December 18, 2009
ROAD TO SERFDOM VS ROAD TO HELL
In Copenhagen, Hugo Chavez got a
standing ovation when he said
this:
“our revolution seeks to help all people…socialism, the other ghost
that is probably wandering around this room, that’s the way to save the
planet, capitalism is the road to hell....let’s fight against
capitalism and make it obey us.â€
We're boned.
Read Conrad Black's
When Summits Used to Matter.
Posted by: Sarah at
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Of course, he's preaching to a bunch of the richest dictators on the planet. And they applaud because... why again? Oh, right! Because every bit of power they take from the US and other non-craphole countries is more power they can take for themselves.
Kind of like the UN - an organization we expect to be democratic and fair when it's populated by a bunch of strongarm thugs.
Yeah, sure. How they govern at home shouldn't preclude their good behavior and intentions when given power over OTHER countries. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.
Um, whatever.
You know what Venezuela needs from us in the US? A coupon for Hugo to get that laser skin resurfacing. It won't shut him up, but at least we can eat without the urge to vomit whenever the news cuts to one of his ridiculous diatribes.
Posted by: airforcewife at December 18, 2009 11:24 AM (uE3SA)
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As kevin would say, "We won!"
As K-Lo wrote,
It's the president of Venezuela at a global summit our president is now attending.Was Obama standing and clapping? What were they clapping for? What
Charles Krauthammer called a "shakedown: the transfer of hundreds of billions from the industrial West to the Third World to save the planet".
AFW wrote,
Because every bit of power they take from the US and other non-craphole countries is more power they can take for themselves.
And the US loves to give."I hope more than anything you will be able to focus on the people of this country [Afghanistan].
That's what this is all about."Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
Yup, it's all about the 52st state. (Iraq is the 51st. Both may be last but not least! See below.)
And they love to ask:
The tribal leaders also made a pitch for a hydroelectric dam to go along with one the U.S. built here in the 1950s. Mullen made no promises, but said he'd see what he could do.Whatever happened to that old dam?The disastrous effects of dam-building were visible in 1949 and only became more obvious as the project grew. But camouflaged by dreams of Pashtun ascendancy and invisible American influence, HAVA [Helmand and Arghandab Valley Authority]
was as resilient as modernization theory itself, able to survive repeated debunkings while shedding the blame and the memory of failure.Proponents of a fresh nation-building venture in Afghanistan, unaware of the results of the last one, have resurrected its imaginings.Oh well, just build a new one for them. And another.
Even if we can't afford it (via Diana West).
Your tax dollars at work:
Remember "blood for oil," the anti-war mantra of the Left? "Blood not for oil" is more like it. Not only did Paul Wolfowitz's prediction that Iraq would pay for its own reconstruction with oil revenue never come true; not only did the United States never get to fill up one crummy Humvee for free; but when Iraq staged one of the biggest oil auctions in history last week, U.S. companies left empty-handed. Russia, China and Europe came out the big winners."Strange," said industry experts, which is one word for it. What's also shocking is Iraq's apparent willingness to denigrate the United States by showing favoritism to hostile nations (that sacrificed nothing in Iraq's war), and disregard for American interests in the war's (supposed) aftermath.Such benefactor-abuse fits a pattern of what you might call Iraqi de-Americanization.[...]
U.S. government reconstruction spending, of course, equals taxpayer dollars. Beyond our incredible largesse -- which (not including the astronomical cost of the war itself) comes to $53 billion, much of which is headed down the drain as Iraqis show little capacity to maintain U.S.-provided public works projects -- one market analyst told the Times, "U.S. private investors have become negligible players in Iraq." Meanwhile, Turkey, the nation that prevented U.S. troops from transiting through during the initial invasion, has become a major commercial player in Iraq. Likewise Iran, the nuke-seeking, genocide-promising nation that fomented much of the war, particularly the IED war, on U.S. forces in Iraq.[...]
And the United States? More like an old shoe now than anything else. Which reminds me: After that Iraqi "journalist" threw his shoes at then-President Bush, The Scotsman
newspaper reported that the Istanbul-based shoe manufacturer received orders from around the world, including an incredible 120,000 orders from Iraq.What's that old Middle Eastern saying -- The shoe of my enemy's enemy is my shoe?(Re)read Sarah's
"HE IS NOT THERE TO 'SERVE' THEM". No American should 'serve' a foreign nation.
Our country is too generous. The Chavezes, and yes, the Afghans and the Iraqis know this and take advantage of us.
Shrug, Atlas, shrug!
Posted by: Amritas at December 18, 2009 05:17 PM (dWG01)
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NO ONE TO FETCH FOR ME
Yesterday I went to my knitting friend's house to relax and hang out.
It was great. Her family wouldn't let me lift a finger and took care of
me all day: her husband walked my dog in the cold, her boys fetched me
things all day, and she kept refilling my water glass. That last one
made me especially happy.
The other night, I decided I was
thirsty and that I should get up and go downstairs to get some water.
And before I could get up, the baby started "playing." She was being
very bouncy and was punching the top of my uterus with her little fist.
I started pushing back at her, and she'd punch again. It was like we
were playing a game. And I loved sitting there playing with her, but I
desperately wanted that glass of water too. I knew that if I stood up
and walked downstairs, she'd move positions and the game would be over.
And
in that moment, I hated being in this house alone. I just wanted to
look over at my husband and ask him to go get me some water and then
come back to the sofa and keep playing with us. I wanted to have it
both ways, the water and the game, and that's not possible when I'm
alone.
I just desperately wanted someone to run grab that water for me. And I had no one.
Posted by: Sarah at
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Sarah,
While I know you didn’t mean it to be, this post is a perfect example of what we often hear but never truly fully appreciate regarding our military families making sacrifices.
While I’m sorry that you had no one in that moment, I’m so grateful for you, Sarah, and your husband.
Best Wishes.
P.S. Camel Back? 
Posted by: tim at December 18, 2009 09:52 AM (CnABi)
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It sucks that y'all can't be together during this wonderful period in your lives... But, again, I am so happy you have this period, waiting for your child to arrive...
Posted by: Miss Ladybug at December 18, 2009 08:07 PM (vqKnu)
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December 16, 2009
PAGING HEALTH CZAR STARNES
(Via
Bookworm Room) Zombie
has a good post up about why universal health care is bad for us...morally and socially. His gist: "
it turns each of us into a little fascist. A nagging nanny who tells other people what to do and how to live."
The fictionalized version of his post is the
tale of the Twentieth Century Motor Company, of course.
And someday, someone in our new American health care system is gonna smash in Millie Bush's teeth too...
Posted by: Sarah at
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Unlike the scenario in "Atlas," the anger under ObamaCare would likely be directed at *groups* rather than individuals. Instead of rage at Millie Bush, there would be rage at categories of people perceived to be raising the H/C expenses for all of us. Probable targets include...
--the obsese
--gays
--people who pursue sports with a high injury rate (skiing, for example)
--parents of children who let them be born despite predicted health problems
--and, of course, the elderly
Posted by: david foster at December 16, 2009 11:39 AM (2z8Ig)
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A very small point -- I don't believe Zombie has ever confirmed whether the author is male or female. Or were you using it in the generic pronoun sense?
Posted by: Lissa at December 17, 2009 06:52 AM (mgjM7)
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Lissa -- Good point. I have always just assumed Zombie to be a he, not based on any evidence...
Posted by: Sarah at December 17, 2009 08:33 AM (gWUle)
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"If you want men to be like brothers, have them join in the building of a tower. If you want them to hate each other, throw bread among them."
