The Pearl Harbor Telegram

We were at war.

We are at war.

Tom McMahon did the thinking. I'll do the linking.

See more of Tom's outstanding Pearl Harbor Day -- WW2 blogging at the jump.

Thank you (foot)notes:

Be sure to follow Your Business Blogger(R) and Charmaine on Twitter: @JackYoest and @CharmaineYoest

Jack and Charmaine also blog at Reasoned Audacity and at Management Training of DC, LLC.

Red State Rant has more on 7 December 1941.

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Alert Readers know that Your Business Blogger(R) served as a Survivor Assistance Officer in the Army. This is real work. Duty and Honor.

The death of every service member is a public event.

John Howland, editor of USNA-AT-Large sends this article -- it deserves a wide audience.

"Burial at Sea" by LtCol George Goodson, USMC (Ret)

In my 76th year, the events of my life appear to me, from time to time, as a series of vignettes. Some were significant; most were trivial.

War is the seminal event in the life of everyone that has endured it. Though I fought in Korea and the Dominican Republic and was wounded there, Vietnam was my war.

Now 37 years have passed and, thankfully, I rarely think of those days in Cambodia, Laos, and the panhandle of North Vietnam where small teams of Americans and Montangards fought much larger elements of the North Vietnamese Army.

Instead I see vignettes: some exotic, some mundane:

*The smell of Nuc Mam.
*The heat, dust, and humidity.
*The blue exhaust of cycles clogging the streets.
*Elephants moving silently through the tall grass.
*Hard eyes behind the servile smiles of the villagers.
*Standing on a mountain in Laos and hearing a tiger roar.
*A young girl squeezing my hand as my medic delivered her baby.
*The flowing Ao Dais of the young women biking down Tran Hung Dao.
*My two years as Casualty Notification Officer in North Carolina, Virginia, and Maryland.

It was late 1967. I had just returned after eighteen months in Vietnam. Casualties were increasing. I moved my family from Indianapolis to Norfolk, rented a house, enrolled my children in their fifth or sixth new school, and bought a second car.

A week later, I put on my uniform and drove ten miles to Little Creek, Virginia. I hesitated before entering my new office. Appearance is important to career Marines. I was no longer, if ever, a poster Marine. I had returned from my third tour in Vietnam only 30 days before. At 5'9", I now weighed 128 pounds - 37 pounds below my normal weight. My uniforms fit ludicrously, my skin was yellow from malaria medication, and I think I had a twitch or two.

I straightened my shoulders, walked into the office, looked at the nameplate on a Staff Sergeant's desk and said, "Sergeant Jolly, I'm Lieutenant Colonel Goodson. Here are my orders and my Qualification Jacket."

Sergeant Jolly stood, looked carefully at me, took my orders, stuck out his hand; we shook and he asked, "How long were you there, Colonel?" I replied "18 months this time." Jolly breathed, "Jesus, you must be a slow learner Colonel." I smiled.

Jolly said, "Colonel, I'll show you to your office and bring in the Sergeant Major. I said, "No, let's just go straight to his office."

Jolly nodded, hesitated, and lowered his voice, "Colonel, the Sergeant Major. He's been in this G*dd@mn job two years. He's packed pretty tight. I'm worried about him." I nodded.

Jolly escorted me into the Sergeant Major's office. "Sergeant Major, this is Colonel Goodson, the new Commanding Office. The Sergeant Major stood, extended his hand and said, "Good to see you again, Colonel."

I responded, "Hello Walt, how are you?" Jolly looked at me, raised an eyebrow, walked out, and closed the door.

I sat down with the Sergeant Major. We had the obligatory cup of coffee and talked about mutual acquaintances. Walt's stress was palpable.

Finally, I said, "Walt, what's the hell's wrong?" He turned his chair, looked out the window and said, "George, you're going to wish you were back in Nam before you leave here. I've been in the Marine Corps since 1939. I was in the Pacific 36 months, Korea for 14 months, and Vietnam for 12 months.

Now I come here to bury these kids. I'm putting my letter in. I can't take it anymore." I said, "OK Walt. If that's what you want, I'll endorse your request for retirement and do what I can to push it through Headquarters Marine Corps."

Sergeant Major Walt Xxxxx retired 12 weeks later. He had been a good Marine for 28 years, but he had seen too much death and too much suffering. He was used up.

Over the next 16 months, I made 28 death notifications, conducted 28 military funerals, and made 30 notifications to the families of Marines that were severely wounded or missing in action. Most of the details of those casualty notifications have now, thankfully, faded from memory. Four, however, remain.

MY FIRST NOTIFICATION

My third or fourth day in Norfolk, I was notified of the death of a 19 year old Marine. This notification came by telephone from Headquarters Marine Corps. The information detailed:

*Name, rank, and serial number.
*Name, address, and phone number of next of kin.
*Date of and limited details about the Marine's death.
*Approximate date the body would arrive at the Norfolk Naval Air Station.
*A strong recommendation on whether the casket should be opened or closed.

The boy's family lived over the border in North Carolina, about 60 miles away. I drove there in a Marine Corps staff car. Crossing the state line into North Carolina, I stopped at a small country store / service station / Post Office. I went in to ask directions.

Three people were in the store. A man and woman approached the small Post Office window. The man held a package. The Storeowner walked up and addressed them by name, "Hello John. Good morning Mrs. Cooper."

I was stunned. My casualty's next-of-kin's name was John Cooper!

I hesitated, then stepped forward and said, "I beg your pardon. Are you Mr. and Mrs. John Copper of (address.)

The father looked at me-I was in uniform - and then, shaking, bent at the waist, he vomited. His wife looked horrified at him and then at me. Understanding came into her eyes and she collapsed in slow motion. I think I caught her before she hit the floor.

The owner took a bottle of whiskey out of a drawer and handed it to Mr. Cooper who drank. I answered their questions for a few minutes. Then I drove them home in my staff car. The storeowner locked the store and followed in their truck. We stayed an hour or so until the family began arriving.

I returned the storeowner to his business. He thanked me and said, "Mister, I wouldn't have your job for a million dollars." I shook his hand and said; "Neither would I."

I vaguely remember the drive back to Norfolk. Violating about five Marine Corps regulations, I drove the staff car straight to my house. I sat with my family while they ate dinner, went into the den, closed the door, and sat there all night, alone.

My Marines steered clear of me for days. I had made my first death notification.

THE FUNERALS

Weeks passed with more notifications and more funerals.. I borrowed Marines from the local Marine Corps Reserve and taught them to conduct a military funeral: how to carry a casket, how to fire the volleys and how
to fold the flag.

When I presented the flag to the mother, wife, or father, I always said, "All Marines share in your grief." I had been instructed to say, "On behalf of a grateful nation." I didn't think the nation was grateful, so I didn't say that.

Sometimes, my emotions got the best of me and I couldn't speak. When that happened, I just handed them the flag and touched a shoulder. They would look at me and nod. Once a mother said to me, "I'm so sorry you have this terrible job." My eyes filled with tears and I leaned over and kissed her.

ANOTHER NOTIFICATION

Six weeks after my first notification, I had another. This was a young PFC. I drove to his mother's house. As always, I was in uniform and driving a Marine Corps staff car. I parked in front of the house, took a deep breath, and walked towards the house. Suddenlythe door flew open, a middle-aged woman rushed out. She looked at me and ran across the yard, screaming "NO! NO! NO! NO!"

I hesitated. Neighbors came out. I ran to her, grabbed her, and whispered stupid things to reassure her. She collapsed. I picked her up and carried her into the house. Eight or nine neighbors followed. Ten or fifteen later, the father came in followed by ambulance personnel. I have no recollection of leaving.

The funeral took place about two weeks later. We went through the drill. The mother never looked at me. The father looked at me once and shook his head sadly.

ANOTHER NOTIFICATION

One morning, as I walked in the office, the phone was ringing. Sergeant Jolly held the phone up and said, "You've got another one, Colonel." I nodded, walked into my office, picked up the phone, took notes, thanked the officer making the call, I have no idea why, and hung up. Jolly, who had listened, came in with a special Telephone Directory that translates telephone numbers into the person's address and place of employment.

The father of this casualty was a Longshoreman. He lived a mile from my office. I called the Longshoreman's Union Office and asked for the Business Manager. He answered the phone, I told him who I was, and asked for the father's schedule.

The Business Manager asked, "Is it his son?" I said nothing. After a moment, he said, in a low voice, "Tom is at home today." I said, "Don't call him. I'll take care of that." The Business Manager said, "Aye, Aye Sir," and then explained, "Tom and I were Marines in WWII."

I got in my staff car and drove to the house. I was in uniform. I knocked and a woman in her early forties answered the door. I saw instantly that she was clueless. I asked, "Is Mr. Smith home?" She smiled pleasantly and responded, "Yes, but he's eating breakfast now. Can you come back later?" I said, "I'm sorry. It's important, I need to see him now."

She nodded, stepped back into the beach house and said, "Tom, it's for you."

A moment later, a ruddy man in his late forties, appeared at the door. He looked at me, turned absolutely pale, steadied himself, and said, "Jesus Christ man, he's only been there 3 weeks!"

Months passed. More notifications and more funerals. Then one day while I was running, Sergeant Jolly stepped outside the building and gave a loud whistle, two fingers in his mouth... I never could do that... and held an imaginary phone to his ear.

Another call from Headquarters Marine Corps. I took notes, said, "Got it." and hung up. I had stopped saying "Thank You" long ago.

Jolly, "Where?"

Me, "Eastern Shore of Maryland. The father is a retired Chief Petty Officer. His brother will accompany the body back from Vietnam."

Jolly shook his head slowly, straightened, and then said, "This time of day, it'll take three hours to get there and back. I'll call the Naval Air Station and borrow a helicopter. And I'll have Captain Tolliver get one of his men to meet you and drive you to the Chief's home."

He did, and 40 minutes later, I was knocking on the father's door. He opened the door, looked at me, then looked at the Marine standing at parade rest beside the car, and asked, "Which one of my boys was it,
Colonel?"

I stayed a couple of hours, gave him all the information, my office and home phone number and told him to call me, anytime.

He called me that evening about 2300 (11:00PM). "I've gone through my boy's papers and found his will. He asked to be buried at sea. Can you make that happen?" I said, "Yes I can, Chief. I can and I will."

My wife who had been listening said, "Can you do that?" I told her, "I have no idea. But I'm going to break my @ss trying."

I called Lieutenant General Alpha Bowser, Commanding General, Fleet Marine Force Atlantic, at home about 2330, explained the situation, and asked, "General, can you get me a quick appointment with the Admiral at Atlantic Fleet Headquarters?" General Bowser said," George, you be there tomorrow at 0900. He will see you.

I was and the Admiral did. He said coldly, "How can the Navy help the Marine Corps, Colonel." I told him the story. He turned to his Chief of Staff and said, "Which is the sharpest destroyer in port?" The Chief of Staff responded with a name.

The Admiral called the ship, "Captain, you're going to do a burial at sea. You'll report to a Marine Lieutenant Colonel Goodson until this mission is completed."

He hung up, looked at me, and said, "The next time you need a ship, Colonel, call me. You don't have to sic Al Bowser on my @ss." I responded, "Aye Aye, Sir" and got the h-ll out of his office.

I went to the ship and met with the Captain, Executive Officer, and the Senior Chief. Sergeant Jolly and I trained the ship's crew for four days. Then Jolly raised a question none of us had thought of. He said, "These government caskets are air tight. How do we keep it from floating?"

All the high priced help including me sat there looking dumb. Then the Senior Chief stood and said, "Come on Jolly. I know a bar where the retired guys from World War II hang out."

They returned a couple of hours later, slightly the worse for wear, and said, "It's simple; we cut four 12" holes in the outer shell of the casket on each side and insert 300 lbs of lead in the foot end of the casket. We can handle that, no sweat."

The day arrived. The ship and the sailors looked razor sharp. General Bowser, the Admiral, a US Senator, and a Navy Band were on board. The sealed casket was brought aboard and taken below for modification. The ship got underway to the 12-fathom depth.

The sun was hot. The ocean flat. The casket was brought aft and placed on a catafalque. The Chaplin spoke. The volleys were fired. The flag was removed, folded, and I gave it to the father. The band played "Eternal Father Strong to Save." The casket was raised slightly at the head and it slid into the sea.

The heavy casket plunged straight down about six feet. The incoming water collided with the air pockets in the outer shell. The casket stopped abruptly, rose straight out of the water about three feet, stopped, and slowly slipped back into the sea. The air bubbles rising from the sinking casket sparkled in the in the sunlight as the casket disappeared from sight forever.

The next morning I called a personal friend, Lieutenant General Oscar Peatross, at Headquarters Marine Corps and said, "General, get me the f*ck out of here. I can't take this sh!t anymore." I was transferred two weeks later.

I was a good Marine but, after 17 years, I had seen too much death and too much suffering. I was used up.

Vacating the house, my family and I drove to the office in a two-car convoy. I said my goodbyes. Sergeant Jolly walked out with me. He waved at my family, looked at me with tears in his eyes, came to attention, saluted, and said, "Well Done, Colonel. Well Done."

I felt as if I had received the Medal of Honor.

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The following report was forwarded to Your Business Blogger(R) by John Howland editor of the USNA-AT-Large. It deserves a wide audience.

Hosted by the West Point Society in Tampa Florida
September 17, 2009.

Report by Captain Raymond Burke "Buddy" Wellborn, USN/SS (retired), USNA Class of 1959.

"The CTC is not a self-licking ice cream cone," opened the Director of the CTC, who then elaborated on their uniqueness as a center for the study of terrorism. Colonel Sawyer then stated that 80% of the CTC's budget is privately funded as a "think tank" for studies on combating terrorism.

Colonel Sawyer further elaborated that the CTC also is "contracted" regularly for instruction on terrorism by other national agencies, such as the CIA, FBI, STATE, et al. The CTC provides on-site instructors to teach the culture and strategy of terrorism as well as current tactics and counters that those officers could expect to face in the field.

He somberly closed his opening remarks with the by-word of the CTC, to wit:
"We are a nation at war."

Al-Qaeda is a species of the terrorist genus. They perpetrate terrorism on the international stage. They are most resilient, and as such are very robust in their pursuit of heinous acts. One of the more subtle purposes for the pursuit of spectacular violence is to get it aired on worldwide news agencies as sensationalism.

One might presume that al-Qaeda is akin to fire-truck chasers and disaster junkies, but their actions are much more disdainful than that. They perpetuate terrorist acts just not for extortion, but also to gain press coverage in the worldwide media. Such reporting of their acts is sensationalism at its best, and most definitely helps them milk more funding from their donors-- who deceitfully wish the West, and the US in particular, no well.

As another species of the same genus, the Taliban (Arabic for "students") in Afghanistan from Pakistan are more localized. They are dissidents who were ousted as the governing party in Afghanistan. In essence, they are a national insurgency striving to regain what they once governed.

It is estimated that active loyalists for the Taliban number about 200,000, in the sixth most populated nation in the world--Pakistan, which has a little less than 200-million people. It also is estimated by human-intelligence sources that of that number they field some 20,000 fighters of which only about 2,000 are hard-core, trained fighters.

In that the Taliban is a "party" without national backing, the "host" country does not share their culpability, per se. The perpetration of civil disorder and crimes against humanity by Taliban forces should be proscribed by lawful nations as being at best resurgent belligerents, and at worst, virulent militants.

The Taliban receive about $100-million per year in "donations" -- in that alms-giving is one of the pillars of Islam. Most of the donations come from the coffers of mosques in the Persian Gulf States, as does most of the funding for al-Qaeda. In addition, the Taliban net about $400 million per year from the opium poppy crop in Afghanistan.

Al-Qaeda, however, strives to internationalize terrorism so as to solicit a larger donor-base. Terrorism, although gaining notoriety, is also gaining donors, and therefore there is a concomitant increase in capacity for violence with even more spectacular attacks that producers of the international media air as sensationalism--to attract more advertisers.

Apparently, the strategic plan of the Taliban to defeat the US (and its dwindling Western partners) is with the support of al-Qaeda. The plan is to perpetrate scattered, yet spectacular, violent acts, which can be staged covertly. When executed overtly, these acts tend to embarrass the Super Power in defiance of security and stability.

Such actions gain the attention, and the headlines, of the international media. In turn, this will help them solicit more funding from their donors to continue their pursuits, which will aid and abet them in attaining their goal of returning to governance.

Most particular to this strategy, is their assessment that USA involvement will dwindle if it doesn't show signs of success in 12 months. Critical to this strategy is to gain regional control in the north of Afghanistan--among the warlord chiefs of the Northern Alliance. As they do, they also will pursue destabilization of US coalition partners in the south, particularly the Germans and the Brits.

When asked afterwards to opine on whether our commanders on the scene considered the current ROE, Rules Of Engagement, too restrictive and/or endangering our troops unnecessarily, he replied, "No, we can work with (around?) them."

The implication was that our commanders in the field are well schooled on the importance of gaining the hearts and minds of the civilian populace. Moreover, it was inferred that the locals understand very well their plight in such a hostile environment. They are slowly but surely learning that US forces have their best interest in mind--and, at heart.

They accept the danger of USA doing what we have to do to rid them of evil. Therefore, one can deduce that the canceling of the call for fire mission for artillery support, when women and children were seen in the target area, was a special case with extenuating circumstances.

A closing op-ed note by [Wellborn], "The world is a dangerous place to live, not because of the people who are evil -- But, because of the people who don't do anything about it."

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Dad & The Dude
preparing for war
September 11, 2001
"I didn't turn my saber
into no plowshare,"
John Wayne, The Searchers
photo credit:
Charmaine Yoest, Ph.D.We have not been attacked since 9.11.01. It is nearly impossible, in war, in politics, to make nothing happen.

So the liberals are right when they say to George Bush,

"Thanks for nothing..."

Here is a review of Reasoned Audacity's 9.11 posts over the years.

Following is background from Your Business Blogger(R) in an article published just after 9.11. Things have changed since then. A little.

Booby traps at the Pentagon: Charmaine and Jack Yoest introduce you to the Pentagon's babes in arms. What do they want? An "open dialogue" on breastfeeding. (Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Services)

Originally published in The Women's Quarterly; January 01, 2002;


Pentagon attack
ON SEPTEMBER 10TH, [2001] the Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Services, the group most responsible for promoting women in combat, gathered in Pentagon Conference Room 5C1042. This civilian advisory committee, whose members have the protocol status of three-star generals, monitors the concerns of women in uniform. And what was the topic on the eve of the worst attack in U.S. history?

After briefings from representatives of the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, and Coast Guard, DACOWITS, as the committee is known, issued a formal request for more information on what they deemed a matter of paramount military significance:

breast-feeding.

As the terrorists prepared to hit the World Trade Center towers and the Pentagon itself, our military leaders were directed "to engage in open dialogue" on lactation tactics.

The Defense Advisory Committee on Women celebrated its fiftieth anniversary last April. At the birthday party, President Bush's deputy secretary of defense, Paul Wolfowitz, a man well regarded for his level-headed and conservative approach to military issues, lauded DACOWITS in his address as an outstanding organization" and told the assembly of earnest women that he "looked forward to [their] advice."

Read the article.

While making 'the ask,' it was clear that my customer was not aware that we had just been attacked. I wanted to say something, like, Turn on your TV and stare at real pain. It just didn't look real. I continued instead with the conversation. Your Business Blogger is not normally so focused. In denial, perhaps. Disasters are not normally good for business.

There was work to be done. My next class was on September 19 [and another in Oct].

And I didn't want the customer on the other end of the phone distracted until the sale was closed. Then we could go to war.

The deal done, I noticed my boy, The Dude, was concerned that the attacks would continue down to us in Charlottesville, Virginia.

"We got to get ready!" he shouts and scampers around digging up my old uniform, boots, saber and his grandfather's bayonet.

(Old soldiers never die, they just file away. Apologies to MacArthur.)

The Dude spent the rest of the morning marching outside our front door. Looking out for terrorists. It must have worked.

Charlottesville was not attacked.

But we were affected. Everyone was. But I wasn't sure that the bank was going to delay getting their money over a pesky act of war. I still had to earn a living.

How would the war affect business? Not the macro, but mine? I had a seminar and clients coming into town in little over a week and the world was on fire. Would anyone show up? Would anyone care?

We North Americans do business like we do war. We win. Donald Trump becomes Victor Davis Hanson. At 8 am on 19 September 2001, 86 professionals showed up for my class and got down to business. A packed room.

The free lunch helped.

Even my business partner, Faisal Alam, came down from New York City to join us. He is Muslim.

The country was mourning, but on the move.

I started with a minute of silence in remembrance of those lost in the World Trade Towers.

Then we all got back to work. Each making the world a better place. Even with a war on.

King Kong in New York CityFrom time to time, Your Business Blogger works out of a client's offices at the edifice at 350 Fifth Avenue in NYC.

Also known as The Empire State Building.

It is still standing.

So what didn't happen on New Year's Eve?

Nothing.

Enemy Jihadists didn't blow anything up. And they didn't touch Times Square packed with people at midnight 31 December.

President George Bush has been keeping us all safe since 9.11.

Even Michael Moore.

In war every soldier's death is a public event.

The Falling Man

credit: Richard Drew, AP

Because of 9.11, we are all soldiers now.

The Pentagon circa 9.11.06. Lit by 184 lights to commemorate each life lost there on 9.11.01
Credit: Unknown

A Thank you note to Michelle Malkin on 9.11 for Tom Junod's The Falling Man in Esquire.

Basil's Blog has open trackbacks.

Follow Your Business Blogger(R) and Charmaine on Twitter: @CharmaineYoest and @JackYoest

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John Howland, who runs the USNA-AT-Large sends this along -- it deserves a wide audience.

What the President's Attack on the CIA Really Means, By Herbert Meyer, August 26, 2009

There is now just one group of people exempt from President Obama's worldwide ban on torture: the men and women of the CIA.

By authorizing Attorney General Eric Holder to appoint a special prosecutor to determine whether a full criminal investigation of CIA employees and contractors is warranted for the manner in which they interrogated captured terrorists, the President has thrown his power and support behind those far-left ideologues -- in Congress and elsewhere -- who believe that the CIA is a bigger threat to our country than al Qaeda.

I know the men and women of the CIA -- I had the honor of working with them during the Reagan Administration -- and they would rather have their fingernails pulled out with pliers or have holes drilled into their knees (neither of which they did to captured terrorists, as the Justice Department's hot-shot investigators will learn) than be thought of as anything other than honorable patriots doing their best, under extraordinarily difficult circumstances, to protect our country from its enemies.

It will be excruciating for them to face their colleagues each morning under the strain of looming criminal prosecutions that will destroy their careers and deplete their meager savings accounts -- and, even worse, to come home to their families each evening with the stench of President Obama's contempt for their honor in the air.

Also read the INTELLIGENCE BRIEFING FOR Chief Executive Officers By HERBERT MEYER

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At a recent funeral -- they seem to come faster and faster as we get older and older -- Charmaine and I talked about burials. Cremation, well, lights our fire and speeds up that dust-to-dust transition.

Charmaine asked what we'd plan to do with the ashes, where on earth to put them. We talk about the extended family's burial plots.

"Where do you want to get buried?" She asks.

"37º18'N, 137º55'E," I say.

"What?"

"The Sea of Japan," I remind her.

She just looks at me. Women!

"What's there?" she wonders.

Bonefish.

June 18th is the day we remember the loss of USS Bonefish.

This piece was originally published by The Virginian Pilot and the Courier Post.

My father, then only a teen-ager from Jersey, left high school, went to war and was assigned to the submarine, USS Bonefish. Just before the final mission of the Bonefish, my father walked off the gangplank - transferred to another assignment. Another man took his place.

On its eighth mission, on June 18, 1945, Bonefish was lost fighting the enemy in the Sea of Japan, with the loss of all 53 officers and men. It was the last U.S. submarine sunk in World War II...

Article at the jump.

Follow us on Twitter: JackYoest and CharmaineYoest

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Following is a movie review by Your Business Blogger(R) originally published by the Scripps Howard News Service. Get updates on Twitter.

WHY SAVING PRIVATE RYAN FALLS SHORT

By JOHN WESLEY YOEST JR.

"Please tell me I've been a good man," Private Ryan tearfully begs his wife when, as an old man, he visits the grave of the man who died for him. "Tell me I've led a good life."

Well frankly, Ryan, your life probably wasn't all that special. At least not good enough for another man to die in your place. No man is "good enough," no man is truly worthy of the ultimate sacrifice. In his heart, Ryan knows this. And so do we.

But as Hollywood prepares to honor the depictions of sacrifice in the movie "Saving Private Ryan," it's worth reflecting on true worth of that ultimate gesture. ...

...There is an Unknown God that we all seek. Speilberg was on to truth in depicting Captain Miller as "the teacher," a rabbi, a Christ-figure. In its final moments, the movie reveals its allegory of man's yearning for Christ. Only in this context does "Saving Private Ryan" make sense. Private Ryan cheated death, but he didn't cheat eternity. Was he good enough? No man is good enough.

In the end, Ryan falls to his knees before his savior's grave feeling his unworthiness. Asking in anguish the movie's central question: was I worthy? The only answer Speilberg leaves us with is a silently waving flag and Ryan's hollow cry ... I tried to be a good man! The difference between saying "I was a good man" and admitting, "I am not worthy" may seem slight. But traversing the chasm between the two provides the true liberation Ryan was seeking.

In Spielberg's movie, Ryan is saved by Everyman. But the captain's grave provided no ultimate answers. For salvation, Ryan should have kneeled before an empty grave.

Read the rest at the jump.

Dog tags with P38
Service Number blurred

Thank you (foot)notes:

Originally published by
the Scripps Howard News Service






Also titled

The Salvation of Private Ryan by The Virginian Pilot.

Continue Reading »

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When I cross over to the other side of eternity, there is one young man I want to thank: The submariner who took my dad's place.

This piece was originally published by The Virginian Pilot and the Courier Post.

My father, then only a teen-ager from Jersey, left high school, went to war and was assigned to the submarine, USS Bonefish. Just before the final mission of the Bonefish, my father walked off the gangplank - transferred to another assignment. Another man took his place.

USS Bonefish,
Returning from her 4th patrol.
Sailors, rest your oars.

On its eighth mission, on June 18, 1945, the Bonefish was lost fighting the enemy in the Sea of Japan, with the loss of all 53 officers and men. It was the last U.S. submarine sunk in World War II. Dad eventually went back to high school and married my mother.

The other man is "on eternal patrol," as the veterans say.

A half-century later, after fighting in and surviving two wars, my father was buried in Arlington Cemetery. He had the chance to raise a family and devote 30 years to the armed services, and pin second lieutenant bars on my shoulders.

He didn't talk much about the Bonefish or the man who replaced him.

Still, I imagine in some Navy Valhalla my dad and this other sailor linked up together and asked the Creator, "Why?"

"Why him? Why me?"

John Sr. with John Jr.

War forces these questions on us, and they echo for generations. My father had me, and I now have a 4-year-old son, John, who carries his grandfather's name and his love of battle and discipline.

John III with
John Jr. (Jack)

John, like all children, often asks, "Why?" Like all fathers, I struggle to answer. But there are questions mere human reason cannot fathom.

Why was my father not on that submarine that fateful day?

And the answer does not come. Only that John now lives. With a purpose and a destiny still unknown.

When my wife was pregnant with our first child, someone asked her, "What is your greatest fear?" She answered that it was losing her husband; she feared the possibility of facing the awesome responsibility of motherhood alone.

But now, several children later, as I reflect on that same question, my fear is not of losing her, or even one of our daughters. I fear losing my son. In my masculine pride, I believe I can protect my wife and girls, but in my heart lurks the dread possibility that I must one day send my son to war.

My boy loves my cavalry saber and my dad's medals. Wearing a military uniform and military service runs in our family. My son's bloodline is traced through the Civil War and the Revolutionary War to William Penn to Charlemagne of ninth century France. His great-grandfather helped build Virginia Military Institute.

I pray the time never comes, but if it does, I expect that he will fight for God and country like his fathers before him.

Buried at sea, there are no headstones. I cannot mark the grave of the man who took my father's place, so I mark the date. I pay silent homage in remembrance of June 18, 1945, when the sea smashed through the bulkheads and turned a warship into a coffin.

There have been many such coffins, and if history is any teacher there are many yet to come.

When I think of future wars, I pray that a doomed high-tech Bonefish will not carry my John. The fear of this nearly unendurable loss humbles me. That young man who walked on the Bonefish to take my father's place was another man's son. Another man's dreams lost at sea.

War turns civilization on its head. In peace, sons bury fathers. In war, fathers bury sons.

It is a weighty debt. A debt of honor due. I expect to instill in my son a sense of history, of purpose, of his mission. That his body is not entirely his own, that he has a high calling.

I hope that I can teach him the lessons of his forefathers, those men now called the Greatest Generation.

It is my prayer that instilling this sense of mission will drive out the distractions, temptations and destructions of his growing generation. That drugs will not cloud his ambition. That he will see the hand of divine providence moving in his life.

That he will know he has so much to be thankful for. Like his fathers before him.

I pray he will be grateful, like his grandfather. It is my charge to tell my son that another man took his grandfather's place. My son has the duty, and like me, the obligation to his family and to that other man, to live with a sense of purpose and awe.

To live with a sense of respect to the tomb of that other young submariner.

This June 18, I want to salute the man who died for me and the men who died for us all. I want my son to know his debt of honor. And, God willing, my son will bury me.

John Wesley Yoest, Jr., of Richmond, is [the former] assistant secretary for the Department of Health and Human Resources for the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Thank you (foot)notes:

Charmaine blogged on Bonefish .

Since this was first published a few years ago, we've been honored to hear from other veterans who served on Bonefish and naval historians. There were actually 85 men lost aboard Bonefish and another boat holds the distinction of last sub lost in the war.

And, since this piece was written, we've added John's brother James to the family -- here he is in the same sailor suit that dad sewed by hand while at sea decades and decades ago.

James and Jack

See here for our visit to Arlington Cemetery.

Alert reader Greg Gray reminds us that,

"In peace, sons bury fathers. In war, fathers bury sons."

That comes from Herodotus 1:87. But it's still a wonderful point. Also relevant to today is Pericles' oration in Thucydides' Peloponnesian Wars.

Published: June 18, 1999
Section: LOCAL, page B11
Type of story: OPINION
Source: JOHN WESLEY YOEST
© 1999- Landmark Communications Inc.

Description of illustration(s):
Art by Margaret Scott

Follow us on Twitter: @jackyoest @charmaineyoest

Posted at 11:24 AM | Permalink
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The Penta-Posse at
Arlington National Cemetary, 2005 Charmaine wrote this a few years ago.

Every time we've made the left turn onto Eisenhower Drive, and passed through the imposing brick gates of Arlington National Cemetery, I've been overwhelmed with emotion. Family members of those buried at Arlington National Cemetery are given a special pass and may drive onto the Hallowed Grounds to visit the grave of their loved one. It's an enormous honor which makes me feel humbled.

My husband's father served thirty years in the United States Navy, and died the year I married into the family, so I didn't know him well. And the fact is, after a lifetime of nine-month Mediterranean tours, wars, and rumors of war, there is a lot my husband doesn't know as well.

However, over the 15 years that we've been married, I have gotten to know my mother-in-law well. She doesn't talk either about the sacrifices she made, but there is one story that she has told me several times.

