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Biography
I am a military historian and defense contractor. I completed a B.S. in Diplomacy and Military Studies at Hawaii Pacific University, and am continuing my education in military history by taking courses at Norwich University's online Masters Degree program. I created this blog as a scrapbook to keep a record of events I find interesting.
WHAT'S A REDSOUNDING?
A "red sounding" is a term used by sonarmen operating a fathometer. It's intended to alert the crew that the water's depth below the keel of the boat is dangerously shallow, and that the risk of running aground is imminent. It's kind of like "mark twain," but different.
I served in the US Navy from 1990-1996 as a submarine sonar technician. After completing submarine training and a further eight months of basic and advanced electronics and troubleshooting schools in Groton, CT, I was assigned to San Diego, CA, for sonar operator and repair school. With all of these schools, I spent two years of my naval service in the classroom before my first underway.
In August 1992, after finishing 2nd in my class, I was offered several choices of duty station, and chose a fast attack submarine based in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Overall, I served on two fast attack boats: USS Aspro (SSN-648), and USS San Francisco (SSN-711). I completed submarine qualifications, and had my silver dolphins pinned on my chest in March 1993.
The Aspro was a Sturgeon-class fast attack submarine, refitted in 1986 with the AN/BQQ-5C sonar system -- the system I had spent months in San Diego learning how to operate and repair. The Aspro was commissioned in February 1969 (when I was two years old), and I served on board for her final two Western Pacific (WESTPAC) deployments -- she was decommissioned in 1995.
After Asro, I was then assigned to the USS San Francisco in November 1994, and I completed Los Angeles-class submarine qualifications in January 1995. The fact that I was already wearing dolphins made qualifying much easier than the first time.
The San Fran was an amazing boat, especially after having served the much smaller Aspro. The difference between the two classes of submarines was stark, particularly in the engine room. The limited space on Aspro -- especially in her after compartments -- was crammed full of gear, including a nuclear reactor, a propulsion plant, an electric plant, water-purification systems, several hydraulic plants, air compressors, reduction gears, sea and fresh water pumps, refrigeration plants, and numerous other life support systems. Needless to say, moving around the engine room on a Sturgeon-class boat during a fire drill while wearing a bulky oxygen breathing apparatus required great flexibility and a certain level of acrobatic skill. The forward compartments on Aspro were not much better.
The Sturgeon-class boats (except the "stretch hulls") were only 292 feet in length, compared to the LA-class's 360 feet. Also, the Sturgeons were more narrow than the LA's, and the slight difference in beam was profound from the inside. Thus, the San Fran featured an extraordinarily large engine room compared to the Aspro's.
The reason for the larger engine room was rooted in the Cold War. Hyman G. Rickover was tasked in the late 1960s with designing a very fast boat that could keep up with the speedy Soviet boats. In order to do so, the new design featured a propulsion system that really cranked out the horses. And that it did! Driving the LA-class boats proved nearly deadly during their first sea trials, as the crews struggled to tame the powerful and agile hunter/killers.
My life aboard submarines revolved mostly around my main duties as a sonar technician. During the maneuvering watch, for instance, I spent hundreds of hours operating the boat’s fathometer, standing for hours at a time in one place and staring at a stylus running back and forth, back and forth, across a roll of paper. Believe me when I say that this can challenge even the most emotionally stable of individuals.
Also, driving a $1 billion submarine into and out of port requires the undivided attention of the boat’s navigation team, which is composed of the finest watch standers who are entrusted with the safety of the crew – which consists of about 140 men – and one of the world’s most expensive and technologically sophisticated pieces of military hardware. During the maneuvering watch, thereore, it is the responsibility of the fathometer operator to alert the navigation team if he's detected anomalous water depths, which typically indicate something’s amiss. When the boat ventures into dangerously shallow water, the fathometer operator alerts the navigation team by shouting “red sounding.”
Luckily, I never encountered an actual "red sounding," a true testament to the professionalism of the officers and men I served with for 6 years in the world's finest navy.
Darwin's Theory of Natural Selection May be Inaccurate
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I called Fodor and asked him to explain his point in language an infant school pupil could understand. "Can't be done," he shot back. "These issues really are complicated. If we're right that Darwin and Darwinists have missed the point we've been making for 150 years, that's not because it's a simple point and Darwin was stupid. It's a really complicated issue." |
Establishment Media Still Not Asking Right Questions on Economy
For instance, last year (2009) PBS Frontline examined the financial meltdown, but failed to ask the fundamental question: what caused all those "toxic assets" they kept referring to in the program? As I said then, these people really don't care what's the cause of any problem; they're more interested in instituting their standard remedy: more and bigger government [read].
Drew Carey and Reason Tackle Urban Plight
Part Two of the series explores how to fix the city's failing school system [watch]. The secret to success seems to be letting teachers teach the way they want and getting the government and teachers' unions out of the way. The bottom line: decentralization and freedom. I've written about this issue in earlier posts [read].
Part Three deals with business [watch]. Here the message is simple: private ownership of profit-based businesses works, and government-run businesses do not. Again, the foe to success is often government employee unions. No surprise there.
