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."

Sunday, December 19, 2010

North Korea Goes to the Dead US Soldiers' Remains Strategy



Richardson: North Korea offers to return remains of U.S. troops

By the CNN Wire Staff
December 19, 2010 --

Pyongyang, North Korea (CNN) -- A top North Korean general offered Sunday to help return the remains of several hundred U.S. troops killed during the Korean War, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson said.

Maj. Gen. Pak Rim Su told Richardson that the bodies were discovered recently in North Korea.

Richardson, who is meeting with officials in North Korea to help ease tensions in the region, described the offer as a "very positive gesture."

Any returned remains are "better than nothing," Korean War Veterans Association President Bill Mac Swain said. But he noted that there were possible pitfalls.

"I'm worried that what we'll get is a bunch of stuff that we'll never be able to figure out," he said.

Investigators are still trying to identify many of the bodies from more than 200 boxes stuffed with remains and personal items that North Korea sent back to the United States between 1990 and 1994, he said.

"The problem is the bones were scattered in boxes. There were all kinds of different things that made it very difficult for them to even determine how many people were in the boxes," Mac Swain said.

The Korean War ended at midnight on July 27, 1953, after three years of fighting that left millions dead -- including just more than 54,000 U.S. troops, according to the Department of Defense.

More than 8,000 U.S. service members remain missing from the Korean War, according to the Defense Prisoner of War/Missing Personnel Office.

For more than four decades, U.S. attempts to persuade North Korea to return additional U.S. remains were unsuccessful.

But between 1990 and 1994, North Korea exhumed and returned what it claimed were 208 sets of remains in 208 boxes.

In 2007, on the eve of preliminary peace talks, North Korea handed over four sets of remains believed to be those of American soldiers killed during the 1950-53 Korean War.

The remains, in aluminum coffins, were delivered by North Korean soldiers to United Nations honor guards during a brief rain-drenched ceremony in Panmunjom on the demilitarized zone dividing the two Koreas. They were recovered in the North's Unsan County, where about 350 Americans are thought to have been killed in fighting between U.S. and Chinese troops shortly after China entered the war on the side of North Korea.

At that time, 209 sets of remains had been returned to the United States; only seven had been identified.

Before 1996, most of the remains excavated and returned by North Korea were in too poor condition to identify. The United States asked North Korea to stop further exhumation until an agreement was made for joint recovery. That agreement gave the United States access to the reclusive communist country to look for evidence of U.S. soldiers killed during the war.

But the U.S. government temporarily suspended such trips into North Korea in 2005, according to the Defense Prison of War/Missing Personnel Office.

Mac Swain, 80, said that finding remains isn't just an issue of statistics and science.

"From my company there's two people that are missing in action. We don't really know anything about them, and this is 60 years later. ... I would like for them to be able to find these two guys," he said.

But North Korea's motives may not be altruistic, Mac Swain said.

"I'm afraid it's more political than it is humanitarian. ... They use our dead to further their gains. That's another way to look at it. ... But we need to find (the missing). We need to bring them home," he said.

165 comments:

  1. Interesting technic these north koreans have, holding on to bodies and bones like booty...

    Who does that remind you of?

    Oh yeah, Syria, Hamas, Hezbollah, Fatah, Palestinians, Al Quida...

    Birds of a feather....

    ReplyDelete
  2. Gay Day?

    Let us humbly recall when the Army was ridding itself of linguists in critical languages due to sexual orientation and the frank stupidity of the military's policy regarding homosexuals was here remarked. Shall we?

    What seemed more or less blindingly obvious to many a self-described conservative at the time is not so now, perhaps due in part - I merely suggest - to the changed political landscape upon which repeal has taken place, rather than practical or even cultural considerations.

    That this will end up being far more complicated in implementation, far thornier in its consequences, than many an advocate can foresee, I freely grant.

    But the military is not so conservative as the general population supposes and has, in its own way and of necessity, some more liberal instincts than the country at large.

    Oh, the irony.

    ReplyDelete
  3. But it's humorous in this conext to recall (I think it was) Larry Summers's observation back in the Nineties that the Army, for one, with its everyday obsession with weight and body mass and its scrutiny of official photos - why NOT have the guys photographed in Speedos and the gals in some equivalent - was flirting with homoeroticism.

    That got some yay verrilies. Back when.

    300, anyone?

    ReplyDelete
  4. But the military is not so conservative as the general population supposes and has, in its own way and of necessity, some more liberal instincts than the country at large.

    Tell me about it. I often hear a teacher from the Naval War College who is almost Leninist.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Make that, "But the military is not so conservative as some conservatives on the one hand, or liberals on the other, would have it."

    ReplyDelete
  6. "I often hear a teacher from the Naval War College who is almost Leninist."

    Must be why we're losing the war.

    Har har. Har har.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Below is a complete transcript of Taibbi’s report from the Sunday, December 19, NBC Nightly News:

    LESTER HOLT: The WikiLeaks story took another turn today with Vice President Biden’s comments on Meet the Press that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange damaged U.S. diplomacy and put lives in danger with his latest round of leaks. Biden said the Justice Department is looking into bringing charges against Assange, but what about the Army private now in custody who allegedly leaked all those documents to Assange in the first place?

    ...

    MIKE TAIBBI: In grammar school in Crescent, Oklahoma, Bradley Manning was the undersized sax player in the band and a straight A student with all the answers on the quiz bowl academic team.

    JORDAN DAVIS, CHILDHOOD FRIEND OF BRADLEY MANNING: He kind of probably made people feel a little stupid just because he tended to use big words.

    TAIBBI: Now Manning’s the alleged source of the heart of the WikiLeaks firestorm, an Army intelligence analyst charged with downloading and distributing classified videos and thousands of documents made public by WikiLeaks. Manning was only arrested after he contacted a notorious former computer hacker from California named Adrian Lama. After hearing Manning’s story it was Lama who turned him in.

    ADRIAN LAMA, FORMER HACKER: It was the most difficult decision that I've ever made.

    TAIBBI: Lama says Manning sought him out because of his reputation as an accomplished computer hacker.

    ...

    LAMA: I regret I had no other choice going forward. I wish that Bradley Manning had talked to me when he was planning it.


    Betraying America

    ReplyDelete
  8. The United States government has never been infiltrated by Communists. Nor has the UK, for that matter.

    Harold Adrian Russell Philby

    ReplyDelete
  9. Oh, but the US was infiltrated by communists, Jonathan Pollard was an agent for the Soviets, run by the Israeli.

    Communists all.

    ReplyDelete
  10. "The United States government has never been infiltrated by Communists."

    I realize that is has been and that this was properly a grave concern in decades past - a grave concern not actually helped by some of those who went off the deep end and made a political fetish of it - but I think we have passed the Venona heyday and moved on into a more complicated arena.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Gee, Hiss, that avatar rings a bell.

    ReplyDelete
  12. I hope you all been been watching Sarah Palin raft rivers in Alaska tonight. Good rivers they have there.

    Definitely need a guide, unless you a believer in horoschopes and let the stars guide you.

    Good luck with that.

    It' surprising how few of the river guides rely on horoscopes. Zero, that I know of, the others who did all being dead.

