These are people, mostly Democrats, who give lip service to the Second Amendment in the wake of the US Supreme Court's Heller and MacDonald decisions. They take their cue from President Obama, and preface their call for new gun control by giving lip service to the Constitution with some variation of the following line (this one uttered by a Republican prosecutor in West Virginia:
"I am a very strong supporter of the second amendment, but there must be some common sense applied here."
It's always a variation of that construction: I am a supporter of the Second Amendment, but...
These are the same people that denied the main clause of the Second Amendment because of the prefatory clause: 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.
Let's apply some actual common sense here. If you're one of these Second Amendment But-Heads, what you are proposing is that law-abiding citizens who have undergone the necessary training and background checks to become legal gun carriers have their right to do so infringed. You're not proposing additional laws that would penalize criminal misuse of a gun, nor are you proposing that already-existing laws against criminal misuse of guns be more rigidly enforced. No, what you are proposing is that law-abiding gun owners give up their right, because they scare you. You don't want them in a restaurant with you, nor in a mall with you, nor in a workplace with you. In fact, you don't want them anywhere with you, but you're not allowed to say that anymore, because the Supreme Court ruled against people like you, much to your horror and chagrin. So if you're a gun-hating politician of the Barack Obama sort, you have to give lip service to the Constitution by saying I support the Second Amendment but... all of the time.
Sucks to be you, doesn't it?
h/t Lagniappe's Lair for the WV story.
Sunday, November 20, 2011
Friday, November 18, 2011
Must Be Hell To Be Burdened With a "Conscience Thing."
Lucky for us the former Speaker of the House of Representatives isn't so burdened.
Why, yes, that was an example of irony. Thank you for noticing!
Why, yes, that was an example of irony. Thank you for noticing!
Convenience Store Clerk Shoots Robber - - Update
The clerk decided to play at being the Compassionate Gunfighter:
Around 11:30 a.m. Thursday an armed man demanded that the clerk, Mark Headstrong, hand over money from the register.
This is the third time a robber has tried to steal from him.
But this time he pulled out a gun and told the robber to drop his weapon. When the robber continued to point his gun, Headstrong said he shot at the floor and the bullet ricocheted into the man's leg. When the robber still wouldn't drop his gun, Headstrong shot him in the finger.
"I had to protect myself," he said. "And he said, ‘Please don't call the cops. Just call my girlfriend.'"
There's a couple of broken rules right there. You don't fire warning shots, because you can't guarantee where your bullet will go after it leave the gun, and you're responsible for where it goes. If it hits an innocent bystander, you can be arrested for negligent homicide or even manslaughter. Another rule is that you don't shoot to wound, you shoot to stop. You've been lucky so far that the robbers you faced only wanted cash; one of them might get kicks out of taking life, and you should not trust the good intentions of a robber.
And, of course, the police trot out the usual tripe about being a Good Victim:
Crockett pointed out that one of the lessons taught in robbery-prevention training is to comply with an armed robber.
"The advice is the same whether we're discussing robbery from persons or commercial robbery. No amount of money or property is worth the potential loss of life," she said. "Many companies even have written policies instructing their employees to meet the demands of an armed robber."
Around 11:30 a.m. Thursday an armed man demanded that the clerk, Mark Headstrong, hand over money from the register.
This is the third time a robber has tried to steal from him.
But this time he pulled out a gun and told the robber to drop his weapon. When the robber continued to point his gun, Headstrong said he shot at the floor and the bullet ricocheted into the man's leg. When the robber still wouldn't drop his gun, Headstrong shot him in the finger.
"I had to protect myself," he said. "And he said, ‘Please don't call the cops. Just call my girlfriend.'"
There's a couple of broken rules right there. You don't fire warning shots, because you can't guarantee where your bullet will go after it leave the gun, and you're responsible for where it goes. If it hits an innocent bystander, you can be arrested for negligent homicide or even manslaughter. Another rule is that you don't shoot to wound, you shoot to stop. You've been lucky so far that the robbers you faced only wanted cash; one of them might get kicks out of taking life, and you should not trust the good intentions of a robber.
