"A Pattern of Misconduct"
That's part of the headline on the L.A. Times website at the moment for their latest piece on the mass shooting today at the Washington, D.C. Navy Yard. The label has been applied to the alleged shooter, one Aaron Alexis. Their research says that he had been discharged from the Navy for "multiple infractions". They also found a record of an arrest in 2010 where he had been charged with discharging a weapon. He claimed it was an accident and ultimately he was not prosecuted.
Now it may be that this guy had been in trouble for his entire stint in the Navy. I don't know. But I do know that it could have been as few as two incidents that might have led to him being discharged. When dealing with the military anything more than one is often described as "multiple."
When I served, there was a push to raise the "Quality of Forces" which was military-speak for get rid of the marginal performers. It doesn't matter if we are involved in a war or at peace. When enlistment and reenlistment rates are high, standards are raised. When those rates drop, standards are lowered because a military that isn't fully manned can't operate.
During the period from 1977 to 1981 or so, I saw my fellow Air Force members get away with a lot of stuff that wasn't tolerated in the years from 1982 through 1987. Standards were raised. That drunk and disorderly charge that might have resulted in just an Article 15 (Non-judicial Punishment) when standards are low, might well cause a discharge when standards are high.
I saw a guy who had three DUIs be kept in service because while he was a drunk, standards were low and he was an outstanding aircraft mechanic. I saw another guy who was a marginal performer get his first DUI and get discharged immediately after his Article 15 for "misconduct". One incident and he was gone. Of course, he worked in personnel rather than on planes. That might have been a factor.
Once again, the media is drawing conclusions with only limited evidence.
* * *
I really like the office manager I'm working with at the moment. While she has only a couple of years of experience in doing taxes, she clearly has knowledge and experience in managing resources and people. She knows what she doesn't know and she isn't afraid to ask questions. The two highest compliments I can pay someone I work with. I'm almost sorry I'll be going back to my regular office come January 1st. Almost.
Once again I've been so unwilling to say "no" that I have overloaded myself. Fortunately, relief will arrive on Friday. I will have three full days to relax and unwind and I plan on doing plenty of nothing.
* * *
There's a hotel in Orange County where the workers want to have a vote on joining a union. Of course management says they would be happy to allow the workers to have that vote, under conditions that would make it difficult for a union to be authorized.
What makes this so interesting is that one of the largest investors in the hotel, the Embassy Suites in Irvine, is the pension fund for Los Angeles County Employees. This fund manages $41 billion in assets. Yet the CEO of the fund says that they have no way to influence the hotel.
That's just ridiculous. The fund owns roughly 1/3rd of the investment in this and nine other hotels. If they threatened to sell their stake, management will pay attention.
A fund for union workers, that won't help workers to unionize. As Bugs Bunny used to say "it just don't add up."
* * *
Random Ponderings:
Bob Dole was the co-author of an op-ed piece that ran today. I didn't know he was alive. He's 90 years old. Good for him.
Miss America is taking flack on Twitter and in other places on the web because she is of Indian descent. She was born in Syracuse, NY. She's an American. She isn't a Muslim. All you idiots who can't understand that need to get a clue and stifle yourselves. Take your hatred and channel it into something of value. Reading a book without photos might be a start.
The latest edition of the Forbes list of the 400 richest Americans has people decrying the fact that "the rich are getting richer". Wow, the rich getting richer? Stunning. In other shocking news, the sun rose this morning in the East yet again.
Colorado and Washington may have legalized pot within their borders for recreational use, but don't take any onto federal land. Nearly 28,000 people have been busted for possession since 2009 on federal land. The usual result is a fine of a few hundred bucks. Guess the feds do trump the state. BTW, the maximum punishment is a fine of up to $5,000 and six months in jail. Don't piss off the magistrate.
The incompetence of Yahoo continues to astonish me. They lifted a restaurant review from Forbes and somehow managed to leave out part of one paragraph. The original read:
"The New York original offers an experience shaped by its minuscule size and the personality of one of its omnipresent principals, and this is tough to replicate elsewhere, but a few years ago Rao’s opened a satellite in Las Vegas’ Caesar’s Palace, and they did a pretty good job. One reason is because the family that owns Rao’s takes turns coming out to oversee the operation, and like New York, there is always an owner on hand."
