Category: Music Monday

Music Monday: Veteran’s Day

Okay, I’m not that into country music, but I got me a soft spot for Johnny Cash and Willie Nelson.

Veteran’s Day was originally Armistice Day, and it was about the end of The Great War — what we would eventually call World War I. Once there was a second great war, we started calling the day Veteran’s Day. Now, few vets of those days remain with us. Even the Boomers who fought in the Vietnam war are getting Social Security checks.

So most Americans will celebrate the day off of work not with remembrances, but with low, low sale prices.

Music Monday: Let’s Dance

 

In Closing: It looks like ENDA will pass the Senate — thanks to of all people, Nevada’s own Dean Heller, who knows Nevadans will sooner elect a crook than a nutcase — but it doesn’t matter because Speaker Boehner might not let it reach the House floor; not that being Gay should matter; ok, can somebody explain to me why a campus health center should be expected to deal anything more complicated than strep throat? Do these same students get upset that they need a real hospital to deal with broken bones?; I wonder how the customer will get screwed on this deal; Uh oh, made Google mad; the irony is how badly child care workers are paid; won’t touch this; pro-drone propaganda; and prosthetic hand on a budget.

Music Monday: How To Lose A War

 

I was reading the news over the weekend when I happened upon this Reuters story:

Four soldiers belonging to the NATO-led force in Afghanistan were killed by insurgents during an operation on Sunday, while a fifth was shot dead by a security guard over the weekend in the country’s south.

Of course I am saddened that at this late date, we are still generating dead soldiers in Afghanistan. But I have one question: Why do a bunch of armed soldiers need security guards? 

The answer of course is that these days, we hire contractors to do all kinds of things on a military base: build things, maintain things, serve food, and apparently provide “security” to men with guns. Back in the old days, these are all things that were done by men and women (ok, mostly men) in uniform. For example, the Seabees. Their motto is still “We Build * We Fight.”

Instead, we now have a large complement of civilians who must be defended in a war zone. At least if the camp cook was a soldier, he could use his knife against an attacker on base just as easily as against a potato. Can you imagine General George S. Patton marching the Third Army 60 miles in 2 weeks with a bunch of Sodexo employees in tow? Neither can I.

Outsourcing is officially interfering with the ability of our Military to function in an actual war.

In Closing: Ok, here’s your assorted links on the government shutdown, the impending debt ceiling battle (Yoohoo Yoho! Making our bonds worthless would not help world markets!); ain’t that the truth; some obligatory NSA items; most of the time that would be a crime; the War on Drugs has been lost; school anti-bullying programs often have the opposite of the intended effect (how about the adults insist on everyone treating people with respect instead of some fancy-assed program?); don’t forget that the Supreme Court goes back to work today, shutdown or no; and I couldn’t make it up if I tried, Thanksgivukkah.

Music Monday: Pinching Pennies

Before me in line at a suburban Super Wal-Mart was a woman, somewhere around 30 by my best guess, and her son, who I supposed might have been ten. In a nation where 2 out of 3 people are overweight, they were skinny. Their clothes were clean and in keeping with the unspoken dress code of suburbia, but showed signs of wear. Her sandals didn’t fit quite right. Her son’s hair was done neatly in an urban style, perhaps at home. I’d been dodging young people darting about the store with a sense of entitlement all through my shopping voyage — including the kids behind me loudly begging their parents for candy — so I was struck by his remarkably good behavior. He patiently put checked groceries into their cart while mom watched the display of scanned items like a hawk.

They had a small order. Food included four loaves of the cheapest house-brand bread available, a case of ramen, a family-sized package of house brand hot dogs, American cheese, and a small can of baby formula — the only name brand item on the conveyor belt. No fruits or vegetables of any sort. They also had a comb, store-brand maxi-pads, pencils, and a couple cheap children’s backpacks. There was no baby with them, so I had to assume there was somebody at home watching the baby and whoever was waiting for the second backpack. I found it curious that they were buying school supplies at the very end of September. Perhaps they were waiting for a clearance sale? She paid with a combination of cash and some sort of scan card before leaving.

In Closing: A few links on Obamacare, the impending government shutdown, and birth control pills (and reproductive rights in general); the media and graphs.