FrigidMagi's Space

FrigidMagi's Space

| Next >

• Recently
• Last comments

Search

Categories

• All
• Heroes (4)
• Magi speaks (19)

Archives

• February 2008 (2)
• January 2008 (1)
• April 2007 (2)
• March 2007 (1)
• February 2007 (2)
• January 2007 (2)
• December 2006 (4)
• November 2006 (3)
• October 2006 (3)
• September 2006 (3)
• More...

Linkblog

Magi speaks

• Last night I typed out a long blog post that discussed a number of topics. Looking over it I decided it wasn't what I really wanted to say at this time. So let me instead say

  Merry Christmas,
  Goodwill towards all mankind,
  And to all a good night.

  Have a good one folks.

  
• A New Idea, big bangs in the head.

  Disclaimer: I have no clue what I'll do with this idea and I blame Adam and the web comic A Miracle of Science for this.

  Cries of Birth:

  The idea came about in a small scale. A pirate radio shock jock superstar who lives on a astaroid mining colony... Run by Libertains. Moderate ones but libs just the same. He doesn't smoke because it fucks up the air scrubbers, so he gets his kicks from an inhaler that gives him the same buzz. His show is a cross between Howard Stern and Radio Free Europe and he's as fucking popular as a naked supermodel working in a brothel. (Hey I told ya this was an adult blog get over it)

  The astaroid is a place where you can sell or buy anything for anything, the owners get their cut for providing you things like a place to stand and oxygen to breathe (hey it's space oxygen ain't free). It's main export is cheap heavy metals (everything from iron to uranium babe, we got a whole ring and no one else horning in!)and it's protected by rail guns. Don't fuck with them and you can get cheap metal fast. Fuck with them and you'll get metal a hell of a lot faster then you'd like.

  Why and Where?

  Okay, it sounds cool, admit it. It grabbed your interest and made you wonder what I put in my cheerios (milk and a bit of honey when I'm bored for the record) but now the tough questions, why is there a libertain colony in a floating rock selling metal and other things and why is a pirate radio superstar living there instead of a nice comfty planet? Let's begin.

  First off the parent soceity is very not libertain. I've made them socialist. Life in socialist land is good. It's comfty, relaxing, cozy and doesn't require all that much effort. There's no massive government oppression (there is a massive government and red tape) good social programs (and high taxes) and tolerence as far as the eye can see (for the PC feel good selections anyways). It's also mind numbing, slow and more smug then all the old church ladies in the American South on Sunday. Believe it or not, there's a good number of folk who want out of this little paradise. They head out to the boondocks.

  Life in the boondocks isn't safe, it isn't comfty, it isn't cozy and it's rather tense and requires alot of work. You can find Fuedist, Radical Republicians, Athenian Democrats, Stalinist Communists, Fascists, Hippies, Neocons, Islamist, Christianist, Hindu Nationalist and that could all be in a single star system. This is where people who aren't happy in the parent soceity come to try and be happy. The natives are unpredictable however, some of them might want to eat you and take your stuff (oh those wacky blood fetishist!)

  Okay now we know why there's a colony, we know how they came from and why they're here. But how the fuck did they get here and why isn't the parent soceity interfering?

  How did they get here?

  Let's face it oppression is alot of fucking work. You got to recruit, train and pay enforcers, decide what they're enforcing, find places to put your oppresses (be it a grave or a cell you still find a spot for it), etc, etc, etc. And oh Lord above the paper work! Why bother if you don't have an overriding idealogical/economic reason for it? Our socialist being closer to Sweden then to the USSR don't. Plus Spaceflight is actually semi-cheapish. So why oppress when you can dump? Let's have my fictional government explain it for me.

  Colonization Credits:

  Every citizen upon his/her majority as dicated by his/her relavent enthic/religious/political/familial group recieves a Basic Government Colonization Credit. You can increase your colonization credit by military/civil service, purchase of another citizen's colonization credit via Government Approved Contract 355# (see attached email 5#), education (see attached email 3#) or by incorporating with other colonist via Government Approved Contract 615# (attached email 4#).

  Your Basic Government Colonization Credit entitles you both transportation towards your selected end point and towards equipment purchases you may need to make to ensure your survival and comfort in your new home. Remember the redemation of your Basic Government Colonization Credit is also a denoucement of your citizenship, once you are on your finial end point no government branch of unit of said branch is legally mandated to render any aide, political, military, economical, or humantarian. Be sure to consider that fact when using your Basic Government Colonization Credit to equip yourself. A number of weapons are provided in your selection of equipment (see attached email 6#) it is strongly suggested you take advantage of offers to filimarize yourself with any weapon you purchase from Government Approved Vendors.

  End Email.

  ... Last time I let even fictional buercrats explain things for me. Holy Shit on a stick that was obtuse wasn't it? Let me try again.

  The Basic Government Colonization Credit is a way to ensure that even the poorest of the dissatified can leave when they want and nails the door shut behind them. Once you leave you're done and you ain't coming back. This makes sure that those who really hate living in this society have an out besides trying to change things. It also makes sure that they stay gone and have to make a finial choice. It's a combination release point and handy plance to dump embaressing trash.

  How this works is you are issued an BGCC on your arrival to offical adulthood, which can be at various ages from 16 to 25 depending on certain variables. You can expand it by serving the government, getting a education pooling it with others, or just buying someone else's BGCC. When/if you decide to cash it in, you are offical no longer a citizen. You are seperated from everyone you're leaving behind, made to pick your end point, your transport and your gear. You're given basic information (which may be out of date) and given a 6 month course on the operation and maintaining of your gear. At which you are packed away and shipped off.

  Leaving in a group is the saniest choice but not everyone is sane. That's perfectly fine, it's no longer the government's business when you decide to leave.

  The boondocks is the sections of space that lies outside of the main soceities territory. I decided to call it the boondocks because I'm sick and tired of "The Rim," the rim now refers to the fucking rim of the galaxy not the edge of known space. Tech is lower here, spaceships are insanly valueable, shooting one down is madness, unless it's in direct self defense. There are literally thousands of states, nations, communes, collectives, and so on here, some are very nice poeple, some are so-so, others are complete and total pyschopaths who think you would make a nice rug. For insurence reasons (no may shot down a spaceship here but stealing one is a different story!) the big trade lines and corps don't come here. Unless a planet in the main states control is raided/attacked/harressed the military doesn't come here at all. As you can guess guns are popular here.

  I think that will do for now. I have no idea if anything will come out of it but I'm glad it's where I can get at it later.

  
• Armed Religion 101

  Today I'm going to be talking about two contesting philosophies within the military today. Odds are about now you're looking up at the title and asking what the fuck? I'll explain, these philosophies are nearing the point where they become religion and frankly you don't get more armed then the US military. Thus the title, now moving on.

  The two ideas go by the names 4th Generation warfare and Transformation warfare. Transformation is also called by Network-centric warfare by the way. Both sides push a view of what the world will be like in the future and the correct way to act within it. There are within both groups heretics, exetremist and orthodox speakers who all call for their own version of victory. As most of you likely know, in the military victory is salvation.

  The Terms:
  Before I pitch in let's estblish some new terms for you. The world under these view points can be divided into 2 rough groups. Core states and Gap states. Core states are those states that are industralized or in the advanced stages of industralization. The United States, Western Europe, Canada, Japan, Australia and so on are Old Core states, states that have been industralized for some time. China, S Korea, India, Singapore, Brazil Eastern Europe and so on are New Core states, nations who are raising or newly estblished economic powers who have either just completed or are in the process of becoming industralized states. The Gap states are those states where industralization has not taken place or has not taken hold. National governments are weak and riddled with corruption, non-state groups tend to run around with guns. Africa and Central Asia are the prime examples of the Gap, a place where even those states that have achieved some stablitiy and progress suffer due to being in a "bad neighborhood." Just to make it more complex for you is the idea of the Seam state, a state that lies between the Core and Gap standards, these states can be moving towards Core status or sinking into the abyss of the Gap. Mexico for example is a Seam state.

  Armed forces can be state or non-state in orgin. Two examples of theses are the US Army for a state armed force and Al Qeeada for the non state. Non state forces can be everything from enthic rebels to international terrorist and gangsters. They are however, armed and have little respect for national boundaries in regards to operations, as you can see with the Taliban willing to skip back and forth over the Afghanistan/Pakistan border. Now onto the religions themselves.

  The Ideas:
  I'll start with Transformation. The biggest champions of transformation have been Rumsfield when he was Security of Defense and Paul Wolfowitiz during his time as deputy defense security to Rumsfield. During their time in charge Transformation was the guiding principal of the Defense Department. Transformation is the belief that warfare is about to experience a revolution due to communication and information technology, the prophets of transformation preach of wide spread units linked togather in a network of real time information sharing and trouble free communication. Using superior communication, speed and information firepower is concenrated excaltly where needed to overcome enemy formations as they are encountered. The military painted by this ideal is a high speed, low drag military that through the virtues of superior tech overwhelms an enemy unable to even find a place to stand. The invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan were presented as the finial arguement in it's favor as the enemy forces were overwhelming with lightening speed and blistering barrages of firepower at any attempt to reform and group smashing their ability to fight back coherently. The ulimate in blitzkreig able to achieve victory at blinding speed with fewer numbers because of the virtues of superior networking. I'll hold off on my first hand experience of the invasion of Iraq until the end of the entry if you don't mind.

