Fog of War

I find it interesting Fog of War came out during the high point for the hatred for Donald Rumsfeld. Many people have been critical of both Rumsfeld and McNamara. McNamara for his role in screwing up the Vietnam war. Rumsfeld for screwing up Iraq. Does McNamara’s position support Rumsfeld, or is it critical of Rumsfeld since its showing the mistakes McNamara made, ala Rumsfled is making…

911 is a Joke! At least according to Flavor Flav..

In class we discussed WWII and spent quite a bit of time on Japanese internment. Which I thought was great since I have had a lot of WWII classes already, at least from a Military History NCO, and SNCO point of view. So discussing one of our US history’s more shameful parts was refreshing.

I would argue that you can draw some parralles between our reaction to US Japanese nationals during WWII and our reaction after 9/11. The way Muslims were eyed after 9/11 was suspiciously. Our reaction to 9/11 in the middle east I have internally debated over the years. While the use of military force is justified, the issue is not a military issue. Its a law enforcement issue. The US military can support law enforcement issues during a National emergency, as in Katrina (could have done better) or the War on Drugs (another one we are not sure if we are winning, or not). But the War in Afghanistan should not be seen as War per se, but a law enforcement issue to round up and prosecute, in a US court, the perpetrators of 9/11.

WWII was clearly a violation of our nations soveirgn rights by another nation and therefore military action was appropriate and totally warranted.

Fight for your rights to Purchase!

Last week’s discussion on the rise of the consumer culture got me thinking about how important consumerism is to our economy. Any change in consumer confindence if peopel beging to think the econmony is getting bad, they begin to spend less, which in turns hurts the economy more. Today you can’t turn on the news without hearing how are economy is in a recession or headed towards a recession. Since this could potentially impact consumer purchases this is a dangerous thing to say. Especially when the definition of a recession isn’t even met. A recession is defined as “a decline in a country’s real gross domestic product (GDP), or negative real economic growth, for two or more successive quarters of a year.” This criteria has NOT yet been met, so therefore the media is potentially jeopardizing the consumer confidence and causing the recession to become a reality.

The kotex discussion was a bit uncomfortable. But illustrated that where there is a need the market will develop a product to fit it. Advertising is particular subject I have a problem with. While its clearly needed for me to be successful in business, it is clearly not needed for my oldest son while watching cartoons! Advertising during power rangers just creates false demand for toys, my son doesn’t need. The point of most advertising is to create false demand for products we prolly don’t need. Do we really need all this stuff to be happy? Prolly not, but typing up this class reflection on my MAC Book Pro sure does make me feel clever.

Patriots Win! Irish Lose!

Irish immigrants have been coming to the United States long before the American War of Independence. Many of these immigrants came over as servants, or prisoners sent to penal colonies in the new world, and in the 1800’s to escape famine, threat, and to purse their American dream.

Along with African Americans, Italian Americans, Jewish Americans, and all other X-Americans the Irish have been stereotyped. Just as blacks are often stereo typed as ‘gang bangers’, Italian Americans as Mob Soprano types, Irish-Americans have long been stereotyped as brawling, drinking, red-headed step children.

In the image below you’ll see a cartoon from the 1800’s portraying an Irish stereotype. The woman illustrated looks combative and physically unflattering compared to the ‘white’ woman in the cartoon.

And has any of that changed in today’s world of multi cultural diversity and inclusion? Other than the many workplace laws we have in place making it illegal to hire, fire, or discriminate based on race or ethnicity, the image of the Irish stereotype still exists to most still to this day…

If you search google images for Irish Drinking, it will return nearly 300,000 results. http://images.google.com/images?um=1&hl=en&q=Irish+drinking&btnG=Search+Images

Type in Irish Fighting and the search results are endless…

To many University of Notre Dame fans ‘The Fighting Irish’ is a source of pride. They use the ‘Fighting Irish’ Leprechaun as the school’s mascot. Of course this doesn’t help the stereo type, only fuels it more.

One look at this year’s Notre Dame basketball starting line up illustrates the school and the national media is perfectly happy portraying Irish American and University of Notre Dame star basketball player Luke Harangody like a big linebacker fighting and bruising Irish type during this year’s NCAA tourney.

No of this of course helps the stereotype. Were any of the other tall white big men at any of the state schools portrayed this way? Isn’t Luke Harangody just another big tall white center? Why does Notre Dame and the national media have to portray him to some degree like the common Irish stereotype? Therefore this illustrates that even today we still live with, and tolerate some of the same stereo types towards Irish-Americans (and others) that existed in the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries. And until its no longer tolerated it probably will continue…