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

Author: Zero Ponsdorf

  • The Cats Away, So To Set The Tone… A Fart Story.

    Been sitting on this story (no pun intended) for a day or so.

    So here’s the news:  audible farting has been banned for some Marines downrange because it offends the Afghans.

    I know there are many things in the Afghan culture that don’t seem normal to Americans and it’s hard to spend seven months working in someone else’s back yard.  Still, the Marines I saw downrange are doing a pretty good job at trying to do the right thing around the Afghans.

    They’re not supposed to cuss because it could be misunderstood (that one goes out the window a lot). And they stay away from talking about politics, religion or girls because those topics could escalate into major disagreements (they can’t communicate anyway because of the language barrier).

    But farting?  That’s practically a sport.  Ok, it’s not soccer, but a good contest could open the door for cross-cultural exchanges, jokes and other gallows humor.

    So, for all Marines getting ready to go downwind, I mean downrange, be forewarned — you may have to hold it in… at least until you get back to your hooch where you can loudly crop dust your friends.

    Dunno just what the Jarheads in A’Stan eat, but I’m trying to relate? Should those fine groups that organize care packages for those deployed send Beano?

    It’s a cultural thing I reckon? So let us help those folks downrange deal with this before it causes an international incident.

  • Suicide Is Painless

    Ah, The Arab Spring… a thing of wonder with democracy replacing tyranny in many places. We should do all we can to bolster the efforts.

    Including aiding NATO in Libya? I can’t vouchsafe this source, but it does seems to agree with other reports.

    Libyan Draft Constitution: Sharia is ‘Principal Source of Legislation’

    Under this constitution, in other words, Islam is law. That makes other phrases such as “there shall be no crime or penalty except by virtue of the law” and “Judges shall be independent, subject to no other authority but law and conscience” a bit more ominous.

    Then in Egypt:  Protesters outside  (the Israeli)  Cairo embassy call for envoy’s ouster

    Hamdeen Sabahy, a presidential candidate with the Nasserist Dignity Party, issued a statement saluting Shahat, “the public hero who burned the Zionist flag that spoiled the Egyptian air for 30 years.”
    In an interview with Al Jazeera’s recently launched Egyptian channel, Shahat said he gave a thumbs-up sign to an army officer standing behind a window on the building’s eighth floor, and the officer returned the favor.

    Is anyone keeping score? Meanwhile American assets are currently in play over Tripoli?

    Oh yeah… our support of The Arab Spring will create many new friends… or encourage our enemies by showing us to be weak willed dolts.

  • How Far Would YOU Go?

    It’s taken me a coupla days to calm down enough to post this one. I kept reading about the thing and getting pissed. For something different each time, mind you, but even as semi-literate as I am a post with little more than WTF! said over and over seemed a waste of time.

    So here goes: Army vet with PTSD sought the treatment he needed by taking hostages – but got jail instead

    Fifteen months of carnage in Iraq had left the 29-year-old debilitated by post-traumatic stress disorder. But despite his doctor’s urgent recommendation, the Army failed to send him to a Warrior Transition Unit for help. The best the Department of Veterans Affairs could offer was 10-minute therapy sessions — via videoconference.

    So, early on Labor Day morning last year, after topping off a night of drinking with a handful of sleeping pills, Quinones barged into Fort Stewart’s hospital, forced his way to the third-floor psychiatric ward and held three soldiers hostage, demanding better mental health treatment.

    “I’ve done it the Army’s way,” Quinones told Henson. “We’re going to do it my way now.”

    Aside: As a ‘Nam vet watching friends and others trying to get help before there even WAS a diagnosis of PTSD around; and watching civilians who had watched one too many movies about Crazy Vietnam Vets cringe away from me when it became known I’d visited the place I reckon I’m just a bit sensitive.

    The story of  “Q” gets worse as it unfolds:

    He saw an Army therapist twice a week, and he was prescribed high doses of medications to treat anxiety, panic attacks, insomnia and depression. In March 2009, his psychiatrist completed the Army’s Warrior Screening Matrix, a tool implemented by the service to determine when a soldier should be assigned to a Warrior Transition Unit, a medical unit for injured soldiers.

    The doctor answers questions about a soldier’s ability to perform his duties, his behavioral health, treatment needs, drug or alcohol abuse, suicide history, medical compliance, life stressors such as divorce and whether the illness or injury affects self-worth.

    Each answer gets a corresponding number, which are all totaled for a score.

    Less than 29: no need for the WTU.

    Between 30 and 199: Possible need for the WTU.

    Between 200 and 999: Needs to go to the WTU.

    A score of 1,000 or above: Failure to assign a soldier to the WTU is likely to hurt treatment.

    Quinones scored 2,331. The psychiatrist underlined it twice on the paperwork.

    He left a voicemail for Quinones’ company commander, but in the Army’s system, medical professionals are largely consultants. The decision on how to proceed is up to the commander.

    Quinones was never sent to the WTU. 

    There’s a lot of Army terms I’m unfamiliar with, but the story DOES come from S&S. The comments offer further validity.

    And it pisses me off! Not quite sure what to do next, but it’s for certain that this story needs to get out there.

     

  • More On Sanders’ Silver Star and John Kerry

    We covered the story when it first broke here.

    Scott Swett has some new details over at the American Thinker.

