No Sympathy For The Devil

Just as every cop is a criminal
And all the sinners saints
As heads is tails just call me Lucifer
I’m in need of some restraint

–
Sympathy For The Devil
Rolling Stones

when all your beauty and sorrow and anger and incomprehension

burst into scalpels of sun to carve stunning radiance
– To Ayat al-Akhras, Suicide Bomber
Ronald Jones

you don’t know how intimately they’re recording your every move on closed-circuit cameras until you see your face reflected back at you through through the pulp.
..
you don’t know how precious your iphone battery time was until you’re hiding in the bottom of the boat.

–A Poem for Dzhokhar
Amanda Plamer

As the City of Boston grieves, rebuilds and recovers, America catches the terrorists and brings them to justice.

And liberals feel sorry for terrorist murders and scum.

Maybe it’s the “underdog” myth. Maybe it’s the marxism rotting their brains. Maybe some are too anti-violence that they wanna hold hands.

Bull. Kill the terrorist bastards.

Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev murdered an 8 year old child. They picked targets that were per-occupied with a celebration. They hit defenseless civilians. Like the Kiryat HaYovel supermarket bombing. A poem (see above) was written by a leftie dirtbag “praising” the bomber. Ayat al-Akhras was picked to make a political statement. The brothers Tsarnaev picked a marathon packed with people to make a political statement.

With blood and gore, over the dead bodies of people who didn’t even know what the fuss was about.

The murders are burning in that special hell, with Hitler, Bundy and other cowards.

Some have more eloquent words about the left trying to “care” more about the world. Take it away Toby Keith:

This is just sad, the MSM dumps on Vets…

And so it begins. After Vietnam, the “psycho vet” meme dominated the media. Rambo only existed on the silver screen, but the MSM was desperate to try and find washed up psycho vets. Soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines were spit on by reporters, dirty hippes, commies in universities and writers.

Via This Ain’t Hell:

“Both the federal government and the state government are broke. So why are we providing military funeral honors for all veterans? It is a nice gesture we can’t afford.

Certainly, men and women killed in combat deserve full military honors. It’s a way for the country to say, “We honor the memory of those who died in our service.” These military honors — and the thought behind them — are intended to provide some solace for the families of the fallen.

But what about the guy who spends a couple of years in the military and then gets on with his life? Bear in mind that most veterans did nothing heroic. They served, and that’s laudable, but it hardly seems necessary to provide them all with military honors after they have died.

Saint Louis Post Dispatch “

” Neither the recently adopted Senate budget plan for fiscal 2014, drafted by Democrats, nor the supposedly “austere” Ryan budget passed by the Republican House, touched Tricare. Hell hath no fury like a veterans’ lobby scorned, as senators and representatives of both parties know.

So do I! In anticipation of a lot of hate mail, I would note that I respect and honor America’s veterans. They should be well provided for, including reasonable health benefits. But no one — not even a veteran — is entitled to taxpayer support regardless of competing public needs.

In the case of Tricare, this is what the veterans’ lobbies have demanded of Congress, and what Congress has given them.”
–Washington Post

How dare you. Ernie Pyle would be spinning in his grave.

Soldiers have been and are on food stamps. How dare you.

Soldiers are struggling to find jobs due to war related disability. How dare you.

We are losing many members of the WWII generation, all deserve military honors.

HOW. DARE. YOU.

There is widespread welfare and social security fraud. Student loan defaults are on the rise. A college diploma is worthless now. And once again the media picks on vets.
The generations who fought for freedom of speech and freedom of the press.

I have a category called “Wired is tired” because I hate Wired.com and it’s lefty b.s.

It’s clear now that the media, from newspapers to magazines to buzzfeed, upworthy, medialite, the Daily Show and paid lefty blogs are one giant echo chamber that hates America.

The cost of Defense

I admit that I am a Cold War baby. I was born in the 70′s, my father worked as a defense contractor. He met my mother when he was in the Air Force.

But what has the military done for the rest of us?

