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Let there be snark.

You are here: Home / Foreign Affairs / Military / Spectacularly Bad Judgment

Spectacularly Bad Judgment

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Via Sully, this astonishing story:

In one scene, two female Navy sailors stand in a shower stall aboard the aircraft carrier, pretending to wash each other. They joke about how they should get six minutes under the water instead of the mandated three.

In other skits, sailors parade in drag, use anti-gay slurs, and simulate masturbation and a rectal exam. Another scene implies that an officer is having sex in his stateroom with a donkey.

They’re all part of a series of short movies produced aboard the Norfolk-based aircraft carrier Enterprise in 2006 and 2007 and broadcast to its nearly 6,000 sailors and Marines. The man who masterminded and starred in them is Capt. Owen Honors – now the commander of the carrier, which is weeks away from deploying.

The videos, obtained by The Virginian-Pilot this week, were shot and edited with government equipment, many of them while the Enterprise was deployed supporting the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

At the time, Honors was the carrier’s executive officer, or XO, the commanding officer’s deputy. He took command of the ship in May.

There is nothing on the videos that would even compare to your average nightly fare on Skinemax or Show-it-all-the-Time, and most of it strikes me as knuckle-dragging Maxim/SpikeTv humor. In other words, the kind of shit that would happen whenever you get 4-5 soldiers or sailors together with time off. But there is a difference between a couple privates joking around, and the XO of a ship making videos like this and showing them to 6,000 people.

Hell, you tell some of these jokes in a group of five people at a party and you are guaranteed to piss off two of the people and bore the other two. Showing this to 6,000 people, all of whom are under your command, is just insane. I have no idea what he was thinking. You can bet this is the end of his career. Hell, this would be a firing offense for a shift manager at McDonalds.

Reader Interactions

128Comments

  4. 4.

    Omnes Omnibus

    Some people learned nothing from Tailhook. I mean, FFS, he had to have been an O-3 at the time; it couldn’t have escaped his attention, right?

  5. 5.

    General Stuck

    I was following this story earlier today, and that XO is a character. the vids are raunchy but that is all, but agree that putting it on a fairly slick video production by the second in command is kind of asking for it. He is a captain now on some ship, and might lose his command. My impression of the dude, is he could give less of a fuck.

    OT

    Bring it On, mofos

    Obama administration officials say they plan to reject Congressional efforts to limit the president’s options on Guantanamo, setting the stage for a confrontation between the president and the new Congress on an issue that has been politically divisive since Inauguration Day.

    The Guantanamo provisions, which include limits on where and how prisoners can be tried, were attached to a spending bill for military pay and benefits approved by Congress late last year. Some Administration officials are recommending that President Obama sign the spending bill and then issue a “signing statement” challenging at least some of the Guantanamo provisions as intrusions on his constitutional authority. Others have recommended that he express opposition to the Guantanamo sections without addressing their constitutionality.

    LOL, by using Bush grade ‘signing statements” telling congress and the wingers to go to hell. How cool is that. wonder what our FB friends will say to that?

  7. 7.

    SiubhanDuinne

    *You can bet this is the end of his career.*

    One can only hope. This is the story NPR was reporting this morning at 6:00 a.m. or whenever I woke up. What a disgusting way to start the day *that* was (thank gods for Anne Laurie’s kitteh photos).

    Seriously, does the Navy hand out STOOPID BAD JUDGEMENT pills to its officers? (Lookin’ at you, Tailhook. Lookin’ at you, John McCain.)

  8. 8.

    Violet

    Why did it take so long for this story to get out? It sounded like people were complaining about it for some time. It shouldn’t take three or four years for this to be dealt with appropriately.

  10. 10.

    Mike in NC

    Honors was the carrier’s executive officer, or XO, the commanding officer’s deputy. He took command of the ship in May.

    Expect to read very soon how CAPT Honors has decided to put in his retirement papers in order to spend more quality time with his family.

