A late Christmas present from the War Nerd

He has a very interesting article on the War of the Triple Alliance. RTWT.

Friday recommended reading

• On a funny note, the Ladder theory
• On a serious note, a short bio of James Stockdale

  When Collins asked who didn't make it out, Stockdale replied:
  
  "Oh, that’s easy, the optimists"
  

Four changes if I were king of America

I've made them non-political, strictly symbolic. They are

1. The national anthem shall be changed to America the Beautiful; an accessible song with a solid melody and natural meter; and the Star Spangled Banner will be consigned to history, where it will be of much interest to our eventual tone-deaf robot overlords
2. Daylight Savings Time shall be abolished. Trying to fool the sun sets a bad example for children and weakens our moral fiber
3. Calvin Coolidge shall be worked into Presidents Day somehow. We're long overdue for rewarding people who do their job quietly, with no drama
4. We shall come up with a simple way to properly fold the US Flag that does not require two people

What would y'all do?

Tuesday morning rapid fire

• Lincoln and the Jews - from the Federation of American Scientists
• The Solitude of Alexander Selkirk - the inspiration for Robinson Crusoe
• Two from Charlie Rose, specifically this interview with Petraus' main counter insurgency adviser David Kilcullenm and also with Erik Prince, the founder of Blackwater.
  

A civics quiz

I got this from Megan McArdle, it's the Civic Literacy Quiz!

I scored 57 out of 60 correctly — 95.00 %!

How about y'all?

An interesting thought experiment

PurpleSlog has an interesting thought experiment of What Five Places/Events Would You Visit With A Time Machine? They are

1. Israel at the start of Christianity (the same as PurpleSlogs)
2. The Kennedy Assassination - I'm partial to the Oswald acted alone theory, but it would be nice to know for sure.
3. The Russian revolution
4. The writing of the US Declaration of Independence and Constitution
   
5. The White House with Lincoln during the Civil War
   

Garrison States

I was listening to this diavlog recently and one of the participants (Daniel Deudney) remarked that the Wilsonian "Make the world safe for democracy" mantra of World War I was not so much referring to bringing democracy to monarchic parts of the world so much as making the world non-threatening enough so that America could maintain it's non-militaristic way of life and avoid becoming a "Garrison State".

I haven't thought about it for a while, but several years ago I thought that was the strongest argument for the Iraq war. Not sufficient on it's own, but a good reason. The threat in WWI was European militarism; now it's "The Gap" but the example still holds. The term "Garrison State" is a useful one to describe a militarized police state.

Reagan and the Cold War

One of the many annoying things I often hear is "Reagan won the Cold War". It's the wrong question. While the Cold Warn certainly wasn't won by Jimmy Carter, it wasn't Reagan either. Here is the analogy I use.

Imagine two men in a bar. They've just finished fighting other people together. After that fight is done, they start to squabble amongst themselves. Both men pull guns and a tense standoff ensues.

Neither side has a clear edge as both guns are comparable and effective. The standoff continues for quite some time. Both parties upgrade their weaponry periodically. One of the people spends all of his non-weapon money on health food, while the other spends all of his non-weapon money on crystal meth and salty snacks. After a while the first health food person buys a pricey new SA80 rifle. The meth/salt guy complains about a new arms race, then has a heart attack and dies.

That's the end of the Cold War. The canard "We outspent them" ignores the fact that Communism is not capable of utilizing resources efficiently, and if the Soviets hadn't been using their resources on weapons they would be wasting the resources some other way. While Reagan did see the evil nature of communism accurately, he wasn't responsible for the heart attack. Happily, communism is self-limiting that way.

The quotable Dwight Eisenhower

While perusing WikiQuote while waiting for some files to upload I came across these nuggets of wisdom

if a political party does not have its foundation in the determination to advance a cause that is right and that is moral, then it is not a political party; it is merely a conspiracy to seize power.

An intellectual is a man who takes more words than necessary to tell more than he knows.

If you want total security, go to prison. There you're fed, clothed, given medical care and so on. The only thing lacking... is freedom.

In his case, there seems to be no final answer to the question, "How stupid can you get?"

