Dec 15th, 1791, the Bill of Rights was adopted. Not a well known anniversary in all my years, but certainly and particularly in these times, an important moment to remember what it took to get those first 10 amendents ratified by the feldgling nation. Think about it and then compare the concern over how long it is taking to get democratic ideas to take root in the middle east.

1776 to 1781: 5 years just to get our Constitution
1781 to 1789: 8 years to propose these modifications to the original document to proclaim many important concepts we hold dear 215 years later.

1789 to 1791: 2 years to get 10 of the 13 states to ratify 10 of the originally proposed 12 amendments.

So…my new math says that was 15 years of struggle to get there.

The history says a foundation of the Bill of Rights was the Magna Carta, written in 1225. Consider that as part of the timeline and then consider exercising some patience while more of the world finds out how great freedom and democratic principles are for them.

In the mean time, Happy Bill of Rights Day and, readers and bloggers alike, let’s really enjoy our freedom of speech!

Update 12/16/2006: Consider this addition by RTO Trainer:

Hey, tack on three more years to develop a national defense capable of defending the nation. You can front load another year to 19 April 1775, to the start of the war. 19 years from start to legitimate and secure.
And two rebellions, an attmpted military coup, disaffected soldiers running Congress out of town, and an indigenous insurgency along the way to boot.

But then again, they didn’t have Daily Kos and the Democratic Underground to deal with either…:)

From Little Green Footballs an amazingly transparent recounting of the life of a man’s grandfather and what it means in these days when some would stand and demand the the Nazis did not try to eliminate the Jewish culture from the face of the planet….

It’s a tale of derived understanding, of knowing pictures of people who are no more, did in fact exist and that cannot be denied.

If you choose to read his post, be ready, it’s an emotional account in a factual matter, written like Peter Falk playing his character of Colombo, but in a far more reverential manner. You may need Kleenex – so don’t tell me I didn’t warn you first.

From How my grandad invented the Holocaust by Eugene:

My father’s father died when I was 16, 15 years ago. Or was I 18? I don’t remember exactly. It was a long time ago. My memory fails me, the daguerreotype has faded. I know that he was. And then he was not. I know this because I saw him when he was. And then I saw him again. And he wasn’t any more. He lived, and then he died. It is a fact.

My grandfather had a little sister. I know what she looked like. I have seen the photo. A 1941 photo. Or was it 1940? I don’t remember exactly. It was a long time ago that I saw it last. My grandfather knew. But he has been dead for a while, so he cannot tell me. If the photo was taken in 1941, that is the year my grandfather’s sister died.

In his 60s, towards the end of his days, my grandfather got very sentimental. He had had three heart attacks, the first one when he was in his 40s, so he wasn’t good for much towards the end of his days. He would sit on the couch, clutching his sister’s old photo, and cry. About 40 years had passed, but he would still cry. I can’t say for sure, but I suspect that, many years after my parents go, may they live a long life, I will cry exactly like he did. My people, the Jews, are like that. Cry babies.

So his sister lived, and then she died. It is a fact. I know that, because I have seen my grandfather cry over her photo.

Read and be enriched by this story and know the truth is nothing but the truth, so help us God.

Update 12/15/2006: Take a moment to get some background on the Holocaust from SteelJaw Scribe as he commemorates the beginning of Hannukah.

Sneak preview tickets in hand, I expected to see a good movie, having seen a few commercials. I saw a great movie. Not knowing the details of the real situation, if the movie wasn’t too overly dramatized, it certainly is an inspirational story of an entire community, not just a coach or a team. It is worth your time.

Yesterday I posted how life seems to emulate reality TV. Today I write about how life, in the context of a small West Virginia town should be a model for our nation.

How timely this happens to be, as the theme of the movie: “Yes, we took a loss, but we need to suit up and get back in the game, if we ever expect to win” plays into post III of a few weeks ago, in The Ratchet and the Governor – Tools for Today” series I have been working on. I also commented, just a few days ago, the rough times demand tough men.

The movie is well acted. Be ready to be brought into the emotions of a town who loses all but 4 of their football players, the college athletic staff and several of the key (read big) supporters. The big picture of the movie is it took many from the College and town, as well as a coach, who knew nothing more about the school than they were in need of a coach, and they made things happen.

They set a goal, first by the desire of one of the four players, who had not gone on the trip due to an injury, who thought the honor was not in shutting down (the equivalent response at our national level is the “withdraw and redeploy” concept), but by standing tall, and getting the student body to support a message to the school administration and the board, that they wanted to honor the dead by staying the course until victory. It was not an unruly crowd that gathered to get the point across, but a large one, willing to make their presence know in support of continued effort in the face of disaster.

