Let's Talk!

The Great Presidential Debate of ought-4 is about to begin. For me, the broadcast time will be early Friday morning. An ideal time to watch. Before breakfast. It's not certain, but I'm guessing that the actual content of the candidate's statements will be as near zero as makes no difference. Likewise the media post-mortem analyses. The prognosticators will ignore what was said, not said, should have been said but wasn't, shouldn't have been said but was; all in favor of deconstructing the appearance, tone, and facial tics of the candidates. Entirely form over substance, in other words. After inspecting the entrails, the high priests of teevee will pronounce a 'winner'. Not, one guesses, the American voter.
Oddly, I believe this a-logical focus is not inappropriate. The sad fact is, even as evolved as we suppose ourselves to be, we really don't apply logic to our selection of a leader, or vote our own best interests. We go with our gut instinct. At the end, what we are really looking for is the man (yes, man, not woman) who we trust most to lead us to success in the Mammoth Hunt. Or the raid on the next tribe over.
All of which explains why political campaigns look the way they do; schoolground exercises in bluffing. Snorting and pawing the ground. Sometimes colloquially referred to as 'weenie-wagging contests'. I can't wait to see it!

Oh; congratulations Hua Mei, on becoming a mother of twins! Here's an impossibly cute baby picture of Hua Mei in San Diego, where she was born.

I Really Hope It Was Like This

A Great Story...

A long long time ago, during an era known as The Vietnam War, I was doing my time (as it was called then) in the United States Navy, as an enlisted man.

Now, the Navy and I were not a great fit, but in spite of the limited use to which I could be put, the Navy insisted I remain 'til the end of my enlistment. The Powers in the Pentagon seemed to think it their moral duty to retain all personnel in spite of... well, in spite, I believe. Besides, in those days we still had a large component in the military that could best be categorized as "cannon fodder", just like in the good old days of the World Wars (I and II). I see I've drifted a little.
At any rate, there I was, finally, consigned to duty as a shore patrolman in Yokohama, Japan. As duty stations go, I must admit it wasn't too bad. I was a free-spirited malcontent, though, so I wasn't considered a "good shipmate" by any means. Had a tendency to complain. Now, this happened to be at just about the time some of the soldiers in Vietnam started to desert. In fact, this was exactly the time the first two United States Army soldiers deserted. They had been sent on R&R to Japan and decided, when their leave was up, that it really wasn't in their best interest to return to the bullet-infested jungles of Vietnam. I really do sympathize with that view, but at the time, of course, nabbing those deserters was the Number One priority of the Yokohama Shore Patrol. What a coup! What kudos we'd recieve!
As part of the plan of these deserting soldiers, they'd contacted a radical element of the Communist Party known as the Japanese Red Brigade, which happily housed, fed, and displayed the two men at various rallies. We would naturally hear about these appearances and, red lights and sirens going, we'd race off to capture the miscreants. Faring as far as Kamakura, Fujisawa, and even Hakone once. Never did catch them, of course.
Interestingly, there was a sailor who lived in the Yokohama area who bore a striking resemblance to one of the deserters. He was stopped, it seems, about every two blocks whenever he ventured out onto the streets of Yokohama. It got to where he pretty much just kept his ID in his hand, and whenever he saw a SP truck he'd just come on over and say hi. We used to chat a little from time to time. He seemed to take it all pretty well. He was a JO2 (Journalist second class) at Kami Seya. I even remember his name. It was Doug Shuitt. I remember some time later seeing his byline in the Los Angeles Times. I do not know where he is or what he is doing now.
To digress for a moment (I promise, this will have a bearing on the story). Since I appreciate all things maritime, I used to watch the papers for notices of passenger liners sailing from the Yokohama docks. The French Indochina Line (yes, French Indochina Line, with three ships: SS Vietnam, SS Cambodia and SS Laos), home port Marseilles, ran a passenger route from Marseilles through the Suez Canal, around India, up to Singapore and Bangkok, around to Saigon, Hong Kong, Yokohama, and finally to Khabarovsk. The ships were tiny, but pretty. Which is more than you can say about the bloated horizontal high rise hotels polluting the oceans today. Okay, so I'm biased. These were actual passenger ships, however, used by people to go places, not just for expensive vacations. My sister arrived in Yokohama aboard the SS Laos

one time while I was there. I helped her smuggle a Honda Motorbike into Japan. But that's another story. Anyway, when I saw that one of these ships was departng, I used to go down to the dock, join in the throngs (like the ships, the throngs were small), throw confetti, try to catch an end of those paper spirals the passengers threw at the dock, generally have a good time.
Well.
Eventually, those two deserting soldiers left Japan, travelled across Russia, and wound up in Sweden, where they became posterboys for the antiwar movement. Judging by the dates, and the route, and so on, it seems to me entirely possible that those soldiers left Yokohama by way of the SS Laos, on a date when I was not only waving goodbye, but since I was on duty at the time, I was at the dock with my battleship gray Shore Patrol truck, and wearing full SP regalia, including helmet, nightstick, and .45 Colt Automatic pistol! If the soldiers were on that ship, I surely hope they weren't hiding out below. I hope they were at the rail, wondering why that shore patrolman was there waving goodbye to them! I really hope it all happened that way.
It would be a great story, wouldn't it?

