Judicious Asininity

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Sun Apr 29, 2007

Clintonistas always lie

Tenet has just been caught in a whopper

Powerline has the scoop:

THE WEEKLY STANDARD has now learned of a second, more stunning error in Tenet's book (which is due to appear in bookstores tomorrow). According to Michiko Kakutani's review in Saturday's Times,

On the day after 9/11, he [Tenet] adds, he ran into Richard Perle, a leading neoconservative and the head of the Defense Policy Board, coming out of the White House. He says Mr. Perle turned to him and said: "Iraq has to pay a price for what happened yesterday. They bear responsibility."

Here's the problem: Richard Perle was in France on that day, unable to fly back after September 11. In fact Perle did not return to the United State until September 15. Did Tenet perhaps merely get the date of this encounter wrong? Well, the quote Tenet ascribes to Perle hinges on the encounter taking place September 12: "Iraq has to pay a price for what happened yesterday." And Perle in any case categorically denies to THE WEEKLY STANDARD ever having said any such thing to Tenet, while coming out of the White House or anywhere else.

W's biggest mistake was placing any faith in any hold-over from the the Clinton Administration. The list of Clintonistas that left America exposed, even after the first WTC attack, is long. Too many retained positions of influence after Mr. George "Bipartisanship" Bush won power.

Bush understands that radical Islam is at war with civilization. He doesn't seem to understand that a far more powerful enemy has been at war with his administration since the 2000 election. That enemy could care less about the threat posed by radical Islam. In fact, it is happy to ally itself with radical Islam whenever it hurts Bush. Witness Harry Reid telling Al Qaeda that the US has already lost in Iraq. That more powerful enemy is the Democrat party, ably assisted by its billionaire funders and the MSM.

Tenet is playing the Clintonista game. No wonder he let Wilson and Plame defame the administration. Bush should have realized which team Tenet was on long ago. The fact that he trusted Tenet tells us much about the character of both men. Tenet seems not to have had any; Bush too much for Washington.

Lieberman for VP

GOP VP, that is

Few Republican's have enunciated what is at stake in Iraq as clearly as Lieberman. Wizbang quotes his speech in full. It deserves to be read in full by every one in the country. His concluding paragraphs:

Mr. President, what we need now is a sober assessment of the progress we have made and a recognition of the challenges we face. There are still many uncertainties before us, many complexities. Barely half of the new troops that General Petraeus has requested have even arrived in Iraq, and, as we heard from him yesterday, it will still be months before we will know just how effective his new strategy is.

In following General Petraeus' path, there is no guarantee of success--but there is hope, and a new plan, for success.

The plan embedded in this legislation, on the other hand, contains no such hope. It is a strategy of catchphrases and bromides, rather than military realities in Iraq. It does not learn from the many mistakes we have made in Iraq. Rather, it promises to repeat them.

Let me be absolutely clear: In my opinion, Iraq is not yet lost--but if we follow this plan, it will be. And so, I fear, much of our hope for stability in the Middle East and security from terrorism here at home.

Can you imagine the impact on the electorate if the GOP Presidential candidate said that we are at war, that national unity on this momentous issue is critical to winning the war, and therefore, he is asking Senator Lieberman to run as America's Vice President?

Such a move would split the Democrat electorate. The victory of a bi-partisan team would show the world, especially the Muslim world, that the US is in this war to win.

One can dream...

Thu Apr 26, 2007

Haditha was no massacre

Will Murtha apologize to his fellow Marines when this bogus case finally collapses?

Sweetness and Light did a great job over the last year documenting all that was wrong in the case against the Marines who are being prosecuted for an alleged massacre at Haditha. I noted his contribution in this post, and this, with extensive links to Sweetness and Light and other sources.

Those of us who followed the story thought it looked like a set-up job. Terrorist propagandists had conned a gullible leftist reporter from Time Magazine that a massacre had occurred. Over-zealous investigators, who trusted Iraqis, with insurgent connections, over the Marines, have tried to make the case against the Marines. Some people linked to the investigation leaked one-sided accounts of the case to the press. Former Marine and corruptible Democrat Congressman John Murtha slammed the Marines:

Murtha said high-level reports he received indicated that no one fired upon the Marines or that there was any military action against the U.S. forces after the initial explosion. Yet the deaths were not seriously investigated until March because an early probe was stifled within days of the incident, he said.

"I will not excuse murder, and this is what happened," Murtha said "This investigation should have been over two or three weeks afterward and it should have been made public and people should have been held responsible for it."

Now we are getting reports that the case is collapsing. Clarice Feldman, at American Thinker, links to an explosive NewsMax report that will, if true, destroy the case against the Marines ambushed at Haditha:

Much of that evidence remains classified, but it includes videos of the entire day's action, including airstrikes against insurgent safe houses. Also included was all of the radio traffic describing the ongoing action between the men on the ground and battalion headquarters, and proof that the Marines were aware that the insurgents conducting the ambush of the Kilo Company troops were videotaping the action — the same video that after editing ended up in the hands of a gullible anti-war correspondent for Time magazine.

Go read the whole piece.

These brave Marines were ambushed four times; by the terrorists in Haditha, by Time Magazine, by John Murtha, and by the US military. Time for this charade to stop and for Wuterich's slander case against his ambushers to proceed.

Tue Apr 24, 2007

Senator Haw Haw Reid is a wimp

His whining about Cheney taking him to task proves it

From Fox News:

Cheney:

"In less than six months time, Senator Reid has gone from pledging full funding for the military, then full funding with conditions, and then a cut-off of funding. Three positions in five months on the most important foreign policy question facing the nation and our troops."

"Indeed last week, he said the war is already lost, and the timetable legislation that he is now pursuing would guarantee defeat."

Reid:

"I'm not going to get into a name-calling match with somebody who has a 9 percent approval rating. ... I'm not going to get into a name-calling match with the administration's chief attack dog," Reid said after being asked about Cheney's remarks.

