Anthony Swofford: I Was a Marine. I Don’t Want a Gun in My Classroom.

| February 25, 2018

Yesterday, I wrote a bit about veterans rushing to the microphones of the media to get their few minutes of fame, or notoriety, by embracing the current fear-mongering about Armalite-style rifles designed by Eugene Stoner more than 50 years ago. Today’s example is Anthony Swofford, an assistant professor of English and creative writing at West Virginia University who writes in the pages of the New York Times.

His bio says that he was a Marine Corps scout/sniper in the Gulf War, but, I have my doubts, because after a few hundred words about how restricted access to ammo and the extensive firearms training in the Marine Corps, he writes this erroneous BS which is supposed to refute the premise that by having armed teachers, that alone will keep someone with ill-intent from entering a school to kill students;

People attack heavily armed institutions all too often, as with the mass shootings in 2009 at Fort Hood in Texas and in 2013 at the Washington Navy Yard. Assailants in such cases aren’t typically worried about losing their lives in the process. Usually, losing their lives is part of the plan.

Folks who are not on the range, firing their weapons, are disarmed – their weapons are locked up in an arms room and the ammo is stored in a secured ammo storage facility guarded by other armed personnel charged with keeping the ammunition locked up. Military personnel are forbidden to bring their own firearms to the base where they work, unless their firearms are locked up and under the control of the unit commander.

Swofford continues with more illiterate BS;

At the White House on Wednesday, President Trump suggested that if a football coach at the high school, Aaron Feis, had been armed, he would have saved even more lives than he did, perhaps even his own, because rather than simply shielding students from gunfire, he could have drawn his weapon, fired and killed the assailant — putting a tidy end to the rampage.

This is absurd. More likely, had Mr. Feis been armed, he would not have been able to draw his weapon (a side arm, presumably) quickly enough to stop the shooter, who with an AR-15 would have had the coach outgunned. Even if the coach had been able to draw his weapon — from where? his athletic shorts? — any shots he managed to fire would have risked being errant, possibly injuring or killing additional students. As some studies have shown, even police officers have missed their targets more than 50 percent of the time. In firing a weapon, Mr. Feis would have only added to the carnage and confusion.

I’m not sure who started this utter bullshit about how someone with a pistol is automatically “outgunned” by an adversary with a rifle, but that’s just wrong. The guy with a rifle might have more bullets, he might be able to engage targets at a longer range, but if the fellow with a hand gun has been trained better than the guy with a rifle, he has the upper hand in a short range gun fight. If Mr Feis had been properly trained, the only carnage and confusion he would have brought to bear is on the gun man.

Last month, the State Legislature in West Virginia, where my university is located, introduced the Campus Self-Defense Act. This would prohibit colleges and universities from designating their campuses as gun-free zones. If this act becomes law, I will resign my professorship. I will not work in an environment where professors and students pack heat.

Adios, MFer. I guess you left your stones on the clerk’s desk when you picked up your DD214. Enjoy your life as a problem rather than a solution.

Category: Dumbass Bullshit

348 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Pat

He’s the loon who wrote the piece of crap book Jarhead. Not surprised he turned into a libtard professor.

Cpl/Major Mike

I made it through about the first 15 minutes of Jarhead, fuck this clown.

desert

This pathetic puke was a Marine? I doubt that, if he was, he was probably an admin or supply cluck! imo

AZtoVA

So there IS such a thing as an ex-Marie….

HMCS(FMF) ret

I was in 2/7 a few years after the Gulf War, and there were Marines and Sailors that knew the pussy boy. Had a huge case of sandinhismanginia that they ever saw.

Pat

I read the book back before I knew better. My takeaway was ‘this isn’t how stuff gets done, none of this makes any sense’. Special snowflakes who are veterans are rare, so I guess when they exist the media and other libs fall over themselves to hear what they have to spew forth. And now he’s making a living speeding forth propaganda while being paid by WV taxpayers. Ugh

NavyEODguy

I think he stated it best, “I was a marine.”

I won’t even give him the honor of a capital M.

Fyrfighter

Shitbag!That is all

Nastyleg

Agreed

Ex-PH2

It seems to me that if the shooter at Parkland school had been hit just once with anything, including a fire extinguisher to his head or sprayed in his face, the distraction itself might have at least slowed him down.

If this Swofford person had even a clue in regard to how to distract someone, he’d know that. If you get a hit on someone who is shooting at you, doesn’t that slow him down, even for a moment?

Big flaws in swofford’s disingenuous, self-centered crapazoidal ‘look at me’ twadlle. I’d like to see his claim of service in anything verified, but that’s just me.

jeff monroe

you hot a hot mama ph2 tm2 and 11b

gitarcarver

I don’t think it requires anyone to “hit” anything. (But I get your point and it is well taken.)

Ever notice when you are sneaking around, every creak of the floor, ever imagined footstep you hear, every changing shadow becomes a threat to being exposed?

I cannot imagine a shooter not feeling the same way.

There is a difference when you have to worry about other real threats from armed innocent people and when you can walk around shooting those same innocents without a threat to your person.

As a murderer, you don’t know whether the next door you open is going to have someone there with a gun who has a bead on you. You are going to be much more cautious, which takes more time and ultimately saves lives.

LTC F

Here in Texas it’s been two years since concealed carry has been approved on campus’s. The carnage has been intense. There have been exactly zero..zip…zilch…nada…incidents involving concealed carriers on campus.

Unless you count two dipshits who took their pistols out of the holster in the crapper and forgot them in the stall. (Yes, this happened twice at UT Austin…it’s why I’m encouraging my kids to go to A&M.)

Thunderstixx

Sentencing your kids to a life of ridicule, abuse and the subject of bawdy jokes….
You should be ashamed of yourself…

Graybeard

What do you call an Aggie five years after graduation?

“Boss”

What do you call a Teasip five years after graduation?

“Sober”

Perry Gaskill

Aggies rock! In a sort of how many does it take to change a light bulb kind of way…

A Proud Infidel®™

Libs like Anthony Swofford are incapable of even changing a light bulb, snowflake moonbat like him just climb the ladder, grab the bulb and then get all pissy because the world doesn’t revolve around them to assist!

USMC Steve

Even in Austin, the leftist capital? Say it isn’t so.

Graybeard

“Its twue! Its twue!”

26Limabeans

“professor of English and creative writing”

That says it all right there.

rgr769

That is code for progtard. Bet a dollar to a doughnut he is a registered D-Rat and voted for the Hildabeast. I want to see his DD214. Not believing he ever humped a rifle and a rucksack.

USMC Steve

If his book is to be believed, he didn’t. Half the shit in that thing would get you beaten half to death by any self respecting Staff NCO. It should be on the fiction shelves.

borderbill (a NIMBY/BANANA)

Hey 26—-I were a English major (got an BA). I use my English almost every day; even hear neere the international boundary (the southern one).

OldManchu

He left off:

“tickles Bradley Mannings balls with his chin hair” from his resume.

Graybeard

My eldest son worked as an English professor, was Assistant Director of the Writing Center, and is an expert on the Iliad.

He will shoot anyone who threatens his family, is at least as conservative as his old man, and would take Anthony Swofford to the woodshed in any area in which Baby Anthony would care to compete.

Ex-PH2

Expert on the Iliad? In Greek or English or both? Can I talk to him?

Graybeard

He has several English translations he prefers. Unfortunately he was never able to study Classical Greek – although we did go through an Ecclesiastical Latin Masters-level class together for a couple of semesters.

He loves talking about the Iliad. For an entire semester! He had to quit “professoring” in order to feed most of my grandkids, so his schedule is kinda full. But I think Jonn can get you my email and I can try to connect y’all in the back-channels.

Graybeard

(Should add that today is a 12+ hour day for me, and I don’t know for sure when I’ll see the email or him.)

Ex-PH2

Okay, Graybeard, you can give him this question ahead of time.

Seven cities in Greece have claimed that Homer was their guy. There (obviously) can’t be seven Homers, but if the Iliad is the product of Homer of Athens, is it possible that he took the bardic stories from six other bards and put them into one long form?

If he hadn’t dictated it to a scribe to put it in writing, we might not have it today.

Ilium was attacked, sacked and burned at least nine times according to archaeological evidence. It might have been more, but the history of Ilium/Troy took place between 3000BC and 1900BC. Greek became a written language some time between 800BC and 750BC.

The story was already well-known in Athens by Homer’s time, but I think that Homer was the only bard who had it transcribed into written language.
I’d just like to know if this seems logical to him, that’s all.
I have a 1900 translation by Lang, Leaf and Myers and another more modern version, somewhere around here. Benefits of grabbing all my parents’ books because my ridiculous brother didn’t want them.
Thanks for your help!

11B-Mailclerk

“MMMMMMMmmmmm.. Wine…..”
– Homer

Graybeard

I will be sure to run this by him. I know he has some reasoned opinions on that!

I taught it out of Lattimore myself. My son uses at least 3 different translations depending upon how well they translate specific lines or passages. I don’t know when I can get something back from him, tho’. I may have to pass it back through Jonn when I do get it.

Graybeard

I gave him a heads-up on your questions. Hopefully he will be by later this evening to discuss things Iliadic.

Of course, being new here Jonn will need to moderate his posts, and I don’t know when (if?) Jonn hits the hay, so maybe tomorrow….

Ex-PH2

Thanks, Graybeard!

