The Boredom, Week Zero

I love my job.  I don’t often say very much about it, but I’m a military contractor.  Nearly every month of the year, I drive to a military base in California’s high desert where I’ll spend the next 2-3 weeks.

I serve as a crisis actor, embedded with Operations Group Lead Team, by which I assist in training combat medics and combat lifesavers for treating battlefield injuries.   When I’m not screaming my head off, bleeding Hollywood blood in the desert sand, I’m contributing to after-action reviews and coaching individual soldiers on how to improve their medical response.

I take a lot of pride in my job. What I do with Ops Group helps make soldiers into better soldiers, and our work has proven its value in saving lives in Afghanistan.  It’s rewarding to know that we’re giving parents back to their children, children back to their parents, and spouses back to their better halves.

 

On Thursday, November 20, I began a lengthy drive from the high desert of the far reaches of eastern San Bernardino County.  I made my way out of the blackened, cloudy desert towards Los Angeles County.

When I’m not working and living on base, I’m back in my home town of San Dimas, California.  I’m in love with my beautiful hometown and it’s always a relief to see it again after a strenuous rotation on base.

There’s only one problem: I easily get bored out of my skull when I’m back home.

It’s not that there’s nothing to do back home—I keep myself occupied well enough.  It’s that I have a special connection with my job.  Sure, the desert sucks, but on the flip side, I have a mission out there.  I enjoy spending time in the field, I always get an adrenaline rush from the war games, and my brothers are back in the desert.

My longing for the field is the reason I’m starting this series, The Boredom.  Until I return to base in January, I’m committing to doing something every week that’s not only productive, but also meaningful and personally fulfilling on some level.

Day Zero was mostly spent on base where I was closing out some business and keeping promises at my employer’s office.  However, there was one special highlight.  On my way home I stopped in Rancho Cucamonga to meet a young woman who’s smart, sassy, and remarkably beautiful.  Inexplicably, she’s into me—ever the surprise since I’m a geek who regularly quotes Star Wars and a number of cult films and songs no one else cares about.  Whatever, I’m one lucky SOB!

Day One, Friday the 21^st, I spent a leisurely morning sleeping in.  I had to, since I lost a ton of sleep from the creepy, apocalyptic thunderstorm that enveloped my town at 2 AM.  There was torrential rain, quarter-sized hail, and blinding lightning strikes every three seconds that completely illuminated the angry gray sky.  Needless to say, it’s hard to sleep through the Book of Revelations.

I did my morning cleaning and home maintenance routine and then read a little from a really cool novel, Empire State, by Adam Christopher.  The plot covers an alternate New York City, the Empire State, a stand-alone city-state in a parallel universe.  The story includes gangsters and Prohibition, corrupt cops and City Commissioners, superheroes fighting against each other, a mysterious war that never ends, and killer robots on the loose.  I’ll write a review on it soon.

Kabuki restaurant, Victoria Gardens, Rancho Cucamonga

After spending way too much money at the mechanic’s shop for car repairs, I closed out Day One by meeting that special someone in Rancho for an amazing date.  We went arm-in-arm to Kabuki, an upbeat and upscale Japanese restaurant at Victoria Gardens, near Ontario Mills.  They had some amazing rolls!  The company was great and we ended up making out under the stars like high school freshmen.  That was exactly what a first date should be!

Day Two, Saturday the 22^nd was mostly uneventful.  However, I took the time to go see The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1.  It was very dark, but very awesome as well!  No dedicated libertarian needs more than twenty-five seconds to articulate the libertarian symbols with which the film is riddled.  Check back on my blog tomorrow and I’ll post a libertarian film review of Mockingjay Part 1.

Now, those of you who made it this far might be asking why I’m even doing this project.  The honest truth is that, when I get bored, I easily lose motivation to do things.  Frankly, I don’t like to lose motivation because I’m a big thinker, and big thinkers don’t just run out of steam and quit.

Even though I’m not out in the field “embracing the suck” with my brothers, I still have big projects to work on.  I figure that if I write about my progress and keep you all posted, I’ll have every one of my readers holding me accountable so I don’t get lazy during the holiday season.  There’s much to be done, and the main challenge is killing the down time.

Thanks for coming along for the ride.

[VIDEO] Libertarians NEED to create market for military/defense ideas!

HOW can we provide for a strong national defense and community defense in ways that uphold libertarian values?

Not the easiest question to answer! While non-intervention is excellent for preventing future blowback, it does NOTHING about the blowback that already exists and is still boiling up.  Discussed are:

• The Islamic State (ISIS) in Iraq and Syria
• Paramilitary drug cartels in Mexico and on the U.S. border
• Crime in our cities and towns
• Imperial wars versus libertarian just wars

So... we need libertarian ideas on military and national/community defense!

This conversation is from the August 20, 2014 episode of "Breaking the Oathbreakers" from the NWO Truth Radio network.

Five Libertarian Ideas #23 - Libertarian national defense, Part II

See Libertarian national defense Part I

President Obama calls for “peace”

President Obama has said about the rioting and police response in Ferguson, MO: "Now is the time for peace and calm on the streets of Ferguson. Now is the time for an open and transparent process to see that justice is done." Which is exactly why he allows the Pentagon to distribute military arsenals to local police departments like Ferguson PD... -8/15

The Pentagon

From the Pentagon to the police station

I am NOT okay with the Pentagon giving military arsenals to local police departments. I can see the use for a SWAT team but not a SWAT army. The Pentagon should be issuing surplus goods to the National Guards. If there is a genuine military-grade threat at home, the Governor should call up the state militia, NOT militarized police. -8/15

When statist academics command armies

One of the things I like best about Navy SEAL Dick Marcinko's books is that he tells it like it is. There are always politicos in Washington--some idealistic to the point of self-righteous, some totally corrupt--who constantly screw with the military.

Despite their naivety and outright arrogance, none of these pencil-pushing idiots have ever served or knows how to lead troops in battle. Yet they use the military to push their personal agendas and it always gets people killed. -8/17

Private military/security contractors

Citizen militias vs. private military companies

Libertarians are often undecided on whether the ideal military organization is the citizens' militia or the private military company. Both entities can align with libertarian ideas, depending on the morality and objectives of the operators.

The citizens' militia predates the US Army by over 150 years, but the first English colonial warriors were private sector troops, as Plymouth and Jamestown colonies were corporate endeavors. Just as both entities can be effective tools for communal self-defense, both types of entities can throw away morality and become instruments of oppression for states, quasi-states, warlords, and private sector despots. -8/18

Libertarians, anarchists, and voting

For those who believe that the state is violence and that even voting is ultimately participation in such violence, consider this: voting for libertarians, or libertarian ballot measures, is self-defense. -8/14

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Private military contractors photo courtesy of Private Military Contractors Facebook page. Pentagon aerial photo Camila Ferreira and Mario Duran used via CC BY-SA 3.0 license, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.