Some guy arrested in Colorado for claiming military service says his free speech rights are violated by the Stolen Valor law. However:
"Doug Sterner, a military historian, said the law embodies the wishes of the nation's first commander in chief, George Washington. Sterner noted that Washington created the Purple Heart, the nation's first military decoration, and wrote: 'Should any who are not entitled to these honors have the insolence to assume the badges of them, they shall be severely punished.'”
http://www.capecodonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100206/NEWS11/100209810
In Houston a really stupid dude finally got busted after several milblogs ID'd him and posted pictures of the idiot in general officer dress blues and a whole bunch of medals.
BG POSEUR MCSOULPATCH ARRESTED
http://rpc.blogrolling.com/redirect.php?r=1bab71e471abddfeded430b06427fa95&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.blackfive.net%2F
Saturday, February 6, 2010
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Of little importance
But if you like airplane pictures, theaerodrome.com has a bunch fromn War One. Of one the web site says: “(S)hoddy workmanship and a number of other problems led many Italian pilots to conclude the Balilla was unfit for combat. … Following the Armistice, many of these planes were exported to Poland and other nations."
http://www.theaerodrome.com/aircraft/italy/ansaldo_a1.php
www.1000aircraftphotos.com is another good site.
http://www.theaerodrome.com/aircraft/italy/ansaldo_a1.php
www.1000aircraftphotos.com is another good site.
As you can see
from the earlier posts, I don't quite have all the fundamentals of this blog stuff in hand -- pasting a link and such. With that in mind, here's another political thingy:
“Talk is extremely cheap. And no one has made it cheaper than the current bunch of self-aggrandizing clowns who control the levers of power in Washington, D.C., and their equally contemptuous soul-mates in the media. The former are bankrupting the country, and the latter are cheerleading them onward.”
--Arnold Ahlert, “Book Smart, Real-world Stupid”
http://politicalmavens.com/index.php/2010/02/02/book-smart-real-world-stupid/
Another good one at Political Mavens has to do with stupid UN people and stupid French-speaking people and stupid USAID people screwing up the Haiti mess. That's what the writer said, anyway.
“Talk is extremely cheap. And no one has made it cheaper than the current bunch of self-aggrandizing clowns who control the levers of power in Washington, D.C., and their equally contemptuous soul-mates in the media. The former are bankrupting the country, and the latter are cheerleading them onward.”
--Arnold Ahlert, “Book Smart, Real-world Stupid”
http://politicalmavens.com/index.php/2010/02/02/book-smart-real-world-stupid/
Another good one at Political Mavens has to do with stupid UN people and stupid French-speaking people and stupid USAID people screwing up the Haiti mess. That's what the writer said, anyway.
Sort of political
It's British, but the philosophy is here, too.
Dear Minister:
I'm in the process of renewing my passport but I am a total loss to understand or believe the hoops I am being asked to jump through.
How is it that Bert Smith of T.V. Rentals Basingstoke has my address and telephone number and knows that I bought a satellite dish from them back in 1994, and yet, the Government is still asking me where I was born and on what date?
How come that nice West African immigrant chappy who comes round every Thursday night with his DVD rentals van can tell me every film or video I have had out since he started his business up eleven years ago, yet you still want me to remind you of my last three jobs, two of which were with contractors working for the government?
How come the T.V. detector van can tell if my T.V. is on, what channel I am watching and whether I have paid my licence or not, and yet if I win the government run lottery they have no idea I have won or where I am and will keep the bloody money to themselves if I fail to claim in good time.
Do you people do this by hand?
You have my birth date on numerous files you hold on me, including the one with all the income tax forms I've filed for the past 30-odd years. It's on my health insurance card, my driver's licence, on the last four passports I've had, on all those stupid customs declaration forms I've had to fill out before being allowed off the planes and boats over the last 30 years, and all those insufferable census forms that are done every ten years and the electoral registration forms I have to complete, by law, every time our lords and masters are up for re-election.