    Stuff like this would’ve gotten an XO fired back in the days when warships still had all-male crews. Unbelievably stupid.

  11. 11.

    Skepticat

    I have no idea what he was thinking.

    I doubt that thinking factored into this equation.

  13. 13.

    The Dangerman

    So, he pulled this shit while the XO, people complained about it at the time (meaning, this had to be known to the Navy Brass)…

    …and they STILL promoted him to Captain? WTF?

  14. 14.

    SiubhanDuinne

    And meant to mention in my #7: the homophobic (by some accounts, homoerotic) scenes and jokes and slurs are in themselves enough to get this guy cashiered.

    His name is *Honors*? What a joke.

  15. 15.

    General Stuck

    @Mike in NC:

    Yea, I think the females in the shower was what was so far over the line. I couldn’t find that vid however. He kept exonerating “the Admiral and Captain’ of any knowledge of the vids ‘for judicial reasons”, so It seemed he knew he was way out on a limb if this got publicized in a big way.

  17. 17.

    Mike in NC

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    Seriously, does the Navy hand out STOOPID BAD JUDGEMENT pills to its officers? (Lookin’ at you, Tailhook. Lookin’ at you, John McCain.)

    Two words: brown shoes. Naval aviators are the oldest frat boys in the world. Seriously.

  18. 18.

    AxelFoley

    Wow, this shit is from my neck of the woods (Hampton Roads, VA).

    I used to work at Naval Station Norfolk during that timeframe and used to pass by the Enterprise sometimes.

  20. 20.

    PurpleGirl

    I can kinda sorta understand this type of thing being done by non-coms (is that the right term?) in off hours because they’re bored or whatever, but to have been done with the assistance of a command officer and shown to the crew at large. Bad judgment, very bad judgment.

    (And on the Enterprise!… the Enterprise!, please but that name has some history to it, along with some future stuff in a few centuries.)

  21. 21.

    Omnes Omnibus

    My experience in the Army was that 1) officers did not do risque stuff with enlisted soldiers; it is bad for discipline; 2) senior officers did not do risque shit with junior officers; it is bad for discipline; and 3) senior officers left drinking events fairly early so that whatever risque stuff was going to happen did not happen in front of them and/or they did not spoil the fun for the junior officers. Risque stuff tended to simply be massive drinking binges.

  22. 22.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @change #12:

    Others here will offer you pie, but I’d like you to have these freshly-baked Troll House Cookies.

  23. 23.

    Dennis SGMM

    It’s been forty years since I served in the Navy. I was a brown shoe and most of the officers with I served were pretty damned good – especially when you consider that most of them were aviators. This isn’t to exonerate anyone, it is to say that if you find someone crazy enough to land an aircraft at night, in low visibility on a patch of carrier deck that can be pitching vertically through twenty four feet then you might get some other aberrant behaviors as well.

  29. 29.

    wobbly

    Call me old fashioned, but what were those WOMEN in the shower thinking???

    I remember the Tailhook scandal, and at the time was surprised to learn that more than dozen or so complaints were filed by men against women, claiming sexual harassment at that party.

    Maybe we should take advantage of the end of DADT and limit service in the US military to homosexuals of either gender.

    They seem to be way better, after all those years in their closets, at keeping their clothes on and their libidos out of sight than the heterosexuals, at least while on the job.

  33. 33.

    The Dangerman

    @kdaug:

    Get rid of the DEA. 2.6 billion right there.

    How much do we save by closing every military base in Europe? WWII and the Cold War are both long over.

  34. 34.

    adolphus

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    Seriously, does the Navy hand out STOOPID BAD JUDGEMENT pills to its officers? (Lookin’ at you, Tailhook. Lookin’ at you, John McCain.)

    Brings me to mind of a pornography scandal back at the Naval Academy awhile back.

