March 2006 Archives

While I was in Kuwait I blogged several times (once or twice), about body armor, the difficulties in getting it issued, and the fact that some service members and/of families were buying their own. I even suggested to a friend of mine headed for Baghdad that she get her own. I was deployed for Operation Iraqi Freedom in March of 2004. Even that late in the game it was still very difficult to get modern protective gear. Reflecting back on my experience in the Gulf and my discussions with service members coming out of front line areas like Kirkuk, Ramadi and Fallujah, I find this latest move by the Army very interesting.

When my unit was mobilized many of us were issued Vietnam era flack vests. This protective gear was designed primary to increase survivability in the face of grenade and other sharpnel devices. Flack vest were never intended to protect the wearer from direct fire. A number of articles that I read while I was in Kuwait said that the Vietnam era vests were doing little to protect wearers even from IEDs. Interceptor type vests that include ceramic plates have proved very effective in protecting the wearer from both direct fire and IEDs.

So, the Army now claims that it will not let service members wear protective equipment privately purchased because privately purchased equipment is substandard. Sounds good but where was this concern two years ago? None of the military branches is providing to it's members the best equipment available. The boots issued to most units are on the lower end of the scale of what's available. In the time I spent in Kuwait where I saw many units deploying and re-deploying, I never saw a unit that was issued Donner or Matterhorn boots, which are generally accepted as best of class. The vast majority of units going in to Iraq had been issued Altama or Belleville and usually the lower end of those company's offerings. Better, more comfortable boots were purchased by many service members at their own expense.

The military should be offering the best equipment available to its members. We'd all like to believe they are. But talk to any experienced NCO who's done a couple tours over there and s/he will give you a list of equipment that you should buy before deploying. The inexperienced buy a lot of stuff because they think it's cool. The experienced folks have a short list of equipment that they consider required.

In 2003 when we invaded Iraq, every member going into Iraq considered body armor required equipment. If they couldn't get it from their branch of service, they got it some where else. It was a major point of discussion among the guys coming out and the guys going in. One of the major points of discussion is what to get and how to get it. Everyone wants Interceptors and the plates. First run plates not knock-offs or seconds. As last as March of 2004 this was still a primary topic of conversation among service members in theatre.

The military should supply the best equipment available to service members. Period. Not whatever they get from the lowest bidder.

[posted with ecto]

...is better than getting in shape.

This morning I was a good boy. I got up, put on my circa 1950 sweats, my running shoes, went out and did my 4 miles. And before I did my 4 miles I tried to do push-ups again. For the first time in two years. I did three sets as I've always done. First set I did 20. That's not terrible for not having done a single push-up in two years. Second set I did 15. Third set I was able to five. So, 20 + 15 + 5 = 40. In March of 2004 I did three sets of 40 push-ups every morning. And I stopped at 40 not because I was tired or couldn't do anymore. I stopped because I was bored. I did a total forty push-ups this morning.

Everytime I goes down this road I promise myself, this time I'm going to stay in shape.

Aloha

[posted with ecto]

Technorati Tags: humor, middle-age, psychology

Cabrillo College Theatrical department is doing a production of Inherit the Wind for its spring play. An interesting choice given that we're revisiting the issue from the other side of the coin. In 1925, the question was whether or not public schools should be permitted to expose students to theories which ran counter to the Bible. Today, in 2006, the question is whether or not public schools should be permitted to expose students to theories which run counter to commonly held scientific theories. John McCain is one of my heros. I love this quote by him.

The point of public schools should be education rather than indoctrination. Schools, education, should be about learning how to think critically. Learning how to discern for one's self what is truth, what is opinion, what is belief. The message from the classroom should not be believe it because I have told you so. The classroom should be the place to question the accepted and consider the unthinkable. The message from the classroom should be why?

aloha

[posted with ecto]

Technorati Tags: commentary, religion

Whatever else you might say, Iraqis are quickly figuring out this freedom of speech thing. Muqtada Al-Sadr speaks out against Mr. Rumsfeld with a tone and outspokenness that he never would have survived under Saddam Hussein. Likewise, we have seen the Iraqi equivalent of Joe Six-Pack freely speaking out against all manner of things that, under Saddam, they would have simply endured in silence.

aloha

[posted with ecto]

Technorati Tags: commentary, iraq, political

I found this article pretty interesting. It talks about a number of things. It is interesting that the Russians may have given away U.S. War plans but more interesting is that the article also talks about - and tries to play down - documents that point to a direct connection between Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein. Seems like we might need to revisit the notion that attacking Iraq was indirectly connected to the war on al-Qa'ida.

