Gryphmon's Grumbles

Martial Virtue

Read first:

BlackFive's Martial Virtue and Masculinity.

Just as a point of cultural reference, the "daywalker" term might be more familiar to readers as the character played by Wesley Snipes in the "Blade" movies that were based on the graphic novels.

It is true that no society can survive without martial virtue. However, the other elements, justice, mercy, those things I would group under the banner of chivalry, are also an absolute requirement. Societies that try to utterly suppress them are ultimately not successful, they soon war themselves into extinction. Sparta was eventually a failure, cast into the dustbin of history.

It reminds me of Bill Whittle's post a few years ago called Tribes.

http://www.ejectejecteject.com/archives/000129.html

He says that in very general terms society can be divided up into two groups, sheep and sheepdogs, with those of the martial virtues being the sheepdogs of course. And sheepdogs are always necessary to protect the flock from wolves.

Where his post, as well as this one, falls short is that civilizations face other threats than wolves. For example, I do not believe that terrorists are wolves. They are in truth rabid sheepdogs gone mad. Martial virtues run rampant without check are far more destructive to the societies they presume to protect than any outside enemy could ever be. Osama Bin Laden and martial Islamists have killed far more Muslims than any infidel has ever done, at least in modern times. They are the worst danger to very people that they claim to protect.

Sheepdogs are not more virtuous than sheep. In fact you can make a strong case for the opposite. As Bill Whittle once again points out, sheep choose to be peaceful, to get along with one another. Disputes most of the time are not settled withs swords but with words. Sheepdogs on the other hand, with their innate capacity for violence may not be quite so righteous as they may think of themselves - or wish themselves to be.

The answer is to not get so caught up in what are often illusionary divisions.

"Here's the problem: those "traditional lines" aren't there by accident. Regardless of a hundred years' argument to the contrary, the fact is that our conceptions of virtue aren't mere 'social constructs' that can be played with and reformed at will, or without consequence."

This is more or less correct. However reality is more complex a picture. For the simple reason that people are not either sheep or sheepdogs. They are each a mixture of both, to varying degrees. Every sheep can be a sheepdog under the right circumstances. For example, - Flight 93. But every sheepdog also should strive, when not actually engaged in combat, to practice the chivalrous values. It is the only way you can do your job and still retain your soul.

What is needed in every leaders is a mixture of the martial and chivalrous values. They should be marked by not just the willingness to exercise violence to protect their community, but also by their ability to restrain from doing so. To those that are skeptical of this approach, I will cite as example the triumph of the U.S. over Soviet Russia. Its a war we won without ever have to invade the actual country. It was an approach embraced by Ronald Reagan. Was he sheep or sheepdog? He was both.

As a footnote and aside.

Don't get too hung up on equating genders with this discussion. Martial does not mean exclusively male, compassion and kindness are not exclusively female qualities either. Once again, reality is more complex than the analogy. Human beings are physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually, a mixture of both things. Guys don't believe me? Go look in the mirror and try and figure out why you have breasts. And no warrior in his right mind would willing cross a mother protecting her young. And no woman in her right mind would ever willingly marry a man unable to express kindness, if only to her children.

I find it amusing that it was the Democrats who gave the most blatantly homophobic reasoning not to support Obama. "Metro-sexual" could be applied to a great number of our best Presidents. Especially the ones fond of wearing wigs and garters, like Washington and Jefferson. And if "slender" is a handicap, that removes Abraham Lincoln from the running. Sheesh.

Jihadist Surprise

Bush-Hater

Theodore Roosevelt,

Written in an Op-Ed for The Kansas City Star 1918ish

The President is merely the most important among a large number of public servants. He should be supported or opposed exactly to the degree which is warranted by his good conduct or bad conduct, his efficiency or inefficiency in rendering loyal, able, and disinterested service to the Nation as a whole.

Therefore it is absolutely necessary that there should be full liberty to tell the truth about his acts, and this means that it is exactly necessary to blame him when he does wrong as to praise him when he does right. Any other attitude in an American citizen is both base and servile.

To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public. Nothing but the truth should be spoken about him or any one else. But it is even more important to tell the truth, pleasant or unpleasant, about him than about any one else.

In this day and age of course, Theodore Roosevelt, would be burned at the stake as a Bush-hater.

Honor vs. Terrorism: The American Way Once Again

Its sad, but I find myself needing to re-publish this post yet again. I'm not updating it with current events, because its about principles, moral and otherwise, that in theory are unchangeable.

I simply don't believe that we can win the War on Terror unless it remains a moral war. We need to have a moral victory as well as a tactical one. It may even be a  more important goal. There's just no shortage of Terrorists.  They can't be defeated with just bullets, they have to defeated by ideas.

War is an Ugly Thing

"War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself."

