perfidy

So this soldier packed up and moved his family to Canada because he was going to be sent in harm's way. Again. He had already completed a tour in Afghanistan, and was about to be sent to Iraq. His conscience would not allow him be a tool of American oppression (or something), so he ran to Canada. His story is that he enlisted for the college money and to "make a difference", and not so much for the fighting and the icky bits.

Here's the problem: he was in the 82nd. He went to jump school. The article doesn't specify whether or not he was an infantryman, but regardless you don't put yourself through the rigorous training and land a posting in a prestigious airborne unit unless you want to be there. If you are unfamiliar with the 82nd's history of close combat, relentless aggression, and cultivation of the warrior spirit, you're stupid. If you just need a hug, you're in the wrong place.

Furthermore, he decided he was a conscientious objector. That claim would carry alot more weight if he had claimed he was a CO when the recruiter first asked him, early on in the process. Or later, when he signed a document that again asked him whether he was a CO (among other stuff, like if you've ever tried to overthrow the governemnt, that sort of thing). So he wasn't then I guess.

The article quoted him at length discussing how he was unwilling to risk his life for a mission he did not believe in (in Iraq, that is). Again, this kid is a little dense, and missing the fundamentals: it's not up to soldiers to decide which missions they will accept or which they will not. It's the soldier's job to execute them. Yes, there is an ethical dimension, in that all soldiers are sworn to obey the lawful orders of the officers posted over them. If your commander orders you to execute a prisoner, you would not have to obey and indeed would be criminally liable if you did. Getting an order to deploy to Iraq is a lawful order, and Congressional authorization for the conflict is what counts, not the goddamn UN, not Mother Theresa, not Greenpeace, and damn sure not you. There's no conscientiously objecting your way around that.

Finally, if the kid really "wanted to make a difference", as he claims, why not the Peace Corps or Teach for America or Commies for Christ or some such? No, nothing says "I'm here to help" like parachutes and body armor.

Oh, and double-finally: Canada should extradite him, since desertion is a crime there as well as here. He's not so much cowardly, as just dumb.

With any luck I'll have the time to write a long post on the subject. When it comes to running a civil society, much of it boils down to how we handle taxes. We'd all pretty much agree that some level of taxation is necessary...and we'd all agree that paying less is a good thing, and having government do less is a good thing.

I've been studying taxation and incomes. There are some pretty astonishing facts that you rapidly become aware of:

- three quarters of American families pay more in social security taxes than they do in income tax
- the total tax paid must be taken into account (income, medicaid/medicare, social security), and that's federal stuff
- inflation-adjusted income since 1970 has risen only 4% for the bottom 99%
- inflation-adjusted income since 1970 for the bottom 80% of earners has actually fallen slightly
- inflation-adjusted income since 1970 for the top 0.01% of earners has risen by over 400%
- tax burdens as a percentage of income are roughly equal, at all income levels; the rich do NOT pay more taxes as a percentage of income
- tax cuts for the rich are financed with social security revenues, which are exclusively collected from the poor and middle class
- repeals of inheritance tax were pitched as "save the farm"; there has not been one documented instance in the last 20 years of a farm being lost due to the inheritance tax.
- AMT is going to be a huge problem in a few years, because its formulas are not adjusted for inflation. AMT works by denying deductions; you cannot take a deduction for having a child, for example. The basic AMT deductions haven't increased; as such dramatically more people are subject to it. Bush could have used tax cuts to free middle class families from AMT, but he didn't...

Until you're in the top 1% of earners in the country, you haven't seen any real income increase in 1970 dollars.

How do the rising deficit, deficits as a percentage of GDP, and revenue projections all factor into this? Very badly, of course.

But not if you're at the very top...everything is fabulous. You've gotten the best tax legislation money can buy...

Dennis Powell has an interesting idea. Sell or give the Hubble Space telescope to a private foundation, and let them raise the money for a rescue mission. He argues that it would remove pressure from NASA at this awkward stage, and be a useful test case for more general space privatization. And hey, it might save Hubble. And that would be a good thing.

I see on Fark that Disney has bought the Muppets. Dammit!

I know and understand perfectly that the Muppet franchise just hasn't been the same since Jim died, but this is a final insult I'd rather not see. Disney is well known for rapaciously exploiting its trademarks, sometimes illegally (see Pooh, Winnie The), and although I doubt the Muppets can sink any lower than doing a Pizza Hut commercial with that woodenheaded twit with boobs they call Jessica Simpson I'm sure I will continue to be surprised by the depths Disney can achieve.

What would Statler and Waldorf say?

I have taken the liberty of adding John and Belle have a blog to the blogroll at right.

As an introduction, here is an excellent post on This whole conservatives in academia thing.

[wik] Speaking of conservatives: Via Volokh, I see that Kieran of Crooked Timber has discovered that David Horowitz has drifted deep, deep into moonbat territory never to return. Jeez. Back away slowly.

Bruce Schneier is a very well-respect cryptographer and writer on security policy in general. He's got a short essay here on security trade-offs which is well worth reading. I've read his book on the subject as well.

The point is, we can give new powers to our federal agencies with ease...but what are we really getting in return? We need to look very closely at freedoms that are lost, and at the potential for abuse that we introduce into the system.

For each of these powers, we need to look at the checks and balances. If someone goes "bad", what kind of abuse can this new power generate? If history teaches us anything, it's that the answer cannot be that we simply must trust those in positions of authority. The whole structure of government in this country is designed to eliminate single points of failure.

The first season of Chapelle's Show will be available on DVD 24 Feb 04. Run, don't walk. Amazon has it for cheap if you pre-order. Which means to order before you order I guess.

"Mad Real World" had me in tears, as did the crackhead doing the D.A.R.E appearance at the elementary school.

Buckethead noted this weekend that Canadians were outraged by the antics of Triumph, the Insult Comic Dog during Conan O'Brien's recent Canada trip.

Oh, please. I love Canada and Canadians. I really do. I'd fit in there. But the nation has a little bit of an inferiority thing. Any time a Canadian of any stature comes up in conversation, whether it's Mike Meyers, Neil Young, or Winnipeg mayor Glen Murray, any Canadian present in the conversation is required by law to say, "Ya know, they're Canadian."

Yes, we know. And they're probably funnier and play better guitar than Americans, too. And yes, we know about Smarties and how great fries are with gravy and cheese, and of course the Maple Leaves, the Rough Riders, and the Rough Riders are the greatest sports teams in the history of sport.

But please, Canada, grow a pair. Check out what Triumph said to Quebecois last week that caused all the fureur:

"So you're French and Canadian, yes? You're obnoxious and dull."

"I can tell you're French, you know. You have that proud expression, that superior look, and I can smell your crotch from here."

Now that's comedy. I have to say, my reaction is summed up best by Toronto Star columnist Vinay Menon: "I can't believe this country was successfully baited by a damn hand puppet."

Me neither.

The Telegraph says this is the woman who will derail the Kerry candicacy: 

Bill Clinton spoke in Qatar recently; I think you'll find the speech well worth reading. What he says resonates with me.