  36. 36.

    alwhite

    maybe its because I am old and have come to believe that ‘kids today’ have different ideas about sex and sexuality but I wonder if this should be such a big deal. Certainly the shower girls thought it was funny. I am not making excuses or suggesting that this is OK just trying to understand how dire this really is.

    I have a very good friend of color & he makes black jokes to me all the time. I would never dream of saying the things he says but if we worked together & he thought there was a funny bit to tape & show as a joke I think I would say OK.

    Again, I don’t think what he did was bright or OK, he should have known that what they were doing, even if it others were involved, would be offensive. I just wonder if he deserves the death penalty or if he just needs some “wall-to-wall discipline”

  38. 38.

    Dennis SGMM

    @Omnes Omnibus:
    The brown shoe Navy is made up of those who serve in Naval Aviation. Those who aren’t in aviation refer to themselves as black shoes. The term “Brown shoe” dates back to 1911 when the first six Naval Aviators were in training at North Island. The field was dirt and the brown dust therefrom continually dirtied up the young aviators’ regulation black shoes. Without authorization, they switched to high top brown shoes and brown leggings. That solved the dust problem very neatly and they petitioned their immediate chain of command for a change in the uniform regulations. The command approved and in 1913 brown high-top shoes with brown leggings became part of the official uniform for Navy Aviators.

    The ability to petition the Navy was one aspect of it that I found to be particularly cool: a lowly SN1 could submit a Special Request Chit for just about anything and it could, if he or she so desired, get pushed all the way to the Chief of Naval Operations – even if ti was turned down every step of the way.

  41. 41.

    alwhite

    @wobbly:
    I think sometimes women think that they need to be hyper sexual as a way of saying “see, I’m just like you guys”. But I also feel like women today do not see sexuality the same way they did when I was a kid. Some of that may actually be healthy but I think some of it is really damaging to girls and boys. Its a brave new world but I don’t know if it is a good thing

  43. 43.

    Bob Loblaw

    @General Stuck:

    by using Bush grade ‘signing statements” telling congress and the wingers to go to hell. How cool is that. wonder what our FB friends will say to that?

    I’m no expert in the constantly shifting landscape of internets warfare, not being of diseased mind myself, but isn’t this what was fervently advocated/derided on DADT by all you silly little tribesmen of all stripes? And aren’t you, Stuck, someone who gets wood blabbering on about “separation of powers” and “NOT LIKE BUSH” and all of that?

    Golly, it’s like you’re all a bunch of complete fucking hacks, or something. Left, right, center, obot, firebagger, the whole goddamn lot of you. I’d advise looking into the concepts of “integrity” and “consistency” and “not being a hypocritical douchebag,” but that would be lost on the type of person who predominates the political blogosphere.

  45. 45.

    Bokonon

    And … conservatives are worried that ending DADT will be bad for discipline and morale, and a breakdown in official standards about acceptable behavior.

    Ha.

    As Mike In NC points out, this stuff happened while Honor was still the ship’s XO. And after this major failure in judgement took place, THEN HE GOT PROMOTED!

    Whoa! Problem! That’s not just Honor’s bad judgement … it indicates problems higher up.

  46. 46.

    Lunarmovements

    @PurpleGirl:

    I can kinda sorta understand this type of thing being done by non-coms (is that the right term?) in off hours because they’re bored or whatever, but to have been done with the assistance of a command officer…

    Having served in the US Navy, I can tell you from experience that it is naive to assume that a man who is an officer is also a gentleman. Having been a non commissioned officer (yes, non-com is the term) in the US Navy, I can tell you from experience that it is an example of classism to assume that an enlisted man is not a gentleman.

    The bottom line is that this man used poor judgment. His rank had nothing to do with his decision making process and only comes into play because it allowed him to foist his cinematic ‘genius’ onto the rest of the crew.

  47. 47.

    eemom

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    His name is Honors? What a joke.

    Yeah, I liked that part too.

    Proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy is up there in heaven laughing His ass off.

  53. 53.

    Sly

    @change:

    You’re going to have to either agree to all our spending cut demands, or send this country into default.

