Monday, December 23, 2013

You Stay Classy, General

OK, many of us have been there -- a work event, you're a bit nervous, so you have one drink too many and make an off-color comment or hit on a coworker. You come to work the next day, a bit red-faced and hungover, and 6 months later you change jobs.

Well, that is not how they do things in the US Air Force! The Air Force was unwilling to half-assedly sexually harass the occasional female like lazy civilians, and instead they went the wholesale sex assault route at Lackland. With the same can-do attitude, AFB Gen. Michael Carey decided that a five-day trip to Russia to liaise with his counterparts in control of Russia's nuclear arsenal was a good chance to get really ripped, make a drunken fool of himself and repeatedly hit on hot women that were, in retrospect, likely spies.  I'd go through the whole list of hijinks, but suffice it to say that he tried to give a fist-bump to a tour guide at a monastery, mocked a translator and then tried to make up for it by calling her beautiful, and spent the morning rides to events sleeping off the previous night's debauchery.  For the rest, check out the writeup:

Of course, what did Chuggin' Carey get for all of this? A change to an "advisory" role that doesn't involve any responsibility.  But not, you know, real punishment.  Ugh.

You Stay Classy, USAF!

Thursday, December 19, 2013

India to USA: Let Us Abuse Our Citizens

I'd like to give a HUGE GFY to India's government on the whole arresting-a-consular-officer thing.  Why?


  • “The worst that can be said about her is that she did not comply with the amounts that was supposed to be paid under your law. I don’t think that justifies treating her like a common criminal” according to India's Foreign Minister Salman Khurshid.  Guess what, asshat? Acting like a common criminal justifies being treated like one.
  • The rights of the maid's family are not equal to those of the officer: “I don’t think they are so valuable to our relationship as a diplomatic officer of the government of India.” So, your government thinks that its officers can break employment laws, even when it harms YOUR citizens?
  • The Indian government was warned in SEPTEMBER about this -- more than two months before the arrest. They did nothing because they “didn’t expect this could happen.” This is the 3rd time since 2010 that Indian government employees have been busted for the same type of law -- and they didn't change their behavior. Will you "expect it to happen" next time?
Thanks to the NY Times for the info!

And anyone in India that is offended by the treatment of the woman arrested, are you also offended by her breaking the law to underpay one of your citizens?  I didn't think so.  You stay classy, India

Monday, December 16, 2013

Taste The Ignorance

One great thing about the gay marriage debate in the USA is just how many people like to defend "traditional marriage". They will cite the Bible/Torah and conveniently forget some "benefits" (for the man) of Old Testament marriage:
  • You can have female slaves, and sleep with them if your wife fails to produce a kid (Go Abraham!)
  • You can lie about your marital status to people that want to sleep about your wife that would disapprove of you being married -- but they still get to sleep with her and you're off the hook (Abraham again!)
  • If your brother dies without a kid, you MUST marry his widow and knock her up -- or there will be smiting (Onan -- it was not doing his brotherly duty that got him condemned)
  • Have another wife -- it's all good. All the big names did it!
  • Finally, if you're hearing voices, it's totally ok to climb a hill and slaughter you first-born son. After all, one must have faith.

Of course, these are no longer "traditional" or "biblical", at least if you're the Family Research Council:

"Throughout history, marriage has been future-oriented, focused on the next generation and the best interests of children" 

So, if you have problems with the legalization of gay marriage, feel free to ignore the parts of your religious texts that might be awkward for your argument.  It's traditional!

Oh, and FYI, the Utah decision didn't legalize polygamy -- it struck down a restriction against "cohabitation". Moral of the story: it's also ok to be a completely uninformed jackass when complaining about something that you think you disagree with.