We're the Military and Airpower Guys of Jonah Goldberg of National Review Online + a stray we found wandering around looking lost. All original material JHD, BHD, JR, WT, and KA 2003-2007 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2006/09/rys_got_a_beef_and_in_praise_of_brothers.html Sun, 03 Aug 2008 16:52:02 Z Movable Type 4.12 en Copyright 2008 http://www.rssboard.org/rss-specification (Endless post warning. You've been warned.) As we’re finding out around here, a brother’s love is a wondrous thing. It’s no secret that I like Thomas Barnett and his work. I think he’s got a lot of the solutions to the current problems and some of the mid-term ones too in his Felix the Cat Bag of Tricks. I get the guy. I get what he says and why he says them. I get his motivations for his philosophy---as would Alan McLeod (definitely) and Trias (kinda sorta), but not Jack Grant (who would question it on many levels given what... http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2006/09/rys_got_a_beef_and_in_praise_of_brothers.html http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2006/09/rys_got_a_beef_and_in_praise_of_brothers.html Tue, 19 Sep 2006 06:06:25 -0600 Ry, Look, you don't need MY approval. You do just fine ...really. Way better than I've done for a long while. As for the so-called rantmeister crap, well I've got a lot of other things to focus my ire on lately--and to keep me way too busy. I can't even keep my own site up to date worth spit, let alone come here and aggravate John. Anyway, this week has been grueling. Wanna know anything about exchange rate risk in international transactions? If you do, get a book, 'cause I can't seem to get my braincells to give a damn about it, no matter how many times I reread the stuff. I guess I'm not cut out to be an economist or a financial wonk... As if THAT was ever a thing that crossed my mind. Bleh! Anyway, what you wrote was god if for no other reason than it was sincere. A lot of more polished stuff is crap because it doesn't sound sincere. That's part of what I like about your stuff. -- V/R http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2006/09/rys_got_a_beef_and_in_praise_of_brothers.html#comment-50715 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2006/09/rys_got_a_beef_and_in_praise_of_brothers.html#comment-50715 Thu, 21 Sep 2006 11:51:04 -0600 Yeah, but I don't write executive summaries. I just use them when I talk.:0) (snarky bast-turd, grumble, grumble) http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2006/09/rys_got_a_beef_and_in_praise_of_brothers.html#comment-50690 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2006/09/rys_got_a_beef_and_in_praise_of_brothers.html#comment-50690 Wed, 20 Sep 2006 17:43:24 -0600 But Ry 'Neocon' *is* an Executive Summary :) http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2006/09/rys_got_a_beef_and_in_praise_of_brothers.html#comment-50682 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2006/09/rys_got_a_beef_and_in_praise_of_brothers.html#comment-50682 Wed, 20 Sep 2006 14:57:06 -0600 Eact graph to undergrads lead to a lot of things falling into place for me. It's an analogy I like to use a lot. ]]> http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2006/09/rys_got_a_beef_and_in_praise_of_brothers.html#comment-50645 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2006/09/rys_got_a_beef_and_in_praise_of_brothers.html#comment-50645 Tue, 19 Sep 2006 19:53:53 -0600 Don't knock the Levi's and McDonald's. To the world, these are the figurative representations of the "streets paved with gold". This is a sign of our prosperity and ability. It may seem trivial or shallow, particularly to those of us who have lived with them for so long and have the luxury of viewing outward signs of prosperity as shallow while philosophizing on the inner or psychological ideology/feelings of "success", but, to a man who plows a field with a lone oxen and a push plow our ancestoral farmers haven't used in almost two centuries, these business are the proverbial gold ring: the ability to leave the plow and feed and clothe your family above subsistence without working yourself to death by time your 40 (better yet,if you are industrious, you can actually be the owner of such a business). We have time to chat on the internet and talk about the Zen of plowing a field of corn on a john deer tractor. The farmer in vietnam or India sees the field to be plowed as another day of subsistent existence. that's why we're called "the land of opportunity". For all the carping about big business and off shoring and things of that nature, Ry makes the point in a round about way: the way to end wars is prosperity. Prosperity does not come at the point of a barrel or through political machinations alone though it requires political stability and security. It requires money and businesses; jobs and opportunities. Viewing these basics of our political and economic structure as inherently evil has always seemed inherently stupid to me. And,it is my personal view that the cold war was not won by Ronald Reagan, nuclear arms, political ideology or all the proxy wars from WWII on but that the Cold War was won by exactly those things that we view as shallow representations of our prosperity: McDonald's and Levis. Throw in some blackmarket Michael Jackson cassettes, cosmetics and a few other items that might make the idealist cringe and you have the recipe for collapsing the Soviet Union. Simply put, at the lowest street level, the lowest worker with rubles to spend, that worker preferred dollars and the products he could buy with it; the USSR could not compete with us economically thus they could not compete politically, socially or militarily. It was really that simple. We have debate endlessly on why the terrorists struck us on 9/11 and what we should have done in response. Why would they strike at innocent civilians and two towers representing our financial success? Was it simply because they saw this financial success as supporting our political and military abilities? When President Bush talks about how the terrorists "hate our freedom", the people on the left don't get it. That's why they continue to insist that he is oversimplifying the issues and that it is about our involvement in Israel or other political or military endeavors and why some on the right tend to see it in terms of our "political" freedom. Every good religious fundamentalists/takfiri knows that the destruction of his way of life is not at point of a barrel or from political agreements: it starts the minute a McDonald's opens; the minute one teenager wears Levi's; the minute some guy is driving his landrover listening to 50 Cent talking on his blue tooth technology cell phone (actually, by then, it's too late and the jihadists is fighting a losing battle). Why do rioting Muslims in the Middle East burn KFC right after they burn the American Flag? Not because it represents our political or military efforts, or because it directly causes a woman