17 Days of Trump, for Piano

 

Anabasis V: Scythed Chariots

In the great battle just described, there was an ineffective use of a rather innovative weapons system that was specifically designed to contest heavy infantry hoplite units. This was the scythed chariot, which is exactly what you would imagine it to be from the name. There's also a Wikipedia article on the subject.

For the most part these things were not highly effective. One can imagine them having a significant psychological effect on the unit being charged by them. 

Xenophon does tell of a time (395 BC), however, when several hundred Greeks, caught in the open by the Persians, were charged by just two scythed chariots, scattering the men and allowing many to be cut down by the cavalry (Hellenica, IV.1.17-19). Indeed, this was their proper function: to panic and disrupt the enemy, allowing mounted troops and infantry to charge the broken line.

Most famously, scythed chariots were used by Darius III against Alexander the Great at the Battle of Gaugamela in 331 BC. There were two-hundred such chariots, says Diodorus Siculus, designed to astonish and terrify the enemy.

"From each of these there projected out beyond the trace horses scythes three spans long, attached to the yoke, and presenting their cutting edges to the front. At the axle housings there were two more scythes pointing straight out with their cutting edges turned to the front like the others, but longer and broader. Curved blades were fitted to the ends of these" (Library of History, XVII.53.2; also Arrian, III.8).

Diodorus records that, when the chariots attacked the phalanx, the Macedonians beat their shields with their spears, creating such a din that the horses shied, turning the chariots back on the Persians. Those that continued forward were allowed to pass as the soldiers opened wide gaps in the line. Some horses were killed as they charged ahead but the momentum of others allowed them to ride through, the blades of the chariots severing "the arms of many, shields and all, and in no small number of cases they cut through necks and sent heads tumbling to the ground with the eyes still open and the expression of the countenance unchanged, and in other cases they sliced through ribs with mortal gashes and inflicted a quick death" (XVII.58.2-5).

They're the kind of thing Hollywood would love, but definitely not the tank of the ancient world -- and ultimately no real threat to the dominance of heavy infantry on the battlefield of the era. 

Standing Down

There was a similar closure and folding-into-State of the US Information Agency during the Clinton administration. It resulted in a permanent loss of capacity and expertise in information warfare, which was thought not to be needed any longer due to the end of the Soviet Union. Russian Active Measures did take a while to get back to full speed, or whatever you would describe as their current speed; but after 9/11, we realized that we had lost a lot in terms of our ability to recognize and respond to dangerous messaging in the Islamic world. 

This one is way faster and more hostile. 

A brief message posted late Tuesday night on USAID’s website states, “On Friday, February 7, 2025, at 11:59 pm (EST) all USAID direct hire personnel will be placed on administrative leave globally,” except for select employees in “mission-critical functions, core leadership and specially designated programs. Essential personnel expected to continue working will be informed by Agency leadership by Thursday, February 6, at 3:00pm (EST).”

The government will arrange return flights for all USAID workers stationed outside the United States within 30 days. The administration “will consider case-by-case exceptions and return travel extensions based on personal or family hardship,” such as children’s school term, “personal or familial medical needs, pregnancy, and other reasons.”

“Thank you for your service,” concludes the message.

We've seen a lot of demonstration that USAID was also performing improper functions -- maybe mostly performing improper functions -- so perhaps it is warranted. It won't be free, though.

Trump Hotel & Resort: Gaza

I was definitely not expecting the concept of the US taking over and developing a resort complex in the Gaza strip. 

Removing the people from Gaza, that I was expecting. That's the obvious solution to ending what the President called "the death, the destruction, and frankly bad luck" arising from the combination of history, distrust, and the poisonous Revolutionary Marxist political culture that was trained into Palestine for generations. Getting the world to agree to it, especially the host country for these new citizens, that's very hard -- but it is the obvious way to proceed, and frankly almost certainly to the benefit of the Palestinians of Gaza in the long run. It's ugly and the sort of ethnic cleansing that international diplomats claim to oppose (but that they don't seem too opposed to in Xinjiang). It's what happened in Syria, though, without the same level of protest from the diplomats of the world. 

