Tuesday, June 29, 2004
ADVENTURES
We finally got the forsaken graduation party over with on Sunday. I don't know if its because my family is so lame or if my father is just a sadist, but "parties" in our family generally amount to a serious bout of misery. Despite it being my sister's party, I was enlisted to help. The important thing is that it's finished and I survived.
I still feel a little bit of sorrow for the chipmunks, as I've raised the kill tally to ten. They seem to check out the traps between 10 and 11:30 AM. I looked at the last one I bagged and saw the dagger-like lower teeth sticking from his mouth. A chipmunk is a vicious varmint. As Carl Spackler (Bill Murray) in "Caddyshack" explained, "The only good varmint poontang is dead varmint poontang." The chipmunk almost reminded me of Bean's hamster, Molotov, and was probably just as vicious.
Father and sister were woken up by a loud booming noise on Monday morning. Dad thought that our screen porch collapsed, while sister thought the house was being broken into. Apparently what they heard was the earthquake, a ~4.5 which originated around Ottawa, IL. I'm surprised that I slept through it.
RANT
It was tough to take the news of Matt Maupin's execution yesterday. In some ways I saw myself in him. We were about the same age and from the same region of the country. And yet we couldn't be more different. He was a husband, a new father, and stationed in the heat of the combat zone in Iraq. I am enjoying the single life and living in relative luxury in the homeland. PFC Maupin was never far away from me in my thoughts and prayers, and I had invested a lot of emotional stock in hoping that he would come home OK. The world has harsh ways of letting you down.
The insurgents still have another American serviceman captive, a Marine who happens to be both an Arab and a Muslim. I highly doubt that the last two facts will sway his captors in any way. The Baathist and Islamist insurgents have killed thousands of Iraqis already. They are the height of evil and will hold nothing sacred as they try to purge westerners and all vestiges of western culture from Iraq and the middle east.
We finally got the forsaken graduation party over with on Sunday. I don't know if its because my family is so lame or if my father is just a sadist, but "parties" in our family generally amount to a serious bout of misery. Despite it being my sister's party, I was enlisted to help. The important thing is that it's finished and I survived.
I still feel a little bit of sorrow for the chipmunks, as I've raised the kill tally to ten. They seem to check out the traps between 10 and 11:30 AM. I looked at the last one I bagged and saw the dagger-like lower teeth sticking from his mouth. A chipmunk is a vicious varmint. As Carl Spackler (Bill Murray) in "Caddyshack" explained, "The only good varmint poontang is dead varmint poontang." The chipmunk almost reminded me of Bean's hamster, Molotov, and was probably just as vicious.
Father and sister were woken up by a loud booming noise on Monday morning. Dad thought that our screen porch collapsed, while sister thought the house was being broken into. Apparently what they heard was the earthquake, a ~4.5 which originated around Ottawa, IL. I'm surprised that I slept through it.
RANT
It was tough to take the news of Matt Maupin's execution yesterday. In some ways I saw myself in him. We were about the same age and from the same region of the country. And yet we couldn't be more different. He was a husband, a new father, and stationed in the heat of the combat zone in Iraq. I am enjoying the single life and living in relative luxury in the homeland. PFC Maupin was never far away from me in my thoughts and prayers, and I had invested a lot of emotional stock in hoping that he would come home OK. The world has harsh ways of letting you down.
The insurgents still have another American serviceman captive, a Marine who happens to be both an Arab and a Muslim. I highly doubt that the last two facts will sway his captors in any way. The Baathist and Islamist insurgents have killed thousands of Iraqis already. They are the height of evil and will hold nothing sacred as they try to purge westerners and all vestiges of western culture from Iraq and the middle east.
Friday, June 25, 2004
Today I'm introducing a new format for my daily blog entries, dividing them between my adventures and my rants. As i hopefully figure out how to change the format of this blog, I will have more room to innovate here.
ADVENTURE OF THE DAY
On Wednesday and Thursday mornings I raised my chipmunk tally from three to seven. One of the chipmunks on Wednesday was folded in half by the trap. I'm starting to feel remorseful about slaughtering these small animals that aren't very different from rats. It requires no skill, and the animal has no chance of fighting back (unlike when you go into the woods to hunt, where much skill is required, and some of the animals can hurt you.) Further, I can't justify it for food purposes, as my father has specifically forbidden me from skinning, cooking, or eating chipmunks on his property. So long as I live under his roof, I am bound to follow his rules.
