Oh My GOD!!!!!
A new Start Trek movie!
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Saturday, November 15, 2008
You have no personality. You are military.
"You have no personality. You are military."
From my civilian supervisor, I get this. You are military. You have no personality.
Nice. Using that logic, since I am no longer authorized to exhibit my personailty, I must no longer perform my duties with any sort of passion. My passion is a part of my personailty. But no longer will I apply that particular passion to my work. I will simply come in, punch the clock, do my time and leave, and to hell with the people who I swore to protect and defend because that very OATH was based in a passion I contain, a zeal, a love for my nation and the willingness to sacrifice my time, my family, my very freedom for some jackass who tells me I am not authorized to have a personality.
No longer. I won't use my personality, because if I DID use my personality, then I would have to give a shit. And I will tell you right now, the soul-crushing attitude of a supervisor who tells an overworked, underpaid non-commissioned officer that he is not authorized to have a personality is the kind of person our enemies NEED.
No wonder we have such a rampant problem with PTSD soldiers coming back from the war - they're not allowed personalities, and yet, because they are human, they HAVE personalities, and it's the soul-wrenching schism between their own humanity and the system's adamant denial of said humanity which has broken their spirits and their minds.
No personality.
Fine. See if I bust my ass to make you look good for NO reward of any kind anymore. From here on out, you get the bare minimum. I'll waste my PERSONALITY on my family and my home life. Fuck you, fuck this place and fuck the service. If you don't care for the well-being of your personnel, America, then your personnel, your servicemembers, YOUR SOLDIERS, will turn their backs on YOU.
THEN where will you be?
From my civilian supervisor, I get this. You are military. You have no personality.
Nice. Using that logic, since I am no longer authorized to exhibit my personailty, I must no longer perform my duties with any sort of passion. My passion is a part of my personailty. But no longer will I apply that particular passion to my work. I will simply come in, punch the clock, do my time and leave, and to hell with the people who I swore to protect and defend because that very OATH was based in a passion I contain, a zeal, a love for my nation and the willingness to sacrifice my time, my family, my very freedom for some jackass who tells me I am not authorized to have a personality.
No longer. I won't use my personality, because if I DID use my personality, then I would have to give a shit. And I will tell you right now, the soul-crushing attitude of a supervisor who tells an overworked, underpaid non-commissioned officer that he is not authorized to have a personality is the kind of person our enemies NEED.
No wonder we have such a rampant problem with PTSD soldiers coming back from the war - they're not allowed personalities, and yet, because they are human, they HAVE personalities, and it's the soul-wrenching schism between their own humanity and the system's adamant denial of said humanity which has broken their spirits and their minds.
No personality.
Fine. See if I bust my ass to make you look good for NO reward of any kind anymore. From here on out, you get the bare minimum. I'll waste my PERSONALITY on my family and my home life. Fuck you, fuck this place and fuck the service. If you don't care for the well-being of your personnel, America, then your personnel, your servicemembers, YOUR SOLDIERS, will turn their backs on YOU.
THEN where will you be?
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Foreshock, Southern California, 0917 hrs. Magnitude 3.6
It began at nearly six in the morning, as far as Evan could figure. Ralph, his 197-lb Mastiff shot up from his customary spot at the foot of the bed and howled. Keened was more like it, thought Evan. He had never heard the gentle brute make that sound and he'd owned - or been owned by - the gargantuan dog for the 12 years of his life. Something in the sound of Ralphie's howl struck a chord deep in Evan's spine. A primal place, a terror place, a place most people no longer remember their bodies even have.
Once he'd calmed Ralph down, Evan set about beginning his day. As he opened the back door to let the lumbering beast out for his morning constitutional, he felt there was something odd, but he couldn't quite put his finger on what. He shook his head as he admonished his brindle buddy not to dig in the yard and went into the kitchen to make his morning coffee. Not that I need it, he thought to himself, I'm as jittery as if I'd had a whole pot already. That chord was still jangling up and down his spine like the sound a high-tension wire makes when struck with something like the boom of a high-lift.
It wasn't until almost nine, as he parked his truck and set off across what seemed like fourteen acres of parking lots that he realized part of what had him so very edgy: there were no birds. No bird songs, not silhouettes of gulls criss-crossing the brilliant blue sky, shrieking their hunger across the landscape below, no sandpipers, no pelicans, nothing. Not a single humming bird, even, to be seen. Weird, he thought, then tried to focus on the mind-numbing boredom of the day ahead.
