One year old.
There were two points prior to May 9th, 2010, where someone as lazy as me might have blogged. The first was Gulf War One. The malfeasance and betrayal by our government enraged me far beyond anything else, ever.
(And please remember what ensued from that half-assed war. Bin Laden used American American ”infidels” stationed in Saudia Arabia to recruit and vastly expand Al Qaeda. And so, though he’s a heroic WWII veteran, GHW Bush is also a Ruling Class moron.)
I would have started blogging then, just to vent steam. But…1990-1991? Tricky.
No need to guess the next point.
I lived in Long Island and worked at Brookhaven at the time. About forty miles from Ground Zero. Most people probably can’t reflexively remember what day of the week 9/11 was. It was Tuesday.
I had a Tuesday digital filmmaking course in Connecticut, at Purchase College. Of course there was no class on 9/11, but there was a week later. I set off west down the LIE (Long Island Expressway), to hang the right at NYC and zoom up into Connecticut.
Never made it.
Traffic was almost synonymous with “parking”. When I finally gave up, eight or ten miles from Ground Zero, it took an hour just to reach the next offramp.
I spent most of that time staring at Ground Zero. Ten miles out, but I could see exactly where it was. Because a column of smoke was still rising, rubble smoldering seven days later.
That’s when I started reading Instapundit, various early adopters, even Andrew Sullivan for a few months. There was so much happening, and so much to catch up on. But rather than diving into the commentariat, I reverted to pure infovore.
Earlier that year, in March 2001, Robert Byrd repeatedly used the word “niggers” in a speech. He, of course, suffered no penalty for something that would destroy any non-Democratic politician. In love with a black woman at the time, I vowed to bitch-slap Byrd if he ever drew near me. And my utter, undying hatred of the Democratic Party was born.
I thank God Almighty that I will live forever and that despicable thing will not.
Oh yes, I could have blogged up a vengeance during 2001. But I still tried, pitifully, to win a woman’s heart. My love was never requited, but I don’t regret discovering that I’m capable of it.
That said, don’t expect me to go through that again.
So what, at age 47, finally got me to blogging? You guys. Fellow citizens and liberty-loving non-Americans. What motivated me wasn’t the Ruling Class mobsters. I’ve been watching them for a quarter-century. Sometimes yelling about them, too. Audiences yawned.
It was lonely. A life of watching the U.S. government gradually turn into the very thing it had been created to oppose…just as the Founders had warned. “Look, look!” Audiences yawned. America was the mythical “frog in slowly heated water”.
It was so bad that the second President Bush, also a Ruling Class moron, ran on a platform called ”compassionate conservatism”. You know. What actual compassionate people call “charity” or “alms”. Voluntary socialism.
But of course what Dubya wanted was involuntary socialism. Or, as I call it, “slavery”. And the Republican Party, mostly led by Ruling Class morons, went along.
Then Obama won by lying through his teeth about fiscal policy. But guess what? He’s the moroniest of the Ruling Class morons. See, he talked moderation and the leftists and media all knew he was lying. And he knew they knew it. So, being a moron, he assumed moderate and independent voters knew it too.
So he yanked that thermostat way, way up.
And that’s still not why I blog. The heat’s been rising my whole life, and you guys always yawned. After GHW Bush got away with Gulf War One I basically gave up on you. My response to Obama’s power grabs was, “wow, looks like we’re near the end.” But then…and this is the reason I blog:
The froggie jumped!
The Tea Parties haven’t said anything new to me. The change is hearing it from others. Tens of millions of Americans still love liberty, and now I know it rather than forlornly wish it was so.
That’s why I blog. I’ve been like Mister Spock, understanding American tyranny thorooughly but not able to make the necessary human connections. But in mere months the Tea Partiers and “Don’t Tread On Me” Americans have stirred things up like twenty million Captain Kirks.
We’re all late bloomers, one way or another. I’ve been a male Cassandra for a quarter-century, all-seeing all but powerless to change anything. Tea Partiers are like Rip Van Winkle, waken to find that a century of ”progressivism” has stolen their birthrights. So they wiped the sleep from their eyes and immediately began punching Ruling Class morons out of office…in both parties.
They gave me hope. That was new.
I still don’t think America, as we knew it, will recover. We have to contend with statists (of both parties) and progressives and tens of millions of welfare-addicts. Now, if you millions of Captain Kirks could only follow my ruthless logical attack we’d break their wills and win with minimal violence. But you won’t be able to do it.
Failing that, they’re too far gone. All of them. From the Ruling Classless like Obama, in his utterly self-absorbed ivory tower, down to third-generation welfare addicts who just know that everyone else owes them a living. Their parents and folks like Obama told them so.
Oh, and don’t forget the “public” unions, which take human beings and turn them into swarming insects. We’re got to break them, too, and they like violence.
Oh well, another day. Those folks don’t come here, you do. Liberty-loving Americans and my foreign friends. You aren’t the reason for this blog. The purpose is to fight tyranny and destroy the Democratic Party. (Plus much of the Republican one, of course.)