RANTS
I was deeply disturbed by the attacks across Iraq yesterday, as Islamic militants and Baathist remnants launch brazen assaults against their countrymen in an effort to derail the transition to a new government. Still, I got a little bit of encouragement from last night's "Nightline," which had a story about an Iraqi sergeant in the new army who appreciates the end of the heavy "top-down" leadership from Saddam's army. Hopefully more Iraqi soldiers will join up and follow that sergeant's example of Iraqis fighting to protect their countrymen from the Baathists and foreign fighters. And NBC news reports, as I had suspected, that the Mukharabat remnants are indeed working with Zarqawi's gang of terrorists. FOX news also adds that the Iraqi National Congress found documents seemingly proving that Saddam Hussein sought Osama bin Laden's help in a campaign to oust the Saudi royal family.
More depressing news comes from opinion polls indicating that a majority of Americans think the war in Iraq was a mistake. I always take the position that we will let history decide the war was a mistake once it's over. If Iraqis can take their destiny into their own hands, and if a secular Shiite state there destabilizes Iran, and if Iraq acts as a voice of moderation as we work against militant Islam, can you call that a mistake? The problem is that too many Americans, in addition to candidate Kerry, fail to see how Iraq ties into the wider war on militant Islam.
It looks like Jack Ryan is toast, as Republican bigwigs are increasingly withdrawing their support. Since the primaries are already over, I view any replacement for Jack Ryan as an undemocratically-appointed tool of the Republican party. Yet it was also prudent to replace Jack Ryan, as he was getting clobbered in the polls. Barack Obama should be stopped at any cost.
The Catholic church really pisses me off, particularly with their social teachings on the minimum wage and socialized medicine. I'm still struggling to find the line in the Bible where Jesus says, "thou shall pay $7.50 for a minimum wage." My family members were chomping at the bit to sign the church's minimum wage petition. As a minimum wage employee, I disagree with their stance. The minimum wage was never supposed to be a living wage; it's a way of setting a fair labor standard for society's dirtiest jobs. If you want a living wage, you should have to move up from doing menial labor. Granted, I do agree with incremental minimum wage increases to periodically keep up with inflation. But employers also reduce the number of minimum wage jobs every time you raise it.
ADVENTURE OF THE DAY
On Wednesday and Thursday mornings I raised my chipmunk tally from three to seven. One of the chipmunks on Wednesday was folded in half by the trap. I'm starting to feel remorseful about slaughtering these small animals that aren't very different from rats. It requires no skill, and the animal has no chance of fighting back (unlike when you go into the woods to hunt, where much skill is required, and some of the animals can hurt you.) Further, I can't justify it for food purposes, as my father has specifically forbidden me from skinning, cooking, or eating chipmunks on his property. So long as I live under his roof, I am bound to follow his rules.
RANTS
I was deeply disturbed by the attacks across Iraq yesterday, as Islamic militants and Baathist remnants launch brazen assaults against their countrymen in an effort to derail the transition to a new government. Still, I got a little bit of encouragement from last night's "Nightline," which had a story about an Iraqi sergeant in the new army who appreciates the end of the heavy "top-down" leadership from Saddam's army. Hopefully more Iraqi soldiers will join up and follow that sergeant's example of Iraqis fighting to protect their countrymen from the Baathists and foreign fighters. And NBC news reports, as I had suspected, that the Mukharabat remnants are indeed working with Zarqawi's gang of terrorists. FOX news also adds that the Iraqi National Congress found documents seemingly proving that Saddam Hussein sought Osama bin Laden's help in a campaign to oust the Saudi royal family.
More depressing news comes from opinion polls indicating that a majority of Americans think the war in Iraq was a mistake. I always take the position that we will let history decide the war was a mistake once it's over. If Iraqis can take their destiny into their own hands, and if a secular Shiite state there destabilizes Iran, and if Iraq acts as a voice of moderation as we work against militant Islam, can you call that a mistake? The problem is that too many Americans, in addition to candidate Kerry, fail to see how Iraq ties into the wider war on militant Islam.
It looks like Jack Ryan is toast, as Republican bigwigs are increasingly withdrawing their support. Since the primaries are already over, I view any replacement for Jack Ryan as an undemocratically-appointed tool of the Republican party. Yet it was also prudent to replace Jack Ryan, as he was getting clobbered in the polls. Barack Obama should be stopped at any cost.
The Catholic church really pisses me off, particularly with their social teachings on the minimum wage and socialized medicine. I'm still struggling to find the line in the Bible where Jesus says, "thou shall pay $7.50 for a minimum wage." My family members were chomping at the bit to sign the church's minimum wage petition. As a minimum wage employee, I disagree with their stance. The minimum wage was never supposed to be a living wage; it's a way of setting a fair labor standard for society's dirtiest jobs. If you want a living wage, you should have to move up from doing menial labor. Granted, I do agree with incremental minimum wage increases to periodically keep up with inflation. But employers also reduce the number of minimum wage jobs every time you raise it.
