Octopodial Chrome

On this anniversary of our independence, you might take a moment to consider how fortunate we were in our Founders. Unlike so many other revolutionaries, they didn’t trust in man’s good nature, but rather his baseness; they formed a government which was meant to control itself.

Smart guys.

I couldn’t put it any better myself.

A 10-year-old girl in Huntington Beach, Cali., was dying of cancer but wanted to stay alive long enough to see Up. By the time it came out, she was unable to leave her home—so Pixar sent a special DVD of the film to her, hand-carried by an employee with a bag of stuffed animals, a movie poster, a scrap book from the film and stories about the movie. She died a few hours after seeing it.

A manicurist from Washington, DC sold her car and her home in order to build a school in her native village in Ethiopia. Not only that, she reserved a third of her salary and all of her tips for the project. Part of her inspiration came from the fact that a girl there was eaten by a hyena on the three-hour walk home from the then-nearest school.

This is an excellent example of the power of private charity. Bravo for her!

I was reading an article about the digital television changeover and noticed something a bit disturbing: they set up a call centre for folks having problems; the average overall wait time at the call centre was 8.4 minutes but the average overall wait time for Spanish-speaking callers was 1.8 minutes. I’m having a little bit of difficulty figuring out why folks who speak our native tongue have to wait 4 2/3 times longer than those who don’t. Why didn’t the call centre more accurately predict the distribution of callers it would get and arrange so that all languages would get equal service? For that matter, wouldn’t it make sense to ensure better service for English-speakers, given that English is our language?

When I was in Germany, I expected to wait longer if I wanted English service; when I was in India, I expected the same. Why are we privileging people who can’t even speak our language?

Today is Oak Apple Day, marking the restoration of King Charles II to the throne of Great Britain and Ireland and the elimination of the abominable Puritan tyranny in 1660. That was, for those not keeping count, 53 years after the founding of my home state—and thus it’s as Virginian a holiday as Jackson Lee Day.

I’m thirty-one years old now…oddly enough, I don’t feel the slightest bit different. Heh:-)

A birthday party was invaded by two men—fortunately one of the students at the party had a handgun in his backpack. He drove off the assailants, mortally wounding one of them.

In Britain 46% of families have only one child. This is a truly disturbing development, not just for demographics but for the moral and ethical development of future British subjects. I know from my own experience as an only child and as the oldest of four just how important it is to have siblings (and not just one: there’s a clear difference between those who only had a single brother or sister and those with several). You’re forced to learn how to tolerate others; you’re forced to learn that you’re not the centre of the universe; you’re forced to deal with your parents not always paying attention to you. These are all Good Things.

Plus, of course, there’s nothing better as an adult than spending time with one’s siblings.

I spent the past weekend in Telluride, staying at the nicest home I’ve ever been in ever. It’s owned by some real estate tycoon from Florida; my buddy Martin’s sister is friends with the woman who designed the interior of his mansion in Telluride Mountain Village, and he liked her work enough to let her use the house. To use it for free. A house which normally goes on the market for a max of $12,500 a night. This is the sort of place that some of the bigger celebrities stay at, and we were there.

It was nice, very nice. Really nice. Really incredibly nice.

To start off with, it’s huge (17,300 sq. foot interior, 3,000 sq. foot exterior, over an acre lot). It’s surprisingly cool to just have space for stuff. And all that space is definitely full of stuff: there’s a game room with pool and poker and backgammon tables; there’s a grotto with two pools and a waterfall; there’s a widescreen TV in every bedroom and most other rooms (complete with a library of thousands of DVDs); there’s even a stocked wine cellar. The kitchen is enormous, with four ovens. Oh, there’s also a private theatre in the basement with an excellent sound system (I watched Top Gun).

This place is so large that the kids could be in one end of the house playing in the grotto while the rest of us were lounging in the den listening to classic rock and no-one was bothered in one direction or another.

I have to say that the interior designer was brilliant: the house is extremely attractive and does a pretty good job of capturing the feel of a turn-of-the-twentieth-century park lodge, which was the owner’s intention.

All in all, it was one of the most fun, most luxurious weekends I’ve ever spent. I want to do it again this weekend!

