And I was wandering the Interweb and tripped across this particular post from the blog Freelance Genius. I forget what I was looking for, but the irony (and motivation for this writing) is that I was listening to Cake at the time.

Now, to cut to the chase, I disagree with the author’s premise, which is a sarcastic send up that sums to Cake sucks and always sounds the same. Taking a sample from different albums, can that really be said about “Comfort Eagle,” “Jolene,” “Stickshifts and Safetybelts,” “Pretty Pink Ribbon,” and “Sheep Go To Heaven”? Oh, wait, your perception came from what is played on commercial radio? I’m sorry, but I refuse to take that seriously.

There is a development that happens across the albums from Cake, from first to last. Is there repetition? Just enough to make up what is a voice, not a tired shrill gnash like the rest of the Freelance Genius blog is. We all have that characteristic trait, or constellation of traits, that gives identity. That alone does not make for regurgitative nonsense, unlike the critic in question. There is enough to give comfort and familiarity, and more than enough playful diversity to give a refreshing awakening to the music.

Personally, I happen to like Cake. There is a question of personal memories which I associate with that music. I remember Number One in the On-Air Studio doing a show and dedicating “Comfort Eagle” to me, this being an inside joke on us both overusing the word dude. There is Number Two playing “Sheep Go To Heaven” over and over in the living room after we picked up that particular album at a Goodwill store shopping for clothes. And I even remember getting the first album, having it played in the car and me playing Name That Tune, or at least Guess The Artist, with songs that I had never heard until “The Distance” was played.

So I like Cake. Freelance Genius does not. And that difference is what makes the world go around.

Well, now. It seems that our unit has a way to go in the “time wasting humor” department. Clearly, the British Navy has completely eclipsed us right from the start, and we damn Colonials don’t know what we are doing.

I really need to get back to work.

Recently, I was sent a link to a page at Townhall.com::America, Not Keith Ellison, decides what book a congressman takes his oath on::By Dennis Prager, which is a commentary on newly elected Congressman Keith Ellison from Minnesota allegedly stating that he won’t use the Bible, but instead the Koran, for the swearing in ceremony.And good for him. No, I won’t support some email campaign to pass a law saying that the Bible must be used. That is a slippery slope, irrespective of the examples that Dennis Prager cites. According to Prager, this opens the door to all sorts of faiths “requiring” their holy cannons used.

And?

Okay, Tom Cruise wants a copy of Dianetics. And? I don’t see the point why that is so distasteful. So none of the multiple atheists, Jews, Mormons, or whomever asked for their copies of their cannons, according to Prager. Even if true, that doesn’t mean that it is right for everyone. Their decision to comply with the prevailing tradition that conflicts with personal beliefs is between them and The Eternal. I don’t think that I would have made the same decision, but, again, that is a personal decision on how I reconcile getting to sleep at night.

Prager is right to point out that the majority culture, or at least history and tradition, is Christian. Thus, the cultural affinity for using the KJV Bible for important things, like taking office, swearing legal oaths, and the like. But to make it a law, that is different. That puts minority faiths outside the law, and if I decide that following my principles of faith are important to me, I am now criminal.

But, ultimately, the argument for enshrining the KJV is undercut by the fact that it is not used in the swearing in ceremony for Representatives. Nor, is it a requirement for the President, since none other than Teddy Roosevelt failed to have a Bible of any version at his swearing in ceremony.

Just at it is wrong in my opinion to completely exclude the majority tradition with the forced removal of Nativity scenes and sculptures of the Ten Commandments, it is just a wrong to enshrine it with legal authority. The American culture that has been the haven for countless numbers of harassed, oppressed, huddled masses has been one of open tolerance, one that is permissive of individual quirks and differences. You are allowed to say no to the government, without worrying that you will wake up dead or that your family will vanish overnight with no one knowing anything or vague references to a nine millimeter retirement plan.

