Morning Joe Re-Tweeted Me!

Probably not that big a deal, but made me feel good. I commented about the President's comments to withdraw troops from Afghanistan and how many service men I talk to believe in the mission. Someone at @Morning_Joe liked my comment enough to re-tweet it.
Excuse me while I deflate my pathetic ego.

Sgt. Jack William's Essay

The following essay was written by my good friend Jack Williams.  It has been printed by a few newspapers (mostly armed forces papers, but also a few smaller community newspapers).  It is reproduced here with his permission.  


He and I discussed getting his message out via the internet.  Please link to this post and share it with others.  Jack's perspective is that of the soldier at the tip of the spear.  It is important for folks back here (in the states) to hear how many in Afghanistan feel about their mission.




By STAFF SGT. JACK A. WILLIAMS

U.S. Air Force

As an active duty, Air Force medic, my four years' time in service, serving on the ground with the Army in Zabul Province, Afghanistan, has changed my perspective on combat, military sister services and my role as an Airman.

As my team approaches the halfway point of its deployment, I've been given an opportunity to demonstrate that an Airman on the ground can be a strong asset to the joint expeditionary team.

Here is my story.

The past four months have been both challenging and rewarding. I have learned and applied a lot of skills, leadership and personal restraint. I have performed cricothyroidotomy's (an emergency surgical opening, in the neck, used to establish an airway), needle decompressions, MedEvac'd critical patients following attacks, covered the bodies of my friends and leaders, performed detainee exams on the people who were responsible, pulled security on dismounted patrols, trained on a .50-caliber machine gun, treated both U.S. and Coalition soldiers, all on top of executing the mission of a Provincial Reconstruction Team.

President addresses Boy Scouts at National Jamboree

Via video.  He couldn't break away from fund raising and other commitments to show up in person.



But that is OK.  Ronald Reagan didn't attend the Jamborees while he was President (he sent his wife).  And Bill Clinton and GW only attended one of the Jamborees of the two that took place during their terms.  Bush Sr. attended during his first term - good thing, yes?  Maybe Obama is counting on a second term?

Some people - mostly those with Scouting backgrounds or sons and daughters at the Jamboree - are upset that the President of the United States could not find time to attend in person.  After all, he is the Honorary President of the National Organization.  It is also Scouting in the USA's 100th Anniversary.  Google "President Disses Boy Scouts" and you'll get a sense of the thoughts of our country.  More people seem upset about people being upset than anything else.  How dare the Boy Scouts 'expect' the President to show up?  Frugal Cafe' Blog Zone has a good sampling of what people are saying.

Boy Scout Jamboree’s 100th Anniversary vs. ‘The View’: Boy Scouts Lose, Obama to Appear with Daytime TV Harpies

 Jane Chastain lays her thoughts out very plainly in her posting on WorldNetDaily -

Obama disses the Boy Scouts

Truth be told (I'd tell nothing else), the Presidency and the Boy Scouts are not that tight.  You might think, given the number of Astronauts, prominent business men and entrepreneurs, and other popular figures (like

Fooled Again

Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

This kind of deceit seems to be the standard in journalism today. Sometimes deliberate, sometimes through ignorance, "facts" are misrepresented. Even in this article/post by Bob Cesca, information is distorted. In the second paragraph "The videos turned out to be misleading at best, and the fake pimp character went on to plead guilty to charges of entering federal property under false pretense." seems to imply the charges are a result of the ACORN videos. They are not. The charges involved a separate stunt played out by James O'Keefe and others and were not related to the Pimp and Prostitute videos investigating ACORN.

See how easy it is to mis-represent the facts. Certainly, I agree that both sides of the media are failing at being journalists. Where's Walter Cronkite when you need him? (please, no flames about Cronkite - tis a joke)

"Abuse of words has been the great instrument of sophistry and chicanery, of party, faction, and division of society." - Attributed to John Adams.

Morning Joe

During the school year I wake up to "Morning Joe"  with Joe Scarborough, Mika Brzezinski, Willie Geist, and a whole slew of regular guest commentators.  The show runs 6 to 9 AM and has a very contemporary feel.  The bumper music is usually 70's and 80' tunes.  Guests wander in and out of the show through-out the morning, almost like they have stopped by to grab their caffeine and then coincidently get drawn into the conversation.  There is not a lot of fluff and the hosts (Joe and Mika mostly - Willie is more of the useless trivia/news/comedy guy) do not always agree with each other, let alone their guests.  Discussions can get very heated.  True, each individual may have a bias on any topic, but due to the wide range of guests and opinions, at the end of the conversation you truly do get a balanced view of the news.  Honestly, it's about the only cable news I watch anymore.  Most of the cable news I cannot stomach.

There is one thing about "Morning Joe" that I cannot stomach -- Their Starbucks blend of coffee.  I was so excited when I found it on the shelves of Wal-mart, I took the bag home and took pictures of it next to my coffee mess.

Then I ran a pot . . .

I spent 6 years in the Navy.  I drank a lot of bad coffee.  I have stomached some of the most dangerous grounds ever percolated in a Boy Scout Camp.  I consider myself a professional on bad coffee.  I admit, I don't have the range of taste buds to appreciate the subtleties of better brews.  I didn't need to with this stuff.  It can't decide if it is a French Roast, a dark roast "wake-me-up", or a base for all the fancy slurryups coffee houses like to dump into otherwise perfectly good coffee.  I like my coffee sans everything.  If the brew can't go down on its own, it is no good.  I understand now why Joe always has creamers, flavored syrups, sugar, and ice in his coffee.  It is the only way to make it palatable.  Morning Joe Coffee - failed.

