Category Archives: Loose thoughts and musings

February 1, 2013 · 22:29

Since I wrote about Vice Admiral Samuel Gravely Jr yesterday here is an older post about Brigadier General Benjamin O Davis USA and Colonel Benjamin O Davis Jr USAF…Peace, Padre Steve+

The Inglorius Padre Steve's World

Brigadier General Benjamin O Davis in France 1944

“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.” Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

American History would not be the same without the life, work and prophetic ministry of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Dr. King was born in a time when most of the country was segregated when “separate by equal” was simply façade to cover the lie that in no way did African Americans have equal rights or privileges in the United States. Dr King was born less than 60 years after the secession of the Southern states from the Union and the beginning of the American Civil War. Though that blood conflict had freed the slaves it had not freed African Americans from…

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Well Golly! Gomer Pyle Gets Married and A-Rod Gets Outed Again

Surprise, surprise, surprise!

What a day. America’s favorite funny fictional Marine Gomer Pyle, officially came out of the closet and married his battle buddy of the past 38 years. The marriage occurred in the newly gay state of Washington. The marriage came just five years after he received an honorary promotion to the rank of Corporal from Marine Lieutenant General John F Goodman and about a year and a half after the Don’t Ask Don’t Tell rule was ended.

Now, Pyle’s decision to marry doesn’t offend me at all because it has nothing to do with baseball and something happened today in baseball that did offend me. Alex Rodriguez, sometimes in better days known as “A-Rod” and after his initial admission of using Performance Enhancing Drugs, or PEDs as “A-Roid” and by his HGH and other PED dealer Anthony Bosch as “Cacique” appears to have have been outed by the Miami New Times. The evidence appears damning.

No A-Rod wasn’t outed as a homosexual, but rather for using PEDs after he told God and everybody that he wasn’t the old “young and dumb” A-Roid of 2001-2003 but the older smarter and cleaner A-Rod. He told Jeff Passan in response to Passan’s question “have you used performance enhancing drugs since 2003?” “I have not. I would not.”

But the allegations and suspicions dragged on as Rodriguez battled injuries and saw his on field performance plummet. Today’s bombshell tore apart the web of lies that he surrounded himself with during the interregnum of 2003 and today. It was a period that he signed a monster 10 year 275 million dollar deal with the Yankees. Now, mid-way through that contract, with A-Rod still due 114 dollars the Yankees, are scrambling to figure out a way to unload him and his contract.

I don’t feel sorry for them. They made the deal with Rodriguez knowing of past allegations and had to deal with the fallout when he admitted using them in 2009. The Yankee method of getting greedy to obtain the best ballplayers that they could afford blew up in their faces. Now they have to deal with it, which since I am an Orioles fan I say, good on them.

I hope that Jim Nabors does well. He has always been a decent and caring person who I have admired. Heck I remember hearing allegations that he was gay back in the 1970s and it was like so what.

A-Rod on the other hand was probably one of the most talented players of his generation. He was a high school phenom that the scouts could not say enough about. He could hit for power and average, he was graceful in the infield and was fast. A few years ago when he reached the 600 home run plateau people were predicting that he would break the all-time home run record set by fellow accused PED user Barry Bonds. But for whatever reason that was not enough. He had to jump into the boat of scandal and cheating a second time, knowing that baseball, after years of turning a blind eye to it was scrutinizing everyone and that the media was watching. And to compound his problems he went to a man already known for dispensing PEDs for his fix. That wasn’t smart. Even less smart was issuing a statement denying it again because no one believes him anyway.

I don’t know why he had to go back to the well again after telling everyone that he was clean. Perhaps is was the desperation that he felt from his decreasing performance and injuries compounded by the hubris that he would not be caught, then… Shazam!

What more can be said?

Peace

Padre Steve+

An Interesting Encounter with a Political Party Campaign Staffer: Conversation, Drinks and Offers of Sex paid for by the GOP

“I’m Cam Brady and I seductively approve this message.” Cam Brady (Will Ferrell the Campaign)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZhJgwSb0Po

In the movie The Campaign Will Ferrell played a North Carolina Congressman named “Cam Brady” running for re-election. When I saw the movie I laughed so hard at different points that I thought I was going to hurt myself.

Tonight I was out having dinner and a beer at my local haunt near the Island Hermitage and I met a man who was sitting next to my usual gang of locals. They introduced me to him and he to me and after he found out that I was in the military her told the bartender, Grace to put my drink on his tab. I am not one to pass up a beer so I was most gracious. He began to talk and tell me about his occupation, a political campaign consultant for various Republican candidates in North Carolina and Virginia.

