Fall is here. We no longer sleep with all the windows open at night. It is still and cool outside, with the bright light falling on leaves that have just begun to dry and fade. Last night my daughter got home from her first Homecoming dance after midnight, so the Team slept in this morning. Mom and Dad didn't really wait up, of course; we just happened to have good books to read.
She was beautiful in her midnight blue satin dress. She wore a silver filigree band over the crown of her head, and strand of fine silver beads were woven through her jet black hair. I'm sure there's a fashion term for the effect, but it wasn't a tiara and I'm certainly no Mr. Blackwell to pull the right word out of the bag. Her date was one of the neighbor kids - one of my former scouts even, from back in the day when our LDS ward drafted me for assistant scoutmaster duties with the twelve year olds.
Talk about "in my wildest dreams"...
She's making pancakes now. It's Sunday and that's what she always does. Last night was a rite of passage, and she said as much this morning while thanking us for the dress and recounting the experiences of pictures and dancing and the silly or embarrassing things that happened to her or around her.
But now it's time for pancakes. Because that is what we do on a Sunday.
Four years ago today was also a brilliantly clear and cool morning. On that Tuesday we were involved in last minute packing for a cross country trip to say a final goodbye to my wife's mother. Services were to be held Thursday in the family church in Burlington, Vermont, and then we'd all go up to the most beautiful hillside in that most beautiful northeastern state and lay her ashes to rest among the plots containing her neighbors and ancestors going back almost three hundred years.
The kids and mom were in the living room putting the last items in their carry-on bags. The TV at the end of the coffee table was probably tuned to Nick or Disney; I don't know.
I was on our bed contemplating a cat nap when my wife literally dragged me to my feet. I was coming out of my doze quickly but still spinning up when I began to understand what she was asking me.
"What kind of bomb did that? What happened?"
I came through the kitchen into the living room. The TV sat on the entertainment center, framed between the still heads of my daughters. The Twin Towers filled the screen - the one on the right scarred by a smoking hole near the top third of the building.
I'm a surveyor. I've staked out a dozen or so commercial buildings, plus bridges, dams, and highways. Nothing on the scale of a genuine skyscraper of course, but I knew just enough about the design of the WTC to confuse the hell out of myself in those first few seconds. The WTC was built with the mass of the structural support in the walls of the building - soaring vertical steel columns spaced narrowly and then tied to floor pans for rigidity. The gaping wound in that building traversed four or five floors - which meant that whatever kind of bomb had been used must have been massive to have punched through so many floors. I wondered why there were any windows left on the floor where the bomb had to have been. The spaces inside the floors were huge and open; what office walls did exist were aesthetic, not structural. The majority of the spaces in there had to be cube farms. Were there multiple bombs? Maybe smuggled in as copiers or computers or office supplies? Blast follows least resistance... so why one big hole and intact windows on each side? The noise from the TV was just that - noise. The commentators were reporting an explosion and ad libbing while they tried to catch up.
"What kind of bomb? What kind of bomb?" My daughters hadn't moved since I came into the room.
Then the second 767 flashed into view, in a skidding bank to port, and disappeared behind the other tower. A blink of awful silent stillness and then the eruption of smoke, flame, and glass filled the screen.
I told my wife "We are at war". And then I cried with my family.
There were other awful moments in that awful day. My girls figured out where the airplanes had come from in less than an hour - and that some had been hijacked from Boston, which was to have been one of our connections. The urge to fight back - to reject the terrorists' goals - drove both my wife and I to head into work shortly after noon. I was on the way to a construction site in my work truck when the President's second statement was broadcast.
The thought struck me that had things gone differently, I could just have well been listening to Al Gore.
I pulled over and threw up.
I've always known that I live in an embarrassment of riches. Random chance placing me here in America has been the greatest blessing a person could ever hope for. Those that feel differently are free to do so. "Free" as in so shielded from the potential of their convictions that they can embrace agendas tantamount to suicide if they should ever be fulfilled.
What a country, eh?
I will continue to do those things that a citizen must do to support and defend our nation, and hope that enough of my fellow citizens do the same. Lincoln was right when he predicted that if we ever fell it would be a failure from within and not the result of some foreign attack.
Jihadis can only kill us. Should we ever lose our liberty, it will be by our own hand and no other's.
It's time for pancakes. Y'all have a fine day.
Sunday, September 11, 2005
Wednesday, September 07, 2005
Current Events
I posted this comment on American Digest:
I watched the increasingly insane statements emanating from the party of reality coalesce into a full court press of blinding hate by mid-last week. I didn't figure out exactly what the driving PR objective was until Bill Whittle published "Tribes".
Remember that four or five week period right after 9/11? Establishment Democrats and liberals waited with dread the demand of a unified American public for retribution on those responsible for the attacks on our cities... and accountability from those who allowed the primary individual behind those attacks to have run free after so many ignored opportunities to apprehend or simply kill him.
We were one people there for a brief shining moment - excepting creatures like Sontag, Chomsky, Moore, McKinney, et al - and the potential for political backlash was so great that Patriot, DHS, and a land war in Afghanistan shot through both sides of congress without a blink.
By the time we actually got into the meat of removing the Taliban, we lost that unity of purpose. Media sniping, the realization that the core of the Democrat base is closer to al Qaeda than Al the union plumber in affection for democracy and defense of the country made it imperative for those who like DC jobs to say what that base wanted to hear.
With Katrina we had a chance to pull together again - but with a weather event there is no one behind the tragedy to seek vengeance on, to focus on, but rather only the prospect of hard work and expensive effort ahead, as with all other historical natural disasters we have experienced as a nation.
We could dig in and do the right thing, and it would be good, and it would be a moment to be proud of. What's Left of the left still owns most of the cameras and barrels of ink, and that shit just wasn't going to be allowed to happen again.
Now our public view into the efforts to help the victims eerily parallels the coverage of the war in Iraq. Turn on any channel, read any column, and you'll wade through vicious second guessing tempered with editorial opinion purveyed as hard news long, long before you get any hard data on tons of supplies, numbers of rescuers, or restoration of services. Thank goodness for Blogs is all I can say.
A great city is on the cusp of destruction and many other smaller communities have been damaged or wiped out entirely. Hundreds of thousands of our citizens are displaced or are yet marooned and awaiting relief. Now is the time to get the job done as best we can, yet the focus of the left remains zeroed on destroying one man, regardless of the cost to the fabric of our society, to the victims on our Gulf shore, the lives of our troops engaged against the veil of evil that is fundamentalist Islam, or the fate of the mere chance of representative democracy rising from the barbarism that is the at rest state of most of the Muslim arc of nations.
I heard mentioned a Gallup poll today that noted that only 13% of the sample blamed bush for the disaster. Had to search out the report and read all the way to the bottom to find that stat, though.
I think thirteen percent would probably be the number for people who think the CIA piloted the 9/11 aircraft, too.
I hope the news cycle rolls over pretty quick; their best effort doesn't seem to be selling the product. Again. Still.
Have mistakes been made, opportunities squandered, and chances missed over the last week? Yes. Hell yes, and there are individuals and agencies that should be held to account for their performance or lack thereof. We who follow the news too closely are uncomfortably aware of shortcomings in planning, failures in execution, and stark incompetence on display in any direction we care to look.
That still doesn't change the fact that a storm blew in from the Gulf, like a thousand times before, and we have a huge task ahead of us.
How much harder is the Left willing to make this? They've turned this tragedy into an aberration that Jerry Springer wouldn't air.
Oprah Winfrey stood in the middle of a domed stadium three hundred miles away from the disaster, surrounded by people resting on cots, trying on clothes, eating hot food, being checked by doctors... people who were abandoned by their local elected officials, people who were rescued and transported by complete strangers (many volunteers), and Oprah advised them to ask for an apology from the nation.
To Hell with you, ma'am. And all the other bottom feeders trying to play this out as a political game.
I watched the increasingly insane statements emanating from the party of reality coalesce into a full court press of blinding hate by mid-last week. I didn't figure out exactly what the driving PR objective was until Bill Whittle published "Tribes".
Remember that four or five week period right after 9/11? Establishment Democrats and liberals waited with dread the demand of a unified American public for retribution on those responsible for the attacks on our cities... and accountability from those who allowed the primary individual behind those attacks to have run free after so many ignored opportunities to apprehend or simply kill him.
We were one people there for a brief shining moment - excepting creatures like Sontag, Chomsky, Moore, McKinney, et al - and the potential for political backlash was so great that Patriot, DHS, and a land war in Afghanistan shot through both sides of congress without a blink.
By the time we actually got into the meat of removing the Taliban, we lost that unity of purpose. Media sniping, the realization that the core of the Democrat base is closer to al Qaeda than Al the union plumber in affection for democracy and defense of the country made it imperative for those who like DC jobs to say what that base wanted to hear.
With Katrina we had a chance to pull together again - but with a weather event there is no one behind the tragedy to seek vengeance on, to focus on, but rather only the prospect of hard work and expensive effort ahead, as with all other historical natural disasters we have experienced as a nation.
We could dig in and do the right thing, and it would be good, and it would be a moment to be proud of. What's Left of the left still owns most of the cameras and barrels of ink, and that shit just wasn't going to be allowed to happen again.
Now our public view into the efforts to help the victims eerily parallels the coverage of the war in Iraq. Turn on any channel, read any column, and you'll wade through vicious second guessing tempered with editorial opinion purveyed as hard news long, long before you get any hard data on tons of supplies, numbers of rescuers, or restoration of services. Thank goodness for Blogs is all I can say.
A great city is on the cusp of destruction and many other smaller communities have been damaged or wiped out entirely. Hundreds of thousands of our citizens are displaced or are yet marooned and awaiting relief. Now is the time to get the job done as best we can, yet the focus of the left remains zeroed on destroying one man, regardless of the cost to the fabric of our society, to the victims on our Gulf shore, the lives of our troops engaged against the veil of evil that is fundamentalist Islam, or the fate of the mere chance of representative democracy rising from the barbarism that is the at rest state of most of the Muslim arc of nations.
I heard mentioned a Gallup poll today that noted that only 13% of the sample blamed bush for the disaster. Had to search out the report and read all the way to the bottom to find that stat, though.
I think thirteen percent would probably be the number for people who think the CIA piloted the 9/11 aircraft, too.
I hope the news cycle rolls over pretty quick; their best effort doesn't seem to be selling the product. Again. Still.
Have mistakes been made, opportunities squandered, and chances missed over the last week? Yes. Hell yes, and there are individuals and agencies that should be held to account for their performance or lack thereof. We who follow the news too closely are uncomfortably aware of shortcomings in planning, failures in execution, and stark incompetence on display in any direction we care to look.
That still doesn't change the fact that a storm blew in from the Gulf, like a thousand times before, and we have a huge task ahead of us.
How much harder is the Left willing to make this? They've turned this tragedy into an aberration that Jerry Springer wouldn't air.
Oprah Winfrey stood in the middle of a domed stadium three hundred miles away from the disaster, surrounded by people resting on cots, trying on clothes, eating hot food, being checked by doctors... people who were abandoned by their local elected officials, people who were rescued and transported by complete strangers (many volunteers), and Oprah advised them to ask for an apology from the nation.
To Hell with you, ma'am. And all the other bottom feeders trying to play this out as a political game.
Monday, September 05, 2005
Sunday, September 04, 2005
I Couldn't Find A Cathedral
So I pinned this to Dennis's door:
Dennis -
I have been working like a slave (well paid, though) for the last six months and have almost ceased blogging or commenting on the blogs of others. I still spend an hour or more a day staying up to speed..but as time has gone on the question "to what end?" keeps coming up.
An arena of ideas requires arguments and principled positions that can be debated and judged on merit. Healthy representative democracy should always benefit from debate; what has evolved over the last decade or so is less a debate than a battle of the bands. National discourse (and the bulk of that is still firmly in hands of MSM, make no mistake) is retrenchment by the left to feigned outrage and slogans.
Bush Derangement Syndrome has been accepted as the foundational philosophy of the Left.
The rise of the web has diluted the power of legacy media and political activists to manage public opinion. It has put source materials like the whole texts of speeches, public records, and accounts of individual experts or eyewitnesses to events in the hands of the people who actually decide public policy - voters.
The trend toward conservative majorities is no accident. It's the manifestation of a market responding to better data. And by "conservative" I don't nearly mean the hyperbolic label defined by what's left of the Left - I mean people who vote in their own self interest before any larger agenda.
We are trained by a lifetime of public relations campaigns to guage propriety as being that which is applauded publicly. The rise of blogs - especially on the Right - strikes me as a case of water findng its own level.
The Left is losing elections, and has been for most of my adult life. But since the MSM is invested in the pursuit of big government, antireligious, social engineering, race pimping, populist interests they find themselves adrift when what they write or televise doesn't result in the political landscape they consider "normal".
They still equate volume with relevance: so too do a lot of people on the Right. So we end up with a grundle of self-publishing individuals who invest tremendous amounts of time and effort in following the narrative and getting their opinions into the mix on a daily basis. Yes, there is a vital need to deny injection of falsity into debate, and for that the blogosphere's "fact checking" function is an undeniable factor... but when is enough enough?
I can't blog on politics any more. In truth I had little enough hope that debate was a productive pursuit with the Other Side long before 9/11. Commenting and blogging was exhilirating at first... but truly I think too many of us take ourselves too seriously. Now we have arrived at a point in time where the remnants of the other national party and the entire weight of their media and intelligentsia exist only to destroy one single political opponent who isn't even an election threat anymore. This driving obsession denies any peripheral consideration such as war, natural disasters, looming collapse of social programs, and lately has brought the inflaming of racial, regional, and economic divisions to a new low... and most importantly, they have emphatically abandoned any pretense at the necessity of a political party to provide reasons for voters to support them.
