ANOTHER Quiz and More Interiors

Via blog-buddy Morgan… A short (1:37) YouTube video titled “Kitty Washing Machine.” Morgan provides this warning:

Don’t watch with cat lovers in the room. Don’t watch because…you will find yourself surprisingly unable to stop laughing. She’s your girlfriend, isn’t she? She’s known Mister Fluffy longer than you, right? Okay then DON’T CLICK. There will be other evenings you can spend on the couch later on. Sometimes domestic harmony is a good thing.

He’s right. But I don’t worry about domestic harmony any longer. So I watched. And laughed. Several times.

Whoo-eee, is this a trick question?

Choose one.
A one-night stand with a Republican, but marriage to a Democrat
A one-night stand with a Democrat, but marriage to a Republican

Hmm. I simply cannot make up my mind! But anyway…that question was towards the end of this quiz, which I also got from Morgan.

You are a Social Moderate (50% permissive) and an... Economic Conservative (70% permissive) You are best described as a: Capitalist Link: The Politics Test on OkCupid Free Online Dating Also: The OkCupid Dating Persona Test

We had identical results, by the way. And I agree with the results (where I'm concerned; I can't speak for Morgan), for what that’s worth.

Meaningless Gestures Dept: Via Lileks, Zee Franch zey aour sweeching zee Tour Eiffel oaf…mais pour cinq minutes, seulement.

Even the Eiffel Tower is out to save the planet.

On Thursday evening, as scientists and officials put finishing touches on a long-awaited report about global warming, the Paris landmark will switch off its 20,000 flashing light bulbs that run up and down the tower and illuminate the French capital's skyline.

The Eiffel Tower's lights account for about 9 percent of the monument's total energy consumption of 7,000 megawatt-hours per year.

The five-minute blackout…

Five minutes. Well, that’ll help, won’t it? It’s all about the gesture! Other interesting stuff I learned at the link:

“…a new European energy policy that stresses the need to slash carbon emissions blamed for global warming, U.N. environment program spokesman Nick Nuttall said.”

What a perfect name for a guy filling a perfectly useless position. I’ll bet he’s a Brit. Whattaya think?

Today’s Pics: Just to further impress the women with what a great house I keep, two more interiors from that fabulous apartment in Webster, NY. Someday I may post the counter-point to these pics, which would be interiors of El Casa Móvil De Pennington on a typical day. Quelle horreur!!

January, 1999.

Not Everything Deserves a Title...

Now THIS is really cool: Sunrise Earth. A new layer on Google Earth, and here are the instructions on how to use the feature from within Google Earth. I’ve only watched the sunrise over Stonehenge, but that’s just because my network connection is so danged slow. Broadband. Someday. So I’m told.

Via Lex…some great plane pr0n from the Nellis AFB air show. Absolutely stunning high-res photography; so good, in fact, that I now have new wallpaper. The guy that took these photos is a pro!

Ahhhh! RP is just SO good this morning… Here’s a set that was particularly pleasing (the times are PST):

9:43 am - Pink Floyd - Money
9:40 am - Warren Zevon - Lawyers, Guns And Money
9:34 am - Ry Cooder - The Very Thing That Makes You Rich

Been peeking at my vinyl again, eh, Bill? {sigh} I wish I could take a peek, too…

A week ago today I posted a link to a longish but very thoughtful piece on the British Left by Nick Cohen. Well, The Guardian (UK) got a huge response, and I quote:

Last week, we printed an extract from Nick Cohen's provocative new book, What's Left?, a searing account of how the British liberal-left has lost its way and, in the process, turned a blind eye to Islamic fascism. Cohen's piece sparked a huge response both online and in print.

And they proceed to publish some of that response plus comment in other venues, such as this:

Christopher Hitchens
The Sunday Times

'An exemplary piece of political satire, in which the generally amusing and ironic tone should not lull you into ignoring the deadly seriousness of the argument. It is not necessary to have a personal stake in a discussion like this, but it does help. Cohen started out trying to defend the honour of the left and attempting to appeal to its better traditions. He swiftly found that this made him the target of the most hysterical slander, from people whose hatred of liberal democracy has a long and sordid ancestry. He then lowered his head, clenched his teeth, steered into the storm and embarked on the toughest struggle an old leftist can ever undertake: a confrontation with former comrades who suspect him of "selling out"... Cohen's is an admirable example of self-criticism and self-examination, using intellectual honesty as a means of illuminating a much wider canvas.

Hitch knows all about “confrontation with former comrades who suspect him of "selling out".” His whole life has been like that for the past six years or so. I’m somewhat familiar with this phenomenon, as well, but on a much reduced scale, of course. Changing your political stripes can be both painful and exhilarating. I suspect Mr. Cohen is finding that out, too.

After you read the reactions of Cohen’s critics in The Guardian, you might want to go over and read what Norm Geras has to say on the subject. Excerpt:

A final point. One confirmation of the fact that Nick Cohen's target is a real one wider than the SWP, is the intense hostility there has been, way beyond that organization, towards the pro-war left. Dip into any relevant comments thread on the Guardian's Comment is Free for a dose of such poison; note that there is a mini-industry in the blogosphere obsessed (some of its denizens to the point of appearing half-crazed) with those they contemptuously call 'the decents'; give some time, if you can bear it, to re-reading through the comment and opinion pages of the liberal press for the last four years. That you were of the left and supported regime change in Iraq has just been unthinkable, unassimilable, for many - hence the hostility and the anathemas. It could not be that there was a difficult issue and a difficult choice, with weighty reasons on both sides. If, on the other hand, you consider what volume of critical animus and commentary has been directed from the same quarters at the rank apologists in the anti-war movement, you'll find that it pales by comparison.

What he said.

Today’s Pic: Apropos of something… I noticed this small detail in the picture to the right while browsing my photo directories for today’s suitable upload. That song played on RP at 0934 hrs (PST), “The Very Thing…?” Well it just might have been playing when this pic was snapped. That’s the cover of “Bop ‘Til You Drop” propped up on the top shelf of the stereo cabinet. I’m really missing the vinyl today. Really.

Photo: January, 1999. Webster, NY.

Hitch, Lieberman, and Various Idjits

Found during my miscellaneous internet ramblings yesterday:

The Hitchens CV

The Life
Born in Portsmouth 13 April 1949; read philosophy, politics and economics at Balliol College, Oxford. Twice married, and a father of three. Now lives in Washington DC.

The Work
Journalistic career includes New Statesman and Daily Express in London, American correspondent for the Spectator and Times Literary Supplement and Vanity Fair columnist. Prolific writer for many publications. Books include Why Orwell Matters and The Trial of Henry Kissinger. Lists recreations as reading, travel, smoking, drinking and disputation.

No wonder I like the guy—we have the same hobbies!

Yet another reason:

For aficionados of what used so tritely to be called “the New Journalism”, there are only two kinds of people. There are those who have had the experience of a night at Owl Farm, at Woody Creek on the outskirts of Aspen, Colorado, and shared with “Dr” Thompson the cocktail of Chivas Regal, early-hours, high-velocity target-practice, late-night round-the-world telephone calls and associated diversions, and those who have not. I can proudly claim to have done it twice, but for Steadman such soirees were almost an oasis of tranquillity. For him, the really testing and formative experience was that of going on the road with this maniac, to Las Vegas or perhaps to the Congo in 1974 for the Ali-Foreman fight, and enduring the resulting mood swings and clashes with local authorities while learning over a crackling phone line that the magazine that was supposedly underwriting the venture had just declared bankruptcy.

The above is from “Going, going, Gonzo...” a review of Ralph Steadman’s biography of HST, in the book section of The Sunday Times (UK). The referenced book review is less a review of the book Steadman wrote and more of a commentary on/about Hunter, who was once in the “A” rank of my heroes. That was oh-so-long ago, or as Dylan sang “‘Twas in another lifetime; one of toil and blood…” Still and even, I’m more envious of Hitchens now. He partied with HST and lived to tell about it. Twice, even.

Now, I can take or leave Mr. Steadman. Hitchens claims Steadman’s cartoons illustrations are an integral part of the Hunter Thompson experience; I think not. If my appreciation of Hitchens is raised by the fact he partied with HST, then I should respect and admire Steadman, eh? After all, Steadman went on the road with HST. Often. I’ve been on the road with some wild men (and women) too, and I understand crazed behavior far from home. But none of my partners-in-crime even began to approach Thompson’s bad craziness. Not even close. So, OK, Ralph. You have my respect.

Hmmm. Now there’s an object lesson in rambling…Hitchens to Thompson to Steadman. And I haven’t even been drinking! Sorry about that.

THIS is interesting:

WALLACE: Let's look ahead to 2008. Are there any Democrats who appear to be running at this point that you could support for president?

LIEBERMAN: Are there any Democrats who don't appear to be running at this point? Look, I've had a very political couple of years in Connecticut, and I'm stepping back for a while to concentrate on being the best senator I can be for my state and my country.

I'm also an Independent-Democrat now, and I'm going to do what most Independents and a lot of Democrats and Republicans in America do, which is to take a look at all the candidates and then in the end, regardless of party, decide who I think will be best for the future of our country.

So I'm open to supporting a Democrat, Republican or even an Independent, if there's a strong one. Stay tuned.

WALLACE: But looking at the three frontrunners -- Clinton, Obama, Edwards -- all of them in varying degrees expressing their opposition to the war and wanting to end our involvement there -- could you support any presidential candidate who you didn't feel was committed to victory in Iraq?

LIEBERMAN: Well, you make a decision based on a whole range of issues. But obviously, the positions that some candidates have taken in Iraq troubles me. Obviously, I will be looking at what positions they take in the larger war against Islamist terrorism.

Here's where I am and maybe why it's -- I am genuinely an Independent. I agree more often than not with Democrats on domestic policy. I agree more often than not with Republicans on foreign and defense policy. I'm an Independent.

He doesn’t come right out and say it, as in “I cannot support any of the three candidates you’ve named,” yet there’s no doubt in the minds of any viewer that’s exactly what he means. Earlier in the interview Lieberman described himself as a “Truman, JFK, Scoop Jackson, and Clinton Democrat.” Well, three out of four ain’t bad, I suppose. I really do like Lieberman, and I sincerely wish there were more congresscritters like him.

The conversation took place yesterday, on Fox News Sunday.

Pictures of Saturday’s demonstration in D.C. Here. “Oh, Ladies and Gentlemen! The HUMANITY!” Sheesh. (h/t: Greyhawk at Milblogs)

I neglected to post about this event last week, even though it caught my eye, and even though I watched the organization’s debut press briefing on C-SPAN. What event, you ask? The announcement of the formation of the Climate Action Partnership:

USCAP is a new alliance of major businesses and leading climate and environmental groups that have come together to call on the federal government to enact legislation requiring significant reductions of greenhouse gas emissions.

After a year of dialogue and collaboration, the group produced a set of principles and recommendations to guide the formulation of a regulated economy-wide, market-driven approach to climate protection.

This unique alliance includes a number of major corporations: Alcoa, BP America, Caterpillar Inc., Duke Energy, DuPont, FPL Group, General Electric, Lehman Brothers, PG&E Corporation and PNM Resources — and four non-governmental organizations including: Environmental Defense, Natural Resources Defense Council, Pew Center on Global Climate Change and World Resources Institute.

The group believes that swift legislative action on the USCAP solutions-based proposal, entitled A Call for Action, would encourage innovation, enhance America's energy security, foster economic growth, improve our balance of trade and provide critically needed U.S. leadership on this vital global challenge.

Leave it to the WSJ to uncover the reality behind the propaganda blitz:

Democrats want to flog the global warming theme through 2008 and they'll take what help they can get, even if it means cozying up to executives whose goal is to enrich their firms. Right now, the corporate giants calling for a mandatory carbon cap serve too useful a political purpose for anyone to delve into their baser motives.

The Climate Action Partnership, a group of 10 major companies that made headlines this week with its call for a national limit on carbon dioxide emissions, would surely feign shock at such an accusation. After all, their plea was carefully timed to coincide with President Bush's State of the Union capitulation on global warming, and it had the desired PR effect. The media dutifully declared that "even" business now recognized the climate threat. Sen. Barbara Boxer, who begins marathon hearings on warming next week, lauded the corporate angels for thinking of the "common good."

[…]

Four of the affiliates--Duke, PG&E, FPL and PNM Resources--are utilities that have made big bets on wind, hydroelectric and nuclear power. So a Kyoto program would reward them for simply enacting their business plan, and simultaneously sock it to their competitors. Duke also owns Cinergy, which relies heavily on dirty, CO2-emitting coal plants. But Cinergy will soon have to replace those plants with cleaner equipment. Under a Kyoto, it'll get paid for its trouble.

[…]

Finally, there's General Electric, whose CEO Jeffrey Immelt these days spends as much time in Washington as Connecticut. GE makes all the solar equipment and wind turbines (at $2 million a pop) that utilities would have to buy under a climate regime. GE's revenue from environmental products long ago passed the $10 billion mark, and it doesn't take much "ecomagination" to see why Mr. Immelt is leading the pack of climate profiteers.

You really had to see the press conference to appreciate the irony of it all. I’m no business-basher, and I consider government over-regulation and intervention in the market to be a major problem in American society. On the other hand, a bald and cynical attempt to manipulate the legislative process to your benefit and your competitors’ detriment irritates the Hell out of me. Especially when said cynical manipulation involves embracing disputed science, and most especially when it means pandering to, and collaborating with, the eco-nuts. And those eco-nuts at Environmental Defense, et al, are just as bad, if not worse. They’ve spent the last ten years or more bashing corporate America for its greed, rapine business practices, yadda, yadda, yadda, and now they’re partnering with the same folks they bashed just last month (or so). Ah, but I guess the end justifies the means, eh?

For shame.

Today’s Pic: Already posted in the update to yesterday’s post.

A Chilly Overcast Sort of Sunday...

So. Didja watch any of the anti-war stuff on C-SPAN? The demonstration, that is. I didn’t. I did switch channels and went there, but only briefly. Some idjit in a kaffiya was haranguing the crowd, and I mean haranguing… yelling, waving his hands in the air … and I thought “No. Not today.” The Weather Channel was much more appealing. More useful, too.

Here’s Scott Ott’s take on the event:

D.C Rally Demands Iraq War End, Better Celebrities

(2007-01-27) — Tens of thousands of protesters will rally today on the mall in Washington D.C. to call on President George Bush to bring U.S. troops home from Iraq, and to demand better celebrity spokesmen for their cause.

Celebrities slated to speak at the rally include Jane Fonda, Susan Sarandon, Danny Glover and the Rev. Jesse Jackson. Three of them have made careers out of pretending to be someone they’re not, while Ms. Fonda is best known as the daughter of actor Henry Fonda.

Organizers said the biggest challenge facing the anti-war movement today is how to hold together a loose coalition of groups with divergent agendas using celebrities who peaked in popularity 10 to 30 years ago.

Of course there’s more!

And while we’re on about people who were mildly famous 30 years ago: She’s baaack! And hanging with the same sort of folks she used to, back in the day:

Before the march, Fonda spoke briefly to a few hundred people at the Navy Memorial. The event was sponsored by Code Pink, an antiwar group started by women.

[…]

She was one of the last people to speak at the midday rally. As she waited for her cue, she chatted with Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio). She shook hands with the Raging Grannies, a group of senior citizens who sang onstage, while the Rev. Jesse Jackson, Sean Penn and actor-couple Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins milled about nearby.

Some people never learn…

John Hinderaker at Powerline posts one of his reader’s comments about these demonstrations and their impact on the “Arab street:”

A reader who is training as an intelligence analyst writes:

[A]s a spook-in-training, I am studying Arabic, inter alia, and spend more time than I would like watching Arabic TV, and this protest -- and good ole Jane Fonda, sans the AA artillery prop -- are all over the news. Expectations of American withdrawal from, and thus defeat in Iraq, are running high, and I cannot say I blame the Arabs for thinking retreat is imminent. Many Americans, including Republicans, are talking and acting as if surrender is near, and that an American loss in Iraq is a good and honorable thing. I fear that it will not be long before we do retreat and all the sacrifices will be for naught. Jane Fonda has the dubious distinction, along with the media and many Democrats, of giving aid and comfort to our enemies and bringing about American defeat in two wars.

