人生行路 — The Journey of Life

Navy Times all over Kitty Hawk like a cheap Hong Kong suit

Other than the whole Hong Kong rejection deal, the Navy Times has had Kitty Hawk in the news twice on morale issues. First was some sort of movie ban. The second is an article on individual liberty plans (ILPs), which according to local rumor here in Sasebo have been the trend in Yokosuka for quite a while now. IT2 “Jim” has more detail in multiple posts.

Sasebo shooting suspect kills himself

The big news Friday night for personnel on duty was the very real possibility that they’d be stuck on base for the weekend while Sasebo police try to find a Japanese man who came into a sports club (gym) with a shotgun and started shooting at people. Two dead, six injured. He killed himself outside a Catholic church. One article which I can’t find right now speculated that organized crime was creeping into Sasebo from Fukuoka, but this looks like an isolated case of psychological illness.

Naval Academy ex-Chaplain gets 12 years confinement (10 suspended) in plea agreement

I couldn’t find much detail on the sentence, but perhaps I could get the record of trial on this one and find out. Nonetheless, the LA Times seemed to have the most detail available, including a remark where his defense counsel says he’ll probably serve 18 months. One assumes that the journalists completely skipped over the term “dismissal.” Newsweek, meanwhile, commits the cardinal sin of calling a midshipman, “cadet.”

Penthouse has been back in military exchanges for a while now, and the reaction by anti-pornography groups (example) should be no surprise, but unlike tobacco and alcohol, the military conduct no campaigning against the use of pornography. Sex-related public service campaigns seem only to include sexual harrassment/assault, abstinence promotion aimed at minors, and the prohibition against viewing pornography on government computers, the latter topic of which is never found on AFN commercials.

The Navy Times article linked says that the law does ban “sexually explicit” publications, despite that Penthouse fell out from that definition, and Playboy has fallen outside ever since the the specific law’s existed, meaning that according to the board evaluating the magazines, they do not contain “as a dominant theme the depiction or description of nudity, including sexual or excretory activities or organs, in a lascivious way.” When comparing this to barring pornography on government computers, what exactly is the definition of what kinds of sexual materials are banned? I don’t know which law bans pornography viewing on government computers, but if command policies ban “pornography,” and “pornography” is inherently “sexually explicit,” and Penthouse and Playboy aren’t “sexually explicit,” then what exactly is banned? This doesn’t mean officers should immediately stop enforcing the full intent of command policy, but somebody could try to bring this up. The specter is far more real for shore commands, which can’t force an individual into NJP.

To address those advocating a complete ban of pornography–using, of course, a much looser definition–they will end up having to address why the military doesn’t do the same for alcohol and tobacco, especially considering the content of public service campaigns as mentioned above. Those not familiar with AFN commercials, be informed that they do cover a wide range of topics other than alcohol and tobacco, covering seemingly everything from eating breakfast, to powers of attorney, to those of the Loose Lips Sink Ships variety.

A more consistent solution on both ends might be to wage a similar campaign against pornography. Sure it might be cheesy, but we ought to be consistent in our cheesiness, right? Why not broadcast testimonials against pornography? At minimum, let former porn stars tell the story of what it’s really like in there. Let men whose lives have been ruined tell their story. And to make sure we have just enough cheesiness, stick Pete the Porno Puppet in there, too.

Note: This post is edited from its original form due to the YouTube embedding messing up the layout of the page.

This article is written for future publication on PurityPeople.com. More articles to come later.

Back in high school and college, I was the computer geek without any “luck.” Now that I’m in the military and am living on a large piece of steel and haze-gray paint in the middle of the ocean, the whole dating game from back in college has taken a back seat while I work on other things. I’ve found myself with an outside view of those years through which God is teaching me is that He isn’t going to tolerate us just sitting around waiting for Him to get things done for us. In fact, if we’re not getting things done for Him, such a demand is the height of arrogance.

Let me tell you about the first experience I had with the concept in college. There was a certain girl who went to high school with me, or perhaps more properly, we went to the same high school. We didn’t know each other very well, but apparently she in her desperation had developed a crush on me. Eventually she gave up on kind of hiding it, though I could tell from the countless phone calls and times “hanging out.” She was a non-believer, and I knew that things would not work out between these two people whose values did not match. I tried to call it off, and it wasn’t happening.

Long story shortened, I opened my email one morning to find a suicide poem. Immediately I call 911. She’s OK, but she’s overdosed on painkillers. I find out a few days later that the doctors were amazed that her liver wasn’t fried with the amount she took.

Then I made one of the stupidest decisions in my life. While there was little chance of dating, I still abandoned her friendship out of a false sense of self-preservation. It was clear that God wanted me to be at her side helping her out, and I ignored the call.

Is there any more evidence God needed to determine that I was fully unqualified to handle a dating relationship? I flipped the bird at God, and turned my back on a friend who needed my help.

Oh, and then I got addicted to porn and masturbation. More on that in another article.

What are you doing while you’re waiting for romance? Do your actions reflect that you’re ready, or are you just wallowing in self-pity like I was?

Remember that house where the landlord lives under the tenants? I just was able to return to the housing office, and it happens to be available after all this time. And this time, I listened and didn’t end up trusting myself over God.

Somebody broke the television in my guys’ berthing the other day in some drunken rage. Based upon the colorful diagonal streaking across the LCD screen, I’m convinced that the damage is irreparable unless one could just replace the LCD part. The cost of that would only justify getting them a new TV, which we did more quickly than I would have anticipated. Still yet, I doubted the move in that maybe the guys would find some value in peace and quiet rather than having the tube…er…screen making noise all day.

