Top Five TV Series For Getting Into Anime

Anime. It seems interesting to many folks, but then they get turned off by its reputation for creepy juvenile fantasy. And that's really too bad, because the genre has a lot to offer if you know where to look. Like many folks, my first introduction to the anime genre was via popular films by Hayao Miyazaki (Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, etc.) and then later with lesser films such as Wonderful Days. But when I first tried to expand my awareness of the anime genre into the realm of television, I was immediately struck by how many of the highly-recommended shows seemed to be rather childish and really struggled to compete with live-action sci-fi/fantasy for my interest. Was anime simply not for me? I didn't want to write off an entire genre of film, and so I continued sorting through the dross until I was able to identify the sort of anime series that I actually liked. This list is intended for casual viewers who find themselves in a similar position.

The difficulty with coming up with Top 5 lists is that they are often so subjective. Elements that can make a show a favorite can also be deal-breakers for other viewers. Since I came at this list from the perspective of a sci-fi fan rather than an anime-lover per se, I'm quite sure that some of my reasons for excluding veteran shows will be anathema for some. For example, this list is mostly composed of newer shows since I don't feel that the animation and characterization of many older anime has aged well (like Macross/Robotech). Cue vitriol.

That said, I made my picks based on the following criteria: Good animation and sound production, well-written characters with a minimum of teenage angst (the otherwise excellent Full Metal Alchemist, for example, is clearly intended for kids), and considered plot development are a must. And while a degree of awkward romance, misogynistic fan-service and simplistic deus ex machina is to be expected from the genre, they're not elements that I particularly admire. I also looked for general accessibility - shows with lots of exaggerated Japanese archetypes or sprawling epic narratives like Legend of Galactic Heroes are difficult for a casual viewer to get into. The same can be said for niche works like the artsy and ethereal Mushishi, whose beautiful storytelling needs a certain amount of cultural familiarity to be understood. And finally I tried to pick out shows that have those elusive qualities of style and creative design that catalyze a decent show into a great one that is worth watching independent of the genre.

Top Five TV Intro Anime Series

1. Cowboy Bebop

Shinichirō Watanabe's 1998 classic regularly tops these sorts of lists, and for good reason. Its compelling combination of strong characterization, aware writing, and imaginative setting makes for a fantastic watch. An outstanding soundtrack by Yoko Kanno and consistent themes of Blues and film noir adds a layer of cultural sophistication to the show and helps define each episode. Widely-considered a "gateway show" to the anime genre, Cowboy Bebop tells the story of a small group of space-faring bounty hunters on a constant hunt for their next meal-ticket. Fans of Joss Whedon's Firefly series will find the concept eerily familiar. Featuring an accessible episodic structure that can feel slow-paced to some, it's been recommended that viewers start with the fifth and sixth episodes (which introduce the over-arching narrative) before returning to the pilot episodes (which focus on assembling the cast).

Note: Cowboy Bebop can be found on YouTube.

2. Samurai Champloo

Watanabe followed up his acclaimed Cowboy Bebop in 2004 by leaving the sci-fi genre in favor of a medieval Japan chock-full of samurais with a hip-hop attitude. Gorgeously-detailed animation and a distinctly modern tone clearly differentiates Samurai Champloo from his previous show, though astute viewers will see plenty of similarities in the construction of the two works (from prominent sound design to a reliance on hunger to advance the plot). With constant references to art, music, history and culture, the story follows a pair of odd couple sword-fighters who journey all over Japan while helping a feisty girl find the mysterious "Samurai who smells of sunflowers". While many anime series have been set in the Edo Period and featured questing samurai, Champloo does so with such style and aplomb that it quickly outpaces the rest. As J.J. Abram's Star Trek interjected youthful vitality into its franchise, Samurai Champloo takes a tired formula and reboots it with all the confidence of a MTV music video.

Note: Samurai Champloo can be found on Netflix streaming.

3. Ghost in the Shell

Coming from the cyberpunk tradition of classic anime like Akira and 1980's sci-fi like William Gibson's Neuromancer, the Ghost in the Shell series has some serious street cred that the others in this list lack. This is reflected in its placement on the list, since it's precisely the kind of unique quality that catalyzes a mere TV show into a cultural phenomenon. GITS abounds with the mixture of techno-futurism and meta-philosophizing that characterizes great science fiction, and its ability to seamlessly move between the two marks it as a series well-worth watching. Set in a dystopian near-future, a group of tough urban cops battle corporate overreach and cyber-terrorism as the show explores the conflict between society and technology (in particular cybernetics). If it sounds too much like a cliché, it's only because so many others have emulated the concepts that it pioneered (the Wachowski brothers directly pitched The Matrix as a live-action version of GITS) . There's several versions of Ghost in the Shell available, but start with the 2002 release of Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex.

Note: Ghost in the Shell: SAC can be found on YouTube.

4. Afro Samurai

Sharing a similar setting and urban flavor with Samurai Champloo, it would be easy to conflate the two, but this show has a sharper edge. If the former is the flashy MTV music video of samurai anime, then Afro Samurai is the bloody Quentin Tarantino take on the same concept - complete with Samuel L. Jackson voicing a vengeful samurai character that is straight out of Kill Bill. Set in a brutally feudal future Japan, a handful of fighters engage in a constant battle for the ownership of the Number 1 Headband that would declare them to be the best warrior. The story is told from the perspective of Jackson's Afro Samurai character as he travels to confront the current Number 1, reflecting on his life's journey that led up to that point. With only a handful of episodes and a focus on action and mood, the 2007 release of Afro Samurai has a straightforward plot and limited character development compared to other shows in this list, but it does a great job of drawing the viewer into its world - a task fueled by the excellent hip hop soundtrack composed by Wu-Tang Clan's RZA.

Note: Afro Samurai can be found on Netflix streaming.

5. Space Battleship Yamato

Some may have noticed at this point that there's a few gaping holes in this list in terms of the types of anime. Most of these series have featured small casts, episodic production, and plots that trend toward the interpersonal rather than epic. And this is mostly because the shows about giant robot wars and magic high-school harems are typically so, so bad.  But it's about time that I throw those folks a bone and bring in at least one excellent space opera in the form of Space Battleship Yamato: 2199. It is the latest in a long line of shows that goes all the way back to the original 1974 Space Battleship Yamato, which started the so-called "golden age of anime" (along with Mobile Suit Gundam). Rebooted in 2012, Yamato represents a living history of the military anime sub-genre. And this means that Yamato inherits both good and bad elements: ambitious story-telling and imaginative sci-fi, as well as catsuits and convenient super-weapons. Fortunately this latest edition does a comparatively decent job of keeping those tendencies in check, while also leaving behind the campy animation of its predecessors, which allows the show to blossom into an excellent piece of contemporary sci-fi. Often compared to Battlestar Galactica, the show mixes politics, character drama and space battles as it follows the crew of the Yamato as they journey on a mission to save humanity.

Note: Space Battleship Yamato: 2199 can be found on Pinoy Anime TV.

Runner-up: Planetes

This contender doesn't have the chops to push its way into the Top 5, but its slow-burning character development and believable depiction of astronauts in the near future make it an excellent watch. Unlike its laser-blasting and warp jumping brethren in mainstream sci-fi, Planetes is in the highly realistic category of "hard science fiction" (as is the acclaimed 2001: A Space Odyssey). With its adherence to things like null gravity, delayed communications, and conservation of energy, Planetes showcases the difficulties of learning how to live in space. In a similarly limited vein, the story features a small crew of technicians living aboard a corporate space station, who are tasked with the thankless yet necessary job of orbital debris collection. If you like your science fiction with a second helping of space suits and vector navigation, then this is definitely worth a watch.