Not yet, though. Not yet.

John also links to a first-hand account of the demonstration from someone who was there. The account is very well-written and features excellent observations.

This is good news…if it’s true. From The Observer (UK)

Iran's efforts to produce highly enriched uranium, the material used to make nuclear bombs, are in chaos and the country is still years from mastering the required technology.

Iran's uranium enrichment programme has been plagued by constant technical problems, lack of access to outside technology and knowhow, and a failure to master the complex production-engineering processes involved.

[…]

Despite Iran being presented as an urgent threat to nuclear non-proliferation and regional and world peace - in particular by an increasingly bellicose Israel and its closest ally, the US - a number of Western diplomats and technical experts close to the Iranian programme have told The Observer it is archaic, prone to breakdown and lacks the materials for industrial-scale production.

There are “a number of Western diplomats and technical experts close to the Iranian programme?” Really? This statement flies in the face of received wisdom, which is: we don’t know what the Hell is going on there. We’re not even sure where all the facilities are located, let alone know of any “technical experts” close to the program.

Accurate and comprehensive intelligence is critical for the development of good policy. There is a great deal about Iran that we do not know. It would be irresponsible to list the specific intelligence gaps in an unclassified paper, as identifying our specific shortcomings would provide critical insights to the Iranian government. Suffice it to say, however, that the United States lacks critical information needed for analysts to make many of their judgments with confidence about Iran and there are many significant information gaps. A special concern is major gaps in our knowledge of Iranian nuclear, biological, and chemical programs. US policymakers and intelligence officials believe, without exception, that the United States must collect more and better intelligence on a wide range of Iranian issues –its political dynamics, economic health, support for terrorism, the nature of its involvement in Iraq, the status of its nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons efforts, and many more topics of interest. The national security community must dedicate the personnel and resources necessary to better assess Iran's plans, capabilities and intentions, and the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) must identify, establish, and report on intelligence goals and performance metrics to measure progress on critical fronts.

That’s from an unclassified report drafted by the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence last August. And The Observer can identify “technical experts” the House Intelligence Committee can’t? Uh, OK.

And then there’s this:

VIENNA (Reuters) -

Iran has demanded the removal of the U.N. official overseeing nuclear inspections in the country, accusing him of breach of trust, and barred all inspectors from nations behind sanctions, diplomats said on Friday.

Tehran's moves, following a ban on 38 inspectors from four major Western nations announced on Monday, appeared aimed at testing Western resolve over its disputed nuclear activity while stopping short of violating the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

Hmmm. Tehran is “inspector shopping” and delaying IAEA inspections. Perhaps the Iranians don’t want the West to know their program is in disarray and is failing. On the other hand, perhaps they have something much more insidious to hide. I want to believe the Iranian nuclear program is in disarray. But somehow I just can’t.

Today’s Pic: A family picture, of sorts. SN1’s Commissioning Day, whereby his brother swore him in as an officer in the United States Air Force. I don’t have a good picture of SN2 administering the oath to SN1…one had to preserve the dignity of the ceremony. And that means the dais can’t be overrun by proud moms and dads wanting to get a “good shot.” From left to right: SN2, The First Mrs. Pennington, SN1, and grandson Sean. May 6, 2000. Omaha, NE

Update, 01/29/2007: Bec, in the comments, said she wished there was a pic of me at this celebration. Well, since we're all about customer service here at EIP...

Living proof about that guy not in uniform: "you can dress 'em up, but you can't ____." (you fill in the blank).

It's the Weekend! Again!

So. Big protest anti-war demonstration on The Mall in D.C. today. Curiously enough, there’s nothing on the WaPo’s web page this morning about the demonstration, and only a small article in the NYT. Could it be that both of these august institutions want to avoid being associated with the usual suspects?

Confirmed speakers: Susan Sarandon, Tim Robbins, Jane Fonda, Rev. Jesse Jackson, Reps. Kucinich, Waters, and Woolsey, Bob Watada, and more… (from the “United for Peace and Justice” web site)

Kucinich, Waters, and Woolsey…the Three Stooges of the House. And speaking of Kucinich, didn’t I see him “on the aisle” at the SotU? Smiling and shaking Dubya’s hand, vigorously? Why yes, I think I did! (even though I looked for, but can’t find, photographic proof) The rest of the usual suspects need no comment…their résumés speak for themselves. If you really must, C-SPAN will cover the demonstration, beginning at 1100 hrs, EST. I might drop in for a bit…and I might not. Depends on what my moonbat tolerance level is at that time.

Speaking of C-SPAN… The public affairs channel is also broadcasting parts of the “Conservative Summit” being hosted by National Review in Washington this weekend. I watched a panel discussion between Kate O'Beirne, Kathryn Lopez, Michelle Malkin, Mona Charen, and Laura Ingraham last evening. Here’s Paul Mirengoff on a small portion of this panel discussion:

Michelle reported that her trip to Iraq had failed to confirm the pessimism she was starting to feel. She found strong support for the war among the troops she met who, she said, are not ready to come home yet. Everyone agreed that President Bush has done a very poor job of explaining and defending the war. Lopez asked Michelle what the new media can do on this front. Michelle responded, pay more attention to military bloggers.

Emphasis mine, and to that I’ll say: Ah, but we’ve known all of that all along, haven’t we? “We” being those of us who read milblogs.

Very interesting, to say the least… especially the Q&A session following the discussion. There appears to be quite a few dissatisfied conservatives out there, and their dissatisfaction runs the gamut from “too soft on immigration” to a perceived lack of leadership in the congress and all points in between. Ragnar Danneskjold is attending the event and blogging about it at The Jawa Report. And there’s more at The Corner, of course.

Here’s an interesting (and contrarian) point of view about saving for retirement: “Save Less, Retire with Enough.” I’m not sure I buy into the points being made in this article, but one quote struck me as reasonable:

The economists answer that people would get more out of their money by using it when they are younger. “There is risk in saving too much,” Mr. Kotlikoff said. “You could end up squandering your youth rather than your money.”

The whole key is saving enough. Save too little and you wind up saying “Welcome to Wal-Mart!” 45 times an hour to perfect strangers who don’t even see you. Or worse. On the other hand, advice like this is silly:

The starting point for most retirement plans is the so-called replacement rate. It says an American needs an annual income in retirement equal to 75 percent to 86 percent of what he or she earned in the final year of employment. Someone making $100,000 would typically plan for about $85,000 a year in retirement.

Coupling that with a second industry rule of thumb that says retirees should spend no more than about 4 percent of their assets each year to make them last, a typical couple with that level of income should enter retirement with at least $2.1 million in assets, including 401(k)s, I.R.A.’s, stocks and bonds, real estate, cash value life insurance, pensions and Social Security benefits.

Show me an “average” American who goes into retirement with $2.1 million in assets, the key word being “average,” of course. It’s not impossible, especially given the appreciation in real estate values we’ve seen of late, but I submit it’s highly improbable. And as for needing $85K annually in retirement if you made $100K while you were working? I was fortunate enough to be in that income bracket while I was working, yet I’m surviving quite nicely on $24K annually in pensions, plus 401K withdrawals. And a significant portion of that income goes to child-support and alimony. I won’t say how much I withdraw from my 401K annually, but it’s much less than my combined pension income. Then again, I ain’t living in a condo in Miami, either, but I am content.

I’ve had my moments of angst about having “enough,” especially after watching my father get totally wiped out during his three-year, end-of-life, losing war with cancer. That sort of thing makes one think. I’m fond of saying I’d take the 9 mm cure if push came to shove, but that just might be so much hot air. The will to live is strong.

I’m loath to mention this, lest I fall off the wagon. {sigh} But…here goes: I’ve been cigarette-free for three days now, and I haven’t broken into the cigar stash, either. I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve tried to quit; my personal best is abstaining for three months back in the late ‘80s. The acid test, and one that I failed at the end of that three-month run, is spending a night at the bar without smoking. Beer and cigarettes: like love and marriage. One could say that about coffee and cigarettes, too, but so far I’ve beaten that one back. And I don’t even feel like killing anyone. Yet.

Blogroll additions… Dunno why I took so long to add frequent commenter Mike to the blogroll, but I finally got around to it. There are two more additions, as well, and both are from the “Senior Service.” Steeljaw Scribe, a retired naval aviator, writes some great stuff. His regular Friday attraction, “Flightdeck Friday,” features wonderful, extremely well-researched historical articles about naval aviation. The other addition is Chapomatic, who writes some very interesting pieces on things naval and military…most often concerning strategy.

Today’s Pic: This, my friends, is the tiny little two-bedroom house I rented during my stay in Westby, Montana*. By tiny, I mean less than 1,000 square feet, and more like 800. My landlord offered to sell me this house for the princely sum of $5,000.00 US, in 1978. I’ve often regretted not taking him up on his offer. Believe you me, there were LOTS of great good times that went down in that house!! On the other hand, who on God’s Green Earth wants to retire in Westby? The photo was taken during the cross country trip SN2 and family and I took between Washington state and New York in June of 2000. We made a short detour off US 2 up to the Montana - Saskatchewan border. I just had to show him Westby…

* Wikipedia: As of the census of 2000, there were 172 people, 88 households, and 52 families residing in the town. Rumor had it there were 250 people living there in 1977-78, but I never counted. I could have, though.

More of the Usual Stuff...

Let's begin on a light note: purloined from Cassandra’s comments:

An old prospector walks his tired old mule into a western town one day. He'd been out in the desert for about six months without a drop of whiskey. He walked up to the first saloon he came to and tied his old mule to the hitch rail.

As he stood there brushing some of the dust from his face and clothes, a gunslinger walked out of the saloon with a gun in one hand and a bottle of whiskey in the other. The gunslinger looked at the old man and laughed, saying, "Hey old man, have you ever danced?"

The old man looked up at the gunslinger and said, "No, I never did dance. I just never wanted to."

A crowd had gathered by then and the gunslinger said, "Well, you old fool, you're gonna' dance now," and started shooting at the old man's feet.

The old prospector was hopping around and everybody was laughing.

When the gunslinger fired his last bullet, he holstered his gun and turned around to go back into the saloon. The old man reached up on the mule, drew his shotgun, and pulled both hammers back making a double clicking sound. The gunslinger heard the sound and everything got quiet. The crowd watched as the gunslinger slowly turned around looking down both barrels of the shotgun.

The old man asked, "Did you ever kiss a mule's rear end?"

The gunslinger swallowed hard and said, "No. But I've always wanted to."

H/T: Joatmoaf, who posted that… And there are more, most of which are pretty danged good!

Well, it’s about time… The WaPo reports “Troops Authorized to Kill Iranian Operatives in Iraq.” Buried on the third page of a three-page article are these juicy quotes:

"We were making no traction" with "catch and release," a senior counterterrorism official said in a recent interview, explaining that it had failed to halt Iranian activities in Iraq or worry the Tehran leadership. "Our goal is to change the dynamic with the Iranians, to change the way the Iranians perceive us and perceive themselves. They need to understand that they cannot be a party to endangering U.S. soldiers' lives and American interests, as they have before. That is going to end."

A senior intelligence officer was more wary of the ambitions of the strategy.

"This has little to do with Iraq. It's all about pushing Iran's buttons. It is purely political," the official said. The official expressed similar views about other new efforts aimed at Iran, suggesting that the United States is escalating toward an unnecessary conflict to shift attention away from Iraq and to blame Iran for the United States' increasing inability to stanch the violence there.

There’s a thread running through the entire article that killing and/or capturing Iranians operating in Iraq is “provocative” or “dangerous” or “ill-advised.” (Those are my words, by the way.) Really, now. Are we to believe that a “catch and release” policy, which has been ineffective, at best, would somehow deter the Iranians from further direct support of Shiite militias? Or that ignoring the Iranians would make them go away? How frickin’ stupid can we get? (Don’t answer that…)

I was going to quote some Lefty reactions to this development…but I just cannot subject you to meaningless rants and raves from those who suffer from BDS. I will, however, point you to Captain Ed once again. Here’s one paragraph of his take on the new policy:

That realization has given the impetus to the more aggressive strategy. The US intended on sending a message with catch-and-release, but the Iranians took a different lesson from it. They knew we knew they were running their own operations in Iraq, and saw us as unwilling to take the kinds of tough action needed to stop it. At the same time, they also saw the amount of pushback we got when pursuing a tough sanctions regime against Teheran at the UN, which resulted in a watered-down resolution with "smart" sanctions that will cost Iran little in the short run. Our subtlety in handling their agents was seen as a further sign of weakness.

There’s more, of course, including the Good Captain’s evaluation of the risks associated with killing Iranian agents…such as the Iranian mullahs losing their collective sensibilities and igniting a wider regional war. I agree with Mr. Morrissey: that’s not likely to happen.

Oh, wow! In today’s Times On-line (UK): “The Vaulting Ambition of America's Lady Macbeth.”

There are many reasons people think Mrs Clinton will not be elected president. She lacks warmth; she is too polarising a figure; the American people don’t want to relive the psychodrama of the eight years of the Clinton presidency.

But they all miss this essential counterpoint. As you consider her career this past 15 years or so in the public spotlight, it is impossible not to be struck, and even impressed, by the sheer ruthless, unapologetic, unshameable way in which she has pursued this ambition, and confirmed that there is literally nothing she will not do, say, think or feel to achieve it. Here, finally, is someone who has taken the black arts of the politician’s trade, the dissembling, the trimming, the pandering, all the way to their logical conclusion.

Fifteen years ago there was once a principled, if somewhat rebarbative and unelectable politician called Hillary Rodham Clinton. A woman who aggressively preached abortion on demand and the right of children to sue their own parents, a committed believer in the power of government who tried to create a healthcare system of such bureaucratic complexity it would have made the Soviets blush; a militant feminist who scorned mothers who take time out from work to rear their children as “women who stay home and bake cookies”.

Today we have a different Hillary Rodham Clinton, all soft focus and expensively coiffed, exuding moderation and tolerance.

[…]

Now, you might say, hold on. Aren’t all politicians veined with an opportunistic streak? Why is she any different? The difference is that Mrs Clinton has raised that opportunism to an animating philosophy, a P. T. Barnum approach to the political marketplace.

And to think there are those who have likened Her Hillaryness to Lady Thatcher. It is to laugh, eh? But, back to the article at hand: You can’t beat the Brits when it comes to the art of the articulate and merciless editorial takedown. There are none better. We Americans tend to be way too nice in print. The blogs, however are a different story, as you well know.

This article in Der Spiegal has been getting a lot of attention in the ‘sphere, as it well should: “Hurray! We're Capitulating!” The author, Henryk M. Broder, provides an interesting and illuminating discussion on the “Mohammed Cartoons” flap, including, but not limited to, the significance of the Muslim protests that swept the globe after the cartoons were published. A key quote:

Objectively speaking, the cartoon controversy was a tempest in a teacup. But subjectively it was a show of strength and, in the context of the "clash of civilizations," a dress rehearsal for the real thing. The Muslims demonstrated how quickly and effectively they can mobilize the masses, and the free West showed that it has nothing to counter the offensive -- nothing but fear, cowardice and an overriding concern about the balance of trade. Now the Islamists know that they are dealing with a paper tiger whose roar is nothing but a tape recording.

Once again, as always: read the whole thing. There is much truth within.

Today’s Pic: Have you seen that paper towel ad on TV? The one where the kid is opening a bottle of orange pop in the kitchen and sprays the Mom? And she replies “Tommy!! What are you thinking!?!” The kid looks down, assuming an “uh-oh” pose, knowing he’s gonna get it. Then there’s a quick cut to the Mom, who reaches behind her and pulls the spray attachment from the sink, squirts the kid and says “THIS works much better!” A squirt war ensues…

I can just see The Second Mrs. Pennington pulling a stunt like that. Here she is in our backyard by the kiddie pool, teaching SN3 how to spit water on someone. Notice SN3’s rapt expression. You gotta love a Mom like that… Perinton, NY. May, 1998.

OK. This will be the last of the baby pictures… I love ‘em, but then: I would. Your mileage most certainly varies.