And, of course, the police trot out the usual tripe about being a Good Victim:
Crockett pointed out that one of the lessons taught in robbery-prevention training is to comply with an armed robber.
"The advice is the same whether we're discussing robbery from persons or commercial robbery. No amount of money or property is worth the potential loss of life," she said. "Many companies even have written policies instructing their employees to meet the demands of an armed robber."
No One Told the Frogs
Turns out that the frogs weren't as extinct as originally thought.
A frog species believed to be extinct has hopped back into sight in northern Israel.
Omri Gal of Israel's Nature and Parks Authority said Thursday the Hula Painted Frog was seen for the first time in 50 years this week. He said it was declared extinct.
Gal said, "It's an amazing find, now we have a second chance to preserve the species."
The frog is native to the Hula Valley, a swamp drained in the 1950s to stop malaria.
A frog species believed to be extinct has hopped back into sight in northern Israel.
Omri Gal of Israel's Nature and Parks Authority said Thursday the Hula Painted Frog was seen for the first time in 50 years this week. He said it was declared extinct.
Gal said, "It's an amazing find, now we have a second chance to preserve the species."
The frog is native to the Hula Valley, a swamp drained in the 1950s to stop malaria.
Thursday, November 17, 2011
Convenience Store Clerk Shoots Robber
Over in Wilmington, NC.
An employee at the Wrightsville Country Store in the 2400 block of Wrightsville Avenue shot someone who was trying to rob the store about 11:30 a.m. on Thursday, Wilmington police spokeswoman Lucy Crockett said.
The suspect, whose name was not yet available, was alive and en route to the hospital, she added.
This is the second time the Country Store has been robbed in recent weeks.
Wonder if it was the same clerk both times? And if so, wonder if he got permission to arm himself, or just did it anyway? If the place is corporate-owned, (s)he'll probably be fired over it. If it's a mom-and-pop place and (s)he had permission to be armed, then well done indeed.
An employee at the Wrightsville Country Store in the 2400 block of Wrightsville Avenue shot someone who was trying to rob the store about 11:30 a.m. on Thursday, Wilmington police spokeswoman Lucy Crockett said.
The suspect, whose name was not yet available, was alive and en route to the hospital, she added.
This is the second time the Country Store has been robbed in recent weeks.
Wonder if it was the same clerk both times? And if so, wonder if he got permission to arm himself, or just did it anyway? If the place is corporate-owned, (s)he'll probably be fired over it. If it's a mom-and-pop place and (s)he had permission to be armed, then well done indeed.
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
I Guess Bull Halsey Or Uncle Ernie King...
...would be unwelcome in the modern Navy.
To some of his subordinates, Capt. Greg Thomas was direct and demanding, but got the job done.
To others, he was “abusive and lacking in trust, dignity and respect,” as described in an April 4 command climate survey launched following an anonymous hotline complaint about Thomas’ conduct.
In mid-May, Naval Sea Systems Command temporarily yanked Thomas, a rear admiral selectee, from his perch atop Norfolk Naval Shipyard in Portsmouth, Va. A naval inspector general investigation completed Aug. 31 found Thomas’ conduct “went beyond the limits of professional conduct expected of persons in authority.” The firing was made permanent Oct. 25 after Thomas was formally reprimanded for conduct unbecoming an officer.
The IG interviewed 45 witnesses who served in various leadership positions under Thomas during his nine months as commanding officer of the shipyard. Nine said they were subjected to “demeaning, insulting or profane language or intimidating behavior” privately as well as in public. All names other than Thomas’ were redacted from the report, which was obtained through the Freedom of Information Act.
Down at the bottom we see the possible reason for Thomas' behavior:
Thomas told the IG that he was under pressure to improve the yard’s performance on intermediate-level submarine maintenance. Thomas quoted former Submarine Forces commander Vice Adm. John Donnelly as telling him, “My No. 1 distraction in command has been your shipyard’s performance on my I-level work.”
