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Operational Security (OPSEC)

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Some people have an understanding of how and why it’s important.  Then there are others who just don’t give a damn.


Let me explain something to everyone.  This isn’t a joke and this is deadly serious.  There are a few fruit cakes out there that had the gall to call the men who place their lives on the line gutless.

#kindalame former Navy SEALs don’t have guts to admit they’re running a GOP, anti-Obama campaign;nyti.ms/N2nYYj

Let’s get something straight.  It doesn’t matter which party is in office, their job is to keep their mouth shut when necessary.  Accomplishments tied to national security are not to be flaunted in public in the view of everyone.

I have many friends in the engineering professions who do work specifically tied to national security.  There is nothing specific on their resumes about what they’ve done.  Most of the information listed on any accomplishment is done in a non-nondescript manner where the end use isn’t discernible.

This man however has ripped the veil off of material that should not be seen by the public.  When you make it public, that means our enemies can see it as well.  Only a moron who has no concept of the sacrifice and danger these men take on their shoulders would dare claim they were acting within partisan interests by posting this message.

If you are fine with this behavior I suggest you go enlist and head down range.  Then you might understand exactly what it is this man has done by ripping the veil off.

There are people who hate the United States and we struck back at the man responsible for September 11th, 2001.  Anonymity w as the biggest defense to protect the men responsible for striking back.  Our fearless leader, in an effort to extort political capital on the sweat of these men’s backs, removed that anonymity and exposed them to danger and attack.

We had no need to know which service, which group, or which team was responsible for taking out evil and laying a solid blow.  Without that information those men were merely a few in a sea of thousands, the pool becomes unbelievably large if you consider that depending on the release we may not have even known it was a special operations group.

My dad served his country and we know there were stories we never heard.  Not because they were painful, but because there was no reason we needed to know.  There were a few we finally heard after the Soviet Union fell, even then it was obvious that parts were left out.  When I signed my name on the line I wasn’t looking for recognition, and I knew that depending on where I went I may very well end up with stories that I carried silently until  I died.

I feel ashamed at times I never made it all the way through to my commission, metal rods in both legs when they’re turning people away left and right limited my options.  Could I have fought harder, probably, in the end though I now know what my dad meant when he said the following, “I left the Navy after 16 years because any country willing to elect Jimmy Carter as president doesn’t deserve to have me serving in their armed forces.”  As much as I wanted that commission I am pleased I didn’t have to suffer through the Obama Administration while in the service.

That thought bugs me no end, however I did not sign on that line so a politician could use my work, my service, and my commitment for their own political gain.  While I may have never “served” and that disappoints me.  I am glad that I haven’t been able to be used and manipulated in such a manner.  It wouldn’t matter which party was in office, it’s the behavior of the man and how he respects and leads those who have signed on the line to serve.  Obama’s respect and leadership of those who serve is lacking.  I had a choice, though many had no choice in the matter.

You don’t go doing work tied to national security looking for fame or fortune.  You do it because you know it needs to be done and it needs to be done well.  You don’t talk about it, you don’t advertise it, you just work on it behind the scenes.  When someone asks you what you do, you don’t provide details, you provide the mundane, they have no need to know.  Some can’t handle that, they want to be patted on the head and told good job.  They want to brag to show how awesome their job is.

Other’s just silently continue on, content in the knowledge that what they do keeps their family safe at night.  That the tools they design will be used by men doing violence on their behalf.  It’s a job that has to be done.  They know and take solace in the fact that what they are doing does matter and it makes a huge difference, no matter if anyone knows or not.

h/t Old NFO who has even more on the topic.

Good for this small business owner!

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A Virginia business owner refused a Vice President Joe Biden campaign visit at his three month old bakery on Wednesday because of President Barack Obama’s recent “you didn’t build that” comments.

If I lived within a day’s driving distance round trip I would be patronizing your establishment as soon as possible.  Instead I hope that some of my friends who live in Virginia can pay you a visit in my stead. I applaud you for standing up for yourself and not taking the cowards way out for cheap press and letting your convictions slide.

Though I will say you’re probably getting considerably more press and coverage by telling them no, than you would have by accepting their patronage.