Just...uh...Stuff

Last night’s NHL All-Star game ended the way I wanted it to: with the West on top, and by a considerable margin, at that. The final score was West 12, East 9. It was the first All-Star game since 2004, what with the lock-out in 2005 and the NHL taking a hiatus during last year’s Olympics. It’s good to have the game back, as the All-Star game showcases the best players making the best moves in the game, be they passing, shooting, or goal tending. That, and the fact it’s obvious the guys are really, truly having a great time.

Highlight of the evening: Marty Turco, the West’s goalie in the third period, was “mic’d up” and provided some hilarious in-game patter, even as he was making (and not making) saves. It was a classic “you had to be there” sort of moment, but Turco is a very poised and funny guy. I’d be scared sh!tless speechless if a bunch of guys were firing frozen hard rubber biscuits at 100 mph right at me. That could damned well hurt, pads or no!

Lowlight of the evening: Nothing to do with the game, but you couldn’t avoid the ads: The return of Smilin’ Bob, again, and again, and again. I thought those ads had gone away for good, but it’s obvious they haven’t. It’s probably only a matter of time before Smilin’ Bob is literally put away, what with a 112-count indictment (for fraud, false advertising, and a number of other criminal activities, including credit card fraud) brought by the US DOJ on September 20 of last year. Go get ‘em Alberto!!

For that other hockey fan that reads EIP, here’s a very interesting bit of speculation: Forsberg to Detroit? Assuming Forsberg is healthy (and that’s a BIG assumption): Hello, Stanley!! But then again, he could go to the Rangers…if he goes anywhere at all.

One of the most irritating things (if not THE most irritating thing) about the Firefox browser is that message you get when attempting to view an on-line vid using a format other than Windows Media, to wit: “Plug-in required. Click here to download plug-in.” You click, of course. Then you see “No plug-in found. Click here to manually install plug-in.” But…you don’t have a frickin’ CLUE as to WHICH plug-in you need. I’ve installed Flash, I’ve installed QuickTime, I’ve installed RealPlayer, and a couple of other players as well, yet I STILL get that frickin’ message from time to time. Computers are much more difficult than need be. Still. Perhaps always. (Ed: buy a Mac. But I don’t WANT a Mac.)

What prompted the rant above? The DoD DVIDS site, which has some pretty good videos. If you can get them to play. The (very brief: 1:03 min) “F-22 to Japan” vid features some airborne footage of the F-22, including a too-brief sequence of an F-22 approaching a KC-10 for refueling.

A couple of good op-eds from the WSJ… The first, via Real Clear Politics, is Daniel Henninger holding forth on the Doom ‘n’ Gloom crowd:

The United States is talking itself into defeat in Iraq. Its political culture is now in a downward spiral of pessimism. In the halls of Congress, across endless newspaper columns, amid the punditocracy and on Sunday morning talk shows--all emit a Stygian gloom about America.

Yes, on any given day on some discrete issue (Prime Minister Maliki's bona fides, for example), the criticism of the American role is not without justification. But the cumulative effect of this unremitting ill wind is corrosive. We are not only on the way to talking ourselves into defeat in Iraq but into a diminished international status that may be harder to recover than the doom mob imagines. Self-criticism has its role, but profligate self-doubt can exact a price.

[…]

Our slide to a national nervous breakdown because of Iraq is not going unnoticed. Australia's foreign minister, Alexander Downer, has been visiting across the U.S. this week. "I've been pretty worried about what I've heard," Mr. Downer said in an interview. Walking on Santa Monica beach Sunday before last, Mr. Downer said he encountered a display of crosses in the sand, representing the American dead in Iraq.

"What concerns me about this," he said, "is that it's sort of an isolationist sentiment, subconsciously, not consciously, and that would be an enormous problem for the world. I hope the American people understand the importance of not retreating and thinking the world's problems aren't theirs."

And the second concerns itself with the Constitutional prerogatives of the Commander-in-Chief and the Senate’s attempt to usurp same:

To understand why the Founders put war powers in the hands of the Presidency, look no further than the current spectacle in Congress on Iraq. What we are witnessing is a Federalist Papers illustration of criticism and micromanagement without responsibility.

Consider the resolution pushed through the Senate Foreign Relations Committee yesterday by Joe Biden and Chuck Hagel, two men who would love to be President if only they could persuade enough voters to elect them. Both men voted for the Iraq War. But with that war proving to be more difficult than they thought, they now want to put themselves on record as opposing any further attempts to win it.

Their resolution--which passed 12-9--calls for Iraqis to "reach a political settlement" leading to "reconciliation," as if anyone disagrees with that necessity. But then it declares that the way to accomplish this is to wash American hands of the Iraq effort, proposing that U.S. forces retreat to protect the borders and hunt terrorists. The logic here seems to be that if the Americans leave, Iraqis will miraculously conclude that they have must settle their differences. A kind of reverse field of dreams: If we don't come, they will build it.

[…]

In Iraq, all of this undermines the morale of the military and makes their task that much harder on the ground. When John McCain asked Lieutenant General David Petraeus that precise question during his confirmation hearing Tuesday, the next commander of Coalition operations in Iraq said, "It would not be a beneficial effect, sir."

And when Joe Lieberman asked if such a resolution would give the enemy cause to believe that Americans were divided, he added, "That's correct, sir." Several Senators protested and demanded that the general stay out of domestic politics, but his only offense was telling the truth. Of course the enemy would take comfort from any Senate declaration that Mr. Bush lacks domestic support.

Yep. I’m simply amazed…amazed, I say…that our illustrious congresscritters don’t get it. What ever happened to leadership? In the sense that leaders explain, in the clearest of terms, what must be done and why we must do it. Explain. Motivate. Execute. It’s a simple concept, really. It appears, however, that the Congress isn’t acting with the best interests of the nation at heart…they only stick their fingers in the air to see which way the wind is blowing and then follow the crowd. Disgusting.

Today’s Pics: Anyone who has raised kids understands these shots. Kids will push every button you have, climb anything, go anywhere…anytime. With no concern for their own safety, of course. SN3 discovered the pass-thru between the family room and the kitchen almost immediately after he went mobile. And we were concerned, of course. We solved this lil problem by putting a baby gate in the pass thru, which prompted a major tizzy and howls of indignation from SN3…but kept him from falling into the sink, or worse, turning on the garbage disposal and then falling into the sink.
July, 1998.

Update 01/25/2007 1530 hrs. Becky, in the comments, says "LOL!!! Love the pictures of SN3! Boy can I relate to those days! Somewhere I have pictures of Cody sitting in the sink "driving" the faucet."

Like this?

SotU and Other Stuff

On the SotU… I give it a B+. Not quite A-level material, but damned good, none the less. Much, much better than his “new Iraq strategy” speech given in the White House in the recent past. It’s oh-so-obvious that an audience makes for better delivery, especially where Dubya is concerned.

I’m not the only one to note that Madame Speaker makes for a much more pleasing backdrop to the President during the SotU, as opposed to Cheney/Hastert, who most often appeared to be contemplating evil of some sort. Or maybe they were just bored. I found myself watching Madame Speaker at least as often as I was focused on Dubya, primarily for visual cues about her reactions to the President’s message. I will admit: she’s a damned good actress. And she applauded at the appropriate times for the most part. Would that her cooperation, support, and bipartisanship extended beyond making appropriate social gestures during a speech. But that would be asking a bit much, nu?

Captain Ed live-blogged the speech and it makes for interesting after-the-fact reading.

Speaking of Captain Ed… He wrote a good op-ed on Bill Richardson’s presidential candidacy in yesterday’s Examiner. The Good Captain’s salient point: Richardson’s résumé is so far above and beyond the rest of the Democrat field as to make Barack and Hillary (just to name two) green with envy. Neither of the aforementioned two candidates have any executive experience and precious little contact with foreign affairs policy beyond a junket or three and the op-ed pages of the New York Times. But, Hey! Richardson lacks that je ne sais quois we call “charisma.” God Forbid the Democrats would go with expertise and experience… which, as Captain Ed notes, is a good thing for the GOP.

Lou has posted some first-hand Good News from her cousin, Captain Jim Lively, a Marine serving in Iraq. Capt. Lively and his men are training an Iraqi Army battalion in Ramadi. And Capt. Lively has good news to report…

Today’s Pic: Yesterday I posted a rather bleak and very snowy pic of the Ol’ Perinton Homestead. Well, my stay there wasn’t all frigid and bundled up, there were balmy moments. Western New York is very beautiful in the Spring and Summer. Here, from Former Happy Days, is visible proof - The Second Mrs. Pennington and SN3 watering the flowers on our deck. July, 1998.

Stuck! In My Own Frickin' DRIVEWAY...

Florida’s looking pretty damned good right about now.

I should have known better, but…I just had to try it. After over an hour of rocking, digging, cursing, swearing, and various and sundry other things, two neighbors and I managed to get the Green Hornet out of the road. And there she sits.

My tires are most, if not all, of the problem. Goodyear Eagle F1s are great in the dry and better than most "performance" tires in the rain, but they absolutely suck in snow. As a matter of fact, Goodyear specifically tells you not to attempt to drive in snow on the things. So much for paying attention to the book, eh?

Looks like I’m stuck on the premises until we get some serious melting. I’m so glad I stocked up last Friday. But I am going to quit smoking… involuntarily, of course. No comments on the smoking bit, please. I know it’s bad, I know it’s a character flaw, I know it’s killing me. You can’t tell me anything I don’t know about smoking. Except to suggest a foolproof (read that as: successful) method of quitting, perhaps.

Minutes from this Morning's Staff Meeting

Decisions, decisions… Which do I watch tonight? State of the Union? Or the NHL Young-Stars Game? This is a rhetorical question, ya know. C-SPAN will re-run the SotU over and over and over; the Young-Stars game is a one-time good deal. No-brainer.

Speaking of the SotU… Jules Crittenden has written the speech Dubya should give tonight. Excerpt:

Don’t bother standing up or clapping, any of you. I already know who won the election, and I know how you feel.

I come before you tonight not to make amends, not to make it good, curry any favor or find any middle ground.

I am, more or less, a lame duck. You’ve had your 100 hours of party time. I know. I won’t get any legislation passed without some major bottom-kissing. Maybe something on illegal aliens. That health insurance thing I’ll be talking about later tonight is pretty much for show. I know it isn’t going anywhere. A proposal to raise middle-class taxes for a healthcare plan you don’t even want? What was I thinking?

None of that really matters. Not now. Those are peacetime issues we’ve been bickering about for a long time, and I don’t expect we’ll resolve them anytime soon.

So what is the best thing I can do tonight? I can tell you the truth. What none of you want to hear. What you’ve been stopping your ears to. The ugly truth.

The State of the Union is a disaster. I did my best, but I made mistakes, and my best wasn’t good enough.

Looks bad, eh? But, as it’s so often said, you need to read the whole thing.

Bravo, Jules!

We Know Where You Live Dept… Good Buddy Dan e-mails me last evening with the exact geo coordinates of El Casa Móvil De Pennington and asks “Is this where you are? I was just fooling around with Google Earth and took visual cues and narrative clues from your posts…” Uh, yeah. Exactly. I suppose I’ll need to be more careful about who I insult, and how badly I offend them, from now on, eh?

On the Other Hand: Nah. I’m armed.

On the Other, Other Hand: Dan, I believe you might have a future with NSA and/or CIA as an analyst…

Error Correction Dept…Watching Evening Edition last evening on The WX Channel and they’re doing a spot on snow in Las Cruses, NM. Would that be near Las Cruces, I wonder? (Full disclosure: they get the spelling right today.)

Who’d a Thunk It? Dept… A short little article in today’s WaPo about some surprising revelations in SecDef Robert Gates 1996 memoirs. I quote:

Of all the presidents he worked for, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates is particularly supportive of one -- but it isn't, as might be expected, Ronald Reagan, the first President Bush or even Gerald R. Ford.

Rather, in his memoirs, the new Pentagon chief leaps repeatedly to the defense of Jimmy Carter, the sole Democrat for whom he worked, who was often seen as weak on the Soviet Union and taken by surprise when it invaded Afghanistan in December 1979.

Unconventional wisdom, indeed. Mr. Gates makes some good points, but… those good points aside, I still believe Jimmuh is going senile. His recent (and ongoing) comments and criticism of the current administration border on the criminal. Just sayin’.

Today’s Pic: Apropos of nothing, aside from the WX Channel saying Ra-cha-cha is gonna get five or six inches of snow today, here’s a (grainy, first-generation digital) pic of The Ol’ Homestead in Perinton (a suburb of Rochester), NY. There’s about six or eight inches of that white stuff on the ground. January, 1999.

Some Political Stuff...and a (Very) Brief Comment on the Culture

So. I got a bit caught up in the comments section over at Lex’s place this morning. Lex published a link to this informative and quite lengthy two-parter in this weekend’s Guardian (UK), and in so doing stole a bit of my thunder the linkage I had planned for today. The Guardian article is a very interesting two-part excerpt from a recent book published by Nick Cohen, one of Britain’s foremost Lefty columnists, who’s undergone a conversion of sorts…specifically about the Iraq war. Mr. Cohen found himself aghast at the Left’s opposition to the Iraq war, and by definition, the Left’s de facto support of Saddam’s fascist regime. It’s a fascinating read, if you have about a half-hour to spare.

Now…about getting caught up in Lex’s comments. A couple of Lex’s commenters took exception to Mr. Cohen’s assertion that fascism is a “far-right” ideology, and presented some interesting arguments in support of their assertions. I was always taught fascism is/was a right-wing ideology, further supported by the literally hundreds of times I’ve been called a “fascist” by various and sundry Lefties when all other arguments fail. So, it was off to Wikipedia to read some stuff cited by the proponents of the “fascism is a left-wing ideology” school of thought, and to do a bit of research on the “right-wing” arguments. Interesting stuff, if you’re a political geek/junkie.

You had to be there, I suppose.

Algore stiffs a long-planned interview. I find this interesting as all get out, especially considering all the brouhaha surrounding his apocalyptic claims in An Inconvenient Truth. Why will he not debate the issues? I quote:

Al Gore is traveling around the world telling us how we must fundamentally change our civilization due to the threat of global warming. Last week he was in Denmark to disseminate this message. But if we are to embark on the costliest political project ever, maybe we should make sure it rests on solid ground. It should be based on the best facts, not just the convenient ones. This was the background for the biggest Danish newspaper, Jyllands-Posten, to set up an investigative interview with Mr. Gore. And for this, the paper thought it would be obvious to team up with Bjorn Lomborg, author of "The Skeptical Environmentalist," who has provided one of the clearest counterpoints to Mr. Gore's tune.

The interview had been scheduled for months. The day before the interview Mr. Gore's agent thought Gore-meets-Lomborg would be great. Yet an hour later, he came back to tell us that Bjorn Lomborg should be excluded from the interview because he's been very critical of Mr. Gore's message about global warming and has questioned Mr. Gore's evenhandedness. According to the agent, Mr. Gore only wanted to have questions about his book and documentary, and only asked by a reporter. These conditions were immediately accepted by Jyllands-Posten. Yet an hour later we received an email from the agent saying that the interview was now cancelled. What happened?

[…]

Al Gore is on a mission. If he has his way, we could end up choosing a future, based on dubious claims, that could cost us, according to a U.N. estimate, $553 trillion over this century. Getting answers to hard questions is not an unreasonable expectation before we take his project seriously. It is crucial that we make the right decisions posed by the challenge of global warming. These are best achieved through open debate, and we invite him to take the time to answer our questions: We are ready to interview you any time, Mr. Gore--and anywhere.

Read the whole thing. The op-ed is jointly written by Flemming Rose, the culture editor of the Jyllands-Posten, and by Professor Lomborg himself. I think Algore (and his arguments) is unraveling. Just sayin’.

Wow! “It don’t get no better than this!” Hitch reviews Steyn! That three-word description should be “nuff said.” My favorite ex-Marxist reviews another of my favorite pundits. And Hitch has his criticisms of Steyn’s work; his piece isn’t as laudatory as one might imagine. An exceptionally good read. And Ace has more on the subject.

Finally… I watched both NFL playoff games yesterday, and they were both pretty good. The Bears – Saints game was in question until the second half; the Colts – Pats game was a nail biter until the very end. The Super Bowl just might be a game this year, rather than an orgiastic display of the worst of American culture. (He ducks. He runs.)

