Link Dump 23 July – Opening The Ball Valve With The Sanitary Tank Pressurized Edition
Got some house movin’ to do here. You know how it is. I think I’ll drive the first car 1800 miles the last day of the packout to get to the corporately owned government housing office (“we don’t acknowledge you exist ’til you’re here in person and checked out of the previous command”) by Friday, then fly back on my own nickel and drive the second car loaded with the stuff the movers won’t take (like the Chap Memorial Booze Preserve Of Bottles Too Good Too Open By Myself and all those cleaning supplies) while my better half takes kids and pets on a plane by herself in a Relaxing Journey Of Adventure.
Oh what fun.
Speaking of fun, I detect a trend here. Any guesses?
- This lovely person’s post about ’supporting the troops’ was recommended by the Chronicle of Higher Education. Combine that with Durham-in-Wonderland’s profiles of the Group of 88, example here and refutation of “it’s just a fringe element” here, and you see why I don’t intend to shell out fifty grand per year per kid on their undergrad degree, and why I get annoyed on campus all too often.
- Or you could combine it with this lovely person who calls it a “Killitary” with specious logic “proving” we’re all evil, or this one who says “So to sum up, I don’t like our troops, I don’t like what they’re doing, I don’t like their fat, whining families, and yet, I support them.“, and just feel so good about the people who care so much about supporting the troops.
- The insufferable Chris Hedges, who Lex commented on last week, has a longer excretion in the Nation. I just figured out who the co-author is–the unrepentant and Columbia-educated daughter of convicted terrorist abettor and university professor Sami al-Arian.
- While the Nation goes for pseudointellectual bashing, the New Republic went for a more visceral approach, and “Scott Thomas” is going to be the usual story where something gets corrected six months later after the narrative is put into everybody’s head.
You know, a couple of weeks ago I went to Great Lakes, Illinois, where I went to boot camp and A school. I remember seeing Top Gun at the theater there, and the cheers rising up when a Navy Exchange coffee cup was shown prominently. I remember that was a big deal, seeing Navy in uniform on screen, being about the time the tide turned for the public view of the military–you know, Reagan-era and all that.
I wonder what will happen for the guys going to school up there today.
6 Responses to “Link Dump 23 July – Opening The Ball Valve With The Sanitary Tank Pressurized Edition”
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July 24th, 2007 at 5:56 am
Speaking as someone who attends a school that *only* costs 15k a year to attend (well, that’s just tuition…factor in everything else and it’s more like somewhere between 20-22k…anyway) I can say that at least at my university there is very little of your typical military bashing. I’ve had several interactions of a positive nature with people who were, shall we say, less than supportive of the military but who at least understood that I a) wasn’t directly responsible for “Bush’s war” and b) was actually a fellow human being even though I wear the uniform. Of course, a lot of that could be related to the fact that all the hard-asses have joined up with the military and the people willing to protest and vilify the military are too pansy to actually come right out and say it, because I do get the occasional dirty look walking around campus in uniform.
Granted, this is coming from someone who is both originally from and attends school in the Midwest, which isn’t exactly the same as the coasts. However, I can relate one story from a slightly more “mainstream” area of America…I just got back from 28 days of fun in the sun at Maxwell AFB attending Field Training for AFROTC. On the way back my flight passed through the Atlanta airport, which as you may or may not know is a major stepping off point for troops heading to the CENTCOM AOR. On the day we were passing through heading home there were 800 soldiers deploying back over to Iraq. When it came time for their deployment chalks to head to the plane they had to pass through the main atrium of the airport in order to get from the USO to their flight. When they headed out through the atrium a USO volunteer announced who they were and where they were going…everyone (and I mean everyone) in the atrium stood up and applauded and/or started cheering. It was pretty moving. You could definitely tell the troops appreciated it too…I remarked to a friend that you could tell which direction these guys were heading by looking at the faces; very intense, very locked up. When the applause and cheering started, you could see some of them release, if only for a second.
On a bit more of a personal note to yourself, I saw three chalks pass through. Of the three chalks, two of them had 1 or two personnel wearing DCUs with U.S. NAVY above the left breast pocket.
July 24th, 2007 at 7:11 am
So, didya get any onya? You can’t avoid the smell, just try to avoid acquiring the obvious stains.
July 24th, 2007 at 10:47 pm
Moving to a new duty station always irritated the crap out of me while I was in – so many stupid rules to make your life miserable and drain your bank account. Not to mention having to watch the movers like hawks. I finally got smart (enough to beat the system) on my last move . I did like you’re doing – half DITY, half movers. I took all my valuables with me in a U-Haul (made them pay for the addition of a hitch to my van) and let the movers take what I didn’t care if it got scratched or broken.
July 25th, 2007 at 6:58 pm
Good luck with the move Shipmate!
July 26th, 2007 at 12:44 pm
[...] under the misapprehension that the Left still supports our troops, check out this post by Chap at Chapomatic. If the links he posts don’t make you angry, you’re a stronger person than I am. If [...]
July 31st, 2007 at 6:41 pm
Grrrrrr…
I’m a ‘Nam era vet. Oh, do I remember the frequent cold atmospheres we who were in uniform encountered at the height of the anti-war fervor during the early 70’s. And I was in the Coast Guard!
I’m really worried about a repeat of the anti-military meme from that bad time, though from what I am seeing in the media and here in the blogosphere the attempts by various types to resurrect anti-mil animosity do get shut down (mostly). Plus, the tales (reports, stories, etc.) of warm, emotionaly uplifting public regard for military people relieve my apprehensions quite a bit.
I can’t help being pessimistic, however. Though (hopefully) it’s because of my own experiences while I was in uniform… okay, probably because I read Kipling’s “Tommy” at an early age, too.