Steven Givler Online

Tonight's Painting

2012-02-12T14:40:00.000-08:00

Work's been rough for the last 4 or 5 weeks, so there hasn't been much time for painting. Even so, I've managed to get my hands on the brushes for a few minutes here and there, and this is the result. This house is in a village not far from here, but it's on a very busy road, and has no view of the sea. I guess that's the fun of being a painter; you can paint things as you think they ought to be, instead of being forced to just photograph them as they are.

USS Bataan Visits Lisbon

2012-01-22T07:48:00.000-08:00

The USS Bataan, an amphibious assault ship, is visiting Lisbon these days. On Friday, she steamed past our base on her way up the mouth of the Tagus river, and work pretty much came to a standstill until she disappeared from sight. She's not as big as the Eisenhower, which visited last year, but she's an imposing sight, nonetheless.

Yesterday Americans in the area were treated to tours by the ship's crew. They were very gracious and friendly, despite the fact that, were they not showing us around, they would probably have been able to be on shore liberty.

The stern of the ship is open and can be flooded, so that these enormous hovercraft can be deployed.

Looking forward over the flight deck, you can see the osprey aircraft. Beyond them the Cristo Rei statue presides over the Setubal Peninsula.

Here, the ship's superstructure makes a frame for Lisbon's Panteão Nacional.

It was such a nice day that I did some walking around Lisbon after the ship tour. I took a lot of photos of the scenes I want to paint in the Al Fama quarter, which is characterized by narrow alleys and old buildings.

While I was walking around, I couldn't help noticing all the young Americans from the Bataan. They weren't drawing attention to themselves, but they were unmistakable. There were three eating at the little hole in the wall restaurant where I had lunch. They were very quiet and polite, and they wanted to eat authentic Portuguese food, which made the proprietor happy. They made me feel proud, for some reason, so I secretly paid for their meals before I resumed my walk.

Neighborhood Watch

2012-01-20T22:51:00.000-08:00

One of the first things you notice if you pass through my neighborhood is Rexi, the dog who lives across the street. She loves to sit atop her garden wall and keep an eye on things. I did this painting as a surprise for her owner.

The late afternoon sun throws beautiful shadows on my tower wall. I've been wanting to paint them ever since I moved in.

Penha Palace, Third Painting

2012-01-15T10:28:00.001-08:00

This is the third painting I've done of Penha Palace. This is a small one - 4 x 4 inches - so it's challenging to get a lot of information in the space available without making it look crowded or muddy.

Riding with the kids

2012-01-15T02:16:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was another battle in the campaign against sluggishness. The kids and I rode our bikes down the hill from our home in Estoril to the sea, and then along the walkway to Cascais. When I proposed the idea, neither of them was enthusiastic; they wanted to sit around inside, watching cartoons and playing video games. Once I got them on their bikes and into the sunshine, though, they really had a good time.

Since the weather was so nice, there were a lot of people out walking around, and when people walk on the paths by the sea here, they have no sense of lanes, or traffic, or hey-maybe-I-ought-not-to-lurch-suddenly-from-one-side-of-the-path-to-the-other. I consider this a perfect training environment for kids who are developing their bike-handling skills. They have a moving obstacle course to contend with, but no cars to worry about.

Zoe wasn't thrilled about the climb back up the hill to our house, but she's a trooper, and the toughed it out.

Window Seat Study Number 2

2012-01-12T13:49:00.000-08:00

Window Seat

2012-01-11T14:35:00.000-08:00

This is a very small (2 x 3 inches) study for what I hope will soon be a larger painting -- if I can just make some time.

Last Night's Painting

2012-01-07T08:47:00.000-08:00

Here's the final version of the painting I started last night.

Tonight's Painting

2012-01-06T15:55:00.000-08:00

Tonight's painting, which isn't quite finished, is influenced (I flatter myself to say so.) by John Singer Sargent's painting of palm trees:

And by a photo I took recently of the Estoril Golf Course, which reminded me a great deal of scenes I saw daily while riding my bike along 17 Mile Drive, in California.

I know it doesn't look like either of them - and it's not supposed to - but it does incorporate things I've learned by looking at each of them.

That may be more obvious when I've finished it. I'll post it when I'm done, and you can be the judge.

Clinical Proof: Getting up at 0530 to Run Makes You Happy.

2012-01-04T00:35:00.000-08:00

This morning all US personnel where I work were directed to attend mandatory physical fitness training at 0630. Last night, I told my 13 year old son, Zach, that he would be coming with me.

The Horror.

He could not believe I would inflict such suffering on my own flesh and blood. He pleaded, he sulked, he moaned. I would not be moved. This morning, when I woke him at 0530, there was more of the same; this time, with feeling. Even so, and I give him credit for this, he was up and out of bed and dressed to run in no time. He let me know he wasn't happy about it, but he didn't waste time.

Before the run: Miserable.

We showed up at the dark PT field in time for the 0630 start. He was the only civilian, and the only person under twenty-something, but he fit right into the formation and did the warmup exercises just like everybody else. And when we ran, he cruised along beautifully, running his own pace, which started out slowly, but which ended up with him passing quite a few people before the run was over.

He didn't want to get up at that ridiculous hour, and he didn't want to run, but he did it anyway, and when he finished, he had a smile on his face. As did I. I'm proud of him.

After the run: Happy.

Stupid - Brought to you by bureaucrats

2012-01-01T23:45:00.000-08:00

Those fine public servants at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission have issued a warning that if you are a prospective employer, requiring that job applicants have a high school diploma may violate the Americans with Disabilities Act.

The EEOC is not a legislative body. It is not empowered by the Constitution with the ability to make laws, so they hasten to warn us that this is only a "warning," that employers, "may" be liable under the ADA if they refuse employment to someone who hasn't earned a high school diploma. We'll all just have to wait and see what happens the next time someone decides not to hire an applicant who hasn't finished high school.

Who wants to be the first to test that?

So the burden is once again placed on the prospective employer - as if they didn't have enough to worry about. Not to mention the fact that, taken to extremes, businesses might find themselves having to prove that they are not discriminating against unable-to-finish-high-school-Americans. Can you imagine filling a quota for non graduates? Has the EEOC just created an employment niche for people who couldn't hack high school?

As far as I'm concerned, people should be free to hire and fire as they see fit. If you are willing to go into business or continue running a business in spite of all the obstacles in your path, more power to you. If you are silly or short-sighted enough to hire based on unjust criteria, your business will eventually pay the price. We don't need a crushing bureaucracy to try to impose fairness to the detriment of common sense.

Operation Faster and Furiouser - Let's facilitate illegal missile shipments?

2011-12-23T01:31:00.000-08:00

They're saying this was a mistake - that there is nothing to worry about in the strange case of US Patriot missiles, mysteriously labeled as "fireworks," found on a ship that was bound for China. We can all breathe easily because apparently those missiles were actually headed for South Korea, even though that destination appeared nowhere on the Ship's paperwork.

And we should not be concerned that the ship was not registered as carrying weapons.

Or that, in addition to the Patriot missiles, the ship carried a cargo of nitroguanidine which, despite the name, does not contain bat guano, but is instead an explosive.

Despite all my fears being so nicely laid to rest by unnamed experts and anonymous government spokespeople, I still feel a little unsure of the whole thing. Yes, I realize this is a character flaw; I am sometimes unable to subvert my natural skepticism to my overriding trust in government. I'm working on that. But until my lobotomy is administered by my government healthcare provider, I just have to wonder - is this all some kind of Operation Super Fast and Furious?

I mean, if our government is stupid enough to provide thousands of automatic weapons to murdereous drug cartels, ostensibly so that they could be tracked into a country (unbeknownst to its government) where we have no jurisdiction, why would they not go for broke and try the same thing on a really grand scale? In for a penny, in for a pound, right? If it was a great idea to do it with rifles, why not with missiles?

Why not indeed. No word so far from U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder on this topic, but that's hardly surprising, seeing as he took months to respond to questions about Fast and Furious, and that was after Fast and Furious led to the death of one of our federal agents and hundreds of Mexican citizens.

Ambitious Rap Partnership Dissolves Amid Personality Conflict

2011-12-21T02:59:00.000-08:00

Go-Vez and B-Sane in happier times

The much-anticipated collaboration between rap mastermind Hugo (Go-Vez) Chavez, and Barak (B-Sane) Obama has come to naught. Despite late-night attempts at rapprochement by the entourages of both parties, the vaunted mind-meld rap extravaganza is still-born.

Citing irreconcilable artistic differences, spokespersons for both artists reluctantly issued statements this morning attesting to the dissolution. News of the project has had industry insiders and fans of left-wing gangsta-che-rap on pins and needles since December of 2009, when it was discovered that the artists had met at the Copenhagen International Climate Talks. Go-Vez, Mo-Jad (Mohmud Ahmadinejad) and Robert (Kronic) Mugabe, who together comprise the mega-group Kronic Mo-Go, had chosen the Talks as the scene for the announcement of their newest disk release, and witnesses to the event said that B-Sane was transfixed by their performance. Ever since that time, teams have been working feverishly to forge an agreement between all four artists, but Kronic and Mo-Jad remained aloof, preferring to work on independent projects.

Go-Vez during his "Stanky Thang" tour

Our sources tell us that negotiations briefly included rap sensation Kim Jong (Chill'in) Il, but his demanding film career (See article below.) has required him to put his musical aspirations on hold for now.

"Chillin' Il" - No rap for you!

No to be deterred, B-Sane's people began laying the groundwork for a duet disk with Go-Vez. "This was our intention all along, really," said spokesman Jay Carney, "We felt from the beginning that the real magic would be found in the interplay between North and South America - the feedback between Latin and Chicago rhythms. Fo' shizzle."

Fans agreed. Would-be concert-goers braved weeks of freezing weather to occupy the park outside the office of Rod "The Coiff" Blagojevich, when rumors circulated that he would be presiding over early ticket sales. It wasn't until after more than a dozen cases of frost-bite, and nearly twice as many cases of herpes were reported in the makeshift settlement that disappointed fans eventually decamped.

The Coiff - Hair yes, scalp no.

Not even the lack of ticket sales, though, dampened the hopes of those who awaited the results of Go-Vez, B-Sane fusion. Internet forums buzzed with discussions of possible themes for the new album, and although thousands of ideas were exchanged, the constant undercurrent remained that heart and soul of both artists' work - the redistribution of wealth.

B-Sane in his early days, as backup singer for the Bill Ayers Band

Despite the philosophy common to their work though, it seems that neither artist's ego can take a back seat long enough to produce an album together. Apparently B-Sane, stung by the discovery that Go-Vez and Mo-jad were continuing to pursue ventures jointly without including him, vented some frustration, saying, “It seems to me that the ties between Venezuela’s government and Iran and Cuba have not served the interests of Venezuela and its people.” Predictably, this did not sit well with Go-Vez who, for all his musical brilliance, has never been known to accept a dressing down from anybody. Today, as their people were making their sad announcement, Go-Vez, with all the bluster that has made him such a presence on stage (and such a handful offstage, says his business manager) told B-Sane "You are a clown, a clown. Leave us in peace."

B-Sane, on his way to an urgent meeting in Hawaii, tweeted of his disappointment in the state of affairs. "Is that all he's got?" he wrote, "It doesn't even rhyme."

Critics Hail Kim Jong Il's Latest Role

2011-12-20T07:38:00.000-08:00

Kim Jong Il, universally beloved film and stage actor has once again established himself as the very definintion of avant-garde screen presence.

Hard on the heels of his overwhelming film success "The Greatest Love Story Ever Told - Ever" Kim Jong Il, who includes among his credits such titles as "Beloved leader," "Great man who descended from Heaven," and my personal favorite, "Highest Incarnation of the Revolutionary Comradely Love," has chosen for himself a role that is destined to transcend all others, even that of Jim Stark, (Rebel Without a Causing, 1955)

As Jim Stark, 1955

This latest role, explained his press agent B. bimbop, will redefine forever and in every way, how an actor uses nothing but presence to conduct universes of meaning to his audience. Under the working title "Room Temperature," the beloved actor has undertaken a rigorous program of his own devising, which will stretch his abilities to convey meaning, emotion, and presence beyond all known human limits.

Surrounded by herbal extracts and dried flowers, and encased in a lucite hyperbaric chamber wherein the oxygen ratio is triple that found in ambient air, Beloved Actor lies absolutely rigid, eschewing motion, facial expression, and other outmoded means of conveying meaning, and seeks instead to find a deeper connection with his audience, an emotional, spiritual bond that will render all other means of acting forever obsolete. Even at this early stage in his experiments, Emoter of Devine Essence has managed to establish a link with his beloved audience whereby he channels the great depths of his soulful being.

There is no question as to the success of this bold venture; the only issue is whether average mortals can stand being exposed to such profound feeling for any extended period of time.

OK, now it's done.

2011-12-11T01:37:00.000-08:00

I couldn't leave this painting without its border of Moorish tile along the outside of the arch. I'm glad I added it.

Tonight's Painting

2011-12-09T13:17:00.000-08:00

Here's another view of Penha Palace, in Sintra. This tiny courtyard is tucked away behind the other part of the palace that I painted last time.

Cascais Lighthouse

2011-12-09T00:36:00.000-08:00

Not long ago I posted a small study I did of this same location. Almost as soon as I'd finished it, I started working on this much larger version. (This one is 12 x 22 inches.) I had to set it aside for a week while I was in Sicily, but I've finally gotten around to getting back to work on it. Now I'm at the stage where I'll set it aside for a few days, then look at it with fresh eyes, to see if anything's missing.

Now that's a Painting.

2011-12-08T11:18:00.000-08:00

www.paintingmania.com

Click on over to Si Vis Pacem and have a look at a master's work. John Singer Sargent has always been a favorite of mine, and I use many of his watercolor paintings to illustrate points in my classes. Ran has an excellent example of his oil work on display, cleverly juxtaposed with a piece by Diego Velasquez.

John Singer Sargent

One of his many paintings of Venice. Not what anyone would consider a normal composition; light is the feature here, and the architectural details, which one might mistakenly think are the subject of this painting, are just props for hanging light and shadows.

AG Eric Holder - "Nobody at DoJ has lied."

2011-12-08T11:03:00.000-08:00

Today, at least.

And in the past - they just issued "inaccurate information."

That's a relief. No go on back to your business, Mr. and Mrs. America. Nothing to see here...

Viewing Caravaggio's "Burial of St Lucy"

2011-12-08T03:31:00.000-08:00

Last week the conference I attended in Syracusa, Sicily, was very close to the Church of Santa Lucìa alla Badìa, where Caravaggio's "Burial of St Lucy" hangs. Caravaggio was a troubled soul. He fled Malta after killing a man, and seemed to spend the rest of his life painting commissions for anyone who could help him stay out of jail. He died at 38, and some theorize that lead poisoning could have sped his demise, and perhaps contributed to his erratic lifestyle. (Note to self - When working with multiple paintbrushes, do not hold spares between teeth.)

