Others Were Found Unfit

Fighters who made it to the screening centers were confused about the mission. When they learned what it was, many left. Others were found unfit, including one who showed up with open gunshot wounds.

Entous, Adam and Ballout, Dana and Al-Akraa, Mohammed Nour. "U.S. Caution Hobbled Birth of Syrian Force," The Wall Street Journal., Monday, October 4, 2015, A1, Accessed on October 4, 2015, http://www.wsj.com/articles/conflicting-agendas-caution-beset-pentagon-plans-in-syria-1443997392

As the Romans

What cries out for explanation is not the Romans’ militaristic character or psychic aggression, but why in a world that was universally violent the Romans were so consistently more successful than their enemies and rivals. The basic answer to that has little to do with superior tactics or even with better military hardware; it has much more to do with boots on the ground. In its early centuries at least, standard Roman practice, unique in the ancient world and most of the modern, was to turn those it had defeated into Roman citizens and to convert erstwhile enemies into allies and future manpower. It was an empire built – as those desperate refugees on the Danube must have hoped, long after the policy had ceased to be feasible – on the extension of citizenship and the incorporation of outsiders.

Beard, Mary. "Why Ancient Rome Matters to the Modern World," The Guardian, Accessed on October 4, 2015, http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/oct/02/mary-beard-why-ancient-rome-matters

Markets in Baby Names

When Frank Hudock, 35, a restaurant manager in the Chicago area, first told his wife, Jennifer Hudock, 30, an executive assistant, that his grandparents wanted them to name their son Frank, per generations of family tradition, her response was, “That’s never going to happen.”

They had just decided on a name they both agreed on — Max — after arguing about dozens of others, and that had been a big relief.

But then the grandparents threw in a sweetener: an offer of $10,000 in exchange for choosing Frank.

Krueger, Alyson. "The New Tug of War Over Baby Names," The New York Times, Accessed on October 3, 2015, http://nyti.ms/1KXDz3B

On Martians and Virulently Chauvinist Buddhism

And they accuse a virulently chauvinist Buddhist monk called Wirathu of telling rural voters that an NLD victory would turn Myanmar into a Muslim country.

"An election looms in Myanmar: Divided we stand," The Economist, October 3, 2015, Accessed on October 2, 2015, http://www.economist.com/news/asia/21670078-campaign-takes-shape-fragile-young-democracy-divided-we-stand?frsc=dg%7Ca

Other than learning that there is such a thing as a virulent chauvinist Buddhism, I was also struck by this passage and how it contrasted with something else I had read this week in Andy Weir's The Martian:

If a hiker gets lost in the mountains, people will coordinate a search. If a train crashes, people will line up to give blood. If an earthquake levels a city, people all over the world will send emergency supplies. This is so fundamentally human that it's found in every culture without exception. 

Weir, Andy. The Martian. New York: Broadway Books, 2014, 369.

Such a charming sentiment. But it may be an overly optimistic estimation of human morality. Such sentiment of universal human brotherhood is probably more likely to be produced within a rich and secure society than without it. The norm of human morality is in all likelihood closer to the out-group hostility of Wirathu, our virulently chauvinist Buddhist friend. 

Mankind may be less giving and more Gibbon, who reminds us that, "our sympathy is cold to the relation of distant misery*."

_____________________________

*Edward Gibbon, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, ed. J.B. Bury with an Introduction by W.E.H. Lecky (New York: Fred de Fau and Co., 1906), in 12 vols. Vol. 8. 10/3/2015. http://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/1376#Gibbon_0214-08_164

Here's to the Democratization of Information, Communication and Technology!

A post on the message board 4Chan Wednesday night at 7:19 p.m. local time that said “Some of you guys are alright. Don’t go to school tomorrow if you live in the northwest,” is being investigated as possibly connected to the shooting.

In the discussion thread, some users told him not to do it, while others encouraged him and gave him ideas for how he could kill people.

One person responded saying, “I suggest you enter a classroom and tell people that you will take them as hostages. Make everyone get in one corner and then open fire. Make sure that there is no way that someone can disarm you as it it possible. I suggest you carry a knife on your belt as last resort if someone is holding your gun.”

Another poster said, “You might want to target a girls school which is safer because there are no beta males throwing themselves for their rescue. Do not use a shotgun. I would suggest a powerful assault rifle and a pistol or 2x pistols. Possibly the type of pistols who have 15+ ammo.”

"Chis Harper Mercer: Five Fast Facts You Need to Know," Heavy, Accessed on October 1, 2015, http://heavy.com/news/2015/10/chris-harper-mercer-umpqua-community-college-ucc-roseburg-oregon-shooting-shooter-gunman-dead-eggman-4chan-name-id-identity-photos-twitter-social-media-facebook-youtube/

Just the normal madness.