After five years of sweeping every mess under the rug, some in the media are starting to think maybe this Obama character isn’t as shiny as a new penny.
Category Archives: stupid
Obama: IRS Targeting Political Opponents “Outrageous”
Amid outcry over revelations that Internal Revenue Service specialists specifically targeted conservative groups for scrutiny before the 2012 elections, President Barack Obama said Monday that the tax agency employees’ reported conduct was “outrageous” and “contrary to our traditions.”
I spose it is a matter of which traditions. Socialist-communist regimes have a long history of such things. Sounding Buck Turgidson-esque, the President goes on to say:
…he does not want to judge the findings of an Inspector General investigation “prematurely” but said that if the reports of political targeting are found to be correct, those responsible must be held “fully accountable.”
Like in Fast and Furious, and Benghazi, and with ACORN, and….? You get the idea. Marco Rubio has weighed in, and his commentary could be extended to a great deal of this Administration:
“[I]t is clear the IRS cannot operate with even a shred of the American people’s confidence under the current leadership,” Rubio wrote. “I strongly urge that you and President Obama demand the IRS Commissioner’s resignation, effectively immediately. No government agency that has behaved in such a manner can possibly instill any faith and respect from the American public.”
“Baghdad Bob” Carney gets into the act, too:
In a statement earlier Monday, White House spokesman Jay Carney said the president is “concerned” about the reported conduct of “a small number of Internal Revenue Service employees.”
Yeah? Like the ones at the top? Anyway, here is the President, expressing his outrage:
Oh yeah, I am still waiting for my Federal Income Tax refund.
Filed under Around the web, obama, Personal, Politics, stupid, Uncategorized
Sometimes, the Headline Tells You Everything You Want to Know, Part II.
“Horror as Bear on a Bike EATS a Monkey at the End of Sick Circus Cycle Race”
This is one of those headlines. The UK’s Daily Mail tells you the rest.
It is not clear when the latest video was taken but Shanghai Wild Animal Park said in 2006 that the Olympic event had been scrapped following complaints and ‘out of consideration for the safety of our visitors.’
The VISITORS? What about the poor damned chimp? I always said I was sure glad I was not a sailor on a Soviet Nuclear Submarine. I will have to add “monkey in a Chinese circus” to that.
Filed under Around the web, stupid, Uncategorized
No Money for Diapers?
I know I can’t take pictures, or video, without facing a lawsuit. I dearly wish I could, though it is likely that the idea of shaming some people would lead them even more to consider themselves “victims”, with the concomitant parade of State-salaried do-gooders egging them on and “advocating” for them.
Coming back from a quick lunch today, I see a very young mother, baby on her hip, toddler at her side. She is hitting the welfare office, across the hall from me. Her baby has a full diaper, evident as soon as I opened the hallway door. The guy in the hallway comments to her that the kid needs a change, to which she replies that she hasn’t got any money for diapers.
What DOES she have? Tattoos. A bunch of them. (No, that is not her, above. She was bigger than that.) Too many for me to count, not that I care to. What else? As I was heading TO lunch, she was out having a cigarette. Or two, or more.
Diapers can be found for about fifteen to twenty bucks a box, containing between 60 and 100.
Cigarettes in Vermont are almost eight bucks a pack. $72 a carton.
I don’t know what tattoos cost in Vermont these days, not having priced them.
Everything we need to know about the malignant decay of our burgeoning welfare state was standing in the hallway outside my office. Our money goes (we think) for diapers and formula. HER money goes for cigarettes, and Lord knows what else. But she NEEDS our money. She is entitled to it. And we are bound to give it to her. For the children.
How heartless are they who would take food out of her children’s mouths. And the cost of the health problems caused by the tobacco usage and weight issues must, and will, be borne by all of us, except her. Because health care is a basic human right.
Any guesses what my objection to such a paradigm has gotten me labeled as more than once? You betcha. Racist. Problem is that, without exception, the many, many people of similar appointment whom I see on a routine basis there and lighting up in front of the WIC offices, are the same race as me. Government handouts enabling a life without consequence are an addiction that robs people of pride, ambition, judgment, and morality. And yes, that is all about race. The Human Race.
Filed under girls, Politics, stupid, Uncategorized
The Ice Age Cometh!
Second Coldest Start To Spring In US History
It wasn’t just my imagination. Behold, from Steven Goddard’s Real Science post.
Huh. To show how significant this catastrophe is, all one has to do is “AlGorify” the data. (Not to be confused with “algorithm”, which could lend some statistical validity to the process.)
So, there’s where next year’s spring temperatures will be come the end of April. Just a little above freezing. 2015? Frozen solid. Anthropomorphic? I dunno. And I am also confused by what to do about it. When the coldest spring of 1975 happened, we were told that we needed to stifle industry and redistribute wealth to the Third World (and Environmentalists’ pockets) to keep the world from freezing. THEN we were told that we needed to stifle industry and redistribute wealth to the Third World (and the pockets of those same Environmentalists) to keep the world from roasting to oblivion.
I can’t for the life of me understand why 0.00000000035% of the data is not conclusive. Even though it was unevenly collected with a wide variety of instruments and methods. But hey, it is “settled science”, innit? Like predicting Presidential election results by counting four tenths of a vote.
