Veteran’s Day Open Post

by | Nov 11, 2024 | Military, Open Post | 166 comments

It’s Yea for Me day! Not strictly true, but for all Veterans it is the day each year we can strip our sleeves and show our scars and say, these I got on Crispian’s Day…wait, wrong country. Anyhoo, I am probably starting a pint somewhere, so you get an open post.

Look, pictures of Veterans!

Dad.

Uncle Jack

Gramps

Me

wait a minute…

Comments are open!

P.S. I am off this week for BoardGameGeek CON in Dallas. Yeah, I am one of them. ALL WEEKDAY EDITORIAL POWER has been handed to Tonio. Yeah, Tonio has the controls…muhuhuhuwaha.

May or may not be actual picture of “Bad Cop Tonio”

About The Author

Swiss Servator

Swiss Servator

Currently serving at the pleasure of a Swiss multinational. Previously a Soldier, rugby player, lawyer, bouncer, bartender, substitute teacher, risk manager, and cubicle mushroom. Will work for raclette.

166 Comments

  1. cavalier973

    Happy Veterans Day to all who served!

    A sincere “thank you”, from one who didn’t.

    • UnCivilServant

      Once upon a time I had thought about joining the military. After deep reflection, I realized that I was not a good psychological fit. Ask me to do something (politely) and a lot of the time I’ll do it. Give me an Order, and at best I get surly, though I tend towards defiance, with a strong desire to hurt whoever gave said order.

      So, yeah, I was unfit to serve.

      • R C Dean

        Which is a shame, because there are a times one should take an order, and a fair number of people who are the right person to give an order. And orders do, at times, need to be given and followed, organizations, hierarchies, and people being who and what they are. The world is complex place, of course, and the situations where orders are called for are limited, but have their place.

        Reflexive defiance is just as dysfunctional as reflexive submission.

        Which takes me back to the dedthred discussion about not wanting strong leaders. Given that organizations, hierarchies, and people are who and what they are, it strikes me as a better than the alternatives. Of course, what counts as a strong leader needs be unpacked a little. The kind of leader who is loud, insecure, and surrounds himself with weaklings and mediocrities is not a strong leader, no matter how impressive his bluster is. A genuine alpha tends to be quieter, secure, and willing to let people he has confidence in do their thing.

      • juris imprudent

        Maduro is an exemplar of strong leader I had in my own head.

        It’s the word strong that I find troublesome. Call this leader – competent, resolute, no-nonsense – and I’m fine.

        Coolidge was all of those things but not strong.

      • R C Dean

        In what way was Coolidge weak?

    • Nephilium

      How about a nice game of chess?

      • ZWAK, doktor of BRAIN SCIENCE!

        I have been burnishing my skills at that online.

      • Nephilium

        You know… a piece on the games you played could probably fill in some slots for content. 🙂

        /ducks and covers

      • Swiss Servator

        *shakes fist at Neph*

        Dammit! Hoist on my own retard.

    • Aloysious

      I bet there will be wimminz everywhere, and he’s gonna play a rousing game of slap and tickle. Or maybe pinch and squeel, depending.

    • Swiss Servator

      Looks I am starting with a wonderful brown ale from Midwest Coast. “West Town Brown.”

      • Swiss Servator

        Next…an English Dark Mild. “Proper Trollied” from Phase Three Brewing.

      • DEG

        Next…an English Dark Mild. “Proper Trollied” from Phase Three Brewing.

        I looked it up. That looks good.

    • Tonio

      If your erection persists more than four hours…

      Seriously, though, Day One bills would be awesome, a virtual Blitzkrieg, as it were.

      Have fun at BGG, Swiss. Annex the Sudetenland for me.

      • juris imprudent

        a virtual Blitzkrieg

        Nope, I do not see what you did there.

    • Tundra

      It’s stories like these that make me so grateful for a mostly sane wife.

      • Sensei

        Said the same to my wife.

      • Swiss Servator

        “Mostly”

        Fare thee well, both of ye.

      • Sensei

        Well she’s affectionately called me a “crazy libertarian”.

        Meanwhile, when we got married she was a Blue Dog Democrat who is now the perfect stereotypical suburban Republican soccer mom.

        Roughly the same time she became a Republican I jettisoned the Republican Part entirely.

      • Tundra

        Mine was completely non-political, but her hatred of the regime is getting impressive.

      • Swiss Servator

        Soccer mom is better than SSRI/Wine mom.

      • Gender Traitor

        Soccer mom is better than SSRI/Wine mom.