Now some have claimed that Obama was merely talking about infrastructure, except lets look at exactly what he said (emphasis mine):

“If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help,” Obama said last month. “There was a great teacher somewhere in your life.  Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive.  Somebody invested in roads and bridges.  If you’ve got a business — you didn’t build that.  Somebody else made that happen.”

If I have a business, I didn’t build that.  Someone else made that happen.  In the words of Samuel L. Jackson:

He said, plain as day, “if I have a business I didn’t build that, someone else did”.  But lets humor them for a second and say it just applied to “infrastructure”.

It wasn’t the government that built the roads, no, it was small independent contractors, aka small businesses that built that.  They were paid from money collected by the federal government.  That money was collected from businesses and their employees.  They made that money by selling goods and services to other people.  So really small businesses through inter-cooperation built roads and infrastructure with the government getting involved to take a cut of the costs.

So maybe what Obama was actually talking about was money.  You see government prints the money and since it’s no longer standardized on anything they can print as much as they want.  So it was the government that built a fiat currency to use to buy all this stuff and in the end screw businesses by devaluing the currency used for transactions.  That is the only way that “If you have a business, you didn’t build that” can possibly make any sense.  That statement can only hold true if you say that government is the creator and founder of using money in exchange for goods and services.  Except you need not only use cash, you can barter or use precious metals in transactions as well.

The bottom line is the President let us look under the veil on that one.  Under that veil we saw what many of us already knew, a hard-core socialist that wants to drive private independent businesses into the ground and have a central government-run it all.  Because in that case no one would build that, it would all be “owned” by the government.  No thanks Mr. President, keep the change.

Why statements to create FUD aren’t an argument…

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First for those who don’t know, FUD, is Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt.  It is significant because honestly it is the only thing our opponents in the gun control debate can argue with.  Facts and statistics are not on their side and we know it by the rants about “blood in the streets” that never actually seem to happen.

The thing is, guns are by no means the only place where Puritans use FUD to attempt to destroy freedom and liberty.  The best recent example was I-1183 which privatized liquor sales in the state of Washington.

This was a giant exaggeration. The initiative limited new licenses to stores of at least 10,000 square feet unless there are only smaller stores in a trade area. It left “trade area” to be defined by the Washington State Liquor Control Board, which has not yet done it. As a result, no store of less than 10,000 square feet has been given a new license, though some of the stores grandfathered from the old system are minimart-sized. There may be some new minimarts licensed to sell spirits, but not 1,000 of them.

The No on 1183 campaign argued the state was better at verifying that buyers are old enough to buy alcohol. Before liquor privatization, state stores had a tested compliance rate of 94 percent, while private stores selling beer and wine had a rate in the 70s. But the liquor board has just tested the new retailers, and the compliance rate in July was 92 percent.

He continues to point out that the statements made by the pro-side have held true.  Most importantly was this quote from a distiller within the state:

At the state’s oldest craft distiller, Dry Fly Distilling in Spokane, co-owner Kent Fleischmann says, “Our production is way up.”

Imagine that, you get the government out of something and sales go up, creating jobs, and wealth.  Isn’t it amazing what happens when people finally get over the FUD and the government is forced to get the hell out-of-the-way?

Here’s a tip, if someone’s main argument is the equivalent of “think of the children”, “I feel ‘x'”, or any variance like it and they are arguing that government involvement is the cure tell them to go screw off.  Move on and don’t bother arguing because they are currently suffering from PSH and are irrational.  Further their only argument is to attempt to pluck your emotional heart-strings, yeah I feel empathy, but what about the empathy for the innocent person whose rights you’re violating to make yourself feel better?

FUD is a huge red flag in any argument and it should be drug out into the middle of the square and exposed as such.  It’s good to see all the horror predictions fall down so that those who were against I-1183 can become the modern social pariah equivalent of:

Umm, no sparky…

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So Mr. Biden went out today and said the following:

VICE PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: They’ve said it. Every Republican’s voted for it. Look at what they value and look at their budget and what they’re proposing. Romney wants to let the—he said in the first 100 days, he’s going to let the big banks once again write their own rules–unchain Wall Street. They’re going to put y’all back in chains. He’s said he’s going to do nothing about stopping the practice of outsourcing…

Ok sparky, I know you’re a little slow so I’ll try and make this patently obvious.

You and your buddies are the ones putting us in chains.

