perfidy

It was 4 AM and I was awake. I'd had one of my standard dreams, it woke me up, and I spent the next half hour thinking about it. And other stuff too.

Before I go any further, please cleanse yourself of any references to "Apocalypse Now", "Full Metal Jacket", "Platoon", "The Deer Hunter", "China Beach", "MASH", "Sgt. Rock", "Nick Fury", and each and every one of his Howlin' Commandos.
First and foremost, I'm awfully young to have served during either the Korean or Vietnam Wars. At the outside, I could have been conscripted to go to Vietnam when I was 2, the year conscription ended, but my martial skills were not yet recognized at that tender age. Second and midmost, an awful lot of boomer-generated media communicates the message that combat vets, particularly Vietnam-era vets, are fucked up and psycopathic, which is dreck. Third and aftmost, I'm not a combat vet and do not pretend that my experiences whilst in the armed services in any way mirrors what soldiers experience in combat. I was in during the Gulf War but the 3ID never left Germany. At least, not as an entire division it didn't.

OK, on with the dream: This was standard dream A1, which over the last 2 years I have about 3-4 nights in 5. I used to get it before that, but not as often. In dream A1, I'm still in the Army, either having recently reenlisted or never having left. Typically in A-series dreams alot of folks I was close to then are still around. Usually we are in the same unit as we were then, and often hold the same rank, all of which is entirely inplausible. The dream, I think, is more about reconnecting than anything else, not having seen these men in so long and being happy to be in their company again. Usually when I wake up I'm sad they're not here.

Now, this morning's A1 dream got me up around 4. And I started thinking about how I felt during Gulf War 1. The pics of protestors in the paper ticked me off, but there was an uncertainty in the air that I wasn't comfortable with. It had nothing to do with whether we'd win the fight- believe me- it was how things were at home that could really get people off mission and into a funk. Funk like introspective and taciturn, not funk like supabad.

See, soldiers, including members of all service branches, want to know that what they do is valued by the people they are ostensibly serving. That the profound sacrifice they make is respected and understood by the wider population. And lemme tell you, when I came home on leave and saw how things were here, I'd give this country a B-. Tops.

It's not about yellow ribbons, although that's nice. I saw plenty of private displays like that, and am seeing them again since 9-11. Which I like. But what is absent are public representations, public displays of support and understanding that communicate what a broad section of the population feels, together, en masse, and not the onesies and twosies of "support our troops" bumper stickers. Displays like that were largely absent in 1990, and they're largely absent now.

But I'm not necessarily talking about billboards or advocating for continuous parades. I mean, particularly for the media, to treat this whole situation as a war, a bona-fide, thunderbolts from Zeus and sword of Ares war. Today, as then, it's just another story, no different on the page from the piece on welfare reform, grade inflation in the Ivy League, and the goddamn weather, bracketed by upswings in fighting. Of course increased violence is newsworthy, but why are ongoing operations within this conflict rarely reported, or relegated to to lesser sections of the paper if covered at all?

You know what would be nice to see? A paper treat soldiers with some goddamn respect, and not as fucking stories. Run some major articles on what they do, and who is doing them. You could do it without running afoul of OPSEC restrictions. And hey, it's even easier because the leads are already there: the command element runing the military side of things in Iraq puts out many press releases every single day discussing who's doing what and where. Why do I have to go to a Pentagon website, or freaky Free Republic, to read them, not the so-called "paper of record" or its minion agencies?

What a soldier in the field needs to know is that he or she is valued back on the block, CONUS, the Land of the Round Doorknob, the World, home. We can put up all the bumperstickers, yellow ribbons, and flags we want, but such singular gestures have little impact. The only way to communicate with them in great numbers is via journalistic media, but it shows no interest in the task. And that's a fucking shame.

But hey, the weekend weather looks promising...maybe I'll wash my truck and take in a movie. I think the movie listings are at the back of section D, just before that paragraph about Army Special Forces soldiers building schools in Afghanistan.

The Buckethead clan is heading west, to attend a wedding. So, no more muddleheaded and aimless bloviating 'til Monday. You'll have to limp along with the pithy and wise commentary of my comrades. Wait, that was suppossed to be the other way around...

Only ten, you say? Chris Edwards has a list of ten problems he sees with our current tax system. Most of this is fairly obvious, but it is rather disturbing to see it all at once.

I'd add to his list the problem of tax withholding. This is the big con, that allows the government to get away with confiscatory taxation. If you had to pay, as I have, all your taxes at once - you'd never think of it the same way again. When the IRS takes a little bit each paycheck, money that you never see, it's relatively painless. Like the frog/boiling water concept. You think, "wow! I'm getting money back!" if you have a refund. Of course, you're not. But if hundreds of millions of people had to write a check equal to a third to a half of their yearly income on this day, you'd have a tax revolt immediately after.

What if you could decide how your tax dollars could be allocated? How would you divy up the government's share of your income? More money for butter, or guns? Food stamps for whales, or send the Marines to Mars? James at Outside the Beltway links to an article by Charles Murray posing that very question.

