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Crimean affair is just another day of the wolf and the sheepdog running the hen house

We Americans always get ourselves in a tizzy when Russia turns to the provocation that it has shown over many years. It is too bad we didn’t get ourselves as worked up when George W. Bush invaded Iraq under false pretenses, thus destabilizing the entire Southwestern Asia region.

I am no fan of Vladimir Putin. When Bush said upon visiting with the Russian leader at the president’s Texas ranch that “I was able to get a sense of his soul.” That was supposed to be something good. I think, as is the case with many of W’s exploits, he had a great misreading of what the Bush perceived as his Russian counterpart’s soul.

Just as was with the case with Iraq — bolstered by Fox News and a mainstream media that was too lazy or foolish not to check out our claims — there is reportedly much support for the Russian invasion and occupation of Crimea. That goes for both many Russians as well as Ukrainians in name only (UINO) traditionally of Russian heritage. In fact, former Soviet Union leader Nikita Khrushchev’s daughter believes that many of the older residents of Crimea are still angry that Khrushchev gave Crimea back to the Ukraine 60 years ago.

This world has complicated relationships among its residents. Just imagine how those Texans would feel who moved to the Mexican state of Tamaulipas in the 70s for cheap living and good fishing, only to have the United State annex it today. Well, some residents would be pretty damn happy about it. Then given the area’s interactions with other settlers and invaders, others would be understandably outraged.

Ms. Kruschcheva’s interview provides some interesting thoughts on the Russian move into Crimea. That includes the Russian people  and their thinking of the past as almost a dogma. Another National Geographic article adds yet another layer to the story that is the move made by Russia into Crimea. It’s a gas. No, I am really talking about gas. Yet another petroleum product over which world leaders can go crazy!

Russia, like it’s predecessor the Soviet Union, is a natural enemy of the U.S. That is how many see it who explore realpolitik for a living. Often, those adversarial relations can often be compared to the old Warner Bros. cartoon featuring Ralph the Wolf and Sam the Sheepdog. Each morning the two go to work, doing their thing. Ralph steals chickens and battles Sam daylong as the sheepdog fights tooth and nail to protect his flock. At the end of the day, they punch out on the clock.

Ralph says: Good night, Sam! Sam says: Good night Ralph!

President Obama and the EU will get all huffy with Russia. Putin will be his blustery self. Hopefully, the casualty count will remain few. Russia and its long-time semi-ally and partial foe, the U.S. clock out on another day of running the world.

Good night, Vladimir! Good night, Barrack!

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From acorns grow mighty oaks and budding sociologists

A random listicle I was reading last week was one of zillions opining on worthless degrees when it comes to current jobs. Among those areas of study were journalism, of which I am or was one, and sociology. I majored in journalism and one of my two minors was in sociology. I can’t remember whether political science was in the list/story, if so I suppose I could award my self a hat trick on useless college studies.

Sociology was, for me, a true minor with the minimum hours. In my political science studies I added on some additional courses after college, falling a course or two short of a degree in political science. But why, huh?

Corporations in the number business — including non-profit think tanks and universities — as well as government should hire unspecified numbers of sociologists sometime in the future. When and how many I don’t know. The communication explosion of digital technology and the internet has happened in a very brief time, relatively speaking, creating an entirely new set of societal behaviors. Everything from buying apps to texting in movie theaters (and getting fatally shot) to the use of Facebook as opposed to Google+ have made social subjects ripe for study. That the cultural aspects of our society have so rapidly changed may soon become as limiting a factor in our daily life as it is a helpful one. That was kind of the whole enchilada as to what sociologist and author Alvin Toffler wrote in his 1970 book “Future Shock.”

The term “future shock” was used by Toffler to describe the effects of perceiving too much change in too little time. That is a very simplistic definition and the effects are many with varied signs that are too numerous to pass along here. But he hit the proverbial bulls-eye almost 45 years ago when it comes to outcomes of what he termed a “post industrial society” such as stress and disorientation. Such were examples of the “information overload” Toffler foresaw.

In some ways the social aspects may occur too quickly to study but a ultra-micro sliver of life. That is generally how many, if not, most scientific approaches are in studying society. However, it might just test the limits of time. I’ve always thought time as great fodder for sociological study, by the way.

The job-seeker of today, the one with worthless sociology degrees, facing the end of college or living in a post-collegiate world, must study and study with intensity what that person can do for a prospective employer with their study of sociology. A master’s degree, something I never attained, is ideal. But a sociologist with a bachelor’s degree can also think hard about what fields of study might enhance a company and its products. Then, it is up to one’s own guile as to whether he or she can seal the deal. This is basically the journeyman newspaper writer’s approach to a story, complete with often selling the product as a freelancer or even as a staff writer who comes up constantly with stories they’d like to pursue for whatever reason. This might not always land you a cool job or assignment. But it will definitely might just move you ahead provided you don’t somehow screw up outside your narrow life as a sociologist or reporter.

This all is pretty much off the wall and if I miss in a few areas, well pardon me. I can only afford to self-edit and that is often in a flash. So I’ve given you some of my nuggets, well, maybe not nuggets, but whatever I’ve given you feel free to take them and use them how and if you see fit. Don’t call me if it backfires.

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Military intervention and friendship tend to change world awareness

For so long the many trouble spots in the world just seem to come and go through my psyche like an unexpected meteor shower in some unfamiliar locale. For example, some seven or eight years ago I briefly kept up with the saga of a military coup d’état in the South Pacific island nation of Fiji. The only reason I paid as little attention to it as I did was having visited the country’s capital, Suva, for some 17 hours when my Navy warship docked there in 1977.