As long as they fail to apreciate that it's elections that count much more than the opinions of the NYT editorial board, my political broadsides will probably be confined to choices on a ballot.
I doubt I'll lack good company, and lots of it.
Dennis -
I have been working like a slave (well paid, though) for the last six months and have almost ceased blogging or commenting on the blogs of others. I still spend an hour or more a day staying up to speed..but as time has gone on the question "to what end?" keeps coming up.
An arena of ideas requires arguments and principled positions that can be debated and judged on merit. Healthy representative democracy should always benefit from debate; what has evolved over the last decade or so is less a debate than a battle of the bands. National discourse (and the bulk of that is still firmly in hands of MSM, make no mistake) is retrenchment by the left to feigned outrage and slogans.
Bush Derangement Syndrome has been accepted as the foundational philosophy of the Left.
The rise of the web has diluted the power of legacy media and political activists to manage public opinion. It has put source materials like the whole texts of speeches, public records, and accounts of individual experts or eyewitnesses to events in the hands of the people who actually decide public policy - voters.
The trend toward conservative majorities is no accident. It's the manifestation of a market responding to better data. And by "conservative" I don't nearly mean the hyperbolic label defined by what's left of the Left - I mean people who vote in their own self interest before any larger agenda.
We are trained by a lifetime of public relations campaigns to guage propriety as being that which is applauded publicly. The rise of blogs - especially on the Right - strikes me as a case of water findng its own level.
The Left is losing elections, and has been for most of my adult life. But since the MSM is invested in the pursuit of big government, antireligious, social engineering, race pimping, populist interests they find themselves adrift when what they write or televise doesn't result in the political landscape they consider "normal".
They still equate volume with relevance: so too do a lot of people on the Right. So we end up with a grundle of self-publishing individuals who invest tremendous amounts of time and effort in following the narrative and getting their opinions into the mix on a daily basis. Yes, there is a vital need to deny injection of falsity into debate, and for that the blogosphere's "fact checking" function is an undeniable factor... but when is enough enough?
I can't blog on politics any more. In truth I had little enough hope that debate was a productive pursuit with the Other Side long before 9/11. Commenting and blogging was exhilirating at first... but truly I think too many of us take ourselves too seriously. Now we have arrived at a point in time where the remnants of the other national party and the entire weight of their media and intelligentsia exist only to destroy one single political opponent who isn't even an election threat anymore. This driving obsession denies any peripheral consideration such as war, natural disasters, looming collapse of social programs, and lately has brought the inflaming of racial, regional, and economic divisions to a new low... and most importantly, they have emphatically abandoned any pretense at the necessity of a political party to provide reasons for voters to support them.
As long as they fail to apreciate that it's elections that count much more than the opinions of the NYT editorial board, my political broadsides will probably be confined to choices on a ballot.
I doubt I'll lack good company, and lots of it.
Wednesday, August 17, 2005
8/18/87
That was a good day.
Tomorrow marks eighteen years with the One True Love.
We are spending four days at the Las Vegas Hilton to celebrate.
Calling that roommate service in San Diego was the best move I ever made.
Thanks, Susan!
Tomorrow marks eighteen years with the One True Love.
We are spending four days at the Las Vegas Hilton to celebrate.
Calling that roommate service in San Diego was the best move I ever made.
Thanks, Susan!
Tuesday, August 09, 2005
Random Shots
I put a comment up on a Medienkritic post in reply to another commenter's query why "...Republicans in particular and their fellow travellors (sic) at the Pentagon are so afraid of China?".
We live in interesting times.
(via Ann Althouse, guest blogging at Instapundit)
We live in interesting times.
(via Ann Althouse, guest blogging at Instapundit)
Tuesday, August 02, 2005
How About Some Good News?
I don't have much good to say about the french these days - but reading this story caused me to take pause.
"As many as 43 people suffered minor injuries in the 4:03 p.m. crash landing of Air France Flight 358 from Paris — the first time an Airbus A340 had crashed in its 13 years of commercial service."
Minor injuries? In a crash that left the aircraft in pieces at the bottom of a ravine? No fatalities?
Thirteen years of crash free service?
Good job, Jacques.
"As many as 43 people suffered minor injuries in the 4:03 p.m. crash landing of Air France Flight 358 from Paris — the first time an Airbus A340 had crashed in its 13 years of commercial service."
Minor injuries? In a crash that left the aircraft in pieces at the bottom of a ravine? No fatalities?
Thirteen years of crash free service?
Good job, Jacques.
Monday, July 25, 2005
Current Interest
I'm watching Mount Saint Helens.
Down the page there is a link that takes you to real time webicorders. Very good stuff.
There have been several earthquakes in the 3+ range there over the last week. The current seismic activity recalls flow noise displays I saw on sonar once upon a time. Rockfalls, ash, and steam, oh my.
Down the page there is a link that takes you to real time webicorders. Very good stuff.
There have been several earthquakes in the 3+ range there over the last week. The current seismic activity recalls flow noise displays I saw on sonar once upon a time. Rockfalls, ash, and steam, oh my.
Sunday, July 24, 2005
That Magic Moment
I've accumulated enough small arms ammunition to satisfy my requirements for "reasonable stock on hand" should civilization fold up. I may not have to reload in any caliber for the next six months.
This means I have to buy a locking container light enough for me to hump down into the bomb shelter (former owner's doing) that sits under the backyard and is accessed via my basement. I've researched a few purpose-built products but will probably end up buying a jobsite toolbox from a pawnshop, then cutting a series of slots or holes in the top and front for blast panels.
I ended up with a three day weekend; Monday is a state holiday and my project is on track to the extent that we didn't have to work. I've fixed my lawn sprinklers, cleaned the bathroom, and done some washing today, on top of ammo inventory.
What? No politics? You are correct.
The London bombings, the Roberts nomination, and the Dem's latest efforts to sabotage the war are just noise behind my life right now. I follow some milblogs (link is my gateway), touch base at Wretchard's place, hit Totten and Simon and Instapundit... and I never miss Van der Luen.
We are in intermission.
It will be our turn, again, and soon. If not today, or next month, our turn is approaching. London is merely an ongoing sand table exercise to determine tactics. If they can successfully execute attacks against the most monitored western city in the world, they can repeat the operations here with even more effect. As a nation, we refuse to recognize the nature, and the necessary response, to the enemy.
What to do... what to do...?
I think I'll go help square away our kitchen, then finish cleaning my garage.
Have a fine week.
This means I have to buy a locking container light enough for me to hump down into the bomb shelter (former owner's doing) that sits under the backyard and is accessed via my basement. I've researched a few purpose-built products but will probably end up buying a jobsite toolbox from a pawnshop, then cutting a series of slots or holes in the top and front for blast panels.
I ended up with a three day weekend; Monday is a state holiday and my project is on track to the extent that we didn't have to work. I've fixed my lawn sprinklers, cleaned the bathroom, and done some washing today, on top of ammo inventory.
What? No politics? You are correct.
The London bombings, the Roberts nomination, and the Dem's latest efforts to sabotage the war are just noise behind my life right now. I follow some milblogs (link is my gateway), touch base at Wretchard's place, hit Totten and Simon and Instapundit... and I never miss Van der Luen.
We are in intermission.
It will be our turn, again, and soon. If not today, or next month, our turn is approaching. London is merely an ongoing sand table exercise to determine tactics. If they can successfully execute attacks against the most monitored western city in the world, they can repeat the operations here with even more effect. As a nation, we refuse to recognize the nature, and the necessary response, to the enemy.
What to do... what to do...?
I think I'll go help square away our kitchen, then finish cleaning my garage.
Have a fine week.
Tuesday, July 19, 2005
The Big Show No More
I posted the following as a comment on Gerard Van der Luen's excellent American Digest blog:
I've stopped taking the Democrats seriously.
It took a lot for that to happen - eight years of Clinton, the Florida 2000 aftermath, Rathergate... but the kicker was the Plame affair.
It was over a week ago, when the Time reporter related that Rove wasn't his source. But MSM has continued felling entire forests for print column inches to repackage the facts into conspiracy theories that would be laughed at on DU.
Watching the Dem reaction to Bush's nomination of Roberts was delicious, in a perverse, I-know-exactly-what-to-expect sort of way.
He could have appointed Sandar Day O'Connor's government-constructed clone (operation performed using stem cells stripped from euthanized Dutch babies) and it wouldn't have changed a thing.
They have no "JOIN ME" mojo. Just cynicism, fear and a broad stripe of petty viciousness of the type that alienates most Americans at a visceral level.
They can have the universities, TV, and newspapers for a little while longer. The brightest and best informed kids I've met in the last ten years never finished high school.
What is important to mark is that with Robert's confirmation and Rhenquist's immenent (sp?) departure, the Democrats are just about defeated in their generational effort to deconstruct our Constitutional system. I worried a lot on my way to these(EARLY) middle years but the feedback correction built in to our electoral system seems to have actually worked. Again. Still.
Leahy...Schumer...and Oh My GOD KENNEDY and DEAN and PELOSI...
Dean the DNC Chairman. It brings to mind the old Ed Sullivan rule: "Never Follow An Animal Act".
I don't think anyone will have to. This show is over. Oh, there's still syndication and niche markets and the cult convention circuit, of course. The papers will continue to write reviews for the benefit of the nada class, of course, but everyone else will be reading the blogs.
******
2006 is coming quick. I put the odds at Bush having another Supreme Court Justice to appoint at better than even. If he can get a voter positive I.D. requirement legislated before the next elections I believe that the national Democratic party will implode.
And my money is still on Judith Miller being her own source.
I've stopped taking the Democrats seriously.
It took a lot for that to happen - eight years of Clinton, the Florida 2000 aftermath, Rathergate... but the kicker was the Plame affair.
It was over a week ago, when the Time reporter related that Rove wasn't his source. But MSM has continued felling entire forests for print column inches to repackage the facts into conspiracy theories that would be laughed at on DU.
Watching the Dem reaction to Bush's nomination of Roberts was delicious, in a perverse, I-know-exactly-what-to-expect sort of way.
He could have appointed Sandar Day O'Connor's government-constructed clone (operation performed using stem cells stripped from euthanized Dutch babies) and it wouldn't have changed a thing.
They have no "JOIN ME" mojo. Just cynicism, fear and a broad stripe of petty viciousness of the type that alienates most Americans at a visceral level.
They can have the universities, TV, and newspapers for a little while longer. The brightest and best informed kids I've met in the last ten years never finished high school.
What is important to mark is that with Robert's confirmation and Rhenquist's immenent (sp?) departure, the Democrats are just about defeated in their generational effort to deconstruct our Constitutional system. I worried a lot on my way to these(EARLY) middle years but the feedback correction built in to our electoral system seems to have actually worked. Again. Still.
Leahy...Schumer...and Oh My GOD KENNEDY and DEAN and PELOSI...
Dean the DNC Chairman. It brings to mind the old Ed Sullivan rule: "Never Follow An Animal Act".
I don't think anyone will have to. This show is over. Oh, there's still syndication and niche markets and the cult convention circuit, of course. The papers will continue to write reviews for the benefit of the nada class, of course, but everyone else will be reading the blogs.
******
2006 is coming quick. I put the odds at Bush having another Supreme Court Justice to appoint at better than even. If he can get a voter positive I.D. requirement legislated before the next elections I believe that the national Democratic party will implode.
And my money is still on Judith Miller being her own source.
Sunday, July 17, 2005
Victory!
Well, here it is Sunday, and I'm finally at home. My work schedule has forced me to let many things slip; some important, some not so important.
I got up this morning resolved to get at least one thing done, and as I write this the gentle hiss of my lawn sprinkling system is a soundtrack that sounds as magnificent as anything Rogers and Hammerstein ever came up with.
I've just deleted five paragraphs of sprinkler repair. It's Sunday, and the both of us have better things to do than listen to that.
The damned things work, and I'm off to see the Fantastic Four with the Team.
Y'all have a fine week, o.k.?
Here's some links you might enjoy.
I got up this morning resolved to get at least one thing done, and as I write this the gentle hiss of my lawn sprinkling system is a soundtrack that sounds as magnificent as anything Rogers and Hammerstein ever came up with.
I've just deleted five paragraphs of sprinkler repair. It's Sunday, and the both of us have better things to do than listen to that.
The damned things work, and I'm off to see the Fantastic Four with the Team.
Y'all have a fine week, o.k.?
Here's some links you might enjoy.
Wednesday, July 13, 2005
Grinding
Here it is Wednesday (fifteen more minutes at least) and I've got thirty three hours on the clock already.
I have been staking curb for roads all week. And setting redheads. And mapping utilities (power, water, sewer, electric, comms, gas) as they are built. And staking out for yet more utilities.
The common facilities area for my development was just permitted Tuesday morning. I've already staked out the property and limit of disturbance lines for it. There will be a clubhouse, pro shop, cart facility, restraunt, lodge, and event hall in this area. When the time comes I'll stake those out, too. If you are familiar with the way resort areas are furnished around Park City you will have some idea of what is happening up here.
I haven't spent a lot of time on news lately. I was gratified to see the shuttle mission scrubbed; you just shouldn't return to space on the thirteenth of any month. Orbits be damned.
I've been keeping an ear open to find out exactly what the Plame case is going to reduce to; I've never believed that Karl Rove was the source that "outed" that sorry excuse for a CIA hack.
