Author Archives: Mr. Stryker

MilNews Idea

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Okay, here’s the idea and tell me what you think.

I think it would be cool to have a website affiliated with this one and DW that deals purely with military news. I was kinda gonna do that with DW, but I found that it wasn’t fun to continually scope the web looking for that stuff.

Here’s how it could work:

-The stories could be manually entered or automatically pulled from several RSS feeds (or a combination of both) and displayed on the front page in a manner that puts the most stories “above the fold” but doesn’t look too cluttered or busy. It also has to look cool and have some color.

-The site will have different sections or categories, but will be pure news– not links to people commenting on news or mere opinion, but actual news. I don’t see it as a blog, but rather a news/information resource. Since it will already be tied to this site, an opinion resource will already exist.

-It should be integrated somehow with this one and/or DW. That’s one thing I could never figure out how to do effectively. How do you integrate two things without having them wash each other out and confuse the user or have one become ignored on the displayed page? If I could figure out a good way to appropriately display both and not have it look like ass, that would be really cool.

-Anyone should be able to contribute to the news site, but that brings up a problem: trolls. Should the software incorporate a mod feature, meaning that the whole of the registered users would have the power to vote or “mod” a story to the front page (like digg) or should certain people have the mod function (like Slashdot)? Or should it be a free for all and let the dice fall where they may?

-It should have a cool name that’s not already registered. It should be short, catchy, and easily remembered.

Anyway, it’s just an idea. And no talk of bulletin boards. I already tried that and it didn’t work.

Zion! Hear Me!

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I think I might do some cross-promotional stuff with the Shrimp Shack, like an experimental podcast thingie. If I did so, what would you like to hear? I scratched my first idea, since most of what I BS about (and what most people I know consider funny) uses rough language of a sort that makes Deadwood look like the Donnie & Marie Family Hour.

So tell me what you’d like to hear, if anything. I could just say every cuss word I know and leave it at that, but if I’m going to sit down and talk by myself into a microphone, I’m going to make the strangeness of that worth my while. I’m going to start going off on stuff, like astronauts and this sorry excuse for a space program. Free from the constraint of typing, I could probably fill-up 20 minutes just riffing on that, but I would like ideas about what you would like to hear. I’ve got some audio editing hotness, so it’s going to at least sound cool.

If I don’t get any ideas, I will not only say every curse I know, I will perform them in the melodramatic stylings of Lawrence Fishburne’s speech in Matrix 2.

Bring Me a Fatted Calf with Buttermilk Biscuits

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I’m making a rare post seeking suggestions for software. I’m starting up a site for utilitarian purposes (ie, not a blog) that’s meant to be a centralized repository of useful information. What I need is:

1. Some sort of content delivery system that looks professional (or can be made to look professional)

2. Is easy to update, maintain and design

3. Is not some blog/hybrid kluge but was purpose built for the task

4. Is easy for a user to navigate between sections and categories and perhaps submit information of their own

5. Preferably open source, but not really required.

I can do the thing in Flash and make it do what I want to do, but I need something non-Flash based to serve people who want something traditional.

Post-Hangover Headaches

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The hosting service for this site is going belly-up on January 1st. If you know of a hosting service that offers the following, let me know:

1Gb of storage
20Gb/month traffic
Unlimited email accounts
5 FTP accounts
Unlimited SQL databases
CPanel
$20 bucks a month

That’s what this hosting service offered. I’d like to find something similar.

War Quotes

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I’ve seen the following quotes attributed to Goebbels:

This war is a defensive war. It was forced upon us by our enemies, who wish to destroy our nation. The only thing we cannot afford to lose in this war is our freedom, the foundation of our life and our future. No one has the right to complain about limitations on his personal freedom caused by the war.

…

Why of course the people don’t want war. But it is the leaders who determine policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.

What I’ve never seen is the source material for these quotes. Were they from personal diaries, newspaper interviews, or Party speeches? I’m just wondering, because I’ve always wanted to read the rest of the text that was originally placed about these particular sentences.

