And I thought that...

...nobody was listening. Perhaps this is the beginning of reforming Social Security.

Dentist, 84, Gets An Offer To Reenlist

(still preglitch)

Philadelphia Inquirer - February 17, 2005

The last time Floyd Baker served in the U.S. Army...

( http://www.military.com/NewsContent/0,13319,FL_dentist_021705,00.html ), Dwight D. Eisenhower was still a general. So the 84-year-old, semi-retired Mount Airy dentist was a little surprised last August when he got a letter from a local Army recruiting station inviting him to reenlist...Go to the Army link above and you can read the entire article. Little did I realize that my idea for reforming Social Security would pick up steam so quickly.

I just feel so, well, cutting edge.

Peace and all good,

Kermit - the smiling 'bog-frog'

How To Fix Social Security...

Tuesday, February 15, 2005 - still pf a "pre-glitch" vintage


GIVEN: Social Security is in trouble.

HYPOTHESIS: Social Security can be fixed.

BACKGROUND: Social Security is a trip to FDR's Casino. It works like this. Everybody regularly pays in small amounts of money for long periods of time. Not everybody lives long enough to draw out all the money that they put in. Between it's inception and the time that the government started borrowing from it (LBJ - to help pay for Vietnam and Social Programs) the Social Security trust fund was growing. Like all good Casinos, the statistics were in favor of the management. More money comes in than is being paid out. But, demographic changes happen. The longer a person lives, the more money that person draws out. Sooner or later, the paying out of benefits increases until the money going out exceeds the money coming in. This is a problem.

SOLUTION: Readjust the demographic upon which Social Security is based. Reinstate the draft! Make the draft mandatory for every modestly healthy person aged 55 and older.

DIRECT BENEFITS: Life expectancy of beneficiaries decreases to the point that money coming into Social Security exceeds money being paid out. Once again FDR's Casino becomes a profitable venture.

COLLATERAL BENEFITS: These are primarily of a military nature...

1) The manpower shortage in the active military (non reserve components) will be relieved.

2) Training costs will be lowered considerably as many recruits will be Vietnam Era vets, and will already know how to senselessly slaughter women and children.

3) The length of time necessary to maintain a large military force in the Middle East will be considerably shortened. There are very few, if any, military, paramilitary or terrorist forces that could stand up to a bunch of really pissed off old guys running around the desert with heavy weapons and air power.

4) Other benefits to the overall population accrue, but, to avoid being labled a 'RIGHT WING NUT CASE", I will not go into them here.

Happy Retirement...

Kermit

A younger Hattie, but with the same "Christmas Tree Hat". I'll try to get daughter-in-law (wife of #1 tadpole) to relate the story of the "Cristmas Tree Hat" which is becoming a family heirloom. Peace and all good-Kermit 

February 13, 2005 - Guilt rears...

... it's ugly head.

I really dislike guilt. It makes me feel so, guilty. It makes me feel unAmerican. I mean, how can I be the offended party, a victim, if I am feeling guilty. This just does not feel good. I better go to a meeting. You know (maybe), one of those meetings... where everybody sits in a circle on those hard, fold-up chairs... with a styrofoam cup of really bad coffee... or plastic bottle labled "100% Pure Spring Water" that keeps filled from the water fountain... and introduces him/her self...

"Hello, my name is Kermit."

Seventeen other voices chime in, on que, "Hi, Kermit."

Then, looking carefully into my styrofoam cup, I say, "I didn't watch the Super Bowl".

This shocking admission is followed by 17 soft "Oh mys..." running 3 times around the circle while the group leader wrestles with his inner self over something nonjudgmental to say or ask.

So, where are we going here with this thing?

(1) I didn't watch the Super Bowl (2) The final score indicates a "good game" instead of the usual "one sided runaway" (3) It sounds like the commercials were less raunchy than what has become the standard.

And now the whole world knows my dirty little "Super Bowl Secret".

What is not a secret is that I like this Op/Ed piece from the Washington Times...

