Gun Trusts

"A growing number of shooting enthusiasts are creating legal trusts to acquire machine guns, silencers or other items whose sale is restricted by federal law — a mechanism that bypasses the need to obtain law enforcement approval or even undergo criminal background checks..."

NYT

Groupthink in the Administration

"Over the weekend, two writers coming from very different backgrounds expressed concerns about the tone and makeup of the Obama national security team..."

Worries spread about the narrowness of President Obama’s national security team

Real World Sniper assassination

Crazy...

Sniper Executes a Police Chief of Nuevo Leon with a .50 Caliber Rifle

Duffel Blog Win

If you are so self-important that you believe it is your job to personally ferret-out government conspiracies, you deserve to be humiliated in the national press--and this blog.

"A must-read for national-security nerds — and anyone who enjoys humor, really — [The Duffel Blog] provides pitch-perfect military parody online, such as this piece about Syria hosting Iraq War reenactors (bylined by “G-Had”) or this one about a Google Street View Prius getting blown up in Kandahar. The Duffel Blog, as dutiful readers know, is America’s oldest online source for fake military news, founded in 1797 in a moment of farsightedness. It often gives more real talk than most legit journalistic institutions, but there is no way you can confuse it with the real news.

Unless you are a senior member of the United States Senate.

On November 14, 2012, Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) wrote to Elizabeth King, the Pentagon’s congressional liaison, with a an unusually credulous query. “I am writing on behalf of a constituent who has contacted me regarding Guantanamo Bay prisoners receiving Post 9/11 GI Bill benefits,” McConnell wrote in a letter acquired by Danger Room. “I would appreciate your review and response to my constituent’s concerns.”"

Awesome.

Smart Grid advancements

"Indisputably, technologies integrating digital communications and computing into power system infrastructure were materializing much more slowly than their proponents had predicted, and measurable benefits were hard to find. But if the darkest is just before dawn, as the saying goes, then perhaps now the smart grid may at last be coming over the horizon..."

New Dawn for Smart Grid?

Drone attacks

In defense of Obama’s drone war

$1Billion Whale

"A former mayor of San Diego spent the last decade wagering more than a billion dollars at casinos across the country, eventually liquidating her savings, auctioning her belongings, selling off real estate, borrowing from friends and taking more than $2 million from a charity set up by her late husband, a fast-food tycoon..."

San Diego Ex-Mayor Confronts $1 Billion Gambling Problem

Clayton Christensen agrees with me

Harvard business professor and best-selling author Clayton Christensen agrees with me. Coincidence? I think not.

“You know, Harvard Business School doesn’t teach accounting anymore, because there’s a guy out of BYU whose online accounting course is so good. He is extraordinary, and our accounting faculty, on average, is average. Some [universities] will survive. Most will evolve hybrid models, in which universities license some courses from an online provider like Coursera but then provide more-specialized courses in person.”

Clay Christensen: First the media gets disrupted, then comes the education industry

War is keeping the Army from Armying

It saddens me to hear that the Army is clawing its way back to pre-2001 priorities. I was hoping that my observations were outliers and unrepresentative of the whole.

"The entire intent of being a professional soldier is going to war and destroying the enemy. What most of us in the military have trained for -- and done -- several times. Yes, there were a lot of growing pains over the last decade, especially learning what was most important to accomplish this task. We learned: Shooting, first aid, cultural lessons -- important! Haircuts, hands in pockets, pressing uniforms? Not that important..."

TBD:Where is the garrison Army going? I worry it is heading back to spit and polish, while ignoring hard lessons of the last decade

more on Military Retention

Tim Kane has emerged as the number one fan of military personnel management reform. Here is his latest commentary.

"In truth, military officers are only volunteers for one day: the day they sign up. Afterwards, they’re treated with the same kind of inflexible, coercive management that has defined militaries since history began. No electronic “job boards” list openings for the thousands of available jobs in the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines. No junior officers know where their next job assignment will be, or if it will fit with their interests, strengths and talents. And no commanders are trusted to directly hire the subordinates they feel their teams need..."

 How to lose great leaders? Ask the Army

Mystery Spy Theater 3000?

You can see the video of the American Enterprise Institute's event Watching 'Zero Dark Thirty' with the CIA here.
Or you can read a summary of the event here. Teaser:

"Former CIA director Michael Hayden led the panel. He was joined by Jose Rodriguez, who ran the agency’s National Clandestine Service, and John Rizzo, who served as the CIA’s chief legal officer. The stories they told, and the reasons they offered, shook up my assumptions about the interrogation program. They might shake up yours, too. Here’s what they said..."

I suggest both.

MLB Manager's troubles and strength

Cardinals manager Mike Matheny was a four-time Gold-Glove catcher over 13 years in the big leagues. But a decade ago, he didn’t figure his future was in baseball.
He was banking on real estate.
One series of failed investments has now ended that dream. Nine days ago, a judge ruled against Matheny on the project, placing the responsibility for more than $4 million in debt on him and his wife. Interest and court costs could drive the price even higher.
But the saga that could ruin Matheny financially is the same one that brought him back to the Cardinals, and a new career in baseball...

St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Allen Cleared

The Kelleys: Who are these morons?

Exum on SOF (and Zero Dark Thirty)

"What won't change is the enduring value of SOF as a "strategic asset"--defined not necessarily as a tool that necessarily has intrinsically "strategic" qualities but one that delivers a certain kind of effect with a unique and rare meaning for strategy. That meaning must be appreciated, lest SOF is squandered in missions that do not play to its unique strengths or seen as a panacea. "

Great Raids and Great Disasters

Defending Armstrong

"Why my dad, a former Olympic bicycle racer, sympathizes with the disgraced former Tour de France champion"

A Former Cyclist Reflects: I Would Have Done What Lance Armstrong Did

Modern Warfare is a Thinking Officer's Game

The military would benefit from more officers with hard science backgrounds enabling them to solve the challenging problems the military faces in modern wars.

Modern Warfare is a Thinking Officer’s Game: Why the U.S. Military Needs More Leaders with Technical Educations:

Entrepreneur Buys the N.Y.S.E.

Pretty interesting version of the rags to riches story:

A bold deal by the owner of Intercontinental Exchange to acquire the New York Stock Exchange shows how technology is transforming the world’s markets.

Jeffrey Sprecher’s Improbable Path to Buying the N.Y.S.E.

Empirical Studies of Conflict Project (ESOC)

ESOC identifies, compiles, and analyzes micro-level conflict data and information on insurgency, civil war, and other sources of politically motivated violence worldwide. ESOC was established in 2008 by practitioners and scholars concerned by the significant barriers and upfront costs that challenge efforts to conduct careful sub-national research on conflict.

SWJ

Shabaab French Hostage

Shabaab, al Qaeda's affiliate in Somalia and East Africa, announced today that it would execute a French intelligence operative who was captured in Mogadishu in 2009. The hostage, Denis Allex, was the subject of a failed rescue attempt last week by French commandos. Shabaab said he was killed after the group "reached a unanimous decision."

Read more

Cyanide mystery

I’m talking of course, about the murderer of dry-cleaning owner Urooj Khan who died on July 20, just one day after the Illinois lottery issued him a check for some $425,000.

The Chicago Tribune broke the poison news last week. Khan’s death was first judged a natural one. He had died unexpectedly during the night. Yes, he was only 46 but he was overweight, imperfectly healthy, and the cause of death was given as heart disease. The standard toxicology screen, which checked for common exposures such as narcotics and carbon monoxide, was clear.

A Cyanide Murder in Chicago