More interesting to me was a web site mentioned in the article. The Foreign Military Studies Office Joint Reserve Intelligence Center has available online the unclassified foreign documents related to Operation Iraqi Freedom. I could waste several weeks plowing through all the cool stuff in there. I love that stuff.

Aloha

[posted with ecto]

Technorati Tags: iraq, military, political

I am glad that the three Christian Peacemaker Team members were found and freed. I am sorry that one of their members was killed. However, I quite honestly do not understand what they hoped to accomplish by going to Iraq nor do I understand the logic of peace activism. In the end, one who is willing to use violence, terror, and fear will prevail over one who refuses to use violence. Whether it be individuals or nations. I can arrive at no other conclusion.

And what do we suppose will become of Iraq at this point if, as many suggested, the Coalition withdraws from Iraq? That Iraq will suddenly become a peaceful nation living in harmony with each other and the world? What indications are there for this belief? If the Coalition forces leave today, Iraq will plunge into complete sectarian violence and civil war. The elected government currently struggling to form will be ripped to shreds and eventually, a new Saddam will rise to power. In a land where force and violence are the only languages truly respected by all, the only way to peace and justice is through force and violence. We all wish it wasn't true but there it is.

Aloha

[posted with ecto]

Technorati Tags: christianity, commentary, iraq

I always check out the new albums on iTunes 25 New Releases. I am often introduced to artists or albums this way. So, today I was cruising through the list of 25 new releases. An album piqued my curiosity because it was a group called The 5 Browns. The album cover looked like a release by some pop group but the category said classical. Hum?

I clicked on the album, popped over into iTunes, and looked at the album. Yep, still the same pop looking group. I listened to the 10 second sample iTunes offers. Yep, they really are a classical group. Now I was really curious. Google 'The 5 Browns'. There's their web site.

I'll let you head over to The 5 Browns and check them out. Very worth looking into even if you think you don't like classical music. These guys are hella cool. This video is an absolute must see. Check 'em out.

Aloha

[posted with ecto]

Technorati Tags: music, review

The new government in Afghanistan is at an interesting crossroad. I have to wonder why this particular man has been brought to trial and that trial is being made so public. Surely this is not the only Afghan who has converted from Islam to some other religion. While I think the International community most definitely needs to condemn the state sanctioned religious persecution that is happening, it is also important to allow the government of Afghanistan to find its own way in this matter.

I think it is important that the young government of Afghanistan be given the opportunity to make the right choices. Further, I think it is an important lesson that the government of Afghanistan learn the ramifications of making the wrong choices. From the various articles about the situation it appears that the government is trying hard to find the win-win solution by which they can maintain credibility with the populus at home while at the same time escaping the condemnation of the International community.

The expectation that, in four short years, Afghans would forsake their deeply held religious beliefs and adopt utterly foreign beliefs and customs is ridiculous on its face. Especially when Afghans believe that the very values they are expected to adopt are the values that their religion teaches are so utterly heinous. The process of moving any people group to a new set of beliefs is generally long and slow. Some parts of that process might go more quickly. Afghan women have, in four years, gained remarkable freedoms. They still have a long way to go but they've come quite far from the barqa coverings required by the Taliban. Moving to even more moderate positions within Islam can be expected to go more slowly.

Ultimately, I think the International community needs to respect the will of any people that have chosen their government through free and fairly held elections. The International community has the right to decide whether it will support, through trade and cooperation, that government. It is my understanding that the current government of Afghanistan was elected by the people. If that is the case, that government must be given the opportunity to govern. That government and the people it governs, must be allowed to learn through the ramifications of the decisions made.