Once, when my father-in-law was out on tour, and she was home with three small children, the car broke down and, of course, she had to take care of it. My husband marched up and said, "Don't worry, Mom, I'll fix it." He was about five years old at the time.

My mother-in-law laughs. . . the little man, takin' care of things. But it makes me cry.

We owe a lot to our military families.

When we visited Arlington this past week, we passed at least three funeral ceremonies on the way to Section 64. I lost track of the fresh graves and the still-standing tents, either just vacated by other grieving families, or awaiting the afternoon's fresh, raw sorrow.

As we pulled up on Bradley Avenue, an Air Force honor guard was marching precisely back to their bus after a ceremony for an airman who had been a POW in Korea. While we searched for my father-in-law's headstone, an empty horse-drawn caisson lumbered past, and settled briefly in the shade nearby, awaiting their next assignment. . .

We found my father-in-law's headstone: The front has the Christian Cross with the old Chief's Curriculum Vita. Chief Yoest cut high school to catch World War II. He retired with rows of ribbons and a "v" device, and pinned butterbars on his boy. He now has a grandson, The Dude, who bears his name and wants to be a Navy pilot.

The reverse of the stone is blank, awaiting the inscripton for Chief Yoest's high school sweetheart, his wife, Jack's mom, "Babcia" (Polish for Grandmother), who is still with us. In the end, they will be buried together, an honor she earned.

As we turned to go, the Diva took her jingle-bell necklace from around her neck, and left it on the headstone. A fitting tribute for a warrior.



Sailors, rest your oars.

We drove back down Bradley Avenue -- past a fresh grave covered by a tarp. In front of us, sparkling in the bright sunlight of a gorgeous day, stretched row after row of white marble markers, orderly, peaceful, some weathered, others new and crisply chiseled . . .

I turned to the Penta-Posse. "I want you to look," I said. "I want you to understand, that each one of these headstones represents someone who gave their life so that you could be free."

They were quiet and solemn. The weight of it is beyond measure.

The Dreamer said, "Don't cry, Mom."

We made the right turn onto Eisenhower. We drove slowly toward the exit, passing the drive to the Tomb of the Unknowns to our left, until we came to a crosswalk thronged with tourists. The guard on duty motioned to the crowd to stop, and we drove through, passing through the gates, back to a busy day, leaving behind -- the curious crowds, the chattering school children. . . and the silent stones.

Our good friend Mackubin Owens, Ph.D., has a terrific article up on NRO from last year, Mystic Chords of Memory, From America's Founding, to the sacrifices of her sons and daughters, we remember.

This weekend, we mark the 140th anniversary of the first official observation of the holiday we now call Memorial Day, as established by General John A. Logan's "General Order No. 11" of the Grand Army of the Republic dated 5 May, 1868. This order reads in part: "The 30th day of May 1868 is designated for the purpose of strewing with flowers and otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion, and whose bodies lie in almost every city, village and hamlet churchyard in the land." Logan's order served to ratify a practice that was already widespread, both in the North and the South, in the years immediately following the Civil War.

Alas, for many Americans today, Memorial Day has come to signify nothing more than another three-day weekend, a mere excuse for a weekend cook-out. Such an observance of Memorial Day obscures even the vestiges of its intended meaning: a solemn time, serving both as catharsis for those who fought and survived, and to ensure that those who follow will not forget the sacrifice of those who died that the American Republic and the principles that sustain it, might live.

"Mac" continues,

Lincoln's Gettysburg Address gives universal meaning to the particular deaths that occurred on that hallowed ground, thus allowing us to understand Memorial Day in the light of the Fourth of July, to comprehend the honorable end of the soldiers in the light of the glorious beginning and purpose of the nation. The deaths of the soldiers at Gettysburg, of those who died during the Civil War as a whole, and indeed of those who have fallen in all the wars of America, are validated by reference to the nation and its founding principles as articulated in the Declaration of Independence.

Some will object, claiming that linking Memorial Day and Independence Day glorifies war and trivializes individual loss and the end of youth and joy. How can the loved ones of a fallen soldier ever recover from such a loss? I corresponded with the mother of one of my Marines who died in Vietnam for some time after his death. He was an only child and her inconsolable pain and grief put me in mind of Rudyard Kipling's poem, Epitaphs of the War, verse IV, "An Only Son":

I have slain none but my mother, She
(Blessing her slayer) died of grief for me.

Kipling too, lost his only son in World War I.

But as Holmes said in 1884, "[G]rief is not the end of all. I seem to hear the funeral march become a paean. I see beyond the forest the moving banners of a hidden column. Our dead brothers still live for us, and bid us think of life, not death -- of life to which in their youth they lent the passion and joy of the spring. As I listen, the great chorus of life and joy begins again, and amid the awful orchestra of seen and unseen powers and destinies of good and evil our trumpets sound once more a note of daring, hope and will."

This Memorial Day the household of Your Business Blogger(R) will fly our Flag as we always do and remember those who "gave the last full measure" and died in service.

Dad is buried in Arlington National Cemetery. The years on his head stone tell of his full life. Our family was so lucky.

Nearby head stones tell of service men who died far too soon. Far too young. In war for us.

Danny Boy
The BalladThe Irish classic Danny Boy has a long and varied history. The following explanation is my favorite and the simplest,

Once, a long time ago there was an old man who had raised many sons who he loved dearly. A war raged over the land that they lived in and one by one he saw each of them go off to fight and not return. Then one day, as harvest time drew near, he knew that his youngest, and most precious, son would soon be going off to fight just as his brothers before him. The old man was sad and knew that he may never see his last boy alive. He looked intently at the young lad, and with tears in his eyes he sang this song.

The ballad cannot begin to reveal the emotion and the pain of fathers and mothers who bury sons in a time of war.

I do not know how families do this.

But I do know that we must be grateful.

We are so lucky. Happy Memorial Day.

Thank you (foot)notes:

See Meditation on Suffering and Sacrifice,

The famous chapel on the grounds of the United States Air Force Academy nestled at the base of the Rocky Mountains is more truly a cathedral. Outwardly, it is all sleek silver-wing metal, with seventeen external buttresses, knifing severely skyward. Designed to evoke an air-frame, the architecture does not immediately summon spiritual devotion.

But cross the threshold, step inside, and one is transported to another plane. The solemn air is bathed in the soft splendor of muted light. While the stern steel silhouette dominates the external view, the interior reveals the fragile panels of stained-glass that the harsh ribs support. The intricate glass panes filter and animate the sunlight, illuminating the sacred space with almost a visual hush.

At the front of the chapel, a single row is roped off. "Reserved" the sign says, for all the United States aviators who are missing in action or prisoners of war. The only occupant of the pew is a single, burning candle.

"Greater love hath no man than this. . ." reads the plaque. The Scripture it alludes to concludes: "that a man lays down his life for his friends."

My thoughts immediately fly to my boy, my sweet Dude, who wants to be a fighter pilot. And baby Boo, who will almost certainly want to follow his older brother. My heart blanches. How could I bear it? And yet so many other mothers -- gold-star mothers -- even this very day, must find a way when their sons have given the last measure of devotion.

Be sure to read Charmaine's post from 2005, Memorial Day: Arlington National Cemetery

Danny Boy Lyrics at Memorial Day, 2008, Danny Boy.

Follow us on Twitter: @jackyoest

Posted at 10:34 PM | Permalink
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Each year in May Your Business Blogger(R) remembers the Cold War loss of submarine Scorpion. We are so lucky to have such brave men. And their families.

Our prayer is that our current Commander-in-Chief would know the culture of our warriors.


In Remembrance of
those in the
Submarine Service Some 40 Years ago the USS Scorpion was due in my hometown, Norfolk, VA. She never returned.

She is, as the veterans say, on Eternal Patrol.

Your Business Blogger(R) wrote an article for National Review Online about those left behind from the loss of the USS Scorpion.

Five Days in May: The loss of the USS Scorpion.

By Jack Yoest

Yolanda Mazzuchi was about the prettiest girl in our school class. Our dads were in the Navy, often gone for months at a time. And they would be welcomed home at dockside with cheers and homemade signs. These gatherings at the D&S Piers at the Naval Base in Norfolk, Virginia, were a regular part of our lives growing up. Families often took children out of school to celebrate a ship's homecoming.

At 1 in the afternoon on Monday, May 27, 1968, at the height of the Cold War the USS Scorpion was due in port.

Yolanda didn't know it then, but her dad was already dead....

Continue reading here.

John Howland at USNA-AT-LARGE has set up a group for the boat,

Dedicated to and in honor of the 99 U.S. Navy submariners who perished in the loss of SCORPION in May 1968. The 40th Anniversary of that tragedy ...[is] (May 2008), yet the cause(s) of the loss remain a complete mystery.

USS Scorpion
40 Years on Eternal Patrol

This lack of clarity and closure has created a void into which charlatans now have full play in creating bogus theories for profit.

This unsatisfactory situation may result in the SCORPION 99 going into history forever at the mercy of the unscrupulous.

The solution that this group will work toward will be to encourage the U.S. Navy to, at the very least, put to rest the loss scenarios which have MINIMAL TO NO PROBABILITY of having actually occurred.

###

Thank you (foot)notes:

Follow Jack and Charmaine on Twitter: @JackYoest and @CharmaineYoest

More from BubbleHead.

And read about the Loss of the Bonefish.

Your Business Blogger(R) of Management Training of DC, LLC, is a licensed agent for the William Oncken Corporation, presenters of Managing Management Time(TM) fondly known as Monkey Management.

Remember Me at the jump.

Continue Reading »

Posted at 9:43 AM | Permalink
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Obama is speaking to a joint session of congress. The War is not a priority for Obama and liberals.

Every soldier's death is a public event.

Back in the day of the horse cavalry, Your Business Blogger(R) was privileged to be a Survival Assistance Officer helping families who lost a service member. As a young Cavalry Officer, I commanded a number of burial details. The part that hurt and still moves in slow motion in my mind's eye, is handing the tri-folded American flag to the widow.

I never cried at these funerals. I was too young. It was a task, a detail that had to be done.

Charmaine and I have two sons who we expect will serve our country in uniform. And they may serve a commander-in-chief who does not demand victory over our enemies.

Americans want Victory over -- not justice for -- terrorists.

The following article was written a few years ago and deserves a wide audience, courtesy of John Howland of USNA-At-Large.

TAKING CHANCE23 Apr 04 - The enclosed article was written by LtCol M.R. Strobl USMC who is assigned to MCCDC Quantico, VA and served as the officer who escorted the remains of PFC C. Phelps USMC from Dover AFB, DE to his home. PFC Phelps was assigned to 3d Bn, 11th Marines - an artillery unit functioning as a provisional infantry battalion during Operation IRAQI FREEDOM 2. PFC Phelps was killed in action from a gunshot wound received on 9 Apr 04 during combat operations west of Baghdad. He was buried in Dubois, WY on 17 Apr 04.

PFC Chance Phelps

Chance Phelps was wearing his Saint Christopher medal when he was killed on Good Friday. Eight days later, I handed the medallion to his mother. I didn't know Chance before he died.

Today, I miss him...

Read at the jump.

Continue Reading »

Posted at 12:19 PM | Permalink
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President Bush is leaving office and has kept our country safe as the commander-in-chief for eight years. We have not been attacked on USA soil since 9.11.01.

I'm not sure anyone has thanked George Bush.

So Your Business Blogger(R) and Charmaine dropped by the White House over the Christmas Holidays to thank President Bush. We wanted him to know that someone appreciated his work.

Charmaine thanked Bush saying that we hoped history would remember him well.

"Thank you," he said smiling, "But I really don't care who gets the credit." He actually meant it.

Posted at 3:35 PM | Permalink
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King Kong in New York CityFrom time to time, Your Business Blogger(R) works out of a client's offices at the edifice at 350 Fifth Avenue in NYC.

Also known as The Empire State Building.

It is still standing.

So what didn't happen on New Year's Eve?

What did not happen in 2008?

Nothing.

Enemy Jihadists didn't blow anything up on USA soil. And they didn't touch Times Square packed with people at midnite 31 December.

President George Bush has been keeping all Americans safe since 9.11.

Even Michael Moore.

Even Jeremiah Wright.

We have been safe for some 2,800 days. Will this continue?

Vice President Elect Joe Biden has promised us that we will be attacked when Barack Obama is president. Americans will be killed by jihadist terrorists.

This is a campaign promise of the Obama administration. One that Obama is sure to keep.

Alert Readers know that our household lives down wind in the blast zone of Your Nation's Capital. A dirty bomb in DC is a bit of a concern for us.

If you voted for Obama, you voted for changing the landscape in Washington, DC.

Literally.

Be sure to thank Bush for keeping us safe.

9.11 How Would Liberals Have Protected Us?

We have not been attacked since 9.11.01. It is nearly impossible, in war, in politics, to make nothing happen.

So the liberals are right when they say to George Bush,

"Thanks for nothing..."

See Nine Possibilities Heading Into 2009

Visit Bush Kept Us Safe Since 9.11.

Posted at 8:57 AM | Permalink
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So pre pre-schooler Baby Boo walks by as Your Business Blogger(R) is watching The Story of the Intrepid. The story of the famed WWII aircraft carrier.

The boy catches a few seconds of battle, of war, the triumph of good over evil; an American civics lesson. He listens to the music.

He asks, "Is this a Jesus movie?"

"No," I said. "But it's hard to tell the difference..."

Must see clips: USS Intrepid

We don't know exactly how Obama will attempt to lead as Commander-in-Chief. But we do know his liberal belief philosophy.

Where?

From his pastor: Jeremiah "God D@m America" Wright.

MEDIA ALERT: Charmaine on FOX, Cavuto Obama and Wright: Do They Hate America?

In contrast, another must see clip,

Thank you to USNA at Large for Intrepid's link.

Continue Reading »

Posted at 8:27 AM | Permalink
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The liberal Mark Warner is running against conservative Jim Gilmore for Senate in the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Mark Warner says that the "Right to Lifers" and the National Rifle Association and Homeschoolers and the Christian Coalition is,

Why do these liberals hate normal people?

Warner and Obama believe in abortion on demand through nine or ten months.
Warner and Obama do not believe in the right to bear arms.
Warner and Obama do not believe parents should educate their children.
Warner and Obama believe in homosexual marriage.
Warner and Obama believe in our surrender in the wars.
Warner and Obama believe in raising our taxes.

This is normal?

Listen to the short audio clip of Mark Warner, his voice dripping with disdain, on our conservative values,

Full Disclosure: Your Business Blogger(R) served as Assistant Secretary in Health and Human Resources in governor James Gilmore's administration.

L to R: Roxane and Jim Gilmore; Charmaine and Jack Yoest

"I was told that if I voted for Barry Goldwater that there would be war in Southeast Asia.

And sure enough, I voted for Barry Goldwater and there was war in Southeast Asia," went the popular joke after Democrat Lyndon Johnson was elected president.

We are now told that if we vote for John McCain we will have endless war in Iraq. I will vote for John McCain...and if Obama steals the election -- we will, indeed, have endless war in Iraq...

Posted at 5:27 PM | Permalink
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We have not been attacked since 9.11.01. It is nearly impossible, in war, in politics, to make nothing happen.

So the liberals are right when they say to George Bush,

"Thanks for nothing..."

Here is a review of Reasoned Audacity's 9.11 posts over the years.

Following is background from Your Business Blogger in an article published just after 9.11. Things have changed since then. A little.

Booby traps at the Pentagon: Charmaine and Jack Yoest introduce you to the Pentagon's babes in arms. What do they want? An "open dialogue" on breastfeeding. (Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Services)

Originally published in The Women's Quarterly; January 01, 2002;


Pentagon attack
ON SEPTEMBER 10TH, [2001] the Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Services, the group most responsible for promoting women in combat, gathered in Pentagon Conference Room 5C1042. This civilian advisory committee, whose members have the protocol status of three-star generals, monitors the concerns of women in uniform. And what was the topic on the eve of the worst attack in U.S. history?

After briefings from representatives of the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, and Coast Guard, DACOWITS, as the committee is known, issued a formal request for more information on what they deemed a matter of paramount military significance:

breast-feeding.

As the terrorists prepared to hit the World Trade Center towers and the Pentagon itself, our military leaders were directed "to engage in open dialogue" on lactation tactics.

The Defense Advisory Committee on Women celebrated its fiftieth anniversary last April. At the birthday party, President Bush's deputy secretary of defense, Paul Wolfowitz, a man well regarded for his level-headed and conservative approach to military issues, lauded DACOWITS in his address as an outstanding organization" and told the assembly of earnest women that he "looked forward to [their] advice."

Read the article.

Dad & The Dude
preparing for war
September 11, 2001
photo credit:
Charmaine Yoest, Ph.D. Just after 9am on 9.11, Your Business Blogger(R) was doing what all business owners were doing: selling something. I was on the phone with a client. Making a pitch to attend a series of seminars, with CNN on in the background. I was a bit distracted by the live feed of a burning building.

While making 'the ask,' it was clear that my customer was not aware that we had just been attacked. I wanted to say something, like, Turn on your TV and stare at real pain. It just didn't look real. I continued instead with the conversation. Your Business Blogger is not normally so focused. In denial, perhaps. Disasters are not normally good for business.

There was work to be done. My next class was on September 19.

And I didn't want the customer on the other end of the phone distracted until the sale was closed. Then we could go to war.

The deal done, I noticed my boy, The Dude, was concerned that the attacks would continue down to us in Charlottesville, Virginia. "We got to get ready!" he shouts and scampers around digging up my old uniform, boots, saber and his grandfather's bayonet. (Old soldiers never die, they just file away. Apologies to MacArthur.)

The Dude spent the rest of the morning marching outside our front door. Looking out for terrorists. It must have worked.

Charlottesville was not attacked.

But we were affected. Everyone was. But I wasn't sure that the bank was going to delay getting their money over a pesky act of war. I still had to earn a living.

How would the war affect business? Not the macro, but mine? I had a seminar and clients coming into town in little over a week and the world was on fire. Would anyone show up? Would anyone care?

We North Americans do business like we do war. We win. Donald Trump becomes Victor Davis Hanson. At 8 am on 19 September 2001, 86 professionals showed up for my class and got down to business. A packed room.

The free lunch helped.

Even my business partner, Faisal Alam, came down from New York City to join us. He is Muslim.

The country was mourning, but on the move.

I started with a minute of silence in remembrance of those lost in the World Trade Towers.

Then we all got back to work. Each making the world a better place. Even with a war on.

King Kong in New York CityFrom time to time, Your Business Blogger works out of a client's offices at the edifice at 350 Fifth Avenue in NYC.

Also known as The Empire State Building.

It is still standing.

So what didn't happen on New Year's Eve?

Nothing.

Enemy Jihadists didn't blow anything up. And they didn't touch Times Square packed with people at midnight 31 December.

President George Bush has been keeping us all safe since 9.11.

Even Michael Moore.

In war every soldier's death is a public event.

The Falling Man

credit: Richard Drew, AP

Because of 9.11, we are all soldiers now.

The Pentagon circa 9.11.06. Lit by 184 lights to commemorate each life lost there on 9.11.01
Credit: Unknown

A Thank you note to Michelle Malkin on 9.11 for Tom Junod's The Falling Man in Esquire.

Basil's Blog has open trackbacks.

Posted at 6:40 AM | Permalink
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The House Armed Services Subcommittee on Personnel will be conducting a hearing on the issue of homosexuals in the military. Among the witnesses who will offer testimony will be Brian Jones, a highly-decorated former Sergeant Major of the US Army's elite Delta Force, who served with the Department of Defense in Iraq in 2004.

Sgt. Maj. Jones will testify in support of the 1993 law stating that homosexuals are not eligible for military service. The law passed Congress with veto-proof majorities in 1993 and has been upheld as constitutional several times.

The hearing will take place in Room 2118 of the House Rayburn Office Building, at 2:00 PM on Wednesday, 23 July .

John Howland from USNA-at-Large sends this along from Allan Slaff,

I am delighted that...Sergeant Major Jones will be on hand to testify before the House Armed Service Committee on Personnel on 23 July in regards to gays in the military.

I am confident that...he will do a superb job. I have a concern...on the unique sociological problems that would be generated by permitting openly practicing gays to serve in the ships of the fleet. These unsolvable problems make it absolutely impossible to permit that to happen.

Let me summarize here:

The habitability standards under which our enlisted personnel serve in the ships of the fleet afford almost no possibilities for human privacy. I examined the habitability standards afforded our bluejackets at sea for the Secretary of the Navy many years ago and found that the habitability standards afforded our enlisted personal in the ships of the fleet were less than 50% of the habitability standards allowed our federal prisoners.

Other than a privacy curtain which may be pulled across a man's berth, there is none. Outside that small space of stacked berths the remainder of the compartment is completely open; thus public nakedness is the norm. The same applies to the heads, washrooms and showers.

These ships deploy for normally 9 months at a time and sometimes much longer. Unlike our air force and army personnel there is no leaving the base after normal working hours except on very restricted liberties when in foreign ports from time to time.


That compartment is our bluejackets' home 24/7 as long as the ship is deployed. It would create a truly impossible sociological situation to permit openly gay personnel to live in such an environment.


It would most assuredly wreak havoc with the good order and discipline of the ships company Requiring gays to abstain for long periods would be akin to berthing two heterosexual men in a compartment of essentially naked women for long periods; especially when those young men were being driven by an absolute rush off hormones. Impossible!


There is another issue. Homosexuals are as intellectually capable as heterosexuals. Therefore, eventually the gay will win advancement in rate. He will then be in a powerful position to bring exquisite sexual pressure on the non-rated personnel under his control.


As you know, I am also opposed to women serving in the combatant ships of the fleet. I base my opposition not on any failure of intelligence, courage, patriotism or ability of women.


It is based solely on the absolute impossibility of eliminating the powerful drive of sexuality. At least, however, in the case of the women, they may be isolated into their own living accommodations on board ship.


Instead of establishing my qualifications to speak with authority on this vitally important issue, I shall send along an abbreviated curriculum vitae. Please note the enormous experience I have had in serving in eleven ships of the fleet and commanding four of our very best.

Under a B. Hussein Obama administration, homosexuals will be allowed to openly serve in the armed forces. As Allan notes, this will destroy unit cohesion and hurt our military readiness.

Military Readiness will not matter under Obama anyhoo. He will simply surrender to the jihadists making our military power moot.

Voting for John McCain is important. He knows how to run the military.

B. Hussein Obama is an accomplished community organizer.

Thank you (foot)notes:

Update: Alert Reader CourtneyMD comments below on the need for the presentation of a compelling argument rather than two homosexuals pictured enjoying a cruise. This may help:

CourtneyMD, You are close: I'm not 14, but this is an argument any 14-year-old understands. Even My 15-year-old daughter.

We all may not have the reasoning power of a 14-year-old, but let us attempt a review.

The arguments are simple to comprehend, especially for those few that have served in the armed forces.

Close quarters, intimate surroundings strip away modesty. It does not promote good order and discipline in a military unit to enable sexual attraction. The military mission does not have the margin of error to tolerant the distraction caused by having a girlfriend or boyfriend in arm's reach in harm's way 24/7.

See close quarters -- men and women -- on a submarine.

This is different than the soft civilian life most people enjoy, even in dangerous occupations. Females and homosexual firefighters and police-persons can go off-duty.

Can't really go off-duty on a submarine.

In the absence of privacy, no person -- whatever they may tell the pollsters -- does not want other service members lusting after their bodies.

A sailor wants his buddy to watch his back -- not covet his backside.

As requested, see a compelling argument for unit cohesion.

And let's not forget B. Hussein Obama's other sugar stick women in combat.

B. Hussein Obama and Jesus.

Double standards for women in the military.

And thank you for noticing the repetition of B. Hussein Obama -- and thank you for repeating it back. Perhaps you are trainable.

Repeating back a negative is something even the professionals have trouble with. See the Bimbo Awards with the late Tony Snow.

Your Business Blogger(R) works at teaching business sense. Here, we are reduced to teaching common sense.

Thank you for commenting,
Jack

See Dana Milbank from the WaPo. Your Business Blogger(R) is not related to the Cynthia Yost mentioned in the Milbank article

Posted at 9:25 AM | Permalink
Comments (2)

Alert Reader Richard Neault sends this email,

Mr. Yoest,

I was stationed on the Bonefish (SS-582)from 1984-1988. In 1988 we had a fire that killed three of our friends and ended the career of the Bonefish. I had met the widow of the CO of the first Bonefish when she presented the crew with a Holy Bible.

I have been assembling different items for a framed tribute piece for both the first and second bonefish. I have always been fascinated with the first boat and what happened to her.

I have been trying to find information about the battleflag of the first bonefish and have been unable to. I have also been trying to find an original, or at least a good reproduction, of the patch from the first bonefish. If you can help me with either of these items, I would be very grateful. I am in the process of founding a local museum about the Cold War and hope one day to place these items in the museum. It must have been an honor to have had a father who was a part of the Greatest Generation.

I appreciate his service to our country.

Please tell your wife that I also appreciate the things she has done and that we are one family that appreciates the FRC and the real conservatives in politics.

Richard Neault
www.calcoldwar.org

Here is the patch of which he may be speaking. I would be honored to donate the Bonefish artifact to the museum, if the item would be helpful.

If there are other Alert Readers who might have items of interest, please contact Mr. Neault through his website -- or email Your Business Blogger(R)

Thank you (foot)notes:

Also see USS Bonefish Lost: A Remembrance 18 June

See Virtual Paintings of Bonefish by Tom McMahon

Posted at 12:35 PM | Permalink
Comments (3)

The following was made available thru John Howland at USNA-AT-Large and deserves a wide audience.

General to General

Richard Carroll asked my opinion of General Tony McPeak, and his
current support of the far, Socialist-Left. He is co-chairman of
Obama's National Election Committee. I have been asked the same
question by many others.

Rich wrote this and asked for as much coverage as possible...

I consider this a weak version of how I really feel about Wesley
Clark, Tony McPeak, the traitor Army Generals, and the rest of their
ilk who are supporting the far-left in this election.

Most, if not all, waited until they thought there was a predictable winner to the
Democratic nomination, then ran to show their support in hopes of
receiving a Cabinet appointment after the election. This is
absolutely unforgivable to me, and the majority of the military
members that I served with for upward to 35 years. In my opinion,
they are supporting the destruction of our military, and willing to
do irreparable damage to our country strictly for their own personal gain.

J. C.
B/G, USAF, Ret.
==========================================
A Four Star Tool;
Generally Speaking

by Rich Carroll

'As one who for 37 years proudly wore the uniform of our
country'. General Merrill 'Tony' McPeak, Co-Chairman of Barack
Hussein Obama Campaign.

History, General, will remember you by not how proudly you wore your
uniform, but by how you betrayed our trust and by how defiantly your
current boss refuses to wear an American flag pin.

Veterans will remember you for choosing to support a political party that trashes
and degrades our military. You have separated yourself from 'those
who served' to become entrenched with a candidate inextricably
connected to a political and religious cult determined to control
America and murdering millions in their effort to do so.

Continue Reading »

Posted at 8:53 PM | Permalink
Comments (1)

Charmaine calls early morning from Edinburgh. "I'm having trouble flying into London," she says.
I'm still waking up -- I didn't see the news. I ask, "When can you come home?"

"I don't know," she says, her voice unsteady, "They're still clearing the bodies."

Three years ago Your Business Blogger(R) sent the Little Woman to the G-8 with the B3: Bono and Branson and Bush.

We here in the US of A have not been attacked on our soil since 9.11. We must be doing something right.

Bush must be doing something right. Would Obama be able to protect us as Bush has? As McCain would?

Charmaine on the plane with Richard Branson

Following is an edited cross post from Reasoned Audacity, July 1 - 7, 2005.

Charmaine calls early morning from Edinburgh. "I'm having trouble flying into London," she says.

I'm still waking up. I ask, "When can you come home?"

"I don't know," she says, her voice unsteady, "They're still clearing the bodies."

A wake up call.

London, welcome to the war.

It started, as most things these days do, with Powerline.

Following is original posting from London as Charmaine called it into me, when her site went down. Any inconsistencies may be due to transcription overload.

This is Jack, the husband: Charmaine called. Her site is still down, but she wanted to file a report to Powerline.

"Flew into Heathrow airport and took a $150 cab ride into north London to conduct interviews and document the bombsites. Bobbies cordoned off area around the sites sealing the scene of the explosions. I got to within a block or so of Edgware Tube station entrance with Londoners sitting calmly, relaxing in pubs. Everything is strangely calm, business as usual. I interviewed a woman, an interior designer, expecting some emotional display. There was none. "We don't do a lot of group hugging in England," she said, making me think of the stiff-upper lip. "We are not sentimental."

And she seemed to reflect the mood of the London population. Not for what they were doing but for what they were not doing: No candles, no out-pouring of grief, no hoards of gawkers milling around police tape, no teddy bears, no bouquets of flowers. No movement. No tears. Everything normal, except, maybe for that bus with the top blown off. Workers cleared and cleaned up the area real well. Spiffy. And got back to their pints.

I visited hospitals and learned that 'only' 37 were confirmed dead at that time. More confirmations were expected.

There were no moms with little children in downtown London. I interviewed middle-aged businessmen on cell phones and kids with Mohawks, none who were surprised.

Londoners gently reproached me about my concern over the bloodshed, "You Americans get sentimental over silly things. We're used to getting bombed." The IRA Troubles had hardened hearts as well as the London infrastructure.

I expected some grief, at least as much as there was when Lady Di died. And grief I got. I interviewed three very ordinary, normal teenaged English Muslims, one with short spiky hair (dressed not unlike my 10 year-old-dude). All three seems to be parroting Muslim talking points. "The bombings were a conspiracy by Blair to generate support for the war," they recited in a charming British accent.

The bombers were quite indiscriminate. Edgware is not far from the heart of Little Beirut, a Muslim ethnic neighborhood.

A young British black woman told me, "The bombings are Tony Blair's fault -- they killed a 100,000 Iraqis -- and it's like a boomerang [coming back at the British]." Most everyone I talked to believed that the British caused the bombing or had it coming.

Of the dozen or so people I interviewed only white males in business attire expressed surprise that anyone would think the British were at fault in anyway.

But these gentlemen were the minority. Most felt that the Brits were complicit. The people at London's ground zero were sounding like the "wobbly" Spanish after their train bombings.

The day is a cloudy, cold, rainy 7.7."

Charmaine is still out on the streets -- 9pm local London time and will be sending pictures soon.

Read the entire story at My Wife Flew off with Bono and Branson; Bombed in London 7.7.05 .

Posted at 12:54 PM | Permalink
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Charmaine is quoted in Obama works to mobilize 'Christian left.'

She says that all voters should care, "...[A]bout the public policies the person is going to put in place."

Charmaine is pictured at left on an earlier CNN appearance debating abortion.

The policies of which Charmaine speaks are the 'vote-changing' issues Grover Norquist writes about in his book Leave Us Alone: Getting the Government's Hands Off Our Money, Our Guns, Our Lives.

The Leave Us Alone coalition is made up of groups who want the government to do only constitutionally-restricted work, and to, well, leave us alone.

Following is a short list of loose associations Norquist cites who want less government and less outside intrusion:

Homeschoolers
Gun Owners
Church-goers
Taxpayers
Pro-Lifers

The Alert Reader will note that this conservative Leave Us Alone coalition includes the Pro-Life community. This is the only group in Grover's group that wants the government and the courts to protect life and stop the option of killing of unborn children -- just as the government stopped the option of slavery.

