m16

5.56mm:

Amid this excellent bit of photoblogging by Michael Yon, there is an insightful comment. He was right there during a firefight with insurgents, who almost escaped:

The lack of power of the American M-4 and M-16 rifles is astonishing. So many people and cars shot-up, but they just keep going and going. For a moment, it appeared the terrorists might get away.

That's right. The engine block of even the least well-constructed vehicle will absorb 5.56mm rounds. This is one reason why cars "stopped" in this fashion by American forces are frequently shot with hundreds of rounds. It's not bloodthirstyness: it's necessity.

This may be a useful piece of advice if you should ever find yourselves being shot at by anyone: the engine block will stop pistol and light rifle rounds. Your door will not. Your window will slightly deflect bullets sometimes, but not reliably. Choose your cover accordingly.

Unfortunately, the military is planning its new weapon in the usual, bid-taking and tech-oriented fashion. The proper way to choose a new battle rifle is by polling actual Marines and combat soldiers. If there's one piece of equipment not to skimp on, this is the one.

If they did, I will bet you this one is the one they would choose. Notably, it's exactly the opposite of everything the military thinks it wants in a battle rifle: it's heavy, it chooses tons of power instead of being able to carry lots of ammunition, and it involves very little of 'the latest technology.' Plus, it's long and solid rather than modular and collapsible.

Nevertheless, it has every advantage over both the M-16/M-4, and the suggested replacements. It comes of a good family, whose battle record is as solid and proven as it is possible to find. And the long, solid concept has advantages as well as disadvantages, if you will only take the time to train to exploit them: we have seen bayonet charges on quite a few occasions in Iraq, and -- as USMC pugil stick training indicates -- even an unloaded rifle, if it is long and solid, makes an excellent weapon.

TV

The Remote:

While reading over the worst short story I've seen in ages (and who knew that Valerie Plame was really a KGB officer?) I came across this piece on an entirely different topic:

New research suggests men are still hogging the television remote control. 41% of men and 30% of women claim to rule the sofa entertainment, says a poll by Intel.

What I like about this story is that it shows something of what the post-blog future of the media will be like. It reports what its findings are -- but then, at the bottom, it adds in some reader comments:

Though a few people had comments on the rules.

"Do none of these etiquette experts have children? For years now the first I see of the remote is when the last of my children has been extracted, screaming and kicking, from the lounge and sent to bed," says Mike Thomason.

Maybe not even then.

Grim's Hall has television set, but it isn't hooked up to anything except a VCR and DVD player. As a result, the only things our remote can do are turn the various devices on and off, play or stop the video, and fast forward or rewind a tape, or "scene select" on the DVD. As such, except for a few seconds at the beginning and end of the watching session, it's of no use whatsoever.

Even so, it is the coveted possession of the three-year-old boy. He loves the thing.

A few days ago, it was lost. We looked everywhere for it. Under things, over things, behind things, whatever: it was nowhere to be found. After quite a bit of hunting, we just did without for a while.

The next day, the boy came downstairs and plopped himself down by the bed. He reached underneath, and extracted a (normally quite empty) briefcase that is stored there because it is out of the way. He unzipped it, reached inside, opened an internal pocket, reached inside of that, and pulled out the remote.

I'd never have thought to look there, I can tell you.

OR

Ooh-Rah!

Kim du Toit knocks one out of the park.

WMs

Woman Marines:

Military.com has an article today on women who are Marines, one that raises again the old debate about the proper role of women in combat.

In May, House Armed Services Chairman Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., and House Personnel Subcommittee Chairman John McHugh, R-N.Y., pushed a provision that would have barred all female troops in forward deployed support units from moving to the front lines during combat. Language in the 2006 defense authorization bill would prohibit assigning women to units below the brigade level whose primary mission is to engage in direct ground combat.

McHugh's amendment would have left the door open for other restrictions, particularly if the mission involves long-range reconnaissance or Special Operations Forces. But the issue quickly generated partisan turmoil. Army leaders and two associations representing retired Army and National Guard members fought against its passage. The proposed legislation was shot down.

Had it passed, the amendment would have closed nearly 22,000 positions now available to female service members in heavy and infantry brigade combat, according to an article published on GovExec.com.

The article speaks to several servicewomen and asks about their experiences. It is an enlightening read.

This is one of those issues on which I once had a considered and set opinion, which I find I have now changed in light of experience and new data. Even two years ago, I still believed that women should be restricted to military roles in which combat was not going to be one of their primary functions.

The debate seemed entirely one-sided at the time, I recall thinking, with all the good arguments and hard evidence on the side of restriction. All the tests demonstrated that men were, overall, far superior in the physical attributes on which combat continues to rely: strength, endurance, and the ability (based on differences in the physical structure of the brain) to dissociate emotion from reason. This last is a key ingredient in the stress of a life-or-death moment, one that only becomes more important as the "moment" drags out into hours, as it sometimes can.

On the other side of the balance sheet were largely fairness claims, and as anyone knows, "it's not fair" is the very first rule in the UCMJ. Not that these weren't worthy considerations -- it had a real effect on promotions, pay, and in other ways limited a woman's career options. In spite of that, the military exists to provide for the physical security of the country, not to provide a career for anyone. All such considerations, for men as well as women, have to take a back seat to the simple matter of victory. In the long view, that means putting the best people in all positions that will have an effect on combat; in the short term, it means that the person next to you on the front line needs to be the one most likely to keep you alive.

After some years of the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, however, I think the balance of evidence has shifted. The tests that measure physical capacity remain sound; but we have learned several more things from direct experience that have to be filtered in.

As the article makes clear, women are needed even in front line positions in Islamic cultures, because of the need to search Muslim women and female regions of homes. The realities of fourth generation warfare make it necessary; and so we have had women in those positions, and they've done very well.

"I went on a convoy ... and was walking around with the squadron, carrying my M-16," Griego said. "I did exactly the same things they did. When we encountered females, I searched them to make sure they didn't have anything and kept them moving."

At times, Griego said, she was scared. But she was confident she had the training needed to do the job.

On this particular search, there were two women who looked suspicious to Griego. Searchers cannot hold a weapon while they work because it might go off by accident - or worse, the enemy might get a hold of it.

"One woman had an infant (in one arm) and a bundle of something in another," Griego said. "She had her arms under her burka which was unusual."

Reciting phrases from the Poshtun language, Griego asked the woman to raise her arms.

The woman didn't move.

"So I lifted her arms and saw the muzzle of an AK-47 begin to slip out," she said. "I slapped the gun down."

All the while, the Marine next to her kept his gun aimed at the Afghan woman. But when Griego slapped the gun down, the woman tried to run, she said.

Griego used her martial arts training to tackle her. The team found not only the gun, but several AK-47 magazines.

What was necessary as a practical reality has given us experience to weigh against the tests. What that experience has proven is that the physical qualities are not as important to performance as the science would suggest. Physical standards need to remain strong, but it is now plain that women who meet the standards are frequently up to the task -- even if they don't surpass the physical minimum standards as much as a male might. These women are providing us with a needed capability, and they have proven themselves entirely.

In retrospect I should have known. Of course it is not finally the body, but the spirit, which conquers.

Hackett II

The Hackett Thing:

Looks like Rush gave a part of his program over to this today.

I'll tell you what, this guy to me sounds like a typical lib. He runs while trying to conceal his true beliefs, and he's running as a Marine. Of course the implication there is that he's to the right of Jean Schmidt. But, folks, he's not running as a Democrat, because if he were running as a Democrat, he would run anti-war. He would be an anti-war candidate -- and he's not saying that. He's not even saying he's a Democrat. He's not even admitting what he has said elsewhere: he thinks Bush is the most dangerous guy in the world, and he wants to raise everybody's taxes. But what's going to happen? I just want to warn you, if this guy wins in this election with a 20% turnout today, which is what they are expecting, the libs all over the place are going to be saying that this was a test of Bush, and Bush lost.

He's running as a Marine, but he's really a liberal?

Our boy Deuddersun should put an end to that line of thinking. He's a Marine. He's anti-war. He hasn't posted in a long time, so I'm going to stand up for what I know he believes. It's not that I believe it myself -- it's that a man I respect and honor believes it. I don't agree: but he's got a right to think things through. Being a Marine doesn't obligate you to a political position. You can believe what you like, and you can count on me for fight for it. I'm not Rush Limbaugh, but for those of you who do come by, I will always stand up for the right of fighting men to stand up for whatever they believe.

I think it would be good for the country, and especially for the Democratic Party, if Hackett won. We've argued that. We'll see who wins, soon enough; and if Hackett loses, I'll be fine with accepting it. I've got no special problem with his opponent.

The Marines are heavily conservative. Fighting men are -- they're used to fighting for something, and that means conserving it. But it's not true that every fighting man fights for something that already exists. Some fight for the world they want to see. Whether I agree or not, I'll defend their right to their position.

Rush decided to title his page "Paul Hackett Shows Libs Must Lie to Compete." Hackett may be a good officer or not, but he's sure not a liar. I resent the charge. I don't love everything he stands for, far from it, but I resent that charge with my blood.

