February
2015
By Douglas Kent 911
Irene Drive, Mesquite, TX 75149
Email: diplomacyworld@yahoo.com or dougray30@yahoo.com
On the web at http://www.whiningkentpigs.com
– or go directly to the Diplomacy section at http://www.whiningkentpigs.com/DW/. Also be sure to visit the official Diplomacy
World website which can be found at http://www.diplomacyworld.net.
All Eternal
Sunshine readers are encouraged to join the free
Eternal Sunshine Yahoo group at https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/eternal_sunshine_diplomacy/info
to stay up-to-date on
any subzine news or errata.
Check out my eBay store at http://stores.ebay.com/dougsrarebooksandmore
My book “It’s Their House; I’m Just a Guest” is
available in softcover and Kindle from Amazon at http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1501090968/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER
REMEMBER:
NO STANDBY PLAYERS WILL BE CALLED IN ANY GAMES EXCEPT THE NEW ONES. CONSECUTIVE NMR’S = CD
If I decided to open another new game (Diplomacy or
possibly variant, or both) would anyone be interested in signing up? Email me.
Yes, I went ahead
and opened a new game (which filled quickly).
I’m not quite sure what I am going to do with Eternal Sunshine, but for
the time being I’d like to keep at least a few games going. Maybe I should offer another game of Kendo
Nagasaki, and a variant like Modern or Balkan Wars? And perhaps one additional
Diplomacy game (or Gumboat). If you’re interested in any of those, please
email me and I’ll consider what to offer…if anything. I just figure as long as I keep a game or two
running I can decide to expand the zine at a later date.
By the way, for
those of you who have read my book “It’s Their House; I’m Just a Guest” I would
GREATLY appreciate it if you’d find time to add a review to Amazon and Goodreads. And if
you enjoyed the book, recommend it to at least one person you know outside of
the hobby who might also find it interesting.
I suppose what I
need to do is try to get a few Texas, Oklahoma or Louisiana-area book clubs to
take the book on as a selection, and then go speak to them afterwards. Any contacts in that space? Let me know.
Thanks for hanging
around. See you next month!
“When Jesus
Became God” by Richard E. Rubenstein
Reviewed by Paul Milewski
This
book (ISBN 978-0-15-601315-4) is a scholarly study of the early history of
Christianity. Rubenstein isn’t out to
convert you or to correct your religious beliefs, nor do I think this book is
suited for any such purpose. Rubenstein
discusses those Christian doctrines that were to be declared “heretical” and
those that weren’t, the colorful characters involved, and provides a coherent
picture of the convulsive transformation of
Christianity, over a remarkably short time period, from a persecuted
underground movement to the state religion of the Roman empire. Included below are some excerpts that I just
found interesting for their own sake, but I do not begin to do justice to the
book. I have included Rubenstein’s own
citations of other works, just to impress you with the fact that he’s not
making this up out of whole cloth. As
different possible interpretations of “the Trinity” (Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit) are the basis of the doctrinal conflict between the different “Christianities,” it should come as no surprise that in this
book is one of the best discussions of what is meant by “the Holy Trinity” I’ve
ever read.
[Page
93] Christians, however, were particularly
attracted to the heroic ideal of sexual renunciation suggested by Jesus’
blessing of those “who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom
of heaven.” [Matthew 19:12 RSV] Some
zealots took this injunction literally, so much so that the bishops at [the
Council of] Nicaea felt compelled to declare that men who had had themselves
castrated should be disqualified from becoming priests.
[Page
94] “Christian marriage”—marriage without sexual intercourse—was also
valued. Yet clergymen were not expected
to remain celibate. Priests usually
married; it was commonly said that a priest’s son should follow in his father’s
footsteps and train for the clergy. The
Council of Nicaea ruled that, to avoid scandal, unmarried clergymen should not
keep women other than close blood relatives in their houses, but a story
dramatizes how that council stopped short of requiring that priests practice
“Christian marriage.” The Egyptian
ascetic, Paphnutius, who had lost one eye in the
Great Persecution, is said to have appeared before the bishops at a critical
point in the discussion, “roaring at the top of his voice” that celibacy was
impossible for most men and women, and that the council should not impose
unnatural burdens on the clergy [Peter Brown, The Body and Society: Men, Women, and Sexual Renunciation in Early
Christianity (New York: Columbia University Press, 1988, page 256].
[Page
109] Constantinople’s true originality, however, lay in the fact that it was
the first great metropolis founded by Christians and dedicated to Christian
worship. It announced to the world that
the religion named for a condemned Palestinian rabbi would now become the state
church of Rome. In Constantine’s city
there were no altars to Victory, no statures or paintings of gods and
goddesses. Indeed, no representations of
Jesus, Mary, or the disciples, either, since many Christians still adhered to
the Jewish rule forbidding graven images of the holy. Eusebius of Caesarea’s sharp response to a
request by the emperor’s sister for a picture of Jesus was already famous. “I do not know what has impelled you to
command that an image of our Savior be drawn,” he told Constantia. The request was senseless, the bishop said,
since a picture of Jesus’ divinity would be impossible, and a picture of him as
an ordinary man, irrelevant! [Jaroslav Pelikan, Jesus through the Centuries: His Place in
the History of Culture (New Haven: Yale, 1985), 85-86]
[Page
133] More than a decade earlier, when he convened the Great Council of Nicaea,
Constantine could not have imagined that the bishops would be meeting almost
every year to rule on charges of criminal activity and heresy. Partisan control of these gatherings
virtually guaranteed that condemned churchmen would attempt to rehabilitate
themselves and punish their enemies by denying the authority of “illegitimate”
councils and convening new ones.
