gdp's Comments

Big Hollywood : Off With the Heads of Hollywood's Misguided 'Royalty Genre'

Fri, 11 Feb 2011 14:48:54 +0000

Hollywood lionizes royalty because Hollywood lionizes glamour, and royalty is glamourous. It's an extension of the whole fairy-tale-princess thing. You, and Mr. Rice, are reading wwwaaaayyyyy too much into what is, in the final analysis, merely the setting of the story told in The King's Speech.

Big Hollywood : Off With the Heads of Hollywood's Misguided 'Royalty Genre'

Fri, 11 Feb 2011 14:12:00 +0000

My response is a bit long for the comments, so it's on my blog here, if anyone's interested: http://pnrmiscellany.blogspot.com/2011/02/missing...

Big Hollywood : Grading the Super and Not-So-Super 'Super Bowl XLV' Ads

Tue, 8 Feb 2011 21:07:51 +0000

I liked the Coke border ad, however predictable. The VW-Darth ad was cute, and I liked the Silverado Lassie ad ("I didn't even know this town HAD a volcano!"). I thought the Audi commercial well done, too. I thought the Homeaway ad funny, too, but having spent a month with my wife and 3 young children in a room with a hot plate and a fridge at the Navy Lodge a couple times when moving my family to a new duty station, I can relate to that ad completely. Not sure about decapitating babies, but they didn't do that on the ad I saw.

Big Peace : Of 'Thin Skinned Wusses' and 'Fighter Pilots'-A Response on the USS Enterprise Scandal

Wed, 5 Jan 2011 21:43:59 +0000

I agree w/CWO Reese. I think his skipper, CAPT (now RADM) Rice did him and the Navy an incredible disservice in not squashing this after the first such video was produced. If he'd done his job as skipper when Honors was his XO, a lot of this might have been avoided.

Big Peace : Those 'Sordid' USS Enterprise Videos? This Guy is Guilty of Being....a Fighter Pilot

Wed, 5 Jan 2011 04:40:48 +0000

Small boys it does get tight like that. But you've got a couple hundred guys on board. A carrier deployed has 4,700 or more. While it's important for the CO and XO to come across as human, the distance you speak of is a bit more necessary. It's the difference between a company commander and a regimental commander. Given that he's the CO now, any time a CVN skipper is relieved it's national news. But it SHOULD have been handled via a private chat between him and his CO at the time. Like it or not, the Navy is a gov't organization, so it's a political organization, and after Tailhook, this is the political reality we're dealing with. CAPT (then) Rice should've made that clear to his XO. That he didn't is where the real failure rests. He set his XO and the Navy up for this kind of embarrassment. If Honors goes, so should Rice.

Big Peace : Those 'Sordid' USS Enterprise Videos? This Guy is Guilty of Being....a Fighter Pilot

Wed, 5 Jan 2011 03:32:53 +0000

Although I have not spent as much time at sea as Capt. Honors, I have spent a fair bit of time deployed and away from home - probably a little more than half of the 10 years I was active duty (including a stint on a carrier). Whether most of the crew enjoyed it or not is, frankly, irrelevant given that he's the XO. Most probably wished he'd shut up and get to the movie. Some of the crew may have enjoyed it, and those who did not would not have spoken up - it's the XO doing this, after all. I guarantee you it diminished his authority on the ship even if it was popular. If he were a department head on a small boy or in a squadron, or as a junior officer, you're absolutely right, but as the XO (or CO) on a carrier, no. His position precludes it. If he couldn't see that, his CO should have and stopped it after the first one.

