Thomas Fullmer, 1962-2012

I got caught in the worst kind of traffic yesterday. It took over 30 minutes to go 1/4 mile. I thought that was the worst thing I would experience on a Friday. It wasn't.

When I got home, DeadEye told me the bad news: my brother, Tom was dead.

Talking to my mom on the phone, it took every ounce of strength for me to choke back tears -- hell, what I feared would be SOBS -- to be strong for her. I thought I was prepared for this. I wasn't. There's no such thing as being prepared for the loss of someone you love so much.

Understand, Tom had been dying or in the throws of death for 20+ years. First it was the ultra-rare blood disorder that knocked his white cell count down to around 35. Then, after a near-miraculous recovery as a result of an experimental drug, the so-called "side effects" of said miracle drug began to finish the job the blood disease started.

After a few short years of good health, Tom developed polycystic kidney disease. Literally hundreds of cysts grew in and around his kidneys, most small, but some as large as grapefruit. The tumors pressed against his internal organs, crushing them and causing incredible pain. Worse, they made it difficult for him to keep his meals down.

And yet, he lived another 15 years. For 15 years he defied death. Even when his kidneys began to fail, he defied death. It took liver failure to finally bring him down.

It's fitting that he defied death for 15 years. Because the man Tom Fullmer was one tough hombre. In his youth, when he was healthy, he was the manliest of men. Women wanted him. Men wanted to be him. Hell, I wanted to be him.

His was a life filled with irony. He was terrible in school. But, after taking an entry-level job as a laborer, he worked his way up to carpenter, and then to licensed electrician. I've looked at schematics. There are no stupid electricians. He wasn't dumb. He just didn't get school, and school didn't get him.

He read voraciously, particularly books of history. He was as knowledgeable about the history of Europe from Roman times to the present as anyone I've ever known. He was even knowledgeable about Nordic mythology: he is the only person I've known besides Internet Superintelligence Vox Day who could speak knowledgeably about Radnarok.

His diseases were especially cruel. He was robbed of his home, his marriage, his ability to work...but never his dignity. His mind remained strong, albeit dulled by the drugs, right up until just recently.

He had the ability to make everyone around him comfortable. He made everyone laugh with his funny stories, goofy faces, and general outgoing nature. He remained upbeat even in the face of incredible suffering.

I loved and respected Tom. We weren't especially close as kids, due to the fact he was 4 years younger than I and 5 grades behind me (do YOU know any high school seniors who hang out with their 7th grade brother?). That was my mistake. Tom, it turns out, was an indispensable friend and mentor.

Tom helped me through the tough times I experienced after I got dumped by my girlfriend of several years, dropped out of college, and lost my faith in God (and pretty much everything else). He shepherded me through times when I didn't much care if I lived or died, until I could get my feet back under me. We effectively swapped roles; he was the big brother, and I followed his example.

I will miss Tom, more than I can express in mere words. If there is a heaven...if there is salvation (and I believe there is)...then Tom is in the loving embrace of his Savior right now.

Tom, your 50 years on this earth were too short, and too filled with pain. But what you left behind -- your legacy -- will live on and on.

You once told DeadEye that you loved her and thought of her as a sister. She was lying in bed last night SMILING at that memory. Your legacy lives on with her.

You taught my boys how to handle weapons and shoot. They loved and admired you with all of their hearts. The men they have become -- that, too, is your legacy.

As for me? I might not be here now if it wasn't for you. I certainly wouldn't be the man I am now without your influence. 

Tom is free of the pain now. Free from suffering. Free from this maddening world. Rest, strong man. Know you were respected in this life. Know you were loved by family and friends. And know that you WILL be missed.

I love you, my brother, my friend, forever.

With regard to my prolonged absenses

Not that my detractors would care, but I haven't been posting much in the past month or so. Okay, that's a major understatement: I've barely been posting at all. The problem? My current work situation. I've been handling responsibilities once performed by 4 people by myself for 16 months. I had once considered myself burnout-proof. I've since learned that no one is burnout-proof. Some of us are burnout-resistant. But no one is burnout-proof. So the combination of an insane workload and a long-ass commute have left me too beat to post on weekdays and too brain dead to post on weekends.

