Wednesday, October 31, 2007

The Strain

If the military is not being strained in war time you have too many men (and women) under arms. In any case Congress controls the purse and authorizes staffing levels. The Democrats have an opportunity to do it right.

Of course this war in Iraq is optional. Just as a war over the re-occupation of the Rhineland was optional for Europe in 1936. The Europeans passed up that option in favor of 1939 to '45.

I don't think they chose the right option.

Of course with history there is only one way to test a proposition like that. Me? I'd vote for smaller less expensive wars. I'd hate to see us in a situation where 50% of the GDP and 10% of the citizens were under arms.

Going Against The Grain

Gillette is launching a sales campaign in the Arabian Peninsula to push its Fusion Power Razor.

'Gillette Fusion is more than just a next generation shaving brand, it's the future of shaving,' said Ahmed El Mahdy, Gillette Brand Manager, P&G Arabian Peninsula. 'Gillette Fusion extends our rich history of innovation. It's a breakthrough platform that will continue to drive our category leadership.'
Well, he seems sold, but isn't this kind of like selling snow to Eskimos? How many of those folks shave?

Oil Shale Breakthrough?

Fortune Magazine Reports a breakthrough in oil shale recovery.

...a cutting-edge technology that, according to Shell, will produce large quantities of high-quality oil without ravaging the local environment - and be profitable with prices around $30 a barrel. Now that oil is approaching $90, the odds on Shell's speculative bet are beginning to look awfully good.

Shell declines to get too specific about how much oil it thinks it can pump at peak production levels, but one DOE study contends that the region can sustain two million barrels a day by 2020 and three million by 2040. Other government estimates have posited an upper range of five million. At that level, Western oil shale would rival the largest oilfields in the world.
That will be very helpful if they can actually begin production.

Blog Radio

I am going to be on the radio. Blog Radio. Always On Watch has invited me and Karridine to discuss I Wanna Go Home and to talk about our give away of 1,000 Free Copies on blog radio. You can tune in here and listen live and call in at 19:00 GMT (12:00 Pacific Std. Time) or listen later at your convenience.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Democrats Keep Digging

It looks like the Democrats are trying hard to straddle two horses. I predict severe rips in the crotch area.

WASHINGTON - Democrats are debating whether to approve $50 billion to $70 billion for Iraq and Afghanistan, a quarter to less than half of President Bush’s $196 billion request but enough to keep the wars afloat for several more months.

Such a move would satisfy party members who want to spare the Pentagon from a painful budget dance and support the troops as Congress considers its next major step on Iraq.

But it would also irritate scores of other Democrats, who want to pay only to bring troops home and who say their leadership is not doing enough to end the war.

“I cannot vote for another dollar that will be used to continue the president’s occupation of Iraq,” said Rep. Lynn Woolsey, D-Calif.

Democratic leaders caution that no decisions have been made, including whether to approve any money for the wars at all. Also uncertain is which spending bill might contain the war money.

But on the table are estimates of $40 billion to $70 billion—with $50 billion considered the most likely scenario. The final amount would depend on how many months of combat that Democrats would want to support, and how much money they think the Pentagon needs to buy new bomb-resistant vehicles that protect troops from roadside blasts.
The article does take a dig at congressional supporters of "an unpopular war". I don't think they are reading it right. Losing is the most unpopular position. Say. Doesn't that describe the Democrat leadership - in favor of losing? You would think that the Democrats would stop digging. I guess they have the same problem many newspapers and TV reporters have.

They can't stop digging.

Naval Power

The Office of Naval Research (ONR) is interested in new power sources for the Navy.

In the future, ONR intends to place increasing emphasis on "energy and power." While current efforts remain notional, scientists and researchers at ONR predict this area will move up the priority ladder as the Defense Department and the services seek alternative energy sources and ways to cut back on fuel costs.
I think that fits in well with the announcement made yesterday about the Navy funding Bussard Reactor Research.

Monday, October 29, 2007

It's Official

Defence News has a story up on the death of Dr. Robert Bussard in which they state that the US Navy has put up nearly $2 million to continue the research on the Bussard Reactor.

Robert Bussard, inventor of a promising method for producing energy from nuclear fusion, died Oct. 6. He was 79.

Bussard received nearly $2 million under a U.S. Navy contract in August to continue work on an inertial electrostatic confinement reactor he had developed. The reactor uses magnetic fields to confine electrons, whose negative charge causes protons and Boron 11 atoms to fuse. The fusion sets off a chain of reactions that produces electricity.
I have a bit to say about Dr. Bussard's life work at Dr. Bussard has died.

You can find out more about the Bussard reactor at the following urls.

Bussard Fusion Reactor
Easy Low Cost No Radiation Fusion
Bussard Reactor Funded
Dr. Bussard's Final Interview
IEC Fusion Newsgroup
IEC Fusion Technology blog

Recruiting Democrats

Opinion Journal has posted an article on why a staunch anti-war Democrat would join the military. The Opinion Journal quotes from an article by Rochelle Reed of the McClatchy Newspapers.

When I tell people that Evan has joined the Army, their reactions are almost always the same: their faces freeze, they pause way too long, and then they say, "I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry for you." I hang my head and look mournful, accepting their sympathy for the worry that lives in me. But as it dawns on them that Evan wasn't drafted, as Vietnam still clings to my generation, their expressions become quizzical, then disbelieving. I know what they're thinking: Why in the world would any kid in his right mind choose to enlist when we're in the middle of a war? I begin telling them the story, desperate to assure them it wasn't arrogant patriotism or murderous blood lust that convinced him to join. What finally hooked him was a recruiter's comment that if he thought the country's role in Iraq was so screwed up, he should try to fix it.
Those Army recruiters are insidious.

H/T Instapundit

Uniting the Tribes

Things are going badly in Iraq. Ten sheiks were abducted Sunday. Seven Sunnis and three Shiites.

You know, Iraqis don't like having their tribal leaders kidnapped.

It triggers tribal vendettas.

Who do you think captured the sheiks? Who do you think the vendettas will be aimed at?

What are the Tangos trying to do? Unite all the Iraqi tribes against them? Bwahahahahahaha.

Obama Has A Mental Health Problem

Or at least one of his supporters does. Is it Barak's personal problem? Nope. Well at least not obviously. It is a problem with Dick Cheney.

Rosa Brooks of the Los Angeles Times has decided to go all Soviet on the Vice President and rather than impeach him - get him declared mentally incompetent - psychotic.

You have to admire the effect Cheney and Bush have on some people with their secret mind rays. A small suggestion Rosa. Double up on the tinfoil.

Up To No Good

Gayle at Dragon Lady's Den has just alerted me to the outrage of the week or even month (this one and the next). It seems that a traditional recitation during the flag folding ceremony has been banned. It was banned because of this verse.

The eleventh fold, in the eyes of a Hebrew citizen
represents the lower portion of the seal of King David
and King Solomon, and glorifies in their eyes, the God
of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
The objections are anonymous, yet the objection to this particular verse is curious.

Now the recitation itself is fairly sectarian. I'm not sure a Hindu or an atheist would approve. However, commenter Old Soldier at the Dragon Lady's says:
First, accodring to OSD the flag folding ceremony is part of the honors provided; not the recital.

Second, the recital is a tradition that has an unknown origin. It has had variations depending upon the organization providing the recital. One version seems to have become the accepted prose.

Third, neither the flag folding ceremony nor the recital are statutory, and neither are included in any flag etiquette writings.

As many of your commenters and you have indicated, it should be none of the government's business what a family choses as traditions for thier departed loved one. The government provides access to the cemetary based upon service and kinship to veterans. There should be no restrictions to traditions desired by the bereaving provided they [the traditions] are not immoral or unethical.

Most veterans know what the flag stands for and it should not take a recital at a funeral to remind his/her family and other mourners.

Now, all that said (without emotion); I cannot believe one complaint would force our government to stop allowing what has become and accepted traditon at the funeral of veterans.
I would object if this was required, or if recited by some government official other than a chaplain, however I can see no possible reason for not letting those who want to be part of the ceremony to say these words or any others. Our Constitution has some words on the matter.
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
They should be final.

