Bare Wires

Then time will tell who has fell
And who's been left behind
When you go your way and I go mine
--Most Likely You Go your Way and I'll Go Mine;
Bob Dylan

And if you really didn't know
I swear I really didn't know
So I'm sorry, so sorry
--Sorry, So Sorry, Howie Day

Ranger Prediction of the Day:
The trial of Ft. Hood shooter Hassan will be classified
and hidden from public scrutiny
behind the veil of National Security
________________

During a recent windy and rainy night Ranger had a dream of Vietnam, long ago. But this was a dream, and not full of stress, anxiety and fear. After 39 years, not a nightmare, but a dream.

The dream commanded me to return to the country as a tourist and look for the lost ones that served the U.S. war cause faithfully -- the Vietnamese nationals. As a Special Forces soldier, I always felt responsible for the Vietnamese civilians that worked long-term in camp. My interpreter, Lu Tan, was about 35 and had institutional knowledge beyond that of the VN/U.S. chain of command. Then there was Ms. Hoa, Vinh, Pop, The, and Tro.

Though my dream told me to go back and find them, better men than me have tried to find and exfiltrate these people with limited success. At this point, it would be an exercise in futility.

Thinking of my camp provides a fine example of the futility of war. Camp Long Thanh was a World War II Japanese ammunition dump for the airfield, and was used by the French in the 1st Indochina War. During the American war, Camp Long Thanh [CLT] was a U.S. airfield, and the ammo dump grew into a U.S. Special Forces camp. (As a small aside, Diem's body was brought to CLT, though it is unclear whether he was killed in Saigon or CLT. This fact was mentioned in The Pentagon Papers.)

This provenance is presented to show the continuity of warfare and the stupidity of the venture. The Japanese, French and Americans all attempted to hustle the East, but all they learned was you cannot keep frogs in a shallow bucket -- even if you call the fog-keeping by a fancy name like COIN.

It didn't work in Vietnam, and it ain't gonna work in Afghanistan. Regardless of the spin, it did not work in Iraq, either.

The Vietnamese I knew believed in Jesus as their Savior and believed in his goodness and mercy. I sure hope He believed in them.

A Slow Song

Jim, Lisa, Pappy (2006)

Passion has helped us, but can do so no more.
It will in the future be our enemy.
Reason -- sold,  calculating, unimpassioned reason -- 
must furnish all the materials for our future support and defense
--Abraham Lincoln

Strumming my pain with his fingers,
Singing my life with his words,
Killing me softly with his song
--Killing Me Softly, Roberta Flack

Smart lad, to slip betimes away
From fields were glory does not stay
And early though the laurel grows
It withers quicker than the rose
--To An Athlete Dying Young, A. E. Housman
______________

There are times when sadness overpowers me, and my center aches and rolls in anguish. Such was the evening of 11/06, when the past interested with the present.

My old friend called, a man that fought in three wars as a combat Infantryman, fought blistering sun, freezing temperatures seemingly beyond human endurance and faced and escaped death on hundreds of occasions. His business was dealing death from a rifle, and it was my pleasure to serve with him both overseas and stateside. He taught me more about soldiering than did any Army school, this man who was the very definition of a soldier.

During his tour in the Republic of Vietnam he earned the Distinguished Service Cross while with the 101st Airborne Division. While there, he was exposed to the defoliant Agent Orange, and his cancer was presumed to be acquired in the service to his country and the Army.

About six years ago he underwent several operations to treat complications from his abdominal wounds received in the Korean War, the result of shrapnel inflicted by North Korean tanks. Later, his prostate cancer was treated by the Department of Veterans Affairs hospital in Memphis, where he underwent a radioactive seeding procedure.

Three months ago he was operated on by a specialist outside of the DVA system who told him the cancer had spread to his bladder, and the the pellets had "burned" his intestines. His bladder is now history, and his condition less-than optimal.

The news is currently full of the killings at Ft. Hood, but it is a fact that my friend is every bit the victim as are any of those shooting victims. However, his story will never make it to any news report. He is being slowly killed by a system that discards soldiers after they cease to be useful.

Would any President, Vice President or congressman suffer similar indignities to their bodies without an ensuing hue and cry of "injustice!" My friend did everything and more that was ever asked of him, and this is his thanks. My sorrow is not for the poor treatment alone, but for a nation that allows such indignities to be inflicted upon them.

When Ranger hears his old friend struggling for breath over a telephone connection, it becomes evident that the parade has passed him by. It will be one of the hardest things I've done in my life to visit this man knowing that his passing will take a part of me with him.

Ranger is bitter and filled with tears that cannot flow, and if he were to walk away from these facts, then he would be less than the man who once walked with heroes. I do not believe in an afterlife, but men like this one must go somewhere better than where we are now.

White Wedding

Ranger Question of the Day:
Did the U.S. electorate charge Barack Obama with the mission
of forcing change on Afghani President Karzai?

Where is the love
You said you'd give to me
Soon as you were free
Will it ever be?
--Where is the Love? Roberta Flack

I'm the liberation of intoxication
The abomination of infatuation
The epitome of the enemy
Perfect agony until infinity
--Sycophant, KMFDM

Hey little sister who's your superman?
Hey little sister shot gun!
It's a nice day to start again
It's a nice day for a white wedding
--White Wedding, Billy Idol
________________

This week's The Week magazine featured a winning cover illustration: Obama and Karzai as bride and bridegroom, in a shotgun wedding with Joe Biden as flower girl.

Why is changing the smarmy m.o. of Hamid Karzai the concern of the President of the U.S.? The POTUS is not the president of the world, but should focus on his constitutional duties. Karzai is not our concern.

Why would Obama want Karzai to change on any level? Karzai was selected by the U.S. because he was and is a sycophant for U.S. interests. What's not to love?

If Mutant Teenage Ninja Turtles were running the world, things would play out the same.

Sqaure Pegs into Round Holes

Don't throw the past away
You might need it some rainy day
Dreams can come true again
When everything old is new again
--Everything Old is New Again,
Peter Allen
_________________

Ranger submitted an entry to a contest held by the The U.S. Naval Institute's journal Proceedings several years back on the topic of warfare -- "Rethinking the Future Nature of Conflict". Needless to say, his neanderthal, non-4 GW thinking merited not so much as a nod.

But hearing Tyler Boudreau, former-Marine Captain and author of "Packing Inferno," address the topic of mission on National Public Radio this weekend got me thinking once again about mission and so-called New Nature of War. Simply: Everything is exactly the same as it was pre-9-11-01. No change. Nada.

The Constitution and the Rules of War are exactly as relevant and correct as they have always been. Clausewitz is alive and well. Even Sun-Tzu is still kicking! Asymmetrical warfare my ass. That's the way it has always been, just with new toys, now.

