COLLECTIVE MADNESS


“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."

Monday, February 21, 2011

Navy PC: "firsts" for women...first female operations officer 1992…WWII & Viet Nam barely mentioned


Ex-pilots shoot down timeline of Navy

Slant seen on blacks, women


A foundation set up to celebrate Navy aviation's 100th birthday has disavowed an official history on its website, after former combat pilots complained of inaccuracies and political correctness.
As the first celebration commenced last month at a naval air base in California, a number of enraged former pilots began bombarding the 100th Anniversary of Naval Aviation Foundation with complaints. TheNavy views the commemoration with high regard, with celebrations planned at Navy and Marine Corps air stations from California to Florida.
The foundation's official history slide show featured four "firsts" for women, such as the first female operations officer in 1992. It also accentuated humanitarian missions. But it devoted only two slides to World War II and barely mentioned Vietnam, during which the Navyorchestrated a decade of multiple aircraft carrier operations.
"There is 'history' and then there is 'revisionist history' written to support a political agenda," said Roy Stafford, a former Marine attack aircraft pilot. "This timeline offered up the first female naval aviator and first female navy astronaut and first black Blue Angel pilot as major milestones and high-water marks for naval aviation to the exclusion of the real history makers. That just didn't sit well with my simple Marine Corps mind."
Mr. Stafford is among a group of retirees who wrote e-mails of protest that ended up in the foundation's lap.
"The true facts are that women's contribution to naval aviation has been minimal to nonexistent for 80 of the first 100 years," said Mr. Stafford. "The simple truth is they were not there, not World War I, not World War II, not Korea nor Vietnam. Men who pushed the limits of mankind to levels never before reached, to relegate them to footnote status while elevating the social agenda is a disservice to all who went before them."
The retired aviators' irate criticisms directed at the 100th anniversary foundation were tinged with surprise, since it is run by men like themselves.
One of them, retired Marine Maj. Gen. Bob Butcher, told The Washington Times that after reading the e-mailed complaints, he agreed with them and the timeline was taken off the website. A reporter found the timeline still posted at a foundation address: NavalAviation100.org/the-history-of-naval-aviation.
Gen. Butcher, who is the 100th foundation's co-chairman, said the contested history was written by public affairs specialists. "It should not have actually been on the website," he said. "But it did frankly get up on the website. And, of course, people objected to it because it was certainly not an accurate depiction of the significant events of naval aviation."
Gen. Butcher, who is also chairman of the Flying Leatherneck Historical Foundation and Aviation Museum, said a new history is being written by the U.S. Navy's National Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola, Fla.
"There are some significant events that occurred in World War II that should be there," Gen. Butcher said.
The foundation's website features the slide show under the headline "The History of Naval Aviation" and a caption that invites visitors to "discover key events that helped shape the history of U.S. Naval Aviation."
It begins with the first shipboard landing on Jan. 18, 1911, in San Francisco Bay. The slides proceed through the early developmental phase to World War II, when Navy aviation played a pivotal role in the Pacific. The timeline mentions only two sea battles — Coral Sea and Midway, both in 1942. The only slide for the Korean War focuses on helicopters, not the first use of Navy jets. Air operations in Vietnam are not mentioned.
The slide show features, with photo portraits, the first female naval aviator, the first female line officer, the first Marine Corps female aviators and the first woman to command a squadron. The slides do not honor any particular male aviation pioneers.
A second, more-detailed history, called a "flipbook" slide show on the same Web page, does show several naval flying aces. But it provides few details on World War II and Korea and provides nothing on air combat in Vietnam. It mentions the Afghanistan War but not the Iraq War in 2003 when naval aviators flew hundreds of sorties. The flipbook highlights four female "firsts."
"My complaint about this 100th anniversary is not necessarily we celebrate the accomplishments or the firsts," said Jon Ault, a retired F-14 pilot who carried out more than 1,000 carrier landings. "But the fact they're excluding other very, very important events in naval aviation to be more politically correct in honoring blacks, females and what have you — come on. If you're going to do this thing, do it equally across the board."
Missing from the history is the story of Mr. Ault's father, the late Navy Capt. Frank W. Ault. AfterNavy and Air Force pilots performed poorly over North Vietnam, the elder Ault was tasked to find out why. His study led to the creation of the Top Gun fighter school later immortalized by Hollywood.
"All I'm saying is don't let the PC maniacs take charge of this evolution and stand there and do a year of celebration of just stuff that is PC and the media will suck up," Mr. Ault said.
A letter to the foundation from another retired flier said, "As a former Navy A-4 attack pilot with twoVietnam cruises, this whole current PC 'Cheerleading' Time Line on your website is nothing more than a Disney World silly symbolism and girlie-man PR stunt … nothing more. Worse, it's a basic slap in the face to the tens of thousands of Navy and Marine aviators who took enormous risks, gave their lives, and demonstrated enormous courage under daunting conditions to build what Naval Air has become today."
The foundation plans 34 celebrations nationwide throughout 2011, culminating in a "centennial closing gala" at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington.
Honorary board members include Neil Armstrong, a retired Navy captain and the first man to step onto the moon; former Sen. John Glenn, also a former astronaut; and actors Harrison Ford, Robert Duvall and Tom Hanks.