(h/t Instapundit)
Department of Education Update
Liberal editor of Newsweek, Evan Thomas, examined the state of American education today [read]:
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The relative decline of American education at the elementary- and high-school levels has long been a national embarrassment as well as a threat to the nation's future. Once upon a time, American students tested better than any other students in the world. Now, ranked against European schoolchildren, America does about as well as Lithuania, behind at least 10 other nations. Within the United States, the achievement gap between white students and poor and minority students stubbornly persists—and as the population of disadvantaged students grows, overall scores continue to sag. |
Thomas and his co-author, Pat Wingert, strike the right tone in this article. They highlight all the problems — more importantly, they highlight the root causes of those problems — that are plaguing American education today. Interestingly, their solutions to the problems all reside at the local level; at the school board and superintendent level. They write:
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Before the American public-education system can regain its lost crown as the envy of the world, local politicians and school administrators will have to step up. At Central Falls High School in Rhode Island, half the students drop out of school, and proficiency in math measured by state exams stands at a pitiful 7 percent among 11th graders. Under state pressure, the local superintendent, Frances Gallo, tried to improve scores by requiring teachers to work 25 minutes longer each a day, eat lunch with students once a week, and agree to be evaluated by a third party. The teachers, who make about $75,000 a year, far more than average in this depressed town, balked. They wanted another $90 an hour. So Gallo took a brave and astonishing step: she recommended firing all 74 teachers. Her boldness was praised by Education Secretary Duncan—and supported by President Obama. The teachers' union initially squawked that everyone was unfairly "blaming the teachers," but then last week backed off under a storm of media pressure and accepted the new rules requiring teachers to spend more time with the students. |
The only mention of the federal government throughout the entire article was this brief reference to Department of Education Secretary Arne Duncan, and only to note that he agreed with the actions taken by the local school officials in Rhode Island. Could that short sentence have been left out without altering the message? Certainly. But to the Leftist/statist, the federal government is always in the narrative, no matter how small its role in the story. Any reasonable reading of the events described by Thomas suggests that a federal official supporting the decisions of local officials should be irrelevant. Who cares if Arne Duncan agrees with the local superintendent's decisions?
But Duncan and other bureacrats in Washington have to justify their existence, else people would start asking why they're receiving salaries approaching $200,000 a year or more! Hell, I'll agree with the officials in Rhode Island for far less than that.
Previous entries on this topic:
Department of Education
UPDATE: CATO Institute examined the public education system compared to private schools [watch].
Increasing Dependency on Federal Handouts
A Democrat Senator from Washington took to the floor of the Senate and lambasted Rep. Bunning for holding up passage of the bill in the House. Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) said [watch | read]:
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Well, Madam President, today we have a clear cut example to show the American people just what’s wrong with Washington, D.C. |
One thing Sen. Murray said that was absolutely correct is that there is indeed something wrong in Washington, D.C. But it's not that Rep. Bunning is holding up legislation. Instead, what's wrong with our current system is that the American people are becoming increasingly dependent on federal government handouts. Currently, people in every state, from Hawaii to Maine, are dependent on government bureaucrats with soft, chubby pink hands; career e-mail checkers who enjoy very comfortable lives funded by the wages of citizens who actually work for a living. Check out the parking lot of any federal government bureaucracy. Then compare the quality and value of cars to those in any parking lot at your local neighborhood strip mall. Where are the counties with the highest average incomes are in the U.S.? They're right smack next to Washington, D.C., and all those expensive single-family and townhouses come courtesy of the American taxpayer.
Sen. Murray and other left-wing statists in government want Americans to be dependent on them. Not only does it create job security and ensure their own well-being (i.e., reelection), but it also gives the statist a sense of moral superiority. Thus, anyone who wants Americans to become more self-sufficient and independent rather than dependent is not just wrong; they're evil! Watch, for instance, Sen. Murry on the Senate floor talking about the tens of thousands of her constituents who are abjectly dependent on her for their healthcare and other needs. Look behind the senator and you'll see a very large placard photograph of one of her constituents who's abjectly dependent on the U.S. Congress for her well-being. The senator wants it that way [watch].
Does anyone think Sen. Murray and her leftist colleagues would perhaps offer a bill in Congress to cut their own salaries by 50% during this economic downturn? Does anyone think any member of Congress, Democrat or Republican, would suggest that they earn only 2.5 times what the average American earns? Would they support a bill that pegs their salaries to the median income of average Americans? Of course not. Sen. Murray earns nearly $200,000/year as a U.S. senator. That's over four times the national average. What if Congress' pay was fixed to the U.S. average? Wouldn't it create an incentive for Congress to do all they can to generate higher salaries for their constituents by cutting their taxes and lowering corporate tax rates to lure more businesses and jobs into our borders rather than out?
It's far easier for Sen. Murray to use the full power of the federal government to take under threat of violence the money from the pockets of the citizens of Oklahoma, Connecticut, Florida, Indiana, and the rest of the states. Many of those people have money problems of their own. But Sen. Murray gets reelected by Washingtonians who are dependent on her for money she takes from Floridians, who in turn vote for the politician who promises them federal money taken by threat of force from Washingtonians. Thus, the citizens of every state get their own version of Sen. Murray.
