Rusted Sky

Let's see if this thing works.

Default to Draft - change to Publish! Damnit!

J.

She's not even a real blonde.

Posted by AT at July 19, 2005 10:23 AM
Well, I don't think so! Visit my site at the link below.

Posted by Brian at July 20, 2005 08:33 AM

Republish, and see how it goes...

(Being one of several archive posts I've decided to save...)

Apparently not when you're GWB.

Over on Calpundit, they've got a nice clear image of Bush's points for his last fiscal year in the Air National Guard. They've also got a rather interesting discussion about the relevance of the information.

Basically, they don't give a shit. He was AWOL, doesn't matter if he's got points or paperwork showing he attended, nothing matters except their interpretation of things. I even went through the effort of doing a point-by-point analysis- because, after all, this is what I did for 8 years or so in the AF Reserve - and it was basically laughed at by some of the folks there.

Here's what I posted.

----------------------------

Here things are in short form, based on the points records above at the top of this article, and based on my experience with the drill schedules and record keeping customs.

72 Oct 28-29 -- 4 points - Either rescheduled October drill, or premature November drill. 0 drill points, 0 AT points.

72 Nov 11-14 -- 8 points. Nov. drill, and December's - which is missing. +4 drill points, no AT points.

72 Dec - missing. 0 points, no AT points.

73 Jan 4-6 -- 6 points. Jan drill, and 1 day of another - maybe Feb. +2 points, no AT points.

73 Feb -- missing, so subtract 4 from 2 - -2 points, no AT points.

73 Mar -- missing, so subtract 4 from -2 - -6 points, no AT points.

73 April 7-8 -- 4 points, normal drill. Still 6 points down.

73 May 1-3 -- 3 points, not normal drill - Annual tour most likely? -6 drill points, 3 AT points.

73 May 8-10 -- 3 points, not normal drill. -6 drill points, 6 AT points.

Now, it could also be that he was doing his makeup for the excusals in Feb and March one period/point per day - and AT points and drill points ARE the same. Without a 40A, I'll admit I'm just guessing here.

73 May 19-20 -- 4 points, normal drill for May. -6 drill points (still), 6 AT points.

73 May 22-24 -- 3 points - not normal drill. -6 drill points, 9 AT points.

Now we go to the other copy of his points.

73 May 29-31 -- 3 points - not normal drill. -6 drill points, 12 AT points.

73 June 5-7 -- 3 points - not normal drill. -6 points, 15 AT points. Normal AT points needed - 14.

73 June 23-24 -- 4 points, normal drill. Still -6 drill points. 15 AT points.

Conversely, if some of the 3-pointers were single period makeups, we could be at 0 drill points and 9 AT points. But we'll keep the -6 and 15 for now.

73 July 2-3 -- 2 points - looks like AT or makeup, 1 period a day. -6, 17

73 Jul 5 -- 1 point, one day. -6, 18

73 July 9-12 -- 4 points, 4 days - Annual Tour? -6, 22 points

73 July 16-19 -- 8 points, 4 days, looks like a rescheduled drill weekend, as well as making up an excused drill weekend. -2 drill points, 22 AT points.

73 July 21-22 -- 4 points, two days - normal drill pattern here. Making up for August drill excusal?

(You could excuse drills in advance, with commander's approval.) +2 drill points, 22 AT points.

73 July 23-27 -- 5 points, 5 days, looks like annual tour. +2 drill points, 27 AT points.

73 July 30 - 1 point. +2 drill points, 28 AT points.

Annual Tour accounts for 15 of the 28 - 14 + 1 day travel time. 15 points remaining. (2 drill, 13 AT - remember they're interchangeable.)

73 Aug - Done, I think, 21-22 July.

73 Sept - No record. -4 points from the 15 - leaves 11 points excess.

Looks to me like he did more than his minimums for the year. I don't see a problem with this.

J.

----------------------

Look, I can accept someone might have different opinions than I do - I've got no problems with that. I also appreciate it when I see reasoned opinion. But what I'm seeing from the vast majority of the people there isn't reasoned - it's straight ignorance and it's determined ignorance. They don't know what goes on in the military reserves as far as pay and points go, and they're not interested in learning.

But hey, it's all part of politics as usual these days. I'm thinking, though, that business as usual needs to be changed radically - and I'm thinking that the DNC's going to find they've lost still more market share on this issue. Literally, is this the MOST pressing thing they can come up with to gripe about?

J.

Comments as they were then are in the extended entry... and new, additional comments are closed due to craptastic spam. Some folks just gotta ruin it for everyone...

Second in a list of recovered posts...

There's a right way, and a wrong way.

Then there's the MILITARY way. Many thanks to Frank, by the way, for helping me illustrate this more clearly.

You know that old joke - someone gets into the military, and they're promptly told that there's a right way and a wrong way to do things - then there's the (Fill in branch of service that's the butt of the joke) way - which is neither right OR wrong.

What we're seeing in the Bush/AWOL controversy are people who are trying to interpret the records from a predetermined standpoint. Some will look at them from the 'He was AWOL, and the records prove it - if we can just figure them out' stance, others from the 'He wasn't AWOL, and I've got to figure out what the records actually mean to prove it' stance.

Then there's the military way, which approaches it from the middle.

As I wrote to Frank below, if I were to look at these records without knowing who they belonged to, I'd see someone who did their drill time, had some excusals and reschedules, and got a good year for pay purposes. If I were to look at the DD-214 equivalent, the NGB-22, I'd see someone who got an honorable discharge. There's no interpreting the records, there's no need for further supporting documents - it's plainly laid out for anyone who understands it to see.

And plainly, the understanding is what's the problem. If you come into it with no knowledge of Reserve practices when it comes to scheduling and excusals, with no understanding of the system, with no knowledge of what's going on regarding pay, points, ARPC, Air Reserve Force, or a myriad of other issues, it'd be easy to believe whoever you want to believe. In some cases, it's who manages to shout the loudest.

Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your point of view) I spent many years dealing with this stuff and being in the Reserves - and what's murky and connvoluted to a neophyte is as well laid out as an MRI to a trained radiologist. So with no further ado, I'll remind you of one thing.