They couldn’t find a coach in the long list of alumni. It was looking bleak. A coach called and when asked in the interview why he wanted the job, his answer was to look at his three children and his wife, running around the front yard, then tell Marshall’s President it was because of them, and then he paused and said he couldn’t imagine being without them and he figured a whole town was hurting and he thought he might be able to help. What a concept: You do it for your children, and along the way, you do it for everyone else, and their children so to speak.

Read the rest of this entry »

Chasing links….and here’s some interesting philosphy:

The biggest threat to America is not communism, it’s moving America toward a fascist theocracy… — Frank Zappa

I found this as the “tagline” for a posted “NCrefugee” (I thought we weren’t supposed to use that word any more, because it makes people feel bad) at Daily Kos, where he posted, suspecting a grand conspiracy of right wingers using zombie computers to bias the outcome of the weblog awards by deleting cookies, so you can vote over an over… Geez…I guess if you live in a world where it’s all about a conspiracy behind every grain of sand, then all in life can ebe explained thru that sort of filter.

But…to the main point: Frank’s insightful quote.

For a drug overdosed hippy, Frank sure seemed to be “spot on.” I’m sure he wasn’t able to forsee the future, where an Islamofascist government disallows all things non-Muslim, starting with any devisive comments about the religion. I bet he didn’t conceive of the “poligion” that this will bring, if we keep backing away from anything that hurts the feelings of those of that faith…

Weekly Open Trackbacks. A “safe harbor” to “suggest” to readers they should take a chance on you(r writings). Go for it.

From last week’s Sea Stories, I discussed the ship at sea always being a place of noise, and I indicated I’d tell more of that this week. Here it is.

On my second ship, one of my collateral duties was that of Gunnery Liasion Officer (GLO), which entailed being the person who managed the trageting of the ship’s guns against shore targets, via a spotter, on the ground or in the air, who would identify and fix target positions.

As part of our “shakedown” training (it was a newly commissioned ship), we had to train in this mission area, and we took a trip from San Diego harbor (homeport) to the west to the firing range off San Celmente Island and I proceeded to practice a skill I first learned in the school rooms of the Fleet Training Center.

I stood at the Dead Reckoning Tracer (DRT), which, for the purposes of this work, was converted to a plain old chart table. The operation specialists had laid out the grid reference charts for the area, and set up the radio circuits and sound powered telephone headsets. Status boards (large hanging, edge lit plexiglass sheets) were redrawn with the format for the fire missions we would be tasked with and positioned so I could easily read them from where I stood. My tools, up to three stopwatches, a sharpened No. 2 pencil, dividers and the “Commanche Board,” also were out for use.

So, “perched” several decks above, and away from the fore and aft 5″54cal MK 45 gun mounts, I would still be able to hear the gun laoding mechanisms doing their work. Two decks below the guns, the magazine crews would pick the type ammuntion and powder charges from their storage and place them in the hoists. Hydraulics and mechanical systems would rapidly raise the 76 lb projectiles and the powder cases up to the gun mount, where they were automatically loaded into a tray before the ram then shoved them into the waiting breech, to have the breech block slam into place behind them, awaiting patiently for the electrical charge that will begin the “explosives train” on it’s path to sending the sleek bullet hurtling towards it’s assigned target.

I felt the operation as much as I heard it. I felt the forward gun, Mount 51, and heard it fairly clearly, but I mostly felt Mount 52, probably 350 feet aft of me in straight distance measurement, insulating itself from me thru multiple bulkheads and 4 decks of aluminum and steel. The firing of either mount, was clearly unmistakable, as I became practiced on sending high explosives many miles away on the word of a disembodied voice on the radio.

“On Station, Ready for Call for Fire” begins the sequence, alerting the forward observer you are available to pummel the enemy who dares to enter his field of view…..

More later…

I have long thought the “Survivor” series was pretty worthless and conveyed a bad message, but it seems to be a replication of the current political, and cultural landscapes these days.

So they start out “teams,” which don’t really have anything to do with forming teams, because, at the end of the day (season), the goal is to not only beat the other team, but out maneuver each and every one of your team mates, just so you can walk with the prize.

Between elected and governmental, as well other supporters of the President, it seems “Phase II” has begun, where, after getting somewhere as part of the “team,” then the backstabbing begins, so there are sufficient bodies to stand upon to reach what you desire.

Noting more profound than that, but it seems my view of the “Survivor” model had come to be the dominant methodology in the upper levels of our government….sad, but, we will pay.

In the meantime, check out “Lifestyles of the Rich and Fascist.” (Speaking of life imitating TV…)

Well, at least I’m a fighter and not a C-5A!

See what kind of Military aircraft you are!

H/T: SteelJaw Scribe.

Consensus? You’ve got to be kidding me. Maybe I can give John Gruden a call and offer my services, and those of several of my friends, who think his record this season sucks, so we can have a commission to tell him how to do it “in a different direction.”

