Solving the World's Problems.

OK. So we solved nothing.

We couldn't agree if there is a Car Tzar, a Car Tsar, or Car Czar. Most of us aren't really fans of the concept of Tsars/Tzars/Czars in general, but they are fun to discuss.

We also discussed health care reform since it was on TV in the chow hall. It is interesting that so many of us who are (at least while I'm on orders) essentially on a governmnent provided health care plan are opposed to that as a systemic solution. I also wondered aloud if buying into Tricare Reserve Select, essentially a public option of sorts that is only open to members of the Guard and Reserve since it is roughly like buying into the medical plan provided to the active duty forces, would be hypocritical for someone (me, for instance) who does not support the public option as a real means to keep costs down.

Something to ponder.

One guy also decided that the should try to register as a Muslim, Christian, and Jew to see if he'd get three day weekends. I warned him that the Jew thing wouldn't help much since I've had to work through plenty of holidays. The Muslim thing wouldn't work because he'd just end up with a Fatwa against him and death threats for being an apostate due to the competing claims of being a Jew and Christian.

Besides, there are no days off here anyway. Well some people have days off, but with certain exceptions, if you have days off then your shop is overmanned and some of you wastes of space should be sent home.

I suggested he try Wiccan instead since he could make up holidays and no one would be the wiser.

Also, as books rotate around, I essentially flipped a coin with another officer as to who would get to read The Founding Fathers and 1491. I ended up with 1491, and then we'll swap afterwards.

The other officer is curious as to how the Native Americans managed their waste. As someone who has spent a lot of time in the field and is trained to work with various peoples, he said you can learn a lot about a culture by how it manages its poo (picture Woody from Toy Story: "Somebody poisoned the water hole!"). Somehow, it never comes up in the pop history that most of us are exposed to about the Native Americans.

I suspect 1491 will dispel a lot of myths. However, the index does not have the words bathroom, restroom, defecate, water closet, poo or any other semi-professional terminology that addresses my friend's question.

The Founding Fathers should be interesting too. It got a ringing endorsement from a SEAL.

I also discovered a library in our MWR hooch. Well, discovered it like De Sote "discovered" the Mississippi River. It was new to me and now I'm publicizing it.

I snagged an old yellow copy of Our Town. I'll probably blow through that a few times over the next week before reading anything else.

I also saw something incredibly disturbing. Some middle-aged dude was walking around with a popped collar. That is all kinds of wrong.

And since my mom asked when I was on the phone with her, I'll mention that I don't get any second class treatment because I'm a Guard guy. They only care about performance here. If you do your job, good. If not, you will be fired or have your career nuked via performance report.

I get made fun of for being Guard. For being Air Force. For being Jewish. For being short. For being a weather guy. For anything really.

I make fun of other people for being Army, for being Navy, for being short, for being old, for being young, for being whatever they are.

All of it horribly politically incorrect, most of us thick skinned, and have a lot of fun with it.