There's a right way to look at this.

There's a wrong way.

And there's the military way. And in this case, it isn't a joke at all..

Frank wrote

Jerry,

I think this is fascinating. I really appreciate your providing your perspective on this, but I think you would have to admit you're looking at it with a presumption of innocence on Bush's part.

But there's so little information available, I wonder if you would consider, just as a thought experiment, looking at it with your expertise, and a presumption of guilt. People do each other favors all the time, especially when somebody's Dad is Ambassador to the UN, and I'm just wondering if there might be some of that at work here.

I don't know much about military paperwork, but you say "You basically got ONE unexcused drill weekend per year" or you risked being sent to Inactive Reserve, but isn't that exactly what Bush's DD-214 equivalent signifies in "31. Reason and authority for discharge"? Isn't he being sent to Inactive Reserve?

How common would it be for a Guardsman to have 6 consecutive months of ZERO service? Under what circumstances would a CO allow one of his men to go 6 months with no drills? Why didn't you list the gap between April and October '72? Was that just a common occurrence?

Is it possible that Bush DID skip out, but came around as the Blount campaign wound down, used his connections to get a CO to overlook 6 months of absence, and served additional drills between Oct '72 and May '73, avoiding Inactive Reserve (and the threat, real or imagined, of activation) through string-pulling by the family?

From what I'm reading, a fighter pilot MOS came with a 6-year enlistment, but Bush is being released from his obligation 8 to 12 months short of that (which length is authoritative -- "Length this service" or "Total service for pay purposes"?). The "Remarks" section goes into more detail on this...Why the discrepancy?

Is it unusual that the Signature of Person Being Discharged is "Not Available for Signature"? When my father retired from the Army Reserve, there was a fair amount of paperwork and a ceremony to boot (he was in for 20-25 years). I'm pretty certain he signed his own papers.

What's with all the strikethroughs and the "INDEF" (presumably for "INDEFINITE") in "5. Term of Enlistment"? Can you make out what the original clerk was signifying?

If you were the President, and these questions were raised, what documents would you release to just make the issue go away forever? Are these pay-stub records the best documentation that is likely to exist, or would there be other records you would expect to provide a clearer exoneration?

There's a perception that Bush is very selectively releasing paperwork, and that there should be records that "he performed at X place for X hours on X dates"; what are those records? What else is typically in those that might explain why the Bush team won't authorize their release, if they otherwise completely exonerate Bush?

I understand your frustration with the reception over at CalPundit, but from my perspective, I have a hard time understanding why the administration wouldn't just open up his full service record, unless there's something embarrassing (or worse) in there.

If you'd like to, your perspective could help people understand this whole story a lot better, but you have to be willing to look at the raw data from more than one angle.

Frank:

Question for you - why should I look on it with the presumption he's guilty?

BTW, I did when I first looked at the points. Holes? Yeah, a couple. Then I looked closer, spotted UTA weekends that were out of place and obviously makeup.

We had people who were out six to eight months in the unit. You fill out their 40As in advance, get the commander to sign them, and it's no biggie. They're accounted for in the paperwork, and that's all that matters. They make up their time later. It's not a big thing, it's not an unusual thing. It's certainly not a career-killer, and it's nothing to get bent out of shape over.

Re the strikethroughs - that's normal. This was gotten under the Freedom of Information Act, but in accordance with the Privacy Act of 1974, pretty much anything but the name should be marked out. So his service number, weight, marital status, dependents, height got blacked out.

Re the early out - remember this was when VietNam was winding down, and there was a decided surplus of pilots coming back. Plus, the F-102 was being phased out - and he didn't have enough time remaining to justify training him in another aircraft. Why not free up his slot for someone with more seniority coming back from VietNam, especially when he applied for an Early Out?

Re #5 - the Indefinite - that's usual for officers. Their term of service when they're commissioned IS indefinite. When he enlisted, he signed a 6 year contract, but when he got commissioned, that turned into 'Indef'.

Re the lack of signature - that's not unusual at all. It's not like he's enlisting! I'll bet he's got a nice framed certificate on his wall somewhere stating he was 'Honorably Discharged' though.

As far as I'm concerned, his NGB-22 was good enough for me. The points records? Icing on the cake. All the other stuff? You're looking at fluff on the icing. But then, as I said, I dealt with this stuff and know what it means. To someone determined to find fault with it, he could have everything up to and including a certificate signed by the then AF Chief Of Staff, and that wouldn't be good enough.

Hope this helps!

J.

Why should you look at it from more than one angle? Because perspective begets wisdom. You're not likely to notice any inconsistencies in the White House release if you can't look at it objectively.

What about Bush's early release? Was it the equivalent of a student deferment so he could attend business school? Was it common in your experience for people to be released from service early for school?

What about that "Indefinite" term of enlistment?

Finally, given that the administration isn't going to just provide 1LT Bush's personnel file, are the DD-214 and the points summary the best refutation of the claim Bush didn't fulfill his service? Would there be other records that you would want released if you were similarly accused?

I'm trying to look at this from more than one angle -- that's why I'm discussing it with you.

Franak -

Refresh this page, I added some things in my comments to you above, regarding the Early Out and the Indef, and some other bits. I also took out the snarky ending, and I apologize for that.

Are you familiar with the saying "There's a right way, a wrong way, and an Army way?" I'm going with the military interpretation of these things, not with a political slant one way or another. You start slapping in slants, and you end up with a free-for-all of battling interpretations.

In the end, there's only the military interpretation.

Give me a file, blank out the name, don't tell me the affiliation of the person, and I'll do my best to give you what I see as that person's history. And what I see here is someone who served and did his time. If you showed me the NGB-22 with everything blanked out but the 'honorable' up at the top, I'd say they had an honorable discharge. Show me a points listing with the dates, and I'll give you my best interpretation of it.

Politics don't enter into it. I hope this helps.

J.

Jerry,

Sleep well, and thanks for the insights. I went back and read your "Bush wasn't AWOL post" after reading this story, and it left me with one question. You said that Form 40 or 40A tracked an indiviual's presence or absence from a given drill.