Filed under anthropology, Around the web, history, Humor, Load Heat, space, stupid, Uncategorized
Holder Calls Citizenship for Illegal Aliens “Civil Right”
Eric Holder’s latest copy of the Bill of Rights, w/CH 1, as we say in the Corps.
Amendment I
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or
prohibiting the free exercise thereof; orabridging 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.
Amendment II
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.Amendment III
No Soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the Owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.
Amendment IV
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.
Amendment V
No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.
Amendment VI
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.Amendment VII
In Suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury, shall be otherwise re-examined in any Court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law.
Amendment VIII
Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed,
nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.
Amendment IX
The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.
Amendment X
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.Add:
Creating a pathway to earned citizenship for the 11 million unauthorized immigrants in this country is essential. The way we treat our friends and neighbors who are undocumented… This is a matter of civil and human rights. (Except for the ones killed with Fast and Furious weapons)
Filed under Around the web, obama, Politics, stupid, Uncategorized
Boston Maggie Wins! Lindsey Graham Should STFU (actually GAFG)
Nobody, but NOBODY does outrage like our Boston Maggie. With a mix of sarcasm and incisive logic (now and then) she can unscrew the legs of a stupid argument in the blink of an eye. Perhaps it comes naturally to the Irish Catholic crowd in Boston. Regarding Boston terrorism suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, apparently Republican Senator Lindsey Graham thinks we should bypass giving the accused the rights due an American citizen who is a defendant in a capital case. Which makes Graham as despicable as anyone else who asserts such nonsense, irrespective of which side of the aisle they call home.
…like it or not, Tsarnaev is an American citizen. He gets due process. That’s it.
If we abridge the Constitutional rights of this piece of shit, we will be doing more harm than he or his brother could have hoped for.
Everyone is talking about “Boston Strong”. If we sell the Constitution down the river out of petty vengence, what is there to be strong for?
Read the whole thing. It is short, but oh-so well done. She nails it. It is not the people, nor the government, nor its officials, nor my seniors whom I am sworn to support and defend. It is the Constitution. The same document Senator Graham and every other Congressman was sworn to uphold. Irrespective of which side of the aisle.
So how ’bout we do it?
Filed under Around the web, Humor, islam, Politics, stupid
Goodbye to Pike, in the Furniture Van; Jonathan Winters dies at 87
Comedic genius and Marine Veteran Jonathan Winters has passed away at 87. Steve Martin called him one of the “great greats”, and so he was. A master of improv, and THE master of innuendo, Winters’ physical and intellectual comedy never failed to bring laughter.
Winters served in the Marine Corps during World War II, and was a regular on the Tonight Show, with Jack Paar and Johnny Carson, Dean Martin, and a host of others. He was in a million things, but my favorite of all time was as Pike, the driver of the furniture van, in Stanley Kramer’s 1963 comedy epic It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. ”D’ya know how many loads of furniture I’d have to take from Modesto to Yuma to earn that kind of money?” I’ve seen the movie close to forty times, and he makes me laugh, still, even when I know the lines are coming. To this day, when I have been trying to figure something out and it finally comes to me, I will say “That’s it! Sure! The Big W!!!”
Semper Fidelis, Marine. And thanks for the laughs.
Envy.
It’s ugly and unbecoming.
I was out this evening, washing the old girl, when a couple drove by in a black 2012 Corvette. The car slowed down, and I see Doctor Combover and Tammi Botox both snap their heads around to see my ’64 LeSabre in the driveway sparkling in the setting sun. It was clear instantly what they were both thinking, it was written all over their faces. ”Boy! I wish I had one of THOSE!”
It is understandable, because the LeSabre has a ton of features theirs doesn’t. Lap belts. Drum brakes, front and back. A trunk you could rent out to a college fraternity. Bench seats, front AND back. No pesky side mirror on the passenger side door. Or headrests to get in the way. A dimmer switch on the floor. A 4-barrel Rochester carburetor. Spark plugs. Voltage regulator. 2″ white sidewalls. A locking gas cap. Gigantic bake-lite steering wheel. A Delco AM Sonomatic radio. And sex appeal. Lots and lots of sex appeal.
See, there are hundreds and hundreds of 2012 Corvettes registered in Vermont, quite a number in this immediate area. Jaguars, too. Mercedes Benz? Dime a dozen. But, to my knowledge and that of a number of people in the know, mine is the ONLY 1964 Buick LeSabre on the road in the entire State of Vermont!
Don’t despair, I am sure your Corvette is nice enough, and I do hope you enjoy it. But it isn’t a ’64 LeSabre. It just isn’t. But please don’t be envious. Be happy with what you have. Even if you never know the joy of setting ignition timing or installing a water pump.
Our Political Navy: A Global Force for Far-Left Proclamations
Nothing says “ready for combat in the service of our nation” like an Earth Day message in which our Sea Services “leadership” admonishes us to believe in the pseudo-science of Al Gore and the radical Left environmentalists. Behold ALNAV 018/13:
3. DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY LEADERSHIP IS KEENLY AWARE OF THE ENVIRONMENTAL CHALLENGES AHEAD. CLIMATE CHANGE IS LEADING TO RISING SEA LEVELS AND LESS PREDICTABLE WEATHER PATTERNS IN THE AREAS WHERE WE TRAIN AND OPERATE. THE RAPID MELTING OF THE ARCTIC ICE CAP IS DRIVING NEW NATIONAL SECURITY STRATEGIES AND PRESSING GLOBAL ENVIRONMENTAL CONCERNS. WE WILL CONTINUE ANALYZING THESE TRENDS AND WORKING TO ENSURE OUR FORCES ARE CAPABLE OF MEETING MISSION REQUIREMENTS. ONLY THROUGH A COLLECTIVE EFFORT CAN MILITARY AND OUR NATION PREPARE FOR THE CHANGES THAT MAY COME. WE MUST RECOGNIZE THAT OUR LOCAL ACTIONS CAN IMPACT THE SEVERITY OF THE ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGES AND WILL DETERMINE OUR FUTURE READINESS.
