Government

A Naval Officer refers to the enlisted under his command as hatchet-wielding, drunken, aggressive degenerates and perverts. How can we expect anyone to follow the orders of someone that hates them? The real issue here is that, in days gone by, officers were from noble families, and enlisted were commoners. This anachronism is a holdover from the middle ages, and it needs to be replaced. I’m not the only one who thinks so.

Some officers are so convinced of their innate superiority that they believe themselves to possess some sort of godlike status, some even going to far as to state that once a person is an enlisted man, they should never be eligible to taint the ranks of officers by becoming one of them.

The reality is that there is no difference in character between officers and enlisted. I got ripped off by an officer while I was in. This officer gamed the system and screwed me over. The CO at the time believed that officers could do no wrong, so I lost a lucrative cash award, one that went to the officer.

It isn’t that officers are college educated, while enlisted men aren’t. When I was in boot camp, there was an older recruit* who had a 4 year degree. Even so, how does attending college and getting a 4 year degree somehow qualify someone to lead men into combat?

It isn’t that they are better behaved. When I was in the military, all of the enlisted personnel had to attend sexual sensitivity training because a group of officers had engaged in sexual depravity.

There are those who disagree, but their arguments ring hollow. In this article, an 11 year enlisted man says that officers have more responsibility than enlisted, citing an Ensign serving as officer of the deck of a ship as an example. In the very next paragraph, this enlisted man says that he serves as junior officer of the deck on his own ship. That’s because the distinction between officers and enlisted isn’t based on command. New army doctors automatically become officers, even if they don’t command anyone. Doctors are non-combatants, and even though fighter pilots are combatants, they don’t command anyone^, even though all of them are officers.

the distinction is not based on command: New army doctors automatically become officers, even if they don’t command anyone. Doctors are non-combatants, but fighter pilots are combatants par excellence, don’t command anyone, and are all officers- even though that hasn’t always been the case. During World War 2, there were plenty of pilots who weren’t officers.

We see the same all through our society, even though we claim that our society doesn’t allow noble titles. In medicine there is a clear distinction between doctors and nurses, even a nurse who has earned a Doctorate in Nursing Practice. There are different status levels among doctors and among nurses, but a DNP stands on the other side of a clear border from a beginning MD. To the point where a nurse who has a doctorate is not permitted to be called “doctor,” lest they be confused with an MD.

It isn’t that the MD can do things that an APRN or DNP can’t- because all of them can write prescriptions. Even as an RN, I routinely write medical orders, so that can’t be it.

It’s because Americans claim that they despise nobility because they don’t want to take orders, while secretly wishing that they can wield power over others. That’s the reason why lawyers become judges who will jail someone for “disrespecting” them by wearing a pair of shorts to court. It’s why people can become tyrants as soon as they become the President of the HOA.

Power corrupts, and our founding fathers knew it. It’s why the founders were so careful in keeping the government a weak one.

*The “older recruit” was 25 or so. Most of us were 18 or 19. In the military, more than half of the service is under the age of 24. In 2021, the military had 592,979 personnel aged 25 and under, but 287,604 were 26-30 years old.

^Yes, there are fighter pilots who command squadrons, warships, and airwings. However, they are officers from day one, and their status as officers isn’t relevant to that.

Former SCOTUS Chief Justice Sandra Day O’Connor has died. My feelings on her decisions are mixed.

• She allowed race to be considered in college admissions, thereby giving the SCOTUS stamp of approval on affirmative action in education. Grutter v. Bollinger
• Still, I am a nurse thanks to her swing vote in Mississippi University for Women v. Hogan, where she ruled that nursing schools had to permit men to apply.
• In Lawrence v. Texas, she said that laws against sodomy were an unconstitutional intrusion into people’s bedrooms, but that marriage should be limited to heterosexual couples “to preserve the traditional institution of marriage.”
• She cast decisions approving partial birth abortion, which is nothing but murder in my opinion. Stenberg v. Carhart 
• She cast the deciding vote on the Bush v. Gore case in 2000. She later admitted to regretting it.

As I said, mixed.

Most people have never heard of the Ludlow Amendment. In December of 1937, the amendment gained popular support thanks to the Panay Incident. This proposed amendment to the Constitution read:

SEC. 1. Except in the event of an invasion of the United States or its Territorial possessions and attack upon its citizens residing therein, the authority of Congress to declare war shall not become effective until confirmed by a majority of all votes cast thereon in a nationwide referendum. Congress, when it deems a national crisis to exist, may by concurrent resolution refer the question of war or peace to the citizens of the States, the question to be voted on being, Shall the United States declare war on __? Congress may otherwise by law provide for the enforcement of this section.

SEC. 2. Whenever war is declared the President shall immediately conscript and take for use by the Government all the public and private war properties, yards, factories, and supplies, together with employees necessary for their operation, fixing the compensation for private properties temporarily employed for the war period at a rate not in excess of 4 percent per annum based on tax values assessed in the year preceding the war.

I would add a third section:

SEC. 3. Anyone who voted in favor of declaring war shall therefore be deemed as having volunteered to serve in the Armed Forces in support of the war effort, being conscripted in service of the Government in whatever capacity the Department of Defense deems appropriate for the duration of the war and up to six months after. Compensation shall be made to such persons at the rates of pay set by Congress for members of the Armed Forces.

Now you have skin in the game. Vote accordingly. This will make war as personal as a punch in the nose. Want to defend Ukraine? Hamas? Israel? Sure, vote yes. Thanks for volunteering, now report to Basic Training.

If you don’t believe in a cause enough to fight for it, then you shouldn’t get to vote and send others to fight in your stead.