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Retirement, I discovered in 2006, is good, if you keep busy. Set goals and meet them. Finish what you start. So far, I'm only procrastinating about as much as usual. Here's to 2007--good health and good accomplishments, an end to the Texas drought, and success in the Long War!
On a muddy Nashville football field, the Titans failed to make it seven in a row and went down to the New England Patriots 40-23, ending their Cinderella roll. CBS's last shot of Vince was him on the bench with his face in his hands. He had a good season for an NFL rookie. It just wasn't enough.
UPDATE The sheep of the Associated Press ganged up on him, claiming he played that game "like a rookie," except he didn't to my eyes. His receivers dropped too many. His offensive line couldn't protect him. It's a team game. He inspires, no doubt, alone, but he can't win alone, or lose alone either. He'll have an outstanding 2007. Go get 'em Vince!
If you're not feeling profound, the Fat Guy has the last word on the recent spate of celebrity kickoffs:
"Weird old week for the Grim Reaper — James Brown, Gerald Ford, and Saddam Hussein. If I were Death, I’d just want to go home, take a long shower, and have a big old bourbon rocks in front of some crappy action movie after that trio."
Read. It. All.
Sure they want our consumer goods, our superior health care, even our minimum wage. But did you ever wonder exactly what could be at the backs of all the illegal but otherwise proud Mexicans who swarm across the US border? I mean the driving force of the poverty in Mexico, and why Mexican politicians seem so inept at resolving it?
Well, here's a clue. PEMEX, the government-owned oil company, and what it's done over the years via Mark in Mexico:
"Pemex money kept the PRI in power in Mexico for 52 years (and skimming foreign oil companies' money for 23 years before that). Pemex money paid for political campaigns, federal, state and local. Pemex money bought votes by the tens of millions and probably hundreds of millions over time. Pemex money bought mansions in Mexico City, beach homes on the Mexican and California coasts, villas in Europe and plantations from the Caribbean to Pago Pago. Pemex money financed high level political murders, the machine-gunning of protesting students and massacres of campesinos from Tijuana to San Cristobal de las Casas."
Just consider what PEMEX does to the environment. Mark has pix and details.
If you've ever played Halo, you'll recognize the terrain, the costumes and the weaponry in this video. But the audio is straight out of TNN Outdoors. And check out the Sandmaster foolproof lulu game call. Best bet: don't have soda or any other liquid in your mouth when you click the play switch. You don't want to ruin your keyboard.
Via Blackfive
A closeup of the stars in the Belt of Orion the Hunter, my favorite constellation, and the only good thing about winter (for me), except for the fact that in Texas, at least, winter is rarely longer than six weeks. The worst part is in January, which is about to begin. Oh, well, it's short./ NASA.
In less than two hours we'll start to find out if Texas QB Colt McCoy really is recovered from his nerve injuries and can play, once again, like the Big 12 freshman of the year. Not that Iowa is expected to present much of a challenge, but if Colt really isn't well, or worse yet, gets injured yet again, not only could the Horns lose the Alamo Bowl, but their 2007 season would be in serious doubt. Mainly because, as sportswriter Kirk Bohls says in the Austin daily, coach Mack Brown so mishandled backup QB Jevan Snead that Snead transferred to Mississippi and won't be available today or next year. So a lot is riding on the game that starts at 3:30 p.m. CST. Alas we do not get ESPN here at the Rancho, so will be listening in on the Longhorns Radio Network, instead.
End of 1st Quarter: Iowa winning 14-3. McCoy seems okay but the offense is not clicking and the defense, as usual this season, is having trouble stopping the pass.
At the Half: It's Iowa 14, Texas 10. McCoy doing better, with a touchdown pass late in the second quarter, and the defense is doing better, forcing punts, and an Aaron Ross interception set up the drive for the touchdown. But Iowa's got a hot offense, so it's still a ballgame.
End of 3rd Quarter: Iowa 21, Texas 20. Texas came out sacking Iowa QB Drew Tate, and McCoy steadily improving. Texas got a field goal, and then a touchdown (Colt tying the NCAA touchdown record for a freshman), but Iowa fought back and leads by one point.
Final score: Texas 26, Iowa 24. Texas gets a 10 win season for the sixth time in a row, a record of some sort. Colt didn't break the NCAA record for a freshman, but he's apparently back in good form and 2007 should be a good season!
A fitting epitaph by Mohammed at Iraq the Model:
"On this day as we celebrate justice we shall not forget to pray for blessings for the souls of the dictator's victims and we shall not forget to thank our brothers in America and the rest of the coalition nations who helped us and are still helping us in our struggle to build the new free and democratic Iraq."
Read it all.
Tonight's the night, roughly between 8:30 and 9:00 p.m. CST. The mass murderer joins his rapacious sons in hell. Hangman, set your knot.
UPDATE It's over. Happened close to 9 p.m. CST, near as I can figure out from the various reports, including this one. Good riddance. Through the wonder (?) of the Internet, here's a (not especially gruesome) cell phone video of Sammy taking the fall. Youtube may not leave it up too long. It showed that the knot didn't seem to be set too close to his left ear, as if maybe the executioner wasn't too concerned about breaking his neck quickly. But the last scene suggests, by the tilt of his head, that it worked correctly after all. So he got off easier than some of his victims.
From the Texas State Historical Association:
"On this day in 1845, the United States Congress voted to annex Texas. Statehood was first proposed in 1837, but was rejected by President Martin Van Buren. Constitutional scruples and fear of war with Mexico were the reasons given for the rejection, but antislavery sentiment in the United States undoubtedly influenced Van Buren and continued to be the chief obstacle to annexation. Under President James Polk the United States Congress passed the Annexation Resolution in February 1845. Texas president Anson Jones called the Texas Congress into session on June 16, 1845, and a convention of elected delegates met on the Fourth of July. Both the Texas Congress and the convention voted for annexation, and a constitution was drawn up. The document was ratified by popular vote in October 1845 and accepted by the United States Congress on December 29, 1845. On February 19, 1846, President Jones of the Republic of Texas handed over control of the new state government to Governor James Pinckney Henderson."
More at The Handbook of Texas Online.
Here's one congressman who didn't go visit Baby Assad, but came back from a Middle East trip sobered anyway.
"While we are naturally focused on Iraq, a larger war is emerging. On one side are extremists and terrorists led and sponsored by Iran, on the other moderates and democrats supported by the United States."
Joe Lieberman in the WaPo is worth a read. He supports more troops to secure Baghdad and Anbar. But what, really, is to prevent the enemy from just waiting until we leave to resume? Possibly a combination of their invigorated army, plus a stronger government to support them. The question, in my mind, is do we really have any choice but to press on?
Looking at the hydrologic data of the Lower Colorado River Authority's river operations center at this time of the morning, you can see that Central Texas has had precious little so far of the rain we were promised through tonight--only about a quarter of an inch at one gauge on the Llano River, the same on the San Saba, with almost a third of an inch on the Cherokee but not even a tenth of an inch so far on the Pedernales River. These are readings from automated gauges northwest of Austin in the Colorado River watershed, one of the best ways of gathering intelligence about how a rain event is shaping up. You have to choose a display at the link and "rainfall--since midnight" is the best in this situation. National Weather Service says severe storms possible as the day wears on, so may have shut down the 'puter at the Rancho off and on. But when you're in the midst of a bad drought, that's not much of an annoyance.
UPDATE At 1 p.m., meteorologist Troy Kimmel says we're under a tornado watch until 8 p.m. Then it was extended until 2 a.m. But, by midnight, 2 inches seemed to be the highest total rain for the Austin area. Not much, really, but we'll take it.
