The Last Hour Of December - Последний час декабря

As we enter the final hour of 2013, the family is sitting down to a traditional Russian small feast of delicacies and vodka (for those old enough to imbibe). Champagne waits patiently to be opened in an hour's time.

The kids have napped and been awoken and permitted to stay up to greet the New Year, and they'll get some New Year's presents as well.

In this last hour of December we can say goodbye to the old year and both the good and bad that it contained and look forward to the next.

The title of this post comes from the song title, "Последний час декабря" (Last Hour of December) from one of Natasha's favorite bands - Secret, a rock band she listened to growing up in Moscow back when it was still the Soviet Union.

May you all have a healthier, happier, and more prosperous year in 2014!

Happy New Year!

McBride Case Gets A Little Stranger

Over At Legal insurrection, Andrew Branca has an interesting revelation about the Renisha McBride shooting case.

One of the most interesting things that came out of the preliminary exam is that the police put the screen door back into place before photographing it.

After reading Mr. Branca's article you'll note that putting the screen back up makes for a ridiculous and unwieldy shooting angle.

As such, it is likely that Ms. McBride may have already broken the screen trying to get into the house before she was shot.

As such there may be somewhat of a tenuous self-defense claim here, as well explained by Mr. Branca if his scenario is correct, but it seems that the statement that it was an accidental shooting is probably going to get the shooter a manslaughter conviction.

How About "No" For An Answer?

NBC Miami: Diver's Father Wants Tampa-Area Eagle Nest Sink Cave Closed After Deaths

After the completely self-inflicted, negligent and totally avoidable deaths of a father and son cave diving, the surviving grand-father and father of the duo wants the cave closed to all divers.

A Florida man wants the state to close an underwater cave system after his son and grandson died there in a diving accident on Christmas Day.

Chester Spivey Jr. says the 300-foot deep Eagle Nest Sink cave in the Chassahowitzka Wildlife Management Area is too dangerous for diving. Thirty-five-year-old Darrin Spivey and his 15-year-old son, Dillon Sanchez, were found dead Wednesday.

No the cave should not be closed, and No, it is not too dangerous for diving by trained and experienced divers.

It is however too dangerous to un-certified and untrained divers as in this case.

Understand that when these two proceeded un-certified and untrained to get into the cave system they had to pass by this sign:

Warnings do not get much clearer than that.

When you're dumb enough to ignore them and proceed past that sign without training and knowing how to handle the cave, you're proceeding at your own risk and it is likely that you will indeed die. Even a seven-year-old on reading that sign knew it meant you don't go past it.

We don't permanently shut down highways when idiot fathers get drunk and kill themselves and their kids while DWI because they ran off the road at a curve. We don't close down bridges because people jump off of them. Similarly we shouldn't close a cave system because some idiots sadly decided it was a good location to commit suicide.

The father/grandfather is clearly grieving their untimely and unnecessary deaths, and likely very much in denial that his offspring sadly died of a case of terminal stupidity.

However, he, like far too many others, instead of placing the blame correctly on the person(s) making poor decisions when a tragedy strikes, is seeking to shift the blame to an inanimate object.

Hopefully saner minds prevail and the cave will remain open, and their deaths can be used as a lesson for others to learn to not go into caves without training, the appropriate gear, and a dive plan.

Friday Range Time

As Murphy's Law mentions, yesterday we went to my favorite outdoor range to get some shooting in.

The weather was cool but with no wind it was downright comfortable.

We had Proud Hillbilly's Son-In-Law D. came with us, as well as did ML's Spud.

D. is waiting on issuance of his CPL permit, and decided to come along to get more practice in.

Here he is rockin' his revolver.

As expected, he shot very well indeed and I'm quite sure he'll be a very competent CPL holder. I figure I can talk him into coming to a USPSA match with me and we should have a great time.

He also generously let the Spud try out his revolver:

I then let the Spud try out the Tavor:

Overall Spud did well and paid attention and only had to do 20 push ups in the snow for minor safety infractions or for failing to pay attention.

The Tavor worked great as expected, and D., ML, and Spud all enjoyed firing it. ML fired it left-handed and there was no issue with brass hitting him even with the Tavor setup for standard right-side ejection.

Murphy's Law came up with his J-Frame and then made the J Frame Challenge - 5 shots to knock down 3 steel poppers from the distance as shown. D., ML, and I all did it successfully, and Spud almost made it.