Thomas acknowledged the criticism, telling the IG, “We had a very poor record. ... We were not getting boats underway on time.”
One commanding officer interviewed by the IG said he could relate to Thomas’ situation. “I saw a lot of pushback from the civilian workforce that wanted to maintain the status quo,” the officer said.
So what we had was lazy civilian workers - - probably union workers - - who didn't wish to deal with an old-fashioned ass-kicker who was working them harder than they were used to. A clusterfuck, in other words:
To some of his subordinates, Capt. Greg Thomas was direct and demanding, but got the job done.
To others, he was “abusive and lacking in trust, dignity and respect,” as described in an April 4 command climate survey launched following an anonymous hotline complaint about Thomas’ conduct.
In mid-May, Naval Sea Systems Command temporarily yanked Thomas, a rear admiral selectee, from his perch atop Norfolk Naval Shipyard in Portsmouth, Va. A naval inspector general investigation completed Aug. 31 found Thomas’ conduct “went beyond the limits of professional conduct expected of persons in authority.” The firing was made permanent Oct. 25 after Thomas was formally reprimanded for conduct unbecoming an officer.
The IG interviewed 45 witnesses who served in various leadership positions under Thomas during his nine months as commanding officer of the shipyard. Nine said they were subjected to “demeaning, insulting or profane language or intimidating behavior” privately as well as in public. All names other than Thomas’ were redacted from the report, which was obtained through the Freedom of Information Act.
Down at the bottom we see the possible reason for Thomas' behavior:
Thomas told the IG that he was under pressure to improve the yard’s performance on intermediate-level submarine maintenance. Thomas quoted former Submarine Forces commander Vice Adm. John Donnelly as telling him, “My No. 1 distraction in command has been your shipyard’s performance on my I-level work.”
Thomas acknowledged the criticism, telling the IG, “We had a very poor record. ... We were not getting boats underway on time.”
One commanding officer interviewed by the IG said he could relate to Thomas’ situation. “I saw a lot of pushback from the civilian workforce that wanted to maintain the status quo,” the officer said.
So what we had was lazy civilian workers - - probably union workers - - who didn't wish to deal with an old-fashioned ass-kicker who was working them harder than they were used to. A clusterfuck, in other words:
The Plumber He Said, "Never Flush a Tampoon." *
Onboard the aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush, the heads (toilets) are not working as required.
And sailors are being written up if they, out of desperation, look for an emergency substitute:
The Navy’s newest aircraft carrier has a messy problem. Since deploying in May, the Norfolk, Va.-based carrier George H.W. Bush has grappled with widespread toilet outages, at times rendering the entire ship without a single working head.
But it’s no laughing matter. Sailors tell of combing the ship for up to an hour to find a place to do their business, if they can find one at all. Others have resorted to urinating in showers or into the industrial sinks in their work stations. Some men are using bottles and emptying the contents over the giant ship’s side, while some women are holding it in for so long that they are developing health problems, according to sources on the ship.
The sailors blame the ship’s vacuum system. But the Navy is blaming sailors for flushing “inappropriate material” down the toilets.
Some are taking extra showers when they need to urinate. Women are finding working men’s heads and putting a sentry at the door. Or they’ll use the industrial sinks in their workspaces. Men are sneaking onto catwalks to surreptitiously relieve themselves without getting busted by a master-at-arms on patrol, searching for sailors using anywhere but a head as a bathroom.
“If you violate a direct order, you go to mast. We had one seaman go thus far,” one chief told Navy Times.
An AIRLANT spokesman confirmed that one sailor received non-judicial punishment for “urinating on a sponson.”
*bonus points for identifying the source of the post title.
And sailors are being written up if they, out of desperation, look for an emergency substitute:
The Navy’s newest aircraft carrier has a messy problem. Since deploying in May, the Norfolk, Va.-based carrier George H.W. Bush has grappled with widespread toilet outages, at times rendering the entire ship without a single working head.
But it’s no laughing matter. Sailors tell of combing the ship for up to an hour to find a place to do their business, if they can find one at all. Others have resorted to urinating in showers or into the industrial sinks in their work stations. Some men are using bottles and emptying the contents over the giant ship’s side, while some women are holding it in for so long that they are developing health problems, according to sources on the ship.
The sailors blame the ship’s vacuum system. But the Navy is blaming sailors for flushing “inappropriate material” down the toilets.
Some are taking extra showers when they need to urinate. Women are finding working men’s heads and putting a sentry at the door. Or they’ll use the industrial sinks in their workspaces. Men are sneaking onto catwalks to surreptitiously relieve themselves without getting busted by a master-at-arms on patrol, searching for sailors using anywhere but a head as a bathroom.
“If you violate a direct order, you go to mast. We had one seaman go thus far,” one chief told Navy Times.
An AIRLANT spokesman confirmed that one sailor received non-judicial punishment for “urinating on a sponson.”
*bonus points for identifying the source of the post title.
Hell With It
I just am not much interested in doing lots of posts any more. I can't keep up with it, and it takes too much of my leisure time. I'll try to do a post or two a day, and somedays more if I'm feeling communicative, but I'm not going to spend a half-day every day reading all the stuff in my Google Reader. We're talking over a hundred blogs to look through, and that's before I even get to the newspapers.
I Have To Wonder...
...if it was a Fast & Furious gun.
The Secret Service says a bullet hit a White House window, stopped by bullet-proof glass.
A round of ammunition was also found on the exterior of the White House grounds, the Associated Press reports.
The Tuesday discoveries came after reports of gunfire near the White House on Friday.
The discovery follows reports of gunfire near the White House on Friday. Witnesses heard shots and saw two speeding vehicles in the area. An AK-47 rifle was also recovered.
The Secret Service says it has not conclusively connected Friday's incident with the bullets found on the White House grounds. U.S. Park Police have an arrest warrant out for Oscar Ortega-Hernandez, who is believed to be connected to the earlier incident.
And, if we're going to entertain conspiracy theories, it seems rather a coincidence that the same sort of weapon passed on to drug cartels in Mexico is being used to shoot at the White House, right at a time when Attorney General Eric Holder is under pressure to resign...
The Secret Service says a bullet hit a White House window, stopped by bullet-proof glass.
A round of ammunition was also found on the exterior of the White House grounds, the Associated Press reports.
The Tuesday discoveries came after reports of gunfire near the White House on Friday.
The discovery follows reports of gunfire near the White House on Friday. Witnesses heard shots and saw two speeding vehicles in the area. An AK-47 rifle was also recovered.
The Secret Service says it has not conclusively connected Friday's incident with the bullets found on the White House grounds. U.S. Park Police have an arrest warrant out for Oscar Ortega-Hernandez, who is believed to be connected to the earlier incident.
And, if we're going to entertain conspiracy theories, it seems rather a coincidence that the same sort of weapon passed on to drug cartels in Mexico is being used to shoot at the White House, right at a time when Attorney General Eric Holder is under pressure to resign...
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
34 Years Later, He Gets To Say "I Told You So."
After that long a period, the emotional satisfaction is likely to be bittersweet.
It's not unusual for an archaeologist to get stuck in the past, but Carl Gustafson may be the only one consumed by events on the Olympic Peninsula in 1977.
Sifting through earth northwest of Seattle, he uncovered something extraordinary - a mastodon bone with a shaft jammed in it. This appeared to be a weapon that had been thrust into the beast's ribs, a sign that humans had been around and hunting far earlier than anyone suspected.
Unfortunately for Gustafson, few scientists agreed. He was challenging orthodoxy with less-than-perfect evidence.
or almost 35 years, his find was ridiculed or ignored, the site dismissed as curious but not significant.