This painting is notable for a number of things. First, at about 18 feet tall, it's enormous, but he finished it in less than a year. The lack of background detail certainly played a role in making that possible, but I don't get the sense that he sacrificed background for the sake of speed. Instead, this reads to me as if he never intended to draw our attention away with superfluous information. I find it interesting, also, that St Lucy is more or less central to the painting, but not really to the narrative of the painting. It's almost as if she's a bit player in her own burial. The gravediggers are much more important to Caravaggio, for some reason, and even the priest who's administering the rites has a more central position and is rendered in greater detail than Lucy herself. Contrasted with other painters' portraits of saints, one has to wonder if Caravaggio was questioning the relevance of saints compared to regular, everyday people like the gravediggers.

Syracusa

2011-12-02T10:19:00.000-08:00

I've been in Syracusa, Italy for a conference all week. The conference was awful, but wow, what a lovely place.

I ran about 4 miles a day on my off-time, but I don't think I got any decent training in, because every 20 or 30 feet I stopped to take a photo. I managed to squeeze in three quick paintings while the light was good. I'd love to come back here for about a month and paint non-stop.

I'm always intrigued by views of narrow alleys with balconies and clotheslines. There's no shortage of views like that here.

Peaceful, isn't it?

Not Everyone Would Have Been McQueary

2011-11-21T07:36:00.000-08:00

A few days ago David Brooks’ New York Times column (I’ll give you two reasons why I’m not going to link it – David Brooks, and New York Times.) tried to make the case that the consistent and widespread acceptance of child rape by Penn State insiders was really not such a strange thing. As Mark Steyn put it, Brooks and others are quick to claim that, “nobody knows,” what they would do if, like Mike McQueary, they were to happen upon Sandusky in the process of raping a ten year-old boy. Brooks’ is not the only article I’ve read recently that suggests that it’s normal – and thus somehow, acceptable – to walk away when confronted with something so clearly abhorrent, because the human mind somehow cannot accept what it has seen, and so chooses to ignore it.

Maybe that’s the way it works in New York high society, but in the world I inhabit, it’s considered neither normal, nor acceptable to ignore an abomination. I don’t know how they rear their young in the big city, but where I grew up, we learned from an early age that we are accountable for our actions, and that, simply by virtue of drawing breath, we incur a responsibility to protect those who cannot protect themselves. We learn it early, and we put it into practice: When you see someone being abused, you do what you can to stop it. In the school-yard, on the playground, in the neighborhood – it’s what you do, even if the odds are against you, and even if doing it gets you knocked around a bit.

You start young, because it’s the kind of thing that goes against the grain. It’s a behavior that has to be learned, and it has to be instituted by practice, so that, by the time you are 28 years old, 200 and-some pounds, and 6-something feet tall, like McQueary, you know that the reason God made you big and strong has nothing to do with football, and everything to do with protecting a ten year-old who’s being brutalized. You don’t run away and call your daddy like McQueary did. You pick up the nearest blunt object, and you brain the man who’s raping the child. I know it’s not a sophisticated world view, and it’s not very nuanced, but I like to think it’s acting in a tradition that is very much worth preserving.

Brooks must get some kind of perverse satisfaction from suggesting that none of us is better than those facilitators of rape at Penn State. Maybe it helps him sleep to think that most people are like him, and need a map to tell right from wrong. I know better though, and I have no interest in preserving his illusions. He is a member of a pathetic minority. Incapable of action on their own, they derive their sense of value from smugness, and they contrive to make themselves superior to the very people to whom they would apply for aid, were they to find themselves in the position of that ten year-old boy.

Today's Painting

2011-11-19T05:00:00.000-08:00

I can see the beacon from this lighthouse from my living room window at night, and I've wanted to paint it ever since I got here. Unlike every other lighthouse I've seen, this one is completely covered in ceramic tiles, which sometimes makes it gleam in the sunlight.

The lighthouse occupies a point next to a narrow inlet, which is spanned by a small stone bridge. Sometimes, when the tide is high, kids jump from the bridge into the water below.

Forte de Sao Juliao da Barra

2011-11-14T14:56:00.000-08:00

I finished this painting a couple months ago, but never got around to photographing it until tonight. It's a larger painting, as watercolors go, at 8 by 28 inches.

This is the view of the fort from the hill where I work. It's a tough subject to paint, because of its very irregular shape, which only begins to make sense to the eye when viewed from above.

Saturday Night Paintings

2011-11-12T12:06:00.000-08:00

This is a little painting of the 25 April Bridge, which spans the Tagus River between Lisbon, and the Setubal Peninsula. In this view, we're looking northwest, toward Lisbon.

Lisbon was built on seven hills. On the easternmost of those, you'll find what remains of Saint George's Castle, which is worth a visit in and of itself. Of greater interest to me, though, are the narrow alleys just outside the castle wall. Here houses, built more to conform the contours of the land than to satisfy any sense of squareness, run together at odd angles, and throw peculiar shadows everywhere.

An Honor

2011-11-10T22:47:00.000-08:00

It's an honor to be named the source of The Camp Of The Saints "Spot-on Quote of The Week" for my comment that,

Gun Walker does prove the need for gun control – applied to the government, not to private citizens.

I don't mention Bob Belvedere and the good work he does at TCOTS nearly often enough, so please help me atone for my shortcomings by visiting his site and availing yourself of his insightful commentary.

Here's Something You Don't See Every Day

2011-11-09T12:40:00.000-08:00

This was sent to me by a friend in the States, but the song is Portuguese (Don't ask me to translate.) as is info on their website, so I suspect they're from somewhere around here. Either the cat or the owl could kill the other easily, so it's amazing to see them play like this.

For Want of a Nail - The Collapse of Law and Order

2011-11-09T08:24:00.000-08:00

Back in March I wrote about the importance of taking care of the little things, and allowing the big things to take care of themselves. I was talking about law enforcement, and the emerging scandal now widely known as Operation Fast and Furious, or, less commonly but more accurately, The US Government Assistance Program to Mexican Drug Cartels.

My point was that law enforcement does its job - keeping people and their property safe – best by doing the small, unglamorous tasks like ensuring people stop at stop signs and drive at speeds that do not endanger their neighbors. Doing these thankless little things makes their jurisdictions less comfortable for criminals, who seek greener pastures elsewhere. It also makes those areas better places to live for law-abiding citizens.

As I mentioned in that post though, the trend in law enforcement seems to be away from those mundane tasks, and toward more exciting missions to nab higher-profile criminals – to worry less about the small, simple stuff, and to focus more on complex operations that require special tactics and training. Door-breaking is spectacular, you know, while walking a beat is not.

I suspect that a large part of this is due, not to shortcomings on the part of police, but to political pressure from politicians. It's easy for politicians to hassle cops, and they generally get a free ride for doing it. When some city councilman accuses the PD of being too hard on vagrants, for example, he comes out smelling like a rose because he's standing up for the little guy. Nobody cares much what happens to the cop, and people care even less for the person whose porch or garage the homeless person was camping in. It's a small price for that property owner to pay, after all, as long as it’s not you or me - even if that vagrant was using said private property as a combination urinal, opium den, and brothel.

Now, however, we are beginning to see the longer-term effects of this trend. The Occupy Whatever crowd has exploited the law and order gap. Cities in which politicians have made it difficult for cops to enforce vagrancy and loitering laws that they themselves voted into effect, are seeing some very ugly chickens coming home to roost in their parks and on their street corners. What used to be a handful of homeless people here and there has now, with the help of some radical organizers, devolved into the howling mobs that shut down the Port of Oakland, block traffic in DC, and fling blood and feces at businesspeople who refuse to give them free food.

At some point, the people who work and pay taxes will make it known to the politicians that this is not satisfactory, and those politicians will turn to the very police whose jobs they made so difficult, and insist that they reestablish order.

The response will play right into the hands of the radicals, who will drive the situation to violence. Shields and helmets, teargas, and truncheons will be the order of the day, and the leftists will be sure to make the most of it. Every instance of physical force, no matter the necessity, and no matter the prelude, will be presented to the public as an example of police brutality. The images will be shown over and over by mainstream media, grateful for any evidence, no matter how artificial, that enforces their agenda.

The pity is that this was all preventable. It started small, and that’s when it should have been addressed. Those little laws directed at minor infractions like vagrancy, loitering, and blocking public by-ways exist for a very important reason – to protect the safety of individuals and to provide for the security of their property. When police don’t enforce them – either by choice, or because politicians make it impossible to do so, the consequences are disproportionately large.

Unfortunately, the lesson likely to be taken from this mess is that police forces need more specialized training and more paramilitary equipment or, worse yet, more intervention by federal agencies. This is the opposite of what should happen. Law enforcement must, instead, be allowed to return to what it should always be in a republic – small, local, and focused on the little things. Then the big things will take care of themselves.

Ahmadinejad Leads the Way

2011-11-09T07:15:00.000-08:00

Mahmoud (Mo Jad) Ahmadinejad, rapper extraordinaire and part-time President of Iran, has announced his support for the controversial law mandating conservative underwear for the women of his country.

Last month, street protests greeted the announcement of the mandate by religious authorities, and even ultra conservative Shi’ite leaders questioned the wisdom of the law, asking how it could be enforced.

MoJad though, who has always infused his rap videos with the latest technology (Almost all of his videos this year were shot in color, and industry leaders say there is a rumor of an upcoming 3-D video for the title track of his much anticipated album, “Imam of Slam.”) has advanced the idea of the ban, insisting that the law can be enforced, not only at the point of sales, but also by patrols equipped with special “X-ray Spectacles,” which he ordered from the back pages of a western magazine he acquired during his latest concert tour.

The trend-setting leader even volunteered to lead the first patrol, which he referred to as a “panty posse,” graciously donating his precious time to stamping out vice, and defending the world-famous virtue of Iranian women.

Done.

2011-10-28T13:56:00.000-07:00

Here's my finished painting of Penha Palace. Incidentally, one of the reasons they built this palace in Sintra, which is usually about ten degrees cooler than Lisbon in the summer, is to avoid the plague, which often became a problem in the warmer months.

I'm happy with the way the details worked out. The window in the top left corner presented an entirely different set of challenges than the stonework in the bottom right.

Keith Miller - My Friend

2011-10-28T11:51:00.000-07:00

I'd like to direct your attention to the shiny new gizmo on the right-hand side of my blog. I'm exceptionally proud of it, not because it took me forever to figure out how to get it there (which it did) but because it allows me the privilege of showcasing the work of my great friend Keith Miller.

Keith and I first met in '95 or '96 (we were both in our early teens, I think...) when we were both second lieutenants. (Ok, so we weren't in our teens.) We hit it off pretty much immediately, despite the fact that Keith is reserved, even downright quiet while I - well, I guess I'm not. Or at least I wasn't in those days. We were both teaching for the Air Force at one of the smaller bases, a place called Goodfellow, in San Angelo, Texas. Our working conditions weren't great, aside from the fact that we were entrusted with teaching fellow Air Force officers, which in and of itself made up for a lot. We both derived a lot of satisfaction from what we did, and I think the way we got along enabled each of us to get pretty good at it.

We were a good combination because I was headstrong and a little rash, prone to launch right into things, and Keith, as I said, wasn't. He had a way of quietly assessing a situation before he dived into it that I came to admire and tried to emulate. For my part, I think I dragged him into a few controversies he might have missed out on, were he not my friend, so maybe I helped make his duty day a little more interesting. Maybe not.

Either way, what I do know is that Keith has always been the kind of friend that I could rely on, and that puts him in a very small group of people. When some of my stories were published in 2006, Keith let me stay at his place in D.C. and came along with me to the book-signing at the Library of Congress.

Keith retired from the Air Force and, while he's always been an extraordinary guitarist (No, really - when some of the true greats are in town, they call Keith to play with them.) he's only gotten better, now that he's not moving every 2 or 3 years. I don't keep up with him as well as I should, but when I check in on him he's always working on something new, and getting ready to record it. As a matter of fact, he's got a new CD in the works at the moment, and he's collaborating on another project with people like Muriel Anderson, Phil Keaggy, and Keegan McClellan on a project called "For Pete's Sake," which you can read about here.

So I'm proud of this new widget-thingy on my blog, because I'm proud of Keith, and I'm glad to be able to share his music with you. Have a listen, and if you like what you hear, drop him a line on Facebook. He'll be glad to hear from you.

DoJ Imposes Damages for Being Insufficiently Accomodating to Islam

2011-10-27T03:35:00.000-07:00

I first wrote about this when Ms Khan initially brought suit against her employer, a school district that balked at releasing her for 3 weeks so that she could make her pilgrimage to Mecca.

Ms Khan had taught at the Berkeley Illinois School District for only about a year, and even her union contract denied the leave she requested. Despite this, and despite the fact that she could have made the pilgrimage at a time that did not interfere with the school year (and not to mention the fact that she asked for just about twice as much time off as the pilgrimage would have required) the Department of Justice sued on her behalf, saying that the school district should have accomodated her religious requirements, even though she was the only math lab teacher, and she was asking to be gone for 21 days prior to student exams.

The district, finding itself beseiged not only by its unreasonable employee, but also by the power of the federal government, settled, and has agreed to pay $75,000 and establish a "religious accommodation training program."

The Department of Justice - remind me again why we call them that?

Score

2011-10-26T22:51:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I liberated these five leather suitcases from a rainy trash pile in my neighborhood. Four of them were made by Ambercrombie and Fitch. The second smallest was made by Lido of New York. They all seem to be circa 1930-1940. The two large ones were encased in zippered canvas covers with leather corner protectors, but I took them off to dry them out. All the hardware is brass and the leather is in great condition. Hard to believe someone threw them away, but I'm glad they did. Along with them, I found a beautiful old leather shotgun case (unfortunately, no shotgun inside) with a red velvet interior, and shipping tags on the outside identifying the owner and his Lisbon address.

US Justice: Security Less Important than Pleasing Islamic Organizations

2011-10-26T06:39:00.000-07:00

This is just great. Deputy U.S. Attorney General James Cole just announced that all training materials used by law enforcement and national security agencies are being recalled so that censors can remove any references that might be offensive to Muslims. Who gets to decide what may or may not be offensive to Muslims? The Council on American Islamic Relations, the Muslim Public Affairs Council, and others - all of which are tied to the Muslim Brotherhood according to documents that came to light at the Holyland Foundation terrorist fundraising trial.

The decision is apparently due, at least in part, to a threat by MPAC president, Salam al-Marayati, who warned that, unless the US government revised its materials, there would be a disintegration of "the crucial partnership between the Muslim American community and law enforcement..." One has to wonder how that would differ from what we have today. Sharia law forbids Muslims from turning each other over to un-Islamic authorities, even if they are guilty of a crime. This goes a long way toward explaining why there has never been any such thing as US Muslim cooperation with law enforcement, and why there never can be. Actual investigators and street-level law enforcement agents I've spoken to know this to be the case, despite the laughable claim cited by al-Marayati that, "Nearly 40% of Al Qaeda-related plots threatening the American homeland since 9/11 have been foiled thanks to tips from Muslims."

