Some advice on women in combat from a female veteran

Hot Air  "Yesterday’s column on women in combat elicited a number of passionate responses from both sides. Some of them came from proponents of the move, frequently citing alternate motives on my part. These ranged from “trying to keep women pregnant in the kitchen” and “Republicans want to lock women in the 1950s” to whichever variant of the GOP’s “war on women” you’d care to name. Many others lent a more sympathetic ear. One in particular, though, caught my attention. It was from one of America’s female veterans who served in Iraq, delivered with a first hand, been there, done that background. The Marine in question – who for purposes of publication will go by the pseudonym of “Sentry” – had previously submitted this history and opinion as a comment at National Review, but her story was compelling enough that I checked into her background, contacted her and decided to republish it here in its entirety. I offer the following as a third party testimony to stand your scrutiny on its own merits."

I’m a female veteran. I deployed to Anbar Province, Iraq. When I was active duty, I was 5’6, 130 pounds, and scored nearly perfect on my PFTs. I naturally have a lot more upper body strength than the average woman: not only can I do pull-ups, I can meet the male standard. I would love to have been in the infantry. And I still think it will be an unmitigated disaster to incorporate women into combat roles. I am not interested in risking men’s lives so I can live my selfish dream.  Read more here.

 The writer has much more to say, but her key point is here:

....Everyone wants to point to the IDF as a model for gender integration in the military. No, the IDF does not put women on the front lines. They ran into the same wall the US is about to smack into: very few women can meet the standards required to serve there. The few integrated units in the IDF suffered three times the casualties of the all-male units because the Israeli men, just like almost every other group of men on the planet, try to protect the women even at the expense of the mission. Political correctness doesn’t trump thousands of years of evolution and societal norms. Do we really WANT to deprogram that instinct from men?

Greta Van Susteren Strikes Back At Obama's Attack On Fox News

Noel Sheppard  "As NewsBusters reported, President Obama, in an interview published Sunday by The New Republic, said, "If a Republican member of Congress is not punished on Fox News or by Rush Limbaugh for working with a Democrat on a bill of common interest, then you'll see more of them doing it."
Within a few hours, Fox News's Greta Van Susteren struck back:"

Apparently President Obama wants his usual media pass and Fox challenges his policies – which happens to be the media’s job.
Frankly, I think a far bigger part of the problem is the disintegration of relationships between politicians. It is also worth noting that President Obama has not developed relationships on Capitol Hill – note that he had to dispatch VP Biden to Capitol Hill for the recent tax debate because he does not have the relationships. [...]
And do you know what else? Brace yourself for this one! Some Democrats have told me that they want to come on Fox to discuss issues but they get heat from their Leadership for appearing on Fox. Does President Obama know that? So which Party is intimidating its members? And to say Senator Harry Reid is willing to compromise is just wrong. He has not allowed a budget to get to the Senate Floor for years to even begin a discussion. The budget process is where all compromise begins and ends and ended it before it even got started.
 

David Mamet Is Fighting for Our Dying Liberty As We Succumb to Marxism

Independent Sentinel   "Defiant ex-liberal and famed Pulitzer Prize winner, David Mamet, is an American playwright, essayist, screenwriter, and film director. He has made a full conversion from liberalism since it has come to represent collectivism."

 

" Mamet’s latest column in The Daily Beast calls for a look at the Marxism infiltrating our society and its growing control over the individual through bureaucracy:"

Read his article here. 

 

"Mamet recognizes the condescension of this movement which views blacks as so inferior they need to be given special consideration by the government:"

The government, for example, has determined that black people (somehow) have fewer abilities than white people, and, so, must be given certain preferences. Anyone acquainted with both black and white people knows this assessment is not only absurd but monstrous. And yet it is the law.

"One point that should not go unnoticed is Obama’s overreaching into our personal lives:"

President Obama, in his reelection campaign, referred frequently to the “needs” of himself and his opponent, alleging that each has more money than he “needs.”

But where in the Constitution is it written that the Government is in charge of determining “needs”? And note that the president did not say “I have more money than I need,” but “You and I have more than we need.” Who elected him to speak for another citizen?

Finally, a liberal who doesn't complain about Obama because he is not far enough left to suit him. 

This should sum things up for the week

http://www.worldmag.com/editorialcartoons/

Mallard Fillmore's latest

Jewish World Review

Keynote Speaker for Atlanta Association of Teacher Educators: Bill Ayers

Moonbattery  "Another reminder that the most radical excesses of the acid-crazed flower child era are now effectively mainstream:"

Left-wing ’60s radical and onetime domestic terrorist Bill Ayers will be a keynote speaker at the Association of Teacher Educators annual conference in Atlanta next month.

Ayers gained notoriety alongside his wife Bernardine Dohrn as a member of the Weather Underground during the Vietnam War. He was involved in Chicago’s “Days of Rage” riot in 1969 and went underground as a fugitive from justice after an accidental Greenwich Village townhouse explosion in 1970 killed three Weather Underground members who were preparing a bomb that prematurely detonated.
Ayers admitted in a 2001 book that he participated in bombings of the New York City Police Department headquarters, the U.S. Capitol Building and the Pentagon in the early 1970s.
He subsequently became a professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago and a “family friend” to Barack Obama before the president became a national political figure.