Turning it into a resort community, that I was expecting. It's beachfront property on the Mediterranean Sea. Once you had cleared it out (and removed all the mines and bombs and other explosives), a resort community was the obvious usage. 

The US taking it over and turning it into a new International Zone of hotels and resorts, that's the part I never saw coming. Probably I should have, given who the President is and where his mind goes. And there is precedent for it -- Jerusalem's Old City is itself divided into quarters, two of which (the Christian and the Armenian Quarter) are led and governed by international organizations including the Catholic and Orthodox churches, as well as the Armenian Christian churches. They're fairly pleasant places to visit, by the way. The Armenian Mass is beautiful even though I don't understand the language at all; and the Franciscans who run the Catholic Mass do it in Latin, which is quite an experience sitting in Jerusalem. There are some fine hotels and restaurants that have grown up there to serve the wealthier pilgrims, and in spite of the nearby Muslim Quarter there is very little terrorism. 

Now if it were me, the last thing on earth I might do is insert the US and especially the US military into the middle of this nightmare. I'm not in charge, though. I would tend to advise staying a long way from Gaza as a general thing if anyone is interested in my opinion on the subject. Get private funding for this project, from the hotels or resorts or whatever; have them hire private security forces, deputized by Israel or something. It's not a wholly implausible idea. I just wouldn't want any part of it.

Anabasis IV: The Great Battle

In ancient times the region Cyrus has been traveling through, which is part of Anbar Province today, was called Arabia. Now that he has come into the region that is now Baghdad -- that city was not founded until the Islamic age -- it is known as Babylonia. Babylon itself is quite a bit further south, near the city of Hillah, Iraq. It is in this area of Mesopotamia where Baghdad now stands, at the time a place of villages and farms, that the Battle of Cunaxa ends up happening.

Cyrus believes he is closing on where his brother will meet him, so he holds a midnight muster to order and review his army. He places his Greek mercenaries on the army's right, anchored by the Euphrates. This is an interesting tactical decision. It gives his army an unbreakable core, as the Persian forces have nothing that can crack the Greek hoplites. The river protects them from being enveloped. His own forces in the center end up serving chiefly to cover the flank and rear of the Greek unit, so that as it successfully advances through its opponents it cannot be surrounded from behind.

Yet in doing this he ends up not placing them where they can fight the strongest and most central units of the King's army. He ends up in the center himself with his cavalry, to cover the Greek rear but also to strike as a cavalry reserve if weak points appear. To his left he puts his native troops.

They sleep in position and begin at dawn their advance. The Persian king chooses the stratagem of retreating before them for several days. This leads them to believe that he is choosing not to fight, and thus their army grows increasingly poor at keeping the discipline of their positions. Thus, when on the third day he turns and comes upon them strongly, they are not in order and scramble to get into place.

Cyrus realizes that his best card is not going to be very useful against his brother because it is on the right instead of in the center. He tries to reorder his forces but the Greek mercenary commander, Clearchus, refuses to attempt the ordered maneuver given that it would expose his flanks. Thus, the battle commences as described above. 

The Greeks meet no effective resistance, and exactly as expected press through the Persian army -- which is vastly, vastly larger but not coherent -- until their rear is in danger of being exposed. Cyrus defends their rear with his cavalry until he realizes that he has come close to where the King of Persia actually is, in the center of the Persian formation. Seeing that, he takes his own picked men -- his 'table companions' -- and tries to kill the King.

Cyrus' charge leads to a personal combat between himself and the King, whom Cyrus wounds through his breastplate. However, one of the King's companions kills Cyrus with a javelin through the face. (This Persian is not named at this time, but was one Mithridates who was reportedly later executed for it as he had stolen the honor of the King's kill.)  Cyrus' death leads to the defense of his body by his table companions, who all die in place. The Persians then pass into the camp and plunder all the baggage, leaving the remnants of Cyrus' army without supplies. Only then do they return to the Greek hoplites, who were coming back from a very successful day (so they thought).

