The Gadfly On The Wall
Family Warfighter: With grandson Colby Stuck deployed in Iraq with Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 4, I'm attuned to family members in the service. Here's distant cousin Marshall Clark, U. S. Army sergeant, on duty in Afghanistan, earlier this year. Colby and Marshall continue a long family tradition of military service (in the U. S. and Canada), all the way back to the War of 1812 and the Civil War (we fought on both sides).
Grandson Colby: Speaking of the 20-year-old Seabee, he reports long days. He works 16-7 and anytime else he's needed. Given NMCB4's mission, I suspect he works to support Marine operations, but won't know that until he returns home. He has taken to heart the "Loose Lips Sink Ships" admonition of his superiors and doesn't even hint where he is located or what he's doing. He is dedicated to the mission and, reading between the lines, he believes in the mission and what we're trying to do for Iraq and its lawful citizens. For Colby and his mates, the war is not political; it is upclose and personal.
School Systems Run Amuck: I am way past weary with the political correctness idiocy we see in our public schools, where 5-, 6- and 7-year-olds are treated as adults and suspended, kicked out or arrested (!) for doing things kids do, like placing a ham sandwich on a table in front of a Muslim student, or a 6-year-old boy kissing a 6-year-old girl on the cheek. If such rules had been in place when I was that age, I would still be in juvenile detention. (And, let me add, the nuns who used to whack my hands with steel-edged rulers would be in jail for child abuse. That hurt like hell, but I didn't turn into a nutcase and I damn sure did what Sister Mary Margaret (for example) told me to do. Except, of course, switch from writing with my left hand to my right hand; I did learn how to write with my right hand, however.)
If Memory Serves: When he names a new corporation commissioner, Governor Brad Henry will have named a state treasurer (Scott Meacham), an insurance commissioner (Kim Holland) and a corporation commissioner. Thus, he will have named three statewide elected officials. That's the most any governor has named so far as I can recollect. David Walters named one (Susan Loving as attorney general) and Frank Keating named two (Ed Apple as corporation commissioner and Denise Bode as corporation commissioner) to the best of my memory (jogged by someone with a better memory).
Weather Overkill: Okay, I'm all into live TV coverage of severe weather, but it is being taken to a place that's just silly. Yesterday, Channel 5 had reporters in the field telling us about rain and clouds and water standing in some streets...over and over. I could see both rain and clouds by looking out my window, and my street had water as well. It was as if the station aired the reporters in the field just because they were there, not because they had anything to report. And Channel 4 yesterday, with not much else to report weatherwise, showed us (again) footage of the previous day's small tornadoes.
Grandson Colby: Speaking of the 20-year-old Seabee, he reports long days. He works 16-7 and anytime else he's needed. Given NMCB4's mission, I suspect he works to support Marine operations, but won't know that until he returns home. He has taken to heart the "Loose Lips Sink Ships" admonition of his superiors and doesn't even hint where he is located or what he's doing. He is dedicated to the mission and, reading between the lines, he believes in the mission and what we're trying to do for Iraq and its lawful citizens. For Colby and his mates, the war is not political; it is upclose and personal.School Systems Run Amuck: I am way past weary with the political correctness idiocy we see in our public schools, where 5-, 6- and 7-year-olds are treated as adults and suspended, kicked out or arrested (!) for doing things kids do, like placing a ham sandwich on a table in front of a Muslim student, or a 6-year-old boy kissing a 6-year-old girl on the cheek. If such rules had been in place when I was that age, I would still be in juvenile detention. (And, let me add, the nuns who used to whack my hands with steel-edged rulers would be in jail for child abuse. That hurt like hell, but I didn't turn into a nutcase and I damn sure did what Sister Mary Margaret (for example) told me to do. Except, of course, switch from writing with my left hand to my right hand; I did learn how to write with my right hand, however.)
If Memory Serves: When he names a new corporation commissioner, Governor Brad Henry will have named a state treasurer (Scott Meacham), an insurance commissioner (Kim Holland) and a corporation commissioner. Thus, he will have named three statewide elected officials. That's the most any governor has named so far as I can recollect. David Walters named one (Susan Loving as attorney general) and Frank Keating named two (Ed Apple as corporation commissioner and Denise Bode as corporation commissioner) to the best of my memory (jogged by someone with a better memory).
Weather Overkill: Okay, I'm all into live TV coverage of severe weather, but it is being taken to a place that's just silly. Yesterday, Channel 5 had reporters in the field telling us about rain and clouds and water standing in some streets...over and over. I could see both rain and clouds by looking out my window, and my street had water as well. It was as if the station aired the reporters in the field just because they were there, not because they had anything to report. And Channel 4 yesterday, with not much else to report weatherwise, showed us (again) footage of the previous day's small tornadoes.
Labels: Gadfly's Columns
posted by Mike McCarville @ 10:32 AM
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