While professional grievance mongers like al-Maryati insist that the materials in question are insulting to Muslims and infringe on their religious freedoms, they ignore the fact that those materials go out of their way to differentiate between Islam and Islamists, and to mark the distinctions between the religion of Islam, which is a matter of personal rights, and the legal, social, political system of Islam, which is an entirely different matter. In allowing those distinctions to be ignored, the Justice Department smears the designers of those materials and handicaps the people who put their lives on the line to provide for domestic security.

Short of actually placing weapons in the hands of criminals (That's a different Justice Department program.) it's hard to imagine a more effective way of undermining our national security.

Feds can Smuggle Guns. NYPD Can't.

2011-10-26T05:56:00.000-07:00

According to the AP five New York Policemen are under arrest for their part in a twelve-person ring that made money by, among other things, smuggling guns.

The policemen were stung by an combined NYPD Internal Affairs/FBI operation that was initiated when an FBI informant told his handler that he knew of a New York policeman who was willing to make money by transporting stolen goods.

Without condoning the actions of these twisted cops, can we still appreciate the irony of the FBI helping bust policemen for running guns while it was helping the Justice Department cover up Operation Fast and Furious?

Progress

2011-10-25T16:37:00.001-07:00

My painting of Penha Palace is coming along nicely. The composition seemed kind of risky - at least in the planning stages - but I think it's working out fine. What do you think?

Painting Penha Palace

2011-10-23T11:07:00.000-07:00

Penha Palace is one of those places that, even if you painted it perfectly, your painting would still be unbelievable. The palace is such an incredible mix of color and architectural features that it's very hard to get a handle on it. No single scene is a fair representative of the whole, and because of the way it flings itself across the highest peak above Sintra, no one view of it allows you to see more than a perplexing fraction of the entire structure.

Nevertheless, I find myself compelled to try to paint it. As is often the case with paintings that get under my skin, I dreamed about this piece last night. I'd been thinking about the importance of shadows in this image, and worrying that I wouldn't be able to depict them the way I wanted, but I dreamed what I think is the solution. Time will tell. Meanwhile, here's an early look.

Climbing Above Sintra

2011-10-21T12:48:00.000-07:00

Zach is making a video of the torturous climb that leads from Sintra to the ruins of the Moorish castle high above. It's one of my favorite rides to do around here, because it's spectacularly beautiful, and because it's constant climbing pretty much from the moment I leave my driveway. Here's a segment of video that wound up on the cutting room floor.

A Painting for Tonight

2011-10-21T12:22:00.000-07:00

I can think of nothing clever or uplifting to say tonight, so I'll just post this little painting instead. It's a view of one of the many narrow alleys that twist their ways through the village of Sintra.

Calderon Blames the US.

2011-10-21T00:58:00.000-07:00

Speaking in Mexico City, Mexican President Felipe Calderon said that crime in Mexican border towns is due in part, to US "dumping" of Mexican criminals there, instead of prosecuting them in the U.S.

There are many factors in the violence that is being experienced in some Mexican border cities, but one of those is that the American authorities have gotten into the habit of simply deporting 60 (thousand) or 70,000 migrants per year to cities like Ciudad Juarez or Tijuana," Calderon told an immigration conference.

The horror - to think that Americans are so inconsiderate that we drop criminals at the border, instead of giving them bus tickets all the way home. I suppose these would be perfectly peaceful, law-abiding citizens had they not been cruelly dropped off in their own country. Clearly Calderon is right: US deportations turn normal, peace-loving Mexicans into the drug-crazed killers and kidnappers that have made life all but impossible in northern Mexico.

If it were the case that deportations lead to crime, it would be a fairly simple matter for the Mexican government to provide their returning citizens with some sort of repatriation aid, but the fact of the matter is, they're not interested. The Mexican government helps people sneak into the US illegally; they're not so concerned about what happens next, as long as most of them mail home lots of cash.

Operation Fast and Furious has certainly facilitated violence in Mexico, but it's ridiculous for Calderon to blame Mexico's enormous crime problem on the US policy of deporting Mexicans. Admittedly, convicted Mexican criminals are sent home after they serve their sentences (What else would we do with them? Send them to Congress?) but it's not our fault that Mexico exerts no control over them when they return.

The truth of the matter is that the failed Mexican government sets its own citizens on the path to criminalization when it encourages them to violate US sovereignty. Calderon and his administration compromise the safety of Mexicans and breed contempt for the law by turning a blind eye to coyotes who smuggle human beings, sometimes turning them over to the equivalent of a slave trade, sometimes deserting them in the desert to die.

"The Hill" Headlines with a Lie.

2011-10-18T07:06:00.000-07:00

The unfortunately (but accurately) named Justin Stink had an article in yesterday's "The Hill" the headline of which proclaims, "Santorum calls SNL sketch 'bullying'."

My immediate response, and that of many others, judging by the comments after the article, was that the former senator from Pennsylvania needs to pull up his big-boy pants and get rid of the pacifier. When I read the article though, it became clear that the person in need of maturation is Mr. Stink.

Santorum said he never saw the sketch, which I find believable, seeing as SNL hasn't been funny in years, and he didn't comment on it. He did say that the left resorts to bullying more often than the right, but never equated the sketch to bullying. That statement exists soley in the mind of the author, and now in the minds of his misinformed readers.

Doesn't "The Hill" have any journalistic standards?

Global Warmingists - Species Shrinking as Earth Warms!

2011-10-17T04:50:00.000-07:00

Another reason to be very afraid of Global Warming - from the team of crack journalists (I'll leave it to you to determine the manner in which I intend the word "crack" to define "journalists.") at Huffington Post, experts tell us that there is a wide-spread trend of shrinking among species in the animal kingdom. This trend, they say, is attributable to Global Warming. They liken it, believe it or not, to "wool sweaters that shrink when washed in hot water."

38 out of 85 species, apparently, have diminished in size over the previous decades, including a variety of "Scottish sheep that is 5 percent smaller than in 1985."

The frightening trend appears to apply also to some plant species, with certain types of cotton, corn, and strawberries growing smaller as well.

Of special interest to Monty Python fans, the weight of the average house sparrow dropped by one seventh, from 1950 to 1990, (The effect on its unladen airspeed is yet to be determined.) and the poster child of Global Warming, the ever-cuddly polar bear, also appears to be growing smaller, which might actually be pretty good news for the Eskimos. (Imagine how much easier life on the ice flows will be when polar bears are all miniaturized. Maybe they can even be domesticated. If they can be housebroken, they would make lovely pets.)

Thankfully, for those who would like to preserve some respect for scientists, there are those who say the claims "seem kind of far-fetched." That's readily apparent to anyone who thinks about the question for a minute. After all, sheep, cotton, corn, and strawberries are all subject to generation upon generation of selective breeding, the goal of which is always directed toward developing the attribute that makes a species marketable. In the case of sheep, this would most likely be the quality and quantity of the wool. In cotton, breeding will likely focus on attempts to increase the density of fibers in each bole. In corn and strawberries, strains might be prized for the quickness with which they ripen, resistance to drought and disease, and so on. Any one of these desired attributes could be developed at the cost of overall size of the plant, which is irrelevant to the ultimate marketability of the end product. To assume that these heavily manipulated species and varieties are fluctuating in size becuase of Global Warming is quite a stretch - and that's assuming that Global Warming even exists, which is proving to be more of an assumption and less of a fact all the time.

Then again, if Global Warming were proven, it would make no sense at all to suggest that a warming environment decreases the size of species. Anyone familiar with Seinfeld knows it's cold that causes shrinkage.

Curious Parallels Between the Iranian Assassination Attempt and Fast and Furious

2011-10-14T06:35:00.000-07:00

The US administration has adopted an interesting stance regarding Iran’s attempt to assassinate the Saudi Ambassador to Washington. "We believe that even if at the highest levels there was not detailed operational knowledge, there has to be accountability with respect to anybody in the Iranian government engaging in this kind of activity," President Obama said.
This seems reasonable to me. After all, if Iranian leadership did indeed plan an operation in flagrant violation of international law, it only makes sense that they should be held accountable. And given the likely results of that operation – the death of the Saudi ambassador and/or his entourage and/or innocent bystanders, with all the related effects upon the relations of involved nations, it beggars belief to claim that it could have been planned without clearance from Tehran.

Contrast this, though, with Washington’s position regarding the infamous “Operation Fast and Furious,” in which we are expected to believe that low to mid-level operatives in the U.S. government decided for themselves to allow thousands of weapons to be sold and delivered to a murderous organization bent on the destabilization of the Mexican government. It is no more reasonable for us to believe that Fast and Furious happened without high level consent, than it is for us to believe that the Iranian assassination attempt happened without permission from above.

But while the Iranian operation ended without loss of life, Fast and Furious resulted in multiple deaths in Mexico and the United States, and inestimable damage to relations between our countries. It represents a far more serious transgression than Iran’s bungled assassination attempt. It was a betrayal of the American people – a steadfast refusal to enforce laws, which resulted in the endangerment of the citizens those laws are designed to protect. It also provided material aid to a brutal gang, and facilitated its countless acts of torture, murder, and intimidation. The Iranian operation was conducted by a nation known to be hostile to the US, but Fast and Furious was a stab in the back of a government with which we are supposed to be on friendly terms.

In his demand for accountability, President Obama referred to the Iranian operation as “dangerous and reckless behavior.” I agree wholeheartedly, but this description could apply just as well to Operation Fast and Furious. When will Washington meet the standard of accountability it’s trying to apply to Tehran?

Moh'jad "US be Trippin."

2011-10-13T00:59:00.000-07:00

Gangsta rap sensation and part-time leader of Iran, Mahmoud "Moh'jad" Ahmadinejad, today denounced US accusations of his involvement in an attempt to assassinate the Saudi Ambassador to the US.

Freshly returned from a wildly successful tour promoting his latest album, and a speech to the UN in New York City, Moh'jad paused to explain that US accusations of an Iranian plot were nothing more than attempts by the Obama administration to divert attention away from a collasping US economy and disastrous foreign policy decisions by the President and his Secretary of State.

He ended his statement with a riff that was trademark Moh'jad, backed up by an impressive beatbox laid down by al Quds Force commander Maj. Gen. Qassim "Sly" Suleimani, and a spontaneous display of the Islamo-hip-hop breakdancing that heralded his introduction to the world stage all those years ago.

"Dem Zionists, Dey be da lyinists. Dey layin' blame, but I ain't play dat game. I ain't no fluke. I buildin' nukes. You raise my ire, I rain down fire. I call my man, the 12th Imam, he don' play aroun. He lay you down. Boyy."

White House spokesman Jay Carney said that the administration would provide a response, as soon as the presidential teleprompter had been programmed to run at hip-hop speed.

Sao Pedro do Estoril, Before the Bakery Opens

2011-10-09T22:26:00.000-07:00

I like to be out and about in the morning, before the streets get crowded. The village next to mine looks charmingly innocent at that time. The streets are still covered in long shadows, but at their lower end, the sea is already bathed in morning light.

Today's Painting

2011-10-08T00:10:00.000-07:00

This is a view of the lighthouse at Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point of continental Europe.

New Idea for Paintings

2011-10-06T12:05:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago, I drove past an old house where they were putting in new windows. Along the street in front of the house were lined up all the old ones. It seemed to me that some of the small ones would make interesting picture frames, so I grabbed them.

I haven't had much time to paint since then, so it took me weeks to finish a painting to test my idea. Since the window is separated into four panes, I wanted a subject that was simple and bold, so it would hold its own against the distraction of the window construction. I came up with the above painting, which is of a common sight here - a corner lookout post on a coastal fort. Here's how it looks framed in the window:

I work in a windowless under ground facility. I'm going to take this to work and hang it on my wall, so I'll be the only person in the building whose office has a sea view.

Editing: a Lost Art

2011-10-03T06:01:00.000-07:00

A story in today's USA Today has this clinker for a lead sentence:

WASHINGTON – Pakistan is the source of explosives in the vast majority of makeshift bombs insurgents in Afghanistan planted this summer to attack U.S. troops, according to U.S. military commanders.

Not one of my high school English teachers would have accepted that abomination of a sentence in their students' work. Why is it acceptable in a news item? I would say that you can read the rest of the article here, but when the piece starts off that badly, why would you?

Justice Is Blind.

2011-10-01T11:11:00.000-07:00

Now that convicted murderer, escaped prisoner, and airliner hijacker George Wright has been captured in the nearby village of Sintra, those who knew him as Jorge Santos are beginning to ask people to write character references for him, in the hopes of winning some kind of leniency in US courts.

First of all, I'm not sure that exchanging his guns (That's what he used to murder gas station owner Walter Patterson after a series of armed robberies in 1962, and to hijack an airliner with 86 passengers aboard in 1972.) for the less confrontational manner of a con man, demonstrates the kind of character that deserves to be spoken for in a letter. One would think that someone truly rehabilitated would have a little more to show for 41 years of borrowed freedom. Even if one did, however - even if our fugitive had donated organs to fatherless children and volunteered to work in a leper colony - I don't see how acknowledging that in a letter is a worthwhile effort. His debt remains unpaid, and any efforts to repay it in a currency more convenient than that of the legal tender - in this case his incarceration - are wasted.

This should be obvious, but it is not. People have forgotten that the personification of justice is a woman, blindfolded, holding a set of scales. That blindfold is significant. It represents the fact that justice is, and must be, independent of emotion. Justice transcends flimsy constructs like the "empathy standard" devised by Supreme Court Justice Sonya Sotomayor. It exacts its own penalties, irrespective of circumstances. Those scales weigh guilt and innocence. They are mechanical, impartial.

It was not so long ago that people appreciated this innately. There was an understanding that civil society depended upon the impartiality of justice. Yes, God may forgive; he has that power and that right, but the courts of men do not - not, at least, if they wish to remain courts of law, instead of courts of opinion. This is what Herman Melville wrote of in Billy Budd, the story of a sailor who unintentionally strikes and kills an officer on his ship. No one was more worthy of character references than Billy, but he hanged for his crime, just the same. His captain and the rest of the crew knew that his crime was unintentional, but they also knew that failing to serve justice would jeopardize the entire ship. A civil society is no different from that ship. Justice - cold, impartial, transcendent - must be served. A life for a life is not some primitive custom we have outgrown. It is the way things are, and the way things will always be, as long as we inhabit this imperfect world.

Al-Awlaki Killed. Again.

2011-09-30T04:59:00.000-07:00

US Defense officials have confirmed that Anwar al-Awlaki, the US-born al Qaeda dirtbag, has been killed in Yemen. The confirmation sets this particular instance of his death apart from others. On previous occasions, the administration of Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh has claimed to have killed Awlaki in order to look like they were actually doing something to earn the millions the US has given them for counter terror, but he has always somehow managed to resurrect himself. Apparently, this time he is really dead, and is discovering that the whole 72-virgins-in-exchange-for-death-in-jihad thing was just a horrible misunderstanding.