The runner up

The United States never lost a soldier or a foot of ground in my administration. We kept the peace. People asked how it happened — by God, it didn’t just happen, I’ll tell you that.

Any my favorite

Oh, goddammit, we forgot the silent prayer.

Sunday rapid fire

• The wealthiest Americans in history
• Lead exposure and crime - interesting if not convincing
• A preachy CNN.com article on vacations - and why some people don't like them. Evidently any deviation from the middle class norm is unhealthy
• The Battle of Omdurman by the War Nerd
  

A belated Fourth of July post

The Declaration of Independence
translated out of 18th century English and into 20th century American
by H.L.Mencken
from The Baltimore Evening Sun 7 November 1921

WHEN THINGS get so balled up that the people of a country got to cut loose from some other country, and go it on their own hook, without asking no permission from nobody, excepting maybe God Almighty, then they ought to let everybody know why they done it, so that everybody can see they are not trying to put nothing over on nobody.

All we got to say on this proposition is this: first, me and you is as good as anybody else, and maybe a damn sight better; second, nobody ain't got no right to take away none of our rights; third, every man has got a right to live, to come and go as he pleases, and to have a good time whichever way he likes, so long as he don't interfere with nobody else. That any government that don't give a man them rights ain't worth a damn; also, people ought to choose the kind of government they want themselves, and nobody else ought to have no say in the matter. That whenever any government don't do this, then the people have got a right to give it the bum's rush and put in one that will take care of their interests. Of course, that don't mean having a revolution every day like them South American yellow-bellies, or every time some jobholder goes to work and does something he ain't got no business to do. It is better to stand a little graft, etc., than to have revolutions all the time, like them coons, and any man that wasn't a anarchist or one of them I.W.W.'s would say the same. But when things get so bad that a man ain't hardly got no rights at all no more, but you might almost call him a slave, then everybody ought to get together and throw the grafters out, and put in new ones who won't carry on so high and steal so much, and then watch them. This is the proposition the people of these Colonies is up against, and they have got tired of it, and won't stand it no more. The administration of the present King, George III, has been rotten from the start, and when anybody kicked about it he always tried to get away with it by strong-arm work. Here is some of the rough stuff he has pulled:

...
Read the whole thing.

Happy Birthday!

231 years old, and you don't look a day over 190. 143 years without a civil war too!

One the whole I think we're doing much better than can be expected.

I celebrated by driving around West Atlanta and attempting some HDR photography which didn't turn out too well.

History rhymes in funny ways

While perusing coverage of the latest British terror plots, I came across the words "Doctor's" and "plot" in the same sentence. Being morbidly interested in Russian History, I thought of Stalin's final purge, happily stopped by his death, the Doctors' Plot, which is thought to be his pretext for getting rid of Russia's Jews.. I was looking over the Wikepedia entry on the subject and came across this little tidbit

In the course of his career, Stalin became increasingly suspicious towards physicians. In his later years, he refused to be treated by doctors, and would only consult with veterinarians about his health.

Weird!

Funny thing I heard on the History Channel

I'm slowly working my way through the History Channel documentary on the Spanish American war. The black cavalry soldiers, known commonly as "Buffalo Soldiers" were known by the Spanish as "Smoked Yankees".

It's interesting to be reminded that America had a low-level conflict with the Indians for years up to that point.

The oldest living tree

From this article

The oldest known tree is "Methuselah", which is 4,789 years old. To keep Methuselah from harm, this tree isn't labeled, as the other trees are. An older tree called Prometheus was killed shortly after it was discovered in 1964.

Recommended reading for Tuesday

• Londonistan Calling - Hitchens goes back to London. Choice quote:

  He was a conspicuous figure because, having lost the use of an eye and both hands in an exchange of views in Afghanistan, he sported an opaque eye plus a hook to theatrical effect. Not as nice as he looked..

• The Crime Against Kansas - Why isn't this sort of thing in more history classes? You might hear about John Brown's raid, but never about any clashes
  

The Civil War in time lapse format

Coming Anarchy has an awesome time lapse animation of the Civil War, it's one of the best animations like this I've seen.

A nice short overview of Kurdistan

From Stephen DeAngelis, who is in Kurdistan right now.

