High times in the military (67-75) A Preface

personal history / March 2, 2019

From  Wikipedia:

On 25 May 1981, a Marine Corps EA-6B Prowler assigned to Carrier Air Wing 8 (CVW-8) crashed on the flight deck, killing 14 crewmen and injuring 45 others.[7] The Prowler was fuel-critical after a “bolter” (missed approach), and its crash and the subsequent fire and explosions destroyed or damaged eleven other aircraft.[8] Despite having no connection to the accident, the media focused on the autopsy results of several members of the Nimitz‘s enlisted flight deck crew who were killed, who tested positive for marijuana. As a result, President Ronald Reagan instituted a “Zero Tolerance” drug policy across all of the U.S. armed services, which started the mandatory drug testing of all U.S. military personnel.[9]

Thus ended an era which likely began sometime in the mid. sixties when our solders fighting in the jungles and rice paddies of Vietnam discovered that Thai sticks and black hash made their down time more enjoyable then Budweiser and Lucky Strikes. At the same time the other children of the “greatest generation” who were listening to Bob Dylan and Jefferson Airplane and going to music festivals like “Woodstock” discovered that weed didn’t turn them into drooling psychopaths like in Reefer Madness.

And then there was the draft, and can you imagine that if all one needed to avoid it was to have some THC in your system. They wouldn’t get hardly anyone. You wouldn’t  have to pretend to be a faggot gay person or have to lie about being a “conscientious objector” or being the sole support of your aged mother or anything.

But even those guys who joined willingly for various  personal reasons were not going to stop using what they enjoyed, despite some pretty sever consequences if you were caught. If you didn’t know where to get it you always knew someone who did or they knew someone.  Of course not everyone did drugs, but even those who didn’t indulge were tolerant of it.  Of course you didn’t want to be a “squealer”.   You would be fortunate if you were simply  “shunned” by your shipmates. Worse things could and did happen.

What used to be the standard military vices, booze, tobacco and caffeine gave way to pot, speed, hallucinogens,  and then booze, tobacco, and caffeine.

Yes it was a strange era back then. But not nearly as bad as the insanity today.

 

I was right! Imagine that

Climate Change / May 17, 2016

From my post of April 26th

“I fully expect that NASA and NOAA will declare that this past April the “warmest” on record.”

Well, here we are. The hottest on record.

Hit the link and behold.

There was snow on my car yesterday. My maple trees are just starting to bud. It’s probably warm somewhere, but not here, not yet. Maybe June.

Meanwhile down in Venezuela

Articles / May 16, 2016

Bernie likes to refer to the Scandinavian countries as “socialist democracies” that we should emulate. Their present problems with their “immigrants” notwithstanding. He talks on occasion about Cuba and it “free” healthcare its rule by iron fist not so much.

It end game might be commencing in Venezuela. A hell hole that has been in development over the last decade. The President of Venezuela blames the U.S. for all his problems. Gee,  Bush hasn’t been in office for 7 1/2 years. Who could he be talking about?

Either there will be a “crackdown” with mass arrests, imprisonment, and maybe more then a few people shot, or they government will be overthrown and a new day will dawn for the people of Venezuela.

Venezuela’s Socialist rulers were elected by the “poorer” masses through the politics of envy. People who worked hard and/or had talent, needed to have the wealth they had earned redistributed to the people who didn’t work hard or had no talent. This worked in the beginning, during which the rulers and their minions, the late Chavez, and now Manduro over time took control of the military, the courts, the civil police and of course imposed gun control

Read the following from American thinker. http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2016/05/venezuela_seizing_factories_arresting_owners_.html

 

To paraphrase Margaret Thatcher.  Socialism works until you run out of other peoples money, or beer. Which ever comes first

 

 

 

 

Waiting for the other shoe

Social commentary / May 16, 2016

Just happened to be watching “Sportscenter”.   they had a short feature on a former basketball star from UCONN who is turning professional with the WNBA.  Women have more “leagues of there own” now then anytime since WW2. The level of skill and competition has grown tremendously, and with that more money is involved.

Now that “Dear Leader” has decreed that men who identify as women (and I assume women who identify as men) are free to utilize the public restroom facilities they feel comfortable with, what is to stop men and boys who identify as women and girls (MABWIAWAG) from joining female sports teams at any level.