• The very existence of this Wiki was made possible via the US Department of Defense wanting to create a way for people to gain access to powerful research computers they were geographically separated from—for both purely scientific/academic and military projects. Incidentally, it also protected the flow of information between military installations from attacks (up to and including nuclear weapons). This is what became the Internet. (The World Wide Web and the hypertext system, while still vital, was a civilian thing)
• Your sat-nav. NAVSTAR GPS, developed for the US military and made available for public use after the KAL 007 shoot-down.
• Supersonic flight—first done by the US Air Force.
• The Moon Landings—military-trained pilots. Of the 12 men to walk on the Moon, only one (Harrison Schmidt) had never been a member of the US Armed Forces. Of the remaining 11, only the first (Neil Armstrong) was directly employed by NASA: Armstrong was a retired Navy test pilot, while the remaining 10 were still active-duty Air Force and Navy pilots (4 Air Force, 6 Navy).
• US Space Exploration in general—the Titan space launchers were originally for Superior Firepower.
• Antibiotics. In order to keep troops healthy, the US Military developed a way to mass produce penicillin in World War II to ensure every soldier would have access to some.
• Nylon—originally created for parachutes. Or rather, originally created for women’s stockings, which used the silk needed for parachutes at the beginning of World War II; old stockings were turned into parachutes. And then they ran out of old silk stockings and started making the parachutes out of old nylon stockings and whatever other nylon they could get their hands on. Women held stocking drives to support the war effort.
• Duct tape—originally created as a waterproof packing tape for supply crates being carried ashore in amphibious landings. In the military duct tape is colored olive drab instead of silver, and nicknamed “mile a minute tape” or “ninety mile an hour tape.”
• In response to large natural disasters around the world, when the US sends aid, the first responders are usually the military, who have the logistical capacity to quickly move a lot of supplies and medical personnel, often to territory that doesn’t lend itself easily to conventional civilian transportation due to limitations of local infrastructure (pre-existing limitations or those caused by the disasters themselves). Entire naval battle groups have been rerouted to provide aid, occasionally even as the disaster is in progress.
  On the internet an anecdote exists of a supposed conference listing some of the capabilities of aircraft carriers in disaster situations, including on-board hospitals, cafeterias designed to feed thousands and the ability to both provide electricity to shore based facilities, and provide a landing point for rescue aircraft.

…

• One of the benefits of joining the US military since WWII is having your college paid for by the Montgomery GI bill. One can also get a scholarship by joining the ROTC (Reserve Officer Training Corps, essentially a college level cadet program that leads into a military career as an officer). In addition, each service offers the ability to gain college credit, and in some cases having a degree is a requirement for promotion even for the enlisted. In America joining the military to get an education is a fairly common motivation, helping to make the military an institution of society in many parts of the US.

– TVTropes: “Yanks With Tanks”

“There is no National Defense Service Medal for veterans of the Cold War. What were America’s GIs up to? They went on alert when Egypt claimed the Suez Canal in 1956. They manned missile silos in North Dakota and piloted B-52s aimed at Soviet targets. They crewed nuclear-armed submarines and drove tanks in the Fulda Gap between West and East Germany. Some of what they did is still secret.”
–”A Cold Shoulder for Cold-War Vets“, By BARRY NEWMAN, WSJ.com (via XBradTC)

So out come these idiots from George Mason University:

In 2010, the United States government spent more on national defense ($738.8 billion) than it did
at the height of the Cold War spending in 1986 ($572 billion), when the U.S. was competing in
an arms race against the then superpower U.S.S.R.
…
Once the U.S. embarked upon the path of permanent war, starting with World War II, the result was a permanent war economy. The permanent war economy continuously draws resources into the military sector at the expense of the private economy, even in times of peace. We explore the overlooked costs of this process. The permanent war economy does not just transfer resources from the private economy, but also distorts and undermines the market process which is ultimately responsible for improvements in standards of living.

What? What technology has been suppressed? What has been held back?

Let’s look at the budget:

Yea, less than a quarter even if you add in the “generous” pensions vets get from the Dept. Of Veterans Affairs. Here, here, here and here I destroy the left’s favorite arguments about the military:

1. We don’t need a draft.
2. Pay is not generous.
3. The military is smaller today that it was during the cold war.
4. There is no need to “reform” pay.

