Random Traverse

Obama's Contributions to the Nation

2010-11-26T12:03:00.000-08:00

Seen in article following news that The One had 12 stitches in his lip as a result of an errant elbow in a basketball game:

Obama is a sports fan, roots for his hometown Chicago teams and has often gone golfing in addition to playing basketball. AP

'Bout sums it up.

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Obama (on the right, for a change) and AG Holder attending Constitutional Law seminar.

Promises

2010-01-18T15:53:00.000-08:00

Promises.

via M. Simon's Power and Control.

AWNAA

2010-01-09T16:14:00.000-08:00

Mea Culpa

The following article appeared originally in The Onion, June 24, 1998 | Issue 33•24.

I received it without attribution in a many-times forwarded email and committed the error of posting it here without checking on its history. I apologize to The Onion for inadvertently ripping off their rich satire. To any of you to whom it may have resonated as reality, I commiserate. "I feel your pain.*"

linearthinker, January 12, 2010

*William Jefferson Clinton (See, nik? I've learned my lesson well.)

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WASHINGTON , DC - Congress is considering sweeping legislation which will provide new benefits for many Americans. The Americans With No Abilities Act (AWNAA) is being hailed as a major legislative goal by advocates of the millions of Americans who lack any real skills or ambition.

"Roughly 50 percent of Americans do not possess the competence and drive necessary to carve out a meaningful role for themselves in society," said California Senator Barbara Boxer. "We can no longer stand by and allow People of Inability to be ridiculed and passed over. With this legislation, employers will no longer be able to grant special favors to a small group of workers, simply because they have some idea of what they are doing."

California Senator Barbara Boxer
[Photo via Gerard Vanderleun's American Digest]

In a Capitol Hill press conference, House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid pointed to the success of the U.S. Postal Service, which has a long-standing policy of providing opportunity without regard to performance. Approximately 74 percent of postal employees lack any job skills, making this agency the single largest U.S. employer of Persons of Inability.

Private-sector industries with good records of nondiscrimination against the Inept include retail sales (72%), the airline industry (68%), and home improvement "warehouse" stores (65%). At the state government level, the Department of Motor Vehicles also has a great record of hiring Persons of Inability (63%).

Under the Americans With No Abilities Act, more than 25 million "middle man" positions will be created, with important- sounding titles but little real responsibility, thus providing an illusory sense of purpose and performance.

Mandatory non-performance-based raises and promotions will be given, to guarantee upward mobility for even the most unremarkable employees. The legislation provides substantial tax breaks to corporations that promote a significant number of Persons of Inability into middle-management positions,and gives a tax credit to small and medium-sized businesses that agree to hire one clueless worker for every two talented hires.

Finally, the AWNA Act contains tough new measures to make it more difficult to discriminate against the Non-abled. For example, it bans discriminatory interview questions such as "Do you have any skills or experience which relate to this job?"

"As a Non-abled person, I can't be expected to keep up with people who have something going for them," said Mary Lou Gertz, who lost her position as a lug-nut twister at the GM plant in Flint, Michigan, due to her lack of any discernible job skills. "This new law should really help people like me."

With the passage of this bill, Gertz and millions of other untalented citizens will finally see a light at the end of the tunnel.

Said President Obama: "As the President With No Abilities, I believe the same privileges that elected officials enjoy ought to be extended to every American with no abilities. It is our duty as members of the government to provide each and every American citizen, regardless of his or her inadequacy, with some sort of space to take up in this great nation."

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Art imitates life...

Flight Patterns

2010-01-06T21:17:00.000-08:00

Flight Patterns

By JONATHAN ROSEN
European starlings have a way of appearing in unexpected places — the United States, for example, where they are not native but owe their origin to a brief reference in Shakespeare’s “Henry IV, Part 1.” In 1890, a drug manufacturer who wanted every bird found in Shakespeare to live in America released 60 starlings in Central Park. After spending a few years nesting modestly under the eaves of the American Museum of Natural History, they went from a poetic fancy to a menacing majority; there are now upward of 200 million birds across North America, where they thrive at the expense of other cavity nesters like bluebirds and woodpeckers, eat an abundance of grain — as well as harmful insects — and occasionally bring down airplanes.

In Europe, where the birds are native — Mozart had a pet starling that could sing a few bars of his piano concerto in G major — they still have the power to turn heads. Each fall and winter, vast flocks gather in Rome. They spend the day foraging in the surrounding countryside but return each evening to roost. (Rachel Carson, author of “Silent Spring,” called the birds reverse commuters.) They put on breathtaking aerial displays above the city, banking in nervous unison, responding like a school of fish to each tremor inside the group.

The birds are beloved by tourists and reviled by locals — understandably, since the droppings cover cars and streets, causing accidents and general disgust. A flock of starlings is euphoniously called a “murmuration,” but there is nothing poetic about their appetites. Their ability to focus both eyes on a single object — binocular vision — allows them to peck up stationary seeds as well as insects on the move. In the countryside outside Rome, they feast on olives. Like us, the birds are enormously adaptable but what we admire in ourselves we often abhor in our neighbors.

...

http://www.richardbarnes.net/murmurtext.html

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When I was fifteen I was hospitalized for quite a while, first in isolation while they figured out what was wrong, and then in a private recovery room. The days were tolerable, but the evenings depressing. Each sunset an enormous flock of starlings darkened the sky.

Dusk near the winter solstice is the most depressing of times for me.

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The diagnosis was viral encephalitis.

I had a nightmare while in the hospital. I dreamed I had 6 webbed toes on each foot.

I also fell in love with my nurse, something I've never disclosed before.

Elephant Bar Sitcom: Casting Rufus Update

2009-12-29T17:29:00.001-08:00

The Sage of Peak Oil. May the force be with you.

Elephant Bar Sitcom: Casting MLD

2009-12-29T14:53:00.001-08:00

Imagine Jennifer with short hair.

Elephant Bar Sitcom: Casting Trish

2009-12-29T14:22:00.000-08:00

Auditions for the Trish role continue. Competition is fierce. Decision of the judge is final.

Elephant Bar Sitcom: Casting Teresita

2009-12-29T13:49:00.001-08:00

Ms T and her hubby.

Elephant Bar Sitcom: Casting Ash

2009-12-27T17:27:00.000-08:00

Ash

Elephant Bar Sitcom: Casting Doug

2009-12-25T01:26:00.000-08:00

Doug as a boy

Doug as a young man

Finalist for role of Rufus in Elephant Bar Sitcom

2009-12-23T03:51:00.000-08:00

Bobal and MLD at the Hookers' Ball

2009-12-23T03:39:00.001-08:00

Whopper Meister Meets Whopper Maker

2009-12-09T20:24:00.000-08:00

Oh-oh! Say it isn't so!

[Photo via Glenn Beck]

Virginia Tech

2009-12-05T08:57:00.000-08:00

This morning's paper contains an article revealing the latest amendments to the official report on the Virginia Tech campus shootings in 2007.

Exact time frames are hard to establish from the article, but it seems an hour and a twenty minutes elapsed between first notification to families of staff of the two earliest shootings in the dorm and the general campus wide lock down order.

Yup. You read that right.

The lock down order came only after the policy committee had deliberated what to do it would appear. It's also interesting that campus trash collections were suspended 21 minutes before faculty and students were notified of the danger. Meanwhile, a member of the policy group "emailed a colleague in Richmond about 8:45 am that a gunman was on the loose, but warned the colleague to make sure the information didn't get out because it was not yet 'releasable'." Two families of the administration's policy group were notified at 8:05 am. The massacre in the classroom building began at 9:40 am.

Governor Tim Kaine now says administration actions were "inexcusable."

"If university officials thought it was important enough to notify their own families, they should have let everyone know," said Kaine.

One voice of moderate temperament was heard amid the uproar.

On campus Friday, Student Government Association President Brandon Carroll said he does not think the revised report damages the administration.

"Hindsight is 20/20," Carroll said. "It really upsets me that they're trying to bring back something bad that really hurt our community." [Wahhhhh.]

Only after victims' families met with university officials in the fall of 2008 were the volumes of e-mails, reports, and other data released which shed further light on the administration's behavior. Governor Kaine had resisted re-opening the probe.

Nothing to see...just keep moving. Move along, now. Our policy group is on the case.

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It seems the administration policy group is loaded with slow learners.

VIRGINIA POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE AND STATE UNIVERSITY
POLICY AND PROCEDURES

(click to enlarge)

The shooter.

Let's revisit the official security actions in place to protect the campus populace from that fellow. From the current policy statement above: Any such individual who is reported or discovered to possess a firearm or weapon on university property will be asked to remove it immediately. Failure to comply may result in student judicial referral and/or arrest, or an employee disciplinary action and/or arrest.

Simply draconian.

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My son had a close friend who may have been on campus that day. We've lost contact with him. An army vet. He introduced Ben to the joys of traveling lightly in the back country. They have a name for it that escapes me at the moment, something like "ultra-light backpacking." I'm sure Kevin and his army buddies had a different name for it. Kevin made him leave behind his roll of toilet paper. He survived, and became a better man for the experience. He now chews nails and spits rust.

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ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ!

...don't tell me I've nothing to do

2009-12-01T14:01:00.000-08:00

Eric Heatherly - Flowers On The Wall

Rockers' will like this better than Stadler Bros version.

Ya gotta love the bass and drums!

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Yesterday's posts were the spin off of a cross-word puzzle that had been nagging at me for a day or so.

Clue: Carina
Four letters
Answer: KEEL
Reaction: WTF?

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Carina was also a Liberty Ship, if my memory is working. When I went to check the daily rate of ship production, I stubbed my toe on whether one of the years between '42 and '45 was a leap year, hence the trivia regarding the Ko Ran.

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Leap Year is also affected by Al Gore's myth, another argument for the importance of refining AGW models to more accurately predict "climate change":

From wiki:

...However, there is little point in planning a calendar so far ahead because over a timescale of tens of thousands of years the number of days in a year will change for a number of reasons, most notably:

1. Precession of the equinoxes moves the position of the vernal equinox with respect to perihelion and so changes the length of the vernal equinoctial year.
2. Tidal acceleration from the sun and moon slows the rotation of the earth, making the day longer.

In particular, the second component of change depends on such things as post-glacial rebound and sea level rise due to climate change. We can't predict these changes accurately enough to be able to make a calendar that will be accurate to a day in tens of thousands of years.

