Monday, April 25, 2016

Starting Off The Week Shaking My Head

You can't make this stuff up.

Army Celebrates Earth Day
The U.S. Army on Thursday pledged to honor “Earth Day” by “reasserting its pledge to address the implications of climate change and assess associated risks to national security.”

In a special message to soldiers, the Army, which faces deep cuts in the ranks of active duty soldiers, said it is focused on “the role the land plays in ensuring the Army remains ready and resilient.”

It urges soldiers to celebrate Earth Day on Friday. The Army also made Earth Day its “focus quote of the day.”

“As our Army celebrates Earth Day 2016, please join us in protecting the environment, enabling the Soldiers’ readiness and securing the environmental future for our citizens and our nation...

“The Army will ‘Acknowledge the Past’ by restoring Army lands and preserving cultural and historical resources. The Army will ‘Engage the Present’ by meeting environmental standards while also enabling Army operations as well as protecting Soldiers, Families and civilians. The Army will ‘Chart the Future’ by bringing the best practices and technologies to bear.”
Why isn't there anything in there about destroying our enemies?
Earlier this year, the office of Defense Secretary Ashton Carter sent out a directive ordering commanders to incorporate climate change into every thing they do, from testing and buying weapons, to planning wars, to conducting exercises.
The Obama administration ranks climate change as one of the biggest threats to national security.
Well, why not? After all, ISIS is contained, and those pesky Russians and Chinese aren't doing anything threatening. Neither are the North Koreans.

Oh, wait...
The Army top brass testified at recent congressional budget hearings that it cannot fight a major war on the schedule called for in the national military strategy because of years of funding cuts.
Look, I get the whole 'take care of the environment' thing. I grew up in the country. I spent a lot of time enjoying the great outdoors. Still do. I respect Mother Nature. I adhere to the old Boy Scout practice of leaving my campsite in better condition than when I found it. I follow the Three R's - Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. I think alternative and renewable energy is important. Heck, we even capture rainwater for household and irrigation use. But I don't make a religion out of the environment. And I damn sure don't think it's one of the biggest threats to our national security. The military's primary role is to destroy things and kill people. Anything else is secondary.

No, this is not a joke. I wish it was.
That's bad enough. This is even worse.

Student Choir Told To Stop Singing National Anthem At 9/11 Memorial
So your middle school choir organizes a class trip to New York that includes a visit to the sacred ground of the 9/11 memorial. You stand in awe of what happened that terrible day before you were born and decide it would be appropriate for your choir to sing the national anthem.

But wait! The rules for the 9/11 memorial state that you need a permit to sing a song. So about halfway through singing the anthem, a security guard came up to the choir and told them to cease and desist.
It's a wonder that American flags are still allowed there.


This is not the America I grew up in.

Apologies for starting your week on such a down note...


5 comments:

Old NFO said...

Ye Gods and little fishes... It's no wonder we're falling apart!

Anonymous said...

I live near the school those kids at the 9-11 memorial attend. The local ABC affiliate WLOS in Liberal, Obama hugging Asheville (I call it Ass-hole-ville) devoted about 30 seconds to this one time. That was only because the parent of those kids were really pissed off and the local station had to devote a perfunctory news item about it. Nothing on any major National News program to my knowledge.

We finished as a nation I grew up in. I tell that people and they look at ME like I'm a freakin moron.

This has become a country of texting, tweeting, snowflake idiots.



Well Seasoned Fool said...

If you are totally inept but in charge, find an issue that has no quantitative way of being measured. Defend the issue and ignore the rest.

Less than a year, praise the Lord.

CenTexTim said...

NFO - the mind boggles...

Toejam - I had no idea liberalism had taken root in NC outside of the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill triangle. I thought the rest of the state was a passel of in-breeding Hatfields and McCoys.

WSF - according to the left, emotions trump facts.

Anonymous said...

Sadly, the Millennials discovered the Mountains a couple of decades ago on their vacations from their Law, dental, doctor, CPA & other professional practices + you the techie nerds & academics employed by Duke, Wake Forest and UNC who like to dress up in their "high-scale ruffing it gear" and challenge nature by hiking, white water rafting and other "hip" Liberal activities all while taking millions of "selfies" on their iPhone6.2 thingies and buying faux Indian trinkets made in China. If you pass a Starbucks you can see these self-important twits clustered about on the sidewalks of many Western North Carolina towns wrought-iron tables comparing notes and sharing stories about their adventures wrestling bears, deadly venomous snakes and fending off rutting male elk.

First it was "summer Homes" to dump the old lady and obligatory brats while daddy toiled at the office.

Now those folks have matured, retired and are here permanently.

Asheville is a strong bastion of Liberalism, activism and "do-gooders, we care and coexist" old farts.

But, on the up-side we have a long way to go before we can compete with California.