Timing Error

3000 Words

Back to work. I've got to cobble together a paper on the Democratic Peace Theory, Kant and the Yom Kippur War. By next Sunday.

Good thing I did the bibliography first.

Here's Catherine Deveneu in that Louis Vuitton ad linked earlier.

Megachurches and the Political Economy

I grew up leery of large churches. I figured once a church hit about 600 people, it out to split, with half getting the building and grounds and the other half getting the cash.

Megachurches/Megacorps in the NYT.

Bottoms Up

Kaplan:

It is such traditional loyalties existing below the level of the state that historically both Marxist and liberal intellectuals, in their efforts to remake societies after Soviet and Western democratic models, tragically underestimated. A realist like St. Augustine, in his City of God, understood that tribes, based on the narrow bonds of kinship and ethnicity rather than on any universalist longing, may not constitute the highest good; but by contributing to social cohesion, tribes nevertheless constitute a good in and of themselves. Quelling anarchy means starting with clans and tribes, and building upwards from those granular elements.

Historians will likely attribute the success of the surge to autonomizing the bottom and marginalizing the top. To the extent the GOI is like a giant elephant with it brains (B'aath/Saddam) shot out, you're not going to get much from them.

Autonomize the bottom.

Kindling my interests....

OK. This is my last post on Kindle, which I am not going to buy (right?).

Crossthinking this article from Opinion Journal:The Eagles team up with Wal-Mart.

The first new album from the Eagles in over a decade, "Long Road Out of Eden," has already sold more than a million copies, hitting Billboard's #1 in its first week. It's the kind of blockbuster that used to pay Christmas bonuses at the big record companies, only this album wasn't produced by a big record company. The Eagles released it themselves and are selling it exclusively through Wal-Mart.

So, [Insert your favorite author] EDVOd onto your Kindle? Not bad.

Sprouts call your office

Interesting article in the New York Times Magazine (hands down the best part of the NYT Hegemon, at least for a news junkie):

Increasingly, terrorism analysts have focused on the importance of social milieu. Some stress that terrorists are not simply loners, overcome by a militant cause. They are more likely to radicalize together with others who share the same passions and afflictions and daily routines. As the story of Jamaa Mezuak suggests, the turn to violence is seldom made alone. Terrorists don’t simply die for a cause, Scott Atran, an anthropologist who studies terrorism, told me. “They die for each other.”

Seems like a fundamental human dynamic.

Sounds familiar

"On the Shiite side, the decline in violence against Sunnis comes mainly from a cease-fire by Moktada Al-Sadr, the Shiite cleric, which began after a scandalous bit of violence involving his militia in one of Iraqi’s holiest Shiite cities."

Bruised Orange

Reminds me of how Secretary Gorbachev 'ended the Cold War'.

Economics of Kindle

Nope. Can't afford it.

Leave aside the base price and well the 1990s form/function. They want about two dollars a blog. Instapundits a favorite blog of mines, but I get it for free. I have something like two hundred rss feed I monitor. Do the math. Something like a flat fee ($9.95) for say 250 blogs would be more palatable.

On the other hand, if I could have D/Led Fleet of Worlds, .pdf and port, Amazon would have had an immediate sale.

As it is, I'll just wander around the internet until I remember to buy the book (Larry Niven's Known Space books are always something I go for).

I wish Amazon luck, but Kindle? I don't see it happening. Not this iteration.

Glad to be living now...

...instead of in the Land of the Lost:

Paleontologists discovered a giant fossilized claw that once belonged to an 2.5 meter (8 foot) long sea scorpion.

On the other hand, some butter, a little garlic? Who knows.

The computer ate my homework

Seriously. Spent about four hours writing my assignment in textpad and the damn thing ate everything. Managed to recover most of it by switching over to microsoft and using wordpad to recover the doc, but it ends up looking like this:

_C_o_n_s_i_s_t_e_n_t_ _w_i_t_h_ _J_u_s_t_ _W_a_r_ _t_h_e_o_r_y_ _a_n_d_ _i_t_s_ _r_e_p_u_b_l_i_c_a_n_ _n_a_t_u_r_e_,_ _t_h_e_ _e_s_s_e_n_t_i_a_l_ _a_c_t_o_r_ _h_a_s_ _a_l_r_e_a_d_y_ _i_n_i_t_i_a_t_e_d_ _d_e_b_a_t_e_ _o_n_ _t_h_e_ _i_s_s_u_e_ _o_f_ _I_r_a_n_._ _H_o_w_e_v_e_r_,_ _t_h_e_ _e_m_o_t_i_o_n_a_l_l_y_ _d_i_s_t_o_r_t_i_n_g_ _i_s_s_u_e_ _o_f_ _I_r_a_q_ _c_o_n_t_i_n_u_e_s_ _t_o_ _m_a_s_k_ _t_h_a_t_ _d_e_b_a_t_e_ _f_r_o_m_ _a_ _b_r_o_a_d_e_r_ _v_i_e_w_._
_

Print. Retype. Bitch then moan.

UPDATE: It took a couple of days, but the solution was simple. Use Find/Replace. Find the 'underscores' and replace with null. Got a document I could use, and saved myself hours of retyping. Ooh Rah.

Conversations with History

Harry Kreisler interviews some of the leading lights in the field of International Relations.

My professor has us watch them to highlights points in IR Theory. That said, they're a pain to watch on google video.

Solution, download them with tubetv.

The innertoobs, not just for p0rn anymore (or, at least, recently).

The Venezuelan Petri Dish

“The comandante should have more power because he is the force behind our revolution,”

Because, you know, that always works out.

Chavez finishes squaring the triangle.