UN Gives Itself A Big Raise

2011-09-30T03:05:00.000-07:00

I read today that, while everyone else is cutting back, the UN is reducing its staff by only .4 percent, and offsetting that reduction with an increase of .3 billion dollars to its already bloated budget. Among other things, that increase raises the salary of the average UN worker (those not among the 44 whose jobs have been cut) to $119,000.

The US administration has called for “a comprehensive, department-by-department, line-by-line review of this budget,” but since our own government seems incapable of accomplishing that for itself, it's hardly likely that the UN ever will.

As one who, in my own small way, contributes to those UN salaries, (According to the article, "The U.S. pays 22 percent of the UN’s regular operating budget and is assessed 27 percent of the peacekeeping budget.") I'd like to make a small suggestion.

Undoubtably, one justification for the high salaries of UN workers is the high cost of living in New York City, where the UN his headquartered. I propose that from now on, the UN locate itself in the capital city of the member state with the lowest standard of living. This would not only reduce significantly the cost of living for UN workers, but it would also provide an opportunity for the UN to demonstrate in a very real way, its committment to bettering the conditions in the poorest of countries.

It's a win-win, right?

Chapter Three – the Trek to Baharia

2011-09-13T08:19:00.001-07:00

I mentioned in my previous chapter that the route from Siwa to Baharia would carry me over 400 miles of sand dunes, but this ended up being an optimistic projection. After an arduous afternoon on my first day, I would not have believed that there could be any surface more difficult to ride across than sand, but on the following day I would discover to my disappointment that I was wrong.

I finished my first day’s travel as the sun was sinking low. The small handlebar device I’d bought to track my mileage had quit working sometime earlier that day, so I wasn’t sure how far I’d traveled, but I knew it wasn’t far enough to make Baharia within the eight days of food and water I was carrying. I resolved to get a good night’s sleep and make up for lost time on the next day.

That night though, the wind dedicated itself to prying at the corners of my tent, and lifting all but the part directly beneath my body from the ground. The flapping of the material was almost deafening, but not quite loud enough to drown out the ghostly singing of the tent shrouds as they vibrated in the gale. I was grateful that I had buried the tent pegs deeply; I am certain that was the only reason the tent did not collapse around my ears. Such was the din and the cold that I was certain to have had no sleep, were it not for a parting gift from my friend the Berber linguist. As we parted, he pressed three airline bottles of bourbon into my hands as a farewell gesture. With one of them warming me from the inside, I still shivered violently in my sleeping bag, but I did eventually drift off into a restless sleep.

The next morning I crawled achingly from my tent and unwrapped the bicycle from its tarp. Whether or not the cover served any purpose was open to debate; it might have kept the blowing sand from blasting the paint off the frame, but it did nothing to keep it from drifting into my chain and gears, which had been my primary concern. I spent at least an hour getting the grit out of the moving parts and then had a bit of breakfast, which consisted of some oranges, some bread and cheese, and a can of tuna fish. By the time I was packed and ready to resume my trip, the sun had doubled its diameter above the horizon, and shadows were beginning to shorten.

It took a few miles for me to warm up, and while the bourbon might have helped me sleep, I don’t think it did me any favors on that morning ride. I felt like the bike was not the only thing with sand in its moving parts, and my head hurt. I rode for about two hours and drank a couple bottles of water before I began feeling like myself again. That was about the point at which I crested a small rise, and saw the field of rocks.

The field stretched out before me as far as I could see. For some reason, I recalled that the formula for calculating the distance to the visible horizon is roughly 1.17 times the square root of one’s eye height, which meant that, for at least the next three nautical miles, I would be traversing a surface comprised of rounded rocks, roughly the size of loaves of bread – too large and uneven to ride over with a heavily laden bike, and no picnic to push the bike over, either.

I hoped that just beyond my line of sight, the field would end, and I could get back to riding on sand. It didn’t.

The bicycle is the most efficient means ever devised for transporting oneself from place to place. All those efficiencies disappear, however, if you’re pushing the thing, instead of riding it, and the worst thing about pushing the bike over those miserable rocks was that I couldn’t get into a rhythm. Every rock was just large enough or small enough or at a just different-enough angle that it comprised its own independent challenge. I wasn’t crossing a field, so much as climbing thousands of tiny obstacles, one at a time. My neck ached from bending forward. My feet hurt from the uneven surface of the rocks. My shoulders ached from pushing. I was glad that the weight of my food, water, tent, clothing, and sleeping bag was rolling on wheels, instead of strapped to my back, but I hated the contorted position I had to assume in order to keep those wheels turning.

I kept them turning for two hours before I looked behind me. The sun was high overhead now, and hot. The tops of the rocks burned dull ochre, lighter on the tops where they had been burnished by blowing sand. I saw nothing behind me but rocks. Before me, I saw nothing but rocks. I lowered the bike gently onto its side and drank deeply of my warm water. I looked behind me again. I thought about the futility of trying to sleep on this unforgiving surface. I wondered how far ahead of me the rocks continued, and I briefly considered the possibility that, if I pushed hard enough, I could turn around and make it back to the sand before the sun went down. I hated the thought of turning back though, even more than the thought of going forward into uncertainty, so I picked the bike back up and slogged ahead.

The sun was on the horizon by the time I followed a gravelly wash up out of the rocks and back into the sand. I wrapped up the bicycle, set up the tent, and climbed inside to eat. I was far too tired to brush my teeth or even enjoy an almost windless night. I lay in my tent, thinking for a moment about going outside to look at the sky, but before I could even decide not to, I had fallen asleep.

I awoke abruptly at about three in the morning because something had crawled into my right ear. It was a spider, but I didn’t know that at the time. All I knew was that something was moving in my ear canal, and the sensation of those eight hairy legs making their way deeper into my head made me instantaneously dizzy and sick to my stomach. Then I did something stupid. I stuck my little finger in my ear, as if anything good could possibly come from that. Nothing good did. The unknown creature burrowed even deeper, and for the only time in my life, I knew what complete, absolute panic felt like. I knelt on the floor of my tent, trying desperately not to vomit, and trying even harder to cling to my sanity. I wanted to run screaming into the desert. I wanted to find something long and sharp and stick it in my ear. I wanted to be home, wherever that was.

I did none of those things, although I came perilously close to the screaming in the desert thing. Instead, I knelt there jerking my head violently to the side, as if I were a swimmer, trying to dislodge a drop of water. This yielded only limited success. The offending critter slid downward encouragingly every time I lurched, but then, as I straightened back up, it ran back up my ear canal, with an excruciating, infuriating scratching and prickling that I heard/felt throughout my entire head. Every time I moved, it moved correspondingly, doing its utmost to stake a permanent claim to the snug, warm tunnel it had found.

This obviously wasn’t going to work. Worse yet, with its every movement over the sensitive surface of my inner ear, the invader was driving me closer to madness. I know that sounds hyperbolic, but it’s absolutely true. I had to marshal every shred of self control in order to force myself to remain calm. I stopped the water-drop routine and crouched there, forcing myself to think. There had to be a way to remedy this situation, preferably one that did not involve a serious risk of self lobotomization. Thankfully, as long as I kept my head from moving, the spider remained still, and I was able to think. I carefully reached for a water bottle, fighting the inclination to tilt my head, or turn it toward that corner of the tent. My trembling fingers closed around the bottle. I opened the nozzle and directed a cold blast of water into my ear. The shock of the cold, thankfully, overwhelmed the sensation of the moving spider as I tilted my head to the side to hold the water in. Almost immediately, I felt the creature crawling across my outer ear, then, across my face. I nearly brained myself, clubbing it with my water bottle, but I didn’t care. It was dead, and I was free.

There was no chance of sleeping after that. I tried tearing a page out of my journal and stuffing my ears with writing paper, but it was uncomfortable and noisy. I opened my second bottle of bourbon and dabbed it into the entrances of my ears with a fingertip, hoping it would keep out unwelcome tenants, but even so, I was done sleeping for the night. I climbed out of the tent and sat on a sand dune. Above me, the sky was brilliant with stars – so many stars I found it difficult to find familiar constellations. They wheeled above me in silent majesty, and I felt very much alone.

Michael Kiefer - one of 2,996

2011-09-10T04:02:00.000-07:00

On 11 September, 2001 I was in Amman, Jordan. I was the senior member of a small American military detachment getting a refresher course in Arabic at the Royal Jordanian Military Language Institute. At the time of the attacks, I was just signing onto my email account at an internet cafe in central Amman. I saw a news banner announcing that two planes had crashed into the towers of the World Trade Center, and I was certain that I was looking at an advertisement for a movie. Within two minutes, my embassy cell phone rang. "Get all your people to the embassy right away." I was told. That's when I knew it was no movie ad.

As I was scrambling to get my colleagues together, 26 year-old Michael Kiefer was breathing his last in New York City. Michael was one of the 2,996 innocents who lost their lives in Al Qaeda's most successful attack on our nation. Maybe you remember it? In case you've forgotten, let me remind you by telling you about Michael, because Michael Kiefer is a shining example of what our nation lost in that attack.

To say Michael was a fireman does not do justice to the drive and the passion he brought to his work. Some people have a job they do and others have jobs that they are; by all accounts, Michael was one of the latter. From his early years he knew that he wanted to be a fireman. Childhood photos show him wearing a fireman costume, and people tell of how, as a boy, he was so accomplished at mimicking the sound of a siren that he once convinced his school bus driver to pull aside for a firetruck that wasn't there.

Michael bought a scanner that he used to listen for fire alarms, and would ride his bicycle to watch the firemen work. Sometimes he rode so far from his neighborhood that he was brought back home by police escort. Michael earned perfect scores on his fire academy physical and written entrance exams, and began training in October, 2000. He graduated in December of the same year. He drew one of the busiest assignments, engine Company 280/ladder Company 132 Firehouse of Crown Heights Brooklyn. In achieving his lifelong dream, we could say that Michael Kiefer accomplished more in his short life than will many men who live to see a century, but that would be only half his story.

In addition to being a fireman, Michael was a committed Christian, beloved son to Pat and Bud, and older brother to Kerri and Lauren. He was saving his money to buy a ring for his girlfriend, Jamie Huggler. Son, brother, boyfriend. He was the kind of guy who dedicated himself to a job that would put his life at risk in order to save others. He was just one of 2,996, who died at the World Trade Center,10 years ago today, but in him was a reflection of all the strength, the selflessness, the goodness, that we love about America. On this anniversary of our nation's loss, take a moment to remember Michael. Say a prayer for the peace of mind of those he left behind, and give thanks that our nation can still be the home of men like him.

Some Paintings

2011-09-03T07:10:00.000-07:00

I've been wanting to experiment with night-time paintings for a while now. It's not easy painting a night sky with watercolor. This particular attempt took eight washes to get the sky uniform and dark enough for me.

Zoe asked me if we could paint together today. Since it'll probably be only a matter of days until she wants nothing to do with me until it's time to buy a wedding dress, I agreed happily. I did this little sketch of the bougainvillea in the courtyard, and Zoe practiced painting cherry blossoms on rice paper.

Hardware Upgrade

2011-09-03T03:24:00.000-07:00

I've been riding a bike that was too small for the last 10 years or so. I finally wore it out, but when I started looking at new ones, I couldn't believe how expensive they'd become, especially here in Portugal, where the Value Added Tax pretty much doubles the price. (There's a lesson in there somewhere, I think...)

My good friend Lee, proprietor of World Cup Ski and Cycle, Mechanicsburg, PA came to the rescue and sold me this brand new 2009 Cannondale CAAD 9 at a once-in-a-lifetime price. I can't tell you what a difference it makes riding a bike that fits. Whether I'm climbing, descending, or sprinting, the bike is rock solid. It's a pleasure to ride again.

Lee has been not only a dear friend for more than 20 years, but also a patient supplier of bikes, parts, and advice to me no matter how far from his shop I've been. Thanks to him, I've gotten to ride parts of South Carolina, West Texas, Mexico, Korea, Alabama, Georgia, California, Saudi Arabia, and Portugal.

Thanks Lee!

In Which We Resume Our Tale

2011-08-31T13:46:00.000-07:00

I spent two weeks in Siwa Oasis, and whenever I wasn’t exploring the Mountains of the Dead, crunching my way along the salt-encrusted verges of the western lake, or roaming the narrow alleys of the village, I was made welcome by the elderly linguist. Although I was not allowed to attend the poetic recitations, he very kindly took me with him all around the village where he made an incongruous picture, dressed in his jacket and tie, towing a retinue of 20 or 30 Siwan urchins in his wake. Everywhere we went, the Siwans waved and called him by name.

Although there were still things to see in Siwa, the desert stretched away before me, promising deeper mysteries and greater excitement, and as I was still young enough to believe those sorts of promises, I repacked my belongings and planned the next leg of my journey. Planning so far had been easy. Using a map, I had estimated the distance between Marsah Matruh and Siwa at 180 miles. Sixty miles seemed a reasonable daily goal, so I bought breakfast, lunch, and dinner for three days, and then I doubled that amount of food. For water, I estimated my daily requirement, and then I tripled it. Back in 1988, nobody worried a whole lot about dehydration; certainly, nobody walked around their office building clutching a water bottle all day long, so in those dark ages, a triple ration of three days’ worth of water was not a huge amount, even though, at eight pounds to the gallon, I definitely felt the weight.

The system worked fine on the ride to Siwa, although that leg of the trip had not been without its hardships. I had heard that nights in the desert were cold – as cold as the days were hot – but it is a strange characteristic of Cretan summers, the third of which I had just spent happily, that they are so warm and pleasant that they render one incapable of believing that Cretan winters can be miserable, cold, and wet. Thus, I am ashamed to admit, I was completely unprepared for the knifelike wind that rose every evening as soon as the sun had dropped below the horizon, and the bitter cold it carried into the pitiful shelter of my tent.

The wind was punishing in two ways. Not only did it convey the cold straight to the marrow of my bones, despite the fact that they were encased in every stitch of clothing that I owned and swaddled in a sleeping bag, but it also rattled my tent unceasingly, with a loud and urgent shaking that prevented me from sleeping and which, I was certain, masked the approach of Ali Babba and all his 40 thieves, no matter how noisily they crept up on me. This took a fair amount of getting used to.

The days were more pleasant. As I was riding in the fall, temperatures were not as punishing as they might have been at the height of summer. I had no way of measuring, but I doubt that it was ever hotter than 110 degrees Fahrenheit. Also, I was riding a newly paved road, and it was easy to make good time, even on a bicycle that bore the weight of all my earthly possessions. I made my 60 miles a day without difficulty, which allowed me plenty of time to make camp before night fell and the wind began.