You also mentioned that a copy of these stayed with the unit for 3 years, then was destroyed. This being the military, I assume there were other copies; would they also be destroyed?

I find the pay records more convincing than the NGB-22, but if I understand you, there is still the possibility that Bush was away for 6 months, but didn't get reassigned or activated because he was allowed to make up drills that you or I wouldn't have been allowed to make up, and given an honorable discharge for political reasons. The only way to disprove that would be to see the 40A pre-excusing his absence, right?

Frank -

That's correct on the 40As. Considering the administrative requirements, the Guard would have something similar. Might not be a 40A, but it would serve the same function. I'm using 40A as the generic term here.

The 40As at the unit level, and the Form 40s, were destroyed after 3 years per document retention rules. At higher levels, I don't know how long they'd be kept, but I would imagine it to be twice the unit length, or six years. (They'd have more storage space, after all...) And then they'd be trashed.

Re the making up of drills - if you were a Reservist, an E-1 fresh out of Basic, from an unknown family, and you had what your commander considered a good reason to be absent (like a course for EMT training in another state, schooling or family commitments that precluded you training for a while) then it'd be no problem. We did it fairly often, maybe two, three people a year. You didn't need connections, you didn't need rank. All you needed was a good reason. 'I don't want to come to drill weekends' wasn't good enough!

I had my annual tour rescheduled two years in a row after my son was born - I did it over 7 months, two days extra a month. All you need is a reasonable excuse, and the Reserves will work with you. They recognize you've got a Real Life, and if you're in a non-critical position (and being a surplus pilot isn't one) there's no reason to NOT excuse someone.

BTW, when I put my paperwork in to retire (which you have to do 6 months before the date you wish to retire) you're given the option of excusing the next 6 months worth of drill weekends. I decided not to take the excusal, preferring to work out my time.

It was kind of funny. My first day in the Air Force long ago was spent stuffing envelopes - and on my last day I was pulling outdated paperwork out of people's records and putting it in envelopes to mail to them. Full circle... with a long, strange time in between...

J.

That's the military way.

J.

...to leave the past in the past.

I searched for a Master Seargeant who was my supervisor at FE Warren a long time ago. Looks like he passed away 4 years back. Not that we'd kept in touch or anything, but his first and last name was a pretty unique combo, and I always meant to send a letter or card to let him know one of his problem children got straightened out.

Guess it's a bit late for that now...

Social Security Death Index

There's not a one of us that'll be here a hundred years from now - but what we do and how we affect others lives on after we're gone.

J.

Arts and Crafts gone overboard... click on the links for the pictures.

My folks were coming to visit - and we had one room (mine, of course) which I hadn't done a thing with aside from pile boxes into it and get things minimally functional. So, having watched one too many housep0rn shows, I needed to do a makeover! And since the rest of the house is pretty much Southwestern, I decided to elevate things a bit.

I was trying to find a good mural to put up - but couldn't find one. Instead, I did my own. The frame was silver and black spraypainted molding, and the border between the mural and the blue-painted surround is black and silver automotive detail tape. Yep, pinstripe tape. And it works better than I thought it would. Mount a Tix Clock underneath it, and put in the appropriate accessories like a telephone and blue flex conduit, and it looks pretty sharp. Oh, and outlet cover boxes add a certain, um... well, I like the way they look with conduit sticking out of it.

Trying to figure out what to do with the desk - that was a bit of trouble. I thought about painting it, but that was just too much like work. Besides, it matched the bookcases on the other end of the room fairly well. I've got a lot of screws and velcro holding up cords in the back, but a really fortunate find was an LED lamp at Office Max that, when lit casts the proper glow over everything. Add in a glowing keyboard and mouse pad from Xoxide.com, and about the only thing that'd make it look better would be a 3-bank of 21" LCD panels. Well, maybe in 5 years or so I can indulge myself with those...

Another view of the desk Desk 2 shows the scanner - it lives in vain. Interestingly, it's a USB scanner but I can't put it through a USB hub, either powered or unpowered - or the computer won't see it.

I've got a rather tall bookcase that I didn't want to mess up the finish on, but I needed to tie in somehow. I tried the silver paper that I used on the shelves in the front and back, but had a heck of a time getting it to lay flat without wrinkling. (Let's face it, silver gift-wrap paper just doesn't have any tensile strength worth mentioning.) I tried silver mylar sheets, but had the same problem - it wrinkled easily and I didn't want that sort of look.

Finally, after thinking about it a lot, I figured if you can't keep the mylar from wrinkling, you can wrinkle the hell out of it and use it THAT way. And it came out looking pretty good. You'll note the clock further on, connected with the ubiquitous blue flex conduit...

And the fan. Oh, THAT was a lot of fun! I'm glad I was able to find the proper fan for this. It wouldn't be inaccurate to say that this one fan sparked a lot of other ideas. You'll notice the blue flex conduit to the track lighting... And another view of it all is here. The controller for the track lights is in the box on the ceiling, and I've got it set for about 90% brightness on the bulbs in the track lighting. Naturally, I've got a remote control set up on the fan, and a motion-sensing switch to provide power. Uunfortunately, the way the room is wired, there wasn't any convenient way to get electricity to the track lighting separately. It would have looked pretty bad if I'd tried.

You may have noticed some labels scattered here and there, and wonder what they say. Here's 1 sheet and another. A third isn't available on this system to upload. Caution - they're rather large .bmp files - I haven't optimized them yet.

Well, hope you enjoy the pictures. I know I could do more with the geek factor (and more blue conduit, and maybe painting the ceiling black, putting in fiber optic stars and constellations and such), but time was limited and my budget stretched to the max. As it was, I had fun putting it all together, but kind of look forward to not haunting Home Depot and Lowes for a while...

J.

Comments are in the extended entry...

Looks like there were only 4 I really thought worth saving.

Them's the breaks.

J.

And I immediately felt a disconnect. You start off IN THE MIDDLE of a monumental space battle, and things just seem to keep going from there. For lack of a better term, the scale felt wrong. It's as if the original Star Wars movie started midway through the attack on the Death Star. The pace was darn near frantic.

