it’s the kiss of death for a celebrity that is long past her or his prime: being ignored, or worse, being mocked.
Madonna, now 59-year old, is that embarrassing icon of 80s music that lost her relevance twenty years ago, but refused to go quietly into producing other artists or cultivating wine on a French estate, etc. She tried to drum up support for Hillary Clinton’s Presidential bid. She was quoted saying some incredibly stupid, sexually explicit things. She has been mocked for at least three years by radio stations in the U.K. and their music awards. Do the Millennials even know who she was? And apparently this week she put herself out on Twitter in a bid that she may regret more than being forgotten, being mercilessly mocked.
Nicholas Cage. I generally watched his movies for the co-stars’ performances. Even the cars were more watchable.
Mel Gibson. Memorable movies. Memorable characters. And then …. in person, a drunk, a bigot, given to tirades, abuse …..
Lindsay Lohan. Mostly a celebrity for being such a human trainwreck.
For musicians ever since the music video fame is measured in months it seems. A casual search on the internet revealed a whole lot of “irrelevant” performers who apparently rose and then flamed out in the last five or ten years. Rita Ora is one according to one critic. I never heard of any of them.
And of course, my “fan fave”, William Hung, the rejected American Idol of 2004 who became an internet sensation for his lack of singing talent. But he’s a successful motivational speaker now
As a veteran and retired Navy Senior Chief, wearing a t-shirt celebrating Navy Chiefs is a point of pride, even in San Diego with a large population of veterans, Active Duty and families with members of the military in them.
While shopping at a Lowes Saturday afternoon, a gentleman thanked me for my service and we chatted as two veterans are likely to do. Gene’s service as a Comms Officer at SECOND Fleet, the commander of all afloat naval forces in the Western Atlantic and Caribbean, occurred at the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis.
That was almost fifty-six years ago. In six decades, millions of American (and a number of foreign-born) men and women have served or continue to serve in the armed forces. Travel, learning self-discipline, gaining a better perspective on many topics, and useful work-related skills. Many took advantage of the college benefits to become very skilled professionals in everything from agriculture to zoology.
And yet for many who have served in combat, in combat zones, or even when injured in training or other military-related periods, there has been sixty years of failure to live up to promises by the Government. Mental illness, drug addiction, homelessness, and incarceration plague veterans who have served honorably but became only statistics. And with every election cycle, promised of change may cause a stir, but then either never are completely realized, or get the budget axe.
I am one of the fortunate. I have a good post-military career. I have a support system that is independent of the government. And I have good memories of camaraderie, as well as some challenging memories of the bureaucratic foul ups and health issues from military service. With a population that increasingly is self-interested, emotionally-fragile, rigidly opinionated, and in many cases unprincipled, the graying veterans like me may spent more time reminiscing at a Lowes, or a Target, or in the park. You cannot really ever hide the walk, the bearing, or the “USA!” branded clothes and pro-veteran opinions.
On the Cuban Missile Crisis, this is one article for further reading
Work day ends. Time to figure out how much of my earnings are going to Uncle Sam. I’ve started to work on our family’s taxes for 2017 and the first pass has me scratching my head. We owe more that we already had withheld over 26 pay periods in federal taxes? My wife took a pay cut from prior years, was furloughed the last week of the year, and we did not strike oil in the backyard when I planted a tree, so what happened?
“Saretsky, Eric W. CTMC (UFL N39 COPS3)” <xxxxx> wrote: It’s 6 AM in El Cajon and I’m hoping that you’ve been able to sleep. I know how hard it is for you when you are in the middle of problem-resolution (baby-sitting) teachers and students! I’ll be here all night, so I am just sending you lots of virtual hugs to comfort you! Love you, me
My wife found and shared with me old email we exchanged over ten years ago when I was on a Navy Reserve assignment to COMSEVENTHFLT AOR. It was my second visit to Yokosuka, Japan. Seven years earlier, in 1998 or 1999, I had been on Active Duty, aboard the USS CORONADO, when it visited Japan and Korea. That previous time, I had only just begun dating my future wife, and our exchanges by email were very slow and tedious. This, from a ship that was “state of the art” in most things electronic. In 2006 I had been a Reservist nearly six years, married five years and when I received orders to the SEVENTH Fleet for ULCHI FOCUS LENS, it was my first time in seven years that I was again on sea duty. And email was quite a bit more advanced in comparison.
