#1
Read about this when she was cashiered. Evidently a good (read: non-psychotic) officer until she got command, and then went absolutely power-mad. Made everyone's lives miserable with abuse. It's a miracle she got removed at all, I think what tore it was punching an ensign. Her being incompetent at her job wasn't cause for removal.
There a bunch more here, comments from ex-crew. She sounds like a monster. Choking crew, throwing radios and coffee mugs at them, not helping those junior office who ask for guidance. Good riddance for a bad leader.
#5
I think it was the end for her when she was publicly disrespectful to a master chief. I'm not military but even I know better than that.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/05/2010 9:34 Comments ||
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#6
I've seen nepotism in every service - the Navy wanted a female skipper for a high profile ship - they got it, and one that had prior admirals in the family. The Navy failed by not looking more into this woman's idiotic behavior over a decade ago. I'm not trying to be overly harsh on the Navy as I've seen some of the same instances in the Corps w/the offspring of colonel's/generals etc. Most are good, but the ones that are shitheads are real shitheads.
#7
I wasn't there but I would point out to the peanut gallery that if this were the 8th Army sweeping across Europe in 1945 her name would be PATTON. Poor sailors being pushed around but a mere woman.
#8
The really sad thing is that the Navy's Surface Warfare Officer (SWO) community routinely produces (or attracts?) jerks like this. From personal experience, I can tell you that Graf is by no means the exception, and her gender has absolutely nothing to do with it.
A Naval Academy professor wrote a paper 2-3 years ago about how he had just learned about the bullying nature of SWOs. My only response was: "Where the hell had you been hiding all these years?"
#9
This woman is mad. And Captain Bligh had better character than people give him credit for.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captain_Bligh
"The Bounty's log shows that Bligh resorted to punishments relatively sparingly. He scolded when other captains would have whipped and whipped when other captains would have hanged. He was an educated man, deeply interested in science, convinced that good diet and sanitation were necessary for the welfare of his crew. He took a great interest in his crew's exercise, was very careful about the quality of their food, and insisted upon the Bounty being kept very clean. He tried (unsuccessfully) to check the spread of venereal disease among them.[citation needed]. Prior to the mutiny only 2 members of the Ships crew had died, one seaman from infection and the ship's doctor from indolence. J. C. Beaglehole has described the chief flaw in this otherwise enlightened naval officer: "[Bligh made] dogmatic judgements which he felt himself entitled to make; he saw fools about him too easily... thin-skinned vanity was his curse through life... [Bligh] never learnt that you do not make friends of men by insulting them."
Beaglehole's judgement is supported by the small settlers in NSW (see Bligh's tenure as NSW Governor), who named sons after him. Bligh had the moral courage to take on what he saw was wrong, but he strongly supported those he thought were right.
Popular fiction often confuses Bligh with Edward Edwards of HMS Pandora, who was sent on the Royal Navy's expedition to the South Pacific to find the mutineers and bring them to trial. Edwards was allegedly every bit the cruel man that Bligh was accused of being; the 14 men that he captured were confined in a cramped 18' x 11' x 5' 8" wooden cell on the Pandora's quarterdeck. When the Pandora ran aground on the Great Barrier Reef, 4 of the prisoners and 31 of the crew were killed. The prisoners would have all perished, had not William Moulter, a bosun's mate, unlocked their cage before jumping off the sinking vessel.[5]
#10
Mom: I've read elsewhere that Bligh's big failing was that he wanted, craved, to be loved by his crew, that he wanted to be their "friend". But at the same time, he felt guilt in being too soft on them. So one minute he was overly nice, and the next, nasty. This made them terribly apprehensive, with no certainty of reward or punishment.
#11
Cyber Sarge: Do not hold up Patton as too much of a shining light. To start with, his men didn't particularly like him, because he was all too willing to get them killed to start a fight.
Other, more conservative generals were of the mind that it was just as important to minimize American casualties as it was to maximize enemy casualties.
Nobody liked his "reconnaissance in force" idea, which was to intentionally start a fight with a much larger enemy unit, then demand that his higher headquarters send reinforcements to pull his ashes out of the fire, before they were ready for a fight.
