Pajama Pundits

I have mixed feelings about the student sent home for wearing a camouflage outfit.

The reporter had fun:

Shilo Lewis just wanted to blend in with the crowd.

Did the school spokesman really say "some camouflaged students meld into the scenery," or was the reporter paraphrasing?

Most amazing is the mother's insistence is that the outfit was okay because the girl was "dressed from head to toe matching." Mama always encouraged that, of course. Can you imagine the matching mother/daughter outfits of their recent past?

Would Mama encourage her little darling wear one of these? Matches head to toe, so it must be good.

Head to toe matching anything sounds so not fashionable for any occasion other than a wedding or debutante ball. Both the Lewis women should read this:

So what's the attraction? Uniform equals strong, and strong equals sexy. Also the broad colour spectrum means you can mix and match with just about anything already in your wardrobe. Camo works particularly well in a block-colour plus camo combo. On the flip side camo on camo is not a great idea unless you are in the armed services and about to commando roll your way across town. Although a personal rule is “More is more”, too much camouflage is a very bad thing. In relation to military style in camo colours, an epaulet here, a pocket there, a badge placed with coordinated abandon and you have struck camo sheik.

“I think it's best to choose one item and leave it for people to find it themselves, don't throw it in their faces,” says Ms Walsh. “A fitted army-green military jacket with super skinny denim jeans and stiletto boots is a look that can't be done wrong, unless it's on the wrong body, that is, an unconfident body. You have to work it.” Instant attitude with kick-ass connotations. Make a statement through understatement. That's if people notice you.

A poorly developed sense of style shouldn't get you sent home.

I have to admit I'm not up to date on current styles and had failed to notice that camouflage was in style, again. I wonder what reasoning is behind this response to the mother's argument that her daughter's clothing wasn't revealing or vulgar and that others at school weren't sent home for wearing camouflage:

"We might not catch everyone, just like police don't always catch every speeding driver on the highway,” Jack said. “She was covered, but it was military dress, and we've decided at the school that isn't allowed.”

Compare that to the remark by the Headmaster:

“This has nothing to do with the military. We allow Reserve Officer Training Corps to wear military gear because they wear it in a respectful manner. It's the gang relation. If it's controversial or if it has gang associations, we won't have it,” Samaras said.

Unless JROTC has changed a lot, those students don't wear camouflage military gear, or BDU's, except at summer camp or for special team events. They are generally issued Class A or Class B uniforms to wear to school on uniform days.

I wonder what the school rules are on wearing stars and stripes? Would a flag patch on a blue jean jacket get you sent home? Is aging biker out this year, aging hippie in?

The idea that if a gang chooses a color, or in this case -- a print -- it must be banned simply "empowers" the gang. How important would their "colors" be if everyone wore them? Imagine white dresses banned because the KKK wears white robes.

Police Chief Edward Davis confirmed that many different gangs wear camouflage as a reflection of current styles in movies and on television.

Since when did gangs acquire exclusive title to current styles?

I'm left wondering if the school is trying to subtly discourage interest in the military, or hunting, or anything remotely related to guns, by banning the wearing of the camo. Perhaps they are simply trying to avoid controversy, but all this banning stuff really annoys my anti-authoritarian side. (Be sure to read that last link all the way to the end, including comments.)

Though I suppose it's technically for remembering veteran's of WWI, WWII, Korea, Vietnam, the Gulf War, and now the Iraq War, more and more I find myself remembering those who fought for freedom at any time.

May we never forget.

230 candles! More or less. The actual date and year depends on when the question was asked. Whenever. The important thing is to remember!

My darling husband, Okinawa, circa 1962-63 - a long time before he was lucky enough to meet me.

UPDATED (and pushed to the top): Army pulls ahead, and the Navy is desperate!

Listen up soldiers: For a $25 donation to the Army team, I promise not to send you a photo of me, taken upon waking, before that first cup of coffee.

Donate now! Don't take any chances!