That is true tolerance, not the Diversity doublespeak illogic that is put out constantly in popular culture.

So, I was perusing the news headlines, and found that there is a ruckus going on with some verbiage that was spouted in a public forum:

What Kerry said Monday at a campaign rally was this: “You know, education, if you make the most of it, you study hard, you do your homework and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. If you don’t, you get stuck in Iraq.”

I read that to The Wife and I think that her response was better stated than anything I could come up with. A sudden intake of breath, followed by “That Dumb Schmuck. What, he figures that you are all a bunch of dropouts so we send you off to war?”

Is it really inconceivable that someone who is educated in the sense that they have the vellum duly stamped and approved by Accredited University would be in the military? Or that after joining the military for education benefits, a Soldier / Sailor / Airman / Marine would stay once he or she reached whatever goals were set?

I can sometimes buy the idea that The Rich^TM send off to war The Poor^TM, but rather get in a frothy Marxist rage about class differences, I look at it from a systems perspective. (Hey, we all play to our strong suits.) The military is a way of getting ahead for those who would probably never get other opportunities. The fact of the matter in modern America is: if you are a minority and / or “economically disadvantaged” (i.e. you worry about bills to pay), then the military is a way to get college or get loans repaid or get training. Couple that with the military being color-blind and it is no wonder that minorities are over represented in the military compared to the larger population of the rest of America.

There is a bunch of backpedaling now with the comment, that it was a joke gone wrong, that it is a subtle criticism of policy.  But there are two things that jump out at me.  One is that when Number Two came home from school, she mentioned that one of her friends was talking about how Kerry said that “if you stay in school and do your homework, you will be okay; otherwise, you go to Iraq.”  Misquote or not of Kerry, that is the message that she was getting as the youth of America.  So, is it fair to her as the child with a deployed parent to hear “oh, by the way, he is probably a slacker” from the streets?

But what really sticks out in my mind is the second thing, which is the composition of my unit and the skills that we have. Actually, the enlisted are probably better educated than the officers. We have at least two master’s degrees, degrees in psychology, chemistry, biology, political science, electrical engineering, aeronautical engineering, computer science, business, and graphic arts. We also have plumbers, electricians, and welders. There are diesel mechanics and some that do construction, both wood and metal structures. Finally, we have two individuals who passed their national exams as paramedics who are not assigned as medics.

Not only can we destroy a town, we can rebuild it. And probably better than it was. Not bad for a bunch of slackers.

There are times that I am simply amazed by life. The random strings and wanderings from one place to another only to wind up with something familiar and a sense that even though it is a really big world, sometimes it is just a small world after all.

So, there I am, trying to catch up to date on a blog that I subscribe to, Chayyei Sarah, and I come across this post. Naturally, I follow the link (interesting perspective on the Israeli war), and check out some of the other interviews.

Particularly the one with Bandit Three Six, who is in The Green Zone. Been close to there, so I checked it out. Looking at the pictures, I notice that I have been to some of those places. Like the Bathouse, which is not actually in the Green Zone, but is in Baghdad at another base.

And I see this.

And this.

Wow.

I got to spend a half a day the other day just relaxing. Being a “down” day for us with no scheduled missions, after I sent the misguided children that make up my crew on their tasks that I wanted accomplished, I settled into my room and enjoyed something that I haven’t had in over a year. Not since I started this deployment.

Uninterrupted internet access in my room.

Yes, it is true. We have installed a satellite internet system in our housing area using our ingenuity, hard work, the inevitable sweat that comes with living in a convection oven, and the Almighty Dollar. The system itself comes from OIF Net, who have been absolutely wonderful in all of this, cheerfully holding hands and answering questions, even when asked for the third time because the answer was there all along, but, well with all the heat and inability to see the obvious sometimes, it wasn’t noticed or paid attention to.

