Saturday, September 17, 2005
Friday, September 16, 2005
Thomas Sowell
Thomas Sowell: "The country does not have one dime more resources available when those resources are channeled through government. The resources are just handled less effectively by government and dispensed in an indiscriminate way that encourages people to continue locating in the known path of predictable disasters."
Thursday, September 15, 2005
Wednesday, September 14, 2005
Oh Mary!
I have heard it all now. While illegally threatening the President of the United States with bodily harm on ABC's This Week, Senator Mary Landrieu (D-LA) accused him of visiting hurricane-decimated Louisiana merely in order to stage a "photo-op." She ranted and raved hysterically during her appearance on the televised news show last Sunday, at one point bursting into tears. No doubt about it — her levee broke, big(easy)-time.
It's always something. If President Bush works out, he exercises too much. It never occurs that perhaps this is his only means of relieving the enormous stress and pressure he's under. And now comes this latest bit of antic fabrication, straight from the big brassy mouth of a bureaucratic bass caught in Katrina's rip current. If he tours the hurricane-ravaged coast, he's posing for a photo-op. If he stays away, he doesn't care, isn't "personally engaged," and is perpetrating nothing short of indirect "murder."
It's always something. If President Bush works out, he exercises too much. It never occurs that perhaps this is his only means of relieving the enormous stress and pressure he's under. And now comes this latest bit of antic fabrication, straight from the big brassy mouth of a bureaucratic bass caught in Katrina's rip current. If he tours the hurricane-ravaged coast, he's posing for a photo-op. If he stays away, he doesn't care, isn't "personally engaged," and is perpetrating nothing short of indirect "murder."
Why New Orleans Flooded
Why New Orleans Flooded: "Designed for the Mississippi, Not the Gulf
In an earlier September 2 story the Journal noted that in Louisiana, coastal wetlands provide some shelter from surging seawater, but more than one million acres of coastal wetlands have been lost since 1930 due to development and construction of levees and canals. For every square mile of wetland lost, storm surges rise by one foot.
'Moreover, the levees in New Orleans were built to keep the city from being flooded by the Mississippi, but instead caused it to fall below sea level. Now the Gulf of Mexico has moved into the city,' says the Journal.
As the hurricane rolled into New Orleans, scores of boats broke free or sank. In the Industrial Canal, the gush of water broke a barge from its moorings. It isn't known whose barge it was. The huge steel hull became a water-borne missile. It hurtled into the canal's eastern flood wall just north of the major street passing through the Lower Ninth Ward, leading officials to theorize that the errant barge triggered the 500-foot breach. Water poured into the neighborhood.
When the storm was over, the barge was resting inside the hole. 'Based on what I know and what I saw, the Lower Ninth Ward, Chalmette, St. Bernard, their flooding was instantaneous,' said Col. Rich Wagenaar of the Army Corps.
It didn't help that the Mississippi River, which runs along the southern border of these neighborhoods, rose 11 feet between Sunday and Monday mornings. Coastal experts say that could have worsened flooding by limiting the water's escape route."
In an earlier September 2 story the Journal noted that in Louisiana, coastal wetlands provide some shelter from surging seawater, but more than one million acres of coastal wetlands have been lost since 1930 due to development and construction of levees and canals. For every square mile of wetland lost, storm surges rise by one foot.
'Moreover, the levees in New Orleans were built to keep the city from being flooded by the Mississippi, but instead caused it to fall below sea level. Now the Gulf of Mexico has moved into the city,' says the Journal.
As the hurricane rolled into New Orleans, scores of boats broke free or sank. In the Industrial Canal, the gush of water broke a barge from its moorings. It isn't known whose barge it was. The huge steel hull became a water-borne missile. It hurtled into the canal's eastern flood wall just north of the major street passing through the Lower Ninth Ward, leading officials to theorize that the errant barge triggered the 500-foot breach. Water poured into the neighborhood.
When the storm was over, the barge was resting inside the hole. 'Based on what I know and what I saw, the Lower Ninth Ward, Chalmette, St. Bernard, their flooding was instantaneous,' said Col. Rich Wagenaar of the Army Corps.
It didn't help that the Mississippi River, which runs along the southern border of these neighborhoods, rose 11 feet between Sunday and Monday mornings. Coastal experts say that could have worsened flooding by limiting the water's escape route."
Tuesday, September 13, 2005
Monday, September 12, 2005
"Katrina and Playing the Odds" by Jan�Larson
"Katrina and Playing the Odds" by Jan�Larson Katrina and Playing the Odds
Written by Jan Larson
Monday, September 12, 2005
Flood protection levees were first built around New Orleans starting in the late 1800s. Following Hurricane Betsy, the federal government stepped in with the Flood Control Act of 1965. This legislation set in motion a series of levee construction projects design to protect New Orleans [1]. All of the engineering for these projects assumed a fast-moving hurricane equivalent to Betsy, rated as category three on the Saffir-Simpson scale [2].
It has long been known that the levee system could not protect the city from a category four or five hurricane. Why would officials take such a risk when the consequences, as we’ve seen, were so devastating? Two reasons: money and probability.
The likelihood of a category four or stronger hurricane making a direct strike on New Orleans was determined to be about once every 200 to 300 years. In fact, there have only been three category five hurricanes to make landfall in the United States since records have been kept. The cost to upgrade the levee system to protect for this “worst case” was and is not insignificant. In fact, with the projected cost being in the billions of dollars and the probability so low, it is as a practical matter, politically untenable for politicians to ask taxpayers to pony up that kind of money to protect them from something that isn’t likely to happen during their lifetimes. It is especially untenable to ask taxpayers in other states to pick up the tab--which is where federal flood control money comes from.
Before disaster strikes, it is natural for people to think that it won’t happen to them. Just like the lottery, it always happens to someone else, somewhere else, and at some other time.
Commenting on the disaster in New Orleans, Rep. David Obey (D-WI) asked: “How many times do we have to see disaster overwhelm our preparedness before we recognize that we are playing Russian roulette with people's lives, with their livelihoods, and with the life of whole communities?”
The answer is, of course, just about every time. Our government didn’t protect us from terrorists crashing airplanes into buildings before September 11 and they didn’t protect the citizens of New Orleans from a catastrophic flood before Katrina.
Hindsight is always 20/20 and so in the next few months there will undoubtedly be calls to beef up the New Orleans levees to protect against the strongest hurricane likely to ever occur. But is that a good idea? After all, the probability of another category four or five storm hitting New Orleans remains at once every 200-300 years.
There are plenty of areas in the country that are at risk for a natural disaster, some on a massive scale, but hurricanes are never a surprise. If officials act appropriately and citizens act responsibly, there should never be any fatalities as a direct result of a hurricane. Unfortunately, as we’ve seen in New Orleans, appropriate action by government officials and responsible decisions by citizens are not always, if ever, the norm.
We all assume risks every day. There are upwards of 35,000 traffic fatalities in the United States every year, but I’m willing to wager than most if not all of you reading this right now drive regularly. People living in New Orleans have known for years that a devastating hurricane could strike the city and that it was possible for the city to be flooded yet not only did they assume the risk of living there, but many also continued to assume that risk even as Katrina approached.
The city of Seattle sits in the shadow of Mt. Rainier, an active volcano. Much like its neighbor to the south, Mt. Saint Helens, one day it will erupt. It might be 10 years, 100 years or 1000 years, but eventually that day will come. The potential devastation from an eruption is enormous, but as is the case with hurricanes, an eruption of Mt. Rainier is unlikely to be a surprise and the residents of the Puget Sound region assume that risk. If the worst were to happen, there would be great loss of property, but hopefully the loss of life would be minimized through diligent disaster planning.
Seismologists have predicted that some day, sooner or later, a massive earthquake (the “big one”) will strike California. Again, when that day will come is anyone’s guess. Unlike hurricanes along the coast or volcanoes in the Pacific Northwest, a California earthquake would likely not come with a warning and the loss of life could number in the hundreds of thousands but the odds-makers say that it won’t happen anytime soon, so millions of people are willing to take that chance.
Governments cannot protect everyone from everything that may happen and it would, in the big picture, be irresponsible of government to try. There are better ways to spend (or not spend) billions of dollars than to try to protect New Orleans from a category five hurricane, Seattle from a volcanic eruption, or California from earthquakes.
We have seen that even if government has a plan, such as the evacuation plan for the city of New Orleans that was largely ignored, the best-laid plans won’t protect everyone from disaster. It is ultimately up to each individual to choose the level of risk to assume. In the end, people are largely responsible for their own well being and as we’ve seen, to misjudge the risks or to ignore the danger when it stares us in the face can be fatal.
Written by Jan Larson
Monday, September 12, 2005
Flood protection levees were first built around New Orleans starting in the late 1800s. Following Hurricane Betsy, the federal government stepped in with the Flood Control Act of 1965. This legislation set in motion a series of levee construction projects design to protect New Orleans [1]. All of the engineering for these projects assumed a fast-moving hurricane equivalent to Betsy, rated as category three on the Saffir-Simpson scale [2].
It has long been known that the levee system could not protect the city from a category four or five hurricane. Why would officials take such a risk when the consequences, as we’ve seen, were so devastating? Two reasons: money and probability.
The likelihood of a category four or stronger hurricane making a direct strike on New Orleans was determined to be about once every 200 to 300 years. In fact, there have only been three category five hurricanes to make landfall in the United States since records have been kept. The cost to upgrade the levee system to protect for this “worst case” was and is not insignificant. In fact, with the projected cost being in the billions of dollars and the probability so low, it is as a practical matter, politically untenable for politicians to ask taxpayers to pony up that kind of money to protect them from something that isn’t likely to happen during their lifetimes. It is especially untenable to ask taxpayers in other states to pick up the tab--which is where federal flood control money comes from.
Before disaster strikes, it is natural for people to think that it won’t happen to them. Just like the lottery, it always happens to someone else, somewhere else, and at some other time.
Commenting on the disaster in New Orleans, Rep. David Obey (D-WI) asked: “How many times do we have to see disaster overwhelm our preparedness before we recognize that we are playing Russian roulette with people's lives, with their livelihoods, and with the life of whole communities?”
The answer is, of course, just about every time. Our government didn’t protect us from terrorists crashing airplanes into buildings before September 11 and they didn’t protect the citizens of New Orleans from a catastrophic flood before Katrina.
Hindsight is always 20/20 and so in the next few months there will undoubtedly be calls to beef up the New Orleans levees to protect against the strongest hurricane likely to ever occur. But is that a good idea? After all, the probability of another category four or five storm hitting New Orleans remains at once every 200-300 years.
There are plenty of areas in the country that are at risk for a natural disaster, some on a massive scale, but hurricanes are never a surprise. If officials act appropriately and citizens act responsibly, there should never be any fatalities as a direct result of a hurricane. Unfortunately, as we’ve seen in New Orleans, appropriate action by government officials and responsible decisions by citizens are not always, if ever, the norm.
We all assume risks every day. There are upwards of 35,000 traffic fatalities in the United States every year, but I’m willing to wager than most if not all of you reading this right now drive regularly. People living in New Orleans have known for years that a devastating hurricane could strike the city and that it was possible for the city to be flooded yet not only did they assume the risk of living there, but many also continued to assume that risk even as Katrina approached.
The city of Seattle sits in the shadow of Mt. Rainier, an active volcano. Much like its neighbor to the south, Mt. Saint Helens, one day it will erupt. It might be 10 years, 100 years or 1000 years, but eventually that day will come. The potential devastation from an eruption is enormous, but as is the case with hurricanes, an eruption of Mt. Rainier is unlikely to be a surprise and the residents of the Puget Sound region assume that risk. If the worst were to happen, there would be great loss of property, but hopefully the loss of life would be minimized through diligent disaster planning.
Seismologists have predicted that some day, sooner or later, a massive earthquake (the “big one”) will strike California. Again, when that day will come is anyone’s guess. Unlike hurricanes along the coast or volcanoes in the Pacific Northwest, a California earthquake would likely not come with a warning and the loss of life could number in the hundreds of thousands but the odds-makers say that it won’t happen anytime soon, so millions of people are willing to take that chance.
Governments cannot protect everyone from everything that may happen and it would, in the big picture, be irresponsible of government to try. There are better ways to spend (or not spend) billions of dollars than to try to protect New Orleans from a category five hurricane, Seattle from a volcanic eruption, or California from earthquakes.
We have seen that even if government has a plan, such as the evacuation plan for the city of New Orleans that was largely ignored, the best-laid plans won’t protect everyone from disaster. It is ultimately up to each individual to choose the level of risk to assume. In the end, people are largely responsible for their own well being and as we’ve seen, to misjudge the risks or to ignore the danger when it stares us in the face can be fatal.
Tuesday, September 06, 2005
ex-Liberal in Hollywood: New Orleans: Where Laid Back is Laid Bare
http://exlibhollywood.blogspot.com/2005/09/new-orleans-where-laid-back-is-laid.html
Blog here
Blog here
Monday, September 05, 2005
HOG ON ICE says
Look at the failures on the local level.
1. Locals chose not to pay for an adequate flood control system. It was well within their means, and they had THREE HUNDRED YEARS to get it done. When complaining about the President's evil refusal to foot the whole bill, and they tell us how much more money was needed, they themselves quote a figure of about sixty million dollars. Don't you dare tell me an entire state couldn't come up with sixty million dollars. They were too cheap. They preferred to risk death. Now the bill will be in the tens of billions of dollars, and thousands of people are dead. By the way, who believes that flood control improvements funded during the Bush administration would have been finished by the time Katrina arrived? Nobody except those whose careers depend on believing it.
2. After inviting disaster by refusing to pay for flood control projects, local officials failed to respond quickly enough to the threat of storm damage. Here in Florida (and everywhere else), we respond to the approach of hurricanes by notifying FEMA, setting up shelters, and issuing evacuation orders WELL in advance of landfall. The mayor of New Orleans and other local officials dragged their feet. They didn’t even open the Superdome to evacuees until noon on the day before the hurricane, and at first, they limited access to people with special needs. And the governor, who must request federal aid before Washington can come in and provide it, sat on her hands while the waters rose. Florida’s Democrat governor did the same thing after Andrew, and then he whined about FEMA’s slow response. A bureaucrat’s prime directive is “Cover your ass at all costs, and if you can blame your enemies in the process, so much the better.”
3. Local citizens refused to evacuate, ensuring that they and their children and pets would die. We’re not supposed to talk about this, because it’s “blaming the victims.” Here’s a newsflash. When a person is a victim because of his own irresponsibility, you’re SUPPOSED to blame him. Watch cable news for an hour, and you’ll see the same story over and over. A New Orleans resident refuses to leave a flooded house, days after the storm. In the driveway are one or two cars this person could have used to flee the storm. Rescuers have to argue and cajole to get the “victim” into the boat. And sometimes they still refuse to leave. This is AFTER the storm, mind you. There is no food, no clean water, no electricity, and no police protection, and these people still won’t leave. Don’t even think of telling me they behaved better when the storm was still in the Gulf.
