Oh, Betelgeuse!

Eumir Deodato and the Heritage Orchestra, live in London, do up some Richard Strauss:

Also Sprach Zarathustra

So enjoying being introduced to all this wonderful music, prostratedragon. And a touch of Nietzsche and Kubrick, too. Many, many thanks to you.

Lifting the military ban on women in combat is a bad decision for several reasons.
1. There’s no evidence that women are yearning to become involved in ground combat. If there’s no demand, why do it?
2. Women aren’t strong enough to pull duty in the infantry, for sure, and other specialties are also a problem. Statistically speaking, average female upper-body strength is 42 percent less than average male upper-body strength. Looked at another way, the statistics mean that on the average the top fifth of women in lifting capacity are the equal of the bottom fifth of men on the same measure. This means that any work requiring heavy lifting or carrying a great deal of weight—the burden of the combat soldier—puts women at a serious disadvantage. In a widely circulated article, a female Marine Corps captain who served in Iraq and Afghanistan wrote in the Marine Corps Gazette this year that seven months in Afghanistan left her physically broken, with muscle atrophy in her leg and an ovarian condition that left her infertile. “I am confident that should the Marine Corps attempt to fully integrate women into the infantry, we as an institution are going to experience a colossal increase in crippling and career-ending medical conditions for females,” the article’s author, Capt. Katie Petronio, wrote.
3. Currently there is a huge problem with sexual assault in the services, and even in the military academies. Putting females in remote outposts with horny men would greatly exacerbate this terribly destructive problem.

Actually it’s General John Allen. Jill called him Jack, before they went up the hill.

I think that the Violence Against Women Act introduced by Pat and Mike is going a bit too far. They don’t deserve it.

As much as they may hate the violent, repressive regime of President Bashar Assad, these young people — largely educated and middle class — are horrified by the opposition’s alliances with radical groups such as Al Nusra Front, which has ties to Al Qaeda.

This radicalization is promoted by Qatar and Saudi Arabia, two despotic US Gulf allies. The US, being predominate in the world, could of course stop this in a minute if it was motivated to do so. But it doesn’t.

And under the “with us or against us” policy that means that the US supports these radical elements aligned with al-Qaeda. Somebody should ask Frau Clinton about that, if she’s able to respond, and her being responsible, and all that.

Fatster, thanks for Betelgeuse! I used to subscribe to Astronomy magazine and wondered what Orion would do without his right shoulder. Here’s more for the geekiest. . .

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betelgeuse

Betelgeuse isn’t the only star in our neighborhood getting ready to go rogue. There’s also Eta Carinae, which is really tipsy. It’s about a dozen times further away than Betelgeuse. Still, if Eta blows up, it will likely cause some damage to earth’s upper atmosphere — some 7500 years after the actual blast (it’s that far away). And if Eta tipped or wobbled on its axis by several degrees, and then blew up, it could aim its most powerful ionizing “flashlight” directly at earth. Then there would be ten times the lethal dose of ionizing radiation at ground level. More about Eta. . .

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eta_Carinae

Sleep well tonite!

wtf?

“Sleep well tonite!”

LOL, maa8722, you must know how impressionable I am and that I’ll no doubt be dreaming tonight about wild collisions and massive explosions waaaaay out yonder.

Do appreciate those links, ‘specially Eta Carinae.

From the Utah Sheriffs’ Association to President Obama: “. . . we are prepared to trade our lives for the preservation of [the Second Amendment's] traditional interpretation.”

So… does this mean they are going to start regulating those militias that keep popping up all over their state?

LOL GeorgeJohnston. Good question.

drift

?

❖ The United Kentucky Tea Party is “plotting a strategy to defeat U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell (R) in the 2014 Republican primary”.

wierdly humorous. I like the way politicians now refer to themselves by putting their job title in front of their name.

“leader McConnell” , “speaker Boehner”. It gives it a strange authoritarian feel.

tea party wants the government to butt out, except when they want a bridge. which it should build for free, using the money it gets from somewhere, anywhere, who knows. Maybe they can all go down to the river with their guns, and shoot the dirt up into bridge. yee haw.

“An issue of strong interest in Northern Kentucky, she said, is the building of a new bridge across the Ohio River that will require tolls.

“The federal government can build a bridge in Afghanistan in eight months without tolls. Why not in Northern Kentucky?” she said. “He’s Senate minority leader. It seems like he could do something to help Kentucky.”

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2013/01/22/4025789/several-kentucky-tea-party-groups.html#storylink=cpy#storylink=cp.

❖ “Pentagon faces a rebel yell over pensions“. In-a-nutshell: “It is a perfect storm of rising pensions, salaries and healthcare costs. At some point we will be faced with making choices between new weapon systems or entitlements.”