Evidently our vets know the Constitution better than the Government does (what a surprise).
During thousands of military burials, Veterans Administration employees and volunteers have folded the American flag 13 times and recited the significance of every fold to survivors. The fourth fold, for example, refers to God's "divine guidance." The 11th fold glorifies "the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob." And the 12th fold glorifies "God the Father, the Son and Holy Ghost." Now the National Cemetery Association has made a decision to ban flag-folding recitations by VA employees and volunteers at all 125 national cemeteries -- all because of one complaint about a ceremony at Riverside National Cemetery in California that included a reference to God.

Rees Lloyd is director of the California Defense of Veterans Memorials Project and part of a 16-member detail that has performed military honors at more than 1,400 services. He says veterans -- and in particular, American Legionnaires -- are outraged by the ban.

"It's outrageous," he says bluntly. "These are decisions that should be made by the families of our deceased veteran comrades and not by Washington bureaucrats -- and most certainly not by any narcissistic, disaffected, offended atheist, agnostic, or any other [person] who is upset or offended by the word 'God' or a religious symbol which might offend his delicate sensibilities."

Lloyd vows that even if there are "a hundred-million offended atheists," he and other American Legionnaires will stand against the ban.

"We will defy this ban, pure and simple," he states. "If the families ask us to recite the flag-folding ceremony, we will abide by the wishes of the family -- not [by the wishes of] some bureaucrat sitting in an air-conditioned office in Washington, DC, or some lawyer wearing a diaper back there whose main mission in life is to protect his own behind instead of standing up for the American people and saying enough is enough."
Yep. Enough.

Sunday, October 28, 2007

The Enigma Variations

I have been watching Mind of a Codebreaker - video instead of blogging. I should be ashamed of myself, but I am not. It is a fascinating story about how the British broke the German codes. Ultimately it is also the story of the World's First Programmable Electronic Computer. It had 1,500 valves. What we in America call tubes. An amazing story. If you have the time and bandwidth well worth it. I have studied this subject from a number of different aspects over the years since I first read a book called The Ultra SecretThe Ultra Secretand I must say this is one of the best technical expositions of the Enigma story I have yet come in contact with. The part about "cribs" is very interesting. Until I read a book on Enigma technology a few years back I had never seen a good explanation of "cribs". The video covers the essence of "cribbing" very well.

Saturday, October 27, 2007

Round Pegs In Round Holes

Suppose you have a machine that depends for its proper operation on wooden pegs in wooden holes. Say that it has been traditional, if wooden pegs were not available, that brass pegs were an accepted substitute. Now suppose the government outlawed the use of brass pegs and decreed that if you didn't have wooden pegs only gold pegs were acceptable. Would that be right?

What am I getting at? Brain chemistry.

The holes are receptors. The wooden pegs are the body's naturally made receptor fillers. The brass pegs are substances you imbibe (in one way or another) to make up for a lack in the bodies' natural chemistry. What would the gold pegs be? Dr. prescribed medicines.

Let us take the case of marijuana. Mice have been developed which do not naturally produce enough CB1 receptor fillers. They are genetically different. They have long term memories of fear situations. They live in fear and that fear is easily excited. Not a pleasant way to live. Modern medicine has developed substances that can relieve that constant fear. Doctors are allowed to prescribe such substances. However, marijuana can also fill those receptors and relieve constant fear and anxiety. We have made marijuana illegal even though there is no objective difference between the doctor prescribed medicine and marijuana (with respect to brain chemistry). Is that right?

This line of thought came to me in an e-mail discussion of Treatment Vs Recreation and Class War.

You can read more on this line of thought - I have been at it for six years - at the following articles:

PTSD and the Endocannabinoid System
Addiction or Self Medication?
Genetic Discrimination
The War On Unpatented Drugs.
The Pain In The Brain
Addiction Is A Genetic Disease

and way more articles at:
The Nature Of Addiction

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Rudy Speaks

I just found this site with quotes from Rudy Giuliani. One scary dude if you believe in Liberty. So let me pick some of my least favorites:

Freedom is about authority. Freedom is about the willingness of every single human being to cede to lawful authority a great deal of discretion about what you do and how you do it.
So Rudy is an authoritarian. Swell. Warm fuzzies? No.
In choosing a president, we really don't choose a Republican or Democrat, a conservative or liberal. We choose a leader.
Kim Jong-il for President? I don't think so. Not my kind of guy.
With the spirit of my administration, New York City is poised for dramatic change. The era of fear has had a long enough reign.
I can see his point here. With him in charge we will no longer have to fear the criminals. The government will be handling the job. Government has a big advantage here over the criminals. Sovereign immunity. Criminality by the government is sanctioned because we elected it. Don't believe me? Let me give you one final quote:
It's about time law enforcement got as organized as organized crime.
Government as organized crime. Ain't it the truth.

Mark Twain once said “America is a nation without a distinct criminal class...with the possible exception of Congress." Giuliani wants to be their leader. No thanks.

Now all this reminds me of "the Bohemian Corporal" as Rundstedt called the person Churchill referred to as "That Man". The man who promised to bring Law and Order to Germany. I think I'd prefer that criminals remain on the street to having them installed in government.

Did some one mention Hillary? A criminal mind like Bill's without the charm. If Thompson doesn't get his game on we are in for a very rough ride.

Watcher in the comments has suggested some Fred videos, I haven't looked at them yet. But if you are interested here they are:

Fred Om Iraq
Fred vs Hillary
Fred on Federalism

I do know I like his position on Federalism.

Muslims Against Sharia

I had a post up at Classical Values called So Insensitive. Nothing unusual. I do lots of posts at Classical Values. What was special was a commenter who signed himself Muslims Against Sharia. He provided a link to (what else?) Muslims Against Sharia. So let us see what they have to say about Islamo Fascism Awareness Week which has just passed.

Muslims Against Sharia congratulate David Horowitz FREEDOM CENTER and Mike Adams, Tammy Bruce, Phyllis Chesler, Ann Coulter, Nonie Darwish, Greg Davis, Stephen Gale, David Horowitz, Joe Kaufman, Michael Ledeen, Michael Medved, Alan Nathan, Cyrus Nowrasteh, Daphne Patai, Daniel Pipes, Dennis Prager, Luana Saghieh, Rick Santorum, Jonathan Schanzer, Christina Sommers, Robert Spencer, Brian Sussman, Ed Turzanski, Ibn Warraq and other speakers on the success of the Islamofascism Awareness Week.

Islamofascism (or Islamism) is the main threat facing modern civilization and ignorance about this threat is astounding. We hope that this event becomes regular and reaches every campus.

A great many Westerners do not see the clear distinction between Islam and Islamism (Islamofascism). They need to understand that the difference between Islam and Islamism (Islamofascism) is the same as the difference between Christianity and Christian Identity Movement (White Supremacy Movement).
Wow. I'm in total agreement there.

You should visit them and find out more. Good people.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Friday, October 26, 2007

100,000 Free Copies

The author of I Wanna Go Home, Karridine, has authorized me to give away 100,000 free copies of the song to our men and women in the military for personal use only. However, recipients of a free copy can let anybody listen to it if they want. Members of the military can put it on their i-pod, use it on their computer, or make one CD.

To get your free copy just send me an e-mail. The address is on the sidebar. Your free copy will be delivered by e-mail - about 2.1 Megs.

I can send out about 500 to 1,000 copies a day. So if yours doesn't arrive right away be patient.

If you are in a hurry and can't wait to Get a copy then Click here - I Wanna Go Home. The author has given permission to those currently serving in the military who buy the song to share it with nine of their best buddies, wives, husbands, parents, or children.

You can find out more about the song and watch a video of the first minute and thirty seconds at I Wanna Go Home. There is also a link to the lyrics so you can sing along.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Lyrics To - I Wanna Go Home

I Wanna Go Home, having done a good job
Lifting up downtrodden, though the work is rotten
Yet the light's in their eyes-

I Wanna Go Home, tell the whole nation that I did what's right
Shared my best, little pay, little rest
Shining out Liberty's light.

America has enemies, without and within,
Who want us all to feel ashamed,
For having the courage to do what's right,
They want to kill us in God's name!
I won't go home, 'til I've done a good job, look my son in the eye
Hold my daughter 'til they know my heart is true.

