My Orthogonal Mind retuiteado
My Orthogonal Mind
11.1K posts
My Orthogonal Mind
@OrthogonalMind
Seldom linear and definitely not the shortest distance between any two points. Debate is fine - just bring your 'A' game. Check out my 'expanded' bio...
Colorado Se unió Ağustos 2011
2.2K Siguiendo1.1K Seguidores
Youdonotwanttoknowius - yes it is a mouthful... 🤣
Daily Roman Updates@UpdatingOnRome
Sardineius
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I am very interested in Christopher's definition of 'religious liberty' (spoiler alert - I'm really not). I'm betting that it means "Dump money into my religion du jour but don't hold a National Day of Prayer"....
Christopher Hale@ChristopherHale
BREAKING: In an unprecedented violation of religious liberty, the Trump–Vance White House has cut funding to Catholic Charities in Miami, shutting down a shelter for homeless children — just days after President Trump attacked Pope Leo XIV. thelettersfromleo.com/p/trump-admini…
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@SMRdeka And ‘precursors’ to video games which were text only came in around that time. But I lived in Mesquite, Tx when iD software enhanced Castle Wolfe stein and released Doom and then Quake. Good times.
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@OrthogonalMind I think it was some time around 1977 that someone at my dad's office had programmed some sort of Asteroids type game on their mainframe. I'd play it when I was (for some forgotten reason) at his office.
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First, you need to define 'video game'. I was playing games that were electronic with graphics in the student union in college in 1977.... My first 'video game' at home was Pong. But it depends on the threshold definition and platform....
🌸(Halen)🌸Hargreaves@halenhargreevs
Without telling me your age… what was the very FIRST video game you ever played?
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I would posit that in order to place a piece of cognitive apparel on the topmost portion of one's body - and having it serve any useful purpose - one of two things must occur: 1) the individual donning said cognitive apparel must have the ability to perform said 'thinking' (which appears to be unlikely from the quoted source material); or, the 'thinking cap' (such a mundane description for an amazing piece of millinery creation) would self-perform such cognitive functions. However, the likely hood of the second option being successful is still miniscule given the equally miniscule reasoning faculties of @stephenjnesbitt....
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Let’s put our thinking caps on and ponder for a bit why the Texas Rangers have a statue of a Texas Ranger in the concourse of their ballpark. It’s a real puzzler…
Stephen J. Nesbitt@stephenjnesbitt
The Texas Rangers installed a deeply controversial statue in their ballpark concourse this spring. And they aren't willing to provide answers as to why it's there. Yikes. Important work from @SamBlum3: nytimes.com/athletic/71975…
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Trevor, I would suggest that you reread John's post from start to finish. I too began to feel my hackles rise up, but it seemed incongruous with his other positions and posts. So I kept reading and realized that he was making the point that all of the 'what if' reasons for not allowing personal weapons (as well as the 'bazooka for the butterfly' punishment) are things that will happen - regardless of the tools used, the policies attempting to govern use or the individuals involved. This is because a) accidents happen and cannot be 100% prevented; and, b) human nature is such that some individuals will be evil, maladjusted, mentally ill or suffer from other human traits that will make them misuse tools with ill intent. I truly do think you and John are on the same page.
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John, I normally agree with you about things, but trying to blame the gun and it being the “dangerous thing” and using that as justification for dumb policies/attitudes isn’t the way to do it. There is no such thing as gun violence, just violence. I don’t think bases are somehow magic spaces where they are somehow inherently more likely to have issues with people carrying guns vs the public carrying guns on a daily basis. If you look at the millions of legal concealed concealed weapons holders that carry every day and see how few accidents/unintended shootings occur relative to the large numbers of people that carry guns show it shouldn’t be an issue if the base Personel are as safe as the basic civilian concealed licensed carrier.
This same argument was made when constitutional carry was introduced in a number of states and they said accidents snd unintended shootings were going to be rampant, except that isn’t what happened. Violent crime and homicides went down and the other negative side effects didn’t spike. @CrimeResearch1 did tons of research on this.
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The problem is not this incident, or even her response to it. The real problem is that we still have not dealt with the underlying code.
Weapons kill people. Full stop. What few are willing to say out loud is that SECWAR’s guidance, if followed seriously, will lead to deaths.
Someone will accidentally discharge a weapon on base. Maybe more than one person will. Someone may bleed out.
It is entirely possible a soldier leaves a pistol in his car, a child finds it, and tragedy follows.
That is not good. It should be prevented wherever possible. We should teach proper storage. We should teach proper handling. We should reduce avoidable mistakes.
But warriors are human, and humans make mistakes. If you cannot accept the risk of individual deaths, then you are, whether you admit it or not, accepting something worse: defeat.
