Sunday Morning Scene. Religion in the military.

The Department of Defense scaled back its list of recognized religions.   There were 211, now there are 31.  Here is the full list:

Agnostic (AN)

Baha'i faith (BH)

Buddhism (BU)

Christian - Assemblies of God (AG)

Christian - Baptist (BA)

Christian - Brethren (BR)

Christian - Catholic (CA)

Christian - Church of Christ (CC)

Christian - Church of God (CG)

Christian - Church of the Nazarene (CN)

Christian - Episcopal/Anglican (EA)

Christian - Evangelical (EV)

Christian - Jehovah's Witnesses (JW)

Christian - Lutheran (LU)

Christian - Methodist (ME)

Christian - Non Denominational (ND)

Christian - Orthodox (OX)

Christian - Other (CO)

Christian - Pentecostal (PE)

Christian - Presbyterian (PR)

Christian - Quaker (QU)

Christian - Reformed (RE)

Christian - Scientist (SC)

Christian - Seventh Day Adventist (SA)

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (CJ)

Hindu (HI)

Islam (Muslim) (IS)

Judaism (Jewish) (JU)

No Religion (NR)

Other Religions (OR)

Sikh (SI)

One of the things that I find discouraging to do is to give any credit to Hegseth's Department of Defense, but every now and then he's right.  Frankly, his view that too much social experimentation, or "woke" policies as the far right would have it, had been going on inside the military was correct.  Transgenderism and the the like had no place in the military.

Acting Chief Army Chaplain Maj. Gen. William Green Jr., who is serving until his successor is appointed.  He's a Baptist minister.  When I was a National Guardsmen, the 115th FA Bde., the Chaplain was a Baptist minister from Utah.  He was a nice guy, but the troops had little interaction with him.

And frankly the huge number of religions that the DoD recognized was a problem.

The Air Force's Chaplain Corps also serves the Space Force.

One thing I'd thought that Hegseth would do, and which I wish he would do, is to remove women from combat roles.  To some degree it looks like he's creeping up on that, but if that's the case, he ought to realize that after January 2027 he's going to be much less capable of doing anything.

The problem Hegseth interjects, however, is that like the Trumpian far right in general is that he combines some concerns over legitimate problems, including legitimate social problems, with wackiness, which makes it really hard to give him credit on anything.  In terms of religions, Hegseth is festooned with Crusader related tattoos which would be an insult to Crusaders, given his own beliefs, and fits into the theologically unsupportable hardcore millenialist Calvinist camp.

Maj. Gen. Trent C. Davis, Chief Chaplain of the U.S. Air Force.  He is also a Baptist.

Anyhow, this probably made sense, in the abstract.

And this is a far more complicated story than people might imagine.

The U.S. Army has had chaplains since July 29, 1775, sort of, as there were religious that served on a regimental level at that time.  Religious diversity existed in the colonies that early, but nowhere near to the extent it does not.  An official Army chaplain did not exist until  Reverend John Hurt of Virginia (who had served as Chaplain of the 6th Virginia Regiment during the American Revolution) was appointed to the position of Chaplain of the Continental Army on 4 March 1791, which even for the Revolution is sort of late in the day.

It wasn't until the Mexican War that there were Catholic Chaplains in the Army, the influx of German and Irish immigrants, and the bigoted attitudes of the Southern officer class making it a necessity.  The Mexican War remains the most unpopular war that Americans ever fought, something even some professional soldiers acknowledged, and the desertion rate in general was huge.  The desertion rate of Catholic Irish and German troops was particularly problematic.  So, during that war, Catholic Chaplains came into the service in response to the government recognizing the problem.  It's sometimes noted that the Mexican War served as a training ground for the Civil War, and in that context it certainly did, as  huge numbers of Catholic troops served in the Civil War, with most of them serving the Union.  Some senior officers by that time, such as Sheridan and McClellan, were Catholic.

The service did not start issuing "dog tags" until 1906, and that was due to the concern of Army Chaplain Charles C. Pierce, who who was in charge of the Army Morgue and Office of Identification in the Philippines.  To put this in context 40% of the Union dead from the Civil War remained unidentified after the war.  Their bodies were never identified.   The early dog tags did not identify religion, but late Great War ones did, with that being indicated by a single initial, P, C, or H, for Protestant, Catholic, and Hebrew, the latter being the term used to identify Jewish soldiers.  After the war, with a return to a small military, the practice was discontinued, but it was revived in 1941.

