Talking To A Man About A Horse

I do not know the origination of the well-known quote I ripped off for the title of this. But what that quote means to me is rather direct and obvious. Someone was looking into transportation options. And this article is about someone with transportation issues.

As you may recall, I discussed my car issues previously, and requested money. And I got money. And I’m very appreciative of those funds, they were well-spent. If you recall, I regaled you about the money I’ll have to spend to get my Camaro Z-28 (which will be old enough to vote in the upcoming Republican Primaries) up to snuff to pass a Texas inspection. And how, suddenly, I absolutely needed a new tire on top of all that (because one of the old things decided to shred itself on my way to work). Well, you readers came to the rescue. And this is the story of how your Christmas present (in the true spirit of Christmas) was spent.

I checked discounttire.com to see about a tire and found the store in Harker Heights had one in stock. So I drove the 15-20 miles from nowheresville to Harker Heights, getting there in the morning so I would have the afternoon to do various housework. Around 10am, the manager told me he had two tires available, neither of which were in his shop. The one which cost 150 could be there by 1 or 2 that afternoon, or the high performance “best” rated tire could be there a day or two later.

So I decided to go ahead and have the tire shipped over for that afternoon and went to do something I hadn’t done in a couple years: watch a movie in a movie theatre. I watched The Immortals. Nothing to write home about — which is why I’m writing you and not home. Then I went back to the shop around 2 as the manager was on the phone talking to some person about my tire. It was on the truck. His shop was the last visit of the day. It would be there by 3.

So I went back across the highway and went window shopping, stopping in at the local Big Box bookstore. I bought The Road to Serfdom; The Definitive Edition. (I know, I know, but that’s what always happens when I window shop.) And I went back to Discount Tire and pulled into their parking lot. As I was setting myself up to back into a parking space, the manager was out there and directed me into the bay that was just vacated.

I explained I got the tire and jack out at night when I couldn’t see much of anything and didn’t know exactly how to get it all back in (and watch out for that hatch, it will not stay open by itself). They said they’d deal with that (the spare and jack) for me. And my car went up on the jack and my donut came off the front, and my rear tire (which used to be on the front) was put on the front. And then it sat there half naked, its back end hoisted up in the air for all the world to see. How embarrassing for my car. It sat there for a good 20 minutes.

And all of a sudden, people were running around. The manager was rushing from place to place with utmost urgency. A couple other employees were likewise rushing around. And they were all focusing in on getting my car done and out of there. Why couldn’t they have done that when they first put it up on the jack?

Well, the car was done and it was time to pay the man. Just a hair shy of 150, as he had promised. And then I found out. The place where the tire was coming from sent the wrong tire. They sent a tire Discount Tire doesn’t even carry, and wouldn’t fit my car, regardless. When the wrong tire arrived, the manager sent one of his employees 30 minutes away to personally pick up the right tire and come back with it. He was on his way back when I pulled into the shop and they jacked up my car.

When all was said and done, I had spent 6 hours on my day off in town buying a tire, the manager made a special effort to get my tire for me, and I really enjoy my Christmas present from the readers.

What a gal

After being given an almost one million dollar severance package, former Philly schools Superintendent Arlene Ackerman has … filed for unemployment compensation.

A Quote To Remember

“If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animated contest of freedom — go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen!”

“Among the natural rights of the colonists are these: first, a right to life; second, to liberty; third, to property; together with the right to support and defend them in the best manner they can. These are evident branches of … the duty of self-preservation, commonly called the first law of nature. All men have a right to remain in a state of nature as long as they please; and in case of intolerable oppression, civil or religious, to leave the society they belong to, and ernter into another…. Now what liberty can there be where property is taken away without consent?”

— Samuel Adams

Reason number 1772 that Liberals don’t want anyone learning about the Founders.

Fannie and Freddie’s best friend is not running again

Fannie and Freddie’s best friend is not running again. Who is going to protect these two out of control semi-federal screw-ups.

Barney Frank to Announce He Won’t Seek Re-Election
Published November 28, 2011
FoxNews.com

Longtime Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., will announce Monday he is not seeking re-election, holding an afternoon press conference in Newton, Mass., to offer details behind his decision.