I suggest the ability to forecast the impact of tidal acceleration on the calculation of leap day will rank among the highest benefits derived from current climate research. Some will disagree.

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For old western fans:

Randolph Scott's Ride Lonesome Capture Location

Looks a lot like the Dragoons in the Cochise Stronghold neck-o'-the-woods, about an hour SE of Tucson and several miles off I-10.

Nice country for old men, a bit more hospitable than West Texas. Popular among Snowbirds, judging by the license plates. You want to watch out for nighttime hikers coming up from Ol' Mexico, though. Border lands are just a bit to the south. A couple of troops of Boy Scouts, a few 4H Clubs, and some adult supervision by the local ranchers could'a had that fuckin' fence built by the 4th of July of 2006, if Bush hadn't got in the way. The A-10's out of Davis-Monthan could keep the no-go zone cleared with a napalm pass every week or so. Border Patrol could handle the rest.

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TE ATREVES?

Translation?
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The simplified equations of motion have been occupying my time recently. I had a devil of a time remembering that

x(t) = 1/2at^2 + v(o)t + x(o).

Trying to figure if the red flashing light went off and an airplane hit the tower in the dark, would the debris land on mom's house? Or not? Requisite assumptions are fairly easy to arrive at. Probability is vanishingly small. I think. We're not on the flight path for approach/departure from Rogers Airport. Helicopters do zoom around occasionally. The tower lights did go out one stormy night a few years ago. The attempt to report the problem to the authorities was interesting. No number was available for local FAA or airport flight control, there's no tower. The Po-leece Dispatcher was confused. The problem didn't seem to fit her job description. I think I finally told her I'd just keep an eye on it and call 911 when an aircraft went down. It was a while back, and my memory is hazy. There's probably about as much chance of that accident as there would be for a Northwest airliner to miss Minneapolis by a couple of hundred miles...

Here's another math problem from my student days:

The outcome:

2:11 PM 12/1/2009

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Gene Therapy

2009-12-01T13:44:00.000-08:00

--------------------------------

Gene Krupa

Havin' a good time!

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Gene Kelly

I'm singing in the rain...

At 3:00--3:40 of this one reminds me of walking with my boy.

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Liberty Ships

2009-11-30T11:10:00.000-08:00

Not long after my folks were married my dad put in an application for a crane operator's job in the Panama Canal Zone. The Kaiser shipyard in Long Beach squashed his application, declaring him critical to the Liberty Ship program.

Dad got mad and enlisted in the SeaBees at age 39, coming out a chief sometime after VJ Day. His battalion followed MacArthur from Australia through New Guinea and the Philippines. I was about two and a half years old when he first met me in Omaha. The story goes that I was then seated on the bar and proceeded to eat all their Maraschino cherries.

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Liberty Ships

A listing of the original and completion names shows 2710 Liberty ships built between September 27, 1941 and September 2, 1945 [Gobal Security says 2751, the difference may be in the technical designation of hull type. ed.]. That averages just under 2-1/2 ships per day over the period for the entire program which included eighteen shipyards on the Atlantic, Gulf, and Pacific coasts.

Henry J. Kaiser ... became a master of mass-production. He had previously completed construction of Hoover, Bonneville and Grand Coulee Dams ahead of schedule, but had never before built a ship.

Schematic

Kaiser's theories on mass-production created some mirth among conventional shipbuilders, but he continually reduced delivery times. His 75th ship, the JOSEPH N. TEAL, was completed in 10 days after the keel laying.

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Dad's absence from Kaiser doesn't seem to have affected them much.

Reflecting on my own career, I've since decided that acorns don't fall far from the tree.

More regarding the Religion of Peace

2009-11-30T09:41:00.000-08:00

Why do the goat fucking, honor killing, sanctified liars pick a fight over every little slight, real or imagined?

More regarding the Religion of Peace:

...That is the straight usage, so do not wrong yourselves therein, and fight those who go astray collectively as they fight against you collectively. But know that Allah is with those who are pious.

Full passage:

...In the Islamic calendar, leap days are not used. The Qur'an says:

The number of months with Allah has been twelve months by Allah's ordinance since the day He created the heavens and the earth. Of these four are known as sacred; That is the straight usage, so do not wrong yourselves therein, and fight those who go astray collectively as they fight against you collectively. But know that Allah is with those who are pious.

Verily the transposing (of a prohibited month) is an addition to Unbelief: The Unbelievers are led to wrong thereby: for they make it lawful one year, and forbidden another year, of months forbidden by Allah and make such forbidden ones lawful. The evil of their course seems pleasing to them. But Allah guideth not those who reject Faith. (Qur'an 9:36-37)

[Wiki]

What does the koran say about Ground Hog Day, I wonder?

This one's for bob...

2009-05-29T17:39:00.000-07:00

Chez al Bob redux

2008-10-11T14:53:00.001-07:00

Scripture Lesson at Elephant Bar

2008-07-25T14:54:00.000-07:00

He ventured forth to bring light to the world
The anointed one's pilgrimage to the Holy Land is a miracle in action - and a blessing to all his faithful followers

-Gerard Baker

"And it came to pass, in the eighth year of the reign of the evil Bush the Younger (The Ignorant), when the whole land from the Arabian desert to the shores of the Great Lakes had been laid barren, that a Child appeared in the wilderness.

The Child was blessed in looks and intellect. Scion of a simple family, offspring of a miraculous union, grandson of a typical white person and an African peasant. And yea, as he grew, the Child walked in the path of righteousness, with only the occasional detour into the odd weed and a little blow.

When he was twelve years old, they found him in the temple in the City of Chicago, arguing the finer points of community organisation with the Prophet Jeremiah and the Elders. And the Elders were astonished at what they heard and said among themselves: “Verily, who is this Child that he opens our hearts and minds to the audacity of hope?”

In the great Battles of Caucus and Primary he smote the conniving Hillary, wife of the deposed King Bill the Priapic and their barbarian hordes of Working Class Whites.

BACKGROUND
Obama fears the Blair effect as tour continues
The Europhiles are not the future, Mr Obama
The Bugle - Barack Obama is coming to Europe!
Our leaders go after some Obama magic
And so it was, in the fullness of time, before the harvest month of the appointed year, the Child ventured forth - for the first time - to bring the light unto all the world.

He travelled fleet of foot and light of camel, with a small retinue that consisted only of his loyal disciples from the tribe of the Media. He ventured first to the land of the Hindu Kush, where the

Taleban had harboured the viper of al-Qaeda in their bosom, raining terror on all the world.

And the Child spake and the tribes of Nato immediately loosed the Caveats that had previously bound them. And in the great battle that ensued the forces of the light were triumphant. For as long as the Child stood with his arms raised aloft, the enemy suffered great blows and the threat of terror was no more.

From there he went forth to Mesopotamia where he was received by the great ruler al-Maliki, and al-Maliki spake unto him and blessed his Sixteen Month Troop Withdrawal Plan even as the imperial warrior Petraeus tried to destroy it.

And lo, in Mesopotamia, a miracle occurred. Even though the Great Surge of Armour that the evil Bush had ordered had been a terrible mistake, a waste of vital military resources and doomed to end in disaster, the Child's very presence suddenly brought forth a great victory for the forces of the light.

And the Persians, who saw all this and were greatly fearful, longed to speak with the Child and saw that the Child was the bringer of peace. At the mention of his name they quickly laid aside their intrigues and beat their uranium swords into civil nuclear energy ploughshares.

From there the Child went up to the city of Jerusalem, and entered through the gate seated on an ass. The crowds of network anchors who had followed him from afar cheered “Hosanna” and waved great palm fronds and strewed them at his feet.

In Jerusalem and in surrounding Palestine, the Child spake to the Hebrews and the Arabs, as the Scripture had foretold. And in an instant, the lion lay down with the lamb, and the Israelites and Ishmaelites ended their long enmity and lived for ever after in peace.

As word spread throughout the land about the Child's wondrous works, peoples from all over flocked to hear him; Hittites and Abbasids; Obamacons and McCainiacs; Cameroonians and Blairites.

And they told of strange and wondrous things that greeted the news of the Child's journey. Around the world, global temperatures began to decline, and the ocean levels fell and the great warming was over.

The Great Prophet Algore of Nobel and Oscar, who many had believed was the anointed one, smiled and told his followers that the Child was the one generations had been waiting for.

And there were other wonderful signs. In the city of the Street at the Wall, spreads on interbank interest rates dropped like manna from Heaven and rates on credit default swaps fell to the ground as dead birds from the almond tree, and the people who had lived in foreclosure were able to borrow again.

Black gold gushed from the ground at prices well below $140 per barrel. In hospitals across the land the sick were cured even though they were uninsured. And all because the Child had pronounced it.

And this is the testimony of one who speaks the truth and bears witness to the truth so that you might believe. And he knows it is the truth for he saw it all on CNN and the BBC and in the pages of The New York Times.

Then the Child ventured forth from Israel and Palestine and stepped onto the shores of the Old Continent. In the land of Queen Angela of Merkel, vast multitudes gathered to hear his voice, and he preached to them at length.

But when he had finished speaking his disciples told him the crowd was hungry, for they had had nothing to eat all the hours they had waited for him.

And so the Child told his disciples to fetch some food but all they had was five loaves and a couple of frankfurters. So he took the bread and the frankfurters and blessed them and told his disciples to feed the multitudes. And when all had eaten their fill, the scraps filled twelve baskets.

Thence he travelled west to Mount Sarkozy. Even the beauteous Princess Carla of the tribe of the Bruni was struck by awe and she was great in love with the Child, but he was tempted not.

On the Seventh Day he walked across the Channel of the Angles to the ancient land of the hooligans. There he was welcomed with open arms by the once great prophet Blair and his successor, Gordon the Leper, and his successor, David the Golden One.

And suddenly, with the men appeared the archangel Gabriel and the whole host of the heavenly choir, ranks of cherubim and seraphim, all praising God and singing: “Yes, We Can.”

Fri Jul 25, 01:11:00 PM EDT

Posted by 2164th at The Elephant Bar, and elsewhere across the web.

A Novel Defense

2008-01-05T15:25:00.000-08:00

On the heels of Hillary's Iowa come-uppance, her former campaign finance colleague went to court in California.

Hsu's lawyers had asked Judge Stephen Hall to dismiss his 1992 no- contest plea, arguing that Hsu's right to a speedy trial was violated because authorities were not actively pursuing him during his years as a fugitive. They could easily have arrested Hsu, his lawyers argued, at one of the fundraisers he hosted in California for prominent local politicians.