My assignment aboard the USS BLUE RIDGE during UFL was interesting work, simulating tactical intelligence options, “PsyOps”( (psychological efforts to dissuade North Koreans from participating in the event of hostilities) and so forth. Other teams had different scenarios to develop. One of the things I learned, working with a joint unit of intelligence professionals ( Reservists who were also civilian experts in the fields they supported in uniform), is that some battlefield commanders, i.e. the Active Duty Army general heading up this exercise, are “warhead on forehead” types and not given to deep consideration of other forms of military conduct. I had previously seen that in a prior year working with an Air Force team who were reluctant to employ a new technology- because it was new, and not part of their manual (printed before the technology was in development).
Were I to do it again, I would again prefer to be a Navy Chief Petty Officer aboard ship. There is truth in Rank Has Its Privileges. While a Reserve Commander from my unit was also on this same Exercise, he had neither the camaraderie, nor the access to good chow that came with being a Chief in the BLUE RIDGE CPO Mess. It’s a tradition that all Navy Chiefs past and present are one, and all Navy units’ CPO Mess are one Mess
new Chief Petty Officers initiated into the BLUE RIDGE CPO Mess (Sept 2006)
One other thing that seems to remain constant over the years since I last donned a uniform, is the fondness for change – in uniform styles, acronyms and Joint Exercise names. When I was reminiscing about ULCHI FOCUS LENS, online I found that this Joint exercise was subsequently changed to ULCHI FREEDOM GUARDIAN. In the decade that this has been in use, I presume the Pentagon is probably searching for a new name. “ULCHI FREEDOM MAGA”? Anyone? It undoubtedly will be huge.
It is a stressful time to be a General Officer in the United States Armed Forces. An Army Major General, Ryan Gonsalves, was on the short list to get his third star, or promotion to Brigadier General, when he abruptly inserted combat boot in mouth. An article asserts he made some colorfully blunt and condescending assessment of a Congressional delegation and particularly offended a female staffer. He should not have been so colorful. Perhaps he could have watched “A Few Good Men” for insight in how not to be condescending.
One gentlemen I know summed it up well. For millennia, men have used power to obtain sex; however, in the same time, women have used sex to obtain power. At the extremes we have seen abuses. Effective warriors in history, such as Alexander, Charlemagne, Ulysses S. Grant and Omar Bradley were effective leading people and changing the course of history. However, I would think that a general in the second decade of the Second Millennium would have some acumen. For the last two hundred years, the United States military has had civilians making policy, authorizing budgets, and setting priorities for national defense. Many times this has been contrary to the advise of the seasoned warriors who know that adversaries and potential adversaries respect the threat or the actual implementation of force.
Yet a parent’s advice to a child aggrieved about many things should still be a fundamental truth. Apparently, the wisdom of picking one’s battles carefully was not heeded by this general. Perhaps he reflects the current Commander-In-Chief in that regard. And unfortunately it seems, this general officer has learned that indeed, the “pen (to strike his name from consideration) IS mightier than the sword”.
Google Maps gave me driving directions around the worst of my evening commute tonight that inspired this blog post. While I have made prior references to driving through San Diego at rush hour, it is pointless to meander along that sordid topic – it is only going to get worse and not better. However, I can use the time to make some observations about some of my fellow Southern Californians.
Driving through an obviously middle class neighborhood in suburban San Diego this late afternoon, two weeks prior to the Christmas holiday, I was intrigued that no more than perhaps one in forty homes displayed Christmas decorations or lights of any kind. This was not a section of the city that appeared bound by any homeowners association prohibition, nor a singularly Muslim area or commune of Ascetic monks, It was a single-family style, $600, 000-average price neighborhood (for California, a little more than the median price for 2017.)
