The best of the best
Military "experts" appearing on the various news programs are talking about the U. S. raid into Syria attempting to capture the so-called CFO of ISIS. He was killed rather than captured, in spite of claims by these experts that the operators of Delta and SEAL Team Six are the best in the world.
Since all of these experts are from the U.S., other than nationalism, how do they quantify these claims? Is there a Special Forces Olympics held in secret on a quadrennial basis, where the various Special Forces (SF) units of nations around the world compete? I don't believe there is.
Try telling the operators of the UK's Special Air Service or their Special Boat Service that they aren't as good as the U.S.'s units are and you'll get a very strong argument against that notion. Same from the Israeli's spec-ops units, and those of many other nations. It is easy to buy into the concept that your country's spec-ops units are the best because we all want to believe we live in the best of the various nations on Earth.
That is nothing more than national pride. We take pride at all levels. Local. If the local team is competing, we support them. Regional. State-wide. National. And if someday we're involved in interplanetary competition, the same people who cheer USA, USA will be chanting EARTH, EARTH. So we believe our nation's special forces are the best, even if we have no basis for making such an appraisal.
The U. S. has what the public knows as SEAL Team 6, Delta Force, the Army's Rangers, Force Recon and Scout Sniper Marines, and the Air Force has its own special operators aside from their Pararescue forces. We Americans think ours are the best there is. Because that's how the services "market" them, that's how government officials bang their chests with national pride and because we want to believe that our country is the best at everything we do. It is human nature.
So who is the best of the best? It's all a matter of opinion. I'll reserve judgment until I have a better way to analyze the question.
* * *
Now that Caitlyn Jenner has declared she is a woman, she has a problem. Over 15 years ago or so, Bruce Jenner joined the Sherwood Country Club. It's located in Thousand Oaks and the initiation fee is more than $200,000. He played there almost every day he wasn't away from the area.
Now he is she and since the club's dining facilities are segregated by gender, Caitlyn won't be able to hang with her long-time golfing buddies. They also report that the club's board plans to enforce these rules, but that Caitlyn would be free to petition to keep the same rules as before in her case.
I can't imagine how that could make any sense. The LGBT community, rightly so, is pushing for equality of treatment. Allowing transgender women to still have access to male areas isn't equality, it's special treatment. It is in effect saying "yes, you're a woman, but we'll let you be a man when it suits you." There's no way this could possibly be acceptable. Now that Caitlyn is a she, as long as this country club segregates facilities by gender, why should she be treated differently than any of the other female members?
* * *
Random Ponderings:
ThinkProgress.org is claiming "Fox News repeatedly mocks and misgenders Caitlyn Jenner." In fact, it happened on one show, on the Fox Business Channel, in one segment. That it happened is bad. That host should be criticized. But the whole network isn't doing it.
Now Mike Huckabee is mocking the transgendered by saying he wishes he could have identified as female during high school so he could look at the girls while showering with them. Proving he's a moron in addition to being a bigot.
I like the punishment that a judge meted out to a 19 year old woman for stiffing a cab driver over a $100 fare. She got a choice between walking 30 miles or going to jail. Creative and appropriate.
Currently the threshold where a jackpot win in a casino must be reported to the IRS is $1,200 and they are considering cutting that in half. Casinos are not pleased with the proposal. More on this in a future blog.
Nichelle Nichols, best known for her role as Uhura on the original Star Trek TV series, is resting in a hospital after a stroke. I send her best wishes for a speedy and full recovery.
The idiots behind the petition seeking to have the gold medal awarded to Bruce Jenner in the 1976 Summer Olympic Games need to get a life. Glad the IOC has made it clear it has no interest in their petition.
I'm binge watching L. A. Law and I'm on the episode where Diana Muldaur is introduced. The minute she walked on screen I visualized her falling down the elevator shaft in an upcoming episode. In case you've never seen that
United Airlines made the right move when it took action to preclude the flight attendant who refused to serve an unopened soft drink to a woman wearing a hijab will not be serving customers in the future.