When the Greeks meet the King and his reunited forces, they once again drive them with great success. The King's forces retreat before them, unable to resist the hoplite advance. Eventually the Greeks allow the retreat -- they are infantry after all, and have been fighting all day without food -- and return to their camp only to find it plundered. There is no supper to be had. 

And there has been no word from Cyrus. They are completely cut off from command, without clear intelligence about the battle, and hungry. 

Xenophon includes a touching brief biography of Cyrus, whom he apparently admired and considered a genuinely just and good man. Cyrus has the heroic virtues: courage, of course -- he once killed a she-bear in personal combat -- but also love of horses, great generosity, such honor that his word once given was thought completely reliable, and the ability to issue punishments to criminals with great firmness. One would regularly see on the bigger roads in his domain, Xenophon relates, men with amputated hands or feet: and therefore, he tells us, one could travel wherever one liked in Cyrus' domain with anything one choose to take without fear. Maimonides uses a similar argument as a proof of the existence of God; Genghis Khan's reign was reputedly also a place where 'a virgin dressed only in gold jewelry' could travel wherever she liked without fear of being troubled. Xenophon thought that Cyrus was a very good and virtuous man and, in the same way Aristotle would describe a generation later, therefore a good leader. The Greeks were there as his mercenaries, but they fought for him not only for gold but also because they thought he was worth fighting for. 

Dean’s List

My son absolutely astonished me today by bringing home a letter from his Dean. He had a really tough start to college due to COVID disrupting his Senior Year in High School and his Freshman year in college. He has taken to these Emergency Management studies, though. I’m proud of him. 

"Defending Democracy Together"

A big story this morning is that Bill Kristol has been outed as the recipient of millions of dollars of USAID (closed as of this morning!) and State Department money, laundered through the Rockfeller Philanthropy Advisors foundation. 

A part of this story nobody has yet mentioned that I've seen is that the particular focus of the Kristol entity is anti-Trump politics. This is the US government (in)directly funding political operations against a disfavored political party/candidate.

Back before Trump came into power, Kristol was headlining a conference on American and Israeli Nationalism. Shockingly given his remarks on the subject since Trump became a leading figure, he was at the time a huge proponent of American Nationalism -- the conference was called "The Case for Nationalism" and he was the leading exponent of the American version. Once Trump came on the scene, he discovered that there was a lot more money to be made opposing the principle he had once intensely advocated. We knew, therefore, that he was not genuinely principled. 

But this rises above the level of scandal. This is money laundering US taxpayer funds into an active effort to inveigh against the election of a particular candidate in our internal elections. It is almost certainly illegal. Especially insofar as USAID's budget is informed by input from a certain intelligence agency, it is explicitly illegal for them to engage in information operations within the United States for the purposes of influencing American citizens. Even to the degree that influence cannot be shown in court, the administrative state funding efforts to sway voters on a partisan basis is going to violate who knows how many campaign finance laws. 

Anabasis III

Before we reach the great battle at Cunaxa, which is where modern Baghdad stands, some internal tensions start to appear. The army's core is of natures, Greek mercenaries and Persians who have some reason to be loyal to Cyrus (and therefore, because of the tight family relation, also some reasons to be loyal to his brother the Great King). It is noteworthy that the tensions erupt within the ethnic groups, and that it is the presence of both groups together that allows for them to be resolved. Diversity, in this case, is their strength.

Clearchus and Menon are two of the Greek mercenary captains, each of their own band. They quarrel, and a third of the captains -- Proxenus -- steps in to try to stop it, which further enrages Clearchus (who felt he was unduly offended by Menon's troops). Cyrus comes between them, and his argument that brings peace is this: "If you don't stop fighting right now, all these Persians 'friends' around us will kill us all." Cyrus is himself Persian, indeed a very Prince of Persia, a satrap, and a man to whom all these men have sworn bonds of friendship and loyalty. Nevertheless he knows that they will turn their knives on him if he loses the security of a united Greek bodyguard. The Greeks grasp and believe in his argument, and return to sensible behavior. 

