25 Nov 08 Tuesday 020081125
Scattershooting, expanding my comfort zone…
We have identified danger, physical exertion, intelligence, and friction as the elements that coalesce to form the atmosphere of war, and turn it into a medium that impedes activity. In their restrictive effects they can be grouped into a single concept of general friction. Is there any lubricant that will reduce this abrasion? Only one, and a commander and his army will not always have it readily available: combat experience.
- Carl von Clausewitz, On War, Chapter 8, Concluding Observations on Book One, pg 122
Soon after Thanksgiving, my son, a US Army platoon sergeant, begins his third deployment to Iraq. I’ve viewed his previous photojournals, stills and movies. Tikrit, Mosul, Ramadi, Tameem–a SysAdmin-like mix of kinetic and nonlethal operations, as appropriate. Such are our current capabilities, learned at the pace of combat experience. May he and his soldiers further that capacity…
That said, I now shift my thoughts on How to Leave a Stable Iraq, (Brookings Institute website), and what my role might become to best serve that goal. More on myBigIdea tomorrow… Jay Rosen’s already pointing to a brilliant strategy: crowdsourcing.
Okay… it’s great to be back online again, daily. Now, off to my day job. FWIW, it’s great to be living within our family’s means again. Clears the head for serious stuff, you know? For those of you who aren’t there yet, persevere. It’s one of those “makes you stronger” sorta deals… :)
Tags: crowdsourcing, Iraq, JayRosen, myBigIdea, OnWar, SysAdmin
25 Nov 08 crittjarvis.com
The R–B–tards who squatted my name for several years didn’t renew crittjarvis.com. Heh…
Big thanks to Connie Reece, @conniereece, for providing me with gotcritt.com, keeping my head in the game.
Okay… time for a little scattershooting…
Tags: Connie Reece, crittjarvis.com
18 Nov 08 Tuesday 020081118
Scattershooting, expanding my comfort zone…
A designer is an emerging synthesis of artist, inventor, mechanic, objective economist and evolutionary strategist.
-R. Buckminster Fuller
Thought churn: observing, reporting… goals, vision, signposts… What can I learn from @Jay Rosen and Friends? Jay recently DM’d me Pssst…. The Press is a Player and Players: Toward a More Honest Job Description For the Political Press. I sit with his writing now…
Signposts to watch in Basra region: security, Brits Out of Iraq by Summer; rule sets, Basra as federal region; FDI, Royal Dutch Shell joint venture investment
Hmmm… for narrative, for community, I want 6 months in Basra.
Tags: Basra, FDI, JayRosen, RoyalDutchShell, RuleSets, security
06 Nov 08 Thursday 020081106
Scattershooting, expanding my comfort level…
Not leading off with a quote today, but rather silently celebrating the presence of President-elect Obama…
Thought churn, for editing About Critt: Use URL(s) for definitions and illustrative examples of citizen journalism, citizen journalist, strategic connectivity, social media networking… sources, of course, will include Thomas PM Barnett, Jay Rosen, Chris Brogan, Aaron Strout, David Tames.
I’m finding the reporting of Charlie Edwards at Basra Journal to be remarkably informative in learning about current strategic connectivity issues in Basra, Iraq. Clearly, he’s a journalist worth following.
Okay. Enough for now. Head’s down working out my About page and blog roll introduction of Jay Rosen….
Tags: AboutCritt, BasraJournal, CharlieEdwards, citizen journalism, JayRosen, strategic connectivity
02 Nov 08 Sunday meditation: Basra
Meditating.
She, inside, at Saint Ann’s.
I, outside, at the beach.
Together, in Soul.
Under sail.
That is a hardy sailor
Who sails this morning’s November wind.
Though, yesterday’s sunset signaled
Delight.
The light of this sun
Warms, with more to come.
In coming days, unstrange this land
Will become.
A beacon, the rising sun.
We shall answer Benjamin’s query.
Tags: Basra, meditation, MeherBaba
28 Oct 08 Tuesday 020081028
Scattershooting, expanding my comfort zone…
Glamorized by television and the captive attention of the press, the presidency was generating unreal expectations, “inviting the same kind of premature disappointment that destroys so many TV stars.” The whole process was spinning faster, generating more conflict, more spectacle, more hype–and less attention to serious problems. The press was not a neutral bystander in these developments. “No longer are we just the messengers, observers on the sidelines, witch’s mirrors faithfully telling society how it looks,” O’Neill said. ”Now we are deeply embedded in the democratic process itself, as principal actors rather than bit players or mere audience.”34
- Jay Rosen, What Are Journalists For?
pg 35, quoting Mike O’Neill
I’ll introduce Jay Rosen to this blog Monday. But for now, PressThink, while I think about what it might mean to embed in process itself.