As far as the acting goes, the only person who seemed to fit in character was Obi-Wan. Padme' died at a convenient point as Luke and Leia were born. (Losing the will to live? WTF? Damn, talk about a 'delicate princess'.) Annakin was a whiny teen-ager with no self-confidence, despite the praise of folks around him. And his turning to the dark side - sheesh. Talk about forced as hell... "Darth Sidious, what must I do to get my knowledge of the Force to the point where I can keep Padme' from dying in childbirth?" (I was tempted to say, "Get her to a decent obstetrictian, you fool!") Darth Sidious tells him "Slaughter everyone in the Jedi Temple, even the kids." Whinykin goes "Righto, boss! They never appreciated me anyway" and goes off to slaughter everyone.

And what's this with Obi-wan not finishing the damn job? Yeah, you've got a charred near-corpse on your hands, but he could TELL Annakin was still alive. And he turns and leaves him for dead? At the least, he should have been put out of his misery - and just think of the problems THAT would have saved in episodes 4, 5, and 6! (Then again, there might not have been those episodes without Darth Vader.)

So. The overall rating - A+ for special effects. D for plot. D for acting. It does tie up a lot of loose ends, but... man. I've waited a long time for this movie, and I feel like I got more than my money's worth of something I didn't want in the first place.

J.

(And this isn't one I'll get the video on.)

Now, if I could just figure out how to narrow the darn margins...

J.

Yesterday's shooting in the London tube... well...

Man killed in London 'unconnected' to blasts - Attacks on London - MSNBC.com

A spokesman for the Muslim Association of Britain, Azzam Tamimi, said that "people will be afraid to walk the streets now, to take the tube.
"I feared that we'd arrive at this conclusion," he told the British Broadcasting Corp. "To give license to people to shoot someone dead like that on the basis of suspicion is very frightening."
"The problem in this particular incident is that the person seems to be colored, seems to be Asian. Now he can be of any religion, from any roots or region. this will cause a great anxiety and concern," Tamimi said.
The man, described as being a South Asian, had emerged from a nearby house that was under surveillance because of a suspected link to Thursday's attempted attacks on three subway trains and a public bus. According to police, he was followed by officers.
At the station, he was challenged by police and asked to stop and witnesses said he ran into a subway car where officers shot him about five times at point blank range.

The people who have bombed London (In fact, who have perpetrated the majority of the bombings worldwide in the last 10 years, not to mention put up shitloads of beheadings and other good stuff on the Internet) were Muslim. It's a common factor, and it cannot be ignored. They were of Arabic descent, in alsmot all cases. That too is a common factor that can't be ignored. Because of the actions within the Muslim community, because of actions by MUSLIM terrorists, people are ALREADY afraid to take the tube, ALREADY afraid to walk the streets... and it's not because they're afraid of getting shot!

If you were troubleshooting computers, and started noticing common problems (say with a particular video card) when a system comes in with that particular problem you automatically check that the video card is at fault. You may mess around a bit and see if updating the drivers will help, but if you see certain symptoms you're going to focus on what's caused that problem in the past. You're not going to deny that there's a problem with the video card.

The police HAVE to act if they suspect a bomber. When someone acts like a bomber (wearing padded clothing, running from the police, and attempting to get into a crowd) the day AFTER 4 attempted bombs failed... what are the police reasonably supposed to do? Wait and see if he blows up... and then get slammed for NOT killing the suspected bomber? Or suppose they tackle him and don't kill him - and he's got a deadman switch hooked to a bomb belt? Congrats - you just lost a lot of police as well as a bunch of bystanders.

So, I'm afraid my sympathy-meter's not budging on this one. And I'm sad about that, because I was pretty certain at one time that Islam was a peaceful religion. The more I see of it - the less I think I was right.

J.

And with the violence coming from the Muslim community, you'd think it would get a lot more press.

AV Press: AV Muslims take to street

PALMDALE - "Islam is Peace," the signs read as about 100 Muslims and supporters from across the Antelope Valley offered that message to their fellow residents in a street-corner rally Friday evening.
Drivers answered by honking their horns and returning peace signs. Two sheriff's squad cars idled in the old K-Mart parking lot for security, but deputies said no problems were reported.
Asema Sultan immigrated to the United States from Pakistan 24 years ago and has lived in Palmdale for 15 years.
The sign she carried said: "Not in our name."
"Killing any person is not right," she said. "Jihad is an inner struggle, not killing people."
Her concept of jihad is not often heard among those who purport to carry out holy war in the name of Islam.
Jihad, Sultan explained, should be thought of as "restraining desires, resisting from evil."
"Good doesn't come easily," she said. "You have to sacrifice to do good."
As she spoke, a young white man drove by in a beat-up black car, honking his horn and waving his middle finger at the gathered Muslims.
Sultan shrugs it off.
"There are all kinds of people," she said. "They just need more education, that's all.
"We don't blame them. They will learn one day."

J.

The Real Cuba

Nice place to visit - hell of a place to have to live...

J.

Well, we're back on-line here. Gotten things rebuilt, slowly redoing the site to get it looking the way I want. The 3.2 MT upgrade carashed, and crashed hard - and I found my backups weren't usable. Then there was another little thing, apparently the hosting package I'd chosen from 1and1 didn't allow custom CGI scripting, so... I couldn't rebuild things. I upgraded to their Pro hosting (I figure as much time as I spend fiddling with Milblog I can justify the cost of three paperbacks every two months....) and rebuilt the site as well as I could. There's stuff that's missing, and I'll be needing to tweak things, but overall we're functional again.

It's been one heck of a good time. You don't learn anything from the easy problems...

J.

Okay, that's wierd.

local6.com - Slideshow

SALT LAKE CITY -- For $10,000, Kari Smith has gone ahead and had her forehead tattooed with the Web address of a gambling site. Bountiful, 30, who sold her unusual advertising space on eBay, said the money will give her 11-year-old son a private education, which she believes he needs after falling behind in school.