I am not denigrating anyone for NOT displaying Christmas decorations, and I in no way attribute Santa Claus, decorated trees, inflatable Minion or Harley-riding Santa Claus to the Birth of Jesus. But I find it very “unusual”. For a nation that spends a lot on holiday cheer regardless of their spiritual aspirations, (a retail survey calculated that Americans spent $3.2 Billion on decorations, lights, trees and so forth in 2015) I found it unusual. In neighborhoods that become a festive attraction for the surrounding communities, band saws in garages start going in September, and decorations start being put up on the Black Friday shopping day. I thought I would look up the relationship between decorations and personality. One article was particularly interesting in perceptions. An experiment was conducted on observers perceptions using pictures of groups of more socially-engaged neighbors, not socially-engaged (keep-to-themselves sort), each with decorated and not-decorated homes. People who were generally unable to distinguish between social traits for decorated homes, could generally determine the level of social interaction of people with non-decorated homes. People can tell what you are like by the stuff in your environment.
Next post, I may discuss why some late-middle-age men like to tootle around town in a fire-engine red, convertible Porsche Carrera, and why some young people driving Civics, or BMW 3-series, or a 3-cylinder Prius, feel the need to be the most ignorant drivers on the road.
Many people, myself included, refused for a couple decades to acknowledge that people could really affect the weather. My religious beliefs hold that God is in control of all things, yet God did put Adam as steward of the planet. Whatever your belief, in my lifetime, I have witnessed barely breathable polluted air over Southern California, rainy years, drought years, colder and milder winters, hotter and milder summers. Hurricanes. Tornados. Floods. Climate change is the topic that every schoolboy in the industrialized countries of the world has had stamped into their consciences in recent decades. Everyone from politicians in California to European “Green” parties demand humanity stop using resources that are “proven” to destabilize our climate and pollute the planet. For the last twenty years, politicians debate and people divide into camps. But does anyone really know a solution?
“something must be done”
There have, as yet, been no realistic nor popular solutions proposed nor any process enacted. One nation refuses to hinder their industrialization by employing technologies they cannot yet afford to mitigate pollution. Other nations have no solid infrastructure to enact regulation. In the First World, taxation is the first response to climate change, but hinders any real discussion or experiments at solutions that are not “lobbyist”-championed projects. (Several of these have all-but-embezzled millions of tax dollars.) For those of us who work many miles from our homes, lack of public transportation to get there is at odds with the government actions to dissuade personal vehicle use. (Population in most cities outside California is many factors more dense so personal vehicles are less efficient than mass transit.)
climate impacts humans
Geologically, human existence has been a blip on the clock. It is still unclear whether volcanism, sun spot activity, and tectonic forces are responsible for the oscillations in weather over millions of years. Weather changes created Ice Ages and in-between glacial periods caused sea level change. Drought, lasting decades and even centuries, put pressure on feeding ancient populations and caused ancient civilizations to decline.
Two in the Americas, Hohokam and Anasazi civilizations were very advanced, yet may have faded – centuries before European visitors – due to extended periods of drought.
A volcanic eruption of Santorini in the Mediterranean was a primary factor the successful Minoan civilization faded around 1500 BCE. From the Bible and other texts, years of record crops followed by drought and famine in the Middle East occurred. Yet history teaches us that human beings in sufficient numbers can alter the environment as well. The millennia that Middle Eastern, Egyptian, Roman and Greek people cut the “cedars of Lebanon” for ship timbers and structures has all but eliminated them. .
In northern Michigan 7000 years ago ancient ancient people mined copper; tailings and debris left behind tell the stories before 19th Century mining began there. But the growth of the world population and the demand for resources have caused more debilitating changes in many aspects on the planet. In more recent times, denser populations along the coasts – the heavy industrialization using coal, oil and natural gas for energy first in the Americas and Europe, then Asia and Africa have had unrestrained and inefficient (heavily polluting) consequences. After several decades, each region in turn developed a conscience about limiting “acid rain” and early deaths from lung diseases and cancers. Before government management in the Americas, clear-cutting forests and mining were damaging what we later preserved through government intervention. This is still rampant in Brazil and the Amazon Basin.