That situation is approaching a resolution, however. Not to disclose any details (don't want to count those chickens before they've hatched), but I am quite confident that I'll return to doing the work of a single person very shortly.

This, of course, means that soon I'll once again be contributing to the incivility of our national discussion. Deadeye can hardly wait.

Il Duce sets a trap

Il Duce gave his State of the Union speech last night. Deadeye watched the speech. I went to bed - 4:30 AM comes early, ya know. She said Il Duce did a good job. Good for him. [/sarcasm]

I read the transcript. It's the best way with these kinds of speeches. It's just so easy to get caught up in the applause lines and rhetorical flourishes otherwise.

The speech was actually quite good. Give credit where credit is due. But he also set a trap for the Republicans, a trap they'd be wise to avoid.

Now, I have heard rumors that a few of you still have concerns about our new health care law. (Laughter.) So let me be the first to say that anything can be improved. If you have ideas about how to improve this law by making care better or more affordable, I am eager to work with you. We can start right now by correcting a flaw in the legislation that has placed an unnecessary bookkeeping burden on small businesses. (Applause.)

What I'm not willing to do — what I'm not willing to do is go back to the days when insurance companies could deny someone coverage because of a preexisting condition. (Applause.)

I'm not willing to tell James Howard, a brain cancer patient from Texas, that his treatment might not be covered. I'm not willing to tell Jim Houser, a small business man from Oregon, that he has to go back to paying $5,000 more to cover his employees. As we speak, this law is making prescription drugs cheaper for seniors and giving uninsured students a chance to stay on their patients' — parents' coverage. (Applause.)

So I say to this chamber tonight, instead of re-fighting the battles of the last two years, let's fix what needs fixing and let's move forward. (Applause.)

Let's fix what needs fixing and let's move forward. Yeah.....

If Team Elephant's so-called leadership falls for this "please don't throw me in the brier patch!" tactic, they deserve the electoral slaughter they'll incur in 2012.

Il Duce is trying to set up a situation where the abortion that is Obamacare becomes associated with Republicans as well as Democrats. If he gives a little here and there but keeps the essential structure of Obamacare intact, he reasons, when people face the nightmare that health care will become, their ire will be bipartisan.

Of course, the RINO leadership in Congress is just stupid enough to fall for this transparent ruse.

I said some time ago that the Tea Party made a gargantuan mistake by not forming a third party or joining forces with one of the existing third parties. When I'm right, I'm right.

Fraud? Not a problem!

Deadeye was reading the Frederick News-Post yesterday and found this news item that made her more than a little miffed.  She told me that I absolutely MUST blog about it.  When Deadeye speaks, Vulture listens.

The long and short of it?  Crime pays.

Ignoring calls to scrutinize troubled contractors, the U.S. military has awarded a portion of a $490 million contract to an American corporation that's under investigation for possible fraud.

The Army Corps of Engineers awarded the contract to Louis Berger Group, a New Jersey-based company that federal prosecutors have acknowledged is being investigated for allegedly overbilling the U.S. government.
[...]
Two months after the government learned of the employee's allegations, the U.S. Agency for International Development tapped Louis Berger to oversee another $1.4 billion in reconstruction contracts in Afghanistan.

Court documents reveal that the Justice Department is negotiating a deal that could "aid in preserving the company's continuing eligibility to participate" in federal contracting in Afghanistan and elsewhere.

The obvious question that springs to mind here is: WTF?

What exactly does a crooked company have to do to merit exclusion from future government contract work?  Overbilling the customer is the #1 cardinal sin of government contracting.  NOTHING else comes close.  Most companies lose all of their current contracts and have zero chance of being awarded any future contracts if found guilty.  Most.

So what is it about this company that they're allowed to skate?  It's a New Jersey company...does that mean it's skating due to Union ties?  Mob ties (JUST KIDDING!!!!!!!  I DON'T LIKE CEMENT OVERSHOES!!!!!!)?  "Help" from congressional arm twisting?

It's yet another demonstration of the principal ill affecting the USA at this point in its decline.  There are two systems of Justice.  The first one, for the Mundanes, inflicts punishment without regard for common sense or human decency.  The second one exists to exonerate the Elites when they get caught with their hand in the cookie jar.