The big hand for a few real heroes
Wesley Pruden - 2/11/05

http://www.washtimes.com/national/pruden.htm

"Pass the sick bag, Alice," writes one Stefano Hatfield. "I was too stunned by the [commercial] to really take in the full import of a beer company waving off 'our boys' (and girls) to battle. But battle? Where? The war in Iraq's over, isn't it, or so they keep telling us? ... Pure propaganda, and it picked up on one of the themes of the night: patriotism."...

The entire OP/ED piece can be found at

http://www.washtimes.com/national/pruden.htm...

The news gets worse for the haters. The TV commercial, unlike a lot of television, actually reflects real life. One traveler tells the Wall Street Journal Online: "Last Thursday I was on a flight from Dallas-Fort Worth to Portland, Ore. There were four soldiers returning home for a two-week leave from Iraq. As the plane arrived at the gate in Portland, the pilot mentioned and thanked them for their service and asked that they be allowed to disembark first. As each of them walked toward the front of the plane, the rest of the passengers erupted in spontaneous applause."

Another traveler reports a similar experience: "In the past two weeks I have witnessed American Airlines giving empty first-class seats to soldiers and an entire terminal in Denver giving a plane full of disembarking soldiers a standing ovation on a busy Friday night." Still another traveler: "I, too, was spit upon and called a 'baby killer' in September 1971, in the San Diego airport, while wearing my Navy uniform. ... The Super Bowl ad brought me to tears, not of pain remembering my experience, but from pride in today's American patriots."

The entire OP/ED piece can be found at

http://www.washtimes.com/national/pruden.htm

Americans make lousy imperialists. We don't do Nuremberg rallies. Americans make pretty good soldiers, as a lot of men in Valhalla could tell you, but when the shooting stops the American GI only wants to come home, marry the girl next door, pop the top on a cool one and watch the Patriots clock the Eagles. It's what makes him distinctively American.

So here's another round of heartfelt applause for the lousy imperialist: This Bud's for you.

I'll drink to that!

Peace and all good,

Kermit

A really good reason...

...to go to Nashville. Hattie is a good reason for me to stay 'sane'. Or at least to stay as close to whatever 'sane' is as I ever really get

Heroes All - Saturday, February 12, 2005

I found this piece on 'Roscoesblog'. Roscoe documents his sources.

" http://roscoe.typepad.com/ ".

I find that his stuff is quite reliable.This one makes me cry. You can appreciate it more if you have seen and/or worn the '1000 yard stare'.

1/8 Marines Coming Home

Jay has an e-mail from a Navy medical type, who saw First Battalion, Eight Marines rolling back from Fallujah. It is a must read. (Jay got the link from the Marine Corps Moms).

They are so damn young...

When 1/8 Marines arrived back in Kuwait prior to returning home after their second deployment in Iraq, USN CDR Kurt Storey, son of a former VietNam POW USAF LTC Thomas G. Storey, was there. Here's his e-mail relating that experience:

I was going to the gym tonight ( really just a huge tent with weights and treadmills), and we had heard that one of the MEUs (Marine Exp Units) that had come out of service in the "triangle" was reploying (leaving country). We saw their convoy roll in to the Kuwait Naval Base as the desert sun was setting. I have never seen anything like this. Trucks and humvees that looked like they had just come through a shredder. Their equipment was full of shrapnel blast holes, and missing entire major pieces that you could tell had been blasted by IEDs.

These kids looked bad too! I mean, sunken eyes, thin as rails, and that 1000 yd stare they talk about after direct combat. Made me pretty damn embarrassed to be a "rear area warrior". All people could do was stop in their tracks and stare... and feel like me...like I wanted to bow my head in reverence.

A Marine Captain stationed with me, was standing next to me also headed to the gym. He said, "part of 1st Brigade Combat Team, 8th Marines sir. Took the heaviest losses of any single unit up north as part of Task Force Danger, sir."

As the convoy rolled up, all of us watching just slowly crept toward these kids as they dismounted the hummers and 5 tons. Of course, we were all shiny and clean compared to these warriors. This kids looked like they had just crawled from Iraq. I had my security badge and id around my neck, and started to help them unload some of their duffle bags.