A very young Grim at COP Dragon on the Euphrates during the Sunni Awakening.

We were in much the same position with our 'allies' in Iraq. They were working with us because the US forces were much stronger than anyone around them. They had bonds of friendship and loyalty with us, sealed with dinners and presents and payments of cash; also they had bonds with the enemies around us. If we had seemed to fall into weakness, as through disputes with each other, they would immediately realize that they were going to be killed by our enemies once we were too weak to support them. Each would have wanted to be the first to turn on us, in order to tell our enemies -- also their relatives or co-religionists -- that they were the ones who had done us in and removed us as a problem.

The Sunni tribal leaders we were working with often had the most to fear from their own minor cousins or outlying uncles. Those might advance themselves by treasonously reaching out to those contacts they had with relatives, friends, and our enemies -- and then acting at a moment of weakness to replace the traditional sheikhs or other leaders. The apparent friendship and peace was bought by strength, but they were always pulled in both directions by their pre-existing ties. If the facts on the ground changed, the pull in the other direction could instantly become too strong.

Later Cyrus and his army find that an enemy band ahead of them of about 2,000 cavalry is burning the land to make sure there is nothing to feed their army. One of Cyrus' allies, a fellow Persian, proposes to take some cavalry and go round them up. Cyrus approves this, but the traitor instead sends a messenger ahead to warn the Great King of the maneuver. The messenger further betrays his lord and brings the message to Cyrus. A council is called, with the Persians all present and the Greeks as well, and a death sentence is pronounced on the Persian traitor. Both the Greeks and the Persians unanimously proclaim his death, the Greeks providing an excuse for his relatives to agree. 

I would also like to draw attention to one moment of genuine excellence about the Persian conduct on this march. Herodotus says a lot in praise of the Persians, Greece's traditional enemies, and Xenophon observes at least one thing that really merits the same sort of praise. 

...once they found themselves involved in a narrow way, where the deep clay presented an obstacle to the progress of the wagons. Cyrus, with the nobles about him, halted to superintend the operation, and ordered Glus and Pigres to take a body of barbarians and to help in extricating the wagons. As they seemed to be slow about the business, he turned round angrily to the Persian nobles and bade them lend a hand to force the wagons out. 

Then, if ever... good discipline was to be witnessed. Each of those addressed, just where he chanced to be standing, threw off his purple cloak, and flung himself into the work with as much eagerness as if it had been a charge for victory. Down a steep hill side they flew, with their costly tunics and embroidered trousers--some with the circlets round their necks, and bracelets on their arms--in an instant, they had sprung into the miry clay, and in less time than one could have conceived, they had landed the wagons safe on terra firma.

Herodotus claimed that the Persian nobility was raised from youth only to do three things: "to ride, shoot straight, and speak the truth." That common discipline in the face of company hardship is exactly what you would expect of men like that.  

The Feast of Saint Brigid

A very welcome feast.

Today is the feast day of St. Brigid, which also marks the end of my beer fast through Dry January. I may have to reschedule the dry month for a less tiresome season in the future. Today as on other years, though, it is a festive day here. 

I did get a motorcycle ride today as hoped, too. Leaving behind a miserable January of intense cold, sickness, and sobriety is very welcome. To your health!

Impoundment

So for the last week I've been thinking that a lot of these moves we've seen have been about trying to push a court fight on the impoundment power. Today the Washington Post affirms that a document claiming that intent exists, although the Trump team denies writing it. 

The presentation, obtained by The Washington Post and other news outlets, outlines in new detail how the White House could revive an obscure and controversial power known as impoundment, potentially allowing Trump to cancel federal funds as he sees fit.

Under a law enacted in the aftermath of the Watergate scandal, the president may invoke that authority only in limited cases with clear notice to Congress. But the slide deck suggests Trump officials may seek to trigger a court case that could declare that law unconstitutional, ultimately enabling Trump to reduce or eliminate entire funding categories on his own.