The Solution

Deadeye and I were sitting around last night discussing matters of the world.  She wondered how it all got so crazy.  How is it that people that do all of the right things (work hard, save money, fund their own medical care and retirement, etc.) are penalized by our government in the form of confiscatory taxation and regulation while people who flat-out fail at life, people who don't try to get an education, people who won't work but want to "get paid", and those who spend like drunken sailors Congress and accrue back-breaking debt, are rewarded (via handouts, tax breaks, bailouts, etc.)?

I related to her the wisdom of the Founders.  Originally, the right to vote was NOT universal; it was restricted to land owners only.  The wisdom of this is self-evident.  Those who paid the taxes elected the representation.  A profligate Congress of the type we've had since.......since well before I was born?.......wouldn't last a term if those paying the taxes to support that spending were the only ones voting.

It is almost laughable in hindsight to think that people whose only role in society is to exhaust natural resources and sponge off of the productive are allowed to vote.  Who do you think such people are going to elect?  The guy who promises to reign in government spending and enforce Constitutional government, or the guy who says "Bring on the goodies!"?

The only hope for any sort of sanity in government is to pass a Constitutional amendment limiting the voting franchise to tax paying citizens ONLY.  And that has about the same odds of happening as the odds that I'll one day be President.

My brother is right.  This IS the insane asylum of the universe.

Vulture inbox

Most of the emails I get regarding my blog are nastygrams from Deadeye regarding my attitude and profanity (what? so I swear a little - BFD) or from my father taunting me (which I regard as the highest accolade one can earn as a blogger).  But every so often I receive a nice email that makes me glad that I've stuck with this blogging thing in spite of my stagnant site hit numbers.

A young FLDS man whom I'll refer to as 'HR' wrote me a lengthy and much appreciated email.  He is 26 years old, single, and a computer programmer. Hey, what's not to like about him?

Here are some excerpts.

I found your blog from Hugh McBryde a month or two ago, but I haven't really read through much until today. I must say, that I'm very impressed by the way you explain things, and I want to personally thank you for your unwavering support of our Constitution. We need more people like you in this country. It's so sad to see so many people totally blind to their basic rights and freedoms being eroded away day by day.

Dude, you are SO right about that. The average American is WAAAAAY more concerned with Joren Van Der Sloot than with the encroachment of our government on our personal liberties.

I was reading through your older posts on your blog about our people. Even though you had been swayed quite a bit by the trash spewed forth by the Big Media about us, yet you still were willing to defend our basic Constitutional rights. It was nice to see how you changed your view of us once more of the truth started to be known. I just wanted to personally thank you for what you have done. Any act of kindness or friendship does not go unnoticed. Just imagine living all your life knowing that you, your parents, your loved ones, are hated. How people can allow themselves to be consumed by such hatred, I will never know. Maybe you already saw this piece that Bill Medvecky posted (a comment from the Gosanangelo rag):

“PLEASE hire contractors with no flds affiliation !!!! My husband & many of his friends have lost so much work in the last couple of years ! The flds can work for cheaper rates because they bring all their teen & preteen boys to do all the work. Please pay the little bit extra to NOT use flds. Tell Lowe’s & Home Depot that you do not want flds working on your things !!!"

Of course, "Grandpa Bill", as I lovingly call him, asks us what if that were posted referring to another group?

“PLEASE hire contractors with no NIGGER affiliation !!!! My husband & many of his friends have lost so much work in the last couple of years ! The NIGGERS can work for cheaper rates because they bring all their teen & preteen boys to do all the work. Please pay the little bit extra to NOT use NIGGERS. Tell Lowe’s & Home Depot that you do not want NIGGERS working on your things !!!”

Well said, my friend! I had to plead mea maxima culpa some time back when I was made aware of my initial bigotry in dealing with the YFZ fiasco. But what limited contact I have had with the FLDS has left me impressed. Much like FLDS Mom, you write well - much better than a young man your age is usually capable of in this age of the Internet and PS2. And you're much more aware of the situation regarding our personal freedoms than many of your maleducated peers.

I'm loath to categorize an entire people based on contact with just a few supplemented with the occasional gander at an FLDS-centric blog (BTW, 'HR' recommends truthwillprevail.org, a site I will be adding to my blog role). But I have to say that the FLDS with whom I've had contact have impressed me a whole lot more than the bigots and ignoramuses at Caput Penitus Culus, with their slavering fetish for "the law", could ever hope to achieve.