Would somebody please take note, once and for all, I was born in Maidenhead on the 4th of March 1957, my mother's name is Mary, her maiden name was Reynolds, my father's name is Robert, and I'd be absolutely astounded if that ever changed between now and the day I die!
I apologise Minister. I'm obviously not myself this morning. But between you and me, I have simply had enough! You mail the application to my house, then you ask me for my address. What is going on? Do you have a gang of Neanderthals working there? Look at my damn picture. Do I look like Bin Laden? I don't want to activate the Fifth Reich for God's sake! I just want to go and park my weary backside on a sunny, sandy beach for a couple of week's well-earned rest away from all this crap.
Well, I have to go now, because I have to go to back to Salisbury and get another copy of my birth certificate because you lost the last one. AND to the tune of 60 quid! What a racket THAT is!! Would it be so complicated to have all the services in the same spot to assist in the issuance of a new passport the same day? But nooooo, that'd be too damn easy and maybe make sense. You'd rather have us running all over the place like chickens with our heads cut off, then find some tosser to confirm that it's really me on the picture - you know... the one where we're not allowed to smile in case we look as if we are enjoying the process!
Hey, you know why we can't smile? 'Cause we're totally hacked off!
I served in the armed forces for more than 25 years including over ten years at the Ministry of Defence in London. I have had security clearances which allowed me to sit in the Cabinet Office, five seats away from the Prime Minister while he was being briefed on the first Gulf War and I have been doing volunteer work for the British Red Cross ever since I left the Services. However, I have to get someone 'important' to verify who I am -- you know, someone like my doctor...who, before he got his medical degree 6 months ago WAS LIVING IN PAKISTAN...
Yours sincerely,
An Irate British Citizen.
http://www.theospark.net/
Dear Minister:
I'm in the process of renewing my passport but I am a total loss to understand or believe the hoops I am being asked to jump through.
How is it that Bert Smith of T.V. Rentals Basingstoke has my address and telephone number and knows that I bought a satellite dish from them back in 1994, and yet, the Government is still asking me where I was born and on what date?
How come that nice West African immigrant chappy who comes round every Thursday night with his DVD rentals van can tell me every film or video I have had out since he started his business up eleven years ago, yet you still want me to remind you of my last three jobs, two of which were with contractors working for the government?
How come the T.V. detector van can tell if my T.V. is on, what channel I am watching and whether I have paid my licence or not, and yet if I win the government run lottery they have no idea I have won or where I am and will keep the bloody money to themselves if I fail to claim in good time.
Do you people do this by hand?
You have my birth date on numerous files you hold on me, including the one with all the income tax forms I've filed for the past 30-odd years. It's on my health insurance card, my driver's licence, on the last four passports I've had, on all those stupid customs declaration forms I've had to fill out before being allowed off the planes and boats over the last 30 years, and all those insufferable census forms that are done every ten years and the electoral registration forms I have to complete, by law, every time our lords and masters are up for re-election.
Would somebody please take note, once and for all, I was born in Maidenhead on the 4th of March 1957, my mother's name is Mary, her maiden name was Reynolds, my father's name is Robert, and I'd be absolutely astounded if that ever changed between now and the day I die!
I apologise Minister. I'm obviously not myself this morning. But between you and me, I have simply had enough! You mail the application to my house, then you ask me for my address. What is going on? Do you have a gang of Neanderthals working there? Look at my damn picture. Do I look like Bin Laden? I don't want to activate the Fifth Reich for God's sake! I just want to go and park my weary backside on a sunny, sandy beach for a couple of week's well-earned rest away from all this crap.
Well, I have to go now, because I have to go to back to Salisbury and get another copy of my birth certificate because you lost the last one. AND to the tune of 60 quid! What a racket THAT is!! Would it be so complicated to have all the services in the same spot to assist in the issuance of a new passport the same day? But nooooo, that'd be too damn easy and maybe make sense. You'd rather have us running all over the place like chickens with our heads cut off, then find some tosser to confirm that it's really me on the picture - you know... the one where we're not allowed to smile in case we look as if we are enjoying the process!
