Weekly Reading: Leaping Lines, Revolutionary Baby Jesus, Repo Men at Sea and Great! Post Offices

I read a lot over the holidays so I am still catching up with my summaries of all my December reading.

Reading Is About the Lines That Leap Off the Pages
Much of what you read in the Times you read without giving a thought to who the author is.  I couldn't make that mistake after reading this year-end gem by Dwight Garner, literary critic extraordinaire.  In it he deftly leaps through about twenty different book recommendations, lifting delicious quotes from each of them.

The Christmas Revolution
Smart, well-written article on just how revolutionary Jesus was.  "He saw the inestimable worth of human life, regardless of social status, wealth and worldly achievements, intelligence or national origin. So should we."

ISIS’ War on Christmas
Interesting and thoughtful article on how Salafists think about Christmas theologically.  The author also draws parallels between Islamists' "origin' state and that of the far right en France.


MARITIME ‘REPO MEN’: A LAST RESORT FOR STOLEN SHIPS
Wow, fascinating report on the gritty underbelly of maritime repossessors.  This has to get made into a movie.

What’s Your Favorite Poem?
A round table of authors discuss their favorite poems--what's not to like!

How I Escaped Vietnam
Incredible untold story of the flood of children that escaped Vietnam in the midst of escalating violence and mayhem.

In Chile, Where Pablo Neruda Lived and Loved
Beautiful writing about the homes of Neruda in Chile.  Essential reading for any Pablophile.

The Deported
I feel like it's all too easy for both sides of the immigration debate to make sweeping statements one way or the other.  Articles like these should hopefully give one pause to consider the actual human lives behind whatever the policies enacted are.

Why the Post Office Makes America Great
Having lived overseas for more than two years in a third-world country I appreciate the author's sentiment.  As Americans we take things like being able to send a letter that arrives where it is supposed to for granted.  

All you ever wanted to know about the Gulf of Tonkin, President Johnson and the Joint Chiefs

BONUS LINK:  My entire (so far) grad school notes collection can be found here. 

All you ever wanted to know about the Gulf of Tonkin, President Johnson and the Joint Chiefs.

The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution: A Response to Which Campaign?

        A few days after announcing to the American public that North Vietnam had attacked the United States a second time in the Gulf of Tonkin, President Lyndon Baines Johnson remarked to the most vocal opponent of his administration’s policy in Vietnam, undersecretary of state George Ball, “Hell, those damn, stupid sailors were just shooting at flying fish.”1 This statement not only reflected Johnson’s doubt that the 4 August 1964 attacks occurred, but also showed his confidence at having the full support of all but two members of Congress for any further action he might take. This cavalier
treatment of the military’s intelligence failure, however, was a manifestation of his marked disassociation of foreign policy decision-making from military analysis. Flawed intelligence—amplified by a weak Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS)—enabled Johnson to wield the 4 August attacks to win Congress’ full support for future military measures and to ensure his own election victory in November 1964. Throughout his first year, the president only used military intelligence and counsel selectively to support his domestic agenda. He discounted the advice from his ambassador to the Republic of Vietnam (former JCS Chairman Maxwell Taylor) and the Joint Chiefs when it ran contrary toSecretary of Defense Robert McNamara’s strategy. The events leading to the Southeast Asia Joint Resolution (commonly called the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution) on 7 August illustrate well LBJ’s foreign policy decision-making methods absent military guidance, as well as their wide-reaching effects.

The rest of my paper is below.


While we are on the subject of Vietnam, if you haven't read Matterhorn by Karl Marlantes, you MUST.  The best book ever written about Vietnam in my definitive opinion.

LINKS:
http://fuuo.blogspot.com/2010/06/incredible-must-read-matterhorn-by-karl.html

Pentagon Protester of the Week- Disarm Now!

NOTE:  For those who don't know,  every Monday morning the Pentagon allows only the biggest idiots best and brightest dissenters to post up on the grassy area by the Metro entrance escalators and display their signs. 

Pentagon Protester of the Week- Disarm Now!

The U.S. is the #1 terrorist in the world, DISARM NOW!

This happy statement greeted me this morning.  These birkenstocks-with-white-socks-wearing-hippie scum protesters went all out this morning, eschewing their normal cardboard and painting out their mantras on white bedroom sheets.  It immediately took me back to my plebe year, making the sheet posters before the Navy football games. 

So let's look first at the defintion of 'terrorism' as we address the protesters stationed in grass area atop the metro entrance this morning. 
World English Dictionary
1.  systematic use of violence and intimidation to achieve some goal
Legal dictionary
1.  the unlawful use or threat of violence esp. against the state or the public as a politically motivated means of attack or coercion

According to these definitions, I wouldn't say the United States necessarily falls into these categories.  However, even if we were the #1 Terrorists in the world, I am not sure that 'DISARMing' the United States is the next logical step.  I would say the protesters need to further refine and define what it is that they exactly want to accomplish. 

And as I have said before I would like to know if they are also protesting at the White House and Capitol Hill since there is no one here at the Pentagon that is going to make the decision to DISARM the United States. 

However, I continue to salute their once-a-week dedication to the downfall of United States National Security freedom of the United States.

The protesters in their younger years.

Poet of the Week from Senegal: Leopold Senghor

The return of the POET OF THE WEEK.

Poet of the Week from Senegal: Leopold Senghor 

    I love this poem and the hope and love it carries as he describes an Africa without borders.  I think the way he flows from country to country in each line is significant in that it speaks to his belief in the potential for this continent.  

    But I am EXCITED to include more of his poems in future postings because he is so gifted.  Honestly I haven't been this excited to discover a new poet since I first read Pablo Neruda!

     And now for your history lesson:  

*Senghor was Senegal's first president from 1960-1980 (the airport in Dakar is named for him)
*He espoused what has been called "African Socialism" and coined the 'négritude'.  (more on both of these terms in a later post)
*He was the first African member of l'Academie Française
*And as you will learn...he was an amazing poet!  Can you imagine some of our past presidents writing the type of poetry he wrote?

Et nous baignerons mon amie
by Léopold Sédar Senghor

• And we shall be bathed, my love, in the presence of Africa. 
• Furnishings from Guinea and the Congo, heavy and burnished, calm and dark. 
• Masks, pure and primeval, on the walls, distant but so present! 
• Ebony thrones for ancestral guests, for Princes of the Hill Country. 
• Musky perfumes, thick grass-mats of silence, 
• Shadowed cushions for lazing, the sound of a spring -- of peace. 
• Mythic tales and far-off songs, voices woven like the strip-cloths of the Sudan. 
• And then, dear lamp, your kindness in cradling the obsession with this presence, 
• Black, white, and red: oh, red like the earth of Africa. 

Et maintenant, en français...c'est evident que quand on traduit on perd toujours quelquechose:

Présence Africaine
Et nous baignerons, mon amie, dans une présence Africaine

Des tapis étincelants et doux de Tombouctou
Des coussins maures, des parfums fauves
Des meubles du Guinée et du Congo

Nous baignerons dans une présence Africaine

Sombres et lourds
Des nattes bien épaisses de silence
Des masques primitifs et purs aux murs
Primitifs et durs

Lampes amicales
Amicale ta tendresse adoucira
L’obsession de cette présence

Nous baignerons dans une présence Africaine

Noires, fauves et rouges
Rouge comme la terre d’Afrique.

FUUO Past Poets of the Week:

http://fuuo.blogspot.com/2012/05/african-poets-of-week-compilation.html

Some of my favorite poetry books: