Perfidy Responds

Sunday, July 29, 2007

Question and Answer Time with Drunkle John

EntertainmentPerfidy RespondsThe Miracle of Science

Apparently Google works, because some enterprising soul found a two-year old post of mine about infusing vodkas and had some questions about the construction of cayenne vodka. Well, Drunkle John is here to help!!

Amelia S. writes:

> Hello,
>
> I read your blog post from a loooong time ago about making infused vodkas.  Apparently, you have cornered the online market for cayenne pepper vodka recipes.  I grew some cayennes this year and want to make vodka, so I have a couple of questions for you:
>
> 1) If I only used a single cayenne, do you think that would tone down the heat?
> 2) Just out of curiosity, what do you think would happen if I left the pepper in the bottle permanently?  I ask because I think it would be pretty.  But, perhaps, deadly.
> 3) How did your ginger, orange, cranberry, and poblano vodkas turn out??
>
> Loved your post.  Will probably link to it in my blog soon enough.  smile
>
> - Amelia


Posted by Johno on 07/29/07 at 04:04 PM
Entertainment • Perfidy Responds • The Miracle of Science • Permalink

Thursday, June 21, 2007

Watch the skies, cover your ass

EntertainmentPerfidy Responds

I completely forgot to mention, but the other day Ministry Crony and future Hugo winner EDog has a published novel now available for sale.  The story in question is The Milkman, which Ian was kind enough to let me read a while back.  It is fun, weird and strangely comforting.  It’s gonzo science fiction in an era that doesn’t look overly kindly at gonzo, or science fiction.  It tries to answer one of the burning questions of our time: “What’s the deal with aliens and anal probes?” And succeeds in finding an answer.  Swordfights, bikers, spaceships and some embarrassing bodily functions.  What more could you ask for?

Buy the damn book already, you won’t regret it.  You can get your greasy mits on a copy here (author’s preference) or here or here.


Posted by Buckethead on 06/21/07 at 01:13 PM
Entertainment • Perfidy Responds • Permalink

Sunday, June 03, 2007

The purity of essence of our precious category tags

No CategoryCrazy ForeignersDarwin Award ContenderFakeBloggingEntertainmentFilthy LucreHoly Shit!It'll Be a Cold Day in HellJust So You KnowLead Pipe CrueltyNaNoWriMoMusic WonkeryPartisan PoliticsPerfidyPerfidy AttacksPerfidy RespondsThat Buck Rogers StuffThe Miracle of ScienceUnmitigated GallWar

Patton has accused me of being overly concerned about wasting a scarce natural resource.  The category tag.  In this, of course, he is completely wrong.  Naturally, I could have argued that over-categorizing a post dilutes the utility of tags.  And I would have been right.  But that wasn’t the point.  I was attacking him on aesthetic grounds, and just to stick a stick in his eye. 

Just to prove that I am not some sort of homo-tree-hugging-enviro-commie, this post, which really is about everything, is tagged with every category we have.  And, when I have a free moment, I’ll add some new categories, and add them to this post.

So there.


Posted by Buckethead on 06/03/07 at 09:34 PM
No Category • Crazy Foreigners • Darwin Award Contender • FakeBlogging • Entertainment • Filthy Lucre • Holy Shit! • It'll Be a Cold Day in Hell • Just So You Know • Lead Pipe Cruelty • NaNoWriMo • Music Wonkery • Partisan Politics • Perfidy • Perfidy Attacks • Perfidy Responds • That Buck Rogers Stuff • The Miracle of Science • Unmitigated Gall • War • Permalink

Saturday, May 12, 2007

Brickmuppet, where art thou?

Perfidy Responds

Brickmuppet, one of the legion of bloggers that I don’t link often enough, has moved to new digs.  He’s out of the blogspot ghetto, and over into a sparkling gated community at mee.nu.  I assume that mee.nu is related in some way to the munuvians.  I wonder if the new group are going to be meenuvians?  Anywho, go check out his new, perty blog here.


