Comparative Decoration

The previous post comments about the level of decoration on an American general. I will point out, by way of contrast, that the Commanding General of Allied Forces in WWII was somewhat more modest in his accoutrement.


Even when meeting with other senior commanders, all of whom are showing off decorations to their peers, the Commanding General was lightly adorned. None are as highly adorned as today's senior officers.


Just sayin'

Force Projection

A very animated and confident Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu handles a timid looking American General Martin Dempsey. Netanyahu has all the motion and animation. He's larger. The general stands rigidly smaller behind his ample decoration and ornamentation. He looks at Netanyahu with a supplicant's eyes.



Or maybe the image is a fleeting one, an unrepresentative photo that does not convey the true strength the general brings to the encounter.

"U.S. military chief in Israel for talks on Iran"

update 02.25.12: General Dempsy is, however, able to talk sense about Israel and Iran. What is not clear is whether it will make any difference.

Constitutional Irony

Only in the bizarro world that is contemporary America would a president with a background in Constitutional law "will forever be known as the president who signed into law.”

I can think of nothing more antithetical to American ideals, although many other actions of my government certainly vie for that dubious distinction.

And while I am angry at Obama for signing a bill with that allows indefinite detention without charge or trial, I remember that he was presented that steaming plate of shit by a Congress comprised (compromised?) of both Democrats and Republicans.

That Old Time Depression

Reported from a Mitt Romney event:

“I’m crazy about him,” said Blanche Gibbes, a stately 91-year-old Columbia matron in a gray sweater and matching hair. She stood for more than an hour to see Romney, although she said that any Republican will get her vote in November. “We’ve got to get this country back in order. This depression feels so much different than the last one.”

That would be the Great Depression. She was a teenager for that one.

If it felt like the last one, then things would be okay?

Ms. Gibbes is right that "any Republican" is capable of making this depression just like the Great Depression.

Martin Luther King, 1929-1968

The speech every American should hear on MLK day. Four decades later, his words still ring true.



Text available here.

(via Chuck Palazzo)