Tombstone, AZ residents told their water supply could be cut in order to protect Mexican owls [CNN]

"Things I Learned from People Who Tried to Kill Me" [Small Wars Journal]

In between wars the British army is an S&M holiday camp for men [Taki's]

The psychology of lying [Wired]

Post smug vacation statuses on Facebook, get your house burgled [Ars Technica]

To feel like a man, act like a man [Brett McKay]

The Cuban revolution's "American Commandante" [New Yorker]

Detroit's countdown to bankruptcy; This too is "what democracy looks like"  [Detroit Metro-Times]

going down the drain

What i'v noticed is that we are going down for the same reason as russia. We get involved in too many wars. The war in Iraq,when we first came in all we wanted was to do was defeat Alqaeda, over throw the taliban and kill osama bin laden. most of which we got done in a few months. sure it took a few years to kill osama but what are we doing now? Now we are spending money  building schools and roads and such. We spend all of our money helping other countrys and then they don't help us back. We build up competition and then wonder why they surpass us. It is like a foot ball team winning their first away game, then spending the rest of the season and money to clean and remodel the other teams stadium.

Saturday morning pot-shots

I got my eye on you!

Corporatism is not a free-market situation Sheldon Richmond reminds us. "Too many people are willing to accept government-set goals (such as energy independence)," says Richmond, "so long as the 'private sector' is induced to achieve them. Regardless of how the goals are achieved, if government sets them, that’s statism."

More collateral damage from the Iraq invasion. How Iraq's university system, considered the best in the middle east by the way, was looted, vandalized, trashed, and burned due to the fecklessness and neglect of the "occupying army". Very sad indeed.

Stupid and venal. That's about all you say about Indiana's just convicted ex-Secretary of State. Republican Charlie White was convicted of six felonies related to fraudulent voting on his part just so he could retain a $1,000/mo. city council pay check. I guess he really needed the money or something. Hope it was worth it Mr. White. He probably paid that much out just for a retainer for his defense lawyer. Love of money is root of all evil they say.

A hilarious look at life, love, sex, and hormones amongst the young adult set presented in cartoon form here.

Next big thing? Speaking here of polymer framed 1911style pistols. This was bound to happen I suppose. Should cut down on both weight and cost, but who knows?

Friday potshots

How would we in America feel about having Iranian aircraft carriers "patrolling" in the Gulf of Mexico or Iranian paramilitary commando teams operating on the border? A little empathy test for the warlike neo-cons and their dupes. Just sayin'.

Trolling on the website of a county Sheriff's Department that is trying to find and arrest you is truly stupid. But some people have this show-off mentality and so they do. Go figure?

There is a bill in the NJ legislature now seeking to ban most handgun and rifle ammo. The anti-gunners couldn't manage to legally ban guns but ammo, they say, is another story.

People who desire privacy on the Internet may be terrorists says the FBI.

The strange addiction that control and power have on some people is just plain baffling, not to mention kind of scary.

Neo-cons pushing us into another war nobody wants

"These let’s-bomb-Iran crowd consists of the same politicians and pundits that not so long ago were warning that Saddam Hussein’s Iraq had weapons of mass destruction and that the world-as-we-know-it would come to an end unless the U.S. invaded Iraq." [American Conservative]

"Provocation" is in the eye of the beholder

The PTB in Washington, D.C. truly have a serious empathy deficit. How would this shoe fit on their foot? To wit:

[A] "WSJ lead story about [the] Chinese developing a ballistic missile designed to fragment – like a cluster bomb – on the deck of a U.S. carrier and wipe out all aircraft and personnel.  Naturally, it’s unbelievably provocative to us [i.e., the US Navy], because in our world view, U.S. carriers get to come right up to the coast of any nation whenever we please, bringing all that magnificent power projection to bear." [Thomas P.M. Barnett @ BattleLand blog]

The nerve of those Chinese! How could these countries be so damn provocative?

The yuppie cubicule dweller's fantasy version of the "war experience"

Chronicled in Outside magazine. Sheesh. These retards really think that getting a few sprains or bruises while running through a muddy obstacle course and then going out for beers is actually the equivalent of having "been through a war ".  Not even close boys, not even close.

