Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category

America’s non-Warfighting Navy

Posted: January 20, 2024 by navygrade36bureaucrat in Uncategorized

Plenty of people make New Years Resolutions. Plenty of those have been broken by this time already. It seems the Navy wants to engage in that silliness too. Check out NAVADMIN 003/24, titled America’s Warfighting Navy. Sounds cool right? Well, let’s take a look.

1. Who We Are. We are the United States Navy, the most powerful navy in 
the world. We are the Sailors and Civilians who have answered our Nations
call to service. We are Americans who embody character, competence, and
dedication to our mission. Our identity is forged by the sea and we serve
with honor, courage, and commitment.
2. What We Do. We are here to preserve the peace, respond in crisis, and win 
decisively in war. We operate far forward, around the world and around the 
clock, from the seabed to space, in cyberspace, and in the information 
environment to promote our Nations prosperity and security, deter aggression, 
and provide options to our nations leaders. We deliver power for peace, but 
are always postured and ready to fight and win as part of the Joint Force and 
alongside our Allies and partners.
3. Where We Are Going. The threats to our nation and our interests are real 
and growing. The strategic environment has changed; gone are the days of
operating from a maritime sanctuary against competitors who cannot threaten
us. The National Defense Strategy makes clear that we must defend our
homeland, deter strategic attack, deter and be prepared to prevail in
conflict against the Peoples Republic of China, and meet the acute challenge
of an aggressive Russia and other persistent threats. Our adversaries have
designed their militaries to overcome our traditional sources of strength. We
must move rapidly to stay ahead and continuously create warfighting
advantages. We must think, act, and operate differently, leveraging wargaming
and experimentation to integrate conventional capability with hybrid,
unmanned, and disruptive technologies. Tomorrows battlefield will be
incredibly challenging and complex. To win decisively in that environment,
our Sailors must be the best warfighters in the world with the best systems,
weapons, and platforms to ensure we can defeat our adversaries. We will put
more players on the field platforms that are ready with the right
capabilities, weapons and sustainment, and people who are ready with the
right skills, tools, training, and mindset.
4. Our Priorities. We will focus on Warfighting, Warfighters, and the 
Foundation that supports them.
a. Warfighting: Deliver Decisive Combat Power. We will view everything we
do through a warfighting lens to ensure our Navy remains the worlds
preeminent fighting force. We will prioritize the readiness and capabilities
required to fight and win at sea, and the logistics and shore support
required to keep our Navy fit to fight. We recognize that we will never fight alone. We will advance naval integration with the Marine Corps, and synchronize and align our warfighting efforts with the Joint Force. We will design and drive interoperability with our Allies and partners to deliver combined lethality.
   b. Warfighters: Strengthen the Navy Team. We will use the principles of 
mission command to empower leaders at all levels to operate in uncertain, 
complex, and rapidly changing environments, ready to take initiative and bold 
action with confidence. We will build strong warfighting teams, recruiting 
and retaining talented people from across the rich fabric of America. We will 
provide world- class training and education to our Sailors and Civilians, 
honing their skills and giving them every opportunity to succeed. We will 
ensure our quality of service meets the highest standards, and we will look 
after our families and support networks, who enable us to accomplish our 
warfighting mission.
    c. Foundation: Build Trust, Align Resources, Be Ready. We will earn and 
reinforce the trust and confidence of the American People every day. We will
work with Congress to field and maintain the worlds most powerful Navy and
the infrastructure that sustains it. We will team with industry and academia to solve our most pressing challenges. We will cooperate with the interagency to bolster integrated deterrence. We will align what we do ashore with the warfighting needs of our Fleet.
5. Our Charge. America is counting on us to deter aggression, defend our 
national security interests, and preserve our way of life. With the right 
tools, a winning mindset, and the highest levels of integrity, we will 
operate safely as a team to deliver warfighting excellence.

Well…good luck! You certainly have your work cut out for you!

This post represents the views of the author and not those of the Department of Defense, Department of the Navy, or any other government agency.

Martin Luther King Junior’s I Have a Dream speech is one of the most iconic moments in American history.  That inspirational speech should have been treasured by all Americans, for so many reasons.  If  Martin Luther King Junior were alive he would be most disappointed in the manner American progressives have turned his truly influential speech completely on his head.

Based on this excerpt, how do think MLK Jr. would react to the violence caused by Black Lives Matter and ANTIFA?

But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place, we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.

We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again, we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force. The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny.

Martin Luther King Junior would not approve of the absolute obsession with race that the American Political Left has demonstrated for the past several decades.

