Charles R. Disque

[Jim Hawk @JimHawk67327371]

Horse lore
Reasonable wild stallions 101

I’ve mentioned before that wild stallions with a band can be a little bit touchy and sometimes downright dangerous. However..just like humans they come in different shades

This guy has seen me come through here a few times so he knows I am no threat. Today he comes out to greet me and let me know very politely, that I’m not to go near his band. This is the language of a “reasonable” stallion. So I acquiesce..and politely make a wide berth and continue my way. With Mr. reasonable watching me until I was out of sight around the next bend 😉

[Jim Hawk @JimHawk67327371]

At some particular point we were sent straight from the torrid sweltering tropics to the largely frozen land of Iceland. At the time we didn’t know why but we were Marines and we followed orders. It seems the big brains in Washington decided that Russia was showing an inordinate interest in Iceland. I had always wondered why this military -political face off between the United States and Soviet union was called the “Cold War”, well I was about to find out

But that’s beside the point. There was already a small NATO airfield in Keflavik and my infantry company (Reinforced with a single platoon of 106mm anti-tank guns and crews) were to provide ground defense. Iceland has NO military..at all

That meant guarding perimeter and aircraft ammunition stowage areas, and the airfield and aircraft, and manning the gates

But that’s beside the point also. The point is that some of the perimeter guard posts are well away from the base proper. The boondocks in military talk. But in Iceland most of the time there’s no Boone and there’s no Docks just snow as high as a giraffe’s butt…and extremely cold. Like -20 or even lower sometimes..and it stays that way for 9 months. And three of those nine months it’s completely dark practically 24 hours a day.

But that’s not even the point yet, either I’m just setting the stage for the next few paragraphs. Post 18 was the most distant guard post. A small isolated 8’ x 8’ wooden hut chained to the rocky ground to thwart being ripped to pieces by the frequent arctic blasts. It was about 10 mi north of the airstrip and perfectly isolated.. there was absolutely nothing near it. No structures..nothing. But that nothingness needed to be guarded, because? Well because who knows what forces might have come casually tiptoeing with nefarious intent through the frozen lifeless lava field buried in 5 or 6 feet of hard crunchy snow in the middle of the night with the freezing wind blowing at 50 knots and the mercury huddling at a cozy -20 degrees below zero? And this all has me thinking about the absolute isolation I experienced when posted there. Facing north into an endless sea of cold deep white. Because I WAS posted there.

The trick was to stay awake and alert for eight hours staring into nothingness. To fall asleep was a theoretical death sentence if discovered..yikes I knew that! I was to patrol a largely imaginary security fence the top which was usually buried under a few feet of snow. Every hour I would leave the relative warmth of the hut and patrol the length of where the security fence would be if I could have seen it..about half a mile out, half a mile back. So
I spent plenty of time trudging through snow in sub-zero pitch black arctic winter nights, which as I said last 24 hours..which made me perfectly familiar with what I’m going to describe if you just bear with me

I was armed with an M14, forty rounds of 7.62 (and a bayonet) which was deemed adequate to stop the expected Russian invasion. My orders were to resist until killed or relieved, whichever came first. Under no conditions could I desert my post. I had a telephone in the hut, and a walkie-talkie on a strap around me..I reported in every 2 hours “Post 18 all secured”. But I must eventually come to my point.

I was in a perfect position to judge an arctic night. Sometimes blasting wind..carries drifting snow. Sometimes total white out. In which case I would hunker in the hut huddled by the ancient little electric heater. Sometimes freezing rain..that would turn the landscape to slush soak my boots and freeze my feet. And occasionally..just occasionally, a dead calm. Crisp crystal clear sky. Every star an icon. A cold distant reminder that I was perfectly alone. Completely isolated from any human contact. Forgotten by humanity. I would turn my binoculars to the heavens and I could see eternity. With a full moon reflecting off the snow I could actually see my surroundings pretty well for once. And what I saw was (To be continued soon)

[Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn @AI_Solzhenitsyn]

“[The Soviet Union,] in time of peace, artificially created a famine, causing 6 million persons to die in the Ukraine in 1932 and 1933. They died on the very edge of Europe. And Europe didn't even notice it. The world didn't even notice it...”

[Brian Roemmele @BrianRoemmele]

I urge you to share this far and wide as the next four years will draw in what may become a majority in to the seductive dance of socialism.

In 1955 this high school film was honest and clear.

Help folks learn what was no longer taught in schools.

[Siobhan @siobhan_oz]

One of the most impressive undertakings Ive ever seen.
This is what genuine environmental protection looks like.

[William A. Jacobson @wajacobson]

I’ve been arguing to strip the ABA of its near-monopoly accrediting power since 2022. I’m proud that I was against the ABA before it was cool to be against the ABA. https://t.co/Y23BiTPFa5

[Jeremy Wayne Tate @JeremyTate41]

I remember one of my LSU professors mocking the medieval idea that the peasants could learn from cathedrals.