Hey, you know why we can't smile? 'Cause we're totally hacked off!
I served in the armed forces for more than 25 years including over ten years at the Ministry of Defence in London. I have had security clearances which allowed me to sit in the Cabinet Office, five seats away from the Prime Minister while he was being briefed on the first Gulf War and I have been doing volunteer work for the British Red Cross ever since I left the Services. However, I have to get someone 'important' to verify who I am -- you know, someone like my doctor...who, before he got his medical degree 6 months ago WAS LIVING IN PAKISTAN...
Yours sincerely,
An Irate British Citizen.
http://www.theospark.net/
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
OK, a political thing
Going through court records for idictments a few years ago, I came across "The State of Texas vs. 1979 Chevrolet Pickup." That sounded interesting. I wondered what the pickup had done to bring down the wrath of the State of Texas. Well, the pickup hadn't done anything of its own free will, but its owner was accused of using said vehicle to transport and otherwise distribute illegal substances; i.e., marijuana and methamphetamine.
The charges were not all that unusual, and still aren't. City, county, state and federal law agencies file thousands of similar cases every year, seizing property of those accused of crimes. Note the word accused. The agencies involved need not secure conviction in order to take possession and sell seized property. But that's unconstitutional. So sue. Most people don't.
“Less than 20 percent of federal seizures involved property whose owners were ever prosecuted. … More than 80 percent of federal seizures are never challenged in court. … In many cases the property was worth less than the legal costs of trying to get it back. … Forfeiture defendants can’t be provided with a court-appointed attorney. …”
http://www.overcomingbias.com/2010/01/legal-delusions.html
There was a recent case in which an agency seized a substantial amount of cash following a traffic stop. The owner of the money was not charged with anything. Prosecutors based the seizure on the contention that the owner intended to buy drugs with the money.
Sometimes it is a Brave New World.
The charges were not all that unusual, and still aren't. City, county, state and federal law agencies file thousands of similar cases every year, seizing property of those accused of crimes. Note the word accused. The agencies involved need not secure conviction in order to take possession and sell seized property. But that's unconstitutional. So sue. Most people don't.
“Less than 20 percent of federal seizures involved property whose owners were ever prosecuted. … More than 80 percent of federal seizures are never challenged in court. … In many cases the property was worth less than the legal costs of trying to get it back. … Forfeiture defendants can’t be provided with a court-appointed attorney. …”
http://www.overcomingbias.com/2010/01/legal-delusions.html
There was a recent case in which an agency seized a substantial amount of cash following a traffic stop. The owner of the money was not charged with anything. Prosecutors based the seizure on the contention that the owner intended to buy drugs with the money.
Sometimes it is a Brave New World.
Monday, February 1, 2010
Adolescence
"In an ideal condition, children should be brought up in the country as much as possible. An abundance of simple well-cooked food in sufficient variety, ample time at table, where an atmosphere of light gaiety should be cultivated, and a period free from restraint, both before and after meals, should be considered fundamental essentials.
"The exercise of the body must be attended to in the shape of games.
"But severe exercise should only be allowed under adequate medical control, and should be increased very gradually. In the case of girls, let them run, leap and climb with their brothers for the first 12 years or so of life. But as puberty approaches, with all the change, stress and strain dependent thereon, their lives may need appropriate modification. Rest may be necessary during the menstrual periods of early years, and, perhaps, milder more graduted exercise should be taken at other times. In the same way, all mental strain should be diminished. Instead of pressure being put on a girl's intellectual education at about this time, as is too often the case, the time devoted to schools and books should be diminished. Education should be on broader, more fundamental lines, and much time should be passed in the open air. With regard to the mental training of both sexes two points must be borne in mind. First, that an ample number of hours should be set on one side for sleep, up to ten years of age not less than 11, and up to 20 years not less than nine. Secondly, that the time devoted to 'bookwork' should be broken up into a number of short periods, very carefully graduated to the individual child.
