Found on the Internet

A surprising story, told in three parts by a policeman, an EMT, and a nurse. I still can't make out whether the narrated set of events all happened on one night, or represents several different cases pooled together for maximum effect.

At minimum, the three authors kept good notes. Their collaboration produced (almost inadvertently, it seems) a strikingly graphic picture of the hazards of driving drunk.

Also discovered at one of those three sites: a recounting of a discussion on carrying guns for self-protection. That discussion includes two police officers, one of whom eschews carrying a weapon when off-duty.

I have found that it is easy--almost too easy--to imagine that since I have never needed to defend my life, it likely won't happen soon.

This attitude is a belief, not a known fact; the belief is based on an assumption which has been shown to be false for many thousands of people during the past year. Yet the number of victims is small enough that the threat can be ignored--mostly.

So I must remind myself that I do not carry a concealed weapon because I suspect that I will meet trouble today. Neither did I expect to suffer in a car collision today, yet I wore a seatbelt when I drove.

I carry because of the extremely high cost of being without a weapon when violence is imminent.

Poseur?

[UPDATE: The best words yet penned about Pvt. Beauchamp and his writings.]

The episode of Pvt. Scott Thomas Beauchamp originally spawned claims that he was most likely a poseur. The examples given by the student of writing were all of Fine Arts students who falsely claimed to have previous experience in a dangerous job--whether police, fireman, or military.

The label of poseur was given to such people because their claim of experience was false. The false claim was typically connected with a particular writing style, one very similar to Pvt. Beauchamp's.

Beauchamp has one advantage over such authors: he has actually served in the military. However, both his personal blogging and his writings for news publication contained elements of fiction masquerading as fact.

If the definition of poseur is restricted to person posing as a member of the military, Then Pvt. Beauchamp is not a poseur.

If the definition of poseur is given as person pretending to possess experiences which do not correspond to his actual experience, then Pvt. Beauchamp may be indicated as a poseur. (It is highly probable that the official investigation of the information presented in The National Review The New Republic will produce no corroborating information...confirming Pvt. Beauchamp's status as poseur.)

[UPDATE: thanks to a commenter for pointing out my wrongful disambiguation of the initials TNR.]

It's not the image that was originally presented as the possible profile of "Scott Thomas", before his identity became known. However, it fits the general description of poseur.

Shades of Rathergate

UPDATE: It appears that this young man is actually Pvt. Scott Thomas Beauchamp. He may have a BFA degree. At the very least, he was submitting attempts at poetry to student-arts journals when he was in college. (However, in defense of John Barnes, most MFA students were once BFA students. Every case he has seen previously was an MFA student; probably because BFA-holders who display this pattern of writing rarely come to his attention.)

A significant amount of heat (and a little light) is being generated by the writings of one Scott Thomas, guest-writer at The New Republic.

So far, most of the questioning has been by military experts, especially officers in the field who claim that the most shocking stories consist of lies.

Today, some blogger linked to a posting by John Barnes on an Amazon blog. (Amazon.com hosts blogs? Strange...) Barnes plays the role of an expert in an obscure field who may be able to discover who Scott Thomas really is.

The data presented are sketchy.; the results are heavily dependent on Barnes' unique knowledge-base; the conclusion is conjectural. But the case Barnes presents is compelling. After listing an important group of symptoms seen in Scott Thomas's writing, Barnes says

I see manuscripts with all nine of these symptoms...about a half dozen times per year.... And they all come from pretty much the same sort of person:

He (it is always a he) is an MFA candidate or recent graduate at one of the big-name creative writing programs in the USA, sometimes in poetry, usually in fiction, and increasingly in "creative non-fiction" .... Usually he is in his mid-twenties and is probably among the bright stars in the tiny constellation (and complicated pecking order) that MFA programs create. His particular niche in that social ecology will be the Big Talent With Big Balls, a role that requires some claim to a "dangerous" or "edgy" past, meaning some connection to interpersonal violence and to having seen some gruesome sights.

The full article is worth reading for its eye-opening look at writing styles and social position. It also sheds some significant light on a possible explanation for Scott Thomas and his stories.

We have not heard the end of Scott Thomas. However, we may have heard from the technical expert who can unravel the truth of the case.

Riot Duty

Two separate stories came to my attention late last week.

One was of riots that rocked the city of Detroit in 1967. My current abode is in the Detroit Metro region; I could not avoid the news, the recollections, and the public speeches about this event.

The other was of riots that shook Los Angeles in 1991. This event was one that also shocked the nation.

The Detroit Riots had a significant effect on the region. They also mark a reversal of an old good image that Detroit had for Black people. The city of Detroit was once a significant node in the Underground Railroad. The easy access to Windsor, Canada which was offered by the Detroit River made it the meeting place for many smugglers of escaped slaves.