Graybeard

Evidently he stayed up too late sighting in his rifle and got busy putting his brood to bed. I’ll copy it off tonight & get it over to him – but don’t know what his work schedule looks like this week.

I’m interested in his response as well.

Graybeard

He couldn’t find this thread last night. I’ve printed out the question and given it to him.

Doc Savage

“If this act becomes law, I will resign my professorship”

Bye Felicia…

RGR 4-78

I am willing to bet he will resign about the same time as all those celebutards move to Canada because President Trump was elected.

11B-Mailclerk

I thought Marines frowned on quitting in the face of adversity.

11B-Mailclerk

I suppose he slept through that lecture.

I am beginning to get the idea he is going out of his way to emphasize a divorce.

Ex-PH2

If we could just hold him to that vow….

2/17 Air Cav

He is also an expert on the Vietnam War. This, in past, is what he said about it in a 2003 interview:

“But it was a rock ‘n’ roll war, and there were villes outside of every encampment with whores and whiskey, and you were smoking dope, there was heroin, and it was crazy. It was a different kind of lifestyle.”

The Other Whitey

That’s funny. My uncle was actually in Vietnam as a combat Marine, and he painted a rather different, more professional picture of US personnel, and what kind of activities were and weren’t allowed over there. Not necessarily rose-colored, but a far cry from the Hollywood stereotype.

But Swofford is a self-righteous college teacher (whose degree is not in history) who wrote a book that became a movie featuring the racist asshole Jamie Foxx and Jake Gyllenhal’s naked ass, so he’s obviously a much better source of information on that subject than a Marine who actually served and fought there, right?

timactual

“every encampment”?

First time I have heard “encampment” used in that context.

Makes me wish I had been on “encampments” instead of LZs and firebases. It seems I surely did miss out on a lot of recreational opportunities.

But hey, he is a sensitive and intellectual combat veteran (and a WRITER, just like Norman Mailer!!), traumatized and shaken by his experiences as a sniper who never fired a round in anger. He probably has the PTSD, too, so we shouldn’t say bad things about him.

Dustoff

“Smoking dope and heroin”….Yes jackass, I’m sure my Korean brother in law that served with the Tiger Division was too wasted to fight. That’s why the NVA for the most part wouldn’t even engage them.

A Proud Infidel®™

I always read and heard that the VC and NVA were ABSOLUTELY scared shitless of the ROKs (Republic of Korea, South Korean Troops) for more than one reason, one was that they loved to take VC and NVA prisoners and use them for Tae Kwon Do practice dummies.

USMC Steve

Pretty much all the Vietnamese were. The ROK’s and particularly the ROK Marines didn’t care too much which Viets they shot if you pissed them off or got in their way.

RCAF_CHAIRBORNE

Very similar to how the Japs were terrified of Fijian troops.
This was in part a British prop campaign to portray the Fijians as menacing cannibals.
Who knows why they would eat the Japs in the first place? They would just be hungry again in an hour…

Graybeard

I see what you did there.

rgr769

Having been there, I see about four false statements in that sentence. First, no one ever called any US military location an “encampment.” That is not a military term. Second, whiskey was available at ever officer and NCO/EM club at every permanent base I was ever on (it was SOP). I had troops carrying beer into the field; sometimes it came with the Hot-A’s in the bush. (Warm Carling black label is the worst beer ever.) Third, no, everyone wasn’t smoking dope. In the nine months I spent with three different rifle companies in two different Infantry divisions, I never smelled weed in the field. In the rear was another matter. Fourth, the “villes” where there were whores were off-limits; plus, most permanent bases had a “steam n cream,” on base. And finally, how would he know what kind of “lifestyle” service there was when he wasn’t even born yet (although, obviously, his mom should have swallowed).

Perry Gaskill

Conflict encampment lifestyle. Sorta sounds like Club Med for people who take ears…

Fyrfighter

Slight disagreement… George Washington and the troops had an Encampment at Valley Forge… but yeah, dont think the term has been used since then..

A Proud Infidel®™

“(although, obviously, his mom should have swallowed).”

NOT EVEN THAT, he should have stayed a handjob cum stain in the back seat of a beat up AMC Pacer at a drive in theater on dollar pr0n night.

timactual

We obviously moved in different circles. We got much of our beer & soda and all of our “whiskey” from Vietnamese sources. Most of the “whiskey” was Japanese “45” whiskey, whose name I assume has something to do with revenge for the year 1945. And EM clubs were few and far between.

rgr769

Every infantry division base camp had nco/em clubs. They weren’t anything more elaborate than a bar, some chairs and adult beverages. Even my Ranger Company in Da Nang had its own little club. Of course, in the field there were no clubs, just a great deal of jungle covered hills and mountains.

Ex-PH2

I was under the distinct impression that the ‘villes’ were established by the Vietnamese who farmed those areas long before US troops ever got there… but what do I know? I got all of my info from the captions on photos that I had to file.

On the other hand, I’ll be old Swoffe here never hears about Naked Haircut Thursdays, either, or how many canopies the jungle had… or the ‘re-up’ bird.

rgr769

The “ville” was a GI slang term referring to any Vietnamese civilian settlement, not necessarily a village or hamlet. An Khe was a provincial capital not a village and the troops referred to it as the “ville.” So, I guess this douche canoe did use some actual lingo of the Vietnam War. Maybe he picked it up from his daddy who was down in the “ville” banging whores (his bio claims his father served in the Viet of the Nam).

RCAF_CHAIRBORNE

Except he worded as “Daddy was gettin beaucoup poon tang bang-bang with mamma san in da ville’

rgr769

Yeah, but his Daddy “be numba ten. Him hard to lub long time.”

timactual

” Naked Haircut Thursdays,”

That’s a new one on me.

2/17 Air Cav

From the same interview:

INTERVIEWER: You weren’t proud of coming home?

A. SWOFFORD: Not really-I was uncomfortable with idea that I was a hero. I wasn’t a hero, I jus had gone and done what I was supposed to do, and I wanted to forget it.

He never shot at anyone, he says, but he nearly did. I’d like to know who said he was a hero. The Gulf War troops were greeted happily by the public, thankfully. They did the job they were sent to do and the public was grateful and proud.

timactual

“I’d like to know who said he was a hero.”

I agree with him there. Have you not heard that EVERYONE who wears a uniform is a hero? Even on blogs like this the word ‘hero’ is used quite frequently.

USMC Steve

And we did it so quickly that we didn’t spend nearly as much money on that short little war as we might have.

Mason

I wouldn’t want a gun in my classroom either, but since murderous assholes don’t ask permission, I’d rather bring a gun to a gun fight.

This guy sounds like everything that’s wrong in academia.

AW1Ed

That is Rule #1 in a gunfight. Have a gun.

rgr769

Rule #2, surprise your opponent so that he realizes someone is shooting at him when the first round hits him.

AW1Ed

Hmmm, I thought Rule #2 to a gunfight was to bring all your friends with their guns, but I’m not about to argue gunfights with a Ranger.

Besides, I like your Rule #2 better.
*grin*

11B-Mailclerk

If I understand their attitude, for Rangers “bring your friends” is Rule Zero.

rgr769

In this context, I was assuming the person applying rule #1 was the lone Ranger.

Dinotanker

Speaking for the armored cavalry side of things; I think Rule Zero should be: Bring your tank to the gunfight.

I read Jarhead way back then…Im pretty sure it was one of the books that didn’t make the move from Western To Eastern Washington. In other words, I threw it away, I VERY RARELY throw away a book. It was pretty much drivel, and I haven’t seen the Jarhead the movie.

Graybeard

My godson asked me if I open carried.

I replied no, because I don’t want any bad guy to make me his primary target first thing. I want him to realize that I have a gun as my rounds are impacting him center-mass.

It made sense to him.

SFC D

I was at Walmart with my 13 y/o stepson last week, he noticed a customer with a pistol on his hip. He said “Why don’t you carry a gun?” My answer was “are you sure I’m not?”. A Taurus Poly-Protector conceals very nicely.

OWB

Don’t want to be armed? So what – no one is asking you to be armed.

So, we seem to be in agreement. You don’t want to arm yourself and I say you shouldn’t be forced to be armed.

What’s the controversy again?

Ex-PH2

Bingo! OWB is spot on!

No one is being forced to own, wear, carry or use a gun.

I don’t have one. What’s the problem, again?

11B-Mailclerk

Can we sum up his points?

Pay. Attention. To. Meeeeeee!

2/17 Air Cav

I do not understand why Veterans are regarded as specially credentialed to render an opinion regarding firearms in schools. I get that many students would like all guns to go away overnight, by legislation. What I do not get is how the grown-ups can share that same hope, rather than seek to protect their charges. Everywhere there is armed security–everywhere but most schools. I guess I’m just not wired to understand the opposition.

OWB

If I could, I’d wave a magic wand and all firearms would disappear all over the world. Then there would be no firearms deaths for maybe a few weeks. No mass murders by firearms for maybe a few months. It might not be that long for either event.

As an adult, I understand that no such wand exists nor will it ever exist. Even if it did it would solve nothing. Pondering the possibility is an exercise in futility.

Old Trooper

I don’t think an AR was used in the story of Cain and Abel. I could be wrong about that.

11B-Mailclerk

Cain used an “assault rock”!

Graybeard

That’s the friggin’ joke I was looking for earlier, and the Monday fog wouldn’t let me find.

Bless you, 11B

timactual

Only if it had a pointy stick attachment and covered it with soot to make it hard to see at night.