If there is to be any chance of saving the United States from the debt default that is otherwise coming on down the tracks like a freight train, Presidents will need to recover that power. Contra the Post, impoundment doesn't take away Congress' power of the purse -- only Congress can appropriate money, not Presidents. It does provide a check on that power, which Congress has been using ruinously for decades. Such checks and balances are a normal feature of the constitutional system. 

The Post also fails to note that this power was used first by Thomas Jefferson, and then by every president for over a century. It's the normal way our system has operated, in other words; it was cut off by statute as part of the fight against the hated Richard Nixon. The statute probably isn't constitutional, and certainly an originalist jurist will find much to support in an argument that the power was historically and widely used for a very long time.

Nor is this a terribly controversial thing to think: "Most recent presidents supported the restoration of the impoundment power, including Presidents Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and Donald Trump. Politicians such as John McCain, John Kerry, Al Gore, Pat Buchanan, Jeb Hensarling, Russ Feingold, Joe Lieberman, Judd Gregg and Paul Ryan also supported the restoration of the power."

It does suggest that the 'Anarcho-Capitalist' Argentina is behind these and also the personnel moves, which are designed to break the power of the administrative state and the spendthrift legislature so that the country can resume a sustainable financial course. Argentina is doing great, by the way.

Anabasis II

Cyrus has already crossed the Euphrates, wisely not leaving that for later as it grows quite wide further south. He puts the river on his army's right hand and begins a much more punishing march south. Because he was not resisted at the Gates of Syria by the army that fled before him, he knows that word will now be coming to his brother of his advance in force. Persia is a large empire, with its people spread out quite widely. Once word gets to his brother, the Great King will have to send riders out to summon aid from various places, and then that aid will have to come to him. Thus, the tempo of the march shifts from leisurely and with many rests to rapid; and Cyrus’ force, now concentrated instead of dispersed, moves together towards the coming battle. He hopes to force his brother to combat as early as possible, to prevent the opposing force from being any larger than can be helped.

This is all perfectly in accord with the best military science. We still teach young officers to 'disperse for movement, concentrate for attack.' In the first books Cyrus showed himself clever in his stratagems for raising and concealing a large army, and for getting past the structural roadblock of Cilicia. Now we see he is also possessed of a good tactical mind. He understands maneuver and he understands the logistics of the lines of communication. Xenophon understands them too, as clarified by some occasional remarks on why he thinks Cyrus did this or that.

The Euphrates from a pontoon bridge we stretched across it near Yusufiyah.

Although Cyrus had taken the trouble of purveying for some extra supplies, the forced march rapidly exhausts their stores of grain; what remains for sale in the civilian 'market' that is accompanying him is so inflated that the army has to start eating only meat. They attain this by hunting wild asses and large fowl native to the area -- I did not observe any of these birds, nor the ostriches he mentions, during my time there -- but probably also by eating many of the pack animals that they mention losing. 

They move through what would today be Anbar province in Iraq. Many of the ancient place names are disputed, and it is not clear even to our scholars exactly where some of these cities were. The city of Charmande is not otherwise attested; some scholars think it was Anah, Iraq. The country they are moving through is spare of food in spite of the Euphrates; only once it approaches the Tigris does the effect of the two rivers render the land lush. 

Oranges on the Euphrates, March 2008

However his description of the smells of the country does remind me of my own time on the Euphrates. These days the smell is mostly from the orange groves that grow along the river. I also remember it as a country filled with sweet-smelling bushes, quiet except for the noise of the moving army, full of people who would probably have preferred to be left alone but who were usually friendly to the heavily-armed men moving among them (as one might wisely be). Strange to think that this scene has been repeating itself in their neighborhood for at least two and a half thousand years, and probably twice so long.

Anabasis I

The first four chapters of Book I of the Anabasis detail the development of Cyrus' determination to wage war against his brother Artaxerxes The Great King of Persia, the assembling of his army from many pieces gathered in secret, and its passage and assembly on a fairly leisurely march to the Euphrates river. At the time of their father's death, Cyrus was satrap in the west of the Persian lands, which are cut off by a kingdom called Cilicia, which is close to modern day Armenia (and indeed there would later be an Armenian kingdom by that name). Here's a better map to understand the problem Cyrus faces in getting his forces around Cilicia. The king of Cilicia also holds the rank of satrap, and is placed there kind of to keep an eye on the younger brother Cyrus, whom The Great King had initially tried to just kill at the time their father died; only his mother's intervention saved Cyrus and got him this solution. To win the surprise attack he needs, Cyrus has to make this maneuver through territory held by his watchdog without alerting his brother. 