The strange roads of history led the city down a darker path. The Northern cities of the 19th Century had educated Blacks, mostly the children of freedman, mingling somewhat freely with whites. During the first few decades of the 20th Century, the situation was changed by the migration of Blacks from Southern farms into Northern cities. As was described by Thomas Sowell in one of his books, these migrants were culturally unprepared for life in the city. The social pressures brought about by this migration gave rise to many racist practices and laws. Other pressures unique to Detroit during the Second World War spurred riots in the 1940's. A combination of abusive police practice, mistrust of city government, and reaction to misuse of eminent domain authority encouraged more riots in July of 1967.

These riots began a process that is now almost complete: the migration of non-Blacks and middle-class Blacks out of the city of Detroit and into the suburbs. This other side of this process was a continuing increase of crime of all kinds in the central city, with little corresponding increase in crime in the suburbs.

To this day, there is a noticeable difference in atmosphere between Detroit neighborhoods and the first echelon of neighboring suburbs. The difference in atmosphere manifests itself in crime, police presence, and police response times. It is also manifest in smaller things: many neighborhoods in Detroit are rife with locked bars over windows, a lack of friendliness towards unfamiliar people, and a lack of effort towards cleaning up vandalism and litter in parks and other public spaces.

It is likely that the riots in L.A. will have repercussions for many decades. The specific nature of those repercussions is hard to speculate one. However, citizens of L.A. and its environs have probably already seen the general trends that Detroit has seen--a seemingly-endemic crime problem, trouble keeping police officers in the city when the suburban Police Departments can offer better pay, and a cycle of distrust between citizens and police.

One difference which might be noted between the Detroit and the Los Angeles riots is the proliferation of this type of story. (Courtesy of Kevin at the Smallest Minority.)

The narrator of those stories learned first-hand that police cannot always be depended on to protect the public when rioters go wild in the streets. The population of Detroit and its suburbs didn't become home to a new generation of self-defense enthusiasts--at least, not to my knowledge.

There is an active population of self-defense enthusiasts in the state of Michigan. However, this seems to be reflective of a national trend more than a response to the '67 riots.

Is this national trend part of the national response to events like these two riots? Or is it a response to the way in which police power and courts seemed unable to stem the tide of a crime wave for many decades?

It is hard to discern. However, I do know that a riot is not required as a reason to arm one's self. The rights and duties of a citizen in preserving public order are reason enough to be armed.

Sock-Puppetry and Alter Egos

This afternoon, I read that a high-ranking Iraqi in the leadership of Al-Qaeda-in-Iraq had been captured.

Information that was given by the captured man showed that one of the (ostensibly) Iraqi terrorist organizations which cooperated with Al-Qaeda-in-Iraq was a sock-puppet. An actor (controlled and given scripts by the director of AQI) played the role of Omar al-Baghdadi, head of the Islamic State of Iraq. Al-Baghdadi was seen giving direction to the AQI, but the directions were the direct result of the AQI leader's sock-puppetry.

The AQI head, a man named Abu Ayyub al-Masri, is still at large. However, this news bodes ill for his future control of the AQI organization. This news definitely provides a fracture point in his control of Iraqi-native terrorist agencies.

This also shows one of the larger patterns that has been developing in the Iraq war. The significant successes are as much in the arena of controlling and using information in counterinsurgency combat.

EDIT AFTER FURTHER THOUGHT:
My original thought was, this species of sock-puppetry shows a decided lack of confidence on the part of the AQI leadership.

Other thoughts are that the alliance between Iraqi natives and the outsiders (represented by ISI and AQI, respectively) is much shakier than it originally appeared.

However, my thoughts keep on returning to the information-theory side of this. There may have been suspicion about al-Baghdadi, but there was no certainty until one of al-Masri's associates was brought in.

Like in the case outlined here, it is very clear that in a network-based, decentralized war effort, you can't always be sure who your compatriots are.

Change of Pace

Over the past 5 days, a considerable amount of time has been spent with visiting family. (These are the family members who have spent the last two years living on another continent; I missed a chance to visit them over Christmas. For several reasons, they are taking an extended summer vacation here in the States before another 2-year stint in the same location.)

One of the surprising aspects of their visit was the change of pace in the household. Though everyone involved grew up here in the States, I can see that those who lived extensively overseas have adopted a different lifestyle. We barely touched the television during their stay; they were much more interested in conversation around a board-game than in watching television together.

This pattern of events also discouraged blogging.

While this set of events is now past, other events may cause an interruption in blogging in the next few days.

Gambling

Last week, I began betting on something.

It could be argued that I gambled with someone else's money, or in collusion with them.

But this gamble is related to the terms of my employment, and the money that the company sets aside is money that is effectively part of my salary (from the company's perspective). It is one of the costs associated with my hiring.

The gamble is a method of arranging payment for health coverage.

