人生行路 — The Journey of Life

A senior officer back when I was in college told us mids once about how he had his identity stolen.  His SSN had been taken off a check back in the day when military exchanges and commissaries required patrons to write their social security numbers on checks.  Very fortunately in Navy terms, he was at a shore command, meaning that he had normal access to a telephone and whatever resources necessary to clear his name, though it was still an absolute pain and could have been much worse than it was.

Not so if you’re talking about a single Sailor underway.  No spouse at home to try to take care of it, and no Fleet and Family Support Center.  Perhaps there might be plenty of phone calls to the NLSO, but I can’t imagine such a nightmare.  The cost of being on the satellite phone so much is scary enough.

Making matters worse, SSNs are what make Navy administration run, period.  Recent GMT efforts have surrounded the securing of “PII” (personally identifiable information), but that doesn’t equal immunity by any standard.  Making matters worse, everybody knows your FPO address.  That alone should be harrowing for anyone on anything equal to or larger than a smallbuoy, let alone a big deck.

Google searching for “identity theft insurance” comes up with doubts over its worthiness.  Ultimately, some say, “insurance” is reactive rather than proactive.  Preventing having to react is the whole point for somebody underway and unable to wage combat over financial institutions and credit reports.

I looked at two specific services today with interest: LifeLock and TrustedID.  LifeLock was the first I’ve heard about, having seen many of their advertisements in airline magazines during some recent overseas flying, and their advertising is especially attention-getting, with their CEO going so far as to advertise his actual social security number to demonstrate his confidence in his company’s product.  Despite some apparent hiccups with one of their founders having been involved in credit fraud (irony?), the sleaze looks to be out of the company.  I admit that I haven’t seen any advertising for TrustedID, and that LifeLock looks better as a result.

The oddity of it all in this context comes in that whenever an attempt is made to open an account in a customer’s name, they will call you.  Oh wait, they can’t when I’m at sea.

Accordingly, I emailed LifeLock today (before finding out about TrustedID) and asked if I could give them my parents’ phone number or have them email me instead of calling me.  If I ever need to open an account, I can give my parents advance notice to say yes.

It’s nice to have such good support from back home.  Many sailors aren’t so lucky.

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.

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.