That does not bother me a bit, so long as a person is nice to me and buys my beer. I do not pick friends based on their political, religious or social views, but sometimes I will balk at friendships with Los Angeles Dodgers’ or USC Trojans fans. Something to do with me being a San Francisco Giants fan and quasi UCLA Bruin alumnus since I was commissioned through that university’s Army ROTC program. Even so I will make exceptions at times even in these cases. People are people and if God loves them I do the best that I can to love them as well.

Tonight was on of the more fascinating encounters that I have had in a while. My new friend at the bar, who I will call “Cam” to protect his identity had obviously had a couple of drinks too many before I arrived. My local friends, who all knew him were like me being polite, even though he was a bit on the obnoxious but friendly side. Before I knew it I was treated to Cam’s views on President Obama, Hilary Clinton, gays in the military, support for the troops, and gun control. The last of which he felt the need to show me his NRA membership card to demonstrate his credentials of where he fell on the issue.

Again, if someone is friendly I really don’t care what their politics or religion are as anyone that knows me can testify. So I carefully listened to him and decided not to go into any confrontation mode. It would have been unseemly, especially since I was drinking the beer that he had just put on his tab. I am not ungracious nor do I want to create any kind of scene.

As the conversation went on he showed me pictures of him on his smart phone with various political figures including the new governor of North Carolina, the late Senator Jesse Helms and failed senatorial candidate and Fox News commentator Oliver North. I actually thought that was kind of cool, I have pictures of me with various diplomatic, political, military and sports figures that I hold quite dear myself.

Now this was where things got weird. He told me that he could get me anything that I wanted anywhere in the state, because we in the military deserved support. Now of course military ethics rules and regulations are strict that we cannot receive accept certain gifts or political favors. A beer is one thing, a night with call girl or escort is not. “Cam” told me that he could make that happen, and I politely refused citing that I was married and also a chaplain. He told me that my wife “didn’t need to know” and I said that it would not be appropriate for me to accept any such offer. Thankfully “Cam” did change the subject, and began to visit with one of my buddies who arrived late and the buddy on my right mentioned that “Cam” had some “issues.” I responded that “Cam” didn’t just have issues, but had the “full subscription.”

A few minutes later “Cam” began talking to me again. He mentioned a recent divorce, an ulcer that kept him from drinking hard liquor and his expectation of a political appointment to a state job from the new Governor, who he said he had worked for for a number of years. He also noted that he was a “economic” conservative and not a “social” conservative. I think that might have divined from his offer of free sex at GOP expense that he was not a “social conservative” but at least he was honest about where he sat on the political spectrum. He said that he was “center-right” and I said that I was “center-left.” It turned out that we had more to agree on than not.

We were able to maintain a civil and friendly banter during the time that he remained at the bar, and when he found that I did not agree with some of his politics it was not an issue. I told him that I didn’t need to agree with a person’s politics, religion or any other views to be their friend and and he looked at me kind of funny and then said, that “it didn’t matter who I voted for so long as I voted.” I said “after all, we’re Americans, we don’t need to agree with each other to respect that.” With that he raised his wine glass and we toasted the country and wished each other well. My friends at the bar said that I handled “Cam” very well.

I departed with a new friendly acquaintance. As the real movie Cam Brady said: “America, Jesus, freedom.”

I love America.

Peace

Padre Steve+

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Filed under Just for fun, Loose thoughts and musings, Political Commentary

Tagged as bob mccrory, cam brady, friendships, gop, jesse helms, north carolina politics, oliver north, Political Commentary, Religion, republican party, the campaign

December 31, 2012 · 13:17

Happy New Year: The Song and My Wish

ABBA 78 SWEET

Happy new year

May we all have a vision now and then

Of a world where every neighbour is a friend

Happy new year

May we all have our hopes, our will to try

If we don’t we might as well lay down and die

You and I

New Year’s Eve and in some parts of the world it is already 2013. After the year that was 2012 with its seeming unending cycle of violence, hate, war and destruction I hope that 2013 is different. It probably won’t be, but I can always hope.

Many people will see in the New Year singing Auld Lang Syne. I suppose that as Judy and I pop the Champagne and toast tonight when we watch the Ball descend in Times Square on our television, safe from all the drunk drivers that we may as well. Not that we will be isolated, we will go out earlier and see our friends at Gordon Biersch around dinner time and get out before the crowds get going and the place gets too loud and crazy for our tastes.

But my favorite song for the new year is Abba’s Happy New Year. Like Auld Lang Syne it is a melancholy song of the end of one year’s hopes, dreams and expectations and hopes and dreams for the new year.

Here is wishing you the best New Year possible. Enjoy Abba’s Happy New Year.

