|
Post by Chesapeake on Jul 7, 2020 17:07:53 GMT -5
He is the Bruce Lee of archery.
|
|
|
Post by Chesapeake on Jul 6, 2020 22:42:12 GMT -5
I'd call this movie one of the best marriages of music and film ever.
|
|
|
Post by Chesapeake on Jul 5, 2020 15:43:08 GMT -5
If we elected Kanye West president, we would call it the West West Wing.
Not original, I'm sorry to say.
|
|
|
Post by Chesapeake on Jul 4, 2020 16:35:48 GMT -5
What have I told you about stalking tomatoes?
|
|
|
Post by Chesapeake on Jun 29, 2020 19:37:24 GMT -5
Angry protesters came within a couple blocks of Logan Circle a couple of times, and I won't lie, the idea of getting out my Mossberg 12-gauge for self-defense did cross my mind. It didn't have time to get comfortable, as I made a quick calculation of how my life would change, not to mention somebody else's, if I wound up using it. So instead I prepositioned some fire extinguishers, and decided that if it all went to south, I'd sneak out the back door and spend the rest of the night pretending I was a protester.
|
|
|
Post by Chesapeake on Jun 28, 2020 20:23:06 GMT -5
In basic, my platoon's drill sergeant was an E-8, actually kind of a nice guy. It took a while for everyone to realize what that meant and to start speculating as to why--what he'd done, etc. I might have told this story here before. When I was stationed at Ft. Meade, Md., I was on the staff of the Second Army Sentinel newspaper. One of the other staff members was an E6 (master sergeant, three up and three down) whose only job, as far as I could see, was to come into the office once a week and drop off a newspaper column he wrote about military trivia and lore. That was it. Being young and unadmirably self-centered, I didn't give it much thought until one morning I came in and he had on the uniform of a brigadier general. He was on his way out the door, presumably having delivered his column. I was pretty sure the military thing had knocked him off his hinges. But I found out the guy was on his way to his retirement ceremony on the parade field, complete with a performance by the Second Army Band. I turned out that he'd been a Korea war draftee, and had been decorated for heroism and awarded a battlefield commission during the early fighting. He was an actual war hero. They riffed him back to EM status at the end of it, but he was so well respected that they let him keep his officer rank in the reserve. He'd continued advancing there until he got his star. To this day I feel like kicking myself when I think of how I never thought to ask him his story until he was gone and it was too late.
|
|
|
Post by Chesapeake on Jun 27, 2020 18:07:00 GMT -5
You can't beat Army musicians, even at social distance.
|
|
|
Post by Chesapeake on Jun 27, 2020 17:51:01 GMT -5
In AIT training, I saved my drill sgt’s fanny. He was supposed to organize a company band for the post talent show. He forgot. The day before, he asked us in formation if anyone could play a musical instrument. I raised my hand. I had been to the NCO club a couple times and found a Kay guitar that was playable. So I played and sang for the company at the talent show. I won an Outstanding Entertainer award. Had a friend take a picture of me holding the plaque while standing in front of the dumpster. My Drill Sgt was happy. That sort of made up for the fact that I was AWOL for the first 3 days of AIT. Part of the drill when I mustered into the army was filling out a questionnaire that included questions about special interests or talents. I'd put together a little magic act in high school, and had won a prize for it at a summer camp, so I put that down. So one day when we were in the field learning how to operate a machine gun, a special services guy drove up in a jeep and asked me to come with him. It turned out to be an audition for the officers club's talent show. They went for it. I had my parents ship my equipment down to Fort Jackson, and the show went on. Never did figure out how to work a machine gun.
|
|
|
Post by Chesapeake on Jun 27, 2020 16:49:21 GMT -5
I don't know if this would fit your needs, but Peter Rowan had an introductory rhythm guitar CD out years ago on Homespun. Don't know if it's still in their catalog.
|
|
|
Post by Chesapeake on Jun 27, 2020 16:37:13 GMT -5
I told my CO I played a little guitar but that didn't help.
|
|
|
Post by Chesapeake on Jun 27, 2020 13:14:54 GMT -5
Congratulations! I only made it to E4.
|
|
|
Post by Chesapeake on Jun 25, 2020 20:53:06 GMT -5
Did your adviser say anything about real estate? The pandemic has killed my B&B business probably for two or three years, probably longer than I can hold out in my little manse near the White House without any income from it. So I'm probably going to have to sell.
The market currently is actually not too bad for sellers: there is diminished stock, pent-up demand, and low interest rates (which help everybody). I'm tempted to play it safe and put it on the fall market, before the whole economy collapses this winter and there are food riots. But on the other hand, if I could hold out until November, I might get in on a boom sparked by a Biden victory. That has been the historical pattern when a new crew comes in, regardless of which party wins: changes of administrations spark real-estate frenzies in close-in DC as new folks look for places near to the action. Of course, on the other hand, a Trump re-election would probably spark a great big meh, and not just for political reasons. There would be little or no turnover.
What to do, what to do.
|
|
|
Post by Chesapeake on Jun 25, 2020 20:25:29 GMT -5
Nathaniel Philbrick, in his enlightening and very readable Mayflower (2007), showed how America was much more densely populated, and had better-organized societies before European contact, than we tend to think, and how if the Pilgrims hadn't begun forming alliances with nearby bands right away, they probably would have perished despite their superior armor and firepower.