In many ways, he was the opposite of MacArthur (PBUH), who always tried to hit the enemies weak spots and logistics, instead of attacking them at their strong points. Which saved countless American lives.
#15
"Many times I raised my tone (and used swear words) to ensure they knew this times, it was no kidding," she wrote.
Affirmative action is getting bad publicity these days. Its not confined to the military in the lower echelons. Doesn't seem to be working out in the Commander in Chief role either.
#16
I had three commanders that were very much like this officer, all were male, and nobody ever thought of whining about language. I guess the Navy can't take a little hard languge? What have they become?
#18
Cyber Sarge: I think it's the difference between those who are genuine hardasses, who are consistent about it, and those that are acting like hardasses, with the emphasis on acting.
I remember working for one who was clearly a psychopath, and everybody thought he was the greatest, because you always knew where you stood. Total confidence in his command abilities, because you knew that emotion was never a factor, only cold calculation.
But having a CO who runs hot and cold, and you don't know WTF is going on, and your gut churns whenever you see them because they could be all smiles or chew your head off, for no reason, will about drive you nuts.
Add to that leaving knowingly incompetent junior officers to their own devices, which is a terrible idea, and humiliating a senior NCO in front of subordinates, which is a monumentally stupid idea.
I'm sure what isn't in the report was even worse than what was in it. It's not just cursing.
Bligh, whatever his faults as a commander, was one hell of a sailor.
Posted by: mojo
no doubt. getting to land from where he was set off was one heck of an achievement.
Posted by: abu do you love ||
03/05/2010 13:45 Comments ||
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#21
RE: #11. I've always admired Patton since reading his biography (Patton: Ordeal and Triumph by Ladislas Farago) 40 years ago and, of course, the movie - one of my favorites. I remembered he is supposed to have killed and captured more Germans, covered more ground, and lost fewer soldiers than any other general. I'm sure there are several ways to measure each of those metrics, however. He appeared to have a compassionate side, unlike Captain Holly.
Posted by: Bobby ||
03/05/2010 16:42 Comments ||
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#22
Captain Graf failed one of the basic tenets of leadership: praise in public, berate in private. It is one thing to demand excellence from your crew. It is quite another to humiliate someone publicly, no matter how badly he/she screwed up. And there is NEVER any reason to assault someone.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
03/05/2010 16:49 Comments ||
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#23
And another thing: If I had been an officer or enlisted on the Cowpens, I would have been very nervous about talking to the IG. Such investigations are supposed to be confidential. However, if Captain Graf had not been removed, anyone who had talked to the IG would have been toast - she would have made their lives extra miserable.
In my civilian job, I had a manager removed from their position after an HR investigation. I didn't talk to HR, but if they had asked, I don't know if I would have talked to them unless I was sure that the manager would get removed. This particular manager was definitely into revenge, and would have taken action against anyone she considered a threat.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
03/05/2010 17:00 Comments ||
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#24
Methinks the Story here that that the MSM-Net is trying hard NOT to talk about is that economically trubled Amerika + future OWG-NWO must create ONE UNIFIED SERVICE ACADEMY FOR ALL THE ARMED SERVICES, E.G. STARFLEET COMMAND = STARFLEET ACADEMY.
Or the COLD WAR SOVIET-COMMIE BLOC.
* TOPIX > WINDS OF CHANGE IN THE [US] AIR FORCE, i.e. Why-o-Why does America = Amerika, the OWG Mighty USSA = Weak USRoA Global SSR, still need an INDEPENDENT AIR FORCE???
#25
just looks at her clenched and jaw narrow eyes, big trouble for anyone who bothered to critically review this woman, not to mention ,dont ask, dont tell......."snicker"
#27
Disclosure: I knew Captain Graf way back in the late 80s, when she was a Lieutenant and I a lowly (and on-hold) Ensign. She was a mentor of sorts; advised me on what to do when I came off the disabled-list.