--Antoine de St-Exupery
(approximate quote)
Posted by: David Foster at December 17, 2009 05:09 PM (oj+w+)
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I'd forgotten the details of that part of Atlas Shrugged... when I first read the post, and saw the part about bashing Millie Bush's teeth in... I thought of Pres. George H.W. Bush's dog Millie, and wondered why anyone would want to attack her.
Posted by: malclave at December 17, 2009 07:57 PM (OCRaO)
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I agree with david foster about classes of Millie Bushes. Class warfare. How Leftist. A policy that makes us all dependents and dictators at the same time. As
Newsweek declared, ""We are all socialists now."
Posted by: Amritas at December 18, 2009 05:32 PM (dWG01)
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GETTING GHEY WITH KIDS
I usually don't buy Girl Scout cookies because, well, I am too cheap to buy such a small box for that price. And I don't even like Thin Mints. But I do like those Samoas...
I saw
this video today and have been looking for outside confirmation of what these Scouts at Copenhagen say. If it is true, I can pass on the Samoas too.
I did find
info on goofy new-age and "girltopia" lessons. Bleh.
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My girls are both in Girl Scouts, and there is a LOT about what the organization has become that makes me want to turn around and run the other way.
On the other hand, the implementation of a lot of that stuff depends on the type of troop and area you are in. My #2 girl is in a more conservative Catholic School affiliated troop, and #3's troop has been the single most supportive non-military activity our family has had contact with while AFG is gone. And there's no other way we could afford summer camp for the girls (outside of Girl Scouts it can run into the thousands).
And, first and foremost for our reasoning, I've already told my kids they are responsible for their own college bills - as I was responsible for mine. But since I'm making that rule, I figure it's also my responsibility to make every effort to ensure they have access to everything they need to get into a good college with a scholarship. And Girl Scouts is a big step towards that (if they do it the whole way through school).
So, we end up trying to make the best of it. And it works (so far) with tweaking.
The contrast between Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts is enormous, though. ENORMOUS, as I found out when the boy became a cub scout this year.
Oh - and I'm a total Samoa addict. Best cookies in the Girl Scout arsenal, hands down.
Posted by: airforcewife at December 16, 2009 11:13 AM (uE3SA)
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AFW -- I wondered what your girls' troops were like. I figured if they were all eco- and lefty, I would've heard about it from you by now!
Posted by: Sarah at December 16, 2009 12:32 PM (gWUle)
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Looks like Girl Scouts have changed a lot since I was one back in the day. If you want to satisfy your craving for Samoas without contributing to that, I found
this recipe awhile ago and they're pretty amazing. I took them into work once and they were gone in about 10 minutes.
Posted by: Sespi at December 16, 2009 03:01 PM (vT6nv)
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Boy scouts went round the bend for Injuns and all that crap years ago. I can remember when it was all "Mark Trail", hunting, camping, fishing, survival, great living in grubby times, and service projects.
Now it seems like that is a far distant second to fundraisers to support the next fundraiser.
That was my experience at the den in western PA.
Now, here at Fort Leavenworth, the pack is run by Army officers. The boys learned how to use block and tackle, wiches and pulleys from an Army TM. They learn how to tie ropes into knots from the Ranger handbook, and are instructed by Rangers themselves. They camp out, take knives with them, and have a jamboree that cost all of $5 per scout--for the food they would eat, and dads provided some of our field gear for tents, sleeping bags, shelters, etc.
They learned to rough it--and LOVED IT.
Girl scouts for my daughter is still in the Daisy phase, so beyond cookie sales and macaroni art, I can't pass judgment.
But she did come home from school the other day telling me all about glowball warmening. I told her it was all just made up stories, told by scientists who were bad at math and couldn't prove their stories without lying. I asked her teacher about it today. I asked if it was real, why are the computer models used to predict climate change decades in the future, unable to accurately predict YESTERDAYS weather?
/Sorry, off topic. I support the local cookie dealer because she has big, beautiful blue eyes, and I loves me some samoas.
Posted by: Chuck Z at December 17, 2009 12:00 AM (bMH2g)
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Before I clicked on the links, I imagined kevin's idea of Grrrrl Scouts. Then I read the WND article. It's closer than I expected, though I think it's over the top.
Posted by: Amritas at December 18, 2009 05:46 PM (dWG01)
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I have half a case of Samoas in the storage room. Want some?
I've ignored the "journeys" for GS since they were introduced, too lefty for me, and I'm the leader, so I can do what I want
Posted by: Susan at December 18, 2009 08:23 PM (Y8ZGj)
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December 14, 2009
ME BEING SNARKY
Seems Democrats are
dumber than I thought!
(For the record, I have never seen a ghost, talked to the dead, believed in a fortuneteller, or done yoga.)
Posted by: Sarah at
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Well, back in the day, when I was in high school and a young Democrat I did see something strange one time. Does that count?
Posted by: Ruth H at December 15, 2009 12:32 AM (WPw5a)
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Sarah,
Seems Democrats are dumber than I thought!
I would be hesitant to label Democrats as "dumber" on the basis of this
survey because even smart people can indulge in wishful thinking.
Conversely, I've long assumed that the skeptic community - Penn and Teller aside - is mostly Leftist. But I really don't know.
For the record, I have never seen a ghost, talked to the dead, believed in a fortuneteller, or done yoga.Same here.
Interesting study. I'd like to know the why behind the results. The fact that Republicans tend to be more traditionally religious (and hence less New Age-y) is of course a big factor, but it can't be the sole cause.
Here's
one finding that stands out if one believes America has become more secular over time (emphasis mine):
Nearly half of the public (49%) says they have had a religious or
mystical experience, defined as a "moment of sudden religious insight
or awakening." This is similar to a survey conducted in 2006 but much
higher than in surveys conducted in 1976 and 1994 and more than twice
as high as a 1962 Gallup survey (22%). In fact, this year's survey
finds that religious and mystical experiences are more common today
among those who are unaffiliated with any particular religion (30%)
than they were in the 1960s among the public as whole (22%).I wonder what all that means. Has anyone here felt such a moment?
Ruth,
Well, back in the day, when I was in high school and a young Democrat I did see something strange one time. Does that count? Nah. I see and hear things I can't explain too - even after I stopped being a Leftist! We're not omniscient, and that's OK. What is not OK is automatically assuming we've seen alien spacecraft or ghosts. UFOs are by defnition unidentified. Just because we can't identify it doesn't mean it's alien. We should keep our minds open without going out of our minds.
Posted by: Amritas at December 15, 2009 03:09 AM (dWG01)
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Amritas -- That's why I said I was being snarky in the title. I am just poking some fun...
Posted by: Sarah at December 15, 2009 08:10 AM (gWUle)
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No seriously Democrats believe in that stuff and the vast majority of republicans believe
that a cosmic Jewish Zombie who was
his own father can make you live forever if you symbolically eat his
flesh and telepathically tell him you accept him as your master, so he
can remove an evil force from your soul that is present in humanity
because a rib-woman was convinced by a talking snake to eat from a
magical tree...lol
Posted by: Matt at December 15, 2009 09:40 PM (lGp3O)
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I'm not at all surprised by these results--many "progressives" have long believed in things like astrology, magical crystals, various mysterious "forces", etc.
