Thugs Run Rampant

On War #323: Milestone is William S. Lind's latest column.  I have found his writing to be so worthwhile that I willing to put up with his that which I disagree (which is supposedly what make the U.S. a great country--although you would not know it from the yammering class).  It's an impressive intellectual achievement that he was able to identify an historical trend, such as 4GW, in advance of its widespread appearance.  I generally agree, but probably for different reasons.  He has a brain.  Who cares what the man believes in?

In this column he writes about gangs on U.S. soil, and the military involvement in their suppression:

From the perspective of 4GW theory, this is an important development. The Naval Postgraduate School is a DOD institution, part of the U.S. government. Its involvement in Salinas marks the federal government’s formal recognition of Fourth Generation war on American soil, and the need for a “national model” to counteract it. If we must involve the U.S. military to lead counterinsurgency efforts in American cities, then it is difficult to deny that we face something like insurgencies in those same cities. Again, the significance is that this is now formally admitted by the U.S. government, not merely noted by “outside the beltway” observers of 4GW.

The U.S. military officers advising Salinas on how to wage an anti-gang counterinsurgency are doing so as volunteers, according to the Post, to avoid Constitutional issues. But the camel’s nose is obviously inside the tent. Many wars have begun by sending “volunteers.” If, as likely, the volunteers prove insufficient, regular troops will follow.

As someone who believes in a strictly limited federal government, the government envisioned by our Founders, I find this troubling. But from a 4GW perspective, I also know it is inevitable. As I have said time and again, the main Fourth Generation threat we will face will be on our own soil, not halfway around the world, where we are currently pouring our strength out into the sand. We will come to regret that waste bitterly.

And by doing so, the Federal Government will further attempt to impose military rule even as it becomes impotent to do so.  It's difficult for a state to fight a war against no real enemy.  It's not like these gangs intended to directly challenge the state, but rather their powers exist as the result of the vacuum created by its absence.  A strong state would never allow thugs to run rampant.

And This Is Suprising, why?

Owners' willingness to 'strategically default' on loans depends largely on how far underwater they are.  So those finding themselves the most screwed by the financial system are less likely to respect it.  I am shocked.  What always amuses me during such supposed revelations is the outrage some chumps feel about it.  The wail and whine on and on about people who just don't seem to care.  And this is surprising, why?

Everything Must Go!

Silverdome sells for ... less than a house! 

A Toronto-based family-owned company bid $583,000 for the under-used stadium on Monday, which is currently owned by the City of Pontiac, Mich., according to auctioneer Williams & Williams.

Why can't I get a deal like that?  (As if.)

The will to power through machines?

Open Source Insurgency Through Software Tools.  The will to power through machines?

Recession Sparks Global Shoplifting Spree.  Everybody is doing it.

"Though most thieves rationalize their acts, the current situation has many people feeling the entire system is broken, that politicians are too corrupt or inept to fix it, and that there's nothing wrong with stealing from these big companies and fancy stores that — the thinking goes — are themselves making out like thieves," Bamfield explains. "There's a real perception among many new shoplifters that if you work hard, put money away and play the game, you're asking for someone to come along and rip you off."

Let's Get Fiscal.  Dream on.

News to Make You Sigh

State to 'spy' on every phone call, email and web search.  In the UK, the state appears desperate.

Lack of insurance kills more vets than Afghan war.  Discarded vets are one glaring example of why there is such great distrust of the federal government.  If they cannot even get it right with vets it is not really very reasuring,

Update about Mexico, the failing state on our border.  Lots of depressing (yet vital) links.

Two Unlike Things

From the Wall Street Journel (also owned by the same parent company as Fox:

Who is a journalist? Ordinarily, that's something for readers and viewers to decide. But recently in Chicago and in Washington, we've seen attempts by the powerful to dictate who is—and who is not—a "real" journalist.

For the past several months, students at The Innocence Project, a program at Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism, have come under fire from Cook County, Ill. Prosecutors aren't happy with their habit of turning up evidence demonstrating that defendants have been wrongly convicted. They've allegedly exposed the wrongful conviction of Anthony McKinney, a Chicago man jailed for 31 years on a false confession.

Discomfited prosecutors have responded by subpoenaing everything related to the students' investigation about the McKinney case: notes, interview records and even classroom grades. According to the prosecutors, the students aren't journalists, but an "investigative agency." This is a distinction that has legal bite because journalists' notes are protected under an Illinois journalist shield law.

The Innocence Project's defenders in the press and academia have fired back. Barry Scheck of New York's Innocence Project told the New York Times on Oct. 24 that the prosecutors' actions may have a "chilling effect." In the same article, Donald Craven of the Illinois Press Association suggests that prosecutors' real goal is to "dismantle the project."

 So far so good, and then several paragraphs later:

The Cook County prosecutors' actions are certainly shameful. But they may be excused for thinking that attacks on media critics are, in today's political era, business as usual. Indeed, they need look no farther than the White House, whose occupant has sometimes styled himself the nation's chief media critic.

It is, after all, the Obama administration that declared that its critics at Fox News Channel are not real journalists, and that Fox is not a "legitimate news organization." In doing so—as White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs admitted with a reference to "brushback pitches" in baseball—the White House's goal was just the same as that of the prosecutors in the president's native city: To chill criticism, and to get journalists to think twice before stepping up to the plate.

So now this editorial attempts to tie a for-profit infotainment media venture (that just happens to be owned by the same parent company) with a not-for-profit group of students.  This is a typical a propaganda technique that attempts to equate two unlike things.  Needless to day, I'm not buying it.

But then again, Fox may very well be the media wing of the Republican Party (whom I loathe) and so what?  Media objectivity is a peculiar American delusion.  Perhaps the Democrats (whom I also despise) should get one of their own and stop whining about it.

The Under-Employed

Broader Measure of Unemployment Stands at 17.5%.  I suspect this number would be far higher if the under-employed were counted.

On Singularities

A singularity, to use a physics metaphor, is basically a future event or existence that is impossible to predict as this time.  The best one can hope for is to identify trends which point toward its potential existence.  As any web search will confirm, there many different ideas as to what is to be found beyond the "event horizon."  There are two main schools of thought. The first is that this singularity represents some momentous scientific and/or technical breakthrough (creation), or that is basically the decline and fall of civilization (destruction) as we currently know it.  There is also the possibility that the singularity will contain elements of both creation and destruction.  I would tend to see the latter as more likely.  It is almost always easier to destroy than to build.

Good Question..

What should a student learn from college? Why go to college?  Good question...


Housing Rebound? Not So Fast:

The senate bill is nothing but a $6,500 bribe to keep people in their homes and out of foreclosure. It's another giveaway to the banks so they don't have to face the mountain of debt they generated through fraudulent loans. The banks aren't satisfied with merely blowing up the financial system and extracting trillions of dollars from taxpayers to fix the mess they left behind. Now they want to ensure that they're a constant drain on public resources, by diverting dollars earmarked for healthcare or state aid into broken institutions run by high-stakes gamblers. The Congress has played a critical role in this fiasco.

 Still not the time to buy.  Why overpay just to get $8K?  But if not now, when?  Good question...

The Dollar

The Great Dollar Collapse Debate. Not everyone agrees a falling dollar is a bad thing, I think the author is missing a point when he discussed the Japanese and Chinese situations. Since commodities are priced in dollars, a falling dollar means that these things are more expensive for everyone. This means that there is a danger that others might dump it is a reserve currency. In such a situation, all those dollars would head home and create a situation similar to Zimbabwe.