Category Archives: guns

by | June 10, 2013 · 2:56 pm

CHINFO Uses the “F-word”

Old-Ironsides

Frigate.  Over at Information Dissemination.  He calls LCS a “light frigate, a corvette”, noting ”I never understood why we didn’t just call it that in the first place”.  Neither did many of the rest of us.

In fact, stridently denying that LCS was to replace the FFG-7s at the lower end of the “hi-lo” mix when it was obvious to everyone that was almost certainly the role it would fill, didn’t do anything for the credibility of the US Navy nor those pushing LCS.

Admiral Kirby makes a number of historical references to unproven ship design, including the Six Frigates, and USS Monitor.  Whatever else those “experimental” vessels were, they were powerfully-armed and were well-protected.   Those are precisely the areas LCS is found most wanting.  Both designs are fragile and woefully under-armed.

Anyway, read Admiral Kirby’s assertions.  He makes some valid points, but you can be the judge of just how many, and just how valid.

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Filed under Around the web, Artillery, guns, history, navy, Uncategorized, war

by | June 7, 2013 · 7:31 am

Welcome to the United States of Oceania

PRISM slide crop

Phone calls, e-mail, social media, even your private “cloud computing”.  All under the watchful eye of your benevolent and non-partisan government.  Unless you don’t like big government.  Or higher taxes.  Or gun control.  Or Obamacare.  Or the Benghazi coverup.  Or Fast and Furious.  Or amnesty for illegals.  Or “stimulus” packages.  Or….

You get the idea.  One has to imagine not a little coercion on the part of the US Government to assure cooperation of the participants.

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I will have to see if DARPA has put out a BAA for development of a telescreen.

What was it that President Obama told OSU grads last month?

Unfortunately, you’ve grown up hearing voices that incessantly warn of government as nothing more than some separate, sinister entity that’s at the root of all our problems. Some of these same voices also do their best to gum up the works. They’ll warn that tyranny always lurking just around the corner. You should reject these voices. Because what they suggest is that our brave, and creative, and unique experiment in self-rule is somehow just a sham with which we can’t be trusted.

The experiment is most decidedly not a sham.  But Obama and his ilk likewise most decidedly cannot be trusted.   Tyranny lurking just around the corner, indeed.   One has to wonder if Obama heard those voices because of an NSA network intrusion or wiretap.

Remember, folks, this is the Administration that tells us to trust them with the ‘star chamber’ secretive decisions of which American citizens our own government targets for death without trial or charge, and why.   And the Administration that wants to disarm Americans, denying them the last redress against the tyranny of government.

What say we, my fellow thoughtcriminals?   If you prefer not to answer because it will end up on an NSA display screen, I understand.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence.

Precedent.  It is a damned dangerous thing.  I was never crazy about PATRIOT, in large measure because it gave authorities to government which made that government far more dangerous to our existence as a free people than any terrorist or terrorists that authority was allegedly to protect against.

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Filed under Around the web, guns, history, islam, obama, Personal, Politics, Uncategorized, war

by | June 6, 2013 · 8:03 am

Leadership and Responsibility on the Longest Day

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Our landings in the Cherbourg-Havre area have failed to gain a satisfactory foothold and I have withdrawn the troops. My decision to attack at this time and place was based upon the best information available. The troops, the air and the Navy did all that Bravery and devotion to duty could do. If any blame or fault attaches to the attempt it is mine alone.

The troops did not fail.  More than 140,000 Allied soldiers came ashore at Normandy, on this day 69 years ago.   The Second Front so long in the coming was established.  The cost was more than ten thousand casualties, of which approximately 4,000 were killed.  The same number that died in Iraq in eight years, died on the French coast in a single morning.   Tens of thousands more would die before Nazi Germany surrendered unconditionally eleven months and one day later.

General Dwight Eisenhower’s famous note hearkens to a brand of leadership seemingly all but extinct today.   People in positions of great responsibility shouldering the burden for their decisions and everything that is done or fails to be done by those in their charge.    What difference does it make?   The difference between victory and defeat, liberty and subjugation, existence and extinction.

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Filed under Air Force, armor, army, Artillery, ducks, guns, history, infantry, Lybia, marines, navy, planes, SIR!, Uncategorized, veterans, war

by | May 31, 2013 · 4:23 pm

1000 Yards. 1 Shot. Offhand.

Hitting a target at 1000 yards is pretty impressive. Doing it offhand (standing, for you civvies) is unheard of.

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by | May 30, 2013 · 6:53 pm

Exploring the Jutland Wrecks

A very good documentary on a diving expedition to try and explain the loss of battle cruisers Invincible, Indefatigable, Queen Mary, and armored cruiser Defence at Jutland on 31 May 1916.   There has been much written about the fragility of Jackie Fisher’s battle cruisers, his fast “cats”, where at Jutland the Royal Navy suffered devastating explosions from relatively little damage, while their High Seas Fleet counterparts absorbed frightful punishment but still managed to limp home to the Jade.

A myth surrounding the loss of these vessels was that German shells slammed into the ammunition magazines, piercing the too-thin armored plate and detonating massive explosions in each which blew the large ships apart.   Far less publicized is the reputation of the Royal Navy and her sailors for flagrant disregard for safety in the handling of cordite propellant.   Cordite in open spaces, the failure to close flash doors between handling rooms and turrets, possibly in order to increase rates of fire of the main batteries, were common practices.  A good summation of the highly dangerous practices, and the foolhardy risks such practices entailed, is provided beginning around 36:00.

As an artilleryman, I have been responsible for burning powder countless times.  The flames from a football-sized powder bag will often burn three or four meters high, and produce intense heat.  (See video.)  And those bags are miniscule compared to the propellant charges of a medium or large naval gun.   Once exposed propellant had been ignited belowdecks on those vessels, there was nothing to stop it, nor any way for sailors to get away from it.

Twenty-five years after Jutland, almost to the day, the Royal Navy’s greatest warship, 42,000-ton battle cruiser HMS Hood, exploded and sank after a strike from Bismarck’s 15″ guns.  Like her sisters a generation earlier, she did not succumb to the detonation of a projectile magazine, but with the roaring furnace of propellant spelling her doom.

Worth the viewing.  And thinking about the importance of battle drills.  And the integrity of senior Officers.