"If you look at what we have done in this legislation, we have done what is good for troops, good for our country. There is no question about that. And this is not a time for name-calling, I think it's a time for cinching up our belts, doing what's right for the troops. That's what our supplemental appropriations bill is about."

I suppose telling the troops they've already lost the war "is good for the troops". If Reid had the courage of his convictions he would go to the front line in Iraq and tell them that to their faces.

Sun Apr 22, 2007

What does the price of Lobsters have to do with Global Warming?

Think supply and demand

Tim Blair notes a NY Times report the lobster men aren't catching much this season:

When lobstermen do head out, they find their traps filled with more bait than lobsters. Unseasonably cold spring weather has lowered water temperatures about six degrees, too cold for lobsters to want to feed, Dr. Bayer said.
...
Lobsters have rarely been as scarce or expensive as they have been in the last few weeks, thanks to a confluence of bad weather, extremely cold water and a lack of reserve supply.

The retail price is about $15 a pound for a one-pound lobster, nearly double what it was last spring, and restaurateurs are having difficulty obtaining lobsters, particularly large ones.

Where they can be found, large lobsters come with big price tags. Anthony’s Pier 4 in Boston is selling three-and-a-half-pound lobsters for $112. A scarce two-pound lobster at the Union Oyster House in Boston is $47.95, the manager, Troy C. Thissell, said, and a one-pounder at Warren’s Lobster House in Kittery, Me., is $29.99, said the owner, Scott Cunningham.

“Basically, all we’re selling is one- or one-and-a-half-pounders,” Mr. Cunningham said. “The big ones are scarce, and the price is outrageous. We thought we might have to change our name to Warren’s Chicken House or something.”

It also looks like the polar bears are going to have a bigger supply of seals than usual. The human seal hunters are trapped in unseasonable ice, as the Las Vegas Sun reports:

An easing of the wind Friday morning allowed 10 vessels to make it into port, but Penny said the other 90 boats probably would stay immobilized at least until Saturday.

"Conditions are terrible up there with the ice and that," said Ward George, a search-and-rescue coordinator in St. John's, Newfoundland. "So we're just waiting for the wind to change, to ease off on the pressure, and we'll do our work."

Thick slabs of ice have lift some vessels out of the water, causing them to tip on their sides.

The Newfoundland hunt is third and largest phase of Canada's annual seal harvest, an event that has drawn widespread criticism around the world, including from celebrities such as Paul McCartney and French actress Brigitte Bardot.

It's been a cold, hard winter up here in North East Ohio. But don't worry about the evidence of your own frozen digits. Global warming hysteria is official, endorsed by two of the most powerful institutions in the US; the Supreme Court and the military.

Thu Apr 19, 2007

Harry Reid - Al Qaeda's Lord Haw Haw

Al Qaeda depends on the MSM and Democrats like Harry Reid

Harry Reid has been using his position as Senate Majority Leader to hit the media with the claim that the war is lost:

The war in Iraq "is lost" and a US troop surge is failing to bring peace to the country, the leader of the Democratic majority in the US Congress, Harry Reid, said Thursday.

"I believe ... that this war is lost, and this surge is not accomplishing anything, as is shown by the extreme violence in Iraq this week," Reid told journalists.

Al Qaeda has been doing its best to stoke up violence as the surge starts to restrict their activities. There has been an increase in bombings this week, but they have not made the headlines that Al Qaeda wanted. A mass-murdering nutcase at Virginia Tech saw to that. Enter Harry Reid to stoke up the media coverage for Al Qaeda. Hence the reminder to Al Qaeda's media allies of the "extreme violence" in Iraq.

Question for Mr. Reid. If the war is lost, who won? Are you claiming that Al Qaeda defeated the US in Iraq? Or Iran defeated the US in Iraq? Just who do you think has won?

Pretty obviously, Mr. Reid is rooting for Bush to lose in Iraq. He is so unpatriotic that he fails to see what a blow it would be to the US to admit defeat in Iraq, turn tail, and head home to fortress America.

Al Qaeda learned something else this week. It is ridiculously easy for a lone gunman or suicide bomber to wreak havoc in the US. If Harry Reid has his way, Al Qaeda will follow US troops back to our homeland and show how well they learned that lesson. Having defeated the only remaining Superpower, Al Qaeda will have no trouble recruiting Muslim nutcases to attack US targets on US soil. Thank you, Harry (Haw Haw) Reid.

Austin Bay isn't too impressed, either:

No, the War on Terror and its Iraq phase are not lost. They certainly haven’t been lost militarily, and Reid knows it. Since mid-April 2003 the economic and governmental components have been the decisive dimensions. Check Iraq’s GDP — it’s growing. Its elected a democratic government. The Saddamists, Al Qaeda, and Iranian-influenced Shia militias have had enormous information successes. Senator Reid and I might discuss why that’s the case. One reason is that they are not penalized by the conventional media and the Left for a campaign of mass murder overwhelmingly directed against Iraqi civilians. You want to help end the terror in Iraq? Condemn the terrorists as the Cho-like psychopaths they are. Deny them the false celebrity they gain when dubbed “insurgents.”

Wed Apr 18, 2007

Islam defiles other religions with impunity

It's just part of their 1400 year Jihad against the Infidel

The most sacred places in Christendom are under the control of Islamic terrorists dedicated to the destruction of Israel and the Jewish religion. They have conned much of the West into thinking that they, the vanguard of a one billion strong religion, are the victims of Israeli aggression. They have too many of us believing that their terrorism against civilians are justified acts of defense against a Nazi-like oppressor. How do we know that they are the vanguard? Because every Muslim in the world, from the Queen of Jordan through to Osama bin Ladin, takes the side of the most vile terrorists ever seen before 9/11. How vile? Remember the Munich Olympics of 1972?