Oh, yeah, I was tall and skinny. I never played football, but I did swim, play baseball and basketball. Much like the Baker Commission, I complee people to look upon me as qualified to discuss detailed NFL lavel football.

And, like a snowball’s chances in hell, I’m sure I’ll get a call back from my buddy John…..

I have come to pretty much emlininate profanity from my discussions, but this entire set of current events has me toying with dusting off the mental bookshelf that holds some more of the more choice sayings I learned in many years as a sailor….

Pardon me, but times like these demand those people, who are so unpolished in polite company during peacetime that they are excluded, passed over and shuffled off to assignments far from where they can embarass the “chosen ones,” who will one day be admirals and generals. I had a few friends like this during my service time. Brutally effective as leaders in the simulated combat conditions we could muster, and constantly considering the options/scenarios for war at sea. They stayed near the waterfront when not on sea duty, in jobs to helpp the fleet get better, and turned their noses up at Pentagon assignments. They knew the profession, on it’s worst day, would require every bit of sea going and combat/damage control/engineering experience they could immerse themselves in, and that’s what they did, to the detriment of their careers.

One man, a mentor to me, who could tell you when you screwed up and make sure you understood the newest tactics, had played many sports, including football and baseball, and it was always with a go for broke, victory if the goal attitude. He carried that attitude into everything he did. He made O-4. He was shuttled off to the side. He retired and, having been noticed by a reservist who drilled with them, was sought after for that very spirit, and now he does in the business world what his senior officers thought was too much out of the question.

Look at the changes of command at the outset of WWII? Those who had grown up and comfortable in the extended peacetime were tossed out to the curb and the agressive, loud, we’re here to kill the enemy and break things crowd was installed. Yep, you need those guys when the light is dim and the casualties are high, caused by the lack of understanding of those who got you there in the first place. But then, after the conflict, the war fighters are, once more, pushed aside and the politicians rise again.

One man I worked for was the most brilliant tactician, in both exercise, and also in a real world multi-month operation, but his “interpersonal skills” left just about everything to be desired. I’d go to war with him in a heartbeat, but count me out if he need administrative support. It’s men like this that carry the day in the times of challenge, not those who refuse to get their hands dirty in understanding our enemy, much less history.

Take your stinking “consensus” and stuff it. Get me a hard nosed, hard driven, focused person, who will lead and make the hard decisions, knowing full well the gravity of the situation. Side Note: Dr. Gates sure isn’t striking me as one of these guys, no matter how many Aggies had has run with and talked to. Being a friend is one skill set, being a leader is another altogether. You can be both, but the leader aspects need to be exercised first.

We don’t need smooth and polished, with the right color tie, and a manicured metrosexual type running the show right now. We most certainly don’t need unelected people to demand the President take orders from them.

We need Bucks and Bills to be put in place, with orders to “retake the Falklands” type direction from the Commander-in-Chief. Along the way, the rules of armed conflict and rules of engagement will be followed, because those seemingly troglodytes are the consumate professionals. But if they need an ROE changed, they’ll be stating their case.

Better yet, men like Bill and Buck would come home victorious, with a simple request: “What next?”

Update 12/11/2006: Looks like Rick Santorum and I are of one mind…

From Celstron, the “Sky Scout.”

It uses GPS to tell you (computerized voice) what stars/constellations to look for as you point it around. You can also access a menu and select a celestial object/planet and it will giude you to looking at it in the “Locate” mode.

15.2 oz, without batteries….and, I’d certainly be careful about using it in the presense of your enemies, lest they figure out where you are while it tells you what you’re looking at….

Hey, at $399 (plus shipping and applicable sales tax and the cost of some batteries), you can afford to skip your Junior Year NROTC navigation course…

Many years ago, as we sat at the dinner table, discussing the current effort to get rid of cars that burned leaded gas, I made some comment about tha implied that would be the end of it when they got it completed.

My mother-in-law had recently gotten the diesel Mercedes she had wanted for some time and that next factored into the equation.

My father-in-law next commented “these people keep lists of 10 itmes thay are after. When they get rid of the item at the top, then they add another one at the bottom, so they will always have things to attack.”

In the past few days, and reflecting on the state of world affairs, specifically in reference to the Islamofascists, Jes was oh, so correct. They will ask for one thing, then when they get it, they add more requests. The sad part is we keep believing what they are asking is the thing they actually desire, instead of figuring out it is merely a stepping stone to the larger prize they seek. In this case, they won’t stop until they dominate, which has been the history of the Muslim faith (via the leadership) since the inception of the religion.

Yes, they have been beaten back and given up on agression for a while, but it our time when they have chosen to surge forward to accomplish their desired goal.

So, if “they” get Israel taken off the map, they aren’t going to stop there…