Garden

When I first posted about our garden, it was orderly and the tomatoes and beans sat petitely in our postage stamp plot. After Phish, we returned to an unruly, yet impressive, garden. Three of our tomato plants exploded. Two stand nearly five feet with a third that isn't far behind. We never, in our wildest dreams, expected the plants to skyrocket. As a reminder, we cleared the area of vines and ivy, turned the soil, and spread enriched compost that was then worked into the soil.

Our cilantro never amounted to much. Possibly the direct sun killed its chances. The basil and parsley took well, and our beans grew to our expectations and taste even better. Our heirlooms are our pride and joy, even though the best they've shown are a few green fruits. Where we planted three tomato plants (two cherokee purples and one black from tula), the pre-existing soil smelled funny and looked slightly ashen, causing us to express some doubts about its quality. To our surprise, that area has, by far, produced the most growth. One of our brandywines was pummeled by hail and the other is tall but with few flowers. The jury's still out on green from zebra. We used a poor cage and the plant bent despite our efforts to straighten its tines.

So here are a few pictures of our unruly garden. There's no easy way to take photos due to its size and the tomatoes' sprawl.

Andrew Bacevich, COIN, and the Direction of US Warfare in Afghanistan and Beyond

Think tanks and administrations have a traditionally porous border, which in and of itself isn't too surprising considering the nature of policy experts in think tanks such as Heritage, Cato, Brookings, Council on Foreign Relations, and the newly formed Center for a New American Security. CNAS, formed in 2007, is picking up some of my favorite bloggers and assembling them into an exciting institution: Abu Muqawama and now they poached Marc Lynch from foreign policy. They've assembled a fine list of experts and academics in this fledgling organization that has sent its members to the Obama administration. CNAS is known for fancying counter insurgency (COIN) theory and warfare as it plays out in the laboratories of Iraq and Afghanistan, and focuses on Asia and the Middle East. I'm curious to see what they produce and if they can survive in the long-term.

As one could expect, Andrew Bacevich, one of favorite contemporary thinkers and historians, is moving in similar circles even though his message rejects the Bush and Obama administrations' diplomacy and direction, and he seems wary of any approach that treats COIN as a panacea. Rob at Arabic Media Shack condensed Bacevich's recent LAT op-ed "Obama's Strategic Blind Spot" and his several points that center on one aspect: there is no change in strategy, rather one in tactics that avoids reevaluating America's role in the world. Bacevich's "Best Intentions: An Appreciation of Graham Greene" in World Affairs is also enlightening, sharp read. According to the folks at The American Conservative, Bacevich's recent talk at a CNAS event leveled the crowd with the lack of his triumphalist COIN glossolalia and his advice that the US should lessen its international prominence. As you can guess, he apparently was the contrarian who spoke uncomfortable truths that didn't jive with the tenor of previous discussions on how COIN is going to save the world. I should mention that I have some doubts about TAC's reporting and how their bias influencs their conclusions on CNAS considering they exist on opposite sides of the political aisle.

I don't think of Bacevich as an historian who mines archives, sifting through dusty memcons and telcons for the truth of the matter. His works investigate contemporary or recent history. As I've posted before, Bacevich is an acolyte of William Appleman Williams, Charles and Mary Beard, and what is referred to as the Progressive School in foreign policy history and American history. So it was no surprise that Bacevich wrote the introduction to the newest edition of Williams' Tragedy of American Diplomacy. Despite my extreme admiration for Bacevich and his work, I don't know that policy retrenchment or shrinking is the solution nor is it compatible for international affairs. Who will take over the US' role as hegemon? Could chaos ensue? Who is going to guarantee that Wienerschnitzel remains one of the strongest multi-national corporations?

The US needs the world, but the worlds needs the US even if the Bretton Woods order is dead and the American security umbrella is in a poor state. Before Bacevich espoused his grand dream for a conservative (in the true sense of the word) diplomacy and military role, another historian advocated for a similar tack. Michael H. Hunt--emeritus professor of American foreign relations history at the University of North Carolina--rejected American gallavanting in the wake of Vietnam. In an afterword to the newest edition of his classic Ideology and U.S. Foreign Policy, Hunt admits that he was wrong.

The US is not implicated in world affairs in such a deep and complex fashion that a retreat is hard to imagine and if attempted might produce dire consequences overseas, notably a breakdown of global integration, with international anarchy a likely prospect. Moreover, an assertive US nationalism is so important in providing social glue for a diverse, mobile people that a repudiation of the country's leading role on the international stage might well prove deeply divisive at home and spawn bitter cries of betrayal. Finally, pressing domestic problems are now inextricably entangled with international trends and pressures, ranging from climate change to global finance and trade to resource scarcity to immigrant pressures generated by failed states and stagnant economies. (216)

So what are we to do? The US could afford to drop its military adventures, as everyone acknowledges, and it should welcome the rise of a multi-polar world while encouraging allied states and easing immigration standards. In the long run, the US needs a positive birth rate for the country to remain thriving. It's an uneasy fact, but it's true, folks. Diplomacy is a zero-sum game, but that doesn't mean we can't make way for the rise of equal powers, especially if the US wishes to preserve a legacy of its worldview even if there are serious contradictions and dilemmas inherent to neo-liberalism or neo-conservatism.

Teach for America on the News Hour

I'm preparing to apply to TFA in a month or so, so I was particularly interested in watching a segment on several TFA teachers in DC and New Orleans that ran on last night's News Hour. (OK, we love the News Hour and try to watch a few nights a week, time permitting.) Near the end, the video touches on the all important question of the value of novice teachers learning on the fly at the expense of their students. The teachers point to their enthusiasm and desire to improve their students' education. Another answer is this: if TFA doesn't do it, who will sign up to surrender two years of their life to teach at a high needs school when some newly minted teachers avoid such service? Some altruistic people will, of course. As anyone who has been through public school can attest, a teaching degree doesn't qualify one to be an excellent teacher. The same can be said of well-intentioned TFA teachers, as is demonstrated on the video. Nevertheless, it's still better to try and help someone's education than to say "such a pity."

Banksy exhibit in Bristol

Banksy is a street artist who uses forms and hierarchies of art to lampoon consumerism, militarism, fetishizing art, and a host of facile assumptions of how Western society operates. His criticism stings much more than one of his peers, Shepard Fairey. Here are some photos (gallery) from the Bristol exhibition to rock your dome piece

MJ and Bubbles Photo Retrospective

Cold calling is sapping me of my will to blog, and I wanted to have something that could be considered entertainment instead of shoddy attempts at analysis. I posted these on my facebook profile, but I felt like tossing them up here, too.



Jeff Koons' sculpture of MJ and Bubbles



Bubbles doesn't seem too thrilled by the constrictor.


High tea with the King of Pop!


MJ and Bubbles in Lego form.


Bubbles lives on, but we'll miss you, MJ. Well, I don't know about the latter.

I did acid every night of summer tour '98. And every night watched 4 am Sports Center. Seemed pretty real to me.

I can't tell if this is a pro-acid and drug abuse video. Either way, it's funny.

"The only chance we have as a country is for bin Laden to detonate a major weapon in the US"

I thought Michael Scheuer (aka Anonymous and author of Imperial Hubris) had valuable criticisms on US policy and terrorism. Watching this clip of Scheuer on the Glenn Beck show reversed any of those preconceived notions. He's marching to Dick Cheney's tune of hoping the country gets attacked so they can be vindicated and that hateful Obama will fail. Of course, the Bush administration failed when they were needed most: preventing 9/11. Pleading of "they prevented another attack" doesn't pardon them for neglecting their duties.

Anyway, Scheuer is nuts.