Yahoo's version:
"The New York original offers an experience shaped by its minuscule size and the personality of one of its omnipresent principals, and this is tough to replicate elsewhere, but a few years ago , and they did a pretty good job. One reason is because the family that owns Rao’s takes turns coming out to oversee the operation, and like New York, there is always an owner on hand."
How hard is it to properly cut and paste a link within an article, or else take the link portion out??
In this date in history below we learn that in 1939 someone ran a 10,000 meter race in less than 30 minutes for the first time in history. 74 years later, the world's record for that distance is now 26:17:53. Almost four minutes faster. During roughly the same period, the record for the mile dropped only 23 seconds. Since a 10,000 meter race is 6.2 miles, one would think there should be some correlation. There doesn't seem to be.
* * *
This Date In History:
456 – Remistus, Roman general (magister militum), is besieged with a Gothic force at Ravenna and later executed in the Palace in Classis, outside the city.
1111 – Highest Galician nobility led by Pedro Fróilaz de Traba and the bishop Diego Gelmírez crown Alfonso VII as "King of Galicia".
1176 – The Battle of Myriokephalon is fought.
1462 – The Battle of Świecino (also known as the Battle of Żarnowiec) is fought during Thirteen Years' War.
1577 – The Peace of Bergerac is signed between Henry III of France and the Huguenots.
1630 – The city of Boston, Massachusetts is founded.
1631 – Sweden wins a major victory at the Battle of Breitenfeld against the Holy Roman Empire during the Thirty Years' War.
1683 – Antonie van Leeuwenhoek writes a letter to the Royal Society describing "animalcules": the first known description of protozoa.
1716 – Jean Thurel enlists in the Touraine Regiment at the age of 17, the first day of a military career that would span for over 90 years.
1775 – American Revolutionary War: The Invasion of Canada begins with the Siege of Fort St. Jean.
1776 – The Presidio of San Francisco is founded in New Spain.
1778 – The Treaty of Fort Pitt is signed. It is the first formal treaty between the United States and a Native American tribe (the Lenape or Delaware Indians).
1787 – The United States Constitution is signed in Philadelphia.
1809 – Peace between Sweden and Russia in the Finnish War. The territory to become Finland is ceded to Russia by the Treaty of Fredrikshamn.
1814 – Francis Scott Key finishes his poem "Defence of Fort McHenry", later to be the lyrics of "The Star-Spangled Banner".
1849 – American abolitionist Harriet Tubman escapes from slavery.
1859 – Joshua A. Norton declares himself "Emperor Norton I" of the United States.
1862 – American Civil War: George B. McClellan halts the northward drive of Robert E. Lee's Confederate army in the single-day Battle of Antietam, the bloodiest day in American history.
1862 – American Civil War: The Allegheny Arsenal explosion results in the single largest civilian disaster during the war.
1894 – The Battle of Yalu River, the largest naval engagement of the First Sino-Japanese War.
1900 – Philippine–American War: Filipinos under Juan Cailles defeat Americans under Colonel Benjamin F. Cheatham at Mabitac.
1908 – The Wright Flyer flown by Orville Wright, with Lieutenant Thomas Selfridge as passenger, crashes killing Selfridge. He becomes the first airplane fatality.
1914 – Andrew Fisher becomes Prime Minister of Australia for the third time.
1916 – World War I: Manfred von Richthofen ("The Red Baron"), a flying ace of the German Luftstreitkräfte, wins his first aerial combat near Cambrai, France.
1924 – The Border Defence Corps is established in the Second Polish Republic for the defence of the eastern border against armed Soviet raids and local bandits.
1924 – The Church of Central Africa, Presbyterian is formed.
1939 – World War II: The Soviet Union joins Nazi Germany's invasion of Poland during the Polish Defensive War of 1939.
1939 – World War II: A German U-boat U 29 sinks the British aircraft carrier HMS Courageous.
1939 – Taisto Mäki becomes the first man to run the 10,000 metres in under 30 minutes, in a time of 29:52.6
1940 – World War II: Following the German defeat in the Battle of Britain, Hitler postpones Operation Sea Lion indefinitely.
1941 – World War II: A decree of the Soviet State Committee of Defense, restoring Vsevobuch in the face of the Great Patriotic War, is issued.
1943 – World War II: The Russian city of Bryansk is liberated from Germans.
