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The interwebs are livid that the US is capitulating to North Korea.

A little while back, a group calling itself Guardians of Peace hacked into Sony’s files, and in addition to releasing embarrassing emails, and compromising personal and health information on Sony employees, apparently took umbrage at the (then) forthcoming Christmas day release of a spoof movie called The Interview. In the movie, a pair of hapless reporters somehow score an interview with North Korean leader Kim Jung Un, and are recruited by the CIA to assassinate him.

Guardians of Peace threatened moviegoers:

Warning

We will clearly show it to you at the very time and places “The Interview” be shown, including the premiere, how bitter fate those who seek fun in terror should be doomed to.

Soon all the world will see what an awful movie Sony Pictures Entertainment has made.

The world will be full of fear.

Remember the 11th of September 2001.

We recommend you to keep yourself distant from the places at that time.

(If your house is nearby, you’d better leave.)

Whatever comes in the coming days is called by the greed of Sony Pictures Entertainment.

All the world will denounce the SONY.

In response, Sony cancelled the release of the movie.

Was Sony in genuine fear of Guardians of Peace? Probably not. But they had a very healthy and reasonable fear of US trial lawyers. Had Sony proceeded wit the release, and any, any untoward incident happened, they would have been at terrible risk for enormous liability in the US court system. Let us imagine that the threat isn’t even real, just some kid making an idle boast. But some disgruntled third party, eager for infamy, decided to take some rash action that lead to some injury or worse for an attendee at a screening. The line of lawyers eager to sue Sony would be longer than Hands Across America.

Sony looked at the loss of roughly a $100 million investment in the movie, versus a potentially unlimited liability, and chose a rational course, in terms of business economics. Was it the only rational course? No, but it is a defensible one.

But not everyone agreed with that decision, as is their right. The Alamo Drafthouse, a popular theater in Texas, decided that if they couldn’t show The Interview, they’d show the next best thing, an encore presentation of Team America: World Police.

But Paramount Pictures, who apparently hold the rights to TA;WP, put the kibosh on that.

That, my friends, is cowardice. It is an undue reaction. Sony at least had the fact of an articulated, if somewhat vague, threat of some specificity.

And Paramount’s decision is the one that effectively endorses the heckler’s veto on artistic expression and commerce.

But Sony isn’t totally off the hook here in the moral failure department. It’s decision to denounce a release of The Interview via DVD or VOD in the future only rewards Guardians of Peace.

The supposition is that Guardians of Peace are either agents of, or proxies for, the government of North Korea. I don’t know. It is plausible. But not as yet definitive.

Sony’s lack of technical security is their fault. But the subsequent actions of Guardians of Peace are a matter for federal authorities. At a minimum communication of a terroristic threat is a federal law enforcement matter. If Guardians of Peace are proxies for the North Korean government, that certainly becomes a matter for the national security apparatus.

But the failings of Paramount are on Paramount’s head alone.

Look, guys, adding the grate armor was a good idea. Not sitting still in an open field is an even better idea.

Stick around to the end and see what the improvised armor looked like.

On this day in 1903, Orville and Wilbur, self taught aeronautical engineers, made their first successful powered flight.

66 years later, we put a man on the moon.

KABUL — In the spirit of good order and discipline, 1st Sgt. Roger Bottom of Bravo Company, 2-502nd Infantry, invoked his right of jus primae noctis on Christmas care packages this past week.

“If this is what it is going to take to keep soldiers from wearing faddish eye wear or ‘drive-on’ rags, then so be it. I accept this burden and will discharge it to the highest standards set forth by my liege—er, command authority, President Barack Obama,” said Bottom while rapidly opening and closing a new Benchmade Stryker Autoknife. “Can I offer you a Christmas cookie? I have about 30 tins of them.”

via 1st. Sgt. Invokes ‘Primae Noctis’ On Christmas Care Packages.

Busy day here. Plus I seem to have pulled a muscle in my back. I’ll try to write something later. Until then, keep an eye out for beautiful NAS Whidbey Island.

In addition to being the 70th anniversary of the start of the Battle of the Bulge, today also marks the anniversary of the sortie of the Great White Fleet.

Having rather unexpectedly gained an empire as a result of the 1898 Spanish American War, the US found itself a major player on the world stage. And President Roosevelt, eager to prevent any foreign adventures from nibbling at our fringes, decided to make an extraordinary display of American might. And so, the Great White Fleet set upon a journey literally around the world.

On this day in 1907, the main battle fleet set forth on a journey that would cruise 43,000 miles, touch upon six continents and last 14 months. The Great White Fleet truly marks the birth of the US Navy as one of the great fleets of the world, and emphasized the entry of the United States upon the world stage as one of the great powers.

The Army’s Stryker Infantry Carrier Vehicle is not normally intended to be delivered by airdrop. But the Army and the Air Force did take a look back in 2004 at whether it was feasible or not.

After graduating from the United States Military Academy at West Point near the top of his class in 2008, Second Lt. Lawrence J. Franks Jr. went on to a stellar career with three deployments, commendations for exceptional service and a letter of appreciation from the military’s top general.

The only problem: None of it was in the United States military.

After being sent to Fort Drum, here in the snowy farmland of northern New York, where he was put in charge of a medical platoon, Lieutenant Franks disappeared one day in 2009. His perplexed battalion searched the sprawling woods on the post for his body.

What they did not know was that he was on a plane to Paris, where he enlisted under an assumed name in the French Foreign Legion. It was only this year when he turned himself in that the Army and his family learned what had happened.

via Army Deserter Is Jailed for Chasing the Conflicts That Steadied His Mind – NYTimes.com.

The conviction and sentence seem about right. After that, one hopes Mr. Franks can go on to live a productive life, albeit one not affiliated with the US Army.