Common Sense

Today the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Obamcare) “individual mandate” is constitutional under the federal government’s power to lay and collect taxes. 

Here are seven eight related quotes that may help explain the general disgust with government that pervades the American populace:

The mandate is "absolutely not a tax increase...Nobody considers that a tax increase."

-President Obama, September 20, 2009

 Interview with George Stephanopoulos

"not only is it fair to read this as an exercise of the tax power, but this Court has got an obligation to construe it as an exercise of the tax power"

-United States Solicitor General Virrelli, March 27, 2012

 Arguing before the Supreme Court on behalf of the Government (defending Obamacare) 

 Day 2 of oral arguments

"Congress did not intend the payment to be treated as a 'tax'"

-U.S. Supreme Court, June 28, 2012

 Syllabus, page 2

"the shared responsibility payment may for constitutional purposes be considered a tax."

-U.S. Supreme Court, June 28, 2012

 Syllabus, page 4

"Congress’s decision to label this exaction a “penalty”rather than a “tax” is significant because the Affordable Care Act describes many other exactions it creates as 'taxes.'...Where Congress uses certain language in one part of a statute and different language in another, it is generally presumed that Congress acts intentionally."

-Chief Justice Roberts, June 28, 2012

Opinion of Roberts, C.J., 567 U. S. ____ (2012) (page 12)

"The Government asks us to interpret the mandate as imposing a tax...it can be so read"

-Chief Justice Roberts, June 28, 2012

Opinion of Roberts, C.J., 567 U. S. ____ (2012) (page 32)

"It is of course true that the Act describes the payment as a 'penalty,' not a 'tax.'"

-Chief Justice Roberts, June 28, 2012

Opinion of Roberts, C.J., 567 U. S. ____ (2012) (page 33)

Update June 29:“It’s a penalty because you have a choice. You don’t have a choice to pay your taxes, right?”
 -White House Press Secretary Jay Carney, June 29, 2012
 Press briefing aboard Air Force One

I’m no constitutional scholar but I’ve got a crazy idea for the Court, the Congress and the country: it either IS a tax, or it ISN’T a tax. 

P.S. I’ve read Chief Justice Roberts’ opinion.  I comprehend his distinction between the Constitution and laws (specifically the Anti-Injunction Act) passed by Congress.  But unlike the vast majority of my elected and appointed leaders, it appears, I still possess some common sense.

My bucket list

Rest day again today (and tomorrow; sometimes you just need to give your body a chance to recover).  On deployment, as I may have mentioned once or twice before, there is not that much to do and lots of time not to do it in.  A few days ago, out of the blue, I started a bucket list.  Answering the age-old question, “if a thought forms and it isn’t broadcast to the known universe on a blog, does it really exist?” with a definite no, I’ll share my list with you now. 

First, the fine print. 

1. It’s obviously only a few days old at this point, and a work in progress.  I’m open to suggestions. 
2. It’s for things that are at least a little out of the ordinary, or things I’ve been meaning to do for a long, long time, e.g. get a dog. 
3. They are in no particular order. 
4. I put lots of things on it that I’ve already done, because why not? and also because even though this is the first time I’ve written it down, some of these things have been on my mental list for years, during which time I actually did some of them.  Also some of the things I’ve done, like give a concert, I intend to do more fully, i.e. give a better concert. 
   

And now the list:

• Visit Stonehenge at the summer or winter solstice (reading about this is what got me thinking about my list)
• Visit the Pyramids of Giza
• Visit Rome
• Learn Arabic
• Write a best-seller
• Visit every continent
• Compose a piece of music (a whole piece)
• Create and fund a scholarship
• Throw out the first pitch at a Yanks game
• Drive a super car
• Attend a World Series game
• Play all of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue
• Go on an African safari
• Fly a helicopter
• Skydive, solo
• Coach little league
• Learn to sail
• Own a horse
• Start a business
• Own a dog
• Get a Ph.D
• Get accepted into an Ivy League school
• Learn to shoot a bow
• Go to the Olympics
• Go into outer space
• See Old Faithful
• See a glacier
• Design and build my own home (and landscape my own yard)
• Help build a Habitat home
• Buy an island
• Climb Mt. Washington
• Hike the Grand Canyon
• Serve my country in uniform
• Fly a plane
• Climb Massada
• Pray at the Western Wall
• Get published
• Give a concert
• Learn to shoot
• Learn to drive stick
• Learn to ski
• Study a martial art
• Scuba dive
• Fly in a helicopter
• See Auschwitz
• Visit the White House
• Learn to play an instrument
• Learn to ballroom dance
• Teach a college-level class
• Overcome my fear of semicolons