[Page
142] Several months later a large council of bishops met in Antioch to declare
that, in addition to the older charges proved against Athanasius by the Council
of Tyre, he had committed new atrocities. They found that on returning to Alexandria he
had incited mobs to assault and murder, had handed over his opponents to be
imprisoned and executed by the prefect of Egypt, Theodorus,
and had financed his campaign of violence by misappropriating charitable
funds. The council ordered him deposed,
and Constantius [who had succeeded Constantine as
emperor after Constantine’s death] wrote him immediately endorsing this
decision. Athanasius’s answer was to
convene a council of eighty Egyptian bishops early in 338, which cleared him of
all charges, accused his accusers of heresy, and characterized their activities
as a conspiracy motivated by hatred of Christ.
[Page
206-7] The answer was to clarify or redefine key words. Even theologians like Athanasius used
“essence” (ousia)
and “being” (hypostasis)
interchangeably, sometimes exchanging these words with other terms like
“person” (prosopon). The Nicene Creed itself anathematized not
only those who denied that the Father and Son were one in “essence” but those
who denied that they were one in “being.”
This was a mistake, said the Cappadocians. The corrective was to distinguish clearly
between ousia
and hypostasis, essence and
being. The Father, the Son, and the Holy
Spirit are three separate beings, each with his own individual
characteristics—they are three hypostases. But they are one and the same in essence—they
are homoousios. Adopting an idea of Origen’s that easterners
would appreciate, Basil described Jesus as a “sharer
of [God’s] nature, not created by fiat, but shining out continuously from his ousia.” And the Holy Spirit, which the Arians and
some Nicenes considered a principle or person lower
down the scale of divinity than either the Father or the Son, shares that same
divine essence. The Holy Spirit, that
is, is a third individual being (or Person) “consubstantial” with the Father
and the Son. [R. P. C. Hanson, The Search
for the Christian Doctrine of God: The Arian Controversy, 318-381 A.D.
(Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1988, 687-688]
Gregory of Nyssa summed up the doctrine
with characteristic sharpness. God is
three individuals sharing one essence.
Both the unity and the tripartite division of the Godhead are real. If this seems paradoxical, so be it.
[Page
230] Soon, most of the Eastern world would come under the domination of a new
religion offering another interpretation of Jesus’ nature and mission. The Islamic Jesus was not the incarnate God
of Nicene Christianity or the superangelic Son of the
[heretical] Arians. In the view of the
Muslim conquerors, he was a divinely inspired man: a spiritual genius ranking
with the greatest prophets, Moses and Muhammad himself. Apparently, this teaching struck a chord
among large numbers of easterners who still thought of God as unitary, and who had
not fully accepted Jesus’ incorporation into the Godhead. This may explain why, in the Middle East and
North Africa, “the whole [Christian] structure was swept away in a few decades
by the Arab tribes and their clear Moslem doctrine of One God. [Paul Johnson, A History of Christianity (New York: Atheneum, 1976), 93]
XENOGOGIC:
FIFTY FOR FIFTY
By
Larry Peery
Introduction
I’ve
never met Doug Kent, a fact for which I’m sure he will be eternally grateful
and for which I will forever be sorry. In the meantime the Peeriblah
continues to flow, in this case through the pages of Eternal Sunshine. It’s
been a while since the last issue of XENOGOGIC devoted to the world of dip&Dip appeared, although no one seems to have
noticed; and I thank Doug for the opportunity to once again inflict on the hobby
my latest list of readings and ramblings.
What
were you doing fifty years ago? The chances are you weren’t playing Diplomacy.
Neither was I, although I was less than a year from my first encounter with the
game that would change my life. Instead, I was writing my second book… I only
mention this because it was an early indicator that I would be taking the “road
less traveled” in years to come, and so I did. Now, some forty-five years
later, I’ve come to realize that I’ve almost come full circle and my journey is
almost complete. Come with me as I reflect on some of these real dip&Dip moments.
Prague
Spring, Prague, 1968; Velvet Revolution, Prague, 1989; Tiananmen Square
Massacre, Beijing, 1989; Tiananmen Square, Beijing, 2015: What’s the
difference?
There
are dozens of good news and historical sources on all these events and you can
find them for yourself online if your
interested and if you take the trouble to look.
In the 1960s Prague was the center of the
world’s attention as the drama of the struggle between the Czechoslovakians and
Warsaw Pact nations played out. The world’s press sent their best reporters and
writers to Prague to cover the story on a daily, sometimes hourly, basis. There
were scores of journalists reporting on everything going on in the city. There
were news reels and television news reports but they were still relatively
primitive, at least by today’s standards. Try as they would the Russians
couldn’t prevent the story being told. And then on 21 August, 1968 the Iron
Curtain once again came down on Prague. I remember that well. A generation
passed.
Then,
in 1989, the Velvet Revolution took place in Prague, although it wasn’t much
noticed as the tide of reform flowed across Central and Eastern Europe. Half
way round the world, in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square, a location unfamiliar to
most foreigners, another drama was being played out between Chinese students
and their supporters, and they were many although it wasn’t known at the time,
and the leaders of the Communist Party. This time the media coverage was
primarily from the audio-visual perspective and it was happening in real time.
As the police lost control, the Party debated calling in the troops and tanks
and, as we know now, for days a struggle went on within the Party and military
leadership over what to do. Hundreds died, the reform movement went
underground, and the Party eventually used a modern equivalent of “bread and
circuses” to control and pacify the people; while they waited to see what would
happen. Another generation passed.
The
domestic media in effect became the lap dog of the Party and Government and
everyone could see the economic prosperity that following the Party’s line was
bringing. And then came a new President with some very
old ideas. He was offered to the people as a potential reformer and to the
Party and military as a strong defender of the status quo, and so the media
reported. The only problem was that he realized to be these two things he
needed to centralize power in his hands; and so began the greatest series of
purges since the days of Mao. The President revealed himself to be an old
emperor in new clothes, and he planned to rule, not govern, accordingly. That
is a short summary of what is happening in Beijing today.
