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Wanna Live to 100 Healthy? Handle Stress

I was watching this recorded webcast about longevity today, and the dude with the really long beard made a great point:

Centenarians may have had a stressful life, but they really know how to cope with stress. They really know how not to really get to them. It’s not the stressful environment itself, it’s the consequences, internally, of the stressful environment. If you know how to handle stress, then you’re going to do well. Centenarians, the one thing they have most in common is, nothing bothers them.

Jeff :: Nov.30.2009 :: News 'n' Commentary :: Comments Off

One Step Closer to Calvin's Future

Looks like bombing the moon was worthwhile — NASA found evidence of significant amounts of water on the moon. Let’s get those moon colonies up and running already! Flying cars, personal robots and zero gravity boots would also be nice please.

Jeff :: Nov.13.2009 :: News 'n' Commentary :: Comments Off

U.S. official resigns over Afghan war

LETTER IN FULL

Dear Ambassador Powell,

It is with great regret and disappointment I submit my resignation from my appointment as a Political Officer in the Foreign Service and my post as the Senior Civilian Representative for the U.S. Government in Zabul Province. I have served six of the previous ten years in service to our country overseas, to include deployment as a U.S. Marine officer and Department of Defense civilian in the Euphrates and Tigris River Valleys of Iraq in 2004-2005 and 2006-2007. I did not enter into this position lightly or with any undue expectations nor did I believe my assignment would be without sacrifice hardship or difficulty. However, in the course of my five months of service in Afghanistan, in both Regional Commands East and South, I have lost understanding of and confidence in the strategic purposes of the United States’ presence in Afghanistan. I have doubts and reservations about our current strategy and planned future strategy, but my resignation is based not upon how we are pursuing this war, but why and to what end. To put simply: I fail to see the value or the worth in continued U.S. casualties or expenditures or resources in support of the Afghan government in what is, truly, a 35-year old civil war.

This fall will mark the eighth year of U.S. combat, governance and development operations within Afghanistan. Next fall, the United States’ occupation will equal in length the Soviet Union’s own physical involvement in Afghanistan. Like the Soviets, we continue to secure and bolster a failing state, while encouraging an ideology and system of government unknown and unwanted by its people.

If the history or Afghanistan is one great stage play, the United States is no more than a supporting actor, among several previously, in a tragedy that not only pits tribes, valleys, clans, villages and families against one another, but, from at least the end of King Zahir Shah’s reign, has violently and savagely pitted the urban, secular, educated and modem of Afghanistan against the rural, religious, illiterate and traditional. It is this latter group that composes and supports the Pashtun insurgency. The Pashtun insurgency, which is composed of multiple, seemingly infinite, local groups, is fed by what is perceived by the Pashtun people as a continued and sustained assault, going back centuries, on Pashtun land, culture, traditions and religion by internal and external enemies. The U.S. and NATO presence and operations in Pashtun valleys and villages, as well as Afghan army and police units that are led and composed of non-Pashtun soldiers and police, provide an occupation force against which the insurgency is justified. In both RC East and South, I have observed that the bulk of the insurgency fights not for the white banner of the Taliban, but rather against the presence of foreign soldiers and taxes imposed by an unrepresentative government in Kabul.

The United States military presence in Afghanistan greatly contributes to the legitimacy and strategic message of the Pashtun insurgency. In a like manner our backing of the Afghan government in its current form continues to distance the government from the people. The Afghan government’s failings, particularly when weighed against the sacrifice of American lives and dollars, appear legion and metastatic:

• Glaring corruption and unabashed graft;
• A President whose confidants and chief advisers comprise drug lords and war crimes villains, who mock our own rule of law and counternarcotics efforts;
• A system of provincial and district leaders constituted of local power brokers, opportunists and strongmen allied to the United States solely for, and limited by, the value of our USAID and CERP contracts and whose own political and economic interests stand nothing to gain from any positive or genuine attempts at reconciliation; and
• The recent election process dominated by fraud and discredited by low voter turnout, which has created an enormous victory for our enemy who now claims a popular boycott and will call into question worldwide our government’s military, economic and diplomatic support for an invalid and illegitimate Afghan government.

Our support for this kind of government, coupled with a misunderstanding of the insurgency’s true nature, reminds me horribly of our involvement with South Vietnam; an unpopular and corrupt government we backed at the expense of our Nation’s own internal peace, against an insurgency whose nationalism we arrogantly and ignorantly mistook as a rival to our own Cold War ideology.

I find specious the reasons we ask for bloodshed and sacrifice from our young men and women in Afghanistan. If honest, our stated strategy of securing Afghanistan to prevent al-Qaeda resurgence or regrouping would require us to additionally invade and occupy western Pakistan, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen, etc. Our presence in Afghanistan has only increased destabilization and insurgency in Pakistan where we rightly fear a toppled or weakened Pakistani government may lose control of nuclear weapons. However, again, to follow the logic of our stated goals we should garrison Pakistan, not Afghanistan. More so, the September 11th attacks, as well as the Madrid and London bombings, were primarily planned and organized in Western Europe; a point that highlights the threat is not one tied to traditional geographic or political boundaries. Finally, if our concern is for a failed state crippled by corruption and poverty and under assault from criminal and drug lords, then if we bear our military and financial contributions to Afghanistan, we must reevaluate our commitment to and involvement in Mexico.