What do you think?  Still more things on the unchecked side of the ledger but I’ve made some good progress, no?  What’s on your bucket list?  What have you done already that I absolutely must try?

Counting days, feeling good

It's always a good part of the deployment when you can switch from counting down months or weeks to counting days.  Since "troop movements" are considered classified I can't share my exact count with you, but it wouldn't matter.  No plan survives first contact with Stratcom.  But my best guess is I’ll be back in CA by the first weekend of August - or so. 

So that has me feeling pretty good.  Also, in the last few months I seem to have overcome some kind of major writing hurdle or opened some floodgate I wasn't aware of, because I've been very prolific.  I've probably written (and rewritten and rewritten) over a dozen scenes for my book in the last month alone - and some of them are actually not terrible.  Also there's my CDS column and - not frequently enough, I know - this blog.

So on at least one of the promises I made myself, I'm making good progress.

The other, faithful (i.e. bored) readers will recall, was to set new standards for my fitness.  Well, I suffered a bit of a setback.  In mid-April I started having sharp pains in my neck.  I had to take a full month off from any resistance training before they (mostly) went away, and then after two days back in the gym they came back, a lot worse than before and running all down my right arm now.  Diagnosis (my own, with help from Dr. Dad): pinched nerve, probably C5 or C6 for those keeping score.  So basically I can't go to the gym.  This is incredibly frustrating.

I've tried to make up for it by hazing the crap out of myself with cardio, since that doesn't hurt and actually seems to help a little.  I'm up to running 50+ minutes every morning, working toward an hour.  For real runners it's not all that much, I know, but cut me some slack - I'm doing it in 90-100 degree temps.  Also I hate running.  But anyway, it's working.  We don't have a scale or anything here, but my cammie pants (“trousers” in the officially-sanctioned Marine Corps lexicon) tell me I've trimmed the ol’ waist line some.

So there you go.  More than you ever wanted to know about my personal fitness, but since I set out those goals publicly before I left, I figured I'd post a progress report.

Right now, I'm getting ready to go for my morning run once again.  It's 0507, a bit earlier than I usually wake up but when you're up, you're up.  Earlier is certainly better for a run: I noticed on my calendar (thank you, AH) that today is the first official day of summer.  Ha ha.  Ha.  Ha.  

The best part of being up at this hour, though, is "watching" the Yanks game while I hydrate (I know, I hate that word too but it’s terribly efficient).  The Internet is too slow here for video or even the radio broadcast (I would, I think, give up an entire paycheck to hear John Sterling call a live game right now) but I can more or less follow the play-by-play with MLB GameDay, where the Yanks have just tied up the score in pursuit of their 11th straight win.  Go Bombers!

In war news, things have been very busy of late, and going well for the good guys, all in all.  Needless to say, I’m talking about military stuff – the political side of things is its own story that each person can judge for him/her/itself.  Unfortunately even when things are going well – big picture – the price is high, and the moments of silence in the JOC become more frequent as the fighting season continues to heat up.  

If there is one thing that frustrates me the most about international affairs it is that the sacrifices we Americans make for other peoples – and I’m not just talking about the troops but the money too – seem to get taken for granted, like of course the U.S. will send troops and taxpayer dollars to every crisis or natural disaster on the planet.  The world would basically implode into boiling shit, not to be too blunt about it, if the U.S. overnight withdrew all its foreign aid, humanitarian assistance, security guarantees (explicit or implied), forward-deployed forces, contributions to the U.N. and the IMF and the WHO and various other NGOs and IGOs and non-profits and charities and good-will causes and so on, yet it seems everyone always has some complaint or demand or criticism that goes beyond what any other country – big or small, rich or poor, Western or non – is asked or expected to do.  Sometimes I just get fed up with that.  I’m not saying we don’t reap benefits from what we do and give, but we do and give far out of proportion to others and to what we get in return.  So I hope the Afghans, among others, remember for generations what the Americans – and the Brits and others but undeniably the Americans most of all – have sacrificed for them.  We shoved the human garbage known as the Taliban regime out the door in well under a year, but we stuck around for over a decade to do our best to leave something better in its place.  I hope they remember that.