Peace

Padre Steve+

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Uo0JAUWijM

Happy New Year

No more champagne

And the fireworks are through

Here we are, me and you

Feeling lost and feeling blue

It’s the end of the party

And the morning seems so grey

So unlike yesterday

Now’s the time for us to say…

Happy new year

May we all have a vision now and then

Of a world where every neighbour is a friend

Happy new year

May we all have our hopes, our will to try

If we don’t we might as well lay down and die

You and I

Sometimes I see

How the brave new world arrives

And I see how it thrives

In the ashes of our lives

Oh yes, man is a fool

And he thinks he’ll be okay

Dragging on, feet of clay

Never knowing he’s astray

Keeps on going anyway…

Happy new year

May we all have a vision now and then

Of a world where every neighbour is a friend

Happy new year

May we all have our hopes, our will to try

If we don’t we might as well lay down and die

You and I

Seems to me now

That the dreams we had before

Are all dead, nothing more

Than confetti on the floor

It’s the end of a decade

In another ten years time

Who can say what we’ll find

What lies waiting down the line

In the end of eighty-nine…

Happy new year

May we all have a vision now and then

Of a world where every neighbour is a friend

Happy new year

May we all have our hopes, our will to try

If we don’t we might as well lay down and die

You and I

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Tagged as abba, auld lang syne, happy new year

December 11, 2012 · 23:51

In thinking about the Fiscal Cliff and other contemporary political stories I thought that Mel Brooks classic comedy “Blazing Saddles” was apropos…

The Inglorius Padre Steve's World

The affairs of state

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BiF0M4uOhgI&feature=related

What’s a dazzling urbanite like you doing in a rustic setting like this?

Sometimes a film can capture the spirit of a society. If there is an iconic film that captures the spirit of America it has to be Mel Brooks’ classic Western spoof Blazing Saddles. It debuted back in 1974 when the nation was bitterly divided facing political crisis in the wake of the Watergate break-in cover-up which was soon to usher President Richard Nixon out of office and an economic crisis including a spike in oil and gas prices brought about by Middle East tensions. Americans also faced the end of a disastrous war in Vietnam the military threat of the Soviet Union, dissent among our Allies and the rise of a new economic power Japan.

It is at times like this that our political leaders almost always fail to rise…

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December 9, 2012 · 00:11

The Inglorius Padre Steve's World

Note to my readers. This is an older article that I wrote back in December 2009, when after nearly two years of struggle with the effects of PTSD, depression, anxiety, loss and a crisis of faith that made me for all practical purposes an agnostic. I think it is timely now, not because of what is currently going on in my life but rather because of the stories I hear from those that struggle with faith at Christmas. Peace, Padre Steve+

Lord I believe, help me in my unbelief.

A new liturgical year is upon us and with the season of Advent Christians look forward to the “Advent” of Christ both in looking forward to the consummation of all things in him as well as inviting him back into our lives as we remember his Incarnation, as the Creed says “For us and for our salvation he came down…

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Departure to Infamy: The Kido Butai Sails for Pearl Harbor

Early in the morning on November 26th 1941 the ships of the Japanese Carrier Strike Force, the Kido Butai under the command of Vice Admiral Chuichi Nagumo weighed anchor from Tankan Bay in the northern Kurile Islands of Japan. The plan was top secret and very few Japanese officers knew of the target. Many officers presumed that war was immanent but most assumed the target would be the Philippines or other targets in Southeast Asia.

IJN Akagi

It was an attack that was designed to be pre-emptive in nature. The plan was to deal the United States Navy such a crushing blow that the Japanese could complete their Asian conquests before it could recover. It was a plan of great risk that doomed Japan to horror never before imagined when the United States dropped Atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki less than four years later. By then the bulk of the Imperial Navy would lay at the bottom of the Pacific and millions of people killed.

Admiral Isoruku Yamamoto

The Japanese, even Admiral Yamamoto, the man behind the plan assumed that it entailed great risks. A simulation of the plan conducted in early September by the senior officers of the Combined Fleet and the Kido Butai calculated that two of Japan’s precious aircraft carriers could be lost in the operation. But despite the opposition and reservations of key officers, including the Kido Butai commander, Admiral Nagumo Yamamoto pressed forward.

