tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20704380.post224849957150948303..comments2024-03-22T17:35:52.045-04:00Comments on Extra Thoughts: Yep, I'm willing to be a jerk on Memorial DayLydia McGrewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00423567323116960820noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20704380.post-40946822185357710882012-06-02T17:17:34.265-04:002012-06-02T17:17:34.265-04:00That's a good point. I just find it rhetorical...That's a good point. I just find it rhetorically difficult.Lydia McGrewhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00423567323116960820noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20704380.post-81128909126712383102012-06-02T17:05:15.178-04:002012-06-02T17:05:15.178-04:00I think it can be acceptable to honor fallen soldi...I think it can be acceptable to honor fallen soldiers in modern wars as well---sure, the war might have been a dumb idea to begin with, but a soldier can still be brave while fighting in stupid wars. Maybe he died protecting his fellow soldiers or something. Of course, this still isn't the same as the conventional, "Honoring the fallen soldiers who died so we could be free," because cynical as it sounds that just isn't how it works anymore.yankeegospelgirlhttp://southerngospelyankee.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20704380.post-81635114355140923272012-05-31T17:31:54.286-04:002012-05-31T17:31:54.286-04:00No, I would not particularly expect Romney to turn...No, I would not particularly expect Romney to turn things around in the military. He is not really a culture warrior. It doesn't follow that both parties are the same, only that the less "progressive" party lacks the will to turn back the actions of the more "progressive" party w.r.t. the military. But even there, they will have far less motivation to do more active harm.Lydia McGrewhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00423567323116960820noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20704380.post-5887528252571929902012-05-31T02:47:31.076-04:002012-05-31T02:47:31.076-04:00The red flower is a poppy which represents the flo...The red flower is a poppy which represents the flowers of Flanders and the blood that was spilt there. Poppies are worn on Remembrance Day which is the Sunday nearest to 11th November when an act of remembrance and a parade takes place in Whitehall. The queen lays a wreath at the Cenotaph and a two minutes silence is observed at 11 o'clock. (The eleventh hour of the eleventh day in the eleventh month). This service was inaugurated to remember the dead after the first World War. Now it has been generalized to include all wars - including the one in Afghanistan. <br /><br />Each new administration seems to take the same view of "social progress" - confirming the cliché that it makes no difference who you vote for, the liberals always get in. Unless you're counting on Mitt Romney to begin turning things around? Maybe his Mormon faith will make a difference?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20704380.post-41156908823594478942012-05-30T21:26:54.179-04:002012-05-30T21:26:54.179-04:00Is Armed Forces Day the day when there's suppo...Is Armed Forces Day the day when there's supposed to be three minutes of silence? And everyone wears a red flower (I forget the kind)? If so, it features in a Dorothy Sayers novel.<br /><br />You're certainly right about the military, and it's a frightening thought that the time might come when we have to fight a real, existential war and have combat potential and morale so gravely weakened.<br /><br />The trouble is really that large amounts of government money function like a large pile of manure. All the "flies" of political correctness, agendas, make-work programs, social engineering, are attracted to it. It turns into a giant social experiment and jobs program. It's irresistible, because no one on either side of the political aisle is going to vote for cutting the funding, and the leftists can just divert it, like a river in flood, to fulfill their own ends. As each new administration comes in, the social "progress" (really, increased rot) put in place by the previous administration is always untouched. At this point I don't even know how one would begin to clean it up. And the homosexualization of the military will only make matters worse.Lydia McGrewhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00423567323116960820noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20704380.post-90130178546565619372012-05-29T08:48:42.809-04:002012-05-29T08:48:42.809-04:00On the last Saturday in June we have an Armed Forc...On the last Saturday in June we have an Armed Forces Day in the UK (previously called Veterans' Day) which is an annual commemoration of the service rendered by men and women in the British Armed Forces. There are military parades etc., but it isn't a public holiday. I would say there is very little collective awareness of the occasion. <br /><br />Compared with the British people, Americans, I believe, are much more ready to honour their warriors and to express gratitude for the sacrifices they must sometimes make. It's notorious that British soldiers get little respect in their homeland - except in times of war. <br /><br />You may know this bit of doggerel which I think originated in America and so rather contradicts what I've just said: <br /><br /><i>In times of war, and not before,<br />God and the soldier men adore;<br />When the war is o’er and all things righted,<br />The Lord’s forgot and the soldier slighted.</i><br /><br />Here's a few thoughts on your observations about women in the role of warrior. <br /><br />Apart from its obedience to political correctness, an undisclosed reason why the military top brass agrees to have women serving in battleships, in marine combat units, etc., is because they don’t expect ever to fight a ‘real war’ again. They believe the next world war will be fought by remote control, and women can push buttons as efficiently as men. Nobody envisages another conventional war with infantry in front lines on a battlefield, another D-Day landing, or even another fluid conflict like the VietNam war. Women would be totally ineffective as warriors in a real shooting war and every honest man (or woman) in a high military rank knows that. <br /><br />Meanwhile, training women to be fighter pilots, riflewomen in the infantry, female submariners, etc., indulges an androgynous fantasy sold to impressionable young women by feminists. It's a kind of game that can be played when the hideous reality of war has been forgotten.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com