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

Category: Dumbass Bullshit

  • Breathalyzers: Not Just for the Navy Any More

    Well, it looks like the USMC is beginning to bend to the same PC whims as the rest of DoD.  And it’s doing so by following the Navy’s lead regarding breathalyzers and mass screenings.

    The USMC has announced something called the “Alcohol Screening Program”.  Under that program, all Marines will be screened at random twice yearly while on duty – war zones included.

    Show any measurable amount of alcohol, and you’re in “deep doo-doo”.  Sure, the program guidance is that any Marine showing between 0.01% and 0.03% BAC will receive “counseling”.  (You and I all know that in reality it means they’ll be put on “that list”.  And with end strength going down . . . . )  Blow 0.04% or above, and you get a trip to the medics for “evaluation”.

    Program guidance authorizes commanders to discipline Marines “should the situation warrant”.  How many want to bet we see a de facto “no tolerance” policy – complete with NJPs for violators – before too long?

    The program requires the appointment of coordinator at unit level, of course – as well as annual reporting requirements.  Gee, that’s just what every unit needs:  another extra duty position for unit leadership, another statistic to be tracked, and another mandatory annual report.

    Look, I’m NOT condoning people showing up for duty impaired.  But this program is a freaking waste.  Virtually everything the program mandates already exists except for the coordinator and reporting requirements.  Almost every installation I’ve ever seen either has a breathalyzer or can get access to one through coordination with local LE.  A commander can already order someone he suspects to have alcohol in their system to go get tested.  And an NCO can already counsel some Joe Schmoe who shows up for duty smelling like a brewery about showing up to duty in that condition.

    As a taxpayer, I object to the waste.  And as a former member of the military, I object to the micromanagement.  Both are counterproductive as hell.

  • Nightingale’s sentence suspended

    Our buddy, Aunty Brat, sends the news that Danny Nightingale, the SAS trooper who was court martialed for possessing a weapon given to him by our Iraqi allies whom we discussed last month, had his sentence suspended by the Court Of Appeals;

    Judges at the Court of Appeal cut Nightingale’s [18 month] sentence to 12 months and suspended it.

    His wife Sally, 38, cried when the verdict was delivered.

    Nightingale thanked her and his supporters for their “trust and support” after walking from the central London court.

    So, I guess there is a measure of common sense left in some corners of the legal world.

  • Code Pink: Our Hearts Break For Gaza

    Completely ignoring the fact that Israel is merely reacting to an attack on it’s homes, 1408 times, Code Pink’s latest fund raising letter tugs at our heart strings for Gazans;

    How about a little support for the innocent Israelis who are dying and injured as a result of the war that Hamas launched from behind women’s skirts in Gaza? Like the 10 people in Tel Aviv this morning who were victims of a bombing on a bus. Or the Gazan fellow who was dragged behind a motorcycle through the streets of Gaza City because he was a suspected spy of the IDF. He was shot dead along with five others who were summarily executed on suspicions alone. No trial.

    But, luckily, Code Pink plans to travel to Gaza. let’s hope they get an up-close look at some horror.

  • Justice . . . Sorta

    It looks like we have an end to the ICE “female Frat House” scandal. That’s the scandal which cost one of DHS Secretary Janet Reno’s protégées, Suzanne Barr, her high-level political-appointee job in ICE.

    DHS has filed notice of an out-of-court settlement with the whistleblower in the case, James Hayes. Hayes will remain employed by ICE – and will also receive a payment of $175k as damages.

    So much for those initial claims that Hayes’ allegations were unfounded.  I guess DHS decided they really didn’t want folks who witnessed Barr’s antics to testify in open court regarding what they saw.

    I say this is “sorta” justice because it is.  Real justice would require DHS to go after Barr to recover the $175,000 she cost US taxpayers by being an idiot and sexually harassing male subordinates.

    I ain’t holding my breath, though.

