Veteran's Day, a Dubious Remedy, and Power

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The Dateline piece recalls the recent scandal involving Catholic priests, and now we know what we all suspected: pedophilia knows no religion.

The History Channel had an interesting series on The Crusades this week which I found very entertaining. Did you know that the then pope promised instant paradise to whomever (being gassed here with lung gas - 4, 1) ended up getting their dumb asses killed? Too bad George Bush could not make same promise to his own 'crusaders,' being only the president, and not the pope.

Speaking of which today is Veteran's Day. I'm a veteran, sort of, so today is my day too. Happy Veteran's Day to us all! I must admit the during my eleven year tour of duty back in the '50s and '60s the worst enemy I faced was the clap. I eluded the clap but the crabs zapped me. There was an old joke going around in those days that the best treatment for the crabs was to shave one half of the pubic area, spray the other half with lighter fluid and light it, then stab the little bastards with an icepick as they ran out. I avoided this remedy.

For a somewhat curmudgeonistic view behind the real meaning behind Veteran's Day I refer you to, Finite and Infinite Games, by James P. Carse. I opened the book to the following quote:

'To speak meaningfully of a person's power is to speak of what that person has already completed in one or another closed field. To see power is to look backward in time.

'Inasmuch as power is determined by the outcome of a game, one does not win by being powerful; one wins to be powerful. If one has sufficient power to win before the game has begun, what follows is not a game at all.

'One can be powerful only through the possession of an acknowleged title - that is, only by the ceremonial deference of others. Power is never one's own, and in that respect it shows the contradiction inherent in all finite play. I can be powerful only by not playing, by showing that the game is over. I can therefore have only what powers others give me. Power is bestowed by an audience after the play is complete.

'Power is contradictory and theatrical.'