If he really wants to go with China, he can do that, but even now it means losing a lot of income for his country if the US has to pull out of its military bases and leave the Philippines entirely. And five will get you ten, down the road the Philippines become Chinese territory.
* * *
We are often told, by the anti-gun crowd, that only police officers and other government agents should be allowed to carry guns, because they're the "only ones" who have the training for it.
Stories like this give the lie to that.
Here's the thing: a modern firearm will not fire unless you depress the trigger. There's no such thing as an "accidental discharge"; only negligent discharges are possible.
It's perfectly permissible to show your gun to someone. Here's what you do: keeping your finger off the trigger at all times, remove the gun from its holster or other storage place. Eject the magazine. Work the slide to clear the loaded cartridge. With the slide locked open, visually inspect the firing chamber to ensure the gun is clear.
Now you may safely hand the gun to the other party, whose first action should be to look in the chamber to verify that the firearm is unloaded and out of battery.
(The instructions are similar for revolvers, but of course there's no magazine; as long as the cylinder is open and out of battery and unloaded it's safe to pass around.)
Guns are not toys. You'd expect a sheriff's deputy to understand that.
* * *
So, originally I was going to go to Walmart today and see about some new glasses. We stopped in there yesterday while running errands and I found a decent pair of frames for $9, with lenses costing either $120 or $180 depending on how thick they end up being. I need new glasses (recall these have been broken for months and I've been holding them together with glue) but with Mrs. Fungus' recent medical travails there isn't a lot of wiggle room in the budget.
Anyway, long story short, I didn't go--because when I woke up today the bed was that perfect temperature and I was comfortable, the kind of comfortable that I only ever seem to experience about 30 seconds before the alarm clock goes off, signaling the start of a tediously long work say. "This," I said, "is for all the times I couldn't," and rolled over and went back to sleep.
Mrs. Fungus thoughtfully rescheduled my appointment.
...but one of the things I had to get done today was to review my benefits elections, and I discovered that I somehow have vision coverage--I don't recall opting for it--so now I have to work out what it would cost me to get a pair of glasses through one of the in-network providers. Looks like it would cost less, anyway.
Oh well.