Big Hollywood : A New Year's Message to Ricky Gervais: Why Your Argument for Atheism Is Wrong

Tue, 4 Jan 2011 21:26:26 +0000

Ditto

Big Peace : Those 'Sordid' USS Enterprise Videos? This Guy is Guilty of Being....a Fighter Pilot

Tue, 4 Jan 2011 21:12:57 +0000

I disagree. He's not being sacrificed to the repeal of DADT, though that's the way the media is framing it. The man was the Executive Officer of an aircraft carrier when he made these videos, responsible for maintaining discipline and order on the ship. It is absolutely vital that such discipline be perceived as objective and even-handed. These videos crossed a line similar to that drawn by prohibitions on fraternization, as well as simply being dull and in bad taste. If he were a LCDR and a Department Head in a squadron, no problem, but as the XO of a carrier? In 2007 - 16 years after Tailhook? No. He MUST be above such things in his official capacity as XO and, had these things been noted in his record, he would never have screened for command, regardless of DADT. These billets are highly competitive. There are only so many carriers in the fleet and there are plenty of qualified people who want desperately to command one. That his CO at the time ignored this meant that some of those others were screwed over, too and I think RADM Lawrance S. Rice also has some explaining to do.

Big Hollywood : Does Hollywood Make Art?

Wed, 29 Dec 2010 16:22:36 +0000

Can art be funny? All the emotions referred to are sobering, reflective, even mournful. The movies mentioned are also a sobering, even tragic group. But what of humor? Hamlet is art, but isn't Much Ado About Nothing also? I can't help but think back to my impression of Classic Literature when I was in high school and college. It seemed that, for something to be a "Classic" it had to be either depressing or dull, preferrably both. Thank God for Mark Twain and Jane Austen.

Big Peace : 857,000 Decorations and Awards: Do We Give Out Too Many Medals?

Wed, 24 Nov 2010 00:59:09 +0000

See this: http://www.stripes.com/news/most-bronze-stars-for... This was during the Kosovo operation, by the way. The law was changed after this to require the service for which a bronze star is awarded actually occur in a combat zone. In any event, the point was not that we DO this, but by way of answering your question as to why we're having the conversation by means of a "reductio ad absurdam" example.

Big Peace : 857,000 Decorations and Awards: Do We Give Out Too Many Medals?

Tue, 23 Nov 2010 20:12:14 +0000

They still were 5 years ago. NAMs and COMs got handed out pretty regularly to JOs, but not Bronze Stars. And the Marines were pretty jealous with both the Combat Action Ribbon and the "V" device, too. After the business in Kosovo with a bunch of Pentagon bubbas getting bronze stars for bravely manning their cubicles, the law was changed to require the service for which it was awarded was in an actual combat theater. That helped, but still too many go out on the basis of rank rather than action.

Big Peace : 857,000 Decorations and Awards: Do We Give Out Too Many Medals?

Tue, 23 Nov 2010 20:03:56 +0000

By the time you finish your MOS/Rate training, you get the GWOT, too (I think you have to be in for 90 days to get that one, but they may have changed it in the 5 years since I got out).

Big Peace : 857,000 Decorations and Awards: Do We Give Out Too Many Medals?

Tue, 23 Nov 2010 19:57:17 +0000

Because they're supposed to mean something. If I give a bronze star to somebody for heroism under fire, and a bronze star to somebody for efficiently making sure the paper work got from the right in-box to the right out-box, then I've told my soldiers that I count paperwork on the same level of valor in combat. If we are going to say somebody's service is distinctive enough that it warrants additional devices on his or her uniform beyond rank and branch of service, then such service ought actually be distinctive.

Big Peace : 857,000 Decorations and Awards: Do We Give Out Too Many Medals?

Tue, 23 Nov 2010 16:52:03 +0000

Amen. I was on active duty for 10 years and 2 years in the reserves. I have 9 "breathing medals" that were awarded to all of us who showed up for work. I have seven personal awards, 5 of which were the standard good-bye kiss for transferring. You had to REALLY screw up as a chief or officer to not get one when you transferred. That leaves two that were actually for superior performance of duties, and both were in non-combat settings where a letter of commendation would have been sufficient. But we didn't give out near enough to the Marines I was with in Iraq for their actions in combat. Another thing is, a lot of those breathing medals are expensive (the last time I had my medals mounted for my dress uniform it cost me $150 - and that was 5 years ago). I think we should eliminate campaign and service medals in favor of ribbons (like the Unit Citations). If nothing else, it saves uniform wear & tear and cuts down on the expense.

Big Hollywood : Pop Culture Concern Trolls Attack Bristol Palin: 'DWTS' is Doomed, I Tell You! Doomed!

