Memorial Day Post

ASIDE FROM MY GRANDPA, my mother's Da, I've had no immediate family that have served. My uncle Paul enlisted in the Army Air Force in WWII and brother-in-law Gerry acquitted himself honorably in VN.

My dad (b 1917) tried to enlist in '42 and subsequent years but was deemed too necessary in civvy street work. (He later worked with Air Force and eventually NASA as a radar and guidance system engineer).

Granpa Philip came to live with us when I was in my mid-teens. He was a victim by that time of what would be later termed as Alzheimer's but in the '60s was referred to as senile dementia--he was not crazed--he simply could not remember the most basic things. When asked his address, for instance, he would state a location he lived at 40 years previous.

As a young child (before onset of Alzheimer's) my experience of him was that he was more than a little stiff and formal. He had achieved significant success in the business community of (at that time) one of the ten largest cities in the US. He had little patience for the precocious son of his only daughter, Grace.

His wife, Grace's mother and my granma, passed not long after Mom's birth in 1918 of the global pandemic remembered as "the Spanish Flu". By all family accounts, he was a doting father to his only daughter.

(My Mom, Grace Ellen, would have turned 90 last Friday, May 23rd. She passed in '03. We miss you, Mom.)

Granpa Philip was orphaned in childhood, he and his brother were both hospitalized in a sanitorium for TB where his brother succumbed. He went on to attend a fine military prep school/academy--McDonough--which I attended, also.

As previously stated he was uncomfortably stiff and formal--there were no grandfatherly conversations with the grandson. Visits were short and perfunctory--family duty more than anything else--consequently I never got to really know him.

So long after his passing in 1973 this fills me with a sadness hard to express. He was a man of honor, a Silver Star recipient, and could have been a greater influence and inspiration were he more comfortable around a young boy.

Juvenile disappointments aside--it's with great pride and humility that I post the few words, crucial key words from the official records of how he is remembered:

Name: Philip Crawford McIntyre
Race: white
Address: 2307 Harlem Ave., Baltimore
Birth Place: Baltimore, Md.
Birth Date: 16 Sep 1889
Comment: NG 1 lt Inf; USA 9/4/18 capt Inf, Co F 5 Md. Inf; Co F 115 Inf; 3 Off Tng School Camp McClellan Ala. 1/4/18; Co F 115 Inf 5/15/18, Hon disch 6/26/19, Overseas 6/15/18 to 5/24/19, Center Sector; Meuse-Argonne, War Dept Citation for Gallantry in Action In the Bois de la Grande Montagne, France, Oct. 10, 1918. While in command of Company F, 115th Infantry, and upon learning that one of his scouts was seriously wounded and lying exposed to enemy fire, he crawled forward under violent enemy machine-gun fire to the side of the wounded man. Being unable to move the wounded man without assistance he crawled back to the line, secured the assistance of a member of his company and returned with great difficulty to the wounded man and together with the help of the soldier carried the wounded man to shelter, AEF Citation for Gallantry in Action For gallantry in action October 9, 1918, in establishing and holding a line of resistance against a superior force of the enemy, 29 Div Citation for Gallantry in Action Displayed remarkable courage and leadership, October 8th, 1918, in the fighting east of the Meuse, when he led his company in the face of heavy machine gun and artillery fire, in order to protect the flank of his regiment which was being turned by attack.

_______________________

Today, the only living memories of Philip are guarded by my sister and me. She is the caretaker of his Silver Star. We have both honored his memory by using elements of his name in the naming of our sons.

So just about a month before Armistice Day (11 November) Philip is credited with heroism under fire. In the same year he gained a daughter and lost a wife. He wasn't some fresh-faced kid when he went to Europe to fight in a war in which we had no direct stake--he turned 30 in France. This was the first "modern" war. Use of deadly mustard and chlorine gas, first use of air power, first widescale use of machine guns, tanks, battleships, aimed artillary smarter than the previous cannon.

Trenches.

Cold, muddy and bloody trenches. Horse-drawn wagons carrying munitions forward and corpses back next to doughboys barely able to read their enlistment papers slogging through the dirt roads of rural France. A local population with which you don't even share language that has even less understanding of the situation than you do. Shell shock. Forward tent hospitals where the main remedy for limb wounds was amputation. "Sawbones" becomes slang for physician.

Not to discount the Spanish-American war of 1898, the only generation truly knowing the horrors of war extant by the time of our commitment in Europe were in their 70's and older. They were the veterans of our War Between the States. America had never before committed to largescale warfighting on foreign soil. It was a new territory but one in which we'd become all too familiar with as that century progressed.

