Note: Each block of text actually is a link to a story or a web page that I am commenting on. Click on that text and it will take you to the page being referred to
Another day of tragic events … and anniversaries of historic ones.
More on the former later, but just a personal side note that on this day I received a phone call that really changed my life: It was from the Public Affairs Officer for the North Carolina National Guard asking me if I would “volunteer” to go with the state’s Public Affairs Detachment that I had been drilling with for the past year if it got mobilized for Desert Shield. I told him that I didn’t know and would have to talk it over with my wife at the time and I would get back to him. We talked, and decided that I was less likely to face bullets with the PAD than with the M-1 Tank Battalion that I was assigned to since it was a round-out high mobilization priority unit. I was not eager to put my body where it might get damaged.
Did you know today is the anniversary of the women’s right to vote in the US? It was declared women’s equality day … well, I just want to know equal in what? Equal physically – heck, men and women are physically different (and different, as the Supreme Court noted, is inherently not equal) and no cultural or legislative mandate is going to change that. Equal before the law … I should hope so and would fight anyone who would make it different. Equal opportunity? That is tougher, but as long as it is not de jure barriers, the rest have to be dealt with as part of life. Equality of pay … equal pay for the same work always has been my motto. Equality of outcome? You can take a hike with that concept.
Ok, this is today's top news story ... and it is very tragic. However, in a way, not entirely unexpected. Unfortunately, when you elevate the victim culture to the status it has been in the US, you are going to see the victims turning to violence to make their statements. You saw that in Charleston, with the white shooter there. You are seeing it here with a black man. It is not the guns that kill and wound people, it is people who demand what they think they are entitled to because they are victims. And in both cases, the men involved saw people of a different color as the problem and thought it was time to start a race war. Well, they may get what they wish for.
Here is a profile by CNN on the Roanoke shooter ...
Here is the ABC news report on the "grievances" faxed to them in a series of suicide notes after the shooting. My dear wife was surprised, when I basically outlined what his motivation would be when she read the early story to me. To me, once it was identified as workplace related, and the fact that the shooter was black and the victims white, it was like a no-brainer to me.
On a less morbid topic ... I hope several billionaires ante up to help get the Mars One project rolling at all propitious speed. We have to realize that colonizing Mars will not come without risk and cost ... and that it really has to be a one-way voyage ... Just like the colonist who sailed for the New World four centuries ago.
An excellent article on the failings of our ruling class ...
I really wonder why some of our political class get a pass on garbage like this. Talk about racially charged language.
Good for this trooper ... especially since the airman got the Air Force equivalent. This young men who stopped the terrorist on that French train deserve all the accolades they can get ... just don't let it go to your heads, boys, you still have plenty of lives to live.
The Market Roller Coaster continues ... as the US markets rallied on Wednesday.
Just to keep the market gyrations in perspective for us lowly plebeians ... $2 trillion is a lot of money ... but it was all on paper ... and the numbers were just erased and replaced with other numbers ... you know all those millionaires and billionaires? Well, that is what their wealth is ... and literally with a stroke of proverbial pen, they lose their shirts. Kind of grim view, ain't it. That is why I am not jealous of these people with paper wealth ... it means little.
And before you think that the rally means we are out of the woods, think again.
Army awards contract to Oshkosh for its new light tactical vehicle ... light, hell, the damn thing is as big as a small tank. It makes me think the army should resurrect some of the old armored cars like the M-8 Greyhound from WWII. You definitely are not going to do much sneaking and peeking with this monster.
Instead of the usual hue and cry over gun violence, I think we need to launch a campaign to ban knives
Two points for this gentleman for standing by his son ... and pointing out that, yes, indeed, we are in a war.
Assuming this article is correct, the columnist in question is a jerk. Hello, folks, get over Jim Crow. Get over slavery. If you have a legal case for overt discrimination by the government or some agency, then file a lawsuit. If some one offends you because that person doesn't like your ethnicity ... get over it.
I know, the progressive PC response to this Imam is to just sit down with him and reason with him ... we can reach a place were we can both respect each other's views. If you buy that, then you are just not listening to these people.
American civilian journalists, and sometimes those from other countries, just don't understand that their press card is not a bullet-proof shield. Also on the battlefield, it is very difficult to separate out the good guys from the bad guys, and the "non-belligerents" from the "belligerents". And commanders in the field often don't have the time, resources or energy to deal with such diversions. Is this policy subject to abuse ... damn straight it is ... but at the same time journalists have to realize that out there on the front line, much of what they are trying to do is - to put it plainly - spying that offers aid and comfort to the enemy. It is not just balanced reporting, because the information can aid the enemy is so many different ways.
The ACLU - no longer a real defender of Americans' civil liberties - attack church hospitals for upholding church doctrine. Sorry, but why to we have to force people to go against their consciences? Where did we get that right to have government bring its weight to bear? I don't get it and I wish a progressive really would justify it to me.
The thrust of this article on how the left's hypocrisy is showing is spot on ... but unfortunately, so is its observation that there will be no outrage among the masses
This actually illustrates how corrupt the American system of governance has become
This makes a good case for abandoning the culture of victimhood and restoring the culture of success and champions.
And it is not just women who struggle with these skills in the Army ... people not in 11-series, 12-series or 19-series MOSes also face the same challenge ... so, there is the problem ... putting Ranger School sometimes is putting the cart before the horse. Infantry AIT and Infantry Basic Officers Courses need to be opened to women to have a better assessment of how well women will perform.
Ah the rhetorical devices and linguistic twists professional soldiers often have to do to justify themselves ... I know, I have been there. But in the end ... this is how the military usually accomplish whatever task it is given ... it causes people to die and things to break ... not always ... and a lot of time is spent these days teaching other people how to make other people die for their cause and to break only the things that you can't avoid breaking ... but you still are talking about people dying and things breaking.
As this article points out: There is no silver bullet in military affairs ... and besides, if it was left to the DOD is would be obsolete before it ever got to the field.
How the US military spends its money: Note the top two - consumables and personnel.
Indicting President Obama's policy on Syria ... interesting read
This analyst calls for President Obama to confront China on its machinations in the South China Sea ... not going to happen
Interesting story ... can a federal employee be fired for adultery? It has happened ... think David Patreaus
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