    “In that supposed event, you say, you will destroy the Union; and then, you say, the great crime of having destroyed it will be upon us! That is cool. A highwayman holds a pistol to my ear, and mutters through his teeth, ‘Stand and deliver, or I shall kill you, and then you will be a murderer!'”
    Abraham Lincoln
    Cooper Union Address
    February 27, 1860

    I’d say that the only good Republican is a dead Republican, but you probably wouldn’t get the joke.

  54. 54.

    gnomedad

    And the reichtards are thinking, hmm, will it piss of liberals more to blame this on them or to make a martyr of this guy?

  55. 55.

    PurpleGirl

    @Lunarmovements: No, I wasn’t thinking the command officer was more of a gentleman. Not at all. (I realize that that phrase is a fantasy and a dream.) It was that maybe a command level officer would have thought things through a bit more. As to how it would look if the story got out. Or the impact it could have on his own career. I do agree he showed a horrible lack of judgment.

  56. 56.

    General Stuck

    @Bob Loblaw:

    It’s blogging Mr. Clean, and my comment is about politics. I never said one way or the other that obama should defy congress with a signing statement over Gitmo. It is a little too black letter law for using a signing statement for that purpose, Imo.

    But I swear by the unholy FSM, what time I peck out my blatherings on this blog, I will mock the left and right, when needed, and especially their hypocritical BS on Obama. And that is precisely what I did, and will continue to do. What?, you think there are heroes in politics? Rarefied airs of principle and all that good shit. Only an idiot would think that./ It is all 98 percent theater from folks wanting one thing or another, and I am just keeping up my end of that bargain. Now repose to your fainting couch, and yet another case of vapors you are famous for here.

  57. 57.

    PIGL

    @change declares:

    You’re going to have to either agree to all our spending cut demands, or send this country into default we’ll hold our breffs until we turns blue.

    All your demands, huh? This will be interesting. In the meantime, perhaps you could school us liberals and saber-toothed socialists, and explain why exactly Republicans are such f*cktards?

    Then, your fans would like to know whether you prefer pulling wings off flies, sticking fire crackers up the rear of frogs, or just staying in the fetid basement, pulling your wire in bitterness.

  58. 58.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Dennis SGMM: Thanks. Brown shoe, in the Army, equals old school. Until the late 1950s, the Army wore brown shoes and boots. Old timers would talk about how things were done in the Brown Shoe Army. Even in the late 80s, long after anyone who had served in brown shoes was retired, the term stayed alive.

  61. 61.

    Dennis SGMM

    @Omnes Omnibus:
    That’s just excellent. The Old Navy, the Old Army, were always better. One of the best Chiefs I ever served with told me that when he joined the Navy decades previously, there were people talking fondly about the Old Navy.

    Years and years later I heard a line in the BBC’s over-the-top version of I, Claudius that put it into perspective:
    one character stated that the theater isn’t what it was. Another replied that it never was what it was.

  62. 62.

    Jay in Oregon

    @Sly:

    “In that supposed event, you say, you will destroy the Union; and then, you say, the great crime of having destroyed it will be upon us! That is cool. A highwayman holds a pistol to my ear, and mutters through his teeth, ‘Stand and deliver, or I shall kill you, and then you will be a murderer!’”

    The best part of this quote is the fact that President Abraham Lincoln says “That is cool.” Did it carry the same meaning then as it does now? If so, that is cool.

  63. 63.

    kdaug

    @Jay in Oregon: Dude, did you scope out that wicked cool beard? The man was way ahead of his time.

    I’m looking into starting up a stovepipe hat franchise, let me know if you’re interested.

  65. 65.

    David Fud

    When are they going to prosecute Hamptonroads.com for endangering national security? It seems to me that there is a leaker of the video that needs to be thrown in solitary for at least 8 months to make sure that leaker testifies against the infamous web site.

  67. 67.

