text:
Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl: Prisoner of the War Party
His release may spark a major controversy
Is US Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl a traitor or a martyr, a coward who walked away from his unit or a symbol of how a misconceived war used US soldiers as pawns in a losing geo-political game?
This is going to be the issue as the prisoner swap with the Taliban takes incoming fire from Republicans like John McCain and others opposed to "negotiating with terrorists." Yet the real issue goes deeper than that: Bergdahl was profoundly disillusioned by the war, and his capture by the Taliban would never had occurred if he hadn't walked off base – in plain language, deserted, as this 2012 Rolling Stone piece by Michael Hastings makes clear. In his last email to his parents, sent just before he walked, Bergdahl wrote:
"The future is too good to waste on lies. And life is way too short to care for the damnation of others, as well as to spend it helping fools with their ideas that are wrong. I have seen their ideas and I am ashamed to even be American. The horror of the self-righteous arrogance that they thrive in. It is all revolting."
Bergdahl goes on at length, indicting a military system that punished competent soldiers and rewarded the "conceited brown-nose shitbag" who's "allowed to do whatever [he] wants." In spite of his pro-military outlook, which had prompted him to join up in the first place, he realized he had joined "the army of liars, backstabbers, fools, and bullies." Bergdahl was no anti-military hippie: he'd long wanted to be a soldier and even tried to join the French Foreign Legion before enlisting in the US Army. A 23-year-old idealist who took soldiering seriously, Bergdahl was shocked to learn that the best officers "are getting out as soon as they can, and they are telling us privates to do the same."
It wasn't just a military machine run from afar by incompetents that riled him, it was also the nature of the mission itself:
"In the second-to-last paragraph of the e-mail, Bowe wrote about his broader disgust with America's approach to the war – an effort, on the ground, that seemed to represent the exact opposite of the kind of concerted campaign to win the 'hearts and minds' of average Afghans envisioned by counterinsurgency strategists. 'I am sorry for everything here,' Bowe told his parents. 'These people need help, yet what they get is the most conceited country in the world telling them that they are nothing and that they are stupid, that they have no idea how to live.' He then referred to what his parents believe may have been a formative, possibly traumatic event: seeing an Afghan child run over by an MRAP. 'We don't even care when we hear each other talk about running their children down in the dirt streets with our armored trucks… We make fun of them in front of their faces, and laugh at them for not understanding we are insulting them.'"
The context of the email makes clear Bowe was going AWOL – although how he imagined he would be getting out of Afghanistan is murky, at best. Perhaps he had been driven mad by the sight of so much futile slaughter, such needless cruelty. Or perhaps he had been pushed over the edge into sanity, as indicated in his last remarks to his parents: "I am sorry for everything," he wrote, "The horror that is America is disgusting."
Bergdahl was captured by the Taliban and held for almost five years: intermittent negotiations to secure his release were blocked by hardliners on both sides – the hardliner Taliban leaders who opposed all negotiations to end the conflict, and the Pentagon, which insisted that a prisoner swap would mean US soldiers would become targets (as if they weren't already). Then there were the congressional Republicans, led by John McCain, who caviled "You're negotiating with terrorists!" One imagines the Taliban's hard-liners using similar language, albeit in Pashtun.
Yet the special task force convened to secure Bergdahl's release never gave up, and this weekend they succeeded: the former prisoner-of-war is now in US hands. But what will become of him – and how will he be greeted when he comes home?
There are indications that Republicans are determined to make the prisoner swap deal an issue. Already we have Eli Lake and Josh Rogin in the Daily Beast complaining that the Gitmo detainees freed are so dangerous that we should all be quaking in our boots. And the Christian Science Monitor is already pointing to the Hastings piece, prefiguring the inevitable debate that promises to be remarkably similar, in broad terms rather than in the details, to the Edward Snowden episode.
Both young men were idealists who initially took the US government at its word: they believed Washington embodied the spirit of liberty and that our military and intelligence agencies were involved in a crusade for freedom designed to benefit and uplift the long-suffering peoples of the world. Upon discovering that this isn't so – and is, indeed, the exact opposite of the truth – both Bergdahl and Snowden rebelled, each in their own way and to the extent of their abilities. The debate around their motivations, their moral status, and the circumstances leading to their disillusionment, is what separates the Regimists from the defenders of our old republic – and the pre-9/11 political culture – as we enter an election year. Although I'd like nothing better than to be proved wrong, I fear "Benghazi!" may soon give way to "Bergdahl!" as the congressional GOP's war cry.
No sooner had Bergdahl been captured, then Ralph Peters – a Fox News "military analyst" who seems more like an invention of Stephen Colbert's than an actual human being – called on the Taliban to execute him so as to "save us a lot of legal hassles." Peters may be a lunatic, but there are plenty of those around the vicinity of Washington, D.C. I'll bet that well before this column is posted we'll hear calls for Bergdahl's prosecution – coming from the same gang that can't wait to jail Snowden.
From being a prisoner of the Taliban to being a prisoner of the War Party – will Sgt. Bergdahl be doubly victimized? In such a case, the War Party's vindictiveness could well backfire on them. Imagine the trial: it won't be Bergdahl who will be exposed as criminally incompetent and guilty of war crimes. The war itself, and what it's done to the best of our youth, will be put on trial in that courtroom.
It's hard to believe any decent human being would even consider putting Bergdahl through more trauma than he's already endured – but in the case of the War Party, exemplified by the foam-flecked Peters, we aren't talking about decent people. They will exact their pound of flesh from an ordinary, powerless individual caught in the headwinds of our turbulent era, just to make an ideological point: that the war was and is justified, that we're pulling out too soon, and – more importantly – that no individual "insider," whether a private in the Army or a top level technologist for the NSA, has the moral right to obey their conscience when it conflicts with their orders. The government decides, as Michael Kinsley argued in Snowden's case, and not the individual – who is merely a cog in a gigantic "democratic" machine. After all, as the neocons and their "progressive" allies say of Snowden, who is he to make these decisions unilaterally?
"Who is he to judge?"
To which the only appropriate response is one of my favorite Ayn Rand aphorisms:
"Judge and prepare to be judged!"
While the War Party bays for Bergdahl's blood, showing themselves to be less merciful than the Taliban, most ordinary Americans are going to look at him and think to themselves: What would I do in a situation like that? What would I do if I was smack dab in the middle of an unwinnable war, a nightmare in which I was fighting not only the official enemy but also my own officers and the deluded policymakers in Washington? With the huge number of wounded vets coming home irreparably damaged psychologically as well as physically, it isn't hard to imagine someone would be crazy enough to just take off, alone, in the middle of Afghanistan. The average American will doubtless think to himself or herself: Hasn't he been through enough? Leave him the heck alone!
In the context of the recent scandal in the Veterans' Administration, are we really going to welcome home the last prisoner of the Afghan war with calls for his prosecution? How symbolic of our treatment of veterans in general would that be?! For all their "support the troops" rhetoric, this would never occur to the Ralph Peters types, and the rest of the characters on Fox News. Such unthinking callousness underscores just how much of a tin ear these folks have – and why the GOP, which generally shares their hearing disability, is a rapidly shrinking party.
The Obama administration isn't hopelessly stupid: I find it hard to believe they'll initiate legal proceedings against Bergdahl. As we wind down the war – while leaving some 10,000 "advisors" for "training" purposes – the last thing this administration wants is any kind of reckoning. To charge Bergdahl with going AWOL would keep the war in the headlines – and wind up indicting a policy, including their failed "surge" and the whole COIN disaster, which Obama and his supporters defend to this day.
Even as the Americans prepare to retreat – defeated just like the Russians and the British before them – the War Party is already writing a revisionist history of our longest war. Although a majority of Americans think the Afghan and Iraq wars weren't worth it, our political elites devoutly believe quite the opposite – and are willing to use any opportunity in order to drive this point home to the public.
Sgt. Bergdahl is a martyr at least two times over: first, he's a martyr to the deceptions which are the working tools of military recruiters: Gung ho on the soldiering profession, he took at face value the "Be All You Can Be" propaganda. Secondly, he was martyred on the altar of a foreign policy that is ostensibly about exporting "freedom" and is in reality a longstanding and ongoing crime against liberty.
If Bergdahl has to endure a third martyrdom, then perhaps it wasn't so extreme after all for him to write: "The horror that is America is disgusting." Perhaps in that moment before he set out into the Afghan wasteland, alone, he foresaw his own fate – and our own, insofar as we let this happen.
You can check out my Twitter feed by going here. But please note that my tweets are sometimes deliberately provocative, often made in jest, and largely consist of me thinking out loud.
I've written a couple of books, which you might want to peruse. Here is the link for buying the second edition of my 1993 book, Reclaiming the American Right: The Lost Legacy of the Conservative Movement, with an Introduction by Prof. George W. Carey, a Foreword by Patrick J. Buchanan, and critical essays by Scott Richert and David Gordon (ISI Books, 2008).
You can buy An Enemy of the State: The Life of Murray N. Rothbard (Prometheus Books, 2000), my biography of the great libertarian thinker, here.
Read more by Justin Raimondo
- A Feast of Scandal – November 26th, 2015
- Turkey's Stab in the Back – November 24th, 2015
- Myths of Empire – November 22nd, 2015
- Hillary Clinton's Road to War – November 19th, 2015
- Who's Behind the Islamic State? – November 17th, 2015
90 Responses to "Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl: Prisoner of the War Party"
