We got our high bid. Ho Chi Minh City, here we come!
(After learning to speak Vietnamese first, of course.)
10 April 2009
09 April 2009
Shut Up.
I guess all that talk about dissent being the highest form of patriotism doesn't count any more.
08 April 2009
Suspense and torture.
Suspense because Friday is Flag Day. This is when we have a ceremony at the George Schultz Foreign Affairs training Center and everyone finds out where they are going for their first assignments. It is called Flag Day because each new FSO is presented with a small flag of the country where they will be going.
Torture because apparently folks in the know at Main State (the Harry S. Truman building) seem to already know that we mostly got our high bids and are dropping hints to that effect. Now I am looking back at all my high bids trying to figure out where I might be sent. We are not supposed to publicize the bid list, and since stating my high bids would be revealing a portion of the list, I'll just stay mum.
Until Friday.
Torture because apparently folks in the know at Main State (the Harry S. Truman building) seem to already know that we mostly got our high bids and are dropping hints to that effect. Now I am looking back at all my high bids trying to figure out where I might be sent. We are not supposed to publicize the bid list, and since stating my high bids would be revealing a portion of the list, I'll just stay mum.
Until Friday.
05 April 2009
Reason #2974 for getting out of police work
Confederate Yankee wonders if more people died because of the police response in Binghamton, NY.
This is a dangerous speculative road to go down. The post itself didn't bug me, but some of the replies did. There seems to be a notion that there is a duty to protect in police work. Let provide a clue to those of you who do not already know this: THERE IS NO DUTY TO PROTECT on the part of police officers. Before you conjure up mental images of coward cops who would rather stay at the doughnut shop rather than charge into a shooting scene with guns blazing, consider what things would look like if police officers were bound by law to insert themselves into life threatening situations. The implications on the force continuum alone would be enough to make most people think twice about making this a requirement.
The bottom line here is that if you are looking for the police to save you from every situation, then you are in big trouble. The fact that there is no duty to protect is what gives the police the discretion to act on information available to them at the time of an incident. If you take discretion away, you create many more problems than you solve. Mandatory arrest laws (which I still believe to be unconstitutional) have proven this time and time again. Police making arrests for VERY trivial matters invariably make the news and create indignation, but those situations are almost always the result of discretion being removed from a officer's toolbox.
My old department has conducted a lot of training in active shooter situations. If we arrived at a shooting where the shooter is still doing his thing, then we would put together a small tactical group from the officers on scene and we would go in looking for the bad guy. However, even this response is not immediate, and the chance of successfully eliminating the threat is only slightly elevated in exchange for the greatly heightened risk to both innocent civilians and officers alike. I know what I would personally do, given an active shooter situation. I also know that most of the officers I worked with would go in with me. However, I know enough to know that there is no substitute for being there on scene, seeing and hearing what is happening, and that there ARE situations where I would not go in immediately. I would like to say that my department would hae moved in on the Binghamton shooter immediately, but then again, I wasn't there, and neither were the commenters on Confederate Yankee's blog entry.
Ironically, active shooter response requires that there actually be an active shooter present. If officers present do not hear gunfire (either the shooter has left, capped himself, etc) then protocol is to set up a perimeter and wait for a dedicated entry team. I think that Confederate Yankee's post insinuated that some injured people may have bled out and died while waiting for the police to get inside to them. Again, I don't know because I wasn't there. Neither were you.
If you expect perfect performance from the police during critical incidents and shootings, then try applying that standard to your own profession and see how it goes. Critical incidents are dynamic and very difficult to control. The police cannot read minds and they cannot see through walls. If our public is moving towards the point where the police are required to take foolish risks as a condition of their employment, then I say be prepared to take the law into your own hands, because only fools will be police officers.
This is a dangerous speculative road to go down. The post itself didn't bug me, but some of the replies did. There seems to be a notion that there is a duty to protect in police work. Let provide a clue to those of you who do not already know this: THERE IS NO DUTY TO PROTECT on the part of police officers. Before you conjure up mental images of coward cops who would rather stay at the doughnut shop rather than charge into a shooting scene with guns blazing, consider what things would look like if police officers were bound by law to insert themselves into life threatening situations. The implications on the force continuum alone would be enough to make most people think twice about making this a requirement.
The bottom line here is that if you are looking for the police to save you from every situation, then you are in big trouble. The fact that there is no duty to protect is what gives the police the discretion to act on information available to them at the time of an incident. If you take discretion away, you create many more problems than you solve. Mandatory arrest laws (which I still believe to be unconstitutional) have proven this time and time again. Police making arrests for VERY trivial matters invariably make the news and create indignation, but those situations are almost always the result of discretion being removed from a officer's toolbox.