!!!

Placeholder. I’ll be back in a few. Until then, Today’s Pic is another view of Saturday morning’s winter wonderland. And it still looks like this, given we haven’t risen above 32 degrees since sometime last Friday. Relief is on the way, or so sez the Weather Channel. I hope so. I’m feeling the first twinges of cabin fever.

A Lightweight Post for a Sunday

Via Kris, another one of those quiz thingies. This time, it’s “What Book Are You?”

You're Siddhartha!
by Hermann Hesse

You simply don't know what to believe, but you're willing to try anything once. Western values, Eastern values, hedonism and minimalism, you've spent some time in every camp. But you still don't have any idea what camp you belong in. This makes you an individualist of the highest order, but also really lonely. It's time to chill out under a tree. And realize that at least you believe in ferries.

Take the Book Quiz at the Blue Pyramid.

This one is closer than most, aside from the fact the test results say I’m really lonely. Au contraire. I’m alone, true, but I am not lonely. Big difference. Boy-Howdy is it ever true when they say “you've spent some time in every camp. But you still don't have any idea what camp you belong in.” That statement really nails it! And I do believe in ferries, having been on quite a few. The book selection is interesting in one other aspect: check out this photo of my USAF-issued dog tag (click for larger). I’m Buddhist, by an official act of the US Gub’mint. The story behind that lil bit of trivia goes like this…

Once upon a time while I was still on active duty it came to pass, via directive, that all personnel had to have Official ID tags in their possession, at all times. Those of us who had lost their ID tags were ordered to report to the CBPO and get re-issued. So, I took my ol’ self down to the personnel shop, found the ID-tag foundry and presented my ID card to the airman in charge. He looked at it in a bored manner and asked “What’s your religion?” “No preference,” sez I. “No go,” sez he, “You have to choose a religion…pick one from this list…” and he shoves a list of about 25 religious denominations across the desk to me. I scan it quickly, and he’s right: there are no “No preference” or “Agnostic” categories. So I said “I’m Buddhist.” The airman didn't bat an eye and proceeded to pound out my dog tags. Ten minutes later I walked out of the personnel shop with my newly-minted dog tags and a brand-new religion. The Second Mrs. Pennington was most impressed when I got home, she being a closet Buddhist and all.

Siddhartha, indeed.

Today is brilliantly clear and cold. It almost, but not quite, hurts to gaze upon the fields of snow outside the window. The park’s roads are still white, what with the cold and lack of traffic. We haven’t progressed to that slushy-gray muck yet. But it will come. In the meantime, I’m enjoying the view.

Here are a few quick P-Town snow facts, courtesy of the Portales News-Tribune. They say:

A winter storm that lingered over the middle of New Mexico dumped more than 10 inches of snow across parts of Clovis and eastern New Mexico Saturday.

[…]

Snow facts
—Portales averages 9.2 inches of snowfall each year.
—The city's snowiest season on record was 1972-73, when 26.9 inches fell.
—Portales recorded 22 inches of snow in December of 1997, a record for one month.
—Portales received one-half inch of snow last season, all of it in March.
—Saturday's snowfall was the most in Portales since March of 2005, when the city saw 10.5 inches for the month.

How about that?

THE Announcement...

So. I put this morning’s post up after making the rounds of my fave blogs, but without consulting The Oracle. And Jeez! I would be remiss indeed if I didn’t mention today’s Big News, which is news in the same sense that announcing the sun rose in the east this morning is news. Inevitability, and all that.

The Captain speaks for me when he says:

Of course, it wouldn't be Hillary without getting Sillary. She tries for an Oprah-like chatty tone to her announcement, and winds up offering this laughable little nugget:

"I'm not just starting a campaign, though, I'm beginning a conversation with you, with America," she said. "Let's talk. Let's chat. The conversation in Washington has been just a little one-sided lately, don't you think?"

It has? What happened on November 7th, a tea party? Puh-leeze. The Democrats have hardly been silent during Bush's six years in office. They have been shrill, hysterical, and well-covered by the press and bloggers on both sides of the partisan divide. What they haven't been, until the last midterms, is convincing.

Hillary's announcement changes nothing. No one seriously thought she'd take a pass, and all this does is confirm what everyone already knew. It's interesting that she committed this early, though. Normally, candidates who already hold national office or governorships like to wait until later in the cycle so as to allow their natural access to the media to work as de facto campaign appearances. As long as they haven't announced, equal-time provisions won't apply. The early announcements of candidacies or of explorations by people like Barack Obama may have forced her into an early commitment.

So in one day we've had Hillary and Sillary. Perhaps we'll soon get Shrillary, who never stays quiet for long.

What he said. God Save Us.

We DID Get Some Snow!

Via Lex…the 21^st Century Swiss Army Knife. With a 1 GB USB drive. How very cool! I don’t think I’ll trade in my Executive model just yet, though…

Coup d’État Internet… Google is taking over the internet. Really. The subject is geeky, to be sure, but the writing isn’t: “When Being a Verb is Not Enough: Google wants to be YOUR Internet.” Excerpts:

Google controls more network fiber than any other organization. This is not to say that Google OWNS all that fiber, just that they control it through agreements with network operators.

[…]

Google loves secrecy. That they've been acquiring fiber assets hasn't been a secret, but the sheer volume of these acquisitions HAS been. Why? One thought is that it kept down the price since people didn't really know it was Google snatching up this stuff (they've done it under a number of different corporate names). But if price was the issue, then why hasn't Google just bought the companies that own the fiber? It made no sense until I scratched my head and thought a bit further, at which point it became obvious that Google wants to -- in its own way -- control the Internet. In fact, they probably control it already and we just haven't noticed.

[…]

The answer is pretty simple. Google intends to take over most of the functions of existing fixed networks in our lives, notably telephone and cable television.

Read the whole thing, coz it ain’t just bandwidth. Google is building lots of new data centers, too, sometimes in the most unlikely places. This is a case made on circumstantial evidence, but the case is well-made. I tend to believe it. Now I just need to decide if this is a good thing, or a bad thing.

Today’s Pic: “Not Going Anywhere Today.” I was out and about El Casa Móvil De Pennington for a few moments this morning, and this is the result. We have at least six inches of new snow on the ground, and there just might be eight inches. It’s still snowing, too. It’s very quiet outside, traffic is non-existent, and I mean there’s NO traffic on US 70…none at all. The road may be closed again, for all I know. I’m very, very glad I took the necessary action to get all stocked up yesterday morning. Coz like I said: “I ain’t going anywhere today!”

Freebie

I just checked my e-mail and it occurred to me…I have a LOT of invites to G-Mail. Anyone want or need one? I’ve been using G-mail for well over a year now and I like it. The best thing about G-Mail is Google gives you 2807 MB of free storage. Over one year on and I’ve only used eight per cent of that two gigabytes, and I save (most) ALL my mail.

Drop me a line if you want an invite…my e-mail address is buckpennington01 (at) gmail (dot) com. That's zero-one in my address, BTW.

Waiting for Some Serious Snow...

Good news: The AP reports Main aide of Muqtada al-Sadr arrested

BAGHDAD, Iraq - U.S. and Iraqi forces arrested one of Muqtada al-Sadr's top aides Friday in Baghdad, his office said, as pressure increased on the radical Shiite cleric's militia ahead of a planned security crackdown in the capital.

An adviser to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, however, denied the government knew in advance about the raid, in which Sheik Abdul-Hadi al-Darraji was captured and said the detention was not part of the new operation aimed at quelling Baghdad's sectarian violence.

"There was no coordination with the Iraqi political leadership and this arrest was not part of the new security plan," the adviser, Sadiq al-Rikabi, told Al-Arabiya. "Coordination with the Iraqi political leadership is needed before conducting such operations that draw popular reactions."

[…]

Al-Sadr said in an interview with an Italian newspaper published Friday that the crackdown had already begun and that 400 of his men had been arrested, confirming an earlier statement by al-Maliki. La Repubblica also quoted the cleric as saying he fears for his life and stays constantly on the move.

Al-Sadr told the newspaper his militias would not fight back during the Muslim holy month of Muharram, saying it was against the faith to kill at that time. Muharram starts Friday for Sunnis and Saturday for Shiites.

"Let them kill us. For a true believer there is no better moment than this to die: Heaven is ensured," he was quoted as saying. "After Muharram, we'll see."

Al-Sadr said he is being targeted.

"For this reason, I have moved my family to a secure location. I even have had a will drawn up, and I move continuously in a way that only few can know where I am," he was quoted as saying.

Militia commanders have said the Shiite prime minister has stopped protecting the fighters under pressure from Washington and have described pinpoint raids in which at least five top commanders of similar standing were captured or killed in recent months.

This is a fairly long article that goes into some detail about recent actions to curb the Iraqi militias. The troubling bits are in the first two paragraphs, to wit: "There was no coordination with the Iraqi political leadership and this arrest was not part of the new security plan…" If we had coordinated the action, would the arrest still have taken place? Will this aide remain in custody? Will he be charged? Lately there are positive signs coming out of Iraq, not the least of which is that 400 Mahdi Army men have been arrested. The fact that al-Sadr thinks he’s being targeted isn’t bad news, either. “Targeting” al-Sadr is one thing, killing him is quite another. And you know where I stand on that issue.

Related: Charles Krauthammer proposes a “Plan B,” to be exercised in the event al-Maliki doesn’t deliver the goods where the new security plan is concerned. It sounds plausible, to me.

Bad News: Dean Barnett, writing at Hugh Hewitt’s Townhall Blog:

Even though we have some 150,000 troops in harm’s way and we universally profess to “support the troops,” over 1/3 of our society either wants them to fail or doesn’t know if they want them to succeed. Even more chilling are the results regarding our currently dominant political party. 49% of Democrats either want us to lose in Iraq or “don’t know” if they want us to succeed.

This in reaction to a Fox News/Opinion Dynamics poll that asked the following question: “Do you personally want the Iraq plan President Bush announced last week to succeed?” Overall, 63% of those polled replied “yes,” 22% said “no,” and 15% said they “don’t know.” Mr. Barnett is absolutely correct in his observation that we’ve gone “through the looking glass.” My immediate reaction was WTF? How can this be? Dr. Sanity says it’s because we’re in denial, serious denial, and she identifies some root causes for the condition. Some of the Good Doctor’s prose is a bit strident, but she does make some valid points.

More on the Fairness Doctrine today in the NY Daily News:

With Democrats mattering a little more in Washington these days, some Democratic liberals are pushing for the reinstatement of radio's Fairness Doctrine.

Don't expect it to happen anytime soon, although Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and representatives Dennis Kucinich of Ohio and Maurice Hinchey and Louise Slaughter of New York are backing legislation to reverse the 1987 FCC decision that killed it.

[…]

Whatever its merits, even proponents see little chance it will be reinstated.

"Personally, I believe it was a good thing," says Dr. Kim Zarkin of Westminster College in Utah, co-author of the 2006 study "The Federal Communications Commission" (Greenwood Press). "But at this point, it would be like closing the barn door after the horse got out. There's almost no way to go back to it."

Even if Congress votes to reinstate it, Zarkin notes, President Bush almost certainly would veto it.

She also suggests that after 20 years without the doctrine, enforcement - always random, like with jaywalking laws - would be "nearly impossible. If you enforced it literally, you'd put big numbers of people out of work, because there isn't an Al Franken for every Rush Limbaugh."

All well and good. But this isn’t the way the Hard Core Left sees it. Let me quote:

As you might expect (and as Taylor pointed out earlier) the Wingnut crowd is not reacting well to the notion of the reinstatement of the Fairness Doctrine. I don't know why anyone's surprised. The Right Wing's whole stock in trade is peddling mendacious bullshit to the masses, so naturally the concept of media reform to them is like throwing water on the Wicked Witch of the West. ("MEEEELLLL-ting! MEELLLLLLL-ting! Oh, what a world! All my beautiful WICKEDNESS…MELLLLL-tiiiiiiiiiiing…!")

[…]

Let's just call a spade a spade here. The Right Wing toxification of the media environment, which began when Reagan struck down the Fairness Doctrine, has infected and corrupted our political apparatus in a potentially lethal fashion. See, the conservative world view looks like this: If two people are standing on the sidewalk and one looks up and says, "Oh, my god! There's a safe and it's falling straight toward us! Run!" You can tell the other person is a conservative when he says, "That safe isn't falling toward us. It's actually moving away from us so quickly that it only looks like it's falling on us. We're fine standing right here."

Say What? Hunh? And the rant goes on and on. After this little bit of “excellent writing” (so described because the author of the above bits claims that the Left writes “better” than the Right), said author goes on to invoke Hermann Goering (gotta bring the Nazis in), rails against “Pox News” (I love the affectionate sobriquets the Left creates), beats up on LaShawn Barber, and equates talk radio with hate speech. Isn’t that special!

{sigh} I’m not even sure why I read this clap-trap. My efforts at trying to see the other side’s POV just leave me feeling slightly unclean.

So. Sitting here, all snug like a bug in a rug (as Mom used to say), watching tiny little random flakes drift down out of a leaden sky. The forecast keeps changing but the winter storm warning remains the same: “BY LATE IN THE DAY SATURDAY...SNOW TOTALS OF 6 TO 12 INCHES ARE FORECAST FOR PARTS OF THE EAST CENTRAL PLAINS...” (Sorry about the caps, but I’m not gonna retype it. I’m lazy.) The snow is supposed to start out slow today (accurate, so far) and build in intensity throughout the day and into tomorrow. My larder is full and I’m all stocked up on every conceivable manner of consumable. And I have running water, too! So: Do your worst, Ma Nature. I can handle it.

Wait!! I didn’t mean that!! NO ICE, please!!

Today’s Pic: Plane Pr0n! My favorite WW II fighter, the North American P-51, shot on the runway at the Amarillo, TX airport. May 22, 2004.

Green Wackos Redux

I first wrote about Green Wackos back in November of last year. In so doing, I added a small blurb about the Weather Channel’s supremely-irritating “Climate Expert,” Dr. Heidi Cullen.

Oh, and for the folks at The Weather Channel: stick to your knitting and spare us the global warming sermons. You’re very good at what you do, which is weather reporting. On the other hand, I find Dr. Heidi Cullen, Climate Expert, and her "commentary" annoying as all get-out. Stop it.

Well, the good doctor has become more than irritating. She is now threatening, as in advocating certain professional certifications be revoked for meteorologists who just might be skeptical about the human causes of “global warming.” (I’ve removed certain links in the quotes below because they were originally posted in a ham-handed way and screw up the formatting in this post.)

The Weather Channel’s (TWC) Heidi Cullen, who hosts the weekly global warming program "The Climate Code," is advocating that the American Meteorological Society (AMS) revoke their "Seal of Approval" for any television weatherman who expresses skepticism that human activity is creating a climate catastrophe.

"If a meteorologist can't speak to the fundamental science of climate change, then maybe the AMS shouldn't give them a Seal of Approval. Clearly, the AMS doesn't agree that global warming can be blamed on cyclical weather patterns," Cullen wrote in her December 21 weblog on the Weather Channel Website. [Note: It is also worth taking a look at the comments section at the bottom of Cullen’s blog, very entertaining.] See: (link removed) This latest call to silence skeptics of manmade global warming has been the subject of discussion at the annual American Meteorological Society’s Annual conference in San Antonio Texas this week. See: (link removed)

"It's like allowing a meteorologist to go on-air and say that hurricanes rotate clockwise and tsunamis are caused by the weather. It's not a political statement...it's just an incorrect statement," Cullen added. [Note: Hurricanes (Cyclones) in the Southern Hemisphere do rotate clockwise. Also, Cullen and the media have ignored the growing climate skepticism by prominent scientists see: (link removed)

Cullen’s call for decertification of TV weatherman who do not agree with her global warming assessment follows a year (2006) in which the media, Hollywood and environmentalists tried their hardest to demonize scientific skeptics of manmade global warming. Scott Pelley, CBS News 60 Minutes correspondent, compared skeptics of global warming to "Holocaust deniers" and former Vice President turned foreign lobbyist Al Gore has repeatedly referred to skeptics as "global warming deniers." See: (links removed)

[…]

Broadcast meteorologists (TV weatherman) skeptical of climate alarmism have -- up until now -- been unburdened to speak out on climate issues. Cullen’s call for decertification by the AMS can only serve to intimidate skeptics and further chill free speech in the scientific community. Stripping the "Seal of Approval" from broadcast meteorologists could affect their livelihoods, impact their salaries and prestige. TV weathermen are truly the last of the independent scientists and past surveys have shown many of them to be skeptical of manmade global warming claims. Their independence is being threatened now.

