Hmm... Understood.

AFAIK from local media, the parents don't want the money for obvious reasons.

Because giving them a bag with $1 billion in cash and the word "bribe" written on it would be crass.

But super awesome.

So there was a thing circulating a few days ago where folks at some college were walking all over the US flag, and a military vet came in and took the flag away from them. OK, so far just another slow news day, but this story just had to get a bit weirder.

This is not the first occasion that this particular vet has been in the news. As a matter of fact, way back in the year 2007, back when the Air Force wore Army surplus uniforms and flew propeller-driven cargo planes, she posed for a little-known magazine known as Playboy, using her military service as part of the draw by featuring her in (and out) of her uniform, including her Military Training Instructor hat. Which wouldn't have been such a bad thing, except she was still serving as an MTI at the time. She was shown the door shortly after, right around when I was entering Basic.

Anyways, somewhere in between those two incidents, this same vet showed her respect for the flag by using it as a prop for a nude photoshoot for PETA, which probably says a lot more about her than it did about PETA.

The Military will not be able to maintain the current force because to many Americans are overweight

Need more Acrofatic Army. :P

Mitch Prothero of McClatchy DC gets veterans with US, UK and Hezbollah military experience to go over latest IS propaganda video. There's a general grim consensus that IS is still disturbingly proficient at infantry tactics and logistics, more so than the Iraqi Army, even after months of air strikes.

Our flag has always struck me as a fascinating conundrum for how attached people can be to material objects that serve a purely symbolic purpose.

The American flag is still something I'm a bit superstitious about from time to time. To me, you don't spit on it, you don't leave it unattended in the rain, you don't let it touch the ground, you don't walk on it, and you always fold it and store it properly. My attitude is partly shaped by the fact that I was on flag duty in elementary school for a couple of years, and it's something that has stuck with me ever since.

People using physical gestures to disgrace the flag is something that I find inappropriate, but not to the point where I start foaming at the mouth with rage. It's close to my heart, but I don't regard it as totally sacrosanct either.

As for people (including veterans) appropriating it for weird stuff like bikinis and baby pictures I'm still pretty ambivalent <shrug>.

edited 21st Apr '15 12:29:23 PM by Aprilla

Interestingly, the Danes love their flag simply as a symbol of celebration and joy. Someone's birthday? Stick a bunch of flags up. It's not unusual to see every house with a flagpole in some places. They seem to find it quite hard to grasp that other Europeans, especially Germans, might find this creepy or nationalistic.

They don't have the history we do with symbols prolly.

Indeed. I would never do any of those things to the flag, but that's me. I don't expect everyone else to treat it the same way without reason.

@ Achaemenid: Don't they appear on buses on the Queen's birthday, or something like that?

Yep! Saw a whole bunch of them in town the other day.

The Marines are being warned that they should stay near hotels and don't go to bars in Olongapo as part of liberty policy.

Last thing they want is another Laude-like murder case or something similar which will tarnish their reputation.

The Navy and Marines seem to have more issues with this than the Army. Granted, US Forces Japan and US Forces Korea both put in tons of restrictions on leaves and passes and imposed curfews. Even Colonels get hit when they bust curfew.

To go on leave was a feat of paperwork, heck you could beat goats to death with the amount of certifications, DA 5856 forms and "I promise I won't screw up" paperwork just to stay off post for a weekend. That's why I didn't go on leave in Korea, I don't hate trees that much.

Don't forget to turn in your certifications for all those training courses your chain of command wants and uses the threat of denied leave to pull out of you like a tooth. And remember to make 4 copies because it will get lost 3 times.

Or my fav: "Do this course online because 1SG is trackin it from his account and print out 3 copies so we can stick them in the unit files".

Relevant to the current line of discussion.

Sounds right.

The allegation that a settlement was trying to be settled with the Laude family is not well received.

Pro-left groups protests the presence of American Marines for Balikatan 2015.

Wonder how the pro-left groups will take PLA warships escorting Chinese (over)fishing vessels into their waters...

With more protests?

Seriously, I don't think they're going to say to themselves "man, I really wish those US marines were here. We shouldn't have shooed them away." I also bring this up because there are right-wing nationalist groups in the area that would prefer a more unified Pacific fighting force independent of US defense.

Did anybody have an answer to Polarstern's question? I wasn't sure if anyone else saw it.

edited 22nd Apr '15 8:53:52 PM by Aprilla

The leftists are quiet after the release of satellite photos of what the Chinese are doing. They are also silent after fishermen reported being shooed away by Chinese Coast Guard vessels. This latter point is quite important since their fishing boats are sturdy yes, but their range is obviously not spectacular. In other words, they are already still "close enough" to our coastline (around less than 100 nm in fact).

And with supplies to our marines being blocked again, the leftist response is essentially "it's the Marines' fault that they'll get hungry".

That wasn't quite what I meant. What I'm suggesting here is that attributing anti-US Marine sentiment to one political wing (a very fragmented one at that) seems to be a moot point when you consider the fact that most political sectors of the Filipino government and its people have been quite reserved about both US and Chinese presence in their fishing waters, especially the latter.

I'm sure you're familiar with the Scarborough Shoal issue with the Chinese firing water cannons on Filipino fisherman's boats to block them from the shoal. In fact, Renato Reyes, the de facto spokesperson for the left-wing group Bayan, has been openly critical of both US military presence and Chinese encroachment upon the Filipino fishing areas. Right-wing groups have expressed similar concerns about long-term compromised military sovereignty, but the consensus across the aisle is that the Chinese coast guard is basically bullying the maritime Filipino fishing market. Same story from Malaysia, Vietnam and Taiwan.

I'm not saying you don't know your own country, but to say that left-wing activists are silent on the matter is simply incorrect. And really for the record, I think joint operational readiness exercises between the Filipino and US marines is absolutely necessary, even if it means slowly weening their nation off US assistance. Some of Reyes' constituents, while correct about China's intrusion in the exclusive economic zone, don't seem to fully understand the military implications of this dilemma.

edited 22nd Apr '15 10:01:49 PM by Aprilla