True? Don’t know, but sure sounds like air travel today….

Received via email, and those who have a tendancy to spew coke, coffee, water or tea from their noses when confronted with a funny story…do what you have to do first, then read:

WINNIPEG AIRPORT
This is hilarious. I wish I had the guts of this girl. For all of you out there who’ve had to deal with an irate customer, this one is for you. An award should go to the Air Canada gate agent in Winnipeg for being smart and funny, while making her point, when confronted with a passenger who probably deserved to fly as cargo.
A crowded Air Canada flight was canceled. A single agent was re-booking a long line of inconvenienced travelers. Suddenly an angry passenger pushed his way to the desk. He slapped his ticket on the counter and said “I HAVE to be on this flight and it has to be FIRST CLASS.”
The agent replied, “I am sorry, sir. I’ll be happy to try to help you, but, I’ve got to help these folks first, and I’m sure we’ll be able to work something out.”
The passenger was unimpressed. He asked loudly, so that the passengers behind him could hear, “DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHO I AM?” Without hesitating, the agent smiled and grabbed her public address
microphone, “May I have your attention please, ” she began, her voice heard clearly throughout the terminal. “We have a passenger here at Gate 14 WHO DOES NOT KNOW WHO HE IS. If anyone can help him find his identity, please come to Gate 14.”
With the folks behind him in line laughing hysterically, the man glared at the Air Canada agent, gritted his teeth and swore “F*** You!”.
Without flinching, she smiled and said, “I’m sorry sir, you’ll have to get in line for that too!”

Related post: Matt of Black Five tells about “Turbo dude” at his boarding experience yesterday….and it’s a true story!

Yesterday’s USA Today had a big article on Sean Penn, not just about his new movie, “All the King’s Men,” but a forum to let him be quoted about how things need to change.

Yes, I argee, but just a few days ago, when I heard that Sean Penn had called President Bush the devil (I wonder if he wrote Hugo’s UN speech of today?), I scribbled this, because it just made me think he’s something because of his money.

Dear Mr. Penn;

I’d like to offer you a little constructive advice, which may help you achieve your end, and not make you look so totally ignorant. There’s a clue here, so please read the following carefully:

Money doesn’t make you smart, nor a strategist, nor an economist, nor a diplomat or an ambassador, and it certainly doesn’t make you right. All it does is make you wealthy, but, even without moeny, you still have a right to say what you think as you will as an American, because the patriots through the ages have secured and then willed your right to this privledge for as long as you wish to maintain it.

If you want to be any of those things listed above, get some well written books, hire some respected tutors, study, study and study some more, then apply for one of those jobs and make the knowledge practical by doing wht you think is right. Once you’ve done those things, your voice will be more universally accepted, and I suspect your tone will be changed somewhat, as it will have been tempered by the reality of putting your hands on the problems of the world.

Respectfully, I submit, “you have to do what you think is right,” and experience will help you understand right better.

This post is placed to help showcase the writings (or rantings) of other bloggers. Please trackback your work!

When I first met him, he was GSE1(SW) Denny Rohr, the leading Gas Turbine (Electrical) petty officer for the Engineering Department of the USS CONOLLY (DD-979). When I arrived aboard in Sept 83, he had been on the ship for several years. During my tenure as Engineer Officer, he passed the test and was selected for and promoted to the rating of GSEC.

Denny was a methodical person and taught me this: “There are no gremlins. If you ever admit that there are gremlins, then you will have them.” However twisted that sounds, his point was nothing was an accident and everything could be explained, even the most transient event observed in the complexities of the gas turbine powered engineering plant. He was right.

When a problem appeared, the first stop for Denny were his several 3.5″ binders know as “Denny’s Brain Books.” His methodology was to record the symptoms and corrective actions for every significant problem/casualty. BY the time I arrived aboard, Denny had amassed quite a collection of solutions, so “issues” were routinely handled in minutes, or hours, not days, as I had been used to in my other shipboard tours. One day, though, a real thinking problem came along.

