Croc Hunter

On the Death of the Crocodile Hunter:

I saw (via InstaPundit) that the "Crocodile Hunter," whom I learned was really named Steve Irwin, died after an encounter with a sting ray. Austin Bay has some words for the event, with which I find I entirely disagree. He portrays Steve Irwin as some sort of haunted figure, suffering from some dark inner need:

In the komodo dragon show I thought Irwin crossed the line from skilled showmanship to inexcuseable thrill-seeking – wagered mortality is tantalizing, but adds a queasy, dark twist to a family program. I told my wife “I wonder if this guy (Irwin) has a death wish?”

If my comments on the komodo dragon show seem a bit harsh, understand I’ve watched it a half-dozen times. I’ve gaped with the rest of the circus audience.

But I may never watch it again. Irwin died over the weekend, died while filming at-close-quarters another dangerous species. The poisoned barb of a sting ray put a hole in his heart.... [It was a] violent, unnecessary death.

Irwin was idiosyncratic, personable, enthusiastic, informed, and physically courageous. That’s a lot to admire. But what drove him to get too close one too many times?

I myself have seen only one episode of "The Crocodile Hunter," one time -- precisely because I can't stand some of the qualities Austin Bay admires. What he found enthusiastic and personable, I found irritating and noisy.

That said, Irwin may have been the least dark, haunted figure in easy memory. He got close to those animals because he loved them. That is the same reason he read all he could about them, and loved to tell others about them.

Far from a death wish -- a wish easy to fulfill, if it is genuine! -- Irwin seems to me to have had a real love of life and of the world into which he was born. It is a dangerous world, but he refused to be afraid of it. He embraced that world as he found it, and if it killed him, well, it's going to kill all of us, too.

So, no, it wasn't an unnecessary death: he was already going to die. So are you.

It was a violent death, but so what? Violent is not a synonym for bad. Do you really want to die from organ failure in some hospital, or after some lingering illness? If not, you've really only got two options: die suddenly from a heart attack or other quick-acting cause, or die violently.

An argument can be made that a family man has a duty to survive, as long as survival is honorable, in order to provide for his family. Well, I don't doubt that Irwin had laid plenty of investments, so that his family is protected from ruin. His death will surely cause them grief, but so would his death from a heart attack. We aren't entitled to have those we love around forever, any more than we are entitled not to die.

A serious engagement with the deepest philosophical questions in life suggests to me that Irwin lived exactly the right way. He was an adventurer, and if I found his television manner impossible to tolerate, I admire everything else about the man. May I die the same way: engaged in experiencing, and loving, the world into which I was born.

Not fearing death is not the same thing as wishing for it. Neither is it dark. It is the right and proper attitude: the one to which the sages and the religions alike counsel us, and which martial art and meditation both seek to create.

The Crocodile Hunter got that, got all of it. Good for him!

Podcast

Podcast with Abizaid:

The Saint Petersburg Times has an audio interview with CDRUSCENTCOM General John Abizaid. You can download it, or listen to it from the website.

The general emphasizes cautious optimism on Iraq, with a focus on steady progress. However, he also warns that most of what remains to be done has to be done by the Iraqi people themselves -- and if they choose not to, but prefer sectarian conflict, we cannot hope to stabilize Iraq in spite of them. He also warns against US public pessimism arising from negative press reporting in the news cycle.

It's a quick interview, with nothing surprising, but it is good to hear the General expressing confidence.

Geek Grendel

Terror House II:

The actual description of Geek with a .45's trip to Hungary's Terror House is posted. You can, and you should, read it here.

Hungary

Terror House:

The Geek w/ A .45's series on his trip to Budapest takes a turn from the celebratory to the horrific. All the same, this piece deserves to be read.

Strange Story

Strange Story:

I discovered sometime last week that a pair of journalists (FOX News) had been missing and presumed captive in Palestine.

Things looked much better when news came out they'd been released unharmed in Gaza after two weeks of captivity. That was not the expected outcome of the captivity, which made this result unexpected.

However, things go from unexpected to strange when I read about the reason for the release: as recounted by FOX news, they had converted to Islam. (A tip of the hat to Rev. Donald Sensing on this story.)

My first thought was of a sarcastic cartoon I saw years ago. The cartoon featured a Crusader on horse holding a spear at the throat of a Muslim soldier. The Muslim was saying, "I'm very interested in this faith of yours. Why don't you tell me more?"

The point of that cartoon was apparently that the Crusaders weren't likely to meet such people on the battlefield, or convert them. It was modern Western thought laughing at something that was totally foreign to its worldview.

The concept is funny when we think of our distant ancestors doing it. It is less than funny--it is frightening--when we realize that there are men alive today who would do the same to us. Disturbingly, forced conversion is now an example of how to avoid death while in captivity to these men.