Vice Admiral Chuichi Nagumo

The Kido Butai was the most powerful carrier strike group assembled up to that time. Comprised of six aircraft carriers, the massive flagship Akagi, and the Kaga, the fast 18,000 ton Soryu and Hiryu and the most modern Shokaku and Zuikaku. The carrier embarked over 400 aircraft, of which over 350 were to be used in the two aerial assault waves. Most of the pilots and aircrew were experienced, many with combat experience in China. The carriers were escorted by the old but fast and modernized battleships Kirishima and Hiei, the new heavy cruisers Tone and Chikuma, the light cruiser Abukuma, the new Kagero Class destroyers, Urakaze, Isokaze, Tanikaze, Hamakaze, Kagero and Shiranuhi,the Asashio classdestroyers Arare and Kasumi.Two additional destroyers the Fubuki class Sazanami and Ushiowere assigned to neutralize the American base on Midway Island. The submarines I-19, I-21and I-23 and 8 oilers were assigned to the force. Five additional submarines the I-16, I-18, I-20, I-22 and I-24 each embarked a Type-A midget submarine.

Pearl Harbor during the Attack

On December 7th the force delivered a devastating blow to the American Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor, however no American aircraft carriers were present. It would go on for the next several months on a rampage across the Pacific and Indian Oceans. However their success would be short lived. Within a year Akagi, Kaga, Soryu and Hiryu had been sunk at Midway by the carriers not present. Hiei and Kirishima were lost at the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal and over the course of the war every ship of the attack force was lost. Shokaku was torpedoed and sunk at the Battle of the Philippine Sea and Zuikaku, Chikuma and Abukuma were lost at Leyte Gulf, most of the destroyers and submarines were lost in various engagements. However three destroyers, Isokaze, Hamakaze and Kasumi accompanied the great Battleship Yamato on her suicide mission at Okinawa and were sunk on April 7th 1945. The heavy cruiser Tone was sunk at her moorings at Kure during air strikes by the US 3rd Fleet on July 24th 1945. All of the submarines were lost during the war, however I-19 sank the USS Wasp CV-7 and USS O’Brien DD-415 while damaging the USS North Carolina BB-55 on September 15th 1942 off Guadalcanal. Only the destroyer Ushio survived the war and was broken up for scrap in 1948.

IJN Zuikaku sinking at the Battle of Cape Engano (Leyte Gulf)

Among the leaders of the Japanese strike force, Admiral Yamamoto was killed on April 18th 1943 when his aircraft was shot down at Buin. Nagumo died at Saipan on July 6th 1944. Most of the sailors who took part in the attack would be dead by the end of the war.

Few present at Tankan Bay on that fateful November morning could have expected the triumph and tragedy ahead. However Yamamoto was probably more of a realist than many in the Japanese government and military leadership when he told Prime Minister Fumimaro Konoe “In the first six to twelve months of a war with the United States and Great Britain I will run wild and win victory upon victory. But then, if the war continues after that, I have no expectation of success.” Yamamoto was eerily prophetic and those that counsel pre-emptive war need to never forget his words or the results of his decisions.

Peace

Padre Steve+

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Tagged as admiral chuichi nagumo, admiral yamamoto, asashio class, battle of cape engano, battle of leyte gulf, battle of midway, battle of philippine sea, i-16, i-18, i-19 submarine, i-20, i-21, i-23, i-24, ijn abukuma, ijn akagi, ijn arare, ijn chikuma, ijn hamakaze, ijn hiei, ijn hiryu, ijn isokaze, ijn kaga, ijn kagero, ijn kasumi, ijn kirishima, ijn sazanami, ijn shiranuhi, ijn shokaku, ijn soryu, ijn tanikaze, ijn tone, ijn urakaze, ijn ushio, ijn zuikaku, imperial japanese army, kagero class, kido butai, naval battle of guadalcanal, pearl harbor attack, type a midgit submarine, uss north carolina bb-55, uss o'brien, uss wasp

November 24, 2012 · 15:59

In light of current leadership scandals involving senior military leaders a look back at Eisenhower and Marshall… Peace, Padre Steve+

The Inglorius Padre Steve's World

Great military leaders are the products of the militaries in which they serve. This begins in their early career and includes their education, training, assignments as well as the men that they serve under in their formative years. They are shaped by the character, doctrine and organization of the military that they serve and are products of the times that they live and serve. Even the difference of a few years can make a major difference in the career path and development of a leader. Such was the case with two of the great figures of the US Army in World War Two Generals of the Army George Marshall and Dwight David Eisenhower.

George Marshall

The careers of Marshall and Eisenhower prior to the Second World War were somewhat similar but also included major differences that would shape them for their roles in the war. Marshall was commissioned 13 years…

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Filed under Loose thoughts and musings

Category Archives: Loose thoughts and musings

Well Golly! Gomer Pyle Gets Married and A-Rod Gets Outed Again

An Interesting Encounter with a Political Party Campaign Staffer: Conversation, Drinks and Offers of Sex paid for by the GOP

Happy New Year: The Song and My Wish

Departure to Infamy: The Kido Butai Sails for Pearl Harbor

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