Suva was an odd, but peaceful place back then. The presidential palace for the former British colony was guarded, at the time, with a lone soldier outfitted in a red uniform shirt and a white sari. He had a long weapon at his side. I was just looking at the Kodak Instamatic picture I took of him and, while I always remembered the soldier with a spear at his side, a look today at the photo has me leaning more toward something like an M-1 carbine. It was an English-speaking country but with the scant amount of time both officer and enlisted sailors ended up in what appeared to be the only nightclub open on a Suva Sunday night. It would not surprise many older salts and perhaps a good many of those in the present, but there were plentiful hangovers to go around at morning quarters the next day, just prior to getting underway.

It was only a few moments ago when scanning a Wikipedia page that the nation of Fiji had two previous coups between the time I visited and the one of which I write in 2006.

South Sudan President Salva Kiir Mayardit
South Sudan President Salva Kiir Mayardit

With that somewhat sordid background comes the news of the current conflict in South Sudan. I must confess that many of the uprisings in that part of the world must have something sufficiently mind-shaking for me to perk up and pay attention. I mean no disrespect nor lack of passion but the truth is that bad things happen all over the world, some closer to home than others. And I speak figuratively when I say “closer to home.” If our military becomes involved, my attention toward the story grows. Certainly, if someone I know or who is from my “neck of the woods” I will likewise tend to read a bit closer or listen somewhat more intently.

So across the oceans we go to South Sudan. First, I read of our military involvement — helping ensure the safe passage of Americans — although it is still difficult to determine just what in the hell is going on there. A bit on that later, but first we go to Facebook.

Sometimes I disinterest myself from Facebook for long periods of time. It keeps me from just completely dropping out — and from not just Facebook. So I check on an old FB friend, actually I first knew him when he was employed as an attorney to represent my media company and me in a defamation suit. And he was not just a run-of-the-mill lawyer. He was high-powered, D.C., First Amendment legal talent. The federal judge over the case threw the suit out into oblivion where it belongs.

I knew Michael, the attorney, was doing some pro bono work in the Balkans but as I said, I just kind of lost touch. The next thing I know, I look on his Facebook page and he is evacuating from South Sudan where he had been helping that brand new government take shape as a constitutional entity. Such noble endeavors in some often difficult circumstances are all part of the job for Michael, now part of a globe-trotting pro bono legal firm. I never knew that such an animal existed. But I am happy for the work my friend and his cohorts do. Most of all, and as I wrote on his Facebook page, I am happy he is back home and safe.

Just what is this whole conflict about in South Sudan? I’m still reading about that. There are tribal issues and, made clear by the fledgling nation’s head of state, President Salva Kiir Mayardit, more than a little cattle rustling. One doesn’t think of cattle rustling as a concern in a nation neighboring Ethiopia, Kenya and, of course, Sudan. That is until one sees an official photo of President Kiir in his ten-gallon hat that was given to him by none other than Cowboy George W. Bush.

Yes, I will continue to follow what happens in the South Sudan. Now, at least to me and at least for the time, not just another African hotspot.

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Happy Holidays — WWJT?

Watch out everyone! The liberals are out to steal your Christmas again. They already stole your flawless healthcare system. Next thing you know they’ll come for your kids.

Yes, just as Christmas trees and mistletoe have come to signify the approaching holidays, so has the right-wing’s pre-Christmas hysteria that the liberals want to abolish the celebration of Jesus’ birth. Some folks are always up in the air, more and more each year, at the thought a vast conspiracy exists to exchange the greeting of “Merry Christmas” with the more secular “Happy Holidays.”

Now I don’t know how long the term “Happy Holidays” has been around. It may have started or at least gained prominence with the popular Irving Berlin World War II tune “Happy Holiday.” The song was sung by Bing Crosby in the film “Holiday Inn.” The film title supposedly inspired the name for the hotel chain. Part of the song’s meaning expressed the wish that the joy of the Christmas and New Year’s season could last all year. It certainly must have been a bittersweet song for Berlin considering one particular Christmas past.

Berlin came from a Belarus-Jewish background and though known as America’s first Jewish songwriter, he and his Catholic wife celebrated Christmas while their children were growing up though they stopped the practice once the children were grown. Though “celebrating” the holiday it was surely a sad occasion for the couple. Their only son died on Christmas Day in 1928 at the age of three-weeks-old. Berlin, of course, wrote a number of other popular songs relating to Christian holiday themes such as “White Christmas ” and “Easter Parade” as well as “God Bless America.”

I never really thought much about the greeting “Happy Holidays” any more than I did “Season’s Greetings.” I found it a practical wish for those who celebrate both Christmas and New Year holidays. I can understand those of faith who see Christmas the more important of the two. Though as I also grew up I came to understand the celebrations of other faiths during the “Season,” for instance the Jews.

What I can’t understand is why many who profess they are Christians today back Israel? I say that because I remember many Christians I knew while growing up found little tolerance for Judaism, or even some religions within the realm of Christianity for that matter.

Granted, the celebration of Christmas does not carry the gravitas for me as it does for those who profess Christianity. I see Christmas more as a secular holiday, while I also celebrate the birth of Jesus who I see as a great prophet. I like and always have liked New Year’s for the revelry and the day to toast that the coming year will be better than the last.

Frankly, I sometimes wonder what Jesus would think about people so bent out of shape over semantics when it comes to “how” one should greet others in celebration of his birth. Jesus just never seemed as if he let petty matters get to him. And, in a world where there always is turmoil, would not its people do much better by focusing on those things that perhaps Jesus viewed as more important?