Wednesday, June 23, 2004
Just when things couldn't get worse for the Illinois GOP, they just did. The Jack Ryan divorce records have been unsealed. His ex-wife, actress Jeri Ryan, alleged that Jack wanted her to "do the nasty" with him in public, seedy places. The state's Republicans are scrambling over whether they want to find a replacement candidate or if they should stand by their man. Personally, I would give Ryan a pass, as a I don't consider kinky monogamy worse than adultery. If we gave Slick Willy Clinton a pass for adultery, then doesn't Jack Ryan deserve the same. Yet I also can see this charge being a liability when recruiting independent voters.
Ryan's opponent, Barack Obama, has stayed pretty positive and issue-oriented when asked about the scandal. Still, the Obama way is for the candidate to stay positive while his proxies in the Democratic attack machine go negative. It happened to Blair Hull and it will happen to Jack Ryan.
Just who is behind the unsealing of Jack Ryan's divorce records? ABC news and the Chicago Tribune. I'm unsettled by the increasing liberalism of the Tribune, and I will guarantee that I will get my mother to not re-subscribe to the Trib when our term is up.
I don't have much to say about Slick Willy's new book. It's his chance to reinforce his support among his fans and tell his side of the story. Don't expect anything new out of the book. I certainly won't be reading it, although I know it will sell bazillions of copies.
Burt Rutan had a good quote on Leno, and it went something like this. Americans send billions of dollars to their government for the space program, in hopes that they might be able to fly in space. In America, we don't allow people to buy tickets to space, although the Russians do. Paul Allen could have spent $20 million to fly in space with the Russians, but instead he spent it on Rutan's spaceplane so everybody could fly in space.
Ryan's opponent, Barack Obama, has stayed pretty positive and issue-oriented when asked about the scandal. Still, the Obama way is for the candidate to stay positive while his proxies in the Democratic attack machine go negative. It happened to Blair Hull and it will happen to Jack Ryan.
Just who is behind the unsealing of Jack Ryan's divorce records? ABC news and the Chicago Tribune. I'm unsettled by the increasing liberalism of the Tribune, and I will guarantee that I will get my mother to not re-subscribe to the Trib when our term is up.
I don't have much to say about Slick Willy's new book. It's his chance to reinforce his support among his fans and tell his side of the story. Don't expect anything new out of the book. I certainly won't be reading it, although I know it will sell bazillions of copies.
Burt Rutan had a good quote on Leno, and it went something like this. Americans send billions of dollars to their government for the space program, in hopes that they might be able to fly in space. In America, we don't allow people to buy tickets to space, although the Russians do. Paul Allen could have spent $20 million to fly in space with the Russians, but instead he spent it on Rutan's spaceplane so everybody could fly in space.
Tuesday, June 22, 2004
It now seems like SpaceShipOne had some control problems early into the rocket-powered portion of the flight. The problem was severe enough to limit the craft's apogee to just 400 feet over the 62-mile mark. The aft fuselage skin also buckled, although I don't know if that is linked to the control problems. Despite that, Burt Rutan and Mike Melvill will bask in the glory by appearing on "The Tonight Show" tonight. It's good to see that Jay Leno sees the importance of what they've accomplished.
On "Coast to Coast AM" last night, space historian James Oberg pointed out that Rutan probably has plans for a "SpaceShipTwo," which would fly higher and give passengers more room to enjoy weightlessness. Rutan and team will carefully disassemble SpaceShipOne as they try to fix the problems and win the X Prize. However, Rutan's methodical approach leaves an opening for one of the other competing teams (like Da Vinci, Canadian Arrow, or Armadillo) to cut corners and catch up. I hope they don't kill their astronaut in the process.
Yesterday I felt good over our third chipmunk kill, because I spotted the chipmunks running under the deck and used this knowledge to position the trap. This morning, we had more collateral damage. A large rabbit must have suffered a lethal blow and died near the other trap. Today I tried moving the under-deck trap near our south gutter, but I reversed those plans after I saw a baby sparrow nearby who was just learning to fly.
On "Coast to Coast AM" last night, space historian James Oberg pointed out that Rutan probably has plans for a "SpaceShipTwo," which would fly higher and give passengers more room to enjoy weightlessness. Rutan and team will carefully disassemble SpaceShipOne as they try to fix the problems and win the X Prize. However, Rutan's methodical approach leaves an opening for one of the other competing teams (like Da Vinci, Canadian Arrow, or Armadillo) to cut corners and catch up. I hope they don't kill their astronaut in the process.
Yesterday I felt good over our third chipmunk kill, because I spotted the chipmunks running under the deck and used this knowledge to position the trap. This morning, we had more collateral damage. A large rabbit must have suffered a lethal blow and died near the other trap. Today I tried moving the under-deck trap near our south gutter, but I reversed those plans after I saw a baby sparrow nearby who was just learning to fly.