  Weapons system like the L.A.V (for some reason called by the army the Stryker)are heralded by transformation as the beginning of the revolution, as everything becomes lighter, faster and more network centric. Heavy tanks and other systems are replaced by airpower and long range weapons like the Tomahawk missle. Speed and agility replace heavy armor and the network removes the need for massive numbers. The future world of transformation is not to different from our current one, the biggest threats to the US being nations like China or Iraq, Core or Seam states who fight in a conventional manner, with terrorist and other non-state groups being the realm of special forces and the CIA, a shadowy place rarely visited. Because of this the Air Force and Navy are of prime import in keeping other states in line and maintaining the peace as the Core expands into the Gap.

  4th Generation to put it mildly disagrees.

  4th Generation warfare foresees a world where the biggest dangers are non state forces. Because of the fact that the US military's advantages have made conventional war upon the US a form of suicide, neither state or non state forces will attempt to fight a conventional war with the US or it's allies. Or in other words, 911 and the terrorist attacks of the 1990s were the wave of the future. According to the prophets of 4th gen, the threat will not come from Core or Seam states but from the Gap itself, as the very chaos and uncertainity of the place breeds forces that seek to harm and destroy the Core. The way to deal with this threat is called The Long War. There are those who claim the term was invented and put into use by the Bush Administration but in fact the term was first used by U.S. Army General John Abizaid and later by Air Force General Richard Myers, who was then the outgoing chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The Long War is excaltly what it sounds like, a long term military effort to find, isolate and destroy the various groups in the gap who attempt to wreck violence upon the Core and their neighbors. It is an infantry centric war, as in order to control and police ground large formations of well trained, well equipped and well led troops are required. 4th generation believers point to the fact that whatever the sucess the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan had, the aftermath isn't nearly so pretty. Whether it's the death squad of Iraq or the Taliban's rebirth in the south of Afghanistan and neighboring north of Pakistan, they agrue that transformation has dropped the ball in the vital area of actually winning the whole war as opposed to the first 5 minutes.

  In the world foreseen by the 4th generation the distinction between military and civilian, between state and non state fades and blurs. The enemy does not wear a uniform, nor do all of your allies. War is no longer a strictly military action but is accompanied by political and economic moves that are meant to isolate and flush the enemy out of hiding. War is fought not only on the battlefield but in the stockmarket, the UN and national governments and within the press itself. The finial object of the The Long War is to shrink the Gap, to drain the swamp that is the breeding ground for the enemy and bring an end to the very reason for his existence.

  The Heresies:
  There are of course what you could call heretics in both schools of thoughts. These range from small cabals of officers to straggering large collections of civilians and uniformed personnale.

  Robotics Now! These guys are mostly transformationist who taken it further in one direction. In order to achieve maximum communiction and information processing, as well as reduce causalities, automation of warfare is the future. These guys will tell you that the F-22 is the last manned aircraft we'll ever build, that robots will take over dangerous jobs like dealing with I.E.Ds and mines. That the next armored vehicle of the US military is gonna be a robot with a human co-pilot and so on.

  Information Warriors, believe that the central front of future warfare will be the information front. Whether it be the enemy's information gathering infersturcture, the press, or even the internet everything is to be distroted, spun or controled to ensure only the information you want to get out gets out. To these people, information is deadlier then bullets.

  Death from Above, this is frankly an old group. These are the men and women you see preaching the belief that airpower alone can win wars.

  SysOps, named by Thomas Barnett, SysOps calls for the creation of units and tactics specifically designed to operate in post war condaintions. If we had them today these would be the guys serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. As well as aggressivly expanding the Core into the Gap by killing the various resisters and expanding economic and political connections, SysOps believe that if you would win the war, you must also win the peace. It divides the military into two groups Levitian the military that steamrolls anyone and everyone who stands up for a fight and the SysOps, the guys who clean up the mess. As you can guess the Air Force and Navy are big parts of the Levitian while the Army and Reserves do alot of the SysOps work. The Marines function has a mini-Levitian, a shock force that can be used on hard cases no matter the condaintions (Yeah Al Sadr I'm looking at you).

  There are groups that I have missed I am sure. I was and am not a officer or a Washington insider. I am an ex-Marine enlisted who at best has a limited worm's eye view of the conflict so this shouldn't be considered the be all end all word on the street. It should however give you a basic idea of what's going on in the military today.
  

  
• Building Religions II

  The word of the day is sacrifice.

  It's a notion, an idea that is central to the vast majority of religions, actually... pretty much all of them now that I think about it.

  There are different types of sacrifices and different reasons for them, let's go over some very general types shall we?

  A: herbs and crops, plant material basically. Usually burned or sometimes just prayed over and eaten. Greeks, Romans, Chinese and Balinese have or in the case of Balinese still do. (See that Balinese reference, that's my college education working for you!).

  B: Animal, everyone in the west has some vague knowledge of this thanks to the Old Testament (look even if you haven't read it you've seen or heard or watched movies with stories based on it, it's part of your general cultural background if you're a westerner, deal with it). Usually the animal is killed (throat slitting the most popular way) and parts of it are burned. The rest gets eaten usually by the priests.

  C: Finished goods. This can happen in a funeral ritual fairly often. For example burying a Norse chief in his ship filled with goods or burning it. The Romans would create items just to be given to the gods the Chinese have made a special type of money (and credit cards!) to be torched.

  D: Humans. As far as I know no major religion in the world practices human sacrifice. The biggest ones that I am aware of arethe MesoAmerican faiths of the Mayans and Aztecs, which were wiped out by the Catholics (sometimes even Inquisitors are good for something). To be fair this is not done casually. The MesoAmericans honestly believed that if they didn't do these sacrifices the world would end. That is one hell of a motivator I think.

  Why do we make sacrifices to our deity/s of choice? In the older religions (I.E Pagans) it was a method of worship and barginning. You see this happen in the Judeo-Christian tradition to. One of these stories has a deeply unhappy ending (warlord declares to God that he'll sacrifice the first thing out the door to greet him coming home if God gives him victory. It's his daughter. I was taught growing up that the moral is DON'T DICKER WITH GOD! He doesn't care for it).

  In some cases it's an outright bribe. Dear Goddess of the waters, here is a sacrifice of goat, please don't sink my fishing boat. Thank you.

  In others it's a method of giving thanks. Lord of healing, my daugther got well! Please accept this goat.

  In others the deity in question is viewed has sorta of business partner, keep in mind that's not how they would put it but it's the best translation I have for our worldview. Spirits of crops the harvest was wonderful, you ensured our survival. Have a goat for a job well done.

  In Shintoism and other Shamenist religions, you sacrifice to placate a spirit when you've done or are about to do something that will rightly piss it off. Dear Spirit of the trees we are sorry we chopped down said trees to build our homes. We will plant new ones for you. In the meantime please take this goat as a down payment.

  Sidenote: I don't what it is but the goats are taking one hell of a beating for the team this post aren't they?

  Now sacrifice isn't completely one sided. Christianity is built around the idea of Christ's sacrifice. Buddhism is rife with heroic figures who sacrifice to aide in humanity's uplifting and eventual enlightenment. Demeter in Greek mythology sacrifices every fall. Odin gives up an eye for knowledge in an attempt to preserve the world. Various spirits give up power, time and pieces to empower priests and shaman. Animal spirits will allow members of their species to die to feed the humans/whoever you got.

  In these cases the sacrifice is treated with respect and gratitude usually. As for that matter most sacrifices are not treated in a causal matter but as an event worthy of note, the bigger the sacrifice the more notice. This means that there is usually a ritual to go with the sacrifice...

  
• Change of Pace

  I'm not going to go into Politics today. I'm feeling apolitical right now (don't worry that feeling never last long). At the moment I think I'll chat about games.

  I just started playing Rise of Legends this weekend, Holy Fuck and a half what a game. I'm still on the first campaign, but I'm enjoying myself a great deal. The play sytle lends itself very well to brawling I think and a fast offense is certainly required. The Units and buildings increase in cost as you build more of them (the second birricks will cost more then the first one did and so on) this is a subtle but powerful way of getting players to get off their ass and capture more resources and territory I think. I approve. I also greatly dig the clockwork and steampunk tech of the faction I'm playing right now. Steamcannons are comfort to me what can I say?

  This doesn't mean I've abadoned the old comforts of Civilization 4 and the Total War series. These are longer running games though. You don't start a game on these bad boys unless you're sure you can stick with it for awhile. I am eagerly awaiting Medieval 2 though. As a Byzantium player from the first day I can say the Eagle will fly over Rome... Again! I did introduce my roommate to the glory that is Civ (anyday Meyers wants to send me a check he can just drop me a line here), the main attraction for VI seems to be in nuking other players. Maybe Defcon is more his game...

  Ah Defcon, I've downloaded the free demo, so far I've played as Europe (vs Russia), NA (vs Africa) and Russia (vs Asia). Asia is defintly the sneakiest oppotent. Bastard smuggled his subs up into the Artic for a last minute (literally last minute) revenage strike on my main cities. It worked, as he overwhelmed the defenses and caused 23 million deaths in Moscow alone (FORGIVE ME CATHRINE AND PETER!), Asia still lost as I had shot down everything else he had and had reduced every major city into a smoking pile of ruin. Overcrowding is no longer a problem in India in this game.