Honorable Mention: Avatar

Not to be confused with the with James Cameron's blue-skinned blockbuster, nor the terrible M. Night Shyamalan live-action adaption, Avatar: The Last Airbender is the flagship of Nickelodeon's latest award-winning franchise. Developed by an American company and constructed on a multi-cultural framework, the show is technically is not an anime (which took it out of the running for this list) but its Asian-themed world and characters certainly makes it feel like one. The show tells the story of a young monk who must travel the world in order to master the four elements of magic (air, water, earth and fire) and confront the evil emperor. It's not Lord of the Rings, but with consistently likable characters, good episodic writing, solid voice-acting and an engaging world, Avatar is emblematic of a kids anime done right. Even as an adult, it's very easy to get sucked into the humorous adventures of Aang and his magic-wielding friends. Its rampant popularity means that there's a very good chance that any kids you know have already watched this show and picked out what their own element would be, so you better catch up!

Homework at the Speed of Light and Sound

1. A lightning bolt releases a thunderclap as it discharges. You see the bolt almost immediately, but it takes longer (five seconds per mile) for the force of the sound to propagate through the air to your ears. Note that lightning, being electricity, of course travels at the speed of light. It generates continuous booms as it rips through the atmosphere faster than the speed of sound; this creates overpressures that move the air very quickly and create shock waves. Consider the relative speeds involved: If you see thundercloud lightning strike a tree, where does the first boom you hear come from?

2. Similarly, a fighter jet flies above you at supersonic speed. You see the jet as it passes over your head, followed by the roar of the jets a few seconds later (exactly the same sonic boom effect as the lightning bolt). It is pushed forward by a series of massive explosions but is traveling faster than those explosions are able to expand through the air and reach your ears. Note that the force has mostly dissipated by the time it reaches you, leaving you with only a sound instead of the explosive force of the engine exhaust. What would happen if the fighter pilot dropped an unguided bomb as he was passing over your head? What about if he fired a missile forward?

3. Vibration of any kind is also a decent thought experiment. Imagine striking a drum while resting your hand on the skin. You can feel the vibration of the drum as the energy of the strike moves through the material. You can hear the dull sound of the drum beat as that energy rebounds in the resonator and through the air to vibrate your eardrums*. Does the sound cease before, after, or simultaneously with the vibration in your hands? What would be the implications of the skin vibrating slower, faster, or at the same speed as sound? What would be differences between hitting a drum and striking a steel pipe against the ground?

*Extra Credit: Consider that our hearing is based upon our brain's interpretation of vibrations in our sensitive eardrum. Though we experience it quite differently, it is a sensation that is functionally similar to blowing on your arm. And yet there are many limitations on hearing. Things can be too quiet or too high-pitched, and it is difficult to hear through solid objects like doors. Our ears are tuned precisely to the sound energy traveling the air we are surrounded with. If we lived in a more heavily oxygenated atmosphere, like during the Cretaceous Period when Tyrannosaurus Rex walked the Earth, the thicker atmosphere would necessitate a different tuning to a faster "speed of sound".

On The Road Mix (Part 3)

The final section of my three part travel album. Hope you enjoyed it.:

Track listing:

1. Wild Night, Van Morrison - Tupelo Honey
2. Flathead, The Fratellis - Costello Music
3. General, Dispatch - Bang Bang
4. Folsom Prison Blues, Johnny Cash - At Folsom Prison
5. Gallows Pole, Led Zeppelin - III
6. Graceland, Paul Simon - Graceland
7. The King of Carrot Flowers pt. One, Neutral Milk Hotel - In the Aeroplane Over the Sea
8. Dashboard, Modest Mouse - We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank
9. The Great Escape, We Are Scientists - With Love and Squalor
10. Fireworks, yOya - Nothing to Die
11. California Sun, Ramones - Leave Home
12. Power of Moonlite, Tiger Army - II:Power of Moonlite
13. Blue Orchid, The White Stripes - Get Behind Me Satan
14. Way Out, Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Show Your Bones
15. Shotglass, Caitlin and the Shotglasses - Caitlin and the Shotglasses
16. Homelands, Brad and Ethan - Live Recordings, Etc.
17. Barton Hollow, The Civil Wars - Barton Hollow
18. The Queen's Rebuke / The Crossing, The Decemberists - The Hazards of Love

13. Blue Orchid by The White Stripes, on the album Get Behind Me Satan. Great single by the Stripes - I absolutely adore Jack White and I'm sure I still have a big ol' poster of him and Meg rolled up somewhere. I even went to a concert promoting this album up in Portland one time. That's a big deal for someone that rarely spends money on shows. Fortunately my folks had season tickets so Cass and I could go. I really love his brand of raw and open sound, I thought his music documentary It Might Get Loud was brilliant. I still haven't picked up his newer stuff post-White Stripes, and I really ought to.

14. Way Out by Yeah Yeah Yeahs, on the Show Your Bones album. Another band I picked up during my sophomore year. A nice little girl band, they do a great job of mixing up Seattle riot grrl attitude with more of a Southern sound. They're easy pleasers, and I thought they'd be a good outro for my brief intrusion of showy rock. I really ought to check out what they've been up to since.

15. Shotglass by Caitlin and the Shotglasses, on their self-titled album. Another local band. I've known Caitlin and most of the band for quite a while. They basically were a group of some of the funnest townie music kids that weren't getting their rocks off just playing in pep band. Cue a burning-brightly band that put out a bunch of shows and one album just before they all went their separate ways. Caitlin and Justin have bounced around a lot, but they're back in Corvallis now and heading a pretty successful punk band called The Angries. Amusingly, I didn't notice that this track (one of their best in my opinion) also contained more than a minute of silence and a secret track. Whoops. Definitely creates a different mood there at the end of the mix. And I like it. I guess it was meant to be.

16. Homelands by Brad and Ethan on their Live Recordings, Etc., album. This song is a real winner with anyone who grew up here in the Northwest. But I'm a fan of a number of their singles including In the Mountains and Seraphim (both on the album). Another local band, though I really only knew these guys by reputation. They were a couple years ahead of me in school, but they also were big regulars over at the Beanery back when I was pounding coffee with the best of them. Amusingly, while their music is very chill my most prominent memory of them was riding a couple of hijacked shopping baskets tied to a bike down Second Street at night.

17. Barton Hollow by The Civil Wars on their self-titled album. A real newcomer to my collection compared to these local bands that I've had for years. Barton Hollow is probably my favorite single from this band, the group is generally more easy-going folk than hard-strumming country. Annabritt introduced this band to me after falling in love with it herself, and she can now do a bang-up cover of it with her friend Catherine Wright to do the harmonizing. Reminds me a bit of a Steve Earle that found a girlfriend instead of heroin.

18. The Queen's Rebuke / The Crossing by The Decemberists on their continuous album The Hazards of Love. Called a rock opera by Pitchfork and other critics, you can imagine some mix of Hedwig and the Angry Inch and a Shakespeare comedy farce playing out behind the mics. However, since the whole thing is connected it makes it rather difficult to pull out a single track. I leaned toward one of my more favorite and unitary ones, The Rake's Song, but people sometimes get a bit weirded out by its baby-killing lyrics (hey, you can't have a tragic narrator without a tragedy) so I figured I'd pick out something that didn't need as much context. However, while this track does a good job of showcasing the vocals and the band, I think that the transitions are too hard and make for a difficult concluding track. I think perhaps I should have picked something else or added additional music. I had room for another 15-20 minutes of music, but not enough time to pick something suitable.