    She didn't need the five shots to take down the 'bou though. Even I could have done better.

    Happy Holidays.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Hiss needs some work on his teething, and a facial.

    ReplyDelete
  14. South Korea just started their drills.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Now I think about it Hiss could use one of those full body and mind makeovers they give out in Philly at the hairdressers there.

    ReplyDelete
  16. WINTER SOLSTICE, LUNAR ECLIPSE OVERLAP FIRST TIME IN 456 YEARS...

    This is no ordinary "trine" (?)


    Surely this has a deep meaning--
    my hunch - excellent fishing and wolf killing this coming year!!!! And meat steaks for all!!!

    ReplyDelete
  17. Wes Clark - and he doesn't mind if I call him Wes - cut an impressive figure in a Speedo.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Or is that Clarke?

    Goddamn, I can't remember.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Two of my favorite colonels (or service equivalent) have cummerbund issues.

    ReplyDelete
  20. That Hiss fellow might look nice in a cumberbund...

    ReplyDelete
  21. yehujellybutrumadtoo said...

    One last, more direct point. Disclaimer: I've read this blog since its inception and mean this with all politeness.

    When gay men and women hear of injustices done to Americans, when they learn of war made upon them with impunity and malice, when they see the faces of acid-scarred women and the terrified, watery eyes of children whose parents have perished to terrorism, to our own mistakes, to the calculated plans of our enemies, what is your response to them? And if you feel it just to deny them the right to serve the only, if ambiguous and controversial, force for good in the world, how can you possibly feel right about such a call?

    Nearly every person I know whose served has sexual morays that I do not share. I could not care less what sexuality and perversions my fellow citizens find fun, so long as it avoids obvious red lines. I am not sure why we take exception to homosexuals. Are they really so different that our military not only should do without but also must bar by force of law their participation?

    I know the politics of DADT play well in certain areas. But so too do all kinds of divide-and-conquer games that you known are a perennial strategy for Washington, DC. How on earth is it healthy for to allow meanspirited reactionaries a say in what is "proper" service, reducing the complexities of patriotism to a ridiculous sexual binary?

    And its not only political strategy that suffers. Intellectually, can't we all affirm that sexuality is complicated. Do we really need to take a bible camp brochure and impose it on the Pentagon?

    My dissonances drove my sympathies to the positions you see above. Are you saying you see no contradictions in your own feelings?

    Mon Dec 20, 12:21:00 AM EST



    Deuce said...
    I do not want to see anyone barred from service if they are qualified and needed for the purposes of the business of the US military.

    I also do not want to see homosexual men do for the US military what they did for the Catholic Church.

    Men are different than woman. Homosexual men are different than straight men. Military men are different than civilian men.

    A voluntary military should be open to all who want to serve and to all who are qualified by the organization. You join an organization like the USA Military because you want them and they want you.

    Don't make the specious argument that it is a civil right, the same as race. That is nonsense and a false comparison. Races are different because of people's origin and evolution. They differ on minor physical attributes. Black men, white men and red men are all men. There is little difference between their character, instincts and behavior.

    Small group dynamics is important to military cohesion and effectiveness. If you do not understand the difference between a buddy wanting to save your ass and a buddy who wants your ass, I can't help you understand.

    Mon Dec 20, 03:33:00 AM EST

    ReplyDelete
  22. VOA reports:

    South Korea says it sent jet fighters into the air to deter North Korean aggression as it staged a live-fire artillery drill at Yeonpyeong Island - the same place that was shelled by North Korean artillery during a similar drill last month.

    The 94-minute drill concluded Monday afternoon with no immediate response from North Korea, which had warned of "catastrophic" effects if South Korea went ahead with the exercise. The South moved residents of the island into shelters ahead of the drill as a precaution.

    A reporter traveling with U.S. trouble-shooter Bill Richardson is reporting that Pyongyang has offered several concessions to ease tensions over its nuclear program. CNN correspondent Wolf Blitzer says North Korea told Richardson during a four-day visit that it was ready to have U.N. inspectors return to its Yongbyon nuclear facility.

    Blitzer said the North also offered to have fuel rods from Yongbyon moved out of the country and to establish a military commission and a hotline linking the two Koreas and the United States.
    In New York, the U.N. Security Council met for several hours Sunday trying to find a way to head off the threat of confrontation between the two Koreas but ended its session with no agreement.

    Russian U.N. envoy Vitaly Churkin told reporters that Security Council members could not agree on wording of a statement urging the two Koreas to exercise "extreme restraint."

    The U.S. ambassador at the U.N., Susan Rice, said most Security Council members wanted a strongly worded condemnation of North Korea's two attacks on the South this year. However, Rice said several nations - presumably including China, North Korea's closest ally - would not agree.

    The U.S. envoy also reiterated Washington's view that South Korea has the right to conduct military drills in the Yellow Sea, and has done so without any deception.

    Seoul says hostile action by North Korea has killed at least 50 of its citizens this year.

    North Korea's November 23 attack on Yeonpyeong Island killed four people, including two civilians, and an explosion on March 26 that sank a South Korean warship in the same area killed 46 sailors. An international investigation concluded the ship was sunk by a North Korean torpedo, but Pyongyang has vehemently denied any role in the sinking.

    ReplyDelete
  23. "Small group dynamics is important to military cohesion and effectiveness. If you do not understand the difference between a buddy wanting to save your ass and a buddy who wants your ass..."

    Interesting, then, the article you chose from American Thinker, which dealt with broader issues.

    I may have served with quite a few lesbians. At least this was suggested, to my surprise, at Huachuca. I hadn't realized any would be interested in the Army. Didn't strike me as very, I dunno, lesbian-ish as occupations go.

    As long as there was some privacy, it wasn't an issue.

    And it really is a privacy issue, isn't it?

    ReplyDelete
  24. I also served and lived with men since my time at DLI.

    This I took for granted.

    At the end of an exercise at Ft. Hood, a fellow female soldier and I went looking for a barracks at which to do laundry.

    We walked into the first one we found; field artillery. The CQ runner was awkward but obliging.

    We thought it was no big deal.

    We had guys popping out of their rooms just for a look-see.

    ReplyDelete
  25. A look-see at two filthy women in sweats.

    ReplyDelete
  26. No, it is not a privacy issue. It is merely the opening round and the beginning of a campaign for the military to recognize dependents of gay soldiers, i.e., other gay men, gay weddings etc, etc.

    The radical homosexual community is not interested in privacy. They have been quite successful with flamboyancy and flamboyancy it will be.

    This is a political issue.

    ReplyDelete
  27. "This is a political issue."

    Okay. On one level, it is.

    For the military, which is necessarily and blessedly concerned with practical matters, it's a privacy issue.

    A complicated and costly one.

    ReplyDelete
  28. Unless I missed something in basic training, the goal was to form a unit mentality not to celebrate diversity.

    I have some work to do to persuade a nephew not to join the marine corps, so that he doesn't get killed or maimed under the command of social experimenting politicians and military officers.

    It definitely is not their father's or grandfather's army, air force or marine corps.

