nerdgirl

Thanks for that. You, Jerry [lawrocket], or someone else so easily could have .... & perhaps, should have ... called me only my earlier apparent equivocation of vengeance with retributive justice on page 1 of this thread. That was an over-simplification on my part. Vengeance is one possible end of the sprectrum of retributive justice not an equivocation. /Marg Act as if everything you do matters, while laughing at yourself for thinking anything you do matters. Tibetan Buddhist saying

Yes, that's one's of his more famously attributed aphorisms (but you probably knew that

How do you reconcile the argument Mr. MacAskill put forward, which you seem to put forward as well, with the argument synposized by Paul [quade] and Andy [Andy9o8] in the other active thread on this topic? I'm asking not from the "vengeance" standpoint or even "victims rights" standpoint but from the perspective of criminal law, the state, and deterrence. If my understanding of the Scottish legal system as conducted at The Hague is correct (& it may not be ... so please correct me if I'm wrong - it was Scottish law applied at The Hague, not purely international law, iirc), al-Megrahi was convicted on offenses not just against individuals from multiple nations but against the nation. /Marg Act as if everything you do matters, while laughing at yourself for thinking anything you do matters. Tibetan Buddhist saying

Revisiting "the perils of network charts" as illustrative of the problem of making selective connections and inferring correlations. Act as if everything you do matters, while laughing at yourself for thinking anything you do matters. Tibetan Buddhist saying

I Googled "Atlanta citizens police academy" to find the one here. Alternatively, you might call up the PD in your area and ask. Another option, with less committment, is a (patrol car) ride-along. (Unless you have a helicopter too in Westchester. ) There are CPA's all over the country and internationally; the first was in UK in 1977. /Marg Act as if everything you do matters, while laughing at yourself for thinking anything you do matters. Tibetan Buddhist saying

Yeah, I'm thinking that last idea wouldn't be appreciated. (Fun one ... but not one I would choose to pursue.) The issue is potential liability - have to figure out a way to deal with that. I'm workin' on it. /Marg Act as if everything you do matters, while laughing at yourself for thinking anything you do matters. Tibetan Buddhist saying

Over a year ago, [AggieDave] suggested something that I had never heard of before: citizens police academies. I tracked down Atlanta’s Citizens Police Academy and sent off an application. That was 14 months ago. (Enough time has elapsed that one of my references was deployed to and returned from Afghanistan.) Tuesday evening the 15th class of the Atlanta Police Department's (APD) Citizens Police Academy began. A very public thank you to Dave for the suggestion! Without his posting here, it's unlikely that I would have ever heard of it. The most significant motivator for me was to get a better understanding of my local LEO professionally and to be part of my community personally. We're also scheduled to get to go to the shooting range and EOD at the airport and … helicopter ride-along. (Okay, that last one I'm working on.) Got a date for coffee too (unexpected bonus )… altho’, at the moment, I’m more excited by the prospect of a helicopter ride-along. And to keep this resoundly Speakers Corner material, among the things taught thus far: -- Recovery & Reinvestment funds (“the Stimulus”) are enabling the recruitment & hiring of 73 additional officers to the APD, to a total authorization of 1710 officers. Prior to that ATL had been under a hiring freeze. -- There are only six APD officers, all within SWAT, who carry tasers. (I asked what was the origin/reasoning behind that policy … that was the 2nd time the response was “that’s above my pay grade.” -[at myself]) We also got a lecture on don’t bring your guns to the Police Academy or on ride-alongs even if you have a Georgia CCW permit. /Marg Act as if everything you do matters, while laughing at yourself for thinking anything you do matters. Tibetan Buddhist saying

Yes, Rusi Taleyarkhan and sonoluminesce-induced cold fusion or "bubble fusion." I've cited the case a few times (third, for 'few') in SC. It's, im-ever-ho, a great example of debates in science (they're not unprecedented; another fave is the great silylium super-acid debate), the adversarial nature of scientific pursuit, and correcting nature of peer review process, which extends beyond initial review of submitted manuscripts. /Marg Act as if everything you do matters, while laughing at yourself for thinking anything you do matters. Tibetan Buddhist saying

Neat! Thanks for sharing.

