On the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918...
It fell quiet at 11 on November 11, 1989 on the Western Front of World War I. Hostilities continued in other areas such as the former Russian Empire and the former Ottoman Empire. But on the Western Front, it got very quiet. Today, in many nations around the world, a moment or two of silence was observed at 11 a.m. local time. The U. S. doesn't limit our recognition of this day to just the veterans of World War I, but salutes all veterans who served in times of war and peace, from the day we came into being.
It fell quiet last night after the rush hour that gridlocks West Los Angeles five days a week had ended, in a freeway underpass. This particular underpass allows Ohio Avenue to run under the San Diego Freeway, just to the South of the West LA VA Medical Center. On any night you can find several veterans sleeping in this underpass. It is the only home they have.
Estimates place the number of homeless veterans in the greater Los Angeles area at roughly 5,000. Some argue these estimates are woefully short of the real number. The National Alliance to End Homelessness says that on any given night in the U. S., there are more than 600,000 people who are without a home. Other estimates place the number of people who are homeless during any one year in the U. S. is more than 3.5 million. The National Coalition for Homeless Veterans says that roughly 12% of the homeless population are veterans of military service. No matter how you add up the number, it is far too many. Or is it?
We are a nation of more than 316 million people. If there are less than a million chronically homeless people in our nation, that is roughly 3/10th of one percent of the population. That's still way too many, but it is not a population bloc that is as large as it is made to seem. Now the fact that this population is smaller than we are led to believe in no way lessens the need to fix this problem. In the United States of America, no one should be homeless, unless it is by choice; and the person is of sound mind and body. If a person of sound mind and body wants to exist without a home, a truly free nation will allow them to do so.
The problem of homeless veterans gets more attention that it did in the post-Vietnam era, when no one really cared about veterans suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). I don't even like that name for it. It should be called Post Traumatic Stress Disease, because I believe it to be an illness rather than a disorder. As a nation we owe our veterans the right to be restored to their former lives as much as possible. All too often, this is not possible thanks to how technology has improved the ability of man to kill other men (and women); and to keep troops alive in cases of what were once fatal injuries.
Veterans should be provided medical care for injuries, physical and mental, that occur while they are serving the nation. They need to be given proper rehabilitation and other services to allow them to transition back to a "normal" life, if such a thing is possible after serving in combat.
Let's find a way to worry about the plight of the homeless veterans 365 days a year, rather than just in the week before our annual Veterans Day.
* * *
Robert O'Neill was a Navy SEAL. He claims to be the one who fired the shots that killed Osama bin Laden on May 2, 2011. In less than two hours from when I am writing this, he will violate the "warrior ethos" shared by the members of the 'Spec Ops' community. They are the elite, the best of the best. For decades they have done their jobs quietly, not seeking fame, fortune or any recognition other than that of their fellow warriors.
Why have Senior Chief O'Neill and Matt Bissonnette, another SEAL who went on the mission to kill bin Laden (he wrote the book "No Easy Day" under the nom de plume Mark Owen) broken the unwritten code of silence observed by almost every military member who served in Spec-Ops? They share a few things in common. Humble beginnings. An impressive resume of accomplishments, if based only on their decorations for valor. But the most interesting thing they share in common is that they apparently chose to leave the Navy before reaching retirement eligibility.
O'Neill left after 16 years. Bissonnette after 14. You must serve 20 years on active duty in the military to receive pension and other retirement benefits. For people like these two, if they are "used up" and can't handle the stress of the work they were doing as SEALs, the service will almost always transfer them to less strenuous duty and allow them to reach retirement age. The military's retirement system has become a bit more complex since I left the military, but had O'Neill remained on active duty for four more years, he would have been eligible for a pension of 50% of the average of his highest 36 months of base pay. He would have been able to draw a pension of more than $2,400 per months had he chosen to stay in. So why did he choose to leave?
Maybe in the cold light of day, these amazing warriors realized they'd made a serious error in judgment in spurning additional service in order to receive those pensions. Could it be that providing for themselves and their families caused them to regret that decision and seek fortune by releasing information that should have remained classified for decades? This is what I suspect happened.
Whoopi Goldberg, a person I almost never agree with, has said that O'Neill should have remained silent because some things should remain secret. I agree. When I'm agreeing with her, then clearly that's how it should be.
Robert O'Neill and Matt Bissonnette are real heroes, who have tarnished their achievements by speaking out about them. How sad.
