I used to tell my students about the pitfalls that they needed to avoid when they were looking for work and I always fully believed every example I gave them.  I’m finding out that I do actually know what I’m talking about.

One of the interesting things about being unemployed, or self employed as I tell potential employers is the mental state that slowly begins to creep into your mind.  I’ve found that I am more tired, get upset easier and in general I feel ragged and torn.

I have been taking positive steps including studying up on different areas and disciplines in order to round out my gifts and talents.  I’ve also been volunteering to get me out of the house and to actually make a difference while I have the time.  I’m doing well on that front.

The problem with unemployment is that it is almost a self reinforcing dilemma.  You cannot find work so you get upset and no one responds to a person who is upset.  It is as if you are spitting out whatever you drink and then complaining about being thirsty.

I’m still standing and I have a few things in line that look very promising, but I have to remember that I actually do have good advice that I should follow.

As more and more people are beginning to reevaluate wasting money on gifts that they truly cannot afford, people are starting to look at alternatives for their holiday needs.

Some alternatives that are starting to gain ground are gifts of recognition of a person’s particular beliefs and wishes.  One way that this is seen is in the purchasing of acres of forestland, or in donating to non-profit organizations in the name of others.

Many consumers are leaving behind the malls and the black friday events to simply buy what really matters to their loved ones.   Donating money or time in someone else’s name is an economically sound idea and it shows that you actually value that person’s beliefs.

For some ideas on where to look for such unique gifts simply go to a few of the more reputable non-profit websites such as:

Mercycorps.org

Unicef.org

Unitedway.org

natureconservancy.org

The best part of giving to charities is that everyone wins and you do not have to worry about gift receipts.

Read this article and be informed.

The Tajik Solution

Also Happy Thanksgiving.

This disturbing story about another step in a more intrusive government on the rights of journalists is cited in this CBS story about a news organization getting a request from the Department of Justice for information about the users of this website including IP addresses.

The story can be read here.

Now, I am all for free speech and the role of the journalist is sacrosanct in a democracy or representative republic like the States.  We cannot allow the media to be muffled no matter how much we may disagree with what they say.

I can’t stand Fox News for instance, but I’m glad that they are doing what they are doing.  A democracy or representative republic like the States needs conflicting views and debate to shake out the extremists on all sides.  Only through comparison and contrast can we reach a balanced view.

 

I am horrified at what happened at Fort Hood.  Nothing is lower to me than a person who betrays their country and their comrades.  My deepest condolences to the families of all those slain.

I am worried that once again this will turn into a religious thing, instead of just a coward lashing out in fear.  This man apparently from reports did not do this out of religious reasons.  He was a psychiatrist who saw the effects of the war on returning soldiers everyday as a matter of course.

According to the latest reports he was mortified by the thought of being deployed and a few years ago had started trying to get some legal recourse to leave the army before his term of service was fulfilled.

The lawyer that he hired said that there was nothing that could be done and apparently Hasan just put his head down and continued to serve.

So what should the lessons learned from this event be?  Firstly, that war without end against a guerrilla force is not sustainable.  The war in Afghanistan has now gone on for eight years and we are neither safer or more secure.  Iraq is still having problems as well with suicide bombers still hitting crowded markets and urban centers on a monthly basis.  We need to reevaluate our strategy to the point of considering and in my opinion retreating.

Military decisions are based on the facts on the ground not idealism.  I think that the major mistake the president is making is in continuing this fight in Afghanistan.  It is solid military reasoning to retreat under the circumstances of no assured victory.  It would not be a loss of face, but a saving move grounded in reality.

No one will think less of the president for getting us out of a mire that we have been sloughing through for eight years.  We also need to seriously confront the mental harm that our soldiers suffer through in a war zone and the aftermath of being constantly on guard.

 

Today we have found out that due to the rampant election fraud in Afghanistan that President Karzai now has dropped to forty seven percent which according to the Afghan constitution automatically triggers a run off election.  Excellent.  Karzai has been the worst strategic partner we have had to deal with in years.  Even Pakistan is doing a better job and that is saying quite a bit considering how we pandered and dithered with Pakistan for all those years with its military leadership getting millions for absolutely no reason.

Now that a runoff has been declared this will definitely put the Afghan question into a new light.  What if the presidency of Afghanistan goes to Abdullah Abdullah? Mr. Abdullah is the leading opponent of Karzai and from what I’ve been able to read about him, he seems like a reformer who wants to actually make Afghanistan a working country instead of a collection of tribes, a few big cities and hundreds of miles of mountainous ruin.  You can read more about Abdullah here.

My views on the war in Afghanistan are well documented in this very blog, but as a quick reminder…I’m against it.  The war is not being won because we do not have a clear mission, we are fighting a country that held off the second strongest military for over ten years (Soviet Union) and the countryside is made for guerrilla fighters.  Mountains, deserts, plains and crags, dust, storms and plenty of choke points in mountain passes.  In fact in proportion Afghanistan is deadlier to our soldiers than Iraq.