Two out of three Iraq and Afghanistan vets think wars not worth the sacrifice

According a poll from Pew. US policy makers please note.

How to defeat America on the battefield

A pair of retired generals Robert H. Scales and Paul van Riper have written a really good op-ed in the Washington Post in re the awarding of the CMH to an Army NCO who actually lived to receive it. Along the way they make the point that the strategy to defeat America on the battlefield has already been written. And our enemies have read it and are using it at this very moment. 

First, make the Americans fight on your terms at a place and time of your choosing.

"...no small unit in such peril should ever cede the high ground to the enemy, particularly when unmanned vehicles are capable of monitoring constantly overhead and transmitting clear pictures of the surrounding terrain."

Second, spend all your money on whiz-bang wonder weapons, shady civilian war contractors, and corrupt indigenous governments rather than basic issue combat kit (e.g., the issue infantry rifle, state-of-the-art body armor, etc.).

"Army and Marine Corps infantry squads were outgunned at the tactical level in Vietnam by the North Vietnamese Army's superior AK-47 assault rifles. We would like a Beltway guru to explain why Sgt. Giunta had to fight with the same rifle we used so long ago."

Third, kill as many Americans as possible. People back home don't like their men coming home disfigured or dead from overseas battlefields in places they don't especially care about. 

Fourth, read the writings of PAVN General Vo Nguyen Giap. He explains it all in detail. To wit: With a correct strategy you may lose battles but you will win the war. Following an incorrect strategy you may win battles but you will ultimately lose the war.

Why you shouldn't do a land war in Asia

"On the eve of the 10-year anniversary of Sept. 11, the Taliban have issued a defiant statement saying the US does not have the 'stamina' or the 'weapon of belief' to remain in the fight in Afghanistan. The Taliban also claimed that unlike the West, it possessed 'endless stamina for a long war.' " (h/t: Bill Roggio @ The Long War Journal)

As Field Marshall Bernard Law Montgomery (Lord Alamein)  noted in a 1962 speech before the English Parliament:

"The US has broken the second rule of war. That is, don't go fighting with your land army on the mainland of Asia. Rule One is don't march on Moscow. I developed these two rules myself." (Wikipedia) [emphasis added]

Taliban facing its own "uprising"

In areas of Afghanistan that the Taliban control the local non-Talib tribes are ginning up their own anti-government uprising. What makes this an interesting occurrence is that where this is happening the Taliban is the government. So says the NY Times so these reports are somewhat suspect barring independent confirmation and it may just be the usual tit_for_tat kinda stuff that tribal cultures are  known for. But it's a development worth keeping an eye on. (Long War Journal, NY Times)

America will be permanently at war. So get used to it.

"In previous decades, the military and the American public viewed war as an aberration and peace as the norm."  But not any more. (Greg Jaffe @Washington Post)

What imperialism, globalization, and neo-con leadership (from both parties) leads to. Endless war, endless casualties, billions of dollars wasted.

What I did on my summer vacation

Chris Jeon, a 21-year old UCLA math major went to Libya and "fought" with the rebel alliance to overthrow the government of  Col. Mohammar Khaddaffi. Admirable of Jeon and yet appallingly stupid. A nice story he'll have to tell his grandchildren some day themed along the lines of For Whom the Bell Tolls  no doubt. But holy smokes man.  It all could have went really bad for Jeon had Khadaffi's minions gotten ahold of him or he'd took a bullet through the neck as George Orwell did during his volunteer warrior service in the Spanish Civil War. Youth is wasted on the young as someone wiser than I once noted. But still I do kind of admire Jeon for being so ballsy and then getting away with it. But I don't recommend following his example though. To paraphrase every mother's advice: It's all fun until someone gets arrested and executed as a mercenary/spy or gets shot through the head by a sniper.

The Afpak war is gonna end just like Vietnam did

What started out as a punitive expedition to punish the Taliban and kill Osama bin-Laden a decade ago is now a debacle that will haunt us for decades.