* * *
Random Ponderings:
Would someone please tell Kim Kardashian's ass that its fifteen minutes of fame were up about two years ago?
Jennifer Lawrence was a lot of fun to watch on last night's David Letterman show.
Actress Mariska Hargitay earns well-deserved kudos for continuing her work to aid the victims of sexual assault by joining Cyrus Vance in the announcement of $35 million in funding to process backlogged rape kits. Very cool.
I'm very anxious to see the upcoming Christmas Day release of "American Sniper" from director Clint Eastwood.
The sales staff of Victoria's Secret were asked what they think of men who enter their stores, and they said they are glad to see them. The men who are there don't want to spend much time there and they can push their full-priced merchandise on the guys, while the female customers have to be convinced to buy by being offered bargains. Or so claims an article from Business Insider. I get it. New car salesmen selling full-priced cars to women are misogynistic, but it's smart of women at Vickie's Secret to do the same thing to men who wander in there. All I can say is....WTF?
The Goo Goo Dolls had no right to fire their drummer because he needed to take paternity leave while they were on tour.
Congrats to Clayton Kershaw and Mike Trout for the MVP awards. And kudos to the Baseball Writers who didn't give a single player from the Yankees or the Red Sox a single MVP vote on any ballot, a historic first.
Jose Canseco's finger fell off his hand. You know, the one he shot off accidentally while cleaning his gun. I hope he wasn't planning a new career playing piano.
The Republican majority in the House is trying to decide how to respond to the impending Executive Order from President Obama that will move over 5 million illegal immigrants into the group that no longer face deportation. Maybe they should think about passing meaningful immigration reform? That might be an appropriate response.
Some people seem taken aback because a woman in D.C. has spent over $35,000 trying to find her lost dog. It's her dog, her money and the critics need to STFU. Okay, I don't agree with the choice to hire psychics, but she should do whatever she wants to do. I hope she and her dog will be reunited.
Pumpecapple piecake? It's a pumpkin pie in pumpkin spice cake, a pecan pie in chocolate cake and an apple pie in apple spice cake, all rolled and baked into one. Iced with crème cheese frosting.
* * *
November 14th in History:
1770 – James Bruce discovers what he believes to be the source of the Nile.
1862 – American Civil War: President Abraham Lincoln approves General Ambrose Burnside's plan to capture the Confederate capital at Richmond, Virginia, leading to the Battle of Fredericksburg.
1889 – Pioneering female journalist Nellie Bly (aka Elizabeth Cochrane) begins a successful attempt to travel around the world in less than 80 days. She completes the trip in 72 days.
1910 – Aviator Eugene Burton Ely performs the first take off from a ship in Hampton Roads, Virginia. He took off from a makeshift deck on the USS Birmingham in a Curtiss pusher.
1916 – World War I: The Battle of the Somme ends.
1918 – Czechoslovakia becomes a republic.
1921 – Foundation of the Communist Party of Spain.
1922 – The British Broadcasting Company begins radio service in the United Kingdom.
1940 – World War II: In England, Coventry is heavily bombed by German Luftwaffe bombers. Coventry Cathedral is almost completely destroyed.
1941 – World War II: The aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal sinks due to torpedo damage from the German submarine U-81 sustained on November 13.
1941 – World War II: In Slonim, German forces engaged in Operation Barbarossa murder 9,000 Jews in a single day.
1952 – The first regular UK Singles Chart published by the New Musical Express.
1957 – The Apalachin Meeting outside Binghamton, New York is raided by law enforcement, and many high level Mafia figures are arrested.
1965 – Vietnam War: The Battle of Ia Drang begins – the first major engagement between regular American and North Vietnamese forces.
1967 – The Congress of Colombia, in commemoration of the 150 years of the death of Policarpa Salavarrieta, declares this day as "Day of the Colombian Woman".
1967 – American physicist Theodore Maiman is given a patent for his ruby laser systems, the world's first laser.
1969 – Apollo program: NASA launches Apollo 12, the second crewed mission to the surface of the Moon.
1970 – Soviet Union enters ICAO, making Russian the fourth official language of organization.
1970 – Southern Airways Flight 932 crashes in the mountains near Huntington, West Virginia, killing 75, including members of the Marshall University football team.
1971 – Enthronment of Pope Shenouda III as Pope of Alexandria.
1971 – Mariner 9 enters orbit around Mars.