George Washington University briefly had a transgender athlete on the women’s basketball team who was transitioning from a woman to a man.  The reverse would have to be allowed. Now athletes professional and college are routinely tested for performance enhancing drugs (PED’s). Would the male hormone testosterone be considered a PED? Apparently not now.

Professional, college and high school sports are suppose to be a the ultimate meritocracy. The best players make the team, all other are cut. This I know from personal experience. You want to win or at least be competitive.  The days where everyone has fun, play to a tie and all go out for ice cream are over.  If a team can obtain an edge and still be within the rules, well you’d be crazy not to exploit it. So if a big strapping “male” athlete who has excellent basketball skills announces that he “feels” like a women and is in the process of “transitioning” [He/She?] still has the male plumbing, that transition will (maybe) come later. There is nothing to prevent [him?] from trying out and if [she?] is good enough making the team.

A Billie Jean King in her prime could easily beat an over the hill Bobby Riggs. A college women’s basketball team would likely beat a boys high school team. But a equal contest between the best teams of both genders would be no contest.

For the first four seasons the NBA was (with the exception of one Asian- American) an all white league. The color line was broken in 1950. today the NBA is 74.4% African-American. Why is that? Well, there is no affirmative action involved, no quotas. It’s just that the majority of the best players happen to be black. If a transgender player gives a women’s team an edge, why not have two or three. And if one team does it the others will have to do the same. So this means fewer slots for real 100% women.

Now someone may say that they’re not enough transgender athletes that it will make a difference. Apparently they’re enough transgender people that they have to be allowed to used the “ladies room”, along with the nearly 750,000 registered sex offenders in the U.S.

I would highly recommend my readers to visit the bookworm room for more excellent essay’s on this subject.

 

 

 

Working with libs

Social commentary / May 15, 2016

 

At my place of employment I’m surrounded by flaming libs many people of  the “liberal” persuasion.  Being one of the few “out of the closet” conservatives there, I get the chance to banter about politics and other social issues with them.  The conversations have to be brief and to the point as we usually do this on our employers dime. Usually it goes like this, for example, I bring some news reports of some  progressive outrage against peoples constitutional rights on college  campuses.  They look at me bewildered and say “What! no way!  It’s like they have no idea what’s going on around them.  Now these are very nice people. Our rapport is always civil. They have their opinions I have mine.  Most are staunch Bernie supporters and don’t have  a very high opinion of Hillary. They are appalled that Bernie seems to be winning the votes but losing the delegates.    In the end though if Hillary gets the nomination a good percentage will vote for her because she is A. a women, B. a progressive democrat, C. a Clinton, D. the alternative is Trump and finally E. any republican. They live in a liberal bubble where all their information comes from “The New York Times. the Times Argus, and Time magazine.

Well deepred what about you? Don’t you live in a conservative bubble? Well I say it’s impossible to live in a conservative bubble. With ABC, CBS, NBC, MSNBC, CNN and 95 % of the print media, academia, and Yahoo,   all towing the party line. And it’s not so much what that report but what they choose not to.  The White house press corps are such know nothing sycophants that even Obama has no respect for them. Ben Rhodes the White House national security advisor and one of Obama’s closest aides is currently trying to backtrack on his gaff.  A gaff as you know is when a politician accidently speaks the truth.

David Horowitz, David Mamet. and the late Andrew Breitbart, to name three were all left leaning personalities would had a “come to Reagan” conversion, abandoned the liberal dogma,  realized that inside most committed  liberals is a totalitarian screaming to get out.  President Obama is a prime example with his latest “edict” that says that women and girls can no longer expect the privacy of their own gender in the “ladies room” and that insurance companies will now be forced to underwrite “sex change operations”. Obama is not a king but when the so called opposition party crawls into the fetal position every time he makes and “executive order”, well it’s understandable.

In the meantime North Korea is getting Nukes, China and Russia are kicking sand in our faces. we’re $20 Trillion in debt, And the Constitution is slowly going through the shredder.

The libs I know just want the rich to pay their “fair share”, everyone to use renewable energy to combat climate change, and to have “free healthcare” for everyone.  They’re not bad people but what they want can’t be achieved except by government force. And that’s when things will get sticky.

Oxymoron: Tolerant liberal

 

 

Lets all share a laugh

Obamacare / May 13, 2016

After all the joke is on us.

