Rusted Sky

Finger points to British intelligence as al-Qaeda websites are wiped out - Sunday Times - Times Online

Over the past fortnight Israeli intelligence agents have noticed something distinctly odd happening on the internet. One by one, Al-Qaeda’s affiliated websites have vanished until only a handful remain, write Uzi Mahnaimi and Alex Pell.
Someone has cut the line of communication between the spiritual leaders of international terrorism and their supporters. Since 9/11 the websites have been the main links to disseminate propaganda and information.

--------

In response to the London bombings, apparently the authorities have decided to drop the sham of political correctness. From This is London...

British Transport Police have been targeting specific ethnic groups for "intelligence-led" stop-and-searches as part of their heightened security measures.

BTP Chief Constable Ian Johnston said that his officers would not "waste time searching old white ladies".

J.

I've been playing "StarScape" by Moonpod for quite a while now, at least in the demo mode. I finally shelled out for an unlock code... and been playing it from 3 to 4 hours a night for about three, four weeks now. Yes, it's been hell on sleep, but it's been worth it.

I've often wondered if I've got an addictive personality, at least for some things. I used to pump dimes and quarters into pinball machines like crazy, from about age 7 on. And we won't even talk about video games - I'd estimate I probably spent enough to buy five or six of the things when they first started coming out in the late '70s. From Pong it was all downhill. (I wonder if there's a Videogames Anonymous?)

But I guess I shouldn't complain. That fascination with video games got me interested in computers, and after getting out of the AF in '84 I was able to stay more or less employed in that field through a couple of recessions. There were a few years where I had to make choices between food or car insurance a couple of times, rent was iffy, and my attempt to be an independent consultant was a mixed success at best (actually, more of a mixed failure) but it was all grist for the mill and I learned a lot over the years.

One thing I still enjoy, however, are the games. Doom & Doom 2 I played for hours - until I started anthropormorphizing the monsters. Storyline be damned, here I was just bopping around and wasting them. Got to feeling guilty, of all things, because I'd just haul out the BFG 5000 on God mode and waste them all...

Quake came out, and although visually it was EXCELLENT, I'd had my fill of gore and guts. Besides, I had recently married and I had other things on my mind.

I'd seen the banner ads for Starscape a number of places and finally downloaded the demo one slow day. One quick play of their 'Instant Action' mode, and I was hooked. After figuring out what to do there, I went to the "Survival" mode, and got my ass kicked roundly.

Finally I decided it was time to spring for the full version - I figured even if the overall plot and play was lame, I'd still enjoyed the demos enough to justify tossing a few bucks their way. Turns out I got more than my money's worth, and it's a good surprise when that happens.

I suppose if I were younger I'd be going more for the overtly violent games, like GTA and such - but to me an old-school 2D shooter with a plot line is preferable. Besides, with the tendency I've got to anthropormorphize the targets after a while, something like GTA would get real difficult real fast. Yeah, I know it's only pixels - but if you wanted to wax philosophical there's not a whole lot of difference between our perception of images on a screen and what we see in real life. Seems to me if you get used to treating people like garbage in a game, then it'd likely bleed over into real life.

If you're looking for a shooter-style game that's a challenge, yet doesn't leave you feeling like you were swimming in blood, I'd really suggest 'Starscape'. Your money - and time - will be well-spent.

As for me - I'm looking forward to getting more than 4 hours sleep a night for a while.... until the NEXT decent game sucks up my snooze time!

J.

New York Daily News - City News - B'klyn pol backs subway profiling

A Brooklyn Assemblyman says the NYPD is handcuffed by political correctness in the war on terrorism - and should profile subway passengers for bag searches.
"The individuals involved look basically like this," Dov Hikind (D-Brooklyn) said yesterday, brandishing a printout of the FBI's most wanted terrorists - all with Arabic names, most with facial hair, some wearing turbans.
"Why should a policeman have to think twice before examining people of a particular group?" Hikind asked. "They all look a certain way. It's all very nice to be politically correct here, but we're talking about terrorism."

We've been in reaction mode the last three years, lurching from plan to plan. And all of it with an overlaid context that "Profiling = Racism" and "The only fair way to search is search EVERYONE the same" - when it was pretty clear there were common factors in the profiles of the terrorists.

I really don't get the emphatic refusal by some to admit that it makes more sense to concentrate on particular groups when inspecting people at the airport. As a simile, from a hardware standpoint... say you assemble computers. You use network cards from makers X, Y, and Z. You notice that systems with network cards from X and Y have no problems, while you get a 10% failure rate on maker Z's cards.

Do you:

Spend manhours testing each card you have in stock, just to make sure they're all good? (You've got lots of each, and a tight budget for overtime...)

Spend manhours testing random samples of X, Y, and Z?

Spend manhours testing random samples of X and Y and do a 50% test of Z?

Spend manhours testing Z 100%, and monitor returns on X and Y to see if you need to start testing those cards also?

What's the most cost-effective way to stop the bad hardware from going out the door? From a hardware standpoint, it makes sense to discriminate. Not doing so doesn't make you more effective and efficient at getting hardware out the door - or passengers through an airport or subway system.

And the NYPD apparently's not a fan of the idea.

But the NYPD says it isn't in the profiling business - and doesn't think singling out members of an ethnic group would work, anyway. "Racial profiling is illegal, of doubtful effectiveness, and against department policy," the NYPD said in a statement.

Update: Looks like some get it.

2 NY Officials Back Terror Check Profiling

NEW YORK -- Arabs should be targeted for searches on city subways, two elected officials said, contending that the police department has been wasting time with random checks in its effort to prevent terrorism in the transit system.

The city began examining passengers' bags on subways and buses after the second bomb attack in London two weeks ago. Police Commissioner Ray Kelly and Mayor Michael Bloomberg have said several times that officers will not racially profile.

But over the weekend, state Assemblyman Dov Hikind said police should be focusing on those who fit the "terrorist profile."

"They all look a certain way," said Hikind, a Democrat from Brooklyn. "It's all very nice to be politically correct here, but we're talking about terrorism."

And on Tuesday, City Councilman James Oddo, a Republican from Staten Island, said that his emotions relating to the Sept. 11, 2001, World Trade Center attack by Middle Eastern men in hijacked airplanes caused him to publicly declare his support for Hikind's statements.