[…] Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl: Prisoner of the War Party […]
I suggest that antiwar.com offer Bergdahl a job.
A meaningful life is a threat to the new world order. The right to think for yourself is a danger to the always heavenly purposes (by definition so) envisioned by leaders and politicians.
Perhaps the military should be enlarged by internal murderers to prevent bad thinking about the holy goals, and protect the sublime value that only people with public responsibility have the right to care about it!
Justin is wrong on this one. Bergdahl is a disgrace, as is the Obama administration in freeing him to a hero's welcome in order to distract from the VA scandal.
Real men were killed looking for this mentally ill turd, and I still can't believe I watched the father of a deserter to the Taliban and traitor standing in the rose garden, with the President at his side, effectively thanking Allah his son had been released. It's mind-blowing. But the mainstream media will carry the Obama water as usual, and the country will continue on in its decline.
Prediction: after a lengthy debriefing, and psychiatric visits, Bergdahl will be granted either a psychiatric (once, and perhaps, still called Section 8) discharge, or a general discharge. Even if he is provably a deserter, it makes little sense for the army to make a public show of tormenting a former POW. Of course, emotional stupidity may get the better of them. It shouldn't be hard to spin his actions as mental illness or emotional instability, since he seems to have had no clear plan for getting home.
He was not "a deserter to the Taliban," as far as any evidence shows. More likely, he was a deserter who had no clear plan of escape, and was captured. Do you have evidence otherwise?
The closest case to Bergdahl's I can think of is that of Bobby Garwood, a Marine captured by the Viet Cong in 1965. After North Vietnam released all US POWs (that we know of publicly, at least) in 1973, Garwood remained behind and didn't return to the US until 1979. He was accused of collaboration, court-martialed, and dishonorably discharged from the USMC. Bergdahl's case is a little different from Garwood's, so we will see if the Army prosecutes him or simply lets him go on his way back to his family.
In the link to the Fox News clip of Ralph Peters, he's initially asked how a soldier can just "walk away" without others on the base knowing about it. Peters responds, in essence, that no soldier would go out alone.
This begs the question, what about Sgt. Bales? Remember him? The guy that left the base "alone" to kill Afghan families. His amazing feat of bloodlust has never made sense. How could one individual pull it off? Oh, well, let's just throw another one down the Memory Hole.
Good work, HBM. Go collect your paycheck from your spook agency employers.
how come Raimondo never mentions that his capitalist money-making War Party is composed of Right-Wing Libertarian oligarchs, including and especially Pierre Omidyar, whom gov' agent Glenn Greenbacks (another one of Raimondo's pets who is immune from criticism) legitimizes on a daily basis?
Counting down to noon when Limbaugh goes ballistic. The Bill Kristols and John Boltons don't give a rats ass about the troops after they have served or when they are damaged goods. How many articles have you ever read from the Wall Street Journal or National Review calling for more benefits or health care for Vets? NO, it's always about the next war and the next onslaught of wounded veterans. Bergdahl will have to be demonized so as not to set a precedent for other soldiers who might speak out against the insane neocon war policies.
McCain wasn't court martialed for making propaganda films for the North Vietnamese. Instead he was nominated for President. Lord Haw Haw and Tokyo Rose had it far worse. Lord Haw Haw had renounced his British citizenship and taken out a German one. Yet they still hung him.
It is disturbing to you, is it not, that some people on this Earth do not behave according to your high valutin, unbending principles?
[…] This is a syndicated repost courtesy of Antiwar.com Original. To view original, click here. […]
The Americans put Ezra Pound, a la Guantanamo Bay, in a 6x6x6 foot reinforced steel cage after they captured him in Italy in 1945. Then, having dragged him back to the US and debated whether to charge him with treason for having moved to Italy long before World War II and taken a liking to Mussolini, the FedGov took the predictable road by throwing him into a psychiatric prison for thirteen years. Sgt. Bergdahl has ample precedent for fearing the worst at the hands of the ravening pack that currently runs things in the US.
If Bowe Bergdahl should happen to read this, I would like for him to know that many of us share his disgust at the horror of America. I served in the Army some years ago, and was fortunate enough – thanks to the craven hypocrisy of the invasion of Panama (Operation "Just Because," I called it) and the high idealism I experienced at the sight of the Berlin Wall coming down – to have seen the horror before I was forced to make that descent into hell on earth. My enlistment, and, most importantly, all military service obligations, ended not long before the start of the Persian Gulf War. I regret that Bowe Bergdahl was not afforded a similar dispensation.
Buy a copy of his biography of Murray Rothbard. Pay special attention to Murray being tossed from Cato. Libertarian oligarchs??!? shhhsssshh.
Last weekend, India's elections swept into power a hardline Hindu supremacist named Narendra Modi. And with that White House spokesman Jay Carney said the Obama administration "look[s] forward to working closely" with a man who has been on a US State Dept "visa blacklist" since 2005 for his role in the gruesome mass-killings and persecution of minority Muslims (and minorityChristians).
Modi leads India's ultranationalist BJP party, which won a landslide majority of seats (though only31% of the votes), meaning Modi will have the luxury of leading India's first one-party government in 30 years. This is making a lot of people nervous: The last time the BJP party was in power, in 1998, they launched series of nuclear bomb test explosions, sparking a nuclear crisis with Pakistan andfears of all-out nuclear war. And that was when the BJP was led by a "moderate" ultranationalist — and tied down with meddling coalition partners.
Modi is different. Not only will he rule alone, he's promised to run India the way he ran the western state of Gujarat since 2001, which Booker Prize-winning author Arandhuti Roy described as "the petri dish in which Hindu fascism has been fomenting an elaborate political experiment." Under Modi's watch, an orgy of anti-Muslim violence led to up to 2000 killed and 250,000 internally displaced, and a lingering climate of fear, ghettoization, and extrajudicial executions by Gujarat death squads operating under Modi's watch.
We can understand the White House being forced to congratulate Modi through gritted diplomatic teeth. What's harder to stomach is the public cheering of India's election results by one of the most prominent progressive names in Silicon Valley.
* * * *
Omidyar Network, as Pando readers know, is the philanthropy arm of eBay billionaire Pierre Omidyar. Since 2009, Omidyar Network has made more investments in India than in any other country in its portfolio. These investments were largely thanks to Jayant Sinha, a former McKinsey partner and Harvard MBA, who was hired in October 2009 to establish and run Omidyar Network India Advisors.
During Sinha's tenure, Omidyar Network steered a large portion of its investments into India, so that by 2013, India investments made up 18% of Omidyar Network's committed funds of well over $600 million, and 36% of the total number of companies in its portfolio.
In February of this year, Sinha stepped down from Omidyar Network in order to advise Modi's election campaign, and to run for a BJP parliamentary seat of his own. Sinha's father, Yashwant Sinha, served as finance minister in the last BJP government from 1998 (when his government set off the nukes) through 2002. This year, Sinha's father gave up his seat in parliament to allow Jayant Sinha to take his place.
During the campaign, Sinha's father publicly backed Modi's refusal to apologize over the deadly riots under his watch: "Modi is right…why should he apologize?" His ex-Omidyar staffer son, Jayant, boasted a few weeks ago that his father's BJP government ignored international outrage in 1998 when detonating its nukes, known as "Pokhran":
When Atalji became PM in 1998, the global media attacked us similarly. However, we pursued our national interests including Pokhran.
Shortly after Sinha left Omidyar Network to help Modi win, Modi gave a speech calling for opening India's e-commerce market to foreign companies such as Ebay, whose largest shareholder is Pierre Omidyar. The message was clear: Modi is the candidate of hi-tech India, violent ultranationalism notwithstanding.
At the same time, Sinha helped organize a summit meeting between Modi and major global investors like JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley and Nomura bank.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, then, when news broke last weekend that Jayant Sinha had ridden to election victory on Modi's ultranationalist coattails, Omidyar Network offered its congratulations:
When the Warfare State is your enemy, you have to take allies wherever you can find them, even if their motives are dubious. I don't blame Greenwald for associating with Omidyar, just as I don't blame Snowden for staying in Russia.
that's the problem – Raimondo, Greenbacks collaborating with the War Party and the CIA – and people not minding
Beware Hillary. Another warning – from the 2012 Rolling Stones article on Bowe Bergdahl:
"Some top-level officials within the administration, including Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, are very wary about making a swap for Bowe. "Panetta and Hillary don't give a shit about getting him home," says one senior U.S. official involved in the negotiations. "They want to be able to say they COINed their way out of Afghanistan, or whatever, so it doesn't look like they are cutting and running." (Both Clinton and Panetta, by law, would have to sign off on any exchange.)"
Given a chance, she will be "the first woman" to start a worl war.
Do you use Reynolds Wrap for your cap, or a generic brand?
"…McCain, who caviled "You're negotiating with terrorists!" One imagines the Taliban's hard-liners using similar language, albeit in Pashtun…"
And that, my friend, is the absolute truth. And both sides will defend their stance, siting religious beliefs or nationalistic righteousness, both misguided.
Bergdahl discovered, as Smedley Butler did almost a century previously, that "War is a Racket" and he was a "gangster for capitalism." Having awakened to the truth, he found it impossible to go back, and impossible to go forward, so he did the only thing a person of good conscience could do: he just walked away, not knowing or caring what would happen to him. I dare say more than a few readers could tell similar stories of awakening to the truth, with only slightly happier endings.
Great column, JR, and mostly great comments. Bergdahl's release could be the catalyst for a conversation that's long overdue, but won't happen in a system that finds billions to destabilize Ukraine while veterans, and many others, go homeless and hungry.