I *would* be interested to see these results broken down by gender...I think in general, women are more likely than men to have beliefs of this type, and on the average women are also more politically Democratic. (My hippie college girlfriend eventually became a witch...I doubt that there are too many Republican witches.) The dems-believe-in-spooks data may actually be an artifact of the intersection of gender religious belief patterns with gender political preference patterns.
Posted by: david foster at December 16, 2009 09:29 AM (HL8vY)
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I don't see what the big deal is.
Of course they talk to the dead. How else do you expect the dead to know who to vote for?
Posted by: malclave at December 17, 2009 06:44 PM (OCRaO)
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I've seen a ghost. And I believe in magic. I've done lots of yoga and really enjoy it -particularly the hot kind. And I'd kind of like to be a witch. And I used to see and try to read auras. I'm not sure if this all makes me stupid, but I'm pretty conservative and almost always vote Republican, except when I vote Libertarian. I love our country because I'm allowed to believe what ever the heck I want and because you're allowed to call me stupid. That's okay and good and not offensive. I'm glad we all get to choose what we believe in. I do draw the line at orbs though. I'm much more inclined to believe science on that one.
Posted by: Lane at December 18, 2009 11:11 AM (MXMsn)
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I want to make Matt's comment my FaceBook status...holy smokes that's hysterical! Okay, I totally believe in horoscopes as a description of someone's personality...not a day to day indicator of what's going to happen like a fortune cookie. I seriously think there is some possible scientific explanation...like cosmic forces having an effect on a developing child. So not so much the date of the child's birth would have an effect on their personality, but that cosmic forces would have an effect on the in utero development from conception.
Posted by: calivalleygirl at December 18, 2009 05:35 PM (irIko)
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COME HERE WHILE IT'S STILL GOOD
French singer Johnny Hallyday got an operation in France that went wrong, his producer
says:
Camus, speaking Friday on French radio, said
the American medical team treating Hallyday said the rocker had
suffered ill-effects from the operation in France, and that infection
"was attacking his bone marrow."
"If
what I'm being told in the United States is true, this operation was a
massacre," he said on RTL radio. On France-Info, Camus said: "It seems
the Americans fixed things that they found that were very badly done."
So now he's in L.A. recovering in an induced coma.
Hmm, where will rich and famous people go for medical treatment once our system is crap too?
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I've long known about Hallyday, even though I've never heard his music. Never thought I'd see his faux-American name in this context. I just learned that he has permanent residency in Switzerland
"to escape the high tax rate imposed by the French government." He'll really love France once he recovers.
Even he's got
a Sarah Palin connection:
Hallyday supported Nicolas Sarkozy in the 2007 French presidential election. In an ironic twist, when the Canadian comedy duo the Masked Avengers prank-called American vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin by pretending to be Sarkozy, they named Hallyday as Sarkozy's "Special American Advisor."Our Sarah asks:
Hmm, where will rich and famous people go for medical treatment once our system is crap too?I suggest Cuba:
"Cuba's Healthcare a model for the U.S. says CNN"The Castroite
propaganda in Sicko so outraged people cursed by fate to live in
Castro's fiefdom that they risked their lives by using hidden cameras
to film conditions in genuine Cuban hospitals, hoping they could alert
the world to Moore's swinishness as a propaganda operative for a
Stalinist regime.At enormous risk, two hours of shocking, often revolting, footage was obtained with tiny hidden cameras and smuggled out of Cuba [...]Originally, ABC's John
Stossel planned to show the shocking videos in their entirety, during a
20/20 show. Alas, on Sept. 12th 2007, the 20/20 show ran only a tiny
segment on Cuba's "real" healthcare, barely 5 minutes long and with
almost none of the smuggled video footage. What happened?Well,
the Castro regime got wind of these videos and called in ABC's Havana
bureau for a little talking-to, stressing that ABC's "bureau permit"
might face "closer scrutiny" if they showed the blockbuster videos.
ABC (and yes, Stossel, whom we all otherwise admire) wimped out.I'd like to hear Stossel's side of the story. I don't think I'd like to see the videos. Just reading that article was disturbing enough. I can't bring myself to quote the details here.
Posted by: Amritas at December 14, 2009 03:35 PM (dWG01)
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December 13, 2009
SHE WILL NEVER BE COLD
I finally started having the energy to hold needles for longer than 20 minutes, so I finished three baby sweaters for my very own baby recently. This is my favorite one:
And I know I swore that I wasn't going to do any knitting for anyone else's babies once I was concentrating on my own, but I can't stick with that and have a few things up my sleeve for two other gals.
Posted by: Sarah at
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You have to put a quarter (or something) in the picture so we know the scale...
Posted by: David Boxenhorn at December 13, 2009 03:06 PM (6QcMn)
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that is a splendid sweater! congrats on that! I managed to do 3 hats in the this past weekend ... so I fully understand!
Posted by: Darla at December 13, 2009 03:22 PM (XvIN7)
Posted by: Miss Ladybug at December 13, 2009 04:16 PM (vqKnu)
Posted by: Amritas at December 13, 2009 04:50 PM (dWG01)
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SYNOVA IS DEAD ON
Althouse has
a post about how CNN seems to have a broken English-to-English translator. In the comments was this gem from
Synova. (I am copying the whole perfect comment because I can never get Althouse's permalinks to jump down to the right
comment.)
In Iraq they did not *accidentally* wait until American soldiers were
surrounded by Muslim children to attack them. And then, without irony,
they *themselves* say that those children would not have died if the
Americans were not there.
Then someone like Wright explains that the violence would not have happened if the Americans were not there.
Here's a clue.
The enemy knows what they are doing.
They
are not simple or child-like brown people who don't know better or who
are being tossed, to and fro, by events that are beyond them.
They
may or may not believe their own propaganda, but they do understand
psychological warfare and engineer the massacre of children with the
explicit knowledge and understanding of just *how* they can jerk *our*
chains.
So... "We are sorry that there are dead Muslims, that we
shot into a crowd of them, that we planted IED's, that we blew up that
Mosque, that we were forced to go through your village and dispense
justice and left the bodies in the street to be found."
And the
thing is... America and the West has NOTHING to combat this with
because we simply refuse to do so. We have no one who's job it is to
broadcast our side of the story, to put the information out there over
and over that by far the most Muslims killed are not killed by us but
are killed by those we are fighting. And it's the truth! It's the
truth, so why doesn't our media push it voluntarily? Why don't they
make certain that every person knows the atrocities committed by
Muslims on other Muslims. Why don't they?
When we have found and documented rooms with shackles and blood on the walls...
The
response to a dead and *gutted* woman in Iraq who had spent her life
working to help people there was an insipid "oh, dear" followed by...
"but they made a prisoner at Gitmo look at pornography."
The
response to butchered and defiled Americans was "screw them". The
response to defiled, dismembered and tortured to *death* American
soldiers was "OMGAWD we poured water on someone's FACE!"
Someone is enabling this sort of thing, abetting, and participating.
And AQ is *sorry* that Muslims asked for it, oh well... lets blow up more Muslim kids and blame it on America.
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I love your phrase "broken English-to-English translator"!
Why don't they
make certain that every person knows the atrocities committed by
Muslims on other Muslims. Why don't they?Because in their eyes, only Westerners are accountable for their actions. All others are supposedly victims of the West ... even though Muslims are actually the biggest victims of
Islam. But they can't say that. No, only Christianity is 'fair game' for criticism.