As far as who were the original inhabitants in any substantial numbers, I guess it goes back to the Siberians who came over during (some say before) the last ice age, when America and Asia were connected by a land bridge. Archaeologists have put that period at 11,000 to 9,000 BCE, though recently some have claimed waves of arrivals as early as 22,000 BCE.
By the way, the terms American Indian and Amerindian are generally accepted archaeological designations. I think it's interesting that the various Indian groups the Smithsonian put in charge of creating the recently installed building on the National Mall themselves chose its official name, "The National Museum of the American Indian."
|
|
|
Post by Chesapeake on Jun 23, 2020 22:55:44 GMT -5
For what it's worth, there would be no need for Trump to wait for Bowser to request troops. The District of Columbia is explicitly under the ultimate control of the federal government, a circumstance the Insurrection Act has nothing to do with. The feds don't handle our trash pickup, but they could if they wanted to. The story I've read is that when the constitutional convention delegates were drafting the Constitution in Philadelphia, a band of Revolutionary War veterans surrounded their hotel and threatened violence if they didn't give them their back pay, a little detail Congress had repeatedly failed to take care of as it was taking care of the "big" stuff. The local city government sided with the veterans, and advised Congress to go ahead and pay up. The delegates decided then and there to never again rely on local authorities to take care of their issues, including security. I may not have every detail right about this, but that's the upshot.
|
|
|
Post by Chesapeake on Jun 23, 2020 15:45:45 GMT -5
In general, I think that executive power has grown somewhat too large and legislative power has shrunk more than I would like, more by abdication than anything else. But I don't think the problem with our current president is just another manifestation of that problem. The problem is that he is an authoritarian who doesn't really believe in our system and abides by the limits on his position only grudgingly. The Insurrection Act has been around for two hundred years. If any other president has proposed using it to "maintain order" during demonstrations or riots, I'm don't recall it. I was greatly relieved when our military commanders were faithful to our traditions and balked at the idea. Who knows what else might have prompted the president to fill the streets with troops. I have little doubt that if Trump could have stifled press criticism, he would have done it, as readily as he tried to use his power for political advantage in the Ukraine incident. Recently he commented that people like Bolton should be executed. I don't doubt that he was expressing his genuine feelings. What keeps Trump from being a banana-republic dictator isn't a lack of desire on his part. It's not the lapdog Senate. It's our system of checks and balances, our political traditions and our free press. EXACTLY.I know, it's me again.
|
|
|
Post by Chesapeake on Jun 23, 2020 13:45:33 GMT -5
I really enjoy jousting with you guys, and I know I started it, but dammit I have a book to write. Carry on.
|
|
|
Post by Chesapeake on Jun 23, 2020 13:06:48 GMT -5
"When the constitutional balance is upset in favor of presidential power and at the expense of presidential accountability, the presidency can be said to become imperial.” – Arthur M. Schlesinger, The Imperial Presidency
|
|
|
Post by Chesapeake on Jun 22, 2020 23:58:07 GMT -5
I guess I'm the one who introduced the "E" word into this thread. I'd enjoy nothing better than to put together a little essay explaining why I think the word is apt in terms of Trump's self-image, his ambitions, and his fundamental misunderstandings about the way our constitutional democracy is supposed to work, with its ingenious and elaborate system of checks and balances, and his attempts to defy, sabotage, or reshape ours to fit his mistaken concepts of presidential powers. A succession of chiefs-of-staff and other senior/cabinet-level officials have tried to straighten him out about these, explain to him there are some things he cannot do just because he is The President, and they've been fired - and replaced by "acting" officials who do not require Senate confirmation - itself an abuse of the separation of powers. Abuse No. 1, if you want to start counting. (Abuse No. 2, since we're on that road, would be firing a highly respected U.S. attorney who is investigating the president's financial dealings, among other matters concerning him.) String together three and a half years of such behavior, and you've got yourself an essay.
So that would be fun, but I'm currently working on another writing project that actually is going to put some bread on my table (if all goes well), and I'm not going to drain off the time and focus such a project would need.
I'll just say that since it is a fairly common charge that Trump is chasing imperial powers on a scale that would make the late Arthur Schlesinger's (he of "The Imperial Presidency") head spin, I am surprised anyone would demand to see a collection of examples. They are in the headlines, sometimes every day.
I will predict that after Trump is gone there will be a tidal wave of bipartisan congressional action rivaling the reforms of the post Nixon era to rein in the flagrant abuses and overreaches we've seen. Republicans are not going to want to have Trumpian standards applied to them when there is a Democrat in the White house. I guarantee it.
|
|
|
Post by Chesapeake on Jun 22, 2020 16:57:55 GMT -5
Anyone who doesn't know about Trump's efforts to tear down or make ineffectual various institutions of American government hasn't been paying attention for the past 3 1/2 years. What I will concede is that his admirers think he's doing God's work. Honest difference of opinion.
|
|
|
Post by Chesapeake on Jun 21, 2020 14:28:36 GMT -5
I took an aspirin and had a nap. Feel much better now.
|
|