    ReplyDelete
  29. Some gay soldier is going to come on to a straight soldier, a fight will ensue and the straight soldier will end up in prison. You can guarantee it.

    ReplyDelete
  30. "Unless I missed something in basic training, the goal was to form a unit mentality not to celebrate diversity."

    And they do a far better job now in the area of unit cohesion than was the case in the Nineties.

    Thank the war for a few small things.

    ReplyDelete
  31. It is going to bring an entire new level of costly sexual harrassment issues from promotions, assignments and benefits. All for what ?

    ReplyDelete
  32. "I have some work to do to persuade a nephew not to join the marine corps..."

    Oh, dear.

    Unless I'm mistaken, there are still quite noble and perfectly sane reasons to join the Corps.

    ReplyDelete
  33. And by costly, I meant cost in physical accommodation.

    ReplyDelete
  34. The military tradition of this tribe is going to come to an end if my powers of persuaion have any influence and I doubt my feelings are unique.

    There will no longer be silent or spoken approval.

    I am sure that will be the case in great parts of this country, the traditional parts of this country whose families actually send young men into the military.

    ReplyDelete
  35. "The military tradition of this tribe..."

    Have at it.

    I'm not particularly tribal.

    And, honestly, it makes me rather sad that you would want to end such a tradition, rather than further it with some...tempered and unique insight...with regard to any young person in your "tribe" who expresses an interest.

    ReplyDelete
  36. Doesn't it just come down to the job involved? If a person can handle the particular job involved that outght to be the main thing.


    I remember watching a young lithe woman piloting a I think single seat spooter chopper out in front of a line of attacking tanks in Bush I's War - 'what a gas, she said' - maybe she was gay.


    Certainly seemed to be enjoying her work, from the looks of all the buring Iraqi tanks.

    Let the gay tankers and spotters lead the liberation of Iran:)

    ReplyDelete
  37. .

    For the military, which is necessarily and blessedly concerned with practical matters, it's a privacy issue...

    This matter just doesn't register big on my radar, mainly because I am not directly involved. It's an issue (or a problem) for the military and they ought to be given wide discretion in deciding what policies are best for promoting unit cohesion and the capacity to get their job done in the most efficient way possible.

    To say that this is a practical as opposed to a political decision, however, is naive. These days every decision made in the military is political, from funding to staffing to payroll and benefits to procurement to handing out cash in paper sacks to our 'allies'.

    .

    ReplyDelete
  38. Hiss,

    Proof please that Pollard spied for the Soviet. Try a non-Nazi link, if you can...thx

    Your Major Hasan still sits untried at Fort Hood. What's that all about?

    ReplyDelete
  39. "Let us humbly recall..."




    That is all.

    ReplyDelete
  40. Let me explain what is next:

    There will be a $500,000,000 propaganda and brainwashing session for everyone in the military. Straight traditional valued troops will go to jail, get demoted and have careers ruined.


    The boy scouts will be the next target.

    The moral equivalency of marriage between whatever will become the new norm.

    Employers will have to pay benefits for every lifestyle choice.

    ReplyDelete
  41. .

    Sadly, what you say is true Deuce.

    The lowest level of the Quirkster's Hell is reserved for the Purveyor's of the PC (right below people who can't merge properly).

    .

    ReplyDelete
  42. I would like to see every conservative pastor and minister strongly admonish their followers to stop volunteering to join the US Military.

    Deny them service. Force them to go draft the elites. This is a bridge too far.

    ReplyDelete
  43. President Palin and a good Republican majority would make these problems seem not so signifigant.


    More snow here.

    ReplyDelete
  44. Draft
    the elites???


    Why, you must joking.

    ReplyDelete
  45. The boy scouts will be the next target.


    We are already the target...

    ReplyDelete
  46. Good Republicans? A little levity from Bob.

    ReplyDelete
  47. A good number elites go into the military. Minnick was in, I'd consider him an elite. They just don't like to be drafted into it.

    ReplyDelete
  48. Did you see her run that whitewater this evening?

    wow

    My daughter, can't recall if I mentioned it, finally fell off the horse, bareback, no reins, in the snow. No worse for a little wear.

    I think these young people ought to have, besides the required helmet, some light football pads on, after all they don't know what they are doing.

    ReplyDelete
  49. Veterans Today Network

    “….the depth of Pollard’s info that he passed on to Russia (amongst others) was as damaging as the Rosenberg’s was during that era.
    Devastatingly state of the art. Virtually everything that we knew/know about nukes….” (US Navy nuclear weapons expert exclusive to Veterans
    Today)

    "Why did Israel send this information to Russia, the names of all American intelligence assets behind the Iron Curtain, the exact locations of all NATO nuclear weapons facilities, missile silos and detail on how to defeat America’s defenses from nuclear attack?

    America doesn’t openly admit it, but this is exactly what was done, and done with one purpose, a surgical strike on America, starting and ending World War III in hours."

    ReplyDelete
  50. Labrador ought to be a good Republican. Most conservative guy in the Idaho Congress, if that counts for anything.

    You go any further you slip off the edge of the earth into Rat-Land.

    ReplyDelete
  51. Elite, oh yea, I met the elites from the PA coal regions, guys from Brooklyn and the Bronx, Patterson New Jersey and Elyria, Ohio, Raleigh, North Carolina, Stockton, California and Tupelo Mississippi

    Elites one and all we were.

    ReplyDelete
  52. "Sadly, what you say is true Deuce."

    : )

    ReplyDelete
  53. Boy Scouts is a strange group...

    The gays and PCers dont get it...

    They are all about being proud, out and in your face...

    In Scouting an adult leader is not to be talking about how much sex they get, with whom, where and how often is not a topic for discussion. It's not part of the deal. A single man is NOT expected to shared how he got laid over the weekend.

    I watched the difference between baseball and scouts, in the travel team for baseball the coaches and players DID talk about who and when what gals the coach did date... They did talk about the gals at hooters.. (this being with a group of 9-10 year old boys)...

    Scouts? That is a subject not discussed.

    So in theory a male or woman COULD be gay, we'd never know if they KNEW that within Scouts we dont talk about nailing one....

    But the gay movement wants to change Scouts, they want leaders to be openly gay, this is not acceptable. Nor is it acceptable for a single straight adult leader to be in a position of leadership talking about how he got laid last weekend...

    The gay agenda does not seek equal rights, it seeks, or demands total acceptance as equals.

    Sorry but gay "relationships" are not the bedrock of society, they are the exception.

    ReplyDelete
  54. I've know several from around here went into the Military Academies; they didn't have to, had other oppertunities, is all I'm saying.

    Much of life is very unfair.

    But amazingly, Churchill said it all came out equally in the end.

    ReplyDelete
  55. I like the Boy Scouts cause they always say "Sir" to me.

    That has always counted for a lot.

    I always buy their cookies.

    Speaking of which I want my Continental Breakfast.

    ReplyDelete
  56. Dr Hiss, aka the Rodent is Jew obsessed...

    He claims that Jews control the world, they colonized the middle east, they control the banks, the political system and all things...

    It's amazing if the jews controlled so much, let me ask him directly...

    Where is my cut?

    Why does Israel sit on 1/650th of the middle east and not control vast oil resources?