Posted by Buckethead on 05/12/07 at 10:12 PM
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Wednesday, May 09, 2007

The Milblogging Conference of Aught Seven

Perfidy RespondsWar

This last weekend, I was privileged to attend the second annual milblogging conference.  (Shouldn’t it be a milblogger conference? After all, it isn’t a gathering of milbloggings) As was the case last time, I had a fantastic time indulging my need to talk at great length about nearly anything.  My wife, who has heard everything I have to say about most things, no longer sees the value in listening anymore; and so a captive audience of people who also feel the need to talk at length about nearly anything is Buckethead heaven.  Which is proof, I guess, of the old saying about one man’s heaven being another one’s hell.

And this time, there was plenty to talk about, and, of course, much beer to be drunk.  The festivities started with what Blackfive referred to as the “Pre-Cock.” We gathered at Arlington’s legendary Car Pool before the official Cocktail hour and reception.  I was greatly pleased that Steve Schippert of Threatswatch was able to attend, despite needing to return home on Saturday for personal reasons.  Steve is a fantastic guy, and only a little silly when inebriated.  Many others were there as well – the aforementioned Blackfive, Princess Cat, Mike of USAA, Kevin, Noah Shachtman (now at Wired) and a few others who, while significant and entertaining individuals in their own right, have slipped through the cracks of my memory.

Moving over to the Cocktail Festivities, I hooked up with Murdoc and his wife, down from Michigan, and met his longtime companion commenter AW1 Tim.  Jon of Aaaarrggghhh was there handing out prizes (though none for me) and various and sundry other bloggers.  Rob the fast squirrel was there, and good company. 

After attempting to eat fajitas in a room with no tables, and spending $7 for Heineken, we went back to Carpool.  At this point, we lost a few people, but Noonan from Op-For, Threatswatch Steve, me, Cat, Rachelle, Scott (great guy, but he likes sleep more than beer – can we trust him?) Blackfive, Murdoc and a couple others kept going.  While I did not drink as much as I did on the Friday before the last conference, I did put down a few and a nice glass of the Macallan, and things got kinda hazy.

Went back and crashed at Cat’s and slept on the couch while she and Rachelle slept together.  Is that hospitality?  I think not.

Bright and early the next morning, we got to the conference just in time to miss the President address the conference.  I have to say that I missed a lot of the panels – if I sat down I started getting sleepy no matter how interesting the speakers – and there were some interesting speakers indeed.  But I had been short on sleep Thursday night, and only got a couple hours the night before.  Adapting my strategy, I generally spent most of the day outside the conference room, talking to the other attendees in smaller groups.

Had a fascinating conversation with the Armed Liberal of Winds of Change and Bill Roggio from the Fourth Rail, and at one point Bill turned to me after I said something and allowed that, “You’re awfully smart for a guy named Buckethead.” I still don’t know quite how to take that, but the sentence had the word ‘smart’ in it so I’ll count that a compliment.  And Noonan is not the spare.  Or so I have been told.

A big topic of discussion both in and out of the panels was of course the recent Army directive that all military bloggers must get all posts approved by chain of command.  It seems that there are two currents in the Army – one which wants to use the milbloggers to aid it in getting information out into the world, “winning the information war” and another group that is operating not on a Web 2.0 basis, but rather a 50s era corporate Web -.5 basis.  You can’t win, really, in keeping information contained.  It’s damn near impossible in this new world we’ve created.  What you can do is compete in an information ecosystem, and attempt to get your ideas, and your points of view respected.  That seems to be the consensus, and milbloggers (and I am truly not really one of them, except in spirit) feel that they have a key part to play in that effort.  I believe they are right.  Bill Roggio, for example, is a one man counterexample to the idea that only major media outlets can provide comprehensive coverage of the war – this guy doesn’t just comment on the news, he is an active producer of it. 

Noah Shachtman offered himself up for sacrifice in his panel, by defending the MSM.  This was not an audience predisposed to think kindly of the “regular” media.  You should have seen people rushing to the microphones to argue.  Noah was right, though, there isn’t a conspiracy.  But there is ignorance – and though Noah said that milblogs are a perfect resource for mainstream media, I don’t really see a lot of evidence that they are making use of it.

That was one of the things that I was talking about later with several people – in any instance where you have seen reporting on a topic with which you are intimately familiar, have you ever seen them get it right?  Ever?  And what makes you think that they get anything else right?