Wanna see my wife, hold her in my arms
Bury my face in her soft shoulder, hold her while I cry
For I've seen our enemies hide without honor or shame
Behind women and children, then kill them in God's name!

I've seen my brothers-in-arms holding back their ire
Until civilians were out of the line of fire!

I'm coming home to my City of Light,
Standing tall, on The Mountain, history recountin'
I've done my duty right!

I'm coming home!

===

You can watch the video at I Wanna Go Home. We are giving away 1,000 free copies of the song to our men and women in the military. You can find out how to get one at 1,000 Free Copies.

To Get the full recording Click here - I Wanna Go Home. The author has given permission to those currently serving in the military who buy the song to share it with nine of their best buddies, wives, husbands, parents, or children.

The Joys Of Air Travel

Megan McArdle is blogging about an air travel disaster she recently had. So I thought I'd have a few words about my favorite air travel experience:

I remember Knoxville, TN, fondly.

I got to sleep with over 50 women in one night. On the floor of the airport terminal.

I did have the presence of mind to ask one of the airline personnel to retrieve some sleeping gear from one of the grounded aircraft before they went off duty. At least I was only uncomfortable, not cold and uncomfortable. Others were not so wise.

Sadly none of the grounded ladies asked to share my accommodations.

Ah, the joys of air travel.

H/T Instapundit

Thursday, October 25, 2007

The Forest Fire Plot

Is it possible that Al Queda has been setting at least some of the wild fires in Southern California? The FBI seems to think so.

PHOENIX (AP) — The FBI alerted law enforcement agencies last month that an al-Qaeda terrorist now in detention had talked of masterminding a plot to set a series of devastating forest fires around the western United States.

Rose Davis, a spokeswoman for the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, told The Associated Press that officials there took note of the warning but didn't see a need to act further on it.

The contents of the June 25 memo from the FBI's Denver office were reported Friday by The Arizona Republic. Davis declined to share a copy of the memo and an FBI spokeswoman in Denver didn't immediately return a telephone call.
What do you know? Could be. The people detained were planning to set fires in Colorado, Montana, Utah and Wyoming. They can't be the only cell in America.

How about forest fires in Lebanon?
BEIRUT: Fires raged across forests in northern and southern Lebanon late Tuesday and Wednesday for the second time in a month, prompting government officials to question whether the devastating blazes were the result of arson. Interior Minister Hassan Sabaa said on Wednesday during a news conference at the Grand Serail in Beirut that the conditions under which "these fires have appeared have raised huge questions."

However, Sabaa refused to identify any possible suspects, saying that he would not comment on the matter until police reports are finalized.
Curiouser and curiouser.

From Beirut to the Beltway says:
Lebanon Files quoted civil defense director Darwish Hobeika as saying the cause of the fires is arson.
So how about environmentalists in America? According to this story excerpted at Michelle Malkin's they seem to like throwing wood on the fire.
The GAO examined 762 U.S. Forest Service (USFS) proposals to thin forests and prevent fires during the past two years. According to the study, slightly more than half the proposals were not subject to third-party appeal. Of those proposals subject to appeal, third parties challenged 59 percent.

Appeals were filed most often by anti-logging groups, including the Sierra Club, Alliance for Wild Rockies, and Forest Conservation Council. According to the GAO, 84 interest groups filed more than 400 appeals of Forest Service proposals. The appeals delayed efforts to treat 900,000 acres of forests and cost the federal government millions of dollars to address.

Forest Service officials estimate they spend nearly half their time, and $250 million each year, preparing for the appeals and procedural challenges launched by activists.

“The report demonstrates that the appeals needlessly delay federal efforts to prevent wildfires, and if the process is not streamlined, millions of acres will be lost this summer,” said Senate Energy Committee Chairman Pete Domenici (R-New Mexico).

“The American people will no longer tolerate management by wildfire,” Domenici added.
I'm not so sure of that. That bit came out in 2003. It appears not much has been accomplished since then.

Environmentalists and jihadis in cahoots? Only objectively. Only objectively.

H/T Americanphile

A Sound Proposition

You start knocking over nations that support or harbor terrorists and sooner or later nations get the idea that it is not wise to support or harbor terrorists.

Seems like a sound proposition to me.

I can understand why so many Euros don't like the idea. The Euros couldn't even handle such a proposition in their own back yard.

Not to worry. Americans have a lot of experience with this sort of thing, and we are getting better at it all the time. Practice makes perfect.

Inspired by the comments to a post about Islamic Fascism Awareness Week at The Reference Frame.

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

I Wanna Go Home



If for some reason the embeded video is not available you can still find it at You Tube.

This is a video done by my friend Karridine. It made me cry when I first heard it. Hope you like it.

Here is a little about him and why he did the video.
Karridine enlisted at age 17 to follow his father's example and serve in Korea. After a year's study at the DLI in Monterey, CA, learning Korean language, Karridine served in the Army Security Agency, working atop a mountain on an island on the Korean DMZ. When the USS Pueblo was captured, Karridine was one of three people handpicked by NSA to fly back to Korea and guide the follow-up there. He got his Honorable Discharge after 4 years service in late1968.

Karridine wrote "Wanna Go Home" as his supportive contribution during the Battle of Baghdad, long after he was refused further service. Knowing how lonely it can get on the front lines, or just far from home, Karridine wove this story of the normal American GI's desire to go home, AFTER completing the mission, AFTER making a positive difference in the field.
The full song is for sale at I Wanna Go Home. The author has given permission to those currently serving in the military who buy the song to share it with nine of their best buddies, wives, husbands, parents, or children.

The soldier in the picture is Sgt. Ely Chagoya of 1st Platoon, Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 26th Infantry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division, in Adhamiya, Iraq, March 3, 2007. The photo is by Sgt. Jeffrey Alexander of the U.S. Army.

Here is a link to the lyrics of I Wanna Go Home. Here is the opening stanza:
I Wanna Go Home, having done a good job
Lifting up downtrodden, though the work is rotten
Yet the light's in their eyes-
For bloggers - review copies are available - send me a link to your blog. My address is on the sidebar at the top.

We are giving away 1,000 free copies to men and women of the military. Find out how to get your free copy at 1,000 Free Copies.

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

The Stalinists Have Won

Gateway Pundit has pictures up that show the protests against Islamic Fascism Awareness Week in Bezerkeley, California. As per usual there is a guy dressed up as a Gitmo prisoner.

Gitmo guy talked about his fascist government here in the United States. He believes we should take care of the fascist government here at home first.
Leftys used to be internationalists.

Evidently the Stalinists have overpowered the Trots.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

I Don't Believe It

The atheist movement has gained tremendous strength and intellectual vitality in the past few decades

Don't you believe it.

Inspired by the discussion at Captain's Quarters

Malibu Burning

Malibu burning?

Maybe the little people will get access to the beaches for a while.

H/T Instapundit

Monday, October 22, 2007

Referral Log Oddities

I wrote a piece a while back called Jewish Porn Sweeps Arab World about how Arab Moslem culture is being subverted by Jewish Porn. So I'm looking at my referrer logs as I do from time to time to see what interests readers and found that someone was searching Google for "jew porn" and my site came up. It came up #10 with that piece. Wow. I guess that makes me a porn mogul - without the pictures or the money.

So I thought I'd do a little more research and visit some of the other sites that came up. I came up with a site that lists the top 10 Jewish porn movies and porn web sites. Only mildly interesting because my Hebrew is insufficient to get most of the jokes. Then I looked in the comments and came up with this one. Something every one can understand. It should have been #10 on the list or higher. Much higher.

How can you leave out the most popular and most realistic of all Jewish Porno Sites? Debbie Does Nothing.

Sunday, October 21, 2007

Krugman Gets It

Economist Paul Krugman gets it.

The ascendancy of modern conservatism is “an almost embarrassingly simple story,” he says, and race is the key.
Yep. I think that perfectly explains Republican Bobby Jindal's win in Louisiana. Krugman is a genius.