Cyrus draws his army from multifarious sources and some clever stratagems that make it seem as if he is dutifully quelling several problems at once on the western frontier, all the while sending the proper tribute to his elder brother. As a result, he is able to assemble a substantial force of more than ten thousand hoplites, the elite heavy infantry of the Greek world, as well as certain supporting light infantry called peltasts. He invites the Queen of Cilicia to join him and, in the manner of a Bene Gesserit, she comes and convinces him to put on a display and revue of the army so she can take its full measure; she also, likewise in that same manner, sleeps with him. 

He moves them a little out of his most direct route to maintain the pretense that he is doing one of those dutiful quellings, such that there is very little violence in this first stage. He sends the Queen home with a unit of his men, two companies of whom -- a hundred hoplites -- are lost somewhat mysteriously.  As a consequence Tarsus -- yes of St. Paul fame, but currently the headquarters of the King of Cilicia -- does get sacked by the remaining force out of a sense of anger at their lost comrades. By the time Cyrus arrives, the king has withdrawn to a fortress; they meet and exchange a very large ransom (to Cyrus) for a set of 'honor gifts' (fine robes and golden fittings for horses, that sort of thing). Cyrus uses this and other monies to convince his mercenaries, who still haven't been told they are going to take on the Great King, to push on into Syria to the Euphrates.

You might ask about supply lines. Cyrus has been planning for this for some time, and he has his fleet meet him at a pair of twin fortresses in mutual opposition called the Gates of Syria. There are also merchants whose business model is to follow mercenary armies like this; soldiers, well paid and especially these by the time Cyrus is done bribing them, are expected usually to buy their own food and whatnot. However, Cyrus wants to push across the desert so he has made additional provision. 

A lot hinges on speed and surprise. Cyrus' force is chiefly made up of powerful units of infantry that can hold the ground against almost anything during the era; you will notice that the force that abandons its fortress and flees from them to warn the Great King has a reported 20-1 numerical advantage over them. Even so, better part of valor. That figure is probably inaccurate; the actual estimate of the big battle to come was roughly a 4-1 numerical advantage for the Persian Great King.

If you are reading the translation that I am, the translator dubiously chose to use 'miles' for the word representing distances, farsang. This is for the convenience of the reader, but the ancient term is interesting. The Greeks and Persians measure distances kind of like we Americans do, by using time. We say, "It's an hour and a half to the airport," which estimate does not deploy a unit of measure of distance at all. There's a rough equivalent because everyone was moving on foot, or usually a walking horse if traveling a long way; and most people in good shape who are used to it can get along about fifteen to twenty miles a day. That seems to be about the pace the army was moving on the way down to the Euphrates, although they take long rests in between stages -- days to as much as a month -- because they're pretending not to be advancing on the Great King and because it allows the army to assemble across several routes. Thus, the size of the force is concealed until its final assembly.

At the crossing of the Euphrates, Cyrus finally has to admit to his men that he's leading them against the Great King of Persia. They did not sign up for this, and are predictably upset. He has prepared a convincing argument, however, at least from the mercenary's perspective: about four months' pay as a bonus per man, in addition to their regular wages. On consideration, they elect to go with him. 

In the next section we will enter into what is present day Iraq, along the river Euphrates where I spent quite a bit of time myself.

Heady Days

A friend of mine just forwarded me a copy of that email sent to Federal employees. It's stunning reading. I'll give you one bit of it to get your heart going: 

If you choose to remain in your current position, we thank you for your renewed focus on serving the American people to the best of your abilities and look forward to working together as part of an improved federal workforce. At this time, we cannot give you full assurance regarding the certainty of your position or agency but....

