Hamilton's Pamphlets

Are We So Different?

We only saw/heard bits and pieces of the State Of The Union (SOTU) speech tonight.  Here's the text for those of you, who like us, were otherwise occupied.

What, you may ask, kept us so busy that we couldn't sit and watch the President? 

We were baking brownies, making dinner and eating dinner as a family.  Here on the west coast the SOTU came on at 6:00pm, so it was right in the middle of our evening routine.  We flipped it on in the background, but it wasn't center stage.

Not watching the SOTU isn't what I'm wondering about that's making us so different.  I think the SOTU will have low ratings and those people who watched already like and/or approve of the President.  No big deal there.  No, what makes us unusual is that we have dinner together as a family EVERY night.  SOTU or not, rain or shine (lately that would be mostly rain), every day.

Everything I see on TV and read about on line or in print tells me that we're different.  Today's families are too busy, too active, too involved, or too cool to sit down and eat together.  It makes a huge difference in our day.  We always say a prayer before we eat and we take turns.  Some of the things the 3 year old and the 5 year old pray for are sweet and innocent, some are downright goofy.  Most nights the 6 month old sleeps through dinner, as she did tonight.

So to the fast food franchises, the Seattle Times, the talk shows, the magazines, the entertainment shows who tell us that we don't or shouldn't exist because it just isn't cool, I say -

Pthhbt!

(Thanks to ninme for showing me how to spell what a raspberry sounds like.  She can spell that demonic laugh thing too... so literate...)

UPDATE:  Full on nose scraping the ground bow to the incomparable ninme, for catching my inability to develop the correct acronym.  SATU has now morphed over the the correct SOTU... Who ever heard of a military guy who couldn't get the acronyms right...it must be close to retirement time for me...

Swanny Scares the Pennsylvania Republicans

Lynn Swann is scaring the crap out of some weak Republican Congressman in Pennsylvania and they want him to go away...  The logic had to come straight out of the beltway, it is so twisted it could only have come from DC.

SwannBlog has the dirt (H/T to TKS).

An Article You Won't See in The Times

Here's one you won't see in The Times.  Which Times you may ask?  Any of them.  Not the Seattle, LA, New York or any other...

The 2003 Tax Cut on Capital Gains Entirely Paid for Itself
from Donald Luskin at NRO via Carol Platt Liebau

Excerpt -

On Thursday the Congressional Budget Office released its annual Budget and Economic Outlook, and buried in one of its nearly impenetrable tables of numbers is a remarkable story that has gone entirely unreported by the mainstream media: The 2003 tax cut on capital gains has entirely paid for itself. More than paid for itself. Way more.

Somewhere in the neighborhood of $26 Billion more.  Supply side economics works!  Doesn't agree with the moonbat version of the world, so you can count on NEVER reading about this in the MSM.

The Joel Stein Article...

Being a military guy, I 've been trying to wrap my brain around Joel Stein's "column" and his attitude concerning supporting the troops.  I am finding it very difficult to express my feelings on this without using language that would not be reflective of my education level, rank, position or maturity.

I cannot do it better than Hugh Hewitt did, when he had the smarmy little punk on his radio show, so I won't.  It is long, but worth the time it takes to read. 

Snapshot, tube 2.  Fire.

HH: You do honor military service?

JS: Yeah. No, I'm grateful for people that serve in the military.

HH: But you don't support our troops?

JS: I don't...I don't believe in supporting the troops in an action that you don't believe in.

HH: And so, that would be everything I've named thus far. So I guess...did you support and honor the troops in the Pentagon on 9/11?

JS: Sure, yeah.

HH: All right.

JS: All the troops that are here to defend our country, I'm very, very grateful for. I'm grateful for the police...

HH: Provided they don't leave the country?

JS: Yeah, provided they don't fight in wars that I think are endangering them for no reason. ...

... HH: And the people who've died in Afghanistan. Have they died in vain?

JS: Well, if they haven't, what have they accomplished?

HH: I'm asking you, Joel. You wrote the column. You tell me. Have they accomplished nothing?

JS: Well, um, do I think that I, as an American, are safer because of what they did?

HH: That wasn't what I asked. I askd did they accomplish anything in going to Afghanistan.

JS: If I were an Afghani, I would probably...if I lived in Kabul, I probably would think that they accomplished something, sure.

Read the whole thing.  Spectacularly done Mr. Hewitt, my hat is off to you.

At one time I thought I wanted my kids to go to Stanford.  If this any indication of the type of  people that attend stanford or the kind of education a person gets there, no way - no how.  Hillsdale is looking really good for my education dollars...

H/T to Uncle Jimbo at Blackfive.

Asshat Moonbats

Bubblehead blogs about my neighbors...

Port Townsend, Washington, is very close to Indian Island, the home of a Naval Magazine that will apparently be used to service (and load) the Tomahawk missiles that will be carried on the two SSGNs that will be homeported out of Bangor.