Kingdom

For The Kingdom, If I Can...

Kim du Toit points to what might be a very serious business indeed.

A renegade band of Mexican military deserters, offering $50,000 bounties for the assassination of U.S. law-enforcement officers, has expanded its base of operations into the United States to protect loads of cocaine and marijuana being brought into America by Mexican smugglers, authorities said.

The deserters, known as the “Zetas,” trained in the United States as an elite force of anti-drug commandos, but have since signed on as mercenaries for Mexican narcotics traffickers and have recruited an army of followers, many of whom are believed to be operating in Texas, Arizona, California and Florida.

Kim has some hard words, but not hard enough. The government had better get its hands around this problem, or else it had better accept what comes with good grace. It won't be long before bounties like that begin causing the deaths of deputies. This is not something the citizenry will tolerate.

Where is "Black Jack" Pershing when you need him?

UPDATE: Parapundit has a lot more.

piracy

Piracy:

If I were not in such a foul mood, I would laugh loud and long at this:

Hackers found a way around Microsoft's Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) anti-piracy system last week, only a day after the system went into effect.

I know I should not have such a soft place in my heart for data pirates. They're nothing but thieves, I know. They steal the hard-earned work of honest programmers -- at least, the ones who aren't employed solely to try and beat them.

Still, you have to impressed by a show of mastery such as this. Microsoft hires the best minds it can find, and spent who knows how much money refining the system. They busted it in a day, apparently without having to reach deep into their playbook.

I can't help but have a certain respect for that.

UPDATE: Here is a story about a better class of pirate:

With the world wide web increasingly used as the main instrument of propaganda and communication for extreme religious groups like al-Qaeda, MI5 and patriotic hackers have formed an unlikely alliance to close down their sites.

Go get 'em, lads.

An old anecdote comes to mind: "A mule that has made 20 campaigns under Marius is still a mule."

I just noted this over at the Countercolumn blog.

I suppose Mr. Hackett is speaking to the 'base', but I'm not seeing where this is going to convince anyone else, and frankly it doesn't really reflect well on him, the Marines, or the Democratic party.

I'll have to find out what Dennis the Peasant has to say about this.

Butterfly

Remember you the butterfly
As a child you had to let go,
For she was born freedom to know
to chose to stay or to hie,
And she chose the horizon to try--
They always vanish, like the snow
Oh, with long knife to force heart's flow
That pain with blood might dry.

But recall the morn on high, cold rift,
When ice crested trees like a mane,
The sunrise glows on the snow drift
And the cold could be Death's feign;
A thing so fine, a priceless gift,
Ought to be honored with pain.

Well Done

The Gun Watch:

Here's an enlightening story about a teenage girl who shot a rapist who was attacking her.

The incident took place on County Road13, just north of McNab. According to the Hempstead County Sheriff's Office, Ben Haywood, 48, the teen told them Haywood began to hit her and tried to undress her, pulling her shirt off.

The girl got away from Haywood, according to the HCSO, and hid in a closet at the rear of the home. She was found by Haywood and once again he began to beat the girl. After a period of confrontation, the girl was able to grab a 9mm rifle from a gun rack that was near her and shot the alleged attacker -- hitting him in the left leg. She then fled to search for help.

Sheriff deputies arrived on the scene along with Pafford Ambulance Service, questioned the juvenile and released her to her parents. She suffered several scratches and bruises, according to deputies.

Now, that's a fellow who is storing his rifles loaded and unlocked... and good thing he did, eh?

Saftey, yes. Training, absolutely.

Rights first.

Hat Tip: Gun Watch.

EU Infamy

Hospitality:

I should not be shocked by infamous behavior, when it comes from members of the EU's ruling class. The EU is the natural home for every native intellectual enemy of traditional Western Civilization. Its advocates and princes are not only socialists, but scoundrels of the worst sort.

Here's proof:

Recalling a Scottish host who served him a plate of Scotland’s national dish, haggis and neaps... Chirac took a swipe at British cuisine. “You can’t trust people who cook as badly as that,” he declared.

Hospitality is one of the very few universal moral values. The relationship of guest and host is almost the only thing that is as sacred in Africa as in China, as important in Scotland as in France. Violators of the law of hospitality earn for themselves a deep and proper infamy.

What kind of a man insults a dinner that he was served as a guest? And not just the dinner, but his host? And not just his host, but his host's family, and entire people? I should not be shocked, but I am.

I am absolutely sure that traditional Frenchmen -- the kind of Frenchmen who made The Three Musketeers a best-seller for six generations -- would never engage in such behavior. It is only these base creatures, these EUnuchs, who cast aside their traditions as easily as they wish to cast aside that liberty for which the best men of Europe once fought and died.

Ex pede Herculeum: we know the whole from its parts. If this is the best man of EUrope, then let us keep the Europe of old. It may have produced wars and it may have produced worse, but at least it also produced gentlemen and men of honor.

Cassandra

Speaking of Cassandra:

...she has tagged me with another one of those things.

This one is entitled "What's on your nightstand?" That seemed like an odd question to me -- and, in point of fact, I don't have a nightstand anyway, that being one of the concessions to the lifestyle that keeps us moving every year. Furniture is somewhat limited. We have a very few nice pieces, mostly inherited, one or two we bought, a couple that we actually just found (including an antique trunk that was literally dug out of the mud at a nearby construction site, which the good lads working there gave me if I would only pick it up and carry it off). But we do without a lot of things we would have if we had a house of our own, to live in long-term.

However, tracking this back to its nest proves that the question had a deeper meaning to start with. It began among some of our gunbloggers, and the question "What's on your nightstand" meant, "What firearm do you keep ready when you sleep at night?" As to that Kim du Toit and I are in agreement as to what makes an ideal bedside gun: I keep a Smith and Wesson revolver, loaded with Winchester Silvertips in .44 Special. Kim has some good advice for keeping the thing safely around kids, and it happens that I agree with what he has to say there, too.

I don't load mine with Glasers, as I'm not worried about overpenetration issues -- my little boy sleeps on another floor, so there's no danger of that type. Anyway, the bullet is going where I want it to go. I can't promise "two X-rings" on the first two shots like Kim does, but I do put my first shot through the X ring every time. Usually, the second one drifts down and to the left into the ten ring, and the next 48 chew "one big, ragged hole" in the 8-10 ring on that part of the target. I don't think that's too bad for the .44 Special, which is a bear of a round though a pleasure to fire. If I'm not quite Kim du Toit, I'm not ashamed, either.

(By the way, have you seen Smith & Wesson's new Texas Hold 'Em Special? It's an engraved .38 that comes in a box with cards and poker chips. Allow me to take a moment to suggest that you probably should not join a poker game if you feel that you might need a revolver to get out of it again. In addition, the marketing photo has it sitting next to a hand that's two pair, Aces and Eights -- not the hand I would have chosen for a marketing photo, due to its history.)

Cassandra thought I'd have some interesting books on the nightstand. I don't have a nightstand, as mentioned, but I do have two large bookcases in the bedroom. There are plenty of interesting books there. I also have two Chinese guardian spirit sculptures, one from Zhejiang's XiHu and one from Shanghai. One of these I bought for myself, because I liked it, but the other one I've been carrying around for five years now although I bought it as a gift. My old close-combat teacher, Ken Caton, went missing while I was in China; I hope someday he'll turn up and I can pass it over to him. I assume, knowing Ken, that he is all right -- he just wants to walk unseen for a few years, for reasons of his own.

Anyway, if you happen to read this Ken, I have a gift for you.

The last thing that's close to the bed is a gift that was given to me: the working, scale-model catapult that Sovay gave me last year. It's a beautiful and beloved piece, good for hurling walnuts at neighbors.

So there you are. I'm supposed to get to tag people. I'm actually going to do it this time, but in a deferred fashion -- I want to tag Doc Russia. However, the tag won't take effect until after his birthday. He can tell us all about the new toys he ends up with.

B

Beauty & Misogyny

I've been thinking about this ever since I read Cassandra's post on the topic. I had decided not to say anything, on the grounds that it violates my general rule relating to relations between the sexes. That rule is this: "Women should teach girls to be women, and men should teach boys to be men." I don't try to tell anybody what a woman's place is, or what a woman should or shouldn't be like. In return, I'll thank you to let me raise up the boys I encounter (and especially any I father) to be fighting men of the old model.

Seems like a reasonable compromise to me. We grant the founding principle of feminism -- women should be free to make their own decisions about what they want from life. You grant the opposite: so should men. We shake hands, and get on with being friends. It's like keeping separate bank accounts after a marriage: it just makes everything easier.

All that said, it's becoming obvious that somebody has to draw a line here.

Consider this article:

"Shoes," Sheila Jeffreys says, "are almost becoming torture instruments. During a woman's daily make-up ritual, on average she will expose herself to more than 200 synthetic chemicals before she has morning coffee. Regular lipstick wearers will ingest up to four and a half kilos during their lifetime." We are talking about Jeffreys' latest book, Beauty And Misogyny: Harmful Cultural Practices In The West, and she is in full flow about the horrors of what she calls "the brutality of beauty".