But wait, there’s more.
4. FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY IS ON EVERYONE’S MIND THIS YEAR. LUCKILY, THE EASIEST AND MOST
EFFECTIVE EARTH DAY PROGRAMS CAN BE ACCOMPLISHED AT LITTLE OR NO EXPENSE. PICKING UP TRASH AT A LOCAL PARK, CLEARING DEBRIS FROM A BEACH, OR VOLUNTEERING WITH A LOCAL ENVIRONMENTAL PROJECT CAN ALL BE DONE ON A SHOESTRING BUDGET. BRING YOUR COWORKERS, FRIENDS, SHIPMATES, AND FELLOW MARINES AND INCREASE YOUR IMPACT EXPONENTIALLY AT NO EXTRA COST.
“Fiscal responsibility”? Oh please. Does that include not sending messages out that are blatant political indoctrination about “climate change” and how it has more of an impact on readiness than neglecting maintenance of our Navy’s warships, or cutting back on the training and education of our Sailors to perform their missions? So that we might instead have ad nauseum lectures and training about sexual assault, human trafficking, breathalyzers, cultural sensitivity, and all politically-sensitive things non-warfighting, and idiotic messages that waste everyone’s time like the above example? What really riles. however, is the last line of the message text.
MAKE A DIFFERENCE THIS YEAR.
We have a Navy and Marine Corps with tens of thousands of combat veterans from OIF and OEF. Many have been decorated for heroism in action against the enemy. Thousands have lost comrades and shipmates (not frigging CO-WORKERS, jackwagon!). Yet, we have a man who never served a single day in uniform directing us to make a difference. As if he would know what that really means. Despicable. Absolutely unconscionable.
I have a much more fiscally responsible suggestion. How about the Department of the Navy eliminate the position of “Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Navy (Environment)”. How about SECNAV Ray Mabus show Donald Schregardus and his $200,000+ salary to the door, along with everyone assigned to his likely considerable staff, and use the money instead to maintain and train a Navy for war? Just a thought. And if Ray Mabus isn’t capable of that, he needs to follow Schregardus off the taxpayer dole, post-haste. Perhaps we then can get someone who can provide a modicum of leadership worthy of our Navy and our nation. That’d be a switch.
Filed under Afghanistan, iraq, marines, navy, obama, Politics, stupid, Uncategorized, veterans, war
General Barry McCaffrey: Lauds “Marines’ Aversion to BS” On Women in Infantry
Time Magazine (of all places) carries General McCaffrey’s missive. Well worth the read (which contains a link to Marine General Newbold’s superb “Seven Myths about ‘Women in Combat’”).
The argument for women at rifle battalion team level is unsound. Makes as much sense as mandating women on all-male professional contact sports teams.
Life in a rifle company is still incredibly brutal, filthy, requires enormous physical energy and upper body strength, and calls for a spirit of personal violence. There is zero personal privacy. Bodily functions take place in close proximity.
Troops are constantly injured from carrying heavy loads and crashing down hills in the dark. They dig like moles to stay alive.
Infantry units live like wild animals during periods of extended combat. Mostly it is a business of self-selected young men. Most of these combat soldiers end up in these units because they actually want to fight.
One might think there would be some additional recognition of such opinions expressed by long-time practitioners of the craft of ground combat. But alas. Objective analysis gives way to activism and some other “isms” all too often.
As General Newbold rightly asserts:
Pity the truthful leader who attempts to hold to standards based on realistic combat factors, and tells truth to power. Most won’t, and the others won’t survive.
(H/T to Battleland)
Is the Navy finally taking a second look at its insane LCS policy?
Interesting news from Defense News about the future of the surface Navy.
A recommended re-evaluation of the next flights of LCSs — beyond the 24 ships now delivered, under construction, on order or with contract options — is only part of a classified memo, “Vision for the 2025 Surface Fleet,” submitted late last year by the head of Naval Surface Forces, Vice Adm. Tom Copeman, to Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Jon Greenert. The Navy’s current plans call for building 52 littoral combat ships, so if the service opted to go in a different direction it would essentially cut the LCS program of record in half.
VADM Copeman, in effect the senior Surface Warfare Officer, has a slew of good ideas.
The entirety of the LCS program is deeply flawed, right from the conception that the Navy really, really needed a ship that was virtually unarmed, yet could sprint at 45-50 knots speed, and yet be large enough (~3000 tons) to self deploy world wide. That mismatch of capabilities drove hull shape choices, power plant choices, limitations on construction standards (which directly influences both damage control ability, and useful ship lifetimes), sensor and weapons suite capability, and multi-role function.