If he had, it would have been in every paper in the country before the last election.
What about Judith Miller? I'm leaning toward a theory that if she actually had a source that outed Plame, the identity of that person will turn out to be a disgruntled CIA staffer - or she will have to admit that Plame was already a well-known denizen among the anti Republican/anti Bush cabal that seems to permeate agencies like State and CIA.
Or just possibly, Miller will have to admit that she already knew who Plame was, exactly what Plame's role was in getting Wilson a job, and then that she tried to do her bit for the team by assisting in the full court press media had against Bush.
If I were a high-profile Times apartchik I think I'd rather sit in jail on a contempt charge shrouded in martyr's robes by my peers than than go down in the history books as the hack that finally brought down the Newspaper of Record.
No links, alas.
I hope to have Sunday off. I'll be here if I get out of bed.
I have been staking curb for roads all week. And setting redheads. And mapping utilities (power, water, sewer, electric, comms, gas) as they are built. And staking out for yet more utilities.
The common facilities area for my development was just permitted Tuesday morning. I've already staked out the property and limit of disturbance lines for it. There will be a clubhouse, pro shop, cart facility, restraunt, lodge, and event hall in this area. When the time comes I'll stake those out, too. If you are familiar with the way resort areas are furnished around Park City you will have some idea of what is happening up here.
I haven't spent a lot of time on news lately. I was gratified to see the shuttle mission scrubbed; you just shouldn't return to space on the thirteenth of any month. Orbits be damned.
I've been keeping an ear open to find out exactly what the Plame case is going to reduce to; I've never believed that Karl Rove was the source that "outed" that sorry excuse for a CIA hack.
If he had, it would have been in every paper in the country before the last election.
What about Judith Miller? I'm leaning toward a theory that if she actually had a source that outed Plame, the identity of that person will turn out to be a disgruntled CIA staffer - or she will have to admit that Plame was already a well-known denizen among the anti Republican/anti Bush cabal that seems to permeate agencies like State and CIA.
Or just possibly, Miller will have to admit that she already knew who Plame was, exactly what Plame's role was in getting Wilson a job, and then that she tried to do her bit for the team by assisting in the full court press media had against Bush.
If I were a high-profile Times apartchik I think I'd rather sit in jail on a contempt charge shrouded in martyr's robes by my peers than than go down in the history books as the hack that finally brought down the Newspaper of Record.
No links, alas.
I hope to have Sunday off. I'll be here if I get out of bed.
Saturday, July 09, 2005
Required Reading
Every once in a while I dare to think I can write. Then I read James Lileks:
"It’s always interesting to see how people who pride themselves on sophisticated analyses and exquisitely tuned cultural sensibilities cannot see the plain home truths. The foe sneers: you are infidels; you die now. The moderns pull a face, steeple their fingers, and wonder what they really mean."
Please do read the rest.
"It’s always interesting to see how people who pride themselves on sophisticated analyses and exquisitely tuned cultural sensibilities cannot see the plain home truths. The foe sneers: you are infidels; you die now. The moderns pull a face, steeple their fingers, and wonder what they really mean."
Please do read the rest.
Thursday, July 07, 2005
Savages, Barbarians, Losers
"The tragedy is that Al Qaeda's perception is perfectly correct when applied to the Left, for whom no position is too supine, no degradation too shameful to endure; but incorrect for the vast majority of humans, in whom the instinct for self-preservation has not yet been extinguished. It will result in history's greatest case of mistaken identity; the mismatch that should never have happened. The enemy is even now dying at our feet, where we should kick him and kick him again."
My heart goes out to the people of England. I hope they've still got it in them to fight back and not pull a Spain.
Fundamentalist Islam is the enemy. And the Western Left is their most powerful weapon.
(via Belmont Club)
My heart goes out to the people of England. I hope they've still got it in them to fight back and not pull a Spain.
Fundamentalist Islam is the enemy. And the Western Left is their most powerful weapon.
(via Belmont Club)
Tuesday, July 05, 2005
Monday, July 04, 2005
Freedom, Ideals, and Reality
Happy Independence Day to all who happen to wander through here.
I know that most of us are busy today. Whether you are preparing to host a traditional barbeque like we are here in Utah or simply getting out to enjoy the holiday, or, heaven forbid, you have to work, the Fourth is one of those holidays that seem to require more than just getting up in the morning to get the full measure of the day.
This is my favorite day of the year. For public days at least...
We have been cleaning since seven o'clock this morning. The meat has been prepped, the front of the house is presentable, even if not ready for a photo shoot to appear in Martha Stuart living. I mowed then watered the lawns and as soon as they dry out I'll put up the canopy. The Weber, the Aussie, and the two Dutch ovens are set. When I finish this post I'll light 'em up. The four varieties of ribs will go on or in a half hour later. Chow will commence at three this afternoon if everything comes up on schedule.
My daughters are dervishes; they are keeping ahead of the wife and I where "squaring away" is concerned.
Our cannon sits on the lawn next to the driveway. The colors are posted behind it.
I've always set them up the same way for Independence Day. I don't think I'm consciously sending any message by doing things this way... but it is true that there are some things that must be defended, and things that WE will defend. Draw what meaning you will from the display. It keeps the kids from messing with the back of the cannon and puts the colors out of the way of casual traffic.
I said that we started getting ready at seven. Of course I made a few minutes to hit my favorite blogs and news sources with my second cup of coffee. Amongst the news of the world and some very uplifting blog posts I was saddened to see that Kim DuToit has elected to step off the firing step for the next little bit.
I can sympathize with him. He founded and has led the Nation of Riflemen in an unceasing and unambiguous campaign supporting the struggle to protect our freedoms both home and far abroad. He puts a tremendous amount of effort into his blog at the same time he is pursuing a business start up and writing career.
He is frustrated and depressed. He has posted a long list of undeniable facts and events that do stand, singly or in total, as direct threats to our freedoms as citizens. Take a look:
" * Real ID, passed by the House of Representatives, which effectively tags us and brands us, for the benefit of the State
* Kelo vs. New London, where the Supreme Court decided that it was just okay-dokey for local government to seize private property and hand it over to another private party
* The Transportation Security Agency and its heavy-handed, PC behavior at airports—where you can be arrested for protesting against rules and regulations which you are not allowed to see for yourself
* The War on Drugs, with seizure of private property and “no-knock” search warrants
* The so-called “Patriot” Act, which allows law enforcement to snoop around our personal papers, affairs and letters without a warrant
* A tax system which taxes wages and profits, and our property, the services we provide, and the goods we buy
* A President indicates that he would sign a continuation of a firearms ban, which bans firearms for cosmetic reasons, and which ban has been proven to be ineffectual in terms of lowering crime rates
* A government which does not defend our borders from wholesale incursion for foreign nationals
* A proposed Constitutional amendment which would outlaw the burning of a symbol
* Congressmen get an automatic pay increase each year, unless they specifically vote against it
* The FEC announces that political speech, like mine, may fall afoul of the un-Constitutional McCain-Feingold Campaign Finance Reform Act.
ItÂ’s not just one thing, itÂ’s never just one thing: each one of the above is bad, in and of itself. All of them combined have become intolerable."
If you aren't familiar with Kim, you should know that he emigrated here from South Africa. He knows what the absence of freedom is at a level that most of us are simply incapable of understanding.
"This is not the America to which I came twenty years ago, and of which I so joyfully became a citizen soon after. The dream is over, the promise has been broken."
And on that I disagree. Freedom... the freedom that we seek to enjoy, protect, and defend, is an ideal that has eluded men for centuries. We do not live in the end times for American Democracy. Not as long as citizens can be heard through the ballot. Not as long as good citizens stand and the better ideas rise to the top in the arena of politics.
Even in the face of recent and truly horrifying acts against the fondations of our republic - such as CFR, the politicization of the judiciary, the Kelo decision, the latest idiotic run at an anti flag burning amendment- the fight is not near lost.
When Kim arrived here Democrats ran both houses of Congress. Tax rates, welfare rolls, and concentrated attacks on the second amendment were threatening to destroy our economy, society, and a key component of the Bill of Rights.
Today we prosper as a nation - matter of fact, we are the only industrial power not facing recession right at the moment. Welfare reform has not only forced people back into the workplace, it has more importantly removed one of the most egregious tools by which statist politicians control populations. And were the Second Amendment is concerned, Americans have been steadily enacting concealed carry, victim shield, and manufacturer protection laws for years.
If today is not the America that he dreams of, then just possibly it can become his dream tomorrow. I know that that belief is all that keeps me going some days. Whether it is good enough for anyone else I just flat don't know.
But there is much still to be done. Kim wrote that post at one a.m. last night; a time not normally associated with high spirits. I do not judge his action - he is FREE to bear what load he chooses.
I do know that if he steps down off the firing step today... if he must unload, clear, and lock, and come away from his spot on the line for a spell that he will not go far. It is not in the nature of a true patriot to accept defeat. And I know that there will be others that step forward, or close up, to fill the gap as best as can be done until such time as he is ready to come forward again.
Today, the Team will celebrate with burned meat, gunsmoke, and the company of good friends. We will be joyful, and we will be grateful, and we will honor those that founded this grand experiment and those that have paid to get us to this troubling point in history. And we resolve that this day will not be the last we celebrate our freedoms, nor the first we dare take them for granted.
We wish you all the very best this Independence Day. Warts and all.
UPDATE 1430 4 July: I need to make one thing REAL CLEAR: I am not condemning Kim DuToit's decision to step back for a bit. Not nearly. I don't come close to having the chops to make a call like that and wouldn't presume to if I did.
I just wanted to point out that I don't think we have lost. Not yet - and not nearly.
Mrs. DuToit has posted some vital background information on just what they have been through recently - and just how blogging and their exercise of freedom of expression figures into the mix. I understand even more now why they are both discouraged. Who wouldn't be?
I know that most of us are busy today. Whether you are preparing to host a traditional barbeque like we are here in Utah or simply getting out to enjoy the holiday, or, heaven forbid, you have to work, the Fourth is one of those holidays that seem to require more than just getting up in the morning to get the full measure of the day.
This is my favorite day of the year. For public days at least...
We have been cleaning since seven o'clock this morning. The meat has been prepped, the front of the house is presentable, even if not ready for a photo shoot to appear in Martha Stuart living. I mowed then watered the lawns and as soon as they dry out I'll put up the canopy. The Weber, the Aussie, and the two Dutch ovens are set. When I finish this post I'll light 'em up. The four varieties of ribs will go on or in a half hour later. Chow will commence at three this afternoon if everything comes up on schedule.
My daughters are dervishes; they are keeping ahead of the wife and I where "squaring away" is concerned.
Our cannon sits on the lawn next to the driveway. The colors are posted behind it.
I've always set them up the same way for Independence Day. I don't think I'm consciously sending any message by doing things this way... but it is true that there are some things that must be defended, and things that WE will defend. Draw what meaning you will from the display. It keeps the kids from messing with the back of the cannon and puts the colors out of the way of casual traffic.
I said that we started getting ready at seven. Of course I made a few minutes to hit my favorite blogs and news sources with my second cup of coffee. Amongst the news of the world and some very uplifting blog posts I was saddened to see that Kim DuToit has elected to step off the firing step for the next little bit.
I can sympathize with him. He founded and has led the Nation of Riflemen in an unceasing and unambiguous campaign supporting the struggle to protect our freedoms both home and far abroad. He puts a tremendous amount of effort into his blog at the same time he is pursuing a business start up and writing career.
He is frustrated and depressed. He has posted a long list of undeniable facts and events that do stand, singly or in total, as direct threats to our freedoms as citizens. Take a look:
" * Real ID, passed by the House of Representatives, which effectively tags us and brands us, for the benefit of the State
* Kelo vs. New London, where the Supreme Court decided that it was just okay-dokey for local government to seize private property and hand it over to another private party
* The Transportation Security Agency and its heavy-handed, PC behavior at airports—where you can be arrested for protesting against rules and regulations which you are not allowed to see for yourself
* The War on Drugs, with seizure of private property and “no-knock” search warrants
* The so-called “Patriot” Act, which allows law enforcement to snoop around our personal papers, affairs and letters without a warrant
* A tax system which taxes wages and profits, and our property, the services we provide, and the goods we buy
* A President indicates that he would sign a continuation of a firearms ban, which bans firearms for cosmetic reasons, and which ban has been proven to be ineffectual in terms of lowering crime rates
* A government which does not defend our borders from wholesale incursion for foreign nationals
* A proposed Constitutional amendment which would outlaw the burning of a symbol
* Congressmen get an automatic pay increase each year, unless they specifically vote against it
* The FEC announces that political speech, like mine, may fall afoul of the un-Constitutional McCain-Feingold Campaign Finance Reform Act.
ItÂ’s not just one thing, itÂ’s never just one thing: each one of the above is bad, in and of itself. All of them combined have become intolerable."
If you aren't familiar with Kim, you should know that he emigrated here from South Africa. He knows what the absence of freedom is at a level that most of us are simply incapable of understanding.
"This is not the America to which I came twenty years ago, and of which I so joyfully became a citizen soon after. The dream is over, the promise has been broken."
And on that I disagree. Freedom... the freedom that we seek to enjoy, protect, and defend, is an ideal that has eluded men for centuries. We do not live in the end times for American Democracy. Not as long as citizens can be heard through the ballot. Not as long as good citizens stand and the better ideas rise to the top in the arena of politics.
Even in the face of recent and truly horrifying acts against the fondations of our republic - such as CFR, the politicization of the judiciary, the Kelo decision, the latest idiotic run at an anti flag burning amendment- the fight is not near lost.
