Journal BlackHat's Journal: Oh, for the wings of any bird other than a battery hen 1
Quote:
Considering the difficulties which men have had to hold to a newly acquired state, some might wonder how, seeing that Alexander the Great became the master of Asia in a few years, and died whilst it was scarcely settled (whence it might appear reasonable that the whole empire would have rebelled), nevertheless his successors maintained themselves, and had to meet no other difficulty than that which arose among themselves from their own ambitions.
I answer that the principalities of which one has record are found to be governed in two different ways; either by a prince, with a body of servants, who assist him to govern the kingdom as ministers by his favour and permission; or by a prince and barons, who hold that dignity by antiquity of blood and not by the grace of the prince. Such barons have states and their own subjects, who recognize them as lords and hold them in natural affection. Those states that are governed by a prince and his servants hold their prince in more consideration, because in all the country there is no one who is recognized as superior to him, and if they yield obedience to another they do it as to a minister and official, and they do not bear him any particular affection.
The examples of these two governments in our time are the Turk and the King of France. The entire monarchy of the Turk is governed by one lord, the others are his servants; and, dividing his kingdom into sanjaks, he sends there different administrators, and shifts and changes them as he chooses. But the King of France is placed in the midst of an ancient body of lords, acknowledged by their own subjects, and beloved by them; they have their own prerogatives, nor can the king take these away except at his peril. Therefore, he who considers both of these states will recognize great difficulties in seizing the state of the Turk, but, once it is conquered, great ease in holding it.
The causes of the difficulties in seizing the kingdom of the Turk are that the usurper cannot be called in by the princes of the kingdom, nor can he hope to be assisted in his designs by the revolt of those whom the lord has around him. This arises from the reasons given above; for his ministers, being all slaves and bondmen, can only be corrupted with great difficulty, and one can expect little advantage from them when they have been corrupted, as they cannot carry the people with them, for the reasons assigned. Hence, he who attacks the Turk must bear in mind that he will find him united, and he will have to rely more on his own strength than on the revolt of others; but, if once the Turk has been conquered, and routed in the field in such a way that he cannot replace his armies, there is nothing to fear but the family of this prince, and, this being exterminated, there remains no one to fear, the others having no credit with the people; and as the conqueror did not rely on them before his victory, so he ought not to fear them after it.
The contrary happens in kingdoms governed like that of France, because one can easily enter there by gaining over some baron of the kingdom, for one always finds malcontents and such as desire a change. Such men, for the reasons given, can open the way into the state and render the victory easy; but if you wish to hold it afterwards, you meet with infinite difficulties, both from those who have assisted you and from those you have crushed. Nor is it enough for you to have exterminated the family of the prince, because the lords that remain make themselves the heads of fresh movements against you, and as you are unable either to satisfy or exterminate them, that state is lost whenever time brings the opportunity.
Now if you will consider what was the nature of the government of Darius, you will find it similar to the kingdom of the Turk, and therefore it was only necessary for Alexander, first to overthrow him in the field, and then to take the country from him. After which victory, Darius being killed, the state remained secure to Alexander, for the above reasons. And if his successors had been united they would have enjoyed it securely and at their ease, for there were no tumults raised in the kingdom except those they provoked themselves.
But it is impossible to hold with such tranquillity states constituted like that of France. Hence arose those frequent rebellions against the Romans in Spain, France, and Greece, owing to the many principalities there were in these states, of which, as long as the memory of them endured, the Romans always held an insecure possession; but with the power and long continuance of the empire the memory of them passed away, and the Romans then became secure possessors. And when fighting afterwards amongst themselves, each one was able to attach to himself his own parts of the country, according to the authority he had assumed there; and the family of the former lord being exterminated, none other than the Romans were acknowledged.
When these things are remembered no one will marvel at the ease with which Alexander held the Empire of Asia, or at the difficulties which others have had to keep an acquisition, such as Pyrrhus and many more; this is not occasioned by the little or abundance of ability in the conqueror, but by the want of uniformity in the subject state.--Machiavelli
News:
Darwin hits 50k rpm. Serbia's education minister has ordered schools to stop teaching the theory of evolution for the current school year, a leading newspaper has reported. The paper, Glas Javnosti, quoted Ljiljana Colic as saying that in future Charles Darwin's theory would only be taught alongside creationism.
Nicknamed "Giant" at university because of his diminutive stature, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai has proved he is capable of rocking the Nigerian political establishment. Nigerian senators are baying for his blood, demanding the sacking of the minister for the federal capital territory after he called them "fools". I'm a walking nightmare, an arsenal of doom/ I kill conversation as I walk into the room/ I'm a three line whip/ I'm the sort of thing they ban/
French Sikhs have accused the authorities of failing to honour an agreement exempting Sikh schoolchildren from a ban on overtly religious attire. At least five Sikhs wearing turbans or cloth covers for their uncut hair were barred from classrooms near Paris.
Hell. He's twice the man for the job. Mr. Creosote approves.
Richard Boucher knocks the clods from his cleats. Here's the first pitch. QUESTION: Richard, Vladimir Putin is complaining. He's saying that the United States still has a Cold War mentality, these are not freedom fighters, and he's also critical because you granted asylum to what he calls the foreign minister of Chechen separatist movement. And also, does that have any tie-in to today's editorial in The Washington Post?
MR. BOUCHER: I don't know. You can ask Washington Post if President Putin had anything to do with the editorial, but the --
QUESTION: No, not the editorial, critical of the U.S. The editorial --
MR. BOUCHER: I don't want to start talking about editorials. As far as our relations with Chechen figures of different points of view, I think we've dealt with that question. And we, obviously, are willing to look at any information the Russian Government has on organizations or individuals that may be involved or associated with terrorism, but our view of some of these political figures has been different than the Russians, and that's just been a fact for a long time. That's not an issue that's being dealt with or trying to be dealt with in the current situation.
