This ain't Hell, but you can see it from here

Author: Hondo

  • Well Now Isn’t This Special

    Seems as if the town of Clover, SC, wants to keep its streets and yards tidy and clean.  No real problem with that, I suppose.

    Even if it means a 79-year old Korean War vet living on a fixed income has to go to jail.

    I wish I was kidding.  But I’m not.

    His original crime?  Apparently it was not cleaning up his yard to the satisfaction of the town code enforcement officer.  No one else complained.

    So what if he collects items in order to supplement his income so he can pay for medicine for his disabled wife?  After all, he did violate the law – at least in the eyes of one local bureaucrat.  And he did fail to pay the $500 fine he was later assessed for not cleaning up his yard.

    He started serving 30 days in jail, on weekends, yesterday evening.

    Two millenia ago Marcus Tullius Cicero wrote:  “I have yet to meet a bureaucrat who was not petty, dull, almost witless, crafty or stupid, an oppressor or a thief, a holder of little authority in which he delights, as a boy delights in possessing a vicious dog.”   If I didn’t know better perhaps I’d wonder when Cicero visited Clover and met their code enforcement officer, or the town judge.

    Or maybe both.

    Contact information for Clover’s mayor and town council can be found at this link.

  • Federal Fiscal Follies, Part Va: Unemployment Compensation (Part I)

    We’ve all got our opinions about Federal entitlements.  But I think it’s safe to say that, without question, some of them desperately need overhauling.

    Take unemployment compensation, for example.  After all, what could be better justified than providing temporary help to folks who just lost their job?

    Well, you might want to take another, more in-depth look.  The devil is sometimes in the details.

    Like this detail:  Federally-funded unemployment compensation is not means tested.  And that means that 2,362 Americans living in households with taxable household incomes in excess of $1,000,000 received unemployment compensation.  Dig a little more, and you find out that over 956,000 people living in households with taxable income in excess of $100,000 in 2009 did the same.

    Where does that money come from?  It comes from payroll taxes levied on employers – who cover the cost by raising their prices, and pass the cost along to us.  These payroll taxes go into specified unemployment funds; compensation is paid from these funds.  And when these various funds set up to pay unemployment compensation runs short, Uncle Sam generally ponies up more to make up the shortfall – from Federal revenues.

    In short:  the money for unemployment compensation comes out of our pockets, one way or another.  We pay for it.

    Hey, I’m OK with helping out folks when they need a little temporary help for events outside their control.  But let’s not check common sense at the door when we do that, either.

    Someone getting unemployment compensation – or any other form of public “assistance” – while living in a household having a taxable income of $100,000 or more just doesn’t pass the common sense test.  At least in my book, it doesn’t.  IMO this program absolutely screams for a bona fide, no joke means test.

    More to follow on this subject in the future, as time allows.

  • More Return Home

    I previously wrote about the return and burial of Pfc John A. Donovan, USMC.  He and six fellow Marines were lost when their aircraft crashed on the island of Espiritu Santo, Vanuatu, on 23 April 1944.

    The Department of Defense today announced that the identification and return of remains for the crew is now complete.  A group burial will be held at Arlington National Ceremony on Thursday, 4 October 2012.

    The individuals in that ill-fated flight crew were Marine Corps 1st Lt. Laverne A. Lallathin of Raymond, Wash.; 2nd Lt. Dwight D. Ekstam of Moline, IL; 2nd Lt. Walter B. Vincent, Jr. of Tulsa, OK; Tech. Sgt. James A. Sisney of Redwood City, CA; Cpl. Wayne R. Erickson of Minneapolis, MN; Cpl. John D. Yeager of Pittsburgh, PA; and Pfc. John A. Donovan of Plymouth, MI.  All but 1st Lt Lallathin have been previously identified and interred in individual ceremonies.  1st Lt Lallathin’s remains will be also interred individually in a separate ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery on 4 October 2012.

    In separate announcements last week, the Department of Defense announced that the remains of Army Air Forces 2LT Samuel E. Lunday, of Marianna, FL, and USMC Pfc. Richard S. Gzik, of Toledo, OH, have been identified.  Their remains will also be returned to their families for burial with military honors.

    2LT Lunday and four others were lost on 24 April 1943 when their C-87 aircraft did not return to its home base in Chabua, India, from an “Over the Hump” resupply mission to China.  In 2003 the aircraft’s crash site was located near the Burmese border approximately 100 miles away from Chabua.  Several artifacts from the aircraft, along with some human remains, were recovered and turned over to US authorities at that time.  The remains returned were identified as Lunday’s through mitochondrial DNA testing from maternal-line relatives.  Negotiations are underway with the government of India to allow excavation of the crash site.

