It can be argued that the ten plagues visited upon the Egyptians were the unintended consequences of Pharaoh's refusal to let Moses' people go. Even so, unintended consequences didn't receive serious study until Adam Smith introduced consequentialism during the Scottish Enlightenment, then languished in obscurity. The study of unintended consequences returned to public attention in the 20th Century with the publication of “The Unanticipated Consequences of Purposive Social Action”, a paper written by sociologist Robert Merton in 1936. Even so, awareness has brought scant relief.

Not being social scientists, most of us are familiar with unintended consequences as the results of Murphy's Law. Generally, there are three categories:

• Positive: An unexpected benefit also known as luck or serendipity.
  


• Negative: A unexpected side effect in addition to the desired effect.
  


• Perverse: An intended solution which exacerbates the problem that the action was intended to correct.
  

Inasmuch as Murphy allows only for perverse outcomes, we must assume that he was an optimist.

Life is far too complex for anyone to fully master their little corners of it. Thus, isn't it better that we avoid centralized control wherein the unintended consequences of decisions affect society at large? I am perfectly willing to suffer the fate of my own decisions. I'd rather not suffer their mistakes, too. How about you?

When I arrived in Vietnam during the war there, I was equipped with all that I needed to survive. Jungle fatigues. M16 rifle. Steel helmet. Flak Vest. Anti-malarial pills. A MACV Phrase Card. The pills didn't work. I contracted malaria. The MACV Phrase Card, purportedly intended to help me communicate with Vietnamese-speaking civilians didn't perform much better. Indeed, their speech was no more comprehensible than the text messages that I receive on my cell phone today.

Be of good cheer. Help is available. Just bookmark AcronymFinder.com. It defines more than 4 million acronyms and abbreviations. Of course many of these may represent more than one word or phrase in much the same way that words and phrases may have more than one meaning. Just look up the word “frog” in the dictionary and you'll find more than twenty-seven options. Thus, “The ABBR for ABBR is ABBR”. Go ahead, decipher that.

Imagine the potential that your Tweets will have once you become adept with acronyms and abbreviations. Each 140 character Tweet built from acronyms and abbreviations averaging four characters (including a trailing space) would contain 35 words. I can't wait to amaze my children with my new found “skill”.

This may seem a bit of a stretch, but bear with me. I have a point to make. An interesting one, I hope. It grew out of a book I just finished reading, Nikola Tesla: Imagination And The Man Who Invented The 20th Century. (It might be argued that he invented a lot of the 21st as well.) The book didn't really inform me much about the man that I didn't already know from reading Tesla: Man Out Of Time, but it did provide me with some interesting insights into the nature of genius and its relationship with imagination and opportunity (that is, the opportunity to exercise genius and profit from it). 

For writers, we have, thanks to ebooks, a greater opportunity to exercise whatever genius we may possess than ever before. Ebooks have removed many of the barriers that once prevented us from publishing: Agents, publishers, et al. Wouldn't the economy be so much better if everyone had a similar path to pursue their dreams?

Some politicians want us to believe that they're doing just that. They claim that they are helping entrepreneurs achieve their dreams. As a result, the economy is growing. Unemployment is dropping. Similar programs in defense and diplomatic missions are reaping similar results. Enemies are cowering in defeat. Allies are gathering at our side. Other politicians would have us believe the opposite. The former are known as “incumbents”. The latter, “wannabe incumbents”. Do you believe either? Neither?

I've read many books of late looking for the answer to the problems that beset us. Sometimes, pieces of the puzzle can be found in the most unlikely places as when you drop the jigsaw on the floor and pieces skitter into dark corners and under furniture. Ultimately, Nikola Tesla's life experiences may hold a lesson for us. One can only wonder at how many more scientific miracles he would have endowed us with had his genius not been hobbled by the avarice of his competitors and the unscrupulous politicians in their employ. Yes, Tesla had unbounded genius and imagination. He only lacked opportunity to employ them to realize the dreams he had for us.

After reading this book, you may ask: Is someone or something preventing me from realizing my dreams? From achieving success through imagination and, dare I say it, genius? Who or what is it?

According to Wikipedia, "a pun, also known as a paranomasia, is a form of wordplay that suggests two or more meanings, by exploiting multiple meanings of words, or of similar-sounding words, for an intended humorous or rhetorical effect." The citation also goes on to say that "The Roman playwright Plautus is famous for his tendency to make up and change the meaning of words to create puns in Latin." Unfortunately, my professor of Latin in law school never appreciated my efforts to emulate Plautus.