  The developers site is here http://www.introversion.co.uk/defcon/ I do recommend checking it out. If you got a spare 20$ pay for the download,if not just get the demo. Just remember... Everybody Dies!

  
• Danes, Popes and Imperialism

  Dictionary.com tells me the defination of Imperialism is "the policy of extending the rule or authority of an empire or nation over foreign countries, or of acquiring and holding colonies and dependencies." Extending rule or authority... Authority comes in alot of different packages and is enforced in different ways.

  Last year a little Danish Newspaper,Jyllands-Posten printed 12 cartoons, by 12 different cartoonist. The Subject of these cartoons was the founder of Islam, Muhammad and how they saw him. The response was varying. You can see these if by some miracle you haven't already here

  Translations into English are a google search away folks. I think everyone remembers the reaction yes? You don't? You were away in a cave somewhere in the arctic you say? Alright I'll get into it for ya. The Muslim world in general, and the Arab world specifically went batshit. Of course it helped that by the time the Arab world noticed the cartoons that 3 more had magically appeared, when I say magically appeared, I mean added in by imans and mullahs to ensure the "proper" reaction.

  The proper reaction being the burning of Danish flags, attacks on Danish, Norwegen and Sweish embassies and threats against the cartoonist lives by masked protestors in London. Here are some pictures and a Time Magazine story here

  More recently The Catholic Pope Benedict XVI gave a speech at his old university. For those of you who do not know, he used to teach there as a professor of Theology. I'm not always his biggest fan (I'm not Catholic first off...)but I admit he is not a stupid man, by all accounts he is a scholar of note in his field. So it shouldn't shock us that he decided to use a qoute from a 14th Centuary Emperor of Byzantine. Well... It shocked some people, whoops.

  The entire speech is on our message board here Along with a link to my source. Islamic reaction was... negative. Here's the thing, the Byzantine Emperor is fighting an Islamic invasion, point of fact, an invasion that is going to kill his country and his family. Should we expect him to say nice things about the people invading his empire and killing his people? I don't expect Apaches to have nice things to say about the US calvary for example, or Poles to have nice things to say about German or Russian Armies. The real kicker is that the point of the speech is to denouce religious violence and call for greater reason to be used by the faithful. Yes the qoute in question was not a nice thing to say about Islam, so fucking what?

  The Pope qouted, now I will qoute to

  "God is not pleased by blood, and not acting reasonably ("syn logo") is contrary to God's nature"

  Well I've covered Danes, I've covered Popes, I guess that leaves Imperialism. Do you remember that Defination? Good. The Islamic world has demanded (I may be overstating, just roll with me here) that nothing that is even vaguely negative be said or printed about Islam in the West or else. This is an attempt to extend authority over others. The demands for "religious sentitivity" and "self censorship" ring damn hallow when someone reads an Arab Islamic paper and finds these cartoons staring them in the face. When you have the facts, the message is clear, the Islamic groups pushing these ideas aren't truely interested in real religious sentitivity, that would mean they have to stop insulting the Jews. They just want to exerise control over others and tell you what you can say in your own country. I'm not saying there's some sort of international muslim conscirpy out to control the world media, but I am saying there are Islamic groups who have acted and continue to act with the intent of telling Europeans and Americans what they're allowed to say and what they're not allowed to say. That is attempting to impose authority, that is imperialism. If Imperialism is wrong for the British and the US, it's wrong for them to. If it's wrong for Europe to be Imperialist, it's wrong for the Arabs and Turks. Anything else is a double standard.

  Now as I have stated before I am a Christian, I have to put up with South Park's Jesus, Ayran Jesus from Ghastly's comic (but I admit Drunk and Bitter Jesus is funny), Piss Christ, Mary Magdenlene covered in elephant dung, and on and on and on. I'm not rioting and I'm not threatening to kill anyone. If I did, it wouldn't be tolerated, cops would come over to the apartment and have a chat with me over why you can't threaten to kill people over pictures, words or cartoons. The same standards are going to have to apply to the muslims for this to work, I'm not saying they can't write letters, I'm not saying they have to be happy about this, but riots and deaththreats are over the line and we should make that clear. We're not going to limit our speech on their opinion.

  
• Dog and Ponies keep on trotting.

  We're voting to end the war! Or so the proud proclaimation goes. As you can guess I don't like it. To be honest I don't see this bill, filled with juicy pork it may be going anywhere, Jr's already said he'll veto the damn thing and they don't have the 2/3ths they need to override. Still I'm gonna talk about it.

  The Dems as you can read above want US troops out of Iraq by March 31st 2008 no matter what is going on in Iraq. As one can guess they're not even pretending to care about winning the thing, simply about ending it.

  Why 2008? Because they don't have a shot in hell of ending it this year, although they have privisions in there to do so and they're try their level best to do so. There are a number of reasons why they're doing this some revolve around rather decent motives, they feel this war cannot be won and every life lost there is a waste and it's best to just end the thing. Others are not so decent, to be blunt there is no way in hell they want to run a Presidental race, or another Congressional race with Iraq hanging over them. Obama or Hillary the two current front runners in terms of money, popularity and organization are both close togather and far apart at the same time. Problem is Hillary has to prove she can be as tough as any man (to be honest, it's not her toughness that worrys me, she convinced me she was a tough old bird long time ago) while Obama possessing a Y chromosome doesn't. It might not be fair but that's life in a elected republic. Course women dictatiors seem thin on the ground these days but Catherine the Great could tell you... They do occur every now and again.

  ... Oh right, public schools. Catherine the Great was a German princess who seized power over Russia when it was unavoidable that her russian borne husband was both insane and an idiot. She did a pretty damn good job of ruling Russia with ye olde iron fist. You want more go read a fucking book.

  Moving on.

  Another reason is if they win those elections... They'll find themselves with the sole responsibilty for dealing with the Iraqi war... They don't like that, after all they won't be able to blame others for their actions for very long (not that Jr's people didn't try...) They much rather the war ended on the watch of the person who started the damn thing.

  Still yet another reason is they have to pander to the Looney Sheehan crowd somehow or risk getting caught in a left to right crossfire. No snickering from the Republicians, y'all face the same problem everytime you venture south of Virginia, we call those values voters now I hear.

  I oppose this for alot of reasons, some personal, some not. To be blunt, we found no weapons of mass desturction, but it no longer fucking matters. The Iraqis are not the enemy, they're our depenents and it's always morally wrong to abadon depenents. The sorta we broke it we bought it theory you could say. We can in storming and talking up this idea about how we were going to help them build a state without dictatiorship or oppression. Now we're gonna bug out because it's messier then we would like? Not excaltly a great thing to do is it?

  I also believe that Iraq whether we like it or not has become part willy nilly of a bigger war. It has become the center stage of a regional battle between a wide variety of forces and if we want a spitting chance for any Arabs to live in even something that vaguely looks like a free state, we have to stay. If we leave other forces will take over and we'll get a Iranian client state or a battle field between different factions all trying to cut out a piece of the pie. That pie will be bleeding gentlemen and ladies, alot worse then it's bleeding now.

  No the current Iraq is not a wondeful heaven of freedom, justice and the western way. Check out what S Korea looked like in the 60s and 70s, we still fought for them didn't we? S Korea changed and developed into a free state, I would like to think givent he chance the Iraqis can do the same. We won't know if we leave. I do know whoever wins will slam down an iron hand of oppression that will ground them under again. Odds are whoever wins won't like us very much and I won't be able to blame them much. Odds are whoever wins will want to see us hurt a bit, to bleed us some. Odds are if I'm right, we'll end up fighting in Iraq again in a few decades. If your children or your grandchildren end up fighting in Iraq because we left, don't come crying to me. I warned you and you ignored me.

  Speaking of the S Koreans, we fought for them to the tune of 54,246 dead in 3 years (1950 to 1953). We've fought in Iraq for 4 years now (March 20th 2003 to March 26th 2007) for the butchers bill of 3241, some of those were friends of mine. They were good men and I don't want to face their shades and tell them it was for nothing. They would expect more I think.

  To sum up I think pulling out before we have a stable Iraqi government with a dependable army and police force will reuslt in greater death and desturction. I think pulling out before hand will result in those hostile to us becoming stronger and gaining more ability to hurt and even kill us. I think pulling out before hand guantnees we will have to return at a future date and it will be even harder and messier then it is now and more American's will die. I believe ending it without regards to the the Iraqis needs or the state of the nation of Iraq will result in nothing less than a blood letting that makes Bosnia and Sudan look like pillow fights and I will not be silent in who I blame. Nor will I be silent if we have to go back.

  It could be that I am wrong. That we leave and nothing major changes and we never have to return to Iraq in our lifetimes. In that case I'll admit to being wrong (although it'll be hard to say just when I'm wrong honestly) and frankly I'll be grateful that I am wrong. I think the Odds are good that I ain't wrong however, you can feel free to disregard and disagree. God knows most of ya are doing so already.

  
• Draft vs Volunteers.