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Filed under armor, guns, history, navy, Uncategorized, veterans, war

by | May 26, 2013 · 7:50 am

May 26th, 1940 Operation DYNAMO; The Evacuation of Dunkirk Begins

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As the Allied Dyle-Breda Plan collapsed under the pressure of the Wehrmacht’s Blitzkrieg, most of the British Expeditionary Force of more than 320,000 men fell back against the French coast around Calais and Dunkirk.   Germany’s Fall Gelb (Case Yellow) had been radically modified in early 1940 from a plan looking nearly identical to that of 1914, to one which included a decisive armored thrust through the Ardennes Forest that would break the Allied armies in two and trap the preponderance of Allied combat power in a pocket north of Paris.   The Blitzkrieg which began in 10 May 1940 had shattered the Dutch, Belgian, and French armies.

The Wehrmacht employment of auftragstaktik allowed German commanders at all levels to consistently defeat Allied tempo of decision-making, which led to countless occasions where German units slammed into French and British formations who were de-training or still in road march formation and unready for battle.   Speed, both in tactical mobility and command and control, was as decisive as any other single factor in the Battle of France.

Sixteen days into office, Prime Minister Winston Churchill had known since 15 May that the French were finished.   Despite attempts to reinforce his French allies, by 21 May the objective of the BEF was to conduct a fighting withdrawal to a Channel port, from where it might, if extremely fortunate and able to gain local air superiority, be evacuated back to Britain.

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Operation DYNAMO, which would include a massive commitment of the Royal Navy, the Royal Air Force, and thousands of small ships and craft, began on 26 May 1940.   With two French divisions holding against German pressure, British units began to move toward the beaches and piers, the ships and craft (in the surf line) which would shuttle them both to larger ships and to England itself.  That German pressure was not nearly as heavy as it might have been, thankfully for the British.  Reichsmarshall Goering had promised Hitler that his Luftwaffe would destroy the Allied evacuation efforts without having to risk von Küchler’s Panzer and Panzergrenadier units in coastal sand unsuitable for their deployment.

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In the end, German commanders convinced Hitler to launch concerted attacks on Dunkirk, but it would come too late.  Dunkirk was finally captured on 4 June 1940, but by that time, 198,000 British and 123,000 French troops had been evacuated.   The RAF had paid a heavy price for the furious defense of the skies over Operation DYNAMO, losing 177 precious fighter aircraft that had been jealously hoarded for the battle over the skies of England that was sure to come.   The Royal Navy lost six modern destroyers, and several hundred small craft.   Virtually all of the BEF’s heavy equipment, tanks and trucks, artillery pieces, and more than 70,000 tons of ammunition was left on the beach.  And nearly 15% of the BEF’s soldiers were dead, wounded, or prisoner.

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But the vast preponderance of British manpower had been saved.  German intelligence reports in preparation for SEELÖWE noted the toughness and high quality of the British Soldiers, including the Territorials.  Most of them were back safely on British soil, and the Wehrmacht would have to deal with them in the near future under far less favorable circumstances.  Those plucked from the Dunkirk docks and surf included the British Commander of II Corps, Lieutenant General Sir Alan Brooke, later Chief of the Imperial General Staff, and Major General Bernard Law Montgomery, in command of the 3rd Infantry Division.   Dunkirk had been a miracle indeed.  And the Germans would pay dearly for their mistake.

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Churchill’s admonition that “wars are not won by evacuations” not withstanding, the successful evacuation of the bulk of the BEF from Dunkirk allowed England to survive until the Soviet Union and the United States entered the war.   Lost on the 73 years since the evacuation of Dunkirk was the fact that there was a considerable body of opinion in Parliament that desired a negotiated peace with Germany.  With the loss of the BEF, such a body of opinion might have been strong enough to have blocked Churchill’s desires to fight Hitler to the bitter end.   DYNAMO signaled what Churchill told the British people, that “the Battle of France is over, the Battle of Britain is about to begin”.    Defending the Island Nation was the force evacuated from France.

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Filed under Air Force, armor, army, Artillery, guns, history, infantry, navy, planes, Uncategorized, veterans, war

by | May 23, 2013 · 4:56 am

Name That Plane

http://xbradtc.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/8c0f3-malak-01.jpg?w=500

Which, I know the basic type, but could actually use some help on the sub-type.

Pic courtesy of The Rebel Pin-up.

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by | May 20, 2013 · 2:51 pm

Lies, Damned Lies, and the Obama Administration

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One cannot think back to the last thing that the Obama Administration nor any of its appointed officials have said about Benghazi, the IRS scandal, or the illegal subpoena of Associated Press phone records that has had even a shred of truth.

About Benghazi, Hillary Clinton lied.  She knew it was a terrorist attack when she talked about some internet video being the cause of a spontaneous demonstration that turned violent.  Hillary also knew it was her State Department, and not intelligence entities, that changed the talking points into a pack of lies.   Susan Rice lied by repeating those talking points when she knew they were untrue several days after the tragedy.    Barack Obama lied when he claimed he had called the Benghazi attack “terrorism”.  He very pointedly did no such thing, and apparently believes us lazy enough to not remember what he said, or stupid enough to make us think we didn’t understand his words.

The IRS scandal keeps growing, as well.  Despite assurances at the time that no such targeting of political opponents took place, it was widespread.  Not only that but even as the assurances were being given, high level White House and IRS officials knew that targeting was happening.  The tale that it was a few “low-level employees in Cincinnati” was a deliberate fabrication.   So when President Obama tells us he heard about it on the news like everyone else, he is either an imbecile, or he is lying.    Since he considers himself smart enough to lecture us on Naval strategy during a debate, I will have to choose the latter.

Now, new revelations that the illegal, secret, unconstitutional subpoena of Associated Press phone records is much broader than we were first told.   Attorney General Eric Holder’s Justice Department has been nothing short of a criminal enterprise, with this episode yet another in a long list of violations of his oath, and of the law.  (Fast and Furious,  New Black Panthers)  His Deputy Attorney General is also complicit.  James Cole has been caught in a lie.   The extent of the subpoenas is far greater than we were told.  Another deliberate falsehood.   Resignation is not sufficient.  Eric Holder is a criminal and should be behind bars.