Emphasis added. Now you're talking.

Thoughts on the burgeoning revolution are everywhere. I don't think I'll try to add to them, not for now.

UPDATE: The 'office of gun violence prevention' is already gone.

The Year of the Snake

Today is the Lunar New Year. You can read about the zodiac system here. My wife and I were in China for the start of the Year of the Snake some 24 years ago today. It’s a highly festive occasion, the Lunar New Year. 

Fritz Leiber adopted “the Year of the [Animal]” for his fantasy world Nehwon, but he didn’t spell it all the way out.  Unlike Tolkien who would write volumes of backstory and create whole languages, Leiber preferred the illusion of depth. Each approach has its advantages, but Leiber’s was decidedly easier. Fantastic stories all the same. 

Heroic Literature and the Flu

I've been fighting the flu for a few days. For some reason, the experience made me realize a key difference between Arthurian and most other heroic fictions. If you read Robert E. Howard, for example, you will find his heroes suffering wounds, being enslaved, being thrown into dungeons to die, even being crucified; but they don't seem to get sick or suffer long periods of weakness from injury. 

Sir Thomas Malory's knights, by contrast, very often undergo periods of severe injury or illness that cause them to lose their prowess for a time. The story of Elaine of Astolat is driven by Lancelot getting seriously injured and needing to spend time in her care in order to recover. Often knights who are injured are cared for by religious men who were themselves formerly knights. It is a more complete picture of what a life of risk and hardship entails, and identifies ways in which good things can come out of such periods. (In Elaine's case, a very good thing might have happened if only Lancelot had not been so set upon Guinevere; instead it is of course a tragedy.) 

Often I have mused on how non-Arthurian fairy tales are very good models for how to live life up until adulthood; once you have married, you're just supposed to live 'happily ever after.' (Chesterton thought so too; two chapters of Orthodoxy are on the subject of fairy stories as a model for life.) Only the Arthurian stories seem to provide much help for those who aren't still coming of age, but are grown men expected to deal with the hardships and temptations of life. 

Hopefully I'll be mostly better in another day or two. Once I am, I'm hoping to start the winter reading/commentary that we usually do here. I think this year I will not do a philosophical work but one allied to philosophy: Xenophon's Anabasis, a heroic story that involves quite a bit of hardship and suffering. Xenophon was an Athenian who didn't really get along with the leadership of Athens, partly because of his friendship with Socrates, and partly because he preferred Sparta's ideals and ways. Anabasis is the story of his leadership of a group of Greek mercenaries, "The Ten Thousand," as they survive a losing battle in Persia and then have to walk all the way back to Greece. 

If any of you wish to join me, I'll hopefully be starting that series soon. (UPDATE: I will be reading the Rex Warner translation, because I have it on hand. The Gutenberg translation is by E. J. Chinnock. I doubt the differences will be major, but if we run into anything confusing the Greek is available to check which translation was most accurate.)

A young death

My young nephew, not quite 40, died suddenly this week. It was a shock and yet not completely unexpected, given the complicated state of his mental and physical health. He was struck down savagely by bipolar disease at the age of 18, a blow that was followed by some of the predictable physical catastrophes that strike people given to passing out in snowdrifts, as well as bolts from the blue like cancer. At his memorial service this Saturday in Philadelphia, I will read (or have someone read for me) this elegy:

I have an affectionate but long-distance perspective to offer on our departed loved one, Luke.

He would call or text occasionally, to offer a cheerful greeting or update, or sometimes to ask very simply and directly for help. I was never present for the crisis times and can only imagine how devastating they were. The picture his life presented to me was of a young man whose life was upended by illness, and who tried diligently for 20 years to build a nest in a hurricane. He never gave up his search for a loving home and meaningful work, and what more does any of us ever want?

God rest you, my young nephew: your illness and trouble are over now.

Bounty Hunting

You've got to set priorities in this kind of work. Is it really worth it?

It's not. I did it for a while in Savannah going on thirty years ago, and it was not at all worth it.

