You know, I'm sick of debating.

I consistently try, in various LJ discussions, to use ample empirical evidence, sound arguments, error checking, and to explore all sides of an issue and all the myriad of complex factors that go into it. In response, I usually get ideas that just sound good, personal attacks, bumper sticker slogans, inaccurate talking points, and many fallacies, fired off angrily. I'm really sick of the Special Olympics Lovechild that is the internet debate scene - you can't argue with these people, and most of my good discussions have been over AIM when I talk to the more thoughtful people directly. I'm not going into the details, but suffice to say if you're reading this I added you because I consider you to be in the thoughtful group.

Still, I am easing back on the throttle and ceasing getting into debates, especially as my Army career and other things demand my focus. I will still use LJ to post my film when it is done, of course, but I am now going to focus more on FurAffinity (as 'Akhetnu' my former fur name), as well as @Kraygern on Twitter (no, I won't link my tweets here unless a good number of you actually want me to). I will post the film on those sites as well (or links thereto). From what I have seen, most if not all of you are on one or both of those sites anyway.

As for posting, my tweets will likely be philosophy quotes, important life updates, or social plans and banter with friends, sort of a Taoist 'free and easy wandering' through the forest of cyberspace. My FA involvement will be limited to viewing art, and similar subjects to Twitter for those not on there. No massive 100-comment arguments anywhere on FA or LJ if I can help it.

If I do write anything comprehensive, I will try to focus it on military subjects: strategy, tactics, intelligence, logistics etc., or Chinese philosophy and history. The military subjects will mainly be doctrinal or technological in focus, as opposed to specific real world missions. Expect conjecture, knowledge and fun brainstorming either way, not heated arguments or polemic. In fact, I might even institute rules against such things. I will likely put any of that on both FA and LJ, so don't defriend me just yet.

So kick back, relax, and add me on FA or Twitter if you're there. Feel free to AIM me as well. But right now, I'm drawing down from LJ and redeploying elsewhere.

Songs, movies, TV and comic books do not 'corrupt' children by making them sexual.

That is puberty's job, and it does it much better anyway.

Maybe Army will win this year.

I have doubts.

I posted Flander's Fields last year, so here's something a little more modern, which encapsulates my thoughts:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XWjTXQutf4

("Forgotten Years", by Midnight Oil)

Note: Like all Russian chorals, it's actually a pretty awesome song. Bonus points for the psyop value. o.-.o

I wrote this a couple years back, and I feel it is time to update it.

With the increasing paranoia and suspicion of anyone engaged in eccentric or deviant behavior, coupled with striving toward victimhood for every perceived infringement on their perpetual happiness, five categories have emerged which all people are being shoehorned into:

( Sex offender, Terrorist, Victim, Concerned Parent, Activist.... )
Note that you can be more than one category, but usually 1 or 2 will prevent you from being 3, 4 or 5, unless you're really good at rationalizing; criminals have had mixed success at painting themselves a victims first.

Governors and Reps:

The Republican gains of the NJ and VA governorships don't come as much of a surprise: the Democrat opposition was blase, and Virginia in particular has always had a governor of the opposite party of the president. I don't see these as any referendum on Obama at this time, however; polls have consistently shown that a majority of voters in both states were not basing their choice for governor on their approval of the president. In fact, Obama's approval rating in Virginia is in line with the percentage of votes he received on election day.

What's interesting is NY-23. Far from being a vindication of the far right being the only viable force for the Republican party in the future, it shows that the splintering effect has horrid consequences for the Republicans. The right wing voters went largely to the Conservative candidate while the moderates voted Republican. Consequently, this had the effect of a self-made divide-and-conquer which resulted in the first Democrat representative from that district since the Civil War, and added to the already decent Democratic majority in Congress.

If the far right splits off and tries this elsewhere. you can guarantee that both Conservative and Republican camps will have their votes reduced by the split, and the Democrats will continue to mop up. If the Republican party succeeds in purging anyone with a moderate stance, a good deal of those disenfranchised Republicans will likely end up bolstering the Democrat camp anyway. In fact, the Republican governors who won steered clear of people like Sarah Palin while the Conservative candidate in New York embraced her, so the 'teabagging' crowd is not as influential as they would like to believe.