The flashing blue lights of the modem and the flickering greens of the switch and router tell me that all is well with the network. Others are busily pecking away at their keyboards, updating their blogs, emailing loved ones, searching on Google, surfing for porn, or doing whatever they do normally on the internet. My room is basically an armed server room with a bag of black licorice on the desk next to the laptop. I don’t mind the flashing lights; the miasma of technology is a gentle reminder of the real life, the one I will get back to at some point.

Naturally, the first thing that I did was connect and IM The Wife. Actually, I did that simultaneously with checking email, so I suppose technically it was a tie. Still, I like to think that contacting The Wife and having (very nearly) synchronous communication with her was the number one thing on my mind, so it wins by the judge’s ruling. Plus, I clicked the IM icon first, even if the email client loaded faster.

I also got to go skipping around the internet, see some of the old hangouts, and check in on what has happened in my absence. Which means mostly checking all the blogs that I subscribe to on Bloglines. Some are more or less dormant, some had 40 billion new postings, and some I rethought and scrubbed from the list.

One site that I spent a good amount of time on was Joel On Software. He has a number of interesting ideas, and seems like someone would be great to listen to over a couple of beers while he free associates and comes up with novel ideas. Mostly he covers technology, and management of technology, but he is great all around and has some real world experience too. Just when you figure that he is another ex-Microsoft geek, you find that he is also an ex-Israeli Paratrooper. And a pretty smart dude to boot.

I also checked out some older sites that I haven’t kept up on in a while. One I was chagrined to find dormant was Flaneur. The writing there is simply the best. The gem of the bunch, though, is Rachel King. I tripped on this site, particularly her stuff, a couple of years back when they were active. Showing it to an English Lit friend of mine, she mentioned that if there were a female version of me out there with a better grasp of grammar, it was likely Ms. King. Her writing (Ms. King’s, not my friend’s; they have two very different styles) uses a flamethrower of wit to immolate the subject, then pounds out the flames with a thesaurus. I love every word of it. Her Salon reviews are pretty damn good too.

Back to things technology oriented. When I last left the Inter-Web landscape, Ajax was just getting going. It was a novelty, something that makes Google Maps the buzz du jour. It was also something that I was looking into, tinkering with, trying to get my head around. After all, all good techs need that cutting edge thing to have as the subject of their first O’Reilly book. But, too late, there is one already. And Ajax is powering a lot of things, but particularly calendars it seems.

I was at one point contemplating something on developing for PayPal with Java. In my real life, I did a lot of that. Now, who knows? I would have to consult my notes when I get back, not to mention that there are new editions of Java on the horizon. The skill rot with taking time off in technology is amazing. There will be some catching up to do when I get home. However, for now, I have the net at easy reach for at least keeping up to date with news, information, and whatever. And chasing intellectual rabbits down the networked hole to wherever my mind follows.

But, the most interesting part was that the following day, while prepping for mission, I noticed that I felt better, more alive, and more alert. There were parts of my brain that were sparking back up to functionality, parts that had not seen use in the last year or so. Not that some of what I do can be done without any higher thought process. There is a lot that goes on that requires not only thinking, but creative thinking. Which is a nice way of saying making it up on the fly, but you have to know the rules to break them.

Hat tip: http://wizbangblog.com/archives/005303.php

As I was driving Number One home from her Girl Scout meeting, we heard the report on the radio that a Bulgarian soldier was killed in Iraq.

“I can’t really blame them,” she said after a moment’s pause. “If I was there, and fire came from a place I didn’t know, I would open fire too. You don’t know who it is and who they’re shooting at.”

Then she looked at me. “What would you have done, Abba?” That’s a good question. I gave an answer something along the lines of the same thing: if I saw fire coming from a place that I thought was free of friendly troops, I would open up too. But she hit it right on the head perfectly.

