A month ago we had two feet of snow and temps in the low twenties…unusual for Virginia. Today it is almost seventy and partly cloudy. If I weren’t gainfully doing some work and if we weren’t expecting more rain, I’d be on the ZXR-1200 burning up some road!
Category: Commentary
Thank a Vet by Giving Them the Day Off!
I would like to shout out and say thanks to all those who serve, have served, and especially those who have served and died for our country and our ideals, twisted though they may be at times. I offer a special thanks and cheers to all the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marines I worked and shared time with in my tens years in the U.S. Navy, seven great years of which I spent in the Republic of Korea.
Maybe one of these days the U.S. will make Veterans Day a real holiday by giving those of us who served a paid day off!
Memories….
War Is Hell, Especially If You Have to Fight Your Fellow Man/Woman
According to the Army psychiatrist alleged to be responsible for the recent shootings at Ft. Hood, TX, as cited in the Washington Post article, Fort Hood suspect warned of threats within the ranks, dated November 10, 2009, “…the military should allow Muslim soldiers to be released as conscientious objectors instead of fighting in wars against other Muslims.” What the hell???!!!!
I am vehemently anti-war and I can sympathize with this guy. Had such a policy been in place years ago perhaps World Wars One and Two would have been minor battles rather than global conflagrations. However, I firmly contend that the majority of the wars over the course of history…up until about the late 17th century… were fought for religious causes. I don’t think it is necessary to go into those details to prove my point but can do so if necessary.
More recent wars have been the result of economic/imperialistic/nationalistic desires. Nonetheless, religious differences continue to be a major cause of disagreement from the individual to the national level. We could certainly take the “as a Muslim, I should not be compelled to fight against fellow Muslims” to a higher level and suggest that as human beings we should not be compelled to fight against our fellow man/woman! That is the stance I would take were I a conscientious objector…
Is it significant that a radical Muslim cleric with whom the alleged perpetrator had contact over the years commented, according to the Washington Post in the same article, on his web site that “…a Muslim who “properly” understands his religious obligations cannot serve as a U.S. soldier, as American forces are engaged in fighting Islam and occupying Iraq and Afghanistan.”? Only time will tell…eh?
Waco’s in the (Fort) Hood!
Texas sure has had it’s share of wackiness:
- David Koresh and the Branch Davidians’ Raid and Siege in Waco, 1993.
- Charles Whitman and the University of Texas, Austin, Tower Shootings, 1966.
- George Jo Henard and the Killeen Luby’s Massacre, 1991.
These folks I think were just a little bit nuts! However, today’s massacre at Fort Hood, TX, doesn’t appear to me to be an act of the criminally insane. I am admittedly paranoid and see nefarious plots in many scenarios that others do not see but…
I have read much about how groups such as Al-Queda may not be able to carry out an act of terrorism such as that we experienced on 911 due to the intense scrutiny of security services worldwide. Accordingly, there are said to be many fanatical decentralized groups/cells around the world that can plan and carry out less extravagant operations and still hit hard at the heart of the West.
Put aside that fact that Major Malik Nadal Hasan’s name would indicate that he is of Middle or Near Eastern heritage. Compare the assault on a U.S military “readiness area” to similar assaults, including suicide bombings, on military and police recruiting and process facilities in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan. The fact that Major Malik (forgive me if that is not his last name) was not the only one implicated in the attack leads one to believe that the shootings were not the actions of one crazy man like the Tower Shooter but the actions of a small cell of terrorists.
To me it was only a matter of time. Terrorists can strike anywhere with a huge impact with a minimum of resources and strike deeply at the targeted people and/or nation. Imagine the affect this strike will have on U.S. military personnel everywhere. Paranoia will strike deep and anyone who has a Middle/Near Eastern sounding name or visage will be automatically suspicious. Can we stir some discontent in our armed forces please?
No Money to Improve Local Parks but…
…plenty of money to ruin them. As I am sure I have mentioned at some time, I like to take a walk on a paved path through a nearby park. The park is a narrow strip of forest with a stream meandering through it and house on one side and office buildings on the other. The path exits the park after a while and briefly follows a power line which parallels a road. While this is hardly wilderness, it is pretty good for me in metro D.C., since it is only a five minute walk from my home.
I have noted for a months now that there has been little effort to maintain the path by clearing back brush and cleaning up trash. Today I found that they cleared all the brush back for about 10 to 20 feet on either side of the path on the power line. Woe am I and the fauna that used to inhabit and/or frequent that flora! I like a bit of trimming of the bush but they wiped out a large quantity of wild berry bushes that certainly provided forage for the birds if nothing else.
