Snowflake Activism

So, the Russian government, acting out of a deeply held principle of 'gays are icky', is doing all kinds of things to make the LGBTQQIAAP community upset. Something about the Olympics, and making gay illegal again, and I dunno, frankly. It's not one of my pet issues, so I don't keep up.

First off, let's get real. It's Russia. The Russian government is currently headed up by a guy who used to be an enforcer for the KGB. Expecting them to act like college-educated American liberals think everyone should behave strikes me as borderline retarded. I was also in the military back when we spent a lot of times worrying about the Red Hordes rolling through the Fulda Gap and laying waste to the poor Western Europeans. In general, I'm not conditioned to think of Russians as great defenders of human rights for all, and so far, they've borne this view out.

So, anyways, in an attempt to make the Russian government stop hatin' on the homos, a vocal subset of the American LGBTQQIAAPOMGWTFBBQ community is boycotting all things Russian, including Russian vodka like that made by our good friends* at Stolichnaya. Leaving aside the fact that the Stoli sold here in the States comes out of Latvia, the whole thing is kind of incoherent to me. I'm not sure what the point is.

I mean, they can't seriously expect whoever runs Stoli in Russia to publicly come out against the government, can they? I guess the example of Mikhail Khodorkovsky is lost on these people. If you'd like to live a long happy life unencumbered by little things like prisons, you don't publicly challenge the state in Russia. Expecting other people to go to jail for you is a bit presumptuous, I think, especially since nobody here seems inclined to go to Russia and get arrested over the issue.

Honestly, the whole thing stinks of the current generation of slacktivism. Don't figure out an action or a plan likely to cause the change you want to see in the world, do something easy. In this case, drink Skyy or Absolut or Ketel One when you're out getting hammered instead of Stoli or White Gold. Then you can fool yourself into thinking you're doing something about the problem! You're aware! You're fighting the man!

Truth be told, you're still just sitting in a bar getting drunk. The Russian government doesn't give a shit what you drink, and doesn't really care if whichever conglomerate that currently owns Stoli makes a little less money. So, what exactly have you done but make yourself feel better? I sure don't think you've helped anybody in Russia out.

As a final note, actions like this have a long history of not doing a damn thing to influence governments. If SPI Group was doing something objectionable, a boycott is the perfect way to get SPI Group to change behaviors. But boycotting companies to make a government change? It doesn't work so well. Hell, we've boycotted the entire country of Cuba for longer than I've been alive and guess what? The government there is still a bunch of communists with an atrocious human rights record.

But hey, not drinking Stoli makes people feel better and makes them feel like they're doing something. And I am, after all, a libertarian, so, by all means, encourage it! Get your slacktivism on! Just don't be real surprised when your grand master plan of boycotting Latvian vodka doesn't lead to any substantive change in Russia's halls of power.

An addendum: the way to influence Russia through economics is to fuck with their oil and gas exports or their arms exports. Unless you're in the market for a few million cubic feet of natural gas or a dozen or so Sukhois, you're not in a position to matter.

*We have lots of Stoli at YPS Manor, sweetie darling.

New Year, Old Problems

So, in our first entry for SSDY, here's a lovely article on the only legal gun store in Mexico. I'm sure the WaPo would love for me too draw a different conclusion about the whole mess, but they spoiled it at the end with the following:

Alberto Islas, a security expert based in Mexico, said it is common knowledge that the easiest way for the average citizen to buy a gun is to ask a friendly local police officer.

"The cop will bring it to your house and show you how to load it," Islas said. "Of course, it is technically illegal."

One legal gun store, but the cops are dealing guns illegally? Yeah, those US gun laws are really the problem, guys.

The Right Choice

I'm sure most everyone remembers the cavalcade of criticism when Barack Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize last year. In fact, we participated in it ourselves. Our opinion that the prize is a sort of sick joke has not changed much.

However, I find myself agreeing with Nick Gillespie that this year's choice for the prize plays up just what a bad joke last year's award was. Liu Xiaobo is out there trying to reform a government that has proven capable of slaughtering thousands engaged in non-violent protest. What he's doing takes far more courage than anything our current president has ever done.

Here's the statement he made upon being sentenced to 11 years in jail for "subversion of the state". Personally, it's a hell of lot more inspiring than anything the n00b ever said.

