Watch the 40 minute presentation from US Air Force Chief of Staff, General Mark Welsh, as he speaks to cadets at the US Air Force Academy.
He coins a cadet who made a spoof video, shown at 06:30. If you see nothing else, that alone is worth the watch.
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The Associated Press picked up on Michael “Mikey” Weinstein’s complaint about Allen Willoughby, an athletic trainer at the US Air Force Academy Prep School who sent Weinstein an email after Weinstein’s complaint about “So Help Me God.” As published by Weinstein’s ally Pam Zubeck at the Colorado Springs Independent, the email said:
…God will always be a part of the US Military even when you are gone to meet him face to face. You know you can do a lot for the homeless veterans out here but you could care less about them but when it comes to Christians you are willing to fight against us, well you will never win and so you know the war has already been won. I am on staff at USAFA and will talk about Jesus Christ my Lord and savior to everyone that I work with. Do something productive with your life and Stop harassing the fine people at USAFA. I really pray for your soul.
Zubeck provocatively titled her blog
Academy athletic trainer vows to proselytize on campus
Presumably, Zubeck is at least trying to appear to be a journalist, albeit one who apparently does not deign to use a dictionary. As is evident to the rest of the world, the Prep School trainer did not “vow[] to proselytize.”
For his part, Weinstein almost Read more
Michael “Mikey” Weinstein didn’t like what USAFA did. So he bought a billboard. Again.
Via the AFTimes.
As noted at the Air Force Times, Weinstein is upset that “so help me God” remains in the Cadet Honor Oath, despite his prior claim of “victory” over USAFA on this issue: Read more
Chris Rodda, Michael “Mikey” Weinstein’s paid research assistant, writes an occasional article for Weinstein’s MRFF. Rodda considers herself a history buff, and her writings reflect that. She is also exceedingly verbose, with many of her articles going on for pages even before she says ‘the reason I’m writing this….’
She recently struck again, in a letter to USAFA Superintendent LtGen Michelle Johnson that was co-signed by Weinstein. The letter was clearly hers, as it lacked the alliterative vitriol or the acidic hyperbole characteristic of Weinstein’s writing. (It also contained no gratuitous ellipses or the pastel colored font Weinstein so favors in his emails.) She wrote it, ostensibly, to rebut a letter written by the ACLJ’s Jay Sekulow and Skip Ash: Read more
After USAFA appeared to capitulate to Michael “Mikey” Weinstein’s complaints that “so help me God” violated the US Constitution, two Congressmen have proposed legislation that would require “Congressional approval” before changes can be made to military oaths. The bill was proposed by Reps Sam Johnson and Pete Olson (R-Tx). Though the text is not available, the current lengthy title says the purpose of HR 3416 is
to require congressional approval before any change may be made to the oaths required for enlistment in the Armed Forces, appointment to an office in the civil service or uniformed services, or appointment as a cadet or midshipman at a military service academy…
Astute observers will note that has nothing to do with USAFA’s Cadet Honor Oath. Similarly, the oaths to which that legislation does apply are already enshrined Read more
An interesting letter to the Colorado Springs Gazette, the paper local to the US Air Force Academy:
I believe the vast majority of the Air Force Academy community, and the rest of us, have had a belly full of Mikey Weinstein’s whinings and rantings…
Weinstein is nothing more than a self-loathing bully who Read more
Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel credited the Anti-Defamation League with a turnabout at the US Air Force Academy with respect to religion:
The Department of Defense is proud – very proud – to have worked with the ADL to make our military more open, and more equal, and more just. One example of this historic partnership is at the Air Force Academy, where only a few years ago there were troubling accusations of Read more
Michael “Mikey” Weinstein’s discombobulated responses to the Air Force Academy decision to make “so help me God” optional in the Cadet Honor Oath (he both welcomes it and threatened to sue) may have been his flailing efforts to regain the narrative in a losing effort. His research assistant, Chris Rodda, seems to indicate the MRFF is trying to point the narrative in a different direction. In a local news report on the Academy decision (original here):
Air Force Academy cadets are no longer required to say “so help me God” at the end of the Honor Oath. The change was made in response to complaints from a group called the Military Religious Freedom Foundation…
Chris Rodda, of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, said…”The people we are battling on this will say that nobody’s forced to say ‘so help me God.’ That actually is not true. The cadets received an email that said that they must say it for their commissioning oath to be legal.”
Rodda’s response is noteworthy because the Cadet Honor Oath has nothing to do with the commissioning oath, and nothing to do with the MSgt’s email. Whether the MRFF is intentionally trying to alter the debate or if Chris Rodda is incompetently Read more