But Christians and Jews are not the sole targets of Islamic aggression. They are, in the Muslim view, people of the book, and entitled to some protection under Islam if they fail to submit to Allah. It's called Dhimmitude and it is the fate awaiting those of us who fail to recognize the true nature of Islam. Other religions fare less well.

Muslim antipathy to Buddhism made headlines when the Taliban destroyed the two Buddhas statues carved into the cliffs of Bamiyan, despite world-wide protests. Even the UN didn't think it was a good idea.

Islam is threatening other holy Buddhist sites. A Buddhist Frontpage Contributor writes:

I was seated underneath the holy Maha Bodhi Tree in Bodh Gaya, in the state of Bihar in India. ... This was my second visit to this unparalleled location, the site of the Lord Buddhaï¿½s attainment of full Enlightenment over 2,500 years ago ...I had applied for and been granted the great honor of permission to spend the night within the Maha Bodhi compound....My plan was to spend the entire night practicing seated meditation, walking meditation, and circumambulation of the great Maha Bodhi Stupa. The air was warm and my practice was going very well as I alternated between the three practices, as the hours passed.

The beautiful waning full moon light filtering through the glistening leaves of the Maha Bodhi Tree, the soft fluttering of the leaves, the serene quiet, took me back to that time long ago when the Buddha himself had sat very near this same exact spot.

Or so I thoughtï¿½ï¿½.

The musseinï¿½s call to prayer for the faithful of Islam, here in this most sacred location to all of Buddhism, ripped me back to modern reality. I was stunned! How could this be? Here in one of the most significant spots of Buddhism, loud speakers come on at four in the morning every day, to shock and intrude upon meditators and Buddhist practitioners using this spot for that which it has to offer in its most special way?

Does Islam respect other religions? It doesn't appear so. That might explain the paucity of churches, synagogues, temples and ACLU offices in the Muslim world.

Thailand is a predominantly Buddhist country. The South is partially Muslim and their holy warriors have been slaughtering Buddhists at a great rate. On a per head basis, Muslim terrorists in Thailand are doing far better than Muslim terrorists in the US. Little Green Footbals notes some Islamic activity in Thailand:

Suspected Muslim insurgents shot and killed two Buddhist laborers and then beheaded one of them as deadly violence and scattered bombings continued Wednesday in restive southern Thailand, police said.

Beheading seems to be so fashionable amongst the elite of the Muslim world. KSM beheaded Daniel Pearl and Indonesian Muslims beheaded three Christian school girls on their way to school. Maybe they were inspired by their prophet, who acquiesced in the beheading of hundreds of Jewish male prisoners. Our peaceful Muslim friends seem to be big fans of beheading.

Perhaps we should install a guillotine at Gitmo. When its work is done, then we could close Gitmo.

Portrait of a Hero

Liviu Librescu represented the best of the West

Neo-Neocon links to the personal web page of Liviu Librescu, the Virginia Tech Professor who died defending his students. Look at his interests:

Foundation and applications of the modern theory of shells incorporating non-classical effects and composed of advanced composite materials; Foundation of the theory and applications of sandwich type structures; Aeroelastic stability of flight vehicle structures;. Nonlinear aeroelasticity of structures in supersonic and hypersonic flow fields; Aeroelastic and structural tailoring; Dynamic response and instability of elastic and viscoelastic laminated composite structures subjected to deterministic and random loading systems; Mechanical and thermal postbuckling of flat and curved shear-deformable elastic panels; Static, dynamic and aeroelastic feedback control of adaptive structures; Unsteady aerodynamics and magnetoaerodynamics of supersonic flows with applications; Optimization problems of aeroelastic structural systems; Theory of composite thin-walled beams and its application in aeronautical and mechanical constructions; Response and behavior of structures to underwater and in-air explosions; Multifunctional and Functionally Graded material structures.

He was doing leading edge research on facets of our lives that we take for granted. "Theory of composite thin-walled beams and its application in aeronautical and mechanical constructions". In other words, how do we make complex structures lighter, stronger and more efficient? His contribution to society was immense but unseen outside of his profession.

But this frail old man, a Holocaust survivor, gave his students the chance to survive with his physical courage. We need his kind more than ever.

Mon Apr 16, 2007

Crazy mass murdering gun nuts are not unique to the US

Check out Tasmania and Scotland

In 1996, Port Arthur, in the Australian state of Tasmania, was the scene of one of the worst mass murders in Australia's history:

His next stop is the Fox and Hounds Hotel, where he shoots several people before moving up the road to the Seascape lodge, where he takes hostages at about 3.30pm. He fires at helicopters taking his victims to hospital and exchanges fire with the police surrounding his position. By now at least 32 people are dead and more than 18 wounded. By late afternoon, a mortuary truck moves into the Port Arthur township to pick up the dead.

Australia, even back then, had tougher gun laws than the US. That's probably why the killer had a rifle instead of a less accurate hand gun.

In Scotland, another crazy person attacked a school:

On March 13, 1996, Thomas Hamilton, 43, left his home at 7 Kent Road in Dunblane, Scotland, with only one thing in mind -- murder. At about 9:30 a.m., he drove to the Dunblane Primary School with a pair of pliers, four handguns and more than 700 rounds of ammunition. Once there, he cut the telephone wires on a nearby pole and then proceeded with weapons in hand to a side entrance of the school.

Hamilton burst into the assembly hall, where a class of 5- and 6-year-old children was having gym lessons and opened fire. He first shot at several of the teachers. Hamilton then turned his guns on the frightened children and shot at them as they tried to scramble to safety under chairs and inside closets. Screams echoed through the gymnasium as tiny bodies sunk to the floor in pools of blood.

Hamilton momentarily stepped outside the gym into a hallway where there were other classrooms and open fired again. Several more people were struck down before Hamilton returned to the gym and began shooting again. He then put the gun into his mouth and pulled the trigger. He died instantaneously, leaving behind a ghastly trail of death and devastation.