The world is watching. I pray that Abdul Rahman does not die. I would like the government of Afghanistan to come out in support of his freedom to chose his religion. That will not happen. I pray that the government is able to make one small step toward religious freedom for the Afghani people. That might happen.

Democracy in Afghanistan, Iraq and other nation-states in the middle east will probably not look anything like the democracies of the West. Democracy will need to blossom and flower within the context of Arab Islamic culture which is significantly different from Western culture. It is entirely possible that the resulting governments will look not at all like a democracy to the West. However, in the end I think the West and indeed the world must respect the right of any given people group to choose the government that will govern them. A government of the people, by the people and for the people will necessarily be significantly different across different people groups.

Aloha

[posted with ecto]

Technorati Tags: afghanistan, christianity, commentary, iraq, political, religion, sociology, spirituality

Iraqi's are discovering the cost of freedom, the difficulty of democracy, and the hard work of getting along. Reading the quotes from Iraqis in this article, I am struck by what seems to be an underlying notion that everything is the fault and responsibility of the United States. It seems that only Sardar Muhsin Maheed understands that at some point the Iraqis themselves must stand up and take control. It is a bit like a spouse in an abusive relationship. The start of real change is when the abused spouse decides to take control and change the situation.

I think Fakhri Fikry Kareem also gets it. He understands that the freedom he is living now, the freedom of speech and freedom of the press that he has made the center of his life comes at a very expensive cost. We can wish that such freedoms were free. We can demand that these freedoms be granted but these freedoms are only guaranteed to those who are willing to defend them at all cost. Freedom is not free. Freedom is guaranteed by those who are willing to take up arms and die in their defence.

Iraqis have been subjugated under despotic and tyrannical rule for as long as anyone can remember. Since the notion of freedom is new to them so also is the notion that with freedom comes the responsibility of one's own future. However, the future of Iraq depends on Iraqis stepping forward and taking charge of their destiny. Freedom is not free. Coalition forces made the initial purchase of freedom for Iraqis. Iraqis themselves must now step up and take over the maintenance of that freedom.

aloha

[posted with ecto]

Technorati Tags: commentary, iraq, military, political, sociology

This book and the subsequent movie reminds me of "Rising Sun" (Michael Crichton). I had lived in Japan and was an Asian Studies major at Cal State Long Beach at the time the book was published.

Crichton sought to capitalize on the popular notion that Japan was bent on 'conquering' the United States by buying it. There was a lot of talk about how Crichton had done huge amounts of research. The book included a several pages long bibliography of scholarly works on Japan. Sharon Sievers, my Japanese History professor at the time, told me that Japan Scholars all over the country were searching the book to see if they had been quoted or listed in the bibliography. Those who had not were heaving sighs of relief.

There was plenty of allusion to the notion that Rising Sun was in fact prophesying the future if America did not do something about the new Yellow Peril. Probably most comical of all was the fact that Japan's economic bubble had burst in 1989 and by 1992 when Crichton's book was published Japan's economy was entering a recession from which it has yet to recover.

"The Da Vinci Code" (Dan Brown) strikes me a very similar. Dan Brown plays on popular notions in a time when it is popular to poke holes in and fun at Christianity. Dan Brown grabs a handful of sexy alternative theories about Christ and Christianity and weaves them together in a fictional story that covers two thousand years. The Da Vinci Code was never intended as an academic work. It was intended to entertain and, given its success in the marketplace, I would venture a sizable bet that it is a very entertaining story.

I read Rising Sun when it came out. I thought it was a good story. The Japan in Crichton's Rising Sun bore about as much resemblance to the real Japan as Crichton's America did to real America. They were fictional places in a work of fiction. The point of both books is to entertain. I haven't read The Da Vinci Code but I can say that Rising Sun was/is very entertaining. Best not to take either book too seriously. Neither the movies.

aloha

[posted with ecto]

Technorati Tags: book, christianity, commentary, movie, religion, review

This article cites poll after poll almost as if they represented factual references. One gets the impression that impeachment is the political equivalent of getting the gong on the old 70's TV show, "The Gong Show".