H/T Instapundit

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Jindal Wins in Louisiana

It looks like the voters in Louisiana know who caused the Katrina mess in that state even if the left in the rest of America still blames Bush. The Associated Press reports:

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — In his second bid for governor, Republican U.S. Rep. Bobby Jindal strongly led a field of 12 candidates in the Louisiana gubernatorial race late Saturday night as he attempted to avoid a Nov. 17 runoff.

Jindal, 36, the Oxford-educated son of Indian immigrants, needed more than 50 percent of the vote in the primary to win outright without a runoff. Victory would make him Louisiana's first nonwhite governor since Reconstruction and the nation's youngest governor in office upon taking the oath in January.
It looks like Bobby is going to win without a run off. At this time he has 53% of the vote.

And what do you know, it seems like the Republicans are friendly to people of color. Despite what Democrats say about the party being a den of racists. In addition, this should improve our relations with India which have hit a snag over the atomic trade deal.

Here is more from the AP.
Virtually no one questions that Jindal, who lost to Democrat Kathleen Blanco four years ago, will be atop the field of a dozen candidates when the votes are tallied. But Democrats Walter Boasso and Foster Campbell and independent John Georges hope they can keep Jindal's support under 50 percent, sending him into a Nov. 17 runoff election.

But analysts also said Jindal built up support as a sort of "buyer's remorse" from people who voted for Blanco last time and had second thoughts about that decision amid widespread public dissatisfaction with the Democratic governor after Hurricane Katrina.

"I think the Jindal camp, almost explicitly, (wanted) to cast it this way: If you were able to revote, who would you vote for?" said Pearson Cross, a University of Louisiana at Lafayette political scientist.
Not Blanco. How Nagin (mayor of New Orleans during Katrina) won re-election is a mystery.

ABC News makes an interesting point.
U.S. Rep. Bobby Jindal, the son of Indian immigrants, won the Louisiana governor's race Saturday, carrying more than half the vote against 11 opponents to become the state's first non-white governor since Reconstruction.
Louisiana had one non-white Governor before Jindal. He was a Republican named Pinckney Benton Stewart Pinchback and he was the first black governor of any state.
During the Civil War, Pinchback traveled to Louisiana and became the only African American captain in the Union-controlled 1st Louisiana Native Guards.

After the war, he became active in the Republican Party and participated in Reconstruction state conventions. In 1868, Pinchback organized the Fourth Ward Republican Club in New Orleans. That same year, he was elected as a Louisiana state senator, where he became the state Senate president pro tempore. In 1871 he became acting lieutenant governor upon the death of Oscar Dunn, the first elected African American lieutenant governor of a U.S. state.

Pinchback was elevated to the Louisiana governorship on December 9, 1872 after impeachment charges were brought against his predecessor, Republican governor Henry Clay Warmoth.
So properly speaking Jindal is the first elected non-white Governor of Louisiana and a Republican to boot.

I do not think the Democrats are going to have the easy ride in 2008 that they expected. This is a harbinger. I think we are going to have another swing election. Corrupt incompetents are going to get tossed just as they were in 2006. Just look at how Congress stands with the American people. From September 19th.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush and the U.S. Congress registered record-low approval ratings in a Reuters/Zogby poll released on Wednesday, and a new monthly index measuring the mood of Americans dipped slightly on deepening worries about the economy.

Only 29 percent of Americans gave Bush a positive grade for his job performance, below his worst Zogby poll mark of 30 percent in March. A paltry 11 percent rated Congress positively, beating the previous low of 14 percent in July.
Yep. Bush is setting new lows with a drop of 1% to 29%. That is terrible. Congress too is setting new record dropping 3% to 11%. The Democrat and Republican core support runs around 30% give or take. Those numbers mean Republicans retain their core support and Democrats have lost 2/3s of their base. It sure looks like the making of a Democrat debacle in 008.

It might be a real good idea to keep matches out of the hands of Democrat Congress critters. We wouldn't want them setting fire to the place to cover up their incompetence.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Riots At The Democrat Convention

I'm giving myself another opportunity to make myself look stupid. (It's a hobby) I'm predicting that if the Democrat Congress doesn't shut down the war (they won't) there will be massive riots at the Democrat Nominating Convention in Denver.

So let me see. What I need are a few sock puppets and access to some lefty blogs. Maybe a catchy song "Won't You Please Come To Denver". We can save the world.

Saturday, October 20, 2007

Israel Gets It

Israel gets what?

Israel gets it. Since the 1970s, on school campuses in Israel, policy requires teachers and parent aides to arm themselves with semi-automatic weapons. The result? School shootings have plummeted to zero.
H/T Instapundit

Cross Posted at Classical Values

That Was Bad

About Iraq:

Our generals up 'til now didn't win. That was bad. Our generals up 'til now didn't lose. That was good.

In addition too little force allowed the insurgents free play. That was bad. Too little force allowed the Iraqis to get to know the insurgents on an intimate basis. That was good.

Out of bad strategy and bad tactics victory may yet come.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Video: Dennis Miller Reams Harry Reid

I posted this at Classical Values. A must view if you have the bandwidth. YouTube. About 2 1/4 minutes.

Friday, October 19, 2007

Via E-Mail

I have just received an anonymous e-mail with a link to a site, I Call BS, that purports to have a secret recording of Harry Reid's Secretary from Friday morning. You can listen to the mp3 and judge for yourself. It seems authentic to me.

Some one should tell Rush.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Oh, Spray

It appears that the Time Magazine issue with the Marine Corps Osprey on the cover was spraying bunk. Lubbock Marine Parents whose motto is: "Freedom is not free, but the U.S. Marine Corps will pay most of your share." -Ned Dolan, has the story.

I am so glad to see this article. I am not a Time Magazine reader, but happened to see this particular issue in the library. I saw the Osprey on the cover and because one of my sons is in an Osprey squadron, I was curious about it and read it. It was extremely negative. I came home and started searching on the internet and found lots of blogs talking about the Osprey in a very negative way too. When I next talked to my son I asked him about the points that the article made. He said most of them were either outright wrong or dated. One of the blog posts I read even stated that the prop wash from the Osprey would rip a Marine's clothes right off of him and that the Osprey wasn't equipped to fly into clouds. My son has been in the Osprey while it was flying through clouds, so I knew right off that that part wasn't true. He also works with Ospreys every day and has NEVER heard of any one's clothes being ripped off. Where did that even come from? Just made up on the spot by the blog author? I didn't know enough to put together a whole blog post about it and answer all the accusations, so I was thrilled to find this article. Be sure and read that last paragraph.
There is a lot more in the article, but this bit about the forward facing gun issue interested me the most. Quoting from an Air Force Times news report:
There’s also the issue of defensive weaponry. The Ospreys that press reports say are now operating in Iraq, all with Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 263, are equipped with M240G medium machine guns pointed out the back ramp, ready to spray hundreds of 7.62mm bullets into a hot landing zone.

Retired Gen. James Jones, former commandant of the Marine Corps, told Time he’d always wanted the Osprey to have a forward-mounted gun, a .50-caliber under the nose — something he never pulled off as the Corps’ top Marine.

Jones thinks all assault support aircraft should have forward-facing weaponry, according to the article. He described it to Time as a fundamental belief stemming from his Vietnam War experience: Biggest and baddest is best. A spokesman from Jones’ office said the retired general was unavailable to comment for this article.

The Time article quoted Jones as saying, “A rear-mounted gun is better than no gun at all, but I don’t know how much better.”

But Walters said the Osprey’s rear machine gun is the same weapon system the Corps has in every assault support aircraft, none of which has guns facing forward.

Over the past five years, side gunners firing from CH-46 Sea Knight and CH-53 Sea Stallion helicopters in Iraq and Afghanistan “found that most of the threat was on the ramp,” Walters said.

He said Jones wasn’t the only Marine to stand by a forward gun on principle.

“It’s an emotional issue for a lot of people,” Walters said. “I can come up with a scenario where it would be valuable, but we haven’t seen it in five years of combat.”
Experience is the best teacher. If you want to learn more about how Time got intimate with the pooch GRTWT.

