A Day in the Life of...

We celebrate Memorial Day to remember men like Captain Waskow. Henry T. Waskow was killed on Monte Sammucro. Here is another column about World War II veterans. As Samuel Fuller, another WWII veteran said, "The only glory in war is survival."

Labels: Memorial Day

Able Fox Five to Able Fox. I got a target but ya gotta be patient.

Here's Ernie Pyle's column about Bill Mauldin.

Labels: Bill Mauldin

How our elites are behaving, though this comparison is likely an insult to twits. They steal from the poor and give to the rich! Stupid bitch! Dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb!

Labels: an insult to twits

The most important problem humanity faces is addressing loss of knowledge and resources with each succeeding generation. As each generation dies, knowledge and experience is lost. Each succeeding generation will become progressively poorer as commons are lost or degraded, species are extinguished, agricultural lands are degraded, and the necessities become more and more scarce. Each succeeding generation will also forget how much poorer it is compared to the previous generation since much of that experience and knowledge is lost. And, until some limiting factor is reached, the population will continue to double within a human lifetime. The oceans are almost fished out now ( who would have thought? ). The cod of today are puny and rare compared to the cod of 50-100 years ago. There will come a point where water, food, and energy will become limiting unless desalination and energy generation become cheaper. The environment will degrade and civilization will collapse as people fight over what remains. Economists have a poor track record of assigning proper value to commons and resources. Economics is also an incredibly shortsighted discipline. The future could be different assuming we can limit population and mine outer space since the resources of the solar system dwarf the resources of our planet, but that assumes we have cheap power sources since leaving the planetary gravity well is very expensive. Population growth and society depend upon plentiful energy, water, food, and materials. But, current trends will prove Malthus correct within 50-100 years or so, unless people focus on the long term rather than the short term. If you think times are bad now, just wait another 25-50 years.

Labels: malthus economics population growth collapse

Hindus worship sacred animals and will not kill or eat them since they are servants or manifestations of their gods. When an animal becomes old or sick to the point of death, they give it an analgesic to deaden the animal's pain and suffering. This laudable spiritual practice has a horrid side effect however, and illustrates the Law of Unintended Consequences. When people give their animals the drug diclofenac to ease their suffering, and the animal subsequently dies, it is carrion for vultures. The vulture eats the carcass which has a low concentration of the drug in its tissues. The birds die shortly afterwards from what is likely renal failure. 99.9% of the oriental white-rumped vulture population has ceased to exist, and two other vulture populations have crashed about 97%. A partial drug ban is in place and the vulture populations are showing some signs of recovery. The death of all of these vultures has caused a major ecological problem. The feral dog population has increased resulting in an additional 50,000 human deaths a year from rabies. The leopard population has increased since the cats feed on the dogs. The lack of vultures has also made the disposal of bodies via Towers of Silence a useless custom to Zoroastrian believers who now must bury or cremate their dead. So, alleviating a little suffering can cause a lot more suffering if not done properly.

Labels: unintended consequences

The comics and clowns will have a field day.

Hasta la vista, baby!
This marriage is terminated!
I won't be back!

Is it bad etiquette for a Navy SEAL to yell, "Boom! Head shot!"?

When the towers fell almost ten years ago, I wanted the individuals responsible to pay dearly. I was consumed with anger and revenge. While justice was served this past Sunday, I feel uneasy that others are celebrating. It feels wrong. I can't put a label to my unease, but it just doesn't seem right. It's not like life is back to normal in America. There's still too much fear and heavy handedness/bad security theater by the authorities. If we don't revert back to something approaching a pre-9/11 society, OBL will have the last laugh because he would have destroyed something precious in our society.

Osama was not the only casualty of the operation. It looks like American-Pakistan relations is a bigger casualty than bin Laden. It's difficult to believe that he wasn't being shielded by elements of the Pakistani government or intelligence community.

Labels: assassination etiquette