Having chosen a flawed concept, the Navy double down on its insanity. The original idea of prototyping two competing designs, each with different hull forms, combat suites, manufacturing and support efforts and power plants, all pretty much never used before, had a lot to recommend it. The idea was that one or two of each competing design would be built, deployed, tested, and then the design best suited for the Navy would be put into serial production, and the other design shelved.
The problem was, both designs were so awful that the initial ship in each class has been complete for years now, and only this month has one of them even been able to finally depart on its first deployment. No real information on the abilities and liabilities of either design been accumulated.
But the Navy is desperately short on ships, a condition that is only getting worse. So the idea of downselecting to one program was tossed out, and both ships were ordered into production. One suspects a good deal of corporate rentseeking was at work here. Both design teams have spread around contracts to numerous congressional districts with powerful representatives, making it far more difficult to cancel either program. And if the Navy had chose just one design, the almost inevitable contract protest would have tied the Navy in knots for years, with cases winding their way through the courts, at immense expense to the taxpayer, and no benefit to the Navy.
So here we are, with the Navy already contracted for 24 of a planned 52 LCS ships (a dozen of each of the competing designs). VADM Copeman’s document is the first to see the light of day from Big Navy that even raises the possibility that maybe the LCS isn’t what the Navy needs. I’m rather surprised he hasn’t been hung from the yardarm yet.
Is upgunning one of the designs the right way to go? I don’t know. I suspect it isn’t, but it may be quicker than any alternative, which has a merit of its own. Drawing out a shipbuilding program over more years is rarely a way of saving money or improving the product. Personally, I’d probably rather see a “half a Burke” platform, with the powerplant cut in half, a smaller missile battery, and a lightweight SPY-1F/SPY-1K combat system. But the temptation to gold plate such a platform would be almost unbearable, and you’d quickly wind up simply buying more of the regular DDG-51 Burke’s, which, since the whole point is to find a low cost, low end ship, would defeat the purpose.
As to the Flight III Burke, with its Air and Missile Defense Radar (AMDR) to replace the current SPY-1D/Aegis combat system, VADM Copeman is leery of pushing the Burke platform to such fine growth margins. That’s a fair concern. But personally, I’d like to see a short run of Flt III ships shake out the AMDR before we take the next logical step of building a newer, more powerful plant and hull. Built a little, test a lot, learn a lot.
Whatever differences of opinion I may have with VADM Copeman, I certainly am glad to see someone with some rational thought applied to the composition of the surface fleet, and the Navy’s shipbuilding program.
{Update}- Of course, CDR Salamander had his take up first, and more comprehensively.
General Dunford: Karzai “may… issue orders that put our forces at risk”
NBC News carries the story of the leaked memo.
General Joe Dunford is as fine a combat leader as the Marine Corps has produced, and that includes Mattis and Conway. While it is unfortunate that the confidential memo was leaked, it is heartening to know that General Dunford has a realistic assessment of the situation, is aware of the corrupt unreliability of our Afghan “allies”, and has the lives of the soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines in his command at the fore.
Karzai’s threat to “seize Bagram” is such an instance of putting US servicemen at risk. Should he order that, I would hope we would have the guts to kill the attackers in massive numbers, and then put a round in Karzai’s head. And then leave, with a note on the door that reminds them that the half-life of Plutonium 239 is 24,000 years.
Filed under Afghanistan, guns, history, infantry, islam, marines, stupid, Uncategorized, war
The Drone Medal and The People’s Defense Commissariat
MOTHAX talks about all of it over at The Burn Pit. Worth the read.
It’s been a pretty wild last couple of months for the Pentagon, especially for our outgoing Secretary of Defense, Leon Panetta. First he drops the bomb about the women’s combat unit exclusion policy going away. Then the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs says that maybe the standard will have to be lowered so we can have more women in those units. Dire predictions flow every day from the puzzle palace about the effect of sequestration on the ability to fight and win wars. Then comes the suggestion that we lower troops pay. But while we’re doing that, we’re also expanding benefits to the spouses of same sex couples, even though that might violate the Defense of Marriage Act. Congress jumps in with hearings about what happened (or more accurately didn’t happen) to on the ground support of the Ambassador in Libya, and why the DOD didn’t have anything in place to help those men out. We may, or may not, be setting up a drone base in western Africa, and the drones may or may not be used to kill Americans who are working with Al Qaeda based on the legal papers that were leaked by the DOJ. And the nomination for Panetta’s replacement, Senator Chuck Hagel, is currently being filibustered. In April 170,000 retirees are being pushed out of Tricare Prime in the western States, and we’re still passing out flyers in Afghanistan discussing how being courteous to the locals will stop them from shooting at us.
Somehow this all added up to it being a good time to anger just about everyone not angered by the preceding by creating a medal for drone pilots that is actually higher up in the hierarchy of medals than things like the Combat Infantryman’s Badge and the Bronze Star….
He adds some excellent commentary from Fehrenbach circa 1950 and the problem with this whole idea of the “changing nature of combat”.
Americans in 1950 rediscovered something that since Hiroshima they had forgotten: you may fly over a land forever; you may bomb it, atomize it, pulverize it and wipe it clean of life—but if you desire to defend it, protect it and keep it for civilization, you must do this on the ground, the way the Roman legions did, by putting your young men in the mud.
I doubt anybody will be awarded the Drone Medal posthumously, unless it is from blood clots due to sitting too long. Like I said, worth the read. And a nice H/T to B5.