Amazon deforestation
Strip mining that ruins the land and the chemicals used to extract metal poison groundwater in many developing economies. Of course, the topic that give California Jerry Brown the largest headache, is burning hydrocarbon fuels for energy,- releasing billions of tons of chemicals that were deposited over millions of years within the last century or two.
it’s elemental
Fire
Less than two months ago, the Sonoma region of California became an inferno.
Ventura, Los Angeles county, December 2017
This week, another tragic environmental calamity is occurring not only a couple of hours north of me in northern Los Angeles but forty miles north of my home, the Lilac fire, in the hills at the edge of San Diego County. Wind-propelled wildfires have consumed the lives, property, and dreams of hundreds of residents, displaced thousands more. and killed dozens of stabled horses in the last days. Ten years ago, my third of the county was being turned to charcoal by wildfire. Coordinated effort of thousands of firefighters, military and civilians have managed to keep human casualties few while battling the environment.
Perhaps the Government and the governed can put down their acrimony long enough to work through “defensible space” in residential areas. Tangible efforts such as clearing wider swaths of highways near open country might prevent vehicle-caused brush fires. Remove diseased and non-native species of trees and plants, many of which are very flammable, by dedicated planned cutting and clearing. Allow natural clearing through regular controlled burning.
Earth
Mexico 2017
Living at the tectonic boundaries of continents, Asia-Pacific and western North, Central and Latin American residents, earthquakes, and the infrequent volcanic eruption destroy property, kill people living in un-reinforced structures, and wreak havoc. The residents of central Asia suffer a major quake every dozen years of so. A decade or more ago, a major earthquake severely damaged eastern Japan, and one previously induced tsunamis from Thailand to India. Volcanic eruptions occur over a geologic timescale, so it is often ignored by people from Indonesia, to Naples, Italy, to some Caribbean island residents who live on their slopes.
For those who live at tectonic boundaries, nations can provide technical expertise with construction, but it will be up to the affected nations to employ these methods and materials. While many nations do not have infrastructure, others have corrupt or ineffective leadership in their economies.
Water
aftermath of Maria, Puerto Rico
Hurricanes or cyclones or typhoons, and tornadoes are either more damaging now – or are more reported in the twenty-four hour news cycle. El Nino or La Nina cyclic ocean heating or cooling contribute to heavy growth of fuel for fires in wet years in the western US, then in dry years contribute to tinder-dry fire conditions; hot winds blowing toward the Caribbean from western Africa mix to become tropical depressions and then storms that churn into the Caribbean, the Gulf of Mexico or Eastern seaboard. For this hemisphere, it is a roulette wheel every June through September where storms will make landfall. Hurricanes in 2017 have ruined large swaths of the Caribbean, and flooded southeastern Texas. For other hemispheres, cyclones or typhoons have often killed many and displaced thousands in the Philippines, and coastal Indian Ocean countries.
Nature has a way of mitigating hurricanes through dense miles of mangrove swamps; humans building in flood-prone regions, building over land that would absorb or deflect flooding has had devastating effects. Home owners who have properties along the beaches where hurricanes have come ashore frequently make a choice to live there, yet the debris that piles up and down the coastline is environmentally damaging and take a long time to remove. With storms such as that which struck New York in winter, or Houston, or Puerto Rico and the eastern Caribbean this year, there may be more frequent and stronger storms in future years. Sea walls, restored wetland, stronger levees, stockpiled supplies and more durable materials are some of the things that people can demand.
Wind
Texas, (courtesy CNN)
From westerly ” Santa Ana” winds out of the deserts of California that dry out vegetation in the forests and hills every Fall (and sometimes Spring through Fall), to the tornadoes that develop in the Central and Eastern United States when cold air masses clash with the warm moist air from the Gulf of Mexico, to hurricanes, wind is a major force to be reckoned with. As part of the whole climate debate, people want to use wind to generate power yet curse it when it accelerates fires, lift roofs off schools, blow down trees or sink ships at sea. As a natural force, wind is not going to be stopped by human will. However, more intelligent design for buildings may mitigate storm damage.
