Angry

I don't know how many of you have seen this particular news piece floating around, but it is one that makes me particularly angry.

The original story (found here) from a few days ago explains the situation. A former Marine decided to protest the Berghdal/Taliban exchange outside of Parris Island.... you know, because of all the recruits coming in and out of the gates there. Seriously, protest all you want, but at least put some thought into your location. Something pertaining to politics perhaps, or an Army base? Regardless, he decided to wear his campaign cover, the hats all drill instructors in the Marine Corps wear, as a sign of solidarity to "all the active duty military that can't protest" about this.

Sgt Major Archie heard about this and on the phone asked the former Drill Instructor not to wear his campaign cover to the protest. The man ignored him and Sgt Major Archie saw him wearing the cover the next day. He pulled over, the two men got into a shouting match, and the Sgt Major knocked the cover off the guy's head when he got too close. He then grabbed the cover and drove on back to base.

Now the former Drill Instructor (who I do not even want to give the pleasure of naming, that's my opinion of him) is pressing third degree assault and battery charges. Sgt Major Archie turned himself in to the police immediately after the event and was bailed out that evening.

Now I just read that Sgt Major Archie is voluntarily stepping down.

And I am so angry.

Do you have the right to protest? Absolutely. Do you have the right to wear pieces of a military uniform, active duty or not, to said protest? NO. You do not. Sgt Major Archie acted like I believe almost any military member would. You cannot wear your dress blues to the grocery store once you get out. Military functions, parades, weddings, funerals, ceremonies... yes. Protests??? HELL NO. You know better former Drill Instructor. You keep yelling in the video that you're no longer a Marine and the Sgt Major has no authority over you and then turn around to the news crew and say you wore the cover in solidarity with those who are active duty?? You cannot even keep your own viewpoint straight!

Not only that, but this is on a semi personal level. Sgt Major Archie was the Sgt Major in my husband's unit up until earlier this year. When my husband was in Afghanistan the Sgt Major got orders back to Parris Island, his dream job, and sadly left. I saw him at many functions prior to the deployment and heard how he spoke to the Marines, and it was inspiring. The man was motivated, cared about his job and his Marines, and was a prime example of what a Sgt Major should be. His voice was stereotypically Drill Instructor, deep and gravelly and just awesome. I nearly giggled the first time I heard him shouting motivationally across a unit softball game. He was an exceptional leader and my husband constantly said how much all the Marines loved working under him.

And now that man is no longer an active duty Marine after doing what (I personally believe) is right. It is a damn shame. I am saddened to see he resigned and I know I am not alone in that.

To that former Drill Instructor who caused most of this mess; you're a disgrace and an idiot. I hope karma is swift with you.

Period.

Europe - Palermo, Sicily

Day 11 - Palermo Sicily, Italy

 

It was a semi dreary day once we reached Palermo. It was neat being back on Italian soil again but for Sicily we didn't really have a game plan. We figured we'd just walk around and hope for the best. The main thing for us was just to eat more food if possible so we were ok with whatever else came our way! Our friends Kristii and Debbie joined us, we all met up for the buffet breakfast, before venturing off the ship.

 

We got off the boat and found a white train/bus thing that for a few Euros would drive you all around Palermo in about an hour. It seemed like a good idea to us, let's face it, we walked a lot at this point, so we forked over the cash and settled into the cab. Most of the places we saw were just pretty government buildings and, of course, the cathedral.

Catherdral in Palermo

In front of the cathedral

We only had about fifteen minutes before the bus/train thing left us so we walked around pretty quickly. Luckily this cathedral was free admission so we were able to see the inside too.

After leaving the cathedral we drove by a lot more things... like I said earlier Sicily didn't really have a lot that we were dying to see, but being on that tour gave us a really nice quick look at all of Palermo.

Antiques Market

Park

Gorgeous theatre

When we were reaching the end of the tour we saw a massive protest going on outside of one of the government buildings. Apparently people in Sicily really want to secede from Italy. They are not Italians, they are Sicilians. From what we heard people talking about later we think that is what this protest was about. It seemed mostly peaceful, just some shouting every now and then, but we made sure to steer clear of that side of town while we were there.

Once we passed the protest that was basically the end of our tour so we decided, naturally, to just walk around some more. And find food. We clearly have our priorities! We just stuck with the main street and wandered from there.

Off in the distance the view was gorgeous too

And who could forget Il Padrino? The Godfather was everywhere! I was tempted to buy a tshirt but I knew I'd never really wear it, so a picture of it would suffice.

