The Victorious Opposition

Every one of us have had jobs in the past that really sucked, sometimes you are forced to just suck it up and take it, but sometimes (whether ill conceived or not) you have your fill and go commando.

First up, check out this ladies’ style

Working for a douche can be a real drag, but ratting him off to all his coworkers (wtf is Farmville?) is pretty damn hilarious. I guess that letter of recommendation is out.

This was the good (and creative) way to say ,“Adios, you pinhead”, now we travel to lunatic lane:

OK, I like his style as well, he is totally nuts, but gets points for public display and creativity,and grabbing a few beers before going down the bat chute? kudos. I’m trying to think of a crappier job then a flight attendant, help me out here. Anyone that has flown anywhere in the last few years can attest to the general surliness of flight passengers. The airlines bring most of this on themselves with over crowded flights, seats not fit for sardines, charges up the whazoo for most everything that was free before, and the all around flying experience going down the sewer. People are cranky, rude, and disobedient with most flight safety rules,but he knew this going in, so yes, he crossed the line. Sadly, the courts will have to make an example of him but I am struggling with “reckless endangerment and criminal mischief”, I would of preferred a civil suit against Mr. I’m Special And Can’t Follow The Rules Like Everyone Else for the injury of the fallen luggage, now that is a jury I would try to get on.

When it comes to working class hero’s, for my money there is none better than Peter Gibbon’s in Office Space, he is what every working stiff strives to be and a personal hero of mine:

Power To The People.

It’s hard to find words to describe this kind of sacrificial bravery.  Brace yourselves; you will get choked up reading this:

Sharrel Blankenbaker, 63, from the small Oklahoma Panhandle town of Felt, was shot to death in the parking lot of a Love’s store on Interstate 40 in Amarillo, Texas.

Her three grandchildren, ages 5, 12 and 16, witnessed the killing.

“It was a tragic event,” Potter County Sheriff Brian Thomas said.

“The grandmother at the Love’s can be called nothing but a hero.”

A man identified as Gary Don Carner, 58, tried to abduct two women, killed Blankenbaker, abducted an 11-year-old girl and was shot to death by a sheriff’s deputy in a 30-minute period Tuesday night, officials said.

He followed Blankenbaker and her grandchildren into the Love’s store about 9 p.m. When they emerged, Carner tried to grab the 12-year-old. Blankenbaker stepped in front of her three grandchildren and struggled with Carner, authorities said.

The sheriff said Carner pulled a small handgun. Witnesses said he shot Blankenbaker in the back.

The 12-year-old called 911 while Carner fled in his white pickup.

Angel Quezada, who witnessed the shooting and the struggle that led up to it, held Blankenbaker’s hand and prayed for her as she lost consciousness. He said the woman’s last words were about her grandchildren and protecting them from harm.

This predatory shitstain tried to kidnap a woman, then tried to kidnap Blankenbaker’s granddaughter, then killed Blankenbaker, then kidnapped a young girl, and finally got gunned down like the rabid animal he was by a cop all over the course of half an hour.  You hear about such depravity and wonder if the world is just too awful to live in.  Yet this woman gave all to save what she loved and proved that the good in the world outweighs it all.  It’s so rare to see a story that so perfectly balances unbridled, lawless evil against selfless, loving good with the saved innocent in-between.

All at the same time, I am sad for this family and in awe and admiration of the grandmother.  I can’t say any more.

I’m a big fan of Petreaus and supported the Iraq Surge from the beginning, because I saw what his plan was and understood it.  Similarly, I’ve been against the Afghan Surge since before it began and grew to oppose the war there when I started learning more about it, particularly with regard to the rules of engagement (ROE) put in place by McChrystal.

