ivan

the various wars of the 70s of communist on communist (russia on china, china on vietnam, vietnam on cambodia, china on india) show the silliness of trying to boil everything down to mere ideology - so too the 30 years war of 17th century europe when catholic france combined w/ protestant states to war against their hapsburg enemies and nominal heads of the holy roman empire - pimps look for excuses to knock a bitch down, see?

the barbary pirates were in a state-ish type thing - the various pashas of n africa, though in all practical senses separate from the ottoman empire, still swore allegiance to it, claimed political authority through it, and acted as state operators w/ envoys, demands for tribute, a veneer of responsibility for enforcing islamic law, etc. nation states developed about 200 years ago - it's all a red herring though - humans fight w/ other humans relentlessly - that's the reality - all the politics, ideologies, excuses, yadda fucking yadda are just lubricants to let it happen - call them wars, conflicts, rows, ruckuses, police actions, fucking whatever, it's all war. joe's rule for regulating them in a republic is a sensible one, but that's of course the problem - war is nature, war is gravity, war is not sensible, war is water running downhill - it will happen, and all we can do as people in a republic, at best, is try to force it into harmless gulches n' gullies and grand geo-politically engineered landscapes. some asshole wrote it in a poem once: "and the life of man solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short"

bullshit. government and nation-states themselves are quite new inventions. more typically its been tribes/religions/sects/etc. that have divided warring group, and continous warfare has been the norm throughout history (and indeed, even advanced primates like chimps seem in constant combat w/ their neighbors)

From an ST post of mine back shortly after the start of the Iraq War that details my view on what armed conflict / war should mean: yeah, pretty much sure you'd pass the class joe your proposal makes a far better constitutional amendment than the anti-gay n' flag-burning types, and i'd be happy to support it reading "the proud tower" by barbara truchman at the moment, about the 20 years before ww1, and it really is fascinating to see in america today the same arguments and sensibilities as then - amazing to think there ever was a time in this country when being steadfastly opposed to the building of a warship or creating of a standing army was considering the apotheosis of patriotism

WWSFD? what would sam furley do?

X2 - i hope i do a good and consistent job of showing my kids i love them, and i make a point to say it every time i'm angry and/or unhappy w/ what they're doing - i don't use physical force w/ my kids often, but goddammit, nothing makes the point more clear and more quickly than a laying on of hands, and i can't play patient fucking teacher all day/every day my general rule of thumb, which i think works, is don't do anything more berserker crazy than my dad did, which is setting the bar rather low violence is usually not all of a solution, but is frequently an important part of it - found some mice living in my house recently - there was both a violent and a non-violent course of action, and i used them both

i think all climbing is aid, and all human interactions are war just so long as there's never a ceasefire, status quo ante bellum solution to the war on christmas

I'm getting the feeling Kev would not pass your class... weeeell, it IS an elective - unlike the standard 10% failure rate of my core classes, i think i've only had one dipshit work hard enough to fail the war class.

care to share your defintion of "war" then? i teach an elective class called "the history of war" and that's the assignment on day 1

dropped you a line - me n' geoff are going somewhere south the same dates

hope it doesn't suspend yer spray'n

i don't understadn people who don't like history - it makes the greatest comedy! it'd be funnier still, if'n it wasn't so goddamn tragic...

i won't be surprised in the least if the current man of the hour gets sentenced to little more than x-box arrest - my lai is but one of far too many drumbeats in the tune of american hypocrisy - calley is a bloodbrother to col chivington, and if you play the odds, not the last of the line for extra credit, what equally reprehensible atrocity occurred the same date as my lai, but exactly 20 years later and served both as the justification for another unpopular american war, as well as executing the man that war dethroned?

what IS the sound of one beatard bitching?

if they actually spent more time at ft lewis they'd jsut be suffering from SAD instead of PTSD and probably going just as bonkers

declaring war on afghanistan wouldn't even make sense, given that, in theory, we're allies in an effort to install Disney Land in the Hindu Kush together i don't think congress has ever declared war on a non-state group, nor am i certain if it can. anyone read "the savage wars of peace?" good book, the main point of which of course is that this shit is nothing new - the introductory quote is great, taken from the marines "small wars handbook" (composed over a half-century of direct experience) in 1940: as for this current ft lewis fella, and not to be beat the "the more shit changes, the more is stays the same" drum, but anyone know what tomorrow will be the 44th anniversary of? in the spirit of "a pic's worht a 1000 words," i'd post one but i don't want to be accused of copying bill's style

forgot to ask if that was you buzzing smiff all sunday morning after i saw you last tyler! you need to start offering drop off services for pukes who want to climb jefferson n' the like in winter but don't ski

dennis leary's instruction is key: "remember to get your whole head in front of the shotgun"

i've always dug that taibi-feller - he looks and talks like a pissed-off lawnmower

nothing can be drier in a howling hurricane as "siege tactics" on the n side of beacon!

in the favor of texans no less! one of my cousin's is a 300+ lb former offensive tackle for smu - he taught for a # of years and said he could get instant silience merely by bringing out the official paddle and setting it on his desk

there's pretty much always something dry to be found at ozone and broughtons

certainly not a limitless guarentee, but the whole family is riddled w/ lawyers, and they skillfully stay w/n the generous boundaries of the 1st amendment, and arent' violating private property - in the recent supreme court case they won, for example, they were actually protesting on a public street-corner several hundred yards away from the actual cemetery entrance - pretty slam-dunk scotus decision i thought (w/ my vast legal training of course )

yeah, that would prett well summarize the whole state of texas, which does the same?

if you drank more 'forehand, you could probably bump this up to w1+