In the current situation, there's no question of our stance against the people who perpetrated this act. There's no question of our stance with the Russian Government in fighting these kind of terrorists, whether it's the people who bombed airplanes last week or the Moscow subway or the attack on the school. Russia faces a horrible and deadly terrorism problem and we are working with them in a variety of ways, exchanging information, cooperating at the UN, doing other things together, to fight terrorism because we recognize the threat that the Russians have faced and, in this particular circumstance, trying to help the victims of that terrorism.
As Mojo-jojo is the Umpire today it counted as a technical foul. Next pitch.
QUESTION: Has there been any contact with the Chechen side in the last
-- I mean, not meeting with officials but any kind of contact with some of your intermediaries in the last two weeks, say?
MR. BOUCHER: I don't know of any. I know -- I don't know what sort of contact you might be talking about if it's not meetings.
QUESTION: Were not there phone calls? E-mails?
MR. BOUCHER: I'll have to check and see if we've had any talk with Chechens recently.
Right in the strike zone. One and One.
QUESTION: But also, I heard the reports in the Pakistan newspapers that there are differences between General Musharraf himself and his generals, with that they don't want Usama bin Laden to be handed over to anybody and he might be in trouble. So do you -- are you -- I mean, what's your reading as far as that's concern?
MR. BOUCHER: I don't think this is -- should -- can or should be the cause for great speculation. The United States and Pakistan are allies in this fight. President Musharraf is determined that his country needs to take a more moderate course; it needs to fight against terrorism, and indeed, the evidence -- the, what you can see, yourself, on the ground is that Pakistan has, again and again, sent troops into harm's way to try to eliminate the terrorists that might be taking harbor in parts of Pakistan, where previously the government wasn't even represented, and now they're out there fighting and sometimes dying in order to get rid of these foreign terrorists from Pakistani soil.
So I don't think there's any doubt of their commitment and the commitment not only of the president, but of the people who are out there fighting.
QUESTION: Well, let me put it in different way quickly. Is U.S. behind, fully, 100 percent, General Musharraf if he's ready to take any actions as far as Usama bin Laden is concerned?
MR. BOUCHER: Let me put it the same way, perhaps, quickly. Yes.
Strike two. Musharraf's leash has spikes on the inside of both loops. Two and One. The umpire is saying that they are here to play ball and that ball playing should be what they should be doing here in the ball park where balls are played with... [insert Loosner's advert ~30 seconds]... we're back and there's the pitch.
QUESTION: Do you have any explanation on the part of the State Department as to why President Bush did not mention Korea when he was introducing all the Iraq war allies in the speech on Thursday?
MR. BOUCHER: I think it's important to remember that on other occasions the President, the Secretary of State and others have shown a great appreciation for the contribution that the Republic of Korea has made. There should be no doubt about our gratitude to South Korean troops for the contributions in the coalition.
QUESTION: Did you -- sorry. Did you get any explanation on that from the White House or Bush camp, or any --
MR. BOUCHER: The President always cites various examples in his speeches. Sometimes it's some countries, sometimes it's others. But the President has made clear in various statements repeatedly how much he values the deployments of the Republic of Korea to Iraq, how close our relationship as allies is and how well we're working together in current years and months. And that remains a very firm foundation of our policy, one that the President has reiterated again and again, albeit on different occasions.
QUESTION: Concerning the uranium enrichment of South Korea. That group of IAEA inspectors has returned from Seoul after a long, weeklong probe. And then did you hear something from Vienna?
MR. BOUCHER: I'll, at this point, wait until they present their report. I'm not aware that they have presented any reports yet.
QUESTION: One more about South Korea.
MR. BOUCHER: Okay.
QUESTION: Please on the Korean officials, the U.S. Embassy in Seoul or the one -- some officials in your department said that one Mr. Bush -- that Mr. Bush did not mention South Korea in his speech, it is not what the government did, it's kind of the Republican Party did, so they express that kind of regret but in --
MR. BOUCHER: I'll leave the Republican Party to express their own opinion of this, but I know that from a government point of view, the President is the President, and he has on many occasions, expressed his support and appreciation for the effort that South Korea has made and for the cooperation that we have with South Korea. And three. [Mojo-jojo raps on "out" until twilight]
OYAITJ:
45013 : Kelly, Rummy, Kyi and the Bushbaby with; George Bush will attempt tonight to convince the American people that he has a workable 'exit strategy' to free his forces from the rapidly souring conflict in Iraq, as Britain prepares to send in thousands more troops to reinforce the faltering coalition effort. Frantic negotiations continued this weekend in New York to secure a United Nations resolution that would open the way for other countries to deploy peacekeeping troops to help after Bush - with one eye on next year's presidential election - signalled a change of heart on America's refusal to allow any but coalition forces into Iraq. The President has been left with little practical choice. Concern among the American public has reached such a pitch that, with his approval ratings plummeting, he will deliver a televised address to the nation tonight to reassure them that they do not face another Vietnam. With their sons and daughters dying daily in guerrilla attacks, Americans may now be becoming more frightened of being bogged down in a hostile country than of the terrorist threat against which Bush has pledged to defend them.
Texttoon:
Fumetti : Stock photo of Vladimir Putin. Overlayed speech bubble has him saying; "I'll bet you didn't know that 'La la la I can't hear you' translates to 'child killer' in Russian." Caption at the bottom; "Alexander Yalt Translation Systems: Try our new 'DuckSpeak 2.0 eXPi0RtypeGT language tapes (available in r2r and 8t only)"
How are you feeling? (Score:2)
"Ah, very good!"