Just a quick update. Work is going well. Getting to know my way around, learning local patterns, etc.
I didn't plan it but I lucked out in terms of which Guard unit I joined. We really have an excellent repuation with our active duty peers and it pays off. It is hard work to maintain, but well worth it. Every little trip I've had had me a little nervous about living up to the standard but otherwise I'd be bored.
Watching the news is incredibly surreal. I've made jokes about going back to the real world when I'm done here, but I'm pretty sure going home is in some ways the departure from reality.
I need to reread Hocus Pocus when I get home. There is a story in that book about a child that is in an elevator that gets stuck. The child imagines that the whole city is stopped waiting on their fate. The mayor is calling the governor, the governor the president, and so on. After some time passes the elevetor shudders, moves a little, stops, and the doors open at the next floor. The people get off and get on as if nothing happened. I am working under the assumption that my return will be a lot like that except without the high expectations.
I'm not trying to be cynical or critical of the situation. It is what it is. But like I've said before, I'm in a sheltered bubble where we go off to war when the nation is at war. The news, one of the links to home, is ironically the reminder of that.
What is it about CNN and grumpy old blow hards? Jack Cafferty? Lou Dobbs? They had Novak for a while. Fox has the sleezebags and Geraldo. I guess I like MSNBC because none of their anchors make me annoyed just seeing them. Though they could subsitute Darrell Hammond for Chris Matthews and no one would notice.
I finished Thucydides. No one told me it ends 2/3 of the way through the Peloponnesian War (or the Athenian War from the Peloponnesian point of view). Fine, I know the Spartans win in the end and have general understanding of how they did it. But I wanted this narrative to take me through it in detail.
Thucydides claimed to be an Athenian. His humor was more British. I liked it.
And the Greeks for all their manly posturing were surprisingly like eighth grade girls.
Out.
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Well, this really is not on topic, but i thought you might like to know the civilian version of what the military is doing. This is from the Associated Press. Hmm, it only took them two weeks to get it.
By LOLITA C. BALDOR
^Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Army is taking stronger steps to warn soldiers they will be punished if they reveal sensitive military information on Web sites or blogs.
While the possibility of punishment is not new, the Army spells out in recently published regulations the range of actions if soldiers "fail to protect critical and sensitive information."
Some Web logs, also called blogs, raised alarms this week, suggesting the Army was cracking down anew on soldiers who have blogs. But the bulk of the regulations released April 19 mirror rules published in 2005 that require soldiers to consult with commanders before "publishing or posting information" in a public forum.
The regulation is not as explicit as the one put out by commanders in Iraq two years ago that requires soldiers in war zones to register their blogs with the military.
Army Maj. Ray M. Ceralde, who worked on the new regulations, said Wednesday the intention of the 2007 rule is not to have soldiers clear every public posting with commanders.
"Not only is that impractical, but we are trusting the soldiers to protect critical information," he said.
He said there is no effort to block soldiers from setting up or posting comments to blogs. "We’re not looking for them to seek approval each time a blog entry is posted," Ceralde said.
The rules, he said, do not affect personal, private e-mails that soldiers send. "Soldiers have a right to private communications with their families," he said.
Instead, Ceralde said, soldiers are expected to consult or clear with commanders when they start a blog, in part so they can be warned about the information they cannot publish.
Ceralde said Army leaders wanted to emphasize the importance of maintaining operational security. Soldiers will be punished if they publicly reveal sensitive information, such as troop movements, planned raids, travel itineraries of senior leaders, or photographs of casualties, new technology or other material that could compromise their location.
The rules say solders can be charged with violating a lawful order, under the Uniform Code of Military Justice.
He said unit commanders have the authority to set up more restrictive requirements — such as requiring that individual postings be reviewed — if they deem it necessary.
As before, the regulations require that soldiers tell their family members and friends to protect sensitive information.
The military set up the regulations in 2005, as blogs and other web postings became more popular, particularly among service members who were deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan.
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