Well that was unexpected.  Guess I had something to get off my chest.  Anyway the Internet has gone away – we’re not in Op Minimize but it does that quite often for mysterious and unknown reasons – so I’ll have to post this when it comes back.  Meanwhile, I’m all hydrated up, so it’s time for a run. 

See ya soon!

 "Yankees win.  Theeeeeeeeee Yankees...win!"

At 3PM today...

Memorial day is drawing to a close here in Afghanistan, and just getting started back home.  There is a perception that to most Americans Memorial Day is an occasion for a three-day weekend and some sales, and that they don't do much reflecting on its underlying meaning.  If that's true, and it may be, then I'm grateful that most of my friends seem to be the exception to the rule.  I just logged into Facebook and already saw a lot of posts thanking the troops, linking to related articles, etc.  As in past years I've gotten some messages and e-mails from you along the same lines.  Thank you.  Your support means a lot.

Israelis commemorate their Memorial Day with an air raid siren that sounds at 11AM.  Everyone in the whole country stops what they are doing for a moment of silence.  Cars even stop in the middle of the street and drivers get out.  If you've never seen it, you should; it will give you chills. 

The Brits do this too.  In the JOC, whenever the Brits lose one of their own, at some point we will all stop what we're doing (except for mission-critical tasks) and stand in silence to remember. 

In America we do this too, but most Americans probably don't know it.  The military observes a moment of silence at 3PM local time in recollection of our fallen brethren and the U.S. government officially encourages everyone to do the same. 

I do too.  Wherever you are and whatever you are doing, please take a moment at 3PM today to remember the brave souls who willingly gave their lives in defense of their family, friends, values and country.

Pass it on.

Getting to 50%

Matza, for my non-Jewish friends who may not know, is a cracker-like substance that we eat during Passover. It’s unleavened bread, meant to remind us of our hasty escape from Egypt when we didn’t have enough time to stop and let the dough rise. It has certainly always reminded me of our dash through the Sinai, what with being as dry as the desert and tasting like baked sand.

Passover ended a few weeks ago now, but I've still got some left over Matza that I'm nibbling on at the moment.  I have to admit that this year the taste, unpleasant though it is compared to, well, food (Matza is technically a building material) was actually somewhat welcome. It’s such a unique flavor that it instantly transported me to the large, rowdy Seders that we held in our home when I was growing up. Last year I managed to miss both Seders on Camp Leatherneck, and this year if I’m not the only Jew for 30 miles then the others are keeping a low profile. So a little Matza, some Kedem grape juice and of course some Osem coconut cake for dessert were a nice break from the routine. Special shout out to the Jewish War Veterans and Project MOT for their unexpected but much appreciated K-for-P care packages.

In other news, the MST is at it again, having pulled the plug on the unfettered if, uh, unhurried Internet access we briefly had in the tents. We’ve filed our appeal (haha), but for now it’s back to the computer cans for a few minutes online, usually around 11:00 AM eastern if you’re wondering. I know, I know. Cans instead of cot. War is hell.

Of course this also means no more Skype. We do have a satellite phone now which I haven’t used as often as I should, so if you get a phone call from some strange-looking number don’t screen it, it’s probably me. I’m told it sometimes comes up as an 808 area code. That’s Hawaii – a place that I am, I’m pretty sure, not in.

In non-me related news, the fighting pre-season is over – those few weeks in early spring when the weather warms but before the (poppy) harvest causes things to quiet down. The lull should last a few more weeks or so, and then comes the regular season, as it were. Still, we’ve had a few busy days here and there. As always I can’t get into specifics – which trust me is as frustrating for me as for you – but I will say that the diversity of crap that is happening is greater than what I remember from last time.

