Hobbyists are Nazi's

The title is in NO WAY implying that the below mentioned hobbyists are in fact fascists.

Model railroaders, RC car or plane builders and fliers, Airsoft and Paintballers, all are a bunch of uptight twerps. If you read up on them, or any other hobby, the hobby is always "run" by a bunch of uptight twerps. "My way or the highway" types. The kind of people who suck the life out of the room by taking all the fun out of everything. "Well if you don't want to spend your retirement on XYZ then don't waste my time." type of people. They always look down their noses at the great unwashed masses who like to have fun. These types need regulations, and standards, and big thick rule books and bylaws. Little Napoleonic complexities waiting for a sport or hobby to take over and ruin.

I understand the difference, for example, between a mid 80's Life-Like POS locomotive and an Athearn Genesis DCC loco. I also know that you can still have a great time with the train hobby and not spend thousands on the trains themselves.

My daughter and I like chasing each other with our little RC cars but I am sure we are looked down on from the elite RC racers of the world.

Airsoft is my latest enquiry. I am not very militant, but there have been several articles, and instances that have lead me to look into the sport. One is that it is a breeding ground for new army men (or kids). Recruiters check out paitball areas and airsoft grounds for potential recruits. What is the alure of such things. I think I know since I am a man and like to shoot stuff too. But looking into this field I find the same uptight twerps telling me what is "proper" as if they are in the F'ing military or as if they are really doing important stuff instead of playing GI Joe.

I understand there needs to be standards if you wish to participate in a sport or hobby. But their should also be a broader attempt made by people who are enthusiastic about a hobby, to bring it to the masses in a way that is less intimidating and snotty.

Oh for crying out loud...not another gay conservative?

Is there some unwritten, or perhaps written, law stating that people getting pinched for soliciting gay prostitution, or unwanted gay advances have to be Republicans and or clergy? Is there something about Republicans that makes them more prone to turn "gay"? All the Democrats I know of are either straight or gay and have no problem with either. Only the conservatives seem to be flip-floppers on their own sexual orientation.

Look if you are a gay Republican then just accept it and be done with it. God made you that way for a reason, perhaps to embarrass hypocrites, or maybe he has slated you to burn in hell. Or maybe he just made you that way "just because" and wants you to make the best of it and enjoy your wonderful life for what it is. Don't insult God by trying to be something you are not.

Now on to my own self flagellation. This is a STUPID story. What is the guy guilty of? I mean really guilty of, if it is true? Wanting some consensual sex in a bathroom. So the guy has to resign? This is absurd. Let him and his local constituents talk it out and then let him be. I love the hypocrisy angle but this, like Monica, does not rise to the level of an offense worthy of anything other than and embarrassed "excuse me".

Mr. Craig do not resign over this. If you have lived a double life for 60 plus years then you have already lived in hell. If you are telling the truth then stick to your guns. But the homophobes on the right, and the democrats on the left want you gone for their own narrow reasons. I do not agree with any of your positions on gay rights. However I also would not wish you to be forced from office because of such a silly bit of nonsense.

Blind to ourselves

We are so good at picking apart the ones we love or hate and such dismal failures at figuring out why we do the things we do. An example would be how some of us (me) find it easy to bash Bush et al. He is an easy target, oh sure make fun of the retarded man in the white house. Now that takes a lot of guts.

How about all the dumb things we (I) do? Postponing paying bills until the last possible moment, procrastinating on my seemingly endless divorce. Want to duck confrontation at all costs until the confrontation comes and "blam" or "Pow" or "Zap" here we go again. I need to take what I dish out. I might find it tasty. Or maybe I'll choke on my own words...

So what do I say now that Gonzo, aka Torture-boy, aka the big AG, is gone? I personally think that having AG around is great, he the gift that keeps giving. Why wish him, or for that matter Rove, gone? We'd have to be pretty stupid to think that the Admin. will change if these guys leave their "official" capacity. Remember Rumsfeld? He's still got an office in the Pentagon. Do we not understand that Email, to say nothing of the phone, will keep these men in contact with the President regardless of Congressional wishes. Nobody really "goes away" Hell these turds have been lying on the lawn in Washington for decades. They won't go until they are singing with the quire invisible.

It is like trying to escape your ex. If you have kids then forget it. You are gonna be stuck with him/her for the duration so you better make peace with the idea. Even if we got rid of Bush what would that really change? Would Iraq disappear? Hell no, it would rage on with us or without us. If you think the headlines suck now wait until the headlines about the busted Iraqi state start coming in after "The US Abandons Iraq". No this situation is going to be hell no matter what we do.

