Say it isn't so. In explaining the etymology of the newly coined "spillionaire " though, a Washington Post article reveals just how New Orleans and local area citizens "raped" BP with inflated and bogus claims incidental to the corporation's catastrophic oil spill (in http://mobile.washingtonpost.com/c.jsp?item=http%3a%2f%2fwww.washingtonpost.com%2fnational%2fspillionaires-are-the-new-rich-after-bp-oil-spill-payouts%2f2011%2f04%2f11%2fAFjaqsWD_mobile.xml&cid=578815&spf=1). According to findings of the ProPublica reporters probing into this case, the villains are crony contractors, public officials with finely tuned profit motives, and average citizens looking to cash in at the first sign of anyone else's cash being dispensed in exchange for a hard-luck story -- all lusty participants in the swindling competition to see who can take away the most money in the shortest time. Even a municipal homeland security director -- perhaps a misapplied title, since true managers seldom draw overtime pay -- managed to secure over $20,000 in BP-funded OT for doing his job for a few weeks.
The aggressive and predatory impulse runs free when unchecked by leadership or countervailing example. While the stories of the spillionaires would appear to reaffirm Louisiana's reputation for leading edge hospitality in all matters dealing with pecuniary embroidery, the really interesting part of the story for security practitioners is that a county executive was the one to give voice to misgivings. He feels bad about the abusive claims, and this is the essential starting point for any corrective audit or redress.
And so a ray of light pierces through the pogonip of crooks and cronies otherwise bottling swamp water and selling it as champagne.
-- Nick Catrantzos
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Thursday, April 7, 2011
Technological Aikido
News of Israel's apparently successful deployment of its Iron Dome defense against indiscriminate rocket attacks on civilians is the kind of good news only a terrorist would oppose. While the new device was not officially finished and ready to enter service, real-world need took priority. When mace, sword,or axe are being swung against your head, it is no time to quibble over holding up any shield available -- no matter how much more work you would like to do on it under ideal conditions. If the success of the Iron Dome continues as now reported (in, for example, http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4053837,00.html), then Iron Dome becomes to citizen defense what aikido is to martial arts: the kind of defense so nonaggressive as to even be accepted in hospital settings.
Why is this the case with aikido? Aikido is purely defensive. It teaches no aggressive moves, not even the grunt or shout that other martial disciplines insist on combining with strikes and kicks. Since there are no strikes or kicks in aikido, practitioners seldom feel themselves at a loss. Moreover, aikido has no tournaments nor most of the other aggressive trappings of the disciplines which, under the banner of self-defense, happen to include a fair dollop of tactical incapacitation of adversaries. Indeed, in aikido, one is supposed to take care to avoid needlessly inflicting pain even against an opponent who is unconstrained by similar thoughts. Aikidoists avoid, deflect,or neutralize an attack without trying to harm the attacker. They may immobilize an attacker but are ethically constrained from intentionally harming him. This is why aikido is reportedly the only martial art approved for use in restraining violent patients at psychiatric hospitals. Imagine boxing or karate being approved in similar settings.
What will the opponent's reaction be to Iron Dome's effect as technological aikido? Look for a cry of foul, precisely the same way one would expect a drunken aggressor who tried to punch out an aikidoist later claim that the defender was, in reality, the one who started it and caused the greater damage. Perhaps even self-inflicted wounds will surface to trumpet before a naive or receptive media to advance claims that a purely defensive system is somehow a first-strike weapon of mass destruction.
-- Nick Catrantzos
Why is this the case with aikido? Aikido is purely defensive. It teaches no aggressive moves, not even the grunt or shout that other martial disciplines insist on combining with strikes and kicks. Since there are no strikes or kicks in aikido, practitioners seldom feel themselves at a loss. Moreover, aikido has no tournaments nor most of the other aggressive trappings of the disciplines which, under the banner of self-defense, happen to include a fair dollop of tactical incapacitation of adversaries. Indeed, in aikido, one is supposed to take care to avoid needlessly inflicting pain even against an opponent who is unconstrained by similar thoughts. Aikidoists avoid, deflect,or neutralize an attack without trying to harm the attacker. They may immobilize an attacker but are ethically constrained from intentionally harming him. This is why aikido is reportedly the only martial art approved for use in restraining violent patients at psychiatric hospitals. Imagine boxing or karate being approved in similar settings.
What will the opponent's reaction be to Iron Dome's effect as technological aikido? Look for a cry of foul, precisely the same way one would expect a drunken aggressor who tried to punch out an aikidoist later claim that the defender was, in reality, the one who started it and caused the greater damage. Perhaps even self-inflicted wounds will surface to trumpet before a naive or receptive media to advance claims that a purely defensive system is somehow a first-strike weapon of mass destruction.
-- Nick Catrantzos
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