Uncommon Sense was a Common Vice

Those with knowledge of the United States Marine Corps will recognize the irony of this title. I wish its words were not true, but as I write this, I believe they are.

Currently, there is an effort to cull a significant number of career Special Agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation. This is an unthinkable action that will gravely undermine the security of the nation well beyond what many of our citizens are aware. For those seeking to raise their awareness, I offer this vignette, free of political bias or moral judgment. It is not about any one person, but an amalgamation of multiple FBI Special Agents.

I am the coach of your child’s soccer team. I sit next to you on occasion in religious devotion. I am a member of the PTA. With friends, you celebrated my birthday. I collected your mail and took out your trash while you were away from home. I played a round of golf with you. I am a veteran. I am the average neighbor in your community. This is who you see and know. However, there is a part of my life that is a mystery to you, and prompts a natural curiosity about my profession.

This is the quiet side of me that you do not know: I orchestrated a clandestine operation to secure the release of an allied soldier held captive by the Taliban. I prevented an ISIS terrorist from boarding a commercial aircraft. I spent 3 months listening to phone intercepts in real time to gather evidence needed to dismantle a violent drug gang. I recruited a source to provide critical intelligence on Russian military activities in Africa. I rescued a citizen being tortured to near death by members of an Outlaw Motorcycle Gang. I interceded and stopped a juvenile planning to conduct a school shooting. I spent multiple years monitoring the activities of deep cover foreign intelligence officers, leading to their arrest and deportation. I endured extensive hardship to infiltrate a global child trafficking organization. I have been shot in the line of duty.

Something else about me, I was assigned to investigate a potential crime. Like all previous cases I have investigated, this one met every legal standard of predication and procedure. Without bias, I upheld my oath to this country and the Constitution and collected the facts. I collected the facts in a manner to neither prove innocence nor guilt, but to arrive at resolution.

I am now sitting in my home, listening to my children play and laugh in the backyard, oblivious to the prospect that their father may be fired in a few days. Fired for conducting a legally authorized investigation. Fired for doing the job that he was hired to do. I have to wonder, when I am gone, who will do the quiet work that is behind the facade of your average neighbor? -

Alt National Park Service Post

stupid - just stupid

 Oh my god! The horror and scaring that folks were exposed to before the these words were slated for removal. we have the orange tird to thank for this.

This is the list of 27 banned words distributed to NSA staff:
Anti-Racism
Racism
Allyship
Bias
DEI
Diversity
Diverse
Confirmation Bias
Equity
Equitableness
Feminism
Gender
Gender Identity
Inclusion
Inclusive
All-Inclusive
Inclusivity
Injustice
Intersectionality
Prejudice
Privilege
Racial Identity
Sexuality
Stereotypes
Pronouns
Transgender
Equality

https://tinyurl.com/yu5bnnbk

Don't Judge

 Not a big follower of the KC Chiefs but thought this was good post by their coach Andy Reid. That said, I stole this from the Daily Stoic email.

Don't Judge

Reid to explain why that was what he chose to put on his wall. As Reid explained, what those two words mean to him was,

“Don’t put people in a box. You never know once you open the box for ’em what’s going to pop out. So give them a chance. Give them a chance to dream a little bit…I tell our coaches to this day, ‘You never know what a player is going to surprise you to be able to do.’ … Don’t box people in. We have a tendency to do that as humans—we kind of put people in these boxes…That’s the approach I’ve tried to take throughout—we’re not afraid to open the package.”

Take Travis Kelce (a Daily Stoic reader, as it happens). Early in his career, Kelce had a reputation for being brash and undisciplined, and he’d had some behavioral issues in college. Reid could have judged him as a problem player, written him off as unfit for the structured teams he runs. Instead, he saw potential and possibility, giving Kelce the space to be creative while holding him accountable to certain “non-negotiables” (like being thirty minutes early to every meeting). The result? Kelce thrived, developing one of the best tight ends in NFL history, a future Hall of Famer who has set and broken multiple records…and won, a lot.

Reid’s “don’t judge” philosophy isn’t limited to sports. It’s a powerful mantra for life. As Marcus Aurelius writes in Meditations, “You always own the option of having no opinion.” Other people and their choices, behaviors, preferences, and dreams—“These things are not asking to be judged by you,” Marcus writes. The world doesn’t need more critics, it needs more coaches—people who see potential where others see problems, who open boxes instead of sealing them shut, and who give those ready to work the chance to dream bigger than before.