Archive for the 'Personal' Category
(Chronologically Listed)
Remembering Pearl Harbor
My dad, John A. Webster, was a seaman aboard the USS San Francisco (CA-38) at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Fortunately, the San Francisco was docked some distance from Battleship Row (look down to the lower right corner) and so was not subjected to the heavy bombing that damaged or sank so many other ships :
Dad said that the San Francisco’s guns had been dismantled for cleaning and repairs, and so the sailors on board were reduced to using rifles and sidearms to shoot at the Japanese planes.
It was my visit to the USS Arizona memorial in 1975 that led me to realize how many hundreds and hundreds of young men like my father died in those few hours — and how easily our own family could never have been.
Randy Barnett over at the Volokh Conspiracy has a wonderful and extensive remembrance of Pearl Harbor, including quite a few photos and video clips. ..bruce w..
233 Years of Semper Fi
MCRD Platoon 3010 - 1984 - click for full size.
November 10th is a special day for Marines, it’s the day we celebrate the birthday of our beloved Corps. The Marines are a tough, no-nonsense force focused always and forever on the mission.
On this 233rd, I would like to give a salute to all the Marines I served with, including
Sean Church aka “HenderChurch”
Tim Maroe aka “Le Midget”
Jim Sanchez
Matt Keske aka “Poopsan”
John Winkleman
Jerry Bogen
Mark Corlew
Tim Peters
Matt Johnson
Staff Sergeant Oliver
Gunny Roleson
Pat Muritore
Michael Tan
Staff Sergeant Zorman
Staff Sergeant Figueroa
John Pollock
John Lear
Eric Covington
Rick Piva
Harry Roads
Smitty
Jade Chavis
Sam Bennet aka Sammy Love
and all the others that I can’t rattle out of my head right now. And a special salute to Phil Berry who talked me into signing up. One of the best decisions ever.
Bruce as a tiny jarhead, days before graduating boot camp in April of 1984.
Black Five has a nice write up as well…
Update - the Commandant has posted his birthday message on You Tube. The opening includes the orders to have Marines head to Lebanon. I vividly recall this event, which figured prominently in my decision to join.
A letter from Iraq
Just got in today’s mail a letter from our son Jon, currently stationed in al Rutbah in Iraq; here’s the text:
=============
August 22, 2008
Mom, Dad..
I wanted to write y’all a quick letter while I’ve got some downtime here at the IP Station. It’s now Day 50 of our deployment and so far things have been going relatively smooth. There’s only been one incident where I’ve had to bring my M4 up and take it off safe; each time never escalated any further than that.
No encounters with any IEDs, either, which is outstanding. But, even with that said, we’re rolling with a couple MRAPs (basically a 40,000-pound up-armored ice cream truck) when we drive to/from Rutbah & our outpost, so we’re good to go!
The main challenge is working with the Iraqi police. The majority of them are so apathetic to what’s going on or what’s expected of them that it’s almost impossible to get them to do something as simple as wearing their uniform properly, if at all. These guys are the laziest bunch of grown men I’ve ever worked with and they make over twice as much money as the doctors out here when half of them can’t even read or write. Not only that, but this entire town in tainted with corruption. The IP Chief, the mayor, the city council and the sheiks…it’s ridiculous, but it’s perfectly common out here.
I wish you guys could see this place…But, then again, I don’t. This town is trashed. Not just figuratively; I mean there’s literally human waste and garbage everywhere…dead goats, sheep, cats, and dogs outside people’s houses, in the alleyways, in the streets…It goes without saying, but it friggin’ stinks out here. The structures these people live in are in pretty bad shape, plus most of these families have no electricity. It’s sad to say, but ti’s just like what you might see on TV, only much more surreal when you’re out on patrol walking right through the thick of it. I’ve gotta hand it to ‘em for surviving the way they do with what little they have. It makes me that much more grateful for the things I have today and for everything you guys did to provide for all 40 of us kids as we were raised up.
Anyways…so everything’s fine out here. I hope the two of you are okay. I’ll leave my address below; if it changes I’ll be sure to let y’all know. There’s been rumor about us possibly moving to a different outpost around the end of the year, but it’s nothing official, so…we’ll see.
Anyways, we’re gearing up and getting ready to roll soon so I’ve gotta go. I miss and love you both. Hope to hear from you soon.
Your son, Jon
LCPL Jon A. Webster
PTT 21 (AO Rutbah)
Unit 42741
FPO-AP96426-2741
===========================
I couldn’t be more proud of him. ..bruce w..
The Incoherence of the Incoherent
[with apologies to Averroes (aka Ab 'l-Wald Muammad ibn Amad ibn Rushd)]
I have been a registered Democrat since turning 18 in 1971, though over the past 20 years, I have often wondered why. The best answer: every time I consider registering as a Republican, some major Republican (or group thereof) does something so profoundly stupid or appalling that I can’t bring myself to switch parties. My most recent reason has been the gutless, self-serving and self-defeating behavior of Congressional Republicans over the past 4 years.