I might be sympathetic had he been drafted, but he willingly joined.
The rumors I've heard in regard to Sgt Bales are that he was meeting up with a local Afghan woman, was surprised by her family and started shooting in a panic. A married man, away from his wife, I think this explanation makes sense. This might be the first war in American history, maybe world history, where soldiers are not allowed to fraternize with the local women.
it all started with person working for another person. from that moment on, serfdom is born; then institutionalized; enshrined in constitutions and all major laws.
a soldier is just more owned/controlled than people who work. say for corporations, businesses, or even governments.
i find, thus, that the constant plaint about a government violating constitution is not true.
it, clearly is never violated nor can ever be violated.
a worker, a soldier is being violated, but never ever a law of the USA. for one thing, no one can ever know a law, constitution. the bible, quran, das kapital, libertarianism, torah, socialism…such writs can be 'known' only be interpretation.
He's a stupid pathetic soulless monster Gomer. You give hime too much credit.
"….the army of liars, backstabbers, fools, and bullies."
It reflects the character of the Commander in Chief.
seems to be like this "true believer' had is col. kurtz moment and had gone too far "up river". this isn't necessarily surprising given the psychological ramifications of realizing everything you've held in esteem and aspired to be becomes nothing but a lie and deception. his crime was realizing it and going off the reservation. frankly i have little sympathy for someone so uninformed and blinded by the glory of the military to be that stupid in the first place. as for negotiating with terrorists, the taliban did that when they sat down with obama's minions to release this mental patient. i'm surprised they didn't dress him up as corporal klinger to make him seem more crazed than he already is.
If you served, and engaged in killing, I sincerely wish you the best in dealing with the PTSD, demons, chronic depression, or whatever you want to call it that will haunt you for the rest of your days. If you aren't afflicted, then either you never killed or you are a psychopath.
No prisoner swaps is right. Could the Vietnamese please take McCain back?
Another great post by Justin Raimondo, who often appears to be the smartest man in the room.
[…] "In the second-to-last paragraph of the e-mail, Bowe wrote about his broader disgust with America's approach to the war – an effort, on the ground, that seemed to represent the exact opposite of the kind of concerted campaign to win the 'hearts and minds' of average Afghans envisioned by counterinsurgency strategists. 'I am sorry for everything here,' Bowe told his parents. 'These people need help, yet what they get is the most conceited country in the world telling them that they are nothing and that they are stupid, that they have no idea how to live.' He then referred to what his parents believe may have been a formative, possibly traumatic event: seeing an Afghan child run over by an MRAP. 'We don't even care when we hear each other talk about running their children down in the dirt streets with our armored trucks… We make fun of them in front of their faces, and laugh at them for not understanding we are insulting them.'" antiwar.com […]
DAR forgets the de facto economic draft of the U. S. working-class young people. The armed forces are their only (slim) hope of leaving poverty, or avoiding falling into it, because the Malefactors Of Great Wealth have busted unions and sent jobs overseas, where they can have workers who are slaves in every way except meaningless formal legal status.
He also ignores the fact that our young people are brainwashed in school and by the Corporate Media to believe the USA is the mostest bestest doubleplusgoodest nation in the history of eternity (the physical and cultural genocide of the First Americans notwithstanding), so of course some of them are willing to enlist, even in the absence of economic misery.
And his predecessor in the office, and his predecessor in the office, etc.
The Vietnamese are too smart to want any of our neocons.
Are you comparing antiwar.com to Enron? :)
Indeed, the degeneracy goes back at least as far as the Ronald Reagan the Horses**t Cowboy (h/t Richard Vajs).
If by "Gomer", you mean "redneck", so am I.
To me, "redneck" is not derogatory. It simply means "a white Southerner who does not come from a privileged background".
IIRC, Jeff Foxworthy said that bigotry against white working-class white folks was the last kind of bigotry which was still acceptable in polite society.
Granted, Da Intertoobz hardly qualify as "polite society"… ;)
Some of the usual suspect commentators here once again take to their usual subjects without any relevance to the topic in today's essay. Oh well.
What Justin has done of course is to write an essay chock full of detail and analysis not yet published in the establishment accounts (AP, NYT, WaPo, et.al.) No hint of Bergdahl's emails or unhappiness at his occupation work has yet seeped through the propaganda wall. The story has been sanitized to remove any hint of discontent w/ govt policy or military leadership. Of course.
Instead we have a fake narrative of "returning hero" which will last briefly. Then Bergdahl will be disappeared into the Memory Hole unless he has had a major change of heart. Of course being a Taliban captive probably hasn't improved his view of them. We shall see.
*sigh* One too many "whites" in there.
I can haz edit feechur, plz?
"Some of the usual suspect commentators, etc…"
D'awww, would Muggykins like some cheese with that whine?
My first threshold question is always – "Is this some kind of psyop?" You have to realize that direct knowledge of what Bergdahl represents (cf. Johnny Taliban, aka John Walker Lindh), as his patriotism is challenged, is not possible for us. So much is off-bounds in a state of war such as one we have been in since 9/11 and its change of "everything." It is possible to forget that.
But here are my two cents anyway because it is irresistible:
There are inner-directed people, rather than mass-minded outer-directed ones who can play around and lack integrity because they are supposed to ruled from above anyway, supposed to be whipped into line when the moment arises. They are the guys who tease and torment Afghan children in direct opposition to the alleged purposes of the US having invaded that country, which is to win hearts and minds. We can see how many massacres have already occurred, bringing back My Lai to those of us who were old enough and young enough to be shocked by it. Could there be a guy from Idaho who was an idealist and enough of an orienteering type to decide he'd had enough and try to bug out? We want to hope so. We want to imagine there are many more of his ilk, people we haven't heard of or may never hear of. That's our wish and desire.
And just as naturally, there are those who will attack him and blame him for the death of his supposed searchers, even though that blame is tenuous at best, and possibly a complete fabrication.
So here it stands. Some of us, if we found ourselves in Afghanistan among loathsome child-killers, would hope to make some kind of a stand or only try to get out expeditiously. He stands for the best that is within us, even if he might be some kind of cut-out. He is another Snowden, that's for sure.
World of difference between the intelligent comments here and the ignorance on full display in Reason Hit & Run, as usual. If a publication is reflected by the views of its readership, Reason is still very much a neocon rag, not libertarian at all. One person who dared to entertain the idea that Bergdahl had a right to walk away was almost apologetic about playing "devils advocate" as if he had to apologize in advance to the vocal jarhead contingent.
Another commenter:" I'm not aware of anything in libertarianism making an uncoerced contract with the state less valid than any other." They must be completely unfamiliar with the work of Lysander Spooner, Murray Rothbard, Sheldon Richman among others then. What kind of "libertarians" is Reason turning out anyway?
Some people call me the Space Cowboy
Some call me the Gangster of Capitalism
Some people call me Maurice (WOWOO-WOWWRRR)
'Cause I speak of the pompatus of loovvve…
(Apologies to Steve Miller) ;)
Before we try to turn Bergdahl into an "anti-war-rior hero," we should clear up a few questions.
he may be exactly what he appears to be, but certain facts make me wonder:
1) If I have my info correct, he was captured as a PFC, but has emerged as a sergeant. How does that happen, exactly, and why? Are promotions granted to POWs normal, especially if their capture was preceded by desertion? He even said that the best officers were "are getting out as soon as they can, and they are telling us privates to do the same," indicating his rank at time of capture.
2) He, a mere sergeant, was traded for five Taliban captives in Guantanamo. And not just any captives — one was a former deputy defense minister, another a former deputy intelligence minister (who seems to have tried playing both sides), the ex-governor of Herat, etc. Is this the normal prisoner exchange ratio — three ex-government high officials, plus two others, for an ordinary NCO? And an apparent deserter, at that? How could he have become such a hot commodity?
Now, maybe I'm reading too much into all this, but can someone here give me an intelligent explanation? Is there something just a little too "neat" about who Bergdahl appears to be, his apparent disillusionment and desertion, and his return, in exchange for high level prisoners, as some kind of diplomatic trophy, out of all proportion to his importance? It makes no sense, as it currently stands, especially considering that it is a public relations nightmare for the Democroaches, who are now the subject of renewed Republiscum caterwauling about "selling out" and "treason."
So, someone, please tell me what is going here!
does bergdahl tacitly posit that if the war against pashtunstan was waged correctly and in accordance with geneva conventions; and only competent, honest, non-discriminatory, non-razzophobic, and non-ethnophobic soldiers or echelons were rewarded, the aggression against a people who represented no danger of whatever kind to even one american, would be ok?
it's often said in US that this or that war was a mistake; thus, shouldn't have been waged.
that type of thinking forces one to conclude that such protesters would ok a war which was 'successful', short, and with no or few casualties.
My experience with the military – in the VietNam War, our aircraft carrier was selected to be in on the initial bombing of North VietNam. The ship was in jubilation – the chance to bomb and kill those people!
I remember they had a small bomber on the flight deck with hung ordnance ready; the crews were welcomed to write "greetings" in chalk on the bombs. Stuff like, "Here's for You, Uncle Ho Chi Minh" or "Sorry about that" (a particular 60s phrase that meant that you didn't really give a crap). I refused as I figured the bomb was really destined for some unsuspecting farmer in a rice paddy and not Ho Chi Minh.
