Month: August 2010

Afghanistan 2050: Tribes vs. Networks, cont.

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Here’s an epilogue/postscript to my initial (August 13) post for this roundtable:

The dozen BOIDS — small ultra-quiet stealthy long-range aerial DIY drones designed to swarm against an adversary’s OODA loops — idled in range of the target, undetected, waiting for a signal that the first stone was being cast.  Ten of the drones were piloted remotely by individuals who had paid large sums to train and participate in what they were about to do: stone the stoners.  The other two were for tactical topsight and command (TTC, the new C4ISR) and were operated by a unit of HubrisNemesis, the secretive ethicalist netfirm whose lineage included Sea Shepherd.*  This unit and a few of the attack pilots were aboard a ship in the Indian Ocean; most of the pilots were in other locations, even at home in North America, Europe, and South Asia.  While each had his/her own motivation for joining in, they all shared disgust and despair at how, once again, a great religion was being subjected to a vain tribalism.  Public stoning rarely occured anymore, and international efforts had been made for months to halt this instance.  But dark local forces had prevailed, and the stoning was supposed to proceed a few minutes from now in the sun-baked arena — with no outside media or foreign observers present.  HubrisNemesis and the BOIDistas hoped that Operation StoneCold would save the condemned trio’s life.  But even if that proved a false hope, at least their operation would generate video for global viewing of the ugly event’s proponents being routed as the BOIDS “stoned” them from above for the next hour or so.  But unlike the people at the event, the BOIDistas would not launch real stones aimed to maim and kill; no, their weaponry was mainly metaphorical, even nonviolent, but still powerful enough to frighten and disperse a crowd — e.g., plastic meshes filled with choice liquids, gases, and powders.  And if the surprise attack could be sustained long enough, nearby police and military would show up and cancel the event.  And then the ripple effects would start to unfold. . . .

* See here for a fine post about Sea Shepherd and its implications.

Increasingly Unhinged

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1)Obama has stated that the US and Iran have a “mutual interest” in fighting the Taliban, and that Iran “could be a constructive partner” with the US in creating a stable Afghanistan.

Reality: A State Department report, issued the day after Obama’s expression of his fantasy:

Iran’s Qods Force provided training to the Taliban in Afghanistan on small unit tactics, small arms, explosives, and indirect fire weapons. Since at least 2006, Iran has arranged arms shipments to select Taliban members, including small arms and associated ammunition, rocket propelled grenades, mortar rounds, 107mm rockets, and plastic explosives.

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What Prison Rape Jokes Mean

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I posted an overly long comment to the comments of this blog post on prison rape [h/t Instapundit], so I thought I would turn it into a post here.

I don’t think the vast majority of people who joke or threaten about prison rape are seriously indifferent to it when it comes to making real decisions about the penal system. Instead, I think they are simply pointing out one of the ugly realities of the real-world penal system.

I think that politically most people would like to reduce prison rape but they have a lot other evils they would like to reduce first. It is not that they don’t care, it is just that they have so many other things to care about as well.

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Where Have All The Futons Gone?

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I want to replace a futon. It is the old, thick cotton kind that became popular in the ’80s — no foam, no springs. Ten years ago you could look in the back of the sleazy local “alternative” newspaper and find ads for futon shops that would sell you a plain 8-inch-thick cotton futon for a modest price. Now I look and the shops are gone. On the Internet “futon” means a piece of furniture that incidentally has a mattress that kind of, sort of looks like the same type of thing that used to be called a futon. You can google “futon mattress” but these are now mostly pseudo-mattress contraptions containing springs or foam. I have slept on a foam-containing futon and it was comfortable, but I prefer all-cotton ones, in part because they all feel the same and therefore I know what I am getting. Further googling, on the term “Japanese futon”, yields better results, but the Japanese-futon merchants seem to be selling a much thinner futon than what I am looking for. They appear also to be charging a premium for the authentic Japanese-futon experience, which involves a tiny Japanese apartment where you sleep on an authentic Japanese futon on top of an authentic tatami mat and then roll everything up in the morning to make the most of your limited space. Thanks but I thought we had moved past that here. To use a cotton futon comfortably on a conventional slatted bed frame the futon needs to be at least six inches thick, preferably 8 or 9 inches. This is an American futon. But are they even available anymore? I can’t tell if the market has changed or if I am merely looking in the wrong places.