to lose her chador/abaya/burkah or a man to forsake Friday call to prayers, but because it represents economic freedom. When a man or woman has economic freedom (ie, freedom from traditional methods of making money and feeding himself and his family), they have the ability, time and resources to gain social, intellectual and political freedom. In closed societies where economic control depends on fuedal tribal allegiances and religious structures, economic freedom is a volcano they can't stop. Further, Islamic religious leaders, organizations, mosques etc are not different than the Roman Catholic church throughout medieval times or even up to and including the French revolution where the French revolutionaries basically destroyed the church and executed many priests along with aristocrats. The Russian Orthodox church did the same thing during the Red Revolution. In short, while these organizations minister to the common man, they tend to support the political or social structure that provides them with power and money, even if that structure is ultimately destructive to the masses they minister to or consistently maintains those masses in ignorance and poverty. In the end, I don't support the military action in either Iraq or Afghanistan as the final solution to the over all war, but see them as necessary to the need for immediate change as well as to attrit military and political ability to wage war in the immediate future. The long term "war" I do not see as never ending military conflict. The long term war includes economic and political actions. Not simply sanctions, but trade agreements and development of business, creations of jobs, etc. bin Laden and everyone of his compatriot groups understands that the war will be long and why the political and, most importantly, economic destruction of the United States is necessary. He knows that their end does not come from an M-16 or daisy cutter bomb, but from an all beef patty on a sesame seed bun. Thus, as long as western businesses are able to, want to and continue to propagate in places like Lahore, Pakistan, they will feel threatened in their way of life and we will be at war (whether it is high or low intensity). A change in foreign policy (that is so generic it is laughable, but people still insist on making such wide reaching statements), the end to our efforts in Iraq, some bizarre change in stance that abandons Israel as an ally or places them in an untenable position, will not end this war. At best it will buy short term good will that has unforseeable destructive consequences for the future. http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2006/09/rys_got_a_beef_and_in_praise_of_brothers.html#comment-50641 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2006/09/rys_got_a_beef_and_in_praise_of_brothers.html#comment-50641 Tue, 19 Sep 2006 16:32:53 -0600 Ry, that was quite good--I AM impressed (and somewhat awed, really). In fact, I am going to share that with my classmates and with a couple of the professors... Who knows, you might just get attention in some lofty places (not as lofty as at Argghhh, of course, but you know)... I can't begin to tell you how close to the bone that one strikes (nor how close it comes to some of the conversations I've had the past few months!) In a word, Nice, very nice. http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2006/09/rys_got_a_beef_and_in_praise_of_brothers.html#comment-50631 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2006/09/rys_got_a_beef_and_in_praise_of_brothers.html#comment-50631 Tue, 19 Sep 2006 14:17:01 -0600 You gotta practice your report writing skills especially the Executive Summary part. I can't say I like labels that much. I even tried labeling myself as a liberal on my first few blog posts and that didn't work all that well. Any queer guy with even the inkling of a conservative thought is supposed to be a paradox which is another example of labels. Maybe it's better Ry just to be you. That's label enough for anyone :P Screw the neocons and neolibs and neonazis punks vamps republicans and democrats and preferably the press as well. You are hardly a conformist no point starting it now is there? There is a kind of socialist view that one should understand a 'wolf' and look at their childhood abuse etc. I agree and if they are too dangerous to go ahead and shoot them anyway. There are plenty of wolves in corporations I have no doubt. Yet people sometimes forget a corporation is really just a collective of people, most of whom are like any other. I have no brother often wondered how they get along. http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2006/09/rys_got_a_beef_and_in_praise_of_brothers.html#comment-50629 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2006/09/rys_got_a_beef_and_in_praise_of_brothers.html#comment-50629 Tue, 19 Sep 2006 13:32:43 -0600 Ry, I'm a little older than you--was in on that first wave of punks in the late '70s-early '80s, but have experienced a lot of the same transitions. I thought Communism was the big answer, workers owning the means of production, equalized income, blabbety blah. I'm happy to say, like you, I've kept my eyes open and paid some attention to why people struggle to leave where they are in the world--risking their very lives to do so--and come to America. The only logical conclusion was to give up the Blame America First stance, and take a good look at what makes America attractive. Not Mcdonald's, not Levis, but the opportunity to make an honest living and be relatively unfettered. Lost some friends over it, but that's the way it goes. I'm still not taking on the neocon label--probably more neoliberal, but as you note, they aren't that far apart. But the point is, I think a lot of our generation, as we've aged past the twenties and then the thirties, have experienced the same growth as you. I find it encouraging. http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2006/09/rys_got_a_beef_and_in_praise_of_brothers.html#comment-50621 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2006/09/rys_got_a_beef_and_in_praise_of_brothers.html#comment-50621 Tue, 19 Sep 2006 08:38:37 -0600 Masochist. http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2006/09/rys_got_a_beef_and_in_praise_of_brothers.html#comment-50617 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2006/09/rys_got_a_beef_and_in_praise_of_brothers.html#comment-50617 Tue, 19 Sep 2006 07:25:42 -0600 Just to clear up one little thing (and show I read the Whole Thing) - my sister is a liberal psychologist who works for an Enormous State University on a contract with the VA studying pain management and providing services in that regard. My brother-in-law is the liberal teacher.... http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2006/09/rys_got_a_beef_and_in_praise_of_brothers.html#comment-50616 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2006/09/rys_got_a_beef_and_in_praise_of_brothers.html#comment-50616 Tue, 19 Sep 2006 06:49:48 -0600