John, Did you serve ?
Scott ford www.identityforge.com from my IPAD > On Mar 10, 2014, at 3:40 PM, John Gilmore <[email protected]> wrote: > > Without conscription the fraction of Americans who have military > experience is certainly now diminishing. Let us hope that it will > continue to drop, but I doubt that it will. It diminished sharply > after WWI, in the 1920s and 1930s; but WWII sent it up again, sharply > . > > Moreover, our 'volunteer' American military is showing signs of > fatigue. Its members are being redeployed into combat zones much too > frequently. Their periods of respite are now, in the words of the > Scots poet, "short and far between". > > My point was, however, a different one. It was that if the millions > of Americans who have served in the military were able to master the > 24-hour clock almost anyone else can do so too. The intellectual > difficulties of doing so have been greatly exaggerated. American > specialism about things like the 12-hour clock and the "English" > system of weights and measures grows ever more tedious and > dysfunctional. > > John Gilmore, Ashland, MA 01721 - USA > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, > send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
