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Weather: Mostly sunny. Highs in the mid 70s. Light and variable winds, becoming east around 5 mph in the afternoon. Saturday Night: Partly cloudy in the evening, then clearing. Patchy fog. Lows in the lower 50s. East winds around 5 mph in the evening, becoming light and variable.
- Daily weather briefing from the National Weather Service in Jacksonville here.
- Drought conditions here. (What is the Keetch-Byram drought index?).
- Check today’s tides in Daytona Beach (a few minutes off from Flagler Beach) here.
- Tropical cyclone activity here, and even more details here.
Today at a Glance:
The Saturday Flagler Beach Farmers Market is scheduled for 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. today at its new location on South 2nd Street, right in front of City Hall, featuring prepared food, fruit, vegetables , handmade products and local arts from more than 30 local merchants. The market is hosted by Flagler Strong, a non-profit.
American Association of University Women (AAUW) Monthly Meeting, 11 a.m. at Cypress Knoll Golf Club, 53 Easthampton Blvd, Palm Coast. A monthly speaker is featured. Lunch is available for $20 in cash, $21 by credit card, but must be ordered in advance. The lunch menu is available on our website. Lunch may be ordered by sending an email to: [email protected].
Peps Art Walk, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. every second and fourth Saturday, Beachfront Grille, 2444 South Oceanshore Boulevard, Flagler Beach. Step into the magical vibes of Unique Handcrafted vendors gathering in one location, selling handmade goods. Makers, crafters, artists, of all kinds found here. From honey to baked goods, wooden surfboards, to painted surfboards, silverware jewelry to clothing, birdbaths to inked glass, beachy furniture to foot fashions, candles to soaps, air fresheners to home decor and SO much more! Peps Art Walk happens on the last Saturday of every month. A grassroots market that began in May of 2022 has grown steadily into an event with over 30 vendors and many loyal patrons. The event is free, food and drink on site, parking is free, and a raffle is held to raise money for local charity Whispering Meadows Ranch. Kid friendly, dog friendly, great music and good vibes. Come out to support our hometown artist community!
Santa in Bunnel: The Bunnell Police Department will be escorting Santa through the Bunnell neighborhoods. Santa will be coming to visit the neighborhoods of Bunnell for two nights in December, beginning the journeys from the Bunnell Police Department at 4:30 p.m., ready to spread holiday cheer throughout our community. Today Santa will be in Grand Reserve and Palm Terrace Mobile Home Park.
Grace Community Food Pantry, 245 Education Way, Bunnell, drive-thru open today from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. The food pantry is organized by Pastor Charles Silano and Grace Community Food Pantry, a Disaster Relief Agency in Flagler County. Feeding Northeast Florida helps local children and families, seniors and active and retired military members who struggle to put food on the table. Working with local grocery stores, manufacturers, and farms we rescue high-quality food that would normally be wasted and transform it into meals for those in need. The Flagler County School District provides space for much of the food pantry storage and operations. Call 386-586-2653 to help, volunteer or donate.
Second Saturday Plant Sale at Washington Oaks Gardens State Park, 6400 North Oceanshore Blvd., Palm Coast, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Flowers, bushes and hard to find plants. The event is sponsored by the Friends of Washington Oaks. Regular entrance fee applies: $4 per vehicle with one person aboard, $5 for vehicles with more than one person.
Gamble Jam: Join us for the Gamble Jam—a laid-back, toe-tappin’ tribute to the legendary Florida folk singer and storyteller, James Gamble Rogers IV! Musicians of all skill levels are welcome to bring their acoustic instruments and join the jam. Whether you’re strumming, picking, singing, or just soaking in the sounds, come be part of the magic at the Gamble Jam pavilion! The program is free with park admission! Gamble Rogers Memorial State Recreation Area at Flagler Beach, 3100 S. Oceanshore Blvd., Flagler Beach, FL. Call the Ranger Station at (386) 517-2086 for more information. The park hosts this acoustic jam session at one of the pavilions along the river to honor the memory of James Gamble Rogers IV, the Florida folk musician who lost his life in 1991 while trying to rescue a swimmer in the rough surf.