How about a choice between wasting trillions of dollars transporting goods, services and people, servitude to oil corporations while conducting war to protect their business models of said oil corporations while wasting trillion of dollars of potential energy out the tailpipe in addition to co2 contributing to global warming?

America has no choice. Monopolies suck. Like the monopoly on energy enjoyed by slaveowner. Human being?

I think it’s sarcasm.

1) There’s no evidence that women are yearning to be in combat roles … except for the existence of women who are..

2) Women are already ably and honorably serving in the military, including in situations that sometimes involve combat, even if they aren’t officially combat missions.

3) The best way to reduce the problem of sexual assault in the armed forces — and everywhere else — is to reduce the number of rapists.

Lastly, Panetta is doing this on advice from the Joint Chiefs of Staff. By all means, explain why your opinion of the wisdom of this move is better-informed than theirs.

Russian female snipers? Woman in the IDF?

How many years ago?

Re: #14

Even the Pentagon’s light bill is an entitlement — to Chesapeake P&L?
There are so many of them. Some are earned by services rendered, others are not.

Happily, in a perverse way, we note the massive size of that institution, and that offers beaucoup ways to cut. For starters, how about the F-35? The remaining tens of thousands of troops in Europe? Gin up the next tranche of the Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) Commission?

Good morning, fatster and everyone else.

Not to rain on the happy progressive and liberal pleasure, being expressed this morning, that women may now take combat positions in the military … however, I do feel that it might be worth considering what that might mean if or when the draft is reinstated?

On the one hand, then, there would be true equality of “opportunity”, on the other there might be some resistance … yet, even in that resistance there would be opportunity of equality of conscience and, in the long and the short run, such equality gets to the heart and mind of the matter of organized mayhem, and whether it is a good thing or not.

Anyhow, I greatly appreciate these “Roundups”, fatster, and the amazing and impeccable work you do in presenting them to us. I read every one of them and follow many of the stellar links which you provide. Yesterday, for example, I followed your link about the very tragic family shooting in New Mexico which had, attached to the link, a statement by the family that I found to be well worth reading and considering, as it added far more depth to the tragedy than “official” reports and most “news” coverage.

You are the very best, fatster, and we are most fortunate to have your voice, your wit, and your amazing detective skills available to us, here at FDL.

Namaste

DW

A bunch of unsubstantiated opinions, and then this idiotic capper:

Lastly, Panetta is doing this on advice from the Joint Chiefs of Staff. By all means, explain why your opinion of the wisdom of this move is better-informed than theirs.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff have wisdom? Where’s the evidence for that?

Re: #19

“. . .if or when the draft is reinstated. . .might be some resistance. . .”
———–

I think the “might be” aspect is an understatement in our time, but interesting to ruminate.

Aside from being politically radioactive, the very notion of a draft is outmoded mindful of what the military needs now. Big, standing, minimally educated armies are a thing of the past. Mustering a huge bulk of cannon fodder doesn’t apply anymore. Vietnam was the end of that.

Also there would be resistence challenging the right of the Feds to conscript non-volunteers. Sure, there is a right to raise an Army, but it might not guarantee the right to conscript non-volunteers. Or, there could be so many demands for excepted/exempted categories that the draft would become ineffecctive or morph back to better compensated volunteers. Did I just say mercenaries?

Wouldn’t it be an interesting case at SCOTUS if they had to reinterpret conscription. It would pit a society, free from conscription for 40 years, against its own gov’t. No winner in that case.

Can anyone here imagine any scenario where a draft would be reinstated nowadays or in the future? I’d bet not.

Can I expect that 18 year females will now be required to register for Selective Service?

Almost all male U.S. citizens, and male aliens living in the U.S., who are 18 through 25, are required to register with Selective Service. It’s important to know that even though he is registered, a man will not automatically be inducted into the military. In a crisis requiring a draft, men would be called in sequence determined by random lottery number and year of birth. Then, they would be examined for mental, physical and moral fitness by the military before being deferred or exempted from military service or inducted into the Armed Forces.
http://www.sss.gov/fswho.htm

wiki:
Women in the Israeli Defense Forces are female soldiers who serve in the Israel Defense Forces. Israel is the only country in the world with a mandatory military service requirement for women.