Questions We Hope To See In The Debates...

(but I don't think we will)

Mr. President:

When you were a student at Phillips Academy, did anyone explain to you the difference between democracy and plutocracy? Could you define either or both for us?
(If the president attempts to define plutocracy as the Plutonian form of government - ask for a followup!)


Sen. Kerry:

Do you think that your wooden appearance causes people to ignore you?
Followup: I'm sorry Senator, could you please repeat that?


Mr. Nader:

We all know what a pyrrhic victory is - are you hoping to establish your place in history by becoming known as the creator of the pyrrhic defeat?
Alternate: Mr. Nader: Do you believe any of your adherents still really believe there is no difference between Al Gore and George Bush; or do they insist on saying that so they aren't forced to shoot themselves in the head instead of the foot?

In Pursuit of Big T

I see they're at it again with the tobacco companies. This time the government is taking BigTobacco to court for being evil slimy lying crooks. Which is accurate, I believe.
However, a few points really should be made here. I've said all this before, but don't think I ever found anyone with a sense of humor on this subject. Here's hoping!
One: I personally never bought any tobacco product from a "Tobacco Company", nor do I know anyone else who has. We bought our cigarettes from Safeway, from Thrifty, from convenience stores and liquor stores. They're the drug pushers - why doesn't the government go after them?
Two: This is a little bit metaphysical, so please bear with me. If someone tells you something, but you know it isn't true, are they lying to you? Well? The sound of one hand clapping. When I started smoking, and yes, I became addicted most likely with that first inhale, everybody KNEW cigarettes were bad. In my dorm when we wanted to bum a smoke we asked for a coffin nail, or a cancer stick. Gallows humor for youths who believed themselves immortal. I remember feeling vaguely sorry for old folk who had to quit smoking because their health was too frail to permit them to continue the pleasures of smoking tobacco.
The tobacco executives took an oath, then lied to congress. Are there any former tobacco addicts who will go to congress, take an oath, and then honestly say "I believed those tobacco people; I believed that those cancer sticks were harmless." Will people who so testify be prosecuted for (obvious) perjury? Or have their testimony struck for being too doofus to be believed?
Three: This is pretty much all window dressing anyway. Past behvior indicates that the tobacco companies will simply reduce the amount they pay the tobacco growers (another group not being pursued legally) by the amount they are being penalized, and the government will use the money collectd from the tobacco companies to subsidize the tobacco growers so they won't go broke. Or, so they'll vote for the incumbent. Instead of the money going from smoker to store to marketer to grower, now the money will be rerouted through the federal government; in effect making all of us stakeholders in BigTobacco. How's it feel to be profiting from a deadly drug?
I just recalled: on October 11 I will be sixteen years smoke free; except for the smoke my government blows in my face.

A Bad Time For Democracy

September 19, 2004. Evening
I'm watching a press conference with

Tony Blair

and

Ayad Allawi

Tony Blair is telling us what the Iraqi people want. How Mr. Blair comes by his expertise on the aspirations of the people of Iraq is unknown to me.
In fact, considering the state of governance in former satrapies of the British Empire, I do not believe the British government can lay claim to any expertise whatsoever as regards the inculcation of Democratic ideals anywhere or anytime. Consider: Sudan, Burma, Palestine, Afghanistan. What hath England wrought? Heck, how about Iran and Iraq? I sometimes suspect the continuous English meddling is due to a guilty conscience about the state they left their former empire in.
As for the President in Washington, I do not know if he was MIA from his Guard unit, but I suspect he was MIA from his civics classes in school. Or, perhaps at Phillips Prep they confused him with the difference/similarity between plutocracy and democracy. You, Mr. President, should be banned from even saying the words freedom and democracy! Until you have read the United States Constitution, at least.
You should be quiet, Mr. Blair; you and your colleague in the White house are giving democracy a bad name.

Now about that purple heart (Part 2)...

And about those missing service records...