We (employer and employee) pay a sum of money to an organization, and said organization agrees to pay at least 90% of a specific set of health-care costs for me.

The organization wagers that, in the long run, their fees will extract more money from us than they actually have to pay in medical expenses. (Actually, I suspect that the organization's income includes interest earned on capital held in their accounts...but said interest could be ours if we could hold it in similar accounts.) We wager the reverse.

This complex wager, when carried out by an insurance company armed with an appropriately-large array of actuarial experts, usually results in significant financial gain for the company. That company's clients typically gain some peace of mind about funding for medical needs.

Overall, this gamble doesn't seem bad.

However, current business practice, and law make it very hard for me to take up a different wager on my own. My choices are extremely limited by the choices my employer has made. Unless I change employers, I will have a hard time taking part in a program like a Health Savings Account.

For various reasons, this setup is part of a gigantic maze of legal issues surrounding health-care payment in America. Overall, the system is remarkably good, though it seems bent towards increasing the profitability of the insurance companies and lawyers more than providing health care.

My biggest complaint is the way in which health-care coverage is tied to employment. If I were to find a health-insurance plan that had the options I desired (rather than the ones my employer put together as a benefits package), that insurance company wouldn't be able to cover me until I lost my current job.

That, in essence, is why I dislike the current health-insurance system in America.

The new Lady

A couple of posts above, I noted the passing of a lady. Said lady originally manifested as an automobile, and gradually grew into her role before bowing out of service.

She has been replaced with a vehicle much closer to my ideal--a used (good condition) Jeep Cherokee.

The new lady (whom I feel tempted to name chérie, giving her a French title that is reminiscent of the American Indian name) has many fine qualities. A good engine, solid 2-wheel and 4-wheel drive, and responsive handling on the road are joined to a promise of capable handling off-road. Plenty of cargo area is available, and a good cargo rack surmounts the vehicle's upper frame.

At a bare minimum, she satisfies two different desires at once--the needs to have a dependable vehicle for normal driving, and the need to have a vehicle which can support wilderness trips and hunting expeditions.

However, I don't believe that I properly know the strengths, or weaknesses, of the new vehicle yet. That knowledge is best born of time.

Still, the future looks promising.

Poison in the Well

It ought to be no secret that a significant disconect now exists between America's governing class (the policymakers, staffers, executive officials, and legislators) and the general populace.

At least, this disconnect is very evident over the policies surrounding immigration.

The breadth and depth of this disconnect has been growing for some time. Perhaps there is significant spillover from other problem spots.

Thirteen years ago, a freshman class of Senators and Representatives promised a new kind of majority in Congress. It rapidly devolved into the kind of majority that had been seen previously--no efforts were made to limit Congressional terms, reign in entitlement and earmark spending, or decrease corruption in politics.

Twenty-one years ago, a fix for illegal immigration problems was offered to the American people. The fix was a two-part process: one part carrot, one part stick. Somehow, the second part never materialized.

These two examples fit into a larger pattern--a pattern where the legislators and executives seem bent on doing things their way, even after they promise the public that they are going to change the status quo and clean up the nation's capitol.

However, immigration policy seems to be the issue which brings this distrust and disconnect out in sharpest relief.

An instructive look at this disconnect is visible in the article Mexifornia by Victor Davis Hanson, and its sequel Mexifornia, Five Years Later.

The simplest explanation for the policies that brought illegal immigrants into America by the hundreds of thousands every year is that the costs of the policies were never seen by the policy-makers, and the apparent benefits are only too visible to them and to influential lobbyists--whether rich business owners or the friends of La Raza. As Hanson mentions in his articles, the costs are seen in subtle and not-so-subtle ways by many millions of truck drivers, carpenters, agricultural workers, legal immigrants, and ordinary citizens who must deal with the violent and the lawless among the illegal immigrants.

It is also obvious that a large number of the illegal immigrants in America would be honest, hardworking, fully legal immigrants if such a position were easy to achieve. But legal immigration is a challenge for a highly-educated middle-class person who has been studying in American Universities for many years. It is nearly impossible for people from the Mexican underclass.

All these facts come together with the knowledge that Congress tried to fix the immigration problem. The attempted fix was (again) long on carrot, short on stick. The last legislation about a partial wall along the Mexican-US border is being enacted in the real world at a pace reminiscent of a glacier or a snail.

Perhaps the suggested fix was a good one. But the disconnect that was already in place caused many people to suspect that it was bad. All the standard promises about how good this fix would be sounded familiar to the voters--just like all the previous times when Congress had disappointed the people.

The well of trust in the government has been poisoned. Will the poison ever be removed? If so, when? What will the people of America do between now and then to bring the government (especially Congress) to heel?

Will the people of the nation try to initate their own version of the 1950's Operation Wetback? What political and social unrest will follow if that is the case?