My unwitting use of a more-than-a-year-old Iraq email, posted at The Corner yesterday without a clue to its antiquity and still not explained as of this writing, reminded me that the best sources for news on what's going on in Iraq and elsewhere still are the active-duty military bloggers, either on the scene or temporarily at home and waiting to go back.
One of the best in the former category is Badgers Forward which, as Badger 6, the blogger himself says, trys to buck up morale at home. He posts this quote from veteran milblogger Michael Yon, who is newly returned to Iraq as a private journalist, which sums up the problem rather well:
"This war is strange. I never hear soldiers worried about their own morale sagging. Contrary, the war-fighters here are more concerned to bolster the morale of the people at home. The morale at war is higher than I have ever seen it at home; makes me wonder what they know that most Americans seem to be missing."
Probably because the soldiers ignore CNN and the networks and don't read the-sky-is-falling stuff purveyed by the MSM. So read the milblogs, folks. They're the best source. When their writers get down, it's time to worry, but only then.
The Jack-and-the-beanstalk technology--it ain't rocket science--looks to advance by the so-far-unscheduled-but-planned games next fall, according to email from the Spaceward Foundation:
"In 2007, we expect to have real racing going on, with multiple teams achieving the minimum required speed and competing on the amount of payload [Jack] they carry. We're also considering, if we can raise the funds for it, a two ribbon, no payload, head-to-head race. This will not carry the $500,000 prize purse (since speed alone is not the ultimate requirement) but will provide another opportunity for bragging rights and photo-ops.
"In tether [Beanstalk] land, we don't have grand announcements or plans, except for that oh-so-good feeling that we will probably give away the prize money this year. While the tether competition is not quite as spectacular as the power beaming competition, we all know what awarding the prize money here means - we have placed the bar so that it will take a new tether material technology to claim the prize."
As always, worth a look.
Some of that work the astronauts of STS 116 were doing last week, installing structural trusses and rewiring the International Space Station/ NASA
Lower Colorado River Authority meteorologist Bob Rose says the jetstream is turning south and we may finally begin to get some of the rain the El Nino oscillation has been promising since Turkey Day.
"The latest forecast solutions call for a storm system to move across northwestern Texas (today) and Friday, followed by another storm system about next Wednesday and Thursday.
"Yet another storm system is forecast to move across Texas around January 7th and 8th. Each of these storms systems is expected to bring at least some rain to our region, but due to their progressive nature, none appear to be excessively wet."
John Kerry's fact-finding trip to Iraq apparently was less than pleasant. But he could get the last laugh.
UPDATE The Liberal blogs, led by TPM Muckraker, went ballistic over a photo at the "less" link above. Then Kerry's aide also fought back but, in the end, the annonymous staff officer Ben of Mesopotamia declared it a draw and I agree. It's pretty obvious that many troops despise Kerry, for a variety of reasons. Not all of them, of course, and BoM was generously evenhanded to him in the "less" link. Far more than I would have bothered to be.
They're having a crime wave. They're having a crime wave. Or something. Not the greatest place for a holiday vacation, unless you go armed. But that, unless it's a .22, would be illegal. Mark in Mexico has the details:
"AK-47's, AR-15's, .45, .38 spl and .357 magnum weapons were utilized to gun down 17 people across the country on Christmas Eve, most in Sinaloa and Michoacan. There were also two fragmentation grenades tossed into a bar in Acapulco, only one of which exploded, leaving 11 wounded. One of the wounded, a 30 year old woman, is hospitalized in critical condition."
The drug and kidnaping gangs down there make al Q look like amateurs.
I must admit, at first I didn't see what the complaint was when LGF and a few others went off on what seemed to me to be this fairly innocuous Associated Press lede on a slow news day:
"The U.S. military announced the deaths of seven American soldiers Tuesday, raising the U.S. death toll since the beginning of the Iraq war to at least 2,978 — five more than the number of people killed in the Sept. 11 attacks in the U.S."
Just another in the MSM's relentless focus on the grim and bloody, I thought. But Meryl Yourish helped put it in perspective for me by rewriting it this way as if it was during World War II:
"Earlier Tuesday, the military also announced the deaths on Monday of three American soldiers. The U.S. military death toll [rose] to at least 2,978, 575 more than the number killed in the Dec. [7], 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor."
Makes little sense that way, unless you are complaining about the reason for the war itself.
Have you watched "It's A Wonderful Life" yet this week? Me neither, and I wasn't going to before I read this good piece on the movie, with a link to another good piece on the movie in the LATimes. Try both, like I did, and you might start searching through the DVDs for that copy you should have. And if you don't have one, Barnes & Noble might be able to rush it to you by Saturday or sooner.
Not the gloom and doom narrative you find in the MSM, in fact rather opposed to their view:
"[M]orale among our guys is very high. They not only believe that they are winning, but that they are winning decisively. They are stunned and dismayed by what they see in the American press, whom they almost universally view as against them. The embedded reporters are despised and distrusted."
Interesting look at the overall tactical situation in Iraq by Cliff May at The Corner at the conservative National Review Online--a magazine few media subscribe to, altho they all get The [liberal] Nation. Worth a read.
UPDATE Well I was fooled and I don't appreciate it one bit. I have emailed The Corner to see what they have to say about this, although I don't see any effort on their part to claim it is new, when it is more than a year old, but they didn't point out that it was old, either. Thanks a bunch, NRO.
Three wounded soldiers: First Lieutenant Ross Stadklev, Private First Class Stephen Hopkins and Specialist Bruce Dunlap whose stories and photos are moving reminders of what's going on over there while we gorge and otherwise chill. All three will be receiving voice-activated laptops from Valour-IT, but their Walter Reed addresses are included in the piece where you can send a card or a letter.
Via, who else, Black Five
An old joke but a good one from Snoopy the Goon. Sometimes you have to go all the way to Israel for a good cowboy joke.
Give a thought and a prayer for Alan Sullivan, the seablogger at Fresh Bilge, who is struggling to win a second remission from cancer. Meanwhile, stop by and read his eclectic thoughts between bouts of applying fresh varnish to his oceangoing home.
"Everyone bemoans the commercialization of Christmas but no one does anything about it, as Mark Twain famously didn’t say."
So Akaky Bashmachkin, of the Passing Parade, proposes a solution: instead of Xmas every year, how about making it every five years? Works for me, although Mom and Mr. Boy, the Christmas-addicted here at the Rancho, might strenously object.
Knee-deep in torn wrapping paper, the only sound at the Rancho is Mr. B.'s delighted chatter about such as his new Lego X-wing fighter, his Leapster math games, and his Nerf-ball target set. Since he got us up at 6:30 this morning, and although the sun is out for the first time in several days, the wind is gusting to 20 mph, so Mom and Dad are taking it slow and easy. Later, at supper, the sound of popping Christmas crackers. I got the orange crown.
Omar at Iraq the Model has an interesting analysis of an article on Iraqi newspapers by former CNN editor Eason Jordan's new Web venture IraqSlogger which claims the papers "sanitize their coverage" and are otherwise irrelevant. But Omar points out a number of mistaken conclusions, caused by a lack of understanding of the language and culture and trying to write from the U.S. instead of on the ground in Iraq:
"If the Slogger team wants to offer analysis or become a better alternative for whatever other sources of Iraq news, they ought to try better than this. Because if they keep writing like this, their site will soon be regarded as just one new waste of bandwidth, the same way that flipping channels looking for the whole image can be a waste of time."
Given Jordan's biased and scandalous tenure with CNN (including sucking up to Saddam before he was deposed), screwing up would seem to be a normal part of his schtick.
Does it ever. Tennesee Titans over Buffalo Bills 30-29 in a wild, seesaw shootout. Former Texas QB Vince Young threw two touchdowns and ran 39 yards for another one--enough to raise his rushing yardage for the season to set an NFL record for a rookie QB. Tennessee had some great plays called back for penalties. Too many face masks and personal fouls. Without them, they might have won comfortably, instead of by just one point. But I'm sure they'll take it.
