JACK'S BLOG
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10/26/2015 2 Comments Are you celebrating or disappointed in the outcome of Hillary's testimony at the #Benghazi Committee?OpinionYou may be celebrating if you support Hillary. She appears to many to have won. Won what? You may be disappointed that she didn't break down in tears and confess. Confess what? Let's take a deep breath and think.
The hearings before the House Select Committee on Benghazi is not a trial. There is no jury. There won't be a verdict. Think of it more as a pretrial to determine if there is sufficient evidence to proceed with a trial. In the military, we would have likened it to an Article 32 (Uniform Code of Military Justice) Investigation to determine if a crime has been committed and if so who should be charged? Did you expect Hillary to trip up and blurt out something incriminating? Why would you think that? Hillary is an accomplished liar. She lied to herself about her husband's philandering for many years so that she wouldn't have to confront the ugly truth of her dysfunctional marriage. She lied as she was caught stealing the silverware and chinaware as she and Bill exited the White House. She lied in countless investigations to avoid being fined and punished for her complicity in the White Water and other scandals. Her tangled web of lies surrounding her mishandling of classified documents while Secretary of State is unraveling with every revelation. Did you seriously think she would confess like the culprit in an episode of the old Perry Mason Show? The time to deliberate over the testimony and hard evidence won't begin until the hearings end. Anyone leaping to conclusions at this point is driven by opinion rather than truth.
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VeteransHe scooted around the exhibits pretty well in his wheelchair but became stuck when he tried to cross the gravel that separated the event from his tent. The tiny front wheels dug in every time he tried. That's when I stepped up and he asked, “Would you give a disabled American veteran a hand?” Hell yeah I would.
I'm tired of waiting for the government to help. Aren't you? It was a struggle. He was a heavy guy and I coaxed him to lean back so I could raise the front wheels off the ground. Even then it was tough slogging through the gravel. Wouldn't you know that when we got there all he wanted was to drop off some things he had been given and return to the exhibits, so I tipped him back and pulled him back to the sidewalk. AmericaDoesn't the 2nd Amendment preclude any and all debate? Congress shall not infringe on the right of citizens to keep and bear arms. Gun control proponents attack from two fronts. Some argue that the 2nd Amendment should be rescinded. Others argue that it should be more narrowly implemented. That is, you may keep your guns but the government should control them.
It seems that no resolution will be found for one simple reason: A lack of trust. Those who advocate gun control do not trust law-abiding citizens to handle their weapons responsibly, without harming themselves or others within range. Many don't trust guns. Those who advocate the broadest application of the 2nd Amendment, who accept no form of gun control, simply do not trust the government to constrain itself. Gun control, they argue, will ultimately lead to gun confiscation. To them the slope really is slippery and if you scratch a gun control advocate, you most likely will find someone who advocates gun confiscation. Is that always true? Actually, no. Let me tell you a story... 10/20/2015 0 Comments Would you believe that killing and sex are equally intimate, psychologically similar?WritingI completed my second novel, The Accidental Spy, about a year ago. The readers have read it. My wife has edited it. And yet, it has languished. Something felt wrong about it. Then, about two days ago, I discovered what it was. A theme crept into the story about midway through and I had missed it. I had to go back and weave it into the complete fabric of the story. The theme? Teaching a civilized man to kill. In a way, the study of killing in combat is very much like the study of sex. Killing is a private, intimate occurrence of tremendous intensity, in which the destructive act becomes psychologically very much like the procreative act." On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society by Lt. Col. Dave Grossman In this story set in the time and place of the Korean War, my hero, Nick Andrews, learns both the art of love and the art of killing. These themes are now embedded in the earliest pages and developed throughout the book.
I hope you enjoy this sample. Oh Dark ThirtyThis question inspired another sleepless night... Most of us have been discussing the shootings in Oregon, the most recent example of mass murder in an American school. Interestingly, similarly sane and rational people considering the circumstances of the crime come to diametrically opposed conclusions. Some want to ban all guns. Others want to arm themselves. Even more interestingly, those who respond out of fear can reach either conclusion. So can those who are predominantly angry. This dichotomy led me to consider if fear and anger share a common root and how can people with similar feelings be poles apart in their response to the same situation. I believe I found the answer. Both fear and anger are founded in helplessness.
Think about it. Oh Dark Thirty“Oh-dark-thirty” is an expression I learned in the Army where we measured time by the 24-hour clock. The dark of the night could be anytime roughly from midnight to 04:00 (pronounced “zero-four-hundred”) depending upon your location and the season of the year. Thus, Oh-dark-thirty is any time in the middle of the night when you should be abed, sleeping. A variant of the phrase, “Zero-dark-thirty”, became popularly known when a film of that title was produced describing the manhunt for Osama Bin Laden. The raid that ended his life occurred in the middle of the night.
When I was in the Army, we said “Oh” instead of “Zero”. I suppose the Brits say “Zed”. Or, they may say something completely different like, "Blimy, it's late!" Did you ever wake up a child at Oh-dark-thirty? They're usually groggy, confused, aren't they? That's something the Army trained out of us. War comes anytime and you have to be awake and alert or you die. The modern Army claims to own the night. They have smaller, more efficient night-vision devices and train extensively in night tactics. In my time, during the Vietnam War, we simply struggled to survive the night. 10/4/2015 2 Comments Should the U.S. acknowledge its Atomic Veterans before it's too late? Most are dead and goneVeteransAlmost 300,000 veterans witnessed atmospheric tests of nuclear devices: Atomic Bombs and Hydrogen Bombs. They are known as Atomic Veterans. Most, if not a majority, are dead as you read this. Many died young of cancers and tuberculosis induced by their exposure to the deadly radiation emitted by these detonations. Those fortunate enough to survive such early onsets of fatal diseases are now dying of old age. Sadly, the United States has never officially acknowledged their participation as what many would characterize as guinea pigs. There is not even a ribbon to wear on their chests among the other campaign medals they may have earned. VeteransThe service members who distinguished themselves with great valor on a train in France should be awarded the Soldier's Medal. It is the only decoration available for valor performed outside a combat situation. However, a veteran receives no such military honor. Of course politicians will jump at the chance at being photographed with a hero and I expect that Chris Mintz will receive their attention for rushing unarmed against the shooter in Oregon. Sadly, Mintz will be mere window dressing for the politicians' aggrandizement.
AmericaTo be fair, most racists probably are disturbed by immigrants and aliens living in America and speaking their native language. It is ironic that such racists also enjoy pizza and chow mien and countless other pleasures that immigrants and aliens have contributed to culture in these United States. However, does that mean that all who eat ethnic foods and espouse that they learn English are racist? Hardly. Many simply wish to avoid the curse described in the Old Testament when man built the Tower of Babel to elevate himself above God and was cast into a confusion of languages. Confusion is the enemy of discourse, reason, and understanding which is absolutely necessary if we are to govern ourselves successfully. Before we go any further I should state that I am not in favor of making English the official language of the United States. I'm too old to learn a foreign language. I speak American. I write American. I think American. Anyone who fails to see the difference between English and American just isn't paying attention. My wife and I enjoy many broadcasts that we find on BBC America, especially British crime dramas. Sadly they aren't aired with subtitles and we are often lost in the weeds. Not only are some dialects unfathomable (as are some regional American dialects), but also there is an idiomatic abyss somewhere in the Atlantic midway between London and New York. The simple fact is that I fear that we will be denied the greatest gifts of those who adopt America if they fail to learn the common language and that they will likewise be denied the greatest gifts that it has to offer them. Freedom of Speech includes the right to speak in any language one chooses. However, they must also keep in mind that we also have the right to ignore them.
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