In the course of some of those conversations I also met American Soldier and Army Girl – active duty soldiers who are also active bloggers.  They are approaching the problems of blogging while on active duty differently – AS is anonymous, while Army Girl must deal with her chain of command.  Fascinating discussions, and both were great people to talk to.  of Soldier’s Angels (and Vivienne) were both charming.  Vivienne kept wanting me to pick up toys, which I was happy to do on a part time basis, but my Jocelyn has a prior claim.

At lunch, we had a presentation from Soldier’s Angels, a truly fantastic group that works with injured soldiers coming back from Iraq and elsewhere.  If you are looking for a good cause to donate to, or really even if you aren’t – throw some money their way.  They do incredible work.  The highlight of the lunch was Chuck Ziegenfuss, a soldier who was wounded severely in Iraq.  The guy is an amazing speaker – he told the story of how, after he was wounded, Soldier’s Angels helped him by (among many other kindnesses) getting him a laptop, and how that grew into Project Valour IT, which has now raised hundreds of thousands of dollars to purchase laptops for other injured servicemen and women.  Besides being a hero and orator, Chuck is wonderfully profane and wicked funny.  I was honored to meet him.  Second best quote of the weekend came from him:

“Chuck, did you watch the DNC debates?”

“No, If I want to watch retards fight, I’ll throw a bag of candy under the short bus”

After all the official events wound down, we retired to the lounge.  There, I met McQ and Jon Henke; current and former members of Q and O.  I had a blast talking to both over the course of the rest of the evening as we wended our way though the hotel bar, to PFChangs, and back to the hotel.  Also met Lex, who does an excellent Irish accent while drunk.  For all I know he may do an excellent sober Irish accent, but I never saw him sober.  And no one has seen the Irish sober.  Spent some quality time talking to (and smoking with) Jacki, who is not a blogger though she probably should be.  (Remember, it’s not about fractals…)

Who else?  Tammi, Chuck’s wife Carren, Laurie from Soldier’s Angels, Homefront Six all the way from Hawaii – we had a great time talking early Sunday morning while Lex sobered up, that’s all that comes to mind at the moment.  I’ll have to call Cat and start asking, “Who was the one guy…” to fill in the rest.

Last weekend was one of the best weekends I’ve had in a long time.  Spending two days in the presence of a crapload of highly intelligent, motivated and articulate people is inspiring.  For those who, unlike myself, are inspirable anyway.  Thanks to Andi for putting it all together.

And despite my description, it was not all about drinking.  People who have done incredible work – the Soldier’s Angels, and everyone who has helped them – were honored.  There was a lot of good discussion amongst the bloggers of course, but there were non bloggers there who, I think, got an earful – hopefully a useful one.  And making new friends is never wasted.

Can’t wait for next year.


Posted by Buckethead on 05/09/07 at 07:03 PM
Perfidy Responds • War • Permalink

Wednesday, May 02, 2007

She’s a civil engineer

EntertainmentPerfidy Responds

JohnL, the proprietor of Texas Best Grok, has found hisself a coblogger.  And this seems to have upped the posting frequency a bit.  The new addition, Planet Stories, provides some insight into the mind of the engineer:

Understanding Engineers: Take Four

What is the difference between Mechanical Engineers and Civil Engineers? Mechanical Engineers build weapons and Civil Engineers build targets.

Understanding Engineers: Take Nine

An engineer was crossing a road one-day when a frog called out to him and said, “If you kiss me, I’ll turn into a beautiful princess.” He bent over, picked up the frog and put it in his pocket. The frog spoke up again and said, “If you kiss me and turn me back into a beautiful princess, I will stay with you for one week.” The engineer took the frog out of his pocket, smiled at it and returned it to the pocket. The frog then cried out, “If you kiss me and turn me back into a princess, I’ll stay with you and do anything you want.” Again the engineer took the frog out, smiled at it and put it back into his pocket. Finally, the frog asked, “What is the matter? I’ve told you I’m a beautiful princess, and that I’ll stay with you for a week and do anything you want. Why won’t you kiss me?” The engineer said, “Look, I’m an engineer. I don’t have time for a girlfriend, but a talking frog, now that’s cool.”

All true.  I remember back in my sordid youth, I spent a lot of time in bars.  One night, I was hanging out at Larry’s Bar, Grill and Seminar of Lower Woodruff Avenue, and a pair of charming and attractive women joined me at my booth.  We fell to talking and it turned out that one of the two was an engineer - specifically, an engineer working in the environmental field - dealing with toxic waste and whatnot. 

