The US Navy SEALs has had a veritable past and a rich history of its own. The earliest veterans to man strategic missions were the Operational Swimmers of the Office of Strategic Services or OSS who manned many such missions before the Navy SEALs did.
Initial training
The initial training started in November 1943 in the Camp Pendleton. This training camp then moved to Catalina Island during January in 1944. Later on within 3 months the training camp finally moved to the Bahamas. These early versions of the US Navy SEALs initiated various Navy SEALs equipments such as flexible swimming fins, diving equipment which was closed circuit in nature, submersible swimming equipment, as well as diverse combat swimming tools.
The first OSS mission
It was in May of the year 1944 that General Donovan who was the current head of the OSS, segregated the entire team into various groups. Group 1 was headed by Lt. Choate to Admiral Nimitz in order to initiate this early Navy SEALs team into the Pacific Theater. In July 1944 this team became a part of the UDT-10. In the first submarine Navy SEALs operation performed by the OSS a team of 5 men carried out this task.
The Granite Plan
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Posted by Walt as US Military, Veteran Issues, Vietnam at 10:55 PM EDT
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By Thomas E. Brewton
New Orleanians born and bred in the welfare-state seem honestly believe that they are not required to do anything to help themselves.
A large number of people, most of whom apparently are residents of New Orleans, have favored me with four-letter-word denunciations of The god That Failed New Orleans.
A common allegation was that I had written that New Orleans deserved its fate. No one, however, cited specifics, for good reason: I wrote nothing to that effect.
For example:
And do they want the levees to break? I guess it depends if you are (as a New Orleans blogger commented to a brain-dead Repug at the link) "a f_ckmook" who believes New Orleans deserved it (and there are, sadly, many more like this)…My thought is that they … don't care. We're the last major city port at the mouth of the largest river system in the United States, and they don't give a rat's ass. We have some of the best food, culture, history and characters to be found, and are unique unto ourselves in this world, but they pretty much summed it up with Dennis Hastert's comment: "It looks like a lot of that place could be bulldozed."
In other words, New Orleanians don't need to exert themselves rebuilding the city. They're entitled to have the taxpayers of the nation do it for them, because New Orleans has all sorts of things that cater to sensual appetites.
No emailer advanced a single argument to counter the specific points I made, which were that New Orleans, a once great commercial city, had become after 1927 mired in hedonism and dependence upon the welfare state.
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Posted by Walt as Government Corruption, Natural Disasters, Welfare at 11:52 PM EDT
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By Thomas E. Brewton
Why does much of New Orleans still look as if the 2005 devastation of Hurricane Katrina had occurred just a few weeks ago?
Huge areas of New Orleans still are wastelands. New Orleans's liberal-progressive-socialist Senator Mary Landrieu has grabbed far more than her share of Congressional pork. Hundreds of millions of Federal dollars spent for rehabilitation have produced far too little beneficial result. People were without electric power for months; the police department contained more thieves than honest law enforcers; drug-dealing and prostitution remain major enterprises; and the city still retains its crown as the nation's murder capital.
One of the city's few "legitimate" businesses is casino gambling.
City and state administrations have yet to coordinate rebuilding plans, as politicians fight over who gets what share of the spoils.
The best that the city's Mayor Nagin can do is to demand that the Democratic-socialist Party presidential candidates pledge to send even more pork to New Orleans.
What accounts for this dismal record?
The answer is simple. New Orleans abandoned God and personal moral responsibility, turning instead to worshipping the atheistic, secular political state. That secular god has failed miserably, notoriously so in the aftermath of Katrina.
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Posted by Walt as Economics, Government Corruption, Natural Disasters at 12:02 AM EDT
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"The Bible is for the Government of the People, by the People, and for the People." - General Prologue to the Wycliffe Bible in 1384.
Our country and its laws were established on the fundamental belief that our morality emanates from God. While the Constitution begins with the line, "We the people," it does not contain any religious words. Some people cite this as evidence that America is a secular country. Not so. America has always combined secular government with a society based on religious values.
Many settlers in the 1600s came to what they considered this new promised land seeking religious freedom. They identified with the biblical Jewish Exodus from Egypt because they had left Europe and its values as well. Ours is the only country to identify with many Jewish beliefs, and is why our culture calls itself "Judeo-Christian." These values include the importance of laws, fighting for justice, and a belief in judgment by loving and forgiving God.