It was after the complex overhaul in Bath Iron Work from February to November 84. Enroute GTMO for refresher training, the Propulsion Auxillary Control Console (PACC) operator would be scanning his board and note that the clutch/brake for an offline engine in the after engineroom would be on, not a normal condition while we were steaming. Usually, with the shaft not powered, it was still “windmilling” as the other shaft had power. The PACC Operator would report this to the Engineering Officer of the Watch (EOOW), who usually scratched his head, because he hadn’t ordered it. A call would go to the on watch team in Main Engineroom #2 (MER2), asking if they had applied the brake. In fact, while the PACC in the Center Control Station (CCS) had control, the controls of the Propulsion Local Control Console (PLCC)s in the MERs were disabled, so, short of the watch below taking control back via a deliberate action at the PLCC, they could push all the buttons they wanted and nothing would happen.

So…the mystery of the self operating clutch brake began as described above…
Read the rest of this entry »

Standby for some morning “fisking.” Here we go:

“Revealed: the tough interrogation techniques the CIA wants to use”

Ed Pilkington in New York and Clare Dyer
Monday September 18, 2006
The Guardian

Details emerged yesterday about the seven interrogation techniques the CIA is seeking to be allowed to apply to terror suspects. Newsweek magazine reported that a New York lawyer, Scott Horton, who has acted as an adviser to the US senate on interrogation methods, had acquired a list of the techniques. The details were corroborated by information obtained by the charity Human Rights Watch.

Good. I’m glad to know the resources of Human Rights Watch are on the issue. It’s probably because there is nothing else in the world worthy of their focus, everyone but the American’s being all peaceful and loving….

The techniques sought by the CIA are: induced hypothermia; forcing suspects to stand for prolonged periods; sleep deprivation;

Does 21 months serving under a man who slept during the day and stayed up all night, yelling at us staff guys count? If so, maybe he really worked for the CIA, not the Navy. 2-3 weeks on an hour a sleep a day wasn’t unheard of.

What about “port and starboard” bridge watches? 2 years aboard an oiler and I wasn’t the Captain, or Executive Officer, so…no chair on the bridge for me! Steel decks and 4-6 hours periods of standing, oh my!

a technique called “the attention grab” where a suspect’s shirt is forcefully seized;

All but grabbing the shirt happened, but I’m sure it was considered. On the other hand, maybe this will get HRW to go after Hollywood because lots and lots of shirt grabbing happens in movies and in TV series.

the “attention slap” or open hand slapping that hurts but does not lead to physical damage; the “belly slap”;

I can’t claim to have had this happen, but, yes, we show it in US TV and movies all the time and we have the in the vernacular “I’m gonna bitch slap you!” used, not only in movies, but on the street and all over in society…we need HRW after the rest of the society, too.

and sound and light manipulation.

Does sleeping under #2 Jet Blast Deflector for 4 ½ months count as sound manipulation? I did, however, figure out after three days, you sleep or you don’t, so may as well sleep and count it as the sound of freedom. Taking off on this point, maybe it’s the intent of the sound manipulation, or how it makes the “detainee” feel that’s ever more important. Rock concerts are very loud, and people pay money to go and have the opportunity to destroy their hearing for the future. Top that off with too loud iPods and other .mp3 players. Think about it: People actually make a living taking money from people who want to have really loud music played to them!

Several of those techniques chime with information gleaned about interrogation methods used against some serious terror suspects. The New York Times recently reported that Abu Zubaydah, the first al-Qaida member captured after the September 11 attacks, was kept in a freezing cell until he went blue, and later assailed with loud Red Hot Chili Peppers music.

I recall nights on a bridge wing in the winter where, after watch when you peeled off the bulky heavy weather gear and your clothes, parts were pale or blue. I had a duty to stand out there, because that was the nature of my commitment, but now, I ask: Did the American people torture me? Yeah, right…what a specious argument.