UpNorth

Yeah, courthouses, some banks, state legislatures, 7-11’s and other places are protected by people with guns. But we protect schools with a sign that says ‘This is a Gun-Free Zone”. Idiocy at its finest.

Hondo

What I do not get is how the grown-ups can share that same hope . . . .

I believe you’re implicitly assuming here he’s an adult, 2/17 AC. I’d say he’s not – mentally and/or emotionally, anyway.

Jeff LPH 3, 63-66

Heavens to Betsy,Gee Whillikers,Jumping Jehoshaphat’S, Holey Moley, not for all the tea in China, Well I’ll be a Monkey’s Uncle, this is a fine kettle of fish, don’t take any wooden nickels, hung out to dry,don’t touch that dial, well fiddlesticks, don’t forget to pull the chain, oh, my aching back, knee high to a grasshopper. I left reading the TAH posts on the AR-15 about 4:15PM yesterday then I had to operate the sound and lighting for our drama club play and when I got back around 9:40PM last night, I continued reading and saw all the comments between Lily and the regular TAH poster’s and I just shook my head. Now this EX (SARC) Marine I just read about and this person Lili are I guess part of the Sheep peeps and would rather be defeated rather than fight if it came down to it. Go back to 1939 and they would most likely be happy riding in a cattle car to some camp. The part he mentioned about why not everyone being able to buy NFA destructive devices was the same thing that the liberal lawyer said the other day on the Joyce Kaufman show and that I mentioned. will see you later alligator.

Buckeye Jim

After ‘while, crocodile. ( I couldn’t resist)

Stacy0311

Swofford was/is/always will be a tool/douchebag/loser/fucktard/moron ex-Marine (and yes I used that correctly)

Sparks

His military career may or mat not be what he claims but I’m leaning towards not.

Leave his possible as a professor? Again, if he is tenured I highly doubt that as well.

This guy is much, too much ado about nothing he knows anything of.

Mustang Major

Bullshit guy. Assistant professor means he is a part timer. If he quits, it will be because his girlfriend has a better paying job and she is relocating to the new job and taking him. I would bet his classes are full of stories of his “glory days” and other fantasies.

I am sure hope TAH is requesting his records.

Buckeye Jim

Not to nit pick, but “adjunct” professor is part time. “Assistant” Professor is full-time but not tenured. I bet his anti gun position will certainly help when he comes up for a vote on tenure, however.

Ex-PH2

What makes you think he’s got a girlfriend?

rgr769

That mug sets off my gaydar. He likely has boyfriends or a “husband.”

Atkron

I’d sure like to see that douche’s DD214. The book was trash, and the movie was worse.

I think he tried to make himself seem more sexy by claiming to be a Scout/Sniper in order to sell the story to a publisher.

Ex-PH2

Ditto. Scout/sniper? I thought it was only the Army that had scout/snipers.

This guy comes off as mostly air and nose hairs.

IDC SARC

Marines have scout snipers too and several schools that produce them.

Devtun

Pretty sure Scout/Sniper is specific to the Marines. The Army just have snipers.

IDC SARC

Semantics really

11B-Mailclerk

Be careful. Someone may label this thread as “anti – semantic”.

Graybeard

Some of our posters are sans-semantic.

USMC Steve

Back then and still today, Scout Snipers are attached to the STA platoon (surveillance and target acquisition). They don’t just shoot folks, but act as recon elements who can also shoot folks. Multifaceted dudes.

IDC SARC

yes…my point is that Army snipers do as well.

Scouting is inherent to the military sniping profession.

The Army just doesn’t generally use the same label i.e. a Green Beret just generally calls himself a sniper, but is certainly trained in the scouting techniques as well.

They don’t just shoot folks either…most snipers don’t just shoot folks.

Jeff LPH 3, 63-66

Ex-PH2, I’m suprised that he isn’t partialy bald with a pony tail to balance the bald spot like those NYU law professor’s that were of the 60’s generation.

A Proud Infidel®™

He seems like the kind of snowflake that would faint at the sight of some of the Honky Tonks I went to in the past, especially Betty’s where if you were to go in sans a firearm you could borrow a loaner from the Bouncer.

Jeff LPH 3, 63-66

At a place like that, the jukebox had to have Kitty Wells singing It Wasn’t God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels.

SFC D

“Up against the wall, redneck mother” needs to be on there too

Cris

…and “Dead Skunk in the Middle of the Road”.

SFC D

Can I get an amen for “Drop kick me, Jesus, through the goalposts of life”.

Ex-PH2

Patsy Cline: “Sweet Dreams”.

Ex-PH2

I’ve been trying to find the picture of him with a 3 O’clock shadow, wearing a fedora. I know there’s one somewhere. I think he fancies himself to be some sort of intellectual, just don’t know what, but somewhere (I think on his Wiki) it says he got an MFA in English from an Iowa college workshop. Usually, an advanced degree in a subject like English is an MA, followed by a PhD, not an MFA.

An MFA would normally apply to fine art like sculpture, ceramics and painting, or to music – stuff like that, not to English, which is not part of Fine Arts. Even in poetry, NOT the Fine Arts.

Therefore, I’m not sure what his real credentials are, but it seem s kind of sketchy to me.

MarDet

I thought Phony Marine sniper and Hollywood actor Travis Aaron Wade wrote the movie Jarhead?? I can’t keep up with these fakes anymore!

Lex

“from an Iowa college workshop”

I think you mean from The Iowa Writers’ Workshop.
It ain’t nothing. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2007/08/where-great-writers-are-made/306032/

timactual

It’s an MFA in Creative Writing. English so bourgeois.

MSGRetired

PVT Snowflake

Deckie

A friend of mine said that exact same thing during the first scene in the movie, when he said something along the lines of, “it was when I met my D.I. that I realized joining the Marines was a mistake.”

Ex-PH2

Found this in a review of his notion of a book (partial quote)….

….instantly recognized Mr. Swofford as one of the lazy, smart-assed, crybaby ten percent on which ninety percent of leadership’s energy and resources must be spent. Although the writing is overblown and bombastic, it does clearly communicate the author’s magnificent level of concern for his own conflicted, unlikeable self. Of mild interest is the tremendous level of angst he generates at having done…essentially nothing.

A self-important non-story.

If you read his NYT article, everything in it is about him him him. Now, the disconnect between his dislike of guns and NOT being forced to own or even handle one is apparent to anyone who can read.
He goes to great lengths to let everyone know how angst-ridden he is over guns, as if he thinks he’s required to associate with them or with anyone who professes to own one.
This guy is a real study in self-involved, ego-driven whining and need for attention.

2/17 Air Cav

I believe he was USMC, deployed during the Gulf War, and did his part. He is not an embellisher, not the way we use that word here. I do believe that he believes himself now to be enlightened and dismissive of his service, except to the extent he can use it, whether to make a buck or to bolster his creds when his opinion about guns is offered.

Hondo

He is not an embellisher, not the way we use that word here.

Maybe not, 2/17 AC. But perhaps he is.

From his bio that Jonn linked above.

Anthony Swofford served in a U.S. Marine Corps Surveillance and Target Acquisition/Scout-Sniper platoon during the Gulf War.

I’d really like to see his record of assignments. I’d like to see proof from official sources that he actually served in a Scout Sniper unit.

Some Guy

While proof won’t hurt, I don’t believe it would find anything substantial. IIRC, his book and movie did not exactly endear him to many Marines, so any embellishments would have long been revealed by now, if he was indeed a poser.
I think he’s just a dude who did his part and isn’t particularly proud of his service.

USMC Steve

That would be because the book was embellished bullshit. He made his unit sound like a bunch of retarded pirates, and about half of the crap he claims happened would have gotten everybody courtmartialled or at least busted. We, like anyone else, don’t like being lied on and made to look bad when it is bullshit. This turdlapper was a shitbird of the first degree.

Ex-PH2

“I think he’s just a dude who did his part and isn’t particularly proud of his service.” – Some Guy

If you edited that to ‘found out he wasn’t so special’, or something similar, I think it might be closer to reality.

timactual

I hear that college chicks really go for that romantic, sensitive, damaged hero shtick. He probably practices that lip biting, furrowed brow “Im in pain” look every morning in the mirror. And why not, it worked for Clinton and Kerry. Not so much for Ted Striker.

Bernie Hackett

Tim, I was thinking the same thing. All part of the pose BS artist perfessers use. He’s just a tortured soul. Dime a dozen on campuses. Creative writing. Uh-huh. That DOES say it all.

AW1Ed

Yes, I know it’s a repost.
other men

2/17 Air Cav

But it’s still funny as hell.

Sparks

LMAO Every damned time too!

AW1Ed

They even look alike.

UpNorth

And, it fits perfectly when applied to the story of the intense, guilt-ridden ‘hero’ of the Gulf War, Anthony Swofford.

JacktheJarhead

Thank you, that just never gets old!

Dinotanker

Like everyone else here, this thing cracks me up! 🙂 I have it up on the wall here, my boss came in and said, “hide that when the guys from Olympia are here…they’re going to be hitting on you…”

When my wife saw this she just busted up laughing. 🙂 Got a love a girl who continually qualified as Expert during her military career.

Graybeard

I remember a young man commenting about how his knees got weak when he realized that he was dating a girl whose father could take his eye out at 1k meters.

When the young lady herself can take you out a 1 klick, you’ve really got to mind your p’s and q’s.

Graybeard

Ever green.