    Bob Loblaw

    @General Stuck:

    I never said one way or the other that obama should defy congress with a signing statement over Gitmo.

    I noticed. Because that would involve saying something accountable on a topic, which is against your m.o. You’d rather just yell into the void at all your many, many self-created enemies. Since Spencer Ackermann, of all people, is apparently in on the insidious lefty conspiracy to deny the administration at every turn. Spencer Ackermann.

    @kdaug:

    Which inconsistency are you referring to? You are quite free to dislike me and my unrelenting cynicism, but you shouldn’t misrepresent me.

  68. 68.

    Chyron HR

    @change:

    You’re going to have to either agree to all our demands, or we send this country into default.

    Can I get a “PALIN AKBAR!!”

  69. 69.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @stuckinred: Dissing an entire group is what gets you in trouble. ;) Dissing this dipshit is another thing entirely.

    Plus… different eras.

  70. 70.

    Triassic Sands

    I have no idea what he was thinking.

    Jeebus, the guy’s a career naval officer. They aren’t exactly known for their intelligence (see, McCain, John aka Nasty Ol’ Dumb Sumbish).

  71. 71.

    General Stuck

    @Bob Loblaw:

    I noticed

    Apparently not, or you wouldn’t have made an ass out of yourself complaining about the lack of integrity of others, with a comment so very devoid of it. Clown. And from the link. Ackermann quotes his dear friend Marcy Wheeler, from the FDL flagship of bullshit. No breaks.

  72. 72.

    TPirate

    “Son,” (I’ve always wanted to say that like that) in 1969 the commanding officer of the ship I was then serving on threw a shore party for the crew at which there were 60 naked Japanese bar girls. He went “down” on one girl and performed cunnilingus on her in front of hundreds of the crew. Nothing has changed. This is the tip of the iceberg.

    No, being the liberal then as I am now, I only watched, as infrequently as I could manage. I was the only member of our 500-plus crew that I am certain did not use prostitutes. (I was offended by the economic disparity and control.) Good Christians all.

    I have had plenty of good heterosexual sex in my life, but never forced it or paid for it.

  73. 73.

    Anne Laurie

    @Peter J: __

    He boldly went where no man has gone before?

    I’m glad I’m not the only former Trekkie whose brain immediately Went There.

    On a semi-relevant-to-the-post note, back in the mid-70s when someone tried to ban me from fanzines for making a joke about “the only Captain ever to pay child support to a tribble”, I was informed that the Navy has a long proud history of commanders with bad judgement, because sensible people don’t volunteer to sit in a floating tin can for months at a time to get dropped in the middle of someone else’s territory.

  75. 75.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @TPirate: I am wondering if it is ingrained in the culture of the US Navy. Spending long stretches of time at sea and then going nuts on shore leave… Does that create an environment where things like this are seen as acceptable? The Army seems less tolerant of that kind of behavior (by no means will I say that soldiers are saints; I have seen enough to know that is not true).

  77. 77.

    Anne Laurie

    @Jay in Oregon: __

    The best part of this quote is the fact that President Abraham Lincoln says “That is cool.” Did it carry the same meaning then as it does now? If so, that is cool.

    I believe Lincoln used it more in the sense of “cold-blooded”, being a “cool hand” at murder.

    (On the other hand, calling someone stupid a “dumbell” was already in use, because Trollope could publish a novel caricaturing a wooden-headed member of the elite as “Lord Dumbello”. So I could be wrong.)

  78. 78.

    stuckinred

    @Omnes Omnibus: Ever hear of Sin City at An Khe?

    Inside the Barrier. Back at An Khe (pop. 12,000), the division has created a home away from home. Last week business was booming in An Khe Plaza, the sanitary “Sin City” that houses bars and brothels under strict Army medical supervision (TIME, May 6). Highway 19, the east-west road that was once controlled by Communist ambushes, is now open all the way from Qui Nhon. In General Norton’s tidy mess on “the Hill,” a high-rise hummock that houses division headquarters, officers show up at dinner in gleaming boots and bright, gold-and-black scarves—the colors of the Cav.