Update: I think this quote about accuracy in the Drive By Media is particularly apt:
“Thompson left out the part where I indicated my support and hopes for VMM-263’s success and resultantly I am presented as a ‘critic,’ ” he wrote. “That’s what I get for attempting a complete thought with a reporter who’s reverse-engineering a story.”
Cross Posted at Classical Values

$2,100,100.00

Yesterday I was discussing in Dingy Harry Gets The Bum's Rush how Rush Limbaugh turned the "phony soldier" controversy into cash for the Marine Corps -- Law Enforcement Foundation. When I posted last night (local time) the bidding was up to $850,000+. Today the bidding is closed and the total is, as the headline shows, over two million dollars. On top of that Rush plans to contribute an equal amount to the foundation. Over four million dollars folks. No doubt the moonbats at DU are howling. Howling moonbats. Got to be a new sensation.

You can go to rushlimbaugh.com to find your local station. Today ought to be a lot of fun.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Dingy Harry Gets The Bum's Rush

Rush Limbaugh (who I listen to occasionally) has gotten the original smear letter signed by 41 Democrat Senators and put it up on Ebay with all the money going towards a charity that supports the families of fallen Marines and police officers. At the time of this post the bidding is at a little over $850,000. Semper Fi Rush.

Here is a list of the Senators who signed:

Harry Reid
Hillary Rodham Clinton
Barack Obama

Daniel Akaka
Max Baucus
Joseph Biden
Barbara Boxer
Sherrod Brown
Robert Byrd
Benjamin Cardin
Tom Carper
Bob Casey
Kent Conrad
Christopher Dodd
Byron Dorgan
Richard Durbin
Dianne Feinstein
Tom Harkin
Daniel Inouye
Edward M. Kennedy
John Kerry
Amy Klobuchar
Mary Landrieu
Frank Lautenberg
Patrick Leahy
Carl Levin
Blanche Lincoln
Bob Menendez
Barbara Mikulski
Patty Murray
Bill Nelson
Jack Reed
Jay Rockefeller
Ken Salazar
Bernie Sanders
Charles Schumer
Debbie Stabenow
Jon Tester
Jim Webb
Sheldon Whitehouse
Ron Wyden

HT Little Green Footballs with links to DU for those who like to see leftys screaming in pain - and Little Green Footballs

Thursday, October 18, 2007

Memoirs Of US Grant

I have been reading the memoirs of US Grant which gives an account of his youth and his action during the Civil War. I will have some very tasty excerpts later, but if you want to read the book for free it can be found at Project Gutenberg.

Donation Time

It has been a while since I did a donation drive. It is that time again. I have two goals at this time:

1. $240 for high speed cable services and software renewals.
2. $200 for a USB hard drive to back up my current hard drive and add some space to the 'puter.

This will stay at the top until the goals are reached. I will announce the donation amounts as they come in. I will not give out your name unless you ask. BTW your donation will help support my work on IEC Fusion Technology as well as the general commentary that I post here. Thank you all for your previous and continued support.

The below button accepts Visa, Master Card, and Pay Pal.











Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Class War

In my post Treatment vs Recreation I looked at how the pharmaceutical industry has come to the rescue of the middle class by making a whole host of drugs that substitute for the illegal variety. I'd like to take another look at the subject Tim Wu brought up in his Slate article. The Class War aspect. Let me quote from Tim:

...the current program of drug legalization in the United States is closely and explicitly tied to the strange economics of the U.S. health-care industry. The consequence is that how people get their dopamine or other brain chemicals is ever more explicitly, like the rest of medicine, tied to questions of class.

Antidepressants and anxiety treatments aren't cheap: A fancy drug like Wellbutrin can cost anywhere from $1,000 to $2,400 a year. These drugs also require access to a sympathetic doctor who will issue a prescription. That's why, generally speaking, the new legalization program is for better-off Americans. As the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University reports, rich people tend to abuse prescription drugs, while poorer Americans tend to self-medicate with old-fashioned illegal drugs or just get drunk.
So there you have it. The well off get "treatment" the poor get jail.

I don't see how in good conscience we can keep doing what we are doing. In fact I pointed it out in a number of articles such as Dr. John Beresford Has Passed where I look at the Nazi connection to the Drug War and How To Put an End to Drug Users where I make that connection even more explicit with a review of Drug Warriors and Their Preyby R.L. Miller. I show exactly how conscience has been buried. We prefer to look the other way and make all kinds of excuses rather than looking at exactly what we are doing. If we faced it, we would have to see ourselves as kinder and gentler Nazis. We don't do mass murder. We do mass incarceration. Not exactly a step up we should be proud of. What exactly is the difference between a war on Jews and a war on the poor? Beats the hell out of me.

HT Instapundit

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Treatment vs Recreation

Tim Wu at Slate is taking a look at a subject I have been discussing for years. The idea that illegal drugs do the very same things that legal drugs do. Treat what are called emotional problems.

Over the last two decades, the FDA has become increasingly open to drugs designed for the treatment of depression, pain, and anxiety—drugs that are, by their nature, likely to mimic the banned Schedule I narcotics. Part of this is the product of a well-documented relaxation of FDA practice that began under Clinton and has increased under Bush. But another part is the widespread public acceptance of the idea that the effects drug users have always been seeking in their illicit drugs—calmness, lack of pain, and bliss—are now "treatments" as opposed to recreation. We have reached a point at which it's commonly understood that when people snort cocaine because they're depressed or want to function better at work, that's drug trafficking; but taking antidepressants for similar purposes is practicing medicine.

This other drug legalization movement is an example of what theorists call legal avoision. As described by theorist Leon Katz, the idea is to reach "a forbidden outcome … as a by-product of a permitted act." In a classic tax shelter, for instance, you do something perfectly legal (like investing in a business guaranteed to lose money) in order to reach a result that would otherwise be illegal (evading taxes). In the drug context, asking Congress to legalize cocaine or repeal the Controlled Substances Act of 1970 is a fool's errand. But it's far easier to invent a new drug, X, with similar effects to cocaine, and ask the FDA to approve it as a new antidepressant or anxiety treatment. That's avoision in practice.

Are the new pharmaceuticals really substitutes for narcotics? The question, of course, is what counts as a substitute, which can depend not just on chemistry but on how the drug in question is being used. But as a chemical matter the question seems simple: In general, pharmaceuticals do the same things to the brain that the illegal drugs do, though sometimes they do so more gently.

As many have pointed out, drugs like Ritalin and cocaine act in nearly the exact same manner: Both are dopamine enhancers that block the ability of neurons to reabsorb dopamine. As a 2001 paper in the Journal of the American Medical Association concluded, Ritalin "acts much like cocaine." It may go further than that: Another drug with similar effects is nicotine, leading Malcolm Gladwell to speculate in The New Yorker that both Ritalin and cocaine use are our substitutes for smoking cigarettes.
Eric Scheie at Classical Values made that exact point in his post about Schizophrenia and Tobacco. I made that point in posts such as
Addiction or Self Medication?
and
Cannabinoids - the Key to many Pains?
and
Capitalism, Pain and the War on Drugs
and
The Pain Enforcement Administration
and
Better than Viagra
and
PTSD and the Endocannabinoid System
and
The War On Unpatented Drugs
and a host of others which you can find on my page Drug War Articles.

I think all together they make a pretty good case about why the pharmaceutical companies support the war on drugs. They don't want the competition from substances you can grow in your back yard or in your basement. As I put it in my post Addiction or Self Medication?:
It turns out that anxiety disorders are the most common mental health problem in the United States. They are worth $46 billion a year to the pharmaceutical industry. You don't suppose this fact has any thing to do with the pharmaceutical industries being in the forefront of the Drug Free America campaign do you? Of course not. They are just trying to keep you from being addicted to natural products at the cost of 1/10th of a cent per dose when they are more than willing to sell you an FDA and doctor approved, pharmacy sold product that will do the job for a dollar a dose. They have only your best interests at heart. Just ask their accountants.
Plainly one of the reasons we have between a quarter and a half-million drug users and suppliers in prison and why we arrest about a three quarters of a million pot smokers a year is that the medical cartel doesn't want the competition.

And you thought it was because drugs were bad for you. Well they are. If you don't buy from the cartel you can go to jail.