A Proud Infidel®™

Did he get himself neutered when he got his college Degree? What a candyassed Atomic Dildohead!

Bernie Hackett

Proud, you just keep coming up with le mot just. Pure art in invective!

A Proud Infidel®™

Thankyuhverymuch, glad to hear bits of appreciation!

OWB

Do we know if he even has a degree??

2/17 Air Cav

Yes, he’s got the credentials. I’m still trying to get over his entry in the Matt Drudge stupid attire look-a-like contest, which he won.

A Proud Infidel®™

He looks more like a REJECT from a round of auditions for “Revenge of the Nerds”, a “Booger” wannabe!

HMC Ret

He wants to NOT do something because it might not work. Sooo, let’s do nothing and be assured it will not work.

Drew a line in the sand with your threat of resignation, didn’t you? Didn’t you learn from our last disgrace for a president not to draw any red line in the sand?

We expect your resignation the very day students and faculty are allowed to carry so they can protect their lives and the lives of other innocents about them.

You sound like a simpleton, a wimpering snowflake.

Mason

I’d imagine even non-tenured professorships are highly sought after. Doubt they’d have trouble finding a replacement PDQ.

A Proud Infidel®™

Let’s see if he puts his money where his mouth is, I say no because he strikes me as the “Alligator Mouth with a Hummingbird Ass” type.

OWB

He might want to have a discussion with some of his other departments about guns on campus. Seems that his school has a rifle team, one that is going to national:
https://www.ncaa.com/news/rifle/article/2018-02-21/2018-national-collegiate-mens-and-womens-rifle-selections-0

Reason I went looking was there was a biathlete in the last Olympics from there. It was so unusual for an American. Didn’t know then that we even had such things as rifle teams at colleges these days.

Jus Bill

I don’t care what excuse he gives or what he says – he’s still not going to get laid by one of his students.

2/17 Air Cav

I don’t know about that, Jus Bill, unless you were referring to female students, in which case I agree.

UpNorth

Perhaps he cruises the Blue Oyster Bar every weekend? He’s bound to get lucky.

A Proud Infidel®™

I wonder if he gets very much in tips as an Apprentice Towel Boy at Brucie’s Bath House (Entrance in Rear)?

Graybeard

Depends upon how badly they want that “A”

RM3(SS)

Wow what a douche. He thinks that Congress can pass a law and use their magic gun disappearing machine to make the world safe again.
As an aside, I went to the Reno gun show yesterday, several of the big sellers said they were told by their distributors that all AR style rifles are already sold out and on back order. I also noticed many many people walking out with new black rifles. I was especially jealous of the guy with the new P90 and Kriss Vector he had bought.
So tell me again how they’re going to “ban guns” and keep schools safe?

2/17 Air Cav

RM3(SS) Easy. The way it works is this. Madman shooter enters school and is spotted by a teacher…

Teacher: “Scuse me Mr Madman, but there’s a law against your being here with a firearm, there’s a law against your having that particular firearm, and there’s a law against that 30-round mag. What’s more, there’s a law against trespassing. So, you’ll have to leave now.”

Madman: “Blam…blam…blam”

RM3(SS)

Whew, thanks for clearing that up for me 2/17!
I’m a little disappointed in myself for not thinking of it. 🙂

11B-Mailclerk

I prefer this version:

Teach: BLAM!BLAM! .. BLAM!

Thug: …. thud….. “gurgle….”. “..rattle…..”

Teach: “Scuse me Mr. Madman. We have laws against unauthorized firearms in our school” (sound of mag change)

Jeff LPH 3, 63-66

Hey RM3; Hope to go to the gun show up in the fairgrounds march 17th and check out the buying rush. Never should have sold my AR-15, AR-180 and all the other weapons of war stuff in my collection.

A Proud Infidel®™

I’m thinking seriously about adding a Daewoo K2 with folding stock to my Gun Collection, it accepts AR15 magazines as well!

FatCircles0311

My next gun purchase will be a Kriss Vector. 33 round 9mm Glock mags! 😎

RM3(SS)

I just want you to know I hate you right now. Green eyed envy hate. Commiefornia doesn’t allow such high capacity firepower, it’s for the children don’tcha know.

11B-Mailclerk

So go big. Get the biggest caliber repeater you can handle.

Do something purposeful, that also says “Fuck you, tyrant.”

Hondo

Standing offer: if anyone can come up with this guy’s full name, DOB, and POB, I’ll be happy to file a FOIA so we can see if his actual military record matches his claims. SSN would be very helpful, but might not be required (it would dramatically raise the chances of getting a records “hit”, though).

Deckie

I think he has his own wikipedia bio… might at least have his POB/DOB there.

OWB

His bio posted by the college is no help in that regard. However, one sentence does stand out:

“He speaks and presents about the cultural role of the warrior writer/artist and the need for this voice and perspective to help build the progressive agendas of human rights and democratic institutions.”

Anyone else take that to mean that his role in spreading propaganda is more important to him than the truth?

Ex-PH2

‘warrior writer/artist….’????

(Falls down laughing.) Oh. My. Hornbeam!

In case he needs enlightening, in history, it was the bards who created the epic tales of warriors and battles, and the soldiers just sat in the Great Halls at the honor tables and listened to those tales.

Warrior/artist, my Fat Aunt Fabia! He’s a wimp! A marshmallow!

A Proud Infidel®™

He’s as tough as cotton candy in a thunderstorm!

Dinotanker

LOL ummm wasn’t Winston Churchill also a warrior/writer/artist? NOTE: I didn’t say a good one…

Bernie Hackett

Naw, it’s his warrior cred! Whoo-eee! If you have to make a big deal out of it, somethings amiss. Gracious, he might have unresolved issues. I’m telling you, he’s a tortured soul. Oh, yeah. How’s that working for you, studhorse?

timactual

“He speaks and presents…”

Isn’t that what the baboons do when they are ready to mate?

” the warrior writer/artist ”

Gag! I never liked that other pompous, overrated, “warrior writer” Norman Mailer, but at least Mailer had a skosh of combat experience.

Duane

Correct me if I’m wrong, but the vast majority of the shootings (other than the Las Vegas one) were all close up encounters. His statement about the Police only being accurate 50% of the time is very misleading – a lot of their encounters are at the edge of the range where Pistols are accurate, so that needs to be factored in. In close up encounters, a pistol has the ability to move far quicker than a rifle for aiming purposes, and contrary to his ramblings, you shoot someone with a pistol, unless you’re using a .22, most people are going to feel it and react. The statistic used about the Police also has one other factor that most of these other shootings don’t – they are dealing with crazies hopped up on drugs and or alcohol. Maybe he needs to move to California and teach there – his mentality would fit right in with what’s being experienced there.

The Other Whitey

No thanks. We have enough leftist know-it-alls here already. We neither need nor want any more!

Duane

Sorry, TOW – forgot about the fact that you’re there. Maybe we could box him up and send him overseas .

UpNorth

Maybe, 70 miles due west of Hawaii? Just open the rear ramp and drop him out.

Graybeard

The Hermit Kingdom could use some warriors.

11B-Mailclerk

Duane,

Indoor shootings in general are usually very close indeed. 10 meters or less, and often half that.

Most police -sniper- shots are under 75 meters.

In most mass-shooting cases, the shooter stops when strongly confronted, either self-shot, surrender, or suicide-by-cop.

Animal

Anthony Swofford is a lying little piece of shit. He embellished so much of his book that it should be categorized as fiction. The Marine Corps is still a small organization in a lot of ways. Especially the infantry. His buddies remembered him well and didn’t have kind things to say about him when his book came out. I don’t know if it would rise to the level of Stolen Valor.

I nominate Anthony Swofford for the Tower of Insults.

The Stranger

You’re a little behind the times. It is now the “Mountain of Insults”. Please update your records accordingly.

Animal

Duly Noted.

A Proud Infidel®™

Fuck it, I second that motion.

The Stranger

AYE! For that god awful movie if nothing else.

Ex-PH2

There is FAR too much attention-seeking stuff in this guy and his interview.

Why was it necessary for him to seek out and collar a reporter?

He’s entitled to his opinion, but what’s makes him think he’s so special? Maybe the Marine Corps was just too hard…?

I really wonder what scared him the most: the gun or shooting it. Must be some sort of jealousy there, that the gun can expel stuff on demand, but this guy….?

rgr769

Our lying LSM media is in overdrive looking for anyone who was/is a cop or military to support their narrative that arming any school personnel is a terrible idea that will get more people shot and killed. They especially want to talk to “teachers” who tick one or both of those boxes. That is why we are seeing these stories. If an armed teacher kills one of these psychos in a school attack, it will completely shoot down that narrative and damage their goal to get us all disarmed.

A Proud Infidel®™

Let’s not forget the scripted Town Hall meetings as well.

Bernie Hackett

The teechers are in a panic that they might have to touch one of them evil guns. Eeeek! That’s not what I got a PHD in early childhood ejumaction for! And the beat goes on! Besides, it distracts from the important issues, like gender appropriate bathrooms for the one student who is confused about what he/she is, this week. Big stuff!.

Ex-PH2

Oh, do you have student who think they are puppies now, Bernie?

11B-Mailclerk

His motivation:

“Pay! Attention! To. Meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!”

Sparks

According to his Wikipedia wtie up:

“He was a lance corporal while serving as a Scout Sniper with the Surveillance and Target Acquisition (STA) Platoon of 2nd Battalion, 7th Marines. During his deployment in the Gulf he never fired a shot in anger, despite being fired upon both by the enemy and his own side.”

