Deep Thoughts
I saw this on MSN today. It's advertised as "20 V-Day Gifts Men Want". I can guarantee you, the St. Valentine's Day gift that the vast majority of men want is to be off the hook for St. Valentine's Day. I remember last year, which is the only year I've ever had a girlfriend during St. Valentine's Day. She was in England, and I was in the Northwest, so it took quite a bit of effort to keep things going. I'd sent her frequent letters, called her weekly, and forked over the money to send her several great Christmas gifts; in the five months we'd been apart, I'd gotten a grand total of two letters out of her, and probably as many phone calls, and no Christmas gift. She sent me a card for St. Valentine's Day, and suddenly I was in trouble for not sending one to her. I've been described as a romantic, and I would much rather be romantic, supportive, and excellent to my female counterpart the whole year round, as opposed to being pigeonholed into one day of commercialized romantic nonsense.
I've been thinking lately about how much intelligence collection and analysis is like dating. You collect information, you consider it and process it. You might have information that the girl you're interested in doesn't know that you have, but you can't use it; for example, maybe you have access to her number, but you can't use it because you didn't get it from her. They say that all's fair in love and war, and while I like to think that there's a moral high ground, and there are things that you do and don't do in the pursuit of that one perfect match, the fact of the matter is that national defense and romance both require the collection of intelligence, processing of that information, and the employment of strategy and tactics in order to be successful.
For those of you who were wondering, since I didn't get my resolution squared away until a few days into 2006, I'm giving myself until midnight on Sunday to finish Lord of the Flies by William Golding. I'll let you know how it ends, or something.
And, in related news (not really), I should have my tax responsibilities for this tax year taken care of by the end of the day/week/whatever. Long story, but a few people who are reading this will appreciate that development.
That's what I've got. Keep it real, fo' shizzle.
UPDATE: If you're not aware of this story, you really ought to go check it out.
UPDATE: Judging from this pictorial from the BBC, I'm drawing several conclusions. The most important? It's completely apparent not only from the boycott of Danish goods, but also from the requests of seventeen Arab governments for the Danish government to "punish" the newspaper, that there's at least a significant portion of the Arab Muslim population that either doesn't understand, or hasn't been informed of concepts like freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and pluralism. To a degree, that's to be expected; but it's further indication of just how far the Middle East has to go before they're on par with the rest of the world.
By comparison, let's consider what would happen if al-Jazeera, or even a Western news source like the New York Times, published a caricature of Jesus. Would Christians call in bomb threats to the New York Times' or al-Jazeera offices? Would citizens of the Holy See burn Qatari or American flags in the streets? Would the Holy See, the Worldwide Anglican Communion, et cetera demand that the Qatari or American governments punish the respective news agencies? Of course not; and anyone who did would be marginalized and humiliated in the press and popular culture.
I'm not saying that Muslims shouldn't be offended by these cartoons; when people do caricatures or make fun of Jesus, I'm offended. The difference? I don't call in bomb threats, torch flags, demand that the government intervene, or boycott products over something as trivial and ridiculous as a cartoon. The response to this alleged "outrage" is absolutely telling, and I hope it helps to raise awareness of just how serious the international situation is. I'll ask one question, and one question only, to put this in perspective:
If the average Muslim citizen on the street is being this unreasonable about a few cartoons in a newspaper that's published at least a thousand miles away from the nearest Muslim country, how can anyone honestly think that the people who plan and finance terrorist attacks against Israeli school children, Iraqi police recruiting stations, and the World Trade center could possibly be appeased or negotiated with? How can the response to terrorists be anything short of decisive force?
I've been thinking lately about how much intelligence collection and analysis is like dating. You collect information, you consider it and process it. You might have information that the girl you're interested in doesn't know that you have, but you can't use it; for example, maybe you have access to her number, but you can't use it because you didn't get it from her. They say that all's fair in love and war, and while I like to think that there's a moral high ground, and there are things that you do and don't do in the pursuit of that one perfect match, the fact of the matter is that national defense and romance both require the collection of intelligence, processing of that information, and the employment of strategy and tactics in order to be successful.
For those of you who were wondering, since I didn't get my resolution squared away until a few days into 2006, I'm giving myself until midnight on Sunday to finish Lord of the Flies by William Golding. I'll let you know how it ends, or something.
And, in related news (not really), I should have my tax responsibilities for this tax year taken care of by the end of the day/week/whatever. Long story, but a few people who are reading this will appreciate that development.
That's what I've got. Keep it real, fo' shizzle.
UPDATE: If you're not aware of this story, you really ought to go check it out.
UPDATE: Judging from this pictorial from the BBC, I'm drawing several conclusions. The most important? It's completely apparent not only from the boycott of Danish goods, but also from the requests of seventeen Arab governments for the Danish government to "punish" the newspaper, that there's at least a significant portion of the Arab Muslim population that either doesn't understand, or hasn't been informed of concepts like freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and pluralism. To a degree, that's to be expected; but it's further indication of just how far the Middle East has to go before they're on par with the rest of the world.
By comparison, let's consider what would happen if al-Jazeera, or even a Western news source like the New York Times, published a caricature of Jesus. Would Christians call in bomb threats to the New York Times' or al-Jazeera offices? Would citizens of the Holy See burn Qatari or American flags in the streets? Would the Holy See, the Worldwide Anglican Communion, et cetera demand that the Qatari or American governments punish the respective news agencies? Of course not; and anyone who did would be marginalized and humiliated in the press and popular culture.
I'm not saying that Muslims shouldn't be offended by these cartoons; when people do caricatures or make fun of Jesus, I'm offended. The difference? I don't call in bomb threats, torch flags, demand that the government intervene, or boycott products over something as trivial and ridiculous as a cartoon. The response to this alleged "outrage" is absolutely telling, and I hope it helps to raise awareness of just how serious the international situation is. I'll ask one question, and one question only, to put this in perspective:
If the average Muslim citizen on the street is being this unreasonable about a few cartoons in a newspaper that's published at least a thousand miles away from the nearest Muslim country, how can anyone honestly think that the people who plan and finance terrorist attacks against Israeli school children, Iraqi police recruiting stations, and the World Trade center could possibly be appeased or negotiated with? How can the response to terrorists be anything short of decisive force?
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