4. The New Orleans police have disappeared. Their chief had the gall to blame the National Guard for taking two whole days to show up, and then for amusing themselves during down time by playing cards. Meanwhile, his own officers are too busy shoplifting to do their jobs. According to the National Guard, the New Orleans police department has disintegrated. I guess their French heritage is taking over. But somehow, the disorder is the Guard’s fault. Can’t you see what’s happening here? The chief’s underlings proved to be cowardly and selfish, and they abandoned their posts, and in order to avoid responsibility, he’s launching a preemptive PR strike on the very people who are now doing his job for him. It’s CYA, pure and simple.
5. Evacuation holdouts are shooting at the police and the Guard and contractors and everyone else they can draw a bead on. Call me crazy, but I think this discourages and slows down rescue efforts. Here in Miami, after Andrew, people shot looters, not the police (who stayed on the job, unlike the New Orleans cops).
Sure, the federal response could have been better. Wake up; that’s what happens when you shift your own responsibilities to the federal government. Has anyone in New Orleans or the MSM been awake during the last two hundred years? Has the federal government EVER responded to a national disaster in less than two days? The federal government is like an ocean liner. It doesn’t start and stop quickly. Local government, when it works properly, is much more responsive. You don’t call the FBI when you see a burglar in your yard. You call the local police. Similarly, you don’t sit on your ass and wait for Washington to build your floodwalls and evacuate your citizens. New Orleans had buses. It had trains and planes. There were places it could have set up temporary shelters. And the disaster should never have occurred in the first place; locals should have looked after their own flood control needs. But like I said, Uncle Sam is society’s diaper, so none of that matters.
The whole Ting'
1. Locals chose not to pay for an adequate flood control system. It was well within their means, and they had THREE HUNDRED YEARS to get it done. When complaining about the President's evil refusal to foot the whole bill, and they tell us how much more money was needed, they themselves quote a figure of about sixty million dollars. Don't you dare tell me an entire state couldn't come up with sixty million dollars. They were too cheap. They preferred to risk death. Now the bill will be in the tens of billions of dollars, and thousands of people are dead. By the way, who believes that flood control improvements funded during the Bush administration would have been finished by the time Katrina arrived? Nobody except those whose careers depend on believing it.
2. After inviting disaster by refusing to pay for flood control projects, local officials failed to respond quickly enough to the threat of storm damage. Here in Florida (and everywhere else), we respond to the approach of hurricanes by notifying FEMA, setting up shelters, and issuing evacuation orders WELL in advance of landfall. The mayor of New Orleans and other local officials dragged their feet. They didn’t even open the Superdome to evacuees until noon on the day before the hurricane, and at first, they limited access to people with special needs. And the governor, who must request federal aid before Washington can come in and provide it, sat on her hands while the waters rose. Florida’s Democrat governor did the same thing after Andrew, and then he whined about FEMA’s slow response. A bureaucrat’s prime directive is “Cover your ass at all costs, and if you can blame your enemies in the process, so much the better.”
3. Local citizens refused to evacuate, ensuring that they and their children and pets would die. We’re not supposed to talk about this, because it’s “blaming the victims.” Here’s a newsflash. When a person is a victim because of his own irresponsibility, you’re SUPPOSED to blame him. Watch cable news for an hour, and you’ll see the same story over and over. A New Orleans resident refuses to leave a flooded house, days after the storm. In the driveway are one or two cars this person could have used to flee the storm. Rescuers have to argue and cajole to get the “victim” into the boat. And sometimes they still refuse to leave. This is AFTER the storm, mind you. There is no food, no clean water, no electricity, and no police protection, and these people still won’t leave. Don’t even think of telling me they behaved better when the storm was still in the Gulf.
4. The New Orleans police have disappeared. Their chief had the gall to blame the National Guard for taking two whole days to show up, and then for amusing themselves during down time by playing cards. Meanwhile, his own officers are too busy shoplifting to do their jobs. According to the National Guard, the New Orleans police department has disintegrated. I guess their French heritage is taking over. But somehow, the disorder is the Guard’s fault. Can’t you see what’s happening here? The chief’s underlings proved to be cowardly and selfish, and they abandoned their posts, and in order to avoid responsibility, he’s launching a preemptive PR strike on the very people who are now doing his job for him. It’s CYA, pure and simple.
5. Evacuation holdouts are shooting at the police and the Guard and contractors and everyone else they can draw a bead on. Call me crazy, but I think this discourages and slows down rescue efforts. Here in Miami, after Andrew, people shot looters, not the police (who stayed on the job, unlike the New Orleans cops).
Sure, the federal response could have been better. Wake up; that’s what happens when you shift your own responsibilities to the federal government. Has anyone in New Orleans or the MSM been awake during the last two hundred years? Has the federal government EVER responded to a national disaster in less than two days? The federal government is like an ocean liner. It doesn’t start and stop quickly. Local government, when it works properly, is much more responsive. You don’t call the FBI when you see a burglar in your yard. You call the local police. Similarly, you don’t sit on your ass and wait for Washington to build your floodwalls and evacuate your citizens. New Orleans had buses. It had trains and planes. There were places it could have set up temporary shelters. And the disaster should never have occurred in the first place; locals should have looked after their own flood control needs. But like I said, Uncle Sam is society’s diaper, so none of that matters.
The whole Ting'
ESR | September 5, 2005 | America as a Third World nation
America as a Third World nation
By Alan Caruba
web posted September 5, 2005
The haunting images of New Orleans were those of a Third
World nation unable to cope with a natural disaster. The over-
riding question in the first days following the hurricane was "What
is the government doing?"
Americans have been conditioned to look to the federal
government as the answer to all their needs. The federal
government has steadily taken over our education and health
care systems through vast programs that, in the former case, has
ruined what was once one of the best in the world and, in the
latter case, through Medicare and Medicaid, exercises control
over the way the system works and who it benefits. Social
Security has, for too many, replaced planning and saving for
one's old age.
When a portion of everything you earn is removed from your
paycheck in order to pay for someone else's senior years, how
can you be expected to put aside money you don't have to save,
invest or spend as you wish? We have been required to turn
personal responsibility for our lives over to "the government." It
sounds good on paper, but the reality is that Social Security is
going broke and the interest level in the current administration's
effort to "fix" the system is so low the President's efforts have
been met with a significant measure of indifference.
The "government's" response to the disaster that befell huge
swaths of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama suggests that
there are, indeed, limits to what it can do. It is, after all,
composed of bureaucrats who must obey the thousands of
regulations and laws affecting their agencies and that have been
imposed on our national economy, affecting all the rest of us.
One of the first actions "the government" took was the
Environmental Protection Agency announcement that it was
suspending the idiotic mandates requiring countless different
formulations of gasoline to insure that a sufficient supply was
available nationwide. In one state after another, these mandates
insure that different formulations are required in different areas of
the same state.
Mandating the use of ethanol in order to insure a bounty of riches
for corn producers while ignoring the need to drill for oil in
Alaska or ignoring enormous off-short reserves and shale oil
exposes the politics that over-rode the need for greater energy
self-sufficiency and independence from a Middle East that largely
hates America.
The looting and criminality that occurred in New Orleans also
revealed the failure of not just local people, but much of the
black community in America to take advantage of the
protections and opportunities afforded by the Civil Rights and
Voting Rights legislation enacted since the 1960s. As
Washington Post columnist, Eugene Robinson, pointed out on
September 2nd, "New Orleans is two cities, not one, according
to census data---a relatively affluent, small, achingly lovely city
that's mostly white, and a poor, big, unlovely city that's almost all
black. Overall, the city is two-thirds African American; it ranks
as the ninth-poorest big city in the nation. It is also one of the
most violent cities in the country, now making a bid to reclaim
the ‘murder capitol' designation it held for many years."
This is repeated over and over again in many of the nation's
cities, many of whom are also falling prey to the influx of millions
of illegal aliens flooding across our southern border, bringing with
them crime and disease, replacing native-born American
workers for those jobs they might have had were it not for the
low wages the illegals will accept.
The laws fashioned to protect and help blacks have brought
about some improvements. A black middle class has emerged,
but the evidence demonstrates that too many black Americans
opted to remain mired in their own failure to take advantage of
educational opportunities, continued to produce the one-parent
families in which men were largely absent, and remained
responsible for much of the crime in the cities. In return, they
offered America a "gangsta rap" and "hip-hop" culture that
reflects attitudes immune to the values shared by the majority of
Americans. They were not marginalized. They marginalized
themselves.
The physical losses in the affected areas will be rebuilt.
Americans always rebuild after natural disasters, but the social
problems are likely to remain unless and until we begin to shut
our borders against what can only be called an invasion and until
black Americans fully integrate themselves by taking more
responsibility for their lives.
We all need to rely less on the "government", but it seems
unlikely at this point the government will allow that to occur.
Congress is too in love with the billions it can seize for countless
pork barrel projects "for the folks back home" and to insure
reelection. There are too many people dependent on the socialist
programs enacted after WWII. The mindless federal spending
has been reflected at the state level while, at the same time,
federal mandates have eroded state and local power.
We need to vastly reduce the vast matrix of economic
regulations that suck billions out of the economy while creating
obstacles to free market answers to our most pressing needs
and, as in the recent Supreme Court ruling, destroy private
property values with a ferocity matched only by natural disasters.
Life in America is going to get more expensive because "the
government" claimed it could take care of us from birth to death.
It can't. It never could.
Alan Caruba writes a weekly column, "Warning Signs", posted
on the Internet website of The National Anxiety Center,
www.anxietycenter.com. © Alan Caruba, September 2005
Enter Stage Right -- http://www.enterstageright.com
By Alan Caruba
web posted September 5, 2005
The haunting images of New Orleans were those of a Third
World nation unable to cope with a natural disaster. The over-
riding question in the first days following the hurricane was "What
is the government doing?"
Americans have been conditioned to look to the federal
government as the answer to all their needs. The federal
government has steadily taken over our education and health
care systems through vast programs that, in the former case, has
ruined what was once one of the best in the world and, in the
latter case, through Medicare and Medicaid, exercises control
over the way the system works and who it benefits. Social
Security has, for too many, replaced planning and saving for
one's old age.
When a portion of everything you earn is removed from your
paycheck in order to pay for someone else's senior years, how
can you be expected to put aside money you don't have to save,
invest or spend as you wish? We have been required to turn
personal responsibility for our lives over to "the government." It
sounds good on paper, but the reality is that Social Security is
going broke and the interest level in the current administration's
effort to "fix" the system is so low the President's efforts have
been met with a significant measure of indifference.
The "government's" response to the disaster that befell huge
swaths of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama suggests that
there are, indeed, limits to what it can do. It is, after all,
composed of bureaucrats who must obey the thousands of
regulations and laws affecting their agencies and that have been
imposed on our national economy, affecting all the rest of us.
One of the first actions "the government" took was the
Environmental Protection Agency announcement that it was
suspending the idiotic mandates requiring countless different
formulations of gasoline to insure that a sufficient supply was
available nationwide. In one state after another, these mandates
insure that different formulations are required in different areas of
the same state.
Mandating the use of ethanol in order to insure a bounty of riches
for corn producers while ignoring the need to drill for oil in
Alaska or ignoring enormous off-short reserves and shale oil
exposes the politics that over-rode the need for greater energy
self-sufficiency and independence from a Middle East that largely
hates America.
The looting and criminality that occurred in New Orleans also
revealed the failure of not just local people, but much of the
black community in America to take advantage of the
protections and opportunities afforded by the Civil Rights and
Voting Rights legislation enacted since the 1960s. As
Washington Post columnist, Eugene Robinson, pointed out on
September 2nd, "New Orleans is two cities, not one, according
to census data---a relatively affluent, small, achingly lovely city
that's mostly white, and a poor, big, unlovely city that's almost all
black. Overall, the city is two-thirds African American; it ranks
as the ninth-poorest big city in the nation. It is also one of the
most violent cities in the country, now making a bid to reclaim
the ‘murder capitol' designation it held for many years."
This is repeated over and over again in many of the nation's
cities, many of whom are also falling prey to the influx of millions
of illegal aliens flooding across our southern border, bringing with
them crime and disease, replacing native-born American
workers for those jobs they might have had were it not for the
low wages the illegals will accept.
The laws fashioned to protect and help blacks have brought
about some improvements. A black middle class has emerged,
but the evidence demonstrates that too many black Americans
opted to remain mired in their own failure to take advantage of
educational opportunities, continued to produce the one-parent
families in which men were largely absent, and remained
responsible for much of the crime in the cities. In return, they
offered America a "gangsta rap" and "hip-hop" culture that
reflects attitudes immune to the values shared by the majority of
Americans. They were not marginalized. They marginalized
themselves.
The physical losses in the affected areas will be rebuilt.
Americans always rebuild after natural disasters, but the social
problems are likely to remain unless and until we begin to shut
our borders against what can only be called an invasion and until
black Americans fully integrate themselves by taking more
responsibility for their lives.
We all need to rely less on the "government", but it seems
unlikely at this point the government will allow that to occur.
Congress is too in love with the billions it can seize for countless
pork barrel projects "for the folks back home" and to insure
reelection. There are too many people dependent on the socialist
programs enacted after WWII. The mindless federal spending
has been reflected at the state level while, at the same time,
federal mandates have eroded state and local power.
We need to vastly reduce the vast matrix of economic
regulations that suck billions out of the economy while creating
obstacles to free market answers to our most pressing needs
and, as in the recent Supreme Court ruling, destroy private
property values with a ferocity matched only by natural disasters.
Life in America is going to get more expensive because "the
government" claimed it could take care of us from birth to death.
It can't. It never could.
Alan Caruba writes a weekly column, "Warning Signs", posted
on the Internet website of The National Anxiety Center,
www.anxietycenter.com. © Alan Caruba, September 2005
Enter Stage Right -- http://www.enterstageright.com
Mister Snitch!: The Politics of evacuation (part one)
Mister Snitch!: The Politics of evacuation (part one): "So you think you know who screwed up, bigtime, in New Orleans?
Odds are, you don't. But you will, as these stories work their way up (down?) from the blogospehere to mainstream media."
Read about it:
Odds are, you don't. But you will, as these stories work their way up (down?) from the blogospehere to mainstream media."
Read about it:
Amy Ridenour's National Center Blog
Amy Ridenour's National Center Blog: "Monday, September 05, 2005"
Monday, September 05, 2005
Katrina Rescues: A Military Perspective
I'm posting a letter from Joe Roche, whose wife is doing helicopter rescue missions in hurricane-affected areas, "24/7, very tired, sometimes being shot at, facing intense heat and humidity, having spartan-to-bare sleeping conditions, with sickness and disease spreading."
Amy,
I want you to know that over the past days, our soldiers of the National Guard have quickly and readily made big sacrifices so they can get down to the Hurricane Katrina rescue mission. My wife, as you know, is with National Guard. I watched last week as they worked feverishly, being called in from their other jobs and away from their families, to get everything ready to go.