Leaving Siwa, though, there was no road. Actually, there was a stubby beginning of a road, which extended about half a mile beyond the perimeter of the oasis, upon which labored in a desultory manner, eight or ten Egyptians, who seemed, if they were in any way descended from the builders of the Pyramids, to embody convincing arguments against the theory of evolution. They barred my path with threatening gestures and indicated that, until I took their photograph, they would not let me pass. I owned two cameras at that time, a magnificent 1960’s era Contaflex 35mm SLR, with a bewildering assortment of lenses, and simple point-and-shoot, in which, for circumstances such as these, I never kept any film. I arrayed the dusty road workers before their decrepit Mercedes truck in order of their height and took their picture. I reversed their order and photographed them again. Then I posed them in order of age and snapped another frame. I had them mount the truck and wave at me from the cab, after which I shot them all standing on the bed of the truck. I was working up to some nice semi-nude shots when they finally got tired of the whole business and let me go.

While that unpleasant image lingers in you imaginations, I would like to take this opportunity to thank my friend Ben, who presented me with the Contaflex and a quick lesson on photography prior to my first visit to Egypt, in 1987. That camera and all its lenses served me without fail, until my reluctant surrender to digital photography many years later.

As the highway men resumed their tasks, I resumed mine, setting my sights southeast, toward the 400 mile-distant oasis of Baharia, the path toward which, while it was not paved, was still discernible, and when unclear, was at least marked by telephone poles, many of which tilted drunkenly in the undulating dunes. This was my first look at real desert, as I had expected it to look. The 180 miles from the coast to Siwa was certainly desert, but it was alternately scrubby and rocky, and seemed more like Arizona than Sahara. This though – the endless waves of sand that stretched before me – this was real desert, and it was an awesome, frightening sight.

It was also a difficult surface to ride on. It was usually solid enough that my tires didn’t sink in, but once in a while, and without any warning, I would roll into a soft spot, my front wheel would bog down, and the bike would try to pitch me over the handlebars. I did not enjoy that. I already had as much weight as possible over the rear wheels, with light stuff like clothes, tent, and sleeping bag in the front panniers. It finally occurred to me to lower my tire pressure enough to broaden the contact patch with the sand, and that constituted a significant improvement. Sometimes the sand make a disconcerting, almost musical sound, as it compacted beneath my tires.

More soon.

Grey Death

2011-08-31T13:43:00.000-07:00

It's been a busy week for Kiki the grim reaper. In the last nine days, she's dispatched two small rats, a dove, a pidgeon, and this mouse, all of which she very kindly brought home to show us. The two small rats were still alive, and she had a great time chasing them up and down the hall before I finished them off. This mouse was already dead, but she still played with it for quite a while. I took it away when she started eating it. The crunching sound kind of creeped me out. She made it clear she was unhappy with me, but I think she'll get over it.

My Travels in Arabia Desertia (How I Was Saved by Berber Nomads)

2011-08-26T05:47:00.000-07:00

Pajamas Media has an interesting article on the role of Berbers in the battle for Libya. Berbers, an ethnic minority that preceeded the Arabs in North Africa, have been of interest to me since they saved my life in the eastern Sahara in 1988.

Having finished an enlistment in the Air Force, I was shocked to find that, four years after my first attempt at college, I was no better prepared for a second try. (It pains me to admit this now, but I spent those years industriously applying myself to the hard work of not growing up.) What does one do when one's military obligation has ended but one has made no plans for the future? One takes to the road.

I had been stationed on the island of Crete when I left the Air Force, and it was from there - the port of Iraklion - that I caught a ferry to Alexandria, having sold everything I owned aside from a mountain bike, some spare parts, and some camping equipment. From Alexandria, I made my way west, following the paths of Rommel and Montgomery, past al Alamein to Marsa Matruh, where I registered with the Egyptian Military Police for permission to enter the desert. (The Libyan Frontier is a "controlled" area.)

I spent an hour in that sweltering office, drinking tea and watching a gecko make his precarious way across the ceiling in search of flies. It was apparent from the one-sided phone conversation I was hearing that, a. Nobody wanted to take responsibility for my presence in the desert and, b. Everyone concerned was in complete agreement that I was Megnoon (crazy).

Maybe because I was considered crazy, the prospect of arguing with me seemed even more odious than that of searching for my dessicated remains at some undetermined point in the future, so I was presented with my Tusrih (permit) and sent on my way.

My first exposure to the Berbers was in Siwa oasis, which I reached after three days of riding due south. After days of various earth tones, the green of the oasis is a shock. It is probably a good thing that, as the road winds and descends past tall sandstone formations, one catches only glimpses of that fertile ground. By the time I had wended my way to the bottom of the depression, I'd had the chance to adjust to seeing plants and life again.

Siwa is bordered by a freshwater lake in the East, and a highly saline lake in the West. All available space in between the two is crowded with date palms, olive trees, and, if I recall correctly, grape vines. A tiny island in the center of the salt lake is graced by a hot spring. The spring feeds a bath, the stones of which were laid to accomodate Cleopatra, who came to visit the oracle for whom the oasis was known. I spent some very pleasant hours lazing in the bath, dappled by the shade of palm trees, soaking away the desert dust.

One afternoon, I was walking through the village at the center of the oasis, a village referred to by Alexander the Great as ancient. The villagers, at least when I visited, were still living in some of the same buildings that had impressed Alexander with their age, although some of them had been damaged by the area's only recorded rainfall, which was in 1956. As I turned the corner of one of those buildings, I ran smack into a little grey-haired man, who was dressed very smartly in a tweed sportcoat, grey slacks, and a tie. It had been so long since I'd seen anyone so attired that, had I not knocked him down, I would have though he was a mirage.

Far from being a mirage, he was a Berber language expert from Switzerland, who had developed an alphabet for the local dialect, and had spent a large part of his career in Siwa, learning the language and, when I was there, sitting with the last living Berber poets, and capturing their epic recitations in letters. When I met him, (His name was something like Visicheylle, but I haven't been able to find him online yet.) he was on his way to the little store, to buy a couple of Cokes. Apparently, the World's Oldest Berber Poet liked to drink Coke while he recited.

I'm out of time for writing now, but I'll complete the story of how I was saved by Berber Nomads as soon as I can. I'll also see if I can dig up some of my old photos and maybe even find the correct spelling of the name of the linguist I knocked over.

Studies have shown a direct correlation between the speed with which I return and the number of comments I receive on my blog, so if the suspense is killing you...

Somebody Tell Mugabe

2011-08-25T07:53:00.000-07:00

to do something about that skid mark under his nose. I mean, really. That caterpillar makes Hitler's soup strainer look downright luxurious. That's the thing about dictators of crappy third-world cesspools - nobody is going to stand up and say, "Hey, Robert, that thing makes you look like you've got a sinus infection. Here's five bucks for some disposable razors."

Which explains, I guess, this whole deal:

By the way, Col. Qaddafi -

Maxine Waters would like her clothes back.

Thanks Guys!

2011-08-24T08:05:00.000-07:00

Many thanks to my friend in the ether, Bob Belvedere, who kindly selected the post below for his Righteous Rant of the Day. If you're not a daily visitor to The Camp of the Saints, (See my blog roll for a link) I highly recommend that you amend your habits.

Bob came by my post via the irascible Donald Douglas, proprietor of the American Power Blog, and another whom I am pleased to count among my ether friends. (Should he take offense at being called irascible, I hasten to quote Ezra Pound, who said, "I Have Never Met a Poet Worth A Damn that was Not Irascible."

Thanks guys!

The New York Times - Ignorance Times Twelve

2011-08-22T07:29:00.000-07:00

Ah, the New York Times. Once the paper of record, now the paper that has broken all records for idiocy and irrelevance brings us the ruminations of a dozen "Americans who don’t labor in politics or the media" on "what they’d do if they were president."

Searching for, " ideas that might challenge or inspire, " Jesse Kornbluth assembled a group of 12 illuminati and asked them what they would do if they lived in the White House.

The responses, which come from professors, authors, a CEO, a nun, the president of something called the Children's Zone in Harlem, an artist, an inventor and an astrophysicist, read like a perverse combination of Rainbow Fish and Pedro's campaign speech from Napoleon Dynamite. (Vote for me and your wildest dreams will come true.)

One numbskull (a Harvard professor, no less) said he would "lead a campaign against the skyboxification of American life..." It seems the professor thinks that people are too separated from each other. Rich people, sheltered in their skyboxes, don't get out and rub elbows with the poor, he says. "The affluent retreat from public schools, the military, and other public institutions, leaving fewer and fewer class-mixing places."

Ah yes, "class-mixing places." Like Harvard, right? Two tips for you, professor. First, the mixing of the classes has nothing to do with the presidency. Second, to borrow from Michael Jackson - if you want to make a change, don't wait to become president. Start with the man in the mirror. Step away from your skybox job at Harvard, and spend some time teaching at a community college. We'll all benefit from your example.

The next suggestion is from a poetess, and it's worth quoting in its entirety.

I’d grant the very rich the boon of helping them help others, as a form of gratitude for their good fortune. I’d also connect every creative writing program with a hospital, a school, a library, a prison, a neighborhood center — workshops in the supermarkets! (“Aisles full of husbands! Wives in the avocados, babies in the tomatoes!”)

You'd grant the very rich (according to whose definition?) the boon of helping them help others... Is there a reeducation camp somewhere in your plan? So you'd force them to "help others," right? Because they don't already? Where does Bill Gates $10 billion donation to charity (29 January, 2010) fit into your calculations? And you'd connect every creative writing program with a hospital? Sure, because people in hospitals have nothing better to do than help people learn to write. As for connecting them with schools - that's a novel idea and I approve wholeheartedly. You might want to rethink that part about connecting them to prisons; I see tragedy just over that horizon. Or were you thinking of just low-security joints, like the ones where you'll send the very rich who refuse to accept your generous boon? As for the aisles full of husbands, avocados, tomatoes and whatnot. I'll admit it. I have no idea what you're talking about.

The next contributor said,

I’d tell the nation that I was powerless to control the war machine, Wall Street, big oil and the other interests that run the country, and I would urge Americans to form a new political party not beholden to them.

I'm not even going to bother with that one. All I can say is, good luck running on the "powerless" ticket.

The CEO's contribution was slightly better. He at least acknowledged that our economy isn't a zero-sum game, but then he said he would "appoint a blue-ribbon committee" to "imagine innovative industries," which, of course, would be aided by tax code that was supportive of sustainable industries. How about this; if you're ever president, just get out of the way. A free-market economy doesn't need a blue ribbon committee to come up with innovative industries. People will do that for themselves if government isn't intervening in every aspect of their lives, and if they aren't being punished for their success. (Take note of that, poetess.)

Maybe one of the best responses came from this Pepperdine University professor.

With my staff, I would decide what my administration was for.

Wow. You need your staff to tell you what you stand for? And you intend to figure that out AFTER you're elected? Sheesh. The article doesn't mention what he teaches. I wonder if he knows, or if he's still trying to figure it out.

The next contributor is all about being a president with "passionate clarity." Her presidency would be only one term, and it would feature "a stable and productive economy; an environmentally viable planet; a humane, efficient government capable of educating its young and protecting its vulnerable members." How can I argue with any of that? After so many years of presidents who stood against those things, it's refreshing to see a president in favor of Utopia for a change. And to think she'll do all that in one term. Awesome! Then we can all have ponies!

This is the part of my blog where I'm going to make people mad. I don't mean to, but it's going to happen and I'm powerless to stop it, because I'm going to criticize a nun. Yes, there are no holds barred on my blog. Mr. K's next prospective president is a nun, writing from the Holy Wisdom Monastery in Wisconsin. And if what she says is passing itself off as wisdom there, then I hold out little hope for her and her sisters, because if she were president she would,

invest half of our defense budget in children, young people and in energy conservation.

I'm just going to leave it at that, ok? There's no sense kicking the sister while she's down. And besides, there's much more fun to be had with the president of the Children's Zone, who is all about spreading "sacrifice," updating our "social contract," and paying our country back. I'm all for renegotiating the social contract. In fact, if he's referring to the New Deal, I think it should be done away with altogether. What bothers me most about this input is the subtle implication throughout that we owe the government. Wrong. Backwards. Dangerous. Do away with the notion that we work for the government. Strip away all the bureaus, departments, and agencies that have accumulated along the nation's arteries for decades. Do away with entitlement and the idea that government can distribute largess. That's the kind of "sacrifice" we need, but I don't think that's what he's referring to.

The ninth contributor had this to say,

I would invite all of the members of Congress to join me in an improvisation retreat. We would spend the time practicing saying “yes” to each other and really listening to one another’s offers.

I'm supposing she is only suggesting practicing saying "yes" now that Congressman Anthony Weiner is out of office. There's more, of course, and some of it's even sillier, but you have better things to do, don't you?

Reading the tenth contribution is probably not among those better things, so let me summarize it for you. This is from a painter, who's done some very nice landscapes and portraits, and has won quite a lot of acclaim for his work. This is good, because he should never be president. He says that legislators should be required to live outside the US for two weeks. He doesn't say why. Nor does he seem to realize that they do this anyway. They usually call those "fact-finding" trips, or some such thing, and they always find a way to make taxpayers foot the bill. I could muster some enthusiasm for his idea if those legislators stayed wherever they went, but otherwise I don't think it's a good idea.

The next-to-last (You're relieved, aren't you? ) suggestion comes from the inventor, who says schools should "get rid of binary right and wrong answers," because, "Experimentation is learning." Here's an empirical study to test his theory. You're in a cage with a grizzly bear and a rifle. Would you like to have been taught how to load and fire the rifle, or would you prefer to experiment? Yes, experimentation is learning, but I would like the guy who works the cash register to understand the binary right and wrongness of making change. Call me old-fashioned.

Thankfully, the astrophysicist disagrees with the inventor. "... objective realities matter," he tells us. And I must confess I'm relieved to hear it. If elected, he tells us, his job would be to "bring an objective reality to the electorate so it could choose the right leaders in the first place." I'm all for that. Jefferson (or Franklin, or both of them) is credited with having said that a republic relies on an educated, virtuous population, and I agree that, to a large extent, our current situation is due to a voting population whose understanding of our republic seems to be inversely proportional to the number of people eligible to cast ballots. At least two generations have been raised to think that government can and should provide for them, and we are reaping the fruits of that deception now.

And that brings me to the underlying theme of these 12 statements. Despite their obvious educations, not a single one of their contributors seems to have a clue about what the role of president is supposed to be. Not a single person referred to the Constitution, and not a single person mentioned the primary responsibility of the republic's chief executive, which is, first and foremost to maintain the nation's security.