Let’s get something straight, the definition of slavery involves an involuntary relationship.  IE the government taking more taxes out of its citizenry.  I am free to enter or not enter into business with banks or other institutions.  Likewise I wish that you meddling monkeys would keep your nose out of it and let the companies that are more promiscuous than that of a whore in a whore house fall flat on their face when their VD finally catches up with them.

The fact is numb nut, it is you and your buddy Fearless Leader which have laid chains upon us by forcing us enter into business with merchants.  In so doing you have also engineered the system into failing so that in the end, Our Enemy the State will be our master.

You see I am forced to pay taxes at gun point, even if you waste and squander money in ways I consider frivolous.  I am now forced to buy health care as well, and failure to do so results in me further paying my Uncle that has absolutely no fiscal sense.

I can make my choice of who I take a loan from.  In so doing it is my responsibility to understand the terms and conditions of that loan.  If a moron runs out and buys a house he can’t afford, well that’s his damn problem.  He placed himself in those chains voluntarily.

You however Mr. Vice President have worked with your friend the President to lay upon us a very heavy set of chains.  Frankly sir, I wish the two of you would do us both a favor and Fuck Off.  I didn’t ask for any of this bull shit yet I’m being stuck with the bill.

As far as I’m concerned, when it comes to you and President Shithook, you both are nothing more than forcefully enslaving the working middle class.  Go to hell you pretentious dick.

The Minuteman

P.S. I don’t like the alternative any better, but the one upshot is with Romney the media will finally do it’s damn job again.

P.P.S. You have no room to talk about Ryan’s budget because at least the fucker had one.  You and your cohorts haven’t had a budget in 3 years.  You know why?  Because you’re worse than a sailor on liberty in a whore house!

</end rant> Shit I need a beer.

How Fear, Not Fact, Informs the Gun Rights Debate

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Wonderful video from Reason TV the truth behind the gun rights debate.

I find this a great addition to go along with this video I’ve used numerous times previously:

Then again, most of these people who fall into the irrational panic state don’t seem to understand the benefit of discussion occurring while you’re calm and rational.  Their coping mechanism for tragedy is to “Do Something,” even if that something actually causes more people to die they feel better because the did something.

I did see a video this weekend and I think I’m going to have to get together with some friends and script out a response.

Quote of the Day – Say Uncle (8/3/2012)

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The real outrage in this is that two elected officials threatened the president under color of law for expressing his views. That’s what you should be mad about. I’ll continue my boycott of Chicago and MA.

Say Uncle – Chick Fellatio
August 3, 2012

[The other day Popehat posted a link on twitter and I had the urge to comment but let it subside.  My main contention with the linked content was this though:

Don’t you dare say that you’re just supporting Dan Cathy’s freedom of speech and religious expression. While there may be some of you who actually do care about the First Amendment working for everyone, I would like to know where you were when:

At which point he goes into a list of places that have been boycotted for their views one way or another.  I have to disagree and here’s why.

I, like most American’s, only become involved when I feel that something affects me.  I didn’t see the LGBT community come and participate with the Starbucks buycott for example.  I’m sure there was overlap as I know that Gay Cynic probably participated but as a whole the groups are not tied together at the hip.  I would in general do my best to support someone, but I will not expend energy in going out of my way as I will with places who forbid concealed carry for example.

What has happened here is that a large number of people are supporting Chick-Fil-A, not because of the owners stance on Gay marriage.  That is an entirely separate debate and my position can be summed thusly:

The state has no business being involved in marriage.  As for the legal rights provided by marriage between partners, who cares if they’re both male or female.  Everyone deserves the same legal rights and it is no one’s business to judge anyone else for their choices.

Moving on though this situation was aggravated by two political individuals.  Namely the mayors of Chicago and Boston.  These two individuals attempted to use the force of state to punish a company and its owner for voicing their opinion.  While I disagree with that opinion, they had every right to say it without the threat or use of force from government.  That is the problem, these politicians were using government to silence speech.  It wasn’t a separate part of the public attempting to shame the company for their opinion, it was the state.  The fact that they were using government to influence or control speech is a blatant violation of the first amendment and is worthy of note because what is to stop either of them saying I cannot conduct business because of my outspoken support of the second amendment?  It doesn’t have to even be about the second amendment though, it could be anything they disagree with.

