Kodiak01

The last time I encountered JW at my door was ~1996. Instead of telling them to shove off, decided to go all Charlton Heston-meets-Tony Robbins. Invited them in enthusiastically, sat them down on my couch, then proceeded to give a several-minute over-energetic spiel about the dangers of firearm confiscation that politicians were pushing that would have made Billy Mays sound like Eeyore.

It wasn't long before they realized the level of crazy they walked into as they kept looking sideways at the door while trying to stay polite and get a word in edgewise about their own purpose for the visit. By the end, I actually got them to sign postcards protesting the proposed laws to mail to the Legislature followed by a beeline to the door.

They don't visit me anymore... Such a pity, as for the longest time I had a full Pastafarian routine prepared, to the point of leaving a colander on a hook by the door.

In MA, 911 is set up with a Silent Call Procedure -- Do other States have a similar type of system, and do you know if this system is integrated with central wireless 911 operators as well?

For those that can't click the link, MA 911 allows you to press 1 for Police, 2 for Fire, 3 for Ambulance if you are unable to speak on the phone for any reason, and can answer operator questions with 1 for Yes and 2 for No.

My younger brother started playing taps at military funerals when he was 10, he took over for another teen that did it for several years before him. Families really liked having a live bugle player rather than a tape recording (this was back in the early 90s). He went on to spend almost 15 years now in army band, first as reserve and now guard.

On a personal note: in 10 years handling airline cargo for passenger airlines, handled many military body transfers. Occasionally a color guard would be there waiting to receive the body.

Typical procedure is that we would pull the freight cart into the warehouse, secure the facility, theb let them do their thing, not actually touching the airtray ourselves. On one occasion though, we had an extremely overzealous officer with the patience and mentality of a 6 year old. He actually barged through our facility and out the back onto the ramp unescorted. We ended up having to call the state police and have him removed, and loaded the body in the hearse ourself. The funeral director was so mortified, we got a $50 tip each for our trouble.

Most often there was an escort flying with the body that would meet up at the dock. We always did what we could to make him comfortable, have a refreshment available, etc. for them. They were always respectful.

Reid was the one that lowered the threshold for non-SC judges from 60 to 50 votes, then whined when Republicans used that to put their own in.

Its easy to hate the filibuster when you're in power, but 8 years from now if things swing the other way, it may not be such a bad thing to have.

Harry Reid has entered the chat.