Month: December 2022

Good night everyone. Merry Christmas.

I’m rooting for you.

Edit: Follow on: So is everyone else.

I have one of those educations where everyone is sure someone else will want to hire me quickly.

The president of Ukraine gave a speech to a combined session of the US Congress. A few thoughts:

First, his simplicity and combat garb amidst all the pomp and ceremony created a strong contrast. His rough tones and accented pronunciations, the ceremony and Pelosi banging her gavel, and the few simple jokes created a complex, almost conflicted appearance. It served him well.

Second, he picked his audience and tailored his speech to them. The reference to the Battles of the Bulge and Saratoga both showed some clear foresight.

Third, it was a speech designed to make friends. He didn’t insult or refute those who disagreed with them; he answered them and respected their concerns. There’s a big movement in the US right that’s pushing to restrict aid to Ukraine because of suspicions the aid is being wasted. Zelensky addressed this and affirmed their concerns with his comments about aid as an investment and being well spent. Likewise, there’s a chunk of the US left pushing to get Putin’s war stopped by any means necessary. He acknowledged that, pointed out that he’d given Biden suggested solutions, and appealed to Biden’s authority. The speech was designed to make friends and expand a big tent. That’s very uncommon in US politics.

Finally, no one applauds as much as US legislators. It’s the only way to make watching a speech an activity about the audience.

The flags were classy gestures.

I could post a literal pie-to-face sight gag, and people would be complaining I support custard-based violence.

Really beating a level is taking it from the hardest part of the game to the experience grind for your new characters.

My brother’s gf said she’d never seen Star Wars.

I asked her which organization she was a sleeper agent for.

She didn’t know what the term meant.

Now they’re watching the Commies play the Jets.

A bit on why I’m so impressed with this individual, his situation, and why it means something to me.

Here is his MoH citation.

First, obviously, that’s heroism. If the word ‘heroism’ has meaning, that’s it. There’s a point where over-analyzing is no longer necessary. Dude was a hero and exhibited the finest qualities of the Army and a Soldier.

Second, after he died, the Army dragged its feet for years on giving him the MoH. Even after everything was known, after Congress passed a special bill basically to get him the MoH, it took more years. Through all this, SFC Cashe’s family stayed focused, professional, and on target. There were so many opportunities they could have let loose, and there was so much justification. It was easy, and many people did, to say that there’s no way the Army could decline to give SFC Cashe’s family the MoH in his name without being deliberate, intentional, and bigoted. There’s no way anyone could actually be that incompetent innocently.

And I thought to myself, slow down. Yes, yes they could. Yes, there absolutely could.

SFC Cashe was the Army. The institution is people, and he was one of them. You don’t run in and out of a burning truck when you’re partially committed, and he was the Army. Yet the morass was also the Army, and it’s the Army as it is too. Everyone who passed that paper, let it slide, and ducked their duty was, and probably is, the Army. They both are. The Army is not a monolith.

When I think about the Army and the hostility I still have for it, the hostility I have for myself for joining, I think of Smoke and recall that there are the good things. The reasons I went in do matter, and they’re not just my lunacy. They matter to many people, and better men than I exhibited them. When that thought takes me to bitterness, and I think that if I’d pushed harder I wouldn’t have felt such disgruntlement, I recall that SFC Cashe did push and he did everything that could be asked of him. If you read that citation, he was explicitly above the call of duty. Whatever I was called to do, it was less than that!

And his widow and family got the full Army treatment: infuriating and maddening. The Army being infuriating wasn’t me not being a good enough Soldier. It was the Army being the Army. It just wasn’t about me, and the MoH quagmire wasn’t about him.

Better man than I. I wish his family the best of luck, and if some part of him yet exists, I wish him grace wherever he is.

I hate narratives that betray their own premises.

I like talking to my parents. They’ve got interesting perspectives, and they’re on my side. Our conflicts about courses of action are without hostility. In addition, they’re both pretty smart so when I’m explaining stuff to them, I try to think in the most reasonable, moderate manner I can. Normally I think about what’s right.