This
great drama is being played out just a few hundred years northeast of Tiananmen
Square next to the same Forbidden City where the Chinese emperors ruled. This
area is called Zhongnanhai and it has become famous
as the scene where the struggles for personal power are hidden behind walls of
corruption and rumors of sexual misdeeds. Fortunately, as happened in Prague
forty-five years ago, there are some fine international journalists in both
print and visual media outlets reporting on what is going on. Today’s
equivalent to yesterday’s television is the internet and the blog. Again, it is
proving impossible, no matter how hard it tries, for the Party and government
to control the dissemination of news to the people and the expression of the
peoples’ responses. The Iron Curtain of yesterday has been replaced by the
Great Firewall of today I’m sure the
President and his clique, are just as worried as the Soviet leaders were in the
1960s; and just as frightened as the Chinese Party leaders were in 1989. Worry
and fright do not make for a stable environment.
So
what do I think will happen? My prediction is simple: Within a year or so Xi
will be the new “emperor” of China (or, if you’re a good communist, the new
“Stalin”) or he will be gone. At some
point either Xi will be successful in eliminating his potential rivals and
their cliques, or the number of potential rivals who are afraid enough of him
to do something will outnumber his supporters and they will act. It’s the age
old struggle between the “Divide and Conquer” and “Either we all hang together
or we all hang separately” schools. In
either case the struggle will be played out within the leadership of the Party
and the military and their supporters, and the people will be left to observe
it on their cell phones and electronic devices.
What
do I base that opinion on? You’ll know if you read a sampling of the items I’ve
been reading in the past month or so. Keep in mind that these are the tip of
the iceberg, if there are any of those left, and that for every item listed
below I probably read another dozen or so that said something similar.
The
Gist of the List
Each
item mostly follows the same format and gives: Subject, Date, Author, Source,
Title and occasionally a note. Look for this rosette ((small rose)) * to
indicate items of special interest or quality that I found especially
informative.
1.
Winston Churchill, 1915, Hugues Le Roux, New York
Herald, 1915: An Interview with Winston Churchill
2.
Subs, 2015, Peter Briggs,The
Diplomat, Why Australia Should Build Its Own Submarines
3.
Monopoly, 2015, Caroline Nolan, The Street, Monopoly Turns 80: A Look at the
Board Game’s Transformation
4. Alberto Nisman, 2015,
Frida Ghitis, CNN, Who Killed Alberto Nisman?
5.
Alberto Nisman, 2015, Simon Romero and Jonathan
Gilbert New York Times, Argentina Points to Spy After Lawyer’s Eerie Death,
6.
China, 2015, New York Times, Communist Leadership Approves Security Goals for
China, Chris Buckley
7.
Doomsday Clock, 2015, CNN, Doomsday Clock moved closer to midnight, Todd
Leopold
8.
Doomsday Clock, 2015, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, 70 Years Speaking
Knowledge to Power
9.
Asia, 2015, The Diplomat, Should U.S. Allies in Asia Get Their Own Nukes?, Christine M. Leah
10.
Subs, 2015, Blog, Naval Analyst: New Era in Undersea Warfare Requires Novel
Approaches, Richard R. Burgess
11.
Subs, 2015, Breaking Defense Blog, Transparent Sea: The Unstealthy
Future of Submarines, Sydney J. Freedberg, Jr.
12.
Subs, 2015, DC Decoder Blog, The hunt for Red October gets easier. How
submarine warfare is changing, Anne Mulrine
13.
China, 2015, Yang Hengjun Blog, Time to Rethink
Chinese Diplomacy: Unless China can gain the world’s trust, its rise won’t get
much farther, Yang Hengjun
14.
WWI, 2015, New York Times, London’s Imperial War Museum takes visitors back into
the trenches, Roy Harris
15.
Winston Churchill, 2015, CNN, Winston Churchill: Why the life of Britain’s
audacious leader still matters, Aaron Millar
16.
China, 2015, New York Times, In China, Projects to Make Great Wall Feel Small,
David Barboza
17.
Subs, 2015, The Korea Herald, S. Korean Navy to set up submarine command next
month
18.
Turkey, 2015, WND.com, Busted! Turkey caught smuggling weapons to al-Qaida
19.
Subs, 2015, The Japan News, Stealth tech no given in Japanese sub deal, Reiji
Yoshida
20.
Subs, 2015, The Motley Fool, New Nuclear Submarine Cost Could Torpedo the U.S.
Navy’s Budget --- and Sink This Company
21.
Diplomacy, 2014, Business Standard (India), An anatomy
of diplomacy, Kishan S. Rana
22.
China, 2015, New York Times, In China’s Antigraft
Campaign, Small Victories and Bigger Doubts, Andrew Jacobs
23.
Art, 2014, New York Times, Art from Bunny Mellon collection brings in $158.7
million at auction, David Ng
24.
Subs, 2015, Canberra Times, Gang Gang: Remarkable
submarine survivor, David Ellery
25.
Henry Kissinger, 2015, Nogales International, Joy or gloom in the New Year?, Manfred Cripe
26.
Korea, 2015, Wikipedia, Yi Jun
27.
India, 2015, Indian News, Amarinder Singh for
declassifying 1962 India-China war report
28.
China, 2015, BBC News, Mourners mark China leader Zhao Ziyang’s
death anniversary
29.
China, 2015, The Diplomat, Is “China’s Machiavelli” Now Its Most Important
Political Philospher?, Ryan
Mitchell
30.
Subs, 2015, Deutsch News, The Curious Case of the Second Submarine Spotted in
Stockholm’s Archipelago, Elias Groll
3l.
WWI, 2015, Daily News (Turkey), Turkey invites Armenian president to 100th
anniversary of Gallipoli War, Deniz Zeyrek
31.
China, 2015, New York Times, Xi’s Selective Punishment, Murong
Xuecun
32.
WWI, 2015, Scientific American, Chronicles WWI
33.
Diplomacy, 2015, Maploco.com, Visited Countries Map Generator
34.
War Games, 2015, The Armchair General.com,
35.