By the Vietnam War the practice had changed to allow troops to choose what would be stamped on their dog tags.  This is the type we had in the 1980s, and in my case it was stamped "Catholic".  Apparently this is the system that's still used.  

Of course dog tags are one thing and ministering to troops another.  I honestly have no idea how the protestant chaplains minister to protestant troops  There are so many varieties of Protestantism it must be difficult.  The task faced by Catholic, Jewish and Muslim must accordingly be easier in that regard.

Anyhow, with the current diversity of the US, this must be a huge task.  Cutting the categories down to sizes makes sense, but its also guaranteed to upset people.

The Navy's Chaplain Corps also served the Marine Corps and the Coast Guard.

One group it's upset is the Latter Day Saints, as they aren't listed as Christians, which they aren't.  Jehovah's Witnesses, however, are listed as Christians on this list, and they are not either.  Both religions recognize that Christ existed, but their theologies are radically different from Christians.  Mormon theology is really had to nail down, and it moves, but generally the LDS do not believe Jesus is the co-eternal God of the Holy Trinity, but rather view Him as an exalted, separate being who is the literal spirit brother of all humanity and Satan.  Jehovah Witnesses believe that Jesus is the most exalted of God's created beings.  Neither religion, therefore, hold what Christians do, as defined by the Nicene Creed:

I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ,

the Only Begotten Son of God,

born of the Father before all ages.

God from God, Light from Light,

true God from true God,

begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father;

through him all things were made.

For us men and for our salvation

he came down from heaven,

and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary,

and became man.

In other words, they don't believe in one eternal God with three personalities, which have always existed.

At least traditionally they haven't believed that.  As noted, Mormon theology moves and frankly isn't well defined.

Nonetheless, this has upset the LDS, which regards itself as Christian.  It may regard itself as such, and surely does given its name, but it isn't.

That it upsets them and is a big deal to them makes sense, however, as its a direct rejection of their religious claims.  So in essence the Pentagon has made a statement rejecting their theology, and it pretty much had to, which shows the danger of recognizing even 31 faiths.  But you also have to recognize some distinctions as well.  Protestants and Catholics are different.  The LDS is extremely different.  

Rear Adm. Gregory N. Todd, Chief Navy Chaplain.  He is a Missouri Synod Lutheran.

A peculiarity of this we'd note is that this would only matter in practical terms if you have troops fitting these categories.  Jehovah's Witnesses are precluded from serving under their religion, so not only is the identification of them as Christians incorrect, but even having that category for the service may be fairly pointless.  

There are about 36,000 Mormons in the military, which is surprisingly slightly lower than the number of Orthodox, which is about 39,000.  There are only 15,000 active duty members of the service who are Jewish.

Cpt. Jennifer Bowden, USN, Chief Chaplain for the Coast Guard.  She's an Elder in the United Methodist Church.

So, I guess, is there a point to this discussion?

I suppose, with part of it just being to note what the overall story is.  The US is very diverse and that reflects in the military, but not to the extent that a person might think.  20% of servicemembers are Catholic which mirrors our percentage of the American population.  In Korea, to attend Easter Mass, a colleague of mine and I went to an on base chapel, but the Priest was Australian and not in the Army.  Probably a fairly typical scenario.  In contrast, my father was pretty good friends with a Catholic Chaplain in the Air Force when he was stationed overseas.  

70% of servicemembers overall are Protestant, but of course, as noted Protestantism is very diverse.  That makes the 20% of the service that's Catholic a pretty big block.

The other part of this story is, I guess, that you are going to upset people with a list like this.  The service can't possibly list every single Protestant faith and Protestants themselves notoriously disregard their own denominations.  Catholics, Orthodox, Jews, and Muslims, don't.  That's a real reason some discretion is needed.  A Catholic needing last rights needs it from a Catholic or Orthodox Priest, who are the only ones who can deliver that.  The LDS are their own thing as well, and frankly, except they obviously feel uncomfortable that, they ought to accept it.

But is there more to this?

(To Be Continued).

CliffsNotes of the Zeitgeist, 128th Edition. Attempted assassination at a pointless event.

The 127th edition of this was teed up to go before last night's White House Correspondence Dinner, or this would be that edition.  Having the other one ready to go, I went ahead and ran it. 