Here are the links to the first and second parts of this mix.

On The Road Mix (Part 2)

The second of my three part travel album:

Track listing:

1. Wild Night, Van Morrison - Tupelo Honey
2. Flathead, The Fratellis - Costello Music
3. General, Dispatch - Bang Bang
4. Folsom Prison Blues, Johnny Cash - At Folsom Prison
5. Gallows Pole, Led Zeppelin - III
6. Graceland, Paul Simon - Graceland
7. The King of Carrot Flowers pt. One, Neutral Milk Hotel - In the Aeroplane Over the Sea
8. Dashboard, Modest Mouse - We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank
9. The Great Escape, We Are Scientists - With Love and Squalor
10. Fireworks, yOya - Nothing to Die
11. California Sun, Ramones - Leave Home
12. Power of Moonlite, Tiger Army - II:Power of Moonlite
13. Blue Orchid, The White Stripes - Get Behind Me Satan
14. Way Out, Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Show Your Bones
15. Shotglass, Caitlin and the Shotglasses - Caitlin and the Shotglasses
16. Homelands, Brad and Ethan - Live Recordings, Etc.
17. Barton Hollow, The Civil Wars - Barton Hollow
18. The Queen's Rebuke / The Crossing, The Decemberists - The Hazards of Love

Annotations:

7. The King of Carrot Flowers Pt. One, by Neutral Milk Hotel on the album In the Aeroplane Over the Sea. Quite a pleasant little band, their music is really best experienced over the breadth of their album. They're great for lazy weekends and singing along to in the Sun. They're probably the only band that manages to have the lyric "I love you Jesus Christ" be catchy instead of preachy. So there's something. Also, I associate this band with the Redwall books (the ones about the Martin the Warrior mouse and all of the funny hare commandos) because I was re-reading a bunch of those books when I discovered this band. Funny how that works.

8. Dashboard by Modest Mouse on the album We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank. Marking a change in the album toward more energetic music. If Dispatch carried me through freshman year of college, then Modest Mouse carried me through most of high school. Great band. It was a bit difficult picking out just one song to represent them entirely. Black Cadillacs on the album Good News For People Who Love Bad News was my first great love with that band. There were several others, but in the end I decided to pick out something more recent for you to listen to.

9. The Great Escape by We Are Scientists on their album With Love and Squalor. Picking it up with a nice little guitar and stick-symbol opener, We Are Scientists are a fun little band that I picked up during a misguided attempt to find more punk. I'm thinking some time junior year in college - so about 2007. Sadly, the guy I got the music from was more a fan of Emo. Fortunately, they were one of the points of agreement. Still not really punk, but they've got some great guitar and a fun attitude.

10. Fireworks by yOya, on their album Nothing to Die. The first of three local bands on this mix, the two singers were actually buddies of mine from CHS and my children's choir. They were both in my vocal section for years, so I got to know them quite well. They now live in Los Angeles and are putting out their unique blend of folk-electronica.They seem to be doing pretty well with it - they do tours up and down the West Coast regularly. Fun band.

11. California Sun by the Ramones, on their Leave Home album. Never mind the bollocks! It's the Ramones. Well actually that should be the Sex Pistols, but I was having a tricky time putting punk music onto an album that also had Johnny Cash. The Clash would perhaps have been a safer bet in retrospect, but whatever. The Ramones are totally awesome punk, a band that came into the scene early enough to still be more rock than "pump it up to 11" noise. Not that I have anything against that kind of punk - there's another fun local punk band, Rock N Roll Hearts, that I rather wanted to put on - but I eventually decided they were too "Sex, Drugs and Rock n'Roll" for this mix. Maybe the next one?

12. Power of Moonlite by Tiger Army on their album II:Power of Moonlite. Tiger Army was one of several bands that I picked up my sophomore year while living in the Jasper house. A big bach house with lots of girls and homebrewed alcohol (occasionally awful) seemed well-suited with noisy and poppy rock. Similar bands were the brightly electronic Death From Above and LCD Soundsystem - and lots of lots of Irish punk. Fun times

See part one here and part three here.

On The Road Mix (Part 1)

After yet another long hiatus, I thought that I'd make another post on my poor old blog. A little while ago I put together an annotated travel mix for my friend Kindra, and I've been meaning to repost it online when I got the chance. It ended up being one-part discography and one-part audio biography. Since my focus was on representing the music that I've listened to most in life, it's more or less the standard fare. Still, check out the first of three parts here and let me know what you think! (I'll put up the next part tomorrow):

Track listing:

1. Wild Night, Van Morrison - Tupelo Honey
2. Flathead, The Fratellis - Costello Music
3. General, Dispatch - Bang Bang
4. Folsom Prison Blues, Johnny Cash - At Folsom Prison
5. Gallows Pole, Led Zeppelin - III
6. Graceland, Paul Simon - Graceland
7. The King of Carrot Flowers pt. One, Neutral Milk Hotel - In the Aeroplane Over the Sea
8. Dashboard, Modest Mouse - We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank
9. The Great Escape, We Are Scientists - With Love and Squalor
10. Fireworks, yOya - Nothing to Die
11. California Sun, Ramones - Leave Home
12. Power of Moonlite, Tiger Army - II:Power of Moonlite
13. Blue Orchid, The White Stripes - Get Behind Me Satan
14. Way Out, Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Show Your Bones
15. Shotglass, Caitlin and the Shotglasses - Caitlin and the Shotglasses
16. Homelands, Brad and Ethan - Live Recordings, Etc.
17. Barton Hollow, The Civil Wars - Barton Hollow
18. The Queen's Rebuke / The Crossing, The Decemberists - The Hazards of Love

Annotations:

1. Wild Night by Van Morrison on the album Tupelo Honey. I've actually never been huge into Morrison, and I can't really remember when I downloaded this album. Probably when I picked up a bunch of Jimi Hendrix and similar classic rock; it just seemed the thing to do. This single is fantastic, but I think some of the other songs on the album lack the happy energy of Wild Night.

2. Flathead by The Fratellis on the album Costello Music. The Fratellis are such a happy little Ska band. They're great at having a driving sound that is still quite classy. I picked them up from a photographer friend of mine, Leah, down in Eugene. Nowadays she's living in Prague! Can you imagine that? She and I would just hang out at her house swapping photo books and record albums, chatting about one thing or another. Cool chick. And at one point she dumped a bunch of awesome music onto my laptop. Hurrah!

3. General by Dispatch on the album Bang Bang. Dispatch was one of those bands that carried me through my freshman year of college. My roommate Ryan was huge into them, and it didn't take me long to start to obsess as well. General was one of those songs that hits all the sweet spots for me; it's a story song (based on the Civil War!) that has some great lyrics and some stirring melodies. It's a favorite with everyone who's heard the band, I think. I almost got a chance to go see the band live once, but it never panned out. Too bad!

4. Folsom Prison Blues by Johnny Cash on the At Folsom Prison album. The Man in Black! Cash was so great. His life story is quite interesting, and I think that they did a decent job of retelling it in Walk the Line. I've been listening to him for years. He has another couple of songs that I like a bunch too: The Legend of John (later in the album) and The Man Who Couldn't Cry on the American Recordings album. Great stuff. But Folsom Prison is the most iconic, and this song is the best at showing it off. Cash played at many prisons during his life, but it was this one in Folsom, California that really kick-started his career onto the national stage. Good thing too.