Actions like mine bring out the hatred of the bulk of the military – the military being run like a gang with cruelty and "going along" with the cruelty being prime virtues. I later overheard our senior NCO opining that "'when the gooks attack the ship, someone help me throw Vajs overboard before he helps them". And he meant it.
I can imagine how the military mind will deal with Bergdahl. They will kill him with their bare hands if allowed.
In my life I have been in jail and in the military (mainly to get out of jail). My summary – you meet the same class of people in both places.
The way treat our veterans is pathetic. How can we have a democracy without a standing army to protect it?
But just wait for all the reagan groupies to tell us how the great gipper would have handled this. Pat, are you out there?
A LOT farther than that!!!!
You're right about the vets, but between voter suppression, gerrymandering, and unaccountable, readily hacked vote-counting computers, since when is this Empire a real democracy?
You should read the writings of Thomas Jefferson, who saw no reason at all for a standing army.
All the way back to the execrable Woodrow Wilson, Theodore Roosevelt, Abraham Lincoln, and let's admit it, Andrew Jackson.
The decision by the FedGov to make the exchange was clearly an effort to distract from other issues. Seeing as he was the only POW the Taliban had, any exchange was going to involve him, and the Taliban certainly weren't going to swap him for low-ranking prisoners.
With regard to Bergdahl having been promoted while in captivity, that is standard when promotions are automatic after a certain period of time in the current grade. In World War II, Geneva Convention nations forwarded promotion orders and new rank insignia to prisoners.
It seems that soldiers from Bergdahl's platoon have been whining that six soldiers were killed while trying to find him. Well, they could just have well been killed while doing something else, such as clearing a village, or making a night raid. Getting whacked in combat is a standard hazard of invading another country, and it amuses me that those soldiers complain that Bergdahl was responsible. To quote the many armchair warriors across the Internet, they chose to be there by virtue of having volunteered.
[…] I did some research on Bowe Bergdahl for this article, it was easy to see myself and many of my friends in his place. […]
I congratulate you for not having been lynched by your shipmates. Some of the people I ran across in the Army would have killed anyone who was empathetic toward the enemy, and they also openly bragged that they would kill any journalists who didn't write reports that met the Stars and Stripes threshold of acceptability. Hmmm, I wonder if any of that has happened in Iraq or Afghanistan . . .
Ah, yes, the military contract thing. A military contract is an amazing instrument: In return for getting a monthly salary, clothes, food and board, you get to do everything your superiors tell you to do, such as kill enemy wounded, clean latrines, work for 72 hours straight, walk into minefields, and much, much more along those lines. And if the government doesn't pay you, or you go on short rations, well, good luck in having the contract nullified on the grounds of non-performance by the other party. The closest thing to it in civil law is an indenture for servitude, except that indentures for servitude explicitly stipulated the limited labor that had to be performed. Furthermore, I am not aware of any indentures for servitude being indefinitely held beyond their terms. The Iraq War made famous the idea that a military contract could be involuntarily extended until 2031.
Polk the Pr*ck?
Much of Lysander Spooner's No Treason is about that very subject. Demolishing the notion that contracts and oaths with the United States government are of any validity whatsoever. He specifically mentions military enlistments and several other examples, from my recollection including immigrants becoming naturalized citizens, and – writing during Reconstruction – southerners taking oaths to be readmitted to the union.
Rothbard had a lot to say about that subject. In For A New Liberty he calls military enlistments, even "voluntary" ones, an insidious form of slavery and says that libertarians in addition to calling for the end of the draft also call for an end to set terms of enlistment and an end to criminal penalties for quitting ones job. Several times in the Libertarian Forum he stated, again going from memory here, "THE Libertarian position is Unconditional Amnesty Now for draft evaders and so-called deserters." specifically calling out Ayn Rand and Leonard Read for refusing to support unconditional amnesty when it was a big issue in the 1972 and 1976 presidential campaigns.
So it doesn't just sound like I'm quoting scripture, it is their whole arguments that are compelling and not just because St. Spooner and St. Rothbard said it.
Sheldon Richman as I recall also had a good article in the Libertarian Forum on inalienable self-ownership versus military contracts.
Karl Hess went them all one better and led a sizable contingent from one of the early libertarian conferences to join some kind of direct action protest at Fort Dix in support of the GI refuseniks being held there. Even Rothbard got ticked at that one after it brought down unwanted FBI attention on the conference.
I'm sure they aren't the only ones either, not by a longshot. Now I'm gonna have to do some digging and put together a list! Curiosity is piqued.
One thing I have noticed about the "but..but..they signed a contract! Contracts must be enforced, sacred oath, bleat bleat!" types is they either come from the neocon-lib world centered around Reason, Instapundit, Boortz….or from the Heinlein fanboy club where they obsess over space colonization and why libertarian contract theory means we should legalize slavery. Throw in some into the mix who still can't get over their emotional investment in having been in the military years ago.
Hmmm, I wonder if any of that has happened in Iraq or Afghanistan . . .
Not that we know of, but it was probably the tacitly recognized point of "embedding" journalists with specific units. The threats were probably made, and we know that, early in Gulf War II, the conquering US troops fired at the hotel where most journalists were staying in Baghdad.
In times of PEACE!
Amazes me that not one of you pukes has condemned the Taliban or Al Qaeda nor any islamists who call for death to America. I too hate war, but I am not a pacifist and will defend against any who would kill for the simple reason I don't conform to their religion. None of you speak to the Muslims treatment of their own women or children. Bergdahl screwed up. He had other avenues to relieve himself from the horrors he says he experienced. He could have declared himself incapable of carrying out his duties. A shrink would have most likely agreed with him. The release of Bergdahl was a publicity stunt by Oblamer and the release of the Taliban leaders will come back to haunt the American people and the world. And maybe Obama. But I doubt it, he has no conscience.
Which reminds me. When is Obama going to show his good faith on the Crimea issue by giving Texas back to Mexico?
Piss on Kristol, Limbaugh, Bolton and all the rest of those armchair commandos..
Judging from the way Bergdahl expressed himself, his disillusionment impelled him to go over the hill. He saw the results of American warmongering with his own eyes.
Too bad there aren't more like him. . . .
Truth is very hard to swallow for you I guess.
Put yourself in his shoos, then again I guess you can not with that tented mind brainwashed by CNN CNBC Fox and other war machine sponsored news papers.
Again it is good that you read antiwar.com least there is a chance to come to terms with the real war on the ground with the help of this soldier's revelation and others like him.
Why would Bergdahl,Snowden and others like him lie?
And government lost the war achieved nothing,it was a mistake and of-course its desperate to prove that it was necessary war.
You forgot to call everyone here a fascist communist socialist muslim lover. Would you like me to do that for you, or is that something you think you can articulate by yourself? Did daddy buy you enough foam rubber pellets for that toy M16?
I happened to catch Michael "Savage" Weiner blasting Bergdahl today. Called him POS POW and other nice things.
Those who still can't get over their emotional investment in having been in the military years ago…that last bunch is the most obnoxious. Incapable of any reasoned discussion, they usually just start channeling their old drill instructor with a stream of invective and obscene language, much of it sexist and homophobic.
Best thing with them is just give them a rope to hang themselves with and they will soon be waxing nostalgic for the glory days of mass graves in the Philippines, atomic bombs on innocent Japanese civilians, genocide against American Indians, and My Lai. they are actually *proud* of that s*** and advocate "we" meaning the US should be doing those same things today to all the "Moooslims" around the world.
Think of it this way, there has always been a class of americans who see their role in society as one of "Indian fighters". In modern times just substitute for Indian the appropriate racial slur for the war du jour: Raghead, Gook, Kraut, Jap. Someone else mentioned you find the same class of people in jail and the military. Bingo. Right down to the culture of deep distrust of anyone perceived to be an outsider or different, gossip and shunning, and the "stop snitching" ethos, which in the military means you are expected to participate in all the racist in-group rituals and, where they occur, atrocities, and what happens in the field stays in the field.
[…] Cross-posted from antiwar […]
You lost me at "pukes" and that choice of word tells us something interesting. See what I wrote above about america's self styled "Indian fighter" class.
Shouldn't you be masturbating to "the halls of Montezuma" and buying $30,000 more in patriotic lawn decorations and a marine corps flag to go in front of your $10,000 trailer or rowhouse right now instead of sitting at a computer?
Cass Sunstein called, LS. He said to tell you good work, and your check is in the mail.
Of course, LS could be sincere. But now that we know the Police State uses sock puppets on comment threads, how can we know that ANY commenter who supports the Police and Warfare State (or its owner, Big Business) is genuine?
"…masturbating to 'the halls of Montezuma'…"
And our senior NCO later that week gathered us all together for a "morale boosting" talk – the essence being that "we are fighting gooks and if we don't kill them all, they will invade San Diego and rape our wives and girlfriends, so I don't want to hear any talk about VC, or VietNamese – they are all gooks". Mind you, we were on a ship, not in the jungle. He was in charge -in the military these guys are always in charge.
You do meet decent people in the military amongst all of the deadbeats, barracks-thieves, homosexual rapists, malingerers, and functionally illiterate. What they were doing there was escaping the worse fate of being drafted into the Army. I had a choice – the judge told me, "go into the military or do 3 months in Chino (the California prison farm). My great crime – vagrancy – (wandering around without cash). I was too late to be a hobo, too soon to be a flower-child
