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Every cause has to have some form of demonstration, some “awareness” raising event. Which, even for those issues I care little or nothing about, or even disagree with, that’s fine. This event mentality is particularly a feature of campus life. Which, again, is fine.

But then there’s this.

Now, it appears that either the uniform requirement was later modified, or the cadet chain of command did a poor job passing the word from the beginning.

But still, this is stupid.

The fact is, ROTC Cadets at any university will find themselves obligated to participate in events over and above the purely military training events you would expect of them. For instance, NROTC Cadets at Washington State University used to provide ticket check and bag search services at home football games to the  university.

The crotchety part of me thinks participating in the Walk a mile event in ACUs with red heels is demeaning to the uniform. The other part, the part that knows I’ve used Air Force gloves quite a few times, says that showing the community that the Army can have some fun is OK with people participating. I’m just against being voluntold to participate.

On this day in 1960, the first flight of the then A2F-1 Intruder marked the beginning of 34 years of excellence in carrier all weather medium attack.

ELKHART – — April Sparks was waiting in line to pre-pay for gas at a 7-Eleven store when she overheard a conversation she didn’t want to hear.

“They don’t deserve that,” the cashier said.

“They should spend their lives in prison,” the customer in front of her said.

Sparks knew exactly whom they were talking about. The small community 160 miles north of Indianapolis seemed split on the fates of four teenagers catapulted into unwanted fame because of one stupid mistake. One of them was her son.

Sparks left, quietly, and went elsewhere to buy gas.

Her son’s life changed forever on the afternoon of Oct. 3, 2012, when he and four friends broke into a house, hoping to steal some money.

They thought the house was empty. None of the teens expected an armed homeowner to be inside. None of them was armed. None foresaw a shooting. But the homeowner, who was sleeping upstairs, did rush downstairs and did fire a handgun — killing one of the teens.

via How 4 teens became murderers without killing anyone.

How is this case in any way controversial?

The five perps conspired to commit a felony. They undertook what they knew to be risky behavior (else why would they have passed on the first two potential targets), and knew it was risky enough that they took steps to avoid police, by posting a lookout.

Has the felony murder rule been unjustly used elsewhere? Likely. But not here.

Imitation is considered the sincerest form of flattery, but when it comes to parody, that’s a bit more hit-or-miss. This is particularly evident within the parody-film genre, which has been watered down by movie studios looking for ways to cash in on the latest pop culture phenomenon without having any particular comedic aspirations, resulting in critically-maligned efforts which have a limited shelf life and rarely rise above the level of lowbrow. But it wasn’t always this way.

In 1980, a trio of gentlemen from Wisconsin – Jim Abrahams and brothers David and Jerry Zucker – took a cast of predominantly non-comedic actors, put a parodic spin on the disaster-film genre, and created a film which not only made moviegoers howl with laughter but also earned critical acclaim. Airplane! celebrates its 35th anniversary this year, and if you happen to be in Nashville this weekend, you’ll have a chance to catch the film flying high on the big screen once again: The Wild West Comedy Festival will be holding a screening at The Belcourt on Saturday, April 18, at 7:30 p.m., after which special guests David and Jerry Zucker will participate in a Q&A.

via Surely you can’t be serious: An oral history of Airplane! · Oral History · The A.V. Club.

Speaking of culture, this is a long, long, funny, often fascinating look behind the scenes of an all time classic.

The movie is on Netflix, btw.

We usually think of culture wars in the domestic sense, the American political right versus the left. But of course, there is an international sense to it was well. I recall my early days of college where instructors routinely repeated the lie that all Western (ie, North American and Western European) culture was evil and destructive, and not in any way morally superior to Third World cultures. Further, the evils of colonialism were the greatest crime in world history.

No.

Two pieces cross our desk this morning, this piece in The American Interest, via Insty, and this from This Ain’t Hell.

From the first piece:

Stories like this are catnip for nationalist parties in Europe worried about the cultural effects of immigration and inter-religious tension.