Evan Farms, a sturdy, 30-something outdoors-type with sandy hair and eyes almost habitually wrung up in a squint because he refused to wear a hat or sunglasses, was an accomplished bio-chemist and researcher. Although he lived an unassuming life, Doctor Farms was the group lead on reasearch into life-prolonging agents funded by the government. Although focused more on battlefield survivability, Evan had discovered some disturbing side-effects in some of his virus-based research - he'd been able to keep a lab rat, fatally injured in a bizarre fight in its communal cage, alive using one of his viral compunds - C-313e. The only problem was, he couldn't figure out why the rat was still animated and why, if it was able still to move, breath and eat, it hadn't yet begun to heal.
And what it ate ... well, Evan had an endless supply of insects to feed the creature, especially since it would not even go near the processed pellets normally fed the laboratorie's population.
Evan began his day, passing through layer upon layer of protective measures designed to keep the sub-microscopic critters he worked with inside, to the lab to begin observations of test subjects when the first actual temblor occurred, shaking dust from the vents overhead and rattling the huge triple-thick plate glass panes which separated different areas of the lab.
Great, Evan thought as he looked around to make sure his assistants were not harmed. An earthquake. What a way to start the morning.
The first foreshock was at 0917. A little less than two hours before armageddon, as far as Evan and his lab would be concerned ...
Once he'd calmed Ralph down, Evan set about beginning his day. As he opened the back door to let the lumbering beast out for his morning constitutional, he felt there was something odd, but he couldn't quite put his finger on what. He shook his head as he admonished his brindle buddy not to dig in the yard and went into the kitchen to make his morning coffee. Not that I need it, he thought to himself, I'm as jittery as if I'd had a whole pot already. That chord was still jangling up and down his spine like the sound a high-tension wire makes when struck with something like the boom of a high-lift.
It wasn't until almost nine, as he parked his truck and set off across what seemed like fourteen acres of parking lots that he realized part of what had him so very edgy: there were no birds. No bird songs, not silhouettes of gulls criss-crossing the brilliant blue sky, shrieking their hunger across the landscape below, no sandpipers, no pelicans, nothing. Not a single humming bird, even, to be seen. Weird, he thought, then tried to focus on the mind-numbing boredom of the day ahead.
Evan Farms, a sturdy, 30-something outdoors-type with sandy hair and eyes almost habitually wrung up in a squint because he refused to wear a hat or sunglasses, was an accomplished bio-chemist and researcher. Although he lived an unassuming life, Doctor Farms was the group lead on reasearch into life-prolonging agents funded by the government. Although focused more on battlefield survivability, Evan had discovered some disturbing side-effects in some of his virus-based research - he'd been able to keep a lab rat, fatally injured in a bizarre fight in its communal cage, alive using one of his viral compunds - C-313e. The only problem was, he couldn't figure out why the rat was still animated and why, if it was able still to move, breath and eat, it hadn't yet begun to heal.
And what it ate ... well, Evan had an endless supply of insects to feed the creature, especially since it would not even go near the processed pellets normally fed the laboratorie's population.
Evan began his day, passing through layer upon layer of protective measures designed to keep the sub-microscopic critters he worked with inside, to the lab to begin observations of test subjects when the first actual temblor occurred, shaking dust from the vents overhead and rattling the huge triple-thick plate glass panes which separated different areas of the lab.
Great, Evan thought as he looked around to make sure his assistants were not harmed. An earthquake. What a way to start the morning.
The first foreshock was at 0917. A little less than two hours before armageddon, as far as Evan and his lab would be concerned ...
Wednesday, November 05, 2008
This is a patriot!
JOHN MCCAIN: Thank you. Thank you, my friends. Thank you for coming here on this beautiful Arizona evening.
(APPLAUSE)
My friends, we have -- we have come to the end of a long journey. The American people have spoken, and they have spoken clearly.
A little while ago, I had the honor of calling Senator Barack Obama to congratulate him.
(BOOING)
Please.
To congratulate him on being elected the next president of the country that we both love.
In a contest as long and difficult as this campaign has been, his success alone commands my respect for his ability and perseverance. But that he managed to do so by inspiring the hopes of so many millions of Americans who had once wrongly believed that they had little at stake or little influence in the election of an American president is something I deeply admire and commend him for achieving.