1973 – In the United Kingdom, Princess Anne marries Captain Mark Phillips, in Westminster Abbey.
1975 – Spain abandons Western Sahara.
1979 – Iran hostage crisis: US President Jimmy Carter issues Executive order 12170, freezing all Iranian assets in the United States in response to the hostage crisis.
1982 – Lech Wałęsa, the leader of Poland's outlawed Solidarity movement, is released after eleven months of internment near the Soviet border.
1984 – Zamboanga City mayor Cesar Climaco, a prominent critic of the government of Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos, is assassinated in his home city.
1990 – After German reunification, the Federal Republic of Germany and Poland sign a treaty confirming the Oder–Neisse line as the border between Germany and Poland.
1991 – American and British authorities announce indictments against two Libyan intelligence officials in connection with the downing of the Pan Am Flight 103.
1991 – Cambodian Prince Norodom Sihanouk returns to Phnom Penh after thirteen years of exile.
1991 – In Royal Oak, Michigan, a fired United States Postal Service employee goes on a shooting rampage, killing four and wounding five before committing suicide.
1995 – A budget standoff between Democrats and Republicans in the U.S. Congress forces the federal government to temporarily close national parks and museums and to run most government offices with skeleton staffs.
2001 – War in Afghanistan: Afghan Northern Alliance fighters take over the capital Kabul.
2003 – Astronomers Michael E. Brown, Chad Trujillo, and David L. Rabinowitz discover 90377 Sedna, a Trans-Neptunian object.
2008 – The first G-20 economic summit opens in Washington, D.C.
2010 – Germany's Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull Racing wins Formula One's Drivers Championship to become the sport's youngest champion.
2012 – Israel launches a major military operation in the Gaza Strip, as hostilities with Hamas escalate.
Famous Folk born on November 14th:
Leopold Mozart
Robert Fulton
General James B. McPherson
Claude Monet
Julie Manet
Mamie Eisenhower
Aaron Copland
Dick Powell
Louise Brooks
Joseph McCarthy
Barbara Hutton
Martha Tilton
Sherwood Schwartz
Park Chung-hee
Veronica Lake
Brian Keith
McLean Stevenson
Jimmy Piersall
Freddie Garrity
Peter Norton
Yanni
Paul Attanasio
D. B. Sweeney
Jawaharlal Nehru
Wendy Carlos
Curt Schilling
Josh Duhamel
Ben Bowen (RIP)
It fell quiet last night after the rush hour that gridlocks West Los Angeles five days a week had ended, in a freeway underpass. This particular underpass allows Ohio Avenue to run under the San Diego Freeway, just to the South of the West LA VA Medical Center. On any night you can find several veterans sleeping in this underpass. It is the only home they have.
Estimates place the number of homeless veterans in the greater Los Angeles area at roughly 5,000. Some argue these estimates are woefully short of the real number. The National Alliance to End Homelessness says that on any given night in the U. S., there are more than 600,000 people who are without a home. Other estimates place the number of people who are homeless during any one year in the U. S. is more than 3.5 million. The National Coalition for Homeless Veterans says that roughly 12% of the homeless population are veterans of military service. No matter how you add up the number, it is far too many. Or is it?
We are a nation of more than 316 million people. If there are less than a million chronically homeless people in our nation, that is roughly 3/10th of one percent of the population. That's still way too many, but it is not a population bloc that is as large as it is made to seem. Now the fact that this population is smaller than we are led to believe in no way lessens the need to fix this problem. In the United States of America, no one should be homeless, unless it is by choice; and the person is of sound mind and body. If a person of sound mind and body wants to exist without a home, a truly free nation will allow them to do so.
The problem of homeless veterans gets more attention that it did in the post-Vietnam era, when no one really cared about veterans suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). I don't even like that name for it. It should be called Post Traumatic Stress Disease, because I believe it to be an illness rather than a disorder. As a nation we owe our veterans the right to be restored to their former lives as much as possible. All too often, this is not possible thanks to how technology has improved the ability of man to kill other men (and women); and to keep troops alive in cases of what were once fatal injuries.
Veterans should be provided medical care for injuries, physical and mental, that occur while they are serving the nation. They need to be given proper rehabilitation and other services to allow them to transition back to a "normal" life, if such a thing is possible after serving in combat.
Let's find a way to worry about the plight of the homeless veterans 365 days a year, rather than just in the week before our annual Veterans Day.
