As I said, a reporter had the audacity to use the term illegal alien and she was quickly and firmly corrected, “undocumented migrant.”

I barely finished the prediction before it came true.

Now the questions, will anyone else dare cross that line and what awaits yet the woman who made the transgression this time? Will she simply get a warning or will she be pounding the pavement, looking for another position. I am sure she has at least received the warning, do that again and you will be a server in a little restaurant in a little town the rest of your life.

Occasionally, my wife would come to me with a problem. She didn’t like it so much when I would answer, “That’s a problem. I already have more than enough problems. What I need is solutions.”

Invariably, it is the way with most leaders, regardless military or civilian. I did get a kick out of a line in a TV show given to an actor portraying a US president. It was something to the affect, The problems I see are all very difficult. All the easier ones are resolved before they reach my desk.

I should have thought of it on my own but I didn’t. The concept is so simple. Yet I’d guess few of us think about it. We have no reason to.

Well, here’s another thought. I doubt you will find a leader complaining of too many solutions. Generally, if you will, the problem is too many problems. Moreover, they frequently come in bunches.

You just get confronted with one when you learn of two more. Worse, no one has brought any solutions.

So, consider you are a captain in the Marines. You have command of a rifle company, which is under heavy fire. You are in the midst of three critical decisions that must be made quickly. Then, you are confronted with another high priority problem. Someone refuses to use the proper pronoun for another member of the company.

I do admit that it is a little far fetched example. However, the way things are going, it is getting more probable by the month.

My point is, commanding officers already have an abundance of problems. Let’s not hand them even more. Trump has it right by not permitting the multi gender culture to creep into our military.

The most important thing is to keep the most important thing, the most important thing. In the Marines, that’s winning wars very quickly and with minimal casualties. Pronouns don’t even register on that importance indicator. Not even a little.

it’s not law, but it’s the next thing to it. Obviously, the broadcasters that use anything but the the term migrant for the illegal aliens will get a severe wrist slap.

My guess is that no one pulled the term out of thin air. I am sure they tested dozens of terms before study groups. I am just as sure they were not looking for an accurate word to describe them.

Personally, I will stay with illegal alien. By far, it is the most accurate. They are aliens by definition and they arrived here illegally.

Incidentally, if we Americans were to go into another country illegally, they would use their term for illegal alien to refer to us and I’d not blame them.

They did not migrate here. When they took that step across the border, they intentionally broke the law. That makes it illegal, regardless of anything else.

So, maybe we should call them illegal foreigners? At the very least, illegal migraters.

On Martin Luther King day I watched a show that looked at the the assassination of MLK. I have made remarks about the assassination before. I felt quite alone until this special.

Thing is, two seconds after they had a guilty plea they stopped the investigation. Likely, they even stopped looking before the plea. They didn’t even take the five minutes to test the rifle. I suspect, let me rephrase that. I highly suggest that they didn’t want to face the possibility they were wrong. They had their suspect and they had no desire to uncover any fact that might contradict it.

Now, according to the special, there are others suspicious they got it wrong, including a highly respected judge very familiar with the case. Indeed, it seemed to be moving towards a retrial when Ray died.

So, the truth of the matter is, the real killer might be walking the streets today. As near as I can figure, the chances are about fifty percent that he is. He might even have been drawing a government check at the time. I don’t know. A five minute test might have saved a lot of doubt. Worse, he might have killed others.

On the other hand, the test might have added some confusion. Perhaps that’s why they didn’t test it.

Regardless, it is time to make it illegal to use the death penalty as a threat. As far as I am concerned, it makes it so they have a fifty percent chance of being one hundred percent wrong. When a life sentence is involved, that is not good enough.

Moreover, it encourages the prosecution to be lazy. Even more, I hate to say it, but it might even be a good argument against the death penalty. You take the threat of the death penalty away, and the prosecution will have to work harder and it will cost the state much more.

However, isn’t that the way it’s supposed to work? Aren’t we supposed to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt instead of hold a figurative gun to their heads.

I hear a little here and a little there. It would seem illegal aliens are being deported, about a thousand or so a day. In light of the tens of millions, it seems insignificant.

However, I am somewhat pleased with it, though I really would prefer tens of thousands departing our shores. However, they are just getting started. I am sure they will gain speed and efficiency over time.

Also, they are concentrating on the worst of them, who are also the more difficult.

Most importantly, the border is virtually sealed. It will stop the throngs from heading north. It will remove the vast strength of the cartels, which will benefit Mexico at least as much as the US.

The secondary benefit is the decrease of drugs being smuggled. It would seem that China was causing more more deaths in the undeclared invasion than if they were using guns and tanks. This of course while not suffering casualties of their own.

There is one big encouraging thing about it all. At least we now have the train going the right way. And everyone knows, you don’t ever want to get on a train going the wrong direction, regardless of the speed.

I do have a small hope for those being sent to their home country. Just maybe, after seeing how things are in the US, they might want to start making their home country more like the US. Then again, it is as I said, a small hope. They might like the freedom, but not likely enough to work and fight for it.

Then again, if we don’t work for it, the US just might start resembling the environments from which they fled.

On February 9, 2025, 6:30 pm E.T., the competition will start. However, it won’t all be on the football field. There are three major networks besides FOX, which will be broadcasting during LIX.

Right now I am grateful that it is not my job to come up with something to compete with the Super Bowl. My guess is that well over half the TVs in this country will be tuned to FOX, perhaps even three quarters. The rest of the broadcasters might think about shutting it all down an put all transmitters in standby.

Of course, there are also all the poor independent stations. Come time for the kickoff, they may as well turn it all off and go home and watch the game as everyone else. If they don’t, all the employees will be watching the game on their computers or cell phones.

Well, actually, there is an exception. There will be one group of stations that will likely not even notice the LIX competition. The home shopping network and those similar will likely go on virtually oblivious to all that is going on inside the Super Dome. My guess, they might even benefit from it.

As for the competition on the field. Who can say how that will turn out. If you want my best guess, I suspect the Eagles have something of an edge. However, there is always the injury effect. A pulled muscle or a twisted ankle might change the outcome.

Therefore, for those making wagers, you might insist on an injury clause.

I have learned to not respond directly to comments normally and I was not going to respond to this one, though there was a thought provoking question. After some thought on the matter I decided a response is in order in the form of a general revisit of the original post.

Of course, you may want to read or re-read the post as well as the comment on 1\19\25.

Fortunately, I never made a real combat decision. I left Vietnam as a corporal. However, I don’t think a combat decision would bother me, at least during my enlistment.

Most of my problems were squabbles breaking out. You would not believe the number of times it was pointed out to me how unfair I was for this or that. And, of course, everyone waa right and everyone was wrong.

I have seen men handle such things expertly. Naturally, the first trick is to disregard fairness and just run things right. I know that. I did that, but I didn’t like it. I much prefer following the orders rather than giving them. I don’t like being unfair.

The hitch is, since then, things have changed. Today, in the same position, I’d be giving orders to women as well as men. I pity the staff NCOs in today’s Marines. It looks like a real nightmare to me. As men get that first rocker, they just might decide it’s not worth it and they will likely want to return them.

For those currently in the Marines and are E-6 or above, I certainly welcome your thoughts on the matter. I guess that also goes for those as me, before women in combat.

Certainly, others are welcome to comment too. I even seek the comments of women.

However, the one thing I don’t want to hear is about being fair. The purpose of the Marines is to win wars; this while having the least number of casualties. Fair is for football or baseball. It is not for the battlefield.

I know. I don’t like it either. But of all the things a leader needs to consider while making decisions, fairness is right there near the bottom.