The amputees get the great treatment. Purple Hearts, money for losing their limbs. I have a lot of respect for them. But I lost my mind, and I couldn't even get a simple "thank you for your service." —Pfc Sophia Taylor as quoted by Anne Hull and Dana Priest in "At Walter Reed, a palpable strain on mental-health system"

The massacre at Ft. Hood, Texas, perpetrated by Army psychiatrist Nidal Malik Hassan, will reawaken interest in the psychological treatment of veterans for a while. But only for a while.

The Post reporters note that—

More than two years after the nation's political and military leaders pledged to improve mental-health care, their promises have fallen short at military hospitals around the country, according to mental-health professionals, Army officials, and wounded soldiers and their families. Those hospitals include Walter Reed, where the man accused of the Fort Hood shootings, Nidal M. Hasan, spent four years as a psychiatric intern, resident and fellow.

What may have happened to Hasan during those four years is one of the things being investigated. But it isn't only Walter Reed that is under fresh scrutiny: Evidence of an undermanned, overworked health-care system stretches all the way to the Pentagon, where all of the top health-policy positions remain unfilled, leaving a void on an issue long fraught with inefficiencies and entrenched bureaucracies.

The truth is that this nation—or any nation—cannot create so many emotional casualties as the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq will inevitably produce and then offer effective treatment after the fact.

In the first place "effective treatment" for PTSD and other emotional sequelae of war is quite limited in its effectiveness and demands enormous resources in terms of trained personnel, not to mention money.

From this account in the NY Times of Hassan's path to becoming a psychiatrist, I can only conclude that the Army assigned and paid for his career not because of any aptitude he might have had (apparently he had little) but because of its desperate need for psychiatrists—

Paul M. Holt III, a private investigator who went to high school with Major Hasan...., like many others, described Major Hasan as having few friends and being quiet to the point of introversion. “He wasn’t very personable,” Mr. Holt said. “I can’t imagine him sitting and listening to people’s problems.”

After graduating with a degree in biochemistry from Virginia Tech, in nearby Blacksburg, he was commissioned as an officer and sent to medical school at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, where he graduated in 2003. He did his internship and residency at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington before entering a two-year fellowship that gave him a master’s degree in public health and trained him in disaster psychiatry.

Two students in the fellowship program said Major Hasan had sat alone in the front of the class and rarely socialized with other students, other than to debate the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. He made clear he strongly opposed both, the former students said.

The government has a difficult time owning up to the cost of these wars in lives and limbs but assuages the public, as Pfc Taylor says, with Purple Hearts and money. If the loss of minds comes into the public conscience, what medal will the government award and how much money must it pay?

Related posts
Statistic of the Day: Veteran suicides (11/15/07)
Military Cover-up of the Day (11/27/07)

Tags: Iraq War, Afghanistan War, PTSD, psychology, psychiatry, mental health, treatment of Veterans

Spanish speakers frequently brag about the rationality of Spanish spelling—you can always pronounce the written word because its spelling will match its pronunciation. No silent letters. No words like "once" that any sane person would pronounce [ons]. That said, it's not always possible from the pronunciation to know how a word is spelled. The Spanish letters b and v, for instance, are pronounced alike, so Spanish speakers will often write "baca" instead of "vaca" for "cow." The letters ll and y are another such pair.

So I was chatting with Mario the other night when he mentioned that his brother would be coming down to Florida for Christmas. "What part?" I asked. "Callo Hueso" he replied. "Where?" I asked, leaning forward better to hear the words I had obviously missed. "Callo Hueso," he repeated. "Where's that?" I wondered, "I've never heard of it."

He explained with amazement that it was a famous tourist spot and he was sure I should know about it. Well, I didn't, so I asked him to spell it. "C-a-l-l-o H-u-e-s-o," he offered, which translates to "bone callus." I still had no idea where Mario's brother was heading. But thanks to the wi-fi at the Snapper I could look it up. And there it was—Key West.

Still I was puzzled by the weirdness of the name. When I looked up the Spanish for "key" (in the sense of "a small island"), it turned out to be "cayo," which explained why a Spanish speaker might think the word was "callo." Then I assumed that "hueso" was some kind of corruption of "oeste"—the word for "west,"—so that Key West should be translated "Cayo Oeste."

I was wrong about that. It turns out that "Cayo Hueso" is the original name given to the island by the arriving Spaniards because it was littered with bones. The English word "key" was in fact derived from "cayo." And histories of Key West that I found online were uncertain whether the "west" in "Key West" referred to the island's location in the chain or whether it was an English attempt at "hueso."

So for me it was a lesson in the sorts of misunderstanding that can arise from linguacentrism (in this case "the excessive pride of English monolinguals"). And for you I'm hoping it will be proof that I do not go to the Snapper to drink but to slake my thirst for knowledge.

Tags: Pink Snapper, language, history, Florida

—Mary Beth Sheridan reporting in "Former State Dept. employee charged"

It may be first but it's not likely to be the last.