I’ve never thought that simply adding more troops were the answer in Afghanistan or even in Iraq.  The types of troops, the manner in which they’re deployed, and the tactics they use are what counts combined with political efforts on the civilian side.  In Iraq, everything came together when the Sunnis realized that al-Qaeda in Iraq was worse than the Americans, who might stack them up into naked pyramids but not drill holes into their kneecaps, ban cigarettes, and force their daughters to marry their fighters.  It was that we affirmed our committment to the Sunnis and other Iraqis that we were not going to leave and were going to stay as long as it took that convinced them to throw in their lot on our side.  In Iraq, we had well-defined political objectives in the form of Congress’ benchmarks and the only concern was to kill or capture as many AQI’s as humanly possible, not to avoid combat.

None of this is true in Afghanistan.  The Karzai government is corrupt and hated by the people and even stole the last election.  We look stupid and evil because we let them do it.  There isn’t going to be an “Awakening” unless its that the overwhelming majority of the people wakes up and decides to pick up rifles and drive us and our asshole puppet government out.  Our solution has been to send in more troops and tell them not to fight.  We’re not protecting the Afghan people and we’re not killing our enemies.  Worse, we have told the Afghan people and our enemies when we’re going to start leaving.  Does anyone here doubt that they’ll just wait us out?

Worse, we don’t have any political objectives in Afghanistan worth mentioning and its not clear what we consider to be progress.  The Obama Administration embraced this surge just because they were afraid that they’d look weak on terrorism if they didn’t.  This is surprising, because the drone attacks in Pakistan are an extremely bold, even ballsy move. 

Instead of fighting a cheaper, more effective war that is focused on killing our enemies, we see our troops sent out in huge numbers to be IED and ambush magnets who are ordered not to hunt them.  We don’t know what they’re supposed to accomplish by doing this, won’t know when they’re done, and even if it succeeds it will all fall apart after next year.

I hope General Petreaus is successful, but I’m afraid that he is going to try to do what worked in Iraq again in a place where it simply will not.  He has to get firm political objectives from the President and Congress, have the cooperation of US diplomats, get rid of the arbitrary withdrawal deadline, and get rid of those asinine ROE (that have probably killed more American troops in Afghanistan in the past year than AQ has in Iraq).

Petreaus is the best possible man for this job but if he is going to keep doing it the way it has been done under McChrystal, it’s not going to be good enough.  Obama needs to either fight this thing like it matters or get out immediately.

UPDATE: Ah, fuck.

Yahoo posted the trailer for the new movie, “The Tillman Story”:

If this trailer is any indication, they are making no bones about going after the military with regards to the misinformation that was originally spread about Pat Tillmans death.  Usually, I think that documentaries whose sole purpose is to besmirch the armed forces aren’t worth the celluloid they were filmed on.  However, this was a *national* story—“Heroic Soldier Falls In Line Of Duty After Abandoning NFL Career”.  There are many layers of questions to this issue, as a result:

- Was the military intentionally spreading misinformation in order to keep the “feel good” nature of the story?
- Did the truth regarding the circumstances sully the PR potential needlessly? 
- At the end of the day, do we prefer truth to inspiration?
- Is it ever justified to mislead the public for the sake of morale?

I’m curious to know:
1) What you think
2) If you are planning on seeing this movie

I could have made this a discourse, but I feel that we may have some vocal opinions on this that could generate some good debate.

We are truly a pathetic loathsome species. Being unappreciative of life’s bounty and it’s blessings is probably numero uno in God’s eyes with regards to man and his shortcomings. For some of us, wallowing in self pity is just being lazy but for others it is a constant struggle.

“He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has” - Epictetus

Think you got it tough? meet Nick Vujicic:

How cool is this cat?  You can read more about Nick and his life here.

According to Nick the victory over his struggles throughout his journey, as well as the strength and passion he has for life can be credited to his faith, his family, his friends and the many people he’s encountered during his life who have encouraged him along the way.

Ah yes, his faith, that will do it every time:

“Self-pity is our worst enemy and if we yield to it, we can never do anything wise in this world” - Helen Keller

For such a diminutive size, Nick has a mountain full of faith and courage.

Such a fulfilled life, victory peace and joy,  displayed in a defective disabled and hamstrung body, we can all learn much here.