You know, with all they do with tattoos and ink, you'd think it would have looked a bit... classier. Come on, you couldn't at least have done it in cursive?

J.

And you might want to go over to Yetanotherjournal to offer your sympathy.

We become our parents, one day at a time. There's no escaping it.

J.

Rep. Tancredo mentioned this as a possible response to a nuclear attack on a US city. Immediately, people started scrambling as fast and far as possible to get away from this madman who advocates using nuclear weapons.

Ah, that's nuclear weapons if attacked FIRST, that is...

Naturally, people don't want to see nukes used. Hell, I don't want to see the things used - probably with better reason than most. However, if I can point to our recent histroy, the threat of using nuclear weapons WAS effective and DID prevent them from being used.

One of the things that kept the USSR and the US from tossing nukes over the pole was (IMHO) the certainty in the Kremlin that while they might get a good bite off us, they'd get their brains smashed out in return. Mutual Assured Destruction may have been insane, but letting the USSR know that WE weren't going to use nukes first, but by god we'd use them last made them think twice. Self-preservation kicked in, and nobody started a nuclear war.

The Islamists, however, I don't think have that sort of restraint. They WANT to die, as long as by dying they can strike at their enemy... which is basically everyone who doesn't believe EXACTLY as they do. The self-preservation that kept the folks in the Kremlin from doing something stupid simply isn't there.

This, IMHO, is a damn bad thing and significantly reduces the chances of a nuke not going off in the next ten years.

By announcing that we were ready and willing to turn Moscow into hot dust through initial applications of ICBMs and SLBMs and then sending B-52s over to increase the glaze level, we made it excrutiatingly clear what would happen if they tried to jump us.

And they didn't try.

As far as the Islamic fanatics go, I haven't a clue what would dissuade them. There's little short of the threat of nuking Mecca that would do it, I think. And even a reformation movement within Islam to emphasize the non-violent aspects, thereby hopefully changing the attitudes of those who see a great virtue in nuking NY or LA might be totally counteracted by the Islamic equivalent of the Fred Phelps/Westboro Baptist Church crowd - who in telling the nihilistic fringe within Islam what they want to hear would give them justification to continue their jihad. (And the decentralized, fragmented nature of Islam virtually guarantees there'd be some authoritative asshole available for 24/7 Jihad validation.)

I almost agree with Tancredo - we NEED to have an announcement about what we'll do if we get nuked. Our politicians having hysterical reactions over even the possibility of a mention of a nuclear response if a Western city gets nuked doesn't give me warm fuzzies about them having thought all this out.

The one encouraging thing in my point of view is that they haven't apparently gotten hold of nukes YET. I don't think they'd have the self-restraint to avoid using them, or to use them strategically. They get a working nuke, and there goes a major city somewhere. (Likely Israel - and I dare say that if THEY get hit with a nuke, all hell's going to break out in the ME.)

We need a policy. We need an ANNOUNCED policy. We need an announced DEFINITIVE policy, like the MAD assurance we had in the '70s and '80s. Without it, we're in trouble. Tancredo's right - it needs to be talked about. Ignoring the possibility won't erase it. It'd be nice to believe that were true... but it manifestly isn't.

J.

Microsoft dubs new software ‘Windows Vista’ - Tech News & Reviews - MSNBC.com

SEATTLE - Microsoft Corp. said Friday it named the next version of its operating system “Windows Vista” as it prepares to release a trial version of the flagship software that already runs on nine out of 10 personal computers worldwide.
(MSNBC is a Microsoft-NBC joint venture.)
Windows Vista, formerly known by its code-name Longhorn, is scheduled to launch in the second half of 2006, five years after Windows XP, the longest time lag between releases of its Windows operating system.

What makes it sad is, we've only recently (IE last year or so) gotten WinXP the standard load out at the plant. When I got in there we had a mix of Win 98 and NT, then we slowly phased out the NT for 2000, then standardized on Win2k. Now we're gonna have to think about looking at getting all the software, Nastran/Patran, QADS, MATS and the like recertified for WinV?

Damn, did I ever pick the right field to make a career in! (grin) I figure two more Windows revisions, and I'll be ready to retire.

J.

You just need to know when to ignore the gauges.

Shuttle prepared to ‘go’ with a glitch - Return to Flight - MSNBC.com

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - NASA has cleared a plan to launch the space shuttle Discovery even if a mysterious fuel-gauge glitch reappears during the countdown toward a Tuesday launch attempt, mission managers said.

Managers finished hammering out the details of the plan on Sunday afternoon, 11 days after the glitch forced a halt to the countdown for NASA's first shuttle mission in more than two years.

And apparently the test they were doing was supposed to cause the gauges to read "Empty", but one was refusing to indicate "E".

Supposedly the Shuttle's going to be retired in 2010. They'd better get their asses working on a replacement.

J.

world jump day

Heh.

J.

Makes you wonder if the numbers China's putting out don't add up.

China Withholds Key H5N1 Bird Flu Data

Authorities also haven't responded to a WHO request to be allowed to visit the Xinjiang region in China's northwest, where there have been reports of a bird flu outbreak along the border with Kazakhstan, said Roy Wadia, a spokesman for WHO's Beijing office.

Chinese authorities have yet to release samples gathered in the western province of Qinghai, where at least 6,000 migratory birds have died, Wadia said.

"It would be useful if information on the virus was shared with the international agencies concerning bird flu, or if it were deposited at gene banks as per the usual procedures in these cases," Wadia said.

Not good, either way. Hope like anything we're not looking at a worldwide die-off.

J.

It should make things a bit easier - if you've got a Typekey account then your comments should appear immediately. Supposedly.

So far, no spammers have hit. Perhaps I don't have enough entries yet, or there's a certain date back that they shove crap into, figuring nobody will notice it. (Come to think of it, I rarely saw spam or trackback spam on anything less than a couple of months old...)

BTW, Bellman - I changed the stylesheet some. Does it look better now? It seems to be a bit smoother in IE and Firefox.

J.