Tags: news and politics Iraq contractors State Department indictments corruption

—Zachary A. Goldfarb reporting in "Insider trading case ensnares six"

And then we have this—

With net worth of $1.3 billion, Rajaratnam is on the Forbes list of the richest people of the world -- and he's apparently the wealthiest Sri Lankan. He runs Galleon Partners, based in Manhattan. Prosecutors charged him with 13 violations of securities law, which could put him in jail for life.

Aside from the "firsts," questions and uncertainties raised by this report are of some interest—

Questions a reporter might ask

1. Aside from Bernie Madoff, how many billionaires has the U.S. sent to jail?
2. As the richest citizen of Sri Lanka, what are the diplomatic implications of arresting and charging Rajaratnam? There are undoubtedly a host of Sri Lankan politicians and civil servants depending upon Rajaratnam for payoffs. What will become of their children?
3. Are there any immediate indications of capital flight from U.S. markets by corporations or other entities under the control of non-U.S. citizens since this news broke?
4. Which bank has the privilege of holding Rajaratnam's $100 million bail and is it FDIC-insured in case the bank fails?
5. Does the Justice Department anticipate the need to bug corporate dining rooms? And will executives turn to throw-away cell phones for their important communications?

---

12:05 pm — Katherine Burton and Saijel Kishan clarify the bail situation. It will be less of a boon to some bank than first appeared—

At the hearing, U.S. Magistrate Judge Douglas Eaton in Manhattan set Rajaratnam’s bail at $100 million, to be secured by $20 million in assets and guaranteed by his wife and four others.

Still, if the assets consist of cash, $20 million would make a rather nice deposit.

Related post
Equivocal Headline of the Day: Why the Austrian economy failed (6/04/09)

Tags: news and politics hedge funds insider trading stock market prosecutions billionaires wiretaps domestic surveillance

Britain is going broke. How do I know this? Well, the same way I knew that Citicorp was strung out like a junkie­­­­­—the country hopes to sell off a major chunk of assets. Sixteen billion pounds worth ($25 billion) to be exact, according to Prime Minister Gordon Brown. He described it as a "portfolio of non-financial assets," which is reasonable since Britain has no financial assets.

Of course this fire sale cannot be acknowledged for what it is—a desperate act in a desperate time. Instead it is couched in the rhetoric of privatization and the supposed superiority of the private sector—

Downing Street said the sale marks the beginning of a radical assessment of what other non-core government business activities can best be done by, or in partnership with, the private sector.

So what "non-core"  businesses does the British government hope to divest itself of?

• "The Tote," the government-controlled gambling operation including the betting shops
• the Dartmouth crossing, a major piece of transportation infrastructure around London
• its portfolio of student loans
• its interest in the Channel Tunnel (the "Chunnel")
• its stake in Urenco, the European supplier of uranium-enrichment equipment, and
• "surplus" real estate, which may include local airports.

These don't look like "non-core" businesses to me.

More than a few Conservatives would like to see the government toss the BBC into the bargain, which would really put the capitalists in charge, though it must be said that the BBC tries not to offend them unduly as it is. And here are some other government holdings that might conceivably go on the block. Will the government sell off Scottish water and the Royal Mall?

The £16 billion the government is hoping to raise cannot possibly keep the wolf from the door for long. The Chancellor (equivalent to the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury) has estimated that Britain will need to borrow £175 billion ($276 billion) over the next two years.

Why is Britain so broke?

Everybody of course knows by now of the meltdown of the "financial services" industries—the banks, the hedge funds, and the mortgage lenders. But the public is little aware of just how much tax revenue was generated by that sector of the economy. In my humble opinion, one of the principal reasons both the U.S. and British governments turned a blind eye to the many violations of existing regulations—regulations that might have forestalled the meltdown—was that both governments were benefitting so magnificently from the tax receipts. London became a capital of world finance, and billionaires were a dime a dozen. Unfortunately the cash cow has now run dry.

But the fiscal problem that the press mostly ignores is the British involvement in Afghanistan. I wrote in 2004, long before the financial crash—

Wars are, regrettably, expensive. If they weren't, I'm sure we'd engage in them more often. Or maybe just launch ourselves into one very, very long (perhaps even indefinite) war, as George Bush has proposed.

Without the promise of treasure at the end to make it "pay for itself"—as Deputy Secretary of War Paul Wolfowitz suggested of our Iraq invasion, once we got the oil flowing—the cost of the entertainment works out to be exorbitant. Even when you're dutch-treating with friends.

And that is what has happened to the British—they are "overextended" ....

While the U.S. was squandering lives and treasure in Iraq, Britain has been doing likewise in Afghanistan. There was simply nothing that then-Prime Minister Tony Blair wouldn't do in return for a smile from his pal George Bush.

Last week we were told that—

Brown had a video conference call with U.S. President Barack Obama to discuss Afghanistan on Thursday, with Brown keen to see a full Afghan security force trained up by the end of next year to ease the burden on the NATO coalition.

For Britain that burden is primarily fiscal.

How bad off is Britain?

I could bore you (and myself) by looking up statistics on British unemployment, the housing market and capital flight. But an announcement this past Friday was so stunning, at least for this reader, that I don't believe we need to go into all that.