Tens of thousands of National Guard soldiers have mobilized all over the country like this. I know you have felt grief over the disaster and the issue some people have made of it. I want you to take heart and lift your spirits at what has happened with our military.
There is now a MASSIVE military response under way. It is moving very fast, in fact. So fast that it quickly and frequently overwhelmed the capacity to put it all in place and get it launched.
I understand the frustration, fear and sadness being felt, but it takes time to get such a thing going. Remember that it took many months for our military operations to get under way overseas when the decisions were made to do so. In fact, I think there was some controversy about that in both of the wars over Iraq, when it took from August to January to launch Operation Desert Storm, and even longer to get Operation Iraqi Freedom going. I well remember even having to assure people that we were going to respond after September 11th when some started worrying that weeks had passed and nothing had happened.
I believe that such comparisons actually will show that the military response to Hurricane Katrina's destruction is going at breath-taking fast speed.
Lt. Gen. Russell Honore, the commanding General of the Army National Guard, said that the thing to realize is that the rescuers who were there on the first day were also victims of the storm.
It takes time to organize the massive operation now under way. I watched my wife and her unit prepare to go, and I felt worried that they would become victims too if they didn't properly prepare. The vital thing the soldiers have to make sure of is that they are the solution to the problem, and not part of the problem. Therefore, what has happened is that a vast, truly amazing and powerfully inspiration-driven massive team of professionals has quickly and effectively set up a huge series of staging areas from which rescue operations can begin.
It is a fact that with the destruction of the storm, there were very few open and secure areas in which to set up huge military operations. Well, defying all the challenges, your National Guard soldiers have done that brilliantly!
Now we are seeing this massive military response making it's impact. Tens of thousands have been rescued, moving entire refugee populations hundreds of miles. I don't believe others ever have been able to do this, such as the Europeans in the Balkans. No, such massive population moves are normally the work of war and crime that last years. This time, bigger and faster than most in history, your National Guard has moved in, set up, and begun one of the largest rescue operations in history.
The thing that has affected me most, however, are the soldiers doing this. I have seen police officers, Vietnam Veterans, and other professionals from all sorts of jobs, dropping everything last week and getting airborne to get down there. And Amy, it is scary too.
My wife is my best friend and the best person I have ever met. Now she is doing helicopter rescue missions, 24/7, very tired, sometimes being shot at, facing intense heat and humidity, having spartan-to-bare sleeping conditions, with sickness and disease spreading. There are thousands of rescue operations to do, and there are dozens of air units and even more ground units working hard and sometimes bumping into each other. It is more dangerous than I think people realize.
Yet, amazingly and very inspiringly, I watched as these National Guard soldiers cancelled plans for college, jobs, their kids' plans for next week, basically everything that you can imagine, and instead jumped eagerly and with great determination to get ready and deploy to Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.
Some of them are veterans, soldiers who have served for years in many of our wars and missions, civilian professionals who have jobs and lives and families, and all of them have set everything aside to go. Many are taking big financial hits, and their families have to make big adjustments. But you know what? They are all highly motivated and eager to get down there and do their jobs.
I know that for the victims of this storm, their suffering and tragedy is terrible and cannot be erased. I do hope we all realize, though, that the military is making a massively huge effort to rescue and help them that also involves National Guard soldiers making countless personal sacrifices.
We should have found inspiration from the determination of the people of New Orleans and the rest of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama to survive the long series of nightmares they have endured as a result of the hurricane. I also believe that we should now find inspiration in our great military, primarily the Army National Guard, for how they have jumped full steam ahead into this.
Be proud of your soldiers, keep your spirits and hopes high. There are some very sad and gruesome days and weeks ahead for our nation as we learn of the full scope of the disaster. Face it with the resolve, focus and determination that our military is showing us now, and we'll get through this to make a more safe future for such events and rebuild what has been lost.
Joe
Monday, September 05, 2005
Katrina Rescues: A Military Perspective
I'm posting a letter from Joe Roche, whose wife is doing helicopter rescue missions in hurricane-affected areas, "24/7, very tired, sometimes being shot at, facing intense heat and humidity, having spartan-to-bare sleeping conditions, with sickness and disease spreading."
Amy,
I want you to know that over the past days, our soldiers of the National Guard have quickly and readily made big sacrifices so they can get down to the Hurricane Katrina rescue mission. My wife, as you know, is with National Guard. I watched last week as they worked feverishly, being called in from their other jobs and away from their families, to get everything ready to go.
Tens of thousands of National Guard soldiers have mobilized all over the country like this. I know you have felt grief over the disaster and the issue some people have made of it. I want you to take heart and lift your spirits at what has happened with our military.
There is now a MASSIVE military response under way. It is moving very fast, in fact. So fast that it quickly and frequently overwhelmed the capacity to put it all in place and get it launched.
I understand the frustration, fear and sadness being felt, but it takes time to get such a thing going. Remember that it took many months for our military operations to get under way overseas when the decisions were made to do so. In fact, I think there was some controversy about that in both of the wars over Iraq, when it took from August to January to launch Operation Desert Storm, and even longer to get Operation Iraqi Freedom going. I well remember even having to assure people that we were going to respond after September 11th when some started worrying that weeks had passed and nothing had happened.
I believe that such comparisons actually will show that the military response to Hurricane Katrina's destruction is going at breath-taking fast speed.
Lt. Gen. Russell Honore, the commanding General of the Army National Guard, said that the thing to realize is that the rescuers who were there on the first day were also victims of the storm.
It takes time to organize the massive operation now under way. I watched my wife and her unit prepare to go, and I felt worried that they would become victims too if they didn't properly prepare. The vital thing the soldiers have to make sure of is that they are the solution to the problem, and not part of the problem. Therefore, what has happened is that a vast, truly amazing and powerfully inspiration-driven massive team of professionals has quickly and effectively set up a huge series of staging areas from which rescue operations can begin.
It is a fact that with the destruction of the storm, there were very few open and secure areas in which to set up huge military operations. Well, defying all the challenges, your National Guard soldiers have done that brilliantly!
Now we are seeing this massive military response making it's impact. Tens of thousands have been rescued, moving entire refugee populations hundreds of miles. I don't believe others ever have been able to do this, such as the Europeans in the Balkans. No, such massive population moves are normally the work of war and crime that last years. This time, bigger and faster than most in history, your National Guard has moved in, set up, and begun one of the largest rescue operations in history.
The thing that has affected me most, however, are the soldiers doing this. I have seen police officers, Vietnam Veterans, and other professionals from all sorts of jobs, dropping everything last week and getting airborne to get down there. And Amy, it is scary too.
My wife is my best friend and the best person I have ever met. Now she is doing helicopter rescue missions, 24/7, very tired, sometimes being shot at, facing intense heat and humidity, having spartan-to-bare sleeping conditions, with sickness and disease spreading. There are thousands of rescue operations to do, and there are dozens of air units and even more ground units working hard and sometimes bumping into each other. It is more dangerous than I think people realize.
Yet, amazingly and very inspiringly, I watched as these National Guard soldiers cancelled plans for college, jobs, their kids' plans for next week, basically everything that you can imagine, and instead jumped eagerly and with great determination to get ready and deploy to Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.
Some of them are veterans, soldiers who have served for years in many of our wars and missions, civilian professionals who have jobs and lives and families, and all of them have set everything aside to go. Many are taking big financial hits, and their families have to make big adjustments. But you know what? They are all highly motivated and eager to get down there and do their jobs.
I know that for the victims of this storm, their suffering and tragedy is terrible and cannot be erased. I do hope we all realize, though, that the military is making a massively huge effort to rescue and help them that also involves National Guard soldiers making countless personal sacrifices.
We should have found inspiration from the determination of the people of New Orleans and the rest of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama to survive the long series of nightmares they have endured as a result of the hurricane. I also believe that we should now find inspiration in our great military, primarily the Army National Guard, for how they have jumped full steam ahead into this.
Be proud of your soldiers, keep your spirits and hopes high. There are some very sad and gruesome days and weeks ahead for our nation as we learn of the full scope of the disaster. Face it with the resolve, focus and determination that our military is showing us now, and we'll get through this to make a more safe future for such events and rebuild what has been lost.
Joe
Sunday, September 04, 2005
Cafe Hayek
Don Boudreaux
The American Red Cross -- an exemplary voluntary disaster-relief organization with almost 125 years of experience -- was told by the National Guard and local authorities not to go to Katrina-devastated New Orleans.">Cafe Hayek: "Government Tells the Red Cross to Stay Out of New Orleans
Don Boudreaux
The American Red Cross -- an exemplary voluntary disaster-relief organization with almost 125 years of experience -- was told by the National Guard and local authorities not to go to Katrina-devastated New Orleans."
The American Red Cross -- an exemplary voluntary disaster-relief organization with almost 125 years of experience -- was told by the National Guard and local authorities not to go to Katrina-devastated New Orleans.">Cafe Hayek: "Government Tells the Red Cross to Stay Out of New Orleans
Don Boudreaux
The American Red Cross -- an exemplary voluntary disaster-relief organization with almost 125 years of experience -- was told by the National Guard and local authorities not to go to Katrina-devastated New Orleans."
Cafe Hayek
Cafe Hayek: "The American Red Cross -- an exemplary voluntary disaster-relief organization with almost 125 years of experience -- was told by the National Guard and local authorities not to go to Katrina-devastated New Orleans."
Friday, September 02, 2005
HOG ON ICE: The New Orleans Puzzle
HOG ON ICE: The New Orleans Puzzle: "A commenter complains that the New Orleans disaster shows that the Homeland Security people haven't done enough to prepare for terrorist attacks, which would have results similar to those caused by Hurricane Katrina.
I don't know enough about Katrina yet to form a firm opinion, but what I know so far leads me to disagree."
I don't know enough about Katrina yet to form a firm opinion, but what I know so far leads me to disagree."
Thursday, September 01, 2005
Tangled Up In Blue
Tangled Up In Blue: "'I awoke last night to the sound of thunder
How far off I sat and wondered
Started humming a song from 1962
Ain'�t it funny how the night moves
When you just don'�t seem to have as much to lose
Strange how the night moves
With autumn closing in'"
How far off I sat and wondered
Started humming a song from 1962
Ain'�t it funny how the night moves
When you just don'�t seem to have as much to lose
Strange how the night moves
With autumn closing in'"
Nashville Truth: Liberals Also Called For Assassination
Nashville Truth: Liberals Also Called For Assassination: "George Stephanopolous, former Clintonite and current ABC News analyst, on ABC'S 'This Week,' Nov. 9: 'This is probably one of those rare cases where assassination is the more moral course...we should kill him.'
Sam Donaldson, co-host of 'This Week,' Nov. 9: We should kill Saddam 'under cover of law.... We can do business with his successor.'"
Sam Donaldson, co-host of 'This Week,' Nov. 9: We should kill Saddam 'under cover of law.... We can do business with his successor.'"
Wednesday, August 31, 2005
News about Infantry at StrategyPage.com's How to Make War.
News about Infantry at StrategyPage.com's How to Make War.: "INFANTRY: Iraqis Copy Americans
August 31, 2005: The new Iraqi army is going through a generational shift, with a new package of tactics and techniques being taught to a new generation of recruits"
August 31, 2005: The new Iraqi army is going through a generational shift, with a new package of tactics and techniques being taught to a new generation of recruits"
The Daily Brief: A Military Blog Written With Intelligence And Purpose
The Daily Brief: A Military Blog Written With Intelligence And Purpose: "A List of Things Every Man Should Do Before He Dies
1. Shoot a gun larger than a .22. (Yep)
2. Teach a kid to shoot. (Define “kid.” Boyo hasn’t been shooting yet and guns aren’t allowed where we’re going so I’m gonna have to hold out.)
3. Cook a meal out in the open. (Done many times and not just “grilling” either.)
4. Kill an animal which can kill you. (No, and hopefully never will.)
5. Taste a good brandy (no French cognacs need apply) and a fine single malt Scotch. (I’ve overachieved this one.)
6. Visit at least eight countries outside your own continent, none of which speak your home language. (Only four so far.)"
etc==============
1. Shoot a gun larger than a .22. (Yep)
2. Teach a kid to shoot. (Define “kid.” Boyo hasn’t been shooting yet and guns aren’t allowed where we’re going so I’m gonna have to hold out.)
3. Cook a meal out in the open. (Done many times and not just “grilling” either.)
4. Kill an animal which can kill you. (No, and hopefully never will.)
5. Taste a good brandy (no French cognacs need apply) and a fine single malt Scotch. (I’ve overachieved this one.)
6. Visit at least eight countries outside your own continent, none of which speak your home language. (Only four so far.)"
etc==============
A soldier's thank-you - PittsburghLIVE.com
A soldier's thank-you - PittsburghLIVE.com: "More than once, bulletproof glass saved the lives of Spc. Nathaniel Cornman, his Humvee crewmates and others in his unit, the 1st 503rd Infantry, based at Fort Carson, Colo."
Chrenkoff--- Good News
Chrenkoff: "Maj. Joe Leahy, is a civil engineer with the 20th Engineer Brigade of the Army National Guard. He has been stationed at Camp Victory, outside of Baghdad, since November 2004 - enough time to get frustrated:
'We all know it's a dangerous place. But the thing that I want people to understand is that they only see those one or two instances in the country that are negative. You don't really hear about the 100 things that have gone good,'
says Maj Leahy. 'One thing we've got to understand is that it's not going to happen tomorrow, but we are doing something that's getting better everyday.'
"
'We all know it's a dangerous place. But the thing that I want people to understand is that they only see those one or two instances in the country that are negative. You don't really hear about the 100 things that have gone good,'
says Maj Leahy. 'One thing we've got to understand is that it's not going to happen tomorrow, but we are doing something that's getting better everyday.'
"
Major K.: The MRX
Major K.: The MRX: "For the past 2 1/2 years, there have been several evolutions in building the new Iraqi Army. It first started as the ICDC, then became what is now the Iraqi Army. All over the country, this army has been being built from the ground up. It started with basic training, where new soldiers were forged with better training than was given to the 'Commandos' of the old regime. By the standards of the former regime, every American Soldier would be considered to be 'Special Forces' trained. "
Tuesday, August 30, 2005
Econbrowser: How to talk to an economist about peak oil
Econbrowser: How to talk to an economist about peak oil: "How to talk to an economist about peak oil"
Deinonychus antirrhopus: Katrina and the Cost of Gasoline/Oil
Katrina and the Cost of Gasoline/Oil
Posted by Steve at 12:54 AM
Well, if you thought that gasoline prices were high now, just wait a couple of days. From the sounds of it Katrina has really done quite a number on the oil production in the gulf, and the oil refining in New Orleans area. This is like getting shot in the gut and the head. Even if Bush releases oil from the Strategic Patroleum Reserve it will likely have little impact. Why? Well there aren't that many refineries and quite a few of them are located in Louisiana. In looking at a map at goolge.com my quick research tells me these refineries are probably down and will be for some time.