The 16-term lawmaker, whose name is emblazoned on the banking reform law that passed Congress last year, had long been rumored to be ready for retirement. He was previously chairman of the House Financial Services Committee but is now ranking member since Democrats lost the majority in the 2010 midterm election.

More Here

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/11/28/barney-frank-to-announce-retirement/#ixzz1f1BgvKEz

Presidential Candidates

We have two Republican Presidential candidates: Romney and not-Romney. The not-Romney flavor of the week is Michele Bachmann Rick Perry Herman Cain Newt Gingrich.

Michele Bachmann started out as the Sarah Palin who was in the race candidate, but she gaffed a bit overmuch. She won the Ames, Iowa straw poll. And Rick Perry entered the race at roughly the same time, after guaranteeing Texans he wouldn’t, and immediately supplanted Bachmann as the not-Romney front-runner. But Perry’s big government Trans-Texas Corridor and crony-capitalism Gardasil problems, compounded by his denigration of the vast majority of Americans (more importantly, the vast majority of Conservatives) cost him his front-runner status.

Enter Herman Cain as the not-Romney front-runner. His 9-9-9 plan was enticing but it depends on being a stepping stone to elimination of the Federal income tax. When has Big Government ever eliminated a huge form of money-sucking? Never happened and likely never will; therefore, a new form of money-sucking that doesn’t immediately eliminate an old form will only be permanently added to the old form, thus killing more productivity and further impoverishing Americans. Cain’s lack of foreign policy understanding is another major failing.

Enter Newt Gingrich as the new not-Romney front-runner. The man who sat on the couch with Nancy Pelosi and declared Global Warming to be a major issue that Government needed to fix. He has later apologized for that major fiasco. He’s also the man who endorsed DeDe Scozzafava for NY-23 over the Conservative candidate. It sure didn’t help when she bowed out and immediately endorsed the DEMOCRAT candidate instead of the Conservative candidate. Then there’s Newt’s moral failings in his personal life. His adulterous activities while his then-wife was very sick.

Mitt Romney, of course, is a huge NO to any Conservative. His RomneyCare, his pro-abort/anti-abort/pro-abort/anti-abort stance, his Big Government Can stance, his “whatever position you have is what I have today” stance. And Jon Huntsman is Mitt Romney without the cache or the cash.

No matter who the not-Romney front-runner is, and there have been several, Romney cannot get out of the mid-20s, despite running for President for 6 years. There’s good reason. Romney is bad for the country. Romney, who will never be considered a Conservative, would do serious damage to the grass-roots Conservative movement should he be elected — while simultaneously continuing the serious damage Obama has done to the country. No, we need to choose a seriously flawed Conservative out of the bunch of seriously flawed Conservatives, and not a “finger in the air” hyper-moderate like Romney.

But that’s just it. Which seriously flawed Conservative will eventually stick as the not-Romney candidate? And will the Conservative voters — whose numbers far outweigh the moderate Republicans — coalesce around a single not-Romney?

Bumper Snicker

#Occupy This!

From my inbox:

Zuccotti Utopia: Portraits of The New Revolutionaries

The Rise and Demise of the Zuccotti Park Commune 

November 23, 2011, by El Marco

I recently traveled from Colorado to New York the weekend before the demise of the revolutionary social experiment in lower Manhattan known as Occupy Wall Street’s Camp Anonymous. I went intending to capture for posterity photographic images of the people and infrastructure that comprised that hopeful utopian “model community for a new world.”

60 amazing photographs of the real people who are the OCCUPY WALL STREET MOVEMENT

These were the first Occupiers I encountered in Zuccotti Park. They are self-described anarchists. Above, the boy on the right wears a shirt with the motto

of Anonymous, an international activist hacking group which set its sights on Wall Street earlier this year.

This is an anti-semitic poster from an OWS activist web site. Note that the occupiers are all holding giant pins, with which to pierce the hideous, stereotypical, Jewish tycoon which symbolizes capitalism.

