The Big Easy -

Listen, no one in their right mind is going to take up arms, put their family at risk and send their children into battle unless there is something to gain or conditions are intolerable. Look at us lazy Americans... We cannot even be bothered to get out and vote, no less march in the street or otherwise be politically active. Why, because we are comfortable...

In Palestine, woman, children and men are strapping bombs to themselves and walking into schools and blowing themselves to bits. You could say they are religious fanatics, sure. But even religious fanatics have innate self preservation built into them. I believe that if these people had more to live for, they would simply... live. But the conditions there are so grave. There is no economy, no room for family and little to live for that a religious alternative, in a perverse way makes sense...albeit hard for me to get my little brain around. Give these people an economy, and a chance and I suspect the region and lives of the individuals will follow.

Where am I going with this? Simply put. On one end of the spectrum you have fat lazy Americans too comfortable to put their remote controls down, get up from the Lazy Boy and take part in politics. We would rather complain about it than do something... Why because it is not impacting us in our living rooms and around our dining room tables. Institute the draft again and see how that changes. On the other hand you have destitute people compelled by religion and little else to live for (ie: family, a job, a community) blowing their women and children up on an almost daily basis. In the middle, you have revolution which can only occur when the majority (or at least a large enough minority) are so uncomfortable that they are willing to sacrifice everything to see it change. Often this comes at a great price. It typically means a change in power and those who hold the power rarely are willing to give it up to some one else. One will argue that in America, we have a revolution every 4 years when we elect a new president. However this too takes it toll. As the president really only has two years to make a difference before he or she needs to start focusing on re-election. Same goes for the House and Senate where the election cycles are short. Not perfect, but it does keep things fresh and give as Obama says, hope. Hope will stave off a revolution for at least another 4 years here in America.

Point being that a revolution never happens unless the pendulum has swung so far in one direction (and for so long) that the lives of those revolting are impacted so greatly that they are willing to sacrifice. Put Bush back in office, remove all hope and see what happens...

For more pointless internet reading, see my other blogs...

A

Never Yank a Wanker - Greetings from the UK

Ok - I know you are supposed to blog on the readings, but what if you have not read? DOh - did I just say that? Kidding Madeline...

Really....

Arrived in the UK yesterday, staying in a company flat which is a 5 minute walk from Paddington... The station, not the bear, although I do love that cuddly little guy...

There is something slightly ironic, that I find myself here on the fourth of July weekend. Is that the celebration of when we kicked the pants of those Brits? Even further, I am here looking for a house as I plan my expatriation from the US. Feels a little strange. I keep wondering why the Brits don't celebrate the 4th along with us. I mean really, we are now their biggest ally and are a significant contributor to both their economy and their military. I am certain, given that every thing is backwards here (I am sure I am offending a great number of people by that comment) that had the colony lost the revolution, Brittan would not have turned the colony into the country it is today. Ah - American arrogance at its best, no?!

Speaking of arrogance...

I decided that since I will be missing class on Monday due to the large amount of beer and BBQ most Americans will be enjoying that I would substitute a trip to a museum. Now I know we are supposed to write a paper, and I will, but let me tell you a little about it here.

We took the tube over to the British History Museum. You know the one, this is the great building where the Brits house all the amazing artifacts they stole from the rest of the world and now have them on the display for free, so we can all enjoy them. Yah, that one... I guess they could be even more arrogant if the stole all this stuff and then charged the public...

It is bar none the most amazing collection of history you will ever see under one roof. Had I known that this had existed before I would have skipped this course entirely... Kidding Madeline, you are doing a terrific job ;-)

The Mueseum is broken up into regions and items are displayed accordingly. There are artifacts dating back 1.4 million years ago... the first known tool and the first known art. The tool... looks like a freaking rock... Common people, it is a rock in a glass case... The art, water buffalo carved on a mammoth tusk... Freaking amazing...

Oh - the first pornography too... A rock with a couple "making love" as the caption said... First representation of humans having sex... It looked a lot like rock porn, you must see this.

They have an entire room on the enlightenment, when I say room, it is probably an 8000sq ft room. Constructed to house Henry the (I donno), the somethings, personal library. It is quite amazing.