Nasty stuff, that, which leads to this conclusion:

Jeffreys, a revolutionary lesbian feminist, is pursuing her 30-odd-year mission to shift women out of their collective complacency. Beauty And Misogyny is her sixth book. Like the others, its central theme is an exploration of the use of sexuality by men to dominate women. Much of it is spent arguing that beauty practices - from make-up to breast implants - should be redefined as harmful cultural practices, rather than being seen as a liberating choice.

This is not a position restricted to revolutionary lesbian feminists, as Cassandra's post makes clear:

[A] woman ought to be doing [a particularly invasive sort of body modification] for her own satisfaction/convenience and not so she'll be 'good enough' to appear in your mental burlesque show after taking your kids to soccer, bringing home a paycheck and cooking your supper. When was the last time the man of the house checked in for a little intimate depilitation? Eyebrow tweezing? Surgery? Bikini wax? Maybe a Wonder Jock?

I think we need to get one thing clear. "Men" are not asking you to do any of this stuff.

When was the last time a man said, "And be sure to spend twenty minutes preparing yourself before we go out to the grocery store"?

I don't like lipstick. I've been trying to talk my wife out of it for years. She insists. "Hey, how about running out and grabbing a box of baking soda at the gas station?" Not until she's had a chance to shower, put on fresh clothes, and a little makeup...

Both of these authors identify genuinely awful trends, to which I'll gladly add a few more: body piercing, tattoos, hair-dying with harsh chemicals, wearing high heels even of the less-punishing variety. The problem is that everybody wants to lay this right down at the feet of men.

What's the evidence that men are driving this trend? Cassandra cites a Cosmo study on "what men want." Any of you guys out there ever been interviewed for one of these things?

Me either.

Cosmo is a fashion magazine published by women, for women. The only men they know are men who work in the fashion industry, i.e., not regular men. Men who are, as the article puts it, "accustomed" to certain standards of feminine appearance... because they're used to seeing it that way in porno movies.

I'm just going to go ahead and draw that line in the sand. Here it is:

Ladies, none of this is our fault. You're doing this to yourselves.

I love a beautiful woman first thing out of the bed in the morning, or with her hair slicked wet from a shower, in her work clothes, or just when she smiles for a moment and I can see that she's really happy. That's all I've ever asked from any of you. If I ever said, "Hey, why not wear a skirt today so I can see your pretty legs," I never stopped liking you (or your legs) when you decided to wear pants instead.

It's no fair blaming the fashion industry on us, like this:

Some designers are using 12-year-old girls in shows because their bodies are perfect to show off the type of clothing being peddled at the moment. Many men are sexually excited by this look, and the industry exploits this...

Nonsense. If it depended on us, the fashion industry would not exist. Period. It simply would wither away and die.

Now, I'm on your side as far as agreeing that this kind of thing is hideous, and ought to be stopped. I agree that women are beautiful, even (especially!) the ones who don't work at it too hard. Nobody loves strong-minded, independent women more than I do -- they're the only kind I like, in fact.

But let's not be throwing around words like "misogyny" here. This isn't our doing. No man anywhere is thinking in terms of using the fashion industry to keep women in line. Damn few of us remember, from day to day, that there is such a thing as a "fashion industry" at all.

You want this problem fixed? Stop listening to "the fashion industry" about what men want. Start listening to men. The ones who say, "Don't bother with curling your hair -- we're just going to pick up some nails at the hardware store," or "Who cares if you can't find your lipstick? Can we just go?"

And the next time the man in your life comes around and grabs you about the waist, some time when you're feeling tired and fuzzy and unattractive -- take an object lesson. We love you just the way you are.

Preferably, right now.

Paul Hackett

Paul Hackett for Congress:

I don't know if I have a single reader in Ohio, let alone in this district, but for what it's worth Grim's Hall endorses Reserve Major of Marines Paul Hackett for Congress. I do so with one reservation, and it's an important one: I don't like his position on gun rights, as I'll explain below. In the event that you should elect him, I think he's going to prove weak on this point and will need holding to the fire, more perhaps than his opponent would.

You all know what that issue means to me, so you'll understand that it's not lightly I'll endorse a fellow who strikes me as wobbly on the point. I think I'm right to say he's wobbly, though he is himself both a Marine and a gun owner. His statement is this:

I grew up with guns. I’ve been a hunter since I was kid.

I understand that guns in the wrong hands are deadly. They must be kept out of the hands of criminals. And we must demand that law-abiding citizens who do own guns, like me, use them safely, responsibly and in compliance with the law.

I have safety locks on my firearms. At home, they’re locked in a safe. When I go hunting outside of Ohio, I make sure I comply with the local gun laws.

All my friends who share my interest in hunting share my sense of responsibility toward the safe use and storage of their firearms.

As it happens, I also agree that guns should be used and kept safely. I'm no fan of "safety locks," but I agree that you should have a safe and you should keep your firearms locked up unloaded, except for the one or two you designate as for immediate defense. Even those should be kept in the safe or on your person, not in circumstances where kids can get at them or where they might get stolen.

Still, although I essentially agree with everything he said, it bothers me when a candidate (1) speaks to guns mostly in terms of hunting, which has nothing to do with the purpose and function of the 2nd Amendment, and (2) then speaks of them in terms of the need for "safety," which is a genuinely important issue that is nevertheless often misused by gun control advocates. Saftey, yes; but rights first. The proper statement isn't, "I've always had guns for hunting," but "I recognize the right of the individual to keep and bear arms in defense of the common peace."

His opponent doesn't mention her position on guns at all, but she does have the endorsement of the National Rifle Association, which points to a solid record of voting to defend gun rights. So, my reservation stands: I gather that his opponent is solid on the issue, while Major Hackett doesn't appear to understand the principles at work. He'll need a lot closer tending from his constitutents for that reason; but his constitutents are so devoted to the correct principles, to judge by how they have voted in the past, that I am sure they are up to the task -- or, at least, will replace him if he fails to uphold their interests.

My endorsement in spite of this large reservation comes because I think Congress could use a Marine and a veteran of Iraq, and because I respect his views on other issues. His position on the Iraq war is not my own, but he has earned the right to it, and I have no fear that he would fail to see the job through.

That is the main reason, but he does have some interesting things to say on other issues. His position on Social Security is interesting because I think he has the correct model in mind, although I'm not sure if he's thought through the consequences of that model based on what he says:

The administration has manufactured a crisis because it doesn’t believe the government should offer citizens this kind of insurance policy. The administration would prefer we treat social security as a money making investment account with all the risks that go along with such investments as opposed to what it is; an insurance policy. Just like car insurance when you pay the premiums you know and expect it will be there when you need it. We don't treat our car insurance like an opportunity to make money we shouldn't treat social security insurance that way either.

I think the insurance model is right. However, I think that advocates of the insurance model need to recall that retirement was, when SS was designed, a somewhat unlikely occurance; now, it is a virtual certainty. This means that the correct model is not automobile insurance, but life insurance.

What we need to do with Social Security is move the program from a thing like Term Life Insurance to a thing like Whole Life Insurance. Essentially, TLI is like renting a house -- you make payments that are relatively low, in return for which you have insurance only while you're making the payments. When you stop, the insurance stops. WLI is like buying a house: the payments are larger, but you build equity in the program, and can later "cash it out."

The reason TLI payments are lower is that it is really a proposition bet: the insurance company is betting that you won't die during the term. If you don't, they walk away winners -- they keep your money at no cost to themselves. WLI costs more because the insurance company knows it has to pay out sooner or later. While it's not likely that you'll die between 30 and 50, say, it's absolutely certain that you will die eventually. So, a program that offers payments whenever your death comes has to charge more and be structured differently than a program that is simply gambling on actuarial tables.

Social Security is in the trouble that it is because it is funded like a TLI, but now has payouts almost as certain as a WLI. It needs to be restructured to take account for that. This is not to say that I oppose personal accounts on principle -- after all, a WLI program is in fact an investment, with a cash value that is yours. I see no reason Social Security couldn't be funded in a similar fashion.

Still, it's not a money making scheme. It's an insurance program, and that's a good starting point for thinking about the issue.

I don't care for Hackett's position on health care; but I think he's right on the economy. We should be formulating our policies based on encouraging and developing small businesses. The small business is the modern equivalent of the yeoman farm: the man who owns one is free in a way that a man who works for a corporation never can be. That's nothing against corporations; it's just that owning your own business makes you freer to pursue your own vision of happiness, and that's what the American dream is all about.

While I find myself with strong disagreements and concerns about the gentleman on a few issues, and one of particular importance to me, my respect for his service -- and his good thinking on the issues in which I do agree with him -- overcomes most of my concerns. I am also convinced that the strongly Red nature of his district will motivate him to adopt a correct line of thinking if he wishes to enjoy the continued trust and support of his constituents. I think we do need a veteran of the Iraq war, and of Fallujah in particular, in office.

I have decided to endorse Major Hackett, and I would like to take the opportunity to thank him for his service. Semper Fi, sir, and good luck.