Bread/Cookie Nativity

We did see "Luigi". Apparently Luigi is Palermo staple, we saw him on a few postcards and the like in a few shops as we walked around!

We passed this adorable cafe, to be honest I just wanted to eat there because of the Christmas lights, so we decided to stop for a quick bite.

I ended up ordering a Nutella Brioche (YUM) and an orange fanta (it just tastes better in Europe). Debbie got a rich, delicious hot chocolate and Ryan got rice balls (which were AMAZEBALLS... sorry). I cannot remember what Kristii got but we all enjoyed our food.

Then we wandered some more. I love the balconies of Europe. Honestly, going through my camera I cannot tell you how many pictures I have centered around balconies. It is as bad as the wedding dress stores.

Venetian Lion

Eventually we got hungry again and found a large restaurant thing close to the port. Everything looked delicious! I got a cannoli and Ryan had more gelato... then we realized the place had free wifi so we all parked and stayed for awhile! We eventually ordered some lasagna and I got to have my first Italian beer as I facetimed by best friend back in the states. No one in my family has an iPhone so they all got an email saying we were still alive along with some pictures.

Ryan shared some of his gelato with me... we purposely made a mess!

Yummy Italian beer

After hanging out at that restaurant we made our way back to the ship. I did buy myself a cannoli magnet on the way! It is proudly displayed on our fridge. Our cabin steward made us a penguin towel creature that night for when we got back and it was pretty adorable.

We went to the theatre that night to see the "Elements" show, which basically combined all the previous shows from the last few nights. The magician, the acrobats, the dancers... everyone. It was actually pretty fantastic. We then ended the night dancing in the Spinnaker lounge. It is amazing, even on vacation we become such creatures of habit!

Next stop - Naples and Pompeii Italy! Our last stop!




You can follow along with all of the entries from our trip here!

Going Dark

I tend to shy away from politics or hot button topics on this blog, but occassionally one will peak my interest to the point I cannot resist writing a little something. Mainly, I want to know what other people think. I can sit here and write my opinions day and night (well, duh, it is my blog) but it doesn't make for that interesting of reading material. Not that I am boring or anything (right?) but I just tend to steer clear of such things.

But today I had to take notice of certain major websites going dark to protest SOPA and PIPA. SOPA, Stop Online Piracy Act, is in the House of Representatives while PIPA, Protect IP Act, is in the Senate. What are they? In a nutshell it is something pushed by big media Hollywood types to prevent piracy. Tons of people download illegal movies, music and television shows that put the studio executives (and the cast and crew) out of profit. It makes sense that they would want it to stop (therefore breaking the hearts of bored college students everywhere). Some of the supporters of the legislation include the Motion Picture Association of America and the US Chamber of Commerce. They say online piracy hurts American companies and destroys jobs. The MPAA estimates the U.S. loses more than 300,000 jobs, $16 billion in earnings and $58 billion in economic output each year because of pirated movies, music, software and video games, according to The Chicago Tribune .

But there is a problem. How far is too far?

The article I mentioned above put it in some easy to understand terms, "For example, Google could be forced to drop an offending site from its search engine results. Or the government could go to court to stop a U.S. company that facilitates online payments to a suspected infringing site. Internet companies say they have neither the time nor the resources to monitor every link on a website or post by a user."

Do you agree? Say you can have a site like the Homefront United Network. Maybe someone there posts a video they found that they love the song in the background or the message in the video. The HUN realistically could get shut down due to user posted content. See where the problem can lie? A spam attack of such material on any website could shut down a user based forum in a heartbeat. Or say you use Site A, maybe a German based craft company. Well Site A has random ads using Site B, a piracy encouraged site. Google and the US internet could block Site A just for mentioning Site B even though they have nothing to do with one another. You could argue that Site A knows what Site B does, but think of Google Ads. Do you get to choose what pops up on your blog all the time? You may get to select categories and interests that relate to your blog, so Site A says they like music which Site B happens to have.... illegally.

Some of the sites protesting today include...

Wikipedia (completely shut down the English version for 24 hours)



Google (still operational but protesting)



and Craigslist (shut down 24 hours)




Others apparently are too. So, when does big brother come in? How long is it before only 'government approved' sites could be linked through Google or Wikipedia? What if your own blog was monitored? I'm just curious to know what you all think. Do you think it would ever get that far? Is this just the first step in that direction? I am curious to hear your thoughts!