Halloween, spooky season, existential dread and House of Dynamite. 

                    Every year around the end of September and on through the first days of November we here in the United States have our fall into winter transition, and with it comes what I'm going to call Spooky Season. Mostly centered around the Catholic feast of all saints or "all hallows day" the night before it is known as all hallows eve, or Hallow'een. or Halloween. The holiday actually is the catholic replacement for the Celtic Irish holiday Samhain or Lunar New Year. It is also known as "the ending" or "the dying times" when all green deciduous plants lose their leaves, weather turns cold, frosts come, winds blow from the Northwest, and the autumnal storms hit. These times of the year are so often associated with death, decay and gloom that there should be little wonder that people see ways to lighten the mood, often by "whistling past the graveyard" and telling spooky stories so everyone gets a good shiver and a good laugh out of it. Or by making or watching scary movies -- things that engage the startle reflex and then you laugh when you realize it's not serious, just a fellow in a rubber mask with a cardboard knife. We also joke about ghosts and ghouls, and go to haunted house entertainment venues that pop up this time of year. People get scared and it's all in good fun. There are sound psychological reasons for this behavior. You see, we humans are relatively fragile. Compared to sea turtles or parrots, we live a measly 85 years or so, with some dying out after a crummy 56 years. Our psychological refuges from this are religion and outright denial. Religion teaches that we are superior to other animals, and that we have some form of afterlife or next life to look forward to after our corporeal existence comes to an end. The problem with this is it's hubris to assume we are anything special. Religionists will then demand "but if we are not special, we are just worms on a pebble in the giant chaos that is the universe. " To which I reply: Yes, that is so. we are nothing more than mites on a mudball. So ? acknowledge and move on, fam. We exist because we exist, and no further reason need be given. But  still there exists the problem of mortality. I hate the idea of dying. I hate it entirely. I intend to keep living just as long as I can. Many religious people also claim to be always in favor of the living, yet seem to have no problem with holy wars and the death penalty. But those are side issues, which, while worthy of discussion, should be dealt with another time. The thing is, death has always been just a blink away from us throughout our existence. Modern technology and comfortable, clean living conditions have allowed us to disassociate from this fact, most of the time. However, death reminds us of itself, in major when a friend or loved one dies. A parent, sibling, friend, treasured pet. They die and there is usually nothing we can do about it. We mourn the loss, but we carry on, even when we don't want to. Believe me, I know. When my mother died I was shattered. I wanted the world to stop but it did not. Well, everyone experiences loss. It haunts us all. So, once a year we poke fun at death with scary stories, scary events and scary movies. But then we turn around and attempt to increase our happiness with trick or treats, candy, and parties. There is nothing wrong with this. On the contrary, I argue that it is necessary to any intelligent species to find reasons to poke fun at death, a bit. reasons to whistle past the graveyard. Reasons to indulge in gallows humor. We all know we're going to one day shake hands with the man with the scythe, and for a few days we can laugh and scare ourselves and it helps us on a bit. So don't be afraid to enjoy a little spooky fun this time of year. 

Now on to the other topic: The movie "A house of dynamite."      

                 The main themes of the film are technology can't save us from technology, command and intelligence systems fail, and nukes are bad, dontchanknow. The premise is that an unknown but probably North Korea nation state launches a suborbital "low deflection" shot at the continental USA. Target: Uh, somewhere in a parallel-piped with corners at Chicago, St Louis, Columbus Ohio and Cleveland Ohio. The missile was launched during a magic blind spot in our surveilled satellite coverage, when all of our and our allies means of launch detection somehow didn't function until the missile was well on it's way. The alert finally given, an officer in Alaska orders the launch of two, and only two ballistic ground based missiles at the incoming vampire, because "We only have 55 weapons and we might need the rest against subsequent attacks." The movie later states that each weapon has only a 61% chance of an impact kill. with these odds, four missiles would be almost a guaranteed hit. However, the movie also makes the assumption that GMD is our only weapon useful in this scenario. Go look up THAAD, Standard MK3 BLK 2, Patriot. PAC 2/3. These systems also have anti-missile capability, and there are almost always 3 or more Aegis/SM3-BLK2 equipped ships somewhere along the coast. The odds of a single missile hitting are a lot smaller than the movie makes out. 

                    Now, I'm not saying it's a bad movie. The acting is okay. the writing is, aside from the things I brought up, good. The cinematography is, to be honest, a bit lacking. Oh okay, I would have done it differently. But it wasn't mine to do. One final consideration is that I'm not sure the film makes it plain enough that the probability of a first use of nuclear weapons is based upon the least stable national leader that controls them. If Kim Jong Un thinks he's losing control of his country, would he order a first strike ? I don't know. I'm not sure the writers of House full of dynamite know either. Several potential scenarios are presented. But at bottom the film is a treatise on existential dread. The terror of nuclear annihilation. Personally I think Fail Safe (1964, Henry Fonda) did it better.    

HAPPY HALLOWEEN! 

