Albania, the US, and Human Greed

I watched this happen from across an ocean, but unlike everyone else who commented on the 'naivete' of the 'desperate Albanian impoverished masses', I knew better then and I know better now.

Various crooks in Albania put together a huge, nationwide Ponzi scheme, which resulted in the usual conclusion: a few mobsters and politicians/strongmen walked away with most of the nation's currency and wealth, and left the rest of the citizens in victimized poverty. The official line from the 'world economists' was that it had happened because, as everyone knew, those naive and ignorant Albanians had just been released from the oppressive yoke of Communism under Enver Hoxha and successors, and thought that this giant Ponzi scheme was Capitalism! Can you imagine the ignorance? How could anyone be so dumb unless they simply didn't know how real Capitalism works? Oh, those poor, deluded Albanians, suckered by schemers as a result of their own ignorance.

Or so the story goes.

However, this is not what actually happened. Anyone who delved a little deeper and talked to anyone on the ground, for real, and asked a few more involved questions would have come up with the following interview:

Q: Why did you invest your life savings in this pyramid scheme?

A: I thought I would get rich, like my cousin, and everyone was doing it! Oh, woe is me!

Q: Where did you think this money was being invested?

A: In our new, great nation of Albania! I believed in my country, and trusted men who were wolves in sheep's clothing! Oh, woe is me!

Q: Don't lie to me. Where did you really think the money was being invested?

A: (Long, suspicious pause) I knew there was no way on Planet Earth you can get returns like that, so we all assumed the money was being invested in hard drugs to sell in Europe, or maybe in some arms deals, or something similar. After all, everyone knew the men running the investment plan were crooks and mafioso. Personally, I thought I could cash out before it collapsed. I misjudged my timing. Oh well, better luck next time.

I happily compare this collapse of Albania to the current collapse in the USA, with similar, if not identical, mindset. Although here, it's unlikely to result in nationwide rioting on a tribal level, with mobs of underground cells looting military bases of every weapon in the country, with the end result of the creation of a viable KLA. Which now runs Kosovo, the most corrupt 'government' in Europe, with full blessing and support of the USA.

Weekend Dad

So L's mom is out of town this weekend, working and socializing HERE.

So, I set all kinds of ground rules with L for what we were going to do this weekend, and how she was going to go to bed early, brush her teeth, clean the living room, etc.

So we ate junk food and stayed up until 2 AM watching BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN. If for some reason you've never seen this movie, make the effort; it's not only one of the weirdest monster/horror movies ever made, I think it's one of the weirdest movies ever made, period.

World War II Re-Enacting...

Erika Shoots a Bren gun.

This is, in my opinion, one of the sexiest videos I've ever seen on Youtube. There is a reason for that, but that's for another post.

Some other thoughts...

I've been to a few of these re-enacting things, always with TSO, and it's pretty common to see some fairly scary firearms handling. It's obvious to me a lot of these people have likely never fired their weapons with anything except blanks. This is particularly apparent in the older time periods, where I strongly suspect a lot of the 'military units' contain people that have never launched a round ball from their muskets.

The positions of the observers with 'Erika' would indicate they're not used to being on a firing line. The camera operator is very obviously past the muzzle of the gun, a dangerous place to be even (possible especially) with blank rounds.

The BREN is probably one of the semi-automatic build guns, and when 'Erika' triggers off a quick sort-of-burst at the beginning of the video clip, it looks suspiciously like bump-fire, or the result of her not holding the weapon tightly enough while working the trigger. The remainder of the rounds are semi-automatic.

I think I would (well, okay, I know I would) have been much more attentive to posture, sighting, trigger press, operation of the weapon, etc. with an inexperienced operator, blanks or not. But I have an unerring knack for taking every last bit of fun out of shooting...

Tenth Hell

I got to talk about the story I've been working on last night at Writer's Group.

(Note: the organizer of the informal group has secured a website, and yesterday afternoon we worked on designing a format for downloading poetry, graphic work, short stories, and works-in-progress to the upcoming site. I'm excited.)

I was looking something up yesterday, and pulled the LONDON A-Z off the shelves, and flipping through the pages for the first time in years I found this piece of notebook paper. I know exactly where I was when I wrote this: sitting in the cafe at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.
Tenth Hell started as a short story, morphed into a graphic novel, and now has come back and is taking shape as a sort of novelette. It's worthwhile noting this piece of paper is from, at this point, 16 years ago.

I was sitting with a cup of white coffee, trying to collect my thoughts and figure out what I was going to do when I returned to 'reality', otherwise known as the USA. I had just written the title 'Tenth Hell' when an elderly man interrupted me, and the story he told me is one I shared with The Lovely Canadian a while ago.

