Tuesday, April 19, 2011
No institutional resistance?
Army Times: Rules limiting female GIs’ careers could change
By Lance M. Bacon - Staff writer
Notice how the title of the article puts it in terms of advancing the careers of women.
An Army Times article (rather sickening), which was posted by US Army FB. The propaganda machine for the Army is certainly making a fuss about this. Perhaps there are enough officers who would be opposed to this to prevent it from happening, but how effective would their protests be if the National Government were determined to bring this about? And why are there so many within the military openly pushing for the change? Because they have no understanding of the requirements of infantry combat?
Robert Gates
By Lance M. Bacon - Staff writer
Notice how the title of the article puts it in terms of advancing the careers of women.
While the Army has long encouraged soldiers to “be all that you can be,” it has institutionally prevented women from reaching new heights as it restricts the career fields in which they can serve — namely, the combat arms community and direct-contact units.
Those restrictions seem destined to change as military and congressional leaders give careful consideration to softening — if not eliminating — combat exclusion rules.
“I’m confident that this is an area that is going to change,” Defense Secretary Robert Gates said during an April 7 visit to the U.S. Division Center Camp Liberty in Baghdad. “Time scale of the change, I have no idea.”
An Army Times article (rather sickening), which was posted by US Army FB. The propaganda machine for the Army is certainly making a fuss about this. Perhaps there are enough officers who would be opposed to this to prevent it from happening, but how effective would their protests be if the National Government were determined to bring this about? And why are there so many within the military openly pushing for the change? Because they have no understanding of the requirements of infantry combat?
Robert Gates
Tips for composting
Organic Authority: 11 Items You Shouldn't Compost
bread products, cooking oils, meat and milk products, diseased plants, colored and glossy paper, human or animal waste, rice, sawdust, weeds, walnuts, acidic items... check
bread products, cooking oils, meat and milk products, diseased plants, colored and glossy paper, human or animal waste, rice, sawdust, weeds, walnuts, acidic items... check
The View from Brittany: The impotence of politics
What, then, have they been doing? When conspiracy theorists in the U.S. typically about covert preparations in the U.S., they are referring to martial law, internment camps, and so on. So if these leaders are not doing what is necessary to decentralize power, then what other preparations could they be doing, uless it's stockpiling resources. Perhaps there are leaders at the local level who are aware of how bad things are, and they are the ones who are muddling through. But those who have more power? I doubt it, and I don't see any reason why the few who know cannot do much cannot at least use the office to make the public more aware of these issues. Why else would they want to have the job? Unless they are biding their time and hoping that when things get really bad, they will have more power. Or, they just like having the title.
Even those who officially support degrowth are forced to disguise it as progress, lest they lose whatever small support they have. There is no way to support extensive public services without an industrial economy, yet degrowthers feel obliged to claim the contrary because most of them come from the left and being on the left here means maintaining that state funding for your lifestyle is an inalienable right.
Should a left winger (or anybody else for that matter) state the truth — that is, that the years of affluence are nearing their end and that we, as a people, are going to have to live with far less — he would be immediately branded as a dangerous extremist and an accomplice of whatever conspiracy is fashionable at the moment.
In fact, politicians' options are far more limited than laymen's.
Acting openly to prepare for the future is impossible – we would be quickly out of a job. We can, of course, prepare covertly for the future. I am persuaded that a few leaders, and at least some services, do this. The problem is that the changes needed to adapt to the end of the industrial society are so drastic that one cannot implement them stealthily. Moreover, even a gradual implementation is likely to be met with fierce resistance... and there would be no shortage of would-be presidents to capitalize on that.