"The reality is that there is a group of people who want to kill us and destroy our way of life," he said. "Young Arab fundamentalists are the individuals undertaking these acts of terror, and we should keep those facts prominently in our minds and eyes as we attempt to secure our populace."

But the director of the New York chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, Wissam Nasr, said their push for racial profiling is offensive and ignorant because "terror comes in all shapes and sizes, and certainly there's no legislation or system that's going to identify terrorists on the spot."

In response to Hikind's suggestion, the New York Police Department said in a statement that racial profiling is "illegal, of doubtful effectiveness and against department policy."

The Republican mayor reiterated Tuesday that it is against the law and doesn't work.

"I'm against it for fairness reasons, and we're not going to do it," he said.

The New York Civil Liberties Union opposes the searches, saying they violate the Fourth Amendment. The mayor said he hoped the NYCLU would recognize that the city has struck the right balance between security and protecting constitutional rights.

J.

Bringing up the question whether profiling is common sense or racism, I got the following comment:

The right legislation and system, perhaps with the help of State Assemblyman Dov Hikind, can certainly enable law enforcement officers more efficiently and effectively focusing on those who fit the "terrorist profile."

"Male, Arabic, Islamic and young. That covers 99.9% of the head-hackers and suicide bombers."

Since law enforcement officers cannot tell a terrorist's faith by appearance alone, we need to have law to require muslims to wear an armband with a "crescent moon and star" emblem as identification.

Those who are muslims and Arabic will have a RED "crescent moon and star" emblem. All other muslims will use a YELLOW "crescent moon and star" emblem.

We also need to allow law enforcement officers the right to thoroughly search those who elect to wear the abaya, burqa or chador. Some muslim females wear these garments even in hot summer days. We simply cannot allow terrorists to impersonate muslim females in order to fool the eyes of our law enforcement officers. Without legal authority for law enforcement officers to search these suspects, we will never know what's under those head-to-toe garments.

Lastly, we need to educate our citizens to report to the authority anyone whom they knew is muslim but refuse to wear the armband.

We should provide incentives to encourage and reward our citizens to report these potential sleeper agents, and the criminals who refuse to wear the armband should be interrogated for intelligence through the "extraordinary rendition" procedure.

I'm confident that at least Jerry will agree with the suggestions and system above can greatly enhance the efficiency and effectiveness for law enforcement officers to identify terrorists on the spot.

Posted by: Ernhardt Bressler at August 3, 2005 07:10 AM

I'm not.

It's unfortunate that any attempt to even discuss the possibility of NOT doing a 100% search of all people is usually met with such silliness, or even outright hostility. It really makes rational discourse difficult.

Which I suppose is really the point, isn't it? BTW, the domain Mr. Bressler's apparently posting from, benadorassociates.com, would seem to be an anti-militant Islamist site, judging from articles like this one...

BEARDS AND SCARVES AREN'T MUSLIM. THEY'RE SIMPLY ADVERTS FOR AL-QAEDA - Amir Taheri - Benador Associates

Because from what I see on that site, I'm in agreement with them.

J.

There's four parts to this so far - and it's worth your time. Here's some quick samples...

ShrinkWrapped: PC & Defects in Reality Testing: An Introduction

The Global War against Islamic Fascism is a many front war, being fought in such venues as Iraq, London, Rome, New York, Pakistan, Thailand, the Philippines, and in the media, in academia, and in the precincts of the Democratic Party. Political Correctness severely damages the West's ability to adequately prosecute, and ultimately to win the war with a minimum of death and destruction.

ShrinkWrapped: PC & Defects in Reality Testing: Part I

In order to fully understand how the ideology of political correctness traumatically interferes with the ability to adequately assess and describe reality, it is necessary to have some understanding of how it is that we learn to interpret the information pouring into our senses and create an understandable and predictable picture of reality.

Political Correctness has its roots in Post-Modernism and Deconstruction. I am hardly an expert in this area but it seems that the Deconstructionists took a small piece of reality, that all of us construct our sense of reality through our own subjectivity, and made it the primary determinant of reality, ie since we are all subjective, there can be no such thing as objective reality. In other words, the world of consensus reality is a construct and if we change how we view the world, we will change the construct.[Among the other evil offspring of this philosophy, we would have to include moral relativism and other (rationalized) excuses for inaction in the face of evil.]

The idea of a mutable sense of reality was especially attractive to the left, who desperately wanted to change the world but were having difficulty everywhere they were in control in actually effecting their Utopian programs and perfecting their subjects.

Howard S. Schwartz, author of The Revolt of the Primitive: An Inquiry Into the Roots of Political Correctness whose work I have referred to in the past (Cookie Monster, PC, and the Fall of Western Civilization), describes a typical encounter between an Academic and the Politically Correct Academy. He describes making a presentation which began with an overview of Freud's concept of the Oedipus complex. In Howard's words:

(During the presentation) a woman in the audience, who happened to be the chair of the psychology department at the time, had what can only be called a fit. Without addressing herself to anything I was saying in particular,a and without any apparent attempt to control her rage, she said that Freud was a sexist and a misogynist, and went on to condemn the entire psychoanalytic enterprise, which she said was "shot through" with sexism and racism.

He describes his dawning awareness that she was deplorably lacking in any real knowledge of Freud's work, or of the further development of his theories since his time, and was struck by her tome which conveyed a sense of "absolute authority". This is not unusual in proponents of the PC mind state; often their certainly is in inverse proportion to their actual knowledge. Even more striking to Schwartz was that the audience, sagely nodding their heads in agreement, seemed to accept the interrogation as if he were the one who had transgressed. The university, which should have as its highest calling the open discussion of ideas had become something else. Again in his words:

How did ideas representing such ignorance not only arise in a university setting,, but also come to be dominant within it, and to dominate it so powerfully that it has become acceptable to meet alternative ideas with rage and disdain.?

J.

PayPal's got a rundown on identity protection measures you can take. I'm down to only about 8 or 9 phishers a week now, folks figuring I'm stupid enough to click on a link inside their email are apparently starting to wise up. Heaven knows I've been forwarding enough emails to the security departments of the businesses they're trying to spoof.

PayPal - Identity Protection Resources

J.

Over at Baen Books, you might want to check out Code Three. Personally, I don't quite see it, but it's a fun read anyway.