Dempsyjayhoffa

There has been nothing that can be believed that has come out from this Administration in this first few months of a second term.  Worse, he has two people who are willing unconditionally to sell their honor and trumpet the deliberate falsehoods of this presidency.  One is a spineless political sycophant.  The other is Jay Carney.

The Obama apologists will cling to their ideas that this is either not important, or the result of some kind of media/right-wing persecution of their Dear Leader.   That the IRS scandal, the subpoenas, and Benghazi weren’t stonewalled and obfuscated until Obama was safely re-elected.  Those who assert such, and claim anyone criticizing Barack Obama (don’t be hatin’ on Brother Barack!) is either parroting Fox News or is somehow a racist are intellectually bankrupt, and seemingly incapable of serious discussion regarding the malevolence of this Administration and its statist command-economy secular socialism.

Just as a reminder, this is the Administration that wants to control dispensing of our medical care.  That believes that it is a government responsibility to care for our children.  That believes a secret star chamber of “informed government officials” determining the grounds for assassinating Americans without criminal charges, a trial by a jury of one’s peers, or conviction in court constitutes “due process” and is a legitimate power of government.   This is the Administration that wants us to surrender our firearms, our last redress against the tyranny of government, and tells us it is for our safety and protection.

And a President that tells a commencement class not to listen to voices that tell them that tyranny is around every corner.    Small wonder.

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Did I mention Fast and Furious, above?  Well, seems DoJ was going great guns, pun intended, to discredit the one who blew the whistle on Holder’s criminal activity:

The former U.S. Attorney for Arizona could be disbarred, after an investigation found he lied to the Justice Department about his role in trying to discredit the federal whistle-blower who exposed the botched gun-running scheme known as Fast and Furious.

An Office of Inspector General report showed that Dennis Burke — the former chief of staff for Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano appointed as U.S. Attorney for Arizona by President Obama in September 2009 — lied when asked if he leaked sensitive documents to the press meant to undermine the credibility of ATF whistle-blower John Dodson.

“The report brings into question, yet again, the treatment that whistle-blowers receive from this administration,” Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, said Monday. “Instead of examining the allegations that came forward, the Justice Department almost immediately began to attack the credibility and good name of a dedicated federal agent upset with what he was ordered to do.”

I don’t agree with Chuck Grassley.  There is no question whatever of the treatment that whistle-blowers receive from this Administration.  They get the Chicago treatment.

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Filed under army, Around the web, guns, history, islam, Lybia, navy, obama, Politics, Uncategorized, veterans

by | May 16, 2013 · 4:12 pm

That Explains It! Weaker men more likely to support welfare state and wealth redistribution

Dwyane 'The Rock' Johnson-20120419-28

The Daily Mail tells us the story.

‘In all three countries, physically strong males consistently pursue the self-interested position on redistribution.’

Men with low upper-body strength, on the other hand, were less likely to support their own self-interest.

No wonder why the men who seem most bent on relying on the protection of the collective instead of being the protector always seem to be milquetoasts.

these-photos-of-joe-biden-getting-intimate-with-a-lady-biker-are-pricelessht_paul_ryan_time5_jef_121011_wblog

 

It is a hell of a lot more plausible than Global Warming.    So get thyself in the gym, move steel, and try not to act like Mary-Ellen Sisterpants.   Bulk up or be crushed.

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Filed under guns, Humor, marines, Personal, Politics, SIR!, Uncategorized, veterans

by | May 13, 2013 · 4:48 pm

Tap Me Maybe? Eric Holder’s New Hit

DOJ

I saw the news while eating dinner.   Salamander broke it first over on the front porch, but I was gonna finish my baked scrod, dammit.    His question as to whether the media has “had enough” of Obama and Holder and the infringements on the First and Fourth Amendment rights of the press, I am afraid I have to answer in the negative.  Most, despite the loud protestations of some, are far-left ideologues, who consider such intrusion “breaking a few eggs”.  Hell, Chris Matthews was glad for Hurricane Sandy, with its 100+ dead and quarter million homeless, because it helped his man Obama win re-election.

Sniveling sycophants aside, I have a few questions of my own.  

So, how is this new, streamlined, secret Eric Holder-style due process working for ya?    Anybody still think that the drone strike memo had anything to do with terrorists anywhere?   Or that gun-grabbing efforts anything to do with “the children”?  Or that the IRS targeting political opposition was a matter of “a few low-ranking employees”?   Or that Holder didn’t know anything about Fast and Furious?  Or that the “immigration reform” sought by Obama is anything but allowing millions of illegals onto Democrat voter rolls?  Or that repeal of DADT and women in combat arms was anything other than pandering to special interests to garner votes, at the expense of the combat effectiveness of our Armed Forces?

[Oh wait, I almost forgot the Affordable Healthcare Act.**]

eric al

Here is an interesting quote.  It is by none other than Eric Holder, uncredited author of Fast and Furious, obstructionist in his refusal to prosecute the Black Panther Party voter intimidation case (wrong color),  champion of the authority of the Federal Government to kill any American, anywhere, without such messy and time consuming things like charges, grand juries, trials, or convictions.  Holder here in 2004, discussing the PATRIOT Act (emphasis mine):

When you look at some of the things that have done under the spirit of the act, where you detain citizens without giving them access to a lawyer, where you listen in on attorney-client conversations without involving a judge, these are the kinds of things that have been done in the name of the Patriot Act by this (Bush) administration…

…the problem that I had with the enforcement of the act is that this (Bush) administration said essentially trust us. We’re not going to involve judges, we’re not going to report to Congress on what we’re doing, and I think our history has shown us that we are best when we operate as people governed by the law as opposed to putting our trust in people and that’s the problem I have.

Seems that’s not a problem any more.   At least Bush was going after America’s enemies, and not Obama’s political opponents.

 

**100% to 400% increase in coverage premiums

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Filed under Around the web, guns, history, obama, Politics, Uncategorized, veterans

by | · 7:03 am

Pediatricians for Gun Control!

No surprise here.  They will try and make the hackneyed and disproved argument that legally-owned firearms present a health risk.   Physicians tend to be overwhelmingly liberal, believe me.  That is no surprise.  What I do object to is the decades-long CDC and other government-funded supposed medical research being done to forward the far-left gun control agenda.   The idea that physicians, especially pediatricians, have the right to ask about firearms ownership in the name of medicine smacks of the big-brother philosophy that our Constitutional liberties present a danger to ourselves and society, and therefore must be carefully regulated or outright forbidden.  