The Great Siberian Ice March

Somehow I wound up on this page on WikiPedia and found it fascinating. During the Russian Civil War in the late teen and early 20s, the Red Army was chasing the White Army across Siberia, specifically Lake Baikal had to escape across the frozen lake in sub-zero temperatures.

the Arctic winds that blow unobstructed across the lake froze many in the army and their families to death. The bodies remained frozen on the lake in a kind of tableau throughout the winter of 1919 until the arrival of summer, when the frozen figures and all their possessions disappeared in 8,000 feet of water.

Does anyone know of a good history of the Russian Civil War? I don't know of any notable works on the topic.

Quick tab clearing round up

• Meanest quote: they "breed like flies but die in the same way.”
• Joaquin Murietta
• The funniest thing I read on Sunday "A small group of the SOF participated in mass nudity and arson as means of protesting against materialism". Mass nudity and arson! Probably not at the same time though.
• Why the camera adds 10 pounds.
• Bikes must ride single file on Columns Drive
  

Short 2006 best of list

• Best New Movie - The Departed
• Best Book - Truth Imagined by Eric Hoffer
• Best TV Show - The Shield
  
• Best Old Movie Seen For the First Time - Tie - The Seventh Seal (Ingmar Bergman) / The Testament of Dr Mabeuse (Fritz Lang) / The Big Sleep (Bogart/Bacall). Only The Big Sleep is in English, where as the other two are probably much better off being subtitled. All three are from the 30s and 40s.
  
• Best New Gadget - Garmin Street Pilot - I never get lost anymore
• Best New General Interest Site - DamnInteresting.com
• Best Concert - Prince - though to be honest I didn't see that many in 2006
• Best New Band discovered - Freakwater - I have no idea how I managed to not know about them until this year, they're perfect for me.
  
• Biggest physical accomplishment - Biking the entire Silver Comet Trail - 126 miles - in one day with no rest and very few stops for water and such. It did take forever
• Biggest professional accomplishment - staying in business for another year I suppose
• Biggest artistic accomplishment - successfully finishing two whole songs, and actually doing open mic nights
  

An interesting alternate take on history

Coming Anarchy has an interesting satire on what might have happened had the American civil war been decided less decisively. RTWT.

Quick Saturday afternoon round up

1. Baltic Crusades - on WikiPedia. Interesting.
2. Tips for startup companies
3. The torn up credit card application - this is scary - get a shredder now.
4. An interesting article about the self-described "The Hell with them Hawks."
5. Interesting post from Marginal Revolution about inherent tensions in libertarianism.
6. Borders is refusing to stock a magazine that is showing the Mohammed cartoons. More here and here.
   

Interesting from the Belmont Club

Whilst perusing Wretchard's thoughts on the current state of Iraq

Philip Bobbitt argued in his book, the Shield of Achilles, that Napoleon's strategic revolution consisted in fielding armies so large that any sovereign who opposed him would, in matching the size of his force, be compelled to wager the entire State, and not simply a wedge of territory in confronting him. Napoleon's campaigns were designed to kill enemy armies -- and thereby enemy states. What Napoleon failed to realize in his 1812 campaign against Russia was that the Tsarist state was so primitive that the destruction of its army simply did not mean the corresponding demise of its state. Like the proverbial dinosaur of pulp fiction, Russia had no central nervous system to destroy and lumbered on, like the bullet-riddled monster of horror stories, impervious to the Grand Armee. What Russia had on its side was chaos as epitomized by its savage winters.

Saddamite Iraq, like most terrorist-supporting states threatening the world today, are like the landscape of 1812 in that they were cauldrons of anarchy given a semblance of shape by fragile, yet brutal shroud-like states.

Most of what I've read actually suggests that Napoleon's brilliance was in organization of his armies, not his actual command or tactics. In Russia, he was captured by not seeing a qualitative difference between Russia and the rest of Europe. Unlike the Nazi Germany, (who did see Russia accurately, but bungled the strategy) the problem was that he did not conceive of Russia properly.

Needed - software that helps in conception via clever use of 3D motion graphics.

An interesting article

Jews and "The Moses Complex".