I am so exhausted listening to everyone blame climate change for the problems in the world. It is not the weather “why” I care about. It’s how the world population – as a whole – intends to alter in meaningful ways the slide to more unstable and unpredicable future. As long as there is President Obama-style unilateral initiatives or Congressional “legislation” or California bureaucratic fiats without real adoption in the new industrializing regions of the world – there is no leadership. However social media page “Likes”, group-think, hysteria and the resulting inaction is a poor gift for future generations.
This week I received a phone call from the Veterans Administration, to ask me to submit a copy of my most recent DD-214, the document that all veterans recognize as our Certificate of Release or Discharge from military service, which also provides the veteran with a validation for several federal and state benefits.
Since I am given to understand that the United States Government’s Executive Branch oversees the Veterans Administration and Department of Defense (DOD), and the DOD oversees the Department of the Navy, I am unsure how transmission of my Active Duty service record – and DD-214 for my second period of service (ending 17 years ago) – or at minimum, the DD-214, failed to be transmitted to the records the Veterans Administration maintains (veterans are its customers). Were it only a paper record, I could understand that millions of archival pages might be confusing for one file clerk with band aids on her thumbs and a dry sponge-pad (to moisten fingers) searching through file cabinets. But for thirty years, documents have been scanned into computer records.
In the most recent twenty years, and particularly in the last ten years, there have been lobbying groups protesting the illegal monitoring/ harvesting of data purportedly on American citizens – and our “undocumented guests” in the country. College students, particularly at Ivy League universities, college professors, Congressional investigations, anarchists camping out in the streets, and huge exposes by media – CNN, Politico, New York Times, and groups like the ACLU and so on, condemn BIG GOVERNMENT for purportedly nefarious purposes.
Given my experience with Government, including data losses, long delays between completing forms and receiving confirmation of receipt, and even longer delays when requesting information, specific to the very thing the Government agency is responsible, I have some reservation about how nefarious or how “omnipresent” Big Brother really is in our daily lives. I am much more concerned with BIG CORPORATION (##).
Google, Facebook, other social media, Microsoft, and so forth collect TRILLIONS of bytes of data daily on our finances, credit use, personal interests, sexual preferences, and other habits. Anyone who has looked at a website on your computer or phone at work or at home should notice how quickly all your other devices start to send you “tailored” advertising. And knowing that criminals, foreign governments, and non-state bad actors are often way more proficient with data mining than our own GOVERNMENT, I would not be surprised to hear my Progressive, aka Liberal, friends be embarrassed one day in the future to learn that buying the Birkenstock and Hillary Clinton’s autobiography from the web, will also come with a free sample of Russian borscht or Chinese travel vouchers.
(##) since I served and presently work where my privacy is understood to NOT be a sacred thing – the Government has maintained records on me since I was 18 years old – I am not willing, nor able to drop off “the Grid” anytime soon
On the occasion of a visit to the Veterans Administration Compensation and Pension Claims Office in San Diego today, I was given to wonder if obtaining care from our Commander in Chief ( the bureaucracy, to be exact) was always an issue. The Federal Government since the early Nineteenth Century officially provided for the wartime disabled veteran, yet even in the most recent years, since I first wore a uniform, there have been struggles to link illnesses with wartime service.
In the following letter to President Washington from an unidentified soldier of the Revolutionary War, he had been waiting seven years for a promised reward for the suffering, putting his life, family and livelihood on the line for the new nation. And apparently, it seems some who did the promising, profited, and to those who were promised, were left to scrape by.