Someone is enabling this sort of thing, abetting, and participating.And our forces lack
the cultural and linguistic knowledge to know who all of those someones are:
It would take us Americans years of training and study of databases and so forth to figure out what every Iraqi or Afghani over the age of 12 already knows about his language, culture, neighbors, and neighborhood.The main information needed in such “wars†is who are the bad guys. The locals know. But it is extremely difficult for us to figure it out. Our weapons and training for killing the bad guys are useless if we cannot figure out which ones to kill.Unlike buying a building, you cannot just ask for the information and rely on it in the Middle East. But the point is that it is extremely foolish of us to try to use ordinary 18-year-old guys from Gary, Indiana and Flagstaff, Arizona and such to become competent policemen in those countries. Most of the problem there is a police, not a military matter, and it must be done by local policemen. How effective would Afghan or Iraqi policemen be in Washington DC?
How effective are they now at home? Emphasis mine:
The U.S. Marines were tense looking for bombs buried near a mud compound in this remote farming town in southern Afghanistan. Their new Afghan police colleagues were little help, joking around and sucking on lollipops meant for local kids.The government had sent the new group of 13 police to live and train with the Marines just a few days earlier. Most were illiterate young farmers with no formal training who had been plucked off the streets only weeks before.Building a capable police force is one of the keys to President Barack Obama's new Afghan strategy.A broken key. Throw it away. Policing
their country is
their problem. Let's police
our own country. Watch our borders. Secure our airports. Keep an eye on jihadism at home. That is doable. So why aren't we doing it? Why insist on the impossible - made doubly so by
restrictive rules of engagement?
The U.S. and allied soldiers who refrain from shooting where civilian human shields are benefiting themselves by enabling themselves to claim they are great humanitarians who held their fire. But they do that at the expense of the rest of the American and allied military who will be in continued danger from the bad guys in question. Indeed, the bullet that kills the humanitarian soldier who held his fire, or his best friend, may be fired by the bad guy he let escape with his decision not to shoot where he knew or suspected bad guys were—because of the presence of civilians.Similarly, refraining from shooting at an enemy soldier because he uses innocent (or maybe not) civilians as shields rewards and thereby encourages the use of human shields. It is immoral to encourage the use of innocent civilians as shields. Furthermore, refusing to refrain from shooting at those who use civilians as shields will immediately end the practice which will lead to fewer civilian and military casualties on all sides and an earlier victory in the war. Paradoxical thought it may seem, ignoring the possibility of civilian casualties by shooting at the enemy regardless of the presence of civilians will save civilian lives in the long run.Synova is right. The enemy knows what it's doing. But do we know what we're doing? Can we even define victory?
I don't think the term victory is relevant. I don't think it is possible for the US to destroy jihadism. But it is possible to contain it. To deport jihadists. To prevent jihadists from coming here. To attack jihadist states before they attack us. The latter will result in victories, but not
the victory - the total annihilation of jihadism. That is out of our hands. Muslims must reform their own religion and social institutions. We can encourage them, but we cannot do that for them. We cannot be Atatürk. Yet we cannot simply wait for new Atatürks. We must defend ourselves. Locking our doors would be a good first step. What good is it to fight jihadists over there if they can still come here?
Posted by: Amritas at December 13, 2009 05:47 PM (dWG01)
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December 12, 2009
CONGRESS SUCKS
Someone who works in DC on budgeting writes:
Again, this is Congress's *most important function*, and they can't
even do this right. They act surprised by it every year, even though
they've been doing it since 1788 or thereabouts.
Read the whole thing.
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What's the opposite of progress? Congress.
Posted by: David Boxenhorn at December 13, 2009 08:06 AM (6QcMn)
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David, the best humor is the most truthful.
If approving a federal budget is Congress' "most important function", shouldn't taxpayers demand that Congresspeople have economic expertise? Almost half of Congress consists of lawyers. Understandable, since lawyers by definition are legal experts, and Congress makes laws. But how many Congresspeople have expertise in both economics and law?
What does expertise mean?I define expertise very broadly as simply knowing specific inputs that
produce certain outputs. That is, if you do X, Y will happen.The world is one gigantic economics lab. Has Congress studied it? Do they understand what Y will result from X? What if X is a 2,000-page health care bill? What if the input is so massive that it is beyond human comprehension? This is the danger of socialism. Incomprehensible input times elite decisions in the name of the people equals disaster. Capitalism empowers the individual to make decisions based on smaller amounts of data that he can understand. There will always be error, so we must aim for error reduction, not error magnification. The state is the ultimate error multiplier.
Posted by: Amritas at December 13, 2009 06:03 PM (dWG01)
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December 11, 2009
I NEED A SURGE
I was waffling for a while, but I have decided to go with a surge strategy: I shall get down to brass tacks and put out the effort to beat Karl Rove. So I need to get
off the computer and get reading. Eight books in 20 days...too bad I already read
Animal Farm back in February.
I wish the internet counted as a book. I read that all the time.
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If you beat Karl Rove, can you lead the Republicans to victory?
The Internet is the biggest book ever!
Posted by: Amritas at December 11, 2009 06:58 PM (dWG01)
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December 10, 2009
A PERSONAL UPDATE
Just a little personal note to check in...
I am doing well these days. I just started my third trimester. I finally started feeling chipper and relatively pain-free, and now all pregnancy info says "Welcome to the third trimester; it's gonna start sucking again!" I'm not ready for that; I just started enjoying myself.
Last night I felt a foot for the first time. Baby was kicking and then she had one looooong pushing kick, and I put
my fingers there and pushed back, and I could feel her body parts
through my belly. That was a milestone I have especially enjoyed.
My husband is confident that he will be home two or three days before my due date. As long as baby stays put until then, he should be here for the delivery. Let's just hope she doesn't want to show up early.
Oh, and my husband finally has better access to computers...only all blogs are blocked from viewing. We just can't win.
And I have eight more books to read before the end of the month if I want to beat Karl Rove. I am not sure I can make that happen, which makes me mad that I didn't read more books in September. I may start cheating and reading
Encyclopedia Browns or something.
Can you believe it's almost Christmas?
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1
Can he read your blog from the Google cache? Like
this. Then click on "Cached".
Posted by: David Boxenhorn at December 10, 2009 10:50 AM (arikL)
2
How funny you should mention Encyclopedia Brown. I know a little redhead who will very much enjoy reading about EB once Santa makes a stop this year.
Posted by: Guard Wife at December 10, 2009 12:27 PM (9Obau)
3
Guard Wife: I just LOVE those books. Love them. To this day I can't hear about the Battle of Bull Run or cut my fingernails after a shower without thinking of good old Encyclopedia Brown. I also loved The Great Brain series, fwiw.
Posted by: Sarah at December 10, 2009 01:22 PM (gWUle)
4
There's always the comic
book option. Eight in one
day? Easy.
I've never read an
Encylopedia Brown or
Great Brain book. I thought the latter was also a mystery series but I just learned from
the Wikipedia article that the series was something else that seems more complex - like a male
Little House on the Prairie?
Posted by: Amritas at December 10, 2009 02:33 PM (dWG01)
5
You would not believe what I have been reading. I had knee surgery a month ago, on my good knee, not the biggy total knee replacement but a whole lot more painful than I expected. And the physical therapy almost has done me in, so I have spent a lot of time on heating pads or sitting in front of the computer.
Anyway, my sister rounded up about 20 of the Amish women books, several different authors, so that is what I have been reading. Its kind of like the Bobbsey twins turn into Amish romances. A nice mind candy bunch of books. Also a lot of time online.
Okay everybody, don't let me hear you snicker.
Posted by: Ruth H at December 10, 2009 06:50 PM (CvvEA)
6
Ouch, Ruth. I mean your surgery and its aftermath, not your choice of reading.
