09:35 – It was a lot chillier when I took Colin out this morning, 17.5F (-8C). It’s supposed to warm up a bit over the next few days.
FedEx showed up yesterday with my order from LDS online, a case of six #10 cans of dehydrated onions and two 100-packs of oxygen absorbers. The box was emblazoned with the LDS logo and its contents, so now the FedEx guy also knows I’m a prepper. Not that that matters much. Preppers are pretty thick on the ground around here. As is true of any rural area, it’s more common for people around here to have deep pantries than not.
With only the first 10% of February gone, we’re at 33% of last February’s kit revenues. We’re getting low stock on all of our science kits, so we spent some time yesterday making up chemical bags for chemistry kits. Next up is forensics kits. A multiple order late yesterday took us down to just one of those in stock, so we’ll get another batch made up. After that, biology kits, which we’re down to only half a dozen of. And amongst all this, I have to work on taxes. Grrrr.
* * * * *
My impression from abroad is that Trump’s momentum is slowing. It was really nice seeing him take one strong action each day, for the first 10 days or so. Or is he continuing, and the press here is just getting tired of reporting on it?
I was pleased to see a much more balanced view of Trump on last night’s news. Usually, the news here is all “in shock” at what he’s doing. Last night, they spent equal time considering the possibility that he actually knows what he’s doing; that there is a method behind the madness. Which is what I sincerely hope…
I’m curious about one thing: The reports that he has had one-on-one conversations with various other national leaders, and pissed them off. If these were private conversations, how is it that anyone knows what actually happened? None of the reports I’ve seen actually say where they got their information.
—
Edit: I see that the Washington Post has retracted it’s claim about Trump’s phone call with the Mexican president. Apparently, President Sanchez has publicly stated that it was a fine, polite, constructive discussion. With no threats of military invasion, etc, as claimed by the US press.
The US MSM makes Joe Isuzu look honest.
Hah, I actually worked with the actor that played Joe Izuzu on a project for…. Izuzu. Nice guy and genuinely funny.
n
The box was emblazoned with the LDS logo and its contents, so now the FedEx guy also knows I’m a prepper.
Or he thinks that you are Mormon.
40 years ago, when I went through Southern Baptist elementary school, the doctrine taught behind closed doors was that being involved with LDS was essentially cavorting with Satan. Times have changed, but the old prejudice dies hard south of the Manson-Nixon line.
Most people assume that Mormon = Prepper, but the reality is that less than 10% of Mormon families follow LDS preparedness guidelines. If there’s any anti-Mormon sentiment locally, I’m unaware of it.
Oh, and radical SB’s believe anyone who’s not a radical SB is cavorting with satan.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2ui5MRA15A
“Oh, and radical SB’s believe anyone who’s not a radical SB is cavorting with satan.”
In my neighborhood growing up, we didn’t have mormons or witnesses going door to door saving souls, we had SB’s. One of the largest congregations at the time was not very far from my home, and they had an aggressive busing program.
When you saw the people in white shirt, dark pants, women in long skirts or culottes, with their bikes, you knew you were gonna get some questions. Like “Do you know where you are going to go when you die?” That was one of my favorites, because I’d answer “I’m going to heaven, ‘cuz I asked the Lord Jesus to be my personal lord and saviour.” ” OH! Are you a Baptist?” “Nope, Catholic.” {shocked silence and hasty departure} Wouldn’t want to get those papist cooties on you!
n
Oh, and radical SB’s believe anyone who’s not a radical SB is cavorting with satan.
Sure. We got the same spiel about Judaism and even Catholicism.
Ironically, the building that housed the SB school is now a Scientology-run K-8 academy.
Clearwater, FL … You will be assimilated … Resistance is futile.
40 years ago, when I went through Southern Baptist elementary school, the doctrine taught behind closed doors was that being involved with LDS was essentially cavorting with Satan.
Well, the view of most Christian theologians is that they are at best heretics or are non-Christian polytheists. That says nothing about them as persons, btw.
Heh, I went to a church like that in the Seventies. And I drove one of the buses. Took me nine months on and off to get a licence on an old bus with a crash gearbox with double clutching.
One if the guys would pick up hitch hikers and ask “Where are you going?”
“Um, Brighton.”
“No, heaven or hell?”
Not a bad conversation opener.