Filed under Afghanistan, Air Force, infantry, iraq, stupid, Uncategorized, war
More About Awards
Since there is no horse too dead, nor any cat too flat, let me suggest the following modifications to our Armed Forces awards chart:
Let’s have a look at the ones I would can, and why:
Defense Distinguished Service Medal- The same as the Distinguished Service Medal, except GOFOs get a separate one for doing something “joint”. Rescind it, and either replace with the DSM, or the star for additional awards of DSM.
Defense Superior Service Medal- The “joint” equivalent to the Legion of Merit. Another 0-6/GOFO bauble. Get rid of it. Award the Legion of Merit, or stars for additional awards.
Defense Meritorious Service Medal- You got it, the “joint” MSM. Rescind. Award MSM or stars for additional awards.
Joint Service Commendation Medal- Notice a trend here? You have a service branch, presumably. Make the Joint HQ convince your service branch that you rate your service branch’s Commendation Medal. If they can’t, maybe you shouldn’t have one. Certainly not some “joint” equivalent. Rescind.
Joint Meritorious Unit Award- Precisely the same rationale as the JSCM above. Except for the collective. If your outfit was that good, your service branch should award as appropriate.
Global War on Terror Expeditionary Medal- Never understood creating an expeditionary medal for wars in which campaign medals were sure to be minted. I might be able to see it for guys in the Philippines and elsewhere, not in IRQ or AFG. BUT, we have the Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal for that. Rescind, and replace it with the AFEM.
Global War on Terror Service Medal- This formerly held the position of “Dumbest New Award”, but has been overtaken by the Drone Medal. Get rid of it. They already have the National Defense Service Medal for those who didn’t deploy. (Formerly known as the CNN Medal. As in “You saw Desert Storm on CNN? Me too!”) Rescind without replacement with a current equivalent.
Armed Forces Service Medal- “Significant activity”? Are you kidding me? Rescind without replacement.
Humanitarian Service Medal- Another non-warfighter feel-good award. Get rid of it. After Hugo ripped through South Carolina, Marines from MCB helped out cutting and clearing trees, and delivering water, etc. The base CSTAFF spent a formation droning (!) on and on about how they worked twelve hour days for two weeks to help out. Meanwhile, the Drill Instructors continued their 140-hour work weeks for the entire two year tour. So the Sgt from base motors was awarded this thing while my Sgt Senior Drill Instructor got zilch, and had his NCM downgraded to a NAM.
Outstanding Volunteer Service Medal- Makes the Humanitarian Service Medal look like the Iron Cross. Away with it.
Overseas Service Ribbon- Another “everybody gets one” trinket. You were PCS overseas, with all the concomitant bennies that the UDP bubbas pumping to WESTPAC didn’t have. Want a ribbon for being OCONUS? Ride a gator freighter for 200 days. Or do Camp Hansen unaccompanied.
Recruiting/Drill Instructor/Marine Security Guard Ribbons- Wrong, wrong, wrong. No “special duty” ribbons on a Marine uniform. Lousy idea from jump street, let’s get rid of them most rikki tik.
These are, of course, in addition to the Distinguished Warfare Medal, hereby unofficially known as the “Stays in Vegas” Medal.
Before you ask, yes, at least three of these are ones I am authorized. By comparison, my Dad came home from the Pacific, after eleven landings and almost three years, with four ribbons. One was a Navy Good Cookie, and another was the Asiatic-Pacific Theater Ribbon with four battle stars. Along with a PUC. He got a WWII Victory Medal on his way out in ’46. In 1991, we had people sit at Al Jubayl for two weeks and come home with five.
It would do us well to have senior Officers that look like warriors instead of Idi Amin, or BG McSoulpatch. Just sayin’. Any others I failed to mention that should go?
Filed under Afghanistan, Air Force, army, history, iraq, marines, navy, SIR!, stolen valor, stupid, Uncategorized, war
Quick Quiz
The above box displays which of the following:
a) The view out my window for the next couple days
b) The sum total of my contributions to this blog since Tuesday
c) Both a) and b)
I know. I need to get my ass moving on my next post.
Filed under SIR!, stupid, Uncategorized
Biden: Gun Control Measures Will Do Nothing to Stop Shootings
VP Biden made his admission to NBC News.
Which, of course leaves the question of why these gun control measures are being considered at all, if it is nothing more than the act of a Government disarming a populace of free peoples in violation of their Constitutional liberties.
“Nothing we’re going to do is going to fundamentally alter or eliminate the possibility of another mass shooting or guarantee that we will bring gun deaths down to 1,000 a year from what it is now,” Biden told reporters Thursday afternoon after he spent over an hour lunching with Democratic senators at the Capitol.
Then he says:
“But there are things that we can do, demonstrably can do, that have virtually zero impact on your Second Amendment right to own a weapon for both self defense and recreation that can save some lives,” he said.
Which is it? Will it save lives or will it not? And since when does infringing on the right to keep and bear arms not infringe upon the right to keep and bear arms? But wait, there’s more.
“I’m not saying there’s an absolute consensus on all these things,” Biden said, “but there is a sea change, a sea change in the attitudes of the American people. I believe the American people will not understand — and I know that everyone in that caucus understands — they won’t understand if we don’t act.”
Do SOMETHING. No matter how egregiously in violation of the Constitution. Why, one can almost smell the smoke from the Reichstag….
