Open Comment Post. May 4, 2018

Moral Friday....Podcast #402: Why Honor Matters

via Art of Manliness.

In today's world, honor is typically thought of in terms of integrity — doing the right thing when no one is looking. But traditionally, honor meant having a reputation worthy of the respect of others. If people think about this type of honor at all these days, it’s usually in a negative way, associating it with pistol duels, honor killings, and toxic shame. But my guest today argues that for moral life to be robust and vital, a culture of honor is absolutely necessary. His name is Tamler Sommers. He’s a professor of philosophy at the University of Houston, co-host of the podcast Very Bad Wizzards, and the author of the new book Why Honor Matters. Today on the show, Tamler and I discuss honor— what it is, why it disappeared from our moral ethos and vocabulary, and why we should bring it back. Tamler makes the case that honor culture fosters community and encourages risk taking for the sake of excellence, while our modern dignity culture atomizes us and encourages us to play it small. He then makes a counterintuitive argument that the contained aggression and violence that honor promotes can have real benefits and shares one way honor is making a comeback in the form of the “restorative justice movement.” We end our conversation discussing why stories of honor are so appealing to humans and whether it’s really possible to revitalize honor in modern Western society. 

Podcast here...definitely worth a listen. Download here.

Full disclosure.  The issue of "honor" has popped up in a personal way lately. I've had a chance to observe people in various states over the past couple of months and I'm mortified.

Long short?

Everyone claims it.  No one actually does it.

You have jaded, foolish or even idiotic people claiming it, but even a casual glance at their behavior shows that they act in the most insane and questionable ways ever.

On a personal level I'm done with it.  If I come across some moron (and it happens regularly lately) that claims honor but demonstrates even once that they're devoid of honor and have a child like sensibility I'm done with them.

No fucking second chances.

I'll believe my lying eyes and cut bait.

No conversation.

No attempts at understanding or putting myself in their shoes.

I'm just done.

Consider it the mental equivalent of wiping dog shit off my shoes.

Concept art of the Russian EFV...

Thanks to Storm Shadow for the link!

Fuck me!

That looks like a slightly modded EFV!  Why are we fucking around with the ACV when we had this shit a decade ago just needed to finish the job????

Corporate censorship is getting out of hand...IS OUT OF HAND!

Corporate censorship is getting out of hand..CORRECTION IS OUT OF HAND!

WTF am I talking about?

Bmashina Tumblr Page is now terminated.

Why?

According to the guy its because they considered real WW2 pics (and from other conflicts that showed the violence of war) TO BE BE INCITING VIOLENCE!

I am particularly amazed that they would do this because you can find all kinds of porn on that site (not his page...never saw it once on his page, but on Tumblr...the freaks come out at night...it's all over the place!).

Additionally if you go into certain corners you can find all kinds of racists, homophobic (to the extreme), sexist (to the extreme) and other views that are concerned out of the norm for our society (speaking of the US, not other parts of the world).

I'm gonna have to chew on how I do things going into the future.  I highlighted many of his pics here and have to wonder if I contributed to his ban. If I take pics from Tumblr and that causes people to be banned then I don't need to highlight them to my audience...or at least not tell where I got them from.  Additionally I have to wonder why historic truth is suddenly considered unpolitically correct.

Regardless, the march toward that fictional "1984" is becoming truer everyday.

US Army bungling it's chance for modernization? EVERY SERVICE has already lost its chance....

via Forbes.

The U.S. Army's opportunity to carry out the first comprehensive modernization of its combat equipment since the Cold War ended may be slipping away. That opportunity was created by the election of President Donald J. Trump in 2016, but now the budget walls are beginning to close in, and the Army is taking too long to get its act together.

The latest evidence that the Army may be headed for yet another false start on modernization was provided by the Secretary of the Army himself, Mark Esper, in remarks Monday at the Atlantic Council. As reported by Byron Callan of Capital Alpha Partners, Secretary Esper stated that the service plans to prioritize readiness until 2022, and then turn to the procurement of a new generation of combat systems.

By that time the Trump defense buildup will be over, and money for new weapons will be far down the list of congressional priorities. We know this because Deputy Secretary of Defense Pat Shanahan has already stated that defense spending will be "flatlined" after this year and recent tax cuts have saddled the nation with trillion-dollar annual deficits beginning in the fiscal year commencing October 1. With rising inflation likely to greatly increase the cost of carrying the federal debt, Army modernization will become a bill-payer for other priorities (editor's note...the ENTIRE DoD budget will be targeted for other priorities...the block buy of F-35's???  Ain't happening in the budget environment I see after 2020...they took too long to get it into service much less make it work!). 

Past experience indicates that military buildups seldom exceed five years in duration, and the Army's schedule for turning new ideas into fielded weapons requires much longer. So the current reorganization of Army buying commands aimed at revitalizing the nation's preeminent ground force looks unlikely to fare much better than past flourishes at modernization such as Force XXI, the Army After Next and the Objective Force.

Secretary Esper referenced these and other missed modernization opportunities in his confirmation hearings before the Senate last year, but he doesn't seem to have learned the obvious lesson they provide: buy new weapons fast, because the window of opportunity only remains open for a brief time.

Because Army leaders seem unable to assimilate this lesson, not one of the Pentagon's top-ten weapons programs today is an Army effort. The Air Force is simultaneously buying a new fighter, a new bomber, a new tanker, a new trainer and a new intercontinental ballistic missile. The Army is mainly buying upgrades of combat systems that first saw service several decades ago, while it debates what genuinely new weapons it should be developing. Its plans may not gel before the money runs out.