The Principles of War, as defined in the Army FM-3 Military Operations, were taught in 3rd-year ROTC class, so basic that all officers should be able to recite them in their sleep. Since our military leaders seem in a deep slumber, this is probably the only time they ponder the verity of these nine guiding principles. (If the reader doubts this, ask any officer to tick these off. Ranger will buy you a beer if you get a complete and correct answer.)

To a military man, these nine are more important than the 10 Commandments. They are:

• Mass
• Objective
• Offensive
• Surprise
• Economy of Force
• Maneuver
• Unity of Command
• Security
• Simplicity

The principles apply to classic military operations, of which counterinsurgency is anything but. We try to operate as COIN, yet apply conventional combat power to the situation in a most inappropriate manner. Following classic Clausewitzian philosophy, this will ensure that COIN will fail.

COIN is not warfare, and therein lies the rub. Classic combat operations insure the defeat of COIN theory and practice. Our political and military leaders have futilely been trying to fit COIN into a war formula, and trying to accommodate the war formula to fit COIN. The Principles of War are being ignored in the Phony War on Terror (PWOT ©), though we carry on as though at war.

We have lost our way. The only things being advanced are careers on the backs of the taxpayers and dead and wounded soldiers. All in a war that isn't a war, and a COIN experiment that isn't COIN.

If a Captain of USMC Infantry can see this, then why can't the Chiefs of Staff of the Services?

Buying the Farm

Green acres is the place for me.
Farm livin' is the life for me.
Land spreadin' out so far and wide
Keep Manhattan, just give me that countryside
--Green Acres, Vic Mizzy

The great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie
-- deliberate, contrived and dishonest, but the myth
-- persistent, persuasive and unrealistic
--John F. Kennedy

Turning Japanese
I think I'm turning Japanese
I really think so
--Turning Japanese, the Vapors
________________

FarmVille.com's come-on is, "Grow delicious fruits and vegetables and raise adorable animals on your very own farm!" Except it isn't your farm -- it's a virtual farm in the ether.

But if you buy into it, you will fritter away precious hours harvesting those ersatz blueberries in your futile quest for money and satisfaction. Strawberries grow in four hours; eggplant, two days. So unless you buy into the Perelandra paradigm, real life this ain't.

FarmVille is currently the most popular Facebook application, with over 60 million subscribers. In a real life nostalgic for the ideal, Washington farmer Donna Schoonover says of her particpation in the simulacra farming, "This was a way to remind myself of the mythology of farming, and why I started farming in the first place" (To Harvest Squash, Click Here.) Farm Town, MyFarm and Farm Life are other, less popular, online farming games.

Self-described "Hardcore player" Becky Roberts, 49, plaintively says "they will die if you don’t tend to them," which is why she "sometimes set[s] her clock at night to make sure she tends to high-maintenance plants at two-hour intervals" (Facebook's 11 Million Farmers.)

Adam Nash on his site Psychohistory plots out the game dynamics in, The Personal Economics of FarmVille. He says most people play for coins, but a few are playing for experience points, which he ignores in his tabulations, obviously a lesser goal.

The Pet Rock was a wonderful spoof of the self-absorption of the Me Decade, which hadn't the time for such trivialities as tending to the needs of others. Ditto the Chia Pet, which did however require some sporadic watering (but little else).

In 1996 the Tamagotchi pet was introduced -- really, a brightly colored plastic egg with three buttons which would allow the owner to feed, play, clean, or ascertain its "age, discipline, hunger, happiness and other statistics." With neglect, your Tamagotchi would die, a source of deep shame.

The AIBO (Artificial Intelligence robot, homonymous with pal in Japanese) was introduced by Sony in 1999, but discontinued in 2006. It was a brief venture into AI in which the AIBO owner could "teach" the robotic dog certain commands, without having the inconvenience of feeding or scooping poop. As with a Tamagotchi, if one got bored, AIBO could be switched off and banished to a corner.

So why the fascination with virtual pets and plants? It's a beautiful day, and I can't wait to go out. Is it that people do not want to dirty their hands? Do they yearn for connection, but not so much so that they are willing to take on all that true commitment requires?

Do they they feel they will fail, and there is less grieving involved in the death of a Tamagotchi? The burial -- an unceremonious toss on the rubbish heap, is certainly easier and less costly and time-consuming than the real thing. After all, a new and updated model awaits.

Why would one connect with the simulacrum when the real awaits?

[Cross-posted at Big Brass Blog.]

Hoodwinked

__________________

As regrettable and senseless as are the murders at Ft. Hood yesterday, we ask: When a Hellfire missile kills 12 innocent people in Afghanistan why are we not equally as indignant and outraged?

Both events can/could have been prevented. Nothing good can be gained by any of these deaths. When this happens in theatre we and they are issued an apology by a public affairs officer over the regrettable loss of life. Yesterday, the American people were told that former president George Bush and wife, and President Obama, were all praying for the victims and their families.

Apologies and prayers are not sufficient, even when presidentially-mandated.

Unbridled Aggression

We need take no more note of it than of a war
between two African kingdoms in the fourteenth century,
a war that altered nothing in the destiny of the world,
even if a hundred thousand blacks perished
in excruciating torment
--The Unbearable Lightness of Being,
Milan Kundera

And I don't know how you do it
Making love out of nothing at all
--Out of Nothing at All,
Air Supply
_______________

While our Bill of Rights applies to our citizens, the U.S. is also a signatory to the U.N. Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) which applies to citizens in the rest of the world. As a ratified treaty, it is every bit the rule of law as our our own Constitution. Or so the story goes.

Along comes the events of 9-11, and here's the ball game so far, 11-06-09:

• NATO, which was and is a defensive alliance to counter the Warsaw Pact threat has now become a strike force to implement U.S. policy. This policy is that of aggressive invasions which lack a clearly-defined or evident defensive purpose.

• US/NATO forces are arresting, detaining and interrogating prisoners that they have no right to arrest, detain or interrogate.

U.S. military and intelligence agencies are employing drones and Hellfire missiles to kill, interdict and intimidate citizens of AFPAK, and are killing people based upon intelligence indicators and reports rather than upon legal decisions. However, belonging to the Taliban and/or being an insurgent is not a death offense.

Any nation has the legal right to oppose and foreign invasion with any power within their means. Unfortunately, that means the Afghan resistance fighters have every right to bear arms against any foreign invader. This is the same right accorded to U.S. citizens were the tables turned.

It makes no difference how the war ends in Afghanistan. Whatever the result, the people will be exploited and downtrodden whether it be by a U.S.-backed lapdog or an anti-coalition amalgam. Afghanistan will not become a beacon of democracy and continuing the war will not contribute to the destruction of al-Qaeda. Al-Qaeda is not bound by national borders.