Turkey, 2015, AFP (France), Spear-carriers and chainmail warriors: Erdogan’s
palace welcome
36.
Subs, 2015, Associated Press, Navy Outsources More
Submarine Maintenance Because of Budget Cuts, Michel Melia
37.
Henry Kissinger, 2015, Washington Post, In the Loop (Blog): Kissinger fractures
shoulder, cancels double-barreled Senate testimony
38.
Diplomacy, 2015, The Record (Waterloo, Canada), Air power becoming the new
gunboat diplomacy, Ernie Regehr
39.
Subs, 2015, Daily Press (Norfolk, VA), New Virginia-class sub to be named for
Rickover
40.
Charlie Hebdo, 2015, Buenos Aires Herald, Being
Charlie, Marcelo Garcia
41.
Charlie Hebdo, 2015, Dailey News (Turkey), Turkey’s
irreverent satire mag Penguen shares tearful tribute
for Charlie Hebdo
42.
Subs, 2015, StrategyPage.com Blog, They Got It, They Finally Got It
43.
Diplomacy, 2015, New York Times, What to Do in Milan with 36 hours, Ingrid K.
Williams
44.
Henry Kissinger, 2015, Washington Post, In the Loop (Blog): Henry Kissinger
kicks off two of Senate’s inaugural committee sessions, Al Kamen
45.
Henry Kissinger, 2015, The Yomiuri Shimbun (Tokyo, Japan), Kissinger: Japan must
be thoughtful in a new world
46.
Diplomacy, 2015, The Seattle Times, ‘Outpost’: On the front lines of American
Diplomacy, Kevin J. Hamilton
47.
Diplomacy, 2015, The Scotsman (Scotland), Diplomacy of Scotch Whisky
Association chief, Martin Flanagan
48.
Diplomacy, 2015, San Diego Union-Tribune, Flying Pig plans 2nd restaurant in
Vista, Pam Kragen
49.
WWl, 2015, British Pathe
site on Wikipedia, WW1 – The Definitive Collection, a collection of hundreds of
film clips about WW1 from British Pathe, a leading news
source of the day. Fascinating.
50.
WWI, 2015, The Economist (London), The centenary
delusion: Asia in 2014 was not Europe in 1914 after all, but the echoes warrant
heeding
51.
Diplomacy, 2015, USA Today, HarperCollins sorry for omitting Israel from atlas,
Lori Grisham
52.
Subs, 2015, Oregon Live (Portland), Navy modifies environmental impact
statement for offshore training, invites comment
53.
China, 2015, Wall Street Journal, Expect No Easing of “Chinese Whirlwind”:
Beijing Softens its Bluster, but Ambition Remains Unchanged, Andrew Browne
54.
China, 2015, New York Times, China’s Maoists Are Revived as Thought Police,
Chris Buckley and
55.
China, 2015, Nikkei Asian Review (Tokyo, Japan), With
public at his back, Xi crushes party bigwigs, Gaku
Shimada
56.
Diplomacy, 2014, World Politics Review, Lessons in Secret Diplomacy From the First Christmas, Richard Gowan
57.
China, 2014, CNN, Four decades in China: Jaime FlorCruz
signs off
58.
Turkey, 2015, The Economist (London), Turkey’s Future, Forward to the past, Can
Turkey’s past glories be revived by its grandiose
Islamic president?
59.
Diplomacy, 2014, The Diplomat, The Geopolitical Vision
of Alfred Thayer Mahan, Francis P. Sempa
60.
Military/USA, 2014, Los Angeles Times, Aging nuclear arsenal grows ever most
costly, Ralph Vart Abedian
and W. J. Hennigan
61.
Military, 2014, War on the Rocks Blog, Art of War
62.
WWI, 2014, New York Times, In France, Vestiges of the Great War’s Bloody End,
Richard Rubin
63.
Military, 2014, StrategyPage.com Blog, brought to you by Jim Dunnigan, Al Nofi and others.
64.
China, 2014, Reuters, China’s Corruption Crackdown
65.
China, 2014, ?, The Downfall of Ling Jihua and the New Norm of Chinese Politics, Bo Zhiyue
66.
Taiwan, 2014, The Asian Age (Taipei, Taiwan), US think-tank proposes shakeup of
Taiwan defence
67.
Subs, 2014, The Straits Times (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia), Maritime spats
“stirring undersea arms race”, Raul Dance
68.
WWI, 2014, Foreign Affairs, The War That Didn’t End All Wars, Lawrence Freedman
(book reviews)
69.
Subs, 2014, Bloomberg (USA), Australia Mulls Japan Submarines Under China’s Apprehensive Gaze, Jason Scott
70.
Japan/France, 2014, New York Times, The New Japanese
Masters of French Cuisine, Alexander Lobrano
71.Spam, 2014, Los Angeles Times, Spam lover’s guide to L.A.:
7 great dishes with your favorite processed meat, Jenn
Harris
72.
Russia, 2014, Los Angeles Times, Russia says it has a right to put nuclear
weapons in Crimea, Sergei L. Loiko
73.
WWI, 2014, New York Times, Through Survivors’ Dark-Hued Chords, Conveying the
Trauma of a Century, Vivien Schweitzer
74.
Diplomacy, 2014, New York Times, Mastering the Art of Secret Negotiations, Mark
Landler
75.
Diplomacy, 2014, Bloomberg (USA), Robot Brains Catch Humans in 25 Years, Then
Speed Right On By, Tom Randall
76.
Malaysia, 2014, New York Times, Celebrating the Legacy of a Chinese Explorer,
Edward Wong
77.
Subs, 2014, Associated Press, Portsmouth Naval Shipyard hiring 715 workers
78.
Subs, 2014, StrategyPage.com, Scorpene Goes Long
79.
China, 2014, New York Times, Chinese Annoyance with North Korea Bubbles to the
Surface, Jane Perlez
80.