This is an historic election, and I recognize the special significance it has for African-Americans and for the special pride that must be theirs tonight.
I've always believed that America offers opportunities to all who have the industry and will to seize it. Senator Obama believes that, too.
But we both recognize that, though we have come a long way from the old injustices that once stained our nation's reputation and denied some Americans the full blessings of American citizenship, the memory of them still had the power to wound.
A century ago, President Theodore Roosevelt's invitation of Booker T. Washington to dine at the White House was taken as an outrage in many quarters.
America today is a world away from the cruel and frightful bigotry of that time. There is no better evidence of this than the election of an African-American to the presidency of the United States.
Let there be no reason now...
(APPLAUSE)
Let there be no reason now for any American to fail to cherish their citizenship in this, the greatest nation on Earth.
(APPLAUSE)
Senator Obama has achieved a great thing for himself and for his country. I applaud him for it, and offer him my sincere sympathy that his beloved grandmother did not live to see this day. Though our faith assures us she is at rest in the presence of her creator and so very proud of the good man she helped raise.
Senator Obama and I have had and argued our differences, and he has prevailed. No doubt many of those differences remain.
These are difficult times for our country. And I pledge to him tonight to do all in my power to help him lead us through the many challenges we face.
I urge all Americans...
(APPLAUSE)
I urge all Americans who supported me to join me in not just congratulating him, but offering our next president our good will and earnest effort to find ways to come together to find the necessary compromises to bridge our differences and help restore our prosperity, defend our security in a dangerous world, and leave our children and grandchildren a stronger, better country than we inherited.
Whatever our differences, we are fellow Americans. And please believe me when I say no association has ever meant more to me than that.
(APPLAUSE)
It is natural. It's natural, tonight, to feel some disappointment. But tomorrow, we must move beyond it and work together to get our country moving again.
AUDIENCE MEMBER: (OFF-MIKE)
We fought -- we fought as hard as we could. And though we feel short, the failure is mine, not yours.
AUDIENCE: No!
MCCAIN: I am so...
AUDIENCE: (CHANTING)
MCCAIN: I am so deeply grateful to all of you for the great honor of your support and for all you have done for me. I wish the outcome had been different, my friends.
AUDIENCE MEMBER: We do, too (OFF-MIKE)
MCCAIN: The road was a difficult one from the outset, but your support and friendship never wavered. I cannot adequately express how deeply indebted I am to you.
I'm especially grateful to my wife, Cindy, my children, my dear mother...
(APPLAUSE)
... My dear mother and all my family, and to the many old and dear friends who have stood by my side through the many ups and downs of this long campaign.
I have always been a fortunate man, and never more so for the love and encouragement you have given me.
You know, campaigns are often harder on a candidate's family than on the candidate, and that's been true in this campaign.
All I can offer in compensation is my love and gratitude and the promise of more peaceful years ahead.
I am also -- I am also, of course, very thankful to Governor Sarah Palin, one of the best campaigners I've ever seen...
(APPLAUSE)
... One of the best campaigners I have ever seen, and an impressive new voice in our party for reform and the principles that have always been our greatest strength...
(APPLAUSE)
... Her husband Todd and their five beautiful children...
(APPLAUSE)
... for their tireless dedication to our cause, and the courage and grace they showed in the rough and tumble of a presidential campaign.
We can all look forward with great interest to her future service to Alaska, the Republican Party and our country.
(APPLAUSE)
To all my campaign comrades, from Rick Davis and Steve Schmidt and Mark Salter, to every last volunteer who fought so hard and valiantly, month after month, in what at times seemed to be the most challenged campaign in modern times, thank you so much. A lost election will never mean more to me than the privilege of your faith and friendship.
I don't know -- I don't know what more we could have done to try to win this election. I'll leave that to others to determine. Every candidate makes mistakes, and I'm sure I made my share of them. But I won't spend a moment of the future regretting what might have been.
This campaign was and will remain the great honor of my life, and my heart is filled with nothing but gratitude for the experience and to the American people for giving me a fair hearing before deciding that Senator Obama and my old friend Senator Joe Biden should have the honor of leading us for the next four years.
(BOOING)
Please. Please.
I would not -- I would not be an American worthy of the name should I regret a fate that has allowed me the extraordinary privilege of serving this country for a half a century.