That said, I think a lot of people view the sensationalism and the deadliness of insurgent attacks as a metric of our success (or failure). IMHO, it’s the wrong metric – or at least it’s an incomplete and often misleading one. To offer an imperfect but perhaps illustrative analogy, Hitler’s concentration camps were never so murderously industrious as in the waning months of the war, but the increasing pile of bodies was hardly an indicator of underlying German strength – just the opposite.

Or to fast-forward a generation, one of the lessons I thought we learned in Vietnam was that body count isn’t how you measure success in war (though it can be a pretty direct measure of success in individual battles). It’s true for us, and it’s true for them. In counter-insurgency – or in the “transition and support” phase that we’re currently in – I think you’re winning as long as the number of secure areas, supportive civilians and capable indigenous security forces keeps growing. I guess that’s a form of body-counting too, but it’s the living bodies, not the dead ones, and that is kind of an important distinction.

So, to use a prevalent phrase around here, are the positive atmospherics spreading? Are the good vibrations…vibrating? From what I see they are, albeit not without setbacks, but I’ve got a limited view. Unlike most of the chattering class I was encouraged by the remarkable success of the ANSF during the recent attacks in Kabul and a few other places. As I wrote to my family at the time:

In war, people carry out attacks. In this form of war, the Taliban and their allies target civilians and diplomats, but even outside of war, what happened in Kabul and elsewhere could have happened in Washington, D.C. or New York or Moscow or Jerusalem. I'm no Dwight D (though I am a captain-select) but it seems to me that the end results of those attacks are quite encouraging militarily. If the goal is an indigenous security force capable of containing, combating and defeating such a complex, coordinated attack, the events of two days ago showed that the ANSF are much further along than most people realized. From what I can gather (and this is all public information) there were over three dozen attackers, including over 20 suicide bombers, and nearly every single one was killed or captured before he could cause casualties. ISAF provided almost no assistance because none was requested or needed. Further, out of 11 non-Taliban deaths, 8 were Afghan security forces killed in the line of duty and only three were civilians.

Now is the price we’re paying for this progress worth it? That’s something each voter back home has to decide for him or herself. In country, in uniform, it’s not my place to state my opinion on matters of policy – and you know how hard that can be for me.

But will the successes stick? Will Americans enjoy greater security as a result of our investment here? There are no guarantees, but I believe we have the power to shape those answers over the next few years. I’ll leave it at that.

Well it has been over a month since my last post – what else can I share? As you saw in that e-mail excerpt, I’ve been selected for promotion to Captain. There’s no telling when I’ll actually get promoted – I’m number 600-something on a list just shy of 2000 – but I’m hopeful it’ll happen before my EAS – End of Active Service – date of 1 December.

That’s right, it’s been nearly four years since I took the oath (December 12, 2008 to be exact) and more than four years since I first started this journey, with those painful months of whipping myself into shape for OCS. I always suspected I’d do my four years and move on to the next thing, but I didn’t want to make the decision until I absolutely had to. Technically, that won’t be until August, assuming the “career designation” board offers me the opportunity to stay in. But having spent 15 of the last 25 months in Afghanistan and a good chunk of the other 10 months away from home for training, I’m ready to pursue other things. No doubt I’ll have more to say on that as the date approaches.

I've got some pictures to post...but for whatever reason I'm being blocked from uploading them right now.  I'll try again when the MST is sleeping.

And lastly, in newspaper news, I think I’ve only linked here to my very first Conway Daily Sun article. I’ve had two more published since: Respect and Suspicion and Long Day. They’re meh at best…the second one especially I don’t really like. It reads like a rambling transcript from a therapy session – but hey, at least it gives you a sense of life out here. The one I’ve just written, which will hopefully be published soon, is a little better and at least somewhat coherent from start to finish. It’s called “V-mail and Gmail.”

Well I think that about wraps it up. My tracker thing says I'm almost 50% done with this deployment.  I'll drink (some grape juice) to that. 

I’m pretty terrible at knowing what people back at home might want to hear more about so if there’s anything, just let me know!