China, 2014, WantChinaTimes.com (Taipei?), Xi Jinping pays long-awaited visit
to Nanjing Military Region
81.
Turkey, 2014, New York Times, Brave New Turkey, Andrew Finkel
(editorial pages)
82.
China, 2014, The Diplomat, China’s Big Diplomacy Shift: China signals a change
in priorities, raising the risk of tension with the developing world, Timothy
Heath
83.
China/Hong Kong/Macau, 2014, Associated Press, In Wake of Hong Kong, Chinese
Leader Warns Macau
84.
China, 2014, WantChinaTimes.com (Taipei?), The PLA’s special
forces: secrets revealed
85.
Subs, 2014, Civil Beat’s Blog (Australia), Asia Matters: A Future Under Water, Bill Dorman
86.
Subs, 2014, WantChinaTimes.com (Taipei?), ROC naval chief visits the US to
discuss the transfer of submarine technology
87.
China, 2014, Sydney Morning Herald, Lowy report: Chinese rivalries risk
spiraling conflict in South China Sea, John Garnaut
88.
Russia, 2014, RBTH (Moscow), Secret new Russian tank could be deployed to Artic
zones, Denis Kungurov
89.
Russia/Ukraine/China, 2014, Foreign Affairs, An Uneasy
Menage a Trois: Reliance on
Russian and Ukrainian Weapons Puts China in a Tight Spot, Michael Kofman
90.
USA, 2014, New York Times, The War Hero and the Chicken Hawk, Timothy Egan
(editorial pages)
91.
China, 2014, USA Today, China arrests top official on sex and corruption
charges, Calum MacLeod
92.
China, 2014, South China Morning Post (Hong Kong), China gives rare glimpse
into first aircraft carrier Liaoning’s home port in Qingdao, Shandong
93.
China, 2014, Reuters, China arrests ex-security chief for corruption, leaking
secrets
94.
Diplomacy, 2014, Ondine Cohane, New York
Times, In Tuscany, Following the Rise and Fall of Machiavelli (Travel)
95.
Diplomacy, 2014, Rachel Lee Harris, New York Times, A
Revival for Watergate Hotel
96.
Subs, 2014, David Tweed, Bloomberg, China Takes Nuclear Weapons Undersea Where
Prying Eyes Can’t See
97.
Subs, 2014, Helen Perkins, The Express (London), Royal Navy’s nuclear
submarines set for ‘major catastrophe’: Fleet has 44 fires in 4 years
98.
Diplomacy, 2014, Raymond Smith, The National Interest
Blog, From Da to Nyet: How US Diplomacy Helped
Transform Russia from Potential Ally into Strategic Adversary
99.
China/Taiwan, 2014, Wendell Minnick, Defensenews.com, China’s Checkmate: S-400
Looms Large Over Taiwan
100.
China/Spain, 2014, Xinhua, World’s longest train journey reaches its final
destination in Madrid
101.
WWI, 2014, New York Times, WWI Centenary, 1914: Sinking of the Nurnberg
102.
Subs, 2014, Arthur Herman, Nikkei Asian Review (Japan), Japanese subs still the
best deal for Australia
103.
Subs, 2014, Sanjeev
Miglani and Tommy Wilkes, Reuters, Rattled by Chinese submarines, India joins
other nations in rebuilding fleet
104.
China, 2014, David Tweed, Bloomberg, China Seeks Great Power Status After Sea Retreat
105.
China, 2014, Ting Shi, Bloomberg, The Challenges of
China: Q&A With Bloomberg Reporter Ting Shi
106.
China, 2014, Ting Shi and David Tweed, Bloomberg, Xi Outlines ‘Big Country
Diplomacy’ Chinese Foreign Policy
107.
Israel, 2014, Joe Klein, New York Times, ‘Elusive Peace: Thirteen Days in
September,’ by Lawrence Wright (Book Review)
108.
France, 2014, Liz Alderman, New York Times, In Twist on French Tradition,
Bosses Take to Streets in Protest
109.
Subs, 2014, StrategyPage.com, Dealing With The Elderly
110.
Turkey, 2014, Glen Johnson, Patrick J. McDonnell, In Turkey, lavish new
presidential palace proves divisive
111.
Subs, 2015, John Andrew Prime, Shreveport, La. Times, Mystery of missing Civil
War submarines resurfaces
112.
WWII, 2015, Ben Child, The Guardian (UK), Unseen Alfred Hitchcock Holocaust
documentary, ‘Memory of the Camps,’ to be released (Movie Review)
113.
Diplomacy, 2015, Bartholomew Sparrow (Author) Amazon.com and B&N, The Strategist:
Brent Scowcroft and the Call of National Security (Book review)
114.
Art, 2015, Scott Reyburn, New York Times, New Report,
Larry’s List, Builds a Profile of the Elusive Art Collector
Putting
It All Together: A Recipe for Diplomacy
There
are 23,750 Subway outlets in the USA and 188 in the PRC. Think about it.
Now
consider this: There are 46,000 Chinese-
style restaurants in the USA, including 1,700 Panda Express; and untold
thousands of American style restaurants in China, including: 4,600 KFC, 1,200
Pizza Hut and 1,125 McDonalds. There are no Panda Express outlets in China
(Guam is the closest).
The
thing to remember is that American-style restaurants in China have different
menu items and different styles of preparation from what they do in America;
which explains why so many Americans traveling overseas don’t like the foreign
product. The same thing applies to Chinese-style restaurants in the States
which have different menu items and different styles of preparation from what
they do in China. However, you will see many Chinese tourists eating at Panda
Express, especially in the Outlet Malls, because the food is safe, fast and
relatively cheap.
Hong
Kong is probably the best city in the world to sample the best and worst of
both kinds of food. In addition you can find American-style up-scale
restaurants like Tony Roma or Ruth Chris; something you won’t find in most of
China.