For all those who have fallen in battle.

For all those who have returned with the memories.

For all those that proudly serve today.

Today, I'm remembering.

(salute)

Comment to Coulter

This is just a copy of what I left on Ann Coulter's piece today.

Ann-

45 years of education marxist indoctrination have finally paid off. A globalist, Lansky trained, Chitown pol has a shot at the most important job in the world and he's poised to take on an opponent despised by many conservatives for his attacks on free speech (McCain-Feingold) and national sovereignty (McCain-Kennedy).

I don't have to be happy with my choice this November but I know the candidate that will sell us out sooner and I have to hold my nose on the climate change believer McCain and vote for him barring some miraculous sea change at the convention.

It saddens me deeply when I read statements at sites like this that new media has made such significant inroads that it can have a major impact on the efforts of the main stream media--if that were so we'd be seeing a matchup between Fred Thompson and Bill Richardson--but power must be recognized and our voices here are still much smaller than what reaches the masses. And the masses are ignorant and apathetic, judging from my workplace experience.

Our unique and wonderful system never believed that its own vaunted values of free speech could imperil it. It inherently believed that a free press would argue all sides and a literate public could make informed choices. I see, in this day, that has failed us. The curtain is falling on this act. If there is to be a next act it may be bloody and highly partisan.

6

Six months to the (I previously thought would be the most important of our times) election.

But the events of the previous six months since I started this little blog and the history of the last several years coupled with society's inability to maintain a reality-based worldview have led me to this untenable point--that our civilization has made sufficiently bad decisions that we may be in inevitable decline.

It pierces me that for all the enemies we have without that our greatest are within. There are the PLAYERS, the Players, and we, ourselves.

The greed of the speculators has more to do with the massive increases in food and fuel costs than real supply and demand. The greed and machinations of the money-changers have more to do with the fall of the US dollar than market factors. Our legislators and courts have undermined reasonable efforts to secure prosperity and peace. And we, the people, must share the blame, also.

Few ask, "Is it possible for our civilization to decline?"

The answer shouts from history, "Yes, all have."

And why?

Forces from without, forces from within, and a lack of will.

Craven

A few days ago--April 9th--as the Olympic torch was being relayed hustled through the obfuscated streets of San Francisco (the route had been changed at the last moment to confound protesters) a torch bearer with the audacity to display a small Tibetan flag had the torch seized by a contingent of Chinese paramilitary that have been 'escorting' the torch everywhere it goes.

Majora Carter moments after

Some may argue that San Francisco is not really a part of the US but freedom of expression is traditionally practiced there (unless it is pro-Christian or anti-gay). But with a heavy SFPD presence why would the Chinese boys in light blue be allowed to waylay Ms. Carter's harmless act of support for Tibet? Are we that deep in China's pocket?

A Google search for [Olympic torch assault] revealed this from Istanbul.

April 3rd

The accompanying headline to the above:

Istanbul, Turkey 4/3/2008 Police detained at least six Muslims on Thursday at an anti-China protest during the Olympic torch ceremony near one of Turkey's most famous tourist destinations.

(scratching head) Muslims?!? In 98% Muslim Turkey?!? That's tantamount to describing any particular six people in Vatican City as Catholics.

April 7th

From the UK Daily Mail

The global power shift from the West to the East is no longer just a matter of debate confined to learned journals and newspaper columns - it is a reality that is beginning to have a huge impact on our daily lives.

What would those Victorian masters of old have made of the fact that Chinese security men were on the streets of London this week, ordering our own police about and fighting running battles with British protesters while bewildered athletes carried the Olympic torch on its relay through the capital?

It was a brazen display of how confident China has become of its new place in the world, just as the British Government's failure to take a firm stand on Chinese abuses of human rights shows how craven we have become.

I would dearly love to bitchslap the Limey writer that penned keyboarded the above sentence... but the experience related above in the City by the Bay illustrates clearly that it is so.

It's a first

Come on! This is as funny as it gets.

from the London Daily Mail

Two primary schools have withdrawn storybooks about same-sex relationships after objections from Muslim parents.

Up to 90 gathered at the schools to complain about the books which are aimed at pupils as young as five.

One story, titled King & King, is a fairytale about a prince who turns down three princesses before marrying one of their brothers. Another named And Tango Makes Three features two male penguins who fall in love at a New York zoo.

I guess what is somewhat bothering me is that no other alleged followers of The Book showed up and that this is written of as solely religious.