But I digress. As a Democrat, I have over the past 16 years — since the nomination and election of Bill Clinton in 1992 — watched my own party define its ethical standards and behavior downward, committing virtually every bad act of which they constantly accuse conservatives (it’s called “projection“). I thought I had ceased to be surprised by both the viciousness and the sheer, rank hypocrisy of both Democratic leaders and much of the Left’s rank and file, not to mention their handmaiden, the mainstream media.
But this weekend has surprised even me.
The Democrats like to complain about “the politics of personal destruction”, even as they have mastered it (again, since Bill Clinton’s ascension in 1992). But the absolute frothing rage and vile, hypocritical and/or false attacks that have followed hard upon the announcement of Sarah Palin as the GOP Vice-Presidential candidate have left me appalled beyond words. The Left has shown once again that no one surpasses them at their willingness to utterly trash anyone — especially women and minorities — who defy or threaten them.
Here’s a simple thought experiement: suppose that Sarah Palin were a Democrat and had been chosen by Barack Obama as his VP candidate. Virutally everything that the Left is attacking Sarah Palin on right now would instead be touted as “real-world experience and understanding”, especially her time as mayor of a small town in Alaska. They would fiercly mock any criticism, however mild, of Bristol’s pregnancy; they would tout Sarah’s choice to keep Trig (their Down’s Syndrome child) as showing how much of a ‘big tent’ the Democratic party has; and they would shout to the heavens Palin’s reformist credentials, particularly her fight against corrupt Republicans in Alaskan government.
Sarah Palin’s only real sin is that she’s a Republican. And the sheer virulance of the Left’s reaction to her shows how utterly terrified they are of her. If she really were a poor choice, a desperate choice, a lightweight choice, the Democrats would rub their hands with glee and thank the political gods for such a dumb choice. They would simply let the GOP ticket fail on its own, taking the high road (assuming the Democrats even know any more what the “high road” is). But the vicious, over-the-top, incoherent rage of the incoherent Left shows that Palin is anything but a lightweight, anything but a poor choice. She is, they fear, a second Reagan, one shaped for the 21st Century. Their nightmare is that if McCain/Palin win in November, they may have lost the White House for the next 8 to 16 years.
So they have to destroy her, smear her name, build up a negative image of her and her family in the public’s mind, before anyone gets to know her. And this means passing the stupidest, most vile rumors; being profoundly (and hypocritically) anti-feminist and misogynist in their attacks against her and her family; and generally lowering their political ethics beyond even their usual Stygian depths.
I can no longer bear, in even a ‘DINO’ sort of way, to be associated with the Democratic Party; whatever hopes I had that Barack Obama may actually represent something new are gone, notwithstanding what I thought was an outstanding talk last week. And for all the stupidities of the Republican Party — past, present, and probably future — the selection and nomination of Sarah Palin gives me hope for the future of the GOP.
All this is why I’ve added a new ‘to do’ item to an already busy list for this week. I just downloaded a voter registration/change of information form, filled it out, and printed it; I’ll be mailing it to the Douglas County Clerk & Recorder tomorrow.
And for the first time in my life, after 37 years as a Democrat, I will be a Republican.
..bruce w..
[UPDATED 09/04/08 -- 0654 MDT]
If you’re wondering, yes, I did mail off the updated voter registration yesterday; I’ll let y’all know when my new Republican voter registration card comes in.
In the meantime, enjoy this People’s Newswire Roundup regarding Sarah Palin. ..bruce w..
Missing all the good stuff
Earlier this year, I was quite excited. Both the annual World Science Fiction Convention and the Democratic National Convention were coming to Denver (Sandra and I live in Parker, just outside of Denver) in the month of August. It would be a great two-fer!
As it turns out, I have been in Colorado for maybe 100 hours or so this August. I’ve been consulting full time on the East Coast, with a one-week break to attend our son’s wedding in Utah. I missed WorldCon and I’m missing the DNC. Heck, I even missed the four (harmless) tornadoes that touched down in and around Parker on Sunday.
But, hey, it’s work. ..bruce w..
Technology is a marvelous thing
I just had a phone conversation with my son Jon (LCPL Webster, USMC), who is somewhere in Iraq. Frankly, the phone call quality was better than when he used to call me from San Diego on his own cell phone. He’s doing well, though he said that when his cohort landed in Kuwait earlier this month, the temperature was nearly 140 degrees F. He couldn’t talk long and couldn’t tell me much about where he is and what he’s doing — but he’s doing well. ..bruce..