Recriminations galore for years to come. Everybody better get their fingers good and exercised because there will be a lot of finger point jobs to go around. Republicans blame Democrats for losing Iraq. Democrats blame Republicans for losing Iraq. The public blames all of them. Like a marriage breaking up, in the end does it really matter a damn who's fault it was? Is the injured party going to have some extra vindication over that knowledge? Well maybe. But it is all emotional crap. The reality is that the situation was brought about but a perfect storm of bad decisions, bad intel, bad ideas, and simple bad luck. Its a crap shoot so we have to be careful and not expect more than that, not unless we want to be really depressed.

Looking back at Eisenhower letting the French get clobbered in Vietnam, or FDR taking his sweet time getting involved with Europe; I think that those are examples of being careful, because those guys new what a crap shoot life basically is. It would be neat if we all could be John Wayne, with gun in one hand, and a script that tells us how is all going to turn out in the other, but alas we do not.

America's Elections need some brains power

The current rush to advance primary dates is a clear indication of the stupidity of continuing with the primary process as it is now. It is a silly system that has greatly outlived its usefulness to democracy. It has not outlived its usefulness to campaings ergo it is still happening, much like the conventions.

At some point we as a nation really need to revamp this process so it is less about the candidate and more about the country. The following system would be far better for the nation and lead to better candidates and therefore better Presidents.

1) Restrict the election year to just that 1 year. No fundraising, adds, or any other type of campaigning can be done prior to 365 days before the general election.

2) States, in randomized order, will have a primary or causcus, one week at a time. This will give any candidate 1 week of instate presense prior to election day. After 50 weeks all states will have chosen their nominee to various parties. Then there will be a 2 week span of time when the various campaigns can focus their message.

3) The convention will be replaced by a national convention that will be the last hurrah before election day. This convention can last the last week of the campaign and parties can still decide where they would like to have it.

4) Then election day comes. People cast votes and the majority votes elect Presidents. No more electoral college. A simple majority in a state will give that states vote to the candidate that most people voted for. Oh yes, and DC has to be able to vote since with only 50 states, or votes, we could end up in a tie. This way there is not tie possible.

The End.

This is no more wierd or screwed up than the current cluster we have to deal with now.

Bush needs educating, again. I know this is getting really old...

Bush needs educating about the war he, and Cheney didn’t want to go to. For one thing the “killing fields” took place in Cambodia, they were the result to the Khmer Rouge taking power as a result of American medaling in Cambodian affairs.

As the Vietnam War progressed, Sihanouk adopted an official policy of neutrality until he was ousted in 1970 by a military coup led by Prime Minister General Lon Nol, who was supported by the USA.

Sihanouk realigned himself with the communist Khmer Rouge rebels who had been slowly gaining territory in the remote mountain regions and urged his followers to help in overthowing the unpopular pro-United States government of Lon Nol, hastening the onset of civil war.

In “Operation Menu”, a series of secret B-52 bombing raids by the United States on suspected Viet Cong bases and supply routes inside Cambodia, was acknowledged after Lon Nol assumed power; U.S. forces briefly invaded Cambodia in a further effort to disrupt the Viet Cong. The bombing continued and, as the Cambodian communists began gaining ground.

In November 1978, Vietnam invaded Cambodia to stop Khmer Rouge incursions across the border and the genocide of Vietnamese in Cambodia.

As usual Bush tends to paint all conflicts in a region wit h the same brush. Arabs are terrorists, Asians are Communists, black people are niggers…oh sorry…didn’t mean to let the Bush out of the bag.

Mr. President please do not invoke a war you ran away from. You don’t know shit about it so avoid looking any stupider and shut the hell up. Concentrate on the war you started not the one started by your dead Texas predecessor.

Body Worlds 3

I saw Body Worlds III today. I have to tell you honestly that I was a bit unsure how to take this exhibit. Especially since I had my ten year old with me. Then we were in there wit hall the plastinates (plasticized people) and after fifteen minutes my ten year old came up to me and gave me her pronouncement.

She was standing in a room filled with a dozen human cadavers, heads, brains, lung cross-sections, examples of diseased and healthy organs, and even a full sized camel that was, well all hanging out, and announced that she was bored.

I am not sure what it would take to interest the youth of today. Actually I do. It is High School Musical 2 and its accompanying soundtrack. Now if the Body Worlds exhibit had a more pumping beat to its musical score then perhaps the kids would not be bored.