Let’s fisk this thing properly ok?

THE United States now has a mercenary army. To be sure, our soldiers are hired from within the citizenry, unlike the hated Hessians whom George III recruited to fight against the American Revolutionaries. But like those Hessians, today's volunteers sign up for some mighty dangerous work largely for wages and benefits - a compensation package that may not always be commensurate with the dangers in store, as current recruiting problems testify.

I would like to see the professor point to a time in this nation’s history when it had an army that didn’t serve for pay and benefits. The Continental Army mutinied in 1780 because it wasn’t being paid, and George Washington had the ringleaders shot. That’s right, shot.

Neither the idealism nor the patriotism of those who serve is in question here. The profession of arms is a noble calling, and there is no shame in wage labor. But the fact remains that the United States today has a military force that is extraordinarily lean and lethal, even while it is increasingly separated from the civil society on whose behalf it fights. This is worrisome - for reasons that go well beyond unmet recruiting targets.

If it’s a noble calling, why isn’t the professor wearing (or ever worn) a uniform? NOTE: I actually don’t know that the professor didn’t serve. However, its not mentioned at all on his bio at Stanford, and frankly, I’d expect that if he did serve, it would have been pointed out. Pointedly.

And that’s a nice little slap at the ‘working’ class there. Especially since everybody with a job toils for a wage. Salaried or hourly, it’s a wage. Maybe the professor thinks that soldiers are paid by the hour?

And were the professor to look around his institution of higher learning, the other professors he sees around him are likely a very large part of the reason that the professor feels so disconnected from the military. Of course he (and they) could have volunteered.

One troubling aspect is obvious. By some reckonings, the Pentagon's budget is greater than the military expenditures of all other nations combined.

And this is a bad thing because…?

It buys an arsenal of precision weapons for highly trained troops who can lay down a coercive footprint in the world larger and more intimidating than anything history has known. Our leaders tell us that our armed forces seek only just goals, and at the end of the day will be understood as exerting a benign influence. Yet that perspective may not come so easily to those on the receiving end of that supposedly beneficent violence.

I suppose the same could be said of the Redcoats at Saratoga and Yorktown, the Redcoats (again) at New Orleans, the Mexicans at Chapaltepec,( I won’t even bring up the unpleasantness of 1861-65) The Spanish at San Juan Hill, the Germans at Belleau Wood, the Germans (again) at Normandy, the Japanese at Guadacanal or Okinawa or Hiroshima, the Chinese at Chipyon-yi,or the Vietnamese at Hamburger Hill, just to name a few. What’s the point here? People on the receiving end of organized violence don’t like it.

But the modern military's disjunction from American society is even more disturbing. Since the time of the ancient Greeks through the American Revolutionary War and well into the 20th century, the obligation to bear arms and the privileges of citizenship have been intimately linked.

That is a gross misreading of 2500 years of Western history. While citizenship has in some places at some times, been linked to military service to the state, the norm through history has been either professional soldiers who do nothing else, or a ‘warrior’ class within a society that furnishes military service.

It was for the sake of that link between service and a full place in society that the founders were so invested in militias and so worried about standing armies, which Samuel Adams warned were "always dangerous to the liberties of the people."

Another gross misreading of American history now. The twaddle about the militia lasted all of about ten minutes once that said militia had to fight real soldiers. As Grim pointed out, Washington himself noted the difference, and spent most of his time putting a real standing army together. And ultimately, the idea of an armed citizenry was to simply guard against its own government.

Many African-Americans understood that link in the Civil War, and again in World Wars I and II, when they clamored for combat roles, which they saw as stepping stones to equal rights. From Aristotle's Athens to Machiavelli's Florence to Thomas Jefferson's Virginia and Robert Gould Shaw's Boston and beyond, the tradition of the citizen-soldier has served the indispensable purposes of sustaining civic engagement, protecting individual liberty - and guaranteeing political accountability.

Or leading to demagogic disasters, such as Alcibiadies expedition to Sicily, or, wait for it, VIETNAM.

Oh, and Maciavelli’s attempts to actually drill Florentine Militia, who pretty much laughed at him, failed spectacularly.

That tradition has now been all but abandoned.

And who’s idea was that?

A comparison with a prior generation's war illuminates the point. In World War II, the United States put some 16 million men and women into uniform. What's more, it mobilized the economic, social and psychological resources of the society down to the last factory, rail car, classroom and victory garden. World War II was a "total war." Waging it compelled the participation of all citizens and an enormous commitment of society's energies.

While there are those who will argue that the Administration is not doing enough, this “War on Terror” Cannot be measured against the scale of World War II. The professor is comparing apples and oranges. The comparison fails.

But thanks to something that policymakers and academic experts grandly call the "revolution in military affairs," which has wedded the newest electronic and information technologies to the destructive purposes of the second-oldest profession, we now have an active-duty military establishment that is, proportionate to population, about 4 percent of the size of the force that won World War II. And today's military budget is about 4 percent of gross domestic product, as opposed to nearly 40 percent during World War II.

The implications are deeply unsettling: history's most potent military force can now be put into the field by a society that scarcely breaks a sweat when it does so. We can now wage war while putting at risk very few of our sons and daughters, none of whom is obliged to serve. Modern warfare lays no significant burdens on the larger body of citizens in whose name war is being waged.

And this is a bad thing? Being able to project power when necessary without inflicting significant burden on the country?

This is not a healthy situation. It is, among other things, a standing invitation to the kind of military adventurism that the founders correctly feared was the greatest danger of standing armies - a danger made manifest in their day by the career of Napoleon Bonaparte, whom Jefferson described as having "transferred the destinies of the republic from the civil to the military arm."

Well, that’s another wonderful misreading of the history of the Napoleonic Wars. Not only was the French Army an Army of Conscripts, Napoleon had no brake on his ambitions other than failure. Its wasn’t like Napoleon was going to stand for being elected Emperor more than once, was it? And Jefferson’s comment about France is, well, just wrong. It was wrong then, and is still wrong 200 years later. The French Republic (before it was an Empire) had no compunction about invading its neighbors, no compunction about slaughtering those who didn’t want to be conscripted, and no compunction about using its citizens any way it saw fit.

Some will find it offensive to call today's armed forces a "mercenary army," but our troops are emphatically not the kind of citizen-soldiers that we fielded two generations ago –

Its not that it is offensive, really, its that the professor is demonstrating that he doesn’t really know what he’s talking about, which is sad, given the fact he seems to have spent his life as a historian. And No, today’s Military is not he military of WWII. I’ll assert that they are actually better troops. Better paid, better trained, better motivated, self selected—in short, the best that one could ask of a Citizen soldier.

drawn from all ranks of society without respect to background or privilege or education, and mobilized on such a scale that civilian society's deep and durable consent to the resort to arms was absolutely necessary.

The professor knows that consent wasn’t absolutely necessary. Anyone who has studied the mobilization of American society in both WWI and WWII, should understand the coercive nature of that mobilization. How exactly did dissent get dealt with during WWI and WWII?

Leaving questions of equity aside, it cannot be wise for a democracy to let such an important function grow so far removed from popular participation and accountability. It makes some supremely important things too easy - like dealing out death and destruction to others, and seeking military solutions on the assumption they will be swifter and more cheaply bought than what could be accomplished by the more vexatious business of diplomacy.

This is argument fails and fails miserably. Like having a conscript Army in anyway affected the decisions to get involved in Korea or, wait for it, VIETNAM. I repeat, VIETNAM.

The life of a robust democratic society should be strenuous; it should make demands on its citizens when they are asked to engage with issues of life and death.

Why? Whatever for?

The "revolution in military affairs" has made obsolete the kind of huge army that fought World War II, but a universal duty to service - perhaps in the form of a lottery, or of compulsory national service with military duty as one option among several - would at least ensure that the civilian and military sectors do not become dangerously separate spheres.

The argument is false. The USA had a conscript Army, with fully accountable elected officials, in the 1950’s and 1960’s, and that did not prevent military intervention in either Korea or, wait for it, VIETNAM.

A universal duty to service is already there. It exists whether or not there is a draft law. To fufill that duty, all it takes is to walk into a recruiting station and say, “I wish to join.” The professor could have done that at anytime in his life. He appears to have chosen not to. In short, the professor himself is at the heart of the professor’s argument that there is a disconnect between the citizenry and the military. Enough of the professor’s generation decided that a draft was unnecessary and made its feelings known quite loudly that the draft was abolished. And now the professors is complaining because there isn’t a draft?

I’d really like to know what the professor’s opinion on the draft was when he was a peace fellow at the Hoover Institute. Or when he was getting his B.A., M.A. and P.H.D. It appears that managed to have avoid service in the 1960’s, even with a draft. Why was that?

War is too important to be left either to the generals or the politicians. It must be the people's business.

I’m beginning to think that history is too important a subject to be left up to the historians.

But still the professor has also not made the case for a draft, given the manpower requirements of the military. Or really the Army, since its only the Army that isn’t meeting its recruiting goals, and if the Pentagon wasn’t trying to expand the size of the Army, (like the way the Navy, Marines and Air Force are not expanding), then there wouldn’t be any recruiting shortfall to talk about.