I've thought about this before, and even posted this on the subject, though I'm too lazy to find the link. I think that a system like this would be hideously complex to implement. It would wreak havoc on the smooth functioning of the government, since budgets could be subject to wild swings tax dollars follow the fickle whims of the taxpayers. It might even be unconstitutional, since the Legislature is given the power to disburse funds from the treasury.

However, it would also be really cool. It would be a stupendous demonstration of faith in the common people. Lobbying would take on whole new forms, and arguable far less corrupt ones. Special interest groups would actually have to convince real, individual people that their particular hobby horses are the ones that deserve money. Groups of citizens could organize to direct funding to favored projects. Public involvement in politics would (alright, might) soar as people follow the projects they sent their money to. Think of the pride you would feel when you see a mars probe that you funded lands and starts poking the Martians in the belly. Or when a bomb that you funded blows up an enemy compound. And so on.

You'd have to allow some flexibility though - something on the order of a discretionary fund that would allow the government to maintain funding of secret projects, and of projects that got zeroed out by the populace but are deemed important enough to be maintained. Citizens could also be given the option of putting their money in this fund, or assigning one of several default distributions.

But I think that Charles and James are right that a large percentage of the funds would be pointed in the direction of tangible government services. And I really can't think of a downside to that.

Lileks speculates on why we won't be seeing a 9/11 movie:

And that’s the problem. I wonder whether Hollywood execs shy from a 9/11 movie because they think it might send the wrong message.

It would anger people anew, and we’re supposed to be past that. It would remind us what was done to us instead of rubbing out noses in what we do to others – I mean, unless you have a character in the second tower watching the plane approaching and saying “My God, this is payback for supporting Israel!” it’s going to come across as simplistic nonsense that denies the reality in the West Bank, okay? It would have to tread lightly when it came to the President, because even though we all knew that he wet his pants and ran to hide, we’d have to pretend and do scenes in Air Force One where he’s taking charge instead of crying help mommy to Dick Cheney, right? I mean the idiots in flyover people believe that stuff, and you’d have to give it to them or they write letters with envelopes that have these little pre-printed return address stickers with flags up in the corner. Seriously. Little flag stickers. Anyway, we would have to show Arab males as the bad guys, and that’s not worth the grief; you want to answer the phone when CAIR sees the dailies of the guys slitting the stewardess’ throats? And here’s the big one: if we make a patriotic movie during Bush’s term, well, it doesn’t help the cause, you know. People liked Bush after 9/11. Why remind them of that? Plus, you can just kiss off the European markets, period.

Richard Clarke’s book is available? Here’s a blank check. Option that sucker.

It’s like it's 1943, and Hollywood turns down a Pearl Harbor movie in favor of the gripping account of a Washington bureaucrat who warned FDR that the oil embargo would needlessly anger Japan. The attack on Hawaii would take up five minutes – and even then it would be a shot of the hero listening to the radio with an expression of stoic anguish. If only they'd listened.

We here at the Ministry of Minor Perfidy are known to have a more-than-casual interest in giant fighting robots, preferably of the space variety. There are many reasons for this-- we are geeks, we like things that fight, we all remember Robotech fondly. But ultimately, we are fascinated by the prospect of giant fighting robots because of all the inventions of humankind, from the wheel down to the George Foreman Grill, the Pocket Pussy, and online gambling, giant fighting robots are the one system bound to fail more catastrophically and wreak more horror than any other in history.

And yet the brainiacs persist. Wired has news that iRobot, a company founded by MIT graduates, expects the US Army to field battle robots within ten years or so. Does anybody else wonder whether MIT has become a slave to its own inventions, that in some gigantic sub-basement in East Cambridge, deep underneath the Great Breast of Knowledge, lies a giant array of Cray supercomputers, sentient and malevolent, bent on its own cunningly subtle plans for world domination? Is it just me? Yes? Well.

The military is already using iRobot employeesproducts in the Middle East to conduct remote searches inside caves. What does the future hold?

Some of the robots that are being developed may also be used to shoot at human targets, iRobot suggested. But the company said SUGVs will provide advanced reconnaissance first. The company does not want to be seen as putting human soldiers out of business.

Robot vision systems have serious limitations, and the risk that a robot might kill an innocent civilian is too great, said iRobot CEO Colin Angle.

But Angle did not rule out the eventual use of weapons on robots, and noted that Raytheon is developing a targeting system for the SUGV.

"We're not using these robots to hand out flowers," Angle said.

Fantastic. Give the robots a network and guns. Shit, might as well call it SkyNet and face the inevitable. Despite the happy name and benevolence of "iRobot," which calls to mind a future filled with flying cars, robotic servants, and galactic empire, these men are the doom of the planet. We must act now and swiftly to ensure that these fighting robots never gain the advantage. I for one do not want to live out my days as a lubrication attendant for some despotic robot overlord.

