Author: TSO

I’m guessing we already have like 200 people primed for our next Stolen Valor Tournament.  I still think it gets less traffic than it should.  Or could.  Or something.

What I am really looking for though is someone who knows something about the tech side to get it to run a little better.  I kind of want to model it after the one BarstoolU uses (Not Safe for Work perhaps) although theirs isn’t actually working right now for some reason.  But, ideally, a bracket like is shown, and when you click a name, it brings up their “match” and has both a picture, and about 2 paragraphs of text underneath it.  And then the “choose” button.

Does any of our tech nerds know of some sort of polling software that would enable me to do that?

I get peeved when we get calls from lawyers asking/telling us to take stuff down. I really get peeved when Jonn tells then that they should discuss it with our lawyer (me) and the lawyer then changes to being all nice and just suggests we should do it. Even more, I hate when we catalogue the perfidy with links, and the subject just goes and deletes the links. Weiss did that too. Right after we pointed out that his claim that he had never lied about serving didn’t work well with his Army tattoos.

As Jonn said about Phillip Dale Monkress, All-Points Logistics, and their lawyer earlier:

Last week, a lawyer representing Phillip Monkress called to ask us to take down the posts and comments about him because it was damaging his business. We didn’t do that either. Since the Supreme Court won’t let the government punish the phonies, this is the only thing we have left to police our ranks. I’m pretty sure that no one here cares that Monkress’ business is failing.

And so, Monkress tried to scrub the internet. And one of the first things…..was a Power Point presentation which appeared on their website. Luckily, we saved it before it got deleted. Bear in mind that the ostensible defense is that Phillip Dale Monkress never claimed to be a US Navy SEAL, you know, despite him wearing the trident in this picture.

Anyway, in particular I liked this, Page 2 of said Power Point:

Wait, what? I thought he wasn’t a SEAL? Well, we actually know he wasn’t a SEAL, but his defenders seem to be claiming that he never said he was. How does one explain this slide then?
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Spent yesterday with Ollie North, and as with every other time I spent time with him, I’m always struck by how much wisdom he spews just in casual conversation. But, as I spend today going through the audio file from the interview (and there will be video later on) I wanted to share two quotes that really hit me hard in the solar plexus.

“When they [his grandkids] turn 12, I give them three things and a note. The three things are: a compass, a bible, and a shotgun. And I tell them in the note, if you learn to use all three, and it has to be all three, you’ll never be lost, you’ll never be hungry, and you need fear nothing.”

“If you can’t enjoy what you’re doing; if you’re not taking pleasure in what you’re doing; if you’re not in some way enthusing someone else about what they could do; you’re kind of wasting God’s good air I think. Hopefully I’ve been able to do that over the years.”

Anyway, I owed you guys a post since I have been out. But I loved those quotes and wanted to share them.

I’ll have a full posting about it Monday, when I get a chance to write it up.

But, I owe you at least a quick explanation. I just got off the phone with the communications director for the USO, a lovely lady with whom I had a wonderful conversation. The gist is that (as expected) the whole thing was largely miscommunication. I let her know that we all figured that, but our biggest concern was the lack of response to the 5 emails. She stressed quite vocally that she understood why this angered us and that our anger was rational within the context of what happened. Because she’s WAY better at PR than I will ever be, she managed to convey empathy without ever once assigning blame to anyone, except the system generally. She expressed her thanks for what milbloggers do, and for helping to explore the problems that can arise in this regard.

My takeaway….the initial director sent out an email that was horribly written (“blog” instead of “post”, the “further action” nonsense etc), and compounded that by not responding to us, which sent this into the stratosphere. They intended well, but it was horribly played, and when it started to turn south, for some reason they figured a “see no evil, respond to no evil” approach that made it worse. And it might not even have been a “they”, but just one person.

Again, I will have more on Monday or so, but wanted to update you.

(Actually, I am headed to DC to interview Ollie North on Monday and Tuesday, but I will try to get an update for you guys.)

Thankfully, Veterans Today has the answer. Well, part of the answer:

One haunting telescopic video clip of the meteor’s explosive destruction reveals what appears to be a piloted craft intersecting the meteor’s descent at blinding speed. Navigating to the far side, the craft appears to be responsible for the explosive demise of the meteor into smaller fragments. In the age of photoshop and image manipulation we might dismiss this clip as a hoax except for one thing; the explosion sent meteor fragments in only one direction and away from the alleged craft as one would expect if the meteor had been zapped with an energy weapon. The alleged craft materialized from what appeared to be a “cloaked” state in order to blast the asteroid. Following the blast it appears the craft re-entered and remained in a cloaked state. But before disappearing, the craft emerged from behind the explosion and appeared to “wobble” slightly as if affected by the shock wave.

I still don’t know exactly who is responsible though, and since I already used my phone a friend, I thought I would go with Poll the Audience:
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Yeah, still waiting. Things are happening, just really slowly.

Now, while we wait, how about a trash medal video from some guys in a foreign language who appear to be struck with some form of lycanthropy?

Y’all be sure to thank Twist for this one as well:

UPDATE: See the latest, its all Kumbaya and love arrows. Once I finally got the right person talking to me, it got resolved in 30 minutes.

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Not only is it back on, as Penny from Big Bang Theory would say, “It’s junior rodeo on.”

I’ll have more tomorrow, but if I post right now, well meaning people would have me committed to an asylum.

Since none of you got my reference, it’s from the Panty Piñata episode where Penny fights with Sheldon.

Leonard Hofstadter: Penny, you don’t want to get into it with Sheldon. The guy is one lab accident away from being a supervillain.
Penny: I don’t care. I was in Junior Rodeo. I can hogtie and castrate him in sixty seconds.
Howard Wolowitz: No need to neuter the nerd, I can get you back online.

Penny: Leonard, remember when I said it was on? Well now it’s Junior Rodeo on.
Leonard Hofstadter: [softly, in a worried tone] No, not Junior Rodeo.

NEWEST UPDATE:   See the latest, its all Kumbaya and love arrows. Once I finally got the right person talking to me, it got resolved in 30 minutes.

NEWER UPDATE:

As I said in a separate updated post…
Not only is it back on, as Penny from Big Bang Theory would say, “It’s junior rodeo on.”
I’ll have more tomorrow, but if I post right now, well meaning people would have me committed to an asylum.

The portion I took down will go back up tomorrow.

UPDATE:
Someone from the USO has finally responded, albeit not through the email that I have supplied them on 5 occasions now:

Hi everyone! We’ve looked into the matter, have discovered the source of the misunderstanding and are remedying the confusion now!

This post may go the way of the dodo at some point, since again, we didn’t want to attack the USO, only get to the root of the problem. So, it is possible that what was up here might get replaced with the official explanation from the USO. Hopefully have more later.

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Edited for now, pending explanation from USO. I hate to do that, but even more, I hate to malign an organization for the acts of what appear to be one individual. It is saved, and might reappear later.