Amazon is Gone and I Am Glad

For the past few years, I've had books on Amazon listed on the sidebar. Today, Amazon sent notices to all California Associate members that it would no longer be doing business in this state because they were being asked to collect taxes.  Amazon screamed that collecting taxes was unconstitutional. What they didn't tell everyone that the state retailers who have put their goods on Amazon have had to not only pay the taxes themselves, they also had to pay Amazon a cut. What Amazon offers a retailer is a quick and easy way to competitively sell their goods. But there's always a downside to e-commerce and that's all the  fees they end up paying to Amazon.

The story is a tangled one, and frankly, I don't really care that the associates program is gone. In all this time, I sold one book. The carousel widgets were there as recommendations, served as a notice for readers of what kinds of books I've found useful.
What I would rather you do is seek out small local booksellers. Independent booksellers really know their stock. They know all about authors, they can talk about the quality of writing, even discourse about the quality of the binding of a book. So many booksellers have been undercut by Amazon, it has forced many (even used bookstores) to go out of business.
So go direct to your local bookseller's website, help them avoid the 15% cut that Amazon takes.
Here are a few links to help you find a local bookseller in your state:
IndieBound
American Booksellers' Association

And yes, I am still fond of Border's and Barnes & Noble, though I do try to throw as much business to the independents as possible.

All of you probably have some favorites. If you want, please list them here.
My faves:  Powell's, Vroman's, Dawson's Book Shop. 

Expose, not change when it comes to core values

A certain 1stSgt wrote to me about a visitor to their base. Now this was special, not only because the person had come all the way across the world to a sweltering island with nary a strip of natural vegetation, but because of a solution in a talk he gave. The guest spoke about the very heinous behaviors of sexual assault, and harassment. You can imagine the veins throbbing in the 1stSgt's neck, the multitude of phrases --entire paragraphs running through his head as he viewed the evidence of acts carried out by service members against one another. No matter how many times he has heard talks on sexual assault or harassment, they are extraordinarily upsetting for someone who embodies the values of Honor, Courage and Commitment. Imagine him hearing a young service member that yes, while he got the values, in the rest of his life there was stuff on the side.' Stuff on the side? There is no room for extraneous values that run counter to Honor, Courage and Commitment. The solution given to rid the service of such abhorrent behaviors? The visitor said the military must experience a cultural change by changing its values.

So he wrote me because he knew I had heard the same speech when I went to a conference for female veterans. I heard same statistics, listened to women and men who had been raped, intimidated, threatened, and disparaged at the hands of others in the service. All of these acts took place in the presence of poor and indifferent leadership. I was appalled and upset not only by the egregious behaviors, but dismayed by any leader who would allow morale to fester into selfish acts against another person's humanity.  By 10 AM, one person stood up and proclaimed the military as a breeding ground for sexual assault and humanity. The solution given at the conference? Cultural change.

Allow me to digress in the way of the much missed BabaTim. Going back to the 1990's, the buzz phrase that led a revolutionary change in business (and therefore society) was paradigm shift. Speakers flew around country speaking to businesses, non profit organizations and civic groups giving long winded speeches about paradigm shifts. No one knew what a paradigm shift looked, or acted like, but books were being written, people were flying into conferences gave it the veneer of credence. It was a very exciting time, even though no one knew what they were talking about.

Flash forward twenty years, much of this non-specific babble fed into the softening of perspective that overlooked and even rewarded already unscrupulous dealers on Wall Street, the dismantling companies that manufactured goods, and even the end of private medicine as we knew it. Perhaps a walking, breathing example of a paradigm shift is Bernie Madoff.

Back to the matter at hand. I felt for our 1stSgt. I'm afraid 'Cultural change' is akin to the 'paradigm shift' of the 21st century.

So I pointed out the obvious: our service members aren't grown in a Petri dish.
Behaviors such as the ones reported are a reflection of the culture at large, the one we live in and often do battle with everyday. Or let me have Jon Kabat Zinn explain it:

"Change the location, change the circumstances, and everything will fall into place; you can start over, have a new beginning. The trouble with this way of seeing is that it conveniently ignores the fact that you carry your head and your heart, and what some would call your "karma" with you. You cannot escape yourself, try as you might. And what reason other than pure wishful thinking, would you have to suspect things would be different or better somewhere else anyway?"