Metric Football Finale

You may have noticed a distinct lack of World Cup blogging around here. That's because no one at YPS can be bothered to pay any attention to metric football. Neither can LabRat, but she's funnier than us on the subject:

World Cup: world’s most boring sport being totally ruined by world’s most irritating local tradition. World’s tallest midget protests.

We also give big props to anyone who uses the phrase "world's tallest midget", a frequently used idiom around the Manor. Let this be the final word on the subject until the World Cup rolls around again.

Unless, of course, the US manages to win the damn thing, in which case we will feel obligated to post something about Team America in between paroxysms of laughter.

Random Monday Thoughts

Afghanistan is a failure of the Westphalian system. Not in the usual sense of a failed nation state, but a failure in trying to impose an alien paradigm on a populace which is having none of it. Much of Africa has the same issue.

Walmart is starting to have ammo back in stock sporadically. Even with tax, I can get .45 ACP cheaper at Walmart than I can buying in bulk.

I found out today I need a tux by Friday. I hate it when that happens. But I'm still better off than J, who has to figure out what to wear. Formal wear is so much simpler for guys.

Facebook got a lot more pleasant once I figured out how to block applications. I don't give a shit about Mafia Wars, Farmville, or any of the rest of the nonsense.

Joe Klein is a dipshit who wouldn't know sedition if someone slapped him in the jaw with the definition.

As long as we're on sedition, how does the Smith Act square up with a document that says throwing off a despotic government is not only a right but a duty?

I realize it'll happen when hell freezes over, but I'd like it if either Microsoft or Apple started including FLAC support in their products.

WANT.

On that note, I'm out and home for a drink, some dinner, and tux shopping.

Thoughts On Disaster

So, once again, the US military is called upon to be among the first responders to an emergency elsewhere in the world. This annoys some of my conservative and libertarian acquaintances. The general feeling is the US military should be not be acting as a kind of global "Meals on Wheels". While I sympathize with this viewpoint, there's one glaring problem with it.

There are very few organizations that can mobilize as quickly and effectively as the US military. If you want to put boots on the ground fast, anywhere in the world, and have the people there with enough equipment and support structure to do any good, you really don't have a lot of choices.

Let's look at what diaster relief really takes. First off, you need to transport a sizable amount of people and material to wherever your disaster might be. Once they get there, you need them to have a plan, some organizational structure to carry it out, and the communications capability to coordinate all this activity. In the middle of all this activity, you also have to make sure your people have site security, food, water, toilets, and a place to sleep. Keep in mind all of this capability, once you leave an industrialized 1st world society, has to come in with you since there isn't going to be any of the stuff where you're going. Now, imagine you want all these things to happen in less than 72 hours.

I'm not aware of any private organizations who have the resources to do this on the scale that's necessary when a disaster like the Haitian earthquake hits. Frankly, I'm not sure any other country has the military capability, either. If you want to put people and equipment anywhere in the world starting from scratch and have the capability to help other people, you need the US military. We're the only game in town. Yeah, it's not the core competency of the military. The main job is still kill people and break things. But in order to do the killing and breaking, we've had to get good at the logistics and C3. It's a nice bonus that can be put to use.

Now, I have some sympathy for the argument saying it's not our responsibility and we shouldn't spend the resources. I understand that point of view completely, and 99 times out of 100 I'll endorse it. Shit, two days ago I was bitching about coerced charity. So why is this different? Because there isn't anybody else. Those people need help, and they need it now, not in 2 weeks or a month or whenever the international aid bureaucracies can get off the dime and get moving. If there was any NGO that could do what needs to be done, I'd point you at them and say donate. In the absence of said NGO, somebdoy needs to step up, and if it isn't America, it won't be anybody. My friends who tell me we have no obligation to help are absolutely correct, just as you are under no obligation to help when you see someone drowning. However, if you have the capability to help and you don't, you're a sonofabitch.

Having said all that, I will also say that the military role in cases like Haiti should be as a stopgap. Get in there, get on the ground and get things organized so the nice folks at International Red Cross or Caritas or OxFam can show up and start getting to work. Once that happens, the military should pull out and regroup and get back to their real jobs.

Similar thoughts can be found over here.

