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

Category: Geezer Alert!

  • MOH Awardee Suing BAE Systems.

    Dunno quite what to make of this?
    Decorated Marine Sues Contractor

    Two months ago, Dakota Meyer was awarded the Medal of Honor by President Barack Obama for his service in Afghanistan, the military’s most prestigious award. On Monday, Sgt. Meyer alleged that a defense contractor has called him mentally unstable and a problem drinker, ruining his chances for a job in the defense industry.

    (…)

    Soon after joining BAE, Sgt. Meyer learned it was trying to sell advanced thermal optic scopes to Pakistan, according to the suit. In an email to his supervisor, identified as Bobby McCreight, Sgt. Meyer voiced his objections to the sale, the lawsuit states.

    “We are taking the best gear, the best technology on the market to date and giving it to guys known to stab us in the back,” Sgt. Meyer wrote to Mr. McCreight, according to the lawsuit. “These are the same people killing our guys.”

    While in the Marines, Sgt. Meyer had served along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. Many in the military who have served on the border have said in interviews they view Pakistan as an unreliable ally, as likely to help Taliban insurgents as they are to aid American troops.

    The story gets uglier:

    In the suit, Sgt. Meyer said that after he voiced his criticism, Mr. McCreight began “berating and belittling” him. The supervisor criticized Sgt. Meyer for making a trip with their BAE division president and made sarcastic remarks about Sgt. Meyer’s nomination for the Medal of Honor, allegedly ridiculing his “pending star status,” the suit says.

    My money is on the Marine, but the dancing is gonna be something to watch.

    h/t John Gresham on FB

  • Time Warp – Afghanistan. Chuck Z. Style

    We all recognize that Afghanistan is only barely emerging from its own sort of dark ages.

    Major Chuck Z. may have accidentally discovered a way to move the process along?

    From over at his place:

    Afghans, it seems, have their own slavish adherence to regulations, at least in terms of religion.  The call to stick your ass in the air came about 20 minutes early today.  I was in my office at the Border Police headquarters I have several offices, this one is where I work from to ensure that our mentorship and partnership with these WOGs goes well) but that’s a whole ‘nother ball of wax.

    Anyway, there’s a PA system in my office.  Lots of lights and buttons.  May as well put a “wet paint” sign on it too–I’m going to play with it.  I pushed a couple buttons, and the pre-recorded call to prayer starts up.  I figured it wouldn’t be a big deal, people would check their watches and realize the error.

    Allah is never off time, it seems.  About 20 seconds into the recording (while I was pushing buttons, again, to make it stop) the mosques around the Headquarters started playing the call to prayer.  All the Afghans started filing out of offices and barracks to go pray.

    I asked one of the terps about this–he said that when the prayer call is heard, you go pray, period.  Not everyone has a watch or can tell time, but everyone can hear the call to Allah.  And if a call is heard by a mosque, they will make their call and the others will follow.  Then they will adjust their clocks, so the next call is sounded at a set time from the last call.

    So, I may have figured out a way to establish Chucks Daylight Savings Time.  Just adjust by a couple minutes every day, and soon, I can get Afghanistan off the weird 30-minute time shift (Afghan Time is +30 minutes to everywhere else in the time zone) and eventually have them on Eastern Standard Time.  Sure, their prayers would all be in the middle of the night, but Allah wants what Allah wants.

    To be sure, humans are creatures of habit that CAN be screwed with regardless to their ethnic/religious  background, but the image of  Chuck frantically trying to un-fuck the situation cracked me up.

    I never knew Chuck before he got blown out of his tank in Iraq, but gotta wonder if maybe he has developed a sort of perverse TBI symptom that subconsciously makes weird stuff happen to him.

    A  few days ago the timing of his bowel movements saved him from getting blown up yet again so my question ain’t as silly as it seems.