The tragedy in Chicago, the young teen who was killed in a turf-war drive by shooting, just what effect does a gun law have on that awful event? None whatsoever.
Joe Biden just admitted he knows that, too. Which should bring every last proposed gun control measure under the deepest suspicion. But with a beholden media, and a hypocritically anti-gun Hollywood, such is likely to not make a ripple without the voices of reason being raised above the din.
************************
The Jawa Report outlines the simple dishonesty of MSNBC in their knowingly false reporting of the testimony of Neil Heslin. Once again, as with the “Trayvon” case, MSNBC has edited footage to produce an entirely false impression, in its further demonizing of those of us who believe in our Constitutional liberties, Second Amendment included. As TJR notes, neither MSNBC nor Martin Bashir has apologized for their deliberate falsehoods.
Josef Goebbels, call the Ministry of Propaganda.
Filed under Around the web, guns, Politics, stupid, Uncategorized
Women in Combat Arms: The Perspective of a Warrior
The Late General Robert H. Barrow, former Commandant of the Marine Corps, winner of the Navy Cross, Distinguished Service Cross, Silver Star, Bronze Star, Veteran of three wars, World War II, Korea, and Vietnam, speaks on the notion of women in ground combat units. Thirteen and a half minutes. (The last three are dark screen.) Listen to it all.
Those who would dismiss General Barrow as hidebound, sexist, closed-minded, or any other of the various derogatory labels that tend to be employed by the feminists who push such agendas should feel a tinge of shame. If they are capable of such, which I doubt.
Those who comprise the Joint Chiefs of Staff, particularly CJCS Dempsey, CSA Ordierno, and Marine Commandant Amos, should be ashamed of themselves. They must know deep down that what a man like General Barrow asserts is the brutal truth. Yet they have nodded their heads in enthusiastic agreement with their political masters as a sop to the feminists and progressives who despise our military and everything it stands for. Gentlemen, you must do some serious soul searching. You KNOW that General Barrow speaks an unvarnished truth honed by 41 years of wartime service and leadership of men in some of the most bitter combat of the 20th Century. Are your current assignments and your careers so much more important than the lives of those you will unnecessarily risk to implement this corrosive policy?
The Commandant’s assertion that “we will maintain our high standards while ensuring maximum success for every Marine” smacks of the dishonesty of the “everyone gets a trophy” Left. War, we damned well should know, knows no such considerations. If we didn’t have such morally and intellectually bankrupt leadership spending so much time and money painting the Potemkin Village instead of training to win our nation’s wars, we would not find ourselves in the current fix.
Defense Chief Panetta to Clear Women for Combat Roles
Of course he does. He is leaving in February, so the damage will be in his wake. And the Democrats will gain big points from the far-left “DACOWITS uber alles” crowd.
“We are moving in the direction of women as infantry soldiers,” one senior defense official said.
No comment from the hordes of female volunteers who have successfully met the standard at the USMC Infantry Officers’ Course.
A few other things need to happen immediately. Beginning tomorrow morning. (Pardon if this is Marine Corps-centric, as the Corps is my service and its standards are the ones I shall address.)
As of 0001 on 24 January 2013:
All Marines must do a minimum of 3 pullups, 50 sit-ups in two minutes, and run 3 miles in under 28 minutes, and score a minimum of 135 on the formerly-male Physical Fitness Test. That means that pull-ups are five points apiece for everybody, and the run time score is one point for every ten seconds over 18 minutes. (Hint, you have to do considerably more than the minimum on at least two areas to pass, with the minimum score for each being listed above.)
Any Marines unable to pass the PFT will be placed on remedial physical fitness IAW MCO 6100.3, regardless of rank or gender. PFT failures will be annotated in directed comments on those Marines’ fitness reports. Promotion and assignment eligibility will be contingent on meeting the standard.
On the Combat Fitness Test, all Marines must conform to the formerly male standards, including the Movement to Contact, which will require a time of 4:13 or under for Marines aged 26 and below, the lift of the 30-pound ammo can for a minimum of 33 reps, with 91 being maximum, and Maneuver Under Fire time of 3:58 and under. All other formerly male age-specific scoring will apply. CFT failures will be annotated in directed comments on those Marines’ fitness reports. Promotion and assignment eligibility will be contingent on meeting the standard.
All Marines will adhere to the formerly-male body fat percentage requirements. Marines ages 18-26 will ALL have a maximum body fat percentage of 18%. Any Marine, regardless of gender, who exceeds that percentage (and it is graduated to a maximum of 21% for Marines over age 46) will be given the 60 day notification period, and then the 60 day caution period, IAW MCO 6100.3. Failure to adhere to body fat standards will be annotated in directed comments on those Marines’ fitness reports. Promotion and assignment eligibility will be contingent on meeting the standard.
All Marines, regardless of assignment, will be required to complete the annual MCCRE 25-mile, 8 hour conditioning march with 55 pounds of required march-order, plus organic Marine-portable unit equipment.
I doubt any of that will happen, of course. Because that kind of equality, rather than the “equality” loaded with special considerations that so many push for, would thin the ranks of female Marines dramatically. Instead, Panetta’s policy, like so many these days from the People’s Defense Commissariat, is about political grandstanding and not combat effectiveness or warfighting proficiency. I am sure the glowing appraisals of how all this works out are already being written, talking points for “impromptu” interviews and Commanders’ assessments scripted carefully.