‘Annie,’ at Limelight Theatre, Limelight Theatre, 7:30 p.m., 11 Old Mission Avenue, St. Augustine. The beloved musical about the optimistic orphan who captures hearts (and maybe even saves a billionaire). Perfect for families and the holiday spirit. Book here. (Note: all Sunday matinees are sold out, but there is a wait list you may join.)
‘Greetings,’ A Christmas Comedy, Daytona Playhouse, 100 Jessamine Blvd., Daytona Beach. 7:30 p.m. Box office: (386) 255-2431. tickets, $15 to $25. A comedy about a young man who brings home his Jewish atheist fiancée to meet his very Catholic parents on Christmas Eve. With the inevitable family explosion comes an out-of-left-field miracle that propels the family into a wild exploration of love, religion, personal truth, and the nature of earthly reality.
Irving Berlin’s Holiday Inn, at Athens Theatre, 124 North Florida Avenue, DeLand. 386/736-1500. Tickets, Adult $37 – Senior $33. 7:30 p.m. Student/Child $17. Book here. Celebrate the magic of Christmas with Irving Berlin’s Holiday Inn—a heartwarming holiday treat packed with show-stopping dance numbers, dazzling costumes, and a treasure trove of timeless tunes. When Broadway performer Jim leaves the bright lights behind for a quiet Connecticut farmhouse, he ends up transforming his home into a seasonal inn, open only on the holidays. But with love in the air, rivalries heating up, and performances for every festivity, the holidays get a lot more exciting than he ever imagined. Featuring 20 beloved Irving Berlin classics—including “White Christmas,” “Happy Holiday,” “Blue Skies,” and “Cheek to Cheek”—this delightful musical delivers all the laughter, romance, and seasonal sparkle of a Christmas card come to life. Presented through special arrangement with Concord Theatricals
Rotary’s Fantasy Lights Festival in Palm Coast’s Town Center: Nightly from 6 to 9 p.m. at Palm Coast’s Central Park, with 57 lighted displays you can enjoy with a leisurely stroll around the pond in the park. Admission to Fantasy Lights is free, but donations to support Rotary’s service work are gladly accepted. Holiday music will pipe through the speaker system throughout the park, Santa’s Village, which has several elf houses for the kids to explore, will be open, with Santa’s Merry Train Ride nightly (weather permitting), and Santa will be there every Sunday night until Christmas, plus snow on weekends! On certain nights, live musical performances will be held on the stage.
Notably: Page 55 of the March 9, 1940 issue of The New Yorker, alongside the never-collected story by John Cheever, “Survivor” (“The moment I sat down at the bar he turned to me and began telling me how the torpedo struck this boat he was on, and how the crew and the passengers took to the lifeboats and bobbed around in the Irish Sea hour after hour until finally they were rescued by a Norwegian freighter,” it opens), features this ad you see at the bottom of this item. It’s very possible that Betty Friedan, who would have been 19 at the time and was still Betty Goldstein and a Marxist, saw it in her dorm at Smith College and decided to devote her life to feminism. I did not know, as surely you did not either, that Hollywood demands screen tests “because the beautiful figure is appealing only when it moves beautifully,” and because “you achieve the perfection of the Scissors Silhouette,” defined as “breasts high and separated,” “waistline intriguingly slender,” “hips trimly tailored.” I had never heard of, let alone seen, the “scissors silhouette,” but The New Yorker saw it fit to include it, alas, not as a cartoon. Looking up the Formfit Company of Chicago and New York, one learns from Wikipedia that it was “a manufacturer of women’s “foundation garments”, mainly corsets and girdles. Founded in 1917 with headquarters in Chicago, Illinois, Formfit later became known for other types of lingerie, particularly bras and briefs.” Its move to Mexico and Victoria’s Secret’s rise sent the company into decline until it was acquired by Jockey International in 1997. When I google “scissors silhouette,” all I get is scissors. Might I find the Scissors Silhouette with Find a Grave? Or did Betty Friedan do to the Silhouette what the men of the USS Carl Vinson do to the body of Osama bin Laden, if according to Islamic ritualistic norms? I’m not at all sure that bin Laden did more hard to people than that Silhouette, an American version of China’s binding of little girls’ feet, of France’s cranial deformations or of universal tight-lacing.
The Live Calendar is a compendium of local and regional political, civic and cultural events. You can input your own calendar events directly onto the site as you wish them to appear (pending approval of course). To include your event in the Live Calendar, please fill out this form.