The same short-sightedness and muddled thinking that motivates U.S. banking and corporate life is the same feature that defines the Phony War on Terror (PWOT ©): You simply cannot make something out of nothing. You cannot make a democracy out of an antrenched clannish tribal hierarchy, and you can't win hearts and minds by dropping Hellfire missiles into mud huts.

The waste of this war is indefensible at every level -- philosophically, militarily, economically and morally. We have lost hold on rational thought, our actions based upon emotion and twisted logic.

It is obvious that Mr. Obama is not going to soon end the wars and bring the troops home, pledging as he did in the elections to trudge on in the Good War. But this is neither war, nor is it counterinsurgency. It is unbridled aggression, and as such, rife with ignorance and inhumanity.

This is something a good soldier has a hard time getting behind.

Idle Thought

--Out of Focus, Tak Bui [Canada]

And you'll be sorry that you messed with
The U.S. of A.
'Cause we'll put a boot in your ass
It's the American way
--Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue,
Toby Keith
________________

Terrorism has the goal of creating terror. 9-11 was not a successful act because it created outrage, which is a different outcome. The resultant outrage caused it to be ultimately an unsuccessful operation. Terrorists walk a fine line, in this regard.

One characteristic of liberal governments is that terrorism usually prompts a reasoned response; such is the nature of democracy. Aberrantly, the resulting outrage created a Phony War on Terror (PWOT ©).

Outrage was the emotion, and the resulting PWOT © is an outrage against democracy.

Cleanliness is Next to Godliness

So Thank you very much
It's really nice to know
That you enjoyed the show
--Thank You Very Much,
Kaiser Chiefs
_______________

O4 0800 Nov 09 Ranger had a lab appointment at the local VA clinic. First order of business was a urine sample, delivered through the little door in the wall, and the washing of the hands. Except for a small problem: There was no soap in the dispenser.

Not at the end of a long day, but the beginning, at the urine counter. Possibly the Department of Veterans Affairs thinks us all West Pointers, and that we never get piss on our hands. Signage everywhere exhorts us to wash our hands, but with what?

Now, the VA says they are cleaning up their act, and promise an end to screw ups like the unwashed tubing used in endoscopies and colonoscopies in VAMC clinics in Florida, Tennessee and Georgia. But no soap in the specimen room doesn't give this former trooper hope.

Everyone used to say the VA system was a crack operation. Negative further.

Web of Life

Omnia vivunt, omnia inter se conexa
[Everything is alive; everything is interconnected]
- -Cicero

Ya kill for a little bit of money.
There's more to life than a little money, you know.
Don'tcha know that?
And here ya are, and it's a beautiful day
--Fargo (1996)

Lack of awareness of the basic unity
of organism and environment
is a serious and dangerous hallucination
--Alan Watts
_______________

We are largely a nation of disconnected, distracted and disaffected individuals. We lack a sense of Other and fail to respect that we are a nation of disparate individuals. It is so simple: The one is part of the whole, and we all have a part to play. The problem is, we are egoistic, and believe we are the center around which it all revolves.

God exists to fulfill our dreams. Prosperity Theology tells us that He wants us flush, and some Christians read Theology of the Body as inducing us to have great rolls in the hay, at God's behest. Many strands of mainstream Christianity are now hawking a "Hot Monogamy" theme. It's all about us, except when it isn't.

There is something beyond all of us, and that is The Other, the Stranger. The Bible commands us to love him (Deuteronomy 10-19), but most of us find that hard to do. Examples of the difficulty of this endeavor abound, both among our fellow humans and with the other inhabitants of our world.

We seem alienated from animal life unless it exists to amuse, clothe or feed us. Ranger has neighbors in the rural county in which he lives who kill hawks, coyotes, raccoons, opossums and rattlesnakes, and the commercial farmers get special permits to slaughter deer wholesale because they forage the tomatoes they grow. This is especially hideous as tons of tomatoes are scrapped every growing season for being too ripe to ship.

We kill because the little critters are deemed nuisances, or for the sheer pleasure of killing varmints. Like the character Leonard Smalls in the film "Raising Arizona", they are especially hard on the little things. Ground hogs are killed for sport, and African safaris continue to be a draw, though most of the hunts are canned.

Many (illegally) kill Florida panthers for the sport, and though their numbers are being dangerously reduced, bobcats fill in as sport for some lusty deer hunters. Forget slowing down on the highways to protect wildlife -- for many, it is a real-life version of Death Race 2000.

We lack empathy, and fail to examine the most basic of our actions. We have allowed government to commit indecencies and crimes in our name. We invade, topple and kill as easily as if shooting wild boar, ignoring the interconnectedness of all life, both animal and human.

In contrast to his neighbors, Ranger feels privileged to view the wildlife that forage on his property. The occasional red fox is seen, and hawks were never killed, even when they targeted chickens. All life is connected and has purpose.

It is unfortunate when we forget we are all part of this web of life. The New York Times ran a story on Paris's city bike initiative, reporting that 80% of the Vélib's had been vandalized or stolen, often by disaffected residents (French Ideal of Bicycle-sharing Meets Reality.) Said one Parisian user: “It’s a reflection of the violence of our society and it’s outrageous: the Vélib’ is a public good but there is no civic feeling related to it.”

That is the bottom line: We may not feel kenzoku (blood brother affinity) with many, but we can always have a civic feeling, a feeling of being a good steward, if societies are to persist in anything other than an Escape From New York sort of way.

"In an unsuccessful effort to stop vandalism, Paris began an advertising campaign this summer. Posters showed a cartoon Vélib’ being roughed up by a thug. The caption read: 'It’s easy to beat up a Vélib’, it can’t defend itself. Vélib’ belongs to you, protect it!'” But if you don't believe Velib' belongs to you, you will not protect it. You may vandalize and cannibalize it, in order to get your petty share, but in its wholeness and functionality, it means nothing to you.

Life is give and take, and we are all part of the whole. This is something that all men must remember, whatever their country or religion. From killing we may escape and survive, but there must be a place where it is not carried to excess or committed with alacrity.

Too often our lives and wars feature both excessive and frivolous killing, and our disposable society does nothing to dissuade this voraciousness. More for me, and there will always be more.

Until there isn't.

--Lisa and Jim

A Good German

--Thanks from a Grateful Nation,
h/t to reader Underground Carpenter

Happy talk, keep talkin' happy talk,
Talk about things you'd like to do.
You got to have a dream,
If you don't have a dream
How you gonna have a dream come true?
--Happy Talk, South Pacific

Sometimes the light's all shinin' on me;
Other times I can barely see.
Lately it occurs to me,
What a long, strange trip it's been
--Truckin', Grateful Dead
_____________

[This wonderful road sign outside of Las Vegas was snapped by faithful reader Underground Carpenter. It strikes us all a little funny that the veterans of the GWOT only rate a highway "segment", but we guess everything's in short supply these days. Salut.]

