““You don’t want combat soldiers to be foolish or to jump the gun, but their job is to destroy the enemy, and one way they’re able to do that is to see it as a game, so that the people don’t seem real,” said Bret A. Moore, a former Army psychologist and co-author of the forthcoming book “Wheels Down: Adjusting to Life After Deployment.”
I don’t judge the soldier’s deadly actions because it is easy to criticize when you aren’t in danger yourself. However any cover up is inexcusable in my opinion.
I thought this was particularly insightful too:
“Military training is fundamentally an exercise in overcoming a fear of killing another human, said Lt. Col. Dave Grossman, author of the book “On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society,” who is a former Army Ranger.”
Wes sent me this link.
I agree completely with Levitt. The main problem is that people don’t care how much something costs, if they are not directly paying for it. That is why health care is so expensive.
And we are going to have to limit care at some point.
“That is more or less the situation we now have with health care. It isn’t pretty to talk about, but if it costs $200,000 to keep an octogenarian alive for a month, someone has to pay for it. If it were the children of that octogenarian who had to cover part of the bill, and paying for that last month of life was the difference between being able to pay for the octogenarian’s grandchildren to go to college or not, there would be some hard choices to make. With health care expenditures approaching 20% of GDP, there are going to be tough choices. Markets cannot function when the people who receive the benefits of a good or a service are not the ones who are paying for it.”
“It’s true that if China dumped its U.S. assets the value of the dollar would fall against other major currencies, such as the euro. But that would be a good thing for the United States, since it would make our goods more competitive and reduce our trade deficit. On the other hand, it would be a bad thing for China, which would suffer large losses on its dollar holdings. In short, right now America has China over a barrel, not the other way around.”
“Through the entirety of my conscious life, America has been on the brink of ruination, or so we have heard, from the launch of Sputnikthrough whatever is the latest indication of national falling apart or falling behind. Pick a year over the past half century, and I will supply an indicator of what at the time seemed a major turning point for the worse.”
“These salary figures do not include the value of health, pension and other benefits, which averaged $40,785 per federal employee in 2008 vs. $9,882 per private worker, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis.”
So now when you put your kids to bed and they tell you that when they grow up they want to be a doctor and a veterinarian, your answer should be: “Honey, these are all great choices, but what you really want to be is a bureaucrat.”
I think we should just outlaw insurance companies.
C’mon China, pick up the pace!
via static.globalissues.org
“The court’s legitimacy is derived from the persuasiveness of its opinions and the expectation that those opinions are rendered free of partisan, political influences,” Mr. Verniero said. “The more that individual justices are drawn into public debates, the more the court as an institution will be seen in political terms, which was not the intent of the founders.”
Apparently anytime the Supreme Court has a judgment the president doesn’t like, they are obviously partisan.
“People who are supposed to serve the public have become a privileged elite that exploits political power for financial gain and special perks. Because of its political power, this interest group has rigged the game so there are few meaningful checks on its demands. Government employees now receive far higher pay, benefits, and pensions than the vast majority of Americans working in the private sector. Even when they are incompetent or abusive, they can be fired only after a long process and only for the most grievous offenses.”
“When he entered office, US President Barack Obama promised to inject US foreign policy with a new tone of respect and diplomacy. His recent trip to Asia, however, showed that it’s not working. A shift to Bush-style bluntness may be coming.”
“To those not terrorized by fear of offending Muslim sensitivities, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan’s motive was instantly clear: It was an act of terrorism by a man with a record of expressing virulent, anti-American, pro-jihadist sentiments. All were conspicuous signs of danger his Army superiors chose to ignore.”
“Obama urged Americans against “jumping to conclusions” about the killer’s motives.”
and
“[The killer] had shouted the Arabic phrase Allahu akbar (God is greatest) before opening fire, witnesses said.”
Yeah, we wouldn’t want to jump to any conclusions.
“Thousands turned out in the capital’s Haft-e Tir square to commemorate the day in 1979 when students loyal to Iran’s supreme religious leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, took over the US Embassy. They shouted “Death to America!” – a show of support for Iran’s conservatively religious, and increasingly authoritarian regime. But another group also convened on the square, shouting a different message: “Death to dictators!”, according to the New York Times.”
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