| Monday,
March 9, 2009 It's time for our walk. Yesterday we went to
Das Rheingold, and there's a short report with
pictures from the cast party on last night's View.
===============
The business about whether one wants the President of the United States
to "fail" continues, with Newt Gingrich having some words on the subject in
Meet The Press yesterday. The problem is that we don't have a prime
minister: the President is simultaneously the President of the United
States, the head of the administration, and the head of his party. It sounds
unseemly -- Newt called it 'irrational' -- to wish failure for the President
of the United States (unless you're an enemy of the United States). It
sounds too much like wishing for failure for the nation.
One can be a bit less enthusiastic about the administration, but even
then one doesn't really want failure: we don't really want more
unemployment, more foreclosures, more bank collapses. Sometimes it's hard to
see how what is being done can possibly succeed, just as many of us thought
President Carter's policies could not possibly succeed and would result in
both stagflation and setbacks in the Cold War; but no one rejoiced in the
humiliation of the United States when Iran seized the US embassy. (Even
George Kennan said we ought to have declared war on Iran.)
And of course even some Democrats may want the president as party leader
to fail: he appears to be taking both the country and the Democratic Party
far over toward Socialism and Big Government. One doesn't have to cheer for
Republicans to wish that the Democratic Party would move in the opposite
direction.
Even Rush Limbaugh hopes that the President will succeed in rallying the
nation and keeping our spirits up.
As to who shall be the leader of the Opposition, that
remains to be seen; but whoever it shall be will certainly hope that the
present leader of the Democratic Party fails and fails dismally, even if he
doesn't put it quite that way.
==========
It's time for our walk.
I put up a lot of mail
last night, all of it interesting.
====================
I have a request from a reader:
"To spit on your hands and lower the pike; to stand
fast over the body of Leonidas the King; to be rear guard at Kunu-Ri; to
stand and be still to the Birkenhead Drill; these are not rational acts.
They are often merely necessary." Pournelle
Although I have enjoyed your work in the past and
still enjoy your commentary, I have no idea where this quote originated. A
book? An article?
If it is, indeed, quoted from one of your works, could
you tell me which book or article, please. I do appreciate your time and
consideration in this matter. (It's been drivin' me nuts...)
Yes, it's a bit dull, but life is like that from time
to time...and I sincerely thank any and all gods for such small favors.
S.
Warren "Bones" Bonesteel Sgt USMC 1976-1983
I certainly wrote that, probably as part of an introduction
to a story in one of the many anthologies I did. Possibly in one of the
volumes of THERE WILL BE WAR, or one of the other anthology series. If
anyone knows, please tell me.
==========
Well, that didn't take long:
Subject: Military Virtue
The quote "To spit on your hands and lower the pike;
to stand fast over the body of Leonidas the King; to be rear guard at
Kunu-Ri; to stand and be still to the Birkenhead Drill; these are not
rational acts. They are often merely necessary." Pournelle comes from
Mercenaries and Military Virtue, as published in There Will Be War. About
three quarters of the way down page 255 in my old edition.
Graves
Thanks. That's the first volume of the There Will Be War
anthology series, which has the title There Will Be War. It has a
publication date of 1983. I'll have to go look: and indeed I found it.
It's a pretty good little essay on Mercenaries and Military Virtue. I don't
think I have an electronic copy of it anywhere. Indeed, I don't seem to have
machine readable copies of many of the essays I wrote in the early 80's. I
should find someone to type in "Mercenaries and Military Virtue", or perhaps
if I ever catch up I'll do it myself, since this is always the slow season
for subscriptions. I suppose I could find some way to scan it, but the truth
is I no longer have a scanner and I don't really want to learn how to use
one. I suspect we'll find a way, because the essay is worth reposting.
And now I really do have to (1) get the mail up, (2) get the
column done, and (3) do a few hundred words of Mamelukes. And we have
something social this evening. For some reason, daylight savings time hasn't
added any more hours to me day, either.
Meanwhile you might want to contemplate the implications of
this:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/
2/hi/asia-pacific/7933171.stm?
custom_name_input=harlow
Is this a Chinese government test of Obama? One doubts that
the sailors thought of this on their own. Of course they are very sensitive
about Hainan Island. For platinum subscription:
Platinum subscribers enable me to work on what I think is important
without worrying about economics. My thanks to all of you.
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