Posse Incitatus

Death from above!

As a former bando with eight years’ marching experience, I can deeply respect the military musicians who remained at attention as a parachutist crashed own on the low brass section.

The great thing about this article is that it lists the damaged instruments before the human toll.

Two tubas were destroyed, said Mike Keating, assistant chief of the post's Fire Department. MacDonald said a trumpet was also damaged.

Harsh.  I know I speak for music-lovers everywhere when I say:  Couldn’t you have landed on the saxophones?

Band member Sgt. Rachel Boggs was knocked unconscious and had a fractured jaw, hospital spokeswoman Lisa Medrano said. Sgt. Andrew Spinazzolla suffered minor neck and head injuries and had a fractured ankle, Medrano said. Staff Sgt. Mark Lucero sustained what Medrano called a minor leg injury.

Damn.  The parachutist wasn’t hurt – apparently because he landed on these guys’ heads.

Anyhow, my sympathies – and admiration – to the Army musicians who got these rather unusual Line of Duty injuries. 

Anglican fissues widen

The big breakup of the Anglican Communion continues.

Over at The Corner, Jack Fowler offers a slew of links to the latest clashes within the troubled church’s leadership, this time involving the investiture of female bishops.  Apparently, quite a few traditionalists find no scriptural basis for this move.  Rather than accommodating them, the synod voted to steam roller them.

It’s a fascinating contradiction.  On the one hand, the Anglicans are showing brutal determination in enforcing their new dogma regarding female bishops, yet at the same time, they are utterly spineless in dealing with the far greater threat of radical Islam.

This begs the question:  Which is more offensive to the dignity of women, male-only bishops or sharia law with honor killings, female circumcision and arranged marriages?

Of course, the post-modern left has a long and ignoble history of picking the easy fight and shying away from the dangerous ones.  Disaffected Anglicans aren’t likely to hack off anyone’s head or self-detonate on a bus.  It’s fun to take a bellicose and unbending attitude on something when you know the opposition can’t stop you.  I wager quite a few Anglican leaders are working out their frustrations over the drastic decline of the church on these hapless traditionalists who want nothing more than to keep the faith they inherited intact.

The wild card in all this is His Holiness Benedict XVI.  With leading Anglican bishops already negotiating the conversions of entire parishes, Benedict has an historic opportunity bring a huge numbers of Anglicans back into the fold.

Moreover, the fragmentation of the Church of England may well cause a domino affect, as outraged African and American congregations debate breaking with Canterbury over the question of homosexual unions.

Random shots

Here’s a fun thought:  Michigan’s newest voters will have to hearken back to their elementary school days to recall a time when the state’s economy was actually going somewhere.  It’s been that long.  I guess we’re getting used to the pain.

Driving ‘round town and tuning into the radio, I can’t help but wonder how much those ads with Tim Allen urging us to stay where we are and go places we’ve already been are costing.  Is anyone encouraged by this tripe?

First off, they are terribly written. The phrases are awkward and full of faux grandeur.  It’s like a parody of Victorian prose.

More importantly, Tim Allen is a lousy narrator.  Good comedian, but bad at reading stuff.  Hey, he’s a Michigan guy, I get it, but so is James Earl Jones.  We couldn’t we get The Voice do this stuff?  Jones can make reading a soup can label dramatic and compelling.

Anyhow, I can’t help but wonder how much Obama’s anti-NAFTA remarks will hurt him here come November. If I were McCain, I’d play those in continuous loops in Automation Alley and Grand Rapids – and in Port Huron and the Soo.

I hope to begin overhauling this site, including revising the links over the next few weeks.

Also, where did the Carnival of Cordite go?  Anyone still interested, email me.  I’ll host it with a target of maybe next weekend.

A day at the beach

Over the holiday weekend, the Posse ventured to the local swimming hole.  It being hot, most folks were wearing an entirely inadequate amount of clothing.  This made the group of women in body-length bathing suits and headscarves rather conspicuous.

At first glance, it was a Mark Steyn moment: a small group of people consciously separating themselves from the rest.  Surely in the interests of "tolerance" and "multiculturalism" they would demand a secluded space to bathe.  Nope.

The girls, who were teenagers, removed the headgear and dove right in.  Their suits, while covering them from ankle to neck, were form fitting - probably designed for surfing.  So they were modest, but in a good way.  Certainly preferable to all the pre-teen girls wearing string bikinis.

In short, they seemed pretty well assimilated.  I imagined that in a few years, they would probably raise quite a ruckus when Dad or someone tried to tell them what to do.  In the great scheme of things, not all that significant, I know, but I found it encouraging nonetheless.

Owned by an 8th Grader

It's tough to live in Michigan.  The economy stinks, the governor is clueless, and of course we have Detroit.

This delightful clip gives an idea of just how wacky the politics of the Motor City have become.  Behold!  An 8th Grader explains good behavior to the City Council President Pro Tem and wife of Congressman-for-life John Conyers.

I particularly like the way she explains how adults have control over their actions.

Happy Independence Day

There seems to be quite a dust-up between Wesley Clark and the rest of the thinking universe.  His latest foot-in-mouth problem is how he has tried to disparage John McCain’s military service.  It’s enough to make me nostalgic for the 2004 Democratic Primary.

Clark, of course, entered the race buoyed by polls showing him beating President Bush easily.  He immediately became the front runner.  Then he opened his mouth.

I have to wonder what it is like to watch your polls in continuous downward motion.  I’ve worked on more than a few political campaigns, and I recall good polls and bad polls, but I can’t ever recall a situation where the more the candidate said, the worse he did – not at least with a non-fringe candidate.  Well, I guess that’s what Clark was.

Anyhow, Allahpundit repeatedly reduced me to tears with his commentary on Clark’s increasingly desperate efforts to gain traction and stop the slide.

Apparently four years have done nothing to improve his political instincts.

So I’m sure many readers are asking: what does this have to do with the Fourth of July?

Only this:  The genius of the American political system is that it allows for civilian control of the military.  Despite many crises and a radically different world than that inhabited by our Founding Fathers, the Republic has endured.

While I’m naturally glad about the Supreme Court’s Second Amendment ruling, the thought I will carry with me this Independence Day is how fortunate we are to have generals as laughing stocks rather than dictators.

Wesley Clark is a comic figure, but he is also a four-star general who once commanded the bulk of our overseas armies.  When he exceeded his mandate he was cashiered without delay and reduced to hawking books, sucking up to wannabe presidential candidates, and being the butt of our jokes.

Yet another reason to love the United States of America.