Tuesday, August 20, 2013

"Does he know how to work"?

Via Daily Timewaster


Last week, I helped my son-in-law get started in the oil business by spinning my rolodex. Whether or not he will succeed will be on him. But getting started and establishing a direction with a mentor (not me) looking over his shoulder will help.

The man in the oil business who helped me with my son-in-law goes back to my roots and is many years younger than I. His father, now deceased, and I were good friends. One of the questions he asked about my son-in-law was........

NC: Battle of Ia Drang

Via Cousin John

Head and shoulders of an older man with thinning hair wearing a dark suit coat, white shirt, and red tie. A star-shaped medal hangs from a light blue ribbon around his neck and on his lapel is a small round blue pin. 
Walter Marm in 2006
From Freemont, NC


Virginia Flaggers Response to the moveon.org petition against the I-95 Battle Flag

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLvC8rm40lT5yCjvwu2Ak3Sk2LwMEPC7_g3W4PBR_OZH4T5z2q7dD8KHJSto_Jyx4QRVnD1GhE9Kc4dWHZHofw_twWFwvYaMngO3SDViwiUfgMC75s6Wdz5duLEELA4xlIB-N0cuRtoDkM/s1600/va_flagger_header.jpg

We believe that everyone has the right to express their opinion, but find the wording of the moveon.org petition inflammatory and misleading. It references "Southern Slavery" when the fact is that the institution of slavery was an American institution, legal and practiced for more than 85 years under the U.S Flag, and assert that it is disingenuous to lay the entire sin of its practice and existence at the feet of the Confederacy and her flags. The petitions suggests an American flag is a better representation of our community. We assert that the Confederate Battle Flag IS an American flag, as Confederate Soldiers are American Veterans by Act of U.S. Congress. http://www.veteranstoday.com/2013/04/03/confederate-soldiers-american-veterans-by-act-of-congress/

With a population of approx. 205,000, the signers of this petition represent less than 5% of Richmond's citizenry. Factor in that the majority of the signers appear to be out-of-towners and the representation is even lower. At the height of the Commemoration of the Sesquicentennial of the War Between the States, we believe it most certainly does represent Richmond, which served as the Confederate Capital.

We continue to receive overwhelming support, both locally and nationally, from those who are anxious to support this memorial, with donations often marked in memory of their Confederate ancestor.

NC PatCon Update


 

Are you coming to Brock's fall PatCon in North Carolina?

If you have not yet been to a PatCon or RTC event, open carry rally, I promise you that coming to Brock's place to meet your fellow Patriots will be an event that changes your life, that helps affirm that you are not alone, that gives to you the gift of meeting like-minded Americans who seek the Liberty described in our Declaration of Independence.

Question concerning CCW class

Via Blue




I received the following email this afternoon (this is a fairly common question we get) so I decided to post my response below for everyone to read.

EMAIL:

I'm not sure how you can claim to equip people for ccw carry while not requiring any sort of actual shooting or weapon handling skills in your classes. Don't you think these skills would be a critical part of a concealed weapons class? Gun safety related classes should require a gun, shouldn't they? I know you don't call your classes "gun safety classes", but it seems you are claiming that your classes will fit the ccw permit requirement of needing to attend some sort of firearms safety class in order to get the carry permit. Would you issue someone a driver's license after requiring some classroom time, or would you require the person learn some practical hands-on skills? Your thoughts please.

LEGAL HEAT RESPONSE:

Hi Kevin,

We don't claim our classes qualify students to carry a concealed weapon, we guarantee it. More specific to your point, you seem to be concerned that in many of the states we offer training no testing or shooting is required prior to student certification. One might share that same concern when pondering about how people are allowed to vote, procreate, marry, receive representation during a criminal trial, and freely express themselves in public without any formal training or testing beforehand. Of course, that person might be encouraged to review the Constitution for a resolution of their concern. Allow me to expand.

Here in the United States each legal citizen has a finite set of inalienable, fundamental, constitutional rights (they are often called civil rights). These are rights that have been incorporated through the 14th Amendment's Due Process Clause as effective against the states. Among those rights are the right to vote, marry, procreate, express oneself, receive a speedy and public trial, and the rights guaranteed by the Second Amendment (this list is inclusive, not exclusive). What you may notice is that although each of these rights may be exercised irresponsibly to cause substantial societal harm, none of them require any formal training or testing prior to their exercise.

