Chapomatic

Lawrence Wright identifies a split in the hirabist ideology, in a three part Guardian essay that I’m in the middle of reading.

Turns out that a particular class of doctors in one Egyptian university were disproportionately influential. I also just finished the excellent book The Siege Of Mecca, which describes how a group of people heterodyned themselves into believing their violent actions would bring a Sunni Mahdi, and this stuff is pretty thought-provoking.

Particularly if one is used to seeing people move warships to confront the bad guys.

You know, I keep referring back to articles in den Beste’s Essential Library, though the links are old and the blog is long gone. Most of the time, it’s to print out a reference for someone who’s just beginning to think about the concepts in, say, Walter Russell Mead’s characterization of traditions. Returning to that page is a worthy thought exercise: Which ideas didn’t pan out? Which ones are resonating more? Which ones are more and less relevant, and which authors shot their bolt and have nothing new to say?

One of these years I need to build something like den Beste’s resource for my ownself.

A while back I heard the Constitution’s split on warmaking authorities as an ‘invitation to struggle’ between the branches. That sounds about right…and it’s been going on since we’ve had a republic. Good description over at the Castle.

One O-6, new brown card equivalent in hand, whacks another one. It ain’t pretty.

I guess I had better look into this hip new thing the cool kids are doing.

Now this is a Fourth celebration right here.

Greyhawk has a good point about Bud Day. Some of my friends more in sympathy to different politics think that ’swiftboating’ means something it didn’t.

Two days after John Adams thought the celebrations would be–he didn’t think the signing day was the day. This night, the printer’s shop is pulling a frenzied all nighter, trying to print copies of broadsides with words on them that would change the world.

The king won’t know it for a while–his diary says nothing of interest happened 4 July for him, and he was very wrong. Yet to go is war and penury and pain and struggle, costly but worth it.

Condolences to TPM blogger Brian Beutler and his family. Beutler was reported as shot during a mugging and is in the hospital.

Good Lord, woman! Over forty-two thousand comments on one post?

I’ve followed the discussion on torture, specifically what it is and isn’t, and interrogation, specifically what it should be and shouldn’t be, since I met those Vietnam-era prisoners of war on video in boot camp long ago.

Several young men and women of my current acquaintance go to SERE school soon enough. They’ll have to deal with some of this. Perhaps I may have to at some point. I’ve not had the, uh, ‘pleasure’ yet, as submariners tend to die with company rather than get captured alone. I’d like to avoid such things, but not at the expense of being unprepared in the event–if it’s my job to do so, I’ll go and life will suck for a while.

All of this is long prologue to an outstanding ‘read the whole thing’ by Christopher Hitchens, who decided to get waterboarded. I thought long and hard about my own position on the subject he discusses, and this article is the first one I’ve seen in a long time that is a sufficient impetus for me to think over my own positions. I may or may not come to the same conclusions as him, but I agree with him that serious discussion with integrity is essential to discussing actions gray, and black-and-white, simultaneously.

I have had some extremely serious conversations on the topic, with two groups of highly decent and serious men, and I think that both cases have to be stated at their strongest.

Worth a read, people.

Every morning these days while I work before going to work, I put a few more CDs into the computer so I can eventually digitize the collection for potential trips to deserty areas. Being lazy but picky I do a quick Google to find the covers of these CDs and wind up finding the oddest web pages, from whence comes this mix tape. I remember hearing these songs, but that was when I was enlisted, not in college. I would have picked some different songs, even from the same albums, but it does evoke the noise coming from the barracks room down the hallway.

But there aren’t anywhere near enough people to have had a trend of “Petty Officer Rock”, so college rock it is.

Isn’t this the guy who got elected with a campaign that involved waving his son’s combat boots around in front of a crowd?

Now this is educational. I was all following the emotional line offered by this post, particularly since I read the blog in question every once in a while, and then I read the first couple of comments.

Perhaps things aren’t quite as advertised.

(After Mush Morton didn’t come back from a WWII submarine patrol, the force instituted a rule about sitting a guy’s butt in a desk after so much operational time to keep the guy from killing himself and his boat in a blaze of glory. It can be a useful, though difficult, rule.)

Arty type takes kids’ art and builds mises en scene based on the kidpix. Veddy interesting. I particularly like the embroidery on the dresses on the two ladies (”princes twins”); it’s very little-kid style and I wonder why I’ve never seen something like that before.

-h/t b3ta-

Huh. Detailer fu.

Place I thought I was going? Ain’t gonna happen. I started pulling the string–something seemed wrong about it, and indeed something was; the timing couldn’t work. I found out after I started following where the string went. Bad news sometimes requires a little digging to reveal.

So now I have some new options to ponder for the next job. Not much leeway, not much information on which to base a decision. One of the options is perfect for a guy like me: goes somewhere I wouldn’t mind being, doing something interesting, possible benefit that would match a long term personal goal. Problem is, it ain’t very dern close to Iraq or Afghanistan, or close to anything operational, and it’s not time for such a billet.

So instead I am looking at an unaccompanied billet in one of several locations, at least one of which really bothers me in terms of where it is, and still not exactly what I’m looking for.

I hope I’m skipping the cushy job for a dern good reason…

This is beautiful. I wish I were able to have seen it in person.

I like this quote in an article:

Ibn Khaldun sees the historical process as one of constant cyclical change, due mainly to the interaction of two groups, nomads and townspeople. These form the two poles of his mental map; peasants are in between, supplying the towns with food and tax revenue and taking handicrafts in return. Nomads are rough, savage and uncultured, and their presence is always inimical to civilization; however, they are hardy, frugal, uncorrupted in morals, freedom-loving and self-reliant, and so make excellent fighters. In addition, they have a strong sense of ‘asabiya, which can be translated as “group cohesion” or “social solidarity.” This greatly enhances their military potential. Towns, by contrast, are the seats of the crafts, the sciences, the arts, and culture. Yet luxury corrupts them, and as a result they become a liability to the state, like women and children who need to be protected. Solidarity is completely relaxed and the arts of defending oneself and of attacking the enemy are forgotten, so they are no match for conquering nomads.

Swiped from FastNav, some poetry.

Alright. Swiped an example from her jewelry bag to get the right size. Now I need to find a ring shop that takes me seriously, despite my terrorist mutton-chops, baggy plaid shorts, and plain white tee. And no, I don’t speak a lick of Italian. This should be interesting.

It was.

Kaboom getting married?

Yeah, we tend to suck these days at buying new stuff.

Oh, and related to the last post. This.

Yup, it’s like that.