What we have here is a failure to adjust for inflation. “1986 ($572 billion)” becomes 1,2 trillion in 2012. 2010′s $738.8 billion becomes $349.9 billion in 1986 dollars. The military is smaller and cheaper than during the cold war.

I suspect that the left hates the military and some want to side with our enemies. The only country that had a military-industrial complex that broke it was the former USSR. A command economy sucks because it has to choose guns over butter. Like North Korea:

North Korea fights global warming!

The “report” from Thomas K. Duncan and Christopher J. Coyne i long on sweeping lefty generalizations and short of specifics(And if TvTropes can call out their bullcrap…). The “military-industrial” complex was a term Eisenhower(R) used to refer to Kennedy(D) and his fear that Kennedy would spend more on defense. Then Vietnam happened under LBJ, man walked on the moon and the DoD had huge growth. I’m stationed on an air base expanded and built upon during the Kennedy era.

I sense bad things for those of us in the service, since this is catnip to the left.

The real war on science

“Remember: People still sell snake oil. They just put pictures of leaves on the bottle now.“
—Cracked, “8 Health Foods That Are Bad For Your Health”

The left loves to shout that it loves science. While it’s true that many college students are lefties, the progressive left HATES science. Starting in the 1960′s, opposition to the Vietnam war, the new Environmental movement and the subversive activities of the Marxist left converged into the “Progressive” movement we now know today.

• MMR vaccine controversy
• Homeopathy, quite popular with the left.
• watch this Star Trek: Deep Space Nine review or this review of the ninth Star Trek film.
• The Outer Limits (1995) and the X-files, both middle fingers to science.
• From TVtropes: All Natural Snake Oil, Science is bad and Science is Wrong
• The works of James Cameron.

The end results is a mistaken believe/worship of anything “natural” and seeing science, the military and “corporations” as the same thing. What does that get the rest of us? Reason.tv has the answer:

Bankrupt

First Detroit, then California, New York (almost) and now the party itself:

The official Federal Election Committee reports for September are out, and Debbie Wasserman Schultz’s DNC is a complete wreck. The Democrats ended September with cash on hand of $4.6 million, compared to the Republican National Committee’s $82.6 million.

That’s nearly an 18-to-1 cash advantage for Republicans.
– RNC Trounces DNC in Fundraising as Democrat Party Goes Bankrupt (theOtherMcCain.com)

It’s always someone else’s problem. New York was “ungovernable” in the 60′s, 70′s and the 80′s. Detroit lost the autoindustry etc. The common factor was liberals in charge.

Voters put them in office on a platform of “share the wealth” and “stick it to the rich/stand up for the little guy”. The truth is that liberals/Democrats don’t care about the little guy. Corporate cronyism (Like the Hollywood Tax Cuts and loans to failing “green” companies), bad regulations and high taxes drove many cities and now at least one state into a state of shock. It’s not surprising that the Democratic Party is in bad shape financially. You can’t party like a rock star and not pay for it.

If the left loses in November expect the usual suspects to get the blame. Oh the Tea Party and it’s billionaire friends (never mind that many billlionares sent money to the DNC). Foxnews manipulated the public (never mind that cable news and most traditional media’s veiewership is down). Somehow Bush will get some blame.

It’s telling that Newsweek magazine, who said “We’re all Socialists Now” will cease it’s print edition in the new year. The liberal mouthpiece is so unloved that it will share the internet with the very right wing blogs the MSM once derided.

In a perfect world the Democratic part would fade into history, replaced by some new party. They would join the Green Party, the American Communist Party and other groups on the fringe of American politics. That won’t happen for a long time, despite having the left wing lunatics running the asylum. But this should sober up many on the left. Their class warfare socialism message is for sale, but no one’s buying.

UPDATE: Thanks Mr. McCain!