To put this into perspective please consider the fact that in the United States over 50,000 people will contract HIV this year (once every 9.5 minutes), 1.4 million abortions will be performed and 19.7 million people will contract STDs. I think we can both agree that irresponsible procreation causes substantial societal harm. Knowing this, ask yourself when was the last time you were put through a state mandated formal certification prior to having sex? We could do the same harm analysis for other fundamental rights like voting (read: wars, 17 trillion debt), speedy and public jury trials (read: Casey Anthony), or any of the other fundamental rights. Would you be ok with mandatory voting tests to avoid wars or procreation training (including hands on training) to avoid the proliferation of STDs? I wouldn't.

The crux of the issue is that there is a tremendous difference between what one SHOULD do, and what one SHOULD BE REQUIRED to do. When a test is placed in front of the exercise of any fundamental right it serves as a deterrent upon the exercise of said right. Voting tests would deter many from voting, just as shooting tests would deter many from exercising their fundamental, God-given, right to bear arms. In all reality, shooting tests would only serve to discourage the demographics most in need of the right to bear arms, like women, or victims of domestic violence or other violent crimes. My wife, though never the victim of a crime, would never have obtained her permit if some man like me was going to yell at her while she shot a gun in front of a group of strangers. Just as one SHOULD study about who they are voting for or SHOULD be sober when they decide to procreate, we likewise believe one SHOULD receive hands on training. We tend to believe people should do a lot of things, though we're not in the business of using coercive force (like that of a state) to compel others to abide by our "shoulds" in contravention of their civil liberties.

Hope that answers your question!

All the best,

Phil

Weekly goodies from Ol' Remus


 In-the-Wake-of-the-Buffalo-Hunters-Charles-Russell-1911.jpg
 In the Wake of the Buffalo Hunters
Charles Russell, 1911


*Using psychometric meta-analysis we computed... a decline of −1.16 IQ points per decade or −13.35 IQ points since Victorian times. These findings strongly indicate the Victorians were substantially cleverer than modern Western populations.
Michael Woodly, Intelligence, via sciencedirect.com

*Wow, but not surprised.

************************************* 

DHS and the police - What we're doing here, and let's not kid about it, we're building a domestic army and we're shrinking the military because the government is afraid of it's own citizens.
Col. Martino USMC Ret, comment at Concord NH hearing, YouTube, via Kevin at smallestminority.blogspot.com 

The race card - It has become the 21st century equivalent of accusing someone of witchcraft in seventeenth century Salem. Anyone who uses the race card should be considered a pariah automatically. Stop playing the race card. Switch to Old Maid — or rummy.
Roger Simon at pjmedia.com

 art-link-symbol-small-rev01.jpg I am amazed at most survival book writers ignorance when it comes to fooling a metal detector. They all seem to be repeating each other and it seems it has not changed in years. It is very evident they are all wrong, says Dude McLean in this short article, Metal Detector Myth, at Dirt Time.

 art-link-symbol-small-rev01.jpg Candles are an easy-to-use source of emergency lighting and a little bit of heat. I'm shocked to see some of the prices that are charged for long burning candles sold for survival or emergency preparedness. You can make your own survival candles at home using high-quality, long burning soy wax. It's an easy project - the materials are easy to buy and you won't need any specialized tools, says Alexander Wolf in this how-to article, DIY Survival Candles, at Teotwawki Blog.

 art-link-symbol-small-rev01.jpg Toddler murdered in CPS captivity - Hill's two-year-old daughter Alexandria, was removed from her parent's home last November for "neglectful supervision" following her parents' admission that they smoked pot after she was put to bed... Hill needed just four more months before he could get his daughter back when she was beaten to death by foster parents, says Matt Olson in this article, Father of foster child who died speaks, at KVUE.

art-link-symbol-small-rev01.jpg I have to wonder what purpose is served by forcing cultures to mix. Nobody seems to want it. In Washington, DC, a city I know well, neither cultures nor races mix. When blacks move into a neighborhood, whites move out, and when whites move into DC, threatening to become a voting majority, blacks become unhappy. When whites leave the city, they go to white enclaves. Why not let them? Why not let people live with whom they choose, as they choose, and raise their children as they choose, says Fred Reed in this article, Respecting All Cultures, By Allowing Them to Remain Separate, at Fred On Everything.

 art-link-symbol-small-rev01.jpg There was a time in our nation's history when Americans would have revolted against the prospect of city police forces the size of small armies, or rampaging SWAT teams tearing through doors and terrorizing families. It is this intersection of law enforcement and military capability which so worried the founding fathers and which should worry us today, says John Whitehead in this article, Are Police in America Now a Military, Occupying Force?, at The Rutherford Institute.


