Update

I haven't posted in almost two weeks. Why? There is absolutely nothing to talk about.

J is still at court services, and still hating it. He's recently been trained and authorized to fly armed, in order to do prisoner transports. Which means beaucoup overtime! I've gotten absolutely spoiled rotten by having him home evenings, weekends AND holidays. He anticipates going back out on the road shortly before the baby gets here, but is also going to take paternity leave for several weeks. So I will probably have a complete breakdown when we both go back to work and I am back to being a single-married wife. But them's the breaks, eh?

I haven't forgotten anybody, or forgotten about the blog. I just haven't had anything interesting to share with you from the cop world.

I did however, stumble across this story today about the controversy surrounding the proposed 9/11 memorial. I wasn't aware that there was a controversy, but I can definitely see both sides of the debate. The designer originally proposed a completely random scattering of all the victims' names on the memorial, and not having any other details (building/plane/first responder, age, etc) On the one hand I do feel like they should be sorted out, and I'm a little biased about first responders, since they had a choice about being there. But on the other hand I would hate for that to demean the senseless deaths of anybody else on 9/11. I don't really know where I stand on this one. Thoughts?

Cop profiling never ends...

Oy. The Rand Corp. was contracted by the city of Cincinnati to assemble police reports and study them for evidence of racial profiling. The report has now been released. It is RIFE with opportunity for misinterpretation. Great.

shock and awe

I was checking my recent visitors log, courtesy of Statcounter, and much to my surprise (and horror) I found I was being linked to from a site called Saddam Hussein's blog (at blogspot, no less). Naturally I recognized it to be a spoof by its address alone. I'd even seen it referenced today on another website, but was at work and didn't want to check it out. Since I was at home when I saw it I decided to risk it and check it out, especially since I'd had two different visitors link to me from it.

Imagine my surprise to open the blog and see it is laid out exactly like our very own Lugosi's website. D'oh! hahahaha, I got quite the giggle out of that.

Dominant personalities

So I've taken to watching The Dog Whisperer on the National Geographic channel. You've probably heard of Cesar Millan before. He's actually pretty fascinating. Dogs are a big part of my life, and always will be. And it pains me to see a family with a dog (or multiple dogs) that has behavioral issues that could be easily solved with proper training. If you haven't had the opportunity to experience his show, each episode has a few different dogs with behavioral problems, often neurotic attitudes, and usually aggressive problems. Some dogs have separation anxiety; some attack other dogs. Today the episode I was watching featured a husband and wife, and their almost-adult son. They had two yorkies that yapped nonstop, pottied in the house at will, and attacked shrubberies. They don't usually get into the occupations of the owners unless it applies. Today it did.

The husband was revealed to be a police officer. This was used to emphasize the point that this man should know how to discipline his dogs, but didn't. Cesar put it pretty appropriately when he said "Tom comes home and he punches out." And boy is it true! There are some cops I've known to have the same personality on duty and off. But most of them have a 'switch' when they're on duty. It's difficult to explain if you haven't witnessed it for yourself, but it's a subtle difference in personality and attitude. I've heard of some officers who have to turn it on a while before shift. With my husband, I don't notice it unless I happen to see him on duty. And even then, he's pretty good at turning it on and off. If he's getting some food or he's in the car and we talk on the phone, he's himself. Normal, jovial, good humored.

Because I don't see him that often on duty, it's a rare opportunity that I experience the cop persona in him. He's more focused on the job, much more serious, not nearly as easy to crack a joke. Don't get me wrong, J has an insane sense of humor and almost always finds a laugh out of a given situation. It sounds weird as I type it out, as though this personality change should be obvious to the average joe citizen. To your common criminal, they probably assume cops are that hard personality 24 hours a day. To family members, it's a bit difficult to see their loved one with that mental 'helmet' on.

The cop/dog owner, Tom, also said himself that he had a soft spot for children and animals, those who can't defend themselves. I like to think that's true of most cops; at least the ones we know. Most of them do have dogs, and are good around kids. Even one cop we know at J's old post who is quite the asshole, has rescued a Katrina dog. He pretends he doesn't have a soft spot, but I've seen it; lurking around the edges. He's the gruff old uncle type. But Tom, on the Dog Whisperer, couldn't bring himself to discipline his dogs because they were small, and they were animals. Ultimately Cesar showed him how to become the 'leader', or as other trainers put it, the alpha. I didn't doubt for a second that Tom could do it, but he comes home and wants to be the family guy. Cops don't come home and keep that badge on with their family.