I did bring another fun item out but since I neglected to take any pictures I'll do a separate post about it later.

We all had a great time.

I did have a weird failure with the M&P 40C - shooting Federal 180gr 40 S&W (purple box), my standard carry magazine worked 100%. However, in both the magazine with the finger extension and a 15 rounder, the slide was visibly dragging and slow to close and almost felt like the slide was stalling while dragging over the round in the magazine before loading it. You could actually see it hesitate for a long moment with the slide back and then move it's way back into battery with a "snick" sound. However, loading the magazine with Winchester white box 165 grain in the exact same magazine resolved the problem and there was no hesitation of any kind and it functioned 100% without a hiccup.

I'm thinking the Federal Purple Box stuff is underpowered, but if anyone has got any ideas as to what may be causing this that would be helpful.

Hello, Anarcho-Tyranny? Meet Racially-Based Selective Federal Enforcement

You've heard by know of the knockout game.

Known variously as knockout, "knockout king", "point 'em out, knock 'em out", "bomb", or charmingly and descriptively as "Polar Bear Hunting", it typically takes the form of Black no-goodnik yutes sucker-punching a White, Jewish or Asian victim, and trying to knock them out with one punch. Serious injuries and death have resulted from these attacks.

So do we get any federal hate crime charges on any of these Black on White/Jewish/Asian assaults? No.

Instead, the first announced Federal hate crime charge in a knockout game episode, after these assaults have been going on for years, was just announced with much fanfare by Eric Holder. This first ever use of hate crime laws to charge knockout game assailants is made is only now with the very first reported rare instance where a White guy assaults a Black guy:

The Washington Times: Feds charge white man with hate crime in first ‘knockout’ prosecution

The Obama administration filed a federal hate-crimes charge Thursday against a man whom authorities accused of using the “knockout game” to target a black man, videotaping it, and then bragging about the assault to strangers.

The charge marks the first time the administration has taken action on a “knockout” case after the game became an Internet and media phenomenon. It chose a case in which the person accused is white, even though most other cases reported in the news have involved black assailants.

Now, there is no doubt that the assailant being charged in this instance should indeed be charged with assault, and probably also should be charged with a hate crime, is an idiot, and is not deserving of any sympathy or leniency whatsoever.

What is rather curious however, is that after overlooking numerous Black on White/Jewish/Asian attacks, the Department of Justice finally takes an interest in the matter when the racial composition is more politically correct.

A politicized, racially-based and selective enforcement of hate crime and other laws does not bode well for American justice.

This Is Why You Do Not Cave Dive Without Knowing How To Cave Dive.

People who aren't trained in Cave Diving should not try to go diving in a cave.

The main cause of death in cave diving is untrained divers venturing into overhead environments and dying there - typically due to silting out the environment and being unable to see the exit or otherwise getting lost and then running out of breathing gas when they don't even know how to make a survivable gas consumption plan and dive plan.

The Detroit Free Press: Father, teen son drown during 'extremely dangerous' underwater cave dive

Reading the article, we find out they had just got new gear and decided to test it by going into a cave. To add to the predictable disaster, the father was not a certified cave diver and the son was not even a certified diver.

The result is a Christmas Day forever ruined for their fiancee and mother.

A father and son who went diving on Christmas Day with new dive equipment were found dead in an underwater cave at a north Florida wildlife refuge.

The Hernando County Sheriff's Office said Thursday that Holly King called authorities on Christmas after her fiancé, Darrin Spivey, and his son Dillon Sanchez didn't return home after a planned dive.

Sanchez had received new diving equipment for Christmas, and the two men wanted to try it out, King told deputies.

The men had told King that they were going to dive the 300-foot deep Eagle Nest Sink cave in the Chassahowitzka Wildlife Management Area in western Hernando County, about an hour and a half north of downtown Tampa.

A Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission sign near the pond entrance to the cave reads: "Cave diving in this area is extremely dangerous — even life threatening!! Do not dive unless you are a certified cave diver!!"

According to the Sheriff's office, Spivey was a certified diver; however, he was not a certified cave diver. Sanchez was not a certified diver, authorities said.

So they ignored the posted warnings, didn't know their equipment, and I guarantee didn't have a guidelines and then headed into one of the more complex cave systems in Florida.