A thousand words on why this is important:

It was a no-brainer to support Soldiers' Angels' Project Valor-IT, but which team to join, that took a little thought. About a half a second...

GO ARMY!!

Blackfive is the Army team leader. Here's what the project is all about:

Project Valour-IT, in memory of SFC William V. Ziegenfuss, provides voice-controlled software and laptop computers to wounded Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines recovering from hand and arm injuries or amputations at major military medical centers. Operating laptops by speaking into a microphone, our wounded heroes are able to send and receive messages from friends and loved ones, surf the 'Net, and communicate with buddies still in the field without having to press a key or move a mouse. The experience of CPT Charles "Chuck" Ziegenfuss, a partner in the project who suffered hand wounds while serving in Iraq, illustrates how important this voice-controlled software can be to a wounded servicemember's recovery.

But the sad news is, as I post this, the NAVY is $2,055.01 ahead of the ARMY. Click on the "make a donation" button below to change that sad state of affairs.

The Army Team:

And let this be his campaign slogan:

(via Ace of Spades)

UPDATE: Video here.

UPDATE II: Of course I was laughing when I typed the title to this post, but it's not that bad an idea. Gen. Honore is capable, competent, organized, honest, respected by those who work with him... all perfect opposites of the Louisiana politician. (There may be exceptions. Please put examples in the comments!)

There is a Recall Kathleen Blanco site up. I've requested a petition to sign. Even if ultimately unsuccessful, I think this is a worthwhile effort for at least two reasons:

1. Louisianans have accepted that political corruption is a way of life here. Maybe we have some variation of Stockholm Syndrome.

2. Such a petition could serve as a sort of wake-up call for other public servants in the state, all the way down to dogcatcher. They'd likely hit the snooze button, but with the voters having set the alarm, it's unlikely all of them would toss the clock out the window.

In California, prior to the successful recall of Gov. Gray Davis, only four of more than 107 recall efforts since 1911 qualified for the ballot. We've got to start somewhere.

Another thing we can do is tell our lawmakers we'd like to be able to recall them a little more easily. Of course, they're not going to like that idea, but they might throw a bone or two our way. Mostly Cajun sums up what it currently takes to recall an elected official here:

...the state legislature provided that a recall election requires a petition with hand-written signatures of a THIRD of registered voters, with a separate petition filed in each of Louisiana’s 64 parishes (counties) within 180 days of the filing of the original petition of recall.

I don't know if the statute has been refined by court decisions, but it could use some clarification. At first, it doesn't appear that a petition must be filed in each parish, as the "voting area" for governor is the entire state. Then again, it later says that "The signed and dated petition shall be submitted to the registrar of voters for each parish within the voting area..." Does this mean a third of voters in each parish must sign or that if a third statewide sign, that at least one signature in each parish is required?

The least the legislators could do is clear up what they mean.

The applicable code is here: Louisiana Revised Statutes Title 18. Louisiana Election Code, Chapter 6-C. Recall Elections, § 1300.2. Petition for recall election; campaign finance disclosure.

UPDATE III: There's now another website devoted to the recall of Gov. Blanco - R.E.C.A.L.L.

At this time four years ago, I sat, stood, paced the living room near the television set, trying to focus on the photos and read the scrolling updates through seemingly endless tears... tears which return uncontrollably at the memory.

The Jawa Report has a caption contest with no winners today. It's fitting, because remembering what we felt, what we thought that day is a testament to who we are and what is important to us.

I'd just returned from a vacation and I was asleep. Sometime before 10 am (CDT), the phone rang. It was my sister in the UK. She answered my hello with "What the hell's going on there?" I said tentatively, "um... nothing I know of." She told me to turn on the television.

How long we talked, I don't remember. We were on the phone when the first photos of the south tower getting hit were shown. We were still connected when the Pentagon was hit, when the news of the crash of Flight 93 was aired, when the towers collapsed.