For me I was amazed and I could have spent a lot more time in there if it weren’t for a portion of my brain, I am sure it was out there somewhere on display too, that told me to partake of this anatomical extravaganza and then leave. For some deep and shadowy reason I had a problem with it. It did not sadden me or gross me out. I guess if I had to put a finger on it it would be that despite extraordinary sites I was not looking at anything that particularly reminded me of the living.

I came away from the show with the over arching thought of “I am amazed that we can exist at all given how we are put together. We look engineered, like complicated erector sets, the only thing that gives us the illusion of organic life is the life itself. Take that “life” away and all the posing, coloring, plastination, or whatever and you are still just an “it”, no more special than a hunk of bark dust, or pile of dust.

911 conspiracy theorists are a bunch of Losers

I would attempt to elevate my discourse but why bother. Why speak rationally to a bunch of delusional, paranoid misanthrops who can't get their empty heads around the truth of the event. Screw them and all the useless, little-brained idiots, who are in fact, with mindless ignorance, the shills for the real force behind that event.

They are an insult to human beings, if that is in fact what they really are? For all I know these so called “truth seekers” are a branch of psychological operations? Is it so hard to believe that they have been put in place to spread disinformation to help the enemy? Maybe the truth seekers are really the mouth piece of a star chamber of individuals who wish to rule the world?

Unfortunately they are too stupid. I wish they were a branch of the enemy. But they are too retarded to be of much use to them. They are no use to the US and no use to Bin Laden. Who are they a use for? I guess corporations that try to sell crap on sites set up to blog.

Star Adventures Continues...

Ah the majesty of the main dock at Station-1. Please compare this with the dock as it appeared in the original film. The big ship being escorted in is the Adon-II. The little ships are the local police ships.

Replublicans tell the truth, from their own misinformed, and incorrect point of view

This fresh in from Fact Check.org

* Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney falsely claimed U.S. job growth had been nearly 17 times faster than Europe's. Actually, European Union employment grew faster than that of the U.S. last year. Romney's figures come from a source who told FactCheck.org that he would no longer use them.
* Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani accused Democratic candidates of "appeasement" toward Islamic terrorists. In fact, leading Democratic candidates have spoken out strongly against terrorism.
* Sen. John McCain claimed American families spend $140 billion of their income preparing federal income tax returns. We find no support for that figure, which the Internal Revenue Service puts at $19 billion.
* Rep. Tom Tancredo claimed illegal immigrants "are taking a large part of our health care dollars." But the independent Rand Corp. estimates that undocumented immigrants account for 1.5 percent of health care spending or less.

Occam and conspiracy

Oh no that pesky Bush has sent his henchmen to the Midwest to blow up bridges now. It couldn't be that the old bridge failed due to structural problems. The Star Chamber conspiracy is a far more logical solution to the why. Just like 911, or the moon landing, or the Kennedy assassination.

“ entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem.”
“entities should not be multiplied beyond necessity.”
-William of Ockham 1288-1348

This 14th century bit to logic is as solid today as back then. It is often paraphrased, “All things being equal, the simplest solution tends to be the best one.” How does this relate to conspiracies? First let us look at what a conspiracy is.

Conspiracy’s are premeditative actions of multiple persons, each performing a task in secret, to bring about an event.

By their nature conspiracies get progressively harder to keep secret when the number of people involved becomes large. I am not trying to say that conspiracies do not work. They do especially if they are of a short nature. The conspiracy by the 911 attackers to take down the WTC is a good example. The conspiracy was able to pull it off because there was no light being shed on them. Or the burning of the Reichstag building in Berlin by the Nazi’s who blamed the communists. Once the conspiracy is out of the bag, however, it is out and it is a losing game trying to hide it.

What make me personally skeptical of the conspiracies listed in paragraph one is that the conspiracy is supposedly kept going, even after the event that the conspiracy brought about has occurred. Once the spot light is on, if there is a conspiracy, it will be discovered. We like conspiracies though. We love a good James Bond movie about forces unknown who wish to rule the world. I would posit that the desire to see conspiracies is directly proportional to the level of national paranoia. I will get to this in a moment. But first let us look at to cases:

On the old Kennedy assassination modern forensics has pretty much determined that all the paths of the bullets that struck the President and Connelly all came from the 6th floor of the schoolbook depository building. There were no magic bullets. The people that end up having to do gymnastics to have their “evidence” fit are the conspiracy freaks. Autopsy photos that have trickled out of the national archives also clearly show a wound caused from a bullet from behind, as does the readily available x-rays. Furthermore with the access to the hi-res Zepruder images it is pretty clear where the bullets were coming from.