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day down in Alabama with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification, one day right down in Alabama little Black boys and Black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

Contrast Martin Luther King Junior’s I have a Dream speech with this: Systemic racism: What does it mean and how can you help dismantle it (usatoday.com)

Glenn Harris, president of Race Forward and publisher of Colorlines, defined it as “the complex interaction of culture, policy and institutions that holds in place the outcomes we see in our lives.”

“Systemic racism is naming the process of white supremacy,” Harris said.

Harris said systemic racism creates disparities in many “success indicators” including wealth, the criminal justice system, employment, housing, health care, politics and education. He said that although the concept dates back to work done by scholar and civil rights pioneer W. E. B. Du Bois, the concept was first named during the civil rights movement of the 1960s and was further refined in the 1980s.

Even worse is all racial hate included with this entry on a supposed dictionary website: White privilege Definition & Meaning – Merriam-Webster

the set of social and economic advantages that white people have by virtue of their race in a culture characterized by racial inequality.

by discussing the reality of white privilege, we’re not negating or invalidating other hardships that may come with each individual’s circumstances. Rather, we intend to shed light on the reality that white people are granted rights (whether they’re subtle or obvious), mmunities, and opportunities by their skin color, regardless of whether they asked for that privilege or not.—Mehak Anwar

And here, in white racism, was a shame of truly epic proportions—the shame of white supremacy that for centuries so squeezed the world with violence and oppression that white privilege was made a natural law.—Shelby Steele

Pam and Robert Proved Right Again

Posted: January 17, 2024 by datechguy in Uncategorized

I’m old enough to remember when Pam Geller and Robert Spencer were voices crying out in the wilderness warning of what Radical Islam and their allies in the left had in store and they were attacked on all sides as beyond the pale.

And now we have this in New York City:

This is what the left is, this is what it’s always been. There are those who tried to warn us, but they were ignored and now we are paying the price for our indifference to reality.

As we get closer to election day what the left go further and further in this direction to keep the Muslim vote on their side.

Crusading for cursive writing

Posted: January 16, 2024 by chrisharper in Uncategorized
Tags: , ,

By Christopher Harper

Pennsylvania—like 28 other states—does not require students to write in cursive lettering.

Fortunately, at least one Pennsylvania politician is mounting a campaign to force students to learn how to write in cursive.

State Rep. Joe Adams, a Republican representing an area near Scranton, thinks it should be mandated and has proposed legislation to do so.

A former school superintendent, Adams said he believes it is important enough to find time to teach it, and he said so do experts in education, neurology, and psychology who offer up brain science and historical reasons to support the idea. He also gave some practical reasons.

“You can’t open a bank account without signing your name. You can’t buy a property or get a credit card without having to be able to sign your name,” Adams said. He added that a person’s signature can be a unique identifier that could be one thing artificial intelligence cannot reproduce.
“All those things pointed me to saying, this makes great sense,” Adams said.

Pennsylvania’s Education Secretary Khalid Mumin doesn’t consider cursive instruction to be vital.

“Secretary Mumin encourages schools to determine the best paths for their students to learn to communicate effectively in writing and achieve success, regardless of the mode of writing used to get there,” Education Department spokesman Taj Magruder Adams told PennLive.com.

Cumberland Valley, located in southern Pennsylvania near the Maryland border, decided to reintroduce cursive writing into the curriculum.

Robyn Euker, Cumberland Valley’s director of curriculum, instruction, and assessment, said the district chose to require cursive instruction after noticing an increasing number of students with poor handwriting in the upper grades.

When the district was looking to adopt a new literacy curriculum, she said, it decided to buy the cursive writing supplement to address the handwriting concern.

Two years later, Euker said the feedback she had received was positive.

“I think it’s a little bit of a creative outlet for students,” she said.
Euker also said it seems beneficial for students with reading and writing issues. Writing in cursive has fewer starts and stops than in print. Words appear as one block instead of a series of separate letters, which can help students with dyslexia.

Given the benefits, including allowing students to read handwritten cards from older relatives, Euker said, “I wouldn’t be surprised if we see more states require it.”

After all, it’s not an instruction that needs to be taught repeatedly. Once students learn it, the neuropathways allow them to associate a manuscript letter with how it looks in cursive and understand what is written, said Lynn Baynum, chair of Shippensburg University’s Teacher Education Department.

“When we first began teaching cursive a hundred years ago, we didn’t understand it was a pattern of associations we were doing to create a literate society,” Baynum said. “It’s also why keyboarding is important to teach, too, because we don’t want students slowing down their ability to communicate because they have to find a letter on the keyboard.”

Teaching cursive is a no-brainer to me.