Refinery Barrels/day Location
ConocoPhillips 250,000 Belle Chasse
Motiva Enterprises, LLC 220,000 Norco
Valero St. Charles Refinery 155,160 Norco
St. Rose Refining (Shell) 55,000 St. Rose
Chalmette Refining, LLC 182,500 Chalmette
862,660
In other words just under a million barrels/day of refining capacity has been taken off line. Add in that several off shore gulf rigs are likely also off line and it means that gasoline/oil prices are going to go up. Over at the Oil Drum Professor Goose notes that the U.S. uses about 20 million barrels per day (mbpd). Thus about 5% of the nations entire refining capacity just went away for an indeterminant amount of time.
This New York Times article is also chuck full of information. Such as that there are 4,000 drilling platforms in that region connected by 33,000 miles of underwater pipelines. The gulf region produces about 27% of the nations oil and 20% of the natural gas. Also oil production in the region was reduced by 92%.
So what about the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR)? Not much. After all, it isn't just the oil is going to be in short supply but also the refineries necessary to turn the oil in the SPR into gasoline. Valero is indicating it could be two weeks before its operations are back online. The St. Charles refinery noted above was under three feet of water and sustained minor damage to its cooling tower.
President Bush demonstrates a poor grasp of the situation,
"You just got to understand that the situation we got ourselves into, dependency on foreign sources of oil, took a while to get there, and it's going to take a while to become less dependent," Mr. Bush said.
As I've noted several times in this post, it isn't simply the dependency on foreign oil (in fact that is a minor part of the picture which I'll explain a bit more further down). Another big aspect of the problem is the lack of excess capacity in refineries. That part of the oil/gasoline supply line is also very tight. A slight problem there such as a Hurricane tearing up Louisiana.
As for the dependency on foreign oil that is "talking points/rhetorical bullsh*t". Suppose we weren't dependent on foreign oil and that we still obtained 27% of our oil from the Gulf region and there was a big hurricane. Oil production would still decrease and prices would go up. Somebody needs to inform Bush that we are talking about a world wide market for oil and that statements like the one above may sound good to the uninitiated on this issue, but to those who understand the issue he looks like a fool.
Well, at any rate I hope you weren't planning on taking the RV out for the long weekend. Or if you do, I recommend driving it to the end of driveway and setting up camp there.
Posted by Steve at 12:54 AM
Well, if you thought that gasoline prices were high now, just wait a couple of days. From the sounds of it Katrina has really done quite a number on the oil production in the gulf, and the oil refining in New Orleans area. This is like getting shot in the gut and the head. Even if Bush releases oil from the Strategic Patroleum Reserve it will likely have little impact. Why? Well there aren't that many refineries and quite a few of them are located in Louisiana. In looking at a map at goolge.com my quick research tells me these refineries are probably down and will be for some time.
Refinery Barrels/day Location
ConocoPhillips 250,000 Belle Chasse
Motiva Enterprises, LLC 220,000 Norco
Valero St. Charles Refinery 155,160 Norco
St. Rose Refining (Shell) 55,000 St. Rose
Chalmette Refining, LLC 182,500 Chalmette
862,660
In other words just under a million barrels/day of refining capacity has been taken off line. Add in that several off shore gulf rigs are likely also off line and it means that gasoline/oil prices are going to go up. Over at the Oil Drum Professor Goose notes that the U.S. uses about 20 million barrels per day (mbpd). Thus about 5% of the nations entire refining capacity just went away for an indeterminant amount of time.
This New York Times article is also chuck full of information. Such as that there are 4,000 drilling platforms in that region connected by 33,000 miles of underwater pipelines. The gulf region produces about 27% of the nations oil and 20% of the natural gas. Also oil production in the region was reduced by 92%.
So what about the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR)? Not much. After all, it isn't just the oil is going to be in short supply but also the refineries necessary to turn the oil in the SPR into gasoline. Valero is indicating it could be two weeks before its operations are back online. The St. Charles refinery noted above was under three feet of water and sustained minor damage to its cooling tower.
President Bush demonstrates a poor grasp of the situation,
"You just got to understand that the situation we got ourselves into, dependency on foreign sources of oil, took a while to get there, and it's going to take a while to become less dependent," Mr. Bush said.
As I've noted several times in this post, it isn't simply the dependency on foreign oil (in fact that is a minor part of the picture which I'll explain a bit more further down). Another big aspect of the problem is the lack of excess capacity in refineries. That part of the oil/gasoline supply line is also very tight. A slight problem there such as a Hurricane tearing up Louisiana.
As for the dependency on foreign oil that is "talking points/rhetorical bullsh*t". Suppose we weren't dependent on foreign oil and that we still obtained 27% of our oil from the Gulf region and there was a big hurricane. Oil production would still decrease and prices would go up. Somebody needs to inform Bush that we are talking about a world wide market for oil and that statements like the one above may sound good to the uninitiated on this issue, but to those who understand the issue he looks like a fool.
Well, at any rate I hope you weren't planning on taking the RV out for the long weekend. Or if you do, I recommend driving it to the end of driveway and setting up camp there.
Monday, August 29, 2005
'Wonderful time to be a soldier'�-�Editorials/Op-Ed�-�The Washington Times, America's Newspaper
'Wonderful time to be a soldier'�-�Editorials/Op-Ed�-�The Washington Times, America's Newspaper: "'Wonderful time to be a soldier'
TODAY'S COLUMNIST
By Joe Roche
August 26, 2005
I'm very proud to be a soldier of the U.S. Army because of the war on terror and our missions in Iraq and Afghanistan. I'm not alone either. I'm surrounded by soldiers who are re-enlisting and volunteering to go to units that are deploying. In fact, despite all the negative news and protests, I see everyday that our military is actually doing very well.
This is quite obvious, except for the fact that most of the media seems asphyxiated with defeatism. The message from most journalists would lead you to believe that we soldiers are getting out, that no one is joining anew and that we want to stop fighting. This simply isn't true.
Yes, recruitment is lower, but the caliber of those who are signing up and the rates of re-enlistment are both extremely high. All 10 of our major combat divisions are ahead of expectations for retention of soldiers. In my unit, there are soldiers who specifically went active duty from the reserves because they want to go to Iraq or Afghanistan.
Before September 11, a lot of soldiers were happy to just enjoy the benefits. Since that day, those soldiers have left. That is fine and not the disaster that defeatist reports are making it seem. Such soldiers were never the types to want to go on long deployments and face combat. Yes, they were heroes for signing up and being in a job that could go that direction, but they had other priorities that made their service contingent on enjoying the benefits rather than serving in war.
That changed on September 11. Now, just as we are told to expect when joining, we are going to combat and many soldiers are getting injured and killed. This is our job, and it is what we know can happen. I don't know why the media insists on trumpeting the idea that all of us are tired and worn out and just want to stop fighting. I don't, and I am not alone.
The fact is that we are not experiencing casualty rates anywhere near past conflicts, nor for that matter as bad as during peacetime. There were weeks in Vietnam when 350-400 Americans died, and in other wars thousands would die in single battles. Nothing like that is happening now.
From 1983 to 1996, more than 18,000 soldiers died. That averages to more than 1,300 a year, far more than have been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan each year. Yes, that was mostly from accidents, drunk driving and other mishaps. Yet, while protesters in Crawford, Texas and elsewhere would have you think that our military can't survive with the low casualty rates of this war, I wonder why they were willing to accept the much higher peacetime casualty rates of the past? We lost around 3,000 innocent people on September 11, and with four years of war and the toppling of two regimes, we haven't lost that many in combat.
Injuries are high, but they are nothing compared to past conflicts. And most striking is how many are recovering well. I have been to both of the major military hospitals involved in this war, Landstuhl in Germany and Walter Reed in Washington, and I can tell you that there are many soldiers who have lost limbs in Iraq and Afghanistan and who want to return to their units and get redeployed.
Like I said earlier, though, the striking fact I see every day is that the soldiers who are joining now are of much higher caliber than those who joined before September 11. The senior commandant of the Marines recently testified before Congress that the same is happening with them. There maybe fewer than before, but those that do show up are willing and dedicated to being deployed and going to combat. These are also the types who are re-enlisting more than ever before. In fact, re-enlistment is up to 130 percent of expectations in some divisions.
My wife is in the National Guard. Theirs is an interesting experience right now in that there have been more casualties by accidents and reckless behavior off-duty than in Iraq and Afghanistan. Why are protesters not upset about that? Sadly it appears that much of the media are obsessed with defeatism. Even the message of the protesters — contradictory, false and confused as ever — is made front-page headline news every day. The few people they can exploit to push this defeatist agenda are made to appear to speak for all of us. That just isn't true.
Contrary to all the bad news, I see everyday that our soldiers are motivated and eager to contribute and participate in our nation's military missions. This is a very proud and important time to be serving. Considering that out of a population of 285 million, less than one-tenth of one percent are going to war right now, and considering the huge impact we are having on the world, this is a wonderful time to be a soldier in the U.S. Army.
Sgt. Joe Roche is with the 12th Aviation Battalion and stationed at Fort Belvoir. "
TODAY'S COLUMNIST
By Joe Roche
August 26, 2005
I'm very proud to be a soldier of the U.S. Army because of the war on terror and our missions in Iraq and Afghanistan. I'm not alone either. I'm surrounded by soldiers who are re-enlisting and volunteering to go to units that are deploying. In fact, despite all the negative news and protests, I see everyday that our military is actually doing very well.
This is quite obvious, except for the fact that most of the media seems asphyxiated with defeatism. The message from most journalists would lead you to believe that we soldiers are getting out, that no one is joining anew and that we want to stop fighting. This simply isn't true.
Yes, recruitment is lower, but the caliber of those who are signing up and the rates of re-enlistment are both extremely high. All 10 of our major combat divisions are ahead of expectations for retention of soldiers. In my unit, there are soldiers who specifically went active duty from the reserves because they want to go to Iraq or Afghanistan.
Before September 11, a lot of soldiers were happy to just enjoy the benefits. Since that day, those soldiers have left. That is fine and not the disaster that defeatist reports are making it seem. Such soldiers were never the types to want to go on long deployments and face combat. Yes, they were heroes for signing up and being in a job that could go that direction, but they had other priorities that made their service contingent on enjoying the benefits rather than serving in war.
That changed on September 11. Now, just as we are told to expect when joining, we are going to combat and many soldiers are getting injured and killed. This is our job, and it is what we know can happen. I don't know why the media insists on trumpeting the idea that all of us are tired and worn out and just want to stop fighting. I don't, and I am not alone.
The fact is that we are not experiencing casualty rates anywhere near past conflicts, nor for that matter as bad as during peacetime. There were weeks in Vietnam when 350-400 Americans died, and in other wars thousands would die in single battles. Nothing like that is happening now.
From 1983 to 1996, more than 18,000 soldiers died. That averages to more than 1,300 a year, far more than have been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan each year. Yes, that was mostly from accidents, drunk driving and other mishaps. Yet, while protesters in Crawford, Texas and elsewhere would have you think that our military can't survive with the low casualty rates of this war, I wonder why they were willing to accept the much higher peacetime casualty rates of the past? We lost around 3,000 innocent people on September 11, and with four years of war and the toppling of two regimes, we haven't lost that many in combat.
Injuries are high, but they are nothing compared to past conflicts. And most striking is how many are recovering well. I have been to both of the major military hospitals involved in this war, Landstuhl in Germany and Walter Reed in Washington, and I can tell you that there are many soldiers who have lost limbs in Iraq and Afghanistan and who want to return to their units and get redeployed.
Like I said earlier, though, the striking fact I see every day is that the soldiers who are joining now are of much higher caliber than those who joined before September 11. The senior commandant of the Marines recently testified before Congress that the same is happening with them. There maybe fewer than before, but those that do show up are willing and dedicated to being deployed and going to combat. These are also the types who are re-enlisting more than ever before. In fact, re-enlistment is up to 130 percent of expectations in some divisions.
My wife is in the National Guard. Theirs is an interesting experience right now in that there have been more casualties by accidents and reckless behavior off-duty than in Iraq and Afghanistan. Why are protesters not upset about that? Sadly it appears that much of the media are obsessed with defeatism. Even the message of the protesters — contradictory, false and confused as ever — is made front-page headline news every day. The few people they can exploit to push this defeatist agenda are made to appear to speak for all of us. That just isn't true.
Contrary to all the bad news, I see everyday that our soldiers are motivated and eager to contribute and participate in our nation's military missions. This is a very proud and important time to be serving. Considering that out of a population of 285 million, less than one-tenth of one percent are going to war right now, and considering the huge impact we are having on the world, this is a wonderful time to be a soldier in the U.S. Army.
Sgt. Joe Roche is with the 12th Aviation Battalion and stationed at Fort Belvoir. "
Sunday, August 28, 2005
HOG ON ICE: Putting Things In Perspective
HOG ON ICE: Putting Things In Perspective: "Putting Things In Perspective
Steve's hurricane could cause even more trouble...
When thinking about Hurricane Katrina, you might want to consider how she's going to affect your life. It doesn’t matter if you live on the Gulf Coast or not--Katrina just may affect you personally. In fact, no matter where you live in the US, this hurricane is packing enough punch to be felt from sea to shining sea, but I can't find anyone in the MSM talking about it.
Let me explain...
Most people don't think about the real damage being done by these hurricanes in the Gulf. The Gulf of Mexico is responsible for almost 1/4 of the nation's domestic oil and gas production—this doesn’t count the imported oil and gas that is offloaded in the Gulf—but I’ll get to that in a minute. When these hurricanes blow through, oil companies have to evacuate their rigs—which means shutting down production. Like sleep, you can never make up for lost production. There are production losses planned into the production schedule, but with a year like this one, we're falling behind—and it’s one of the reasons we’re feeling it at the pumps. Then you have the rigs themselves. Let’s take Thunderhorse for example. Thunderhorse is the world’s largest offshore platform. She’s 75% owned by BP and 25% by Exxon—BP is the operator. The rig is designed to take hurricanes and other weather events and remain operationally viable. However, when Hurricane Dennis came through, something went wrong and she started listing about 20 to 30 degrees. Fast work by BP crews and the US Coastguard prevented the loss of a $5 billion rig. None of these rigs out there are hurricane proof.
But the real problem is Port Fourchon.
Most people have never heard of Port Fourchon, but it is the nation's premiere oil and gas support services facility--and right now it lies within 12 miles of Hurricane Katrina's CAT-3 or CAT-4 bullseye. Over 600 platforms and 75% of the Gulf’s deepwater projects lie within a 40-mile radius of Port Fourchon. Unfortunately, Port Fourchon is a Louisiana island. An island that is connected to the mainland by a single two lane bridge...an old, single two lane bridge. This bridge is the only means of getting cargo and supplies to the Port. More than 1,000 cargo trucks go across this bridge each day, delivering materials to the Port for Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) drilling rigs. If there’s no bridge, there’re no drilling parts and supplies.