Of course, any problems or failures that may possibly be encountered will be blamestormed in the direction of sexual harassment, hidebound chauvinism, discrimination, lack of “fairness”, or lack of “vision” on the part of those who might not nod enthusiastically enough. Certainly the problems won’t be attributed to the notion that mixed-gender combat arms units is as horrendously unwise now as it was fifty years ago, and will be fifty years hence. Not a chance of that.
“In fact, it’s important to remember that in recent wars that lacked any true front lines, thousands of women already spent their days in combat situations serving side-by-side with their fellow male servicemembers,” said Murray, who heads the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee.
Which is, of course, precisely the same as being in the Infantry or Artillery or Armor, where the MISSION of the unit is to “locate, close with, and destroy the enemy by fire and maneuver, or repel his (or her, apparently) assault by fire and close combat.”
Whatever, I am sure it will work out fine. Just like in the movies. Where chicks kick ass all the time.
The move came at the recommendation of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the sources said.
Why doesn’t that make me feel better? “Three bags full”.
Note: I have been very clear in my opinions that female Marines should be trained for combat. The Marine Corps has done so for a very long time, and done so successfully. I have served next to female Marines in combat. But combat incidental to other missions is NOT the same as that of units in combat arms. Despite the strident assertions of those whose interests are in furthering a special interest group instead of preparing for war.
Mabus and Kipling Discuss Readiness
Despite Federal spending that is almost $1 trillion higher than it was in 2008, with one war ended and another winding down, Secretary of the Navy Mabus informs us that Bread and Circuses are eating into the operating budget for this nation’s sea services, at precisely the time we are told we are executing a “strategic pivot” toward the Pacific. Which, if I remember my geography, is a fairly large body of water.
There is this bit of good news from ALNAV 006/13:
WE WILL ONLY BE ABLE TO SUSTAIN CURRENT FLEET OPERATIONS. WE WILL NOT BE ABLE TO SUFFICIENTLY MAINTAIN AND RESET OUR FORCES FOR FUTURE OPERATIONS.
The US Navy is buying biofuel at $26/gal when JP-5 is under $4 a gallon. We have untold numbers of senior Officers and Flag Officers obsessed with the metrics of a Diversity industry. SECNAV is demanding hundreds of thousands of hours be spent in sexual assault prevention training with no discernable benefit. Here’s betting the “belt tightening” he warns of encompasses virtually none of the social-political experiments that is Navy and Marine Corps personnel policy.
In the meantime, Rudyard tells us the inevitable result.
Our ships in every harbour
Be neither whole nor sound,
And, when we seek to mend a leak,
Or, if it is, the caulkers,
For lack of pay have gone away,
Mere powder, guns, and bullets,
Their price was spent in merriment
While we in tattered doublets
Beseeching friends for odds and ends -
Not so certain history is dead. Not so certain we aren’t. While SECNAV is long and loud regarding biofuels (“the stakes could not be higher”), he seems to have contracted laryngitis about expressing concerns to the President about his Navy’s short and long-term ability to actually fight if needed, and to push for the resources to meet mission. Because, apparently the stakes aren’t as high as being environmentally friendly.
How do you say “De Ruyter” in Mandarin?
H/T to JPP
Big Surprise: Stanley McChrystal Backs Gun Control
To the surprise of nobody, retired General Stanley McChrystal backs strict gun control measures. His qualifications to comment on the Second Amendment, the rights of private citizens, and how punishment of the innocent should replace prosecution of the guilty? Virtually none. Other than having served in the military and having carried a rifle, same as a Marine Corporal. But that doesn’t stop him from talking. And McChrystal is somewhat known for his impeccable judgment, and never, ever talking when he shouldn’t.
No word on whether Marty Dempsey thinks this is “using the uniform for political purposes”. Somehow I doubt it bothers him much. He seems pretty well settled with abridging the rights of Americans, and only sees a problem with “using the uniform” when it is a Veterans’ group that disagrees with his political benefactors.
As commentor Jeff mentions in a previous post, perhaps Stanley can go into Compton, unarmed of course, and collect up all the illegal firearms in possession of the Crips and Bloods. Then he can get them from the Latin Kings and MS-13. Then he can try Chicago, and then DC. And THEN he can talk about the numbers of people “killed by firearms”, provided he isn’t one of them before then. He might need some help, so maybe he should bring Marty Dempsey with him.
When he is finished, he can illuminate the rest of us on how new laws keep criminals from getting firearms, providing examples of how each have worked in the past. Or maybe he can just shut up about my rights, and how he thinks they should be infringed.
If I had to trust someone with my life and my liberty, it sure as hell wouldn’t be Stanley McChrystal or Marty Dempsey. A Marine Corporal? Now you’re talking.
Co-opoly, The Collectivist Board Game
So there it is. The Anti-Monopoly board game. I can’t say as I am surprised, but I just can’t see kids running out to play a board game that shows all of the exciting aspects of cooperative management and the joy of overpaying to purchase Fair Trade coffee from a three hundred million dollar company that uses a Guatemalan farmer for a logo.
I suppose squeezing Marvin Gardens out of your brother because he landed on Board Walk while the paint on your hotel was still fresh and he couldn’t afford the rent is now strictly verboten. Evil, evil Parker Brothers. The 1% is reviled, even if the money is pink and blue and yellow and lime-green.