-John Stewart Mill

Borders Books: Christ in Urine OK, but no Mohammad cartoons

News Item

Borders and Waldenbooks stores will not stock the April-May issue of Free Inquiry magazine because it contains cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad that provoked deadly protests among Muslims in several countries.

"For us, the safety and security of our customers and employees is a top priority, and we believe that carrying this issue could challenge that priority," Borders Group Inc. spokeswoman Beth Bingham said Wednesday.The magazine, published by the Council for Secular Humanism in suburban Amherst, includes four of the drawings that originally appeared in a Danish newspaper in September, including one depicting Muhammad wearing a bomb-shaped turban with a lit fuse.

Some how I doubt the "safety and security" line.  Could it instead have something to do with the recently signed agreement to franchise in the United Arab Emirates?

Press Release:

ANN ARBOR, Mich., Feb. 6, 2006--Borders Inc., a subsidiary of global book, music and movie retailer Borders Group, Inc. (NYSE:BGP), announced today that it has signed a memorandum of understanding with Al Maya Group, a diversified corporation headquartered in the United Arab Emirates, to establish a franchise arrangement under which Al Maya will operate Borders stores in the United Arab Emirates and other Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries

You know, I'm quite certain Borders didn't and still doesn't, have a problem with books and magazines showing the work of artists like Serrano, who's "Christ in urine"  piece raised quite a controversy  a few years ago.  Not to mention the Virgin Mary created from elephant dung by another artist.

Maybe Borders should consider if this potential new market would be worth losing the entire market in the US?  Then again, any large corporation is a multi-national these days, so you can't expect them to have any local or national loyalty.  -Meaning they really don't give a damn about American values.

If you want to boycott Borders, as I will, remember that they now also own the Waldenbooks and Brentano's bookseller chains.

You can also contact them here: 

Via e-mail.

Telephone: 734.477.1100

Address:

Borders Group, Inc.
100 Phoenix Drive
Ann Arbor, MI 48108

Hat tips to:  Andrew Sullivan, Marc Cooper, Instapundit., & Roger L. Simon.

Thank you Mudville!

Update: the Boycott seems to be picking up some steam.

Andrew Sullivan a Liberal?

Bruce over at Gay Patriot thinks that Sullivan isn't a conservative.  In Bruce's world, that means he is a goddam Liberal. (boo, hiss..) But then again, apparently in Bruce's world you are a Liberal if:

A)  You don't suck George W. Bush's dick 24 hours a day, 365 days a week.

B)  Are not willing to sacrifice every American principle of decency in the name of GOP Party loyalty.

Bruce and company etc. over at GP obviously have "issues" regarding Andrew Sullivan, (as well as many others no doubt).

And as the great Lesbian Separatist Sonja Johnson has said, in order to have "issues" you have to scrunch up your mouth real tight so it looks just like a .....

And just for clarity in case anyone doesn't know, I'm not "Patrick" the Log Cabin Club guy.  I wish... That man is a tall cool glass of water on a hot summer's day....Cheers!

The Red White and Blue Staters

Most people, straight and gay, seem to assume sometimes that we have absolutely nothing in common.  But also sometimes we do remember that we are still just Americans. Red White and Blue.

Here is one "militant" liberal gay activists experience when Rev. Phelps comes to town.

...Suddenly, the Westboro picket took a back seat in our focus. As I spoke with these wives, they all told similar stories. Their husbands were all deployed. One woman told me a good friend of hers was recently killed. Another said that her husband and his brother were both in Iraq. Army wife Holly Ahrens wrote, “A small group of people would like to get together to show support in what our men and women are doing in the war against terror.”

I know many in the gay community are ideologically opposed to the war in its current phase. Some of my fellow liberals even objected to getting involved because in their view soldiers were being killed for “a reigning tyrant, not democracy.” I felt we needed to close this rift. These were my neighbors, my friends, my family. Clarksville, Fort Campbell, and Oak Grove are all part of the same community. This was a chance to break down some barriers... Please read the full piece.  And thanks to Mudville.

Top Ten Words of 2005

Merriam-Websters top 10 words that were looked up on their website form an interesting commentary on the events of 2005.

1. integrity

Pronunciation: in-'te-gr&-tE

Function: noun

Etymology: Middle English integrite, from Middle French & Latin; Middle French integrité, from Latin integritat-, integritas, from integr-, integer entire

1 : firm adherence to a code of especially moral or artistic values : INCORRUPTIBILITY

2 : an unimpaired condition : SOUNDNESS

3 : the quality or state of being complete or undivided : COMPLETENESS

synonym see HONESTY Click on each of the other words in the Top Ten List for their definitions in the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary:

2. refugee

3. contempt

4. filibuster

5. insipid

6. tsunami

7. pandemic

8. conclave

9. levee

10. inept

Happy Birthday Marines!

And here is a good place to send a birthday present.