Eight years into war, no nation has ever known a more dedicated, well trained, experienced and disciplined military as the U.S. Armed Forces. I do not believe any military force has ever been tasked with such a complex, opaque and Sisyphean mission as the U.S. military has received in Afghanistan. The tactical proficiency and performance of our Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines is unmatched and unquestioned. However, this is not the European or Pacific theaters of World War II, but rather is a war for which our leaders, uniformed, civilian and elected, have inadequately prepared and resourced our men and women. Our forces, devoted and faithful, have committed to conflict in an indefinite and unplanned manner that has become a cavalier, politically expedient and Pollyannaish misadventure. Similarly, the United States has a dedicated and talented cadre of civilians, both U.S. government employees and contractors, who believe in and sacrifice for their mission, but have been ineffectually trained and led with guidance and intent shaped more by the political climate in Washington, D.C. than in Afghan cities, villages, mountains and valleys.

“We are spending ourselves into oblivion” a very talented and intelligent commander, one of America’s best, briefs every visitor, staff delegation and senior officer. We are mortgaging our Nation’s economy on a war, which, even with increased commitment, will remain a draw for years to come. Success and victory, whatever they may be, will be realized not in years, after billions more spent, but in decades and generations. The United States does not enjoy a national treasury for such success and victory.

I realize the emotion and tone of my letter and ask you excuse any ill temper. I trust you understand the nature of this war and the sacrifices made by so many thousands of families who have been separated from loved ones deployed in defense of our Nation and whose homes bear the fractures, upheavals and scars of multiple and compounded deployments. Thousands of our men and women have returned home with physical and mental wounds, some that will never heal or will only worsen with time. The dead return only in bodily form to be received by families who must be reassured their dead have sacrificed for a purpose worthy of futures lost, love vanished, and promised dreams unkept. I have lost confidence such assurances can anymore be made. As such, l submit my resignation.

Sincerely,

Matthew P. Hoh
Senior Civilian Representative
Zabul Province, Afghanistan

cc:
Mr. Frank Ruggiero
Ms. Dawn Liberi
Ambassador Anthony Wayne
Ambassador Karl Eikenberry

This letter was addressed to:
Ambassador Nancy J. Powell
Director General of the Foreign Service and Director of Human Resources
U.S. Department of State
2201 C Street NW

Jeff :: Oct.27.2009 :: News 'n' Commentary :: Comments Off

Men Are Just Happier People

Nicknames

a. If Laura, Kate and Sarah go out for lunch, they will call each other Laura, Kate and Sarah.

b. If Mike, Dave and John go out, they will affectionately refer to each other as Fat Boy, Godzilla and Four-eyes.
Eating Out
a. When the bill arrives, Mike, Dave and John will each throw in $20, even though it’s only for $32.50. None of them will have anything smaller and none will actually admit they want change back.

b. When the girls get their bill, out come the pocket calculators.

Money

a. A man will pay $2 for a $1 item he needs.

b. A woman will pay $1 for a $2 item that she doesn’t need but it’s on sale.

Bathrooms

a. A man has six items in his bathroom: toothbrush and toothpaste, shaving cream, razor, a bar of soap, and a towel .

b. The average number of items in the typical woman’s bathroom is 337. A man would not be able to identify more than 20 of these items.

Arguments

a. A woman has the last word in any argument.

b. Anything a man says after that is the beginning of a new argument.

Future

a. A woman worries about the future until she gets a husband.

b. A man never worries about the future until he gets a wife.

Success

a. A successful man is one who makes more money than his wife can spend.

b. A successful woman is one who can find such a man.

Marriage

a. A woman marries a man expecting he will change, but he doesn’t.

b. A man marries a woman expecting that she won’t change, but she does.

Dressing Up

a. A woman will dress up to go shopping, water the plants, empty the bin, answer the phone, read a book, and get the mail.

b. A man will dress up for weddings and funerals.

Natural

a. Men wake up as good-looking as they went to bed.

b. Women somehow deteriorate during the night.

Offspring

a. Ah, children. A woman knows all about her children. She knows about dentist appointments and romances, best friends, favourite foods, secret fears and hopes and dreams.

b. A man is vaguely aware of some short people living in the house.

Thought for the Day

A married man should forget his mistakes.

There’s no use in two people remembering the same thing!

Jeff :: Sep.01.2009 :: News 'n' Commentary :: Comments Off

Michael Vick, Back in the NFL?

Maybe dog owners could let their dogs sack him on the field…

Jeff :: Aug.04.2009 :: News 'n' Commentary :: Comments Off

This Can't Really Be Happening… Right?

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev illustrated his call for a supranational currency to replace the dollar by pulling from his pocket a sample coin of a “united future world currency.”

This is actually happening? According to Bloomberg, it is. Here’s a close-up of the test coin:

I’m not sure what I can possibly add to this… except to buy gold and silver before this happens:

Jeff :: Jul.10.2009 :: News 'n' Commentary :: Comments Off

Thinking About The Coup

I’ve had the pleasure to read what is quite possibly the most level-headed article about Sunday’s coup d’etat in Honduras. Well worth the read, and hopefully this situation gets resolved soon. A fair resolution would be to reinstate Zelaya in power until his constitutional term ends in January 2010, provided he agrees to obey the constitution. If the Honduran congress wants to remove Zelaya from office after his reinstatement, they should go through some sort of legal impeachment process.

Jeff :: Jun.30.2009 :: News 'n' Commentary :: Comments Off

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Archive for the 'News 'n' Commentary' Category

Wanna Live to 100 Healthy? Handle Stress

One Step Closer to Calvin's Future

U.S. official resigns over Afghan war

Men Are Just Happier People

Michael Vick, Back in the NFL?

This Can't Really Be Happening… Right?

Thinking About The Coup

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