While recruits are exposed to the core values, not all are able change to the extent it modifies their behavior and mindset on a consistent basis. Not all will embody the values. The 1stSgt pointed out this is why strong, consistent leadership is vital.

The unatrractive embodiment of selfishness

So after a lot of writing back and forth, it became apparent the values of Honor, Comitment, and Courage will stay. Rather, than change, the outside culture should be exposed for what it is. Popular culture is a sugar coated brutality carried along the airwaves and cables. Turn on any reality TV show and one can easily find self centered people getting what by acting out in ways  tantamount to abuse. A point made by flinging a table on the ground, a fight, threat or lie is fine as long as they get what they want.  This is the culture our service members come from, and this lack of values must be exposed for what it is: selfish, immature, crass and cowardly. And while there will be enlisted members and officers who behave like a reality TV housewife, much pressure must be brought upon them to either embody the core values or get out. Working to expose the outside culture is far harder than order a change, yet this is the challenge the best accept and work tenaciously to employ.

The Afghanistan Drawdown: The Outlook For Children

When the President acts against the advice of his Secretary of State and his Generals, he's not just being a vanguard, he is playing on a campaign promise made prior to his taking office, fulfilling an arbitrary drawdown date chosen in the early days of his presidency, and is shrewdly the dealer of a political game. He has chosen not to listen to people who have been on the ground. He has, instead, chosen to listen to a political force that for the most part has not only been shaped, but shapes the media and a texture that for a long time has only been focusing on the prospects of a drawdown. They have spun this war into a fruitless exercise by focusing exclusively on casualties as a means to promote it as a "lost war," or "Bush's war," which has led to mass acceptance of the worthlessness of this (or any) war:

".....the refusal of the media to spend much time on issues other than American casualties makes it all but impossible for political decision makers (even assuming that the will exists) to harness public sentiment to aid non-Americans." -Stephen L.A Carter, The Violence of Peace

The truth has been told by Sebastian Junger many times, who often quotes the Human Rights Watch figures.  The Soviet invasion cost an estimated 3 million lives lost or displaced. The Taliban killed 400,000 during their occupation. During the current war, an estimated 40,000 have died. While 40,000 is a horrible consequence of war, this is the lowest level of violence in a 30 year period in Afghanistan.
What Obama has done is fallen, even cultivated the trap of polarization:

"The far right would have us believe it’s unpatriotic to examine the rationale for the war, while the far left suggests you’re a coward if you don’t morally condemn the war. However, Afghanistan is perhaps the most complicated foreign policy problem the United States has ever faced and its solution defies partisan ideology and facile truths."  -Tim Hetherington, Guernica, September 2010

The FabLab project out of Jalalabad, started by MIT

In no way could I ever be called war hawk. In no way do I think the running of this war has been played to the best advantage all the time. I would never deny that a drawn down would be inevitable, or that eventually if the Afghan people want the freedom to breathe they would have to fight to uphold, and create the civil society they want.

However, the cloud of disparagement has made it lost on the general public the small victories that take place everyday as the result of our being there.

In ten years time, many Americans have given selflessly via small humanitarian relief projects such as the school created by the La Jolla Golden Triangle Rotary Club in Jalalabad, or the computer lab started by FabLab out of MIT.  And while Obama refuses to use the word victory, each one of these project is just that. Each time a kid picks up a book, listens to music, goes to school --it's a victory.

I have only this to ask: what's going to happen to all those little girls going to school? To the computer lab, to the wireless network bringing the world in to a generation of boys and girls, making it possible for them to study for careers in healthcare, and computer technology? Is the ANA going to keep them safe, is their government going to retain the gains they've made?  A rapid drawdown is a chilling prospect, which like it or not, we must now accept. It's a crapshoot, which is the texture of things right now.

American giving care to Afghan child. 

You rarely see this stuff in the news.

War Photographers' Retreat in Honor of Tim Hetherington

Sgt Marc Solowski, Sgt Tad Donoho, and Tim Hetherington in the Korengal Valley, Afghanistan. Photo by Sgt. Santana Rueda

In April, LA Times' Reporter Ned Parker wrote one of the toughest (good) articles To Live And Lose in Misurata on the Kadaffi attacks on Misurata Libya. In his story, he detailed the death of two highly esteemed colleagues: Tim Hetherington & Chris Hondros.