I have also been known to assail myself with loud music. As a senior, before Friday afternoon formation for parade, my roomie and I, living large in the 4th Division Alcove room, would routinely “inspire” our fellow cadets with 200W cranked music played over the “Quad” of Padgett-Thomas barracks. Favorites were “No More Mr Nice Guy” and as the year was coming to an end “Schools Out for the Summer.” We had others, with selections from Pink Floyd, too…Talk about a motivator before marching out in a wool uniform to stand in the heat and humidity of South Carolina’s Low Country, looking forward to the gnats who would hang around your ears throughout the experience…

The debate on how far the CIA should be allowed to go in aggressively questioning suspects has divided the Republican party after prominent senators led by John McCain of Arizona rebelled against the administration’s plans to change Geneva Convention to meet the CIA’s demands. Mr McCain told ABC television yesterday that “there is a war we are losing in some ways and that’s our standing in the world because of our treatment in Abu Ghraib and Guantánamo”.

Well, it’s all about the spin, Senator. It seems the boys at Abu Ghraib are begging for the panties on the head treatment. It seems to (pardon my pun) “beat” the treatment their fellow Iraqis seem to be using….I bet if you took a survey, they’d trade dogs with bad breath barking at them and naked pyramids back in a heartbeat

The British attorney general warned the US that its plans would face international condemnation. Speaking to lawyers in Chicago at the weekend, Lord Goldsmith said he had thought hard about interfering in a “sensitive, domestic political debate”, but had concluded that the Geneva Convention was “an international standard of very considerable importance and its content must be the same for all nations”.

The Geneva Convention document the British use allows the summary execution of those who are not in uniform and actively participating in the combat…minor detail, I know…it just offend the sensibilities of the “civilized world” to actually hold the guilty accountable anymore it seems. If you’re in the “uncivilized” category, then you can stone people to death and hang teenagers from cranes, and it’s ok…you don’t get it, so you get a pass.

Oh, yeah…thanks for one more lawyer thinking a lawless bunch of murders will follow published law. I thought lawyers trafficed in evidence, but that seems to be left behind as a professional method for the rest of us people to have to deal with.

Guantanamo Bay had become “a symbol” which “the long American tradition of justice and liberty deserves to see removed at the earliest moment”.

Many would argue our troops in the field don’t get the food service, free time, nor clean and comfortable living conditions the people who have been gathered from an active battlefield. As noted above, the “normal” treatment of the enemy combatants (that’s what you are when you fight in a war) in GTMO is superior to what we provide to those who have to be shot at by such men. Talk about justice….

Thanks for your attention.

Update 9/22/2006: And I never had to attend Survival Escape Rescue and Evasion (S.E.R.E.) School, either.

Trackbacked to: Stuck on Stupid, Diane’s Stuff, Third World Country.

Xerox has a website up where you can select a greeting card and then send your mesage to our troops (click on the image above to get to the site)!

Why is Xerox doing this? from the FAQ:

Q: Why is Xerox sponsoring this program?
A: Social responsibility has been ingrained in the Xerox culture since our earliest days as a company. The Let’s Say Thanks program provides one more outlet for the company to deliver value to the community and support the men and women stationed overseas.

Thanks, Xerox and the employees who make this happen!

Here’s the link to what the troops say about this program.

Along the way, the site highlights the support of Give 2 the Troops and the work the two programs do together.

So, there are two more ways to help out. Anyone can spare a few words to brighten a day, even if the bank account is looking a little slim right now….

Trackbacked to:
Stuck on Stupid

Simon of Blogasm did a little unscientific survey, but it yielded some data worth scanning:

Premise: After reading a Newsweek article that discussed the lack of diversity in the blogosphere, I instantly became fascinated with the discussion of how the semi-anonymous blogosphere’s diversity compares to the diversity of traditional media. When talking about this Newsweek article, several bloggers pointed out that in many cases, you don’t know the race or gender of a blogger, which theoretically means that there is a somewhat-even playing field based on quality of content alone. But I was surprised that not much was done to actually chart the diversity of the blogosphere to create a frame of reference for these diversity dicussions to take place. So I set out to not only map the diversity of the blogosphere as a whole, but to also map diversity within individual niches.