Since all of these experts are from the U.S., other than nationalism, how do they quantify these claims? Is there a Special Forces Olympics held in secret on a quadrennial basis, where the various Special Forces (SF) units of nations around the world compete? I don't believe there is.
Try telling the operators of the UK's Special Air Service or their Special Boat Service that they aren't as good as the U.S.'s units are and you'll get a very strong argument against that notion. Same from the Israeli's spec-ops units, and those of many other nations. It is easy to buy into the concept that your country's spec-ops units are the best because we all want to believe we live in the best of the various nations on Earth.
That is nothing more than national pride. We take pride at all levels. Local. If the local team is competing, we support them. Regional. State-wide. National. And if someday we're involved in interplanetary competition, the same people who cheer USA, USA will be chanting EARTH, EARTH. So we believe our nation's special forces are the best, even if we have no basis for making such an appraisal.
The U. S. has what the public knows as SEAL Team 6, Delta Force, the Army's Rangers, Force Recon and Scout Sniper Marines, and the Air Force has its own special operators aside from their Pararescue forces. We Americans think ours are the best there is. Because that's how the services "market" them, that's how government officials bang their chests with national pride and because we want to believe that our country is the best at everything we do. It is human nature.
So who is the best of the best? It's all a matter of opinion. I'll reserve judgment until I have a better way to analyze the question.
* * *
Now that Caitlyn Jenner has declared she is a woman, she has a problem. Over 15 years ago or so, Bruce Jenner joined the Sherwood Country Club. It's located in Thousand Oaks and the initiation fee is more than $200,000. He played there almost every day he wasn't away from the area.
Now he is she and since the club's dining facilities are segregated by gender, Caitlyn won't be able to hang with her long-time golfing buddies. They also report that the club's board plans to enforce these rules, but that Caitlyn would be free to petition to keep the same rules as before in her case.
I can't imagine how that could make any sense. The LGBT community, rightly so, is pushing for equality of treatment. Allowing transgender women to still have access to male areas isn't equality, it's special treatment. It is in effect saying "yes, you're a woman, but we'll let you be a man when it suits you." There's no way this could possibly be acceptable. Now that Caitlyn is a she, as long as this country club segregates facilities by gender, why should she be treated differently than any of the other female members?
* * *
Random Ponderings:
ThinkProgress.org is claiming "Fox News repeatedly mocks and misgenders Caitlyn Jenner." In fact, it happened on one show, on the Fox Business Channel, in one segment. That it happened is bad. That host should be criticized. But the whole network isn't doing it.
Now Mike Huckabee is mocking the transgendered by saying he wishes he could have identified as female during high school so he could look at the girls while showering with them. Proving he's a moron in addition to being a bigot.
I like the punishment that a judge meted out to a 19 year old woman for stiffing a cab driver over a $100 fare. She got a choice between walking 30 miles or going to jail. Creative and appropriate.
Currently the threshold where a jackpot win in a casino must be reported to the IRS is $1,200 and they are considering cutting that in half. Casinos are not pleased with the proposal. More on this in a future blog.
Nichelle Nichols, best known for her role as Uhura on the original Star Trek TV series, is resting in a hospital after a stroke. I send her best wishes for a speedy and full recovery.
The idiots behind the petition seeking to have the gold medal awarded to Bruce Jenner in the 1976 Summer Olympic Games need to get a life. Glad the IOC has made it clear it has no interest in their petition.
I'm binge watching L. A. Law and I'm on the episode where Diana Muldaur is introduced. The minute she walked on screen I visualized her falling down the elevator shaft in an upcoming episode. In case you've never seen that
United Airlines made the right move when it took action to preclude the flight attendant who refused to serve an unopened soft drink to a woman wearing a hijab will not be serving customers in the future.
posted by me at 4:02 PM
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