WK

Mr. Karrde:

I should like to draw your attention to a couple of posts at Mr. Karrde's blog, especially this one on introducing a new shooter to firearms. But there is also this one, on the ancient gathering known as the Council Fire.

At the beginning of May, I found myself camping with my family in the backwoods of Western New York. One of my younger siblings was receiving a college degree. All of the immediate family came to celebrate. So did all of the living grand-parents.

Every night, the men of the family had discussions around the campfire. Three generations were present at the campfire, and the subjects we talked about ranged from trivial to serious. We discussed the future of the new graduate; we discussed good and bad decisions from the past; we mentioned pro and con points about each of our futures. We also discussed the fine art of living with other family members; we talked about personal boundaries, personal space, and the tensions in personal freedom, love, social duty and moral duty. We roasted marshmallows and talked about great marhmallow-roasts from the past; we enjoyed reminiscences of other camping trips; we talked about car-repair projects and house-repair projects. We talked about books read and events we'd seen. We talked about history, war, peace, depressions, and economic booms.

In the Gaelic, this is called a ceilidh, or "gathering." Today a ceilidh is usually a party of one sort or another, but of old it was a gathering of the clan to discuss matters of import, and to celebrate the joy of being together as a family. An old Scottish Clan, after all, was a family: not always of blood relations, but also including accepted friends and 'part takers in the clan's adventures.'

Nothing quite like one, is there?

FR

"Mercenaries," Again:

Bill Roggio asked me to reply to "The Best Army We Can Buy" by Dr. David M. Kennedy. I have done so at length, at The Fourth Rail.

397

SB 397:

The Senate Bill entitled Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms is up for a vote this week. Opponents, unable to beat it on the merits, wish to enact this or that poison pill amendment, the most worrisome of which to me are bans on semiautomatic weapons. In any event, this would be a good time to contact your congressmen and tell them not to support such amendments, but please to support the bill.

Follow the link for easy ways to do that.

The Good Frenchman

"World's Top Terrorist Hunter"

Did you know there was a "World's Top Terrorist Hunter"?

Did you know he was French?

The world's leading terrorist hunter is on a secret mission in Sydney to investigate Australian links to global terrorism[.]

A secret mission, you see.

Judge Bruguiere, 60, has been at the forefront of the war on terror for 20 years.... Dubbed by the French as Le Cowboy, Judge Bruguiere is best known for tracking down international terrorist Carlos the Jackal in 1994 and foiling an attack during the 1998 soccer World Cup in France. He is keen for other countries to adopt a French-style system, enabling authorities to hold a suspect for up to two years without charge.

The judicial system for restraining terrorists failed utterly to prevent the development of massive networks across Europe and Asia, but it isn't the fault of men like Le Cowboy. It's interesting that the French themselves characterize their best terror-hunter in those terms, is it not?

These French magistrates did the best they could do, under the constraints of the legalistic system. Zacarais Moussaoui, for example, was being hunted by one of them in England, long years before 9/11. The British, however, refused to allow for his extradition -- or even for him to be questioned by the French judges.

It was an honest try, by dedicated men who wanted to keep this a law-and-order matter, who wanted to prevent it from becoming a war. They failed, but we ought to think of them kindly. They did what they could, when the world still believed that terrorists could be restrained by courts and laws, prisons and judges and extradition. It is to no one's benefit that their system failed; the world would have been a better place if they could have made it work.

PAR

Texas Rangers:

This month's "Special edition" of Arabian Horse World contains an article on a movement that I think is wholly exemplary of where we ought to be going with Homeland Security.

The group is called the Pegasus Airport Rangers, and is composed of civilian volunteers. They used to use the land recently occupied by the airport for endurance race training. When the airport chose to annex it, they volunteered to undergo security training and serve as a volunteer organization, providing security for the airport in return for having a place to go on trail rides.

I can say no more about it than that I approve entirely. This is what Homeland Security should look like: upstanding citizens taking the initiative to protect the common peace. That it involves Texans performing their old volunteer "ranging service" is only icing on the cake.

Outstanding.

Fire/iron

Fire & Iron:

Summer is upon us, with all her unmercies. The heat today was nearly a hundred degrees. The heat index, which factors the humidity, was one hundred ten.

The heat in the summer's one hundred and ten
Too hot for the devil, too hot for men.

A man does what he can. Last week I cleared out a patch of pokeweed that was flowering, because the boy might have decided that its poison berries were edible like the blackberries and raspberries he already knows. I took a pair of machetes, one in each hand, and went to work until the whole field was laid down. This is a good exercise for those of you interested in bladework, who might wish to learn to fight with two hands. The exercise of cutting needs that your limbs be hard, and your grip both strong and wise enough to keep the blade aligned with the work. This is a four-stroke exercise: Two right (to your inside, and then to your outside), two left (in-out). Cutting out last keeps your off-arm out of the way of the incoming cut.

The next day I mowed over the field, to make sure it was unable to regrow; and then, with some old concrete blocks I found in the clearing, I built a fire lay. I have a cast iron five-quart dutch oven, as well as a few iron skillets that I inherited from my grandmother. These allow me to cook outside in the summer. The heat of supper-making is thereby kept outside of the house, and the food you eat has the flavor of hardwood smoke. Tonight we are having pork chops and beans.

If you didn't happen to inherit such things, they can still be bought from the Lodge Manufacturing Company, in business since 1896. Having a cast iron oven is as good as having a stove outside, which is just the thing for the burning of summer. With a bit of care you can make the whole meal inside or atop one: turn the self-basting lid over, and you can roast biscuits atop it while your meal bakes inside. If you have two, mix that biscuit dough with a can of pie apples, and roast that on the lid or inside. Fry bacon while you roast steaks. Add some onions and jalepenos. I saw a recipie recently for pork or cheap beef cooked in a jar of grape jelly, mixed with chile sauce. Sounds good to me, though I haven't tried it.

Cooking over fire is trickier than using an electric range, but you'll get the hang of it quickly enough. It's a tie to your ancestors, as it is to mine. And it will keep your house cooler to boot.

LibCon

The Liberal Conspiracy:

Our old friend Sovay has returned to blogging after several months' absence. Her first post in a long time deals with an interview with Atta's father. Her sarcasm toward Juan Cole (whom she calls "highly esteemed") is a welcome and noteworthy departure. I assume, at least, that it is sarcasm. Surely there is no one left, following Juan Cole's call for "oppo research" on bloggers who disagree with him, who actually holds the fellow in any esteem. I find it hard to say so, given my respect for scholars; but there we are.

Nevertheless, she does a good service by pointing us to the interview. Her own interpretation is far wiser than Cole's, recognizing as it does the tectonic power of a father's love. Welcome back, girl.

Moving Violations

Moving Violations:

You will notice that I rarely post about 'outrages of the day,' although such things make up a lot of the traffic that drives both the Left and Right blogospheres. Still, my attitude about them has always been similar to that of a Zen practitioner to the chime of a bell: I stop for a moment, take notice of it, and then pass on.

The bell rings, and fades at once. The chime is gone forever, drifting away on the waves of time. Once you are past the moment in which it happened, it is of no matter. It is gone. You and it have moved apart. There are new things to notice, and there are ongoing threads that deserve your continued attention. For the Zen practitioner, the main thread is breath: in, out. There are others for me: war, virtue, mercy, a child, a wife, a friend. There is so little time to spend on these 'scandals' that arise, and perish. I have so little energy for them, with these other things to see and think about.

That said, I have to take a moment to notice this story, courtesy of Cassandra, BlackFive, Mudville and others. I quote from Cassandra's version

The family of a Marine who was killed in Iraq is furious with Lt. Gov. Catherine Baker Knoll for showing up uninvited at his funeral this week, handing out her business card and then saying "our government" is against the war.

The Lieutenant Governor found the celebration of Holy Eucharist a good time to hand out her business card and score political points on the Bush administration. Staff Sgt. Joseph Goodrich was in no position to rebut any of her talking points, being unfortunately incapable of dialogue at the time.

Having noticed it, I find I cannot think of a single thing to say. Honestly, words fail me.

The Single Book

Cave Ab Homine Unius Libri

And here is mine. Not the Bible nor the Havamal, nor the Koran nor the Lord of the Rings. If you asked me for one book that told you everything you needed to know about life, I'd pick that one -- The Ballad of the White Horse.

Opposed

Count Me Opposed:

...to anything that the D.C. government is in favor of, but especially this business of putting cameras everywhere.

The government should not be spying on our every move. It especially should not be doing so when these cameras have a nearly zero-percent chance of actually stopping crime -- terrorism or otherwise. Catching the criminals after the fact? Maybe. Fat lot of good that will do with suicide bombers.

Let's spend our resources a little more wisely. You want surveillence in the neighborhoods? Tell the people what to look for, and listen when one of us calls for help on 911. If we feel strongly enough about it to make a citizen's arrest, back us up instead of viewing us as the enemy. We're everywhere already, and we work for free.