But last month, a team that re-examined his discovery using new technology concluded in the prestigious journal Science that Gustafson had been right all along.
The pierced bone was clear evidence that human beings were hunting large mammals in North America 13,800 years ago - about 800 years before the so-called Clovis people were thought to have migrated across the Bering land bridge from Asia.
And presumably many of the people who ridiculed his conclusion are dead, and went to the grave thinking that they were right.
It's not unusual for an archaeologist to get stuck in the past, but Carl Gustafson may be the only one consumed by events on the Olympic Peninsula in 1977.
Sifting through earth northwest of Seattle, he uncovered something extraordinary - a mastodon bone with a shaft jammed in it. This appeared to be a weapon that had been thrust into the beast's ribs, a sign that humans had been around and hunting far earlier than anyone suspected.
Unfortunately for Gustafson, few scientists agreed. He was challenging orthodoxy with less-than-perfect evidence.
or almost 35 years, his find was ridiculed or ignored, the site dismissed as curious but not significant.
But last month, a team that re-examined his discovery using new technology concluded in the prestigious journal Science that Gustafson had been right all along.
The pierced bone was clear evidence that human beings were hunting large mammals in North America 13,800 years ago - about 800 years before the so-called Clovis people were thought to have migrated across the Bering land bridge from Asia.
And presumably many of the people who ridiculed his conclusion are dead, and went to the grave thinking that they were right.
Shipwreck Blog: 17th C. Swedish Warship
Named Svardet (Sword), she went down in the Baltic Sea during a battle with Danish/Dutch forces.
And because the Baltic Sea is too cold for shipworm, it's likely that the hull is in a good state of presevation. Other shipwrecks found in the Baltic Sea have also shown good preservation.
And because the Baltic Sea is too cold for shipworm, it's likely that the hull is in a good state of presevation. Other shipwrecks found in the Baltic Sea have also shown good preservation.
Wow.
Watch this soldier from the Old Guard silence a crowd at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier:
Bravo Zulu to the soldier. Very well done, indeed.
Tomb of the Unknown Guard Silences Disrespectful Crowd: MyFoxDC.com
Bravo Zulu to the soldier. Very well done, indeed.
About Your Pulitzer, Ms. Atkisson...
Don't hold your breath waiting for it.
Back in the 90s, J.D. Cash told me about a class of FBI snitches called "sensitive confidential informants." J.D. derisively called them "high-level snitches." These were members of the news media, the clergy, politicians and congressional staffers who the FBI had on the string. One of these, we know now, was then ABC reporter Chris Isham, who is currently the CBS Washington Bureau chief.
Yes, folks, that makes him Sharyl Attkisson's boss.
That would be the Sharyl Attkisson who has been one of the few MSM journalists actually covering he Fast & Furious scandal.
Read the rest of that post, as well. Vanderboegh also accuses Utah Senator Orrin Hatch of being an FBI lackey because he got caught in a sex scandal.
Back in the 90s, J.D. Cash told me about a class of FBI snitches called "sensitive confidential informants." J.D. derisively called them "high-level snitches." These were members of the news media, the clergy, politicians and congressional staffers who the FBI had on the string. One of these, we know now, was then ABC reporter Chris Isham, who is currently the CBS Washington Bureau chief.
Yes, folks, that makes him Sharyl Attkisson's boss.
That would be the Sharyl Attkisson who has been one of the few MSM journalists actually covering he Fast & Furious scandal.
Read the rest of that post, as well. Vanderboegh also accuses Utah Senator Orrin Hatch of being an FBI lackey because he got caught in a sex scandal.
Monday, November 14, 2011
Meanwhile, Down In York, SC...
...a man was killed and a boy was injured when they were thrown from the 1923 Model T Ford motorcar they were riding in.
No seat belts; the Model T was built before anyone saw the need, and the law doesn't require it of cars in that circumstance.
