Military

An Open Letter to
The Air Force Office of Scientific Research
Department of the Air Force
Arlington, VA

C/O: Public Affairs Officer William J. Sharp

Mr. Sharp:

It has recently come to my attention that the Department of the Air Force / AFOSR intends to spend approximately $450,000 in a research effort to develop credible sources of intelligence through a combination of online research and software development using so called on-line "web" logs posted at various uniform resource locators (URL's) on the "internet" - a world wide network of interconnected computers that can be traced back to the combined development efforts of the Defense Advanced Reseach Projects Agency (DARPA) and former United States Senator and later Vice President of the United States, Albert Gore, Jr. of Tennessee.

Please be advised that these web "logs" are more commonly known among their regular users as "blogs".

As someone with some experience in the use of "blogs" and in light of this proposed expenditure by USAF/AFOSR, I feel it is my duty as an American citizen to my fellow taxpayers and to the defense establishment to inform you of the existence of "Brainshrub.com".

For a Brainshrub.com offers daily featured articles of current interest to the American citizen in general as well as to the defense establishment more particularly.

Recent topics of likely interest to AFOSR and the Air Force have included general discussions of the war in Iraq with related historical analyses, the use of gunship aircraft in Iraq, domestic operation of unmanned aerial vehicles for intelligence gathering tasks, the consequences of various "interrogation" techniques being practiced in intelligence gathering operations, various aspects of domestic electronic intelligence gathering "efforts" by the National Security Agency and other highly relevant topics.

Brainshrub.com also already offers link scans of relevant topics from various blogs and primary news sources around the web thus eliminating the need to develop automation software to conduct this task "in house" at AFOSR as described in your press release.

By using Brainshrub.com as a credible souce for internet inteligence, the AFOSR can save $450,000  while simultaneously avoiding an unnecessary three year delay and the technical problems that inevitably result from any high risk technical venture such as the one being proposed.

To reiterate my initial point, brainshrub.com is free to the taxpayer and immediately available for AFOSR's use in the "war on terror".

Best regards in your endeavor,

Respectfully,

Douglas J. De Clue
Brainshrub Guest Blogger
Orlando, FL

No counterpoint needed, because Brainshrub.com stands ready to fight the War On Terror shoulder-to-shoulder with the USAF. (Editors note: If however, the Air Force still needs to spend the money, I will be happy to help them.)

Tags: Blogs - Blogging - Air Force - Military spending - Brainshrub

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There is a snipe sign in Asheville, NC on the corner of Shelburne and Brevard roads. As far as I can tell, it is not on the property of the nearby National Guard station.

I confirmed with City Hall that non-city snipe signs are illegal on city property, (Asheville Ordinance # 3342) but that's not what this blog post is about.

This is about the "Free Job Training" advertised on the above sign - The National Guard does not offer any. Here is the telephone conversation I had with the recruiter to confirm this:

 

TRANSCRIPT

National Guard Representative: North Carolina National Guard, this is Sargent (NAME DELETED). How can I help you?

Me: I saw a sign on Shelburne road that says "free job training" and I'd like to know how to get that.

NGR: Yes sir. What we do is provide training in very technical jobs. Basically what you do is join the National Guard, and, whenever you do a job with the National Guard you are federally recognized in that job field so you can carry that on into the civilian life. Some of them will make a very high dollar (amount).

Me: But in order to get the job training I'd have to actually sign on with the National Guard.

NGR: Yes sir.

Me: So is it really free?

NGR: Yes sir, well, it's actually paid. We pay you to go. As you are doing that training, you are paid by the federal government.

Me: But can I just get the training I need for free?

NGR: Not without joining the National Guard sir.

Me: Okay, well thank you very much.

NGR: You're welcome.

 

I'm not naive. I understood the sign's unwritten implication that one would have to enlist to take advantage of the training.

But I called the National Guard and posted the transcript to make a point: Any thing that requires you to give up your time, body and freedom for the next few years is not free.

In fact, the following members of the North Carolina National Guard paid for the so-called "free job training" with their lives.*:

Serving is the military is honorable. Misleading people in order to motivate them to join is not.

Read counterpoint here.

Tags: recruitment - military - National Guard - Casualties - misleading advertising - snipe sign - Asheville - North Carolina

* This list of NC guardsmen who have died of hostile file in Iraq was compiled from the Icasualties.org website on 05/26/2006. I deeply apologize if I have missed anyone that should be on this list. Please use the "contact" form at the top of this page if anyone was left out.

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