I didn't realize anything had happened right away until I went upstairs and my wife was watching a little of the news feed.  It was fairly typical with the press doing the usual "oh gosh, who could the target have been" routine.  We all know who the target was, Donald Trump.

This is a tragedy, even though nobody was hurt, thankfully, for a variety of reasons, one being that while there are now questions about how the assailant "got so close" (in a country armed to the hilt, Trump probably comes surprisingly close to armed people every single day), what this accomplishes once again will be to help rally people around Trump.  I know that's not supposed to be the first observation, but it's quite true.

Trump has been sinking like a rock in popularity but people rally around somebody who is attacked.  And in the MAGA camp, where quite a few people believe that Trump is on some sort of Devine mission, it'll be seen as proof of that.

That this occurred is not a surprise at all.  Trump is an illegitimate President who vomits hatred on a nearly daily basis.  He inspires hatred of him and is likely the most hated American President since Abraham Lincoln.  He is a horrible human being.  

None of that justifies an attempt at murder, but it's not surprising the attempt was made.  What's additionally interesting, fwiw, is the far right of this country effectively adopted the concept of tyrannicide during both Biden's and Obama's terms in office, so in a way, that set the table for something like this to occur in a way that didn't exist when there were attempts on prior Presidents.

With this attempt, depending on how you look at it, Trump holds the record for the most attempts on a Presidents life.  Having said that, if you limit that to while a figure is in office, he's tied with Ford if you regard him as being presently in office.

I probably would have skipped mentioning the dinner as its shameful that it even occurs anymore.  

Some outside commentary on it:

Inside the Ballroom: Chaos and Confusion

One wonders if the surreal events of Saturday night might make it hard to return to the familiar conception of the White House Correspondents Dinner.

That article by a reporter who was there.  

Surreal?  Maybe, but by this point in Trump's illegitimate reign I suspect a lot of people are like me.  We know that this was a horrible event but it hardly even registered on the attention meter.  Trump so dominates the news with his horrible behavior that even when its directed at him, it's hard to really get too worked up about it.

Again, I don't condone this, and the effect will aid Trump, who needs to be removed via the 25th Amendment.  

About the dinner itself, a lot of people, myself included, flatly feel that it should have been cancelled, or at least Trump should not have been invited.  He treats the Press horribly, and yet there they are, worshipping him.

Aid and Comfort to the Enemy

The recklessness of the White House Correspondents’ Association’s self-own

A cartoon:

The WH Correspondents' Dinner

Unethical and tone deaf

Apparently J.D. Vance and sycophantic today Mike "Toady" Johnson were at the event.  Of interest, the Secret Service rushed Vance off first.

That's interesting.

If that comes up again, I'm sure there will be some solid explanation, but I wonder if its just not a combination of fatigue on the part of security as well.  Vance and Trump probably have separate security details and Trump's is probably numb from having to be around such a horrible person constantly.

On clearing the room, the excessive number of iPhone cameras anymore means everything is photographed to the hilt and then over analyzed.  That's already happening, but as horrible as something like this is, it can lead to some semi assuming photographs, none of which would be the slightest bit amusing if you were there.

One is that Kennedy Jr. appeared to leave his wife behind as he was escorted out to safety. His wife, actress Cheryl Hines, later explained that her formal dress hindered her ability to get out and she had to be carried.

Stephen Miller basically shoved his wife out, which is understandable, but photographically unfortunate too, as he was leading her while behind her and his hand was unfortunately placed for control on her upper torso, um, well anyhow.

On the post scene photographs, one security figure is clearly carrying a SIG M17 in the same photograph as a female security officer carrying a Glock 19.  The M17 is way larger.  It had the conventional iron sights.

The man carrying it was way larger than the female officers as well.  I know that in 2025 a person isn't supposed to feel these things but in at least two of the Trump attempts a female secret service officer has been present and just the photographs don't inspire confident in me.  That's probably just me.  Anyhow, well. . . 

Well, a slight addition.

Since the decline in sartorial standards, Secret Service officers are absurdly easy to pick out. They're always wearing dark suits.  I have a photograph of Theodore Roosevelt from 1903 or so in which a Secret Service officer is wearing tweed and a newsboy cap.  Much harder to pick out.  The women are even easier to pick out as women don't normally wear dark business suits.