January 2026
Flagler County’s Technical Review Committee Meeting
Flagler Tiger Bay Club Guest Speaker: Jeff Brandes
Separation Chat: Open Discussion
The Circle of Light A Course in Miracles Study Group
Palm Coast Planning and Land Development Board
Flagler Beach United Methodist Church Food Pantry
Flagler County Drug Court Convenes
Model Yacht Club Races at the Pond in Palm Coast’s Town Center
Palm Coast Beautification and Environmental Advisory Committee
Flagler Beach City Commission Meeting
For the full calendar, go here.
St. Gregory’s ‘Platonism’ in regard to universals comes out clearly in his De hominis opificio (On the Making of Man), where he distinguishes the heavenly man, the ideal man, the universal, from the earthly man, the object of experience. The former, the ideal man or rather ideal human being, exists only in the divine idea and is without sexual determination, being neither male nor female: the latter, the human being of experience, is an expression of the ideal and is sexually determined, the ideal being, as it were, ‘splintered’ or partially expressed in many single individuals. Thus, according to Gregory, individual creatures proceed by creation, not by emanation, from the ideal in the divine Logos.
—Frederic Copleston, A History of Philosophy vol. 2, Medieval Philosophy from Augustine to Dunn Scotus (1950).
Dennis C Rathsam says
OBAMACARE, sucked from its CONSEPTION, The Jackasses knew it, yet passed it anyway! It’s not worth the paper its printed on! Insurance Co have been ripping off Americans since Obama was president, Then they took it too another level with Clueless Joe. His idea was to throw tax payer monies at it! Well that ship has sailed, No more tax payer money period. If it can servive, fine. If it cant, they have a problem, not us.If the Dems didn’t piss all that money away on Bidens invaders, we have plenty of money, wouldnt we? The last 4 yrs were a complete disaster. Inflation went through the roof, Prices followed…. Thanks to auto pen JOE.
Laurel says
My guess is that you are on Medicare now, which was the direction the Affordable Care Act was heading. But Republicans have teared it apart, bit by bit, until it didn’t work as intended. They are trying to do the same with Medicare, by pushing Medicare Advantage, which is not Medicare, but private industry. Private industry insurance does not work for us, it is profit motivated, and bean counter operated. They override your doctor’s care, and you have to fight tooth and nail to get what care you need.
Your Trump has not come up with insurance that actually works for people in over ten years. His “concept of a plan” was just bullshit talk, that went off into space. Republicans do not want Medicare, or Social Security, two programs that work very well. They work for the corporations only. Good luck with that.
To blame everything that goes wrong on Biden, when a year into Trump’s Presidency is lame. Your kids will have to deal with private industry insurance soon. Enjoy!
Skibum says
What the republican majority in Congress and the orange terror in the WH are trying to do to the American people is reprehensible as well as governmental malpractice! The GOP has railed against Obamacare incessantly for 16 years! Despite their many failed attempts to get rid of it altogether, that healthcare lifeline for individuals and families through the purlic insurance marketplace who aren’t able to obtain an employer provided healthcare plan has been a huge weight off of their shoulders because everyone in America deserves to have healthcare.
Let’s be real… if the republicans HAD a better plan to provide healthcare to Americans, they would have done so during any of the numerous times they had congressional majorities and/or a republican in the WH. But no, their entire purpose and goal has always been to return healthcare control to the private insurance corporations who were previously allowed to deny coverage and fleece Americans while receiving billions of dollars in profits annually.
The convicted felon also had different ulterior motives, simply because his skin is too thin and he cannot stand it that America’s first black president, which the ACA is named after, was able to accomplish what no president before had done. The best that the current prez has been able to come up with during his first term in the WH up to now is to stand in front of the media and spout from the hole in his face that he has “a concept of a plan”… which in reality was no plan at all, just an entire repeal and replace of the old private insurance system which even congress voted down, thankfully, due to an ethical and moral Sen. John McCain who was despised and made fun of by the convicted felon prez in his first horrible term.
Every single healthcare plan in America, whether it is a group plan that employers provide or one of the many on the open healthcare market, has some type of government subsidies attached to it to help make it more affordable to individuals and their dependents. To pass federal legislation and attempt to deny Americans the continued benefit of affordable health insurance is unconscionable! If some changes need to be made, that is one thing, but just to cancel the subsidies and allow healthcare costs for those who get their healthcare from the marketplace to double, even triple, making healthcare completely unaffordable, is nothing more than governmental malpractice, and should not be supported by anyone in congress!
