Category Archives: Ethics

For The Love of A Brother-In-Arms, And ‘Big Brother’ Be Damned

America, BAB's A List, Ethics, Fascism, Military, Nationhood, War

Robert Glisson rides with the ““Patriot Guard Riders.” I do not identify with the military mission, but who can fault the humanity of the effort?

For The Love of A Brother-In-Arms, And ‘Big Brother’ Be Damned
BY ROBERT GLISSON

The late October morning sky over northern Oklahoma is overcast as you follow the bikes in staggered formation, onto the Air Guard base. They make a circle and line up on each side of the exit concourse behind the guard shack that splits the exit from the entrance. The rumble of Harleys in neutral is heard, as the heavy bikes are backed to the curb, nose pointed toward the exit at a forty-five degree angle. Silence returns as one by one the kickstands drop and the riders unhorse.

Ride Captains in maroon caps begin passing US Flags on eight foot PVC shafts to the riders quietly. Two lines of scruffy men and women dressed in black leather or dark waterproof raingear line themselves ten feet apart smoothly, quietly on each side of the street, forming a corridor of red-white-and blue a hundred and twenty feet long. Hardly a word is spoken, as the flags begin gently waving in the cool damp fall breeze.

Two Senior Ride Captains begin an inspection walk inside the corridor of proud, straight figures. Many of the men and women have lost the battle with gravity and the razor; but, the grip on the staff is steady, the eyes focused on a point a thousand yards away. Satisfied that the formation is ready, the SRCs walk back slowly to the line’s tail, stopping at each flag to personally thank the rider holding the flag for his or her time.

The backs of vests and jackets of the riders carry multiple Colors, insignia and rockers; American Veterans MC; American Legion; The Priesthood; Christian Motorcycle Association; Faith Riders; Mongols Vandals; Outlaws; Forgotten Few. Some are loners- no colors, no rockers, nothing to show any association or organization or location; but, all are part of the Patriot Guard Riders at this time. Patriot Guard Riders in Oklahoma do not wear colors and have no identification insignia. PGR in other states do wear colors; for states membership is free; 264 K members at this time, not all attend missions.

It begins to rain lightly, fingers get colder and stiffer, but the line holds steady. An Air Force lieutenant exits the Administration building, speaks briefly to the captains and returns to his warm office. “The Angel Flight (Plane carrying the soldier’s body) was delayed in its take-off from Dover AFB. They will be at least fifteen minutes late.” The line of men and women holds. Twenty minutes later, “The flight is delayed due to the heavy cloud cover over the country. It will be another fifteen minutes.”

The line holds quietly, no one complains.

The PGR line remains still and quiet in the drizzle as the Airmen jostle into position to form another honor line. A sergeant with the Air Guard News appears with his camera. The PGR has stood for approximately an hour so far. “The plane is now on the runway, the Military Honor Guard is transferring the coffin to the coach. They should be here in fifteen-twenty minutes. Ten minutes later the rain slacks off and riders can now hold their head fully upright without having to blink away the rain.

The procession stops just pass the line and before the exit unto the city street. Young Airmen quickly come, take the flags from the riders. Bikers now freed, hasten to the waiting wet bikes, brush off the seats and mount up, denim against wet leather. The air is filled with the sound of motorcycles forced into a hasty warm-up by their owners. The V-Twins respond eagerly. Within moments the line of flag-carrying motorcycles is moving up past the coach into lead position. The law enforcement vehicles will take a position at least five hundred feet ahead to protect, but stay apart from the procession. Without a word, the bikes roll out onto the wet pavement, wet flags attached to the rear, trying to wave in the dismal, damp air as they begin a forty mile highway escort, taking a fallen warrior home.

Another day, servicemen and women exit an aircraft and walk through a double line of flag-bearing PGR to welcome them home or, if leaving, walk through the same line to board a plane to their duty station. Older PGR Captains, assume the position of fathers to reassure the serviceman’s wife that the separation is only temporary and that their husband will return, just as they did long ago.