To put it in firearms terms: They went into a gun store, bought a pistol, and then without even knowing how to load it challenged Jerry Miculek to a shoot-out thinking they would beat him. They lost.

Owning dive gear does not make you a diver.

Being a certified open water diver does not make you an overhead environment diver.

Do not go into overhead environments without training in how to handle them, a minimum of three lights, a guideline and a competent dive plan. No cave is worth your death.

Lots Of Toronto Still Without Power

The ice storm while pretty sure knocked the electric service to Toronto's residents for a loop. Even now, some are still out of power and many people I knew lost power days after the ice storm itself had passed as ice-covered trees kept crashing down taking more power lines with them.

While 80% of those knocked out have their power back on, apparently including my sister-in-law and niece's place, and they're now heading homeward, many are still without.

The Star: Ice storm: 54,000 customers in Toronto still without power

It's a pretty massive job, and about the only way it might go any faster is if Toronto's Mayor Rob Fiord starts sharing his crack with the electrical workers.

Merry Christmas To All, And To All A Good Night.

237 Years ago today at the Battle of Trenton, George Washington introduced the world to the American Way of War:

To The Enemies of America - Annoy us enough and we'll silently cross an icy river, to kill you in your sleep, on Christmas.

Merry Christmas.

COSI Day 2 - A Dose Of Knowledge And Culture

In the morning we had breakfast at the hotel, went for a swim and then headed back to COSI.

On Day 2 We did the second floor. Before we went up however we did the energy exhibit.

At the exhibit there is a torture devise where you put your hands on some copper plates whicle someone else cranks a generator so you can feel what electric current feels like.

Tash and Abby lasted less than a second, I did a bit more. Leah on the other hand could have kept her hands on the plates for hours - she didn't feel it at all, which was kinda strange but certainly a neat trick.

Up on the second floor is a very extensive exhibit about the human body and health.

We did tests of strength, hear rate both resting and active and flexibility.

After those we signed up for a lab to make hand sanitizer. After being dressed in a lab coat, safety glasses and gloves, You had a choice of using alcohol, tea tree oil and witch hazel or any combination in a test tube with an aloe base to design your own sanitizer.

Then you got to test your formula using a petri dish that you first touched with your unwashed hands in one section, left a section alone for a control and the third you touched after using your sanitizer.

The lab was run by students from OSU's College of Pharmacology and they did a great job leading the kids through the scientific method. Then the dishes were incubated and you could check online later to see how you did.

Leah did a sanitizer with more alcohol than anything else, and it showed in the results:

Tash deliberately omitted the alcohol:

The lesson: Alcohol kills germs kids, tea tree oil and witch hazel alone aren't going to cut it.

Next we went to the Progress Exhibit with walkable streetscapes and shop interiors from 1898 and 1962.

Next the kids got to explore Space. After landing the lunar lander on the moon and crash-landing the space shuttle a few times they jumped in the Gemini capsule for liftoff and re-entry:

Whoever designed the Gemini simulator had a sense of humor - take a look at some of the labels on the lights and buttons:

For the finale at COSI, the kids headed outside and between the two of them lifted a Honda off the ground into the air:

Give your kids a place to stand, and they will move the car. Then tomorrow, they'll move the world.

After COSI we headed to the Cheesecake Factory. In Columbus there was no waiting at all and we were immediately seated. Compare that to the 2-3 hour wait currently at the Michigan Cheesecake Factory in Novi Michigan. Great food, great service - I had the Hibachi Steak which seriously rocked, and Stupendous Cheesecake! The family shared two slices - a Peppermint Bark and a Smores Cheesecake. Verily they were ambrosia upon the plates. If you've got a Cheesecake Factory near you, it's worth it, except for the long waits at the new Michigan location. Hilariously enough, at the restaurant we ran into some friends from Michigan that happened to have just arrived that day and they were taking their kids to COSI the next day - what were the odds of that?

After that we headed back to the Hotel. In the morning, we had breakfast and hit the road and headed back home. With no driving rain while driving this time, we made it home in great time.

COSI is really worth a visit, and Columbus is quite the nice city to visit.

An Unwanted Christmas Present From Obama

I'm sure the timing was just a coincidence.

Just grabbed the mail today, it was delivered late yesterday and we didn't get around to it until today.

