Posted on 02/09/2013 12:19:06 PM PST by frithguild
Now, let’s fast forward to the present. As a society, we expect rapid and massive technical innovation in the creation of physical objects. We measure the speed of directional changes in the allocation of resources for such innovations in milliseconds, rather than years. Our “Sharpes” Shooters no longer have a range of 200 yards. A trigger pulled in Washington can hit a target in Islamabad. I keep coming back to the idea that we, as a society have reached a tipping point, but I feel at a total loss as I try to imagine where it may lead.
With the results of the election a couple of months ago, I took note of how a certain part of the winning team took their victory lap. Concededly, I was venturing into the realm of rank speculation. Nevertheless, it then rang true to me then that we were seeing the shape of things to come. In the Google Purges, aimed first at General Patreus, the Elite that Knows Me took information and used it as a weapon against those that served in our military. I saw this a prelude to the strategy the Obama administration would use as sequester approached.
This week, the only voice from the military side of things that one could hear in favor of our present levels of military spending was Leon Panetta. This was no principled dissent or voice of altruism. It was a carefully planned trap to move Republicans away from a “letting it burn” strategy through sequester. The rest of the military voices, however, stayed mute. So mute, that there was little to no voice in opposition to the “savings” that will result in the draw-down by 2/3 of our nuclear arsenal.
As the Greatest Generation drifts into the alluvium of history, so does the voice for strong national defense. I recently saw a sign that our flight from military might is inevitable. I went to see a band play on New Year’s Eve – a true guitar prodigy really. They were all guys in their 20’s, that played southern and 60’s music. It was a three piece band, with no percussion. The bass player was really that good. The keyboard was an electric organ that used a mechanical tone wheel, which gave them a Greg Allman type sound.
There it was, stuck on the organ - a “Ron Paul” sticker. My friend, a major liberal, said that his son, a brilliant 18 year old kid probably on his way to med school, loves Ron Paul. He communicates with all sorts of like-minded people from the safety of his bedroom. To this generation, it seems that Ron Paul is what I would call "cool." At 52 years, I am too old now to know the current analog to that expression. My liberal friend said his son and his friends say that anything is better than these people in Washington. I said, “No, they realize that nothing is better than these people in Washington.” So as I see it, the future holds little promise for our American military.
The evidence of this trend is all around this week. “[T]he decision this week to delay deployment of the USS Harry Truman aircraft carrier strike group to the Middle East was to adjust to funding for the 2013 fiscal year.” The Navy is delaying work on the USS Abraham Lincoln. I see it as no coincidence that the old enmity between the Chinese and Japanese seems to be on the rise, as we can see by the misfortunes of a few poor fishermen. There are no powerful dissenting views that I have seen today that say the decline in the American military will make the world less safe.
I can only wonder whether our ability to acquire and process information will be enough to maintain our security, as we stand on the brink of the savaging of our American military material might. After all, with our low information voters, what we have been calling here the Snookie mentality, the most important question is what would Carrie Bradshaw say about all of these military thingies? Don't we have drones to what those aircraft boats thingies do?
Today, it is about information. As Tom pointed out early on, the Feinstein Bill is basically dead on arrival. However, deep within this new legislation, the Elite that Knows Me seeks what they believe to be the real gem. Your information - because that will ensure your silence.
This is what happens when a nation of complacent welfare-slave dolts votes for a glib Communist traitor mole.
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