The area today seemed devoid of life. I usually see all kinds of birds and frequently deer, raccoons, and woodchucks. I don’t know if those bushes can grow back and, if so, how quickly but clearing them all out was a crime against nature. To make matters worse, now all the trash that has been and will be thrown from cars going down the road is and will be blatantly obvious. It is bad enough around when the foliage thins out. Our brown and gray winter landscapes are decorated with the detritus of our throw away society.
I think that I have a mission to lead a crew to clean up that area next year during the Annual Potomac River Watershed Cleanup!
Acid Reflux…
I was listening to the Worst of Airplane some days ago in commemoration of having just read, for the second (not seconal) time, “The Electric Koolaid Acid Test” by Tom Wolfe. A non-fiction work of art, “true” as it were, the book records the antics of Ken Kesey and his band of Merry Pranksters as they trip and grok through the “LSD is not yet illegal” world of the 1960’s.
Most of the action takes place in the San Francisco Bay area and Mexico but includes a noted bus trip (no pun intended) to the East Coast and back. The thread of the book runs around the Kesey rapper, tripper, grokker persona, and his role as a polarizer or a freak. He definitely drew people to him who wallowed in his “our existence really means nothing until we can go beyond acid” attitude.
Items, bands, persona, and thoughts referenced in the book are randomly listed below. If you have any interest in the diverse history of the USA as relates to the 1960’s, “The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test” is a must read.
- Freedom of expression w/o criticism
- The bus
- The music and the recordings
- “The Movie”
- Getting the police involved in “The Movie”
- Owlsey Blues
- Beatles concert
- Stones concert
- The Grateful Dead
- The Hell’s Angels
- Writer and Poet Jack Kerouac who wrote “On the Road,” “Big Sur, and “Dharma Bums”
- Ken Kesey who wrote “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”
- Allen Ginsberg who wrote the poem “Howl,” not to be confused with the painting “Scream,” by Evard Munch
- Hunter S. Thompson who wrote “Hell’s Angels” and “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas”
- Country Joe and the Fish
Bats in the Belfry
In this Washington Post article, “Environmentalists divided over wind turbines, endangered bats, ” dated October 22, 2009, the merits of a wind turbine farm planned near Greenbriar, WV, are compared to the threat the farm might pose to the endangered Indiana bat.
According to one self-proclaimed caving fanatic and animal rights activist, “…if the turbines kill one Indiana bat, that ought to end it. That ought to shut it down.” I am all for animal rights but maybe we should stop driving cars too…fool!
Personal Cellphones in the Workplace, Not!
Someone wrote to the Washington Post Jobs section asking “Who Do You Call When Your Boss Bans Cellphones?” Apparently the boss had not only outlawed personal cellphone usage at all times including getting alerts silently and during break times but also forbade using company landlines for personal use. That is a bit excessive in my estimation. I believe that an organization has a responsibility to make it’s employees available to their friends and families in emergencies.
I do believe in banning cell phone usage, not during break time though, and allowing use of company landlines for personal use in emergency situations. I can’t think of any reason that phone usage should be verboten in personal/family emergencies. Were cellphones used only in emergencies, I wouldn’t ban them either. We all know however that cellphone use in the workplace is rampant and flagrant. I bet most organizations could realize a 5 to 10 percent increase in productivity were cell phone usage to be banned.
Growing up as a child (oxymoron or impossibility???), I cannot remember a time that my mother called my dad at work or that my dad called home from work. I am sure it happened but those occurrences could in no way mirror the frequent instances of frivolous cell phone usage that I have seen in the work place. On top of cell phone usage, corporate email is also blatantly abused for personal use. At least, for the employee, that is not as visible to management and coworkers.
Fortunately, company landlines and corporate email can be monitored, abuse documented, and disciplinary action taken when warranted. I know from personal experience in the workplace that too much time is wasted on personal business using cellphones, landlines, and email. In an effort to trim telecom costs at a previous company, I found company cellphone users who were nighttime supervisors who racked up three times the amount of minutes per month the site VP racked up. Please reconcile for me why a night supervisor should need to spend an average of 100 minutes per shift on the telephone. Really, you don’t need to. I know from viewing the call records that those minutes were not used for business…
Disclaimer, I am in no way commenting on policies of any company I ever worked for. Also, I am single, have no exes, and no children, so my experiences having to keep in touch with people are extremely limited compared to many others. Nonetheless, we have done without the current modes of instantaneous and constant communications for thousands of years. What makes us sure that we have to have them now?
Rise and Fall of Saturn
According to the Washington Post article, “GM to Shut Down Saturn After Penske Walks Away,” dated September 30, 2009, GM is dumping Saturn after Penske decided not to buy the division.
What about that? Saturn was, and I thought would continue to be, a major success story. Penske really wanted to buy Saturn when the option came up as we (as in, we the citizens) bought GM a few months ago. Does not bode well for the economy in my estimation. I wonder what queered the deal.