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Happier Times

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Almost makes me nostalgic for the 90's. So much entertainment then from the Clinton administration. You couldn't write that stuff, no one would believe it. Hillary better put the wheels back on her bus toot sweet.

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I bet Hsu deliberately took a moderately heavy dose of pills on that train in Colorado just to get himself into custody. I was wondering at the time why the Clintonistas were letting him roam like a free range chicken. I suspect they had consultants looking for him.

Why Fred

2008-01-04T12:27:00.000-08:00

Image graciously supplied by M.Simon.

"Charlie Wilson's War"

2007-12-24T17:03:00.000-08:00

COMING SOON TO A THEATER NEAR YOU

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I have a couple of 8 x 10 color glossies of the real Charlie Wilson. In one he's accepting a certificate of some kind from a friend of mine who at the time was working for the Forest Service in Bishop, CA. The other shows Congressman Charlie on a mule in Afghanistan, supposedly among the mujahadeen. The award in Bishop was something to do with their "Mule Days" celebration, as I recall, and acknowledged his role in providing the Yankee mules used by the mujahadeen in support of their campaign against the Soviet invasion. The other showed Charlie with the resistance fighters, "on location" as it were. I'd like to see this movie just to witness how the Hollywood myth makers have distorted the true history. It's quite a jump from a string-of-mules to stinger missle, but then they're Hollywood. I suppose the mules could have been used to carry stingers. After 9/11 I had the photos tacked up alongside a map of Afghanistan in my living room. I pinned battle areas like Tora Bora and Mazar-e-Sharif.

This line from the following Bill Gertz article is hard for me to interpret: "That anti-American aspect of the film, namely that the Afghan operation ultimately caused the September 11 attacks, reportedly was altered after protests from Mr. Wilson and his former fiancee, Joanne Herring." Does Gertz mean that Charlie protested the implication, or lobbied to include the implication? My gut tells me it's the former. I guess now I'll have to see the movie.

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December 21, 2007
Notes from the Pentagon

Charlie's movie

Conservative officials who served in the Reagan administration are upset by the left-wing slant of the new movie about the covert action program that helped Afghan guerrillas defeat the Soviet army during the 1980s.

"Charlie Wilson's War," out today, is based on a book about former Rep. Charles Wilson, Texas Democrat known widely on Capitol Hill during his tenure as "Good Time Charlie" who helped fund the semi-secret war that ultimately helped fell the Soviet Union.

The Reagan-era officials said the movie promotes the left-wing myth that the CIA-led operation funded Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda and ultimately produced the attacks of September 11, 2001.

Bin Laden, the officials said, never got CIA funding or weapons, and was not directly involved in Islamist extremist activities until years after the Afghan operation ended after the withdrawal of Soviet troops in 1989.

That anti-American aspect of the film, namely that the Afghan operation ultimately caused the September 11 attacks, reportedly was altered after protests from Mr. Wilson and his former fiancee, Joanne Herring.

The movie also erred by showing Mr. Wilson and his CIA collaborator, Gust Avrakotos, as enthusiastic backers of supplying advanced U.S. Stinger anti-aircraft missiles to the Afghan rebels.

Fred Ikle, the undersecretary of defense in the Reagan administration, said the CIA initially fought against sending Stingers, while Mr. Wilson was lukewarm on the matter. Both later supported the plan once rebels began downing Soviet gunships with them.

"Senior people in the Reagan administration, the president, [CIA Director] Bill Casey, [Defense Secretary Caspar] Weinberger and their aides deserve credit for the successful Afghan covert action program, not just Charlie Wilson," Mr. Ikle said in an interview.

The officials blamed the anti-Reagan slant of the film on the movie's screenwriter, Aaron Sorkin, the Hollywood liberal who regularly attacked conservatives on his television drama "The West Wing," also known as "The Left Wing" because of its liberal bias.

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If you see the movie, just remember that Charlie was an enthusiastic backer of supplying mules, not necessarily stinger missles.

I watched part of The West Wing once. That was more than enough.

Chaos revisited

2007-10-14T01:40:00.000-07:00

I was browsing at M. Simon's Power and Control blog when I came across his Practicing Chaos post.

Following his link to Michael Ledeen's article
at NRO I uncovered the following gem. After picking myself up off the floor, it got me to ruminating.

"The difficulty in planning against American doctrine is that Americans neither see fit to follow their doctrine nor even read their manuals." KGB Document

The KGB demonstrated incredible perception. The day-to-day activities recollected from roughly 30 years in the Federal bureaucracy bear out the truth in their statement. Must have been hell for the Soviets, until they realized what they were up against, and by then it was probably too late. One could paraphrase Churchill endlessly on the frustrations one encountered almost daily while coping with the bureaucracy, citing for instance, the unwilling led by the uninformed in pursuit of the worthless.

I have my own scars to bear witness to the feckless leadership of our Federal bureaucracy, and yet their situation was one to evoke sympathy from even the most callous observer when it was realized they were forced into institutional schizophrenia by the conflicting demands of their purse masters in Congress. I offer into evidence only the environmental vs timber production direction given to the US Forest Service from the 70s through the turn of the century. But even that conflicting direction cannot begin to explain why the bureaucratic machine insisted on reinventing the wheel at every shift in program direction or new daily work challenges.

The Forest Service Manual and Handbook contained relevant digests of both the Congressional direction and proven, nuts-and-bolts solutions to just gettin' the job done. These references were hugely ignored, gathering dust on bookshelves in empty offices, while the occupants of those offices attended an endless succession of workshops, training sessions, program indoctrination, and team building seminars. We quipped then about forest sociology having replaced forest science, but as in so many instances, our black humor concealed a sad truth. Toward the end of my career we had some of the prettiest hallways known to civilized man, covered with inspirational posters of eagles soaring into celestial skies so beautiful they brought tears to your eyes.

So, even while the American penchant for chaos may inadvertently have served us well in the Cold War, its application daily to the domestic chores of government would seem to have detracted from our communal well being. But wait. That bureaucratic chaos may have seemed a burden only until one realizes that those same inefficiencies of government may have enabled private enterprise to prosper, relatively unfettered by the full force of a truly efficient regulatory establishment.

That's the memo.

Overheard While Lurking

2007-09-11T14:15:00.000-07:00

Defeating the environmentalist movement is thus as critical to the environment as defeating the socialist movement is critical for the poor. Graeme Bird

Cosmic Rays, Solar Flares, and Clouds

2007-05-26T11:19:00.000-07:00

The following commentary is extracted from yesterday's e-mail to the kids.
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From M. Simon's post, "Clouds in Chambers", quoting a review of Dr. Henrik Svensmark's work (emphasis added):

For more than a decade, Henrik Svensmark of the Danish National Space Center has been pursuing an explanation for why Earth cools and warms. His findings -- published in October in the Proceedings of the Royal Society -- the mathematical, physical sciences and engineering journal of the Royal Society of London -- are now in, and they don't point to us. The sun and the stars could explain most if not all of the warming this century, and he has laboratory results to demonstrate it. Dr. Svensmark's study had its origins in 1996, when he and a colleague presented findings at a scientific conference indicating that changes in the sun's magnetic field -- quite apart from greenhouse gases -- could be related to the recent rise in global temperatures. The chairman of the United Nations Intergovernmental panel on Climate Change, the chief agency investigating global warming, then castigated them in the press, saying, "I find the move from this pair scientifically extremely naive and irresponsible." Others accused them of denouncing the greenhouse theory, something they had not done.

Svensmark and his colleague had arrived at their theory after examining data that showed a surprisingly strong correlation between cosmic rays --highspeed atomic particles originating in exploded stars in the Milky Way -- and low-altitude clouds. Earth's cloud cover increased when the intensity of cosmic rays grew and decreased when the intensity declined.

Low-altitude clouds are significant because they especially shield the Earth from the sun to keep us cool. Low cloud cover can vary by 2% in five years, affecting the Earth's surface by as much as 1.2 watts per square metre during that same period. "That figure can be compared with about 1.4 watts per square metre estimated by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change for the greenhouse effect of all the increase in carbon dioxide in the air since the Industrial Revolution," Dr. Svensmark explained.

----------

To which I add:

Why do you suppose the Al Gores, the IPCC, and the other warming enthusiasts are so rabid in denoucing other scientists who challenge their pet theory that human caused CO2 is to blame for the insignificant amount of warming observed to date, and further challenge that their projections of catastrophic warming in the future are a fallacy? There are a couple of reasons, depending on who's talking.

The community of climate scientists pushing the warming mantra have literally billions of dollars in grant money flowing toward them for furthering their research along their own avenues of inquiry. The more they reinforce the political biases of the policy wonks who control the purse strings, the more they gain. Yes, children. Science is not pure as the driven snow. There is bias, fiddling with the data, withholding of data from those who would critique it, elitist posturing, and even some some nasty name calling. These folks have a lot of their lives invested in proving a certain outcome, and have become "believers" in the religious sense. That's not science as it should be, but it's never been a perfect world. Ask Galileo. The "believers" he encountered also had a religious bias; they gave us the science that said the universe revolved around the earth, but that was the "consensus science" of the day. Remember that the next time the warmers speak of the vast consensus for warming prognostications.

The other community that's just as dangerous, if not more so, is the leftist liberal elites who can't wait to seize control of the economic engines of the world's strongest economies to push through their command and control policies of social, business, industrial and energy regulation. No long term beneficial results have ever resulted from a socialist command and control government. You have only to look at the failed Soviet Union, the rust bucket states of Eastern Europe like Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland, and East Germany before the yoke of Soviet oppression was lifted, the failing French economy, China under Mao, Cuba under Castro, today's Venezuela under Chavez, North Korea under Kim, the entire middle east under the oppressive yoke of 12th Century Islamic psychopaths, Laos under Pol Pot, Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge, and Pemex...the government controlled Mexican oil industry. The United Nations, sponser of the IPCC, is a bloated, self-serving, feckless, impotent, inefficient debating society. Their "scientists" cannot even publish their latest IPCC update until it passes the scrutiny of the political bosses who have commissioned it. The IPCC Summary Report, intended for policy makers (i.e., politicians), was published months in advance of the final scientific report, and then the scientific report was revised to fit the conclusions presented in the Summary Report. Word games by word smiths with Ph.D. after their names.