If you can’t convince dissenters with the logic of your arguments, backed up by facts, then intimidate them. Above all, silence them. There’s no need for further debate, the issue has been decided, right? Sarcasm doesn’t really work here…the whole approach is simply despicable.

My original post about Dr. Cullen was more of an aside than anything else. I didn’t give specific reasons for finding her and her show objectionable. But the article I’ve quoted above hits all the bases, not the least of which is her obvious star-struck demeanor and promotion of the ecological views of Big Hollywood Stars, as if those frickin’ idiots have anything informed and meaningful to say on the subject. Oh, yeah… and Algore, too.

Dr. Heidi Cullen, Climate Expert Green Wacko, First Class.

Update: There are 438 (!) comments to the post on Dr. Cullen's TWC blog , the one where she calls for the de-certification of meteorologists who don't toe the line. And they're pretty damned funny. I am NOT alone...

Update II (1000 hrs, Jan 20): Dr. Cullen has posted a response to this brouhaha on her blog. She says, in part:

I've read all your comments saying I want to silence meteorologists who are skeptical of the science of global warming. That is not true. The point of my post was never to stifle discussion. It was to raise it to a level that doesn't confuse science and politics. Freedom of scientific expression is essential.

Many of you have accused me and The Weather Channel of taking a political position on global warming. That is not our intention.

Our goal at The Weather Channel has always been to keep people out of harm's way. Whether it's a landfalling hurricane or global warming.

I looked for (but couldn't find) the part where she says "never mind" about decertifying meteorologists who do not agree about the human impact on climate change.

Dr. Cullen's response has generated 1193 comments in two days; the comments form has a message stating "** Due to the tremendous recent response to Heidi's blog, posts may take up to one business day to appear. **" Ya think?

This Just In...

SN1 sends this along via e-mail. Click for larger, of course, and note the black patch below the US flag. Politically INcorrect, to the max, but oh-so-true. I suspect this troop is in Bosnia or thereabouts. And the pic might be Photoshopped, but I hope not. Coz it's just too, too good.

A Short War Story...

By way of Chap, here’s (in Chap’s words) “a gorgeous food blog.” That it is. The pictures tend to make me drool…Lord, but they are loverly! I find it interesting that a guy in Guam writes a food blog…

And here comes a brief war story… I spent two years over a ten-day period of time on Guam back in the ‘70s. I wasn’t impressed. World-class bugs, heat, and humidity are the things I remember most about Guam. Five other guys and I from the Engineering and Installation (E&I) division of the 1956^th Communications Group deployed to Guam in 1975 to change out the bull-gear on an FPS-60 series search radar, which was an adventure in and of itself. The bull gear is a huge, and I mean huge, gear that turns the search antenna. Changing out the bull-gear means jacking the entire antenna (which weighs a couple of tons) about three feet into the air, crawling underneath the antenna, unbolting the old bull gear, sliding it out on one side of the antenna and sliding the new gear into place from the other side. It’s hot, difficult, dangerous and messy work, given that the gear weighs a few hundred pounds and you “slide” the old and new gears into place on 4x4s laid over 55 gallon drums, using LOTS of grease. The picture (courtesy of the On-line Air Defense Museum) gives you an idea of the size of the antenna inside the radome. And keep in mind: we were working on Guam, in temps that exceeded 90 degrees and in 90% relative humidity. There was little or no air circulation inside that radome… Fun, fun, fun!

The best part about that TDY? The return flight to Japan. We flew back to Tokyo on a Pan Am 747. The plane was SO empty that the crew outnumbered the passengers, of which there were maybe ten. The chief steward relieved half the crew, who promptly raided the liquor supply and joined our little USAF team in the back of the plane for an impromptu party that lasted all the way back to Tokyo. My buddies Ed and Barry had brought their guitars along and they broke them out. We sang (badly) and drank (gloriously and well) all the way back to Tokyo. To use an old saying: “they poured us off the plane.” Now that was fun!

I have a few more stories from that TDY but I can’t tell you about them, given (a) the PG-rating of this blog and (b) the fact that at least one of the chief protagonists in those stories reads this blog occasionally. I wouldn’t want to live out the rest of my days as a marked man…

Not much on memeorandum today that piques my interest. It all seems to be the same ol’, same ol’. And I’m growing weary of the same ol’. Just sayin’.

Ahhh....

It warmed up just enough (~ 40 degrees) where a judicial judicious application of heat from the propane torch on the park’s faucet freed up the ice block. Hooked up the new white water hose and Walla! Water.

Just out of the shower and feelin’ FINE!

It’ll be a long danged time before I forget to set a drip…or pay attention to falling temps. On to the next crisis, James.

Bits and Pieces

I don’t normally read Michelle Malkin for the same reason(s) I don’t read Ann Coulter: both are just a wee bit too strident for my tastes. However… Malkin is back from Iraq and has posted what may be the first in a series of posts on her embed experience with the Dagger Brigade in northern Baghdad. Ms. Malkin returned from Iraq with renewed enthusiasm regarding the war. She believes it is “winnable,” and her experiences make for good reading. Lots of photos, too. Ms. Malkin’s associate, Bryan Preston, accompanied her to Iraq and has posted some of his observations at Hot Air. Both posts are lengthy and filled with detail; both are very good reads.

Anne Applebaum wrote a provocative yet sensible article for Slate yesterday about the Afghani poppy/opium problem entitled “Legalize It - How to solve Afghanistan's drug problem.”

Now NATO is fighting a war to eradicate opium from Afghanistan. Allegedly, this time around the goals are different. According to the modern British government, Afghanistan's illicit-drug trade poses the "gravest threat to the long term security, development and effective governance of Afghanistan," particularly since the Taliban are believed to be the biggest beneficiaries of drug sales. Convinced that this time they are doing the morally right thing, Western governments are spending hundreds of millions of dollars bulldozing poppy fields, building up counternarcotics squads, and financing alternative crops in Afghanistan. Chemical spraying may begin as early as this spring. But, in retrospect, might history not judge this war to be every bit as destructive and wasteful as the original Opium Wars?

[…]

The biggest producers are in the southern provinces where the Taliban is at its strongest. Every time a poppy field is destroyed, a poor person becomes poorer—and more likely to support the Taliban against the Western forces who wrecked his crops. Every time money is spent on alternative crops, it has to be distributed through a corrupt or nonexistent local bureaucracy. To date, the results of all this are utterly dispiriting.

Read the whole thing. Ms. Applebaum proposes a solution that has worked in the past and doesn’t seem all that unreasonable. But drugs in general, and opium production, in particular, are emotional subjects fraught with moral arguments. Arguments that, in most cases, are either unsupportable or counterproductive. I doubt seriously if anyone in power will listen to Ms. Applebaum, but they damned well should. There’s a lot at stake here, and I believe winning the Afghan war should take priority over moral posturing. It’s a sad state of affairs.

More on Obama in USA Today…the lede grafs:

CHICAGO — Two years in the U.S. Senate. Seven years in the Illinois Senate. One loss in a primary election for the U.S. House of Representatives. One stirring keynote address at a Democratic National Convention. Two best-selling books.

That's Barack Obama's political résumé. Is it enough to qualify him to be president?

The article goes on to answer the questions in point-counterpoint fashion and provides more detail about the candidate’s life story. The article is pretty much a puff-piece but is interesting, especially if you’re of the Democrat persuasion. I’m not in that camp (i.e., a Dem), but I found the article informative.

And then there’s this:

Illinois Senator Barack Obama (D) formally announced his plans to run for President and instantly finds himself near the top of the heap. A Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey of 401 Likely Democratic Primary Voters finds that 22% favor New York Senator Hillary Clinton (D) while 21% prefer Obama. Obama has consistently been in second place in several Rasmussen Reports polls, but this is the first time he has been in a virtual tie with the former First Lady.

I still think it’s too early to be talking about an election that will be held over a year and a half from now. I guess I’m all alone out here…

It Could be Worse, Part Deux

Up too late again. Back in a few, but until then, there’s…

Today’s Pic: Keeping with the “It could be worse” theme… Yesterday’s pic was taken at the old homestead in Perinton, NY. Today’s pic was taken in my new, post-marriage-termination quarters, a rather nice, very new apartment (I was the first tenant) in Webster, NY.

Me (on the phone, waiting for the other end to pick up)…dum-da-dum-da…
Him: EDS, this is (my boss)!
Me: Hey, it’s Buck. I won’t be in today, I’m snowed in.
Him: Snowed in? You can’t get out? Really?
Me: Really. There’s a four foot drift right outside my garage door.
Him: Really?
Me: Yeah, really. Check your mail in a minute or four. I’ll send you a picture.

And this was the pic I sent. It was very late in the day when the apartment complex finally got a front-end loader and a dump truck in to remove the snow… March 3, 1999.

Well, It COULD be Worse...

Here it comes…thanks to that Ohio Socialist (emphasis added):

Over the weekend, the National Conference for Media Reform was held in Memphis, TN, with a number of notable speakers on hand for the event. Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) made an surprise appearance at the convention to announce that he would be heading up a new House subcommittee which will focus on issues surrounding the Federal Communications Commission.

The Presidential candidate said that the committee would be holding "hearings to push media reform right at the center of Washington.” The Domestic Policy Subcommittee of the House Government Reform Committee was to be officially announced this week in Washington, D.C., but Kucinich opted to make the news public early.

In addition to media ownership, the committee is expected to focus its attention on issues such as net neutrality and major telecommunications mergers. Also in consideration is the "Fairness Doctrine," which required broadcasters to present controversial topics in a fair and honest manner. It was enforced until it was eliminated in 1987.

Kucinich said in his speech that "We know the media has become the servant of a very narrow corporate agenda" and added "we are now in a position to move a progressive agenda to where it is visible."

This whole Fairness Doctrine thingie is one of my minor hot-buttons. I first mentioned it here, and hit the subject again in September of last year. And in May of last year I said:

The above is an excerpt from “The Fairness Doctrine; How We Lost it, and Why We Need it Back,” a Lefty Cri de Coeur for government intervention in the marketplace. Which is entirely typical, of course. And another reason NOT to stay home in November, as if you needed one more. Never hurts to point these things out, though.

I’m fairly certain the Congress won’t bring back the fully discredited Fairness Doctrine (well, fully discredited amongst thinking people, anyway). The Dems’ majority is fairly thin and there are enough Blue Dog Democrats to undo the majority if and when it would come to a vote in the House. I think the little weasel from Ohio is just grandstanding.

Captain Ed has more on the subject of the Fairness Doctrine, and it’s a good read.

I went to the little weasel’s site looking for a blurb on the FD to quote (coz he’s always good for unintended, over-the-top humor) and got sidetracked by this:

The Administration is preparing to escalate the conflict. They intend to increase troop numbers to unprecedented levels, without establishing an ending date for the so-called troop surge. By definition, this escalation means a continuation of the occupation, more troop and civilian casualties, more anger toward the US, more support for the insurgency, more instability in Iraq and in the region, and prolonged civil war at a time when there is a general agreement in the world community that the solution in Iraq must be political not military. Iraq is now a training ground for insurgents who practice against our troops.

[…]

These are the elements of the Kucinich Plan:

1. The US announces it will end the occupation, close military bases and withdraw. The insurgency has been fueled by the occupation and the prospect of a long-term presence as indicated by the building of permanent bases. A US declaration of an intention to withdraw troops and close bases will help dampen the insurgency which has been inspired to resist colonization and fight invaders and those who have supported US policy. Furthermore this will provide an opening where parties within Iraq and in the region can set the stage for negotiations towards peaceful settlement.

And it just gets better, and better, and better. I use the word “better” with the strongest sense of irony. Gawd, what a moonbat.

More irony: Kucinich begins all the missives on his web site with “Dear Friends.” The ex-hippies among us smile knowingly at that particular reference. I’m up in the air as to who’s actually funnier.

A man who believes his own press:

WASHINGTON -- In an announcement weighted with history and moment, Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), who less than three years ago was serving in the Illinois Senate, declared today his intention to run for president.

"As many of you know, over the last few months I have been thinking hard about my plans for 2008," Obama said in a statement on his presidential exploratory committee Web site. "Running for the presidency is a profound decision—a decision no one should make on the basis of media hype or personal ambition alone—and so before I committed myself and my family to this race, I wanted to be sure that this was right for us and, more importantly, right for the country.

"I certainly didn't expect to find myself in this position a year ago. But as I've spoken to many of you in my travels across the states these past months; as I've read your emails and read your letters; I've been struck by how hungry we all are for a different kind of politics."

“A different kind of politics.” Why does this statement make me think of that frickin’ peanut farmer? That statement aside, I’m wondering about the wisdom of a man (and his supporters) that launches a campaign for the highest elective office in the nation on such a thin, thin resumé. The lead sentence says it all: “…who less than three years ago was serving in the Illinois Senate…” Only in America.

Today’s Pic: I’ve gone on quite a bit about the weather these last few days. I seem to have forgotten the fact it could be worse, much worse. So, in honor of the “it could be worse” school of thought, here’s one of my favorite weather pictures: looking out on the deck from my dining room window in Rochester, NY (Perinton - actually). January, 1999.

No Joy

After two hours of supreme frustration: no joy. Unsuccessful. I managed to disconnect my water hose from the RV’s fresh water inlet after about an hour (no kidding) of painstaking, bone-chilling work. And speaking of “lost things,” I could NOT find my channel-lok pliers, which complicated the fresh water hose removal. But…I persevered and got the frozen hose off. The next trick was to get water running from the faucet and that proved to be my undoing. The faucet refused to run, even after about a half-hour of careful heating with my new handy-handy propane torch. So…I gave up. Tomorrow’s high will only be 32 degrees, so I’m in for another 48 hours or so of inconvenience.

My timing for this little debacle couldn’t have been worse. Today is the fourth day in a row where the mercury hasn’t risen above freezing. I swear I do NOT remember another period of time where we’ve gone more than three days, at the very most, with sub-freezing temps.

I suppose I’ve done more stupid things in the past, but I’m damned if I can remember when. If half of life is "just showing up," then the other half just has to be "pay attention!" Bad things happen when you don't. Pay attention, that is.

It's STILL Freezing...

Via Lileks (and he’s NOT making this up): pictures of Soviet Roadside Bus Shelters. Interesting. Bizarre. Quirky. Add your own adjective. But the pics are quite interesting, if you’re into unusual things (and I am).

Gerard has a (relatively) new post up about the differences between “us” and “them.”

I'd also bet that the reader comes to The Prince, as we have here, after mistakes have been made, and sees it much as we see things in our rear view mirrors. Especially that one on the right which always reminds us that "Objects In Mirror May Be Closer Than They Appear."

Of course, the crux of our entire consuming argument over Terrorist War I is exactly how close those objects in our rear view mirror are, or if they are even there to begin with.

The Right would argue that these Objects are indeed right behind the car and will either follow us home if we don't kill them now or that, indeed, they are already home and waiting for us in the garage and crawl space.

The Left would argue that those Objects might have been tailgating us a couple of years ago but only because we cut them off on the freeway of life. They're really not there anymore, and if we just drive home and park and live quietly and on our own, they won't be doing any drive-bys with airplanes, nail bombs in shopping malls, or a low yield thermonuclear weapon at the next 4th of July picnic in San Diego. Just leave them alone and they'll go home wagging their turbans behind them. And besides, we started it because, well, we start everything, and get those ice-caps under control already, China's got nothing to do with it....

Well, as Ronald Reagan put it when dealing with the Soviet Union and arms-control, "You trust your mother, but you cut the cards."

As always in these times, both the Right and the Left are wrong, have been wrong for quite some time, and will continue in their error since the object of their policies is neither victory abroad or security at home, but the mere destruction of the other in political terms. It is a small and ignoble goal, but it seems to be all our pundits and politicians are capable of at this time. The times demand heros and giants but we are only seeing pygmies and cardboard figures. This is likely to continue until some deeper shock wakes us from out sleep.