When Kim arrived here Democrats ran both houses of Congress. Tax rates, welfare rolls, and concentrated attacks on the second amendment were threatening to destroy our economy, society, and a key component of the Bill of Rights.
Today we prosper as a nation - matter of fact, we are the only industrial power not facing recession right at the moment. Welfare reform has not only forced people back into the workplace, it has more importantly removed one of the most egregious tools by which statist politicians control populations. And were the Second Amendment is concerned, Americans have been steadily enacting concealed carry, victim shield, and manufacturer protection laws for years.
If today is not the America that he dreams of, then just possibly it can become his dream tomorrow. I know that that belief is all that keeps me going some days. Whether it is good enough for anyone else I just flat don't know.
But there is much still to be done. Kim wrote that post at one a.m. last night; a time not normally associated with high spirits. I do not judge his action - he is FREE to bear what load he chooses.
I do know that if he steps down off the firing step today... if he must unload, clear, and lock, and come away from his spot on the line for a spell that he will not go far. It is not in the nature of a true patriot to accept defeat. And I know that there will be others that step forward, or close up, to fill the gap as best as can be done until such time as he is ready to come forward again.
Today, the Team will celebrate with burned meat, gunsmoke, and the company of good friends. We will be joyful, and we will be grateful, and we will honor those that founded this grand experiment and those that have paid to get us to this troubling point in history. And we resolve that this day will not be the last we celebrate our freedoms, nor the first we dare take them for granted.
We wish you all the very best this Independence Day. Warts and all.
UPDATE 1430 4 July: I need to make one thing REAL CLEAR: I am not condemning Kim DuToit's decision to step back for a bit. Not nearly. I don't come close to having the chops to make a call like that and wouldn't presume to if I did.
I just wanted to point out that I don't think we have lost. Not yet - and not nearly.
Mrs. DuToit has posted some vital background information on just what they have been through recently - and just how blogging and their exercise of freedom of expression figures into the mix. I understand even more now why they are both discouraged. Who wouldn't be?
Sunday, July 03, 2005
Recycled Content
I put up a lengthy comment on one of Michael J. Totten's always interesting posts.
Commenter novakant wrote:
"Maybe because there is no connection apart from the Bush administration's wishful thinking and intentionally misleading rhetoric. The "War on Terror" is a lame attempt at creating a carte blanche for anything and everything the WH wants to do, nothing else. 9/11 gave them that chance and they are milking it still."
I tire of public displays willful ignorance in attempting to justify opposition to this administration. Especially when the lives of millions, and the prospects for peace and freedom for millions, hang in the balance.
Down in the gunroom I have a shelf. On it sits a broken bear statue and a copy of the Koran. I believe I'm going to have to pick up a donkey statue and add it to the roll of opponents to be beaten.
Commenter novakant wrote:
"Maybe because there is no connection apart from the Bush administration's wishful thinking and intentionally misleading rhetoric. The "War on Terror" is a lame attempt at creating a carte blanche for anything and everything the WH wants to do, nothing else. 9/11 gave them that chance and they are milking it still."
I tire of public displays willful ignorance in attempting to justify opposition to this administration. Especially when the lives of millions, and the prospects for peace and freedom for millions, hang in the balance.
Down in the gunroom I have a shelf. On it sits a broken bear statue and a copy of the Koran. I believe I'm going to have to pick up a donkey statue and add it to the roll of opponents to be beaten.
Freedom Blast
Last night we went to the inaugural of Freedom Blast, Salt Lake's new version of Provo's long-running Independence Day Stadium of Fire extravaganza. SOF has been a sellout event for decades. Last night just short of thirty thousand folks showed up to Rice Eccles stadium on the campus of U of U to enjoy a Kelly Clarkson concert, a patriotic program involving a thousand dancers, bagpipers, and a moving military memorial service conducted by all five branches. There was also a BMX/blade/board act and even a high-dive troupe.
There was a street fair set up in one corner of the stadium parking lot. The Marines were doing a land office business exchanging spiffs like carribiner lanyards, tshirts, and posters in exchange for how many pullups from the boys and men and arm hang times from the womenfolk. One little girl (ten years old - maybe) stayed up there for one hundred ten seconds! I was watching the fun when one of the sergeants asked "Hey, are you a former Marine?"; yah, my hair is short and I still have the shoulders, but it was probably the USMC pin on my NRA hat that clued her in. She reached under the counter and handed me a handsome blue baseball cover (hats don't exist in the Marines - they are "covers") embroidered on front with the eagle, globe, and anchor in gold, with "Marines" stitched beneath it. That's when I noticed the rest of the old jarheads packed around the booth. We are a rough looking lot, but damn it was a proud moment. The Marines manning the booth were all out of the local recruiting command. I ran into one staff sergeant who was a cannon cocker from my old battalion at Camp Pendleton. He'd left Alpha 1/11 (two tours to Iraq) to come to recruiting. He knew my former roommate Ron - who went on to retire as a SgtMaj with twenty two years - from Ron's time on the drill field. The crowd and confusion may have garbled the communication, but I believe that the staff sergeant was one of Ron's recruits when he was a D.I. Now I DO feel old...
The show opened with a local lady singing a very good rendition of the national anthem. The boys from the 338th Fighter Wing at Hill AFB showed up spot on cue at the end of the last note with five F-16's punching cans traveling south to north about five hundred feet over the lights. So loud it HURT - love that sound. You could even smell the JP in the air afterward.
Twenty four new citizens were sworn in on the main stage. No standing O from the crowd; they got one for me. Legal immigrants understand the preciousness of citizenship more than we who are born here. We can always use more like that.
The military memorial ceremony effected me strongly. I don't think I've been quite right at some deep level since 1983. The calling of the roll, ending with the three, unanswered, calls of the name of the fallen and capped by twenty one guns and taps just about reduced me to tears.
The trumpeter had his own problems with dry lips; it took nothing away from the solemnity of the moment.
The military departed the field to the strains of "Amazing Grace" played by a pipe and drum band. I have always loved the pipes. I can readily believe that somewhere back in the mists of time, some Scot invented them because he couldn't get his companions motivated for a fight. Introduce bagpipes to a Quaker service and the next thing you know there will fisticuffs in the aisles. Pipes at a PETA picnic? There would be an ox on a spit before you could shake a stick. I love the pipes.
Ms. Clarkson put on a good show. She remarked on the dry air more than once and I believe that the lack of humidity had a lot to do with the lack of an encore. She carried a water bottle constantly. Pretty good pipes; she recalls a Janice Joplin without the edginess. Or the depression.
The fireworks were not as impressive as what we've seen at SOF. In the past we've usually climbed on the roof of our house in south Orem to watch them. The Freedom Blast people also had a technical glitch with their ignition system that caused an interruption and forty minute delay. In the spirit of "the show must go on" the BMX kids and the dive team improvised to fill the time. The problem was eventually solved and we sat happily beneath the last fifteen minutes of smoke, light, and thunder "oohing" and "aahing" and cheering along with everyone else. Not a bad show for their first effort.
Home via TRAX light rail to Sandy, thence by Mighty Mini to Orem, arriving just after one in the morning. I had hoped that UTA would put on the same logistical tour de force they did during the 2002 Olympics. Back then we were among the last people to leave the stadium (Mrs. Utah doesn't do bleachers very well), but less than thirty minutes after the end of the Para Olympics opening ceremonies over sixty thousand people were on their way home via dedicated buses and express rail trains. They ran a few extra trains last night, but only one express to the Sandy park and ride. It took almost an hour to leave the stadium grounds.
A good time was had by all.
Tomorrow we will have a curtailed potluck barbeque in our driveway and then haul our cannon down to the park to bust off a few blanks. Neighborhood children get the honor of lighting the fuse but only after they answer a history question like "who gave the Gettysburg Address?" or "what year did we declare independence?". We hope to have finished the fireworks in the culdesac by ten. Six a.m. comes early, even if you are only dealing with a belly full of pork and not a case of beer.
As our weekend winds down I hope that we all take a moment to reflect on just how we have arrived at this Independence Day. Celebrate the freedoms we enjoy, understand just why this grand experiment has worked so well, remember what it costs to be free, and resolve to do what we must do to ensure that this bright light of democracy continues to shine in a dark and dangerous world.
God Bless America. Guide her leaders, protect those who stand to defend her, and give grace to those who live here in oblivion of the cost of freedom in the hope that someday they, too, can love this nation for its honest pursuit of ideals rather than condemn it for its imperfections.
There was a street fair set up in one corner of the stadium parking lot. The Marines were doing a land office business exchanging spiffs like carribiner lanyards, tshirts, and posters in exchange for how many pullups from the boys and men and arm hang times from the womenfolk. One little girl (ten years old - maybe) stayed up there for one hundred ten seconds! I was watching the fun when one of the sergeants asked "Hey, are you a former Marine?"; yah, my hair is short and I still have the shoulders, but it was probably the USMC pin on my NRA hat that clued her in. She reached under the counter and handed me a handsome blue baseball cover (hats don't exist in the Marines - they are "covers") embroidered on front with the eagle, globe, and anchor in gold, with "Marines" stitched beneath it. That's when I noticed the rest of the old jarheads packed around the booth. We are a rough looking lot, but damn it was a proud moment. The Marines manning the booth were all out of the local recruiting command. I ran into one staff sergeant who was a cannon cocker from my old battalion at Camp Pendleton. He'd left Alpha 1/11 (two tours to Iraq) to come to recruiting. He knew my former roommate Ron - who went on to retire as a SgtMaj with twenty two years - from Ron's time on the drill field. The crowd and confusion may have garbled the communication, but I believe that the staff sergeant was one of Ron's recruits when he was a D.I. Now I DO feel old...
The show opened with a local lady singing a very good rendition of the national anthem. The boys from the 338th Fighter Wing at Hill AFB showed up spot on cue at the end of the last note with five F-16's punching cans traveling south to north about five hundred feet over the lights. So loud it HURT - love that sound. You could even smell the JP in the air afterward.
Twenty four new citizens were sworn in on the main stage. No standing O from the crowd; they got one for me. Legal immigrants understand the preciousness of citizenship more than we who are born here. We can always use more like that.
The military memorial ceremony effected me strongly. I don't think I've been quite right at some deep level since 1983. The calling of the roll, ending with the three, unanswered, calls of the name of the fallen and capped by twenty one guns and taps just about reduced me to tears.
The trumpeter had his own problems with dry lips; it took nothing away from the solemnity of the moment.
The military departed the field to the strains of "Amazing Grace" played by a pipe and drum band. I have always loved the pipes. I can readily believe that somewhere back in the mists of time, some Scot invented them because he couldn't get his companions motivated for a fight. Introduce bagpipes to a Quaker service and the next thing you know there will fisticuffs in the aisles. Pipes at a PETA picnic? There would be an ox on a spit before you could shake a stick. I love the pipes.
Ms. Clarkson put on a good show. She remarked on the dry air more than once and I believe that the lack of humidity had a lot to do with the lack of an encore. She carried a water bottle constantly. Pretty good pipes; she recalls a Janice Joplin without the edginess. Or the depression.
The fireworks were not as impressive as what we've seen at SOF. In the past we've usually climbed on the roof of our house in south Orem to watch them. The Freedom Blast people also had a technical glitch with their ignition system that caused an interruption and forty minute delay. In the spirit of "the show must go on" the BMX kids and the dive team improvised to fill the time. The problem was eventually solved and we sat happily beneath the last fifteen minutes of smoke, light, and thunder "oohing" and "aahing" and cheering along with everyone else. Not a bad show for their first effort.
Home via TRAX light rail to Sandy, thence by Mighty Mini to Orem, arriving just after one in the morning. I had hoped that UTA would put on the same logistical tour de force they did during the 2002 Olympics. Back then we were among the last people to leave the stadium (Mrs. Utah doesn't do bleachers very well), but less than thirty minutes after the end of the Para Olympics opening ceremonies over sixty thousand people were on their way home via dedicated buses and express rail trains. They ran a few extra trains last night, but only one express to the Sandy park and ride. It took almost an hour to leave the stadium grounds.
A good time was had by all.
Tomorrow we will have a curtailed potluck barbeque in our driveway and then haul our cannon down to the park to bust off a few blanks. Neighborhood children get the honor of lighting the fuse but only after they answer a history question like "who gave the Gettysburg Address?" or "what year did we declare independence?". We hope to have finished the fireworks in the culdesac by ten. Six a.m. comes early, even if you are only dealing with a belly full of pork and not a case of beer.
As our weekend winds down I hope that we all take a moment to reflect on just how we have arrived at this Independence Day. Celebrate the freedoms we enjoy, understand just why this grand experiment has worked so well, remember what it costs to be free, and resolve to do what we must do to ensure that this bright light of democracy continues to shine in a dark and dangerous world.
God Bless America. Guide her leaders, protect those who stand to defend her, and give grace to those who live here in oblivion of the cost of freedom in the hope that someday they, too, can love this nation for its honest pursuit of ideals rather than condemn it for its imperfections.
Thursday, June 30, 2005
Independence And Responsibility Addendum -
I was trolling the Purser's List and found that The Anchoress had discovered a gem of an essay that nicely dovetailed with my previous rant:
"The anti-western left has, over the course of history, fallen time after time for the propaganda of murderous tyrants who offered a handy platform for bashing the home society by providing the alibi of conscience. The investment of personal, political and moral identity that this represents is so immense that after a short while such gullible dupes are simply incapable of recognising reality even when it stares them in the face. Hence their stupefaction when confronted with the enormities of Robespierre, Stalin or Mao. To that list must now be added the Islamic jihad and Saddam Hussein. The difference is that this time these useful idiots have taken the middling people of Britain and Europe – and increasingly, it seems, of America – with them into the land of deluded wishful thinking. The result could be that this war against the jihadi terror could be lost -- at home."
