Friday Funnies

The Latest Charge

This is totally believable!

Believability

Believability.  It's fundamental.  The more I hear about the sordid affair surrounding the accusations against Brett Kavanugh, the more believability takes a hit.  I know many think the women should be automatically believed.  I know that many think the burden is on Kavanaugh to prove his innocense.  And I know that the most fervent hope of Democrats is that he will drop out.  To all that I say BULLSHIT!  It's a coordinated and despicable smear.  Plain and simple.  I think the best thing I've seen on this is here.  It's not long and reflects my total thinking.  Read it all.  I don't know what's going to happen.  I could see a couple of the weaker Republicans caving to pressure.  And shame on them because as sure as anything, they know it's a smear job on a fine man.

And one more thing.  If this doesn't bring out the Republicans to vote in the mid-terms, I don't know what will.

Motivation Monday

Given the frenzy caused by the unethical and underhanded Democrats who are trying to undermine our system and smear a good man, this seems like good advice.

Friday Funnies

An old Marine Pilot sat down at the Starbucks, still wearing his old USMC flight suit and leather jacket and ordered a cup of coffee.

As he sat sipping his coffee, a young woman sat down next to him. She turned to the pilot and asked, "Are you a real Pilot?"

He replied, "Well, I've spent my whole life flying planes, first Stearman's, then the early Grumman's, flew a Wildcat and Corsair in WW-II, and later in the Korean conflict, Banshees and Cougars.
I've taught more than 260 people to fly and given rides to hundreds, so I guess I am a Pilot, and you, what are you?"

She said, "I'm a Lesbian. I spend my whole day thinking about naked Women. As soon as I get up in the morning, I think about naked Women. When I shower, I think about naked Women.
When I watch TV, I think about naked Women. It seems everything makes me think of naked women."

The two sat sipping in silence.

A little while later, a young man sat down on the other side of the old Pilot and asked, "Are you a real pilot ?"

He replied, "Always thought I was, but I just found out I'm a Lesbian."

A Modern Day Lynching

I can't bring myself to write something about the absurd Brett Kavanaugh affair.  I won't even describe the situation as it's just too distressing.  I am beyond ashamed of the people who are letting this happen.  What have we come to?

Motivation Monday

Sometimes a stalemate is motivating!

Cool Pic

Friday Funnies

Peer Pressure

Saw this article over at WSJ and it sparked some thoughts that I've been having for a while.  The whole LGBTQ movement has had some unbelievably major successes in the last few decades and our society is much better for it.  I've written previously about the shift in our culture as a result of the gay rights movement and I truly believe that it is the most significant and swiftest shift in culture in human history.  And I'm in full agreement with equality for all.

But I saw the article at the link and it did a good job in laying out a concern I've had.  The article is titled "Peer Pressure and 'Transgender' Teens".  It describes the work of Dr Lisa Littman in asking questions and conducting research on the issue of teenagers in some cases bowing to peer pressure and actually coming out as a transgender.  Of course, she's been highly criticized by the PC crowd, but the issue remains.

Now I've not been in any teen groups to know how they think.  And it's been quite a while since I was a teen and I fully admit that there weren't any issues like this when I was a kid.  At least I didn't know about them if they were there.  But I've seen some teen groups in my work in the community, and I see the peer pressure to fit in.  I've seen and heard of teen groups in which one or more teens come out as gay or transgender or bisexual or whatever, and there seems to be a propensity for at least a large degree of sympathy (or maybe empathy) and I sometimes wonder if there isn't some amount of identification that leads to some sort of unconscious mimicking and in turn that results in teens adopting a role that maybe isn't true to them.  Maybe I'm wrong about this but it seems to me that there are an awful lot of teens who are announcing that they are something that in a different era wouldn't have even been on the table.  Or maybe it was always there and I didn't see it.  Don't know.  But I do know that it's an important subject for parents to consider as they help their teens navigate through some difficult years.  When my kids were teenagers, I just don't remember all of the ancillary problems that do nothing but add to what are already highly emotional years.  Glad I'm looking at the rear view mirror for that task.

Anyway, the article is thought provoking.  If I were a current parent, I'd want this kind of info to help me deal with issues that are complicated and fraught with missteps.  In case the link doesn't work I'll copy the whole thing below.