This Floridian spent every day, all day, soliciting funds for the commune’s women’s group. Panhandling seemed to be the only productive activity I witnessed during my four days inside the Zuccotti Park commune. The woman above, and many like her, have to turn in the majority of their funds to the Central Committee, which in turn passes it on the Finance Committee, some of whom were staying in $700 a night hotels nearby.

This truck is owned by supporters of Julian Assange and Bradley Manning. They were parked beside Zuccotti Park most of the time I was there. They sleep in the back, on sofas, and hand out Free Bradley Manning stickers. Manning is the U.S. soldier “whistleblower” who stole hundreds of thousands of documents from the US Military and handed them over to Assange and his Wikileaks organization. Manning has become a total celebrity to the anti-American left, on the level of cop-killer Abu Mumia Jamal.

This is the now infamous Jew-hater, Danny Cline. A full month after his anti-semitic rant shocked right-thinking America, he was still an honored and protected member of the commune.

http://www.lookingattheleft.com/2011/11/zuccotti-utopia-portraits-of-revolutionaries/

(As my sidebar says, email to my inbox is not guaranteed to be private and could be publicized.  I fully expect El Marco understood that clearly when he sent me that email.  It is an abbreviated form of his article.  He left out a photo that I’m going to add here, because it is important, it is indicative.)

Mommy and daddy entertain tourists, for cash, by simulating sexual positions with a bronze statue. Note the excited man with camera giving the thumbs up in the background.

This famous statue is of a business man, sitting in a park with briefcase open, head bowed as he works. It survived the collapse of the World Trade Center, at which time this area was covered in several feet of debris.   (El Marco’s words)

It’s Fast Approaching

It’s just about time to unleash my Third Annual Lights of the Season. Two years ago, I introduced my Lights of the Season series on this site and on Common Sense Political Thought. Last year, I believe it was only on Common Sense Political Thought. This year, it will likely only be on this site.

So, come December 1, be prepared to be amazed at the musical displays of private homes, public buildings, and whatever else tickles my fancy. Expect upwards of 300,000 lights on a single display, all dancing to well-known music — holiday or otherwise. But always remember the Reason for the Season, and that is the Birth of Jesus Christ — the Messiah, the Savior, the Lord of Lords and King of Kings, God the very Son of God, the Sacrificial Lamb, the One who knew no sin.

It is my intention, as in years past, to post a new video daily, so check back in often! And tell your friends! With my new job and its rotating 12-hour (8a/p to 8p/a) shifts, I will not have any set times when they will be posted, but I will do my best to post a display each day for your viewing pleasure.

Indicative

(Notice: Multiple disjointed paragraphs covering various subjects within the same topic to follow.)

As you may have heard, I recently got a job. This article will be discussing various subjects regarding that job, without discussing the actual business end itself. You won’t know what I do or for whom I work, but you’ll get a feel for other matters.

The job I work runs 24/7, which means there are four different 12-hour rotating shifts, three days (or nights) one week and four days (or nights) the next. I am away from home 14.5 to 15 hours per day when I’m scheduled to work, meaning my days/nights off are spent in recovery sleep mode. And that’s fine with me. I’ve worked 12-hour shifts on previous jobs. But being sedentary by nature on my time off, I don’t get the opportunity to do much else.

The business where I work utilizes two different temp-to-hire formats: their own in-house temp service which starts out at 10 dollars per hour and an outside temp service which starts out at 8 dollars per hour. Lucky me, I got to go through the outside service. C’est la vie, c’est la guerre. Part of the temp-to-hire program is completing an “A” packet to become an “A” operator (the bottom of the full-time status, contrary to my previous job where my “A” operator status was the top). You cannot get hired in full-time without its completion. With the outside temp service, once the “A” packet is completed there is a 50 cent raise in pay, and at the end of three months, full-time at 10.25 (2.5 percent raise expected at the beginning of the year). With the inside temp service, full-time status is reached at the end of six weeks. Through both means, the vast majority of temps are in their early 20s. This will be important to remember.