Click the "more" link to see the new hotness in apocalyptic peril!

Via Marginal Revolution I find this very puzzling article from the New Scientist which contains speculative evidence that the universe is shaped something like a funnel or straight horn.

They are not sure yet whether this is just a statistical anomaly, but I'll be waiting to hear.

This is nutty. Not only would this imply that the universe is bounded, but moreover at some points it would have finite volume. And then, of course, there's the question of dimensions... Oooh I'm all a-twitter!

At some point, faith, science, and gibberish are indistinguishable.

By having right-wing papers make up stuff about them, of course!

French ambassador to the US, Jean-David Effete...er, Levitte... claims that last year's media shitstorm against France for supporting Saddam was "racist".

The ambassador says that media efforts to denigrate France and Frenchmen was racism akin to that directed against "blacks and Jews", and that it was deplorable that a defamation campaign directed at those populations would get immediate and furious response, yet no one was overly concerned when similar venom was spat at France. Well Monsieur Ambassadeur, that's because there's little basis for comparison between racism, as the word is currently used, and nationality, you fucking nitwit.

And besides, when did "French" become a race, in the way we discuss race today? Am I supposed to infer "French" is included in the "Other" block on my census form? Let's see... black; hispanic, non-white; hispanic; white; native aboriginal...hmmm.. no French; I guess I'll check "other".

Unless he's refering to a Gaullic master race, of purer Aryan stock than mongrel Americans.

Took a day off yesterday from my real job to finish work on a side job. Once that was done, and before I started another side job, I decided the time was ripe for frivolity. And since payday was nigh, and I needed a new printer cartridge, and soon found myself in my local electronics retailery, I decided not to leave without a new game.

I opted for Aliens vs. Predators: Extinction , a real time strategy game that combines the carnage of the associated flicks with the frustration of units wandering about will nilly, characteristic of RTS. Not so much strategy, some tactics, but there's not alot of true command here so the tactics really don't go much beond ensuring a good mix of trigger-pullers and support people. At least for the Colonial Marines; I've not tried the other species yet. And more often than not, the fight is over before I can really see it all on the screen- the action's just that fast. One neat touch: I saw this in the tutorial- the predators get extra points for collecting skulls. All the sounds effects are true to the flicks, inluding the pulse rifles, the motion trackers, the Alien screeching and bursting, and yes the ripping out of skulls.

But before I left the store my eyes happened to fall on the Midway Arcade Treasures compilation. It was cheap, and I had to have it. Again, the sound effects were dead on, just as I remember them, and curiously it was the sound more than the look that really opened the nostalgia floodgates. I remember what people wore ca 1980-1984, the sights, the smells of the arcade... it was really a whole lot of fun. You know the best part though? Being able to continue at will. It's like having unlimited quarters, my dream when I was 12 years old. Even though I didn't necessarily need a reminder of how much I suck at "Defender", it was kinda neat to be reminded that I do.

Here is a peek at the New York Times' front page photos from the period 6APR2004-13APR2004. That period reflects the opening rounds of the operations against Al-Sadr. I don't have yesterday's or today's edition.

Consider the following:

6APR: M1 to the right and mid-range in photo; woman crossing street in front of it. Implied malevolence toward women by combining the symbol of the ultra lethal machine with the symbol of the frail, weak. Life taker against life bringer.

7APR: Marine loading dead Marine, in body bag, into Humvee. Beneath, another pic of 2 armed men, energetic, members of the "Mahdi Army". Implication: Marines dead or sullenly defeated as they police their dead; Mahdi Army in action, relentless.

8APR: Navy corpsmen bringing wounded Marine on stretcher to waiting UH60. Beneath, pic of Marine's torso and arm, enough to see holding rifle, closeup. Background, hooded bound prisoner in mechanic's pit. Implication: Marine casualties serious; bottom pic, juxtaposition of huge size and huge weapon from close-up, vs small frail person, made small and, therefore, weak by distance from photographer. Implication: bullying. Lowest pic: Group of ~10 Iraqi men, apparently cheering, 3 visibly armed. Implication again of great numbers, victory, energy.

9APR: Rice testifying at 9-11 commission

10APR: Man grinning, gleefully brandishing pair of US-issue boots he claimed to have retrieved from fallen soldier from ambushed Army supply convoy. Implication: Population is against us

11APR: Old pic of damaged USS Cole with 2 9-11 hijackers.

12APR: Marine in foreground, again proximity to camera makes him large or looming; in middle distance, group of children and woman gathered in doorway, made small by distance. Implication: implied malevolence toward women and children by large, bullying Marines.

13APR: 6-7 Iraqi men looting a burning supply truck. Implication: the entire population is against us.

This small sample demonstrates the astonishing disconnect between the public perception of battle and the reality of combat operations then underway. Given that most of the American public has never served in any capacity, let alone in combat, it must rely on media for all of its information regarding the armed forces. The Times has taken to this task with gusto, allowing the reading public to perceive the American effort in Iraq an utter defeat.