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

Category: WTF?

  • There Are Charities – and Then There Are Charities

    Many vets like to help others in need.  Donating to charities that provide services to vets in need is one way to do that.

    But as is always the case, there are veterans’ charities . . . and then there are veterans’ charities.  They’re not all equally good regarding “bang for the buck” – if you define “bang for the buck” as the proportion of donated funds that actually get spent on helping veterans.

    Some veterans’ charities are quite good in that respect.  According to CBS News, the DAV Charitable Service Trust spends 96% of its funds on veterans. Fisher House is also good (91%).

    Wounded Warrior Project?  Um, not so much.  CBS News says the actual figure for WWP is around 60%.  (WWP claims 80% – but per CBS, they do so by including shipping/postage costs, the cost of selected promotional items, and the cost of direct response advertising.  Remove those overhead items and the fraction falls to around 60%.)

    They apparently like to party, though.  In 2014, WWP spent over $26 million on “conferences, conventions, and meetings”. That’s up from a bit over $1.74M in 2010 for “meetings and events”.

    One 2014 annual meeting alone – for about 500 WWP staffers, held at what appears to be a very nice resort in Colorado Springs – cost roughly $3M.  Sounds to me like the people at the VA who plan conferences must have given them a few pointers.

    WWP also seems to pay their top employees well, too.  As in nearly $500k in 2014 salary for their CEO.

    And did I already mention that WWP gave an organization that defends higher spending by charities for fundraising, overhead, and executive salaries a grant of $150,000 last year?  I didn’t mention that yet?  Well, according to CBS – they did.

    Current WWP CEO Steven Nardizzi took over in 2009.  Per CBS News, “Former employees say spending has skyrocketed since Steven Nardizzi took over as CEO in 2009.  Many point to the 2014 annual meeting at a luxury resort in Colorado Springs as typical of his style.”

    CBS News is doing a multi-part report on WWP this week.  Part 1 may be found here; part 2 may be found here; part 3, here.  (I have no idea if CBS plans more parts to the series, so monitoring their web site might be worth your time for the next few days.)  The articles are eye-opening – and to me, rather disturbing.

    I can say with certainty that until WWP cleans up their act, they won’t see a penny from me.   But that’s just me.  I can’t speak for others on this issue.

     

    Edited to add:  a belated footnote – a comment on an earlier article by longtime readernbcguy54ACTUAL  tipped me to the the first CBS story in the series.  My apologies for not giving him that credit earlier.

  • Yer Friday Funny: “Here is a better photo that one is terrible.”

    We all know criminals usually aren’t the proverbial “sharpest knife in the drawer”.  But every once in a while, you see some idiocy involving a criminal that makes you say, “YGBSM!!”

    Take the case of Donald “Chip” Pugh, 45.

    Pugh was facing charges of drunk driving in Lima, OH.  He failed to appear at a scheduled court hearing on 28 December, and a warrant was issued for his arrest.

    Apparently the Lima PD also publicized his mugshot online.  And that didn’t sit well with Pugh.

    So he took a selfie – and sent it to the Lima PD for their use as a replacement mugshot – accompanied by a rather narcissistic message.  I quoted his message above in the title of this article.

    Well, as the old saying goes: he “really shouldn’t oughta done that.”  His sending that “replacement mugshot selfie” made the news.

    Apparently social media tips and/or other information generated by his sending that photo to the Lima, Ohio, PD allowed LE to locate him.  Pugh was arrested in Century, Florida earlier this week.

    Sheesh.  What a freaking moron.

  • More Idiocy from the Pinheads at PETA

    Well the fools at PETA have been at it again, clogging up the courts with idiocy. And this latest one is a real winner.

    They went to US court over the copyright rights for a photograph.  The international copyright was owned by a British photographer.  He’d left his camera unattended while visiting Indonesia’s Sulawesi Island, and some monkey managed to take a “selfie” with it.  The photo is now quite famous.

    PETA went to court and requested the copyright rights be reassigned.  They wanted the copyright rights reassigned to the monkey.  And they wanted PETA to be allowed to administer those copyrights “on behalf of the monkey”.

    Yep, you read that right.  They wanted the legal copyright rights – and thus any income derived from same – to be assigned to a freaking monkey.  And they actually went to court to try and make that happen.