Intentions Are Key

So, the n00b won the Nobel Peace Prize for... for... wait, what the fuck? According to the Swedes, it's

for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples

Seriously? Are you people on crack? He hasn't accomplished a bloody thing. Oh, wait, he didn't have to according to the committee. He got a Nobel for effort. When I was but a lower-case t, the prize for effort meant you were completely useless, but tried real hard. Are they going to apply this standard to the other prizes? Because, really, won't that make the prize way more inclusive? Maybe Pons and Fleischmann can get a Physics prize now, since they tried really, really hard to make cold fusion work. And they tried even harder to make people think they had. Surely that level of effort deserves some kind of reward.

For most of us, 1994 marks the nadir of the Nobel Peace Prize. When you hand out a prize for peace to a guy simply because he agrees, in theory but not in practice, to stop slaughtering people to achieve his goals, you've pretty much rendered it meaningless. I could also point out 1981 as a fail point, when they handed it to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. One could make the argument the completely ineffectual work the UNHCR has done with regards to the Palestinians has done more to prolong conflict in the Middle East than any other single organization.

Seriously, aside from the fact they give out big cash, why does anyone care about this award anymore? It's a sick joke.

UPDATE: I am allied with the GOP and terrorists! Or so says the head donk:

"The Republican Party has thrown in its lot with the terrorists - the Taliban and Hamas this morning - in criticizing the President for receiving the Nobel Peace prize,"

The jokes write themselves. Or run political parties. Whichever.

Non-Interference

So, Leisure Suit Larry who just stole the election in Iran is running around telling everybody who will listen the US is interfering in the electoral process over there. Ahmadinejad apparently doesn't pay attention to his surroundings. It's been a long time since we were any good at the subtle approach. We've pretty much given the whole coup d'etat deal away in favor of a straight up punitive expedition.

In other words, you dumb bastard, when the JDAMs are taking the building down around your ears, we're interfering. Until then, not so much.

Odd

Did you know that a Google search for scary long necked canadian mutant doesn't return any references to Celine Dion in the first 3 pages?

At least not until this page gets indexed, I suppose.

Anyhow, I've been contemplating parallels in history. We currently have an elected President who has decided to subvert the bankruptcy process, long established in law, in order to confer extra-legal favors on his chosen cronies. So does this mean we're right about at the point where Julius Ceasar was appointed perpetual dictator? Or closer to the grant of powers to Octavian by the Senate? I am referring to events which can be considered the end of the Roman Republic and the birth of the Empire.

In any event, we are watching an attempt to change the country from a government of laws to a government of men. More depressingly, it looks like it might work.

Stop Writing Checks

Back a few years ago, when welfare reform was a hot-button issue, I had a friend who proposed the simplest welfare reform imaginable: stop giving people welfare checks. His theory was that those who didn't really need welfare would do something, and alternative approaches would pick up the rest. While I support the idea in theory, the practical aspects of it disturbed me. It always seemed you would need some time to transition.

Anyhow, someone who is far more familiar with the world's biggest welfare basket case than I has come to a similar conclusion. The interview is long and detailed, and she makes a lot of sense. Therefore, there's no hope in hell of it ever happening.

Although, given budgetary constraints among the G20 brought on by the crappy economy, now is the perfect time to try to convince people to quit giving money they don't have to corrupt third-world politicians.

All Better Now

Because apologies fix everything, right?

I'm gonna lump Duch in with Bobby McNamara. It's great that you're sorry and you feel bad now that you're an old man. That doesn't do shit for the thousands of people you're responsible for killing. If you're really sorry, do something to make it right. I'm not sure what you do to make things right when your body count is that high, but something would be nice. Moving on with your life and apologizing when hauled into court doesn't strike me as all that much.

Failing that, you could always just suck on a bullet. That works for me, too.

Worldwide Pee

From the fine people at passive-aggressive notes, I learn the personnel issues we face in my factory are faced by factories the world over. Seriously, is it so hard to walk to the damn restroom?

No Good Deed

A trifecta of news from or about Myanmar.

Given the amount possible, it appears a trickle of aid is flowing into Myanmar.

This is apparently deliberate on the part of the current government of Myanmar.

No matter what happens, the rest of the world will probably blame the US for it.

This concludes our disaster blogging for the remainder of the week. Other news will have to come from people that have a greater investment in the issue, as I have almost none.