We neither need nor want Big Brother to watch us, in order to keep us safe. It would help a lot, though, if the government remembered that we the People are the source of its legitimacy, and its principle ally. If it wants our support, it needs only ask. These attempts to control and monitor us are not welcome, and they are not necessary.

Henry

A New Rifle:

As some of you (well, probably only the hardcore gunfighters) will know, Smith & Wesson this year announced an end to the production run of the Model 19 (blue) / 66 (stainless) "Combat Magnums." This is one of the more famous handguns in American history, a six-shooting .357 Magnum revolver based on Smith & Wesson's lightweight "K" frame. The standard frames run up to N, which is their heavy frame for the .44 Remington Magnums and such. Their new showpiece, the 500, is on what they call an "X Frame."

The 19/66 was designed in cooperation with a Border Patrol officer named Bill Jordan, who was also a renowed gunfighter. He wanted a K-frame .357 Magnum because it would be light to carry, and have the stopping power of a magnum round. And so for fifty years the Combat Magnum type revolvers have been a staple of law enforcement and field carry.

Unfortunately, it turns out that the light frame isn't really up to the pressures of the .357 Magnum. Oddly, this was only discovered recently -- almost everyone who bought one was using .38 Special ammunition, which produces much lower pressures, for their target shooting. It's only when the .357 Mag is run through it constantly that it will stress and break the receiver.

Well, to make a long story short, S&W discontinued the model as of this production year, and I decided to get rid of mine. I took it down to a local place today and traded it in, along with my shoulder rig, speedloaders, etc. All together, it was enough of a trade that I could get something nice.

I already have a perfectly good "replacement" for the 66, which I have actually owned longer and like better anyway -- the 629-4, a .44 on the N-frame. So, I didn't need another double-action revolver.

Instead, I decided to do something I've been needing to do for a long time. I got a .22 rifle.

The .22 rifle is a wonderful thing because it enables you to shoot a lot, really improving your skills. My riflemanship has tarnished badly over the years -- I hadn't fired a rifle at all for almost a decade, I have to admit, having hunted with shotguns and carried handguns for defensive purposes. But there are real advantages to being a rifleman, and so about a year ago I picked up a Winchester 94 in .30-30 and began to practice with it. In the last year, I've probably fired two hundred rounds out of it.

With a .22 rifle, though, you could fire five thousand rounds for the same investment. That means a lot more practice, a lot more fun afternoons at the range, and a lot better riflemanship. So, since I had the chance to get something good, I got myself a good .22 rifle.

To be specific, I got this one, the Henry Golden Boy in .22 Long Rifle. This was Guns & Ammo's "Rifle of the Year" in 2001, and I now know why. What a beautiful piece, with an action as smooth as silk.

I fired fifty rounds today -- compared to two hundred all year with the .30-30 -- and bought several hundred more. I figure I'll carry them in my truck, and just stop by the range whenever I go out that way. With any luck, and a few months' dedicated practice, I won't have to be ashamed to post pictures of my rifle targets anymore. :)

Comments

Comments on Today's News:

On the British Police shooting dead a suspected bomber -- Good job, too. One can get pretty much the same amount of instant, functional intel from an autopsy and a raid on a dead bomber's home as from a living, but deeply uncooperative suspect who won't give you his name or anything else.

You can get a lot more of use out of that autopsy and raid than you can from a bomber who escaped into the crowd, or who blew the crowd apart. Plus, he doesn't blow the crowd apart; and he doesn't escape to do more mayhem; and you don't have to worry about him being set free by some politician attempting to bargain with the terrorists, as all those IRA bombers were by that same British government.

Of course, if he was innocent, you killed an innocent man. This is a great moral risk, but be honest with yourself: would you rather live with the pain of having shot dead an innocent man, or the pain of having not shot dead a man who proceeded to blast apart a busload of school children? Giving that you're gambling on the two options, your choice is surely clear.

On Bob Byrd -- The Honorable Byrd has a way with words, doesn't he? "One's life is probably in no greater danger in the jungles of deepest Africa than in the jungles of America's large cities... In my judgment, much of the problem has been brought about by the mollycoddling of criminals by some of the liberal judges who have been placed on the nation's courts in recent years."

Well, OK. But the question ought not to be, 'is one's life in greater danger in an American city or an African jungle?' It ought to be, 'is one's life in greater danger in an American city or an African city?' Africa's most orderly cities compare unfavorably even to America's least orderly ones -- those few remaining outposts, like the District of Columbia, which deny the right to keep and bear arms.

And if you want to compare African jungles to the American wilderness, well, let's not even bother. Africa remains both the original human homeland, and the most perilous place on earth. This explains a lot about humans.

On New York City's bag-searches -- Terrorism is very destructive to liberty. But it doesn't have to be. I remain convinced that, before this is over, the war is going to lead to the end of the American city -- not through the detonation of WMD, but through making the places even more totally unlivable.

The economic justification for the city fades every year with the increase in telecommunications and other infrastructure. Combine that with 'just in time' transit systems, and there's no reason to have a city except for deep-water ports. Even these will mainly be necessary as distribution points for the broader society, and collection points for what remains of our manufacture-for-export industry. The manufacturer itself can easily erect a very small "company town" in one of the emptier parts of the country, using an airport or interstate to send its goods where they need to be sent. As is already the case in Savannah, there is no reason for the port city to be occupied with any major industry except the port itself. Thus, even in this case you can have a small city in terms of population performing what remains of the urban economic function.

The need to distribute goods somewhat more widely will result in a heavier use of oil prodcuts; but the increase in telecommuting will vastly decrease our current levels of consumption. My sense is that something like most of our gasoline goes into private cars driving you from home to your place of business. When a sizable part of the culture just stays home to work, that's a lot of gasoline that doesn't get used.

Why, then, should we put up with these violations of the Fourth Amendment, such as we see in NYC today? One can argue that they're necessary on mass transit systems; so why have that many people in one place? The effect of this distribution of the population is the defense of the individual and family from both terrorist and major-power (say, Chinese) threats, and not coincidentally the defense of our economic power base. Thus, it makes sense from both a personal and societal standpoint.

Move to the country. Telecommute. You'll be glad you did, and so will Uncle Sam.

Beer

Beer:

I learned reading The Independent today that Corona has failed in its attempt to do something really dumb:

Eurocermex, European distributors of the market-leading Mexican Corona, has lost in its bid to trademark a physical object: a clear bottle containing yellow liquid (no sniggering please) with a wedge of lime in the bottleneck. This has long been the cool way of serving Corona, possibly because the lime gives flavour to what would otherwise lack it almost entirely, and...

Apparently, they applied to the EU to make it a legal violation to serve another beer in this fashion. Exactly why it would should be illegal for a bar to serve a beer to a customer in the fashion the customer ordered was not clear enough even for the EU, which surely must be the easiest of all audiences for this sort of claim.

Beer, like wives and sunshine, is one of the great parts of life, something we appreciate and yet don't think about that much. (Also like wives and sunshine, beer is a wonderful thing of which one can nevertheless have too much; though indeed, to round out the similie, in spite of that one will always eventually be wanting more of them again.)

In this very early Grim's Hall post, I quoted a well-remembered passage from an old Robin Hood story, in which the famous outlaws have a picnic involving bread and cheese and a skin of good March beer. That seems like a good way to spend a summer day, and as the weekend is upon us, I will recommend it to you. You probably can't get a good October or March beer at this time of year, but there are several that will do. I find that Red Stripe goes well with the heat, being a little sweeter than usual (Jamaica's other famous beer, Dragon Stout, is likewise far sweeter than stouts normally).

The times grow darker, we see in the news. Well, they were dark in Robin Hood's day as well. Like Robin Hood take your blade and whatever you prefer instead of a longbow, but have your picnic all the same. Down with Prince John, and al Qaeda, and all the rest of the lot of tyrants.

UPDATE: On rereading this note, which I dashed off quickly and without much consideration, I see that I wrote "Beer, like wives and sunshine, is one of the great parts of life, something we appreciate and yet don't think about that much." On reflection, I recognize that this may seem like a shocking or callous statement to some of my younger readers. I should like to say something in that regard.

Young love is a different thing than love when it matures. When you first fall in love, and especially when it is true love, your beloved occupies all of your thoughts.

Once you have been together for a while, however, the challenges of surviving in a hard world will eventually pull your focus away from one another. The challenges and difficulties of life can be demanding -- and none more so than childrearing, which can occupy every last moment that used to be "free."

In that place, the things you value most are the things you don't have to think about. The things you can rely upon, and to which you know you can trust your weight, are the things that count most of all. There is nothing to love better than the thing you can trust, and trust so much that you never have to think about the question.

So it is that the best of good wives may find herself in this category. A bad wife never will -- a man has to worry about one such as that all the time. Those of you who are young women aspiring to a successful marriage might give a thought to becoming that kind of wife.

It may not seem like much, compared to the castles in the air that arise in some of the love songs. It may seem, at first glance, to fade by comparison to the passions and furies of young love. Still, when people are making a life for each other -- and trying to build a life for their children -- there is a lot to be said for it. If you have to think about each other all the time, you will run right up on the rocks. If you need not spend your focus on that, however, you can not only take time to steer -- you can do so knowing that the rest of the ship is being kept in order by a faithful companion and partner.