    It’s a long article, and I’m pressed for time today. If this is of interest to you read the whole thing, meanwhile below are the closing paragraphs.

    Navy sources told reporters that Sanders was responsible for what they referred to as “administrative errors” in the creation of the award, and said that he “may have lied.”

    Other veterans familiar with the case question whether the Navy awarded a Silver Star to Sanders in the first place.  They believe he fabricated the documentation while he was a high-ranking Pentagon official, in a position that would have offered ready access to his own personnel file.  Sanders was appointed Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Reserves by President Clinton on July 22, 1993, and remained in the job until 1998.

    Stolen Valor author B.G. Burkett, an expert on fraudulent military awards, considers such an event to be well within the realm of possibility.  He notes that it is far more difficult to validate Navy awards than those issued by the other services.  The Army, for example, numbers each general order sequentially and maintains a copy at the unit level, making it much easier to identify discrepancies.  Attempts to research problematic Navy awards are also hindered by a longstanding institutional reluctance to publicly disgrace an officer.

    The Navy’s decision to suppress the NCIS investigation report is unfortunate.  Have other well-connected officials also manipulated a flawed system to enhance their credentials?  Wade Sanders held a significant office under the Secretary of the Navy and later played an important role in a Presidential campaign.  The public deserves to know what the Navy found out about his Silver Star to take the extraordinary step of revoking it.

  • Nuts! It Takes All Kinds

    Via The Armorer:    

    ‘NUTS!’ — Allen West’s Strange, One-Word Response To Being Called Out For Ties To Islamophobes

    Earlier this month, a local chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) sent Rep. Allen West (R-FL) a letter asking him to cut off ties with leading anti-Muslim activists like Pamela Geller and Brigitte Gabriel with whom he had shared stages before. Muslims protect and serve our great country and are afforded equal protection under law,” said the letter. “We shouldn’t have to defend our rights to worship freely or participate in the governing of our society.”

    Now, CAIR has received a letter from West with a one-word response to their request. In what the Miami New Times is calling possibly “dumbest thing ever written on congressional stationery,” West simply wrote back, “NUTS!” Here’s a copy of the letter:

    And those at Think Progress were very perceptive to note: “Whatever he meant by his response, one thing West did not appear to offer is any sort of condemnation of the radical anti-Muslim company he has been keeping.”

  • Who is “The Lone Wolf”?

    I’m certain many of you have seen this story?

    WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama said Tuesday that a “lone wolf” terror attack in the U.S. is more likely than a major coordinated effort like the Sept. 11 attacks nearly a decade ago.

    With the nation preparing to observe the 10th anniversary of hijacked airliners crashing in New York and Washington and along the Pennsylvania countryside, Obama said the government is in a state of heightened awareness.

    “The biggest concern we have right now is not the launching of a major terrorist operation, although that risk is always there,” the president said in an interview with CNN.

    “The risk that we’re especially concerned over right now is the lone wolf terrorist, somebody with a single weapon being able to carry out wide-scale massacres of the sort that we saw in Norway recently,” he said. “You know, when you’ve got one person who is deranged or driven by a hateful ideology, they can do a lot of damage, and it’s a lot harder to trace those lone wolf operators.”

    He opted to cite a loon who shot up a foreign country rather than folks named Nidal Malik Hasan,  Naser Jason Abdo, or Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad, etc. I suppose that is understandable?

    But the phrase “driven by a hateful ideology” troubles me some.  Is that intentionally too broad, or too convenient?  The Tea Party has been called terrorists. Veterans have been singled out as risks.

    It just seems to me the word “hateful” has been used all too frequently to describe folks who simply disagree with the government… about pretty much anything.

    I dunno about his broader point concerning potential threats either.  Our porous boarders, folks who call us The Great Satan, and those with lengthy track records would seem to be good starting points.  Addressing those elements would do far  more good overall than trying to find a Lone  Wolf who hates you.

  • Sometimes There Is THAT Thing…

    The family opted for privacy (bless them) but others in my old stomping grounds have decided to be pro-active.

    Explosive Ordnance Disposal Technician Chief Petty Officer (Expeditionary Warfare Specialist/Freefall Parachutist/Diver) Nicholas H. Null, 30, of Washington, W.Va. WILL have a memorial event.

    A member of DEVGRU lost in the chopper crash in A’Stan for those who don’t know.

    The details are still in flux, but the hillbillies are working it out.

    Do, please, visit the FB link.

     

  • Jarheads, Gotta Luv ’em.

    Several sources are out there, but I’ll link to The Armorer. His opening thoughts raise a point we’ve all speculated about.

    MARINE CORPS BASE HAWAII, Aug. 13, 2011 – Removed from an ambushed platoon of Marines and soldiers in a remote Afghan village on Sept. 8, 2009, his reality viciously shaken by an onslaught of enemy fighters, Marine Corps Cpl. Dakota Meyer simply reacted as he knew best – tackling what he called “extraordinary circumstances” by “doing the right thing — whatever it takes.”

    Nearly two years later, the White House announced yesterday that the 23-year-old Marine scout sniper from Columbia, Ky., who has since left the Marine Corps, will become the first living Marine to be awarded the Medal of Honor in 38 years. Retired Sgt. Maj. Allan Kellogg Jr. received the medal in 1973 for gallantry in Vietnam three years earlier.

    Here’s a great link: Leatherneck Magazine via a commenter at the Armorer.