“Cool!” I said.  “One of my best friends does that too.  Let me call him, and invite him over.” So I called my friend (let’s call him Dave) and said, “Hey, there’s a hot Macedonian chick over here who’s an environmental engineer.  Stop jerking off and come over to Larry’s.” And so he did.

Now, the conversation continued.  I learned that Emily (or so we’ll call her) was by training a Civil Engineer, but at the time I thought nothing of my friend Dave’s deep and abiding hatred of civil engineers.  Nothing whatsoever.  About twenty minutes later, Dave arrives, and flops bonelessly into a chair at the end of the booth.  “Rough Day?” I asked.

Dave mimed putting a gun in his mouth and pulling the trigger.  “I fucking hate civil engineers.”

“Dave, this is Emily.  She’s a civil engineer.”

Panic.  “I, uh, fucking hate civil engineers that I work with.  That’s what I meant to say.”

Dave didn’t mention that he, as recently as the week before, had said in confidence that civil engineers were people who failed out of all the real engineering disciplines.  “How hard,” he asked, “is it to get water to run downhill?”

Of course, Dave blamed me for not warning him that Emily was a civil engineer.  Now I ask you, am I responsible for Dave’s engineering bigotry?  I think not, but it was certainly fun watching Dave preface a disparaging remark later with a question to the two young ladies - “None of y’all are from Texas are you?”


Posted by Buckethead on 05/02/07 at 06:14 PM
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Friday, April 27, 2007

Kicked

Perfidy Responds

Now that I’ve felt my ever less theoretical son kick me right in the hand (oh, how special!, interjects Mrs. Johno… he’s been whaling on my cervix for weeks!), I have a public announcement to make:

I keep making beer, like a fool, for ever more theoretical consumption. At the moment, I have a nice floral and bitter pale ale, a spicy, strong and sweet Abbey, and a plain out freako-delicious Dunkel ready to go, and five gallons of porter curing besides. So, please.... kick my kegs. Run ‘em out. I’ll make more. Please help… drink all my booze, I’m begging out.

That is all.


Posted by Johno on 04/27/07 at 10:34 PM
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Thursday, March 08, 2007

The Civil War is so interesting, nyah

Perfidy RespondsWar

The Maximum Leader, my go-to source for blogging inspiration these days, has written a longish bit on why he thinks the Civil War is bollox.  ML claims that the Civil War is interesting, at best, in a purely tactical sense, or perhaps as a parade of amusing incompetence on the part of the Union generals.  Now, I for one am not going to say that hundreds of thousands of Civil War round table participants, re-enactors, historians and others have wasted their lives in such a tragic manner.

In fact, I find the Civil War fascinating in large part exactly because of many of the things the Maximum Leader finds icky and bad-smelling. 

The wars’ end was a foregone conclusion.  Well, let’s let the odds makers decide and not run the race, what?  The Greeks, faced with the unprecedented size and strength of the Persian army, should have just rolled over.  But Marathon, Thermopylae, Salamis and Plataea proved that the side facing the short end of the materials and logistics stick is not normally foredoomed to failure.  Granted, the safe bet is, as Napoleon remarked, on the side of the biggest battalions.  But the safe bet is not always the winning bet.

Many of the Confederate leaders were well aware of Greek history, and in fact made conscious analogy between their cause and Sparta.  This, considering the lot of the Messenian Helots, and the eventual fate of Sparta once the Thebans got sufficiently pissed off at them, was an ironic choice of historical model.  Lee was certainly aware of the material advantages of the North, yet he and his army fought anyway.  That is historical drama of the best sort.


Posted by Buckethead on 03/08/07 at 12:51 PM
Perfidy Responds • War • Permalink

Friday, February 16, 2007

Stupid is as stupid does

Darwin Award ContenderPerfidy Responds

Here I sit, watching (several years after the fact) the film Jackass, after the MTV show of the same name. Currently on the screen, Steve-O is attempting to cross a tightrope over an alligator pit wearing nothing but a helmet, shoes, and a jock strap with several pounds of meat stuffed in the waistband.