Anyway, I could go on and on... oh and some crazy preserved dead guy with his skin still on... Yes, I will be showing a picture of him shortly, glad you asked.

We will be returning today for an hour to catch the last day of an African Carving exhibit. I would say check it out but suspect that even if you flew private you would not make it in time.

Tonight we have reservations at the River Cafe, which is an Alice Waters like restaurant in London serving only locally grown ingredients. WHAT you say ... this is not California, what to the Brits grow, Steak and Potatoes? I know I am with you... Will report out on that shortly... Since I am certain you and the rest of the world care about these matters.

Oh Yah, speaking of appetizing... check this guy out (as promised)




Look closely... Yes, I do believe those are testicles... I know I am a little kid, but um... no one promised literary genius here nor any level of maturity... You are welcome to click you back button at any time...

Mongol - Military Soficticates - This is MY Internet -

Is "Soficticate" a word?

Well it is now people! Welcome to MY internet -

I have been doing a little research, in my spare time (did I just hear you laugh out loud too?), in an attempt to better understand the Mongol and their military superiority over, uhmm... EVERYONE they came across. I mean, yah they had horses and eventually catapults (technology they stole). And they were well practiced after hundreds of years of fighting amongst themselves. Oh, and they had the psychological war games down pretty good. We burn rape and pillage every so often and then run TV commercials and drop leaflets showing pictures of dead babies to our enemies. That ought to scare the bajesus out of em... And we will catapult rotting corpses infected by the plague over city walls, as if the burning raping and pillaging was not enough... This stuff is no less gruesome than the inquisition in Spain years later were they torture families, cut off the mother's breasts and shove them in the children's mouths before burning them just short of death. Only to kill them with the sword as a final blow. Makes Guantanamo seem like a picnic really...

But I digress...

What really is interesting is the Mongolian Bow

Here is a little ditty I read about such things... Let me paraphrase.

Very sophisticated, had several types and most riders rode with two compound bows in fact. One for short range and one for longer targets.

They also rode with many different types of arrows, on average carrying a total of 40 (I know this because some guy's blog on the net told me so). They carried both long and short range arrows, standard everyday arrows, arrows with heavy tempered metal tips used for piercing armor, oh and the incendiary arrows...

You know the ones...

Lite em on fire and then shoot them into your tent, house, thatched roof hut, the church, hospital, library, bank, market... you get the picture.

And, no, it is not just the Mongol men that are good at this kind of war... Their woman were equally skilled lighting a building on fire with an arrow from atop a horse at 30 paces.

And this might be the thing I love the most. You can tell a lot about a society by the way its woman are treated. Here there is full and equal right (something unusual for the time, and many would argue our time as well) for both woman and man. I simply love a strong woman, and particularly one that can keep up with the boys on an all nighter pillaging and ransacking other towns. My heart be still...

Now is the moment you have all been waiting for... Yes the bar has been set and an image, video, singing telegram, some sort of multi media is necessary here. It does not need to be authentic, plagiarization (probably not a real word, but it is HERE biaches), republication and the like are highly encouraged in fact reworded or is that rewarded (ah who cares this is a blog after all and grammar and spelling never seem to matter on blogs).




For more unreliable information on the Mongol's Military Soficitcates go here

http://www.coldsiberia.org/monbow.htm

BTW - Feel free to vote below... You know this is just blog-u-topia!

How bout you give me money pal and I won't break your fingers

The tribute system... now I know where great grandpa Cattolo got his ideas... You come over to my place, give me a bunch of fine gifts and I will let you walk away with all of your limbs, and I may not bother your sister, you hear?!

I think it is funny that historians have choosen to call it the "tribute system". I think what they meant to call it is extortion... which I guess in the big scheme of things against a backdrop of barbarians cutting out each others eyeballs or boiling each other alive, doesn't seem so bad, really. I liked the line in the text book that went something like...