"In every case where there is a family tendency towards any certain disease or weakness, that tendency must determine the whole circumstances of the child's life. That diathesis which is most serious and least regarded, the nervous excitable one, is by far the most important and the most difficult to deal with. Every effort should be made to avoid the conditions in which the heredity predisposition would be aroused into mischievous action, and to encourage development on simple unexciting lines. The child should be confined to the schoolroom but little, and receive most of his training in wood and field. Other diathesis (the tuberculous, rheumatic, etc.) must be dealt with in appropriate ways.
"The adolescent is prone to special weakness and moral perversions. The emotions are unstable, and any stress put upon them may lead to undesirable results. Warm climate, tight-fitting clothes, corsets, rich foods, soft mattresses or indulgences of any kind, and also mental over-stimulation, are especially to be guarded against. The day should be filled with interests of an objective (in contradistinction of subjective) kind, and the child should retire to bed at night healthily fatigued in mind and body. Let there be confidence between mother and daughter, father and son, and, as the years bring the bodily changes, those in whom the children trust can choose the fitting moments for explaining their meaning and effect, and warning against abuses of the natural functions."
--Encyclopedia Britannica, 14th Edition, (c) 1929-1938, author not listed.
(The article might have been published also for an earlier edition, given the admonition against corsets.)
"Healthly fatigued," as in work the little buggars 'til they drop. And, anybody who sleeps on a soft mattress in a warm climate ... Well, you're doomed.
"The exercise of the body must be attended to in the shape of games.
"But severe exercise should only be allowed under adequate medical control, and should be increased very gradually. In the case of girls, let them run, leap and climb with their brothers for the first 12 years or so of life. But as puberty approaches, with all the change, stress and strain dependent thereon, their lives may need appropriate modification. Rest may be necessary during the menstrual periods of early years, and, perhaps, milder more graduted exercise should be taken at other times. In the same way, all mental strain should be diminished. Instead of pressure being put on a girl's intellectual education at about this time, as is too often the case, the time devoted to schools and books should be diminished. Education should be on broader, more fundamental lines, and much time should be passed in the open air. With regard to the mental training of both sexes two points must be borne in mind. First, that an ample number of hours should be set on one side for sleep, up to ten years of age not less than 11, and up to 20 years not less than nine. Secondly, that the time devoted to 'bookwork' should be broken up into a number of short periods, very carefully graduated to the individual child.
"In every case where there is a family tendency towards any certain disease or weakness, that tendency must determine the whole circumstances of the child's life. That diathesis which is most serious and least regarded, the nervous excitable one, is by far the most important and the most difficult to deal with. Every effort should be made to avoid the conditions in which the heredity predisposition would be aroused into mischievous action, and to encourage development on simple unexciting lines. The child should be confined to the schoolroom but little, and receive most of his training in wood and field. Other diathesis (the tuberculous, rheumatic, etc.) must be dealt with in appropriate ways.
"The adolescent is prone to special weakness and moral perversions. The emotions are unstable, and any stress put upon them may lead to undesirable results. Warm climate, tight-fitting clothes, corsets, rich foods, soft mattresses or indulgences of any kind, and also mental over-stimulation, are especially to be guarded against. The day should be filled with interests of an objective (in contradistinction of subjective) kind, and the child should retire to bed at night healthily fatigued in mind and body. Let there be confidence between mother and daughter, father and son, and, as the years bring the bodily changes, those in whom the children trust can choose the fitting moments for explaining their meaning and effect, and warning against abuses of the natural functions."
--Encyclopedia Britannica, 14th Edition, (c) 1929-1938, author not listed.
(The article might have been published also for an earlier edition, given the admonition against corsets.)
"Healthly fatigued," as in work the little buggars 'til they drop. And, anybody who sleeps on a soft mattress in a warm climate ... Well, you're doomed.
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