(Oh, and the United Nations.)
You are the fuel of the blog. The engine. The source of its motive power. Because of you, because I hope.
I admit this blog should have started a decade ago. Can you Tea Partiers admit you should have woken up about twenty years ago? It’s okay! We can both use one of my favorite quotes. Let’s cheefully shout it in each other’s faces, laughing.
Then we turn to face our foes.
Gulf War I, I watched it happening live on TV, at work. Brought a TV in to the office, and it was on all day from when we got there, and we would gather around for the live bombing and invasion. We all shouted and gathered for the good TV crossings live from Peter Arnett in his hotel in Bhagdad, and debated just how good the two sides were in the conflict. Made for great daytime TV, better than any soapie.
Consensus was that the US military is good at blowing things up, but that they relied too much on technology, and not on winning the support of the populace.
Kind of proven later when the US went and blew up the poorest country in the world, and did not do much to change how it looks or runs.
Yeah, I was between outages as a contract nuker, so saw a lot of it.
It’s time to admit that Germany and Japan were flukes. Let’s quite the government-building futilities and get back to our core competencies.
Germany and Japan weren’t flukes, they were actual occupations that differed greatly from everything since.
Repeat that model of occupation and pretty much any post WWII conflict would have ended differently.
Yes, I was being a bit snarky. The big variable is probably the difference between “unconditional surrender” and “anything other than unconditional surrender”.
Yeah, the initial transfer via a complete surrender is major and something we seem to deliberately avoid putting someone in the position of doing post WWII. (For all the study of Clausewitz people in ‘leadership’ seem to like not comprehending it.)
On top of that though, the mechanics for occupations were so completely different (and less tolerant) and allowed much less contest of the victory.
Congratulations. How sad though that now that we have Teh Won and are enjoying prosperity in funemploymen.World peace with a Nobel Peace Prize Winner at the helm with a new position of throwing money at problems because it worked so well in Detroit. Gas prices that will give us a new invention called the horse and buggy.And to boot I hear that this administration is working on a scientific break thru that will keep us warm,Fire.Never mind you cant burn anything because it will kill Mother Earth. So I really dont understand why your still blogging.
It’s cheaper than partying, which I was never any good at anyway.
Germany and Japan were before the US military had their backsides served to them on a platter in South East Asia, and were defeated by an enemy that often had only the clothes they wore and the weapons they carried in most cases.
That has definitely changed how the military in the US looked at things and prepared for combat. No more massed forces meeting in a test of attrition, but a long series of small skirmishes, against an enemy who struck here and there and disappeared into the ground. Very demoralising to any on the receiving end.
But, I did meet a guy after the peace, very intelligent, very clued up, spoke good Russian. We compared notes, and found we at times were in the same place at the same time, on opposite sides. Both of us agreed that it was good their guys were such bad shots, and I agreed that most of our guys couldn’t hit the side of a barn even if they were inside with the doors closed. My target on a shooting range was the tip of the spotter’s pointer at 100m.
Actually, Germany over-extended into Russia, in the end fought a three-front war (people always forget Italy), was bombed into the ground, ran out of most resources (many vehicles were running essentially on wood fumes, “Holzvergaser” was the term) and simply ran out of manpower. At the end Hitler threw old men and boys at the Allied forces. Sure, they built essentially the best tanks. But what good is a Königstiger when an Il-2 or a P-47 tear it to shreds from the air?
Japan over-extended into China straight from day one. Up to 1 million Japanese soldiers were locked up in China. The invasion of China is a textbook example of how not to do it. The Chinese were well organized in their resistance and they weren’t as badly equipped as one might think. The troops were well fed, too. Japan essentially held the cities, but they couldn’t get out of them. In fact, it was the war in China that made Japan expand into the Pacific. They needed the resources there. China and the US were the reason why Japan lost. China was the anvil and the US was the hammer. Without those two, Japan today would be sitting on the Indian border, at least and the war in China would still be going on.
Guess it would depend on who got the A-bomb first.
I’ve always thought we got bloodied so badly because of the political side of the conflict, and civilian oversight of the military being politically rather than militarily focused.
Plus the mandatory draft for a war much of the country wanted no part of.
Pingback: Happy first blogiversary! « Quotulatiousness
Congratulations on the blogiversary.
Thank you!
Happy blogiversary! I was drawn here for my own selfish reasons due to the technical expertise, but have stayed for the platform. Always good stuff, and good commentators, too.
Yes, the community is…select. In both the good and the Spinal Tap meanings of the word. And thank you!
Gulf 1, we were sitting in school with headphones, listening to the radio, waiting for the steamroller to begin.
And yes!
Happy blogobirthday.
Thank you very much.
Wormy, you doll. Happy Blogiversary!
I remember how I happened upon you, which is rare b/c usually I forget. In the comment section to Zombie’s series on public education curricula, you linked to the real reason Zombie was so concerned:
BRAIN.
Then you commented on my Restoring Honor Rally post, and I’ve been your fawning little sister ever since.