  • Stupid Judge Tricks, Part . . . . Dammit, I Lost Count

    Well, it looks like at least one judge in North Carolina must be a long-lost relative of Gomer and Goober Pyle.  “Surprise, surprise, surprise!”

    Seems as if the town of Brasstown, NC, has an . . . um, unique New Year’s tradition. Along with the bear stew and musket shooting, each year they have a “possum drop” on New Year’s Eve.

    What’s a “possum drop”, you ask? In Brasstown’s “possum drop”, the opossum isn’t actually dropped at all. Instead, an opossum is humanely captured during hunting season.  It’s kept caged fed and caged until New Year’s Eve. On New Year’s Eve, the opossum is suspended in its cage. At midnight, the cage is lowered as part of the town’s New Year’s Eve festivities.

    Think a low-tech version of the Times’ Square New Year’s Eve apple drop – Appalachian Style.   The opossum is afterwards released back into the wild.

    The person who captured the opossum even gets a special permit from the NC Wildlife Resources Commission (WRC).  That permit allowed them to display the opossum at his country store between capture and release vice killing it.

    Well, that’s the way it used to work.  One less dead opossum during hunting season, who gets well fed and and cared for  and then released.  Everybody’s happy, and no harm – right?

    Well that was the case for 20 years or thereabouts. Then PETA got involved.

    Predictably, PETA saw all of this as “cruel treatment” of the opossum. So they took the state to court. Their argument? The retention of the opossum captured during hunting season was unlawful.

    Not surprisingly, PETA managed to find a damn fool appointed as an administrative law judge who agreed with them – specifically, one each Administrative Law Judge Fred Morrison.  Morrison ruled that while the animal could indeed have lawfully been killed during hunting season, the state WRC didn’t have authority to let one be captured and kept temporarily.

    “Hunters must afford wild animals the same right Patrick Henry yearned for,” Senior Administrative Law Judge Fred Morrison Jr. wrote in his order. “’Give me liberty, or give me death!’”

    That’s right, folks – the moron posing as a judge actually equated the opossum and Patrick Henry in his “learned opinion”.   Geez.

    The NC WRC is presently deciding whether or not to appeal Morrison’s decision.  Otherwise, Morrison’s moronic opinion stipulates that the opossum must be released within 30 days.

    For common sense’s sake, I certainly hope the WRC appeals this act of judicial idiocy.  I hope the appeals court has the common sense to overturn Morrison.  And I also hope the appeals court orders PETA to pay the state’s legal costs incurred in fighting this latest bit of PETA asininity.

     

  • Susan Cole, the PTSD fake, sentenced

    Jerry920 sent us a link to the news that the twit who claimed she had PTSD to get out of jury duty was sentenced yesterday for “second-degree perjury and attempting to influence a public servant”. We discussed her back in March when she was first arrested after bragging about her misdeed where a judge could hear her.

    Her makeup looked like something you would wear during a theater performance,” court reporter Kelli Wessels told investigators at the time, according to the Denver Post. “When the judge asked the entire panel if anyone had a mental illness, [Cole] stated she had difficulties getting ready in the morning, which was apparent to me by the way she was dressed.”

    Cole was excused from her civic duties. But her plot was foiled four months later when Judge Mansfield heard a woman bragging about how she faked mental illness to evade jury duty on a local radio show.

    […]

    Cole pleaded guilty Tuesday and was given a two-year deferred judgment for the felony count of attempting to influence a public servant, a felony, and two years of probation for the misdemeanor count of second degree perjury, according to the Denver District Attorney. She is also required to perform 40 hours of community service.

    She told the judge at the time of her dismissal that she caught the PTSD while in an abusive relationship and in the military. For one thing, everyone in the military is in an abusive relationship. At the time of her first appearance, I wrote;

    Shame on the woman for dragging the rest of us through the mud with her antics, but shame on the judge for believing the crock. A disheveled appearance is the exact opposite of a veteran. I’m pretty sure that putting on two different socks and shoes has nothing to do with one’s mental state. If I had the slightest inclination to look into this woman’s bullshit background, I’m betting she never spent a day in uniform and if she was in an abusive relationship, her partner was probably just the first in a very long line of people wanting to abuse her. I know he is today.