This gives a better idea of how low Lake Travis is these days. This ditch (about half a mile south of the previous photo) was a tributary off Cypress Arm before the drought and those sheltered swim platforms at the bottom used to float near the shore. The whole lake-reservoir, of course, used to look like this (albeit without any water) before Mansfield Dam was erected in the early 1940s stoppering the Colorado River--the Texas Colorado, not the more famous one--to create the lake. We have had a bit more than 1.5 inches of rain at the Rancho in the past 24 hours, the best rainfall in several months. But it will take a lot more in the lake's watershed (principally the Llano and Pedernales rivers) to bring the lake back up to normal.
Here at the Rancho we celebrate both Hannuka and Christmas, and so Mr. Boy has a busy month of anticipation. We started with the candles and reading and telling and explaining the Maccabee story, which he always has questions about. Then, concurrently, we moved on to buying the tree, decorating it, wrapping packages and waiting for the mailman to bring more. Lately Mr. B.'s idea of fun has been to lie on the rug beside the packages under the tree and dream out loud about what might be in them, and what Santa might be willing to add to the anticipated pile of loot. We still credit Santa with largess around here, although I believe we are on the tipping point, as they say, of knowing better. It's a blessing, meanwhile, that the suspense finally is reaching a crescendo--especally as it is cold and rainy outside and there's very little to do except wait for tomorrow morning to arrive.
Israeli cartoonist Yaakov Kirschen laments the transformation of Jesus' birthplace as Christians flee Muslim control:
"Sadly, after the Palestinian takeover of Bethlehem there was no room for a Jewish visitor. Apparently there's not much room left for the Christians either. The Christian population has dropped from 85 - 90% to a shocking 15-20%! My friend and his family and probably most of my other Bethlehemite friends have emigrated. Santa won't find their stockings and Christmas trees in the little Christian town of their birth...The Palestinian Authority blames the flight of Christians on Israel. It's the story that will probably play on your TV screens next week."
Undoubtedly. When has the MSM played fair with Israel lately? Only in Jimmy Carter's fantasies.
UPDATE Dec. 24: Blaming Israel has already begun.
I said in the previous post that the drought was "savage," and then began to wonder if I was exaggerating. This might be a trifle hard to read as I had to compress it a little to get it on the page where I want it. But it shows that Central Texas, indeed, is in severe to extreme drought, and things haven't improved in the four days since the graphic was made by NOAA. Driving around Lake Travis yesterday to get the photo below, I kept seeing signs warning about the potential for grass fires. Lots of houses back in the brush. Amazes me I have not heard of any of them burning up in grass or brush fires in at least twenty-eight years.
Anderson Mill marina at Lake Travis where the water is forty feet lower than it should be due to a long drought. That's the lowest the lake-reservoir has been since 1964. The marina is half its normal size because half the boats and their docks have been moved into deeper water closer to the main basin. All that brown land and white rock on the left and brown vegetation and white rock in the foreground normally is underwater. Meanwhile, the drought gets more savage by the week, despite the El Nino that's supposed to bring us beaucoup rain this winter. Hasn't yet, although an inch or so is predicted with the passage of a cold front tonight.
"'An analysis done for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey says that the PATH train tunnels under the Hudson River are more vulnerable to a bomb attack than previously thought, and that a relatively small amount of high explosives could cause significant flooding of the rail system within hours,' the New York Times reports."
Adds the Wall Street Journal's Best of The Web Today: "Well, kudos to the New York Times for alerting us to this danger. Now that you've heard about it, please keep it to yourself. Whatever you do, don't publish it anywhere a terrorist might find out about it!"
There you have it. Cut to the chase. No more pussyfooting when it comes to Mr. Peanut, whose latest book is, as one former supporter turned critic has called it, "a poisoned holiday gift for Jews and Christians, and a danger to Jews throughout the world." It made me nauseated the other day when I saw a photo in the daily of people lined up around the block at an Austin book store to get an autographed copy of Carter's bizarre new screed "Palestine: Peace or Apartheid," in which he just flat lies his pants off. The 82-year-old crank was inside the store in person, smiling his demonic smile, including at one poor woman who reportedly gushed that she'd named her new born "Carter" in Jimmy's honor. Austin is full of the "antiwar" Left, which can be counted on to demonstrate against Israel. Many of them are aging, whacked-out hippies with brains so fried by cocaine and malathion-sprayed Mexican marijuana that they can be pardoned for thinking they're still living in the sixties and Iraq is Vietnam all over again. If you lived here you wouldn't get worked up over them. This is, after all, a town full of professional demonstrators. But Carter. Yipes. Bookworm has a good post on him and his awful book, which includes the most succinct analysis of the Muslim-Israel conflict I've ever seen, by David Horowitz, which includes this little analogy which will be near and dear to some Texans:
"It is a lie that Palestinians 'had their own land, first of all, occupied.' This is like saying that Texans had their own land occupied by Hispanics, ignoring the fact that Hispanics were there first."
UPDATE Israeli historian Michael B. Oren ("Six Days of War: June 1967 and the Making of the Modern Middle East") says Carter has a religion problem with Israel: "His book bewails the fact that Israel is not the reincarnation of ancient Judea but a modern, largely temporal democracy."
If there ever was a clear demonstration that the political elite are different from you and me, this is it, the pdf of the Inspector General's 41-page report on the theft of national security documents by Sandy Berger, Big Bill's former national security adviser, for which Berger pled guilty. You and me would go to prison for doing something like that. But not ole Sandy.
Pajamas Media's Richard Miniter says there yet may be undiscovered gold in the report. Check it out.
Colt, the Big 12's offensive freshman of the year, is cleared to play in the Alamo Bowl, according to Cedric Golden in the Austin daily:
"McCoy has been evaluated regularly since sustaining a severe pinched nerve in his neck against Texas A&M on Nov. 24. [Texas athletic trainer Kenny] Boyd said McCoy passed a thorough group of on-field and off-field tests before being released to play."
Of course, you remember that he was cleared to play for the A&M game, after his first nerve injury against Kansas State. So who knows? You would suppose if it doesn't happen again against Iowa, we can figure he's okay and the Horns' hopes for 2007 are in good shape. And if it does happen again, his career might be over before it really begins, and then we'd have to see if backup QB Sherrod Harris, a high school standout and 4.0 student, is anything special in college ball. For more on Colt and his fans, see this site.
Washington-area Muslims join Jews in a ceremony at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum:
"Johanna Neumann, recounted at the ceremony how Muslims saved her Jewish family. Members of her family had fled from Germany to Albania, where Muslim families sheltered them and hid their identity during the Nazi occupation.
"'Everybody knew who we were. Nobody would even have thought of denouncing us" to the Nazis, said the tiny 76-year-old Silver Spring resident. 'These people deserve every respect anybody can give them.'"
Via Instapundit
For all who ever said we shouldn't be in Iraq but should be fighting Saudi Arabia and Wahhabism, their facist offshoot of Islam, Stephen Schwartz, Muslim convert, bestselling author and Washington consultant, has some news. He says the Saudi religious faction that drives al Q could be losing its grip on the kingdom and Islamofacism:
"Many leading clerics and intellectuals among Sunni Muslims indicate that King Abdullah has effectively told the Wahhabis that they will no longer receive official subsidies, and must end their violent jihad around the world. The greatest impact of this development may be seen in Iraq, but Wahhabis everywhere have begun to worry about their future. In a totalitarian system like Wahhabism, the weakest links snap first. And the beginning of the end for them may now be visible in the Muslim Balkans."
Worth a read. Via Michael Barone in US News & World Report.