5. Gallows Pole by Led Zeppelin on the III album. Zeppelin! Continuing the prisoner motif of Prison Blues, Gallows Pole is one of my favorite Zeppelin songs. It follows a pretty classic three-part story format, which I love, but it's Jimmy Page's fantastic voice coupled with the twanging guitar that really propels this song into greatness for me. There used to be a great Zeppelin cover band here in Corvallis called Stairway Denied, and they had some of the best covers I've ever heard. The lead singer absolutely nailed Page's vocals, and also had good looks and the long rocker hair. They've since broken up, but I'll bump into him here in town and have to resist gushing over a Corvallis celeb.

6. Graceland by Paul Simon, on the Graceland album. Though I do like Simon and Garfunkel, the sheer amount of overplaying of them by my friend Arielle caused me to cast out for this album. I played it a bit, never really latching on, and then one day I came home from an epic backpacking trip into Eastern Oregon and turned this on and everything clicked. Instant travel song favorite. The rest of the album is fine, but it is really this single that I am most enamored with. Hopefully some day I won't feel as burnt out on The Beatles and Simon and Garfunkel. :p

See part two here and part three here.

The Stick Game

I was reading some stuff from this guy who is a Viking LARPer, and while they have a pretty bad rep I have to say that some of their research turned up some pretty awesome stuff like "the stick game"

"The stick game": Played while drinking. Opponents face each other, and are handed a stout stick about 8-10 inches in length. Both opponents grasp the stick with their right hands. The loser is the first person without a hand on the stick. There are no other rules, but it's considered rude these days to interfere with the opponents groin in any way. It's really physical and people get hurt quite often, with opponents getting thrown around and contorting each other. Our current Holder Of The Stick is a girl who's about as big as one of my legs. She's extremely vicious and flexible, and her light weight makes throwing her around less effective than it would be with a large opponent. I'm useless at the stick game.

The Disasterous Reporting of Fukushima

I know that it's often rather eye-rolling to see controversial political advocacy, but I'd really recommend checking out what Fareed Zakaria has to say in this report. I think he does a good job of putting the issue into context. I don't think he goes far enough in terms of alleviating concerns over the Fukushima accident, nor in supporting the idea of clean nuclear energy, but he's one of the first Western reporters covering the story that I've been able to nod my head with.

For the last week I've been in quiet despair over the baseless fearmongering and sometimes stark racism that seemed to afflict Western media covering the disasters in Japan. Some of my favorite news agencies - ProPublica, NYT and NPR among them - were not unaffected by this seeming free-for-all of dire speculation that has caused so much panic. I was glad to see that at least one reporter has managed to retain some level of journalistic reserve and perspective on such an explosive issue.

Pet Peeve #465

Why the heck are you putting stuff up on a vehicular dashboard? Don't you know that someone is LOOKING through that area so as to avoid a massive collision! And that furthermore, have you noticed how those items tend to shift back and forth distractingly, in a way that may contribute to DEATH? Are you somehow unaware that there is a plethora of places to put extra items in a vehicle, such as the glove box, side pockets, or the floor in front of you? And how did you get such an item into the vehicle in the first place, why don't you simply put it BACK there instead of littering my car! My dear friend, get your crap off my dashboard!

Afghanistan

I've been too busy writing out here at the coast to update this blog for the last two weeks. But since Obama is going to announce his plans for the war in Afghanistan tonight, and I've been thinking about war so much, I thought that I'd put together my opinions on the issue.

Obama is reportedly intending to increase troop levels by 30,000, but also plans to end the war in Afghanistan within three years. Best of luck to him. It's not an entirely popular move, and with the many comparisons to Vietnam, there are fears that Obama may be simply embroiling the United States in a war it cannot win and cannot afford.

While the cost of the war is a significant issue in its own right. There is some hope on that front. Congressional Democrats David Obey and Carl Levin are forwarding a "war tax" proposal that would effectively implement a one percent tax that would fund the war in Afghanistan (a war that may cost upwards of $100 billion a year). The tax, entitled the Share the Sacrifice Act, would exempt service members who have served in Iraq or Afghanistan, as well as families that have lost loved ones. While Murdoch's media machine is already revving up to fight it, there is hope that there are enough military conservatives to overcome the greed of the business elites.

As for the troop increases themselves, my hope is that Obama will be able to use them to give himself the time to do three things:

1) Stand up non-uniformed Afghani militia forces to protect their homes with AKs and grenades against outside influences in the name of stability. Call it the Minuteman policy. Give them political training, small-arms defensive guerrilla training, and send them home. It was virtually the only thing that was particularly effective (especially cost effective) in Vietnam, and it's the right thing to do here.

2) Allow Pakistan time to harden up its defenses in the border region, in anticipation of militancy in the future. Sorry Pakistan, better start digging trenches, the next decade is going to suck for you.

3) Give special forces and UAVs the maneuvering room to continue targeting militants in the hills, trading time for precision, and giving especial thought to avoid collateral damage in order to prevent a widening of the conflict. This is a boring village country. Kill one farmer, and the only thing his son has to do for the next 15 years is bitch to his friends about how Americans murdered his dad. Don't let it happen.

This is not a good war to fight. We saw what happened to the Soviets when they tried it. It is a theater that negates every advantage we have except UAVs. Maybe we could win, but win against what? 300 militants hiding in the hills? What's the point if in the process we do far more damage to ourselves by overextending than they ever could? I say pull back and let the chips sort themselves out a little bit. Karzai is not worth supporting at the cost of our own principles and the myth of stability. He doesn't control anything outside the capitol, and even that is tenuous, and he's basically just another warlord.

Right now the only thing providing real stability is Coalition forces, and that doesn't seem to be changing. If things are going to fall apart as soon as we leave, regardless of what we do, then we better just pull the band-aid. We can't stay there forever. It's time to call it a win and go home. We can always come back if we need to.

Veterans Day Remembrance

Here's a fantastic war story for Veterans Day. It features the renowned British commando Mad Jack Churchill, whose exploits are as amazing as they are true.

Some people, especially here in the liberal West Coast, question whether to celebrate Veterans Day or not. I'd say to them that it's not about the wars fought, but individual actions of the soldiers themselves. They aren't being rewarded for winning or picking their battles, they're being recognized for the sacrifices demanded of them by a democratic nation. It's about amazing men like Roy Benavidez, whose courageous actions saved the lives of eight men, won him the military's highest honor and serves to inspire generations of not only soldiers, but American citizens.

And now to the tale:

In the desperate years of the second world war (Great Paranormal War as it became known to the Russians), the Nazi's fused super science, their penchant for mass-murder, and the occult into a scourge that would haunt the steps of man forever. Hitler, realizing that he could never complete his victory over the Soviet Union with the dwindling manpower of Germany, turned his attention to something the Fatherland had plenty of, the dead. Himmer's freshly formed SS Division of Paranormal Ops, teamed with the Black Arts and Sciences Department of the German government set to work creating the Fuhrer's ultimate army.

Initially, they met with failure, while the "Scheusal", which roughly translates into "zombie" was tough to kill. It was also highly unreliable, as they would wander off in the direction of the nearest attainable food source, which in many cases tended to be the Wehrmacht's own troops. One SS report also stated that it had a detrimental effect on morale and "caused considerable difficulty in rallying men as they watched their former comrades in arms devouring enemies or allies.". For the Germans, this was only the first misstep on the road to perfection. Next, Himmler chose a corps of especially racially pure SS officers, whom, after participating in a "Blood Ritual" believed to be an oath of eternal service devised by the SS Paranormal Ops teams, he had ritually slaughtered. Using some arcane means, he had the souls of these men implanted in specially created hosts.