"Beer and sunshine" isn't bad company to be in, when the play of childhood is behind you, and the labors of the world are your daily bread. In truth, there's little better company to be had in this mortal world.

Scotty

Scotty:

I haven't seen an episode of Star Trek in many years, but it used to run as late-night TV back when I was young enough to still watch late-night TV (i.e., before I had a job and a child, leaving me in the same camp as The Geek when it comes to "lost sleep"). So, after the umpteenth blog pointed to the obit for James Doohan, I finally gave in and went to take a look.

Did you?

At 19, James escaped the turmoil at home by joining the Canadian army, becoming a lieutenant in artillery. He was among the Canadian forces that landed on Juno Beach on D-Day. "The sea was rough," he recalled. "We were more afraid of drowning than the Germans."

The Canadians crossed a minefield laid for tanks; the soldiers weren't heavy enough to detonate the bombs. At 11:30 that night, he was machine-gunned, taking six hits: one that took off his middle right finger (he managed to hide the missing finger on screen), four in his leg and one in the chest. The chest bullet was stopped by his silver cigarette case.

Rest in peace. Sir.

fnames

Foreign Names:

An aside inspired by "the Sheik Marine's" comments below. It happens that I also have a foreign name: a Chinese name, in fact. It was bestowed upon me by a farmer near Hangzhou from whom I often bought vegetables. Native speakers of Chinese have a lot of trouble with my English name, which contains a consonant formation (Br-) that is not found in Chinese. So, for ease of use, I adopted it and used it on all my documents in China.

The name was 大 鬍 鬚, which is written in pinyin Da Huxu and pronounced "DAH Hoo-shoo."

It translates into English as "Big Beard," which was quite right: at the time, distrusting (for very good reason) the quality of the local water, I drank only beer and disavowed shaving. As a consequence, I ended up with a fine forked beard that would have been the pride of a Viking warrior.

The name is interesting in two ways. The first is that, in Chinese, the family name is written first. Thus, on all my official Chinese documents, I'm identified as "Mr. Big."

The other thing that is interesting is that "HuXu" means "beard" only by historic accident. It began as the name of a tribe of barbarians in Western China, who wore beards. Most Han Chinese men -- "Han" being an ethnic grouping that includes better than ninety percent of China's subjects -- can't grow beards until they get quite old. As a result, the beard itself became identified with these wild barbarian tribes of the west.

As a consequence, the real translation of my Chinese name is, "Big Western Barbarian." I couldn't have made a better or more honest choice.

Sheikh Marine

The Sheik Marine:

Captain Leggett of Southern Appeal has posted some photographs of himself, attired in a tribal headdress that was given to him by grateful Iraqis at a wedding he attended. He says:

I should note that as soon as My Iraqi hosts saw me in the headdress they immediately began calling me "Sheik Marine," a title I was greeted with by almost every member of the tribe every time I was in the area. Unfortunately, the Marine Corps has not yet seen fit to recognize the authority of my tribal title.

They really ought to recognize it. Lawrence of Arabia proved what could be accomplished by working with the tribal structure, and showing respect for and a willingness to participate in their native conceptions of honor. Well done, Joel. Well done.

UPDATE: In the comments, Joel reveals two more important details:

Y’all might find this humorous. Not only was I made a member of their tribe (Al Ghezzi) I was also given an Arabic name, Kazem Al Ghezzi.

Humorous, no. Impressive, yes.

On another piece of his attire:

My father gave that knife to me when I was enlisted. It is a Randall model 14, in my humble opinion the finest fighting knife made.

You are not alone in your opinion -- many knife enthusiasts love the Randall made knives. My own favorite is the Model 12 "Bear Bowie" design. Yet, as we were discussing on another occasion, the best knife for one fighter is not the best knife for another -- there is a lot of variation that comes from arm length, grip strength, height, and the like. The Model 14 is a very respectable choice.

Excalibur

"The War of Spells"

My favorite article so far to arise from the disruptions in the Philippines is this one. It describes the events in terms of "a dagger in the heart," magic, a divided Church, the "war of spells" that shattered King Arthur's realm, and finishes with an allusion to the sword Excalibur.

It seems almost improper to mention that the 'Sword in the Stone' and Excalibur were two different swords. Nevertheless, they were: the first sword was a gift of God, as the legend has it, to name the rightful king; Excalibur was kept by the Lady of the Lake. Both types of swords have precedents and resonances in other legends -- for the Sword in the Stone, see for example the Sword of the Volsungs (which resonates also, and intentionally, with Aragorn's sword Anduril, or Narsil); for Excalibur, any number of legends about fairy blades kept by water spirits. This last is a perfectly reasonable legend, for many Celtic and Germanic cultures cast swords and other treasures into sacred lakes and rivers as sacrifices. The water maids who keep such sacred blades are a natural point of origin for our Lady who dwelt by, or in, or under, 'the Lake.'

All that said, it is a hopeful sign for the Philippines that they have these legends to draw upon, still so close to mind as to leap into a simple piece of political analysis. A commonly understood legend, underlying your view of the world and present in all or most minds, has been the foundation of many a society in hard times. In politics, if most of you can imagine the problem alike, you can probably imagine a solution. Not so in physics; but this is a political problem.

Dining

Fine Dining:

Via Arts & Letters Daily, I see that the UK Guardian has put together a list of the world's fifty best restaurants. Improbably, to say the least that might be said, fourteen of them are in England, including the world's best: The Fat Duck.

The list has earned some unreasonably bitter commentary from our German friends:

So again: Congratulations to our English friends! What they were unable to achieve in soccer, they've made up for in the kitchen. And this counterbalances the bankruptcy of their last automobile company. And the state of the London underground.

You can read the list for yourself. I'm dismayed to say that, not only have I never eaten in a single one of these restaurants, I've never lived close to a single one of these cities. In point of fact, I've only even visited one of them -- New York -- and have no plans to plan never to return. Since I didn't eat at any of these places on that occasion, I shall probably miss them entirely. Were I to die tomorrow, I should have missed out on the world's best food -- or rather, its best restaurant food, since both my grandfather's bacon and my grandmother's biscuits were not for sale.

Still, I do like good food, and so I would like to solicit from you, dear reader, two lists of your own. The first list is the finest restaurants you've patronized, and where they can be found -- as well as a bit about them, if you like. The second is your favorites, which needn't be "fine" cuisine at all. For myself, I've dined in a few fine establishments, but my very favorite place to eat is a hole in the wall Mexican joint in Chamblee, Georgia (which town is called by the locals "Chambodia" in honor of the many Vietnamese and Cambodian immigrants displaced by a certain regional conflict of the 1950s-70s).

In any event, here are my two lists. Unlike the Guardian, these are not in order of excellence, just "as they come to me."

Fine dining:

1) The Abbey, Atlanta, Georgia -- it self-consciously describes itself as "French Continental," but what I had were the lamb chops, which you could have gotten in one of those fine English restaurants (I imagine). It is notable for being located in an old church of magnificient decor, which is every bit as enjoyable as the food. And the food was very good indeed. I took my wife there once on our anniversary, and if any of you have the notion, it's worth a trip.

2) The Southern Inn Restaurant, Lexington, Virginia -- Lexington is called "the shrine of the South," being home to Stonewall Jackson's house and the tomb of Robert E. Lee and his faithful horse Traveller. It's home to the Virginia Military Institute, which with the Citadel in Charleston carries on the tradition of Southern military life. The Southern Inn is a fine place to eat downtown, with twists of mint soaking in the ready pitchers of icewater to refresh the throat. I suggest it heartily if you're ever in the area, which you may be -- there's a major interstate that runs right through Lexington.

3) Pizza Hut, Shanghai, China -- No, I'm not kidding. Pizza Hut is a luxury restaurant in China. The Shanghai location (there may be more than one) serves a clam chowder pie, as well as special salads, in addition to pepperoni pizza. Reservations are a wise idea, as they are a very popular restaurant with the upper class.

4) Sunday Restaurant, Hangzhou, China -- We ate there the day we bought the train tickets out of Hangzhou, en route to the airport at PuDong to carry us back to the good old United States. That was about six months after we'd arrived, most of it over a winter in which we were provided with no heat sources. We were in a celebratory mood on the occasion, and so went with a couple of Australians to eat everything we could find. It was a mighty feast, and one I remember kindly.

5) Asia Nora's, Washington, D.C. -- Not only good food, but fine Scotch, if you're so inclined. I don't actually like Asian food that much, to be honest (you might have guessed from my listing "Pizza Hut" as the finest restaurant in China) but I can't doubt the quality of what's on offer here. (An aside -- at a cafeteria once in China I was dining with one of my colleagues, a nice lady who was a Chinese national. She asked me what I thought of the food. "It's offal," I replied, having just identified the meat as stomach. "Awful!" she cried. "I thought it was good!")

