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

Author: Zero Ponsdorf

  • A Bit of GOOD News

    Marine credits karma for $2.9 million jackpot

    Marine Cpl. Alexander Degenhardt is crediting karma for landing a $2.9 million progressive slot jackpot in Las Vegas.

    Degenhardt was accepted as a bone marrow donor to an anonymous patient only a couple of days before hitting the jackpot Sunday at the Bellagio, the Las Vegas Sun reported (http://bit.ly/ABQ02J).

    “They asked me if I was sure I wanted to go through with it because it’s kind of painful, but what’s a little pain if it will save someone’s life?” Degenhardt said. “I look at this jackpot as kind of good karma for that.”

    Degenhardt, 26, said he plans to continue his career with the Marines and go through with the bone marrow donation, which is expected to occur in the next six months after extensive testing.

    There is little to need to add anything.

  • Incident in New Baghdad

    Our pal and frequent commenter Doc Bailey has been interviewed by The Washington Post.

    Incident in New Baghdad’: What happened in Iraq?

    On July 12, 2007, during a long, hot mission, American soldiers searched houses in a ruined maze of a neighborhood in east Baghdad. The largely routine effort came to a violent conclusion: An Apache helicopter circling overhead spotted several men carrying weapons. The chopper stalked the targets, then opened fire. Among the 11 killed were a Reuters photographer and his driver. Among the wounded were two young children.The Army investigated. No one was publicly found at fault.

    I’ve been following the story on FB here: 2-16, (and 4th IBCT) Vets for Truth.

    On the face of it this is a story about the fog of war, but there’s more. Toss in Wikileaks, an potential Academy Award, and old wounds are being torn open.

    First, a classified video of the action as seen from the Apache was released by WikiLeaks in April 2010. Now a 22-minute documentary of the “Incident in New Baghdad” by director James Spione is up for an Academy Award at the Oscar ceremony Sunday.

    Yet for all the documentary evidence — video doesn’t lie, does it? — collective truth remains elusive. Nobody, including the Pentagon, disputes the authenticity of the video. What it means, however — and what happened before, what happened after, what were the intentions of the actors — those are different questions.

    I can’t relate directly this event, but I CAN relate to the aftermath… Snippets of time, scenes from larger events, taken out of context and amplified.  Maybe used with good intentions, or maybe driven by some hidden agenda?

    Every Nam vet can empathize.

     

  • Tar and Feathers. Wish I’d Thought of That.

    Rurik sends a link: Tar and Feathers for Ray Mabus

    Jed Babbin served as a deputy undersecretary of defense in the George H.W. Bush administration so he has a very useful perspective.

    Back in the Reagan days, the phrase “personnel is policy” revealed an insight on how Washington works. Any administration is more likely to succeed if it hires the best people who are ideologically oriented to its goals. If your agenda is radically-liberal, as Obama’s is, you would choose someone like Ray Mabus, a former Mississippi governor, to be your Navy secretary.

    Navy Secretary Mabus, like Obama, believes that our armed services are political tools, playthings to be splashed about like toys in a toddler’s bathtub. Yes, they are all too willing to bask in the glories of DEVGRU (aka, SEAL Team 6), but the credit for those achievements is JFK’s, not theirs.

    Under Mabus and Obama, our Navy has shrunk to World War I levels, women are serving on submarines and we are spending untold millions or billions on “greening” the navy. The Marine Corps is about to be cut massively and the navy’s shipbuilding program is being delayed, resulting in a force that may be over-stressed or even incapable of doing its job in the next crisis.

    Right now we have more admirals than ships. The fleet stands at about 285 ships, down from the Cold War level of nearly 600. We have about 336 admirals. And some of them are interesting picks.

    Babbin continues in some detail so take a minute to read it. There’s little new for most TAH readers, but he does a fine job putting it all together.

    And a reminder of  one thing we can do short of tar and feathers…

    No Murtha Ship!

