Liam’s Daily…

.

Putin’s Russia invades, bombs, bisects and terrorizes a sovereign nation.

Read the rest of this entry »

…and would we be foolish for doing so?

A European friend of mine (hello Janny!) asked me to think about the state of the US economy – its falling dollar, nauseous stock market, and defaulted home loans – in terms of the total percentage of funds spent on our military.

She then asked me to look, for the purposes of comparison, at the state of the European economy – it’s rising Euro, now replacing the US Dollar as the international standard – and its relatively spare military budgets.

The military budget for 2007 hovers at around $440 Billion dollars, (which does not include, I read online, Veteran’s affairs, Nuclear weapons research… or ongoing war – that is, Afghanistan and Iraq. So, add a couple hundred billion).

Read the rest of this entry »

In doing research on Cults in America, and specifically those that re-form themselves as schools for troubled teens, I found this handy chart (see below), taken from Dr. Margaret Singer’s book, Cults in Our Midst (at Factnet.org ) outlining some of the differences between education and thought reform (also called “brain-washing”), and some of the stops along the way – advertising, indoctrination and propaganda.

Which of these processes best describe your school days? Your grade school? High school? College?

Your work environment? A corporate work environment?

Where does television news fit in this array? National Public Radio? AM talk radio?

Where do the current Presidential candidates fit on the chart?

Where does the Bird Flu scare fit?

The HPV “Cervical Cancer” Vaccine campaign? Education or Advertising? Or Propaganda?

Aids Education? (See the previous exchange with Dr. Nick Bennett for one example).

The Public debates on Evolution? Global Warming? Abortion?

Read the rest of this entry »

Two days after Christmas, in the year 2007?

I think it’s a good, bad bet that it’s so. I think we will all have to learn a thing or two that we’ve been putting off…

The meaning of the terms “Wahhabi” and “Wahhabiism,” for example.

Read the rest of this entry »

With the arrival of the shopping season (and what season isn’t for shopping these days), we welcome, with open arms and purses, and wide eyes, the million tons of plastic, electronic paraphernalia from China and East Asia.

Earlier this year, I spent a month in China, home of American goods and products. The experience left me a little wide-eyed. Or, more than a little.

I wrote about it a little bit, Here and Here, but haven’t quite had the heart to get back to it in full. Somewhere inside, there is a voice that says, “If you don’t have anything nice to say….”

But, nice or not, I can’t sit on these thoughts anymore.

You see, having been to China, I am now afraid of China. Or, more to the point, I am afraid of our massive intertwining with China.

I see the PBS specials on the wonders of the place, with gongs and pentatonic scales sounding over images of the rose and gold-lensed landscapes. I hear about the growth and opportunity, but mostly, what I hear, having been there, is a denial of what it is actually like to be in China. Or, to be poor in China. (And poor is the way most people in China are, have been, and will remain).

There is a tendency for reporters to shy away from the difficulty, the tragedy, the deep unpleasantness of the lives of most Chinese people. The often mortal burden placed on individual Chinese by their government, which does not seem to worry much about individual human or civil rights…After all, they’re building the new regime, to compete, not with the old, but with us.

This year I witnessed what I came to call “the building of the pyramids,” 2007 style. When the Pharaohs built the Pyramids, they didn’t build them. Their workers, and slaves did. Every day, blocks of stone rolled up gangways, pushed and pulled by rope and lever and wheel. Every day the stones were piled higher. And every day handfuls of slaves met their end under those stones.

And so, in China, every night, you go to bed with the sound of steel against steel, hammers pounding rivets on the thirty second floor of a scaffold. Every morning the buildings are a little higher, and the air and water, a little more polluted. And you can bet a number get caught in the gears and steel of the new pyramids dotting the emerging, brown and dusty skyline.

Read the Rest Here

China in Bid for US Security Firm 3Com

From the Washington Times (10/4/07):

“China’s Huawei Technologies and the investment firm Bain Capital Partners to buy 3Com, which makes equipment used by the Pentagon to block computer hackers, including those from the Chinese military.”

That is, everything’s for sale in America, even our defense secrets. They used to have a word for people who did this kind of dealing: Traitor, Quisling, Benedict Arnold. But that’s old hat. Now it’s all part of the great big happy new-world ordered family of universal-commerce and borderless free-trade that we’re learning to love (and fear).

Does this qualify as being in bed with China? I think it qualifies as something much worse.

Read the rest of this entry »

The entire history of humanity plus a complete philosophy of human behaviour, all in nine little words (plus a thousand, for the photo):

War On String May Be Unwinnable, Says Cat General.

You said it, General Bonkers… (Thanks to the paper of record, The Onion).

From The Art of War, translation by Samuel B. Griffith .

In respect to the employment of troops, ground may be classified as dispersive, frontier, key, communicating, focal, serious, difficult, encircled, and death.

1) When a feudal lord fights in his own territory, he is in dispersive ground.

• Here officers and men long to return to their nearby homes.

2) When he makes but a shallow penetration into enemy territory he is in frontier ground.

3) Ground equally advantageous for the enemy or me to occupy is key ground.

4) Ground equally accessible to both the enemy and me is communicating.

• This is level and extensive ground in which one may come and go, sufficient in extent for battle and to erect opposing fortifications.

Read the rest of this entry »

From The Art of War, translation by Samuel B. Griffith .

• Dust spurting upward in high straight columns indicates the approach of chariots. When in hangs low and is widespread infantry is approaching.
• When dust rises in scattered areas the enemy is bringing in firewood; when there are numerous small patches which seem to come and go he is encamping the army.
• When the enemy’s envoys speak in humble terms, but he continues his preparations, he will advance.

Chan Yu: When T’ien Tan was defending Ch Mo the Yen general Ch’i Che surrounded it. T’ien Tan personally handled the spade and shared in the labour of the troops.

He sent his wives and concubines to enroll in the ranks and divided his own food to entertain his officers. he also sent women to the city walls to ask for terms of surrender. The Yen general was very pleased.

T’ien Tan also collected twenty-four thousand ounces of gold, and made the rich citizens send a letter to the Yen general which said: “The city is to be surrendered immediately. Our only wish is that you will not make our wives and concubines prisoners.”

The Yen army became increasingly relaxed and negligent and T’ien Tan sallied out of the city and inflicted a crushing defeat on them.

From The Art of War, this translation and introduction by Samuel B. Griffith (a wonderful version, available Here).

Biography of Sun Tzu (as it appears in the Shih Chi, Sun Tzu Wu Chi’s Lieh Chuan).

Sun Tzu [?circa 453-221 B.C. - The Warring States Period ] was a native of Ch’i who by means of his book on the art of war secured an audience with Ho-lu, King of Wu.

Ho-lu said, “I have read your thirteen chapters, Sir, in their entirety. Can you conduct a minor experiment in control of the movement of troops?”

Sun Tzu replied, “I can.”

Ho-lu asked, “Can you conduct this test using women?”

Sun Tzu replied, “Yes.”

The King thereupon agreed and sent from the palace one hundred and eighty beautiful women.

Read the rest of this entry »

From “The Art of War” by Sun Tzu

Victory is the main object in war. If this is long delayed, weapons are blunted and morale depressed.

When your weapons are dulled and ardour damped, your strength exhausted and treasure spent, neighboring rulers will take advantage of your distress to act. And even though you have wise counselors, none will be able to lay good plans for the future.

For there has never been a protracted war from which a country has benefited.

War is like unto fire; those who will not put aside weapons are themselves consumed by them.

Thus those unable to understand the dangers inherent in employing troops are equally unable to understand the advantageous ways of doing so.