Meanwhile, all those billions of tax dollars flow through the vacuum cleaners in Washington, D.C., where a portion is sucked out to pay the exorbitant salaries of chubby bureaucrats who put in a good 90 minutes of work a day and spend the other 7.5 hours shooting the bull and checking e-mails. It's a Ponzi scheme that would make Bernie Madoff proud. It's the greatest money laundering scam in history. And all the while, Sen. Murray self-righteously condemns anyone who stands in the way of the scheme, and uses words that ring of a moral superiority that anyone other than Mother Theresa should be ashamed of uttering.
Ironically, it is those who are most dependent on the federal government for their well being who pay the least in taxes. In fact, the bottom 50% of wage earners in America pay no federal income taxes. By some estimates, that number will be closer to 60% in twenty years. When that happens, the American people will be able to vote for a bigger government that they will not be burdened with paying for themselves. George Will brilliantly summed it up when he spoke at CPAC two weeks ago [watch (4:35)]: "That is a majority that has zero incentive any longer to restrain the growth of a government they are not paying for."
It's worth noting that the moral superiority that Sen. Murray wears so proudly can be and is shared by all who voted for her and her fellow statists, most notably those in the establishment media [read | read | read | read | read | read | read | read | read]. Leftists in the newsrooms no longer hide their propensity to support big government. For these big government statists, the government has become their religion, and Congress is their god. Polls show that while the number of Americans who say they are very religious is nearly 70%, only 20% of journalists and news editors say so. The same is true for college professors. Why are the numbers so different? Why are the elitists in academia so secular?
Karl Marx shook the foundations of Western Civilization when he declared war on organized religion in the nineteenth century. His writings laid the groundwork for the increased secularization of society. Today, the direct descendants of Marx occupy most of the tenured positions in American universities, as well as the editorial boards of nearly every major news organization. However, as G.K. Chesterton noted, the vacuum created by secularism did not satisfy the inherent need for humans to worship something begger than themselves. Neither did the "death of god" cause secularist to abandon their genetic tendency to seek a moral justification for their existence. Today, secular leftists find all the moral justification their hearts desire outside the church. For instance, journalists today no longer just report the news. Journalism students surveyed said their goal is to change society. That used to be the church's role. But today, the church has been replaced by the federal government, and the results have been catastrophic.
It used to be that folks helped out their neighbors in times of need, and sought no recognition for it. They did what was needed and expected nothing in return. Americans once were humble servants who understood that charity comes not from coercion, but rather from a willful decision compelled only by their own conscience and in response to the needs of others. Michael Medved wrote about the federal government's attempt to care for American citizens by enlarging the bureaucracy in Washington, D.C. After the Great Depression, the federal government began assuming the role of a charitable organization that was once reserved for the church. He noted in his book, The 10 Big Lies About America:
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Jonathan Gruber of MIT and Daniel Hungerman of the National Bureau of Economic Research have demonstrated that as government aid expenditures skyrocketed during the New Deal (increasing more than sixfold from 1933 to 1939), church-based private charity to the needy declined precipitously—by an estimated 30 percent. (p. 152) ... |
Today, many Americans are still humble servants. But let us not confuse those people with the likes of Sen. Murray and her statist comrades in Congress.
Previous entries on this topic:
Can Charity be Compelled?
The 10 Big Lies About America
UPDATE: According the President Obama, the American people are huddled together in their living rooms, helplessly waiting for politicians in Washington to "solve" problems, and wondering whether Washington politicians are looking out for their best interest. The American people, Obama said, are "waiting" for them to "act" and "lead." Really? I just want them to shut the hell up and stop pretending they have all the answers. I'm getting tired of the schtick. In fact, I'm sensing that the American people are once again on to the way Washington operates.
Here's the modus operandi: Washington politicians create a crisis, then scramble to "solve" that crisis by holding hours of hearings that nobody watches or cares much about, then they debate on the floor of each house, and then they get their fresh-out-of-college staffers to concoct a lengthy screed written in the twisted language known only to lawyers, then they debate some more, and hold more hearings, then meet behind closed doors for more debate, and then finish up by blaming everyone else but themselves for the mess they created while reminding everyone how bad things would have been if they hadn't acted swiftly to remedy the problem. That's why we pay them $200,000 a year.
UPDATE: Ed Schultz on MSNBC helped make my case [read]. Schultz said: "After a year of olive branches, the President is fresh out of patience. He's put up with the right-wing lies long enough. The Republicans have a choice: lead, follow or get the hell out of the way. Small government has never gotten anybody any health care in this country. We have people in need and they need to be helped." Well, Ed. What are you waiting for? Help someone. Get up off your ass and help someone. Oh, yeah. Never mind. That's someone else's job. Some bureaucrat in Washington, I guess.
Establishment Media on Joe Stack
UPDATE: As if on cue, NY Times columnist Frank Rich, a devout far-left commentator, examined the Joe Stack event and abjectly manifested the above cartoon. He warned that it portends another Oklahoma City bombing in the near future, likely to occur as a direct consequences one a Sarah Palin speech or Tea Party protest. You've been warned. (h/t Hotair)
UPDATE: A man tried to kill people at the Pentagon. The establishment media is portraying John Patrick Bedell as a right-winger. Good Morning America did a decent hard news story on the history of the shooter, and highlighted his insanity, as evidenced by his subscription to the 9/11 conspiracy theory. Subscribers to that conspiracy believe the U.S. government was behind the terrorist attacks (an issue discussed previously on this blog here and here). But Bill Weir dismissed all the evidence that the shooter was a paranoid nut-case, and instead followed the standard narrative that anyone who's violent and political is a right-winger [watch]. Scott Whitlock highlighted the Christian Science Monitor following the same narrative [read],
Hitler Mad at Global Warming Scientists
Instapundit has posted links to several of the issues mentioned above [here, here, here, here, and here].
