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  • Test Post One

    Test Post One

    A System

     

    Everything is connected;
    All things related;
    The living and the dead;
    The animate and the inanimate;
    A system;
    All power functioning to serve the whole.

     

    Source: – Chani, explaining the origins of Spice to Muad’ Dib. Frank Herbert’s Dune (Sci-Fi TV Miniseries).


    Absolute Security

    We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security.

    Source: -Dwight D. Eisenhower


    All The Facts

    Sometimes paranoia is just having all the facts.

    Source: – William S. Burroughs


    Be Very Careful

    You’ve got to be very careful if you don’t know where you’re going, because you might not get there.

    Source: – Yogi Berra


    Bushy Tail

    Captain Blood: “Hagthorpe, do we have an English battle flag aboard?”

    Hagthorpe: “We have every manner of battle flag, including a lady’s purple petticoat.”

    Captain Blood: “Wait. I’ve a better idea: When an English lion sneaks up on French foxes, it does well to wear a bushy tail. Hoist the French flag.”

    Source: – Dr. Peter Blood, the climax, at the battle at Port Royal. Captain Blood, Republic Pictures, 1935.


    Daily Trivia

    In the absence of clearly-defined goals, we become strangely loyal to performing daily trivia until ultimately we become enslaved by it.

    Source: – Robert A. Heinlein


    Delicate Souls

    Delicate souls can’t handle too much reality.

    Source: – T.S. Elliot


    Democracy

    Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.

    Source: – H.L. Mencken


    Doctrine

    Time-tested techniques, applied to a tactical situation.

    Source: – A Training NCO from the 101st Airborne Division. Camp Grayling, Michigan, USA. 1995.


    Duty

    Duty is a debt you owe to yourself to fulfill obligations you have assumed voluntarily. Paying that debt can entail anything from years of patient work to instant willingness to die. Difficult it may be, but the reward is self-respect.

    Source: – Robert A. Heinlein’s Lazarus Long.


    Duty – Honor – Country

    Duty – Honor – Country. Those three hallowed words reverently dictate what you ought to be, what you can be, what you will be. They are your rallying points: to build courage when courage seems to fail; to regain faith when there seems to be little cause for faith; to create hope when hope becomes forlorn.


     

    Source: Address by General of the Army Douglas MacArthur to the Corps of Cadets accepting the Thayer Award, May 12, 1962.


    Economic and Political Means

    There are two fundamentally opposed means whereby man, requiring sustenance, is impelled to obtain the necessary means for satisfying his desires. These are work and robbery, one’s own labor and the forcible appropriation of the labor of others.… I propose … to call one’s own labor and the equivalent exchange of one’s own labor for the labor of others, the “economic means” for the satisfaction of needs, while the unrequited appropriation of the labor of others will be called the “political means.”

    Source: The State. Franz Oppenheimer. Fox & Wilkes (January 1997)


    Education

    I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.

    Source: – Mark Twain


    Enlightened Self-Interest

    The universe is run by the complex interweaving of three elements. Energy, matter, and enlightened self-interest.

    Source: – G’Kar. J. Michael Straczynski’s Babylon Five Series. 1994.


    Enough Said

    Delenn: “John Sheridan was a good, kind, and decent man.”

    Dr. Jim Latimere: “Delenn, wait! You came all this way just to say that?”

    Delenn: “You came just this far to say less?”

    Source: – Delenn and Dr. Jim Latimere in the “The Deconstruction of Falling Stars” episode of J. Michael Straczynski’s Babylon 5 Series. 1994.


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  • Looking for the “Buck Switch”

    Looking for the “Buck Switch”

    Recently, a forum member on GaryNorth.com wrote:

    “Okay, you have 2 types of people who will respond to posts. The first type are people who give you specific answer…The second type will give you high level responses and may not help you much. Please search this forum on…You will find very directed responses to your specific situation. The others are high level information. I am having trouble with these other responses and I suspect are bullshit. You need to decide whose advise is more pertinent to your situation.” [Sic]

    (more…)
  • NCMO’s Grandchild

    NCMO’s Grandchild

    The Dark Age

    A long, long time ago, in a place far, far away, “Harry” served within the NCMO (Navaids/Communications Management Office), where he manned the desk as an operator. The NCMO was a room (20 x 20 feet square) adjacent to the Commander’s office; the Commander of a USAF communications squadron. This squadron supported operations of tactical and strategic units on an air force base; and, as such was overhead; but, nonetheless, essential to those tactical and strategic units accomplishing their missions.

    (more…)
  • Ghosts And Scars

    Ghosts And Scars

    Dedicated to “Chris.”

    The good news is that the pain will come to an end.

    The Test

    February 28, 2014, came and went without fanfare nor incident.

    There’s nothing special about that date…except that it marks the 41st anniversary of the passing of a farm boy from Cottam, Ontario.

    He was not special nor exceptional; just another man struggling occasionally to make his way through life, rarely thinking of the end; just getting today done; whatever it took; as dictated by his heritage.  And occasionally, a struggle it was, being orphaned before his teens, living with the extended family or in the orphanage, later on working the farms in lower Ontario.  Then, came the great adventure, wherein he and his peers lined up before dawn at the local army recruiting station the day after the Wehrmacht invaded Poland.

    (more…)