The brutal rampage left 17 people murdered, including one teacher and 16 children. Another 17 would survive the horrifying incident but be haunted with nightmares for the rest of their lives. The sleepy, rural town was forever changed by the horrors of that day. It was considered one of the deadliest massacres in recent history.

Families of the victims and community residents were shocked by the senseless slaughter that claimed so many innocent lives and scarred the survivors, physically and emotionally. According to John Smith's March 1996 article for The People, of the thousands of cards sent to the school to commemorate those who had died, one best described what was on most people's minds, "Why them! Why Them!" Unfortunately, the only one who could answer the question was dead.

Of course, it could have been worse. Remember Beslan? 344 people died in an organized terrorist attack on a school.

Minnesota Airport is a Sharia-free zone

Thank the Lord that American values prevailed

Powerline serves up the good news:

The powers-that-be at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport -- the Metropolitan Airports Commission -- have voted unanimously to require airport taxis to serve all comers, regardless of their compliance with sharia law: "Taxi drivers can't refuse riders, MAC rules." The Star Tribune reports:
Starting May 11, airport taxi drivers who refuse to transport riders carrying alcohol will be suspended for 30 days. And after a second offense, their license would be revoked for two years.

The Metropolitan Airports Commission voted 11-0 Monday to approve the crackdown, which some Muslim drivers say violates their religious beliefs. Commissioners called the change reasonable, practical and important for rider safety.

Unlike Europe, America should declare itself a Sharia-free zone. The Aussies are ahead of the US on that score. Australian Treasurer Peter Costello lays it on the line:

ANYONE who believes Islamic sharia law can co-exist with Australian law should move to a country where they feel more comfortable, Treasurer Peter Costello said today.

All Australian citizens must adhere to the framework in society which maintains tolerance and protects the rights and liberties of all, he said. It is a pre-condition for citizenship of Australia.
Mr Costello was giving a speech on the meaning of Australian citizenship to the Sydney Institute.

"There is one law we are all expected to abide by," Mr Costello said.

"It is the law enacted by the Parliament under the Australian Constitution.

"If you can't accept that, then you don't accept the fundamentals of what Australia is and what it stands for."

Would that George Bush could ever be so forthright.

Sun Apr 15, 2007

Kobe Byrant vs the Duke Five

Dahlia Lithwick compared the cases a year ago

Back on Saturday, April 22, 2006, Lithwick wrote:

It's easy to have doubts about the ability of the courts to resolve cases like this one when you stop to consider that long after the court proceedings, hearings, and investigations ended, we still have no idea what really happened between Kobe Bryant and his accuser, between Michael Jackson and his accuser, between Clarence Thomas and Anita Hill. If these legal processes are intended to be searches for the truth, why is there never any truth at the conclusion?

Then she started in on the Duke five:

But that's where the Duke case truly differs from the Kobe Bryant case. This is not a case about consent. Either a forcible rape, kidnapping, and strangulation happened in that bathroom in Durham or it didn't. This wasn't a date gone wrong. At the margins, this case may be about sex and race and power. But it's not about subtle social messages or identity-based misunderstandings. It's about an assault.

Also, there is evidence here: Mounds and mounds of significant physical evidence. There is a rape kit. There are bruises, and then, apparently, more bruises. There are DNA tests and broken fingernails and witnesses seemingly tumbling out of the woodwork. There are time-stamped photographic accounts of much of the evening. This is not a classic "he says/she says." The evidence has something to say to us as well.

(my bold) Unlike Bryant, Lithwick has the Duke 5 guilty from the get go. Based on what? Nifong's lies and the accusers lies. I wondered what Lithwick would say, now that we know a low-life stripper with emotional problems, and a lower-life elected D.A., went public with lies. A little googling reveals all, as in, it is all Bush's fault:

Today represents one of those serendipitous moments in which two scandals merge. Where the denouement of one national outrage—the Duke rape fiasco—reveals something incredibly important about another one—the U.S. attorney purge. Both cases highlight the stunning power of prosecutors and the need for those prosecutors to be as independent and honest as possible.

If this afternoon's statement by North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper—announcing that all charges had been dropped against the three former lacrosse players—clarified anything, it was that the catalyst for all of the harm in the Duke case was Durham County District Attorney Mike Nifong, whose "tragic rush to accuse and failure to verify serious allegations" has ruined lives, probably irreparably. Cooper didn't mince words today. "Rogue prosecutor" can't really be parsed in a gentle way.

That's a thought worth holding onto as we reflect on the U.S. attorney purge that's taken over the front pages of our newspapers.

Huh? Nifong was elected, and perverted justice to get re-elected. The US attorneys, that got fired, served at the President's pleasure. Huge difference, but one beyond Lithwick's comprehension. The fact that inept Gonzales bungled yet again is beside the point. Lithwick had the Duke 5 more guilty than Kobe Bryant. When it became obvious that Nifong was pursuing a case against innocent athletes for political gain, she tries to blame Bush.

This Lithwick person gets paid to write? If that's the case, Chimpanzees should get paid when they paint.

What leftist Anti-war forces fail to understand

It's a concept simple enough to fit on a bumper-sticker

When I find the site that supplied that quote, I'll give due credit.

If our enemies lay down their arms, there will be peace. It we lay down our arms, there will be a holocaust.

Western politicians trying to force Israeli politicians to offer yet more concessions to the Palestinians don't understand that concept. Some Israeli politicians don't seem to understand it. Western chattering classes don't understand it. Madame Speaker Pelosi certainly doesn't understand it; she is under the delusion that the war will stop if the coalition leaves Iraq to the tender mercies of Al Qaeda and Iran.

Update: It came from Powerline. Read the whole thing. Our troops are far wiser than our erstwhile leaders.

Thu Apr 12, 2007

What's at stake in Iraq

More than any Democrat can imagine

We have to recognize the forces that are causing the violence in Iraq and their objectives.