Contempt - How does one know they are living in an unmitigated disaster of a banana republic where not even an attempt at hiding the crime and corruption takes place? Well, we are not absolutely certain, but we have a distinct feeling that when the president appoints as his impartial "reviewer" of the ultra top secret NSA's policies and capabilities the one man who was caught and exposed and subsequently apologized for lying to Congress, that may be a pretty damn good sign.
Tyler Durden at zerohedge.com 

 Bill Clinton has pitched himself, almost without question, as a homespun populist: the Boy from Hope. The reality is that this is a man who – in May 1993 – prevented other planes from landing at LAX for 90 minues while he got a haircut from a Beverley Hills hairdresser aboard Air Force One.
Tim Stanley at blogs.telegraph.co.uk

Egyptian Official Tahani al-Gebali is Second Source to Claim to Have “Documents & Proof” that Could Send Obama To Prison

 https://dancingczars.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/gunironyobama3.jpg?w=382&h=384

The truth is starting to come out but the question is… Will America listen? Less than a week ago we reported that the son of a Muslim Brotherhood leader claims that he and his father have evidence that could send Obama to prison. What that evidence may be, or if the claim is valid, we do not know.

However, my personal theory is that it might have everything to do with the tie between Obama, Mohamed Morsi and what happened in Benghazi. Raymond Ibrahim broke a story of a second Egyptian coming forward today. This time credibility would seem to be less in question. Ibrahim reports via Jihad Watch: Speaking yesterday on Bitna al-Kibir, a live TV show, Tahani al-Gebali, Vice President of the Supreme Constitutional Court in Egypt, said the time was nearing when all the conspiracies against Egypt would be exposed—conspiracies explaining why the Obama administration is so vehemently supportive of the Muslim Brotherhood, whose terrorism has, among other atrocities, caused the destruction of some 80 Christian churches in less than one week.

Al-Gebali referred to “documents and proofs” which Egypt’s intelligence agencies possess and how “the time for them to come out into the open has come.” In the course of her discussion on how these documents record massive financial exchanges between international bodies and the Muslim Brotherhood, she said: “Obama’s brother is one of the architects of investment for the international organization of the Muslim Brotherhood.”

Remington Arms scouts Middle TN after N.Y. bans its rifle

Via LH

A woman jogs past the Remington Arms Company in Ilion, N.Y., in January 2013. Residents in this blue-collar stretch of the Mohawk Valley defended Remington after New York lawmakers banned the sale of semiautomatic assault-style rifles.

One of the nation’s largest gun manufacturers, Remington Arms, has looked at sites around Nashville for a potential corporate relocation or expansion that would likely include hundreds of manufacturing jobs.
The Madison, N.C.-based company, which is part of the nation’s largest firearms company and has its largest plant in Ilion, N.Y., has scouted sites near Nashville’s airport, Lebanon and in Clarksville, Tenn.

Get Wet

082013.jpg

HSLDA: Will Health Care Reform Mean Government Bureaucrats Can Invade My Home?


VERBATIM

In 2010, Congress passed a health care reform bill, and President Obama signed it into law. You may have recently heard a rumor that the health care law includes a provision mandating home visits by government social workers. While HSLDA strongly opposed passage of the health care law, urges Congress to repeal the law and continues to fight against its provisions which threaten religious freedom, we must point out that this particular rumor is not true.

Under the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, no government official can ever enter your home against your wishes unless he or she has a court-issued warrant or there are exigent circumstances such as your children facing imminent death or physical injury.

(Additionally, if you receive certain government benefits, they may be conditioned on your cooperation with social workers, as the Supreme Court ruled in 1971 in Wyman v. James. For this reason, HSLDA cautions families about accepting government funds, such as virtual charter school programs that are run by the local public school.)

Therefore, even if the health care reform law had included mandatory home visits, such visits would likely have been ruled unconstitutional under the Fourth Amendment.