Monday, June 21, 2004
The SpaceShipOne, piloted by Mike Melville, has successfully completed what may prove to be the first spaceflight by a non-government entity. A small hop for a plane, a giant leap for mankind. Now that private industry has a foot in the door, the space frontier may eventually open to "the rest of us." I don't expect to see space hotels and lunar vacations in my lifetime, but today's flight makes it possible that I can be a part of their development.
More interesting pieces of intel are coming out of Iraq. First, John Lehman of the 911 commission is admitting that his group did not receive all of the intel linking Iraq to al Qaeda, a situation that is being corrected. The strongest link yet is a member of the Fedayeen Saddam who was a high-ranking member of al Qaeda. All of a sudden, my theory that Abu Musab al Zarqawi was invited by the Iraqi regime in spring 2002 to work with the Fedayeen Saddam seem more plausible. The Fedayeen were terrorists in the truest sense of the word: they spread fear and used these tactics to enforce Saddam's orders. As Saddam was losing control and running out of money to keep his security forces, he became increasingly reliant on foreign fighters and terrorists to defend his regime.
The Russians informed the US before the war with Iraq that the Iraqis were planning to attack the United States. Could the Iraqi Mukharabat, considered the keystone cops of the intelligence world, have fooled the mighty KGB? And why would Russia not approve the war if they believed that Iraq would attack us? The answer to the second question is because the Russian government is run by whores. They'll cut oil contracts with a regime that is supposed to be under UN sanctions, sell arms to the highest bidder, and friendship with the Russians is based entirely on money.
I'm getting better at climbing ladders to work on the screen porch, but my apparent wood dust allergy is bothersome.
We're at war with chipmunks around the house. Father has caught two and the neighbor bagged three. They've chewed my coleus plants and dug up our garden. However, there's been collateral damage. One of our traps killed a sparrow, and our neighbor admitted to crying when a robin died in his trap.
More interesting pieces of intel are coming out of Iraq. First, John Lehman of the 911 commission is admitting that his group did not receive all of the intel linking Iraq to al Qaeda, a situation that is being corrected. The strongest link yet is a member of the Fedayeen Saddam who was a high-ranking member of al Qaeda. All of a sudden, my theory that Abu Musab al Zarqawi was invited by the Iraqi regime in spring 2002 to work with the Fedayeen Saddam seem more plausible. The Fedayeen were terrorists in the truest sense of the word: they spread fear and used these tactics to enforce Saddam's orders. As Saddam was losing control and running out of money to keep his security forces, he became increasingly reliant on foreign fighters and terrorists to defend his regime.
The Russians informed the US before the war with Iraq that the Iraqis were planning to attack the United States. Could the Iraqi Mukharabat, considered the keystone cops of the intelligence world, have fooled the mighty KGB? And why would Russia not approve the war if they believed that Iraq would attack us? The answer to the second question is because the Russian government is run by whores. They'll cut oil contracts with a regime that is supposed to be under UN sanctions, sell arms to the highest bidder, and friendship with the Russians is based entirely on money.
I'm getting better at climbing ladders to work on the screen porch, but my apparent wood dust allergy is bothersome.
We're at war with chipmunks around the house. Father has caught two and the neighbor bagged three. They've chewed my coleus plants and dug up our garden. However, there's been collateral damage. One of our traps killed a sparrow, and our neighbor admitted to crying when a robin died in his trap.
Tuesday, June 15, 2004
Our society has suffered since we ditched the idea of arranged marriages. Let's face it: the increase in divorce is linked to the rise of the idea of "marriage for true love." Too often, love is illusory, and people make the mistake of jumping into marriage while they still wear the ruby-colored glasses that blind them. When love is gone, they see no reason to stay married. An arranged marriage, on the other hand, is about obligation, family honor, and a dowry. When love is not an issue in marriage (and it rarely is,) arranged marriage is the formula for success.
Ugh, they've remade "The Manchurian Candidate." Right now the movie is being re-edited so that Meryl Streep's character is not so strinkingly similar to Hillary Clinton. Let's see: an evil, militant feminist senator who wants to take over the country by controlling the minds of American voters. That's nothing like Hillary Clinton, is it? Haw haw. Unfortunately, my grandmother has indicated her respect for Hillary and intention to vote for her. Sigh. Is America so shallow that they want a female president, no matter how megalomaniacal she is? Republicans need to fight fire with fire and get Condi Rice to run in 2008.
The hapless lakers were dealt the coup de grace tonight by the Pistons. The Lakers did not play like they deserved the title, and the result was a lopsided series in favor of the Pistons.
Please pray for Paul Johnson, the Lockheed Martin contractor who was kidnapped by al Qaeda militants in Saudi Arabia.
Ugh, they've remade "The Manchurian Candidate." Right now the movie is being re-edited so that Meryl Streep's character is not so strinkingly similar to Hillary Clinton. Let's see: an evil, militant feminist senator who wants to take over the country by controlling the minds of American voters. That's nothing like Hillary Clinton, is it? Haw haw. Unfortunately, my grandmother has indicated her respect for Hillary and intention to vote for her. Sigh. Is America so shallow that they want a female president, no matter how megalomaniacal she is? Republicans need to fight fire with fire and get Condi Rice to run in 2008.