"Peer Pressure and ‘Transgender’ Teens

Ideologues try to suppress a study on the increasing prevalence of ‘rapid onset gender dysphoria.’

By Jillian Kay Melchior

Sept. 9, 2018 

If your teenage daughter suddenly declares herself transgender, should you assume she’s mature enough to make decisions that will permanently affect her health, fertility and future? Or could she be influenced by societal and peer pressure? Physician and researcher Lisa Littman doesn’t have the answer, but transgender ideologues are trying to silence her for even asking the question.

Dr. Littman’s study about transgender-identifying teens was published in the open-source, multidisciplinary scientific journal PLOS ONE last month. Her interest had been piqued in 2016, when she noticed an uptick in parental reports that teens had suddenly insisted their gender identity didn’t match their sex, although they’d shown none of the common prepubescent signs of the condition, known as gender dysphoria. She spoke to a clinician who’d observed the same trend. “When the characteristics of a population seeking care for a condition substantially changes, the responsible thing to do is to start asking questions about what might be contributing to these changes,” Dr. Littman says.

Since little is known about such “rapid-onset gender dysphoria,” the first step for researchers is to describe it and introduce topics for future inquiry. Dr. Littman surveyed 256 parents, whom she found online, collecting information about the teens’ mental health, friend-group dynamics and social-media use. Dr. Littman’s findings suggested these young people may have been driven in part by “social and peer contagion.”

Nearly 70% of the teenagers belonged to a peer group in which at least one friend had also come out as transgender. In some groups, the majority had done so. Nearly 65% of teens had spent an increased amount of time online and on social media, and parents reported that pro-transgender YouTube videos and blogs might have been influential.

Declaring oneself transgender carried social benefits, the parents reported. Among parents who knew their children’s social status, nearly 60% said the announcement brought a popularity boost. “Being trans is a gold star in the eyes of other teens,” one parent wrote.

Not all social pressure was positive. Many respondents said their children’s friends frequently mocked or derided people who were not gay or transgender. “To be heterosexual, comfortable with the gender you were assigned at birth, and non-minority places you in the ‘most evil’ of categories within this group of friends,” one parent observed. Parents often said that children who had second thoughts about being transgender feared social repercussions. “[My child] couldn’t face the stigma of going back to school and being branded as fake or phony . . . or worse, a traitor or some kind of betrayer,” one reported.

Dr. Littman’s critics claim that because she found survey participants primarily from three websites where parents discussed their concerns, the study is biased and scientifically unsound. Dr. Littman

Dr. Littman’s detractors also accuse her of bigotry. Her work “negates the experience of many transgender youth,” according to Diane Ehrensaft, of the Child and Adolescent Gender Center Clinic at the University of California San Francisco’s Benioff Children’s Hospital.

Transgender activist Brynn Tannehill calls Dr. Littman’s research “a naked attempt to legitimize anti-transgender animus with a veneer of academic responsibility.” And Zinnia Jones, founder of the website Gender Analysis, called rapid-onset gender dysphoria a “hoax diagnosis” perpetuated by those who would deny transgender children “acceptance and affirmation.” The motto of Ms. Jones’s website: “The personal is empirical.”

The effort at suppression had an effect. PLOS ONE’s editor-in-chief, Joerg Heber, announced the journal would subject the study to “further expert assessment on the study’s methodology and analyses.” Spokesman David Knutson told me: “Any time there’s a lot of reader concern or a lot of people talking about it, it warrants a second look, and that’s what we’re doing right now,” adding that this is “basically how science works.” Mr. Knutson would not elaborate about what specific concerns prompted the review or what it would entail.

Brown University, where Dr. Littman is an untenured professor, has also backed away from her paper. It took down a news release and attendant social-media posts about the study and posted a statement from Bess Marcus, dean of the School of Public Health, acknowledging “concerns that the conclusions of the study could be used to discredit efforts to support transgender youth and invalidate the perspectives of members of the transgender community.” The university updated its statement Thursday, emphasizing that "this is not about academic freedom as some news outlets have made it out to be” and “this is about academic standards.”

Cass Cliatt, Brown’s vice president for communications, tells me Brown was merely “reacting to PLOS ONE.” It doesn’t censor controversial research, Ms. Cliatt says, but in this case, “it’s a question about the science. We believe strongly in academic freedom, but we have to be a responsible academic institution.”