First up is Al Qaeda, the military arm of radical Sunni theology. They might not have had much of a relationship with Saddam, but Bin Ladin did justify violence on America because of the first Gulf War. 9/11 was supposed to drive the US out of the Middle East. It had the opposite effect. American military might poured into Iraq, the heart of the Middle East. Al Qaeda was forced to pour resources into Iraq to drive the US out. They didn't intend to do it militarily. The chosen method was terrorism and the negative publicity it generates in the leftist US MSM. Their strategy is on the verge of success. The majority Democrats in the House and Senate have signed up with Al Qaeda's strategy.

Next, we have the Sunni minority that benefited from Saddam's rule. They have been in the forefront of the insurgency, but their ally, Al Qaeda, has betrayed them. Al Qaeda needs MSM headlines. Mass murdering Shi'ites was a good way to do that. But radical Shi'ites reacted by killing Sunnis wholesale. Al Qaeda started attacking Sunni targets. They even used Chlorine truck bombs against Sunnis. This drove a wedge between Al Qaeda and the Sunni minority. We are now seeing Sunni tribes switching sides.

Finally, we have Iran. The radical Shi'ites who run that Clintonian Democracy have strong ties with the likes of Al Sadr. They fought a long war with Saddam's Iraq in the 1980s. It was costly to both sides, but one result is that Iran fears a strong Iraq, and it very much fears a strong Iraq allied with the Great Satan. Iran just wants the US to wash its hands of an Iraq quagmire. Guess what? So does Madam Pelosi. The strategic problem is that Iran is playing both sides against the middle. The Mad Mullahs don't actually care about their Shi'ite Arab allies. So they are happy to assist Al Qaeda, the Sunni factions, and the Shi'ites. So long as death and destruction continues in Iraq, they win and the US loses.

If Iran can keep the violence in Iraq stoked up, it can keep the US from focusing on Iran. Under those conditions, Iran can keep working on its nukes.

Did the US expect that getting rid of Saddam would unleash the forces it did? Probably not. Did anyone expect a single assassination to spark World War One? Probably not.

But now we have revealed the Sunni/Shi'ite divide, the civil war between Muslim moderates and radicals, and the self-destructive tendencies of the anti-war wing that is ascendant in the Democratic party. Great matters stand in the balance.

Some of the British fighting spirit survives

Read Michael Yon's account of an operation in Basra for proof

Michael Yon embedded with British troops in Basra and went on a raid with a British platoon. My father, who served under Montgomery, would have been proud of the way the British soldiers fought. Go read.

Tue Apr 10, 2007

Why Great Britain is no longer Great

Let me list the ways

Let me say up front that my wife and I were unabashed Anglophiles. We met in London. We lived in London for two years and saw something like 200 plays, operas and musicals in that period. When we moved back to the US we went to London every couple of years on trips jammed pack with theater. We bought a nice flat in London with the intention of spending half our time in London and half back in the US, in our golden years. We sold it just after the tube bombings. We haven't been back to London since. Unless there is a dramatic turnaround in Great Britain, we won't be back.

So, here's why we have crossed our favorite city off our list.

Criminals rule London's streets. Citizens who defend themselves against criminals receive longer prison terms than the criminals. The famed British Police Constable is now so PC he can't actually do anything about criminals.

Britain's draconian anti-gun laws have had "unintended" consequences: criminals running amok with illegal guns.

The Tory party of Churchill and Thatcher is barely distinguishable from the party of Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid.

Radical Muslims have made Londistan their new base for operations against the Infidels. The Brits have treated them with kid gloves.

Teachers cannot teach the truth about the Holocaust or the Crusades because they are scared of their Muslim pupils. Richard the Lionheart? Consigned to PC purgatory.

Britannia no longer rules the waves, as Mark Steyn points out with devastating wit. It has cut back its navy so much it couldn't rule a puddle. Iran just demonstrated British impotence. That's not great. That's pathetic. The Falklands may as well become Argentinian now.

Dennis Prager is on the same page:

But a word of caution: If Great Britain can cease to be great in so short a time span, any country can. All you need is an elite that no longer believes in their country, that manipulates history texts to make students feel good about themselves, that prefers multiculturalism to its own culture, and that has abandoned its religious underpinnings. Sound familiar, America?

Giving power to the likes of Pelosi and Reid will sink the good ship USA. Just look at what Carter achieved in three long years. And that was before the Mad Mullahs were on the threshold of becoming the first Shi'ite nuclear power.

Climate Models are bogus

Basing policy on such models is just plain stupid

Back in 2003 I wrote:

Those global warming models remind me of the hyped up expert systems of the 80s. These were supposed to accumulate and organize information and make inferences from that information. The favorite application was medical diagnosis. Each time the system made a mistake, the developer would say, "I just need to tweak it one more time". [These systems are still around and are being used in specific application areas. But the dream of the perfect diagnostic tool that could replace an experienced physician has not come to pass.]

That "one more tweak" syndrome hints at the major problem of these models. They are inductive. By modifying the assumptions and parameters you change the results. Eventually, you can fit it to the data points you have observed. However, there is no guarantee that the model's predictions will hold in the future; each wrong result will require further tweaking of the assumptions and parameters. The question will always be – is the latest tweak based on hard science and real evidence, or did it simply produce the answer you needed?

A deductive computer model, on the other hand, closely replicates the subject being modeled according to the laws of physics. You can't change the way the model operates by changing assumptions because you would be changing the laws of physics. Such models are used in automotive design, for example.

Theoretically, one could build a deductive model of the earth's climate, but that would require modeling trillions of objects in faster than real-time. That isn't going to happen. In the meantime, we should remain very skeptical of predictions and prescriptions based on computer models of the climate.

