Movie Review: Stop-Loss

In Tikrit, you lead your squad after some guys that attacked your checkpoint. Not because you want revenge, but because you are following orders. Three Humvees in pursuit of a little Datsun pickup with three perps inside with AKs. The squad chases them through town, down a narrow alley, where the perps flee their truck and run into a building.

You leave a man on the roof-mounted .50-cal to cover your six, and take the rest of the squad down the alley. The alley is tight, barely big enough to get a wide-ass Humvee down, and walls climb to three or four stories on either side. The sun can't be seen because the sky is so narrow above the street only a little indirect light comes through.

As you prepare to lead your guys into a building, the shooting starts. One guy goes down, then another. Fire from the rooftop. Your guys return fire. Bad guys fall. An RPG takes out your Humvee; the soldier manning the .50-cal is gone. Your second in command runs into the building after the original bad guys, but takes a hit. You hear him call your name. You rush in, and find yourself face-to-face with a guy holding a child... and a grenade. You shoot both. Moving up the stairs, you hear more shots. You dodge into a room - clear; in the kitchen, your buddy is on the floor, shot, and taking fire from around a corner. Tossing in a grenade, you cover your ears and shield your body. The concussion knocks you around. Checking the adjacent room, you find your grenade got the bad guy... plus his kids, wife, mother, father - the whole family tree just got clipped.

You manage to get your buddy out. In the meantime, the backup has arrived and is helping evac the wounded. You lost three guys, and a fourth probably lost his legs. Who knows how many baddies went down. Thank God your tour is over, thank God your enlistment is over and you can get back to the states. You've got your best girl to marry!

Enter Stop-Loss.

With volunteerism dropping, and re-enlistments dropping, the military is having a hard time meeting numbers. What to do? Why don't we activate a little known part of the contractual fine print and re-activate those that are scheduled for discharge? Excellent idea!

Stop-Loss, AKA Backdoor Draft, was instituted after the Vietnam War. When a person signs the military contract, whether for two years or four years or maybe even six years, the real obligation is EIGHT years. Now, in times of peace, eight years, smeight years, right? But with two wars on the stove, one of which is not particularly popular, and the other not going well, the military complex has found itself with a bit of a Public Relations (PR) problem. So, while we try to improve our image, we still need soldiers. And who makes a better soldier than someone who is already a soldier?

According to statistics at the end of the movie, about 10% of soldiers have been affected by Stop-Loss. Stop-Loss soldiers serve an additional 6 months, on average. But we all know the problem with averages ...

The movie covers many issues Iraq War soldiers encounter in their domestic/civilian lives. Ryan Phillipe, who I don't really care for as an actor, has such a good performance that my opinion of him has changed, a little. Many of the events in the movie are pulled right from the headlines. Well, not lately, as the media has moved onto another bright, shiny, object - Obama/McCain, and the Economy.

Watch this movie!

Movie Review: Taxi To The Darkside

Abu Ghraib.

Merely thinking about Abu Ghraib makes my skin crawl. Such an honorable example of American culture. But wait, that isn't right. American military culture under Bush. It doesn't represent me, my ideals, my concerns, or my beliefs. Anyone with any ethical or moral fibers in their bodies are probably not represented by Abu Ghraib, hopefully.

Taxi to the Darkside tells the story of what happens when someone is at the wrong place at the wrong time. And he dies from bad timing. Not because he was holding a weapon, firing weapon, in possession of a weapon. He dies from being impoverished. He dies from the color of his skin. He dies from excessive violence promoted with a wink and a nudge from the US military apparatus.

Watch the movie.

The Geography of Starbucks

Thanks to Dante Chinni for an interesting article on the geography of Starbucks.

Here we go:

Stereotypes. Some people believe that the "Wal-mart Nation" favors John McCain; the "Starbucks Nation" favors Barack Obama. Probably not true.

What I found immensely fascinating was the division of the United States into 11 Starbucks Communities. I am not going to summarize them here; you can visit the article to discover the 11 Communities, but I will list them (mostly so I don't forget)

1. Minority Central
2. Service Worker Centers
3. Campus & Careers
4. Military Bastions
5. Tractor Country
6. Immigration Nation
7. Monied Burbs
8. Evangelical Epicenters
9. Boom Towns
10. Emptying Nests
11. Industrial Metropolis

These communities do not correlate with any common perceptual region, i.e. the Bible Belt, the Sun Belt, the Midwest, or the South, for example. These communities exist wherever people who fit the demographic profile of the community live. For example, an easy one is Military Bastions, or military bases, like Ft. Campbell, KY, or Ft. Benning, GA. Immigration Nation may refer to those areas that are attractive to migrant laborers, or perhaps some urban centers that recent migrants tend to gravitate towards, such as Dallas, Phoenix, New York, Atlanta, etc.

The article deals with an area of geography called Market Segmentation. Some might say that market segmentation falls within the jurisdiction of marketing and business. However, we cannot forget that whenever place enters into the discussion, and the resulting characteristics or traits can be mapped, then we are now well within the domain of geography.

I like this Patchwork Nation idea created or implemented by the Christian Science Monitor to track trends in our culture.

Country VS Realm VS Region

One of my pet peeves is the misidentification of a realm or region as a "country."

For example, what raised my ire was an Apple iTune podcast description for the show, "travel geography." The premise of the show invites people who have traveled abroad to discussion their journey. A description of the show is posted to help the listener decide what to listen to.