Well, today is a black today in Colorado: the Rocky Mountain News is shutting down. Of Denver’s two daily newspapers, they were the oldest and best. When we moved here fifteen years ago, they were always the better, more intelligent, more thorough, more journalistic paper.

It’s a pity no-one could have bought them at a firesale. It’s a pity they couldn’t win the news war with the Denver Post. It’s a pity that they couldn’t have continued online. Farewell!

Switzerland’s socialists are trying to remove the right to store one’s military firearm at home. Two years ago they forbade the storage of military ammunition at home.

Seventy years ago the Swiss were able to keep Hitler’s war machine at bay (Fight to your last cartridge, then fight with your bayonets. No surrender. Fight to the death. —Gen. Henri Guisan); today they have turned into something far less fearsome.

One of the milestones in one’s path towards old age is this: hearing a grand old song from one’s youth turned into Muzak. Well, I just heard a smooth jazzy rendition of Boyz II Men’s End of the Road.

May I start belting my pants over my pecs now?

A week ago Father George Paulson passed away. He was the first parish priest I remember; he was the man who—teaching a Biblical Greek class—managed to convert my parents (and hence me & my brothers too) to Orthodox Christianity.

Fr. Paulson ran a very tight altar (he was the first Greek Orthodox chaplain in the military and retired as a captain): what with him, Dad (also former a naval officer) and Fr. Bartz (then and now a naval chaplain) we altar boys were squared away. One snap of the fingers from any of the three of them and all of us would settle down and snap to attention. There was a sequence of hand signals (invisible to the congregation) which indicated to us what we should be doing. He even set little plastic buttons (normally used for the bottoms of chair or table legs) into the solea (the floor in front of the icon screen) indicating where each altar boy should stand in order that we’d be lined up evenly. To this day, no-one who served on Father’s altar can abide sloppy acolyte-work—and I’m pretty sure any one of us could stand in and serve once more, so well-drilled were we.

Father was one of the first priests to celebrate the Liturgy in English, a practise which is now fairly well-accepted. That need to translate all the services into English is, I believe, what got Dad involved in building service books (a work which appears will be his own legacy). He also taught Dad how to sing & chant in the Byzantine style. Most importantly, Father Paulson encouraged and taught Dad in his path towards ordination, first as a deacon and later as a priest.

Here’s Father’s obituary:

Virginia Beach—The Rev. Father George I. Paulson, surrounded by his family and loved ones, fell asleep in the Lord in his home Jan. 5, 2009. He was born in Springfield, Mass., July 31, 1918, the son of Ignatius and Panorea Pavloglou. After his marriage to his beloved wife, Evangeline, June 11, 1944, Father Paulson was ordained into the Holy Priesthood Aug. 9, 1944.

After graduating from Bay Path Business College in 1935, Father Paulson attended Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology, graduating in 1944. Always in pursuit of higher education, he also attended the University of Pennsylvania, George Williams College and Coastal Carolina Community College. In 1974, Father Paulson received a master’s degree in education from Boston University. In 1993, at the age of 75, he received a Doctorate in Ministry conferred upon him by Boston University.

Father Paulson’s ministry in the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese began in 1944 at St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church in Tacoma, Wash. He was transferred to the Holy Trinity Cathedral in San Francisco in 1949. In 1952, Father Paulson was chosen by the Archbishop to become the first Greek Orthodox chaplain in the history of the U.S. military. During his 28 years of active service in the U.S. Navy, he attained the rank of captain and earned numerous awards and commendations.

Father Paulson’s naval career was highlighted by his organization and direction of the Leadership School. In response to the Navy and Marine Corps’ need to eradicate lingering racial tension among service personnel following the Vietnam War, Capt. Paulson developed the curriculum for the Leadership School. More than 15,000 Marines and sailors attended this school. A Navy Commendation Medal was awarded to him by the secretary of the Navy for this remarkable achievement. Father Paulson also earned the Navy Unit Commendation, the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry, a Combat Action Ribbon and decorations for National Defense Service, Armed Forces Expeditionary, Vietnam Service and the Republic of Vietnam Campaign. Father Paulson was commissioned by Saint Leo University to introduce the religious studies degree program in the Norfolk and Virginia Beach areas. He served as chairman of both the Psychology and Theology departments at Saint Leo and established a scholarship that is awarded annually to a deserving Saint Leo student. Father Paulson was a dynamic and illustrious educator whose teaching career culminated in a designation of full professor status at Saint Leo University.