Interesting premise, that…both Left and Right are wrong. There’s truth in Gerard’s assertion, especially where our illustrious congresscritters on the Right are concerned. Even Heather Wilson (R-NM) has questioned Dubya’s “surge,” and I never thought I’d see that. It’s amazing what a near-run election will do to one’s principles. But I digress, as is my wont.

Gerard goes on to make some very good points beyond the fact our politicians are simply posturing, rather than working for the common good. Recommended.

Two more Saddamites meet their fate on the gallows…al-Reuters reports:

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Two of Saddam Hussein's aides were hanged before dawn on Monday, the Iraqi government said, admitting that the head of his half-brother Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti was also ripped from his body during the execution.

On the defensive after international uproar over sectarian taunts during the illicitly filmed hanging of the ousted president two weeks ago, government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh insisted there was "no violation of procedure" during the executions of Barzan and former judge Awad Hamed al-Bander.

[…]

Barzan was a feared figure in Iraq at the head of the intelligence service in the 1980s, at a time when the Shi'ite majority was harshly oppressed, some like those from Dujail due to suspected links to Shi'ite Iran, then at war with Iraq.

Bander presided over the Revolutionary Court which sentenced 148 Shi'ite men and youths to death after an assassination attempt on Saddam in the town in 1982. With Saddam, they were convicted on November 5 and their appeals rejected on December 26.

The article also quotes an Iraqi official as saying the hanging was a “blessing,” and that the men should have been turned over to the people. That would have made Mussolini’s fate look like a tea party.

No one does snark like Steyn does snark…and he’s in top form with “Pelosi a rare example of a woman who 'has it all'” He opens with:

Can you guess which grandma it was, boys and girls? Yes, it was Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who has single-handedly, as she put it, ''shattered the marble ceiling.'' And she's right: From CNN to the New York Times, the entire press corps has lost its marbles. Grandma Smith Goes to Washington is the hit of the planet. At a time when most grandmothers are reduced to eating dog food because the Bush administration refuses to let them bulk-order prescription drugs from Saskatchewan or, even more horrifying, reduced to watching Robert Goulet in dinner theater night after night in Florida, Gran'ma Pelosi has single-handedly shattered the dinner-theater ceiling and/or dog-kennel ceiling.

And gets better (or worse, depending on your POV) from there. No profundities or redeeming social value here, folks. Just good ol’ fashioned, entertaining snark. I love it.

Today’s Pic: “You can’t see the forest for the trees…” Interesting (well, to me, anyway) study of frost-encrusted branches, with more frost/ice in the background. As always, click for larger... 01/13/2007.

And now it’s off to Wally-World in the single-digit wind chill. I’ve had enough of camping out—I will have water in an hour or two. Three days of bathing in the sink has grown old, old, old…I want a shower!

Pretty Scary

Pretty

Scary

Taken about 20 minutes ago. The ice on the wires ain't all that bad, but if this damned fog doesn't go away it will get worse.

A Bad Day...

Well, yesterday was certainly a bad day to quit thinking, to paraphrase Peter Graves from the movie “Airplane.” As I wrote in the comments to “Damn!” (below) we’re not forecasted to get above freezing before sometime Monday, at the earliest. So…two, perhaps three, days of “…camping but like with heat and electric” as Laurie so appropriately put it. It’s gonna be interesting to warm water on the stove for bathing and to do dishes. Kinda like things used to be around these parts back in the late 1800s. Except that I can see an end to my pain inconvenience, those tough ol’ pioneers fetched water every day… day in, day out. And heated it on the stove, too. This morning I’m thinking I’m not nearly tough enough to have made it back in those days.

It’s wonderfully quiet outside. Traffic on US 70 is very, very light and not much is moving in La Hacienda Trailer Estates, either. We have moderate fog in the area; I tried to capture it in a photo but wasn’t too successful.

Today’s Pics: The view of the road leading out of La Hacienda Trailer Estates, shot through the frost/ice encrusted branches of a small tree not far from my door. I’ve included a summer pic with roughly the same view for comparison purposes. That’s SN3 on my old bike. This morning and July, 2004.

Damn!

My water line is frozen. No water until tomorrow sometime, more than likely late afternoon. Stupidity rears its ugly head once again. I wrote that yesterday was warm, and our overnight temps didn’t reach down into the realm of the freezing. Ergo, I didn’t open my tap just a little bit to prevent the inevitable freeze-up, coz…well, it didn’t freeze. I also wrote earlier that the temps were dropping, along with my spirits. I didn’t correlate the “no drip” situation with dropping temps until about 20 minutes ago, and…too late. Froze up.

Damn! I only have about three liters of emergency water, one-third of which is reserved for tomorrow’s coffee. No shower today…

Sometimes it sucks to be me.

A Few Good Links II

SN1 sent this pic today, which is entirely self-explanatory. Nuff said.

By way of Lex, a new milblogger in The Sandbox: Acute Politics. And Boy-Howdy, Teflon Don can write! Just a taste:

The modern military combines part big brother society with part warfighter. We soldiers are considered almost mature enough to understand that war is dangerous, and the weapons we fight it with are just as dangerous as the enemies. The military seems to trust that we will understand that we can't be running around post like cowboys with loaded weapons or explosives. On the other hand, the most mundane and common-sense workplace safety practices often warrant a official warning. These warnings are usually accompanied by graphic photographs of the one idiot who managed to mutailate themselves in spectacular fashion.

Since I've come to Iraq, I've learned that you should not attempt to exit a moving vehicle or I may injure myself. I've been told that in the event of a rollover, I should not try to open the uparmored door that is now above my head lest I be crushed under it. I've seen pictures of what may happen to me if I hit my hand with a hammer, or get too close to a dirt auger. I now know that I shouldn't play with knives, and that opening the feed tray of a weapon while it is firing may be bad for my health. I have been warned on the dangers of cigarettes, and told that I shouldn't be drinking alcohol (not that doing so is allowed anyway). I know not to light fires inside tents, or any other enclosure, for that matter.

That whole piece made me laugh out loud. The military has changed a lot since my day, but some things remain the same. Teflon Don has other (and more profound) observations from Fallujah. A good read, to be sure.

And by way of Acute Politics, I learn Lex’s constant reader and frequent commenter Kris, in New England has a blog now, too. Drop by and welcome her to the ‘sphere! The milblog community, and those that love them, appears to be growing by the proverbial leaps and bounds. This is a good thing!

Laurie put up a great post today: Where is the Spirit of America? A rhetorical question, that, but food for thought, none the less. The Spirit exists, and we all know it exists in spite of the efforts of some people to deny or diminish it. Keep the faith!

And the weather continues to deteriorate. Our Winter Storm Watch has been replaced by a Warning and the temperature is creeping steadily downward, along with my spirits. It looks to be a long and uncomfortable sort of weekend. Oh, well. There are lots of sites to be surfed, nu?

!!

Late again. My eyes are barely open, I’ve just now poured the second cup, and haven’t even looked at memeorandum or begun to make the rounds as yet.

Bizarre weather. I opened the shades and looked out upon fog, which is pretty danged rare in this part of the world. It’s 30 degrees outside as I write; yesterday I gave some serious thought to putting the top down on my journey to and from the Big(ger) City^TM. But I didn’t…it was “only” 63 degrees or so. My how things change, and rapidly, too. Ice storm in the forecast for tonight and early tomorrow morning. I wasted ten bucks getting the car washed yesterday, didn’t I?

Today’s Pic: Let’s go back to the park! Another Chinese pagoda in Golden Gate Park, same day in July, 2000.

Back in a few.

Escalation and Other Stuff

In today’s WSJ (Mission Baghdad -"Clear, hold and build" will take at least this many troops.):

Mr. Bush's words offered the hope that the new plan won't simply mean employing more troops to carry out a strategy that hasn't been working. Though widely described in the press as a troop "surge" or even "escalation," the number of additional soldiers being sent to Iraq is significant but not overwhelming. The real difference will be how America uses its troops in Iraq. Put in simplest terms, Mr. Bush seems finally to have decided that the way to defeat the insurgency is to protect the population, especially in Baghdad.

The media, in this case, are taking its cues directly from the Democrats. The Democrats are throwing around the word “escalation” quite freely to describe the President’s rather modest troop strength increase in Iraq. First came Teddy:

"The American people sent a clear message in November that we must change course in Iraq and begin to withdraw our troops, not escalate their presence," Kennedy said. "An escalation, whether it is called a surge or any other name, is still an escalation, and I believe it would be an immense new mistake. It would compound the original misguided decision to invade Iraq. We cannot simply speak out against an escalation of troops in Iraq. We must act to prevent it."

And last night, Kerry piled on:

John Kerry responded to Bush’s address to the nation tonight in interviews on NPR and ABC Radio. Kerry noted on NPR that Congress must act to stop Bush’s escalation of the war. Bush “gave no indication” tonight in his speech “that the troop increase would be short-lived.” (emphasis added)

The Lefty blogs have picked up on the escalation meme in a big way. It’s hard to find a Lefty blog that doesn’t beat this drum…loudly and often. Here are yet more examples: The “escalation” tag at dKos. Be careful here, because this way madness lies…

Here are the facts: There are now about 132,000 U.S. troops in Iraq. Bush would raise that number to 153,500. By comparison, there were 133,000 US troops in Iraq as of 01 March 2006, down from about 160,000 in December 2005 during parliamentary elections. So we’re “escalating” the war by increasing troop levels to a point below what we used to have. Strange choice of words, that. It looks like Viet Nam all over again, eh? (/sarcasm)

We’re gearing up, the Brits are drawing down…from The Telegraph (UK):

Tony Blair will announce within the next fortnight that almost 3,000 troops are to be cut from the current total of 7,200, allowing the military to recover from four years of battle that have left it severely overstretched.

In what will be the first substantial cut of British troops serving in southern Iraq, their number will drop to 4,500 on May 31. The announcement will be made by the Prime Minister before he steps down from office as an intended signal of the achievements the British have made in Iraq — albeit at the cost of 128 dead.

There’s a tremendous difference in the security situation in the US and British areas of responsibility. Of the numerous facts and figures being thrown around about Iraq, the one that resonates with me the most is 80% of the violence in Iraq takes place within a 30-mile radius of Baghdad. So it doesn’t seem strange at all the Brits are drawing down: their sector is (relatively) stable. Additionally, one looks at the numbers quoted in the Telegraph article and wonders about being “overstretched” and the cost of the war, in terms of both lives and money. It’s all a matter of perspective, isn’t it?

Just sayin’…I thought the President’s speech last evening was pretty good; I’d give it a seven on a scale of ten. Minus points for all the hullabaloo leading up to the speech, i.e., I don’t see the proposed actions as a change in strategy, they’re more of a change in tactics. Plus points for Dubya’s acceptance of responsibility for “mistakes” in the conduct of the war, even though those mistakes weren’t enumerated (not that they needed to be, we know what they are). Best (apparent) news: a change in the rules of engagement that allow us and the Iraqi government to tackle both the Sunni and Shiite militias. It remains to be seen if al-Maliki’s government really means it. The initial indications are positive. But al-Maliki has given lip-service to disarming al-Sadr’s militia before, and worse, has protected him (and vice-versa) in the past. We’ll see…

Today’s Pic: A Chinese pagoda in Golden Gate park, SFO. July, 2000.

History

Constant reader Laurie sends this along via e-mail and it’s appropriate, given the Libs vs. Conservatives argument raging in the comments to “Just Another Manic Monday,” below. It should make you smile, regardless of your political affiliation!

HISTORY

Humans originally existed as members of small bands of nomadic hunters/gatherers. They lived on deer in the mountains during the summer and would go to the coast and live on fish and lobster in the winter.

The two most important events in all of history were the invention of beer and the invention of the wheel. The wheel was invented to get man to the beer. These were the foundation of modern civilization and together were the catalyst for the splitting of humanity into two distinct subgroups: Liberals and Conservatives.

Once beer was discovered, it required grain and that was the beginning of agriculture. Neither the glass bottle nor aluminum can were invented yet, so while our early humans were sitting around waiting for them to be invented, they just stayed close to the brewery. That's how villages were formed.

Some men spent their days tracking and killing animals to B-B-Q at night while they were drinking beer. This was the beginning of what is known as the Conservative movement.

Other men who were weaker and less skilled at hunting learned to live off the conservatives by showing up for the nightly B-B-Q's and doing the sewing, fetching, and hair dressing. This was the beginning of the Liberal movement. Some of these liberal men eventually evolved into women.

Noteworthy liberal achievements include the domestication of cats, the invention of group therapy and group hugs, and the concept of democratic voting to decide how to divide the meat and beer that conservatives provided.

Over the years conservatives came to be symbolized by the largest, most powerful land animal on earth, the elephant. Liberals are symbolized by the jackass.

Some modern liberals can drink beer (with lime added), but most prefer white wine or imported bottled water. They eat raw fish but like their beef well done.

An interesting evolutionary side note: most of their women have higher testosterone levels than their men. Social workers, personal injury attorneys, journalists, and Hollywood dreamers are typically liberals. Liberals invented the designated hitter rule because it wasn't fair to make the pitcher also bat.

Conservatives drink domestic beer. They eat red meat and still provide for their women. Conservatives are big-game hunters, rodeo cowboys, lumberjacks, construction workers, firemen, medical doctors, police officers, corporate executives, athletes, Marines, and generally anyone who works productively. Conservatives who own companies hire other conservatives who want to work for a living.

Liberals produce little or nothing. They like to govern the producers and decide what to do with the production. Liberals believe Europeans are more enlightened than Americans. That is why most of the liberals remained in Europe when conservatives were coming to America . They crept in after the Wild West was tamed and created a business of trying to get more for nothing.

Here ends today's lesson in world history.

Thanks, Laurie!

Under the WX

I was awakened around 0330 this morning by the worst case of heartburn I can ever remember having. A massive dose of Pink Stuff just barely managed to take the edge off and at one point I was seriously considering driving myself to the Emergency Room…it was that bad. I was able to get back to sleep around 0445 and stayed that way until nearly noon.

I don’t get sick a lot; “not at all” would be an exaggeration but is closer to the truth. Thus this lil episode scared the Hell out of me. It’s still with me, as I write...I can feel each sip of coffee move millimeter by millimeter down my gullet to my gut. It’s gonna be a low and slow kinda day.

Today’s Pic: Gary P. Nunn (in the shades) on the Texas Stage at Festival 2000, Houston, TX. April, 2000.

Fireworks, and Lack of Same

To say last night’s BCS Championship game was a disappointment is an exercise in understatement of the most profound variety (see: great expectations).

Chris Leak humiliated Mr. Heisman. To say he won the personal matchup with Troy Smith is like saying Sitting Bull got the best of Custer. It was a massacre and a stunning reversal of fortune for a guy who was widely doubted as a big-game quarterback while Smith was universally saluted.

A Florida defense that has been excellent all year was impenetrable Monday night. The Buckeyes were held to a preposterous 82 yards of offense, which looks like a misprint unless you saw the game.

The first four minutes of the game were entertaining, the remainder much less so. All the dreary details are here. I don’t mean to take anything away from the Gators by calling the game “dreary,” but I do mean to disparage OSU. They sure as Hell didn’t look like the nation’s Number One Team.

This is most interesting: America’s Boots on the Ground in Somalia.

U.S. ground forces have been active in Somalia from the start, a senior military intelligence officer confirmed. “In fact,” he said, “they were part of the first group in.”

These ground forces include CIA paramilitary officers who are based out of Galkayo, in Somalia’s semiautonomous region of Puntland, Special Operations forces, and Marine units operating out of Camp Lemonier in Djibouti.

The presence of U.S. airpower in Somalia became public knowledge yesterday when CBS News reported that an AC-130 fixed-wing gunship carried out a strike against suspected al-Qaeda members in southern Somalia. Unmanned aerial drones kept the targets under surveillance while a gunship operated by the U.S. Special Operations Command flew from its base in Djibouti to the southern tip of Somalia.