        Not necessarily mutually exclusive. ::imagines having to sit through soccer practice, shudders::

      • Sensei

        Not necessarily mutually exclusive. ::imagines having to sit through soccer practice, shudders::

        Well considering our rather nerdy family it would technically be “marching band and orchestra” mom.

      • Certified Public Asshat

        Parents love sitting through soccer practice. They spend the entire time scrolling on their phones.

        -Disgruntled soccer coach

      • Sensei

        CPA – and questioning you why you won’t play their precious child all the time, right?

        In my town baseball is the be all and end all sport and the stuff I’ve heard from friends who coach is astounding.

      • Tundra

        I coached hockey for years. I have stories.

      • slumbrew

        Coworker was the commissioner of his local Pop Warner football league. He reports it was the cheerleader moms who were the very worst. To the point that coaches were coming to him every single week with issues.

  2. Tundra

    Thanks, Vets.

    Dad was Navy, Gramps was Army, other Gramps was Navy. A couple Marine uncles and too many friends to count. Good people.

  3. KK, Plump & Unfiltered

    Happy Veterans Day y’all!

    Swiss, standard request to beat tf out of my ex applies. Looks like George The Animal Steele

  4. Tundra

    May or may not be actual picture of “Bad Cop Tonio”

    I watched every single episode of that show. And every single week I asked myself why.

    • ZWAK, doktor of BRAIN SCIENCE!

      Oddly enough, I have come across people who think that it was the best hour of TV ever created.

      Go figure.

      • Tundra

        Count me in that group. It was just so soul sucking that I wondered why I subjected myself to it.

  5. bacon-magic

    Thanks for your service Swiss!

      • juris imprudent

        Oh yeah, in Wisconsin picked up some raclette I was going to spring on you at HH, but of course you weren’t there. I probably shouldn’t mention that prior to that wife and I had camped at Paul Wolff campground while we were in that neck of the woods to visit my son and his family.

      • bacon-magic

        You havarti the puns. Hopefully you enjoy your day and work is a bries.

      • Swiss Servator

        *blank look of dismay*

        HH is always right as work begins to crush my soul.

      • Pope Jimbo

        Look at that!

        JI makes it through his HH initiation and he instantly wants to lure Swiss into Fourscore’s Big Country Compound. Now I really wish I had been able to make it to this year’s HH to jump JI into the gang.

      • Swiss Servator

        Your Holiness, OMWC and I went to Stately Fourscore manner and paid homage to him and the Mrs., a couple of years ago…in February.

      • Fourscore

        Good times were had by all as well. Still have the pix from the Red Pine.

        No ice at HH time though

    • KK, Plump & Unfiltered

      They didn’t hear that the left is pro-war now?

    • rhywun

      It’s actually a two-minutes hate against Israel – imagine my surprise.

  6. DEG

    “I Am Lame”?

    No way. Those are some good pictures.

    • Nephilium

      The “I Am Lame” category is the default. If no category is selected, that’s what it gets assigned to.

      Some of us just add it on to posts for a bit of self-deprecation.

      • UnCivilServant

        Some of us just add it on to posts for a bit of self-deprecation.

        Uh huh.

      • DEG

        The “I Am Lame” category is the default. If no category is selected, that’s what it gets assigned to.

        I know.

        Some of us just add it on to posts for a bit of self-deprecation.

        I guess this is along the lines of needing new batteries for my sarcasm detector.

      • Aloysious

        There needs to be a ‘Zany Hijinks’ category.

      • Swiss Servator

        Zany Hijinks or Whacky Hijinks?

      • Swiss Servator

        I am so sorry to have disappointed you.

      • bacon-magic

        You’re not lame. If you ever near the west side of our commie state hit me up. St. Louis has some great eatin’ spots.

      • Swiss Servator

        The Hill?

        Italian is cool.

      • DEG

        You’re not lame.

        Seconded.

        If you ever near the west side of our commie state hit me up. St. Louis has some great eatin’ spots.

        I’ve been out drinking with bacon-magic. It was good and I recommend going out drinking with him.

      • bacon-magic

        The Hill is awesome. I work north of St. Louis and it has a diverse selection of restaurants. From Tawainese(think top notch Chinese…in local news the owner shot his wife in the neck recently) to Vietnamese and everything in between. Not to mention Pappy’s bbq in Stl., best ribs imo. Or the authentic Mexican that rivals Chicago’s Hispanic eateries. Now I’m hungry.

        Also thanks DEG! He went with me to Fast Eddie’s Bon-Air which is in my hometown. Good food there too but Covid and inflation bumped up their cheap prices.

      • mindyourbusiness

        Fond memories of Stan and Biggie’s from many years back.

      • Sensei

        From my skim of the article is was from the ground over Haiti.

