Friday, June 08, 2007
Anti-militarism, San Francisco style
I'm going to be dogmatic about this: The Blue Angels are cool, and anybody who does not think that is an idiot.
19 Comments:
By 
, at
Fri Jun 08, 11:06:00 AM:
The Blues and the Birds are good, but I prefer the RAF Red Arrows. After that, I like to watch the Canadian Snowbirds perform.
By 
Christopher Chambers, at
Fri Jun 08, 11:10:00 AM:
Who doesn't like an airshow? If you think about it that way, everyone--certainly every child--loves it! It is wonderment, pure and simple. The problem comes in when you start to think about how it becomes PR for Ike's old Military-Industrial Complex, alive and well and gobbling all in its path--like Hogzilla before the rednecks shot it in Georgia.
I'm with the crunchy granola types when they say, then, why can't we marvel at the analogous Blue Angels of health care (real clinic care above all odds and without the oppressiveness of Big PHarma, et al) or the Blue Angels of teaching, or the Blue Angels of getting teens off meth, or the Blue Angels of alternative energy sources, city planning/transportation, and on and on.
I think the Blue Angels are cool (and their Air Force counterparts, let's not forget them). hey I also like the Marine drills down at the Barracks on 8th and E streets here in DC, especially in the summer when everyone's got their whites on and the girlfriends/wives/admirers are decked out in there sundresses). But I also think that other stuff is cool. But I start to turn away from the sky, or get in my car and curse, when someone starts telling me that the Blue Angels or these Marines tossing their rifles in the air are all there is, and if I don't get with that and cheer that to the exclusion of all else, I'm sort some of fag/traitor/liberal/blah blah.
By , at
Fri Jun 08, 11:12:00 AM:
Not only are they cool, they are, along with the Thunderbirds, the coolest thing on the planet. A couple of years ago, I was waiting for my flight at the San Francisco airport, watching the Blue Angels and their support craft take off and I thought, these guys are so cool that even the fellow travelers here like them. I guess not so much. And so, the pussification of America continues.
By SR, at
Fri Jun 08, 11:23:00 AM:
The "Blue Angels of Healthcare??
LOL. Healthcare workers are asked to do more and more facing more and more regulation. For folks like CC, there will never be an end to it until healthcare is free, and there are no lines at the "clinic." I say again, LOL!
By Christopher Chambers, at
Fri Jun 08, 11:33:00 AM:
Poor TigerHawk seemed deer-in-headlights when folks at Princeton Reunions asked, innocently, Hey I heard you have some sort of lunatic-fringe rightwing blog? Of course he doesn't. It's the prominent-foreheaded douchebags who leave comments on it, of course. LOL. "Pussification?" (hey didn't I say I liked the girls in their sundresses down at the Marine barracks?). Visions of clinic lines (hey man, there already ARE lines there, just not for the reasons you grumble about while drinking domestic drew and farting hehehehe). Shame, gentlemen. Shame. Be more open minded. Pleasant. Diverse-thinking.
I often wondered what tune many commenters on ths blog would be humming if I indeed perfected my time machine, brought them back to halcyon days they pine for. I probably wouldn't have to go back far, but then again, they might all be serfs cutting up sod, dying of stench and complaining about the lack of free health care, too many wars being fought by the lord? Or maybe I'd just leave them in front of a charging Zulu impi, and then they can explain demonstrate what the f*&k "pussification" really is.
Have a nice weekend.
By TigerHawk, at
Fri Jun 08, 11:42:00 AM:
Even such profoundly left-wing people such as George Carlin have noted "the pussification of the American male." It is not necessarily a partisan complaint, except maybe for those few American males who have -- in their heart -- inculcated the recent feminization of law and culture. Of course, most of us are unwilling to do anything about it, such as fight with our wives over the extent to which we should apply the child-rearing standards of the 1950s to our children.
By , at
Fri Jun 08, 12:20:00 PM:
Chistopher -
I may be a right-wing knucle dragger, but I am also gay. Is there a problem with that? I do not appreciate being lumped in the same category as "traitor" (your comment above at 11:10).
And as for a sound track - may I request The Radezky March, please (and yes, I know I would be more likely a private then Archduke Eugene).
By El Jefe Maximo, at
Fri Jun 08, 12:37:00 PM:
The Blue Angels are WAY cool, and I agree with Tigerhawk that anybody who doesn't think so's clearly an idiot.
Anon at 12:20. Radetzky March is way cool also. Try the Fredericus-Rex-Grenadiermarsch and the Yorckscher Marsch sometime. I would definitely have been on the Private end of the Private-Archduke spectrum.
By Cardinalpark, at
Fri Jun 08, 01:32:00 PM:
TH - I actually think alot of good wives -- especially those with sons -- completely reject the pussification of the American male. My wife is tough as nails and kicks my ass all over creation on the little stuff, but on the big stuff, she still wants her boys to be and become men, not wusses.