Readers of this blog might remember that Hetherington's film Restrepo took up a good part of 2010 for me, when I worked on it as the military outreach coordinator. His death came as a huge blow, but fortunately I had spent enough time with Tim to know that one must carry on. Shortly after, David Emerson of The Trauma Center in Boston wrote to me, asking if they could have a retreat in Tim's honor.

The result is The War Photographers' Retreat, a four-day, free event exclusively for photojournalists whose work takes them in and out of conflict and war zones. The WP Retreat will be held 25-28 August in Cambridge MA. The offerings will be four free days of yoga, massage and acupuncture in the company of other war photojournalists. There is no charge for the event, which is limited to ten participants.  Emerson has organized an extremely talented team.  Application directions are on the "About" Facebook Page.  This is an all volunteer-effort, and the organizers are even arranging free homestays for those who do not have the resources to pay for a hotel.

The Dart Society has joined in as a sponsor and to help us spread the word.  If you know of any conflict photojournalists or have media contacts, please share this link with them.

Panda and the new daybed

This week, I tired of the dingy paint in my office. I went in the garage and grabbed a can of paint. It was purchased last autumn, and had never been opened. As I mixed it, I had an idea of the color, but I had very little recollection of what had been going through my mind when I purchased it.  I stroked it onto the wall in the office and found it was a creamy, buttery yellow. Then I remembered that this was the color I'd chosen for the dining room! Being that I not only wanted to follow my non-lazy streak and get this done, I decided it'd be fine for this room  (I am famously non-compulsive when it comes to decorating or even caring).
It took two days, after which, I phoned Macy's and ordered a piece of furniture.

Panda threw a fit when it came. Within five minutes he tried to claw it, then ran outside and killed a lizard. For two days, he wouldn't come into the room, disliking the "new furniture smell." He ran, and startled easily, then scuttled away like a scaredy cat.

Finally, I came home with new cushions. Panda quickly claimed his. Apparently, he is far more compulsive about decorating. All it took was buying the accessories, and he gave his approval. Now, I cannot get him off, and we have to sit around him --which is a pain since he sits in the middle.

It's a Day For A Chicago Blog

Chicago has the some of the finest museums, exceptional pizza, two baseball teams --one of whom I like, a football team, smart-people blogs like Zenpundit, a big painting by Seurat, Louis Sullivan, and Frank Lloyd Wright. In fact, this Saturday, Sebastian Junger will be at The Pritzker Military Library talking about his book WAR, and following will be a screening of Restrepo.  It is also the where Jeffrey Courter hails from, the author of Afghan Journal.
But best of all Chicago is the home from where  Loach writes his blog, Counterintuitivity. 

 I like the droll humor, the simple delivery, the way he parses his words. This is artful writing, and often very funny, but always insightful. Here's an example.

Delta Airlines Charges Soldiers Coming Home

Update: Delta: "After careful consideration, effective immediately, U.S. military personnel traveling on orders in First and Business Class can check up to five bags at no charge and 4 bags in economy class."*

How is it possible that Delta Airlines doesn't see the correlation between soldiers fighting in this War on Terror and their ability to fly safely in domestic and international skies? Just recently, a unit going home to Ft Polk (after being deployed for 1 year to Afghanistan) was charged $2800 for "excess baggage." Read the comments in the link, they are quite detailed.

But Delta was not correct. The military has a contract with Delta that allows soldiers on orders to travel with four bags. Those showing up with a fourth bag were charged $200. Soldiers, most of whom are enlisted, had to pay out of pocket. That $200 is grocery, gasoline, even diaper money for their families. While it has been rumored everyone will be reimbursed eventually, soldiers returning from war shouldn't be met at the airport by a dead-eyed bureaucrat upholding bad policy. Delta Airlines owes its ability to pursue commerce because of people who defend our country.

The items in the bags were tools they used to defend our country, and the Afghan citizens. If you are disgusted with the airlines policy write to your congressman and Delta Airlines. They have a handy form to use.

*Note: on orders, soldiers travel coach, never First or Business Class. Furthermore, any service member traveling in uniform must only fly coach, and never First or Business Class.