    • UnCivilServant

      And to be fair, I suspect the problem was “Flying to Haiti” rather than “Spirit Airlines” in this instance.

      Not to say I’d fly Spirit, but blame should go where it’s appropriate.

    • Ted S.

      Maybe the Haitians were trying to eat the stewardesses.

      • UnCivilServant

        They were just preparing a traditional Haitian Barbecue.

    • Certified Public Asshat

      I’ll continue to defend Spirit. It’s fine, but you’re assuming a lot of delay risk for anything over 3 hours.

      I will not defend flying to Haiti.

      • Pope Jimbo

        Fuck Spirit Air!

        Yes, I am an airline elitist and will not soil my hands flying them. Rode one round trip between Mpls and Chicago and said Never Again.

        To be fair to Spirit, it isn’t really the airline that sucks, it is their customers. A huge percentage of them are rubes and don’t know how to travel on a plane. Not their fault, for a lot of them it is their first time, but I don’t want to be around while they learn the ropes.

        Never been on a flight where so many passengers were taking selfies of themselves in their seats.

      • JaimeRoberto (carnitas/spicy salsa)

        Sometimes you need to spend a little extra money to avoid a certain clientele. For example it’s worth paying a little more to not stay at the Hollywood Motel 6.

      • Tundra

        No Spirit. No Frontier.

        I can usually get SW so that’s my go-to for cheaper flights. United has actually been OK lately.

      • Pope Jimbo

        I’ll bet that Spirit – being Spirit – charged the stew and the passengers an extra fee for access to the first aid kit. No way they are giving out anything for free.

      • Fourscore

        Hillary was on a flight like that. She had to dodge and weave to get to the lounge and calm her nerves with the antidote (2-3X)

    • DrOtto

      The important thing to remember is Haiti is not a shithole.

  7. Sensei

    Perfect clickbait headline (that I didn’t click of course).

    Neurologist reveals the exact age you should stop drinking beer

    • Ted S.

      You shouldn’t drink carbonated piss at all. :-p

    • Tundra

      65. You’re good.

      • Pope Jimbo

        Of course that number is up for review in a few years. Right Tundra?

        As someone in your demographic cohort, it seems like you are cutting things a bit close.

      • Sensei

        Good news!

      • Tundra

        The science will evolve, Holiness.

        Even if we have to help it along.

      • Pope Jimbo

        Tundra:

        Phew! I thought I was gonna have to start drinking faster to make sure I got my full allotment of beer before turning 65.

        I’m glad I don’t have to worry about Liver Change and how it will end everything.

  8. The Late P Brooks

    Back from the grocery store. Lots of flags out today for some reason.

    Previous thread discussion: some people, consciously or not, equate “leader” with “savior”. that’s the problem.

    • rhywun

      Out and about today and what a relief to see all the pol signs are gone.

  9. R.J.

    Here you are, in Dallas and I am not available. Sad!

    • Pope Jimbo

      I was in bootcamp when Reagan lit up Ghedaffi and the closest we ever got to real shooting while I was in, was blowing up a few Iranian oil rigs. I was lucky.

      Given that, I never feel like this holiday is really for me. It is for the guys who had to face shots fired in anger.

      • slumbrew

        OBE had a good comment the other day about the guilt? Doubt? that military who didn’t see actual combat often feel.

        Perhaps he’ll chime in again but the gist was “you shouldn’t feel that way”

      • Pope Jimbo

        No guilt, or doubts on my end. I just feel like gratitude today should be focused on those who did have to fight for us.

      • Fourscore

        Does getting thrown out of the club count as combat?

        Just wondering…

      • CatchTheCarp

        USMC 1976 – 1980. The big event was the Iranian hostage crisis. I remember my parents being worried and seeing Next Stop Iran painted on the tailgates of deuce and half’s that drove by at Camp Pendleton. A tense time. The other big deal during my tenure was when the Marines Corps switched to camo fatigues. We were issued the new camo uni’s in November 76 but weren’t allowed to wear them until Jan 77. We all thought the new uni’s were hot shit and were happy to be rid of those starched pickle suits like Gomer Pyle wore.

      • Swiss Servator

        I never fired a shot in anger…blind, pissing fear, sure!

    • Aloysious

      ‘Tik Tok Astrologer’ is something I could have gone the rest of my life without reading.

      And now I hate TT more than ever.

    • Fourscore

      Mrs F has already moved on to the next Demo candidate she can dislike and not vote for. She couldn’t wait to vote for Don because she really wanted to vote against Kamala.