Half a century.
Today, I was a candidate for the highest office in the country I love so much. And tonight, I remain her servant. That is blessing enough for anyone, and I thank the people of Arizona for it.
(APPLAUSE)
AUDIENCE: USA. USA. USA. USA.
Tonight -- tonight, more than any night, I hold in my heart nothing but love for this country and for all its citizens, whether they supported me or Senator Obama -- whether they supported me or Senator Obama.
I wish Godspeed to the man who was my former opponent and will be my president. And I call on all Americans, as I have often in this campaign, to not despair of our present difficulties, but to believe, always, in the promise and greatness of America, because nothing is inevitable here.
Americans never quit. We never surrender.
(APPLAUSE)
We never hide from history. We make history.
Thank you, and God bless you, and God bless America. Thank you all very much.
(APPLAUSE)
My friends, we have -- we have come to the end of a long journey. The American people have spoken, and they have spoken clearly.
A little while ago, I had the honor of calling Senator Barack Obama to congratulate him.
(BOOING)
Please.
To congratulate him on being elected the next president of the country that we both love.
In a contest as long and difficult as this campaign has been, his success alone commands my respect for his ability and perseverance. But that he managed to do so by inspiring the hopes of so many millions of Americans who had once wrongly believed that they had little at stake or little influence in the election of an American president is something I deeply admire and commend him for achieving.
This is an historic election, and I recognize the special significance it has for African-Americans and for the special pride that must be theirs tonight.
I've always believed that America offers opportunities to all who have the industry and will to seize it. Senator Obama believes that, too.
But we both recognize that, though we have come a long way from the old injustices that once stained our nation's reputation and denied some Americans the full blessings of American citizenship, the memory of them still had the power to wound.
A century ago, President Theodore Roosevelt's invitation of Booker T. Washington to dine at the White House was taken as an outrage in many quarters.
America today is a world away from the cruel and frightful bigotry of that time. There is no better evidence of this than the election of an African-American to the presidency of the United States.
Let there be no reason now...
(APPLAUSE)
Let there be no reason now for any American to fail to cherish their citizenship in this, the greatest nation on Earth.
(APPLAUSE)
Senator Obama has achieved a great thing for himself and for his country. I applaud him for it, and offer him my sincere sympathy that his beloved grandmother did not live to see this day. Though our faith assures us she is at rest in the presence of her creator and so very proud of the good man she helped raise.
Senator Obama and I have had and argued our differences, and he has prevailed. No doubt many of those differences remain.
These are difficult times for our country. And I pledge to him tonight to do all in my power to help him lead us through the many challenges we face.
I urge all Americans...
(APPLAUSE)
I urge all Americans who supported me to join me in not just congratulating him, but offering our next president our good will and earnest effort to find ways to come together to find the necessary compromises to bridge our differences and help restore our prosperity, defend our security in a dangerous world, and leave our children and grandchildren a stronger, better country than we inherited.
Whatever our differences, we are fellow Americans. And please believe me when I say no association has ever meant more to me than that.
(APPLAUSE)
It is natural. It's natural, tonight, to feel some disappointment. But tomorrow, we must move beyond it and work together to get our country moving again.
AUDIENCE MEMBER: (OFF-MIKE)
We fought -- we fought as hard as we could. And though we feel short, the failure is mine, not yours.
AUDIENCE: No!
MCCAIN: I am so...
AUDIENCE: (CHANTING)
MCCAIN: I am so deeply grateful to all of you for the great honor of your support and for all you have done for me. I wish the outcome had been different, my friends.
AUDIENCE MEMBER: We do, too (OFF-MIKE)
MCCAIN: The road was a difficult one from the outset, but your support and friendship never wavered. I cannot adequately express how deeply indebted I am to you.
I'm especially grateful to my wife, Cindy, my children, my dear mother...
(APPLAUSE)
... My dear mother and all my family, and to the many old and dear friends who have stood by my side through the many ups and downs of this long campaign.
I have always been a fortunate man, and never more so for the love and encouragement you have given me.
You know, campaigns are often harder on a candidate's family than on the candidate, and that's been true in this campaign.
All I can offer in compensation is my love and gratitude and the promise of more peaceful years ahead.
I am also -- I am also, of course, very thankful to Governor Sarah Palin, one of the best campaigners I've ever seen...