It's a pity really. It's easy to do whatever the polls suggest will be popular. However, I am not convinced that doing what is popular will always be what is right for the nation. I am not at all convinced that the American public is the best reference on what is right for America. Most of the issues facing America are far more complicated than can be explained in a 6 minute news spot, much less a 6 second sound byte. There's a lot more to leadership than the ability to deliver one's lines well.

In the years preceding America's entry to World War II there were accusations that President Roosevelt was lying to in order to get America into that war. The America First Committee offered arguments not unlike those being offered today. After World War II and to this day there are those who claim that Roosevelt and other senior leaders knew that Japan was planning to attack Pearl Harbor. The logic goes that these senior leaders allowed the attack to happen and provided no warning to our military in Hawaii in order to motivate the American public to allow entry into the war in Europe.

Rebuilding Japan and Germany after World War II required several years. American occupation of Japan lasted seven years. When comparing Iraq to Japan or Germany it is important to remember that both Japan and Germany had functioning democratic governments which were subverted. In both cases, reconstruction of the governments was essentially a returning to what had existed before. There were large portions of the population who knew what a free society was. If it took seven years to rebuild Japan, which had a history of a free and democratic society, that suggests that it will require at least seven years to build a similar government in a society where no such history has ever existed.

Iraq has no history of a free and democratic society. Building a free and democratic Iraq will involve long years of hard work. Abandoning Iraq to disintegrate into utter sectarian violence, complete civil war and a return to a Saddam-like political system would be absolutely reprehensible. At this point, regardless of how we got here, we owe it to the Iraqi people to provide security until a sustainable government is in place.

aloha

Technorati Tags: commentary, cross-culture, iraq, military, political, sociology

Last night we were watching a PBS series called Manor House. I usually hate reality TV but this series is really good. They select modern day people to live for three months by the customs, traditions and lifestyle of past periods. We watched the 1940s House in which a family lived in a house according to the standards and customs of World War II England. We also watched the 1900 House. The family lived according to Victorian standards and customs. At one point, in began to hail. Loudly. The hail was about the size of or a little larger than moth-balls. The picture here was taken while the hail was coming down during the night.

This morning I got up early to meet with a friend. I went outside to find this. I never imaged having to clear ice and hail from the window of my truck here in Santa Cruz. Pretty crazy. I'm sure that someone somewhere will tell us that this is yet another indication that global warming is destroying the planet. I guess. I thought it was a pretty exciting morning.

Looking down the street in front of my house I wondered what traffic would be like getting to my friend's house. It brought back memories of living in Wyoming, Iowa. Every winter at the first snow fall vehicles went slipping, sliding into the ditch. It was amazing. Once out on the streets and then on to the freeway, the ice and hail was reduced to water and evaporating quickly. No big deal. No excitement.

Aloha

[posted with ecto]

It's been a long week. I'm glad it comes to a close tomorrow with little on my schedule for Friday.

Wednesday started at 5:45 to get to my first BNI meeting by 7:15 even though it turned out the meeting didn't start until 7:30. Haven't really decided yet whether I will join. I've heard a couple of good recommendations about it. I can go for free one more time. Then I have to cough up money.

From the BNI meeting I was off to meet with my friend Chuckk. We are preparing to launch a video podcast. We shot two more episodes on Wednesday. Two sets which meant two step ups. Two lighting set ups. Had to strike twice.

That ran late so I was behind the clock getting to VideoFAX to pick up the audio field mixer that I was renting for the MathDance shoot on Thursday. The people at VideoFAX were gracious and it didn't take me all that long to get there.

Which brings us to today. Wow! Got to Mello Center, everyone arrived on time, ready to go. I had some thing of a real crew, a second camera shooter and a sound man. Set up went a little slower that I would have liked. As a result, I started to feel pressured by time and started cutting corners. Big mistake. I'm not good enough to cut corners yet.