I’ve highlighted interesting parts of the letter which seem relevant today. The following is from the Archives :
From “An Old Soldier”
Commonwealth of Massachusetts—Decr 25th 1789
Great Sr
I hope it is a moment of leasure if this luckely should fall into your hands—urgent necessity induces me thus humbly to approach your Excellancy—I will not Sr long divert your attention from your arduous employment—but beg leave to observe—that on the first alarm of war I entered the Service of my Country being a minute Man in the then Massachusetts State—and having a fervant zeal to see the Conclusion I engaged from term to term till the first time of Inlisting for the War—which I unfortunately complyed with and had not the advantage of large Bounties as others afterwards had—and being a miner my Master had my wages till the last engagement—when the money began to depreciate—& our nec[e]ssaties so urgent that it procured but scanty release—hoping and expecting every Campaign to be the last—and not ambitious for office obtaind none took my tour as sentinal at all times and on all occations—cold & hot—wet & Dry—and being with the infantry was almost continually on the loins of the Enemy—I always loved—and had the love of my officers—obey’d every order punctually and considered your Excellencies as sacred—The promises of my officers—the incoragments in Genl orders—and the Resolves of the State and Congress induced me to hope and depend on an aduquate reward for my long toyl—hazard—& sufferings—when peace should be restored to our country again; but—alass! how aghast was I when with all my prudance—and many times suffering pinching need to preserve and save my earnings—& 250 Dollars in final settlements was my only Subsidy.
And when I reflect on the many—many dark & dangerous Nights I walked my Post all attentive—the much fatigue nakedness—and hunger I have indured—the many hazards I have run for my country—first on Bunkers-hill—at Perls Point—at white plains—the fatigueing but glorious action at Trenton & Princeton—the malancoly retreat from Ty—the Victory at Bemises-heights—the Battle at Monmouth & the Concluding seage of Yorktown—and that Eight Years of my prime was gon—had lost my trade—was unacquainted with husbandry—had formd the Connection of matremony in a very respectable family—had Two babes by a most agreable companion—her father impatent for my return to releave him of the long burden of my Wife & children—and I—unfortunate Man had no where to put them nor any provisions made for them—where said I is my dear General whome I ever hoped would have it in his power to see us righted—my officers have forsaken me—Congress dont pay me—my country dont thank nor pitty me! I offered my Securities for sail they would fetch only 2s./10d. on the pound—and I resolved if they was ever made good I would have the benefit of them if I worked my fingers to the bone for bread—but too close application soon redused my health—and to keep from goal for the doctors bill my securities are redused to Two hundred Dollars—Seven Long Years have elapsed and no releaf till my patiance is nearly gon with my constitution by unremited strugles at day labour to pay Taxes and bearly support my family which now is Eight in number—six childrenuntaught through poverty—and by a rearage of rent my landlord thretens the remainder of my securities @ 5s./2d. on the £ unless a spedy prospect of the Interest being paid saves them to me—Is there or is there not, my dearest of Generals any ground of hope—I ketch at every incouragement—and recolect in the Generals last and farewell orders to the Armies of the United States he observed that “the officers & soldiers may expect considerable assistance in recommencing their civil occupations, from the sums due to them from the public which must and will most inevitably be paid”1—also in the Genls presenting his thanks to the several classes of the Army he says—“And to the non commissioned officers and Soldiers for their extreordinary patience in suffering, as well as their invincible fortitude in action; to the various branches of the Army the General takes this last and solemn opertunity of profesing his inviolable attachment and friendship”—then observes “he wishes more then bare profession were in his power, that he was really able to be useful to them in future life.”
Now I trust heaven has put it in his power—And when the new Constitution took place (which was pro⟨illegible⟩ of in the above Quoted genl orders) my heart leaped with Joy—but not more than when I was advertized of the great-good Man put at the head of it—and felt confidant of releaf—but how was I affected when I found the old creaditer was neglected and the revenew whittled up among the multiplicity of officers and offices of the new government—may they not with propriety wate for a part of their inormus Sallerys as well as the poor Soldier for his seven Years Interest on his heard earnd pettance—one Years neglect more and all my expectations are blasted—my Securities must go to keep me out of goal and my family from Starving—what oppression! what crualty! such a severe Strugle to save my country—and their promised rewards arested from me—through their neglect and my necessity for almost nothing—and I exposed in some future day to pay my proportion of the whole sum to the menopalizer—Dear sr help for all other help but that of Heaven faileth—The demand by Taxes—by my Landlord—by my Family and my infermities bares me down my courage is nearly exosted and I reduced to invy those who—not only bled with me but died in their Countries service and are now mouldring in the dust.