Patti LaBelle: LaThugs Beat Up West Point Cadet

Seems like Patti LaBelle has created a family cottage industry, hiring her son to provide protection, and allowing him to do the hiring. For instance, look at this specimen of a body guard standing over a man he has just attacked at the Houston airport:That's right. This obese body guard wearing sweat pants is her firm's idea of a professional. But to be fair, he opens doors:Two months ago, the man in the yellow was innocuously talking on the phone at the Bush International Airport in Houston trying to locate his ride. Unfortunately, he happened to stand too close to Patti LaBelle's luggage. According to reports, she rolled down the window and directed her bodyguards to take care of the guy.
Watch this:

They did. Richard King, age 23 and a West Point Cadet ended up bloodied, with a concussion and in the hospital. Immediately, while King was on the ground, staggering around and a lone valiant hero in a white cowboy hat was trying to help him, the Houston Police were asking for autographs while LaBelle appeased them with photo ops.

King has filed charges against LaBelle. Her son, tried to claim this:

"The limousine driver, Zuri Edwards, 37—LaBelle's son-- made a complaint against King but declined to press charges, according to Jody Silva, a spokeswoman for the Houston police department.

The police incident report, based on Edwards' complaint, says that King was belligerent and was harassing the occupants of the limo."

Well, I'm going to point out that nowhere in the tape does it show King harassing the limo. And if the allegations of her son were true, don't you think he'd have the integrity to stick by them?

King's lawyer admits the Cadet had two drinks --but not enough to be obnoxiously or recklessly intoxicated. Besides, he was meeting his parents. LaBelle's son is asking us to believe that the cadet would be so stupid as to show up sloshed to the point of embarrassment if his mother and father were picking him up. Sorry, I'm not in the mood to suspend reality.

I have no patience for overwrought egos such as LeBelle's, no sympathy for what security breaches she may have had in the past. If there has been problems she doesn't take them very seriously given the lack of professionalism exhibited by a body guards who can only be called wide-in-girth, and slim in security details. I've seen security details at LAX. There are walkie talkies, cars that appear, the notorious gets whisked away, the luggage follows in a separate car. I've attended events where high level security was in place --they do not look or behave like that. Whatever excuses the LaBelle camp can serve up --she hired thugs, they behaved like thugs. LaThugs are not professionals. LaBelle is responsible for this dysfunctional firm for which she's their living, breathing, over-indulgent paycheck.

While they didn't know King was a West Point Cadet, someone in their PR camp knew they could dish up enough crap and get him thrown out. Hence, King will now deploy as an enlisted soldier. He is welcome to "re-apply" after his deployment is ended, and finish out his final year. To that I say absolute Bullshit.

There are questions:

1. Was her limo allowed to perch in a zone that is normally kept moving. If so, why?
2. Why did the Houston PD pose for autographs?
3. Was an investigation ever launched?
   
4. Why is it that 2 months later, King's attorney has to ask that criminal charges be made against the body guards? Why weren't charges pressed earlier?
5. Do the bodyguards in question have clean records?
6. Doesn't the public need to be protected from thugs posing as bodyguards, and should such details be allowed at a public airport?
7. What does West Point have to gain by kowtowing to LaBelle's PR team? (They should take care of their cadets. The public is taking care of LaBelle's actions quite well).
   

I am tired of celebrities, I'm tired of the thug culture they willfully cultivate.
Maybe LaBelle should heed the words of Barry Manilow in an article that came out yesterday. He spoke about the revelation he had when fame enveloped him:

I didn't like how I was treating other people. I felt I was being demanding. I felt like I was not treating people kindly. But most of all I didn't like where I found myself. I remember this night in Florida about five years, four years into my beginning of this trip — I don't like the word "celebrity" — my fame trip. And I was outside in a rocking chair looking at the stars, and I realized that everybody in my house that I was renting on a beach in Florida I was paying. Everybody around me I was paying. My friends had seemed to have disappeared. And this craziness becomes a job, a job that I'm grateful for and that I like, but it's not my life. I had to rethink everything.

He was 29 when he discovered this. It seems LaBelle, at 67, is less mature than Manilow was when he was a young man.

What will happen next is sadly predictable. She'll talk her way onto daytime TV shows to try to appease an audience. She'll offer money to military related charities. She will claim to have always been a military supporter.

But frankly, I could care less about the Diva of Negligence and LaThugs. West Point Cadet or civilian, this never should have happened.