If a twelve year old can understand it, then why not the rest of the clowns reporting this? The same situation of making a quick decision with incomplete information applies to the shooting of the Italian security agent. Forget about the appeasing of terrorists with ransom for a moment. When someone does an action that can be perceived as hostile, like running at a checkpoint at high speed, there are likely to be fatal consequences, like getting shot. Of course, it makes for better conspiracy theories if we chant like Easton and make allegations of deliberate targeting of journalists, rational thought be damned.

Now, even though I’m not the biggest Carl Sagan fan, there is an intelligent quote attributed to him that his appropriate here: extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof. The Americans targeted some nothing Communist writing for a nothing rag? Pony up. This I gotta see.

Evidently, there were 300 to 400 rounds fired. Wow. But, looking at the photos of the vehicle, there don’t seem to be a lot of holes. In my experience, machine guns make a lot of holes. Fast. This car doesn’t seem to have a lot of them. So I am led to think two things: 1. the ammunition expended wasn’t that high, and 2) most went into the engine block or the air. Which would be consistant with firing to disable the oncoming vehicle or warn off the driver at the checkpoint.

The money quote is from Sgrena, the Italian muckraker: “So I don’t see why I should rule out that I could have been the target.” Obviously, not being bound by logic or objective rationalism, she is not able to see what is going on around her. Running a checkpoint gets the vehicle shot up. Not because you are a libelous mouthpiece, but because you are a nudnick. Or, rather, the driver of the car was a nudnick, but there is enough to go around.

As for the appeasement of paying a ransom, well, that is just idiocy. Paying up only encourages this activity of grabbing more hostages. I am not aware of any group that got money in exchange for hostages has come out saying “thanks, and we are done doing nasty things since we have enough dough now.” In fact, we could go as far as saying that Sgrena and her payors are responsible for the next hostage taken. Bet that Italian hostages continue to be taken; there seems to be a good return on investment.

Unless, of course, allied forces get the terrorists first.

Standing up and saying no to the groups involved is what is needed. That is what stops the kidnappings. Word filters out that getting involved with the terror groups doesn’t result in a glorious battle against infidels, but a quick ignomious end.

“Are you writing me a love letter?”

I stopped typing the email that I was working on and looked up at my wife.

“Um, no. I was replying to an email from Mom about using robot swarms as soldiers.”

Now, my wife knows me well enough that there is a high likelihood that I am serious when I said that. I was. I am a wise-ass too, but robot swarms wouldn’t be the punch line to one of my gags. (Robot swarms are very serious.)

“You guys are definately different. And you are all the same.” Interesting statement. I disagreed, although I have picked up enough at this point to recognize 1) what she means by same, 2) what I mean by same, and 3) we look at the “same” thing differently.

What I immediately thought was something along the lines of: well, we are different heights, hair color, and even genders. The similarities in things like gait and facial structure are small enough that I have heard comments about others thinking we weren’t siblings at first. The tastes in subject matter are way different. Nope, not the same.

What she meant was that we all have a wide net in what interests us, a very analytical outlook, and extremely curious natures. If we come across something that doesn’t fall in the natural category of “oh, I am so into that,” we will still pay attention and ask questions. In that case, same.

Which I have to agree with. I would put the term as “similar” not “same.” Clones, no. Intellectual comrades-in-arms, yes.

Later, I was installing a RSS aggregator on my PC. I should have done this a while ago. The list of blogs and news items that I try to keep up with is well beyond the point of being able to have a few bookmarks that I check up on. Right away I was able to put most of the sites into the aggregator. And away I went.

Of course, now that I am moving these sites of interest into the aggregator, I have a chance to see a totality of my interests, albiet a totality of my blog interests. (Newsletters and the like are not included in the aggregator as I get them via email.) So I can see what interests me from a different perspective. After all, when things come in a trickle, it is hard to estimate the whole population. And if I am just poking around to one or two places at time that I can think of off the top of my head, that doesn’t capture the summation of all the sites that I have thought “hmm, have to check this out again.”