Laurel says
I think the idea is for private industry to start campaigning and pushing Medicare Advantage to people at zero cost. That means many more people will enroll in private industry insurance. Most people don’t know that Medicare Advantage is not Medicare, now. With AI data, people will start getting denied for claims as pre-existing problems will show up, protection will be gone, and it will be nearly impossible to get care. Young people will drop insurance altogether, and cross their fingers that they don’t find themselves in need of care.
There is no excuse for any of this. This is not “For the People” this is for the profit, only.
Skibum says
You are right. And Medicare Advantage is NOT an advantage at all to many who have been hoodwinked into switching from their Medicare health insurance to one of these private, for profit insurance plans. These private plans promise all kinds of extra benefits, and many of the plans do in fact save people money on the front end. But buckle your seatbelts if you have a serious medical issue, especially if you need expensive medication, need to be referred to a specialist, or need some type of ground breaking, life-saving surgery. Then those for-profit private insurers who are Medicare “Advantage” have one big rubber stamp on all of their desks that says “DENIED”!!! You appeal, again – DENIED! Many people end up dying while their appeals go through endless, circular file bureaucracies of corporate pencil pushers who’s job descriptions must be to make medical insurance clients’ lives as miserable as possible.
And the law was written by repbulicans who made sure that Americans, primarily older people, get as confused as possible thinking Medicare Advantage is somehow part of Medicare when that is the furthest thing from the truth. The law even allows these insurance companies to advertise like they are part of the government healthcare, and the elderly would have to have 20/10 eyesight to read the fine print and hopefully not be confused and misled about the unethical practices of some of these insurance advertisements on TV we see constantly… all allowed and promoted by unethical republicans who would love every American to drop Medicare and go back to private insurance just to spite the former president to got healthcare reform passed and put millions and millions more Americans into affordable healthcare plans they could finally get for their families.
And yet, the maga loving Dennis C Rathsam wants to spout misinformation and say how horrible the ACA has been for Americans… total, unadulterated BS!!!
Tonight at eight says
… witness the sad, surreal, punctuated end of a news network… if you choose too.
I know I won’t be watching.
Not that it was ever a perfect one, nor that I hadn’t noticed its slow demise in recent months.
R.I.P. CBS.
Pogo says
@Great Caesar’s ghost!
… hold the front page: I want everything above the fold to be this: Stork Gets Credit For Mother Nature’s Idea!!!
I want Lois Lane, Clark, and Jimmy to get after this pdq — or else! Also, get research on this — I want measurements:
Really?
https://www.google.com/search?q=sex+sells
Dress for success
https://www.google.com/search?q=annual+world+spending+lingerie
Hunter and trapper approved
https://www.google.com/search?q=annual+world+spending+cosmetics+perfume
Jim says
I won’t argue with @Dennis C Rathsam says as it’s just a waste of time.
However, I would like to point out a few facts that MAGA might want to be aware:
1. Many more people using “Obamacare” are Republicans rather than Democrats. (Check that fact out because I know you don’t believe it.) This means that a lot of people voted for their own poison. I hope it tastes great (and less filling)!
2. As @Dennis C Rathsam says “OBAMACARE, sucked from its CONSEPTION”. “Obamacare” passed the Congress in 2009. Ever since then, Trump and the Republicans have claimed they have a better plan and they were going to vote Obamacare out and their plan in. Well, in Trump #1, the Republicans had the House, Senate and Presidency. In the two years of that advantage, the Republicans not only did not repeal and replace Obamacare, they never even put forward an alternative plan. Shocking!
3. In 2024 when running for President, Trump, once again, claimed he would replace Obamacare. When pressed on this during one of the debates, he said he had “concepts of a plan”. So, I must conclude that while Obamacare “sucks” to some (MAGA?), they have failed to provide any alternative in the 16 years since Obamacare was made into law.
4. I suspect @Dennis C Rathsam is taking Social Security and has Medicare health insurance. It must be hard to proudly deny those less fortunate the ability to have decent, affordable health insurance while, at the same time, suckling ever penny possible from the government (Medicare is paid by taxes…) to make sure you don’t pay a penny more than required for your own health care.