The Navy Seal Who Shot Bin Laden

Okay, some people get to do it all. Comedian Rob Riggle is one of them. In addition to his stand up comedy tours, his appearances on The Daily Show, his involvement with the USO Riggle is also a Lt. Col in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserves. He has served in Liberia, Kosovo and Afghanistan.
Enjoy his latest comedy skit!

The Navy Seal Who Killed Osama Bin Laden from Rob Riggle

When Maxine Fans Go Awry

"Without meaning, all holidays become an excuse for self-centeredness."

Last Friday, I received a note from a Vietnam veteran. He explained that Memorial Day was always a somber one. While most of America celebrated it with sales, barbecues and even going to ceremonies, he always chose to spend it quietly. Inevitably, the phone rings, and over the waves he hears a voice from one of his soldiers, "Doc?" So the weekend is filled with memories --both good and also the type that unsettles one's personal sense of peace as they recall things that happened.

This weekend, the normally quiet and happy Maxine facebook page was hit with some controversy over John Wagner's depiction of Hallmark Card's Maxine on Memorial Day.

At left is the card, which admittedly is how the majority of Americans think of Memorial Day. Most don't correlate the meaning with the reason for the special day, in which we honor those who have served our country and have died. Instead, Memorial Day has become synonymous with a day off work, with the word "sale," and the phrase "time to stock up the fridge and have a barbecue" or the act of getting ripped. Without meaning, all holidays become an excuse for self-centeredness.

And so John Wagner, who in the past has produced Maxine cards that seemed to "get it," erred in producing one that clearly didn't. This year's offering held a mixed message with the sentiment.

"A lot of people don't have to work today."

Maxine the cartoon character observes a fact.
However, combined with the illustration, Wagner distilled Memorial Day into the two things that take away its meaning: a day off work, and a barbecue. The rest: "Live everyday like it's Memorial Day," is a mixed message. Sure, we want to remember those who have sacrificed and died everyday, by living honorably and with respect. But given the illustration and the lack of any mention of the intent of the day, this wasn't what Wagner meant. The Maxine product has earned legions of fans who champion her combination of crassness and cleverness. However, in this case, Wagner just made her crass and unaware.

I have no issue with either days off work, barbecues, a good stiff drink, and laughs on Memorial Day. But the baffling thing is what caused John Wagner's departure from "getting it?"
Because in 2010, he did (see right).
Wagner issued an apology, however, this is where the true colors of whomever Hallmark Cards hired to do its social networking came through.

Several people offended by the current card were mocked, and derided on the board. They were called inbred, close minded, right wingers.But the worst? Those who pointed out their displeasure had their comments taken off the Facebook board. The only ones left were insults to the dissenters. "Maybe the Bible Belt Inbred's need to do something for their country than sit behind a computer
& complain get a life seriously."

To Hallmark's credit, they've revised their social networking commenting policy. Comments and disagreements are being left on. Some of those who have didn't like the cartoon are Gold Star families. Telling a parent, spouse, or child who has lost a son, daughter, husband, wife, father or mother to "Lighten up," "get a hobby," "it's only a cartoon, is the low mark of insensitivity, respect, and insight. I can't imagine being told "lighten up," after having losing and missing a loved one.For the social networking team to censor its critics and let its defenders dole out insults was a sign of social ineptitude, a corporate etiquette disaster coming across as incapable of empathy, and unconcerned with the meaning of the holiday. Were I the CEO of Hallmark, I would cancel their contract.

Still, excuses are being given for the character Maxine, overlooking the fact that the product is written by Wagner, who obviously fell off the wagon of understanding in the course of twelve months. But not only that, it probably passed muster with editors, people who gave it approval. And none of them got it either.

A flyover. Whoosh. Empty brain. Zoom Zoom. Nada. Zilch. Could it be the staff at Hallmark is a victim of its own reason for doing business?

Hallmark Cards is in the business of making money --hence, commercializing on holidays. While much of it is enjoyable and good, it has come with one undesirable result. Holidays are increasingly anemic in meaning, which gives way to a shallowness that breeds ingratitude. Yes, we want barbecues, sales, laughter, and beer. We want people to gather together and have fun. But without a fundamental understanding why the holiday exists, it might as well just be the weekend.
Bring meaning back to our holidays, it's the thing cultivates gratitude, which binds a nation.