Of course, I thought all Catholics, Anglicans, Presbyterians, etc, etc were going to hell.
LDS are heretics, but nice heretics. I’ve never met a Mormon I don’t like. Scientologists and Jehovahs Witnesses? That’s a different story.
I haven’t had a JW come to the door in 20 years. Have they all died out from lack of blood transfusions?
I was raised in the Protestant Episcopal Church of the United States of America, with the 1928 Prayer Book and the KJV. I was in the Episcopal Youth Fellowship and an acolyte; later, a church school teacher and a verger, and acolyte trainer.
Roman Catholic since Easter of 1996; when the JWs and Mormons come by, I like to invite ’em on in, ’cause I have some questions for them. Although the last guy beat a hasty retreat when I started using Latin words and phrases and waxing on about the Tridentine Rite and how I’m a Traditionalist Roman Catholic, etc., etc. I didn’t even get to my questions. And he didn’t get beyond his first.
Incidentally, Extra Ecclesiam nulla salus.
Overcast and in the teens earlier, amazingly like Sparta, NC this morning. Did the dump run, all new guys down there; my gun guy is probably semi-retired and still recovering from serious heart troubles; and my fellow ‘Nam vet is busy these days at the Snake House down in Montpeculiar.
Mrs. OFD is clearing out the back porch and organizing her studio again, and I’m on the bathroom cleanup detail. She is concerned that the house is settling or shifting and that all my books are causing the walls to cave in. I explained a few things and we agreed to get the building inspector by to take another look just to be on the safe side. There are braces under the beams in a couple of places in the cellar and a nearly 200-year-old house in this climate could not help but shift a little over time.
30 years ago a new grad from Purdue hired in to work with us. Not knowing any LDS’s back in Indiana, he found it interesting that he now worked met one in our group.
He then posed a question that the rest of us did not like as the LDS fellow was a really good guy: “If all these religions are telling you something different, how do you know which one is right?”
Well, we all indicated a subject change, not out of PC, but because the LDS guy was our friend and co-worker.
Otherwise, I would have responded with a correction to the question, rather than an answer: “”If all these religions are telling you something different, why would you think that any one of them is right?”
When we lived in Winston, we used to get proselytizers coming to our door, including SBs, JWs, LDS, and some real lunatics, including PETA. All of them fled in terror when I told them I was a meat-eating atheist.
In Sparta, we never have people coming to our door other than neighbor kids raising funds and so on. The only way I know if people are religious of any type is if they happen to mention it in passing conversation, “I have to pick up my wife at church,” and similar. People up here tend to mind their own business.
“Incidentally, Extra Ecclesiam nulla salus.”
Do you mean the Catholic church or Christian church?
My first Bible was Good News for Modern Man, then the Living Bible, and then (since 1974) the KJV. I tried in about 1988 to get into the NIV, but didn’t enjoy it. The sooks at my church didn’t like the old words and phrases in the KJV. Plus there are translation issues with it (the NIV).
I got a copy of the Vulgate in around 1987 when I started learning Latin, and a NT Greek Bible at about the same time. Spent a year in 1993 learning NT Greek from an Anglican canon who died on me at the end of that year. He said I’d have to do another year to become fluent.
See, there ya go; all ya need is the KJB, Vulgate, and the Greek NT. Between them, you can figure it all out.
We used to be encouraged to get a copy of the Douay Bible, to put the idoloters at ease before we tried to save them from hell. Apparently it’s not so different from the KJV.
Seriously Dave, relapsing from Protestantism to Idolotry is like going from modern Western medicine to traditional Chinese medicine. Do you really believe a guy in Rome in a white dressing gown has a hotline to God?
I like the poetry of the KJV. The major problem with it is that some words have changed meaning since then. The NRS fixed that, but lost some of the poetry.
I use the New Scofield Reference Bible, fisrst published in about 1967. Many old words that have changed meaning, like “prevent”, have been updated.
“Man will not be free until the last king is strangled with the intestines of the last priest. And going door-to-door to make converts looks like being a priest to me.” Not the cleverest line, but results speak for themselves. Helps to say it without slightest hint of facial or vocal expression.
I used it only once, on a whim. Usually I’d tell them I was not interested or that I’m an atheist, with a 0-to-90-in-0.4-seconds profanity slam if they try to squeeze in “just one little word, if you don’t mind”.