Huh…

“But there’s one thing that hasn’t changed much. Each year, the overwhelming majority of new military recruits are young and male. In that sense, the American military of 2012 still looks a great deal like the American military of the 1970s, the 1940s, the 1860s, or the 1770s. For that matter, it still looks a lot like virtually every group of warriors in virtually every society during virtually every period of human history.

It’s time to question the near-universal assumption that the ideal military recruit is young and male. The nature of warfare has changed dramatically in the last century and the capabilities most needed by the military are less and less likely to be in the exclusive possession of young males. In fact, the opposite may be true: when it comes to certain key skills and qualities likely to be vital to the military in the coming decades, young males may be one of the least well-suited demographic groups.”
–
No Army for Young Men
Soldiers these days need less muscle and more maturity, so why do we still focus on recruiting 18-year-olds?
BY ROSA BROOKS

My least favorite blogger, Ms. Brooks actually hits one out of the park. I was mad at her epic fail as she questioned military pay and benefits. Hey, service members aren’t paid high enough lady!

But she hits the right notes with this piece. For some reason the left wants to screw over our allies. The New York Times wants us to leave Taiwan. War is Boring and the Atlantic want the US to leave Japan.

In the midst of teh peacenik crazies, it’s nice to see someone admit that soldiers are ADULTS.

The US military does not enlist, nor commission children. I’m gonna say that again, the US military does not enlist, nor commission children.

The reason the military recruits in high school is to get young people as they turn 18. Given the 20 year career path many take, that means a young man or woman could enlist at 17 (with their parent’s permission). Starting at E-1, they go up the ranks. The higher ranks are capped per federal regs and age limits, but promotion is based on merit. So a young man or woman can join at 17, get promoted and then retire at the age of 40 if they want. Or they can go to a service academy, ROTC or plain ole’ college then get a commission as an officer. Or they can do the “high school to flight school” and become a warrant officer and fly for the Army. There are officers, warrant officers and enlisted who have 25+ years of service, some with over 40. The point is that high school age Americans had a place in the military of the past.

Flash forward to the 21st century, those over 17, hell those up to 40 can join. Yes, a career in the military is hard on the body. That said, those fresh out of high school have a place. Instead of drinking and parting their way through teen years mark II, they could get a job defending their country. But being 20, 23, or 33 doesn’t make them unfit. If anything older service members bring skills and experience into the mix.

The myth that junior enlisted are “children” dates back to conflicts of old. Yes, even up to Vietnam, the military and civilian leaders kept tossing bodies at the problem. Now we live in the era that makes Vietnam’s tech level look like the Napoleonic Wars. More young soldiers have families, more junior enlisted are older than 20. The draft should go the way of segregation, “don’t ask, don’t tell” and vacuum tubes.

Her blog is the usual leftist screeching that war is too easy, somehow. I applaud her for saying that soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines ARE NOT children. It’s time everyone realizes that. All Americans over 17 should get calls from recruiters.

The bursting of the college bubble.

It’s starting:

Who Needs College? The Swiss Opt for Vocational School (Time.com):
As young Americans contemplate the immense cost (and considerable indebtedness) involved in a college education, it may be worthwhile to consider the options available to the Swiss—and whether they are worth importing into the U.S. In Switzerland, even though university education is free, the vast majority of students opt for a vocational training instead.
–
The Parent Loan Trap
More than a decade after Aurora Almendral first set foot on her dream college campus, she and her mother still shoulder the cost of that choice.

Ah college, the high school after high school. A place of fun, drinking and lefty politics. To be young and without a care in the world…

Yeah right!

College used to be only for the rich. After World War II, the GI Bill put college in the hands of a generation that had adulthood delayed. That generation saw their children become adults in the background of yet another war. Those children went to college expecting it. When they had children, college was now just an extension of high school.

It’s now the norm for adults to dress like children, act like children and think like children well into their mid 20′s. That’s why many college students have tons of credit card debt and sign up for student loans that shadow them for the rest of their lives. The Occupy Movement was just the temper tantrum of a child who wants daddy to pay for more stuff.

