And Salon Jumps the Shark

A WTF from Salon.com as they exceed their own parody:

Put a man in uniform, preferably a white man, give him a gun, and Americans will worship him. It is a particularly childish trait, of a childlike culture, that insists on anointing all active military members and police officers as “heroes.” The rhetorical sloppiness and intellectual shallowness of affixing such a reverent label to everyone in the military or law enforcement betrays a frightening cultural streak of nationalism, chauvinism, authoritarianism and totalitarianism, but it also makes honest and serious conversations necessary for the maintenance and enhancement of a fragile democracy nearly impossible.
— David Masciotra, quotes at This Ain’t Hell.

Yeah, douchenugget, it’s not the uniform that makes folks worthy of respect and a measure of adulation, it’s what the uniform says about the person wearing it and their commitment to the ideals that they are defending. Anyone can buy a uniform and put it on – our Stolen Valor page is chocked full of people who do that. Those spazwads do it because the uniformed services are the last government institutions which accomplish that for which they were created.
— Jonn Lilyea’s response.

Of course the left hates the military. After Vietnam, many leftists seethed. They almost got what they wanted. From the 70’s to the early 90’s the psycho veteran and military conspiracy was a stock trope of Hollywood movies. Phrases like “permanent war economy” and “military industrial complex” were twisted into knots until the men and women of the armed forces were seen as villains.

But there was always a group of people who did the right thing. From Welcome Home parties for Vietnam vets, service organizations that helped military families and those who say “thank you for your service.”

On my blog I have many former soldiers leaving comments about their time in the Army. They don’t talk about the garbage David Masciotra spews. Their comments are fond memories of their time in green.

David Masciotra, I don’t see your panty waist helping military families who’ve lost a loved one. No leftie has ever said “welcome home” nor have they tired to offer job placement for returning vets. Ditto their never helping police families or crime victims.

Nope, they love the stolen valor losers, posers and pot smoking hippies rail about the poor and imperialism. They praise murderers, dictators, criminals and hold signs that support terrorism.

David Masciotra does not support or help anyone but himself. Better men and women have died to protect his right to be a jerkass, for that at least he should be thankful.

Armies

“This isn’t 1940. Moreover, as an instrument of coercion, that smaller army would be more lethal than the much larger one that helped defeat Nazi Germany and imperial Japan. Given a choice between a few hundred of today’s Abrams tanks and a few thousand vintage Shermans, Gen. George Patton would not hesitate to choose the former.”
—

Do we really need a large Army?By Andrew J. Bacevich, Washington Post.

This is the same paper that whitewashes the drone strikes. George Bush would never have been given an article titled “5 myths of the Iraq war”.

And yet the “argument” for cutting the military persists.
This Ain’t Hell skewers Tom Rick’s argument for “going to a cadre-like military, with only two Army divisions kept at high readiness”.

The left believes that troops are stupid. Just draft the bodies you need, buy the tanks, trucks and planes and then send them off to war. Lefties won’t go of course, the draft dogers of the 60’s became to leaders of today.

No they want to cut to the bone and keep cutting. there is talk of a new round of BRAC. Closing MORE bases, gutting civilian towns, eroding the defense industrial base. All for more spending on “domestic programs”.

Once the troops leave, their expertise is gone forever. You can’t draft leadership, tribal knowledge or hours in the cockpit.

“In the meantime, the world, from East Asia to the Middle East, is “unsettled” and becoming ever more so. Does anyone doubt that the decision in Washington to slash its defenses has been fully noted in Moscow, Beijing, Pyongyang, Tehran, and North Waziristan? Like Jeremiah, we say judgment is inevitable. Unless the present course is reversed, the wages of weakness will be paid in increased instability, crises, and ultimately conflicts that might well have been avoided.”
—
“Deeply Unsettling“, Gary Schmitt and Thomas Donnelly, WeeklyStandard.com

It’s 1938 all over again.

UPDATE: Told you so…

Chew On This: Truth to Power

And this nation finds itself on the brink of war. Ten years ago we hear the left howl in protest. And we heard many lies from the “reality based community”.