    Why has Israel allowed Iran to rearm Hezbollah and Hamas, if they are as all powerful as you say?

    Why does Israel get so little in aid if they control it all? Barely 3 billion a year in military aid is given to Israel, the f22? cancelled, and AMerica spends 100 BIllion a year on arabs...

    Geez...

    I'd would have thought for all the power the rodent says we have, we'd all be laying on beach towels on our own private beaches.. But no... I am still waiting for my slice of the pie...

    Our Rodent is not who he says he is...

    He is Ishmael...

    ReplyDelete
  57. bob said...
    I like the Boy Scouts cause they always say "Sir" to me.

    That has always counted for a lot.

    I always buy their cookies.


    Bob are you drunk? Girl Scouts have cookies, Boy Scouts sell popcorn...

    ReplyDelete
  58. all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness

    Rights that are unalienable cannot be legislated away.

    Where and how one pursues happiness, a personal matter.

    If you do not like it, being propositioned for gay sex,
    "Just Say NO!"

    Don't resort to fighting your fellow soldiers that are a little peppy and fun loving.

    That's just not how it's done, in the US Military in the 21st century.

    ReplyDelete
  59. Control banks, the Jews?

    I never wrote that, because I do not believe it. There are Jewish bankers, true enough. There are Jewish fraudsters, like Madoff, true too.

    But the Jewish folks have no claim to exclusivity when it comes to frauds. They just run with the rest.

    That there are portions of the 1,000,000 Russians colonizing occupied Palestine, today, is so true that it is not even debatable.

    That the Israeli have seized by force and colonized parts of Jerusalem, true too.

    ReplyDelete
  60. Dr Hiss only answering allens' request for greater depth of knowledge with regards Mr Pollards treasonous actions towards the United States.

    ReplyDelete
  61. Colony
    a group of people who leave their native country to form in a new land a settlement subject to, or connected with, the parent nation.

    Israel is that position with Russia, as the Pollard case, amongst others, exemplify. Israel and Russia are connected at the hip.
    Culturally more militarily.

    But Israel, it definitely has a large colony of Russians.

    ReplyDelete
  62. rat says..

    That the Israeli have seized by force and colonized parts of Jerusalem, true too.

    Can't "colonized" what's yours to start with...

    The Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem is liberated, except for the ugly ass Dome of the Rock that squats on the Jewish Temple Mount..

    To use the term "colonize" is much more apt to describe your sitting in AZ...

    You have no historic rights to live in AZ. You are an occupier...

    Hebron, Galilee, Bethlehem are all HISTORIC Jewish lands...

    The arabs? (your peeps) come from Arabia.

    But let's be honest. You have double standards...

    You claim somehow Jews are colonists in Israel and because some 800,000 Russian Jews moved there?

    You ignore the fact the MUCH of the arabs that now live in the region are also newly moved into the area all within the last 80 years...

    Arabs are colonizing the west bank, building new towns and settlement, they are also now colonizing across the globe, in places like London and Newark NJ...

    These are colonies...

    What is occupation?

    WHy can arabs move out of arabia and colonize 21 nations and no outcry?

    Arab/Islamic colonizing is happening and not a peep...

    Jews build homes in Jerusalem and you call it a crime...

    Hmmm double standards...

    ReplyDelete
  63. Israel is a perfect fit for 3 of the 4 definitions of a "colony".

    colony (ˈkɒlənɪ)

    — n , pl -nies
    1. a body of people who settle in a country distant from their homeland but maintain ties with it
    2. the community formed by such settlers

    3. a subject territory occupied by a settlement from the ruling state
    4. a. a community of people who form a national, racial, or cultural minority: an artists' colony ; the American colony in London

    Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition

    ReplyDelete
  64. Colony
    a group of people who leave their native country to form in a new land a settlement subject to, or connected with, the parent nation.



    And yet in Russia the RUSSIANS never called the Jews RUSSIAN, they even marked their passports as a separate people...

    Jews, Israelites, Hebrews...

    Nope the Jews who escaped from Russia (the majority) were part of the Jewish diaspora and RETURNED to their historic HOMELAND.

    It's called liberation....

    Once can only laugh when you are thrown off your so called land when the original owners come a knocking...

    ReplyDelete
  65. desert rat said...
    Israel is a perfect fit for 3 of the 4 definitions of a "colony".

    colony (ˈkɒlənɪ)

    — n , pl -nies
    1. a body of people who settle in a country distant from their homeland but maintain ties with it
    2. the community formed by such settlers
    3. a subject territory occupied by a settlement from the ruling state
    4. a. a community of people who form a national, racial, or cultural minority: an artists' colony ; the American colony in London

    Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition






    Sounds like every ARAB and Islamic colony across the globe..

    ReplyDelete
  66. Occupied Jerusalem is just that.

    It is an Israeli Settlement that the establishment of and continual administration by the Israelis violates the Geneva Accords.

    This has been true since 1967 and remains true, today.

    The Israeli Government, not existing prior to 1948 has no prior historical claim to sovereignty over that land.

    ReplyDelete
  67. .

    Where and how one pursues happiness, a personal matter.

    The way PC is permeating society including the military, it will soon be considered sexual harrassment for a male sodier to flirt with a female soldier.

    On the other hand if a gay male flirts with a staight guy it will be the straight guy who is written up as biased and not a "team player" if he complains about it.

    Rat you are so fucking PC you make me want to puke.





    :)

    .

    ReplyDelete
  68. Whether or not there are Islamic colonies has never been discussed, let alone denied, by me.

    That the Islamoids and the Jews share further equivalencies, part of my over all argument.

    Glad you are on board, today., "o".

    ReplyDelete
  69. Q projects his feelings, and presents it as fact.

    ... it will soon be ...

    He admits that it is not that way, today. But plays to fears.
    What may come, may come.

    It may come sooner, rather than later.
    Or not

    ReplyDelete
  70. Here is my shit list. I don't want to see any requests in my mailbox from these morons for a 2012 Presidential run.

    Voting no on DADT:

    ALABAMA: Sessions (R), No; Shelby (R), No.

    ARIZONA: Kyl (R), No; McCain (R), No.

    ARKANSAS: Yes; Pryor (D), No.

    FLORIDA: LeMieux (R), No

    GEORGIA: Chambliss (R), No; Isakson (R), No.

    IDAHO: Crapo (R), No; Risch (R), No.

    ILLINOIS: Kirk (R), No.

    IOWA: Grassley (R), No

    KANSAS: Brownback (R), No; Roberts (R), No.

    KENTUCKY: McConnell (R), No.

    LOUISIANA: Vitter (R), No.

    MAINE: Collins (R), No; Snowe (R), No.

    MASSACHUSETTS: Brown (R), No

    MISSISSIPPI: Cochran (R), No; Wicker (R), No.

    MISSOURI: Bond (R), No

    MONTANA: Tester (D), No.

    NEBRASKA Johanns (R), No; Nelson (D), No.

    NEVADA Ensign (R), No

    NORTH CAROLINA: Burr (R), No

    OHIO: Voinovich (R), No.

    OKLAHOMA: Coburn (R), No; Inhofe (R), No.