The field mixer was new. Getting it connected went smoothly but getting all the settings right was a rushed. The battery on camera 1, my camera, showed a full charge. About half way through the first performance the battery on my camera died. I quickly grabbed another battery, swapped them out and went back to shooting. Crap! At the end of the shoot my sound man tells me that he can't monitor the return from the camera. OK, let's get that solved. We get the return sound to come through but it sounds terrible. Oh no! Yes, the entire first performance sound is toast. Completely unusable.

So, we successfully diagnose the problem and get things dialed in for the second performance. I run a wire to camera 1. No more power issues. I check camera 2. Plenty of battery life. No problem. Yeah, you guessed it, three quarters of the way through the second performance camera two runs out of battery. Crap. My second camera shooter is hot on the ball though. She sees low battery and immediate starts hunting for power. She did great.

I learned a lot but it was an embarrassing day. The client was gracious and patient. We have what we need to create a great finished product so it should all come out when the wash is done but, wow, what a couple of days.

Aloha

[posted with ecto]

Technorati Tags: commentary, technology, video

Sensationalism. You gotta love it.
Mac OS X hacked under 30 minutes: ZDNet Australia
but wait...
Mac OS X hacked in 30 minutes? Not quite
and finally...
Mac OS X Security Test

The article on that last site, Mac OS X Security Test, tells The Rest of the Story (copyright Paul Harvey).

Fear, like sex, sells. Instill fear in people of something and then sell them the product that will protect them. Or instill fear in people and then tell them what to do to prevent the fear item/event from happening.

The Windows XP box that I purchased a while back came with anti-virus and anti-spam software installed. They were demo versions, of course, that now persistently nag me to uprgrade for the paltry sum of $XXXX. Fat chance. But it is fairly common for Windows users to purchase and install anti-virus software.

Lately there's been a lot of talk of Mac's 'vulnerability' to attack. There were three 'security holes' that were patched by Apple recently. It is a very good idea to check for and install system software updates regularly and often, regardless of the OS you use. My primary anti-virus practice is not installing Microsoft products on my Macs.

aloha

[posted with ecto]

Technorati Tags: commentary, mac os x, technology

I don't what to become a newsbot but this one kind irks me. I guess it is the way of things to come. Bloggers will be yet another arm of the PR campaigns of corporate America. That kind of sucks.

Brokeback Mountain wins three Oscars but failed to bring home Best Movie. I have to confess I'm surprised.

aloha

[posted with ecto]

Technorati Tags: movie

Here in the blogosphere, who links to you and how often is like currency. There are several site out there that do nothing but track who is linking to who. Technorati is, supposedly, the a-list of link tracking. So, it pisses me off just a little bit that Technorati's link counting seems to be just a wee bit inaccurate.

Technorati says I'm ranked 855,521 for my 1 link from 1 site. That one link they are referring to is Adriaan Tijsseling's ecto site which does indeed have a link to Smittie's Ramblings. Woo hoo! However, there are in fact a number of other site in the blogshere that have links to me. The Mad Accordian Master Joey de Villa has a link to me (although Technorati can be excused on that one since Joey has the old URL). There are a number of links to Smittie's Ramblings over on Writers Block Live. And there are a number of links to Smittie's Ramblings on Guy Kawasaki's blog.

Now, I fully realise that I am in any case a very tiny fish in the grand blogsphere. But I would like my smallest accurately represented. Which Technorati does not.

aloha

[posted with ecto]

God be with you and your family, Joey.
May your father rest in peace.

Technorati Tags: friends

I spent the day doing a video shoot at Barefoot Coffee Roasters for a project we're working on there. Hanging out with Andy, the owner, is always fun. He was doing all the roasting today as the usual roaster prepares and practices for the Barista Western Regional Competition coming up this weekend. Good luck to both of the Barefoot Baristas and their coach. Bring home the prize, ladies.

cls joined me for coffee at Barefoot's this afternoon. Always good to hang out with old friends. cls has redone his weblog, moving up to more modern content management software. I like cls's design sense so I always think that his work is worth a look. You can judge for yourself.

Because it was an early shoot and because my times seem heading the wrong direction, I did not run today. I'll be back out tomorrow.

Aloha

[posted with ecto]

Technorati Tags: coffee, friends, video