I do believe that each election tosses up (or perhaps throws up) at least one debate point that is so totally irrelevant that it becomes an object of fascination to the candidates, and eventually to the electorate as well. Sort of like those who gather at the site of a train wreck, we are unable to avert our gaze from the disaster. The candidates, sensing that at last they have our attention, proceed to fight along this wierd line if it takes all summer - and all autumn. Which it does. To me the only significance remaining in the record of John Kerry is that he saw, and acknowledged, that the Viet Nam war was a mistake. The only significance of the record of George Bush is that it leaves room for supposition that he received special attention. To those who are astonished that the rich and powerful catch a break; get conscious!
Now, however, we are in serious danger of having these irrelevancies foist upon us in the debates. A hundred million people spending an hour watching a spitting contest about these paleontological events means 100,000,000 person-hours of lost productivity. The possibility of this caused me to harken back to the dawn of television. Yes, I remember the ultra-famous Kennedy-Nixon Debates! The only thing I remember, aside from Richard Nixon's sweaty visage, is that most of the action seemed focused on the question of just which candidate would go to greater lengths than the other to defend The Tachen Islands And Quemoy And Matsu. Anyone remember them? You could look it up. Be aware though, that the names have changed. You will need to look for Jinmen and ... Now the importance of these places, best I can remember, is that they were occupied at the time by troops from Formosa (remember Formosa?). Our stalwart presidential hopefuls wanted to assure, and reassure, and rereassure, the American People that they stood foursquare ready to lend all necessary assistance to keep the Army of the Republic of China (Formosa) on those islands. This in spite of the fact that a sniper on the mainland could do a pretty fair job of picking off the soldiers, if they didn't keep their heads down. And in spite of the fact that the islands were totally indefensible if China really wanted to take them over instead of merely throwing a hissyfit over them. And in spite of the fact that they had no value whatsoever by any stretch of the imagination.
After November 1960, no one ever heard of those islands again. Somewhere along the way, they reverted to mainland China. I don't know when, how, or why. Nor do I care. But, back in those now halcyon days of the Cold War, and the Red Menace, and the Missile Gap, and the Space Race, and the First Televised Presidential Debates, those little pieces of land became symbolic of all that was foremost in the minds of the presidential hopefuls.
Let us hope that after November 2nd, as with the Tachens etc. in 1960, we will no longer hear about who better served his country back in the dark ages of the second millenium. I bet we can count on it.

A simple, but apparently overlooked, fact about the way humans are

If it pays, people will do it, if it doesn't pay, people won't do it.
How simple is that?
As long as terrorism pays, there will be terrorists. "Professional Terrorist" is a career choice in some parts of the world, right up there with Doctor, Lawyer, Fireman, Teacher. It has high income potential, status, power, prestige. What more could an ambitious young man wish for?
We are now well into the third generation of professional terrorists in the middle east, where Israel provides an endless resource for those who wish to motivate others to kill and die. The Israeli government can be counted on to stir the pot whenever things calm down. Create a Kodak moment of bullets and bombs, film at eleven, edited to emphasize the proximity of large well-armed Israeli soldiers to small Palestinian boys with rocks. I don't know why the voters of Israel continually fall for the demagogues who promise to end the violence by escalating it 'til the enemy gives up. The enemy gets richer and more powerful every time the bombs are dropped. Fifty seven years of examples exist to prove this, but wishful thinking appears to have more power to persuade than observed fact.
The United States (America, to the rest of the world) has now entered into the equation. Being more powerful, and more remote, and more mythically engendered with invincibility, it has greater power to stir terrorist passion even than Israel or Russia, or any of the lesser foci of terrorism. We have reached a phase now where the American government can give a boost to terrorists just by talking; it doesn't even have to drop bombs, or send tanks into the streets. Just to make sure, however, the present commander-in-chief continues to send 'his' planes and tanks in to whatever areas are the most prolific recruiting grounds for new young terrorists. As when he was governor of Texas, he continues to show little concern for those who die as a result of his actions.
By making terrorism profitable, America is insuring that terrorism will continue, and continue to burgeon.
You would think a capitalist who supposedly understands the profit motive, like Dick Cheney would know this.
Perhaps he does.

Now about that purple heart...