    Pfc. Gzik was KIA west of the Chosin Reservoir, North Korea, on 2 December 1950.  His remains were buried alongside the road leading to Hagaru-ri.  However, the US retreat from the Chosin Reservoir later that month made recovery of his remains impossible at the time.  Gzik’s remains were returned to US control in 1954 during an exchange of war dead with North Korea, but could not be definitively identified using then-current technology.  They were reburied as Unknown at National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Hawaii (the “Punchbowl”).  Subsequent advances in technology led to subsequent reexamination and identification of Pfc. Gzik’s remains earlier this year.

    A belated welcome home, my elder brothers-in-arms.  Rest now in peace – at home.

  • 43 Years Ago Today

    Ground troops often grouse – IMO with fair justification – about their Aviation brethren and about how “soft” an aviator’s life is by comparison to their own. But there is one part of the aviation community I doubt you’ll ever hear a Soldier or Marine – or Airman or Sailor, for that matter – disparage.

    That would be MEDEVAC pilots and crew – AKA “Dustoff” in the Army (I believe the USAF equivalent is Pedro; not sure about Navy or USMC).  These guys and gals do things – and take chances – that make one sometimes question their common sense if not their sanity.

    It’s risky as hell. They don’t always make it back.

    Michael J. Novosel was a Dustoff pilot.  He had a very unusual career; for more details, see here and here.  Short version:  he served in the Army Air Forces in World War II, flying some missions over Japan near the end of the war.  After the war, he reverted to the USAF Reserve.  He was recalled to serve again in Korea, then again reverted to USAF Reserve status.

    When Vietnam began to heat up, Novosel again volunteered.  This time, however, the USAF said no.  He was too old, and too senior, for the USAF’s needs.

    The Army, however, would let him return to active duty and fly – as a Warrant Officer.  So Lt Col Michael J. Novosel, USAFR, became CW2 Michael J. Novosel, US Army.

    Novosel served a tour of duty in Vietnam.  He returned stateside, and was diagnosed with glaucoma.  He convinced the Army to keep him on active duty, and to let him return to flying status.

    That turned out to be two of the best decisions the Army ever made.

    Novosel was promoted to CW3.  He returned to Vietnam for a second tour.

    Novosel was no naive youngster at the time. At the time of his second tour, he was literally old enough (47) to be a grandfather.  Indeed, Novosel and his son were both Dustoff pilots, and served together in Vietnam at the same time. They share a rather unique distinction: each rescued the other within the space of a week by performing an emergency combat evacuation after the other’s bird was disabled during a mission.

    On October 2, 1969, CW3 Michael J. Novosel, US Army, was a again flying Dustoff. On that day he performed acts of heroism for which he was later awarded the Medal of Honor.

    The Citation for his Medal of Honor tells the story succinctly, but well.  More details can be found here, in the section entitled  “A Second Medal of Honor”, and in the first two links above.

    Flying into a “hot” LZ once to pick up wounded, even once, takes Major-League guts. You know a priori that you’re going to take fire coming and going – and that you’re going to have to stay on the ground or at a low hover, completely exposed, long enough to take on wounded. Coming and going, you’ve got a good chance to get hit. On the ground or hovering, you’re a sitting duck.  And given the size of a UH-1 (the airframe used for Dustoff in 1969), you’re a damned large sitting duck – which burns like hell if it’s hit in a critical spot and catches fire.

    To do that fifteen times during the same engagement, bringing out wounded each time, until you’re hit yourself and damn near end up among the dead . . . well, in my book that goes way beyond gutsy. In my book that’s truly “above and beyond the call of duty.”

    CW4 Novosel retired in 1985.  At the time, he was the last military aviator from  World War II still on active flying status, and had accumulated 12,400 total flying hours (2,000+ in combat).   A street at Fort Rucker, Alabama (the home of Army Aviation) is named in his honor. This is particularly apropos, as Novosel chose to live out his later years in Enterprise, Alabama – just a few miles away.

    Michael J. Novosel – Army officer and aviator extraordinaire, Dustoff pilot, and Medal of Honor recipient – passed away on April 2, 2006. May he rest in peace.

    Thank you, my late elder brother in arms. Both for what you did, and for the example you were.

    — — —

    A personal postscript:  for years after Novosel had retired, I had friends and family in the Fort Rucker area, and visited I them once or twice a year.  Looking up Novosel and going over to Enterprise to  meet  him was something on my “to do” list.  The pace of life kept pushing the visit down the list, and I just never got around to doing that.  Now it won’t happen – in this life, anyway.   That’s something I’ll always regret.