So what interests me? Jewish themed blogs are far and away the biggest area. The individual focus might roam a bit over the idealogical map; some are observant, some not, and some are in between. It is interesting to get a feel for different parts of The Tribe.

Technology is another area. Well, that figures. I am a technically oriented person and do so love the science. Or most of it. I really don’t have the patience for, say, sociology unless it’s framed in terms of Complexity and Emergence. As opposed to my sister, who is a sociologist, which supports my take on the above thinking of “not same.” (There’s the gender difference too, but we’ll ignore that as a “duh.”)

One thing that did pique my curiousity is the number of blogs about language. Which might seem odd at first, since I am the first to admit that I have a limited grasp of English. Oh, I can speak it. I know what the individual words and ideas mean. If the grammer is wrong, I “know” it only because it sounds wrong, not that I can point out “that thingy can’t follow the whoisit since the something is over there.” But I have never quite fully understood it. Frankly, it baffles the hell out of me.

This has always been the case with me. Spelling as a child was a nightmare. Basically, brute force and rote recitation were what I used to make it far enough through school for spell checkers to be invented. Although, by then I had graduated into college, but still.

Now, since I don’t “get it,” but I use it daily to communicate, how is it that I understand anything? Obviously, the letters in certain combinations are meaningful, but what makes that so? How is it that we are able to convey information with these combinations in such a way that they are, for the most part, always understandable? And why is it that I can’t see the rules that are in play?

An example: Poems are collections of words. Haiku is short enough for my discussion and cool enough to have a definition of how long it can be. So, in theory, I can write a program to make a haiku.

Let’s say we make a list of words and say to the computer “pick a random 5 syllables, then another random 7, then another random 5.” Poof! Instant haiku, right? No, we get things like “Behavior Green Was / Dispensing Crash Consider / Column Feircely Has.” Crap. We can tweek it a little to make something like “Green Ideas Sleep Furiously,” but the point is syntax matters to make the ideas presentable. And the “rules” of syntax baffle me.

So language for me is a puzzle, an intellectual challenge, and one that I relate back to information science a lot. Even though I have a hard time with it.

So al-Qaeda wanted to kidnap Russell Crowe to further the end of “cultural destabilization” by grabbing an American actor. Huh? He’s from New Zealand. And having Michael Moore run amok should create enough trouble from a cultural perspective.

Number One and I heard this in the car while we were driving home from Hebrew School. Naturally, I wondered out loud if al-Qaeda was taking requests. After all, there is Keanu Reeves and Sean Pean. C’mon, the high point for Keanu in films was Bill And Ted’s Excellent Adventure for crying out loud. And Sean’s claim to fame is shacking up with Madonna and defending the honor of Jude Law.

Those two can go right now. I promise I will be destabilized. Honestly.

Actually, if al-Qaeda wants to hit the consumerism of American culture, they would go for the Urban and Hip-Hop stars that the suburban kids love so much. That’s where the money is at and the attention lavished, not Hollywood. I want to see al-Qaeda try and grab somebody like Ja Rule.

How about that? In the ensuing gun battle, who would be left standing? No matter, we would all win. If Ja Rule wins, well, that’s a few less terrorists that we have to worry about. If al-Qaeda manages to get Ja Rule, well, thanks anyway.

I want to see them try to make off with someone like Old Dirty Bastard from the Wu-Tang clan. I give the terrorists two days tops before they come back with him. “Yeah, see, on second thought, he does more damage here.” (I know that ODB died, the point is that at the time of the plot, he wasn’t. Insert a suitable name in lieu of ODB.)

But Number One had a better one. How about Paris Hilton? Not that would be a riot. We could have “The Simple Life: Terrorists.” Paris could dress in a burkha. Work with camels even. I can’t wait for the episode where she trains with the Palestinian police and learns nipple tweaking and superman flying. I won’t even think about the videotapes that will be released.

Yes, Number One is exactly like me.

(Hat tip: IFOC)