The blogosphere, led by Instapundit, has been very interested in a TCS interview with Freeman Dyson, a professor emeritus of physics at the Institute for Advanced Study, in Princeton. This passage reminded me of my earlier post on climate computer models:

Benny Peiser: In a Winter Commencement Address at the University of Michigan two years ago you called yourself a heretic on global warming, the most notorious dogma of modern science. You have described global warming anxiety as grossly exaggerated and have openly voiced your doubts about the reliability of climate models. These models, you argue, "do a very poor job of describing the clouds, the dust, the chemistry and the biology of fields, farms and forests. They do not begin to describe the real world that we live in." There seems to be an almost complete endorsement of the world's scientific organisations and elites of these models together with claims that they reliably epitomize reality and can consistently predict future climate change. How do you feel belonging to a tiny minority of scientists who dare to voice their doubts openly?

Freeman Dyson: I am always happy to be in the minority. Concerning the climate models, I know enough of the details to be sure that they are unreliable. They are full of fudge factors that are fitted to the existing climate, so the models more or less agree with the observed data. But there is no reason to believe that the same fudge factors would give the right behavior in a world with different chemistry, for example in a world with increased CO2 in the atmosphere.

Take it from me and Professor Dyson: Computer Models of the climate are dangerous when people believe the model rather than the unpredictable reality. Climate is always changing and there isn't much we can do about it, except move.

Mon Apr 09, 2007

Ford & GM fight back

Their line-ups are getting better month by month

A co-worker proudly showed me his new wheels. It was a Ford Edge and he'd paid top dollar. I'd have to admit it was a nice vehicle and a cut above the Ford Explorer in terms of style, refinement and comfort. If I was going to spend that sort of money I'd have looked at the Acura MDX or RDX, but I'm a Honda fan dating back to my 1961 Honda Benly motorbike. I used to tell people I drove a Benly; it wasn't my fault if they heard Bentley.

The Edge is gaining on the imports, or, as I like to call them, in-sourcers:

To many, the 2007 Ford Edge represents the best Ford has to offer in its current lineup, and sales of the stylish crossover are starting to fulfill the vehicle's promise. The Edge has only been on the market for four months, and it's already within 1,000 monthly units of the segment leaders Toyota Highlander and Nissan Murano.

One huge mistake that Ford made was not to nurture its top seller. The Ford Taurus used to duke it out with the Toyota Camry and Honda Accord for the title of best selling car. Ford dropped the brand-name when it brought out the Ford 500. The 500 is a better car than the Taurus it replaced but it sold poorly. Average Joes looking to buy another Taurus were confronted with a very different looking vehicle with an unfamiliar name. If it had been called Taurus, Ford would have done much better. Belatedly, Ford came to its senses and renamed the 500 back to Taurus. I vaguely recall the Fairlane 500 from the 1960s. Great marketing move. Rename your 1990s best-seller after your grandfather's mediocre car. Chrysler actually had a number to remember when they resurrected 300.

Ford and GM have done better in Europe and Australia than they have in the US in recent years. In Australia GM has pitted its Commodore against Ford's Falcon for decades. It's Ford vs Chevy with more passion. Both brands have been nurtured and promoted in the Aussie market. Toyota has been trying to muscle in on the action with fatter Camry derivatives but hasn't made much of a dent. In Australia, GM and Ford nurtured their top-selling brands, keeping them up to date and competitive. When I lived in Australia I switched from a 1st generation Honda Accord to a 1st generation Commodore. Both were great cars for the period.

GM is refreshing its model range from its overseas subsidiaries. Pontiac is getting the Aussie Commodore as a worthy competitor to the RWD Chrysler 300. Saturn is getting nice product from GM's German division, Opel. The Saturn Aura brings Euro style to the Camry/Accord/Altima market and looks tempting.

Ford may want to put some bucks into the Aussie Falcon, a name that harks back to the 1960s Ford Falcon compact. It may well be the way to get them back into the great RWD revival.

Heck, if it wasn't for the UAW, GM and Ford might well be able to compete with the in-sourcers.

Me, I've got my eye on the next generation Honda Accord.

The British Marine hostages were not like US Marines

This rough language anecdote captures the marine spirit

Via Tigerhawk, who passes on this anecdote from Guests of the Ayatollah:

For many weeks [Political Officer John W. Limbert, Jr.] had no contact with anyone other than his guards. He began to worry that something had happened. Had everyone else been released? Had he been left behind? Had the others been killed?

Then one day a guard asked him to define some English words that he didn't understand.

The words were "raghead," "bozo," "motherfucker," and "cocksucker." Limbert laughed. It warmed his heart. Someplace nearby his captors were still coping with the United States Marine Corps.

OK. I try not to use bad language on this blog. But, in this case, I'll make an exception. Semper Fi.

Update: I use Firefox and it has now gotten a spell-checker feature. It's great for bloggers, and two of my favorite bloggers should switch to it immediately. I'm talking to you, MacsMind and The Strata-Sphere. But I noticed that the Firefox spell-checker flagged "raghead" and "Semper Fi", but not the marines' choicest words. We have a PC spell checker here, huh?

Sat Apr 07, 2007

Global warming crushes Mr. and Mrs. Goose

A sad tale set in a parking lot

A pair of Canada geese decided our office parking lot would be a great place to raise a family. So they built a nest at the edge of the curb. Mrs. Goose laid a couple of eggs while Mr. Goose stood guard, hissing at cars and people who came too close. The sun was shining, spring was in the air, the daffodils bloomed, and the temperature climbed to a record 80°F. Global warming was in full throttle but the Goose family seemed content. That was Tuesday.

By Thursday, temperatures had plunged to the low 20's, the wind was whistling in off Lake Erie, bringing much snow. Early that morning, the snow-plow man came to our parking lot to move the snow, so we could park our green-house gas emitting cars. Unfortunately for the Goose family, it was dark, and snowing, and snow-plow man failed to spot their family home. He pushed crushed ice and dirty snow over their nest and eggs. All that was left were a few fragments of egg shell. It was a pathetic scene that awaited the light of day.