Growing up in Hawaii and having studied and taught at West Coast universities, I had no idea those Amish romance books even existed until I moved to New Jersey where Wal-Mart and the local supermarket stock tons of them on racks far from, um, reading material with more technology. Are those books easy to find in Texas? I wonder what their pattern of distribution is.
Posted by: Amritas at December 10, 2009 07:35 PM (dWG01)
7
Amritas,
The Danish woman who cleans for me saw them today and picked them up to ask about them because she saw them in Fredericksburg Tx last week in an Amish store. It is a German tourist town. I've heard the Amish women love them. I actually looked one author up on her website.
I have never noticed them because I never looked for them, but my sister found some of them in Walmart here in our town of Rockport, TX. She also told me they have them in their church library. They may be in their teens section.
The ones I found at the library were in adult fiction and looked very used. They are in paperback. They are a little like the continued novels I used to see in Redbook magazine as a girl. Each book is a continuation of the previous and leaves you in a light suspense. They also take a little longer than two hours to read, depending on length. I read pretty fast, and skim a lot on some books .
Posted by: Ruth H at December 10, 2009 08:41 PM (zlUde)
8
I'm so happy to have a baby update! I've been wondering how things are going. I'm so excited your husband might get to be there for the birth!!! I'm keeping my fingers crossed it works out. Just keep reminding her she needs to wait for daddy!
I have nothing to add to the book discussion. It seems I never have time to read anymore. : ( One of these days!
Posted by: sharona at December 10, 2009 10:22 PM (BeRta)
9
Haven't commented in a while, but I still check in every day. I'm SO GLAD to hear that your husband may be there for the delivery!!!
I've been on quite a reading binge lately, after quite a long hiatis from books. I went through the entire 'Clan of the Cave Bear' series in about 6 weeks. I had read the first two about 20 years ago, and now all five. Ms. Jean Auel had BETTER be writing number six, 'cause I'm just dying to know what happens next!! She can't leave me hanging like that!
Then I went back to another author I had read years ago and really enjoyed: Chaim Potok. Looking him up in the library computer, I saw there was a sequel to a book I read before, so I checked them both out: My Name is Asher Lev, and The Gift of Asher Lev. Both excellent reads. He writes mostly about Hasidic Jews in modern times in all of his books. These two are about a young man whose parents are heavily involved in the higher levels, but he is a driven artist who sometimes crosses the line of what is 'acceptable' in their religion. Fascinating to read of a culture I know next to nothing about. Excellent author--his first book was The Chosen, also very good.
I'm planning on starting For Whom the Bell Tolls today. I don't believe I've ever read any Hemmingway before, and feel somewhat less of an American because of it.
Enjoy the third trimester!! Are you waddeling yet? ;o)
Posted by: MargeinMI at December 11, 2009 07:25 AM (Rx/UC)
10
Marge -- On a stiff day, I walk like an emperor penguin.
Posted by: Sarah at December 11, 2009 07:49 AM (gWUle)
11
Sarah - I had been wondering how you were feeling so I am glad you updated us. ALSO, so happy to hear your husband will potentially be home for your babys arrival. Did you get those belly pics taken yet?
Posted by: Keri at December 11, 2009 08:43 AM (dtvJC)
12
. . .emperor penguin *snorfle*
Have you and your husband picked a name yet? If you have, are you going to share it, or give her a pseudonym? (Like John Elway Baby!)
Posted by: Lissa at December 11, 2009 01:03 PM (eSfKC)
13
ditto the snorfle.... I've heard of waddling like a duck, and done so in my time, but a penquin..... funny! You are having such a wonderful, normal pregnancy and it's so great.
Posted by: Ruth H at December 11, 2009 05:27 PM (zlUde)
14
Ruth,
Thanks for the information. I had been assuming Amish romances were only sold in the northeastern US, so I was surprised they were available in Texas.
Sarah walks like an
empress penguin!
Posted by: Amritas at December 11, 2009 07:01 PM (dWG01)
15
I used to play a game with the Captain before she was born: I'd push on her foot and she'd push back. Always loved it. Once she was born, I'd rub the bottoms of her feet and tell her that it was the very first part of her that I "met". I still do it sometimes I change her. That part of your post definitely made me smile. So glad you're starting to enjoy yourself, and that your husband should be back in time. Here's hoping you're the typical first timer who goes late!
Posted by: Ann M. at December 12, 2009 12:58 AM (+GQ3g)
16
Amritas,
There are a lot of Amish and Mennonite colonies in Texas, I know some right here in South Texas. They sell at our local farmer's market; wonderful baked goods and best cherry pies ever. And the wife of the man who actually is here the most, told me he always helps her with the baking! Her name is Ruth, also. They usually come to our local herb festival I help put on. I just didn't know they had romance novels.
Posted by: Ruth H at December 12, 2009 02:40 PM (JFseb)
17
that is fantastic news!!! now at least can you email him photos so he can get belly updates? you can even sharpie your belly "foot" "head" ... lol
Posted by: Darla at December 13, 2009 03:24 PM (XvIN7)
18
On a technical workaround note, if your site software has some way to enable full RSS feeds (rather than the first x number of characters, which it does currently), then your husband could use Google Reader or another RSS reader to read your blog. Pretty much no one blocks Google (even the Army), so this is my primary workaround in such situations.
Sig
Posted by: Sig at December 20, 2009 12:03 PM (/Mv9b)
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December 09, 2009
SKYNET POSES AS CLIMATE MODEL
And so Judgment Day
begins...
In 2100, Fisherman's Wharf would become Fisherman's Bay, the baseball
diamond at AT&T Park would flood and two major Bay Area airports
would better serve seaplanes under a climate change model unveiled
Wednesday by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Google.
[...]
The California Energy Commission spent $150,000 in partnership with
Google to develop a new Google Earth application that shows sea level
changes in the Bay Area, as well as increased wildfire risks and
snowpack reductions throughout the state. The energy commission also
maintains a climate change research unit on which it spent $2.4 million
in 2007.
Don't fall for it, California! It's Skynet! Schwarzenegger is building Skynet!
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Schwarzenegger is building Skynet!Did you expect the Terminator to do anything else?
Posted by: Amritas at December 10, 2009 02:19 AM (dWG01)
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December 08, 2009
PLANE STUPID INDEED
OK,
this ad is gruesome and awful taken at face value, but add the fact that bodies are falling from skyscrapers with noises of jet engines in the background...am I the only one who got creepy 9/11 flashbacks? Oy.
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Posted by: Kristie at December 09, 2009 05:26 AM (cIK+5)
Posted by: David Boxenhorn at December 09, 2009 09:45 AM (arikL)
3
Yeah, I loved the fact that there were like 140 private planes used to reach the summit.
Posted by: Calivalleygirl at December 09, 2009 10:11 AM (irIko)
4
Commercial was horrific and in horrible taste.
Posted by: Amy at December 09, 2009 11:07 AM (Cy1WK)
5
The blood at 0:14 was the worst part for me.
Perhaps the 9/11 parallels were intentional. It takes a lot to shock the viewer into the action. Like
drowning puppies:
The fear-mongers haven't won enough converts to their cause with myths about dying polar bears [the official mascot of warmism?]
which we cover in our documentary Not Evil Just Wrong,
so now they are drowning a puppy in a nationally televised bedtime story in the United Kingdom.