A crusty Gunny came up to me and said "sir, you don’t have to do that..."

"Gunny... yes I do..."

They all looked like they were in high school, or younger!! All held themselves sharply and confident, despite the extreme fatigue you could tell they had endured. "You guys out of the triangle?" I asked.

"Yes, sir. 14 months, and twice into the grinder sir" (both fights for Fallujah).

All I could do was throw my arm around their shoulders and say "thanks Marine, for taking the fight to the bad guys...we love you man". I looked at these young kids, not one of them complaining or showing signs of anything but focus, and good humor.

"Sir, they got ice cream at the DFAC sir?" "I haven't had real ice cream since we got here..."

They continued to unload... and after I had done my hand shakes and shoulder hugs, the Captain and I looked at each other... They want ice cream, we'll get them ice cream. You see a squid O-5 and a focused Marine O-3 can get just about anything, even if the mess is closed.Needless to say, we raided the closed DFAC (mess tent), much to the chagrin of one very pissed off Mess SGT. and grabbed boxes of ice cream sandwiches (as many as we could carry), and hustled back to the convoy. I felt like Santa Claus.

"Thank you sir.." again and again from each troop as we tossed up the bars to the guys in the trucks.

"Son, what the hell are you thanking me for...? I can't thank you enough..."

and they are so damn young....

I will sleep well knowing they are watching my back tonight....

1/8 is now back at Camp LeJeune.



My exwife and I spent my last night before I left for the Nam with my Cousin Bill and his wife Lynn. At that time, I didn't understand why that evening of hospitality was important for Bill.You see, Bill was a young Marine Lieutenant in the 1 Mar Div at the Inchon Landing. He was severely wounded at Chosin Resevoir. But, he managed to shepherd what was left of his command back to the evacuation from Hungnam during the Korean 'Police Action'.

When Billy came back, the 'spit on' reception had yet to be invented. That particular treat was reserved for my generation, the ones that went to the Nam. He was met by the 'no reception at all, business as usual and here's what we did while you were away on vacation' reception. This was just as devestating to him as the 'spit on' reception was to me. At least somebody knew that I was gone, even if they believed that all I did was slaughter women and children.

Billy was the only person that I could talk to about the Nam experience. After his years of silence and self imposed isolation, I was the only one that he could talk to about Korea. We both divorced, but he never remarried. I haven't talked to Bill for a very long time. In fact, I have neither his phone number nor his mailing address. Billy is tucked away in a pricey and private 'rest home' now, where he can't embarrass the family. His isolation is complete. I doubt that I would even be notified by family if he has died.

I like to think that I got past PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) but there are days that the dividing line with insanity is very blurred. These are the after effects of seeing 'what it is' that leaves you with a thousand yard stare.

Last Thanksgiving I flew from here to Nashville and back to visit my kids and my grandkids. It was a really tough trip. The planes were loaded with 'Space Available' GI's. Some going home on Holiday leave before shipping out, some were going to meet there units and ship out, some were just getting home from the Middle East. And they are '...so damned young '. I felt like really close to the dividing line with insanity. And all I could do was shake their hands and say thanks...

The guys in the above eMail and all the troopers did and are doing what has to be done. They deserve more than Billy or I got. Let's knock off the political bullcrap at least long enough to welcome them home. And to say...

Thanx,

Kermit

A rose by any name would smell as sweetly. Even when it grows along a busted down old chain link fence in front of a rent house...

THE CREDO

A.K.A. - A brief view of what I try to do and how I try live my life...

- Ride Hard -

Nothing that is worth doing is not worth over-doing.

- Shoot Straight -

Life is like being a referee - I calls 'em like I sees 'em.

And that is called opinion.

- Speak Truth -

If it is stated as a fact, a source or reference ought to be given.

And you, gentle reader, have a part in this too.

Your part is to join the discussion and to make sure that

I have not gone astray of the

The Credo.

A glitch was found...

I'll try again. This whole thing is a voyage of discovery...

Peace and all good,

Kermit