Now Bergdahl is really in trouble. He's now stuck in our bureaucratic Kafkaesque "Catch-22." He's now become an issue in the upcoming mid-term elections and the GOP will exploit him for all its got.
Good comment, Johnny. Hey a'hole McCain – do you know the saying: "Those who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones!"
Or like Yossarian in Joseph Heller's classic anti-war novel "Catch-22" who deserted at the end of the book. Having become anti-war after what he'd been through, bombardier Yossarian wanted a psychiatric discharge. But, by wanting to leave the war, he was, by definition, not crazy and couldn't get out. And that was the "Good War."
This "emotional investment in having been in the military years ago" can be found daily in every VFW and American Legion hall in America. The WWll vets are mostly gone, but those Vietnam-era vets who join these pro-military organizations have taken up the War Party mantra, including wearing those silly hats. I suspect many can't wait for Memorial and Veterans Day each year so they can relive their glory days, put on a uniform again, and carry an unloaded gun in these obscene flag-waving parades. (And, yes, I am a 'Nam era vet).
[…] as Justin Raimondo notes, the vindictiveness of the war party may […]
Yes I'm sure Bergdahl's return to his family is the exact point the US begins declining. Never mind the national security state, the federal reserve andd our mindless foreign policy, it was Bergdahl! It's always amusing to watch conservatives like yourself explode and act like liberals
Honestly if the family hasn't already I would make sure they're armed because you know that someone is going to come after them for one reason or another. Whether it be some jingoist conservative who wants to "save America", some random leftist or some government thugs who want to teach them a lesson.
Yes, and the irony is many Vietnam vets weren't exactly made welcome in the pro-war veterans fraternal groups back when they were dominated by WWII and
Korea vets. The reason? The GI resistance and state of near mutiny the armed farces were in from Tet on was still well known, as was the image WWII vets had of Vietnam vets ( long hair, pot, rock and roll, VVAW, throwing medals back at the capital).
And there we have another layer of irony, because the WWII vets had their own state of near mutiny in the closing months of the war. The "bring the boys home" movement of 1945-1946 *was* an outright mass mutiny and took on the same aspects that the Vietman era GI resistance did. Demands for an end to special privileges for officers, reform or abolition of the military injustice system and so on. There is also the well documented incidence of a majority of WWII GIs who deliberately shot to miss in combat so they wouldn't have killing on their consciences. But by the 1960s and 1970s that was all forgotten or swept under the rug and WWII vets had been co-opted into playing a game of real vet/fake vet vis-a-vis Vietnam vets.
And since the 1980s there has been a big effort to sweep the whole proud legacy of Vietnam GI resistance under the rug, and co-opt Vietnam vets using such tools as Rolling Thunder, "pow mia" flags and creating myths that protestors spat on returning soldiers. In fact there are no documented instances of the latter at all, but plenty of documented instances of spitting at Vietnam War protests during the 60's – every one of them, PRO war people spitting on peace protestors (!)
And on it goes. Get somebody today who "deserts" i.e. in any other setting what would be known as quitting your job, and we'll see the same Vietnam vets who back in Vietnam were scrawling F.T.A. everywhere and openly refusing to retake Hamburger Hill for the 8th time now calling for them to be lynched.
[…] […]
What a fine family Bowe has:
We definitely need to go to bat for Bowe in the same we did for Bradley/Chelsea Manning.
[…] Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl: Prisoner of the War Party – June 1st, 2014 […]
The Bergdahl incident and the debate that has ensued prompted me to re-watch an episode of All In The Family that first aired (appropriately so) on December 25, 1976. The title is "The Draft Dodger". I emphatically recommended viewing it.
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CERTIFICATION: Lean-Agile Project Management
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Games are a great way to learn…especially as a team. Here is one simple but powerful exercise that can be used to demonstrate several aspects of flow, value and teamwork: The Dice Game, by Lithespeed.
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>> Click here for Full Game Instructions
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Agile software development has been gaining momentum and mind share in software development circles for well over a decade. Its emphasis on incrementally delivering business value by teams that are both cross-functional and self-organized has resulted in getting innovative products to market faster. However, most large enterprises have failed to embrace the Agile movement even though they have earnestly tried by sending scores of their people through Certified Scrum Master and similar Agile training programs. What has been lacking is an Agile framework that addresses the needs beyond the Team. In order to succeed, the Program and Portfolio levels of an organization must be fully engaged in building an Agile Enterprise.
This webinar will discuss "proven" advances in enterprise scale Agility and present a framework that has been proven to scale to meet the needs of large product development organizations such as BMC, SalesForce.com, Google, John Deere and Nokia.
SPEAKER: Armond Mehrabian (PMP, CSM, CSP) is the founder and President of Portofino Solutions, Inc. He is an Agile instructor and coach with a deep passion for innovation and continuous process improvement. He has been in the technology and IT industry for over 23 years. For the last four years he has worked with Fortune 1000 companies to implement large scale agile solutions. Armond is currently working with Dean Leffingwell and the Scaled Agile Partners (the creators of the Scaled Agile Framework™) and consults to larger clients on scaled Agile transformations. Armond lives in San Diego, CA and can be reached at firstname.lastname@example.com and @armond_m on Twitter.
Earn PDU: 1 ***PDU information is provided in the recording ***
COST: Free
What some more Resources?
Learn SCRUM in Under 10 Minutes (in HD)
All new recording…in HD just released !
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- burn-down charts,
- team roles,
- product backlogs,
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- daily scrums
- and more…
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The Agilista PM is now on Facebook !!!
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PMI-Agile Webinar – "Does Risk Mgt have a place in an Agile Lifecycle?"
We often have questions about relating traditional PM practices to Agile practices. This is especially true in the area of risk. In this one hour webinar, Greg Smith (Author of Becoming Agile) and Donna Reed (The Agilista PM) will cover traditional risk management techniques and contrast them to the Agile risk management practices.
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Areas covered include
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Hosted by: PMI Agile Community of Practice
Duration: 1 hour
PDU's earned: 1
FREE eBOOK – Kanban and Scrum: Making the most of Both
This FREE eBOOK DOWNLOAD by Henrik Kniberg and Mattias Skarin is excellent ! It clears up the fog, so you can figure out how Kanban and Scrum might be useful in your own environment. Thanks to InfoQ for posting it.
There isn't a single "best" way to do things; you have to think for yourself and figure it out – based on your situation !
- the difference between Scrum and Kanban.
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Henrik Kniberg is one of those rare people who can extract the essence of a complicated situation, sort out the core ideas from the incidental distractions, and provide a crystal clear explanation that is incredibly easy to understand. He makes it clear that these are just tools, and what you really want to do is have a full toolkit, understand the strengths and limitations of each tool and how to use them all. The important thing is not the tool you start with, but the way you constantly improve your use of that tool and expand your toolset over time.
David Anderson, the founder of Kanban, writes,
Kanban is proving useful to teams doing Agile software development but equally it is gaining traction with teams taking a more traditional approach. Kanban is being introduced as part of a Lean initiative to morph the culture of organizations and encourage continuous improvement.
WEBINAR RECORDING – Different Agile Approaches: 1st (XP, Scrum) and 2nd (Lean/Kanban) Generation Methods
Get an overview of Agile approaches starting with eXtreme Programming (XP) & Scrum and then hear about Lean-Agile and its team oriented Kanban for software process.
Early Agile methods have been overly-team centric and have eschewed management. While 2nd generation Agile methods build on a decades old history of Lean thinking and have extended agility in three ways that are not only required for an enterprise engagement but also for creating synergies that improve Agile at the team level:
- Extending the Team to across the Enterprise
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- Extending the Worker to include Management
How To Implement Scrum in 10 Easy Steps
Scrum is not a hard concept to understand. But there are a lot of parts ot making it successful. I found a great article that explains how to implement Scrum in just 10 easy steps from getting your backlog in order to tracking progress through burn charts, and more… Thanks goes out to Kelly Waters, from All About Agile, who writes:
When I first encountered agile development, I found it hard to understand. Okay, I might not be the brightest person you've ever met! But I'm not stupid either, I think
There's a myriad of different approaches, principles, methods and terms, all of which are characterised as 'Agile'. And from my perspective, all this 'noise' makes agile software development sound far harder, far more scientific, and far more confusing than it really needs to be.
Agile Open Southern California Conference 2011 (Sep 15-16)
THEME: People, Principles and Performance
WHEN: Thursday and Friday, September 15 & 16
WHERE: University of California, Irvine
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You don't want to miss this! Imagine an event where experienced Agile practitioners and newcomers alike come together for two days to discuss, examine and otherwise brainstorm the most timely and relevant topics in Agile development today.
Agile Open California is a coalition of agile practitioners and advocates intent on providing an opportunity for learning, networking and growth to the Agile community in California and to others who are interested.
What Will I Get?
- A 2-day conference pass – up to 24 sessions to choose from each day
- Continental breakfast and lunch both days
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- Free Agile Alliance 1-year Membership – a $100 value! With your registration and attendance, you can receive a free one-year membership in the Agile Alliance, which is a $100 dollar value. Just check the option when you purchase your ticket!