Jeff LPH 3, 63-66

Shades of Animal House Sparks. Remember the end of the flick.

The Other Whitey

Neidermeyer?

Jeff LPH 3, 63-66

TOW; Neidermeyer shot by his own troops.

The Other Whitey

Indeed.

A Proud Infidel®™

I thought it was “Killed by his own Troops in Vietnam” as in “Fragged”.

SFC D

Also mentioned in “The Twilight Zone” movie.

David

‘And his own side.’ And I always thought Marines could hit their targets… another illusion shattered.

USMC Steve

It may have been the Army. They don’t really like us very much. And they did shoot up a bunch of their own people over there.

2/17 Air Cav

There’s a more current pic of him at WVU. The link is below. Yeah, he’s playing the part to the max.

https://english.wvu.edu/faculty-and-staff/faculty-directory/swofford

Ex-PH2

…a book on being fat.

Well, now I know where those 40 pounds I’ve lost ended up – on his fat face.

OWB

Quite instructive that his research and teaching includes “military violence against the transgender” and “California literary history.” Yet, there is nothing about his academic credentials. Hmmm.

A Proud Infidel®™

EEEEYYEAAAH, “… military violence against the transgender; California literary history; history of military combat veterans in Hollywood media and entertainment; masculinity studies.”

AWWWW FUCK, my ACME Bullshit Detector®™ just exploded!

HMCS(FMF) ret

If he didn’t have a job at a university or college, he’d be at the local coffee place pontificating and postulating while making your a triple soy decaf no-whip latte with a twist.

timactual

He’s the guy in Animal House whose guitar Bluto smashed.

timactual

I note from your link that one of his areas of teaching and research is;

“…masculinity studies.”

I can say no more.

Fyrfighter

Actually, if you scroll down his BS bio far enough, you find this gem ” military violence against the transgender” I’m guessing that tells you all you need to know about this douche canoe… he’s prolly best buds with manning

OWB

You’d think we would have heard more about it if there was much of it. Bet he got a grant to study it. Wouldn’t take long.

Ex-PH2

WAY too much interest in ‘nads in all of that.

Isn’t it usually 3-year-olds that are at THAT stage in life?

FatCircles0311

Anyone claiming they wouldn’t want a gun when someone is trying to kill them is a liar and a fraud. If someone is too pussy to be responsible for their own safety that’s fine. What isn’t fine is people put in authoritive roles responsible for others that are too pussy to defend those they are responsible for. It’s time to increase the standards of teachers in America instead of pretending they shouldn’t be able to defend their students if need be. As for these massive cunt college professors, there are plenty students able to defend themselves, just allow these law abiding sheep dog conceal carriers to defend their lives and other on campus.

OldManchu

Legally wore my concealed handgun in the Texas State Capitol all day Friday!Felt so good to go through the CHL entrance by simply showing my license. Not even a metal detector. While the non-carriers had to do the airport dump onto the conveyor while they walked through the metal detector.

Texas Capitol entrance has an express lane for CHL holders.

God Bless Texas!

Fyrfighter

Can’t wait till retirement.. already looking for property down that way..

OldManchu

Awesome – c’mon!

Graybeard

We’ll be proud to have you, Fyrfighter.

JacktheJarhead

I love Texas! Yes I do, except in Summer!!! No one gets their knickers in a twist if they see a gun. So different than the DPRM.

11B-Mailclerk

The sheeple get “the treatment” and the Free folk get waived through?

That is -so- poetically -just-! Awesome-Sauce!

I am seriously envious! Wow. That just made my day.

2/17 Air Cav

West Virginia has Constitutional carry, which includes visitors to that Wild and Wonderful state. A person must be 21 to carry a concealed firearm but persons 18 and not yet 21 can carry if they attend a safety course and obtain a permit. West Virginia statute–and this gets to my point–does list places where weapons are not permitted and these include courthouses, as well as primary and secondary schools. What is NOT included are colleges and universities. I took a look at WVU’s firearms policy and it prohibits possession of firearms. This strongly appears to be illegal and unconstitutional. What’s more, the policy gives the campus police chief the singular authority to grant an exemption for cause. That, to me, is laughable. The policy does not cite to any legal authority whatsoever and my guess is that when the dean or someone in the administration asked the AG, the AG said, “You won’t like my answer.” It will take a visitor, student, or faculty member to be charged with possession of a firearm for this to get to court. If it does, WVU loses, IMHO.

2/17 Air Cav

A person must be at least 21… Imagine if it were as I first wrote it: only 21-year olds would be able to carry w/o a permit!

lily

Swofford could be correct. If a Dallas Cop couldn’t defend himself against a criminal with an AK 74, then it’s highly probably a football coach couldn’t do it either.

Also Jonn Lilyea, I don’t know if Swofford is illiterate and either do you. Why don’t you do an FOIA on Swofford and get back to us. Your condescending attitude really just shows not only your own lack of self esteem, it shows you must envy Swofford.

David

You really are an ignorant twatwaffle, aren’t you?

lily

When you get some more knowledge I’m sure you’ll be able to give a better reply.

rgr769

Ditto. That is the term that comes to mind everytime I start to read on of his posts.

Five Beers

Wow – a retired Army E-7 is envious of an E-3 gyrine that couldn’t hack the Marines, per this dumbass troll here.

Now, there’s an assumption that rings more hollow than an empty beer can.

You really are a dumb, shitsucking clown, lily.

lily

Lilyea is probably envious because Swafford feels confident enough to teach at school without needing a gun. Lilyea says he wouldn’t feel comfortable teaching at a school without being armed.

A Proud Infidel®™

Lily, you are more full of SHIT than twenty million geese.

HMCS(FMF) ret

AAAAAAAAAAAAMEN!

Hondo

Lilyea says he wouldn’t feel comfortable teaching at a school without being armed.

Maybe you can show us (e.g., provide a link) exactly where Jonn says that he wouldn’t feel comfortable teaching without being armed, lily. Because I certainly am having trouble finding any such statement by Jonn in the article above.

SFC D

Lily, call your Doctor and get back on your meds.

2/17 Air Cav

It’s Mr Lilyea to you.

Five Beers

So you don’t read for content or anything else. You just ASSUME things.

Here’s a quote from yo’ HERO:]

If this act becomes law, I will resign my professorship. I will not work in an environment where professors and students pack heat.

Sounds like some chicken shit afraid of his own shadow to me.

A Proud Infidel®™

Lily, DO YOU TRY to be that stupid or does it come to you naturally? Every one of your posts I see further convinces me that you are a disciple of a certain UC Berzerkely moonbat that was banned from here and I miss that little SHIT as much as I do my last toothache.

lily

I did go to UCSB. UC Berkeley probably would have been better for me since it’s a semester system and not a quarter system. UCSB was a quarter system and that’s a lot harder in my opinion than a semester system. You’d be surprised to know that UC Berkeley has your type of professors. Look here’s a conservative one –

http://www.dailycal.org/2016/08/30/conservative-scholar-steven-hayward-teach-uc-berkeley/

You didn’t forget that President Regan and Nixon were from Southern California did you? Or have you fallen for the Ukrainian bots that spam the internet with conservative and Pro Trump propaganda?

A Proud Infidel®™

YOU are so brain damaged that I wonder if you didn’t vacation in Pripyat Ukraine just to breathe the Chernobyl Air while you dined on lead paint chips!

lily

I don’t buy into the conservative VS liberal propaganda. Just because someone has a different opinion on guns doesn’t mean they’re a “liberal”, but if you or other must label them that way to feel good then have fun. I can accept your perceptions of me, you’re allowed to have them. )xxxxx[;;;;;;;;;>

A Proud Infidel®™

lily

I take it you and Jonn didn’t like Hacksaw Ridge?

A Proud Infidel®™

OH, and you were too drain bamaged to even get accepted by UC Berzerkely? You sound like the type too fucked up to even get commited!

timactual

“quarter system and that’s a lot harder in my opinion than a semester system.”

I sympathize. Counting to 4 instead of 2 or 3 can indeed be difficult.

The Other Whitey

Lily, you consistently perpetuate the negative stereotypes of California. As a native Californian, I would really appreciate it if you would kindly knock it the fuck off.

lily

You must be from the valley or somewhere in Northern California. Maybe you’ll get your “New California” one day where all the conservatives can isolate themselves away from the coast.

The Other Whitey

Nope. San Diego, you arrogant twat. Thanks for playing!

lily

Well, the negative stereotype you’re talking about is pretty much situated along the coastal California cities, such as San Diego. Of course they have Darrell Issa, but he’s called a “Republican In Name Only(RINO)” by the conservatives in other states because he’s fits that negative Californian stereotype you’re so concerned about.

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2013/05/24/mark_levin_rino_issa_didnt_investigate_irs_before_because_he_despises_the_tea_party-comments.html

USMC Steve

No one really gives a fuck about California. Too many fuckwits live there and excel at being idiots. Most of us are monumentally indifferent to them. Or you Lily.

The Other Whitey

I’m in Duncan Hunter’s district, and San Diego has a remarkable tendency to defy the LA/SF stereotype.

Again, you lose. Fuck off.

Ex-PH2

What a bunch of hooey!
Looks like lily’s backpedaling again to cover his tracks.

First it’s ‘northern CA’ and ‘the valley’, now it’s SoCal.

I think that covers all the populated areas of that state.

What a MARONE!!!