Hmmm… Could an embedded citizen journalist also be a do-it-yourself media maker?
27 Oct 08 Monday 020081027
Scattershooting, expanding my comfort zone…
The Army’s use of involuntary extensions will likely continue through 2009 despite pledges earlier this year by top military officials to reduce reliance on the policy known as stop loss, USA Today reported Monday.
In September, 12,204 soldiers were affected by stop loss, a policy that forces them to remain in the Army after their service commitment has expired. The same number likely will be affected each month through 2009, Army Lt. Col. Mike Moose told the paper last week.
- Stars and Stripes, Mideast edition, Tuesday, October 28, 2008
My son tells me five of his men were due to complete their contractual obligation to serve on active duty, this month, October. However, they’ve each been involuntarily extended by stop loss policy. This probably means deployment down range, before the year is out. I’ll follow up when I know more.
Watching the security/market nexus develop in Basra. As reported in Defense Technology News, “Although improved security in the region has brought some benefits such as improved trade and commerce, much of the infrastructure remains in a poor state of repair. “ Hmmm… I wonder how the PRT (Provincial Reconstruction Team) is making out there?
Also wondering, is there such a thing as an embedded citizen journalist? If not, what’s an alternative?
Tags: Basra, ProvincialReconstructionTeam, StopLoss
27 Oct 08 Blogroll: Thomas PM Barnett
Tags: strategic connectivity, ThomasPMBarnett
24 Oct 08 Friday 020081024
Scattershooting, expanding my comfort zone…
[ ] why didn’t consumers fiercely tighten their belts after 9/11? A March 2005 staff report from the New York Federal Reserve seems to have the answer: “While consumption responds to permanent changes in wealth in the expected manner, most changes in wealth are transiitory, with no effect on consumption.”
In October 2001, then, consumers must have viewed the change in their wealth as transitory, rather than permanent. How do they-[the consumers]–view the current decline? No one knows yet. I assume that there will be a substantial blow to consumption. But I don’t assume that it will be nearly as great as do those who believe that all large drops in wealth, however temporary, hurt consumption.
-Gene Epstein, Barron’s, “Sorry, Chicken Little”, pg31, October 20, 2008
Earlier in the week, I was thinking about eschatology in the context of paradigm, world view (see Charles Cameron, Religious and apocalyptic background to nuclear policy making). Today I’m wondering about “glass half-full/ glass half-empty” thinking, optimistic outlooks versus pessimistic outlooks. So, here’s my question: if eschatological thinking is the pessimistic outcome, What kind of thinking is the optimistic outcome?
Went to get a doctor’s take on my big toe yesterday. Suspecting gout, indomethocin prescribed. Now, twenty-four hours later, I’m pain free. Woot!
In progress, now writing intro to Tom Barnett, for Monday post.
Have a good weekend.
Tags: CharlesCameron, consumption, eschatology, GeneEpstein, gout, indomethocin, ThomasPMBarnett, wealth
23 Oct 08 Thursday 020081023
Scattershooting, expanding my comfort zone…
Gentlemen, I feel a great difficulty how to act. I am Vice Presaident. In this I am nothing, but I may be everything.
- John Adams
I don’t know who was on John McCain’s short list of VP nominees, thus, absent a comparative study, I remain baffled at his selection of Sarah Palin. Apparently though, if the polling results hold, my concerns will be made moot, November 4th…
Had brief conversation with son, Philip, US Army platoon sergeant, readying for third deployment to Iraq. Five guys going with him are stop-loss status, each due to return to civilian status before Thanksgiving but now involuntarily extended. Following these guys closely…
Electricity to the house to be fully restored next Tuesday. Time online will be minimal until then, but sticking to daily schedule as best I can…
Semper Fidelis.
Tags: Iraq, semper-fidelis, StopLoss
I mentioned Ed Youdon’s Time Bomb 2000 in Five influencers I’ve met and trust. Time Bomb 2000 was a Y2k forum, and the online discussion platform where Thomas PM Barnett made it onto my radar. Vetting his online persona –at that time, he was a professor and project director at the Naval War College– I discovered his personal website at Geocities. There he posted not only his professional work, but also poetry written by his wife, Vonne; and, as telling as the poems, The Emily Updates, a diary of their daughter’s medical treatments, battling cancer.
Thomas PM Barnett is a grand strategist and innovator. A thinker and visionary, one who practices what he preaches: A leader worth following. That’s why he’s on my blogroll.