Mr. Boy and I mutally suffered through the madhouse of the first grade Xmas party at his school this afternoon--him making crafts at three separate tables at top speed, then playing competitive games such as jumping from one end of the gym to the other holding a soccer ball between his legs. My problem was trying to get our new Nikon S10 point-and-shoot to focus and shoot fast enough to catch the action. Digital cameras are a lot of fun, but their shutters aren't made for writhing, twisting six-year-olds. I might have gotten two good shots out of thirty. Finally it was all over, and we went back to his classroom to pick up his backpack and jacket, wish his teacher felicitations of the season, and then went home. School's out for two weeks. He doesn't have to go back until Jan. 9. What are you going to do with him, the sympathetic keep asking me. Oh, we'll find something to do. For instance, at the moment, he's making Mom a knight's helmet out of paper. He just stopped by to measure. He said Mom has "a really big head," but mine was close and he would measure on mine. So he did, went off to make the helmet, a mask really, came back and tried the fit and pronounced it good. He'd already made her a paper shield and a sword. She'll be thrilled, I'm sure. He keeps asking if it's time yet to read Harry Potter. Another fifteen minutes I said, for no particular reason. Just another arbitrary adult. HP is a hit so far. When I read the sentence about poor Harry living in the cupboard under the stairs at the Dursley's, Mr. B. actually gasped. A sure sign we will be reading the HP series for a while.
As usual, the MSM is presenting Bush's press conference yesterday as discouraging for all concerned. No surprise there. What else have they done for the past six years? So it's worth reading the transcript of the event, without the Bush-is-failing, the-war-is-lost, the sky-is-falling spin, to make up your own mind.
"I want the Iraqis to understand that we believe that if they stand up, step up and lead, and with our help we can accomplish the objective. And I want the enemy to understand that this is a tough task, but they can't run us out of the Middle East, that they can't intimidate America. They think they can. They think it's just a matter of time before America grows weary and leaves, abandons the people of Iraq, for example. And that's not going to happen."
Al-Q’s #2 guy, al-Zawahri sends a Christmas message. He has seen the light. A hoot of a satire.
Via Instapundit
I read a lot of civil war history, fiction and nonfiction, and some of them I can barely remember, even when seeing their covers again or reading about them in an article. Robert Hicks' book will stick with you, long after you finish, particular the two major characters, but many of the supporting ones as well. Franklin certainly was one of the bloodiest, least sensible battles of the war, and it's portrayed well here. But the real story is the aftermath and the way the survivors handled their survival. Hardcover or paper, it's worth owning. I still pull it off the shelf from time to time to refer to it.
Strategy Page reports on a potentially disturbing development:
"The heavy equipment for the troops at Ft Hood moves by rail to Houston and Beaumont, where they are loaded on ships for movement overseas. The tracks cross numerous little gullies and creeks. For the most part the viaducts across these obstacles are made of creosote-treated wood. And there's absolutely no security. In one night a half dozen guys with some trucks and matches could do enough damage to hold up the movement, of half a dozen brigades (III Corps), for weeks."
Let's hope someone is doing something about this. Alerting the sheriffs in the affected counties would be a good start.
I usually ignore rap, unless I'm stuck at a stoplight with some clown with big bass speakers in his car. They always seem to be playing the stuff. But I may actually break down and buy one for the first time. As one of the commenters at Op-For says, this Stuck Mojo rap-metal outfit may have produced the first post 9/11 anti-jihadi rap number. The video, which features footage of what look to be Palestinian terrorists in their usual KKK drag, is as pounding as rap usually is, but with the unmistakable (and appropriate) message that it's "open season" on jihadi punks. Get some!
It's hard to tell if the pundits know anything or if they're just misunderestimating Bush, as usual. Heck, most of them predicted he would hop up on James Baker's hobby horse and ride off to Tehran and Damascus to plead for help. So is there any real evidence that he wants to throw more troops at the problems in Iraq, like many of them are saying now? Hope not. It might just be Vietnam all over again, the way the anti-wars believe it already is. American troops all over the place, the Iraqi troops (read South Vietnamese army) sitting on their hands watching the Americans chew up neighborhoods, lots more American and civilian casualties. And, in the end, when the troops go home, nothing much to show for it as the insurgents surge back in. So I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the pundits, including irascible Ralph Peters, really don't know what they're talking about.
Peters, in particular, seems to have lost his way lately. He still gets a lot of respect from retired military careerist friends of mine, but sometimes he just doesn't make any sense. He's for Go big, but only if the rules of engagement change: ignore the MSM, shoot to kill, disarm the population, swarm the streets of Baghdad. Fat chance. The World War II days of saturation bombing are long gone. Do it precisely, directed by 30,000 or so advisers on the ground embeded with the Iraqi army, or forget about it. And start by killing Mookie Sadr, or at least ship him to Guantanamo. My two cents. The great thing about blogs is I get to spend mine. So do you if you care to comment. Just keep it civil.
UPDATE Blogger Bill Roggio, embeded with Marine advisers to the Iraqi Army is reporting stuff I haven't seen anywhere else. Some of it is good: the Iraqi troops are brave and resourceful and tactically profficient. All they really need advisors for is help with resupply, and heavy weapons. Presumably also medevac, although it isn't mentioned. The bad stuff sounds a lot like the worst of the South Vietnamese army's problems. The Iraqi government is so inept (or corrupt) that their troops can't get rifles, helmets or body armor, not even their own pay! Surely we can do better for them. While you're at Roggio's place, hit his tip jar. He's already doing more than the MSM has.
Jevan Snead, the tall, blonde former freshman Texas QB who almost saved the Longhorns against Kansas State when redshirt-freshman QB Colt McCoy was injured and left the game in the first quarter, has committed to play for the University of Mississippi. I guess we can be happy he at least won't be playing in the Big 12, since he's good enough to pose a threat. Strange kid, in a way. You'd think he'd have been willing to gamble on riding the bench a while longer, considering Colt was injured twice in the same way--pinched nerve--in back to back games and isn't certain for the Horns' bowl game. Transferring means Snead'll have another year of ildness, sitting out all of the Rebels' games in 2007 under NCAA rules.
It's nice to see the Left figure out that the Islamists, not Bush, are the oppressors. But their idea of a Valentine's Day March to Mecca for gay rights is typically lunatic. I hope this is satire:
"The March to Mecca will snake through the sandy, sunny valley of Abraham, and it is urged that you pack sunblock and plenty of bottled water. 'Don't forget to blog!' adds co-sponsor Arianna Huffington. After the march, Rep Barney Frank of the U.S. House of Representatives will host a special VIP rave on the Queen Boat, a floating disco on the Nile. Hugh Jackman will perform hits from 'The Boy From Oz.'"
Infidels are forbidden to enter the Muslim holy city, an instructive measure of Islam's intolerance. The Saudis enforce the rule. They may put up with the quaint little Western demo, if the marchers halt when they are ordered to, or they may just machingun a few of them to underscore the point. Either way, this could be a lot more instructive than waving signs about Bushitler.
I stopped reading TIME magazine when I was a teenager because it was obvious that it wasn't objective or concerned with truth--but this is just sick. After blogs like LGF pointed to it, the praise copy ("champion of the dispossessed" and "global everyman") was edited out on the magazine's web site.
I've never had any problem with responsible gay men adopting, or lesbians using sperm donors to conceive, as Vice President Cheney's daughter Mary apparently has done. But Akaky at The Passing Parade is surely correct when he notes that any child is sure to question any notion that her mother's lesbian partner might have of being "the father":
"This, of course, is nonsense on stilts. If Ms. Poe thinks that she is something other than a stepparent, Ms. Cheney’s progeny will rudely disabuse her of this delusion sometime in 2022, especially if said progeny is female and she's been out all night and put a ding in the new car's fender in the process."