A colonial service in everything but name

Saying that, however, shoots you right in the foot.

Max Boot in the NYT.

Amazon Kindling

No thanks.

Price point to high, even with the EVDO. I'm an avid book reader, but when I curl up with a good book, well, I want a good book. A book reader needs interests me when I'm traveling or on the loo. But in both instances I need a unitary device, not a 'batman' tool-belt full of gadgets.

Keep trying, Mr. Bezos.

Oh, and I'll take that low cost spaceflight anytime now.

KTHXBAI.

A falling star

Saw a falling star, overnight. Nearly soiled my pants.

I have an abnormal fear of falling stars right now. That and cats with big, moist eyes.

I plan on growing past this fear; but right now, there it is.

Shedder

Amazing photo. (Thanks E. Gillet)

Like a pair of cantaloupe

SSG Bellavia writes:

"That settles it. I'm going back in.

You know things are not right with the world when you share a spiritual moment with a damn journalist. But there it is. Mick Ware and I are standing on the street, digesting the finality of the option we've just chosen."

CNN reporter Michael Ware comes off as a good egg. My takeaway? People aren't so bad when WE STOP YELLING AT EACH OTHER.

Michael Totten's made a sale, though. I've got to buy Bellavia's book.

Random Quote Generator:

If 2007 was the year of security, 2008 will be “a year of reconstruction, a year of infrastructure repair and a year of — if there is going to be a surge — a year of the surge of the economy”, General Joseph Fil, the US commander in Baghdad, said last week.

Ten foot pole and all that....

Nice discussion going on over in Scott Adams blog comments: "What if it [the Surge] Works".

In other news, I'm thinking about actually buying an X-Box, just to play Halo3. I got into Halo2 on a friends X-Box, and really enjoyed the game.

Here's a great link to the Halo 3 '90 second ad' on you tube:

Great video.

Migrant Farming

I think being a Warrior is like that. Got to go where the work is.

Air Force tripling down on the number of blue grunts in Iraq.

You go seeking funding with the War you have; not the War (with China) you wish you had.

I think a younger Samuel Huntington had some words for the Navy to that effect.

Lighthouses

I used to live with a girl who had this thing for lighthouses. Scattered them everywhere; drawings, models and the like.

I never tried to analyze that.

I'm sure she would have appreciated this post, from Deputy Dog:

"Predator"-like Camo

Over at Danger Room.

Hobbies and Work don't mix

I've always listed my hobbies as writing, reading and drawing.

Now my day job's reached the point where I'm doing a tremendous amount of writing and reading. I get home and start reading and writing for school.

Most of my drawing is done at work, during meetings.

I need new hobbies.

Can't wait

Until all this stuff is over. There are so many places I want to go, and so little time.

My Marrakesh:

H/T: Michael J. Totten

Raise the Voting Age to 45!

Seriously. I can wait.

So I'm in the laundry picking up my clothes, and a young gentleman comes in with one platter of diamond encrusted earring stuck to each ear.

The laundresses ask him how much the earrings cost. He said two thousand dollars a piece.

Four thousand dollars for carved, compressed carbon. Bling.

Geez.

Combat R.V.s

Live out an anarchic realm in style. Link.

Emergent A.I.s...

....The smackdown. I still maintain this worlds only big enough for one AI, pace de Chardin.

Eventually the googe and stormworm are going to have to settle things at twenty paces.

Unseen Dune

Some unique interpretations of the classic Dune:

(Man, I hate David Lynch)

Ho-Hum. New Planet

Boring. Now what was it we were discussing?

See Phil Smith for more art (particularly his 'elysium').

5,000 Words

That's how much I've written in the past week or so. In return I've received an "A", an "-A" and a couple of 'attaboys'.

And I've enjoyed every minute.

Couple of challenges from my boss and just noted the comment from Thomas P.M. Barnett below. Need to organize my thoughts.

But here's the funny thing. He mentions studying Modelski in grad school. In about week eight of my grad school course, I'll be studying Thomas P.M. Barnett (Discussion Question 4).

God, I love the internet.

Picture Time: Boothbabes

I'm basically booking this time waster under 'research'. Really.

>

Stream

Who's the leader of the band...

...that's made for you and me?

Explanation here.

Pulling up the drawbridge

Must be an institutional tick. Absolutely bizarre and rapidly aging piece by 'Sky Marshal' MG Dunlap, USAF:

Among other things, land forces can provide vital targeting information and also corral enemy forces into killing fields vulnerable to the air weapon. Ground forces employed in support of air campaigns can produce many synergies eminently in the interest of the nation. And, yes, the country also needs a large National Guard ground force for domestic emergencies and as a strategic reserve. To be clear, it is beyond question that America will always need a powerful ground component.

Interestingly enough, MG Dunlap casts the argument in Realist versus Liberal/Utopian with the Sky Marshals as Realists committed to power and interests and the the Grunts, like General Petreaus, as Liberal/Utopians committed to the maleability of human nature.

Hey, I should write that down.

Related: Global Spydrones

Modelski

I've got to dig up some of his work on JSTOR.

Bookmarking his homepage:Evolutionary World Politics Homepage.

Stray thought: I wonder to what extent Thomas P.M. Barnett is influenced by him.

“Fatherland, Socialism or Death!”

Watching the rise of President Chavez and the collapse of Venezuela in real time is surreal.

New York Times Magazine

The Excepted Service

Messing around with half a thought, here. Just booking for later.

Came about reading how the FSO's at State are upset about deploying to Iraq, and the choice words from AMB Crocker:

"That's, in my mind, simply a condition of service. You don't debate it, you don't argue over it. You're entitled to your own views, but... you're under an oath to serve, and people need to just go forward and do that."