The more things change:

1. A lefty author has the vapors over the phrase “Support Our Troops” This Ain’t Hell takes the whinny leftist down. Anti-war was naver about supporting troops or ending war, it was about Marxist hogwash and hating America.
2. Instapundit looks at the Left’s war on Golden Rice and other GMO’s. Even Slate finds the left’s lies anti-science.
3. Hotair.com links to a report on that Hillary’s press secretary refuses to admits that Alger Hiss was a dirty commie spy. Truth never stopped the left, why start now?
4. Slate doubles down on #waronwomen, Ace o’Spades points out that somehow slience is teh sexist.
5. Roger Kimall on a former US attorney flying into a rage when someone actually speaks truth to power. There are realfacts and there are goodfacts. He just wanted to send James O’Keefe to the Ministry of Love.
6. Someone on Buzzfeed does speak truth to the power and the Guardian’s Fruzsina Eordogh won’t have any of that nonsense. Legal Insurrection is on it like a hobo on a ham sandwich.
7. President goes to war without Congressional Approval. Stop Bushoh wait..never mind!

It was never about stopping war, world peace, science or truth. It’s always about the left and their love of power. The power to control the debate, take from your wallet and push other people around.

If you question the left’s agenda, you’re a tool or a pawn of the rich/Koch/government/GOP/Jews/girl scouts/the church/rich white men/etc. If you don’t believe the left you’re a racist/in denial/stupid.

They don’t what a debate. When there is one, they go insane. Either we take up the fight or we get the left’s boot on our faces.

Military pay and benefits

One again there are calls to “reform” military pay. I’ve said on this blog before that our service members don’t get paid enough. No we’re not europe; defense spending is not breaking the bank it’s actually smaller now. But many still attack our bennies.

Some bloggers, like In from the Cold, have struck back.

We have a powerful ally:

Col. Mike Hayden, USAF (Ret), deputy director, MOAA Government Relations
“Statements that rising personnel costs are “unaffordable”…“out of control”…”unsustainable”… and “will impact readiness” are geared to make headlines, alarm the reader, and (not infrequently) generate support for pursuing additional studies.

“If personnel costs continue growing at that rate and the overall defense budget remains flat with inflation,” CSBA authors hyperbolized, “military personnel costs will consume the entire defense budget by 2039.”

Elsewhere, they acknowledged that will never happen. But the quote was seized and repeated by reporters, pundits, bureaucrats and other “analysts.” E.g., James Kitfield did so in the July 2012 National Journal.

Is there any chance personnel costs will consume the entire defense budget by 2039? Of course not.

Before examining the personnel share, let’s first consider that the defense budget has consumed a progressively smaller share of federal outlays over the last 50 years”

The Military Officer’s Association of America is made up of people who’ve fought America’s wars. Company level commanders who’ve had to deal with military families. The Association of the United States Army echoes the call to help soldiers get better pay.

There are many leftist dirtbags who insist that the military revert to the Regan/Carter era of pay.

Pay freezes and benefit cuts would cause the Army to bleed numbers. Soldiers on food stamps, NCO’s and officers leaving, morale nosediving and enlistment down. The left wants that, I don’t.

How about we cut the think tanks and the pay of Congressmen who say stupid things instead?

R.I.P. Gen. Schwartzkopf

Godspeed General!

Gen. Norman Schwartzkopf Dead: World Remembers ‘Stormin Norman’: ABCNews.

“Herbert Norman Schwarzkopf, KCB (/ˈʃwɔrtskɒf/;[1] August 22, 1934 – December 27, 2012) was a United States Army general who, while he served as Commander of U.S. Central Command, was commander of coalition forces in the Persian Gulf War.”
— Wikipeida

RESIGN HOLDER

Eric Holder’s bright idea bears fruit (via Instapundit):

“Washington D.C. – According to credible ATF sources, officials heavily involved in Operation Fast and Furious and named as partially responsible for the program’s failure by Department of Justice Inspector General Michael Horowitz and the House Oversight Committee have been stripped of their government security clearances while some have been fired, demoted, and transferred. Criminal charges are also reportedly pending.”
…
“former ATF Special Agent in Charge of Operations in the West Bill McMahon and former Assistant Special Agent in Charge of the Phoenix Field Division George Gillett have been fired…McMahon and ATF came under heavy fire just a few months ago after it was revealed McMahon had been receiving ATF paid leave while pulling a six figure salary from J.P. Morgan, the same bank that owns the bureau’s credit cards”
—
“Report: Security Clearances Revoked, Criminal Charges Pending For ATF Fast and Furious Officials” Katie Pavlich, Townhall.com.