A eulogy for my father (republished)
[Some months back, our website was infected, and I had to take it pretty much down to "bare metal" and then restore everything. I just now discovered that in that process, my very first post on this blog -- the eulogy I gave for my father eleven years ago this month -- was not restored. With Father's Day tomorrow, it's a fitting time to publish it here again.]
The following is a slightly edited version of the eulogy I gave for my father, John Arthur Webster, on June 21, 1997, when we as a family scattered his ashes out at sea off the Southern California coast.
My father’s life spanned three-fourths of this [the 20th] century and was, perhaps, as pure an example of American life and the American dream as can be found. His life was shaped by three major forces — history, the sea, and my mother — though I leave it to others to decide which has been more powerful. (Being my mother’s son, I know where I’d place my bets.) And through his life, he set an example for all of us here.
Soccer memories
James Lileks on changes in American childhood:
I don’t think they had soccer balls in North Dakota until 1981; it was brought in on a special train and placed behind glass and people got to walk around it and get close, if they felt comfortable, and become accustomed to its strange surface. It is faceted, yet round. It doesn’t seem like a gateway sport that leads inevitably to socialism. Maybe we should give it a try. No, we had baseballs. Hard, unforgiving, painful, American baseballs. When it came at your head you got out of the way. Now in the space of a single generation we’ve trained the young to stick their heads into the path of an oncoming ball.
I first played soccer — or some very crude equivalent thereof — my senior year of high school (1970-71). After the end of the football season, I skipped my last-period PE class for two months or so, until Coach Roberts ran into me on campus one day and let me know that I’d better get my butt back to gym. One didn’t argue with Coach Roberts. We (by which I mean all the seniors in that class) still did pretty much what we wanted — lifted weights, ran some, dinked around with track and field gear (I briefly contemplated joining the Track team when I discovered an unexpected aptitude for the discus, but we all decided I really wasn’t all that great at it), and generally suited out for an hour before hitting the showers.
Oh, and we played “soccer” on occasion. Of course, this was on a dirt field surrounded in part by low (4′) chain link fences, and tended to look more like Rugby Without Hands. We used at least one of the fences as a field boundary, which meant that you ended up with a few dozen guys scrunched up against the fence, all kicking furiously at the ball and each other. In one such situation, I leveled a mighty kick at the ball — and hit a (metal) fence post instead, doing my best to jam my right big toe back into the middle of my right foot.
I limped for several days and went back to lifting weights. ..bruce w..
Happy Birthday Bruce Webster!
It’s April 21st, and that means it’s the birthday of the one and only Bruce Webster!
Please join me in wishing him a wonderful an happy birthday.
Nerd History Lesson - Evil Bruce
A blast from the past, circa 1992. The place is San Diego, the company is Pages Software. Back then the internet was not yet invented, but we has usenet news groups.
The following appeared Jan 17, 1992 in comp.sys.next.misc
Just how many Bruce’s are there at Pages?
Well,
I have recently gotten a couple of peices of Mail from people assuming that I
am Mr. Bruce Webster, author of the NeXT Book. Just to set the record
straight, he is bwebster@pages.comI am bruce@pages.com (Bruce Henderson). (contains less than 1% of the USDA allowance of Webster)
So let’s summerize.
Bruce Webster:
Used to write for Byte
Used to write for MacWorld
Sometimes writes for NeXTWORLD
Wrote the NeXT Book
Supreme Lord of Engineering at Pages, Inc.
Known in house as “Good Bruce”Bruce Henderson:
Worked on PowerStep at Ashton Tate
Wrote the (former) Toasters Module for BackSpace
Creator of SuperHack
Resident NeXT Spud at Pages, Inc.
Known in house as “Evil Bruce”
OK?
Bruce(the other one)
To this day, Webster and I still get mail for each other, especially when we have a hot topic on the blog. We would have meetings at Pages, and people would keep addressing “Bruce”. As we were both doing a lot of coding and design, there would be rampant confusion. So we derived that I was “Evil Bruce”, and Webster was “Good Bruce”.
Evil - as in I was noted for being up to eternal mischief. Case in point: Shoes. Shoes are seldom safe around me, even to this day. The team at Pages had a habit of taking off their shoes during the day as they worked in their offices / desks.
Once the shoes are off the feet, they are fair game. It started by just collecting the shoes, but that was not very evil. It evolved into putting stray shoes into the freezer in the office kitchen. Now we are getting more evil! Our co-workers would get ready to leave for the day, be unable to find their footware, and when they finally did they were very very cold.
This finally evolved into an assault on Webster’s trademark Berkenstocks. They were forever off his feet exposing his scraggly toes. One day we took a stand for evil and podiatal michief.
We “liberated” the Berks early in the day, and into the freezer they went. After the first few hours, we would take them out every so often and mist them with a spray bottle. The result was hoped to be something akin to a shoe shaped hailstone with a gnarly Berkenstock inside.
Suffice to say, Webster’s feet may have never recovered.