The
bottom line is that Diplomacy is a matter of good taste and that takes years to
acquire. I know, I’ve been trying for some fifty years to find the recipe for a
winning Diplomacy game Still, with the 114 ingredients listed above it
would be possible to create a tasty dish, perhaps a cauldron or bowl of Hot Dot
Soup filled with lots of Chinese vegetables, Russian caviar, Asian seafood
(e.g. submarines), pieces of turkey, and even some chunks of spam. Add a few
spices (Monopoly, the Doomsday Clock,, old ICBMs ) and
herbs (Churchill, Nisman, Henry Kissinger, Yu Lin,
Charlie Hebdo) and you’ll have a concoction fit for a
Dipper or a diplomat. Bon appetite!
XENOGOGIC:
FIFTY AT FIFTY
AN ADDENDUM
By
Larry Peery
In
the original article you may have noticed that I wrote, “Each item mostly
follows the same format and gives: Subject, Date, Author, Source, Title and
occasionally a note. Look for this rosette ((small rose)) * to indicate items of
special interest or quality that I found especially informative.” If you looked
closely you probably noticed there were no rosettes to be found. That’s because
I forgot to include them. I’ll be curious to see if anybody actually did notice
that, but somehow I doubt it happened.
Anyway,
here are the items that I felt merited special attention because of their
subject, their original contribution to our knowledge about the subject, and
the skill with which they were written. These are truly “the best of the best.”
1. Winston Churchill,
1915, Hugues Le Roux, New York Herald, 1915: An
Interview with Winston Churchill. There’s no doubt in my mind that Churchill
was the greatest man of the last century and one of the greatest of all time.
In this interview note his comments on submarines.
2. Alberto Nisman, 2015,
Frida Ghitis, CNN, Who Killed Alberto Nisman? Argentina’s politics have fascinated me
for years; and this latest suicide/assassination/murder story keep me coming
back for more.
3.
Asia, 2015, The Diplomat, Should U.S. Allies in Asia Get Their Own Nukes?, Christine M. Leah. Most Americans today don’t even
realize that for years the US stockpiled nuclear weapons in South Korea, Japan,
Taiwan, the Philippines and other places in Asia. Today Russia, China and North
Korea all have nuclear weapons of some kind. It’s entirely possible that South
Korea, Japan and Taiwan could within a fairly short time.
4.
WWI, 2015, New York Times, London’s Imperial War Museum takes visitors back
into the trenches, Roy Harris. The IWM has just completed a major new exhibit
devoted to WWI in time for the 100th anniversary of “the war to end all wars.”
5.
Subs, 2015, The Motley Fool, New Nuclear Submarine Cost Could Torpedo the U.S.
Navy’s Budget --- and Sink This Company. The big story in the Cold War 2 isn’t
the battle between the Great Powers; it’s the battles between the companies
building the weapons that will be used in this war. This story looks at the battle going on
between the US Navy’s shipyards and the two private contractors building our
nuclear subs.
6.
China, 2015, New York Times, In China’s Antigraft
Campaign, Small Victories and Bigger Doubts, Andrew Jacobs. Jacobs has written some great stuff on
Chinese politics but this article stood out among them. It convinced me to
change my mind about what’s going on in China now.
7.
India, 2015, Indian News, Amarinder Singh for
declassifying 1962 India-China war report. I’ve always been intrigued by this
war that nobody paid much attention to and history has sort of ignored. Finally
we’re getting a look at it from the Indian perspective.
8.
WWI, 2015, Scientific American, Chronicles WWI. This magazine
covered WWI in more detail than most researchers have noticed, often covering
topics the major histories overlooked.
9.
WWl, 2015, British Pathe
site on Wikipedia, WW1 – The Definitive Collection, a collection of hundreds of
film clips about WW1 from British Pathe, a leading
news source of the day. Fascinating.
10.
Diplomacy, 2014, World Politics Review, Lessons in Secret Diplomacy From the
First Christmas, Richard Gowan. Diplomacy,
The Three Wise Men and Harold --- now there’s a Diplomacy variant waiting to be
designed.
11.
Diplomacy, 2014, The Diplomat, The Geopolitical Vision
of Alfred Thayer Mahan, Francis P. Sempa. Still relevant to an understanding of what
naval power means today.
12.
WWI, 2014, New York Times, In France, Vestiges of the Great War’s Bloody End,
Richard Rubin, Another excellent travel
story about some out –of-the-way places on the western front that don’t
seemed to have changed much in the last hundred years.
13.
Diplomacy, 2014, Ondine Cohane, New York
Times, In Tuscany, Following the Rise and Fall of Machiavelli (Travel). And yet another NYT travel story of relevance
to Diplomacy fans, especially if you’re going to Milan for WDC this year. Take
a side trip to see Florence and stop in at the Basilica of Santa Croce and pay
your respects to the grand old man of diplomacy.
14.
Diplomacy, 2014, Raymond Smith, The National Interest Blog, From Da to Nyet: How US Diplomacy Helped Transform Russia from
Potential Ally into Strategic Adversary. Like so many others I had great hopes
when the Iron Curtain crashed and the Soviet empire collapsed. So what
happened? Maybe it was our fault after all.
GAMESTART!
Diplomacy, “Milk and Trash”, 2015?, Pre-Spring 1901
Austria (Jack McHugh – jwmchughjr
“of” gmail.com)
England (Mark Firth – mark.r.firth
“of” capita.co.uk)
France (Paul Milewski – paul.milewski “of” Hotmail.com)
Germany (Jim Burgess – jfburgess “of” gmail.com)
Italy (John Biehl – jerbil “of” shaw.ca)
Russia (Kevin Wilson – ckevinw
“of” comcast.net)
Turkey (John David Galt – jdg
“of” diogenes.sacramento.ca.us)
Deadline
for Spring 1901 moves and press is February 24th at 7am
my time
Acquire Game #2 -
“Juliet” – Eternal Sunshine
Players: Tom Howell,
Mark Firth, Andy Bate, Richard Weiss, Hank Alme
Turn 10
Tom
plays 5-D and buys 3 Tower.