The excerpt above is the conclusion of the essay. Read the rest at Melanie Phillip's Diary.
Ms. Phillips writes much better than I do. She has also included a delightful chronology of some of the history of al Qaida terror, Iraq, and just how intellectually hollow leftists and dishonest media deal with the reality they cannot bring themselves to accept.
Spoiler: They lie like cheap rugs. But then you already knew that.
"The anti-western left has, over the course of history, fallen time after time for the propaganda of murderous tyrants who offered a handy platform for bashing the home society by providing the alibi of conscience. The investment of personal, political and moral identity that this represents is so immense that after a short while such gullible dupes are simply incapable of recognising reality even when it stares them in the face. Hence their stupefaction when confronted with the enormities of Robespierre, Stalin or Mao. To that list must now be added the Islamic jihad and Saddam Hussein. The difference is that this time these useful idiots have taken the middling people of Britain and Europe – and increasingly, it seems, of America – with them into the land of deluded wishful thinking. The result could be that this war against the jihadi terror could be lost -- at home."
The excerpt above is the conclusion of the essay. Read the rest at Melanie Phillip's Diary.
Ms. Phillips writes much better than I do. She has also included a delightful chronology of some of the history of al Qaida terror, Iraq, and just how intellectually hollow leftists and dishonest media deal with the reality they cannot bring themselves to accept.
Spoiler: They lie like cheap rugs. But then you already knew that.
Independence And Responsibility.
Howdy, whoever may wander by here.
My work has become a day/night/weekend pursuit and has bitten a huge chunk out of my life. Most of the time I arrive home after six p.m. and spend two or three hours just getting ready for the next day. I also catch up with the family, pay bills, and do chores, in that brief interval, too. My ability to keep up with current events suffers, of course.
In the end analysis, I don't think that I'm missing too terrible much.
I believe in history. By that I mean that by a disciplined study of past events, of the individuals who were involved, and the motivations or interests at stake, you can usually make a reasonable wild-assed guess about how a given situation may work out.
As an individual and a citizen I desire to live, work, and raise my family in an environment reasonably free of state interference and secure from identifiable threats. I believe that I share my basic desires with a huge majority of my fellow citizens. My politics, and the agendas to which I lend support,are means to those ends and in no way represent pursuit of any rigidly defined utopic objective.
This brings us to our current Democrat/Left/Liberal/Moonbat (and Establishment Uber Media) posture that they have adopted since the President's speech the other night.
Who are these people, and how did they end up any place but the quiet wing of their respective State Hospitals?
I am forced to depend on CBS radio news for hourly updates during the work day. Since the Downing Street Memo story went the way of the Texas ANG documents (not as forgeries, but rather by failing in their purpose to incite mobs to storm the White House), CBS radio has shifted into Tokyo Rose mode. There is NO good news from Iraq. I get the exact number of U.S. deaths in Iraq since OIF with every hourly update. The loss of a single helicopter over a battle zone has become news on par with that missing girl in Aruba, or even the Michael Jackson trial. GDP growth has to be reported, but by God they don't have to mention how many months GDP has expanded, and they spend more time explaining how short term interest rate raises my knock our economy into the dark ages...
Meanwhile the Democrats have decided that even if American voters don't believe them when they try to sell income redistribution, punitive taxation, and international oversight of our national security, they can go ahead and attempt to represent the failure to find significant WMD caches in Iraq as a lie vice an intelligence failure. They deny that the democratization of Iraq (and hopefully the wider mideast) as being remotely related to the war on terror in general, or the 9/11 attacks in particular.
Recent history has shown that when Democrats commit to a script for a big propaganda push it usually bites them in the ass. Afghanistan was not the eater of U.S. armies, Baghdad wasn't Stalingrad, and car bombings and assassinations across Iraq are truly horrible NOW but are all too understandable as the flailings of a murderous, all but defeated, class of barbarians who know all too well what a secure Iraq will mean for regimes like Saudi, Pakistan, Egypt, Iran, and all the other failed thugocracies in the region.
They are talking themselves into a corner that not even NPR/CNN/Oprah can get them out of. I said earlier that I don't get the minute to minute stuff any more, and that I don't need it. The new script is that Democracy in Iraq is insulated totally from 9/11, and that the meme for measuring victory in both is... is.... in short, impossible to attain for any Rethuglican administration.
We aren't stupid, folks. Not the people that went to school before the eighties and have paid even a modicum of attention to the world while we went about building careers and families.
OBL committed 9/11 because WE ARE INFIDELS. Not because Bush was president. Not because we harbor designs on the barbaric world of the Mideast. Paying their price for their product, then ensuring the security of the rest of the world's access fails the "imperialism" test. The Islamists find themselves in the same boat as the Soviets in that their repressive regimes fail when they have to compete with free societies - even if they kill their own without restraint to keep the dictatorships and mullahocracies in place.
Satellite TV, the internet, Uncle Samir in Kansas and his letters home. Those are what is killing Wahhabist Islam. It took thirty years of public bluster and periodic slaughter capped by 9/11 for us to take them seriously. Now we do. At least the adult portion of American, Australian, Brit, and Japanese society does.
The other people in the West that have missed the jihadist message are too busy trying to keep what little power remains in their rustic political enclaves to do more than exploit the costs associated with defending western civilization. And they do so with breathless histrionics and such clumsy denial of current history (and their parts already played) that the picture, as a whole, transcends the outrageous and moves right into the piteous.
What fucking morons these people are. This war has not been run perfectly. The nation's border security and immigration controls are a farce. We have no energy policy, in a time when we really need to work at taking the legs out from under the jihadist money pipeline. That bastion of Constitutional oversight known as the Supreme Court has just legalized the state seizure of private real estate for transfer to other private interests, all in the name of economic improvement.
Yet our economy grows. Nascent democracies in Afghanistan and Iraq are indeed rising, as well as in other, wholly unplanned places like Lebanon and the Ukraine. People are dying for freedom. It's not good, but it is the historical price paid to overthrow tyranny. And as pathetic as our homeland security truly is, it has sufficed (in conjunction with our international efforts to locate, kill, or capture jihadists) to prevent a second 9/11. So far.
Which party stands for progressive ideals of democracy, justice, and individual pursuit of happiness? Not the Democrats, who carp and bray and belittle the goals we have undertaken to accomplish - all without offering any alternatives, and all with perfect immunity from prying media inquiry...
They prioritize regaining their lost power, which has been removed from them by the acts of free citizens in free elections, over defending us from and ultimately defeating jihadist terror masters responsible for murdering thousands of our citizens in the past and currently in combat with our forces in Iraq and elsewhere.
We fired a government back in 1776. We tired of being the cash cow for a disconnected and unaccountable regime - a regime that presumed to dictate our economic and intellectual lives in exchange for the privilege of our being their subjects. That process cost blood and much treasure, and took a decade just to get us disconnected from England. Beginning in 1980 we began to fire another government that had failed to deliver on their duties as enumerated in our Constitution. The difference then was that we revolted by voting, and the revolution continues to this day. We must find a way to reach the Judicial Branch, soon, and temper them, as well, lest their fiat legislative machinations do irreparable damage to the concept of representative government.
The Democrats have commissioned a dozen, a score, a hundred polls over the last few years. They see a tiny blip where support for the war is concerned and they seize on it as proof they are gaining traction. They would never even consider that the dissatisfaction on display is because we aren't prosecuting it vigorously enough. There's no room behind their foreheads for any thought like that.
This weekend I've got four days off. The flag will fly all four days. We will cook ribs in the driveway with family and friends on Monday. We will read the Declaration of Independence. We will ooh and ah at the fireworks. We will remember at what cost our holiday was bought.
It's kind of sad. The jihadists fight because their world is doomed by the spread of freedom. The liberal/left/democrat franchise is based on victimhood and a moral vacuum, and they are just as threatened by individuals pursuing their own freedoms AND the exercise of civic responsibility as are the jihadis.
I await the door into face moment for the Left; it must come if history repeats its recent cycles. They are out there on their plank, sawing furiously behind themselves.
I wish you the very best of Independence Days. Remember where we came from, what we face, and what we must do to make this grand experiment keep on working.
My work has become a day/night/weekend pursuit and has bitten a huge chunk out of my life. Most of the time I arrive home after six p.m. and spend two or three hours just getting ready for the next day. I also catch up with the family, pay bills, and do chores, in that brief interval, too. My ability to keep up with current events suffers, of course.
In the end analysis, I don't think that I'm missing too terrible much.
I believe in history. By that I mean that by a disciplined study of past events, of the individuals who were involved, and the motivations or interests at stake, you can usually make a reasonable wild-assed guess about how a given situation may work out.
As an individual and a citizen I desire to live, work, and raise my family in an environment reasonably free of state interference and secure from identifiable threats. I believe that I share my basic desires with a huge majority of my fellow citizens. My politics, and the agendas to which I lend support,are means to those ends and in no way represent pursuit of any rigidly defined utopic objective.
This brings us to our current Democrat/Left/Liberal/Moonbat (and Establishment Uber Media) posture that they have adopted since the President's speech the other night.
Who are these people, and how did they end up any place but the quiet wing of their respective State Hospitals?
I am forced to depend on CBS radio news for hourly updates during the work day. Since the Downing Street Memo story went the way of the Texas ANG documents (not as forgeries, but rather by failing in their purpose to incite mobs to storm the White House), CBS radio has shifted into Tokyo Rose mode. There is NO good news from Iraq. I get the exact number of U.S. deaths in Iraq since OIF with every hourly update. The loss of a single helicopter over a battle zone has become news on par with that missing girl in Aruba, or even the Michael Jackson trial. GDP growth has to be reported, but by God they don't have to mention how many months GDP has expanded, and they spend more time explaining how short term interest rate raises my knock our economy into the dark ages...
Meanwhile the Democrats have decided that even if American voters don't believe them when they try to sell income redistribution, punitive taxation, and international oversight of our national security, they can go ahead and attempt to represent the failure to find significant WMD caches in Iraq as a lie vice an intelligence failure. They deny that the democratization of Iraq (and hopefully the wider mideast) as being remotely related to the war on terror in general, or the 9/11 attacks in particular.
Recent history has shown that when Democrats commit to a script for a big propaganda push it usually bites them in the ass. Afghanistan was not the eater of U.S. armies, Baghdad wasn't Stalingrad, and car bombings and assassinations across Iraq are truly horrible NOW but are all too understandable as the flailings of a murderous, all but defeated, class of barbarians who know all too well what a secure Iraq will mean for regimes like Saudi, Pakistan, Egypt, Iran, and all the other failed thugocracies in the region.
They are talking themselves into a corner that not even NPR/CNN/Oprah can get them out of. I said earlier that I don't get the minute to minute stuff any more, and that I don't need it. The new script is that Democracy in Iraq is insulated totally from 9/11, and that the meme for measuring victory in both is... is.... in short, impossible to attain for any Rethuglican administration.
We aren't stupid, folks. Not the people that went to school before the eighties and have paid even a modicum of attention to the world while we went about building careers and families.
OBL committed 9/11 because WE ARE INFIDELS. Not because Bush was president. Not because we harbor designs on the barbaric world of the Mideast. Paying their price for their product, then ensuring the security of the rest of the world's access fails the "imperialism" test. The Islamists find themselves in the same boat as the Soviets in that their repressive regimes fail when they have to compete with free societies - even if they kill their own without restraint to keep the dictatorships and mullahocracies in place.
Satellite TV, the internet, Uncle Samir in Kansas and his letters home. Those are what is killing Wahhabist Islam. It took thirty years of public bluster and periodic slaughter capped by 9/11 for us to take them seriously. Now we do. At least the adult portion of American, Australian, Brit, and Japanese society does.
The other people in the West that have missed the jihadist message are too busy trying to keep what little power remains in their rustic political enclaves to do more than exploit the costs associated with defending western civilization. And they do so with breathless histrionics and such clumsy denial of current history (and their parts already played) that the picture, as a whole, transcends the outrageous and moves right into the piteous.
What fucking morons these people are. This war has not been run perfectly. The nation's border security and immigration controls are a farce. We have no energy policy, in a time when we really need to work at taking the legs out from under the jihadist money pipeline. That bastion of Constitutional oversight known as the Supreme Court has just legalized the state seizure of private real estate for transfer to other private interests, all in the name of economic improvement.
Yet our economy grows. Nascent democracies in Afghanistan and Iraq are indeed rising, as well as in other, wholly unplanned places like Lebanon and the Ukraine. People are dying for freedom. It's not good, but it is the historical price paid to overthrow tyranny. And as pathetic as our homeland security truly is, it has sufficed (in conjunction with our international efforts to locate, kill, or capture jihadists) to prevent a second 9/11. So far.
Which party stands for progressive ideals of democracy, justice, and individual pursuit of happiness? Not the Democrats, who carp and bray and belittle the goals we have undertaken to accomplish - all without offering any alternatives, and all with perfect immunity from prying media inquiry...
They prioritize regaining their lost power, which has been removed from them by the acts of free citizens in free elections, over defending us from and ultimately defeating jihadist terror masters responsible for murdering thousands of our citizens in the past and currently in combat with our forces in Iraq and elsewhere.