Also of note, one of the many Global Warming alarmists, Robert F. Kenney, Jr., wrote two winters ago that the lack of snow in the DC area was evidence that humans were altering the global climate [read]:
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In Virginia, the weather also has changed dramatically. Recently arrived residents in the northern suburbs, accustomed to today's anemic winters, might find it astonishing to learn that there were once ski runs on Ballantrae Hill in McLean, with a rope tow and local ski club. Snow is so scarce today that most Virginia children probably don't own a sled. But neighbors came to our home at Hickory Hill nearly every winter weekend to ride saucers and Flexible Flyers. (h/t Newsbusters) |
Oops! That's okay. Just say the recent blizzards are also evidence of global warming, and then everything will be fine. Just say global warming is the cause of everything that happens [listen], and then condemn opponents of your theory as heretics, flat-earthers, holocause deniers, etc. Now that's good science.
NY Rangers Fans Suck
The History of US-Taliban Relations
Rubin writes: "The story of this effort has never been told in full. I first became aware of U.S. engagement with the Taliban during a stint as an intern at the U.S. Embassy in Tajikistan in 1997. Declassified State Department cables now show that efforts at engagement began just three months after the group emerged in Kandahar in 1994 and well over a year before it took Kabul. The story the documents tell is one of engagement for its own sake—without any consideration given to the behavior or sincerity of an unambiguously hostile interlocutor."
MSNBC is an Asylum Run by Inmates
Previous posts:
CNN and Waterboarding
Petty Creature Hates Christians
Sarah Palin Supporters
MSNBC Run By Children Still
UPDATE: Keith Olbermann joined the fray later that day. (h/t Newsbusters)
Milton Friedman at Mayo on Healthcare
George Will Examines Fiscal Responsibility
China Not Pleased with Weapons Sale to Taiwan
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China's indignant reaction to the announcement of U.S. plans to sell weapons to Taiwan appears to be in keeping with a new triumphalist attitude from Beijing that is worrying governments and analysts across the globe. |
Previous posts:
China's Anti-Ballistic Missile Test Examined
The Looming China Threat
Hensarling versus Obama
The president answer questions from House Republicans at their retreat in Baltimore [watch].
Blankley Repeal the 17th Amendment
Previous postings on this topic:
Leftists Attacking Electoral College
The Electoral College
George Will Says Repeal the 17th Amendment
China's Anti-Ballistic Missile Test Examined
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In the final analysis, this test appears to be an important milestone in Chinese defense capabilities and demonstrates the growing maturation of its missile defense system. It is also apparent that the test has clear implications for the military modernization of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) which may challenge U.S. strategic posture in the Asia-Pacific region (See "Advances in PLA Air Defense Capabilities Challenge Strategic Balance in Asia," China Brief, October 23, 2008; China Times, January 12). |
Laughing at the President
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My advice for the Republicans during the President's SOTU address: laugh at him! Don't shout him down. Don't sit with angry smirks. Laugh at him. Remember what Herb Brooks did with his "Miracle" 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team? He got them to laugh at the big, bad Russians. It minimized the mystique. The same must be done to President Obama. He's a joke, a court jester, and the American public is beginning to see it now. Please reflect that sentiment by laughing at the clown when he makes ridiculous claims on Wed night. |
Well, today Jonah Goldberg posted a comment at the National Review Online site from a reader who echoed my advice.
UPDATE: Cynthia Yockey, a conservative lesbian, explains why Obama's weakness is ridicule. This is a great post and must read. (h/t Instapundit)
Remembering the Challenger Seven
IN MEMORY:
Michael J. Smith
Dick Scobee
Ronald McNair
Ellison Onizuka
Christa McAuliffe
Gregory Jarvis
Judith Resnik
John Yoo: Crisis and Command
NOTE: The last two minutes of the Robinson and Yoo conversation in Part One includes a discussion about the extent of the powers granted by the Constitution to the Executive, and the argument that Yoo makes echoes what I wrote last year about this very topic [read]. Here's exactly what I wrote:
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However, I would rather look backward, because doing so reminds us that when our democratic society is faced with ruthless adversaries, we sometimes — and only for a very short time — contract our liberties. This is not to say that the Bush Administration contracted the civil liberties of American citizens vis-a-vis the above documents. But history demonstrates that our society flexes in response to outside threats. While other governments have contracted civil liberties, most, if not all, have failed to return to their original parameters. It's a tribute to the Founders that our government is structured in such a way that it cycles outward and inward periodically in response to threats from ruthless adversaries committed to our destruction. Overall, though, it can be easily argued that in the long run, civil liberties in the United States have expanded far more than they've contracted. And that's a good thing. |
UPDATE: Alan Colmes interviewed John Yoo in his radio show:
Who Read Abdulmutallab His Miranda Rights?