“Do you really believe a guy in Rome in a white dressing gown has a hotline to God?”
This is a variation of the ad hominem attack and one used quite regularly by the fundie Prods, before they skip on to the Scarlet Whore of Rome and the Death Cookie. And of course, making up the supposed theology as a cartoon.
And looky here, more info on the quote posted by Mr. SteveF:
https://history.stackexchange.com/questions/27328/did-diderot-say-men-will-never-be-free-until-the-last-king-is-strangled-with-th
Coming from atheist froggies….
And the land of the French Revolution, the guillotine, and the massacres in the Vendee….
being involved with LDS was essentially cavorting with Satan
My family is Mormon. At a young age I was taken to church every Sunday morning and evening as my parents tried to raise me as a good Mormon. Then I hit 7 and went to live with an aunt and uncle. Spent alternating years with them and the parents until I was 11 when the parents got divorced.
As much as some of the teachings of the church I do not agree with I still think positively of the Mormon church. The church significantly helped my mother after the divorce and without the help of the church she probably would not have made it.
Case in point is when she had to move from Wrightwood (because of the divorce) to Victorville. About 30 members of the church showed up with dollies, carts, trucks and pickups. People were packing, loading a good half of the day. Then everyone headed to Victorville where they unloaded and put away everything. Even had a meal prepared for us that night. Such a move for my mother would have been impossible without their help.
Worked with a Mormon while in the USAF. Chap was a nice guy, single, and pretty much kept to himself. One Friday he says he is taking leave to go find a bride. Asked if he already had a girlfriend and he said no. Two weeks later he returns with his bride. She was just like him.
As for me I left the Mormon church. Probably almost as hard a renouncing a US citizenship. Multiple letters, a couple of visits, to remove me from the church roles. Even then I am probably still in their archives but at least I don’t get mailings and visits anymore. Older brother and his wife, nephew’s family and a cousin are still deeply involved. Good for them if it makes them happy.
I have never known a Morman whom I did not consider a good, decent person. I cannot say the same for any other group, including atheists, although they come close.
Well, there are a billion-plus Roman Catholics so the law of averages alone militates for some percentage being relatively decent people. I hope so, anyway, lol.
We have more Mormons than you’d think up here in Vermont; Joseph Smith’s birthplace is down in the tropical jungle area of the state, in Sharon, and some millionaire Morman exec was in the process of building a new and kinda large community there but I’ve heard nothing much since. If the people are coming from warmer areas of the country with longer growing seasons, they’d have a time getting used to this climate, even down in the southern part of the state. Plus Mud Season, which bums even the locals out if it hangs on too long.
Of course our Alaskan correspondent must laugh herself silly over my tales of cold and snow here. Do they even have summer up there??
Yeah, they do.
In August before the 1980 election I was on the phone with one of my Alaska volunteers. It was stifling in DC, and I remarked in passing that I wished I were up there, where it was cooler. She started laughing, and told me it was currently 88F there.
I have never known a Morman whom I did not consider a good, decent person.
At the time, SB church teachings also held that “Three’s Company” was a sign the apocalypse was nigh. Jack Tripper, Antichrist.
My parents pulled us out of that school when they started showing us films about The Rapture where characters who refused “The Mark” would be taken out and beheaded by minions of the Beast.
I don’t think the films worked as intended. We were 11, and, to the boys, naturally, the beheading scenes were cool. The girls were bored … except when they were rolling their eyes at the boys’ reactions.
Wife’s mother’s family was LDS but she really didn’t follow. Neither did MIL as FIL was not into anything, like myself. We did get married at a protestant church my fam belonged too.
They are pretty good people. I worked for some at an accounting office in the early 80s. One junior accountant and myself were the only heretics out of a dozen peeps. The only objection I had was they always wanted to do business with LDS members if they could. Not always the best choice especially for my part as the IT guy.
Nowadays, wife daughter and daughter’s bf are all RC. I’m still damned.
In August before the 1980 election I was on the phone with one of my Alaska volunteers. It was stifling in DC, and I remarked in passing that I wished I were up there, where it was cooler. She started laughing, and told me it was currently 88F there.
When we lived up there, we always made a point of getting out of Portland July 4th Weekend. The 2-3 weeks after the Equinox typically featured 100+ degree highs.
“I’m still damned.”