We correctly surmised that Flight 93 was an intentional crash (sis is a pilot and air traffic controller). That day, today, and for the rest of my life, the Americans who fought back on that plane are my biggest heroes.

We decided that the President was likely headed for Barksdale AFB. I found it somewhat disturbing that we so easily narrowed his possible destinations down to three, with our first choice being the one he used. It shouldn't be that easy to figure out.

I was home alone, my husband working out of town and my children grown and on their own. I wanted to talk to them. I told my sister we'd talk more later. I could not control the tears... how many of you know that many women express anger with tears as well as sadness?

My youngest was in school at W&M. She reported that many of her classmates were from the DC area and worried about parents who worked in or near the Pentagon. My oldest, four months out of the Army was talking about re-enlisting, but anxious because she hadn't been able to contact her husband who was still active duty.

He was in his car in a part of the country where cell phones didn't work, listening to tapes, and, for a short time, blissfully unaware of how his country had changed.

My son in Michigan was, like me, glued to a television set.

My husband and his co-workers were getting sketchy reports from family members like me calling them with the news.

What I felt was a need to be close to my family and an ever increasing anger that anyone would... could do such horrible things. It was five days before I felt fear. Five days of silence. We live under the approach path for the regional airport. The silence was deafening.

On Sunday, I heard aircraft, but not the ones I was used to hearing. Not the ones I now realized I liked hearing. These weren't commercial. These weren't Barksdale's B52s, which are a fairly common sight. Fighters in the sky above my house? Despite all the talk on TV, it took seeing T38s to make me realize that my country was preparing to go to war and to shatter the surreal bubble of denial I'd been in.

A forceful response was necessary. Flowers, memorials, waving the flag, and mourning the dead would not suffice. Symbolism would not suffice.

It was suddenly obvious from the beginning that this was an attack on the world, on Western Civilization, on progress, on modernization, on capitalism. On Freedom.

Naively, because of the demonstrations of caring, support, and solidarity I was seeing on TV, I thought the rest of the world realized this too. After all, hadn't innocent citizens of almost every country in the world died that day?

Wouldn't the world react in large just like I was reacting individually? Wouldn't sadness, anger, and fear turn to steely resolve to rid the planet of this cultural pus?

In the past four years, my naivete has melted somewhat. I'm still an optimist. I still think good will triumph over evil in the end. The fear is gone, the sadness, anger, and resolve remain.

After reading this early review, I put off seeing The Great Raid. I had originally intended to go last week, but procrastinated because I feared being disappointed.

I wasn't.

The weakness of this film is that the story it tries to tell is too big for one film. In trying to condense three intriguing stories into one film, it ends up portraying them all a bit shallowly. (Or four stories, there's more to the contribution of the Alamo Scouts too.) It’s still a good film, not at all a waste of time or money. You won’t leave the theatre disappointed, but you might leave wanting more.

The film would have to be really horrible for it not to be a somewhat emotional experience for me. My uncle was one of the 11 survivors of the massacre at the Puerto Princesa Prison Camp on Palawan that is briefly depicted at the beginning of this film.

This scene left the impression there were no survivors. Perhaps a third of the prisoners escaped the fire, many making it to the beach where they were shot, and eleven managed to survive. They were rescued by Filipino civilians and guerillas. It was their report that added urgency to the rescue of the prisoners at Cabanatuan.

Given director John Dahl also has a personal connection with the subject of the film, it's not surprising that its overall effect is satisfying:

“My father was in World War II. He was in the Philippines, and so for me it was kind of a great opportunity to learn more about what my father had gone through and what he had experienced.

“My Dad would always tell me, ‘That's Ben Steele. He was in the Bataan Death March.’ As a kid I didn't really know what that was. Once I started working on the film and realized what Ben had gone through, it took on a little bit different meaning for me. I've shown it to Ben several times and ultimately we wanted to get as many things right as we could.” ...

“I guess that one of the things that I'm pleased with is that most of the veterans who've watched it are pleased with the way the Japanese are represented in the movie. We really didn't sugarcoat it too much.”