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It seems like a pretty simple question. Who made the decision to charge Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the accused terrorist arrested for trying to blow up a Northwest Airlines jet on Christmas Day, as an everyday criminal, as opposed to an enemy combatant? |
Ed Morrissey notes that "The Weekly Standard feels the need to explain to its readers that this headline comes not from an article in the satirical magazine The Onion, but from an actual press release from Capitol Hill by Senators Susan Collins and Joe Lieberman." The headline? Worried about possible terrorist attacks over the Christmas holiday, President Obama met on Dec. 22 with top officials of the C.I.A., F.B.I. and Department of Homeland Security, who ticked off a list of possible plots against the United States and how their agencies were working to disrupt them.
SENATORS INTRODUCE BILL TO REQUIRE INTELLIGENCE OFFICIALS BE CONSULTED ABOUT ARRESTED FOREIGN TERRORISTS
New York Times:
In a separate White House meeting that day, Mr. Obama’s homeland security adviser, John O. Brennan, led talks on Yemen, where a stream of disturbing intelligence had suggested that Qaeda operatives were preparing for some action, perhaps a strike on an American target, on Christmas Day.
Yet in those sessions, government officials never considered or connected links that, with the benefit of hindsight, now seem so evident and indicated that the gathering threat in Yemen would reach into the United States.
Fort Hood Report Fails Smell Test
Previous entries:
Fort Hood Massacre
CNN and Waterboarding
Marc Thiessen lays out an excellent argument for the use of enhanced interrogation techniques, and highlights some of the extremely valuable intelligence that was gained in the early years of the ongoing war against terrorists. However, Amanpour never heard a word of it, and instead kept to her script that consists of the narrative that Bush was an evil man who did evil things, and Obama is the messiah who can do no wrong. From that narrative, all else follows for Amanpour and her Leftist comrades.
Even more, Thiessen called out Amanpour on her CNN propaganda piece in which she equated the CIA to the Khmer Rouge's S21 terrorists, and he further exposed her lies about the details of the enhanced interrogation techniques used by the U.S. government to acquire intelligence from al Qaeda. Amanpour didn't like being exposed as a propagandist, and tried to shout down Thiessen.
In short, Amanpour traveled to Cambodia to produced a piece of propaganda that equated the killing of nearly 2 million people by the Khmer Rouge to the water-boarding of three al Qaeda terrorists, all of whom were never harmed, are perfectly healthy, and will soon be sitting comfortably with their ACLU lawyers in an American courtroom. That is totally outrageous, and unlike Guantanamo Bay, actually helps the terrorists with their recruitment propaganda.
Amanpour is a slimy individual who cares nothing about trying to prevent the next 9/11, but instead is interested in scoring points with her friends on the political Left. I'll be looking for the veil to slip even further in the future as Amanpour tries to portray herself as an objective observer. However, I'm certain that she'll be unable to resist the deep-seated tendency to see things through the red lens of Leftism.
NOTE: Amanpour, like so many of her Leftist comrades, fails or refuses to see the difference between interrogating a terrorist for intelligence and interrogating a criminal for a confession.
UPDATE: MSNBC's Norah O'Donnell chimed in on waterboarding and the Massachusetts senate race [watch].
Previous posts:
The Torture Issue Examined - Part Ten
The Torture Issue Examined - Part Nine
The Torture Issue Examined - Part Eight
The Torture Issue Examined - Part Seven
The Torture Issue Examined - Part Six
The Torture Issue Examined - Part Five
The Torture Issue Examined - Part Four
The Torture Issue Examined - Part Three
The Torture Issue Examined - Part Two
The Torture Issue Examined
Dick Cheney on the War on Terrorists
NPR on Terrorist Detainees
Douglas Feith on Spain's Indictment
Inmates Run the Asylum
ACLU and Torture
US Intel Says Iran Did Not Halt Nuke Program
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U.S. intelligence agencies now suspect that Iran never halted work on its nuclear arms program in 2003, as stated in a national intelligence estimate made public three years ago, U.S. officials said. Differences among analysts now focus on whether the country's supreme leader has given or will soon give orders for full-scale production of nuclear weapons. The new consensus emerging among analysts in the 16 agencies that make up the U.S. intelligence community on Iran's nuclear arms program is expected to be the highlight of a classified national intelligence estimate nearing completion that will replace the estimate issued in 2007. |
Previous entries:
Another Update on the Iranian Nuclear Program
The Looming China Threat (includes news that China is aiding Iran's nuke program)
When the NIE was published over two years ago in November 2007, the consensus at the time was that the report was sorely wrong about Iran's nuke program [read].
The Looming China Threat
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According to the Pentagon's report on China's military, Chinese military forces have been developing an array of advanced weaponry, including new nuclear ballistic and cruise missiles, anti-satellite weaponry and cyber-attack capabilities, in addition to new more conventional ships, aircraft and ground-warfare capabilities. |
Meanwhile, Investor's Business Daily reports: "Largely ignored over the weekend, Jan. 1 signaled the arrival of the world's third-biggest free trade area. China and Asia's Tigers — the Association of Southeast Asian Nations — scrapped 7,000 different tariffs to form a $200 billion open market for about 2 billion consumers, one-third of the world's population."