Al Gore belongs to this second group, the elitists, who are forever telling everyone else how to live their lives, but who exempt themselves from the hardships they promote for the masses. Al Gore needs to get over himself, but sadly, he's probably so invested in his own messiah complex that it won't happen. He can't even accept that he lost the 2000 election to (gasp) George Bush.

Think of global warming as a period of really nice weather before the next big chill. You could witness a drift into the next ice age within your life times.

No pix tonight. Sorry.

Love, Dad

Blue Angel Crash, MCAS Beaufort, SC

2007-04-22T11:58:00.000-07:00

Last Maneuver, 4-21-07. Plane No. 6, just above center of photo, crashed about 2 minutes later.

Smoke rises over treetops, Beaufort, SC, 4-21-07. Plane No. 6 had been banking through turns over the neighborhood, then disappeared below the treeline.

My daughter, granddaughter, and I saw these fellows doing the same routines over her little cottage in Tucson last month. We loved it. The pilots appeared to be doing a bit of hotdogging over the Univ. of Ariz. campus area at that time. I joked that they were probably just tweaking the college liberals.

This is *a very strange incident.* These planes are maintained in absolute top condition, the pilots are the best of the best, and the maneuvers, while noisy to both the willing and the unwilling spectators, are not that dangerous. The ship that crashed was flying solo...not in formation, so a midair collision is not a factor. I suspect somebody on the ground could have played a role.

[Edit: 10-11-08, The "not that dangerous" comment referred to the solo stunting being done across Tucson that day, not the formation flying done as part of their exhibition. Those maneuvers are breathtaking, as anyone knows who's seen them.]

We'll never know.

I don't expect any conclusions to come out of the Navy other than "pilot error."

Link.
via Drudge

An Inconvenient Benchmark

2007-04-21T22:06:00.000-07:00

In An Inconvenient Truth and elsewhere, Al Gore is on record predicting that a sea level rise of 20 feet is a realistic short-term prospect. This mantra drones on despite the fact the IPCC's current estimate, prepared by Global Warming enthusiasts, predicts a worst case end of century sea level rise of about 1/30 of the Gorean doomsday scenario.

John L. Daly has something to show the warmers, particularly Al Gore.

The 1841 sea level benchmark (centre) on the `Isle of the Dead', Tasmania. According to Antarctic explorer, Capt. Sir James Clark Ross, it marked mean sea level in 1841. Photo taken at low tide 20 Jan 2004.
Mark is 50 cm across; tidal range is less than a metre. © John L. Daly. (Emphasis added.)

Look closely for this symbol marking the benchmark inscribed in the rock just slightly left of center of image: ___V___

I can't find the permalink for this photo post at John Daly's website, but as of April 21, 2007 it's the latest update, captioned: Last update - 2155 GMT, 31st Mar 2007.

----------

Actually, the sea level dropped for a while during the mid-1990s.

----------

Notes over coffee

2007-04-21T14:23:00.000-07:00

Nigerian violence and election uncertainties contribute to a current spike in crude oil prices. Let's all try to remember this when we hear the democrats re-echo their anti-big-oil chants and Congressman Waxman initiates another congressional inquisition. c. 4-20-07

----------

Starbucks news. Brace yourself. They plan to expand. I have a thought re Starbucks. Their coffee is considered burnt and bitter by some with good taste, like Melody. McDonalds' coffee has been voted far superior in taste tests. Why? Consider the size of Starbucks empire and the challenge of furnishing all those little green trimmed stores with quality beans. If they can devise a market for bitter coffee, and develop a house blend that permits cheaper beans to be roasted in such a way as to provide their signature taste, they have reduced the challenge of providing the raw material for their shops. In other words, train the American yuppie taste buds, as well as diluting that crappy taste in overpriced boutique latte's, mochas, and cappochini, and you can cash in on selling crap for chic. Until the public wakes up and realizes they've been had. c. 4-21-07

----------

One ancient and revered civilization, let's say it was the Romans for the sake of this monologue, had a technique for avoiding endless debates and technical arguments while assuring quality control. When it came time to remove the braces and scaffolding from a new arch, the chief engineer was required to stand beneath it.

Off hand I can think of a few NASA "accidents" that might have had different consequences if certain program managers had been held to this standard.

But, I digress.

LT

Stopping Power

2007-04-17T21:18:00.000-07:00

Today, April 16th, the day of the Virginia Tech massacre, is my birthday.

Every year for the rest of my life, I am going to be reminded on my birthday that my attempt to alert the American people to the lethal dangers of victim disarmament did not succeed in preventing this act of criminal terrorism.

Thus begins a post I just found at Free Republic in which author J. Neil Schulman generously makes available a free pdf copy of his Stopping Power, a book I encourage you to obtain and read.

ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ!

From an email from a different friend: I'm Tired

2007-03-26T15:32:00.000-07:00

Pasted below just as received is the text of an e-mail from a less liberal friend:

----------------------

Subject: Fw: I'm Tired . . .

INTERESTING POINT OF VIEW FROM A MAN WHO HAS "BEEN THERE". LETTER FROM : LTC JOE RAPYA, USA

"I'm Tired"

Two weeks ago, as I was starting my sixth month of duty in Iraq, I was forced to return to the USA for surgery for an injury I sustained prior to my deployment. With luck, I'll return to Iraq to finish my tour.

I left Baghdad and a war that has every indication that we are winning, to return to a demoralized country much like the one I returned to in 1971 after my tour in Vietnam. Maybe it's because I'll turn 60 years old in just four months, but I'm tired:

I'm tired of spineless politicians, both Democrat and Republican who lack the courage, fortitude, and character to see these difficult tasks through.

I'm tired of the hypocrisy of politicians who want to rewrite history when the going gets tough.

I'm tired of the disingenuous clamor from those that claim they 'Support the Troops' by wanting them to 'Cut and Run' before! victory is achieved.

I'm tired of a mainstream media that can only focus on car bombs and casualty reports because they are too afraid to leave the safety of their hotels to report on the courage and success our brave men and women are having on the battlefield.

I'm tired that so many Americans think you can rebuild a dictatorship into a democracy over night.

I'm tire d that so many ignore the bravery of the Iraqi people to go to the voting booth and freely elect a Constitution and soon a permanent Parliament.

I'm tired of the so called 'Elite Left' that prolongs this war by giving aid and comfort to our enemy, just as they did during the Vietnam War.

I'm tired of antiwar protesters showing up at the funerals of our fallen soldiers. A family who's loved ones gave their life in a just and noble cause, only to be cruelly tormented on the funeral day by cowardly protesters is beyond shameful.

I'm tired that my generation, the Baby Boom -- Vietnam generation, who have such a weak backbone that they can't stomach seeing the difficult tasks through to victory.

I'm tired that some are more concerned about the treatment of captives than they are the slaughter and beheading of our citizens and allies.

I'm tired that when we find mass gra ves it is seldom reported by the press, but mistreat a prisoner and it is front page news.

Mostly, I'm tired that the people of this great nation didn't learn from history that there is no substitute for Victory.

Joe Repya, Lieutenant Colonel, U. S. Army
101st Airborne

Note:

Minnesota's Lt. Col. Joe Repya volunteered to return to active duty for service in Iraq at age 59. His previous service includes command of a rifle platoon in Vietnam and flying helicopters in the first Gulf War.

Joe first came to public attention in March 2003 when, disturbed by the anti-war campaign mounted by Minnesota liberals, he arranged for the production of lawn signs saying "Liberate Iraq -- Support Our Troops." His effort garnered a lot of publicity, and Joe eventually distributed 30,000 signs.

From an e-mail to a friend: The Reality of Evil

2007-03-26T14:56:00.000-07:00

Following is from a recent e-mail to a liberal friend. Seems appropriate to share with my wide ranging and erudite audience.

------------------

Liberals would have us abandon Iraq to these animals. Americans should ask themselves which side of this equation they're on, and if they decide good trumps evil, they ought to back away from the cut-and-run Bush Derangement Syndrome Democrats.

From a post by Teresa Monroe-Hamilton at the Noisy Room:

-------------------

The Reality of Evil and the Men and Women of Munich

Courtesy of Newt Gingrich:

The news report came about mid-week. Maybe you saw it.

The Associated Press reported that terrorists in Iraq have passed an unthinkable threshold: They used two children to disguise a car bomb.

The car was waved through a checkpoint by American soldiers who could not imagine that children would be in a car filled with explosives. When the terrorists got to their target, they got out of the car and ran. They left the children behind in the car, and then blew it up.

There is a word for people who put children in a car to be blown up. The word is evil.

It’s Important That We Say It: Our Enemies Are Evil

---------------

Cordially,

linearthinker

Getting to the Point

2007-03-11T18:27:00.000-07:00

Daniel Pipes speaking to Danish Jews:

"In other words, either Israel ceases to exist, and the Arabs win, or Israel is accepted by the Arabs, and it is no longer at war.

Those are the true possible outcomes.

Compromise and mediation have proven to be a failure.”

From a Baron Bodissey post at Gates of Vienna.

This Post's for Bodhi: SB 861, More Nanny State Travesty

2007-01-20T14:49:00.000-08:00

Following is a MySpace bulletin received from my daughter Melody. Mel's dog Bodhi was the gentlest, friendliest pup I ever encountered. He converted me from being a pit bull hater to a friend of the breed. He was part boxer, part chow, and part pit
bull, if my memory is correct. All are "fighting breeds", but Bodhi put the lie to the myth of the visious *Pit Bull*. Just as with humans, it's the love and affection, or training and abuse that the child or the dog receives that creates either a loyal friend or a monster.

As this campaign suggests, "Ban the deed, not the breed."

Bodhi is most commonly translated into English as enlightenment. In Bodhi's case, Mel once explained it meant "less than fully enlightened."

Mel lost Bodhi when he was hit by a car in Tucson, September 29, 2006. I would never have expected the sorrow we all felt with his passing. It was like losing a member of the family.

************

Date: Jan 18, 2007 8:20 PM
Subject Please Read. This is awful.
Body:

Against it.

If any of you out there are my friends, I ask you out of the kindness of my heart to repost this. If you're not my friend, I ask you search for the source compassion in your soul and repost this anyway. More importantly, if you're in a position to, DO something about it.

This is about California legislation being passed to exterminate pit bulls. If it passes in California, it could be on it's way to anywhere. Someone has to try to make a difference...what if it were your pet?