The humor in many of Bizarro's comic strips depend on puns. On Sundays, he frequently features "Sunday Punnies" based on suggestions from fans.

I enjoy puns. Indeed, the oldest piece of humor that I can dredge up from memory is a pun that I read in my mother's Reader's Digest when I was about twelve years old...

"Three pregnant American natives lay on three different animal hides when it came time to birth their children. The first lay on the hide of an elk and gave birth to an infant son. The second lay on the hide of a bear and gave birth to an infant son. The third lay on the hide of a hippopotamus and gave birth to twin sons.

"The point? The squaw of the hippopotamus is equal to the sons of the squaws of the other two hides." [Hint: It's trigonometry]

One of my favorite guests on the Tonight Show during the time when it was hosted by Johnny Carson, was Jose Feliciano. (That name may bring a smile of recollection to some and furrow the brows of others in consternation: Jose who?) I'll close this posting with a video of Jose performing one of his more famous compositions to help those who have never had the pleasure of seeing or hearing Feliciano perform. Before I do, let me recollect that after singing for the audience, Jose would sit in the guest seat reciting puns while Carson attempted to interview him. He had an insatiable appetite for puns.

Let's send this young man home and put an end to this story. It is an open sore in the debacle into which America's War on Terror has morphed. Yes, I know that the President doesn't like that description: War on Terror. Too bad. He bought into it. Now he owns it and "a rose by any other name..."

You may read the previous episodes of this continuing story at the following linked postings in this blog as well as the website dedicated to Michael.

Original Posting: Who is more deserving of justice than the men & women who fight to defend our freedom?

Update 1: Parole hearing scheduled

Update 2: Parole denied

Update 3: Government dragging its feet in responding to Supreme Court

Update 4: Is justice delayed justice denied in the case of Lt Behenna?

Update 5: Justice plods ahead slowly: Lietenant Behenna's case in conference at the Supreme Court

Update 6: What price justice?

Update 7: Justice denied

Update 8: Can mercy answer an injustice

To the thousands of Michael supporters,

This time of year is very difficult for Michael and our family, but we wanted to take this opportunity to thank all of you who took the time and effort to write to Michael or financially contributed to his prison account.  Your response to him was overwhelming and provided a much needed boost to his morale. We can’t thank you enough for your continued support and prayers which sustain our son more than you will ever know.  He can’t physically respond to all the many letters and cards he receives, but he wanted to make sure we conveyed his heartfelt appreciation for your steadfast support.

Here is an excerpt from an earlier letter which Michael had us share with you a few summers ago and the words are as true now as they were when he wrote them:

“Each day I strive to not focus on the bad, but to find the good. I immerse myself in books that take me a thousand miles from this place of concrete and steel.  I push forward in my quest of self-discovery and self-observation seeking wisdom to call my own.  From the small window in my prison cell I can see a cornfield where a farmer toils in the hot summer air and I find myself longing to walk that field and feel the earth beneath my feet and the sun against my face. My hopes are to someday have my own land upon which I will raise cattle and spend all my waking hours in that warm sun upon my horse whose name only I will know.  

Gratitude is not something one would expect to find behind these walls, but it is here where I found it…waiting to teach me what really matters in this life. And while I sleep she gently reminds me how truly blessed my life is.“

Michael’s first Parole Hearing has been set for January 9th, 2014 and we hope it will be his last. We will represent Michael before the Army Clemency and Parole Board in Washington DC, and we should hear the results within two weeks of the Hearing.  Please say a prayer for the Board’s discernment and courage to examine Michael’s case with an open heart and mind about what a Soldier faces in battle. We know Michael is not a threat to society and will be a productive American citizen who will always hold his head high.

We wish you all a blessed 2014 and God willing, it will be the year we will finally welcome Michael home.

Forever in your debt,

Scott & Vicki Behenna

Anyone who has a passion for history, especially those who would contribute to the human story, must pick up a camera. Thus, it must come as no surprise to any who have followed this blog, that photography has been my lifelong hobby. My first camera had a Cub Scout logo. By implication, that would indicate that I started at a tender age. I was a photographer for my high school newspaper - The Towson High School Talisman. Ultimately, I cashed in on the knowledge I had accumulated and wrote promotional literature and articles for Vivitar in the late 1970s. 

Recently, as I was digitizing my collection of color slides, I found some of my favorite photos and decided to share them here. I hope you enjoy them.