The British government is spending the equivalent of nearly $9.6 million to run advertisements produced as part of the "Act On CO2"
program. The story in the ad features an ominous carbon monster spewing
black soot from the sky, a restaurant named "The World's End," a
weeping bunny and an animated puppy that disappears underwater before a
girl's eyes.
The question is, what are viewers supposed to do after seeing such ads? Are they supposed to cancel their flights and ride boats? But wait, boats are bad for the environment too. So the viewers should stay home. But
wait, humans exhale carbon dioxide. Each and every one of us is a greenhouse gas factory. And all factories must be shut down forever!
Of course, some factories are more equal than others. As CVG pointed out,
Yeah, I loved the fact that there were like 140 private planes used to reach the summit. Those 140 private planes were, like, eco-friendly, maaaan. They were, like, powered by positive green vibes. Their psychic engines make an "Ommmm" noise. Just like the engines of the 1,200 limos. Imagine how much pollution they produced on the way to Copenhagen:
"We haven't got
enough limos in the country [Denmark]
to fulfil the demand," she says. "We're
having to drive them in hundreds of miles from Germany and Sweden."
That was from the article David quoted:
Copenhagen is preparing for the climate change summit that will produce as much carbon dioxide as a town the size of Middlesbrough. Perhaps Middlesbrough is a ghost town. Or a low-carbon cave in which tribal elders scare children with tales of a hah-kee stick.
This article puts the hockey stick in perspective.
Posted by: Amritas at December 10, 2009 02:54 AM (dWG01)
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December 07, 2009
NEVER EVEN CROSSED MY MIND
I swear on a stack of Bibles that, throughout this whole boring thing, I never once realized that Tiger Woods only cheats with white ladies. Not once. Not until
Noah Sheppard pointed out how ticked the black community is about it.
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Are they pissed he's
married to a white woman as well?
Posted by: Beth at December 07, 2009 10:23 AM (ZT9NN)
2
*sigh* I'll swear right with ya... my goodness. *sigh* This story would be funny if it what it indicated about the social dynamic in this country weren't so frightening...
Posted by: Krista at December 07, 2009 12:19 PM (sUTgZ)
3
An old vaudeville joke goes, "that's no lady, that's my wife."
In this case it is that's no lady.......
Posted by: Ruth H at December 07, 2009 02:11 PM (JFseb)
4
Well, luckily there’s no racism in Black America…wow.
Posted by: tim at December 07, 2009 04:23 PM (CnABi)
5
Funny, I don't see the Asian community getting upset since technically Tiger is more Asian than he is black, and it has yet to be seen if any of his mistresses are Asian or Black. And aren't Asian women by a landslide more desired by men from a sexual conquest standpoint across all races of women. Gee, sounds like Tiger is denying his Asian heritage because he didn't have a catalog of mistresses that expanded more cultures than a United States of Benetton ad.
And who's to say he hasn't slept with a black or asian woman - the mistresses are STILL coming out of the woodwork like moths to a flame. And then who's to say any of these recent mistresses are legitimate?
People's ability to not think before they speak amaze me. Glad to see they're upset for the "right" reasons and that the "racism card" isn't being mindlessly assigned in an irrelevant manner. Pffffffffff, what a freakin' joke.
According to an article from Salon, Tiger Woods on the Oprah show about his race:
And then Tiger Woods said he wasn't actually "black" at all -- he was "Cablinasian."
Woods made his remarks on "Oprah,"
when he was asked if it bothered him to be called an African-American.
"It does," he said. "Growing up, I came up with this name: I'm a
'Cablinasian.'" As in Caucasian-black-Indian-Asian.
Posted by: BigD78 at December 07, 2009 10:42 PM (q+uNZ)
6
Ditto to all of the above. Pathetic.
Posted by: FbL at December 08, 2009 02:41 PM (HyNTm)
7
Didn't occur to me because I.Don't.Give.A.$#!%.
Posted by: Homefront Six at December 08, 2009 07:16 PM (umhCJ)
8
I have not been keeping up with this...but as a non whore, married white lady in her almost 40's, I am sort of pissed off that Tiger only hooks up with whores, that are single in 20 something with lots of eye makeup and fake tans...
Posted by: awtm at December 09, 2009 12:00 PM (IfqPB)
9
After comments from a coworker yesterday I finally gave in and read the articles on Tiger today...amazed to find so many stepping forward to claim concubine status. I hope some of these are merely opportunist seeking in some warped, twisted way to get a personal bounce (or check) out of this, but time will tell.
Sarah - how right you are. The skin color of these women didn't occur to me either, not at all, not in the least.
The fact that it is an issue highlights a theory I've held for years. Simply put, and in general terms, black people are usually WAY more concerned that they are black than I am. Typically, I just don't care...and I credit Christianity and the Army with my being there.
Jesse says the congressman can't call himself a black man while I see a man of conscience.
Among some, Tiger isn't criticized for cheating...he's criticized for cheating with women of the wrong color.
See...the thing is, I got to Dr. King's dream a long time ago. I'm totally willing to judge a man by the content of his character. However, if I criticize said man about his character and said man is black, well, among many, suddenly it isn't about his character, it is about my "racism."
I happen to think the President is among the most narcissistic, megalomaniacal, incompetent and boorish boobs on the planet; an opinion that has squat to do with his being (half) black, and all to do with the fact he is a flaming socialist who appears to loathe the USA while he squanders every good relationship, especially with Great Britain, this country has, is spending this country into Hell, and doesn't have the sense God gave a house cat to realize that government never made anything better or more efficient. Ahem....THAT, ladies and gentlemen, is my assessment of the content of his character.
But let me say that in public and I will be the InstaRacist. The fact that I happen to think similar thoughts about Pelosi, Reid and Boxer goes uncredited due to the troubling fact that I happen to be of the same skin color as these three. Presumably I get credit for judging them by the content of their character...if their apologists give credit for such things in the first place.
So...to step back into the clubhouse as we make the turn, the sad point here is that I sincerely don't care what your skin color is, nor does it register with me what your mistress' skin color is. If you think I do, I know for a certainty the problem doesn't reside with me. I was married to my Asian wife for months before either of us realized we are, by definition, a "mixed marriage".
The issue is "skin color first". And for me I have a long list of things that matter more to me than skin color. To put it delicately, it would appear that many don't.
I challenge anyone reading this to tell my why voting FOR a man because he is black or white or latino is any less racist than voting AGAINST him because he is black or white or latino. Recognize, though, if you accept that challenge you would have to then explain 96 percent of blacks voting for Obama without race being a player in the debate.
As for Tiger...dude, you are an awesome golfer. And I admire your refusal to play to the race-first crowd by acknowledging and celebrating all your ancestors. But, frankly, it would seem you screwed up.
While I'd like to think I could behave better because I adore my amazingly wonderful wife, I can't promise I would. Because unlike you I don't face the temptation of beautiful women throwing themselves at me. I'm a pudgy guy with little money and no high-profile talent, so we don't actually ever get to judge the content of my character regarding would-be mistresses who like rich, fit, talented men. So I don't claim to be better than you, just fortunate I don't have to make the choices.
But one thing is certain: The only choice I wish you hadn't made is cheating. Your choice in mistress skin color never crossed my mind. I'm still naively surprised that it did others'.
Posted by: LTC Fitz at December 10, 2009 12:19 AM (9gvAW)
10
I've been ignoring Tiger Woods' affairs. I find the public reaction to them to be marginally more interesting than the affairs themselves.
BigD78 wrote,
Funny, I don't see the Asian community getting upset since technically
Tiger is more Asian than he is black [...]
