Been thinking about political asshattery in general, and a few politicians in specific. I try not to dwell on things too much, 'cause, well, there's only just so much bs that I find I can stand, nowadays. I thought it was interesting when my chain of thought took a different track, of sorts.
It started with Georgia's finest, opining on the possibility of military folks decidin' to up and go Guam tippin'...
Bounced around a bit, and then landed on another 'Call me Senator' who apparently got their panties in a bunch in re: the grievous insult of being called, "Ma'am". (Loved how she didn't address him as General during that little exchange, that was the topping on the cake!)
After some twists and turns, my little train wound up on sections of just about every General Petraeus clip that I've heard...
What's the connection, you ask? Political asshattery? Well, yes, but more so than that, was, the bearing of the Admirals and Generals when they have to deal with politicians.
Now, I've done my fair share of pissin' and moanin' about the really-really higher ups, but for the most part, it was more about them than directly because of them. Gettin' to formations 5 hours prior, hand scrubbing an already friggin' immaculate floor in a back room of the out-of-the-way berthing area on ship because the Division's CG is visiting in the same port as us, running fake personal security details / low-tech mine sweeping ops in Iraq, that sort of thing.
I've had to directly, face to face deal with stupid (much lower ranking) Officer questions, but truth be told, they were long and few in between, and for the most part, I'd give 'em credit; they didn't know something, so instead of pretending to be totally on the ball they put it out there and asked someone who did know what was going on. Good on 'em, sorta.
But what struck my mind when thinking about these incidents, and what I'm probably going to keep a look out for in the future is, their bearing. In all of the above mentioned scenes, there was no scoffing, snorting, wtf-ing, laughing, mouth-dropping, or hell, any kind of reaction other than the 100% professional response.
Is there some sort of Command-Staff College Poker class for advanced players going on out there? Holy Hey Zeus, can you imagine if the military got tired of the BS and just informed everyone that any and all future hearings would be responded by Gunny Ermey? Now there's a show I'd like to watch...!
It started with Georgia's finest, opining on the possibility of military folks decidin' to up and go Guam tippin'...
Bounced around a bit, and then landed on another 'Call me Senator' who apparently got their panties in a bunch in re: the grievous insult of being called, "Ma'am". (Loved how she didn't address him as General during that little exchange, that was the topping on the cake!)
After some twists and turns, my little train wound up on sections of just about every General Petraeus clip that I've heard...
What's the connection, you ask? Political asshattery? Well, yes, but more so than that, was, the bearing of the Admirals and Generals when they have to deal with politicians.
Now, I've done my fair share of pissin' and moanin' about the really-really higher ups, but for the most part, it was more about them than directly because of them. Gettin' to formations 5 hours prior, hand scrubbing an already friggin' immaculate floor in a back room of the out-of-the-way berthing area on ship because the Division's CG is visiting in the same port as us, running fake personal security details / low-tech mine sweeping ops in Iraq, that sort of thing.
I've had to directly, face to face deal with stupid (much lower ranking) Officer questions, but truth be told, they were long and few in between, and for the most part, I'd give 'em credit; they didn't know something, so instead of pretending to be totally on the ball they put it out there and asked someone who did know what was going on. Good on 'em, sorta.
But what struck my mind when thinking about these incidents, and what I'm probably going to keep a look out for in the future is, their bearing. In all of the above mentioned scenes, there was no scoffing, snorting, wtf-ing, laughing, mouth-dropping, or hell, any kind of reaction other than the 100% professional response.
Is there some sort of Command-Staff College Poker class for advanced players going on out there? Holy Hey Zeus, can you imagine if the military got tired of the BS and just informed everyone that any and all future hearings would be responded by Gunny Ermey? Now there's a show I'd like to watch...!