As Rev. Sensing comments, avoidance of religious coercion in modern America has reached the level of arguing whether a cross on a city monument is a government agency establishing religion. At times, it seems that certain forces in public life seem bent on removing religion from the public sphere.

And now we learn that some religious men will hold a gun to a man's head as a method of proselytization.

Perhaps we should, as a nation, gladly invite religion into the public sphere. As long as the believers understand that coercion of religious belief is out-of-bounds.

There's a lot more to be said about conversions to Islam, forced conversion, and Western culture--but Rev. Sensing seems to have covered most of it. I'll refrain from repeating what he said.

Budapest

"Ah, the City of Cathedrals"

Geek with a .45 is just back from Budapest. Don't miss his writeup on the statuary of the city, with the help of his guide:

Is statue of liberty. You know, gift of liberty from soviets. Soviets set us free from ourselves. Gee, thanks, soviets. For nothing. Bah. Assholes!

What is a "clean E," anyway?

Long War

The Long War:

A West Point Major and myself discuss it here.

More Neighbor Fun

More Fun With Neighbors:

Some of you will recall that I recently moved. Longtime readers may recall the adventures of Captain Moonshine near the previous residence. Ah, the good old days. He was, at least, over the hill and down the road.

So today I go out to move my tools out of the rain, when all of a sudden I find myself laying in the yard I was clearing of overgrowth from the time when the log house lay unoccupied. "That was a gunshot," I think to myself, putting together why I'm laying down in a field in the rain. It was indeed. Not sixty yards away, someone had fired what was either a small-caliber rifle or a large-caliber handgun -- if a rifle, smaller than .30 caliber, and if a handgun, larger.

They fired again, and I realized that, while they were not shooting at me, they weren't shooting that far away from me either. I heard a scurrying in the bush, where some deer were vacating the area.

All this was right up by the house, where a small bit of tree and bush separates the clearing in which the house is located from a guy's driveway. The guy, my neighbor whom I've yet to meet, had decided to shoot at the deer -- without taking into account the little problem of the house being a few feet from his line of fire. With a ricochet, the bullet could easily be in the house, particulary if it hit a window instead of a log wall.

I haven't met this neighbor as yet. I did, however, speak to a deputy sheriff who came out to investigate the reports of gunfire. He assured me, based on my description, that it was perfectly legal given that the guy has enough property and was shooting on his own.

"That's fine," I said, "as I hadn't intended to press charges if it were illegal. I don't care if he carries a gun. I don't care if he wants to shoot his gun. But would you mind asking him not to shoot his gun at my house?"

The deputy said he'd be glad to mention it, although, as noted, there's nothing in the law to stop the fellow from doing so.

I don't much like people, and so I have perhaps been remiss in arranging to meet the neighbors. I shall have to have a talk with this one soon. No doubt we will come to a common understanding on the subject.

Booby Trap

Booby Trap:

The Donovan points out that a new risk threatens our soldiers.

Dogs

Dog Treats:

Andi at Milblogs points out a story I think is great: care packages for canine soldiers.

Iraq poll

A Poll in Iraq:

If you haven't seen this opinion poll of Iraqis, take a look at it. It's interesting: a plurality of Iraqis think the nation is going in the right direction; more Iraqis as a percentage than Americans think so; and sixty percent of those polled give their own local security a favorable rating.

Obviously, this has a lot to do with the quality of information: Americans are depending on a media that won't set foot outside the hotel for the most part, plus hired stringers they're paying to produce "newsworthy" (i.e., bad) stories, plus some news organizations that are actually attempting to produce bad news (e.g., the Italian communist news). The Iraqis actually live there, and can see whether things seem to be getting better or worse directly.

A second factor may be the absence of a retreat option for the Iraqis. From an American perspective, the question "Is Iraq going the right or the wrong direction" will normally be read "Will we be able to leave a peaceful Iraq soon, or not?" Given that there are hostile factions with permanent interests in conflict, the odds of perfect peace in the region are small; Saddam enforced what he called "peace" by killing massive numbers of people, in effect waging a permanant war. America is trying to help build a form of government that will allow those interests to be negotiated, along with a military/police structure capable of encouraging negotiation by being a credible threat. This is taking a while, for several reasons, and Americans are really trying to decide, "Is this all worth it?" Americans are thus not really thinking about the question "Is it getting better?", but are silently inserting "Are we almost done?"

Iraqis, on the other hand, are not thinking about a "real" question when asked if things are getting better or not. If the question is "Are things getting better?", the answer is either yes or no; but whichever it is, the Iraqis aren't going anywhere.