Inside was an invoice from my health insurance company.

The invoice was for some reason higher than we were used to, and reading the invoice we found out there was an extra charge being applied for coverage stating January 1, and why:

Under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), all health insurance companies are required to collect and pay new taxes and fees to help pay for programs that are mandated under the ACA. These taxes and fees have been added to your invoice and range between 5 to 7 percent of the total premium that you pay. For more information, go to _______ and search keywords: taxes and fees.

So not only are the insurance rates going up in general under Obamacare, but my plan is now, on top of those increases, being taxed 7% to further subsidize those who don't pay for their own health care and cover more of the unsustainable costs of Obamacare, so I'm getting dinged twice for this boondoggle and paying more to get less.

Merry Christmas, right?

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to all my Christian friends and readers out there.

We had a wonderful Christmas eve at our traditional-get together with Murphy's Law and his family and this time fortunately also with Proud Hillbilly's family here in Michigan. PH's grand-daughter is really cute and getting bigger and more interactive all the time. Her two-fisted eating style was admired by all.

The kids got to meet the new dog Belle and she was very well behaved (with one misdogmeanor infraction occurring in Murphy's Law's Mom's bedroom...again...), as was Murphy.

Murphy discovered that Leah liked to play tug and he had a ball gently pulling on his toy as she held it. Gentle was a relative term, he was able to pull her right out of her chair on numerous occasions as she held on to the toybut they both enjoyed the game immensely.

A great time was had by all.

Hope you all have a very Merry Christmas out there.

At COSI Day 1

So we piled in the car and started to drive to Columbus, Ohio.

A nice warm day and just as we crossed the Ohio state line it started to rain, and it kept raining al the way to Columbus. Not a light rain either, but flood advisory type rain.

Rain notwithstanding and while it was still pouring, we arrived at COSI.

As a result, the first set of doors at the front were held open by people running back and forth, and we similalry dashed into the entrance, past the second set of glass door and headed in.

The second set of doors were clear.

Why does this matter? Well it was only at the end of the day as we were leaving, with the front doors closed that I saw this sign, which had previously been invisible as it was only the side of the door and not the front nor back that was visible on entry:

It's a Good Thing, considering I wouldn't have realized that it was improper to do so until I left that day, that I wasn't carrying my M&P 40c concealed in a Vanguard holster completely concealed under a sweater then, now wasn't it?

So we got our tickets and also signed up for an extra Adventure in the Valley of the Unknown for the kids, which is what we did first.

The adventure is an interactive exhibit where kids have to solve puzzles, seek hidden symbols and try to reason their way into the locked observatory to find knowledge.

The maze had numerous tricky puzzles to solve including on that closed sets of doors, trapping you inside until you figured out the right sequence, a laser-beam filled passageway that you ahd to maneuver through to get a hidden symbol and much more. The layered puzzles took quite a bit of time and the kids found it interesting and at times scary.

The staff at the Adventure exhibit were very good at pateintly assiting them find the missing symbols when needed and coaching them on steps to figure puzzles out while leaving it up to them to solve them.

But they persevered and made it into the observatory where they could find the following stele:

They then had to decode the stele. here's a hint, the first line reads: Seek

The second reads: Challenge of the worthy.

Abby really got into decoding the stele, the kid's got a future with the NSA methinks.

She then went on to decode the second stele:

By this point Leah was bored so she and Tash headed to the Curious George exhibit while Abby kept on decoding.

My bet is Borepatch can decode these with one hand tied behind his back without breaking a sweat....

We had lunch in the COSI cafeteria and the food was surprisingly decently priced, and quite tasty. This was a refreshing change from the average museum or science center cafe with subpar food at way over par prices.

Next we did the Ocean exhibit, where they proceeded to get a bit wet while doing the hands-on experiments.

They got soaked the most positioning a ball on a water spout so it would hang suspended on the water and not fall off, and they managed to do it after only a few tries:

They even went into a research submarine:

After that they had frozen yogurt made by a robot.

This answers the question as to what fast food places will do if minimum wage is pushed up to $15/hr - get robots:

Give a robot a properly setup workstation and simple parameters and can easily make a frozen yogurt to order - or flip burgers for that matter.