Complaints about the story being difficult to follow or the characters not being well-developed didn't appear warranted to me, except for the POW Major Gibson. That is perhaps because I had also read Ghost Soldiers, one of the two books on which the film is based. Since I already knew something of the characters’ backgrounds, I probably just didn’t notice. (I plan to read the other book, The Great Raid, which also provided material for the movie, though it got lousy reviews on Amazon.)

The initial scene of the Palawan massacre is not well-developed, though it is visually horrifying. I caught only one line of dialogue from those POWs - why are they making us get in the air raid shelters - or something to that effect. Audience members that missed that line did not understand the significance of the Cabanatuan prisoners being made to dig air raid shelters.

The POW's and their situation were not portrayed as well as they could have been in the movie. Though the brief portrayal of the Palawan massacre, the field of crosses outside Cabanatuan and POWs digging new graves certainly conveys how dire their situation was, what was lacking was the spirit and humanity of the men.

It was a poor choice, I think, to make the lead POW a fictional character when almost all the rest were real people. Trying to capture the the poignant combination of hopelessness and hopefulness, bravery, and humanity of the prisoners in one character resulted in a one-dimensional and sappy portrayal. Reviewers more knowledgeable than I of acting and film making say this is at least partly due to a mismatch of actor and role.

My disappointment in the lack of depth in the portrayal of the POWs may also be due to my familiarity with their story. They did not resemble the men portrayed in Ghost Soldiers. Nor did they resemble the men in Last Man Out, the story of one survivor of the Palawan massacre.

And while the story of Margaret Utinsky and the Filipino underground smuggling medicine into the camp is also an amazing one, the relationship between her and the fictional Major Gibson was simply a distraction. The time spent on the romance would have been better used portraying Claire Phillips, lounge singer and spy. She had a correspondence with a POW (a chaplain) at Cabanatuan, and this may be where the idea of a romance came from.

The movie gets a good grade on historical accuracy - except for the fictional and annoying romance angle and the overly opulent prison quarters and wardrobes.

Though one of the few films to accurately portray the Filipino guerrillas, it didn't really do them justice. Captain Pajota's feat in holding back a 1000 Japanese soldiers with a small force should have had a few more feet of film.

The understated, almost too subtle, dialogue didn't quite make clear that the raid would have been an utter failure without the tactical brilliance of Captain Pajota and the participation of his men. Captain Joson - who might be missed entirely in the film if you're not paying close attention - was indeed overshadowed by Pajota, but still essential to the success of the operation.

The best performances in this film are by the Filipino actors. Cesar Montano portrays Captain Pajota with quiet strength and Natalie Mendoza as Mina, who helped smuggle medicine into the camp, is beautiful as well as talented.

The neatest bit of trivia about the actors is that Ebong Joson thought it merely coincidence that he shared the same name as his character. He did not find out until after accepting the role, that he would be portraying his grandfather.

Others on The Great Raid: Instapundit

Big Ten Extra - Great Raid, Great Movie?

Hoystory.com - The Great Raid

Power Line - Mass Murder One Atrocity at a Time

The Manifest - The "Great" Raid. Partially in English, enough to understand this Phillippine blogger thinks the Filipino role was understated too.

elpeezee - Bringin It Back- Randomly Thinking. Notes that the Japanese killed villagers as punishment for the raid.

Cindyfilms - Skip It

blackshama's blog - The Great Raid and War Movies in general

Nate's Daily News - The Weekend Movie Review. He gives it 8.5 out of 10.

marygraceguerra - guerra means war

ThoughtsOnline

UPDATE: Welcome Instapundit readers! (This makes MY day!)

UPDATE: Gaze Theory relates then to now.

UPDATE: Dave at Garfield Ridge thinks Fiennes' was the best performance in the film.

Yet another UPDATE: Professor Froward says "It's a movie, not a seminar."