Here’s one from Caesar:

Beware the leader who bangs the drums of war in order to whip the citizenry into a patriotic fervor. The citizenry, infused with fear and blinded by patriotism, will offer up all of their rights unto the leader. How do I know? For this is what I have done.

Where’s this one from?

Posted in War

Essential Reading

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Phil Carter has the Army’s new professional reading list up at his site, so I thought I’d share the CSAF’s professional reading list here. Unlike the Army’s list, the Air Force list isn’t divided between ranks, with different books recommended for different ranks. Instead, the list is broken into categories. Everyone is encouraged to read the listed books.

Category I
History of the Air Force from its beginning through its major transformations as an Institution.

Frank M. Andrews: Marshall’s Airman – DeWitt S. Copp and the Air Force History and Museums Program

Beyond the Wild Blue: A History of the United States Air Force, 1947-1997 – Walter J. Boyne

The Transformation of American Air Power – Benjamin S. Lambeth

Winged Victory: The Army Air Forces in World War II – Geoffrey Perret

Category II
Insight into ongoing conflicts and the frictions that can produce conflicts in the future.

The Crisis of Islam: Holy War and Unholy Terror – Bernard Lewis

The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order – Samuel P. Huntington

Age of Sacred Terror – Steven Simon and Dan Benjamin

Of Paradise and Power – Robert Kagan

Category III
Organization, leadership and success stories holding lessons for the present and future.

The Five Pillars of TQM (Guidelines for Organizational Greatness) – Bill Creech

An Army at Dawn – Rick Atkinson

American Generalship: Character is Everything: The Art of Command – Edgar F. Puryear

Category IV
Lessons emerging from recent conflicts – and the preparation for them.

Supreme Command: Soldiers, Statesmen, and Leadership in Wartime – Eliot Cohen

Prodigal Soldiers – James Kitfield

Time Extension Needed for Military Absentee Ballots?

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In yet another amazing coincidence, CNN ran a story today about overseas military absentee ballots and how a repeat of 2000 could occur again this year. The situation is made worse by the fact that thousands more people are deployed this time around, many of them to remote and inhospitable regions.

What’s most interesting about the article is that it appears to dispute my assertation that perceptions of heavy Republican voting by military members leads to Democrats applying strict interpretations of the law when counting military votes, and Republicans allowing improper ballots to go through as a means of maximizing their respective advantages.

Thousands of votes from U.S. troops overseas could go uncounted again in November without emergency legislation extending deadlines for the ballots, a Chicago election official warned President Bush in a letter Tuesday.

Nearly 30 percent of military voters who requested ballots in 2000 didn’t get them in time to vote. Theresa M. Petrone, a Democratic member of Chicago’s three-person Board of Election Commissioners, told Bush the problem could be solved if he proposed emergency legislation giving election officials up to 14 days after Election Day to collect and count ballots.

Note that this is a Democrat pushing the deadline extension– in Chicago, of all places.

White House spokesman Ken Lisaius declined to comment, saying he hadn’t seen the letter. Congressional leaders have opposed amending the Help America Vote Act of 2002 and such emergency legislation is unlikely before November.

Now note that “Congressional leaders”, who I assume to be Republicans, as they currently hold a majority in both Houses, are opposed to amending the act that would allow for an extension.

Is this a sign that perceptions are changing? Politics is an odd game with irrational actors, but you can get a grip on how people will behave if you know what their perceptions are, since politics is basically the creation and manipulation of perception for personal advantage. This story may be a sign that a perception exists among both Parties that the overseas absentee vote may not break heavily towards the Republicans in this election, and could in fact help the Democrats. Whether that’s true or not doesn’t matter. Politics isn’t about truth, it’s about perception.

I find this story odd, because I can’t imagine a Democrat pushing for something that would be disadvantageous to the Party, and the Republicans then resisting an amendment that would benefit them, especially in an election where the military overseas absentee vote stands a chance of deciding the Presidency.

Or it could be that Theresa M. Petrone is a good person who actually gives a shit. It’s been known to happen, even in politics.