Enjoy!

J.

Brit Hume interviewed Democratic State Assemblyman Dov Hikind of Brooklyn. The transcript is interesting, considering the attitudes normally shown by Democrats. I predict this gent will get no support from the Democratic Party come the next elections. Which is a shame - because he's actually observing what's going on, and using common sense and thinking about those things he's seen in a way quite beyond what you'd normally expect from someone with a (D) after their name.

FOXNews.com - Special Report w/ Brit Hume - Interview - The Realities of Racial Profiling

HIKIND: Those involved in Madrid, those involved July 7 in London, and those who attempted to kill the people of London on July 21, if you look at the entire group, it is so obvious that this group, they have certain things in common. They are young, they are Muslim, they are of Middle Eastern or South Asian background.

HUME: They’re men.

HIKIND: They’re men. They’re young men. To simply avoid this fact in trying to fight the War on Terrorism and trying to avoid another catastrophe is nuts. It doesn’t make sense.

I’m not saying that, if 15 Muslim men come into a subway station, search all of them. Maybe search none of them, if the police officer feels there’s no need. But the police officer should not be concerned about searching every single one of them if that is what the police officer feels is necessary.

...

HUME:If we’re looking for dark-skinned men of what we imagine to be Middle Eastern descent, that we think may be Muslims, are we not likely, if we place the amount of judgment you seem prepared to take in the hands of individual police officers, to end up with a lot of people who are hassled on the way to work, who will end up feeling like they’re simply going to work while black or trying to travel while black?

HIKIND: Brit, we have no choice. You know, it’s very real out there, in terms of those who want to create havoc in our city, in our country. I have a son-in-law who is of Iranian descent. When he comes to an airport, especially with his name, he gets a lot more questions, a lot more checking of him. People in my community...

HUME: How does he feel about that?

HIKIND: Well, you know, it’s not pleasant. But I think there’s an understanding that we live in a world today — I would love to see the Muslim community and other communities stand with me side-by-side and say that they understand that these are difficult times, that there is no intention of directing anything against them, but the reality we cannot escape.

We can’t escape the profile, the profile of those who committed the dastardly acts of September 11. And looking at all the pictures of all the young men who committed the acts. You know, we need to act seriously.

Yes, it's that easy when you say you can't stop someone based on a profile.

J.

Hmmm. Doesn't look like it at all.

Today in Investor's Business Daily stock analysis and business news

Here's the gist, according to The New York Sun — which is giving the scandal the coverage it deserves — and a few others, mostly bloggers and columnists, who are providing a public service:

New York City's Department of Investigation is looking into charges that $875,000 from a Bronx nonprofit group and an affiliate whose budgets are generously stuffed with local, state and federal grants was inappropriately used to fund Air America, the left's counterattack on the colossal success of conservative talk radio.

The two groups — the Gloria Wise Boys & Girls Club and Pathways for Youth — said they thought they were making a loan to the network. But when Evan Montvel Cohen was working as both chairman of Air America and director of development for Gloria Wise, some red flags should have been raised.

Jeannette Graves, president of Gloria Wise's executive committee, has said that without her authorization or knowledge, Cohen siphoned $613,000 from the organization to himself and Air America. Cohen also allegedly used money from the groups for personal medical care.

While this mess is being sorted out, the city has suspended its ties with Gloria Wise and Pathways. That means money intended for poor minority children and Alzheimer's victims was instead used to make sure the financially tanking and ratings-troubled Air America could keep blathering.

Public funds used to prop up a business! Just the kind of scandal that left-leaning media would die for. Yet for some reason they're giving this one a pass.

Is it because there are no mean ol' conservatives to blame?

But this bit of news - that's damn unconsionable. You know if this were a Republican pulling the same sort of stuff that there'd be an immediate and massive outcry from the left. Instead, it looks like this was covered up as much as possible.

But that there's not indicates two things to me.

1. There's two decided standards on financial reporting when it comes embezzlement and theft, and it's decided on political lines.

2. That a media outlet which is supposedly dedicated to what they see as honest and accurate reporting seem to be rather ethically challenged when it comes to their own honesty and integrity.

J.

Top 10 Web fads - CNET.com

Enjoy!

J.

I suppose it's inevitable - you know you've hit old fartdom when you're thinking things are going just too damn fast these days. The pacing of action on TV shows, the auction-like speed of folks talking in commercials, the near-frantic movement in kid's cartoons (which we watch a fair number of) - you wonder if things have always been like that or whether things really ARE speeding up.

Well, it would appear they are.

There's a site that has a lot (and I mean a LOT) of old time radio shows for sale. At OTRCat, they've got a WIDE selection of programs. I've gotten some in the past (old radio SF programs like X Minus 1, and the Australian series "Journey into Space" and one thing I'm noticing is that the pacing of the radio shows back then was a whole lot slower.

And television was slower back in the '50s, too. I recently got through Netflix the "Tomorrowland: Disney in Space and Beyond" dvd, and the pacing of the shows seemed darn near glacial compared to today's programming.

The world speeds up. Guess we're just going to have to hang on for the ride.

J.

And boy, there's a bunch of them. For instance, did you know that phone connections are TRIPLE the forcast in '04? And there's 5 times more vehicle traffic now than three years ago?

Where?

Iraq.

Take a look at the Brookings report. It's interesting.

J.

Amidst the other things going on this weekend. (Note to self: When going to wedding, DO NOT forget your camera.) And O predit this movie, because (A) it has Russians, and (B) the sub was deep underwater and (C) it had a happy ending - will be a movie within a year. And I hope the guys involved will get residuals.

CNN.com - Crew safe after mini-sub rescue - Aug 7, 2005

MOSCOW, Russia (CNN) -- The seven-man crew of a trapped Russian mini-submarine are back in port after a three-day ordeal at the bottom of the Pacific with dwindling oxygen.
Six of the seamen were taken to hospital for observation in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky on the eastern coast of the Pacific peninsula of Kamchatka after arriving on board a rescue ship.
The other man remained on board but it was not immediately clear why, the Associated Press reported.

BTW - Many thanks to the Pittsburg Airport (from whence I'm blogging this) for their free WiFi access. Atlanta gets no points - they charge for theirs.

J.

News - Bush says tax cuts responsible for growing economy

Bush crowed about the strength of the U.S. economy on Saturday and credited his hotly debated tax cuts for the growth.