Methods of experimentation: I emailed 1,000 different bloggers with a 4-question survey that enabled me to statistically chart the diversity of both gender and race within each niche. The 4 questions were:

1. What niche does your blog fall into (Examples: Political, gadget, movie, etc…If more than one, please list)?

2. What are the genders of all the bloggers who write for your site?

3. What are the races for all the bloggers who write for your site (if there are any that you’re not sure about, just indicate that you don’t know)?

4. What do you think of the diversity of the blogosphere, both in your niche and as a whole?

There’s more to read, but here’s where us MilBloggers fell out:

Military Blogs:

Male: 76%
Female: 24%
***
White/Caucasian/European: 100%

More grist for the mill….

It was a quiet day Sunday, so I reached for the remote and scanned the guide list of shows playing. “Patton” was on and had been playing for about an hour….I clicked to the channel and settled back on the couch.

The scene that was playing, when I cut in, was Patton giving a speech to a French audience on Corsica, talking about how he would soon be at work, liberating the homeland of Lafayette. Lots of cheers from the crowd. As he completed the speech, his aide told him the press wanted a few minutes with him.

If this “docudrama” has anything to do with reality, then I’m projecting that George S. Patton suffered as our current day commanders do, but with out instantaneous news cycles:

One an editorialist disguised as a reporter asked him about his future assignments: No comment. Some other questions, then Patton said: “Off the record, they are sending me to Malta.” To that, the editorialist disguised as a reporter asked: “will you be slapping any soldiers in Malta?” as Patton was walking away. Patton stopped, but did not turn around. After a moment, he then stepped off through garden and kept walking away. Sound familiar?

A few scenes later, a German staff officer delivers a message to a general. The General expresses dismay (this part was subtitled) that Patton was now moving to the central Mediterrean and starts barking orders to get more troops moved to Greece and Crete, and to let the Italians defend their own country. They had to get ready for the offensive Patton would surely be heading up.

So, once again, if the story presented has a degree of truth, then the media was leaking critical information to the enemy back in the early 40s.

There were other scenes where the press dogged the great military mind and General Bradley had to corral him several times, to prevent the Allies and later the US from being embarassed.

So what has really changed, except the speed of the news cycle?

Just thinking….

Oh, and speaking of the accuracy of the movie, I found this site that discusses the very issue:

Despite the way the movie makes it seem, Patton did not sack men without a moment’s regard to them, he did not curse like a sailor, he did not believe in “victory at all costs” in spite of casualty lists. He had a paternal care for his men unlike any other great military leader – he knew that little things, like a hot meal and dry socks, contributed more to victory than all the ammunition in the world. Why did Patton’s men love him so much? Because he never expected more from them than he was willing to give himself. A Third Army sentry recounted his only meeting with Patton as,“Oh, yes, I knew Patton, though I only saw him once. We were stuck in the snow and he came by in a jeep. His face was awful red, and he must have been about froze, riding in that open jeep. He yelled to us to get out and push, and first thing I knew, there I was with General Patton pushing right alongside of me.”

Quoted from “Patton Uncovered” by B. E. Boland.

After reading this page, the secondary lesson is Hollywood, as now, was distorting the true nature of military leaders in order to grab the audience….so what else is new?

And…for you staff officers, or those subject to a higher headquarters, this quote that indicates the some of the materiall on B. E. Boland’s book:

Yet, incredibly, General Patton himself was removed from the command of Third Army in disgrace. In >“Patton Uncovered” you can delve into the high-level politics surrounding the military maneuvers, and learn of the deceit, treachery, betrayal and back-stabbing that were commonplace at headquarters.

So, once more, as I said above: “so what else is new?”

Three lessons, one movie, and discovery of a book that seeks the truth of it all.

It might be true, it might be not, but it came into my email inbox today:

LETTER FROM A FARM KID
(NOW AT San Diego MARINE CORPS RECRUIT TRAINING)

Dear Ma and Pa,

I am well. Hope you are. Tell Brother Walt and Brother Elmer the Marine Corps beats working for old man Minch by a mile. Tell them to join up quick before all of the places are filled.