  • Self Esteem vs Reality

    This does not bode well…

    Top Defense Scientists Send Out S.O.S. for Scientists and Engineers
    I’ll skip to the kicker:

    The decline in teaching our children in STEM fields –science, technology, engineering, and math—is frightening. Just look at the facts: According to the National Center for Education Statistics, a more level comparison from country to country, U.S. eighth-graders science scores ranked 11th against many Asian countries and Russia. It goes downhill by the time high school graduation arrives with a rank of 25 against 34 other nations. Chinese students have an 89 percent college admission rate, higher than America’s 70 percent. Narrowing the focus on science and engineering:

    • India graduates 230,000 engineers every year, another 50,000 earn master degrees and still another 20,000 earn a doctorate.
    • The U.S. graduates about 7,000 engineers each year, but 55 percent are earned by foreign students. Another 3,000 earn master degrees and a mere 9,000 earn a doctorate.

    It’s difficult to get verifiable numbers from China, but I would suspect that they are closer to India’s than ours.

    Of course, what the author calls STEM fields require students to deal with facts, and 2+2=4 kinda stuff.  No blue ribbon just for showing up.

  • Finally, An Arab Spring Thing I Can Support

    Add your own commentary, I’m laughing too hard.
    Saudi religious police HQ targeted by sex maniacs

    Three Saudi men parked their car close to the headquarters of the Gulf Kingdom’s feared religious police late night, got out and started having sex with a woman accompanying them just in front of the massive police signboard.

    They were filming themselves with the aim publicising the shot to defame the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, the most influential law enforcement authority in the Muslim nation.

    The three were half way through their operation when one of them noticed the security camera next to the signboard in the capital Riyadh. They stopped filming, headed for the camera and smashed it before fleeing the scene.

    The article doesn’t say if they were all wearing traditional garb or not.

  • NSFW – Not Safe For Anyone Over 12 Either, But I Liked It.

    View at your own risk! TAH is not responsible for your nightmares or any ideas this video might give you!

    The Hipster Hunters:

  • We’re ALL Wrong About OWS

    And I feel MUCH better now.

    Over 150 Economists Sign Letter Of Support For OWS

    Recently Newt Gingrich publicly dismissed the Occupy Wall Street movement as being nothing but unemployed, uneducated rabble in need of a bath.

    Of course, this flippant label makes no sense to anyone that has visited an OWS encampment, talked with its supporters, or even lightly researched the movement.

    To further disprove the idea that only idiot socialists would identify with OWS, a group of top economists from around the world recently released a statement supporting the movement (see below).

    “We are economists who oppose ideological cleansing in the economics profession. Equally we oppose political cleansing in the vital debate over the causes and consequences of our current economic crisis.

    We support the efforts of the Occupy Wall Street movement across the country and across the globe to liberate the economy from the short-term greed of the rich and powerful “one percent”.

    We oppose cynical and perverse attempts to misuse our police officers and public servants to expel advocates of the public good from our public spaces.

    We extend our support to the vision of building an economy that works for the people, for the planet, and for the future, and we declare our solidarity with the Occupiers who are exercising our democratic right to demand economic and social justice.”

    See… Don’t you feel bad now?

  • Okay Gun Nuts – What Is It?

    The long black thing, that is.

    Oh well, two comments is all it took. Thanks for playing along.

    Yep, it is an AR-7. The are many like it, but this one is mine! Designed by some guy named Stoner who apparently had a thing for black plastic guns? And it floats!

  • A Soldier’s Angel

    Some of us us here have had the pleasure of meeting her, others have worked with her.

    LANDSTUHL, Germany — Mary Ann Phillips does not think of herself as extraordinary, yet she is.

    Every week in Landstuhl, Germany she collects gifts given with love. They include everything from cards to clothing, blankets to books.

    Phillips volunteers for the not-for-profit Soldiers’ Angels, which is based in Central Texas.

    “We feel very strongly about trying to make a strong connection between the civilian world and the military world,” she said.

    Started in 2003, Soldiers’ Angels sends packages to service men and women, including those in Landstuhl.

    Definitely an Angel! Full article with video is here.