There is a line in “Minutes to Memories” by John Mellencamp ,“Suck it up, tough it out, be the best you can”, not only is this what we should be doing everyday, but it’s people like Nick that shame us into this course of action. Life is hard, and it is never fair, but with it comes a responsibility to not squander it. A duty to not only appreciate what we have, but to make a difference, don’t just exist, achieve something.

“Sympathy is never wasted except when you give it to yourself”- John W. Raper

And so, it ends,

The disgraceful prosecution of Navy Seals for allegedly abusing a detained terror suspect has ended with not guilty verdicts for all 3 Seals on all counts. Navy SEAL Officer 2nd Class Matthew McCabe was found not guilty after an hour and forty minutes of jury deliberation.

——-

Upon hearing the verdict, McCabe’s mother gasped in jubilation, covering her mouth with her hands, while his father and sister smiled. McCabe and his counsel shared a few hugs and pats on the back.

Last month in courts martial in Baghdad, Petty Officers Julio Huertas and Jonathan Keefe, also Navy SEALs, were acquitted of charges that they failed to safeguard Abed. McCabe was the only SEAL charged with actual assault.

After the tone and outcome of the first trial, I felt pretty confident about the results of this trial. I think this whole episode reflects the degree to which political correctness is so entrenched in all the workings of the military, with Major Hasan reinforcing this. Civilian prosecutors would of got the message the first time, realized they were dealt a bad hand, and would not of thrown good money after bad pursuing an untenable course of action. Not only would cooler heads have prevailed, but the people’s representative would of been hard pressed to even get the D.A.s permission to continue, civilian jurisprudence is more driven by costs and the bottom line. But the military has no such encumbrances, can pursue red herrings all day long and allows perception and appearances to steer the bus.

I never understood (and never read any explanation) on how a punch in the stomach could result in a bloody lip, another mystery of life goes unanswered.

I was impressed by the demeanor and upbeat attitude of Officer second class McCabe. Some might feel a bitterness and rancor, being put through such a humiliating ordeal, allowing yourself to be placed in harm’s was repeatedly in the defense of a nation, only to have that nation question your actions in it’s defense. No lawsuits will be pending, no malicious prosecution proceedings, no damages awarded in remuneration for tarnished reputations, stressed nerves, and emotional distress, that’s the military.

But McCabe is cut from that cloth that manufactures real warriors, those essential for our protections, he will put this all behind him, move on, and pursue his career providing all of us with that blanket of freedom. In times when I shake my head at the narrowness of the vision at the top, this simple fact always come back to me, that those on the front lines are men of honor, courage and dedication, they do battle in my place. and a grateful nation is appreciative.

I recently lost a teacher of mine from my school. He was a good guy, a young(ish) guy, and a very talented guy. Someone (and I don’t say this often) who was very talented in his craft as an industrial designer, and a teacher. I was his assistant for a few terms. He was pretty tough, but fair, and never relented on talent or the final result.

While I was in school, I use to glue myself to the videos of the fifties, and all of the experiments that were going on. While in school, I tried to remember that I could be that influential, and he and his father were always there to re-enforce that. His father (a material guy) and he (a designer versed in material) were like a tag team that helped us all understand the entire process of design. From concept to inception.

One of them has fallen in the recent past, and not the predictable one. It touches on quite a few feelings, not excluding those of law enforcement. I’m not going to take a side, so no worries. The only position I have is that this is a tragedy that many people lose on.

I won’t opine on what should happen, and it’s not anywhere near my place to do so. As a person looking at it through a prism, it is a no-win situation for everyone involved. This tears me right to the core, because there is no solution. Revenge usually is the first thing that comes to mind, but when you really dissect the situation, it’s just a total net loss for al the parties involved. I think that’s where I am with this, not vengeful, yet not sympathetic.

I’ve said in the past that you think you have something holstered for these things, but you don’t. You think you said everything that you need to, but you didn’t. You thought they would always be around, but they aren’t.

I shook hands with his father at the memorial, but barely kept it together. No father should outlive his son, and I think we both knew that.

