perfidy

Now this is just weird. The US military is using specially trained and equipped dolphins to locate mines in the Persian Gulf.

I feel two ways about this.

1. THIS IS SO DAMN COOL I CAN'T EVEN BELIEVE IT. This reaction is mainly the result of this story by William Gibson, which features a dolphin who is modified and trained by the army to sniff out mines, addicted to smack for the sake of incentive, and then let go to seed as a junkie war veteran entertaining kids from his swim tank in a run-down carnival. Awesome story. The future is here.

2. OH MY GOD WHAT THE HELL HAVE WE BECOME? We're a volunteer army. Humans can volunteer. Flipper can't. The argument could be made that these dolphins are in a similar position to draft animals in wars before 1950, but something about this development strikes me as somehow more inhumane and profoundly creepy.

Mike, your description of American empire, as it were, as driven by corporations strikes me as apt. Two associations come to mind: Emily Rosenberg's theis of US diplomacy in the Wilson era being driven and facilitated by corporate interests, and the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation, whizzing through the galaxy, artificially accelerating civilizations' development in order to cultivate new markets.

In fact, I think one of the major, major, problems that other nations have with us is not that we act imperialistically, but rather that through successful marketing and plain appeal, US products and corporations transform indigenous ways of life.

This is the root of our hegemony, not our military might.

However, even though this force allows us the latitude to act that we currently enjoy, the transformations societies go through when buying US products or harboring US companies are not without severe drawbacks. These drawbacks can, of course, breed resentment. For examples, see the way Coca-Cola is damn tasty and safer than the water, but it wrecks your teeth. Or the debacle over Nestle's marketing of baby formula in Latin America, claming it was all a baby needed, nutrition-wise. Or how DOW mis-handled the Bhopal disaster horribly. Let's not forget the Nike shops in Thailand Mike mentioned, whose employees, thought they often make good money, still can't afford the Nikes they spend all day making. Good corporate policy rarely makes for good foreign policy, yet it is the main shaper of the US' activities and perceptions abroad.

Part of what Islamic terrorists rail against is the inexorability of this force, and it is part of the reason behind their attempts at judging us as "a bunch of mindless jerks who will be the first against the wall when the revolution comes."

Well, I guess we know where The Onion stands on this war thingy.

The Boston Globe reports that "[a] study released Monday showed that 10 of the schools in this week's round of 16 have failed to graduate even half of their players in recent years."

I'd like to open up discussion about the role of college atheletics in education. Obviously, top-shelf college atheletes are not really "amateurs" by any stretch of the imagination, no matter what the NCAA might claim. I've seen it argued recently (sorry-- no link!) that student atheletes should get credit for their participation in sports, as the time devoted to atheletics takes the place of academics in their education-- this would then make them true 'student atheletes'. I've also seen it argued that NCAA schools should be able to pay their players to compensate for the time that sports monopolizes from their schedule. Many argue that student atheletes deserve extra consideration because winning teams bring loads of money into universities. What do you lot think? Or do you not care?

From Yahoo News: "The Justice Department lifted a requirement Monday that the FBI ensure the accuracy and timeliness of information about criminals and crime victims before adding it to the country's most comprehensive law enforcement database."

Well, that's just great. Hypothetically, some asshat gives his name as "Johnny Two-Cents" to the Effa Bee Eye, and suddenly I'm a criminal. Way to go, DoJ. Would you like a crack at those pesky habeas corpus laws next? Oh, wait...

[update: from the world's tiniest violin department] I should point out that, according to the story, the accuracy rule has been lifted due to FBI claims that they can no longer manage the massive flow of information they now have coming in. Oh, forgive me if I'm not overly sympathetic.

Buckethead, my typo is duly noted, and my post on McCain now reflects his stance for the war. Apologies. I'm working on a long piece about the portrayal by the internet punditocracy (viz. The Emperor Misha in your post below) of the anti-war movement as uniformly stupid, and it's tainting the other things I write.

The best argument I can come up with on that front is, if I'm agin' it, and Windy City Mike is agin' it, does that mean that we too are puking, filthy, Stalinist, anti-Bush, ill-informed, blinkered, one-worlder, giant-puppet weilding, anti-Capitalists? Um.... I doubt it.

Granted, puke-ins, shit-ins, giant puppet heads, ANSWER, and the rest of the usual suspects cheapen the debate incredibly, but so do folks who suggest that, now that the war is on, that the unitarians, college students, and patriots in the anti-war crowd are somehow committing treason and providing aid and comfort to the enemy by exercising our right to dissent and (for some) gather peacably. More on this later.

From the Christian Science Monitor:

The Franco-American dispute falling out over the best approach way to disarming Iraq take away Iraq's weapons has resulted in perhaps the highest level of anti-French feeling in the United States Lands since 1763. 

A French-owned hotel innkeeping firm, Accor, has taken down the tricolor three-hued flag. In the House of Representatives Burghers, the chairman leader of the Committee Body on Administration Running Things has renamed named anew French fries "freedom fries" and French toast "freedom toast" in House restaurants eating rooms. 

To which the question asking arises: Why stop with Evian, Total gasoline, and the Concorde (just only the Air France flights)? Let's get to the heart of the matter thing: A huge big percentage of the words in modern today's English are of - gasp! - French origin beginnings. What if, as a result of the current diplomatic dispute today's falling out between lands, the French demand ask for their words back? We could all be linguistic hostages captives. 

It is time for English-speaking peoples folk to throw off this cultural imperialism lording-it-over-others and declare say our linguistic freedom. It is time to purify clean the English language tongue. It will take some sacrifices hardship on everyone's part to get used to the new parlance speech. But think of the satisfaction warm feeling inside on the day we are all able to can all stare the Académie Française in the eye and say without fear of reprisal injury: "Sumer is icumen in...."

Just think how hard this would be to do with Arabic. 
 

Informal empire, or hegemony, if you will, is maintained not as much through government (if at all) but through corporations. American informal empire/hegemony is achieved through American corporate enterprise.

1) Stupendous Idiocy
Yeah, pretty naive alright. As someone of middle eastern descent myself, if only 25%, I can still clearly state that there are plenty of middle easterners, just like American white folks, who are none too fond of people of sub-Saharan West African descent. That is intentionally opaque.

2) Republicanism
Okay, fine, but we should move toward as democratic a government as possible. Is this a Clinton dig? If so, bear in mind, he was the best Republican president since Eisenhower.

3) Expectations
Okay, more media than guv'ment. Fair enough.

4) Patience
Bring your A game on that one. You're in my house ... yo. Ain't nuttin but a H thang.

The McCain quote that Johno posted below exactly describes my views on the current and historical (well, last century, anyway) uses of American power, and why we aren't an empire. I always liked McCain, and even my liberal mom said she would have voted for him in 2000 had he been the Republican candidate. But I don't remember him coming out against military action in Iraq, and the article would seem to suggest that he supports it.