Learning Outcomes vs Learning Objectives

To me, this is the most important observation about learning outcomes, "There's no such thing as advanced fundamentals, there's just back fundamentals done well and applied in different situations."

I think this is the key. We should make Marines as technically proficient as possible, requiring them to strictly adhere to the task, condition and standard. Doing so provides them the muscle memory to perform the task in any clime or place, and frees the mind to perform more advanced cognitive processes. Better, more realistic physical training engenders more creative applications and outcomes.

W, The Movie

The new marketing campaign for the "W" seems a little...different from the marketing for the feature film while it was in theater. The feature film ads hightlighted the supposed inarticulateness and blunders of the president, while the current campaign is all about the drama of policy decisions.

Now, why the change? Maybe becasuse the movie tanked so the producers decided to try something new to try to push DVDs? From all accounts, the movie is actually pretty evenhanded, yet it was originally marketed as a hatchet job. When that didn't sell, plan B, a straight up movie about the President. I am guessing this will work better.

Arlen Specter, Obama jock sniffer

Thanks a lot, scum bag. Starstruck by Obama and his harridan wife, condesending to Republicans. It is time for him to go.

Note to Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee, don't ask me for another dime.

Have I mentioned how much I love "Burn Notice"?

In the words of the great Tommy Korman: "Jack, I'm talking physically."

New Hampshire Revolution

I like it!But unfortunately for Rep. Itse; Rep. Ingbretson; Rep. Comerford; and Sen. Denley, et.al. would have a hard time getting any action contemplated
in the resolution past the 14th Amendment, the Supremacy Clause, the
Commerce Clause and Gonzales v Raich. I think if they nonetheless persist,
they would find themselves surrounded by Federal Marshals and the 10th
Mountain Division.

Treason never prospers. What's the reason? Because if treason prospers,
none dare call it treason. - Sir John Harrington

Why I like W more than Reagan

Jonah, Allow me to disagree with you on a couple of points with regard to Obama, Bush and Reagan. My fist vote was for Reagan in 1984, and I was very proud to cast it, based on what he had done for the country the previous four years. However, his second term was an embarrassment. His aimless, meandering policies were reflected in his painful, aimless meandering answers to questions in his press conferences. I found them embarrassing to watch. Now we know that he was probably suffering from Alzheimer’s, but sadly, those press conferences form my memories of Reagan.

As for Bush, let me say up front that I love the guy. He never lied, never backtracked, never tried to CHA. In a country and a culture that seems to value those who can avoid responsibility and cast blame simultaneously, he was a stand up guy who accepted blame and consequences for his actions, but never received praise. He clearly had, and probably still has, contempt for most journalists, but he never lost his good humor and never tried to cravenly beg their approval. I am an old fashioned Marine who believes in old time religion so Bush definitely spoke my language. Bush talked straight, and took the fight to the enemy, both the Islamists and the Dems in the House. He cleaned their clocks every time. He was exactly the kind of President I had always hoped for, and got.

As for Obama, you have to be kidding me. Easy to listen to? A great communicator? You are a great communicator, I have seen you in person speak extemporaneously and you are very impressive. Obama is not in your league. People hear what they want to hear when that guy runs his suck. When he goes off teleprompter, his halting, stumbling rambles can’t be explained away by disease or lack of intelligence, (although I for one think reports of his braininess are as overstated as reports of his fitness.) The only thing that can explain his dissembling and fumbling of syntax is his craven dishonesty. He has to work to think of something to say that will explain his evasions and flip flops, and that effort comes out as “uhs,” ignorant pauses and verbal diarrhea. Don’t give him a pass.

Obama defines patriotism as Obeisance to him

Link. I never said this about a president before, not even Clinton but I will say it about Obama. F him. Patriotism is being willing to sacrifice to advance the ideals of America, embodied by the flag, not complicity with some delusional left-wing attempt at generational theft dreamed up by this unworthy, corrupt Chicago pol.

What should Israel do?

My advice: encourage Israel to destroy the Hezbollah’s military capability. “Victory comes when the enemy's will to fight is broken by a specific defeat.”1 A decisive defeat of Hezbollah would be in the best interests of the US. Secondly, the US must not over-react to provocation, since Iran, Syria and Hezbollah have a disproportionately large youth cohort out of which terrorists spring. If the US can be patient, the radicals in this “youth bulge” will be killed or be too old for problem-causing. “[The Islamic youth bulge will] lose explosive power due to a general decline in the birthrate. “2

Israel can destroy enough of Hezbollah’s military capability, and cause enough suffering to civilians, to affect the resistance. Civilian casualties breed resistance to a point, but once the point has been crossed, civilians want peace more than anything else. Germany never destroyed England’s will during the battle of Britain; the US certainly destroyed Japan’s after the Nagasaki bombing. Enough suffering causes resistance to give way accommodation. In the current Gaza fight against Hamas, anger is directed toward Hamas for what they have wrought ; Hezbollah has denied they shot missiles into Israel, lest the “crazy” Israelis turn attention towards them.3

I wonder if there is anything that the US can do to "convince Riyadh to finally step up" in the context of asserting influence over Iran Syria and Hezbollah and why? Is Saudi Arabia the right choice for this role given the antipathy Iran has for Arab States? Might not Turkey, a non-Arab state that borders both Iran and Syria be a better choice?

The recent conflict in Gaza shows the value of the outstanding intelligence that Israel has gathered about the leaders of the movement. Israel has targeted the leadership cells, the rocket caches and the Iranian-trained “elite” units. Amassing voluminous, detailed intelligence and using it to kill the leadership, to diminish the terror rocket capability and to destroy Iranians and those they train seems like a pretty good op plan for going after Hezbollah.

Notes.
1. Angelo Codevilla and Paul Seabury. War: Ends and Means. (Washington: Potomac Books, 2005), 94.
2. Gunnar Heinsohn. Population, Conquest and Terror in the 21st Century (Bremen: Universität Bremen, 2005), 10.
3. Dan Diker, “A Deterrent Restored?,” Powerlineblog, entry posted 9 January 2009, http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2009/01/022505.php accessed 18 January 2009.

Even with that interception at the end of the 1st Half

I still love you, man.