1944 – World War II: Allied Airborne troops parachute into the Netherlands as the "Market" half of Operation Market Garden.
1948 – The Lehi (also known as the Stern gang) assassinates Count Folke Bernadotte, who was appointed by the United Nations to mediate between the Arab nations and Israel.
1948 – The Nizam of Hyderabad surrenders his sovereignty over the Hyderabad State and joins the Indian Union.
1949 – The Canadian steamship SS Noronic burns in Toronto Harbour with the loss of over 118 lives.
1957 – Malaysia joins the United Nations.
1961 – The world's first retractable-dome stadium, the Civic Arena, opens in Pittsburgh.
1974 – Bangladesh, Grenada and Guinea-Bissau join the United Nations.
1976 – The first Space Shuttle, Enterprise, is unveiled by NASA.
1978 – The Camp David Accords are signed by Israel and Egypt.
1980 – After weeks of strikes at the Lenin Shipyard in Gdańsk, Poland, the nationwide independent trade union Solidarity is established.
1980 – Former Nicaraguan President Anastasio Somoza Debayle is killed in Asunción, Paraguay.
1983 – Vanessa Williams becomes the first black Miss America.
1987 – Pope John Paul II embraces an AIDS-infected boy while visiting San Francisco.
1991 – Estonia, North Korea, South Korea, Latvia, Lithuania, the Marshall Islands and Micronesia join the United Nations.
1991 – The first version of the Linux kernel (0.01) is released to the Internet.
1992 – An Iranian Kurdish leader and his two joiners are assassinated by political militants in Berlin, Germany.
2001 – The New York Stock Exchange reopens for trading after the September 11 attacks, the longest closure since the Great Depression.
Famous Folk Born On This Date:
Charles the Simple
Minamoto no Sanetomo
Pope Paul V
Jonathan Alder
Ira Davenport
William Carlos Williams
Warren E. Burger
Chaim Herzog
Hank Williams
George Blanda (amazing man)
Roddy McDowall
Anne Bancroft
Maureen Connolly
Orlando Cepeda
David Souter
Bob Matsui (I remember interviewing him in 1987)
Phil Jackson
John Ritter
Fee Waybill
Cassandra Peterson
Rita Rudner
Baz Luhrman
Dustin Nguyen
BeBe Winans
Bryan Singer
Nate Berkus
No movie quotes today. Just not in the mood.
Now it may be that this guy had been in trouble for his entire stint in the Navy. I don't know. But I do know that it could have been as few as two incidents that might have led to him being discharged. When dealing with the military anything more than one is often described as "multiple."
When I served, there was a push to raise the "Quality of Forces" which was military-speak for get rid of the marginal performers. It doesn't matter if we are involved in a war or at peace. When enlistment and reenlistment rates are high, standards are raised. When those rates drop, standards are lowered because a military that isn't fully manned can't operate.
During the period from 1977 to 1981 or so, I saw my fellow Air Force members get away with a lot of stuff that wasn't tolerated in the years from 1982 through 1987. Standards were raised. That drunk and disorderly charge that might have resulted in just an Article 15 (Non-judicial Punishment) when standards are low, might well cause a discharge when standards are high.
I saw a guy who had three DUIs be kept in service because while he was a drunk, standards were low and he was an outstanding aircraft mechanic. I saw another guy who was a marginal performer get his first DUI and get discharged immediately after his Article 15 for "misconduct". One incident and he was gone. Of course, he worked in personnel rather than on planes. That might have been a factor.
Once again, the media is drawing conclusions with only limited evidence.
* * *
I really like the office manager I'm working with at the moment. While she has only a couple of years of experience in doing taxes, she clearly has knowledge and experience in managing resources and people. She knows what she doesn't know and she isn't afraid to ask questions. The two highest compliments I can pay someone I work with. I'm almost sorry I'll be going back to my regular office come January 1st. Almost.
Once again I've been so unwilling to say "no" that I have overloaded myself. Fortunately, relief will arrive on Friday. I will have three full days to relax and unwind and I plan on doing plenty of nothing.
* * *
There's a hotel in Orange County where the workers want to have a vote on joining a union. Of course management says they would be happy to allow the workers to have that vote, under conditions that would make it difficult for a union to be authorized.
