R & D Considerations of TAH-VG

At the risk of appearing to be clickbait, I’ll say upfront that this post may not be what you think.

Even though it may imply Research and Development, I choose “R and D” because “D & R” may conjure up another image.

Let me scorpion dance a little more… and have a little fun with speaking non-politically:

TIRES

R indicates a radial tire — D indicates a Bias ply tire… D is for diagonal. The sidewalls will flex differently. The radial tire should run a little cooler. Also, a radial tire the same size as a bias ply tire should have a larger contact area where the tire meets the pavement because of the design. In the long run, the radial should have a couple of small advantages over the bias ply tire because the sides flex, and that should make the ride a little smoother, and under a nonperfect condition, having a larger point of contact with the ground could help control.

STATISTICS

Although D relationships and R relationships are basically the same thing, they are often graphed, analyzed, and discussed in ways that seem very different. For example, although both D and R describe relationships between variables, D focuses on differences between groups, while R relationships are more concerned with correlation between quantitative variables.

BRAIN BIOLOGY

From Scientific American: The volume of gray matter, or neural cell bodies, making up the anterior cingulate cortex, an area that helps detect errors and resolve conflicts, tends to be larger in liberals. And the amygdala, which is important for regulating emotions and evaluating threats, is larger in conservatives.

POLITICS and STOLEN VALOR

And now we get to it…

Although I don’t share his outlook on many things, politician Dennis Kucinich once said, “It takes two wings to fly,” and that spoke to me. I do think that the balance between views is important, and when one side is not available to keep the other in check, things tend to get out of hand quickly.

TAH-VG strives to be apolitical in its stolen valor investigations, although admittedly, the majority of the readership tends to lean conservative.

I was talking to Dave Hardin about a trend that seems to be developing, and he felt it warranted a post.

We are getting a lot of submissions on politicians lately, and those submissions tend to be about Republicans. One can make the point that this is because:

* Journalists tend to be liberal
* Republicans tend to serve in the military
* Heavy pressure to sway upcoming elections

Our friends at Military Phony recently complimented a journalist for vetting a political candidate and exposing him. The politician happened to be of the Republican variety.  MP told the journalist that they would support her in any way they can because she is doing it the correct way rather than many who report on embellished claims after they benefit from the claims and get into elected office.

She then immediately asked to have others vetted and submitted five more names. It was quite striking that all five were Republicans. MP stated that they do not do opposition research because they noticed all five were Republicans. One single Democrat was then submitted with service over 50 years ago, but only that he had served—no combat or other claims.

Then, the recent controversy surrounding Rep. Troy Nehls (R-Texas): https://www.yahoo.com/news/military-documents-contradict-rep-nehls-195833422.html

Also, the recent controversy surrounding Rep. Cory Mills (R-Florida), which TAH-VG published on: https://valorguardians.com/blog/?p=128709

The above are getting several submissions asking to investigate further.

BALANCE

The trend we are seeing is perhaps an effort to affect many political races heading into this November. While our mission is to investigate stolen valor, no matter the political party, this poses a challenge.

The challenge is that if we are flooded by journalists who may or may not be left-leaning and ask us to vet Republican candidates, it is difficult to appear apolitical. On the one hand, it is our mission. On the other hand, we don’t want to become a mere tool for opposition research.

We try to substantiate that claims were made before spending a lot of time gathering records and researching them. We also like to support journalists who do the right thing and vet people’s military claims before they get into office.

We suspect this balance will become a greater challenge as we get closer to the November elections.

*SIGH* Our burden to bear.

 

Category: Media, Stolen Valor