Open post for those with something to share, updated through the day. New, complete posts come in below this one. Note: If trackbacking, please acknowledge this post in your post. That's only polite.
You're advertising here, we should get an ad at your place...
Time to add a new caveat, because from email it's not clear to some folks (mind you, if you don't read this it won't matter...) Being an open post, people (collectively, the Denizens) other than I post in the H&I. They sign their work (most of the time) - keep that in mind when you want to flame someone in email please - if it doesn't say "The Armorer" or "John" then I didn't write it! And honestly - if you don't like something said or posted... leave a comment, and hash it out (within the context of The Rulez which are clearly posted on the comment form, I would add).
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Bob Owens has a nice take-down of the NYT article about those murderous combat vets. Bob answers one the questions I had, about the potential for a Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc logical fallacy underlying the NYT analysis - i.e., the Times seems to have assumed, you're a combat vet, you killed someone, therefore you must have killed someone because you're a combat vet... or, as the latin translates... "After this, because of this." Bob's article at Pajamas Media discusses some of the killings (not all were "murders") that illustrate the point. Others (mentioned and linked in Bob's article) have already taken a look at the demographic issues - i.e., whether the Times likes it or not (of course, it seems that making the comparison escaped them) - taking their numbers at face value... returning combat vets kill people at a lesser rate than their non-combat experienced age cohort. -the Armorer
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Heh. Via The Corner, we find ourselves at The Swamp, a Chicago Tribune blog - which is skewering Representative Nancy Kaptur (D-OH) for a problem with some pesky things like knowing who your witness is at a hearing - in this case, she was confused about the Chairman of the Fed, Paul Bernanke's background. Frank James gives us this:
At today's House Budget Committee hearing at which Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke is testifying, Kaptur had just asked Bernanke this somewhat mind-boggling question: what did he think of the idea that Wall Street "bankers, fiananciers and board members" who contributed to the subprime mortgage mess be forced to "pay back" their salaries and bonuses to help pay for the economic stimulus package being discussed in Washington. At least she didn't ask him his view on perpetual motion machines.
Emphasis mine. Hmmmmmm. Lessee, Ms. Kaptur... you're suggesting the government confiscate the salaries of private citizens who, in your eyes, failed in their fiduciary duty and made bad decisions.
Okay. I'll go for that breath-taking expansion of government power if there's a tit-for-tat. We get to do the same thing to Congress. Deal? -the Armorer
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*A term of art from the artillery. Harassment and Interdiction Fires.
Back in the day, when you could just kill people and break things without a note from a lawyer, they were pre-planned, but to the enemy, random, fires at known gathering points, road junctions, Main Supply Routes, assembly areas, etc - to keep the bad guy nervous that the world around him might start exploding at any minute.
*Not really relevant to today's operating environment, right? But, it *is*
The UAVs (oops, can't call 'em UAVs anymore - they're now Unmanned Aerial Systems... some Colonel got his Legion of Merit for that change...), er, um UAS's we fly over Afghanistan and Pakistan looking for targets of opportunity are a form of H&I fires, if you really want to parse it finely. We just have better sensors and fire control now.
I call the post that because it's random things posted by me and people I've given posting privileges to. It's also an open trackback, so if someone has a post they're proud of, but it really isn't either Castle kind of stuff, or topical to a particular post, I've basically given blanket permission to use that post for that purpose. Another term of art that might be appropriate is "Free Fire Zone."
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