We fired a government back in 1776. We tired of being the cash cow for a disconnected and unaccountable regime - a regime that presumed to dictate our economic and intellectual lives in exchange for the privilege of our being their subjects. That process cost blood and much treasure, and took a decade just to get us disconnected from England. Beginning in 1980 we began to fire another government that had failed to deliver on their duties as enumerated in our Constitution. The difference then was that we revolted by voting, and the revolution continues to this day. We must find a way to reach the Judicial Branch, soon, and temper them, as well, lest their fiat legislative machinations do irreparable damage to the concept of representative government.
The Democrats have commissioned a dozen, a score, a hundred polls over the last few years. They see a tiny blip where support for the war is concerned and they seize on it as proof they are gaining traction. They would never even consider that the dissatisfaction on display is because we aren't prosecuting it vigorously enough. There's no room behind their foreheads for any thought like that.
This weekend I've got four days off. The flag will fly all four days. We will cook ribs in the driveway with family and friends on Monday. We will read the Declaration of Independence. We will ooh and ah at the fireworks. We will remember at what cost our holiday was bought.
It's kind of sad. The jihadists fight because their world is doomed by the spread of freedom. The liberal/left/democrat franchise is based on victimhood and a moral vacuum, and they are just as threatened by individuals pursuing their own freedoms AND the exercise of civic responsibility as are the jihadis.
I await the door into face moment for the Left; it must come if history repeats its recent cycles. They are out there on their plank, sawing furiously behind themselves.
I wish you the very best of Independence Days. Remember where we came from, what we face, and what we must do to make this grand experiment keep on working.
Sunday, June 26, 2005
Howard Pulls The Trigger
... and finds out that the weapon is indeed loaded.
There's a reason you aren't supposed to thumb back the hammer when the pistol is in the holster, Mr. Dean. You are just about out of feet by now, nyet?
I have admired Dennis The Peasant's wit and wisdom for years, extending back to when I was a regular commenter on Roger L. Simon's blog. Since Dennis established his own site he's just gotten better.
Aside: Last weekend's shooting outing was relaxing and fun. Oldest Goddess likes the new Bushmaster and Youngest Goddess has grown into the Ruger 10/22. The 500 yard watermelon survived, alas; I need new glasses. Mrs. Tmj shot her Ruger nine with the cool accuracy that never fails to impress.
Coaching tip: Never tell a student that "this pistol is only effective to fifty yards". They will never try to shoot milk jugs at a hundred if you do. And if they can hit a milk jug at a hundred yards with a semi-automatic pistol they can hit just about anything.
There's a reason you aren't supposed to thumb back the hammer when the pistol is in the holster, Mr. Dean. You are just about out of feet by now, nyet?
I have admired Dennis The Peasant's wit and wisdom for years, extending back to when I was a regular commenter on Roger L. Simon's blog. Since Dennis established his own site he's just gotten better.
Aside: Last weekend's shooting outing was relaxing and fun. Oldest Goddess likes the new Bushmaster and Youngest Goddess has grown into the Ruger 10/22. The 500 yard watermelon survived, alas; I need new glasses. Mrs. Tmj shot her Ruger nine with the cool accuracy that never fails to impress.
Coaching tip: Never tell a student that "this pistol is only effective to fifty yards". They will never try to shoot milk jugs at a hundred if you do. And if they can hit a milk jug at a hundred yards with a semi-automatic pistol they can hit just about anything.
Wednesday, June 22, 2005
Saturday, June 18, 2005
Dawn Patrol
The Team is crossing Utah Lake for a Father's Day a.m. shooting fest.
We'll be somewhere south of the gravel pit and west of the road to Goshen. Look for funny hats, black rifles, and a silver mini van.
Oh, and watermelons. Out to five hundred yards. It's going to be that kind of day.
There may be pictures later.
We'll be somewhere south of the gravel pit and west of the road to Goshen. Look for funny hats, black rifles, and a silver mini van.
Oh, and watermelons. Out to five hundred yards. It's going to be that kind of day.
There may be pictures later.
Thursday, June 16, 2005
Recycled Content
Here's a post I put up at Roger L. Simon:
What we attempted to do beginning on September 12, 2001 is dying the the death of a thousand cuts.
This conflict will not be won by surgical strikes, regime changes, and free elections. At one time it could have been. We should have adopted a "hot pursuit" policy and wiped out Syria's Ba'athists in 2003. We should have declared war via an act of Congress, and identified the enemy explicitly as any identified jihadist group, or any state providing haven, support, or transit to the same.
The enemy has taken our measure, and knows that it has friends in high places in our councils.
A democratic republic united to face a common threat and committed to the principles of justice and simple survival might have pulled off an unprecedented low-mortality solution to this clash between civilization and barbarism. We've blown that opportunity. Our political Left, fresh off losing thirty years' worth of elections, has transferred their emptiness and anger to the politics and persons chosen by the electorate to replace them.
And our right has failed to lead effectively.
The Left are wilfully blind to the fact that if they sabotage our effort to win this war as a domestic political tool, they will have set the machine to gotterdammerung on rails. They will not see past the loss of petty political fiefdoms to a future guaranteed to hold events much worse than 9/11. Losing Vietnam killed millions of Asians - but the cameras turned away in embarassment. The veterans were in turn vilified, pitied, and exploited as domestic political pawns. Let us declare defeat now, and it will take more than a remote control selection to insulate us from the consequences.
I fear for my family. And we are about to allow a betrayal of our servicemen and women on a scale that will make post-Vietnam look like a noble era.
Thousands, if not millions, more infidels are going to have to die at the hands of Islamists before idiots like Durbin and Truth and AI and the readership of Common Dreams gets it in their head that there are worse things than a Bush presidency. The muslim man in the street will just go back to business as usual once we are gone from the region. They will align with the powerful, or await the midnight knock on the door, as they have lived for generations.
It's not about country, it's about POLITICS, and they would gladly rip the beating hearts out of babies on an altar if they thought it would get them one step closer to power.
I am not a happy camper these days. History does not predict the future. It does provide a damned good analytical tool for predicting consequences for actions - especially where matters of cultural conflct are concerned.
Vietnam redux. I'd cry, but I'm too busy refreshing antibiotic prescriptions and ordering in a fresh supply of meds for my wife's chronic medical condition. And the water store and the food supply and the contact records...
What we attempted to do beginning on September 12, 2001 is dying the the death of a thousand cuts.
This conflict will not be won by surgical strikes, regime changes, and free elections. At one time it could have been. We should have adopted a "hot pursuit" policy and wiped out Syria's Ba'athists in 2003. We should have declared war via an act of Congress, and identified the enemy explicitly as any identified jihadist group, or any state providing haven, support, or transit to the same.
The enemy has taken our measure, and knows that it has friends in high places in our councils.
A democratic republic united to face a common threat and committed to the principles of justice and simple survival might have pulled off an unprecedented low-mortality solution to this clash between civilization and barbarism. We've blown that opportunity. Our political Left, fresh off losing thirty years' worth of elections, has transferred their emptiness and anger to the politics and persons chosen by the electorate to replace them.
And our right has failed to lead effectively.
The Left are wilfully blind to the fact that if they sabotage our effort to win this war as a domestic political tool, they will have set the machine to gotterdammerung on rails. They will not see past the loss of petty political fiefdoms to a future guaranteed to hold events much worse than 9/11. Losing Vietnam killed millions of Asians - but the cameras turned away in embarassment. The veterans were in turn vilified, pitied, and exploited as domestic political pawns. Let us declare defeat now, and it will take more than a remote control selection to insulate us from the consequences.
I fear for my family. And we are about to allow a betrayal of our servicemen and women on a scale that will make post-Vietnam look like a noble era.
Thousands, if not millions, more infidels are going to have to die at the hands of Islamists before idiots like Durbin and Truth and AI and the readership of Common Dreams gets it in their head that there are worse things than a Bush presidency. The muslim man in the street will just go back to business as usual once we are gone from the region. They will align with the powerful, or await the midnight knock on the door, as they have lived for generations.
It's not about country, it's about POLITICS, and they would gladly rip the beating hearts out of babies on an altar if they thought it would get them one step closer to power.
I am not a happy camper these days. History does not predict the future. It does provide a damned good analytical tool for predicting consequences for actions - especially where matters of cultural conflct are concerned.
Vietnam redux. I'd cry, but I'm too busy refreshing antibiotic prescriptions and ordering in a fresh supply of meds for my wife's chronic medical condition. And the water store and the food supply and the contact records...
Monday, June 13, 2005
Required Reading
I stopped taking the Democrats seriously when they selected Dean for the DNC chair. In all honesty I haven't regarded them as much of an asset to the nation since Jimmy Carter happened... but over at Done With Mirrors Callimachus has struck a chord on just why I don't think of them much more than a faction to be beaten.
"I don't care if this writer doesn't want to criticize terrorists. There are plenty who will roll up their sleeves and take on the Islamist killers, if he doesn't have the nerve to. If he want to only criticize governments that won't try to kill him for it, that's his affair. Frankly, with his fuzzy brain, I'd rather not have him trying to do the same thing I'm trying to do."
Read the whole thing, and the links.
"I don't care if this writer doesn't want to criticize terrorists. There are plenty who will roll up their sleeves and take on the Islamist killers, if he doesn't have the nerve to. If he want to only criticize governments that won't try to kill him for it, that's his affair. Frankly, with his fuzzy brain, I'd rather not have him trying to do the same thing I'm trying to do."
Read the whole thing, and the links.
Tuesday, June 07, 2005
Idyllic Days Of Summer
The day started with an iron overcast.
It spat hail as we set up our GPS base unit. Sandbags on the tripod legs and the radio and receiver units tucked deep into their packing cases to keep out moisture.
By the time we had searched for the non-existent ponds that were supposedly built by last year's contractor it was raining horizontally.
We tooled across the jobsite to the front gate, where the current contractor attempting to finish the guard shack (that costs more than either of our houses - unless Gerard Van Der Luen is reading this) showed us the latest, FINAL, developer-approved dimensions for the traffic islands and curb noses. We staked them out in between the worst of the rain and gusting winds. The cuts and fills will come tomorrow - if the NEW, FINAL plans aren't tacked to the side of the dressed stone building.
We had run up there to wimp out, actually. By the time we'd finished making things work and coordinating with the contractor we were already about as soaked as we could get in raincoats. The grading contractor's crews had driven out for home while we were staking. There is no sense in pushing mud to make more mud, you see. We climbed back in our truck after finishing up the guard shack work, and the rain turned to snow. It's JUNE seventh, folks. It began to snow around ten thirty.
We got crushed last Friday by bad terrain. Six hours total spent to locate and tie (measure and locate by GPS) one of three section corner monuments that are part of our property. The other two we need turned out to be inaccessible (without ropes) from where we started.
Monday we returned to the project ready to hike in a mile from a state park on the reverse of the mountain, only to be chased off the trail by driving (inch-an-hour) rain and lightning.
I carry a character defect - I tend to embrace liability when the circumstances are patently beyond my control (but I'm much better now).
I survey because I like to see the results of my work: roads, bridges, buildings, and homes. I hate driving an hour and change just to turn around and drive home. It sucks. It makes it harder for me to charge in the next day. As the flakes got bigger and the mud began to freeze I thought it over and asked my second man if he still had his winter bag in the tool box. He did.
We went ahead and staked 1500 feet of curb (both sides) in just over five hours. We had to break once, for thirty minutes, when the snow warmed up enough to penetrate my GPS controller keypad cover. We wolfed lunch while drying the unit out and then went back out and finished the job. One day earlier than the contractor expected us to start it.
The last few hours were actually pretty nice, with blue sky breaking through as we took down our base. We were able to check into some of last year's work as we slammed our stakes in the ground, too, and were on the nut where those stakes hadn't been disturbed.
Life is GOOD. Tomorrow we button up the last issues with the guardshack. And we go for a walk in the park to close the day.
I hadn't realized how testy I've been until I returned home this evening and reread my posts of the last few days. My gripes are valid - but the tone is a little harsh, I think.
I hope you had a good day, too. I hope it was worth it.
It spat hail as we set up our GPS base unit. Sandbags on the tripod legs and the radio and receiver units tucked deep into their packing cases to keep out moisture.
By the time we had searched for the non-existent ponds that were supposedly built by last year's contractor it was raining horizontally.
We tooled across the jobsite to the front gate, where the current contractor attempting to finish the guard shack (that costs more than either of our houses - unless Gerard Van Der Luen is reading this) showed us the latest, FINAL, developer-approved dimensions for the traffic islands and curb noses. We staked them out in between the worst of the rain and gusting winds. The cuts and fills will come tomorrow - if the NEW, FINAL plans aren't tacked to the side of the dressed stone building.
We had run up there to wimp out, actually. By the time we'd finished making things work and coordinating with the contractor we were already about as soaked as we could get in raincoats. The grading contractor's crews had driven out for home while we were staking. There is no sense in pushing mud to make more mud, you see. We climbed back in our truck after finishing up the guard shack work, and the rain turned to snow. It's JUNE seventh, folks. It began to snow around ten thirty.
We got crushed last Friday by bad terrain. Six hours total spent to locate and tie (measure and locate by GPS) one of three section corner monuments that are part of our property. The other two we need turned out to be inaccessible (without ropes) from where we started.
Monday we returned to the project ready to hike in a mile from a state park on the reverse of the mountain, only to be chased off the trail by driving (inch-an-hour) rain and lightning.
I carry a character defect - I tend to embrace liability when the circumstances are patently beyond my control (but I'm much better now).