Meanwhile, comes this poignant piece by an 18-year-old conceived by insemination to underscore that it is a rare person who does not wish to know (or at least know of) their real parents, plural. Hopefully Ms. Cheney and her partner have prepared for the probability that the child will want to know who the father is, or was. It would be the wise, indeed the humane, thing to do.
Via No Left Turns
So we stood on the quay with Sam and Merry and Pippen and watched Frodo and Bilbo sail away with Gandalf, Elrond and Galadriel, at the end of The Return of the King. For Mr. Boy's second time. And when I reached the last sentence and the trilogy we've been using for bedtime stories for most of the year was over, he said he wanted to start all over again with The Hobbit. Much as I love Tolkien's melodic prose, particularly his descriptions of the landscape in the turn of the seasons, I think I may lobby for the Harry Potter series. Or, maybe not. I think I've finally got the names down to where I can pronounce them as J. R. R. intended. And it's undeniable that Mr. B. gets a certain far-away dreamy look listening to these adventures that he didn't even with Narnia and Treasure Island.
Jacksonville 17, Tennessee 24. All the stats here. Story as soon as there is one.
UPDATE Story here. It wasn't Vince's game, until the very end, but considering the worst defense in the league spent most of the game on the field, and won the game forcing turnovers, you have to believe Vince's charisma had something to do with it. Oh, yeah.
When I was in scouts, two shortwave amateurs who ran their rigs out of their basements--via tall towers looming over their back yards--taught Morse code for the shortave radio merit badge. It looked too hard to me, so I went for something else. First Aid, I think it was, or maybe canoeing.
Only needed to wait about fifty more years, until Friday's ruling.
"In an historic move, the FCC has acted to drop the Morse code requirement for all Amateur Radio license classes...Currently, Amateur Radio applicants for General and higher class licenses have to pass a 5 [words per minute] Morse code test to operate on [High Frequency]. Today's [Report & Order] will eliminate that requirement all around."
Dit dah, dit dah, dit dah, that's all, folks. (Translations here)
In the apocolyptic tradition of The Stand, but tighter, less sprawling, although it also covers a lot of terrain. You'll never put your cell phone up to your ear again with quite the same nonchalance. Lest you turn into a Phonie. Like his best books, this one grabs you in the first few pages and refuses to let go. I gave it four stars instead of five at Amazon only because of the ending, which I'd have liked to have had more of a resolution. But that's just a quibble. It was well worth the ride.
Could this be why Rumsfeld's resignation was accepted? Chief of Staff Gen. Peter J. Schoomaker's recent passionate testimony to Congress, once reportedly accompanied by banging his hand on the witness table, included a plea for more troops, and an end to restrictions on the use of the reserves and guard.
"'I recommend we continue to grow the Army so that we have choices,' Schoomaker said, cautioning that it is ill advised to assume demand for American troops overseas will decrease. 'Our history is replete with examples where we have guessed wrong: 1941, 1950, 2001, to name a few,' he said. 'We don't know what's ahead.'"
"As a child growing up in Saudi Arabia, I remember my teachers, my mom and our neighbors telling us practically on a daily basis that Jews are evil, the sworn enemies of Muslims, and that their only goal was to destroy Islam," former Netherlands parliament member Ayaan Hirsi Ali writes. "For the majority of Muslims in the world, the Holocaust is not a major historical event that they deny. We simply do not know it ever happened because we were never informed of it."
Worth a read.
A geomagetic storm triggered Northern Lights as unusually far south as Arizona last night. The cause: a mass ejection from the sun which hit Earth squarely on Thursday. Our planet's magnetic field reverberated for more than 24 hours after the impact. A second one is due today, but is only expected to be a glancing hit, so it probably won't cause auroras so far south/ photo by Vic Winters.
Via Spaceweather.com
Moving tribute to highest ranking American female warrior, a Marine, killed in Iraq. Worth your time.
Via Third Army video and photo system.
It took only a year for a university team to build a robot car that could complete a DARPA cross-country race without a major failure. Next year's 60-mile race could be a lot harder, and some of the participants could be unwitting. The robots, at least, will have to be law-abiding.
"They will have to stop at stop signs, look for other vehicles, obey the rules of precedence at intersections, obey traffic laws (don’t cross double yellow center lines), pass other stationary and slow moving cars, back up, park, make a U-turn and plan a new course when the main road is blocked, and take evasive action if a collision with another vehicle is imminent."
Don't look now, but that 'dummy' in the car ahead of you really might be one.
Read it all at Doc In The Machine
Why not a big menorah at Seattle-Tacoma airport? Lord knows, we could use some miracles. Apparently there will be one lit tonight at sundown, and every night through next Friday, at the Washington state capitol in Olympia, and there are other public ones around the country. It doesn't have to be either-or, Christmas trees (or for that matter, manger scenes) or menorahs. Why not both? Why not a Muslim crescent or three during Ramadan? It could get out of hand, but it doesn't need to, with a little common sense. The constitution says we have freedom OF religion here, not freedom FROM religion. Chabad-Lubivitch, for which I have had a soft spot since a memorable seder at Chabad House on the UT campus, has their side of what happened in the Sea-Tac airport controversy, and a good overall argument for religious pluralism here. And as for Hannuka, which begins tonight, you can Google up your own explanation if you need one, but this short Flash movie commentary is a winner by itself.
Inspiration by the good folks at No Left Turns
The two best ideas of the Iraq Study Group's 79 recommendations are being implemented, according to Bing West, a Vietnam veteran and former assistant secretary of defense in the Reagan administration. Namely, vastly increasing the number of American advisers with the Iraqi army (which CENTCOM press releases said before the report was released was already underway), and turning that army over to the new Iraqi government by late spring. The latter because former CENTCOM commander Gen. John P. Abizaid has told Congress that Iraqi PM Maliki will, by February, take care of the main threat of civil war, Mookie Sadr and his murderous militia.
Meanwhile, the most ridiculous ideas, it is generally agreed, are the ones about negotiating with the dictators of Iran and Syria to help stabilize the situation--as if they wanted the first successful Arab democracy on their borders. So, naturally, that is what Sen. Kerry has set out to do. He is flaunting federal law and White House policy to go visit Baby Assad in Damascus to chat it up. Not too surprising, since Kerry flaunted federal law and Nixon White House policy in the early 1970s to go to Paris to meet with the North Vietnamese.
The scuttlebutt is that the Paris trip cost Kerry, who was still a Navy reserve officer, a dishonorable discharge, which President Carter later fixed. But we can't be sure until Big John releases his military records, which he has consistently refused to do. At least he's no longer in the military, so he hasn't that part to worry about. And, so far at least, he doesn't plan to go to Iran.
They do, in fact, always turn up. Eason Jordan, for instance, the disgraced former president of CNN (known to American veterans as the Communist News Network) has a new Internet news site focusing entirely on Iraq. Which is odd (or appropriate, perhaps) considering he was best known for sucking up to Saddam before the 2004 liberation. Until, that is, he asserted at several foreign venues that the American military was purposely targeting journalists for death. Something tells me his new venture will not be far afield of his old employer and may even come to rival al Jiz for mendacity. But we shall see.
"I ship out to Fort Benning as an active duty Infantry rifleman on January
9th. I'll be 41 in May. I've been trying to join since 9/11 but the army
cutoff at the time was 35, and I was already past that. They finally raised
it past my age and I signed up. I'm in the best shape of my life and looking
forward to a most exciting adventure. The idea of serving in an institution
that was once headed by Gen. George Washington is still sinking in."
Bully. Read it all.
Picking up Mr. Boy at school this afternoon, I noticed something I hadn't considered before. I'd seen the way his shoes come untied and the laces drag on the ground as he walks. But I hadn't considered how odd it was. Here is a kid who can play chess (at least he knows the way the pieces move, although strategy is still well beyond him) and beat me at checkers, if I don't pay close attention. But he still can't tie his shoes.