  • Peace and Quiet…

    Well… it IS a slow news Saturday, unless the Whitney Houston funeral is important to you?

  • Before There Were SEALS

    Disclaimer: I knew UDT types back in the day. Larry Bailey is the first SEAL I met.

    This showed up on FB this evening:  Just a Sailor.

    BIGELOW, acting instantly as the deadly projectile exploded into fragments which penetrated the No. 1 gun magazine and set fire to several powder cases, picked up a pair of fire extinguishers and rushed below in a resolute attempt to quell the raging flames.

    Nothing to add. Except that Just A Sailor is swiped from a pal.

  • A (Not Quite) Suicide Bomber Story – Updated With More Details

    You may have heard about the Israeli Embassy bombings of recent days?

    This may well be an attempt at doing the same…
    Iranian bombs himself

    Two  bombs went off on Sukhumvit 71 road, injuring five people, including an Iranian man, the reports said.

    According to a television news report, an Iranian man carrying a black bag hurled the first bomb at a taxi after the driver refused to accept him as a passenger. The cab driver was among the injured, reports said.

    When police arrived at the scene, the foreigner then threw a second bomb at them, but it hit a tree and bounced back towards him and exploded. He lost both of his legs in the blast, the report said.

    There’s not much more to the story yet.

    In any other context this would be a tragedy, and I sympathize with the others injured… but I sure would like to have seen the look on the Iranian’s face the second before the BOOM.

    Update: Israel to “settle the score” for Bangkok attack

    JERUSALEM – An Israeli Cabinet minister says his country will “settle the score” with the perpetrators of a bombing attempt in Bangkok.

    An Iranian man fleeing wounded from an explosion at a rented Bangkok house lobbed a grenade at police that rebounded and blew off one of his legs Tuesday in a series of blasts. Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said the explosion, which wounded four civilians, was an attempted terrorist attack backed by Iran.

  • The Navy Defines Hazing For Us?

    I have mixed feeling about this story. In fact, I was hesitant to post about it.
    Navy: 8 tossed from Bonhomme Richard for hazing

    SAN DIEGO — The Navy discharged eight sailors after a hazing incident aboard a San Diego-based amphibious assault ship that was captured on video and included the choking of a fellow sailor, a Navy spokesman said Saturday.

    The eight received general discharges following allegations they assaulted and choked the sailor aboard Bonhomme Richard as part of a rite to initiate the sailor into a new department, said Lt. Cmdr. David McKinney.

    McKinney said the assault, which took place Jan. 17 in the ship’s berthing area, was videotaped, and the victim treated for injuries.

    Boys will be boys,  and the Navy is just over-reacting in this modern PC climate would seem a valid appraisal at first glance.  Indeed Doc Bailey makes this point over at his place.

    However, there is one line in the Navy Times  story that seems to belie that take?

    The injuries were not serious, but the sailor sought treatment and reported the incident to his superiors, leading to the discharges, McKinney said.

    Once this “harmless horseplay” rises to that level the NAVY has to do something! Imagine if his superiors had said something like “Don’t be such a crybaby!” and dropped it? Do we really need the kind of headlines that would likely engender?

    In truth I still ain’t sure what “hazing” is nowadays, but the words “assault”, cover-up, and “climate of brutality”  wouldn’t look too good in the press. That is quite clear.

  • Rectum? Damned near killed him.

    This story has been “in the news” today and has nothing to do with TAH… except MOST of the folks who comment here might get a laugh out of it. I sure did.

    From The Courthouse News Service:

     HUNTINGTON, W.Va. (CN) – A college student claims he was injured when a fraternity member in a “drunken stupor” decided “that it would be a good idea to shoot bottle rockets out of his anus,” and did so, “but instead of launching, the bottle rocket blew up in the defendant’s rectum, and this startled the plaintiff and caused him to jump back,” and fall off the fraternity’s deck.

    Title and link stolen from Don Surber.

    Sorry Jonn…