The Founders understood there is a divine order that rises above the human order. By the 1770s, they sought our freedom from the British Crown with reliance upon, what the Declaration of Independence calls, "Nature's God," the "Creator," and "the Supreme Judge of the World."
The First Amendment was never intended to exclude all references to God from government institutions and public debate. It simply says, "Congress shall not establish a religion or prohibit the free exercise thereof." The word "establish" meant the creation of a state church, as in the Church of England. It is nonsense to say the founders intended the First Amendment to exclude all religious expression in public places.
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Posted by Walt as Christianity, U.S. Constitutional Issues, US History at 11:54 PM EDT
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The Congressional Medal of Honor is one of the most revered awards given to valiant soldiers and pilots in war. This medal is provided to the US Navy SEALs for their brave acts during war with an enemy. The medal is conferred by the President of the US and is given in the name of the Congress thereby getting its name – Congressional Medal of Honor.
The symbolism
The Congressional Medal of Honor has a certain symbolism and meaning attached to the shape and the motifs inside it. For example the inverted 5 pointed star has a cluster of leaves of laurel along with oak on each point. These leaves signify victory, while the oak symbolizes strength. Both these attributes are absolutely essential in any officer going for a Navy SEALs mission. Outside the circular insignia are 34 stars which stand for the number of stars in the US flag. Within the circle are two engravings. On the right is Minerva the Roman Goddess of War. Perched on her helmet is an owl which again symbolizes wisdom. Moving away from Minerva is a man who is carrying a bunch of snakes in his hands. He is known as Discord.
An impressive past
It might be surprising but the Congressional Medal of Honor has a rich past spanning over 140 years. It was during 21st December in 1861 that the first 200 medals of honor were produced. Then a few months later in February 17th 1862, there was a bill passed to authorize the President of the US to distribute the medals. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Walt as US Military at 7:51 PM EDT
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Soviet Union
The Soviet Union was responsible for supplying North Vietnam with military apparatus – in the form of tanks, helicopters, planes, arms and artillery. They also provided medical supplies. The Soviet union suffered minimally, in terms of human life, when compared with other countries that played a role in the conflict. It's estimated that the number of deaths of Soviet Union citizens would have been in the single digits. After the Soviet Union collapsed, Russian government officials made a statement acknowledging that 3,000 troops were stationed in Vietnam during the conflict.
China
China's interests in the Vietnam War began in the late 1940's when the communists managed to gain control. The CPC, which stands for the Communist Party of China, assisted Vietnam communists through providing materials and support because of the similar political beliefs that they felt they had. In 1962 their somewhat intangible assistance changed shape when they provided ninety thousand guns and rifles to Hanoi – this was done without charge. China also played a role in rebuilding and defending the infrastructure of North Vietnam, opting to provide anti-aircraft and engineering resources. They repaired roads, railways and undertook other engineering initiatives. In doing this, it is said they freed up troops to pursue the conflict in the South. Over the duration of the war around one third of a million Chinese troops served in Vietnam of which, it's estimated, 1,500 died.
North Korea
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Posted by Walt as US Military, Vietnam at 9:49 PM EDT
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Even those in a position of power and influence, who could have prevented the seriousness of the discrimination, chose not to. Teachers especially, could have helped prevent the younger generation from developing this type of discrimination in schools, out of schools and in later life. However, both German schools and the Hitler youth discriminated against Jews by teaching lessons that were designed to do this and to teach that Aryans were the superior race. One of the main areas of teaching where discrimination took place was in racial science where students were taught how Jews had a different skull shape/size to Aryans and other races and taught how they could identify a Jew by their physical features; this created a lot of discrimination towards Jews among the young people of Germany.
One of the events to describe and demonstrate how Jews were discriminated against in Germany is the April Boycott; for one day Germans all over the country were told not to buy from shops and business' owned by Jews. SA men stood by the doors of these shops to discourage anyone from going inside. The SA men would have discouraged business, leading business away from the Jews and back into Aryan owned businesses and shops. This is discriminating against the Jews and while it was probably very beneficial to the Aryans working at the time, the Jews would have lost business, and would be looked at differently by Germans.
In many places in Germany, there were signs that read 'Jews not welcome here'. These could be put on park benches, outside places of public interest, or even where it means that Jews are not welcome in the village, city or town. This separates Jews from the rest of the population, by discriminating against them, making Germans feel like they are different people to them, so they should be treated differently!
