St Patrick's Day special.

 

Today was St Patrick's Day. A day on which my fellow Americans make up silly names for themselves and put on a green shirt and get blotto. We won't talk about how this country perpetuates negative Irish stereotypes. The Fightin' Irishman, "A couple of stout Irish girls to do the heavy work around the house." and Trooper Thorn Sean Thornton. We have heavier lifting to do. Heavier lifting like "The Kung-Flu" and the fact that Asian-Americans get treated like punching bags and nobody tries to stop it. So go on and poke fun at me and my ancestors, drink beer with green food color in it. Just stop shooting Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. Mmmk ?

The Good Ole Days, more dream than real.

 (Cross posted from my Facebook account) 

Do you long for the Good Old Days ? 

        Feeling Nostalgic for the "good old days" of the 50s and early 60s? Yeah, that's probably because our higher taxes and stronger union protections made it possible for you to get a good paying job right out of high school and be able to support a family on it. But then you tossed all that in the garbage by voting for a string of men who cut taxes on the richest Americans and then told you it was your fault you weren't making enough money. Of course, you got tired of hearing it was your fault for not making enough money, so then they started telling you it was "The Illegals" who were taking your jobs. And the Foreigners. They tried to train you to hate those people, and many of you did. When all the while, it was you who voted for Reagan, GHW Bush, W Bush and now Trump, who sold you down the river. You bought into the conservative mumbo-jumbo , the hate-mongering and fear-mongering, and now you're seeing your progeny get hammered by the tool you thought would make YOUR life better. Well, has it ? Your children, the so-called Millenials, have an average of 37000 in student loan debt -- debt they accrued because successive waves of conservatives have all but wiped out grants, and seen to it that college tuition has skyrocketed. Your children, those self-same Millenials everyone loves to complain about, are stuck in jobs with few benefits and all too often are "full time availability with part time hours" or trick hours where they work 39 hours a week so their employer doesn't have to pay their insurance or retirement benefits. Oh sure, they might get a 401k . . . for company stock, which could collapse at any moment. Further, said millenials have had their retirement age pushed from 62 to 65 to 67 and it'll be 69 or 70 soon. Oh, but their social security will be means-tested so that the conservatives can call it "Welfare" and then cut it. But don't worry, YOUR Medicaid won't be cut. and YOUR SSRI won't be cut. But what about the rest of us ?

It was not Ronald Reagan, GHW Bush or GW Bush, it wasn't the 230-odd republican/Tea-Party/Libertarian-Conservatives in the House of Representatives or the 52 in the Senate who killed The American Dream, it was you who voted for all those men. You bought into their line of bullshit, and now you have to own it. The good news is, you do not have to let things lie. You don't have to stay in the bed you made, you can get up and re-make it. But you won't get there by voting for more of the same. You won't get there by putting more conservatives in office. You will only continue to revoke the generations of social progress that led up to your being able to have the jobs you had, and that your children and grandchildren need.

Harry, Megan and Oprah.

 I've been seeing a lot of weirdly supportive photo memes being passed around regarding HRH the Duke of Sussex in the wake of this recent interview with Oprah Winfrey. 

I hold no brief regarding Mr & Mrs Windsor. I don't hate them, don't love them. I'm sure they're fine people. At the same time, I don't much care if Harry's Grandmother feels put upon by all this. The news media in The United States are saying that there is a war between Megan & Harry and the rest of the Royal family. Well, I have to say: No. there will be no war. Or well, such war as there is will be allegations in the tabloids that the Royals are this and that kind of evil and the Royals for their part will simply sit back and take it, because they have to. It's part of their responsibility, to be the target of the public's japes and jeers as well as their applause and adulation. It is, to them, merely the price of doing business. There's been a lot of Jibber-Jabber going back and forth about how Young Harry was "Forced" to join the British military (the Royal Marine Commandos.). He was not "Forced" any more than his brother was forced to join the Navy or their father. Because, serving in the military is for them part of their obligation. Maybe not officially or by legality, but it is so.  I append here my reaction post from Facebook.
 

Someone posted this photo meme in which the creator listed a bunch of things young Henry has either done or had foisted on him by the Royal family. This is my reply.