Bush was upbeat in his weekly radio address a day after the Labor Department reported the U.S. economy added 207,000 jobs last month, a stronger-than-expected gain.

"Recent economic reports show that our economy is growing faster than any other major industrialized nation," he said from his ranch in central Texas.

In my own experience, watching the country over the last 25-30 years, increasing taxes usually stagnates the economy. When that occurs, there's two ways to do things. Raise taxes to fund social programs for the folks hurt by the stagnated economy, or you can drop taxes and wait for things to recover.

The short version follows: Carter raised taxes following a recession after oil prices went up. The recession deepened. Reagan dropped taxes when he got into office, and tax revenue doubled in less than ten years. There was a slight recession under Bush 1, the media trumpeted it as being the WORST recession EVER, almost WORSE than the GREAT DEPRESSION, and Bush lost. In retrospect it was a slight pullback before the '90s, and was already easing before the elections when Clinton promised lower taxes and better everything... and got the job. He immediately raised taxes, leaving Enron-sized loopholes. But the '90s boom that was fueled by the '80s tax break and investments in research paid off - and Clinton luckily had the sense to keep fiddling after his initial increase to a minimum. However, economically things were decidedly slowing down as his tenure in office was ending.

Bush got into office, and started campaigning for tax cuts to boost the economy. You don't have to go far to find the precedents - even Kennedy pushed a tax cut through in the '60s, and watched revenue increase. We got the tax cut, then 9/11 hit and the economy went downhill. A couple of rebates later, we're not doing too bad economy-wise even though we're in a war and running a deficit.

Now Bush is talking about making the tax cuts permanent.

Okay, let's look at two things here. Or, rather, two well know, well documented, and verifiable correlations.

1. When taxes are raised, the economy stagnates.

2. When taxes are lowered, the economy grows and revenue is increased.

Needless to say, I'm not a fan of raising taxes. You can shear a sheep many times - but you can only skin him once.

So when I first heard about Americans for Fair Tax, I was intrigued enough to take a look. And take another look. Then a third, because it seems too simple.

Here it is in a nutshell, all the FAQs folks have. Apparently there's a good bit of interest in government on this. I can see why - this has the advantage of cutting payroll and SS taxes (to zero) and implementing a retail sales tax that would fund it all.

I can hear the screams now "What about fairness?" I'll be blunt - I don't believe in 'fair' when it comes to taxes. The usual call for 'fairness' means that you're trying to grab something from someone that you don't think deserves it. Saying someone or some group should pay 'their fair share in taxes' is an inherently dishonest semantic device, implying on the one hand that the group you're trying to steal from are soulless bastards taking the food out of the mouths of starving children, and on the other that it's justifable to take their money to fund what you think is necessary.

Our tax system is hideously complex, taking an incredible amount of money and effort to stay in compliance at either the personal or business level. Unless you're filing a 1040A or 1040EZ, you're going to spend a fair amount of time just trying to get everything together, much less figure out what goes where as far as deductions go. And if you're using tax prep software - well, you stand a better chance of getting everything right using THAT than you would if you called the IRS for advice.

We won't even talk about the problems with business accounting and taxkeeping.

Go take a look at the Fair Tax site, and their FAQ. It looks a lot more sensible than what we're putting up with now.

(Update - I changed the link above to the Fairtax site - looks like the FlatTax organization has morphed into or merged with Fairtax.)

J.

There's a certain school of thought that nuclear weapons are always and completely and totally evil and should never be used under any circumstances. Having been to the Land of Giant Mushrooms and Gopher Holes (Check out Terraserver at -115.92394 36.80345) I am understanding of that feeling - but I don't agree with it.

(The Laughing Wolf: Food For Thought: A Personal Story Of Hiroshima

Despite revisionism, the intel of the day suggested a very strong defense of the home islands, with a million or more casualties to take them. From things that have come out later, portions of that defense were even more fanatical than originally estimated. Some portions may have fallen easily, but others most certainly would not have.

A million or so Fosters, each affecting a much larger number of others: wives, children, parents, uncles, aunts, friends, and co-workers. No, we made no mistake dropping the bomb, for it spared millions. If the revisionists were correct in all their claims, then surrender would have come immediately, not after a second bomb. The only mistake we made was not in rubbing the collected noses of Japan into their excesses as we did that of the Germans. For that misguided "kindness" has allowed a much worse revisionism to flourish, and the truth of medical experiments to make Mengele blush, the rape of Nanking, and so much more to be buried and denied.

Yes, many died when The Bomb fell, yet how many more would have died and suffered had it not? Hindsight is always 20-20, and no matter the public face when you make a decision like that questions will find you in the night. I speak not for those who made the decision to drop, for that belongs to them. I have engaged in debates, discussions, and more, and simply offer up the idea that had they not done so, might worse things have come later because no one saw the reality of what happened when they were used? Ignorance of consequences rarely leads to bliss.

The casualty count for the Allies would have been ghastly, between 500k and 1 mil wounded, 200-300k dead - with 3 to 5 times as many Japanese casualties. And the Japanese weren't just sitting back and waiting - they were getting prepped for the invasion themselves. (Take a look at Transcript of "OPERATION DOWNFALL [US invasion of Japan]:? US PLANS AND JAPANESE COUNTER-MEASURES" by D. M. Giangreco, US Army Command and General Staff College.) Things would have gotten damned messy.

Were the bombs justified? I'd say yes. They saved a hell of a lot of both Japanese and Allied lives - and that's a good thing in my book.

J.

In retrospect, it's perfectly logical. Hope it's well-padded, though.

XAct Communication XS043 Sirius Satellite Radio Outdoor Wearable Kit - Styled for Life

J.

Ultraquiet No More is a Submariner's blog. Enjoy...

J.

Johann Hari - Archive

So to multiculturalists, we have to ask: which Muslim culture do you want to preserve? The jilbab-wearing culture of Shabinah and the mullahs, or the culture of the hundreds of Muslim girls who curse them? All immigrant communities are divided and diverse; it is a form of soft racism to assume they have One Culture that should be respected at all costs.

But multiculturalism binds the hands of those who want cultural change in immigrant communities by demanding tolerance and respect for reactionary traditions. At a time when there is a battle within British Islam whose outcome will affect us all, is it wise to continue like this?