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Posted by Walt as Europe Political Issues at 9:59 PM EDT
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By Thomas E. Brewton
How indicative of his character and beliefs is Senator Obama's having launched one of his political campaigns at the home of his friends Bernadine Dohrn and Bill Ayers?
Who are Bernadine Dohrn and Bill Ayers? And why would Senator Obama wish to associate his political beliefs with those of Dohrn and Ayers?
Might his friendship with these Weatherman terrorists of the 1960s and 70s be a clue to the voting record that led National Journal to rate Mr. Obama the most liberal member of the Senate?
The New York Times reported on September 11, 2001, ironically, the day the World Trade Center and the Pentagon were bombed:
"Life With the Weathermen: No Regrets for a Love of Explosives"
By Dinitia Smith
"I don't regret setting bombs," Bill Ayers said. "I feel we didn't do enough." Mr. Ayers, who spent the 1970's as a fugitive in the Weather Underground, was sitting in the kitchen of his big turn-of-the-19th-century stone house in the Hyde Park district of Chicago. The long curly locks in his Wanted poster are shorn, though he wears earrings. He still has tattooed on his neck the rainbow-and-lightning Weathermen logo that appeared on letters taking responsibility for bombings.
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Posted by Walt as Communism, Presidential Race, Terrorism at 10:16 PM EDT
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By Thomas E. Brewton
Today's clamor for more regulation of financial institutions to prevent another subprime mortgage meltdown is an exercise in self- deception.
Congress, led by Representative Barney Frank, is planning to overhaul regulation of the financial community, and Treasury Secretary Paulson has already proposed a broad program for that purpose.
No doubt, much of what is proposed is needed. But it should be obvious from repeated experience over the decades that regulations alone will not prevent periodic economic booms and busts.
Only by dealing with the root cause will we moderate economic cycles. And that root cause is the ineluctable human tendency to over-expand bank credit when the money supply is artificially enlarged.
Today's proposed subprime mortgage regulations may prevent tomorrow's repetition of that phenomenon, but they will have no restraining impact upon whatever the next speculative bubble may be. Sarbanes- Oxley regulation was instituted after the dot.com bubble-burst and the corporate collapse of Enron, but it had no restraining effect upon the speculative housing bubble, of which subprime lending is merely a symptom, not a cause. Before that, we had the speculative explosion of commercial real estate over-building that ended with the collapse of the savings and loan institutions in the 1980s.
Beginning with our nation's first financial panic in 1819, similar boom-and-bust patterns appear every five to ten years, except in extraordinary circumstances such as wartime.
In one respect, Karl Marx's economic analysis was on the mark.
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Posted by Walt as Communism, Economics at 11:46 PM EDT
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From 1789 to 1815 Congressmen received $6.00 daily, but only on the days they showed up. From 1815 to 1855 Congressmen received a modest salary, compared to the massive salaries of the Congressmen today. In 1855 their salaries increased to $3,000 annually. Then in 1865 they gave themselves a 66% increase to $5,000 annually. 6 years later they boosted their salaries another 50% to $7,500 per year. The American People became so outraged by the greed that congressmen were showing, that congress was forced to take a 33% paycut, which lasted 34 years until 1907, at which time they gave themselves another 50% increase back to $7,500 annually. They took two other paycuts, both of which were during the Great Depression, for a total of 15%. These are the only 3 times in American History that any Congressmen have ever taken salary cuts.
In 1935, Congress voted themselves a 19% increase, then they didn't receive another pay raise until 12 years later, when they gave themselves a 25% increase in 1947. In 1955 Congress gave themselves a whopping 80% increase. In the years 1987, and 1991 Congress received 2 raises per year. 3% + 20% in 1987, and 4% and 25% in 1991. Within the last 10 years Congress has raised their salaries 8 times for a total of 26%. While the lowest paid American Workers have only received 1 raise within the last 10 years.
In the last 25 years Congress has seen 18 salary increases totaling 277%. While the lowest paid American Workers have only seen 5 wage increases in 25 years totaling a mere 166%. In the last 25 years the cost of living has increased 251%. The Minimum Wage has not been increased since 1997. While Congressmen's pay has increased 8 out of the last 10 years. To see what Minimum Wage would be, if Congress had given American Workers the same amount of increases they took, click here.
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Posted by Walt as Economics, U.S. Political Issues at 7:42 AM EDT
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