The recent resignation of Foreign Service officer and former Marine Matthew Hoh shows the invalidity and misapplication of Counterinsurgency policy in the U.S.'s approach to warfare in the Phony War on Terror (PWOT©).

When Matthew Hoh joined the Foreign Service early this year, he was exactly the kind of smart civil-military hybrid the administration was looking for to help expand its development efforts in Afghanistan.

A former Marine Corps captain with combat experience in Iraq, Hoh had also served in uniform at the Pentagon, and as a civilian in Iraq and at the State Department. By July, he was the senior U.S. civilian in Zabul province, a Taliban hotbed (U.S. Official resigns Over Afghan War).

If a former Captain is the senior U.S. State Department civilian at province level, then we are hurting. Former Captains lack the experience level to be anything other than Captains; they should not be tapped as senior U.S. officials. It is doubtful that a Lieutenant Colonel (05) would be sophisticated enough to fulfill this function.

Said Hoh in a bizarre interview statement, sounding every bit a character from The Forgiven:

"There are plenty of dudes who need to be killed," he said of al-Qaeda and the Taliban. "I was never more happy than when our Iraq team whacked a bunch of guys."

A senior State department official heartily endorsing killing is not a way forward. When State Department officials think and talk like Marine Captains, we are on shaky ground. Department of State and Department of defense are supposed to be separate agencies. When killing is happy talk, that person should not be at State. One must wonder if this gung-ho attitude has become de riguer at DoS.

"I have lost understanding of and confidence in the strategic purposes of the United States' presence in Afghanistan," he wrote Sept. 10 in a four-page letter to the department's head of personnel. "I have doubts and reservations about our current strategy and planned future strategy, but my resignation is based not upon how we are pursuing this war, but why and to what end."

Why has nobody resigned because the war has become a criminal endeavor? Mr. Hoh accepts the premise that the war is justified; he is merely questioning the why's and wherefore's. But like everyone else, he clearly accepts the "how" of the war. The entire debate is about how versus why.

"Why" should precede the acceptance or obtaining of strategic or tactical objectives. the how's and why's will never tally up because the war is neither just nor proportional, nor does it address the security concerns of America. Fighting in Afghanistan's insurgent civil war is not justifiable for the U.S. in any rational discussion.

"At one point," Hoh said, "I employed up to 5,000 Iraqis" handing out tens of millions of dollars in cash to construct roads and mosques. His program was one of the few later praised as a success by the U.S. special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction.

This is a point beyond rationalization. We the American people pay taxes to buy services administered by government. We pay taxes to perpetuate our lives and value systems. One of these is the separation of church and state. Yet here we have Mr. Hoh stating that our hard-earned tax dollars are being spent to contruct -- mosques?

How strange and bizarre is that? We are fighting phony wars supposedly fighting Islamic extremism, which is propogated in islamic mosques by extremist Imams, so what do we do? Build more mosques, which help perpetuate the cycle and violates the concept of separation of church and state which our democracy holds so sacrosanct.

Why does the U.S. electorate accept this insanity?

Little Pink Houses

And their friends, the loitering heirs of city directors
Departed, have left no addresses
--The Waste Land, T. S. Eliot

I'm sitting down by the highway
Down by that highway side
Everybody's going somewhere
Riding just as fast as they can ride
--Your Bright Baby Blues, Jackson Browne
______________

The federal deficit sits at $1.42 trillion, a figure greater than the total national debt for the first 200 years of the Republic. Our debt is greater than the entire economy of India.

Meanwhile we pursue our endless wars to shed our grace on the sandbox nations of Iraq and Afghanistan, and we can't seem to give houses away in our blighted-but-once-thriving city of Detroit (Detroit House Auction Flops for Urban Wasteland):

Despite a minimum bid of $500, less than a fifth of the Detroit land was sold after four days.

The county had no estimate of how much was raised by the auction, a second attempt to sell property that had failed to find buyers for the full amount of back taxes in September.

The unsold parcels add to an expanding ghost town within the once-vibrant town known worldwide as the Motor City.

The number of houses in default in Detroit has more than tripled since 2007, and is expected rise. The homes being auctioned represented only the 2006 foreclosure rolls, well before the worst of the economic downturn (GM and Chrysler filed for bankruptcy this year.)

The number of U.S. homes in foreclosure rose to 938,000 in the July-September quarter, up 5% from the previous quarter (U.S. Foreclosure Filings Rose in Third Quarter). Combined with unemployment rates at a 26-year high, foreclosures are projected to hit 3.5 million this year. Funny thing to have happen on the way to a rosier economy, news of which greets us each day in the papers.

Even if the homes were given away, the poor and underemployed would not be able to cover the maintenance and taxes; that's how this mess started in the first place. Well, perhaps it is some solace that we are kicking about trying to improve some wasteland, somewhere. So Detroit withers away. Buh-bye.

On an upnote: We hear cycling among the ruins in Detroit has become something of a biker's paradise. You see, the lack of civic activity provides for untrafficked boulevards. Broken glass can be a problem, but if you outfit your mountain bike with Kevlar Panaracers, you should be o.k. Weapon suggested.

Why doesn't real estate in Kabul and Baghdad suffer such indignities of neglect? Perhaps if the denizens of Detroit formed proper militias, the U.S. government would turn their sights there, and do more than sympathize with the abysmal plight of our citizens.

Where will Toledo, Buffalo, Erie, Cleveland and Detroit get the funds to update their dilapidated infrastructures? Where is the Coalition of the Willing which will save our citizens?

The financial institutions of America are as brutal to the American dispossessed as the Taliban are to the average Afghan citizen.

Predatory Advertising

Lottery: A tax on people who are bad at math
_______________

Ranger does not play Lotto because it is a sucker's game operated by a corrupt state government designed to siphon money from desperate citizens who see no other way out of their financial straights, shy of robbing a zippy mart.

Ergo, they play lotto with the illusory hope of salvation caused by nothing but a crack at random luck and happenstance. Adverts for Lotto invite the unwitting saps to Play to Win. Nothing but a game, and how dangerous can that be, except when the desperate participants lay down $50 at a time, a sizable chunk of a week's earnings.

The actions of the state are deplorable and unconscionable. The television ads always stress what you can win, but never mention the infinitesimal odds of actually winning any of the money going into the vampire-like state system.

Where in the Constitution is there implied or stated authority for the state to gather revenue through gambling? Gambling is gambling, even when state-sanctioned. If it is illegal for the Mafia to run numbers, then so too should it be for the state. The state should be held to a higher standard than is organized crime.

When this type of advertising is used by salesmen, disclaimers are always present along with related consumers affairs information. Why is the state Lotto Commission exempt from truthful disclosure in their predatory advertising?