What, then, have they been doing? When conspiracy theorists in the U.S. typically about covert preparations in the U.S., they are referring to martial law, internment camps, and so on. So if these leaders are not doing what is necessary to decentralize power, then what other preparations could they be doing, uless it's stockpiling resources. Perhaps there are leaders at the local level who are aware of how bad things are, and they are the ones who are muddling through. But those who have more power? I doubt it, and I don't see any reason why the few who know cannot do much cannot at least use the office to make the public more aware of these issues. Why else would they want to have the job? Unless they are biding their time and hoping that when things get really bad, they will have more power. Or, they just like having the title.
I've been cooking gai laan (Chinese broccoli) with butter instead of vegetable oil, and the taste has improved a lot, while it has become much more difficult to burn the vegetables. Even today's gai laan, which was starting to turn yellow and spoil), was tasty. Alas, vegetables are getting more expensive.
Mount Athos featured on 60 Minutes
Byzantine, Texas: Mount Athos segment to air on "60 Minutes"
April 24, 2011.
I expect the segment on 60 Minutes will become available on the archive. I'll post it if it does.
Mount Athos
A Pilgrimage to the Monasteries of Mount Athos
CathEn
The Friends of Mount Athos
Mount Athos
Mount Athos
April 24, 2011.
I expect the segment on 60 Minutes will become available on the archive. I'll post it if it does.
Mount Athos
A Pilgrimage to the Monasteries of Mount Athos
CathEn
The Friends of Mount Athos
Mount Athos
Mount Athos
Monday, April 18, 2011
Battlefield 3
I saw a trailer for the game while I was at BJ's Restaurant and Brewhouse yesterday for lunch with my mom. 12 Minutes of Gameplay. Will it get a boost from the Christmas shopping season later this year, when it is released? What sort of world will we be living in 6 months from now?
McChyrstal vindicated?
AP: Pentagon inquiry clears McChrystal of wrongdoing
From the article: "Obama at the time called the dismissal the right decision for U.S. national security and said McChrystal's conduct represented in the magazine article also "undermines the civilian control of the military that is at the core of our democratic system. And it erodes the trust that's necessary for our team to work together to achieve our objectives in Afghanistan."
From the article: "Obama at the time called the dismissal the right decision for U.S. national security and said McChrystal's conduct represented in the magazine article also "undermines the civilian control of the military that is at the core of our democratic system. And it erodes the trust that's necessary for our team to work together to achieve our objectives in Afghanistan."
Shawn Tribe, The Italian Debate About Continuity, Rupture, and the Second Vatican Council (which references the most recent Magister article, The Disappointed Have Spoken. The Vatican responds)
Gary W. Gallagher's Treatment of the "Civil War"
The Confederate War (GB). A review of The Union War. Review of his Lee and His Army in Confederate History.
The Myth of the Lost Cause and Civil War History (GB)
Faculty page for the author.
interview
"The Real Lost Cause: The Idea of Union in the Memory of the Civil War"
C-Span 2002 Civil War Books Discussion
Related:
The Civil War: an Eerie Silence By ROBIN BLACKBURN
Why the Muted Anniversary?
William Marvel: Toward the Unmasking of Persistent Myths
The Confederate War Department
The Myth of the Lost Cause and Civil War History (GB)
Faculty page for the author.
interview
"The Real Lost Cause: The Idea of Union in the Memory of the Civil War"
C-Span 2002 Civil War Books Discussion
Related:
The Civil War: an Eerie Silence By ROBIN BLACKBURN
Why the Muted Anniversary?
William Marvel: Toward the Unmasking of Persistent Myths
The Confederate War Department
Esther Gokhale program to be aired on KTEH this week
Thomas Jefferson and Thomas Aquinas: An Imagined Encounter
A talk by Archbishop Augustine Di Noia, O.P.
A talk by Archbishop Augustine Di Noia, O.P.
More idiocy from those in charge of the military
Secretary Mabus Indicates He IS Open to Women Joining the SEALs
Ray Mabus
A man without a spine -- the state of Uhmerican leadership today.
Ray Mabus
A man without a spine -- the state of Uhmerican leadership today.
Sunday, April 17, 2011
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