There should be a special level of hell for parents who give their kids Mummenschanz puppets when they ask for a cap gun, or who proudly display the “Participant Trophy” when the kid finishes next to last in the sack race at the school picnic. (Front and center on the shelf where the “You’re really something!” certificate lives because Junior didn’t manage to actually WIN anything but needed an award to preserve the all-important self-esteem.) Or who buy their kids this game.
One has to wonder, in this Co-opoly game, if every card is a “Community Chest”, and when the bank runs out of money, there is a provision to go and print a bunch more. Which makes the money in the game less valuable to all the players. The little board pieces? A Sherpa hat, a little Subaru Outback, perhaps. A Birkenstock sandal. You get the idea.
“Where everyone wins, or everyone loses.” I doubt the board game makes mention that, in reality, when you are forced to be lumped in with “everyone”, there is no winning, only losing. Or that the enforcement of collective responsibility (and collective guilt) is entirely antithetical to individual freedom. But hey, grab your Fair Trade coffee and an organic bran muffin, pull up a wicker chair, turn the thermostat up to 58 and have fun. And remember, we are all winners for trying. Except in the real world.
Filed under Humor, Politics, stupid, Uncategorized
Those Holiday Ten Pounds
They just creep up on you. New Years Resolution: I gotta get to the gym!
Is there any of that pumpkin pie left? It was yummy!
Filed under Humor, Personal, stupid, Uncategorized
Hey Bob Costas, Hand Over Your Car Keys
Recently, NBC football announcer Bob Costas went on an anti-gun rant following the tragic murder-suicide of Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Jovan Belcher, and his 22-year old girlfriend (one of a number, apparently) who as also the mother of his infant child.
Costas, of course, is no stranger to parroting the far-left meme. His quoting of the Fox Sports reporter Kevin Whitlock, he of the “NRA is the KKK”, tells you much of what you might not already have known about Costas and the intellectual rigor he gives his opinions before opening his mouth.
Belcher was drunk the night before the incident, and was at the house of another woman, before the confrontation with his child’s mother, whom he lived with. Personal responsibility on the part of Belcher? Nosiree. No need for that. None of his doing. Costas’ conclusion? The handgun is the problem. Not just Belcher’s handgun, but mine and yours. We shouldn’t have them. For our own safety, of course. Mayhem, don’tcha know.
Well, now there is another tragedy involving an NFL player, and intoxication, and the untimely death of a young person. Seems Dallas Cowboys nose tackle Josh Brent got good and loaded, along with college and Cowboys teammate linebacker Jerry Brown. Somewhat predictably, Brent crashed the car. The accident killed Brown, aged 25.
So, Bob Costas. Hand over the keys to your cars. Because if Josh Brent didn’t have a car, Jerry Brown would still be alive. Those damned automobiles, using your logic. pose a danger to us all. Sure enough, compared to the fewer than 600 accidental firearms deaths of all types in 2011, there were more than 32,000 highway deaths. You have no business having such a deadly instrument in your possession. Mayhem, don’tcha know.
Of course you won’t turn over those deadly automobiles. Because, well, you are a hypocritical and sanctimonious intellectual dilettante, like so many in the professional journalism business. The rules should be yours to make, but should only apply to we, the great unwashed. The post I was writing before I decided to post about Bill’s gift contained the following paragraph:
One has to wonder what the effect would be if, the next time a professional athlete in a major sport gets arrested for drunk driving (which will happen any minute now), someone came and confiscated all of Costas’ cars. After all, if Ted Kennedy didn’t own a car, Mary Jo Kopechne would still be alive. Or maybe, the next time Costas or any other broadcaster says something stupid, someone will sew Costas’ lips shut.
One can only hope…
Filed under Around the web, guns, Personal, Politics, stupid, Uncategorized
Pyongyang Style
It seems viral South Korean rapper sensation PSY dislikes America intensely.
“Kill those f***ing Yankees who have been torturing Iraqi captives/Kill those f***ing Yankees who ordered them to torture/Kill their daughters, mothers, daughters-in-law and fathers/Kill them all slowly and painfully,” he raps.
One has to imagine that he has no real understanding of the nearly 38,000 Americans who died to keep the North Koreans from enslaving his parents and grandparents six decades ago, or the willingness of the US to again put its young men and women into harm’s way to prevent it now. Seems that celebrity is little differing half a world away than from what it is here. Spoiled, ignorant, wildly rich young people feeling obliged to offer idiotic opinions because they have a microphone in front of them.
It is too bad there wasn’t some process by which ol’ PSY could be stripped of his celebrity and dumped into Nampo or Hungnam, just to see all the wonders that those terrible Americans deprived him of. Methinks he would have considerably fewer chins shortly after arriving, what with the mass starvation and all.
It is also somewhat likely that his complaints and protests would not go over quite as well in his new surroundings. The next video he might star in would be of considerably lower quality, as well. And not get nearly the youtube hits that his big one did.
But hey. That’s Pyongyang Style. All the rage up North.
************************************
Yep, seems PSY is invited to the White House for the Inauguration. According to Tampa Bay Online, anyway. Well, then. I am sure he didn’t really MEAN to advocate the killing of American leaders, military, and their families.
But then again, there ain’t no party like a Communist Party!
Filed under Around the web, guns, history, Politics, stupid, Uncategorized, war
Craig Swain
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