Zero more days until Christmas. Are you ready for the big day? If you have little people around, you might be Christmas’ed out. Who has a wonderful tradition they would like to share with everyone? Who has a favorite album of Christmas songs? How about just a favorite song? Who sang it? You may choose more than one.
I will go first. Joan Baez has the voice of an angel. have you ever heard her sing O Holy Night? Jennifer Hudson runs a close second. Then there is Rachel from Glee. Rachel’s version is very dramatic and I can’t listen without it bringing tears to my eyes. How about Roy Orbison singing Pretty Paper?
Moon, going to interject here a bit about Mr. Kerry and his “Standby Ready Reserve”….and it is not just only provide a current address. There is a reason for that address.
All “Standby Ready Reserve Means” is you are moved off the list of people who show up for drills/training, receive retirement points, receive pay. It does not release you from the sworn obligation to comport oneself under the law of U.S. Code 10 for the Armed Forces. You still have to live within the restrictions & requirements of the law and the Uniform Code of Military Justice until such time as you submit the request to terminate your status; then if you conduct is within standards, you will receive the Honorable Discharge.
If you do not to elect to terminate your status – in Mr. Kerry’s place, that is resign his Commission – you are subject to recall at anytime and, during the period of when he served, that could be up to age 70 for Officers. If I recall right, Mr. Kerry did not resign until sometime in the late ’70s.
By the way, the rules of conduct also apply to those of us who are Armed Forces Retired. We too, depending upon the needs of the Military, could be recalled to serve. Since you reference General Puller, that occured with him when back in 1956 with the Ribbon Creek incident at Parris Island, SC. He had been retired one year when called back to Active Duty to testify. I hung up my “boots and saddle” from the Army back in 1998, but my retirement orders have that little clause about recall buried down in the fine print.
Cargo is right that at the time Mr. Kerry met with the North Vietnam Delegation and also testified before Congress, he was still a Sworn Officer of the U.S. Navy and was not comporting himself accordingly. Of course, looking at the time of the events, it was also not politcally smart to recall him for action under the Uniform Code of Military Justice.
For the record, there are quite of few of us who served from August 5, 1965 through May 7, 1975 in the Vietnam Era still around. One of my “pleasures” in late 1974 to early 1976 was processing the draft dodgers/resisters at Fort Dix NJ who had either gone AWOL from Stateside locations or were deserters after stepping foot in Vietnam. All part of President Carter’s Amnesty Initative.
My father was a military officer also who was active reserves for a good 10 years after WWII. The military isn’t alien to me.
If I am being dressed down, have at it. You all can feel any way about Kerry you want. Not the thought police here. I am simply not going to have him called a traitor on this blog. That’s all. I always figured if he did anything illegal he would have been arrested. Someone needed to stop the insanity.
Now for the gray areas…(the above is NOT a gray area) I grew up in a time where you didn’t question authority or someone smacked the crap out of you. (at least if you lived in my house Many people I knew were probably draft dodgers in the eyes of some. They went to college and hung out there as long as they could because of the draft deferments. My husband didn’t go to Nam. He was married. Not to me but to someone. My point is different people come from different places on this subject. I have evolved from Green Berets mentality to where I am now which is quite a leap of faith. I learned more. I learned how self serving the govt was and how many lies were told. Then I processed how many of my generation got to be immortalized on that wall. That was the reality that pushed me over the edge. My turning point was watching those POWs come off that plane. That tore my heart out. Some of them couldnt even walk.
The why has not and cannot be answered. the “domnino theory” and ” stop communist aggression” sort of didn’t pan out, did they? Seriously, when would that thing have ended? What a horrible waste of American lives.
What year did you go to Nam? @Ray
Probably the angriest I have been on the subject of Vietnam is when people crawled all over John McCain for uttering the word “gook.” He earned the right to say whatever he wants.
@Ray Beverage
Thank you, sir.
@Moon-howler
I, for one, am not dressing you down. You and I just disagree on the status of Kerry.
I didn’t say you were. I was responding to Ray. Only he knows his intent.
Lets see what kind of dressing down McCain gives Kerry.
He probably will. McCain has really turned into a D-bag in my opinion. I used to sorta like him but he has been turned.
Yea tho the Comoner Al hath spoke with the Sheriff, the Gray Ghost, Son of Prince William County hath Revealed his true and faithful identity unto me. This identity, the leader of a most Revolutionary band of not-so-merry men, shall in the due course of time, be revealed to all.
Merry Christmas! I just finished wrapping presents and putting them under the tree and setting up the living room like Santa came through the chimney.
Cargo, what did you do to the living room? I am envisioning piles of reindeer dung and soot. Fess up! Is Mrs. Cargo going to turn you into calamari?
Our teenager and young adults still love it when presents magically appear in the morning. Mr. and Mrs. Claus are enjoying a little Jameson’s before finally turning in. At least the kids don’t become fully conscious until at least 10 am anymore. Merry Christmas!
I bet you have to pry them out of bed nowadays. I remember those days. Its sort of like, what happened between 6 am and 10?
Merry Christmas, Emma.
Moonhowlings and Elena,
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays.
I hope you all have a Happy New Year!
Al
Me thinks one has to look at everything in context. Kerry’s conduct, when looked at in the context of what America was going through with the Vietnam War begins to make more sense and is understandable. Was he being a patriot and helping his fellow soldiers (to come home), or a traitor and helping the enemy- I think the answer to that question is clear when you look at it in context, but it also depends on your point of view. I’d be amazed if McCain gives him a hard time- McCain’s just a political hack now and Kerry makes more political sense for the GOP in the Sec. State position.