It's not that the Army lacks a clear idea of where the gaps are in its current capabilities. It needs artillery and missiles with more range; rotorcraft with greater speed and reach; a more resilient battlefield network; better air defenses; and a next-generation combat vehicle that can deliver superior firepower, mobility and protection. These are the areas where other "great powers," meaning Russia and China, are catching up. But the Army's schedule for buying new weapons is much too leisurely to stay ahead of the threat.

And as I said, the budget walls are already beginning to close in. Every one-percent increase in inflation translates into over $200 billion in additional costs each year to carry the debt the government has accumulated. With annual deficits and inflation rates rising, it is obvious that the federal budget will go haywire just about the time the Army is ready to bend metal. Factor in the likely return of Democrats to power, and you have a prescription for yet another lost modernization opportunity.

There's only one way out of this conundrum, and that's to accelerate the purchase of new combat systems that are already in the pipeline, evolving those systems in response to changing threats and technology as they are fielded. The Army has little to lose by switching from revolutionary to evolutionary modernization, because its past efforts to make great leaps forward have tended to be failures, and its fundamental approach to warfighting isn't really changing all that much.

Story here. 

Thompson gets it...well sorta, but he misses the bigger point.

The blind support for the F-35 has allowed that ONE WEAPONS SYSTEM to gobble up the Pentagon.

The Army is in a catch 22.

They know they need to get shit done and with a quickness,  but they're hamstrung by the go-along get-along, kumbaya bullshit that the services have been singing lately.

Only recently have we heard REAL talk about the future threat.

For too long the conventional ground side of the house bought the nonsense that we would be involved in anti-terror efforts for another 100 years and that nation state warfare was a thing of the past.

Under those circumstances the idea of standing pat with the Abrams for another 50 years made sense, but reality is an evil bitch...and so are the Russians and Chinese. 

They've watched the stagnation in the West and instead of following suit have pressed forward.  So we've seen the exact opposite of what we're doing.

Dramatic improvements in the field of armor and artillery, along with steady and consistent improvements in their air arms.

Where are we at now with the grand plan to buy F-35's at the expense of everything else?

A strike fighter that can't do air superiority, ground forces that will be menaced by enemy air and/or artillery...and still no common sense on what the future fight will really entail.

Remember the talk years ago about resource wars?

Instead of formulating ideas on how to fight in those locations that feed and sustain populations we've seen the Pentagon pivot to the SOCOM chestnut of fighting in urban/built up areas.

SIMPLY AMAZING!

But back on task.

There was never gonna be a sustained build up in the defense budget.

The American people are tired of war and the insane/stupid/unjustifiable ops tempo that the Pentagon started to justify increased funding changed no minds.

The sad reality is that these two years of plus ups should have been used to put houses in order.

The ground should have been laid for incremental buys of weapon systems over a number of years with improvements to those in service kept pace with changes coming off the production line (yeah I'm pointing to the mess that the MV-22 revealed).

Additionally the day of reckoning has come with the bloat that is the Pentagon. Scalpels should be pulled out of the drawer and fat cut where found.  By every unit everywhere.

In other words they shouldn't ask for another dime till they demonstrate fiscal discipline.

Long story short?  I want a strong military but as things stand I can't feel sorry for the Army or any other service.  They put themselves in this box and only real work will see them climb out of it.

Need your help. Anyone know where I can get a kydex holster for a Jetbeam SF-R26 torch?

Most won't get it and to those people I simply say consider this post a bust.  Many will and to those people I say this....Got a personal little "organization" project going and need a kydex holster for a Jetbeam SF-R26 torch.

My Google-foo must be weak cause I can't find one to save my life.  I was hoping for a combo rig that would hold my torch and Gerber multi-tool but hope is fading and I'll carry them separate if need be.

Anyone know where I can find one?

Thanks in advance!  Sol...

Open Comment Post. May 3, 2018

I guess having that many fleas feasting on your face would make anyone roar!


Side note.  Byron!  Sent you an e-mail but your system kicked it.  Get back to me with a different addy.

China is being its usual aggressive but non-aggressive self in Djibouti.

Thanks to Nico for the link!

Hat tip to Alert 5.

The military issued a Notice to Airmen, later reproduced on the US Federal Aviation Administration’s website, that there had been multiple events “involving a high-power laser” just 750 metres (2,400ft) from China’s base in Djibouti.

“Use extreme caution when transiting near this area,” the notice added.

Multiple intelligence sources reported that Chinese garrison in Djibouti is suspected of operating a high-power laser weapon to temporarily blind pilots at the base or on a ship offshore, according to a report in Jane’s Defence Weekly last month.

Story here. 

The news article misstates things a bit.  Depending on a lasers power it can do more than dazzle a pilot.  It can cause permanent blindness.

Quite honestly this is pretty mild and we can expect a more "vigorous" response in the future.

I chalk this up to China doing it's usual aggressive but non-aggressive bullshit at the same time.

I think we all get the message though.

China is in it to win it in Djibouti.  They're there to stay and they won't take kindly to anyone trying to get eyes on there base if they can help it.

Side note.  I'm sure we have an almost constant rotation of ELINT, Signal and other recon birds of various types damn near hovering over the base.  They probably can't do anything (yet) without it being obvious but I'm sure they're working the problem.

Marines Train On The New M38 Marksman Rifle

Beach Detonation | African Lion 18 Naval Gunfire

One of our readers is in the area.  He has pics but I don't know if he would let me post them and don't need a raging Jarhead pounding on my door...