From an American perspective, is it getting better -- which is to say, is this all worth it?

Here we see the problem of answering the one question as if it were the other. Of course it is worth it; and more than that, it's morally required of us. Afghanistan shows what happens when an Islamic state is left in civil war because Western powers lost interest in it. If we, in the 1990s, had stood up to helping Afghans recover from the war against the Soviets that we helped to worsen and continue, there might never have been a Taliban, a haven for al Qaeda, a 9/11. We didn't, because we felt we had no further interest. Iraq, now that we have destroyed Saddam's government, is a place to which we owe a similar debt. Like postwar Japan, if we rebuild it carefully and correctly, it will pay dividends long into the future; like Afghanistan, if we fail it, we shall someday rue that failure of spine and ethics.

Is it getting better, though? Well, there are good signs, and evil prognostications.

My own sense is that the odds of successful negotiation in Iraq are greatly increased by the strengthening of the Iraqi Army, who is now on display in Baghdad, where their example will not be missed; and the completion of the network of border forts discussed here recently, which can serve as an anvil to the IA's hammer if the Sunni insurgents insist on fighting instead of talking. A credible military option always makes diplomacy easier. Those forts and that army gives the central government the power to drive the tribes that refuse to negotiate, break them on the anvil, and then lock their remnants beyond the borders; having that power, they will likely find that the tribes are more willing to accept carrots than insist on the sticks.

My own preferred response to the question of Iraq is the one offered by General Mattis, surely the greatest general of our age.

"It is mostly a matter of wills," Lt. Gen. James N. Mattis said during an exclusive interview with the North County Times. "Whose will is going to break first? Ours or the enemy's?" ...

Mattis, who led the Marines in the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 and led the 1st Marine Division in the invasion of Iraq and march to Baghdad in early 2003, said he was once asked by an Iraqi when he would leave that country.

"I said I am never going to leave. I told him I had found a little piece of property down on the Euphrates River and I was going to have a retirement home built there.

"I did that because I wanted to disabuse him of any sense that he could wait me out."

Why shouldn't an American be able to build a retirement home on the Euphrates, just as he might build one on the Rhine if he wished? Our forces will someday leave, because they are no longer needed, but we hope to bring Iraq into a wider world. The hope should be that America never leaves -- our soldiers do, but our financiers, our businessmen, our diplomats, friends and companions, these Americans tie Iraq into a world larger than that created by thoughts ever turned to ethnic conflict.

Is that possible? My sense has always been that there is only one way to find out if you can do a thing, and that is to do it. If you succeed, you know for certain that it can be done. If you fail, you don't know for certain that it can't be done: most likely, you didn't do it right. Try again, if you can; or, if you cannot, having suffered some injury along the way that forbids a second chance, let others learn from the failure.

For that reason, I am disinclined to hear that anything "cannot be done," which I have heard from very smart people on the subject of Iraq since the beginning. I talked to a fellow from the CATO institute about Iraq a few months ago, and he was one of the type: his speech was flavored with words like "cannot," "impossible," and "never." Nonsense. Too many of these people, who not only are smart but make their livings by being smart, have said such things and are now committed to them. They must, to continue to be thought smart, be proven right: which means they are committed to failure.

I'll take my stand with General Mattis, gladly.
General, when you're done in Iraq, we need you in the White House. We've been looking for someone like you for a while.

A Law explained

A Basic Law of Economics, Explained:

Here, with thanks to Cowboy Blob.

Not Cutting Aid for wounded soldiers

Cutting Aid for Wounded Soldiers in an Election Year:

A war fought with IEDs produces a larger percentage of brain injuries than in previous wars, fought mostly with rifles. The overpressure of the blast waves, detonated at close range, have been the source of an unfortunate number of such cases.

Congress, of course, is cutting funding for brain-injury programs. Their explanation was that "there were so many priorities" that they could not get to it.

It is plain to see that some things are more dangerous to one's brain than an enemy IED. Service in Congress would appear to be one of them. Unlike the soldiers, however, the Congressmen have no honorable explanation for their malady.

Good Job

Good Job:

It is always good to see these kidnapper gangs busted up, and it is always good to see weapons caches recovered.

Iraqi army soldiers conducted a raid and rescued a kidnap victim after receiving a tip from a concerned Iraqi citizen that led them to a location in Baghdad’s Adhamiyah neighborhood Friday night. The Iraqi citizen lead soldiers from 1st Battalion, 2nd Brigade, 6th Iraqi Army Division, to a house where the victims and a weapons cache were located. Inside the building they seized two rocket-propelled grenade launchers, 20 RPG rounds, nine RPG propellant charges, an AK-47, two sniper rifles and 12 hand grenades. Two suspected terrorists were detained in connection with the kidnapping.

