Four shame...

The shame, dear readers, is all mine. To have left you groping in the wilderness without my stern, yet caring, gaze watching over you (in written word form on this seldom read blog), is simply inexcusable. I humbly beg your forgiveness and promise to do better, which I believe may be the same thing I tell the Wife after every dinner I've prepared for her.

Now that the painful apologies and rending of garments has been completed, we can all dry our tears and return to the business at hand. What that business may be, well, frankly, I'm at a loss. I suppose that my main purpose here, other than unwittingly and unknowingly insulting individuals I've never met with attempts at reasonable arguments composed in the midst of frequent calls to a forgotten hospital in a forgotten part of the country, is to provide some rather pathetic attempts at humor. Such as continuing to title my posts with numbers. Such things seem funny before seven a.m. when you've been at work all night.

Now, there isn't that much to do in the middle of the night in a hospital. I suppose if I had shown any inclination to pursue a career in medicine I might have discovered that things are a bit different for the doctors and nurses that actually interact with patients, but in my secluded little corner of paradise things are remarkably boring. It gives me time to think, but more importantly it gives me time to read. Like this wonderful article. Now, I could make some joke about the Air Force and how people smart enough to choose the one branch of the military that is almost never shot at should be smart enough to not need to cheat, but that would be too easy. Noting the mention of pornography downloaded by cadets, I could joke about the appearance of women in the military, but to do so might lead some to conclude that I thought the Wife was something other than the most attractive woman I've ever laid eyes on, and there hasn't been the weapon invented that would give me the confidence to face down her wrath if that were to be suggested. No dear readers, I would like to draw your attention to the other disciplinary problem the article mentions: "...and there have been recurring incidents of alcohol abuse, academy spokesman Johnny Whitaker said." I'll let that sink in for a second.

Take another minute...

Okay, now name me a college (other than this, which I hardly consider a college, but that's just my irrational distrust of anyone who spends most of their time telling everyone how damned they are speaking), club, organization, or just gathering of college-age individuals where there is not a problem with alcohol abuse. I'll wait.

Still waiting...

Now, I realize that the service academies operate under vastly different rules than your average university, many of which, it is true, do not look too kindly upon the consumption of massive quantities of alcoholic beverages, especially if the person doing the consuming is under the age of 21. But the spokesman almost seemed surprised by the fact that these kids were drinking. When was the last time it was possible to pick up a paper and not read about a college kid somewhere drinking themselves into the wild blue yonder? Frankly, I'd be more surprised if they weren't having problems with alcohol abuse. Not only are these kids surrendering a good chunk of their lives to the military, with the possibility that someone in some remote corner of the world might be shooting at them soon, but my guess is that there is precious little else to do amidst the snow in Colorado Springs during those precious few moments when the rigid discipline is scaled back to a type of rigid discipline that is composed of a weaker metal alloy, and thus bends to a degree measurable only on extremely expensive scientific instruments. Besides, my guess is that these kids have already figured out that wearing a jacket with "USAF Academy" on it and flashing a military ID will get them free drinks in many locations (assuming they're of age, and likely even if they're not). Of course, now that I think about it, if drinking and driving is a bad idea, drinking and driving at Mach One near the Rockies is probably a really bad idea.