The end game goes like this: The US leaves, the puppet government collapses and the Taliban wave their flag over the smoldering rubble of the American embassy. All that blood and money squandered and lost. Americans elites just won't learn to mind their own fucking business.

Sign of the times: Americans are getting tired of perpetual war

So says historian and retired Army colonel Andrew Bacevich (TomDispatch.com/)
I sure hope so.

Weblog

Metal thieves starting to hit Ann Arbor area (annarbor.com/)
I suppose it had to happen eventually. They've been a bad problem in Detroit for a while now.

U.S. Rep. Tim Wahlberg (R-MI 7th) votes against Libyan war but then votes for funding it (Jackson Citizen-Patriot/MLive)
Wahlberg represents me in congress. You need to explain this one to us Timbo.

Mid-Michigan women ill after drinking raw milk (Lansing State-Journal)
Three women were reported to have Q fever an illness associated with consuming unpasteurized dairy products.

George Orwell and Ideology (Wilson Carey McWilliams, Front Porch Republic)
"Orwell was inclined to accept the theoretical superiority of smaller, simpler political societies. In modern regimes, the individual is weak and alone, and totalitarian states accentuate this isolation in order to increase their control. In 1984, Orwell’s description parallels Tocqueville’s prophecy: the Party aims to cut its citizens off from one another and from their past, until, in the end, 'All you care about is yourself.' ”

Utah Man Posts Facebook Updates During SWAT Standoff, Gets Help From Online Friends (Popular Science)
It's good to have friends. Too bad Randy Weaver or the Branch Davidians didn't have cellphones, Twitter, Facebook and other social media back in the day.

Ten Years Gone  (Stanton S. Coerr, Long War Journal)
"As in Vietnam, the war in Afghanistan was lost before it was begun: it is lost because it cannot be won. Again our massive and superior military force is losing a campaign to a tough insurgent force. Again we are spending tens of billions overseas, and collapsing under our own weight in the field. Again our strength is being used against us. And again, by providing military answers to political questions, we are in quicksand in the developing world."

Why America is losing in Afghanistan

Motivation. The Taliban, AQ et al have it in spades. American soldiers are brave and tough as they are don't have it to the same degree. Not at all. "This is not to denigrate", says Pat Buchanan, "the brave Afghan soldiers who have bled and died. But the Taliban have not needed U.S. training, U.S. arms, U.S. air and fire support or U.S. paychecks to go into battle. All the suicide bombers who give up their lives are — Taliban."

The Upside of the Obama presidency? We didn't get a McCain presidency

The main advantage, maybe the only advantage, of Obama's victory over McCain in 2008 is that we didn't get a President McCain instead. If we had a "McCain Doctrine" today American forces would be all over the world fighting for our "values". Obama inherited two wars and started a third. How many would a President McCain have America committed to by now? "Under the McCain Doctrine," says George Will, "America’s military would have just begun to fight, and would never stop."

weblog - June 09, 2011

The food crisis of 2011 (Addison Wiggin, Forbes)
All it's gonna take (says Wiggin) is one big crop failure somewhere and they'll be food riots or worse.  People aren't gonna sit still and watch their children starve. As the saying goes "no society is more than three meals away from revolution."

Mid-Michigan farmers playing catch-up after massive rains in May (Lisa Allmendinger, annarbor.com)
As one farmer put it: Things were better for farmers when, "they didn’t depend on just corn or soybeans to pay the bills. Instead, they planted other crops and had sheep, pigs, chickens and horses." But you have to nowadays. They don't call 'em "cash crops" for nothing, eh?

A grunt's view of the Afghan war: "Afghanistan is a waste of our time." (Chuck Spinney, Battleland blog)
Let's GTF out of there before we lose any more killed and wounded. Who has the most credibility here? The Washington think-tankers or the grunts on the front lines? Do you have to ask?

Sign of the times...cont'd. June 9, 2011

From the comments section of an Ann Althouse blog post:

"Protesting Bush's wars was patriotic and American and Right and Just. Protesting Obama's wars is just Racist."

This describes the political zeitgeist of this time and place perfectly. Since January 20th 2009 the peace movement has entirely vanished from American political consciousness. Charges of racism never cease.