South China Sea, June 1946; Pirates

In a bound volume of National Geographic from 1946 I picked up from the library for free a while back, there is a fascinating photo essay on seagoing mercenaries in China, career escorts for sailing convoys. Their heritage and family purpose was pirate-fighting. Their junks were armed with ranks of muzzleloading cannons taken or bought from sometimes ancient ships-of-the-line. The author/photographer noted casting dates from the 1700s on some of these cannon. This is my favorite picture: British Royal Navy bronze cannon with Broomhandle Mausers.








According to the article, piracy in the seas off China exploded during World War II; the Japanese didn't have the resources to patrol the coasts, and the various navies of the Allies had no interest in the small junks in the coastal waters. Particularly near the end of the war, Chinese pirates armed themselves with looted or stolen weaponry from the combatants, outfitting their craft with Type 99 machine guns, Vickers Guns, and some truly heavy stuff on top of that, like Japanese copies of .50 caliber Brownings and Oerlikon 20mm anti-aircraft cannon.

Evidently, it took quite a bit of doing to even come close to suppressing this activity at the end of World War II.

Kid With Issues.

In a spiral binder pulled out of a recycling bin this morning, while I looked for a piece of paper:

"I saw my birth certificate and U no (sic) where the fathers name is suppose (sic) to be there is no name. But XXXX and XXXX dad signed it but I just don't know if XXXX's my father or not. My mom said that she's not going to tell me until I'm 18".

Cold.

I'm really tired of being cold all the time.

Maybe because I'm getting old, or because my job currently involves a lot of sedentary 'activity', but it just seems like I'm constantly cold. Or it could be because it's winter in Wisconsin, and it's just plain cold!

Other Things I'm Watching.

I like tactical machine guns.

By 'tactical', I don't mean some stupid Maglite or a knife. I mean something you can really use, and that will make a difference. I am reminded of a paraphrased Peter Kokalis quote, "Rifles that shoot full auto waste ammo; real machine guns, properly placed, win battles".

The ZB 26, as seen here (please tune out the bombastic music) was what is called a 'squad automatic'. It is an offensive weapon, designed for covering fire. The British version, the BREN, was to be a squad automatic; by the end of WWII the ambition by the British Army was to have ONE BREN gun for every 8 men.

That's a lot of fire. Believe me.

The Soviet model, based on ideas dating back to WWI, had a suppressive fire idea: not unlike the 'walking fire' idea the French had settled on with the Chauchat. The BAR, by the way, originally was nothing more than a product-improved version of the Chauchat. These squad guns got implemented very differently than their original intents, as always happens; and they developed to be the base of suppressive fire for crawling squads of infantry.

I like heavy machine guns, and I like the planning, thinking, and land tactics that go into placing them. I have no interest at all in the so-called 'glory' of war, and I think in mechanical terms. I'm not a coward, or at least I like to think I'm not, although I always feel like one; I hate being afraid, and in the past I've been so afraid I don't have the vocabulary to describe it.

However, I like heavy machine guns, or at least General Purpose Machine Guns (GPMG's) applied as such, and I appreciate fine machinery; and I like this gun.

We're Number One!

According to the BDN and state stats we have the highest unemployment rate in Wisconsin.

I have a headache.

It was music again, and for last block we used a computer program that is basically a mixing board. It's pretty cool, and very useful in getting the students to recognize and compose with various kinds of instruments.

However, everyone's a rock star, and just dying to share their work with the world at large, and me in particular.

Speaking of art...

I had a 6th grade kid tell me this last week, while doing Art, that he couldn't do the project because he was a boy, and art is for girls, and only girls are good at art. Needless to say, this annoyed me immensely. Not due to his apparent belief, or possible 6th-grade unwillingness to complete the project, but because of his obviously ingrained idea that creative things or art or anything with some culture to it is 'for girls', (as opposed to things that are 'for men').

Don't even get me started about the years I spent not bothering telling anyone around me I drew or painted, as such things were for 'girls' or 'poindexters'. I know this kid spends all his time in an environment in which any creative, artistic impulse is derided, mocked, and suppressed.

So, I told him, "You're perfectly capable of completing this project, and if you are going to tell me you can't be artistic because only girls do that, I'm going to make absolutely sure you finish this work." He didn't get a whole lot done, but he didn't complain again, so that's okay with me.

That kind of thing really is a pet peeve of mine: people who believe, and teach their kids, that school, art, intellectual pursuits, reading, etc. are somehow 'not manly'. How destructive can you get?

UPDATE, 4:47 pm. I just got back from the grocery store and discovered I'd not known it's Superbowl Sunday.