Averting Pressure

The health care reform law did include a detailed home visitation program which we fear could lead to pressure on families to allow social workers into their homes. This is the primary reason why HSLDA opposed passage of this law, as you can read from our analysis in 2010. However, as we reported in 2010, these home visitation programs are voluntary. Section 2951 of the law makes this clear:
“An eligible entity desiring a grant under this section shall submit an application to the Secretary for approval, in such manner as the Secretary may require, that includes the following …. Assurances that the entity will establish procedures to ensure that— (A) the participation of each eligible family in the program is voluntary; ….”
You may read this section for yourself at page 251 of the law available online.

HSLDA has long been concerned about the growth of federally funded home visitation programs. In 2008, HSLDA testified before Congress against a similar bill that created home visitation programs.

An article summarizing this testimony can be found online.

After an exchange with a member of Congress who supported the bill, the member of Congress admitted that the bill needed to clearly state that any federally funded home visitation program must be voluntary. While that home visitation program bill never passed in 2008, supporters of this concept took the same language, added in the section which made the visits voluntary and included it as part of the health care reform law.

Constitutional Protection

In short, while the health care bill’s home visitation program is something that HSLDA opposes, it is a voluntary part of law and thus does not allow the government to enter your home without a warrant.

HSLDA will vigorously defend any member family who is pressured to accept a home visitation program. Parents, not government social workers, should decide for themselves if they need these programs. If you are a member of HSLDA and feel that a government official is pressuring you to accept a home visitation program, please contact us immediately by emailing us at federalrelations@hslda.org or calling us at (540) 338-5600.

• • •

Protect Your Family

If you or someone you know is not a member of HSLDA, will you consider taking a moment today to join or recommend us? Your support for our work enables us to defend individual families threatened by government officials and protect homeschooling freedom for all. Join now >>

US Headed for Recession and It's 'Going to Be Bad' & Stock Market Needs to Plummet to Hit Normal Valuations


Technical analyst Charles Nenner didn’t mince words when asked about the United States facing another recession.

"It's going to be bad," Nenner told Newsmax TV in an exclusive interview.

"It's very scary because we didn't have a lot of growth and when this economic expansion is over, we're going to be in trouble," the founder and president of the Charles Nenner Research Center said."We didn't leverage enough. Cycles go up, go down, take three and a half, four, five years, but if you almost don't jump up and then you're jumping down, then you've jumped down from a much lower level."

He said that "the economy is not going to do much this year. It's going to pick up a little bit next year into the third quarter and then it's going to be messy again."

The economy will be fairly stable until the end of next year, "then we're going back into recession,"

More with video @ Money News

IWI TAVOR 16 & 18" models 18"

 http://www.mississippiautoarms.com/images/Untitled.jpg

$1,999.00 and up @ Mississippi Auto Arms

AZ:Man in Desert Arrested for not Surrendering Rifle to Deputies who Refused to show ID

Via avordvet

                                 

Richard Malley helps patrol the sparsely populated Arizona desert to spot Illegal aliens.  He has been arrested for refusing to surrender his rifle to deputies who refused to show their ID.  The story says that Richard Malley is accused of aggravated assault for allegedly pointing his rifle at a deputy.   From  abc15.com:

GILA BEND, AZ - Authorities arrested an Arizona Minuteman for allegedly pointing a rifle at a deputy over the weekend.

According to court paperwork, 49-year-old Richard Malley and two other men who are part of the Minuteman militia were patrolling the desert just east of Gila Bend, along Interstate 8, Saturday night.

Two Maricopa County Sheriff's deputies were checking nearby mile posts often used for drug trafficking when they came across mile post 140, court papers said.

When the deputies pulled up to the area, they reportedly flashed their high beams and honked their horn.

Court papers say Malley thought a crime was occurring when the deputies showed up, so he felt the right to flash his rifle and a flashlight at one of the deputies.

Iconic B&W photos colorized

 
 

More @ Podakuni

Kerry clears State officials faulted in Benghazi report, allows them back on job

Via avordvet

http://pjmedia.com/tatler/files/2013/05/Hill-diff.jpg
http://cfp.canadafreepress.com/ONEILL050613.jpg

The four State Department officials put on administrative leave following the Sept. 11 terrorist attack in Benghazi have been allowed back on the job after being cleared by Secretary of State John Kerry to return, in a move one lawmaker decried as a "game of musical chairs."

Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, vowed Tuesday to investigate how the department decided "not to pursue any accountability from anyone."

More @ Fox

AR 15 Colt 6920 Giveaway

Via LH + Guns & Patriots

 

@ NAGR

Heller: Feds wrong to target, imprison Kokesh

 Heller: Feds wrong to target, imprison Kokesh

The winning plaintiff in the landmark gun rights Supreme Court decision Heller v. District of Columbia told Human Events peace activist Adam Kokesh was unjustly imprisoned for expressing his constitutional rights.

“A non-violent man in a mere display of political theatrics did nothing different than what peaceful people do at other civil rights demonstrations,” said Richard Anthony “Dick” Heller, whose case put an end to Washington’s handgun ban and opened up the current era of gun right restoration across the states.

Anti-war activist and former talk show host, Adam C. Kokesh of Herndon, Va., published a 21-second YouTube video July 4 calling for an open carry march on Washington for July 4, 2014.  He is loading and cocking what appears to be a shotgun between the White House and Capitol building.

This launched a July 9 federal investigation which resulted in his arrest and detainment by law enforcement.

Heller said he attended the hearings at Superior Court for the District of Columbia to see how the judges’ rule in this matter. “We will determine whether we are a nation of laws that believes in the constitution or will the court’s ruling be a display of its infringement.”

NC UP $16.2 Billion: New Yorkers Fleeing The State Took $46 Billion With Them

Via WiscoDave

VERBATIM

A new study by the Tax Foundation shows that New York leads the nation in the amount of money those who flee the state take with them. New Yorkers who have fled over the past decade have taken almost $46 billion with them, topping even California where the loss was a comparatively paltry $29.4 billion. But our loss is Florida and other red states’ gain, as you can see from this map.

Migration-AGI

"Deterrence"


Free at Last PAC


The Punisher Gun Truck

Via LH

1 

More @ Guns

VA progress on claims backlog is a statistical illusion, vets groups say

Via LH

 claims inventory infographic - 64% supplemental claims filers and 37% first time claims filers

President Obama's claim that the Department of Veterans Affairs is "turning the tide" on backlogged disability claims is premature because the costly push to bring the numbers down is unsustainable and could doom those seeking benefits to years-long waits in appeals, according to veterans' advocates.

Drops in both the number and percentage of disability claims considered backlogged because they are more than 125 days old are real. But they have come at a high price in mandatory overtime and accuracy, representatives of veterans groups say.

There also are worries that the VA is using statistical or administrative tricks to bring down the numbers by changing what is counted and shifting staff from other critical areas such as appeals.

Incredible moment man has his 132lbs scrotum removed after kind-hearted surgeon agreed to carry out the procedure for free

Via WiscoDave

 A team of four physicians begin the procedure to remove Las Vegas man Wesley Warren's 132lbs scrotum



  • Wesley Warren Jr. suffered from rare medical condition scrotal lymphedema
  • It caused his scrotum swell to gigantic proportions in just two years
  • Said his one-inch penis left him with no chance of finding loveThis is the moment a man is finally liberated of his crippling 132lbs scrotum, thanks to a kind-hearted doctor who agreed to carry out the surgery for free.

    Wesley Warren Jr, 49, from Las Vegas, suffered from the rare medical condition scrotal lymphedema which saw his scrotum swell to gigantic proportions and left him feeling little more than a freak.

    His ordeal began when he woke up one morning five years ago with a shooting pain in his groin, which grew steadily worse and his scrotum steadily bigger over the next nine months. 
  •  
  • More @ Daily Mail
  • Tea Party Groups to Run Ads Against GOP Lawmakers Skeptical of Defunding Obamacare

    Via Billy


    Three prominent conservative groups will make significant advertisement buys in August to pressure Republican senators and House Members in their states and districts to defund Obamacare.

    Leaders of the Tea Party Patriots and ForAmerica will also go on an "Exempt America" tour across six states that will also target House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) in addition to buying ads against twelve Republican senators who have opposed the defunding of Obamacare or are on the fence. Tea Party Patriots co-founder Jenny Beth Martin and ForAmerica Chairman Brent Bozell will reportedly travel to Kentucky, Texas, Mississippi, South Carolina, and Virginia, in addition to Boehner's district in Ohio.
    Meanwhile, Heritage Action will purchase $550,000 worth of ads that will target 100 House Republicans to defund Obamacare. Their message will be simple: All Americans should be exempt from Obamacare—and if you fund it, you own it.