Too much more of this global warming and Canada geese will become extinct. They can't cope with this man-made catastrophe that is about to turn the Earth into a fireball.

Oh, it's still snowing and it's going to carry on through next week. T.S. Eliot wrote:

APRIL is the cruellest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain.
Winter kept us warm, covering
Earth in forgetful snow, feeding
A little life with dried tubers.

April has also been the coolest month around these parts. Just when you think Winter is over, it comes back with a vengeance.

Exposing liberal hypocrisy on supporting the Troops

Try it next time a liberal friend says they support the troops but want them home

John Robinson at American Thinker explains how to help liberal understand their hypocrisy and lack of logic. He makes a great analogy that cuts to the heart of liberal causes and beliefs.

I won't steal his thunder by quoting him but I do recommend having his analogy on hand next time you hear the liberal mantra about supporting the troops but not their mission.

Thu Apr 05, 2007

How not to feel safe flying

Investigate the "no-fly" list

Annie Jacobsen did just that. She found a bureaucratic morass that would confound Dickens. (AJ is Annie Jacobsen. CKE is Inspector General Ervin)

I decided to call Inspector General Ervin directly. Here's a bit of what was said.

AJ: At the end of your report, Under Secretary
Frank Libutti says he's not in charge of consolidating and sharing Terrorist Watch List Information.

CKE: Yes.

AJ: So, the man given this incredibly important job says it's not his job...I'm wondering what kind of message this sends to the average American person trying to understand this, there is no one in charge?

CKE: It's very clear from the Homeland Security Act. The DHS in general, and IAIP specifically, has overall coordination responsibility [of the Terrorist Watch Lists].

AJ: So you feel the Under Secretary should be in charge, but he feels the Department of Justice [an entirely different federal agency] should be in charge?

CKE: That's right. There's a difference of opinion.

AJ: Your report also says Libutti takes this position [that it's not his job] "without any legal assessments" to support his claim. On what authority, then, is Under Secretary Libutti acting?

CKE: We never received any legal analysis to support IAIP's claim.

AJ: Is Libutti simply not interested in the job?

CKE: It is our understanding, based on conversations with him - that his position is firm and unaltered. He maintains it is not a DHS responsibility.

AJ: Do you find this disheartening, or is there some forward thinking here that I'm missing?
CKE: The Terrorist Watch List Consolidation effort is a critically important issue. We acknowledge some progress in the report, but there are still problems... We maintain as a matter of law and as a matter of common sense that the responsibility should be that of the Department [of Homeland Security].

AJ: So, where do we go from here?

CKE: For now, we agree to disagree.

How many people might die because some lowly bureaucrats "agree to disagree". Another point (I raise it because AJ mentions it in her article). How come our government resources can't figure out a phonetic/soundex/Arabic way to overcome the different ways Arabs transliterate their names into the English alphabet?

Illegals driving under the influence kill Americans again

Year in, year out, they kill more Americans than terrorists

Bob Clark, the director of "A Christmas Story", and his son, were killed in a collision with an SUV being driven by Hector Velazquez-Nava. The SUV driver:

is a Mexican national with no record of previous deportations, said Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman Virginia Kice.

The Clarks join the 4,000+ Americans killed on our roads by drunk illegals every year.

This evening, O'Reilly got into a vigorous argument with Geraldo Rivera over the deaths of Two Virginia Beach girls at the hands of yet another drunken illegal alien driver. It's about time the MSM took some notice of just what our lax immigration policy is costing decent Americans.

I'm also wondering if the families of all those people killed by illegals could join a class action suit and sue the Mexican government, for encouraging illegals to cross into the US, and the US government, for failing to stop them.

Wed Apr 04, 2007

Has [formerly] Great Britain got what it takes?

Iran just posed a challenge

Neo-Neocon writes:

In propaganda terms, the Iranians may have gotten everything they wanted—the humiliation of Britain, the British Navy, and the sailors—and have no reason to continue to hold them further if there’s any chance the ante will be upped.

In strategic terms, they may have learned what they wanted to find out: that they could get away with this and more, without real consequences.

The Brits just got sand kicked in their faces. The bully on the world-stage humiliated Her Majesty's Navy. Will they muscle up or wimp out? Since the Falklands War, when Britain had a useful navy, the British have reduced their military spendings to the European norm, i.e. utterly dependent on the US.

The Great Britain of History would not take such affronts well. Shakespeare's "Henry V" gave voice to the British spirit:

We are glad the Dauphin is so pleasant with us;
His present and your pains we thank you for:
When we have march'd our rackets to these balls,
We will, in France, by God's grace, play a set
Shall strike his father's crown into the hazard.
Tell him he hath made a match with such a wrangler
That all the courts of France will be disturb'd
With chases. And we understand him well,
How he comes o'er us with our wilder days,
Not measuring what use we made of them.
We never valued this poor seat of England;
And therefore, living hence, did give ourself
To barbarous licence; as 'tis ever common
That men are merriest when they are from home.
But tell the Dauphin I will keep my state,
Be like a king and show my sail of greatness
When I do rouse me in my throne of France:
For that I have laid by my majesty
And plodded like a man for working-days,
But I will rise there with so full a glory
That I will dazzle all the eyes of France,
Yea, strike the Dauphin blind to look on us.
And tell the pleasant prince this mock of his
Hath turn'd his balls to gun-stones; and his soul
Shall stand sore charged for the wasteful vengeance
That shall fly with them: for many a thousand widows
Shall this his mock mock out of their dear husbands;
Mock mothers from their sons, mock castles down;
And some are yet ungotten and unborn
That shall have cause to curse the Dauphin's scorn.
But this lies all within the will of God,
To whom I do appeal; and in whose name
Tell you the Dauphin I am coming on,
To venge me as I may and to put forth
My rightful hand in a well-hallow'd cause.
So get you hence in peace; and tell the Dauphin
His jest will savour but of shallow wit,
When thousands weep more than did laugh at it.
Convey them with safe conduct. Fare you well.

