Category: Uncategorized

DC writes: Brilliant Vox…Official voices of Iran, al-Qaeda, the Palestinian Authority, Hezbollah and Saudi Arabia never had any issues with the United States of America before the EVIL Bush Administration came along, right??? Nice try, get real!!! If we bring our boys home…the war will be in your f’n front yard.

Did you miss the little bit about the war being declared on the United States since the 1970s? And perhaps it escapes you that the Bush administration is quite noticeably not fighting Iran, the PA, Hezbollah or Saudi Arabia? In fact, until very recently, the federal government was sending tens of millions of dollars to the PA.

The Bush administration is engaged the equivalent of invading and occupying Bavaria while leaving the rest of Nazi Germany alone. This leaves two choices. Either declare and fight the entire war properly or get out. There is no sign whatsoever that the administration or the nation are prepared to discuss, much less seriously consider the former, therefore the latter is the only logical solution.

MDM writes: I just returned from Army Airborne School, where I had the pleasure of making some new friends in the Army and Marine Corps. One of the most talked about topics on discussion was, “people who support the troops and still say bring them home.” This is a contradictory statement if we have ever heard one. It’s like saying to journalists, “we support journalism just don’t finish your articles.” If you think that reads like nonsense, try asking some troops for yourself. After all, it’s my fellow troops asses that are on the line, shouldn’t the decision be left to us, if it is left up to anyone? By the way, I love your column so don’t think I am an ass. No 40K players are all that bad, now are they?

You can certainly disagree with me on a single issue without fear of being called an ass, MDM. But if you think there’s a contradiction there, what do you make of those troops who agree with me? And as much as I admire the US military and the fundamental good judgment of the American soldier, I don’t think military dictatorship is the answer to our political problems. That is essentially what you’re talking about here, although not in so many words. I would say that a better analogy would be: “we support journalism, please write about national sovereignty instead of the best way to rebuild the Iraqi economy.”

And I play Fantasy Battles, by the way.

JL writes: You’re sounding an awful lot like John F’n Kerry these days. There is nowhere to hide anymore. If we do not bring the fight to the enemy they will surely bring the fight to us. HAVE YOU FORGOTTEN (9-11)? And they will not just want to take out three-thousand Americans next time. They will try for tens of thousands! We are still at WAR!

Are we at WAR? Then why have we not bothered to declare it? Is the Constitution of the United States of America nothing more than a dead letter? I haven’t forgotten that Saudi Arabian-financed Saudi Arabians attacked us on 9-11. Apparently JL and the Bush administration have. And how do troops stationed in Iceland, Spain and Belgium protect us from further Saudi-funded attacks?

Please. Don’t even think about trying to conflate my intellectual positions with those of the Democratic Party. The very notion is absurd on its face.

An MP stationed in Germany writes: Great article! Unfortunately, my belief is that the military, in the words of theJBS, has been hijacked by the politicians at its very own. so long as the head is evil, the body will sin…no matter how many good folks there are in the body. No more brass willing to say “no…that’s unconstitutional. we cannot deploy for that reason.” it all boils down tothis, “my people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge”. …and it’s only getting worse. lastly, you did name the real enemies of america. it’s a shame that our worse enemies always come from within.

As with Rome, America’s only serious enemies will always come from within. Only Carthage was ever capable of seriously challenging Roman hegemony; Mithradates, for all of his pretensions, never offered a serious threat. In the same way, only international Communism led by the Soviet Union and now, in its mutated neo-capitalist form, led by the People’s Republic of China, can even think of posing an external challenge to the United States.

But societal collapse through decadence and the expansion of central power is not only probable, elements of it are quite visible today. The sad and ironic thing is that some of it will come through those hoping and honestly trying to stave off collapse.

A retired major adds: Thanks for a great piece! This piece is the best critique of our futile effort at forming an “empire.”

A common theme throughout history has been the embarrassment of those in authority who claim a static grasp of the truth. The medieval Catholic church is perhaps the most famous victim of this phenomenon, but modern scientists – particularly archeologists – are regularly putting their collective feet in their mouth and have done so for over a century. And who can forget Bill Gates’ notion that 640k of Random Access Memory is all that anyone could possibly need!

The beauty of Christianity, in my opinion, is that it is almost perfectly open to the concept of a constantly fluctuating knowledge base. As layers of the onion are unwrapped, what is known to be true is learned not to be true, and the subsequent assumptions are often doomed to be overturned as well. The constants of Christianity, in truth, are very few; the fact that they are impossible to human understanding should not trouble the imaginative mind at all. Both Paul and Jesus told us we would not – could not – understand. The human mind is too small.

It is the possibilities of Christianity that I find most exciting. If this is a test, designed to separate the wheat from the chaff and the sheep from the goats, then there is surely a purpose behind it. And if the simulation, the shadow, are this wonderfully vivid, one cannot even begin to imagine what may only be the next step in the most fascinating adventure of all.

lux in tenebris lucet, et tenebrae eam non comprehenderunt

I’ve been meaning to talk up my little toy for a while, but I just hadn’t gotten around to it. This is as good a time as any, I suppose, since I found it very useful on a recent six-hour trip. Imagine being able to carry a 200-volume library around with you at all times, instantly accessible and with a backlight so you can read in the dark. War and Peace, the Brothers Karamazov and the complete Aristotle ouvre balanced by the entire 20-book Aubrey-Maturin series, the eight Flinx novels and everything Douglas Adams ever wrote.

