot less in a less public forum. It seems to me this dickhead [link to his page at Glenn's site] is advocating murder.

Why bother?

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla., July 1 - NASA scrubbed the launching of the shuttle Discovery minutes before its scheduled liftoff Saturday as threatening clouds encroached on the 20-mile boundary around the Kennedy Space Center. [my em]

...

Scrub the program and start anew, with technology that isn't 40 years old. All we're doing now is pushing our luck and putting lives in danger needlessly. Good thing our military equipment ain't this delicate.