New Blog started by Friend

Frank Wyatt, a friend of mine, has started a new blog called Denmad eb Cigol. He's an insane and intelligent person, who hopefully will have a lot of interesting things to say.

Statistics of War

Statistics of Deadly Quarrels

Wow. The two World Wars of the 20th Century were responsible for 60% of all violent death (including petty murders, but not accidents, starvation, diseases, etc) from 1820 to 1950. Not only that, but it doesn't matter what I (or anyone else) says here, because war is completely random! Obviously, that's not actually true (well, the part about war being random is true), as the article points out just because crime rate is a known quantity, "I'm sorry your honor, but somebody has to keep the murder rate up" won't fly with a jury. Indiviual wars happen for a reason. It's just that those reasons arise at random periods. Anyway, go read the article. Now.

I Am Disgusted with the Vatican

And not because of pedophilia. I won't post the photo here, but you can see it at USS Clueless, Instapundit, etc. It shows a French (naturally) Cardinal holding hands and smiling with Yasser Arafat. This is digusting! It makes me ashamed to be Catholic. Followers of that man are holding the Church of the Nativity hostage, along with priests, monks, and nuns, and the Vatican is sucking up to him! I deeply, sincerely hope that the Holy Father has nothing personally to do with this. I can't believe that he would, he is from Poland and should know real Nazis when he sees them! I strongly suspect there are power games going on in the Vatican right now, because of the Pontiff's ailing health and advanced age. This Cardinal Roger Etchegaray is probably playinig politics and hoping to curry favor with certain power blocs inside the Council. Grr...

The Second World War

I'm reading The Second World War by John Keegan. It's an excellent book (I picked it up after reading The First World War, also by John Keegan), and contains tons of interesting information. Like this:

at the end of the war, the Soviet forces held 665,000 motor vehicles, of which 427,000 were Western, most of them American, and a high proportion the magnificent 2.5-ton Dodge trucks... American industry also supplied 13 million Soviet soldiers with their winter boots, American agriculture 5 million tons of food, sufficient to proved each Soviet soldier with half a pound of concentrated rations every day of the war. The American railroad industry supplied 2000 locomotives, 11,000 freight carriages and 540,000 tons of rails... American supplies of high-grade petroleum were essential to Russian production of aviation fuel, while three-quarters of Soviet consumption of copper in 1941-4 came from American sources.

And that's not all:

Wartime Russia survived and fought on American aid. So too did wartime Britain... The percentage of military equipment supplied to the British armed forces from American sources in 1941 was 11.5, in 1942 16.9, in 1943 26.9 and in 1944 28.7; and the percentage of American-supplied food consumed in Britain in 1941 was 29.1, a proportion which continued at that level throughout the war.

This outpouring of aid, combined with the equipment and maintenance of armed forces which increased in size thirtyfold between 1939 and 1945, was achieved at no damage to the United States economy at all. On the contrary: though annual Federal expenditure rose from 13 billion dollars in 1939 to 71 billion in 1944, inflation was easily contained by tax increases and successful war-loan campaigns. The gross national product more than doubled during the same period, and industrial production also nearly doubled.

It goes on like that for another paragraph, explaining how all this spelled doom for Germany and Japan. The next interesting part is this: "In 1945 the United States was to find itself not only the richest state in the world, as in 1939, but the richest there has ever been, with an economy almost equal in productivity to that of the rest of the world put together." This is still essentially true. The United States is at this moment one of (or perhaps the only) the only countries in the world that is not only self-sufficient in terms of staple foods but also an exporter. The United States is still the richest nation the world has ever known, and every time our economy grows (aka, whenever we're not in a recession), it sets a new record. This is my response to those who claim we do not have to resources to fight a war by ourselves. We most definately do. We could conquer the world. But as of right now, we lack the political will. I believe that is changing, and it would behoove both major parties to realize it. Being that I prefer left-liberal domestic policies, I'd like to see a return to the Democratic Party of FDR. Others out there still (foolishly) hold out hope that the Shrub in Chief will awaken to the new political reality. Whatever happens, though, the next ten years should be interesting times, indeed...

Blog*Spot Down, PayPal Not Working

I am annoyed. I know this is LiveJournal-like behavior (especially since nobody can read this right now), but I don't care. There's something wrong with the two services I really wanted to be working right now. Grrrr...

No Link Between Atta and Iraq?