Glocks leave me unimpressed as well.  M'eh.

Trump promised to reschedule the event, which of course, wasn't his to schedule in the first place.

Trump offered some comments from the White House.  Included in those were that the military is demanding the ballroom.

The military probably doesn't normally provide any sort of security to the President at all, although the man with the M17 is interesting as he was clearly in some security role, and was not in the Secret Service, and probably in the military.  That aside, the military probably doesn't give a rats ass about the ballroom in this context.  Trump just makes crap up.

What does seem to be the case is that there's a giant bunker being built under where the ballroom is supposed to go, but won't.  We only know the details of that which we know as Trump can't stop his verbal diarrhea. 

It is an interesting aspect of this however is how much of the White House destruction was motivated by a military request, and then taken advantage of by the White House, if it was.

I'll add that building giant bunkers leads to an inflated sense of self worth on the part of everyone involved.  That part of this project ought to be halted as well.

One final note.  Most people who attempt to assassinate Presidents are nuts.  This is notable as by an large, their efforts are incredibly poorly done.  This is true of nearly every historical assassination attempt.  Of all of them, Lee Harvey Oswald's was by far the most competent attempt, which is probably why people insist it must have been a conspiracy.

Not that this isn't already happening here.  I've already read claims that this attempt, and all the prior ones, on Trump's life were staged.  They weren't, but something remarkable here is that Trump, Vance and Johnson were all present, which is stupid.  The argument would be that you know they were staged, as the government would never be so dim as to put the first three people in line for power in the same public room.

Oh yes it would.

Rubio was there too.

Given the line of succession, if a competent attacker was president, Chuck Grassley might now be President.  That would assume a lot of skill that most attempted assassins really lack, which is a good thing for everyone.  Indeed, even well trained assassins tend not to pull regime change off, as the repeated German Army failures on Hitler demonstrate.

It does demonstrated a lot of hubris, however.  We are presently at war with a country whose entire leadership was assassinated early on.  Murdering the leadership of opposing combatants is generally regarded as beyond the Pale in war.  We did not do it in World War Two, and our opponents didn't attempt it either.  The targeting of Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto in Operation Vengeance during World War Two is still controversial.  It was well known that Trump would be at this event and it was likely known that members of his cabinet would be too.  That Iran did not regard the event as a target of opportunity says a lot about their restraint, and frankly, their intelligence.   They could literally have decapitated the administration and left a person so old in charge that he would have had to resign.  I don't know how many members of Trump's cabinet were in fact there.  Maybe all of them.

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CliffsNotes of the Zeitgeist, 127th Edition. The Dipshit Edition. The Wyoming Freedom Caucus decides the a General officer of the U.S. Army is too "woke" to be the President of UW.

Labels: 2020s, 2026, Army, Education, Ignorance, Stupidity, United States Military Academy, University of Wyoming, Woke, Wyoming Freedom Caucus, Zeitgeist

The Aerodrome: Kuwaiti speaks to shot down U.S. pilot.

The Aerodrome: Kuwaiti speaks to shot down U.S. pilot.:   There's footage of this F-15 being shot down over Kuwait, which was a friendly fire incident. I actually didn't know the F-15 was ...

Kuwaiti speaks to shot down U.S. pilot.

 

There's footage of this F-15 being shot down over Kuwait, which was a friendly fire incident.

I actually didn't know the F-15 was still in use by the US, but this very late model has only been in service since 2021.

CliffsNotes of the Zeitgeist, 119th Edition. Comments on Culture. A Galwaywoman's comment on men and women, Rubio's comments on Western Civilization, and Hegseth hosts a Christian Nationalist.

A series of posts on viewpoints that aren't related. . . well maybe there are.

The first one is from Chloe Winter's vlog, which is one of the agricultural ones that we link in here.  Ms. Winter is a married Galway greenhouse farmer (that's how I'd put it) in her very early 20s (maybe actually 20) who took up greenhouse farming when a close friend of hers died.  Galway is very rural Ireland and Galwegians are very rural Irish.  I've actually heard them referred to as "Bog Irish" by other Irish.  The county is one of the few areas of Ireland where there are bonafide Irish Gaelic speakers and it has its own accent, which Ms. Winter very thickly has.