subset: commoncrawl


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|Business Type:
|Trading Company, Buying Office, Distributor/Wholesaler
|Main Products:
|Fukui, Japan
|Year Established:
|Number Of Employees:
|11 - 50 People
|Total Annual Sales Volume:
|US$10 Million - US$50 Million
|Main Markets:
|Average Lead Time:
|2 Day(s)
1. Our company provides convenience to our customers with fast and flexible support. 2. Company Profile: Our company wa...
1. Our company provides convenience to our customers with fast and flexible support.
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Email to this supplier


text:
Resolution: standard / high
Figure 2.
Association between anti-drug antibody status and clinical activity (Ankylosing Spondylitis Disease Activity Score) after switching. Clinical activity classified into inactive (light shading), moderate (medium shading) and high/very high activity (dark shading), according to Ankylosing Spondylitis Disease Activity Score criteria, 6 months after switching to a second anti-TNF drug in patients who had developed anti-drug antibodies (ADA) against the first anti-TNF drug.
Plasencia et al. Arthritis Research & Therapy 2013 15:R79 doi:10.1186/ar4258


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From Uncyclopedia, the content-free encyclopedia
Combined display of all available logs of Uncyclopedia. You can narrow down the view by selecting a log type, the username (case-sensitive), or the affected page (also case-sensitive).
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2013-05-03 / General
Mangin & Smith To Wed May 4th In French Lick
Abbie Marie Mangin and Derrick Mark Smith of Indianapolis are pleased to announce their engagement and upcoming wedding.
The full version of this story is only available to online subscribers.
© 2009-2015 Spencer Evening World, Inc.
No commercial reproduction without written consent.
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Candice Bassett joined Monroe Sweet Adelines after seeing a flyer at the University of Louisiana at Monroe. She is the new president of the chorus.
- Filed Under
Candice Bassett of Grayson became president of Monroe Sweet Adelines on May 1. Back in 2009, she discovered the passion and fun that being a Sweet Adeline brings to not only her life, but to the lives of others who hear the voices-only a cappella harmony.
"I learned of Sweet Adelines through a continuing education class offered at ULM. My daughter was attending school there and I saw the flyer and the listing for an a cappella music class and signed up. I have sung in church choir most of my life and have also done some Little Theatre work while in Natchez, Miss., and I wanted to try something new. I have ...


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Augmented reality superimposes animals, including this chimpanzee, onto kids' backyards as they play nature games outside using the Disneynature Explore app on their idevice.
- Filed Under
It's the middle of springtime and this is a great time to piggyback on your kids' interests in the environment with digital "green" games.Plum Landing
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Launched in time for Earth Day, Plum Landing is a new multimedia project created by WGBH for PBS Kids. Starring Plum, an adorable purple alien whose way-cool talents include time travel and transporting humans around Earth in fast-moving bubbles, this free site offers kids games, animated webisodes, live-action videos, hands-on science activities and a place to send their photos and drawings ...


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LOWEST PRICE GUARANTEE(OR WE'LL REFUND DOUBLE THE DIFFERENCE!) We want to give you the best deal available online, so if you can find the same bed for less within 24 hours of booking with us we will refund double the difference.
Things to Do in Argentina
- Argentina Information
- Events in Argentina
- Things to do in Argentina
- Where to stay in Argentina
- Argentina street map
Want to know some of the standout things to do in Argentina? Then have a look through our handpicked suggestions below...
1. The Iguazu Falls
The Iguazu Falls are situated on the Brazil/Argentina border in the province of Misiones. Stretching along 2.7km, they fall for 82m at their highest point and are truly one of nature's most awe-inspiring spectacles.
2. Mendoza Valleys
Considered one of the world's eight winemaking capitals, the Mendoza region produces 70% of the country's intensely flavorsome reds and whites.
3. Casa Rosada
This colonial building is found on the eastern side of Plaza de Mayo, the square at the heart of Buenos Aires. The pink building's balcony was the setting of Eva Peron's famous rallying speech (later replicated by Madonna in Don't Cry for Me, Argentina).
4. House of Che Guevara
The childhood home of the renowned revolutionary has now been transformed into a museum that charts his life through various exhibits and memorabilia.
5. La Recoleta Cemetery
Located in the Recoleta neighborhood in Buenos Aires, La Recoleta Cemetery is the resting place for many of Argentina's most famous historical figures, including Eva Peron.


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No, online refunds arecurrentlynot possible. If your flight tariff includes a rebooking charge, then the payment for the airport taxes will be taken and the rebooking can be made online.If your flight tariff does not include a rebooking charge, then the rebooking and the refund of the resulting airport taxes cannot be carried out online. You will receive a message informing you of this with the request to contact your booking centre. The rebooking will not be carried out online.
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The additional payment is the difference between the original tariff and the new one or a charge that has to be paid. The refund is for the taxes that you paid for the original ticket and which will not be used for the new ticket or for taxes that are lower in the new combination. For technical reasons these taxes have to be shown separately.For example: A customer originally booked a flight Zurich-London City-Zurich. The flight was then changed to Zurich-London Heathrow-Zurich. The airport taxes at London Heathrow are lower than those at London City, so there is a part refund. If the tariff conditions contain a charge for rebooking, then a tax refund and a charge for fees will appear on the credit card statement.
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Jared Yancey is a member of the U.S. Foreign Service and a recipient of the Charles B. Rangel Fellowship. A native of Portsmouth, Virginia, Jared received a bachelor of arts in international studies from Bethune-Cookman University and a master of arts in public and international affairs from the University of Pittsburgh.
Joining the Foreign Service in 2008, Jared served as a consular officer in San Salvador, El Salvador. Following the disastrous earthquake in Haiti, he completed a temporary assignment in Port-au-Prince. For his second tour, Jared returned to Washington, DC to serve as the desk officer for Swaziland and Zambia in the Office of Southern African Affairs.
Later this year, Jared will travel to Kabul, Afghanistan to serve as the Deputy Director of the Field Programs Unit. After this one year assignment, Jared will serve in Johannesburg, South Africa as a public diplomacy officer.
Jared is a jazz lover and enjoys mentoring and spending time with family and friends in his spare time. Jared looks forward to meeting additional members of the international community and learning about their cultures.
Short URL: http://m.state.gov/md182594.htm