This is the Patriot Guard Riders, a volunteer group of citizens, mostly ex-military and motorcyclist but not necessarily either one. The PGR is formed to support veterans. Originally formed to shield the family of soldiers killed in action from protestors at funerals, it has grown to honor and respect all veterans and servicemen. Non-political, it contains men and women of all political, religious, and opinion stripes. Ex-service salute, civilians place their hands over their hearts, all show respect.

It is said that the US is the only country to have barn raisings. I can’t say that for sure. But I can say that the volunteer spirit in the United States is second to none. Most of this country was built by individuals working with other individuals long before governments were formed. Some feared that without the draft, there would be no military. They missed the spirit of the people who love their country and countrymen. The Patriot Guard Riders is only one organization among many. Habitat for Humanity is a ‘barn raising’ group of volunteers that now covers the world. The Red Cross, Salvation Army, and the Southern Baptist Disaster Crews: These are but a few organizations that reflect the ‘Spirit of America. There Civil War Enactors, Single Action Pistol associations, the clubs, Masons, Rotary, Lions, Moose, Eagles, Knights of Columbus, etc. It is that American spirit that says “Get up, make a difference.”

It is the true spirit of this country.

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Robert Glisson is a retired Oklahoma Probation and Parole Officer, fiction writer, vineyard worker (you don’t own it, it owns you), amateur wine maker (you have to drink your mistakes, whoopee), and biker by choice. He is also a longtime reader of Barely A Blog. Robert served in the US Navy between 1960-1964, inactive reserve 65-66- 66-68.

When Looks Can Kill

Ethics, Family, Islam, Media, Middle East, Morality, Multiculturalism

When honor killings are mentioned in the moron media there is but one narrative: “bad man, good woman – Arab men refuse to let go of patriarchal privilege and power; Arab women are the besieged political class who desperately want to – but can’t – protect their daughters from this fate. But does this represent what is really going on in Arab cultures?”

BBC News reports that a couple in Pakistan-administered Kashmir was arrested for “killing their 15-year old daughter with acid,” for fear that “she would bring dishonour on their family.”

The couple told BBC that the girl had glanced at a boy. The father proceeded to beat the girl, while the mother fetched acid and poured it over her daughter Anusha, who sustained burns on 60% of her body.

Let these events be a lesson to those who think that parental love is a universally shared value.

From “THE RETURN OF THE PRODIGAL FEMINIST” (December 5, 2003):

Here’s what a “Palestinian” woman, Amira Abu Hanhan Qaoud, did to her child, after the girl – who had been raped and impregnated by her brothers – refused to commit suicide.
Plastic bag, razor, and wooden stick in hand, the mother entered her sleeping daughter’s room. “Tonight you die, Rofayda,” the wicked witch announced, before wrapping the bag tightly around the girl’s head. The murderess Qaoud then spent the next 20 minutes slicing away at Rofayda’s wrists, ignoring pleas of “No, mother, no!” Just to be sure, this alleged mother struck her daughter on the head with the stick after the poor child passed out. Yet members of Qaoud’s community are nonplussed – they see the woman as driven by devotion to both community and family.

Anthropologist Ilsa Glaser’s eye-opening work on female aggression in the Palestinian Authority more than confirmed that women were active in instigating the honor killings … yes, of their daughters.

Read on.

Circumscribing Gouging = Circumscribing Private Property

Business, Capitalism, Economy, Ethics, Individual Rights, Objectivism, Political Economy, Private Property, Reason

Rights-based arguments are seldom made by members of the media and their guests. In explaining what a (semantic) aberration the term gouging is John Stossel opted to privilege the utilitarian angle. So did his guests.

Like any voluntary exchange of goods, “gouging” amounts to free people exchanging property to which they hold title. Each relinquishes something he values less (money/goods/labor) for something he values more (money/goods/labor).

John Stossel and guests prefer to stick to purely utilitarian economics. That’s the mindset that prevails.