It would be great if Myspace could be used for something good other than getting dates. Please pass the word along and post this...so as many people can see this as possible.
-----

-----

This has to be stopped. We need to save these dogs.

Please repost this to your bulletins.

*****End of Melody's MySpace bulletin*****
--------------

Bodhi and Melody*

*Until recently Melody ran a snowcat for three winter seasons on the grooming crew at Heavenly Valley, Lake Tahoe, and operated backhoes and water trucks during the off season. She's now in Portland.

--------------

Update 1-21-07, 12:30 AM:

Overcome by events:

It appears the bulletin Melody received and forwarded via MySpace is out of date.

Despite vehement protestation from animal advocates worldwide, SB 861 was signed into law on October 7, 2005. Thus, BSL (Breed Specific Legislation) has invaded California.

An initiative effort in California was mounted but failed in 2006.

A swift response followed. A January 2006 referendum effort failed to acquire enough signatures. Immediately after that two lawsuits were filed to defeat the legislation. Both are now pending. The first was brought in a federal court in San Francisco by The Chako Rescue Association of the Pit Bull Terrier. The second was filed in Sacramento by the American Canine Foundation (who will also intervene in the San Francisco case.) Unfortunately, the two sides appear to be completely at irreconcilable odds and at loggerheads. The former group favors a $1,000 breeder's permit fee. The later entity wants to protect rights of breeders.

But all may not be lost. It appears reason still prevails in more enlightened communities, even in California.

Good news perhaps for all came down on March 3, 2006. The Ohio Supreme court ruled in a Toledo case that local and state breed-specific "vicious" dog laws are unconstitutional.

There have been other successes combating BSL across the country:

Zuniga v. San Mateo Dept. of Health Services (1990) 218 Cal. App. 3d 1521, 267 Cal. Rptr. 2d 755. The court found there was not sufficient evidence to prove Pit Bulls have an inherent nature of being dangerous.

Carter v. Metro North Assocs. (1998) 255 A.D. 2d 251; 680 N.Y.S.2d 299 A New York appellate court determined that the alleged propensities of Pit Bull Terriers to behave more viciously than other breeds had not been authoritatively established.

Huntsville v. Four Pit Bull Puppies (Ala. 08-30-02), No.1010459, unreported. ACF sued the city of Huntsville Alabama in 2002 in a case that was heard by the Alabama Supreme Court. The court determined that American Pit Bull Terriers were not dangerous.

-----
The anti-BSL movement is supported by a broad based collection of rational organizations who realize this legislation is faulty for a number of reasons. It penalizes responsible dog owners, does not ultimately stop the malicious breeding and training of problem dogs, is difficult to implement with any element of fairness due to the difficulty of identifying breeds by enforcement personnel, and fails to recognize that it's not the breed, but the conditioning of the pet, that's the root problem. The irresponsible or malicious owners are the group to target...not the breeds.

The American Kennel Club, the California Veterinary Medical Association, the Sacramento Council of Dog Clubs, The Animal Council, and a host of other animal organizations strongly oppose(d) SB 861.
...
Breed-specific legislation is opposed by the AKC, the American Veterinary Medical Association, the National Animal Control Association, the ASPCA, and a host of national animal welfare organizations that have studied the issue and recognize that targeting breeds simply does not work.

BTW: PETA supported SB 861.

------------------

Molon Labe

US Air Force Blows Recruiting Opportunity, Boosts Playboy Circulation

2007-01-12T18:01:00.000-08:00

AP: "Michelle Manhart, seen here posing for a photo in San Antonio Thursday, is featured in the February issue of Playboy magazine. She has been relieved of her Air Force duties pending an investigation."

*****

Associated Press
Jan. 12, 2007 09:39 AM

SAN ANTONIO - An Air Force staff sergeant who posed nude for Playboy magazine has been relieved of her duties while the military investigates.

In February's issue, hitting newsstands this week, Michelle Manhart is photographed in uniform yelling and holding weapons under the headline "Tough Love." The following pages show her partially clothed, wearing her dog tags while working out, as well as completely nude.

"This staff sergeant's alleged action does not meet the high standards we expect of our airmen, nor does it comply with the Air Force's core values of integrity, service before self, and excellence in all we do," Oscar Balladares, spokesman for Lackland Air Force Base, said in a statement released Thursday.
...
Manhart, who is married with two children, joined the Air Force in 1994, spending time in Kuwait in 2002. She trains airmen at Lackland.

As if trainees need to be protected from the unveiled female...just let her trainees fantasize I guess.

This nonsense is sponsered by the same people who are revising the Air Force uniform.

Which is the bigger crime?

via Drudge

USAF photo via PlancksConstant

Aftermath

2006-11-14T02:17:00.000-08:00

The Worst Case
Republican ineptness, Democratic ideology, George W. Bush’s inability to ignite a fire, and something contemptible in the American character have combined to bring us to this point. We will not see our way past it without blood, flames, and grief. There are people—there is no discreet way to put this—who pulled the lever last Tuesday that began the process of their own deaths.
J.R. Dunn, American Thinker

A Middle Earth Fable

2006-08-21T16:06:00.000-07:00

How To Negotiate With Terrorists

This brief blog entry takes you through a series of negotiations over time between peacemakers and terrorists:

A peacemaker walks up to the left side of a line. A terrorist walks up to the right side of the line.

The peacemaker introduces himself. The terrorist kills him.

A peacemaker walks up to the left side of the line. A terrorist walks up to the right side of the line. The peacemaker asks, "why did you kill my friend?" The terrorist kills him and rapes his wife.

A peacemaker walks up to the left side of the line. A terrorist walks up to the right side of the line. The peacemaker says, "Stop that!" The terrorist kills him, rapes his daughter and kills his wife.

A peacemaker walks up to the left side of the line. A terrorist walks up to the right side of the line. The peacemaker says, "I'll pay you $1000 if you stop attacking us." The terrorist agrees to the deal, takes the $1000, and kills him.

A peacemaker walks up to the left side of the line. A terrorist walks up to the right side of the line. The peacemaker appeals to the United Nations. The United Nations says the peacemaker is at fault. The terrorist kills him.

A peacemaker walks up to the left side of the line. A terrorist walks up to the right side of the line. The peacemaker now has a gun, and threatens to use it. Other peacemakers start chanting the old 60's whine, "Can't we all just get along?" The peacemaker hesitates. The terrorist kills him.

A peacemaker walks up to the left side of the line. A terrorist walks up to the right side of the line. The peacemaker tries to convince his peacemaker friends that the terrorists aren't going to respond to negotiations, but they insist that if he kills the terrorist it'll just make the other terrorists mad. The peacemaker reluctantly agrees to try negotiating again. The terrorist kills him., his entire family, and his neighbor's family.

A heated debate now ensues between the peacemakers who want to be nice to the terrorists and the peacemakers who believe that there can never be peace until the terrorists are all dead. While they are debating, the terrorists kill 15 more peacemakers.

A peacemaker walks up to the left side of the line. A terrorist walks up to the right side of the line. The peacemaker asks himself, "Which is more important: being liked by everyone, or protecting my family?" The terrorist pulls a knife to kill the peacemaker, but the peacemaker pulls a gun and kills the terrorist first. The United Nations condemns the peacemaker's use of unproportional force.

Many of his peacemaker friends turn against him.

A peacemaker walks up to the left side of the line. A terrorist walks up to the right side of the line. The peacemaker apologizes for what his friend did to the other terrorist. The terrorist kills him, his entire family and his neighbors, and threatens to destroy the city as soon as they develop a bigger weapon.

A peacemaker refuses to meet at the line because every time a peacemaker goes to the line the terrorist kills him. A terrorist walks up to the right side of the line and fires rockets into the peacemaker's town. The United Nations condemns the way the peacemaker provoked the terrorist by refusing to come to the line and meet with him.

Generations pass and not much changes until one day when the son of a peacemaker decides that the old strategy simply won't work. He walks up to the left side of the line a little early. As the terrorist approaches the right side of the line the peacemaker shoots him. Another terrorist approaches to replace the first, and the peacemaker shoots him too. This scene plays out several more times. Then a terrorist approaches carrying a white flag, but he also has weapons. The peacemaker shoots him. A terrorist next approaches with a ceasefire resolution from the U.N. The peacemaker shoots him also. A large group of terrorists approach and the peacemaker shoots them all and drops a nuclear bomb on the city they came from. The peacemaker continues killing the terrorists until the terrorists are all dead.

There is finally peace on earth and the United Nations takes the credit.

(No peacemakers or terrorists were harmed during the writing of this blog.)

posted by Hurricane Harry

------------------------------------------------
Found at Atlas Shrugs.

Gleanings 8

2006-08-21T15:22:00.000-07:00

It is hard to account for the behaviour of some Western journalists without a fairly robust theory of demonic possession.

David Warren

Meanwhile, back at the front...

2006-08-20T02:14:00.000-07:00

-------------------------

The official IDF website reports the following:

News

IDF special force operates to thwart weaponry smuggling in Lebanon

Saturday 19/08/2006 11:00

A special IDF force operated overnight inside Lebanon. The goal of the operation was to disrupt and prevent smuggling of weaponry from Iran or Syria to Hezbollah. The goals of the operation were achieved in full.

The IDF stresses that until proper monitoring bodies are established on the Lebanese borders, operations meant to disrupt and prevent weaponry smuggling into Lebanon will continue.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

While at Drudge, a top of page bulletin: "Annan: Israeli Raid Violates Cease-Fire..."

The AP article leads with Annan's statement, and then describes the Israeli claims of arms smuggling to rearm the "militant Shiite fighters" [shouldn't we be calling them Hezbollah?] and Fuad Saniora's counter-claim that the operation was a "flagrant violation" of the U.N. truce. I notice Saniora doesn't dispute the Israeli claims. He just spouts "flagrant violation" rhetoric. Is he getting his cues from Coffee, or is Coffee getting his cues from Sanoria, or, more likely, are both Coffee and Sanoria getting their cues from Nazrallah? Or the French?

Money Lines in AP article:

"But with Europe moving slowly to provide more troops, Israel warned it would continue to act on its own to enforce an arms embargo on the Lebanese guerrilla group until the Lebanese army and an expanded U.N. peacekeeping force are in place." [Notice that the militant Shiite fighters noted above have now morphed into the Lebanese guerrilla group. Can't we all just agree to call them terrorists and/or Hezbollah?]

and

"If the Syrians and Iran continue to arm Hezbollah in violation of the resolution, Israel is entitled to act to defend the principle of the arms embargo," Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev said. "Once the Lebanese army and the international forces are active ... then such Israeli activity will become superfluous."