  10. Pope Jimbo

    Uffda. Brother Keith brings the hurt to a non-profit accused of swindling the govt out of a bunch of money meant for kids. Just kidding! This non-profit was being run by the wife of a city council member, so all she has to do is shutter the non-profit’s doors. No word on giving back the $500K that was allegedly conned from the govt.

    Ellison alleged the nonprofit committed several governance violations as it sought federal funding through the meals program in 2021: It failed to employ a treasurer, have a registered address, maintain adequate books, register with the state as a charitable trust and file IRS tax forms. In a court document outlining the settlement, the Attorney General’s Office said the nonprofit’s board of directors met three times in 2021, but did not meet in 2022; had unorganized, difficult-to-interpret accounting records, which consisted of five pieces of binder paper; and abandoned the office site it registered with the state.
     
    “Minnesotans are a generous people, and we expect our charities to obey these rules, keep proper records, and work to help people who need it. Urban Advantage Services fell short of these expectations and failed to follow the law, so I’m ensuring they dissolve,” Ellison said in a news release.

    • Tundra

      Piker.

      Her comrades got hundreds of millions.

      • Pope Jimbo

        Yeah, but their costs were probably considerably more than 5 sheets of paper.

      • Tundra

        That was pretty good. When your assets are a box of paper clips and some logo mugs you truly have fleeced well.

    • Fourscore

      So one of the Osman’s was involved.

      “Urban Advantage Services must dissolve and transfer its assets to other charitable organizations”

      Stop it, I can’t stop laughing. There’s just too much interference when people are trying to do good for their immigrant community and the government wants some accountability.

      Keith is getting his pound of flesh though, if there is a pound left.

  11. Fourscore

    In an article a few years back I explained how I got drafted and then couldn’t kick the habit.

    Time passes quickly when one is having fun. I had to leave when my “Best Used by Date” came up.

  12. Evan from Evansville

    BoardGameGeek Con: How are you *in* all of them? Going, participating, or playing? Um. It could be [Insert clever euphemism here] at this point.

    I’m still ‘upset’ I’ve never won Monopoly v My Bro. Grrgle. Dallas was rather agreeable to me. It went in ’12 (IIRC) to see an old friend. Kinda remarkably, he let me borrow his car, which happened to be an Audi of some sort. I didn’t kinda-sorta get into cars later. Manual shift and my only job was to Pikov and Dropov and not crash it. I went to Dealey Plaza in the interim. Somehow I’m the only one in the family who’s been, despite my parents having been to Dallas before.

    I still think it’s fun: Dad was 14 when JFK was assassinated, and I was 14 for 9/11. I should remember more (US) Generational Moments, but those two and Pearl Harbor are the only ones that come to mind. October, 1929 for the Wall Street Crash. We don’t have a WWI one. What else we got?

    • cavalier973

      Go for the orange properties and the railroads, then the reds after that.

      • Evan from Evansville

        I am aware of this. How can you “Go for…” when the die are random?! WE HAVE MONEY! The Light Blues aren’t bad. He constantly wins. (We also haven’t played in 15+ years.) He also has Magic Bro power. Six years older, just us and busy parents who left us alone. His magic power: He’s the only person I can’t lie to. (There are plenty I *DON’T* lie to, or rather, ‘details selected + omitted to benefit me or what’s best, but him? I lack the ability. Damn childhood. It was wonderful.

  13. kinnath

    monocle has stopped working for me

    any suggestions?

      • Fourscore

        Ran out of orphans to polish the eye wear.

    • slumbrew

      OS?
      Browser? Version?
      Tampermonkey or something else?

      This true Monocle – I.e., buttons on the bottom? Or Eyepiece (buttons on side)?

      • slumbrew

        ISTR Trashy made a minor Monocle update recently

      • kinnath

        Windows 10. Brave.

        Power outage today. PC did a hard stop while I was away from home.

        Everything booted up fine.

        Tampermonkey is still showing as active. I have reinstalled monocle.

        No tools in the reply window. No message info on the left hand side. Loss of next unread is what is driving me crazy.

      • Tundra

        Mine hasn’t worked for a couple weeks. Since procrastination always pays dividends I haven’t done shit.

        I’m still on Mac OS Monterey lol. I hate updating anything.

      • slumbrew

        kinnath;

        no recent changes to Eyepiece (“Monocle Eyepiece”) so I’m just going to guess some sort of corruption.

        I’d uninstall & re-install Tempermonkey and re-download Eyepiece.

    • Urthona

      Have you tried whipping your orphans?

  14. Aloysious

    I’m curious about Trump’s Boner Czar. Wonder if he’ll rise to meet expectations.

  15. Mojeaux

    I have allowed my gouda to grow penicillin. I guess I’ll be covered for a while.