  Recent debate in the US has gotten me chewing over an old bone pretty much. The idea of the draft vs a volunteer army. I'll deal with how it will effect the military last, as the pushers of the draft idea seemed very uninterested in that, in fact I would go so far as to say some of them actually do hope it hurts our military. Yes, I'm looking at you Rep Rangel.

  Rep Rangel, a member of the lower house of Congress, is the man behind the last bill to restart the active draft, he's pushing for a new one this spring. For none US readers, when you turn 18 males in the US have to apply for the selective service board, or the draft board as it's more commonly known, this is in case of WWIII and everyone needs to be given a rifle. I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for this one. Last time his bill got all of two votes, he wasn't one of them. But we all have personal failings, don't we sir? Moving on...

  "There aren't enough rich people in the army!"

  There won't be "enough" with the draft either. It's amazing that people forget that Jr. sidestepped the draft by getting into the Air National Guard, like alot of other rich kids. Another way to side step it is to go to college. Traditionally speaking in the vast majority of examples the wealthy find one way or another to keep their kids from being shot at. Whether it's gated communities, private schools or pulling strings and greasing palms to keep little Jonny from having to carry a rifle. There was a draft in Vietnam and an amazing amount of rich kids managed to skip going, doesn't that seem a clue to y'all?

  "Most people in the military don't have a college education!"

  Well no shit, most of us go after the service like yours truely. Seriously? A college graduate is more valueable to society as a whole fulfilling the job he got a degree in! Piling on another 4 years before we see any pay back from the education just seems silly to me.

  "Only Poor and Blacks are in the military!"

  The Military as a whole is somewhere between 70-75% white and hovers at 65% being from the middle class. The whitiest service is the Marine Corps (Yo), which also gets the highest amount of Hispainics to, however Hispainics are underrepresented in the Military as are Asians. It seems that people who think this would benefit from a simple fucking survey. Tell you what, pony up the dough and I'll do it for you, come on, just promise I get to keep the left over cash.

  "There will be less wars!"

  Ah here we go. Because the World wars, Korea, Vietnam, the US civil war, the Spainish American war and so on didn't happen. But hey 1812, the Mexican war, both Gulf Wars and the Banana Wars were pretty much volunteer affairs... Eh, mostly anyways. What? Never heard of the Banana Wars? Only if you weren't in the military. Go read a book. Need a source? Motherfucker... Fine,here now go read the book! The state of schools today...

  Back to the topic, the fact of the matter is drafts have been used through time to keep armies supplied during... Unpopular Wars! Call it conscirption, press ganging, kidnapping, criminal service, fuedal service and so one, the idea remains the same, the government forces you to carry a rifle and fight. That tends to make you rather shitty on the solder quality front so there needs to be more of you to make up for that, leading to larger armies. I mean come on how did you think the Tsar fought his wars in Central Asia and the Far East? ... You're giving me that blank stare again aren't you?

  The plain fact is the draft riots of New York City didn't really put a dent in Lincoln's determination to win the civil war, nor did it really stop the decade long Vietnam war. If anything the draft makes a long war more likely, because it's easier to refresh the supply of cannon fodder. You don't even have to care about the troops, if you lose 10,000 just trot down to the draft board and get a new batch, NO PROBLEMS! If they resist? Hey that's what we got cops and special enforcement teams for. Don't worry about it.

  A volunteer military is different, if the war is unpopular enough people stop volunteering and you run out of troops. You may be whining that this isn't happening in Iraq. Look lumpy, it's been 3 fucking years and the war is only now starting to lose support. Enlistments run 4 years. Do some math. So if the war is as unpopular as you think it is, you'll have to wait a bit. But it's nothing like the long wait of Vietnam is it?
  
  The effects on the military:

  Bad, each and every one of them, I shall begin.

  As noted a guy who really doesn't want to be there is a worse solder then a guy who volunteered. If nothing else the volunteer had no one to blame but himself. The conscirpt is harder to train, will refuse to put forward extra effort and is harder to control and discipline and who's fault is that? Not his, he doesn't even want to be here.

  Because he's a lousy solder, there needs to be more of him. It's not an accident of nature that a volunteer army can do more with less then a draftee army. A larger army cost more, however draftee armies have traditionally cut cost by paying their troops shit and housing them like cattle, hey gotta save somewhere. Discipline is harsher, because being low paid, badly housed and crowded, temptation is at all time high. So harsh punishments are required to keep them in line, not that the officers are all that worried, again we can just order more troops from the draft board no biggie. Besides what are they going to do? Quit?

  Since he doesn't want to be there, he's more likely to run from combat. He's not a coward mind you and is brave enough when he's fighting for something he believes in or is scared enough, but why should he fight? Hell in order to keep people from running, while being invaded by fucking NAZI GERMANY, Stalin had to order anyone moving back so much as a step shot. This is when most Russians were willing to fight the bastards invading their home, guess how well things went when they didn't like the war?

  Now whose handing out this harsh discipline and inspiring fear? Officers, these are the guys who have to control their troops and win victories, because in a draft military there are fewer NCOs, people don't like hanging around, imagine that. These men view their troops as interchangeable parts in a draftee system that sees regular combat, they have to. Otherwise they might not be able to get them to fight. Such a view carrys on to the higher ranks. Do you want a General who sees little Jonny as just an replaceable cog leading the war? I rather live through it thanks. While officers will sarifice men for victory in a volunteer force, they can't do it causally or to often, then folks might stop volunteering.

  "Can't we all get along?"

  No. It's the only thing the Imans of Iran, the dictatiors of Africa, Osama Bin Lauden, Kim Il Jong and I all agree on. In fact I refuse to get along with people who starve their nations or kill 19 year girls for fighting back against their rapist. It's a requirement of my religion that I dislike and desire to hurt these people, okay? Deal with it.

  Speaking of which, kill Al Sadr already.

  
• End of an era

  Last night I went to a party, had some fun, smoked some tabbaco from a water pipe, played some cards etc. But the importent thing that happened I ended up drinking with a Communist, a Marxist Leninist to be excalt. We drank and discussed things peacefully, without incident. It was the end of an era.
  
  
  Let me explain, as has been stated I am an ex-marine. I have pulled off shots against the hammer and sickle. I have sung songs about killing commies for mommie. I did so despite the fact that the USSR was a decade dead and why not? There was always Cuba, N Korea and China. So have hundreds of thousands of marines before me. Hell maybe even millions. All of that is ending.
  
  
  Marines today fight in Iraq, Afghanistan and other places mainly against the idealogical brothers of Osama Bin Lauden. They do not worry about communist. They do not pin hammer and sickles to their targets when they shot. They pin pictures of Osama and his followers, they sing of fighting and killing terrorist and insurgents and they will for a long time even after the current wars have ended. The Cold War is being washed away and replaced by the War on Terror. A war that many may doubt, but is quiet real to those who have fought it.
  
  
  An era has ended.

  
• Flyboys and Iraq

  Last night I watched both the Marine and Flyboys. I enjoied the Marine, it's a good action movie, with alot of violence, explosions and hot ladies running around without a bra. Check your brain at the door.

  Flyboys believe it or not was the deeper movie. I was kinda hoping it would be about Frank Luke the Ballon Buster I had a comic about him when I was kid and he kinda stuck in my mind. But it's actually about the Lafayette Escadrille a unit of American volunteers who fought for the French Airforce prior to the US's entry into the war. It's a good movie and I highly recommend it has something to sit and watch be ye drunk or sober.

  One thing sticks in my mind. The speech the American vet gives to our upright and earnest main character (who just wants to surivive go home and rebuild the ranch the damn bank took away) one night as they are mouring the death of fellow Americans and an honorable German foe. He states that he believes that no one will win the war, that it'll just end and everyone will have died for nothing, the surviviors will go home and that will be that. He fights to get back at those who killed his friends (everyone is hunting a dishonorable german pilot who has a black falcon painted on his plane) and make sure more German pilots die in vain than allies. He has no hope of an end that could be considerable meaningful or worthwhile.

  Listening to the speech, I began to feel his speech was more about my war then his. These days I find myself on the edge of believing we will not carry through to victory. That we will... Not lose excaltly or win... We will just shrug and go home. Hillary's demand that Jr withdraw the troops before leaving office only pushes me futher towards that edge. There are many political reasons for her demand and I'm not trying to single her out. Plenty of politicians both Republician and Democrat have made that call. The bitter cyanic in me believes that it is because neither side wants to have a fight a campaign with the central issue being Iraq. The Democrats don't believe they can win that fight without getting painted with Vietnam colors again. The Republicians no longer believe that Iraq is a game winner for them. So I find myself looking a future where 3000 men and women died for nothing, just a grim and grisy punchling to a deeply unfunny bad joke. That I did what I did there for nothing. That fellow Marines sarificed limbs, health and even their lives for nothing... I guess one can understand why I find so much meaning in a 2 minute speech by a movie character.

  I won't spoil the movie for those who haven't watched it. I'll just say my own maudlin ramblings aside it's a good movie with a decent pace and y'all should give it a sit down.

  
• Greenday, Katrina, Saints and U2

  I usually respect Bono. He tries to do good in the world and that puts him a notch above say your average Congress Critter of either party. This time, however he has well and truely screwed the bloody pooch raw. Poor thing is limping to. In the video with U2 and Greenday, they advance the idea of redeploying the troops in Iraq to New Orleans for humantarian aide. It is a noble, good and wonderful idea, but it's also fucking stupid.