5. @Dennis C Rathsam says “Insurance Co have been ripping off Americans since Obama was president, Then they took it too another level with Clueless Joe.” Now, I may have fallen asleep for four years but I do believe that Trump was president between Obama and Biden. Apparently, to MAGA, the insurance companies (I guess in great fear of DJT) did not do any “ripping off” during his first term. And, as soon as DJT left, they greedily went back to ripping off Americans. Sure…. As to the insurance companies ripping off Americans, maybe MAGA should make themselves aware that Humana and United Healthcare run a large percentage of Medicare and they are doing quite well financially. Now, the reason they are so heavily involved is that tried and true axiom that “private business can run anything better than the government”. Well, while the are doing such a great job managing health care costs, the facts are that health care costs have risen faster than inflation and both Humana and United Healthcare have both been sued (and lost) for mis-handling and mis-billing the government for healthcare. United Healthcare to the tune of over $50Billion one year. (Side note: Maybe that’s why a guy shot and killed a United Healthcare CEO a while back and the average person in this nation didn’t seem to upset… [maybe]).
I could make a few comments about inflation under Biden and Trump as well as cost for everyday items for average Americans but why waste the effort?
Sherry says
@ Jim. . . unfortunately, trying to reason with “indoctrinated” Maga cult members who love their “TDS” Trump DEVOTION Syndrome actually is a waste of time for anyone. People like that are simply completely “detached” from reality/from facts/from truth. The worst of them absolutely “refuse” to engage their brains at all. Like their Lord and Master, trump, they are uneducated, insecure, and self loathing. . . filled with fear and hate to the point of paranoia.
Your words are not wasted on many others, Jim. You’ve made some excellent points here. It’s just too bad that those who really need to be educated by the facts you’ve presented are the very ones who are too Maga radicalized to even read and consider what you have written.
Laurel says
Jim: I agree with most of what you wrote, except #4.
I paid into Medicare, as did my employers, all my working life, and could not access it until I turned 65. So, for being “tax” paid, it came out of each and every weekly pay check.
As for maga not listening, it doesn’t even make it into one ear to go out the other!
The dude says
Dennis (Palm Coast’s very own Baghdad Bob) yelling at the clouds in defense of dozy don and his gang of drunks and pedophile rapists will never get old…
Ray W. says
As a foundational fact, in 2024, tariff collections totaled $77 billion.
Through November 31, 2025, tariff collections totaled $236 billion. Since August 7th, when President Trump imposed “reciprocal” tariffs on many more than 100 nations, collections have picked up to over $30 billion per month, with October coming in at $31.35 billion and November coming in at $30.76 billion (of course, November has one fewer day than October, so I don’t call it a drop in monthly revenue).
Not counting the recently announced $12 billion in aid to American farmers, President Trump has claimed on many different occasions eight different ways by which he intends to spend the new tariff moneys:
1. Dividend checks of $2,000 each, which would cost $600 billion.
2. Offset the reduction in federal revenues from tax cuts.
3. Pay down the national debt. On January 21, 2025, the total federal debt was $36,218,298,311.33, according to FiscalDataTreasury.gov. As of December 11, 2025, the total federal debt is $38,349,795,034,550.24, an increase of more than $2 trillion in less than eleven months.
4. Eliminate the federal income tax, which tax collections from the January 1, 2025, through the end of November total more than $2.5 trillion.
5. Enhance childcare benefits.
6. Create a Sovereign Wealth Fund.
7. “Victory Fund” for the Ukraine.
8. Pay for SNAP benefits during the government shutdown, which in sum involved a $300 million infusion.
Make of this what you will.
Me?
Ever since tariffs were raised after Congress passed the Smoot-Hawley Act, a slow retraction has been taking place. Tariff revenues were near a decades long low in 2024. Now, after months of impositions, pauses, shifts, new impositions, new pauses, tariffs on a wide range of goods are the highest they have been since 1934. But tariff collections of about $6.5 billion per month occurred, on average, in 2024. If about $30 billion per month is the total in late 2025, then that is less than $24 billion more than last year.
Can $24 billion each month be stretched to cover these many different proclamations? I have my suspicions.