One woman decided she wanted to wear a jilbab to her school. She fought for that right - and in turn that garment was forced onto hundreds of other young women by their peer group.

Somehow, I don't think this is how the whole multicultural thing was supposed to work.

J.

Chrenkoff has "Good News From Afghanistan #15" up.

Enjoy!

J.

We can only hope.

boortz.com: Nealz Nuze Today's Nuze

The hunger for some meaningful tax reform it amazing. The American people seem to fully realize that our present tax system is just as much a tool for class warfare and vote buying as it is a tool for raising the funds needed for the operation of the essential functions of the federal government. As I told the crowd last night, and as I have been saying on the air day ad nauseum, the FairTax plan goes nowhere if you don't get proactive ... very proactive. About 230 years, in the winter of 1776, we had patriot soldiers marching on frozen ground with bare feet to fight a seemingly impossible fight against the British for independence. They were easy to track because their torn feet left a bloody trail on the frozen ground. This revolution – this tax revolution – can be won far more easily. Read the book, or go to FairTax.org to familiarize yourself with the FairTax plan. Then start the phone calls and faxes. Get the emails flowing. Spread the word.

Plus, I like the idea of the prebates. Get all your paycheck, plus $200 a month from the government? I could live with that. (grin)

J.

Damn.

The Jawa Report Archives

Suicide Bomber Blows Up Bus in China: Government Covers Up.

The motive for Monday's attack is unclear, but it follows criticism by medical professionals that the costs of healthcare have risen beyond the means of many people living in rural areas.

There were more than a thousand reported bombings last year.

Most go unreported by the country's tightly-controlled state media.

Yeah. Health care. I'm sure they're all about health care.

You've got to hand it to the Chinese, though. When they control the media, they CONTROL the media. That these incidents haven't leaked out before now shows the stranglehold the government still holds, and how little the western media seems to care.

J.

Donklephant - Blog Archive - Sitzkrieg’s End

Good essay. Good comments.

(Sample of one comment - "Rather than focusing 20/20 hindsight on the events of 2002-4, we should be focusing that hindsight on the events of 1938-41, and learning from history. I believe our President and his adminstration - for all their real warts and the ones the media have imagined - have done this. That’s why I support them. And that’s why I think we need to quit carping about cargo containers, grousing over wartime minutiae like Gitmo and Abu Ghraib, second-guessing military decisions without all the facts and whining on a daily basis about the lowest casualty rate in any significant armed conflict of this or any other century. Call me a flagwaver if you like, but you don’t win a war by opening your every strategy and tactic to close public scrutiny. And if you insist on that, I submit that you’re going to be a very frustrated wartime spectator."

Good Godwin, what are you waiting for - an engraved invitation? Click the link, go read it!

J.

Michael Yon : Online Magazine: Jungle Law

Michael Yon is this decade's Ernie Pyle. THIS is journalism.

J.

Over on Janegalt.net/Assymetrical Information there's a post about a site called "Truth and Lies". Predictably, it's a rather snarky site, and after a brief persual I feel no obligation to bother putting out their URL. But that got me to thinking about sites that self-label as "Truth".

Now, I tend to look on any site with "TRUTH" in it's title as being inherently suspicious in the first place.

"Truth" according to whom?

Objective "Truth"? Subjective "Truth"? Verifiable "Truth"? Binary "Truth", all one or the other, or gray area "Truth", with shadings of "Truth"?

"Truth" with a limited subset of facts taken into account? Or "Truth" with everything tossed into the mix and boiled for a few days so concentrated "Truth" rises to the top while condensed "Lies" sink to the bottom?

Is it "Truth" which must be forced on unbelievers? "Truth" which must silence all other opinions and allows no dissent? "Truth" which must be presented in a 'particular' way so the reader will get the 'proper' opinion inculated into their minds?

Is it "Truth" which has to be spun, or twisted, or selectively edited? Is it "Truth" with a slant, a bias, a leaning toward a particular point of view that's inherently the only proper one for someone believing the "Truth"?

If you call it "Truth", does that mean all other viewpoints are lies? Are your "Truths" self-evident and can stand on their own, or do they need a shoring of selectively culled and out-of-context quotes and remarks? Does the "Truth" stand up to attacks on it's own? Is it internally self-consistent, and congruent with objective reality?

Does it have to be labeled as "Truth" in the first place?

If I'm looking for "Truth", I'll take what I find for "Truth" from
these guys. I KNOW what to expect from THEIR version of the "Truth". But I don't search for someone to tell me what to think - I search for information, and decide for myself what the "Truth" is. If you present 5 samples of "Truth", and I know one is immediately "False" but don't know about the others, I'm going to be suspicious about the quality of "Truth" used to craft the other four. Sorry - but that's the way it is.

Your mileage, of course, may vary.

J.

My Way News

OKLAHOMA CITY (Reuters) - An Oklahoma man was taken into custody after he tried to carry a bomb on board an airplane on Wednesday in Oklahoma City, an FBI spokesman said.

Charles Alfred Dreyling Jr., 24, was detained on Wednesday morning after a security screener using an X-ray machine saw the device in his luggage as he tried to board a flight to Philadelphia at Will Rogers Airport in Oklahoma City.

"Although the investigation is in its initial stages we have found no apparent connection to any type of terrorist activity or group," FBI spokesman Gary Johnson said.

Johnson said the screener saw an "improvised explosive device" in Dreyling's carry-on luggage.Kind of sparse on details on this one. Over at the Guardian the following is found...

Dreyling, 24, was going through the security checkpoint at Will Rogers World Airport on Wednesday when a Transportation Security Administration employee noticed something suspicious in his bag on the X-ray machine, Johnson said.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Bob Troester described the device as a carbon-dioxide cartridge with a black-powder detonator.

But Dreyling's landlord, former Oklahoma City Mayor Kirk Humphreys, said he had created a ``glorified firecracker'' and forgot it was in his luggage.

``I know Charlie Dreyling quite well,'' Humphreys said. ``I appreciate what the authorities are doing making our airlines safe. I have every confidence that they'll find out Charlie Dreyling is a fine young man and no terrorist.''

I feel better now. Apparently this has been determined to not be an attempted bombing. I think it's funny the best description of the bomb comes from a British paper...