    SOUTH CAROLINA: DeMint (R), No; Graham (R), No.

    SOUTH DAKOTA: Thune (R), No.

    TENNESSEE: Alexander (R), No; Corker (R), No.

    TEXAS: Cornyn (R), No; Hutchison (R), No.

    WYOMING: Barrasso (R), No; Enzi (R), No.

    ReplyDelete
  71. Quirk wrote:

    "The way PC is permeating society including the military, it will soon be considered sexual harrassment for a male sodier to flirt with a female soldier."

    yeppers and that destroys unit cohesion...black folk too will destroy that cohesion or so it was once maintained - can't have that!

    ReplyDelete
  72. Deuce: I would like to see every conservative pastor and minister strongly admonish their followers to stop volunteering to join the US Military.

    In the Espionage Act of 1917, Section 3 made it a federal crime, punishable by up to 20 years of imprisonment and a fine of up to $10,000, to willfully spread false news of the American army and navy with an intent to disrupt their operations, to foment mutiny in their ranks, or to obstruct recruiting.

    ReplyDelete
  73. The Israeli Government, not existing prior to 1948 has no prior historical claim to sovereignty over that land.


    The Jewish people, denied their self determination have a historic claim to that land...

    Sucks doesnt it?

    jews have the same rights to a nation as the other 21 arab nations, and more..

    ReplyDelete
  74. .

    He admits that it is not that way, today.

    Close enough.

    Amusing the criticism comes from the rat, who talks trends when it suits him dinegrates them when it doesn't.

    But plays to fears.

    From the man who's understanding of history and national trends comes thru Wiki articles.

    21st Century America?

    I am perfectly satisfied with 20th Century America. Luckily, I am no longer dependant upon playing the PC game in order to advance my livlihood. I can merely look upon it and shake my head sadly, a fact some find amusing.

    C'est La Vie

    .

    ReplyDelete
  75. "Q projects his feelings, and presents it as fact.

    ... it will soon be ...

    He admits that it is not that way, today. But plays to fears.
    What may come, may come.

    It may come sooner, rather than later.
    Or not
    "

    Exactly!
    The historical "progress" of PC might suddenly reverse completely at any time.

    Maybe even coinciding with the reversal of the Earth's magnetcic field, and the Sun going black.

    Ya never know.

    ReplyDelete
  76. "I may have served with quite a few lesbians. At least this was suggested, to my surprise, at Huachuca. I hadn't realized any would be interested in the Army. Didn't strike me as very, I dunno, lesbian-ish as occupations go.

    As long as there was some privacy, it wasn't an issue.
    "

    Since DADT worked great for you there, and worked great for our kid here, we should trash it and see what happens?

    What's up with that?

    ReplyDelete
  77. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  78. You may be technically right WiO - I buy from both of them.

    What I'm really torqued about is there is no continental breakfast at this third world dive;
    got everything else you'd ever want, before they you starved to death.


    Even a microbrewery.

    They've dropped on my rating to a D-.

    ReplyDelete
  79. btw:
    The number of "gays forced out of the military" is highly exagerated by malcontents (sane minds in today's PC Armed But Unloaded Forces) outing themselves just to get out.

    ReplyDelete
  80. "Gays are forced to lie 24 hours a day under DADT"

    Must be awful.

    I revel in being able to openly voice my desire to have sex with a goodly number of women I see in town.

    Get a lot of positive feedback for being so "emotionally honest" also,
    I might add.

    ReplyDelete
  81. The United States Military/Political Complex:

    Losing Wars since July 27, 1953.

    (a tie, of sorts)

    ReplyDelete
  82. There'll be a few dust-ups. Overall, not a very big deal, I think.

    ReplyDelete
  83. The Drunkard's Progress

    "Nothing so demonstrates plebeianism as the inability not to even know the rules.

    The real hallmark of membership in the new aristocracy is knowing all the etiquette without even having to ask — easy enough because they make the rules.

    What’s right is what Keith Olbermann and Lady Gaga say.
    Why? Well if you have to ask then you must be immoral.

    The new morality is above all the art of speaking in code and part of the power of political correctness springs precisely from its vagueness.

    The art of correct behavior today consists largely in sensing the prevailing fashion. It is a survival skill the Old Bolsheviks knew well.

    The important thing was to always to have opinions, but never to have opinions that were out of date.
    "

    ReplyDelete
  84. Yeah, RufAss:

    Like the California economy and the Real-Estate collapse.

    You go, guy!

    Whata record.

    ReplyDelete
  85. God love you Rufus, in a normal world you are right, but this is marginally about how gay men are treated in the military.

    This is part of the wide agenda of the PC crowd. Shock and awe against all traditional values by the left.

    ReplyDelete
  86. "A ripple in the pond"

    Rufus, circa 2007, wrt to the possible effect of the collapse of the Bum Mortgage Market.

    ReplyDelete
  87. I wonder what black ministers have to say about DADT, bet money more are oppossed than for. This is not a civil rights issue. No one has a right to be in the military.

    ReplyDelete
  88. .

    From Doug's link.

    3. westerncanadian
    As you say, we have hate speech laws in Canada. They are married to our infamous Human Rights Commission. Hate speech laws are like old time witch hunts in that a witch was whomever you said was a witch and hate speech is whatever you say is hate speech.

    The criterion for hate/intolerant speech appears to be “if it hurts the feelings of someone who belongs to a recognized group playing in the game of identity politics, then it’s hate speech.” Truth or falsehood of said speech is not relevant.

    I think the criterion for the new morality is identical. “If you hurt the feelings of someone who belongs to a recognized group playing in the game of identity politics, then your behaviour is morally incorrect.”

    Nowadays a spoken/written/sung opinion – whether informed or uninformed, nasty or nice, true or false – that hurts the feelings of a player of identity politics; self evidently signals a morally incorrect person speaking hate.

    At least, that’s what tolerant people say.

    December 19, 2010 - 8:37 pm




    Gee, and I was falling for the stereotype that all Canadians thought the same, eh.

    .

    ReplyDelete
  89. True, you don't right to be in the military but the military doesn't have a right to discriminate against you because you are a Catholic, or black, no?

    ReplyDelete
  90. This is part of the wide agenda of the PC crowd. Shock and awe against all traditional values by the left.

    Slavery was a "traditional value" and the abolitionists were quite left wing in their time.

    ReplyDelete
  91. The United States Military/Political Complex:

    Losing Wars since July 27, 1953


    The military held up our end of the bargain, we never lost a single battle in Vietnam.

    ReplyDelete
  92. In fairness, Doug, circa 2007 we weren't already in steep recession from $4.30/gal gasoline, and $5.30/gal Diesel Fuel.

    You guys aren't thinking it through, I believe. It's hard to see the one gay guy that makes it into a rifle platoon causing many problems. That other 40 trigger-pullers will probably be able to handle it.

    ReplyDelete
  93. "The military held up our end of the bargain, we never lost a single battle in Vietnam."

    "Military/POLITICAL Complex"

    ReplyDelete
  94. .

    Comparing this to slavery, race, religion is ludicrous. Red herrings thrown out by the PC purveyors to advance their agenda.