* * *
Robert O'Neill was a Navy SEAL. He claims to be the one who fired the shots that killed Osama bin Laden on May 2, 2011. In less than two hours from when I am writing this, he will violate the "warrior ethos" shared by the members of the 'Spec Ops' community. They are the elite, the best of the best. For decades they have done their jobs quietly, not seeking fame, fortune or any recognition other than that of their fellow warriors.
Why have Senior Chief O'Neill and Matt Bissonnette, another SEAL who went on the mission to kill bin Laden (he wrote the book "No Easy Day" under the nom de plume Mark Owen) broken the unwritten code of silence observed by almost every military member who served in Spec-Ops? They share a few things in common. Humble beginnings. An impressive resume of accomplishments, if based only on their decorations for valor. But the most interesting thing they share in common is that they apparently chose to leave the Navy before reaching retirement eligibility.
O'Neill left after 16 years. Bissonnette after 14. You must serve 20 years on active duty in the military to receive pension and other retirement benefits. For people like these two, if they are "used up" and can't handle the stress of the work they were doing as SEALs, the service will almost always transfer them to less strenuous duty and allow them to reach retirement age. The military's retirement system has become a bit more complex since I left the military, but had O'Neill remained on active duty for four more years, he would have been eligible for a pension of 50% of the average of his highest 36 months of base pay. He would have been able to draw a pension of more than $2,400 per months had he chosen to stay in. So why did he choose to leave?
Maybe in the cold light of day, these amazing warriors realized they'd made a serious error in judgment in spurning additional service in order to receive those pensions. Could it be that providing for themselves and their families caused them to regret that decision and seek fortune by releasing information that should have remained classified for decades? This is what I suspect happened.
Whoopi Goldberg, a person I almost never agree with, has said that O'Neill should have remained silent because some things should remain secret. I agree. When I'm agreeing with her, then clearly that's how it should be.
Robert O'Neill and Matt Bissonnette are real heroes, who have tarnished their achievements by speaking out about them. How sad.
* * *
Random Ponderings:
Would someone please tell Kim Kardashian's ass that its fifteen minutes of fame were up about two years ago?
Jennifer Lawrence was a lot of fun to watch on last night's David Letterman show.
Actress Mariska Hargitay earns well-deserved kudos for continuing her work to aid the victims of sexual assault by joining Cyrus Vance in the announcement of $35 million in funding to process backlogged rape kits. Very cool.
I'm very anxious to see the upcoming Christmas Day release of "American Sniper" from director Clint Eastwood.
The sales staff of Victoria's Secret were asked what they think of men who enter their stores, and they said they are glad to see them. The men who are there don't want to spend much time there and they can push their full-priced merchandise on the guys, while the female customers have to be convinced to buy by being offered bargains. Or so claims an article from Business Insider. I get it. New car salesmen selling full-priced cars to women are misogynistic, but it's smart of women at Vickie's Secret to do the same thing to men who wander in there. All I can say is....WTF?
The Goo Goo Dolls had no right to fire their drummer because he needed to take paternity leave while they were on tour.
Congrats to Clayton Kershaw and Mike Trout for the MVP awards. And kudos to the Baseball Writers who didn't give a single player from the Yankees or the Red Sox a single MVP vote on any ballot, a historic first.
Jose Canseco's finger fell off his hand. You know, the one he shot off accidentally while cleaning his gun. I hope he wasn't planning a new career playing piano.
The Republican majority in the House is trying to decide how to respond to the impending Executive Order from President Obama that will move over 5 million illegal immigrants into the group that no longer face deportation. Maybe they should think about passing meaningful immigration reform? That might be an appropriate response.
Some people seem taken aback because a woman in D.C. has spent over $35,000 trying to find her lost dog. It's her dog, her money and the critics need to STFU. Okay, I don't agree with the choice to hire psychics, but she should do whatever she wants to do. I hope she and her dog will be reunited.
Pumpecapple piecake? It's a pumpkin pie in pumpkin spice cake, a pecan pie in chocolate cake and an apple pie in apple spice cake, all rolled and baked into one. Iced with crème cheese frosting.
* * *
November 14th in History:
1770 – James Bruce discovers what he believes to be the source of the Nile.
1862 – American Civil War: President Abraham Lincoln approves General Ambrose Burnside's plan to capture the Confederate capital at Richmond, Virginia, leading to the Battle of Fredericksburg.