This entry was surprising, in a way in that its very anti first wave feminist, but in a really genuine way.  It may actually be fourth wave feminist.  If released in the US (I believe most of Ms. Winter's followers are Irish), it'd create some sort of firestorm in some social medial communities.

Having said that, she isn't wrong.

And her vocabulary and manner of speech is delightfully Irish.

Two different right wing cultural views emerged from Trump servants so far this week.  What's interesting in part about them is that many commentators aren't able to realize that they actually express radically different world views, which shows how poorly people are informed and educated in some things.

The State Department, which still calls itself the Department of State, posted a photo of Marco Rubio with this entry, summing up his recent deliveries to European figures:

The United States and Europe belong to a civilization that stretches over continents, crossed over oceans, and persisted for thousands of years: from Athens to Rome to America.  

Western Civilization must embrace its noble legacy if it is to reverse its decline.

This flat out puts Rubio in the National Conservative movement and is their thesis to the core.  It doesn't say anything, you'll note, about religion at all, it's all about culture.  You can perhaps read more into that if you want, any many would, but this is pretty much the Dinneen/Dreher/Reno thesis.

You can pretty much rest assured that its not the Trump thesis. Trump just isn't smart enough or interested enough to grasp something like this at all.

Rubio has endorsed Vance for 2028, but it's probably an endorsement of convenience.  By doing this, Rubio has raised his flag in the National Conservative camp.  This, moreover, may actually be what Rubio believes.

Rubio is drawing a lot of attention, and getting a lot of excitement, in Reaganite and other genuinely conservative camps.  He's not a populist.  The big question is whether he can overcome the stench of having been associated with Trump.  A secondary question is whether contemporary American culture, less than half of which is all that conservative, sees itself in this fashion very deeply.

In contrast is Pete Hegseth, who will never overcome the stench of Trump.

The Department of Defense posted this item about its activities this past week:

We have gathered at the Pentagon for our monthly worship service.

We are One Nation Under God.

 

First of all, the Department of Defense has no business whatsoever having monthly prayer meetings.  The United States may be One Nation, Under God, but this basically is a forced acknowledgement of a certain type of Christianity, that being a minority branch of it by far, over every other religion.  Yes, I'm a Christian, and a member of the original Christian faith, but not every soldier is, and no doubt there are soldiers who have no religion at all.  

Moreover, this is Doug Wilson, who appeared here in an earlier discussion.  He's a Calvinist who holds really extreme views.  You can be rest assured that considerably less than half of the American population wants a Puritan Calvinist regime in the U.S. Indeed, a couple of people responded to this Twitter post with:

Christopher Hale@ChristopherHale 13h

Doug Wilson routinely mocks the pope and the Catholic Church.

It’s beyond shameful that  @PeteHegseth  allowed him to lead taxpayer-funded anti-Catholic worship services.

Hale a Democratic Catholic blogger who has a pretty good blog dedicated to Pope Leo that you can also find on our blog lists.  He served in a prior Democratic administration and I'm still waiting for him to explain how an insider Democrat reconciled that with the Democratic Party's support of abortion.  That's an side, but that issue is one of the ones that keeps people like me from being Democrats, even though we aren't voting for very many Republicans any more.

Jim Stewartson, Decelerationist 🇨🇦🇺🇦🇺🇸@jimstewartson 13h

Listen. Doug Wilson is one of the most disgusting revanchist monsters on Earth. He doesn’t think women should vote, wants slavery back, and believes the U.S. should be a theonomy—Government by God. He runs a cult in Moscow, ID.

This is wildly unconstitutional & deeply immoral.

I don't know who Stewartson is, but describing Wilson as a revanchist is correct.  Monster might be a bit much, but he doesn't think women should vote and does think that the U.S. should be a Calvinist theocracy.  I don't know what he thinks about slavery and I'm not going to look it up, but Wilson is articulate and extreme.

And that's why Hegseth's actions here are really disturbing.  Rubio is trying to stake a claim for Western Civilization as special, something the National Conservatives hold and which a lot of people disagree with.  Hegseth is here advancing Christian Nationalism of a type that holds a very peculiar view on the United States' place in the world. 

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CliffsNotes of the Zeitgeist, 118th Edition. Why are the women discounted? The corruption of wealth. Hanging around in a cult will make you a weird cultist. New links and the fallen. A gift of cash on the floor of the legislature.