With the cheery colors and confetti and official logos, these ads must seems to many to have the imprimatur of the state. Is it too much to suggest that these insistent ads pitch an aspect of wholesomeness, much as if they were the state Department of Children and Families or any other such agency constituted to help the citizens?

When state governments prey upon the poor and dispossessed, then it is clear that the American dream is a 22 million-to-one long shot. Would any rich investor buy a stock with a 22 million:1 chance of success?

Smoke 'Em If You Got 'Em

You're above the System. Over it.
Beyond it. We're "them." We're "they."
We are the Men in Black
--Men in Black (1997)

Politics is supposed to be the second-oldest profession.
I have come to realize
that it bears a very close resemblance to the first
--President Ronald Reagan

Well, we're off, we're off, we're off!
I'll tell you what it is! (what is it God dang is!?)
It's some kinda Texas psychobilly freakout, that's what it is!
--Psychobilly Freakout, Reverend Horton Heat
_____________

America is a nation that bases its national policies and life upon denial of truth and the acceptance of lies. Our policy is to lie, and our lies are our policies.

Some of our guiding myths are:

• The government exists for the benefit of the people

• Deficit spending will solve all of our problems

• Taxation rates in our nation are lower than those in socialistic states like England, Sweden, Norway, etc.

• The government can spend us out of recession and depression

Let's discuss:

Government of, by and for the people does not exists anywhere except on paper. Elective government doesn't work because we elect people that are likable and who resemble us.

This means they can't even conceptualize what $787 Billion in a stimulus program means, or even what it looks like. Our legislators can't imagine what a trillion dollar war deficit actually means. Our lawmakers are just like us: They haven't got a clue, but unlike Ranger, they will not admit their ignorance.

Local officials are equally uninformed, and the city and county managers do some fancy footwork to keep things running, despite our politicians. Spending money that you do not have is not a policy that can be successful on any level.

In the past, the U.S. could squeak by with this fallacious thinking because we were an expanding and growing nation. No longer the case, we must now shift our thinking and jar our senses into pursuing realistic goals. Contraction rather than expansion is a necessary turn. The nature of our curent status requires it. This is not your dad's post-WWII America.

When one defies nature, famines result; to defy economic realities is to court national disaster. You cannot spend money you don't have and cannot pay back, and expect to prosper. We are a nation in production contraction, not expansion.

The fact is, the actual U.S. tax rate is higher than that of the socialist countries we denigrate. If we consider the costs of servicing our national debt, the monies that we spend are concealed from our oversight, but that does not mean they are not real. It still comes out of our pockets -- it is just deferred.

Let's get back to what Ranger knows best -- walking a trail and tactical movement. When in combat and moving to contact, it is a fact that the easiest trail is always the most dangerous. Our leaders always take us down the easiest trails because we want them to, but it always leads to disaster.

The U.S. would be better served if we raised taxes, while curbing government spending. The leaders of both parties are leading the American citizens down the aisle leading to the slaughterhouse. Judas goats are not leaders.

Don't smoke 'em if you don't got 'em.

Desperate Wives

Even people spooked by guns will be drawn
into the search for new tools of destruction
--Video game report,
Tallahassee Democrat Limelight

Guess he’s been in Starkfield too many winters.
Most of the smart ones get away
--Ethan Frome, Edith Wharton

I can't get
Any rest
People say
I'm obsessed
--She Drives Me Crazy,
Fine Young Cannibals
______________

Whilst visiting the far-flung regions of Jacksonville, Ranger had the occasion to stay at an upscale motel for a couple of days and experience America in all its glory.

In the business center checking the news, he had occasion to witness five fine young cannibals playing a violent video game. One said animatedly, "It's really neat to cut off their heads and stick spears into people." The others nodded in agreement. Ranger left, but not before offering, "You are some sick puppies if you think cutting off heads is neat." End of story -- almost.

Proceeding to breakfast, he overheard the three young mothers equally animatedly discussing the colors of their toe nail polish (true!) Breakfast continued until one of the daughters walked by my table and deposited her dirty glass upon it. The garbage can was three feet away.

Ranger stood up and stared directly at the girl until the mother said, "The gentleman is upset about something." In explanation he described the video games and the glass, to which the mother replied, "My boy is a good boy!" And indeed, in today's society they are probably sterling examples, and would probably never execute a Columbine-type shooting. Maybe.

Where does this start, and where does it end? Television is full of Jerry Springer-type nastiness -- the abject end of respect for one's fellows, replete with slap downs, wrestling and cage fighting. Reality t.v. encourages nasty behavior and rewards it with prizes. We have moved the Roman Circus to prime time. The huge market of fantasy kill games glorifying murder are but an outgrowth of a society which disdains and ostracizes the losers.

We celebrate when stealth bombs snuff out human life, but cry when the Twin Towers fall. Death is death, but we do not find it equally hideous in its application. What is the difference between cutting off heads in video games and remotely piloting drones that kill people in a really neat, precision manner? If you don't have to see it and smell it, it is all rather, surgical, isn't it?

The America that was my pride no longer exists. Or perhaps, the America that I thought was my pride no longer exists. The U.S. is on a cultural bobsled ride, and it is not over until we hit the bottom of the run.

The judgment will be that Ranger is a grouchy old fart out of touch with reality. If participating in this behavior is being in the game, Ranger prefers the sidelines.

Free For All

Doctor, my eyes
Tell me what is wrong
Was I unwise to leave them open for so long
--Doctor My Eyes, Jackson Brown
_______________

Ranger is not very interested in the topics of medical insurance reform or the universal health issue, but he is interested in the health care promise to veterans.

President Obama is investing a lot of energy and political capital into these issues, at the expense of our two theatres of military action. Why doesn't he inform the taxpayers about why their money is flowing to endless wars, rather than engaging in obscurantism and telling them his health care plans won't cost them a red cent?

We would like some justifications for the continuance of the wars, rather than distraction with other less pressing issues. Even David Letterman quipped that we discuss health care financing, but never question war financing. The latter is accepted as a given, a necessity.

The federal government currently provides neither medical coverage nor health insurance for all veterans. Vets are prioritized due to funding restrictions, and have financial means testing as a discriminator to determine priorities of treatment. If the government cannot find the money to medically treat all honorably discharged veterans, then where is the money coming from to cover medical care for all Americans?

We are extremely sympathetic to the universal health care concept, but everybody is not going to get everything for free, nor can it be paid for if there is not a funding source. The truth is, to have a viable universal health coverage, we will pay higher taxes, a word anathema to the average U.S. citizen.

On the other hand, veterans earned their health care through their service. After they are discharged, they learn the country they served, to include combat duty, is slipping them a shabby deal. Before the U.S. starts new health insurance programs funded with tax dollars, there should be comprehensive medical care for veterans, care that they were promised and services they have earned.

