The sounds of Army nostalgia: Reveille, Retreat, To the Colors, Taps

Every day I was on post in the Army, I listened to a bugle play Reveille at 0600, usually after we started PT, which meant we stopped our running or calisthenics to stand at attention and salute. The same bugle played Retreat and To the Colors at 1700, near the end of the work day. The songs weren't just background noise; they accompanied the raising and lowering of the post flag, which ritually and symbolically marked the beginning and end of each day in the Army (although we usually began our day before Reveille and ended it after Retreat). We all shared the same experience. Every soldier who was outdoors and on post stood at attention and saluted in the direction of the post flag during the music, whether or not he could see the flag. At 2200 every night, the mournful sound of Taps, the same bugle song played at the conclusion of soldiers' funerals, suffused hauntingly into the dark and quiet on post. Listening to these songs brings back feelings and memories of my day-to-day life as a soldier.

Eric

Too funny: mathematical proof that girls = evil

Via Moronpundit.

Eric

Louis Comfort Tiffany is The Man

I don't know how I missed posting this before . . . last year, I visited the Metropolitan Museum of Art with my family for a special exhibition of European paintings associated with a famous art dealer - I forget his name. While at the museum that day, bored, I stopped in the Louis Comfort Tiffany exhibition down the hall and was amazed.

The "Tiffany" name is the same Tiffany of the decorative glass company. Tiffany was prolific. His art creations are breath-taking, meticulous, rich, genius - fill in the superlative - the beautiful results of a lifetime of wealth and means, love and passion, dedication and patience, sheer will, and extraordinary talent and creativity. You have to see them to understand - L.C. Tiffany is a standard bearer for what human beings can achieve.

From the small sampling of his art at the exhibit, I can only imagine Tiffany's masterwork, his Laurelton Hall, in its full glory before it decayed and burned. I'm reminded of the Neil Gaiman tale, Ramadan, in which Caliph Harun al-Rashid gives to Dream his magical Baghdad at the height of its glory, so that the city can be preserved before it is lost forever. I like to think Laurelton Hall still exists somewhere mythical, too.

Learn about Louis Comfort Tiffany here.

Eric

HTS and Newsweek . . . and Civil Affairs

The always excellent Small Wars Journal posted a response by Dr. Montgomery McFate, the Senior Social Science Adviser to the U.S. Army’s Human Terrain System Program, to a Newsweek article critical of HTS. The HTS project intrigues me because it is an active, rather than symbolic, link between academia and the military and it upholds my liberal preferences for the use of the military.

That's not why I'm posting the link. One statement caught my attention as yet another endorsement (sign?) for Army Civil Affairs. It's quoted here in context and bold-faced:

4) That soldiers on their second- or third- tours possess inestimable knowledge about the area in which they are operating is undeniable. Yet, as currently organized, combat brigades do not possess the organic staff capability or assets to organize this knowledge and look at the broad questions that HTTs are concerned with. While civil affairs soldiers are the closest to such an organic asset, along with information operations, these assets are mission-focused and often lack the manpower to engage in the sort of question-formulation and asking that HTTs can. Nor do these assets always include personnel trained in social scientific analysis. Therefore, it is the job of HTTs to take the knowledge these soldiers have gleaned, to examine the information already being gathered on the ground on a daily basis, engage in original research, and consider this information in terms of broader issues from a different perspective in order to add to the brigade commander's situational awareness of the social, economic, political, cultural and psychological factors at work in the environment.

Suits me.

Eric

20APR08 Update: Here's a letter pointing out flaws in the HTS program from two former Human Terrain Team members featured in the Newsweek article. I hope the program survives its rocky inception.

Pretty decent South Park review site: Dave and Thomas

The Dave and Thomas blog dips into different pop culture topics. I like their South Park reviews.

Eric

Leadership and failure in complex organizations

Read this fascinating seminar, Leading Complex Organizations: Lessons from a Tragic Organizational Failure, led by West Point professor LTC Scott A. Snook in 2001 at Harvard.

Snook deliberately deconstructs the event cascade that led to a shocking friendly fire tragedy on April 14, 1994 in northern Iraq, and the different factors that fed it. There's much food for thought for any organizational leader, especially how many little things, including things that are normal and make sense in complex operations, can combine into a disaster.

Thanks to commenter "scooterkool" for posting the link in the Blackfive post.

Eric

Recidivist transit grinder

See Gothamist post, "Recidivist Transit Grinder" Blames Big Apple Babes. It's interesting to see the public and media react to a crime that's considered fairly common from our perspective in the office.

My only critical comment is about the label "recidivist transit grinder," attributed to ADA Contillo. In the office, we normally call them 'subway grinders'. I wonder why ADA Contillo used, or at least was quoted using, 'transit grinder'?