Our nation's founders never intended the president to be focused on the daily lives of Americans. He (or She) was intended, as was the entire federal government, to be focused outwardly. To represent us among the nations and to keep us secure from depredation. It was never expected that a President of the United States would concern himself with education, distribution of wealth, or class-mixing. (Is it just me, or is that not an abhorrent phrase?) None of that is the president's job, and none of it should be. Education, the accrual and distribution of wealth, association with those who do or do not look like you - these are the personal concerns of free men and women. They are the responsibilities of those who are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights. Government that claims these duties for itself is by definition tyranny, something these twelve, Mr. Kornbluth, and the New York Times, would do well to understand.

Backwards

2011-08-19T05:55:00.000-07:00

I was just reading a March, 2007 report from the Government Accountability Office called "Defense Acquisitions: Assessment of Selected Weapons Programs, GAO-07-406SP" (Yes, I know, but there was nothing on TV.) when I came across this little gem:

As entitlement programs like Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid consume a growing percentage of available resources, discretionary programs—including defense—face competition for the increasingly scarce remaining funds.

Does that seem backward to anyone else, or is it just me? In a nation whose constitution lists defense as one of the very few responsibilities of the federal government, why in the world is defense spending considered "discretionary" when entitlements that have no consitutional mandate are not?

This and Many Other

2011-08-18T07:26:00.000-07:00

burning questions are the topics of Iowahawk's most recent posts:

I let my Mexican drug lord license expire. Am I still eligible for the free machine gun program?

If you haven't been by lately, I suggest you quit wasting your time reading my blog and head on over to his.

I Like John Bolton

2011-08-17T06:51:00.000-07:00

Have you seen this? In his article in last week's Human Events, John Bolton, former scourge of the UN, straight-talker, and one of the few men who can quote Adam Smith with credibility, spells out a truer "State of the Union" address than has ever been delivered by a sitting president.

The debt-ceiling legislation’s trigger mechanism, with its grave risk of disproportionate cuts in defense spending, is potentially even more draconian. America’s national security is not just another wasteful government program, especially in perilous times like today. We are heavily involved in two major conflicts, the long-term global War on Terror and the critical effort to prevent the proliferation of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons. Recent confirmation that Iran, on the verge of becoming a nuclear power, is materially aiding al-Qaeda only underlines the risk of massive U.S. defense cuts.

He spells out how US economic strength and national security are linked indivisibly, and in so doing, makes himself, in my eyes, the best example of presidential timber yet seen.

The question is, will he run?

Communists and Unions? Say it isn't so!

2011-08-17T04:34:00.000-07:00

This charming communist might need to be sent for reeducation even before the capitalists go. Maybe then she'll understand that the "workers" in Libya are about as far from Communism as they can be. Then again, history was never a favored topic of the great Communist thinkers - at least, not as it actually happened.

This is one of several signs posted by Reaganite Republican from a May Day march in Los Angeles this spring, all of which demonstrate the close ties between some of the nation's leading unions and the various factions of the Communist Party.

Here in Portugal, it's not uncommon to see banners bearing the hammer and sickle, and to find advertisements along the roadsides for Communist and "Progressive" festivals and marches. Back in the States though, at least when I used to live there, it seemed people were less likely to buy into all that nonsense.

Even if they hadn't read works like Milton Friedman's Free to Choose, and Capitalism and Freedom, (both of which I highly recommend) Americans seemed to have an innate understanding that Communism works only if it can strip away everything that provides an incentive to human beings to work hard and be productive. We also seemed to appreciate that a byproduct of that process was a drab, joyless existence, dominated by distrust and envy, and regulated by an all-encroaching government.

If we're losing that understanding, or if we are deluded into thinking that unions in their present form are not Communist entities, then these photos, which I found via Maggie's Notebook, ought to help.

An Arch, A House, And an Aqueduct

2011-08-15T03:19:00.000-07:00

Here's another of my paintings of Lisbon landmarks. This is the Arco da Rua Augusta, which gives onto the Praca do Comercio. Through the arch at the end of the street, you can see the statue of King Jose I, which graces the center of the Praca.

Although the statue was designed to be viewed from the opposite side (You're looking at his horse's backside from this direction.) I prefer this view because the Rua da Augusta and the Arch make a nice frame within a frame.

This isn't in Lisbon, but it's one of the houses in my neighborhood that I've been wanting to paint for a long time.

And this is the Aqueduct that brought water to Lisbon's west side, across the Alcantara Valley. I posted another painting of this aqueduct a couple months ago, and wrote about how it provided the location for the infamous serial killer of Lisbon, who, in the late 1700s, threw more than 70 people over its sides.

America's Cup Sailboat Racing

2011-08-15T03:08:00.000-07:00

Since the 4th of August, the America's Cup sailboat races have been going on between Cascais and Tamariz Bay, which is just below my living room window. This year features a new format, with very fast (35 knots) carbon fiber catamarans competing in various events. The boats, whose masts are over 70 feet tall, raced in four types of races: open events, which were 9-boat fleet races, speed trials, where they raced all-out for 500 meters, match races, where the boats raced one-on-one, and a final fleet race, which was held yesterday.
While the boats were racing, there was a fleet of vessels timing them, marking the limits of the course, and following them with photographers. Even a couple of Portuguese Navy patrol boats were on scene. There were also three helicopters filming the race from above the entire time.

The large, three-masted sailboat in the background of this photo is one of a couple beautiful old ships that offered vantage points for race-watchers. For a fee, you could embark in Lisbon for the short run up the coast, anchor just off the course, and watch the races close-up while eating and drinking. The first day of the races, one of these ran aground. Lots of little vessels tried to tow her off, but she had to wait for the tide to come in and lift her.

Riots in England - Democracy in Action

2011-08-13T10:40:00.000-07:00

Plenty has been said about the riots in England, so I'll let my words be few. The riots are nothing more than the emergence of democracy in its purest, most efficient form.

Democracy is, of course, nothing more than majority rule. And if the majority wishes to ransack your shop and burn your home, who do you think you are to stand in the way of democracy? Why, you'd have to be old-fashioned to think you have anything to say in the matter. In fact, you're probably one of those people President Obama referred to - one of those bitter hold-outs, still clinging to your God and your guns, and the antiquated notion that democracy is a thing to be greatly feared.

Well if you are, then I'm glad to know you. You're probably already aware of this, but for anyone who isn't, it bears mentioning that there's a reason our Founders gave us, not a democracy, but a federal republic. Its purpose is not to empower the majority, but to protect the rights of the most endangered minority - the individual.

For those shop-keepers, sales-staff, and homeowners in England who've seen their world turn to ashes this week, you have my sympathy. More importantly though, I hope you have to will and the ability to fashion a government that protects your rights, instead of one that denies you even the most basic one of all, the right to defend your property, your life, and the lives of those around you.

Supply Your Own Caption Day

2011-08-12T00:54:00.000-07:00

There's a punchline in here somewhere, but I'm too busy to find it. Please feel free to supply your own. Special bonus points for those that make fun of the French.

Lisbon Trolley

2011-08-03T13:35:00.000-07:00

I'm working on a series of smaller (6 X 4) paintings of iconic Lisbon images. This is to prepare for my first show in Portugal, which I hope will be in October. I finished this one tonight. The hardest thing about it was getting the color balance right in the photograph I took. It's still not quite right, but it'll have to do for now. Tomorrow I'll re-photograph the painting in natural light. That should be a lot better.

Counter Insurgency and the Constitution

2011-08-01T00:13:00.000-07:00

Just as it used to be fashionable to talk about the "Revolution in Military Affairs," defense experts and analysts are now talking about "Counter Insurgency" as the new way of waging war. At the NATO Operational Planning Course in Oberammergau, Germany, and at the Joint Combined Warfare School in Norfolk, Virginia, students learn not about operational planning for warfare, but about planning to cope with insurgencies after combat operations are complete. That each course seems to take for granted our success in major combat operations is cause enough for concern, but a less obvious issue is what this says about our nation’s changing attitude regarding war, and how far that attitude has shifted since the founding of our republic. From President Thomas Jefferson, who built the US Navy to fight the Barbary Pirates, to President William Jefferson Clinton, whose National Security Strategy deepened our commitment to Military Operations Other Than War, to President Barack Obama, whose approach to Libya is making new law, US notions about war have moved farther and farther away from constitutional precepts. For anyone who swore to defend the Constitution, this should be a matter of interest.

There is little in the Constitution that suggests our founding fathers recognized what we now refer to as the spectrum of armed conflict. But the problem is not that our founders failed to equip our leadership for that broad range of activities. The problem is that they never intended us to apply a grey scale to what they saw as a black and white issue. The Constitution recognizes the necessity of war, and sets forth the process for declaring it. What it does not recognize is the state of violent un-war that we have come to accept as normal.

President Roosevelt’s description of December 7th, 1941, as a “day that will live in infamy,” has passed into public memory, but what few recall is that he uttered those words during a joint session of Congress, at which he asked for a declaration of war against the Axis powers. Within an hour, his request had been granted, and the United States focused the totality of its energies on defeating her newly declared enemies. Although we have been involved in considerable military efforts in the intervening 70 years, no other president has repeated that request. Also, not coincidentally, we have never been as focused, or as united in our efforts as we were during the years of World War II.

We entered a state of violent un-war in 1950, with the “police action” in Korea. In the three years of active fighting there we lost 25,600 lives. As if this weren’t enough, there were two other casualties as well, the original intent of the authors of the Constitution, who could not have conceived that such an extensive effort could have been made without a declaration of war, and the notion of war as a unifying national effort, which could not help but wither in the absence of a declaration.

While there may be compelling political reasons to refrain from declaring war, it remains to be seen whether their gains outweigh the disadvantages that come from deviating from the Constitution. Aside from contributing to a growing disregard for the rule of law itself, there are immediate and practical problems that arise from the start. In failing to declare war, we limit ourselves in every way, and we give a free hand to those who oppose us.

This is because the declaration of war is more than just a formality. Not only does it send an unambiguous message to those with whom you intend to fight, providing one last chance for them to meet your demands, but the declaration of war is also a message to ourselves, calling us to unify politically, economically, and emotionally. It is not for nothing that it is Congress that is charged with the responsibility to declare war. In a body known more for deliberation than for deliberate action, a declaration serves to pin them down. But fail to call it war, and we can be certain that neither Congress, nor the US population, nor the strategic levels of our military will be able to fight it as one. War, we know, is supposed to be Hell, but the media and the public are led to expect that contingency operations, and nation building, and Military Operations Other Than War shouldn't be. The media, which were largely cooperative in the Second World War, see no reason to be so in engagements that are less than war. They (perhaps rightly so) convey a more cynical view of non-war, a view that affects public perception and helps shape political support – or lack of it – for the effort.

With a skeptical press, a public that is not unified, and politicians who are concerned with making popular choices, we cannot help but be unprepared when the IEDs start dismantling our resolve. We are unprepared because, in the failure to declare war, we have already ceded the initiative, and broadcast a message that tells our enemy and the world that we are unwilling to do whatever it takes to win. Instead of war, we will conduct counter insurgency, but we have failed to recognize a basic fact of life: Insurgency is war, fought at your enemy’s initiative.

And how do we respond to that initiative? With one hand we try to destroy (as we should) but since we are not at war, we try to build with the other hand simultaneously. This does not work. Counter Insurgency doctrine calls for civil efforts to separate the population from the insurgents, but this cannot be done with schools and roads and other bribes. Even if it could, none of our gains would be meaningful, because we would always face the possibility that our enemy could outbid us. Instead, we must convince populations that harboring insurgents is too costly and too dangerous, and the only way to do that is to inflict a lot of pain. My southern relations have no love for Sherman, but even they would agree that he was right about one thing. To end a war quickly, you have to burn your own path to the sea, and much of what you burn through will be civilian infrastructure. This necessity of war is not recognized in counter insurgency, or Military Operations Other Than War.

So failing to follow the Constitution leads us to half-hearted military efforts. This, in turn, leads directly to an inability to bring those efforts to a satisfactory close. If you do not wage war in a manner that is sufficiently brutal, you will undoubtedly fail to press what remains of the enemy's leadership for a public, complete, and unconditional surrender. This is deeply unfortunate, because nothing else will work to give the population permission to cease its resistance. In the Second World War, we expected tremendous resistance in the Japanese homeland, and when resistance failed, we expected wholesale suicides. We had neither, because we had the presence of mind to make a public ceremony of the Japanese surrender, and because the emperor himself addressed the Japanese people by radio, and told them the war was over. More recently, we have made war (or none-war, if you please) on people who have suffered for years under brutal dictators. Despite the hardening effects of that suffering on their societies, we expected them to give up after only a few hours of battle. We thought that Iraqis, who for years feared crossing the street without permission from Saddam Hussein, would suddenly shift their support to us when he went into hiding. Then we expected it would happen when he died. We're still wondering why we don't enjoy broader support from Iraqis. It's because, no matter how much they feared their leader, he was still THEIR leader, and absent an official surrender from him or his representative, they were left without orders to stop fighting. To put it into Oprah-speak, they have no closure. Without closure, without permission to stop being what they've been for 40 years, or, in the case of the Japanese, for centuries, they find it very difficult to make the psychological leap.

We're of no help to them in making that leap if, while we're trying to destroy insurgents, we're building schools and digging wells. We should be doing nothing of the kind. Suffering is what is needed to make the population shift its perspective, and alleviating the suffering at the same time we're administering it does not help. The Japanese people went from preferring suicide to laying down their arms and accepting occupation because they had suffered grievously first, which made the surrender acceptable and meaningful. If we had been passing out lead suits and airdropping food at the same time we bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki, our message would have been seriously muddled. It's no different in Iraq, Afghanistan, or anywhere else.

As MacArthur demonstrated, there is plenty of time for magnanimity after the surrender. After the surrender, kindness means something. It's appreciated. How else can we account for MacArthur's popularity in Japan after the war? Before the surrender though, these well-intended gestures are seen as a sign of weakness, and they are skillfully exploited.

If our presidents returned to the constitutional practice of calling upon Congress to declare war, we could have a national debate before we committed our military to "kinetic actions.” If Congress declines to honor the President's request, then the endeavor should be shelved. And if an effort is too insignificant to merit a declaration, then it is most likely not serious enough to warrant the loss of American lives. If, however, Congress consents to declare war, that declaration will have a galvanizing effect on the population, just as it should have a sobering effect on the leadership. Failure to subject ourselves to this process erodes respect for the Constitution we swore to defend, just as it deprives us of these other beneficial effects.

Boca do Inferno

2011-07-30T01:02:00.000-07:00

Just up the coast between Cascais and Guincho lies the mouth of hell. Personally, I would have expected it to be a lot closer to Lisbon.

Kiki Strikes Again

2011-07-30T01:01:00.000-07:00

Kiki brought us another present. I can tell you, it's a real comfort knowing she's on the prowl at night, protecting us from deadly songbirds and lizards and whatnot.

At least she showed us this kill before dismembering it in Zoe's bed.

Happy Independence Day

2011-07-04T01:50:00.000-07:00

Just a quick note, as, here in Portugal, the Fourth of July is not a holiday, and I have to get back to work. Think about revolutions in general, and ours in particular. What is the major difference?