Early in his career, as a direct result of his military service, Father Paulson developed a strong belief that “Jesus Christ belongs to all of us.” He felt that the most effective way for him to bring Christ to the people was to offer Greek Orthodox services in the United States in the language of the people, English. Utilizing this philosophy, St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church was established in Virginia Beach in 1980. Father Paulson served as pastor of St. Nicholas until his retirement in 2004 at the age of 85.

Father Paulson greatly valued the importance of family. His beloved Evangeline preceded his passing July 19, 2003, after 60 years of blissful marriage. He is survived by his sons, Ned and his wife Susan, Louis and his wife Jeannette, Bill and his wife Meg and George Jr. and his wife Gina. Father George and Evangeline were deeply devoted grandparents to their nine grandchildren, George, Carl, Elias, John, Matthew, Billy, Leah, Jon and Chris. They were also loving great-grandparents to their eight great-grandchildren, Madison, Alex, George, Max, Henry, Anastasia, Louis and Cathy. Father Paulson is survived by his brother, Vasilios Pavloglou and was predeceased by his brother, Peter Paulson. The family would like to extend a very special thank you to the warm-hearted ladies, Minnie Turner and Daisy Stephenson, who cared for Father Paulson for his last three years. Their love and devotion to Father George will forever be appreciated.

I was unable to attend his funeral on Saturday (I had to drill), but my parents were. Αιωνία η μνήμη—May his memory be eternal.

Today is Bill of Rights Day, the day in which we celebrate the guarantees of liberty in our federal Constitution. In Federalist 84, Alexander Hamilton argued that listing some rights and not others would lead to protection for only those listed and not the unlisted. He was, of course, correct: despite the the Ninth and Tenth Amendments, there is no right which is not safe when the legislature is in session.

Still, the Bill is a great document, listing a few of the fundamental rights of a free people: to practise one’s religion; to speak; to publish; to assemble peacefully (this one gets stomped on all the time nowadays); to petition the State; to own and carry arms (this one is practically a dead letter across the entire United States); to be secure in one’s property (yeah, quartering troops seems a pretty minor deal now, but the principle is important; moreover the protections of the Fifth Amendment with regard to property have been severely curtailed); to be safe from unwarranted and unreasonable searches and seizures (this one has been gone by the wayside since Prohibition); to indictment and trial by a jury of one’s peers (this one has been watered down quite a bit); to not bear witness against oneself (I’d go further and argue that no-one should be compelled to give testimony against anyone else either); to be confronted by the witnesses against one (this one too has been curtailed, to our great shame); to compel witnesses to testify in one’s favour; to be assisted by a lawyer in court and to non-excessive bails, fines and punishments (this one is all-too-often misinterpreted). This is not a bad list to start with, although I would add others. Tellingly, I wouldn’t eliminate any of them. It’s a pity that my fellow countrymen, our legislatures and our courts disagree and have removed or weakened one after another.

And then there are the Ninth and Tenth Amendments: The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people and The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people. Well, we see how well that worked out.

Here’s a thought: this year, why not work with the Bill of Rights, rather than against it?

Some time ago I predicted that forcing soldiers and Marines in Afghanistan to shave their beards would hinder our efforts to pacify that country (imagine, if you will, the trouble of ruling America with lisping legions in hotpants). Well, I was right: the Afghans do not respect men who look like boys.

Frankly, I think that the insistence on beardlessness is a bit strange. Hair on one’s face is no more a discipline issue than hair on one’s head: just slap some regulations on it, require neat military grooming and get on with life.

James S. Robbins has a good article on the aftermath of the Bombay attacks. I think he’s on to something. As to how to prevent such events in the future—I’m unconvinced that’s the right model. Sure, we should have some folks tasked with prevention, but they can’t stop every attempt. It’s far better to focus on appropriate means of response.