But we can all have a good chuckle about it now.

https://youtu.be/Pkqn6wsrUfs

Always remember, for the left the end always justifies the means.

Progressives always get it backwards

Religion / May 10, 2016

Lets see now… Harvard law-professor says treat conservative Christians like Nazis. I think this is known in psychological circles as projection.  Actually this is how the Nazi’s of Germany treated devote Christians.

Hitler and the Nazi’s real feelings about Christianity have been well documented.  While not slaughtered wholesale like the Jews, many Christians paid with their bodies (but not with their souls).

Men like Dietrich Bonhoeffer and underground groups as the White Rose made the ultimate sacrifice for their beliefs and integrity.

For now it’s lawsuits and fines. Persecution via your income and livelihood. But we all know that it will not stop there.

Forward into the past

Uncategorized / May 7, 2016

Having graduated high school with a 2.5 GPA my prospects for going to college was zero to none.  Their was still a draft at the time.  The lottery for my age group, had not yet taken place. Didn’t want to go to Nam’ but still I had to do something. So my big idea was… to apply to the U.S. Coast Guard.  That was the ticket. Learn a skill.  Travel to far away places. Get clothed, fed, medical care, and get paid to boot and stay far away from rice paddies.

Of course the Coast Guard being the smallest branch of the armed forces (all C.G. personal could fit inside Fenway park) they could pick and chose who they wanted to take and there were a lot of fellows like me who had the exact same idea.

But I was accepted. and in late fall I headed to Cape May N.J. . Anyone who has been in the military already knows what it was like. Especially that first day.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=miY4B4GZ-TM

Of course when I was in technology was primitive compared to today. No cell phones, no internet, no laptop computers.  We also did not train with women, any women.

When I was in boot camp it was 10 weeks. During the months of Nov. and Dec. and into Jan.  Cape May is a resort town and in winter months it was virtually a ghost town. We were given weekend passes on our 5th and seventh weeks (If we earned them) but there was nothing to do except get a motel room and enjoy sleeping late for just one morning.

Daily inspections,  your face had to be as smooth as a baby’s ass with no nicks or cuts. One unfortunate guy in my company was as hairy as a bear. He had to shave after every meal otherwise he had a full beard by evening. The D.I. had to be able to bounce a quarter of the blankets of your bunk.  We cleaned the floor on our hands and knees and buffed the floor by pulling a guy around the barracks on an army blanket.

There were three distinct categories, green belts for those who were keeping with the program, blue belts who needed additional physical training, and red belts, guys who were discipline problems and needed more individual attention.

But we would have time for stupid shit, like igniting  someone’s farts with a Bic lighter. This could be dangerous if the flame ignited the methane inside the colon. Giving new meaning to the term “flaming asshole”.

But I was able to graduate on time. I didn’t have to repeat anything. I went home for a few days to prepare for my next chapter. Electronic technician school on Governors Island N.Y.C. , in the shadow of the twin towers.

One side note, this was a time when a lot guys had very long hair. Everyone knew what was coming, the convict cut.  Some of them would arrive whith hair down to their shoulders or beyond. This seemed to thrill the barbers no end as a saw some of their trophies tied in a knot hanging on their mirrors. All that was missing was the shrunken heads.

It gets better.

 

It is Trump.

Politics / March 2, 2019

Trump is the candidate that Republican voters have chosen. He was not my preferred candidate but I’ll prefer Trump over Hillary (sorry Bernie, the democrat elite are just not into you).  I’m listening to Rush as I type these words and he’s talking about Trump’s plans for his first 100 days in office.  Certainly sounds good, but will he be able to follow through.  Because Congress, including many republican elites in congress may decide to assert their authority as an equal branch of government and use all constitutional  means  to block his plans.

Of course for the last 7 1/2 years Congress has been nothing but a rubber stamp Supreme  Soviet to Obama and his Politburo.

If Trump is the nominee I will vote for him.  The Republican party has only itself to blame. They were voted into office to put the brakes on Obama’s “transformation”, but did nothing. They were scared little rabbits. Afraid of the media, afraid of being called racist. And absolutely despised Ted Cruz,  who’s crime was loving the constitution too much.

If we have a President Trump (I hope) Maybe he’ll nominate Ted Cruz to the Supreme Court. That would nearly be as good.

Hillary, if elected will finish the destruction. And even flaming libs will feel the pain.