Rusted Sky

Pick any two.

Katrina fraud costs could top $2 billion - U.S. Life - MSNBC.com

WASHINGTON - The tally for Hurricane Katrina waste could top $2 billion next year because half of the lucrative government contracts valued at $500,000 or greater for cleanup work are being awarded without little competition.

Federal investigators have already determined the Bush administration squandered $1 billion on fraudulent disaster aid to individuals after the 2005 storm. Now they are shifting their attention to the multimillion dollar contracts to politically connected firms that critics have long said are a prime area for abuse.

Now we see the result. It's kind of simplistic to point it out - but the old saying about being able to pick two of the three for any major job is very applicable.

They wanted it fast, and good. So it wasn't cheap.

And it'll be even more expensive, I'd say.

J.

One Cosmos At Sea is written by frequent commenter Ben USN (Ret) - detailing some of the fun he had in the US Navy. Stop over and take a look!

J.

Tomorrow - is tomorrow good for you?

My Way News - Iraq Court Upholds Saddam Death Sentence

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Iraq's highest court rejected Saddam Hussein's appeal Tuesday and said the former dictator must be hanged within 30 days for ordering the killing of scores of Shiite Muslims in 1982.

The sentence has already stoked Iraq's sectarian rage, with the Shiite majority demanding Saddam's death and his fellow Sunni Arabs calling the trial tainted.

"From tomorrow, any day could be the day" Saddam is sent to the gallows, the chief judge said. Saddam was condemned to death for his role in the execution of 148 Shiite Muslims from the small northern town of Dujail, after a 1982 assassination attempt.

J.

Thank you for your service after taking over after Nixon, and having the grace to be a model of Presidential dignity after your election loss.

Gerald R. Ford, 93, Dies; Led in Watergate's Wake - washingtonpost.com

Gerald Rudolph Ford Jr., 93, who became the 38th president of the United States as a result of some of the most extraordinary events in U.S. history and sought to restore the nation's confidence in the basic institutions of government, has died. His wife, Betty, reported the death in a statement last night.
"My family joins me in sharing the difficult news that Gerald Ford, our beloved husband, father, grandfather and great grandfather has passed away at 93 years of age," Betty Ford said in a brief statement issued from her husband's office in Rancho Mirage, Calif. "His life was filled with love of God, his family and his country."
Ford died at 6:45 p.m. Tuesday (PST) at his home in Rancho Mirage, Calif., about 130 miles east of Los Angeles, the Associated Press reported. No cause of death was given.
Funeral services will take place in Washington and Grand Rapids, Michigan, his boyhood home, the wire service reported, and public viewings will be held in California, Washington and Grand Rapids. More details are expected later today. The Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library, in Ann Arbor, and the Ford museum, in Grand Rapids, will open their lobbies for extended hours so people can sign condolence books.

Rest in peace, sir.

J.

So. Paperwork's been filled out and signed, keys have been given. We're starting (slowly) the move into Winnwood. We've gotten and washed bedding, which got put on the bed which was delivered today. The dresser was delivered also, and tomorrow their chairs will be delivered. We'll take the first load of personal stuff over tomorrow, maybe a second.

This hasn't been all that bad really - Mother's fighting it, in a half-hearted passive-resistive way that manifests itself when she's forced to make a decision on the furnishings. It's too big, too small, too wide, too narrow, the wrong color, the wrong style, too short, too tall, the wrong pattern... well, it's understandable. This is about the last time she'll have any say on the things in her environment. But it's kind of rough on the rest of us. Hard to buy the things you'll need, basics like bedding - when you can't get approval from everyone. (I looked at Father when she was being particularly picky about sheets and said "Kind of makes you miss the military, doesn't it? If you got sheets, you knew what color they'd be and it wasn't like they'd fit in the first place." He laughed at that one... being in the Navy in WW2.) And we will not talk about sundries like shampoo and the like. We will not go there. Mother doesn't see very well, but she knows what she wants... but she can't tell me what color the bottle was or what brand it is. It can be frustrating.

We did make it down to IKEA, which was likely a mistake. Father wouldn't have minded browsing around, and we found some side and end tables that would work as nightstands, but Mother wouldn't sign off on them. Too tall, too short, you know the drill. What's funny is when she complained the wood was too light, then later said she wanted to buy a pair of French Provincial end tables we saw at an antiques store. She'd earlier said they wouldn't do, because they were painted white...

Sigh. Okay.

At this point, all I need to do is get them a phone, a speakerphone would be best, I think - and Comcast cable service. If it were up to Father, there wouldn't be a TV - he wants Mother to be out and around, not laying in the room. Well, I can't say I blame him there.

And that's it for now. In two more days, we will have achieved Move-In. It's not going to be easy emotionally. But we'll get through it. I'm very lucky to have sane parents who aren't affected by Altzheimer's... it makes things SO much easier when they know what's going on.

J.

Rather long-winded, but if you've got an hour or two (which I don't really have right now) you might find it interesting...

DEFINING LEFTISM

What appears below is an attempt to analyse most aspects of Leftist political thinking and display the psychological and sociological roots of such thinking in an historical context.

The intellectual poverty of the Left shows itself very clearly in their lack of ideas. The only way that they can ever think of for bringing about their desired utopias is the brutishly simply one of FORCING people to behave in the "right" way, by way of legislation in democatic societies or on pain of death in Communist societies.