The times are a’changing! Online learning, the post 9/11 GI bill and now the new interest in vocational school. Why is vocational school important? Simple:

1. Many “adults” just don’t have the maturity for college, others are mature enough to know that college isn’t for them.
2. Some would rather earn money now than take a gamble on a major that promises big but requires lots of upfront costs.
3. Teachers KNEW, knew that college isn’t for everyone, but our liberal overlords pimped college because that’s what the left wants.
4. Many young adults have plans for a family and don’t want to sit in a classroom

The left turned childhood into something that lasts until you turn 25. As our population ages and colleges keep feeding of students who can’t pay their loans, traditional colleges will die out. Now college students over the age of 25 were called “non-traditional students”. They will become the norm as more young people will have no choice but to forgo college. Others will go online as more and more colleges offer online courses.

All too often things like student life, football and leftist politics take over colleges. As the costs go up for traditional colleges, more young adults will go online or to vocational school. There are many good jobs out there for those without a 4 year degree. The lure of a job without crushing debt will burst the bubble. The left will howl in protest, expect an attack on vocational schools and online courses by traditional college faculty. And expect them to fail.

Just give it time.

About that Todd Akin fella…

So it seems that some GOP backbencher opened his mouth and the stupid thus flowed fourth:

““Legitimate rape” became a Twitter trending topic in the U.S. this afternoon after liberal blog Talking Points Memo posted a video of Rep. Todd Akin claiming that victims of “legitimate rape” are unlikely to become pregnant.” Twitchy

A washed up actor wanted Sarah Palin “gang raped.” Wayne Brady had to apologize for mocking Sarah Palin’s child. And a democrat was caught trying to have sex with a 17 year old boy.

And the media was silent.

The media is in the tank for the left. Anything to put democrats in office and keep them there.
$500 million was lost to Solyndra’s bankruptcy and all the taxpayers got was some crappy artwork.

I’ve held that the left will go insane, I think they already have. Of course the GOP establishment likes to front candidates who are brainless. It’s to be expected from stuffy old money “conservatives” more interested in mooching off the taxpayer. That’s why the 2008 McCain campaign sucked donkey balls, they ran a 1960′s era Republican campaign and forgot about the Tea Party. Akin is an oxygen sucker, someone the party should kick to the curb.

The left? A bunch of vile commie punks who will wreck the economy much like they did Hollywood.

Environmental Disaster!

For decades the left has pounded into the American popular culture and political discourse the idea that the planet is doomed. DOOMED!

Because of man (it’s always rich white men) and their mess.

In reality the planet is not doomed, or threatened or in the balance.

“Let’s be clear. The planet is not in jeopardy. We are in jeopardy. We haven’t got the power to destroy the planet – or to save it. But we might have the power to save ourselves.”

Ian Malcolm , Jurassic Park (novel): Seventh Iteration “Destroying the World”

---

“Just as policy can make the climate crisis worse—mandating biofuels has not only encouraged rain forest destruction, releasing carbon, but driven millions into poverty and hunger—technology can make it better. If plant breeders boost rice yields, then people may get richer and afford better protection against extreme weather. If nuclear engineers make fusion (or thorium fission) cost-effective, then carbon emissions may suddenly fall. If gas replaces coal because of horizontal drilling, then carbon emissions may rise more slowly. Humanity is a fast-moving target. We will combat our ecological threats in the future by innovating to meet them as they arise, not through the mass fear stoked by worst-case scenarios.”
–Apocalypse Not: Here’s Why You Shouldn’t Worry About End Times: By Matt Ridley, Wired.com

The above article is a time capsule of environmentalist nervous twitches and hysteria. Much like the witch hunts, this was all hysteria. Pro-marxist hysteria.

No really, the greens are picking up where the Marxists left off. It’s like they are planning to hamstring the economy and western civilization.
From China’s one child policy to radical anti-human elites, the misses keep on coming.

Years ago a friend told me that Global Warming was an emperor with no clothes. He cited the past myths and that the data is not adding up. Seems he was ahead of the curve.