If there was a conspiracy then Oswald had to be the shooter. But conspiracy freaks almost always wish to exonerate Oswald, as if a nut with a gun could possibly have killed the President. And the so-called “hit” done by Jack Ruby on Oswald is another big problem for the conspiracy people. If anything would make a conspiracy to kill the President fall apart it would be to kill off the assassin in the Police building in front of cameras. That is unless you wanted it to appear to be a conspiracy. Then by all means do that.

Lets look at another attempted assassination. John Hinckley is in love with the movie star Jodi Foster, whom he has never met, and to prove his love to her he decides to kill Regan. He gets a gun and is able to get within easy pistol-shot of the President despite Secret Service all around. Sounds pretty far fetched. But some how there is not conspiracy circle here. Even though the facts around Hinckley sound so absurd.


Getting back to my point. The time of the assassination attempt on Regan was a different from 1963. Back in 1963 the public was neurotic and on edge, deep in the cold war and with growing civil unrest at home. Minds could more easily see the fictitious bogyman instead of the idiot Oswald. With real spies around each corner, nukes on high alert, and national guardsmen escorting kids to school, it was easy to let the paranoia get the better of us.

Likewise on 911. The stumbling mediocrity of the Bush Administration lead to much the same kind of paranoia. Then we had the Anthrax letters and all too soon we ended up in Iraq. So again events easily mold thought to the point where the fictitious bogyman appears again. And we waste time with the fake instead of the real demons. There are real demons with the killing of JFK and 911. Forces took advantage of both events to advance agendas.

I guess you have to ask yourself what was the point of the conspiracy? In the movie JFK it was supposed to be a war in Vietnam. But the truth of course is that JFK but the troops in there, and helped the nationalists kill President Diem. And LBJ was not really interested in world affairs anyway. He did use the Kennedy assassination to good effect thought. It is doubtful that the Civil Rights act or the Moonlanding would have happened with such speed had JFK not been killed.

911 was the result of a conspiracy, a conspiracy that ended on 911 when all the conspirators died in the attack. Once the attack was over, Bin Laden took full responsibility, or credit, for helping get the attacks going, in a distantly removed way. You would think that it would be to Alqueda’s benefit to sow the seeds of conspiracy around Israel or the Bush Administration. But they are accepting of their culpability and warn of worse to come.

A conspiracy involving demolitions experts, the CIA, Bush, the government of NYC, the owner of the WTC site, the FAA, the Pentagon, and god knows who else, is false, in my opinion since it fails the simple test of Ockham’s Razzor. It simply makes too many assumptions.

Official Free Speech Zone

France-ee-ness

http://www.radiojunior.com/

Cultures are so different and at the same time so similar. The conservative idiots who think that France or Europe is some how politically correct and oh-so watered down compared to the rough, tough, American life style, don’t know what the fuck they are talking about. The above web site is for Junior Radio. This is a kids radio station, sort of like Nick for France. There is a difference though. On this radio station they have kids groups singing lots of songs, just like US kids shows, but here they do covers of Rolling Stones songs like “Satisfaction” complete with the line about “..he can’t be a man because he doesn’t smoke the same cigarettes as me…” I doubt that this would fly on the rough tough American kids networks.

If anything those conservative mutants are stunting our kids by not exposing them to the richness of the world. Most European kids speak a little English. Enough to converse with. While the American kids can barely speak their own language.

My country is great but about 20% of its population seems to have their heads permanently stuck up their asses.

Is Religion the Problem?

On Talk of The Nation today a young Muslim, Dr. Eboo Patel, was interviewed about his new organization the “Interfaith Youth Core”. I was delighted to here him speak. I was disheartened by many of the callers who tried to have him explain why Islam seems to be the only religion that has a penchant for terrorism. I would like to answer them.

There is a pervasive assumption that Islam is more violent than Christianity of Judaism. Recent history seems to bare this assumption out. I will not go into the recent anecdotal litany of Islamic radicals causing trouble. This assumption, nevertheless is wrong.

The trio of faiths listed above are none of them, either more or less violent than the other. All their holy books speak of violent militarism and God sticking up for the righteous fighters. All also speak to the necessity of doing good toward your fellow human beings. Helping the poor, not ignoring the widow or the orphan. The holy writings they adhere to in total can either be used to justify good or bad. So it is not the faith itself that causes the Crusader or Terrorist but the individuals application of the religion.

To say religion is evil is like saying science is evil. It is neither evil or good it is a set of ideas. What human beings do with it is either good or evil. Human justice does not exist outside human action. Justice does not exist within any text or book. A hammer can build a home or kill a man. Yet no one would argue whether or not the hammer is inherently evil of good. What it is used for is either evil or good.