England took its revenge on France at the battle of Agincourt. But one fears that Britain is no more. Tony Blair has fought well, but he is no Henry, or Nelson, or Churchill, or Thatcher.

Where is Britain's Henry V? Where is our Henry V? Is there a man or woman who can lead us to victory against an evil and pernicious foe that exploits our freedoms with surgical precision?

Tue Apr 03, 2007

Pelosi the Dhimmi

We knew she was dim but covering her hair makes her a Dhimmi

Powerline has pictures of Nancy wearing a scarf for a visit to a Mosque. She's not a Muslim, so far as I know, so she has no reason to wear a scarf to satisfy Muslim sensibilities. She claims to be Catholic. She should have been wearing a prominent symbol of her Christian faith, such as a crucifix, instead of submitting to Muslim dictates.

My wife, daughter and my daughter's friend visited Egypt in 1989. We were hosted in Cairo by an Egyptian friend who assigned one of his students to show us around the Cairo museum and the most famous mosques in Cairo. The student was very knowledgeable about ancient Egypt and fiercely proud of his religion. Not once were the womenfolk in our party asked to cover their hair. It seemed then that the locals were very tolerant of infidels visiting their holy sites.

It is sickening to think that the third in line for the presidency can be so easily manipulated to submit to the will of Allah. She knew not what she did, but they surely do.

Condi did the same thing. That just goes to show what happens when you get sucked into the State Department. She's also bought into the peace process fantasy. I had thought much better of Rice but she has proven unable to resist Foggy Bottom's useless allure.

You could make the argument that Pelosi and Rice were showing respect for the local culture. By that logic, Muslim women should shed their Hijabs, and assorted other costumes when they come to a non-Muslim country. Some do, some don't. I suspect the don'ts are becoming dominant.

Mon Apr 02, 2007

I'm praying for the next ice age to arrive real soon

Just so 5 Supreme Court Justices realize they are morons

The mis-guided majority think the EPA should monitor CO₂ as just another pollutant.

Here's a little thought experiment for the esteemed 5. If CO₂ is a pollutant, wouldn't it be wonderful if the atmosphere was CO₂ free? If you say, no, check the check box labeled "I studied photosynthesis at school". If you say, yes, check "I might be a moron but I made it to the Supreme Court".

Cox and Forkum should be nationally synidicated

Check their latest

The Clinton campaign relationship captured perfectly and the Iranian nutjob getting a jolt. Move the mouse! Move the mouse!

Kudos to Southwest Airlines

They are top of my pops

I booked a flight to St Louis to run a marathon. Unfortunately, thanks to the Gore effect, we had a tough winter for marathon training. Between the snow and ice outside and the treadmill inside I got hurt. Running a marathon while hurt is very unwise so I bailed. I had an advance purchase airfare booked with Southwest. I called them to say I needed to cancel. No problems. They gave me a credit for my next flight. Guess I'll be flying Southwest. In fact, I'll be delighted to fly Southwest.

The media seems only to report bad news about airlines. 99.9% of the time they do a good job. The biggest hassles come from the Department of Homeland Security and their insistence on screening everyone as if they were Richard Reid or Mohammad Atta. Here's my suggestion: optional Muslim-free flights with no security screening other than petting a guide dog and munching some bacon or matzos and swearing on the Bible, Torah or ACLU mission statement, that you aren't a Muslim, don't want to become a Muslim, don't want to go to Cuba or some other non-designated destination, and won't commit terrorist acts in-flight or on the ground. Oh, and you have to look at a bunch of innocuous Danish cartoons without causing a blip on a lie-detector. That sure beats what they put us through now.

Sun Apr 01, 2007

Beware the Mullahs

They seek our submission to Islam

Via Michael Ledeen at the NRO Corner we found a link to an Iranian writer who explains what the mullahs are about. Here's his indictment of the regime on its horrific domestic record:

Domestically

* You do not represent the Iranian people. You are a usurper of power. You are guilty of transforming a noble nation into a world pariah.

* You are denying and violating a long-suffering people all its human rights.

* You are guilty of beating, imprisoning and torturing a few dozen women who braved participating in a peaceful demonstration pleading for equal family rights, on the recent International Day of Women.

* You systematically beat, imprison, and torture all manners of citizens, from school teachers to students to union workers, for daring to raise their voices against the plight to which you have subjected them.

* You savagely beat and haul to your dungeons of torture and death over a thousand of the tens of thousands of teachers who had recently gathered in front of the parliament requesting nothing more than their back pay and living wages.

* You direct systematic genocidal measures against all non-Shia religious minorities, with Baha'is as prime target.

* You arrest some Christians, even your Quran calls "People of the Book," for observing Christmas.

* You implement barbaric practices of stoning, hanging and amputations for those who are convicted of crimes in your kangaroo courts without due process. You even imprison those few lawyers who rise in the defense of the innocent.

* You plunder, mismanage and dole out Iran's national wealth with the result that the great majority of the people are living in poverty. Iranian women are forced into prostitution to survive or simply sold as sex slaves in Persian Gulf states.

* Your fascist misrule of nearly three decades has driven millions of Iran's best children to four corners of the world. Hundreds of thousands of educated Iranians are compelled to continue the exodus, depriving Iran of the sorely-needed talents at home.

* You spend a fortune on the nuclear program that you claim is only aimed for peaceful purposes, while turning Iran into little more than a gas station nation, with its precious oil wealth squandered and its facilities on the verge of collapse through neglect.

* You have created a suffocating social atmosphere that has driven masses of the people to the use of hard drugs as a way of numbing their pain.

Heck, even George Bush hasn't been that bad, huh? As always, go read the whole piece.

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