The reaction to Dr. Littman’s study is especially overwrought given the modesty of her conclusions. She argues for more research and counsels caution in the meantime. Parents and physicians aren’t infallible, she writes, but neither are teens, “particularly in the almost universally tumultuous period of adolescence.” Consequently, “it is incumbent upon all professionals to fully respect the young person’s insider perspective but also, in the interests of safe diagnosis and avoidance of clinical harm, to have the awareness and humility themselves to engage with parental perspectives and triangulate evidence in the interest of validity and reliability.”

When teens sought treatment for gender dysphoria, the parents reported, clinicians often took the complaint at face value and failed to consider whether anything else might be going on. As for Dr. Littman’s critics, they equate caution with bias, even hatred, and encourage teens to go through hormone therapy or surgery—drastic interventions whose effects are irreversible."

Ms. Melchior is an editorial page writer at the Journal.

Motivation Monday

Simple advice.  Keep this in mind.  Always!

A Regular Guy

Saw this over on FB and thought I'd share.  It's got a bit of humor, a bit of exaggeration, a bit of self deprecation and unfortunately for someone of my age and experience, a whole lot of truth.  I've railed on stereotyping on this blog over and over, but it doesn't seem to be getting better.  I'm hoping that I'm not right and am overreacting to seeing too much hyperbole on the internet.  And maybe that is true to some extent.  But I see it all the time.  All I know is that I and many like me could be categorized by many of the stereotypes below.  And it's just not true.  Not even close.  So here's my advice.  Look deeper.

I used to think I was just a regular guy, but I was born white, which now, whether I like it or not, makes me a racist & responsible for slavery.
I am a fiscal & moral conservative, which by today’s standards, makes me a fascist because I plan & support myself.
I went to HS, worked through college, got a degree & have held a job, & am here not because I earned it but because I was advantaged.
I am heterosexual, which according to gay folks, now makes me a homophobe.
I am non-union, which makes me a traitor to the working class & ally of big business.
I am not a Muslim, which now labels me as an infidel.
I believe in the 2nd Amendment, which makes me a member of the vast NRA gun lobby.
I am older than 65 & retired, making me a useless old man who doesn't understand Facebook.
I think & I reason, so I doubt what main stream media tells me, which must make me a reactionary.
I am proud of my heritage & our inclusive American culture, making me a xenophobe.
I value my safety & that of my family, & I appreciate the police & the legal system, making me a right-wing, cop loving extremist.
I believe in hard work, fair play, & fair compensation according to each individual's merits, which today makes me an anti-socialist.
I believe our system guarantees freedom of effort - not freedom of outcome or subsidies which must make me a borderline sociopath.
I believe in the defense & protection of America for & by all citizens, now making me a militant.
I am proud of our flag, what it stands for, & the many who died to let it fly so I stand & salute during our National Anthem, taking me back where I started - I must be a racist.
Please help me come to terms with the new me because I'm just not sure who I am anymore!
I thank my friends for sticking with me through these abrupt, new found changes to my thinking!
I just can't imagine or understand what's happened to me so quickly!
Funny - it all took place over the last 7 or 8 years!
If all this nonsense wasn't enough to deal with,
I don't know which restroom to use, & I gotta go!!!

Friday Funnies

I couldn't help myself.  There are a lot of good meme's out there that are a variation on a theme, but this is one of the best!

He Said, He Said

Bob Woodward's new book, FEAR is coming out soon and there was a big tease in the news today.  Of course his book is all about the Trump White House, what a terrible place it is, how he's a monster who is not only stupid but out of control, how his aids continually save the country from his tirades and impulses and how most people who work there think he's an idiot and hate their jobs.  Of course, many of those he quoted said it was all B.S.  It's actually sort of sad because I used to enjoy Woodward's work.  He has good access, is a smart and experienced guy, and generally can tell a great story.  But from I've heard, this is just so over the top accusatory, that his hatred of the President comes through loud and clear.