The Christian Left is willing to sacrifice freedom in order to pay higher taxes -- this small segment that occasionally attends church is delighted with large government and the government confiscation of property, life and wealth.

These young Christians are confusing government with God -- remember, for most liberals, the government is their god.

The Leftist group is a bit confused on Biblical teaching and looks forward to the tyranny of a ObamaNation. Mature followers of Jesus Christ look to the Ten Commandments, including the directive, Do Not Kill, or more accurately, Do No Murder.

The deliberate taking of innocent life is a vote-changer for thinking Christians.

Posted at 3:11 PM | Permalink
Comments (3)

Charmaine is taping an interview for CNN American Morning on the Senator Barack Obama flirtation with Bible believing, Jesus loving, Evangelicals who hold for the Right to Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.

Charmaine Yoest, Ph.D. is pictured at left during a taping of Ethics in America with Barney Frank(D).

Obama has a chance with some church goers. About 30% of self-identified Christians voted for Bill Clinton.

Obama believes reporter Michael Weisskopf who wrote that members of the Christian Right are, "largely poor, uneducated, and easy to command."

So while the poor impoverished are clinging to guns and religion, how would the elitist Obama lead the nation?

1) Bring legislation forcing citizens to embrace homosexual demands: Homosexual Marriage and the Homosexuals in the military.

2) Raise taxes.

3) Raise gas prices by punishing oil companies. He refuses to explore and drill for energy.

4) Demand that some babies born alive be left to die.

5) Force citizens how and what to think. Mark Steyn is being sued under hate-crimes law in Canada for his writing about Islam in America Alone, a must read. Barack X. Obama supports this mind-thought control through legislation.

The ObamaNation will force churches and the Boy Scouts to hire Homosexuals.

The ObamaNation will force government-controlled doctors on the country.

The ObamaNation will place women in land combat and in submarines.

The ObamaNation will take more of the citizen's money in taxes and fees.

The ObamaNation will force these government doctors to perform abortions.

The ObamaNation will force babies born during a botched abortion (re: live birth) to die.

The ObamaNation will continue the African-American genocide thru Planned Parenhood.

The clip will air next week. Hit times will be announced. Please let us know what you think. Comments are now open.

Thank you (foot)notes,

Obama may be a disciple of Jesus Christ, but he doesn't understand the Bible. And after attending Jeremiah Wright's church for 20 years, it figures. For example, the Old Testament dietary restrictions no longer apply. This is a "new" teaching in the New Testament that is different from the Old. Obama is going to be confused about these Old and New Testament issues:

Dietary restrictions.
Circumcision.
Animal sacrifice.

Homosexual abominations remain in effect.

Obama is fuzzy on his Biblical interpretations. And a bit confused on secular matters -- but he is consistent with the old-style liberal world view.

Your Business Blogger(R) looks forward to the continuing debate between Obama and Dr. Dobson of Focus on the Family.

Obama might come to Jesus yet...

Voters will not answer the ObamaNation altar call, Lord willing.

Click here for more on Ethics in America.

Larry Cirignano sends us this article by Bishop Harry Jackson on Planned Parenhood.

Posted at 10:09 AM | Permalink
Comments (7)

Two items for June 18th:

1) It is a day of remembrance in Your Business Blogger(R)'s household, and
2) Charmaine gave speech.

Charmaine's talk was on the impact that women can have in our culture.
See her From Femme to Fatale.ppt Power point presentation.

MEDIA ALERT: Charmaine to speak at the EPC 28th Assembly

Charmaine's talk reminded us of the eternal values. Life and Death; this side of eternity and beyond.

At a recent funeral -- they seem to come faster and faster as we get older and older -- we talked about burials. Cremation, well, lights our fire and speeds up that dust-to-dust transition.

Charmaine asked what we plan to do with the ashes, where on earth to put them. We talk about the extended family's burial plots.

"Where do you want to get buried?" She asks.

"37º18'N, 137º55'E," I say.

"What?"

"The Sea of Japan," I remind her. Women!

"What's there?" she wonders.

Bonefish.

June 18th is the day we remember the loss of USS Bonefish.

My father, then only a teen-ager from Jersey, left high school, went to war and was assigned to the submarine, USS Bonefish. Just before the final mission of the Bonefish, my father walked off the gangplank - transferred to another assignment. Another man took his place.

On its eighth mission, on June 18, 1945, the Bonefish was lost fighting the enemy in the Sea of Japan, with the loss of all 53 officers and men. It was the last U.S. submarine sunk in World War II...

The article was first published by a number of outlets including the Virginian-Pilot in my hometown.

Posted at 10:38 PM | Permalink
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Remembering the fallen

Watch the video
courtesy: Military Times
Alert Readers know that Your Business Blogger(R) does not care to see women any where near combat.

Real men fight their own battles.

Real men fight their country's battles.

Watch how How One Woman Serves. This is why men fight. She is why families sacrifice.

Thank you (foot)notes:

The forward torpedo room Pictured is the Penta-Posse on the retired submarine USS Becuna moored at Philadelphia. This highlights the close quarters men and women would live for months at a time under a Obamanation.

When boys and girls are close together, they get, well, close together.

The Navy will not tell us how many women get pregnant.

Our guess is that the pregnancy numbers are so high that the politically correct Navy will not disclose the prego incidents for fear of feminists. One anonymous service member said that the only women not getting pregnant in the military are the lesbians.

Barack X. Obama, the metro-sexual, girlie-man plans to put women in land combat, in harm's way and into submarines.

He is not quite a real man.

John McCain does not want women on submarines or in combat. He is a real man. With the scars to prove it.

McCain gives us his body once broken. Obama has never broken a sweat. Never had a blister, the poor sweet man.

Our poor country...

Your Business Blogger(R) was once honored to give a speech to some sub vets,

Submariners' Memorial Service, Saturday May 13, 2000, Outer Banks, North Carolina

Debt of Honor

It is an honor to join you here today and remember the submariners "still on patrol." And to remember our debt of honor due. I've asked my son, John, to join us today -- a day I expect him to remember and take to his grave.

During World War II, my dad, a teenager from New Jersey, left high school, went to submarine school and was assigned to the USS Bonefish.

When John saw previews of the blockbuster movie U-571, he asked if it was about his grandfather. The movie is a story about honor, courage, strength, character, what being a man, a warrior really is. Yes John, your grandfather was in the movie, and so were each of the submariners here today.

But in the movie the men came home. We are here today for the men who didn't.

The only women on submarines during WWII were the Korean "Comfort Women" used as sex slaves on the Japanese boats. We won that war.

Posted at 6:43 AM | Permalink
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The Dreamer scored in the 93rd percentile in Math for her grade in the Commonwealth of Virginia. I promised her a reward night out -- But a daddy-daughter-dinner-date at Subways won't be happening.

A good deal of her education was in homeschooling where Your Business Blogger(R) worked with her on that topic that counted: Counting. The hard sciences that "girls don't do well."

Not good in Math? Not my girls. My expectation was that they would do well in the quantitatives. (Parent and teacher expectations are the biggest variable in the success of students.) My wife is a genius with SPSS and regression analysis . The Dancer and The Diva are rabid readers and love 'rithmatic -- and are bloggers.

The Penta-Posse are outliers on the bell curve of school age young'ums.

So. I promised The Dreamer a night out. But not at Subway. The restaurant is off the good-guy list for two reasons:

1) The company doesn't care for homeschoolers, and

2) They can't spell.

Our friend Don Wildmon at the American Family Association sends this along,

Subway tells home schoolers: We will not allow you to participate in our contest. Subway discriminates against home schoolers.

Subway, the sandwich restaurant, wants to hear your child's story – unless he or she is home schooled.

The national chain's "Every Sandwich Tells a Story Contest" offers prizes and a chance to be published on the Subway Web site and in Scholastic's "Parent & Child" magazine but specifically excludes home schoolers. Subway's website states:

NO PURCHASE NECESSARY TO ENTER OR WIN. Contest is open only to legal residents of the Untied (sic) States who are currently over the age of 18 and have children who attend elementary, private or parochial schools that serve grades PreK-6. No home schools will be accepted.

Subway will probably say they excluded home schools because of the main prize ($5,000 worth of athletic equipment to the winning child's school). But Subway could have given it to a local park, church or school of the winning home schooler's choice.

Subway's Web site promotion not only misspells "Untied (sic) States," but offers the grand prize winner a "Scholastic Gift Bastket (sic) for your home."

Subway's leadership clearly does not understand the value of homeschooling. In addition to learning how to spell, we are keeping our kids clear of the public schools' Family Life Education: Which is, as is commonly known, Sex Ed taught by liberals. When almost 20% of teens have herpes -- one would hope that this objective fact might persuade our feminist free-lovers that the condom classes might not be working.

Nope. The public payroll sex trainers are working even harder.

Here's some of what appears in Family Life Education for grades six through eight,

6.1 The student will learn that there are many health care and safety agencies in the community.
No need to talk with mom or dad, or aunt Sally or uncle Joe. The Planned Parenthood abortion clinic is just around the corner.

6.7 The student will be able to describe the etiology, effects and transmission of the HIV virus.
Clean needles for drug users? Contaminated blood supply? This is more important than spelling or math? The school will not reveal the detail of homosexual sex acts in the spread of the HIV virus. I did see a very nice man who teaches the course, however.

6.8 ...[E]valuate ...sexuality, and gender stereotyping...
The feminists are determined to get women in combat in the armed services.

7.7 The student will recognize that sexual behaviors are conscious decisions...
The public schools are a bit confused even about their own world view: homosexuality is a conscious decision; a preference -- not an orientation. FLE lurched into the truth.

So Subway supports only public schools, can't spell and doesn't like homeschoolers.

Dinner at Subway? No sirree -- We all are a-going to Chick-fil-a.


Chick-fil-A

Thank you (foot)notes:

Tom Peters once remarked that excellence should permeate an organization, especially for managing the perceptions of the customer. This is why managers make so much money. Airlines, in the consumers' mind, must understand that if the tray tables are dirty, the airline doesn't do engine maintenance.

The Army taught if boots were not shined, the soldier couldn't shoot straight.

If Subway can't spell, their food will make you [sic].

Send an e-mail to Subway President Frederick A. DeLuca. Tell him you will not eat with them anymore until and unless they allow home schoolers to participate. ©2008 Doctor's Associates Inc. SUBWAY® is a registered trademark of Doctor's Associates Inc.

This is an unpaid endorsement of Chick-fil-A.

See some commonsense at The sexual ‘revolution’ that keeps on turning

This is a cross post from Pro-Life Unity.

Posted at 10:36 PM | Permalink
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Martha McCallum on FOX Charmaine will be appearing on the FOX News Live Desk with Martha McCallum to discuss today's hot topics:

Clinton's undisciplined messaging; McCain invites Obama to Iraq; Allergic to WiFi under ADA?

Alert Readers might be interested in our recent article in National Review Online by Your Business Blogger(R) and Charmaine on Hillary Clinton's management style: The woman can’t manage. “Bad Management”

Hit time is 1pm eastern on FOX News.

Thank you (foot)notes:

Please email us your comments.

See Does Wi-Fi Violate the ADA?

I'm dubious that this is a violation of the ADA. If the plaintiffs feel the effects of Wi-Fi signals even inside their specially protected homes, it's hard to see how the city (which has got to be an awfully minor contributor to the aggregate Wi-Fi signals within its boundaries) could reasonably modify its policies and practices to avoid the problems these plaintiffs are facing.

USAToday, Allergic to WiFi? Group fights Internet hotspots in Santa Fe,

[t]he World Health Organization says there's little to suggest that electromagnetic fields are responsible for the "range of non-specific symptoms" that such sufferers have described.

"A number of studies have been conducted where [electromagnetic hypersensitivity] individuals were exposed to [electromagnetic fields] similar to those that they attributed to the cause of their symptoms. The aim was to elicit symptoms under controlled laboratory conditions," the organization says. "The majority of studies indicate that EHS individuals cannot detect EMF exposure any more accurately than non-EHS individuals. Well controlled and conducted double-blind studies have shown that symptoms were not correlated with EMF exposure."

The World Health Organization reports on This reputed sensitivity to EMF has been generally termed “electromagnetic hypersensitivity” or EHS,

A number of studies have been conducted where EHS individuals were exposed to EMF similar to those that they attributed to the cause of their symptoms. The aim was to elicit symptoms under controlled laboratory conditions.

The majority of studies indicate that EHS individuals cannot detect EMF exposure any more accurately than non-EHS individuals. Well controlled and conducted double-blind studies have shown that symptoms were not correlated with EMF exposure.

It has been suggested that symptoms experienced by some EHS individuals might arise from environmental factors unrelated to EMF. Examples may include “flicker” from fluorescent lights, glare and other visual problems with VDUs, and poor ergonomic design of computer workstations. Other factors that may play a role include poor indoor air quality or stress in the workplace or living environment.

There are also some indications that these symptoms may be due to pre-existing psychiatric conditions as well as stress reactions as a result of worrying about EMF health effects, rather than the EMF exposure itself.

From TechDirt, If You're Going To Claim That WiFi Violates The ADA, Shouldn't You Need To Prove It Actually Hurts People?

Posted at 10:42 AM | Permalink
Comments (0)

The Penta-Posse at
Arlington National Cemetary, 2005 Our good friend Mackubin Owens, Ph.D., has a terrific article up on NRO, Mystic Chords of Memory, From America's Founding, to the sacrifices of her sons and daughters, we remember.

This weekend, we mark the 140th anniversary of the first official observation of the holiday we now call Memorial Day, as established by General John A. Logan’s “General Order No. 11” of the Grand Army of the Republic dated 5 May, 1868. This order reads in part: “The 30th day of May 1868 is designated for the purpose of strewing with flowers and otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion, and whose bodies lie in almost every city, village and hamlet churchyard in the land.” Logan’s order served to ratify a practice that was already widespread, both in the North and the South, in the years immediately following the Civil War.

Alas, for many Americans today, Memorial Day has come to signify nothing more than another three-day weekend, a mere excuse for a weekend cook-out. Such an observance of Memorial Day obscures even the vestiges of its intended meaning: a solemn time, serving both as catharsis for those who fought and survived, and to ensure that those who follow will not forget the sacrifice of those who died that the American Republic and the principles that sustain it, might live.

"Mac" continues,

Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address gives universal meaning to the particular deaths that occurred on that hallowed ground, thus allowing us to understand Memorial Day in the light of the Fourth of July, to comprehend the honorable end of the soldiers in the light of the glorious beginning and purpose of the nation. The deaths of the soldiers at Gettysburg, of those who died during the Civil War as a whole, and indeed of those who have fallen in all the wars of America, are validated by reference to the nation and its founding principles as articulated in the Declaration of Independence.

Some will object, claiming that linking Memorial Day and Independence Day glorifies war and trivializes individual loss and the end of youth and joy. How can the loved ones of a fallen soldier ever recover from such a loss? I corresponded with the mother of one of my Marines who died in Vietnam for some time after his death. He was an only child and her inconsolable pain and grief put me in mind of Rudyard Kipling’s poem, Epitaphs of the War, verse IV, “An Only Son”:

I have slain none but my mother, She
(Blessing her slayer) died of grief for me.

Kipling too, lost his only son in World War I.

But as Holmes said in 1884, “[G]rief is not the end of all. I seem to hear the funeral march become a paean. I see beyond the forest the moving banners of a hidden column. Our dead brothers still live for us, and bid us think of life, not death — of life to which in their youth they lent the passion and joy of the spring. As I listen, the great chorus of life and joy begins again, and amid the awful orchestra of seen and unseen powers and destinies of good and evil our trumpets sound once more a note of daring, hope and will.”

This Memorial Day the household of Your Business Blogger(R) will fly our Flag as we always do and remember those who "gave the last full measure" and died in service.

Dad is buried in Arlington National Cemetery. The years on his head stone tell of his full life. Our family was so lucky.

Nearby head stones tell of service men who died far too soon. Far too young. In war for us.

Danny Boy
The BalladThe Irish classic Danny Boy has a long and varied history. The following explanation is my favorite and the simplest,

Once, a long time ago there was an old man who had raised many sons who he loved dearly. A war raged over the land that they lived in and one by one he saw each of them go off to fight and not return. Then one day, as harvest time drew near, he knew that his youngest, and most precious, son would soon be going off to fight just as his brothers before him. The old man was sad and knew that he may never see his last boy alive. He looked intently at the young lad, and with tears in his eyes he sang this song.

The ballad cannot begin to reveal the emotion and the pain of fathers and mothers who bury sons in a time of war.

I do not know how families do this.

But I do know that we must be grateful.

We are so lucky. Happy Memorial Day.

Thank you (foot)notes:

See Meditation on Suffering and Sacrifice,

The famous chapel on the grounds of the United States Air Force Academy nestled at the base of the Rocky Mountains is more truly a cathedral. Outwardly, it is all sleek silver-wing metal, with seventeen external buttresses, knifing severely skyward. Designed to evoke an air-frame, the architecture does not immediately summon spiritual devotion.

But cross the threshold, step inside, and one is transported to another plane. The solemn air is bathed in the soft splendor of muted light. While the stern steel silhouette dominates the external view, the interior reveals the fragile panels of stained-glass that the harsh ribs support. The intricate glass panes filter and animate the sunlight, illuminating the sacred space with almost a visual hush.

At the front of the chapel, a single row is roped off. "Reserved" the sign says, for all the United States aviators who are missing in action or prisoners of war. The only occupant of the pew is a single, burning candle.

"Greater love hath no man than this. . ." reads the plaque. The Scripture it alludes to concludes: "that a man lays down his life for his friends."

My thoughts immediately fly to my boy, my sweet Dude, who wants to be a fighter pilot. And baby Boo, who will almost certainly want to follow his older brother. My heart blanches. How could I bear it? And yet so many other mothers -- gold-star mothers -- even this very day, must find a way when their sons have given the last measure of devotion.

Be sure to read Charmaine's post from 2005, Memorial Day: Arlington National Cemetery

Danny Boy Lyrics at the jump

Continue Reading »

Posted at 9:54 PM | Permalink
Comments (0)

A product of...
Navy Office of Information
www.navy.mil
703.697.5342
April 24, 2008
U.S. Fourth Fleet Re-Establishment
“Re-establishing the Fourth Fleet recognizes the immense importance of maritime security in the southern part of the Western Hemisphere and signals our support and interest in the civil and military maritime services in Central and South America. Our Maritime Strategy raises the importance of working with international partners as the basis of global maritime security. This change increases our emphasis in the region on employing naval forces to build confidence and trust among nations through collective maritime security efforts that focus on common threats and mutual interests.”
– Adm. Gary Roughead, Chief of Naval Operations
After extensive consideration and consultation, the Secretary of the Navy and the CNO have concluded that there are clear and compelling reasons to re-establish Commander, U.S. Fourth Fleet Headquarters as dual-hatted with Commander, U.S. Naval Forces Southern Command.
Conducting the Maritime Strategy in a dynamic maritime region
A Fourth Fleet headquarters would be more effective in conducting the full spectrum of Maritime Strategy missions which promote and strengthen coalition building, develop partner nation capabilities and deter aggression.
• The command will provide enhanced support to U.S. Southern Command’s (SOUTHCOM) Operational and Contingency Plans, which are primarily maritime missions.
• As we have seen in other areas of the world, forward presence of naval forces provides regional stability and understanding of our local partners. The nation has vital interests in this dynamic region and economic stability is an imperative.
Ensuring optimal support to SOUTHCOM
Re-establishing a fleet-level staff will ensure optimal support to U.S. Southern Command through:
• Improved alignment for implementation of the Maritime Headquarters with Maritime Operation Center (MHQ/MOC) to enhance operational collaboration and exchange of information with regional maritime partners to improve regional maritime security activities.
• Operational compatibility with other Fleets including force management and resource allocation.
Demonstrating commitment to the SOUTHCOM region
SOUTHCOM is a maritime theater with more than 30 countries and about 15.6 million square miles of water.
• Designation as a numbered U.S. Navy fleet signals to civil and military maritime services in Central and South America our recognition of the importance of maritime security in the southern Western Hemisphere.
• Recent deployments to the region in 2007 include USNS Comfort, the USS Wasp Expeditionary Strike Group, HSV Swift Global Fleet Station pilot, and Partnership of the Americas (POA).
• Current and upcoming deployments include humanitarian assistance/disaster response deployment Continuing Promise and the ongoing POA 2008 which includes the annual multinational exercise UNITAS, hosted this year by Brazil and Peru; and FA PANAMAX, hosted each year by Panama.
Key Messages
Facts & Figures
• A Fourth Fleet headquarters will be more effective in conducting the full spectrum of operations to promote and strengthen coalition building, develop partner nation capabilities and deter aggression.
• The United States has vital national interests in this dynamic region of the world. Regional economic stability is a must.
• Re-establishing the Fourth Fleet elevates the attention this area will receive.
• Approximately 40% of U.S. trade and 50% of oil imports are within this hemisphere, including more than 33% of U.S. energy imports.
• Approximately 50% of Latin American exports go to the United States.
• The command will initially be in Mayport, Fla. and use existing infrastructure and personnel.
• Fourth Fleet will not control ships in Mayport.

Thank you (foot)note to John Howland.

Posted at 9:53 PM | Permalink
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Your Business Blogger(R) has an old article at National Review Online about the loss of the submarine,

Five Days in May: The loss of the USS Scorpion.

By Jack Yoest

Yolanda Mazzuchi was about the prettiest girl in our school class. Our dads were in the Navy, often gone for months at a time. And they would be welcomed home at dockside with cheers and homemade signs. These gatherings at the D&S Piers at the Naval Base in Norfolk, Virginia, were a regular part of our lives growing up. Families often took children out of school to celebrate a ship’s homecoming.

At 1 in the afternoon on Monday, May 27, 1968, at the height of the Cold War the USS Scorpion was due in port.

Yolanda didn’t know it then, but her dad was already dead....

Follows is an invitation to the 40th Anniversary Memorial Weekend for the USS Scorpion.

April 24, 2008

Dear USS Scorpion Families / Shipmates / Friends:

MaryEtta and I hope you have made your reservations at Norfolk’s Downtown Radison Hotel for the USS Scorpion, SSN-589 40th Anniversary Memorial Service weekend. The program has been finalized and we are honored to have Vice Admiral John J. Donnelly, Commander, Submarine Forces, as our keynote speaker at the memorial service. We have a full weekend planned, thanks to our sponsors and your support of our T-shirt sale.

After checking-in at the Radison, please join us in the USS Scorpion, SSN-589 Hospitality Room. There you can pick up all the information for the weekend activities as well as reuniting with old friends. The room will be open all day and well into the evening, so if you are staying at another location, please come by and say hello.

***Note to USS Scorpion family members and crew***
The Newport News Father Bader Assembly of the Knights of Columbus is hosting a picnic at Fleet Park starting at 1:00 PM on Saturday in honor of the USS Scorpion family and former crewmembers. This is a ticketed event, so please see Barbara Lake in the Hospitality Room to receive your tickets. If you can’t pick them up on Friday, please see me before or after the memorial service.

This will be the last mailing we will be sending out before the memorial service. As always, if you have any questions please do not hesitate to call Mary Etta.... I will have my cell phone on all weekend if anyone needs assistance or information.

Attached you will find the full schedule events. Look forward to seeing everyone very soon.

Sincerely,

Art Nolan
In honor of Wally Bishop, Chief of the Boat

More at the jump.

Thank you to John Howland at USNA-AT-LARGE

Continue Reading »

Posted at 9:42 PM | Permalink
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Our liberal friends at PBS have put together a program on the Navy.

Remember, any time 'Hollywood' gets near the military, the result always degenerates to an anti-war film.

USS Nimitz From: Chief of Naval Operations...

Beginning Sunday, April 27, PBS will air a reality-TV documentary
entitled "CARRIER", filmed while the production company was embarked
during the entire USS NIMITZ's 2005 deployment. The program will air
over five nights from Sunday, April 27, to Thursday, May 1, 2008,
9:00-11:00 p.m. ET.

Ten hours of film will be aired, selected from almost 2,000 hours that
were shot over the course of a 6-month deployment to CENTCOM. I have
viewed the production and want to share context and some thoughts
with you.

While "Carrier" shows the outstanding work our young Sailors do every
day and the opportunities the Navy offers, it also shows Sailors
making mistakes in their personal and professional lives. The
snapshot is frank and may be somewhat disconcerting to some who came
into the Navy some time ago. However, that said, I believe it will
also resonate with a significant segment of our country, especially
potential recruits and young Sailors serving today.

1) What we did. We provided unprecedented access to our Sailors,
and this production tells their story in a very personal way. There
is no narrator -- the stories are told by the Sailors themselves.
You get unvarnished views from junior personnel about their hopes,
aspirations, and challenges of life in the Navy aboard the carrier.
We did not get between the film crews and the Sailors.

2) What we got. The production highlights the racial, gender,
religious, and socio-economic diversity of our Navy. The hard work
our Sailors perform and the remarkable feat of forging thousands of
individuals on a carrier into a truly unique team really shines
through. Culling through hundreds of hours of video, the producers
created a 10-hour reality-TV documentary that shows selected aspects
of our Sailors' personal and professional challenges. The
cinematography is very high quality and the visuals and music are
sure to appeal to younger audiences.

3) What we did not get. We did not get a Navy "commercial" in the
traditional sense. "CARRIER" is very different from the hardware
documentaries we have supported in the past. This program focuses on
our people and the reality-TV approach gives it a sense of
authenticity and credibility. Since we did not monitor the
individual interviews and ongoing production, the program contains
material that does not always and fully represent the discipline,
values and mission of the U.S. Navy.

You will see some Sailors making personal and professional mistakes,
and expressing opinions that are different from the Navy's. However,
the production shows that these are the exception, not the norm, and
that leadership is engaged to shape lives and appropriate outcomes.
There are abundant examples of how the Navy changed Sailors' lives
for the better by giving them opportunities and a disciplined
environment.

4) Why did we agree to the project? This production, although not an
all-inclusive picture of the Navy, will give potential recruits and
those who influence them a glimpse of what life is really like in the
Navy. We want the American people to know, understand and appreciate
the contribution our Sailors make each and every day while deployed
around the world. We also want them to know us, not as a monolithic
bureaucratic entity, but as a diverse organization of individual
Americans who have set aside the comforts of home and have put
themselves on the line to serve a greater cause. You already know
how inspiring our people are, but few in our Nation get to see our
people in an operational environment.

Some of you may be called upon to offer public comments about this
film to the media or to community groups. We will soon distribute PA
guidance to support your efforts and will be putting additional
information on www.navy.mil in the near future. If you need any
additional information, please contact CHINFO, RDML Frank Thorp.

Thank you for all that you do.

All the best,

Gary Roughead

Thank you (foot)notes:

Thank you to John Howland at USNA-AT-LARGE for sending this out.

See more pictures.

Posted at 11:35 AM | Permalink
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Charmaine Yoest, Ph.D. addresses
the 2,600 attendees at last year's Summit
Photo Credit: Peter Shinn Hold September 12 on your calendar for the Values Voter Summit in Your Nation's Capital.

Called "the most exciting meeting there is in Washington" by author and radio host Bill Bennett, FRC Action's 2007 Values Voter Summit (formerly "The Washington Briefing") attracted over 400 national and international members of the media, a waiting list of speakers, and thousands of values voters representing nearly every state in the union and many foreign countries.

On September 12-14, 2008, 60 days before an historic election, FRC Action (a 501c4) will host its third annual Values Voter Summit at the Hilton Washington in downtown D.C., and you are invited.

As a participant in one of the conservative movement's must-attend events of the year, you'll have the opportunity to hear from some of America's key leaders at a decisive moment in our nation's history, including invited speakers such as Newt Gingrich (confirmed), Chuck Colson, Lou Dobbs, Bill Bennett (confirmed), Lt. Col. Oliver North, Gov. Bobby Jindal, Gov. Mike Huckabee, Star Parker (confirmed), Justice Clarence Thomas, Patricia Heaton, Roger Hedgecock (confirmed), House and Senate leaders, and all the 2008 presidential nominees.

Charmaine at the podium 2006 In addition to lively discussions on issues ranging from life, marriage, school choice, and radical Islam to judicial activism and religious liberty, attendees can take part in: celebrity book signings; breakout training sessions; Radio and Bloggers' Row; special co-sponsored meals hosted by Focus on the Family Action, American Values, and Alliance Defense Fund; a unique student track (including a Friday night reception); and the Faith, Family, and Freedom Gala Dinner on Saturday evening.

The Values Voter Summit is quickly becoming one of Washington's most anticipated weekends of the year. Packages start at just $95 for adults and $50 for students and pastors. Sign up now and enjoy a $25 early-bird discount! Registration opens online tomorrow, March 15, at www.valuesvotersummit.org. Call 1-877-372-2808 for more details.

Thank you (foot)notes:

See Values Voter Summit 2007 and more.

Posted at 3:26 PM | Permalink
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Governor Huckabee and Charmaine
In the background, Princella Smith and our Diva-girl Watching the Huckabee concession speech and leaving the race Tuesday night made for an emotional evening in the Yoest household.

Charmaine sent short emails to the Huckabee team -- their responses were each measured and even-tempered, almost upbeat, having fought the good fight.

Today's Washington Update, from FRCAction notes:

Despite his exit, no one can deny how influential Mike Huckabee was in championing values issues in this crucial race. While yesterday was clearly a victory for McCain, the Arizona senator acknowledged that his work is just beginning.


To succeed in his bid for the White House, McCain must consolidate his support among conservatives, including social conservatives, which will not happen just because he is the Republican nominee.


In the wake of the Republican scandals that began to surface in 2006 and the failure to advance most of the social conservative agenda, unqualified support for the GOP has diminished.

David Huckabee and Charmaine

A poll released last month by George Barna revealed that if the election were held then, only 45 percent of Evangelicals would vote for a Republican candidate.


That number is down from 85 percent of Evangelicals who voted for George W. Bush in 2004.


John McCain will have to convince social conservatives that their issues matter and that he can talk about them as a candidate and act upon them as president.

Conservatives/evangelicals still have questions about McCain's stand on the major issues of family values, immigration, campaign finance and women in combat. But McCain is our guy.

Obama-Clinton is not.

Thank you (foot)notes:

Read Mike and Janet Huckabee's email at the jump.

Continue Reading »

Posted at 7:24 PM | Permalink
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The Dude and Baby Boo circa 2005
USAF Academy The Dude wants to fly military war planes. Never too early to start planning. So which branch? Air Force or Navy?

John Howland who runs USNA-AT-Large has (very) Alert Readers who have written in with suggestions on just this topic. The following deserves a wide audience to aid the high schoolers -- and younger -- students in picking a military academy.

"Bill Taylor provides this handy guide for young Americans who have the choice --

Great comparison of USAF vs. USN Aviators. Pretty much fits my experience.
Regards, Bill

The piece is written by Bob Norris, a former Naval aviator who also did
a 3 year exchange tour flying the F-15 Eagle. He is now an accomplished
author of entertaining books about U.S. Naval Aviation including "Check
Six" and "Fly-Off".

Check Six
Bob Norris

In response to a letter from an aspiring fighter pilot on which military
academy to attend, Bob replied with the following:

22 December 2005
Young Man,

Congratulations on your selection to both the Naval and Air
Force Academies. Your goal of becoming a fighter pilot is impressive and
a fine way to serve your country. As you requested, I'd be happy to
share some insight into which service would be the best choice.

