Reporting In tab has been updated for what you kids crave the most: videos!
Category: Personal Blog (Page 25 of 27)
I ran into the coolest podcast on the sidebar of facebook. This may have been the first time I clicked something there. It doesn’t really discuss anything novel, but anytime you have a PhD talking about Firefly and liberty for 20 minutes, you ought to listen.
However, she does make reference to Fredrick Jackson Turner’s “Frontier Thesis” which I have modeled much of my political belief around. So listen to it.
Here you can see the Constitution tab. Expect this tab to always be in a state of flux, especially within the next 6 weeks as I build a workable final draft for it.
This is only the first half, but the newest ink is in!
Today, I just finished reading Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength by Roy Baumeister and John Tierney. I approve. It’s easy to read and describes a lot of really interesting experiments involving people’s constitutions. There isn’t as much about growing willpower as I had hoped, but rather a lot of evidence backing up their major claims. I always find such experiments interesting so I was entertained, but for those less interested, here’s the main thrust:
We each have a finite amount of willpower.
That cup drains throughout the day as we make decisions and resist temptations; we do not approach each new challenge with the same power of resistance throughout the day.
We can replenish our willpower by feeding ourselves and getting rest. Our brains burn an incredible amount of energy using our willpower.
We increase our maximum amount of willpower through leading a disciplined life. That discipline carries over into the other aspects of our life. This is why I’ve always taken issue with those that say that there is a difference between a field Marine and a garrison Marine. More often than not good garrison Marines are the best field Marines, and those that knock a garrison Marine as being that, are often not as good of field Marines as they proclaim.
So, in short, go read the book. Alternatively, check out The Art of Manliness’s more expansive summary of the topic.
And since we’re on the subject of willpower, how about a little Gary Puckett?
Unless you’ve been living under a rock I suppose you’ve seen this NSFW video about Marines urinating on dead Taliban fighters. For the person under that rock, here’s the video:
Now, the expected social split has come down from this. People are either looking at this with disgust and as an example of the evil deeds of our troops, or they’re taking a, “but they cut our heads off!” approach.
The Learned Sergeant is taking a somewhat different approach. Friends, our enemies are bad. If you can take a man’s head with a smile, you qualify in my book as evil. If you can dig the hearts from our Delta snipers, you’re evil. Killing these people and killing them often is a noble cause and it betters us as a species. But just because our enemies are evil, it is no justification for desecrating the dead. Here’s the bottom line: We’re the good guys.
There’s a price that comes with being one of the good guys. One of those is that we must operate with the greatest of restraint. This goes double if you’re a UNITED STATES MARINE. This is unacceptable behavior for even the lowliest soldier, but the standards expected of a Marine is higher still. These Marines are not evil. In some ways they’re simply the product of a society that takes joy in dropping a pair of testicles on a dead enemy during a rousing inning of Call of Duty. But war isn’t a game. We fight to advance the species, not to degrade it. War is hell. I’ve known what it feels like to want nothing more than the bury a tomahawk in another man’s head. But we are the good guys. We must fight with honor, discipline, and dignity at all times.
In With the Old Breed, E.B. Sledge mentions watching Marines dig gold teeth from the mouths of Japanese soldiers. He talks about the disgust he felt before finding himself doing the same, prior to coming to his senses. What those Marines did was unacceptable then, and that wasn’t a fully volunteer force. They also on the whole endured much more brutality than today’s Corps.
Not only is it degrading toward our enemies, our species, and ourselves, but this behavior is also the type that ends with PTSD. The first recorded cases of PTSD came from the Romans upon the razing of Carthage. Why? Because what you do in the heat of combat will visit you in your quiet hours. This is why we must maintain our dignity. When you dehumanize the enemy you treat him as such. It makes it easier to kill him, but it makes it harder to deal with the killing later.
We’re the good guys. Treat the enemy with dignity — especially when he doesn’t deserve it. Kill them all, but do it with honor. Those Marines shouldn’t get a dishonorable discharge or brig time, but they should see a general or other than honorable discharge.
Now that you’ve heard it from me, I’ll give it to you from my favorite G.I. Joe : Beachhead (though that’s a strange code name for a Ranger)
A happy night! Bonus! You get two videos!
Now..
I never met the man, but sometimes I feel like I actually knew Christopher Hitchens. He seems very tangible, like friends I have lost, but can still remember my time with.
Nights like tonight I get sad knowing he’s no longer with us. I feel a personal loss, and I feel like the entire world has changed; much like when Pluto was de-listed as a planet in our Solar System. Rational? Well, the Pluto thing isn’t rational. However, explanations don’t have to be rational to be real. Hitch was the Thomas Paine of our generation. Another chapter in the Age of Reason has ended.
Pay Your Bill Online