    In a refreshing display of common sense, the judge essentially – in polite, legal language – told PETA to go pound sand.

    Sheesh.  These imbeciles should be required to have an escort any time they’re walking around in public, for their own protection and that of others.

  • Speechless. Just Speechless.

    You know how they say “lightning never strikes twice”? Well, they’re wrong.

    Apparently another cabinet-level official in the current      clown krewe running the show in DC       Administration has been using a private email account to conduct official government business.  Word is that they’ve now quit.

    Who was it, you ask? A guy named “Ashton Carter”.

    Yeah – that Ashton Carter.  The SECDEF.

    Apparently for a few months after his appointment, Carter continued using a private email address vice his government email account to conduct at least some official business.  Reportedly copies of any such emails were also forwarded to his government account for record purposes – though how one would verify that without examining ALL of his personal email from the time frame in question is a good question.

    Carter reportedly continued to use his private account for about two months after the fact that a certain former SECSTATE had done the same was publicly revealed.  Further, Carter’s use of his personal account was often enough that at least some “members of his staff feared he would be hacked and worried about his not following the rules”.  But of course, that’s a misplaced concern – no foreign intelligence service would ever take an interest in a US cabinet secretary’s personal communications, right?

    (I do hope the sarcasm in the last sentence above was obvious.)

    Fox News as well as the New York Times have articles with more info (the NYT broke the story).  IMO they’re worth a few minutes to read.

    Sheesh.  Do these people simply quit freaking thinking when they take office?

  • Strategy Meeting? Practice Remarks? Who Knows?

    I ran across this on YouTube.  I think it might be a clandestine recording of the DRC’s latest high-level strategy session set to music.  Or maybe it’s a recording of someone we all “know and love” practicing for his next court appearance.  I guess it could be either.

    (FWIW: the embedded comments in the video are a hoot.  It’s worth watching carefully IMO.)

     

     

    A bit of trivia about the above: Mike Oldfield recorded it after an argument with Richard Branson during the making of his debut recording, Tubular Bells.  Branson reportedly wanted vocals in the work, which Oldfield wanted to remain an instrumental.  Finally, after one meeting with Branson, a thoroughly torqued Oldfield yelled, “You want lyrics? I’ll give you lyrics!”   He then stormed off.

    Oldfield then grabbed the recording engineer, a bottle of Jameson’s, and went to the studio.  After drinking half of the bottle of Jameson’s, he recorded about 10 minutes of his own drunken grunting and screaming. This grunting and screaming was then edited and processed (including being slowed down substantially) and dubbed onto the portion of Tubular Bells popularly referred to today as “Piltdown Man” (occurs about half-way through side/part two of the original album).

    Usually drunken stupidity is painful as hell.  However, every once in a great while what at first blush seems to be drunken idiocy works out OK.

    But don’t get any ideas, DRC.  You guys don’t have the skills to pull it off.  (smile)

  • Another Bogus ID, Courtesy of the DRC

    Well, that didn’t take too long.  Looks like the DRC has “found” me.

    Again.

    For at least the sixth time.

    And just like the five previous times . . . they’re full of it.

    A little “birdie” sent me the photo of the guy the DRC has identified as me this time around.  That individual doesn’t need any more DRC grief, so I’ll pass on posting the photo here.

    I should probably be flattered.  I’m no great judge of handsome, but the fella in the photo I received seemed to be a rather good-looking guy.  I’d guess he has no problem in getting all the female companionship he wants.  I’m sure the DRC members are envious.

    And, yeah:  he was sporting a Trident, plus some Navy decorations.  So that means that – once again – I’m supposedly ex-Navy and a former SEAL.

    Geez.  Remember when I previously asked if our “good friends” in the DRC had the common sense to urinate in the toilet vice the trash can when they went to the head?  I guess we have our answer now.

    Listen up, you bunch of Dumb Royally Clueless j-holes:  best I can tell, I’ve never been closer than maybe 40 or so miles to where this latest guy you’ve falsely identified as being me lives today – and that was approaching 20 years ago.  I haven’t been anywhere near that close since.

    Again, for the record:  no, I’m not a former Navy SEAL. This is at the third damn time I’ve told you dipsticks that I’m not a former SEAL.  Are you too freaking stupid to understand plain English?