Funny thing, though.  Deaths by “gun violence”, two-thirds of which are suicides, and the rest largely committed by criminals for whom laws are not at all effective, number around 31,ooo in the US annually.  Deaths through medical errors?  Well, here is some data between 2001 and 2003:

An average of 195,000 people in the USA died due to potentially preventable, in-hospital medical errors in each of the years 2000, 2001 and 2002, according to a new study of 37 million patient records that was released today by HealthGrades, the healthcare quality company.

What’s that look like in a graph?  I thought you’d never ask.

firearms vs medical errors

So doctors and medical professionals kill nineteen times the number of people that non-suicide “gun violence” kills.   Apparently, those people who die from in-hospital medical errors are much less dead than someone killed by a gun in a homicide.   And doctors and medical professionals kill more than THREE HUNDRED TIMES the number of people who die in firearms accidents.

I wonder if all the time and attention and money spent by the CDC and by medical organizations to further the lefty agenda might been better spent on training doctors and clinicians to do their jobs properly.

Just a thought.  By the way, how about they “do no harm” and shut up about trying to foist their political views upon us in the guise of medical research?

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by | May 11, 2013 · 8:25 am

Battle for Berlin, 1945

This week marks VE Day, commemorating the Victory in Europe over Hitler’s Third Reich.  The last and perhaps the most savage battle was for the German capital of Berlin.   This from the Battlefield series, which was aired weekly on Far East Network (“Forced Entertainment Network”) when I had an artillery battery in Okinawa in 1996.   The entire series is superb, and if you look, you can find most of them on line.  They are also available on DVD.   They contain a pretty good description of the higher tactical through the strategic picture, and have enough detail and technical stuff, but not too much.

Since the series was made, Russian archives have been explored more completely, and the number of Soviet casualties have been scaled up more than two-fold, from the 305,000 quoted in this episode, to nearly 700,000.   Note the ever-present use of artillery and mortars, rockets, and field guns, even in an urban environment.   The episode is 116 minutes, roughly the time one spends clicking on all of Mav’s aviation links and cool pictures and videos and stuff.   So get your Eastern Front geek on, and watch it.  You know you wanna.

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by | May 6, 2013 · 11:53 am

Benghazi: Obama Administration Caught in Coverup

The “whistleblowers” in the Benghazi attack have finally been heard from.  And the news is entirely unsurprising, though no less maddening for it.

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Susan Rice lied.

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Hillary Clinton lied.  

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CJCS General Martin Dempsey lied.

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Barack Obama lied. 

The Administration knew the truth, even as the Benghazi attack was occurring.  They deliberately misled the American people, and the Mainstream Media outlets were complicit in the cover-up that followed.  

Not that anyone who paid the slightest attention to the events as they occurred and immediately after the death of Ambassador Stevens and three other Americans had any doubt as to the deliberate falsehoods being promulgated by this Administration through the news media, who willingly and unquestioningly trumpeted those falsehoods.  In addition to the media’s complicity in the Administration’s deliberate deceit, media personalities attacked those voices who were critical of the botched tragedy in Benghazi, and who were suspicious of the unconvincing tales being told by Administration officials.

The one I have the most contempt for is Marty Dempsey.  He has shown himself time and again of questionable loyalty and lacking in integrity.   He sold his honor cheap.  And there is no recovering it from the bazaar of the political marketplace.    He is unfit to lead, and no longer deserves to wear a uniform.   He is despicable.

The individual with the most to lose is former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who may yet see this testimony (which the mainstream media can no longer ignore) damage her chances as the Democratic nominee in 2016.   Because it does matter, Hillary.  And you know it.

The biggest hypocrite, however, is the sitting President.  He spoke yesterday at Ohio State’s commencement, where he derided those voices who warn that government isn’t to be trusted.    Perhaps his Attorney General, Eric Holder, can label any US citizen calling Barack Obama a hypocrite as an “extremist”, maybe even a “violent extremist”, and target them for death by Hellfire.   The new, streamlined due process arrangement should make that easy enough.

So much for this democracy being “ours”.

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by | · 6:39 am

Obama at OSU: “They’ll warn that tyranny always lurking just around the corner.”

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President Obama’s commencement address to the graduates at the Ohio State University contained the following remarks:

Unfortunately, you’ve grown up hearing voices that incessantly warn of government as nothing more than some separate, sinister entity that’s at the root of all our problems. Some of these same voices also do their best to gum up the works. They’ll warn that tyranny always lurking just around the corner. You should reject these voices. Because what they suggest is that our brave, and creative, and unique experiment in self-rule is somehow just a sham with which we can’t be trusted.

One would hope, at least, that the History majors and Political Science majors were squirming in their seats because their respective educations gave them insights that would cause them to disagree fundamentally with Obama’s assertions.  However, after sixteen years in the leftist secular-progressive socialist indoctrination camps that are secondary and higher education in this country, I am not optimistic.  Though it might be instructive to include an essay question on a final exam in which students would be asked to identify where forcible wealth redistribution, government-enforced equality, and government-dictated behaviors did not end in tyranny, oppression, and death.

Just whose voices are they that warn “incessantly” of tyranny that Obama begs to be rejected?  If you are scoring at home, here are a few of the no-account alarmists unreasonably suspicious of government overreach:

  •  Thomas Jefferson
  • John Stuart Mill
  • Voltaire
  • Martin Luther King
  • Edmund Burke
  • Alexander Hamilton
  • Thomas Paine
  • Abraham Lincoln
  • Patrick Henry
  • Benjamin Franklin
  • Plato
  • Frederick Douglass
  • Samuel Adams
  • CS Lewis
  • Aristotle
  • James Madison
  • Ronald Reagan

Whose voices have extolled the virtues of government authority and the necessity to limit the freedoms of citizens, for their own safety and well-being?  Here’s a sample of Obama’s esteemed colleagues:

  • Mao Tse-Tung
  • Pol Pot
  • Malcolm X
  • Fidel Castro
  • Earl Browder
  • Friedrich Engels
  • Saul Alinsky
  • Hugo Chavez 
  • Vladimir Lenin
  • Eugene Debs
  • Leon Trotsky
  • Idi Amin
  • Karl Marx
  • Che Guevara

In his speech, Obama remarked, “Because we understand that this democracy is ours.”   That phrase, and the plural possessive, has an entirely different meaning for those who warn against the encroachment of government authority on individual liberties than it does for those who believe that government, America’s experiment included, is about collectivism, and “what can be done by us, together”.   That difference is precisely the difference between liberty and tyranny.