After the frozen yogurt they declared they were all done, so after about 5 hours at COSI the rain had stopped and we headed to the hotel and went for a swim in the pool. Then we had dinner, went to bed and prepared for COSI day 2. it was a fantastic first day at COSI.

Traditionally, Isn't It The Other Way Around?

Most of the time the flow of refugees is from the US to Canada, right?

Tonight we got to take in refugees that just arrived a few minutes ago from Toronto.

After the ice storm they just experienced, they're all without power and heat at their homes. People are still losing power their as trees keep coming down taking power lines down with them, and there's no good estimate on when it will be back on. So we said sure, drive on over, and here they are.

So it's a packed house with my mother-in-law, sister-in-law and niece along with us here.

Hey, family means they've got to take you in, and vice versa right?

Back Home

Just returned form the wilds of Columbus Ohio, after taking the kids on a two day tour of the COSI - Center of Science and Industry.

The kids had a great time doing lots of hands-on science activities, and the weather there was in the mid-60s and just beautiful and we had a great time.

A more detailed report to follow.

More Results Of That Smart Diplomacy - The Pivot To Asia Wobbles

Oh, that Obama-declared Pivot to Asia? Well Japan seems to not put much stock by it, and seeing Obama's faithfulness toward the United States' traditional allies elsewhere, is now looking to its own defense.

The Detroit News: Japan boosts its military forces over island dispute

From 2014-2019, Japan plans to buy three drones, as well as 28 F-35A fighters, 17 Osprey aircraft and five destroyers, including two with Aegis anti-ballistic-missile systems. The purchases will cost $247 billion, up 5 percent from the previous plan.

Broader defense program guidelines also adopted Tuesday say Japan is “gravely concerned” about China’s growing maritime and military presence in the East China Sea, and its lack of transparency and “high-handed” approach. Late last month, China said all aircraft entering a vast zone over the East China Seat must identify themselves and follow Chinese instructions.

While Japan’s alliance with the U.S. remains the cornerstone of its defense, Japan also should seek increased security cooperation with South Korea, Australia, Southeast Asia and India, the guidelines say.

“Up until now, Japan focused too much on the Japan-U.S. security alliance,” Isozaki said. “I don’t think that alone is enough to protect the peace in this region.

So we now have a former staunch ally, Japan, looking elsewhere for protection and seeking to be able to project more of its own naval and air power due to the the administration's fumbling foreign policy record.

What could possibly go wrong?

Meanwhile, the Administration managed to fumble the arrest in New York of an Indian Diplomat, kicking off protests in India and sanctions against our diplomats there.

Regardless of whether the arrest based on an alleged visa fraud, for false filing regarding employment of a nanny by the diplomat, was proper or not it sure wasn't handled very well. The administration is behind the publicity and diplomacy curve on this quite badly.

Ah, the glories of Obama's smart diplomacy.

United Kingdom To Go Drastic With Plastic Bank Notes

The United Kingdom will begin issuing polymer banknotes in 2016 to both increase durability over paper and make counterfeiting more difficult.

The Detroit News: UK to issue plastic bank notes in 2016

The first note to be issued, the 5 pound, will feature the portrait of Winston Churchill, certainly a worthy and deserving gentleman to be so featured.

Hopefully the polymer notes won't have the crinkle and melting issues reported with the Canadian polymer bills.

The Bank of England has a nice video up on the new banknotes and decision to move to polymer.

Expect the US Treasury to catch up and start considering moving to polymer soon.

In the meantime, if you're looking for last minute gifts, the Treasury's Bureau of Engraving and Printing still has uncut sheets of US bills for sale. The sheets make rather unique gifts and collectibles, and in case of fiscal emergency can be cut and spent just like a regular banknote.

Uighur, Please.

Muslim terrorists aren't just attacking the West. They're playing in China as well, but their tactics seem a little off, and they're facing an opponent with far fewer qualms and gentlemanly rules than in the West.

In this instance they brought knives (ok, and some explosives) to a gunfight:

The Detroit Free Press: 16 die in attack on police officers in west China

It seems like their tactics really weren't well thought out on this one.

The region's official news portal Tianshan Net reported Monday that knife-wielding assailants hurled explosive devices at police in Shufu county of Kashgar prefecture.

Tianshan Net says two police officers died in the attack while 14 attackers were shot and killed. Another two assailants were arrested.