The company does not have Shift Supervisors or Department Supervisors. There are other names for it (abbreviated to TL and RRL respectively), and other responsibilities. It is much more team oriented and much more familial. If the boss wears a t-shirt and jeans instead of a tie and trousers and has his own gloves instead of a manicure, it is very difficult to create the proletariat/bourgeoisie combative, adversarial, class struggle atmosphere which is a requirement for today’s Liberalism/Communism/Socialism (in the end, it’s all the same) to survive or even get a foot-hold.

I am having difficulties getting my “A” packet completed but have been assured that when the time comes, they will “do what’s necessary” to have it completed. Of course, this means my pay raise will be much later than necessary. But it’s actually because I’m too good as opposed to not good enough. While the company has been in business at that location for over 30 years without ever having a lay-off, it has been bought several times, the last time very recently. Another plant elsewhere in the state was closed and its machinery moved to this location. That has meant each of the 4 shifts have had sudden increases in size, from about 26 employees per shift (plus the “day shift” of administrative personnel) to about 54 employees per shift. And the new-to-the-plant machinery is much older and much less automated than the old-to-the-plant machinery, and is much more problematic in bringing on-line.

The “new” equipment requires people who are much faster and more efficient than the “old” equipment. And therein lies the rub. While the people there consider the “new” equipment work to be fast-paced, it doesn’t hold a candle to the pace I needed for the job I held the vast majority of the previous decade (April 2000 to November 2008). Granted, it’s non-stop motion and busy, busy, busy. But it doesn’t qualify as “fast paced” from my own experience. I’ve only worked a day and a half on the “old” equipment, the rest of the time being on the “new” equipment — which hasn’t gotten all the gremlins eradicated. That means two things: 1) I cannot get the “new” equipment items checked off in the “A” packet, and 2) the RRL who needs to check off the “old” equipment items is too busy working to eradicate the gremlins to check off my “A” packet.

The TL, the RRL for the “new” equipment, the RRL for the “old” equipment, the operators of the new and old equipment have all noted my speed, initiative in finding work to do when the machines go down, and overall lack of need for any supervision at all. And whichever machine I’ve worked with, the operator for that machine wanted me to be assigned there (and for whoever was assigned there to be reassigned elsewhere). But since the “new” equipment that I don’t want to be on and have been on almost exclusively needs the faster workers, I have not had much luck in getting on the “old” equipment where I prefer to be.

While it is possible to handle my job on two lines at once on the “old” machines, it is necessary to have two people per line on the “new” machines. And that causes another problem. I’m stuck on the “new” machines, and 90 percent of the time, I’m carrying the weight of the other person (who is in his or her early 20s while I’m in my mid 40s) on my back while I’m doing the work. I absolutely do not mind working hard for my pay. I absolutely hate carrying someone else, especially when that someone else is making 2 dollars an hour more than me to do the same job. The RRLs and operators have noticed, with one RRL talking to multiple people about it (I heard second-hand because she has not once talked to me about it). “I wish John could give some of his energy to the other people he’s working with, to even it out more.”

So I’m getting noticed by all the right people. I’m noticed for my speed and “rewarded” by being put where nobody wants to be, but because it requires much more speed and constant attention (and lots more frustration due to all the gremlins). And my 50 cent pay raise will come later than other, slower, less attentive, people who show less initiative (at least one of whom has already gotten it, having been hired in exactly 1 month ago along with me).

One such slow 23-year-old was working with me on the “new” machine (my carrying over 70 percent of the load). And he is quite indicative of his generation (a product of his environment).

Now would be a good time to describe the difference between new and old, and my responsibilities. Think “I Love Lucy”. Remember when Lucy and Ethyl were in the chocolate factory and chocolates were running down the conveyor belt? That is the example I’m going to use to describe it, but I don’t at all work in the food industry.

On both the old and the new, the chocolates are put in boxes called chips, then a certain number of chips are put in cartons. Those cartons are then palletized, stretch-wrapped, and placed on a conveyor.

The old equipment opens the chips, puts the chocolates in the chips, seals the chips, sends the chips down a conveyor where they are inspected for quality and passed on to the cartoner, which opens the cartons, puts the correct number of chips in the cartons, tapes the cartons and spits the cartons out onto another conveyor for palletizing. In this circumstance, my job is to retrieve the chips from the staging area, feed the chip feeder chips, get the cartons from the staging area, feed the cartoner cartons, inspect the chips for quality, palletize the cartons, stretch-wrap the pallets, take the pallets to another conveyor. It is possible for me to handle two lines at once.