1889 – Pioneering female journalist Nellie Bly (aka Elizabeth Cochrane) begins a successful attempt to travel around the world in less than 80 days. She completes the trip in 72 days.
1910 – Aviator Eugene Burton Ely performs the first take off from a ship in Hampton Roads, Virginia. He took off from a makeshift deck on the USS Birmingham in a Curtiss pusher.
1916 – World War I: The Battle of the Somme ends.
1918 – Czechoslovakia becomes a republic.
1921 – Foundation of the Communist Party of Spain.
1922 – The British Broadcasting Company begins radio service in the United Kingdom.
1940 – World War II: In England, Coventry is heavily bombed by German Luftwaffe bombers. Coventry Cathedral is almost completely destroyed.
1941 – World War II: The aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal sinks due to torpedo damage from the German submarine U-81 sustained on November 13.
1941 – World War II: In Slonim, German forces engaged in Operation Barbarossa murder 9,000 Jews in a single day.
1952 – The first regular UK Singles Chart published by the New Musical Express.
1957 – The Apalachin Meeting outside Binghamton, New York is raided by law enforcement, and many high level Mafia figures are arrested.
1965 – Vietnam War: The Battle of Ia Drang begins – the first major engagement between regular American and North Vietnamese forces.
1967 – The Congress of Colombia, in commemoration of the 150 years of the death of Policarpa Salavarrieta, declares this day as "Day of the Colombian Woman".
1967 – American physicist Theodore Maiman is given a patent for his ruby laser systems, the world's first laser.
1969 – Apollo program: NASA launches Apollo 12, the second crewed mission to the surface of the Moon.
1970 – Soviet Union enters ICAO, making Russian the fourth official language of organization.
1970 – Southern Airways Flight 932 crashes in the mountains near Huntington, West Virginia, killing 75, including members of the Marshall University football team.
1971 – Enthronment of Pope Shenouda III as Pope of Alexandria.
1971 – Mariner 9 enters orbit around Mars.
1973 – In the United Kingdom, Princess Anne marries Captain Mark Phillips, in Westminster Abbey.
1975 – Spain abandons Western Sahara.
1979 – Iran hostage crisis: US President Jimmy Carter issues Executive order 12170, freezing all Iranian assets in the United States in response to the hostage crisis.
1982 – Lech Wałęsa, the leader of Poland's outlawed Solidarity movement, is released after eleven months of internment near the Soviet border.
1984 – Zamboanga City mayor Cesar Climaco, a prominent critic of the government of Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos, is assassinated in his home city.
1990 – After German reunification, the Federal Republic of Germany and Poland sign a treaty confirming the Oder–Neisse line as the border between Germany and Poland.
1991 – American and British authorities announce indictments against two Libyan intelligence officials in connection with the downing of the Pan Am Flight 103.
1991 – Cambodian Prince Norodom Sihanouk returns to Phnom Penh after thirteen years of exile.
1991 – In Royal Oak, Michigan, a fired United States Postal Service employee goes on a shooting rampage, killing four and wounding five before committing suicide.
1995 – A budget standoff between Democrats and Republicans in the U.S. Congress forces the federal government to temporarily close national parks and museums and to run most government offices with skeleton staffs.
2001 – War in Afghanistan: Afghan Northern Alliance fighters take over the capital Kabul.
2003 – Astronomers Michael E. Brown, Chad Trujillo, and David L. Rabinowitz discover 90377 Sedna, a Trans-Neptunian object.
2008 – The first G-20 economic summit opens in Washington, D.C.
2010 – Germany's Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull Racing wins Formula One's Drivers Championship to become the sport's youngest champion.
2012 – Israel launches a major military operation in the Gaza Strip, as hostilities with Hamas escalate.
Famous Folk born on November 14th:
Leopold Mozart
Robert Fulton
General James B. McPherson
Claude Monet
Julie Manet
Mamie Eisenhower
Aaron Copland
Dick Powell
Louise Brooks
Joseph McCarthy
Barbara Hutton
Martha Tilton
Sherwood Schwartz
Park Chung-hee
Veronica Lake
Brian Keith
McLean Stevenson
Jimmy Piersall
Freddie Garrity
Peter Norton
Yanni
Paul Attanasio
D. B. Sweeney
Jawaharlal Nehru
Wendy Carlos
Curt Schilling
Josh Duhamel
Ben Bowen (RIP)
posted by me at 8:00 AM
<< Home