Class of 2013, ignore five centuries of despotism at your own peril.  Because tyranny is always lurking just around the corner.

The welfare of the people in particular has always been the alibi of tyrants, and it provides the further advantage of giving the servants of tyranny a good conscience.      -Camus

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by | May 3, 2013 · 4:11 pm

150 Years Ago: Chancellorsville, May 3rd, 1863

Union soldiers waiting to advance, Chancellorsville

An interesting post over at Op-For by the redoubtable LtCol P commemorating the 150th anniversary of the famous Stonewall Jackson flank attack in the middle of the week-long battle.

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While the Battle of Chancellorsville was a stunning Southern victory, and the end of General Joe Hooker’s time at the head of the Army of the Potomac, the battle was not all disaster for the Federals, nor did their soldiers fail to fight.   Some fought extraordinarily well.  The 240-odd Officers and men of the 115th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, fighting under Dan Sickles’ Third Corps, held the western wall of the Federal position just west of Wilderness Church, in and around Hazel Grove.  The Regimental History for the 115th PA Vol. Inf. tells the story:

At daylight on the 3rd, the first line was attacked.  After holding its position for an hour, it fell back on its supports.  The Second line was then ordered to advance.  With alacrity it sprang forward, driving the enemy, when Colonel Lancaster fell, pierced through the temple with a minie-ball, [sic] the command devolving on Major Dunne.  Without faltering, the line pressed forward, recapturing the breastworks, taking four hundred prisoners and two stands of colors…  The position was held against the desperate efforts to carry it…

The price, including the desperate fighting withdrawal on the 6th, was high.

The Regiment entered the battle with fourteen Officers and two-hundred thirty men; of these, Colonel Lancaster, and Captains John J. Donnelly and George Cromley were killed,  and Captains Richard Dillon and Wm. A. Reilly, and Lieutenants William J. Ashe, James Malloy, and Evan Davis were wounded, the two latter mortally.  Captain Dillon lost his left arm.   Eight men were killed, seventy-three wounded, and twenty-two missing; an aggregate loss of one-hundred eleven.

CW-Chancellorsville-Front

One of those seventy-three wounded was Private C. A. Warner of D Co., who was struck in the chest by a Rebel musket ball.

Warner, C.A. Private Wounded at Chancellorsville, Va., May 3, 1863 (Pa. Archives); Tr. to Co. D, 110th Regiment, P.V., June 22, 1864 D

Surgeons could not remove it, so it remained in his chest for the remainder of his life, which was all too short.   Just weeks before his son, my grandfather, was born in 1885, Christopher A. Warner died of complications from his wound.   He was 43.

One of the most incredibly moving experiences I ever had was walking through the Chancellorsville Battlefield in 1986 while at the Basic School.  Our 25-mile MCCRES hike was conducted there, and while 25 miles in 8 hours with a full march order is no leisure stroll, the venue was inspired.  On our breaks, Park Rangers would conduct impromptu lecture on the course of the battle.  I asked a Ranger at one point where the 115th PA Volunteers had fought, and he informed me that we were standing on the spot.

Knowing that I was within yards of where one of my ancestors had been wounded in the Civil War was both a thrill and a strongly compelling experience.   Even after the nearly thirty years, I remember every detail of the spot, and of the few minutes spent in thought, before shouldering MY pack again and falling into the long column of men being trained for war.  It is something I shall never forget.

[Update-XBrad]- Of course, for ALL your American Civil War blogging needs, be sure to check out Craig’s blog To The Sound Of The Guns. He’s devoted considerable space to Chancellorsville.

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by | April 28, 2013 · 6:39 am

VX in Syria; A Vexing Question

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The Telegraph reports, in an article on the fight for the Al-Safirah chemical facility:

The Syrian regime’s chemical warchest is indeed vast – the biggest in the Middle East, and the fourth largest in the world. Started in the 1970s ranks with help from Syria’s Cold War sponsor, Russia, today its programme includes facilities for making mustard gas, sarin and another nerve agent, VX, which stays lethal for much longer after dispersal.

Of course, this is not the first revelation that Assad’s chemical inventory contained VX.  Former Syrian Army Chemical Officer MajGen Adnan Sillou discussed the matter in a December 2012 interview:

He listed mustard gas along with the sarin, VX and tabun nerve agents as the main elements in Syria’s chemical arsenal, whose existence Syria doesn’t even acknowledge.

Despite the anguished cries of the Bush-haters, the question of VX in Syria is a vexing one for the “no chemical weapons in Iraq” crowd.   Only four countries have ever been known to produce VX; Great Britain, where it was discovered/invented, the United States, the Soviet Union, and Iraq.

So, how did VX end up in Basher Al-Assad’s arsenal?  One of two ways, it would seem, or some combination thereof.  It was either provided by what the Telegraph calls Syria’s “Cold War sponsor” (the Soviet Union, not Russia), or it came from Syria’s southeastern neighbor, Saddam’s Iraq.   Or both.

Methinks that the VX stockpiles have MAKSIM‘s fingerprints all over them.  The presence of a KGB General in Iraq in the months leading up to the US invasion cannot plausibly be explained by casting him as an “adviser”.    Primakov had intimate knowledge of Iraq’s chemical capabilties, and would have been in an ideal position to help remove Saddam’s remaining stockpile, along with evidence of Soviet/Russian culpability.

Another alternative is the possibility that the Soviet Union (or Russia post-1991) provided Syria with VX directly.    Were that the case, the likelihood that the Soviets/Russians did the same with Iraq (or provided technical assistance to manufacture) increases dramatically.

Perhaps this is one of the reasons that Putin’s Russia has remained in the protector role of Assad in Syria, far and above that which would logically attend a regime on such shaky ground internally.   And would explain Primakov’s presence in Iraq in the months leading up to the US invasion.

