Apparently that includes al Qaeda and it’s affiliates. A popular Somali comedian has been gunned down, apparently by members of al Qaeda affiliate Al-Shabab.
Al-Shabab had had threatened him previously. This time, apparently they decided threats weren’t enough.
His crime? Mocking Islamist militants for brainwashing children and killing civilians.
RIP Abdi Jeylani Malaq – AKA Marshale. Killed for no other reason than speaking the truth.
Reuters is now reporting that the POTUS has formally approved US aid to Syrian rebels. Frankly, I’m not so sure that’s such a good idea.
Yes, Assad is a bastard. But Iran’s and al Qaeda’s fingerprints seem to be all over the Syrian opposition. And given Syria’s suspected WMD program, a takeover by either would not be good news for US interests.
Further, the possibility for a Syrian takeover by radical Islamic elements also can’t be dismissed. Events in Libya and Egypt have shown that quite clearly.
Sometimes the devil you know really is better than the devil you don’t. I suspect this may be one of those times.
One day in 1950, in a foxhole some distance north of Pyongyang, North Korea, a US Army soldier died. He was with the 503rd Field Artillery, 2nd Infantry division.
While tragic, such an occurrence was regrettably common. For the last half of 1950, the US was fighting a war in Korea – a war that would last 3 years, 1 month, and 3 days and would claim (including MIAs), nearly 42,700 American lives.
The young soldier was one of those MIAs. His body was not returned at the end of hostilities.
His remains lay buried approximately 50 miles north of Pyongyang. His remains were isolated – that is, they were not buried in any military cemetery or mass grave.
In 2000, a joint US-North Korean team was investigating old Korean War fighting positions. While doing so, they discovered the skeleton of a 5’ 10” tall male, apparently of African-American ancestry. These remains were returned to the US.
After roughly 50 years in the earth, the remains were predictably in poor shape. In past years these remains would likely never have been positively identified.
However, modern technology sometimes works wonders. Through DNA matching with living relatives, the remains were finally positively identified.
Yesterday – 31 July 2012 – SGT Thomas Jefferson Barksdale was returned to his hometown of Macon, GA. His casket was flown from Hawaii to Hartsfield International Airport in Atlanta. It was escorted from there to Macon by elements of the Georgia State Patrol, the Bibb County Sheriff’s office, the Macon Police Department, and 87 Georgia Patriot Guard Riders. Seven GA ARNG soldiers carried his casket from its hearse into a local funeral home, where it will remain until his funeral on Friday. He will be interred with full military honors at the Georgia Veteran’s Cemetery in Milledgville, GA.
Welcome home, SGT Barksdale – my elder brother in arms. Rest now in peace.
The Clackamas Town Center mall in Oregon has a “kiddie train”. Some time ago, mall management noticed that the kiddie train conductor had adorned the train with the American flag.
Mall management was not amused. They decided the flag was an “unapproved visual”, and ordered it removed.
However, the train’s conductor balked. And not only did he balk, though in doing so he risked losing his job or being banned from the mall. He also went public to local media.
Public reaction was reasonably swift. And it wasn’t in favor of mall management.
Mall management relented. Old Glory still adorns the train.
Why did this happen? You’ll have to ask the mall’s management why they chose to act like ignorant fools. I certainly can’t explain their behavior.
But it turns out the kiddie train driver was a vet. ‘Nuff said about why he stood his ground.
Thanks, Thomas Phelps. I don’t know your branch of service – and I don’t care. Well done, fella; very well done.
And I’m also guessing you’re not related to that crowd of idiots who run the Westboro Baptist Church, either. (smile)
It occurred to me that the spreadsheet I prepared to produce estimates for my previous article about the QRMC recommendations could be modified to serve as a simple, general-purpose retirement pay calculator for Reserve personnel under both options. While others Reserve retirement pay calculators exist (most notably this one at US Army Human Resources Command), they appear to make various assumptions concerning future pay raises and inflation that may or may not be accurate. They also don’t seem to attempt to convert their calculated future value to current dollars, thus making interpretation of the result difficult. And they and also don’t seem that easy to use for “what if” drills concerning future correspondence work, voluntary active duty, mobilizations, and the like. So I decided I’d make this spreadsheet available. You’ll need software that can use a MicroSoft Excel (97-2003) format workbook in order to use it.
The spreadsheet calculates, under both current and QRMC rules, the Reserve pension that a reservist will earn under each system, plus the percentage reduction under the QRMC proposal. Users must enter their actual and estimated yearly retirement points and selected other data. The procedures which follow describe that other data and tell the user how to obtain or calculate it. (more…)
Jonn’s recent article about the recent QRMC proposal concerning military reserve compensation got me thinking. So I guess you should consider this fair warning that I’m about to go down another rabbit hole. (smile)
Introduction
The 11th Quadrennial Review of Military Compensation (QRMC) has proposed a significant change in the way Reserve Component personnel are compensated, both while serving in the reserves and during retirement. In a nutshell, this proposal would reduce drill compensation significantly, and would reduce overall retirement credit (and thus retirement pay) less dramatically. In exchange, the QRMC proposes to allow a Reservist to begin receiving retirement pay substantially earlier – for many, between 7 and 13 years earlier – than allowed by current law (age 60 unless one qualifies for retirement under Active Component rules, for disability retirement, or for early receipt of Reserve retired pay due to contingency service) .
The obvious question arises: is this a good deal or not? And if it’s a good deal, for whom: the government, the Reservist, both – or neither?
What I’m going to attempt below is to come up with some numbers for a few representative scenarios. The first involve Reservists who are pure Reservists (no prior active duty) and serve 20, 25, and 30 year careers under each system. The second set of scenarios involve Reservists who have 4 years active duty prior to going into the reserves, then complete a 20, 25, or 30 year career in the reserves.
Seems we have another case of a lawful citizen stopping a criminal with one of those “immoral” concealed weapons.
In Salt Lake City, an individual apparently walked into a Smith’s (a regional grocery store chain in the West) and bought a knife. He then went to the store’s foyer, pulled his knife, and began stabbing people. Two people were seriously injured.
A third individual in the area apparently decided not to wait for police to arrive and took matters into his own hands. He pulled his firearm, pointed it directly at the man wielding the knife, and told him to drop his knife or he’d be shot.
The knife-wielder complied. He was subdued by Smiths’ employees and shoppers, and turned over to the police when they arrived.
Concealed carry by law-abiding citizens is a good thing. Because when seconds count – like they did here – your local police are only minutes away.
Sometimes you see something that makes you go, “Huh?” Not because it’s BS – but because it surprises you.
I certainly did recently. That happened when I read this article, where rapper/actor Ice-T comes out strongly in favor of individual gun ownership and the individual right for concealed carry.
Ice-T has an, um, “checkered” past, and he certainly made no bones about his political leanings 4 years ago. However, he’s also proof that at least a few liberals “get it” when it comes to gun ownership, the Second Amendment, and Constitutional rights. He also proves that not all liberals toe the “party line” on all issues.
I can’t exactly say I agree with Ice-T across the board here – I’d not have singled out the police as targets like he did in the article (IMO the right of firearms possession and carry is better justified as allowing defense of person in particular and liberty in general). But the article and accompanying video are certainly at least minor bits of sanity from the liberal side of the house regarding firearms ownership. I guess even stopped clocks are right twice a day.
I can’t wait to see what our resident liberals have to say about this. (smile)