"Bubbles hotter than the sun" (One of my old research labs worked on sonoluminescence.) /Marg Act as if everything you do matters, while laughing at yourself for thinking anything you do matters. Tibetan Buddhist saying

Alternatively it works well with a friend and Certs candy or Wint-O-Green Lifesavers too. Used to do that as a Girl Scout Camp Counselor with the campers.

I'm not sure that your "solution" is the same as I would propose/recommend, particularly as I'm not sure what your "solution" is. /Marg Act as if everything you do matters, while laughing at yourself for thinking anything you do matters. Tibetan Buddhist saying

It may not be oficial policy but there are stories in the press about US soldiers having Bibles written in Pashto and Dari languages with the intention of distributing them to the locals in Afghanistan. There are also mentions of soldiers being told by Lieutenant-Colonel Gary Hensley, the chief of the US military chaplains in Afghanistan, that as followers of Jesus Christ, they all have a responsibility "to be witnesses for him". That is a monumentally dumb idea. It looks very much like these idiots are trying to turn the Afghan campaign into a crusade, in the religious war sense of the word. Fucking morons. I am familiar with those actions, as well as others. Understand and agree with the perils of pursuing evangelical actions in Afghanistan or it even being perceived as a "religious war." Nonetheless, “Proselytizing of any religion, faith, or practice” is in direct violation of US Central Command’s General Order Number 1B (GO-1B). That doesn’t mean folks don’t do it. They’re just acting in violation of orders and against military policy. /Marg Act as if everything you do matters, while laughing at yourself for thinking anything you do matters. Tibetan Buddhist saying

Now there's a monumentally stupid idea. *If* the described LCDR (that’s the abbreviation for Lieutenant Commander) is evangelicizing Christianity (“missionary work”), that is counter to US military policy and strategy (counterinsurgency) in Afghanistan as well as domestic Afghan law. That would be personal action on his own. *If* the LCDR is overseeing economic development or rebuilding health or educational infrastructure ("missionary work") or something similar as part of a Provisional Reconstruction Team (PRT) that would be smart and within US policy and strategy (& NATO's too). It is not US or DoD policy to evangelicize Christianity (or the beliefs of any other religious sect). /Marg Act as if everything you do matters, while laughing at yourself for thinking anything you do matters. Tibetan Buddhist saying

