All posts by Hutchins AAron

Born in Deutschland 1965, hometown was Bütthart, parents were not U.S. government employees. However, when father was tricked into joining the U.S. Air Force Civil Service, in 1969, with the promise that we could remain in Germany, we were promptly shipped off to Iran. Due to one of my Iranian educators being disappeared, along with her husband, by the U.S. ally Shah of Iran's Israeli & U.S. created Savak (for the then official terrorist act of promoting the idea that women can vote), and due to my U.S. citizen mother being placed on Savak's Terrorist Arrest List (for supporting the idea that women should vote, at that time the U.S. ally Shah of Iran did not allow women to vote, now they can) we left Iran for the United States in 1973, literally in the middle of the night. At the U.S. Embassy airbase the CIA operated Gooney Bird (C-47) was so packed with other U.S. citizens fleeing our ally Iran (because the Shah gave the OK to arrest any U.S. citizen for such terrorist acts as promoting the concept of voting) that we were turned away by the Loadmaster and had to take a chance on a civilian flight out of Tehran's airport. My father told me he and my mother had three culture shocks; first when they arrived in Germany as civilians, then after being shipped off to Iran as U.S. government employees, then again returning to the United States as unemployed civilians (because so much had changed in the U.S. while they were gone, their only news source was the U.S. Armed Forces Radio & Television Service which heavily censored information about the home front). Since I graduated high school in 1982 I've worked for U.S. government contractors and state & local government agencies (in California), convenience store manager in California, retail/property management in Georgia, California and Idaho. Spent the 1990s in the TV news business producing number one rated local news programs in California, Arizona and Idaho. 14+ years with California and Idaho Army National Guard and the U.S. Air Force. Obtained a BA degree in International Studies from Idaho State University at the age of 42. Unemployed since 2015, so don't tell me the economy has recovered.
Business/Economics, International, U.S.

Gaddafi right, Rebelion came from outside

A Wall Street Journal article suggests that Libyan rebels getting help from Egypt, Qatar and other Arab countries, all with U.S. approval.

Libyan rebels have praised Qatar from day one for their help.

Egypt is supposedly sending the rebels weapons (I wondered where the rebels got all those new looking heavy guns and missiles).  Hani Souflakis, a Libyan businessman in Cairo said “We know the Egyptian military council is helping us, but they can’t be so visible.”  Souflakis is a Libyan rebel liaison with the Egyptian government since the uprising began.

Libyan rebels admit they have been armed from the outside, but will not say who is arming them.  Also, the Wall Street journal reports that, all of a sudden, the rebels are using aircraft to launch air strikes against Libyan government troops (when the hell did they get aircraft?).  Some sources say the rebels are using captured Libyan aircraft, but that the rebels had to get spare parts, and trained air & ground crews from out side the country.

The Arab League actually drafted the UN Security Council’s declaration of  a no fly zone.

All this is proving that crazy sounding Gaddafi (Gadhafi, Kaddafi, Qaddafi, they all work) might be right when he claims that this whole “revolution” is a foreign act of war to get total control of Libya’s oil.

International

Concerns over volcano may unite North & South Korea

The 9.0 quake/tsunami has officials in North and South Korea concerned over possible eruption of the Baekdu volcano in North Korea.

The last time it erupted was in 1903.

The increase seismic activity in the area, including volcanic activity in Japan and Eastern Russia, has Korean officials worried so much that it has become part of their unification discussions.  However, both sides are downplaying it.

Korea is directly due west of the Japanese state of Honshu.

Fukushima

Russians trapped in Sendai, asking for air rescue

150 Russians, including rescue workers sent to help Japan, and Russian news reporters, are trapped in Sendai, dozens of kilometers from the Fukushima Daiichi plant.

They ran out of fuel for their vehicles, and where apparently left behind by rescue workers from other countries.  It sounds as if there was a panic to escape the area after the Japanese government order evacuations.

International

Yemen declares State of Emergency snipes protesters

The government of Yemen has declared a State of Emergency.  This after weeks of protests against the government, and recently, the sniping and killing of at least 31 protesters by Yemeni government forces.

Protesters say hundreds were also wounded by the snipers.

Saudi Arabia has already invaded neighboring Bahrain to help that government against protesters there.  Will Saudi Arabia do the same with its neighbor to the south?

Idaho, U.S.

Open Carry Gun Law Idaho

Every now and then, a new law enforcement officer in Idaho mistakenly arrests someone for OPEN possession of a gun.  As well, sometimes a citizen freaks out and calls in the police after seeing someone in OPEN possession of a gun.

In Idaho OPEN CARRY of guns is legal.  Open carry, as opposed to concealed carry, means you can carry a gun in public as long as it is visible.

Idaho Constitution, Article I Section 11: “….No law shall impose licensure, registration or special taxation on the ownership or possession of firearms or ammunition….”

Of course they are limits to Idaho’s open carry law, like being a convicted felon, being intoxicated and being under the age of 18.

As far as Idaho’s concealed carry licensing, it seems it applies only to handguns. 

Idaho, Opinion, U.S.

Idaho and Texas force universities to allow guns on campus

The Idaho House passed a bill that would force colleges and universities to allow firearms on campus, except in student housing.

A Texas House committee moved a bill that would allow licensed handguns on public universities and college campuses.

This is considered an issue of the right to self defense, under the Second Amendment.

There have been many shootings, that could have been stopped, or lessened, if an armed citizen was able to use their gun to stop it.

Here in Eastern Idaho there is an example out of the Salmon area that proves it.  Some years ago, at a church service one of the residents of the town flipped out, entered the church and began shooting.  A member of the church was handed a gun by his wife.  She carried the gun in her hand bag.  She told him to “..take the guy out”, and he did (I think she actually used a different word than ‘guy’).  The flipped out shooter made it clear he was going to target as many people as he could.  He would have been successful if it weren’t for the gun toting woman who encouraged her husband to take the guy out.

How do I know this story?  The husband that took the guy out, and I, were both members of the same Idaho Army National Guard unit, back in the late 1990s.  When he told his story it was apparent that he was shaken by his actions to shoot the wacko, but, it was clear the wacko was going to take out as many people as he could.  Someone had to stop him.

International

Iran may act to stop Sunni Arab invasion of Shia Bahrain

“The Saudi’s should know for a fact that Tehran will use all the power and potentials at its disposal to halt the oppression of the people of Bahrain.”said Iranian lawmaker Hossein Naqavi.

Majority Sunni Arab countries invaded majority Shia Arab Bahrain, in order to protect the Sunni rulers there from the Shia revolution.  Iran and Bahrain are majority Shia Muslim countries.

Iran has asked the UN to take action.  The United Nations, pushed by France, U.K. & U.S.,  has authorized military force against Libya, supposedly to protect the revolutionaries there.

A Bahraini women, who is Sunni, is supporting the Shia rebels; “The government is making this a sectarian issue. I see the way my [Shia] friends are treated and I came here to show solidarity.”

The headquarters of the U.S. 5th Fleet is in Bahrain.

International, Opinion, U.S.

Kuwait joins invasion of Bahrain

Kuwait is sending ships to patrol the water off Bahrain, in support of the recent invasion by Saudi Arabian troops, and by police units of United Arab Emirates.

Bahrain is ruled by a minority Sunni royal family, while the majority of the people are Shia.  They have been protesting for weeks, and the Bahraini government began cracking down.

Bahrain is home to the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet.

It’s interesting that we are about to attack Libya, supposedly for cracking down on revolutionaries, yet we do nothing to protect the revolutionaries in Bahrain.