Army Musings

Ah, what an insane week for the military and the war-at-large... So insane, my musings actually sort of have a point today. Well, as much of a point as I give a shit about making.

The Army Times (and its sister publications) is calling for Donald Rumsfeld to step down. It's about fucking time. That dude lost my respect years ago (although he once commanded it), and I'm surprised that it took this long for a Gannett-published periodical to make such a statement. He's the symbol of everything that's wrong with what's going on over there, and yet somehow, the fucker keeps his job. Is it all his fault? No, of course not. But he's the god damned Secretary of Defense, and the captain goes down with his ship, so to speak. Bye-bye, Rummy... I hope.

Army recruiters were caught on videotape lying to potential recruits. AWESOME! While I'm against the grain on this one and believe that this is the exception and not the norm, I'm glad this shit has been exposed irrevocably. Seriously, telling a kid his or her chances of going to war are "slim to none?" The bastard who said that should be demoted and permanently assigned to Baghdad.

There's long been a myth floating around that Hollywood gets uniforms wrong "on purpose" in order to prevent actors from "impersonating military personnel." Um, yeah... anyone who believes this is an idiot. There are no such laws, Federal or State, dealing with Hollywood movies. The laws that do exist specifically restrict the impersonation of with intent to deceive. Films, inherently, are granted that exception. Sorry, servicemembers who believe this one... you're all wrong.

The Army is doing away with the sort-of-ugly-yet-full-of-history Dress Green uniforms and is going with Dress Blues for all. While I like the idea of eliminating some of the decorum from the closets of our soldiers, I'm not sure I agree with it completely. Eh, I'm on the fence... I'll address this later.

And I still think the Marine Corps should be absorbed into the Army. The opposing arguments I still get from the members of the fleet simply convince me more of this with each passing day. I'd post some of their statements, but I don't feel like insulting our boys in green today by revealing how stupid many of them are.

This war, to date, is a failure. And that's all I have to say about that.

Our soldiers, sailors, Marines, and airmen are still heroes. And that's all I have to say about that.

"Life is Perception" and Other Pointless Musings

Life is perception. That's as probably as vague and cliché a statement as can be made. But, everyone knows it's true.

Take what's going on in current events right now. The whole Pope debacle. Perception in the Muslim world suggests that the Pope is the religious leader of the West. Reality is that he, while certainly powerful, is not. Only the Roman Catholics view him as their sacred pontiff. Other sects of Catholicism have their own popes, and most Christian denominations don't recognize the pope as their religious figurehead at all (they're called Protestants, people). But... the Muslims tend to think that the Pope speaks for the Western world, so now we're in a state of anxiety waiting for something bad to happen somewhere. Perception.

Here's a more personal example. I wrote a nice, heartfelt letter to a girl that I've liked for quite some time. Unfortunately, she doesn't know me all that well, and as such, thinks I'm quite perverted. Hell, she's probably filling out the paperwork for a restraining order. Perception. Somehow I knew that was going to happen, so I let a close friend read the letter. She said it was one of the sweetest things she'd ever read, but was quick to point out that she knew me well enough that she knew where I was coming from. So, I'm perceived by my friend as a sweetheart, while the girl I want perceives me as a psycho. Perception.

Other Pointless Musings:

The San Diego Padres dropped a thriller last night. Somehow they allowed the Dodgers to hit four back-to-back homeruns in the ninth inning.

If Ford and GM merge, all those idiots with the pissing Calvin stickers are going to be upset.

It's important to recognize that both Christianity and Islam started off as very violent religious philosophies. I think that Christianity has the benefit of being tempered by more "protestant" denominations, allowing moderate Christian beliefs to proliferate. We're seeing some of this "protestant" moderation in Islam (think Indonesia, etc.), but nowhere near enough for the two to truly co-exist peacefully yet.

The Army destroys pride in itself every time they authorize a new award. It's called "elitism," and the military needs it. Egalitarianism in the military leads to complacency.

The San Diego Chargers will take the AFC West, convincingly, this year.

The Marine Corps should be a part of the Army, not the Navy. The Air Force should not exist.

Liberals and conservatives are important forces in evolving governments. However, moderates should run government, as liberals and conservatives in power tend to be dangerous.

Watching movies in a movie theater is better than watching in a home theater. Yes, there are pros and cons to both, but movies are movies, and the screen should be measured in feet, not inches.

Arnold Schwarzenegger is turning out to be a pretty good governor. Donald Rumsfeld, whatever you think of him, needs to go away. John Kerry would have sucked just as bad as Bush.

Wilmington, North Carolina, is a nice place to live. Too bad the film industry sucks ass there.

Revenge is not necessarily a bad thing, although it usually is.

Cheerleaders have the best stomachs known to mankind.

China is either about to take over the world, or send the world spiraling into another global depression.

Perception is subjective. Communication is propaganda. Education is disinformation. Experience is everything.