  Okay let's start with the redeployment itself. We would be talking over 100,000 men and women plus millions of tons of gear. When we were setting up to invade back in 2003 it took months to get everyone over there and set up. Luckly bringing everyone back will be easier, it's likely to take 6 weeks minium instead. The troops will have to be reequiped, as I assume you wouldn't want me running around the French Quater with 20 pounds of C4 and a passle of hand grenades (Mardi Gras would never be the same.) That's gonna take more time, also some units are going to have to be retrained, the Rules of Engagement (R.O.E) are a bit different then the ones called for in storming Fallujah for instance. That's gonna be another 4 weeks easy. Did I mention they'll likely be arriving to drips and drabs instead of wholesale? Add another 2 weeks before enough of them are there for anyone to even notice.

  Finailly, our own B4 was with an Airforce unit who got sent in. They had to hack their way to an airfield and repair it before they could be of any use to the Katrina victums. See the Hurricane's destruction didn't stop at city limits, miles upon miles of territory were rendered unpassable unless on foot with a light load. This mission requires alot of gear.

  Now for the scenes I saw in the video. That Harrier hovering down to drop a bundle of supplies to a stranded family on a wooden roof? I had no idea they thought it would be good to burn people to death. Harriers are fucking figther jets, those engines aren't just for show, they produce what is called backwash, which is basically a shitload of heat and force. As it burns you know... JETFUEL! No one is allowed near the flight deck when these guys land on a troops ship because you can get burnt and tossed off into the bloody ocean. So what do you think will happen to Sally Jenkins 1st grade if a Harrier does that? But hey screaming mangling and near drowning on camera will jack up ratings so CBS and Fox are happy. Harriers wouldn't be used in an operation of this scope, they can't do enough good for the amount of fuel they're burning. Niether can Apache helicoptors, they don't lift enough and just aren't designed for the job. You know what would have been used? Try a Twin rotored Chinook instead. It can carry around 20 marines and their gear and you'll see in the pics it's fucking airlifting a cannon and humvee. So which do you think can carry more supplies and thus help more poeple effectivly? Think about it!

  Lastly that fucking tank rolling down the street. Look guys, an M1A2 MBT Abram weighs over 60 tons fully loaded. You know what tanks do in flooded areas? Sink. In fact the first tank lost in Iraq fell off a bridge and sank into a river. Crew drowned all hands. I can only wonder what a bloody tank is going to do anyways, bulldoze houses? Wait we have equipment for that... It's called a fucking bulldozer, logical ain't it?

  I'm sure someone will say hey Magi you're taking this video a little seriously aren't you? Well I fucking wish U2 and Greenday had, then we would all have been saved this blog post wouldn't we? Honestly however I don't I'm asking much just some basic research is all. There is already a good damn chunck of the population who thinks that this video could have been a documentary. Well saddly the answer is no, even if Jr had ordered us all out of Iraq on the very day Katraina had hit, we wouldn't have gotten back in time to help anyone.

  I don't say this to excuse the failures of the President, the Governor of Lousiannia or the Mayor of New Orleans. I say this because if you're going to make military/political statements in a music video you should know what the fucking hell you're talking about. In this case U2 and Greenday would have better off using their mouths to chew a pizza instead of singing this song.

  
• Introductions, or abadon ye all hope.

  Hello and welcome. For members of the board, yes the admins lost their minds and gave me a blog.

  For those who aren't member of our little message board, I am frigidmagi, call me frigid. I am the first born son of deaf parents, my father served as a Pentacostal minster during my childhood often having to take a second job, my mother worked on and off when time and health permitted. I joined the United States Marine Corps in 1999 fresh out of high school, I completed my service honorably in 2003 and in 2005 enrolled in ASU due to that I now live in Phoenix AZ. Any questions?

  No? Good moving right along then.

  Basic rules of the blog, I curse, get over already fucker.

  I promise to think twice over anything I post on this thing. I expect you try to at least think once before you comment.

  That being said I'm a fan of free speech so knock yourself out just expect to pay for anything stupid you say.

  I think I got enough for a first time here, expect more coming down range soonish.

  
• Magi Doctrine.

  The US military has ignored the Baker Commission. No surprise really, the Baker commissions suggestions were that we ask the two nations most response for aiding and arming the insurgent factions of Iraq to help stop the insurgents (this is like asking foxes to guard a henhouse... Or rats to block up a mouse hole)withdraw our combat troops and scatter a couple thousand men and women out alone in hostile ground with no way to extract or reinforce them quickly if the shit hit's the fan.

  The Commission might as well titled their report:

  How to completely fail, get alot of boys and girls in uniform killed for no good reason and look like complete moronic jackasses while we do it.

  I'd expect a better plan from Krusty the fucking clown and Peter Griffin. Fuck I wish Stewie was leading this war effort, more leadership in his pinkie then I saw from the 109th Congress.

  Anyways moving on. The Chairmen of the Joint Cheifs of Staff, General Pace, a marine (OOORAH!) had his own study done. Like the Baker Commission it was bi-partisan, both the army and marines were allowed in. Made up of colenals and other jr officers fresh from tours in Iraq (did anyone in the Baker Commission even talk to an Iraqi?). And they came up with their own ideas

  As you can see they suggest 3 options. Go Big, Go Long, or Go Home. The Pace report favorite is Go Long, but expects the White House to attempt all 3 at once and end doing none of the above. Basically to continuing the head up the ass routine you come to expect from our dear Jr in this war. If you think I'm being harsh, it might be because you haven't been paying attention. Or I'm just an asshole, take your pick.

  Now I back the call of General Pace's boys. Sure they're officers but figuring how to win is why we pay them their great and massive salaries in the first place. I suggest we get our money's worth and well... listen.

  I would like to take a chance to make my own suggestions and outline my own doctrine if I may use an expensive word for it on fighting wars of this nature. Both in Iraq, afghanistan and elsewhere where the Long War causes us to be in such confrontations.

  It's a very basic doctrine and thus I think has few points of failure. It does however have several parts. Those being TAKE, HOLD, HUNT, KILL.

  TAKE:

  Invasion. Major population centers are to be taken or destoried. As are points within the nation in question that have economic/political/military or cultural value. The enemy is to be given no safe zone but driven and harried without rest. This is pretty much what we did. The American poeple should be proud of their militaries ability to invade any nation and destory any conventional military on the field of open battle. Congrats.

  HOLD:

  Welcome to the world of CAPs. Combined Action Platoons. In order to hold population centers from villege on up are to be assigned perament security forces. As per CAPs doctrine, every platoon is to have a equilent platoon of native forces drawn from local allies. They are to train togather, eat togather and fight togather. The mission of the CAPs forces is simple, to secure the villege, town or city (larger population centers would have CABs, CARs, or CADs battalion, regiment or divison sized units of the same make up) from the enemy. To aide in improving the quality of life of the inhabitents. This can mean helping in farm work, or supplyng medical care, whatever. Above all comes training the native part of the platoon and a villege milita for self defense. Provide better security and a better life and the general populace is more likely to be loyal to you then your oppotent. These forces should be supported by reaction forces, set up a nodal points to come running to recuse if a team should be in danger of being overwhelmed by internal or external attack. Causalities are likely to be suffered, in fact I'm not going to lie in the opening stages they could get kinda heavy. Once the program is set and under way however the enemy will be denied a chance to establish himself in urban centers from the small and minor to the large and major. This pushes him into the wilderness which brings us to part III.

  HUNT:

  This is mostly special forces' game. The task is to go into the wilderness strongholds of the enemy find him and kill him. Hit his leadership, his troops, his equipment. Whatever can be destoryed or kill is to be done without mercy. He is not allowed to sleep, eat or even shit without the knowledge that somewhere out there is a US servicemember who intends to send him onwards to divine judgement and odds are he's damn nearby to. CAPs is maintained during this phase as well, to make sure that the enemy doesn't go sneaking into the city to get away from those crazy homocidal American fuckers.

  KILL:

  The enemy as been pushed out of the population centers, his freedom of movement in the wilderness is gone, his leaders are dead or in hiding and we know where he sleeps huddled in terror. It's time to kill the bastard and end his suffering. Heavy forces are to be brought up and the enemy is destroyed without mercy. This is prehaps ruthless and brutal. This is because it is better to kill wholesale a bunch of diehards who have hidden themselves in the rough parts of the nation in question rather then allow them to run lose and cause death and heartache to the native population. Think of it has the last stage in getting rid of a nasty cancer if it makes you feel better.

  The fronts of battle:

  In a contest like the one outlined aboved the military field of struggle is not the sole front of conflict. There is a political one, an economic one and a conflict on the always dreaded information front. I'll give a breif discourse one each one.

  Political front:

  This is the ideaological front of the war. The war of ideas to go with the armed struggled seen on your T.V screen and Youtube videos. Both sides are pushing an idea how life should be and what society should look like. An all out effort should be made to tell the native population the benefits of republic, capitalism, freedom of speech, religion, assicoation and gender equality as well the more visible benefits of Nike sneakers, Ipods and Mickey D's supersized happymeals. At no time should we be offering just the same old crap under yet another strongman, that's what fucked up the place in the beginning after all. Propping up a dictatior seems to result in us having to come in and arrest him for something a few decades later anyways, why not just try and break the cycle? It is not enough to pass on this information to the natives, it must also be passed on to the people on the homefront in the States. In short, they need to know why Little Jonny had to go across the damn ocean to fight people they've never met. Because you can be sure the other side will try it's hardest to convice the folks back home that this is a waste of their tax payer dollars, Jonny's time and health.