I've been wondering why pop music seems to have gone downhill since Milli Vanilli were outed as talentless lip synchers. I figured it was because people had a sudden attack of sheer musical aphasia, and couldn't tell decent stuff from garbage. Take someone pretty, teach her some dance moves, post-process her voice all to hell, and then push your new star.

FOXNews.com - Foxlife - Fox411 - Payola Shocker: J-Lo Hits, Others Were 'Bought' by Sony

I always say when people ask me that the so-called vipers of the movie business would not last a day in the record business. Now Eliot Spitzer's office has decided to prove the point.
"Please be advised that in this week's Jennifer Lopez Top 40 Spin Increase of 236 we bought 63 spins at a cost of $3,600."
"Please be advised that in this week's Good Charlotte Top 40 Spin Increase of 61 we bought approximately 250 spins at a cost of $17K …"
Ironically, it didn't help, as the memo notes that the company actually lost spins — or plays of the record — even though they laid out money for them.
See above: The internal memos from Sony Music, revealed today in the New York state attorney general's investigation of payola at the company, will be mind blowing to those who are not so jaded to think records are played on the radio because they're good. We've all known for a long time that contemporary pop music stinks. We hear "hits" on the radio and wonder, "How can this be?"

Contrast today's stars with ABBA (which she who must be obeyed really likes), and you come up way, way short on the talent end. (ABBA, even if you must make fun of them, had a hell of a run - and it was because they weren't putting on their music like a layer of makeup. Their songs were simple, easy to remember and dance to. I'm probably turning into an old fart, but I don't think there's much being played now that'll be remembered in 5 years, much less 20.)

And they wonder why their stars just don't last... Michael Jackson had sheer raw talent, even if he did turn into a perv. Frank Sinata had talent, and he spent his life singing. Today's 'stars'? Well, you won't miss what was never there in the first place. And in ten years, they'll be doing something else.

Let the industry go for talent instead of looks. Go for a lot of talent, a wide range - not one or two mega-divas who look good but can't sing. Use the shotgun approach - you're more likely to get a hit if you've got 50 singers than you would with one. And don't focus on the looks! As American Idol proved, there's a lot of talent out there - but it's not gonna look like Jessica Simpson. It'd be good if the record companies could remember that.

J.

Realistically, they can't do anything else.

BBC NEWS | UK | 'Shoot-to-kill' policy to remain

Police leaders say they will not abandon their "shoot-to-kill" policy and warn more innocent people could be killed in the fight against terrorism.

The message came after Brazilian Jean Charles de Menezes, 27, was shot dead by officers in London after being mistaken for a suicide bomber.

Met Police Chief Sir Ian Blair said "shoot-to-kill in order to protect" would continue, despite the "tragedy".

Police are still questioning three men in connection with Thursday's attacks.

Sir Ian has apologised for the killing of Mr Menezes, but defended the actions of his officers.

Well, don't be surprised if their attentions to you are less than friendly. The police CANNOT take the chance you're not a bomber. If you move like one, dress to look like one, and when startled head toward a bunch of people like a bomber would - don't be terribly surpried if you get shot in the head.

Maybe this guy was just going to try some performance art. Maybe he was a test subject for real bombers. Maybe he was just stupid. But the cops couldn't take the chance he wasn't a bomber when he ran for the train.

One thing I'll guarantee - the people howling today about the cops killing him will howl just as loud when the cops have a chance to shoot a suspected bomber and don't... and the bomber blows himself up in a crowd.

"Damned if you do, damned if you don't..." - the London police ought to adopt that as a motto. It's for damn sure the truth.

J.

You can find SO many interesting things.

Nuclear Weapon Diagrams

Not terrifically accurate, mind you - but interesting....

J.

The Eerie Sounds of Saturn's Radio Emissions

Sounds like something out of Forbidden Planet. Enjoy.

J.

Hmmm. This just doesn't sit right.

KDKA: Governor Apologizes to Marine's Family

Family members say Catherine Baker Knoll came uninvited to last Tuesday's funeral for 32-year old Marine Staff Sergeant Joseph Goodrich of the city's Westwood neighborhood, passed out her business cards and made a remark about the government being against the war. "We were sitting there and Catherine Baker Knoll sat down, handed her a business card and said I just want you to know I attend 90 per cent of these functions and our government is against this war," said Goodrich's sister in law Rhonda Goodrich. "It's been pretty hard to deal with just to think that an elected official of Pennsylvannia would show up at a heroe's funeral and pretty much make it like he died in vain." The governor, who said he hasn't spoken to Knoll about the incident, says he thinks her actions were misunderstood. "I don't think she was campaigning for office. I think it was her way of saying if you need any help, or if you have questions about where to go to get benefits, please call me."

"I just want you to know I attend 90 per cent of these functions and our government is against this war"

just doesn't parse out to me as

"... jf you need any help, or if you have questions about where to go to get benefits, please call me."

Note that she's not reported as saying she was there to help. The two statements just don't fit together at all, given what was reported. A funeral's just not the place to be campaigning. Or even seeming like it.

J.

Looks like Discovery made it into orbit.

NASA - Return to Flight

By the way, Congress has allocated NASA's budget for the next two years. That'll be enough to get something started - and then they can play stupid political/financial tricks again...

J.

Got the first three chunks'o'spam in the last few hours. So, time to install either Blacklist or something else. Yay.

I'll try not to crash the site again. (grin)

J.

If not, you really should. This is reporting at it's finest.

Michael Yon : Online Magazine: Empty Jars

The enemy in Iraq does not appear to be weakening; if anything, they are becoming smarter, more complicated and deadlier. But this does not mean they are winning; to imply that getting smarter and deadlier equates to winning, is fallacious. Most accounts of the situation in Iraq focus on enemy "successes" (if success is re-defined as annihiliation of civility), while redacting the increasing viability and strength of the Iraqi government, which clearly is outpacing the insurgency.

