"Threepers"
December 20, 2008 - 8:31 pm
Irradiated by Stingray
Irradiated by Stingray
Since everyone of actual merit has already weighed in, it’s about time for me to show up to the party. I will not self-identify as a member of either the so-called 3%, nor will I self-identify as a member of the “prags” or whatever other terms are out there for either group. Instead I have a question:
Do you think D-Day would’ve gone better for the allies if the Germans were given copies of the battle plans first?
December 21st, 2008 at 4:30 am
Seeing how Patton got them hooked on his phantom invasion and Hitler being the definition of “Commander in the Sky” (He forbade tank forces to attack believing the Normandy was just a feint and held them in reserve for the real blow)…
It probably would not have been worse and might have served to cement Patton as the real threat thus seeing more forces concentrated there.
Of course the plans for the german blitz of france and belgium were lost to the french and it didn’t change the result notably, so who can say ?
December 21st, 2008 at 7:57 am
What is a Threeper? What issue are you talking about? The term is either so new or so obscure that I have not been able to find any info on a web search.
As for the question you asked, secrecy and misinformation are vital in a war. Loose lips really do sink ships. Thousands of Americans would have been killed, and the invasion could have easily failed, if the Germans knew what we were doing.
December 21st, 2008 at 9:07 am
Like Richard, I don’t understand ‘Threeper’ or the issue - could you elaborate?
As for leaking the D-day plans, that could have slowed the Allies, but probably not stopped them. Consider: in the Normandy area, only one of the five invasion beaches (Omaha) had reasonable defenses; the Allies had air supremacy long before the invasion, and probably could have disrupted any last-minute German build-up (as they did in the weeks following the invasion); they had maritime supremacy, as they demonstrated by stopping most German seaborne attacks on the invasion fleet after it went in, so it’s unlikely that German attempts to disrupt it would have worked; and they would have ‘adapted and overcome’ by holding onto the beaches where they could get ashore and throwing subsequent landing waves onto those beaches, leaving those (like, perhaps, a reinforced Omaha) where they couldn’t get a foothold. It would have been hard on the guys left there, but that’s war.
If the Germans had known, it would probably have trebled or quadrupled Allied casualties, but I don’t think it would have stopped the invasion.
December 21st, 2008 at 9:15 am
I get Threeper (but I’m not part of any of those groups) and yeah, I agree that loose lips fuck plans up.
December 21st, 2008 at 12:07 pm
Short version: If you don’t know the terms already, you’re probably better off anyway.
Long answer: “Threeper” vs. “Prag” is a rolling pit of willy-waving and headache generation bouncing it’s way around the gun blogosphere like superball in a washing machine’s spin cycle. Don’t go looking for it without a friend ready to unplug your computer about the time the sputtering noises start issuing forth from the computer’s user.
December 21st, 2008 at 6:19 pm
If the threepers were serious, they wouldn’t be talking about their plans, or even talking to the “prags”.
They would be stockpiling gear, training, and removing all paper and electronic trails pointing at themselves … including those made by posting on the internet.
It’s like Fight Club. What’s the first rule again?
December 21st, 2008 at 8:06 pm
Count me amongst the “better off anyway.” Or maybe not. The superball analogy hits me rather hard. One of my students launched the same sort of projectile before the final bell rang on Friday before the Christmas break. It hit a wall and then a window, rebounded off the floor, bounced on three desks in a row before hitting my desk, eventually landing in my paw with barely an effort on my part. “Million to one,” I announced without emotion. True story. No shit. My curious mind wants to know how many times in the lifetime of a human a person will witness a million to one shot? Given my encounters of late with three-legged coyotes, maybe it’s best not to tempt the fates. I think the proper thing to do is get drunk and forget it ever happened. I’m working on that even as I type. I call it multi-tasking; your mileage may vary.
The Dragon Garden sits next to the Pink Adobe in Sante Fe. It’s been there long enough that a tree, now with a trunk at ten inches diameter, has grown through the roof. The pizza establishment across the street brags about being located in the oldest house, in the oldest city, in the New World. I think it likely that I’m the last person on earth who might logically, with at least anecdotal evidence, dispute that fact. I had the honor of tending as a nurse the late Isafredo Gallegos until he was almost ninety. He told me much about that corner of Santa Fe. In truth, no one knows for sure which structure might be the oldest. I hope my sodden brain will be up to the task someday of bearing witness to the facts.
“Fred” was a surveyor by trade until he was drafted to fight in World War II. He got lucky. A friend pulled him from the induction line with a deferral. The government needed roadmen to survey a path to an obscure boy’s school on a mesa overlooking the Rio Grande Valley. The place was known as Los Alamos. Isafredo Gallegos did the groundwork, first by bi-plane, and then by packmule. Of course, he had no idea what was in the making.