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By Will Brinson
The Cowboys are currently losing to Philadelphia but that's not the bad news for Dallas. The bad news is that Tony Romo is probably done for the day with a right hand injury after taking a nasty hit from Jason Babin.
Of course, the worst news for the Cowboys is that he suffered the injury in a game that ultimately won't matter -- after the game began, the Giants finished off the Jets in New York, eliminating the Eagles from the playoff race and setting the stage for a Week 17 matchup between the Giants and Cowboys to decide the NFC East.
Stephen McGee's currently under center for the Cowboys, and it's hard to imagine that he won't stay there.
Romo returned to the sideline and had a pretty intense talk with the training staff; he's now on the sidelines with a baseball cap, and it makes sense to keep him there for the rest of the day.
Dallas needs a lot of help to make the postseason as a wild card, but they control their own fate in terms of the division. Romo suffering another injury that could put his status for the finale in doubt would be an unmitigated disaster
For more NFL news, rumors and analysis, follow @EyeOnNFL on Twitter, Like Us on Facebook, subscribe to our NFL newsletter, and while you're add it, add our RSS Feed.
Blog Entry
Tony Romo out with hand injury; Stephen McGee in
Posted on: December 24, 2011 4:49 pm
Edited on: December 24, 2011 5:00 pm
Category: NFL


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Click here to visit our website: www.PermianPremier.com
More commonly referred to as an ENT (Ear, Nose and Throat) an otolaryngologist provides comprehensive medical and surgical care for patients with diseases and disorders that affect not only the ears, nose and throat, but also the respiratory and upper digestive systems and related structures of the head and neck. Dr. Obokhare's areas of expertise include facial and reconstructive surgery and the treatment of disorders of hearing and voice.
The skilled surgeons at Permian Premier work closely with Permian Premier's Primary Care providers to give you a focused and cohesive plan for your overall health. Permian Premier's offices are located right next to the Medical Center of Southeast Texas on Jimmy Johnson Blvd., in Port Arthur.
To Schedule an appointment or find out more, call 409-853-5268.
Permian Premier Medical Services of Southeast Texas-in your neighborhood.
Dr. Obokhare attended Medical School at University of Texas Southwestern. She completed her Otolaryngology Residency at the University Hospitals of Cleveland, and Facial Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery Fellowship at Louisiana State University in Shreveport.
Dr. Obokhare is Board Certified in Otolaryngology and Facial Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery which includes:
Facial Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery
- Blepharoplasty (eyelid surgery)
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Her hobbies include reading autobiographies and singing in church choir. Dr. Obokhare has played the violin in multiple orchestras since the 5th grade, including the UT Southwestern Medical School Chamber Society.
Her Society Memberships include the American Academy of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery and the American Academy of Facial Plastics and Reconstructive Surgery.
In 2003, she was elected President of the Student National Medical Association -University of Texas Southwestern Chapter. In 2011 Dr. Obokhare placed second in the prestigious University of Pittsburgh Resident Research Competition and also second in the Northeast Ohio Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery Society Resident Research Competition.
Our hot and humid climate is rife with pollens and molds of all kinds. View Dr. Joy Obokhare's interview as she talks about the causes and solutions to Allergic Rhinitus.
Dr.Joy Obokhare is affiliated with Permian Premiere Health Services. Contact her at 409-853-5268 for an appointment or to find out more.
Permian Premier Medical Services of Southeast Texas is in your neighborhood and right next to the Medical Center of Southeast Texas. Our family of 13 Primary Care Physicians also has locations throughout Mid and South County, Bridge Cityand Port Arthur. Our Surgeons include General, Cancer, Colorectal, Cardiovascular, and Orthopedic Surgeons, all within close proximity to the Medical Center of Southeast Texas in Port Arthur. With over 30 physicians in your community Permian Premier can provide you with a comprehensive and cohesive healthcare plan.
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Main (409) 853-5268
Arcala, Arcala, & Associates Family Practice 409-724-6116
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Dr. Obokhare Otolaryngology & Facial Plastics 409-853-5147
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Williamson, Allen Clayton Jr, DO
Williamson, Kathryn, DO
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2400 Hwy 365, Suite 208
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7980 Anchor Dr., Building 200
Port Arthur, TX 77642
At Permian Premier Health, we believe we can make a difference in the lives of our patients, and our community


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Category Archives: Dance
Rioult Dance Company's New York City Joyce Theater Season
I loved photographing another dance season for Rioult. For Rioult's 20th anniversary, the company integratedRead more and see photos »
New York Dance Photography: Rioult and El Penitente
As some of you know, I have been photographing Rioult for their 20th Anniversary. That is a long time for a danceRead more and see photos »
Moment Monday: Dance photographs of City by Rioult
Today's New York moment comes from Rioult, a modern dance company, celebrating it's 20th Anniversary thisRead more and see photos »
Two Dance Photos for Tuesday
Since it's Tuesday, I thought I'd give you two dance photos from a great project I just photographed. TheseRead more and see photos »
Larry Keigwin dance class at Steps on Broadway
Here are some dance photos from Larry Keigwin's master class at Steps on Broadway, one of the premier New YorkRead more and see photos »
Rioult Summer Dance Camp
Right before the summer, Rioult had me come in and capture dance photographs in the studio of some of their young danceRead more and see photos »
Rioult Dance Company Rehearse for Joyce Season
Next week is Rioult dance company's season at the Joyce Theater. They are premiering a new piece, Iphiginea, withRead more and see photos »
Dance rehearsal: up close and personal
One thing I love about being able to photograph dance rehearsals are getting to be so up close and personal. To be ableRead more and see photos »
New York Moment: Dance Theatre of Harlem Proposal
So this New York wedding moment is actually a glorious proposal at the Dance Theatre of Harlem. Andwele, the groom-to-beRead more and see photos »
Dance Photography Rioult Dance Company Dress Rehearsal
A few dance photographs from Rioult dance company from dress rehearsal at the LaGuardia Performing Arts Center. TheRead more and see photos »


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We have an old M reg escord 1.8 TD. Does anyone have any idea of what this means, what needs replacing or repairing?
"Nearside front lower (arm) bonded failed and part of of unit is likely to become displaced. [2.4.F.2] " same for offside.
mot puzzle
Started by debbie_278, Jun 08 2008 12:44 PM
2 replies to this topic
Posted 08 June 2008 - 12:44 PM
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Posted 11 July 2008 - 10:38 AM
This will be your lower arm bushes, best to buy 2 non gen arms, less hassle then pressing bushes out
Posted 11 July 2008 - 04:52 PM
Yea, lower arms are a very common mot fail on the escorts, i must have bought at least 4 sets in the last 5 years, mind 3 of those years i was running Peugeot offset wheels causing excess wear on the bushes.
They are not vey expensive and quite simple to do yourself.
They are not vey expensive and quite simple to do yourself.
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Guitar chord randomly quantize
hmm....great...but i dont know why, only this from your randomized gtr files
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Panels To The Soul
April 2, 2007
Johanna Darper Carlson noted an interesting criticism of Osamu Tezuka's more adult works, that Tezuka's cute, cartoony style detracts from the serious tone and events of the story. But for me it wasn't something that threw me out of the story of Ode to Kirihito, or the Buddha series. The big, sparkling eyes, I always thought, were a way to greater show emotion and work up sympathy for the character. Especially for the dog-disease afflicted people of Kirihito, the eyes are a crucial connection back to their humanity, needing to express a lot of emotion and sympathy. The sparkling can signify vulnerability or a great welling of emotion (sadness or otherwise), so I think that was especially true for Helen, the nun struck by the disease and suffering a true test of her faith. For Buddha I think it really works, since it functions as a sort of myth/folk tale, and so cute funny animals aren't that ill-fitting. Carlson expects some anthropomorphizing, and I think that's what Tezuka was going for, since one of the messages he's trying to get across is the interconnectedness of everything, and the all-encompassing suffering of the material world. A lot of the Buddhist lessons are derived from the nature, so, like how folk and fairy tales humanize animals for people to identify with, Tezuka is with his cartoony animals.
That said, it still ought to be interesting to see how Apollo's Song turns out, with its extreme subject matter. Kirihito, I think, showed Tezuka exploring some tension with his cartoony style and dark subjects – certainly experimenting with breaking apart his stylized figures into abstract sequences, but also, I think, Reika shifting from the sparking eyes to sharp, flat eyes when she goes from a loving, sympathetic figure to a more hard-edged, darker one.
One Response to "Panels To The Soul"
April 3, 2007 at 7:09 am
[…] contrast, John G. finds the cartoony art helpful for drawing him into Tezuka's […]


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Now that those steamy and sweltering days of summer are in full swing, it can be a challenge to keep your makeup from melting.
However, there are ways you can look great this summer with little fuss. Summer makeup is simpler and more subtle than in the cooler months, and in just a few minutes you can be ready to head out the door, looking and feeling great.
Carmina Cristina, a makeup artist in Lemoyne, has lots of tips for making the most of your summer makeup. She recommends staying away from water-based products, which have a tendency to sweat off more easily. She also cautioned against too much sun exposure.
"It's important to protect your skin appropriately," she said. Use sunscreen with either SPF 20 or 30 every day, ideally incorporated into your makeup product. You might even want to go higher if you'll be spending a lot of time in the sun.
Nath Mao, a makeup artist in Harrisburg, recommends bronzers in a powder form to add a bit of shimmer and a summery glow. The trick is to blend well with a brush at the top of your cheeks, bridge of your nose and forehead, she said.