The local peace groups don't like this plan at all:

“The impending arrival of nuclear-powered submarines in our immediate neighborhood demonstrates a new dimension in the expansion of militarism here,” said Darlene Durfee, Port Townsend Peace Movement president. “Nuclear-powered vessels of unimaginable destructive capability will be right in our midst. With or without nuclear weapons onboard, Trident submarines escalate the risk by their presence. They will be traveling in a relatively narrow bay filled with recreational boaters, ferries and an expanded ferry dock.” (Durfee refers to Washington State Ferries’ plans to enlarge the terminal in Port Townsend, across the bay from Indian Island, and someday have larger ferries on the PT-Keystone route.)
"The group intends to have some members attend the chamber meeting to hear Capt. Kurtz speak, and hopefully get an opportunity for questions. The peace movement wants to make a statement outside the Fort Worden Commons for the noon meeting.
"Durfee would like to have “a large group of people dressed in black or wearing black arm bands standing outside in silence. A substantial number of people standing in silence will be the loudest and most effective form of protest we can offer,” she continued. “It will be a message to the Navy that this is a community that will speak up. We will also have leaflets to explain our position to the business community.”

It's like moving in by the airport and then bitching about the noise...  The leaders of this "peace movement"  are newly arrived residents to PT and yet they want to rewrite the rules.  Submarines are dangerous?  You want dangerous boats, go to Russia.  They have boats and old reactors leaking radiation all over the place.  Go protest over there if you really want to make a difference about the environment.  Our subs are tight, you get more radiation sitting in the sun at a Seahawks game than a year of being on one of our boats.  This isn't about "peace" or the environment, this is about their narrowminded asshat moonbat version of the world and that we have to do it their way.  (freedom equals do it their way or we'll harass you until you do or until you leave).  These idots are terrorists, albeit non-violent, they are never the less terrorists.  They suck and they give all of us here in the Pacific Northwest a bad name.  Why can't they just go back to California and leave us alone...

Maybe I Shouldn't have Traded Mine In Last Year...

I'm a Chevrolet Corvette!

You're a classic - powerful, athletic, and competitive. You're all about winning the race and getting the job done. While you have a practical everyday side, you get wild when anyone pushes your pedal. You hate to lose, but you hardly ever do.

Take the Which Sports Car Are You? quiz.

H/T to ninme the Lambo!!!

Brit Sub CO Courtmartialed for Being a Bully

From Bubblehead via ninme -

The court-martial of former HMS Talent CO Captain Robert Tarrant continued today, with the presiding officer directing an acquittal on three of the five "ill-treatment of subordinate" charges lodged against him, ruling that the prosecution had not presented a strong enough case for conviction...

Expect non-guilty verdicts on the remaining charges within a few minutes of the panel being sent out. The guy's clearly guilty of being a jerk, but there's nothing in military law to cover that particular crime, as many of us know from first-hand experience in dealing with people like Capt. Tarrant.

Bubblehead is so right.  I remember the CO of my second submarine was so mean that the DCA would get spontaneous nose bleeds everytime the CO was in the same space with him.  Yup, he was that bad.  Personally I thought he was just a jerk, but I wasn't going to bleed for him.  I wouldn't give him the satisfaction.  Although I do think that's when my ulcer got started...

Years after I transferred off that sub, I ran into my old roomate who had since abandoned nuclear power and become a CEC Officer.  He told me that nearly ALL the junior officers under that CO on that sub left the Navy.  It got so bad that the boys at SUBLANT sent someone down to tell the CO that he needed to do something to improve his officer retention.  He promptly gathered all the JO's into the wardroom and chewed them out for being too sensitive and thin skinned, they needed to suck it up and "stay Navy"!   Priceless.  Yeah, he was the real deal.  Class A, number one A**hole.

However, he was tactically brilliant.  He smoked the training simulators and he ate up the at sea exercises.  If we had gone to war, he would have brought us home alive and done significant damage to our enemies.  Strangely enough I got more personal awards and better fitness reports from that raging screaming flaming A**hole than just about any other tour I've had.  Something like the Patton I saw in the movie with George C. Scott.  Great guy to have around when the bullets are flying, complete jerk the other 99% of the time.

Bottom line is just like Bubblehead said, no rules, regs or laws in the military against being a jerk.  And as Bubblehead noted in his follow up, he was aquitted of the other two charges...no surprise to any of us who have served with his type...

Schools Dig Chicks...

Thoughts on boys and education via Instapundit from a blog I never heard of, but completely agree with on this topic, Stepping Stone  writes:

This week, I watched two wonderful documentaries on PBS. The night after "Country Boys" was over, I watched "Raising Cain," a documentary about the lives-- particularly the emotional lives-- of boys in America today. I was so fascinated by the program that I picked up the book, which has a particularly good chapter on the difficulties boys face in school.