I am by no means the only one with this view as well.  This is very much a free speech issue because the state should not be allowed to disallow businesses from operation based on the opinions and speech of their owners or employees.

I live in Washington and there is no Chick-Fil-A out here.  Overall I probably wouldn’t go if there was, but given the behavior of a few tyrannical politician’s I would give patronage just to show my support.  That’s exactly what those politicians did by doing that.  They drove people to patronize that business merely because the government was intimidating them. -B]

I Encountered A Member of Occupy Last Week

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So evidently last week when I went to visit Joe and Ry I should have just used cash to pay for dinner at the Kirkland Red Robin.  It was at least positive I used my credit card instead of my debit card.

You see some piss ant that is too lazy to work decided to make a complete copy of my card and go on a shopping spree today.  They started in North Bend evidently at a gas station and drove to Ephrata where they proceeded to hit up Wal-Mart and Rite-Aid racking up a 500 dollar bill at which point Bank of America’s fraud division suspended the card and called me.

You see I rarely use that card and usually only for one off purchases who’s costs are immediately paid off by the next bill.  So I talk to the fraud department they fully closed the card, asked me if I knew anyone who could be using it.  I informed them I’m staring at my card right now, it’s been in my wallet and I’ve used it only once recently, last Tuesday to be exact, at the Kirkland Red Robin.  They back charged all the fraudulent charges, closed the card, and I should have a replacement next week.

So I get the inconvenience of being out of my card for a week, which is no big deal, I have an emergency fund for a reason.  It is still annoying though.  It is annoying because some ass-hat felt that I needed to redistribute my wealth to him.  Except in the end he didn’t end up stealing from me, he ended up stealing from those companies.  I’m sure this little piss-ant feels that he was just robbing from the rich to give to himself, never mind that the costs of his theft actually gets distributed into higher costs for everyone else.

So yeah, I’m in need of some recoil therapy.  Luckily I can blow some stuff up this weekend with Joe and Sunday I’ll be able to shoot the stages I’ve designed.  It should be fun, but damn I’m still since I’ve got to redo many of my online recurring transactions now.  At least I have a list of which placed I need to go fix.

At least I got my money back, because this would definitely be me if I got a bead on the parties responsible if I didn’t.

Quote of the Day – Munchkin Wrangler (07/19/2012)

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Nobody builds a business alone, that’s true. But Bob didn’t make all those people work for free, and he didn’t make use of public resources without writing hefty tax checks for the privilege. Bob paid everyone, including his local, state, and federal government, before he even got to make his first dollar of profits. And Bob carries all the risk here. If his business tanks, his contractors aren’t going to return the money he gave them for their work, his employees aren’t going to give back their wages, and the government isn’t going to return the taxes and fees he paid. So why is it OK that when he’s successful enough to make a profit, some populist asshole politicians can stand up and say that “he hasn’t paid his fair share to society yet”?

Munchkin Wrangler – you didn’t build that
July 16th, 2012

[I do love the comments about what it took to build a business coming from a man who’s never built or run a business in his life. Businesses take work, period. There is risk and there is one person who takes that risk and the reward for the risk is the potential for profit. But profit is the result of greed and corruption right?  That person who has poured blood sweat and tears working their ass off so they don’t fail shouldn’t get any reward.

Why should they get no reward, you see someone else actually built their business. The business owner didn’t spend late nights with no bonus pay keeping the ship afloat.  They haven’t spent hours working on a website with zero income coming from it at the beginning.  Who cares that the business operator has paid anyone who works for them a fair wage in exchange for their goods and services?

That’s the crux, people who are paid by the business owner didn’t build the business.  People who build a business invest considerable time and effort without the guarantee of a reward.  That in and of itself is the very nature of business and is known as your Return on Investment.

Building a business means you invest a lot of time and your own money that in the future you may end up with more than you had.  Evidently our fearless leader has some other shining example of what building a business looks like.

*Most annoyingly is some places charge you a fee merely for permission to conduct business.  You see you need a business license to sell things to people who would like your goods and services.  You pay for the privilege but if for one reason or another you take a year off, you get to pay the tax man for the privilege again.  See how that works?  The government has to get theirs or you can’t get yours. -B]