The British Territorial Army (TA) is Britain's largest military reserve force and celebrated its 100th anniversary last year. It operates somewhat like the American National Guard. According to the Ministry of Defence, 6900 TA personnel were called up for the invasion of Iraq and some 1200 continue to be deployed in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Balkans.

So how 'bout this bit of news? Michael Evans reports—

The Territorial Army has been told to stop training for six months to save millions of pounds from the Army’s budget because of growing financial pressure on the Ministry of Defence.

Drill-hall instruction, weekend exercises and all other training associated with the TA will stop, cutting costs by about £20 million.

The Land Force budget of the Army has been cut by £54 million, and the TA is the first to be affected. The huge cut in TA spending will mean that the weekend warriors will not be paid. “They are paid to go training, and if there is no training, they won’t get paid,” a Ministry of Defence official said.

A spokesman insisted that the savings and the ban on training would not affect the TA’s operational contribution to Afghanistan, where about 500 Territorial soldiers are serving. There are also ten TA soldiers in Iraq.
....

One MoD official said that care would have to be taken to ensure that the temporary suspension of training did not undermine the TA’s role in Afghanistan. The official also said that, given the budget restrictions, the training suspension could last longer.

Can you imagine the outcry in the U.S. if it were announced that National Guard training would be suspended for six months? And then there's this—

Skint defence chiefs plan to axe 900 cops who safeguard top secret bases in a drastic bid to save money.
....

The revelation comes two days after The Sun exposed plans to halt all Territorial Army training for six months to save money.

Top brass are being forced into the desperate cost-cutting measures because they are so short of funds for the war in Afghanistan.

Last night there were calls for Defence Secretary Bob Ainsworth to admit exactly how deep his budget black hole is.

The 3,600-strong MoD force is a civilian constabulary, separate to the Redcaps and other Services police, with 86 units across the UK.

As well as guarding nuclear sites it investigates serious crimes at military bases.

Desperation is the order of the day in Britain, and you should expect more of the same for the foreseeable future.

Related posts
What's up in Britain? (9/23/04)
Lie of the Day: The financial system is stabilized (11/24/08)

Tags: news and politics Britain budget deficit military spending UK Afghanistan war

—Antoaneta Bezlova reporting in "China stands firm against US market scramble"

Related post
Scariest Headline of the Day (2/02/09)

Tags: news and politics economic depression

He was studying Classics and English at Oxford University's Lady Margaret Hall when he was discovered by a fellow student on Thursday. —story from the BBC

Either topic can be fatal but taken together no one could be expected to survive.

Tags: style journalism

In 2007, the top one ten-thousandth of households took home 6 percent of the nation’s income, up from 0.9 percent in 1977. It was the highest such level since at least 1913, the first year for which the I.R.S. has data.

The top 1 percent of earners took home 23.5 percent of income, up from 9 percent three decades earlier.

—David Leonhardt and Geraldine Fabrikant in "Rise of the Super-Rich Hits a Sobering Wall"

Welfare for the wealthy has been one of our most effective government programs.

Tags: news and politics income inequality wealth inequality

Front-end Developer at YouPorn —listing at arstechnica.com

Do they really want a geek to work as a fluffer?

Tags: pornography porn humor

The biggest, by far, violators of human rights right now are the cartels themselves that are kidnapping people, extorting people and encouraging corruption. —Barack Obama as quoted in "Obama Sets Immigration Changes for 2010"

When these violations are committed by the CIA, they're called "covert action." They have the tacit and sometimes explicit approval of the President and are best thought of as tools of governance.

Tags: news and politics drug war war on drugs Barack Obama quotes cloak and dagger crime extraordinary rendition

Then there’s Newark, which deserves its own chapter in corruption ignominy. You have to go back to 1962 in New Jersey’s largest city to find a mayor who completed his time in office and wasn’t later indicted for it. —Brad Parks reminiscing in "Poison Ivy in the Garden State"

Never mind all that. The greater corruption in American society is legal—weapons manufacture as a jobs program, prisons conceived of as an "industry," Senators lobbied to procrastinate while their constituents die and the country goes broke.

Yet while this corruption is legal, the consequences are the same as what we see in New Jersey, amplified—wasted taxpayer money, irrational governance and a cynical public. In the end the society itself becomes corrupt. Not only is it the path of least resistance, it is also the path taken by the very figures held up as role models—the "movers and shakers" of the society.

Tags: news and politics corruption scandal

What Europe needs now, more than ever, is a strong and charismatic leader, preferably with some military experience, who can [bring] together the different factions in society. He must be able to appeal to both sides - the nationalists who put country first and the socialists who put people first. I'd call them Social Nationalists or some such.

He would espouse popular causes and instigate large building programmes like motorways to create jobs AND rebuild the military to restore national pride and security.

Perhaps some kind of national organisation for voluntary service, recreation and sports would help create a real sense of national pride and a community spirit. There would be a youth wing to prevent the young feeling disenfranchised - maybe with uniforms. A little discipline never did the young any harm.

What do you think?

—Phillip Atherton's comment to "The unemployment timebomb is quietly ticking" (edited for spelling and readability)

Fortunately for the U.S., we have most of these elements already in place.

Tags: news and politics humor