5/24/2008
Civics Quiz
It doesn't have a cool, blog friendly, "Your score is ___" but it's a pretty good quiz.
My score was 96.67%
Found via Sound Politics
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5/23/2008
Framing the Terms to Fit Your Worldview
Not taking any stand on the decision itself, what's wrong with this headline?
Federal court rules against military's gay policy
If you said, "It's not the military's policy, it's federal law," give yourself a pat on the back. And who makes federal law? Last I checked, it was Congress. And when "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" was enacted, which party controlled Congress, and who lived in the White House? That would be the Socialist Dems, and their leader, Slick Willie Clinton.
But the fact that the law that the media types and their friends in the gay community hate so much was passed by a Dem Congress and signed by a Dem President doesn't fit well into their worldview. They can't take the cognitive dissonance. Since, in their view, the military is a bunch of reactionary knuckledragging neanderthals, it's so much easier to cast the blame on them.
I always shake my head when educational institutions bar recruiters, or protesters picket recruiting stations over this law, when the folks they should be targeting are their Senators and Representatives.
(And yes, I do know that GEN Powell and the Joint Chiefs basically threatened to resign and cause a major political shit storm if they were forced to allow openly gay people to serve in the military. But Truman faced similar opposition to racial integration, and he did it. Slick Willie and friends simply didn't have the political spines to carry it through.)
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So the Big Day is Done
El Presidente came, addressed the troops (I wasn't there personally - see below), had lunch with the local Gold Star Families group (no media allowed, as per Presidential SOP), attended the dedication of a memorial to the Division's GWOT fallen, and toured the now infamous YouTube barracks.
(Side note: I recently learned that the flooding in the most well known picture was caused by the soldiers themselves, when they tried to flush babywipes down a couple of toilets. Wiping your ass with babywipes is commonplace in the field, and not an issue when you're shitting in portajohns, but toilets don't react as well to the stuff.)
My wife, being an MP, worked something close to a 15 hour day, manning a traffic control point on the perimeter around the parade field and overall area of The Visit. Weapons draw at 0230, posted by 0430, picked up between 1630 and 1700, weapons turn in around 1730.
Oh, and the MPs were issued ammo and allowed to keep their mag springs. So the SS trusts cop-type soldiers, just not normal run of the mill soldiers, who BTW weren't even issued ammo. Even with bolts, mag springs, op rods, etc, those rifles, pistols, and MGs were just big, expensive clubs. With bayonets. Wonder what the SS would have done in the event of an 18,000 man bayonet charge? I don't think they brought that many bullets.
And finally, a note to the Airborne Mafia: wearing berets with web gear looks idiotic. Furthermore, wearing web gear with all the magazine, grenade, and other pouches (excepting one canteen pouch, and a M9 holster, if the soldier carried am M9), also looks idiotic.
Even with MOLLE gear, NCOs are perfectly capable of making sure everyone's web gear looks the same. Believe me, I've seen it done. And the proper head gear for wear with web gear and weapons is a damn helmet.
Your Airborne Kool-Aid has no effect on me.
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5/19/2008
Forget "No Guns in the McCain Room"
President Bush will be coming here to Fort Bragg, NC, this week, to attend the 82nd Airborne Division Review.
This is how the Secret Service treats the soldiers of the 82nd Airborne, "America's Guard of Honor," most of them recent returned from combat in Iraq or Afghanistan.
4. REVIEW---
1. No bolts in the weapons. They can not come to the review,
must stay at unit area.
2. Take out the Springs to all Magazines. These will be
checked. To include 9MM
3. Operating Rods taken out of the 240 and 249's
4. Staging area has changed. I will send out New diagram and
also talk with the BDE CSM's this morning.
5. Ensure Your personnel don't have any Knives, Dog Tags,
Watches, Cell Phones Leatherman of any type, nothing in their pockets,
No keys, Lazer type pointers And No Liquids except for the Canteen.
Anything found on the soldiers will be taken away and not returned. If
a weapon of any type is found on the person then they will be set to the
side and Secret service will deal with.
6. ALL First Sergeants, SGM's And CSM's will help with the
inspection of all soldiers as they move thru the Medal Detector area.
Will explain at the rehearsal.
7. Once a Trooper is in the Steral Area he or she can not leave
that area.
8. Do not attach the Bayonet to the FLC until after the
inspection. Will explain at Rehearsal
(Note: the FLC means MOLLE gear)
Somewhere, there is a line between reasonably prudent and cautious, and stark nutjob paranoid. The Secret Service doesn't even trust the soldiers, sworn to support and defend the Constitution of the United States, and obey the orders of the President.
Screw those Praetorian assclowns. Of course, they'll probably come visit me just for posting this.
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