These hosts were to be the leaders of Hitlers new Dark Army. The BA/S department through the use of historical documents, dug up the remains of dead knights of the Teutonic orders of old, and had their bones placed in specially designed armor, daubed in runic symbols sacred to the SS. Ritually sealed, and imbued with the souls of resurrected SS officers, they walked again. As they had no human body to limit them, these creatures had near limitless strength, and were equipped with weapons that would slow a normal man to a crawl, such as the feared MG42, or Flamethrowers... some wielded darker weapons that they brought back from the other side with them. To make matters even worse for the Allies, they were virtually indestructible.

Hitlers new dark Teutonic Order were the perfect leaders for his armies of undeath. The new "Scheusal Mk. II" was programmed with a spell that bound it to the will of the Black Knight leading the company. Driven by his fanatical will and murderous intent, they became devastatingly effective soldiers, only killed by headshots, and frightfully strong, they could rip men to shreds. The SS also made the morale improvement of masking the faces of the reincarnated dead with gas masks, and giving the detachments names like "SS Plague Weapons Division" and the like, to keep average soldiers away.

They were first tested at the city of Leningrad, a place of much consternation to the Third Reich. The siege had dragged on for almost as long as the armies of the Reich had been in in Russia. The people, starving and weak, held on with dogged determination, and no end seemed in sight. Himmler thought of this as his chance at a shining achievement for his aptly named "Deaths Head Legion".

They took the city in three days. The unstoppable hordes of undead smashed through the barricades, and butchered the defenders. Where fortified buildings gave the horrified Red Army soldiers a chance to slow the oncoming horde of monstrosities, they were blasted or burned out by unstoppable Black Knights. The ravening horde then fell upon the populace. Only a few living SS officers joined the dead army to observe their effectiveness, and barely any remained sane enough to report back what they had witnessed in those two terrible days. Through them, and the transcribed ramblings, they gathered reports of soldiers feasting on flesh, and the Knights feasting on something darker still... souls, ripped screaming from their human forms, and devoured. When the German Army entered on the sixth day, they found the fortress city nothing but a charnel shell. The streets ran with blood, piles of corpses were everywhere and the air hung heavy with horror. Nothing was left alive, all was consumed. It was a victory that had not been seen since Paris, and the German people would know none of it. The press corps was not allowed within a mile of the city, and signs like "Verboten, Typhus!" cropped up everywhere. For the SS and Himmler, however, spirits could not be higher, and Hitler would use this dark army to crush the resistance at Stalingrad.

It was not until the battle of Moscow that the tide could be turned. The battle of Moscow had dragged on for weeks, even with the army of the unliving, but progress was steady. With its ranks swollen by the harvest at Leningrad and Stalingrad, and every Red Army army soldier that fell became a new recruit. Sometimes, the DA/S department wouldn't fully program the newly dead, and would simply unleash the mindless, hungering fiend on the populace of Moscow. Many reports were taken by Commissars of men screaming and raving about dead brothers and friends coming back to eat them before finally shooting themselves. Himmler took particular pleasure upon hearing such dispatches.

The Allies, desperate for a countermeasure, had pooled their resources to develop a weapon against the undead legion. Stalin gathered every Gypsy, palm reader, fortune teller, and tested them ruthlessly to find those who were truly gifted, and those who were not. The psychics who succeeded, went on to further training, those that did not, were shot to preserve secrecy. The survivors were put through rigorous training that enabled them to sever the energy linking the Dark Knights from their soldiers, and in some cases, free the tormented souls of their undead shells completely. The Dark Knights however, had joined willingly, and so were much more difficult to spiritually removed, all alone however, they could finally be destroyed with overwhelming firepower. Further, the psychic weapons provided some shielding against the darker powers wielded by the Knights, and the Cultists which had joined the ranks.

Not to be outdone, British Military Intelligence, and the Office of Strategic Services began work on what became known at the highest levels of the western allied governments as the Spiritual Warfare Division. With aid from the Vatican, weapons to combat the dark arts were developed. Shotgun shells filled with exorcised salt as well as lead were produced, bullets with holy water ampules contained inside, flamethrowers with blessed oils from the holiest churches in Christendom, knives and bayonettes were blessed and hammered out of silver and steel from Crucifixes. Joined by willing Priests drawn from all the Allied countries, Poland, America, Free France and even some Italian refugees. There was even an Indian battalion, where Shaman and holy men from the Apache, Comanche, and Sioux joined the ranks. Now even the very Earth rose in anger against the unholy Reich. These men, trained like soldiers, but with the hearts of clergymen, when the time finally came led the assault on Castle Wewelsburg.

The Siege of Castle Wewelsburg became the battle for the soul of humanity. While largely kept out of the press until after the battle, it was well known to people of the world that the dark forces unleashed by the Nazis had to be contained and destroyed, or they would overwhelm everything in time. This became especially clear when the Nazi's, in desperation, attempted to use bloated zombies to cross the channel at the Pas de Calais. While almost all were destroyed in direct action by the Spiritual Warfare division, a few managed to slip through the protective cordon and wreaked havoc on close in land towns, causing many to be Quarantined until the undead menace could be quelled. As the Western Allies mustered their forces for battle at Wewelsburg, the Russians had turned their new psychic weapons into the physical manifestation of Slavic vengeance.

At Wewelsburg, the allies began with a mechanized assault, using specially blessed and exorcised tanks and armored fighting vehicles, resistant to the corrupting and corrosive spells wielded by the Cultists and Knights, as well as the new "Pentagramic Shells" and "Baphomet Cannons" developed by the BA/S department. Which had flayed the souls of so many soldiers of the Allies. Allied artillery, inscribed with prayers of exorcism and purification pounded the walls of the Nazi fortress, finally breaching the gate, and allowing allied infantry inside.

Hundreds died as Himmler unleashed his newest creation, the Ende Garde, or Death Guard. Huge flesh golems created out of the congealed flesh of SS dead, were only a half dozen in number, still in the test phase, but proved insanely tough to kill. Slowly but surely, they were lured outside, to be destroyed by lightning from the hands of Shaman, combined fire from the blessed weapons of the SW Division soldiers, or in one case banished by the hands of a single SW Division Priest. Only then could they fight their way into the bowels of the black citadel. Fighting through fanatical SS Troops, driven to depravity and insanity by the dark forces they had been exposed to, the Western Allies discovered the true depths to which the evil Reich had sunk.

In the miles of excavated catacombs beneath the castle, untold horrors were discovered, few SW Division soldiers would speak about what they saw, even to high command, but what reports could be compiled defy belief. Piles of plague infected concentration camp victims lay ready for reanimation, to be sent via the channel to England, and specially designed U-boats to the coast of America. Body parts and organs of fallen Waffen SS daubed in vile magick runes, lay in semi congealed soup, ready for injection into molds that would allow for easy mass production of the Ende Garde super soldiers. It was clear that Himmler to produce these on a scale similar to the Scheusal Soldaten, and had them led by the Dark Knights. Given only a few months more, the Third Reich would have overwhelmed and swept aside the armies of the Allies in an unstoppable wave of dead flesh. More alarming, it came to the attention of the OSS that the SS Paranormal Ops division had begun to merge the cultists and Dark Knights, creating near indestructible undead warriors, that could raise freshly dead soldiers right on the battlefield. Distressingly, none of the few that remained could be found, and had apparently escaped into the woods of the Rhineland.