However, all the news of China's soaring economy rests on the data provided by the Chinese government, which another Investor's Business Daily opinion piece suggests may be dubious [read]:
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"First, let's ask the question that economists often ask but is all but ignored in the media: Can China's data be trusted? Many economists believe the answer is no. In fact, no one knows for sure what China's GDP is. The communist government simply announces it — there is virtually no transparency. [...] |
Regardless of these dubious numbers, China's military is becoming increasingly sophisticated and robust, and the Communists in Beijing continue assisting rogue nations in their pursuit of advanced weapons, including nuclear weapons. In fact, an IBD editorial notes:
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Iran ran circles around United Nations sanctions last week, using the good offices of China to procure nuclear equipment from Taiwan. It's about par for Iran, but spotlights China's double game on security. |
Drone Attack Narrative From Pashtuns
Remember this?
Now, the Al Qaeda terrorists in Yemen are playing the game and parroting the Left's narrative that air strikes indiscriminately kill civilians:
Only Republicans Are Racists
Where the Left is Taking America
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The calculus of long-term committment is just different when your country guarantees the basic necessities of an advanced civilization. When your government provides you, as they do in Canada and in Europe, with health care that is unlinked to a job or "productivity," subsidized prescription drugs, child care, free education through graduate school, and, finally, old-age pensions with visiting nurses if you need them to retain your health and a modicum of dignity. Marriage, ultimately, is about family, however you shape it. I sometimes don't blame men here for being lame or commitment-phobic. They're probably terrified of failing as providers or co-providers. |
(h/t Instapundit)
You Lie
Jobs Jobs Jobs Not Not Not
In this short video, you'll see very clearly another truth that Milton Friedman often cited: People who spend other people's money seldom spend it as wisely and efficiently as would the person who worked hard to earn it. Thus, it's very easy for elitists in Congress to throw around billions of tax-payers' dollars in the name of creating jobs, when in fact they're only cycling money through the great bureaucratic vacuum cleaners in Washington.
Israeli Airport Security Screening
Marxism is Alive and Well
Lotta said in the interview that the American occupation in Afghanistan is typically colonial, yet he was not asked to defend his assertion. As a true Marxist, Lotta admitted that socialism is only one step toward a true Communism, a utopia where everyone shares in everything equally and there are no classes or haves and have-nots. Lotta also admitted that a socialist society can only exist when there's a tyranny, a dictatorship, that oppresses the capitalists and favors the underclass. A tyranny? Opression? Revolution? Where has this happened before? France in the 1790s. Russia in 1917. China in 1949. Cuba in 1959. The result was always the same: mass slaughter and terror, all in the name of the revolution.
You can watch Raymond Lotta defend Communism and the world's deadliest tyrant, Mao Zedong, on YouTube here. This is scary stuff! And Lotta is just one of thousands of college professors across America who share a committment to this dangerous ideology. It must be stopped. The dark history of Communism must not be whitewashed by narcissistic intellectuals who live comfortably under the security blanket of a quasi-capitalistic society, but try their best to dismantle the very fabric of that blanket. [NOTE: I say quasi-capitalist because we do not currently enjoy a purely capitalistic economy, and have not for over 100 years.]
My favorite defender of capitalism, Milton Friedman, spoke to Phil Donahue over 30 years ago about the true nature of human beings [watch more Friedman here]:
Another Update on the Iranian Nuke Program
Previous posts on this topic:
Update on Iranian Nuke Program
Taliban Attack in Afghanistan
Movie Review of Phantom Menace
Department of Education
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Too many American students simply lack the basics. In 2002, a National Geographic-Roper survey found that most 18- to 24-year-olds could not find Afghanistan, Iraq, or Japan on a map, ranking them behind counterparts in Sweden, Great Britain, Canada, Italy, Japan, France, and Germany. And in 2007 the American Institutes for Research reported that eighth graders in even our best-performing states - like Massachusetts - scored below peers in Singapore, South Korea, and Japan, while students in our worst-performing states - like Mississippi - were on par with eighth graders in Slovakia, Romania, and Russia. |
It's been 30 years since the Department of Education was created by the Carter Administration and a Democrat Congress. The ED, as it's known, was created to "promote the general welfare of the United States," to "help ensure that education issues receive proper treatment at the Federal level, and will enable the Federal Government to coordinate its education activities more effectively." Sounds great, right? It's annual budget is almost $100 billion, and it employs approximately 5,000 bureaucrats (none of whom, by the way, teach any classes or develop curricula).
Great job! Let's create more federal bureaucracies! How about one that runs healthcare?
A few years ago, John Stossel examined the situation in American education, and the results are shocking [read | watch].
UPDATE: Over 20 years ago, Milton Friedman examined the American public education system. He briefly examined the British system, and highlighted the typically frightening bureaucrat featured in part two of this YouTube video. Of note, President Obama, and almost all Democrats, opposes school vouchers for Washington, D.C., in spite of the fact that thousands of black parents have been begging for the federal government to support them. Of course, the Democrat party is beholden to the teachers' unions, thus they're not likely to vote against their cash cows.