9/11 was a defining moment indeed. At that time, I was active duty and pregnant with our first. I knew that life was about to change. Sure enough, hubs’ squadron, then training in Fallon, when straight to San Diego and the boat. I saw him nine months later.
Once I separated from the Navy, it was so easy to continue the habit of ignoring politics. It never meant much to me anyway, as I considered myself libertarian and effectively disenfranchised by the 2 party system.
When we came back from an overseas tour, I listened eagerly to the AM talk that I had missed.
The news was astonishing.
We bailed out . . . what? What the heck is TARP? We’ve nationalized a car company? WTF? What happened to this nation in the last 3 years??
And so this little froggie woke up in March ’09.
Three weeks after returning stateside, and still trying to get the young ‘uns used to the new time zone, I attended my first tea party event. 15 April 09.
I had the same experience as you: hello, what? I’m not alone? What is this weird feeling in my chest?
Hope.
I have it still, this hope. Expectation? No. But hope.
All the best to you, brother.
Linda
Many, many thanks, lil’ sis.
Gulf War I was when I was working on a subcontractor for Grumman on a plane called J-STARS. They had a couple of test articles they rushed onto operational status. It worked so well they ordered more and we were busting our humps getting enough gear to fit out more. We added an additional shift, hired a bunch of people. To get stuff flight qualified we had our vibration tables and environmental chambers running around the clock. When the second shift took off for the night, they would start the vibration sequence or temperature cycle with a video camera pointed at the test article. The day shift would review the tapes to make sure the gear survived the test sequences.
Then the war was over. As I would drive to work, I started seeing the buildings for Northrup and Lockheed being bulldozed in Southern California. Then one Friday, McDonnell Douglass announced massive layoffs and said they would never build another aircraft in Southern California once the C-17 was done. “For Sale” signs went up like fence pickets in my neighborhood. These were people with 15 or more years working for an aerospace firm. They had kids in college and thought their retirement was safe. In Northern California, FMC disappeared. All those Bradley fighting vehicles were done and there probably wouldn’t be any follow-ons. Peace broke out around the world and defense workers were getting pink slips by the thousands.
Today our active military is something like 15% the size it was at the start of the first Gulf War. Since George W. Bush took his second oath of office in 2004, the Air Force alone has shed some 43,000 airmen. People talk about “cutting defense” but have no real understanding of just how much it has already been cut.
Shoot, how familiar that story is to me, came back from a TTR and got the good news, delivered in person by the OC, a week late. About the only good thing was that I got a complete training session and a recognised ticket from the official Government institution, recognised worldwide. Training and test prep was done 50m from the ultra top secret ( at that time, but known worldwide) Z facility. Never did get a guided tour of it before it was decommissioned sadly.
On the plus was I got a commendation on my final day, delivered in front of the entire base. Was no 2, the first was from a man known to be a martinet, but who had a very good moral code, and a very strict sense of honour. A hard man to please, but a very strictly fair person. Was dislike by most, but I respected him after a few headbutts and after getting to work with him at times.
RIP Eddie Kidd, went on pension and died a few months later.
Yeah, I knew we’d cut back, but not that much.
this says our active military hasn’t decreased nearly THAT much
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0004598.html
Field combat power is pretty far down from where it was. ‘Officer Inflation’ is bleeding us:
http://pogoarchives.org/m/ns/officer-inflation-report-19980301.pdf
There was something more recent about it but I can’t find it right now. Basically its gotten worse.
Happy Anniversary … belatedly … insert fireworks here.
Before the internet made blogging widely accessible, there were a lot of lone wolf thinkers that might spout off at bars, but the little flares they sent out didn’t have the tinder and right conditions for a wildfire (or criticality). The roaring bull market kept most people satiated with visions of millionaire sugar plum retirements dancing in their heads.
My bigger “awakening” (or one of them) was more around 1998, and revolved around the stock market shenanigans, and the LTCM bailout. That’s where the well heeled invested in an exclusive fund that could leverage their money 300:1 and make the rich filthy rich, no blood sweat or tears involved. But when they broke, they called in their political favors and got the bailout … for the greater good of course.
More responsible financial folks screamed about the S&L bailouts long before … moral hazards and all that. But that game was just beginning, and now the big boys got their Fannie and Freddie and some $600 trillion in derivative gambling bets backed up by the US taxpayer. Those “pranksters” are walking with billions, while cries for “social justice” aim to make the middle class servant to the rich AND poor.
But the internet has opened several lines of attack, allowing bloggers to penetrate the communication barricades, from inside which “progressives” blared their propaganda in peace. It is still an uphill battle, but the curtain has been torn from top to bottom … time for the country to go through a political reformation. Our high priests have been corrupted, and we are marching around Jericho, demanding the PC/DC walls come down.
OK … a little rich in multiple imageries … but if ever there was a chance for the Tea party commoners to bring massive reformation … it would be now, through the use of cheap communication via the internet. All hail technology. Long live the worm.
Happy Belated Blog Birthday W.O.R.M., I hope there’s many more.
Thank you! And thanks for all your thoughtful comments.