I can’t imagine a better place for university students to spend a week.

Art, History, Mathematics, Scripture, Architecture.

It’s ALL there. The ancients were right.

[Massimo @Rainmaker1973]

After a $1.6 billion investment and years of hard work, the Seine River, which was once heavily polluted, is now clean enough for swimming for the first time in over a century.

The city of Paris has also invested in three public swimming locations.

[Pierre Poilievre @PierrePoilievre]

Thank you to Crown Prince @PahlaviReza for discussing how Canada can protect our country from IRGC terrorists and stand with the Iranian people in their fight for a free and democratic Iran.

Canada must expel terrorist regime operatives, protect our communities from threats and intimidation, and stand for freedom.

[Kaizen D. Asiedu @thatsKAIZEN]

Jason Arday shouldn’t be dead.

But he is dead - because he didn’t tell the truth.

And Cambridge University didn’t look for the truth - because he’s black.

And fellow black professors didn’t ask for the truth - because he is black.

Jason lied repeatedly.

And he told the exact lies that allow one to excel in the system that elite universities have adopted.

A system that factors in race, hardship, and lived experience under the banner of equity, instead of pure performance.

Nearly everyone in these institutions ignored Jason’s lies, to try and protect black people.

They called the people seeking the truth racists.

Of course there were some racists.

But the majority of people just wanted the truth.

Avoiding the truth didn’t help black people.

Double standards in academia aren’t helping black people.

They hurt the perception of black people who are truly the best, and would have held prestigious positions at elite schools, solely off the merits of their performance.

Double standards always backfire.

Even when well intentioned.

Even when intended to correct for past oppression.

Race-conscious hiring and admissions have created a situation where it is rational to wonder whether a black person has achieved their position because they were simply the best, or because they were good enough, and black.

This is not a racist thought.

It’s a rational thing to wonder when a system promotes people based on race.

It’s a thing I’ve wondered about myself, as someone who graduated from Harvard - which had race-conscious admissions.

No amount of insistence that it’s racist will make it racist.

It’s no more racist than it would be to wonder whether a white player got into the NBA off of just performance, if the NBA decided to focus on “fixing” the underrepresentation of white people.

This is the logical downside of race-conscious hiring and admissions.

You can think the downside is worth the upside.

But the downside remains.

Calling people with legitimate concerns racist didn’t protect black people.

It didn’t protect Jason.

It hurt black people who have earned their positions.

And it allowed a troubled man who built his career on lies to rise to a height so great that his fall from grace killed him.

We could have just had the truth.

Instead, we have a tragedy.

[Rob Henderson @robkhenderson]

If a pilot at Delta discovers evidence that a pilot at Jet Blue fabricated his credentials and is then fired for bringing this to light, you might reasonably wonder whether airlines are less interested in your safety and more interested in protecting pilots from scrutiny.

[Jon Lauck @jlauck1941]

The sky in Dakota

[Franklin Graham @Franklin_Graham]

About 3 months ago, @TulsiGabbard shared that her husband Abraham had been diagnosed with a very rare form of bone cancer. Today, she posted an update for so many of you who prayed. Her husband has had surgery and is recovering, but the battle isn’t over. We need to continue to pray for them. Tulsi said, “We are so grateful to God for His unconditional love, for being our shelter, for being our peace and our strength.” Others reading this may be going through some type of life crisis. The Bible tells us, “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble” (Psalm 46:1). What a promise! Let Tulsi and Abraham know that you’re praying in the comments below…

[LiterateIndy @LiterateIndy]

WLS Barn Dance program at the 1940 #IndianaStateFair.

(Indiana Historical Society)

[Warren Smith @WTSmith17]

I challenge another student on DEI. He says“racism towards white people is not really a problem.”

[Siobhan @siobhan_oz]

This is exactly what our politicians should be saying.
Be very wary of anyone who thinks these are controversial things to say & make sure to keep them well away from govt.

[Hoover Presidential Foundation @HooverPresFndn]

Think you know Herbert Hoover’s story?

“Herbert Hoover is one of the most misunderstood presidents in American history, and most people walk in certain they already know his story”

@HooverPresLib renovation includes First Lady https://t.co/oOrSIrNkLB via @InParkMagazine

[Jonathan Choe @choeshow]

CA leaders protect fraudsters, but go after the people who expose it. 🙃

[Jim McMurtry @JimMcMurtry01]

This is the road on the way to the Grassy Narrows FN dump.

Half of reserves don’t treat garbage.

Tradition is to throw it in nature.

[LiterateIndy @LiterateIndy]

Excellent advice.