Buy a bag anyway and put it on your shelf.  It does look cool and I believe part of the proceeds are marked for charity (not sure - can someone find out?)

messages

This is one of those serendipitous moments that lets me know that God does try to give us messages. I recently posted a poem by Darrell Scott.

Yesterday, my boss brought back information about our schools re-authorization process. Although we are a private alternative educational placement, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Department of Education still 'approves' our program.

Start with an insane list of data. Insane because we must go back three years into our old records and pull out information that we were never tracking because the decision to track this information was just made - oh, and by the way, we are going to so poorly phrase the directions for data collection that most of the information is going to be useless because the different programs collecting it are going to record it in different ways. For example --

"C. Average Daily Attendance for AEDY student population at every grade level."

What? How do you calculate this? From the FAQ --

Q: For data reporting purposes, how should AEDY programs determine “Average Daily Attendance?”

A: Average Daily Attendance should be calculated by taking the daily attendance of your student population by grade level (# of students you have in school that day by grade level) and dividing by the daily membership (# of students your AEDY program serves by grade level, even if they are absent that day).

That looks like the formula for a percentage. Not an average!!!

How about these two items.

M. Of the number of students in column B, how many at every grade level passed all 4 core content subjects (science, math, English, and social studies) while in your program?

N. Of number of students in column B, how many at every grade level passed at least 3 of 4 core content subjects (science, math, English, and social studies) while in your program?

Do I recount the students who passed 4 core content subjects for item N? They did pass at least 3 of 4 core content subjects. What if someone else doesn't? Then the data collected is useless. I do not have a problem collecting and submitting data if it is a useful exercise. This is going to be a very time consuming and useless exercise.

AND NOW THE KICKER -- Going back to my original thought. Darrell Scott wrote this poem which I read in the intro to Chuck Norris' autobiography. I post it on my blog. Next day I start reviewing this packet of information regarding the application for our school. The first page I randomly flip to when I get the packet - the first item my eyes fall upon is as follows --

(3) A private alternative education institution shall: . . .(III) Be nonsectarian in all operations and shall not provide any religious instruction, nor shall it display religious objects and symbols on the premises of the institution.

No God - in any form - allowed.

(FYI - 2008/09 AEDY Guidelines)

Darrell Scott Poem

I finished reading "Against All Odds - My Story" by Chuck Norris. Of course, it was about Chuck Norris. The first item in the book is dedication to Rachel Joy Scott. Rachel was one of the victims of the Columbine shooting. (Rachel Scott Dedication Site).

Her father, Darrell Scott, wrote a poem that Chuck Norris included in the opening of his book. With school starting in just a week, I though it would be appropriate to post it.

Your laws ignore our deepest needs
Your words are empty air.
You've stripped away our heritage.
You've outlawed simple prayer.

Now gunshots fill our classrooms.
And precious children die.
You seek for answers everywhere.
And ask the question "WHY"?

You regulate restrictive laws.
Through legislative creed.
And yet you fail to understand.
That God is what we need!

Alive in Baghdad

One of the first video podcasts that I started viewing regularly was 'Alive In Baghdad'. AiB was started in 2005 when a disgruntled(?) reporter did not like what was being sent to American news viewers. The "sound-bite driven" news models needed to be countered. The gist of AiB is that Iraqis film and produce segments from their perspective with the help of their American counterparts. AiB attempts to post a new segment each week.

The podcast has been very informative and does a great job of presenting a third view to what is going on in Iraq. The site is well worth checking out. Earlier in the school, when we had fewer students and I had more time, I would show the AiB segments to the students in the morning.

Click on the banner to go to the Alive in Baghdad site.

Where are you politically? A short Test.

I have found an interesting little quiz for you to take. It rates your political stance. It is very short (eight questions), requires no registration, and prints your results on a cool little chart.

First, Go to the Test --

Then come back here and post your result so we can see how we score as a group.

Get Free Opinion Polls

I look forward to seeing our results!

A discussion will follow.

24

I won't take the time to link to all the left wing web sites that are carrying critiques of all the torture scenes in '24' and using the fall-out to slam the Bush White House. Just google '24 torture' and you will get enough hits to keep you busy. Well . . . Ok, here are a few sites -

http://www.usatoday.com/life/television/news/2005-03-13-24-torture_x.htm
http://www.starpulse.com/news/index.php/2007/02/13/us_military_slams_24_torture_scenes http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0212/p99s01-duts.html
http://thinkprogress.org/2007/02/13/torture-on-24/

BOTTOM LINE -- '24' is a FICTIONAL TV SHOW!!!!!

It is not real. Most of the show is not even plausible. To think that people in the military use Jack Bauer as a model for conducting interrogation is . . .Lame. Sure, Jack is inflicting pain on the bad guys every week and the rag heads are always the bad guys (and that is not even true).

But Boy-oh-boy -- It is good entertainment. It is like the old cliff hangers. Mom and I make a point of watching it every Monday Night. She missed last weeks episode because she was at a Red Hat meeting. In the end, Jack Buaer will probably find out that the whole conspiracy being masterminded by the Red Hat Society. Or, is that real life? I can't remember.