What ARE we doing in Afghanistan?

First, George Bush invaded Afghanistan in an ill-thought out fit of pique against the Saudi Arabian terrorists that had committed the atrocities of 9/11/2001.  Not to mention that the stated purpose of 'getting bin Laden' turned out to be a joke, not only because bin Laden was evacuating Afghanistan permanently as US troops were arriving, but it also completely ignored the Russian 10-year bad experience there.  (According to many sources, the Pentagon did not even have a battle plan for invading Afghanistan when George ordered them to go).

I mention this only because I have been befuddled by Obama's entire approach to this country (and Pakistan for that matter).  I heard an unattributed quote on NPRs Talk of the Nation today (a great program for thinkers by the way) that really summed up for me the realistic effect of our presence there:

...a good friend of mine used to say somewhat tongue-in-cheek that what we've done in Afghanistan has taken arguably the best irregular fighters in the world and turned them into the worst regular army outside of Africa. 
 

I am afraid that this has a lot of truth.  One of the Pentagon's many shortcomings is that it continually prepares and re-prepares (and spends untold tax dollars on) preparing for the perfect war....of the 1960s.

The F-35 Disaster Continues

This is a large part of why the Pentagon, and not Social Security or Medicare is the single biggest drain on the country's resources.  Twenty-two years of design and development, and this plane is one of the most universally mistrusted and disliked (but very expensive) pieces of overpriced junk that the military-industrial complex keeps spewing out as long as there is an endless stream of tax dollars (or future tax dollars) coming in.

Remember, a few years ago the Pentagon threw up their hands collectively and admitted that they were not auditable by any financial standard, and wouldn't be until something like 2017.

That Sound You Hear...

...just might be the rest of the Arctic sea ice draining away.  It has finally started to build up again, but only after hitting a new low last week.  This outstrips all the climate models that have been predicting when we will lose all the Arctic sea ice permanently, and along with it a huge moderating force for our weather in the Northern Hemisphere (and to a lesser, unknown degree the Southern Hemisphere whose own moderating ice cap is also melting away).

Of course, this all brings out the very best in the "plunder the earth's resources, to heck with the future" crowd.

We have just enough religion to make us hate, but not enough to make us love one another.

The title of this post is a quotation from Jonathan Swift, and I think expresses more succinctly than anything why I hold organized religion on an approximate contempt level with political parties.    

This article from Thomas Friedman nicely applied the general concept to the current uproar in the Islamic world (one of the commenters on the post mentions the Swift quote).

Here is an interesting Pew Research Center report (one of the sources I trust) on the increase of government restrictions on religion...some of it undoubtedly well-earned, but one has to wonder why governments should care at all? 

I also by chance happened across one of those irreverent T-shirts that I like - this one asked:

"If you can tell me what to do with my body, can I tell you what to do with your Bible?"

"My body" could very easily be replaced with "my relationships, my life....." unfortunately.

River of No Reprieve (Book Review)

I just finished a very remarkable adventure story/commentary/travelogue about a corner of the world that very few people (unless you are unfortunate enough to live there) know about:


River of No Reprieve: Descending Siberia's Waterway of Exile, Death, and Destiny by Jeffrey Tayler
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Quite an enjoyable and informative book about a remarkable journey down Siberia's river Lena. Down in the sense of going downstream, perhaps 'up' in the sense that the journey is south to north.

More important Jeffrey Tayler brings his unique insight as an American resident of Russia (Moscow area) to the historical stories of this area. Like his earlier work Siberian Dawn, it is as much focused on the trials and daily challenges of people as his own challenges from the journey.

The people in this book were in many cases outcasts from the "good, old" USSR as exiles and criminals real and imagined, but managed to cobble together a life that had a certain kind of comforting (for them) stability, but when the USSR fractured apart, so did the tenuous support lifeline the people in this area depended on, and mostly their lives have been in a downward spiral since. To say that the capitalists of the post-USSR era were not interested in this 'internal' penal colony and purgatory would be a kind way of expressing the truth.

