Archive for April 16, 2024

The U.S. and the Middle East: A record of failure

Posted: April 16, 2024 by chrisharper in Uncategorized
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By Christopher Harper

As the U.S. government muddles its way through the current crisis in Israel, I am reminded how American involvement in Middle East affairs usually turns out badly for almost everyone involved.

Here’s a quick review of past mistakes:

–In 1953, the CIA helped launch the overthrow of duly elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh and helped return the shah to power. Ultimately, the coup fueled religious discontent and led to the rule of mullahs in Teheran.

–In 1957, President Dwight Eisenhower launched a plan of economic and military aid to the Middle East. Lebanon was the only country to embrace the doctrine, which eventually led the U.S. Navy to send ships and troops to Beirut when the pro-Western regime was threatened. The Lebanese president, Camille Chamoun, was a Christian, and his critics were Muslims. The Christian-Muslim divide eventually broke out into a civil war in the 1970s, which continued for nearly two decades, with the United States seen as supporting the Christians over the Muslims.

–In 1982, the United States sent ‘peacekeeping forces” to Beirut after Israel invaded Lebanon. Again, the United States did not appear as a neutral play, leading Muslim extremists to launch attacks against American Marines, leaving more than 200 soldiers dead in 1983.

–In 1978-9, the Carter Administration helped create the Camp David Accords, intended to bring peace between Egypt and Israel. Ultimately, Egypt became isolated in the Arab world, leading to deeper divisions in the Middle East.

–In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the U.S. government launched several ill-advised policies. First, the United States provided weapons to Islamic groups fighting Soviet forces in Afghanistan. Eventually, these groups fought U.S. troops after the 2001 attacks. Second, the United States asked Egypt to supply weapons to Iraqi troops fighting Iran in the 1980s. That program encouraged Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, who sent his troops to Kuwait in 1990. After that, the administration launched Operation Desert Storm to drive out the Iraqi military.

–More recently, the U.S. military invaded Iraq and Afghanistan, leading to more chaos and anti-American sentiment throughout the Middle East.

All told, the United States has an abysmal record in bringing stability to the region. So far, the Biden administration has vacillated between support for Israel and concern for the Palestinians in Gaza.

Given the U.S. government’s history of mistakes, I think we are unlikely to help resolve the current crisis.

Pintastic NE 2024 The Final Day Success!

Posted: April 16, 2024 by datechguy in fun, pinball
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On the final day of Pintastic I woke around 7 (My son woke at five, went downstairs to play and then came back to snooze for an hour). The plan was to go downstairs, play a bit in the extra ball lounge, grab a bite of breakfast, pack and check out by 9:30 and then play we didn’t want to or couldn’t play anymore.

When I got to the Extra Ball lounge a few games such as Elton John were busy but the excellent Lord of the Rings was not so I took advantage of it.

There was a time when it would have been impossible to find this game empty as it’s, in my opinion one of the greatest games of all time, but then again two years ago you would never see a Willie Wonka empty either

Yet I saw it empty frequently.

Bottom line there were a lot and I mean a LOT of high quality new games there and as always the newest games get the most attention.

Traditionally the final tournament of Pintastic is the ladies tournament and that was no exception this year. I popped in to see it in full swing and spoke to the organizer, she was entered into the tourney as well so I filmed a bit as she played her ball then spoke to her at length when it was done.

Here are the trophies she referenced:

Longtime readers might wonder why I didn’t bring up a subject that I’m not shy about discussing or giving my opinion on, that’s rather simple, it’s pinball plus it’s a not my club, tourney or ox being gored.

Heading back to the Freeplay room I passed the vendor area where the Pinball machines were wrapped and packed and ready to go to the next show or back to the various showrooms. One of the things I noticed was I didn’t see the rental companies here. It could have been the economy or personal matters. After all Quigley’s cakes had to cancel for such reasons.

In the free play room the number of machines were slowly decreasing as the people who brought them packed up. I spotted game designer Steve Ritchie there signing a bunch of Elton John Pinball publicity shots.

He was packed and ready to leave but gave me a few minutes for a closing interview

I don’t know how many if any were sold at the show (I know Gabe bought one as it was in the Extra Ball Lounge) but either way it was a fun game to play and I thought I’d get some gameplay in before the end.

I had managed the 3rd high score the day before by the time I played that morning I had dropped to 4th.

Daniel dominated the high scores on that game holding 5 of the top 8 plus most of the mode championships but the #1 spot eluded him. Well there’s always next year.

By 2 pm they started shutting off machines. Last year I couldn’t find Gabe for the traditional closing interview, this year I found him but he was flat out however Michael was there as the 30+ EMP games were coming out of the club area one at a time to be packed and wrapped so we closed with him.

It’s a big difference between doing it all yourself and having a team so when you compare this video to closing videos with Michael from five years ago it’s a huge difference.

As we got up to leave the Rush games which had been there when we arrived were still being played. It was a tad odd to not be staying till the very last game was shut off as we had in prior years, but we had to be home in time for the 6 PM mass and the number and availability of Pinball machines all around the area had grown exponentially since the first time we attended a Pintastic.

It’s true you didn’t see too many pizza places with pinballs anymore but between barcades and arcades offering unlimited play for a flat fee and even some like Tycoon in Manchester that still work on the token based system there is plenty of pinball available within a 20-40 minute drive for us to enjoy with the prospect of a local club and barcade still in the cards.

That more than anything else is a solid sign that while Pintastic New England 2024 was clearly a success, Pintastic NE as a whole series of events to promote the hobby has been a bigger and resounding one.

UPDATE: By an odd coincidence this appeared in the Chicago Tribune on Pinball, and Stern in particular but the killer quote comes from Jersey Jack himself:

As digital as the guts of this thing may be, the experience is far from virtual.

You can see why, as wildly unpredictable as the industry has been, it requires a factory. “It’s such a handcrafted product,” said Jack Guarnieri, owner of Jersey Jack Pinball. “People forget, yet anyone who makes these things can tell you: build 10 machines in a row with the same parts and, depending how tightly a rubber is fixed to a post, or how a lever gets adjusted, that’s an assembly line full of small tweaks. It’s not a video game.

“And yet that’s also the best part — the randomness.”