26 comments:

  1. The PC rot is set well into the Pentagon. The military budget has in it a collossal waste of resources not necessary for the protection and safeguard of the United States.

    The first place to start the cuts is in the officer core where the dolts have nothing better to do with time and taxpayer money to come up with this political correctness nonsense.

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  2. The Republicans should start their cutting there. The problem is far too many of our rulers and masters have not served in the active duty military. They have no idea as to the waste and corruption of resources squandered by the Pentagon. Those that do know are cowed by the sanctimony of the "thank you for your service" crowd, which I may point out is in itself unvanrnished political correctness treacle.

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  3. Let them dare set up a commission to study Pentagon waste, a commission of all ex-military, none over the rank of master sergeant.

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  4. Where is Ron Paul wrong? I know that the propaganda machine of the establishment has been successful undermining Ron Paul, calling him a flake, but where is the proof?

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  5. meanwhile the Middle East is on fire. Did you see gold and oil this morning?


    Gold $1,404+$15+1.10%

    Oil $89.36+$3.16+3.67%

    Repeat: oil is up $3.16

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  6. Today and everyday the US spends $600 million on interest. That is our daily, repeat daily interest payment!

    $600 million on a daily basis could build 600 small factories daily. Those factories on a daily basis could produce 600 new jobs per day, in one month we could create 180,000 new jobs and by the end of the first year we would have 2,160,000 jobs.

    That could be done year in and year out with the money we are spending on interest onl payments on the debt.

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  7. We accumulated that debt by wasting money. a huge portion of that interest transfer is going to China, day in and day out.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Clashes In Tripoli

    Emerging reports early Feb. 21 indicate the unrest in Libya is spreading from eastern Libya to the capital of Tripoli. According to initial reports, heavy gunfire was heard in central Tripoli and in other districts with Al Jazeera reporting 61 people killed in Tripoli on Feb. 21. Other unconfirmed reports say that protesters attacked the headquarters of Al-Jamahiriya Two television and Al-Shababia as well as other government buildings in Tripoli overnight. According to Saudi-owned al-Arabiya, the government-owned People’s Conference Centre where the General People’s Congress (parliament) meets when it is in session in Tripoli was set on fire. U.K. energy firm British Petroleum reportedly said it would evacuate its personnel from Libya and suspend its activities due to massive unrest. Spain’s Foreign Minister Trinidad Jimenez said on Feb. 21 that the EU member states are coordinating possible evacuations of European nationals from Libya. A Turkish Airlines flight was arranged to evacuate Turkish citizens from Benghazi but was denied the opportunity to land by Libyan authorities and returned to Turkey.

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  9. "Today and everyday the US spends $600 million on interest.

    That is our daily, repeat daily interest payment!
    "

    ---

    At historically low, and artificially maintained rates.

    The fecal matter rapidly approaches the fan.

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  10. BTW, one our Belmont Club stalwarts, Leo Linbeck III is going to be interviewed by Dennis Prager on Monday, 2 pm Eastern. He may be discussing an important new development in the state’s response to Obamacare. Don’t miss it.”

    ---

    Prager is streamed on KRLA - HERE

    Schedules, etc:
    http://www.krla870.com/

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  11. Looks like a Burt Rutan design.

    ...and it is carbon fiber, so I'm gonna check.

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  12. I have never seen anything quite like what is going on now. I know that 911 was shocking, but it was a singular event. It was a cyclone. This is a storm on a planetary level. The entire Arab World is in turmoil. Is this a delayed reaction to the economic meltdown, rising food prices, twitter or the Internet? Did George Bush start this in Iraq?

    Oil, gold, interest rates, deficits, public employees in the streets, what is next?