Each service has a distinctly different culture. You need to ask
yourself "Which one am I more likely to thrive in?"

Baby Boo, Your Business Blogger, The Dude
P-51 Mustang, USAF Academy

USAF Snapshot: The USAF is exceptionally well organized and well
run. Their training programs are terrific. All pilots are groomed to
meet high standards for knowledge and professionalism. Their aircraft
are top-notch and extremely well maintained. Their facilities are
excellent. Their enlisted personnel are the brightest and the best
trained. The USAF is homogenous and macro.

No matter where you go, you'll know what to expect,what is
expected of you, and you'll be given the training & tools you need to
meet those expectations. You will never be put in a situation over your
head. Over a 20-year career, you will be home for most important family
events. Your Mom would want you to be an Air Force pilot...so would your
wife. Your Dad would want your sister to marry one.

Navy Snapshot: Aviators are part of the Navy, but so are Black
Shoes (surface warfare) and Bubble Heads (submariners). Furthermore, the
Navy is split into two distinctly different Fleets (West and East
Coast). The Navy is heterogeneous and micro. Your squadron is your home;
it may be great,average, or awful. A squadron can go from one extreme to
the other before you know it.

Fly Off
Bob Norris

You will spend months preparing for cruise and months on cruise.
The quality of the aircraft varies directly with the availability of
parts. Senior Navy enlisted are salt of the earth; you'll be proud if
you earn their respect. Junior enlisted vary from terrific to the
troubled kid the judge made join the service. You will be given the
opportunity to lead these people during your career; you will be humbled
and get your hands dirty. The quality of your training will vary and
sometimes you will be over your head. You will miss many important
family events. There will be long stretches of tedious duty aboard ship.

The Chapel at the USAF Academy
Credit: The Diva

You will fly in very bad weather and/or at night and you will be scared
many times. You will fly with legends in the Navy and they will kick
your ass until you become a lethal force. And some days - when the
scheduling Gods have smiled upon you - your jet will catapult into a
glorious morning over a far-away sea and you will be drop-jawed that
someone would pay you to do it.

The hottest girl in the bar wants to meet the Naval Aviator.

That bar is in Singapore.

Bottom line, son, if you gotta ask...pack warm & good luck in
Colorado.

Banzai

P.S.: Air Force pilots wear scarves and iron their flight suits."

Thank you (foot)notes:

The Diva on the stick

Posted at 7:32 PM | Permalink
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Equal Treatment Under Law, by Steve Myers

Let us have the women join us, as we tumble down to war,

As we spill our blood - and others' only men have spilled before;

When the sisters see the monster that awaits us - will they cry

As it rushes, hits, and maims us in the twinkle of an eye?

Let the women see us weeping as we view our comrades, dead,

Then, continue to the skirmish with sheer mayhem in our heads,

"Follow me!" courageous mother! Mother Courage, know your name,

You may find yourself a leader when the choice is doom or fame

That takes us down to Hell's last ring, before we lift our eyes,

To a Nature without nurture - in the cordite-scented skies.

Yes, let us march together as we face the foe and fight,

You, the woman on my left hand I the man there at your right,

We will face the test together, but must struggle each, alone,

As a brother and a sister, but never quite as one.

For, when that moment happens, then the Solider-hood of arms

Confuses war's dark passion - and may do us deadly harm;

Now, command makes its decision; now the forward line will move,

It matters not this moment, whether talking heads approve,

We set aside the quibbling - take a deep and fearful breath --

The offering's gender - yours or mine - means naught to Sergeant Death.

Thank you (foot)notes:

Credit: John Howland's USNA-AT-LARGE, who says, "Maybe we will have to change the game if there are no satisfactory rules in the present contest."

Change.

Posted at 12:07 AM | Permalink
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The armed services has carefully outlined rules for engagement of the enemy and the use of deadly force. The USNA-At-Large and Don Rockwell have passed along to us this unclassifed (or so Your Business Blogger hopes) listing for each service.

Marine Corps Rules
1. Be courteous to everyone, friendly to no one.
2. Decide to be aggressive enough, quickly enough.
3. Have a plan.
4. Have a back-up plan, because the first one probably won't work.
5. Be polite. Be professional, but, have a plan to kill everyone you meet.
6. Do not attend a gunfight with a handgun whose caliber does not start with a "4."
7. Anything worth shooting is worth shooting twice. Ammo is cheap. Life is expensive.
8. Move away from your attacker. Distance is your friend. (Lateral & diagonal preferred.)
9. Use cover or concealment as much as possible.
10. Flank your adversary when possible. Protect yours.
11. Always win. There is no unfair fight.
12. In ten years nobody will remember the details of caliber, stance, or tactics. They will only remember who lived.
13. If you are not shooting, you should be communicating your intention to shoot.

Navy SEAL's Rules
1. Look very cool in sunglasses.
2. Kill every living thing within view
3. Adjust speedo.
4. Check hair in mirror.

US Army Rangers Rules
1. Walk in 50 miles wearing 75 pound rucksack while starving.
2. Locate individuals requiring killing.
3. Request permission via radio from "Higher" to perform killing.
4. Curse bitterly when mission is aborted.
5. Walk out 50 miles wearing a 75 pound rucksack while starving

US Army Rules
1. Curse bitterly when receiving operational order.
2. Make sure there is extra ammo and extra coffee.
3. Curse bitterly.
4. Curse bitterly.
5. Do not listen to 2nd LT's; it can get you killed.
6. Curse bitterly.

US ARMY RECON
1. Slip silently into area of operations.
2. Kill anything that moves or breathes.
3. Sneak out of area of operations.
4. Haul @ss to the LZ for the pickup.
5 Call in heavy artillery and an air strike to cover up infiltration activity.
6. Destroy all maps and reference materials.
7. Play dumb when you return to firebase.

US Air Force Rules
1. Have a cocktail.
2. Adjust temperature on air-conditioner.
3. See what's on HBO.
4. Ask "what is a gunfight?"
5. Request more funding from Congress with a "killer" Power Point presentation.
6. Wine & dine 'key' Congressmen, invite DOD & defense industry executives.
7. Receive funding, set up new command and assemble assets.
8. Declare the assets "strategic" and never deploy them operationally.
9. Hurry to make 13:45 tee-time.
10. Make sure the base is as far as possible from the conflict -- but close enough to have tax exemption.

US Navy Rules
1. Go to Sea.
2. Drink Coffee.
3. Deploy Marines

Posted at 5:39 PM | Permalink
Comments (4)

Rush Limbaugh
Photo Credit:
Your Business BloggerHow can one objectively measure support for a subject?

A person a talk on and on about caring and commitment, but how would a third party measure the good intention? Or even, dare we say, the condition of the heart?

The measurable answer may be seen in two items:

A calendar

A checkbook

A simple review of these two artifacts will reveal how much one does care. (Or even You, Gentle Reader.)

By this measure we can note that Limbaugh cares more about the troops than Reid. It is clear where Limbaugh puts his time and his treasure.

Rush Limbaugh talks about supporting the troops on his program and with his personal visits.

Harry Reid talks about surrender.

Tom McMahon presents this simple idea simply. Conservatives like to keep score. (Conservatives still want victory.) See Tom's scorecard on Limbaugh and Reid.

Thank you (foot)notes:

See: This War is Lost; Incompetent Generals: A Letter To Liberal Democrat Harry Reid

Harry Reid Democrat: This War is Lost; LT Landaker died for nothing

Where can the Alert Reader support the troops? Please consider Soldiers' Angels. And see Enlist in Soldier's Angels

Even if you don't care for George Soros (and how he made jillions shorting the British pound) there is no doubt where his heart is.

Posted at 4:12 PM | Permalink
Comments (2)

The Washington Briefing hosted by the Family Research Council in Your Nation's Capital this weekend was a success.

Over 400 people were issued media credentials. The media hits are still being counted. The FRC straw poll was mentioned a half-dozen times on the FOX debate last night.

This just in from FRC,

...the Briefing was covered by well over 400 members of the media, including 31 bloggers. C-Span broadcast the event live gavel-to-gavel and camera crews from all five networks and countries including Norway, Italy, Germany, Japan, Canada, and the Netherlands were present. The Briefing ended up with over 1200 media "hits" -- 1000 stories in print, as well as 235 in television coverage.

Thank you (foot)notes:

Be sure to read Management of New Media: 4 Lessons From The Washington Briefing by Your Business Blogger

Also see evangelical outpost: Reflections on culture, politics, and religion from an evangelical worldview.

And visit: Dr. Charmaine Yoest

And another view at Another monkey put in charge of the zoo

Family Research Council: General Schedule

More at the jump.

Continue Reading »

Posted at 2:13 PM | Permalink
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Gary Bauer has an excellent analysis of how liberal Democrats behave in power. Their disrespectful behavior would not improve if another Clinton were in the White House.

Charmaine has given congressional testimony and Your Business Blogger has attended a number of congressional hearings. Hearings are usually conducted with decorum and respect and dignity. The high ceiling-ed hearing rooms are treated as sanctuaries; like churches. And people are mindful of being considerate and deferential.

But not these days.

Bauer, as usual, gets it right on yesterday's hearings -- and his message deserves a wide audience.

The Inmates Are Running The Asylum

I spent most of the day on Capitol Hill yesterday, meeting with members of Congress and discussing important issues. The terrain is familiar to me, though it can be hostile at times. I have worked in this town for three decades, served eight years in the Reagan administration and have been through some tough hearings myself.

But yesterday something happened that I have never seen before, and even the Washington Post felt compelled to report the “theatrics” on page A2 today, noting, “the lid came off” of the liberals’ anger during a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing.

Simply put, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs General Peter Pace were ambushed by radical activists and liberal Democrats on the committee. Senator Robert Byrd, chairman of the committee and the top recipient of campaign cash from MoveOn.org, whipped the audience into a frenzy. Here is an excerpt from the Washington Post:

“He [Byrd] invited the audience in the room to join him in heckling the witnesses [Secretary Gates and General Pace], creating a responsive Greek chorus.

“Byrd: Are we really seeking progress toward a stable, secure Iraq?
“Chorus: No!

“Byrd: Is our continuing occupation encouraging the Iraqi people to step up?
“Chorus: No!

“Byrd: Are Iraq's leaders doing the hard work necessary?
“Chorus: No!

“Emboldened, two dozen hecklers in the audience from the antiwar group Code Pink continued to shout at the witnesses and wave signs for the better part of an hour. Finally, after Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA) challenged Pace on his view that homosexuality is immoral, the hearing collapsed as the hecklers shouted down the nation’s top military officer.

“...When the proceedings resumed, minus two dozen pink-clad demonstrators, Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) felt the need to ‘go on record with how disturbed I am about the conduct that occurred here. Such tension, such chaos, such disrespect.’”

What is described here is a mob scene in which top officials charged with the defense of our country were verbally harassed and insulted by arrogant politicians and a cadre of loud-mouthed radicals. Secretary Gates and General Pace were not there to offer testimony about the war. They were intentionally set up and they walked into a trap.

That kind of petty partisan behavior is disgraceful and unbecoming of the United States Senate. While I appreciate Senator Mikulski for speaking up, it’s no wonder that Congress’ approval rating has fallen to record lows lately.

By the way, when Senator Harkin decided to bring up the issue of open homosexuality in the military, General Pace reminded the senator that the U.S. Military Code of Justice prohibits homosexual activity -- and adultery. To which Sen. Harkin retorted, “Well, then, maybe we should change that.”

Wow! I wonder what the good folks back in Iowa think of that idea. I hope they will keep it in mind next year when Harkin runs for reelection.

Global Warming = Higher Taxes

Liberals in the House of Representatives are putting the finishing touches
on a plan to combat global warming, and, of course, it involves higher
taxes. Rep. John Dingell (D-MI), chairman of the House Energy and Commerce
Committee is being very blunt about the facts of the plan, saying, “I’m
trying to have everybody understand that this is going to cost and that
it’s going to have a measure of pain that you’re not going to like.”

In making his call for “shared pain,” Dingell is proposing – and you might
want to sit down for this – to hike gasoline taxes 50 cents a gallon;
phasing out the interest tax deduction for home mortgages; and a new tax on
carbon emissions of $50 per ton, which would increase the cost of
electricity, winter heating fuel, etc., etc.

I’ve been saying for some time now that this debate was headed in precisely
this direction. Regardless of the science or the value of being good
stewards of the environment, liberal Democrats are turning the policy
debate on its head and using it as a tool to accomplish their agenda of
bigger government, higher taxes and more control over your life.

Democrats Debate Values; Go Off The Deep End

An interesting question was posed to the Democrat candidates during last
night’s debate in New Hampshire. A member of the audience told the
candidates about a situation that occurred last year in Lexington,
Massachusetts, in which second grade students were read a “fairly tale”
about prince who could not find true love until he met another prince. The
book is called “King and King” and it is being used to indoctrinate young
children about same-sex “marriage.”

This concerned citizen asked each of the Democrat candidates, “Would you be
comfortable having this story read to your children as part of their school
curriculum?” Their responses were revealing.

Former North Carolina Senator John Edwards responded, “Yes, absolutely. I
want my children to understand everything about the difficulties that gay
and lesbian couples are faced with every day, the discrimination that
they’re faced with every single day of their lives.”

Barack Obama essentially agreed with Edwards, noting that children need to
understand that some people are different. Then it was Hillary’s turn.

“I really respect what both John and Barack said. With respect to your
individual children, that is such a matter of parental discretion,” Clinton
said.

Well, actually, it’s not. When the father of a child in the Lexington
class objected to what his son was being exposed to, he was told that
homosexual “marriage” was legal in Massachusetts. When he continued to
protest the school’s blatant disregard for parental rights, he was
arrested. Parents later sued the school district and a judge dismissed
their suit. So much for “parental discretion.”

I’m pleased to report that several Republican presidential candidates today
are noting just how extreme and out of touch the Democrats have become on
values issues. Earlier this year, the Democrats participated in the first-
ever “gay debate,” demonstrating the influence the militant homosexual
movement wields within the party of Clinton and Kennedy.

My friends, today’s news – liberal Democrats haranguing our military
leaders; trying to raise taxes through the roof; and forcing homosexuality
on our children – once again illustrates the stakes involved in the 2008
elections. I’ll be reporting even more in the days ahead. I hope you are
ready, and I hope you will support us!

Thank you (foot)notes:

If you would like to receive Gary Bauer's update by e-mail, you can sign up online at http://www.cwfpac.com/cwf_eod_request.php

If you would like to support his outstanding work, please click on the following link:
https://www.cwfpac.com/cwf_contribution.php

These are unpaid links for the Campaign for Working Families

Full Disclosure: Your Business Blogger and Charmaine have worked for Gary Bauer in different capacities over the decades.

Posted at 9:13 PM | Permalink
Comments (1)

This post is under the category of war. Here is a review of Reasoned Audacity's 9.11 posts over the years.

Following is background from Your Business Blogger in an article published just after 9.11. Things have changed since then. A little.

Booby traps at the Pentagon: Charmaine and Jack Yoest introduce you to the Pentagon's babes in arms. What do they want? An "open dialogue" on breastfeeding. (Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Services)

Originally published in The Women's Quarterly; January 01, 2002;


Pentagon attack
ON SEPTEMBER 10TH, [2001] the Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Services, the group most responsible for promoting women in combat, gathered in Pentagon Conference Room 5C1042. This civilian advisory committee, whose members have the protocol status of three-star generals, monitors the concerns of women in uniform. And what was the topic on the eve of the worst attack in U.S. history?

After briefings from representatives of the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, and Coast Guard, DACOWITS, as the committee is known, issued a formal request for more information on what they deemed a matter of paramount military significance:

breast-feeding.

As the terrorists prepared to hit the World Trade Center towers and the Pentagon itself, our military leaders were directed "to engage in open dialogue" on lactation tactics.

The Defense Advisory Committee on Women celebrated its fiftieth anniversary last April. At the birthday party, President Bush's deputy secretary of defense, Paul Wolfowitz, a man well regarded for his level-headed and conservative approach to military issues, lauded DACOWITS in his address as an outstanding organization" and told the assembly of earnest women that he "looked forward to [their] advice."

Read the article.

Dad & The Dude
prepared for war
September 11, 2001
photo credit:
Charmaine Yoest, Ph.D. Just after 9am on 9.11, I was doing what all business owners were doing: selling something. I was on the phone with a client. Making a pitch to attend a series of seminars, with CNN on in the background. I was a bit distracted by the live feed of a burning building.

While making 'the ask,' it was clear that my customer was not aware that we had just been attacked. I wanted to say something, like, Turn on your TV and stare at real pain. It just didn't look real. I continued instead with the conversation. Your Business Blogger is not normally so focused. In denial, perhaps. Disasters are not normally good for business.

There was work to be done. My next class was on September 19.

And I didn't want the customer on the other end of the phone distracted until the sale was closed. Then we could go to war.

The deal done, I noticed my boy, The Dude, was concerned that the attacks would continue down to us in Charlottesville, Virginia. "We got to get ready!" he shouts and scampers around digging up my old uniform, boots, saber and his grandfather's bayonet. (Old soldiers never die, they just file away. Apologies to MacArthur.)

The Dude spent the rest of the morning marching outside our front door. Looking out for terrorists. It must have worked.

Charlottesville was not attacked.

But we were affected. Everyone was. But I wasn't sure that the bank was going to delay getting their money over a pesky act of war. I still had to earn a living.

How would the war affect business? Not the macro, but mine? I had a seminar and clients coming into town in little over a week and the world was on fire. Would anyone show up? Would anyone care?

We North Americans do business like we do war. We win. Donald Trump becomes Victor Davis Hanson. At 8 am on 19 September 2001, 86 professionals showed up and got down to business. A packed room.

The free lunch helped.

Even my business partner, Faisal Alam, came down from New York City to join us. He is Muslim.

The country was mourning, but on the move.

I started with a minute of silence in remembrance of those lost in the World Trade Towers.

Then we all got back to work. Each making the world a better place. Even with a war on.

King Kong in New York CityFrom time to time, Your Business Blogger works out of a client's offices at the edifice at 350 Fifth Avenue in NYC.

Also known as The Empire State Building.

It is still standing.

So what didn't happen on New Year's Eve?

Nothing.

Enemy Jihadists didn't blow anything up. And they didn't touch Times Square packed with people at midnite 31 December.

President George Bush has been keeping us all safe since 9.11.

Even Michael Moore.

In war every soldier's death is a public event.

The Falling Man

credit: Richard Drew, AP

Because of 9.11, we are all soldiers now.

The Pentagon circa 9.11.06. Lit by 184 lights to commemorate each life lost there on 9.11.01
Credit: Unknown

A Thank you note to Michelle Malkin on 9.11 for Tom Junod's The Falling Man in Esquire.

Basil's Blog has open trackbacks.

Posted at 2:31 PM | Permalink
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Alexis de Tocqueville wrote about American exceptionalism; the American experiment,

If I am asked how we should account for the unusual prosperity and growing strength of this nation, I would reply that they must be attributed to the superiority of their women.

Your Business Blogger is not sure that this is what Alexis de Tocqueville meant:

Vanessa Dobos, gunner: the superior woman?

Following is Wafa Sultan, an Arab-American woman and psychologist from Los Angeles. She is debating the clash of civilizations. She reviews the fact that inferior civilizations use "women as beasts." There might be some confusion on how Islam jihadists and the American armed forces use women in combat.

Watch the clip here.

The video is a must see.

Thank you (foot)notes:

President George Bush said our women will not be in ground combat.

A C-130 doesn't count, I guess.

Thank you to Alert Reader Stan Honour for finding this vagina warrior.

Posted at 9:23 AM | Permalink
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Robespierre guillotined during the Reign of Terror, 1794
Some historians state that he was executed face up --
to watch the descending blade. There has been some concern and backlash on the 'justice' rendered to Naval Academy...attendee... Lamar Owens.

Gerald L. Atkinson writes on The New Age 'Diversity' and Its Discontents as part of his series on the Looming American Matriarchy. His article,

[A]ddresses the origins of the modern ‘diversity’ movement. It traces this movement in the U.S. Navy and in our broader society as well. It attempts to tie the loose ends of this subject together as it relates to the Looming American Matriarchy and the ‘counter-culture’ revolution of which it is a part.

Whereas the previous issue of this journal revealed the surprising depth to which the modern idea of ‘diversity’ has wormed its way deep into the heart and soul of the U.S. Navy -- and with the appointment of ADM Michael G. Mullen to be the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff -- eventually into the entire military.

This issue attempts to understand this phenomenon, ­ its essence, origins, adherents, and purpose. How could the radical feminists and their supporters embedded in every institution across the land over the past three or more decades have usurped the civil rights movement to the point where sexual politics trumps race?

The answer is straightforward.

We are fortunate to have a seminal book on this subject: Diversity: The Invention of a Concept by Peter Wood, Encounter Books 2003. Th[is] book provides an in-depth treatment of ‘diversity’ as a modern ideology.

The interesting aspect of this treatment is the striking parallel of the ‘excesses’ of the French Revolution with the New Age ideology of ‘diversity.’

One can imagine the next Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff as the counterpart of Robespierre ­-- the Fool as Revolutionary and Midshipman Lamar Owens and the hundreds of naval officer ‘warriors’ who have been ‘purged’ over the past two decades and are still being purged as the counterpart of the innocent Catholic priests who were put to the guillotine and drowned on barges in the wake of the blood bath of the Reign of Terror in France in 1789.

When will the modern day Robespierres find their just end?

It may be likely that the same forces that are alive and boiling under the surface in America ­ those forces that forced the politicians to scrap the recent seriously-flawed immigration legislation proposals will carry the day.

We must understand the difference between the Franco-German way and the Anglo-American way if we are to preserve our civilization as it was handed down to us by our Founding Fathers.

Thank you (foot)notes:

Half of Rape Allegations are False: Seven Clues from Your Business Blogger. A not so subtle point in Management Training.

And it is not just Lamar Owens. see Girls win -- Boys lose: Webster Smith, Coast Guard Academy Cadet Convicted What is it about feminists and black men?

Posted at 9:21 AM | Permalink
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Today, 27 July, marks the end of the live fire hostilities of the Korean War. Flags are to be flown at half-staff until sunset.

The Korean War began on 25 June 1950 when North Korean attacked South Korea.

And ended in a stalemate.

And a lesson. During the negotiations, the UN forces in US Army jeeps would drive the delegates under a flag of truce to the North Koreans.

The flag of truce was flying from the front fenders -- it was, of course, a white flag.

The white flag was reported by the Communists as a flag of surrender. A tremendous propaganda victory. It took the UN Forces a few days to catch on to the 'misinterpretation' that gave aid and comfort to the enemy.

Which is what will happen today if liberal Democrats have their way and retreat and withdraw from our current war in Iran. It will not be 'misinterpreted.'

It will be more than a white flag. It will not be a stalemate. It will be a surrender.

Thank you (foot)notes:

Your Business Blogger's father fought in the Korean War.

The citation reads, in part,

Pearl Harbor, March 20 [1951]...Boatswain's Mate Yoest received this medal for, "meritorious service as a member of a motor whale boat crew on board the USS CONSERVER, a rescue and salvage vessel, during the sinking of an allied mine sweeper in densely mined areas, subjected to enemy gun fire off Wonsan, Korea on 17 October 1950. He volunteered and took his boat on two successful trips at great personal risk, into the mined areas to rescue survivors, thereby minimizing the loss of life and contributing to the successful clearance of mine free channels and anchorage off Wonsan...

Chief Yoest now rests in Arlington National Cemetery.

Continue Reading »

Posted at 7:51 AM | Permalink
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George Patton gives a
motivational speech Alert Readers Stan Honour and Sidney Bostian send this YouTube link to what General George Patton might have to say on our global war on terror, if Patton were alive today.

Eye witnesses to Patton's original speech tell us that the talk is consistent with his introductory remarks to his new troops in World War ll.

The speech was powerful in real life.

And so powerful in the script that the director Franklin J. Schaffner had to take unusual steps not to offend lead actor George C. Scott, who was actually a bit squeamish about the violence and language of war-fighting.

The speech scene appears first in the movie. But Schaffner shot the scene at the end of the movie's production. Schaffner felt that if the speech was completed first, in sequence, that the volatile George C. Scott would not finish.

Finishing and sitting through the nearly three hour film was a concern about movie-goers too. When Your Business Blogger viewed the movie in a theater in 1970, there was an intermission to break up the 170 minute film.

And it was memorable...This is what made the movie so good,

Men, all this stuff you've heard about America not wanting to fight, wanting to stay out of the war, is a lot of horse dung. Americans traditionally love to fight.

All real Americans love the sting of battle. When you were kids, you all admired the champion marble shooter, the fastest runner, big league ball players, the toughest boxers. Americans love a winner and will not tolerate a loser. Americans play to win all the time. I wouldn't give a hoot in hell for a man who lost and laughed. That's why Americans have never lost, and will never lose a war... because the very thought of losing is hateful to Americans.

Patton was refering to Real Americans, of course.

Not liberal Democrats, who, as is well known, do not hate anything.

Thank you (foot)notes:

My favorite quote from Patton on teamwork, The bilious bastards who came up with that stuff about individuality know as much about battle as they do about fornicating. Which is why the liberal Army of One marketing campaign was nonsense.

My favorite quote from Patton on management training, In about fifteen minutes, we're going to start turning these boys into fanatics - razors. They'll lose their fear of the Germans. I only hope to God they never lose their fear of me. Not a problem for the manager as sociopath.

Of course K-Lo has it at the Corner: Patton on the War on Terror [Crude Language Warning] [Kathryn Jean Lopez]

And Blogs for Fred Thompson.

Continue Reading »

Posted at 6:34 AM | Permalink
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Boo, The Diva and The Dancer
with Your Business Blogger's
Mao Man Bag (for diapers) I asked the woman why she wanted to work for us.

"The Terrorists are trying to kill me."

I knew this was not to be an ordinary job interview.

Charmaine and I were hiring a housekeeper in the early 90's, and Mrs. C was referred to us, because she was well qualified. She used to own a day-care business.

In Peru.

And her husband was a manager for a manufacturer for a US based company. The rebel communists, the Sendero Luminoso -- or Shining Path -- had picked up the local company organization chart and began picking off the managers in quick order.

A well executed plan.

Like a good org chart shaped like a pyramid, the terrorists started at the bottom and were working their way up the corporate ladder fast.

The hierarchy of the career path was easy to follow for the Shining Path. The communists are nothing if not consistent. Just as they were in Stalin's day, the communist's were executing the managers, killing their way up the org chart.

Mr. C thoughtfully decided to leave the company, wanting to spend more time with the family...in another country.

So Mrs. C packed up her two girls and hubby and moved to America and was given earned asylum. I admired her resilience. Her ingenuity. Her gumption.

Her green card.

Filled with compassion, as is my nature, I hired her and her valid status.

We learned a bit about Peru and the kind of terrorism that kills immediately and immediate family. The terrorists, with the accent on the last syllable. We learned that the people of Peru loved freedom, hated communism.

Cameron Diaz
with Mao bag in PeruSo we were surprised that the well-briefed commie babe Cameron Diaz would go to Machu Picchu, Peru with her trendy, yet practical, Mao Bag with bold Red Star and well-placed slogan Serve the People in the ever- popular military drab olive green.

Peruvians did not appreciate her "style."

The nation of Peru is still healing from the almost 70,000 murdered by the Shining Path. Not quite the head count of Stalin or Mao, but still a not-too-shabby benchmark in the Commie Accounting.

Cameron Diaz did apologize for her thoughtlessness.

But it is not just the thoughtless commies in Hollywood who are insulting the people of Peru. Our very own (elected) commies Democrats in Congress are insulting Peru.

Democrats are insulting the government of Peru by modifying trade deals. Not content with attempting to run our lives here in the States, the Dems are micro-managing in Peru. And are screwing up a good trade deal.

But Your Business Blogger wants to assure our friends in Peru that the American People are not represented (so to say) by the Democrats in our Congress. That our government really wants free trade and free people to do business.

So we put The Dreamer, our first born, on Copa Airlines this morning out of Dulles Airport with a suitcase full of new shoes for children in Lima.

The Peruvians fought communism and are now fighting Democrats, the least we can do is support these freedom fighters.

The Dreamer, being brighter than Cameron Diaz, did not take her Mao bag to Peru. She is taking our good will and a big heart and a suitcase full of shoes.

To make a difference one child to one child.

The Penta-Posse minus The Dreamer
at a Potomac Nationals minor league game in
Northern Virginia. We won beating the Salem Avalanche,
farm team for the Houston Astros.

Thank you (foot)notes:

The Dreamer blogs at A Different Kind of Drama. Visit for another shot of the Mao bag.

Last year, when our church went to share Jesus with the people of Peru, they found many children arriving to Bible studies in bare feet. . . this year, our group from McLean Bible Church will arrive with over 500 pairs of shoes so that they can practice "Feet-First" evangelism.

Your Business Blogger bought the Mao bag on a trip to China. It was, I believe the only item in the entire country that was not violating American intellectual property.

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Posted at 1:18 PM | Permalink
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Roy Blunt
Credit: The DudeYour Business Blogger was wondering what the Republicans were going to do about the war, the wall, Osama, Obama. So I wandered over to The Heritage Foundation this afternoon for a free lunch. And happened upon The House Minority Whip, Roy Blunt, an R from fly-over country.

If any one could, well, show me, it'd be someone from Missouri.

The Dude tagged along. He's likes a free meal as much as his dad.

The Dude live blogged. Sarah Little from Blunt's press office ablely worked the crowd. See The Dude's report at Panzer Commander.

After Blunt's talk, I feel a bit better about the state of the Union. Not that the GOP may or may not get good things done, but at least they might stop bad things from happening.

Which might be good enough -- it is around our house. Which is like a carnival.

But for well organized carnivals, here are some suggestions,

See Blog Carnival of Observations on Life July 8, 2007, By Anja Merret. While there visit Reciprocity - What we do in Life always comes back to us March 17th, 2007 by Callum.

But sometimes good does not come back measure for measure. I've found the ratio to be about 10-to-1. See What is the best tactic to get a referral? More Biblical than Karma-tic.

Visit The Carnival of Family Life. See Physical Education.

Stop by Carnival of Life, Happiness & Meaning #8, hosted by Life Insurance Lowdown, Life insurance news, reviews and tips. Don't let the title scare you (as it did me). No agent will call. No emails from Nigeria. And see What Makes a Relationship Great? Much more articulate than The Complete Married Man's Guide To Spousal Responses.

For a good post on Office Politics. Read Management vs. Politics by HotStrategies.

It is not until we look at later definitions... that we see a political content. He maps management as ‘SAMP’, Science, Art, Magic and Politics. In this definition we are seeing politics as part of management activity in which he acknowledges that in order to be a successful manager an individual has to know how to “play the game” in order to achieve his objectives.

For more on Office Politics, with a nifty video see Management Training, Tip #1 at the last Office Politics link.

And please visit Carnival of Family Life - June 25 2007 for about the nicest compliment Your Business Blogger got all week.

Thank you (foot)notes:

See Roy Blunt's speech at the jump. From his website,

As Whip, Congressman Blunt is the second highest Republican in the House of Representatives. He selects and leads a team of Deputy and Assistant Whips, which columnist Robert Novak has described as "the most efficient party whip operation in congressional history."