Way to go, Mark!

So, where does the Coffee Enema get his information [or his instructions]? What did his UNIFIL troops, over 2000 strong, do for the last 6 years while Hezbollah stockpiled over 10,000 rockets, constructed bunkers over 10 stories deep in the ground in southern Lebanon, and refused to disarm under the provisions of UN Resolution 1559. The feckless UNIFIL even allowed Hezbollah field units to co-locate with them in the same bunkers, to their everlasting shame when two of theirs were killed when the IAF targeted the site that was firing missiles into Israel.

And Coffee today tells the world the Israeli raid "violates the ceasefire agreement."

What gall! What a corrupt, lying, Muslim appeasing, spineless, sorry excuse for a human being.

Get us out of the UN.

A poem for our time

2006-08-19T23:29:00.000-07:00

From Russ Vaughn at AmericanThinker:

The Words of Santayana (a poem)

Words of Santayana will be with us sure mañana,

When we face a fascist menace once again.

What we term a win today, we will learn to our dismay,

Is perceived as lack of will by evil men.

A lord of Britain led us, to a place where Nazis bled us,

Believing he’d found peace within his time.

At cost of untold billions and deaths of unknown millions,

We paid high price for this lord’s crumbling crime.

New fascist fires are burning, anti-Semitism churning,

Low priests of paparazzi pile the pyres;

With photos of destruction doctored with their foul corruption,

Our world’s again at mercy of bold liars.

Freedom’s slowly burning as new Fascists now are learning

Santayana knew his history, knew of men.

Events we face today have through history been in play,

Ignoring them we face chaos again.

The crime of man’s existence is his unexplained resistance

To take to heart hard lessons fathers learned;

To play again the fool, turn his back upon the cruel,

Till everything he loves lies dead and burned.

Wake up you fools and hear, Santayana’s voice is near,

For your children’s sake please take his words as truth.

Desire to just appease is a deadly vile disease,

Which will seal a deadly fate for your own youth.

Don’t listen but to me, just look back at history,

Never once has weakness ever been prevailing;

The only way to meet these new fascists is with heat,

The heat of war that dooms their dreams to failing.

Russ Vaughn 8 19 06

*********************************************************************************

Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.
George Santanya, 1905

Car Henge

2006-08-19T22:09:00.000-07:00

My kids and I were returning home by way of a very random traverse in late summer of 1994, when we found this roadside attraction just outside Alliance, Nebraska, up in the sand hills on the way to Rapid City and Mt Rushmore.

My favorite. "...When it comes, the landscape listens, Shadows hold their breath..."

From a poem called "A Certain Slant of Light", or something like that.

The photographer captured the grim desolation of the druidic ruins at a winter's dusk. Or dawn?

You have to have grown up in the great plains to appreciate this shot. Brrrr.

And just think, this magnificent art was created by some Nebraska farmboys with too much beer and nothing else to do. Go Nebraska! Go Big Red!

*****

As we were leaving, I found a roll of baler twine. It’s waxed, triple stranded, stout hard-cotton string, and the best damned household twine you can lay your hands on. Buy it if you can find it at a farm supply outfit in your neighborhood. I’ve still got half that roll. Gotta save the good stuff, ya know.

(Photos via Google Images.)

Red Neck Photoshopping

2006-08-19T15:25:00.000-07:00

A friend recently suggested I get my own blog, probably to save bandwidth at his.

Well, since I have my own blog, I decided to visit it for a change, instead of littering others' sites with my venting.

Last post was some time ago, so I decided to further muddle world affairs with a current contribution of intellectual fraud...but what? A sidebar ad at Belmont Club caught my attention. I decided to try a little image theft and crafty revision...but I'm too poor to own photoshop, so had to resort to innovation.

Here's my contribution to the GOP. Hope this helps, guys, since I'm too tight to send in cash to your fund raisers. Thanks for the nice photos from the ranch, though.

4 Reasons to Vote Republican
(In Spite of Your Disappointments)

Damn. The typed-in legend was supposed to reside in the little rectangle...wasting too much time here.

I need to go outside and get some work done. Hasta la vista!

Friends in High Places, No. 1

2006-06-28T14:14:00.000-07:00

From a recent very personal email I received from Nancy Pelosi...

"Everyone that you can devote to him, every dollar that you can provide, every vote that you can turn, every person that you can get to, it's important to get it done this year for Clay Shaw."

I agree, Nancy.

Clay Shaw is the Republican incumbent in Florida Congressional District 22.

By the way, Nancy was only quoting Karl Rove, but I appreciate the sentiment.

(p.s. How the hell did I get on that Demo mailing list?)

Today's Quiz: Great Moments in Presidential History

2006-06-13T17:31:00.000-07:00

At which event was the following exchange made between the president and a prominent personality?

"Good to see you!"

"Thanks for having me!"

Was it:

A. Fidel Castro greeting Jimmy Carter at Jose' Marti Airport, Havana, and Carter's reply?

B. Clinton greeting Monica Lewinsky at White House photo op, and Monica's reply?

C. Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki welcoming President George W. Bush to Baghdad, June 13, 2006, and President Bush's reply?

*************************

The correct answer may be found at Macsmind.

Refreshing, eh?

Is there a term limit for a recess appointment?

2006-04-16T01:00:00.000-07:00

Does John Bolton serve a limited term in his recess appointment as the US ambassador to the UN?

If so, I have a suggestion for President Bush for a new assignment for Bolton when he's given a reprieve from the UN swamp. Appoint him as a Senior Under Secretary of State with the explicit direction and full authority to clean house. Bolton is doing an admirable job at the UN. I just think there are more important places for his talents. Bush, Rumsfeld, and Rice are going to have their hands full soon with the pending Iranian crisis. The sooner the backstabbing holdovers are weeded out of the State Department the better. It's a job that should have been done in early 2001. Bush brought an openness and conciliatory attitude to his administration that's only been met with defiance and betrayal by the Democrats and Realists who were left in the bureaucracy.

Update: June 20, 2006.
Tuned into the Hugh Hewitt Show, I just heard guest host Jed Babbin suggest President Bush appoint John Bolton to a recently vacated Duputy Secretary of State positon. Motivation for Babbin's suggestion had more to do with raising key foreign policy issues during the summer build up to the November elections by putting Bolton in front of the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee during his confirmation...and watching the Democrats self-destruct, than my proposal. My suggestion was more humanitarian in nature...no rational and honest person should have to endure the mindnumbing, politically correct, duplicitous, self-serving bureaucracy of the UN on an indefinite basis. And, I suspected back in April that Bolton's talents would be well utilized backing up Condi Rice. Babbin closed his comments with the tantalizing thought that should Rice retire as Secretary of State, Bolten would be well positioned to succeed her for the remainder of GW's second term. Now, that would be fun to watch!

Humility prevents me claiming once again that great minds think alike...but...

Where I spend my time...

2006-04-09T16:13:00.000-07:00

Why the sink's full of dishes and the taxes aren't done:

If you want to see “distributed intelligence” at work, Just One Minute is the place.Compare any discussion here with what you see on the media and you’ll realize how much smarter a random group of your fellow citizens is than a media selected group of “experts.” Clarice Feldman 4 9 06

...helps explain why my TV's broken and I cancelled Dish Network...missin' South Park, though. Other favorites are Gates of Vienna, Tim Blair, PoliPundit, and Wuzzadem, and a hundred others.

Gleanings 7

2006-03-30T18:51:00.000-08:00

Q: What does "Cum catapultae proscriptae erunt tum soli proscripti catapultas habebunt." mean?

A: In Latin, it says, "When catapults are outlawed, only outlaws will have catapults."

Molon Labe: A Response to Tyranny

Immigration and Naturalization - - A Four Step Plan

2006-03-30T17:09:00.000-08:00

Update 1. Ideas converge. Important information in Hawkins post.
John Hawkins, RightWingNews.com:

"If we properly staff our border patrols, build a wall, use sensors, remote controlled drones, and radar stations, we can slow the raging flood of illegal aliens coming over our border down to a trickle. It's not "impossible," in fact, it probably wouldn't even be all that difficult, we just haven't made the effort."

Update 2. Grrrrrr! On reflection I decided to paste in a portion of John Hawkins post linked above. This feckless undermining of the laws by back channel Congressional interference has me spittin' mad...my teeth ache and my hair hurts...what more can I say.
Here's Mark Krikorian giving some examples of how our lawmakers often work behind-the-scenes to thwart our immigration laws:

In ninety eight, the border patrol noticed that the work force picking onions in the vidalia onion fields of Georgia appeared increasingly to be illegals, so they did some raids, arrested a few dozen illegal aliens, and all the rest of them ran off. So the farmers were there stuck with onions in the ground and no one to pull them out. It was all their own fault, they knew what they were doing, but nonetheless, they were outraged. They called their Congressmen, and by the end of the week, three of Georgia's Congressmen and both Senators, Republicans and Democrats, wrote a joint letter to the Attorney General demanding that the Immigration Service stop enforcing the law. Because they said the INS does not understand the needs of American farmers. Which in ordinary English means, "let them pick the onions, then arrest them. Preferably before we have to pay them". Well, the INS got slapped down and stopped.

So what they tried as an alternative to raids, was something called Operation Vanguard in Nebraska. It was sort of the first effort at something like this to see if it worked. They didn't do raids anywhere, all they did was subpoena personnel records. And they didn't just pick one or two employers, they did all the meatpacking plants in all of Nebraska, so that no one of them would be inconvenienced while the others benefitted. They took the personnel records back to the office, checked the Social Security numbers, and came back with a list of people who seemed to be illegal, who did not have authorization to work. They said "we know some of these people are legit and the records are wrong. We want to fix those people's records and the ones that are illegal, have to leave of course". They came back with four thousand names. One thousand people showed up and got their records fixed and three thousand were never heard from again. They were illegal aliens. It worked really well and it was intended to be repeated every two to three months so as to wean the whole industry off of the use of illegal aliens.