    At the risk of being repetitive:  I’ve never served in the Navy.  I’ve never set foot on an active Navy warship.  I’ve never been at sea other than on a couple of tour boat or ferry rides.

    “Never served in the Navy” means I’m not a former SEAL.  How about you let that fact penetrate your thick skulls, m’kay?

    Bottom line:  you’re barking up the wrong tree.  Again.

    That doesn’t surprise me, though.  IMO mercury is an excellent metaphor for you fools’ minds: dense, liquid, and toxic.

    Here’s the obligatory recap.  First, close to two years ago supposedly I was a now-retired and relatively well-known Army GO.  Second, I was wrongly identified as being The Hair himself, Don Shipley.  After that, I was allegedly a retired Special Forces Sergeant Major.  Fourth, I was supposedly a serving Army CPT   (or maybe by now MAJ) teaching ROTC.  Then a few weeks ago, according to the DRC’s fifth flight of false-ID fancy I was allegedly CAPT Larry Bailey.

    Hell, maybe there were other bogus IDs I missed.  I don’t really know; and I don’t much care.

    Now this time around, according to you DRC j-holes I’m supposedly a third different ex-SEAL – when in reality, I’m not. That’s at least the sixth time that you damn fools have “gotten it wrong”.

    They say everyone has a role in life.  The DRC IMO has now shown they have not one role, but two. The first appears to be serving as a counterexample regarding life in general.  Their second role – as shown by this ridiculous series of comically inept “identifications” – must be providing comic relief.

  • Yer Friday Afternoon Funny: Well, To HIM It Was An Emergency . . .

    Provided without comment.

    Man, 53, Calls 911 To Complain That His Girlfriend Will Not . . . Um . . . Er . . . Well . . . .

    The idiot was apparently arrested for public intoxication shortly after police arrived.

    Dumbcluck.

  • Doesn’t Pass the “Smell Test”

    Well, the Army’s drawdown is underway.  And even decorated heroes aren’t immune.

    It seems that at least one 11-year Special Forces Sergeant First Class and bona fide decorated hero is being forced out.  His name is SFC Charles Martland.

    He’s been described by former teammates as “the finest soldier they have ever served alongside”.  He was awarded a Bronze Star with V-Device for combat heroism in Afghanistan.  He was runner-up for 2014 Special Warfare Training Group Instructor of the Year.

    But it seems Martland’s records went before a recent Quality Management Program review board.  His file apparently contained a bad evaluation – a “Relief for Cause” evaluation, to be precise.  He was selected for elimination by the board, and he’s being forced out.

    What did Martland do to get relieved for cause?  Well, I’ll tell you.

    Martland’s team was engaged in training Afghan police.  However, while doing that they discovered that one of the “fine individuals” they were training was also a child rapist and a woman-beater.

    Specifically, the SF team supporting the training discovered that that individual had raped a 12-year-old Afghan boy.  The boy’s mother brought her son to the SF detachment for medical care.  When he was examined, the rape was discovered.

    The individual found out that his crime had been discovered.  He then located the boy’s mother beat her for exposing his crime.

    Martland and his team leader afterwards confronted the rapist about what he’d done.  When they confronted the rapist, that “fine individual” told them essentially that it was no big deal – and then laughed in their faces.

    At that point, Martland and his team leader physically shoved the rapist and woman-beater; he fell to the ground.  The rapist was bruised, but otherwise unhurt – unfortunately.  I’d personally be OK with the bastard having ceased consuming oxygen at that point.

    However, the low life bastard afterwards apparently reported the confrontation to other US authorities.  This ultimately led to Martland and his team leader being relieved.

    Yes, you read that correctly.  They were relieved of duty because they confronted a child rapist and woman-beating low-life bastard without seriously injuring or killing him.

    Sorry, but that doesn’t make any freaking sense.  Wrong?  Perhaps technically.  But also IMO completely understandable.  Hell – in my book, if anything those two should have been commended for keeping their anger in check and not summarily killing the bastard on the spot.

    Martland’s team leader opted to leave the Army some time ago.  However, Martland stayed in the Army instead.

    But now he’s getting pitched.

    Fox News has further details here. You should read the linked article.

    But maybe you should wait until later to read it if you’re having high blood pressure issues right now.