What the hell? Conflicts of intrest, dead federal agents, many, many dead Mexicans and a country on the brink. Has the media and the administration no shame?

RESIGN HOLDER

This is journalism?

Behold:

When are drone killings illegal?
By Mary Ellen O’Connell, Special to CNN

“(CNN) — The Bush and Obama administrations’ extraordinary program of targeted killing has resulted in the deaths of as many as 4,400 people to date. Books such as Daniel Klaidman’s “Kill or Capture” and David E. Sanger’s “Confront and Conceal” are appearing thick and fast, focusing on the program and particularly on the use of drones to carry it out.”

The picture they use is an unarmed U.S. Customs and Border Protection MQ-9 Reaper. Far from an armed killer, it’s spent it’s life finding drugs on the border.

Furthermore, the author uses this website:

Yep, America is on the rampage again. *sigh*

Lefty bullshit propaganda disguised as reporting the facts.

Update: At least they fixed the picture…

Do we spend to much on defense? One liberal opines …

Behold the epic takedown:

“The United States is building Submarines and Carriers at a fairly constant rate over the same period”

Sub building rate is barely enough to maintain a minimum sized attack boat fleet, the LA boats are retiring faster than Seawolf is being built.

“while the military has had so many Ohio Class submarines that they had to give them dozens of cruse missiles to justify their continued use.”

The Ohio boats are reaching their end of life, a sub hull can make only a finite number of dives safely. The CGN’s were a way of utilizing boats that were rapidly reaching the age that they would no longer be fit for the boomer role.”
–CT in in the comments section of this article.: We Spend Too Much On Defense, By Gordon Adams, AOL Defense.

Yet another liberal chimes in with “millions for defense” bullshit. CT slaps him down nicely. Ever since the Clinton-era, the DoD has been starving. The Bush era brought an orgry of spending on Iraq, but that was a band-aid on a chest wound. I suspect that may libs WANT the US to fail.

What I’ve always suspected

“We have surveyed how well prepared in terms of disciplinary course work teachers at various levels felt for teaching various mathematics topics in what is a fairly representative sample of 60 districts. In general, we would summarize the findings by stating that many teachers felt ill prepared to teach mathematics topics that are in state standards and in the new Common Core State Standards for mathematics. Why did these teachers feel so ill prepared?

There is perhaps a simple answer for the elementary and middle school teachers: They felt ill prepared because if we examine the coursework they studied during their teacher preparation, they were ill prepared. The new TEDS study results suggested this to be the case more generally, which clearly does not bode well for equality of learning experiences for students in these districts.”
–“Why Math Teachers Feel Poorly Prepared“: Anna Kuchment, scientificamerican.com, via insty

My adviser in college talked about a rival school’s education program. Or lack thereof. Students designing classes (for credit) and getting friends to take them. A one semester class on the felt board. Liberal arts majors should not talk about science.

The horrible truth is that most college courses are fluff designed to occupy the students time or they are attempts to teach what the public education system failed the first time. So the people teaching your kids are barely able to understand math and science. But hey they got to read Twilight and watch anime for credit. Teacher tenure meant that these idiots could stay teaching. That may change.

In the meantime, the left will bitch and wine about standardized testing. Most lefties hate math and science because they have hard answers. Soft fluff courses are open to interpretation. It’s all about politics to them. And your kids education suffers.

RESIGN HOLDER

Eric Holder, resign your office, it’s the right thing to do:

Via insty and Hotair.com

Many dead Mexican citizens, a cover up, a dead American hero.

RESIGN ERIC HOLDER