Butch Cooper didn’t have any idea either when he dragged me down to White Sands to hunt the oryx. Some government idiot decided it would be a good idea to release African antelope on the White Sands proving grounds. What do you get when herbivores are released without proper predators to keep them in check? Hunt’n season! God bless their bureaucratic assholes. An oryx hunt is the only safari you will find this side of Africa. And it was a thrill plus some. The plus came when I wandered into the tube known as “Jumbo.” It was and still is a gigantic cast-iron tube that was dropped at the last minute before detonation of the first atomic bomb. It survives to this day.
Butch Cooper got his oryx that day under circumstances I am pledged not to divulge much as I would like to. We had to hoist the beast onto the hood of a Jeep because Butch forgot the insurance necessary to drag his trailer onto a military base. We had a side of roast rib by the time we got back to the checking station. It can get damn hot on White Sands. No matter. Oryx is a damned fine meat, none better in my experience, even better than elk.
Where was I going with this? Back to the Dragon Garden where the Silver Dollar Margarita comes up strong and slightly sweet with a touch of salt. And on a good night the local talent touches strings on the Spanish guitar that would make God weep. At least on a good night. Even on a bad night it ain’t half bad. I reckon someday God will call me to a life of sobriety, but not yet. Not now. Not tonight. Who can fault a man for telling the truth even under intoxication?
I swear everything written above is the truth. So be it.
~Paules
December 21st, 2008 at 10:36 pm
I went searching and found the debates last night … count yourselves lucky that your community can have such a debate. I live in Canada, and that ship sailed about a hundred years ago. Most of you would probably (and rightly) scream bloody murder at the regulations that even my father grew up with.
December 22nd, 2008 at 11:41 am
Paules- I think it was an anthropological rather than governmental (per se) idiot who graced us with oryx: the late Frank Hibben of UNM, a lousy archaeologist but great hunter (his book on cougars is a classic) and real- life Indiana Jones model. He thew a spear at someone I know once- don’t think he MEANT to hit him but it was apparently scary. I think all NM hunting exotics can be traced to his influence.
Agree re meat, and the spread is WAY bigger than admitted. Did a bit of entomological work at the Sevilleta a few years ago and herds were everywhere. There is a lot of badland terrain on the east side of the river between White Sands and the Sev, and nobody goes there much but nuts like me and cowboys gathering cows.
December 23rd, 2008 at 5:10 pm
No, but if the plans had been leaked to both the Jerries and the ‘Murrican public before D-Day, then General Eisenhowerboegh could have made himself out to be a big hero whether D-Day succeeded or not, been elected president in 11/44, his coathangers who somehow forgot to go ashore in Normandy on 6/6/44 would have basked in the glow and looked daring… Is my metaphor ringing true?
Meanwhile, I just realized I need .300 Whisper dies. My stock of factory Cor-Bon ammo is getting low…
January 1st, 2009 at 5:52 pm
No, disclosing D-Day plans would be bad.
But the analogy is a total Failure, unless you think invasion is the correct action, or is planned.
September 6th, 2009 at 1:35 pm
What is a threeper?
Picture an experienced male grizzly emanating guttural growls in the presence of younger male grizzly. — expressing the fact that if the younger grizz (The GOV) doesn’t vacate the premises (area of Constitutional protections); death is sure to follow.
That low, guttural growl is just a warning. Nothing more, nothing less.
The goal is to Keep violence at bay, not start it.
Mike
—Why do we have Atomic weapons? Do we possess them to start wars, or prevent them?
October 21st, 2009 at 9:44 am
Obama has attempted to keep his MARXIST agenda low key. People who realize what is going on are sending a message. SOOOOOOOO what….. Obama feels he needs a few million man civilain army — why??? Perhaps it will be too late when the rest of America wakes up. He is clearly stating his plan and now there is a reply… Your move bama ……
December 8th, 2009 at 4:19 pm
Actually, “threepers” and various fellow travellers are not quiet about their convictions for a reason. They are presenting an ultimatum. They want to prevent a civil war, not engage in one. But they are preparing for either eventuallity.
They see their liberties slipping away and feel their back is against the wall. They have drawn a line in the sand, so to speak. While I’m not much of a “joiner”, and I am not a part of any organized movement, I consider myself a three percenter.
“You’ve got us surrounded, you poor bastards”
December 9th, 2009 at 7:00 pm
It’s more like 11% now! I have been ramping up since y2k, all those who laughed at me when I cashed out my paper then for Gold are no longer laughing but now listening, investing, preparing. Buy Guns, buy Gold, by GOD!