| Mike Millar keeps telling me I should write my memoirs. |
[Oct. 4th, 2007|12:32 pm] |
Mike is a UNI emeritus professor of mathematics. He's originally from Chicago, and attended Harvard as an undergrad, but got his Doctorate from the University of Chicago.
I did write some reminiscences 6 or 7 years ago, but abandoned that effort in the summer of 2002, when President Bush started his shameless war-whooping against Iraq.
I'm inclined to agree with the philosophical writer of the Biblical book of Ecclesiastes (Kohelek), that it's just foolish vanity to be concerned about whether or not one is remembered after death.
According to Lew Rockwell, over a million Iraqis have died, as a result of the US conquest and occupation of their country. They are forgotten.
http://www.lewrockwell.com/rockwell/none-dare-call-genocide.html |
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| Tom Engelhardt Says: |
[Oct. 4th, 2007|06:14 pm] |
Tom Dispatch
posted 2007-10-04 15:08:38
Tomgram: Astore on a Military Bemedaled, Bothered, and Beleaguered
When, in mid-September, General David Petraeus testified before Congress on "progress" in Iraq, he appeared in full dress uniform with quite a stunning chestful of medals. The general is undoubtedly a tough bird. He was shot in the chest during a training-exercise accident and later broke his pelvis in a civilian skydiving landing, but until he went to Iraq in 2003, he had not been to war. In the wake of his testimony, the New York Times tried to offer an explanation for the provenance of at least some of those intimidating medals and ribbons -- including the United Nations Medal (for participants in joint UN operations), the National Defense Service Medal (for those serving during a declared national emergency, including 9/11) and the Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal (for… well, you know…). Petraeus is not alone. Here, for instance, is former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs General Peter Pace, a combat Marine in Vietnam, with one dazzling chestful of medals and another of ribbons.
Medal and ribbon escalation has been long on the rise in the U.S. military. Here, for instance, was General William Westmoreland, who commanded U.S. forces in Vietnam, sporting his chestful back in that distant era. But the strange thing is: As you continue heading back in time, as, in fact, U.S. generals become more successful, those ribbons and medals shrink -- and not because the men weren't highly decorated either. General Dwight D. Eisenhower, who won World War II in Europe for the Allies seems, in his period of glory, to have chosen to wear between one and three rows. And General George C. Marshall, who oversaw all of World War II, after a distinguished career in the military, can be seen in photos wearing but three rows as well.
It's hard to believe that there isn't a correlation here -- that, in fact, there isn't also a comparison to be made. For all the world, when I saw Petraeus on display, I thought of the full-dress look of Soviet generals, not to say the Soviet Union's leader Leonid Brezhnev, back in the sclerotic 1980s when, ambushed in Afghanistan, they were on the way down. Like the USSR then, the U.S., only a few years back hailed as the planet's New Rome, has the look of a superpower in distress -- and it's hard to believe that generals with such chests full of medals, whether in the former USSR or the present USA, have the kind of perspective that actually leads to winning wars -- or to assessing a losing war correctly. Consider what a retired military officer, Lieutenant Colonel William Astore, has to say on the subject. Tom
Saving the Military from Itself
Why Medals and Metrics Mislead
By William Astore
More:
http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/print/174845/Tomgram%253A%2520Astore%2520on%2520a%2520Military%2520Bemedaled%252C%2520Bothered%252C%2520and%2520Beleaguered |
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| The latest online column by Tom Engelhardt, of "The Nation." |
[Oct. 4th, 2007|06:20 pm] |
The title of Tom Engelhardt's latest online column (the previous post) is an interesting allusion to "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered," an old song from the 1940s.
Back in the Fifties, a few years after I'd learned about Murphy's Law, but a few years before Lawrence Peter wrote "The Peter Principle," J.N. Parkinson wrote a book named "Parkinson's Law." In it, he postulated the inexorable growth of bureaucracies, even while their productivity diminishes. I don't remember that he ever brought in any Fibonacci numbers, that would show such growth to be analogous to that of a colony of living organisms, although I suppose it should be that, since bureaucrats are living organisms.
It reminds me a little of Richard Dawkins' "The Selfish Gene" and Kate Distin's "The Selfish Meme."
The web site below makes this comment:
While the law “the solvency of the firm is inversely proportional to the opulence of the façade” may not be attributable to Parkinson, he deals with the issue in an interesting way.
http://www.tsaugust.org/Book_Parkinson_Law.htm
I think Napoleon Bonaparte was credited with saying that solders desire medals, more than anything else.
In 1956, I saw the movie "Ten days that shook the world." In that movie, several Russian soldiers went into the Czar's palace or headquarters, and found a trunk full of medals. Scooping up a handful of them, one soldier said to the others, "So, this is what we've been fighting for!"
Reykr |
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| Bill Cullen asked me to post this "food for thought." |
[Oct. 4th, 2007|06:35 pm] |
Soon You'll Have To Ask Permission Before You Fly
By Mark Nestman
10 -4 -7
Last year, I wrote here that if Uncle Sam gets its way, we'd all be on no-fly lists, unless the government gives us permission to leave - or re-enter - the United States.
Now, the Transportation Safety Administration (TSA) has proposed a similar system for travel on commercial airlines WITHIN the United States. Both systems will come into effect Feb. 19, 2008.
Under the TSA's "Advance Passenger Information System (APIS) initiative," you'll need to obtain permission from the U.S. government to travel on ANY commercial airliner or ship that goes to or from the United States. You won't receive your boarding pass until you are cleared by APIS. You'll also need permission to travel through the United States (e.g., if you're changing planes at a U.S. airport on a trip between two foreign countries). It doesn't matter if you're a U.S. citizen or permanent resident. Everyone will need permission to enter - or leave - the United States.
Then, on Aug. 23, 2007, the TSA issued proposed regulations for its "Secure Flight" program.
The TSA wants commercial airlines to submit passenger information through a single DHS portal for both the Secure Flight and APIS programs. This would result in one DHS system responsible for watch list matching for all aviation passengers.
Naturally, the entire process - for both domestic and international travel - will occur in total secrecy. If you're denied permission to travel, you won't be able to appeal the decision to any court. Your only recourse will be through the TSA bureaucracy. Essentially, you'll be reduced to pleading with the TSA to say something like, "pretty please, give me a boarding pass."
What this amounts to is essentially a reprise of the infamous "internal passport" system in effect in the former Soviet Union. In 1933, Soviet dictator Josef Stalin introduced "internal passports" that prohibited Soviet citizens from leaving their place of residence without permission. Over time, the internal passport became the prime instrument of Soviet oppression over its citizens. It's bad enough needing to ask Uncle Sam for permission to leave the United States, and to reenter it. But an internal passport is a blueprint for totalitarianism.
http://www.rense.com/general78/tas.htm
(Note: By coincidence, the acronym "APIS" is the name of the sacred bulls of ancient Egypt. Reykr) |
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