I do have a friend who is a bounty hunter currently though. She's the wife of the guy I go to for motorcycle repairs when it's more than I can handle. Locally the bounty hunting is run through the school board(!). It's a little complicated, but somehow bail bonds turned out to be a worthwhile investment for them. 

Happy Songs

James linked a piece by Sippican Cottage on happy songs. (Thanks to Tex, I knew of them from the Borderline Sociopathic Blog for Boys). He warns that "The possibility of a thousand-way tie is more likely than a Top Ten list."

Fair enough! But it strikes me as odd that there are no bluegrass songs on the list. It's the happiest music of all!

Well, as long as you don't pay close attention to the words.

Simplicity in Cooking

I gather from our fantasy movies that are roughly Medieval in setting that people think the Medievals were inclined to nothing but roasted meat -- spiced with salt if anything -- bread and beer. Fancy people preferred wine, but otherwise just ate better versions of the same thing: salt and pepper, white bread instead of brown. It was a simple time, rustic and basic.

Yet in fact: 

...it is certainly quite odd by modern culinary lights to cook a capon in red wine, cut it up, and then fry the pieces before serving them with the cooking broth reduced to a sauce flavored with spices, thickened with the liver and white meat pounded into a paste and with powdered almonds. Like other similar dishes, this one (Brouet of Capon, recipe 35) is a harmonious composition, where the flavor and texture of the meat itself are mingled with the aroma and savor of a vivid sauce, making a unified impression as the dish gives the tongue a momentary surprise with its supple crispness.... We confess that we have lost both the desire for such culinary intricacy and the very notion of it, and that it is no longer of interest. Yet as historians... it is our job to highlight the gap between today's gastronomic system and that which informed medieval culinary practices. 

-Redon, Sabban & Serventi, trans. Edward Schneider, The Medieval Kitchen: Recipes from France and Italy (Chicago & London: University of Chicago Press, 1998), 22.

The use of advanced pre-cooking techniques to create flavor and differentiate texture is not wholly lost. When describing how to create a venison braise, for example, I advised browning the meat, then the vegetables in the grease used to brown the meat, then assembling them together and braising them to get a richer flavor than you would get from just putting it all in the pot with liquid alone. There are still some modern recipes with pre-cooking stages, some of which use fire as did the Medieval ones.

It is much less common, though. We tend to give our recipes variety by changing the ingredients instead: for lunch we will have venison, last night roast beef, perhaps chicken for dinner. At a time when there was less variety of ingredients and more time to devote to the exercise of cooking in the kitchen, these more sophisticated approaches made more sense. 

In any case our ancestors were much different from how we often imagine them as a culture. They were smarter, more sophisticated, and rather wiser than we often give them credit for having been. 

Shuttering FEMA

In NC, our new President suggests shuttering FEMA and just sending money to the states as necessary. 

That's only a very slight change from what is done now. For the most part, local responders are the front line -- we were the ones out the morning of Helene and for weeks afterwards -- with the state stepping in to provide support that the local organizations don't have. (For example, we have Swiftwater teams and rescuers -- I am one myself -- but the state has Swiftwater teams that have more equipment than we do locally, especially including boats.) The State governor declares a state of emergency, and that opens up a big funding window for local responders as well as increased ability for the National Guard to support us. FEMA's chief role is to coordinate providing additional Federal funding, and occasionally to provide personnel that mostly help fill out forms and verify the details so that money can flow. 

Their direct aid provision role is quite limited; I never once saw a FEMA employee doing anything, although I've heard there were some teams triaged to other areas. Other states, though, will also send resources across state borders to help (as in California now, where fire departments have deployed strike teams from as far away as, yes, North Carolina in support of local crews).

In general I'm always in favor of closing down parts of the Federal government, or government in general. Making things voluntary whenever we can, privatizing when we can't rely on volunteer resources alone, localizing when we can't privatize, driving things down to the lowest possible level is always what I like to see. Therefore, instinctively I like this idea.

It would require some combination of cutting red tape on all those forms and verification processes, and/or funding state/local employees to do the same stuff where tape can't get cut.