Continue Reading »

Posted at 6:03 PM | Permalink
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If it were not for the US of A, the French would be wearing lederhosen.

But an even better joke (at French expense, of course) is re-told by Mark Petersen from the US Naval Academy at Large,

A US Navy Admiral was attending a naval conference that included 20 Admirals from the US, English, Canadian, Australian and French Navies.

At a reception, he found himself standing with a huge group of officers that included personnel from most of the countries.

Everyone was chatting away in English as they sipped their drinks, but a French admiral suddenly complained that, whereas Europeans learn many languages. Americans learn only English.

He then asked."Why is it that we always have to speak English in these conferences rather than speaking French?"

Without hesitating, the American Admiral replied, "Maybe it's because the Brit's, Canadians, Aussie's and Americans arranged it so you wouldn't have to speak German"

You could've heard a pin drop.

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Two years ago Your Business Blogger sent the Little Woman to the G-8 with the B3: Bono and Branson and Bush. Scotland and England are still being bombed by the jihadists.

Not the US of A. Not yet. We must be doing something right.

Follows is a re-post of Charmaine's reporting from Edinburgh and London on 7.7.05.

Charmaine on the plane with Richard Branson

Following is an edited cross post from Charmaine's Reasoned Audacity, July 1 - 7, 2005.

A year ago, Charmaine calls early morning from Edinburgh. "I'm having trouble flying into London," she says.

I'm still waking up. I ask, "When can you come home?"

"I don't know," she says, her voice unsteady, "They're still clearing the bodies."

A wake up call.

London, welcome to the war.

It started, as most things these days do, with Powerline.

Following is original posting from London as Charmaine called it into me, when her site went down. Any inconsistencies may be due to transcription overload.

This is Jack, the husband: Charmaine called. Her site is still down, but she wanted to file a report to Powerline.

"Flew into Heathrow airport and took a $150 cab ride into north London to conduct interviews and document the bombsites. Bobbies cordoned off area around the sites sealing the scene of the explosions. I got to within a block or so of Edgware Tube station entrance with Londoners sitting calmly, relaxing in pubs. Everything is strangely calm, business as usual. I interviewed a woman, an interior designer, expecting some emotional display. There was none. "We don't do a lot of group hugging in England," she said, making me think of the stiff-upper lip. "We are not sentimental."

And she seemed to reflect the mood of the London population. Not for what they were doing but for what they were not doing: No candles, no out-pouring of grief, no hoards of gawkers milling around police tape, no teddy bears, no bouquets of flowers. No movement. No tears. Everything normal, except, maybe for that bus with the top blown off. Workers cleared and cleaned up the area real well. Spiffy. And got back to their pints.

I visited hospitals and learned that 'only' 37 were confirmed dead at that time. More confirmations were expected.

There were no moms with little children in downtown London. I interviewed middle-aged businessmen on cell phones and kids with Mohawks, none who were surprised.

Londoners gently reproached me about my concern over the bloodshed, "You Americans get sentimental over silly things. We're used to getting bombed." The IRA Troubles had hardened hearts as well as the London infrastructure.

I expected some grief, at least as much as there was when Lady Di died. And grief I got. I interviewed three very ordinary, normal teenaged English Muslims, one with short spiky hair (dressed not unlike my 10 year-old-dude). All three seems to be parroting Muslim talking points. "The bombings were a conspiracy by Blair to generate support for the war," they recited in a charming British accent.

The bombers were quite indiscriminate. Edgware is not far from the heart of Little Beirut, a Muslim ethnic neighborhood.

A young British black woman told me, "The bombings are Tony Blair's fault -- they killed a 100 thousand Iraqis -- and it's like a boomerang [coming back at the British]." Most everyone I talked to believed that the British caused the bombing or had it coming.

Of the dozen or so people I interviewed only white males in business attire expressed surprise that anyone would think the British were at fault in anyway.

But these gentlemen were the minority. Most felt that the Brits were complicit. The people at London's ground zero were sounding like the "wobbly" Spanish after their train bombings.

The day is a cloudy, cold, rainy 7.7."

Charmaine is still out on the streets -- 9pm local London time and will be sending pictures soon.

Read the entire story at My Wife Flew off with Bono and Branson; Bombed in London 7.7.05 .

See Charmaine and Michelle Malkin work to keep the Muslims from sawing off more heads.

CMR Salamander points to HotAir with video.

Posted at 10:40 PM | Permalink
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The only time a manager should shout or bark out an order demanding instant obedience is if the building is on fire: an emergency.

Navy Seal Marcus Luttrell had a few minutes to make a decision and decided to take a vote. It wasn't an emergency, just yet.

Get the whole story
Marcus Luttrell:
Lone Survivor

"It was the stupidest, most southern-fried, lamebrained decision I ever made in my life," Luttrell writes. "I must have been out of my mind. I had actually cast a vote which I knew could sign our death warrant. I'd turned into a (expletive) liberal, a half-assed, no-logic nitwit, all heart, no brain, and the judgment of a jack rabbit."

Marcus Luttrell tells his story in Lone Survivor and is reported in A war hero from Huntsville rues a decision made in Afghanistan, By FRITZ LANHAM in the Houston Chronicle,

In June 2005, on a barren mountain high in the Taliban-infested Hindu Kush, Luttrell and three fellow Navy SEALs came together to talk.
Their mission -- to locate and possibly take out an important Taliban leader hiding in the Afghan village below -- had just been compromised.

Three goatherds, one a boy of about 14, had blundered onto their position.

Military discipline is the prompt obediance to orders or the initiation of appropiate action in the absence of orders. In the absence of clear rules of engagement, Marcus Luttrell was on his own. Which is what military officers and civilian managers expect -- to make decisions on minimal information.

As they saw it, they had two options: kill the Afghans, or let them go and hope for the best. They let them go.

It's a decision Luttrell bitterly regrets.

Marcus Luttrell made the decision balancing a possible murder charge -- which would have been demanded by the main stream media -- with the American lives for which he was responsible.

Within hours, more than 100 Taliban fighters descended on the SEAL team. In the terrible gun battle that followed, Murphy, Axelson and Dietz died. A few miles away, a Taliban grenade brought down a rescue helicopter on its way to help the trapped men, killing all 16 aboard. It was the worst day in the 40-year history of the Navy SEALs.

Marcus Luttrell made the wrong decision. He was thinking like a liberal instead of a military officer.

He reports that Axelson favored killing the goatherds. Dietz was neutral. Murphy and Luttrell voted to let them go.

In war every death of a military service member is a public event. Liberal influence has made difficult decisions nearly impossible to get right. Liberals have put our military in a no-win situation.

Losing is what liberals seem to want.

Danny Dietz
SEAL statue creates controversy in Littleton
Sculpture of fallen warrior
to include weapon in hands
City officials said Friday a statue
honoring slain Navy SEAL Danny Dietz
will be erected July 4 despite opposition
from a Littleton group claiming it
glorified violence because he is
depicted holding an automatic rifle.
Above, Dietz poses for a photo
while serving in Afghanistan in 2005.And now these same apparently-self-loathing-liberals do not want a memorial of Navy Seal Dietz with his automatic weapon.

Too violent.

Happy 4th of July.

Thank you (foot)notes:

More on Dietz at the jump.

John Howland writes,

just in case there is anyone ... who wonder[s] what it takes to be a core combat leader -- the first requisite is that you had better be totally prepared to kill -- if that makes you uncomfortable, then you are in the wrong place

See Deadly Double Standards in The Wall Street Journal, where DAVID G. BOLGIANO writes,

Lance Cpl. Justin Sharratt is a U.S. Marine who served in combat in Haditha, Iraq, and whose actions on the battlefield have made him the focus of an investigation. He is charged with committing three counts of unpremeditated murder on Nov. 19, 2005.

See Marcus Luttrell is "The One" - Sole Surviving Navy SEAL of the Battle of Asadabad at Black Five.

Continue Reading »

Posted at 9:00 AM | Permalink
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Your Business Blogger was having lunch in the Congressional Dining Room in Your Nation's Capitol. On the way there I saw the Best Bumper Sticker This Week,

PEACE HAD A CHANCE

Short phrase, short words, neat twist, compelling message.

My old boss, Jim Gilmore won the governorship of Virginia with the bumper sticker message,

NO CAR TAX

Dr. Frank Luntz writes about pithy messaging in his book, Words that Work, It's Not What You Say, It's What People Hear.

Frank has Ten Rules of Successful Communications:

1) Simplicity: Use Small Words

2) Brevity: Use Short Sentences

3) Credibility is as Important as Philosophy

4) Consistency Matters

5) Novelty: Offer Something New

6) Sound and Texture Matter

7) Speak Aspirationally

8) Visualize

9) Ask a Question

10) Provide Context and Explain Relevance

Can your marketing campaign fit on a bumper sticker?

Wendell Robinson has an excellent review of Luntz's book.

Media Matters doesn't like Luntz; at the jump.

Continue Reading »

Posted at 10:08 PM | Permalink
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Homosexuals at sea The Other Side of the Story

by Allan Slaff

On 13 June, the Wall Street Journal printed an op-ed piece by former congressman Bob Barr entitled “Don’t Ask, Who Cares” in which he argued that barring homosexuals from openly serving in the military was unfair, un-American and counterproductive. Mr. Barr writes that he has become deeply impressed with the growing weight of credible military opinion which concludes that allowing gays to serve openly in the military does not pose insurmountable problems for the good order and discipline of the services. With all due respect to the two authorities that he refers to, ex Senator Simpson and General Skalikeshveli, both of whom I greatly admire and respect, neither of them have any first hand idea of the sociological problems of going to sea in a man of war.

I strenuously disagree with Mr. Barr and his military authorities, and I would like very much to offer “The other side of the story”. Since I am a retired naval officer, I shall write to what I know well and that is going to sea in a man of war. I served in eleven ships of the Navy and had the unique honor of commanding four combatants including the heavy guided missile cruiser Albany all of which, by the way, were at the time considered among the finest combatants in the Fleet.

In a combatant ship our bluejackets are literally packed into berthing compartments, typically holding about 40 men. They are afforded minimum privacy even under the most enlightened habitability standards. As a nod for the need for some human privacy the modern enlisted bunks are fitted with a privacy curtain which they may close. Public nakedness is the reality of enlisted life in Navy ships and that pertains to the heads, and wash and shower rooms as well.

Our ships get underway for months at a time. The typical deployment when I was in the Fleet was for nine months and I understand that that is still typical. Thus, those compartments become the bluejackets’ home for very long periods of time. There is no such thing as going home ashore after your watch or if you are in a liberty section so that you may enjoy the company of your homosexual partner. There are of course occasional liberty ports but liberty for enlisted personnel usually expires in the late evening. The Fleet doesn’t even enter port for replenishment. All of that is done underway.

Now assign a few homosexuals into that living compartment when all of them including the homosexual are very young and when their hormones are at their most powerful and you have an invitation to disaster. It would be akin to inserting a few heterosexual males into an all female compartment where nakedness is a way of life and sending them off for months at a time. Impossible! And thus it would be exactly the same for the homosexual in a heterosexual male compartment.

As Mr. Barr correctly points out, the homosexual has as fine an intellect as the heterosexual. They thus eventually and inevitably they will be advanced in rating. As petty officers they will be in a position of powerful authority over men of lesser rating and thus in a position to exert exquisite sexual pressure on their subordinates.

For these very apparent sociological reasons it would be a disaster to change the present policy. It would reap havoc on the fighting efficiency of the Fleet and good order and discipline so necessary in a man of war. It just cannot happen.

Allan Slaff

Thank you (foot)notes:

Allan Slaff submitted this letter to the editors of The Wall Street Journal.

Credit to John Howland at USNA At Large.

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Posted at 10:19 AM | Permalink
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Einstein once remarked that a sign of intelligence was the ability to change direction quickly. If so, the following video is an excellent example of very destructive thinking.

The short clip is from the military. Ours.

The quick thinking/quick reaction would not surprise a conservative. And would surely disappoint a liberal.

Short Explanation Before Watching The F-16 - SIERRA HOTEL

This is a video from a F16 doing CAS (combat air strike) during the recent fighting in Fallujah. We have been bombing insurgent "safe houses" with some success recently. This F16 was on such a mission, to hit a building with an LGB (laser guided bomb). After the weapon had been launched 30 + insurgents left the building en masse to hurry to a nearby engagement with US Marines. The fighting had been going on for hours.

A new opportunity has come up since the plan was made. Threats and opportunities always, always pop up. Even if your plan has been in place for hours or months, the next action may have to turn in a new direction instantly.

The pilot communicates with the FAC (forward air controller) either in the air or on the ground, and changes the flight path of the bomb while it is en route to the target.

The decision maker may or may not know exactly where his team is located -- the team is probably not at his elbow -- the team may be off-shore or even out-sourced. But the boss can still guide the action across multiple silos.

You can clearly see the "L" flashing in the MFD (multi-function display), and TGP (terminally guided projectile) is selected.

Every manager has a matrix of info on his dashboard. In this scenario, the decision maker had data, maybe not complete, maybe not 100%, but enough to make a decision.

It is the pilot who says "I got numerous individuals on the road, do you want me to take those out?"

Your Business Blogger senses that the pilot is not quite asking permission in his request; he is merely alerting the controller that a new course of action is needed and will be done immediately. If, for example, there was a radio equipment failure, the pilot may very well have changed the mission rather than bomb an empty building.

Or perhaps like Nelson, the pilot would have turned a "blind eye" to an incomplete command.

Of course,

The FAC says "Take em out!"

The analyst continues,

Now, to put this in focus for you so you can get a glimpse into the complexities of the modern battlefield and the flexibilities of the modern U.S. war fighter: You have a supersonic high performance aircraft being driven by a single pilot who, under the tactical control of a FAC, launches a PGM (precision guided munition) at a designated structure (building).

The pilot uses the aircraft's laser guidance video display to guide the weapon to the target (precision).

Remember, he is also flying the aircraft. The pilot sees the video on his heads-up display and notices a bunch of combatants leaving the targeted building, turning the corner and heading down the street towards an active firefight. The pilot advises the FAC of the change in the status of the target requesting to target the combatants en route to the firefight rather than hitting an empty building.

Permission is granted.

The key phrase is "change of status." The US of A military is trained in flexibility. This is how America wins wars.

Wins military campaigns.
Wins civilian marketing campaigns.

Human Resource Managers: Hire a veteran. Not only because it is patriotic and the right thing to do, but because you will have a mature manager who can think and act on his feet. Hire him, if you can find him.

American business needs more vets. The taxpayer has already invested in the Management Training.

Watch the 53 second clip

Thank you (foot)notes:

Thank you to Alert Reader, Stan Honour, for forwarding.

The Army's definition of discipline is, The prompt obedience to orders, and the initiation of appropriate action in the absence of orders.

Full Disclosure: Your Business Blogger is biased -- and is a former Armored Cavalry Captain running a Management Training firm based on military principles. Our Management Training philosophy may surprise even the Alert Reader. See Management Training of DC, LLC.

Read Thomas Thompson's Tester on dcmilitary.com at the jump. Your Business Blogger made it required reading for The Dude on the value of initiative.

Continue Reading »

Posted at 7:16 AM | Permalink
Comments (1)

Some time ago, Your Business Blogger was invited by FOX NEWS to discuss social programs in the military and the new Congress. Following are the back of the envelope notes for the show prep.

Damascus Nancy Pelosi
Courtesy: Rush Limbaugh Liberal Democrats have taken control of Congress in this terrible time of war. What does this mean for the armed services?

High on the law makers' agenda is the Global War on Terror. The debate raging over our involvement in Iraq has been high profile and headline-grabbing.

But there is another agenda; a hidden one that isn't making headlines. An agenda that is attempting to change the culture of our military.

High on the hidden agenda is to advance liberal ideologies by remaking the military. This re-engineering campaign is a three-pronged effort:

1) Reinstituting the draft
2) Entrenching women in combat and
3) Encourage homosexuals in the military.

The Draft

Democratic Congressman Charlie Rangel is pushing the draft, using involuntary conscription as a legislative tactic to end what he sees as an unpopular war by having even smart rich white kids get killed.

But what is driving the congressman’s hidden agenda is to provide manpower in the cultural war. A few years ago army veteran Rangel first introduced legislation to bring back the draft for both men and women; with no exception for conscientious objectors. Draftees would “volunteer” for some approved social public-works. Liberals want legions of indentured servants for government programs.

The purpose of the draft is to maintain military numerical strength in an extreme national emergency. Because the draft is designed for combat replacements, only men -- not women must currently register.

But many social engineers including Rangel would want women drafted to fight in combat.

Women in Combat

Men have to do 3 chin-ups to be in the
Marines. Women don't have to do any. Zero. None.The hidden agenda also includes advancing women in land combat. President Bush has clearly stated that women will not be placed in land combat and be subjected to Direct Ground Fire. But the left-leaning Flags of senior generals and admirals are not only placing women in harm’s way but also into combat. 77 women have died in our current war, where only 16 died in Vietnam, most of them were nurses.

Feminist have long preached that men and women are interchangeable and that being a male or female was simply a social construct. The new congress will want to advance these egalitarian goals in the mistake of pursuing the women’s vote as (former) senator George Allen did. (See Allen's support of women at VMI.)

But the military is not subject to the Equal Opportunity and Employment Commission. The battlefield is not regulated by the Occupational Health and Safety Administration.

Combat is violence against women.

Liberal Democrats in the coming months will force the armed services to evolve, to grow; to achieve higher consciousness. Liberals in Congress will demand EEO hires into OSHA compliant combat to remake a new and improved military.

The end result is a liberal Department of Defense which may or may not win any wars but will pass EEO muster.

After training by feminists in Anger Management.

Over the past few years, armed forces policy has been the domain of the generals and less of the civilians elected and appointed. The civilian leadership ceded control to the Pentagon Brass. Empty civilian Armani’s were replaced with Class A military Uniforms.

Not that there's necessarily anything wrong with that...

Except the military leadership was as liberal as the civilians they replaced. Forgetting the true job of the armed forces. The purpose of our military has a single goal: To defend our institutions. Our way of life. Freedom. Congress is charged with providing for the common defense.

Unfortunately Democrats in Congress will demand control to change the culture of the military.

Lifting the Homosexual Ban

As recently as 1993, Congress affirmed in law that homosexuality is incompatible with military service. But Clinton-era "Don't Ask; Don't Tell" regulations contradict the law and cause confusion. Democrats and homosexual activists will use the confusion to work to remove the regulation and change the law, in a single synchronized move.

The key difference in our current culture wars is in understanding unit cohesion. This is the unique bond that is needed for survival in combat necessary for victory. Unit cohesion is all but unknown and nearly unnecessary in the civilian world.

In 1982 the Department of Defense said that he presence of homosexuals, adversely affects the ability … to maintain discipline and morale; to foster mutual trust. And unlike the civilian workplace military men and women, …must live and work under close conditions affording minimal privacy…. Sexual attraction and tension destroys unit cohesion and may detract from mission accomplishment.

Few civilian shift managers expect employees not to date each other. Few first line supervisors expect staff to jump on stray hand grenades.

What should Congress do?

Liberal Democrats have a hidden agenda for changing the military culture. But what should our law makers do instead to improve military readiness?

Keep the volunteer army. As recent studies by The Heritage Foundation have shown, our current All-Volunteer Army is well motivated, well education and truly looks like America. If the Pentagon needs more young men for combat, President Bush can lead the recruiting drive by call to arms from his bully pulpit. We have heard no such exhortation from the President.

The Army can follow the president’s orders and keep women away from Direct Ground Combat. The president can order the Pentagon to stop the charade of assigning women to non-combat units, then attaching and “co-locating” women with combat units. At the very least, the military can hold women to the same physical training standards as men.

The Pentagon can repeal the Don't Army Don't Tell regulations. And keep the current laws against Gays-Lesbian-Bi-sexuals and Transgender genders from serving in the military. Even Hillary Rodham Clinton, then-Vice-President Al Gore and President Bill Clinton have admitted that Don’t Ask; Don’t Tell was a failure.

Homosexuals can honorably serve our country in many ways, including,

Peace Corps,
America Corps,

But not the
Marine Corps

We are a nation with citizen soldiers. We should not burden combat leaders with the needs of citizen cross-dressers. "Unfair" as it may be.

It is enough to ask the combat leader to fight and win battles with out being worried about the special needs of gender-identity politics.

By taking these actions we might have a prayer in the Global War on Terror. Because if we fail, any prayers we have will be toward Mecca.

Posted at 6:56 AM | Permalink
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A post from last year and the year before by Charmaine.

Every time we've made the left turn onto Eisenhower Drive, and passed through the imposing brick gates of Arlington National Cemetery, I've been overwhelmed with emotion. Family members of those buried at Arlington National Cemetery are given a special pass and may drive onto the Hallowed Grounds to visit the grave of their loved one. It's an enormous honor which makes me feel humbled.

The Penta-Posse
at Arlington National Cemetery

My husband's father served thirty years in the United States Navy, and died the year I married into the family, so I didn't know him well. And the fact is, after a lifetime of nine-month Mediterranean tours, wars, and rumors of war, there is a lot my husband doesn't know as well.

However, over the 15 years that we've been married, I have gotten to know my mother-in-law well. She doesn't talk either about the sacrifices she made, but there is one story that she has told me several times.

Once, when my father-in-law was out on tour, and she was home with three small children, the car broke down and, of course, she had to take care of it. My husband marched up and said, "Don't worry, Mom, I'll fix it." He was about five years old at the time.

My mother-in-law laughs. . . the little man, takin' care of things. But it makes me cry.

We owe a lot to our military families.

When we visited Arlington this past week, we passed at least three funeral ceremonies on the way to Section 64. I lost track of the fresh graves and the still-standing tents, either just vacated by other grieving families, or awaiting the afternoon's fresh, raw sorrow.

As we pulled up on Bradley Avenue, an Air Force honor guard was marching precisely back to their bus after a ceremony for an airman who had been a POW in Korea. While we searched for my father-in-law's headstone, an empty horse-drawn caisson lumbered past, and settled briefly in the shade nearby, awaiting their next assignment. . .

We found my father-in-law's headstone: The front has the Christian Cross with the old Chief's Curriculum Vita. Chief Yoest cut high school to catch World War II. He retired with rows of ribbons and a "v" device, and pinned butterbars on his boy. He now has a grandson, The Dude, who bears his name and wants to be a Navy pilot.

The reverse of the stone is blank, awaiting the inscripton for Chief Yoest's high school sweetheart, his wife, Jack's mom, "Babcia" (Polish for Grandmother), who is still with us. In the end, they will be buried together, an honor she earned.

As we turned to go, the Diva took her jingle-bell necklace from around her neck, and left it on the headstone. A fitting tribute for a warrior.



Sailors, rest your oars.

We drove back down Bradley Avenue -- past a fresh grave covered by a tarp. In front of us, sparkling in the bright sunlight of a gorgeous day, stretched row after row of white marble markers, orderly, peaceful, some weathered, others new and crisply chiseled . . .

I turned to the Penta-Posse. "I want you to look," I said. "I want you to understand, that each one of these headstones represents someone who gave their life so that you could be free."

They were quiet and solemn. The weight of it is beyond measure.

The Dreamer said, "Don't cry, Mom."

We made the right turn onto Eisenhower. We drove slowly toward the exit, passing the drive to the Tomb of the Unknowns to our left, until we came to a crosswalk thronged with tourists. The guard on duty motioned to the crowd to stop, and we drove through, passing through the gates, back to a busy day, leaving behind -- the curious crowds, the chattering school children. . . and the silent stones.

More on Arlington National Cemetery at the jump.

Memorial Day fine time to visit historical sites.

Other Memorial Day Links from years past:
Blackfive with "Opening the Gates of Heaven."
Intel Dump

Marine Corps Moms

LaShawn Barber's Corner

See Traffic Jam

Jo's Cafe has Specials.

Mudville Gazette has Open Post.

Michelle Malkin has Memorial Day Links.

Wiz Bang has links.

LaShawn has tributes.

California Conservative has Memorial Day Tribute.

Continue Reading »

Posted at 10:20 AM | Permalink
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Five Days in May: The loss of the USS Scorpion.

By Jack Yoest

Yolanda Mazzuchi was about the prettiest girl in our school class. Our dads were in the Navy, often gone for months at a time. And they would be welcomed home at dockside with cheers and homemade signs. These

USS Scorpion gatherings at the D&S Piers at the Naval Base in Norfolk, Virginia, were a regular part of our lives growing up. Families often took children out of school to celebrate a ship's homecoming.

At 1 in the afternoon on Monday, May 27, 1968, at the height of the Cold War the USS Scorpion was due in port.

Yolanda didn't know it then, but her dad was already dead.

The families gathered on Pier 22 and huddled together in the wind and rain. And looked out over the storm, over white-capped waves.

They waited for the USS Scorpion without any word for five days.

Women for millennia have waited by the sea for their men to return. In bygone eras, a hand-railed walkway was built along the rooftop of sailors' homes. So that the wives and mothers, and daughters and sons could look out for returning ships. Sometimes the boats didn't come back. But the women and children would still watch and pray and hope.

In those days, like Penelope, they often waited for months, even decades.

Frank Patsy Mazzuchi, QMSC, a senior chief quartermaster, was looking for a berth teaching at nearby Fort Eustis. The chief and his Navy wife traveled to the Pentagon to work out a deal on his next duty station. The Navy assignment desk persuaded Chief Mazzuchi to take a last submarine tour in the Mediterranean.

The senior, experienced chief was needed on the USS Scorpion: A capstone to his career before retiring. He would make the last voyage. Then shore duty with normal hours, normal life. Instead, the capstone became a headstone.

The submarine "silent service" is an elite, intimate sea-duty. The Scorpion was not a big vessel for her day with 99 men in tight quarters. She was 31-feet wide, powered by a nuclear reactor and armed with two nuclear-tipped torpedoes.

The Scorpion carried Russian-speaking experts for espionage to fight Soviet subs in the Cold War. The Scorpion had just finished its three-month deployment in the Med and was headed home when new orders arrived. The nuclear sub was diverted from its trip home to the Canary Islands off the coast of Africa for a spying mission on Soviet ships.

A high-speed run to the Soviet fleet. Then silence. It is believed that an accidental internal explosion doomed the boat. Questions remain on maintenance.

Without closure.

She was overdue in Norfolk on 27 May and probably sank on 22 May. The Navy declared the sub "presumed lost" on 2 June, 1968.

Finally, in October of that year, the Scorpion's final resting place was discovered some two miles beneath the surface, west of the Azores. The sub became a coffin to the 99. She will not be raised.

Yolanda says, "Before he left, we had a big argument and I told him that I wished he would go to sea and never come back."

And he never did. Those departing words haunted her for years. "It took a very long time to get over that remark," she says.

Her son, the grandson Chief Mazzuchi never saw, joined the Navy. He serves now on the USS Washington in the Caribbean. And doesn't write as often as he should.

But Yolanda has already forgiven him. As she is sure her father had forgiven her for a little girl's thoughtless final words.

She says, "In fact, it was not until my children became teenagers that I understood that my father forgave me as quickly as I said it."

Forgiveness and loss; sorrow and hope and sacrifice. Even today, the Cold War long past, the warriors remain on eternal patrol and the Widow's Walk continues on Navy Pier. Tracing the steps of those who waited in vain for five days in May, so many years ago.

Penelope and Telemachus, awaiting the return of Odysseus.

Jack Yoest, is president of Management Training of DC, LLC and a former Army Captain. His father served on the submarine Bonefish in WWII and in the Navy for 30 years.

Thank you (foot)notes:

The article originally appeared in National Review Online.

See USS Bonefish, Lost June 18, 1945 originally published in the Virginian Pilot.

USS Scorpion (SSN 589)

Spectre of the Scorpion

Local author exposes Cold War cover-up And see the correction.

Silent Steel: The Mysterious Death of the Nuclear Attack Sub USS Scorpion

John Howland has advice at the jump.

Continue Reading »

Posted at 9:53 PM | Permalink
Comments (7)

It is not known if anti-war Damascus Nancy Pelosi or Presidential candidate Mike Jingozian were present.

An Alert Reader from National Review says that Damascus Nancy could be shortened.

They were also burning the American flag. No, not Nancy or Mike (that we know of...) But they may as well have been burning the flags with Blue Stars on them.

Cousin Captain Joshua Hearn protecting
American flag burners overseas.

Army Captain Hearn well understands that we can fight the jihadists over there. Or they will follow us home and we will certainly fight them here. Except for maybe Oregon.

Thank you (foot)notes:

Joshua Hearn was a mere (well behaved) pup in our wedding. We are so proud of him.

My business partner, Bill Oncken said that he was not treated especially well by liberals when he returned from combat in Vietnam. But he said he was never burned in effigy.

National Review letters to the editor available by subscription:

THAT’S MADAM SPEAKER, TO YOU
After her visit to North Vietnam, Jane Fonda became known to us as “Hanoi Jane.” Can we now call Nancy Pelosi “Damascus Nancy” — or, for short, “Dam Nancy”? (Well, also, “A Dam Nancy” has a certain ring to it.)

Donald P. Kerwick
Hamilton, Ohio

Captain Hearn commented on the Panzer Commander's blog that Hearn is a genuine (direct fire) commander. Even though he's pictured above with a(n indirect fire) howitzer.

Posted at 8:40 AM | Permalink
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Gold Star
1st Lt. Jared M. Landaker A few decades ago, Your Business Blogger was privileged to be a Survival Assistance Officer helping families who lost a service member. As a young Cavalry Officer, I commanded a number of burial details. The part that hurt and still moves in slow motion in my mind's eye, is handing the tri-folded American flag to the widow.

I never cried at these funerals. I was too young. It was a task, a detail that had to be done.

Our government has a task that needs to be done. But it won't be done by Harry Reid. Democrats are surrendering and will nullify our sacrifices in the war against the jihadists. Democrats say our troops sacrifice and die for nothing.

Harry Reid, Nevada Democrat, says, "...this war is lost..."

Democrats, like the French, have already surrendered. RedState says it all best.

But not surrendering, it seems, is the American public. Following is Diary Of A Last and Final Flight Home dated February 17, 2007, that was making the rounds. Hat tip to John Howland, who runs the USNA-At-Large group.

Every death in the armed forces is a public event. 1st Lt. Jared M. Landaker, 25, Big Bear City, California, Rest in Peace.

Diary Of A Last and Final Flight Home

February 17, 2007,
0350 [hours; 3:30am]
I was at curbside at 24th and M, Washington DC . 16 Degrees with a light breeze. Going home after my second week of freezing temps to my warm home in SoCal. Take a walk on the beach, ride a horse, climb a mountain and get back to living. I'm tired of the cold.

0425
paying the taxi fare at Dulles in front of the United Airlines counter, still cold.

0450
engaged the self-serve ticker machine and it delivers my ticket, baggage tag and boarding pass. Hmmm, that Marine over there is all dressed up in his dress blues a bit early this morning... "Good Morning Captain, you're looking sharp." He says, "Thank you, sir."

Pass Security and to my gate for a decaf coffee and 5 hours sleep. A quick check of the flight status monitor and UA Flt 211 is on time. I'm up front, so how bad can that be? Hmmm, there's that same Marine. He must be heading to Pendleton to see his lady at LAX for the long weekend, all dressed up like that. Or maybe not. I dunno.