    It even has little to do with sexual orientation. Deuce did a good job laying out the broader implications of the policy and where it is likely to "progress" to next.

    He has said it much better than I could so I have nothing futher to add either.

    .

    ReplyDelete
  95. All the Dickwad Generals Sucking up to Politicians and PC superiors favored repeal.

    Grunts, not so much.

    ReplyDelete
  96. Women also ruin the cohesion of a unit, right?

    ReplyDelete
  97. I think soldiers and sailors cohering is the whole problem.

    ReplyDelete
  98. They got rules against that "coherin'."

    ReplyDelete
  99. An' they got rules agin that "Cohesin'," too.

    ReplyDelete
  100. WiO:Interesting technic these north koreans have, holding on to bodies and bones like booty...

    That only means something to people who attach importance to their container.

    Taoteching 50:

    The Master gives himself up
    to whatever the moment brings.
    He knows that he is going to die,
    and her has nothing left to hold on to:

    no illusions in his mind,
    no resistances in his body.
    He doesn't think about his actions;
    they flow from the core of his being.

    He holds nothing back from life;
    therefore he is ready for death,
    as a man is ready for sleep
    after a good day's work.

    ReplyDelete
  101. Deuce: I also do not want to see homosexual men do for the US military what they did for the Catholic Church.

    The dynamic arises from the Forbidden Fruit. Homosexuality is still a mortal sin in the Catholic Church. Take away the forbidden aspect of it, and you're left with a big yawn.

    ReplyDelete
  102. Deuce:

    Thank you for responding. Perhaps my points were too abstract or philosophical in nature. Trish's points re: our purging of precious linguists is more practical: how can the United States reach the utmost level of performance when it allows the regressive, mean-spirited and entirely political DADT policy can reach into our operations and steal personnel?

    This is a human resources issue, first and foremost. If you or any pastors or politicians want to spread paranoia and misnomer in the service of "culture," nothing is stopping you and there are surely people who will give you money. If people want to take to the hills because of the an imaginary cartoon where soldiers under fire wish heterosexuality could come to their aid, fine. But let's all agree this crude problem was created by crude politicians. It became a political tool to mobilize liberals and conservatives both. It is not a death knell to the republic and is the very least of the empire's problems.

    I see this as mostly a generational issue. The gays you know are not the gays I know, perhaps. There have already been elaborate and powerful campaigns to persuade us that sophomoric derision aimed at sexual differences is kinda lame. And the Catholic Church's problems are something I think only the Catholic Church could create. The Pentagon could make a mess of this too, yes, but it'd be reflective of a profoundly different institution.

    And please, this unit cohesion stuff is nonsense, shameless, unabashed nonsense. IMO, this argument is best used by those who have served to assert their credentials over their fellow civilians. "Gosh, I guess I've never been in a firefight, so I won't know how important it is to retain a healthy wariness of homosexuality." How can anyone take that seriously? How can you?

    One last point: First responders, police, fire, medics, they all have sexually diverse workforces. This is a result of them employing people, not cartoons, not propaganda posters for bible camps.

    And maybe more to the point, sure, if DADT is removed, gay marriage becomes legal. Is that the real objection here? Maybe the old need to talk to the young about coping mechanisms for a changing world...

    ReplyDelete
  103. Yehu said everything I wanted to say, only better!

    ReplyDelete
  104. Thank you, Selah. Your point re: forbidden fruit is great. It alludes to how we've manufactured this.

    I wonder how many political careers were prolonged by these issues. Probably many and on both sides of the spectrum. Plenty of shame to go around, IMO. We let our fellow citizens down.

    ReplyDelete
  105. Re: Pollard and the rat

    On June 4, 1986 Jonathan Pollard pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to deliver national defense information to a foreign government. He was sentenced to life imprisonment.

    The US government never claimed that Pollard spied for “Russia”. It also never claimed that Pollard spied for the “Soviet Union”. While you have frequently conflated the two, they are not at all the same. Indeed, Russia did not exist in 1986.

    I only wish there was some period of enforced silence the proprietors would impose on you each time you spin a lie about Israel or Jews.

    As to Pollard, I hope he likes his job and continues doing it for life.

    ReplyDelete
  106. Re: Pollard

    Or Leonidas said to the spy in "300", "May you live for ever [in your disgrace, dog]."

    ReplyDelete
  107. Yehu, there is no question that this is a generational thing, a generational thing being a change and change is neither necessarily good nor bad.

    There is no point in personalizing this because that is an emotional argument used by every polemicist. Like it or not this issue IMO is larger than homosexuals in the military. Gays have been there forever and frankly not many people cared because it was not a political issue.

    This is all about politics, left versus right and one step forward for the Left to dismantle its nemesis the social conservatives.

    ReplyDelete
  108. .

    Way too quiet Ruf.

    This is a day for the younger generation to be celebratin.

    We need a paean not a hymn. The Army Choir, manly men belting it out at the top of their lungs.

    That's the ticket

    .

    .

    ReplyDelete
  109. I think social conservatives need better issues than defending DADT - at least if they want to get elected. If they play the bumpkin card and lose, well, I hope they eventually learn from it.

    In a strategic sense, you're playing the Left's game. Make them play yours. I know this is trite. Education needs gradual and radical improvements in many areas, for instance.

    IMO, what we really need is a right-leaning anti-war movement. We need our conservatives to help us dismantle the empire. They're the only antidotes to the military-industrial-congressional complex. No one will trust the left on national security, because they do not think mass protest will scare our enemies. The deference towards the right is not guaranteed, however. Maybe in some bizarro way, your opposition to removing DADT is the beginning of conservatism that is capably critical of the military.

    ReplyDelete
  110. "One last point: First responders, police, fire, medics, they all have sexually diverse workforces. This is a result of them employing people, not cartoons, not propaganda posters for bible camps. "

    ---

    Women that cannot drag hose or lift a ladder, and blacks that flunk tests given preference over highly qualified white males...

    That's progress!

    ReplyDelete
  111. The cartoon is that women can do everything men can and vice versa.

    PC nonsense, esp wrt raising the very young.
    Or, more to the point:
    The MOTHER'S CHILD.

    No big deal, of course.

    ReplyDelete
  112. Nobody responds to reports of no problems because of no discussions
    (see Trish and Doug above) and why outing everyone will be an improvement.

    ReplyDelete
  113. Doug: The cartoon is that women can do everything men can and vice versa.

    I can write my name in the snow too, I just have to run around a little bit to do it.

    ReplyDelete
  114. .

    I think social conservatives need better issues than defending DADT - at least if they want to get elected.

    You continue to miss the point.

    As with most purveyors of PC policies you look at a particular issue and miss the trend.

    Deuce has identified the progression a number of times in this stream.

    Most soceial conservatives care little about DADT per se. Most could give a shit one way or the others about gays. What we are concerned about is not gays and their allies among the politcal elites trying to change attitudes through persausion, we are concerned about their trying to change attitudes (i.e. thought)though legislation, mandates, and sensitivity trainings.

    The objections go way beyond DADT and to an attitude that is pervasive and growing in this country as illustrated by

    Plenty of shame to go around, IMO. We let our fellow citizens down.

