A series of pertinent – and impertinent – observations about military justice

GOLDEN ANNIVERSARY.  Miranda v. Arizona has been the law of the land for 50 years.  The “right to remain silent”  has entered the popular lexicon as ‘mirandizing’  someone.

SIKH ACCOMMODATION.  The Sacramento Bee newspaper reports that a San Francisco Bay area  Sikh can keep his beard and long hair as he enters the Army.

CYBER INSECURITY?  Gordon Goldstein, in a Washington Post Book World review, addresses cyber attacks as “America’s struggle to both exploit the opportunities and defend against the risks of a new era of global cyber-insecurity.”

Meanwhile, telecommunications giant Verizon reports 79,790 verified security breaches in the United States in 2014.   DOD has created a Cyber Command.  In its first three years, the command’s budget tripled from $2 billion to $7 billion.

THE ABSURD.    George Will points out shenanigans which might show America at its worst:

• A police raid in Florida on women, ages 87 to 95, playing mah-jongg supposedly for money

• The arrest of a New Jersey 72-year-old retired teacher, charging him with illegally carrying a firearm – which turned out to be a 300-year-old flintlock pistol with no powder, flint, or ball

• A suburban Washington DC high school which claimed to promote self-esteem by naming 117 valedictorians in a class of 457.

• A San Francisco middle school principal, who withheld result of student elections which did not produce a properly “diverse” result

SCIENCE ADVANCES.  The Marine Corps will supposedly obtain replacement parts for its weapons with the new machines that clone parts.   Meanwhile, Army experimental vehicles on Michigan Interstate 69 will be driverless.  And the Air Force is looking into robots which could avoid explosives and rebuild airfields after an attack,

WHAT’S HAPPENING  IN AMERICA? Author Yuval Levin has this take on America – our times foster expressive individualism, but  this new freedom comes at a high price.   We have set loose a scourge of loneliness and isolation –we are still afraid to acknowledge it.  Cushing conformity characterized the  past; but today, we face a lonely world — institutions such as family, community, church, and unions fade and falter.

A TIME TO SPEAK… A TIME NOT? A recent Washington Post article reports how doctors are going on social media to challenge ratings given by unhappy clients, such as on Yelp.  The writer points out that the health caregivers occasionally respond in ways that violate HIPPA.

WOMEN IN COMBAT.  The Senate has passed a defense bill which includes requiring women to register for the draft.

ROTC AT HARVARD.  Harvard students conducted bayonet drills as far back in World War I.   But ROTC was banned at Harvard due to protests during the Vietnam War.   ROTC is now back at Harvard.

GREAT QUOTE. Albert Einstein supposedly said, “Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.”