There are millions of people of unknown allegiance inside our borders. There are hardened criminals here too. There are hostile nations and extremist movements that would gladly take American lives and have every intention of keeping soldiers from reaching base when the balloon goes up.
You must accept training accidents, negligent discharges, and lethal mistakes if you want a force that is truly ready for war.
And readiness does prevent war.
So no, the problem is not simply that he made a mistake and she punished him.
The problem is that she is almost certainly calling friends and fellow officers right now, and they are almost certainly telling her she did the right thing.
“What if his kid found it?”
“What if it went off by accident?”
“What if, what if, what if.”
And with every call, more smart people get pulled in. They come armed with better language, cleaner rationalizations, and safer-sounding excuses. Before long, the “she wasn’t wrong” line spreads like wildfire.
But she was wrong.
He made a mistake. She made a bigger one.
Neither of them should lose a career over this. But both of them need to understand commander’s intent.
Both need to grasp the broader implications of SECWAR’s directive.
Both need to reject safetyism and embrace fundamental safe practices.
And if she refuses, if she cares more about shielding a few individuals from a hypothetical risk of death than about preserving the strength, readiness, and deterrent power that protect millions of American children, then she should be removed.
I don’t care that she is a woman. I don’t care that woman tend to socialize problems amongst themselves more than men. What is dangerous is the fact those phone calls she has with friends and colleagues aren’t public.
Women are more socially. They are more chatty. They are less likely to accept an order from a man without discussing it amongst themselves first.
That’s a good thing. It’s a great thing.
We need more people challenging orders.
Problem is those discussions need to be made public. There needs to be documentation. But Navy culture doesn’t allow it.
What worries me the most isn’t the fact she disobeyed orders (she probably made the decision before it was announced) the problem is I know there are people whispering in her ear and others “she wasn’t wrong, what if a kid found that?”
She was wrong.
There is a silent resistance to everything Hegseth is doing. And the core of that resistance is whispering in the halls. That’s not helping anyone.
Spence Rogers ✟@SpenceRogers
Girl boss with no combat experience takes retirement benefits away from hero over personal firearms he uses all of the time safely for self defense and recreation while bucking Department of War guidance.
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My Orthogonal Mind retuiteado
The United States Air Force just closed the training pipeline for new A-10 pilots.
That is not a footnote.
That is the beginning of the end of a capability we are going to miss the first time it is not there.
I have watched what happens when things go wrong on the ground.
When that call comes in, nobody is asking for stealth.
Nobody is asking for a multi-role platform.
They are asking for something that will show up, stay, and protect them.
That aircraft already exists.
The A-10.
The A-10 is not old technology clinging to relevance. It is purpose-built dominance in the one mission that still decides outcomes when everything breaks down: close air support.
Low. Slow. Deliberate.
Eyes on target.
Gun runs when it matters most.
That is not a limitation.
That is the entire point.
We are being told the F-35 replaces it.
It does not.
The F-35 is exceptional at what it was designed to do. Penetrate, collect, strike, and survive in contested environments.
But it was not built to loiter low over a chaotic battlefield.
It was not built to take hits and keep flying.
It was not built to be the last line between our people and the enemy.
Those are not minor differences.
That is a completely different mission.
This is not modernization.
This is substitution.
And substitution only works when the roles match.
They do not.
The most dangerous assumption in this decision is that future wars will not demand sustained close air support in permissive or semi-permissive environments.
History says otherwise.
Every conflict eventually reaches the phase where air superiority exists and ground forces are exposed, maneuvering, and in contact.
That is where the A-10 lives.
That is where it wins.
And that is exactly where nothing else in our inventory replaces it.
If you remove a dedicated CAS platform, you do not eliminate the mission.
You create a gap.
And gaps in war are paid for in blood.
Ask the people who have been on the ground.
Ask them what they want overhead when everything is going sideways.
The answer has not changed in decades.
The A-10 is not being retired because it failed.
It is being retired because we are betting we will not need it.
That is a bet we have never won.
I have seen what it means when it is there.
I do not want to see what happens
when it is not.
📷 Jackson Aviation
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As is mine, in all honesty. But I have some knowledge and I am a bit of a history geek, so it’s interesting to see some of the comments. As for not knowing a ton of the Catholic Church, for example, I just found out today that a Pope speaking ex cathedral has only happened twice - once in the 19th Century and once in the 20th Century….
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@OrthogonalMind @CynicalPublius My knowledge of the Catholic Church is extremely limited, so thank you!
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I have been pretty emphatic the last few days in condemning Pope Leo’s foray into American politics.
My detractors are having fun stating that I am doing this out of allegiance to President Trump and that I have chosen Trump over God.
WRONG.