Labels: Distributism, Epstein Scandal, Seven Deadly Sins, Sex, Standards, Taxes, The wealthy, Yeoman's Twentieth Law of Behavior, Yeoman's Twenty-fifth Law of Behavior, Yeoman's twenty-third law of behavior, Zeitgeist

A recent development in the story of women in combat roles in the U.S. military:

Pentagon orders review on ‘effectiveness’ of women in combat arms jobs

I think it's pretty clear that the leadership in the DoD feels that women should not be in combat roles.  I have some old threads on this, and I don't think they should be either, but the interesting thing here is how the DoD has crept up on this.

They must be uncomfortable with just issuing a decision, as over the past year they've taken incremental steps, which the administration really hasn't done on anything else.  It would sort of suggest that they think this is the bridge too far.

It might also suggest a bit of a realization that things can be reversed and therefore the goal is to build a basis to avoid a reversal.

Wednesday, October 20, 1915. Arms okay for Carranza.

The impact of Woodrow Wilsons' administration recognizing Carranza, whose followers had blown off the Convention of Aguascalientes, and who personally hated the United States, was becoming immediately clear.

Arms to Carranza. . . that would tip the scales for sure.

While Wilson had his hand on the scale of the Mexican Revolution, he was issuing a proclaimation about American Thanksgiving.

President Wilson issued a proclamation regarding Thanksgiving.

Proclamation 1316—Thanksgiving Day, 1915

October 20, 1915

By the President of the United States of America

A Proclamation

It has long been the honoured custom of our people to turn in the fruitful autumn of the year in praise and thanksgiving to Almighty God for His many blessings and mercies to us as a nation. The year that is now drawing to a close since we last observed our day of national thanksgiving has been, while a year of discipline because of the mighty forces of war and of change which have disturbed the world, also a year of special blessing for us.

Another year of peace has been vouchsafed us; another year in which not only to take thought of our duty to ourselves and to mankind but also to adjust ourselves to the many responsibilities thrust upon us by a war which has involved almost the whole of Europe. We have been able to assert our rights and the rights of mankind without breach of friendship with the great nations with whom we have had to deal; and while we have asserted rights we have been able also to perform duties and exercise privileges of succour and helpfulness which should serve to demonstrate our desire to make the offices of friendship the means of truly disinterested and unselfish service. Our ability to serve all who could avail themselves of our services in the midst of crisis has been increased, by a gracious Providence, by more and more abundant crops. our ample financial resources have enabled us to steady the markets of the world and facilitate necessary movements of commerce which the war might otherwise have rendered impossible; and our people have come more and more to a sober realization of the part they have been called upon to play in a time when all the world is shaken by unparalleled distresses and disasters. The extraordinary circumstances of such a time have done much to quicken our national consciousness and deepen and confirm our confidence in the principles of peace and freedom by which we have always sought to be guided. Out of darkness and perplexity have come firmer counsels of policy and clearer perceptions of the essential welfare of the nation. We have prospered while other peoples were at war, but our prosperity has been vouchsafed us, we believe, only that we might the better perform the functions which war rendered it impossible for them to perform.

Now, Therefore, I, Woodrow Wilson, President of the United States of America, do hereby designate Thursday the twenty-fifth of November next as a day of thanksgiving and prayer, and invite the people throughout the land to cease from their wonted occupations and in their several homes and places of worship render thanks to Almighty God.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the City of Washington this twentieth day of October in the year of our Lord one thousand nine hundred and fifteen and of the independence of the United States the one hundred and fortieth.

Signature of Woodrow Wilson

Louis Botha, once a Boer General, of the South African Party won the 1915 South African general election and retained power.

French forces reached the town of Krivolak on the Vardar river in Vardar Macedonia. The British dug in at a mountain pass near Kosturino and Doiran Like.

The Ottoman Empire brought an end to Armenian resistance at Urfa.

The British Commonwealth recognized women as bus and tram operators for the duration, something that had been going on for some time.

Sweden established the Swedish Infantry Officers College.

Whatever It Is, I’m Against It: Today -100: October 20, 1915: With bleeding heart ...: Headline of the Day -100:  Male voters in New Jersey reject women’s suffrage in the referendum by roughly 133,000 to 184,000. It los...

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Tuesday, October 19, 1915. The US extends recognition to Carranza.