Yum

Incident at Lash

You may have seen reports of an incident here at MOB Lashkar Gah today.  Just wanted to let you know that I'm OK. 

Hard to express my feelings in a blog-appropriate way.  Maybe a little later.

Last week: standing a few feet from the main gate.

What (else) to bring on a deployment to Afghanistan

How do you pack for a year?

Standing in the middle of my apartment with crap strewn on every surface of three rooms, this is the question I found myself asking before my last deployment.  Now that I was really thinking about it, it seemed I knew a lot less about my own daily life than I realized.  How long does a stick of deodorant actually last?  How long before boot socks wear out?  And would someone please just give me a straight answer on what I'll be able to buy in country?

This time around there were still some question marks since I knew I'd be on a non-US base and one with far fewer amenities than Camp Cupcake, but overall packing was much easier.  I did however answer a crudzillion questions from other Marines who had never been, and my list from last time is still the most visited page on my blog according to Google.

So since today is a PT rest day and I've got some time to kill, I thought I'd add some more items to that list, with the benefit of a little more experience and "field testing" of some of this gear.

• Drop holster.  I know what I said last time about finding a holster you're comfortable with.  But I am so happy with mine that I have to plug it: the Blackhawk Serpa.  Get the combo kit.  I've heard some grumblings about this holster, and I realize I'm not a grunt or MP or what-have-you, but at LNK I drew and holstered the thing a million times a day at the clearing barrel and it worked smoothly, safely and quickly every time.  Isn't that the purpose of a holster?
     
• External hard drive.  After several crashes, there is only one brand I will ever trust: Transcend's rugged Storejet M series (you can find them cheaper than that link though).  I own two with a third on order and they have withstood some 14 months of deployment now with no problems.  Accessories: extra USB cable (they seem to go bad all the time) and lots of movies, TV shows and music.
   
• Digital camera.  Mentioned this one last time but I had to break two - one in Afg and one in Yuma, AZ, to realize an investment in a rugged camera was worth it.  Got the Panasonic Lumix DMC TS3 - waterproof, dust proof, drop proof, freeze proof, insult proof.  Best specs for the money in the rugged category, at least when I bought it in I think Jan of 2012 or so.  Accessories: large capacity SD card, protective case, extra battery if you can afford one.  Always practice good OpSec.
   
• Multi-tool: I like the one we were issued, the Leatherman Wave, because it's versatile, strong and relatively light.
   
• Belkin laptop fan - keeps my laptop and my cojones cool and operating at maximum efficiency.
    
• Mio water flavor.  This stuff is the best - easy to carry around and sugar free. 
   
• Good headphones.  Mine are Klipsch S4i, and while the control buttons quickly stopped working and the ear buds have recently started zapping me with static electricity just a bit too often, the sound quality is excellent and that's all I really care about.  The built in mic is nice for Skyping too.  Pricey at around $100 though, and admittedly I've never tried Bose headphones.  Accessories: this thing.
   
• Also good ear pro - I think the wax stuff is by far the most effective.
   
• A word about issued gear: don't bring it just because it's on the "required gear" list.  If you brought your e-tool, stop reading right now and go haze yourself for at least 10 minutes.  Use the e-tool.  Some of the more useful gear for POGs like us: the sleeping bag, the drop pouch, the camelbak, the fleece (tan not digi), the poncho and poncho liner.  Some of the less useful gear: the gortex bottoms, the boonie cover, the bivy sack, the goggles, the balaclava (just put on a beanie and stop whining).
   
• Other stuff you may not have thought to bring but will make you money out here: extra rank insignia, bungee cords, surge strip, fly strips/fly swatter, pillow (and blanket if you have room), carabiners, cash. 
    
• Things from my previous list that are so good I want to plug them again: Timex Ironman Triathlon, USStandardIssue Oakleys, MagPul mags, and yes my favorite toy, the Fenix P3D Flashlight.  For those who have been to Yuma: I lit the desert floor with this thing from the top of OP Feets.  It's awesome. 

Well anywho there are a few more things you might want to bring on deployment or for that matter on any extended trip away from civilization.  Hope it helps and let me know if you have any questions!

Seriously.