I was restless at first because you got to stay in bed till nearly 6 a.m. but I am getting so I like to sleep late. Tell Walt and Elmer all you do before breakfast is smooth your cot, and shine some things. No hogs to slop, feed to pitch, mash to mix, wood to split, fire to lay. Practically nothing.

Men got to shave but it is not so bad, there’s warm water. Breakfast is strong on trimmings like fruit juice, cereal, eggs, bacon, etc., but kind of weak on chops, potatoes, ham, steak, fried eggplant, pie and other regular food, but tell Walt and Elmer you can always sit by the two city boys that live on coffee. Their food plus yours holds you until noon when you get fed again. It’s no wonder these city boys can’t walk much.

We go on “route marches,” which the platoon sergeant says are long walks to harden us. If he thinks so, it’s not my place to tell him different. A “route march” is about as far as to our mailbox at home. Then the city guys get sore feet and we all ride back in trucks.

The country is nice but awful flat. The sergeant is like a school teacher. He nags a lot. The Captain is like the school board. Majors and colonels just ride around and frown. They don’t bother you none.

This next will kill Walt and Elmer with laughing. I keep getting medals for shooting. I don’t know why. The bulls-eye is near as big as a chipmunk head and don’t move, and it ain’t shooting at you like the Higgett boys at home. All you got to do is lie there all comfortable and hit it. You don’t even load your own cartridges. They come in boxes.

Then we have what they call hand-to-hand combat training. You get to wrestle with them city boys. I have to be real careful though, they break real easy. It ain’t like fighting with that ole bull at home. I’m about the best they got in this except for that Tug Jordan from over in Silver Lake. I only beat him once. He joined up the same time as me, but I’m only 5’6″ and 130 pounds and he’s 6’8″ and near 300 pounds dry.

Be sure to tell Walt and Elmer to hurry and join before other fellers get onto this setup and come stampeding in.

Your loving daughter,

Alice G

Gee…it’s a good thing I scan other blogs sometimes….(Note to tasking agency: Captain Steeljaw: Send tasking directly next time – it reduces the response cycle considerably!) Anyhow, Skippy-san of Far East Cynic nailed Steeljaw Scribe, and he informed me (via a note at the end of his answers). Here are the details:

Seven Songs

List seven songs you are into right now. No matter what the genre, whether they have words, or even if they’re not any good, but they must be songs you’re really enjoying now. Post these instructions in your LiveJournal/blog along with your seven songs. Then tag seven other people to see what they’re listening to.

1) 5 Candles – Jars of Clay

2) I Can Only Imagine – Mercy Me

3) Summer Song – Joe Satriani

4) Soundtrack from Crimson Tide

5) Tub Thumping – Chumbawamba

6) Pictures of a Matchstick Man – Status Quo

7) 3AM – Matchbox 20

Seven other victims? Who to bother…decisions, decisions:

I’m thinking Station Commando of Recruiting Tirade, Jack Army, Eagle1, Holly of Politics of a Patriot, Jason of Navy Says Hoorah1, Dadmanly, and (finally!) Andi of Andi’s World!

(Emails to follow later)

Disclaimer: While I have publically stated (about a year ago in the junior blog), I will never generate a meme, I have not said I would not pass them along!

HT: Glenn Beck’s radio show…

Well…I wonder how many liberals are hauling one of these around? What will they think of next for the pet rock purchasing crowd?

C’mon…like this will give you more of a clue than the big fireball in your vicinity? Oh, yeah…maybe one of your fellow travelers is packing a suitcase nuke as a carry on, and you (without a parachute as your carry on) want to know.

Glenn said this is a favorite inside the Beltway accessory.

I’m thinking a e-coli detector you can hold above your mixed green salad would be a hot seller right now….

OH, and the best part (to rip off Glenn), if there is a nuke and it does go off, and you didn’t get enough warning…it’s not like you will be around to sue them in a class action suit. On top of that (we return now to original thought), which of your neighbors has a calibrated “source” out on their tool bench that, while you’re over for a beer on Saturday afternoon, is available to do preventative maintenace checks on your key fob?

Hey…it’s only $160….(or $145/ea if you buy one for your significant other at the same time) mere pocket change for the DC crowd…