Violence and religion have been intertwined throughout the millennia, from Moses and Judas Maccabeus, to Richard Cour d’Lion and his crusaders, to the Catholics and the Protestants slaughtering each other for 30 years in the 17th century down to todays Islamic jihadists. It is the nexus of a multitude of social, religious, political, and economic under currents that create religion-based violence not just religion. Violence is the problem not simply religion.

If you go into any of the violent examples provided above, religion is only a tool to justify violence, but never really the reason behind the violent activity. Political conquest, not conversion, is the real reason behind the violence. Currently Islam is in the nexus of currents that are out of its control. It is being used as convenient justification for what is in essense retaliation against the westernism, not Christianity or Judasim. The failed imperial states of the 19th and 20th century have brought about an environment of impoverished billions and pan continental civil wars. Islam spread quickly in the affected regions partially because of historical connection, and partly as a backlash against the departed imperial powers.

Today Islam is as much the victim of the collapse of the Imperial west as it is a perpetrator of its own collapse. The broad undercurrents of civilization flow regardless of election cycles in the US or the name of the current crop of religious fanatics. These vast undercurrents, like the movements of the ocean currents, are very hard to nail down. Constantly shifting they will bring and end of Islamic radicalism, as the did to the thousand years of Christian warfare. There will always be tools ready to help men justify conquest and killing. Religion is but one.

The better angels are flapping their wings

I have lived long enough on this ball to know that all politics is NOW. Not the future, not even tomorrow. Just the course to satisfy the instant. That is what got us into Iraq in the first place. We had the tools, we had the reasons, we had the excuse of 911. So we all jumped off the cliff and are now trying to figure out how not to get splattered. I listened to the eloquent, intelligent debate from both sides on the floor of the Senate. I heard very little imperious flag waving on the part of the Republicans and heard little grand standing on the part of the Democrats. Mainly I heard a bunch of men and women basically saying to each other, “Yeah things pretty messed up…so what should we do?”

For myself I have had another phase shift in my own thinking on Iraq and where we are in the world. Pulling out of Iraq a year ago or 2 years ago is not the same equation as pulling out now. Staying is bad, pulling out may be worse. Here is one scenario that I view as possible, based on my knowledge of history:

We leave Iraq in the state it is now.

Reaction:

IRAQ: Shiite militants will dominated Iraq, Sadr will be the defacto leader with a puppet government beholden to him. Previous leadership will either be killed or flee. Sunni groups will be viciously repressed with methods that are being used now, just on a larger scale. Kurds will be forced to declare independence. This will cause Turkey to go on high alert.

EU: Extreme trepidation over what the force vacuum in Iraq will mean for stable oil prices and spread of militancy.

UK: Labor government will fall to conservatives

IRAN: Between a rock and a hard place it will be forced to significantly aid Sadr . It will also use this a justification for such aid and become the main military benefactor of Iraq.

CHINA: More liberal with anti-Taiwanese-independence rhetoric. Basically more saber rattling.

Russia: Happy. However also very nervous since so much of their own territory is prone to Islamic militancy.

Broader Mid East: The joy in the streets will last a few weeks and then settle back down into impoverished depression. Fear in the governments of Egypt et al over what the deadly brew in Iraq will do once it spills out. Probably increased arms expenditures by Syria, Egypt and of course Israel. Israel will probably see its own roll as airborne enforcer.

US: We will still have an air presence over Iraq, and have large number of forces in Kuwait. Though Kuwait may be nervous that the problems in Iraq might spill into their own country. Democrats will win White House but then lose it in the 2012 election.

Bin Laden: Busy with his own agenda

Who can we trust on the situation in Iraq?

The President: We cannot trust him because of the series of mistakes, lies, and continued blindness his administration shows towards this mess.

The Congress: Perhaps some can be trusted, but we need to be just as wary of those leaders who are happy to see Bush founder in his war. Not that I see too many doing this. But I do feel a smug sense of “I told you so” wafting up from the depths of the Democratic party. This also makes me not trust them. For people who see Iraq as a wedge issue to destroy Bush fail to see the real problem, the war itself. I would gladly sacrifice Democratic control of Congress for a successful conclusion to Iraq. This being said I feel the Democrats are really the only hope since the Republicans are so ill lead.

The people: I do not trust them either. I do not trust them since I do not think they really understand the nature of the conflict. They simply want the bad movie to be over. As I said in my previous post, I do not think the bad movie will be over if we leave Iraq in a big mess. The law of unintended consequences rules not only the act of staying in Iraq but also leaving.