No seat belts; the Model T was built before anyone saw the need, and the law doesn't require it of cars in that circumstance.
Shipwreck Blog: The "Jesus Boat"
A fishing boat from the first year A.D., to be exact. Found in the Sea of Galilee.
“The Sea of Galilee will give us a treasure one day,” one brother told another. Turns out, he was right.
In 1986, Yuval and Moshe Lufan, two sons of a fisherman in Kibbutz Ginosar, were walking the shores of the Kinneret. The drought that year dropped the level of the lake lower that the men had seen in years. One brother noticed something odd protruding from the mud. An old nail. As he poked around with his finger, he found another one. Then another. More digging unearthed pieces of ancient wood.
While they didn’t realize it at the time, they had discovered a fishing boat that dated to the first century.
I don't think you could, given the decayed condition of the boat after all these centuries, find any evidence to link it to New Testament events, but it's fun to speculate.
“The Sea of Galilee will give us a treasure one day,” one brother told another. Turns out, he was right.
In 1986, Yuval and Moshe Lufan, two sons of a fisherman in Kibbutz Ginosar, were walking the shores of the Kinneret. The drought that year dropped the level of the lake lower that the men had seen in years. One brother noticed something odd protruding from the mud. An old nail. As he poked around with his finger, he found another one. Then another. More digging unearthed pieces of ancient wood.
While they didn’t realize it at the time, they had discovered a fishing boat that dated to the first century.
I don't think you could, given the decayed condition of the boat after all these centuries, find any evidence to link it to New Testament events, but it's fun to speculate.
They Lived Together, and Died Together
Because when you spend 48 years of your life together, you don't want to be parted by death.
Allan DeLaine told "Rhoe," when he visited her in the hospital a few weeks ago, that "Rabbit" - her husband - wouldn't last long in this world without her. After 48 years, 11 months of marriage, the couple had become as one, not only to all the people who knew them in their Clayton community, but to each other.
Rhoe didn't dispute him.
"She agreed with me. She said 'I know,' " DeLaine told me last week in the parking lot of Johnston Piney Grove Missionary Baptist Church. "I just knew he wasn't going to be able to make it without her. I had no idea he would go as quickly after her as he did."
A few feet from where we stood talking, two long, shiny black hearses were warming their engines at the head of a procession, preparing to take Cynthia Rhoenna Gardner Sanders and Augustus Cromwell Sanders to the cemetery where, side by side, they'd spend eternity - or at least until that great gettin' up mornin' that Mahalia Jackson sang about.
Sometimes it seems like later generations have lost that devotion and sense of commitment that the Sanders obviously had for each other. Great story, click the link to read the rest.
Allan DeLaine told "Rhoe," when he visited her in the hospital a few weeks ago, that "Rabbit" - her husband - wouldn't last long in this world without her. After 48 years, 11 months of marriage, the couple had become as one, not only to all the people who knew them in their Clayton community, but to each other.
Rhoe didn't dispute him.
"She agreed with me. She said 'I know,' " DeLaine told me last week in the parking lot of Johnston Piney Grove Missionary Baptist Church. "I just knew he wasn't going to be able to make it without her. I had no idea he would go as quickly after her as he did."
A few feet from where we stood talking, two long, shiny black hearses were warming their engines at the head of a procession, preparing to take Cynthia Rhoenna Gardner Sanders and Augustus Cromwell Sanders to the cemetery where, side by side, they'd spend eternity - or at least until that great gettin' up mornin' that Mahalia Jackson sang about.
Sometimes it seems like later generations have lost that devotion and sense of commitment that the Sanders obviously had for each other. Great story, click the link to read the rest.
Hitchens On Armistice Day, and War
Being a literate man, Hitchens ties War and Armistice day up with reflections on Rudyard Kipling and Wilfrid Owen:
Even as Kipling was repressing his doubts about the nature of the war and the death of his only son, there was a sort of revolution of poets at the other end of the country. In a mental hospital in Scotland were confined, because of their opposition to the war and their “battle fatigue,” men of the stature of Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen.