    My god, what pomposity.

    .

    ReplyDelete
  115. You realize this "social engineering" crap about DADT repeal is what was said about racial integration too, right?

    ReplyDelete
  116. Doug, do you have any examples of five-alarm infernos in multi-story apartments, where the rescue effort was hurt by female rescuers?

    Or firefighters that did not understand the thermodynamics of fuel, plasma and collapsing buildings due to their race?

    I anticipate deafening silence on your part.

    I used to enjoy the bloodsport of politics, but eventually something clicked that people's lives hang in the balance now. And if you care about improvement, bloodsport becomes a style or storytelling method. It does not become the goal. That seems to be where you're stuck, but that's just my flyby observation.

    This is the classic race-baiting nonsense that we heard over the past few decades. This is what the centrist middle class was told to worry about. In a better world, what might they have been worrying about other than the perennial menace of dumb non-white firefighters? I can think of a few things...

    ReplyDelete
  117. Q nailed it:

    Most soceial conservatives care little about DADT per se. Most could give a shit one way or the others about gays. What we are concerned about is not gays and their allies among the politcal elites trying to change attitudes through persausion, we are concerned about their trying to change attitudes (i.e. thought)though legislation, mandates, and sensitivity trainings.

    How do you respond legally?

    ReplyDelete
  118. This has nothing to do with race.

    ReplyDelete
  119. .

    Repeat this has nothing to do with race.

    If you can't see or refuse to see the difference or are too caught up in the liberal race-baiting meme there is little point in arguing with you.

    .

    ReplyDelete
  120. Q., are you suggesting gay is a choice?

    ReplyDelete
  121. Are you suggesting it is never a choice?

    ReplyDelete
  122. Yehu,

    Re: pomposity

    Consider yourself at home :-) Consider yourself a threat :-)

    You may care about this issue passionately. As you may soon discover, your critics "not so much", really. Passion and responsibility are so passe and, anyway, buying in would demand more than clever slashing.

    By the way, welcome :-)

    ReplyDelete
  123. Being a dwarf is not a choice, neither is being black.

    A person can chose to be celibate, prefer blondes, be a womanizer, a pedophile or any combination.

    Haven't we been told that sexual matters are a matter of personal choice?

    Can one choose to be homosexual? Or is being a homosexual a Victim of natural selection? How about both possibilities?

    ReplyDelete
  124. .

    Ash are you just naturally painfully dense?

    Didn't you read this stream and follow the arguments laid out here?

    Why must you introduce non- sequiters?

    .

    ReplyDelete
  125. One can choose to be a pedophile as in one can choose to commit the act or not. Can one choose what attracts you? I dunno, there are behavioral methods one can try to influence your attractions, but in my personal experience women, and not all of them to be sure, attract me. I don't feel I've made that particular choice. Whether I choose to bed them is another matter entirely.

    ReplyDelete
  126. You are not making much sense Q. A little grumpy today?

    ReplyDelete
  127. You are not making much sense Q. A little grumpy today?


    What out of my posts today would 'suggest' to you that I was making any sort of comment about whether "being gay is a choice"?

    Like most people orientated to PC group think when you lack an argument you throw in a non-sequiter as diversion. Paradooxically, the logical fallacy flows logically into the PC orientated mind.

    .

    ReplyDelete
  128. .

    ...Paradoxically...


    .

    ReplyDelete
  129. Ones basic sexuality is probably the matter of nature, with choice having little place.

    Battle is an endeavor which consumes all ones wit and concentration. As the Israelis discovered, adding sexual tension (females in line companies) was hurtful to the mission.

    Why any of this should matter to Americans is something of a mystery. Indeed, American leaders will spend mountains of cash to avoid victory. Americans have no intention of winning wars. War is bad! Competition is bad! Anger is bad! And winning is the worst, because it proves, without qualification, that one side was superior.

    ReplyDelete
  130. Victoria's Secret Model: Ordinary Guys Don't Have a Chance to Get a Date With Us

    Just when I thought I had it all worked out, free will is snatched (as it were) from under my nose (as it were)...Do I still have Chuck's number?

    ReplyDelete
  131. race is to "cohesion" as
    gay is to "cohesion".

    One doesn't choose to be gay as one doesn't choose to be black. What one does, the act, is what matters for the military. They already have 'rules of conduct' in that old army don't they?

    ReplyDelete
  132. Re: Pollard

    ...writes Caroline Glick:

    "And Israel must act. Pollard’s unfair, unjustified and discriminatory sentence and treatment are a dismal symbol of Jewish vulnerability. His personal suffering is inhumane, real and unrelenting. He needs us to stand up for him.

    And so we must. And so we will. The time has come, against all odds to shout that Pollard must be freed. Now."



    No, Caroline, we mustn't. Yonny was/is a greedy little gutter snipe who made every possible effort to sell information to any number of governments, most of them America's allies. That was his undoing. One must stay between the lines.

    The last thing Israel needs is Jonathan Pollard on display. There is already enough dis/misinformation floating around, without adding more.

    ReplyDelete
  133. Every Israeli prime minister since Pollard's imprisonment has asked the United States for clemency. Netanyahu had even visited Pollard in prison in 2002 as a private citizen.

    Yossi Melman, who writes about intelligence matters for the Israeli daily newspaper Haaretz told CNN that Israelis feel badly about the entire affair. "There is a general guilt feeling in Israel that it was a stupid operation, that it was wrong despite the temptation because of his access to information, to recruit an American to spy against his own country," but he went on "it is about time to release him because he has been there for 25 years, enough is enough.

    He paid his debt to the American society."


    Imprisoned Spy

    ReplyDelete
  134. That was awesome Sam. Hershey Park had an awesome light show. I was there Sat night.

    I also found out Friday night that when I'm drunk I dance and pace back and forth, too. And you know what else? I sing. I sing like nobody's business.

    Also? Being gay is NOT a choice. Women may dabble a little but that is just for fun and games.

    ReplyDelete
  135. ...looks like the Rebuglicans are going to cave on the START measure...

    ReplyDelete
  136. Re: Pollard

    Every admininstration of the future should continue to say, "No". That's what friends are for. Friends don't let friends spy and fly.

    ReplyDelete
  137. Another One Bites The Dust

    This might get recruitment up, as it were...make those quotas

    ReplyDelete
  138. "nobody responds to reports of no problem"

    "see Trish and Doug above"

    Golly, Doug, I can't speak for anyone else but I'd kinda run out of steam. You needed to be up a little earlier. Or later.

    I should have stuck with my first point. That is, that years ago the military's (rather Congress') policy was thought stupid and possibly senile by some conservatives, including some here, due in part to personnel shortages and/or service separations in MOSes critical to the war. I believe Blue himself questioned the wisdom of not allowing openly gay individuals to serve. (I am, as always, open to gentle correction.)

    Now we have a Democratic president and a Democratic congress and repeal is a full-out assault on social conservatism, such that one could even be compelled to actively work toward the end of one's "tribe's" tradition of military service.

    What changed are the political circumstances in which the debate is taking place.

    I do believe that.