My old department has conducted a lot of training in active shooter situations. If we arrived at a shooting where the shooter is still doing his thing, then we would put together a small tactical group from the officers on scene and we would go in looking for the bad guy. However, even this response is not immediate, and the chance of successfully eliminating the threat is only slightly elevated in exchange for the greatly heightened risk to both innocent civilians and officers alike. I know what I would personally do, given an active shooter situation. I also know that most of the officers I worked with would go in with me. However, I know enough to know that there is no substitute for being there on scene, seeing and hearing what is happening, and that there ARE situations where I would not go in immediately. I would like to say that my department would hae moved in on the Binghamton shooter immediately, but then again, I wasn't there, and neither were the commenters on Confederate Yankee's blog entry.
Ironically, active shooter response requires that there actually be an active shooter present. If officers present do not hear gunfire (either the shooter has left, capped himself, etc) then protocol is to set up a perimeter and wait for a dedicated entry team. I think that Confederate Yankee's post insinuated that some injured people may have bled out and died while waiting for the police to get inside to them. Again, I don't know because I wasn't there. Neither were you.
If you expect perfect performance from the police during critical incidents and shootings, then try applying that standard to your own profession and see how it goes. Critical incidents are dynamic and very difficult to control. The police cannot read minds and they cannot see through walls. If our public is moving towards the point where the police are required to take foolish risks as a condition of their employment, then I say be prepared to take the law into your own hands, because only fools will be police officers.
04 April 2009
I can't believe I forgot this.
Consul-at-Arms reminded me that today is National Tartan Day.
It's a little chilly in DC this morning, but what the heck.
It's a little chilly in DC this morning, but what the heck.
20 March 2009
ISTP
That's it. I have been condensed down to a four letter indicator and slapped with the label- Introvert-Sensing-Thinker-Perceiver. I never placed a lot of stock in categorizing people, even though I do know that some labels have validity, such as 'tyrant' or 'pederast'. That said, I looked on the Internet today for a little more information on this type from the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. (For the unannointed, the MBTI is given to entry level FSOs at orientation.)
It turns out that I found some very interesting things about this person. He can get bored quickly. He needs variety and adventure in his life. He shines during critical incidents. His type can tend to gravitate towards jobs in law enforcement (!) and the military. Hmm.
In spite of some startling revelations during my informal research, I am still one of those cynics who knows that horoscopes are written so ambiguously as to give everyone a sort of "Hey, that's me for sure!" feeling. Even so, reading about the ISTP actually gave me a start once or twice. I know that the MBTI has been proven to be statistically valid, but the test itself seems so simplistic that it defies logic that it could actually be accurate. (ISTPs, by the way, are also analytical, objectively critical, and interested in how and why things work.....)
Now, on to the fun horoscopy stuff-
Famous ISTPs include Rowan Atkinson, Clint Eastwood, President Zachary Taylor, Michael Jordan, Chuck Yeager and Amelia Earhart.
ISTPs make up 5.5% of the population.
Now it's time to log off and go fly my model helicopter. I'm bored.
It turns out that I found some very interesting things about this person. He can get bored quickly. He needs variety and adventure in his life. He shines during critical incidents. His type can tend to gravitate towards jobs in law enforcement (!) and the military. Hmm.
In spite of some startling revelations during my informal research, I am still one of those cynics who knows that horoscopes are written so ambiguously as to give everyone a sort of "Hey, that's me for sure!" feeling. Even so, reading about the ISTP actually gave me a start once or twice. I know that the MBTI has been proven to be statistically valid, but the test itself seems so simplistic that it defies logic that it could actually be accurate. (ISTPs, by the way, are also analytical, objectively critical, and interested in how and why things work.....)
Now, on to the fun horoscopy stuff-
Famous ISTPs include Rowan Atkinson, Clint Eastwood, President Zachary Taylor, Michael Jordan, Chuck Yeager and Amelia Earhart.
ISTPs make up 5.5% of the population.
Now it's time to log off and go fly my model helicopter. I'm bored.
02 March 2009
Suit
I stood at attention and raised my right hand and said the words for the third time in my life today.
Sailor, police officer, diplomat.
I looked around in the building during breaks, in awe of what I had become a part of. I am even more in awe of the people I am surrounded by. There is quite a bit of substance behind all the paper credentials. I am torn between a feeling of humility that these are my peers and a feeling that I somehow fooled someone to be here.
On a lighter note... after 23 years of wearing everything from wool choker collars to bullet-proof vests, this suit thing ain't so bad. For the first time in my life, I had to consider the color of my socks before leaving for work.
Sailor, police officer, diplomat.
I looked around in the building during breaks, in awe of what I had become a part of. I am even more in awe of the people I am surrounded by. There is quite a bit of substance behind all the paper credentials. I am torn between a feeling of humility that these are my peers and a feeling that I somehow fooled someone to be here.
On a lighter note... after 23 years of wearing everything from wool choker collars to bullet-proof vests, this suit thing ain't so bad. For the first time in my life, I had to consider the color of my socks before leaving for work.
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