All the fuss about John Kerry's Purple Heart decorations (perhaps if Dick Cheney had one, we wouldn't be having to hear about this) reminded me of a conversation I had just about the same time Sen. Kerry was getting his decorations. I encountered an acquaintance of mine, a Marine Sergeant, somewhere in Yokohama. I think it was at the New Zebra Club, but, after all, it was a long time ago. We had worked together sometime earlier, and I had gone on to a post in Yokohama, while he had continued on at the detachment in Yokosuka.
When we ran into each other (at the New Zebra Club, I'm pretty sure), he was wearing a leg cast, and sported crutches. Naturally, I asked what had happened.
This is the story: ...I went TDY to DaNang with two of the other Marines in the detachment for sixty days. We were assigned the night shift in the Radio Shack. We pretty much ignored the nightly mortar shelling because nobody seemed to care much about it one way or the other. Last month, a round hit the roof of the shack. A chunk of cement (from the roof) hit my foot, and broke my toe.
I said I was sorry to hear it.
He said: Hey, I really got lucky. Think about it - a Purple Heart, thirty days recuperation leave, and ten points toward my next promotion!
I said I thought he was pretty lucky.
He agreed.
My point, if I have one, is that in a conflict, people view things in a different way than in peacetime, or in civilian life. At that time, in that place, Vietnam was a place where you went to a.) Make More Money. b.) Get A Promotion. c.) Re-Enlist With A Double Re-Up Bonus. d.) Some Or All Of The Above. The grander, more abstract, idea that we were invading, occupying, and pretty much destroying a foreign country in order to protect oil companies' interests in the South China Sea (see Domino Theory), wasn't generally given much thought. Neither was the situation of the Vietnamese people, who had been thoroughly dehumanized, as is required by the necessities of war, to allow one to kill without remorse or even much thought. Where in WWII the enemy were called Japs, Nips, Krauts, Nasties, etc., in Vietnam they were called Charlie, or VeeCee, or by a number of more derogatory terms. Just as today, the Iraqis are referred to by words that place them outside the pale. That's why the troops in Vietnam referrred to everywhere else as "Back In The Real World". Vietnam didn't seem real. It was all just a bad dream.
But I digress.
Considering a.-d. above, what kind of reaction will a participant in combat have when he gets a boo-boo in course of same? Why, he's going to put in for a medal. It's the Way Things Are Done.
If John Kerry hadn't Played The Game properly, he would have been sneered at, and his ability to command anything or anyone would have been totally lost. He really had no choice but to work the system for whatever it would give him. I really doubt that he gave that any consideration though. It's a different time, and a different place, and a different existence. Though Bob Dole says he doesn't believe Sen. Kerry "bled for his country", I bet he will agree with that statement.
Those like the Swifties for Truth, who try to pretend that moral considerations and motivations were the same then as they are now, are either still in the morass of thirty five years ago, or they are being completely disingenuous (read, lying).

Sometimes in the News ...

Sometimes, the news just seems to display a remarkable confluence of related items. Here's what appears at the moment on Yahoo's Top Stories page (September 1, 0315 GMT)

First Lady Hails Bush Anti-Terror Record
AP - 15 minutes ago
Republican National Convention co-stars Laura Bush and Arnold Schwarzenegger commended President Bush to the country Tuesday night for four more years, hailing him as a man of strength and compassion. "You can count on him, especially in a crisis," ...

Bush Recants, Says Terror War Will Be Won
AP - 6 minutes ago
President Bush said repeatedly on Tuesday that the United States will win its war against terrorism, trying to contain political damage from the doubt he expressed a day earlier.

Two Bus Blasts in Southern Israel Kill 16
AP - 4 minutes ago
Palestinian suicide bombers blew up two buses in this Israeli desert city Tuesday, killing 16 passengers and wounding more than 80 in an attack that ended a six-month lull in violence.

Suicide Bomber Kills 10 at Moscow Subway
AP - 31 minutes ago
A woman strapped with explosives blew herself up outside a busy Moscow subway station Tuesday night, killing at least 10 people and wounding more than 50 in the second terrorist attack to hit Russia in a week, officials said.

12 Nepalese Hostages Said Slain in Iraq
AP - 37 minutes ago
A gruesome video posted on a Web site purported to show militants beheading a Nepalese worker and shooting 11 others in the first mass slaying of foreign hostages during the Iraqi insurgency.

U.S. Seeks to Throw Out Terror Convictions
AP - 39 minutes ago
The Justice Department has asked a judge to throw out the convictions of a suspected terror cell in Detroit because of prosecutorial misconduct, reversing course in a case the Bush administration once hailed as a major victory in the war on terrorism, legal sources said Tuesday.

Add earlier reports about conditions in Afghanistan, where Americans have been advised to stay off the streets, and Doctors Without Borders and the United Nations have abandoned efforts to accomplish anything positive. Add reports about growing anti-'coalition' and anti-'interim government' actions in Iraq. You might arrive at the conclusion that the President was correct when he said the War on Terrorism cannot be won.
I'm pretty certain that it won't be won by the kind of actions he is taking, at any rate.