It is no secret that sometimes some people just say things, anything, to fit the moment. My mother called it talking to hear their heads roar. And its no secret that some people like to hear such roaring, whether true or not.
Laurel says
Whether it works or not, tariffs are still simply a consumption tax on U.S. citizens. But we don’t need 35 pencils or 35 dolls, do we? We need a big tech bros ballroom, and data centers, and data collection, and so it shall be.
Ray W. says
According to The Telegraph, a British news outlet, five “shadow fleet” oil tankers have been damaged in the past few months.
The Ukrainian military claims responsibility for damaging three of the tankers.
The empty Dashan, operating with its transponders switched off, was struck by a “Sea Baby” drone watercraft, on its way to be filled with sanctioned Russian oil at Russia’s Novorossiysk Black Sea port.
The Kairos and Virat were struck off the coast of Turkey.
The cause of blasts to Mersin, anchored off the coast of Senegal, and the Midvolga-2, travelling about 80 miles off the Turkish coast, remains unknown.
Perhaps as a result, insurance rates on vessels operating on the Black Sea have tripled in recent weeks.
Make of this what you will.
Ray W. says
This from The Cool Down.
Xcel, an electricity utility company, asked the Minnesota Utilities Commission to permit it to double the size of its planned battery storage plant at its “new” Sherco power plant.
As an aside, since Congress voted in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act to sunset clean energy incentives, electricity companies are rushing to apply for Biden-era incentives.
The old Sherco power plant was recently shut down. The coal-fired portion of the plant will no longer operate. Instead, one of the biggest solar farms will be erected near the plant.
Xcel regional president, Bria Shea, in a press release, said:
“We’re making a significant investment in battery storage because we see it as a critical part of Minnesota’s energy future.”
Wrote the reporter:
“Companies like Excel have been phasing out their gas and coal plants, …”
Make of this what you will.
Me?
Coal-fired power plants are being shut down in order to make way for cleaner and less expensive solar power with battery.
Why anyone would want to keep a coal-fired power plant open so that they can pay more for the electricity they consume is beyond me?
Laurel says
To appeal to the “poorly educated” and to those who have worked coal for generations. Get that vote! Deal with it later.
Ray W. says
After each FOMC meeting, various Fed officials speak at public events, at which events they explain their thinking about the status of the economy.
According to a MarketWatch story, Chicago Federal Reserve Bank President Austan Goolsbee said:
“While I voted to lower rates at the September and October meetings, I believe we should have waited to get more data, especially about inflation, before lowering rates further.”
President Goolsby added that he was “optimistic that interest rates can come down a significant amount over the next year.”
In the reporter’s words, President Goolsby said “he was worried about the persistence of inflation before the 43-day government shutdown in October and November deprived the Fed of critical information on inflation and employment trends.”
Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank President Jeffrey Schmidt, said:
“[I]nflation remains too high. … The economy shows continued momentum, and the labor market – though cooling – remains largely in balance.”
He added that interest rate reductions may not be needed in the future:
“I view the current stance of monetary policy as being only modestly, if at all, restrictive.”
President Schmidt voted for a rate cut in October.
According to a Reuters story, Federal Reserve Bank President Mary Daly posted to LinkedIn:
“This week’s (Federal Open Market Committee) decision was not an easy choice.”
According to President Daly, in the reporter’s words, the Fed is conflicted “between its job and inflation goals. Inflation is too high and the job market is getting softer.”
The FOMC next meets in January.
Make of this what you will.
Me?
Three different Fed voting members. Three slightly different perspectives on the status of our economy. Imagine 19 economics experts gathering in one room to debate whether to leave lending rates alone or to raise or lower them. 12 of the 19 get to vote. A majority vote carries the day.
This month, nine of the 12 voted for a 25 basis point, or 0.25%, cut. Next month? …
Ray W. says
During WWII, the Allies attempted to rally Vichy French forces in North Africa around Admiral Darlan, a Frenchman whom many Free French soldiers detested, including de Gaulle. But Admiral Darlan had long been associated by most in Vichy France as “the Navy.”
On the subject of Roosevelt and Churchill using Darlan during the American invasion of North Africa to Allied advantage, Stalin referred to an old Russian proverb: “‘[E]ven the devil himself and his grandma’ should be used if the military need dictated it.”
Make of this what you will.