Mark
plays 12-E and buys 3 Festival.
Andy
plays 2-A, and buys 2 Imperial and 1 Festival.
Richard
plays 12-F and buys 1 Luxor.
Hank
plays 9-B and discards a “safe tile.”
Diplomacy
“Jerusalem” 2012A, W 13
E/T
Draw Passes!
End
Game Statements Due February 24th at 7am my
time.
They
will be published with the EOG report next issue.
PRESS
London (Apr1, 1914): Third Lord of
the Admiralty, Sir Arthur Barker, barked out " The
English are not fooled by the Turkish hypocrisy of invading Italy and then
supporting their colony of Tunis. Nor do we expect our Italian compatriots to
be fooled by this false offer of friendliness. The only way for the Ottomans to
appease Italy is to
remove themselves from it."
Dateline Sarajevo: The 1914 Olympics will
be held, as scheduled, in beautiful, snow-blessed Sarajevo. The Czar and his court are insuring the
safety of all athletes and guests to the games.
Reminder to the world, the region has been stable and absent any of the
aspects of the horrifics of war being imposed on
Europe by the English demigod. As an
example, only the English have used gas attacks on civilians in the LowLands and other countries, with releases that were meant
for combatants.
Open Letter from Banc des Frances to Prime Minister Asquith:
"Bonjour Cher Prime Minister Asquith;
Je suis
Mr Mathew Patrick, le Directeur
des Opérations Financières d'une Banque de la place.
J’ai une proposition financière confidentielle à vous faire. Une somme
flottante de 5.950.000 dollars usd
appartenant à un défunt
client don’t le nom a été identifié et noté non revendiqué dans nos audits et archives.
En tant qu'un des dirigeants principaux de la banque, je suis
oblige de vous informer, que
je suis à la recherche d'une personne avec qui je peux débloquer cette somme.
Je vous demande donc d'accepter
d'être le proche parent et revendiquer les fonds. En générale, dans
ces cas
d'espèce les fonds sont confisqués au trésor du gouvernement en tant que
fonds non revendiqués.
Selon le gouvernement après une
certaine période, à moins qu'ils soient
revendiqués de façon pressante par un proche parent du défunt. Je voudrais que ces
fonds vous soient transférés, (soit dans votre
compte bancaire ou par carte de Paiement Electroniques VISA) entant que proche parent du défunt client et que par la suite
nous effectuons un partage équitable de 50% chacun, j'ai besoin de votre aide en toute
honnêteté et je vous promets que vous
ne courrez aucun risque car ma position au sein de la banque
me permet de couvrir n'importe quel
risque et de plus je serai la seule
personne a superviser cette transaction.
J'ai fais toutes les vérifications concernant cet arrangement pour que son exécution soit propre et de façon rapide.
Je vous prierai de traiter cette lettre avec la plus grande urgence et
discrétion possible.
Mes salutations les plus distinguées
Mr Mathew Patrick"
Diplomacy
“Walkerdine” 2012D, F 09
France
(Jim Burgess – jfburgess “of” gmail.com): F Aegean Sea Convoys A Edinburgh –
Constantinople,
A
Burgundy Hold, A Edinburgh – Constantinople, F English
Channel Convoys A Edinburgh – Constantinople,
F
Greece Hold, F Ionian Sea Convoys A Edinburgh –
Constantinople, A London Hold,
F
Mid-Atlantic Ocean Convoys A Edinburgh –
Constantinople,
F
North Atlantic Ocean Convoys A Edinburgh –
Constantinople,
F
Norwegian Sea Convoys A Edinburgh – Constantinople, F
Smyrna Supports A Edinburgh – Constantinople,
A
Trieste Supports A Venice, F Tyrrhenian Sea Convoys A
Edinburgh – Constantinople,
A
Venice Supports A Trieste, F Western Mediterranean
Convoys A Edinburgh - Constantinople.
Germany
(Steve Cooley – tmssteve “of” gmail.com): A Ankara – Armenia, A Armenia – Syria,
F
Barents Sea Hold, A Budapest Supports A Serbia, A
Bulgaria Supports A Edinburgh – Constantinople,
A
Constantinople – Ankara, F Denmark Supports F North Sea, A
Kiel Supports A Munich,
A
Munich Supports A Tyrolia, F
North Sea Hold, A Norway Hold, A Prussia – Livonia,
A
Serbia Supports A Bulgaria, A Tyrolia Hold, A Vienna
Supports A Tyrolia.
Turkey (Civil
Disorder): No units.
Now Proposed – F/G Draw. Please vote.
NVR=No.
Deadline
for W 09/S 10 is February 24th at 7am my time
Supply Center Chart
France:
Belgium, Brest,
Constantinople, Edinburgh, Greece, Liverpool, London, Marseilles, Naples,
Paris, Portugal, Rome, Smyrna, Spain, Trieste, Tunis, Venice=17,
Build 2
Germany:
Ankara, Berlin, Budapest,
Bulgaria, Denmark, Holland, Kiel, Moscow, Munich, Norway,
Rumania, Serbia, Sevastopol, St Petersburg, Sweden, Vienna,
Warsaw=17, Build 1
Turkey: None=0,
OUT!!
PRESS
FRANCE
to WALKERDINE:
Wherever you are, Richard, I hope you accept the way we decided to end
this. It was a bit lame the way the
others just gave up.
BOOB
to COOLEY:
In the post-Williams world, I can't right now be cutthroat to the great people
who I have deep memories of through Don. He talked endlessly about you for years
before I got to know you.
Doug –
Boob:
We’ve lost too many great friends over the past few years. I think that played a large part in my
decision to wind this thing down. Maybe
keeping it going with a few games for a while will allow it to move to another
chapter.
FRANCE
to ES OBSERVERS:
Yes, I know you were bored, but now we'll end this.