The new equipment sends the chocolates down a conveyor for the operator to place in chips, as the separate chip feeder opens the chips, seals the chips, sends the chips out onto a long table, then the operator opens the cartons, places the appropriate number of chips in the cartons, sends the cartons through the taper which spits the cartons out onto a conveyor, where the operator palletizes the cartons. My job (which requires two people) is to retrieve the chips from the staging area and feed the chip-feeder, place the chocolates in the chips, retrieve the cartons from the staging area and place them under the table where the chip-feeder spits the sealed chips out, open the cartons, place the appropriate number of chips in the cartons, close the cartons, send the cartons through the taper, take the cartons off the conveyor and palletize them, stretch-wrap the pallets, take the pallets to another conveyor. With the new equipment, one person is filling the chips while the other is filling the cartons.

Working on the “new” equipment, when I am filling the cartons, I also fill the chip-feeder, get the chips and cartons, palletize and stretch-wrap the cartons, take the completed pallets over to the next conveyor, while making sure no chips fall off the table. When I am filling the chips, I also fill the chip-feeder, get the chips, make sure no chips fall off the table as the 23-year-old is stretch-wrapping and moving the completed pallets. While the jobs are supposed to rotate every hour, or at least every two hours, I spend 8 to 12 hours filling the chips (a much more busy position, even when evenly balanced). And my work ethic is noticed by all the right people (but not necessarily by the 23-year-old who lets me carry his load with mine).

There was an occasion where the 23-year-old came in and replaced another who was filling the cartons. The other person had left the carton conveyor full of cartons when he left, so the 23-year-old had to gossip with me about that. While I was taking the “chocolates” off the conveyor and placing them in the chips, he stood between the chip feeder and me in order to maliciously gossip about the other person. “Look at how your boy left you.” I had to shove him out of the way to fill the chips — which were rolling by — with the “chocolates” — which were also rolling by. Once I got to a stage where I was caught up,
I stepped down to the table where he was filling the cartons with chips. I then told him “First off, nobody is my boy, period. Second off, if you cannot talk to me without getting in my way, don’t talk to me.” His response? “You need to respect me!” As if respect is a right granted to him (which he doesn’t need to grant others) instead of something earned. Product of his environment.

I had the opportunity to work alongside a girl of roughly the same (23 year old) age. (Sorry, folks, but if you’re 23, you’re not yet a man or woman. You’re too inexperienced. You’re still a boy or girl.) The difference between him and her? She’s married and has children while he’s still single. And that, I believe, makes a big difference. When she doesn’t have someone she likes around to chat her up, she’s attentive to the job. Still slow and less able to do the task than me, but much more attentive and with a higher work ethic. But when someone’s chatting her up, she becomes inattentive. With nobody else around, we work about 60-40 or 55-45, where I carry the bulk of the load. But that split is much more (grudgingly) acceptable to me.

She and I have had a few conversations while we worked, with one such conversation being specifically about him. She brought it up. She told me that he told her that I refused to talk to him. (Gossipy enough for you?) I then explained the above incident where he got in my way in order to gossip about someone else, preventing me from doing my job. I told her “if you can’t talk to me without getting in my way, don’t talk to me.” She chuckled about that. I also told her how he demanded my respect without ever having earned it first. She seemed to partially understand. Further in the conversation, speaking in general terms and sort of about him, I said “If you can’t talk and work at the same time, work.” She got a big laugh out of that one.

Like him, she is a product of her environment. But unlike him, her environment includes the responsibility of being a spouse and a parent. That, I believe, is what helps her to be more attentive to the job and more capable of handling the job, albeit not up to appropriate standards as yet.