The Mosul police are now strong enough to launch successful undercover operations, and have been fanning out across Mosul and surrounding villages, snooping and listening for snippets. On July 15th, police working undercover in a village Northwest of Mosul heard a group of villagers talking about a weapons cache, but the location was not mentioned. Iraqi forces locked down the village, searched and found a weapons depot from Syria into Mosul. Iraqi police also found and rescued the 28 year-old woman I mentioned briefly in the last dispatch. She was the wife of a Mosul journalist, and had been kidnapped and held for ransom by members of a beheading cell. After the village search, police hauled four men to a Mosul station for interrogation, and alerted the Americans.

J.

I admit I have to wonder here...

NASA grounds future shuttle flights - Return to Flight - MSNBC.com

SPACE CENTER, Houston - The shuttle Discovery, like Columbia, lost a large chunk of foam debris during liftoff that could have threatened the return of the seven astronauts, NASA said Wednesday.
While there are no signs the piece of insulation damaged the spacecraft, NASA is grounding future shuttle flights until the hazard can be fixed.

The stuff they've got on it looks like spray polyurethane. And that stuff, even though it's pretty durable, can come apart. So it would seem to me the best bet would be to embed something that'd keep it together. Stitch a parachute-shaped cap on the top, and cape it down the sides, and put it on while the foam is still good and tacky. Then poke it just under the surface - and that'd stop the foam from peeling off.

But I'm sure there's good reason why they haven't considered doing that.

J.

Odd that this isn't getting more press. Then again, probably not all that odd...

The Story the Media Are Missing in the Middle East

“It is not police and intelligence community which defeat terrorism; it’s communities that beat terrorism,” remarked London’s police commissioner, Sir Ian Blair. But the Muslim community, argues David Gardner, is in the midst of “a war of ideas.” “If it’s a Muslim problem,” retorts Tom Friedman, “it needs a Muslim solution.” Indeed, he concludes, “the double-decker buses of London and the subways of Paris, as well as the covered markets of Riyadh, Bali and Cairo, will never be secure as long as the Muslim village and elders do not take on, delegitimize, condemn and isolate the extremists in their midst.”

Friedman is right. The problem is that every ambitious young Muslim knows that the best way to gain “five minutes of fame” is to blow oneself up to murder others and the second best, to spout extremist slogans. The worse way to attract attention is to condemn terror and extremism. Indeed, the same Western media which keeps highlighting the “successes,” sophistication and supposed popularity of the extremists, willfully ignores the efforts of the moderates. You would not know it from reading the press, but Muslims feel under enormous pressure to save their own image as civilized human beings and the image of their religion as one to which a respectable human being can adhere.

I hope this will get more press.

J.

Well, yeah... but there's factors to be considered...

J.

But I think we're going to have to get out of the mindset that discrimination is wrong when it comes to possible terrorists. There is no reason whatsoever that my parents (86 and 87) or my mother-in-law (80 - sorry to give your age away, Mum) should receive the same sort of attention at the airport that a young Arabic Muslim male with Pakistan stamps in his passport should get. No reason, that is, except to avoid screams of discrimination and racism from the Muslim community.

Yeah, I know. Someone might be offended at the extra scrutiny. It's not 'fair' that folks who are visibly NOT of Arabic descent, who are NOT young males should get a pass. And we're all about 'fair', aren't we?

Not that I think the current policies are all bad - not at all. Frankly, I think whenever most people fly they're so pissed off by the time they make it through security that they'd welcome the stress relief of pounding a hijacker into paste. But that's an unintended and inadvertent (possibly beneficial) side effect of the stupidity of the policy that requires elderly women in wheelchairs to be suspected as potential hijackers.

Fortunately, it looks like the UK is taking a more sensible approach. Maybe we can learn something from them. They've apparently decided that if someone comes into the country preaching hate, that they might actually MEAN what they say. And although this has been tolerated in the past (in the name of political correctness and tolerance) it looks like they've hit the limit, and the policy is going to change.

Charles Krauthammer: Improving our odds against terror

Britain's problem, however, is not just an alienated minority but a suicidal civic openness that permits sheiks and imams to openly preach jihad against Britain. The United States, for all of its openness, does not tolerate this kind of treason. Just this month, an imam from Virginia was put away for life for the kind of incitement that makes Sheik Omar Bakri a sought-after media presence in Britain.

Britain is now desperately trying to correct its never-neverland hospitality to agitators and inciters. It is proud of its long history of harboring exiles, misfits and revolutionaries from just about everywhere. After all, Karl Marx lived, wrote and died in London. But 52 dead and the near-miss two weeks later are helping Britain place necessity above nostalgia.

After 9/11 the security inspections which were designed to keep handguns from going on planes went to ridiculous lengths. Meanwhile, the idea of actually targeting the sex/age/ethnic group which the hijackers came from for extra scrutiny was so roundly criticized that I had a hard time believing it.

So really, it's like this. We can keep pretending that the hijacker/terrorist threat can equally come from elderly folks and small children and families on vacation as well as men of a certain age, ethnicity and religion, and waste a lot of resources screening EVERYONE, so no one will feel offended.

Or, we can focus on the known characteristics of the terrorists.

We've been programmed that it's wrong to single anyone out because of age, sex, or religion - and that's usually a good idea. However, when such programming becomes contra-survival then survival must replace programming. If it doesn't, then long-term survival gets damn iffy.

J.

..is the title of this post from James Lileks. And in it, I think he hits the nail on the head.

Now if we could only get a few hundred tankers of live-and-let-live juice brewed up...

LILEKS (James) Screeeeeeedblog

I had long conversations about Islam and Christianity with cabbies in DC, and they always ended with happy faces and salaam and go in peace. I’ve no doubt millions and millions of Muslims are content to let the Christians go about their errant path, content that in the end a just God will say okay, you crazy lug, you’re in. Just as millions of Christians are willing to say Koran, Shmoran, you’re just and upright and believe in the One Big Guy, meet you at the Old Country Buffet in the sky. Bacon bits on my side, hummus on yours, whatever. But when you have your Clash of Civilizations, people retreat. MOOOON GODDDD! Oh yeah? Cough up the dhimmi tax, kaffir!