With marginal exceptions among activist types (e.g., kevin's Golden Pacifist Omerican coalition), there is no "Asian community" analogous to the American black community. Koreans do not see themselves as part of the same group as Japanese, much less Pakistanis. So my guess is that non-activist Asians don't care any more about this than other Americans. I wonder if Thai-Americans (or Thai in general) see Tiger as 'one of them'.
I don't even know for sure how representative the 'black community' reactions in the media are. Too often 'community' in the media simply means 'talkative ethnic activist' or 'random nonpresentative person'. I'd be inclined to take a survey of black opinions on Woods more seriously than a few quotes.
Posted by: Amritas at December 13, 2009 06:18 PM (dWG01)
11
Best Tiger post ever! Not that I've seen a whole lot of 'em ...
His race doesn’t matter, but if you’re gonna talk about it, get it right.
Posted by: Amritas at December 14, 2009 03:42 AM (dWG01)
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December 06, 2009
WELL, I DON'T BLAME THEM FOR CHOOSING OBAMA
Oy.
More than 50 percent of Americans wrongly attributed the quote “From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs†to either George Washington, Thomas Paine, or President Barack Obama, when it is in fact a quote from Karl Marx, author of The Communist Manifesto.
This from a study called
The American Revolution. Who Cares? via this Powerline
post.
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This issue is one that Neal Boortz and I never differ on--government schools & their founding mission statement of creating people who would not be great thinkers, just good workers.
And, we're far enough into this that the teachers aren't even really that literate in history unless they have educated themselves.
Posted by: Guard Wife at December 07, 2009 07:50 AM (I6LTM)
2
To put this into perspective, how many Americans would have done well on this test in previous decades or the last century?
My guess is that knowledge of facts has only slightly declined (in other words, it's never been high) whereas values have become more socialist. Somebody a century ago wouldn't have known a whole lot about the American Revolution, but he might not think "From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs" had anything to do with its principles (even if he had never even heard of Marx).
Given a choice, I would rather have someone with American principles and without historical knowledge than the reverse. There are Leftists who know about the American Revolution and American history in general in great detail. Yet they voted for Obama. Rightists do not have a monopoly on Revolutionary knowledge. Shared knowledge of facts does not necessarily lead to shared interpretations of those facts.
Results also revealed that 90 percent of Americans think that knowledge
of the American Revolution and its principles is very importantI don't think piety on paper is meaningful. People say whatever they think the tester wants to hear. In real life, nearly all of these people get along just fine without knowing anything about the American Revolution despite their claims to the contrary. The remaining 10 percent may be honest.
If Americans were really "yearning to know", the commercial networks would be showing Revolutionary War shows, RW books would outsell
Harry Potter and
The Secret, etc.
89 percent of Americans expected to pass a test on basic knowledge of
the American Revolution, but scored an average of 44 percent.Inflated self-esteem is a major product of American 'education'.
Joanne Jacobs' comments section has further discussion.
Posted by: Amritas at December 25, 2009 07:53 AM (dWG01)
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POPULISM
Via
The Corner:
[Blanche] Lincoln will have another day in the spotlight tomorrow when her own
amendment — to cut the tax breaks on the salaries of health-insurance
company executives — will come up for a vote. The money saved from her
proposal, she says, will go toward Medicare. Her gist: Cut tax breaks
for big-bad execs and save Medicare.
How dare she? I mean, really that's all I can muster on this one.
This is a prime example of why we need a flat or Fair tax. So Congress can't fiddle with who pays taxes and who doesn't based on their own personal agenda or who it's popular to hate at the moment. Just because it's fashionable to hate insurance companies right now doesn't mean that their bosses should have to pay more taxes than the bosses of, say, Google, which we've already seen
makes more profit than health insurance companies.
Of all the nerve. Really. This blatant populism makes me sick.
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What she has proposed isn't precisely to increase taxes on h/c insurance execs compensation, but rather to limit the tax deductability of these salaries *to the company*.
Unbelievably demagogic statement on her web site:
"The choice on my amendment is simple. Either you support revenues being placed in the Medicare Trust Fund, or you support the IRS sending a check to health insurance companies to subsidize the multimillion dollar compensation packages of their executives."
So, letting people & companies keep the money they've earned is now defined as "subsidizing" them. No one should think that this attitude applies only to senior executives...sooner or later, the Dems will get around to applying it to *you*.
An individual flat tax, though, wouldn't stop this, since it's proposed as part of the corporate tax rather than individual tax. (And I think flat tax for corporations is probably conceptually infeasible) The solution is to get morons like Blanche Lincoln out of Congress.
Posted by: david foster at December 06, 2009 11:18 AM (DnrQl)
2
David -- Thanks for clearing that up for me. The way I understood it was different than you've explained. But that statement on her website is appalling for different reasons, but no less appalling.
Posted by: Sarah at December 06, 2009 12:32 PM (gWUle)
3
If CongressCreatures want to focus on excecutive salaries, how about they start with the "nonprofit" industry--which includes, but is not limited to, education. These institutions get *a lot* of tax benefits, and many of them also get lots of $$$ in direct government funding.
And a lot of their executives are VERY well-paid...indeed, it seems like the present definition of a "nonprofit" organization is simply that there are no pesky shareholders with whom one has to share the loot...
Posted by: david foster at December 06, 2009 05:48 PM (XkP51)
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December 05, 2009
NOT SETTLED BY A LONG SHOT
Here's a long and detailed article on the Climategate fiasco:
Scientists Behaving BadlyOne of the striking features of the CRU emails is how much time the CRU circle spent discussing with each other
the myriad problems with processing these data and how to display them
to a wider world. On the one hand, this is typical of what one might
expect of an evolving scientific enterprise. On the other hand, these
are the selfsame scientists who have insisted most vehemently that
there is a settled consensus adhered to by all researchers of repute
and that there is nothing left to debate.
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Posted by: Ruth H at December 06, 2009 12:14 AM (zlUde)
2
Ruth -- Here's another one, called
The Dog Ate Global Warming:
*****
So the weather data that go into the historical climate records that
are required to verify models of global warming aren’t the original
records at all. Jones and Wigley, however, weren’t specific about what
was done to which station in order to produce their record, which,
according to the IPCC, showed a warming of 0.6° +/– 0.2°C in the 20th
century.
Now begins the fun. Warwick Hughes, an Australian
scientist, wondered where that “+/–†came from, so he politely wrote
Phil Jones in early 2005, asking for the original data. Jones’s
response to a fellow scientist attempting to replicate his work was,
“We have 25 years or so invested in the work. Why should I make the
data available to you, when your aim is to try and find something wrong
with it?â€
Reread that statement, for it is breathtaking in its
anti-scientific thrust. In fact, the entire purpose of replication is
to “try and find something wrong.†The ultimate objective of science is
to do things so well that, indeed, nothing is wrong.
*****
Posted by: Sarah at December 06, 2009 07:46 AM (gWUle)
3
The original article on
The Dog Ate Global Warming: was dated Sept 23, and has been amended but it tells me more and more that this was a whistle blower. There has to be
someone with a conscience in there somewhere. That would have been around the time someone was shopping those emails around to reporters who took no action.
Posted by: Ruth H at December 06, 2009 02:00 PM (JFseb)
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December 04, 2009
STOSSEL BEGINS
FYI: John Stossel's new show begins on the Fox Business Network next Thursday, Dec 10, at 8 PM. And the first show is
on Ayn Rand. I can't wait!
