Back Among the Living

Well, sort of. At least the 12-hour days are over for now. The good part is that the tip jar has $300 in it. The bad part is that I still feel like I've been hit by a very large truck even after sleeping most of Saturday afternoon and Sunday. I've always said that the greatest job I ever had was when I worked at Ruggero's. I worked 40 hours in three days (Friday, Saturday, Sunday) and had the rest of the week off. But after the last week, I'm not sure I can hack being on my feet for 12 to 14 hours a day. I was 19 then; it seems to make a bit of a difference.

Yesterday was the first day I had to catch up with what is going on in the world. I find I have to agree with Jerry Pournelle when he asks, "Has everyone at State and in the Pentagon lost their minds?" I realize that the end of the Cold War took away a lot of people's rice bowls, but do we really want to restart it over, of all things, Georgia? What compelling national interest do we have in Georgia? As to why Russia thinks it can get away with the invasion, one of Dr. Pournelle's readers responds:

I have noted some recent published letters to Chaos Manor have alluded to some confusion over the Russian attack on Georgia. As with many of the Chattering Class on Television and Radio, some readers of Chaos Manor have asked "How could the Russian leadership have ever thought they could get away with such a brazen act of 'aggression'?"

For those who ask that question, a primer:

First, take a small country that has one province overwhelmingly populated by an ethnic group that has traditionally been connected politically and culturally with a bordering nation.

Then, that ethnic group decides to revolt, and uses force in an attempt to secede their province from the small nation.

In due course, acting as nation-states are wont to act, the small country uses force to stop the revolt and attempted secession by the breakaway province. This force is directed largely against the ethnic group that seeks to secede.

Peace keepers are then dispatched to the province in order to stop the "ethnic cleansing". Since there is no peace to keep, this is useless, but there you have it. International opinion is appeased.

When fighting continues, the small country decides to cut the "Gordian Knot" and settle things once and for all with relatively massive military force.

So then the local nuclear superpower intervenes to "stop the genocide" (note the escalation in terms?), using massive air power because it's cheap, fast and pretty much all they have ready to go on such short notice, since they were relatively unprepared, and want to protect the peacekeeping forces they have in the breakaway province under the previous agreement. The nuclear powers leadership labels the leadershoip of the small country "war criminals" and demands their punishment.

So then the OTHER nuclear superpower, an ally of the small country, protests vehemently and seeks for anything they can use to punish the offending nuclear superpower for attacking its' ally. With little leverage, the second nuclear superpower is reduced to vehement protests, pointless gestures and a simmering sense of outrage. Over time the entire fiasco poisons the two nuclear superpowers relationship to everyone's loss.

Eventually, when enough times has passed, the breakaway province gains independence, under the protection of the first nuclear superpower, and the small country undergoes a change of regime in a process once called "Finlandization" when we did not like it.

You might think I have just described recent events in Georgia.

You would be wrong.

I have just described events in 1999, in the Balkans, when the United States and NATO intervened in the Serbian province of Kosovo.

Yes, how could the Russians have -possibly- thought that they could get away with something like that? "I'm shocked, SHOCKED!' that they could have ever made such an assumption.

The chickens have come home to roost.

Petronius

Which pretty much says it all. Actions have consequences even for super-power nations, and good intentions do not negate the law of cause-and-effect. Most embarrassing has been the response of our "leaders:" a lot of foot-stamping and shouts of, "We are very disappointed!"

On the education front: Before you send the wee tykes off to University, read what the Wall Street Journal has to say about the necessity of a four-year college education. Bottom line: the top 20% of the IQ bell curve should be the only students considering a four-year college. Everyone else is wasting their time and money, and driving up costs for everyone.

And just to beat that patch of bare ground where a dead horse used to be, the sun continues to be free of sunspots. The last time a sunspot cycle was delayed, we had the Little Ice Age. Global warming is good for some areas of the world, bad for a few (mostly low-lying coastal areas). Global cooling is bad for everyone.

Well, I need to finish getting ready for another exciting day of standing elbow-deep in other people's half-eaten food.