    In today’s article, Dr. Joseph Calabrese, a psychiatrist at University Hospitals Case Medical Center in Cleveland said;

    “As a mental health professional, I find this disturbing and upsetting, PTSD is a very serious, life threatening illness. And things like this tend to trivialize it.”

    […]

    “I find these sorts of things distracting and inappropriate,” Calabrese said of Cole’s “manipulative” behavior. “That sort of criminal behavior has nothing to do with mental illness.”

    I hope this whole trial has been a traumatic event for her, and it’s too bad that they won’t toss her strange ass in jail for another dose of trauma.

  • SAS soldier imprisoned for possession of *gasp* a gun

    Sgt Danny Nightingale was given a 9mm Glock by allies in Iraq for his outstanding service there. he’d planned to donate it to his SAS regiment as a trophy of their time there. But the deaths of two of his friends caused him to escort their bodies back to the UK and his team mates packed his remaining gear, including the Glock, and shipped it to him. In the interim, Sgt Nightingale, who suffers from severe memory loss for got about the gun.

    Last week, he was court martialed for possession of the handgun and sentenced to 18 months imprisonment ending his 17-year career, according to a link in the UK’s Telegraph sent to us by Andy;

    Patrick Mercer, the Conservative MP for Newark and a former infantry officer, said he planned to take up the case with the Defence Secretary. Simon McKay, Sgt Nightingale’s lawyer, said: “On Remembrance Sunday, when the nation remembers its war heroes, my client — one of their number — is in a prison cell.

    “I consider the sentence to be excessive and the basis of the guilty plea unsafe. It is a gross miscarriage of justice and grounds of appeal are already being prepared.”

    You’d think that if anyone in that country could be trusted to own a handgun, it’d be someone who had been a counter-terrorism expert for 11 years, but apparently, the military justice system doesn’t think that’s true. As Andy said, the sun had finally set on the British Empire.

  • Some thoughts on Petraeus

    So, I’m trying to sort out this whole thing about David Petraeus’ revelation that he had an affair. I’m wondering what the hell he was doing in charge of the CIA and conducting an affair with his official email account. What kind of spy chief would do that? OK, he shouldn’t have been having an affair in the first place, but what grade of moron does it with a government email account? And, then apparently, he gave this woman access to his email account which she then used to harass other people? Was she wearing Depends while she was doing it – because that’s the kind of crazy that drives across country wearing Depends to save time.

    According to Fox News, Broadwell admits that she works out with Petraeus when she’s in town, but we noticed back in January that she needed work on her pushups.

    “By any measure, he was one of the outstanding General officers of his generation, helping our military adapt to new challenges, and leading our men and women in uniform through a remarkable period of service in Iraq and Afghanistan, where he helped our nation put those wars on a path to a responsible end,” Obama said. The White House has named Michael Morell, the agency’s deputy director, to serve as acting director.

    The decision abruptly ends the public-service career of one of the military’s most vaunted leaders. He led the surge in Iraq, and was later tapped to lead U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan — following two years at the helm of U.S. Central Command. In April 2011, Obama again tapped Petraeus to lead the CIA.

    Well, as far as I’m concerned, if this whole thing about an affair turns out to be true, in my memoirs, Petraeus will come off as a moron. It’s really poor judgement to have an affair in the first place, and especially stupid to conduct it on a government email account – what with all of the alternative options available. And being the head of CIA, he must have been aware of all of the ways he coould have been caught. It’s as if he wanted to be caught.

    I’m not subscribing to the theory that it was all manufactured to keep him from testifying about the Benghazi fiasco, that would be too easy to circumvent, but then this affair thing is majorly stupid on everyone’s parts.