But most worthy Sr—fully confidant of the rectitud of your mind—and your sincere wish to releave all in destress, and especially the deserving—And to distribute Justice to all men; and in perticular to the injuerd—I earnestly implore Heaven to Send all needed aid to the all attentive Preasidents exertians to contribute to all equally the rewards of their Country, according to their deserving—then may I depend on the small pittance due to your Excellancies most devoted & obedeant humbe Servt
An Old Soldier
Echoing this old Soldier more than two hundred years ago, I would like to see the priorities in this country change to care for the veteran particularly for those who are suffering as a result of combat service.
Thirty years ago, I read several of Norman Mailer’s work. It was a time of controversy during the maturing of society in the post-Vietnam era. The Death Penalty, scandals in Government, Presidents and Senators losing their positions. Foreign revolutions. Domestic terrorism. Sex. Religious charlatans. While my thoughts today run to the passing of an old letch, Hugh Hefner, yesterday, the impact of Hefner’s life’s work cannot be left unmentioned. Playboy followed the American culture in the last half of the Twentieth Century, and over fifty years the culture, unfortunately for Hefner, matured past him. But military lockers, battlefields, firehouses, and little boy’s attic cubbyholes in the 1960s and 1970s were adorned with centerfold images. Some stolen from their dad’s collection. With the sexual revolution of the Flower Children which became the hedonistic ’80s, the age of AIDS, and then the gay culture, everything about the onetime bedroom subject can now be taught in grade school. Talk about a real life satire.
I was in the 1980’s a fan of satire, particularly on the military. M.A.S.H was still popular on television, Joseph Heller’s Catch-22, the war movie Kelly’s Heroes was often on television. In the mid-1980s, I had several friends ( some I regularly talk with today) who served in Vietnam. I was mentored by World War II and Korean War vets. I spent twenty-six years over a thirty-two year span in a Navy uniform. I saw a lot of things about bureaucracy, opportunists, and the occasional subject satirized in these stories happening through the experiences of my friends and from my personal observation.
Hefner’s Playboy – and then its competitors, and with new technology, brought sex out into the mainstream, made it a commodity, and cheapened it, from a wonderful bonding relationship between two under God’s blessing, to a mainstream yardstick for judging maturity. As America matured, women and men very often were colleagues or competed in the same profession, and just as the race identity was removed by the military, the gender barrier also came down. This is not to say that it was a smooth transition. Change takes a generation or two to fully be accepted. And perhaps, the nation is on the verge or putting it back into the bedroom. When “taboo” becomes the mainstream, a new counter-culture icon may find a new audience. Hefner is dead. The Playboy Mansion, already sold, has lost its previous occupant. And now, with a few truckloads of Lysol, scrub brushes, and an army of health control professionals can sanitize fifty years of the “cosmopolitan” stains away. Wonder if Helen Gurly Brown or Hilary Clinton might shed a tear. There’s one less Neanderthal in the world.
Among my peers in the world of Navy cryptologic operations, we enjoyed a sense of humor that few civilians might understand. To this very day, when friends or family ask me about my work, I will likely smile, then say, “I could tell you, but then I’d have to kill you.” I do not get asked very much about my work.
Today, when recalcitrant equipment that I either test or provide customer with needed support and repair, I always have a smart-aleck response as my double-secret probation/ inside-voice, final debug plan. Put it in a barrel and light off some Thermite. But then, I am hired to fix it; it is up to my bosses to determine when the expense outweighs the continued troubleshooting.
Very early in the 1990’s, particularly as some hotspots in the world – where intelligence-gathering was not collected from 60,000 feet or a hundred miles in altitude as it may be today, but on the ground – my unit held a demonstration of classified material emergency disposal. This was the chemical destruction capability of THERMITE. Given a few minutes to dispose of the contents of a large safe, personnel might not have time to shred documents; some equipment that shouldn’t fall into the wrong hands could not be physically destroyed by physical effort. Ergo, a thermite grenade could be ignited, placed in or on it, and the object would be reduced to ash and molten slag.