An unattributed source, but plausible, none the less. And a functionary within the Somalian transitional government has gone on the record as saying US helicopter gunships with their markings “obscured” have been supporting Ethiopian forces. Good on ‘em. Please, sir, may I have some more (dead terrorists)?

Today’s Pic: Apropos of nothing (once again—and decidedly non-seasonal), here’s a shot of last year’s Fourth of July fireworks. One of my very minor goals in life has been to take good pictures of fireworks. I’m not quite there yet, but I’m not half-bad. July 4, 2006.

Just Another Manic Monday...

Michael Barone states the obvious: “A Bitter clash is coming over Iraq.” Interestingly, he opens with this thought:

Cynics surely found the words of good will exchanged by the new speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, and the new House minority leader, John Boehner, at the opening session of the new Congress to be hypocritical and insincere. The two leaders are grizzled veteran pols, after all, who have not been known to be on close, much less candid, terms with each other over the years. But I know them both, and I believe they were speaking genuinely from the heart.

Count me as one of those cynics. I attempted to watch the House opening ceremonies last week (twice, even: once in real time and once in a re-run) but simply could not. Mr. Barone has a leg up on me, though, as he knows the individuals involved and I only know them through what I’ve seen on the Tee Vee and read in the media. But, yeah…Pelosi’s remarks, in particular, struck me as very hypocritical. So much so that I voted with my feet the remote and changed channels.

Mr. Barone continues:

Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid have made it clear that they take the Democratic victory last November as a mandate for withdrawal from Iraq. That's a point you could argue with -- you could make a case from the polls that what voters want most of all is victory and success. But Pelosi and Reid and almost all of their Democratic colleagues are sincere in their view, which is at the least plausible.

George W. Bush, from all accounts, seems to take a different view. He evidently sees the November result as a verdict of dissatisfaction with unsuccess and lack of victory, and so is promising a "new way forward." He has been prompted by his party's "thumpin'" to change the way he manages.

I agree with the President’s view, if that is indeed the way Dubya views things. Madame Pelosi and Mssr. Reid ought to tread very carefully here. Misunderestimating the American public’s opinion, which, to my way of thinking, is much more about the lack of success in Iraq than the fact we’re still there. Americans simply hate to lose. And that goes double when the stakes are so high. I’m sure at least some of the Dems realize their majority is a fragile thing and could be lost every bit as quickly as it was gained.

Related… Today’s featured article (A Heavier Iraq ‘Footprint’) on the WSJ’s Opinion Journal site. Excerpt:

If the stakes in Iraq are as great as Mr. Bush says--and we believe they are--then he should commit whatever forces are needed to achieve success. The public's support for the Iraq campaign is waning, in major part because the casualties and expense have been producing no visible progress. Even with Democrats running Congress, Mr. Bush has a political window to pursue a more robust security strategy. The paradox is that the fastest way home from Iraq is a bolder commitment now.

On that score, it is appropriate that Mr. Bush is replacing his Iraq military team. Centcom Commander John Abizaid, who is retiring, can point to successful campaigns to topple the Taliban in Afghanistan and Saddam Hussein in Iraq. His oft-derided "light footprint" strategy for securing Iraq has also been right for much of the country, with Kurdistan able to handle its own security and southern Iraq now transitioning to Iraqi control.

But General Abizaid and ground commander George Casey--who is leaving for a Pentagon post--never found the formula for the insurgent-troubled Sunni areas, and in recent months for Shiite death squads in Baghdad.

There’s much more, and it’s all good.

So…didja see P.J. on “In Depth” yesterday (video here)? I watched the whole three hours; some of it twice when the show was re-run at midnite (ET) last evening. The interview was every bit as good as I thought it would be, and for once my great expectations didn’t result in a great disappointment. I was disappointed to find Mr. O’Rourke holds bloggers, and blogging, in contempt, describing blogs as “free. And worth it.” and “‘What I did on my summer vacation,’ for adults.” Another revelation that didn’t surprise me is P.J. hates to write, stating that writing is hard work. That’s something of a no-brainer when you write for a living, and I relate to that sentiment from experience. He also added, in an off-hand way, that he suspected only bloggers really enjoy writing. True enough, I suppose. I do enjoy the writing I do for the blog.

One of the better lines from the interview: P.J., who was raised in a Republican household, quoting his grandmother’s response to his question about the difference between Republicans and Democrats: “Democrats rent.”

Mr. O’Rourke is something of a Luddite, freely admitting he doesn’t use the internet and does all his writing on an IBM Selectric, of which he owns “at least five.” Damn, P.J….you need to come into the 21^st century! It’s nice in here!

This is both amusing and sad…

THE "DIRTY DOZEN" list of "America's Most Bizarre and Politically Correct College Courses" is out — and Los Angeles-area institutions of higher learning have walked away with one-fourth of the ranked honors (or dishonors). Occidental College, an 1,800-student liberal arts school in Eagle Rock, is the only college on the list to collect not one but two citations for excellence at offering trendy theories of gender, skin color and white-male oppression at the expense of actual academic content.

I laughed, I cried. What the Hell ever happened to Basket Weaving?

And so it goes…

!

Today’s Pic: The Androscoggin River on a sunny June day in Brunswick, Maine. The large building on the left is Fort Andross, formerly a mill and now a multi-use community building... with lots of art galleries and such. June, 2006.

Early, Again

An oldie (from last week) you may have missed:

Do you know why I'm no longer liberal? Because I wanted to stop my sentences one word short of the word "but." You know, as a liberal, I found myself using the word "but" more frequently than a proctologist filling out his day planner." -- Dennis Miller

S’true, ya know. Via Right Wing News.

Speaking of right-wing funny guys…C-SPAN2 has a three hour conversation with P.J. O’Rourke scheduled for 1200 hrs (ET) today. I’ll be there.

Jules Crittenden says we’re at a Crossroads…

Option One: Pull out. Achieve short-term gratification for those who believe our absence from Iraq will solve our problems. Watch Iraq descend into further violence. Watch a nuclear-armed Iran come to dominate Iraq and the world's richest oil fields.

[…]

More likely, a dispirited people, our army broken by defeat, we'll just wait to see who emerges as the new world power. It will be a while before there is one, and much longer before there is one we would care to live under. I predict a dark age, in which brutal second-rate powers such as Russia, China, Iran and North Korea do what they choose to whom they choose without restraint. An age of modern warlords, with no over-arching, feared power to keep them in check. We can watch the sick man that is Europe slowly succumb. We can watch small free nations try to fend for themselves. We can await the inevitable nuclear crisis.

Does that sound at all medieval or apocalyptic? It is. Don't think we can't go back to that.

Does it sound overly melodramatic and alarmist? If so, you're a fool with no understanding of history. I have bad news for you. The fight against evil in this world is business as usual. It never ends.

There’s more, of course. And you can probably guess what Option Two is.

This morning’s lead item on memeorandum: Revealed: Israel plans nuclear strike on Iran (from The Times UK).

ISRAEL has drawn up secret plans to destroy Iran’s uranium enrichment facilities with tactical nuclear weapons.

Two Israeli air force squadrons are training to blow up an Iranian facility using low-yield nuclear “bunker-busters”, according to several Israeli military sources.

The attack would be the first with nuclear weapons since 1945, when the United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The Israeli weapons would each have a force equivalent to one-fifteenth of the Hiroshima bomb.

Israel, of course, denies The Times’ report.

But Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev denied the report and said, "The focus of the Israeli activity today is to give full support to diplomatic actions and the expeditious and full implementation of Security Council resolution 1737. If diplomacy succeeds, the problem can be solved peaceably."

I’d worry if I were Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Words have consequences, chickens come home to roost. The Israelis tend to take threats seriously and have a track record of neutralizing mortal threats effectively. Remember Osirak? The real question though, is this: Would the Israelis really use nuclear weapons, even low-yield bunker-busting tactical nukes? I, for one, don’t think so. Genies, bottles, and all that…

In today’s NYT, an extensive article on Hussein’s execution… The U.S. Powers That Be in Iraq worked very hard to delay the execution until all the legal boxes had been checked, but in the end the Americans deferred to the Iraqis. It was the Iraqis’ call.

An Iraqi who attended the hanging said the government saw the Americans as wasting time with their demands for a delay until after the four-day Id al-Adha holiday, and for whatever time beyond that required to obtain the legal authorizations they considered necessary. For the Americans to claim the moral high ground afterward by disavowing the hanging, the Iraqi said, was disingenuous.

“They cannot wash their hands, this is a joint responsibility,” he said. “They had the physical custody, and we had the legal custody. At one point, I asked, ‘Is it our call or is it your call?’ They said, ‘It’s your call.’ I said, ‘If it’s our call, we’ve made the decision.’ ” Legal niceties could not save Mr. Hussein, he said, concluding, “The man has to go.”

It’s interesting reading, but I’d take it with a grain of salt. Once again, I feel compelled to state I have no issue with the execution itself, but I do have issues with the lynch-mob atmosphere of the hanging.

Today’s Pic: A couple of Taos’ 38 art galleries (with web sites — doubtless there are more). And I’ve probably been in more than half of them, usually as a bag man, otherwise known as a “drag-ee.” Not that I don’t enjoy galleries, because I do. I just don’t like shopping.

May, 2004.

An EARLY Start, for a Change

Peggy Noonan wrote a stunning op-ed in the WSJ yesterday (An Ode to Ceremony), and I’ll quote extensively (emphasis mine):

A few days later, the great state funeral of Gerald Ford. I didn't plan to watch it, but every time I saw it I couldn't stop. Why do we do this, dust off the pomp and circumstance and haul out the ruffles and flourishes? It's not only to mark a death, even of so respected and highly charged a figure as a former president. Why do network television chiefs and newspaper editors decide not to leave the story until it's over, even when from day one it seems stale?

Because it's not stale. We're renewing.

The Marines snap their salutes and bear the flag-draped coffin up the marble steps and we hear the old hymns--"Going Home," "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God," "The Navy Hymn": "Oh hear us when we cry to thee / For those in peril on the sea." We don't hear these songs much in modern life, only at formal occasions like this. We lock them in a closet until a state funeral, and then they come out and we realize how much they meant, and how much we miss them.

The ministers speak of God's grace and ask him to welcome his humble servant home. Which suggests, and in a formal state occasion, that there is a God, a home, a soul. The eulogists speak of the wonders of the human personality, and of a specific and particular life in the long continuum. They praised Ford's honesty, his modesty, his patience. They said he always put himself second. They said he loved his country. In doing so they reminded us that effort is rewarded, patriotism is praised.

We do all this to remind ourselves who we are. We do it to remind ourselves what we honor, and what we believe, as a nation and a people. We do it to remind ourselves that America yields greatness, that here a seemingly average man raised in decidedly average circumstances can become someone whose passing deserves four days of a great nation's praise.

Praising these things reminds the old of what it is we should be aiming for each day, and instructs the young on the elements of a life well lived.

We do it to make the picture broader for a moment, and free ourselves of our cynicism. And we do it finally to enact what so many feel and rarely say, not only because it's corny but because if you mean it, it's beyond words.

Ms. Noonan’s thoughts are spot-on, particularly about the significance of ritual in instructing the young about who we are and what we stand for.

I put up a couple of posts about President Ford’s funeral and I watched most, but not all, of it. I also remarked about how impressive the ceremonies were. I neglected to address exactly why I found the rituals so impressive and, truth be told, I suppose I wasn’t completely in touch with my feelings. Or, much more likely, I was unable to articulate my feelings. As Ms. Noonan so correctly observes: “And we do it finally to enact what so many feel and rarely say, not only because it's corny but because if you mean it, it's beyond words.” The meaning of the occasion was most certainly beyond my words.

And while we’re on about “values,” here’s a follow-up to my recent post about the retirement of Steve Yzerman’s number. From an editorial by Lynne Meredith Schreiber in the Detroit News:

They lauded Yzerman for his integrity, his sportsmanship, his teamwork -- all the things I always loved about him. The way he married his high school love and stayed married. His humility. The way he took little, if any, credit for his great, great talent on the ice, instead sharing his night of honor, his career highlights and his Stanley Cup wins with all those around him, from the front office and locker room alike.

These used to be standard American characteristics quality, integrity, character. That's changed, big-time. Now, the words most often used to describe our nation are divorced, obese and lawsuit-happy.

As Americans have devolved as a people, individuals like Stevie Yzerman have soared to stardom not for his winning, his 692 career goals or the way he came to work even when he was injured, all admittedly fantastic. He is a star because he does not tell everyone he's a star. He is a star because he is, at heart, an average family guy who plays well with others.

I mentioned in passing that Stevie Y is in the “A” rank of my personal heroes, and Ms. Schreiber captures— perfectly —the main reason I hold The Captain in such esteem. And, to a lesser extent, my love for the sport of hockey. Anyone who has watched hockey for more than a season or two recognizes there’s a certain gestalt that runs through interviews with hockey players: they tend to be personally modest and attribute their successes to “the team.” In other words, they play well with others. There are lessons to be learned here.

I’ll offer up just one comparison: Terrell Owens. Stevie and TO come from entirely different planets, and the NHL and the NFL are two completely different universes. I know which universe I want MY kids (and grandkids) to live in. Just sayin’.

Today’s Pic: Photographic evidence that San Francisco is indeed America’s most beautiful city. Taken from the summit of Mt. Tamalpais, October of 2000. That’s my buddy John silhouetted against the view.

Just as an aside, Mt. Tam used to be the home of the 666^th Radar Squadron (Mill Valley Air Force Station), and as such was one of the best kept secrets in the entire United States Air Force. The Officers/NCO Club had a million-dollar view of the Bay Area through huge plate-glass windows and folks in the know could get a room in the BOQ for about ten bucks a night, back in the day. Although I was never stationed at Mill Valley, I did take advantage of those “low rates” at the BOQ once or twice…

A Travesty, Indeed

Charles Krauthammer is a wise man. He displays his wisdom in an op-ed in today’s WaPo titled “The Hanging: Beyond Travesty.” A few quotes:

Of the 6 billion people on this Earth, not one killed more people than Saddam Hussein. And not just killed but tortured and mutilated -- doing so often with his own hands and for pleasure. It is quite a distinction to be the preeminent monster on the planet. If the death penalty was ever deserved, no one was more richly deserving than Saddam Hussein.

For the Iraqi government to have botched both his trial and execution, therefore, and turned monster into victim, is not just a tragedy but a crime -- against the new Iraq that Americans are dying for and against justice itself.

[…]

Finally, there was the motley crew -- handpicked by the government -- that constituted the hanging party. They turned what was an act of national justice into a scene of sectarian vengeance. The world has now seen the smuggled video of the shouting and taunting that turned Saddam Hussein into the most dignified figure in the room -- another remarkable achievement in burnishing the image of the most evil man of his time.

Worse was the content of the taunts: "Moqtada, Moqtada," the name of the radical and murderous Shiite extremist whose goons were obviously in the chamber. The world saw Hussein falling through the trapdoor, executed not in the name of a new and democratic Iraq but in the name of Moqtada al-Sadr, whose death squads have learned much from Hussein.

The whole sorry affair illustrates not just incompetence but also the ingrained intolerance and sectarianism of the Maliki government. It stands for Shiite unity and Shiite dominance above all else.

We should not be surging American troops in defense of such a government. This governing coalition -- Maliki's Dawa, Abdul Aziz al-Hakim's Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq and Sadr's Mahdi Army -- seems intent on crushing the Sunnis at all costs. Maliki should be made to know that if he insists on having this sectarian war, he can well have it without us.

Mr. Krauthammer makes the point that there were numerous missed opportunities where bringing Saddam Hussein to justice is concerned, and his larger point that the hanging was a travesty cannot be ignored. Mr. Krauthammer’s points have been simmering on the back-burner of my consciousness ever since I watched the video of the hanging this past weekend. Like Mr. Krauthammer, I was appalled at the way the hanging was carried out, not by the deed itself. And I am not alone. It is beyond “unfortunate” Hussein’s execution was handled in such an outrageous manner. Like Mr. Krauthammer says: it was a crime. The execution is likely to be viewed as THE a watershed event in future narratives on the subject of “Who lost Iraq?”

I’m beginning to wonder if there is a solution to this situation.