Mokri, 26, who played forward on his high school varsity soccer team, was a criminal justice graduate of Texas State University. He had other options, but enlisted to fight and died with four others in Iraq last week when a bomb exploded near their vehicle. His father, Mohammed, is an immigrant from Iran.
"Yari was a leader," his sister Desiree said at the family home in Pflugerville, northeast of Austin." His confidence and charisma allowed people around him to be safe and supportive and important."
Meanwhile, no matter how the MSM tries to spin it as the march of the ignorant and disadvantaged, the heroes keep coming. Army enlistments continue to hold steady and even to rise a little. They were 105 percent of the goal in November.
While the mad Iranian president hosts his make-believe conference of the history-challenged discussing whether the Holocaust actually occurred, Roger L. Simon has come up with a brilliant idea: a counter symposium on whether the 12th Imam actually exists, or is this mythic religious figure proof of insanity in his believers--like the president of Iran? We already know he's mad.
I have just the venue, the Holiday Bowl in San Diego. Because it could be that a tragic misspelling has been at work here all along. In other words: is the 12th Imam a genuine religious figure? Or merely the misunderstood 12th Man of Texas A&M University football?
Will the 12th Imam (12th Man?) make an appearance at the 50 yard line at the upcoming game when Texas A&M surely will beat California? Will the mad president of Iran be in a luxury box? Will he be suited up in maroon to step in to aid the team? Or are his followers just maroons? Watch the game Dec. 28 and find out!
The Geminid meteor shower could be a winner this year, for the Northern Hemisphere, from Wednesday evening into the twilight before dawn on Thursday. If the waxing moon doesn't get in the way. To avoid that, face west with the moon at your back.
"...people in dark, rural areas could see one or two meteors every minute," for what could be the best meteor shower of 2006, in speedy, bright streaks of yellow across the star-spangled black.
Via Spaceweather, Sky & Telescope, and Space.com, the most pessimistic of the trio.
This view may not be rare among American Muslims, but the public expression of it certainly seems to be. A Muslim doctor in Phoenix tries to put the case of the "flying imams," kicked off US Airways Flight 300 for suspicious behavior, into perspective. It was not, he says, about discrimination.
"Because these imams and their handlers just don't get it, it's time we Muslims found leadership and organizations that do. Our predicament is unique, fragile and precarious. We Muslims are a relatively new minority in a nation that gives us freedoms that no other Muslim nation would allow."
Via Instapundit
Talk about gall. UN kleptocrat Kofi Anan journeyed to Missou to use the Truman Library for his last speech, digging at President Bush for various awful things, such as freeing 50-odd million people from tyranny, as Anan, a greater friend to dictators than even Jimmy Carter, handed in his resignation and left the building the US hosts and pays for. Truman must be rolling over in his grave.
But, then, Kofi has never lacked for irony. As another parting gesture, he inaugurated the UN Human Rights Council in June. And what has it done? Condemn genocide in Darfur? Seek to ameliorate the oppression of women in (pick one) any Arab country? Nah. It spends all of its energy attacking Israel. Go home, Kofi, and stay there.
UPDATE Better late than never, he finally mentioned the situation in Darfur in another of his "last" speeches. Muslim women, however, are still off his radar screen.
There's been lots of banter in the blogosphere on the Iraq Study Group's amazingly convoluted recommendations, much of it glossing over co-director James Baker's longstanding financial and other ties to Saudi Arabia, but noting that out of all the proposed Middle Eastern conferences and diplomacy, the one country left out entirely is Israel. While making the Golan Heights a bargaining chip for Iraqi peace.
Some say that was predictable, given Baker's reputed remark to Bush senior years ago to "F...the Jews, they didn't vote for us anyway," since few of them are Republicans. But Baker, of Houston, has been known in Texas for cynicism ever since he ran for attorney general back in the 1980s. His television ads featured him slamming a cell door while talking about locking up criminals and throwing away the key. He didn't invent the imagery or the slogan, he just mined it for all it was worth. What he knew, and what he also knew at least some of the electorate didn't know, was that the Texas AG handles only civil cases. Not criminal ones. Forturnately for Texans, he lost.
That rabbi who succeeded in getting fifteen Christmas trees banned from the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport might be attracting rousing cheers from some Muslims, a secular busybody or two, pushy atheists and the ACLU, but at least one Israeli Jew finds his behavior antithetical to the Hebrew bible.
"I would recommend that the learned rabbi...check [the] Torah, there definitely must be a mention of 'Love your neighbor as yourself' (by Moses, I believe?) or, in simpler words: 'What is hateful to you, do not to your fellow man' (Hillel). Unless there was a new edition I am not aware of."
Meanwhile, some Christmas trees are reappearing on airline counters at the airport. And the Orthodox rabbi, Elazar Bogomilsky, says he didn't mean to be a grinch, although he did threaten to sue. He only wanted a Hannuka menorah, in honor of the Festival of Lights which begins Friday, to have equal time with the trees, but airport officials chose to remove the trees, instead.
The Longhorns sure missed him this year--and the Houston Texans--but he's got bigger fish to fry.
"He doesn't believe he's going to lose. He's comfortable with the game on his shoulders, at his best when the stakes are the highest."
Via Houston Chronicle
When you're translating to English from a language with a different alphabet (especially one without vowels), nobody can decide how to spell it. But that's no biggie. Not when the holiday begins only a few days from now (Friday, actually), and there's the first-ever blog carnival about it to attend. So attend.
Afterall, the Associated Press has based no less than 61 articles on this fellow, who they say is an Iraqi police captain. Meanwhile, CENTCOM and the Iraqi government deny that he even exists. AP insists he does, but so far hasn't persuaded him to go talk to either so they might change their tune. And the MSM's detractors among the blogosphere are having quite a time mocking AP. So will the real Jamil Hussein (assuming he does exist) please show up and put this controversy to rest. Otherwise, the AP has quite a few corrections to issue. Madison dot com weighs in with a fisking of AP's latest snippy "assurances," to put it kindly.
Via a host of blogs, including Instapundit, Black Five, and Confederate Yankee
Are we winning or losing the war in Ramadi in Iraq's al Anbar? With the defeatist MSM reporting from the Green Zone, it's hard to tell. Depends on who you read. Blogger Michael Fumento, who has been there three times, says we're winning. So does the Times of London which also sent a reporter there. Saying we're losing (surprise, surprise) is the Washington Post's reporter Thomas Ricks, author of "Fiasco," which ought to show you what he thinks before he sets fingers to keyboard. Especially since, according to Fumento, Ricks has never set foot in Ramadi. Now, lo and behold, the WaPo is contradicting Ricks with a new, upbeat piece. Curiouser and curiouser.
Via MichaelFumento.com, which is a good place to begin.
It's like something out of Starship Troopers, the 1957 science fiction novel by Robert Heinlein, i.e. "pre-hospital or far forward battlefield casualty care...in which a self contained casualty 'cocoon' was sent automatically from the spaceship directly to the wounded soldier on the battlefield."
Doc In The Machine has three videos explaining the concept, which looks more doable in the first one, a video game-like presentation whose audio reminds me of the old Mech Warrior video game, than in the other two, or in this generalized explanation of some of the DARPA-funded work on it at the University of Texas-Austin. But definitely worth a look, including the news that its funding may be about to be eliminated.
Mohammed at Iraq the Model reports the government is considering a move often suggested in the blogosphere, but which American officials seemed not to have taken seriously.