After one effort like this, the political and business elite in Nebraska went insane. The ranchers and the meat packers teamed up with the governor. The governor's predecessor, now Senator Nelson, was hired as a lobbyist to put an end to this initiative. Senator Chuck Hagel made it essentially his mission in life to see that this was never repeated and it wasn't. And the Senior INS official who thought it up in the first place was invited to retire early -- and he did. If you're a bureaucrat and you have kids in college, you're going to take the hint: Congress doesn't want you to enforce the law. So the Immigration Service essentially gave up enforcing the immigration laws inside the country. They focused on the important, but narrow, issues of criminal aliens and smugglers. I'm all for that, criminal aliens and alien smugglers are the scum of the earth, but there's a lot more to the issue than just that. But, going after those parts of the issue doesn't get you in trouble politically. So that's what they did, they gave up because Congress told them to stop doing their jobs. They really haven't changed that much (since) 9/11.

1. Solving the problems begins with securing the borders. Period.

a. Begin with the high volume and most sensitive penetration corridors, based on Border Patrol experience. Work outward from these hot spots until the entire border is treated.
b. Survey and establish the line (using GPS this should take 2 weeks, start to finish, Gulf of Mexico to Pacific Ocean, get 'er done).
c. Clear brush 200-300 yards inside the line. Width of clearing would depend on space necessary to provide clear fields of fire. If the bureaucrats can't figure out how to do it, let the local 4-H Clubs and Boy Scouts have a crack at it. Defoliate if necessary. Backfiring a control line and laying down napalm would speed up the clearing operation. There are plenty of A-10 Warthogs at Davis-Monthan AFB that could help. Don't get your panties in a twist if the fire slops over the control lines in a few places. It'll all grow back. Aerial tankers on standby could provide some insurance against wildfires escaping the control line perimeter...the main thing is get 'er done.
d. With the line monumented and the secured area cleared inside the line, build the fence. Four strands of barbed wire should do for a start. If the bureaucrats can't figure out how to do it, let the local ranchers build it. Beef it up later as needed, i.e., a ten feet high cyclone fence topped with double razor wires, or whatever the traffic requires...the main thing is get 'er done.
e. Beef up the Border Patrol by providing whatever personnel and equipment the local district supervisor says he needs. Period. That includes motion detectors, search lights, and weapons, etc.
f. Establish easy to understand Rules of Engagement, i.e., 1. Tell trespassers they're under observation and will be shot if they take another step. 2. Shoot if they do. Advise Mexico that they might want to put up some warning signs in Spanish on their side of the fence. So much for diplomacy.
g. Provide military backup for the Border Patrol. Period. No details needed. They know what to do if they're called.
h. National Environmental Protection Act (NEPA) requirements can be met by Executive Order outlining a comprehensive set of Catagorical Exclusions necessary to implement the border security program elements outlined above in a. through g.

2. Deal with the 11 or 12 million illegals within this country by establishing some common sense guidelines premised on the fact that it's ridiculous to propose that the U.S. would or should deport them all. Call it amnesty, or whatever you want to call it. It's better than they had, and if they don't agree, then they are free to return to wherever they came from.

a. Require registration and proof of real or potential employment, or sponser. For individuals who cannot show employment, provide unemployment benefits under a work-fare program where real work is required to offset the cost of the benefits. Where no work-fare is available on a regional basis, require relocation to an area where work-fare labor is needed. This might help deal with problems like the kudzu infestation in Arkansas, and could definitely help with maintenance of the border clearing and wire repairs. For those who object to this provision, offer a free bus ticket south.
b. Provide clear multilingual instructions that those discovered to have avoided the registration process will be treated as criminals, and deported after due process. Due process should be simple to understand for all concerned. Are you here legally? Did you register under the 2006 Immigration Policy? A "no" to both questions gets a free bus ticket south. Etc. Just keep it clear, simple, and legal.
c. Establish a process for assimilation over a five year period, with full citizenship offered at the end for those who've proven they deserve it. The process should require that they acknowledge they are here illegally, and that they voluntarily agree to abide by the law and fulfill the procedural requirements of their situation, which is that they are technically criminals, and hence this process amounts to a form of parole, making them subject to prompt deportation after more due process in the event of parole violations.
d. Provide a fee for the processing which may be paid in installments. The fee should not be punitive, but should be adequate to cover all costs to government for administering the program. For instance, assuming about 10 million persons sign up, a $500/person fee would generate $50 billion in revenue. This is way too much to trust Congress or the Federal bureaucracy to manage, so much of it should be allocated to the states based on each state's prorata share of the new citizens. Details can be worked out.
e. There are always contingent circumstances affecting individuals, i.e. health care, education, employment, and other societal safety net provisions. Once a person is registered and enrolled in the process, these services and benefits should be available to them on an equal basis with anyone else. No more, no less. Some benefits, other than immediate health and well being needs, might be spread over the five year waiting-to-qualify period, or not. Details can be worked out.
f. Monitoring individual progress toward assimilation should be required. Most will not need supervision, afterall, no one is supervising them now. A few may need coaching and some minimal level of training to assimilate. Various advocacy groups can be a big assistance in this arena, i.e., churches, service clubs, et al.

3. Establish clear permanent immigration and green card quotas, and visa policy, on a rational basis for future admissions to the U.S. A variation of the Bracero program, or whatever seems appropriate to the needs of the U.S. labor market could be an element of this. The program might charge a nominal fee to offset cost of its administration.

4. Enforce the laws.

Gleanings 6

2006-03-28T01:23:00.000-08:00

Nancy Pelosi in December of 1998:
“Saddam Hussein has been engaged in the development of weapons of mass destruction technology which is a threat to countries in the region and he has made a mockery of the weapons inspection process."

Nancy Pelosi in January of 2005:
"Citing the continuing search by the Iraq Survey Group, President Bush has refused to concede what has been obvious for months: the primary justification for the invasion of Iraq was not supported by fact. Now that the search is finished, President Bush needs to explain to the American people why he was so wrong, for so long, about the reasons for war.”

Kenneth R. Timmerman, Insight Magazine, April 28, 2004:
"In virtually every case - chemical, biological, nuclear and ballistic missiles - the United States has found the weapons and the programs that the Iraqi dictator successfully concealed for 12 years from U.N. weapons inspectors."

In the case of Scooter Libby: The Potemkin Prosecution

2006-03-27T17:32:00.000-08:00

A careless and partisan prosecutor is called out for being a loose cannon by Clarice Feldman at The American Thinker. Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald is an incompetent partisan hack. By his own track record he's a proven threat to national security, and we've been treated to the spectacle of him ruining the career of an innocent member of the Bush administration. It turns out that Fitzgerald's appointment was open ended, unsupervised, and probably illegal to begin with.

I'm reminded of PJ O'Rourke's advice:

"Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys."

Don't hold your breath for MSM coverage of this.

via Tom Maguire at Justoneminute blog.

Natural Gas

2006-03-27T14:02:00.000-08:00

A deal is in the making between Canada and Russia enabling Canada to import Russian gas, process it in Ontario, and export it to US markets via pipelines.

The United States looks to secure long-term supplies, but it lacks facilities to import the liquid and convert it back into gas.

Ask any environmentalist/liberal/Democrat why the US lacks facilities for conversion...the answers should amuse. Another question, that isn't addressed in the article, is how much of the US demand could be satisfied by known domestic reserves that are not tapped due to restrictions on exploration, drilling and field development, i.e., continental shelf and ANWR?

via polipundit

Gleanings 5

2006-03-26T22:01:00.000-08:00

The wellsprings of terrorism arise from certain tendencies within Islamic society itself; and unless the weeds are pruned the flowers will never grow, until we find ourselves alone at midnight in the Garden of Evil.

Wretchard, the Belmont Club (quote lifted from Dr Sanity, July, 2005)

"A Mind Is A Terrible Thing To ..."

2006-03-26T16:40:00.000-08:00

Tim Blair offers an alert. "Pay attention, civilians. Actor Charlie Sheen has been focusing his mind..."

It's Time to Draw a Line in the Sand

2006-03-26T06:17:00.000-08:00

Mark Steyn offers perspective, and a suggestion for the West, in dealing with the plight of Abdul Rahman, facing beheading for apostasy in Afghanistan:

I can understand why the president and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice would rather deal with this through back channels, private assurances from their Afghan counterparts, etc. But the public rhetoric is critical, too. At some point we have to face down a culture in which not only the mob in the street but the highest judges and academics talk like crazies. Abdul Rahman embodies the question at the heart of this struggle: If Islam is a religion one can only convert to, not from, then in the long run it is a threat to every free person on the planet.

What can we do? Should governments with troops in Afghanistan pass joint emergency legislation conferring their citizenship on this poor man and declaring him, as much as Karzai, under their protection?

In a more culturally confident age, the British in India were faced with the practice of "suttee" - the tradition of burning widows on the funeral pyres of their husbands. Gen. Sir Charles Napier was impeccably multicultural:

"You say that it is your custom to burn widows. Very well. We also have a custom: When men burn a woman alive, we tie a rope around their necks, and we hang them. Build your funeral pyre; beside it, my carpenters will build a gallows. You may follow your custom. And then we will follow ours."

India today is better off without suttee. If we shrink from the logic of that, then in Afghanistan and many places far closer to home the implications are, as the Prince of Wales would say, "ghastly."

Mark Steyn's article should be read in full, especially by our leaders in Washington, and their cohorts in Ottawa, Canberra, and London.

"...let us live to make men free..."

Gleanings 4

2006-03-24T04:54:00.000-08:00

Governmentium

A new element has been discovered! This hurricane mess and gasoline issues are proof that it exists. A major research institution has recently announced the discovery of the Heaviest element yet known to science.

The new element has been named “Governmentium”.

Governmentium (Gv) has one neutron, 25 assistant neutrons, 88 deputy neutrons, and 198 assistant deputy neutrons, giving it an Atomic mass of 312. These 312 particles are held together by forces called morons, which are surrounded by vast quantities of lepton like particles called peons.

Since Governmentium has no electrons, it is inert.

However, it can be detected, because it impedes every reaction with which it comes into contact. A minute amount of Governmentium causes one reaction to take more than four days to complete, when it would normally take less than a second.

Governmentium has a normal half-life of 4 years; it does not decay, but instead, undergoes a reorganization in which a portion of the assistant neutrons and deputy neutrons exchange places. In fact, Governmentium’s mass will actually increase over time, since each re-organization will cause more morons to become neutrons, forming isodopes.

This characteristic of moron promotion leads some scientists to believe that Governmentium is formed whenever morons reach a certain quantity in concentration. This hypothetical quantity is referred to as Critical Morass.

