From historian Paul Kennedy, The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers (1987)

A

lthough the United States is at present still in a class of its own economically and perhaps even militarily, it cannot avoid confronting the two great tests which challenge the longevity of every major power that occupies the ‘number one’ position in world affairs: whether, in the military/strategical realm, it can preserve a reasonable balance between the nation’s perceived defense requirements and the means it possesses to maintain those commitments; and whether, as an intimately related point, it can preserve the technological and economic bases of its power from relative erosion in the face of the ever-shifting patterns of global production. This test of American abilities will be the greater because it, like imperial Spain around 1600 or the British Empire around 1900, is the inheritor of a vast array of strategical commitments which had been made decades earlier, when the nation’s political, economic, and military capacity to influence world affairs seems so much more assured. In consequence, the United States now runs the risk, so familiar to historians of the rise and fall of previous great powers, of what might roughly be called ‘imperial overstretch’: that is to say, decision makers in Washington must face the awkward and enduring fact that the sum total of the United States’ global interests and obligations is nowadays far larger than the country’s power to defend them all simultaneously.

Bush: U.S. needs bigger military

W. wants to increase the size of the military. Hmmm.

How are you going to pay for this?

Who you gonna get to sign up?

NFL network, revisited, and non-related rants

I didn't like it the first time. I didn't like it the second time. I still don't like it.

The games are OK.

Bryant Gumble is still bad.

I've been surrounded by bad ideas lately.

NFL Network and Bryant Gumble.

The layout of the new IUP web design. (My two word critique: diminished expectations)

Liberal Studies Committee's runaway train which will likely turn into a trainwreck. Way to go University Senate. Thanks for distracting us away from our real work. Actually teaching these engaged learners and leaders at IUP and showing a little scholarship.

Back to deckin' the halls.

University Senate

I went to my first University Senate meeting on Tuesday. What a major disappointment all around. My (extended beyond my department) colleagues kinda give me the willies. I hope they spend some time thinking because evidence suggests otherwise. And parliamentary procedure continues to frustrate me. I guess I'll continue to avoid situations of collective decision-making except when my vote is requested.

Grrr. I think these people are also the bad drivers I bitch about. If not, my pool of bitching recipients just got larger.

Jackout