MLP

[desh]

Ever see those "Summer Jobs for the Environment" flyers, advertising jobs for groups called PIRGs? I always thought they looked too good to be true. And it turns out they are. (Undated article; seems to be from 2002.) There are quite the horror stories in comments about illegal labor tactics, union busting, 98% of the money raised going to overhead, and just general hypocrisy. Some other good links here, comparing these groups to cults, and giving more horror stories and essays. (Via gutwoman.)

Yeah, I really do love the lefty rhetoric this week. Check out this bit of anti-war justification. After reading enough of this stuff, I'm very close to being pro-draft. Republicans complaining about military enlistment problems? Fine; put your money bodies and your children where your mouth is. (Via The Daily Kos.)

In less weighty news, The Philadelphia Parking Authority has unveiled an online directory of Center City parking garages, complete with prices. They claim this will boost competition and lower prices. They're right, though perhaps not to as big of an extent as they imply. I just tried it, and you have to poke around a bit to get to a full menu of prices. It's also missing some garages, including the two closest ones to my house. But it's at least a bit easier to find out about price gouging now.

Matisyahu is WXPN's Artist To Watch for June. I didn't figure this out until yesterday, because they kept pronouncing his name such that I thought they were saying "Modest Yahoo", like a spin-off of Modest Mouse or something. (Correctly pronounced, the first two syllables have equal weight, and the "I" sounds like the name of the letter "E".) It's neat that he's getting all this publicity, though I still don't like reggae.

It seems that there's a Monopoly-like game based on the realtime GPS-determined positions of real London cabs. I haven't been to the site yet, and it's quite possible that the game sucks, but it's still really neat as proof-of-concept alone. (Via Slashdot.)

Comments

[desh]

But that doesn't really solve the problem, because all of the chickenhawks out there will do other non-military service stuff. The military will probably still be primarily lower-class minorities.

...chickenhawks? Is that the right word? I'm trying to sound more like a blogosphere blogger. I mean those right-wing people who love the war but don't want anyone they know to actually have to fight in it.

[dagoski.livejournal.com]

Ther term chickenhawk is usually a slang term for pedophile, specifically an older man who preys on boys. But I like your use. Infact, I like the way it references the older meaning, implying that the the willingness of older elites to send other people kids to their deaths is essentially abusive.

The whole volunteer vs draft thing is tricky. The US military likes what it can do with an all volunteer force. A force of volunteers is much more aggressive and competent because they subscribe to a lot of the ideals(even when they go in to get some skills) as opposed to being compelled as draftees. That's one big reason why we've been able to do so much with such a small force in Iraq. The volunteer force also worked in places like Bosnia where discretion and judgement skills were more important than the shooting skills. So the Pentagon does not want to give up that kind of force. Draftees in Vietnam kind of got into a survival mentality where not only would they not prosecute offensives well, but they got entirely too trigger happy shooting at whatever looked like a threat. The difference is a force that go the extra mile while being shot at vs one that will do the minimum to get by and hunker down til day 365.

Bottom line I think is that citizens will volunteer for causes and governments they believe in. When the government becomes disconnected, the people stay away. And this government is dangerously disconnected from people of the US. This is why I never care for elitist leaders with aggressive foreign policies. The military was one of the only ways to get up and out fromm the place I grew up and most of my graduating class volunteered to get education, benefits, and an income that wasn't derived from selling drugs or flipping burgers. So there's what amounts to a poverty draft. That works during peace time, but there's no way these young people will volunteer to serve a government that gives them nothing during war.