  Economic Front:

  As one Iraqi said to me. "This freedom you're talking about sounds very nice but it won't feed my kids or clothe my wife." All the talk in the world won't mean jackshit if they are sitting jobless without water, power or food. The damage of the invasion and later battles must be repaired quickly, even if that means risking life and limb. Natives should be trained to build, repair and maintain their own infersturcture from day 1. Any time a job can be passed on to a native without huge security risk, it should be done. Teach them to pave their own roads, to maintaint their own electrical grids and sewers systems and they're set for life. The best example I can offer is the Marshal Plan, which helped revitalize Western Europe after WWII, in a few decades cities that were bombed to rubble were completely rebuilt and booming. Not to mention young men with decent jobs usually don't want to blow themselves or others up. That might make them late for work.

  Information Front:

  The Lebanon-Isreali war of the summer of 2006 gives a prime example of fighting on the information front. Despite having the holy dog shit kicked out of it Hezbollah made Isreal look bad, eat your baby bad. Despite alot of the spin being proven as false, the damage remained and Isreal was forced to back off leaving Hezbollah alive and armed. As you can see the Information Front is about getting your story out to the world. Because of this the main thrust of the information front is the media, with the internet an up and coming 2nd. Everyone should be prepared for the press and considering how to explain and present recent events to the folks at home, if you don't... Well there's always Lebanon.

  I like to think I presented something worth thinking about above. In short what I've outlined above is how to win a bloody war that involves the occupication of a nation or region. It's a long drawn process and it's going to require more boots on the ground then we've got at the moment. So like the new Commandant, I have to recommend that the ground forces be expanded. I'll go ahead and open the floor for comments.

  
• Rev Martin Luther King Jr, Lincoln and 911

  I haven't slept yet so bear with me.

  Today, five years and an eternity ago something happened. A terrible thing that brought lost and horror not just to my nation but to many across the globe. An event that shocked up, that wounded us and changed the course of history for better or worse.

  There were awful loses that day, as men and women who were just trying to get through another day were murdered in a sudden terrorizing moment. As they were struck in a place we thought we would be safe.

  Yet even on a day like that there were heroes. Men and women who when faced with the ultimate in fear did not submit. Men and women who when they saw disaster strike... ran towards it. Proof that Courage is God's most democratic gift to humanity.

  There have been many words spoken on and about that day from all sides. Some of those words were driven by hate, others by greif and others by an urge to extend comfort. Even today a quick trip to BBC forums shows me that rather than put our quarrels aside for a single day, we chose to gnaw on one another to rip open old wounds and chew grudges in the dark. But it doesn't matter, because those words, those small, petty words spoken from all sides shall be forgotten, tossed into the dustbin of history to remain in darkness. For it is not those words that ring in my mind but the words of great men from earlier times.

  It is the quiet strength in the words of President Lincoln that remind me what it means to carry on. It is the noblity and hope in the words of the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr that I am reminded of what we are striving for, what our end should and must be.

  "we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth." Abraham Lincoln

  "Let us not wallow in the valley of despair.

  I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

  I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: 'We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.'

  I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

  I have a dream today." Rev Martin Luther King Jr.

  For those since that day who have laid down your lives, be your passing widely known and remarked or it hiden away from sight... It was not in vain.

  We Yet Remain.

  We Shall Overcome.

  Amen.

  
• Rule by Terror

  I imagine the title got everyone's attention didn't it? Rule by Terror, it's a loaded pharse isn't it? Invoking visions of Communist purges, Nazi death camps, and Islamic human bombs as well as a vast array of other images and feelings dependent on who you are, where you're from and who you consider the enemy of your way of life to be. Yeah, I picked this on purpose.

  There are in the end two basic ways to maintain control over a soceity. You go to the elite ruling classes and depend on them to back your rule and help you maintain control, or you go to the lower classes and try to surf the waves of popular backing. Our soceity, by our society I mean both Western Civilization as a whole and the American Republic specifically is geared towards popular control. That is the government of the nation state depending on at least quiet support of the masses to stay in power. This does not mean however that ruling classes of elites don't exist. Look at the Bushes and the Kennedies as perfect examples of such a class.

  I do not purpose to change the idea of depending on popular support. I like depending on the support of the people and find it a good thing in most cases. What I am suggesting is terrorizing our ruling classes because bluntly I think they've gone out of control. 109th Congress was one of the most corrupt in history our current President is setting new records for shady deals. What of the 110th? The man arrested with 90,000 dollars of bribe money in his fucking fridge was reelected to thunderous applause from his political peers and Harry Reid is still a Senator. Why yes I hold a grudge, why do you ask? It has become clear that a culture of corruption exist and it knows no party line. Since our "leaders" cannot be trusted to behave it seems, I suggest we stop trusting, or to use a line from my long suffering parents "You want to act as a child, I'll treat you as one!"

  My suggestion is simple. A new division of the FBI with one sole job, to track, expose and bring to trail corrupt or otherwise lawbreaking members of the government no matter what their office. This division will have a miminium budget set by law, Congress cannot elect to give them less then this amount of money, specifically set aside for their use. This division of the FBI will report to the Justices of the Supreme Court for matters of oversight. They may enter a Congressal or other government office at any time, but not a place of residence or other private property (unless they care carrying a valid warrent signed by a judge, etc, etc, etc). Any investagation being carryed by them cannot be subject to oversight by Congress or the Executive branch. The head of this division is to be appointed by the Director of the FBI, niether the President nor Congress may be allowed any input.

  The penalities for any representative, senator, or other high office holder found guilty of felonies or corruption are to be double the standard punishment assigned private citizen. Both in terms of jail time length and ficianial penalties. You will not be granted parole until at least half to two thrids of your sentence is served. With greater power comes greater responsibility.

  I expect massive causalities among our lobbyist, our Congressmen and members of the executive staff and frankly I welcome it. This rot as got to go and go now. I've done my best to keep the division from being open to use by political figures, hopefully it'll do. I am of course open to suggestions on improving it.

  I'm told Isreal has something like this, prehaps if a certain Isreali citizen would stop just endlessly editing his blogs and get to posting I would know for sure.

  
• Spit in the Wind.

  Bunch of things running through my mind. I registered to vote in Arizona a week or so back on the last day. One of the things that tipped my mind was actually my Western Civ teacher, who read to us about a Greek named Pericles. He was a politician and a general in the city state of Athens during the opening years of a great and terrible war. No worries I'll skip the history lesson. But I hope y'all will allow me one breif quote before I move on...

  "It is true that we are called a democracy, for the administration is in the hands of the many and not of the few. But while there exists equal justice to all and alike in their private disputes, the claim of excellence is also recognized; and when a citizen is in any way distinguished, he is preferred to the public service, not as a matter of privilege, but as the reward of merit. Neither is poverty an obstacle, but a man may benefit his country whatever the obscurity of his condition. There is no exclusiveness in our public life, and in our private business we are not suspicious of one another, nor angry with our neighbor if he does what he likes; we do not put on sour looks at him which, though harmless, are not pleasant. While we are thus unconstrained in our private business, a spirit of reverence pervades our public acts; we are prevented from doing wrong by respect for the authorities and for the laws, having a particular regard to those which are ordained for the protection of the injured as well as those unwritten laws which bring upon the transgressor of them the reprobation of the general sentiment."

  It's a long qoute I know and I have to ask your forgiveness for that, but I couldn't find it in me to cut it down. But in this quote I find what I want America to be. What she should be and what she will be again. God help us. I'll move on lest I bore you.

  Another reason I signed up to vote was I found a number of proposals to be completely and totally stupid beyond all reasonable expectations for well... Even a pack of chattering monkeys.

  For example the smoking proposals to outlaw smoking in bars (or to promit you to smoke, in a sealed away room, with a seperate venatation system, as if you were some lab monkey to kept seperate from the rest of us). To put it bluntly, I go to a bar to do damage upon my liver, kidneys and other organs in the form of ingesting whiskey, brandy and other amounts of booze. I go to a bar to met members of the fairer sex (that would be women for the kids at home)and attempt to convince them to screw me. I usually have just met these ladies. So let's count up, I'm drinking a substance that does damage to my internals and engaging in unsafe behavior (trying to have sex with strangers) and you think the part most at risk are my bloody lungs!?! From second hand smoke!?! Get the fuck out of the bar and get the fuck outta my life. See folks I have a mother, she a damn fine mother and takes her job as my mother seriously (despite her eldest darling boy being 25). So I Do Not Require A Fucking Government to attempt the job. I'll pay my taxes and you'll leave me the fuck alone. That's the fucking deal. Do Not Queer the Fucking Deal Assholes (watch me get hatemail from the gay groups now for using the word queer).