Xinjiang has long been home to a simmering rebellion against Chinese rule among parts of the Muslim Uighur population.

So the score is Police 14, Uighur terrorists 2, a rather spectacular failure on the Uighurs' part, assuming you beleive the report.

Silly Uighurs, knives work well against unarmed opponents, but against numerous trained and armed enemies, not so much.

Note the Free Press photo of the Chinese Paramilitary police with those nifty-looking QBZ-95 bullpups.

Some Blogroll Additions

Time to update Ye Olde Blogroll with some excellent blogs I've been reading, a couple of which have also kindly added me to their blogroll so it's certainly more than time that I added them to mine.

Chant Du Depart an American blog with a French name and lots of military goodness and smart commentary.

Sticks and Stones. Jay has a Tavor, with a cup holder. It doth not get better than that.

The Adventures of Roberta X. I've been reading Tam's blog for years and clicking over to Roberta's on many occasion, might as well make it a proper fixture worthy of its content with its own direct spot on the blogroll.

Snow and Winter Boot Blogging

With yet a few more inches of global warming falling upon the Driveway of Doom™ and the snow falling continuously all day today up until now, it was time to break out the Bates boots and give them a go.

This was especially so as the plow company had failed to fully mark the driveway and left the upper 15 feet unploughed. Apparently, they had not marked the driveway fully and couldn't figure out where the top was even though I had already shoveled a strip along the garage the night before and they could have used that as a marker to line up with their existing flags, but no.

Note the cleared strip at the top by me, the lower area pushed by them, and the sad unploughed middle looking all snow-covered and forlorn.

Here's a nice view of the driveway from the upper side to help you appreciate the angle of ascent and descent.

So it was time to break out the new boots and clear the driveway.

I had mentioned the boots before when Amazon had them on a pre-Black Friday sale, and I've worn them around the house to break them in a bit and get used to them.

The boots have a nice appearance, with leather and nylon intermixed. While you wouldn't wear them to the office, they'll do nicely for walks, hikes and snow-shoveling duty.

The side-zip is rather generous and makes removing the boots easy even while still tied. The side-zip feature assists in getting them on, but I've found my feet won't fit in while the laces are still tied shut, so I have to unlace, sit down, get the foot in and then zip and tie up. The boots are not as fast to put on as I had hoped, but they are reasonably quick to take off, again as long as you're seated or standing leaning on something for support.

The Thinsulate insulation is excellent - so far it has kept my feet warm while walking, snow-shoveling and even prolonged sledding with no problems.

The boot offers excellent ankle support which helps when the dog decides to run over snow-covered hill and dale and you can't see the rocks you know are there. They're very comfortable and feel darn good and they're tall enough to keep the snow out.

The tread on the boots is almost magic, with a sure grip even climbing up the Driveway of Doom™. No problems with slipping and between the ankle support and the aggressive tread its been a definite upgrade from the worn-out slip-o-matic boots I wore last year

Out with the kids today sledding there was no problem walking up or down any of the hills or through the mounds of snow on the unploughed streets and sidewalks. Hours outside and the feet stayed warm, toasty, and dry,

Fit seems dead on and no rubbing points or blisters have occurred. The boots aren't heavy and are a joy to walk in, and best of all, they really are waterproof even when covered in snow. While they're not going to win any fashion awards, the Bates GX-8 GTX Boots are very utilitarian and just what I need for what promises to be a long and snowy winter. Recommended.

Why Will The Chinese Navy Of The Future Have Glass Bottoms?

To see the current Chinese Navy if they keep this up: Foxnews: Chinese naval vessel tries to force U.S. warship to stop in international waters

A Chinese naval vessel tried to force a U.S. guided missile warship to stop in international waters recently, causing a tense military standoff in the latest case of Chinese maritime harassment, according to defense officials.

The guided missile cruiser USS Cowpens, which recently took part in disaster relief operations in the Philippines, was confronted by Chinese warships in the South China Sea near Beijing’s new aircraft carrier Liaoning, according to officials familiar with the incident.

“On December 5th, while lawfully operating in international waters in the South China Sea, USS Cowpens and a PLA Navy vessel had an encounter that required maneuvering to avoid a collision,” a Navy official said.

Good to see our current appeasement policy regarding Chinese expansionism and saber-rattling is getting great results and enhancing deterrence of international incidents.