Regardless, the best bet for the Republican party to remain a viable force in politics seems to be to encourage more moderation, which will likely draw over more conservative Democrats to bolster their own numbers, in addition to marginalizing the far right from the discussion. And that is a good thing: we need more than one party to check the inevitable excesses of the other, and my support of our efforts in Afghanistan and Iraq mean I can have my own soft spot for the Republicans beneath an otherwise blue streak.

Teh ghey:

The usual circumstances played out in Washington and Maine on the issue of gay marriage: urban versus rural, money coming in from out of state, the largely religious-backed opposition touting out the same campaign of fear, and the results ending up being close regardless of outcome.

That Referendum 71, which enacted gay marriage in all but name, passed makes me wonder if the label 'marriage' affects a certain segment of voters. These would be people who believe in giving gays all the rights of marriage, but balk at granting the name 'marriage' to such a union, as if the word 'marriage' is some sort of platonic form that cannot be touched. These might comprise a small number of the electorate, but perhaps enough to tip the scales in favor of gay unions (that there are more civil union laws out there than gay marriage laws might make this worth investigating further). If so, then perhaps a strategy for gay rights is to pursue more laws like Referendum 71 to create "I can't believe it's not butter" marriages in the short term as a trojan horse of sorts, then simply applying the label later when people realize the sky didn't fall.

It's also interesting to see opponents of gay marriage champion the will of the people in these cases over 'activist judges', when conservatives normally tend to point out that the U.S. is not a democracy (that is true: it's a representative republic). But then, procedural arguments tend to be smoke screens to cover agendas on either side of the spectrum. Personally, I am thankful for activist judges and out of touch legislatures (who were duly appointed or elected by the will of the people anyway) to do the right thing and enforce basic rights in the face of the classic tyranny of the majority. Imagine if we had left school integration and such up for popular vote. But I digress.

It's like Underarmour and Camelbak had a bizarro lovechild:

http://www.camelbak.com/sports-recreation/wearable-hydration/velobak-mens.aspx

I think one of these would come in handy for my future adventures. If they could make one in desert tan, soldiers would be able to wear it as their baselayer shirt, as well, instead of having a separate Camelbak unit on their back. Combining features means less gear to worry about, which is always a bonus.

Hung out with furry_yuri Friday night when I arrived in town, and enjoyed Cracker Barrel with him the next day. After that, I met up with zotcoon, skuffcoyote, blondefoxy, balto_woof and his mate, and tally_kat for an evening of fursuiting. We went to Sonic, then trick or treating around a posh neighborhood, and finally to a bar for a costume contest and free poker tournament.

The suiters won prize money in the contest, and in fact we found a couple of guys who tried on Balto's head and seemed very much to enjoy their own fursuiting experience. I tried out Texas hold 'em and managed to get a few good plays before I was creamed by an 'all in'. furry_yuri, streakthetiger, Kamo and Kat joined us later, and I finalyl got to see Streak's repoman costume.

I missed out on suiting because I forgot to tell zotcoon to bring my Anubis gas mask. However, I helped out everyone fursuiting by being the escort/handler/photographer for the evening, putting on my cheongsam for the crouching tiger/hidden dragon look.

I have come to the conclusion that trick or treating after middle school is indeed possible...provided one adds an appropriate amount of effort to the costume experience. In the case of fursuiting, a high quality and elaborate suit with excellent and endearing pantomime goes a long way in making up for being over 5' tall. Having one's face covered may also be a necessary step.

I used to listen to this on the sat TV, back in the 'late unpleasantness'.

LOL furry music video :P

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2VktozqkSc

note: it's actually a neat song

I wish to invoke the Malcontent.

I traveled to Phoenix this weekend and had an enjoyable time. Met up with streakthetiger and got acquainted with the crew at Bad Dragon. Narse and I got to talking about films, and my puppet style of Eye of the Bennu, and so he showed me this really neat rendition of Poe's "A Telltale Heart" using wood carved puppets. The style was quite fascinating, a sort of remake of the bizarre angles and claustrophobic sets of interwar German abstract expressionism.

I also met furry_yuri and we went to see Capitalism: A Love Story. I am familiar with the circumstances leading up to the housing and credit crashes, so much of it was a rehash for me. However, I did enjoy learning about the proposed second bill of rights under FDR. Later, we met up with tabbicus, streakthetiger and a fur named Patrick to a dance and party. I visited Patrick the next day and he showed me the inside of an awesome abandoned copper mine. The place was awesome: huge shafts, pools and various turns, even old mine carts and such. I am really enjoying my time in Phoenix with the furs there, and I plan to make sojurns to the city at least once a month.