In either case, those who refuse to acknowledge Syria’s possession of VX, the most lethal of nerve agents, and by far the most difficult to produce, have to do some soul searching.   It might serve them well to search all the way back to 2003.

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by | April 27, 2013 · 10:25 am

Obama’s Syria Intervention Talk: An Echo of Bush

O-2002-antiwar-rally-davidson

“I think that in many ways a line’s been crossed when we see tens of thousands of innocent people killed by a regime, but the use of chemical weapons and the danger that is poses to the international community, to neighbors of Syria, the potential of chemical weapons to get into the hands of terrorists, all of those things add increased urgency to what is already a significant security problem and humanitarian problem in the region,” Obama told reporters.

So the hundreds of thousands of innocent people being killed by a regime, the use of chemical weapons, the potential for chemical weapons to get in the hands of terrorists, ARE considerations for military intervention?    Could we say as a counter, perhaps, that Bashar al-Assad poses no imminent and direct threat to the United States, or to his neighbors…and that in concert with the international community he can be contained until, in the way of all petty dictators, he falls away into the dustbin of history?

Yes, indeed we could.  I am not advocating for or against intervention in Syria, though I would be curious to know whom we believe we would ally with, and whom against, and just what we could accomplish given the active opposition of Putin’s Russia (not least because of the possibility of Russian fingerprints on Syria’s chemical stockpile, and on a chemical stockpile of Iraqi origin).

It seems that President Obama’s “student union view” of the world and how it works has once again collided head-on with reality.    The “game-changer” bandied about so often of late has already happened.   The world, our allies, and our adversaries, will see what comes next.    Will we see the Obama who condemned his predecessor for Iraq?  Or the Obama whose tough talk regarding Syria is a virtual echo of that predecessor?  Has he the statesmanship and foreign policy acumen to act decisively and effectively?   Considering the string of diplomatic failures punctuated by the Benghazi catastrophe and the ineffectual confrontation with the DPRK, I am not terribly hopeful.

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by | April 25, 2013 · 5:14 pm

Bringing the Raiders Home from Makin

The events of this video occurred in 1999-2000.  I remember the story then, but I did not know the most amazing part of the story.   That the Butaritari people of that island had buried the Marine dead, had given them a warriors’ burial, is astounding and incredibly moving.

The August 1942 Makin Raid by Carlson’s 2nd Raider Bn killed a large number of Japanese on the island, but the raid was not really a success. as no prisoners were taken, and no Japanese forces diverted from the Solomons to the Gilberts.    Nonetheless, the Butaritari people honored the sacrifice of those Marines, and protected their slain comrades from the hated Japanese until they were liberated in November of 1943.

(Among those on the Makin Raid was 2nd Lt Oscar Peatross, who would win a Navy Cross there.  I had the honor of meeting him when I was stationed at Parris Island in the early 90s.)

Don’t be surprised to get dust in your eye while watching the video.   Nineteen brave young Marines, honored by the people they died to free, and again by those they died to keep free.    Semper Fidelis.

H/T to Dennis

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by | April 23, 2013 · 7:17 am

Forfeiting Civil Liberties for “Security”: Bloomberg’s New Interpretation of the Constitution

Charles+Schumer+Michael+Bloomberg+NYC+Mayor+SNRKdqdW8zfl

“They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.”

-Benjamin Franklin

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, the rabid anti-gun zealot who has all but abrogated the “right of the people to keep and bear arms” in his fair city in the name of “reasonable gun laws”, believes the Boston bombings require our interpretation of our Constitutional liberties to change.

But our obligation first and foremost is to keep our kids safe in the schools; first and foremost, to keep you safe if you go to a sporting event; first and foremost is to keep you safe if you walk down the streets or go into our parks,” he said.

No, sorry, what I see and hear are justifications for the ever-expanding authority of government at the expense, yet again, of personal liberties.   Bloomberg’s disingenuous diatribe that metal detectors in schools can be somehow lumped in with draconian firearms laws denying ownership and possession by law-abiding adults as a part of “reasonable” tells you what you need to know about his respect, or lack thereof, for our Constitutional freedoms.

The idea that we are “…endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights…” seems to him to mean “…endowed by the Mayor with certain negotiable rights…”, and should be a giant red (and I do mean RED) flag.  If you missed that one, there is this from a 2011 speech he gave at MIT:

“I have my own army in the NYPD, which is the seventh biggest army in the world. I have my own State Department, much to Foggy Bottom’s annoyance. We have the United Nations in New York, and so we have an entree into the diplomatic world that Washington does not have,” Mayor Bloomberg said.

There have been rumors that he is eyeing the White House in 2016.   If he gets there, expect his interpretation of our Constitution to do far more harm to our precious freedom than a dozen Boston terrorists.   As would anyone else who shares his belief that freedom should be bartered so casually for the perception of safety.   Though I am no fan of the PATRIOT Act,  measures infringing on our privacy and liberties since then, and the desires for yet more by people like Michael Bloomberg, make PATRIOT absolutely pale in comparison.

“That, to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just power from the consent of the governed.”

Secure them.   Not trade them.   Hey, Bloomberg, you can keep your “change”, too.

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by | April 22, 2013 · 4:54 am

Load HEAT- Jennifer Paige

I was looking back at Top 40 lists a while back to find some more music for my playlist, and came across one hit wonder Jennifer Paige.  Her bluesy 1998 tune Crush was and still is quite pleasant. And who doesn’t like a cute blonde from Marietta, Georgia?

Jennifer Paige (1) Jennifer Paige (2) Jennifer Paige (3) Jennifer Paige (4) Jennifer Paige (5) Jennifer Paige (6) Jennifer Paige (7) Jennifer Paige (8) Jennifer Paige (9) Jennifer Paige (10) Jennifer Paige (11) Jennifer Paige (12) Jennifer Paige (13)

Like a lot of folks who only have one Top 40 song here, she’s had continued success in Europe, and appears to spend  most of her time in Germany.

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by | April 13, 2013 · 5:28 pm

A Hero’s Burial; LtCol Don C. Faith, Jr, Commander of Task Force Faith

MacLean

Army Lieutenant Colonel Don C. Faith Jr., commander of “Task Force Faith”,  whose remains were identified on Wednesday, will be laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery on April 17th.