"...yesterday al-Sabah brought the news that the parliament is discussing a suggestion to set aside 30% of oil sales income to distribute among the citizens of Iraq. The draft law sets 3 classes of payments according to age and subsequent needs and responsibilities; from one month to 6 years, from 6 to 18 years and the third one 19 years and older. People who migrated from Iraq, those with salaries higher tha[n] 1 million dinars/month and convicted criminals will be excluded from the payment program, the report added. The people here met the news with some delight, hope and some skepticism too although the announcement came through the government's paper."
If it pans out--and Mohammed also reports that oil exports are up almost 15 percent from last year--the project would make Iraq a world model for fairness in the use of natural resources, as well as a regional one for democracy. It might even inspire a measure of sectarian peace.
"In Austin, Texas, Hohlt Pecore, 7, and his sister, Elsa, 4, have complicated relationships with their mother's BlackBerry. 'I feel very annoyed,' says Hohlt. 'She's always concentrating on that blasted thing.'"
One advantage, I've heard, for people who don't have them but work for people who do, is their bosses spend so much time with the things that once-interminable planning meetings are shorter than usual, and the boss more distracted than usual. That's bad, though, if you need a decision in a hurry.
Via Instapundit
After a week stranded in a snowy Oregon woods with his wife and their daughters, an infant and a toddler, James Kim tried to save them by going for help. Their maps suggested it was a short hike to a nearby village. But they were farther away than they thought, the maps didn't show how rough the wooded terrain would be, and the 35-year-old San Francisco technology editor apparently got lost before dying of hypothermia. Two days after he left them, his family was rescued, thanks to signals from cell phones they had left on. His body wasn't found for two more days. You have to admire their resourcefulness, reported here and here, and his heroic decision to seek the help that hadn't come. But the irony that, all along, food and shelter was only a few miles away, stings.
UPDATE This sad story has produced many suggestions across the blogosphere for emergency gear, to be stored in the car all the time, to the extent that's practical, such as here and here and here. Via Instapundit
Hobbling around the Rancho today with a stiff right leg, from where it was crunched yesterday between the rear bumper of my Jeep and the big brush-popper bumper on a Suburban. By all rights, the leg ought to be broken, just above the knee. Instead, it's just bruised good and sore.
I was parked about six feet in front of the Suburban, on a slight incline across the street from Mr. Boy's elementary school, before the kids were let out for the day. I got out and walked behind the Jeep and set off for the school. I heard a shout behind me, and turned to see the Jeep rolling backwards on an angle. It was moving slowly, so I instantly decided I could stop it and got behind it and started pushing. Can't be done. Three thousand pounds of car can't be stopped, except by Superman. Maybe that's who I thought I was.
Meanwhile, the Dad who shouted got the Jeep's door open and pulled up the parking brake. Just as the Jeep's rear bumper slowly, inexorably, pushed my right leg against the Suburban's bumper. Hurt like hell. I yelled. Moms there for pickup came running. Do you need 911? No, seemed okay, I could walk. Still can, it's just sore. Next time, I've firmly decided, I will just watch the crash.
The Texas Ranger Hall of Fame & Museum, in Waco, is a sight to see, if you're ever in the area. I was reminded of it when an old Army buddy, Joe Bol, mentioned the Rangers in a comment the other day. So I went looking for the hall's web site, which I had seen before, but not in a while. The virtual tour is almost as good as the real thing, which I took many years ago, and, in one sense, a little better. That's because the virtual museum is giving away free pdf copies of old, out-of-copyright books on the Rangers, mainly from the late 19th century, and a few copyright newbies, as well. Check it out. The free books, and the virtual museum. An online gift shop, too. For $7.95, they'll sell you a gold-colored circle-star badge tie tack. It could be a Christmas or Hannukah present.
Pearl Harbor, that is, on this Day That Shall Live In Infamy. Fewer actually died then than on September 11, and almost all of them were military. Some of the old veterans of those days, I found out a few years ago in doing a commemorative piece on the day, still refuse to buy Japanese cars, electronics and other products. We, alas, are still buying Saudi oil. But, then, a lot of us can't decide what September 11 meant. Few people had that problem in the 1940s, or the veterans since.
Link is to old Pearl Harbor photos, via Instapundit
So scientists have long said, and now they say they have evidence that there is water on Mars. Not was water, but is water. It's sensor evidence in before and after photos taken by Mars Global Surveyor, which still needs to be verified by robots on the ground, but now the hunt for life can truly begin, even if it's only microbial. I might add that it also would seem to strengthen the controversial, decade-old finding of microbial life in a Martian meteorite found in Antarctica.
Via Instapundit
You can imagine the grins, the glee and the laughter. No, you really can't. You have to see (and read) the Arab and Iranian reaction to 9/11, the convoluted conspiracy theories, and the denial, as compiled in a new documentary and transcript by the translators at MEMRI, the Middle East Media Research Institute. You have to see it to believe it.
The Iraq Study Group's recommendations for solving the problems in Iraq? Make them bigger by, among other things, offering to return the Golan Heights to Syria. Huh?
"The normal approach to a difficult problem would be to bound or simplify it. But the ISG recommendations try the exact opposite: it adds complexity to the already complex situation."
It will be interesting to see what the headline writers do with this one. Simplicity ain't in it.
UPDATE The Wall Street Journal dubs it "The Iraq Muddle Group," but notes it serves the useful purpose of denying any fast departure and underlines the stark consequences of a failure there.
Now that three (or more?) blogs have me in their blogrolls, according to Technorati, I want to list them and recommend them to y'all as interesting places to visit because the proprietors are able writers with interesting turns of mind.
Top of the list, because he was the first, is Simply Jews, an Israeli satirist who goes by the nom de plume of Snoopy the Goon. His pose as an Elder of Zion, a director of the alleged Jewish conspiracy to rule the world, is pretty funny, if you like that sort of thing as I do. Next up is another satirist who uses a nom de blog, New Yorker Akaky Bashmachkin, at The Passing Parade. If his name doesn't immediately remind you of something literary, do a Google on it. And, most recently, there is Deborah, of The Thought Mill, a Russian feminist with a Western view of life.
Among others who have linked to posts of mine, at one time or another, are the venerable Instapundit, Navy veteran Crazy Politico's Rantings, the graphics-crazy Good Richard's Alamanc, and Murky View, a Canadian blogger who recently decided (on the strength of one post at Instapundit) that I am "disconnected from reality." Given the opportunity, I would dispute that, of course. All are worth your time.
Getting linked by Instapundit is supposed to be the sine qua non of free blogger publicity, producing a fabled Instalanche (Insta plus avalanche) of hundreds if not thousands of new unique visits. So imagine my surprise when my first such link, at about 5:45 a.m. today had, by just a few minutes ago, failed to produce one fifth of one hundred. Yep. Only fifteen, according to Sitemeter. There could be a few more which, for some reason unknown to me, failed to get listed as referrals by Sitemeter. After all, I did collect thirty-eight visits altogether, which is almost four times my normal daily average. But most of them came from people clicking on comments I had left on other blogs in the past few days, or the six three blogs which blogroll me, or referrals from Google searches on various subjects. Fourteen were counted as unknown referrals, a few of them daily constant readers plus some others checking in weekly, or whatever. Not that I am not grateful to be linked by Professor Reynolds (I am, I am), just puzzled at how far off the predicted result has been. Maybe it will improve overnight. I can't stick around to find out, as must arise early to get Mr. Boy to school. Mom, who usually takes him mornings, is away, traveling on business.
UPDATE And the overnight total? Wait for it. Two.