NHSparky

As a NATIVE Southern Californian, Lily, please allow be to be the first to request you take your shit over there and kindly fuck off.

Oh, and the only people I knew who went to UCSB were legacy brats, douchetool hippies, professional party losers, and the occasional “student” who was barely able to escape the clutches of the CSU “system”, but nowhere near the quality of student that would have been competitive, let alone successful, at UCLA, CAL, Cal poly, Stanford, hell even (dare I say it?) USC.

lily

A simple internet search would do you good before you want to tell me how bad UCSB is. Also, if those are the people you know what does that say about you? Remember the old saying “birds of a feather flock together”?

In its 2013 ranking of the world’s top 500 universities, Leiden University ranked UC Santa Barbara number 2 in terms of impact in the field of the sciences. U.S. News and World Report’s 2018 “Best Colleges” guide, the most widely read college guide in the country, ranks UCSB number 8 among all public universities.

https://www.ucsb.edu/pop

Hondo

Well, obviously UCSB doesn’t teach history worth a damn if you think Reagan was “from California”.

Reagan lived in California for a large part of his life, yes – but he was not a native Californian. He was a transplanted Midwesterner who came to California for employment and chose to stay.

Reagan was born, raised, and went to college in Illinois. He stayed in the Midwest for a substantial period of time after graduating from college. He only moved to California because he took a screen test in 1937 and signed a 7 year contract with Warner Brothers that guaranteed him steady employment. (During the Great Depression, such multi-year contracts guaranteeing employment were quite attractive.) He stayed as his movie career waned due to TV (GE Theater, Death Valley Days). You do remember that LA was big in the entertainment industry at the time, right?

Before you and other liberals screwed it up, California was reputedly quite a decent – and relatively conservative – place. Apparently Reagan liked the place and decided to stay and provide some adult leadership after his movie and TV career ended.

Perhaps you’re confusing Reagan with Nixon – who indeed WAS from California (born in Yorba Linda and raised in SoCAL). But that wouldn’t surprise me; to people on the left, everyone who isn’t with them is “the enemy” and “looks alike”.

Ex-PH2

Oh, here we go. UCSB #8 or something.

The actual ratings were as follows:
#37 (tie) in National Universities
#120 in Best Value Schools
#62 (tie) in High School Counselor Rankings
#8 in Top Public Schools
#34 (tie) in Best Undergraduate Engineering Program

Seems to me that the ‘best value’ (best return on the investment of substantial sums of cash) ranking of 120th is a clear indicator that UC-Santa Barbara is more likely to be a party school than an environment that pushes students toward getting into the work world to earn a living. Even high school counselors don’t give it much of a nod.

Forbes Magazine doesn’t give it particularly high rankings, either:
University of California, Santa Barbara
#83 Top Colleges
#17 in Public Colleges
#42 in Research Universities
#18 in the West
#22 America’s Best Value Colleges

In-state tuition is rather high for a state school: $14,409/year. Out of state students pay even higher fees: $42,423.

That’s a lot of cash to pay to a school that doesn’t have “the best of the bunch” in rankings academically.

HMCS(FMF) ret

Another “intellectually superior” blue twatwaffle, just like the SJW from Bezerkeley…

Lex

The true ranking of American universities:
1. Top Tier: The best 8-10 schools (i.e., Princeton, MIT, Stanford, Chicago, Yale, Cal Tech, etc.).
2. Fallback Tier: The next 15 or so (Wellesley, Pomona, Georgetown, Notre Dame, Cornell, etc.).
3. The basically undifferentiated mass of everyone else.

OWB

My university may not be rated as highly as those mentioned, but I didn’t have to put up with the weirdos on either coast. It IS rated in the top 400 worldwide.

So, I feel special, too.

Hondo

Personally, I always felt that bragging about where you went to school was akin to bragging about who you know.

I couldn’t give a damn where someone went to school. I’m far more impressed – favorably or unfavorably – by someone’s knowledge, skill, integrity, and conduct than by where they went to school or who they know.

The Other Whitey

It’s like the old joke: What do you call the guy who got a C- in med school? Doctor.

11B-Mailclerk

Well! What would a Gun or Gun-Politics thread be without our favorite bile-bot “LieLee”.

LieLee, that intersection of “stupid”, “willful ignorance”, and “bathsalt huffing”.

LieLee, who manages to be less informative, less entertaining, and less “clued” than our former Zampolit.

Seek Help

MCPO NYC USN Ret.

You say, “your condescending attitude really just shows not only your own lack of self esteem …”.

I say, “Mr. Lily, I know Jonn Lilyea and he does not lack in any major strong leader character trait … his self-esteem is just fine. Yours on the other hand seems to be fairly weak based on the ramblings from your yap trap”.

lily

Coming from someone in the Navy, especially someone who retired, I’d take that as a compliment. After working around veterans a lot of year I’d say the Navy vets are the most messed up mentally I’ve ever seen. I’ve read a lot of books and one consistent theme of people who joined the Navy was to get out of joining the Army or Marines during a draft. I take that kind of behavior as being cowardly. Most of them lived the rest of their lives with that shame and it shows.

rgr769

Hey pussy college-boi, why aren’t you in class, instead of flapping your yap here? Since you are such a combat hero yourself, why don’t you post a redacted DD214 so we can see whether you actually served? Or, you can send your identity to Jonn and he can pull a FOIA on you. I am thinking no service whatever, or you were a fobbit/REMF, even it you did deploy.

lily

When did all people attending college become “college pussy boys”? Last I looked most commissioned officer in our military were required to have a college degree. Some here complain about being a personification of the California liberal. Well you are a personification of the anti-intellectual conservative.

Hondo

You’re the one who made a big deal about attending UCSB, lily. Seems kinda hypocritical to me to complain about being called out on that account after bringing up the subject yourself.

Then again, hypocrisy is nothing new from the Left.

lily

I made a big deal about UCSB? You obviously are illiterate. My UCSB comment was in response to be accused of going to UC Berkely. I didn’t even start the conversation.

Hondo

Illiterate? Hardly. If anyone here is functionally illiterate or has cognitive difficulties, that would be you.

Yes, YOU made a big deal about where you went to school. And YOU were the one who first broached the subject.

The exchange you reference started here:

http://valorguardians.com/blog/?p=77940#comment-3091503

Nowhere does API claim – or ask – if you went to UC-Berkeley. He merely asks if you were a fan (“disciple” is the precise word he used) of a well-known UC-B grad who formerly commented here. That individual was such a conceited, insufferable ass he managed to get Jonn mad enough to ban him for being both a troll and an insufferable, conceited jerk. However, nowhere does API infer or claim you actually attended UC-B. Nor does he ask you where you went to school.

YOU volunteered where you went to school in a follow-up comment 12 minutes later. And in another follow-up comment a few hours later, you openly bragged about UCSB – somewhat misleadingly, actually:

http://valorguardians.com/blog/?p=77940#comment-3091539

Bottom line: YOU brought up the subject of where you went to school by volunteering the info, lily. Don’t dissemble and claim someone else broached the subject when they simply asked if you were a fan of Der Poodle Commissar but did NOT imply you went to Berkeley.

Suggest you engage brain before typing next time, lily. That might go a long way to keep you from looking like a semi-literate ditz in the future.

A Proud Infidel®™

‘Ol whatshisface couldn’t blab enough about how superior UC Berzerkely was and now we have lulu blithering about UCSB. Do California Universities require one to be lobotomized in order to be admitted? I think I had better English Composition skills than lulu when I was a HS Freshman!

Ex-PH2

Am I overreacting to this, or is it maybe time to put a choke-chain on this fake pitbull lili?

Everything he does seems intentionally aimed at pissing people off by baiting them. Haven’t we seen this before, but in more subtle ways?

lily

Jonn Lilyea probably likes me because he’s currently surrounded by “yes men”. I keep things dramatic and interesting for him. He probably gets a few good laughs.

USMC Steve

Lili is wrong here too. At least in the Marines, we still have options for direct commissioning and there is no requirement for college degree in that program.

rgr769

Hey you little snot-weasel, I was crafting legal appellate briefs and doing jury trials before your little millennial ass was out of grade school. So, I’ll put my education up against your progtard indoctrination any day of the week. I have likely forgotten more knowledge than you will ever acquire. And yes, I had a college degree before I was an officer, even though it wasn’t a pre-requisite in 1968.

Deckie

I’d like to know what books you read, if any, that paint the Navy as cowards for their choice of service.

2/17 Air Cav

For Lily:

lily

A friend of my father’s named Randy Kaiser was a Navy SEAL in Vietnam. He ran off to join the Navy during the draft because he was afraid of getting drafted into the Army and going to Vietnam. Then all the sudden he grew a pair, went to BUDS, passed it, became a Navy SEAL and now he’s a tough guy. Funny how it didn’t start out that way isn’t it? At least some people who joined the Navy found some intestinal fortitude. Randy Kaiser’s story is found in the book called “SEALS, UDTs, Frogmen: men under pressure” by Darry Young. https://www.amazon.com/SEALS-UDT-FROGMEN-Under-Pressure/dp/0345471679

Deckie

Sooooooooo just one book. And the label you paint all Navy and Coast Guard veterans with is just something you pulled out of the incredible depths of your own ass…. ok…. got it.

And here I was thinking the cowards ran off to Canada or burned their draft notices.

lily

Well at least you know if you served in the Marines or Army you’re not left wondering “did this person enlist here to get out of the draft”?

