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Last updated on July 24th, 2017 at 08:15 am
Radio genius Phil Hendrie, a liberal who declines to align with idiots, addresses the infantilisation of US troops:
To call the great professional men and women who serve in our armed forces “kids” is a semantical tactic employed by my Poseur Leftist friends. They know that by tossing this little hand grenade into the mix any hope one has for a debate on fact, as opposed to hysterical rumor, flies right out the window. Who can not, at a moment like that, bow their head, and ponder ever so deeply, the meaning of children dying in a war.
Ladies and Gentlemen, calling these great people, part of the best trained and best equipped military in the history of the world, “kids” is an obscene insult.
And it’s intended as one.
Enjoy the whole thing.
When Michael Moore was on Bill O’Reilly’s show, he completely flustered O’Reilly by repeatedly saying, “Would you send your kid to Iraq?” Since O’Reilly is accustomed to blustering pompously rather than thinking on his feet, he didn’t give Moore the obvious reply, which was, “That’s a nonsensical question, because the Army doesn’t take kids. And once my ‘kid’ turns 18 and can join the Army, I can’t ‘send’ him – he can only join, and my wishes either way have no bearing on that.”
bennetbf: Everybody in the service is a “kid” until they either rise to non-com, get a commission or leave.
I’m sure they’re frequently “maggots”, too. But that’s moot—their fellow servicemen have the moral standing, (and the rank!), to call them “kids”.
Lefty talking heads don’t, and the issue of their oh-so nuanced intentions in doing so remains.
Posted by zeppenwolf on 2005 08 06 at 12:28 PM • permalink
Let’s not forget Bud Dickman!
I wonder if the Western Estates Homeowners Association has issued a statement…
Posted by Spiny Norman on 2005 08 06 at 12:35 PM • permalink
I’ve only heard short clips of Hendrie’s show, but his brand of ventriloquism is amazing. Has he fallen victim to the Ali G Curse? You know, where everybody is in on the joke now?
Posted by Jim Treacher on 2005 08 06 at 12:38 PM • permalink
To some extent, maybe, but he still has listeners calling in thinking his outrageous characters are real.
Posted by Spiny Norman on 2005 08 06 at 12:49 PM • permalink
I didn’t know liberals like that still existed.
Posted by Aging Gamer on 2005 08 06 at 01:20 PM • permalink
Has he fallen victim to the Ali G Curse? You know, where everybody is in on the joke now?
Nah. His callers are disproportionately housewives. Irony is not their strong suit. The more outrageous the “guest” (especially when he/she is talking about children in some way), the more outraged and fished-in the caller.
Guys get fished in with the sports-related ones, but those usually aren’t as funny because he has to be more subtle (lots of calls to the “high school football coach” who was slipping his kids steroids in their drinks because he needed a winning season and they had been “dogging it.” That one was a yawn-fest.)
DUM-DUM-DUM DA-DA-DUM DA-DA-DUM…
Oh, what now!
“Dogging” it? Are you nuts? Are you trying to get the FCC on our butts?
Whattaya talking about? I was just quoting the guest who said the kids were dogging it at football.
Oh, yeah, right. You’re saying “doooooggging it”, oooo, like doggiestyle or beastiality or something.
Get outta here!
Darth Hall out!
I don’t understand what the fuss is about. Calling soldiers “boys” or “kids” is such an old custom that it goes back to the Romans. Look in any dictionary:
in·fan·try
n. pl. in·fan·tries1. The branch of an army made up of units trained to fight on foot.
[French infanterie, from Old French, from Old Italian infanteria, from infante, youth, foot soldier, from Latin nfns, nfant-, infant. See infant.]
The irony is that the troops in the modern volunteer army are, on average, older than the troops we sent to Viet Nam.
Posted by richard mcenroe on 2005 08 06 at 02:31 PM • permalink
Ernie, they use the term “kids” literally, as in “children” going to war. These aren’t children, they’re adults, trained soldiers going to war. These fine people don’t deserve scorn from such fools.
Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 2005 08 06 at 04:13 PM • permalink
It will be interesting to hear what a gay man and a gay journalist has to say about this. It is a serious matter, but a gay man and a gay journalist can cut to the heart of the matter.
Posted by Lou Minatti on 2005 08 06 at 09:48 PM • permalink
BTW, if you haven’t heard Phil Hendrie before you really should. You can pick his radio stream here from 7:00-10:00 PM US Eastern Time:
http://www.970wfla.com/philhendrie.html
(click Listen Live)
This is the funniest show on the radio, bar none.
Posted by Lou Minatti on 2005 08 06 at 09:57 PM • permalink
- And speaking of children, Code Pink only needs 997,951 signatures on their “One Million Reasons to End the War in Iraq”petition that will be “delivered in person to the White House on September 26th.”
Please help them out. Remember, we’re givers, not takers.
One million reasons . . . what a riot.
Reason number 2049 came from Muqtada Al Sadr.
Reason 2054 from Alec Baldwin.
And reason 2061 from the Great Man Himself, Osama Bin Laden (well . . . that was actually me).
Posted by Young and Free on 2005 08 07 at 03:19 AM • permalink
#20, great stuff! Inspired by your example, reason 2062 was from Saddam Hussein because he “only put 400,000 people in mass graves and hates leaving a job unfinished”.