More on the origin of Taliban & AQ money that arrived in my inbox this morning: “How Opium Profits the Taliban.” The 44-page report examines who are the main beneficiaries of the opium trade in Afghanistan (Taliban insurgents; warlords; Al Qaeda-affiliated terrorists; and some folks who are motivated more by black-market, capitalist greed ), how traffickers influence the Taliban insurgency as well as the politics of the region, and considers the extent to which narcotics are changing the nature of the insurgency itself. End message: if one only tries to apply conventional tactics, our efforts will not be successful. From the summary: “In Afghanistan’s poppy-rich south and southwest, a raging insurgency intersects a thriving opium trade. … for more than three decades of conflict in Afghanistan—the opium trade has become deeply embedded in the politics of the region. Key players and families tied to opium smuggling, trafficking routes, and methods of laundering drug money have remained remarkably unchanged. So too has the West’s willingness to downplay the problem, repeatedly viewing narcotics as a ‘lesser evil’ to the greater challenge at hand. Since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan, the poppy trade has played a critical destabilizing role, both in corrupting the Afghan government and police and in bankrolling the resurgence of the Taliban. “…Taliban commanders on the village level have expanded their activities related to drugs from collecting extortion and charging protection fees to running heroin refineries and engaging in kidnapping and other smuggling schemes. As insurgent commanders become more deeply tied to criminal activity, it will become more difficult for the coalition of foreign forces in Afghanistan to defeat them. Although there is wide variation across the war theater, drug profits flow up the chain of command within the Taliban and other insurgent and extremist organizations operating along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. These funds appear to play a key role in funding the operational costs of the Taliban and many of these other groups. The “So What? Who Cares?” i.e., why we should care and why this matters, especially for the effectiveness and success of current military missions:“With thousands more U.S. troops deploying to Afghanistan, joined by hundreds of civilian partners as part of Washington’s reshaped strategy toward the region, understanding the nexus between traffickers and the Taliban could help build strategies to weaken the insurgents and to extend governance. … it is no longer possible to treat the insurgency and the drug trade as separate matters, to be handled by military and law enforcement, respectively.” “A key challenge to disrupting these drug profits will be penetrating and breaking up powerful drug networks that bankroll the insurgency and launder dirty money. Most smuggling networks appear to be run by close-knit families and tribes, making them difficult to penetrate. They appear to work with both insurgents and corrupt state actors and their motives are profit, not religion or politics. Another major challenge will be winning back the ‘hearts and minds’ of Afghan villagers whose lives—and livelihoods—have been decimated by the drug trade and the incessant fighting but who also remain hostile toward Western forces [there’s the ‘armed social work part – nerdgirl]. As much as the criminalized insurgency creates challenges, it also presents opportunities. The rising tide of violence and daily misery has made the Taliban deeply unpopular in the south and southwest, and nationwide polls indicate that they and other extremist groups have little support. At this point, the Kabul government and NATO forces are not well respected either, especially in the violence-wracked south. However, a reshaped military strategy that focuses on providing security to the local communities preyed upon by insurgents and criminals, that improves governance, and that provides alternative livelihoods could win public support and with it increased cooperation for fighting the insurgents and criminals. For many rural Afghans, the greatest perceived threat is crime and economic instability, not the insurgency per se.” /Marg Act as if everything you do matters, while laughing at yourself for thinking anything you do matters. Tibetan Buddhist saying

Am pretty darned sure that I wouldn't want to start a new life there, but one general destination that I would love to explore is the Silk Road to the Tian Shan Mountains around the Taklamakan desert. /Marg Act as if everything you do matters, while laughing at yourself for thinking anything you do matters. Tibetan Buddhist saying

And I was going to say Oslo. The Sognefjord area is gorgeous, imo, too, especially near Sogndal ... or Nærøyfjord. Altho' I do have a dream of spending a year in Å or one of the other Lofoten villages just writing, hiking, cycling, kayaking, writing.

Yes, those are estimates (& not just from Kilcullen's latest book, which is fantastic, imo). After the Taliban were removed from (total) control, opium production surged and they (the Taliban) changed their policy as illicit sales became its principal market commodity. President Karzai has rejected US requests for aggressive eradication efforts, i.e., spraying glyphosate, aka “RoundUp.” What has led to a decrease in poppy cultivation for illegal drugs a couple years ago? Increase in food commodity prices. “In parts of Helmand Afghan farmers are this year sowing wheat instead of poppy - not because they have suddenly been converted to the argument that producing heroin is not in the national interest. “Market forces have been the deciding factor - with wheat prices doubling in the past year, and the street price of heroin falling, it is now more cost effective to grow wheat.” The US began significant counternarcotics operations in the fifth year of the GW Bush admin. While that was around the time SecDef Rumsfeld left and SecDef Gates came in (Jan 06), I don't think that change is directly attributable to Rumsfeld's departure. Counternarcotics operations under a number of the PRTs were extremely successful, especially along the border w/Pakistan (Nuristan, Nangarhar, Konar) and Bamian ... but not in the south, i.e., where the Marines are now (as I'm sure you know). Counternarcotics operations have been increased under GEN McKiernan and more so recently under GEN McChrystal. Like most things in the real world, it's more complicated. E.g., Taliban-affiliated groups, which as you likely know are not uniform across Afghanistan, are also known to have asked Afghanis when harvest time was and avoid operations during those times. /Marg Act as if everything you do matters, while laughing at yourself for thinking anything you do matters. Tibetan Buddhist saying