The speaker system announces "Attention in the boarding area, we'll begin boarding in 10 minutes, we have some additional duties to attend to this morning, but we'll have you out of here on time."

The Marine Captain has now been joined by five others. BINGO, I get it, he's not visiting his lady, he's an official escort. I remember doing that once, CACO duty. I still remember the names of the victim and family, The Bruno Family in Mojave - all of them, wows, that was 24 years ago.

On board, 0600:
"Good morning folks, this is the Captain. This morning we've been attending to some additional duties, and I apologize for being 10 minutes late for push back, but I believe we'll be early into LAX. This morning it is my sad pleasure to announce that...

Continue Reading »

Posted at 3:16 PM | Permalink
Comments (3)

The USS Pueblo
is a popular propaganda tourist attraction
on the Taedong River in Pyongyang
North Korea US Senator Wayne Allard, R-Colorado, (Republican, of course) reintroduced a resolution demanding the return of United States Navy property from North Korea.

The Pueblo is the only active-duty U.S. warship in the hands of a foreign power. It was taken Jan. 23, 1968, after being sent defenseless on an intelligence-gathering mission off the North Korean coast. Reports the Washington Post (with misplaced indignation).

The USS Pueblo may have been out-gunned, but she was armed and was not defenseless.

The reporter, Jennifer Talhelm, is a female feminist from the Washington Post; I'm not sure military armaments is her forte.

Allard said the USS Pueblo "belongs to the United States Navy and we should pursue all possible options to return her to a rightful resting place."

The USS Pueblo and her crew have been in the blogosphere recently. The Pueblo crew was a noble comparison with the ignoble captured British sailors. The Brits were subservient and groveling when held by pirates.

Americans were defiant. Americans gave our captors the Digitus Impudicus. As Mark Steyn says America is Alone.

That is not quite right: It is Conservative Republicans who are alone.

Pueblo Crew
Time Magazine 18 Oct 1968 Jennifer Talhelm from the Washington Post continues,

Navy records show the Pueblo was in international waters when it was captured, though the North Koreans insist it was inside the Korean coastal zone. One person was killed in an explosion during the attack, and 10 of the 82 surviving crewmen were wounded. All 82 were held 11 months before being sent to South Korea on Christmas Eve.

The North Koreans display the ship as a trophy and a monument to the rocky relationship between the two nations.

Indeed.

Pueblo Crew with
"Hawaiin Good Luck Sign"

Thank you (foot)notes:

See USS Pueblo Coming Home?

See Little Green Footballs British Sailors Party on Iranian TV

Posted at 11:08 AM | Permalink
Comments (1)

Julianne Malveaux, Ph.D.
Julianne Malveaux has been appointed President of Bennett College for Women.

Alert Readers will recall that Malveaux called President Bush a "terrorist" and that our America is "a terrorist nation."

And that she wished that Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas would die. "The man is on the Court. You know, I hope his wife feeds him lots of eggs and butter and he dies early like many black men do, of heart disease. Well, that’s how I feel. He is an absolutely reprehensible person."

Among her many awards is the Media Research Center's I’m a Compassionate Liberal But I Wish You Were All Dead Award.

Dr. Cornel West says she's “the most iconoclastic public intellectual in the country.” Dr. Maya Angelou, a member of the board of trustees, gushes, “...[W]e are made steady with the arrival of Dr. Julianne Malveaux...! We will all be uplifted, informed, and increased by your presence..."

(...Increased by your presence...? What does that mean?

Somebody’s got to clear the Mayan quotes.)

Julianne Malveaux. Perfect for the Academy. May your presence be increased.

Charmaine tangled with this presence in the last millennium over, what else?, sex. In a point-counter-point column in USA Today over Norplant.

Face Off: New Birth Control Methods.

New Contraceptive Is No Magic Bullet

By Charmaine Yoest
Guest columnist

WASHINGTON - She is only 13, but she has had 8 sexual partners. A recent article in People magazine didn't report what she was looking for, but it does say what she got: chlamydia and a diary of memories. And what she didn't: after a few romantic trips to Burger joints, all eight are now long gone.

Should we worry that she might get pregnant? Absolutely. Is the long term contraceptive, Norplant, the answer? Absolutely not. Pregnancy is the most visible result of pre-marital sex, but it may not be the worst.

Sexually transmitted diseases among teenagers are increasing alarmingly. [From 1986 to 1990] syphilis among teenagers increased 62%. Planned Parenthood research shows that unwed teenagers using contraceptives more often with more partners. Of sexually active teens, 58% report two or more partners.

Knowing this, in the age of AIDS, we cannot continue promoting contraceptives as the answer to teen sexuality. That's a Band-Aid approach. Norplant may slow the tragic increase in teen pregnancy. But at what price?

The American Psychological Association reported [in 1990] that women experience more depression than men. A leading cause? infertility. Sexually transmitted diseases are a common cause of infertility. How many of those women, infertile from sexual experimentation, would trade today those transient experiences of the past for the thrill of holding their new born?

More Malveaux at the jump.

Thank you (foot)notes:

This article originally ran on Tuesday, December 11, 1990. USA Today. Little has changed in Charmaine's argument. Truth is unchanging.

Transcribing credit to The Dude and The Dreamer from the Penta-Posse. This is what your parents think.

Continue Reading »

Posted at 2:49 PM | Permalink
Comments (1)

General Peter Pace
Chairman, Joint Chiefs of StaffMarine General Peter Pace supports our law that states, homosexuality is incompatible with military service.

"I believe homosexual acts between two individuals are immoral and that we should not condone immoral acts." General Pace then says, "I do not believe the United States is well served by a policy that says it is OK to be immoral in any way."

Because this would undermine unit cohesion.

Trust is the foremost component of the bonds that bind a small military unit together.

Trust, in that I trust you with my life. I trust your word.

Undercover homosexuals in the armed forces are living a lie. Where their first act in the military is to hide, to deceive, to circumvent the law: Homosexuality is incompatible with military service.

If your first act on joining the military is to lie, what makes us think that you would not continue to lie.

The best indication of future performance -- is past performance. If the homosexual deceived in the past, the homosexual will deceive in the future. Living the lie destroys unit cohesion -- no one will trust the homosexual.

The Department of Defense Directive, 1332.14, 28 January 1982, said,

The presence of such [homosexual] members adversely affects the ability of the Military Services to maintain discipline, good order, and morale; to foster mutual trust and confidence among service members...

The presence of homosexuals destroys mutual trust.

...to ensure the integrity of the system of rank and command; to facilitate assignment and worldwide deployment of service members who frequently must live and work under close conditions affording minimal privacy...

Service members do not want to be in close, intimate quarters with any gender who would be sexually attracted or attractive. Heterosexual men do not shower with women. (The military is not a college campus.)

...to recruit and retain members of the Military Services; to maintain the public acceptability of military service...

What mother or father would knowingly send their son off to a San Francisco bath house?

The Gay, Lesbian, BiSexual and Transgender genders are demanding that the military accept their morality. They are more interested in fighting the culture war. And less concerned about losing the war against the Islamofascists.

There are many ways homosexuals can serve our country:

The Peace Corp,
AmeriCorp,

but not the Marine Corp.

The Salvation Army,

but not the US Army.

There is no constitutional right to serve in the armed forces.

Thank you (foot)notes:

Also see Don't Ask; Don't Tell and The Ban on Homosexuals in the Military

PUBLIC LAW 103-160 - NOV. 30, 1993

UPDATE: So what did General Pace actually say? Listen to the clip here.

See Peter LaBarbera, Praised.

Your Business Blogger is a former Armored Cavalry Officer.

Posted at 8:49 PM | Permalink
Comments (9)

Tara Conner Miss USA 2006

Reuters reports, "Fallen beauty queen, Miss USA Tara Conner, said she had witnessed abuse as a child and that may have driven her into a life of alcohol and drugs -- but she still believed she could be a good role model."

Tara is right. These women are role models. The kids and the country look up to them.

Of course, if we lose the global war on terror, all the beauty queens will be wearing burkas...just like my daughters.

Does Tara deserve her tiara? Are there second acts? Is there redemption?

Or will Tara Conner simply burn in Hell?

[Joke, that was a JOKE -- ed]

Tune in and let us know what you think. Hit time is 3pm EST, today on MSNBC.

Thank you (foot)notes:

What's the difference between Miss American and Miss USA anyway?

From The Washington Post, "Fresh out of rehab, Miss USA Tara Conner is doing interviews this week with People and NBC's "Today" admitting that she dabbled in cocaine."

Posted at 1:22 PM | Permalink
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Heather Wilson
A few years ago Charmaine tangled with Congressperson Heather Wilson (R) (!) on MSNBC on women in combat.

Representative Wilson wants women exposed subjected to direct ground combat.

Unfortunately, women are not held to the same physical training standards as men.

Note in the video clip Charmaine's emphasis that our Armed Forces like to win -- as much, say, as teams in the National Football League like to win. Not many chicks near pro teams, except the campfollowers on the sidelines.

The difference being, of course, that the Army team is a merely a fight to the death.

And the NFL fights for money.

When the mission is really important, who does it right? The Army or the NFL?

(Former) Private Deanna Allen
does not represent
all women in the military Watch the clip here.

Full Disclosure: there is no nudity in the clip.

Posted at 8:07 PM | Permalink
Comments (0)

FRC Radio reports
vandals deface Capitol Building
No arrests made Thousands of America-hating anarchists were not happy with merely marching with Jane Fonda in Your Nation's Capital this weekend. They needed to do more than chant.

Charmaine, Bethanie, Dave
in FRC's radio studio; the good-guys The self-loathing anarchists needed to demonstrate hatred for our institutions by spray-painting buildings.

These American-hating, terrorist tolerant, demonstrators are a confusing bunch. In American we allow homosexuals to make bad movies. Under Islam, homosexuals are hanged by the neck. Our feminist babes would be in burkas. So why do these sub-groups want the US to surrender? To take SM to a new level?

Jane Fonda has a history of
supporting the troops...
theirs.

Anarchy While vandals were working to destroy, patriots were working at the National Review Institute's Conservative Summit.

FRC's Tony Perkins says,

"For any other group, such acts would mean immediate arrest. This time, the Capitol police's hands were tied because they were ordered to stand down by their Chief of Police, who answers to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA). ...According to the news reports the rank and file police officers were "livid" that they were ordered not to arrest anyone. Since the Capitol police answer to Speaker Pelosi, the question arises, did the Chief of Police give the "no arrest" order or did it come from someone else? Whoever is responsible for the order needs to explain why the physical destruction of taxpayer property is acceptable."

Thank you (foot)notes:

Be sure to bookmark FRC

Stop the ACLU has a round-up.

Urbangrounds has protesters spitting on a Veteran.

Posted at 7:24 PM | Permalink
Comments (1)

Arlington National Cemetery, Section 64, #144

Posted at 11:30 PM | Permalink
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Be able to resign. It will improve your value to the president and do wonders for your performance,
One of Rumsfeld's Rules.

Rumsfeld is resigning. He doesn't know it, but he was one of my teachers.

Donald Rumsfeld and
Charmaine Yoest Your Business Blogger served a tour of duty in government years ago. Unlike most bureaucrats, I didn't know what I was doing. I didn't even pretend.

Not that anyone noticed anyway.

But when I was appointed, the first Rules I got from a friend were Rumsfeld's. I kept them in a notebook and referred to them daily.

Rumsfeld's Rules

Many of these rules, reflections and quotations came from my role as chairman of the “transition team” for President Ford and my service as White House chief of staff. Others came from experiences as a U.S. naval aviator, a member of Congress, ambassador to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, secretary of defense, presidential Middle East envoy, business executive, chairman of the U.S. Ballistic Missile Threat Commission,...Credit is given where known.

Serving in the White House
(for the White House chief of staff and senior staff)

Don't accept the post or stay unless you have an understanding with the president that you're free to tell him what you think “with the bark off” and you have the courage to do it.

Visit with your predecessors from previous administrations. They know the ropes and can help you see around some corners. Try to make original mistakes, rather than needlessly repeating theirs.

Don't begin to think you're the president. You're not. The Constitution provides for only one.

Know that the immediate staff and others in the administration will assume that your manner, tone and tempo reflect the president's.

I knew the following rule, and used it to confirm my usual dazed looked,

Learn to say “I don't know.” If used when appropriate, it will be often.

Rumsfeld says that bad news doesn't get better with age,

If you foul up, tell the president and correct it fast. Delay only compounds mistakes.

Continue Reading »

Posted at 11:34 AM | Permalink
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The Center for Military Readiness is having our Eleventh Annual Celebration, this afternoon, Thursday, October 12, 2006 in Washington, D.C.

C-SPAN has confirmed to cover the event.

The Celebration will be held at the National Guard Association of the U.S. Building -- Hall of the States, on
One Massachusetts Ave., NW, Washington D.C. 2002, one block west of Union Station.

Elaine Donnelly, President, Center for Military Readiness, will preside. I will MC.

CMR Issues Briefing
4:00 PM -- 5:45 PM

The CMR Issues Briefing panel will discuss the question Respect for Women: Where is the Military Taking Us?

In addition to CMR President Elaine Donnelly, guest panelists will include:

Kate O’Beirne Washington Editor of National Review, author of Women Who Make the World Worse, and former member of the 1992 Presidential Commission on the Assignment of Women in the Armed Forces

Charles W. Gittins Noted attorney, USNA alumnus and former Marine naval flight officer and lecturer who has successfully defended many men who have been caught up in high-profile legal and cultural controversies at the service academies and in the military

Karin L. Agness Founder and President of the Network of enlightened Women (NeW), which helps female college students to confront radical feminists and liberals on fifteen college campuses. Ms. Agness is a Phi Beta Kappa member and student of law, University of Virginia.

CMR Celebration Reception 6:00 PM -- 8:00 PM

2006 Honorees, 7:00 PM

"CMR Spotlight Award" Janet Parshall, Salem Radio Network

Ambassador Robert D. Stuart, Jr. of the Stuart Family Foundation

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Thank you (foot)notes:

Your Business Blogger is proud to serve as the Vice President of CMR. The Center for Military Readiness is an independent public policy organization that specializes in military personnel issues. Information about issues of concern to CMR can be seen on our website, www.cmrlink.org. More at the jump.

Continue Reading »

Posted at 10:07 AM | Permalink
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Friends, be sure to attend

CMR's Eleventh Annual Celebration

Thursday, 12 October 2006 in Washington, D.C.

The Military Is Not a Conservative Institution

It Is On the Cutting Edge of Liberal Social Change

Where Is the Military Taking Us Now?

Please join the Center for Military Readiness for our Eleventh Annual CMR Issues Briefing on October 12. We will explore the following questions and more:

Charges of sexual harassment or violence against women are in the headlines constantly. Is the military encouraging respect for women, or just the opposite?

Do female recruits know that rules regarding women in land combat have changed and put them at greater risk, or are not being observed at all?

Is violence against women OK -- as long as it happens at the hands of the enemy?

Should the Defense Department give more money and power to professional "Victim Advocates" schooled in anti-male ideology?

Is it necessary to violate the due process rights of men in order to "protect" female "victims," even with little or no evidence that a crime has been committed?

Are gender differences irrelevant, except when feminists demand special treatment or "Double Standards Involving Women (DSIW)?"

Are the military service academies going overboard in "sensitivity training" classes that excuse or ignore DSIW(Double Standards Involving Women)?

Do college-age women support feminist ideology and extreme demands for "equality," even in direct ground combat?

Are feminist attitudes hurting social relationships between men and women?

Sixty-six servicewomen, an unprecedented number, have died in Afghanistan and Iraq. Is this a step forward for women, or a step backward for civilization?

Why is it so hard for some military officials to handle issues involving women?

For answers to these questions, and more, please join CMR on October 12

2006 CMR Celebration Events -- 12 October 2006

CMR Issues Briefing: 4:00 PM -- 5:45 PM

The CMR Issues Briefing panel will discuss the question "Respect for Women: Where is the Military Taking Us?" In addition to CMR President Elaine Donnelly, guest panelists include:

Kate O'Beirne Washington Editor of National Review, author of Women Who Make the World Worse, and former member of the 1992 Presidential Commission on the Assignment of Women in the Armed Forces

Charles W. Gittins Noted attorney, USNA alumnus and former Marine naval flight officer and lecturer who has successfully defended many men who have been caught up in high-profile legal and cultural controversies at the service academies and in the military

Karin L. Agness Founder and President of the Network of enlightened Women (NeW), which helps female college students to confront radical feminists and liberals on seven college campuses. Ms. Agness is a Phi Beta Kappa member and student of law, University of Virginia.

CMR Celebration Reception: 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM

Following the Issues Briefing, CMR friends will gather for hors'doerves, "adult beverages" and good conversation. During the reception CMR will present the CMR Spotlight Award to popular Salem Radio Network personality Janet Parshall of Janet Parshall's America, and recognize 2006 Honoree Robert D. Stuart Jr., of the Stuart Family Foundation.

We will also provide background on finalists for the Inaugural CMR Patsy Award, which will go to An Official Whom Feminists Have Used to Impose Their Policies on the Men and Women of the Military. There is a lot of competition, and you will want to be there to learn who the "winner" is.

Presented by: Elaine Donnelly, President

The Center for Military Readiness

What/Times: CMR Issues Briefing 4:00 PM -- 5:45 PM

CMR Celebration Reception ($50 per person) 6:00 PM -- 8:00 PM
Announcement: Inaugural Patsy Award 7:00 PM

Date: Thursday, October 12, 2006

Where: National Guard Association of the U.S. Building -- Hall of the States

One Massachusetts Ave., NW, Washington D.C. 20002

Contact: Please RSVP to me

Contributions to CMR are tax-deductible.

There is no charge for the Issues Briefing, but the reception immediately following is $50 per person. Please RSVP by return e-mail to me, Jack Yoest, at jack@cmrlink.org, or make your tax-deductible contribution.

Even if you cannot attend, please consider becoming a member of the Host Committee by sending a generous tax-deductible contribution as follows: Benefactor, $2,500 or more; Patron, $1,000; Sponsor, $500; Friend, $250; Host, $150. All Host Committee names will be published in the event program and CMR Notes.

This is our main fundraising event for the year, and we hope to make it the best ever.

Thank you for your help -- We hope to see you on October 12!

Posted at 5:52 PM | Permalink
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The Diva
and Dancer at the
Air Force Academy Not long ago Your Business Blogger was advising a boss on a product roll out. His team had never done anything quite as large. I suggested a 'FireDrill.'

It consists of three parts:

1) FireDrill; The plan

2) The Drill, and

3) The Fire

The Plan is a checklist, The Fire is the execution, But The Drill, the practice is the toughest. Because teams need dry runs to learn because things will always, always go wrong. Your team will gain wisdom and judgment through simulation. And learn. Today, permit me to be Your Drill Instructor. And learn how I was surprised by a pilot project.

The F-14 Tomcat

Your (Army) Business Blogger had no business in the cockpit. My instructor was a Vietnam vet with MigKlr license plates on his truck.

He said the F-14 was a "Man's Plane." He sounded sexist. He explained that the old-generation hydraulics required real strength -- after a couple of hours, even the manliest studs needed two hands on the stick.

No place for girls.

Or so I thought.

But I was wrong, again.

I bring the Five-kid Penta-Posse to Oceana Naval Air Station to show them how macho military men (like their father) defeated Communism.

We get invited to some F-14 training. I climb in the simulator. No photography is permitted. And a good thing, too.

The instructor guides me through the take- off and some maneuvers. The room spins. The world spins.

And nobody was shooting at me. Although lots of people were yelling at me...

Time to bring the baby home. I turn. Lots more yelling. It might have been me.

The world freezes, the screen freezes. At a funny angle. In Real Life it would have been a $38 million mistake and DNA remains of Your Business Blogger.

My instructor: "Success. You did great!"

Me: ?

My instructor: "The seat is dry."

Me: ?

My instructor: "No puke, no p!ss."

Navy humor.

After my showing off, the Posse is not impressed. The Diva, age 6, female, issue-one-each slides into the (dry, thankyouverymuch) front seat sim. Confident. In control. And zooms. Flying circles around anything in the sky.

(I remember her as a little wee-one, who used to throw-up all the time. But not today, even on inverted rolls. Lord, where do the years go? Where did my baby girl go?) Practice is complete.

Perfect landing. "Just like PlayStation," the Diva says.

I expected a few more years to pass before they passed by the Old Man. She had practiced. I didn't.

The Diva
at a static display at
The Franklin Institute.
Entirely too comfortable
in the cockpit During the Drill no one is hurt. And we all process lessons and understand our capabilities.

And learn the limitations of the team.

And the boss. And the Dad.

A FireDrill will bring out the best in your people. And your managers.

Without the crash and burn.

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Thank you (foot)notes:

Women are not permitted in land combat. Unfortunately, little girls (not much older than my Diva) are permitted to fly combat aircraft. The Air Force loses about 75 jets each year in routine accidents. The Navy budgets for the loss of two jets per carrier per deployment. The losses would be much higher, of course, absent intensive training, intensive practice.

Posted at 8:48 AM | Permalink
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The Pentagon circa 9.11.06. Lit by 184 lights to commemorate each life lost there on 9.11.01
Credit: Unknown

Posted at 8:47 AM | Permalink
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Following is background from Your Business Blogger in an article published just after 9.11. Things have changed since then. A little.

Booby traps at the Pentagon: Charmaine and Jack Yoest introduce you to the Pentagon's babes in arms. What do they want? An "open dialogue" on breastfeeding. (Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Services)

Originally published in The Women's Quarterly; January 01, 2002;


Pentagon attack
ON SEPTEMBER 10TH, [2001] the Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Services, the group most responsible for promoting women in combat, gathered in Pentagon Conference Room 5C1042. This civilian advisory committee, whose members have the protocol status of three-star generals, monitors the concerns of women in uniform. And what was the topic on the eve of the worst attack in U.S. history?

After briefings from representatives of the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, and Coast Guard, DACOWITS, as the committee is known, issued a formal request for more information on what they deemed a matter of paramount military significance:

breast-feeding.

As the terrorists prepared to hit the World Trade Center towers and the Pentagon itself, our military leaders were directed "to engage in open dialogue" on lactation tactics.

The Defense Advisory Committee on Women celebrated its fiftieth anniversary last April. At the birthday party, President Bush's deputy secretary of defense, Paul Wolfowitz, a man well regarded for his level-headed and conservative approach to military issues, lauded DACOWITS in his address as an outstanding organization" and told the assembly of earnest women that he "looked forward to [their] advice."

Read the article.

California Conservative has Open Post 9.11

Posted at 9:34 AM | Permalink
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Dad & The Dude
prepared for war
September 11, 2001
photo credit:
Charmaine Yoest, Ph.D. Just after 9am on 9.11, I was doing what all business owners were doing: selling something. I was on the phone with a client. Making a pitch to attend a series of seminars, with CNN on in the background. I was a bit distracted by the live feed of a burning building.

While making 'the ask,' it was clear that my customer was not aware that we had just been attacked. I wanted to say something, like, Turn on your TV and stare at real pain. It just didn't look real. I continued instead with the conversation. Your Business Blogger is not normally so focused. In denial, perhaps. Disasters are not normally good for business.

There was work to be done. My next class was on September 19.

And I didn't want the customer on the other end of the phone distracted until the sale was closed. Then we could go to war.

The deal done, I noticed my boy, The Dude, was concerned that the attacks would continue down to us in Charlottesville, Virginia. "We got to get ready!" he shouts and scampers around digging up my old uniform, boots, saber and his grandfather's bayonet. (Old soldiers never die, they just file away. Apologies to MacArthur.)

The Dude spent the rest of the morning marching outside our front door. Looking out for terrorists. It must have worked.

Charlottesville was not attacked.

But we were affected. Everyone was. But I wasn't sure that the bank was going to delay getting their money over a pesky act of war. I still had to earn a living.

How would the war affect business? Not the macro, but mine? I had a seminar and clients coming into town in little over a week and the world was on fire. Would anyone show up? Would anyone care?

We North Americans do business like we do war. We win. Donald Trump becomes Victor Davis Hanson. At 8 am on 19 September 2001, 86 professionals showed up and got down to business. A packed room.

The free lunch helped.

Even my business partner, Faisal Alam, came down from New York City to join us. He is Muslim.

The country was mourning, but on the move.

I started with a minute of silence in remembrance of those lost in the World Trade Towers.

Then we all got back to work. Each making the world a better place. Even with a war on.

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Thank you (foot)notes:

Basil's Blog has open trackbacks.

California Conservative has Open Post 9.11.

Posted at 7:31 AM | Permalink
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Mark your calendar and plan to attend the Center for Military Readiness Annual Briefing on 12 October in Your Nation's Capital.

Women in Combat
Dr. Charmaine Yoest and
Elaine Donnelly, President of CMR We are at war. In this time of struggle we must defend our way of life, our institutions, and our system of law.

We also face an unexpected controversy. Who controls our institutions? In particular, who controls our Armed Forces -- bureaucrats or elected officials? Can we afford to let political correctness takes precedence over policy and law?

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Thank you (foot)notes:

Your Business Blogger proudly serves as the Vice President for the Center for Military Readiness.

Continue Reading »

Posted at 6:58 PM | Permalink
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KARMAH, Iraq -- Lance Cpl. Erin Libby doesn't want to be treated the same as her male Marine Corps counterparts. But she does want to be treated as an equal -- even in combat.

In a way, she got her chance last weekend when Marines from the 3rd Battalion...

Photo: Sandra Jontz
Chief Warrant Officer 2
Jill St. John
Combat Logistics Battalion 8

Here we go. Again. From the Stars and Stripes, "Marine raid breaks gender barrier." (See story at Lucianne.)

Photo: Sandra Jontz
Lance Cpl. Erin Libby
"Rocking on the front line"
Handing out toys in Karmah

The Stars and Stripes is reporting that this past Saturday, the Marines took 14 women from the Combat Logistics Battalion 8 with them on a raid 15 miles northeast of Fallujah. The women's usual jobs involve "supplying ammunition, food, water, fuel and mail."

The reason for the change in job assignment?

Cultural sensitivities precluded male Marines from searching women, so the female Marines were meant to deflate fears of Iraqi men and women, said the battalion executive officer, Maj. Larry Miller. It was a first in Iraq to have female Marines embedded at the lowest levels of infantry companies and working alongside their male counterparts.

So "cultural sensitivities" now justify violating Department of Defense regulations against taking women into combat and the law which requires Congressional notification before doing so?

The problem with this vignette explodes in several directions. The article uses female suicide bombers to explain why we need to be searching Iraqi women.

That's a real problem. But let us 'understand' our enemy: because terrorists encourage their women to blow themselves up, we have to send our women into harm's way? To respect "cultural sensitivities?"

Here's Daniel Pipes on our efforts at cultural sensitivity: "This is probably the most "culturally sensitive" occupation of a country in all of recorded history. . . and is not likely to be rewarded with reciprocal good will."

And then there's the inherent contradictions in the situation -- they're in a combat zone. . . handing out teddy bears and plush toys. It's like some sort of weird fluffernutter sandwich. They are using this experience to say that women can handle combat as well as men, boiling a frog thread; this is a perfect example) but they have enough leeway to take time and hand out stuffed animals afterward.

Lance Corporal Erin Libby is quoted as saying: "We're out here, and we're rocking on the front line."

Our cultural sensitivities, and our law, includes not sending women into combat. This issue of using female soldiers to pat-down female Iraqi's did come up in our recent Pentagon meeting: it's time for Congress to exercise oversight about women in combat policy.

This an example of the Marine's taking female support troops along on a combat raid, in the same duplicitous double-talk that is the Army's argument with the gender-integrated Forward Support Companies. Where women are taken into combat.

Thank you (foot)notes:

Cross Post from Charmaine at Reasoned Audacity.

The Belmont Club points us to The Washington Post that has risk analysis in Iraq.

BaylyBlog has the question: Women and Children First(?) With compelling insight,

...if you think about it does it seem just that the sex that's already had her body split open and shed her blood to give birth to the child should also have to shed her blood to defend that child? Isn't one war enough for women? Why can't men step up the plate and bear their fair share?

Satyameva Jayathe has a new high in PC about the challenge of women in combat in India.

On One Foot has Thoughts on a sensitive subject... homosexuals and women in combat in the same post.

Soldier's Angels has a big day.

Mudville Gazette has a toast to Maryann at Soldiers Angels.

Posted at 9:16 PM | Permalink
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War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things: the decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks nothing worth a war, is worse.
John Stuart Mill

A person's highest most prized value, most prized possession is that person's idol.

To die for.

Posted at 11:19 PM | Permalink
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Microsoft has one real point measurement for hiring.

IQ

Your Business Blogger has hired (computer) coders, sales reps...and government bureaucrats.

When given the option of head count and budget flexibility, I always recommended to my managers to hire the most expensive talent possible -- the Super Stars.

Even when hiring government workers.

Into Good and Evil reminds us that when talent really counts, when talent determines life and death, who would get hired? He points us to Professor Kingsley Browne in The Ace and the Turkeys,

"Given the cognitive and temperamental patterns required, it is not surprising to find that the ability to fly aircraft successfully in combat is an ability that not many have. Indeed, it is not an ability that even all combat pilots have. Aviation analysts recognize that the majority of combat kills are scored by a small minority of pilots. Mike Spick has observed: "The gulf between the average fighter pilot and the successful one is very wide. In fact it is arguable that there are almost no average fighter pilots; just aces and turkeys; killers and victims."

Fighter pilots, like sales guys in a role playing exercise, can practice and give a passable presentation, but,

As one Air Force pilot stated, "Most guys can master the mechanics of the systems, but it's instinctive to be able to assimilate all the data, get a big picture, and react offensively. Not a lot of guys can do that."

But the Air Force has a challenge most sales managers don't: Separating the Aces from the Turkeys,

Ideally, one would have only "aces" or "killers," leaving the "turkeys" and "victims" to another career path. The difficulty lies, however, in the fact that there is no known way to separate the aces and the turkeys prior to combat. Unfortunately, many of those who will end up being turkeys often do not know what they are getting into. These pilots may have the ability, intelligence, and know-how to fly the plane well, but they ultimately lack the "fighting spirit" that they will need in combat. " (Buffalo Law Review,Winter, 2001, 49 Buffalo L. Rev. 51,Women at War: An Evolutionary Perspective By Kingsley R. Browne)

But the hiring manager does have an advantage over an Air Force Wing Commander, the civilian Ace has a track record of Kills.

The best indication of future performance is past performance. Our armed forces are hampered by looking only to recent combat or aerial engagements -- and there aren't that many of those dogfights. The hiring manager has different metrics of combat measures for top business talent. Eat what you kill. Who had produced the best numbers?

In this human resource practice and strategy, there are down-sides as Anita Campbell, my editrix at Small Business Trends citing the Trizoko Biz Journal mentions. She and others make the valid point that Super Star and Aces are nearly impossible to manage. And, indeed, can only be managed by Super Star managers.

But if these crazy iconoclasts can be harnessed, a big 'if' to be sure, big numbers are sure to follow. For example, when I had a modest software company, I learned the hard way that a one genius coder was worth a half dozen coders. And not because he (and he was usually a 'he') was faster, but that his work was nearly bug-free. Which saved me from hiring three coders just to patch.

