There was a great moment in Woody Allen’s Bananas, in which the US is intervening in a CIA-sponsored “revolution” in a central american “banana republic” – the viewpoint switches to a bunch of US Army commandos in a C-130 getting ready to parachute down to overthrow the government: “The CIA has guys on the other side, so no matter who wins we’re on the winning side.”
There has been some sloppy talk about Turkey holding US nukes “hostage.” It’s not quite that bad, but the situation definitely sucks.
The different branches of the US military act as though they are in a war with eachother. Which, in a sense, they are – over budget. “Over budget” is an unfortunate phrase to deploy in any posting about the armed services, but let’s roll with it.
Military technology has a short life-span; anyone who has an advantage immediately becomes a target for spies and scientists trying to figure out what makes it tick. And archeology shows us that military technology breakthroughs spread extremely rapidly, because they are a matter of literal life and death.
A US test of MIRV warheads in a ballistic missile. In typical applications, this would be the last thing your eyes were able to see
“Mommy, look! A falling star!”, the child yelled, and pointed. There was a burning line in the sky, splitting into a claw-shape.
The mother enfolded her child in her arms, hugging her tightly to her breast, “Oh, sweetie. Close your eyes and make a wish.” She turned her back on the falling suns and breathed deeply of the warm smell of the child’s hair.
This is depressing; I don’t blame you if you just click ‘Next’.
Ten years ago I was invited to speak at a conference in Norway, at Svalbard. The conference was cancelled because Svalbard, which was a cold and snowy place, was experiencing a heat-wave and it was a mud-choked mess unsuitable for people wandering about it.
The disaster that is looming ahead of us is nebulous, and its vagueness has made it incomprehensible: we focus on a few signs and indications and hope that better heads and wise leaders prevail.
I’ve been wondering that, myself. Presumably the answer is somewhere between “yuge” and “outrageous.”
Have you ever shoveled out a manure pile? I have. Here’s what it feels like: under the shit, there’s more shit. And under that shit, guess what’s there? If you guessed “more shit” you’re right. Even the dirt under a manure pile becomes so infused that it’s hard to tell where the manure pile stops and the planetary core begins.