This is where you need a Cassandra comment.
By , at
Fri Jun 08, 02:29:00 PM:
Lighten up Chambers. I wasn't referring to you as being pussified. I wrote my post while you were posting yours and, anyway, I would never refer to a member of TI thusly. I was referring to the inability of people to appreciate both the skill of and the value added by those aviators. And you are right, there are others who have just as much skill and add as much or even more value. But they aren't on display the way the Blue Angels are nor do they have the same level of visceral coolness. And thanks TH, I did get the term from Carlin's last HBO special.
By Christopher Chambers, at
Fri Jun 08, 02:53:00 PM:
First: Anonymous--other than the currently unemployed Isaiah Washington, I've heard the word "fag" uttered only by your rightwing knuckle dragging pals LOL. Usually when describing folks wo don;t buy into their ethos. I think they use "non traditional family" otherwise. What's your take on Dubya's new Surgeon General nomination. His opinion is that you "choose" to be gay, and with medication, counseling and Jesus' help, you can be "un-gay."
As for pussification, I'd say a good example is the White hOuse and the Joints Chiefs. Today Pace is gone, and the President, the supposed Commander in Chief has decided he's too pussified to do his duty and brush the thing on a "War Czar?" WTF? In that Constitution you all and Clarence Thomas says let's strictly construe (and that got us Dred Scott and a Fugitive Slave clause still in ther by the way), I thought he couldn't do that? Hell, even James Madison, who was literally chased out of washington and had enemy soldiers (and the brothahs, let's not forget) burn Dubya's current residence down, and Abe Lincoln, who came pretty close to capture himself, never woke up and said, "You know what, I'm a pussy (and slightly retarded). I think I'm just going to punt my responsibilty and appoint a war czar." ;-)
PS I still like the Blue Angels...and the best looking women are still crowding the Marine Barracks parade ground on E Street in the summer.
By Cassandra, at
Fri Jun 08, 03:48:00 PM:
Cardinalpark. Shame on you.
Are you trying to get me to write about sex again?
Heh...
I do agree with you though. We ladies may test the limits and try to get you guys to knuckle under - that's just our nature - but we won't really respect you if you do. Likewise, most real men don't want to be married to a doormat. Life is more interesting if there's a bit of a spark to it, and we are proud if we can attract and keep a strong man :)
What we really want to know is that you love us. So go ahead, be manly-men. Just remember that we are most decidedly *not* male and humor our need to hear you admit that you do care about us.
We will reward you with all the love and devotion you could ever ask for.
By , at
Fri Jun 08, 06:52:00 PM:
El Jefe - Thanks, I will check those out.
in the mean time, look at this, a recording of the Royal Regiment of Wales' Band singing "Men of Harlech" in the church at Rorke's Drift, South Africa on the 120th anniversary of the Battle of Rorke's Drift.
By , at
Fri Jun 08, 09:21:00 PM:
I love them, the Blue Angels that is, also. Every year during Commissioning Week they pass over our house in the delta formation at 100 ft off the deck at 250 kts. Impressive.
Our three-year-old, however, is not at all enthralled.
"Yes, she is my daughter. Glad you asked."
JLW III '67
By , at
Sat Jun 09, 12:59:00 AM:
I say we should just BOYCOTT SAN FRANCISCO and have absolutly nothing more to do with this sewer hole. I once visted there i,ll never again set foot in that wretched place
By Purple Avenger, at
Sat Jun 09, 09:47:00 AM:
I thought he couldn't do that?
This kind of statement reveals your ignorance of Article II.
"He shall have power, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate...and all other officers of the United States, whose appointments are not herein otherwise provided for..."
By Chris, at
Sat Jun 09, 03:15:00 PM:
I, too, long to see the Blue Angels of health care, their perfectly creased uniforms reflecting the early afternoon sun, as they perform their famous close formation enema. Or the Blue Angels of teaching, as they wheel impressively before the chalkboard festooned with symbols of their craft.
People are drawn to air shows because they are physically impressive, not because they are more important than any other profession. Get a grip.
By , at
Tue Jun 12, 08:20:00 AM:
Chambers,
Get a grip. Maybe go to your yoga class a couple more times this week or something, or buy yourself something nice. It helps if you close your mouth and take nice deep breaths through your nostrils.
Have a nice day.
By clint, at
Thu Jun 14, 10:14:00 AM:
TH:
"I'm going to be dogmatic about this: The Blue Angels are cool, and anybody who does not think that is an idiot."
I agree wholeheartedly.
Fortunately, the magic of the free market presents exactly the right punishment for such idiocy: They don't get to see the Blue Angels perform.
(i.e. more airshows for the rest of us!)