Deckie

What draft?

HMCS(FMF) ret

Fuck you, lily… fuck you and your libtard, socialist mindset, PUSSY!

NHSparky

Dear Twatwaffle:

When I joined, there was no draft. The Army wouldn’t give a guarantee for me to fly, so I went to the Navy, who looked up my ASVAB, then asked me if I was interested in running submarine nuclear reactors.

The rest, as they say, is history.

MCPO NYC USN Ret.

Ms. Lily,

Did you just call me a coward? After I spent over 32 years in the Navy, coming from an anonymous internet troll like you, the comment has been unheard and already forgotten to me.

With respect to Korean War, you are dead wrong. Men volunteered and were drafted in huge numbers for the opportunity to serve with the hopes of gaining a wide variety of benefits including status as a Veteran, citizenship (2 years + IRR) and many other tangible and patriot reasons. So please stop with your claimed research as it falls short on the ears of more learned Veterans.

Send your DD-214 to Jonn, shot your yap or watch how fast you are blocked from this site.

On final observation, twinkle toes, if you want to pick a fight with me, you have already lost “in your own words”.

PS: There was little “mud” in hot AOR’s in Korea, 8 months a year it was frozen solid, words matter.

MCPO(SW), USN (Ret.)
1979 – 2011

Ex-PH2

OH, here we go.
The draft ended in 1973, which was before the Master Chief was even born.

Shove it up your bloated, rotting ass, lily. Your ignorance is so profoundly deep that you keep digging those holes deeper and deeper.

Keep yanking those chains. The only mentally ‘messed up’ creature posting things here is YOU. You continue to show us what a colossal moron you are.

A Proud Infidel®™

Lily reminds me of a guy in my Unit when I was AD that was kicked out via Chapter 13, Failure to Conform to a Military Lifestyle.

lily

Not everyone who joined was a little angel like you. Haven’t you read the “Filthy Thirteen”? Here get a wake up call –

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filthy_Thirteen

Hondo

Is there some particular reason you’re belaboring the obvious, lily? Everyone here knows that during a shooting war bad conduct that would otherwise get a troop thrown out is often overlooked if the troop is competent.

A Proud Infidel®™

The more I see of his/her/its rants, the more convinced I am he was Chaptered out.

lily

I was honorably discharged. The more I see some of you post the most I’m convinced you’re cherries.

rgr769

Send Jonn your DD214 and we’ll see whose a cherry.

lily

Send yours to John Lilyea first and then I’ll think about it.

Ex-PH2

And how do you know rgr769 DIDN’T send his info off already, lily?

SFC D

We’re all very sorry that your father’s discharge wasn’t into a condom.

lily

I still see the same mentality today. I’ve seen people afraid to join the Marine or Army because they don’t want to get dirty in the land wars going on. So what do they do? They join the Navy. Then they may grow some ball and become a Navy SEAL. In fact I know a story where that exactly happened. A friend of my father’s named Randy Kaiser was a Navy SEAL in Vietnam. He ran off to join the Navy during the draft because he was afraid of getting drafted into the Army and going to Vietnam. Then all the sudden he grew a pair, went to BUDS, passed it, became a Navy SEAL and now he’s a tough guy. Funny how it didn’t start out that way isn’t it? At least some people who joined the Navy found some intestinal fortitude. Randy Kaiser’s story is found in the book called “SEALS, UDTs, Frogmen: men under pressure” by Darry Young. https://www.amazon.com/SEALS-UDT-FROGMEN-Under-Pressure/dp/0345471679

You know they had a saying back during the Korean War draft – Join the Coast Guard or Navy unless you want to “trudge in the mud with the North Koreans”. Some things will never change, so stop acting like they have. A coward will always be a coward because it’s a personality trait.

Hondo

Hmm. Seems to me you’re calling out a whole group (the Navy) as cowards based on the perceived actions of a few. Sounds kinda like you’ve acquired an irrational and unfounded bias against the entire group based on rumor, innuendo, and partial information.

There’s a name for that kind of ignorant bias, lily. It’s called “prejudice”.

HMCS(FMF) ret

Hondo, I’d call it bigotry…

Hondo

Oh, and regarding that “fine UCSB education” you seem to treasure so much: apparently you didn’t learn squat from UCSB’s English department either. Really: “. . . join the Marine (sic) . . . .”? “. . . grow some ball (sic) . . . . “?

Those are Middle School level errors. One such error in a comment might be a typo. Multiple errors of the same type in the same comment? Um, no. That’s telling us something else entirely.

lily

Obviously you haven’t take a basic college level English class. Did you know they teach you to know your audience. I used those middle school level rhetoric because that’s the audience here. Yeah I’m calling out the Navy in general because the majority of Navy veterans I’ve met have been complete assholes and created dysfunction in the places I’ve worked. So yes, I’m as prejudice as they are towards me. Also, you can’t refute the evidence I presented because it’s obvious I’m right about people joining the Navy to avoid land war. As for special forces I’m not overly impressed with them either. I’ve know a few who thought it was a good time to gang bang a Kuwaiti prostitute. That’s a real “brotherhood”. Too bad most people don’t know about what goes on behind the scenes. Yet it’s not too hard to find out if you dig a little. They do have a high divorce rate.

Hondo

Geez, are you REALLY that freaking dense? You missed my point entirely.

Yeah, it’s common knowledge that some people joined the Navy during Vietnam to avoid the draft. Ditto the Air Force. Ditto the National Guard. There’s no real need to dispute – or even discuss – something that’s already common knowledge.

Guess what? Some of each of those groups got sent to “hot” locations in Vietnam. So going into the Navy – or USAF, or National Guard – was no guarantee that you wouldn’t end up “boots on the ground” in Vietnam, either.

But discussing that issue wasn’t my point, anyway. You were apparently too dense – or too emotionally invested in disparaging the Navy – to get my point. My point was that your writing was, simply, sloppy bordering on genuinely bad.

It’s “join the Marines“, lily – not “join the Marine”, which is what you wrote. Similarly, common usage is “grow some balls” – not “grow some ball”, as you wrote above. Those kind of errors undercut the credibility of your comments. That’s particularly true here, since TAH is a largely military audience.

If you’re going to lecture people here, you need to write well – and you need to have your facts in order. Because here, you’ll almost certainly get pushback. People will also examine your arguments in detail and will call you out if those arguments are not sound.

By the way: you also need to remember that questions end with a question mark and not a period (second sentence of your screed above). And when used as an adjective, it’s “prejudiced“, lily – not “prejudice”. “Prejudice” is a noun.

Hey, we get it that you’re irrationally prejudiced against the Navy; you’ve made that damned obvious. But I didn’t think you were so dense that you’d miss my point – particularly after I referenced UCSB’s English Department.

IMO you should consider taking a course in Remedial English if you never took it at UCSB. Or retake it if you did.

lily

If you read the comments above yours, you would see that a few posters didn’t believe me that people joined the Navy to get out of the draft. So why you say it’s common knowledge? You saying those posters are ignorant? If so then you’re right, they are ignorant. Thanks for enlightening them.

A Proud Infidel®™

Lily is a 24K IDIOT and I’m sure he/she/it will eventually get banned. Lily, just let your hair grow out a little, learn to control your drooling, slobbering and speech, wear sunglasses and most people won’t assume you’re the recipient of a badly botched Lobotomy!

Deckie

That was never a “saying” during the Korean War draft.

lily

It’s funny how you people think I’m just like you. You think that I’m speaking out of my ass like you do. I speak based on my research. If you read this guys’ story he says that when he was going to be drafted into the Korean War that he ran out and joined the Coast Guard. He says he did that because who wants to “trudge in the mud with the North Koreans”. That’s the saying they had during the Korean War draft. The potential draftees didn’t want that so they ran off and joined the Navy or Coast Guard. It’s really nothing new, it’s probably been going on since WW1. The more I listen to you people the more I’m convinced a lot of you are cherries.

lily

Here’s the book with the Korean War draft story –

https://www.amazon.com/Greatest-Gift-Gods-Amazing-Grace/dp/1888848340

Deckie

Sounds like it was the author’s reason for joining the Coast Guard, per your admission.

Nice try.

MCPO NYC USN Ret.

You refer to us as “you people”.

Very interesting choice of words, however in my line of work, the use of such a phrase is more likely than not, involuntary response to a deep seeded bias … as I said, in my line of work, your own (albeit involuntary choice of words) is a “clue” to who and what you really are!

OWB

Not the only interesting choice of words; in the aggregate it’s a rather horrendous example of projection. Or something.

“…I’m just like you.” Don’t you wish we thought you anything like us, lily! That seems to be the root of your problem – we don’t. None of us is nearly as confused as you appear to be.

One minute you are projecting being a lefty loon. The next you are projecting just the opposite. Don’t care who you are, would you just pick one and stick with it?

NHSparky

Uh, sweetheart, do yourself a little favor, hmmm?

Look up casualty rates for Naval units during WWII, especially the submarine service.

And then go play on the fucking 101. Preferably blindfolded. At night. Wearing dark clothes.

lily

Things changed a lot since WW2 for war casualties of people serving in the Navy. You know it’s interesting they changed a part of the 101 to the “screaming eagle” highway? That must really hurt the ego of some Marines and Sailors since they have a naval base in that county. Take your own advice first.

Deckie

Goddamn Lily… that response was so stupid it gave me a migraine…

A Proud Infidel®™

Check out the other thread that lily has infested, over there I have dubbed him with his new name, “CAPTAIN SHITHEAD”.