Do you see where this is going? When people say our infrastructure is vulnerable, they are not kidding—and not all of it is about terrorism.
The Port is crucial to our national security—for a number of other reasons. While the Persian Gulf provides around 23% of the U.S. oil supply, Port Fourchon supports the offloading of over 18% of all domestic oil and gas and 13% of all oil imports. Port Fourchon is the site of the enormous booster pumps that carry crude oil from the Louisiana Offshore Oil Port (LOOP) to underground salt dome storage areas in Galliano. The LOOP is the first and only offshore oil terminal operating in the United States. It's located less than 20 miles south of Port Fourchon in the Gulf of Mexico and allows the off-loading of oil from supertankers into special pipelines that connect directly to more than 30% of the nation’s refining capacity. The LOOP takes in about one million barrels of foreign oil and 300,000 barrels of domestic crude from Gulf of Mexico OCS each day. Loose that capacity and you've got big trouble.
Put another way, there is no other dot on the map that is more important to the nation’s energy supply, yet it’s connected to the mainland by an obsolete bridge and highway and it has a possible CAT-4 hurricane bearing down on it. It’s not a good situation and Port Fourchon authorities have been warning government officials about it for years.
I’m not being doom and gloom; I’m just saying that we don’t often think about how much these damn hurricanes can and might affect our daily lives.
Just something else to think about when you read about a hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico…"
Steve's hurricane could cause even more trouble...
When thinking about Hurricane Katrina, you might want to consider how she's going to affect your life. It doesn’t matter if you live on the Gulf Coast or not--Katrina just may affect you personally. In fact, no matter where you live in the US, this hurricane is packing enough punch to be felt from sea to shining sea, but I can't find anyone in the MSM talking about it.
Let me explain...
Most people don't think about the real damage being done by these hurricanes in the Gulf. The Gulf of Mexico is responsible for almost 1/4 of the nation's domestic oil and gas production—this doesn’t count the imported oil and gas that is offloaded in the Gulf—but I’ll get to that in a minute. When these hurricanes blow through, oil companies have to evacuate their rigs—which means shutting down production. Like sleep, you can never make up for lost production. There are production losses planned into the production schedule, but with a year like this one, we're falling behind—and it’s one of the reasons we’re feeling it at the pumps. Then you have the rigs themselves. Let’s take Thunderhorse for example. Thunderhorse is the world’s largest offshore platform. She’s 75% owned by BP and 25% by Exxon—BP is the operator. The rig is designed to take hurricanes and other weather events and remain operationally viable. However, when Hurricane Dennis came through, something went wrong and she started listing about 20 to 30 degrees. Fast work by BP crews and the US Coastguard prevented the loss of a $5 billion rig. None of these rigs out there are hurricane proof.
But the real problem is Port Fourchon.
Most people have never heard of Port Fourchon, but it is the nation's premiere oil and gas support services facility--and right now it lies within 12 miles of Hurricane Katrina's CAT-3 or CAT-4 bullseye. Over 600 platforms and 75% of the Gulf’s deepwater projects lie within a 40-mile radius of Port Fourchon. Unfortunately, Port Fourchon is a Louisiana island. An island that is connected to the mainland by a single two lane bridge...an old, single two lane bridge. This bridge is the only means of getting cargo and supplies to the Port. More than 1,000 cargo trucks go across this bridge each day, delivering materials to the Port for Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) drilling rigs. If there’s no bridge, there’re no drilling parts and supplies.
Do you see where this is going? When people say our infrastructure is vulnerable, they are not kidding—and not all of it is about terrorism.
The Port is crucial to our national security—for a number of other reasons. While the Persian Gulf provides around 23% of the U.S. oil supply, Port Fourchon supports the offloading of over 18% of all domestic oil and gas and 13% of all oil imports. Port Fourchon is the site of the enormous booster pumps that carry crude oil from the Louisiana Offshore Oil Port (LOOP) to underground salt dome storage areas in Galliano. The LOOP is the first and only offshore oil terminal operating in the United States. It's located less than 20 miles south of Port Fourchon in the Gulf of Mexico and allows the off-loading of oil from supertankers into special pipelines that connect directly to more than 30% of the nation’s refining capacity. The LOOP takes in about one million barrels of foreign oil and 300,000 barrels of domestic crude from Gulf of Mexico OCS each day. Loose that capacity and you've got big trouble.
Put another way, there is no other dot on the map that is more important to the nation’s energy supply, yet it’s connected to the mainland by an obsolete bridge and highway and it has a possible CAT-4 hurricane bearing down on it. It’s not a good situation and Port Fourchon authorities have been warning government officials about it for years.
I’m not being doom and gloom; I’m just saying that we don’t often think about how much these damn hurricanes can and might affect our daily lives.
Just something else to think about when you read about a hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico…"
Chrenkoff
Chrenkoff: "Once were superpower
Russia's national suicide continues:
Russians are having more abortions than births to avoid the cost of raising children, according to the country's highest-ranking obstetrician.
About 1.6 million women had a termination last year, a fifth of them under the age of 18, while about 1.5 million gave birth, said Vladimir Kulakov, vice president of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences in Moscow. 'Many more' abortions weren't reported, Kulakov said in the government's official newspaper.
I'll make a brave prediction: in twenty to thirty years, Russia will no longer exist in the form we know today. It might even shrink to the decaying ancient core of the Muscovy, pre-Ivan the Terrible expansion, as first its Muslims areas, and then other autonomous regions detach themselves, and eastern Siberia is absorbed by China (if China itself still exists in its current form in two or three decades' time). It's like watching the fall of the Roman Empire, except with a lot of nukes.
It is difficult to feel sorry for Russia in an abstract (particularly as a Pole), but I do feel sorry for the Russian people, who having suffered seven decades of communism, now find themselves trapped in a nightmarish twilight zone where the old establishment has merged with the organized crime to loot the state and terrorize the population.
"
Russia's national suicide continues:
Russians are having more abortions than births to avoid the cost of raising children, according to the country's highest-ranking obstetrician.
About 1.6 million women had a termination last year, a fifth of them under the age of 18, while about 1.5 million gave birth, said Vladimir Kulakov, vice president of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences in Moscow. 'Many more' abortions weren't reported, Kulakov said in the government's official newspaper.
I'll make a brave prediction: in twenty to thirty years, Russia will no longer exist in the form we know today. It might even shrink to the decaying ancient core of the Muscovy, pre-Ivan the Terrible expansion, as first its Muslims areas, and then other autonomous regions detach themselves, and eastern Siberia is absorbed by China (if China itself still exists in its current form in two or three decades' time). It's like watching the fall of the Roman Empire, except with a lot of nukes.
It is difficult to feel sorry for Russia in an abstract (particularly as a Pole), but I do feel sorry for the Russian people, who having suffered seven decades of communism, now find themselves trapped in a nightmarish twilight zone where the old establishment has merged with the organized crime to loot the state and terrorize the population.
"
Power Line: A positive accounting
Power Line: A positive accounting: "A positive accounting
Christopher Hitchens delivers a brilliant essay in the Daily Standard called 'A War to Be Proud Of.' His positive accounting of our accomplishments in the Bush administration's proactive war on terrorism includes:
1) The overthrow of Talibanism and Baathism, and the exposure of many highly suggestive links between the two elements of this Hitler-Stalin pact. Abu Musab al Zarqawi, who moved from Afghanistan to Iraq before the coalition intervention, has even gone to the trouble of naming his organization al Qaeda in Mesopotamia.
(2) The subsequent capitulation of Qaddafi's Libya in point of weapons of mass destruction--a capitulation that was offered not to Kofi Annan or the E.U. but to Blair and Bush.
(3) The consequent unmasking of the A.Q. Khan network for the illicit transfer of nuclear technology to Libya, Iran, and North Korea.
(4) The agreement by the United Nations that its own reform is necessary and overdue, and the unmasking of a quasi-criminal network within its elite.
(5) The craven admission by President Chirac and Chancellor Schr�der, when confronted with irrefutable evidence of cheating and concealment, respecting solemn treaties, on the part of Iran, that not even this will alter their commitment to neutralism. (One had already suspected as much in the Iraqi case.)
(6) The ability to certify Iraq as actually disarmed, rather than accept the word of a psychopathic autocrat.
(7) The immense gains made by the largest stateless minority in the region--the Kurds--and the spread of this example to other states.
(8) The related encouragement of democratic and civil society movements in Egypt, Syria, and most notably Lebanon, which has regained a version of its autonomy.
(9) The violent and ignominious death of thousands of bin Ladenist infiltrators into Iraq and Afghanistan, and the real prospect of greatly enlarging this number.
(10) The training and hardening of many thousands of American servicemen and women in a battle against the forces of nihilism and absolutism, which training and hardening will surely be of great use in future combat.
Moreover, while it's not clear whether or to what extent the American public shares Hitchens' pride in what we've accomplished, Hitchens is undoubtedly correct that the public itself has displayed a fortitude of which it should be proud:
Faced with a constant drizzle of bad news and purposely demoralizing commentary, millions of people stick out their jaws and hang tight. I am no fan of populism, but I surmise that these citizens are clear on the main point: It is out of the question--plainly and absolutely out of the question--that we should surrender the keystone state of the Middle East to a rotten, murderous alliance between Baathists and bin Ladenists. When they hear the fatuous insinuation that this alliance has only been created by the resistance to it, voters know in their intestines that those who say so are soft on crime and soft on fascism."
Christopher Hitchens delivers a brilliant essay in the Daily Standard called 'A War to Be Proud Of.' His positive accounting of our accomplishments in the Bush administration's proactive war on terrorism includes:
1) The overthrow of Talibanism and Baathism, and the exposure of many highly suggestive links between the two elements of this Hitler-Stalin pact. Abu Musab al Zarqawi, who moved from Afghanistan to Iraq before the coalition intervention, has even gone to the trouble of naming his organization al Qaeda in Mesopotamia.
(2) The subsequent capitulation of Qaddafi's Libya in point of weapons of mass destruction--a capitulation that was offered not to Kofi Annan or the E.U. but to Blair and Bush.
(3) The consequent unmasking of the A.Q. Khan network for the illicit transfer of nuclear technology to Libya, Iran, and North Korea.
(4) The agreement by the United Nations that its own reform is necessary and overdue, and the unmasking of a quasi-criminal network within its elite.
(5) The craven admission by President Chirac and Chancellor Schr�der, when confronted with irrefutable evidence of cheating and concealment, respecting solemn treaties, on the part of Iran, that not even this will alter their commitment to neutralism. (One had already suspected as much in the Iraqi case.)
(6) The ability to certify Iraq as actually disarmed, rather than accept the word of a psychopathic autocrat.
(7) The immense gains made by the largest stateless minority in the region--the Kurds--and the spread of this example to other states.
(8) The related encouragement of democratic and civil society movements in Egypt, Syria, and most notably Lebanon, which has regained a version of its autonomy.
(9) The violent and ignominious death of thousands of bin Ladenist infiltrators into Iraq and Afghanistan, and the real prospect of greatly enlarging this number.
(10) The training and hardening of many thousands of American servicemen and women in a battle against the forces of nihilism and absolutism, which training and hardening will surely be of great use in future combat.
Moreover, while it's not clear whether or to what extent the American public shares Hitchens' pride in what we've accomplished, Hitchens is undoubtedly correct that the public itself has displayed a fortitude of which it should be proud:
Faced with a constant drizzle of bad news and purposely demoralizing commentary, millions of people stick out their jaws and hang tight. I am no fan of populism, but I surmise that these citizens are clear on the main point: It is out of the question--plainly and absolutely out of the question--that we should surrender the keystone state of the Middle East to a rotten, murderous alliance between Baathists and bin Ladenists. When they hear the fatuous insinuation that this alliance has only been created by the resistance to it, voters know in their intestines that those who say so are soft on crime and soft on fascism."
Thursday, August 25, 2005
Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner - William Morrow, 2005
Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner - William Morrow, 2005: "http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/100303_eating_oil.html"
Need to read.
Need to read.
SHAME! HORRIBLE!
komo news | Police Need Your Help In Capturing Beating Suspects: "SEATTLE - Two soldiers who just returned from a year in Iraq were badly beaten in an attack outside Pioneer Square. But believe it or not, someone caught the beating on videotape. Now, police are asking for your help identifying the suspects.
The brutality of it all was captured on tape outside of Larry's Nightclub on First and Yesler on July 31.
Police say the victims were with two women who'd been groped by the suspects. One of the women threw a hot dog at the suspects and walked away.
They didn't get very far. The three suspects ran after them and began attacking the two men -- two soldiers who'd come home from the war."
The brutality of it all was captured on tape outside of Larry's Nightclub on First and Yesler on July 31.
Police say the victims were with two women who'd been groped by the suspects. One of the women threw a hot dog at the suspects and walked away.
They didn't get very far. The three suspects ran after them and began attacking the two men -- two soldiers who'd come home from the war."
military news about Afghanistan
military news about Afghanistan: "AFGHANISTAN: Where the Taliban Don't Roam
August 24, 2005: So far this month, counter-terrorist operations have killed about 110 Taliban, mainly along the Pakistani border. Several hundred suspects have been arrested. Most of the Taliban were killed last week, in the southern province of Zabul and the eastern province of Kunar. These two areas have been the scene of most Taliban violence. Only a few hundred Taliban are causing all the terror and violence in the southern part of the country, with an estimated 2,000 Pushtun tribesmen actively supporting the Taliban cause.
So far this year, about a thousand people have died in Taliban related violence (compared to 850 during the same period last year.) About half the dead are Taliban, with the rest being Afghan troops and civilians."
Here is the full article.
August 24, 2005: So far this month, counter-terrorist operations have killed about 110 Taliban, mainly along the Pakistani border. Several hundred suspects have been arrested. Most of the Taliban were killed last week, in the southern province of Zabul and the eastern province of Kunar. These two areas have been the scene of most Taliban violence. Only a few hundred Taliban are causing all the terror and violence in the southern part of the country, with an estimated 2,000 Pushtun tribesmen actively supporting the Taliban cause.
So far this year, about a thousand people have died in Taliban related violence (compared to 850 during the same period last year.) About half the dead are Taliban, with the rest being Afghan troops and civilians."
Here is the full article.
What if we just left??
The full article.
August 25, 2005: The more extreme critics of American strategy in Iraq demand that American forces just leave. "Bring the troops home." What if that were done? It's certainly possible. We withdrew a force from Lebanon in 1984, four months after suffering over 250 dead from suicide bomb attacks. The Lebanese civil war went on without us for another seven years. The fifteen year civil war in Lebanon left about two percent of the population dead, and twenty percent driven from their homes. For a country the size of Iraq, that would translate to half a million dead. ">military news about Iraq: "IRAQ: What If We Just Left?