Pay, benifits and civilian control

Rosa Brooks opines in Foreign Policy magazine:

“Some readers are taking me to task for impugning the military with the word socialism. I should be clear: though I may be one of the last three people in America who feels this way, I don’t use “socialism” as a dirty word, at least if what we mean by “socialism” is having a society that takes decent care of its people. “
–”"

“But this can’t fully account for the disproportionate benefits we bestow on the military. Plenty of other Americans serve the nation in vital ways — consider public school teachers and nurses — and plenty of other Americans, from fishers to fire-fighters, have dangerous jobs. We don’t seem inclined to fling free health care and housing in the direction of teachers or fire-fighters, though. “
–“Welfare State, Meet America’s socialist military.”

---

“This argument has a strong emotional pull, but in the end, it’s more about sentiment than reason. After all, members of today’s military are volunteers, not conscripts (and contrary to popular belief, they do not hail mostly from the least-advantaged segments of society). Just like civilian pilots, loggers, fishers, miners, and farmers (who face roughly comparable occupational fatality rates) — or for that matter, just like the journalists and humanitarian aid workers who operate in conflict zones and unstable societies — military personnel get paid to take certain risks in order to provide an important benefit for the rest of society. “
–“Generals Are from Mars, Their Bosses Are from Venus”

---

“In my last column, I wrote about the civilian-military gap, and asked whether the most common laments about it make sense when examined closely. We tend to think that the military is “special” in some way, and fundamentally different from other occupations. I asked whether that belief in military “differentness” is justified, and suggested that in many respects, the military isn’t as different as we assume”
–”The moral cost of the civilian-military gap ”

I applaud Ms. Brooks for debunking the idea that the military is some kind of alien thing outside of the civilian world. The problem, if there is one, in military-civilian relations is that civilians have chosen to be disconnected. As one lefty noted, baby boomers only became interested in US military and foreign policy when they were on the verge of being drafted. Technology and history marched on. We don’t need a draft.

What is needed is a volunteer military with benefits that keep servicemembers in the service. Many on the left and those deficit hawks on the right bitch and whine about the pays and allowances we get but most never served.

Things to remember about servicemembers:

1. Even officers are forgoing more lucrative careers to be in the military. Yes I know the economy is in the tank. However doctors pilots, lawyers and such can make more money in private practice and not have layers of paper pushers breathing down their neck.
2. Unlike student loans, the GI Bill is good for America. It puts willing and able young people in the service, doesn’t burden them with debt and is the right thing to do. Payment for services rendered on behalf of everyone.
3. The local economy can vary, even within the same state. So a housing allowance or
   cost of living adjustment helps service members stay focused on the mission. Get out of shape or fail to qualify on your weapon? You get booted from the service. Screw up too bad and you can be barred from re-joining. Teachers and police officers just get fired. That leads me to my next point:
4. Service members are asked to be physically fit, qualify on their weapons AND be proficient at their jobs. In the military, you can be punished with jail if you are terrible at your job.
5. Lose your job? In the military, they have to re-train you or let you go with a severance check. In this economy you just lose your job.
6. Businesses can fold, city and states can layoff workers but the military is vital to the nation.

What most pundits and Congress critters forget is that cuts to bennies and pay put soldiers on food stamps. Why should they stay in the service if the pay is crap? The bennies are there because more is asked from soldiers than airline pilots, truck drivers or other civilian workers. When KBR and Haliburton tried to recruit truck drivers for Iraq, they ended up paying salaries north of $200K for one year. Many drives quit rather than face insurgent guns and IED’s. Meanwhile most 88M’s (army truck drivers) got paid much less, even if you put in overseas and hostile fire pay. Yet they still did the job.

Europe went bankrupt when it tried to pay everyone lavish bennies. California, Detroit and other “blue states” fell prey to that blue model. And as a percentage of the budget, the military barely gets above 20%. Sure military bennies are “lavish” if you don’t toss in the harsh military justice and getting shot at. Many recruits quit basic training because it dawns on them that they could get shot at.

If there is a “gap” between the cake-eaters and those in green is because of the freedom we as a society enjoy. If Ms. Brooks and others want to laud the military, that’s fine. Don’t cut those bennies and the pay we’ve earned.