And what environment am I talking about? “The most important person in the world to you is you and you hardly even know you.” That insidious 1970s TV jingle. The Leftist-run public education system which is so fearful of harming the feelings of the children that it cannot demand the children actually accomplish anything, but rather tells the children they deserve a great self-worth without credentials, a great amount of respect from others without any deeds or character traits worthy of respect. That is the environment I am talking about. Today’s twenty-somethings are a product of the Liberal public education system and the Liberal State University system where self-respect and self-worth are completely divorced from accomplishments of any sort, any abilities, or any Personal Responsibility. And the 23-year-old boy’s attitudes are indicative of that.

For what I give thanks

I’m thankful for my family, for my two daughters who are healthy and at home; it reminds me that there are other soldiers who are stationed around the world, some in some not so nice places, and who cannot be home for Thanksgiving.

I’m thankful for my wife, a joy to be with, and who might have been working today; hospitals never close. When I hear the horror stories from the hospital, I’m thankful that our children are strong and healthy; some families aren’t so fortunate.

I’m thankful for my job. Whenever I whine to myself — which is almost every day on the way to work — that I don’t want to go to work that day, I always remind myself that there are a lot of other men out there who wish that they had jobs to go to.

I’m thankful that I’m an American; most people in this world weren’t born into wealthy and free democracies, and are living under tyranny and squalor.

I’m thankful that Al Gore invented this internet thingy; I’d have a lot fewer friends without it.

My Holiday and Other Occasions Unrant Rant

You know it’s coming. The house is on High Alert. Company is coming. And the great UPHEAVAL begins. Like all families you want to make the house look like it is not lived in. So, the first thing that was stopped was “the project” because it meant sanding spackle even though I have a palm sander with the shop vac attached. Then the area invasion starts. First, all your daily stuff on the table must be quarantined. So, the daily routine is altered. Then the stack of mail that was split into subsections of Bills, Magazines, and stuff you need two weeks to decide to throw it out. With the grandbabies at 11 months acting like sea turtles, they are officially moving on their own. So, baby proofing everything is in order. Then the turkey. (By this time the cat has been spooked by the sea turtles and is hiding under the quilt on our bed.) We’ll sit down to our dinner, and two people will play Jack-in-the-Box jumping up to get stuff.

Then the grand clean-up starts, and pumpkin pie shows up. (With REAL whipped cream) Mostly everybody helps to clean-up. My yearly job is to produce a turkey bone carcas and cut off all the left-overs. Of course FOOTBALL. But the “Harbaugh Bowl” is on tomorrow night – RAVENS and 49ers. It’s the first time two brothers as head coaches play against each other. Their father said he was going to hide.

Then Friday comes. Now here is where the “real fun” begins, where did you hide all the stuff that usually sits out waiting for some action. You’re still in a Turkey Coma, but it will give you something to do all day, that is if you are not dragged out kicking and screaming to Black Friday sales.

Occupy Morrow County

From a Facebook friend:

An ordinary soldier’s service

While we were cleaning up the living room/dining room after some recent work, we found my father-in-laws medals and ribbons from his service in World War II. You can click on the picture to enlarge. He was with the Corps of Engineers, primarily building runways in the Pacific, but he had to have seen some combat: he was awarded the Purple Heart.

I’m not certain about the medal with the airplane on it; it was in his medals case, but the inscription is “Changes in latitude, changes in attitude.” That expression was in use during World War II; Jimmy Buffet didn’t invent it.

My father-in-law passed away in 1998.

World War II (WWII) Victory Medal Ribbon

Criteria: Awarded to any member of the United States military who served on active duty, or as a reservist, between December 7, 1941 and December 31, 1946. The World War II Victory Medal was first issued as a ribbon, and was referred to simply as the “Victory Ribbon.” By 1946, a full medal had been established which was referred to as the World War II Victory Medal. There is no minimum service time limit for the issuance of the World War II Victory Medal, and the National Personnel Records Center has reported some cases of service members receiving the award for simply a few days of service. As the Second World War ended in August 1945, there are also cases of service members, who had enlisted in 1946, receiving the decoration without having been a veteran of World War II.