I did a few posts, here and here, concerning the US military putting 3 SEALS on trial for roughing up a prisoner, actually, the 3 accused requested a Court Martial as opposed to what the Navy had in mind, a rolling over by admitting guilt in the form of a written reprimand-non judicial punishment- (the kiss of death to any military man who aspires to greater rank, recognition, and responsibility).

Going after the least culpable first (the non puncher) the NAVY wanted an early momentum build, fail:

A U.S. military jury cleared a Navy SEAL Thursday of failing to prevent the beating of an Iraqi prisoner suspected of masterminding a 2004 attack that killed four American security contractors.

———-

A six-man jury found Petty Officer 1st Class Julio Huertas, 29, of Blue Island, Illinois, not guilty of charges of dereliction of duty and attempting to influence the testimony of another service member. The jury spent two hours deliberating the verdict.

Good news, indeed. But to those that will prematurely label this as another example of the “code of silence” that has been casted towards the ranks of the police but could randomly be thrown the military’s way:

After the verdict, Lombardi said the jurors told her they had made their ruling because there were too many inconsistencies in the case and that they did not believe the prisoner.

As with all trials, the veracity and credibility of witnesses goes a long way in determining guilt and in this case, the prosecution’s primary witness was not credible.

I would liked a better insight into the actual court proceedings, why was he not credible (supposedly there was a navy personnel witness to the beating- how did the jury view his testimony?), was he caught in lies, was any of his testimony rebutted by other witnesses and was there other evidence that casted doubt on his testimony. Considering that this was only of the first of 3 trails in the mix, I understand the need for confidentiality and TBH, it does not sit well with me that the persecution gets 3 bites at the apple (we screwed big time here, so in the next two trials lets change this, this, and this) but since there is a permanent record here of what all the witnesses testified to (under oath) the prosecution will be on a short leash with regards to “improving ” or improvising their witnesses testimony for future proceedings.

But if the Huertas trial was the preliminary event, the cartoon before the main feature, then the Matthew McCabe trial will prime time. McCabe is the actual alleged puncher, the precursor to the whole chain of events, and will be next up to bat. McCabe will have competent representation. The thing I like is that his defender will be another warrior, not some garden variety Johhny Cochran, who for the right fee would defend Jeffrey Dahmer with a very clever defense of diet deficiencies, another accomplished and decorated military man will present his case and make an argument.

From my first post:

The three SEALs will be arraigned separately on Dec. 7. Another three SEALs — two officers and an enlisted sailor — have been identified by investigators as witnesses but have not been charged.

I would like to know what happened to these guys, if cooler heads prevailed or whether the military is going “all in”.

The skeptic in me, the guy who concedes that it is impossible to remove politics from anything that originates in Washington, wonders if any of this would of been an issue under the watch of the last guy.

Umm, wow

Lt. Col. Anthony Terreri, reading the CT scans of an injured soldier who’d just arrived at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan, realized the shrapnel he saw lodged inside the soldier’s skull wasn’t really shrapnel at all. It was unexploded ordnance—a live round of ammunition that could detonate at any time.

The young Afghani soldier had arrived less than an hour before, after an IED had flung shards of metal into his head.

“The internal part of the fragment was not solid metal, but it had a metal exterior,” recalled Terreri. “There’s an air gap at the end, a formed end at one side and the fragment was elongated.”

He looked at a second scan, a side X-ray of the soldier’s skull, to confirm his suspicions.

“The projectile was part of the bomb that went off,” explained Maj. John Bini, who oversees all trauma care at Bagram. “People will pack just about anything in to these things: rocks, nails, screws, explosives.”

Well, I saw all sorts of stuff in my EMT days, including a guy full of shotgun pellets, but I’ve never seen anything like this. The article says that the shell didn’t penetrate the brain. I’m having a hard time understanding how that can be the case given that X-ray. But seems like he’ll be OK. And those docs have balls of steel.