Perhaps the most famous of the British answers against the Nazi's new Teutonic Order was Lieutenant-Colonel Jack Malcolm Thorpe Fleming Churchill, more commonly known as "Mad Jack" by his troops and "Britannia Triumphant" among the public. Leading a handpicked squad of Commandos, Churchill's primary mission was to seek and destroy Black Knights. His legendary success can be attributed both to his personal character, and to the sword that was his primary weapon: what many historians agree was Excalibur itself. Regardless of the sword's identity, there are numerous eyewitness accounts of it shining brightly as Churchill used it to cut Black Knights in half--the same horrors that had taken artillery rounds without pause. Churchill also is claimed to have been able to disrupt the magic controlling a Scheusal's mental processes by playing a set of bagpipes, but these allegations have yet to be given proper documentation. Churchill's Commando group was handpicked from England's finest; being knighted for exceptional gallantry was a must before any man could even be considered for selection. The British propaganda corps noticed this, and dubbed this Commando group "The New Round Table." "Never have so many owed so much to so few." Winston Churchill's words, after the defense of London, where he led from the front with Tommy gun in hand, and was saved by Mad Jack's timely relief.

Among his most notable deeds were the development of the Pendragon Rounds. Jack Churchill was more than able to destroy a Black Knight at three hundred paces with this ammunition, which burned like a flare, and screamed like and eagle when fired. To this day, no one knows their exact composition, because Mad Jack took their secret to the grave, back in 1996. He also participated in the action that would make his name synonomous with British ingenuity and daring, in a commando raid on a Norwegian installation that gave the British forces their first Black Knight to analyze. Armed only with his trusty sword and aided only by his lieutenant known to most records only as “Percy”, he managed to capture twenty-seven SS soldiers and, inexplicably, an active Black Knight.
Stalin, not wishing to tip his hand about his newly developed psychic weapons, had told SHAEF that he simply didn't have the forces available to aid in the destruction of Wewelsburg. This would come back to bite the Soviets in the Korean Suppression, as armor technology captured from the Nazis would lead to the development of the US "M8-Patton" Personal Tank, a massive suit of diesel fueled powered armor. Regardless, he massed his psychic soldiers, whom had used the years of German defeats and retreat to develop not only psychic defense, but psychic weapons against the Wehrmacht. On the outskirts of Berlin, soldiers began going insane, shooting themselves or their comrades, or simply walking out into the guns of the avenging Soviets. Women threw themselves and their children from windows, the old and the invalid dying of terror induced heart attacks as nightmares from the Eastern Front were transmitted directly into their brains. Tanks crumpled as incredible unseen force held them in a vice like grip. The captured were forced to slit their own throats, "To save us the ammunition..." one Commissar noted, "these fascist pigs are not worth the bullet." The truest revenge came in the final days of April, 1945. Until then, Hitler had proved remarkably resistant to psychic attack, his mind incredibly strong, as if driven and reinforced by a darker and stronger intelligence. Deep within his psychicly shielded bunker, and surrounded by psychic defectors from the USSR, he remained impervious to assassination attempts by psychic agents. So Stalin's agents chose to isolate him, first and easiest to turn was Goering, as they stoked the fires of his ambition. Each of his Generals, one at a time, accepted defeat and turned on him, the seeds of Soviet victory planted in their fear fevered brains.


Eventually, paranoia, defeat, the malign influence of the darkness he sought to harness, and above all the despair of lonelyness weakened Hitler, until he too became vulnerable. The breakthrough was made by a psychic agent, known even to this day only as Agent Ivan. No concrete reports exist or have been declassified to this day of the exact events, but a Soviet defector during the following cold war spoke of Stalin psychicly being witness to Hitler's suicide, through the ministrations of Agent Ivan. With the death of Hitler, the strongest link in the chain that connected the Reich with the forces of darkness snapped, and Nazi paranormal activity dropped to near zero. Stalin ordered that great show be made to beguile the Allies into believing that the rumored Soviet Psychic Agency was indeed just rumor, and that would prevent the development of psychic counter measures like those used by the Nazis.

Unfortunately for mankind, the few Black Knights that had escaped scattered themselves to the four winds. They would only emerge again at the head of a horde of undeath, usually reaping a frightful harvest before being defeated again, and driven away. It became the personal quest of "Mad Jack" Churchill to hunt down the last of these creatures, and to the day he died he protected the world against those who would use the dark arts to further there own agendas. For the people of Russia however, their suffering was not yet ended. Leningrad became a haunted shell of a city. After the war ended, the Soviet government tried to have it repopulated, only to find that a single unimaginably powerful Dark Knight had taken up the city as his own blasted citadel. Allied Intelligence believes, but cannot conclusively prove, that this creature is in fact Heinrich Himmler. Unwilling to fight for the tormented shadow city, the Russians gathered the most potent of their Psychic Agents, and walled the city off as the Agents erected a psychic dome of energy, sealing it forever. The dome must be forever maintained by the Psychic Agency, or the horrors contained within could be unleashed on a war weary world. So it remains to this day, the Dark Knight encapsulated in his psychic prison, plotting against the world of the living, waiting for the day of his release to haunt the steps of Man again.

Legalities of the Fort Hood Shooting

In continuation of my attempt to resume using this blog, I thought that I'd share a bit of legal theory-crafting that I was doing earlier. In the light of the Fort Hood shooting, I began examining the legalities of the situation, particularly if the attacker, MAJ Nidal Malik Hasan, had hypothetically been a member of a foreign militant organization. I think that this is a very interesting legal question because it is a good example of where the lines are drawn insofar as international wartime law is concerned.

Here are the following questions that would have to be looked at under the Hague conventions and by extension the other international war conduct treaties. If you are unfamiliar with the event, then crawl out from under your rock and check out the fantastic New York Times article by spot news Pulitzer veteran Robert McFadden about the incident (especially its fantastically written ending):

1) Is the man (hereafter called the Agent) a soldier of an enemy army or militia? Or alternatively, does the Taliban / Al Qaeda / Sadr Militia count as an army or militia, seeing as it is a political organization that doesn't really control a country? On this note, I think the answer is probably yes, but there is some room for debate.

2) Assuming the above is true, do the laws of war apply to the Agent? This seems unlikely due to the actions of the organizations in question. Article 1 of the Hague code would indicate that they have not fulfilled the requisite conditions:

Article 1, Chapter I, Section I of the Regulations Respecting the Laws and Customs of War on Land, of the Hague Convention

The laws, rights, and duties of war apply not only to armies, but also to militia and volunteer corps fulfilling the following conditions:

To be commanded by a person responsible for his subordinates;
To have a fixed distinctive emblem recognizable at a distance;
To carry arms openly; and
To conduct their operations in accordance with the laws and customs of war.

In countries where militia or volunteer corps constitute the army, or form part of it, they are included under the denomination "army."

3) Assuming that the laws of war did apply to the Agent, would his actions be a war crime? In this case, I would say yes. He violated two clauses of Article 23 of the Hague convention, killing and wounding treacherously as well as making improper use of an enemy uniform and insignia (meaning wearing it while attacking, as opposed to using it for reconnaissance or a so-called ruse of war).

4) Separately, are the soldiers at Fort Hood legal war targets? All indications point to yes. The base is guarded, and the soldiers are not convalescing or otherwise to be considered noncombatants. The civilians in the area would be considered collateral damage so long as they were not targeted specifically. Of course, for such an attack to be considered legal under international law, it would have to be conducted legally and by a legitimate army.

5) As such, the Agent would not be protected under international wartime law, as he did not abide by that law (indeed he violated it flagrantly). He would then be tried as an unlawful combatant, and thus would be judged under the domestic laws of the United States.