The hapless lakers were dealt the coup de grace tonight by the Pistons. The Lakers did not play like they deserved the title, and the result was a lopsided series in favor of the Pistons.
Please pray for Paul Johnson, the Lockheed Martin contractor who was kidnapped by al Qaeda militants in Saudi Arabia.
Monday, June 14, 2004
A lot of things are on my mind today, so I will blog about them in no particular order.
The Supreme Court upheld the current wording of the pledge of allegience today, on the 50th anniversary of President Eisenhower's addition of "under God." However, the ruling was a cop-out by the court, saying that Michael Newdow does not have custody of his daughter and thus cannot sue on her behalf. If people understood the origin of the pledge, they may be shocked at all of the revisions that have been made. It was written by Francis Bellamy, a Christian Socialist (an unholy marriage of principles.) The pledge has evolved since then into a statement of belief in America, our creator's chosen nation, which stands for all its people. If the pledge was good enough for President Eisenhower, it's good enough for me.
I owe a big apology to Gov. Rod Blagojevich. When he was first elected, I expected "Blago" to be another tool of Mayor Daley. Instead, he's opposed Daley's proposed casino, which would be owned by the city of Chicago. During the budget battles, he stood up to House Speaker Madigan's proposal to raise income taxes. My deepest thanks, Blago.
We got another terror suspect today, on charges that he was going to blow up a shopping mall in Columbus. It sounds like al Qaeda is getting desperate, and is no longer restricting themselves to attacks on a 911-scale. Jose Padilla wanted to blow up apartments with natural gas, and the trucker they arrested wanted to cut the cables on bridges.
Michael Moore wants to follow up the anti-Bush "Farenheit 911" with an anti-Tony Blair movie. Apparently we have American filmmakers who want to influence British elections. If a British filmmaker wanted to influence an American election, I would tell him to stuff it. Hopefully Brits will do the same to "Stupid White Man" Michael Moore.
The LA Lakers are really disappointing. The Pistons aren't the caliber of team that would usually win the NBA championship, while the Lakers are the most stacked team in the league. I wanted to see the Lakers win it, if only to see Karl Malone retire with a championship. It does not look like it will happen, and the Lakers don't deserve it if it does.
What is the deal with Abu Musab al Zarqawi and the Fedayeen Saddam? Nick Berg's murderers were dressed like the Fedayeen, and the four suspects who were detained were Fedayeen (one of whom was allegedly Saddam's nephew.) I'm starting to think that Zarqawi's terror group was either forced to work with the Fedayeen, or always has been working with the Fedayeen.
Just when you thought the prisoner abuse story was dead, it rears its ugly head again. Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez implored investigators to look into his involvement, and the decision is already backfiring. The Washington Post is alleging that his attitude towards the established interrogation policy (use of dogs, stress positions, and sensory deprivation) led to the abuse. It looks to me like Gen. Sanchez is getting dicked, and I hope that the White House will back him up instead of making him a scapegoat. On top of that, Farenheit 911 promises to show more (Moore?) detainee abuse in Iraq.
Richard Perle, the hopelessly idealistic author of "An End to Evil," and frequently mentioned as a member of the left's "Likud Conspiracy," is still defending Ahmed Chalabi, claiming that the Iranian spy story is an attempt by the CIA to discredit Chalabi. Right... Still, we can't say that all of Chalabi's intel was bad. After all, he gave us enough good intel to win our trust before he stabbed us in the back.
Burt Rutan's SpaceShipOne goes for its first spaceflight on June 21. Godspeed to the brave pilot who will make the trip.
Continue to pray for Matt Maupin, Amin Elias, and all the folks who are beingn held by militants in Iraq and Saudi Arabia.
The Supreme Court upheld the current wording of the pledge of allegience today, on the 50th anniversary of President Eisenhower's addition of "under God." However, the ruling was a cop-out by the court, saying that Michael Newdow does not have custody of his daughter and thus cannot sue on her behalf. If people understood the origin of the pledge, they may be shocked at all of the revisions that have been made. It was written by Francis Bellamy, a Christian Socialist (an unholy marriage of principles.) The pledge has evolved since then into a statement of belief in America, our creator's chosen nation, which stands for all its people. If the pledge was good enough for President Eisenhower, it's good enough for me.
I owe a big apology to Gov. Rod Blagojevich. When he was first elected, I expected "Blago" to be another tool of Mayor Daley. Instead, he's opposed Daley's proposed casino, which would be owned by the city of Chicago. During the budget battles, he stood up to House Speaker Madigan's proposal to raise income taxes. My deepest thanks, Blago.