Eric

Mainstream popular music videos since 9/11 featuring soldiers

Our country has been at war for six and a half years. How much has the awareness of our military at war penetrated popular culture? One indicator is American popular music videos. I can only think of five music videos since 9/11 that feature soldiers - and four are country music videos. I'm not much of a music fan, so a music video has to be played a lot before I become aware of it, and most of the time, not even then. So, take this compilation of music videos since 9/11 that feature soldiers with a grain of salt.

Green Day - Wake Me Up When September Ends (2004):



Toby Keith - American Soldier (2003):



Brad Paisley and Allison Kraus - Whiskey Lullaby (2004):



Trace Adkins - Arlington (2005):



Big & Rich - 8th of November (2005):



Eric

The Owl, GS alumni magazine: Columbia's Invaluable Vets

MilVets and milvets are featured in the Spring 2008 edition of The Owl, the School of General Studies at Columbia University alumni magazine.



I've stayed away from my college civil-military activism for over a year now. I'm so grateful that the movement is going forward without me. My heart swells with pride.

Eric

Cool website of the day: Christopher Weuve's "Starship Troopers" page

Read Christopher Weuve's lengthy commentary on Starship Troopers, which is clearly a labor of love. I sent him a thank you e-mail. I hope he reads it. Good stuff.

The Robert Heinlein book - not the Paul Verhoeven movie - has been a major influence on my basic philosophy.

Eric

Cool website of the day: Laws of New York

With a nod to my current job: Laws of New York. You may have to click on 'Main Menu' and then 'Laws of New York'.

I use the New York State Law website at work. The advantage is that it has a user-friendly format and search engine. Most of it is still current. The disadvantage is that as a dot.com site, it's not definitively official like the Laws of New York dot.gov site, which in practical terms for my purposes means the New York State Law website is not completely up-to-date.

Eric

Tom Barnett and Orson Scott Card on Barack Obama

Tom Barnett and Orson Scott Card are two of the commentators whom I consider to be people who say what I think, but do it smarter. On their blogs, both recently compared Senator Obama favorably with another Presidential candidate - Senator Clinton in Card's post, and Senator McCain in Barnett's post.

Barnett compares Obama and McCain, while mentioning Clinton:

But consider this: would it be easier for Clinton or--especially 70-plus--McCain to learn NOT to be who they already are--once in office (meaning, deconstruct their hard selves and adjust to a world very unlike the one they grew up in)? Or easier for Obama to find himself in office and "play up" to circumstances? Remember, Obama comes of age in 1970s, when this globalized world really begins.

I see zero chance in McCain growing and plenty of growth potential in Obama.

Card discusses Obama's Reverend Wright controversy and compares Michelle Obama to Hillary Clinton:

I hope a candidate does not have to abandon his friends to become president. All he has to do is assure us that he does not share his friend's offensive opinions -- which Obama has done -- and demonstrate that he has never acted upon those ideas -- which Obama has also done.

. . .

I can tell you right now that if Barack listens to his wife the way that Bill claims to have listened to Hillary, President Obama will have a far smarter pillow-talk adviser than President Clinton ever had.

Eric

Cool website of the day: Slice

Check out Slice - America's Favorite Pizza Blog.

Eric

Chelsea Barnes and Noble closed

From above the main building entrance, a picture of the now-extinct Chelsea Barnes & Noble at 675 Sixth Avenue is next to the sign advertising the retail space.

By happenstance today, I took the F train to the 6th Ave 23rd St station and decided to stop in at the Barnes & Noble - my Barnes & Noble - before going home, something I've done often. I had recently seen the sign advertising the space as available for rent, but I had no idea that the store was closing so soon. I was shocked by the familiar window walls, recently filled with displays of books and CDs and enticing views into the store, now blocked with paper with signs saying the store had closed for good on March 31st.

When it opened in 1993-1994 with fresh confidence and promise, the Chelsea Barnes & Noble was a revolutionary development - spacious and modern in a beautiful architectural space, user-friendly and inviting (plush sofas), the cultural flagship of a neighborhood retail revival. I was a teenager and the store became a quiet and calming oasis during an otherwise anxious, tumultuous period of my life, just far enough away from home so it was in an altogether different neighborhood, yet close enough for me to walk to and from it easily. Going to the Barnes & Noble was a relief and I spent many days there. I strongly associate the Chelsea B & N with a historical period. It opened when I was recently moved into Chelsea and the then-new Stuyvesant. The American economy was riding the dot.com high. The Cold War was over and a Fukuyama 'end to history' seemed plausible. New York City was undergoing a renaissance with Mayor Giuliani. The store seemed to represent the optimism, competence, and ambition of the time.

When the Chelsea Barnes & Noble opened, it was criticized as a corporate giant using its greater resources aggressively to take over a market established by small businesses. But the Chelsea Barnes & Noble developed its own neighborhood identity, different than any other Barnes & Noble store. It just felt comfortable and reliable, like a fixture in the community. It worked. Now, the demise of the Chelsea Barnes & Noble feels like the loss of a big part of my youth and young adulthood and the end of an era once filled with great promise. It's gone for good and I didn't get to say good-bye.

Eric