Now, add to that a nice keyboard with full-size keys, enough data storage to satisfy Stephen King’s annual output – and did I mention instant-on capacity? Not to mention the ability to easily sync Microsoft Word documents. And a battery life that doesn’t quite live up to its 30-hour billing, but far exceeds a laptop plus a pair of spare batteries. Yeah, I thought I just saw you lick your lips.

Oh, she’s not perfect. The screen scratches a bit too easily – in a year I’ve put one chip and one minute scratch in it – and there’s no way to shield it properly. The backlight drains her fast, and she hums annoyingly in the process. The Microsoft Word sync won’t sync with the permanent SmartDrive storage, adding what should be an unnecessary pair of steps to the backup process.

But it is indeed a handy little thing. I managed to not only read a quality Dan Simmons short story but an entire mind-candy sci-fi novel in addition to knocking out a thousand words on my next novel, bringing me to within shouting distance of the end. A good thing, too, since I’m supposed to turn it in at the end of March. Every writer really should take a good, hard look at the Alphasmart Dana.

Maimonides writes: “Jesus of Nazareth… impelled people to believe that he was a prophet sent by God to clarify perplexities in the Torah, and that he was the Messiah that was predicted by each and every seer. He interpreted the Torah and its precepts in such a fashion as to lead to their total annulment, to the abolition of all its commandments and to the violation of its prohibitions. The sages, of blessed memory, having become aware of his plans before his reputation spread among our people, meted out fitting punishment to him.”

Clearly he’s anti-semitic! Someone call Abie Foxman and the ADL! Harvey Weinstein, get on the phone and start threatening publishers! Wait, he’s a 12th century Jewish sage? And then there’s this little passage from the Talmud, which apparently isn’t so concerned with precision that it can’t be judiciously edited when something becomes socially problematic. Now, there’s an idea! Wouldn’t life be a lot simpler now if we just got rid of those bits about God calling homosexuality an abomination in the Bible?

“On the eve of Passover they hung Jesus of Nazareth,” said the passage, which was censored in the 16th century to evade the wrath of Christians. “The herald went out before him for 40 days saying, ‘Jesus goes forth to be stoned, because he has practiced magic, enticed and led astray Israel. Anyone who knows anything in his favor, let him come and declare concerning him.’ And they found nothing in his favor.”

I’ve heard that Jews are supposed to be somewhat more prone to being self-hating than the norm, but this is ridiculous. Either Mel Gibson and his movie are not anti-semitic, or the great Jewish philosophers and the Talmud itself are. I suppose we should blame those doggone anti-semitic Southern Baptists for pointing out these interesting little dichotomies.

This makes George Delano’s win a little more secure. Nader will make up for all the third party Libertarian and Constitution votes that Bush will lose in the coming election. Freedom lovers, feel free to vote your principles!

Unless, of course, you’re seriously content with behaving in a less principled manner than the most left-wing Green lunatic.

Doug Kenline suggests Channel Storm, which does look like an interesting solution. Of course, I’m not a Mac guy, so unless someone feels like contributing a G4-powered Macintosh out of what Space Bunny would probably be the first to tell you – no, actually White Buffalo would – would have to be a seriously inordinate interest in whatever I have to say, I can’t see it happening terribly soon now.

The MP3 radio concept is possibly more workable. Using a texting system to substitute for call-ins might be workable and have the additional advantage of preventing the likelihood of things devolving into shouting matches – just a thought – although I don’t know why anyone would want to have listened to my voice the last twelve days anyhow. In a textual world, no one has to know exactly how badly your mucus membranes are draining.

Anyhow, I’ll start looking into it. If anyone has any thoughts – and remember, I prefer Linux solutions – shoot them this way. The problem is that I’m not particularly interested in playing producer, and without much effort in that area, whatever is done is likely to basically suck. I mean, why do you think I’m using Blogger and Haloscan in the first place? Because they require zero effort on my part, allowing me to concentrate on the part I enjoy.

I can’t vouch for the veracity of this, but I will say that a society that consists of citizens who won’t bother to freely defend it is not worth defending. And a war that citizens will not freely fight is not a war worth waging. I have also heard that some states have begun adding an agreement to submit to the draft in order to get your drivers license, but I have not had the chance to verify that yet either.

I don’t think a draft is necessary in order to continue the occupations, as we could simply pull enough troops out of Europe rotation to cover Iraq and Afghanistan. I suspect that it would indicate that some additional fireworks may be in store in the relatively near future.

$28 million has been added to the 2004 Selective Service System (SSS) budget to prepare for a military draft that could start as early asJune 15, 2005. SSS must report to Bush on March 31, 2005 that the system, which has lain dormant for decades, is ready for activation. Please see the SSS website to view the SSS Annual Performance Plan – Fiscal Year 2004. The Pentagon has quietly begun a public campaign to fill all 10,350 draft board positions and 11,070 appeals board slots nationwide. Though this is an unpopular election year topic, military experts and influential members of Congress are suggesting that if Rumsfeld’s prediction of a “long, hard slog” in Iraq and Afghanistan [and a permanent state of war on terrorism] proves accurate, the U.S. may have no choice but to draft.

UPDATE – the driver’s license thing is genuine, as it is a stated strategy of the SSS. However, I’m not sure if all that much has actually changed, as perusing the document shows that a high percentage of registrants have been collected for the past few years. Of course, that doesn’t mean that a draft isn’t imminent, though it could signify nothing more than that the Federal government is continuing to keep closer and closer tabs on everyone. Big Brother, coming to a high school near you!