No Link Between Hijacker, Iraq Found, U.S. Says

Apparently, all that stuff about Mohammad Atta meeting with an Iraqi official was a misidentifcation. Fine; other liberals of course will use this to say, "See, now we simply can't attack Iraq!" But I'm sure you will be able to predict my response: So f'ing what? Saddam Hussein is a brutal dictator, and we are justified in taking him down for that reason and that reason alone! As long as we make sure that he is replaced by a democratic republic with guaranteed freedoms for all citizens (but not necessarily the ones in the Bill of Rights, Mr. Libertarian), even if that means we won't be able to control them in the end. We are not justified in taking out Hussein and letting another dictator replace him. I say again, it is our responsibility to not just be the "shining city on the hill." It is our responsibility to ensure the freedom of everyone, everywhere. This is obviously an ideal goal not a viable plan. We are not yet in a position, militarily speaking, to do this in the real world. But we can do it in Afghanistan, and we can do it in Iraq. And we should do it in Saudi Arabia, too, but since the Administration is owned by Saudis... well, now I'm just starting to ramble again.

Afghan War Not Over Yet

CNN.com - U.S. forces move on al Qaeda targets along Pakistan border - May 1, 2002

See, this is what I meant when I said that we've only had just enough success in the War. Things haven't been going perfectly, and they aren't over yet! I strongly suspect that there will be battles fought inside Pakistan before things are really "finished" in that part of the world. I can only hope these won't be battles against the Pakistani military...

The reason "finished" is in quotes up there is simple... when the military fight against Al Qaeda is finished, there will still be many, many things to do in Afghanistan. That country is ripe for a demonstration of what I'm talking about with this blog. We should outlay the cash and the people to rebuild that country... not just "help" rebuild it, we should stay and make sure it gets done. I mean completely rebuilt, too, not just started on the road to recovery. Obviously, we can't really do that, yet. But we can stay until certain things are accomplished. We should make sure the countryside has enough infrastructure that even farmboys (and girls) can go to school. We should make sure all the "major cities" have electricity and running water. The ultimate goal is having not just a McDonald's in Kabul (because that would be silly and stupid at this point), but making it so the people can afford a McDonald's! So, there will need to be industry... but we have to do it right, unlike standard globalization. They should not be treated as cheap labor, we should build up the infrastructure to the point where they are a viable trading partner, instead of a client-state. This will probably take 20 years, looking at the examples of Germany and Japan. But in the long run, it will enrich the lives of everyone involved, including us. After all, that's a nice Sony TV, ne?

Liberal?

It has been brought to my attention that I don't "sound very liberal." Well, that's because I haven't been talking about environmentalism, public education, abortion, globalization, corporate control of government, or how much I hate libertarianism (Oh, how I hate libertarianism). I want the government in your wallet and out of your bedroom. If that's not "liberal," I don't know what is! I've only been talking about The War, and how important it is for us to win it. I do not favor corporate or cultural imperialism, see, I favor real imperialism. Globalization is stupid, it's just an excuse for big corporations to move out of the US where they have fair labor laws, and into little countries with no taxes and a government smaller and weaker than the corporation in question. No, we should actually go make the rest of the world like the United States, then it makes sense for corporations to move there. Not before. Of course, now this is getting kind of rambling and incoherent, but I think I've proved my point. Don't worry, I'm a dirty, stinking liberal. I'm just not a pacifist.

Arafat to Go Free?

CNN.com - Siege at Arafat's compound appears near end - April 29, 2002

I can't believe they're going to let this rat go. The "man" is a terrorist, plain and simple. He gives the orders for suicide bombings, he signs the checks, he procures the weapons, how else are you going to define "terrorist leader"? Yasser Arafat is more closely and personally involved with the suicide bombings than Osama bin Laden is/was with Al Qaeda attacks. How much longer will the world continue to pretend that Arafat can be dealt with? Why, oh why, does the US government continue to act as if he is the key to peace? There will be no peace until there is a winner and a loser. We cannot allow the "Palestinians" to be the winner.

On a related note, why is the world still pretending that the monks and nuns and so forth being held hostage by Palestinian gunmen in the Church of the Nativity are anything but hostages? Despite all the pleas for help, despite the statements from escaped priests, the world and the media continue to act as though they are helplessly trapped there by the Israeli military. The truth is they are being held as hostages by the terrorists inside. Even the Vatican refuses to acknowledge their status. As a Catholic, that angers me greatly. I can only assume that it is some aid to the Pope and not the Holy Father himself who is perpetrating this nonsense.

The Weekend and Other Concerns

Well, first of all I don't spend a lot of time sitting in front of the computer on weekends, so don't ever expect much posting then. For a second thing, I've just been forced to resign by my boss, and thus a lot of things are up in the air right now. I do intend to continue posting every day, it's just that things may be even more sporadic than they have been. And I definately hope to get a job that allows me to continue posting during the day. On that note, does anybody out there have an opening in IT/TechSupport/Programming/all-of-the-above in the Richmond, VA area? I can email a resume...

UPDATE: I have put a link to my resume over on the side...