   

St Patrick's Day special.

 

Today was St Patrick's Day. A day on which my fellow Americans make up silly names for themselves and put on a green shirt and get blotto. We won't talk about how this country perpetuates negative Irish stereotypes. The Fightin' Irishman, "A couple of stout Irish girls to do the heavy work around the house." and Trooper Thorn Sean Thornton. We have heavier lifting to do. Heavier lifting like "The Kung-Flu" and the fact that Asian-Americans get treated like punching bags and nobody tries to stop it. So go on and poke fun at me and my ancestors, drink beer with green food color in it. Just stop shooting Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. Mmmk ?

Some Thanksgiving Thoughts.

 Way back in the 1600s, a group of people landed in the lands of the Wampanoag people and set up a camp.

Their camp rapidly became a village with log buildings. In that first winter, the invaders suffered much from the harsh winter and lack of proper food. In the spring, some of the locals found them and took pity upon them. They were not Christians, but they still had the spirit of charity within them and they made peaceful contact with the newcomers. The first nation people probably would have driven the whites into the sea at the point of a spear had they been "real Christians" but they did not. They took pity on the newcomers, and helped them to learn how to live off the land. How to catch fish, and to fertilize their crops with it. How to plant and grow maize. How to hunt the local animals and which ones provided the best meat. Somewhere in there, the locals found how to hunt the local wild turkeys and geese. (There are variations on this story where they brought the newcomers birds and maize but I'm going with this one.) The next fall, a hunting party of Wampanoag were in the vicinity of the white settlement and decided to check up on them. In gratitude for having been saved and aided by them, the Europeans invited the visitors to stay for the harvest feast. This then became known as the First Thanksgiving. If only the people of the First Nations and the European immigrants had learned from this example. But they did not. In the fullness of time the prediction often attributed to various leaders, that "in 300 years my people will be a vanishing breed, a footnote in the story of the continent." They did not vanish, but are less today than they were. Today the holiday is one in which we traditionally gather our families and celebrate the holiday, at least ostensibly giving thanks for the good things that came our way, and for having family to celebrate with. I am reminded of the time, some 50 years ago, when my Dad and my Uncle both finished eating at about the same time, and both had the same idea to make for the couch in the den at the same time. They both tried to be nonchalant about it, but this lasted about 4 paces, as my Dad went thundering into the Den, steps ahead of my Uncle. Dad got their first, but it would not have mattered, as it was Dad's house. Meanwhile, I just quietly asked my Mother if I could be excused (in the early 70s, table manners were still a thing, and kids who sat at the grownups table had to ask to be excused.) and then quietly went into the living room and took over the couch in there. Everyone else was too busy trying to find suitable seating in line of sight to a television and never considered just napping in the nice, cool, quiet of the living room. Funny how memory comes back like that. I will close by saying that I wish any who read this a happy holiday, and a quiet, safe, and healthy weekend.

Some new thoughts about thanksgiving, and immigrants

 Pilgrims, Indigenous people, and progress.

The people who lived here before the Europeans began arriving were not necessarily happy hunter-gatherers content to live in peace and harmony with their neighbors. There were wars. Borders were fluid things, only established by such things as landmarks and the courses of rivers. A hunting party might easily stray into another tribe's land and possibly be attacked. this did happen, and it did oftentimes lead to battles. Europeans who came here were not necessarily welcomed. The Roanoke colony was wiped out to the last. Women and children may have been taken and adopted into families. Then comes the Plymouth colony. They're better situated than the Roanoke. and maybe they're just luckier. Maybe god shined a light on them. Whatever. The Wampanoeg took pity on them, and helped them. They showed them how to live off the land in the new world. Perhaps they shouldn't have. If they had been like some Americans are today, they might have just killed them all and taken their fire-locks, swords and armor. But they didn't. Although not Christians, they felt the impulse to charity and helped those colonists. (I have distant family tree relations who were among those colonists, btw. ) They helped them, and next fall when the colonists were still there they gave food and shelter to a Wampanoeg hunting party who had dropped by to check on them. I sincerely doubt it was any kind of grand feast as is depicted in some history books, but they gathered together and shared food and drink. We should be thankful we were allowed to stay here. We should be thankful and remember our own behavior will be judged by history. We need to remember our own impulse to charity, and welcome newcomers. They can come here legally. It should be relatively easy to do so. It should also be relatively hard to stay here illegally. But the penalty should be administrative, as it has been in times previous to this. We're wasting time, money resources and reputation by throwing people in cages inside what used to be big-box stores.We need a long, hard look at ourselves. So be thankful. But also remember your impulse to help others. There is more than enough room for all here. More Jobs are created every day, and immigrants will be needed to fill them. There just aren't enough of us right now. Be Generous. Be American. and remember that moment 400 years ago wherein a group of hunters of the Wampanoeg people were hosted in friendship by a handful of grateful Europeans. 

My Thanks.

On this day, 75 years ago.