Similarly, context is needed when looking at the Iran-Contra situation. Given the times, Ronald Reagan may have thought what what he was doing- selling weapons to the Iranians and using the funds to support counter-insurgents in Nicaragua was acceptable in that situation, even though both were prohibited by congress. I’m not suggesting he was a traitor for supplying weapons to a state sponsor of terrorism and funds to a group that employed murder, torture, mutilation, rape, arson, destruction and kidnapping, but I would understand if someone did. Again, depends on your point of view.
Speaking of context- Merry Christmas, everyone!!
We could finish out the day discussing what a hideous son of a bitch LBJ was. @Middleman
All perspective.
I didn’t feel the same about those young men back in the day as I do now either. I know more now. I didn’t know then what they knew. (speaking of Kerry and throwing the medals back) All perspective.
Oddly enough, most Americans supported Lt. Calley even after he was convicted of being responsible for the murder of hundreds of people in Mi Lai. Go figure. Somehow it was ok because they were ‘gooks’ and some of them were commie sympathizers. Many in the service wore a special patch as part of their uniform that supported Calley. I wish I could remember now what it looked like.
Cargo, how did you feel about those few SEALs being critical of Obama? Same standard?
@Moon-howler
Any active or reserve SEALs need to keep their mouths shut.
I think they should also. I also understand that our country was pretty close to a civil war back then in sday 1970. College students were getting shot on their campuses by reserves and national guard. The military was against the civilians etc. (and vice versa) Unfortunately, the average grunt was caught in the middle. Most of them REALLY didn’t want to be be there, since they were the ones getting killed.
My person was in and out early. He didn’t have the really crappy attitude….he got out in the nick of time. He also was in the quartermasters. Different than being in combat. 66-67 wasn’t horrible if you werent in combat and were home by late spring of 67, even for a marine. My brother in law was army and was in from 68-69. Much had changed by then.
?How do you feel about the deferments, including clintons?
This year all I did was open the chimney doors. Last year I spread some ash and put a big boot print in the ash.
Katie knows that that Santa is just the spirit of Christmas, along with being the celebration of the birth of Jesus. But she likes to pretend too.
But does she like to clean up the pretend mess? (trying not to sound like Mrs. Grinch)
Glad you skipped the reindeer dung.
Merry Christmas to the Moonhowlings’ers. And, hopes that you keep the conversation going in the coming year.
We will give it our best shot, Pat. Thank you for being here.
@Moon-howler
I find it interesting that you assume that SHE cleaned up the mess. She was too busy opening presents. I cleaned it up before handing out presents so I wouldn’t track it around.
Reindeer belong outside and Santa wipes his feet before coming in.
To answer your question about deferments….they were legal. It was a different time. I had one brother volunteer for the USMC Officer’s school right out of a Jesuit seminary and another had asthma…..which cleared up around 1975. I was only in grade school at the time.
I brought C-rations to school for lunch and had a tiger stripe flight suit when I was in 3rd grade.
Not because SHE is a SHE but because she is a kid. I worked hard, often to no gain, to get my kids to clean up after themselves.
You know the old you mess it up you clean it up.
There just werent enough years, I am sorry to report.
So was Santa good to all of you?
Private enterprise was very helpful this year in helping Santa get goodies for the wife and child. And it was something that I didn’t even want to keep, so fortune smiled upon me.
You sold something?….are we to guess?
Cops: Killer of 2 NY firemen had same make, caliber rifle used in Connecticut school massacre
By Associated Press, Updated: Tuesday, December 25, 12:18 PM
WEBSTER, N.Y. — Police say the man who lured firefighters in Webster, N.Y., into a deadly ambush had the same make and caliber semiautomatic rifle as the one used in the Connecticut school massacre.
Webster Police Chief Gerald Pickering said Tuesday that 62-year-old William Spengler was armed with a .223-caliber Bushmaster rifle, a .38-caliber revolver and a 12-gauge shotgun in Monday’s ambush. Spengler killed two firefighters and wounded two others before fatally shooting himself.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/cops-killer-of-2-ny-firemen-had-same-make-caliber-rifle-used-in-connecticut-school-massacre/2012/12/25/0f3d22d4-4eb7-11e2-835b-02f92c0daa43_story.html?hpid=z1&wp_login_redirect=0
@Cargosquid Santa was great. And the nickel boron coated slide looks amazing.
I assisted my realtor’s son in law in acquiring something to exercise his 2nd Amendment rights.
He wanted a certain pistol, I happened to have that exact pistol. I love Virginia.
That nut-job in Webster had previously killed his grandmother with a hammer and was released after 17 years! There are kids in prison right now serving longer terms for drugs under three-strikes laws.
Maybe change the “war on drugs” to the “war on killers?”
That seems sort of minimal for offing your grandmother, especially with a hammer. Geez.
Public safety would be advanced exponentially if we actually enforced many of the existing laws already on the books.
How was a convicted killer and ex- con able to acquire guns? I wonder if he exploited the gun show loophole that the NRA supports?
Can you define the “gun show loophole”?
@Emma
Have to pay for more jails, have to pay for mental health facilities, have to pay for cops….our local fiscal conservatives are ignoring or cutting those needs. You can’t have both. The price of freedom is pretty high right now. I’ve never really questioned it until now – and the unreasonable the debate, the rigid stance and the ludicrous “recommendations” disgust me.