So a fellow DIVO and I are given a blank check and get assigned to hit up the exchange and get the guys a television. We buy a television, get back, and get it installed. Later on in the day, I’m told to check on the guys and the television. I get there, the television is installed…and off. A bunch of guys are just resting there, couches towards the TV.

I’m confused. Is the television working?

“Oh yeah, sir, the television’s working. We just started liking to be able to sleep during lunch hour.”

Who knew?

Maybe I could get someone out here to do it next year. Regardless, you can check it out online.

Would these men cut it if selection was based on looks?

The Navy Times‘ front page declares this week that “3 out of 4 officers have failed to follow a new Navy regulation” and asks “Are they insubordinate, just plain lazy or hiding something?”

The article regards the new required service record photographs. This means that promotion boards now get to see what individuals look like before ranking them for screening, whether that be for command, special programs, or just plain promotion.

I’m no expert on such boards, but count me skeptical. I’m already convinced that the body fat standard is based upon the wanting to have good-looking thin people, a policy which I’ve already seen kick good big people who kick rear-end on the PRT far better than their peers.

Secondly (as pointed out here), who’s to say that the photos can’t be edited? I highly doubt that there are experts checking the photos for editing, especially considering that they’re submitted via snail mail and not digitally. Really, it’s not that hard, and people are bound to violate integrity standards for a promotion. Sorry, that’s just the way it is.

Finally and most importantly, good people who don’t necessarily look good will suffer. That doesn’t just go for obesity or race.

Regardless, I followed my orders and had the picture done anyway, but this is a reversal of a reversal, meaning it could be re-reversed again.

Other blogs taking note:
The Yankee Sailor
GunThing Forum

Something happened just after I made that last post. By the way, I was at a bar’s patio when writing it just as I am now, though now the bar is closed. Some guys with a few too many in their system started talking about Leviticus, and it went on from there. I had this guy wearing a strip club t-shirt going from being about to sock me (one reason being because he thought I was looking at Christian porn). to just pouring his heart out trying to help me keep my faith. He had already been a Christ follower and had fallen away. I broke down just as he did. God’s molding hurts.

What planning and execution? God just plain did it.

The last time I had a drink of alcohol was back in January. It was only a sip, but I have to say that Shiner Bock was a good choice. Quite tasty. But I don’t trust myself with beer. I did end up at a military social where I accidentally took the wrong glass and had to spit the beer back out about a month ago, but that doesn’t count.

And while externally it would be viable to take the high moral road on this one by not drinking, that isn’t the case at all for anyone who has had a problem with pornography. Simply put, with pornography, there is no such thing as responsible use. And Jesus drank. With that said, I will probably never enter a porn show to hand out bibles like XXXChurch does. Without fail, the moment that I think I’ve beaten this is the eve of a fall. There’s my humility check.
My last experience “clubbing” was back in New Caledonia. I ended up escorting a drunk guy around making sure he didn’t get in too much trouble, and then got into an argument and near-fight…with the other non-drinking guy. It took a lot of energy out of me. Still yet, is there any theological difference between being there for people in a bar and being there for people in a porn show? I’m not sure. And that’s not to discount that sexual temptations exist in bars.

I remember my skepticism when I heard about friends entering gay hangouts in Tucson on a regular basis just to be Jesus’ love to them. It’s a skepticism I now regret. The reason this post is named as such is that the primary visible commonalities between the Navy and college are alcohol and sex. Plain and simple. And the fact is that Jesus isn’t just needed in porn shows. He’s needed in the bars, too. The actual planning and execution is going to depend upon some prayer, though.

Every U.S. servicemember in Sasebo who is eligible to live out in town knows about the cho board. It’s basically a board of pamphlets, each pamphlet containing information about a residence that’s available for the taking. Thus begins another story of me not listening to God.

What do I want in an apartment? Good size? A good stove? Nice view? Opportunities to share the Gospel? Wait, hold on to that last one, I’ll get back to it.

One of the available places had the landlord living on the first floor and the tenants live on the second in their own separate apartments. For a short moment, I thought it might be a witnessing opportunity. Imagine having such close dealings with a Japanese family and being able to share the Gospel. I could just give them my Japanese bible if I had to.

Suddenly my “rational” mind kicked in. Why would you want to live just above your landlord; are you crazy? They’ll be mean. They’ll make you turn your music off. You’ll go crazy.

I bypassed the place and set up appointments to look at a couple of others, the latter of which I decided to rent. It was a modest 7th floor apartment right next to the shopping district, which meant that I wouldn’t need a car as I was planning. The paperwork appointment was scheduled for the week after next. I was a little uneasy with that timing, and in that respect I was right. The Friday before the appointment, I got the news that I would have to hit up a school elsewhere in Japan instead. Infuriated that my plan didn’t happen the way I wanted it to, I cancelled the appointment.

During that school though I was given the opportunity to return to The Lighthouse, a Christian hospitality house for U.S. servicemembers. My visit there two years ago had convinced me to get an assignment in Japan, and I had been feeling homesick for a while. God’s plan was working in spite of my rigid resistance.

I still don’t have a place in town, but neither do my junior subordinates. They’re not allowed. Some of them stopped me when I was out in town the other night and asked. To complain at all about not having a place in God’s presence is akin to complaining right in front of them. Meanwhile, once I do get a place, if at all, I’m still going to ask God what He wants to do with it. That is, if I don’t end up getting carried away trusting myself again.