But what to believe?  From what I've heard it's clearly a he said, he said (or he said, she said depending who's on the other end).  Many who have had experience with Woodward say that he has great sources and if he says something you can expect that it is credible.  But like I said, some of the hyperbole I've heard coming out of this book seems....far fetched.  For instance, he quoted Secretary Mattis as saying that Trump has the "intellect of a fifth or sixth grader".  He is said to have refused to execute some crazy ideas that Trump put forth.  But here's Mattis' rebuttal:

This seems pretty unequivocal to me.  And General Kelly and others have released similarly strong rebuttals.  So to me and from what I've heard so far, the book seems like just another hit piece that takes a lot of license.  And since this is being done right before the mid-term elections makes me think pretty strongly that Woodward is doing this for some benefit to Democrats.  And if true, then Woodward is finished as a journalist.

Kavanaugh Day 1

If you've had the TV on at all today you saw the circus that was loosely described as the first day of hearings on the selection of Brett Kavanaugh as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court.  The media focused on the crazy, obnoxious protesters and the idiotic Democrats (although they weren't described in that manner).  But there was a moment today that was sublime.  Most of the day was theater that could be likened to pornography.  This could be likened to Shakespeare.  It's worth your time.

Nike

I'm sure most of you have heard of the latest controversy of the day that emerged today regarding Nike choosing Colin Kaepernick as the face of the their advertising campaign celebrating 30 years of the "Just Do It" campaign.  The tag line is "Believe in something.  Even if it means sacrificing everything."  Some are calling it stupid and some are calling it brilliant.  To most people of my age and experience, it seems like a big slap in the face.  It's an extension of the whole kneeling during the National Anthem that he started in the NFL and has become a hot mess.  Most people I know personally think he's a jackass and some are even boycotting the NFL.  And it's not about what he or they can or can't do.  Of course they have the right to kneel.  Again, most people I know don't dispute that.  It's really about respect.  The common refrain is that they are protesting oppression of black people.  Okay...I get that.  It's an age old issue and in my opinion only gets better person by person, community by community.  The national stage means very little.  And I wonder if they've considered the insult to the millions who have died for this idea called the U.S.A.  Fundamentally, I think most who object to the kneeling think there's a time and a place for everything, and where they are exercising their right is neither the time nor the place.  And this becomes exacerbated because most of these guys are millionaires who appear to be taking the easy road.  If they really care about this issue what are they doing off the field.  I'm also seeing a lot of stories about Nike's factories in Asia where their shoes are made.  The average worker makes 30 cents and hour.  Yes, that's right.  30 cents.  Think about that when you go price your next pair of Nike's.  But I don't think Nike was talking to me or people like me.  I don't think they care about my demographic.  They are targeting a much, much younger and "hipper" generation.  I believe that they are betting that a broad cross-section won't be offended and many will admire the selection.  And those that don't?  Well, they just don't matter that much.  And there is an old marketing rule that public relations, good or bad, is good.  Of course it's true only to a point, but generally getting your name out there, if it doesn't damage you too much, is good. Nike obviously made a calculation that the risk was worth the move.  And that is their right.  We'll see how it turns out.  It will be interesting to watch their stock price in the coming weeks and months.  It will most likely be a story that has legs for a week or so and then will be forgotten.  But maybe not.  In the meantime I'll just leave the best response I've seen here.  It's something to think about.

Motivation Monday

Two Funerals

Two huge ones this week.  Aretha and McCain.  Two giants.  Both deserved the accolades and the honors.  Both had tremendous impact in their worlds.  And they both will be sorely missed.

I watched Aretha's on and off during the six+ hours of celebration.  I was struck by how joyful it was.  It was truly a great and appropriate ceremony to honor "The Queen of Soul".  I feel, like many people of my age, that I grew up with Aretha.  Her music was both the music of our generation and music for the ages.  The celebration was large, boisterous, beautiful and symbolic.  The speakers were as diverse as her Grandchildren, Jesse Jackson and former President Clinton.  They were all so sincere in their awe and touching in their personal anecdotes.  The music was a fitting tribute and some, like Chaka Khan and Ron Isely, evoked the glory of Motown of the past.  From the long lines of pink Cadillacs that arrived from all over the country to the traditional Baptist emotion, it was at once a celebration, a remembrance and a show.  It was every bit as good and poignant as Whitney's or Michael's, but there was a much larger sense of a life well lived.  A sense of the impact on so many and the glory she evoked through music.  And a sense of appreciation.  Her music will live on for decades and generations.  And whenever you hear it, you will think...Aretha!  What a tribute.  What a life.  What an impact.  