6) Biddy Mulligan's, Washington, D.C. -- Too expensive to be considered a "favorite," but the food is of a high enough quality that I go there on occasion. The Irish mixed grill is the best thing on the board. I had it on my last birthday, courtesy of Sovay.

UPDATE: 7) Bilbo Baggins', Alexandria, Virginia. -- I had forgotten about it, but it's a very nice place down on the waterfront. The food is good, and the beer list is astonishing. Everyone's favorite hobbit would have approved.

Favorites:

1) El Taco Veloz, Chamblee, GA. -- Not much to be said about this place except that non-Spanish speakers would be advised to remember that "lengua" means "tongue." Don't miss the salsa verde or the chiles rellenos. Oddly enough, this restaurant is part of a chain, but all the others have a different name: Taco Prisa, which also means "Speedy Taco."

2) Kevin Barry's Irish Pub, Savannah, Georgia -- The best Irish Pub I've ever attended, and I attended it often in my Savannah days. MilBloggers will want to visit the Hall of Heroes (and cigar bar) on the second floor, which honors the US military; Irish sympathizers will want to visit Liberty Hall, which honors especially Kevin Barry but also all IRA veterans. This is not a pose; the owner is quite serious about it, and is a collector of historic weapons associated with Irish republicanism, including antique pikes from the 1798 rising. Yes, yes, I know, but check the calendar on their website, and go on a night that Harry is playing. You'll understand.

3) The Mellow Mushroom, throughout Georgia and points north (but not far enough north). -- The best pizza in Georgia, although a close second is Vinnie Van Go-Go's in Savannah. The Mushroom is better, though.

4) The Reggae Cafe (also, The Reggae Bar and The Reggae Pub), Hangzhou, China -- expensive enough to be "fine dining" by Chinese standards, but cheap enough for a Westerner to eat there often. The Szechuan pizza is great, and the reggae burger -- which is actually a sausage patty, served with a fried egg over hard on something resembling a bun -- is surprisingly good. For a year after I came back from China, I put a fried egg on my hamburgers. (I see from this list that it still exists, and not only that, but there is now an Irish pub in Hangzhou with Guinness on tap. If that had been there when I was there, I might have stayed another year or two, if we could have gotten the wife over that double pneumonia).

5) The Griffin Tavern, Flint Hill, Virginia. The pizza is the best pizza I've had since I left Georgia, no question. They have things as cheap as burgers, or as expensive and fancy as you like. It's the only restaurant around, so if you're off in this section of the woods, the Griffin is all there is -- but you couldn't do better in a major city, I'll take an oath on it. This is my favorite restaurant in Virginia, but it's a long trek from anywhere you're likely to be. Still...

6) Molly's Irish Pub, Warrenton, Virginia -- Hm, it may be that I'm detecting a theme in my recommendations. Have the Shepherd's Pie. Beowulf likes the ice cream.

7) The Childe Harold Pub, Washington, D.C. -- The Childe Harold restaurant is a fine dining place, to be avoided if you'll have my recommendation. The Childe Harold Pub is in the basement, and is an entirely different sort of place. Grab a table in the back of the Pub and have a Guard's Burger, or belly up to the bar at happy hour. If you like pasta, they have a kind of chicken pasta that Sovay always orders. It's very good, I can attest, having eaten more of the stuff than she has herself -- she eats like a bird, the girl. The Childe Harold takes its name from a poem by Lord Byron about a knight on pilgrimage.

Well, there you go. What have you got?

UPDATE: A couple more favorites from Atlanta, which I remembered later:

8) Savage Pizza, Atlanta, Georgia. -- A comic-book themed restaurant, but what great pizza.

9) La Fonda Latina, Atlanta, GA. -- The quesadillas are excellent, as is the fresh salsa. They make good sangria, too, as I recall.

Pape

4th Rail Post:

I have a post up at the Fourth Rail on Dr. Pape's work.

OPSEC

OPSEC

Secrecy News has a link to another recently available government document, which comes from the Interagency OPSEC support staff. The Federation of American Scientists, which underwrites SN, has published a copy of it on their website.

The piece is the Intelligence Threat Handbook.

The notion is to provide a basic awareness of intelligence techniques used against America by major powers, especially Russia and China. The piece intends to help government agencies recognize and avoid what may be intelligence gathering missions by foreign powers.

I pass the link on to you because some of you work in sensitive areas (not only in the government!) and will benefit, and others of you will just be interested in this insight into Chinese intelligence. Have a look.

Infowar

Information Warfare:

The most interesting thing about this roundup post is the comments section. I don't say that to minimize the quality of the post, which draws attention to the political debacle in the Philippines. Nevertheless, the comments are fascinating:

1. Anonymous said...
Just FYI, the so-called John Marzan you link to is a vehement pro-Estrada/Marcos loyalist who trolls various Filipino message boards with rabid anti-Arroyo propaganda. His weblog entries are, of course, always slanted towards the far-extreme anti-Arroyo side, even if it means linking to a newspaper owned by Estrada/Marcos loyalists (the Tribune) and defending the corruption and violence of previous administrations. Not the kind of person I'd trust my links to.

There are a few other local Filipino weblogs with a more balanced viewpoint of what's going on here: columnist Manuel Quezon III and The Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism.

Oh, and I work just a couple of blocks from there. It's an impressive rally, but there have been a couple of street fights outside my building. Not the best elements of society; I'm seeing banners carried by "Akbayan," a socialist group not unlike International ANSWER.

...

3. Anonymous said...
gateway, be careful of bloggers putting in comments. there is a propaganda campaign even in blogs being mounted by the palace to counter anti-arroyo blogs. so do not trust this comment.

Of course we have all seen this coming. Political groups are aware of blogs, and so they have begun to assemble talking points for bloggers just as they do for letters-to-the-editor.

This is something to watch for in all future contests of this sort, but there is one aspect to attend to:

1) Each side of the argument has as its main interest that the debate should be framed in its terms...

2) ...but both sides of any argument have as a common interest that the debate should be framed as an argument between them.

This is not, as wilder-eyed libertarians sometimes argue about the two-party system, a conspiracy between two similar parties to obscure their similarity in order to offer the illusion of a choice. It applies even in cases where the difference is real, and deep.

The reason is this: We must be told what to think, lest we decide for ourselves. That, at least, must be avoided at all costs. A political group knows what its opposition's arguments are, and how to counter them. But the mutations that may arise in free space are unpredictable. As 'knowing your enemy' is one of the classic rules of warfighting, it is a matter of pure practicality to make certain that everyone who cannot be won to your side is, at least, thinking the way your known enemy thinks.

For that cause, expect to see these sorts of comments spreading through the blogosphere. It profits them to carry on the fight at length in every place, even if they know they have lost the audience in that place, even if they know they have won it. The fight serves its own purpose: it focuses all thought into the known patterns.

We must be cautious to prevent our halls to become battlegrounds for information warfighting of this type. This sort of agenda-advancing is viral: it not only tends to overwhelm comments sections to prevent new ideas from forming, but it tends to infect many thinkers who lean to one side or the other. They, wishing to seem well informed and also to express an acceptable opinion, need but learn one of the two standing arguments and assert it at all points.

The only way to prevent ourselves from becoming tools of suppressing debate is to recognize these information warfare techniques, and stop them. This can chiefly be done by ignoring their protagonists, but may also require erasing comments in extreme cases. It is why Grim's Hall does not permit "fly-by" comments, anonymous or otherwise: this is a place for fighters, and fighters of the mind must be thinkers rather than mimics.

Crossbows

Turning America Back Into A Nation Of...

Whose idea was it to allow these military style weapons to be used in hunting? American unilateralism knows no bounds, it appears. Don't people know that these are internationally banned weapons?

In 1097, Pope Urban II outlawed the use of the crossbow. Four decades later, Pope Innocent II convened a Lateran Council with nearly 1,000 prelates. They forbade "under penalty of anathema" not just the use of crossbows, "the dastard's weapon," but the entire "deadly and God-detested art of slingers and archers." You could get a waiver if you were on a crusade, but that's a different conversation.

Of course, it wasn't just the Catholic Church. Conrad III, the Holy Roman Emperor... banned the use of the crossbow in his army and his realm.

Not only that, they have also been banned by some of our more forward looking states, such as Maine. Oddly, though, their reasons seem to be anti-noble, rather than anti-peasant:

The taboo carried over into modern times. In American Colonial days into the 19th century, crossbows were associated with European nobility and spurned, said Ottie Snyder, a cofounder of the American Crossbow Federation.

In Maine, crossbows were banned for hunting in 1856, but have remained legal to own.

Well, no matter. Maine just passed a law letting people use them again. And so did New Hampshire. And Pennsylvania, last year. Vermont (of course) already permitted them. Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island in New England have provisions allowing for their use, but only by citizens who are not capable of using traditional bows.

Given the sudden, practical attempt to enforce the long-theoretical "states-rights" interpretation of the Second Amendment among another of the solid Blue states, it will be interesting to see where this goes. Might we soon have Blue State militias, armed primarily with crossbows? There is something to be said for the concept, surely.

Hat tip NRA-ILA.