With my sales teams, Pareto's 80/20 Principle always played out. But the top guy, usually a deviant was always a standard deviation above the norm. My #1 sales guy was sometimes double the sales of #2, the rest of the sales team on the long tail. That #1 guy drove me nuts. But I loved his numbers.

And government bureaucrats? Goodness. I once had an agency head 'lose' a $100 million department. It was necessary to find it for obvious political reasons, but we only became aware of the lost unit because I was working the Y2K rollover and really needed to find all the laptops. We finally found it. Hidden away, quietly working away. And there were lots of good excuses why it was floating alone off on its own org chart, in its own universe. How they got paid is outside the scope of this post. I was assured that it was not illegal.

So Anita and Trizoko Biz are right, Super Stars are a pain.

But I wonder how many $100 million business units are lost. And could be found with a few dozen more IQ points.

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Thank you (foot)notes:

Your Business Blogger's columns appear in Small Business Trends on Tuesdays and Small Business Trends Radio on Fridays. Please tune in.

Posted at 10:38 AM | Permalink
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Josh Trevino, Charmaine, John Aravosis Last July '05 Charmaine traveled with a team of bloggers to the G-8 Summit in Edinburg. The Summit was soon forgotten in the 7.7 blow-up of London. In keeping with the reporting dictum: If it bleeds, it leads.

Anyway, the war on terror came to the England bloggers and made a few, a happy few, band of brothers.

John took a picture of Charmaine in a pub -- it was perhaps one of the best photographs of her ever taken by anyone (and she takes a good picture -- the camera likes her). And he posted on his site. Gorgeous. Sadly, he removed it when his readership became...animated, over his friendship with a conservative.

Charmaine and John became fast friends fast , as one would expect. Shared danger. Shared experience. Shared pursuit of the truth. John and I know each other only thru email and vector Charmaine. I genuinely like the guy.

And we disagree on most everything political. But John was always a gentleman. In debates and IRL.

One of our disagreements would be homosexuals in the military. I think they can serve their country elsewhere -- where I say, "out," John says "out of the closet."

And Lieutenant Alexander Raggio's award-winning paper at the army's West Point academy brought out our differences. And sharp words from John.

LT. Raggio's paper is a philosophic defense of allowing homosexuals to serve openly in the armed services. He would advocate dropping the ban on homosexual service.

But our debate turned a unfortunate corner when John's hair caught fire with the inflammatory "BIGOTED" cliche ricochet.

John's emotion-laden invective makes him read like a blogger yes, a blogger. But his insults missed his mark -- that would be Charmaine and me in his target-rich environment.

Winston Churchill once said that nothing in life is so exhilarating as to be shot at without result.

But I am not exhilarated, even with John's off-target bigot-bomb.

I am saddened not because he missed, but because he pulled the trigger. Firing into the crowd that contained his remaining conservative Jesus-Freak-friends on the right.

I expected a more reasoned debate from John. I expected more from a friend.

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Thank you (foot)notes:

Alexander H. Raggio's paper is Don't Ask, Don't Tell, Don't Be: A Philosophical Analysis of the Gay Ban in the US Military. His paper won the prestigious Brig. Gen. Carroll E. Adams Award, and was written up by AP.

Agape Press has the interview with Elaine Donnelly that started all this.

See Charmaine's post on John Aravosis.

Full Disclosure: Your Business Blogger is honored to serve as the Vice President for the Center for Military Readiness with Elaine Donnelly.

Andrew Sullivan doesn't care for the gay ban.

Dropping Knowlege has rights and the war.

Pam's House Blend has more on anti-DADT.

Mudville Gazette has happy place.

The Debate Link has Silenced Soldiers.

Kathy has no worries.

James Joyner has both sides of the debate.

Posted at 12:02 PM | Permalink
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The Great Seal The World's Only Super Power wields its power through the arrows of the Armed Services in one hand and in the other hand is the olive branch of...marketing.

The olive branch is traditionally known for peace, but also for known for prosperity. Commerce is usually difficult in times of war. The olive branch these days seems to represent peace as the absence of warfighting, but might also be seen in the marketing in warfighting.

If there is anything we Americans know how to do -- is fight wars and sell stuff.

The Army now has a combined arms team of lethal power. Nothing on earth can resist the might of our military co-located with its American Marketing Machine. That is being turned loose on the masses of US lasses to put women in combat.

The marketing message is delivered with smart bomb precision and subtlety. It began with omissions, as when the Air Force Academy took down its huge sign, Bring Me Men. And now is actively selling with clever word changes.

Which is marketing defined. As Mark Twain said about the right word being as powerful as the difference between lightning and a lightning bug.

Words count. Army Regulation 600-13, Army Policy for the Assignment of Female Soldiers, Dated March 1992,

...allows women to serve...except those battalion size or smaller units which are assigned a primary mission to engage in direct ground combat or which collocate routinely with units assigned a direct ground combat mission.

It is the intent of Congress, the President and Army Regulation that women are not permitted in ground combat.

But note how the feminists in the armed forces are changing wording to change policy. For example,

The Infantry Carrier Vehicle (ICV) Rifle Squad variant and Infantry Carrier Vehicle (ICV) Weapons Squad variant each deliver 9-person infantry squads to a location from which they will conduct a close assault.

Close assault is ground combat, from which women are excluded. The Alert Reader will notice that the Army calls this fighting machine a 9-person vehicle. Where it should be a 9-MAN infantry squad.

The Army substitutes "person" for "man." Which is the feminist agenda. Male substitution wherever possible.

The military goes a-marketing.

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Thank you (foot)notes:

See the Army's website.

More on the Seal at the jump.

Continue Reading »

Posted at 9:56 AM | Permalink
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Ned Lamont It was a small mistake. A goof anyone could make. And trust me, Your Business Blogger knows how to screw up. Lamont made a simple slip.

Except if you knew something about the Armed Services.

Last Sunday on This Week with George Stephanopoulos, Ned Lamont talked about, "Blue Star moms, Silver Star moms, ...Gold Star moms..." attempting to get pacifist viewers to get weepy or to get angry. About the horrors of war. Where good men die.

Lamont when on to win the Democrat primary in Connecticut yesterday.

Silver Star But not clear was what Ned Lamont was referring to about "Silver Star moms."

Perhaps Ned means either mothers of soldiers awarded a Silver Star.

Blue Star Family Or Ned Lamont doesn't know what he's talking about. Does not know anything about matters military.

I would submit that Ned doesn't know, nor like, nor support the American Armed Services. Simply: A Democrat.

A vote for Lamont is a vote for appeasement; for losing a war.

Losing wars is bad for business.

Gold Star And will produce more Gold Star Moms.

Ned Lamont did get that one right.

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Thank you (foot)notes:

See more on the Gold Star Moms.

Captain's Quarters has more.

See RedState analhttp://www.redstate.com/stories/featured_stories/politics_east_and_westysis.

Don Suber has weep not for Lieberman.

Wall Street Journal has more on the new Democrats.

Posted at 1:56 PM | Permalink
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What's a Feminist to do?

All of modern marketing makes clear that the modern girl doesn't need a man...

Don't need a man
if you got a can
of Pepsi, Please

All of academia tells the young lasses to burn their bras.

Professor Diana York, Women's Studies

From higher education to edgy advertising the Feminists become empowered. And they can then become combat veterans:

Lynndie London, the empowered Feminist at Abu Ghraib jail.

As this Feminist points out, Men? Who needs 'em? I got all I can handle.

Thank you (foot)notes:

Feminists Law Professors have more. Fun.

Be sure to bookmark Ipso Facto comic blog.

Posted at 10:21 PM | Permalink
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A few months ago, President Bush paid tribute to Staff Sergeant Dan Clay, who died in Iraq. The President read portions of a letter Dan wrote to his family. But his full letter gives a powerful testimony to his eternal values -- my friend Stacy Harp at Writing Right has posted that letter:

MOM, DAD, KRISTIE, JODIE, KIMBERLY, ROBERT, KATY, RICHARD, AND MY LISA: Boy do I love each and every one of you. This letter being read means that I have been deemed worthy of being with Christ. With MaMa Jo, MaMa Clay, Jennifer ... all those we have been without for our time during the race.

This is not a bad thing. It is what we hope for. The secret is out. He lives and His promises are real! It is not faith that supports this ... But fact and I now am a part of the promise. Here is notice! Wake up! All that we hope for is Real. Not a hope. But Real.

But here is something tangible. What we have done in Iraq is worth any sacrifice. Why? Because it was our duty. That sounds simple. But all of us have a duty. Duty is defined as a God given task. Without duty life is worthless. It holds no type of fulfillment.

The simple fact that our bodies are built for work has to lead us to the conclusion that God (who made us) put us together to do His work. His work is different for each of us. Mom, yours was to be the glue of our family, to be a pillar for those women (all women around you), Dad, yours was to train and build us (like a Platoon Sgt.) to better serve Him. Kristie, Kim, Katy you are the five team leaders who support your Squad ldrs, Jodie, Robert and Richard. Lisa you too.

You are my XO and you did a hell of a job. You all have your duties. Be thankful that God in His wisdom gives us work. Mine was to ensure that you did not have to experience what it takes to protect what we have as a family. This I am so thankful for.

I know what honor is. It is not a word to be thrown around. It has been an Honor to protect and serve all of you. I faced death with the secure knowledge that you would not have to. This is as close to Christ-like I can be. That emulation is where all honor lies. I thank you for making it worthwhile.

As a Marine this is not the last Chapter. I have the privilege of being one who has finished the race. I have been in the company of heroes. I now am counted among them. Never falter! Don't hesitate to honor and support those of us who have the honor of protecting that which is worth protecting.

Now here are my final wishes. Do not cry! To do so is to not realize what we have placed all our hope and faith in. We should not fear. We should not be sad. Be thankful. Be so thankful. All we hoped for is true. Celebrate! My race is over, my time in war zone is over. My trials are done. A short time separates all of us from His reality. So laugh. Enjoy the moments and your duty. God is wonderful.

I love each and every one of you.

Spread the word ..... Christ lives and He is Real.

Semper Fidelis

Always Faithful

God bless the Clay family. How humbling -- we all live more safely today because of the ultimate sacrifice of their son. Greater love hath no man... May we make grateful and good use of that gift.

Thankyou (foot)notes:

Cross Post from Reasoned Audacity.

Posted at 5:28 PM | Permalink
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Janet Parshall's America Elaine Donnelly, President of the Center for Military Readiness will be interviewed on Janet Parshall's America. Today live around 4pm EST. Check local listings.

Elaine will be explaining why the death toll among military women has been so high. And will discuss the seven major consequences that the Defense Department and Congress are inviting by failing to ask questions on how women are co-located with combat units.

Tune in the Salem Radio network for an eye opening debate.

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Full Disclosure: Your Business Blogger serves as the Vice President for the Center for Military Readiness.

Posted at 11:32 AM | Permalink
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Federal Law, governing our armed forces, prohibits women in land combat.

But how would one know, from the ads we are bombarded with.

So, I don't know, what do you think? Would you go with the pearls, or would they be too much with this . . .?

Or maybe the boyfriend is wearing the jewelry. At home. On the couch.

Holding his manhood cheap.

(From Martha and Charmaine. . .)

More on Henry V at the jump.

Continue Reading »

Posted at 11:17 PM | Permalink
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The friend of your enemy is... your enemy?

Aljazeerah has endorsed a Democratic candidate, Bob Casey, running for the Senate in Pennsylvania.

Aljazeerah attacks Senator Rick Santorum for his efforts in standing up for life, the United States and the family.

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Thank you (foot)notes:

Tom McClusky, Vice President for Government Affairs at the Family Research Council, points us to the story. He blogs at FRCBlog.

Make FRCBlog a part of your daily reading.

Full Disclosure: The wife of Your Business Blogger, Charmaine, is the Editrix at FRCBlog.

Posted at 1:43 PM | Permalink
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Lori Piestewa,
single mother of two,
killed Katie Couric recently refused to go to Iraq. She gets this right,

Katie Couric, who takes over the CBS Evening News in September told Access Hollywood that at this point, she would not venture into the Middle East hot spot.

"I think the situation there is so dangerous, and as a single parent with two children, that's something I won't be doing," Katie said.

Couric lurches into the truth: War zones are not safe for anyone. Especially for moms and the kids left behind.

Elaine Donnelly, President of the Center for Military Readiness reminds us that,

To date 60 women have been killed in Afghanistan and Iraq since 9/11. By contrast, only 16 women killed in all the years of Vietnam, most of them nurses. In the First Persian Gulf War, 33,000 women were deployed, but only 6 perished due to scud missile explosions or accidents.

Women should not be killed in combat.

No single mother with children should go to war. Not Katie. Not Lori.

Katie Couric

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Thank you (foot)notes:

Kathryn Lopez at NRO points us to Access Hollywood, blockquote above.

Full Disclosure: Your Business Blogger also serves as the Vice President of the Center for Military Readiness.

See Saving Private Lori.

Get Women Out of Combat.

Mudville Gazette has Open Post.

Posted at 2:53 PM | Permalink
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World Trade Center "Redemption," wrote Cal Thomas earlier when he saw Oliver Stone's movie. Stone may have redeemed himself.

Tonight, Thursday, The Washington Insiders were invited to a private screening of World Trade Center. I got in on a waiver. I would have been easy to pick out of this cool crowd: I was the only one with a bucket of (fattening) buttered popcorn, slurping a giant Coke.

Your Business Blogger, Charmaine
Melissa and Rob Bluey

Charmaine and I joined Rob Bluey, blog editor at Human Events and his wife Melissa from The Atlantic Monthly and the smart crowd at a Cinema near Charmaine's office to see Stone's newest movie.

What it was and what it was not.

It was not a conspiracy movie.
It did not bash Bush.
It was not sappy.
It was not about stupid, church-going nuts.
It did not mock marriage.
It did not blame America.
It did not support radical Islam.
It did not mock Marines.
It did not mock Jesus.
It did not mock cops.

It did not mock family, faith or freedom.

Charmaine says, "It was a Hallmark Hall of Fame special...on steroids." Jim Pinkerton, from the New America Foundation DID NOT tear up. Me neither.

But the theater was a bit dusty. That stuff can get in your eyes. Or was it dust from the movie?

This is a movie that you will see in a few weeks and you will be glad you did. After the viewing, there was no applause, little talking. At the end, the crowd audibly exhaled, as one.

People moved out as if leaving a wake. Tony Blankley and his significant other were the last, the very last to leave. They were moved.

Laura Ingram moved out quick; she was among the first out. Dr. Land, President of the Southern Baptist Convention expected to walk out early and didn't.

We spoke to Blankley. He was surprised at Stone's movie, "Good, True, Patriotic, Religious."

Kate O'Beirne from Nation Review was a bit more skeptical about Oliver Stone, "His other movies don't sell, nobody goes to them. So he made this to appeal -- to sell. He wants to make money."

And so he will. You must see how Stone can make a movie with Jesus, yes Him, without a smirk. Mel Gibson can do Passion, sure. But Oliver Stone?

Better check the temperature in Hell. The impossible has happened. Oliver is redeemed.

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Thank you (foot)notes:

The movie will be theaters August 9, 2006

Special thanks to Mike Thompson, Senior Vice President of Creative Response Concepts, who coordinated the event for Paramount Pictures.

More on the movie at the jump.

The Raw Story has more. Read the Comments, liberals still believe "9/11 was an inside job no doubt." And my favorite, "Hey cons, Jesus says watch this film or you'll go to hell."

Mudville Gazette has Open Post.

OpFor has more.

Continue Reading »

Posted at 10:29 PM | Permalink
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Your Business Blogger was strolling through Washington, DC and decided to step into an old building to escape the July heat. The Dirksen beckoned. If it's named after a Republican, then it's got to be cold.

So I wander into Room 106 and eavesdrop on a confirmation hearing. John Warner from Virginia chaired. He is a real gentleman. Handling the hearing and the nominees with grace and diplomacy. I almost forgot he voted against impeaching Clinton.

Anyway, I happen see my old friend Anita Blair being questioned, and I mean questioned by Senator Levin. And she did outstanding. She'll make a great Assistant Secretary for the Air Force.

But what I was interested in was listening to the crowd talk about another John, another member of this committee: John McCain. One observer near me in the peanut gallery said that, "McCain was sucking up to the religious right wing-nuts."

That'd be me.

And he continued, "I hate that."

Goodness, Liberals are capable of 'hate.' Alert the media.

However, is McCain really sucking up to the religious right? I wish he would.

But I think not. For two reasons.

on left: Bauer, Falwell, McCain on far right
at Liberty University

#1. Charmaine and I saw McCain at the graduation ceremony at Liberty University recently and watched McCain up close. Our good friend, Gary Bauer was also giving a speech and praised McCain no less that three times from the pulpit. Gary is a long-time McCain supporter and looked like an excellent candidate for Secretary of Education in a McCain Administration. (Well, actually, I would be honored to work for Gary in any capacity, but I digress.)

McCain glowed and smiled at Gary's compliments. But McCain turned dark when Bauer talked about gay marriage or abortion. McCain would fidget, pick lint off his pant legs and stare off in another direction when abortion and babies were mentioned. McCain is a master politician, but not a master of body language.

At Liberty, Falwell did the courting, not McCain.

#2. John McCain was on the invited list for the Family Research Council's annual briefing coming in September. McCain is "unavailable." A very polite Code word. (But Ann Coulter and Newt Gingrich are coming!)

John McCain is not courting, nor counting on, true-blue red conservatives.

He should. If he wants the nomination.

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Thank you (foot)notes:

Register for FRC's Washington Briefing!

Greg Tinti at Outside the Beltway has Traffic Jam.

Posted at 10:54 PM | Permalink
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An Alert Reader, Martha, a former Air Force enlisted, who has been following the thread on women in combat with concern, writes to explain the "Abracadabra" issue:

I have heard horrid stories from deployed friends about the attitude toward women in the ranks. Even unattractive girls have a throng of men around them all the time when they are in "Bad Guy Land". The names they give those women is crass. "Golden P**sy Syndrome" and similar things.

Then, on the flight home, "abracadabra" they are ugly again. The rejection is as sudden and violent as an IED attack. How can men be allowed to treat fellow soldiers like this, then turn around and treat them with respect on the battlefield?

Sadly, I didn't have to go further than today's New York Times to get a real-life illustration of why this kind of thing is no small matter. In an article, Behind Failed Abu Ghraib Plea, a Tangle of Bonds and Betrayals about Lynndie England, Charles Graner and Megan Ambuhl, the reporter, Kate Zernike lays out a tragic story that puts an even sorrier twist to the already sordid tale of Abu Ghraib.

Lynndie England and
Charles Graner

Credit: L.M. Otero/A P
Megan Ambuhl,
Graner's new wife

The short version of the story is that Charles Graner was treating the United States Army like his own personal harem, carrying on overlapping affairs with both Lynndie England and Megan Ambuhl. Then, when Lynndie got pregnant, and sent home, they broke up. Graner sent an email to his father: "I stopped seeing her back in january but when all this garbage came out i started seeing her again," he wrote. "chances are very good that it is my child....o well....daddy what did you bring home from the war????"

That's some war souvenir.

With Lynndie sent home, Graner focused on Ambuhl. The two co-conspirators recently married at Ft. Hood, a surrogate groom standing in for Graner, who is already in prison.

A few quotes from the NYT piece at the jump.

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Cross post from Reasoned Audacity.

Full Disclosure Your Business Blogger also serves as Vice President for the Center for Military Readiness, a non-profit think tank in Your Nation's Capital.

Mudville Gazette has Open Post.

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Posted at 7:36 AM | Permalink
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I was dropping the Little Woman off at Nordstroms and decided to spend a few hours in Your Nation's Capital.

Watching a lawyer get beat up.

By some other lawyers. You'd think someone would be getting sued. But not in this venue -- the Dirkson Senate Office Building, Room 226. This is the Judiciary Committee where Jim Haynes gave testimony to testy senators.

Today's hearing was confrontational. The blood sport in DC.

Along with protesters. I stood next to a middle-aged fat-guy hippie with a TORTURE t-shirt. Very stylish.

I wander in and smile at a Maureen Dowd look-a-like at the press table. She didn't smile back -- must not have been her.

Soon after the hearing begins, one woman in an orange jump suit started shouting in an inappropriate "outside voice" (as would be described by parent to a child). She goes only a few seconds with "I'm an army colonel" and "Don't confirm him" and how bad Haynes was for the Army. Before Specter angrily ordered her removed.

I'm disappointed that she is too quickly overcome. If she were really former Army, she'd put up more of a fight. Women in Combat and all that.

But Nina Totenburg started smiling. This was going to be a good show.

Haynes starts with family introduction family values stuff: Loyal wife of 24 years; three kids, public schools...whatever. Now I love this family stuff; I've got one too. But somehow, Haynes doesn't pull off the sympathetic family-guy thing. Republicans are expected to be up-tight prudes. Not news. But it is a contrast.

To be questioned by Ted Kennedy. It is the odd nature of politics these days where conservatives make the move to being soft and cuddly and liberals pretend to be hard and warlike.

Ted Kennedy preaching obedience to the law. Goodness.

So Senators Kennedy, Durbin, Graham, Leahy let loose. Even the chairman Specter.

Republican Graham, from conservative South Carolina, also came out swinging.

And the punches landed. Blood on the walls. Even with Cornyn and Sessions saying the right, nice things couldn't clear or clean it up.

But, as with everything in show business Your Nation's Capital, Haynes didn't have the stage presence of mind to counter senatorial heckling from the bench. He brought it on himself.

And he didn't quite have his one-liners down. He starts with a story about his mentor musing that a lawyer, "Should never attribute to malice, that which can be attributed to stupidity."

At which point I heard a Code-Pinker in front of me stage whisper, "So that makes us stupid?"

Which, of course, it does. But by now, even this early, the crowd was lost, the battle was lost. For Haynes.

I really don't know what was worse: the contemptuous questions. Or Haynes' gosh-awful answers.

My favorite exchange was from Leahy: Who told you, you would be a good judge?
Haynes, ...the President must have thought...I would do a good job...
(When Haynes talked, there was a lot of " ... ".)
Leahy, Did the President ever say you'd be a good judge?
Haynes, No.

The crowd was stunned into silence. It is seldom that one sees such a punch-in-the-nose in public.

Leahy continues with the haymakers, Tell me about who first told you that you were to be nominated -- when you first learned about being a judge on the Fourth Circuit.

Haynes, ...I don't remember...

Leahy, Can you tell us who first told you about being a judge?

Haynes, ... [and] ... [and some more]...[finally] I really don't remember.

This is an odd answer from an afternoon filled with odd answers. There are events that release so much epinephrine that the memory is forever imprinted. Where You Were When Kennedy Was Shot. Where You Were When You Got Your Draft Notice. The NFL Draft Call. That Wife Stuff. Your Kids Being Born. The WTC Attack.

The Call To Be A Judge On The Federal Appeals Court.

Haynes doesn't recall. Leahy says that in his 32 years in this business, "This is the first time a nominee didn't remember The Call."

How did Leahy know to ask that question? And know that he'd get such an embarrassing answer?

The audience shifts in their seats uncomfortably. Even those who don't support Haynes now feel sorry for him.

Except for me. I'm hoping the Senators will ask Haynes about the Army placing women into combat, breaking rule and reg.

But all the Committee wants is to torture Haynes with torture. It seems that Haynes assembled a team of lawyers to fulfill a General's request to use extraordinary means to get information.

They needed some clever wordsmithing to get around cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, which is prohibited by law.

And Haynes came up with some very clever work-arounds. With which I would agree.

But.

But, the law is clear: we can't do degrading things like having a terrorist walk around nude on leash. If the Army interrogator wants a nude terrorist on a leash, change the law.

Goodness: This is insane. Nekked arabs on a rope is not torture. But the wording of the law is clear. Change the law so that we can torture with sleep deprivation and forced viewings of The View.

Instead, Haynes is too clever by half. And changes the meanings of words. Haynes says that it depends, "[how you] define that phrase..." and stumbled over an answer on 'degrading' interrogation techniques.

The Judiciary Committee didn't get to Women in Combat. But they didn't have to. Haynes has shown us an unfortunate pattern of word-change-definitions. Something about defense of necessity and lawyerly talkie-talk which made it clear that he was making it up.

When the issue is: either obey the law, or change it.

Haynes may be complicit in the changing of definition on women in combat. Somewhere, someone with clever lawyerly oversight, changed the definition of "co-locate." Where women are now being placed into army units that are required to be all-male.

The pattern on Haynes' advice to the DoD on torture seems to be the same with the semantics of women in combat.

The control of the military is slipping from the President and Congress to Army lawyers who can re-define "degrading" and "co-locate" and lots of other words to do anything the Army wants.

Which is not always a bad idea. But change the law first.

Haynes should not be nominated, unless he answers questions about women in combat.

Full Disclosure: I serve as the Vice President of the Center for Military Readiness.

Mudville has Open Post.

Big Lizards has excellent analysis on Article 3.

Basil's Blog has a picnic.

Red State Blue State has Open Trackbacks.

Posted at 9:49 PM | Permalink
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On the plane with Richard Branson

Following is an edited cross post from Charmaine's Reasoned Audacity, July 1 - 7, 2005.

A year ago, Charmaine calls early morning from Edinburgh. "I'm having trouble flying into London," she says.

I'm still waking up. I ask, "When can you come home?"

"I don't know," she says, her voice unsteady, "They're still clearing the bodies."

A wake up call. London, welcome to the war.

It started, as most things these days do, with Powerline.

Following is original posting from London as Charmaine called it into me, when her site went down. Any inconsistencies may be due to transcription overload.

This is Jack, the husband: Charmaine called. Her site is still down, but she wanted to file a report to Powerline.

"Flew into Heathrow airport and took a $150 cab ride into north London to conduct interviews and document the bombsites. Bobbies cordoned off area around the sites sealing the scene of the explosions. I got to within a block or so of Edgware Tube station entrance with Londoners sitting calmly, relaxing in pubs. Everything is strangely calm, business as usual. I interviewed a woman, an interior designer, expecting some emotional display. There was none. "We don't do a lot of group hugging in England," she said, making me think of the stiff-upper lip. "We are not sentimental."

And she seemed to reflect the mood of the London population. Not for what they were doing but for what they were not doing: No candles, no out-pouring of grief, no hoards of gawkers milling around police tape, no teddy bears, no bouquets of flowers. No movement. No tears. Everything normal, except, maybe for that bus with the top blown off. Workers cleared and cleaned up the area real well. Spiffy. And got back to their pints.

I visited hospitals and learned that 'only' 37 were confirmed dead at that time. More confirmations were expected.

There were no moms with little children in downtown London. I interviewed middle-aged businessmen on cell phones and kids with Mohawks, none who were surprised.

Londoners gently reproached me about my concern over the bloodshed, "You Americans get sentimental over silly things. We're used to getting bombed." The IRA Troubles had hardened hearts as well as the London infrastructure.

I expected some grief, at least as much as there was when Lady Di died. And grief I got. I interviewed three very ordinary, normal teenaged English Muslims, one with short spiky hair (dressed not unlike my 10 year-old-dude). All three seems to be parroting Muslim talking points. "The bombings were a conspiracy by Blair to generate support for the war," they recited in a charming British accent.

The bombers were quite indiscriminate. Edgware is not far from the heart of Little Beirut, a Muslim ethnic neighborhood.

A young British black woman told me, "The bombings are Tony Blair's fault -- they killed a 100 thousand Iraqis -- and it's like a boomerang [coming back at the British]." Most everyone I talked to believed that the British caused the bombing or had it coming.

Of the dozen or so people I interviewed only white males in business attire expressed surprise that anyone would think the British were at fault in anyway.

But these gentlemen were the minority. Most felt that the Brits were complicit. The people at London's ground zero were sounding like the "wobbly" Spanish after their train bombings.

The day is a cloudy, cold, rainy 7.7."

Charmaine is still out on the streets -- 9pm local London time and will be sending pictures soon.

Read the story at the jump.

CMR Salamander points to HotAir with video.

Continue Reading »

Posted at 7:11 PM | Permalink
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Harvard ROTC
CommissioningThese two events are not connected. Directly.

Causation? Maybe. Correlation. Certainly.

Your Business Blogger was recently reminded that it is possible to get an army commission at Harvard.

Lefty gentleman Jody Wheeler writes/links in Fluke that it is not impossible these days to get an ROTC commission at Harvard.

Sort of.

Raphael C. Rosen, co-authors Profile in Courage in Jim Glassman's TCSDaily. Rosen notes about Harvard President Summers that,

Yet another controversy has been the place of the military on campus which, in Harvard's case, is effectively non-existent.

But Wheeler is right.

But.

The military program is effectively non-existent; is a head fake. For two reasons:

1) Cadets drill at nearby MIT, so as not to infect Harvard with any sense of patriotism, and

2) The ROTC program is supported with private funds.

Harvard lent only the logo to the commissioning. And its hated president, Larry Summers. The commissioning was cheered by the hated Rumsfeld.

Richard Posner writes on the Summers Resignation,

Larry Summers at the commissioning

A few comments portray Summers as a political reactionary, noting for example his effort to bring back ROTC to Harvard. Summers is of course a Democrat who served in the Clinton Administration. He recognized that it was not good for Harvard to be monolithically left wing. As John Stuart Mill pointed out in On Liberty, a person's critical faculties are apt to atrophy if he is surrounded by like-minded people who do not question his ideas and opinions. Nor would it be inappropriate for Summers to believe that Harvard's influence on public policy is needlessly diminished by unpatriotic institutional decisions, such as excluding military recruiters and instruction from the university.

Fem-FearBut the Harvard ROTC commissioning ceremony is a start to bring back the Old School into the new world. If the feminists can be beaten.

After all, John Harvard was a Jesus-loving, Bible-thumping Puritan.

Harvard as a Divinity School. Now that would be Progressive.

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Read more on the Fem-Fear at Khankrumthebulgar

See Advocates for Harvard ROTC.

Also see segal org for ROTC funding at Harvard.

See Nothing on Harvard.

Full Disclosure: Your Business Blogger's education was partially funded by the Army's ROTC program.

Mudville Gazette has Open Post.

Posted at 6:59 AM | Permalink
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The Navy's
Combat
Action
RibbonGirls used to wear ribbons in their hair. Now girls wear them on their chests. Left breast, to be exact.

Bill Gertz is reporting today in The Washington Times that the Navy is expanding the award criteria for the Combat Action Ribbon to include IED's.

A Marine officer said to Gertz,

Your don't have to return fire to win a combat action ribbon.

"Direct Exposure" is now in the same category as "Direct Fire."

The Army's
Combat Action Badge
1st AwardWhich is as it should be. But this will now mean that women will be eligible -- the CAR is the Navy's equivalent to the Army's Combat Action Badge. Which is now being awarded to women.

With which I would also agree. Except.

Except this is more of the Pentagon's incremental change where we continue to see 'women' and 'combat' in the same phrase.

So what's all the fuss about women getting combat decorations?

The truth is that women shouldn't be deliberately subject to any hostile fire, direct, in-direct, mines, or improvised.

Women are being placed at "the tip of the spear."

While men abed in America
Hold their manhood cheap...

We few, we happy few,
We band of...siblings.

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See Reasoned Audacity with Combat Action Badge: Unisex Design.

Posted at 12:47 PM | Permalink
Comments (1)

Only one American male in nine has worn a military uniform. This includes the WWll vets passing on.