Nah. Have them set you up with the local RCIA program at the nearest parish. No, wait—I’m not even that mean. They make new aspiring Catholics go through this nearly year-long course of weekly meetings and it’s set to the lowest common denominator of understanding, which I get that they kinda have to do it that way. So you’d find people from totally non-churched anywhere in any religion up through smartasses like me, who’d been a lifelong Episcopalian/Anglican and a very well-read one, too. But oh Lordy, it is the most insipid and banal and treacly stretch I’ve had to go through in a very long time.
If anyone here ever does plan to become a Roman Catholic, see if you can find another way around doing the RCIA thing. Yikes.
“Jack Tripper, Antichrist.”
Nah, he wasn’t the Anti-Christ, just a poor struggling soul in the fevered clutches of those two ravenous scarlet women, probably Roman Catholic strumpets.
For a real blast, check out the comic strips put out by Jack Chick.
“See, there ya go; all ya need is the KJB, Vulgate, and the Greek NT. Between them, you can figure it all out.”……nor Latin.
None of that will do you any good. At the time, Jesus and those in that region spoke Aramaic:
https://www.amazon.com/Original-Aramaic-Testament-Plain-English/dp/1435712897/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1486243026&sr=8-4&keywords=aramaic+bible+in+plain+english
Nah, he wasn’t the Anti-Christ, just a poor struggling soul in the fevered clutches of those two ravenous scarlet women, probably Roman Catholic strumpets.
I don’t remember any of the sermons and boycotts being very effective. If anything, they probably drove people to tune in out of curiosity.
Real heresy didn’t last long on TV back then. “A Year at the Top” marked the end of Norman Lear’s hot streak, and I don’t believe Paul Shaffer’s career ever really recovered even with his later success on Letterman’s show.
“At the time, Jesus and those in that region spoke Aramaic…”
Along with Hebrew, Koine Greek, Old Judean, and Latin. Jesus probably spoke Western Aramaic.
But all of that was superseded by late Elizabethan/early Jacobean English, you see. And nothing much better has come along since then, despite changes in meanings of a few words here and there.
Wow, I’d never heard of “A Year at the Top,” and had to look it up. But what about the current tee-vee series “Lucifer?”
But what about the current tee-vee series “Lucifer?”
The wife and I have decided that “Lucifer” is the old Greek gods dressed up with Christian names to make it interesting. Unless, Lilith was the mother of the angels and the wife of God.
Wow, I’d never heard of “A Year at the Top,” and had to look it up. But what about the current tee-vee series “Lucifer?”
Times have changed. “NCIS” is the #1 network drama with 12 million viewers on average. Though, I do think Nielsen underreports the broadcast networks numbers.
I’ve had a SB tell me that I was going to Hell for suggesting that Jesus probably didn’t speak with the diction & vocabulary of early 17th century England. Back in junior high, we had a group of officials at a local, SB run school call us blasphemers for a chant we had going just before a basketball game.
pcb_duffer, a hell-bound blasphemer….who knew???
I guess I’m going there with ya; I also am pretty sure He didn’t speak in early Jacobean English, but then again, He’s God, so He can speak however He wants, I reckon. And I seem to recall some pretty controversial chants and suchlike we had back there in high skool, among other things we did and said.
Well, at least it will be warm down there. Really warm.
Jack Chick used to like his Lake of Fire for heretics and idolators, esp. us Catholics. No more Death Cookies for us there!
“Seattle Judge Used Broad Power to Halt Executive Order”
https://www.wsj.com/articles/seattle-judge-used-broad-power-to-halt-executive-order-1486232039
I know of a judge who will not be advanced to a higher court anytime soon. Probably not for four years, maybe eight.
Ann Coulter for AG!
Mr. SteveF for SCOTUS! (He has extensive legal training, enough for those bozos, anyway)
Mr. Lynn for SecEnergy!
MrAtoz for SecUSAF or SecArmy, his choice, or both!
OFD for SecArts, or is that Farts, I forget…no more funding for chit like “Tongues Untied” and crucifixes in jars of urine.
…or Cuban artists here doing covers for Der Speigel Over There…
I know of a judge who will not be advanced to a higher court anytime soon. Probably not for four years, maybe eight.
Something is definitely odd. The judge has deep WA State ties, and the entire 9th circuit is dependent on visa labor. It will be interesting to watch.