    • Tundra

      Science!

      I recently learned that there is a Passendale cheese. Seems appropriate for today. Any of y’all had it?

    • Aloysious

      Now would be a gouda thyme to make some soup.

  16. Q Continuum

    Something I’d like to see with Trump; a RICO investigation of the Soros-NGO-ActBlue cartel. There is no fucking way that these clowns haven’t broken some law somewhere. Find a tax violation as your way in (Al Capone style) and dismantle the public-private corruption conspiracy.

    • dbleagle

      From your lips to his advisor’s ears.

      The wailing and crying would be epic. Place all the donation files onto an easy to search site with a big red “Report Fraud” button so millions of Americans can search and report.

    • rhywun

      Next you’ll tell us that 4,623 voters don’t reside at Public Storage unit #105 in Glendale, AZ.

      • LCDR_Fish

        We can’t all be Hiro Protagonist.

      • Tundra

        I would have rather been Vitaly Chernobyl.

      • Tundra

        Actually I would really have preferred to be Hotblack Desiato.

    • R.J.

      Some state is looking into it. I think it is Texas.

  17. The Bearded Hobbit

    Does anyone have a link for the next GlibCruise? The Forum only lists the last one.

  18. Evan from Evansville

    Article on Pete Rose, died Sept 30, not getting into the Hall of Fame. I got a big Rose = Trump kick with the writing. Personality? Yep. I see the close resemblance in character. But the language oddly mirrored political Op-Ed Talk. IIRC, author Howard Bryant is pretty good at his job. This doesn’t seem coincidental to me. “The non- celebrity Black” and buzzwords seem shoehorned, eh?

    “[Rose] stood as an avatar; like so many celebrities, the public believed he reflected something important inside of them.. .the myths of American exceptionalism, the traits this country has always believed make it different — and better — than everyone else. His reach was enormous in the same way that baseball once dominated much of the real estate of American sports that today feels impossible to imagine.. ..So many would relent, choosing to recall the unadulterated Rose; others would fight — the facts and the hypocrisy. None of these reasons — numbers and memories — sufficiently explain how Rose could have lived so deeply in the American bloodstream for so long. America has certainly endured too many public falls to make Rose unique — and yet he was… ..”[Rose] symbolized exceptionalism.”

    This especially stood out, about rooting for the underdog –> “[The Rich] were getting something for nothing — off everyone else’s back. Who was going to hold them accountable? Accountability is for the poor, the unexceptional, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐧𝐨𝐧-𝐜𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐛𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐁𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐤. The ones who get knees in their backs and cops on their necks. It’s for 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐬 𝐰𝐡𝐨 𝐠𝐞𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐢𝐫 𝐚𝐬𝐬𝐞𝐬 𝐤𝐢𝐜𝐤𝐞𝐝 𝐨𝐫 𝐝𝐨𝐧’𝐭 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐞𝐧𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡 𝐬𝐲𝐜𝐨𝐩𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐬 𝐥𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐮𝐩 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐢𝐫 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐝.. ..Around the dinner table, and at the bar, and 𝐚𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐬, the ones who squawk about the injustice done to Rose are so often the ones believing in law and order and dismissing the dead Black kids with an uncomplicated, It’s so simple. Why didn’t they just obey?”
    https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/42319571/mlb-baseball-pete-rose-died-hall-fame-betting-gambling

  19. Evan from Evansville

    Nov 11, regardless of name, is one of few federal holidays I actually respect. Sincere respect to all of you who served, in whatever capacity. Dad things a mandatory military service would benefit the country’s youngins, and I don’t think he’s especially wrong. Particularly with the intermingling, indeed integration, of different folk ya met back then.
    Fuck the people who sent the kids to fight, not the soldiers themselves. I wish more Americans understood the importance of Armistice Day, 1918, but I do ‘spose WWI was much less important for us. Japan and the US were, pretty frankly, The Winners of that stupid and obviously inevitable war. (Says naive young man, with perfect vision 106 years later.)

    I think now is a pretty obvious Too Long of a Cool-Off period in history. Yet again, “we’re FAR too intertwined to actually FIGHT another!” As China obviously sits in the wings, biding its time. I remain cautiously optimistic it won’t happen in my lifetime. (Says naive young man, with crippling myopia in the present.)

  20. Atreides

    Happy Veterans Day to all of you crusty vets!

    If you wore the uniform honorably, whatever branch of the US military you served in, you have my respect.

  21. Atreides

    Thank you, Swiss, for the honorable service that you and your family members have rendered.

  22. Evan from Evansville

    I get to say good morning first? Well. Mornin’ y’all.

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