Quick Update

Sorry, no witty title.

So casual day came and went. The Civil Affairs/PSYOP types dressed in civilian clothes for it. A few of the enlisted folks wore civilian clothes. Two junior Navy officers were civilian clothes. The rest of us didn't bother. But we did bounce a beach ball around a little in the office.

To go casual a Marine took of his uniform jacket and loosened his belt. Briefly.

Incidentally, the Marine senior NCO just found out I was a Guard guy. Then he found out my "job" on the outside is as a grad student. So later that day when I made fun of someone for slacking on PT (he fully intended to go the gym after work, he just happened to wake up a few hours later in bed still in uniform after a quick nap) the Marine made sure to point out that it was because the guy was exhausted from having a full time job.

Come to think of it, if the only things I'm getting crap for are generalities like being a Guard guy, being a weather guy, or being an Air Force guy, then I'm doing OK.

Which reminds me... weatherunderground.com does forecasts for Baghdad and many other cities in Iraq. Unfortunately, this does not mean I can go home now, though lots of people point out that I've been replaced by a website just the same.

As for other planned mockery, a senior officer here came up with his own PT plan. That's fine because most of his do that. His mistake was telling people about it as if he'd discovered cold fusion rather than loosely ripping off Crossfit and the old Army PT manuals. So, in conjunction with public affairs, a fake infomercial is in the works extolling the virtues of his program. There is already a fake flyer circulating for it.

My beautiful and thoughtful wife, who is on her last night on call during her advanced rotation in primary care, sent me a package that included a bunch of Tasty Bite meals. They hit the spot. Kind of ironic that given how many South Asians KBR has employed in the chow halls that a pre-packaged Indian meal with a long shelf-life seems so new and different. Odd.

And my dad commented on my post about interrogations. I think there needs to be a distinction between those charged with making policy decisions and the pundit class.

The pundit class can make all sorts of noise with no need to be concerned with the consequences. They aren't in power.

Those in an administration or in congress are in a position of power. Generally I will try to give them the benefit of the doubt and assume they are trying to make a policy that they think is best for the country. I think the memos made some terribly flawed arguments using shaky legal ground from the parts I've read, but I don't think the authors took the subject matter as lightly as too many talk-show hosts do.

I may think that the average member of congress is only as informed as the 22-year old staffer that was supposed to read the bill, but I think as a rule they really do wish to serve this country well. They just aren't particularly good at it and we as a public wouldn't be particularly good at rewarding those who are with our votes.

So that is that. I think Justice Souter is right. Until a pop quiz on Federalism is more than fodder for an old "Jay Walking" bit on Leno, we'll continue to get the government we deserve.

Sorry. Sometimes I can't help myself.