  Speaking of gays (Hi Ben!) I don't like this defense of Marriage thing either. You know... I see little miss Spears' 15 minute marriage has a bigger threat to the insitution of marriage then a million guys getting married(yes Cat I hold a grudge). As long has we're all consenting adults, who aren't cheating on anybody or marrying our sibs, why do we need the government to tell us who gets to get married and who doesn't? What are we? Five? See above about the fucking deal and not queering it. Let the gays get married, trust me it won't be near has bad as the average Hollywood sytle marry wheel. While we're at it, what's with certain states who have banned gay marriage having the highest rate of divorce in the Union? You Know Who You Are. If you've been married 3 times and are about to embark on the 4th trip, with a person who is excaltly like the other 3... Shut up about gays being a threat to marriage, it's bad comedy now. Consider the good lord's word about trying to yank splinters outta your brother's eye while you got a whole fucking beam of wood in yours. (hate mail from fundalmentist, check).

  Switching topics, those of you would like to check out our fine message board will see a topic posted in N&P (well you'll see more then one but you get the idea). This topic was posted by Sir Nitram, a british expat living in married bliss (to a women put the pitchfork down) in West Virgina. It's a long rolling stone article about the current US Congress, the 109th. Or as you could call it, the most shameless den of thevies in the Union. I feel the writer paints a bias picture honestly. He conviently forgets about Representive Jefferson (D) being caught with 90,000 dollars of bribe money in his fridge (wrapped in tinfoil next to the baloney I'm told). Then's there Harry Reid's making a million dollars on the sale of property he doesn't even own. Foley get's brought up alot to, but the article doesn't mention that well... Democrats have been there first with Gerry Studds, a member of Congress in the 70s and 80s, who had sex with an underage page and was censored for it by Congress, he defied congress calling it anti-gay witch hunt and fought on to get re-elected. This doesn't excuse Foley but it makes wonder why Foley is evil incarnate and Studds a hero. Anyways, seems there's enough dirty deeds to go around in the area of corruption and immoral acts, but the rolling stones writer is determined to push the image of noble democrat saints suffering in a hell of republican demons.

  Just so you don't think I'm making this up
  for Reid
  http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/12/AR2006101201486.html
  http://apnews.myway.com/article/20061011/D8KMO6NG0.html
  Gerry Studds
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerry_Studds
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congressional_Page_sex_scandal
  Jefferson
  http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/15/AR2006021502752.html

  He distorts things like the Central American Free Trade Act, which will lower the cost of Central American farmers seeking to export corps to America as well.

  But despite all of that... He is completely and totally right. The Republicians have abused their power as the majority of Congress. They have done little work and all of it bad. They have been senselessly brutal to the Democrats for now reason then they can. They have done the least of amount of work of any fucking Congress on the record (that sound you hear is our founding fathers spinning in their graves like fucking turbines hooked up to Hoover Dam). Working about 3 months out of the year when our nation is at war, facing infersturcture problems, and immgaration needs to fixed right fucking now. Instead they prance around with issues such as flag burning and gay marriage. Hello? Does anyone give a damn about that or would they rather we won the war, figured out a working policy to deal with the thousands of people creeping into the country daily, repaired our aging power grids and roads and straigthened out our education system? You know... Actually running the fucking nation, as opposed to running it into the fucking ground?

  I'm don't even qualify for membership in the liberal club. I like my God, I like my guns, I like my 2nd hand smoke, fast food and being a white male hetrosexual. But I don't like this is strange idealogy that taken over the Republican party that seems more Soviet in it's behavior every damn day. Yeah that's right, I'm accusing the Republicians of the 109th Congress and the RNC of acting like the Politburenu of the USSR and PRC. Tell me I lie. The 109th Congress has been bar none the worst group of petty, criminal, stupid, infantile old men we ever had the sorry displeasure to gather in one spot and had the unmigated gall to call our government. Makes me glad I'm not registered with either party. Y'all can fucking keep those shitheads.

  I'm told that I am a Paleoconservative, or a Log Cabin Republican, or something that is basically a echo of the past, a fossil from another era of politics and belief. I'm also told I share another character trait with fossils. I'm about as subtle as a T Rex.

  
• Welfare and Prison reform

  To put it bluntly I've bitched alot in this blog. I feel I've also outlined what I would do (Ms. Peloski feel free to follow my example, afterall you're in charge now ma'am) but there's always another thing to discuss. So I'm taking my shot at Welfare and Prisons.

  We'll start on some background, when I was a child and my father was an assistant pastor and working a job for carpet installers we were on it. We got it off it when my father quit being a pastor and we moved to Oklahoma and he took on two jobs. My mother worked as well until her back was injuried making futher employment, difficult. On to the reforms hey?

  Welfare:

  Alright let's be blunt, it's meant to be a temporary thing until you get back on your feet that was the orginial intent. Hey, it's cool we all fuck up sooner or later and need a hand right? But just handing out some cash and food stamps isn't really that much more then dropping a coin into the begging bowl. Not only is it not that helpful in getting you back up, it's a waste of human resources. Yeah I said human resources.

  Let's get some job training in here huh? Here's what we do, if you work under a certain amount of hours and you're on welfare, you're reporting to job training. The goal is to train you to preform a decent job on which you can support yourself. You got kids? No problem, we got daycare (fuck we can train people to run the bloody daycare, no worries parents everything is on camera). I would like to see 2 kinds of job centers, corperate run and government run. How do we get the corps to jump in you're asking, glad you asked.

  First off, they get first pick of the guys they trained, second tax write off, thrid government contract. They get this as long as they met Federally estblished standards. What jobs are we training them for? Just about anything that doesn't require a college degree, it isn't perfect but it's better then being stuck for life in one spot.

  Alot of the government centers should be focused on training them for government positions, those fucking buercrats gotta come from somewhere and frankly the ones we got are rather... Well you figure it out.

  Prison:

  Okay, look the American prison system has fucking failed. The prisons themselves have become feeding pits where nonviolent offenders are more likely to learn more violent behavior then anything else and improve their criminal skills... Fuck that.

  We're going to a two tiered system here. Non-violent crimes are going to be seperated from violent ones. We're not tossing in 18 year old kids who bought some pot in the same building with murderers and rapist, to hell with that. Seperate building, seperate guards, seperate rules. The goal of these prisons are to let these boys and girls know they done fucked up but it ain't the end of the world. First if they're high or drunk, detox them and shove them into rehab. Reform 'em, train them for a trade and let them know they really don't want to come back because the next level concenrates on punishment and nothing but.

  Your second stay here is all about pain, you're gonna be heading out to the boonies and living in a world of boring food, mind numbing exerise and constant displince. By the way taking my cue from an Arizona lawman, your ass is in pink. That's right, pink.

  New idea to base prison off of, Bootcamp assholes. For violent offenders, you're formed into units and given drills. They're not going to teach you how to fight, you know to much about that already. Their job is to beat you into shape and teach you some self control lumpy. Now not all violent offenders are alike, serial killers and rapists are not going to be in the same unit as consistant bar brawelers.

  No cable T.V, no radio, but you can read newspaper and books and yes you will read. Instead your unit is controled by 3 to 4 insturctors with at least a dozen guards on call. The goal of this prison is to teach you the virtues of displince, self control and convince you that you do not want to come back. There are classes, as you will not leave without a High School education at the very least. Neither will you leave until you can write an understandable essay on what you did and why it was wrong and why you won't be doing it again. This means everything from mental treatment and drilling in ethics. Your unit is always togather and always under the eye of an instructor and guards. You march in a formation to chow, to the showers and to your cells. There will be no shower games, there will be no gang wars and no drug use. Attempt it and you get booted up to the next level. Repeat your crime or another criminal offense of a violent nature and get booted up to the next level.

  By the very nature of humanity this system demands multilevels. The higher you go the less there is of reform and there more plain out punishment. At the higher levels you don't get even newspapers or magazines, just pre-selected books. You might be a ultra-violent waste of space but you'll be a well read waste of space and maybe, just maybe someone will find a use for you even in prison.

  Oh Yes you wear pink to.

  
• Well we'll see.

  Here we are November 9th. Two days after the election, since Darksilver won't talk about politics unless you knife him, I guess I should say a few words.

  To the 109th Congress, many of whom have just lost their jobs... SEE YA SUCKERS!!! You fucked up and you got fired! This is how business works in America.

  To the 110th Congress, don't get comfty, if you screw up you're next.

  There are those who are screaming that this is an embrace of the Democratic message, there are those who are screaming that this is not a pro-democrat vote but an anti-republician vote. I can't talk for the whole bloody country so I'll try to avoid it. I might drift into it however.

  The fact that I did not vote for a single Republician running for national office has to do with one thing. Y'all fucked up. Am I worried that the Democrats will run from Iraq and lose the war? YES! I am. But you know... You weren't excaltly winning there either, Tex. I'm sure someone will run in to declare that the Media was spinning a pack of lies and Iraq is just fine. Fuck the Hell off. I'm not excaltly without sources numbnuts. Iraq may not be as bad as CNN says but it ain't sunshine and flowers either. There are real problems that Congress and the adminsteration have ignored and these problems are biting us in the ass.

  Take Al Shar,(please) we could have killed him in 2003 and estblished right way we mean business. We didn't and now his followers are swiftly becoming a bigger pain in the ass then the Sunnis. The Shia death squads we're worried about are his. The Shia milita's we're having to fight answer to him. The Iraqi PM Maliki in calling for the US to dismantle check points around Shar controled parts of Baghdad, where we were looking for a missing US solder. He's decried attempts to disband these militas and deathsquads. This is the behavior of a man whose decided that we're not the biggest, meanest dog in town and that Al Shar is.