What makes this so interesting is that one of the largest investors in the hotel, the Embassy Suites in Irvine, is the pension fund for Los Angeles County Employees. This fund manages $41 billion in assets. Yet the CEO of the fund says that they have no way to influence the hotel.
That's just ridiculous. The fund owns roughly 1/3rd of the investment in this and nine other hotels. If they threatened to sell their stake, management will pay attention.
A fund for union workers, that won't help workers to unionize. As Bugs Bunny used to say "it just don't add up."
* * *
Random Ponderings:
Bob Dole was the co-author of an op-ed piece that ran today. I didn't know he was alive. He's 90 years old. Good for him.
Miss America is taking flack on Twitter and in other places on the web because she is of Indian descent. She was born in Syracuse, NY. She's an American. She isn't a Muslim. All you idiots who can't understand that need to get a clue and stifle yourselves. Take your hatred and channel it into something of value. Reading a book without photos might be a start.
The latest edition of the Forbes list of the 400 richest Americans has people decrying the fact that "the rich are getting richer". Wow, the rich getting richer? Stunning. In other shocking news, the sun rose this morning in the East yet again.
Colorado and Washington may have legalized pot within their borders for recreational use, but don't take any onto federal land. Nearly 28,000 people have been busted for possession since 2009 on federal land. The usual result is a fine of a few hundred bucks. Guess the feds do trump the state. BTW, the maximum punishment is a fine of up to $5,000 and six months in jail. Don't piss off the magistrate.
The incompetence of Yahoo continues to astonish me. They lifted a restaurant review from Forbes and somehow managed to leave out part of one paragraph. The original read:
"The New York original offers an experience shaped by its minuscule size and the personality of one of its omnipresent principals, and this is tough to replicate elsewhere, but a few years ago Rao’s opened a satellite in Las Vegas’ Caesar’s Palace, and they did a pretty good job. One reason is because the family that owns Rao’s takes turns coming out to oversee the operation, and like New York, there is always an owner on hand."
Yahoo's version:
"The New York original offers an experience shaped by its minuscule size and the personality of one of its omnipresent principals, and this is tough to replicate elsewhere, but a few years ago , and they did a pretty good job. One reason is because the family that owns Rao’s takes turns coming out to oversee the operation, and like New York, there is always an owner on hand."
How hard is it to properly cut and paste a link within an article, or else take the link portion out??
In this date in history below we learn that in 1939 someone ran a 10,000 meter race in less than 30 minutes for the first time in history. 74 years later, the world's record for that distance is now 26:17:53. Almost four minutes faster. During roughly the same period, the record for the mile dropped only 23 seconds. Since a 10,000 meter race is 6.2 miles, one would think there should be some correlation. There doesn't seem to be.
* * *
This Date In History:
456 – Remistus, Roman general (magister militum), is besieged with a Gothic force at Ravenna and later executed in the Palace in Classis, outside the city.
1111 – Highest Galician nobility led by Pedro Fróilaz de Traba and the bishop Diego Gelmírez crown Alfonso VII as "King of Galicia".
1176 – The Battle of Myriokephalon is fought.
1462 – The Battle of Świecino (also known as the Battle of Żarnowiec) is fought during Thirteen Years' War.
1577 – The Peace of Bergerac is signed between Henry III of France and the Huguenots.
1630 – The city of Boston, Massachusetts is founded.
1631 – Sweden wins a major victory at the Battle of Breitenfeld against the Holy Roman Empire during the Thirty Years' War.
1683 – Antonie van Leeuwenhoek writes a letter to the Royal Society describing "animalcules": the first known description of protozoa.
1716 – Jean Thurel enlists in the Touraine Regiment at the age of 17, the first day of a military career that would span for over 90 years.
1775 – American Revolutionary War: The Invasion of Canada begins with the Siege of Fort St. Jean.
1776 – The Presidio of San Francisco is founded in New Spain.
1778 – The Treaty of Fort Pitt is signed. It is the first formal treaty between the United States and a Native American tribe (the Lenape or Delaware Indians).
1787 – The United States Constitution is signed in Philadelphia.
1809 – Peace between Sweden and Russia in the Finnish War. The territory to become Finland is ceded to Russia by the Treaty of Fredrikshamn.
1814 – Francis Scott Key finishes his poem "Defence of Fort McHenry", later to be the lyrics of "The Star-Spangled Banner".