HT Instapundit

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Canada's Harper - Kyoto Is Socialism

Well, well, well. What do you know. The marks are starting to wise up. Canada's Prime Minister Stephen Harper says Kyoto is socialism all the way. As I have been saying for a while, human caused global warming is Socialist Science. Let me let the Prime Minister tell it like it is.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper once called the Kyoto accord a "socialist scheme" designed to suck money out of rich countries, according to a letter leaked Tuesday by the Liberals.

The letter, posted on the federal Liberal party website, was apparently written by Harper in 2002, when he was leader of the now-defunct Canadian Alliance party.

He was writing to party supporters, asking for money as he prepared to fight then-prime minister Jean Chrétien on the proposed Kyoto accord.

"We're gearing up now for the biggest struggle our party has faced since you entrusted me with the leadership," Harper's letter says.

"I'm talking about the 'battle of Kyoto' — our campaign to block the job-killing, economy-destroying Kyoto accord."
This is the same reason that the American Senate killed the very idea during the Clinton administration by voting against it 95 to 0.

The Prime Minister goes on:
He writes that it's based on "tentative and contradictory scientific evidence" and it focuses on carbon dioxide, which is "essential to life."

He says Kyoto requires that Canada make significant cuts in emissions, while countries like Russia, India and China face less of a burden.

Under Kyoto, Canada was required to reduce emissions by six per cent by 2012, while economies in transition, like Russia, were allowed to choose different base years. As developing nations, China and India were exempted from binding targets for the first round of reductions.

"Kyoto is essentially a socialist scheme to suck money out of wealth-producing nations," Harper's letter reads.

He said the accord would cripple the oil and gas industries, which are essential to Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia.
I'll bet if America adopted it that it would be bad for Texas and Oklahoma too.

So much for history. How about some news.
OTTAWA -- Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government promised Tuesday to get tough with polluters, but it angered opposition parties with a throne speech that reiterated its intent to ignore the country's legally binding targets under the international Kyoto Protocol on climate change.
So how is Europe doing? About as well as Al Gore. They say one thing and do another. Robert Samuelson had this to say in 2005:
Almost a decade ago I suggested that global warming would become a "gushing" source of political hypocrisy. So it has. Politicians and scientists constantly warn of the grim outlook, and the subject is on the agenda of the upcoming Group of Eight summit of world economic leaders. But all this sound and fury is mainly exhibitionism -- politicians pretending they're saving the planet. The truth is that, barring major technological advances, they can't (and won't) do much about global warming. It would be nice if they admitted that, though this seems unlikely.

Europe is the citadel of hypocrisy. Considering Europeans' contempt for the United States and George Bush for not embracing the Kyoto Protocol, you'd expect that they would have made major reductions in greenhouse gas emissions -- the purpose of Kyoto. Well, not exactly. From 1990 (Kyoto's base year for measuring changes) to 2002, global emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2), the main greenhouse gas, increased 16.4 percent, reports the International Energy Agency. The U.S. increase was 16.7 percent, and most of Europe hasn't done much better.


Here are some IEA estimates of the increases: France, 6.9 percent; Italy, 8.3 percent; Greece, 28.2 percent; Ireland, 40.3 percent; the Netherlands, 13.2 percent; Portugal, 59 percent; Spain, 46.9 percent. It's true that Germany (down 13.3 percent) and Britain (a 5.5 percent decline) have made big reductions. But their cuts had nothing to do with Kyoto. After reunification in 1990, Germany closed many inefficient coal-fired plants in eastern Germany; that was a huge one-time saving. In Britain, the government had earlier decided to shift electric utilities from coal (high CO2 emissions) to plentiful natural gas (lower CO2 emissions).
You know I think Kyoto is dead. I am also of the opinion that after seeing what is going on in the rest of the world any Kyoto like treaty will be no more popular in the Senate than it was the last time. It seems like Al's Nobel signifies what the Peace Prize always has signified. A person whose time has passed.

Let me make it official then. Nobel Peace Laureate Al Gore is now officially a has been. He should than the Nobel Commission for the recognition.

How Is Failure Different From Success?

Meryl Yourish has a bit up on the upcoming Mideast Summit.

American efforts to bridge the gaps between Israel and the Palestinians to culminate in a summit at the end of November are being met by skepticism in the Arab and Muslim worlds according to Jeffrey Fleishman of the LA Times.
Of course the Arabs are sceptical. The Arabs will always be sceptical until Israel ceases to exist. As Meryl put it so cleverly:
The article emphasizes the Arab weakness and parrots the line that the failure of the summit would only “embolden the extremists.” (It seems that every “successful” Israeli peace effort - such as withdrawing from Lebanon or from Gaza, or allowing Fatah into Gaza and Jericho - has “emboldened the extremists” too, so how failure would differ from success is unclear.)
You go girl.

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week

Front Page Magazine has a self parody up in which they refer to American Fascism Awareness Day. I was taken in by the parody. So I wrote Ron Paul - Communist Sympathizer? The joke was on me. Why was I taken in? It seemed like so much I have read on lefty and Islamic fascist sites from the usual cast of characters. So I guess it is time to look at the real deal.

Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week coming to a campus near you starting October 22nd.

Beginning on October 22, student groups across the nation will hold Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week on their campuses. These protest weeks will feature a series of events designed to bring a message to these academic communities that challenges most of what students are taught about the so-called War on Terror both in the classroom and on the quad.

The Week’s events will include speeches about Islamo-Fascism by prominent figures, including former Senator Rick Santorum (Penn State, Temple and UPenn), Sean Hannity (Columbia), Ann Coulter (Tulane and USC), Dennis Prager (UC Santa Barbara), Robert Spencer (Brown, Dartmouth, University of Rhode Island, and DePaul), Daniel Pipes (Northeastern and UPenn), David Horowitz (Columbia, Emory, Ohio State, Michigan and Wisconsin), Michael Ledeen (Maryland), Nonie Darwish (UCLA and Berkeley), Wafa Sultan (Stanford) and radio talk show hosts Melanie Morgan (San Francisco State), Michael Medved (University of Washington), Martha Zoeller (Georgia Tech), Alan Nathan (George Mason), Mark Larson (to be named) and many others.

A major theme of the Week will be the oppression of women in Islam. The photo accompanying this article, which shows a teenage girl buried before being stoned to death for alleged sexual offenses, will serve as the poster for the protest Week. The stoning took place in Iran.
They will be holding teach-ins on the subject. I was in Bezerkely, California for Mario Savio and the Free Speech Movement. Back then the anti-free speech people were on the right. Now the PC codes support the left. The worm has turned with echoes of the 60s. I like it.
The plight of Muslim women will be featured at “teach-in” panels and also at sit-ins in Women’s Studies Departments, designed to protest the absence of courses that focus on Islamic gynophobia. The silence of Women’s Studies departments in the face of this oppression is a national outrage. College students are offered the opportunity to study the “oppression” of women in Boston and Beverly Hills in hundreds of Women’s Studies courses across America. But there is not a single course we are aware of that addresses the real oppression of women in Teheran and Riyadh. In Saudi Arabia, to take one horrendous example, Saudi police recently shot to death schoolgirls who were fleeing a burning building without their veils. Better that they should be dead than seen. A pamphlet on the subject of women’s oppression in Islam, written by Robert Spencer and Phyllis Chesler will be distributed on campuses (and posted on Frontpage next week), along with a petition protesting the campus blackout of this issue.
You would think that the left which championed Women's Rights in America would be championing them in the most patriarchal societies in the world. You would be wrong. They have made common cause with those opposed to what they supposedly stand for. It seems like the only thing they have in common is hatred for America.

There seems to be a backlash against Angry Studies and PC on campus. This should shake up the professoriate. Good. Nothing like a bit of cognitive dissonance on the other side to give one a feeling of schadenfreude.

Cross Posted at Power and Control

Ron Paul - Communist Sympathizer?

Front Page Magazine has a bit on Ron Paul's alignment with certain unsavory groups.