"The avowed communist revolutionary Ayers is best known for grooming Barack Hussein Obama for high office, as part of the same strategy of destroying America from within its own institutions that led him to abandon bombs for a career in education. Obama’s political career was literally launched from the apartment Ayers shared with fellow terrorist Bernardine Dohrn, inventor of the Fork Salute honoring the Manson Family’s senseless murders."

And here is the Ayres philosophy of education that makes him attractive to todays' teachers unions:

“When an opponent declares, ‘I will not come over to your side,’ I calmly say, ‘Your child belongs to us already… What are you? You will pass on. Your descendants, however, now stand in the new camp. In a short time they will know nothing else but this new community.’

Presenting Our Keynote Speaker for the Evening

More on the ATE here
"The Association of Teacher Educators has a long-standing commitment to equity and to advocacy. The actions taken by the Georgia legislators to focus on undocumented aliens in a punitive and negative manner are actions that we do not support."
Diversity
"ATE supports diversity in education.  This commitment to diversity originates with ATE’s understanding of the concept of pluralism and the importance of creating a teaching force representative of the broader pluralistic society. ATE advocates affirmative action and multicultural education as programs supportive of diversity in education.  ATE’s commitment to diversity also influences its position on a number of critical issues where diversity may not be maintained."

 

We're getting off into another stream-of-consciousness tangent here, so it's time to quit. TD

Dempsey considers lowering standards for women in combat

We knew this was coming.  Don't say we weren't warned What do you expect from a party that believes that equality of outcomes trumps intelligent decisions?
This Ain't Hell but you can see it from here
"Our least favorite Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Martin Dempsey, in his press conference on Thursday along with our least favorite Secretary of Defense, Leon Panetta, hinted that he just might consider lowering the standards to let women in the jobs which might take them into combat, according to the Washington Times;

When a reporter mentioned that the Pentagon’s stance appeared to keep open the possibility that some occupational specialties would be off limits to females, Gen. Dempsey responded: “[I]f we do decide that a particular standard is so high that a woman couldn’t make it, the burden is now on the service to come back and explain to the secretary, why is it that high? Does it really have to be that high?”

Do you think these next articles are going off on a tangent, or do you see the correlation?

Totally different, but related area showing there are no limits to the silliness of this nation's equality laws
"So, a boy in a wheelchair comes up to the high school football coach and says, “I want to be a linebacker.”
"And the coach says …”Of course. Under federal funding guidelines from the Department of Education, we have to let you play.” "

The Left’s Obsession with Equality of Outcomes, Taken to a Logical Extreme
" I’m almost at a loss for words. What sort of sickness is required to deny something to one group of kids just because the same benefit is not universally available?"

Offensive Filmmaker Denigrates Equality of Outcome

The People's Cube  "As simple equal comrade, I hereby denounce and report thoughtcriminal who made the offending video below. It is sure to cause turmoil among those who have struggled so hard for so long to eliminate the inequality caused by those who seek to be unequal!"  

Egyptian in Tahrir Square assesses the Obama foreign policy

Atlas Shrugs  "Read the rest of the sign. Will the media cover this? Never. Are they culpable? You bet they are. They are shamelessly carrying water for jihadists and a President who is advancing the most brutal, bloody and extreme ideology on the face of the earth."

This man is obviously a right-wing racist.

Krauthammer: Obama unbound

Charles Krauthammer  "The media herd is stunned to discover that Barack Obama is a man of the left. After 699 teleprompted presidential speeches, the commentariat was apparently still oblivious. Until Monday’s inaugural address, that is.
"Where has everyone been these four years? The only surprise is that Obama chose his second inaugural, generally an occasion for “malice toward none” ecumenism, to unveil so uncompromising a left-liberal manifesto."
....
"On the contrary. Obama is the apostle of the ever-expanding state. His speech was an ode to the collectivity. But by that he means only government, not the myriad of voluntary associations — religious, cultural, charitable, artistic, advocacy, ad infinitum — that are the glory of the American system."

Are Americans Really That Stupid?

All signs point to "yes". Never speak these words again: "Trust in the wisdom of the American people".
Chris Vaca  "Obama-care was supposed to cost 980 billion dollars over ten years, the latest estimate is 2.6 trillion dollars and who knows what the true cost is going to be. Already premiums are going up when we were promised that they would not, companies have started to lay-off people or cut them to part-time work when we were told that it would create jobs. It seems to me that the Government needs to keep their hands off of the weather and healthcare, because they obviously have no clue what they are doing.
"So I asked myself, “are people in America really that stupid” and the answer came back, at least 51% of the people are, because 51% of the people voted to re-elect Obama."

FEMA: Burned Out Family Can’t Rebuild

Conservative Daily News  "Meet the Taylors, a Sacramento family whose home burned down last August. After dealing with the devastation and emotional trauma the family discovered that FEMA had changed the rules for their area and now would require their home be built 20 feet above ground in order to meet the new flood zone designation. While the fire damage was covered by their insurance the new building requirements were not.

“The city won’t let me fix my house because of FEMA regulations,” Jennifer Taylor said in an interview to Fox News in November. “This is so wrong.”
“We bought this home in 1998 because FEMA had certified the levees as 100-year flood protection,” Taylor told FoxNews.com. “Homes are just not being fixed here. … There’s at least a handful of us in this situation.”

"In 2008 FEMA revisited flood prone areas and decertified the levee.
Watch their documentary and understand their frustration with the government."