    Read more: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,842808,00.html#ixzz1A1gH0Uny

  79. 79.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @stuckinred: Let’s make it the Army in the US and Germany. And let’s make it the last 30 years. It really was quite different than your Army.

  80. 80.

    Bob Loblaw

    @General Stuck:

    It routinely amuses me how much you lie about your own conduct, within the very thread that it happens in. Your words are archived.

    You described “telling Congress to go fuck itself” as “cool” and challenged the “Mofos” (whoever they are) to “Bring it.”

    This did in fact happen.

    Then you called Ackermann, Serwer, and Wheeler the “netroots” and mocked them for their hysterical hypocrisy regarding executive overreach in the field of civil liberties under the Obama administration. Despite the fact that you haven’t actually hang any hypocritical behavior on Serwer or Ackermann, other than the fact that they know (and linked to! omgwtf) people who post on FDL. How vile.

    And now, after you’ve decided to stop being an overemotional, dick-waving loon for a moment, you’ve instead taken up a skeptical position with regard to the signing statement that hasn’t even happened yet. Do the mofos no longer require it to be brought?

    But yes, it was probably all my fault. I’m so in the tank for Marcy Wheeler. I would never describe her as a frothy, reactionary partisan who lives and dies on immediate reporting and outrage. Oh wait, yes I would. Just as I would describe you, Stuck.

    If something is wrong, then it’s wrong. And if it’s not, then it’s not. Always. But things do not become conditionally right or conditionally wrong depending on the person committing the act.

  81. 81.

    kdaug

    @Bob Loblaw:

    But things do not become conditionally right or conditionally wrong depending on the person committing the act.

    “Thou shall not kill”.

  82. 82.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @kdaug:

    “Thou shall not kill”.

    There are those who argue the proper translation is “murder” not “kill.”

  83. 83.

    General Stuck

    @Bob Loblaw:

    But yes, it was probably all my fault. I’m so in the tank for Marcy Wheeler

    nope, I think you are a condescending twit whose only visible purpose on this blog is to critique snark with scolds on a fucking pol snark blog, for some pathological need to attain a sense of superiority, or something. Now you are attempting to take a few lines of that snark and turn it into some kind of impeachment of my credibility for apparent slights to those you choose to advocate for today, for such purposes. And tomorrow, you will lurk and hover for another attempt, to rescue the honor of some other idiot on the blogosphere.

    I linked to Ackermann, because he used Wheeler in his post. If Ackermann has been consistent on not blaming Obama for what congress has been blocking the closing of Gitmo, then so be it. But Wheeler and the rest of the nutroots at large, have been wanking non stop for Obama to use powers he doesn’t have, to do something about closing Gitmo, as well as with any number of other issues. This garbage has also ended up on this blog many times, and I will and did mock those who are now whining about separation of powers and at the same time non stop bashing of Obama why he is giving in to it, and failing, and doesn’t do something, anything. These are folks who oppose Obama, and want him to fail. That should be obvious at this stage.

    Fuck you and fuck them, that was the purpose of my snark, you midget brained purity fuck.

  85. 85.

    kdaug

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    There are those who argue the proper translation is “murder” not “kill.”

    There are those who argue the proper translation of “Thou” is “Everybody else but me”.

  86. 86.

    Michael

    Give that “hero” a pay raise, and maybe some tearful redneck “coming home” tributes on HNNs Robin Meade morning crapfest.

    God knows the Taliban have been running constant attacks on the USS Enterprise – hes under lots and lots of combat stress…

  88. 88.

    kdaug

    @Omnes Omnibus: Granted, but when the first “person” narrator is an omniscient deity issuing the rulebook for His Holy Primates, it seems a tall branch for us knuckle-draggers to perch ourselves on.

  89. 89.

