Credo
"Sign on, young man, and sail with me. The stature of our homeland is no more than the measure of ourselves. Our job is to keep her free. Our will is to keep the torch of freedom burning for all. To this solemn purpose we call on the young, the brave, the strong, and the free. Heed my call, Come to the sea. Come Sail with me." -- John Paul Jones
"Pardon him, Theodotus; he is a barbarian, and thinks that the customs of his tribe and island are the laws of nature" --George Bernard Shaw, "Caesar and Cleopatra"
"And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music."--Friedrich Nietzsche
"A kind Providence has placed in our breasts a hatred of the unjust and cruel, in order that we may preserve ourselves from cruelty and injustice. They who bear cruelty, are accomplices in it. The pretended gentleness which excludes that charitable rancour, produces an indifference which is half an approbation. They never will love where they ought to love, who do not hate where they ought to hate."--Edmund Burke
“You say that it is your custom to burn widows. Very well. We also have a custom: when men burn a woman alive, we tie a rope around their necks and we hang them. Build your funeral pyre; beside it, my carpenters will build a gallows. You may follow your custom. And then we will follow ours.”--General Sir Charles Napier
"Μολὼν λαβέ" -- Leonidas
"Blogito Ergo Sum" -- Neptunus Lex
Love the stories Lex.
“On raising children” – God, don’t you wish they came with a manual! I was at least pleased to note that you and I believe in many of the same beliefs….but like you said, you just never know at the time, and maybe even for a long time afterwards, whether you did the right thing. Or even if there really was a “right thing”. So I geuss we just keep trying.
I think one of the dumbest things I’ve ever seen parents do is talk baby talk to their children. I beat on my daughter something fierce when she started that with the grandson, telling her that she is teaching him the wrong damn language. I always talked to him like he could understand me, and wouldn’t you know it, he could
Abnormally bright young boy, who has not decided what he wishes to be, but he says he is going to go to a school like the Citadel, or VMI. As grandparents, we’re hoping for the much-closer Citadel
Byron:
I’d ratify that choice — besides, the libs are better in genteel Charleston than hicksville Lexington
- SJS
SJS, for a moment, I was confused by the “libs”…until I realized you meant “Libations”
Somehow, I doubt my grandson will find this is true, as he is a very disciplined young man for all of his 11 years of age, who outright scares me at times with both his maturity and intelligence. Of course, there is also all those fine Charleston women for him to chose amongst, and I’m sure he’ll find himself meandering Meeting Street for targets of opportunity 
“libs” = shorthand for liberty, including the eyeball variety
-SJS
Ah, “libs”. I’m certain the young man will spend all of his “libs” enjoying his time with his mother and father, the ugly squid himself…not
Seriously, after some of the things that CDR Salamander has had to say about the Academy, I’m urging him to select the Citadel instead. If by chance the Academy finds an even keel by then, we’ll re-think that position, as the Academy was his first choice. That would be a good thing too, since his mother and grandmother are Marylanders by birth, though much further to the west where steep inclines are the rule.
I also hope that he develops an interest in team sports soon, too, since he is 5’4″ in height and 140pds, a strapping young linebacker if I ever saw one, and a wonderful addition to the Academy backfield.
Well, there’s a rich and continuing tradition in the Navy for bashing the Academy as somehow being not what it was twenty-odd years or so ago, or not what it ought to be in the here and now. That tradition has analogues in the way people think about all kinds of ideas and institutions. Consider America, for example, our island home.
I’d go there again, if I could still get in, even given the school’s acknoweleged failures to measure up against perfection. It wasn’t always fun, but it was always worth it.
Believe me, CAPT, I’d much rather see my grandson go to Annapolis. BUT…I perceive a nasty trend towards fluff over substance, and I’d rather Zach go to a school where “Duty, Honor, Country” is at the top of the list right along with “Leadership”. At this point, I don’t believe the Naval Academy holds these principles as primus over political correctness.