The campaign mounted by campus leftists against Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week, which is scheduled to take place on more than 100 campuses during the week of October 22-26 has taken a new turn with the announcement of a counter-protest at the Washington Monument. The protest, which will be called “American Fascism Awareness Day” is being organized by Adam Kokesh of Iraq Veterans Against the War, the Revolutionary Communist Party, Students for Justice In Palestine, and the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee among others and will feature speakers such as congressman Dennis Kucinich and presidential candidate Ron Paul, anti-war activists Cindy Sheehan and Harry Karry and actor Sean Penn. According to a spokesperson for the Revolutionary Communist Party, one of the sponsors of the event, “This is an answer to the Jew Horowitz and the neo-conservative Zionists who dragged us into an imperialist war in Iraq and are spreading hatred against Muslims to support their war plans against the Republic of Iran.”
I left the Libertarian Party because of their communist line on foreign policy. I'd say my diagnosis was 100% correct. It should have been. In my ill spent youth I was a follower of the Trots. This comes under the heading of suspicions confirmed.

HT Reference Frame commenter Larry R.

Update: It looks like I have been hoaxed. The "flyer" for the event lists Nov. 31st as the date of the event. There is no Nov. 31st on any calendar. I still stand by my point that the Libs have taken the Communist line on Foreign Policy. HT commenter Grant at Power and Control.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Tommy

Tommy

By Rudyard Kipling, 1892


I went into a public- 'ouse to get a pint o' beer,

The publican 'e up an sez, "We serve no red-coats here."

The girls behind the bar they laughed an' giggled fit to die,

I outs into the street again an' to myself sez I:

        O it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Tommy go away";

        But it's "Thank you, Mister Atkins," when the band begins
        to play-

        The band begins to play, my boys, the band begins to play,

        O it's "Thank you Mr Atkins," when the band begins to play.

I went into a theatre as sober as could be,

They gave a drunk civilian roo, but 'adn't none for me;

They sent me to the gallery or round the music-'alls,

But when it comes to fighting', Lord! They'll shove me in the stalls!

        For it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Tommy wait
        outside";

        But it's "Special train for Atkins," when the trooper's
        on the tide-

        The troopship's on the tide, my boys, the troopship's on
        the tide,

        O it's "Special train for Atkins," when the trooper's on
        the tide.

Yes, makin' mock o' uniforms that guard you while you sleep

Is cheaper than them uniforms, an' they're starvation cheap;

An' hustlin' drunken soldiers when they're goin' large a bit

Is five times better business than paradin' in full kit.

        Then it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Tommy 'ow's
        yer soul?"

        But it's "Thin red line of 'eroes" when the drums begin
        to roll-

        The drums begin to roll, my boys, the drums begin to
        roll,

        O it's " Thin red line of 'eroes," when the drums begin
        to roll.

We aren't no thin red 'eroes, nor we aren't no blackguards too,

But single men in barricks, most remarkable like you;

An' if sometimes our conduck isn't all your fancy paints,

Why single men in barricks don't grow into plaster saints;

        While it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Tommy fall
        be'ind,"

        But it's "Please to walk in front, sir," when there's
        trouble in the wind-

        There's trouble in the wind, my boys, there's trouble in
        the wind,

        O it's "Please to walk in front, sir," when there's
        trouble in the wind.

You talk o' better food for us, an' schools, an' fires, an' all:

We'll wait for extry rations if you treat us rational.

Don't mess about the cook-room slops, but prove it to our face

The Widow's Uniform is not the soldier-man's disgrace.

        For it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Chuck 'im out,
        the brute!"

        But it's "Saviour of 'is country" when the guns begin to
        shoot;

        An' it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' anything you
        please;

        An' Tommy ain't a bloomin' fool - you bet that Tommy
        sees!

Monday, October 15, 2007

Putting Children Into A Deep Freeze Is Torture

There are several million embryos frozen in liquid nitrogen. I propose we thaw them all, right now and let their life continue. It is immoral to keep them frozen. They are being imprisoned without due process. Its unConstitutional. End the prisons for children at once. Thaw the embryos.

Prompted by Jaw-Dropping Demagoguery and Can Rudy Talk The Pro-Life Crowd Into His Corner?

Cross Posted at Classical Values

I Will Not Lie

The Berkeley Daily Planet has a post up from US Marine Corps Captain Richard Lund in response to the Code Pink demonstration in front of the Marine Corps recruiting office in Bezerkeley, California.

First, a little bit about who I am: I am a Marine captain with over eight years of service as a commissioned officer. I flew transport helicopters for most of my time in the Marine Corps before requesting orders to come here. Currently, I am the officer selection officer for the northern Bay Area. My job is to recruit, interview, screen, and evaluate college students and college graduates that show an interest in becoming officers in the Marine Corps. Once they’ve committed to pursuing this program, I help them apply, and if selected, I help them prepare for the rigors of Officer Candidate School and for the challenges of life as a Marine officer. To be eligible for my programs, you have to be either a full-time college student or a college graduate. I don’t pull anyone out of school, and high school students are not eligible.

I moved my office to Berkeley in December of last year. Previously, it was located in an old federal building in Alameda. That building was due to be torn down and I had to find a new location. I choose our new site because of its proximity to UC Berkeley and to the BART station. Most of the candidates in my program either go to Cal or to one of the schools in San Francisco, the East Bay, or the North Bay. Logistically, the Shattuck Square location was the most convenient for them.

Next, you claim that I lie. I have never, and will never, lie to any individual that shows an interest in my programs. I am upfront with everything that is involved at every step of the way and I go out of my way to ensure that they know what to expect when they apply. I tell them that this is not an easy path. I tell them that leading Marines requires a great deal of self-sacrifice. I tell them that, should they succeed in their quest to become a Marine officer, they will almost certainly go to Iraq. In the future, if you plan to attack my integrity, please have the courtesy to explain to me specifically the instances in which you think that I lied.
Next he goes into why a country needs a military. Let me give you the short version. Every country will have a military, either its own or some one else's. There is more. Go and read.

Semper Fi

H/T Zombie Time from a link at LGF

BTW if some one can direct me to the author and exact form of the "Every country will have a military..." I'd appreciate it.

Sunday, October 14, 2007

Dr. Bussard's Final Interview

Tim Ventura has a 53 minute audio interview of Fusion Pioneer Dr. Robert Bussard at his site American Anti-Gravity. Let me give you a bit of what Tim has to say.

In our exclusive interview, Bussard describes the disenchantment with big-science Tokamak research that led him to return to the roots of Farnsworth-style fusion in the "Polywell" project that he initiated in 1986. Funded for over 20 years by the Department of the Navy, Bussard's EMC2 corporation was tasked with solving 19 fundamental challenges that stood in the way of designing commercially viable Farnsworth fusors - and in an unexpected twist, a race to bring the prototype online after project funding was cut in 2006.

Never straying far from the dream of manned spaceflight, Bussard's Polywell design is exceptional in being not only designed for high-efficiency, but also for portability - making it perfect for not only the Navy's intended use in powering ocean vessels and submarines, but also for providing high output thrust for proposed nuclear space-applications. Bussard's first intended application was an 8-foot diameter naval reactor capable of generating 100-megawatts of output energy, with the ultimate goal of using these reactors in high-velocity transorbital spacecraft capable of reaching the moon in less than 8 hours time.
To hear the audio go to Tim's site. He has links there. It is a most interesting talk and well worth your time. Dr. Bussard discusses his Fusion Reactor and other Fusion developments like Cold Fusion and Sonic Fusion. He explains why the last two, though real effects, are unlikely to lead to net power production.

Let me add that the US Navy funded Dr. Bussard's research this past August, about two months before he died. Two scientists from Los Alamos National Laboratories, one a long time friend of Dr. Bussard's, continue the work.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

New Voters

I do believe human life begins at conception.

There are now millions of fertilized embryos frozen in liquid nitrogen in America.

I propose we thaw them at once and get millions of new pro life voters in 18 or 19 years.

The sooner the better.

Inspired by the discussion at Captain's Quarters

More Chaos

My friend linearthinker liked my post on Practicing Chaos so much he decided to add some thoughts of his own.

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

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

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

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Saturday, October 13, 2007

Practicing Chaos

"The reason Americans do so well in war, is war is chaos, and Americans practice chaos on a daily basis." Rommel 1942

From The Corner which has more pithy quotes in the same vein.

What Is The Value Of Gore's Nobel?



It will raise the value of his speeches by at least 10,000 gallons of jet fuel.