John McCain's long march to lay beside his flight school roommate, ADM Chuck Larson in the cemetery at Hospital Point on the Yard of the United States Naval Academy was no less impressive.  But it was very different.  After his death a week ago today, there was a bit of a dust up regarding honor rendered or not by President Trump and that stained the initial dignified week that I think all hoped for.  You can read my take here.  But beyond that, the ceremonies were glorious and heart wrenching.  From the initial service in Arizona, to the service in the rotunda of the U.S. Capital, to the memorial service this morning in the National Cathedral, to tomorrow's private service and internment at USNA, I think the common word was dignified.  Senator McCain lay in state in the Arizona capital and in the U.S. Capital, only the 31st person to be accorded that honor.  And thousands of normal, everyday people passed by to honor him.  It has been a week normally accorded to only the most revered and honored among us and to some it will seem inappropriate.  But to most who recognize Senator McCain's sacrifices, his patriotism, his devotion to duty, and his impact it will feel right.  While I didn't watch it all, there were a few standout moments for me.  The images of Cindy McCain tenderly touching her cheek to his casket, Meghan McCain's obvious distress and inconsolable sadness, the two sons in uniform stoically providing a quiet strength, the casket on display in the Rotunda, and of course the majesty of the National Cathedral were all indelible and classically rememberable.  Joe Biden's remarks in Arizona were great.  I'm not a fan but I thought he did a great job.  When he said passionately and with a catch in his voice that the family would someday remember Senator McCain not with a tear in the eye but a smile on the lips, there wasn't a dry eye in the house.  Senator Lieberman's remarks today were touching and borne of true friendship. And as much as I don't like him, I will freely admit that Barrack Obama is an eloquent speaker who today had the room in his hands.  It was something.  I'm glad that the ceremonies tomorrow at USNA are private.  I can't imagine how tired, sad and distressed the family is and keeping tomorrow private is the right call.  I can't embellish all the accolades, descriptions, remembrances or honors given to Senator McCain this week.  So I won't try.  I simply think he was a great man who loved his family, his country, and tried to do his best to promote the ideals he cherished.

Having said all that and not to take one iota away from the honors accorded to him, to me there was an undercurrent in the week that felt...petty.  I was disappointed that at the end of his life his heroism that was shared with so many Vets, his accomplishments as one of our greatest statesmen, and his obvious charisma and leadership ability was somewhat tainted by his personal feud with our President.  To be sure and as I've written in this blog many times, Trump can be insufferable, obnoxious and self-absorbed.  And his insult to Senator McCain that we all heard regarding his heroism as a POW was abhorrent.  But I somehow expected McCain would rise above it.  I somehow expected that in the end, the love of country would ascend.  But while McCain was great, he was also human.  Although he was a great man, he was just a man.  He demonstrated incredible honor and courage in the face of unimaginable torture and risked everything he was on the behalf of us all.  And sometimes he was less than perfect...way less.  I won't detail the knocks on him here...it doesn't matter.  But in the end, I expected better.  He had an opportunity to finish it for the country, but he failed.  He chose to prolong the feud into the grave.  He disinvited a sitting President to his funeral.  His daughter in her eulogy, like her father was wont to do when he felt like it, stuck the knife in and twisted.  He could have brought us together and instead the headlines are the snubs.  He could have buried the hatchet and shown in the end his ultimate greatness, but instead chose to push Americans farther apart.  And for this I am saddened.  

But he doesn't have to be perfect for us to honor him.  Like all of us he had flaws and yet still deserves to be honored.  I am saddened at his passing.  Saddened for the country and his family.  Saddened that on Monday the vitriol will return and the haters will arise again from their hiding places.  And here's the biggest thing.  We don't seem to be making them like him much anymore.  We lost another man among too few willing to step up.  For all his flaws he was, as the great Theodore Roosevelt said, "in the arena".  And he will never be "counted with those cold and timed souls who know neither victory or defeat".  