It just goes to show - don't try to make your own fireworks, kids. And for pity's sake, don't take them on the damn plane!

J.

FanDeath.net

Luckily, if you're not in South Korea, you're safe. Otherwise, everyone in our house would have expired years ago...

J.

Hmmm. Here I thought it was.

TCS: Tech Central Station - Pape-al Fallibility: It's Not All About Us

Islamists have killed thousands of Westerners over the past couple of years -- thousands in New York City alone. But they have killed far more of their own fellow Muslims in Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Egypt, Sudan, Algeria, and too many other places to list. The Terror War, or whatever we ought to call it, is not about us. It's a war waged by totalitarian Islamists against the rest of the world. We aren't targets because of what we do or even because of who we are. We are targets because we are not them. They hate everybody and we're part of "everybody."

So many Westerners, liberal and conservative alike, are only interested in the Middle East and the wider Islamic world at the points of inter-civilizational contact, when and where its problems intersect with us and become our problems. It's understandable, but it's blinkered. Islamism exists independently of the West, not merely in reaction to it, and it would continue to exist if America and the rest of the West did not. It's not all about us.

(He then goes on to detail a LOT of stuff which doesn't seem to get much prominence, because it contradicts the memes the media are trying to spread. He finished with...)

Robert Pape thinks we should withdraw from the region completely and "secure our interests in oil," as he put it, from a distance. If we take his advice we won't end the threat from our enemies. We'll give them military victories for free. And we'll throw our liberal Muslim friends to the Islamist wolf. It's the most disgraceful and despicable thing we could possibly do, not to mention one of the dumbest. Empowered liberal-democratic Muslims with guns will defeat the Islamists in the end. We can't do it without them, and they can't do it if they're languishing in mass graves and dungeons.

And this is so hard to understand, because ... ?

J.

Aw, crap. Not again...

Didn't we give up this passive-agressive nuclear shit back when the USSR fell?

Pakistan and India both have nukes. Both realize they've got a shitload to lose if they start tossing them. China and Taiwan both have nukes - again, no winner. NK MAY have nukes - yet they know that if they try the nuclear option that little fat bastard of a dictator'll be toast in short order.

Now Iran's saying they'll pursue nukes, and Bush is saying war's the last resort. Okay - but I'll be honest with you... in 10 years, if the mullahs don't piss off the population totally and end up as lampost decorations we'll be looking at a nuclear-armed Iran. And if they feel froggy and toss a nuke at Israel - well, I don't think the Israelies are going to be at all reluctant to throw a few in the direction of Iran.

J.

Soon the poor bastard won't have any support at all from the people he's been killing.

Iraqi Sunnis Battle To Defend Shiites

BAGHDAD, Aug. 14 -- Rising up against insurgent leader Abu Musab Zarqawi, Iraqi Sunni Muslims in Ramadi fought with grenade launchers and automatic weapons Saturday to defend their Shiite neighbors against a bid to drive them from the western city, Sunni leaders and Shiite residents said. The fighting came as the U.S. military announced the deaths of six American soldiers.

Dozens of Sunni members of the Dulaimi tribe established cordons around Shiite homes, and Sunni men battled followers of Zarqawi, a Jordanian, for an hour Saturday morning. The clashes killed five of Zarqawi's guerrillas and two tribal fighters, residents and hospital workers said. Zarqawi loyalists pulled out of two contested neighborhoods in pickup trucks stripped of license plates, witnesses said.

"We have had enough of his nonsense," said Sheik Ahmad Khanjar, leader of the Albu Ali clan, referring to Zarqawi. "We don't accept that a non-Iraqi should try to enforce his control over Iraqis, regardless of their sect -- whether Sunnis, Shiites, Arabs or Kurds.''

Funny how stuff like this never hits CNN headline news...

J.

But funny... Nerd Phone Sex With Paris Hilton => Funny Videos @ Lemonzoo.com

D&D, Star Wars, Star Trek, LOTR, Dr. Who - there's something for everyone! LOL...

Enjoy...

J.

Yet Another Journal has found out the pleasures of Sirius Satellite Radio. They, and XM provide a satellite radio service for your car. It's quite affordable, and both cover pretty much any genre you could want. (Take a look at the channel listing here. If you spend more than 30 minutes a day in the car, you ought to consider getting one or the other. It's the best auto accessory you can buy.

J.

Pilot not in his seat, copilot slumped over, and the F-16 pilot who intercepted said he could see emergency oxygen masks dangling in the cabin...

Hypoxia strikes again, I think.

It's actually more common than you might realize. The pilots have an emergency oxygen system (no walkaround bottles evident in the 737 systems sites I've found so far except for a Draeger smoke hood...) and if it was empty and the airco quit pressurizing the cabin (And this plane had a couple of incidents where that happened) then there's a warning horn that goes off at the 10,000 ft level.

There's also a warning horn cutoff, btw.

The pilots (and the maintenance crew) would have to ignore one or two pressure gauges to for this plane to fly with an empty emergency oxygen system. I think this is pretty unlikely.

However, for C-130s there was a shutoff valve downstream of the LOX converter, so maintenance could shut off oxygen pressure to the regulators which supplied oxygen to the masks. If there was a cutoff valve downstream from the pressure indicator, that could be the point of failure. From pictures I've found, there was no pressure gauge on the regulators for the emergency masks in the cockpit, and the regulator's default condition is to provide a mix of air and oxygen on demand, with the percentage of oxygen increasing the higher the cabin altitude.

So here's what I think happened. There may be a valve downstream from the pressure indicator for the system. The cabin pressure warning alarm went off at 10k cabin altitude. (I don't know when their airco system packed it in, we'll figure about 25,000 feet.) Per their established practice, they put on the masks and set them to normal (not emergency 100% oxygen) and didn't notice there's no oxygen flowing (since the regulators mix air and oxygen proportionally until above about 20-25k feet cabin altitude). They turn off the horn, start working on the problem. Cabin altitude continues to rise.

Hypoxia sets in slowly, and they focus on the problem and forget to check the cabin altitude. Get-home-itis and Keepis-Schedulitis set in. All they have to do is reset the outflow valve on the aircondition system and the cabin will repressurize. The passenger masks drop at 14,000 feet, but there's no oxygen through them since the cockpit and passenger masks are supplied from the same system.

