Toe touching

I have rarely ever been able to touch my toes. I have done it very few times without bending my knees over my entire life. After two-three months of stretching everyday, I am finally able to touch my toes.

Pretty exciting!

I'll keep stretching. I think most of my problems before was not realizing that more of the stretch is in the lower back than it is in the hamstrings. It is similar to another problem I had once.

Before I joined the US Army, about six months before, I was unable to perform a perfect form push-up. I just never realized how to do it and how to bend the right ways in my arms.

Of course, the Army made me do lots of push-ups. I can now do a good amount even though I gained a good bit of weight. I am working on losing it, but it can be slow.

Squatting is another big project of mine. I had trouble staying in a cross-fit program due to lack of being able to squat with perfect form. I'll start working on that next.

Airpower on the wane?

I just read Martin Van Creveld's The Age of Airpower. It is an excellent history of airships, airplanes, and helicopters. It walks one from early manned airpower (from the Wrights) to today just after the Iraq surge. I am not ready to give Van Creveld the applause because he believes airpower is on the wane, partially due to David Petraeus' wishing to leave most airpower at home in insurgencies. I think they still have their purpose, especially planes such as the A10.

I am in Tucson, where the A10 has a mainstay, so that may influence it. I have also heard about the A10 being significant for close air support with the infantry. I would recommend this book to anyone wanting to learn about the history of airpower.

Do you believe airpower is less necessary for waging warfare? Respond in the comments section or tweet me @jtarb1 on Twitter.

On the Draft

I feel that the draft is for men. In fact, I feel the combat arms jobs are for men, but that ship has sailed.

When a nation can no longer raise enough military age males to defend itself through volunteer means, the country has already lost as a nation. The nation has lost its ability to continue as a nation due to loss of people who care enough about the nation's will to fight.

I am against any draft for women, and am against any draft at all in general. A nation has already rolled over when it cannot raise men to fight.

I pointed out on this opinion on the old Twitter account (the one I deleted) and had several military officers suggesting the US government would never quit without a draft. I concur, but the US government doesn't always act in a moral manner, either.

On being the worst

As a hirer, hire those better than you. You want to be the dumbest in the room. That goes doubly if you consider yourself smart. The smarter will help you to be the best.

As a subordinate, accept that your job is to get credit for those higher than you. If you are working for the right people, you are going to get either credit or some other benefit. If you are not working for the right person, you'll soon know it when credit does not trickle down.

Finally, in the words of Mattis, "Be polite, be professional, but have a plan to kill everyone you meet."

Not an aviator

I am not an airplane aficionado. Yet, something has my attention reading Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption. It came to me somewhat by insight, and I am not sure it is true. Yet, it probably is.

WWI and WWII aviation probably allowed airplanes to become safer than they would be without WWI and WWII. Obviously, the wars were horrible. But without the many unsafe training flights and combat flights of the World Wars, we might not be able to fly safely today.

The military is constantly in forms of social experimentation. It allowed integrated military units before the nation integrated. It recently allowed transgendered people in, yet with some heavy stipulations.

The military may have allowed airlines to become safer than car travel. I know that plane crashes receive lots of TV coverage, but it is still safer than car travel I understand. I still cringe during takeoff and turbulence. And landing. Maybe, especially landing.

On other news, even though I have diverted from my diet, I am still 258 lbs. as of this morning. I think I can be satisfied with that.

A week over...

So, last week was my seventh year wedding anniversary. My wife and I are going out this weekend. It'll be nice to have a little break again.

Marriage is nice. That does not mean that it is all fun and games. It is hard work.

Even a dream job (Hello, Google!) would suck most of the time. In fact, I heard it said somewhere (?) that most things suck most of the time. I try to scrape by with contentment.

I was good at that in the military, where almost everything sucked most of the time. One can apply "Embrace the suck to mostly everything." Especially when they get a satisfaction out of the feeling of our feet after a 25 mile ruck march.

On Barbarism

As the Hestia Society notes, morality is civilization.

But what if we abandon the Neoreactionary idea, as some groups cannot seem to adjust to civilization? What if tribalism is better, allowing each tribe to form mini-civilizations?

Jack Donovan seems to put forth great ideas. I have not read his new book, but got some great ideas from a podcast he was involved in.

• Everyone wants to be a viking until the vikings rape, pillage, and destroy your tribe.
• Men are about the tribe. Women are about altruism. With civilization comes feminism.
• The mainstream media attempts to make the outgroup into a group everyone should care about. Reject that and build your own tribes. Invest in members of those tribes. Divest in all else.
• Caring about everyone makes men weak.
• Globalization destroyed the tribe.

6 Ways to Honor Veterans

1. Don't ask, "Did you kill anyone?"
Don't bring back bad memories.

2. Offer to pay for their check.
If you see a Veteran wearing a unit hat at a restaurant, you can offer to pay for their check. Even if they don't accept your payment, they'll feel honored.

3. Ask them about their service, but see #1.
Ask them about their unit or what they did for the military. It'll likely bring back good memories. Just don't ask about killing people.

4. Offer to buy them a drink, and see #3.
Offer to buy them a drink. Ask about their service. Just don't go to excess with buying them drinks. There are a lot of service members with alcohol or former alcohol-based problems.

5. Find out about the military.
Find out about the service. This will give some common ground to understand when you ask about their service. I have had people ask if the infantry took care of babies. Ugh.

6. Buy them a gift card.
A gift card, even of small denominations, will be a great way to show your appreciation and make sure the business you support is paid for their service, rather than spent on rent (or whatever).