Friday Funnies

Half-Staff

If it's a new month, week, day, hour, minute or whatever, there must be a new controversy about Trump.  It just never stops.  The latest action that the media is losing their minds over is Trump's supposed snub of John McCain.  Of course, if you've been paying attention, you know this goes back a ways.  It really came into the public eye when, during the campaign, Trump made a crack about McCain's heroism as a result of being held captive as a POW in North Vietnam for 5 1/2 years.  He said he didn't particularly think McCain was a hero because hero's don't get captured.  It was an idiotic, insensitive, jackass kind of thing to say.  But it was Trump, so he's gonna say whatever he wants.  He and  McCain, as you would suspect, butted heads over a number of issues.  The thing that permanently ripped it was McCain being the deciding vote to not dismantle Obamacare, one of the signature promises of Trump's campaign.  That was like sticking the knife in and twisting real hard.  So no love lost.  And everyone knows it.

Fast forward and McCain dies from brain cancer on Saturday.  I'm sure Trump heard about it and thought he'd offer an olive branch and sent out a tweet offering support and condolences.  Of course, since it's Trump it was either not enough, not quick enough, or not worded right.  Then the stories emerged quoting "un-named sources" that Trump had rejected doing anything more than the tweet.  And then heads started to explode this morning when the ever watchful press noticed that the flag over the White House was not at half-staff.  They took this as the ultimate insult.  They again quoted "anonymous sources" to say many Trump advisors had told him to do more, but he didn't listen to them.  It was a blaring headline on all the new sites this morning.  Thankfully, I was on the golf course and could ignore them without much problem.

So, based on my experience in Washington DC and in the bureaucracy, here's what I think happened. To be sure, I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt and am not looking to castrate him at every opportunity like so many.  I bet Trump heard about the death on Saturday and took to the medium he uses most and is comfortable with and tweeted out what he thought was a perfectly reasonable first expression of condolences.  Whoever was responsible for the flag (some low level functionary) took the action to lower the flag to half-staff.  For a Senator the rule is to lower it the day of death and the next day (which is Sunday).  Meanwhile the staff was working on a position paper detailing what actions would be taken to honor McCain.  It was Sunday.  I don't know about you but I was at the beach.  As the paperwork made it's way through channels Monday came around and whoever is responsible for the position of the flag rightly raised it to full staff on Monday morning and heads started to explode throughout the media.  Which is sorta funny because a lot of these jackasses didn't like McCain very much.  But the key is that they hate Trump more.  So anyway, the day unfolds and the staff realizes that their sense of urgency on this issue is nowhere near what the media's is.  So they rush through the directive describing all the actions that the administration would take to honor McCain (including a statement by the President) and support his family and by around noon the flag is lowered to half-staff and will remain in that position until the funeral.  But the damage was done.  Trump hates McCain and Trump doesn't give a shit about niceties when it comes to opponents.  Trump is so stupid he thinks a tweet is enough.  Trump is an asshole who won't even offer condolences other than a Tweet.  Trump was focused on the Mexican deal and couldn't be bothered.  And of course there were many variations on those themes.  The funny (not ha ha, but odd) thing is that I bet Trump didn't even have his focus on this issue.  I bet he expected that his staff would take care of the details, brief him and take appropriate action. To think that the President of the United States was aware of or cared about the position of the White House flag on Monday morning is idiocy.  It's idiocy, that is, unless you hate Trump and your goal is to vilify him at every turn and ultimately drive him from office.  The other funny (this time ha ha) thing is that they don't realize that this bullshit just makes them look stupid.  But once again...they are.

UPDATE:  Thought I'd come back and say what I assumed to be obvious.  If you've been reading at all you know my background.  I'm a career Naval Aviator.  My Father and Father-in-Law were career Navy.  My Son and Son-in-Law went to the U.S. Naval Academy.  In other words, my family is steeped in the sea service.  The Navy has been our life.  So it should come as no surprise that my admiration for John McCain is enormous.  He lived a wonderful, heroic, important life that truly made a difference.  His courage was beyond question.  He was the epitome, especially in his later years, of trying to reach across the aisle to get things done.  What I wrote above in no way minimizes or disparages John McCain.  He gave as good as he got in every battle and he doesn't need any sympathy or help.  And I don't think he'd appreciate the wildly and obviously partisan media using his death as a way to get at Trump.  So my comments did not in any way have to do with McCain the man.  Every American should agree that he was a hero and deserves our admiration, respect and love.