'HR', I'm glad to have you as a reader. You're an interesting and articulate young man. Come back often.

Wiener of the Week

Jane Velez-Mitchell has issues. And, no, I'm not referring to the dopey name of her insipid show Issues with Jane Velez-Mitchell. And it's not just the fact that she SCREAMS throughout here entire show (xfloggingkylex says you can hear her even after you press the Mute button). Nor is it the fact that her show is a formulaic ripoff of Nancy Grace's show, which, itself, after a fine start, gradually because a formulaic stultifying nightmare.

No, the issues to which I refer have to do with a failure to think.

The evening after that loser in Pittsburgh shot up a gym (Deadeye's comment to me was, "See. That's why I don't work out."), Jane hosted a panel of guest "experts" to discuss this heinous, cowardly act.

There were positive moments in the exchange, mostly provided by criminal profiler Pat Brown, who correctly categorized the shooter as a sociopath, NOT a psychopath. And Velez-Mitchell scored a correct answer when she categorized his attitude as "[A] victim mentality...Everybody's to blame but him. OK, he is not to blame."

But the rest? To quote my Jewish brethren, "Oy, vey!"

The following are excerpts from the transcript.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Apparently, he was using -- Jeanne, he was using 30-round ammo clips that were illegal before the assault weapons ban was lifted in 2004. And those ammo clips allow you to kill a lot of people very quickly, right?

Translation: 30-round clips - once illegal - make it "easier to kill people", so we should ban them again.

If this statement alone isn't worth of a WotW, I don't know what is! Bringing back the ill-conceived (and unconstitutional) Assault Weapons ban wouldn't have saved those people, you stupid cow!

[Dr. Judy] KURIANSKY: ... then guns are often that kind of a sexual acting out, because a gun is like a sex organ. And when men are extremely frustrating and frustrated, they can end up taking all that aggression out with a gun.

Translation: Guns are a substitute sex organ, and shooting them off relieves aggression just like an orgasm.

Again, a statement worthy of a WotW on it's own merits. This is quack pop psychology at it's worst.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Brad, you`re the defense attorney. Do these women who were injured and the families of the dead have a lawsuit, and if so, against whom?

[Attorney Bradford] COHEN: It`s definitely -- it`s something that they should consider. And it`s probably against L.A. Fitness for some sort of lack of security. He went there once before, and he was fully armed. I don`t know, in terms of what kind of security they have, if there is that kind of appropriate security that`s in place. But I`m sure, believe me, with civil attorneys around, there`s definitely going to be someone who`s going to be filing a civil lawsuit.

Translation: Can they sue? You're damn right! Let's start looking for deep pockets right now!

I thought my head was going to explode at this point. Are you kidding me? You're talking lawsuits? For WHAT?!?!? It's a gym, asshats! You don't have security at a gym! Nor should you! Memberships are expensive enough as it is! And the idea that the gym is responsible for a sociopath shooting up the place is absolute nonsense. This exchange alone is grounds for tort reform!

DAVID SCHWARTZ, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: You know what the bottom line is, Jane? What are we going to do to prevent this in the future? You know, there needs -- we need to spend more money as a society on mental disease and defects. This is something very serious.

Translation: MORE GOVERNMENT SPENDING!!!

That's right. We're already blowing out unrepayable debt into the third and fourth generation of our grandchildren. Let's spend some more money on...what? What exactly are you going to do? Screen for sociopaths? Who will do it? The government? Oh, THAT'S not a recipe for persecuting political enemies of Der Staat or anything! Assclown!

SCHWARTZ: We need more -- the insurance companies also...

Translation: Make the insurance companies pay!

Not content with mere government spending, Mr. Schwartz wants to FORCE insurance companies to spend more money on...what? Again, the act of spending more money does not a solution make.

KURIANSKY: No question that in this -- in this whole time of health care...[crosstalk]...we need to pay more attention to mental health care here. And there`s another important issue that`s very psychological that has to do with bystanders. Because there have been real-life bystanders who stand by when people get murdered and don`t want to get involved. And now it`s turned to the Internet and the responsibility that people have to notice what people are blogging about. And who are they going to report to? That`s what we need to pay attention to now.