Labels: 1910s, 1915, Bulgaria, Constitutionalist Army, Italy, Mexican Border War, Mexican Revolution, Mexico, Russia, Texas, Texas (Brownsville), Venustiano Carranza, World War One

Lex Anteinternet: The Military Address of September 30, 2025. The Hegseth speech.

Lex Anteinternet: The Military Address of September 30, 2025: September 30, 2025.  08:30.  Lex Anteinternet: CliffsNotes of the Zeitgeist, 104th edition. Buy t... : Buy the Big Ugly or we'll shoot t...

The Military Address of September 30, 2025

September 30, 2025.  08:30. 

So what can we really take away from Hegseth's speech yesterday.

Well, on a superficial level, he's a blowhard.  

Based on the flag officer's reactions, he's not popular with the Service and we may be starting to see the beginning of a type of green revolt.  I don't think they can be counted on to support Trump's war on cities.

Hegseth has a real "kill people and break things" view of the service, which isn't completely unwarranted.  Many of the criticism he has of how things have developed in recent decades have merit.  Using the Armed Forces as a social laboratory is risky.  The transgendered in the Service thing was stupid and did need to go.

Hegseth clearly wants women out of combat roles, but it's not clear at all how far that extends.  He's approaching it based on PT requirements, which makes some sense, but which is really a pretty lightweight way to approach the topic    And what are combat roles in the current era?  What about, for example, radar stations ships?  Given the approach, the administration obviously fears really pissing women off.

Hegseth also seems to think that the Service was in the condition it was in 1977 or something.  He keeps referencing 1990, but in terms of overall physical condition, these troops are in better shape today than any time in the nation's history.

Part of this is his weird obsession with beards.  Military facial hair regulations evolve over time.  The no beards in the Army, Marine Corps and Air Force policy is only a little over a century old, and has to do with gas masks.  Combat troops have beards by default all the time.

All in all, the entire show could have been accomplished by an email.  But he was attempting to rally the troops to his side, at which he utterly failed.

Hegseth announces troops in combat jobs will have to meet highest male physical standards

Not quite no women in combat. . . but you can see it from there:

Hegseth announces troops in combat jobs will have to meet highest male physical standards

I always find mindself in an odd spot, vis-à-vis Hegseth.  I'm obviously not a fan of the Trump Administration, or of Hegseth, but I think moves like this are in fact in the right direction.

Odd that this comes up when it does, by the way.

Related threads:

Women and combat

Labels: Donald Trump, Evolutionary Biology, hunting, Men, Military, Pete Hegseth, The Madness of King Donald, The roles of men and women, Women, World War Two

Cliffnotes of the Zeitgeist, 88th Edition. A predictive issue and other ramblings. Order coming on women in combat roles. Trump's bolt shot.

Labels: Christian Nationalism, Military, National Conservatism, Predictions, The Madness of King Donald, The relationship between men and women, The roles of men and women, transgenderism, You heard it here first, Zeitgeist

Yes, it's bad behavior. Immoral, and criminal. But at what point is it nature?

Labels: Army, Commentary, Men, Military, nature, The relationship between men and women, The roles of men and women, United States Marine Corps, Women

Killing people and breaking things. . . and women in the service.

Labels: Army, Men, The roles of men and women, trends, War, Women, Work

Monday, September 24, 1945. Hirohito threw Tojo under the bus for Pearl Harbor. Elevator operators on strike.

Hirohito threw Tojo under the bus for Pearl Harbor.

Manhattan elevator operators went on strike.

It's odd to think of them going on strike.  They were common at the time, and were into the 1960s.  Now, of course, they're so rare that most people have never encountered one.

Miss Dorothy Eyster, an elevator operator at a downtown office building in Philadelphia, in 1943. The occupation had been considered a male one in the United States, but women broke into in increasing numbers during World War Two, although there were female elevator operators prior to that.  By the 1950s and 1960s, female elevator operators were common.  This photograph gives a good example of elevator controls of the period.

Related threads:

Mid Week At Work. Elevator Operators

Labels: 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, Conveyances, Mid-Week at Work, technology, The roles of men and women

Last edition:

Sunday, September 23, 1945. A call to arms.

Labels: 1940s, 1945, 1945–1946 War in Southern Vietnam, British Empire, Egypt, French Empire, French Indochina, Sudan, Việt Minh, Vietnam