Imagine, say, that every able-bodied guest at the Oberoi had a weapon and military training…

Today is Veteran’s Day, once known as Armistice Day to celebrate the armistice which ended the Great War. Ninety years ago today the shooting stopped, although it would be some time before the final peace treaty was signed. Almost a decade ago I had the privilege of going to Europe and touring many of the battlefields of the Western Front; it was a lot of fun and quite literally awesome. I think Philip Larkin’s MCMXIV expresses it pretty well: the world of 1914 was utterly different from the world of 1918. In a way, the Great War was the end of Western civilisation; we're just playing in the ruin our great-grandparents made of their patrimony.

In London today three surviving veterans laid wreaths; in America there is only one surviving veteran of the war. At least two of my great-grandfathers served in it; my dad’s dad’s father was an artillery officer and I believe my mom’s mom’s father was in the cavalry.

Today is the 233rd birthday of the United States Marine Corps, the pre-eminent naval infantry in the world. Founded in a bar, it is larger than the British Army and has had in its ranks such notables as John Philip Sousa, James Carville, Gene Hackman and Drew Carey—and my youngest brother. Joe Carter reflects on the day. Semper fi!

Well, it looks like America will have her first half-black president. This is good news in itself; within living memory it would have been impossible for him to vote in many states and now he's president. We've come a long way indeed. My grandmother let her black neighbour use her washing machine because the local laundromat wouldn't let coloured folks in (only they didn't use a nice word like coloured), and now a majority of the electorate have put a black man in the White House. Perhaps this will be the end of racial paranoia, which would be an excellent development. Regardless, it's a nice indication that one of our great national sins is well and truly in the past.

If Obama carries out his promise to allow the states to administer medical-marijuana programmes, that would be a good thing for sick people and for the Republic.

I hope that the Right doesn't get Obama Derangement Syndrome like the Left got Bush Derangement Syndrome and the Right got Clinton Derangement Syndrome.

I hope that he governs wisely and well; if he does then our nation will prosper.

Over the past year, motorcycle crashes have killed more Marines than has combat. Both the Marine Corps & the Navy have seen a jump in motorcycling deaths; I wonder what’s up. Is it a general thing—are motorcycling deaths among the wider population going up (perhaps as a result of more motorcycling newbies taking it up to save on gas)—or is it particular to the military? I guess only further research will tell.

Today is Navy Day, a holiday first celebrated in 1922 and last observed in 1949. Today Navy Birthday---two weeks prior to Navy Day--is observed in its stead.

On a more personal note, this evening after work I went downtown in Denver and was commissioned an ensign in the United States Navy Reserve. It's the culmination of just over two years of effort and the beginning of a new chapter in my life. My (part-time) naval career is going to be challenging, but I believe it will be very rewarding as well.

Why did I join? That's a complex question, but it boils down to three factors: I think I should, I think I'll be good at it and I think I'll enjoy it. There's a war on, and I believe that my talents can be of use. And while it'll be a lot of work, I expect it will be frequently interesting & often fun.

I've had a lot of fun updating this blog over the last five years and change; it's been a fun way to jot down my thoughts on subjects I find interesting, including politics, national security and foreign relations. It's been a pretty frank outlet for, as my tagline reads, stuff that made sense at the time. That will naturally need to change from here forward; observant readers may have noticed that for quite awhile now I've been almost silent on a lot of issues. That will continue; in addition as I can find time I will be working my way through the archives, redacting & deleting as appropriate. Meanwhile, I should note that nothing in this blog---past,present or future---is the opinion of the Navy, the Department of Defense or the government of the United States.

I apologise for the infrequent updates, but I daresay that with my new workload they'll be even fewer and far between. That's the way it goes.

Stephen Fry—whom some of my readers may remember for his role as the gentleman’s gentleman Jeeves—has recorded a video congratulating the GNU Project on turning 25.

I can’t say that it’s very surprising, but incenese has been linked to nasal, oral, throat and lung cancers. I suppose soon only those over 18 will be allowed to buy it; some time after that it will be illegal to burn it in a public place. Then it will be illegal to burn around minors.

Or, just possibly, Western civilisation will get its collective head together and learn that it really doesn’t matter.