Army Good Conduct Medal and Ribbon

Criteria: Awarded to any enlisted member of the United States Army who completes three consecutive years of “honorable and faithful service.” Such service implies that a standard enlistment was completed without any non-judicial punishments, disciplinary infractions, or court martial offenses. If a service member commits an offense, the three-year mark “resets” and a service member must perform an additional three years of discipline free service before the Good Conduct may be authorized. During times of war, the Army Good Conduct Medal may be awarded for one year of faithful service. The medal may also be awarded posthumously, to any soldier killed in the line of duty. To denote additional decorations of the award, a series of Good Conduct Knots are provided as attachments to the decoration. Service for the Army Good Conduct Medal must be performed on active duty and the medal is not awarded to members of the Army reserve or National Guard who are not federalized to active service. For those Reserve and Guard members who satisfactorily perform annual training and drill duty, however, the Army Reserve Components Achievement Medal may be awarded in lieu.
.

Asiatic Pacific Campaign Medal – WWII Ribbon

Criteria: Awarded to any member of the United States military who served in the Pacific Theater from 1941 to 1945. There were twenty one official campaigns of the Pacific Theater, denoted on with a service star. The arrowhead device is authorized for those campaigns involving amphibious assaults. Credible campaigns for the Pacific Theater are as follows: Philippine Islands 7 Dec 41 – 10 May 42; Burma, 1942 7 Dec 41 – 26 May 42; Central Pacific 7 Dec 41 – 6 Dec 43; East Indies 1 Jan 42 – 22 Jul 42; India-Burma 2 Apr 42 – 28 Jan 45; Air Offensive, Japan 17 Apr 42 – 2 Sep 45; Aleutian Islands 3 Jun 42 – 24 Aug 43; China Defensive 4 Jul 42 – 4 May 45; Papua 23 Jul 42 – 23 Jan 43; Guadalcanal 7 Aug 42 – 21 Feb 43; New Guinea 24 Jan 43 – 31 Dec 44; Northern Solomons 22 Feb 43 – 21 Nov 44; Eastern Mandates 7 Dec 43 – 14 Jun 44; Bismarck Archipelago 15 Dec 43 – 27 Nov 44; Western Pacific 17 Apr 44 – 2 Sep 45; Leyte 17 Oct 44 – 1 Jul 45; Luzon 15 Dec 44 – 4 Jul 45; Central Burma 29 Jan 45 – 15 Jul 45; Southern Philippines 27 Feb 45 – 4 Jul 45; Ryukyus 26 Mar 45 – 2 Jul 45; China Offensive 5 May 45 – 2 Sep 45. Additionally, the following Pacific Theater “blanket” campaigns qualify – but without service stars: Antisubmarine 7 Dec 41 – 2 Sep 45; Ground Combat: 7 Dec 41 – 2 Sep 45; Air Combat: 7 Dec 41 – 2 Sep 45.

Purple Heart Medal

Criteria: Awarded as an entitlement entitled upon being killed or wounded in a manner meeting the specific criteria of AR 600-8-22: (1) In any action against an enemy of the U.S.; (2) In any action with an opposing armed force of a foreign country in which the Armed Forces of the U.S. are or have been engaged; (3) While serving with friendly foreign forces engaged in an armed conflict against an opposing armed force in which the U.S. is not a belligerent party; (4) As a result of an act of any such enemy of opposing armed forces; (5) As the result of an act of any hostile foreign force; (6) After March 28, 1973, as a result of an international terrorist attack against the U.S.; (7) After March 28, 1973, as a result of military operations, while serving outside the territory of the U.S. as part of a peacekeeping force; (8) After December 7, 1941, by weapon fire while directly engaged in armed conflict, regardless of the fire causing the wound; (9) While held as a prisoner of war or while being taken captive. Additionally, individuals wounded or killed as a result of friendly fire in the heat of battle will be awarded the Purple Heart as long as the “friendly” projectile or agent was released with the full intent of inflicting damage or destroying enemy troops or equipment.

I Don’t Think We Can Dismiss OWS Easily

From The Copenhagen Post – Danmark

http://www.cphpost.dk/news/international/89-international/52511-how-mischief-can-topple-dictatorships.html

How mischief can topple dictatorships
Monday, 14 November 2011 22:57 Peter Stanners News

Human rights activist Steve Crawshaw tells us how walking your TV in a pram and listening to rap on the radio can end authoritarian regimes

Upset with what’s on the news? Just take your TV for a walk.
How do you topple a repressive government when they’ve got all the guns, tanks and secret police? With courage, tenacity and Ingenuity. That is the messages in Steve Crawshaw and John Jackson’s book, Small Acts of Resistance, a compilation of stories recounting the clever ways people have subverted oppressive regimes.

