Just remember what link sausage casings are made from. Or at least that the ancestors of "modern" and "vegan" casings were made from
- Once again, a "conservative" opines on the needs and propriety of military personnel. Maybe not so much, and that's before considering this pundit's… experience deficit. (Hey, it's early, I'm trying not to scorch my computer screen before noon.) Leaving aside the problem of a privileged white boy with no first name — all he's lacking is some Roman numerals after it to thoroughly demonstrate his ancestral entitlement — he's got no experiential base at all. According to any number of online profiles, his application to join the CIA was rejected, and that's as close as he got to actual service. Or a leadership position or training; he's not even trying to misapply MBA lessons to the military like most pundits!
Of course, this is far from unusual. Very, very few conservative icons served in the military, particularly since the end of the Second Thirty Years' War — and even fewer in large-unit leadership positions (most of those prominent politicians who did serve were in back-office-technical areas like intel and JAG — which however important they are, just don't require or offer the same leadership experiences — and/or in small-scale units as pilots and such below the squadron-commander level). The irony that the closest the biggest admitted conservative public icon of the GOP got was playing a soldier on camera seems to have escaped the militarists.
- Maybe it's that ancestral entitlement that is the real reason that politicians are a**holes. Just think about all of those "good 'murikan" families who claim entitlement to power… and suppress news of their misdeeds for decades and longer. You don't have to be a big-city mayor like a Daley or Pendergast, either; the county sheriff near a base I was stationed at was the third generation in his family to hold that post.
- The contrast of the two preceding sausages with those who politely object is fascinating. Even more interesting will be seeing how Ms Pender and the rest of her 93% Club (who, presumably, have equivalent objective credentials) are getting along a decade from now, about the time that the "advantages" of the 7% become a glass ceiling for everyone else. And not just in the UK. Or in civilian schools; one wonders (for about two seconds) about how this affects the US military academies and, more to the point, the "diversity" of flag officers…
- It's really, really embarassing when the nation of Louis XIV, Napoleon, the Bourbons, de Gaulle, and Petain demonstrates that it accepts the ideal of the democratic republic better than the US does. Maybe that's just a hint in the right direction regarding someone else — before turning into newts (or Newt). Hey, this sounds like another flavor of that ancestral entitlement thing…
- Then there's the collateral damage problem that goes along with just about any broad-based program, especially one that makes unwarranted assumptions from several decades ago. Authors — at least those who haven't sold out to become Big Media figures — know more about the "gig economy" than any "driver," though. Consider the class assumptions behind an every-six-months schedule for payment of royalties. One wonders what the 93%ers might have to say if they unwound that to its assumption that no author is relying on "royalty payments" to eat or pay rent… or taxes… or medical bills/"insurance"…