Who else remembers what William Gates *II* did for a living? Microsoft’s Bill Gates is William Gates III.
All this talk of SBs reminds me of an old joke.
Why don’t SB have sex standing up?
They’re afraid if they’re caught someone will think they were dancing.
“At the time, Jesus and those in that region spoke Aramaic”
True, but the oldest NT writings are in Greek and date from 150 to 350 AD.
About 30 members of the church showed up with dollies, carts, trucks and pickups.
Their propensity to help their community and others is a positive aspect of the LDS church.
Writings being one thing and everyday speech another. The late Anglican Bishop John. A. T. Robinson redated the NT to much closer than hitherto been thought to Christ’s ministry. In any case, it was a polyglot back then in what is now Israel. And then there was Pentecost.
OFD has minimal experience with SB’s up here in New England; it’s mostly RCs, and then the “mainline” Protestant denominations, which are dwindling fast. Regular Baptists here in Vermont, though, plus Mormons and Buddhists and Jews, the latter two sticking mainly to Burlap, Montpeculiar and the college towns….hmmm…could there be a pattern here???
Off to the Land of Nod shortly; we got a lot done around here today; moved a heavy-ass farm table from the back porch to wife’s studio, and now I gotta re-sort all the tools I had in the drawers. She got a bunch of junk off the back porch and I cleaned most of the bathroom nice and spic-an’-span. We did all this with temps in the low 20s and now the wind has kicked up again, after an absence of several days.
She’ll be back on her studio tomorrow and I’ll finish the bathroom and some other stuff and then cook up tacos for the Super Bowl. Exciting.
and
and
-shrug- Don’t get too bent out of shape about it. Fictional characters can speak in whatever language is convenient to the author or the audience.
Smart groups of smart people: Evidence for IQ as the origin of collective intelligence in the performance of human groups
The intelligence of a group depends on the intelligence of its members, in particular its most intelligent members. Nicey-nice turn taking doesn’t matter. Nicey-nice sensitivity doesn’t matter. Sex balance in the group doesn’t matter. Not addressed by the paper, but it’s reasonable to suspect that racial balance, sexual preference balance, religious balance, and beans-or-no-beans-in-chili balance don’t matter either.
Gee, who ever could have suspected such a finding?
(Just be cautious of the low replicability of social science studies.)
Do they even have summer up there??
Nope. Nothing but 6′ deep snow and 0 kelvin all year round. Sun never rises so we are overrun by vampires…
Fairbanks summers are routinely warm enough to bring tomatoes to ripeness without a greenhouse. And corn.
Anchorage, well, we have our ‘warm’ days. Tomatoes want a greenhouse, or at least black pots and a wall that reflects heat.
The day we got married was a scorcher. Hit the low 80’s I think. Before you scoff, the visiting California contingent were unprepared for the ‘heat’ and were sweltering. Heh.
Weather isn’t what it was a couple decades ago. Winters seem less snowy, less frigid, with more thaw cycles and ice. Summer’s have been warmer and perhaps rainier. Very subjective.
That being said? We have had enough snow recently that two nonobaddogs hurled themselves over the 4′ back fence despite thei apparent lack of legs. And we had a couple cold spells that ran down to -20 F like the bad old days. -20F is just as horrifically uncomfortable as it sounds.
Bring it on. Drive out the namby pamby Californians and special snowflakes.
DH wrote:
“For a real blast, check out the comic strips put out by Jack Chick.”
I liked the scene where Rome got nuked.
And here’s something to bring back memories:
https://www.chick.com/reading/books/153/153_04.asp
Chick books were a bit of a laugh but This Was Your Life was one of his better efforts.
That being said? We have had enough snow recently that two nonobaddogs hurled themselves over the 4′ back fence despite thei apparent lack of legs. And we had a couple cold spells that ran down to -20 F like the bad old days. -20F is just as horrifically uncomfortable as it sounds.
Oh my ! I really liked the dog video the other day, that was cool. And, a lot of dogs ! We have one dog and one cat, that is enough for us.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbJBN5_duSo
So, when there is four ft of snow on the ground, where do the dogs go potty ?
Dave, if you want a recessionproof job for life try this…
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-02-05/coffin-making-in-demand-but-bigger-caskets-needed/8237028
where do the dogs go potty ?