So enough of the hypothetical theory-crafting, what's really going to happen to the guy? Is he going to hang or are his lawyers going to say he's crazy? Probably both. His lawyers are going to plead not guilty by reason of incompetence (PTSD most likely), and the government is going to quash that like a ripe fruit. As far as I know the guy hasn't even been overseas. They'll ask for the death penalty and they'll probably get it too (this is Texas after all). Even if they didn't need to send a message to other would-be war objectors that this sort of thing gets put down with prejudice, this many murders would land a man in the hot seat regardless of the circumstance.

I once covered a similar case with a former military man who kidnapped and later killed his wife here in Oregon. His lawyers claimed he had PTSD, but the jury sentenced him to death anyways. The defense just isn't that strong, especially because the jury sees only a sane man and not a lunatic.

My only real question is whether they are going to try him under the UCMJ in a General Court-Martial with a JAG lawyer, a military judge and a five serviceman panel, or if they are going to turn him over to the civilian authorities to be tried in a Texan district court. Personally I'd prefer the former in this case, but I'm sure the Pentagon will get a lot of pressure to put him into state hands; whomever represents the guy will have a heck of a time deciding which one would be better for his client.

Rogue Praetorians?

It has been quite a while since I last updated this blog, as Twitter seems to have sated most of my creative and informative writing urges. But fear not! I've recently come up with an array of stuff that I would like to share, and I'm going to be putting out some of it over the next few weeks. First a little writing, then perhaps some old photography (for real this time). Who knows where my semi-productiveness will take me?

In any case, a review: I recently came across an audiobook of Jeremy Scahill's seminal work, Blackwater: World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army, which I had heard so much about in some of the more excitedly liberal circles. If the topic (American mercenaries in Iraq acting as modern-day Praetorians that are exempt from oversight) was not enough of a hook, the cover art surely was.

Unfortunately while it was interesting listening to the book, honestly I was a little disappointed. Blackwater came across as being too much of a YouTube indictment, with the author wringing his hands over minor anecdotes rather than putting together a cohesive narrative. He seems to expect the reader to be rah-rahing him on, and without a healthy topping of righteous indignation the work rings rather hollow. But it simply is hard not to notice that his book, though extensive, is principally just conjecture and recantation of relatively well-known news stories. To top it off, Scahill's roughshod approach to military parlance and culture makes him appear rather confused and inexpert in a topic that clearly deserves a more considered hand.

While I went into the work looking forward to a stirring and fascinating take on one of the most controversial horrors of the Bush era, I came to a limpwristed finish thinking that if these were the worst examples to be found, then perhaps the usage of mercenaries in Iraq probably wasn't all that bad. Amusingly enough, this was much the conclusion of Jon Stewart on The Daily Show, though he later partially apologized for his confrontational attitude.

The most memorable example of this sort of thing was when Scahill details an action where enlisted US soldiers join Blackwater contractors in fending off thousands of advancing Iraqis armed with small arms, RPGs and mortars. In the midst of describing this hours-long firefight that ends only after American gunships show up to put down the mob, Scahill chastises Blackwater for potentially creating the conflict by firing warning shots, according to unnamed sources. After raising the issue, he then seems to dismiss it entirely in a sort of "We report, you decide" parody of Fox News. The author further expects the reader to join him in an eye-rolling reproach of a soldier who asks the Blackwater mercs (who are typically highly experienced and ex-special forces) for permission to fire in absence of a US officer or noncom.

In short, while I admire the ability of the author to pick a great topic and then to write an even better jacket cover, I was sadly discouraged by his lack of follow-through. The only thing that he convinced me of is that writing about Blackwater is a fantastic way to use the term Praetorian Guards, and otherwise I should remember to look for good journalism from experienced organizations like the Washington Post, not well-meaning Democracy Now! hacks.

As a parting shot in this unashamedly negative review, I was most amused by the opinion of Publishers Weekly on the book. Not only did it ravage Scahill for his "scare language", but it applauds audio narrator Tom Weiner's cool baritone delivery for balancing out the histrionics of the text. It would appear that this is one of the few works where the narration not only improves the content, but outshines it completely.

Camp Awesome

I've been meaning to update this thing for a while, but Twitter has been fulfilling most of my "hey look at this" quota lately. I'm preparing a bunch of old photos to share though, hopefully I'll be able to get those done and post them Soon (tm).

I did want to share my love for the TV series Survival School (or as I liked to called it: Camp Awesome). Freely available on Hulu, it follows a platoon of US Air Force airmen through the environmental survival sections of SERE (Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape) School for air jockies. Typically there is around a 40 percent graduation rate, though in this show it's around 80 percent (it's hard to tell if that is due to the effect of the cameras putting a damper on the harshness of the training or to the prowess of the students.)

It's a three-month course that takes the students through hell and back in some of the toughest areas of Washington, Alaska and Florida. Think Survivorman meets Full Metal Jacket and daily ruck marches. While at first I was a little skeptical of a bunch of flyboys fucking around in the woods, they end up facing off with some pretty serious hypothermia, bloody wounds and gnarly ass jungle bugs. Nearly all the students end up on the medic's stretcher at one point or another, and several are medevaced for life-threatening conditions.

These guys basically live in the wild off of what they can build out of an ejection seat and trees for months, and in the last episode they accidentally face a textbook example of those rain-induced hypothermic conditions that we're concerned about. Definitely worth checking out if you're into this sort of thing, if only to see a guy rip a cow's eye out of its skull with his teeth and eat it raw.

Oregon soldiers due to deploy

My friends, 2LT Thomas Harding and SPC Alexander Newman, and most of the rest of the Oregon Army National Guards's 41st Infantry Brigade Combat Team, completed their final mobilization training Thursday at Fort Stewart, Ga., and are preparing to ship out to Iraq shortly.

For those who have friends or family in the Oregon National Guard, this would be a good time to call them up to say your goodbyes if you haven't already.

Oregon Military Department:

The Brigade's deployment to Iraq will be the largest war-time deployment of the Oregon National Guard since World War II. It will be three times larger that the Brigade's recent deployment to Afghanistan in 2006-2007 and will involve the entire Brigade of 3,400 Soldiers and will affect every community in the state.

To those about to deploy: Good hunting and godspeed.

BrightBike by Mandiberg

Huh, this is a pretty cool cyclist idea, mixed with a smart and quick presentation via social media. Check it out.

To: Iran

To: Iran

You have the support of the Free World. We are now approaching the sixtieth anniversary of the Berlin Airlift, when the international community stood up against the forces of oppression. And we did so again in 1963 when the Soviets erected the Berlin Wall in an attempt to imprison their own population, and Kennedy famously came to the city of West Berlin and declared "Ich bin ein Berliner." Now we are all Iranians. Freedom knows no master.

From: Tristan Coolen, democrat

p.s. Be sure to check out the title link at the top, it's pretty good. Also, here's a link to the Time magazine if you want to check out what's inside.

In Defense of CNN

There's been a lot of talk about the failures of CNN and the mainstream media to cover the Iranian elections. I touched on this in my last blog entry, but I wanted to expand on it.

Principally the complaints are two-parted: That coverage is wholly insufficient and then that what little coverage there is seems to be hesitant to stray from the Iranian government line. Mainstream media journalists are seemingly ignoring the tidal wave of information pouring forth out of the social media networks, and instead merely saying that "President Ahmadinejad retained his position according to the official election process with 65 percent of the vote. Ayatollah Khomeini released a statement Monday inviting Mousavi and his supporters to identify ballot areas that they would like to be recounted."