Then he ties it in with current events, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the Occupy Wall Street protests:
Last week, some mediocre California mayoress announced that she wasn’t going to attend a Veterans Day event in her city of Richmond. Gayle McLaughlin, in fact, was down with the “Occupy” guys and gals instead. You can easily picture the response she got: the city of Richmond insulted, along with the memory of its brave men and women in uniform. Indeed, there might not even be a Richmond if not for those unforgettable volunteers. But if this were true, then the writing of history would always be simple. So would the composition of morality stories. Both Kipling and Owen came to the conclusion that too many lives had been “taken” rather than offered or accepted, and that too many bureaucrats had complacently accepted the sacrifice as if they themselves had earned it.
And this has made a lot of difference. It means, for example, that each case needs to be argued on its own merits. I am convinced that the contingents who went to fight in Afghanistan and Iraq, though badly led on a scale almost equal to that of 1914 to 1918, are to be praised and supported. But I take no comfort from the idea that this should be an official position. I must say I think that La McLaughlin expressed herself with awful casualness (because Nov. 11 is, after all, truly—still—a solemn day on the calendar). But it’s still more important on such a day to discuss dissent, and to reflect on whether it might have been your own enemy, or your deeply mistaken father, who brought you bound to the pit and alive to the burning.
Even as Kipling was repressing his doubts about the nature of the war and the death of his only son, there was a sort of revolution of poets at the other end of the country. In a mental hospital in Scotland were confined, because of their opposition to the war and their “battle fatigue,” men of the stature of Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen.
Then he ties it in with current events, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the Occupy Wall Street protests:
Last week, some mediocre California mayoress announced that she wasn’t going to attend a Veterans Day event in her city of Richmond. Gayle McLaughlin, in fact, was down with the “Occupy” guys and gals instead. You can easily picture the response she got: the city of Richmond insulted, along with the memory of its brave men and women in uniform. Indeed, there might not even be a Richmond if not for those unforgettable volunteers. But if this were true, then the writing of history would always be simple. So would the composition of morality stories. Both Kipling and Owen came to the conclusion that too many lives had been “taken” rather than offered or accepted, and that too many bureaucrats had complacently accepted the sacrifice as if they themselves had earned it.
And this has made a lot of difference. It means, for example, that each case needs to be argued on its own merits. I am convinced that the contingents who went to fight in Afghanistan and Iraq, though badly led on a scale almost equal to that of 1914 to 1918, are to be praised and supported. But I take no comfort from the idea that this should be an official position. I must say I think that La McLaughlin expressed herself with awful casualness (because Nov. 11 is, after all, truly—still—a solemn day on the calendar). But it’s still more important on such a day to discuss dissent, and to reflect on whether it might have been your own enemy, or your deeply mistaken father, who brought you bound to the pit and alive to the burning.
Sunday, November 13, 2011
You Don't Want 'Em? We'll Take 'Em Off Your Hands
The US Navy and US Marine Corps agree to buy all of the Royal Navy Harrier jets, plus spare parts.
I used to watch Harriers take off and land when I was in the Navy, serving on board USS Saipan (LHA2) and USS Nassau (LHA4). Impressive, to say the very least. I'm sorry that Great Britain is in such distress that it can't afford them any more, but glad we got them so we can extend their use in our own fleet.
I used to watch Harriers take off and land when I was in the Navy, serving on board USS Saipan (LHA2) and USS Nassau (LHA4). Impressive, to say the very least. I'm sorry that Great Britain is in such distress that it can't afford them any more, but glad we got them so we can extend their use in our own fleet.
Who Eats Collards?
I don't, but if you do, there a good article and recipe for them here.
I don't, in fact, eat anything green at all, unless it's a pickle. Or lime Jell-O.
I don't, in fact, eat anything green at all, unless it's a pickle. Or lime Jell-O.
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