Well done -- Iraqi Army working with Iraqi citizens. But the Coalition hasn't left yet either:

In a separate event, Multi-National Division – Baghdad Soldiers rescued three kidnap victims after receiving a tip from an Iraqi citizen southeast of Baghdad Friday afternoon. Soldiers from Company C, 1st Battalion, 61st Cavalry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division, were approached by a young man who informed an interpreter there were kidnap victims inside a nearby house. MND-B Soldiers moved to the house, where they found three victims tied up, blindfolded and lying on the floor with a kidnapper watching over them. Soldiers entered the house and rescued the victims and detained the kidnapper.

Good work all around.

Ithaca:

Ahem. This reminds me of something.

The old man next looked upon Ulysses; "Tell me," he said, "who is that other, shorter by a head than Agamemnon, but broader across the chest and shoulders? His armour is laid upon the ground, and he stalks in front of the ranks as it were some great woolly ram ordering his ewes."

And Helen answered, "He is Ulysses, a man of great craft, son of Laertes. He was born in rugged Ithaca, and excels in all manner of stratagems and subtle cunning."

On this Antenor said, "Madam, you have spoken truly. Ulysses once came here as envoy about yourself, and Menelaus with him. I received them in my own house, and therefore know both of them by sight and conversation. When they stood up in presence of the assembled Trojans, Menelaus was the broader shouldered, but when both were seated Ulysses had the more royal presence. After a time they delivered their message, and the speech of Menelaus ran trippingly on the tongue; he did not say much, for he was a man of few words, but he spoke very clearly and to the point, though he was the younger man of the two; Ulysses, on the other hand, when he rose to speak, was at first silent and kept his eyes fixed upon the ground. There was no play nor graceful movement of his sceptre; he kept it straight and stiff like a man unpractised in oratory- one might have taken him for a mere churl or simpleton; but when he raised his voice, and the words came driving from his deep chest like winter snow before the wind, then there was none to touch him, and no man thought further of what he looked like."

Ah, son of Laertes, here are more fine sons who act 'like rams among sheep.' I'm not sure how formidable in council they will prove, but every man can't be Odysseus.

H/t: MilBlogs.

Happy B-Day Clinton

A Clintonian Birthday:

Russ Vaughn has composed some birthday wishes for Bill Clinton. It's just as off-color as you'd expect, given the Clinton legacy.

Ooh-Rah:

Here's a great story that shows why we should be proud to have the allies we have. This guy is what "British Sergeant Major" is all about.

H/t John (Arrgh!) at MilBlogs.

Plato Sucks

Plato Sucks:

I feel a lot better after reading this critique of Plato from the London Guardian.

[The Republic] is long, sprawling and meandering. Far from holding water, its arguments range from ordinarily leaky to leaky in that zany way which leaves some interpreters unable to recognise them as ever intended to hold water at all. Its apparent theory of human nature is fanciful, and might seem inconsistent. Its apparent political implications are mainly disagreeable, and often appalling. In so far as Plato has a legacy in politics, it includes theocracy or rule by priests, militarism, nationalism, hierarchy, illiberalism, totalitarianism and complete disdain of the economic structures of society, born in his case of privileged slave-ownership. In Republic he managed to attach himself both to the most static conservatism and to the most wild-eyed utopianism.... [Socrates] is shown as the spokesman for a repressive, authoritarian, static, hierarchical society in which everything up to and including sexual relations and birth control is regulated by the political classes, who deliberately use lies for the purpose.

Wow. If that's how the Left treats Plato, I never had a chance. :)

Beer & The Wood

Swords and Songs and Beer:

Today is a day I mark with celebration each year: the day that I first encounter a seasonal Oktoberfest brew for sale. Ah! Autumn, as good as Spring, is coming at last.

The 2004 post celebrating the first October beer is here, and explains the history of October beer for the English-speaking world. Follow the link (or just click this one) to an article called "Dragon's Milk: English October Beer."

On the same topics, a post from back in 2003 on the Merry life of Robin Hood, and a song by yours truly on the subject.

A merry day to you. Would that we could gather over a butt of good October in person.

Swords:

Kim du Toit has cause this week to recommend the keeping of swords. Good on him -- there is nothing better than a sword.

Let me recommend (as I did to Kim) the work of Alex Cameron, one of the last surviving members of the medieval Glaswegian Swordmakers Guild. I own a few pieces of his work, including a customized sword made just the right length for a man of my height and length of arm. It hangs, polished mirror-bright, on the wall of my office.

I have never owned one of these, but I certainly wish I had. If anyone wants a report on the quality of such a thing, enough to help fund the purchase of one, let me know. :)