Charmaine and I were talking about war and rumors of war and she remarked that it seems as if no one cares, if the polls are to be believed. This is a common conversation, when you have sons who want to serve and sacrifice.

Because some folks these days, usually in Blue States, don't understand the military. And people these days are not having kids.

And so, as the cliche goes, The Greatest Generation has begot the Me Generation. A sad MyGration.

But there is hope. There are still soldiers. And the Roe Effect is rolling in. Soon.

I Was A Soldier

By Colonel Daniel K. Cedusky, USA, Retired

I was a Soldier: That's the way it is, that's what we were...are. We put
it, simply, without any swagger, without any brag, in those four plain
words.

Continue Reading »

Posted at 8:54 AM | Permalink
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Last year Charmaine wrote an article on the wisdom of violence against women. How liberals in Congress don't seem to mind women getting assaulted -- by sending our girls off to war to get their heads sawed off by the Islamofascists.

Why worry about women in combat? Why not just let the Pentagon go ahead with boiling the frog? After all, proponents argue, it is an all-volunteer army now.

Let me highlight one reason, among others: the draft.

This argument is often dismissed automatically as being politically untenable. "They'll never bring the draft back!" But that is short-sighted and naive.

If women in the military begin serving in combat, voluntarily, and the ban against women in ground combat is lifted, then there will be no legal basis for maintaining their exclusion from the draft.

Not My Little Girls
US Air Force Academy

This is just common sense. As further evidence of how plausible this scenario is, here's an article in Washington Monthly, "The Case for the Draft," arguing for a reinstated draft now, that would include both men and women:

A better solution would fix the weaknesses of the all-volunteer force without undermining its strengths. Here's how such a plan might work. Instead of a lottery, the federal government would impose a requirement that no four-year college or university be allowed to accept a student, male or female, unless and until that student had completed a 12-month to two-year term of service. . . They would be deployed as needed for peacekeeping or nation-building missions. They would serve for 12-months to two years, with modest follow-on reserve obligations.

The authors do hedge their bets a little by including "national service programs" like tutoring with AmeriCorps as part of their draft program. But there is still the legal issue: on what legal grounds would you exclude the rest of the female population from mandatory combat service once some women are serving voluntarily, should the need arise?

We face an unknown future, so our policy decisions today should be guided by wisdom informed by yesterday's history. One thing we do know is that nation's must be prepared to protect themselves against the unexpected. Any other posture is sheer foolishness.

Some of the wisdom of yesterday includes knowing the politics of the draft. One of the legacies of Vietnam was General Westmoreland's strategy of using the draft to fill ranks. Instead of calling up the standing army, reserves, national guard, then finally the general population, Westmoreland bypassed this cascade -- we went from standing army directly to the civilian population. His rationale was that he could keep the draftees longer.

We all know the domestic political tension that resulted, and continues to haunt us today. How much worse would that political conflagration be if Uncle Sam comes after our daughters?

The politics of "allowing" women in combat lead remorselessly toward drafting women. And a feminine mobilization leads directly to political gridlock right at a time when self-defense requires prompt, resolute, decisive action.

We simply cannot afford to advance on the assumption that we will never again need a mass mobilization to defend our country. In some sad tomorrow, we may need to call up civilians, but not now, not today.

And not women.

See Charmaine's The Politics of the Draft.

Full Disclosure: Your Business Blogger also has the honor of serving as the VIce President of the Center for Military Readiness.

Mudville Gazette has Open Post.

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John Kennedy, in 1962 said, "We choose to go to the moon ... and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard..." He was exhorting the nation for a moon shot. But he could have been talking about military recruiting, as difficult as it has been.

Each of the service branches has recently met recruiting goals. Barely.

Why is this business so hard? Especially during a war? When normal red-blooded American men normally would queue up at recruiting stations. As they did for wars past. But not now.

What can be done?

Here are 7 points to make the military more attractive. Not by making it pretty. But by making it ugly.

The Hemispherical Engine1) Muscle. Men have 'em. Girls don't. The basic training of female service members is not the same for men. Which creates a problem. Political Correctness demands that physical training be "gender normed" where women have lower standards than men. The military made easy. The males know this and know that the sisters are "differently abled" soldiers. Because there is no challenge, real men will not bother.

The HummerTestosterone engorged men are consumed with building bulging muscles, muscle shirts, muscle cars. The man has a Hemi. The boy has a Yugo. Arnold Swarchenegger drives a Hummer. Bill Maher has a hybrid sissy car.

The Band of Brothers has become the Band of Siblings.

The Army of One2) Marketing. The slogan is wrong. It is not an Army of One. We should not have an Army of individuals as the message attempts to convey. The military must not be made up of solitary independents. The culture and liberal politics has embraced this radical notion of the god of the individual. Here, the military cannot reflect the culture. The Army is a collection of teams, acting as one unit for one mission.

This Clinton-era sloganeering is little more than social engineering. To redefine unit cohesion.

3) Money. Cash has never been a motivator for patriots. It not about the (private) Benjamins. Income is not necessarily the motivator in any employment sector. Americans are not mercenaries.

The Army Times recently wrote about big bonus bucks for motivating soldiers. Where "warrior pay" rewards difficult and dangerous tours of duty. As it should. But this should not be a recruitment strategy. The number one reason people leave a job, is not the lack of money, but the lack of appreciation.

4) Mirror. When I was in the Army, back in the days of the horse cavalry, a full-length three-quarter profile photograph was a part of a soldier's record. Image is everything. This emphasis changed during the Clinton era: now we work to avoid hurting the soldiers' delicate self-esteem. "I oppose black hats --berets -- for the entire Army. You cannot improve the morale of the force by just changing hats."said Steve Buyer, (R) Ind., a former member of member of the House Armed Services Committee.

The Army has every soldier wearing the beret. What used to be coveted headgear of elite units. The beret has become as worthless as the trophies presented to every 6-year-old soccer player.

It's too late to do anything about the head cover. But it's not too late to stop cosmetic fixes to make the military mighty.

No time for war:
The Army goes bird watching;
celebrating Earth Day, 20065) Mother Earth. "Each year, the US Army celebrates Earth Day at approximately 200 major commands, installations and organizations in the continental United States and around the world." Earth worshipping messages from Green Peace are chanted by war-time generals. General Schoomaker and Army Secretary Harvey have issued "An Earth Day Message" directing the military to devote scarce time, talent and treasure to politically correct nonsense "...to protect our environment."

This is the ad campaign, "Sustaining the environment for a secure future," where we leave a clean planet for the Islamofascists to rule.

The Army can't recruit. But it can recycle.

Terrorists are sawing off the heads of US soldiers. While the Army separates glass, paper and plastic.

6) Mensch. The military is composed of stand-up guys. Disciplined warriors. War fighting is a violent activity requiring violence from men. Men killing men. Bayonet drills. Rifle butt to the chin. Boot to the groin. Making men makes for unit cohesion.

Bayonet DrillNot in today's Army. No time. Soldiers now have to sit through gender sensitivity training.

A man wants a Mensch as a mentor. To learn to win. Drill Sergeants that, heaven forbid, cuss.

The military is an exclusive club. It's not for everyone. There should be high barriers to entry. Only a few good men make it in.

And the also-ran, ne'er-do-wells should be sent home. If you want winners, there must be losers. Every American male should watch the beginning of the 1976 movie, Baby Blue Marine.

It's about a Marine washout who failed basic training during WWII. The failures were issued light blue fatigues and a train ticket home. The world knew they didn't make it in the Marines. The light blue fatigues were designed to humiliate. No one wanted to fail. The military personnel selection process was nearly as brutal as the fighting.

The world was at war. We won.

7) Momma. The military is not your mother. There should be no soft, feminine side to life in the barracks, life in the trenches. Military men leave their women behind for the brotherhood of arms. A new recruit expects his Drill Sergeant to treat him differently than his mother. A kinder, gentler DI is not what challenges a young man. It's too easy.

And if your mother, sister, or girlfriend is fighting alongside you, then maybe the military isn't that tough.

The American male senses this. And really doesn't want to join the soldier sorority sisters. Hangin' with the girlfriends and homosexuals.

Maybe combat today is too easy. If girls can do it. Let them. The men will stay at home.

Kennedy's speech also reminded us that "we intend to win." Let us pray our armed forces give us more than good intentions.

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Thank you (foot)notes:

More on Baby Blue Marine at the jump.

Mudville has Open Post.

Tapscotts Behind the Wheel hosts the Car Car.nival. Best reading for real men: Car Guys.

Blue Star Chronicles has the Carnival.

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USS BonefishJune 18th, this Sunday is Fathers' Day. It is also the day of loss of the USS Bonefish in 1945. This date is acknowledged each year by our household -- for the men lost -- the Dads; the sons.

A few years ago Your Business Blogger was honored to be invited to the Submarine Veterans Chapter in North Carolina and share a few words. The podium was on the ocean front. Grizzled vets and wives sat in the sun. Hot. Uncomplaining.

Afterwards, a plane flew overhead and dropped a wreath on the water a few hundred yards out. An honor guard fired a three-round volley. The Dude scampered for the shell casings. I have them in a desk drawer. To remember.

Submariners' Memorial Service, Saturday May 13, 2000, Outer Banks, North Carolina

Debt of Honor

It is an honor to join you here today and remember the submariners "still on patrol." And to remember our debt of honor due. I've asked my son, John, to join us today -- a day I expect him to remember and take to his grave.

During World War II, my dad, a teenager from New Jersey, left high school, went to submarine school and was assigned to the USS Bonefish.

Virtual Painter Photos
Courtesy Tom McMahonWhen John saw previews of the blockbuster movie U-571, he asked if it was about his grandfather. The movie is a story about honor, courage, strength, character, what being a man, a warrior really is. Yes John, your grandfather was in the movie, and so were each of the submariners here today.

But in the movie the men came home. We are here today for the men who didn't.

My father was re-assigned and walked off the gangplank and another man walked on the Bonefish. The Bonefish was lost in combat on June 18, 1945 with all hands.

My dad eventually went back to high school and married my mother. The other man is on the bottom of the Sea of Japan.

My father, after a half-century later after fighting in and surviving two wars, is buried in Arlington Cemetery. He had the chance to raise a family and devote 30 years to the Navy and pin Second Lieutenant bars on my shoulders.

Like many veterans, he didn't talk much about being in harm's way. Still, I imagine, in some Navy Valhalla, my dad and this other sailor linked up and asked the Creator, "Why?"

Why was my father spared? Why each of you? Why was the other man, why did the other men not come home? War forces these questions on us, and they echo for generations -- my father had me, and now I have a 5-year old son, John, who carries his grandfather's name and his love of battle and discipline.

John, like all children, often asks, "Why?" Like all fathers, I struggle to answer. But there are some questions we cannot fathom on this side of eternity. Why was my father not on that submarine that fateful day?

And the answer does not come. Only that John now lives -- with a purpose and a destiny and lessons to learn and a debt of honor.

The submarine and her crew is the truest example of a military unit and military cohesion and military mission. And this is what I want my son to see. He saw it in the movie U-571, and in each of you today. But more important, I want him to understand the sacrifice of the men remembered today.

When my wife was pregnant with our first child, someone asked her, "What is your greatest fear?" She answered that it was losing her husband; she feared the possibility of facing the awesome responsibility of motherhood alone.

But now, several children later, as I reflect on that same question, my fear is not losing her, or even one of our daughters. I fear losing my son. In my masculine pride, I believe I can protect my wife and girls, but in my heart, just below the surface, is the dread possibility that I must one day send my son to war.

Just as your fathers sent each of you. And by God's grace, you and my father came back.

My boy loves my cavalry saber and my dad's medals. Wearing a military uniform and military service runs deep in our family. My son's blood line is traced through the Civil War and the Revolutionary War to William Penn to Charlemagne of ninth century France. His great-grandfather helped build the Virginia Military Institute.

I pray the time never comes, but if it does, I expect that he will fight for God and country like his fathers before him. And like you, warriors gathered today, and like the warriors still on "eternal patrol" we honor today.

I have in my office the Norman Rockwell print of the "Homecoming GI" showing a young man coming home from war being greeting by the neighborhood. His back is toward us, his face is each of you and my father. We remember today the boys who didn't come home, lost at sea -- the only thing left was a gold star and a Purple Heart and our eternal gratitude.

Buried at sea, there are no headstones, I cannot mark the grave of the man who took my father's place. But shortly we will honor that man and each of the 3,505 men lost on 52 boats with a wreath. It is fitting that, as some boats were lost to aerial bombs, that we remember those lost heroes with an aerial wreath dropped over the sea.

There will always be wars and rumors of war, the Bible teaches. When I think of future wars I pray that a lost heroic high-tech Bonefish will not carry my John. The fear of this nearly unendurable loss humbles me. That young submariner who walked -- requested permission to board -- the Bonefish to take my father's place was another man's son. Another father's dreams lost at sea. War turns civilization on its head: In peace sons bury fathers. In war fathers bury sons.

Today we remember the men buried in the sea. It is a weighty debt. A debt of honor due. This is why I have my boy, the grandson of a submariner, here today to honor those men with you. I expect to instill in him a sense of history, of true sacrifice, of his mission in life. That his body is not his own, that he has a higher calling and that he will honor and obey. That he has a high calling.

I hope that I can teach him the lessons of his forefathers, and the lessons of the men we remember today and each of you -- a great cloud of witnesses. The Greatest Generation.

It is my prayer that instilling this sense of mission will drive out the distractions, temptations and destructions of his growing generation. That he will see the hand of Divine Providence moving in his life. That he will know that he has so much to be thankful for. Like his fathers before him. That, as Scripture teaches, greater love has no man than to give his life for another.

I pray that he will be grateful, like his grandfather, and me, to the man and the men who died for us. It is my charge to tell my son that another young man took his grandfather's place.

My son has the duty, and like us all, to that man and those men. My son has the duty to live with a sense of respect and purpose and awe. To live with a sense of reverence to the tomb, the crushed hull, of that other submariner.

Today we salute and honor the man and the men who died for me and for us all. I want my son to know his debt of honor. And Lord willing, my son will bury me.

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Thank you (foot)notes:

Debt of Honor; USS Bonefish Lost was originally published by The Virginian Pilot and other print outlets.

Be Excellent has Father's Day Advice.

Basil has a picnic.

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As George Bush started to run for president, the story is told about Dick Cheney and his work to help find a Vice President. Numerous talented candidates were evaluated. But none were quite as good as...Dick Cheney.

(Cheney did this before. Dick Cheney says that he set up an exploratory committee for Lynn as she was looking for a husband.)

So I followed the Vice President's example when Elaine Donnelly asked about hiring staff to help her at the Center for Military Readiness.

I volunteered to set up an exploratory committee and helped evaluate candidates. There were many outstanding contenders. Not-so-Secretly, I wanted the job.

And you can't beat the Cheney model.

Jack Yoest Appointed Vice President

of the Center for Military Readiness

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

June 6, 2006

Contact: Elaine Donnelly (734/464-9430 ) or Jack Yoest (202/215-2434);

Website: www.cmrlink.org

Elaine Donnelly, President of the Center for Military Readiness, is pleased to announce the appointment of John "Jack" Wesley Yoest, Jr., as Vice President of CMR.

Mr. Yoest will represent the Center for Military Readiness in the nation's capital, and will work with Pentagon policy makers, legislators, and the media on wartime military personnel policies of concern to CMR. He will also be involved in research and production of CMR Policy Analysis reports and publications, and will manage initiatives in development, marketing, and new media on the Internet.

Donnelly predicted that the expertise and vision that Yoest brings to the new position will heighten the organization's presence and influence in Washington D.C., and further extend the organization's reach into the ranks of active duty men and women worldwide. "Jack's abilities as a writer, successful entrepreneur and business consultant, plus his military background, will help CMR to increase awareness of policy decisions that affect discipline, morale and readiness, especially in time of war."

Mr. Yoest has started successful manufacturing and software businesses, advised non-profit CEOs on fundraising and strategic direction, and has consulted with domestic and international companies in the fields of high technology, biotechnology and medical devices. He served as an Assistant Secretary for Health and Human Resources during the administration of Virginia Governor James Gilmore. He was Chief of Technology during the Secretariat's Year 2000 (Y2K) conversion, and was a key advisor on the state's website development and policy construction for electronic commerce (e-business).

Mr. Yoest earned an MBA from George Mason University and completed graduate work in the International Operations Management Program at Oxford University. A former Captain in the U. S. Army and son of a 30-year Navy submariner, Yoest served in combat arms and on the U.S. Armor and Engineer Board, which directed research and conducted testing with night vision and electro-optics.

His articles on business, military, and social/cultural subjects have been published in National Review Online, The Women's Quarterly, and Small Business Trends, and syndicated by the Scripps-Howard News Service. Yoest resides in the Washington D.C. area with his five children and wife Charmaine, who is Vice President for Communications at the Family Research Council.

The Center for Military Readiness is an independent, non-partisan public policy organization, founded in 1993, which specializes in military personnel issues.

Center for Military Readiness P.O. Box 51600 Livonia, Michigan 48151

Phone: (734) 464-9430

The press release was picked up by The Washington Times.

Mudville has Open Post.

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Your Business Blogger has an article up at National Review Online. About the loss of the sub USS Scorpion.

I went to school with a girl whose dad is on eternal patrol.

Yolanda Mazzuchi was about the prettiest girl in our school class. Our dads were in the Navy, often gone for months at a time. And they would be welcomed home at dockside with cheers and homemade signs. These gatherings at the D&S Piers at the Naval Base in Norfolk, Virginia, were a regular part of our lives growing up....

At 1 in the afternoon on Monday, May 27, 1968, at the height of the Cold War the USS Scorpion was due in port.

Yolanda didn't know it then, but her dad was already dead....

The loss still hurts four decades later. Read the rest.

Mudville Gazette has Open Post.

And visit the vanities.

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In the 17th century women were frequent visitors to warships to comfort the crew. And these relationships produced children, some legitimate, some not. The fathers were sometimes known, sometimes not.

Babies on board were birthed out between the cannon on the gun deck providing some measure of privacy. The baby's paternity might be noted as "son of a gun."

Gun deck USS Constitution
Image Credit

Our military heros have been siring sons for centuries; men who did the right thing for their country but, perhaps, could have done better for their women.

Let me tell a story, a true story . . . but no names, no links. I want to honor the young man of whom I speak, while yet grieving over a wound left behind. . .

In a very public event, in a very public place, our young man was laid to rest in the Hallowed Grounds of Arlington National Cemetery. He gave the last full measure of devotion defending our country and our way of life.

As the military honor guard moved through the sad ritual of folding the casket flag -- snap and crease, smooth and fold -- a young woman sat solemnly holding the young man's son.

But the young woman was not his wife; the little boy did not carry the young man's name: he's a 21st century son of a gun.

The little boy received the folded flag, honoring his father. Another flag went to the mother of the fallen soldier. . .not the mother of his child.

Scriptures teach us that there is no greater love than that a man give his life for another. There is no greater love, but might there be some regrets, some good not done? Is our soldier in the warrior's Valhalla wondering now what he might have done differently?

As he passes the streams at Fiddler's Green does he wonder what he could revisit on this side of eternity?

Stories about the young man's death said that he joined the military to provide for his son; he wanted to be an honorable man. And he eagerly planned to return to the young woman and care for his son.

The young man gave his life for us all. And the Nation is grateful.

But I wonder if our grieving would be more complete if, as he gave his life for us, he had given his name to his son.

God bless him, and his son of a gun.

Cross post at Reasoned Audacity.

Mudville Gazette has Open Post.

And a salute to Outside The Beltway

Basil's Blog has a Picnic.

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A cross post from Charmaine at Reasoned Audacity, last year.

Every time we've made the left turn onto Eisenhower Drive, and passed through the imposing brick gates of Arlington National Cemetery, I've been overwhelmed with emotion. Family members of those buried at Arlington National Cemetery are given a special pass and may drive onto the Hallowed Grounds to visit the grave of their loved one. It's an enormous honor which makes me feel humbled.

The Penta-Posse
at Arlington National Cemetery

My husband's father served thirty years in the United States Navy, and died the year I married into the family, so I didn't know him well. And the fact is, after a lifetime of nine-month Mediterranean tours, wars, and rumors of war, there is a lot my husband doesn't know as well.

However, over the 15 years that we've been married, I have gotten to know my mother-in-law well. She doesn't talk either about the sacrifices she made, but there is one story that she has told me several times.

Once, when my father-in-law was out on tour, and she was home with three small children, the car broke down and, of course, she had to take care of it. My husband marched up and said, "Don't worry, Mom, I'll fix it." He was about five years old at the time.

My mother-in-law laughs. . . the little man, takin' care of things. But it makes me cry.

We owe a lot to our military families.

When we visited Arlington this past week, we passed at least three funeral ceremonies on the way to Section 64. I lost track of the fresh graves and the still-standing tents, either just vacated by other grieving families, or awaiting the afternoon's fresh, raw sorrow.

As we pulled up on Bradley Avenue, an Air Force honor guard was marching precisely back to their bus after a ceremony for an airman who had been a POW in Korea. While we searched for my father-in-law's headstone, an empty horse-drawn caisson lumbered past, and settled briefly in the shade nearby, awaiting their next assignment. . .

We found my father-in-law's headstone: The front has the Christian Cross with the old Chief's Curriculum Vita. Chief Yoest cut high school to catch World War II. He retired with rows of ribbons and a "v" device, and pinned butterbars on his boy. He now has a grandson, The Dude, who bears his name and wants to be a Navy pilot.

The reverse of the stone is blank, awaiting the inscripton for Chief Yoest's high school sweetheart, his wife, Jack's mom, "Babcia" (Polish for Grandmother), who is still with us. In the end, they will be buried together, an honor she earned.

As we turned to go, the Diva took her jingle-bell necklace from around her neck, and left it on the headstone. A fitting tribute for a warrior.



Sailors, rest your oars.

We drove back down Bradley Avenue -- past a fresh grave covered by a tarp. In front of us, sparkling in the bright sunlight of a gorgeous day, stretched row after row of white marble markers, orderly, peaceful, some weathered, others new and crisply chiseled . . .

I turned to the Penta-Posse. "I want you to look," I said. "I want you to understand, that each one of these headstones represents someone who gave their life so that you could be free."

They were quiet and solemn. The weight of it is beyond measure.

The Dreamer said, "Don't cry, Mom."

We made the right turn onto Eisenhower. We drove slowly toward the exit, passing the drive to the Tomb of the Unknowns to our left, until we came to a crosswalk thronged with tourists. The guard on duty motioned to the crowd to stop, and we drove through, passing through the gates, back to a busy day, leaving behind -- the curious crowds, the chattering school children. . . and the silent stones.

More on Arlington National Cemetery at the jump.

Other Memorial Day Links from last year:
Blackfive with "Opening the Gates of Heaven."
Intel Dump

Marine Corps Moms

LaShawn Barber's Corner

See Traffic Jam

Jo's Cafe has Specials.

Mudville Gazette has Open Post.

Michelle Malkin has Memorial Day Links.

Wiz Bang has links.

LaShawn has tributes.

California Conservative has Memorial Day Tribute.

Continue Reading »

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Commissioned. As a Second Lieutenant. In the Army.

Ours.

Officer Commissioning, Liberty University, 2006

It's been decades since I witnessed the swearing in of ROTC Cadets into the officer corps. (My own.) So Your Business Blogger packed up Charmaine and the Penta-Posse and headed south from DC to watch another. To Lynchburg, Virginia. Home of Jerry Falwell, Chancellor and President of Liberty University, and founder of Thomas Road Baptist Church. A 3,000 seat church with 22,000 members.

The ceremony is a solemn, emotional occasion. And they weren't even my kids.

They now belong to all of us.

The oath of office goes,

I (insert name),

having been appointed a (insert rank) in the U.S. Army under the conditions indicated in this document,

do accept such appointment and do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies,

foreign and domestic,

that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely,

without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion;

and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter,

so help me God.

So help me God. Which is why you will not see a commissioning at Harvard.

Jack and Charmaine
Thomas Road Baptist Church

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Thank you (foot)notes:

From the 33rd Baccalaureate May 12, 2006,

Today, Liberty University celebrates with the Army Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) as we commission eleven Second Lieutenants in the United States Army. Army ROTC is a four-year program of study focusing on leadership, and the technical and tactical skills required to become a U.S. Army Officer....

In Liberty's Corps of Cadets, there are graduates from the Airborne, Air Assault, Mountain Warfare Schools. Our Cadets have trained with the Special Forces, and with Army units in Korea....

Coincidentally, good Friends Tony Perkins and Gary Bauer received Honorary Doctorates. With Senator John McCain.

Open Post at Mudville Gazette.

Mudville has McCain quote.

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USS Lagarto
Sailors Rest Your OarsThere were 52 submarines lost on patrol during WWll. One that was lost, is now found.

On Eternal Patrol, as the submariners say.

For 60 years, crew members' families did not know the exact circumstances surrounding the 86 submariners who perished. Lagarto was last heard from May 3, 1945, as it was preparing to attack a Japanese convoy under heavy escort. Japanese war records later revealed that the minelayer Hatsutaka reported sinking a U.S. submarine at roughly the same time and location.

In May 2005, MacLeod [a British wreck diver] and a group of commercial divers found Lagarto in the Gulf of Thailand sitting upright in 225 feet of water. A large rupture in the port side bow area confirmed that Lagarto had apparently been struck by a depth charge.

But there was something else that MacLeod's team noticed that caught their attention: an open torpedo tube door, with an empty torpedo tube. It seemed to suggest that Lagarto had gone down fighting.

62-year old Arthur H. Keeney III of Engelhard, N.C., said the discovery of Lagarto has given him a new connection to a father he never knew.

"It has made my father's high school and Academy yearbooks and other family memorabilia more alive and personal," said Keeney. "Moreover, I'm pleased for my mother, who, now 84, can reflect on the earlier stages of her life when Bud was part of it."

The warship is now a coffin. For 86 men who made the ultimate sacrifice. We owe them so much. A debt of honor. These men remaine in the service of our Country. On Eternal Patrol.

We are so lucky.

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Thank you (foot)notes:

Read about the man who took my father's place on the USS Bonefish.

Search "submarine and Manitowoc" on Tom McMahon.

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The Saving of Private Ryan Movies about the American Soldier in this generation always regress to anti-war screeds.

Jarhead
the movie Charmaine and I rented Jarhead the other night. Slow moving movie. She mumbled, "Boring. I thought liberals could make movies..." then dozed off. Mercifully.

Jarhead missed the mark. Off target. Unless you wanted to bone up on Marine mast*rb*tion. Combat Jacks. Hollywood style.

Saving Private Ryan was only marginally better. Following is a review by Your Business Blogger originally published by the Scripps Howard News Service

WHY SAVING PRIVATE RYAN FALLS SHORT

By JOHN WESLEY YOEST JR.

"Please tell me I've been a good man," Private Ryan tearfully begs his wife when, as an old man, he visits the grave of the man who died for him. "Tell me I've led a good life."

Well frankly, Ryan, your life probably wasn't all that special. At least not good enough for another man to die in your place. No man is "good enough," no man is truly worthy of the ultimate sacrifice. In his heart, Ryan knows this. And so do we.

But as Hollywood prepares to honor the depictions of sacrifice in the movie "Saving Private Ryan," it's worth reflecting on true worth of that ultimate gesture. ...

...There is an Unknown God that we all seek. Speilberg was on to truth in depicting Captain Miller as "the teacher," a rabbi, a Christ-figure. In its final moments, the movie reveals its allegory of man's yearning for Christ. Only in this context does "Saving Private Ryan" make sense. Private Ryan cheated death, but he didn't cheat eternity. Was he good enough? No man is good enough.

In the end, Ryan falls to his knees before his savior's grave feeling his unworthiness. Asking in anguish the movie's central question: was I worthy? The only answer Speilberg leaves us with is a silently waving flag and Ryan's hollow cry ... I tried to be a good man! The difference between saying "I was a good man" and admitting, "I am not worthy" may seem slight. But traversing the chasm between the two provides the true liberation Ryan was seeking.

In Spielberg's movie, Ryan is saved by Everyman. But the captain's grave provided no ultimate answers. For salvation, Ryan should have kneeled before an empty grave.

Read more at the jump.

Dog tags with P38
Service Number blurred

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Thank you (foot)notes:

Originally published by
the Scripps Howard News ServiceAlso titled The Salvation of Private Ryan by The Virginian Pilot.

Rule of Reason has more at the capitalist movie critic.

BlogCritic has an excellent review of Jarhead.

Mudville has Open Post.

Continue Reading »

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Charmaine has proof that men think differently than women. Or that Your Business Blogger is different. And a story on how an old teacher can make a old soldier do strange things. A cross post from Reasoned Audacity:

Jack has a hilarious post up entitled "Walking the Red Carpet in 7 Easy Steps." I love the part where he points out the two tennis poles growing out of his and Chris Buckley's heads. . .

Morgan Fairchild

My favorite story from the event comes from one of the pre-dinner parties. At one point I was standing next to a beautiful woman who turned, put out her hand and said, "Hi, I'm Morgan Fairchild." Very friendly. I think I'm going to have to forgive her for being a Democrat.

We started to chat when I felt Jack pulling my elbow. "Come on. Quick," he whispered.

I wondered what could possibly be pulling us away from chatting with. . .Morgan Fairchild. But ever the dutiful wife, I hurried away with him. . .

Lt. Gen. Bernard Trainor
"Hurry," Jack says, a star-struck sound in his voice: "We've got to meet Bernie Trainor."

Kid. You. Not.

Charmaine really thought this was funny. And certainly odd. But she understands the military mind...

Here is the rest of the story, as Paul Harvey would say. I had a Marine instructor at The Armor School, back in the days of the horse cavalry, whose name was Trainor. A mere Captain at the time who always won all the teaching awards. For good reason: I can still detail the functions of a coincidence range finder. I wanted to learn if the two Trainor's were related or even the same man. They weren't.

So I passed up Morgan for a Marine. A good teacher can have this kind of effect. Crazy devotion.

Mudville Gazette would get it. Visit Open Post and give congrats to Yankee Sailor.

Posted at 7:07 AM | Permalink
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Charmaine and Elaine in the Pentagon Charmaine says, "I'm going to look at a new ring..."

"Wedding?" I'm concerned.

"No, bigger. E Ring." She grabs her brief case.

Now I'm really worried.

This means only one thing.

Elaine Donnelly is in town. Women are going into combat.

Elaine runs the non-profit think tank Center for Military Readiness.

Elaine is a former member of the Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Services. She was appointed by Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger in 1984. Members have three-star protocol status.

She's a pro.

The Center for Military Readiness is expanding. Elaine is looking to hire a Public Affairs and Research Director.

Women may be
assigned to subsThe position will involve specialized research on matters of concern to CMR, preparation of news releases and person-to-person communications with broadcast producers, writing or editing of articles for CMR publications and its website, arranging or attending meetings with public officials, representing CMR at hearings or events and on radio or television interviews, and assisting CMR with fundraising activities.

Of primary concern is,

...when the issue of congressional oversight of defense matters has become extremely controversial, both Congress and the Bush Administration have been inattentive and negligent on the important matter of women in land combat.

If you know of a candidate, please comment. We will be in your debt.

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Thank you (foot)notes:

See Hidden Agenda: Women in Combat.

Mudville Gazette has Open Post.

CMR's Board of Advisors at the jump

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Posted at 7:26 PM | Permalink
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