    Bob Loblaw

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    There are also those who think morality is not simply defined by single sentences from a book about sky wizards and virgin birth star babies.

    @General Stuck:

    These are folks who oppose Obama, and want him to fail. That should be obvious at this stage.

    Yes. And?

    How exactly are you prepared to combat them with cool and credible reason when you’re more concerned with bringing it to the mofos?

  91. 91.

    General Stuck

    @Bob Loblaw:

    How exactly are you prepared to combat them with cool and credible reason when you’re more concerned with bringing it to the mofos?

    Lame, and it was “bring it on, mofos” not bringing it to the mofos. Learn to read before commenting. And I never said I’d combat them with “cool and credible” reason. I said I intended to mock them. Your trollfu is weaker than usual, and fraught with cognitive dissonance. AKA – lies

  92. 92.

    Bruce (formerly Steve S.)

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    There are those who argue the proper translation is “murder” not “kill.”

    It doesn’t much matter what the translation is, one of the persistent myths about the Ten Commandments (and the rest of the OT law) is that it is a list of general principles applicable to anybody other than the immediate audience.

  93. 93.

    Bob Loblaw

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Regarding the use of signing statements to get around congressional hand-tying on Guantanamo prosecution and detainment standards, the hypocrisy of Marcy Wheeler, or the fucking ethics of self defense?

    There are a lot of moving targets right now.

  94. 94.

    Bob Loblaw

    @General Stuck:

    And I never said I’d combat them with “cool and credible” reason. I said I intended to mock them. Your trollfu is weaker than usual, and fraught with cognitive dissonance.

    Again, I know. That’s why I said you were an angry, unaccountable, unproductive voice screaming into the void at self-created mortal enemies. Who don’t even know who you are.

    You should really stop trying so hard to prove me right. Also, you don’t know what cognitive dissonance means.

  96. 96.

    General Stuck

    @Bob Loblaw:

    If I believe I am good but do something bad, then the discomfort I feel as a result is cognitive dissonance.

    After all of the misquotes, and outright lies you have proffered of what I’ve said in this thread, and the general feeble attacks, I should think you have been a very bad boy, lollipop, and should feel discomfort.

    If your point was to illustrate I am an asshole, sometimes, well, you could saved us both some time and just asked. I would have been able to confirm these suspicions.

  98. 98.

    Sly

    @Jay in Oregon:
    Cool meant cold or emotionless in that context (and that era).

    Cool as a synonym for excellent originated with slower-tempo Jazz in the 1930s, compared to the older and faster (or “hotter”) tempos of big band swing and bepob of the previous decades. Jazz musician Lester Young is probably the guy who originally popularized the usage, at least among white audiences.

  99. 99.

    Skippy-san

    A little context. Life on a warship is mentally and physically exhausting; drudgery at high tempo and flank speed. Day after day, week after week, month after month of sleep deprivation, physical exhaustion, mind-numbing routine punctuated by adrenaline charged emergency responses, incidents, accidents, watches and drills, seasoned with GQ’s, exercises, and operations. There’s the inexorable cycle of deployment, deployment extensions, miserable SRAs with 3 section duty, work-up-hilarity, and yet another freaking deployment missing your kids growing up. Four months on station without a port call, rumors of an extension, dammit another extension, and more cancelled port calls. So, retention of a sense of humor, against all odds, bothers somebody? Suck it. Till you have walked a mile in his shoes, STFU.

  100. 100.

    aisce

    @General Stuck:

    I should think you have been a very bad boy, lollipop, and should feel discomfort.

    if the best you can do is call someone lollipop, you’re probably cooked. give it up general stuck, and try to preserve what little dignity you still have.

    bob won. and we all lost.

    @Skippy-san:

    Suck it. Till you have walked a mile in his shoes, STFU.

    bestiality and gaybashing are pretty fun when you think about it.

  102. 102.

    General Stuck

    @aisce:

    And who the fuck are you? Bob never wins anything, he just likes the smell of his own brain farts, but he could use a fan and friend on this blog. That could be you, if you want the job.

    and try to preserve what little dignity you still have.