(Note: I looked for other comment on Mr. Krauthammer’s op-ed. There’s precious little to be found, other than a couple of Lefty “I told you so!” sort of posts, including one from ersatz conservative Andrew Sullivan. I predict there will be a lot of comment on this op-ed by the end of the day.)

Update: I changed "The execution is likely to be viewed as THE watershed event in future narratives on the subject of “Who lost Iraq?” to "a watershed event..." "THE" is way too strong; the execution is having, and will continue to have, an impact throughout the Middle East for a long time to come. The great majority of Americans, including those who make and implement policy, are likely to say "So?" and move on.

Up Too Late...

I just now poured my second cup…up too late (with not much to show for it) and too long abed this morning. So…in what is rapidly becoming my signature blogging move, here’s a placeholder post.

From “An Open Letter to Lou Dobbs” by Donald J. Boudreaux (Chairman, Department of Economics, George Mason University) published in The Christian Science Monitor:

FAIRFAX, VA. – Dear Mr. Dobbs, Congratulations on having a large new bloc of voters bear your name! Politicians ignore the "Lou Dobbs Democrats" at their peril.

Every night on CNN you claim to speak for these people. They are America's middle class: decent folks who work hard and play by the rules but who, you insist, are abused by the powerful elite. Free trade is one of the policies allegedly supported by the elite and for which you reserve special vitriol. You thunder that imports destroy American jobs, reduce wages, and make the economy perilously "unbalanced."

But you are mistaken.

Ol’ Lou is another of those CNN pundits that put my teeth on edge (right up there with Blitzer and Amanpour), so much so that I refuse to watch him. At all. His jingoistic rants and raves are just SO wrong. I’m glad someone has finally called him out. Read the whole thing.

Lex posted some great plane pr0n yesterday; a short (5 min 12 sec) video of P-47s blowing stuff up during Big Bang Two. In color!

Today’s Pics: In keeping with that WW II plane pr0n theme, here are three shots of the front end of the B-17 Texas Raiders, one of which is inside the cockpit. Imagine spending eight to ten hours in that small space, most of that time spent trying to stay in formation, with a few hours worth of sheer terror in the form of flak and German interceptors thrown in just for good measure. The attrition rate for these bombers was horrendous, especially during the early phases of the bombing campaign against Germany. The Army Air Corps suffered 54,700 killed or missing during WW II, at a rate of 16.1 casualties per 1,000 served. Only the Marine Corps had a higher casualty rate.

Photos taken in March of 2000 in Brownsville, Texas.

You Don't Miss Your Water...

…until your well runs dry. The line, of course, is from that great ol’ blues song, the best versions of which are done by Otis Redding and Taj Mahal. I prefer Taj’s, myself. And I digress, yet again. I dunno what’s up with me of late, but I seem to have hit a prolonged dry spell… fresh out of things to say. Have you noticed? (ed: Duh. Dumb question, Buck. Of course they have!)

Notre Dame set an NCAA record last night, losing their ninth consecutive bowl game. Ignominy. It was oh-so-painful to watch. I don’t want to talk about it…

I’m one-for-three as far as bowl games are concerned, meaning those games where I had some sort of vested interest in the outcome. ND and Big Blue lose, Boise State wins.

Oh, to have been at The Joe… to see this:

Photo caption: “Steve Yzerman's jersey hangs with those of Terry Sawchuk, Alex Delvecchio, Ted Lindsay, Sid Abel and Gordie Howe in the Joe Louis Arena rafters. (MANDI WRIGHT/Detroit Free Press)”

From the Detroit Free Press:

Yzerman, 41, retired July 3 after 22 seasons, all of them with the Wings, 19 of them as the captain. He won three Stanley Cups, an Olympic gold medal, scored 692 career NHL goals, going about it all with a humility that belied his immense talent. He never sought the spotlight but his hockey renown won him fans all over North America and beyond.

Long-time readers know Steve Yzerman is in the A-rank of my heroes. SN1 watched The Captain's number retirement ceremony in real-time, as he has the NHL Center-Ice Tee Vee package, and gave me blow-by-blow descriptions of the festivities night before last. I can only imagine how absolutely electric the atmosphere must have been in The Joe. The Captain is arguably Deee-troit’s most-loved sports figure of the last 20 years or so.

And speaking of hockey…I’ve seen the Wings play exactly once so far this season. It…uh…hurts to be at the mercy of OLN where hockey is concerned. And the play-offs are a loooong way away.

And so it goes…

Today’s Pic: Another shot of the St. James hotel in Cimarron. This time it’s an interior shot, which gives you a bit of that Ol’ West flavor. The ex-GF and I seated in a “good place.” May, 2004.

Not a Lot to Say Today...

In today’s Bleat:

Made some calls back to the office to see what the mood was like. Shock and aw-sh*t, you could say. I understand; I woke last night around 3AM and started spinning the sort of scenarios that come to one at 3 AM. (One never wakes up at 3 AM and spend an hour considering an ever-escalating series of encounters with gorgeous, smart, long-legged women with a wide variety of hairstyles and foundation garments, ending in a best-case-scenario at Enzo Ferrari’s Computer & Bourbon Emporium. No, it’s always the dank sweaty dreams of mid-life failure.

James wrote this about his paper (and place of employment), the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, being sold…a for-real modern American nightmare. But the part that struck me as humorous was his best-case scenario observation that one never awakes at 0300 hrs after dreaming about good things. I’ve often had dreams such as James describes…dreams involving smart and gorgeous women, a to-die-for combination that always renders me speechless in real life. Or nearly always.

And about that modern American nightmare… “Shock and aw-sh!t” is a perfect description of the mood among the rank and file of the acquired (or sold) organization. (The senior-most level management of the acquired org almost always “does well,” so they, for the most part, aren’t a consideration.) I’ve never been on the “acquired” side of that nightmare, but I often found myself on the “acquiring” side. Such was the nature of working for one of the largest “outsourcers” in the IT industry, followed up with working for a small company that snatched up a couple of failed and/or failing web services firms immediately after the dot-com bubble burst. It’s an incredibly ugly process, deciding who among the “acquired” deserves to continue on in the new, merged organization, and who will be let go “downsized.” The fear among the acquired personnel is palpable and real, due to the fact that even though the skills and/or the experience of the acquired folks may exceed those of the acquiring team, it’s always the acquired that are downsized, never the acquiring personnel. It’s one of corporate America’s dirty little secrets.

Life ain’t fair.

Today’s Pic(s): The St. James Hotel in Cimarron, NM.

From their web site:

As a vital outpost of The Old Santa Fe Trail, Cimarron and the St. James are linked to a veritable Who's Who of the early land grant settlers, ranchers and desperados (mug shots available upon request). The cast of characters included such notables as settlers Lucien Maxwell and Carlos Beaubien, Buffalo Bill Cody and his cohort, Annie Oakley, Kit Carson, Frank and Jesse James, Wyatt Earp, Billy the Kid and Blackjack Ketchum. The notorious gunman, Clay Allison, allegedly danced naked on the bar,* once part of the present dining room which still has bullet holes in its pressed tin ceiling.

I’ve seen the bullet holes. All in all, The St. James is a pretty cool place...especially considering its location and the epoch it was built in. It's pretty elegant, even in this day and age. The St. James was probably considered a Modern Marvel during its heyday.

And here I am, standing in the Bat Masterson Suite. Pretty danged small for a suite, eh?

May, 2004.

Finally

Today’s Pic: A wonderful shot of a transformer on a pole at sunset, which happens to be located in Albuquerque’s’ Old Town. January, 2004. (This is the narrative I posted this morning. I finally managed to upload the photo by re-starting Firefox. So the problem appears to be me, and not Blogger. Computers simply amaze me with their issues. They're a lot damned harder to operate than they should be. Keep in mind, I'm speaking with the perspective of someone who spent 16 years in the IT biz.)

And So We Begin the New Year

I was awakened by the sound of artillery fire this morning…from the Tee Vee. As noted elsewhere on the blog, I have a terrible habit of falling asleep with the Tee Vee on. Last night I fell asleep watching talking heads on C-SPAN, and this morning C-SPAN was running live coverage of President Ford’s state funeral, part II. The traditional 21-gun salute was what woke me up… an interesting way to begin the day, to be sure. With an unexpected bonus: Susan Swain is C-SPAN’s hostess this morning, an out of rotation appearance due to the holidays, no doubt. Ah…but so welcome!

The funeral is continuing as I write. The eulogies have been impressive (Tom Brokaw’s was particularly good), and I continue to be awed by the precision and beauty of it all. Attendance by Washington’s VIP community is much improved over Saturday’s. As well it should be.

I spoke with SN2 at some length yesterday, mostly about his blog, blogging in general, and associated family matters. Sam is attending the Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island, and calls me nearly every weekend as he’s making the drive back to Newport from home in Maine. Interestingly enough, Sam hadn’t looked at his blog at all yesterday and was oblivious to the comments some of y’all left there. So don’t think he’s ignoring you! Sam can well and truly speak for himself, but sometimes life and other priorities intrude upon blogging. At least for those bloggers who have some semblance of a life beyond the blog…

I had to pop out this morning for consumables and was shocked to find the price of smokes has gone up. Again. When I first arrived in P-Town four years ago I was gratified to discover the price of a carton of my favorite brand was …ahem… “only” $38.00 (and change). Quite a difference from what I was paying in SFO, which, if I recall correctly, was somewhere around $45.00/carton. Today that same carton of smokes cost me $46.27. That’s a helluva increase, waaay above and beyond inflation! It’s all taxes.

It’s worse in Texas, where an additional one-dollar-per-pack tax on cigarettes became effective yesterday. ONE DOLLAR, per pack. That’s over and above what was already an egregious tax rate. What is it that makes lawmakers feel like they can tax smokers with impunity? I’m beginning to feel…uh…oppressed. Just sayin’.

Good news in the war on terror, Somalia front… Ralph Peters, writing in the NY Post:

January 2, 2007 -- THE new year is off to a bad start for Muslim extremists and their admirers in the media: After only a few months in power, the Islamist regime in Mogadishu collapsed overnight as Ethiopian troops drove out the fanatics.

The global media line held that the Islamic Courts Council, which seized power last year and immediately imposed Sharia law, was in firm control of the country, with the legal government in Baidoa destined to fall. And Somalia did become the new Terror Central, a safe haven for al Qaeda and a strategic base for Islamist subversion in Africa.

Then Ethiopia stepped in and spoiled the goat roast.

Unconvinced by Western myths that military force is useless against terrorists, Addis Ababa's troops intervened to support Somalia's internationally recognized government against the jihadis. The no-nonsense use of force worked.

One hopes this is a permanent victory and not the beginning of another insurgency. But let us not look at the situation through rose-colored glasses. An insurgency is a given, to be sure. The Islamists won’t throw up their hands and simply go away. But a successful insurgency requires popular support, and it appears that popular support is non-existent, or at least very small, in Somalia. That is good news, indeed.

Here’s an interesting l’il tale from Mark Steyn’s weekly column in the Chicago Sun-Times:

Mustaf Jama, a Somali ''asylum seeker'' in Britain wanted for the murder of a policewoman, fled the country by taking his sister's passport, wearing a niqab (the full Islamic head-to-toe get-up that covers everything but the eyes) and passing unhindered through the checkpoints at Heathrow.

How about that? It turns out we are profiling after all, but we're profiling everybody except Muslims. Your wizened l'il ol' gran'ma on a Yuletide break to London is bent double and out of breath struggling to take off her coat and shoes. The officials sternly scrutinize her passport to check that the picture matches her flustered and bewildered face. All around her hundreds of women are doing the same, mutely shuffling through the scanner in their stocking feet. But Britain's most wanted man is breezing through because he took the precaution of dressing as a Muslim woman. And it would be culturally insensitive to expose them to the same scrutiny as your gran'ma.

Many of us think about the long-term shifts necessary to win this struggle: euthanizing the United Nations and overhauling other malign and anachronistic institutions. Fat chance. Mustaf Jama's express check-out is the perfect parodic reductio of "security": The state is willing to inflict pointless bureaucratic discomfort and inconvenience on everyone else, but the demographic group with the most links to terrorism gets to go through the fast-track VIP channel.

Well, now. How about that! If it wasn’t so sad it would be funny, indeed. And just why am I thinking about our very own Flying Imams as I bang this out?

Today’s Pic: A wonderful shot of a transformer on a pole at sunset, which happens to be located in Albuquerque’s’ Old Town. January, 2004. (Note: Blogger is not accepting requests to upload photos at the moment. [sarcasm: off] I’ll try again later.)

Happy New Year!!

Happy New Year! Here’s hoping 2007 is a very good year for you and yours, and that you got what you wanted (or needed) out of 2006.

Apropos of nothing, and most definitely not rubbing it in, my head is perfectly clear this morning and I feel fine. The thought occurred to me (for the briefest of moments) this past week that perhaps a bit o’ the bubbly wouldn’t be a bad idea on New Year’s Eve. I immediately dismissed that thought for two reasons: (1) drinking champagne alone is just SO far beyond the pale as to make no sense at all, and (2) the flutes are long gone. (I’m something of a stickler when it comes to the proper vessel for alcohol.) So…I limited the spirits intake last evening to two-fingers of the Emergency Single-Malt (Glenlivet, of the 12-year-old variety). Which reminds me: I’ve yet to renew the supply of the preferred single-malt. Must add that to the to-do list…

If you happen to be under the weather today, then take two of these and go back to bed. We’ll wait.

Well…SN2 put the second post up on his blog yesterday, so I have to believe he’s ready for some linky-love. Drop by Sam's Rants 'n' Raves and welcome him to the blogosphere!

Don’t be looking for New Year’s resolutions here…you won’t find any. The closest I’ll come to a resolution is this: I resolve to do my best to keep breathing this coming year, and to keep the shiny side up. Past attempts at resolutions only produced angst/guilt at my failure to act upon my best instincts. I don’t need that. Might this be low expectations or a failure of imagination? You decide…

I’m Late to the Party, Once Again… Only 76,157 folks viewed this before me, but hey… here’s a metal/hip-hop song I can really get behind: "Open Season" - Stuck Mojo. The music is good, but it’s the lyrics and the visuals that really ring my bell. Six minutes and 41 seconds of good stuff. (hat-tip: Chap)

Continuing on with the “Late to the Party” meme… Here’s an article I meant to link last week yet didn’t. The actual message of the article isn’t as interesting (to me) as the opening graf or two:

WASHINGTON -- Almost all Americans see themselves as "middle class.''

To declare yourself middle class is to say you've succeeded without openly bragging that you're superior -- a no-no in a democratic culture. You're like everyone else, only a little more or less so.

Not surprisingly, a recent poll done for the Economic Policy Institute, a liberal think tank, finds that only 2 percent of Americans put themselves in the "upper class'' and a mere 8 percent consider themselves "lower class.'' The large majority classify themselves as "upper-middle class'' (17 percent) or "middle class'' (45 percent). The rest (27 percent) see themselves as "working class,'' a stepping stone to the middle class.

Interesting, eh? But not too surprising. We are an egalitarian society, and my personal experience confirms that fact, for me. The great majority of successful people I’ve known described themselves as “middle class,” and only a few of those folks added “upper” to the middle-class tag. I’d have categorized those folks that considered themselves upper-middle class as “upper-class,” myself. But that’s just me.

There are many ways to slice and dice this class thing. Income is the most common, I suppose, but how you earn that income is germane, and then there are such things as zip-codes (where you live), and your familial origins. Values and taste enter into the equation, as well. The great thing about this country is our distinct lack of a caste system. One is truly free to be what one wants to be…there are virtually no, or very few, limits to one’s upward (or downward!) mobility in America when you come right down to it. And that’s a good thing.

An aside: I found out early on that the best, fastest, and most certain way to begin an argument with The Second Mrs. Pennington was to throw out an off-hand observation to the effect of “But Hey! What do I know, anyway? I’m just a blue-collar kinda guy…” “You are not!” she’d snap and we’d be off to the races… Now I ask you: What else would you call a beer-drinking, hockey-loving, retired sergeant, if not blue-collar?

Today’s Pic: Indoctrination. SN1, SN3, and Grandson Sean’s legs. Getting the guided tour of an F-16 cockpit, Cannon AFB. April, 2003.