Recently, I watched the new Mike Judge movie Idiocracy, which I highly recommend to all. Some of you know Mike Judge from Beavis and Butthead. Others from King of the Hill. Still others may have seen Office Space a dozen times. The common thread through all these movies is an abiding contempt of the deeply stupid and pointless things and people that make life a little poorer for having encountered them. People mistook Beavis and Butthead for a mere celebration of dimwitted hijinks - I swear to you there’s some anger in there also. How else do you explain the Halloween special where Butthead meets a farmer who dismembers people and helps the farmer, in a sequence what actually manages to be a little chilling despite the lo-rent animation, capture and dismember Beavis? King of the Hill features an endless parade of do-gooding dipshits who wreak havoc in the name of ‘helping.’ Office Space goes after the pettiness of managerial power and the deadening, soul-sapping routines that office life can draw one into.

Anyway, what was I saying before I disappeared up my own anus… O yeah. Idiocracy. Good movie. Not as good as Office Space but pretty great nonetheless, about an average man of today who wakes up 500 years in the future to find he’s the smartest man on the planet. The President is a professional wrestler. Garbage is piled up everywhere. La-Z-Boys come with plumbing and a nice comfy toilet seat. The #1 show in the USA is called “Ow! My Balls!” and the biggest Oscar winner is titled Ass. Our hero, because he speaks in complete sentences, is told he “talks like a fag.”

So.

Thesis A: Steve-O hanging from a rope as crocodiles lunge at him from below, attracted to the chicken carcass stuffed into his jockstrap, is comic genius of the first water.

Thesis B: Steve-O hanging from that rope not that different from “Ow! My Balls!,” the type of comedy which Mike Judge holds in total contempt as the lowest common denominator of culture, a baseless, graceless, debasing parade of farting ass cheeks and nut-shots that not only lacks in any intellectual content, but which actually is hostile to the very idea of intellect, and which as a consequence impoverishes the culture that enjoys it.

So I ask you: as I sit here laughing my ass off, how can both A and B possibly be simultaneously true? They sure as hell seem to be.


Posted by Johno on 02/16/07 at 11:28 PM
Darwin Award Contender • Perfidy Responds • Permalink

Monday, January 29, 2007

Notes from the FestungFest

Perfidy Responds

Recently, Buckethead and clan relocated from their suburban abode in the heart of Alexandria, Virginia, to a mountain fastness some sixty miles distant. That ordeal has been amply documented on this site.

The call went out across the land to bloggers and regular people near and far to gather to celebrate the dual events of the birth of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the ensconcement of Clan Buckethead in their new home at Festung Buckethead. Goodwyfe Johno and I flew into the area to attend this bash, and in the process catch the talented Dead Men’s Hollow in concert.

The gathering was a great success. Aside from myself and Buckethead, both Ministers GeekLethal (with the lovely Mrs. Lethal and the lil’ Lethal in tow) and Ross made the scene. Also in attendence were Princess Kat, the Maximum Leader, and the formerly AWOL Phil Dennison, reformed blogger who no longer has a webpage and who therefore is only eligilble for old-school meatspace esteem. Much business was transacted. Much perfidy was committed. Much music was played, some of it through an iPod fed into a fire-spewing Ruben’s Tube. Much very fine Scotch was consumed, and some fairly nice cigars as well.  Good times, good times.

We of the Ministry thank all attendees in body or spirit, and hope that the remainder of their 2007 is as auspicious and friendly as ithe precedent set at Festung Buckethead.


Posted by Johno on 01/29/07 at 12:17 PM
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Wednesday, January 17, 2007

I’ve got to get out of the highway

Perfidy Responds

Gary Farber is in a panic.  Despite chronic physical ailments, and wrestling with crippling depression, Amygdala has been one of the most consistently excellent blogs I know.  In keeping with the Ministry tradition of not linking to anyone, or in fact doing anything that would increase our popularity, I have only linked Gary a couple times.  But I read.  And the other day, he explained why he has been in a panic.  One of the few dependable sources of income he has has evaporated.  He needs cash. 