Germany
to France:
You think this is boring? You should see me play chess!
Cooley
to Boob:
I still can't believe Don is gone. It was a blessing to get to spend that time
with him so near the end. He was frail. The reality of there being no medical
hope was still painfully new. I rarely get to have such candid discussions
about why it is important to do this or that. I could not have ended this game
any other way than to salute him. Don would appreciate this end; I'm sure of
it.
Germany
to World:
if you did not know Don, you missed out. He loved the game in the best way: he
loved to play it and he loved to see it played well--finesse moves, detailed
negotiations, good stabs--all of it. He was much better than he thought he
was--and I liked that about him.
Doug –
Germany:
Amen to that.
Black
Press Gunboat, “Fred Noonan”, 2013Arb32, F 11
France: Retreat F English Channel - Brest.. F
Barents Sea Supports F Norway, F Brest - English Channel,
A
Burgundy Supports A Picardy (*Dislodged*, retreat
to Paris or Gascony or Marseilles or OTB),
F
Edinburgh - North Sea (*Fails*), F Irish Sea Supports F Brest - English
Channel,
F
Norway Supports F Edinburgh - North Sea (*Cut*), A Picardy Supports A
Burgundy,
F Western Mediterranean - Mid-Atlantic Ocean.
Germany:
A Belgium Supports A Munich – Burgundy, F
English Channel Convoys A London - Brest (*Dislodged*,
retreat to Wales or OTB), A London - Brest (*Fails*),
A Munich – Burgundy,
F
North Sea Supports F Sweden - Norway (*Cut*), A Ruhr Supports A Munich –
Burgundy,
F
Sweden - Norway (*Fails*), A Trieste Supports A Tyrolia
- Vienna (*Cut*), A Tyrolia - Vienna
(*Fails*).
Italy:
Civil Disorder. F Apulia U, A Budapest U, A Vienna U.
Russia: A St.
Petersburg – Moscow (NSU), A Warsaw Supports A St. Petersburg – Moscow (*Dislodged*,
retreat to Livonia or Prussia or Silesia), A
Moscow U.
Turkey: Retreat A Moscow - Ukraine.. F Bulgaria(ec) – Constantinople, A
Galicia Supports A Ukraine – Warsaw,
A
Greece – Albania, F Ionian Sea - Adriatic Sea, F Rome - Tyrrhenian Sea, F
Rumania - Black Sea,
A
Serbia – Trieste (*Fails*), A Sevastopol - Moscow (*Fails*),
F
Tunis Supports F Tyrrhenian Sea - Western Mediterranean, F Tyrrhenian Sea -
Western Mediterranean,
A Ukraine - Warsaw.
All Draw
Proposals Fail
Deadline
for W 11/S 12 will Be February 24th at 7am My Time
Supply Center Chart
France:
Brest, Edinburgh,
Liverpool, Marseilles, Norway, Paris, Portugal,
Spain=8, Even or Build
1
Germany:
Belgium, Berlin, Denmark,
Holland, Kiel, London, Munich, Sweden,
Trieste, Venice=10,
Build 1 or 2
Italy:
Budapest, Vienna=2,
Remove 1
Russia:
Moscow, St Petersburg=2,
Even or Build 1
Turkey:
Ankara, Bulgaria,
Constantinople, Greece, Naples, Rome, Rumania,
Serbia, Sevastopol,
Smyrna, Tunis, Warsaw=12, Build 1
PRESS
None. You guys suck.
Woolworth
II-D “Coney Island” 2013Bcb19, F 09
Balkans
(Secret): A
Bur-Swi, A Pic S A Bre,
A Par S A Bre, A Bre S A
Par, A Alb-Gre,
A Ser S A Alb-Gre, F Tri H.
England
(Secret): F Lon S F Edi-Nth, F Enc S F Edi-Nth, F Nao S F Iri.
Italy (Secret): F Bas S F Mao, F
Mad-Wms, A Gas-Mar,
A Pie-Swi, A Ven-Tri,
F Mao S F Enc-Bre (NSO),
F Gol-Mar.
Russia (Jim
Burgess - jfburgess
“of” gmail.com): A Stp-Fin, F GOB S A Stp-Fin, A Swe-Nwy,
F Lap S A Swe-Nwy, A
Den-Swe, F Bal-Den, F Hel S F Nth, F Nth C A Hol-Yor (ret Nwg, Ska, Yor or OTB),
A Hol-Yor,
A Bel S A Pic, A Sev U.
Scandinavia
(Geoff Kemp - ggeoff510 “of” aol.com): Ret F Swe-Nwy..
F Nwy
S F Edi-Nth (ret Nwg, Ska,
OTB), F Wao S F Nao,
F Edi-Nth, F Iri S F Enc.
Turkey
(Hugh Polley – hapolley
“of” yahoo.ca): F Ion-Gre, A Rum
S A Bul, A Bul S A Rum,
F Bob S F Mao, F Hao S F Mao, F Aeg S F Ion-Gre, A Mor
Holds for Convoy (H).
Deadline
for W 09/S 10 is February 24th at 7am My Time
Supply Center Chart
Balkans Ser, Gre, Bud, Vie, Tri, Swi, Par, Bre=8 Build 1
England Lvp, Lon=2 Remove
1
Italy Nap,
Ven, Rom, Cre, Mar, Por, Mad=7 Even
Russia Mos, War, Sev, Stp, Gal, Ber,
Kie, Mun, Hol, Bel, Den, Swe, Nwy=13 Build 2 or
3
Scand. Edi, Ice=2 Remove
2
Turkey Ank, Con, Smy, Bul, Rum, Tun, Mor=7 Even
PRESS
T-I: Is it over yet! Has Western Front collapsed in order to
contain a few T/I fleets?
General Deadline for
the Next Issue of Eternal Sunshine: February
24th, 2015 at 7:00am my time. Hope to
See You Then!