They hold it until spring?
Fortunately we didn’t get it all at once.
The two youngsters gleefully fling themselves thru the snow and make trails. The oldsters follow along. They manage. The front yard is all stomped down now. About 8-12″ compressed. Breakup is going to be painful this spring.
Four dogs is somehow, in defiance of mathematics, more than 3+1 dogs. Many more. Closely resembles a hoard.
Too many, in point of fact.
The young male is tentatively moving to Sitka come April. If he makes nice with the family dog of the household he’ll be visiting, he will get to stay. He will thrive down there. Many wilderness walks, deer hunting, a real paradise. The family that is considering him has had two of his relatives.
I’d like to keep him but he is not keen on ‘pretend’ sheep herding. He likes herding if it is true farm work, if there are no fences. As soon as he figures out he is practicing for sheep herding trials he quits working. He would be a very good working dog as he has intelligence and power and loves real work. I live in town and herding is a hobby. I have no farm and no work for him. His sister, aunt and uncle are great herders and care not that what we do is ‘pretend’. I suspect they are not quite as bright as my boy.
It looks like the Washington judge made his call on the “imminent harm” that certain companies might suffer, if their H1B visa-holders can’t travel. That’s a purely local and purely selfish judgement. I can’t see how that can possibly override the Presidential power to determine who can enter the country. The appeal ought to be a slam-dunk.
@Jenny: Working dogs are a marvel. My wife has a kelpie (Australian herd dog). He’s just totally nuts about herding, and since we have no “real” work for him, he’ll herd anything at all: mice he terrifies in the forest, stuffed animals, cats, whatever. He’s just totally driven, and it’s essential to keep him occupied. Fortunately, he’s not smart enough to realize when something is make-work, so any activity will do.
Our other dog is an “accident” – a cross between two working breeds on neighboring farms – and is too damned smart for his own good. Unfortunately, he is also a total chicken, which leads to situations like this morning, where he was finding overly clever ways to escape having his toenails trimmed (at 14, he’s no longer active enough to keep them worn down).
H1B visas – what a rort.
Okay guys, ideological blinkers OFF! What use is the Department of Education? Liberals are slagging Betsy DeVos, not wanting her confirmed as SecEd. Would we better off without it?
There is no evidence that a federal DOEd has done any good, and the correlation between the size of the Department and the decline in academic performance leads me to conclude that it does NOT promote the general welfare.
Reagan tried to end it, and failed. Perhaps tRump will succeed.
“The Senate has shown its collective judgment is that we do not need a Secretary of Education. We cannot have a department without a head, and so I will be following the Senate’s implicit instructions and disband the US Department of Education.”
All of the SB comments here remind me of a funny story a friend told me. A friend of his was a very good black male English teacher, and Catholic. He tells a story that indicates why our schools are in such a sad state. A black female SB Social Studies teacher lamented that he wasn’t a SB like their ancestors were when they came off the slave boats. Sadly, he believed she wasn’t joking.
What use is the Department of Education?
D.C. has some of the worst schools in the nation. If D.C. cannot handle their own education system they cannot handle the rest of the nation. DOE is there to employ the unemployable. People that have never been in the education system telling others how to run the education system.
I am just a sub at school, less than a year, but having actually been in a school makes me more qualified than Betsy DeVos who has never worked in a school system. She has no idea how schools work and is 100% unqualified for the role. The only reason that she was chosen is that she is rich and contributed to the republican party. Being rich is a qualification to which I will never obtain.
So the answer to the original question is: None.
Putting people who do not like the department, or value what it does in charge would normally be bad. IF the department is useless or harmful, then it’s neutral to good. If you want to reduce or disband the dept, then it’s an unqualified good.
How did she get rich? If it was by reducing headcount at a large corp, she’s perfect for the job, and will be fought tooth and nail by the headcount that doesn’t want to be reduced.
n
I started reading an attack on her role in the promotion of charter schools in Michigan, especially Detroit. It’s said that charter schools there perform very poorly. I wondered if it was a fair article but didn’t follow up on it.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2016/12/08/a-sobering-look-at-what-betsy-devos-did-to-education-in-michigan-and-what-she-might-do-as-secretary-of-education/?utm_term=.b223d985dd2e
MrAtoz for SecUSAF or SecArmy, his choice, or both!
