Interesting Times

I feel a little sad about PCIF reverting back to dead blog status after what I thought was a rather successful run. I will certainly pick it up again when I have more time. I don't know how other servicemen, especially those in the Iraq, are able to manage blogging along with keeping the world safe for democracy. I suspect it has something to do with shipboard life.

I'm basically on a 24-hour clock. Sure I have a little downtime here and there, but as far as what's going on in the world, I couldn't tell you. I have lost all awareness of the presidential election, let alone any of the other issues that interest and I used to write about frequently. Not that the news isn't available, but here I am, Chief Engineer and Senior Watch Officer on a U.S. warship in the Persian Gulf, and I am just a bit on the busy side. We find a way to use all 24 hours and then some of every day. I can't say the same is true for other services, but I've been wrong before.

When you stand ten hours of watch every day and don't make port for a month or longer, all the days just kind of bleed together. I'd have to think real hard to remember that it is Monday (it is Monday, right?). I could spit on Iran from here.

So, if you're a reader or someone I've traded links with or just randomly Googling me, perhaps there will be more to say later, but there is much going on right now that there is not much to report. Red, Mom, and the rest of my family: I love you and will get in touch as soon as I can. I have been keeping my Facebook page slightly more regularly updated with photos and other random junk.

Stay frosty, blogosphere.

Everybody Relax, I'm Here.

In case you were wondering, I've been inactive because of the amount of work I've had to do getting set up with my new department and ship. There's always that period of adjustment and for me, it's about two months to really get things going the direction I want them.

Anyway, I'f you've been reading the news, you'd know my time is occupied with keepign the world safe for democracy:

Cole replaced off Lebanon by two US warships: official

WASHINGTON (AFP) — Two US warships have taken up position in the eastern Mediterranean off Lebanon, replacing the USS Cole, a US Navy official said Wednesday.

The Cole, an Aegis destroyer that was attacked and nearly sunk by suicide bombers in Yemen in 2000, was headed to the Gulf after transiting the Suez Canal, canal authority officials said.

"The USS Cole was relieved by the USS Ross and the USS Philippine Sea in the eastern Mediterranean," the navy official said.

The Ross is an Aegis-guided missile destroyer and the Philippine Sea is a cruiser.

"It's a sign of our commitment to stability in the region," said Bryan Whitman, a Pentagon spokesman.

The Cole was deployed to waters off Lebanon to signal US concern over a protracted political crisis in Lebanon.

Feuding between a western-backed parliamentary majority and the Syrian and Iranian-backed opposition has left the country leaderless since November.

So forgive the inactivity - connectivity at sea is iffy and loading Blogger is 50% at best. Should really switch over one of these days. Not to mention OPSEC concerns. I'll post when able.

Achievements in Tolerance

I liked the comments I got yesterday regarding the crime and punishment of Gillian Gibbons, because they were shining examples of the air of political correctness and non-confrontationalism that has overtaken the discourse on terrorism and politics.

Why doesn't anyone ever tell these bloody savages they have to be sensitive toward schoolteachers who make innocent mistakes? Why don't they have to be concerned about insulting our cultural sensibilities? I think it's condescending to the Sudanese to not expect from them what they seem to expect of us. Why do we treat them like children not capable of dealing with such concepts?

I am all out of patience for the uncivilized bastards that apparently represent the majority of the Religion of Peace. If I meet a Muslim on the street, I will treat him as I would any other person until given a reason to do otherwise. I will judge him on the content of his character and by his actions. I will buy him a smoothie if I make friends with him. That doesn't change my view of Islam in particular and religion in general as a tool to keep people from thinking for themselves and acting in their own best interests.

The only thing attempting to understand and tolerate the insanity perpetrated by fanatical Muslims has earned us is 50 years of death and destruction, but in small, tolerable, forgettable doses (until 9/11 finally got our attention). Wouldn't I love avoiding entanglements with other countries like George Washington cautioned, unfortunately the world has gotten much smaller than it was then and the nations of the Earth only grow more and more interdependent. I reluctantly acknowledge that requires an active interest in foreign affairs, but it doesn't require that we tolerate cruelty and murder.

Anonymous said...

Reminds me of the incident in the Bible (as reported in Twain's Letters from the Earth) in which God sends bears to maul 50 children for making fun of a man's bald head.

Unfortunately for the kids, the man was a prophet.

The Moral: Don't judge all followers of a faith by it's harshest adherents.

More and more, it seems Islam's harshest adherents make up the majority of its adherents. The only thing non-judgementalism achieves is indecisiveness. Religion, schmeligion. This has less to do with religion than it does a cult of death and fanaticism hell bent on world domination. The current military dictatorship in Sudan overthrew the previous government with establishing a caliphate as one of its stated goals. That's a theocratic dictatorship, simply put, which bent under international pressure, even though they've been getting away with this kind of thing for years.

Thousands of this cult's "harshest adherents" are demonstrating in Khartoum demanding the head of Gillian Gibbons. Perhaps it will all go away with a little bit of understanding and tolerance. I hope there's somebody protecting her, because for the next two weeks, as she serves her reduced sentence of 15 days in a Sudanese p