Crawshaw, international advocacy director at Amnesty International, was recently in Copenhagen to attend a conference for Humanity in Action but found the time to drop by Books and Company in Hellerup to discuss the book. The cosy English bookshop was packed to capacity for the talk in which Crawshaw demonstrated that no matter how dangerous the stakes, people have an incredible capacity to undermine their oppressors.

“The spirit of the book is the importance of courage and mischief and how that can create amazing change around the world,” Crawshaw told us.

Crawshaw opens with a story from Poland where he worked as a journalist for the Independent newspaper in the late 80s. Resistance to the Soviet sponsored regime had been rising for many years, culminating with the formation of the trade union Solidarity in 1980. Solidarity quickly gathered strength across the country, posing a clear threat to the power of the authoritarian government.

18 months later the government imposed martial law in an attempt to regain control. Tanks and soldiers rolled into the street, several dozen people were killed, thousands of were arrested and strict curfews were enforced.

While the crack down reminded the people who was in charge, it didn’t kill of the will for change. But with troops on the streets, protesting was a dangerous option. So they devised inventive ways to show their contempt for the authority.

One of their targets was state sponsored media. The evening news bulletin was so filled with lies and propaganda that many decided to boycott it. But while that may be well and good, how was anyone going to know? So they started placing their TV sets in their windows facing out onto the street when the news was on.

Slowly they stepped up the protest. They began going for walks while the news was on, some taking their TVs with them in prams. The authorities were powerless to stop a protest that had no chants and wove no banners. Moving the curfew two hours earlier had no effect, people simply walked the streets at the earlier bulletin.

“So while the regime had the guns and the tanks, they were the ones who ended up on the back foot,” Crawshaw explained.

While this clever act of dissent did not in itself bring the end of the regime, it helped keep the spirit of resistance alive. It cheered the people in knowing that despite a ban on free media, there were ways of voicing their disapproval. The state too was reminded that its people were not simply going to accept the status quo.

“Through that sense of the mockery you get a weakened regime, that you laugh at someone while you are being beaten. This sense of humour, while it doesn’t defend you, gives strength to society to achieve amazing things.”

The Poles were not alone in finding clever ways to subvert an oppressive regime. When Slobodan Milosevic cracked down on free media in Serbia in the 90s, he dictated that the radio only play state certified news bulletins. But with the station free to play whatever music they liked, songs such as Public Enemy’s ‘Fight the Power’ and the Clash’s ‘White Riot’ were played on heavy rotation. Serbia’s young people understood the message but Milosevic and his cronies didn’t, they simply didn’t understand the music.

Crawshaw came across these stories after spending almost two decades working with human rights organisations, first at Human Rights Watch then Amnesty International. After discussing it over dinner one evening, Crawshaw and his co-author Jackson realised there was a common theme to many of the stories.

“We argue in the book that you can make a connection between all these events, that mischief was a singular and important part of the process of change,” Crawshaw explained.

As the talk wound down, heated debates broke out between Crawshaw and members of the audience. When is military intervention called for? Why are violent protests less successful? What does the Occupy movement really represent? And what about the Arab Spring uprisings, what does their future hold for the Middle East?

Well no one knows. But Crawshaw believes we should leave it up to the people to find their own ways to slowly undermine their regimes.

“Before Mubarak fell, people thought he would be there forever. But he fell.”

The question is, who’s next?

Now, how did this work out?

PFC Pico is home a day early, because she has a three-day Reserve drill at Fort Indiantown Gap, for Advanced Rifle Marksmanship. She needs her Class As not this drill but for her December drill. So, SPC Pico is standing in the dining room, wearing PFC Pico’s uniform jacket, while Mrs Pico is sewing her chevron on the sleeve, and PFC Pico is sitting there, playing video games.

I took off before my darling bride decided to stab me with the needle.