Imagine you’re a cute, fuzzy deer.  You wander onto the highway.  You see some lights, you freeze.  You think to yourself, “I’ve got to get out of the highway.” The lights get closer.  You think, even more urgently, “I’ve really got to get out of the highway.” But you can’t move.  Imagine that feeling lasting for months or years at a time.  People with chronic ailments like diabetes can take insulin or whatever to control their disease.  There is nothing about diabetes that actively tries to prevent you from getting help.  Depression does.  It’s five miles of fog between you and reality.  It’s all the color in your life going away, and not all cute like in Pleasantville.  It even makes you like the Cure and the Smiths.  And all the while, people tell you to cheer up, or get your shit together, or for godsakes just do something.  You feel that whatever talents or gifts you have, which - in the hands of anyone else - would have allowed them to become wildly successful and boink supermodels all day, are really just a mocking curse from a cruel god because you have them, and can’t use them for anything.

I think that Gary might be feeling better, thanks to the generosity of those who’ve already pitched in.  Make him feel a little better, if for no other reason than so I can keep reading his blog.


Posted by Buckethead on 01/17/07 at 07:45 PM
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Wednesday, October 11, 2006

McCain sits at the kid’s table

Partisan PoliticsPerfidy Responds

Senator John McCain is by most standards a major political figure.  Seriously in the running for the oval office, respected by the essential middle of the electorate, a reliable source for the money quote and well liked by the media.

And now, a blogger, thanks to a guest post at the Captains Quarters.

McCain has some interesting things to say about the North Korean nuclear test - or fizzle – depending on who you talk to.  Worth reading, and I recommend that you do.  But what interests me at this moment is the fact of his appearance on a blog.  The political world has been edging towards the blog world for some time now, though it has been a sideways crabbing motion rather than a full frontal embrace of the medium.

Blogs have certainly had their impact on politics – one need only think back to the fall from grace of Majority Leader Trent Lott, the swift boats and the blogosphere’s moment of glory, folding memogate til it was all sharp corners and inviting Dan Rather to sit on it.  And politicians have made use of blogs, as well.  Dean’s staff, during his presidential campaign, made notable effect of a blog both to disseminate the governor’s message and for fund raising.  Hilary Clinton’s campaign in waiting has hired a blog outreach director.

But here, here we have an actual political personage making an appearance on a blog, rather than being sandbagged by one, or having staffers manage one.  This is a first, and it is a significant milestone in the growth of the political blogosphere as a force that does not merely discuss politics, but changes and directs events.  In the recent past, the blogs, collectively, have been the kids exiled to the kitchen table while the adults ate the sumptious Thanksgiving dinner in the dining room.

By making yelling loud enough, the kids could on occasion prod the adults into action.  Their cries were viewed with the same disdain as parents often feel when judging the concerns of the young – there’s probably nothing going on here, and if we find that you’ve been fibbing, well, there’ll be trouble.  For the blogs to make a case, it was uphill all the way – first to overcome the natural disdain of the elder media, and only second the facts of whatever issue they pushed.

We can look at this as either a promotion to the adult’s table.  Which, really, is still a bit of a stretch.  But at least one of the adults has come into the kitchen and sat down with us and treated us, for a moment at least, as one of the adults.  A precedent has been set, though.  McCain, and his handlers must have had a discussion about what was the proper venue for the dissemination of this message – and not some random policywonkish statement on, say, the advisability of instituting ethanol quality standards or something equally banal but a national security issue of the greatest importance – and they decided that the best place for McCain to make this statement was on a blog, as a guest poster.

The blog world is poised in the archway between the kitchen and the dining room. 

Political figures will now be taking even more interest in the blogosphere.  They will be making more efforts to communicate to, and through, the blogworld.  Some of these efforts will be hamfisted, clumsy or even desperate, since knowledge of the blog world is vanishingly rare outside our community.  There will be those that get it, or know someone who does, and their success in this medium will add to their efforts in others, and in close races, or in hotly argued debates, having this additional means of communication and rallying support will make a difference.

[Wik] Linked to OTB’s Linkfest.


Posted by Buckethead on 10/11/06 at 01:00 AM
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Thursday, October 05, 2006

Wrong!

Just So You KnowPerfidy Responds

Ministry Crony EDog insists that Cinnamon Toast Crunch is the best cereal in the universe.  He is wrong.  It is Cocoa Crispies.


Posted by Buckethead on 10/05/06 at 02:24 PM
Just So You Know • Perfidy Responds • Permalink

Thursday, September 21, 2006

Two Cheers For Civilized Warfare

Perfidy RespondsWar

Some time ago, a friend of mine sent me a link to an essay by science fiction writer Ken McLeod.