What I wish we had was a group of people who really understood, in a pragmatic, visceral, non-aligned way, the nature of our dilemma. Only then can a good way forward be planned and achieved. When all sides are simply vying for the prize of the White House, or the Congress, the poor ill-treated soldier is still left sweating in the heat of a no-win situation.

God damn all of us for this madness. While we all fiddle with “Impeach Bush” bumper stickers, or little yellow “support our troops” ribbons, or “W” stickers, or “don’t blame me I voted for Kerry” our soldiers burn. As an American I am infuriated with the lot of us. If we want this war over then force the issue with millions in the streets of Washington, put our lives on hold, sacrifice our summer, and or jobs, and make a giant stink! Or volunteer to go to Iraq too!

Our sin is that we do nothing. We blog, was chat, we shake our heads and ask why. All while letting men and women, who actually put their real lives on the line for us, sweat in a holding pen waiting to get blown up. We are a nation of fat soft hypocrites. If we lose our democracy we will have deserved it.

Go Home? Hmmm.....?

The previous entry talked about going Big. Nobody wants to go big or long.

We have gone long, longer the WWII, and spent a god awful amount of money and blood to create a state that is just shy of anarchic. Nobody wants to send more troops. Only a few diehards see staying in the current form, as a solution to anything. We are not making the mideast safer, or less unstable. We have not defeated the enemy that hit us on 9/11. The Iraq War is not indefinitely sustainable. If another crisis hit us our armed forces are thin, over worked, and burned out.

A democratic republic can decide to end a war whenever it wants. We wish to end this one now.

But…

The war will not end when we leave Iraq. It will continue there and millions will suffer because of our hubris, imperial stupidity, and lack of forsight. When we leave Iraq and it is not stable, or democratic, or free of terrorism, there will have to be a royal comeuppance for the people that lead us into this farce.

But…

There will be no comeuppance. They will go and write there books, and become pundits on Fox News, and either retire as millionaires, or work for fortune 500’s an retire as billionaires. The soldiers will come home, and there will be no parade. They will not be spat on or ridiculed. But they will, in their hearts, be fuming over the waste. Some will agree that the war was a farce, the height of vain glory, but others will see this as a sign of American weakness. They will not put down the sword but keep it at the ready.

Losing a war like this is what dictatorships of the future are made of. We tend to forget that we are a nation too. And that the rules apply to us aswell as Iraq. Two nations will suffer the consequences of pulling out of Iraq and leaving it a disaster.

This is not 1975 and Iraq is not Vietnam. Nor is this 1918 and Iraq is not Alsace Loraine. But the consequences for both nations will be real when we leave. When a nation puts for such an effort and then fails there is blowback. If the President pulls us out that would be a good thing and we could survive that. But if he is forced to pull them out then the fight will not be over and in that case I really fear for the future of America.

Go Big, Go Long, or Go Home

After 4 years the options are few.

“Go big, go long, or go home.” These were our options.

Go Big:
Well neither the Bush Administration nor the Congress nor the public seem to want to go big. Going big would mean a massive infusion of troops, not the poultry 30,000 we have put in now.

Go Long: Four years is a long time when no progress is being made either in infrastructure reconstruction, governmental institution building, the rebuilding of the Iraqi army, or the quelling of sectarian violence.

Go Home: This is a bitter pill, not beneficial to the US, Iraq, or world security.

We are stuck in Iraq. From my own point of view we only have one option left. It is not an option that the US public wants but the only one left to try. The only one that has not been tried. And that is to go Big. Going home would be morally reprehensible, to leave a nation shattered and dysfunctional would be a black mark on America far greater than Vietnam.

We are responsible for the mess in Iraq. Because of our early ineptitude, and hubris we allowed Iraq to devolve into chaos, while giving our true enemy a recruiting poster for their cause. Leaving will only exacerbate the problem. I see no way that leaving Iraq will in the long run benefit the US or the region. Things will not calm down. People who say for us to go are as shortsighted as the pathetic idiots that thought we would have a cake walk. I would love to have us get out of Iraq. I pray for us to get out of that dung heap. But we cannot simply walk away, nor can we rely on the UN or kindness of strangers. We are going to have to work the problem.

After reading much on the subject there is really no option that will bring stability to the region and security. War, once began, must be brought to a successful conclusion by the instigator or the instigator is made the weaker for it. That is why war must always be the very last option. This was a stupid war to start, but now we must finish it or the problems we will face in the future will be graver still. This is harsh but I see no other way.