I believe that some persons may be born homosexual. I also believe that some are born hetero/homo that may be influenced by powerful pheromones at a critical and decisive time in their early pre and pubescent lives. These factors are beyond control of decision making parts of our minds--both are strictly biological.

Homosexuality is contraindicative of the continuance of society. That doesn't mean that it can't be countenanced--just that it must never be normative and must never be allowed as normative.

That the UK is allowing promoting five year olds to read books without understanding the social repercussions of homosexuality is shameful and counterproductive to society in general.

I need to say that the shameful series Girls Gone wild is less shameful that Society Gone wild.

Venture

It's been said that every great movement eventually becomes a business. Then over time a racket.


Richard Branson, left, Elon Musk, the co-founder of Paypal, center, and Tony Blair, the former British prime minister

From the International Herald Tribune

What he wanted to know was whether his high-powered visitors, among them Larry Page of Google, Jimmy Wales of Wikipedia and Tony Blair, the former British prime minister, thought global warming threatened the planet.

Branson does - and so did most of his guests. So on this recent weekend on his private hideaway in the crystalline waters between the islands of Tortola and Anegada, they tried to figure out what to do about it and perhaps get richer in the process.

Some of them, like Page, carbon-consciously jet-pooled in from Silicon Valley, where the financiers who bankrolled the Web boom of the 1990s have started chasing the new "New New Thing": green power. In an era of $100-plus oil, venture capitalists like Vinod Khosla, another invitee, are pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into young companies that cook up biofuels and harness the power of the sun.

I have nothing against these or most other rich people. Most earned their rewards honestly through endeavor and risk taking. I also have nothing against conservation and new means to meet our energy needs.

Over and over and--over again--science is revealing that the hysteria over Climate Change is unwarranted. There is compelling historical evidence that it is natural and not one, not one piece of empirical evidence that mankind has an effect on climate. The so-called evidence of warming is produced from computer models--none of which is immune to GIGO--and ground based thermometers.

Billions have already been spent on ethanol production and vehicles and now the scientific community is questioning whether it is any cleaner in the long run while we also see food prices spike.

So let the inventors and the innovators and the investors put their creativity and capital to work.

But in the meantime we have the petroleum we need to be self sufficient here in America and Canada and Mexico.

The men at the above meeting brainstormed ways to move forward. There will be paper trails to satisfy the SEC and all the other agencies. They have the money to do so and I wish them well.

But from where is the money coming that is funding all opposition to our drilling for our own oil and refining it?

seven

I'm no expert on the subject of Chinese history but I recently read that China experienced something referred to as a 'soft' dark age for half a millenium that only ended about 40 years ago. A variety of reasons are given but the one that sticks out is (drum roll) bad decisions.

The very idea of societal collapse is about as hard for us to imagine as the idea of a religious war. Yet world history reveals that both have occurred and recurred. Plague, war, environmental destruction can all be factors beyond a single society's control but bad decisions--that all too human failing--may be the ubiquitous one.

It sounded like a good idea at the time...

The Social Security Act of 1935 and its subsequent offspring Medicare et al (1965) will be our bad decision within one more generation. It is unsustainable, and what's worse... everybody knows it.

from wiki

Societal collapse occurs in one of two ways:

1. Its adaptive capacity is reduced by a sharp increase in population or social complexity, leading to a destabilization of social institutions and eventual massive shifts in population and social dynamics.

Never mind the second way for now--it doesn't apply.

A sharp increase in population. Indeed, we're fairly concentrated on the increase by immigration but we, along with Europe and Japan, are facing something that is new to the world--a population in which the mean age continues to rise.

There is a concept in physics called Energy Returned on Energy Invested or ERoEI. Build a nuclear power plant or open a new oil field and the energy invested pales compared to the energy returned. But when the ratio approaches 1:1 then the game is not worth the candle, so to speak.

I think this is a useful concept in thinking about workers in society. There will come a point at which the workforce will fall to 50% with the remaining 50% as retirees, children, and the unemployable. The solution so far has been to seek masses of immigrants which simply poses other sets of problems.

This begs the question--what will the American worker do? The worker who with a decent wage was able to stride forward in life who now finds that his or her good-paying job cannot meet his or her expenses because of government confiscation for redistribution?

Perhaps it's now time to revisit some American history. Let us not forget that for all the talk of liberty and justice, of natural rights endowed by our Creator, our beloved revolution was sparked by one issue that united us all--keeping the majority of what we earn.