We do not want free health care, we want what we paid for with our service. Obama is simply following a path firmly established in both legislatures, whether Democratically or Republican-controlled. Both parties continue to neglect the big veterans issues by throwing us little bones with promises of better funding to come.

Some people believe the rhetoric, but it's time to open our eyes.

A Dart to the Heart

Some folks you don't have to satirize,
you just quote 'em
--Tom Paxton

In a free and republican government,
you cannot restrain the voice of the multitude.
Every man will speak as he thinks
or more properly, without thinking.
--George Washington

A bullet to the heart
is worth two in the bush
--Ranger Hruska
_______________

There is a doctrinal disconnect in the use of the basic rifle (M4) and squad and platoon level machine guns (MG).

The individual rifle has characteristics which limit its use in both the Phony War on Terror (PWOT ©) and conventional combat. The design limitations of our weapons are not being considered when training the troops, leading to unnecessary deaths for U.S. forces.

Recent Army experience shows that troops are experiencing stoppages and malfunctions in prolonged fighting scenarios -- the rifle overheats and/or fails to operate. The MG's also overheat and cease to be operational. The problems are due to weapons characteristics and/or training deficiencies.

Weapons characteristics: The U.S. systems are based upon war fighting considerations. The MG is designed to quick change the barrel in combat before it overheats, rendering the unit inoperational. The M240 and M249 have quick change barrels, so overheating and chamber welds should not happen, even in extended actions.

The above is true if the gunners/assistant gunners carry extra barrels and service the weapon, honoring the designation, "crew-served weapon". In addition, the ammunition must be kept clean, dry and protected from contamination.

The rifle will overheat if fired excessively in combat or range firings. Both individual and crew-served have extreme operational limits which can be ameliorated by training.

Training deficiencies: The U.S. Army is organized and equipped to fight theatre level scenarios. The PWOT is an unexpected scenario, and the Army simply applied a tactical tool to an insurgency environment. The Army is designed to fight other similarly arrayed forces, so our training emphasizes volume of fire and fire superiority. This is relevant in attack/defense environments on the conventional battlefield. Volume of fire is the key to winning, but not in counterinsurgency scenarios.

When platoons and companies operate independently against similar sized opposition forces not supported by normal national army assets, then we have problems. At Wanat, the defenders had a winning hand but they violated doctrine:

• They overheated their weapons
• They were defending non-defensible terrain
• They underutilized or improperly placed their organic mortar assets

All of these deficiencies could be overcome by leadership and training, but this presumes the leaders possess the requisite skills to impart to the troops.

Volume of fire and firing weapons at their maximum rate is not wise unless employing final protective fires (FPF). FPF is only used when it is clear that the final assault is being pressed. Firing weapons excessively at max is an invitation to disaster. Why did the MG's overheat? Were the barrels not changed in a timely manner?

Training should teach soldiers to fire at selected distant targets; simply putting out fire is not an effective infantry tactic. In the defense, each team member should fire selectively on semi-auto.
Easy to say, hard to do, but this is why we have professional soldiers paid to do hard jobs in hard environments.

Speaking as a former infantryman, it would be preferable to give the troops bolt-action rifles that shoot every time rather than full auto weapons that malfunction at critical times. This is not said frivolously. In a COIN environment this would be an acceptable modification consideration. Another modification would be to issue only semi-auto versions of the M4 to all troops in the COIN environment backed up by normal MG's and battalion level weapons.

If a U.S. Platoon or Company cannot defeat 3:1 when defending, then the Army needs some serious reconfiguring.

Spray and Pray

Not every Taliban is an extremist ally
--Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton
_______________

A recent commenter on RAW stated that the AK-47 was the cause leading to the defeat of worldwide colonialism. This started Ranger to consider the idea.

In Ludwig Olsen's book,"The Mauser Rifle" was a poster from the Boer War which stated (from the Boer perspective), "God and Mauser made us free." Before this war, the British Army controlled their colonies through riflery and backed it up by cold steel, which was a result of training and discipline

The Mauser rifle ended this era by putting long-range rifles into the hands of non-professional soldiers. “Vertrou in God en die Mauser!” This was the death knell for colonialism, but it took a while to play out. the AK simply ended the trend started by the Mauser rifle.

In truth, Ranger believes that any force today armed with Mauser rifles would give a good account of themselves in a counterinsurgency environment. Full auto weapons are not necessary: More soldiers were killed in Iraq by improvised explosive devices (IED's) than by rifle fire. The rifle is not the centerpiece of modern insurgencies; it is but a building block.

The central tools of present insurgencies are the video cam, television uplink and computer and cell phone-generated images. Present-day insurgencies and terrorism are the direct descendants of such technologies. Building large armies and police forces ignore this reality.

Weapons will not defeat ideas. And firepower is useless unless the adversary can be found and fixed.

Dead Space

Marine mortarmen on Fox Hill in the Toktong Pass
phase of the Battle of the Chosin Reservoir during the Korean War
[cribbed from Gordon and Fixer at Alternate Brain]

Ranger Definition of the Day:
COIN [n]: The tunnel at the end of the light

In war, truth is the first casualty
--Aeschylus

Your cheap words that you brought on sale
Won't help you through tonight
--Dead Sound, Raveonettes
________________

This entry is about mortars and their use, or misuse, in the Phony War on Terror (PWOT ©).

As stated previously, mortars -- either 60/81/4.2" -- are some of the best support that an engaged infantryman can hope to utilize. Mortars are commonly called "hip-pocket"artillery, and are organic to the infantry battalions. This means that they are responsive and are part of the engaged unit's TO & E, which translates out to trust.

These mortar men are fellow unit members and they are effective when properly utilized. The problem is that the U.S. Army has lost, or shuns, this skill set.

For readers without military training, here is a gloss: Mortars are indirect fire weapons that actually lob a mortar bomb a great distance. These are crew-served weapons requiring teamwork to be employed effectively. They must be properly emplaced and defended so that they may affect the fight by covering dead spaces in the direct fire weapons coverage.

When a U.S. unit at any level is defending, then it can be a hasty or a planned defense. In either case, the unit should do an integrated comprehensive fire plan to include all organic assets. Additional air and artillery assets should be added frosting on the cake.

With direct fire, you must see them to hit them as bullets follow line of vision, flat eye-to-target trajectory. The exception to this is final protective fire, in which pre-planned defensive fires are projected without aiming at specific targets. The idea is to kill anything 6" to 70" off the ground. Mortars cover the dead space that bullets cannot reach: Ditches, hollows, etc.

Mortars may not be being effectively employed because the easy fix is to use the 203/40 mm grenade launcher to fulfill the function. But the effectiveness is limited because these grenades cannot reach objective rally points, avenues of approach and attack positions prior to the final assault.