Clearly Bush is a dead man walking (in the political sense) he lacks the leadership ability, the skill, and the political capital to bring the people together to solve this stinking problem. He will be gone long before this problem is solved. So the Congress, and the Pentagon need to really have a reality check and and begin to guide the President, not wait for the lame President to misguide them.

At this point it matters very little if the failure is upon the head of Bush. This is not a political game it is a war. I think some people in DC understand this. Many do not. The US is being pulled in two directions that are both wrong. The Surge is a big goose egg, as we all knew it would be, but to leave would be just as big a goose egg. Political suicide lays at the end of either road. Going big is really the only course left.

By going big I mean BIG. There needs to be 700,000 troops in Iraq, the population needs to be disarmed, and the population cowed. We do not need a provisional authority. We need the military administration of Iraq with civilian government on the lowest level first reporting to American generals not sectarian strong men in league with Iran. Furthermore people like Sadre need to be eliminated, and their followers crushed. Not talked to and brought into a cooperative government.

The reality is that if we want a democracy in Iraq then the forces that do not represent democracy need to be eliminated one way or another. Militant Islam and democracy do not mesh. You can have one or the other but not both.

This is a nasty problem and I in no way claim to find the solution palatable. But war has never been palatable, nor glorious, nor honorable, nor good. It is carnage pure and simple. We need to stop acting like school kids and start acting like adults.

My spur-of-the-moment weekend II

In the morning my daughters boyfriend came over and he and I completed the outfitting of our spacecraft. We then went and got my younger daughter and then my older daughter who was at a friends house. After stopping at Starbucks we were off to Elk Lake.

The journey from my home to the lake is about 200 miles along mostly open road. My main worry on such a trip is music, or rather the control of music or lack thereof. Do we plug the MP3 player in and listen to the soundtrack to High School Musical? Or do we plug the iPod in and listen to Metric. The kids trade off from time to time and no Jihad happens, not that there is much room for terrorist activity in such a cramped car.

We drive past ancient forests, alpine Mt Hood, and across the vast casino lands of the Warm Sprins tribe. We cross deep gorges in mere seconds that would have stymied Peter Skene Ogden for weeks, and go past luxury home sites surrounded by deep green lawns fed by the plundered central Oregon aquifer, until finally we are in Bend.

Bend has changed a lot since I was a kid visiting my grand parents in La Pine. Currently there are 75,000 citizens in the town, or rather the city. None of us our dressed in a way that the locals would approve of. We are not wearing Tevas, Patagonia, or Northface. Everyone seems like they are waiting for the photographers to get back from brake to finish the LLBean or Eddie Bauer catalog photoshoot. There are no fat people in Bend. This may be a local ordinance I am not sure. Neither are there many people of color, unless you count the leathery skinned white folks waiting for the results of their latest skin biopsy.

My kids haven’t been here for years so to them it is brand new. We slice our way through the confusing nest of streets and find our way to Century Drive and finally brake free of the last vestige of urban life, the Wigi Creek golf course and accompanying luxury subdivision. In ten minutes we are high in the pines with splendid peaks before us. I get nervous traveling to places I have not been in a while. Are they the same as last I saw them? Have they been corrupted by the bourgeoisie? As I drive on I see the titanic nature of the landscape develop. This is not land easily corrupted by roads or golf courses. Not up here astride the ring of fire. My kids note that the landscape in places seems like Mordor, from the Lord of the Rings. It is a land of stark contrasts.

On onside of the road are jagged black monoliths of fractured obsidian as large as office building, toppling like some satanic dark glacier spat up from Cocytus. Beyond them rise up a series of strato volcanoes each capable of destroying vast sections of Oregon should the crust shift just a bit. On the other sided of the road is an idyllic paradise of lush wetlands, tall firs, still lakes, and full of wildlife. We will be staying on the “paradise” side of the road not the “inferno” side.

My spur-of-the-moment weekend

Last week I decided about mid week that I was going to take my two daughters camping. On the surface this sounds like a typical American pastime for Summer. Lots of families partake in this time honored tradition. My family itself has a long tradition of camping at Yale Lake in Washington.

This time I was determined to camp at Elk Lake, in Oregon. I checked the Deschutes National Forrest website for particulars and discovered that the lake had a campground and no reservations were required. Just first come first serve. My two daughters and I, along with my oldest daughters boyfriend, would be camping in alpine splendor (elevation 4900 ft).

I drove home and stopped to pick up camping gear at mom’s house. I took my favorite camp item, a nice thick foam pad to sleep on. This little item gave me the first hint that there might be trouble ahead. I own a Scion xA; the tiny one not the box. Its trunk is about big enough to hold two bags of groceries provided they were filled with marshmallows and could be compressed.