Moreover, the world is seeing enormous and possibly still growing levels of refugee migration. According to the New York Times, Syria’s neighbors are being overwhelmed by more than four million refugees, and many are taking steps to restrict the flow. Western governments have still only taken in a relatively small number of Syrian refugees, despite the UN’s calls for them to open their doors.

Indeed, for all the time that our political left has spent denigrating our culture, and railed that we must respect others, do note that the population of those supposedly morally superior cultures are voting with their feet, routinely risking, indeed losing, their lives in an attempt to come to our  evil culture.  Their cultures, be in in the Middle East, North Africa, Sub Saharan Africa, are deeply and fundamentally flawed.  There’s a reason so many seek to immigrate here, and so few to emigrate there.

The left will tell you that these cultural schisms are the results of colonialism. Rubbish. In many of these places, the paltry infrastructure and civil institutions exist only because they are the vestiges of colonialism, and these societies would be even more backwards and horrific without them.

Western governments are quite right to be wary of taking in refugees from failed societies, particularly when those very refugees insist that our culture must adapt to theirs. Instead, their cultures, in their own states, should look to adapt our culture, one proven to be successful, stable, and worthy of emulation.

And as the post at TAH shows, there was a time not very long ago when the US, both Democrat and Republican, was willing to say so, loudly. Sharansky in WaPo, via TAH:

When American negotiations with the Soviets reached the issue of trade, and in particular the lifting of sanctions and the conferring of most-favored-nation status on the Soviet Union, the Senate, led by Democrat Henry Jackson, insisted on linking economic normalization to Moscow’s allowing freedom of emigration. By the next year, when the Helsinki agreement was signed, the White House had joined Congress in making the Soviets’ treatment of dissidents a central issue in nearly every negotiation.

We, in the United States, building on the shoulders of Western European Enlightenment, have the most successful, robust, culture in the history of the world. We can acknowledge imperfections and past injustices. But unlike the political left, we can also recognize that those imperfections and injustices pale in comparison to other cultures gross failures, and discern that destroying our culture and institutions in the search for a more utopian society is certain to lead to misery for all.

Saw a couple folks on Twitter and Facebook wondering why autogryo guy wasn’t shot out of the sky, and how that just shows our security is weaksauce.

First, it’s apparent from that linked WaPo article that Capitol Police had at least some inkling that he was enroute. After all, they did clear the lawn.

Second, it’s an autogryo. It has very little mass, kinetic energy, or payload capability. A reasonable risk assessment would quickly show that any attempt to shoot it down, via either small arms fire or perhaps a Stinger missile, would very likely pose a far, far greater risk to innocent bystanders than simply letting Mr. Hughes land, or even ram the building.

And while this is, to my recollection the first time someone has landed an unauthorized autogryo at the Capitol, let’s not forget the Huey incident at the White House, nor even the Cessna at the White House. Neither of which resulted in much damage.

A mysterious disease that kills patients within 24 hours has claimed at least 18 lives in a south-eastern Nigerian town, the government says.

“Seventeen people have died of the mysterious disease since it broke out early this week in Ode-Irele town,” said Ondo state government spokesman Kayode Akinmade.

The disease, symptoms of which include headache, weight loss, blurred vision and loss of consciousness, killed the victims within 24 hours of their falling ill, he said.

Laboratory tests have so far ruled out Ebola or any other virus, Mr Akinmade added.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) said it had information on 14 cases with at least 12 dead.

“Common symptoms were sudden blurred vision, headache, loss of consciousness followed by death, occurring within 24 hours,” spokesman Tarik Jasarevic said.

via Mysterious disease that kills patients within 24 hours leaves at least 18 dead in Nigeria – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation).

How many of my Army and Marine  friends just found themselves mentally reciting the symptoms of nerve agent poisoning?

I saw a discussion of this outbreak on Twitter the other day. There is suspicion it might be wood alcohol poisoning.

Despite the “Fail” in the title, there’s no hilarity here. Just a vivid reminder that you must ALWAYS follow the four rules of firearm safety.

1. All guns are always loaded. (Treat them so!)
2. Never point the gun at anything you are not willing to destroy.
3. Keep your finger off the trigger until your sights are on target (and you have made the decision to shoot).
4. Be sure of your target and what is beyond it.