Dreadnought is right in a way - the SWO community attracts a lot of jerks. But the community is and always has been very cut-throat to begin with. The old saying is that "The SWO community eats its young". S'what happens when you're told from commissioning onward that your ultimate goal is "obtaining a command".
Some can deal with it, some can't. I've had some fantastic COs who I'd follow into Hell. I've also had "screamers" and ones who made their way to admiral on the backs of their crew. I had one hot-tempered CO bust his hand after punching out a bulkhead. I got into a shouting match with an XO on a bridge wing and later dressed him down in the wardroom (I was an Ensign) after he publicly humiliated my first class in front of a damage control party. He was also banned from going into the CPO mess except on business. He also ended up commanding a "major ship" about 15 years later; I gather it was not a happy ship.
More conclusive evidence of Global Warming...
STOCKHOLM -- Around 50 ships, including large ferries carrying thousands, were stuck in the ice in the Baltic Sea Thursday and many were not likely to be freed for hours, Swedish maritime authorities said. What is this..."ice" you speak of?
"Around 50 commercial vessels are waiting for help from ice breakers (and) we have had as many as six large passenger ferries stuck, but have managed to free two of them," Johny Lindvall of the Swedish Maritime Administration's ice breaker unit told AFP. He said all the six ferries besides one were shuttling passengers between Sweden and Finland, while the Regal Star ferry, which had been stuck since midnight (2300 GMT Wednesday) -- had been on its way to Estonia.
Sweden's TT news agency first reported that the two largest ferries, the Isabella and the Amorella, were in total carrying 2,630 passengers, but later revised the number to 1,841. What, did 800 of them get out and walk?
The Isabella has been freed, while the Amorella and the Regal Star were among the ferries that are still stuck, Lindvall said. Viking Line head Jan Kaarstroem told TT that his company's ferries were well equipped to handle ice and that all the passengers were safe. I'll translate: The bar is...open. Good thing the polar bears are extinct, or this would be their fantasy buffet line.
Two ice breakers are in the area where the ferries are stuck, while a third is on its way after helping commercial vessels further north in the Bay of Bothnia, Lindvall said. That ice breaker "will not get there until midnight at the earliest, so they'll be stuck there until tomorrow morning at least", he said.
Many of the commercial vessels had got stuck in the narrow Bay of Bothnia, where the ice is thicker, and around the autonomous Aaland islands. All the ferries meanwhile had run into trouble just outside the Stockholm archipelago made up of more than 20,000 islands, Lindvall said. "They got caught outside the archipelago, where there is moving ice. It's hard to navigate," he said, adding that he had not seen a situation with so many ships stuck at once since the mid-1980s. Back when "Global Cooling" was what the cool kids all believed in...
Sweden has suffered an unusually harsh winter this year, with temperatures across the country almost continuously lying well below freezing since December. And with gusting, freezing winds whipping the Baltic over the past week, it was easy for ships to get stuck, Lindvall said. Geez, really cold in Sweden in winter. Can ya beat that?
The large ferries are equipped to break their way through the thin layers of ice that often cover parts of the Baltic they traffic. That is perhaps why a number of them decided to ignore a warning the Swedish Maritime Administration had issued this week, according to Ulf Gullne, also of the administration's ice breaker unit. The passengers forced us to leave. They didn't want to get caught in the floods when the ice caps melted...
"The problem is that these big ferries think they can handle the ice. They have extremely powerful engines, but in this case the ice was simply too difficult for them," he told Swedish public radio. But Viking Line head Kaarstroem told TT the Amorella and the Isabella had already left port when the ice warning came. And we read Al Gore's op/ed in the Times last week and figured "no problem"...
Hope the crews and passengers are removed from this situation soon. In the mean time, a little music while you wait. ( My assumption is they have the internet and go to RANTBURG for news.)
#3
My mother was complaining that it's actually colder down there in central Florida than it was when I was visiting last month. Hope y'all aren't real fond of fresh orange juice...
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
03/05/2010 10:18 Comments ||
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#4
Sweden has suffered an unusually harsh winter this year...