    You just fall off the turnip truck? There is no dignity in blogging.

  107. 107.

    Yutsano

    @Omnes Omnibus: Ouch. You’ll forgive me if I don’t mention that to the lesbyterian lawyer co-worker who’s also an Air Force vet. I prefer to keep workplace drama to a minimum.

  108. 108.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Yutsano: Air Force folks are used to the jokes. Hands in their pockets in uniform, umbrellas…. One is appalled. Ask any Marine you might know.

    Update: See stuckinred’s comment above.

    Update 2: What is a lesbyterian?

  110. 110.

    Scott P.

    You’re going to have to either agree to all our demands, or we send this country into default.

    Little do you know that sending the country into default is the prearranged signal that will trigger the Islamo-Marxist Revolution.

  111. 111.

    Yutsano

    @Omnes Omnibus: Heh. I know a few of them. A couple probably better than should be mentioned in polite company. And yeah they laugh about how rough Zoomies supposedly have it. I just want to know if the golf course at boot camp urban legend is true.

  113. 113.

    blogreeder

    Another fine example of you people having no sense of humor. Get a life.

    …Hell, you tell some of these jokes in a group of five people at a party and you are guaranteed to piss off two of the people and bore the other two

    Uh.. so five minus two leaves the other two? Now that’s funny!

  114. 114.

    Ed Drone

    @Sly:

    … older and faster (or “hotter”) tempos of big band swing and bepob of the previous decades

    In the 1930s, “cool” meant it wasn’t “hot” like the old-school bebop? Bebop, invented in 1943 at Minton’s by Parker, Gillespie, Bud Powell, Charlie Christian, et al? That bebop?

    And big-band swing? What do you think Lester Young was playing? Count Basie’s was a big band, and most certainly swung (no one can seriously argue that), so what are you talking about?

    Actually, the “hot” music was New Orleans Dixieland (and its partners, Chicago and Kansas City jazz), not “swing,” and most certainly NOT bebop.

    Petulantly pedantically yours,

    Ed

  117. 117.

    blogreeder

    @Ed Drone:
    See. That’s funny! I got you! Now really, what kind of parties does John go to where two people are guaranteed to be pissed off? Jeez. How pretentious.

  118. 118.

    Bill E Pilgrim

    @Ed Drone: The OP has the decade completely wrong but the rest is right. Cool jazz was a reaction to and evolution from bop, but it was in the 40s, not the 30s. Lester Young was in fact a sort of patron saint of cool jazz, even though he came up and was well known long before it existed. Cool did mean basically laid back and relaxed, compared to the faster tempos of bebop, and “Prez”s laid back playing style was a big influence.

  120. 120.

    Pat

    “You can bet this is the end of his career.”

    Yeah, he can go teach with McCrystal at Yale.

  122. 122.

    DBrown

    Change has a point – we spend almost as much on our military as all other countries (including our NATO partners!) together. We should start there – say half the navy (especially carriers), 1/3 the air force (we have all those ICBM’s, remember?) and remove 95% of our overseas bases to start. Then rasise SS limit above the current max level (what, near $120 K?) and lower Medicare benifits for all making over $100 K/year when retired.

  123. 123.

    Paul in KY

    @Dennis SGMM: In the USAF, ‘brown shoe’ referred to the old-time USAF & Army Air Corp (when the standard shoes worn with the uniform were brown).

    When used in context with an individual, it usually meant they were a real hardass.

  124. 124.

    Paul in KY

    @stuckinred: Pretty cool picture. Throwing around those heavy M1s (all with 8 inch bayonets). I assume Sgt Pinckney is the gentleman in the middle commanding.

  127. 127.

    Paul in KY

    @Yutsano: I would say Shephard & Lackland AFBs both have fine golf courses. I would assume that someone in basic training would have to sneak out at night to play.

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