Sometimes, the best way to win a fight is not to fight it. This can be achieved via judicious use of assigned mortars to break up attacks before they happen. This requires savvy combat experience and leadership.

Over years of discussions with young old soldiers alike, Ranger has generally met with resistance against the use of mortars. Perhaps lack of training accounts for their lack of understanding of the flexibility of the mortar as a synergistic combat multiplier.

In Mogadishu, if Shughart and Gordon had mortar support they would probably be alive today. When the Army requires soldiers to live and die solely by the rifle and machine gun, then the craft of war fighting has devolved, and combat has become a dull brawl open to any outcome.

In the recent fight in Afghanistan in which eight U.S. soldiers were killed, the other side effectively used mortars during the assault and in general support of the entire operation. News reports routinely support effective mortar attacks employed by the opposition forces. (The action is covered well here at MinstrelBoy: "U.S. Ignored Warnings before Deadly Afghan Attack.")

They are not fighting as insurgents, but rather as an integrated combat force with experience and discipline, and the ability to press a planned ground assault This was not a hasty assault. The U.S. is fighting as COIN, while they are fighting a real war.

None of our fine military pundits will admit that the opposition will take 3-6 months to prepare the battlefield and the assault. My analysis is that this assault leader is more sophisticated than the defending Battalion Commander. It is obvious this leader prepared the battlefield in depth. If we want to study professionalism, we should study the enemy's action in this battle.

The question is, why are weapons which are being used so effectively for the opponents being marginalized in U.S. operations? This old 11C Ranger would like to know. My bunker is tight, so fire away -- I'm ready for incoming.

Bare Bones

--More Troops in Afghanistan,
Peray (Thailand)

You've got to ask yourself one question:
"Do I feel lucky?" Well, do ya, punk?
--Dirty Harry (1971)
_________________

One argument from last week's Time for deploying more troops was,

This is a sound policy. If U.S. forces were not in Afghanistan, the Taliban, with its al-Qaeda allies in tow, would seize control of the country's south and east and might even take it over entirely. A senior Afghan politician told me that the Taliban would be in Kabul within 24 hours without the presence of international forces. This is not because the Taliban is so strong; generous estimates suggest it numbers no more than 20,000 fighters. It is because the Afghan government and the 90,000-man Afghan army are still so weak ("Two Arguments for What to Do in Afghanistan".)

Assuming the Taliban has the capacity to take Kabul if U.S. forces were absent: If, after eight years of phony war the Taliban with their 20,000 fighters could defeat the 90,000-man strong Afghan Army + a larger national police force, then Ranger says -- let 'em.

The war in Afghanistan boils down to one significant question: Do we believe in freedom and self-determination, or don't we? Yes, the Taliban consists of repressive fundamentalists representing values that are repugnant to most U.S. sensibilities, but then again, our regional allies share many of these characteristic identifiers.

The number of Taliban fighters is estimated between 10-20,000, and depending on the news source the dirty nasty al-Qaeda and generic foreign fighters are also thrown in for good measure. But the unanswered question is: Where do 10-20,000 fighters get their munitions, rations, weapons, clothing, transportation, medical support and battlefield intelligence?

Being anti-government does not just happen. Contrary to the report that Afghans do not favor the Taliban, someone is supporting them. This is a fact that is conveniently omitted from our canned news coverage of the war.

If the Talibs have 10-20,000 fighters, this is merely the "tip of the spear." All fighting hierarchies show the same pyramidal scheme. The ratio of fighters to support is always skewed, with the support always outnumbering the fighters. In a counterinsurgency environment, the U.S. addresses this weakness by contracting out and using assigned troops outside of their military occupational specialties (MOS).

The anti-government forces do this by streamlining unit organization and multi-tasking. But for every Talib fighter there are at least 10 active supporters and 10-30 passive supporters. This is a fact seldom discussed: The Taliban have a solid base of support, and the U.S. military can't kill them all.

If the people desire the Taliban, then this is self-determination, and U.S. policy should not oppose this fact. If the Karzai government is a fiction that cannot stand on its own, then it has no legitimate right to exist.

COIN policy is deceitful when support for non-sustainable governments is presented to the American public as a War on Terror. Ranger lives in an alternate universe from the COINistas and the counterterrorism advocates. Neither al-Qaeda nor a Taliban-controlled Afghanistan have any significance when assessing U.S. national survival.

We Americans institutionally and personally believe that all problems can be fixed or overcome, but there are some that are insoluble. A can-do attitude does not change this fact.

Our problems are much closer to home.

Through the Past Darkly

--Peray (Thailand)

Nearly all men can stand adversity,
but if you want to test a man's character
give him power
--George Washington

You've got to pick up every stitch
The rabbits running in the ditch,
Oh no, must be the season of the witch
--The Season of the Witch, Donovan
_______________

Ranger doesn't discuss conspiracy theory because doing so leads to derogatory comments, and one becomes slotted with the wingnuts, either right or left.

"The New Pearl Harbor: Disturbing Questions About the Bush Administration and 9/11" by David Ray Griffin delves into some gray areas, but it poses some questions worthy of consideration. Our question is, why didn't the 9-11 Commission ask some of the same questions as Griffin? A report that skirts the hard questions is hardly a vigorous report.

Griffin notes that Max Cleland's criticism of the 9-11 Commission and Bush's involvement and interference with the project cost him his bid for the Senate reelection. The questions the author poses should be required reading for understanding the Phony War on Terror (PWOT ©).

Along the lines of botched investigations into terrorist incidents, it was recently revealed that sections of the Oklahoma City Bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building had been edited, specifically, 10 minutes of surveillance tape were deleted on several tapes prior to the 9:02 a.m. explosion (Where are you, Rose Mary Woods?)

"Long-secret security tapes showing the chaos immediately after the 1995 bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building are blank in the minutes before the blast and appear to have been edited, an attorney who obtained the recordings said Sunday." (Attorney: Tapes From Oklahoma City Bombing Edited.)

Why did it take a FOIA lawsuit and 14 years to release these tapes? If only two people were involved in the bombing, then what purpose did classification fulfill? Why is everything these days classified Top Secret and deemed essential to national security?

Tapes from four different security cameras all have blackouts in the minutes leading up to the explosion. Jesse Trentadue, a Salt Lake City attorney and brother of one of the victims who sued for release of the films said, "The absence of footage from these crucial time intervals is evidence that there is something there that the FBI doesn't want anybody to see."

Yet more conspiracy: The UK Daily Mail speculates Osama Bin Laden -- the reason for the season, after all -- has been dead for seven years (Has Osama Bin Laden Been dead for Seven Years?) If so, the natural conclusion would be that the U.S. and Britain are covering this supposed fact up to justify the war's continuance.