Army Lt. Col. Don C. Faith Jr. of Washington, Ind., will be buried April 17, in Arlington National Cemetery.  Faith was a veteran of World War II and went on to serve in the Korean War.  In late 1950, Faith’s 1st Battalion, 32nd Infantry Regiment, which was attached to the 31st Regimental Combat Team (RCT), was advancing along the eastern side of the Chosin Reservoir, in North Korea.  From Nov. 27 to Dec. 1, 1950, the Chinese People’s Volunteer Forces (CPVF) encircled and attempted to overrun the U.S. position.  During this series of attacks, Faith’s commander went missing, and Faith assumed command of the 31st RCT.  As the battle continued, the 31st RCT, which came to be known as “Task Force Faith,” was forced to withdraw south along Route 5 to a more defensible position.  During the withdrawal, Faith continuously rallied his troops, and personally led an assault on a CPVF position.

Records compiled after the battle of the Chosin Reservoir, to include eyewitness reports from survivors of the battle, indicated that Faith was seriously injured by shrapnel on Dec. 1, 1950, and subsequently died from those injuries on Dec. 2, 1950.  His body was not recovered by U.S. forces at that time.  Faith was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor­­ – the United States’ highest military honor – for personal acts of exceptional valor during the battle.

moh

LtCol Faith’s Medal of Honor citation:

Lt. Col. Faith, commanding 1st Battalion, distinguished himself conspicuously by gallantry and intrepidity in action above and beyond the call of duty in the area of the Chosin Reservoir. When the enemy launched a fanatical attack against his battalion, Lt. Col. Faith unhesitatingly exposed himself to heavy enemy fire as he moved about directing the action. When the enemy penetrated the positions, Lt. Col. Faith personally led counterattacks to restore the position. During an attack by his battalion to effect a junction with another U.S. unit, Lt. Col. Faith reconnoitered the route for, and personally directed, the first elements of his command across the ice-covered reservoir and then directed the movement of his vehicles which were loaded with wounded until all of his command had passed through the enemy fire. Having completed this he crossed the reservoir himself. Assuming command of the force his unit had joined he was given the mission of attacking to join friendly elements to the south. Lt. Col. Faith, although physically exhausted in the bitter cold, organized and launched an attack which was soon stopped by enemy fire. He ran forward under enemy small-arms and automatic weapons fire, got his men on their feet and personally led the fire attack as it blasted its way through the enemy ring. As they came to a hairpin curve, enemy fire from a roadblock again pinned the column down. Lt. Col. Faith organized a group of men and directed their attack on the enemy positions on the right flank. He then placed himself at the head of another group of men and in the face of direct enemy fire led an attack on the enemy roadblock, firing his pistol and throwing grenades. When he had reached a position approximately 30 yards from the roadblock he was mortally wounded, but continued to direct the attack until the roadblock was overrun. Throughout the 5 days of action Lt. Col. Faith gave no thought to his safety and did not spare himself. His presence each time in the position of greatest danger was an inspiration to his men. Also, the damage he personally inflicted firing from his position at the head of his men was of material assistance on several occasions. Lt. Col. Faith’s outstanding gallantry and noble self-sacrifice above and beyond the call of duty reflect the highest honor on him and are in keeping with the highest traditions of the U.S. Army.

I do pray that such sacrifice on that peninsula will not soon be required again, but should it be, that we have men like LtCol Faith in our ranks.

Rest easy, Colonel.  The strife is o’er, the battle done.

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by | April 11, 2013 · 5:21 am

DPRK’s Secret Weapon!

Nukes?  Nope.  Taepo Dong II?  Not hardly.  

DPRK women

They may have typhus or cholera, but you can bet they aren’t fatties (only one of them, it seems, in the whole country!) and likely have great legs under those uniforms.   No wonder Kim loves summer in Pyongyang.

H/T  Color Sergeant Sweeney of the 24th Foot.

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by | April 10, 2013 · 5:27 pm

Gun-Grabber Mayors Against Obeying the Law

3-24-Michael-Bloomberg

The Bookworm Room asks a great question at the end of a great post.   Citing the collection of law-breakers who are whole hog coming after the guns and freedoms of the law-abiding in this country, BW posits:

I haven’t studied them, but what do you bet that they’re all Democrats?

Gun-grabbing-mayors-with-records

Well, no.  They aren’t all Democrats.  Let’s review:

  • Sheila Dixon – Democrat  
  • Gary Becker – Democrat 
  • Larry Langford – Democrat 
  • Eddie Perez – Democrat 
  • David Delle Donna – Democrat 
  • Frank Melton – Democrat 
  • Buddy Cianci – Independent 
  • Samuel Rivera – Democrat 
  • Jeremiah Healy – Democrat
  • Will Wynn – Democrat
  • Kwame Kilpatrick – Democrat
  • Richard Corkery – Democrat
  • Adam Bradley – Democrat
  • Gordon Jenkins – Democrat
  • Roosevelt Dorn – Democrat
  • Pat Ahumada Jr. – Democrat
  • April Almond – Democrat
  • Tony Mack – Democrat

See? Not all Democrats. That should make us feel better about Bloomberg and his subjugation of our Constitutional liberties. Right?  Only 14 felons among them (out of 18).   Oh, and one merely facing felony charges.  Three assault convictions, one  for domestic abuse, and two convicted pedophiles.

Next time someone tells you that people like Bloomberg and his gun-grabber cabal are anything but corrupt low-life convicts eager to abuse power, show him/her this helpful pocket guide.

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by | April 6, 2013 · 3:08 pm

China’s North Korea Rhetoric: Once Again, We Are Eating it With a Spoon

NKPRC

The People’s Republic of China is once again disseminating its ever-predictable rhetoric to make it seem as if this time, for sure, they are “losing patience with North Korea”.    Just as predictably, current and former State Department officials in this Administration are gobbling it up hopefully and eagerly.     From the Telegraph:

There are clear signs that China is losing patience with North Korea, America’s former top diplomat in Asia has said.

“There is a subtle shift in Chinese foreign policy. Over the short to medium term, that has the potential to affect the calculus in north east Asia,” Mr Campbell said at a forum at John Hopkins university.

“You have seen it at the United Nations (Security Council). We have seen it in our private discussions and you see it in statements in Beijing,” he added.