In most cases, revolutionaries have little to lose. There may be educated leaders among them, but most of the risk is borne by people who own little to begin with, and whose only hope to gain something lies in the process of overthrowing their government.

In the case of the US revolution, the men who led started out with everything to lose. They owned land. They were prosperous businessmen and professionals. They had families, both in the colonies and back in England. Many of them had cordial relations with the king. Life was good to begin with, but they saw the possibility of something better in their future. In their eyes, liberty was worth the risk of their "lives, fortunes, and sacred honor."

I may be working today, but that doesn't stop me from celebrating that difference.

Death Comes Silently

2011-07-01T14:43:00.000-07:00

This is Zoe's little cat, Kiki. I've posted about her before, back when she was happily devastating the shrew population.

We seem to have run out of the diminutive rodents, at least for the time being, so instead, Kiki has been bringing us assorted lizards, whole, or in parts. Tails, mostly. We still have plenty of lizards sunning themselves here and there, but you rarely see one with its tail intact. I think the ones we do see must be tourist lizards. They're certainly not from around here.

Kiki, of course, is proud of her lethality, and likes to be credited for her kills, so she brings them to us. To make sure we notice, she usually leaves them someplace prominent. Did I mention she's Zoe's cat? That's why, when Zoe pulled back the covers on her bed the other day, she found a carnage of feathers - not goose-down feathers, like you'd expect to find in a bed, but flight feathers, wingtip and tail, spread from pillow to footboard, accompanied by a nice dusting of little fluffy grey ones. Apparently it wasn't enough to kill the bird and display it; Kiki also had to dismember it. (You never can be sure if they're dead if you keep all the parts together.) Zoe took the shock well. I washed her sheets.

Tonight though, she found this on her bed:

No tiny shrew, this, and no fluffy bird, either. I photographed this rat with a 6-inch ruler, so you can get an idea of his size. He's almost as big as Kiki.

Zoe's not so sure at this point that Kiki is bringing her trophies out of affection. We've begun to suspect that in her nocturnal ramblings, she's taken to watching old movies. Maybe she recently saw "The Godfather?"

I'd write more, but there are sheets to wash.

Sardines

2011-06-30T09:43:00.000-07:00

I recall that in Monterey's salad days, the canneries were kept in business by Portuguese fishermen, who kept them supplied with sardines.

Now, in Portugal, I'm reminded of that fact, as the sardine is king during the months without Rs (May, June, July, August). Walk the promenade along the beach from Cascais to Oeiras, and you will smell them roasting on coals. They smell great, but they're just too bony for me to enjoy eating them.

Painting them is a lot of fun, though. This attempt isn't finished yet, but I think it's coming along swimmingly.

Freedom, Kim Jong-il style

2011-06-29T06:36:00.000-07:00

So we read today that North Korea's "Dear Leader," Kim Jong-il has decreed that university students in the Hermit Kingdom will quit their studies for the next 10 months and do something useful for a change.

Universities closed on Monday and except for foreign exchange students (Really? Where are they from, I wonder?) and those who are about to graduate, students are being trundled off to agricultural and factory jobs. The goal is to have the nation's nearly-dead economy back on its feet by 2012, the year of the 100th anniversary of the DPRK's founding.

Although I doubt that North Korea's universities have much to offer by way of higher education, it's hard to imagine that shutting them down will have any but short-term benefits, and may well have long-term consequences that will further damage the economy. It's suggested that the real reason for the shut-down is that students were planning some kind of resistance movement, which the government hopes to preempt by closing the schools and dispersing the potential trouble-makers.

My suggestion would be to decrease the size of military officers' hats. Look at the size of those things. They could make some very stylish pirate hats with folded newspapers and save a lot of money in the process.

US State Department Scores Major Victory

2011-06-28T05:26:00.000-07:00

Thank goodness for this. Just when we thought America's power was waning, just when we thought that, in a world gone mad, "smart power" no longer had a role to play, we finally have something to celebrate.

Yes, Yemen may be on the brink of disaster, Assad is still murdering civilians in the streets of Syria, and the European Union is on the verge of collapse, but the mighty Department of State can still prevail upon others to act in accord with US interests.

We can all take heart knowing that, when push came to shove, our government managed to rustle up the leverage to get Lady Gaga to perform a gig in Italy.

I don't know about you, but I'm feeling mighty good about my country right about now!

White House Explains Libya Mission

2011-06-25T11:27:00.000-07:00

Congressional leaders from both parties expressed relief today after a last-minute meeting with the President to discuss Libya. A source who wished to remain anonymous said that the President had laid out his objectives for the North African country in a clear, concise manner and had answered legislators' questions. Lawmakers were particularly heartened to find that they agreed with his explanation of why the operation did not require Congressional approval. Said the source, "The President made it clear that, since our activities in Libya are classified as humanitarian aid, there is no application of the War Powers Resolution."

"Thank goodness for that," said a veteran Republican senator. Now we can get back to the the peoples' work: growing a government that more effectively provides for peoples' needs."

In other news, Libyan relief agencies lodged a complaint with NATO after a 2,000 pound laser-guided "humanitarian aid package" fell short of its target. 9 were killed in the resulting explosion.

Jeronimos Monastery, Lisbon

2011-06-24T03:17:00.000-07:00

Back in May, I posted my first painting of this Lisbon landmark. I began this painting, shortly after, but today's the first chance I've had to finish it.

Above Sintra

2011-06-23T11:39:00.001-07:00

It seems like I've been working on this painting forever. I think I'm finally about done.

My blog is blocked in China.

2011-06-22T06:33:00.000-07:00

So I must be doing something right.

Actually, I suspect most blogspot.com sites are blocked in China, but I like the idea that someone in the land of Pandas has taken offense at my writing in particular.

Want to see if your site is blocked by the Peoples' Republic? Check here. (Discovered at Haemet.)

Court-martialed for Defending the Constitution

2011-05-24T04:03:00.000-07:00

On October 10, 1995, the 1/15 Battalion of the 3rd infantry Division of the U.S. Army came to attention at 0900 in Schweinfurt, Germany. All but one of the 550 soldiers were wearing a sky-blue baseball-style cap with a United Nations insignia on the front. One was wearing the olive-drab flat cap that is authorized to be worn with the Battle Dress Uniform. With this simple act of disobeying a direct order, Spc. 4 Michael New set the stage for a legal battle that has profound implications for the future of American soldiers into service of the United Nations without the constitutional permission of Congress.

The case of Specialist Michael New is sad and frustrating. His unit was selected to fall under then-President Clinton's plan to remove an Army unit from the US chain of command, and place it entirely under the control of a UN general. Ordered to surrender his US military ID card and to alter his Army uniform (an act that can be authorized only by Congress) Spc 4 New requested the legal justification. He suspected that compliance would be illegal, and, aware that "I was just following orders," is no excuse, he wanted to protect himself from participating in an illegal act. More importantly, he wanted to support and defend the Constitution of the United States, as he swore to do when he enlisted.

Rather than provide him with the legal justification for the order, his chain of command tried to intimidate him into silence. When it became clear that no justification was forthcoming, he volunteered to take on any other duty. He would have preferred assuming an unpopular or dangerous duty to insisting on making a point, but his request was denied. He was ordered, without satisfaction that the order was legal, to report with his unit to be transferred to the command of a foreign power.

There is a difference between what was being required in this case, and the combined operations in which US forces sometimes are employed. It is important to understand that this is the first time US forces, which are sworn to defend the US Constitution, would be removed entirely from that task, and placed under the complete authority of a foreign command, one which, it is worth noting, owes no allegiance to the principles that established our republic.

It has also been suggested that altering the US Army uniform and surrendering the US military ID cards, (otherwise known as the Geneva Conventions ID card) would remove US soldiers from the protection of the Geneva Conventions, and place them in the category of mercenaries. Should one of them be captured in that status, it remained to be seen whether Geneva Conventions regarding their treatment would have applied. Nor had it been established whether, if a soldier in that status were to be killed in the line of duty, any benefits would have been extended to his family, seeing as he had been removed from the chain of command.

With all these questions unresolved, it would seem a foregone conclusion that the officers in New's chain of command would seek clarification before enforcing the order. It would also seem obvious that concern would be wide-spread. Nothing could have been further from the case. Specialist New was the only soldier to decline to obey the order. He was court-martialed and received a bad conduct discharge as a result.

The legality of the order was never established, neither at that court martial, nor in the appeals that followed. The only question that was considered was whether or not he refused to obey an order.

The legality of the order hinged on President Clinton's explanation, which was classified in Presidential Decision Directive 25. In PDD 25, President Clinton explained the rationale by which he had taken upon himself the authority to take the extra-constitutional step of deploying US troops outside the US chain of command. He justified his order based on the UN Participation Act of 1945. This explanation might have been helpful to the discussion, but President Clinton classified the directive so highly that nobody was allowed to read it; not even Representative Bob Dornan, chairman of the Military Personnel Subcommittee of the National Security Committee.

Now, 16 years after the fact, PDD 25 has been declassified, and readers are shocked (or not) to discover that far from being justified under the UN Participation Act of 1945, President Clinton's order actually contradicted it. In other words, there was no justification, neither under the US Constitution, nor under the UNPA, for the President to issue the order to which Specialist New objected.

Michael's father has fought to clear his son's name since the beginning of this debacle. Now that the PDD has been declassified, he finally has the documentation he needs to prove his son, far from disobeying the law, upheld it against tremendous pressure from everyone in his chain of command, all the way up to the Commander In Chief. He and his team are considering filing a motion of coram nobis, to set aside an erroneous judgment that resulted from an error of fact in the proceeding. I don't know anything about how these things work, but wouldn't it be wonderful if, after all this time, Specialist New received a reward, rather than punishment, for defending the Constitution?

I'll Never be in Fashion

2011-05-24T01:14:00.000-07:00

pic stolen from the Drudgereport.

Damn. First it was the mohawk. My parents wouldn't let me. Then it was the mullet, but by then I'd already joined the Air Force, and they frowned on that sort of thing.

UK Daily Mail

Now, apparently, the combover is all the rage, and once again, I find myself behind the fashion curve. I have the necessary sparsity, but not the required length, and I'm certain that by the time my hair grew long enough, the trend will have shifted.

from politico.com

I know, you're saying, "If your friends jumped off a bridge, would you do it too?" I understand the logic, but even so, I find myself wondering, why can't I ever be like the cool kids?

"Staunch Ally" besieges US Ambassador

2011-05-23T05:47:00.000-07:00

According to the Yemen Times (hat tip Jane Novak) an armed mob hundreds strong besieged US, EU, and UK Ambassadors Sunday, preventing their depature from the Embassy of the United Arab Emirates in Yemen. They had met there to discuss initiatives related to Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh's promised resignation, a promise he unsurprisingly, failed to keep. The ambassadors were trapped for over six hours, and had to be extracted by helicopter. The State Department, which confirmed the situation, expressed outrage at the action, and called on President Saleh to live up to his obligations to safeguard the lives of diplomats working in his country.

The question behind all this is how Saleh, who was described by the administration as our "staunch ally" in the war on terror, can have so quickly changed from ally to threat.

The answer, as I have indicated in earlier posts, is that he has never been an ally. Only now, as pressure mounts against him, are his true motivations made obvious even to those who have steadfastly insisted on his good will.

Why Can't We End Wars Anymore?

2011-05-23T04:32:00.000-07:00

Because we don't begin them:

Lately there has been a significant shift in US defense doctrine. Just as it used to be fashionable to talk about the "Revolution in Military Affairs," defense experts and analysts are now talking about how "Counter Insurgency" is the new way of waging war. Large force engagements, we are expected to believe, are relics of a bygone era. Now, instead of preparing ourselves to win wars, we have accepted the premise that victory is a foregone conclusion, but that victory will be attended by endless insurgencies such as we see in Iraq and Afghanistan.

I reject this premise. Firstly because I interpret America's current trajectory as an invitation to large-scale war. Secondly, and this is what I want to talk about right now, I reject the premise because we are mistaken if we accept the notion that we must address insurgencies at their own level. This is a trap, the result of which is to cede the initiative to the insurgents, and to be drawn into a battle that obviates our strengths and highlights our weaknesses.

The mainspring of this trap is our unwillingness to declare wars. Fail to call it war, and you can be certain that neither Congress, nor the US population, nor the strategic levels of our military will be prepared to fight it as one. War, we know, is supposed to be Hell, but contingency operations and nation building shouldn't be. So when the IEDs start going off we are unprepared. We are surprised because we have failed to recognize a basic fact of life: "Insurgency is nature's way of telling you that you're not done with major combat operations."

Which leads me to the second thing we do wrong. Having failed to declare war, we fail to fight it like a war. With one hand we try to destroy (as we should) but with the other, we try to build simultaneously. This does not work. Counter Insurgency doctrine calls for civil efforts to separate the population from the insurgents, but this is foolishness. We must convince populations that harboring insurgents is too costly and too dangerous, and the only way to do that is to inflict a lot of pain. My southern relations have no love for Sherman, but even they would agree that he was right about one thing. To end a war quickly, you have to burn your own path to the sea, and much of what you burn through will be civilian infrastructure.

If you do not wage war in a manner that is sufficiently brutal, you will undoubtedly fail to press what remains of the enemy's leadership for a public, complete, and unconditional surrender. This is deeply unfortunate, because nothing else will work to give the population permission to cease its resistance. In the Second World War, we expected tremendous resistance in the Japanese homeland, and when resistance failed, we expected wholesale suicides. We had neither, because we had the presence of mind to make a public ceremony of the Japanese surrender, and because the emperor himself addressed the Japanese people by radio, and told them the war was over. More recently, we have made war (or none-war, if you please) on people who have suffered for years under brutal dictators. Despite the hardening effects of that suffering on their societies, we expected them to give up after only a few hours of battle. We thought that Iraqis, who for years feared crossing the street without permission from Saddam Hussein, would suddenly shift their support to us when he went into hiding. Then we expected it would happen when he died. We're still wondering why we don't enjoy broader support from Iraqis. It's because, no matter how much they feared their leader, he was still THEIR leader, and absent an official surrender from him, they were left without orders to stop fighting. To put it into Oprah-speak, they have no closure. Without closure, without permission to stop being what they've been for 40 years, or, in the case of the Japanese, for centuries, they find it very difficult to make the psychological leap.

We're of no help to them in making that leap if, while we're trying to destroy insurgents, we're building schools and digging wells. We should be doing nothing of the kind. Suffering is what is needed to make the population shift its perspective, and alleviating the suffering at the same time we're administering it does not help. The Japanese people went from preferring suicide to laying down their arms and accepting occupation because they had suffered grievously first, which made the surrender acceptable and meaningful. If we had been passing out lead suits and airdropping food at the same time we bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki, our message would have been seriously muddled. It's no different in Iraq and Afghanistan.