    If you have the opportunity, make it a point to meet one of the few surviving Medal of Honor recipients – if for no other reason than to say, “Thank you.”

     

    Author’s Note: the original version of this article indicated that CW4 Novosel had received a second commission and retired as a Colonel.  This was incorrect.  Subsequent research on my part indicates that Novosel remained a CW4 until his retirement in 1985, and was almost certainly retired at his highest rank held (Lt Col).  I have seen references to “Colonel Novosel” in various documents.  However, I have been unable to yet determine if he also received an honorary promotion to Colonel on or after his retirement.

    My apologies for the error.

  • Violating Your Probation Publicly Has Consequences

    Remember that Egyptian Coptic guy Nakoula Basseley Nakoula – the one who coordinated the making of Innocence of Muslims under an alias?  The film with the trailer on the internet that the Obama administration publicly and incorrectly blamed – apparently knowingly or with abject incompetence – for causing the recent unrest in the Islamic world that broke out last month on September 11?

    Well, he’s now in Federal custody.  And IMO, he deserves it.

    What?  Isn’t Nakoula being held as a political prisoner for exercise his right to free speech?

    In a word:  no.  Nakoula is being held because he thumbed his nose at the US justice system. Publicly.  Like a freaking idiot.

    Nakoula is NOT in jail because he made the film in question.  He is NOT a political prisoner.

    He’s in jail because he’s a convicted felon on probation who publicly and in a very “in your face” way violated the terms of his probation.  And he did that in two different ways.

    While making Innocence of Muslims under an alias and apparently posting the trailer to the Internet, Nakoula was on parole probation for a 2010 felony conviction for bank fraud.  He got parole probation apparently as part of a deal for cooperating with Federal authorities during that case.

    Two of the conditions of his parole probation were that Nakoula (1) not use an alias, and (2) not use computers or access the Internet for five years without the approval of his parole probation officer.

    Nakoula made Innocence of Muslims using an alias.  And it looks like he posted the trailer for the film to the Internet.  Did this tool really think no one would ever notice the alias or the film?

    So, regardless of freedom of speech issues – yeah, this tool deserves to be in jail.  Felons who knowingly violate the terms of their probation deserve jail time.

    Especially when they’re idiots.

  • If You Know Anyone Overseas Who Plans to Vote . .

    . . . you might want to tell them to check directly with their state of residence regarding absentee voting deadlines.  Or you might offer to check for them, if they’re somewhere that has poor Internet connectivity.

    Why?  Apparently the Federal Voter Assistance Program site, www.fvap.gov, doesn’t always exactly get things right.

    That was probably an isolated instance of someone having a brain cramp. But I’d still recommend checking directly with the state to be sure.

  • New Oxford High School: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Krasny Oktyabr

    I thought I was pretty much inured to “teh stoopid” from the left and from academia.  Then this morning, I read this article.

    My jaw dropped.  Talk about yer “WTF?” moments.

    Yes, we in America must celebrate “glorious October Bolshevik Revolution”.  After all, it only lead – directly and through follow-on revolutions elsewhere it inspired or supported – to the murder by communist governments/movements of an estimated nearly 149,000,000 human beings for political reasons between 1917 and 1987.

    If you’d like to contact the school district involved and tell them what you thnk, their contact information can be found here – along with that of the high school itself.  I didn’t see any e-mail address info, but the pages seem have fax/phone/mailing contact info for each.

  • Federal Fiscal Follies, Part IV – Today, Free Groceries are a SNAP

    I’ve written recently about how Social Security is now poised to become the largest single expense of the Federal government next year, spending more than DoD.  I’ve also written about how Social Security is  apparently being abused to provide de facto welfare for many.  Well, now let’s look at another problematic Federal program.  Specifically, we’ll look at the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program, or SNAP – formerly known as “food stamps”.  Below, I’ll refer to it by the older name as that’s how it’s still more commonly known.

    In theory, food stamps seem like a good idea.  The idea is simple:  help the truly needy feed themselves by giving them public assistance that they can only use to buy food.  This lets them and use what little money they have on other essentials.

    That’s the theory, anyway.  In practice, things have turned out a bit differently.

    The food stamp program is rife with fraud.   Costs have risen hugely over the last decade plus, in both good times and bad, with no reductions in sight for at least another two years – if then.  And the program very obviously supports far more than those who are truly needy.

    You might want to grab a barf bag before you read any further.

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