I survey because I like to see the results of my work: roads, bridges, buildings, and homes. I hate driving an hour and change just to turn around and drive home. It sucks. It makes it harder for me to charge in the next day. As the flakes got bigger and the mud began to freeze I thought it over and asked my second man if he still had his winter bag in the tool box. He did.
We went ahead and staked 1500 feet of curb (both sides) in just over five hours. We had to break once, for thirty minutes, when the snow warmed up enough to penetrate my GPS controller keypad cover. We wolfed lunch while drying the unit out and then went back out and finished the job. One day earlier than the contractor expected us to start it.
The last few hours were actually pretty nice, with blue sky breaking through as we took down our base. We were able to check into some of last year's work as we slammed our stakes in the ground, too, and were on the nut where those stakes hadn't been disturbed.
Life is GOOD. Tomorrow we button up the last issues with the guardshack. And we go for a walk in the park to close the day.
I hadn't realized how testy I've been until I returned home this evening and reread my posts of the last few days. My gripes are valid - but the tone is a little harsh, I think.
I hope you had a good day, too. I hope it was worth it.
Monday, June 06, 2005
It's Worse Than I Thought
... for the Democrats.
I had assumed that Howard Dean of the subtle riposte ("Republicans are eeeeevil") ended up as DNC chair because the Clintons had arrived at the easiest way to clear the decks for Hillary's run in 2008: allow Dean to stumble onto his sword a few times, and then quietly supplant him with Hillary wearing a "savior of the party" button.
The problem is that Howie has fallen on his sword repeatedly and nobody of import (editorialists from coastal papers/network talking heads) seems to have noticed. Media is still treating him with the respect typically granted an iconic statesman of the Left like, say, Ted Kennedy or even Al Sharpton.
Joe Biden made a milquetoast attempt to distance himself from the chairman's rhetoric and has been thoroughly thrashed across the Lefty blogosphere... and ignored by major media.
You only get coverage for being critical of a fellow politician if you are bagging a republican... preferably while standing in front of an overseas/foreign audience, see?
This doesn't work for the Clintons. The trog media may not realize it but the last few decades of national elections have made it pretty clear that a slim majority of American voters have gotten past their public education and pop culture and are looking for someone to vote for. Bill Clinton ran on an end of history (heavy lifting all done - we can play now)/MTV platform that worked before North Korea went nuke and we buried three thousand of our fellow citizens, murdered at the hands of an enemy we had ignored.
The Clinton are willing to lose as many Democrat seats in congress as it takes in 2006 to galvanism the party to embrace Hillary as their only choice. They aren't worried about dealing with a Republican congress. The presidency isn't about policy or agendas to them - it's about power. I believe that the Clinton have taken a good long look at the (lack of) quality in the current Rep leadership and feel pretty comfortable about their chances for doing business with what has become of the majority party.
They still have to get the actual election out of the way, though.
This story in the New York Times illustrates what happens when a real grifter runs up against the reality that she's competing for marks that not only bought bridges but still actually believe they own them.
"I know it's frustrating for many of you; it's frustrating for me: Why can't the Democrats do more to stop them?" she continued to growing applause and cheers. "I can tell you this: It's very hard to stop people who have no shame about what they're doing. It is very hard to tell people that they are making decisions that will undermine our checks and balances and constitutional system of government who don't care. It is very hard to stop people who have never been acquainted with the truth."
Hysterical? Yes. Outrageous? Yes. Absolutely necessary to garner the small-state primary votes that open the ball for the 2008 race? You betcha. That's moonbat prime territory, beginning with Iowa and running deep blue well into the fourth or fifth week of primaries.
Back in 1991 the Clinton used the media to reinvent Bill Clinton from the womanizing, corrupt, and ineffective governor he'd been into the second coming of Kennedy's Camelot. In 2006 they have to shift from nuttier than Howard Dean in the primaries to more adult than Ronald Reagan in the general, and I just don't think they've got the tools in the box to make it happen.
What they can do is aim for that mark and hope that the flaccid Republican congressional caucus continues to piss away support at the rate it is now and go on to win on an apathy vote.
I can see that happening.
Blogs v. Media worked out the way it did in 2004 because the facts floated to the top: Kerry wasn't much of a candidate, less of a senator, and not nearly a credible war hero. The full-court press on the part of the media to sink Bush became so laughable that it brought votes to the Republicans. But if the Republicans decline to lead, the facts will be there, on the blogs left/right/middle, to pin them to the mat in 2008.
I had assumed that Howard Dean of the subtle riposte ("Republicans are eeeeevil") ended up as DNC chair because the Clintons had arrived at the easiest way to clear the decks for Hillary's run in 2008: allow Dean to stumble onto his sword a few times, and then quietly supplant him with Hillary wearing a "savior of the party" button.
The problem is that Howie has fallen on his sword repeatedly and nobody of import (editorialists from coastal papers/network talking heads) seems to have noticed. Media is still treating him with the respect typically granted an iconic statesman of the Left like, say, Ted Kennedy or even Al Sharpton.
Joe Biden made a milquetoast attempt to distance himself from the chairman's rhetoric and has been thoroughly thrashed across the Lefty blogosphere... and ignored by major media.
You only get coverage for being critical of a fellow politician if you are bagging a republican... preferably while standing in front of an overseas/foreign audience, see?
This doesn't work for the Clintons. The trog media may not realize it but the last few decades of national elections have made it pretty clear that a slim majority of American voters have gotten past their public education and pop culture and are looking for someone to vote for. Bill Clinton ran on an end of history (heavy lifting all done - we can play now)/MTV platform that worked before North Korea went nuke and we buried three thousand of our fellow citizens, murdered at the hands of an enemy we had ignored.
The Clinton are willing to lose as many Democrat seats in congress as it takes in 2006 to galvanism the party to embrace Hillary as their only choice. They aren't worried about dealing with a Republican congress. The presidency isn't about policy or agendas to them - it's about power. I believe that the Clinton have taken a good long look at the (lack of) quality in the current Rep leadership and feel pretty comfortable about their chances for doing business with what has become of the majority party.
They still have to get the actual election out of the way, though.
This story in the New York Times illustrates what happens when a real grifter runs up against the reality that she's competing for marks that not only bought bridges but still actually believe they own them.
"I know it's frustrating for many of you; it's frustrating for me: Why can't the Democrats do more to stop them?" she continued to growing applause and cheers. "I can tell you this: It's very hard to stop people who have no shame about what they're doing. It is very hard to tell people that they are making decisions that will undermine our checks and balances and constitutional system of government who don't care. It is very hard to stop people who have never been acquainted with the truth."
Hysterical? Yes. Outrageous? Yes. Absolutely necessary to garner the small-state primary votes that open the ball for the 2008 race? You betcha. That's moonbat prime territory, beginning with Iowa and running deep blue well into the fourth or fifth week of primaries.
Back in 1991 the Clinton used the media to reinvent Bill Clinton from the womanizing, corrupt, and ineffective governor he'd been into the second coming of Kennedy's Camelot. In 2006 they have to shift from nuttier than Howard Dean in the primaries to more adult than Ronald Reagan in the general, and I just don't think they've got the tools in the box to make it happen.
What they can do is aim for that mark and hope that the flaccid Republican congressional caucus continues to piss away support at the rate it is now and go on to win on an apathy vote.
I can see that happening.
Blogs v. Media worked out the way it did in 2004 because the facts floated to the top: Kerry wasn't much of a candidate, less of a senator, and not nearly a credible war hero. The full-court press on the part of the media to sink Bush became so laughable that it brought votes to the Republicans. But if the Republicans decline to lead, the facts will be there, on the blogs left/right/middle, to pin them to the mat in 2008.
Saturday, June 04, 2005
Brother WON'T Spare A Dime
What was that the president said so long ago?:
"We will make no distinction between the terrorists or those who support them."?
Is it possible thatthat policy goal went the same place that limited government, fiscal discipline, and principled conservatism did?
Is it a negotiable position - like, say, shitting on the Constitution to play nice with a MINORITY that got that way because a MAJORITY of voters wanted to see CONSERVATIVES in control of the advise and consent part of appointing judges?
I am very unhappy. Very tired. We can lose this war, and it appears that our leadership is capable of allowing that to happen. We will not be beat on the field. We will fold up from within.
Occupying the White House, holding majorities in Congress, and having a bunch of squealling fucktards running the party opposite them has allowed the Republicans slide into crony politics.
I registered back to Independent last week. I hope I have candidates that I can vote for in 2006. The Republicans get no donations, no favorable comment, no volunteer time until they grow some balls and start leading and governing instead of sucking the Washington teat.
"We will make no distinction between the terrorists or those who support them."?
Is it possible thatthat policy goal went the same place that limited government, fiscal discipline, and principled conservatism did?
Is it a negotiable position - like, say, shitting on the Constitution to play nice with a MINORITY that got that way because a MAJORITY of voters wanted to see CONSERVATIVES in control of the advise and consent part of appointing judges?
I am very unhappy. Very tired. We can lose this war, and it appears that our leadership is capable of allowing that to happen. We will not be beat on the field. We will fold up from within.
Occupying the White House, holding majorities in Congress, and having a bunch of squealling fucktards running the party opposite them has allowed the Republicans slide into crony politics.
I registered back to Independent last week. I hope I have candidates that I can vote for in 2006. The Republicans get no donations, no favorable comment, no volunteer time until they grow some balls and start leading and governing instead of sucking the Washington teat.
TmjUtah Weighs In On Guantanomo, The Koran, And Terrorists:
It would be cheaper to shoot them where we catch them.
They bring one, they can keep it as long as they need it. See the first sentence.
See the first sentence.
Even after all this time, I am still blindsided by the stupidity of what passes for "elite" media in this country. Rueters never fails to come through in the clutch, either.
It's an uproar only because the Leftist western media has run out of anything else to sling against the wall.
Show me dead terrorists and elected governments. That's currency I can count.
We shouldn't be taking any prisoners. None. Issue our guys with something like a business card with a cite from the appropriate article in the Geneva conventions dealing with illegal combatants on one side. The reverse should offer bounties to be paid for information leading to the location of more terrorists, printed in the local language.
Print them by the pallet. Drop one on every dead terrorist.
The enemy hopes that we aren't serious about this war, and they have good reason to hope. Worse, there's only so many Iraqis or Lebanese or Ukrainians who are going to believe we are serious if we don't get to the business of killing the barbarians where they live. In Saudi, Syria, Iran, and WHEREEVER else we trace their trails.
(Via Captain's Quarters)
They bring one, they can keep it as long as they need it. See the first sentence.
See the first sentence.
Even after all this time, I am still blindsided by the stupidity of what passes for "elite" media in this country. Rueters never fails to come through in the clutch, either.
It's an uproar only because the Leftist western media has run out of anything else to sling against the wall.
Show me dead terrorists and elected governments. That's currency I can count.
We shouldn't be taking any prisoners. None. Issue our guys with something like a business card with a cite from the appropriate article in the Geneva conventions dealing with illegal combatants on one side. The reverse should offer bounties to be paid for information leading to the location of more terrorists, printed in the local language.
Print them by the pallet. Drop one on every dead terrorist.
The enemy hopes that we aren't serious about this war, and they have good reason to hope. Worse, there's only so many Iraqis or Lebanese or Ukrainians who are going to believe we are serious if we don't get to the business of killing the barbarians where they live. In Saudi, Syria, Iran, and WHEREEVER else we trace their trails.
(Via Captain's Quarters)
Monday, May 30, 2005
Return Of The Team
We went camping in Capitol Reef National Park this weekend. Most of Utah, give or take, took the opportunity to get out and welcome summer via bike, fourwheeler, and hiking boot, too.
The three day weekend made it possible for me to spend a few hours with the patriarch of an extended family we have known since our first years in Utah. Jack is the father of one of our neighbors, and he has been a regular guest at our Fourth of July driveway Dutch Oven Epics and Pioneer Day Potluckapaloozas.
Jack lost his wife of more than fifty years a few months ago. The family is strong in faith - and spirit - and though they miss mom, they honor her memory by carrying her with them when they go the places she loved. Places like Capitol Reef. This was our third trip down with them.
Camping and a holiday. It's nice we've ordered our calendar so well, isn't it?
The holiday we celebrate this particular weekend is Memorial Day. Jack's a vet - a former Liberator driver who finished his last mission days before VE day. Surrounded by his kids, inlaws, grandkids, and friends he shared a few stories about his war.
He was proud of the fact that his aircraft never aborted a mission. He was even prouder that they always came back with the most fuel of any of their group - they did their flying "by the numbers" and it worked. And he was most grateful that on his thirty-plus missions, neither he nor anyone else on their aircraft got so much as a scratch from flak or fighters. That's not to say they didn't bring back the bird shot all to hell, or that they didn't make some trips back with one engine feathered and the others running in the red - but they always came back whole.
War takes people at random. Jack did his job when called, and has lived a full and happy life since. He did his duty as best he could, as have millions of other Americans who put on uniforms when the call came.
Go read this story about the 491st Bomb Group's experience over a German synthetic oil refinery in November, 1944.
I'll be back later. And yes, I'll tell you what Jack had to say about that mission, too.
I am humbled, and grateful, for the people that God has chosen to include in my life.
Thanks, vets, and those who went out but never came home.
We remember.
UPDATE: 31 May 2300 -
Jack told me about that mission as an afterthought. He didn't fly it.
Jack's crew had been granted a three day pass. The R&R was supposed to soften the blow of completeing "X" missions only to be informed upon return that the combat tour had been extended to "X plus fifteen more"...
They'd spent the days down around Cambridge, where the fighter types hung out. He recalled those three days as the most enjoyable liberty he spent in England.