We got another terror suspect today, on charges that he was going to blow up a shopping mall in Columbus. It sounds like al Qaeda is getting desperate, and is no longer restricting themselves to attacks on a 911-scale. Jose Padilla wanted to blow up apartments with natural gas, and the trucker they arrested wanted to cut the cables on bridges.
Michael Moore wants to follow up the anti-Bush "Farenheit 911" with an anti-Tony Blair movie. Apparently we have American filmmakers who want to influence British elections. If a British filmmaker wanted to influence an American election, I would tell him to stuff it. Hopefully Brits will do the same to "Stupid White Man" Michael Moore.
The LA Lakers are really disappointing. The Pistons aren't the caliber of team that would usually win the NBA championship, while the Lakers are the most stacked team in the league. I wanted to see the Lakers win it, if only to see Karl Malone retire with a championship. It does not look like it will happen, and the Lakers don't deserve it if it does.
What is the deal with Abu Musab al Zarqawi and the Fedayeen Saddam? Nick Berg's murderers were dressed like the Fedayeen, and the four suspects who were detained were Fedayeen (one of whom was allegedly Saddam's nephew.) I'm starting to think that Zarqawi's terror group was either forced to work with the Fedayeen, or always has been working with the Fedayeen.
Just when you thought the prisoner abuse story was dead, it rears its ugly head again. Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez implored investigators to look into his involvement, and the decision is already backfiring. The Washington Post is alleging that his attitude towards the established interrogation policy (use of dogs, stress positions, and sensory deprivation) led to the abuse. It looks to me like Gen. Sanchez is getting dicked, and I hope that the White House will back him up instead of making him a scapegoat. On top of that, Farenheit 911 promises to show more (Moore?) detainee abuse in Iraq.
Richard Perle, the hopelessly idealistic author of "An End to Evil," and frequently mentioned as a member of the left's "Likud Conspiracy," is still defending Ahmed Chalabi, claiming that the Iranian spy story is an attempt by the CIA to discredit Chalabi. Right... Still, we can't say that all of Chalabi's intel was bad. After all, he gave us enough good intel to win our trust before he stabbed us in the back.
Burt Rutan's SpaceShipOne goes for its first spaceflight on June 21. Godspeed to the brave pilot who will make the trip.
Continue to pray for Matt Maupin, Amin Elias, and all the folks who are beingn held by militants in Iraq and Saudi Arabia.
Friday, June 11, 2004
The great ones always die in pairs or in threes. First we have lost Ronald Reagan, now we have lost Ray Charles.
I never realized until recently how difficult Ray CHarles had it in his early life. He was completely blinded by Glaucoma by the age of seven, and he lost both his parents by age 15. Yet he never seemed bitter about it; instead, he made both soulful and upbeat music that brought great happiness into the world. He will be missed.
I never realized until recently how difficult Ray CHarles had it in his early life. He was completely blinded by Glaucoma by the age of seven, and he lost both his parents by age 15. Yet he never seemed bitter about it; instead, he made both soulful and upbeat music that brought great happiness into the world. He will be missed.
Wednesday, June 09, 2004
The new Bush-Blair initiative at the G8 summit is a plan to spend money on programs to reform the middle east, particularly by reforming the judicial systems and spreading free markets to the middle east. So far, Turkey and Jordan have shown their approval while countries like Egypt have balked.
The Bush-Blair plan is similar to what former ambassador Marc Ginsberg told Fox News in March 2004. We must spread freedom, both political and economic, to the entire world so they will embrace The Western Way of Life and reject morally bankrupt philosophies like Wahhabism and Ba'athism. Essentially, there are two ways for societies to enter the 21st century: you can lead the charge, or you can be dragged kicking and screaming.
Problem with all of this is the French aren't jumping on board the bandwagon. Well, screw you, Jacques Chirac, and screw your cheese eating surrender monkey countrymen. America should reject the idea of having a "United" Nations and solidarity with our European so-called allies. America must realize that its best friend will always be the United Kingdom, and all future alliances should be built on the idea of Anglo-American partnership, reinforced by nations who share our common aims and values.
The Bush-Blair plan is similar to what former ambassador Marc Ginsberg told Fox News in March 2004. We must spread freedom, both political and economic, to the entire world so they will embrace The Western Way of Life and reject morally bankrupt philosophies like Wahhabism and Ba'athism. Essentially, there are two ways for societies to enter the 21st century: you can lead the charge, or you can be dragged kicking and screaming.
Problem with all of this is the French aren't jumping on board the bandwagon. Well, screw you, Jacques Chirac, and screw your cheese eating surrender monkey countrymen. America should reject the idea of having a "United" Nations and solidarity with our European so-called allies. America must realize that its best friend will always be the United Kingdom, and all future alliances should be built on the idea of Anglo-American partnership, reinforced by nations who share our common aims and values.