August 25, 2005: The more extreme critics of American strategy in Iraq demand that American forces just leave. 'Bring the troops home.' What if that were done? It's certainly possible. We withdrew a force from Lebanon in 1984, four months after suffering over 250 dead from suicide bomb attacks. The Lebanese civil war went on without us for another seven years. The fifteen year civil war in Lebanon left about two percent of the population dead, and twenty percent driven from their homes. For a country the size of Iraq, that would translate to half a million dead. "
August 25, 2005: The more extreme critics of American strategy in Iraq demand that American forces just leave. "Bring the troops home." What if that were done? It's certainly possible. We withdrew a force from Lebanon in 1984, four months after suffering over 250 dead from suicide bomb attacks. The Lebanese civil war went on without us for another seven years. The fifteen year civil war in Lebanon left about two percent of the population dead, and twenty percent driven from their homes. For a country the size of Iraq, that would translate to half a million dead. ">military news about Iraq: "IRAQ: What If We Just Left?
August 25, 2005: The more extreme critics of American strategy in Iraq demand that American forces just leave. 'Bring the troops home.' What if that were done? It's certainly possible. We withdrew a force from Lebanon in 1984, four months after suffering over 250 dead from suicide bomb attacks. The Lebanese civil war went on without us for another seven years. The fifteen year civil war in Lebanon left about two percent of the population dead, and twenty percent driven from their homes. For a country the size of Iraq, that would translate to half a million dead. "
Monday, August 22, 2005
$2 for water for a year
One Hand Clapping � Blog Archive � $2 for water for a year: "Perhaps as many as a billion people around the world do not have regular access to safe drinking water. Several million people per year die from drinking contaminated water.
But the new LifeStraw may just be “the invention of the century.” At a cost of $2, one straw can filter up to 700 liters of water, about a year’s worth at 2 liters per day. The user just sticks one end in the water and sucks the water through the filtering elements.
Medgadget reports,
What first meets the water when sucked up is a pre-filter of PE filter textile with a mesh opening of 100 micron, shortly followed by a second textile filter in polyester with a mesh opening of 15 micron. In this way all big articles are filtered out, even clusters of bacteria are removed. Then the water is led into a chamber of iodine impregnated beads, where bacteria, viruses and parasites are killed. The second chamber is a void space, where the iodine being washed off the beads can maintain their killing effect. The last chamber consists of granulated active carbon, which role is to take the main part of the bad smell of iodine, and to take the parasites that have not been taken by the pre-filter or killed by the iodine. The biggest parasites will be taken by the pre-filter, the weakest will be killed by the iodine, and the medium range parasites will be picked up by the active carbon. The main interest to everyone is the killing of bacteria, and here our laboratory reading tells us that we have a log. 7 to log 8 kill of most bacteria. This is better than tap water in many developed countries.
This sounds like the kind of device that American churches could easily buy and supply to churches overseas for distribution."
Source for this amazing health Aid!
But the new LifeStraw may just be “the invention of the century.” At a cost of $2, one straw can filter up to 700 liters of water, about a year’s worth at 2 liters per day. The user just sticks one end in the water and sucks the water through the filtering elements.
Medgadget reports,
What first meets the water when sucked up is a pre-filter of PE filter textile with a mesh opening of 100 micron, shortly followed by a second textile filter in polyester with a mesh opening of 15 micron. In this way all big articles are filtered out, even clusters of bacteria are removed. Then the water is led into a chamber of iodine impregnated beads, where bacteria, viruses and parasites are killed. The second chamber is a void space, where the iodine being washed off the beads can maintain their killing effect. The last chamber consists of granulated active carbon, which role is to take the main part of the bad smell of iodine, and to take the parasites that have not been taken by the pre-filter or killed by the iodine. The biggest parasites will be taken by the pre-filter, the weakest will be killed by the iodine, and the medium range parasites will be picked up by the active carbon. The main interest to everyone is the killing of bacteria, and here our laboratory reading tells us that we have a log. 7 to log 8 kill of most bacteria. This is better than tap water in many developed countries.
This sounds like the kind of device that American churches could easily buy and supply to churches overseas for distribution."
Source for this amazing health Aid!
gizmag Article: The LifeStraw – the invention of the century?
gizmag Article: The LifeStraw – the invention of the century?
Wonderful invention. Revolutionize 3rd world health!
Wonderful invention. Revolutionize 3rd world health!
Sunday, August 21, 2005
The War in Iraq:Coatings for Protection
The War in Iraq:: "U.S. Navy researchers have discovered that polyurea, a high strength, spray-on plastic normally used to provide a non-skid surface on ship decks and truck beds, and for corrosion control, also absorbs the blast effects of bombs. About 3-4mm of polyurea was sprayed on the outside of a hummer and then a bomb was set off next to the vehicle, to recreate a roadside bomb attack in Iraq. There was much less damage inside the vehicle than when the same bomb was set off next to a hummer without the polyurea coating. The polyurea also prevents the metal body of the vehicle from splintering and turning into dangerous fragments. Had there not been a war going on in Iraq, that featured frequent attacks on unarmored vehicles, this unexpected use of polyurea would probably never have been discovered. The navy might end up coating the top side of small surface ships with the stuff, to give the crew additional protection in the event of missile or bomb attacks. The air force and army are also using polyurea as a wall coating for buildings that might be bombed. Tests have shown that the polyurea coating greatly reduces the bomb damage. Coating a hummer would cost several thousand dollars.
"
"
The War in Iraq: Shotguns
The War in Iraq:: "American troops are testing a new 12 gauge automatic shotgun in Iraq. Weighing 10.5 pounds unloaded, the Auto Assault 12 (AA12) has a rate of fire of 360 rounds per minute, and uses either an 8-round box magazine (adding 12 ounces to weapon weight) or a 20 round drum magazine (adding 2.5 pounds). Recoil on the system has been reduced to that of a light rifle, due to a sophisticated recoil system. The low rate of fire makes it possible to easily fire bursts of one, two, or three shots and is capable of using and mixing all types of 12 gauge ammunition, from shot to solid slugs, as well as non-lethal rounds. Allegedly, Iraqi insurgents have little respect for the M4 rifle and the 5.56mm round, but they fear shotguns, especially a 'street sweeper' like the AA12.
If that's not enough of a firepower increase at the squad level, the Marine Corps is testing a family of 12 gauge shells designed to deliver blast, fragmentation, and high-explosive armored piercing projectiles out to 200 meters. The high-explosive armor piercing projectile uses a shaped charge that has been demonstrated to put a 1 inch hole in quarter-inch steel plate. A total of 100 projectiles have been bought for testing as well as some quantity for 'experimental use' in Iraq.
At first glance, packing an armor-piercing charge into a 12 gauge round sounds like overkill, but Iraqi terrorists are becoming increasingly sophisticated in fortifying themselves, vehicles, and fixed positions."
If that's not enough of a firepower increase at the squad level, the Marine Corps is testing a family of 12 gauge shells designed to deliver blast, fragmentation, and high-explosive armored piercing projectiles out to 200 meters. The high-explosive armor piercing projectile uses a shaped charge that has been demonstrated to put a 1 inch hole in quarter-inch steel plate. A total of 100 projectiles have been bought for testing as well as some quantity for 'experimental use' in Iraq.
At first glance, packing an armor-piercing charge into a 12 gauge round sounds like overkill, but Iraqi terrorists are becoming increasingly sophisticated in fortifying themselves, vehicles, and fixed positions."
Special Rifle Sights
The War in Iraq:: "The U.S. Marine Corps is equipping most of their M-16 and M-4 rifles with ACOG (Advanced Combat Optical Gunsight). This device, which does not use batteries, is a well designed scope that provides a red chevron-shaped reticle and bullet drop compensator. For daytime use, a fiber optic system collects available light for brightness and controlled contrast in the scope. At night, the system relies on tritium for illumination. The 4x32 sight allows you to get first round hits at 300 meter, or longer ranges. The sight also allows for better accuracy at closer ranges, with both eyes open. The manufacturer, Trijicon, has been making similar sights for years, and they are popular for police, hunting and military use. SOCOM has long used them, and many marines and soldiers have bought the civilian version of the ACOG with their own money. At a thousand bucks each, ACOG costs more than the rifle it’s mounted on, and the users consider it well worth the price.
"
"
Saturday, August 20, 2005
One Hand Clapping � Blog Archive � Words are powerful
One Hand Clapping � Blog Archive � Words are powerful: "A fanatic who straps a bomb to his chest and walks into a market crowded with women and children, then detonates a bomb that is sometimes laced with rat poison to hamper blood coagulation, is properly called a “mass murderer.” There is nothing good to say about mass murderers, nor is there anything good to say about a person who encourages these murders. Calling these human bomb delivery devices “suicide bombers” is simply incorrect. They are murderers. A person or media source defending or explaining away the actions of the murderers supports them. There is no wiggle room.
Calling homicide bombers martyrs is a language offense; words are every bit as powerful as bombs, often more so. Calling murderers “martyrs” is like calling a man “customer” because he stood in line before gunning down a store clerk. "
Calling homicide bombers martyrs is a language offense; words are every bit as powerful as bombs, often more so. Calling murderers “martyrs” is like calling a man “customer” because he stood in line before gunning down a store clerk. "
Friday, August 19, 2005
Free Iraqi
Free Iraqi: "had Iraq's neighbors been really cooperative it would be very difficult for Al Qaeda to maintain their efforts in the same magnitude or even closer. And it would be naive to think that such police states know nothing about fighters and cars loaded with bombs that travel thousands of miles and cross their lands to reach Iraq. Now most of the totalitarian regimes in the region are not friends with the terrorists and in fact terrorists have attacked those regimes occasionally while using their lands as a passage, but the bigger cause has forced them to cooperate in Iraq and form a sort of an unwritten contract that regulates this cooperation.
I say they know, they're facilitating it but they still want it to be controlled, i.e. they want to make sure that the people they're supporting -or even not doing anything against them- are not going to use this support to attack America because that would bring their end, and very fast."
I say they know, they're facilitating it but they still want it to be controlled, i.e. they want to make sure that the people they're supporting -or even not doing anything against them- are not going to use this support to attack America because that would bring their end, and very fast."
Free Iraqi
Free Iraqi: "if the war in Iraq is not part of the war on terror as some westerns think then why do we have almost all the terrorists in the world racing each other to achieve 'martyrdom' in our land? Why not Afghanistan, Israel or their ultimate enemies; the west and America in particular? Sure they have attacked Europe but is that the best they can do there? I really doubt it. The terrorists have shown us that they have people almost everywhere in the world that are waiting for an order to blow themselves up in a bus, a train or a street crowded with civilians. So why are they putting most of their resources in Iraq instead of the west?
It's amazing how the terrorists themselves keep showing us in words and actions how vital the war in Iraq is for them and at the same time we have westerns and Americans saying that this war has nothing to do with fighting terrorism and that it's only increasing the danger of terrorism!"
It's amazing how the terrorists themselves keep showing us in words and actions how vital the war in Iraq is for them and at the same time we have westerns and Americans saying that this war has nothing to do with fighting terrorism and that it's only increasing the danger of terrorism!"
Wednesday, August 17, 2005
Monday, August 15, 2005
Deaths in Iraq Lower than under Saddam
Deaths in Iraq: "The Iraqi government now believes that at least 12,000 Iraqi civilians have been killed during the last 18 months. In the last ten months, about 800 Iraqi civilians and police have been killed each month. Adding a bit more to account for unreported deaths (especially in Sunni Arab areas where chaos, not the government, runs things) the death rate is running at the rate of about 45 dead per 100,000 population per year. This is far higher than the usual rate in Middle Eastern countries (under 10). Well, most of the time. During civil wars and insurrections, the rate has spiked to over a hundred per 100,000, sometimes for several years in a row. During Saddam’s long reign, the Iraqi death rate from democide (the government killing its own people) averaged over 100 per 100,000 a year. This does not include the several hundred thousand killed during the war with Iran in the 1980s. There are other parts of the world that are more violent than Iraq. Africa, for example, especially Congo, Sudan and South Africa. Only South Africa has a sufficiently effective government to actually keep track of the death rate, mostly from crime, but it’s over 50 per 100,000. It’s worse in places like Congo and Sudan, but the numbers there are only estimates by peacekeepers and relief workers. In southern Thailand, a terror campaign by Islamic radicals has caused a death rate of over 80 per 100,000. "
Sunday, August 14, 2005
ChronWatch Reader Forum :: View topic - When it comes to Islam, ignorance is lethal:
ChronWatch Reader Forum :: View topic - When it comes to Islam, ignorance is lethal:: "
Mr. Jonathan Petre of Daily Telegraph did not tell the whole story. The truth is that most of those who convert to Islam, within months or a few years, realize they have been duped and leave Islam. Many of them rise with dedication and strive to eradicate his cult of lies and deception. I know hundreds of people who had converted to Islam but now have left it. Many of them started their own websites and weblogs and are exposing the ugly truth of Islam.
There are also millions of those who were born into Islam but now have left it. If Islamic apostasy can be called a movement, it is indeed the fastest growing movement today.
"
Mr. Jonathan Petre of Daily Telegraph did not tell the whole story. The truth is that most of those who convert to Islam, within months or a few years, realize they have been duped and leave Islam. Many of them rise with dedication and strive to eradicate his cult of lies and deception. I know hundreds of people who had converted to Islam but now have left it. Many of them started their own websites and weblogs and are exposing the ugly truth of Islam.
There are also millions of those who were born into Islam but now have left it. If Islamic apostasy can be called a movement, it is indeed the fastest growing movement today.
"
Friday, August 12, 2005
A Bomb?
The Bad Hair Blog: "A final thought,
Consider now what it must have sounded to anyone in 1945 the idea that, sixty years on, all the Axis powers would be true democracies.
Now ponder the possibilities in all the struggling democracies of today."
Consider now what it must have sounded to anyone in 1945 the idea that, sixty years on, all the Axis powers would be true democracies.
Now ponder the possibilities in all the struggling democracies of today."
United Press International�-�The Washington Times, America's Newspaper
United Press International�-�The Washington Times, America's Newspaper: "A controversial plan to embed radio frequency identification chips in license plates in the United Kingdom also may be coming to the United States, experts told UPI's Wireless World.
The so-called e-Plate, developed by the British firm Hills Numberplates, is a license plate that also transmits a vehicle's unique identification via encryption that can be read by a small detector, whose output can be used locally or communicated to a distant host. "
The so-called e-Plate, developed by the British firm Hills Numberplates, is a license plate that also transmits a vehicle's unique identification via encryption that can be read by a small detector, whose output can be used locally or communicated to a distant host. "
interesting!!
Chrenkoff: "Aussie jihadi - the story unfolds
Two days ago I reported on the story of a new terror tape aired by a Mid East TV channel, where a masked gunman harangues the West with an Australian accent. The story was true, but the direct quotes I used were not - some readers got the Crocodile Hunter/Crocodile Dundee jokes, some didn't.