As MacArthur demonstrated, there is plenty of time for magnanimity after the surrender. After the surrender, kindness means something. It's appreciated. How else can we account for MacArthur's popularity in Japan after the war? Before the surrender though, these well-intended gestures are seen as a sign of weakness, and they are skillfully exploited.

*****
If our presidents returned to the practice of calling upon Congress to declare war, we could have a national debate before we committed our military to "kinetic" actions. If Congress declines to honor the President's request, then the endeavor should be shelved. And if an effort is too insignificant to merit a declaration, then it is most likely not serious enough to warrant the loss of American lives. If, however, Congress consents to declare war, that declaration will have a galvanizing effect on the population, just as it should have a sobering effect on the leadership. Failure to subject ourselves to this process deprives us of these effects, and leaves us ill-prepared politically and emotionally for the brutality that awaits us. It is this ill-preparedness, rather than a shift in the fundamental nature of warfare that leaves us unable to end our current wars.

Aqueduct over Alcantara Valley

2011-05-19T15:34:00.000-07:00

This aqueduct was one of the systems built to bring water to Lisbon. It began carrying water in 1748, and remained standing through the great earthquake and tidal wave that destroyed most of the city in 1755. Prior to the quake, builders had been excoriated for what was seen as excessive use of iron in the construction, which added considerably to the cost. After the earthquake, nobody seemed to mind.

In addition to carrying water, the structure provided a pedestrian bridge over the Alcantara Valley, which runs down to the Tagus River Estuary on the western side of the city. It was this capacity that provided a hunting ground for what may be Portugal's first serial killer. Diogo Alves, a Spaniard, managed to acquire a key to the interior of the aqueduct, where he would conceal himself until unsuspecting victims happened by. He would spring upon them, rob them, and throw their bodies over the side. He killed 76 people in the summer of 1837, 4 of them from a single family. Authorities first thought they were confronted by an extraordinary number of suicides, but eventually they caught on. Alves was hanged in 1841, and his head is preserved in a jar in the Museum of Medicine in Lisbon.

Jeronimos Monastery, Lisbon

2011-05-19T15:12:00.000-07:00

Back in the days of discovery, Portuguese explorers would spend their last night in Portugal at the Jeronimos Monastery in Lisbon. They would stay awake, praying for a safe and successful voyage. In the morning, they would set sail. As vessels returned, laden with the spices that made Portugal wealthy, a portion of that wealth would be returned to the Monastery as a sign of gratitude. Over the years, what had once been a humble building became a grand edifice, a reflection of Portugal's wealth and power. That wealth and power may have faded, but the monastery remains, a reminder of how things used to be.

Note to Newt

2011-05-19T06:25:00.000-07:00

Dear Newt,

Hang it up. Go home. Your ego is showing, and it’s not pretty. You had a chance to do something all those years ago and you squandered it. Now you’re just pathetic.

And let me assure you, I’m nowhere near membership in any “elite Beltway cocktail party circuit.” Nor am I among the “literati” or their “minions,” or any of the other groups you to whom you attribute any and all criticism. I’m just a guy who knows an empty suit when he sees one.

Maybe you and David Brooks can form a club or something.

Steven

TSA Officer Stole from Suitcases?

2011-05-19T05:30:00.000-07:00

This just in; 31 year old Ryan Driscoll, a Transportation Safety Administration official, was arrested on felony theft charges for stealing from a traveler's suitcase at Los Angeles International Airport.

One can't help wondering whether the pat-down he got from LA's finest was anywhere near as invasive as those his colleagues administer to travelers.

Mugabe, Ahmadinejad, and Kim Jong Il protest New York Times

2011-05-18T05:09:00.000-07:00

Mugabe, Ahmadinejad, and Kim Jong Il protest New York Times

The New York Times no doubt expected to take some flak for its publication Monday of an Op-ed piece by terrorist Mahmoud Abbas, but one doubts whether this was what they had in mind. On Tuesday, spokesmen for despotic ruler of Zimbabwe and platinum-earning rap artist Robert (Kronic) Mugabe issued a statement decrying the publication in light of the fact that the Old Gray Lady has rejected every one of Mugabe’s numerous submissions, despite the fact they were all written in rhyme. “In Zimbabwe,” the spokesman said, “we have eradicated the oppression of the white man, but it’s clear that the same cannot be said for the New York Times.”

On the same day, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, President of Iran and “Mo” of Mugabe’s globally popular rap group, “Kronic Mo-Go,” made his own protest known, asserting that the ‘Times was not only racist, but Islama-phobic as well. “There can be no question,” Mo said, “that if I were a Jew, my letters to the editors would all have been published, instead of being shamelessly suppressed. Likewise with my cartoons.”

Today saw the third strike against the paper. Leader of the Democratic Peoples’ Republic of Korea, Kim Jong Il, posted a video on You Tube, in which he excoriated the Times for its failure to share his enlightenment with the impoverished people of the decadent western world. Kim, who appeared to be naked in the clip, rolled in pans of bright pigments before flinging himself onto large sheets of rice paper, creating art which, he said, “demonstrated the virtue and energy of the people of the Peoples’ Republic,” while reciting free verse that questioned the intelligence and lineage of New York Times’ publisher “Pinch” Sulzberger.

I Agree with Hillary on This One.

2011-05-18T04:15:00.000-07:00

I never thought I'd say these words, but I agree with Hillary Clinton.

When asked whether she would take a meeting with has-been President, Useful idiot, and self-aggrandizing tool Jimmy Carter, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton declined.

Carter, recently returned from a trip as a self-appointed, unauthorized envoy to North Korea (whose leaders wouldn't meet with him either) made the ridiculous assertion that failing to provide further food aid to North Korea was a violation of that country's human rights.

Laughable. Assinine. Bone-headed. First of all, nations are not endowed with human rights; individuals are. Second of all, North Korean has long been known to divert food aid to its military, while its civilian populace suffers malnutrition. Yes, that would be the same military that regulary distinguishes itself by such hijinks as bombarding South Korean islands with artillery, sinking South Korean vessels with torpedoes, and infiltrating South Korea with spies and saboteurs. Just across the water, the Japanese people are suffering the effects of earthquakes and tidal waves. They are among a long list of people more deserving of our aid.

All this goes a long way toward explaining the reaction of Ms Clinton when asked if she would meet with The Jimmy, the reaction that finds me most unaccustomedly in agreement. "No," she said. "Hell no."

UPDATE

Is it just me, or is Jimmy Carter (center) beginning to look a lot like

Mr. Magoo?

Business as Usual in Yemen, our "staunch ally in the War On Terror"

2011-05-17T08:32:00.000-07:00

Some things never change. After holding them in prison for only two years, including time served awaiting trial, the Yemeni government is releasing Saddam Hussein al-Rimi and Rami Hermel Hans. Al-Rimi and Hans, who is originally from Germany, were convicted of carrying out terrorist attacks on behalf of al-Qaeda, one of which was a bombing that resulted in the deaths of eight Spanish tourists in 2007.

This is standard operating procedure for the Yemeni government. Nearly every arrest of al-Qaeda members in Yemen has been followed by either a quiet release or a prison escape on a scale so large that it had to have been an inside job. Even when the Yemeni government claims to have killed major al-Qaeda figures, those same men are often featured as dramatic arrests in news releases several months later. Either resurrections are fairly commonplace in Yemen, or it is a matter of routine for the government to claim counter terror credit to which it is not entitled. In spite of all this, President Ali Abdullah Saleh has been referred to repeatedly by the US government as an ally in the war on terror. In an exceptionally naive assessment of the strength of this allegiance, the US and other western nations have provided weapons and training to Yemeni counter terrorism forces, with the assurances of President Saleh that none would be used for purposes other than suppressing al Qaeda.

Surprise! Almost immediately after receiving their diplomas, one of the first groups of Counter Terror experts was deployed by Saleh to the north of Yemen, where they were thrown into battle against the Houthi rebels. This mission, which was regime protection, not counter terrorism, was directly counter to Saleh's promise. Not surprisingly, because the CT forces were trained for completely different conditions, they suffered embarrassing losses.

Not to let mendacity spoil a good thing, nations like the US and the UK redoubled their efforts in Yemen, contributing more weapons and training in the hopes that Yemen, against all historical evidence to the contrary, would dedicate itself to the eradication of al-Qaeda. Instead, CT weapons and trainees were used to suppress peaceful protests aimed at forcing President Saleh out of office.

America seems to have gotten the message. As pointed out by Yemen expert Jane Novak, recently released documents suggest that the US suspended weapons shipments in February, when it became clear that the regime was murdering its citizens as they protested.

Better late than never, but why have we dallied with Saleh at all? It is an open secret that his regime has long enjoyed a symbiotic relationship with al-Qaeda; there is no veracity to claims that he is an ally in any sense of the word. Neither is he any boon to his own people. When he should have been preparing his economy for the impending collapse of his oil reserves, he and his cronies have been systematically stripping everything of worth from the country, pocketing foreign aid, and leaving his nation destitute. Anyone who has the nerve to protest is either bought off or beaten down.

Other regimes, like that of Hosni Mubarak, former President of Egypt, at least gave us something for our contributions. We may have sullied our name by supporting him in his thugishness, but for all his problems, he at least maintained peace with Israel. In Yemen though, our aid has bought us nothing more than illusions, while forming in the minds of Yemenis a lasting impression of our association with a criminal regime.

Cry Me a River

2011-05-03T03:09:00.000-07:00

Pakistan's so-called leader Pervez Musharraf is vexed.

He's upset - not that his nation remains an example for third-world nations of how not to conduct their affairs, and not because his country is a cesspool of corruption and inefficiency. He's embarrassed - not because he can't account for the millions of dollars in foreign aid his nation has received, and not because his intelligence agencies can't seem to figure out what side they're on, and have been revealed as having helped hide the recently departed Osama bin Laden.

He's not bothered by any of these problems, but he's peeved that American troops violated the sovereignty of Pakistan in conducting the raid that killed the world's most wanted terrorist. He has been overheard whimpering:

It would have been far better if Pakistani special services group had operated and conducted the mission.

To which one must reply - yes, it certainly would have. But they didn't. Instead, the government of Pakistan provided aid and shelter to the man they should have killed or captured. Here's an important message for Mr. Musharraf - If you harbor men like Bin Laden, your sovereignty means nothing to me. You forfeit your right to whine about the sanctity of your borders when you harbor within them transnational terrorists.

Deal with it.

Bin Laden in Hell

2011-05-01T22:41:00.000-07:00

Bin Laden has been killed in a firefight with US troops in, of all places, Pakistan. Who would have thought?
As of this writing, the degree to which Pakistan participated in or allowed the attack does not seem to be known. Whether the Pakistani government supported US efforts there or not, they can be expected to act shocked - Shocked, I tell you! - that Bin Laden was found in their back yard.

Bin Laden, if he believed in what he sent so many others to die for, ought to have been glad to perish in battle. Instead, he reportedly used a woman as a shield during the fight. She was also killed.

Bin Laden was reportedly dispatched by a shot in the head. Not, we can hope, before he had plenty of time to think about what was happening to him.

UPDATE:
The White House announced that Bin Laden's body will be handled in accordance with Islamic practices. Does that mean it'll be dragged through the streets, as our soldiers' bodies were in Somalia? Or does it mean it'll be partially dismembered and hanged from a bridge, as was done to US contractors in Iraq? Maybe it'll be incinerated, as were so many of the bodies of those who died in the Twin Towers. Perhaps it will be filled with broken glass and crushed under a heavy weight, as happened to the people who died in the attacks on our embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

Fishermen at Forte de Sao Juliao da Barra

2011-04-30T02:13:00.000-07:00

A few days ago I walked down the hill on my lunch hour and took some pictures along the sea wall. These fishermen were casting into the surf from the rocks at the foot of the Fortress of San Julian da Barra. Even though I've already signed this painting, I'll put it away for a little while before I decide whether it's finished.

POTUS reads my blog!

2011-04-28T06:01:00.000-07:00

I've had my suspicions for a while now, but this settles it. The President referred to "carnival barkers" in his most recent speech. Hardly common parlance for a presidential speech; it probably induced a double-take on the part of the presidential teleprompter.

But if you read this blog, as I now know President Obama does, you know that just four short posts ago, I referred to my secret source within the administration, and divulged that source's code name - wait for it -

Carnival Worker.

Coincidence? I think not. Welcome to the blog, Mr. President.

Now buy a painting!

Forte San Antonio do Estoril

2011-04-22T22:43:00.000-07:00

Time for painting has been hard to come by lately, so this one proceeded for a long time in five to ten minute intervals. These old coastal forts are difficult to paint from ground level, because they are very often laid out in a star shape, or some other plan that may allow overlapping fields of fire for defensive guns, but makes for difficult visualization. You can view this one from above by typing these coordinates into Google Earth: 22 34 54.01n 44 13 06.49e

Let Me Get This Straight

2011-04-08T02:18:00.000-07:00

We've just recieved word that military members are non-excepted federal employees, which means that the service we provide is so important that we will continue to provide it even in the event of a government shut-down. This is not news to me, having served during the government shut-down during the Clinton administration.

What is news, is that despite being considered essential, military members will not be paid if a budget agreement is not reached by midnight, 8 April. Ever since the Reagan administration, the guidance in this situation has been provided by an OMB directive that ensured that military members would continue to receive their paychecks in the event of a shut-down. This new policy is a conscious departure from established precedent. Is this what people meant when they spoke of voting for change?

Does the decision to forego obligations to military families reflect a party philosophy? Is it related in any way to the fact that the same party held the White House and both houses of the legislature last year, and could have passed a budget at any time?

Gov't Shutdown May Halt Military Pay

2011-04-06T16:24:00.000-07:00

The Optimisic Conservative is reporting that the White House is threatening, in the event of a government shutdown, to interrupt pay for active duty military members. This would mean that the 15 April paycheck would contain payment only for duty up to 8 April.

There are dozens of readily apparent reasons why this is a bad idea, and almost all of them have to do with the scores of thousands of men and women who are deployed, and whose families are dealing with all manner of problems in their absence. The one thing those families should be able to count on without question is that the government will honor its word and pay the members who are out there getting shot at. Families of deployed members have to deal with all kinds of uncertainty. Wondering whether they'll be able to count on their paycheck should never - ever - be added to the list of worries.

Much farther down on the list of concerns is this small matter. I’m supposed to go on temporary duty assignment soon. The way this works is, I pay all expenses up-front with my government credit card, and I’m reimbursed at the government's convenience when I file a travel voucher upon my return.

If I’m not being paid for the time being, I’m still supposed to lend the government money to send me on temporary duty, and I’ll still be expected to pay that credit card bill when it comes due – paycheck or no paycheck.

If I refuse to go, I’m failing to obey orders. If I go, I may incur a debt for the government that it could very well refuse to repay in a timely manner. That, of course, could impact my career.

If Joseph Heller were alive, this would make it into a new edition of Catch 22.