All photos were taken with a classic Nikon F (no built-in exposure meter) which now resides on a shelf as a curiosity of another age when Kodak ruled the world of photography. 

I have many others, but will save them for future blog postings when I am hard pressed for a subject to write about.

Life is full of self inflicted embarrassments and we're defined by how we handle them, probably more so than how we handle our successes. Calvin isn't a hero, he's an ordinary man fighting against the outrage of life's disappointments, and owning them with panache. To be honest, I believe that heroes are ordinary people who occasionally accomplish extraordinary things and, like Calvin, they just keep failing until they succeed. So, go for it, Calvin. Maybe it'll land on Suzie next time. 

Somewhere lost in the rubble of Nazi Germany or possibly in some warehouse of captured documents and artifacts like the one depicted in Raiders of the Lost Ark, are the remnants of the propaganda pumped out during World War II by Paul Joseph Goebbels and his Reich Ministry. Somehow miraculously, two fragile filmstrips found their way into my hands and I'm wondering what to do with them. 

Both filmstrips are Photographic Reports of the Week, one for Week 42 of 1939 and the other for Week 47 of 1941. My father claimed that they had been given to him by a family friend who had carried them back from the war among his souvenirs. I have wondered in later years if this was true inasmuch as he had been a Nazi sympathizer before the United States entered the war. He liked to pretend that he was German, indeed claiming that was his parents' origin. In fact, they were Slovak immigrants who worshiped at the German Lutheran Church. He hung out at the Deutches Haus German Restaurant and Social Club in Baltimore until it was closed during the war. (I have no knowledge or evidence that any organization that assembled at the Deutches Haus was guilty of crimes any more than the Japanese who were interred during WWII.)

I can imagine these filmstrips being presented at the Deutches Haus. The filmstrip for Week 47 of 1941 could have arrived in the mails about the time of the attack on Pearl Harbor and America's entry into World War II. In later years, my father waxed poetic about the prospect of a better world had Hitler won the war.

I'm guessing that they were presented to the German public by members of the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (NSDAP) – National Socialist German Worker's Party (NAZI) – reading from prepared scripts. Unfortunately, the scripts didn't accompany the filmstrips and I have yet to locate copies through Internet searches. The time lines for these two weeks found on Wikipedia provide events that seem to align with some of the images.

Week 47/1941 – November 16 to 27

• Nov 17: Joseph Grew, the United States Ambassador to Japan, cables the State Department that Japan had plans to launch an attack against Pearl Harbor, Hawaii (his cable is ignored)
  


• Nov 17: Ernst Udet, head of the Luftwaffe's Production and Development, commits suicide over his perceived inability to properly perform his mission
  


• Nov 18: Operation Crusader: British Commonwealth and other Allied troops cross into Libya and at least temporarily relieve the Siege of Tobruk
  


• Nov 19: Australian light cruiser HMAS Sydney and the German auxiliary cruiser Kormoran sink each other off the coast of Western Australia. All 648 crewmen on HMAS Sydney are lost.
  


• Nov 22: Rostov-on-Don, an important hub on the southern front, is taken by the Germans.
  


• Nov 22: Britain issues an ultimatum to Finland to end war with the Soviet Union or face war with the Allies
  


• Nov 22: Rommel starts a counteroffensive, retaking Sidi Rezegh (south of Tobruk) which the Allies had taken a few days earlier. British tank losses are heavy.
  

Many years ago, I chopped both filmstrips into individual frames and preserved them in slide mounts for viewing in modern projectors. Inasmuch as these devices are now disappearing, I have digitized the images by photographing them while displayed on a homemade rear projection screen. Not the best reproductions, but the paid service I used returned tiny digital files that produced tiny images on computer screens.

I am willing to entertain offers from reputable historical scholars and institutions who would like to add them their collections. I would donate them rather than see them destroyed. The images will be preserved at least for a time on this posting in my blog, but I can't imagine that this website will outlive me by much...

Yes, I'm awesome. How can I say such a thing? I've kept my New Year's Resolution to lose weight for two years and plan on keeping it again this year. I've lost eighty (80) pounds and my resolution is to lose another forty (40) this year. That should about put me at my goal of 180. Of course, that leaves me with a new problem. How will I be awesome in 2015?

Sometimes we have to laugh to keep from crying...

I had imaginary friends. I had imaginary enemies. I had a whole imaginary world because the real one was populated by few of either and ruled over by an abusive father. I guess I had still have them. You can see them in my stories. They keep me company, sometimes trouble my sleep, but none has ever asked me for a job.