The pilots start to lose what little focus they've maintained. Hypoxia is sneaky... they may well have just closed their eyes to rest them a moment. They've got on oxygen masks, right? So they'll be fine. They likely passed out before they realize they needed to descend, even though it'd throw them off schedule. (Get-home-itis and Keepus-Schedulis has killed hundreds of pilots.)

Now, it could be the pilot realized what happened and went for the Draeger smoke hood and the oxygen supply in that, but waited a few seconds too long and passed out trying to get to it. Why would he do that instead of putting the plane into a descent? Well, when you're hypoxic you most emphatically are NOT thinking clearly. He likely thought... "Oxygen. Gotta get some oxygen" and went for the mask.

From there, with the plane on autopilot, it was just a matter of time till something really hard gets in the way of the plane.

That's the most likely failure, I think. Time will tell what the actual cause was. Damn bad thing, no matter what the cause.

J.

Honestly, I don't know what to say. I'm torn between sympathy for her grief and puzzlement. As a parent, no one wants to think of their child dying - it's just ingrained in us that we protect them any way we can.

But there's also a point where it's time to let go and let the child make their own decision - she's acting like her son (who was a volunteer - the draft went away a long time ago) didn't have a clue before he joined up that the Army was anything more than a glorified jobs program.

Sure, it's a great educational opportunity and a chance to see the world. But the subtext is there (and always has been) that if necessary you'll be going into harm's way. And there's a reason why there's Serviceman's Group Life Insurance - to provide for your family if you die. ($250,000 - last I checked. Might be higher now...) I don't know if she was the main beneficiary or not - but it's a good bet he left her a good bit.

Dr. Sanity has an interesting post up on all this. Portions follow:

Let me start by saying that I passionately support the rights of the individual over the rights of the state. When it comes to choosing between them, I almost always will go with "the needs of the one" as opposed to the "needs of the many" (to borrow a theme from Star Trek).

Yet, I am deeply troubled by the press's attitude that our foreign policy as a nation should be held hostage to grief stricken mothers, fathers, family and miscellaneously bereaved individuals.

Anyone's death diminishes me, as the poem says, and death--while something we all must face in time--is always a tragedy when it occurs. The death of a loved one is particularly difficult to handle, and grief is a multilayered and deeply personal journey. Professionally I deal with the emotional after-effects of death and dying all the time. I work closely with people who must grapple with despair and lonliness after their son or daughter, mother or father, husband or wife has died. Some deal with it better than others; and every journey is unique.

...

I may be a Libertarian, but I am not an anarchist. There are reasons for people to come together into a nation for that common defense and to constuct a government in order to provide for that defense. Our national foreign policy must be made using the same dispassionate analysis of facts and data, combined with an assessment of the "common good". That combined focus must be grounded in a logical understanding of both short and long-term tactics within an overal strategy and an appreciation of the costs (whether in dollars or lives) as well as the potential benefits. Of course there must be debate and discussion of both tactics and strategy, as well as whatexactly and precisely is in our best interest as a group of people united in freedom and democracy.

What we do not need is a public flogging of our elected officials by the bereaved and mourning families of 9/11; or by the histrionic mothers of soldiers who made their own choices to be in the military; by the angry fathers who are deeply distressed that their sons did not politically agree with them and chose to go into danger. Our national policies are far too important to be held hostage by the emotions of any individuals, let alone those who have an emotional axe to grind.

...

Crucial decisions and tactical adjustments can be made by a death or deaths in a war; sometimes even the overall strategy can be fine-tuned, or even abandoned if necessary when looked at in the spirit of determining what our national and security interests demand. But none of these actions can or should be made simply because of grief; or anger; or resentment; or fear.

Let's face the truth: that the purpose of maintaining an army/navy/air force is to provide for the common defense. Those individuals who CHOOSE to join the military do so (one hopes) with a full awareness of what their job description entails in war, as well as in peacetime. Their death or injury while performing a dangerous, but crucial job on our behalf, should make all of us at home, safe, desperately grateful that they chose to serve their country in this manner. How does it help us to say that there is nothing worth sacrifice; nothing that is worth fighting for?

That being said, if it had come to pass that I'd died on active duty or while in the active Reserve, I wouldn't have expected my folks to use my death to campaign for ending whatever conflict or event that caused my death. (Except in a MADD sense, if I'd been run over by a drunk or something.) And I find it hard to believe that Army Specialist Casey Sheehan would find his mother's actions appropriate here - or even justifiable.

Peace is desireable. I'm against 'Peace at any price' because you need to determine the price you're willing to pay. It often strikes me that the peace crowd seem to be (and this is my impression, don't have any facts to back it up) of the same persuasion as the folks who used to counsel women that if they're raped that they shouldn't fight back, because it might make the rapist mad at you. I don't know whether that advice is still in vogue today but the same principle doesn't apply in international politics.

Cindy Sheehan has found folks who are willing to tell her that her son was killed for nothing. They're using her as a figurehead - and she'll be discarded as soon as she's no longer useful. I fully support her right to protest - though I think she's being very badly advised in this matter.

However, Mohammed over at Iraq the Model has some different thoughts for her.

I realize how tragic your loss is and I know how much pain there is crushing your heart and I know the darkness that suddenly came to wrap your life and wipe away your dreams and I do feel the heat of your tears that won't dry until you find the answers to your question; why you lost your loved one?

I have heard your story and I understand that you have the full right to ask people to stand by your side and support your cause. At the beginning I told myself, this is yet another woman who lost a piece of her heart and the questions of war, peace and why are killing her everyday. To be frank to you the first thing I thought of was like "why should I listen or care to answer when there are thousands of other women in America, Iraq and Afghanistan who lost a son or a husband or a brother…”

But today I was looking at your picture and I saw in your eyes a persistence, a great pain and a torturing question; why?

I know how you feel Cindy, I lived among the same pains for 35 years but worse than that was the fear from losing our loved ones at any moment. Even while I'm writing these words to you there are feelings of fear, stress, and sadness that interrupt our lives all the time but in spite of all that I'm sticking hard to hope which if I didn't have I would have died years ago.

Ma'am, we asked for your nation's help and we asked you to stand with us in our war and your nation's act was (and still is) an act of ultimate courage and unmatched sense of humanity.

Our request is justified, death was our daily bread and a million Iraqi mothers were expecting death to knock on their doors at any second to claim someone from their families.

