Late Night with Ranger

 --Ranger was a Winter Ranger, 
but he was no Captain America 
(then again, not even Captain America is)

 Our scientific power has outrun
our spiritual power.
We have guided missiles
and misguided men
--Martin Luther King Jr

Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men
Read more a


  Take that money 

Take that money

Take that money

Take that money
Watch it burn
Sink in the river
The lessons are learnt 
--Counting Stars,
OneRepublic

And moreover, it’s ironic how the tactics
of the enemy are the only available means
for defeating the bad guys.
To conquer evil and restore liberty,
one just has to have more power at their disposal,
although directed toward a good end.   
--Salvation and Superheroes 

He didn't like to be alone.
Even more, he didn't like being with people 
--Olive Kitteridge, Elizabeth Strout 
(with some editorial gender license)
 __________________

Rangers are noted for their fighting abilities during the "hours of challenge", but as we age the only thing we can do is to be old men lost with our thoughts.

These are my thoughts in the dead of night. I've been writing for years against war and the words are soft and ineffective. They lack a bursting radius or effective range. They do not cover dead space in my defensive fire plan or posture. I cannot maneuver or affect the outcome of anything, even as it relates to my own life.

My free speech is a privilege that affects nothing. We only have value as consumers of the bilge printed and spoken daily by our "news" outlets. Both political parties support war, and both sides of the ideological divide will see and report only what fronts their agenda. Regardless of the pretty cant or ardor of the presenter, all are blind; a half truth is a whole lie.

We are all electronically connected, chattering on about a world beyond our ability to comprehend. We claim to proceed with goodwill, and use descriptors like "evil" about those things we find repellant, not understanding that the term is not always a pejorative one for others who find a perfectly moral and reasonable rationale behind their actions. It is a parochial life, lived on increasingly sophisticated devices. Perhaps we think the faster we can pump out the words, the sooner light will filter through the chinks.

Marshall McLuhan saw that technology would serve as both a shock and a protection from this stimulus-shock. The "closer" we become in our global technological village, the farther we become. "We have put our central nervous systems outside us in electronic technology," he wrote, in what he described as a "suicidal auto-amputation". Like our primate cousins, we can stare at lots of data, without necessarily grasping its meaning, either to us or to others.

We celebrate a "Warrior Ethos", but how many actual individuals are warriors, and have our lives improved from all of this hard power? Toughness trumps smarts, perhaps as it has ever been. Toughness equates with competence and patriotism, and without those things one is an outsider, suspect.

Some feel that being armed with paltry ineffective assault rifle clones will transform them into a formidable 18th century militia capable of resisting an incursive government, while others amuse themselves to death chattering on about "The Crazy Rancher Guy, slurping soda in front of their computers, having never actually humped a rucksack or ranched cattle. The toughness has been overlaid onto our dialogs, both Right and Left, and our violence is barely contained.

When watching the evening news the questions come, predicatbaly and incessantly: "Why do I care if Taylor Swift is carrying the torch for young American women, or if Croatia is protected by NATO? Why do I care what the Serbs, North Koreans or Iranians happen to be doing in their crummy little countries? Why is the Ukraine or the Crimea of any concern to me?"

When I see the aid packages going to Libya, Syria, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq, I think of the 30% of my home county that lives in poverty, or the 49 million American living with "food insufficiency". I see church missions going abroad to address poverty over There, while cities like Detroit are dying on the vine for their poverty needs -- material poverty, poverty of mind and soul, educated in the cauldron of hatred flamed by the usual hatred-mongers.

We are dying because we do not know how to live. Living is minding your own garden.

Love 2 U

In the words of a broken heart its just emotions
Taking me over
Tied up in sorrows
Lost in my soul
--Emotions, Bee Gees

You see I wanted her real bad
and I was about to give in
that's when she started talkin' true love
started talkin' about sin
--Keep your Hands to Yourself,
Georgia Satellites

You've got your nuclear boots
And your drip dry glove
Ooo when you bite your lip
It's some reaction to love, o-ove, o-ove
--My Best Friend's Girlfriend, the Cars

Self-denial
Is never easy baggage
But come next Monday
I'm gonna give up on you
--Come Next Monday, K. T. Oslin
_____________

A recent RAW post by Lisa discussed the concept of love as imposed by the AP upon Obama's mama's marriage to Kenyan Mr. Obama. Several readers had visceral reactions to the piece, saying Ranger should write about what he knows best. Which leads me to make comment. Without further adieu: Love, a Ranger homily.

Ranger would rather sandpaper his ass and sit in salt than write about emotions. This is written under duress.

The discomfort with even mentioning love is based upon the unwillingness of some readers to examine issues that relate to emotions. Most RAW readers are former military veterans. Ranger would not attempt to speak for these distinguished persons; my comments are personal.

My discomfort in discussing emotions stems from the fact that this is a feature of my person that has been suppressed since my early manhood. That is a large part of successful Army indoctrination -- to use one's reason to make rational decisions, versus emotional ones.

Emotion carries a strong distaste when applied to most things in life, for me. My opposition to the Phony War on Terror (PWOT ©) grows from the observation that the entire ball of wax is an emotional reaction to a very rational set of circumstances. Ranger would rather be logical and wrong than emotional and correct. A PWOT based on emotion is a loser from Day One.

Wars should be based upon cold, hard reason and objective facts. The reason the U.S. can not succeed in COIN operations and the PWOT is that emotion is not a military construct. Campaigns do not hinge upon emotions. They are based upon objective, verifiable facts and logical thinking. War should not be not an act of revenge -- it is a reasoned national policy leading to an achievable goal.

From the first day of basic training we are taught the things that will help us survive, and they are devoid of emotion: rifle marksmanship, bayonet drill, hand-to-hand close quarters combat, silent kill techniques and explosives. Survival depends on emotionless execution of the subject matter. Accurate rifle fire is delivered in a cool, reasoned manner. Anger or hatred in close quarters combat can get one killed. Snipers deliver death in a calm, reasoned manner.

All military schools remove emotion from the decision-making process. Even leadership is an emotionless exercise. Leadership means maximizing human assets to achieve a realistic military goal. It is not based upon warm fuzzy feelings. It is cold and objective. Leadership is not being a lovable fellow.

We coordinate fires, maneuver to close with and destroy the enemy, do contingency planning for nuclear, biological and chemical warfare annexes to operational orders. Ranger and all Special operations Forces military schooling actually beat the emotion out of our minds and souls. We become killing machines, which is exactly the goal of training. Feelings are irrelevant.

And then what happens? We are belched back into society and our wimmins and others expect us to be warm, feeling beings blissing out on the love in the universe. Some of us return to emotional footing, and some do not. The comments on "Love?" show the divide: Minstrel Boy, FDChief and tw seem to be returnees, to varying degrees. The rest of the Ranger audience is more comfortable navigating the terrain we were trained to traverse.

Ranger's discomfort is with a military, press and politics which have all become exercises in emotion, rather than disinterested exercises of reason. Emotion in the public sphere is not a formula for success. Emotion. . . feh.

[I think what Ranger wants to say is, he's back in control of this ship, and if any emotions (Eeowww!) intrude upon the writing they will not emanate from him. He will remain true to his U.S. Army training, and keep troublesome emotions at bay, at all costs.

My previous point was simply, emotional overlays have no place in formal reportage. --L.]