Clause 16A of the military service law requires that female combat soldiers serve 3 years of mandatory service, and continue in reserves service up to age 38, even if they become mothers. These are essentially identical to the terms of service for male combat soldiers.[1] Each year, 1,500 female combat soldiers are drafted into the IDF.[4] Women currently make up 3% of the IDF’s combat soldiers.[6]

A combat option for women is the Caracal Battalion, which is a highly operational force that is made up of 70 percent female soldiers.[3] The unit undergoes training like any combat infantry.[4] The IDF commando K9 unit, Oketz, also drafts females as elite combat soldiers.[6]

” better compensated volunteers. Did I just say mercenaries?” And that’s a key point, maa8722. Also, gives me the opportunity to provide this link, which I only saw after this Roundup had been posted.

I guess we could look at this another way and say, somewhat ruefully, that the American people are paying for their aversion to the draft. Zillions of tax dollars to the likes of CACI, Blackwater, and all the rest. Too bad the leadership can’t interpret stony opposition to the draft as at least some evidence of resistance to military “adventures”. Sheesh.

Many thnx, maa8722.

Aw, DWB, you are most kind and your encouragement most appreciated.

:)

:)

:)

I’ll be thinking of this all day, mafr. Great wit! And . . . Good Morning!

Re: #24. . .

Yes, and my sinister thought about the Blackwaters, Halliburtons, etc. . . Just imagining, but could Posse Comitatus have anything potentially to do with that?

Probably not, I hope, but it could make for one helluva movie, or better yet, a book.

Re: my #27

I was referring to the Posse Comitatus Act, not the group.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posse_Comitatus_Act

Re #24. . .

Also, it isn’t necessarily new. Eisenhower warned about it 50 years ago. Of course it seems to have grown on steroids since then. . .

eisenhower according to the following http://theageofblasphemy.wordpress.com/2011/01/21/eisenhower-man-of-peace-and-the-military-industrial-complex-reality-and-fiction/

” In fact, Ike presided over by far – and that’s an understatement – the largest nuclear buildup in US history, going from a few hundred warheads when he took office to nearly 20,000 by the time he left. He also approved the deployment of a vast array of new kinds of weapons and delivery systems, including the intercontinental ballistic missiles that made it possible to obliterate the Soviet Union and China in a single day.”

‘I offered the most accurate history I could in the three books I wrote on Eisenhower, who once summed up his philosophy when he told the British ambassador that he would “rather be atomized than communized.” In writing those books, I saw over and over again how Eisenhower put his anticommunist ideology above human life.

He maintained elaborate plans for fighting a nuclear war. Though he was never eager for that war, he was absolutely prepared to start it if he believed the Soviets were about to destroy the “free world” in any way. “Shoot your enemy before he shoots you,” he told his advisers, and “hit ‘em … with everything in the bucket.” He insisted that, with the right planning, the US could “pick itself up from the floor” and win the war as long as only 25 or 30 American cities got “shellacked” and nobody got too “hysterical.”

Actually, maa8722, were “we” to contest either Iran, as an nation, OR Chinese energy “interests”, both in Africa and in the “Asia” Pacific, where huge deposits of petroleum are considered to be, then it might well be that a large “mobilization” would be “required”.

Consider this possibility.

http://globalbalita.com/2013/01/13/asia-pacific-the-next-battleground/

Note that the article mentions that a war with Iran might trigger larger regional or even international struggle.

While it appears that a major “stand-down” is likely, do not forget that other “trouble spots” are daily making news headlines.

It might be unlikely that a draft will be instituted, yet, as fatster points out, @24, the lack of a draft does not mean that the public supports perpetual war. Eventually, the costs of that war, both in terms of treasure and repressed civil rights in the “Homeland”, will begin to wear on the public, simply because those costs also mean other opportunities lost, abandoned, or frittered away … this in a daily less civil society where many younger members of that society have no genuine prospects of well-paying jobs, or even jobs which their obscenely expensive educations surely deserve.

Rather than enacting a Civilian GI Bill, the masters will have to find something for the young to do … or there will be a breaking point.

Under those conditions, some kind of “service” may well seem to be a “solution” to the political and ruling classes, as further massive incarceration will not be too well received by the young OR by their parents, many of whom are war-weary and tired of the “prosperity” gap.

Something, eventually is going to have to “give”.

What do you think it might be, maa?

Your thoughts on these matters would be much appreciated, as would those of anyone else who cares to join in the speculation. It is “free”, after all, and might even lead to a shared vision for a better, more sustainable, and humane future … for everyone.

DW

Re: #30 & #31. . .

Uh Oh!

It’s getting too late for here, I think.

I’ll respond in Roundup v. 1-24-13 later on tonite, if there’s a suitable opening there (i.e., escape route for me) without straying.

In the meantime, good grief, I’m 65 and have a memory, and still, my marbles.

Oh, do continue in tonight’s Roundup, maa8722; I’m enjoying dropping eaves on y’all’s conversation There’s a perfect opening, too (if you really need one)–just look for Stiglitz.