The point is not to get to that point. We are seriously need in live-and-let-live juice applied globally by aerosol spray, the sort of thing that makes people swallow big chunky doctrinal differences and concentrate simply on the idea of a God who is out of the smiting business for the time being. Take that as your daily verse: smite not. And the first one who says “but” gets sent howling down to hell? Smite not. Tomorrow, smite we might. After a day of not smiting we might actually refocus and agree who is smite-worthy, who truly profanes God’s gifts. But today? Smite-free.

It was a good start when President Bush had a revered Imam speak at the National Cathedral after 9/11. Now it would be nice for the Saudis to invite the Pope to speak at Mecca.

Ball’s in your court, guys.

I'm tolerant of a lot of things. I'm definitely live-and-let-live when it comes to religion. Don't want to go to church? fine by me. Actively disbelieve? Not a problem, just don't try to impose your disbeliefs on others. Go to a different church? Fine by me. Believe differently? That's no skin off my whatever, have fun. Think rolling eggs in the snow in the middle of a winter's night naked will bring the spring? Whatever, just watch out for frostbite. Drink fresh goat or cow blood as part of the worship ceremony? Hey, no thanks but you go right ahead and have my share, just invite me to the BBQ later. 14 wives? Well, you're the one who has to deal with 14 mothers in law but that's your choice.

I'm cool with whatever you might want to do when it comes to religion. Humans like social structures, and a religion isn't the worst social structure you could build.

Where I part on religious tolerance is when your religion mandates I convert or I'll be fair game and marked for death. I don't see why I should be called upon to tolerate being turned into a free-roving target, or why I should believe that after announcing same that I shouldn't believe you're serious about it. Metaphor, schmetaphor, you tell me you want to kill me because I don't believe as you do and it seems like you're the one being pretty damn intolerant - not me for objecting to being a target of your hatred.

J.

However, it's a bit far out.

SPACE.com -- Large New World Discovered Beyond Neptune

A newfound object in our solar system's outskirts may be larger than any known world after Pluto, scientists said today.
It also has a moon.

Designated as 2003 EL61, the main object in the two-body system is 32 percent as massive as Pluto and is estimated to be about 70 percent of Pluto's diameter.
Other news reports that the object could be twice as big as Pluto are false, according to two astronomers who found the object in separate studies and another expert who has analyzed the data.

Man. I don't even want to THINK what midsummer would be like there...

J.

At least, judging from the cover over at Power Line: My Kind of Journalism.

Of course, the Sun's always been a bit on the tabloid side. Still, I imagine this cover's going to sell a hell of a lot of papers.

I think 7/7 and 7/21 were a bit of a wakeup call for them. The "Why do they hate us" crowd lost their excuse that the countries the bombers grew up in were mired in poverty and kept down by the West. When the bombers came from within England, they had to look elsewhere for the cause.

And I don't think they like what they saw.

J.

Ask-Imam.com [14329] According to the Islamic law, how would the leader of a Muslim state should act against an element or group of people also Muslim causing physical damage to the property of the state?

That's a good question. However, the answer isn't so good.

With regards to government ship and leadership, it has been clearly emphasized in the teachings and laws of Islam that the Muslims should unite and choose one leader whom they must obey, even if they will suffer worldly losses due to his leadership. At no cost should they rebel against him and he must be obeyed at all times. By going against an oppressive Muslim leader, the Muslims will suffer globally and the benefit will be of a very less degree in comparison to the harm. It is for this very reason that the ruler has permission to wage war against any rebels and to suppress their power, materially and physically. Therefore, if the public property is destroyed by a rebel group they will liable for the damages

Under normal circumstances, it is incorrect to seek assistance from a Kaafir leader against an unjust Muslim leader, as experiences have proved that this results in more benefit for the disbelievers than the Muslims. The secret behind the disbelievers having the upper hand over Muslims is, that they created the greed for material entities amongst the Muslims. They also stirred the love of nationalism amongst them, thus causing them to fight amongst themselves due to different reason, sometimes even causing them to fight over minor differences in religion. As a result, the Muslims not only lacked strength but became mentally enslaved to the disbelievers.

Presently, there are a number of free Muslim countries and governments, but not a single government is free to act upon his own policy, despite the weaponry, material and physical strength. Therefore, if all the Muslim governments decide to form one force, they will not be able to do so. The disbelievers have a notion, that fire should be fought with fire; the enemy must be destroyed with an enemy. Muslims are advised to live in a careful and wise manner.

There's parts that read like a teen-age agony column. Eyebrow plucking, (no-no) masturbation (a sin) showing of hair indoors in private (a no-no, you show disrespect to the angels around you) - I sure hope this is a spoof site.

J.

Over at Normblog, I spotted the following.

The ideology of multiculturalism, after a long period of widespread acceptance, is currently coming under attack: its claim that all cultures must be given equal respect, and that any deviation from this amounts to victimization, may have led us seriously to underestimate the need for social cohesion. In any case, whether or not our present lethal lack of cohesion can be attributed to the rise of multiculturalism, the moral relativism implicit in that view always made it a dubious position to hold. But the discourse of human rights is far better founded, and provides us, partly because it is so deeply anti-relativist, with the moral apparatus for protecting everyone from oppression, no matter what culture they are part of or what polity they live under. It can do this because the very idea of individual human rights is the idea of a block on the demands of the general good; an insistence that individuals have claims and interests that mustn't be overridden by the needs of society.

Human rights are an indispensable part of a morally decent society (though the eager embracing of victimhood is not, and there's no doubt that the discourse of human rights has, along with multiculturalism, encouraged many to regard the status of victim of rights-violation as the most attractive one going, and hence to reach for it at the slightest provocation). But protection from those whose direct intention is to kill the innocent is also indispensable. Such protection may require us to be more ready to accept defensive policies which constrain, or in emergency infringe, individual rights than we've hitherto been accustomed to. In the issues raised by Alibhai-Brown's insistence that Muslim worry about the danger from the police to young Muslim men must take precedence over worries about the danger to all of us from suicide bombers, we can see the moral substratum supporting our ways of thinking about social relations beginning to shift. The demand that we reject policies which might disadvantage members of one group more than another is coming up against the requirement that within broad moral constraints we should do what is most effective in preventing murderous attacks on all of us.

J.