Tuesday, June 08, 2004
Today a nation mourns for its president, Ronald Wilson Reagan.
Until recently, there wasn't a contemporary president who was as polarizing as Ronald Reagan. Republicans worshipped him as an idol and many Democrats reviled him. I think this had to do with his widespread popularity with much of America. He wasn't perfect by any stretch, but he was the right man for America as we emerged from the Carter malaise. Ronald Reagan taught us that America was worth believing in again. A person from his hometown of Dixon IL told a reporter that "we need Ronald Reagan now, more than ever." The news coverage of Ronald Reagan's death has been pretty positive, choosing to focus on "tear this wall down" instead of moments like Iran-Contra.
Perhaps the biggest mistake of the Reagan years was a strategic decision that an Iranian victory in the war with Iraq was not in our interests. In hindsight, the best policy to follow was "kill them all and let God sort them out." I don't think there was much our country could have done to deter the eventual invasion of Kuwait, but our covert (and eventually overt) involvement with the Iran-Iraq War obligated us to liberate Kuwait and dragged us further down the spiral that would lead to the containment of Iraq, Osama bin Laden's war against The Western Way of Life, and the war to remove Saddam and nation-build in Iraq.
On matters of aerospace policy, Ronald Reagan was not well-informed but he was supportive. He committed the US and its partners to building a space station, not because we needed it (and we still don't need it,) but because the Soviets had one. He also saw "the Orient Express" hypersonic aerospacecraft as the next great leap this nation should take. And while it remains an exciting goal for us to chase, the technology was immature when Reagan proposed it and it's still a lomg ways off today, although the X-43 is a tangible result of the progress we have made.
Last night Matt Drudge had Peggy Noonan, perhaps Ronald Reagan's greatest speechwriter, on his show. Drudge replayed a Reagan speech from the national prayer breakfast in August 1984, in which "The Gipper" noted that America's strength comes from its faith, and that the fall of great empires can be linked to their rejection of religion. It sent shivers down my spine. I regret having been so young at the time and unable to appreciate the stirring words of a great leader. With faith, America will survive, and we can still make Ronald Reagan proud.
George Tenet finally stepped down last Thursday. Tenet was always a figure the left sympathized with, not only because he was the last holdover from the Clinton White House, but also because they think he was manipulated to provide bad intelligence to justify "Halliburton's War." Yet it was on George Tenet's watch in 1997-8 that Bill CLinton told the world about Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction and his links to Osama bin Laden, via a pharmaceutical plant that was blown to bits in the Sudan. The point here is that there always was a pattern of evidence suggesting Saddam Hussein was involved with banned weapons activities. Since Baghdad fell, we have seen evidence that Iraq maintained its pre-1991 chemical weapons and made preparations to produce more, continued biological weapons research, developed unmanned aircraft that were more advanced than we predicted, continued missile development, and maintained a relationship of undetermined extent with the Osama bin Laden network.
The two problems that occurred on Tenet's watch (in addition to the disembowelment of our human intelligence capabilities, which has been going on for decades) are a reliance on untrustworthy defectors and a desire to use intelligence from foreign intel agencies without investigating it. To the agency's credit, it was much more skeptical of Ahmed Chalabi's Iraqi National Congress than the Pentagon was. But it also accepted stories from other defectors that were seemingly confirmed by polygraph tests, only to become discredited by post-invasion sleuthing.
I'm really disturbed by our sloppiness in corroborating intelligence from so-called allies in Europe. The mobile germ labs case was anchored on the testimony of "Curveball," an INC source for German intelligence. It turns out he was a liar, but we never could have told because our people never interviewed him. Likewise, Italian intelligence told us thay had documents linking Iraq to Niger's Uranium trade. We treated the information as credible for several months until the Italians finally gave us the documents, which were quickly dismissed as poor quality forgeries.
In the first case, I think we were too quick to believe because Curveball was saying things we had heard before from other sources (and this story may yet pan out, should we finally discern the purpose of the two trailers found in northern Iraq.) The second case was also believable, because the documents confirmed a tip we had gotten from British intelligence. The question is whether the British got their information from the same source or a different one, and this is a question that Joe "George Bush leaked my wife's identity" Wilson has never brought up.
Until recently, there wasn't a contemporary president who was as polarizing as Ronald Reagan. Republicans worshipped him as an idol and many Democrats reviled him. I think this had to do with his widespread popularity with much of America. He wasn't perfect by any stretch, but he was the right man for America as we emerged from the Carter malaise. Ronald Reagan taught us that America was worth believing in again. A person from his hometown of Dixon IL told a reporter that "we need Ronald Reagan now, more than ever." The news coverage of Ronald Reagan's death has been pretty positive, choosing to focus on "tear this wall down" instead of moments like Iran-Contra.