Cross Posted at Classical Values

The State Of Climate Science - Check It Out

This will take some time (assuming you are up to the task). But spend some serious time at Climate Audit and tell me the Climate "Scientists" are not cooking the books.

Start here: YTD Hurricane Activity

This is a real Gem: Hugues Goosse and the Unresponsiveness of Juckes

Bad models: Climate Insensitivity and AR(1) Models

Bad data: Titusville

Bad accounting: Should NASA climate accountants adhere to GAAP?

Bad explanations: Mann’s New Divergence “Theory”: A Smoothing Artifact

Don't just read the entry. Read all the comments. This will take time. Once you have done that roam around. Then come back here and tell me climate science can make pronouncements about anything. Including todays temperature accurate to 1 deg K.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Friday, October 12, 2007

Al Gore Joins Yasser Arafat

No, I don't mean Al has died of AIDS. Al has won the Nobel peace Prize. Woo Hoo. Another glorious day for Socialist Science and Green Criminals. You may barf when ready.

The Reference Frame tells it like it is.

British Judge says "Inconvenient Truth" is Politics Not Science.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Green Criminals

I was discussing DDT in my post Global Warming Is Socialist Science and while I was doing research came across this comment at Deltoid.

In Argentina, as all other countries in South, Central and North America DDT is strictly prohibited under severe penalties by the law. So you are LYING when claiming “there is no de facto ban”. The exception is Ecuador who has never given up spraying DDT and saving human lives, alas, at the cost of valuable mosquito lives.

I have been exploring and traveling the Amazon since 1971 and I know what I am talking about. I am a field scientist not an armchair scientist in air conditioned labs.

At this moment, environmentalists are prosecuting health and agriculture officials in Córdoba, Argentina, because they discovered that a cargo of 12 tons of DDT had been stored for 30 years without telling the people it was stored there and “could” have contaminated the neighbors.

Could, may, might, perhaps, are words always accompanying green and fake alarms. Then, why has not mosquitoes developed resistance in Ecuador after 32 years of Ecuador refusing to give up DDT spraying, and 53 years since they started using it? You should provide a scientific answer.

Our Argentinean Foundation for a Scientific Ecology (FAEC) was consulted by the two federal judges that dealt with the DDT storage case and sent our report to be studied by the scientific team formed with members from our National University at Córdoba, and from the Ministry of Public Health. Then compared the accusations made by the environmentalists and studied their claims and references.

A remark that one of the judges said to me after their ruling was: ”These greens are not only crazy, but I would prosecute them for criminal activities if you pressed charges.”

Your weblog is perhaps the more “science-killing” and misinforming site I have ever seen. Keep up your work. It gives skeptics plenty food and ammunition to fight green neurosis and paranoia.

Eduardo Ferreyra
President of FAEC
Argentinean Foundation for a Scientific Ecology
WOW. Just WOW.

Global Warming Is Socialist Science

Lubos Motl at The Reference Frame is discussing Al Gore and his movie An Inconvenient Truth.

Left-wing people are rarely right in politics. If they were right, they wouldn't be left. But this audio is a remarkable exception. A self-described mildly left-wing professor criticizes the British conservatives at their CPS Fringe Event and he is quite right.

What the British conservatives are doing in the context of climate change - such as the recently proposed plasma TV ban - is absolutely outrageous and it is very good that Philip Stott told them in his inimitable way.

Nigel Lawson, one of the brightest politicians in the U.K. history, speaks after Philip Stott.
The audio Lubos mentions, along with a number of others can be found here. Or if you prefer, here is a direct link to the Lord Nigel Lawson - Audio. For the "plasma TV ban" link visit the Reference Frame. The audio opens with Windows Media Player so ignore any error messages that come up when you try to open the file with that player. I haven't tried any other players.

I'd like to discuss one of the more interesting quotes from the audio. Let me note that the speeches are delivered in British House of Commons style which I have always enjoyed.
I am absolutely amazed that the Conservatives above all others have been tempted to fall for the hubristic idea that we can control climate predictably, and I will return to that word "predictably", by big government. By taxes that are injurious to industry and to business. By taxes that are retrogressive on the poor and by attempting to micro-manage every single aspect of people's lives.

Policies which stand 100% agaist those on which the CPS itself was founded by Keith Joseph and Margaret Thatcher.

It is a serious issue "global warming", but it is politically serious not scientifically serious.

I fear that Conservatives above all, have for the last two or three years, been walking blindly into a socialist elephant trunk.
And that is just at the beginning of the Philip Stott segment of the audio. You should go and listen to the whole thing.

We are seeing this same push in America to bring in totalitarianism through the back door. By the Global Warming hysteria, with Medical Totalitarianism and of course with the control mechanism that is the grand daddy of them all The Drug War. Two themes are predominant: "for the children" and boy do they love to whip that one. The other of course is "we are trying to do something about a problem so serious that it imperils life on the planet". Take the DDT scare. Cecil Adams of Straight Dope has this to say.
While DDT is highly toxic to insects and fish and can poison other animals in large enough doses, in moderate amounts it's not especially harmful to birds and mammals, including humans. (Ironically, the EPA's own judge agreed, but was overruled by its chief administrator.) No one has conclusively proved that DDT can give you cancer. The cause of eggshell thinning is likewise poorly understood.

On the other hand, DDT is demonstrably effective at controlling the mosquitoes and other insects that transmit malaria and typhus. Thanks principally to DDT, in the years after World War II malaria was eradicated in the U.S. and sharply curtailed in many tropical countries. Venezuela recorded eight million cases of malaria in 1943; by 1958 that number was down to eight hundred. The World Health Organization estimates that DDT saved 50 to 100 million lives during this period, and that's just counting malaria prevention. In recent years, however, the disease has staged a comeback. Globally it quadrupled during the 1990s, and it's even reappeared sporadically in the United States. The resurgence of malaria is due to a variety of factors, including changes in land use and possibly climate, and some experts say the phasing out of DDT is one of them.

I don't mean to suggest that DDT is benign. On the contrary, it's a potent contact toxin, and though it breaks down quickly in sunlight, it's much more persistent in soil and water and accumulates in plants and fatty animal tissues with long-term exposure. But its drawbacks have to be weighed against its benefits. Malaria currently infects 300 to 500 million people annually, mostly in Africa, and causes as many as 2.7 million deaths. Alternative methods of mosquito control cost more and are less effective. Some 400 scientists and doctors have signed a petition opposing the inclusion of DDT among the 12 persistent organic pollutants (POPs) to be banned under a United Nations treaty now up for ratification, and a few public health experts are campaigning to bring DDT back. DDT isn't a panacea; India, which still uses it, suffered nasty outbreaks of malaria in the 90s, and insects in many parts of that country have become resistant to the chemical. But it remains an important tool, and in a time of rising global pestilence we shun it at our peril.
These hysterias get ginned up every so often and the there is always one and only one solution proposed. More government control.

The end goal of course is to free the world to follow exactly the dictates of government.

My answer is that the best protection for all men is Liberty. Let me quote a few of our founders:

"I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it." — Thomas Jefferson (Letter to Archibald Stuart - 1791)

"When governments fear the people there is liberty. When the people fear the government there is tyranny." — Thomas Jefferson (attributed to Jefferson, by his contemporaries)

"Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety." — Benjamin Franklin (on the title page of An Historical Review of the Constitution and Government of Pennsylvania - 1759)

"I believe there are more instances of the abridgment of freedoms of the people by gradual and silent encroachment of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations." — James Madison (attributed to Madison, by his contemporaries)

Cross Posted at Classical Values

From the list at Action America

Thursday, October 11, 2007

Neo-Nazis Love Ron Paul

From Little Green Footballs:

We know that Ron Paul is popular with 9/11 Troofers and Daily Kos, but here’s another hotbed of Paulmania—at Stormfront, home of neo-Nazis and white supremacists, where they’re urging the skinheads to ’VOTE RON PAUL IN THE ONLINE POLLS!’ - Stormfront White Nationalist Community.

(Warning: the link leads to a truly vile neo-Nazi web site; it’s there only to prove that this really is happening.)
I'm not going to provide a link to the Neo-Nazis. Why raise their Google score? However if you must look, visit LGF.

Cross Posted at Classical Values