Colonel James W. Lewis laid to rest Saturday, August 13, 2005

Missing in action since 1965 and declared killed in action, body not recovered in 1974, Col. Lewis' remains were identified in July. He was last seen in the cockpit of his B-57B diving through thin clouds on April 7, 1965 over Laos.

There are people out there — reporters, pundits, Senators and Congressmen — who hate the President and the Republican Party so deeply and with such passion that they would rather see the United States defeated and Iraq collapsed into a failed state than support what they see as George W. Bush’s war. --Jeff Harrell

Perhaps the best thing GWB could do for Iraq would be to say he's got a message from God that we should pull out of Iraq tomorrow. Support for the war should skyrocket.

There will always be a few bad apples in every organization. Good for the Army for getting rid of these.

If you'd asked me yesterday where the final battle of the War of 1812 was fought, I'd have confidently answered, "New Orleans."

Not so. The last battle came five days later and more than two weeks after the war was officially over:

Final battle of War of 1812 fought at Point Peter

On Jan. 13, 1815, close to 600 British troops attacked Point Peter, overwhelming its 130 soldiers. The British seized St. Marys, looted jewelry and fine China from its residents, and burned the fort. It was never used again as a military outpost.

The fort was burned down by British troops and its remains had been buried until the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers required an archaeological survey by developers of Cumberland Harbour, a 1,014-acre waterfront subdivision being built on the site. Only a state historical marker, placed on the site in 1953, pointed out the fort's location.

"A few historians knew about this. But this event, which is really significant in the War of 1812, is mostly forgotten to the public," said Scott Butler, who led the excavation for the Atlanta archaeology firm Brockington and Associates. "We're trying to change that."

The areas examined were the barracks, latrine, and well. Over 67,000 artifacts were found, and at this particular moment, I'm not the least interested in learning more about the ones found in the latrine. Maybe after breakfast.

I try to remember that one reason the news seems so bad so often is due to the "Man Bites Dog" principle. The breakdown of command and the subsequent mess at Abu Ghraib was newsworthy because it is not the way our military normally operates and not an example of the behavior of 99 and 44/100% of our soldiers.

It is the aberrant misbehavior of the misfit that is newsworthy, the man biting the dog. Newsweek's Koran-flushing brief falls into the same category. Almost...

When did the principle change to "Man May Have Bitten Dog" or "Man Threatens to Bite Dog" or, worse, become limited to "Bad Man Bites Good Dog"?

Since the heydey of the Edinburgh Review, it's no secret that bias makes information memorable. I don't have a problem with a biased approach to news, as long as it's news. I do have a problem with gossip and rumor presented as news... as fact. UPDATE: Via Sisu, that non-secret has now been verified by Harvard economists.

Tell me the truth, tell me what you think about it and we'll get along fine whether I agree with your opinion, or not. But you have to tell me the whole truth, even stories about good men biting bad dogs.

That's the issue that Blackfive has with Newsweek: their failure to print a story about a very good man biting a bad dog, and it's why he hasn't read Newsweek in two years. When the bias is presented in this way, it's not making information more memorable, it's suppressing it, keeping it from being remembered at all.

As so often happens, Baldilocks gets to the point in far fewer words.

My daughter just emailed this link to me. I'm almost too angry to type.

This site absolutely must be a bad joke. Even the worst of the worst can't be this bad can they?

I'm not linking to the jerk, you'll have to copy and paste: http://www.forsakethetroops.info/index.shtml

Our problem is this: the military is a lifestyle these morons chose. What idiot risks their life for a country? It's what they chose. Forsake our Troops! They must think that if they go to war, they don't need to pay taxes just......just like the rest of us. Let 'em die in combat-- we don't need their ilk!

More...

Despite common opinion, we are not a hate group to the degree that we do not (officially) condone acts of violence, or any illegal acts towards military facilities or personnel.

I feel nauseous now.

UPDATE: Now the jerk has faked his own death for attention. What an ass.