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Diet History Questionnaire: Getting Help
Alternate Version AvailableYou are viewing the Web site for the DHQ II, which is the latest version of the DHQ. You may want to see the original version of this information.
If you are new to the Diet History Questionnaire (DHQ) and the Diet*Calc software, or just looking for help, use one of the resources listed below.
Last Modified: 18 Oct 2013


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"UNRWA decided to suspend all its operations in the Gaza Strip because of the increasing hostile actions against its premises and personnel," Adnan Abu Hasna, a Gaza-based spokesman for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA).
He did not say how long the suspension would last.
Hasna earlier said the driver was killed during a lull declared by Israel to allow humanitarian aid to enter the territory.
He said the U.N. coordinated the delivery with Israel and the vehicle and was marked with a U.N. flag and insignia when it was fired upon.
The Israeli army said it was investigating Thursday's incident in northern Gaza.
The shooting is likely to raise already heightened tensions with the United Nations.
Earlier this week, an Israeli attack on a U.N. school killed more than 30 people. At the time, Israel said it opened fire after militants hiding in the crowd fired mortar shells at Israeli troops.
Lebanon on Thursday launched a probe into a rocket attack on northern Israel amid indications that Hezbollah was not involved and heightened fears of a second front opening up in the Gaza war.
"Lebanon denounces and condemns the firing of rockets and the retaliatory action and believes that such action is in violation of UN Security Council resolution 1701," Prime Minister Fuad Siniora said in a statement.
"We have asked the competent authorities in cooperation with the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) to investigate." He added that Lebanon was committed to the UN-brokered truce that ended the devastating 2006 war between the militant group Hezbollah and Israel.
Resolution 1701 helped bring an end to that conflict.
Siniora, who was to chair a cabinet meeting later in the day to discuss developments, said the rocket fire was the work of parties seeking to destabilize Lebanon.
Israel hit back after the rockets fired from Lebanon with artillery shells in what an Israeli army spokesman described as "a pinpoint response at the source of fire", a limited military reaction that appeared to signal a desire to avoid escalation.
At least three rockets fired from Lebanon slightly wounded two people in the area around the northern town of Nahariya, medics said.
The rockets were the first fired from Lebanon since 2007, and occurred on the 13th day of the Jewish state's offensive in the Gaza Strip to the south.
Palestinians fired rockets from Lebanon into northern Israel in June 2007, causing no casualties. During a 2006 war against Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon in 2006, the Israel had came under frequent rocket attacks that caused casualties.
Hezbollah has made it clear to the Lebanese government, in which it has a representative, that it was not involved in Thursday's rocket attack into northern Israel, Information Minister Tarek Mitri told AFP.
"Hezbollah has assured us that they remain committed to stability and Resolution 1701 and that is a euphemism for saying they are not involved," Mitri said, referring the UN Security Council resolution that brought an end to the devastating 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah.
Although it was unclear who fired the rockets and whether it signaled the start of a wider conflict, the exchange was certain to raise tensions between Hezbollah and Israel after days with the two sides trading threats but holding their fire.
The rockets fell a day after the chief of Lebanon's Hezbollah, a Shi'ite militia with which Israel fought a 34-day war in 2006, warned that "all possibilities" were open against Israel amid its deadly offensive in Gaza.
Israeli analysts have said the Iranian-backed Hezbollah group may try to get involved in Israel's battle against Hamas in Gaza. Hamas is also backed by Iran.
The rockets into Israel could have been set off by Palestinian groups in retaliation for the war in Gaza, Israeli media reported. Radio and television reports cited unnamed military sources saying it was likely an isolated attack.
Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, however, denied it was responsible for firing rockets into northern Israel from south Lebanon.
"We cannot blame any Palestinian faction and we don't know who fired the rockets," Hamas spokesman in Lebanon, Raafat Morra, told AFP.
"Hamas is pursuing its combat inside Palestine and our principle is not to use any other Arab soil to respond to the occupation. This is our firm policy," he said."Basically what is happening is the fault of Israel because it is impossible to contain the Arab and Islamic world after the Gaza massacre."
Israeli warplanes bombed targets across the Gaza Strip on Thursday and tanks advanced on Palestinian guerrillas as U.S. backing for a truce proposal raised expectations of an end to the offensive.
An Israeli air strike killed three gunmen of the Islamic Jihad group in northern Gaza, medics said. Tanks advanced closer to the southern town of Khan Younis, witnesses told Reuters.
Residents in Gaza described the overnight bombardments to the east of the city as among the heaviest in the offensive.
Israel on Wednesday approved an even tougher war on Hamas, warning residents to flee southern Gaza ahead of planned bombing of cross-border tunnels, as the Palestinian death toll passed 700.
Although Israel pressed on with the offensive, it said it accepted the "principles" of a European-Egyptian ceasefire proposal. The United States urged Israel to study the plan.
ISRAELI ENVOY SENT TO CAIROIsrael on Thursday sent a top envoy to Cairo for talks on an Egyptian ceasefire plan aiming to halt the Gaza war, the defense ministry said.
Amos Gilad, a senior advisor to Defense Minister Ehud Barak, was to hold talks with Egyptian officials on the plan which has secured widespread international backing.
Israel said on Wednesday it has agreed to the principles outlined by Egypt for a ceasefire but that the two have yet to iron out key details about how it would be implemented.
The Egyptian proposal calls for increasing border security to stop the smuggling, but it offers few specifics beyond that.
"There is a broad understanding on the general principles of a solution," said Mark Regev, spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
But a senior Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity, cautioned: "Translating those principles into practical action is a challenge that is still ahead of us".
Israel is demanding an end to Hamas rocket attacks and the smuggling of weapons into Gaza from Egypt before it halts its military operation in Gaza which has left more than 700 dead.
Western and Israeli diplomats said negotiations centered on the idea of sending specialized international forces or teams, equipped to search out and destroy smuggling tunnels, to the so-called Philadelphi corridor that runs between Gaza and Egypt.
In addition, Israel and Western powers are discussing a naval contingent to prevent smuggling by sea.


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- Filed Under
Billsboro Winery owners Vinny and Kim Aliperti have planned a series of events to highlight the opening of their Vintage Room.
The intimate tasting room, created inside the winery's original space, includes two rustic harvest tables and library wines in vintage crates. Artist Bernadette Bos used an antique plastering process on the interior.
The next event will be "Not Just For Lovers: Chocolate & Wine Pairings." Wines will be paired with tapas containing chocolate from CaryMo Chocolate Candies & Confections. ...


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I have an NSTextField where the user can write text. I would like to be able to make 3 buttons: bold, italic and underline; these buttons should change the user selection in the textfield to either bold, italic or underline.
Can anyone give me a pointer on how to do this?


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All AT&T iPhones getting cellular FaceTime, users say
updated 10:21 am EST, Wed November 21, 2012
People with iPhone 4S or unlimited plans now reporting access
In spite of earlier statements by the carrier, AT&T appears to be extending cellular FaceTime to all compatible devices on its network, note forum posters at MacRumors. It had been announced that while cellular FaceTime would no longer be restricted to Mobile Share plans, the option would still require a tiered data plan and a device with LTE. By definition that would block the iPhone 4S and/or anyone on a grandfathered unlimited plan; anything earlier than the 4S is unsupported because of Apple's own restrictions in iOS 6.
Some of the forum posters say, though, that they have been able to turn on FaceTime both on the 4S and on iPhone 5s using unlimited data. Not everyone has had success, but that could simply mean that AT&T is still rolling out the feature. AT&T itself originally stated that its FaceTime support could take eight to 10 weeks to deploy. In any case, people who have had the option turn on have sometimes had to restart their phones first.
At this stage it remains uncertain if the wider FaceTime access is a mistake on AT&T's part or intentional. The carrier was widely criticized when FaceTime was limited to Mobile Share, and backed off mainly to avoid government scrutiny. It also faces sharp competition from Verizon and Sprint, though, since neither of which have any artificial limits on FaceTime calls.