In one case, a two-part episode description invited listeners to learn about the travels of a few people who had traveled across the "country" of Asia.

The "country" of Asia? You've got to be kidding me. And associated with a podcast called, "travel geography," no less.

Maybe they meant "China" or "South Korea;" or maybe they meant to say the "realm of Asia," rather than "country."

A 'country' typically is thought of to be a political area on the landscape, where the area is governed by the people that inhabit the area, and others outside the area recognize the sovereignty of the area. Such as Germany, or Portugal, or Uruguay.

A 'realm' is a large area that encompasses many different countries, contains a great number of people, and is a mostly inhabitable territory. Such as Asia, Africa, or Latin America.

A 'region' can be defined by a number of subjective characteristics. Regions can also vary by scale. A region could exist at a very local scale, such as around a town or city. A region could exist at a national scale. US states that receive a good deal of sunlight and also receive a number of retirement migrants are part of the Sunbelt. States that are perceived to have strong religious faith fall into the Bible Belt. These are perceptual regions. They encompass a number of administrative units, i.e. states, and are a subset of the larger "realm."

By the way, one of the best iTunes podcasts is The Amateur Traveler. The guy that does this does a great job.

Movie Review: Noise

ThinkFilm production has a new Tim Robbins movie available for rental, "Noise."

Car alarms are annoying. Just one car alarm going off is enough to send many people into a state of incoherent babbling. Imagine multiple cars or trucks going off simulatenously or consecutively. Madness, shear madness, could result. And this is what sends David (Tim Robbins) over the edge. The movie is somewhat autobiographical in nature, according to the NYT article. David, seeing the lack of respect in the world around him, feeling assaulted by urban noise, takes matters into his own hands, becoming a crusader for silence, the Rectifier.

While not a movie with "geographic" themes self-evident, one scene stands out to me. David is being followed around by a part-time writer, who was an earlier victim of one of David's anti-noise tirade. David had thrown a rock the the storefront of her father's furniture store because the burgler alarm going off at 3am. He has moved into an apartment as his wife has become intolerant of his anti-noise campaign methods. As David and this reporter talk about David and his alter-ego, the Rectifier, David is seen stabbing the wall with a pushpin.

I liked the scene (the rest of the movie was so-so) as the casual observer may not recognize that David is pushing a pin into an aerial photograph of New York City. He was using aerial photography to map his exploits! In fact, it wasn't just one aerial photograph. Stuck to the wall above a worktable was a partial flightline of aerial photography for New York City, with several colored pushpins jabbed into various locations across the city.

I thought that was kind of cool.

Iran and the Debates

I hope everyone has been watching the debates. They are informative in their content, and, conversely, informative in what they do not contain. Listen for comments about China and India. Are there any ???

Let me be clear, I am not going to use this venue to support either party. I do want to point something out in this venue, though.

The President of Iran is Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Not to diminish his power or his authority, but the reality of Iran is that M. Ahmadinejad is not the real power in Iran. The real power in Iran sits with the Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei.

The Supreme Leader of Iran is in control of the military, not the President. When we hear President, we think, generally, that the person in the role of President has the same powers as the US President. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is not a dictator - he is up for re-election next summer. He cannot launch an attack against Israel, as command of the military is outside his powers.

Many countries have a President and a Prime Minister. The President takes care of domestic affairs. The Prime Minister handles international affairs. Sometimes, the role of President may be termed, "Chancellor," such as the case of Great Britain. In the USA, we combine both the domestic duties and international duties into one position, the President.

Becoming more informed about the world is what this blog is about. When we learn, we are then able to see that things may not always be what they seem. Perhaps, we become more curious and ask more questions. That is part of becoming educated - being able to ask better questions, or question the answers.

I encourage everyone to explore debate comments.

Repairman Jack Geography

On a whim, I bought my first Repairman Jack novel, "Harbinger." Anyone who has read a Repairman Jack novel, by F. Paul Wilson will realize what came next. I bought my second Repairman Jack novel, "Hosts." And then I bought "Gateways" and "Crisscross," which I am reading now. I bought "Infernal" on Friday.

No, I am not reading them in order. I have been buying them used, based on price and availabililty. I really need a copy of "All The Rage." Events in that novel seem to alter the future of Jack, at least he realizes that there is more to his repair work than meets the eye.

FPW weaves a lot of geography into his works. His endnotes in "Gateway" specifically address his use of literary license to deviate from known geography to relocate certain restaurants and other features. The environment, via the Everglades, becomes a character in "Gateways." Demography of southern Florida is expressed through the Gateway retirement community. Jack's father retires to southern Florida, which is characteristic of our current US population. Early in the novel, Jack runs across the unique fauna and flora of Florida, the sawgrass, mosquitos, herons, plus the low relief terrain. Near the end of the novel, Jack, his father, and Carl have to deal with the looming influence of Hurricane Elvis, in addition to certain reptiles.

FPW novels are rife with geography examples. Jack is highly observant of traffic patterns, the movement of people, when people are active and when they are not, as in commuting patterns and weekend travel. Jack is attentive to the economics of the neighborhoods, caring a mental map of New York City and New Jersey that helps him at a basic level navigate the region, and operate at an advanced level as he uses his knowledge of commerical, industrial, and residential areas to conduct his "repair" operations.

For someone who has only traveled to that area once, FPW through Jack's voice, I feel like I have a better understanding of the geography Newark, NJ and New York City.