Except his family have said he is still family, Oprah interview or no. No one is calling him a traitor except fucking Piers Morgan and who gives a rat's ass what that dickhead thinks. I don't know anyone who has ignored injured war veterans, except maybe the American VA hospital system. I'm sure Duke Harry is a great fellow, probably could have played center half for his rugger team, and probably likes a beer with the lads. By the way, until this year,(and who knows, perhaps he still will.) he received a sinecure from his family. Part of the responsibility of being a member of the royal family is serving in the military, which Harry and William have both done, and done well. But don't deceive yourself. HRH The Duke of Sussex grew up in luxury that would make your head spin. You cannot tell me that The Duchess of Sussex didn't know what she was getting into by marrying the Duke. She went into it with both eyes open and if she never thought there might be rough spots then she had her eyes closed and her fingers in her ears. Understand please : I do not hold any special brief against Mr and Mrs Windsor, and I wish them every happiness in whatever life they elect to have. But that election is theirs, and it is a thing very, very few other people are permitted to make. Most of us are born poor and remain poor throughout our lives. We get through our lives as best we can. I do not bear any ill will toward Mr Windsor, but I also don't owe him anything. 

I included a particular note, because the meme creator included a photo of then 12 year old Harry in his mourning suit, ready to walk behind his mother's hearse to the gravesite : 

Oh, and walking behind the Princess' hearse at the funeral was their duty as Royals. But it is also considered a privilege to be permitted to do so. I was so privileged as to be one of my Grandmother's Pall Bearers, and as hard as it was I wouldn't have traded places with anyone else for any sum of money. Some things are awful to do, but must be done, and done with quiet pride. The young Princes were in fact commanded to walk behind their mother's hearse, but did so because their grandfather offered to walk with them. The party consisted of Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, Prince William, Earl Spencer (Diana's Brother), Prince Harry and Prince Charles, the Prince of Wales. https://honey.nine.com.au/.../772a033d-7f9e-4b4c-a5d1...

Once more, the missing man formation.

 I'm not one to idealize people. Everyone, boyhood heroes included, puts their pants on one leg at a time. 

But because my childhood was not more special than anyone else's, I'm not going to bother you with stories from my childhood. One man I knew of from my childhood was Gen. Charles E. "Chuck" Yeager. Yeager didn't just cultivate the image of a maverick, he was one. He was of the breed of pilots who learned to fly by instinct, by the seat of the pants. He flew combat missions over Europe in WW2, flying a Lockheed P51D mustang, "Glamorous Glenn" (for Glennis, his girlfriend and later his wife.)Yeager would go on to become "An Ace in a Day" shooting down 5 enemy aircraft in one day. If there was an aircraft type in service with the United States, odds were Yeager flew it. In a now-famous incident, with a broken arm and using a sawn-off broomstick for extra leverage, Yeager climbed down into the cockpit of a Bell X-1 ("Glamorous Glennis"), levered the canopy shut and in a few minutes was released into the air from the B-29 "Mother-ship" and shot off on a rocket-powered flight that broke the sound barrier. A first in aviation. (others may or not have exceeded mach 1, but Yeager did so under controlled circumstances.) In another well-known, possibly apocryphal incidence, Yeager is said to have declined participating in the Mercury Astronaut program, believing that the astronauts would be mere passengers, which was not his bag. In 1997 then-retired General Yeager would repeat his mach 1 flight in an F-15D Eagle fighter ("Glamorous Glennis III"), escorted by longtime wing-man and friend Bob Hoover, who had been Yeager's chase pilot on the day in 1947. Yeager's wife Glennis passed away in 1990 of ovarian cancer. The General re-married in 2007, much to the consternation of his family, who believed the woman was alienating his affections in order to make off with his money. I make no judgement on that, only to say a judge in California found in Gen. Yeager's favor, ruling that his daughter Susan had misused her authority as Trustee. Charles Elwood Yeager passed away on December 8, 2020, in Los Angeles California. He was 97. 

Another hero passes into those gates which all must enter.

Some Thanksgiving Thoughts.

 Way back in the 1600s, a group of people landed in the lands of the Wampanoag people and set up a camp.