1849 – American abolitionist Harriet Tubman escapes from slavery.
1859 – Joshua A. Norton declares himself "Emperor Norton I" of the United States.
1862 – American Civil War: George B. McClellan halts the northward drive of Robert E. Lee's Confederate army in the single-day Battle of Antietam, the bloodiest day in American history.
1862 – American Civil War: The Allegheny Arsenal explosion results in the single largest civilian disaster during the war.
1894 – The Battle of Yalu River, the largest naval engagement of the First Sino-Japanese War.
1900 – Philippine–American War: Filipinos under Juan Cailles defeat Americans under Colonel Benjamin F. Cheatham at Mabitac.
1908 – The Wright Flyer flown by Orville Wright, with Lieutenant Thomas Selfridge as passenger, crashes killing Selfridge. He becomes the first airplane fatality.
1914 – Andrew Fisher becomes Prime Minister of Australia for the third time.
1916 – World War I: Manfred von Richthofen ("The Red Baron"), a flying ace of the German Luftstreitkräfte, wins his first aerial combat near Cambrai, France.
1924 – The Border Defence Corps is established in the Second Polish Republic for the defence of the eastern border against armed Soviet raids and local bandits.
1924 – The Church of Central Africa, Presbyterian is formed.
1939 – World War II: The Soviet Union joins Nazi Germany's invasion of Poland during the Polish Defensive War of 1939.
1939 – World War II: A German U-boat U 29 sinks the British aircraft carrier HMS Courageous.
1939 – Taisto Mäki becomes the first man to run the 10,000 metres in under 30 minutes, in a time of 29:52.6
1940 – World War II: Following the German defeat in the Battle of Britain, Hitler postpones Operation Sea Lion indefinitely.
1941 – World War II: A decree of the Soviet State Committee of Defense, restoring Vsevobuch in the face of the Great Patriotic War, is issued.
1943 – World War II: The Russian city of Bryansk is liberated from Germans.
1944 – World War II: Allied Airborne troops parachute into the Netherlands as the "Market" half of Operation Market Garden.
1948 – The Lehi (also known as the Stern gang) assassinates Count Folke Bernadotte, who was appointed by the United Nations to mediate between the Arab nations and Israel.
1948 – The Nizam of Hyderabad surrenders his sovereignty over the Hyderabad State and joins the Indian Union.
1949 – The Canadian steamship SS Noronic burns in Toronto Harbour with the loss of over 118 lives.
1957 – Malaysia joins the United Nations.
1961 – The world's first retractable-dome stadium, the Civic Arena, opens in Pittsburgh.
1974 – Bangladesh, Grenada and Guinea-Bissau join the United Nations.
1976 – The first Space Shuttle, Enterprise, is unveiled by NASA.
1978 – The Camp David Accords are signed by Israel and Egypt.
1980 – After weeks of strikes at the Lenin Shipyard in Gdańsk, Poland, the nationwide independent trade union Solidarity is established.
1980 – Former Nicaraguan President Anastasio Somoza Debayle is killed in Asunción, Paraguay.
1983 – Vanessa Williams becomes the first black Miss America.
1987 – Pope John Paul II embraces an AIDS-infected boy while visiting San Francisco.
1991 – Estonia, North Korea, South Korea, Latvia, Lithuania, the Marshall Islands and Micronesia join the United Nations.
1991 – The first version of the Linux kernel (0.01) is released to the Internet.
1992 – An Iranian Kurdish leader and his two joiners are assassinated by political militants in Berlin, Germany.
2001 – The New York Stock Exchange reopens for trading after the September 11 attacks, the longest closure since the Great Depression.
Famous Folk Born On This Date:
Charles the Simple
Minamoto no Sanetomo
Pope Paul V
Jonathan Alder
Ira Davenport
William Carlos Williams
Warren E. Burger
Chaim Herzog
Hank Williams
George Blanda (amazing man)
Roddy McDowall
Anne Bancroft
Maureen Connolly
Orlando Cepeda
David Souter
Bob Matsui (I remember interviewing him in 1987)
Phil Jackson
John Ritter
Fee Waybill
Cassandra Peterson
Rita Rudner
Baz Luhrman
Dustin Nguyen
BeBe Winans
Bryan Singer
Nate Berkus
No movie quotes today. Just not in the mood.
posted by me at 5:00 PM
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