    ReplyDelete
  13. Apocalypse Now:

    Wisconsin vs. Big Labor - Michelle Malkin

    Welcome to the reckoning. We have met the fiscal apocalypse, and it is smack dab in the middle of the heartland. As Wisconsin goes, so goes the nation. Let us pray it does not go the way of the decrepit welfare states of the European Union.

    The lowdown:

    State government workers in the Badger State pay piddling amounts for generous taxpayer-subsidized health benefits. Faced with a $3.6 billion budget hole and a state constitutional ban on running a deficit, new GOP Gov. Scott Walker wants public unions to pony up a little more. He has proposed raising the public employee share of health insurance premiums from less than 5 percent to 12.4 percent. He is also pushing for state workers to cover half of their pension contributions. To spare taxpayers the soaring costs of Byzantine union-negotiated work rules, he would rein in Big Labor's collective bargaining power to cover only wages unless approved at the ballot box.

    As the free-market MacIver Institute in Wisconsin points out, the benefits concessions Walker is asking public union workers to make would still maintain their health insurance contribution rates at the second-lowest among Midwest states for family coverage. Moreover, a new analysis by benefits think tank HCTrends shows that the new rate "would also be less than the employee contributions required at 85 percent of large Milwaukee_area employers."

    This modest call for shared sacrifice has triggered the wrath of the White House-Big Labor-Michael Moore axis. On Thursday, President Obama lamented the "assault on unions." AFL-CIO and Service Employees International Union bosses dubbed Walker the "Mubarak of the Midwest" while their minions toted posters of Walker's face superimposed on Hitler's. Moore goaded thousands of striking union protesters to "shut down" the "new Cairo" while the state's Democratic legislators bailed on floor debate over the union reform package.

    Education Secretary Arne Duncan spurned the opportunity to condemn thousands of Wisconsin public school teachers for lying about being "sick" and shutting down at least eight school districts across the state to attend capitol protests (many of whom dragged their students on a social justice field trip with them).

    Instead, Duncan defended teachers for "doing probably the most important work in society." Only striking government teachers could win federal praise for NOT doing their jobs.

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  14. What forced the issue was the inability of governments to borrow at less than usurious rates.

    63. derek

    This happened in British Columbia in 1983. The years of government overspending along with the collapse of the largest resource industry due to high cost structures pushed the government into a restraint program. They passed legislation that removed job protection from public unions and a bunch of other things. Specifically they could lay off anyone without cause.

    The union movement, one of the most powerful in Canada at the time hit the roof. There was talk of general strikes. They shut down the government for a period of time.

    It fizzled out. It was the first of many provinces and eventually Federal shrinking of government, matching expenditures to revenues.

    What forced the issue was the inability of governments to borrow at less than usurious rates.

    Word for word, what we hear from Obama, the unions, the democrats were said in those days. The media reports were identical. The euphoria of the left was identical, but short lived.

    A year later Alberta did the same, then one province after another to some measure, eventually the Federal government. Governments started losing elections for running deficits. And winning by cutting and demanding performance out of the civil service.

    ---

    Egypt in America

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  15. The Suicide Watch Continues:

    BP to Pay $7.2 Billion for India Energy Fields Stake

    MUMBAI, India — The deal with Reliance is the second major agreement signed by BP in recent months. The company also made a deal with Russia’s Rosneft to drill in the Arctic.

    ---

    Bullet Trains and Windmills!

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  16. In the second video, the little bitch in green re-incites the mob even as photographer and reporter are leaving.

    ReplyDelete
  17. ...third video:
    Reporter is six-four, is the female fotog six-six?

    Shoulda taken up basketball.

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  18. Pettise wanted to call it the Tutti Frutti breakfast, but it proved cost prohibitive to buy the rights to the Little Richard song.

    "The item instead was called Rooty Tooty Fresh'n Fruity.

    Television commercials showed customers who were too embarrassed to say the name of the menu item, so they disguised themselves by wearing Groucho Marx funny nose and glasses.

    The customers in the first ad were members of IHOP's marketing department.

    "We couldn't afford to hire extras," Sakoda says. The Rooty Tooty Fresh'n Fruity campaign ran on and off for years, and the item is still on the menu."

    ReplyDelete
  19. .

    Local Fox Crew Attacked, Beaten in Calif

    Quirk's synpathy for the reporters?

    Zero.

    They are slugs and parasites, sucking on the misery of others to appeal to the Nancy Grace, reality TV, E-Entertainment demographic.

    They should have left when first asked to. How many times have we seen their counterparts go up to a house where some one has died and when one of the bereaved answers the door ask something inane like "Your son is dead How do you feel."

    They make me want to puke.

    .

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