Canoodling beautiful women while plying your craft may seem like a nice fringe benefit for being an actor, but for Neal McDonough, its that line by which his faith will not allow him to cross:

Neal McDonough, a former star on “Desperate Housewives” has been fired from a staring role that would have paid him $1 million because he refused to participate in sex scenes. McDonough was fired three days into the shooting of a series called “Scoundrel” after he refused to engage in passionate love scenes with co-star Virginia Madsen.

McDonough’s refusal was based his belief that such scenes would clash with his Catholicism and his reputation as a family man. McDonough is married with three young children and is known to have refused to film any sex scenes on “Desperate Housewives.”

And who you ask is Virginia Madsen?

Which makes his principled stance on this issue even more remarkable.

As you can see by his IMDB page, he has been around. He played Lt. Buck Compton on Band Of Brothers. His character resonated with me. Buck was an affable competent officer who put his men first. and who through no fault of his own found himself a broken man, who had reached his limit and succumbed to combat fatigue, essentially removed from the war. The human element of a stellar officer that got a belly full and could not right himself was one of the more emotional journeys in this series.

McDonough is known for having stuck to such principles in the past even though it has cost him lucrative acting jobs and promising opportunities.

Which indicates that he would of been even more accomplished without adhering to this troublesome limitation.

I thought today felt different, here’s why

This man has been kicking people square in the head for 70 years ... to the day.

That’s right, Carlos Ray “Chuck” Norris woke up this morning (actually Chuck Norris doesn’t sleep, he waits) at the ripe old age of three score and 10. And there’s no question that he could still kick your organs inside-out just for breathing the same air as he does.

We should keep in mind that 70 Chuck Norris years is like 27 average human years.

For those not fully versed in the history of the man that counted to infinity, twice, this might help.

More important facts that will cost you your life if ignored.

Chuck Norris does not hunt because the word hunting implies the probability of failure. Chuck Norris goes killing.

When Chuck Norris makes love to a man, it’s not that he is gay, he just ran out of women, and his kids can go to any school He wants.

At age 70, not only could he kick your ass, but he’s probably a lot cooler than you too

No doubt,and to show his magnanimous side, he let a little Chinese guy win this fight, or at least that is what we were told, I know better:

Happy Birthday Chuck, here is to 70 more years of putting the hurt on bad guys.

Take a gander at this story:

When you gotta grill, you gotta grill, and Sgt. BBQ was not going let a little thing like a war stop him from enjoying that most primal of cooking experiences.

Sgt. BBQ is not his real name, of course. Because the U.S. Army does not always have a sense of humor about these sorts of things, that’s what I’ll call him. He’s a soldier who was on his third deployment to Afghanistan last year when he decided to take on the challenge of grilling in a war zone. For help with that, he turned to Ben Eisendrath.

Ben lives in Adams Morgan. He used to be an executive at AOL. Ben knows his bits from his bytes, but when he was growing up in Michigan, he acquired another skill: building barbecue grills.

...

In 1999, Charles decided he’d had enough of the BBQ biz and shut down the company. In 2007, Ben left AOL and started Grillworks back up again. He runs it from his Adams Morgan rowhouse.

...

In a world of Hyundais, these are Cadillacs. The most popular model retails for $4,400.

Sgt. BBQ was flipping through a magazine in eastern Afghanistan when he came across a photo of Ben’s grill. He knew it would be superior to the jury-rigged equipment that he’d been trying to grill on. He found Grillworks online and wrote Ben an e-mail: “My interpreter and I talked with several Afghan blacksmiths about the grate top that I am trying to build but the parts about ‘V-grates and 4 degree angles’ just don’t cross over effectively from English to Pashtu or Dari.”

Sgt. BBQ wondered whether Ben might have some old cooking surfaces or factory seconds lying around the workshop.

“He asked if I had any spare parts,” Ben told me. “Me sort of having a patriotic streak, I just called the shop and said, ‘Let’s make up some surfaces and send them to Afghanistan.’ We sent four of them, which is not an easy thing to do.”

...