When catalyzed with money, Governmentium becomes Administratium - an element which radiates just as much energy as Governmentium since it has half as many peons but twice as many morons.

(See comments thread at this ClimateAudit post.)

Gleanings 3

2006-03-15T23:54:00.000-08:00

"It is a gloomy moment in the history of our country. Not in the lifetime of most men has there been so much grave and deep apprehension; never has the future seemed so incalculable as at this time. The domestic economic situation is in chaos. Our dollar is weak throughout the world. Prices are so high as to be utterly impossible. The political cauldron seethes and bubbles with uncertainty. Russia hangs, as usual, like a cloud, dark and silent, upon the horizon. It is a solemn moment. Of our troubles no man can see the end.”

Sounds like Howard Dean doesn't it? ...or maybe Nancy Pelosi? ...Chris Matthews? ...PBS?

Nope. It was...Harpers Magazine, October 10, 1847.

...

"The doomsayers work by extrapolation; they take a trend and extend it, forgetting that the doom factor sooner or later generates a coping mechanism. You cannot extrapolate any series in which the human element intrudes; history, that is the human narrative, never follows and will always foil the scientific curve."
...Barbara Tuchman (via Bob Brinker)

From an email to my daughters, March 14, 2006

2006-03-14T22:38:00.000-08:00

Hi Girls,

It's snowed about 3" so far today.

I stayed up all night. Went to bed at 7. Got an uninterrupted 7 hrs sleep. Go figure.

From the late night snack menu last night, I chose a Cajun Spicy Hot Link, grilled to perfection in an authentic black iron skillet using aged bacon fat, served on toasted Pugliese Bread, smothered in melted Tillamook Pepper-Jack with Grey Poupon Mustard, and garnished with sliced Pepperoncini and Kosher dill pickles. Mmm mmm, good!

...I was in college. It was finals week of my last term. I was due to graduate, finally. There was a lot of turmoil, just chaotic activity, happening all around. I was caught up in it. Some of my final exams were "take homes". I had lots of time, so I set them aside. The due date came. I had been working on the take home exams, off and on. But some of the problems were scattered. At the hour that the exam was due to be turned in, I couldn't find some of the work I'd done. One of the problems involved a cylindrical tank of given dimensions. It was an easy problem. I couldn't find it. My exam package looked like the work of a 5th grader.

I was too embarrassed to hand it in. I couldn't say "the dog ate it." I didn't have a dog.

This is a recurring dream, varying only slightly from episode to episode.

Love, Dad

Gleanings 2

2006-03-14T22:17:00.000-08:00

If 4 out of 5 people SUFFER from diarrhea...does that mean that one enjoys it? ....Anon

Gleanings--Quotes Picked Up at Random

2006-03-14T00:43:00.000-08:00

I keep a personal file of quotes I find at various blogs and websites. From time to time, I'll drop one or more in a post when I'm too lazy to attempt intellectual fraud.

Today's inaugral offering:

"War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feelings, which thinks that nothing is worth war, is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing, which is more important than ... safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than him.
-- John Stewart Mill (1806-1873)

Eating Cheese at Bedtime

2006-03-12T21:39:00.000-08:00

4:15 AM 3/12/2006

To Whom It May Concern:

I was on a train.

I'd been busy working at a computer. I'd shifted positions in the car to temporarily use a different computer for something related to what I was doing. The car was occupied, but not crowded. I was riding facing the left-side wall of the car, which was kind of an elongated computer bench with monitors at eye level. There was some conversation around me. I didn't engage in it, although I was part of the topic being discussed. I ignored everything but what I was working on.

The train stopped. Everyone got off. I stayed on board, and continued to work. The computer went into some long process that gave me time to relax. I got up, stretched, and wandered up to the front of the car. Looking outside, I saw people milling around on the platform. I took them to be the passengers who had just gotten off. I may have entered a control room on the train car. I could see out to the front and sides. The car began to move, slowly at first, but gently accelerating.

Cool, I thought. Hope those guys don't mind being left back there on the platform. Then I noticed the car was going through an area of much construction, most of it under the tracks, as the tracks were elevated, similar to the 'el' in Chicago. Most of the crews were taking their lunch break. They didn't seem to take any notice of the train passing by overhead. One guy was eating a cheese sandwich on white bread. The car had accelerated to a speed that was just above my comfort level, considering I could see out to the sides and in front, and what I saw didn't encourage me to have much confidence in what was holding up the train and keeping it on the tracks.

Suddenly the train took a siding by swerving to the left. It seemed that the construction under the tracks was less complete than it had been a few hundred yards back. False work was in place, but not much steel. Not even tracks. "What the hell? No tracks?" And then the car tilted down as it kept its forward momentum. "Oh, shit!" "It's a crash!" And, just as I thought that, it crashed into the concrete pavement of a lower level open platform type area.

It looked like the far end of a terminal facility of some sort, with the city scape of the surrounding neighborhood visible beyond a high chainlink fence. The car stopped abruptly after it had slid only a short distance on the concrete. I climbed off the train, thinking I should find my backpack with my camera in it.

A stocky gent in a blue suit came out of some double doors back up the platform a short ways from where I stood outside the car. He might have come down some stairs that looked like they could have gone up to the track level where the train had been running. There was nothing overhead. He came up to me like he was going to investigate something, but he didn't know where to start. "Is that your truck over there?" he asked, pointing to a contractor's pickup just inside the high fence. Everything was neat, for being along side railroad tracks. I don't remember many neat railroad tracks or neat rail yards. "No," I said, "I was on the train car." "You'd better write out a statement," he said.

I started to say something, like "...got any paper," or something else. I can't remember what. He said over his shoulder as he went back toward the big doors he'd come out of, "Something like 'To Whom It May Concern', something like that." He disappeared leaving me feeling guilty. I climbed back on the train car and found my backpack, and got out the camera. Keeping the pack, I got off.

Something else had happened before the man in the suit told me to make a statement. We'd looked over the concrete where the car had landed. It was deeply gouged, and a couple of ruts were scratched in the concrete, with loose rubble and dust piled aside the ruts. He said something when he saw the scratched concrete. I can't remember what. I decided to look for some paper to make a statement. I rolled over, and my feet hit the floor. It was dark, but the room was warm.

Thoughts on Blogger Advice re Picture Posting

2006-03-12T18:24:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I tackled putting a picture into my profile.

Blogger, on the 'edit profile' page, suggests using the "Hello" utility and provides a direct link to it, with no mention of any alternative procedure. Nor do they advise you the character limit for adding the image URL to your profile is something like 65 characters. My bitch begins here. Skip the rant and scroll down if you just want plain advice in linear form.

After linking to "Hello" and reading their promo bullshit, I wasn't completely sold on the package, but finding no alternative, I downloaded and began. A lurking suspicion that I was going down a path I wanted to avoid started growing when I realized I'd become part of a chat network that's uncomfortably similar to Yahoo Instant Messaging. Nothing against IM for those who enjoy it. I just don't want to expose my computer to the security risks involved. Except for a brief time last year, I outgrew the instant messaging and chatroom fads sometime in the late 50's when we could hear others voices behind Ma Bell's busy tone. Remember dialing your own number to generate a busy signal, and shouting "HELLO...HELLO...WHATS YOUR NAME...WHAT'S YOURS? ...HELLO..." into the receiver until your mom told you to quit playing games on the phone? I don't remember ever getting anything back except another voice echoing my messages, but there was an addictive intrigue to the whole process. We had simpler addictions then. I digress.

After struggling through the promo b.s. and foggy non-instructions, I managed to upload an image to "Hello", and then blundered past the "Bloggerbot" instructions, and managed to put an image into a Random Traverse post, even though I had no intention of doing that. That didn't achieve my objective of adding a picture to my profile, but I discovered on my own that, by hovering my pointer over the posted image, it had its own URL. Wonderful. Now I had something to paste into the cryptic blank on the 'Edit Profile' page at the add your picture step. Pasted and executed. But, not quite Voila!

I got an error message that my URL exceeded the 65 character limit. This was both the first time I'd been advised of the limit, and the first time I realized how ridiculously long the "Hello" uploaded URL was. Since the pic involved was named "linearthinker" and is a bit long for a nic, I thought maybe I could squeeze it in by shortening the image name. After a few minutes of pointless parsing of the URL character string and discovering it was over 90 characters, I uttered a few expletives and returned to Blogger help. Note that I could shorten my image name to one character and it would still fail to load via the "Hello" utility that Blogger was promoting. And keep in mind Blogger is pitching their "Hello" package to the total exclusion of any other workable instructions for posting a picture to a profile. That there may be discussion of this issue in the Blogger help-FAQ-chat pages is irrelevant to me. I'm not going to spend my time researching via chat rooms and FAQs for instructions that should be available for the task at hand by a simple link. Blogger is just flogging a potentially compromising package on an unsuspecting user base.

I returned to Blogger help, a little wiser about the mechanics of uploading images, and finally found instructions that worked using tools available within the Blogger kit in the first place. Grrrrrrr!

Quick summary of procedure outlined in Bogger Help pages:

(1) You first have to create a post containing the image you want to eventually add to your profile.
(2) On the create post page, use the little technicolor landscape picture icon on the create/edit post tool bar for adding an image. It lets you browse your pc for the image file you want. Add this to your post, and publish.
(3) Copy the URL for the image on the post to clipboard (With pointer over image, right click, and select "Copy Shortcut").
(4) Open edit profile, and paste the image URL at the blank for adding image.

Avoid "Hello" and "Picasa". Promo script for "Picasa" tells me with fruity enthusiasm that it's not even slowed down by firewalls. Now, there's a reassuring admission (!).

2006-03-11T19:28:00.000-08:00

I'm back.

The Debate of a Group of Savages

2005-07-01T22:45:00.000-07:00

"In some ways it was like the debate of a group of savages as to how to extract a screw from a piece of wood. Accustomed only to nails, they had made one effort to pull out the screw by main force, and now that it had failed they were devising methods of applying more force still, of obtaining more efficient pincers, of using levers and fulcrum so that more men could bring their strength to bear. They could hardly be blamed for not guessing that by rotating the screw it would come out after the exertion of far less effort; it would be so different that they would laugh at the man who suggested it."

C.S. Forester, The General (Annapolis, MD: The Nautical and Aviation Publishing Company of America Inc., 1982), 195-96.