Meanwhile, the story is developing:
Former army private Mathew Stewart has emerged as the chief suspect in the hunt for the masked terrorist with an Australian accent.
Stewart left home four years ago to fight alongside Osama bin Laden and has not been seen since.
Australian Federal Police officers immediately identified Stewart as the probable hooded figure who appeared in a terror video aired on Arab TV this week.
I'm eagerly awaiting now how Australian tabloids will christen our latest jihadi. Mat the Rat? Mudjahedin Mat? Al Qaeda Stew? Mooloolaba Muj? (Mooloolaba is a little town on the Sunshine Coast, 100 km north of Brisbane, where Stewart comes from).
The story how he got there is quite bizarre:
Private Mathew Stewart was patrolling the streets of Dili, East Timor, in 2002 when he was confronted with the full horror of live combat.
The quiet soldier and keen surfer from Queensland's Sunshine Coast stumbled upon the almost unrecognisable body of a Dutch journalist killed by militia.
Financial Times reporter Sander Thoenes, 30, had been shot in the chest and badly beaten. According to his comrades, Stewart was deeply traumatised by the discovery, his first encounter with death on the front line.
He was discharged from the army's 2nd Battalion Royal Australian Regiment for psychological reasons a short time later, sending him into a spiral of depression and self-doubt.
While other East Timor veterans looked for a change of lifestyle back home, Stewart began fixing his sights on the war unravelling in Afghanistan in the wake of the attacks on New York the previous year.
Furious at his perceived mistreatment in the Australian army, Stewart began making plans to fight for the other side.
It's ironic (in that grim sense of irony) that being traumatized by seeing a dead body would send a person on a sure path of seeing even more dead bodies, but it's doubly ironic that Private Stewart's turning point in life came in East Timor. It was the Australian intervention there in 2000 that guaranteed East Timor's transition to independence after a quarter of a century of a bloody Indonesian occupation costing 200,000 Timorese lives (a staggering one third of the entire population). Coincidentally, Australia's role in wrestling this small Catholic nation from under the domination of Muslim Indonesia has been cited by Osama bin Laden himself as one of the reason why Australia is now in Al Qaeda's sights.
I won't be surprised if there is more to this story, though, than just a traumatized and disgruntled ex-serviceman.
And if true, then it's yet another nail in the coffin of the intelligence community excuse that 'it was impossible to infiltrate Al Qaeda'. If an Australian soldier, with no apparent background in Islam, can walk off the street and sign himself up with the Terror Inc, then so could have any CIA infiltrator. Whether such asset inside Al Qaeda would have proven valuable in practice, particularly considering the risk of the mission, is another matter."
Two days ago I reported on the story of a new terror tape aired by a Mid East TV channel, where a masked gunman harangues the West with an Australian accent. The story was true, but the direct quotes I used were not - some readers got the Crocodile Hunter/Crocodile Dundee jokes, some didn't.
Meanwhile, the story is developing:
Former army private Mathew Stewart has emerged as the chief suspect in the hunt for the masked terrorist with an Australian accent.
Stewart left home four years ago to fight alongside Osama bin Laden and has not been seen since.
Australian Federal Police officers immediately identified Stewart as the probable hooded figure who appeared in a terror video aired on Arab TV this week.
I'm eagerly awaiting now how Australian tabloids will christen our latest jihadi. Mat the Rat? Mudjahedin Mat? Al Qaeda Stew? Mooloolaba Muj? (Mooloolaba is a little town on the Sunshine Coast, 100 km north of Brisbane, where Stewart comes from).
The story how he got there is quite bizarre:
Private Mathew Stewart was patrolling the streets of Dili, East Timor, in 2002 when he was confronted with the full horror of live combat.
The quiet soldier and keen surfer from Queensland's Sunshine Coast stumbled upon the almost unrecognisable body of a Dutch journalist killed by militia.
Financial Times reporter Sander Thoenes, 30, had been shot in the chest and badly beaten. According to his comrades, Stewart was deeply traumatised by the discovery, his first encounter with death on the front line.
He was discharged from the army's 2nd Battalion Royal Australian Regiment for psychological reasons a short time later, sending him into a spiral of depression and self-doubt.
While other East Timor veterans looked for a change of lifestyle back home, Stewart began fixing his sights on the war unravelling in Afghanistan in the wake of the attacks on New York the previous year.
Furious at his perceived mistreatment in the Australian army, Stewart began making plans to fight for the other side.
It's ironic (in that grim sense of irony) that being traumatized by seeing a dead body would send a person on a sure path of seeing even more dead bodies, but it's doubly ironic that Private Stewart's turning point in life came in East Timor. It was the Australian intervention there in 2000 that guaranteed East Timor's transition to independence after a quarter of a century of a bloody Indonesian occupation costing 200,000 Timorese lives (a staggering one third of the entire population). Coincidentally, Australia's role in wrestling this small Catholic nation from under the domination of Muslim Indonesia has been cited by Osama bin Laden himself as one of the reason why Australia is now in Al Qaeda's sights.
I won't be surprised if there is more to this story, though, than just a traumatized and disgruntled ex-serviceman.
And if true, then it's yet another nail in the coffin of the intelligence community excuse that 'it was impossible to infiltrate Al Qaeda'. If an Australian soldier, with no apparent background in Islam, can walk off the street and sign himself up with the Terror Inc, then so could have any CIA infiltrator. Whether such asset inside Al Qaeda would have proven valuable in practice, particularly considering the risk of the mission, is another matter."
: Out of Order ( The Saudi Military)
The New Republic Online: Out of Order: "a huge problem: the potential for factionalism within the Saudi military. Because different princes and their sons control various fighting forces, the possibility that armed units could become politicized in the near future looms large. Moreover, the institutional culture within these armed organizations is heavily influenced by Wahhabism--a dangerous situation for a kingdom in a state of political flux."
Wednesday, August 10, 2005
December 2002 Trading Tips Newsletter
December 2002 Trading Tips Newsletter: "Trading Rules 101
Many traders maintain and refine a set of Trading Rules that they attempt to follow. The rules are intended to encourage and remind traders to have some discipline, or to follow a trading system with exactness. A good set of Trading Rules will often prevent greed and plain stupidity from creeping into your trading. Almost any trader can identify a losing trade, and then say, 'If I had only followed my rules I wouldn't have had that losing trade'.
The following list of general Trading Rules is a compilation from many different sources. They are not in any particular order of importance. Many of the rules are common sense and you have heard them before. You may see a rule that you would like to add to your own Trading Rules list.
* Trade with the Trend.
* Cut your losses short, and let your gains run.
* Trade the Chart, not the Money.
* Don't chase the Market. Wait for a 2nd chance.
* Never buy because it seems too low. Never sell because it seems too high.
* Trade only symbols that have sufficient volume and liquidity.
* Never add to a losing position. Just get out and start over.
* When in doubt, get out, or stay out.
* Know where to exit a position before entering a trade.
* Never have an opinion about the market. Lose your opinion, not your money.
* Trade what you see, not what you believe.
* Think for yourself.
* Don't borrow money to invest.
* Don't trade tips.
* Focus on Trading, rather than on making Money.
* Avoid Impatience. You don't always have to be in the market. Wait for good trade opportunities.
* Always place a stop.
* Follow your Rules.
* Never 'Go for Broke'.
* Don't get sloppy after successful trades.
* Control your losses.
* If you wouldn't take the trade now, then don't stay in a current trade. Get Out.
* Don't trade without a plan.
* Lock-in profits.
* Move stops to a break-even (risk free) exit point as soon as possible.
* Focus on not-losing, more than winning.
* The trend is your friend."
Many traders maintain and refine a set of Trading Rules that they attempt to follow. The rules are intended to encourage and remind traders to have some discipline, or to follow a trading system with exactness. A good set of Trading Rules will often prevent greed and plain stupidity from creeping into your trading. Almost any trader can identify a losing trade, and then say, 'If I had only followed my rules I wouldn't have had that losing trade'.
The following list of general Trading Rules is a compilation from many different sources. They are not in any particular order of importance. Many of the rules are common sense and you have heard them before. You may see a rule that you would like to add to your own Trading Rules list.
* Trade with the Trend.
* Cut your losses short, and let your gains run.
* Trade the Chart, not the Money.
* Don't chase the Market. Wait for a 2nd chance.
* Never buy because it seems too low. Never sell because it seems too high.
* Trade only symbols that have sufficient volume and liquidity.
* Never add to a losing position. Just get out and start over.
* When in doubt, get out, or stay out.
* Know where to exit a position before entering a trade.
* Never have an opinion about the market. Lose your opinion, not your money.
* Trade what you see, not what you believe.
* Think for yourself.
* Don't borrow money to invest.
* Don't trade tips.
* Focus on Trading, rather than on making Money.
* Avoid Impatience. You don't always have to be in the market. Wait for good trade opportunities.
* Always place a stop.
* Follow your Rules.
* Never 'Go for Broke'.
* Don't get sloppy after successful trades.
* Control your losses.
* If you wouldn't take the trade now, then don't stay in a current trade. Get Out.
* Don't trade without a plan.
* Lock-in profits.
* Move stops to a break-even (risk free) exit point as soon as possible.
* Focus on not-losing, more than winning.
* The trend is your friend."
Saturday, August 06, 2005
Newsday.com: Insurgency continues targeting civilians
Newsday.com: Insurgency continues targeting civilians: "Even the bloodiest rebellions of modern times did not target civilians the way the insurgents have in Iraq. In Algeria, for example, rebels fighting against French colonial rule in the 1950s and '60s adopted a classic guerrilla tactic: They provoked the occupying troops to use excessive force and kill thousands of civilians. That prompted a public backlash and international condemnation of French actions. The French eventually withdrew from Algeria, after as many as 1 million people had been killed."
Thursday, August 04, 2005
Tuesday, August 02, 2005
365 and a Wakeup: Desert Creatures
365 and a Wakeup: Desert Creatures: "The sun has been pitiless these last few days, doubling and redoubling its radiant energy until everything stationary shimmers in its own invisible pyre. The sputtering coughs of wind that limp across the cracked soil lack any real force; it’s as if the temperatures have cowed the air into refusing to stir. In these temperatures nothing moves without purpose. The troops that have to move back and forth across the FOB move along deliberate paths, their heads slightly bowed in unconscious deference to the flashbulb brilliance.
Now that we are several weeks into this withering season our cycles of work and rest have come to mirror the desert creatures that creep and slither through this harsh land. As is so often the case, we’ve had to slowly relearn the lessons nature hardwired into the native wildlife. The biggest key to surviving the temperatures is to (surprise, surprise) avoid the sun. Our barracks serve the same purpose as the desert creatures underground haunts – they both offer reservoirs of chill air. The only difference is our concrete berths hum to the steady whir of overworked air conditioning units.
Soldiers who decide to be infantryman don't join for the luxurious acomodations. That doesn't make it any easier to leave the air conditioned barracks, but it does help muster the will to keep heading out those doors into the atmospheric inferno. The sun isn't the only cruel taskmaster, the sheer weight of our combat equipment more then doubles the misery index. The thick ballistic carapace that we all wear is a life saver, but on days like this it seems to be a karmic bank selling protection in exchange for hour after hour of broiling misery. When you are wearing slabs of ceramic armor evaporative cooling becomes impossible, the sweat just soaks through layer after layer until your uniform is a sodden, salt encrusted mess. It is a pain, but nobody really worries to much about coming away from a mission soaked. We have a lot more to worry about then how to leach salt from a uniform."
Now that we are several weeks into this withering season our cycles of work and rest have come to mirror the desert creatures that creep and slither through this harsh land. As is so often the case, we’ve had to slowly relearn the lessons nature hardwired into the native wildlife. The biggest key to surviving the temperatures is to (surprise, surprise) avoid the sun. Our barracks serve the same purpose as the desert creatures underground haunts – they both offer reservoirs of chill air. The only difference is our concrete berths hum to the steady whir of overworked air conditioning units.
Soldiers who decide to be infantryman don't join for the luxurious acomodations. That doesn't make it any easier to leave the air conditioned barracks, but it does help muster the will to keep heading out those doors into the atmospheric inferno. The sun isn't the only cruel taskmaster, the sheer weight of our combat equipment more then doubles the misery index. The thick ballistic carapace that we all wear is a life saver, but on days like this it seems to be a karmic bank selling protection in exchange for hour after hour of broiling misery. When you are wearing slabs of ceramic armor evaporative cooling becomes impossible, the sweat just soaks through layer after layer until your uniform is a sodden, salt encrusted mess. It is a pain, but nobody really worries to much about coming away from a mission soaked. We have a lot more to worry about then how to leach salt from a uniform."
2Slick's Forum: To Paradise and Back Again
2Slick's Forum: To Paradise and Back Again: "Let's tee up a big screaming match about whether a high official of the White House committed a crime by breaching security in a dust-up over terrorists like Saddam Hussein and Usama bin Laden.
No, I'm not talking about Karl Rove. I'm talking about Sandy Berger stuffing secrets into his socks so the 9/11 Commission wouldn't be able to see what he and Bill Clinton were really thinking and saying and doing about Usama bin Laden.
Let's see now, what happened when Berger got caught with the secrets in his socks?
Hmmm. Did we hear the Democratic senators and congressmen wailing about breaking national security? No, we did not."
No, I'm not talking about Karl Rove. I'm talking about Sandy Berger stuffing secrets into his socks so the 9/11 Commission wouldn't be able to see what he and Bill Clinton were really thinking and saying and doing about Usama bin Laden.
Let's see now, what happened when Berger got caught with the secrets in his socks?
Hmmm. Did we hear the Democratic senators and congressmen wailing about breaking national security? No, we did not."
Sunday, July 31, 2005
normblog: So why...?
normblog: So why...?: "There are 250,000 Iraqis living in Great Britain - that's quarter of a million people, one of the biggest communities in Iraqi diaspora, and just under one sixth of the total British Muslim population of some 1.6 million.
So why, among the original 7/7 bombers, the next lot of recently captured bombers, and all the other people arrested in connection with the attacks, aren't there any British Iraqis?"
So why, among the original 7/7 bombers, the next lot of recently captured bombers, and all the other people arrested in connection with the attacks, aren't there any British Iraqis?"
Our extreme makeover
Our extreme makeover: "Favorable impressions of the U.S. are being detected around the world, including inside Muslim countries."
Read this from LA Times!
Read this from LA Times!
Iraqi Bloggers Central whence terrorism
Iraqi Bloggers Central: "Troubles have spread from the Middle East to get on planes and hit targets in New York, and wore explosive belts to blow up trains in Madrid and London and some have even went as far as hitting targets Indonesia.
The reasons (and theories) that explain the spreading (or export) of these troubles may vary; some say that the West's policy toward Israel is what inflamed the situation.
Ironically, the same people who adopted this theory a few years ago now say that war in Iraqis the main reason.