Since Ranger doesn't dabble in conspiracy theory, this info is presented for thought purposes, only. But too many unanswered questions remain unanswered surrounding terrorism and U.S. policy relating to the topic.

Turtle Dreams

Turtle netsuke

On the far-away island of Sala-ma-Sond,
Yertle the Turtle was king of the pond.
A nice little pond. It was clean. It was neat.
The water was warm. There was plenty to eat.
The turtles had everything turtles might need.
And they were all happy. Quite happy indeed.

They were... until Yertle, the king of them all,
Decided the kingdom he ruled was too small.
"I'm ruler", said Yertle, "of all that I see.
But I don't see enough. That's the trouble with me.
--Yertle the Turtle, Dr. Seuss

Oh, can't anybody see,
We've got a war to fight,
Never found our way,
Regardless of what they say
--The Road, Portishead

________________

Why do turtles cross roads? This often pops into mind when swerving to avoid one in transit. Why cross the road? How is one side different from the other?

It then came to mind that U.S. policy in Afghanistan is just like a little turtle crossing a busy road here in the Deep South. To wit:

• Putting more turtles on point and flank security will not ensure a successful crossing

• Speeding up will not help, nor will slowing down

• Pulling in the head under the shell will not ensure a successful crossing

• Once in the road, going back or forward is exactly the same movement

• The turtle should ask, "Is the risk of getting squashed worth the trip?"

• Growing a thicker shell will not facilitate not getting squashed

Turtles cannot solve their little problem with can-do positive attitudes and assertiveness, and studies and review groups. If one is a turtle, it is best to stay off the road.

Piece of Prize

Now that Obama has won the Nobel Peace Prize, will this bring the Prize of Peace to the U.S.?

Discretion Advised

--Levi in Vanity Fair (10.02.09)

Also weak in their minds
Also fake, also blind
Lies and lust and hate
--Autoerotic, Front Line Assembly

They hurt you at home and they hit you at school,
They hate you if you're clever and they despise a fool,
Till you're so fucking crazy you can't follow their rules,
--Working Class Hero, John Lennon

Boys will be boys, bad boy, bad boy
Always gettin' so restless, nothin' but trouble
Boys will be boys, bad boy, bad boy
Leave me feelin' breathless, nothin' but trouble
--Bad Bad Boys, Gloria Estefan
___________________

[I love this photo of Levi for the tattoo along his forearm -- "Johnston", just so he wouldn't forget.]

Ranger says babies are "shit making factories." Many continue the behavior into their adulthood, both literally and figuratively. This, is a rant.

It is not that Ranger or any other progenitor is necessarily a bad person, but many are and do produce some unsavory specimens. This has been a week of seeing those results, hence the turn from my usual upbeat Sunday installment.

The bad behavior shows a predictable arc, from indulged (or neglected) childhood, to entitled adolescence and adulthood. Egocentrism is a normal part of childhood development, but if it is not contained and refined, it explodes into something very ugly.

Kids are mean, and sometimes, it just gets worse. Just ask Nicolas Godin, of the duo Air (Air Calls Kids Evil), who was quoted this week in Spinner of his salvation in music: "[Music] was magic when I was in class with all these mean kids 'cause kids are f---ing mean. Everybody loves kids but kids are evil. And I have kids! But it's true."

To begin: the littering ingrates who speed past my door every weekday morning and afternoon, to and from the neighborhood high school. Those in the BMW convertibles kindly slow down to drop their Burger King bags on my front lawn. The rednecks in the jacked up Fords offend with their Cherry Bomb Mufflers and "Dixie-blaring" horns. If I am home during these times, I must wear earplugs

Next, the adult vehicle offenders: Those who block intersections (de riguer, in Tallahassee); those who blare their horns when they violate roundabout rules (we shouldn't have "traffic calming" roundabouts in the U.S. if people aren't taught how to navigate them), and those who are simply oblivious.

I've had to beep at numerous cars this week to even have them see me as they drifted into my lane unawares of my presence. I drive a small car, and was once hit by a cell-phone talking woman in a hulking SUV who said, "I didn't even see you." Well, you didn't even bother to look down from your precipice, did you?

Next are the figurative train wrecks: Levi to pose nude for Playboy (and here and here.) Alaska's favorite son, Levi Johnston, to be paid for bearing his newly beefed-up body. Levi --what an utter failure. What a bunch of nothing, not even pap.

Ranger's response to hearing the news was, "He's not even a man." (How does that even matter in the realm of skin mags? I thought younger was better?) But Levi the person is not better. The fornicating baby daddy of a wayward once-governor who also shuns her responsibilities seems an unlikely candidate for heartthrob.

Which leads me to wonder: Who and what do we esteem today? Maybe we want ineffectual, non-adults. If so, what does that say about our collective self-esteem?

The UK's Daily Mail speculates, "Taking the pill for past 40 years 'has put women off masculine men" It argues from a biological perspective that a woman's receptivity to masculinity is down due to her artificially regulated cycles. If so, then the Cherry Bombs are for naught. Maybe the men are becoming like girls, who primp mainly in competition with other women. Maybe our society is becoming perfectly autoerotic.

But that presumes Hollywood is totally responsive to the desires of the audience versus creating that desire. And it presumes girls are the recipients of their mother's proclivities, as they themselves are not necessarily on the Pill. That also presumes a drug causation, and we may be a little too pill-centric.

I look at the aggressive monster truck drivin' rednecks offending me with their blaring gangsta rap or Alabama (a riven lot, those) and search for their counterparts in true masculinity; I come up wanting. We've gone from Steve McQueen and Sean Connery to Johnny Depp, Leonardo DiCaprio and Zac Efron.

Maybe everything is a pendulum, of greater or lesser arcs. Maybe we shut down our idealization of the Tough Guy after Vietnam. Maybe a lot of those guys left the game, too. That is not to say they reentered on any more authentic plane. Maybe they just bowed out, as the prototypes they had followed met with disdain and derision.

Where are we now?

There. That feels only slightly better.

[cross-posted at Big Brass Blog]

Vanity

Prada, 2004, Todd Eberle

Well, you said that we made such a pretty pair
And that you would never leave
--You're So Vain, Carly Simon

They caught you in the park after dark
giving head to a statue, girl. Oh, cruel!
--I've Overestimated My Charm (Again),
Black Kids
________________

[Mr. Eberle, my high school nemesis -- you've done well. My congratulations -- Lisa.]

If we anthropomorphized U.S. policy and actions, they would be arrogant, myopic, irrational, self-centered and overbearing.

If they were a person, they would be an intolerable, autistic, immature, preening and irresponsible bully.

This country punishes mature, responsible behavior, and rewards poor, greedy, juvenile, malicious and criminal behavior, across the socio-economic spectrum.