The Palestinians launch rockets at the Israelis, killing civilians.  The Israelis drop bombs on the Lebanese, killing civilians.  Iraqis plant bombs in roadways, killing American Soldiers.  We attack Iraqi cities, killing insurgents.  Al Qaeda kills 3000 Americans with hijacked airplanes; we kill Al Qaeda wherever we find them.

There is, when laid out in that fashion, a symmetry to these acts of violence.  Tit for tat violence in an unending cycle.  A cycle of violence.  (I have a mental picture of what a bicycle of violence looks like, but that is beside the point.) A while back, a friend of mine sent me an essay by Scottish science fiction writer and communist Ken McLeod.  It is entitled, ”Against Civilized Warfare.” Like many a product of a bright and well-read mind, it is well-written, includes facts, is compelling on the surface and utterly wrong.

Go take a read.

McLeod makes the argument that

Nothing has done more to corrupt humanity than the attempt to civilise warfare. Just War Theory is an utter perversion of the moral sense, a doctrine of literally mediaeval barbarism, invented by clerics to regulate wars between Christian kings.  Its finest moral discrimination to date is that it’s legitimate to kill a munitions worker on his way to work, but a crime to kill him on his way home.

Well, that’s an interesting premise.  It is the job of science fiction writers to challenge assumptions, and maybe that one is, actually a real boner of an assumption.  I thought to myself, “Hey, maybe he’s got something there.” After all, Just War Theory gave the high sign to unrestricted strategic bombing in the big one, and most current research leads one to believe that it was strategically dubious at best.

Just War Theory and the architects of the British and American strategic bombing campaigns held that killing enemy civilians who worked in vital war industries was a valid exercise of military force.  The lamentable lack of accuracy of the state of the art in bombing technology meant that attacks were of necessity bloody – we had to drop a lot of bombs to be assured of killing the target.  We were attacking our enemies’ capacity to wage industrial war.  Collateral damage was regrettable, but justified.

However, German war production increased over the period of the most intense Allied bombardment, and there is no evidence that German civilian morale was lowered as a result of the bombing.  In fact, it may have stiffened enemy resolve – much as the Blitz stiffened British morale earlier.  Attacking enemy productive capacity and “breaking the enemies’ will” are usually cited as the primary strategic justifications for the bombing campaign.  And if neither of those desired results ever actually, you know, happened – then what you have is the unjustified slaughter of hundreds of thousands of innocent German and Japanese civilians.

Just War Theory takes a hit on that one.  Let’s read on.


Posted by Buckethead on 09/21/06 at 03:04 PM
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Monday, September 04, 2006

Fapfapfapfapfapfapfapfapfapfapfap

Music WonkeryPerfidy Responds

The following was published at blogcritics.org as a supplement and companion piece to my review of Pere Ubu’s Why I Hate Women:

Over the past decade and a half, I have probably written a couple hundred reviews of albums by artists from Sam Cooke to Samhain. When the PR firm handling the fifteenth album by the formerly Cleveland-based new wave band Pere Ubu, Why I Hate Women, asked me for a review, I agreed to give it a shot. I’m a big fan of Pere Ubu frontman David Thomas, and his last couple projects have been right up my alley. But as I sat there staring at the blinking cursor on a blank field of black, I tried to write a straight review and found I just couldn’t do it.

What I turned out instead was (very kindly) kicked back to me by an editor, who asked in essence, “um, this is very nice… what is it?”

Well, long story short, I love music, but I’m damn sick and tired of writing music reviews.

The usual formula goes as follows:

“Band X formed in Year A and influenced Y1, Y2 and the incredibly obscure Y3, who had one single on the Kankakee, MI based Fancypants label. Their newest album, X’, is a (adjective) non/departure from their previous work. Adjective, adjective adverb quality assessment, subordinate clause hedging previous assertions. X’ is recommended to fans of A, A’, and A’’, but is not as essential as classic album X’’. “

There’s a lot you can do with that basic template, and a quick glance back through my Blogcritics archive will reveal a number of (if I do say so myself) pretty good variations on that classic theme. Unfortunately, templates are limiting. If you’ll permit me to disappear up my own bunghole for a thousand words or so…


Posted by Johno on 09/04/06 at 08:58 PM
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