U.S. Army Shepherd Kurt Anderson, of the 2nd Infantry Division, patrols outside a village in Zabul Province May 26.
Bill Cosby’s ‘Tough Love’ Is Counterproductive
Bill Cosby is not alone in thinking black Americans need to do better but his advice is not just tone-deaf but useless as well.
BattlelandMissile Defense
Navy Seeking Fake Chinese Missiles
No, the service doesn’t actually name China, but that’s most like who it has in mind now that it’s seeking an “Aerial Target System to Simulate Subsonic Anti-Ship Cruise Missiles.”
Because how can the Navy be sure it …
66
— The number of errors contained in an Air Force technical order instructing airmen on how to load nuclear weapons. “When this was reported through proper channels, the wing was told to submit 66…forms – the normal process for requesting changes to T.O.s…The T.O. was virtually unusable,” a review of the service’s nuclear-weapons prowess reports. “A major issue is that the people doing hands-on work are expected to perform without error, and the consequences for error, even one that causes no damage or mission failure, can be severe. Yet, these same people are handed a T.O. with 66 errors and told they will have to do the work to correct the deficiencies that slip through the review system.” The report, here, praised the airmen doing the hands-on work, but noted several problems with their commanders. The Air Force has been struggling for six years to ensure it handles nuclear weapons safely following some well-publicized snafus.
BattlelandTerrorism
The End of the Rainbow: The Intelligence-Industrial Complex
The Edward Snowden-National Security Agency leak case raises anew the balance between means and ends that has been simmering on the back burner of the nation’s consciousness for a decade or so.
The terror attacks of 9/11 …
The Economic Reason for Having Just One Child
But why do we need to present a rationale for why we might want to devote our resources — whether they be financial or that ultimately luxury, time — to something other than children?
Why Nike’s New Tiger Woods Ad Is Terribly Confusing
Still, here is Tiger, vouching for golf’s bona fides in a new Nike ad. And I couldn’t help but think that it backfired.
Wounded in Action
A pair of airmen perform a security check around a disabled C-130 at Forward Operating Base Shank, Logar Province, June 6.
How to Use Behavioral Science to Encourage Energy Efficiency
TED talk from Alex Laskey, the co-founder of the energy efficiency company Opower.
“I have been made aware, from the chain of command and from direct feedback from the Fleet, that we are spending too much time performing administrative tasks, or perhaps completing duplicative or competing requirements by ISICs [Immediate Superiors in Command] or others, which keep us from being effective -- that prevent us from keeping `Warfighting First.' To help address this imbalance, you will need to stand up a Navy-wide working group.”
— Admiral Jonathan Greenert, the chief of naval operations, in a recent letter, here, to the head of the Navy’s nuclear propulsion program. h/t CDR Salamander
In New Haven, a Teachers Union Embraces Change
New Haven, Conn. — In the spring of 2011, David Cicarella, the teachers union president here, sat down with a tenured teacher for a difficult discussion. After a warning from his principal and months of extra support, the …
BattlelandSexual Assault in the Ranks
From Fighting Gaddafi to Fighting Sexual Assault
Just over two years ago, Air Force Major General Margaret Woodward was leading the U.S. air war against Libya that ultimately toppled Muammar Gaddafi — and has been hailed as one of the Obama Administration’s foreign-policy …
“Given a frightened population, Congress can legislate away liberties just as easily as tyrants can seize power. That seems to be what has started to happen.”
— Noted U.S. terrorism expert Brian Jenkins, in an interview on Slate, here.