No, you haven’t.  You have HEARD it.  What we have SEEN is a People’s Republic of China that backs the DPRK unequivocally.  If they did not, the DPRK and Kim Jong Un, like his father and grandfather before him, would stand down from their provocations post-haste.  But, we continue to hear how “this time China is warning North Korea”.    We heard it with the starting of the nuclear program.  And again with the nuclear tests.  Each one of them.  We heard such with the testing of theater ballistic missiles.  And with the sinking of a ROK Navy frigate.  And the unprovoked artillery attack against ROK soldiers and civilians.

But there was no real warning.  And often, quite the opposite.  The warning has been issued instead to the South and to the United States about “restraint” and the need for “stability”.    Yet, the naively hopeful straw-grasping continues.

Earlier, Mr Campbell told the Wall Street Journal that China “cannot be happy” and that he expected a tougher line to emerge from Beijing.

Au contraire.  The PRC is ecstatic watching US attempts to garner both deterrent force and potential combat power from a shrinking pool of assets as the self-inflicted slashing of America’s military narrows options and limits US presence in the region.   But State is not the only entity hopelessly out of touch with China, her relationship with the DPRK, and her intentions to displace the US and dominate the region.

However, Daniel Pinkston, a North Korea expert at the International Crisis Group, said Beijing was “fed up” at the distractions being created by Pyongyang while it tries to focus its energies on other problems. “They need to address issues in the South China Sea, they have a corruption campaign going on at home, North Korea is giving them a headache,” said Mr Pinkston.

It would seem Mr. Pinkston doesn’t quite understand whose headache the situation has become.  But China does.  As does Iran. And every other of America’s adversaries.  And our allies, too.

The notion that China disapproves of the actions of the DPRK to the point of “changing the calculus” in the region, or simply tolerates the North because it is “the devil you know” is absurdly naive.  Reflective, unfortunately, of an arrogant, clumsy, and amateurish US State Department, whose lack of acumen and and diplomatic skill is paraded yet again across the world stage.  The PRC is keenly aware of the value of an unpredictable and well-armed North Korea as a constant thorn in the side of the US, especially as the PLAN grows and the USN shrinks.

If we want to know what China’s role is, do not watch what they say, especially not what is intended for our consumption.  Watch what they do.  And don’t do.

Acta non verba.

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by | April 4, 2013 · 5:30 am

Blogs. Why We Write ‘Em, Why We Read ‘Em.

milblogs2a

Those of us in this somewhat focused community of MilBlog writers and readers are often asked by people who haven’t any exposure to MilBlogs, “Why do you do it?  You put in a lot of time and work.  What’s the point?”

It’s a fair question.   Thinking of ideas, and putting together a cogent discussion starter, or historical summary, takes more time than people think.  Knowing that, and being somewhat of an analysis geek (which may turn out to be a very good thing soon), I have my list of half a dozen daily reads, at least.  This’n here.  Salamander’s Front Porch.  Ray’s Information Dissemination.  OP-FOR, The Castle, and a number of other places make the list, blended with traditional news sources domestic and foreign, plus policy and analysis outfits.

Why?  Well, my gracious host here gives me an outlet for expression.  Like anyone with a fair-sized ego, I believe just a little bit that everyone is entitled to my opinion.  But there is also the great opportunity for feedback.  To hear from a mostly very educated crowd, their opinions and takes on events and occurrences domestically and in foreign affairs.  But it extends into culture, literary works, certainly history, and other aspects that spark discussion.

But one of the most valuable reasons to read and write in the Military Blogosphere is to hear from people who are truly experts in their fields, who possess great wisdom, are extensively experienced, and are considered and well-spoken people.  I do miss terribly reading the thoughts and musings of Lex, which was a morning staple and often provided several day-long trains of thought.  And this is true of not just Bloggers, but commenters.  Byron, the ugly old shipfitter, could wax authoritative about steel, and aluminum, and hull flex, and do it in a way that, perhaps over beer, I am sure I could listen intently to for hours.     Grandpa Bluewater’s urbane sophistication and eloquent dissertation always is worth the consideration, whether one agrees or not.    And there are others who add insight and humor, and are enjoyable to read.

Another such commenter is Steeljaw Scribe, shepherd of a superb blog of his own.   I did something the last two days that I rarely do, which is to go back and re-read a comment he made in Salamander’s post of the IG investigation of Admiral Gaouette.  His explanation of the dynamics of the bridge of a CVN, and the personalities and cultures that must blend and not clash if the mission is to be accomplished.

The bridge of a CVN is a unique environment that brings together two communities that normally opt to keep their distances from one another – SWOs and Aviators. That the three senior officers that regularly spend time up there (CO, XO and Navigator) are also aviators can at times, exacerbate that standoffish environment. This clash of cultures evolves from one group that is brought up in a dynamic environment and is used to rapidly changing events, making intuitive decisions and being cognizant that their butt and that of the x-number of NFOs or aircrew with them will suffer the consequences of those decisions. SWOs that typically (and note I said *typically* – there are always exceptions) come to the carrier do not come from the CRUDES environment, but from amphibs and auxiliaries and tend to be methodical if somewhat conservative and deliberative in their decision-making and watchstanding. At least that was my experience as a CVN nav. My challenge was working across that divide – to show the aviators (from watchstanders up to the XO who would go on to his first deep draft after this tour) on the one hand, how a series of events can unfold where little things not readily apparent to the eyeball can bite you (case history of the Eisenhower hitting the Spanish freighter at anchor in Hampton Roads being one of my teaching points). The flip side of that was getting the SWOs to be more anticipatory (e.g., looking to the next 2x cycles for managing sea space for downwind repositioning) as well as coming to grips with the immediacy of fixed wing operations at sea.

I know of no other vehicle by which an audience can learn, and share the insights of men and women with such experience.   It is the gaining of understanding, at the end of the day, that makes all this effort worthwhile.   Brad’s rules here do not include “write only what I agree with” or “water it down so it couldn’t possibly offend”.   He trusts us to understand and abide by propriety, and we seem to, as do the commenters,  on the whole.  And that is appreciated.

So in the end, despite the trolls, and my own alarming tendency to follow links and wind up pissing away two hours looking at cool stuff, reading and writing is worth the effort.   Even if the pay isn’t great.

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