Translation: Anyone who suspected this act has to pay!

So...if someone read the rantings of this loser prior to him going on a rampage (which, it turns out, wouldn't have been possible, since he posted the entire "diary" just prior to the event), they are guilty, too? What is this, the USSR? We're supposed to rat out people based on rantings?

I've spent a lot of time around teenagers. They go off on rants where they say they're going to do this or going to do that. If you're not familiar with teenagers, you'd be alarmed. If you are familiar with teenagers, you'll shrug. Why? Because it's all bluster. There are exceptions to be sure, like the Columbine teenagers. And that begs the question: if you can't separate the bluster from real threats, and you're "required" to "report threats", how long will it be before every little childish threat becomes a crime?

DAVID SCHWARTZ, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Jane, it does take an intervention. I have had plenty of cases where there have been psychopaths who have had this intervention.

This guy went 49 years without killing anyone. There needs to be an intervention; it does take a village sometimes. And I guarantee you the writing was on the wall. If you sent Tom Ruskin out there to that gym to do an investigation, I guarantee you in five minutes he would find people that would come out and say that the writing was on the wall in this particular case.

Translation: It takes a village. Sing Kum Ba Ya everyone.

No further comment necessary.

Megapoints to criminal profiler Pat Brown for this scathing comeback to an insipid Velez-Mitchell comment.

PAT BROWN, CRIMINAL PROFILER: Well, I would agree with you Jane, if I believed that this was actually necessarily true.

But the part about getting help; again psychopaths do not seek help because they don`t think they need any because it`s everybody else`s fault. You cannot help them. They wont -- they will lie to their therapists and that won`t go anywhere.

What we need to do is work with children who are small. To teach them that they`re not entitled to everything that -- the selfishness that they`re being brought up with where they just get everything they want and think they can have everything.

No. You have to bring up children to realize that you have to earn things and that sometimes it takes time. You have to wait for things. And this guy apparently didn`t grow up with that, so he thinks that he should get what he wants and he`s is not willing to do the work.

In other words, he could probably get a lady in his life if he treated them nicely. If he stopped looking for a cheerleader type of 20-year-old instead of perhaps a nice 50-year-old librarian, a little overweight, who he was sweet to. He could have somebody in his life. But he has chosen not to do that.

Pat Brown, you've made a fan of me.

But Jane Velez-Mitchell? You're the Wiener of the Week.

The Legend of Deadeye

There is a new gunslinger in these here parts...and she's a crack shot. Yeah, that's right. I said she.

Mrs. Vulture surprised me with a special Valentines Day present - a day of target shooting together at an indoor range down in Gaithersburg. It was such a blast!

Mrs. V. had only shot once before, when we visited my brother out West. She picked out a Smith & Wesson .38 revolver as her tool of choice. Since I've had my mind set on purchasing a larger caliber weapon, I decided to try out the Glock 22 .40 caliber semi-automatic.

Since neither of us qualify as "expert" shooters, we had to shoot with an instructor, a very nice young lady who has been shooting since she was 12. Once she was satisfied that we understood gun safety and could load and handle our weapons properly, she turned us loose.

I really liked the Glock. I wasn't thrilled with my accuracy -- I tended to hit low and to the left when the sights were aligned, meaning I had to manually compensate high and right. Still, I was left with a positive impression of the weapon.

And Mrs. V. with the revolver? OMG!!! She was AMAZING!!!

After an errant first shot, she proceeded to hit shot after shot in the bullseye area. See for yourself! (Click on the images to view them full size)
To the left is the main grouping. Outside of a few strays that were 'only' in the 9 point circle, everything she shot was grouped in a 6"x6" area. Her head shots (to the right) were even more impressive. Again, everything was grouped within a 6"x6" area.

Did I mention that Mrs. V had only shot once before in her whole life? Once.

From this day forward Mrs. V shall be known by only one name in the annuals of this blog: call her Deadeye!

To see all of the target pictures, click this link. Note that mine, not to put too fine a point on it, are dreadful in comparison with Deadeye's.

All hail Deadeye, gunslinger extraordinaire!