Haven't read either. Will put them on my list. Thanks for the recommendations. /Marg Act as if everything you do matters, while laughing at yourself for thinking anything you do matters. Tibetan Buddhist saying

Just reading the words away from the context of the original poster … I think I’m missing something? I don’t see one sentiment necessarily contradictory to the other. Likely to be a mix of both, imo. Can one also not switch the pronouns? (Or doing it even if he doesn’t clearly understand it’s for him … good partners will recognize it without being metaphorically hit over the head … but, being human, even good partners occasionally [hopefully on the rare occasion side] are oblivious and that's okay/excusable.) But then, again what do I know? … I’m single ... maybe because I use my own credit card for my shopping trips, so I'm not playing the "fare" leverage game. /Marg Act as if everything you do matters, while laughing at yourself for thinking anything you do matters. Tibetan Buddhist saying

Concur. "Counterinsurgency is armed social work" to steal Dave Kilcullen's phrase. /Marg Act as if everything you do matters, while laughing at yourself for thinking anything you do matters. Tibetan Buddhist saying

I don't think his implication is that the physician is intentionally letting the problem get worse so that the hospital will make more in the long run. The idea is that an overworked doctor who does not get paid for spending time on follow-up, monitoring, or preventative medicine in general is not going to do those things as a practical matter. The physician who gets reimbursed for preventative medicine will be able to take more time to help the patient maintain health. That saves everybody money, including the patient, the patient's employer, the insurance company, and even the hospital. i think that is his implication, and it's not the first time he's said it. what about this? “You come in and you’ve got a bad sore throat, or your child has a bad sore throat or has repeated sore throats. The doctor may look at the reimbursement system and say to himself, ‘You know what? I make a lot more money if I take this kid’s tonsils out.’” Part of what sounds like is being described in non-specifics (so I’m not confident of how many different filters it’s gone through and what distortion level pro- &/or con-) was described in an investigative article linked by someone a couple months ago … may have been Matt [idrankwhat] or [DanG] (?). “The Cost Conundrum” describes why one small town in Texas has the most expensive healthcare in America (highest Medicare reimbursement rates) and does _not_ have higher effectiveness of care. It’s actually lower. The cost, in that case, is largely driven by the business model that has come to dominate in that specific city that does reward monetarily more tests and procedures. As the article discusses, with every additional test and procedure there is risk. Small, in many cases, but over time and lots of cases, risk increases, which is what decreases effectiveness. It also describes localities and facilities (such as Mayo Clinic) that have lower healthcare cost, higher effectiveness, and different business models. /Marg Act as if everything you do matters, while laughing at yourself for thinking anything you do matters. Tibetan Buddhist saying

I’m probably the wrong person to try to argue as apologist for torture. You may not have been registered, reading, or seen any of those exchanges tho.’ The officer in question, Janis Karpinski, is female. /Marg Act as if everything you do matters, while laughing at yourself for thinking anything you do matters. Tibetan Buddhist saying

Which threat is that? You might imagine it as the threat to which you’ve asserted “There is going to come a time where OUR COUNTRY needs to commit to being a clear winner in the world.” and “ The world needs a clear winner right now. Badly.” Others can imagine, argue, or dispute other threats, as Sens Graham and Levin do. /Marg Oooh, that must sting Ugh … that wasn’t intended to be snarky. Re-reading it, I can see how it could be read as such. /Marg Act as if everything you do matters, while laughing at yourself for thinking anything you do matters. Tibetan Buddhist saying

Oooh - interesting choice! Why is he all that you described? /Marg p.s. And I'm glad to 'hear' your voice in SC again.