The USAF is just a spin off of the Army. I’ll bring them back under the Army’s “wing” when I combine the two.
Washington Post article. The opposition to charter schools is all about teachers’ unions and overpaid administrators. Everything I see shows charter and private schools far ahead of public education.
The Strategic Air Command as a separate military branch makes sense. The tactical and operational level air should be under Army command, to keep their focus on the mission. (No, dumbasses, the F-16 “properly configured” is not an acceptable replacement for the A-10.)
“I’ll bring them back under the Army’s “wing” when I combine the two.”
Since 1947, what the old-timers called the “brown-shoe Air Force,” before that, Army Air Corps. I served with guys that had been in that outfit in the Good War.
And agreed with Mr. SteveF on SAC and the A10s.
Betsy DeVos is to not be trusted for 2 reasons, her religious views and Amway (been there, done that). Unfortunately I know the DeVos family (since 1979, going back to the patriarch Richard) and a better family of grifters and religious nutters would be hard to find. Be on the watch for red ties in the malls, restaurants, and other public places.
Again, if the aim is to hobble or eliminate, the education credentials don’t matter, but an overwhelming belief in self is critical.
n
Some people at the church I attended in the Seventies in Adelaide were into Amway in a big way. I always thought of them as nutcases, taking a job of last resort.
Imagine my surprise then when highly capable friends at my church in Canberra rang one evening in the late Eighties, told me they were getting into Amway, and invited me to dinner at their place, where all would be explained. I didn’t speak for five seconds, from shock, as I tried to figure this out. I think they knew instantly that I was skeptical, but I went along to the dinner and presentation anyway. I bought some stuff but didn’t get involved as a seller. I think my friends left Amway a few years later, no explaination as to why.
Yeah, I remember the Amway scam from back in the late 70s, too, when one of my former high skool buddies showed up with the schtick; I’d been back from working for Uncle for several years and had zero interest, even with unemployment in MA then being (officially) around 15% (we can safely double that for real numbers, of course). I was either at my night shift factory job or working as a small-town cop, I forget.
The turn-off for me was the pseudo-religious Prod angle.
I sincerely hope tRump & Co. shut down a big chunk of the Cabinet-level leviathans and behemoths like the Department of Education, so-called. Sadly, I don’t expect any cuts in DOD and the perfumed princes of the Pentagon, ever, apparently. But please, no more wars, guys? Pretty please?
Sadly, I don’t expect any cuts in DOD and the perfumed princes of the Pentagon, ever, apparently.
You know, for some reason I get the feeling that Mattis does not like perfumed princesses. You know2, the old USMC thing about picking up a rifle and standing a post on the border. One gets the feeling that the princesses were too busy perfuming to pick up a rifle.
But please, no more wars, guys? Pretty please?
Good luck with that. New war or old war ? We’ve only got 40 or 50 wars running at the moment. Maybe your friend and mine will nuke our old friends in Iran. Or use a MOAB or 50 on their missile development area(s). Maybe get the Norks missile development area too as a bonus !
“Six Seconds Of Iraq Valor Saved Dozens”
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/six-seconds-of-iraq-valor-saved-dozens/
A sad example of Marines standing a post until the bitter end.
“A sad example of Marines standing a post until the bitter end.”
Requiescant in pace, et Semper Fi, fratres.
Meanwhile, I hope Mattis at least gets the chance to clean out the Pentagon and all the services of all the dead wood, perfumed princes and princesses, and super-PC ass-kissers but I won’t hold my breath.
I figure if you barricade the Pentagon, you can get everyone in one place and group by rank. Kill all of the generals and admirals, half of the colonels/captains, a quarter of the Lt. colonels/commanders, and so on. I’m not sure what to do about the civilians, but firing everyone but the janitors and maintenance guys should be a noncontroversial way of dealing with them.
I have read the message posted by Mr. SteveF, thoroughly considered it with all the implications, and:
I APPROVE!
WRT reducing the size, complexity, and cost of gooberment: If 4 cabinet level positions were good enough for George Washington it ought to be good enough for us.
And don’t forget my recommendation to get rid of all HVAC in DC and all state capitals. And I’d like to add to do away with indoor plumbing there too.
Back to basics. KISS.
I have read the message posted by Mr. DadCooks, thoroughly considered it with all the implications, and :
I APPROVE!