At home I started packing in earnest. After an hour I came to the stark realization that I could take the gear required to support 4 people in the woods or the four people, but not both. So I started dropping items off the list. To begin with my nice sleeping pad. It had to go. I would simply stop at Fred Meyers and get a blow up mattress, one of the cheapies. This after all was going to be a cheap trip. I put one of my camp chairs away, I did not have to sit in a chair, the ground would be fine for a day or two.

Food was already purchased, two cans of chili, a box of mac’n cheese, muffins, and begals with cream cheese. Pop etc. I took the requisite paper plates. I got some plastic cups too. All told the grocery bill was less than 40 bucks. Great!

After several attempts at packing my little Scion was ready to roll. The interior seating looked about as ample as a Mercury 7 space capsule. My older daughter and her boyfriend would be in the back seat with, three camp chairs, two sleeping bags, 3 pillows, and a bag containing a tripod, between them. They would not be able to see each other for the entire drive. My younger daughter would be packed with the dry food, her own cloths duffle bag on her side and I would have several stuff sacks of stuff under my legs and seat.

God does not need our help?

I know I have pontificated, no pun intended, on what I think is the ridiculous aspect of service to God. I know this sounds anti-God or anti-Christian but it really is not meant to be. It is just the logical conclusion to the acceptance of God as omnipotent. Simply put an omnipotent being does not need us to help it at all. Nor would an omnipotent being need to poke at us to do “the right thing”

Free will would seem to run counter to God’s omnipotent power. How could I write this if God did not want it written? Or how could Osama Bin Laden order the 911 attacks if God did not want it to happen. Or how could Michael Moore make Siko if God did not want him to make the movie. This sort of thinking really makes you dizzy. Either you end up thinking it is all part of Gods divine plan. Or it is the good god vs bad god scenario where God and Satan are vicariously beating up on each other using us. Sort of like the Russians the Americans used the Vietnamese. Both scenarios are pathetic for us.

I will take on the second scenario first since it is the easiest to poke a hole in. Either we live in a Universe that is made by one God or we live in a pantheistic universe with lots of gods, demi-gods, etc. From my standpoint there is no evidence of a pantheon of supernatural anything out there mucking about. Too much of life is ordered by physics, cause and effect, and all that. If supernatural forces were always playing around then the laws that govern, for instance electrical activity, would break down or simply stop working. This never happens. One could say that the supernatural forces work in such a way as to leave no physical traces of themselves. I would retort then that is the same as non-existence for us since the equations we have developed to explain physically reality must be able to predict the actions of these beings. So they would be more natural and not so super.

The first scenario is harder to put a hole in since it is so ingrained in our culture. God has this divine plan for all creation and everything is happening as it has been preplanned to happen. Like we live in a book. This makes us feel good when bad stuff happens. What can really be that bad if God wanted it to happen? Well this stinks, why bother worshipping or adoring a being that says it is part of his plan to have Jews undergo live dissection by Nazi doctors? Or children tortured to death by sadistic killers? I wouldn’t give that god the time of day let alone waste a breath of prayer to it.

Both these scenarios also seem to require us to help God out. Do stuff for him. Build his church, feed his sheep, defend his faith, fight for him, work for him, basically do all the things required of a servant. However there is a biiiiiiiiiiig problem with this. Human rulers need servants since they cannot do everything for themselves. They are not omnipotent. God, at least an all powerful one, certainly would not need us to work for him. The first scenario is slightly less silly since hour work would be the result of Gods plan working itself out. But if this is the case then you have no free will and all the acts you do are puppet maneuvers done by God for God. Become and atheist then, its all part of Gods plan!? The world could abandon the entire concept of God and it would all be part of Gods plan. Or perhaps we could all decide to worship Elmo or Barney.

This is not a silly little problem either. Scribes of old understood this quite well about our faith. Ecclesiastes is entirely about this problem. In the end the author basically says that all of the material world is vanity and the only thing you should do is keep the commandments, your duty is to honor God. Current scholarship questions the exact language of the end of Ecclesiastes. It seems the original text does not tell us that it is not our duty to follow God, but that it is we who are the commandment and that we are the manifestation of the respect of God.

I have felt the connection to God. That connection, when viewed, is obvious. Even though I have this connection to this being, I cannot fathom the totality of what that being is. Nor can I know what the full implications of this connection are. Somehow the light and fluffy stories of old, may not be too helpful when this being reveals more of itself to me. Or then again may God will be an old man with a crown. Either way I am on the ride and will have to accept whatever is the reality behind the enigma.