Your face doesn't look strange to me at all; I see it everyday on endless numbers of Iraqi women who were struck by losses like yours.

Our fellow country men and women were buried alive, cut to pieces and thrown in acid pools and some were fed to the wild dogs while those who were lucky enough ran away to live like strangers and the Iraqi mother was left to grieve one son buried in an unfound grave and another one living far away who she might not get to see again.

We did nothing to deserve all that suffering, well except for a dream we had; a dream of living like normal people do.

We cried out of joy the day your son and his comrades freed us from the hands of the devil and we went to the streets not believing that the nightmare is over.

We practiced our freedom first by kicking and burning the statues and portraits of the hateful idol who stole 35 years from the life of a nation.

For the first time air smelled that beautiful, that was the smell of
freedom.

...

We are in need for every hand that can offer some help. Please pray for us, I know that God listens to mothers' prayers and I call all the women on earth to pray with you for peace in this world.

Your son sacrificed his life for a very noble cause…No, he sacrificed himself for the most precious value in this existence; that is freedom.

His blood didn't go in vain; your son and our brethren are drawing a great example of selflessness. God bless his free soul and God bless the souls of his comrades who are fighting evil. God bless the souls of Iraqis who suffered and died for the sake of freedom.

God bless all the freedom lovers on earth.

In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea,
With a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me:
As He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free
While God is marching on.

Update: She's determined to be a martyr. Not good. I think she's losing it, and so does Dr. Sanity. And the folks over at Kos went totally unhinged at the idea that two people came to counterprotest. Very ugly, that. Seems they had signs with pictures of Casey Sheehan which said he was a hero and thanking him for his sacrifice... God, how terrible. There's a post over there (which I don't expect to stay up long - posts which don't adhere to the party line on Kos tend to get, um, disappeared in short order... and it's not censorship as such, they're just trying to protect their delicate sensibilities from folks who dissent...} that has an interesting comment...

hey Guys let's Be Honest (none / 0)

You are all freaking out because some people used her son's picture in their signs, but you don't think it's wrong for her to go against her dead son's wishes and use his death as a propaganda tool to campaign against a war he believed in?

That is very disrespectful of her to do that to him, whether or not you agree with this war it is immoral to use someone's death as a publicity tool. In fact the rest of her family is against this "impeachment" tour, isn't that correct?

Casey would be rollig over in his grave right now.

So stop shedding crocodile tears, people, its disingenious. You want the counter-protestors to leave her son out of it, but the mother is free to use Casey's death to promote political views which he was opposed to?

THAT is what makes me want to vomit.

by nihilist on Sun Aug 14th, 2005 at 11:51:36 PDT

Update II: Looks like those free-speech lovin' funboys over at Kos didn't like being called on their hypocracy - they've disappeared that post. Hey, nothin' like free speech, baby! Yeah! Um, as long as it's the 'proper' speech, that is.

God, what an ugly snakepit that place is.

I'm bumping this post to the top.

J.

The Iraqi Sunnis never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity.

Facing Deadline, Iraqis Consider Bypassing Sunnis on Constitution - New York Times

BAGHDAD, Iraq, Aug. 15 - Iraqi leaders remained deadlocked over major issues in the country's new constitution, raising the possibility they would fail to meet today's deadline and push the country toward a political crisis.With several questions unresolved, Shiite leaders have said that they were considering asking the National Assembly to approve the document without the agreement of the country's Sunni leaders. Such a move would probably provoke the Sunnis, whose participation in the political process is seen as crucial in the effort to marginalize the Sunni-dominated guerrilla insurgency.

So, they've gone from having the whole pie to barely a third, and they're busy throwing THAT away while trying to grab more pie.

See my sympathy meter? It's pegging to the left.

J.

Time will tell.

Guardian Unlimited | The Guardian | When meat is not murder

It is the ultimate conundrum for vegetarians who think that meat is murder: a revolution in processed food that will see fresh meat grown from animal cells without a single cow, sheep or pig being killed.

Researchers have published details in a biotechnology journal describing a new technique which they hailed as the answer to the world's food shortage. Lumps of meat would be cultured in laboratory vats rather than carved from livestock reared on a farm.

J.

Actually, digs their hole a bit deeper. Financially, they're so strapped they're having to 'borrow' from the Gloria Wise Boys and Girls Club. Unless they get a daddy with damned deep pockets to keep them going, I don't expect them to be around next year.

Captain's Quarters

The ongoing financing scandal at Air America took a cynical twist in the last twenty-four hours. Brian Maloney, who broke the original story to the blogosphere, now reports that an internal memo from AAR host Randi Rhodes proposes using a private corporate jet to take her and her show to Crawford, Texas -- so that she can take advantage of all the publicity surrounding Cindy Sheehan:

Also, transporation is an issue, because it will take me a whole day to travel. I don't want to miss a day on the air, and lose momentum. Flight to Dallas, on to Waco and then to Craford by car. So I was hoping that someone in the company would let me use their jet? I could take Steve with me and leave after Thursday's show.

It doesn't look so good, taking money from kids' charities under dubious circumstances. If they were a conservative group, at this point people (we won't say which affiliation) would be screaming for investigations and it'd be headline news.

As it is? Crickets....

J.

When a rabbit starts sucking down the suds, you know you're in for some entertainment...

The Drunken Lagomorph :: How I learned the difference between farts and boners

Enjoy!

J.

But hey, Al Qaida's the good guys, right?

WorldTribune.com: Al Qaida has deployed roadside bombs laced with toxins

Thank you.

J.

Hmmm.

You know the purpose behind the canary in the coal mine - when the bird keeled over that was a sign the air was almost too foul to breath. You had a few minutes grace to get your ass to a rebreather or get out of the mine.

The theory of the Jew as the modern-day canary for evil isn't a bad one. It certainly seems to fit. In a healthy society, it doesn't matter if you're Jewish. In a sick one... they're looking for someone to blame. In a really sick, evil one, they blame the jews and try to exterminate them.

Captain's Quarters

Hugh asked Prager where he thought antisemitism had originated and where it was worst. After responding (a long answer not easily summarized), Dennis said something that truly resonated with me as a secular Jew. This is as near a quotation as I can paraphrase; when the transcript is available, I'll come back here and replace my words with Dennis's.