Sgt. BBQ is back Stateside now. He left two of Ben’s grill surfaces in Afghanistan for his replacement unit and took two home to take back to Afghanistan with him in case he’s deployed again. He doesn’t know if he will be.

One thing he does know: When he retires—he’s eligible in a year—Sgt. BBQ is opening a barbecue restaurant in Mississippi. He’s already placed an order with Ben.

I worked with Ben for several years in the middle of the past decade, first in parallel on separate teams, and then as part of the same team. Some of the really high-end (for the time) digital media things I worked on that I’ve written about were projects that we were involved with together. We’ve stayed in touch off and on since we each left AOL, and it was cool when Ben took his career in a totally different direction. He’s been encouraging me as I’ve been working on doing the same.

Good guy. Good business. Good story.

This is a such a rarity here in Los Angeles (or even California), I wanted to give a little bit of bandwidth to this.

Sheriff Lee Baca told The Times he plans to “lead from the front” with the rest of his command staff, from the rank of captain and above, to fill possible shift gaps caused by cuts in overtime.

“I will go out into the field and into the jails,” Baca said Tuesday, noting he would be working those assignments once or twice a month and possibly weekend shifts in coming weeks.

Plans call for the Sheriff’s Department to reduce its budget by $128 million over the next 16 months, amounting to about 9% of the nearly $1.3-billion total it receives from the county.

Bravo, Mr. Baca, may I call you “Chewey”? When I grabbed this story, I wanted to confirm from “the horse’s mouth” the validity of it, and lo and behold it was confirmed in my driveway. No more overtime, I’ve heard a prison is gone, the prisoners shuffled around, and positions are frozen. So, a salute to the LASD for taking the ball to the hoop, in an environment where every other department is whining.

This is pretty much what I envisioned (and envision for others) would happen, some prisons closing, some people let go, and a reduction in salaries. In addition, talk about ‘manning up’, I might actually be able to see the chief in a squad car! What is most prescient to me about this move, is that this comes well ahead of a smackdown in City Council over the budget, and one that’s going to get very ugly. With this move, I would gander to say that the LASD has pretty much removed themselves from blame, and steered their own ship, therefore controlling their own destiny.

Plans call for the Sheriff’s Department to reduce its budget by $128 million over the next 16 months, amounting to about 9% of the nearly $1.3-billion total it receives from the county.

The overtime reduction will save about $58 million, and the department will glean another $26 million in savings by transferring hundreds of inmates from the 1,900-bed detention center in Castaic to other jails in the county system, said sheriff’s spokesman Steve Whitmore.

The department also will eliminate 300 frozen positions for a savings of $44 million.

Baca said everyone will have to make sacrifices in the tough budget environment.

“We don’t join law enforcement agencies to provide services based on convenience,” Baca said. “Police work is the ultimate career of inconvenience.”

Cuts aren’t easy, and they certainly aren’t fun. By making this adjustment, you’ve got to look at it from the angle of “jobs saved”. Running around and letting Unions bully and squabble over contracts is a PR nightmare in this environment, and it’s only going to make the situation worse. In fact, it very well could result in a retaliatory standard set so low, that it leans more toward punishment than resolution. By making this hard decision, Baca hopefully has saved his remaining force. Saved their jobs, and saved them respect in the community.

There are times when you have to evaluate where you stand in your career and decide if it’s time to try something different; explore new opportunities.  Other times, you figure out that you just suck at your job and really need to do something else.  For this guy, it was when a septagenarian beat his punk ass while he was robbing a store.

Watch here.  Fox News embedded videos have been known to cause problems on the VO Home Page so I’m just using a link.

I wonder if the Seattle Transit Authority will call her up?

Bringing home America’s first gold medal, Hannah Kearney, the little spark plug from Vermont, brought the crowd to it’s feet.

Proclaiming through out the world that you are the best on the planet, that has got to be the biggest rush of all time. Congrats to Shannon Bahrke as well for the bronze medal.

For those not familiar with Vancouver and British Columbia, it is more majestic and scenic than words can describe. Enjoy a little taste of the scenery:

Hey, who put that girl in there?