Their camp rapidly became a village with log buildings. In that first winter, the invaders suffered much from the harsh winter and lack of proper food. In the spring, some of the locals found them and took pity upon them. They were not Christians, but they still had the spirit of charity within them and they made peaceful contact with the newcomers. The first nation people probably would have driven the whites into the sea at the point of a spear had they been "real Christians" but they did not. They took pity on the newcomers, and helped them to learn how to live off the land. How to catch fish, and to fertilize their crops with it. How to plant and grow maize. How to hunt the local animals and which ones provided the best meat. Somewhere in there, the locals found how to hunt the local wild turkeys and geese. (There are variations on this story where they brought the newcomers birds and maize but I'm going with this one.) The next fall, a hunting party of Wampanoag were in the vicinity of the white settlement and decided to check up on them. In gratitude for having been saved and aided by them, the Europeans invited the visitors to stay for the harvest feast. This then became known as the First Thanksgiving. If only the people of the First Nations and the European immigrants had learned from this example. But they did not. In the fullness of time the prediction often attributed to various leaders, that "in 300 years my people will be a vanishing breed, a footnote in the story of the continent." They did not vanish, but are less today than they were. Today the holiday is one in which we traditionally gather our families and celebrate the holiday, at least ostensibly giving thanks for the good things that came our way, and for having family to celebrate with. I am reminded of the time, some 50 years ago, when my Dad and my Uncle both finished eating at about the same time, and both had the same idea to make for the couch in the den at the same time. They both tried to be nonchalant about it, but this lasted about 4 paces, as my Dad went thundering into the Den, steps ahead of my Uncle. Dad got their first, but it would not have mattered, as it was Dad's house. Meanwhile, I just quietly asked my Mother if I could be excused (in the early 70s, table manners were still a thing, and kids who sat at the grownups table had to ask to be excused.) and then quietly went into the living room and took over the couch in there. Everyone else was too busy trying to find suitable seating in line of sight to a television and never considered just napping in the nice, cool, quiet of the living room. Funny how memory comes back like that. I will close by saying that I wish any who read this a happy holiday, and a quiet, safe, and healthy weekend.

The Eleventh hour of the Eleventh Day of the Eleventh Month.

 

Today, in 1918 the First World War came to an end. The living hell that began in 1914 and threatened to end human society ended in November 1918, with little of the root causes of the War to End All Wars resolved. But, at 11 AM, the guns fell silent. people on both sides joyfully stopped shooting at each other.  The final American killed in the war was recorded by General John Pershing as one Henry Nicholas John Gunther. Gunther had been a supply Sargent in the 79th "Liberty" division's 313th Regiment until he ran afoul of Army censors by writing a complaining letter to a friend back home, telling him to avoid military service at all costs. Demoted to private, Gunther felt that his courage had been called into question, and began volunteering for dangerous assignments, including that of message runner. He was killed in the final minutes of the war, attempting to assault a roadblock occupied by a German machine gun squad. It would have been a pointless gesture, as the war would be over in a few minutes, and Gunther was aware of this. It has been said that the Germans, when they saw him coming, yelled for him to go back, that the war was going to be over in a few minutes, but Gunther kept coming. One of the German gunners fired a burst, which struck the soldier in the temple, killing him instantly. Posthumously, Sargent Gunther was counted as the final casualty of the "War to End All Wars." 

(source: https://www.history.com/news/world-war-i-armistice-last-american-death ) 

         It should be  the default position of all rational human beings that war should be the last resort. War should only be used to rid the world of insane nations, criminal nations like Nazi Germany, who wage wars of oppression against their neighbors. Aggressor nations who refuse to listen to reason or to sit down and talk. Bandit kingdoms who rape and pillage their own people. Talk, first and last. Keep talking, even while you're fighting. *sigh* there is no good way of putting it. Never go to war because you want to. 

No more for now. But never forget why we fight. To preserve freedom and liberate the oppressed.

 Pray for the future of our nation. Now is the time when the Republic needs everyone to come together and reach across the divide, heal the wounds, stop the divisive, violent rhetoric. Let us go forward together, hand in hand, heads held high, as family.