We have an excellent example of such brainlessness in a recent article which argues that the U.S. Left needs to become more socialist. The article consists of nothing but one long wail about the injustices of the world and simply ASSERTS that socialism is the answer -- with no supportive reasoning at all about HOW socialism might fix things -- which is all the more remarkable given the known FAILURES of socialism to fix anything.

And another counterfactual assertion above is that capitalism will increase poverty. Since capitalism is provably the the best and surest way of increasing wealth, the statement is deliberately wrongheaded. And it is of course the advanced capitalist societies that have done most to clean up their environment and prevent further degradation of it. You have to be devoid of all knowledge and understanding of how the world actually works (and has worked) to spout the nonsense that our brainless socialist does.

Just to REALLY ruin the party, however, let it be noted that the ONLY adult general population survey I know of that obtained both IQ scores and a record of political attitudes was Martin's study (which I helped write up for the academic journals). And that study showed that it was LEFTISTS who were most likely to be dumb. The correlation in the general population between anti-authority attitudes (which Leftists pride themselves on) and low IQ was quite substantial as such correlations go. So survey research shows that it is in fact Leftist attitudes that are associated with stupidity!

ANTI-AUTHORITARIANISM: AN INDICATOR OF PATHOLOGY

Further interest attaches to the way in which this distinction is made, since the anti-rational-authoritarian is shown to possess many of the attributes, both as regards social position and personality characteristics, which were supposed by Adorno et al. to characterise the pro-irrational-authoritarian. It might now be argued that the concept of authoritarianism has been overgeneralised and that what is of prime importance is whether the authority to which one defers has or has not claims to rational support. Rejecting the right kind and accepting the wrong kind of authority appear to be equally indicative of social and personal inadequacy.

In this connection the relationships with intelligence would seem to be illuminating. Agreement with pro-authoritarian (F-scale items) and agreement with anti-authoritarian items (Rudin negative) are both negatively related to intelligence, leaving us with what appears to be almost a truism; people of low intelligence are likely to accept irrational authority and reject rational authority, i.e. to fail in discrimination between what is rational and what is not.

Another illustration of the quite foul depths to which the equality doctrine can sink is the repeated claim by Leftists of "moral equivalence" between very disparate people and groups. For instance, at the height of the Cold War, Leftists would routinely claim that Communist regimes and the economically successful "Western" democracies such as the United States were morally equivalent -- that neither was more blameworthy or praiseworthy than the other. When President Reagan called a spade a spade and described the USSR as an "evil empire", this was regarded as shocking and ignorant by US liberals. How anybody can see any equivalence between systems that murder millions without trial because of their suspected political views (as Stalin did in the USSR and Pol Pot did in "Kampuchea") and countries that either have no death penalty at all or agonize over every such penalty that they inflict (even when the penalty is for the most heinous crimes) defies imagination. Such "moral imbecility" is startlingly reminiscent of the psychopath and the role of psychopathy in Leftism will therefore be taken up later.

J.

Nice high scaffold, long drop - a quick ending...

NBC: Saddam to be hanged by Sunday - Conflict in Iraq - MSNBC.com

Former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, sentenced to death for his role in 148 killings in 1982, will have his sentence carried out by Sunday, NBC News reported Thursday. According to a U.S. military officer who spoke on condition of anonymity, Saddam will be hanged before the start of the Eid religious holiday, which begins at sundown Saturday.

Hard to tell which I'd rather have happen...

J.

BBC NEWS | Middle East | Saddam Hussein executed in Iraq

Former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein has been executed by hanging at an unspecified location in Baghdad.

We'll see what the day brings.

J.

One last trip today to K-Mart, to get a couple of storage units that could be used as nightstands temporarily, a couple of towels to put on top of them, a bathmat, an alarm clock, toilet paper and paper towels. (Supplies are provided, but having extras doesn't hurt.)

Total time in store - 15 minutes. Man, it's such a RELIEF when I can shop by myself!

Ran coax around the room to the TV, ran a phone cord around the room to the little table between the chairs, unpacked and assembled three lamps, found out one was broken so it got repacked for return to Home Depot. Moved chairs into position, put throws over the chairs, put away some of the stuff I took over, cleaned up the room and called it good...

Then I came back to the house and picked them up... and got them there in time for lunch. (BBQ pork sandwiches, coleslaw, and bean salad. They liked it.) They were pleased with the room.

Had a couple more errands to run, got the lamp swapped out and a couple of prescriptions filled, went back around 4 and listened to how things were going. Overall, Mother's fairly pleased... though this idea of scheduled meal times isn't to her liking. (Breakfast at 7:30, lunch at 12, dinner at 5, snack at 7) Father looks more relaxed than he has in a long time.

Tomorrow Mother wants to go to Walgreens. Well, once more into the store....

Overall? I'm fairly pleased with how things have turned out. Mother and Father are pretty happy. I kept thinking I could/should have done more, but I don't know what I realistically could have done. Got them here, got bank accounts set up, got them around to let them select a place, and get them furniture, and a lot of the little things - filled out endless paperwork to get them in, carted luggage, furniture, lamps, a TV...

I'm satisfied. Things didn't end up as first envisioned, but that's life. The end results were satisfactory. I'll go with that.

J.

Well - it's been interesting. Been all over the map, haven't I, in my postings...

Elections, health, politics, odd military posts, odd job related stuff, parental moves - nothing grave, nothing really serious...

Let's hope the New Year isn't particularly serious either.

A Happy New Year to you and yours - may it be a peaceful and prosperous one!

J.