75 Years ago today, men got down into landing craft, and sailed into history. 

     June 6, 1944. The Second World War is coming to a crisis point. If the Allies, led by Eisenhower (interestingly, his surname is German for  ice cutter -- someone who cuts blocks of ice for use in early refrigeration. ) succeeded in landing in France, the Germans would now be faced with a war on three fronts. The South, where the Allies were driving slowly up the spine of Italy after the Italian capitulation. The Russians were pushing inexorably Westward, with the aim of taking up as much of Europe as they could before the hated Nazi enemy were destroyed. The Britsh, French and Americans all wanted to drive to Berlin, and as General Patton would later quip, "personally shoot that paper-hanging son of a bitch!" For France, it was a true existential crisis. Vichy France was a joke -- the prostrate Vichy were little besides errand-boys for the Nazis, and they knew it. For Britain, it meant an end to the Blitz, an end to privation, a chance to be able to live their lives without blackouts, rationing and constantly looking over their shoulder for (more imagined than real) fifth columnists. For the United States, it meant an incredible expense in Blood and Treasure but also a task to be taken up, not because of continued national existence, but because rule by dictators like Hitler and Tojo was wrong. Perhaps many of them didn't quite understand the finer points of the issue, but to them, liberty meant much, and liberty was always worth fighting for. Not so much in these times, but back then, people seemed to understand the difference. So, those men got down into the boats, or strapped on their parachutes and got in the planes, or loaded up into the gliders, and they prepared to carry the fight to the enemy. Casualties were expected to be high. Some of the planning staff estimated a minimum of 20% losses. Some wanted to wait and go with more men. But Eisenhower was sure that the more they waited, the more the enemy would be prepared to throw the troops back into the sea. The invasion was delayed, and then the weather closed in. Storms -- the early beginning of the Channel summer storms -- made them put off the invasion for a month. It was a matter of needing a confluence of tides, weather and lunar phase. They wanted darkness to cover the first hour or so of the invasion, proper tides and weather good enough that the waves wouldn't swamp the landing craft. Finally, weather predictions aligned with everything else for the three day period June 5th thru June 8th, closing in by the 9th. (a westerly gale of immense proportions would cause havoc, but not until after the initial invasion had been decided. ) Eisenhower stepped out of his quarters, stepped to the staff planning table and queried his staff . Some hesitated, but in the end, all agreed, the invasion was on. Eisenhower, it is said, kept two pieces of paper in his breast pockets. One, his speech that the invasion had gone off successfully, and the other, a speech in which he took full responsibility for the disastrous failure. In the days before the invasion began, Ike made his now-legendary "Great Crusade" speech to the troops.
 Eisenhower's Great Crusade speech. 
The men got on the ships, most of them already seasick.  A moderate gale blew in from the south, making the soldiers even sicker. The final "go" order didn't come until late on the 5th. Then, in the pre-dawn hours of the 6th, the first wave went in.

It was the largest Armada ever assembled

They were all afraid. Every man-Jack of them. But they climbed down into those boats anyway. They got down in the boats and went in.
The fighting was vicious. The men on Omaha beach had it the worst. They may not have gotten off the beach were it not for the work of destroyers who sailed in some instances within 800 yards of the Beach, at risk of grounding themselves, to engage the German positions with direct fire from their guns. No matter if it was Omaha or Juneau, the day was no walk in the park. I could go on, regaling you with tales of bravery and sacrifice, but I'm going to close this year's D-Day memorial post by saying this : War is never pretty. It's terrifying, ugly, bloody and brutal. So let's try to limit how many wars we have. Let's honor those men who bravely went in on June 6 '44. Let's honor them by staying out of wars of convenience, like Mr "W" Bush's Invasion of Iraq. Let's try using diplomacy to maneuver clear of various causa belli.  Try settling not the problems, but the issues which become problems if not addressed. With thanks to those who engaged in the Great Crusade.

     Most Sincerely,
DLC.

Decoration Day

Historically on this day 

We would gather our families together in whatever convenient groups were available, put on our good "going out" clothes, pack up baskets with picnic supplies, flowers, cleaning equipment and perhaps a hymnal, song book or a bible and we would all go together to clean, maintain and decorate the graves and memorials of our deceased relations who died in service to the country. The practice began sometime around the end of the Civil War, and continued on until sometime when the day's name was changed to Memorial day and people started visiting various war memorials instead. Gradually the visiting of war memorials faded and the day became just another day off from work. I don't say any of this with the intention of guilt-tripping anyone, or being accusatory, it's just a fact. Today, people have the day off, and they deserve it. But please, my friends, take a few minutes to sit back and remember the people who gave of themselves for the United States. We are not always right, and not always wrong. The state of being is much more complex than anyone can put into words in a short blog post. So just remember for a few minutes that friends and relatives of yours paid the ultimate price. Then relax, have a beer, grill some burgers and watch the racing or football or whatever.

Here's some music to remember the day by.
Johnny's Gone for a Soldier.


Hymn to the Fallen, John Williams

DLC