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“OH, BLACKWATER…KEEP ON ROLLIN’…”

An excellent discussion on the uses and dangers of Mercs over at the Small Wars Council sparked by the recent press release by the Blackwater PMC. The learned poster is Dr. Tom Odom, a former career defense analyst who specialized in the Middle East and Africa, as well as an author and a scholar.

ARE PRESBYTERIANS AND MISSOURI SYNOD LUTHERANS RED STATERS?

Outside of the colonial and antebellum America period I’m not much up on social history since my academic research was entirely in economic and diplomatic subfields. Having thus qualified my remarks, I will say that religion has always played a looming role in American history and political movements, particularly those aiming at reform or renewal.

Most readers are familiar with the connection between the Deism of many Founding Fathers and their preference for religious freedom and sectarian tolerance, the religious motivation of Abolitionists and the evangelism of Temperance advocates and both sides of the 19th century debate over imperialism. Therefore I took great interest in the latest post by Geitner Simmons that maps the United States by religious denominations from mainstreeam Methodists to charismatic Pentacostalist Christians to Muslims:

“Consider the degree of religious adherence — acknowledging one’s membership in a particular religious grouping. According to this map, developed by the Cincinnati-based Glenmary Research Center, religious adherence is greatest in the middle of the country — from Texas and Louisiana up through the Dakotas. Religious adherence in the Southeast, long dubbed the “Bible Belt,” is more spotty that one might expect. The American West, with the exception of Utah, has long been described by scholars of the region as an area with weak religious intensity, and the map buttresses that conclusion. Religious adherence is generally strong in the Mid-Atlantic region. Of course, while North Dakota stands out on the map as an area of particular intensity, the population of that state is quite small compared to the populations of, say, Oregon or Florida, where religious enthusiasm is noticeably weaker.

Differences within a region are particular interesting. Consider Wisconsin and Michigan. Both are populous states in the Upper Midwest. Yet, the degree of religious adherence is strikingly different between the two. Wisconsin clearly is part of a cultural pattern that includes its regional neighbors such as Miinnesota, Iowa and the eastern portion of the Dakotas. Michigan, in contrast, stands out for a markedly low degree of religious intensity, a trait it has in common with large sections of its neighbors Ohio and Indiana.“

The graphics for the maps are highly detailed ( attention cartographiles Curzon, Younghusband & Chirol) and, as always, Geitner’s commentary enlightens. Check it out.

TIP O’ THE HAT

To Lexington Green and the rest of the Chicago Boyz for adding Zenpundit to their blogroll. Much appreciated !

THE COURT OF THE RED TSAR

Simon Sebag Montefiore’s biography of Joseph Stalin more than managed to live up to the praise heaped upon it – and considering those throwing bouquets included such eminent figures as Robert Conquest, Robert Service and Richard Pipes, that’s saying a lot. I give it five stars.

Despite having read about the great dictator almost ad nauseum, I can honestly say there was something new for me in every chapter including research just recently unearthed from the shadowy Soviet archives. For example we learn from material originally deleted from Stalin’s official doctor’s report that he may have possibly been poisoned by Warfarin, a blood thinner that would have brought on the massive stroke that debilitated Stalin on the eve launching another massive purge of the nomenklatura that would have certainly finished off Beria, Molotov, Malenkov, Voroshilov and perhaps what was left of Soviet Jewry.

We read the unvarnished brutality of the deaths Stalin dealt out to victims, high and low, in minute detail as well as his maudlin sentimentality, icy callousness, sociopathic charm and gallows humor. Montefiore sheds light on the rythm and nuances of power relations that swirled and eddied even in the moments of Stalin’s most absolute tyranny and is at pains to show Stalin at the times when he was left checked and frustrated by circumstance or by his underlings.

One of the best books in the field of Soviet history that I have read in years.

RECOMMENDED READING

A mixed bag tonight as my progeny have worn me out and I cannot yet concentrate on my own writing, so I’m going where the mood strikes me:

Wiggins, the Wohlstetterian defense analyst at Opposed System Design comments on the observations on strategy and theory made by Sonny, the USAF blogger at F-X Based.

Collounsbury and the merry band of Orientalists at ‘Aqoul have dealt extensively with the Wafa Sultan -Ibrahim al-Khouli exhange (Eerie) and have provided the full, translated, al-Jazeera transcript (Meph) and followed up by highlighting a related MEMRI disussion over at Winds of Change ( Col ).

The Drs. Eide at The Eide Neurolearning Blog discuss the recent research demonstrating different brain maturation rates between high and average IQ children ( fodder for Dan’s grad psych paper, I think).

Bruce Kesler at Democracy Project has his own round-up of interesting things so instead of just stealing them shamelessly for a mere hat-tip, I’ll just link to his post and say ” check it out” – particularly the csmonitor article and the bit on Sandy Berger copping to covering his ass by destroying classified historical records.

Dr. Lubos Motl on the Clinton administration’s role in killing the Superconducting Supercollider, which dealt a critical blow to American leadership in experimental physics.

Dave Dilegge, Editor-in-Chief of The Small Wars Journal, points to his top ten online military information resources, all of which and more can be found here.

Ann Althouse on blogging, political parties and the self-defeating, wingnut, behavior at Kos.

Simon at Simon World posts on the self-promotion of China’s public security ministry ( can you imagine what the Soviet MVD would have been like with a blog ?) and some American senators talking out of both sides of their mouth in China.

Jodi at The Asia Pages takes a hard look at the effects of Korea’s education system which, like most Asian educational systems, stresses rigor at the expense of creativity and breadth.

That’s it.