(APPLAUSE)
... One of the best campaigners I have ever seen, and an impressive new voice in our party for reform and the principles that have always been our greatest strength...
(APPLAUSE)
... Her husband Todd and their five beautiful children...
(APPLAUSE)
... for their tireless dedication to our cause, and the courage and grace they showed in the rough and tumble of a presidential campaign.
We can all look forward with great interest to her future service to Alaska, the Republican Party and our country.
(APPLAUSE)
To all my campaign comrades, from Rick Davis and Steve Schmidt and Mark Salter, to every last volunteer who fought so hard and valiantly, month after month, in what at times seemed to be the most challenged campaign in modern times, thank you so much. A lost election will never mean more to me than the privilege of your faith and friendship.
I don't know -- I don't know what more we could have done to try to win this election. I'll leave that to others to determine. Every candidate makes mistakes, and I'm sure I made my share of them. But I won't spend a moment of the future regretting what might have been.
This campaign was and will remain the great honor of my life, and my heart is filled with nothing but gratitude for the experience and to the American people for giving me a fair hearing before deciding that Senator Obama and my old friend Senator Joe Biden should have the honor of leading us for the next four years.
(BOOING)
Please. Please.
I would not -- I would not be an American worthy of the name should I regret a fate that has allowed me the extraordinary privilege of serving this country for a half a century.
Half a century.
Today, I was a candidate for the highest office in the country I love so much. And tonight, I remain her servant. That is blessing enough for anyone, and I thank the people of Arizona for it.
(APPLAUSE)
AUDIENCE: USA. USA. USA. USA.
Tonight -- tonight, more than any night, I hold in my heart nothing but love for this country and for all its citizens, whether they supported me or Senator Obama -- whether they supported me or Senator Obama.
I wish Godspeed to the man who was my former opponent and will be my president. And I call on all Americans, as I have often in this campaign, to not despair of our present difficulties, but to believe, always, in the promise and greatness of America, because nothing is inevitable here.
Americans never quit. We never surrender.
(APPLAUSE)
We never hide from history. We make history.
Thank you, and God bless you, and God bless America. Thank you all very much.
Monday, November 03, 2008
Election eve predictions
OK, I have striven to remain SOMEWHAT apolitical in this blog and, actually, this post is not biased in any way - it is my prediction of the outcome of the 2008 presidential election, but not quite what you think it is.
First, a small bit of background: I work at U.S. Northern Command, which is charged with two primary missions: Homeland Defense and Defense Support of Civil Authority.
My first election prediction: You will hear MUCH more about USNORTHCOM within the next six months. Here's why:
If McCain wins, there will be riots, riots akin to the Watts Riots in L.A. during the last century. USNORTHCOM will come in to the news when local and state governments request federal assistance in quelling said riots.
If Obama wins, after the repeal of the Patriot Act, the hands of government agencies charged with assuring that terrorists never again attack on U.S. soil as they did on 9/11 will be completely tied. All the interagency cooperation which has gone in to ensuring that another large-scale attack, or another attack, period, not occur will be thrown out the window. USNORTHCOM will be called upon in its DSCA role to respond to another major terrorist attack.
No matter who wins, I will be busy. Either way, I'd rather NOT be busy, because, quite frankly, if you hear about USNORTHCOM in the news, other than that we're conducting a training exercise, in my opinion, we're not doing our job right.
First, a small bit of background: I work at U.S. Northern Command, which is charged with two primary missions: Homeland Defense and Defense Support of Civil Authority.
My first election prediction: You will hear MUCH more about USNORTHCOM within the next six months. Here's why:
If McCain wins, there will be riots, riots akin to the Watts Riots in L.A. during the last century. USNORTHCOM will come in to the news when local and state governments request federal assistance in quelling said riots.
If Obama wins, after the repeal of the Patriot Act, the hands of government agencies charged with assuring that terrorists never again attack on U.S. soil as they did on 9/11 will be completely tied. All the interagency cooperation which has gone in to ensuring that another large-scale attack, or another attack, period, not occur will be thrown out the window. USNORTHCOM will be called upon in its DSCA role to respond to another major terrorist attack.
No matter who wins, I will be busy. Either way, I'd rather NOT be busy, because, quite frankly, if you hear about USNORTHCOM in the news, other than that we're conducting a training exercise, in my opinion, we're not doing our job right.
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