Terror on Flight 253
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With his wealth, privilege and education at one of Britain's leading universities, Abdul Farouk Abdulmutallab had the world at his feet – able to choose from a range of futures in which to make his mark on the world. |
I thought it was poverty that was causing terrorism? Isn't that what the Leftist terrorism "experts" have been telling us since 9/11?
(h/t Hotair)
UPDATE: I like Ron Paul's views on smaller government and less taxes, but his foreign policy is straight out of the looney tunes. The Texan recently suggested that the Flight 253 bomber was motivated by American occupation — of what, he doesn't quite say. As Allahpundit notes, Paul is just "parroting" the terrorists' catch phrases and assuming they're the truth, which they very clearly are not.
UPDATE: In the movie "Die Hard: With a Vengeance," Zeus Carver, played by Samuel L. Jackson, says to John McClane, played by Bruce Willis: "I don't like you because you're gonna get me killed." Well, I don't like President Obama for several reasons, including the fact that he's dangerously wrong about the nature of the threat we face from Islamofascists.
Last week, the president interrupted his 7th game of golf on his two-week vacation (the most expensive presidential vacation in American history, during one the most depressed economies in American history) to give a short two-minute speech about the Christmas Day terrorist attack. The president suggested that the terrorist was a lone-wolf without ties to any global terrorist organization. Clearly, the president spoke without knowing all the facts (just as he did when his Harvard professor friend was arrested by white and black police officers in Massachusetts), because it turns out the young Nigerian was likely trained by Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) in Yemen.
In addition, the president continues pushing the lie that poverty is the cause of terrorism, in spite of all evidence to the contrary. This paradigm fits nicely into the Marxist notion that spreading the wealth through taxation and redistribution will aid all mankind.
UPDATE: The terrorist was on the radar screen of both the White House and MI5, notes Hotair. Also, Mark Steyn reminds us that the response to the terrorist attack was typically bureaucratic and illogical: "The al-Qaeda trainee on a terrorist watch list, a man banned from the United Kingdom and reported to the CIA by his own father, got on board the plane, assembled the bomb, and attempted to detonate it. But don’t worry ’bout a thing; the system worked." (h/t Hotair)
UPDATE: The New York Times is reporting that the American intelligence community is using its multi-million dollar assets to monitor global warming: "The nation’s top scientists and spies are collaborating on an effort to use the federal government’s intelligence assets — including spy satellites and other classified sensors — to assess the hidden complexities of environmental change." I feel safer. (h/t Hotair)
UPDATE: Investor's Business Daily editorial [read]:
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The poverty argument is laughable when one considers that al-Qaida founder Osama bin Laden is the scion of a wealthy Saudi family who went to private schools and studied business administration. |
UPDATE: Democrat Chris Cuomo, another Leftist posing as a disinterested commentator, suggested that there's no proof that the terrorist is providing any intelligence. Former NYC mayor Rudy Giuliani, though, disagrees [watch]. However:
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"He was singing like a canary, then we charged him in civilian proceedings, he got a lawyer and shut up," Slade Gorton, a member of the 9/11 Commission that investigated the Sept 2001 terror attacks on the US, told The Sunday Telegraph. |
Healthcare Reform Opponents Demonized
Global Warming, Communism, and Poetry
Meanwhile, the messiah reads from The Book of Gaia, or whatever is the poetic portion of the new Marxist bible. All hail the new messiah. Tears stream down our cheeks as we fall to our knees before the prophet of Man-Made Global Warming. Peace be upon Him!
Check out this clever cartoon, produced nearly 62 years ago, which reminds us that nothing changes, especially when it comes to politician's promises, Congress's false urgency and self-importance, and the fact that every generation needs to be reminded of what freedom really means. Also, I've thrown in a couple Milton Friedman videos in which he addresses some of the most prominent criticisms of capitalism. For more on this issue, check out Michael Medved's new book, The Five Big Lies About American Business.
Petty Creature Hates Christians
Among the Christians that Maddow particularly hates is Rick Warren who, according to Maddow, wants to execute gays and lesbians. Maddow believes that Rick Warren hates homosexuals! Rick Warren, according to Maddow, wants to behead gays and lesbians in his Saddleback Church, but because he lives in secular America and would never get away with it, he has to go to Africa to exact God's wrath upon the wretched and Hell-bound homosexuals.
Maddow's transparently false sense of self-righteousness — which is so typical of secular Leftists — reveals an abject ignorance about Christianity. One wonders whether Ms. Maddow has ever been to Africa — that is, has she ever been to Africa for more than a week-long safari that consists of evenings in air-conditioned hotel rooms and day visits to the Serengeti in a Land Rover? Perhaps Maddow, were she to join a missionary group, would get a different perspective of both Africa and Christians. Perhaps Maddow should spend a month traveling across Africa, from Mauritania to Kenya, and find out whether the number of Western secularists matches the number of conservative Christians building schools and hospitals and handing out medicine and food and school supplies and teaching women and children about health issues and good personal hygeine and the importance of abstinence. Perhaps Maddow can report back on the number of homosexuals who are rescuing the hundreds of thousands of slaves from Darfur. Perhaps Maddow could report back on the monetary funds and food flowing into humanitarian agencies in Africa from gay and lesbian organizations in America, and then compare that to the levels flowing into the continent from Christian organizations.