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Thanks for the good news. I could sure use it these days.
I doubt I have that channel where I am now, but I'll be home next week so I should be able to see this.
Maybe I should prepare myself by rereading
For the New Intellectual during my flight back.
After this last year, I don't think I could reread
Atlas any day soon. We're living it.
Posted by: Amritas at December 04, 2009 09:28 PM (hQWcB)
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HE IS NOT THERE TO "SERVE" THEM
I still don't know what I think is the right move in Afghanistan. I still see an enormous difference in potential between Iraq and Afghanistan, and moves I thought were a good idea in Iraq don't always seem so good in Afghanistan. I personally think that counter-terrorism seems to fit Afghanistan more than COIN does, but I don't know my hat from a hole in the ground, so my opinion doesn't really count for anything.
But I can't help but keep thinking about firebombing Dresden vs vaccinating goats. It's such a different tactic. And I fear that we're starting to mistake the hearts-and-minds missions as being the
end, not the
means.
I
wrote earlier this year about my husband's career field:
There are people even within Civil Affairs who think that their tasks are the end-goal. There are people who think that how many goats they vaccinated and how many school supplies they dropped off are their accomplishments. My husband, however, always takes a long-term, big-picture view of the world. The goal is not vaccinated goats but whether helping that goatherd made Special Forces' job easier and thus helped advance the cause of defeating our enemies. The healthy goats are the means, not the end.
It's a fascinating way to look at his job, and sadly it takes a confident person to accept that role. Civil Affairs as a branch doesn't want to see itself as just a tool for Special Forces. Some in the branch look askance at my husband when his briefings show the Civil Affairs work as Phase 2 and what SF built out of their work as Phase 3. They want to feel like their role is important. It certainly is, but only if it helps get us closer to the bad guy.
Happy, healthy goats in Afghanistan shouldn't be our goal; winning should.
The reason we are in this war is to stop terrorists from killing Americans. The point is to prevent another 9/11, to cut off the funding for and state-sponsorship of terrorism, and to kill as many al Qaeda and terrorists as possible. We vaccinate the goats because hopefully that will help nice Afghans and Iraqis point out where the bad guys are, or take up arms and help us fight them. We don’t vaccinate the goats because we want to do charity work for them.
Don’t get me wrong, plenty of soldiers have a vested interest in the people they’ve been working with for years now. Most Americans are compassionate people who want third-worlders to have a better life than they do now; that's why American citizens pull money out of their own pockets and mail school supplies and sneakers overseas. On a personal level, we all want Afghan girls to go to school and Iraqi businesses to be successful.
But that’s not the
military goal. We have to remember that that is a means to an end: a better educated and more economically sound populace should lead to less people joining al Qaeda out of desperation, or becoming a suicide bomber for the money. I want Iraqis and Afghans to flourish, but I have an ulterior motive for that desire. I am not just blindly altruistic in my support for these missions and programs. They have to advance the cause of the US military, otherwise they're missing the point.
So when I read
this interview with author Greg Mortenson this morning, I got my feathers all ruffled:
I guess Gen. Petraeus could sum it up better than me, but he sent me an e-mail last year and he had read "Three Cups of Tea," and he said there were three lessons from the book that he wanted to impart to his troops. No. 1, he said, we need to listen more; No. 2, we need to have respect, meaning we are there to serve the good people of Afghanistan; and No. 3, we need to build relationships. "Three Cups of Tea" now is mandatory reading for all senior U.S military commanders, and all special forces deploying to Afghanistan are required to read it. [emphasis mine]
And I see that right there as an epic FAIL.
My husband is not there to "serve" the people of Afghanistan. He is there to creatively find ways to do compassionate missions, with the end goal always tucked away in the back of his mind that it only makes sense to run the mission if it will somehow benefit the American military agenda. If he wanted to build schools for needy people, he could've just joined Habitat For Humanity.
The Mortenson advice is all well and good if you are an NGO or just an kindhearted fella who wants to open schools in Afghanistan. His goal is to help those people; he "serves" them. The military doesn't; the military serves the interests of the United States. The American military is not one big money tree that Afghans can keep coming to to get "served." Or at least it shouldn't be. But every soldier working in Iraq and Afghanistan has a horror story of following Mortenson's Rule #1 and asking the local people what they need...and then getting an earful of upgrades. "We need power restored to the entire remote village." Well, have you ever had power before? Did you have power back when Saddam ran the country? No? Then how, pray tell, do you expect us to "restore" it? My husband visited a school last year and asked them what they could use; they gave him plans for a state-of-the-art kitchen they wanted installed in the cafeteria. Scale it back a bit, folks; Uncle Sugar isn't going to turn your hot plate into Paula Deen's kitchen. Especially not if it's not going to get us anything in return. I want to be assured of quid pro quo before we vaccinate anybody's goats, or at least have a pretty good idea that we'll get something for our effort.
The US military is not one big charity organization trying to fix Afghanistan. Let the Gates Foundation do stuff like that. Our missions need to have purpose and need to be grounded in some sense of how this helps the overall goals of our fighting force: If I vaccinate this goat or build this school, will ol' Farzad in the village let us know is he hears rumors of the next planned attack? If not, then Farzad can find his own damn vaccination.
We are not there to "serve" him.
UPDATE:
Related thoughts from Ralph Peters on TV. Clip
here. Relevant quote:
In 2001, we didn't go to Afghanistan to turn it into Disneyworld. We didn't go there to buy retirement homes. We went there to kill al Qaeda and punish the Taliban for harboring them. Mission accomplished by late spring of 2002. Imperfect? Hey, the world's an imperfect place. But...we stayed, because we convinced ourselves that -- although we still haven't rebuilt the Twin Towers -- that we were going to build a modern, wonderful Afghanistan. Ain't gonna happen, ain't worth the effort, even if it worked we get nothing out of it. Judge, the purpose in 2001 was right: kill al Qaeda wherever they are.
Posted by: Sarah at
01:16 PM
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I think this article deserves wider circulation. Come on, bloggers. Link away!
It also deserves an entire article in response. I don't have the time to write it right now, so I'll just quote
Ruth:
Remember, well at least I am old enough to, the Marshall Plan? We made sure we won and then
we sent the money. Seems like a good way to do it to me.In short, giving comes second. We should pay Afghans after they pay us with info. No freebies.
Posted by: Amritas at December 04, 2009 03:50 PM (+nV09)
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Along the lines that Amritas said. Someone needs to remind the military higerups that the military is the "War" department not the Peace Corp. If the Civil Affairs group wants to be the end all, then they need to send idealistic young liberals to do the work instead of warriors that want to get the mission done and go home.
Posted by: SciFiJim at December 05, 2009 09:59 AM (oyiPt)
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December 03, 2009
FLOORED BY COINCIDENCE
I am just absolutely reeling right now. Floored by coincidence.
I have a friend in my knitting group whose husband died as a contractor in Iraq. She has never been forthcoming with details, and I certainly have never wanted to pry. But last week she let me know that an episode of Battlefield Diaries would be on the Military Channel, and that it was the attack her husband was killed in.
I had no idea he was killed in the convoy where Matt Maupin was captured. Nor did I have any idea that I knew the lieutenant who led that convoy;
Matt Brown and I were in youth group together in high school.
I am just stunned by the coincidence right now.
Posted by: Sarah at
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Posted by: Amritas at December 03, 2009 06:36 PM (+nV09)
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Wow, it is a small world.
Posted by: Mare at December 04, 2009 09:29 AM (HUa8I)
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