Drive on

Memorial Day

Me and dad.




My past Memorial Day posts: 2006, another from 2006, from 2007, and from 2008

The day I frightened The Governor

A few years ago (late 2003 or so) I was visiting our local high toned resort to hear a couple I'd been recording. I was off duty, and alternating coffee and beer.

I was feeling mellow and comfortable when this entourage came in. Seems there was a wedding somewhere in the facility?

At the head of this group was The Governor-Elect of West Virginia!

He and I shot a game of eight-ball (I think he won) and I visited with some of his campaign staff. BTW, I did vote for him.

BUT, I asked him about whether or not he had security. I mean, I'm shooting pool with the guy, and I was concerned about my well being. This wasn't so far past 9/11 that the question was overtly silly. Turns out he did not.

Then my obsessive nature kicked in. I was discussing his lack of security with everyone who'd stand still long enough. OOPS!

A bit later some of his cronies confronted me. Seems I'd disturbed his aura or something.

The rest is history. I never get invited to Charleston.

Stating the Obvious - With Relish

Jonn offers a cluebat. Although I'd disagree somewhat - it isn't big government directly at fault, it's a concept.

A musical interlude:

Some will simply never pay taxes... those others will reach a point where they can't. Think about the concept.

Tax the rich, feed the poor
Till there are no rich no more?

Your taxes at work?

MilBlog Conference - Part 2

One thing of note. I do think I was the oldest person there. So it's worth revisiting this.

Several of the panels, and any number of the participants talked about Viet Nam in the past (as - to be avoided) tense but I'm not so sure if there is a connection in fact.

'Nam vets may well be passe. Perhaps rightly so, but it ain't much fun, and I gotta ask... what might be lost?

Part of me is frustrated about the energy expended to re-invent the wheel. Mostly I wanna say bless 'em, and move on.

But then... being just another footnote is challenging. Might even be worse. 'These old guys are losers, but we're gonna win'. Well, I'm not sure that was said explicitly, but it seemed the tone.

So... I went and had a good time; met some wonderful folks, and came away with a vague unease.

I reckon I'll be taking a step back and re-focusing on what I can do. Many of us have been working to see to it that these 'young guns' don't go though what did.

They come home to a 'thanks for your service' partly because of our efforts... and that is good enough for me.

It’s worth noting that many of us ‘Nam vets have played a role few talk about. When Kerry made his attempt we were in the vanguard with the ‘Kerry Lied’ rally. From that grew the GoE and other related efforts.

I’ll speculate a bit, but I wonder if we hadn’t done so - would the VVAW/IVAW and their cronies have been where they are now?

Maybe we’re fighting one last battle of the Vietnam war?

MilBlog Conference - Part 1

Matty O'Blackfive - ARRESTED (for fund raiser)! Discovered there would be no strip search.










Jonn Lilyea - ARRESTED! Discussing the lack of strip search with the arresting personnel.


The Sniper and his beer cozy (Actually - The Giant Orange Fist of Purity and Justice). That's Jamie in the background. She was auctioned off for a date!

Just for fun

I'm headed over to DC for the Milblog conference later this month and will be meeting some folks for the first time.

I figured some photo ID was in order.



The above is circa 1965/66. I liked the girls.



This one is from 2007. I still like the girls. BTW, that's ADM Roy Hoffman's wife.



This one is added for perspective only. That's Duncan Hunter on the right... I'm taller than him.

I have lost some weight in the past two years, and gotten grayer, but this should be enough to get me in the door.

Anachronsim

2: a person or a thing that is chronologically out of place ; especially : one from a former age that is incongruous in the present.

A scene from "Heartbreak Ridge" - the Major explains things to Gunny Highway.

Maj. Malcolm A. Powers: I don't know what strings you pulled to get back into this division but I can assure you that I don't like it. This is the new Marine Corps. The new breed. Characters like you are an anachronism. You should be sealed in a case that reads break glass only in the event of war. Got no tolerance for you old timers who think that you know it better and can have it all your own way. Understand?

Recently I've been feeling like an anachronism myself. No, not to the above extreme, nor even quite in the same context... but it was just fun to dig out that quote!

My wife attended a conference in Charlotte recently, held by a major counseling organization. Most of the seminars reeked of multicultural/politically correct mumbo-jumbo. Her daily recaps and a glance at the scheduled seminars she DIDN'T attend were frightening.

Speaking only for me (I'm not sure I should repeat my wife's words)... How do you call someone silly nowadays? Is that one of those no-no words? And where does personal responsibility come into to play?

But the apparent paradigm shift in the arena of psychology is only peripheral to the issue of becoming an anachronism. And I'm not talking about just being older or dealing with 'the generation gap'.

Daily events seem to demonstrate the prescience, or wisdom, of Nikita Khrushchev's famous observation: "I once said, 'We will bury you,' and I got into trouble with it. Of course we will not bury you with a shovel. Your own working class will bury you."

We won the cold war with the USSR... and yet... and yet we're losing the battle for the 'hearts and minds' of our own people.

Not so long ago I found myself in a similar confused state. Gays would likely be among the first targets under sharia law, and yet, instead of demanding Islamic extremists be confronted and stopped they seemed to stifle any such attempts.

Years ago I stood watching lava flow down a mountainside directly at me. It was night and, even though a small knoll prevented the lava from getting to where I stood, the sense of inevitability was there.

I think that may well be a useful definition of an anachronism for now.

I went to Viet Nam, my dad was KIA in Korea. Standing in the face of the inevitable may well be foolish, but just when did it become moot?