Ex-PH2

It appears that the only reason lily keeps showing up is to toss more and more insults at people for the sole purpose of pissing them off. Who else did that recently? Wasn’t it someone from You See Berserkley?

lily

You’re full of envy and it shows.

A Proud Infidel®™

Izzat so, Captain Shithead?

Ex-PH2

Full of envy? Envy of what?

Grasping at straws, with nothing valid to say, lily uses another insult to piss someone off.

Come on, smugly. Envy of what????

NHSparky

Huh. Maybe you can tell that to the families of the Thresher and Scorpion.

Or the families of shipmates whose memorials I’ve attended. I’m sure that’ll make them feel loads better.

Fucking asshat.

Atkron

I guess I was coward for joining the Navy. I guess the time spent working on the flight deck of an aircraft carrier was just me being a pussy.

No danger whatsoever…yet for some reason if you go look at all of those old cruise books online you will find that the average is several deaths from each deployment.

Rotor Blades, Propellers, Intakes, Live Ordnance, and Exhausts…just pussy work, right?

Green Thumb

Clown.

Lewis Ray Rains

I served, 65-68. I am not a combat Veteran. My time was spent in Ft. Wainwright, Alaska. Raised an Army Brat. Even if I had served in a combat area, IM NO DAMN HERO! I WAS LUCKY IS ALL I AM! No one is more Military minded than I am & will always will be. Nuff said!!!

A Proud Infidel®™

WELCOME Mr. Rains, don’t be a stranger now that you’re here!

HMCS(FMF) ret

Welcome aboard!

Just An Old Dog

Well, I for one don’t doubt his claims of service. I’ve served with good Marines who were exactly the opposite of me on many different stances politically.
No doubt his exposure to Hollywood and Academia have influenced his views. I’m not going to besmirch his actual service and call him an idiot.
In certain points I would agree. I don’t think just ANYBODY should be allowed to walk around armed in a school ( or for that matter, anywhere).
However I have no issue with a certified CCW permit holder being where I am.

Frank

https://www.wvnews.com/news/wvnews/house-committee-passes-concealed-campus-carry-bill/article_a2a2ddcb-9690-58b8-a43b-bbedf7535a7c.html
The bill got passed back on the 9th Feb on a voice vote. I trust that Mr Swofford was true to his word…

Hondo

That was only a WV House Committee, Frank. The bill isn’t yet law in WV; it still has to pass both the WV House and Senate.

FWIW: as of about 2 min ago Swofford was still listed as an assistant professor in the Department of English at UWV. And I’m guessing he wasn’t exactly being truthful in claiming he’d resign if the bill became law. People on that side of the political spectrum almost never follow through when the result will negatively impact their personal finances. It’s other people’s money and lives they want to mess with.

2/17 Air Cav

And signed by the gov. In that regard, WV’s last gov (Knucklehead Earl Tomlin) refused to sign the bill recognizing constitutional carry. His veto was overridden.

Hondo

Thanks for the info, 2/17. I knew that WV had a bicameral legislature, so I was reasonably sure that both chambers had to pass any law. But I didn’t know for certain if WV’s constitution required the Governor to sign before a law became effective – so I intentionally didn’t say anything about that above.

A Proud Infidel®™

Nebraska is the only State with a Unicameral Legislature IIRC.

2/17 Air Cav

True, API, but I believe Hondo was talking about how a bill becomes a law or is vetoed. Some states require an affirmative action by the gov (e.g., signing the passed bill) and others regard inaction as acquiescence or a veto. The states are all over the place on this.

Hondo

Bingo. Didn’t know for sure and didn’t want to assume – and thus chance doing the “ASS-U-ME” d**k-dance.

A Proud Infidel®™

AHH, okay!

A Proud Infidel®™

I second that and I’m sure he’ll live up to his word like the moonbats that promised to move out of the USA as soon as President Trump got elected.

Ex-PH2

Okay, API, but if it DOES become law, is it fair to confront him over his avowed intent to resign?

That was a public statement by him. I’d like to see him keep his word, wouldn’t you?

A Proud Infidel®™

Yes Ma’am!

2/17 Air Cav

Thanks, Frank. From the article: “It isn’t currently illegal to carry a concealed weapon on a college campus, but it might be against school rules.” As I was saying in my 5:35 cmt, it certainly isn’t illegal. No campus rule can trump a constitutional mandate and, consequently, this law isn’t needed. If it passes, however, it will solidify the legal-to-carry position. A couple of years ago, a the sheriff of Martinsburg, WV decided to put up “No Weapons Permitted” signs in gov’t offices that were not included in the state statute listing state agencies where firearms are prohibited. A citizen challenged the sheriff’s action and won. The sheriff, however, decided to keep the signs up even though the message wasn’t enforceable. As I see it, that’s what we have with the state colleges and the Matt Drudge lookalike will have to quit.

Hondo

No campus rule can trump a constitutional mandate and, consequently, this law isn’t needed.

In a perfect world I’d agree with you, 2/17 AC. But in a perfect world, we wouldn’t have almost 50-year-old legal language in environmental law mandating that “any detectable amount” of certain chemicals be considered unlawful – irrespective of the fact that measurement technology is literally 5 or 6 orders of magnitude more sensitive today than it was when the law was written.

So in today’s decidedly imperfect world, dunno if I agree that the law isn’t needed.

Yes, a student (or faculty member) could take the university to court and, possibly, eventually prevail – after spending a 5- or 6-figure sum in legal fees and taking a couple of years if the university in question was hard-headed. Or, since college attendance isn’t mandatory, the court might just tell them, “Tough. Go to college elsewhere if you don’t like their rules.” Lord knows we’ve seen enough boneheaded court decisions in the last few years.

This proposed law in WV puts and end to such nonsense. I’d like to see something like this as law in every state. (I’d say at the Federal level, but the Federal government has IMO already done far more than enough to screw up public education already.)

MCPO NYC USN Ret.

I find his lady-like features and opinions soothing!

Flakpup

Sooo… Having an AR means the sidearm-wielder is outgunned? Simple, extended magazines for the pistols. 33 round mag for the Glock would then mean that the AR user just became outgunned; almost not even fair any more as obviously it is the number of bullets that make the difference and not the skill and training of the shooter. There, problem solved. Next issue?

OWB

I want the guy or gal with me who only needs one bullet and the caliber doesn’t matter.

MrFace

Why is this fuckstick wearing makeup?

A Proud Infidel®™

It’s the way of the candyassed metrosexual.

Old Trooper

Think about it, folks; the chances of one of his students “packing heat” are pretty slim to begin with. So I think it’s just a hollow threat from the start. Just a way for him to get his face out there, again.

OWB

Should this clown be properly referred to as an ex-Marine? This one line does it for me, but I defer to the Marines in this community for a determination.

“…while fellow Marines wept nearby…” in his description of his experience in weapons qualification. Ugh. Icky. It’s almost as if he wants us to believe that Marines are repulsed by their weapons and teary eyed when they must fire one.

Ex-PH2

Yes, after reading some of that self-involved twaddle from his NYT article, it is clear that he was never a Marine.

He was just a visitor who spent some time in the company of better men than he was.

NR Pax

I usually save “Ex Marine” for people like Clayton Lonetree, Lee Harvey Oswald and John Murtha.

Hondo

Jonn’s got a pretty good track record concerning getting quotes right, NR Pax.

The title indicates Swofford now says he “was a Marine” – as in, past tense. Seems to me that implies he now self-identifies as no longer being a Marine. Or, in more common terms, that he self-identifies as an “ex-Marine”.

Then again, I was Army. So I’ll defer to the consensus of USMC commenters on this one.

OWB

In complete agreement with you, Hondo. In one of those bios or summaries somewhere it refers to him as a former Marine as well. He might or might not have written the words though.

NR Pax

From my own experience, we tend to refer to the real shitbirds as “Ex Marines.” As in “you done fucked up and we want nothing to do with you.”

Swofford is a pinhead but he’s nowhere near the level of the folks I pointed out above.

HT3 '83-'87

No wonder Jody got his girl.

trackback

[…] The Political Hat: Medical Murder Mania From The Alpha To The Omega This Ain’t Hell: Jarhead Author Says “I Was A Marine. I Don’t Want Guns In My Classroom”, also, Dreamer Arrested For Threatening School, also also, Little Support For Manning In Maryland […]

Mike W.

The storage locker off base where I kept my guns while in the Pathfinder Co. at the 101st back in ’85/86 time period would given a thief a heart attack and a hernia trying to remove all the guns there ! LOL
F**k the gun grabbers. “We only want your ‘assault blah blah'” is DIVIDE and conquer! Don’t fall for their LIES.

Carlton G. Long

“Last month, the State Legislature in West Virginia, where my university is located, introduced the Campus Self-Defense Act. This would prohibit colleges and universities from designating their campuses as gun-free zones. If this act becomes law, I will resign my professorship. I will not work in an environment where professors and students pack heat.”

Oh, brother…I think this clown really believes that the legislature is going to convene a special session to agree not to pursue the legislation for fear of the university losing this gem of a professor.

A Proud Infidel®™

Even if they DO pass it I’m sure that perfesser Cotton Candyass will honor that pledge just as much as the moonbat celebrities that promised to leave the USA when President Trump got elected.

smoke-check

I have two questions 1) who has the FOIA on this hero, and 2) wtf is up with that forehead?