Tayler's writing is both colorful and very descriptive. Let me quote just one (abridged) passage:

"Around midnight the sun slipped behind the pine-serrated ridges. The orange sky shaded into lavender, glowed phosphorescent green for two or three hours, and then, finally, lightened into the rose of dawn. {...} At times we heard the echoing roar of a brown bear (one night a hungry male torn open an anthill fifteen feet from our tents and gobbled up its inhabitants); [...] Was it any wonder that shamanism orignated here, among Yakuts and Evenks dwelling alone, scattered throughout the wilds, for months on end, with their reindeer? In the fine, tremulous light, trees and stones, rivers and brooks, all acquired spirits, all breathed with a hidden life force." [from Chapter 9]

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O Canada!

Canada has always been my second-favorite country.  A lot of it is the pure, unsullied, rugged beauty of the country - like having a much bigger Western US.  One of the vacations I hope to take someday if it is still possible is a coast-to-coast train trip across this interesting and intriguing gentle giant. Another big part of it of course is living my entire life within driving distance of the border, meaning that I have worked with and had as neighbors and friends Canadians who had either temporarily or permanently transplanted here. 

So it pains me point out that all is not well among all the companies in particular just across the border.  Here in Washington we are fortunate to host the US branch of the Columbia River (along with our friends to the south, Oregon of course for part of the way).  If you are musically or geographically uncertain, yes that is Woody Guthrie's "Roll On Columbia, Roll On" subject.

For several years now we have been reading stories of a Canadian smelter just across the border in British Columbia that has apparently been using the Columbia for much of the smelter's life as its private....latrine shall we say?

The legal case is complicated by the fact that the US government is trying not to get too noisily involved, but some Native American tribes (also sovereign governments in their own right) are. 

And now the company's 'defense' has been revealed. Basically it is "we did it but we are not responsible".  

Come on...even Perry Mason would blanch at that!

The Skills for Today

Another interesting Tom Friedman piece.   The first part is a thinly veiled lesson in how countries that are beating the US in education are doing it (which is most of the rest of the first-world). 

Hint...it is not by catering to teacher unions and letting a bunch of cost-cutting states decimate the public education systems in the name of 'states rights'.

The rest of the article is about how having the right skills at the right time and being flexible is much more important than 'work hard and play by the rules' (one of Obama's frequent sayings, after Bill Clinton).

Want to Blow Your Mind? (As We Used to Say)

This is just....COOL!

For the first time....EVER....a human-made object is about to (well...sometime soon) actually exit our Solar System and enter interstellar space. 

OK, I'm not counting beams of Survivor, DWTS, American Idol, etc. that travel at near-light speed but I don't want to spread it around that they came from Earth anyway -- do you?

Thirty five years Voyager has been dragging its 68K memory (that's right - K) out to the outer reaches.  If you are hold enough, think back to what you were doing 35 years ago...if not, think what your parents were doing (well, maybe not!).

Seriously, we of a certain age group (roughly the "boomers") have been fortunate to be witnesses if not participants in a succession of never-before first time events.  Neil Armstrong and the moon landing, unprecedented discoveries in the world of physics that come ever closer to explaining the origins of the universe and now, a chance to break free and with whatever instruments aboard Voyager still work, getting a glimpse of what is really out there...I mean REALLY out there.

Education Reform - from Someone Who Knows

Here is an article about Michelle Rhee's ideas for the next president on education reform...which if you take a long-term view of things like I try to (and politicians unfortunately avoid like the plague) makes sense.  I mostly agree with what she says -- particularly the stupidity of local control of schools. 

We have largely had local control of schools in the US - that's why things are in such a mess and why there is such a vast difference between graduating from high school in Mississippi or Alabama or Idaho and say...any other state. 

As a country we are getting killed in our public school system -- Bush's No Child Left Behind was the first significant attempt to bring some national order (and more importantly standards) to the US public school chaos.  Unfortunately it was very badly designed and horribly implemented (DC thought that this would not cost the states anything...silly them) - it was doomed to fail. 

I think there is a slightly different reason to question local control however than Ms. Rhee's -- although hers are more close to the metal in terms of practical matters and resistance from teacher's unions.  I think that one needs only to look at any international ranking of student performance to see the US is down around number 16 in the world (or even lower) and in some pretty shady company.

Looking at those countries with much higher student performance scores one thing stands out -- they almost all have strong, centrally managed national performance standards for schools, administrators, and yes, even teachers...as much as that might bug teacher's unions.

This is one area where the Republican party is 100% wrong -- more local control of schools will only perpetuate the US as a perennial catch-up country that imports everything it can from other countries where innovation and creativity is strong and valued over making a living off of other people's money, which seems to be the major thrust of US education.