But I do believe that dictatorships are the main reason; the Arab regimes didn't accept Israel as a neighbor, of course not because they care about the Palestinians and their interests as everyone knows how Palestinians are treated in Arab countries and how many thousands on them were killed in Jordan and Lebanon and perhaps Arabs killed more Palestinians than the Israelis did.
Obviously, Arab regimes and leaders didn't like Israel because it's a democratic state and its presence in the region can threaten their thrones.
Actually I think that Arabs who live inside Israel and the Joulan heights know this better than I do and I don't think they'd like to replace their Israeli passports with passports from any Arab country; they know the difference and even people living inside Arab countries began to see the difference after the revolution in communications and news flow.
"
The reasons (and theories) that explain the spreading (or export) of these troubles may vary; some say that the West's policy toward Israel is what inflamed the situation.
Ironically, the same people who adopted this theory a few years ago now say that war in Iraqis the main reason.
But I do believe that dictatorships are the main reason; the Arab regimes didn't accept Israel as a neighbor, of course not because they care about the Palestinians and their interests as everyone knows how Palestinians are treated in Arab countries and how many thousands on them were killed in Jordan and Lebanon and perhaps Arabs killed more Palestinians than the Israelis did.
Obviously, Arab regimes and leaders didn't like Israel because it's a democratic state and its presence in the region can threaten their thrones.
Actually I think that Arabs who live inside Israel and the Joulan heights know this better than I do and I don't think they'd like to replace their Israeli passports with passports from any Arab country; they know the difference and even people living inside Arab countries began to see the difference after the revolution in communications and news flow.
"
Sunday, July 24, 2005
No Left Turns Archive
No Left Turns Archive: "Here is what Churchill said, in its entirety about the horrific battle to wrest the Sudan from the jihadists of the 19th century:
How dreadful are the curses which Mohammedanism lays on its votaries! Besides the fanatical frenzy, which is as dangerous in a man as hydrophobia in a dog, there is this fearful fatalistic apathy. The effects are apparent in many countries. Improvident habits, slovenly systems of agriculture, sluggish methods of commerce, and insecurity of property exist wherever the followers of the Prophet rule or live. A degraded sensualism deprives this life of its grace and refinement; the next of its dignity and sanctity. The fact that in Mohammedan law every woman must belong to some man as his absolute property, either as a child, a wife, or a concubine, must delay the final extinction of slavery until the faith of Islam has ceased to be a great power among men. Individual Moslems may show splendid qualities - but the influence of the religion paralyses the social development of those who follow it. No stronger retrograde force exists in the world. Far from being moribund, Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytizing faith. It has already spread throughout Central Africa, raising fearless warriors at every step; and were it not that Christianity is sheltered in the strong arms of science, the science against which it had vainly struggled, the civilisation of modern Europe might fall, as fell the civilisation of ancient Rome.
—Sir Winston Churchill, from The River War,"
How dreadful are the curses which Mohammedanism lays on its votaries! Besides the fanatical frenzy, which is as dangerous in a man as hydrophobia in a dog, there is this fearful fatalistic apathy. The effects are apparent in many countries. Improvident habits, slovenly systems of agriculture, sluggish methods of commerce, and insecurity of property exist wherever the followers of the Prophet rule or live. A degraded sensualism deprives this life of its grace and refinement; the next of its dignity and sanctity. The fact that in Mohammedan law every woman must belong to some man as his absolute property, either as a child, a wife, or a concubine, must delay the final extinction of slavery until the faith of Islam has ceased to be a great power among men. Individual Moslems may show splendid qualities - but the influence of the religion paralyses the social development of those who follow it. No stronger retrograde force exists in the world. Far from being moribund, Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytizing faith. It has already spread throughout Central Africa, raising fearless warriors at every step; and were it not that Christianity is sheltered in the strong arms of science, the science against which it had vainly struggled, the civilisation of modern Europe might fall, as fell the civilisation of ancient Rome.
—Sir Winston Churchill, from The River War,"
Saturday, July 23, 2005
On London Bombing
Iraqi Letters: "These people have found the ultimate weapon and the ultimate motivation. How can you defend yourself against people who are so bitter and angry that they are not only prepared to die in the process of killing you… but actually look forward to it? The vehicle? Faith! For these people, Faith has been effectively used to stun their own self-preservation mechanisms. Add to that the fact that there are numerous other people who are not willing to die themselves, but nevertheless equally angry to the extent that they are prepared to assist in whatever financial or logistical way that they can.
Frankly I do not see much difference between those people and the people who bomb cities full of innocent people. In fact the latter group is worse… because they are acting in that violently criminal manner from outside that ‘pit of despair’.
"
Frankly I do not see much difference between those people and the people who bomb cities full of innocent people. In fact the latter group is worse… because they are acting in that violently criminal manner from outside that ‘pit of despair’.
"
Monday, July 18, 2005
Sunday, July 17, 2005
Iraqi Bloggers Central
Iraqi Bloggers Central: "
Over at Trey Jackson you can watch a video of a Muslim fanatic in Baghdad shooting an American soldier from seventy-five yards. The Muslim jihadi is repeating over and over 'Allahu Akbar' as he pulls the trigger. The American soldier takes a bullet in the chest and goes down. He was, however, wearing a bullet-proof vest and he pops right back up and gets behind his Hummer.
The video that the Jihadis were taking goes black because the American soldiers locate the fricking idiots hiding in a van and wound the guy who had been chanting 'Allahu Akbar.'
The American soldier who was shot, Army Pfc. Stephen Tschiderer, it turns out, was a medic and he ended up treating the SCUMBAG who fired at him.
The video is very crisp and makes my blood run cold."
Over at Trey Jackson you can watch a video of a Muslim fanatic in Baghdad shooting an American soldier from seventy-five yards. The Muslim jihadi is repeating over and over 'Allahu Akbar' as he pulls the trigger. The American soldier takes a bullet in the chest and goes down. He was, however, wearing a bullet-proof vest and he pops right back up and gets behind his Hummer.
The video that the Jihadis were taking goes black because the American soldiers locate the fricking idiots hiding in a van and wound the guy who had been chanting 'Allahu Akbar.'
The American soldier who was shot, Army Pfc. Stephen Tschiderer, it turns out, was a medic and he ended up treating the SCUMBAG who fired at him.
The video is very crisp and makes my blood run cold."
Friday, July 15, 2005
Iraqi Blogger Testamony
Iraqi Bloggers Central: "I think many Iraqis know that Americans support them but not most and there's still a lot that Iraqis don't know. I feel lucky because I have this blog and because I can read English as it has shown me things I could never have known through our media. I never imagined Americans support and care about Iraqis this much before I started blogging. I thought they did but not this much and I feel I know Americans much more now and love them much more as well. More Iraqis need to see what I and other luckier Iraqis have and are seeing." here
Daily Pundit Individual Archive
Daily Pundit Individual Archive: "Texas federal Judge Janis Graham Jack is a former nurse who wondered how Silicosis, which causes just 200 deaths a year in the US, had suddenly created more than 20,000 claims against 250 companies. To find out, Judge Jack held 20 months of pretrial proceedings. In its subscriber-only article, the Wall Street Journal reports that “what she found was a gigantic attempted swindle:”"Read the whole thing here:
Thursday, July 14, 2005
WorldNetDaily: Al-Qaida nukes already in U.S.
WorldNetDaily: Al-Qaida nukes already in U.S.: "But the most disturbing news is that high level U.S. officials now believe at least some of those weapons have been smuggled into the U.S. for use in the near future in major cities as part of this 'American Hiroshima' plan, according to an upcoming book, 'The Al Qaeda Connection: International Terrorism, Organized Crime and the Coming Apocalypse,' by Paul L. Williams, a former FBI consultant.
According to Williams, former CIA Director George Tenet informed President Bush one month after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks that at least two suitcase nukes had reached al-Qaida operatives in the U.S.
'Each suitcase weighed between 50 and 80 kilograms (approximately 110 to 176 pounds) and contained enough fissionable plutonium and uranium to produce an explosive yield in excess of two kilotons,"
According to Williams, former CIA Director George Tenet informed President Bush one month after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks that at least two suitcase nukes had reached al-Qaida operatives in the U.S.
'Each suitcase weighed between 50 and 80 kilograms (approximately 110 to 176 pounds) and contained enough fissionable plutonium and uranium to produce an explosive yield in excess of two kilotons,"
Melanie Phillips's Articles
Melanie Phillips's Articles: "Whether this represents a hijacking of the religion is matter for theological dispute. But the fact is that it has not been challenged by any leading Islamic religious authority; indeed, they have endorsed it."
Friday, July 08, 2005
VDH's Private Papers::The Same Old, Same Old
VDH's Private Papers::The Same Old, Same Old: "In the short term, Bush and Blair will appear as islands in the storm amid an angry and anguished public. But as 7/7 fades, as did 9/11, expect them to become even more unpopular, as the voices of appeasement assure us that if they just go away, maybe so will the terrorists.
It is our task, each of us according to our station, to speak the truth to all these falsehoods, and remember that we did not inherit a wonderful civilization just to lose it to the Dark Ages.
�2005 Victor Davis Hanson"
It is our task, each of us according to our station, to speak the truth to all these falsehoods, and remember that we did not inherit a wonderful civilization just to lose it to the Dark Ages.
�2005 Victor Davis Hanson"
One Hand Clapping � Blog Archive � BBC gets with the program
One Hand Clapping � Blog Archive � BBC gets with the programI await renewed calls from certain quarters to set an “exit strategy” and a “timetable.” Note well, though: al Qaeda has no exit strategy but victory or death, and no timetable except to kill us as soon and as often as possible.
Wednesday, July 06, 2005
Tuesday, July 05, 2005
Monday, July 04, 2005
Political Notio: Happy Birthday America
Political Notio: Happy Birthday America: "Happy Birthday America
We Americans like to think that freedom everywhere is because of us. Sure it’s an unrealistic way of thinking, but it’s not entirely untrue either. Since the end of WWII Americans have been taught that they did no less than save the world. The effects of that Second Great War, however, did no less than create this modern world.
It is hard to acknowledge the birth of America without mentioning Europe. Likewise, it’s hard to mention the imperialistic spread of freedom throughout Europe without acknowledging America. The thought of that same spread of freedom that used to inspire people to tear down giant walls with nothing more than hammers; or to stand unrelenting in front of oncoming tanks; or to cross vast bodies of water on overcrowded ships, nowadays makes most people squirm with aversion. Why such a change?
229 years ago this country was born with the belief that all men are created equal. We all know those words meant land owning white men and nothing less. Look where we are today. This republic of ours, as imperfect as it has always been, was designed with nothing more than a dream, but it was a dream with so much promise. Jefferson first coined that dream in the Declaration of Independence. It’s a dream that has not relinquished to this very day.
For the fourth Independence Day in a row America is at war. It’s not the first time that this has happened and it probably won’t be the last. Yet this dream that freedom is a birthright has been borrowed the world over. To think that people everywhere if given the choice would not want to rule themselves is probably as incorrect as to think that democracy imposed from the outside is also a value of that dream. To dream small with the American Dream is as wrong as dreaming too big.
America has been the lone pillar of promoting the democratic rule of people in this world. Despite all those who claim that this new form of “imperialism” is as wrong as the centuries worth of European colonialism, please name one country that has guaranteed democracy to so many people more than America has. Our grandest examples are Europe and Japan. Those are the standard at which all other American interventions are measured. As unfair as that might be, it is nevertheless the American standard.
Today the people of Iraq want to dream too. The dream that shook off our own chains of tyranny is now in Iraq waiting for the moment of calm so that they all may rest and finally dream.
Michael Ignatieff, in his essay “Who Are Americans to Think That Freedom Is Theirs to Spread?,” says it as clear as possible: “Who else is available to sponsor liberty in the Middle East but America? Certainly the Europeans themselves have not done a very distinguished job defending freedom close to home.”
It was our soldiers then too in Europe who fought and died to defend freedom “for strangers.” It is our soldiers today that fight and die in Iraq to defend freedom for a different set of strangers. “There is nothing worse than believing your son or daughter, brother or sister, father or mother died in vain. Even those who have opposed the Iraq war all along, who believe that the hope of planting democracy has lured America into a criminal folly, do not want to tell those who have died that they have given their lives for nothing. This is where Jefferson’s dream must work.”
Happy Birthday America. And thank you to all our men and women in uniform, you have dreamed more than any of us. Never, ever quit dreaming."
We Americans like to think that freedom everywhere is because of us. Sure it’s an unrealistic way of thinking, but it’s not entirely untrue either. Since the end of WWII Americans have been taught that they did no less than save the world. The effects of that Second Great War, however, did no less than create this modern world.
It is hard to acknowledge the birth of America without mentioning Europe. Likewise, it’s hard to mention the imperialistic spread of freedom throughout Europe without acknowledging America. The thought of that same spread of freedom that used to inspire people to tear down giant walls with nothing more than hammers; or to stand unrelenting in front of oncoming tanks; or to cross vast bodies of water on overcrowded ships, nowadays makes most people squirm with aversion. Why such a change?
229 years ago this country was born with the belief that all men are created equal. We all know those words meant land owning white men and nothing less. Look where we are today. This republic of ours, as imperfect as it has always been, was designed with nothing more than a dream, but it was a dream with so much promise. Jefferson first coined that dream in the Declaration of Independence. It’s a dream that has not relinquished to this very day.
For the fourth Independence Day in a row America is at war. It’s not the first time that this has happened and it probably won’t be the last. Yet this dream that freedom is a birthright has been borrowed the world over. To think that people everywhere if given the choice would not want to rule themselves is probably as incorrect as to think that democracy imposed from the outside is also a value of that dream. To dream small with the American Dream is as wrong as dreaming too big.
America has been the lone pillar of promoting the democratic rule of people in this world. Despite all those who claim that this new form of “imperialism” is as wrong as the centuries worth of European colonialism, please name one country that has guaranteed democracy to so many people more than America has. Our grandest examples are Europe and Japan. Those are the standard at which all other American interventions are measured. As unfair as that might be, it is nevertheless the American standard.
Today the people of Iraq want to dream too. The dream that shook off our own chains of tyranny is now in Iraq waiting for the moment of calm so that they all may rest and finally dream.
Michael Ignatieff, in his essay “Who Are Americans to Think That Freedom Is Theirs to Spread?,” says it as clear as possible: “Who else is available to sponsor liberty in the Middle East but America? Certainly the Europeans themselves have not done a very distinguished job defending freedom close to home.”
It was our soldiers then too in Europe who fought and died to defend freedom “for strangers.” It is our soldiers today that fight and die in Iraq to defend freedom for a different set of strangers. “There is nothing worse than believing your son or daughter, brother or sister, father or mother died in vain. Even those who have opposed the Iraq war all along, who believe that the hope of planting democracy has lured America into a criminal folly, do not want to tell those who have died that they have given their lives for nothing. This is where Jefferson’s dream must work.”
Happy Birthday America. And thank you to all our men and women in uniform, you have dreamed more than any of us. Never, ever quit dreaming."
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