Quote of the moment

Kin Hubbard

Classical music is the kind we keep thinking will turn into a tune.

and

From The Corner

How does Kanye West, self-confessed porn addict (confessed in this cover story!) pose as Jesus on the news stands? Rolling Stone’s theology is interesting: they’re tongue-in-cheek about Jesus and genuflect under the ashes of dope fiend Hunter S. Thompson.

While at one time I was was a huge fan of HST (and still am to some extent) and a supporter of the right to die, he did:

• Shoot himself, thereby proving a messy cleanup for someone, most probably a family member or friend. Totally unnecessary due to his drug connections.
• Shoot himself while his kids were in the house. As far as anyone can determine there was nothing special about the time. That's far worse than the above I think.
  

That should be enough to taint his memory.

Quick roundup

• It's depressing that two senators don't realize how off they are. If you want to characterize the Republican majority in the House of Representatives negatively, then the proper term is fascism (taken literally, strength in numbers, and a dictatorship thereof) rather than a plantation, the relevant characteristic being oppression of the many by the few. All to work in a racial angle I suppose.
• Tom MacGuire has more interesting thoughts on the NSA wiretapping thing. Still, why not change the law though?
• An interesting post from the Belmont Club "A stone killer is never idle in a lawless Third World country"
• America's possible action on Iran:. Evidently some lessons were learned from the lack of immediate American response to Afghanistan after 9-11.
• The Great War of 2007 - very scary possible history.
  

This is interesting

Sacco and Vanzettis look even guiltier! And Sinclair Lewis knew!

Actually that isn't that interesting, but notable none the less.

Actually I thought it was assumed by everyone that Sacco was guilty, and Vanzetti probably wasn't. Now it would seem they both were guilty, according to their lawyer.

Quick round up

1. It's now six nights of rioting in Paris.
2. Secret CIA detention camps around the world. I'm reminded of Wretchard's line one time that when Truman ordered Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombed, he had "the sand" to do it under his own name.
3. I finally got the proper wireless adapter for my Tivo, which I got to work without incident. Sadly it uses Wep, but with 3-4 totally unprotected networks around me I would imagine I'm not worth pursuing.
4. It's amazing how much lists and visual sign of progress can affect one's mood.
   

Interesting post from Wretchard

In this post about violence against Coptic Christians in Egypt, for some reason I was reminded of the old Conan the Barbarian comics (from the 70s, when it was good).

For some reason the notion of diverse groups of civilizations and barbarians has always had great allure to me. I'm not sure why.

Ideas to elaborate on later

Here are ideas and historical (no emotional connection to me) events that have fundamentally affected my outlook.

In no particular order

• Pareto Optimality
• Coase Theorem
• Hayek and Sowell on the limits and costs of knowledge
• Gresham's law
• Napoleon's invasion of Russia
• Dominant Strategies
  
• Schelling Points (as elaborated on by David Friedman)
• The seatbelts kill theory of Steven Landsburg (though the theory might actually originate with George Stigler)
  
• The diaries of Eric Hoffer (and his books, they're fairly similar) as they deal with mass movements
  
• Network effects
• Robert Nozick's notion of morality as a time saving device (morality is used very broadly) as explained in the Examined Life
• The defensive boxing style of Pernell Whitaker
  

I'll have more detail on what they are and how they are all used later.

Notable

This post from RJ Rummel, while not terribly timely is worth reading, it points out the little known fact that Hitler, while he was elected chancellor, was not elected dictator for life as many seem to think.

Also, he has an interesting historical bit at the very end, to wit:

Note that during his Beer Hall putsch of 1923 in Munich, Hitler launched an unrealistic attempt to rally the public and take over the government. As Hitler and his supporters “marched on Berlin” they were met by police lines blocking their path. Someone fired a shot, and the police then fired into the crowd of marchers, where Hitler and his bodyguard were in front. His bodyguard was hit, and wrenched Hitler to the ground, dislocating his shoulder. Goring was shot in the leg, and 14 marchers and 4 policemen were killed.

Think about how the world would have been changed if one of those many bullets had killed Hitler. And think of this, when commentators treat the present as though the inevitable outcome of irresistible forces. Because one man survives a hail of bullets, everything – everything -- human in the world is changed.