Of course all these arguments mean nothing to a stubborn leadership who has adopted this war as a sign of manliness.  This is the major problem I have with the Obama administration is the seeming continuation and escalation of a war that cannot be won without hundreds of thousands of soldiers and a nation building civilian effort.  Once again lets look at the facts about Afghanistan.  (Taken from the CIA factbook).  Pay attention to the life expectancy and literacy rates…

Nationality:
noun: Afghan(s) adjective: Afghan
Ethnic groups:
Pashtun 42%, Tajik 27%, Hazara 9%, Uzbek 9%, Aimak 4%, Turkmen 3%, Baloch 2%, other 4%
Religions:
Sunni Muslim 80%, Shia Muslim 19%, other 1%
Languages:
Afghan Persian or Dari (official) 50%, Pashto (official) 35%, Turkic languages (primarily Uzbek and Turkmen) 11%, 30 minor languages (primarily Balochi and Pashai) 4%, much bilingualism
Literacy:
definition: age 15 and over can read and write total population: 28.1% male: 43.1% female: 12.6% (2000 est.)
School life expectancy (primary to tertiary education):
total: 8 years male: 11 years female: 4 years (2004)
Education expenditures:
NA

28.396 million (July 2009 est.) country comparison to the world: 44 note: this is a significantly revised figure; the previous estimate of 33,609,937 was extrapolated from the last Afghan census held in 1979, which was never completed because of the Soviet invasion; a new Afghan census is scheduled to take place in 2010
Age structure:
0-14 years: 44.5% (male 7,664,670/female 7,300,446) 15-64 years: 53% (male 9,147,846/female 8,679,800) 65 years and over: 2.4% (male 394,572/female 422,603) (2009 est.)
Median age:
total: 17.6 years male: 17.6 years female: 17.6 years (2009 est.)
Population growth rate:
2.629% (2009 est.) country comparison to the world: 28
Birth rate:
45.46 births/1,000 population (2009 est.) country comparison to the world: 4
Death rate:
19.18 deaths/1,000 population (July 2009 est.) country comparison to the world: 8
Net migration rate:
21 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2009 est.) country comparison to the world: 2
Urbanization:
urban population: 24% of total population (2008) rate of urbanization: 5.4% annual rate of change (2005-10 est.)
Sex ratio:
at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female under 15 years: 1.05 male(s)/female 15-64 years: 1.05 male(s)/female 65 years and over: 0.93 male(s)/female total population: 1.05 male(s)/female (2009 est.)
Infant mortality rate:
total: 151.95 deaths/1,000 live births country comparison to the world: 3 male: 156.01 deaths/1,000 live births female: 147.7 deaths/1,000 live births (2009 est.)
Life expectancy at birth:
total population: 44.64 years country comparison to the world: 214 male: 44.47 years female: 44.81 years (2009 est.)
Total fertility rate:
6.53 children born/woman (2009 est.) country comparison to the world: 4

An interesting article from a book entitled Axis of Convenience by Bobo Lo points out the growing relationship between China and Russia as being both actual and confusing.

The article was posted on Foreign Affairs and you can read it here.

The Unbalanced Triangle

The article also focuses on the American relations with these two powers as well.  We have had a recent surge of relations with China since President Bush was in office and now China is our number two trading partner after Canada.  Some experts believe we may well be on our way to become closer to China than Canada if trends remain the same economically.

I actually am probably going to pick up this book.  If I do I will do a review of it here.

The president has won the Noble Peace Prize this morning in a surprise award that the White House has not even had the chance to respond officially.  Congratulations Mr. President.  Now on to business.  Let’s hope that this will remind the president of what he is about.  He needs to reevaluate the war in Afghanistan, and focus on reducing nuclear arms.  We need to remove ourselves from aggressive foreign soil occupation.  I hope that this prize jolts the president in a way that allows him to change the course towards what he really believes.

Here is the article from the nytimes.

Obama wins Nobel Prize

It started with the government under President Bush hiring a private company of mercenaries called Blackwater and now it is continuing.  In Montana a small town has had a new group of tourists that they did not expect, a police force from a private for profit company named American Police Force.  No you are not in Fascist Germany, you are still here in America where we are starting to use mercenaries in order to police our own cities.

The group has a shoddy, shaddy looking website which you can see here American Police Force (apparently the server is overloaded as I write this) and the group took over a city prison that did not have any inmates.  The townsfolk had no idea this was going to occur and since this is a private mercenary group they do not know what to expect.

Read the article from CBS news.  American Police Force Comes to Town.

This is quite disturbing.  We are not a nation of mercenaries and the fact that they are deployed on our own soil is very disquieting.

Finally some good news in regards to the military.  President Obama has announced that he is not going to follow the Bush era missile defense shield that started the Russian/Georgian conflict earlier last year.  The president has called the prime ministers of Poland and the others and has told them that the defense shield would not in fact be defensive at all.

The decision came after reviewing what the defense shield was supposed to accomplish and realizing that the accomplishments could be made by simpler tactics.  The shield was basically an economic gift from Bush to the eastern european countries and a punch in Russia’s eye as Bush wanted to show once again how tough he was.  I guess two wars wasn’t enough for him.

As you remember in the Russian/Georgian conflict one of the reasons Georgia was so aggressive and trying to reestablish itself in that regions under nominal Russian control was because they felt a strong sense of support from the former president and felt that the time was right as Russia was apparently struggling economically.  Of course they made a huge tactical error as Russia’s military has always been strong regardless of economics.  Russia was one of the few countries were you could not directly tie economic strength with military strength.

So Russia venting some of its bitterness and frustration overpowered Georgia not only to defend themselves, but also to send a message to the world that Russia is not a weak nation.  The assault also served as a warning against western encroachment on the former soviet states into NATO an organization formed after world war two to directly counter the growing strength of the USSR.

Georgia, Ukraine and Poland were all playing with the thought of becoming NATO allies and Russia was not happy about it.  The Georgian war was the perfect foil for Russia to stand up and reenergize its flagging morale.

Here is the article from the NY Times.  Way to go Mr. President.  Let’s spend our military on things that will actually make us safer and by the way we need to get out of Afghanistan.

Missile Defense Shield