Today is a day off given the federal holiday, but tomorrow it's back to the wonderful world of Army fun!

This coming weekend, Friday through Monday (9th - 12th) I will be on pass. So I have four days to hang out with people again. I will at the very least travel to Phoenix, although I could use crash space if available so I don't have to get a hotel. streakthetiger, we should coordinate something since you're my main point of contact in that area.

Vegas is an option too, but I would need enough takers from Phoenix and/or California to rendezvous with me there so we can split the cost of a room, and to make it worth our while.

- Right wingers celebrating that America is not hosting the Olympics.

- Glen Beck saying Obama should bring the troops home from Afghanistan because he thinks Obama can't cut it there.

- Angry people railing against having a medical social safety net for their fellow Americans who slip through the cracks of private insurance.

- Newsmax columnist all but advocating a violent military coup against the President.

- Believing that a speech to stay in school is somehow 'indoctrination'.

- Rush denigrating community service as something worthy only of convicts.

- EDIT: Some pundits or even a few politicians flirting with encouraging secession.

Yeah, I'm starting to wonder if the right-winger / neocon pundits hate the current occupant of the Presidency more than they actually love America.

If community service, helping those without health insurance get it, preserving the Union, hosting the Olypics, staying in school, and staying in Afghanistan is socialist, well paint me red.

zotcoon and I will be in Phoenix for the weekend, hanging out with whoever is available.

streakthetiger, I'll call you when I'm in town to meet up since zotcoon, who has the hotel reservations, will arrive later.

This convoy mission went extremely well! We managed to search and screen all the detainees on the objective in about fifteen minutes (we need roll out in twenty), and the Staff Sergeants in charge of the two teams made things happen. Each detainee was searched for intel, then fingerprinted, then questioned and processed for release or further interrogation. I just stayed put his time, surveying the whole scene and using my NCOs to relay messages.

The reaction to the ambush was also well done. The OPFOR was planning to have one of their own pretend to want to speak to the convoy, then detonate an IED after luring us down the road to him. I didn't fall for it: I had us stop well in front of the enemy, and told the turret gunner to act as if he were at a checkpoint: i.e. instructing the individual in front of us to demonstrate he didn't have any bombs or weapons, and to speak to us from there, etc. Eventually the OPFOR gave up and detonated the IED simulator well in front of us. Meanwhile, the fourth truck down the line spotted enemy with AKs hiding in the grass, so I told them to engage. At this point, the OPFOR opened fire and we all gave some back. By the time I assembled the assault team at our rendezvous truck, we were engaged and had killed all the enemy before we needed to do a flanking assault. I went up and down the line, getting reports from team leaders, before giving the order to mount up again.

All in all it was a good mission, although next time I plan to use the radios more to communicate with the convoy as opposed to just relying on the gunners (although they also did a good job). I'll have that headset glued to my ear.

This convoy mission went better than the last. I found a really squared away Sergeant and made him my right hand man, and he was able to kick his people into high gear. Our rehearsals, the briefing, and even the 'surprise' ambush went much smoother than last time, as I worked out the bugs in my leadership techniques. My command voice was more present, and I will work on it more.

The OPFOR again threw us a curveball, attacking from buildings this time. Had they attacked from the field, or even from both sides, we would have been ready, since I ensured rehearsals of such were conducted prior to departure. However, urban operations are a whole other ballgame. Despite the new twist, the convoy managed to carry the day: we communicated, the support team laid suppressive fire, and the assault team finished the bad guys off - not before myself and some others were hit, of course.

The big snags this time were time management on the objective: we only had 20 minutes to search, identify and screen the detainees. I had a team tasked for the searches but next time I will add a couple females to the mix so the female detainees can also be screened immediately. I also plan on giving the search team 30-60 seconds per detainee, with the other intel soldiers nearby to take over once they are done.

When it comes to the urban assault, I got too excited and rushed an insurgent, not knowing until too late the very limited range, and wild inaccuracy, of the paintball guns we were given. In future combat in such a setting, I would operate using room clearing procedures, with half the team on the other side of the 'alley' providing flanking fires from behind cover, and doing buddy team covering fire for advancing. Urban ops drills will be added to the rehearsals, or at least an explanation of the basic communications and tactics. I also intend to ensure that everyone's magazines will stay locked in, that their paintball guns will fire before leaving on the mission.