Perhaps Maddow could set aside her selfishness and narcissistic self-righteousness, and her abject hatred of Christians, and take some time to find out what's going on in Africa besides a piece of legislation in the Ugandan parliament. Perhaps Maddow could shut her pie hole for just enough time to actually examine the world around her, beyond the walls of the MSNBC studio, her upper-West Side apartment, and the gay night clubs, and examine the world she takes so much pleasure in condemning as unjust, and do something to make it a better place. But that would require humility and selflessness — qualities that are antithetical to the Maddows of the world. They would rather rally the haters and draw more attention to themselves and pretend they're doing something good.
Meanwhile, as Maddow sits on her soft leather chair and smears conservative Christians, conservative Christian missionaries around the world sleep on cots in filthy huts, suffer malaria and infections and dehydration, and continue to serve in the hope of changing people's lives by putting the needs of others above their own. Maddow and her ilk are not and cannot because it's not in their nature.
UPDATE: ABC News has joined the attack against American Christians [read].
Questions for Greenpeace at Copenhagen
Oprah Asks Obama to Grade Himself
During an interview with his good friend and most vocal supporter, Oprah Winfrey, President Obama was asked to grade his performance as president thus far. The exchange has gotten a lot of attention, for obvious reasons. However, amidst the post-interview discussions on TV, radio, and the blogosphere, one thing didn't get much attention.
Of course, the president continues to blame the previous administration for the financial crisis. He did it during the campaign last year, and he hasn't stopped since. What is most interesting is that he's willing to place the blame on President Bush for the financial crisis, but he's unable or unwilling to credit Bush for the situation in Iraq. This is remarkable because not only did he do nothing as president to make the situation in Iraq any better, but as a U.S. Senator he vehemently opposed the policy that made the situation better. In fact, in January 2007, he introduced legislation in the Senate to begin a pullout of U.S. forces in March 2007. Of course, President Bush got his way, and the result was a complete turn-around. Now, President Obama is taking credit for that turn-around.
During the Oprah interview, after giving himself "a good solid B+," President Obama explained for the Oprah viewers his reasoning behind the passing grade:
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President Obama: I think that we have inherited the biggest set of challenges of any president since Franklin Delano Roosevelt. We stabilized the economy; prevented the possibilities of a Great Depression, or a significant financial meltdown; the economy is growing again; we are on our way out of Iraq; I think we've got the best possible plan for Afghanistan; we have reset our image around the world; we are...we have achieved an international consensus around the need for Iran and North Korea to disable their nuclear weapons; and, I think we're going to pass the most significant piece of social legislation since [uh]...since Social Security, and that's health insurance for every American. |
Regarding the situation in Iraq, it was then-Senator Barack Obama who opposed the "surge" that turned the tide, and created the decline in violence that made it possible to remove U.S. forces from the major cities, and eventually set the stage for removing forces from Iraq altogether. Remember what Obama said at the time?
Exit Question: How long will the president have to remind Americans that he inherited "the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression"?
UPDATE: Karl Rove examined the president's rhetoric and record and doubts that a B+ is an accurate grade. Also, Jacob Sullum dissected the president's rhetorical "tells," which always precede falsehoods. (h/t Hotair)
UPDATE: Person of the Year: Strawman.
Update on Iranian Nuke Program
Bret Stephens at WSJ highlighted the links between Tehran and Caracas: "Iran would certainly require large and reliable supplies of uranium if it is going to enrich the nuclear fuel in 10 separate plants—an ambition Ahmadinejad spelled out last month. It would also require an extensive financial and logistical infrastructure network in Venezuela, not to mention unusually good political connections. All this it has in spades."
Previous posts on this subject:
Metallic Compounds Iran's Nuclear Fuel
NIE on Iran's Nukes Was Way Wrong
UPDATE: Arms Control Wonk's Jeffrey writes: "I have no idea whether the document is authentic, but I do want to confirm that Pakistan appears to have used uranium deuteride (UD3) as a neutron initiator."
Devotees of New Religion Post Note on Skeptic's Jacket
Obama Administration is Just Plain Wrong on GWOT
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Gibbs today said the move, in closing Guantanamo Bay, will make the country safer, and suggested if Boehner – or anybody – is confused by that, they should go to the members of the previous administration such as Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and the chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen and ask “why they support closing Guantanamo Bay and support today's decision.” Gibbs called this sort of concern over the safety of Illinois “hyperbole” and “scare tactics” that “we haven't seen in quite some time.”In response to Gibbs’ comments, Michael Steel, Spokesman for Boehner, issued a statement to ABC: “I look forward to seeing hordes of violent Jihadists lay down their AK-47s in response to the news that our terrorist prison is moving from the Caribbean to America’s heartland, but I’m not holding my breath. In the meantime, the White House still has not explained how bringing these terrorist killers to this country and giving the same rights as citizens will make the American people safer.” |
I'll be watching for Osama bin Laden's or Ayman al Zawahiri's statement calling for an end to global jihad now.
UPDATE: Andrew McCarthy examined the last fifteen years of jihad and notes that the existence of the Guantanomo Bay prison was never, and still is not, a motive for terrorism.