Posted by Art Vandelay on 2005 08 07 at 03:56 AM • permalink
I’ve just had the pleasure of meeting two of these ‘kids’. They are on leave for a couple of days here in Brunei and impressed me as polite, sensitive and articulate young men. What better ambassadors could the US have than these ‘kids’? Now if only I was 20 years younger…..
Posted by Bruneidaze on 2005 08 07 at 06:07 AM • permalink
Yikes, I should have known better than to start reading the comments on that million reasons thing. The definite favorite on the current first page has to be one Patricia Berg:
Bring our soldiers home and help them tell their stories so that people cannot remain in denial about the senselessness of violence. … Weaponry is not a deterrent. The only deterrent is showing love by example.
Yeah, I’m sure that’s exactly what returning troops are going to talk about, the “senselessness of violence”. As for the second part, I can only wonder what kind of mental illness will make a person actually believe that nonsense.
And here I thought Matthew Parris’ “don’t cook dinner for the terrorist muppets and they’ll eventually stop with the suicide bombing temper tantrums” stuff was hard to top…
- o/t Today’s insiders abc.
You know the times they are a changin’ when Virginia Megafolly starts modifying her excessively stupid whining and tilting like a dashboard doll.She is attempting to backtrack and camourflage her deliberate sabotaging of the government,our immigration system etc.on the abc payroll.Mind you when someone is juxtaposed cheek by jowl with David Marr,they hafta look better.
Words of wisdom from the hissy fitter-“mind you, you have to distinguish between dangerous (persons) and disgusting.If a man(terrorist type) is merely disgusting-what do we do?”
Well David we consider disgusting is the least of YOUR failings and we know what we would LIKE to do.Sigh-just wishin and hopin and thinkin and prayin,plannin and dreamin……….
- OT.
Australia just lost the second Ashes test at edgebaston by 2 runs.
2. bloody. runs.
We started the day needing 107 runs with 2 wickets in hand and all our recognised batsmen out. Warney, Brett Lee and Kasper must have all batted beyond their standing.
Second closest test match in history behind the one we lost to the Windies by 1 run in 92 (I think, not including the 2 ties anyway)
Brilliant match.
We’ve just insulted the silly bastards at Million Reasons too but because the message is secondary to the proforma petition, it’s quite likely that they will use the numbers we have added as part of their petition.
It was a hoot to see that every fourth comment was pouring derision on them but these people are so dishonest they are likely to use our entries against us. It would be good to take a count the day before the petition clsoes and then follow up on the number of signatories they claim. It would be a my guess that a minimum 25% of signatories will be against the petition.
—Nick (aka John Lennon)
Posted by The Thin Man Returns on 2005 08 07 at 07:56 AM • permalink
- On the subject of “kids”- promo for abc programme next week;
“THE KIDS OUR SOLDIERS LEFT BEHIND”
who knows?Nam,Korea,the Falklands(just kidding),ww1 or 2,you name it.
While kids inadvertantly conceived are a tragic story,be sure that it will only be the kids fathered by Western troops who are of interest.
Well,what goes around comes around and those young men 40 years ago are now paying taxes,the salaries of public broadcasters who never were conscripted because they deferred, being smart enough to go to Uni.
They are shelling out dollars to support the children of immigrant and asylum seeker families(at least to begin with) and for multiculturalism policies that they never wanted in the first place.They have contributed to one of the best public health systems in the world,many would be supporting aid donations such as the Tsunami appeal.They will be supporting huge numbers of welfare recipients,many of whom deserve it and many who don’t want to work,ever.Like most aussies they support multiracialism but respect our law and our traditions.
Benon Sevan’s got some nerve signing the petition!
Posted by Bruce Rheinstein on 2005 08 07 at 07:18 PM • permalink
Australia sent many ‘kids’ to both World Wars and to Vietnam, both volunteers and conscripts. In the case of Vietnam, we sent twenty year olds with 12 weeks of recruit training and two weeks of jungle combat training. If not in age, then in maturity and quantity of training and experience, they were kids. War matures you in a hurry though. Kids became fully-fledged grunts after a couple of patrols. Almost without fail, they fought courageously. Many came back disillusioned but anyone calling them ‘kids’ to their face might have received a very un-kidlike response.
The Iraq campaign is staffed by career service people, not by conscripts and not by callow youths volunteering in a fit a patriotism (or whatever). I agree with Phil Hendrie… in the context he cites, the term “kids” is an insult.
‘I want to end the war ‘cause of plastic turkeys and cheap 63 dollar a barrel oil.’
The best way to end it all is to kill 50,000 or so more Islamofascist insurgents (by Christmas) for the crusading zionist footsoldiers of Chimpy McBushitler’s capitalist illuminati cabal (TM).
Tinfoil hats for all
Kywong, you forgot to add in the 12 (or more) weeks of Corps training to the Recruit and JTC training of the Vietnam bound soldiers.
Most soldiers, including conscripts, had more than 8 months training before deploying to Vietnam.
A very large percentage of regulars had years of training, and jungle service in Malaya and Borneo.
Nearly all the NCO’s were long serving soldiers.
The impression that you create of half trained youths is simply wrong.Posted by Pedro the Ignorant on 2005 08 09 at 10:49 AM • permalink
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As a former member of the U.S. military, I gotta tell you he’s barking up the wrong tree here. Everybody in the service is a “kid” until they either rise to non-com, get a commission or leave.
i.e.:
“Get some kids up here to clean this mess up.”
The sins of the Left are far too numerous to simply hang our hats on this little noun.
B