But, but...Al Gore said it was only the United States that had a cold winter. He said the rest of the planet had the hottest January on record. How could that be?
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
03/05/2010 10:52 Comments ||
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#5
ION IIRC STARS-N-STRIPES > PACIFIC US AT RISK OF CHILE-STYLE MEGAQUAKE.
[Al Arabiya Latest] Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said on Thursday that former U.N. nuclear chief Mohamed ElBaradei was welcome to run for the presidency if he wants, but tartly dismissed any suggestion that he was a national hero.
Mubarak, who has ruled for almost three decades, made the comments on a visit to Germany, during which he will undergo medical tests, the official Egyptian news agency MENA reported.
ElBaradei, one of Egypt's best-known international figures after leading the International Atomic Energy Agency, arrived home last month to an exuberant reception from his supporters who want him to run for president in 2011.
"If he wants to join any political party as a citizen, he can do so. We do not have any restrictions on this. If he wants to run as an independent, he is also welcome," Mubarak told a news conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin.
Analysts say election rules make it almost impossible for any candidate to stage a realistic challenge against the one nominated by Mubarak's ruling National Democratic Party (NDP).
ElBaradei leads a coalition of opposition parties and other activists set up last week to press for political reform. He has garnered tens of thousands of supporters on Facebook and other sites backing him.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/05/2010 00:00 ||
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The promise was moderate, to be sure. In the 1960s, Kim Il-sung, the founding father of the country and also father of the current dictator, promised that eventually all Koreans would eat rice (not corn or barley) and meat soup, live in houses with tiled roofs (not thatched), and wear silk clothes.
Every North Korean knows that even this moderate paradise has failed to materialize. However, the fact has never been admitted openly. In the past, economic difficulties and hardships, if mentioned at all, were always explained as they should be explained in a solid dictatorship, that is, by references to scheming enemies, above all US imperialists.
[Iran Press TV Latest] At least 63 worshippers have been crushed to death and scores of others injured in a stampede at the collapsed gate of a Hindu temple in northern India.
According to Indian officials, the deadly incident took place on Thursday in Kunda, a small town 180 kilometers south-east of Lucknow, the capital of Uttar Pradesh State. Sources said that 5000 people had gathered at the temple for a community lunch.
More than 120 others were injured when a gate under construction collapsed creating panic among thousands of people. Most victims of the incident were women and children who had gathered to collect free gifts at the Ram Janki temple.
The death toll is expected to climb as some of the injured during the incident were reported to be in critical condition.
Stampedes are commonplace at religious events in India as large numbers of worshippers pack into confined spaces.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/05/2010 00:00 ||
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#4
The Chinese mob is a thing to behold once it gets nice and wound up. During the Boxer Rebellion, it hacked to pieces (as in dismembered) 40,000 Chinese Christians and assorted foreign clergy. During the Cultural Revolution, an estimated 1m people were killed via torture and/or starvation. Chinese internet mobs are a milk-and-water version of the offline mobs of the past, and represent progress of a kind.
#6
ION NEWS KERALA/WORLD NEWS > VARIOUS > [paraph] UNION HOME SECRETARY GK PILLAI: MAOISTS PLANNING TO OVERTHROW INDIAN STATE BY 2050, as helped by EX-ARMY/MIL MEN.
* NEWS KERALA> INDIA'S GROUND WATER RESOURCE DEPLETION ALARMING {60% in critical instability by Year 2030 = next 20 Years].
versus
PAKISTANI DEFENCE FORUM > 44 RIVERS IN NORTHERN REGION DYING OUT [Farrakka Barrage built by India > PADMA River].
The opening riff of Takin' Care of Business' thumps rhythmically from an iPod as a room full of middle-aged military veterans tap in time on drums. This is the sound of brain rehab.
Studies show that music can promote new neural connections, which Colorado State University neuroscientist Michael Thaut theorized could help overcome common symptoms of traumatic brain injury (TBI), such as short-term memory loss and impaired decision-making skills. Thaut and his colleagues enrolled 31 veterans suffering from TBI in a neurologic music therapy' study where each drummer matches rhythms and tempos set by a bandleader. Last summer, they published results that show that after several 30-minute sessions, the group performed better on standard decision-making tests.
