Category Archives: Military

‘Scenes From The Surrender In South Africa’

VDARE.COM’s James Fulford has published (http://blog.vdare.com/archives/2011/02/02/scenes-from-the-surrender-in-south-africa/) a most poignant letter from a South African veteran of the Angola war. It is also a reminder of why I support the draft … for politicians and bureaucrats (http://www.ilanamercer.com/phprunner/public_article_list_view.php?editid1=59):

“I knew a number of vain, self-righteous pseudo-intellectuals during my time in the Army. They all had elegantly-appointed offices, with double-overlaid carpeting in the floor and expensive paintings on the walls. They fairly dripped with assumed self-importance and constantly boasted of ‘ political connections’ up the food-chain.

They wore starched uniforms, but were always far removed from my young lads and me in the ops area, up in Angola. With sand, blood, and dirt between our teeth, we lived in mud, with our dead and wounded lying in ditches, some on stretchers in the back of idling C130s, their body fluids running down the rails, onto the loading deck, and ultimately accumulating in grotesque puddles on the runway.

Many of these curiously never-deployed types actively participated in ‘negotiations’ to ‘end the War.’ Conversely, those of us who actually participated were kept away. In fact … ”

MORE.

No Country For (Any) Men

Gender, Military, Political Correctness

Front and center in the reports about the Enterprise videos scandal have been statements about the slurs they contain against gays and lesbians. Capt. Owen Honors is to be relieved of his command of the USS Enterprise for producing and starring in crude video skits that were “shown over the ship’s internal broadcast system.” According to a CNN report, which twice mentions the anti-gay invective, the things were “produced four to five years go.” Why have they made headlines now? Perhaps the intention is to make an example of this Honors chap to coincide with the repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell”?

The military was once a male society. For better or for worse, in such societies crassness equals esprit de corps. Now the same society is to be softened and refined so as to be friendly to females, gays and anyone in-between.

UPDATED: Assange is us

Free Speech, Homeland Security, Intelligence, Military, Republicans, Technology, The State

This is from my new, WND.COM column, “Assange is us”:

” … What is top-secret to some, however, is open-source for others. First-Amendment jurisprudence is … clear-cut with respect to the great guerrilla journalism of WikiLeaks.

WikiLeaks operators have committed no crime in publishing what is undeniably true, newsworthy information. Antsy America has no jurisdiction over a foreign entity (WikiLeaks) and its proprietor (Julian Assange). The Wall Street Journal’s Law Blog confirmed that U.S. law looks upon WikiLeaks as ‘a passive recipient of the material.’ ‘Most First Amendment lawyers would say that preventing the publication of material is justified only where absolutely necessary to prevent almost immediate and imminent disaster. It’s an extremely high standard,’ Jack Balkin, a First Amendment expert at Yale Law, told the WSJ. …

… Why has this individual become the enemy? Should Americans not have an inkling, by now, of what it’s like to live at the mercy of the federal government’s imperially imposed edicts? Aren’t we all being treated as potential terrorists at the nation’s federally controlled airports, by the TSA, an arm of the government now stalking Assange?”

The complete column is “Assange is us.”

The Second Edition of Broad Sides: One Woman’s Clash With A Corrupt Society (the print edition may be purchased here) is now also available on Kindle.

UPDATE (Dec. 10): The reader below (see Comments Section) says Assange provided the identities of “pro-freedom, pro-democracy activists in places like Afghanistan, Iran, Venezu.” First, provide proof of such online Wikileaks.

Second: Let me get this. The minions in the military may freely ad-lib about the subjects they’ve “liberated” (and sicced upon one another) in far-flung places. Conversely, the publisher of this stuff—which was forsaken for every military tom, dick and harry to read—must be extra careful in its publication. The statist will always apply a different standard to his cherished government. Frederick Bastiat the statist is not.

But then the reader conflates, 1) democracy and freedom. 2) The wrecking ball we applied to Afghanistan and Iraq with freedom. When you hold 1 & 2 to be true, your premises are shaky from the start.

UPDATED: Glenn, Gays ('Transitioners'), WiKiLeaks, Whatever

Gender, Glenn Beck, Homosexuality, Military, Psychology & Pop-Psychology, Sex, The Zeitgeist

* SPOOKY GIFTS. Looking for a present with which to spook out your loved ones? Glenn Beck’s e-newsletter suggests that you “Put Glenn Beck Under Your Tree.” If you are unable to buy tickets to see Beck’s performance art, he’d like you to buy his products. (Actually, I have a better suggestion; buy “Broad Sides.”) I know you aren’t, but I’m still lamenting the loss of a potential force for liberty. Beck is circling the drain, caught in an echo-chamber out of which not even his indecipherable charts can lead him.

* FAIRY TALES. My husband, a fairly old-fashioned (if not old) man who works closely with the similar types, tells me that men seldom discuss their spouses at work. It should not be too difficult for the heterosexual soldiers in the military to agree to keep quiet about their families in exchange for some silence from the homosexual contingent. Aha, but you see, as “‘Don’t Ask Don’t Tell’ For Hets and Homos” argued, the underlying impetus in this battle is to make the military as much like the culture at large: a big whore house. I do not think the activists even think in such terms. It is just that it is second-nature for the North American Personality to demand complete merger of the private and professional.

Tell me that Osama’s ascetic army will not skedaddle at the site of a brigade that looks like this:

* WIKIWONDER. Look at the WikiLeaks Mirrors page: “In order to make it impossible to ever fully remove WikiLeaks from the Internet, you will find below a list of mirrors of WikiLeaks website and CableGate pages.” An amazing operation.

Have at it. This is an Open Forum (with limitations, naturally). Please post whatever is on your mind (including, if you’d like, brief questions to your host on this or the other issue).

UPDATE (Dec. 10): The gentle-wo/man, in the image above (second from the right), is “transitioning,” me thinks. The spouse tells me that he came upon a transitioning person in the hallways at work. This poor person was not only sexually ambivalent but obese too, so it wore a muumuu. Right there they formed a bond. I’m joking. As you can imagine, your ordinary guy, the square type especially, doesn’t know what to do with this stuff. An outward display of your inner-most conflicts will make a co-worker run in the opposite direction.

I have plenty of sympathy for authentic pain, however pampered the sufferer. There is a lot of pain wrapped up in sexual ambivalence. Not so much these days, where what you get is emotionally pampered individuals publicly displaying “pain” they imagine they have; and have been instructed to feel.

Middle-aged folks like myself well remember the agony endured by a sexually ambivalent persons only two decades or so back. Everyone knows someone who is gay or even people who feel they were born the wrong sex. As if life were not hard enough. How horrible is it to be confused about a core characteristic as is gender.

Here’s the point I’ve tried to make not always successfully. A decent society is a private society. I am not opposed to gays serving in the military; I’m against the idea that sexual proclivities and peccadilloes are a public affair.