    More @ Breitbart

    Differences between poor and lazy

     https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyIG3yKRLjBNru8emFA3w2V0VIm_EFxeKxsOl_DV2YtSuT-9KI0B_Bi-U2YGGIZzsgUrvb4M0yGcIllLAxrmgYgWQla1kOvSfGVYd_WwRfMUNb3CMHaH96eeSXyM5tFNi3Q62ODUI1Jaxd/s400/welfare_motivator.jpg

    When I was growing up, I was taught that poor people were those who were down on their luck and that this was a temporary state as they were decent, hardworking people with pride who would find employment and overcome their present state.

    Never were those out for a free ride and looking for a way to scam the working poor out of their meager tax dollars included as being a part of the social group known as the poor. They were referred to as lazy people who wouldn't work even when work was available to them.

    Since the 1960's the mainstream media has blurred those lines by lumping these two very different groups together. While I care deeply about the truly poor, I could not care less about the freeloaders, scammers and hucksters who prey on them looking for that free ride through life and giving the poor a bad name. The deserve the fate that awaits them.

    More @ AL

    Police: Black teens kill white man 'for fun'

     

    As the family of an Australian baseball player gunned down in Oklahoma mourns his death, police said today that the college athlete was targeted by three black teenagers who simply “wanted to see someone die.”

    The suspects followed Chris Lane, 22, as he jogged alongside a road in Duncan, Okla., Friday afternoon, shot him in the back and left him to die on the side of the road, said Duncan Police Chief Danny Ford.

    Lane attended East Central University in Ada, Okla., on a baseball scholarship. He was in town visiting his girlfriend.
    “He went by a residence where these three boys were, they picked him as a target, they went out and got in a vehicle and followed him.”

    More @ WND

    How Textbooks Push Children to the Left

    Via Billy

     http://www.publiusforum.com/images/Howard_Zinn.gif

    Are you surprised that leftist ideas have penetrated the minds of the people?  Chalk up this reality to the leftist teachers and, especially, to the left-oriented textbooks now in use in our secondary schools.  One book in particular that has been gaining traction in New York City in recent years is “The Americans.”
     
    Although even the leftist teachers claim not to like this textbook used in U.S. history (a one-year course required in NYC for all juniors) because it is so skimpy on facts and is written in an opaque style, any informed reader would have to agree that it is one of the most politically correct textbooks one could imagine. Reading this book, one gets the message that the history of America is a theme of victimization. The list of victims is well known: Native Americans, women, labor, immigrants, blacks, farmers, urban dwellers, the mentally ill, migrant workers, unions, etc. “The Americans” is a somewhat diluted version of Howard Zinn’s openly communist college textbook, “A People’s History of the United States.” It is also worth adding that this reference to Zinn’s “communism” is not putting labels on anyone, and is not a McCarthy-like type of red-baiting of an innocent individual; Zinn openly announced his communism decades ago when he taught at Boston University.

    More @ Front Page

    Combat

     http://www.trbimg.com/img-507758c1/turbine/la-na-0713-women-combat01.jpg-20121011/600 

    Why, here is the leader you must surely want to follow into combat.........

    VERBATIM (Too good to miss a second)

    An article by Army Reserve Colonel Ellen Haring published in the Armed Forces Journal advocates lowering the physical training standards for female combat officer candidates. Colonel Haring, a 1984 West Point graduate and current War College "concept officer", along with Sgt. Maj. Jane Baldwin, filed a successful lawsuit against the Defense Department for denying combat roles to women. Now she says physical ability and combat training matter less than being creative and remaining calm. According to the Colonel, by "celebrating strength" we're filtering out future Audie Murphys. Miss Ellen's been misinformed. Murphy was a he. And today he'd be filtered out in the first day of sensitivity training. If anybody needs filtering out it's Colonel Haring.

    What does she expect them to do, talk 'em to death? Bedazzle 'em with creativity? Make 'em die laughing? If the armed forces buy into this they forfeit respect from that moment on, the kind of respect that matters, earned respect. To put it almost plainly, a military riddled with transient opportunists and single moms, diversitymongers—the two biggest users of pictogram interfaces are McDonalds and the US military—predatory gays and other misfits, led by underachieving but oh-so-creative women is something we couldn't hide forever. Real armies would find out soon enough and take 'em all to the woodshed for a long overdue stropping. 