The biggest reason by far why I am so vocal on this is the damage Pope Leo is doing to the Catholic Church in the USA.
I believe Pope Leo has done more to harm US Catholicism in just a few days than any other Pope of the past 100 years (even Francis).
Pope Leo is literally causing orthodox, faithful American Catholics to flee the Church out of disgust over his leftwing politicization and his kowtowing to Islam. Moreover, he has opened the door for boundless criticism against Catholicism from certain Protestant denominations and churches, causing untold harm to Christian ecumenism in the USA.
It is precisely because I care so much about the Church that Jesus founded in AD 33 that I oppose the havoc Pope Leo has unleashed in the US Church.
(And yes, under Church doctrine and as a Catholic, I am fully entitled to hold such beliefs and express them.)
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So let's see.... a majority of the Senate, 52 Senators, basically gave implicit approval from their chamber to the President to continue with his existing policy and recent actions.... Yet, @allenanalysis seems to believe that Trump is acting alone.... Hmmmm, and now @allenanalysis calls forth the ghosts of our Founders.... Hmmmm, I wonder if @allenanalysis does that consistently on all of the Constitution and Amendments, or are simply when he wants to throw a tantrum because he disagrees with the President??? HMMMMM???
Brian Allen@allenanalysis
BREAKING: The Senate just voted 52-47 to let Trump bomb Iran without Congressional approval. The Founders gave war powers to Congress for one reason: To make sure no single man could start a war alone. That protection just died in the Senate.
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@WayneR9421 @CynicalPublius Nope, historically it hasn't been. And TBH, I don't know how you can be when you have your own sovereign territory.
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@CynicalPublius I thought that the Catholic Church was supposed to be, basically, non-political
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And, as usual, the hypocrites will exclude themselves from this bill and proposed law.... SMDH
NBC News@NBCNews
Democratic lawmakers are set to introduce a bill to ban the president, vice president, and their families from collecting lawsuit settlement payments from the government. nbcnews.com/politics/congr…
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@ThrillaRilla369 Nope - Baskin Robbins.... at least the ice cream was always available.... 😉
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Everybody's first job was McDonalds.. prove me wrong!
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Thanks. I also went back and did a relatively quick bit of research and got the same answer. So, a) since neither Urban II or Leo were speaking ex cathedra, then their differing positions are simply that and do not create a conflict for the Church; and, b) then Kathleen's statement is moot as Pope Leo was not speaking ex cathedra. Do I have it more or less correct (at least for a Protestant...)?
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@OrthogonalMind @CynicalPublius @kathleenmadigan Hasn't happened yet, and I am sure the faithful believe that that will never happen.
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@CynicalPublius @kathleenmadigan Pope Urban II has entered the chat... Honest question - how do Catholics square noticible differences between different Popes if/when their ex cathedra pronouncements do not align with each other?
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Pumpkin, you have zero idea what you are talking about.
Per Catholic doctrine, the Pope is infallible only when he speaks ex cathedra, which has not happened since 1950.
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@RecordsPaper911 More typical political theater with platitudes and no plan.
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I'm guessing that what this means is the guaranteed right to NOT reproduce....
Democrats Deliver@DemzDeliver
🚨HUGE: Minnesota has guaranteed reproductive rights for its citizens.
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I agree - the two aspects (current enjoyment of collecting vs future generations lack of interest in the collection) are somewhat irrelevant to each other. However, the original post also misses two key points - Primus: while details change, the basics do not - this has been and will continue to be, in some form or fashion, an ongoing generational issue. I (as a boomer) am starting dealing with this right now - and not simply with 'crip-crap' collectables The issue encompasses family heirlooms, books and other pieces which may have been kept either due to personal interest, aesthetic or nostalgic/sentimental value. But the older generation must make peace within themselves with the fact that the younger generation will not necessarily share any or all of those attachments. B) (for there must always be a Secundus when there is a Primus): It is also not an absolutism that all members of the younger generation will consider all of the elder's 'collections' to be 'junk'. Either categorically or piecemeal, the younger generation will have a desire to retain a portion of those items, in many cases for the same reasons the original acquirers held.
This has been going on in various levels and will continue to do so. If anyone doesn't believe me, visit junk and thrift stores, do web searches on 'ceramic angel collections' (and other tchotchke) or, if you have the intestinal fortitude to stand it, watch episodes of Antique Roadshow on PBS...
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Which has what, specifically, to do with the pleasure people have in collecting it now?
The Fat Electrician@Fat_Electrician
I hate to break it to people my age, but in 30 years your adult kids are going to look at your Funko Pops, Labubus, action figures, and Warhammer 40K collections the same way we look at boomer ceramic angel collections. That shit is going straight to the thrift store when you die.
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