    This is not to say that there aren't very valid reasons for opposing repeal, but that it can be hard to look at an issue from outside of the politics, and the political furor, surrounding it at any given time. It can be difficult to remain, well, aloof from all that. I have much personal experience in this.

    In case I forget, have a Happy Christmas, sweetheart.

    Or as my daughter has it, a Merry Festivus. And all that might entail.

    ReplyDelete
  139. That was a good one, Allen. Thanks.

    ReplyDelete
  140. Sounds like you had a fun Friday night, Mel.

    Welcome to the club!

    ReplyDelete
  141. On Saturday's Early Show fill-in co-host Russ Mitchell saw passage of the tax deal as a possible "turning point for Mr. Obama's presidency" and speculated that it was "perhaps setting the stage for another victory as the Senate takes up the repeal of the 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' law."

    ...

    And that's why this tax deal is important because the President said, 'Look, I'm fighting here for the American people and the middle class.'"

    Here is a full transcript of the December 18 segment:

    8:00AM ET TEASE:

    RUSS MITCHELL: Victory on tax cuts and today the Senate is set for a vote that might end the ban on gays in the military. Are we looking at a new era of cooperation?

    8:01AM ET TEASE:

    MITCHELL: A lot going on today, going to begin the day in Washington DC, where, of course, President Obama had that huge day yesterday, signing the tax cut bill, he also – today the Congress also will take up the 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' policy, we're going to have the latest on that and our John Dickerson's going to be here to sort it all out for us.

    REBECCA JARVIS: Yes, a lot to discuss, a lot of historic moves taking place on Capitol Hill.

    8:01AM ET SEGMENT:

    MITCHELL: Let's begin with our top story, as we told you, big doings at the nation's capital.

    ...

    WHIT JOHNSON: Hey Russ, good morning. Good to see you again. By the way, for the next two years, doesn't matter how much money you make, your taxes will not go up.


    Comeback Kid

    ReplyDelete
  142. I'm not a drink and then eat kind of a person but for some reason at 2:30 am I was craving a cheese hoagie. My daughter ended up driving me home and when I was obnoxious and annoying her for some tortilla chips that she refused to give me she hit a patch of black ice swerved over the road almost hitting a fence and flipping my car. Needless to say I never got my chips and when I went to take the kids to Hershey the next day there was tomato and lettuce all over the back seat of my car.

    I Would say it was an amazing night.

    ReplyDelete
  143. yehujellybutrumadtoo said...
    Mon Dec 20, 05:27:00 PM EST

    Golly, I guess I'm outta my league.

    I bow to your superior inanity.

    ReplyDelete
  144. "American leaders will spend mountains of cash to avoid victory.
    Americans have no intention of winning wars.
    War is bad!
    Competition is bad!
    Anger is bad!
    And winning is the worst, because it proves, without qualification, that one side was superior.
    "

    On the same subject this morning, I put it more simply to the wife:

    "If you TRIED to fuck up the works and sacrifices in Iraq, you could not do a better job of it than "we" have done."

    ReplyDelete
  145. Trish,
    Mon Dec 20, 10:21:00 PM EST

    Merry Christmas to you, to, and may your daughter and our son outgrow some of the more banal programing they acquired from the "culture" of their formative years.

    ReplyDelete
  146. I don't think we all have to be victims of the politics around DADT.

    My opionions were formed way before this when I would ask simple questions like:

    If Doug had stood up in a sixth grade classroom and launched into a monologue about my sexual preferences, anatomic descriptions of them and why others should be sure to be respectful of them, what would have been the result?

    I also remember CLEARLY the promises gay activists made to us two decades ago that they would not proselytize, and certainly NOT proselytize to children.

    Certainly have done a bang up job of putting the lie to that.

    ReplyDelete
  147. Why can't we all stay out of each others bedrooms as liberals claim to desire so passionately?

    ...as they mandate ever more intrusive programming for us plebes and our children.

    ReplyDelete
  148. Trish:

    Would appreciate a response from you to my
    Mon Dec 20, 09:54:00 AM EST
    comment.

    ReplyDelete
  149. Don't knock the daughter, the Hippie Child, Doug. Every couple needs one. Especially if the sibling leans in the direction of Third World Nation Potentate. They kind of balance one another out.

    And surely you could have found SOMETHING to argue with in that rather lengthy post. Though it WAS so constructed to give you no purchase. Maybe read it again?



    It's the small things in life. The very, very small things.

    ReplyDelete
  150. You mean, Doug: What if this is NOT a human resources issue in any substantive way?

    That may be the case.

    Are there other grounds for repeal? No doubt.

    I merely observed the shift in attitude wrt this issue, then and now.

    Because I find it interesting.

    We do change our minds about things, see things differently over time - and, yes, are influenced by shifting politics and our own gut sense of things. We are not static in our opinions. Even less, creatures of consistency. Even less, governed by neat rationality.

    Well, okay, speaking for myself.

    Thinking's a messy business, made messier by the highly politicized, 24/7 noise machine that is the new media.

    In my early twenties, before the rise of that media, I had, I dunno, an intellectual crisis, of sorts. Between liberalism and conservatism, there appeared no obvious "right." And how could that be? And isn't that horrible, if true? Isn't that paralyzing, if true?

    Funny to think about now.

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  151. Blah, blah, blah...

    I have no idea what I'm going on about. Nor why.

    And I have to run into town.

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  152. I meant that life experience and reports from the kid regarding gay Marine boss at his former workplace, and your description of your experience at Fort Huachuca suggest to me that if sexual orientation is not discussed, no problems wrt to said orientation ensue.

    Thus, what's the point of causing problems by regularising such discussions?

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  153. 50% of the televisions in the United States were tuned to the first broadcast of Charlie Brown's Christmas Special in 1965.

    Network executives were not at all keen on several aspects of the show, forcing Schulz and Melendez to wage some serious battles to preserve their vision.

    The executives did not want to have Linus reciting the story of the birth of Christ from the Gospel of Luke;[1] the network orthodoxy of the time assumed that viewers would not want to sit through passages of the King James Version of the Bible.

    Charles Schulz was adamant about keeping this scene in, remarking that "If we don't tell the true meaning of Christmas, who will?"

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  154. "...if sexual orientation is not discussed, no problems wrt to said orientation ensue."

    Correct. And I mean, how was I to know anyone was a lesbian (except for that one chick - well, it must've been two, right? - in Basic who was observed in the act in the latrine and sent packing)? I had a sheltered childhood and even now, I don't have highly-developed gaydar.

    And would I have cared had I known? NOT as long as I wasn't subject to, for instance, the open shower we had in the WWII barracks in Basic rather than the individual ones I would always have later. And that shower was hard enough to get used to even assuming as I did that every fellow trainee was heterosexual.

    And this is what I was getting wrt the privacy issue.

    Male and female soldiers don't, for instance, shower and shit together because why?

    And how to facilitate the same level of privacy, everywhere, within genders when being openly gay is permitted?

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  155. I imagine, though, that for many a gay servicemember, being able to be open and honest in any circumstance is extremely important - a matter important to overall well-being.

    Isn't there a difference between the responsibilities of discretion and the burden of hiding one's preference or orientation from those who have the 'Smite' button?

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