I’d like to hear our side argue for freedom by saying that, whether free markets work or not is secondary to the unalienable, immutable, rights of men. It so happens that—surprise!—upholding the absolute rights of the individual to life, liberty and property works very well. Wealth redounds to all.

Bless Stossel for his efforts to promote economic literacy, over decades. However, I listened to Steve Horowitz last night, and then “muted” when Stossel made the perennial decision that guides the dueling perspectives political panel.

Rather than let Steve enlighten, Stossel allowed the reality denier to hog the stage with a perversion, not a version, of the truth.

“By presenting the public with two competing perspectives—you mislead viewers into believing that indeed there are two realities, and that it is up to them to decide which one is more compelling.”

This positively postmodernist format would be fine were Rome not burning. However, “a Homeric contest is underway in the USA. Rome is burning. Now is not the time to fiddle or to unwittingly defraud the public.”

As I wrote in “More Chris Christie Cretinism*: Outlawing Price ‘Gouging,’” in addition to acting as “the street signs of the economy,” “prices are the prerogative of private property”:

In a free market, the institute of private property ensures that we have prices. “Prices are like a compass: pegged to supply and demand they ensure the correct allocation of resources. Without market prices, supply and demand cannot be brought into balance and, by extension, consumer needs cannot be satisfied. Conversely, in socialized systems there are no prices because there is no private property. Absent such knowledge, misuse, misallocation and mismanagement of capital are inevitable.”

CNN Halloween Ghoul Gloria Borger: Can She Be Humanized?!

Ethics, Gender, Journalism, Left-Liberalism And Progressivisim, Media, Objectivism, Propaganda, Reason

In anticipation of Mitt Romney’s last major speech delivered on Friday, in Iowa, the voter was expected to endure the analysis of one of the most banal brains on TV (and that takes an effort, given the competition):

Gloria Borger.

This bitch (and yes, I’ve not been mincing words lately) has not stopped maligning Romney’s character. As I’ve said repeatedly, Romney’s political philosophy is situated on a continuum of statism, and, as such, is of a piece with Obama’s.

But in his personal life, Mitt’s a lovely man. That is unless the stupid hos who monopolize discourse in the USA no loner like the silent, tall, capable, hard-working, over-achiever.

Romney’s funny too.

Yet Borger, a member of the Bitches for Obama Brigade at CNN, has not shut up about the need to “humanize” Mr. Romney, the premise of which it that the man is inhuman.

Romney’s public persona is a fictitious construct invented by the characters on the liberal cable news stations, with some acquiescence from Republican women. All agree about his stiffness.

Stiff? Sure, Romney is as rigid as the “Mad Man” Don Draper of the eponymous HBO period drama. The good type of rigid.

So here’s what Borger disgorged about the role, in particular, of Ann Romney in rehabilitating her rogue husband:

BALDWIN: “I want to bring back Gloria Borger, because here we are, strategy wise, 11 days left. We’re counting every day. The Romney camp, you know, seems to be featuring more of Mitt Romney, you know, Mitt Romney the man. And you’ve spent quite a bit of time with the woman who’s been instrumental in that, Ann Romney.”

BORGER: “Right.”

BALDWIN: “Tell me more about that.”

BORGER: “Well, Ann Romney has kind of become their secret weapon here. You know that Mitt Romney has a large problem with women voters. Ann Romney is out there now trying to appeal to women.
She’s also sort of been Mitt Romney’s character witness. Because his big problem has been that average voters say he doesn’t care about my problems. He doesn’t understand my problems. He’s too rich. He’s too out of touch. He doesn’t get it.
So Ann Romney’s job, and she’s been pushing for this in the campaign, is to kind of humanize him, open Mitt Romney up and kind of say to people, you know, actually he does care about you. She pushed for more of that. You heard a little bit more of that at the convention. You heard some of that in the debates.
So now his message is two-pronged. Yes, I can talk about the economy, but, yes, I also understand your problems. And we’ll see if more and more people believe that he does, because he runs substantially behind the president when it comes to economic empathy, if you will. And she’s part of that plan to get people to think that he does get it.”