However, history taught me that this material might have been more for show than practical use. When the U.S. Embassy in Tehran was seized in 1979, if some stories are to be believed, shredded documents were reassembled by people working furiously over months. When the Iranians again seized our personnel during the Obama Presidency, was there Thermite to obliterate our crypto gear on board? was it destroyed? If jettisoned overboard, was it recovered?
And in the digital world of identity theft, credit reporting thefts, and hacking, there’s nothing to render data irretrievable but for military-grade encryption. And yet it often depends on human beings to practice security. Of course my mind runs to a different form of “thermite”, but if we cannot find the provocateurs, cannot render them sanitized.
There were three sucker punches the United States of America suffered – within her borders – in history. August 24, 1814, when the British burned the White House during the War of 1812. The attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on December 7, 1941. And within the lifetime of most Americans now living, New York’s World Trade Center, the Pentagon and the thwarted attack, probably destined for the White House, on September 11, 2001.
America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves. Abraham Lincoln
brainyquote.com
Out of World War II, one-time enemies became friends and Allies. From the early Nineteenth Century, the world entered the Modern Era, mostly due to the inventiveness and creativity of people coming to these United States. From turbines and cotton gins, to aircraft and space exploration, ideas germinated here or were improved on and flourished, the gift of immigrants who were united in pride for this nation.
Blood has been shed defending a free people. Ideas that flourished here have gone out into the rest of the world. From medicine to Microsoft, a melting -pot in America fostered new ideas and directions in the world. Freedoms that had not been prevalent to societies in the Old World worked here.
But in the late 1940s and continuing through today, three forces have gathered in opposition to Americanism. Socialism, atheism, and equivocation. A failed idea of mid-19th century European intellectuals that the Industrial Revolution created oppression was embraced first by Russia, China, and imposed or embraced by nations in Europe, Asia, and some Latin American states. It resulted in a mediocre existence, little pride in workmanship, and ironically, a small elite oppressing a majority. It continues today due to control of information, education, and government services by an elite over a majority. Atheism, fostered by the same socialist elites, highlights the weaknesses of mankind as being the result of and not a remedy through the Christian faith. All the other religious orders are unopposed, generally, by the elites – for whom, power is religion- to confound and isolate people into manageable groups.
And from dictionary. com,
equivocation: “the use of ambiguous language to conceal the truth or to avoid committing oneself; prevarication.”
Leaders formerly stood upon principles, Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln; Martin Luther King, Winston Churchill and Nelson Mandela. Today, masses follow sound bites, imagery, and shed blood based on half-truths, lies and backroom deals. And in the U.S., most politicians have only one purpose – to gain and remain in power.
On this 16th anniversary of the murder of 3,000 people, at the hands of fanatics -propelled by a religion where the very mention of their prophet’s name can instigate murder – I pray for everyone here to embrace unity, discourse, freedom, and respect for law and for the Constitution.
I am not denigrating anyone for NOT displaying Christmas decorations, and I in no way attribute Santa Claus, decorated trees, inflatable Minion or Harley-riding Santa Claus to the Birth of Jesus. But I find it very “unusual”. For a nation that spends a lot on holiday cheer regardless of their spiritual aspirations, (a retail 
There have, as yet, been no realistic nor popular solutions proposed nor any process enacted. One nation refuses to hinder their industrialization by employing technologies they cannot yet afford to mitigate pollution. Other nations have no solid infrastructure to enact regulation. In the First World, taxation is the first response to climate change, but hinders any real discussion or experiments at solutions that are not “lobbyist”-championed projects. (Several of these have all-but-embezzled millions of tax dollars.) For those of us who work many miles from our homes, lack of public transportation to get there is at odds with the government actions to dissuade personal vehicle use. (Population in most cities outside California is many factors more dense so personal vehicles are less efficient than mass transit.)
Two in the Americas, 
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Truths, Half-truths, and Sea Stories 