When Mr. Boy was about two, John Garza, our neighbor at the time, predicted that Mr. B.'s more-or-less constant chatter meant he would grow up to be a politician. "He'll be governor, someday," John said. Four years later, Mr. B. still is a chatterbox and, last night, he got his first look inside the 150-year-old governor's mansion, at the annual Christmas party for the news media. Dad has retired from the biz, but Mom still is a part of it, hence the invitation. Mr. B. was somewhat impressed with the Sam Houston bed on the second floor, and the big painting of the Alamo fight in the entry hall, but the bowls and plates of gingerbread men and other cookies and candy downstairs required his full attention. Unfortunately, the mansion's web site has few pictures of the many early 19th century furnishings. One of the docents said the pictures were removed for security reasons, so as not to attract thieves.
Go Gators, Badgers, Trojans, Scarlet Knights, Sooners, Red Raiders, Aggies, and Longhorns! Oh, and the Owls, too.
British physicist Stephen Hawking recently said we must get off this rock or die here en masse.
"Sooner or later disasters such as an asteroid collision or a nuclear war could wipe us all out."
The late President Ronald Reagan was more upbeat about it. He said only the Milky Way is big enough to encompass the human imagination.
"In a Sept. 22, 1988, speech at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, shortly before a launch of the space shuttle Discovery, Reagan said: 'It is mankind's manifest destiny to bring our humanity into space; to colonize this galaxy; and as a nation, we have the power to determine whether America will lead or will follow.'"
Via NewsMax for the Reagan quote, from their email alert, but I can't find a link.
KVET/KASE/KFMK radio meteorologist Troy Kimmel, Jr., an Aggie who also teaches at the University of Texas, has compiled a new historical look (74 pages in pdf) at extreme weather for the Austin Metro Area, i.e. Travis Williamson and Hays counties. Worth a look if you live in the area or are just curious about Central Texas weather.
Instapundit's Glen Reynolds figures the Iraq Study Group's conclusions will be "weak tea" and so he's trying to drum up new ideas for the war by hosting a blog symposium on Iraq, Iran and Syria, inviting posts with emailed links over the next three days, and tossing out this idea to begin.
"Here's just one example -- outright war with Iran is unlikely and probably a bad idea. But the mullarchy that runs Iran is corrupt and unpopular. What about targeting the mullahs -- personally, and more particularly in the form of their properties, their business interests both abroad and in Iraq, and their partners in such business interests. And maybe seeing if we can bribe a few while we're at it. The goal would be to bring Iran's interference in Iraq to a close. Is it a good idea? You tell me. And add some other ideas of your own."
Iran's mountainous terrain would be terribly univiting to an invading army, and bombing can only accomplish so much, so outright war is probably unlikely, as you say, unless they nuke somebody and we have to nuke them in return. I like the idea of hitting the mullahs (and their figurehead president) in their pocketbooks, but supporting the Iranian opposition (particularly their trade unions) with more vigor than we apparently are doing now, would also be ideal. But I think the best idea is what is already underway, according to some of CENTCOM's recent press releases, i.e. converting the patrolling of the big American units into a relatively small advisory effort. Call it training for the Iraqi army, if you want, but it would mainly be about providing them with American officers on the ground with access to our artillery, air support and medevac. Which is what we were doing in Vietnam by 1972, with more success than previously. True counter-insurgency operations. Only this time we must not cut off the funding. Indeed, we should adopt Josh Manchester's idea of a huge effort to train Arabic speakers and plan to stay in Iraq for a generation or two, maintaining at least a couple of the big forward operating and air bases we've built, to service the advisory effort, but also to provide logisitics for whatever overt operations against Iran or Syria might be needed. If the Iraqi government demands we leave? Well, we'd cross that bridge when we got to it, although if we can get them to eliminate Mookie Sadr (or do it for them covertly), that issue would probably evaporate. As for Syria, why not financially undermine Baby Assad the same way we do the mullahs, in fact the whole Syrian Bathhist elite? We certainly have the means, and with Iraq drawn down to a 30,000 or so ground troop advisory effort, we'd again have the forces for outright war with Syria. The terrain there is very inviting.
UPDATE Welcome Instapundit readers. While you're here, have a look around.
Interview with an official Saudi executioner by a Lebanese television station, translated by MEMRI.
First TV host: "Do you cut off hands, or do you just do beheadings?"
Abdallah Al-Bishi: "Yes, yes. I carry out the punishment of cutting off thieves' hands, as well as the cutting off of a hand and a leg on alternate sides, as is written in the Koran."
Second TV host: "Abdallah, when you carry out the punishment of cutting off limbs, do you anesthetize the condemned person, or is it done without anesthesia, like beheadings?"
Abdallah Al-Bishi: "With regard to the cutting off of a hand, or of both a hand and a leg, it is done with local anesthesia only."
Second TV host: "But the person who is being beheaded is definitely not anesthetized, right?"
Abdallah Al-Bishi: "No, he is not anesthetized at all."
Omar at Iraq the Model finds good news of the Baghdad sniper's capture still largely untold outside Iraq two days after it happened.
"Where's the MSM from all of this? If he was a myth, then why were the media running stories about him and his operations in the first place? And if he was for real, then why are they ignoring his arrest?"
Must be preoccupied with the snow and ice across the Midwest.
Sam and Frodo are treking across the fumes and sinks of Mordor in the last few leagues to Mt. Doom, and Mr. Boy and I are accompanying them for his second time and my, uh, sixth, I think. I am struck again by the depth of Sam's tenderness for ring-burdened Frodo. Post-movie in my case, and recalling reading elsewhere that what little of it there was in the movie raised questions about Sam's sexual preferences. Despite Rosie Cotton waiting at home. In the book, where it comes up every few paragraphs, it seems like brotherly affection, or perhaps kindly servant and beloved master, and the criticism seems petty. Mr. B. soaks it all up, transfixed by Tolkien's careful descriptions of the terrain and the weather and the orc armies and the power of the eye, momentarily distracted, although it might also be the sound of my voice reading aloud. Much as I liked the movie and plan to watch it with him one of these days, I'll put it off as long as possible, so the words continue a while longer to build pictures in his mind, pictures unconstrained by the movie images, let alone, for now, the adult preoccupations. His interest in Narnia, for instance, profound when it was on the page, diminished significantly after seeing The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. It wasn't a bad movie. It's just too confining.
"Cuban President Fidel Castro has missed a massive military parade held in his honour in Havana, fuelling more speculation about his health."
The political blog Free Frank Warner predicts the 80-year-old tyrant will be dead by the New Year or shortly thereafter. Will the last Cuban out of Miami please turn off the lights?
AP's version is inside the crowd, with views of armed police and troops, but no Hez militia in sight.
"Hundreds of thousands of protesters from Hezbollah and its pro-Syrian allies massed Friday in downtown Beirut seeking to force the resignation of Western-backed Prime Minister Fuad Saniora, who was holed up in his office ringed by hundreds of police and combat troops."
Pajamas Media's Michael J. Totten had no trouble finding the militia or other context.
"The Hizbullah militia has laid siege to the government building, trapping the prime minister and cabinet ministers inside. Roadblocks were set up by Hizbullah members in what can only be described as coup d'etat...Saudi King had to intervene through his ambassador, to 'partially' remove the siege.
"Hizbullah 'tents' are still on the roads, isolating the government building. The Saudi king phoned the cabinet and spoke to all ministers one by one, affirming his support. The only countries NOT supporting this government are Syria and Iran.'
AP gets one strategic point clear: Bush considers Lebanon a central front in the war. It is, indeed.
Deborah at The Thought Mill sums up one aspect of it very impressively--the rights of women.
"Miss America's father is an engineer. Her mother is a teacher. Miss Afghanistan's father was shot by a gang of Taliban militants. Her mother begs for bread scraps since she cannot work or remarry."
Read it all.
Leave Iraq in chaos and watch the enemy follow us home, Gen. John Abizaid tells Harvard audience.
"We have not failed yet and we will not fail if we all understand what we have to do. If we can stay together nothing can stop us and we can make the world a better place."
Via Instapundit