  Muqtada Al Shar must die and he must be slain by Americans for refusing government authority. Otherwise watch us lose all of Iraq expect the Kurdish north.

  We'll see what the 110th Congress does, but I doubt they'll get far with leave Iraq now. Ned Lemount tried that in one of the bluest states in the Union. Liberman is still Senater for Conn. There's a lesson there I think, but I could be wrong and I certainly don't want to speak for the people of that state, as I don't know a single damn one.

  That leaves immigration and our infersturcture. Hey how about it can we get something done with that? The system is a fucking mess, it shouldn't take 10 years to get into the country legally. Nor should it be risk free and profitable to emply illegals. The Corperations should be experiencing some pain, money pain. Meanwhile the border gets some real control slapped on it and we straighten out the system so people can actually get through it without dying of old age first.

  Education, good roads and power grids... They would be a good idea, how about it?

  If anyone is reading, this should be Congress's agenda. Not impeachments (Poliski says it's off the table, we'll see).

  The word is Rummy is fired, about damn time. Says the new boy is one Robert Gates, an ex-CIA spook (can I get a fucking infantry or armor bubba, hello? How about it?) which bluntly is a strike against him. I don't like spooks being handed the keys to the kingdom. Well I don't like spooks at all but that's a different issue. DeLay thinks he's Satan made flesh, which is a strike in his favor (Gates I mean). Guess who thinks DeLay is moronic scum?

  
• World Building Religion How to.

  Yes, I'm back. Please, don't clap, or squeal, just send money.

  Okay this is sorta of a companion piece of sorts to an article a friend of mine wrote on his live journal. You can peek at it here. I'll be doing look on religion and it's roles to help you figure out how to build a realistic one for your fictional culture.

  Now a quick note, this guide is for the most part meant for use if you are building a pre-industrial world and is mostly aimed for Iron Age or lower. The Industrial Revolution or it's equalivent changes the rules drastically. I'm writing mostly from classes I have taken while here at ASU, these classes are Anthropology and Religion classes in the main. I'll be going mostly on memory since my home connection is down. If it ever comes back up I'll drag out the books and notes and see if I can find any errors Okay? Okay.

  Okay let's start with Religion:

  There are some basic religious beliefs that you'll want to know about.

  Animism is the belief that all things have a spirit or soul inhabiting them. They inhabit animals, plants and inanimate objects and of course people. Because of this, the priest or shaman (most societies practicing this are tribal in nature) spends alot of his time speaking to and placating these spirits. He may also have spirit guides who aide him in his religious tasks. Any god like spirits are going to be exactly that, just really powerful spirits, who while packing alot of mojo aren't necessarily separate or special compared to other spirits.

  Polytheism is the belief in many gods. These gods are distinct and special compared to spirits, which may or may not exist in Polytheism. Priests tend to serve a certain god, but admit to the existence of all of them and will do sacrifices to the others if warranted. Usually there pretty large number of gods most of them being "place" gods. For example the Greek's believed each river had it's own god and the Sumerian believed each city had a local god of it's own. These gods while important to the locals didn't have the pull of the higher up gods (the classical 13 of Greece or Marduk and company for the Sumerians) and so if you wanted something really big you had to go to the big boys.

  Dualism, two gods, which are usually opposite in some manner from each other but not always opposed. Zoarastrianism divided the two gods on moral grounds. Ahura-Mazda was the god and leader of the forces of good and light. Ahriman was the god and leader of the forces of evil and darkness. They both were determined to duke it out for the fate of the world until someone won. Zoarastrians were pulling for Ahura. Wicca on the flip side divided the two on natures, not morals. The goddess is female and has the attributes associated with that gender in our culture, the god is male and has his attributes. It is interesting to note that Wiccans generally pray to the goddess half of the duo, influenced maybe by frustration and alienation from generally a Christian or other male monotheism background.

  Monotheism the belief in a single god. This god can be one single whole (Allah, Jehovah) or a union of sorts (The Trinity of Jesus, God the Father and the Holy Spirit). Currently it is the belief system of over half the planet (Christianity at last count clocked in at little over 2 billion, Islam with over 1 billion, Judhism in the low double digit millions and a number of other monotheist sects like the Baha'i in the low millions). While there is only one God, there is usually a rebellious evil figure (Satan) along with servant spirits on both sides (angels and demons) and mortals can be risen to positions of power (saints in Catholism and Orthodox Christianity as well as the 12 Imans of Shitte Islam).

  Now each of these religion types share similarities and have differences, there are examples in the real world that blur the differences between them as well. We're not going to get to into that though since I'm not writing a damn book on this.

  The role of religion is a large one in a pre-industrial society and alot of that has to do with the role of religion in farming. No you didn't read that wrong. Before we came up with factories and power tools, farming took up the vast majority of labor within a group. While 9 times of out of 10 the farmers themselves weren't high status folks (think now, who ranks higher, the knight or the serf? The peasent or the Samurai?) they were doing an important job and everyone damn well knew it. It was also a messy, smelly, back breaking, man killer of a job and everyone knew it.

  Because of this fertility spirits, gods and goddess are the ones that most average day folks are concerned with. Most of the time these supernatural beings weren't just concerned about the fertility of humans but of animals and plants. This is a big deal when if your corps fail you die. Priests or Shamans were often the most learned guy in the area, so it feel to them to tell ya when to plant and when to harvest. If you had problems with the corps or animals, you went to the priest. Fertility rites and rituals are likely to be the most widely practiced of a religion and depending on the ritual itself will be a community event (community events are usually tamer then the stereotypical orgy you're thinking of, of course one way to cure to a barren field was to pick a young couple to go out and have sex on it so your mileage may vary). Until Catholicism, most religions did not require their priests and priestess to be chaste and celibate (yes they're two different things look it up) in fact in some religions like ancient Canaan where temple prostitution was practiced it was the opposite. In other faiths, it was expected that the priest would marry and have children and the skill at which they did this and kept the family would reflect upon the priest's professional abilities as well. You can see a little of this in early Christianity as well when Paul writes that only married men with children who kept their families in good order should be made bishops. So I would strongly suggest against Priests who don't have carnal relations.

  Religion also dictates a bit in war as well. It tells you when you can fight, why you can fight, how you can fight and who you can fight... I hate to say it but this is often completely ignored or twisted into a pretzel . It might be realistic to have your religion have rules of conduct and then show the majority of the people not following them very well. Unless god/the gods gets up and actually enforces those rules.

  I'll use the Catholics as an example. This may be shocking to some but the Catholic Chruches role in European wars was actually to limit the violence. Or I should say attempt to limit the violence. The Peace of God and the Truce of God were religious limitations on warfare. Christian armies were not to fight each other on certain days (Christmas, Easter, the days surrounding those holidays, Saint days, fasts days, and Sunday was always right out), they were to always grant quarter to each other (taking prisoners and such), women, children, serfs (who weren't suppose to be armed) and of course priests were to be left alone. Prisoners should be treated with respect and not tortured. Rape, murder and other such acts are out the window. A quick read of history shows that Catholism didn't quiet get what it wanted in this regards, in fact if we're gonna be honest, it failed utterly and often ignored it own rules. What about the others?

  Islam declares that muslims shouldn't fight other muslims, to fight only in self defense, not to torture, lie, or molest noncombatives... (looks at Iraq Iran war, medieval wars between Islamic powers, Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, Arabic rebellions against the Ottoman empire)... Okay, Islam had all the success of Catholicism. Moving on.

  Japanese Buddhism prompted the rules of Buddisho and giri. Part of this was an heavy emphasis on personal honesty, honor and loyalty. The Samurai I am sad to say were as shifty and prone to back stabbing as the rest of them.

  The rules in various Polytheistic religions were varied. The Norse gods encouraged one on one combat and family loyalties. The Greek gods didn't have a unifed policy but didn't lay to many rules on war either (expect maybe don't fuck with our temples). It was perfectly okay by them to throw Hector's infant son off a cliff and enslave his wife after Troy fell for example, but they came down on Ajax pretty hard for defiling one of the temples during the sack.

  Religion is also going to be an innate part of how the culture looks at the world. It influences and is influenced by what is going on around it. Look at it this way, a warrior people living in a harsh land where survival is difficult are not going to have a religion where they're told to take it easy and just be cool. Harsh environments are going to have harsh cultures and religions. More lush and fertile environments will have more laid back cultures and religions (this doesn't mean they're peaceful ones, just not as harsh).

  More to come.

  

Announcements

• Blogs Restart....3...2...1

  Welcome, oh ye of little faith.

  These are the blogs which will consume your soul, there is no such evil as great as contained within the enclosed webspages, the insane rantings of those who dwell within will dumbfound and confuse you.

  Or maybe bore or entertain you.

  Whatever is in thier heads at the time they write.

  Enjoy

  

Misc

• Login...
• Register...

XML Feeds

• RSS 0.92: Posts, Comments
• RSS 1.0: Posts, Comments
• RSS 2.0: Posts, Comments
• Atom: Posts, Comments

Who's Online?

• Guest Users: 42