One beneficiary of the treatment is retired U.S. Air Force senior master sergeant Jim Dowding. After two stress-related strokesa common non-combat cause of TBIhe didn't dare take a wrench to his beloved 1979 Lincoln. I couldn't work on anything with more than two pieces,' Dowding says. But since he began drumming, I work on my car all the time.'
Next Thaut and his team will compare the long-term effects of the therapy with today's computer-based therapies. He hopes to eventually offer it to the hundreds of troops returning from war with TBIs.
#3
The rhythmic movement is a form of brainwave entrainment. Same thing happens when music and dance are used by shamans and dervishes to enter a state of coherent brain activity in a certain frequency. Most people think that the brain - body link goes one way but we now have clinical evidence that each affects the other.
There's a lot of rebuilding required to repair major brain damage, but it's encouraging that it is happening.
For people without major brain damage, there are several decades of research that show that listening to certain rhythms and sound frequencies can induce more coherent brainwave activity at frequencies of choice, from the slowest frequencies associated with deep sleep through states conducive to creativity up to the super focused state that top athletes experience during peak performance. Some of the neurochemical pathways involved have been identified in detail.
#5
It should be noted that lotp's comment about 'frequency of choice' is after a determination of the frequency(s) that are determined to be where the brain is functioning badly. The research has shown that 'tuning' the frequency of a TBI patient's brain to a different frequency can have beneficial effect.
As a recent victim myself of 'minor' TBI as a result of a motor vehicle accident, I had already figured out that watching/listening to my favorite bands playing live was therapeutic. This article is very interesting to me. As well, I may be undergoing the 'frequency' treatment myself to resolve some very minor, yet still TBI-like persistent symtoms.
Advice: If you are involved in even a minor incident that has even the slightest possibility of trauma to the brain and you notice even a MINOR effect, insist on seeing a specialist, even a therapeutic psychoanalyist (psychiatrist). I've since met people that were involved in incidents that they now recognize resulted in post-concussive symptoms but, due to lack of diagnosis at the time, lacked treatment and may have put themselves at risk of secondary injury (which is MOST dangerous). This applies to people in sports as well (search NFL +concussion), especially children.
For those without brain damage, the CDs/MP3s that Kelly Howell has developed have a pretty good reputation and track record. Search on Brainsync and ignore the new agey trappings ...
#7
There are all sorts of potentially useful variants to this, that are real "brain teasers", some used by musicians, some not.
For example, "pat your head and rub your belly".
Writing and drawing with your left hand if you are right handed. Writing in longhand, but tilting your words to the left.
Orchestra conductors train with a simple technique of hand tapping. For example, their right and left hands do a "one-two" beat, left and right, on a table in front of them, so they are moving mirror image. Then their left hand changes to a "one-two-three" beat at the same tempo and time. This is not easy.
Learning to use chopsticks by using them to move marbles from one box to another.
Ben Franklin's memory game. A tray full of small, different objects covered by a thin, opaque cloth. Remove the cloth for 10 seconds, while looking at the objects, then cover the tray again. Then write down as many of the objects as you can remember.
They should also get a bunch of Simon electronic memory games.
[Straits Times] INDONESIAN prosecutors charged six people on Thursday under the country's anti-pornography law for allegedly putting on a nude dance show at a bar in the early hours of New Year's Day.
The four female dancers, the show promoter and bar manager face up to five years in jail if convicted, prosecutor Dodi Junaidi told AFP.
'They're charged under the anti-pornography law on suspicion of displaying a nude dance,' he added, without giving details.
The six suspects appeared at a closed-door trial held at the Bandung district court south of Jakarta.
The controversial anti-pornography law, which came into effect in October 2008, carries a maximum jail sentence of 15 years.
The law criminalises all works and 'bodily movements' deemed obscene and capable of violating public morality.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/05/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
Could this be a sample of the "Indonesian Nude Dance Show" ?
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