    The quote below is extracted from an article by Rowan Scarborough at the Washington Times. Hankies and pom poms at the ready, Miss Ellen. You go girl.
    art-link-symbol-tiny-grey-arrow-only-rev01.gif Perhaps it is time to take a hard look at what really makes a competent combat soldier and not rely on traditional notions of masculine brawn that celebrate strength over other qualities. If the going-in assumption is that physical standards are the only thing that needs to be examined, then we are also assuming that we have everything else just right. This is belied by our less-than-optimal performances in many instances during the past 12 years.
    Fixating on physical standards is a tactical-level approach that misses a strategic-level opportunity. We can’t be sure, but odds are that Murphy would have washed out here, as well. An obstacle course that relies on physical prowess tests none of the important qualities that Murphy possessed. We diminish the importance of what are probably more important traits in soldiers: the ability to remain calm, focused, creative and quick-thinking in times of extreme duress. These are the traits that we should be measuring as we assess soldiers for combat specialties.
    Physical strength is important, but it shouldn’t be the most important trait that we assess, and it certainly shouldn’t become a way to filter out the Audie Murphys of our population.
    The US military is probably the most traditional and honor-bound part of the government establishment, historically true to their calling and doggedly loyal to the country. In recent times it's been degraded by social experimenters, irrelevent futziness training, no-win political missions and cammy-pattern feminism. Set against this are credible stories of derailed promotions, rumors of blackmail at flag level and many lesser examples of hostility toward members whose loyalty to the country is unwavering. Instances of supplying intel and weapons to our putative enemies, and warrettes which end not in victory but in nation building videogames if not humiliating bugouts, make it difficult for conscientious members of the military to understand why they fight. 

    What appears to be happening is this. The collectivists captured the permanent government at least a couple of generations ago. Having recently annexed the Republican party they now see themselves as settling into perpetual power, and not without cause, the days of orderly change are behind us. But no regime can rule, as versus govern, without the explicit backing of the military. Mere acquiescence is not enough, there must be positive loyalty specific to the regime.

    Historically it's been done this way. First, the regular armed forces are permeated with a political cadre which monitors and supervises it at all levels. These cadre are assigned ranks within the military, or bring it with them. Military officers comprise one of the two most anxiety-ridden professions there are—university professors being the other. The political cadre plays the stalwart mentor before and after they buckle. Second, a parallel quasi-military security force is established which is superior in all instances to the regular forces, meaning a senior military officer is outranked by a junior security officer, in practice if not in appearance. Protocol is carefully constructed to suggest otherwise. Incidentally, totalitarian states typically create overlapping fiefdoms with muddled authority to ensure unquestioning compliance with any order from the top. 

    What we're seeing is an armed forces systematically conflating loyalty to the regime with loyalty to the country. Knowledgeable observers put the number of country-loyal versus regime-loyal at about sixty-forty, with the sixty per cent country-loyal concentrated in officers below flag rank and the senior enlisted. It's said the ratio was nearly the reverse as late as the year 2000 just as an internal counterrevolution, goosed by committed constitutionalists, began to take hold. The country-loyal appear to be going from success to success. Given our daily dose of up-to-the-nostrils disinformation and psyops, all this is little more than speculation. 

    Colonel Haring's part in this is that of a useful idiot, chic feminism apparently, who sees herself, and wants to be seen, as championing equal opportunity, ennobling both herself and the army in the doing. In fact, she's doing no such thing. What rankles Miss Ellen is all six female officers who have attempted the Marine Corps' infantry officer qualification course have failed. Oops. So, on to Plan B: the applicants didn't fail, the standards failed the applicants. Yeah. Dat's da ticket. To suggest it could be any other way is to demean some Really Deserving People, so let's do the Right Thing. And the Right Thing is to demean everybody by tainting achievement with a whiff of fraud. 

    There are those who work to strengthen the military and those who work to weaken it. Which is Colonel Haring? Lowering qualifications to accommodate a subset of applicants isn't equal opportunity, it's the same demand for dishonest equal outcomes we've seen elsewhere. We shall do our very best to look surprised when, encumbered with playground rules, the armed forces become the lifeguard who couldn't swim.