I will swing bye, check out the silks and grains you are supposed to give me to make sure they meet my satisfaction. If the stuff is good, and you haven't shorted me, cool... if it's not however, I am going to come to your village and destroy all your food so you, your family, your families family and everyone else you might know will starve... Capiche? Could easily be mistaken for a modern day Colombian Drug lord, no?

Another form of "tribute", again, such a nice word is...

We conquered you.. ha ha suckers... we let you live... now how about you contribute by giving us labor, or goods, or other goods to help the empire along... after all, we have others just like you we need to pillage from and with your small contribution of only 19.95 to help fund our barbaric military, this will be possible. With your donation, you are free to live... under our rules of course....

Have a nice day...

Tag, your it!

I don't know why but I find the concept of relay trade such a cool idea. The Inca used similar systems to that of the Chinese, Indians and Persians leveraging a system of well engineered roads, chasqui or messengers to deliver information through out the empire. The Silk Roads adopted a similar system of merchants who would bring the goods so far and then sell them often times to another merchant who would then sell them in another market each time marking up the products and repeating process. This allowed merchants to turn their products more often and remain in territories that were familiar to them. I would imagine very few merchants singlehandedly took goods from say China to Arabia. The time for the journey would be too long and the risk to high to justify the incremental profits achieved by cutting out the countless middle men.

It reminds me of the crack trade really...

The chain of people, producers, importers, runners, and hustlers each one cutting the product or adding their markup and margin. The producer could sell direct, to all the users, but, like the merchants along the silk road, the time too move great quantities of product is too long and the risk too high. Who really looses in this economic paradigm is the user as the product tend to be very expensive. It is also no wonder why the Sea Roads were established.

Hmm - Sea Roads... Not a very clever name now is it? Silly historians... Sea Roads...

Question, which came first... the Silk Road or the Sea Road?

Oh but wait... of course there is still room for yet another plagiarized graphic off the web...

"If you can't dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bull." Contd

If you have to know, breakfast was fantastic… Toasted Bagel and Cream Cheese with a pan fried egg.

So, where were we… Oh yah, giving the Greeks credit for inventing democracy and discussing their techniques for expansion. Much of the democratic process developed in Athens under Solon in 594 B.C.E after a revolt which almost led to civil war. Solon allowed greater participation in politics by a wider audience past that of the aristocrats as well as abolished the practice of debt slavery. By 450 B.C.E “ all holders of public office were chosen by lot and were paid, so that even the poorest could serve. My interpretation here is that the democratic process was born out of internal civil unrest and active participation in the political process by a wide audience was developed to help quell this unrest. Makes sense, really for those who buy into the democratic process. Not sure it made a whole lot of sense to Cyrus or Darius I of Persia.

Of course war with Persia and a Civil war with Sparta who eventually defeated Athens weakened the Greek state enough to open an invitation of the Macedonians to invade and easily defeat the Greeks.

One sec and I will search for another plagiarized graphic off the web...

Athenian "Empire" 431 B.C.E

"If you can't dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bull."

W.C. Fields

The Greeks could baffle and dazzle the world with brilliance and bull Sh@$.

There is no sharper contrast to that of the Persian than the Greeks. The Greeks allowed and encouraged popular participation in public politics unlike the monolithic monarch of Persia. Well, unless you were a woman or a slave or, you asked too many questions, eghm… Aristotle. But I digress…The Greek civilization was shaped by history… Profound, huh… as well as geography. The Greek political system was made up of many city state micro political institutions, which rolled up to a centralized government in Athens. This was a function organically devised out of necessity, adding my own interpretation, more than decisive thought or grand architecture. The geography in Greece, unlike Persia was not expansive but a harsh rocky and mountainous terrain, which made it hard to communicate and organize, if only they had the internet, huh… They could simply blog about politics… But again I digress. In order to organize and function, responsibility was delegated to the city states which gave individual cities shared power. This combined with the allowed participation of the public in state politics formed the first known notion of democracy…

Greek expansion took place in the form of settlements as opposed to conquests and spread quickly all around the rim of the Black Sea. Much of this expansion was driven by Greek farmers in search of fertile land and Greek Iron traders in search of Iron.

Ok – Gotto run… It’s breakfast time and I am hungry… More to follow…