Sat, 20 Nov 2010 04:22:18 +0000

No, it's not. You cannot know why people voted for Bristol instead of other competitors. Maybe it was skin color, and no doubt for some it was (but then, so were some of the votes for Brandy). Maybe they didn't like the Russian who was her partner - it's latent anti-Communism held over from the Cold War! Maybe it's politics and folks like Palin's mother. Maybe they just like watching self-important elitists get into a lather over a meaningless show. Maybe they were off to the bathroom when the talented African-American musician was dancing. Crying "racist" just because you want a different outcome is getting old. Very old.

Big Hollywood : Pop Culture Concern Trolls Attack Bristol Palin: 'DWTS' is Doomed, I Tell You! Doomed!

Sat, 20 Nov 2010 04:16:01 +0000

What I find most amusing about these spluttering idiots is that they are the only reason Bristol Palin is even on the show. If, as the Palin family had requested, these nitwits in the MSM had left the Palin children alone, Bristol would never have attained the notoriety/celebrity that got her asked to be on it. It's friggin' hilarious.

Big Peace : Rethinking Afghanistan: Is the Left... Right?

Thu, 22 Jul 2010 13:48:18 +0000

I think you're remembering something wrongly - the four American bodies hanging from the bridge was in Fallujah, 2004. We definitely did something about it a few months later (November '04). Granted, there was a significant time lag and we should've gone in April (I was there then), but we went. As for 'stan, I think we need to clarify our goals and then act ruthlessly to achieve them. Our goal is NOT President Karzai for life. Our objective at present is to deny a safe haven to Al Quaeda. The relative stability of Afghan politics is a subordinate goal intended to foster this primary one. Whether it's corrupt or not corrupt, Karzai or not Karzai, this or that is irrelevant as long as it doesn't get in the way of our objective. Our objective, however, SHOULD be to destroy the ability of our enemy to wage war and his will to fight.

Big Government : Friday Free For All: Marriage Edition

Fri, 9 Jul 2010 14:11:31 +0000

This law is not granting others the right to rent an apartment to homosexuals - they already had that right. Instead, it requires that ALL of us treat these homosexuals the same way we treat a marriage. That means, even if I believe homosexual behavior is an affront to God and sinful, I have to extend the same benefits (insurance coverage, sick time, etc., etc.). This becomes particularly sticky when explicitly religious institutions are hiring, renting the apartments, etc. It does not restrict the use of language - it changes the meaning of the langauge. "Marriage" means a specific thing, except some judge just said it means something else. It's as if some judge would suddenly decide that "smoking" means having a beer. As for the "families" argument, homosexual unions do not, by definition, produce offspring.

Big Government : Friday Free For All: Marriage Edition

Fri, 9 Jul 2010 13:40:58 +0000

Well, what about the right to the language? Words mean things, and "marriage" means a particular union between a woman and a man with the possibility (and often intent) of children. What about the right to not condone behavior one considers an affront to God? I don't think I should have to rent an apartment to the KKK - or to GLAD. The State has an interest in promoting healthy families in which children are raised to adulthood - this saves the State a ton of money later on as well as promotes an ordered society and helps to make sure somebody is around to pay for social security. Absent that interest, the State would have no cause to involve itself in heterosexual unions. Homosexual unions provide no particular civic benefit and therefore the State has no particular interest in them either way. If two homosexuals enter into a contract for exclusive sexual favors and pooling of financial resources, the State may have an interest - not in favors or financial resources, but in the integrity of contracts. This is, however, a contract between the two individuals in question and not something anybody else needs to even consider.

Big Hollywood : Assessing the True Cost of Liberty

Tue, 29 Jun 2010 19:32:18 +0000

I have two sons. One enlisted in the Navy and is hoping to be able to serve in Afghanistan after he's done training. The other has a year of high school left, but is determined to be an officer of Marines. He will apply to Annapolis, but will go ROTC if that doesn't pan out. "Dad," he said. "There are evil men out there. Somebody has to kill them." With sons like these, you and I must have done something right, eh?