Meanwhile frantic Iranian Twitterers are reporting millions of marchers and blood in the streets.

In defense of CNN, I think some might be getting a little confused by the way journalists write. "Official reports" mean that they are the reports that are coming from government officials, not that they are objectively true. The editing process is a lot more stringent than people think, but part of that means that things have to be written in a certain way or it takes inches and inches to explain.

Professional journalists try to limit themselves to attributable statements and provable facts, and that's why they are having a tough time writing about a movement that is heavily based on rumor and anonymous Internet users.

As a joe-blow citizen, I can write: "That hick Ahmadinejad rigged the election and now his goons are killing peaceful demonstrators. It's an affront to democracy everywhere and the entire world should damn him and Khomeini for it." But if I'm working as a journalist then I can't say any of that because I have no proof or attributable sources and I need to avoid editorializing.

The journalistic industry as a whole is totally averse to printing anything that is unsubstantiated, and if you want to print a quote from an anonymous source (or often just somebody's first name) then you usually have to get all sorts of people to sign off on you doing it. And for good reason. It isn't good enough to simply say, "Here's what someone might have said, we have no proof that it is at all true and we can't say who said it," because that's a just a quick trip to fictitious stories and libel suits.

That doesn't excuse mainstream media for letting stupid shit sit on their front pages and interviewing the Jonas brothers while people are dying in the streets, but you have to recognize the position they are in - either they have to find a way to report on hearsay or they have to play the same stuff over and over.

Journalists shouldn't remain mute if they know of a good story in the making, but there's a need to hold their enthusiasm somewhat. Let Twitter and YouTube have the glory of the 24-hour live coverage, and focus on getting it right. Hell, baseless journalism from overexcited journalists making assumptions is what helped get us into Iraq.

Twittering the Iran Election

I've been spending much of the last day or so online watching the Iran election and Twittering about it. My previous resistance to using Twitter seems to have dissipated, especially because I found a gadget that allowed me to put it onto my iGoogle homepage as well as automatically update it to my Facebook and Blog. Very easy to use on a whim, and it goes out to a wide range of people.

The Iranian elections have been carried almost entirely online, with mainstream media sources being limited by both logistics as well as Iranian government authorities prohibiting coverage. Instead of my television, people have been using Web proxies to use online services like Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, YouTube and more.

It's interesting to see how each event like this seems to have these social media sources rapidly outpacing the mainstream news. Part of this is because of the limitations upon journalists to avoid publishing hearsay, but CNN and the BBC seem to be falling further behind each time.

This is particularly true for events that affect broad range of people and have significant duration. Previous examples are the attacks in Mumbai, or even the original RNC convention that put Twitter on the map. At this point the mainstream media is putting out information that is hours out of date and is therefore pretty worthless. The signal to noise ratio is definitely lower, but the sheer amount of output and self-correction is making for some incredible coverage.

For example, Iranian students like this one have been providing live coverage during brutal attacks upon the student dorms by Iranian Hezbollah. A very different, visceral kind of journalism.

Additionally, major blogs and news agencies are beginning to really incorporate this kind of social media into their reporting. Places like the Huffington Post are following trending topics like #IranElection in order to collate good information and collective it, while larger news agencies such as CNN International are contacting popular Twitter users in order to gather first-person sources.

It's a changing world. Of course, there's no money in it either.

Paths of Good Intentions

I was talking to some people online about national actions and good intentions. It was argued that the United States doesn't have good intentions and that it doesn't act sufficiently selflessly. It was argued that we should hold nations up to higher standards, because those nations that act in their own self-interest are immoral and evil. I disagreed, not because I support selfishness, but because I thought it was an unrealistic standard. I was asked what my definition of "good intentions" would be, and here was my reply:

I'd say that people in general have good intentions, as do nations, but there are also going to be ulterior motives at play. That's just human nature. We act in our own best interest, and indeed our democratically-elected representatives are expected to prioritize national interests.

What this means is that we do what we can, and we're trying to do better, but it is impossible to expect a nation to always act for the "global good" (whatever that may be).

The Rwandan wars and genocides are a perfect example of the complexity of national actions and ethics versus their abilities and responsibilities. The whole stems out of such a complex interaction of causes and effects that it is impossible to determine who is in the right.

The Belgians had brutally colonized the country, established a racist system of government that engendered hate on all sides, and then tried to rectify the situation by splitting the country in two. However, by doing so it led directly to war and genocide. When the Belgians saw what was happening, they evacuated all the whites and quietly took their leave.

The Belgian actions created a civil war in the name of democracy and independence, and each side of the conflict committed genocide upon the other, driving the others across the country at the point of a sword. A power-sharing agreement was put into place when the dust settled, but it still left two million Hutu refugees with many militias intermingled. The UN asks for help, but everyone recognizes that the whole thing is such a shit storm that no one wants to get involved. The U.S. didn't put troops on the ground to deliver security, but it did deliver food directly and via NGOs. Israel, France and a small contingent of European nations offered medical care and a limited amount of security.

Those resources then caused riots and deaths and were abused by the militia to exert control. Recognizing such, the U.S., the NGOs and the other Western nations left. Many more refugees died of disease, and political instability further empowered the militias. The UN called for support, and no others wanted to get involved. After asking 40 other nations, Cold War anti-communist and then-dictator of Zaire, Mobuto Seko, offered troops to instill some level of security. It worked for a limited amount of time, but when Zaire's political instability became too great it spread to Rwanda and set off the genocide and two of the deadliest wars since World War II.

Congo, Uganda, and other neighboring countries get involved. Many different militias get involved. Leaders from all backgrounds get involved. Some help, such as the now-famous Canadian general Romeo Dallaire. Some worsen the situation. Eventually the sheer amount of death and destruction seemed to bring the remaining warring parties together to create coalition government that still has huge problems. There's still so many resistant militias out in the forest that some consider the civil war to still continue. A war that started, in many ways, back in 1963, with the end of colonial rule. Between two groups whose differences are extremely arbitrary, and are really just a function of history rather than culture or race.

Who are the good guys and who are the bad ones? Belgium, France, Israel and the U.S. are the only nations in the world to contribute significantly to halt the fighting, and they all have been simultaneously lambasted for making it worse, and for not doing more. Were they in the wrong for trying to help out? Was Belgium in the wrong for granting independence in the first place? These questions don't have satisfactory answers, and they just aren't useful.

For the UN and the NGOs this was a huge crisis of conscience, and displayed the limitations inherent in institutions that operate without cooperation with military forces. They withdrew from a nation that needed them most, because they thought they were making it worse. And then, after reorganizing and reexamining their mandate, they did it again in Sudan.

So who should we assume had good intentions? I don't think it matters that much. I'm sure most did, but then again the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Fundamentally the people who started the wars didn't have motivations particularly different from the ones who ended it, they just had a different perspective. No one was completely blameless in this mess, but most had motivations that were seated in ending the genocide.

If I've learned anything about politics, is that it is best to not spend a lot of time questioning the motivations, and to focus on moving forward towards solutions that people can agree on. It's nice to be able to sit down and point fingers and blame people for this and that, but it doesn't really get anywhere productive because everyone is guilty of mistakes, and things always end up turning out unexpectedly, particularly in a war. Peace is a better goal than moral victory, and in 20 years they can set up a Truth and Reconciliation commission to try and work out the ghosts.

So what is my definition of "good intentions"? It's trying to make things better for those you care about, hopefully without hurting too many people in the process. I think that's the only real standard that's worth anything. Judging people's morals by the results of their actions is a crapshoot.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

A wee bit of humor I came across on this most happy of holidays. Slainte!