Perhaps the biggest mistake of the Reagan years was a strategic decision that an Iranian victory in the war with Iraq was not in our interests. In hindsight, the best policy to follow was "kill them all and let God sort them out." I don't think there was much our country could have done to deter the eventual invasion of Kuwait, but our covert (and eventually overt) involvement with the Iran-Iraq War obligated us to liberate Kuwait and dragged us further down the spiral that would lead to the containment of Iraq, Osama bin Laden's war against The Western Way of Life, and the war to remove Saddam and nation-build in Iraq.
On matters of aerospace policy, Ronald Reagan was not well-informed but he was supportive. He committed the US and its partners to building a space station, not because we needed it (and we still don't need it,) but because the Soviets had one. He also saw "the Orient Express" hypersonic aerospacecraft as the next great leap this nation should take. And while it remains an exciting goal for us to chase, the technology was immature when Reagan proposed it and it's still a lomg ways off today, although the X-43 is a tangible result of the progress we have made.
Last night Matt Drudge had Peggy Noonan, perhaps Ronald Reagan's greatest speechwriter, on his show. Drudge replayed a Reagan speech from the national prayer breakfast in August 1984, in which "The Gipper" noted that America's strength comes from its faith, and that the fall of great empires can be linked to their rejection of religion. It sent shivers down my spine. I regret having been so young at the time and unable to appreciate the stirring words of a great leader. With faith, America will survive, and we can still make Ronald Reagan proud.
George Tenet finally stepped down last Thursday. Tenet was always a figure the left sympathized with, not only because he was the last holdover from the Clinton White House, but also because they think he was manipulated to provide bad intelligence to justify "Halliburton's War." Yet it was on George Tenet's watch in 1997-8 that Bill CLinton told the world about Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction and his links to Osama bin Laden, via a pharmaceutical plant that was blown to bits in the Sudan. The point here is that there always was a pattern of evidence suggesting Saddam Hussein was involved with banned weapons activities. Since Baghdad fell, we have seen evidence that Iraq maintained its pre-1991 chemical weapons and made preparations to produce more, continued biological weapons research, developed unmanned aircraft that were more advanced than we predicted, continued missile development, and maintained a relationship of undetermined extent with the Osama bin Laden network.
The two problems that occurred on Tenet's watch (in addition to the disembowelment of our human intelligence capabilities, which has been going on for decades) are a reliance on untrustworthy defectors and a desire to use intelligence from foreign intel agencies without investigating it. To the agency's credit, it was much more skeptical of Ahmed Chalabi's Iraqi National Congress than the Pentagon was. But it also accepted stories from other defectors that were seemingly confirmed by polygraph tests, only to become discredited by post-invasion sleuthing.
I'm really disturbed by our sloppiness in corroborating intelligence from so-called allies in Europe. The mobile germ labs case was anchored on the testimony of "Curveball," an INC source for German intelligence. It turns out he was a liar, but we never could have told because our people never interviewed him. Likewise, Italian intelligence told us thay had documents linking Iraq to Niger's Uranium trade. We treated the information as credible for several months until the Italians finally gave us the documents, which were quickly dismissed as poor quality forgeries.
In the first case, I think we were too quick to believe because Curveball was saying things we had heard before from other sources (and this story may yet pan out, should we finally discern the purpose of the two trailers found in northern Iraq.) The second case was also believable, because the documents confirmed a tip we had gotten from British intelligence. The question is whether the British got their information from the same source or a different one, and this is a question that Joe "George Bush leaked my wife's identity" Wilson has never brought up.
Tuesday, June 01, 2004
Beware of Loctite Super Glue. At first, it sounds like a good idea: a super glue that stays in the bottle and doesn't clog and harden in the tip. Yet it doesn't work as advertised, and my tip is clogged. Perhaps it's because Lotite is made in Ireland, the country whose future has been destroyed by the tag team of whiskey and guiness. I guess you can't make good super glue if you're drunk on the job.
I'm proud of how Father's screen porch is coming together. What disappoints me is the local Home Depot. They carry practically nothing we needed, so we had to make substitutions and buy lumber that was longer than what we needed.
The weather has been so bad that I'm starting to compare it to "The Day After Tomorrow." It's rained so much that the grass needs to be cut two to three times per week. Memorial Day weekend was rained out, as the precipitation shifted from the extremes of sunny day to driving rain over the course of Sunday and Monday.
I'm proud of how Father's screen porch is coming together. What disappoints me is the local Home Depot. They carry practically nothing we needed, so we had to make substitutions and buy lumber that was longer than what we needed.
The weather has been so bad that I'm starting to compare it to "The Day After Tomorrow." It's rained so much that the grass needs to be cut two to three times per week. Memorial Day weekend was rained out, as the precipitation shifted from the extremes of sunny day to driving rain over the course of Sunday and Monday.