Boys, the authors claim, face myraid difficulties in school, beginning in the earliest years. Developmentally, boys are generally more impulsive and more active than girls, and the development of school-related skills in boys can lag behind same-age girls by as much as a year. Since most schooling requires large blocks of time where children must remain seated, or quiet, or listen and follow directions,  boys often struggle in school.

I'm not a big fan of the mess our public schools have become and this is only one of the reasons...

White House Easter Egg Roll

I read today that a group advocating "gay families" plans to descend en masse on this year's White House Easter Egg Roll.  I refuse to name the advocacy group because I won't give any credibility to their illegitimate cause.  Their leader claims "It's important for our families to be seen participating in all aspects of Amercian life".  So rather than just go and participate (no one would have cared or even for that matter noticed), they choose to politicize it.

In 2002, while I served as a Congressional Aide, we took our family to the White House Easter Egg Roll.  It was great.  Seeing the high ranking members of the White House Staff reading children's stories and talking with families.  We'll never forget talking about parenting with Karen Hughes and listening to the First Lady read a story.  It was a super family event and a great tradition.  I saw members of Congress (Democrat and Republican) with their families, no one was making political hay.  It was neutral territory.  It was about families.

I believe that homosexuality is wrong.  I also believe that what two consenting adults do in the privacy of their own home is their business.  Dragging kids into it, makes a wrong thing just plain awful.  Now just having adoption OK, so gays have an equal chance to screw up the next generation isn't enough.  They require that everyone public acknowledge and accept them and welcome them with open arms.  From the leader of the advocacy group - "It's not surprising that the right would be against it [gay families attending en masse at the White House Easter Egg Roll] ... They are very clear about wanting to make our families invisible."

Wrong again.  It's not about visibility or invisibility at the White House Easter Egg Roll, it is about families enjoying wonderful tradition at one of our nation's landmarks.  No family or group of families should use this wonderful event to "make a statement".  The biggest statement for normalcy they could have made was to show up, enjoy the event with their adoptive children and not make a big deal of it.  Instead they choose to make a political statement, using their own children to further their twisted cause.  Which further reinforces my belief that they are unfit to be parents.  Kids have a tough enough time growing up without having to deal with gay parents and being paraded around as a political pawn.

It will be interesting to see how the White House deals with it.  No matter how skillfully or even handedly they approach it, the press will have the final say and this year's event will be tainted.  The saddest part is that neither the President or the Republicans nor the gay family advocates or the gay parents will be the losers.  The kids will be the ones who lose.  All the kids.  Gay parents, two parent homes, single parent homes, divorced parents - it won't matter.  When the cloud of negativity hangs over the event the kids are the ones who suffer.  Kids are incredibly perceptive and they will feel the stress in the air and it won't be the same carefree fun that it has traditionally been.

In their attempt to gain "normalcy" for their perverted beliefs all the gay family advocates have succeeded in doing is making the entire event abnormal.  Now that I think about it, maybe that was their whole intent after all.  Jerks.

Another Piece of History Bites the Dust

Anyone who has checked the ole Pamphlets blog over the last few months (okay it's been more like nine or ten months...) knows that I've been busy with life and haven't been on line or blogging much.  Well while I was otherwise occupied, last September an icon quietly disappeared.  Sadly, I didn't even notice until today.

As Ninme can attest, one of my hobbies is sword collecting, old Navy swords in particular.  When I did my Change of Command last summer, I debated on if I should wear an old antique sword from my collection(we're not talking the Smithsonian here, it's only about a dozen or so), wear my personal sword that I got back when I was a Lieutenant (JG), or buy a new one.

I ended up getting a new one.

I shopped around and decided on a Weyersberg, Kirschbaum & Co. (WKC) sword.  German made, nice mid-range priced sword (remember I have a house full of kids, can't justify spending huge bucks on such things...).  It is a very nice sword and much nicer than my previous sword that I've had since the 1980's.  In my shopping around I looked at several sword companies and dealers.  One of the companies was Wilkinson Sword of London.

Wilkinson Sword has been making swords since 1805 and they were second to none in quality.  They made them the old fashioned way with quality infused in every step of production.  Such quality and craftsmanship comes with a pretty hefty price tag.  The price they quoted me last march for a complete sword outfit was $1505.00.  That's about three times what I paid for the WKC sword, and trust me the WKC is a very nice and very well made sword.  I told myself at the time that I would buy the Wilkinson for retirement a few years from now...if I could convince myself to spend the money...

Alas, now that is not going to be possible and no amount of money will buy a new Wilkinson Sword.  Earlier I mentioned that I hadn't been on line and paying much attention to blogging and other hobbies (i.e. sword collecting) over the past few months and while I was asleep at the on line wheel, in September Wilkinson Sword announced that after 200 years they were dropping sword production from the company. 

Crap.

Oh well, maybe it's just God's way of telling me that I shouldn't have even been contemplating spending 1500 dollars on a sword...

Still, it's a shame that a proud old company with such a great history should be reduced to ladies razors and steak knives...

Again I say, crap.