When they returned to their base they found the Nissen hut that they shared with their other squadron mates swept clean. There were no pinups on the walls, the mattresses had been folded, and the footlockers at the foot of each set of bunks was bare.
Jack's crew was from the top squadron - the 853rd. They flew to Misburg on just another mission, and nobody came back. If you read the story, you saw that some aircrew that survived being shot down were subsequently killed by German civilians.
Jack said he could understand that. He'd be pretty angry if people had bombed Palo Alto, see?
He's going on a road trip this summer. There are two other remaining crew members, and they aren't getting any younger. He's going to see them both before the fall comes. They may even pile into his motor home and take a few weeks on the road together.
They'll be three old guys in an aluminum box chugging over the asphalt to anybody that might see them - but I bet that the flight engineer will be hounding Jack to coast the hills to save fuel, and the tail gunner napping in back will keep one eye open for cops.
Thank you, Jack. And the 853d. And all the rest.
The three day weekend made it possible for me to spend a few hours with the patriarch of an extended family we have known since our first years in Utah. Jack is the father of one of our neighbors, and he has been a regular guest at our Fourth of July driveway Dutch Oven Epics and Pioneer Day Potluckapaloozas.
Jack lost his wife of more than fifty years a few months ago. The family is strong in faith - and spirit - and though they miss mom, they honor her memory by carrying her with them when they go the places she loved. Places like Capitol Reef. This was our third trip down with them.
Camping and a holiday. It's nice we've ordered our calendar so well, isn't it?
The holiday we celebrate this particular weekend is Memorial Day. Jack's a vet - a former Liberator driver who finished his last mission days before VE day. Surrounded by his kids, inlaws, grandkids, and friends he shared a few stories about his war.
He was proud of the fact that his aircraft never aborted a mission. He was even prouder that they always came back with the most fuel of any of their group - they did their flying "by the numbers" and it worked. And he was most grateful that on his thirty-plus missions, neither he nor anyone else on their aircraft got so much as a scratch from flak or fighters. That's not to say they didn't bring back the bird shot all to hell, or that they didn't make some trips back with one engine feathered and the others running in the red - but they always came back whole.
War takes people at random. Jack did his job when called, and has lived a full and happy life since. He did his duty as best he could, as have millions of other Americans who put on uniforms when the call came.
Go read this story about the 491st Bomb Group's experience over a German synthetic oil refinery in November, 1944.
I'll be back later. And yes, I'll tell you what Jack had to say about that mission, too.
I am humbled, and grateful, for the people that God has chosen to include in my life.
Thanks, vets, and those who went out but never came home.
We remember.
UPDATE: 31 May 2300 -
Jack told me about that mission as an afterthought. He didn't fly it.
Jack's crew had been granted a three day pass. The R&R was supposed to soften the blow of completeing "X" missions only to be informed upon return that the combat tour had been extended to "X plus fifteen more"...
They'd spent the days down around Cambridge, where the fighter types hung out. He recalled those three days as the most enjoyable liberty he spent in England.
When they returned to their base they found the Nissen hut that they shared with their other squadron mates swept clean. There were no pinups on the walls, the mattresses had been folded, and the footlockers at the foot of each set of bunks was bare.
Jack's crew was from the top squadron - the 853rd. They flew to Misburg on just another mission, and nobody came back. If you read the story, you saw that some aircrew that survived being shot down were subsequently killed by German civilians.
Jack said he could understand that. He'd be pretty angry if people had bombed Palo Alto, see?
He's going on a road trip this summer. There are two other remaining crew members, and they aren't getting any younger. He's going to see them both before the fall comes. They may even pile into his motor home and take a few weeks on the road together.
They'll be three old guys in an aluminum box chugging over the asphalt to anybody that might see them - but I bet that the flight engineer will be hounding Jack to coast the hills to save fuel, and the tail gunner napping in back will keep one eye open for cops.
Thank you, Jack. And the 853d. And all the rest.
Friday, May 27, 2005
Frag Order
Team Jones will be in Capitol Reef National Park until Monday. If the river stays within its banks.
We'll be at the Fruita Historic Area campground. Look for a leaner-than-two-months-ago guy crapped out under a tree with a black NRA cap shading his eyes.
That will be me.
We'll be at the Fruita Historic Area campground. Look for a leaner-than-two-months-ago guy crapped out under a tree with a black NRA cap shading his eyes.
That will be me.
Tuesday, May 24, 2005
Time To Mount Up, People
Hey - are you a blogger?
Do you read blogs?
Of course you do one or the other, if not both - you're here!
Now go here and make your call.
I apologize for the light blogging of late, and especially for not passing the baton so graciously offered to me by neo-neocon.
Commenter Wichita Boy emailed me with a query about comments; I've seen no problems here except for the fact that Haloscan doesn't load up very quickly every now and again.
My life is rather too full right now.
I did take the time to reregister as an Independent today, though.
The Republicans can do their thing without my money, my time, and just possibly my vote.
I look forward to the next, and last, phone call I will be getting from the RNC. I've gotten one every month or so since six months before the election.
Rolled like a drunk. And the kicker is that I am not surprised at all.
Do you read blogs?
Of course you do one or the other, if not both - you're here!
Now go here and make your call.
I apologize for the light blogging of late, and especially for not passing the baton so graciously offered to me by neo-neocon.
Commenter Wichita Boy emailed me with a query about comments; I've seen no problems here except for the fact that Haloscan doesn't load up very quickly every now and again.
My life is rather too full right now.
I did take the time to reregister as an Independent today, though.
The Republicans can do their thing without my money, my time, and just possibly my vote.
I look forward to the next, and last, phone call I will be getting from the RNC. I've gotten one every month or so since six months before the election.
Rolled like a drunk. And the kicker is that I am not surprised at all.
Saturday, May 21, 2005
This Is Not A Test
****BWEEEEEEEEEPBWEEEEEEEEPBWEEEEEEEEEP*****
This is a Swamp Cooler Failure Notification.
Your Swamp Cooler has failed. The last twelve years of meticulous rebuilding, component replacement, and finicky adjustment have come to naught.
There is no tray remaining to coat with submarine paint. Your new pillow blocks from two years ago are corroded junk - as is the squirrel cage axle that was last produced in 1975.
Your electric motor that is signed "Thomas Edison" retains collector value only because, dude, that's like his REAL signature...
It's time to do your part for the economy. Time for a trip to Loewes and to place a few phone calls to friends who aren't already at the lake or engaged in their own honey-do activities.
****BWEEEEEPBWEEEEPBWEEEEP*****
Now you know what I'm doing today.
This is a Swamp Cooler Failure Notification.
Your Swamp Cooler has failed. The last twelve years of meticulous rebuilding, component replacement, and finicky adjustment have come to naught.
There is no tray remaining to coat with submarine paint. Your new pillow blocks from two years ago are corroded junk - as is the squirrel cage axle that was last produced in 1975.
Your electric motor that is signed "Thomas Edison" retains collector value only because, dude, that's like his REAL signature...
It's time to do your part for the economy. Time for a trip to Loewes and to place a few phone calls to friends who aren't already at the lake or engaged in their own honey-do activities.
****BWEEEEEPBWEEEEPBWEEEEP*****
Now you know what I'm doing today.
Wednesday, May 18, 2005
Ten Things I've Never Done
neo-neocon has passed me a baton for a blog version of chain mail.
I've never...
I'm buried here. The baton - at least this one - goes on the shelf for a bit.
Feel free to put up your own list in comments if you so desire, of course.
(*REAL blonde)
I've never...
1. understood the attraction of Seinfeld (the series).
2. failed to cut the cards.
3. understood how an athiest can take a moral stand.
4. been indicted.
5. started a fight when sober.
6. had an argument with my wife that lasted more than 24 hours. Eighteen years in August, folks.
7. jumped out of an airplane. Being pushed doesn't count.
8. dated a woman with blonde hair.*
9. been published. Got a check once, but the magazine folded before the article was printed.
10.owned a dog.
I'm buried here. The baton - at least this one - goes on the shelf for a bit.
Feel free to put up your own list in comments if you so desire, of course.
(*REAL blonde)
Tuesday, May 17, 2005
Now THIS Is Cool
One Hundred Words or Les Nessman.
Themes. Writing. And you can't go on and on and on.
Right ON!
(via Instapundit)
(Update)
Themes. Writing. And you can't go on and on and on.
Right ON!
(via Instapundit)
(Update)
Monday, May 16, 2005
I Couldn't Do Any Better
Glenn Reynolds has put in his two cents, plus the usual plethora of apropos links and excerpts therefrom, on the belated retraction by Newsweek of their Koran Flushing Story.
His comment:
"I want to add that I don't think there's anything immoral about flushing a Koran (or a Bible) down the toilet, assuming you've got a toilet that's up to that rather daunting task, and I think it's amusing to hear people who usually worry about excessive concern for religious beliefs suddenly taking a different position. Nor do I think that doing so counts as torture, and I think that it debases the meaning of "torture" to claim otherwise. If this had happened, it might have been -- indeed, would have been -- impolitic or unwise. But not evil.
And anyone who thinks otherwise needs to be willing to apply the same kind of criticism to things like Piss Christ, or to explain why offending the sensibilities of one kind of religious believer is "art" while doing the same in another context is "torture." If, that is, they want to be taken at all seriously."
Like the title says, I can't do any better.
I do contend, however, that the staff at Newsweek were incapable of foreseeing the reaction their report would produce. They aren't wired to be parties to the conflict t - they doggedly presume the status of observer, and purport to perform the act of messenger when they are actually packaging stories to advance their own agendas.
We've been at war with militant Islam for three decades now. The last four years of constant conflict have been too frequently marked by singularly horrible incidents of decapitation, street murders, and suicide bombings that arrive in our living rooms or PCs with revolting regularity.
Who in this fight are the barbarians? A bunch of leash holding morons or the people who cut Danny Pearl's head off?
Which side are YOU on?
Those questions are never, ever asked in organizations like Newsweek or the New York Times. If they ever were, and were answered publicly and honestly, those answers would have the same effect on the media landscape and the publics perception of media as the asteroid impact had on the dinosaurs. Actually, the answers are irrelevant now. I believe that Rathergate, the ongoing newsrag circulation scandals, the SwiftVets odyssey, and CNN's spiral to tabloid existence are all evidence points supporting a systemic failure of what we recognize as "corporate journalism".
An extinction event doesn't have to mean that all the dinosaurs pass on in a blink - though the thought of researchers finding Frank Rich's frozen carcass in a glacier with fois gras still in his mouth is appealing - but it could just as well be a process that becomes irreversible over time. No, not global warming: we aren't dealing with arcane models here. We are watching old media fail to adapt to the information age or, on the human level, recognize and act against a deadly threat.
There is voracious demand for source data and fact that mass media is institutionally incapable of providing.
New species rise to fill empty niches.
Did we miss the flash and boom?
The media dismisses blogs as an annoyance or tries clumsily to mimic the medium. All the while, bloggers are feasting on dinosaur eggs.
His comment:
"I want to add that I don't think there's anything immoral about flushing a Koran (or a Bible) down the toilet, assuming you've got a toilet that's up to that rather daunting task, and I think it's amusing to hear people who usually worry about excessive concern for religious beliefs suddenly taking a different position. Nor do I think that doing so counts as torture, and I think that it debases the meaning of "torture" to claim otherwise. If this had happened, it might have been -- indeed, would have been -- impolitic or unwise. But not evil.
And anyone who thinks otherwise needs to be willing to apply the same kind of criticism to things like Piss Christ, or to explain why offending the sensibilities of one kind of religious believer is "art" while doing the same in another context is "torture." If, that is, they want to be taken at all seriously."
Like the title says, I can't do any better.
I do contend, however, that the staff at Newsweek were incapable of foreseeing the reaction their report would produce. They aren't wired to be parties to the conflict t - they doggedly presume the status of observer, and purport to perform the act of messenger when they are actually packaging stories to advance their own agendas.
We've been at war with militant Islam for three decades now. The last four years of constant conflict have been too frequently marked by singularly horrible incidents of decapitation, street murders, and suicide bombings that arrive in our living rooms or PCs with revolting regularity.
Who in this fight are the barbarians? A bunch of leash holding morons or the people who cut Danny Pearl's head off?
Which side are YOU on?
Those questions are never, ever asked in organizations like Newsweek or the New York Times. If they ever were, and were answered publicly and honestly, those answers would have the same effect on the media landscape and the publics perception of media as the asteroid impact had on the dinosaurs. Actually, the answers are irrelevant now. I believe that Rathergate, the ongoing newsrag circulation scandals, the SwiftVets odyssey, and CNN's spiral to tabloid existence are all evidence points supporting a systemic failure of what we recognize as "corporate journalism".
An extinction event doesn't have to mean that all the dinosaurs pass on in a blink - though the thought of researchers finding Frank Rich's frozen carcass in a glacier with fois gras still in his mouth is appealing - but it could just as well be a process that becomes irreversible over time. No, not global warming: we aren't dealing with arcane models here. We are watching old media fail to adapt to the information age or, on the human level, recognize and act against a deadly threat.
There is voracious demand for source data and fact that mass media is institutionally incapable of providing.
New species rise to fill empty niches.
Did we miss the flash and boom?
The media dismisses blogs as an annoyance or tries clumsily to mimic the medium. All the while, bloggers are feasting on dinosaur eggs.
Sunday, May 15, 2005
Recycled Content
Michael J. Totten is a post 9/11 liberal hawk - and maybe not democrat - who does yeoman work as a blogger, writer, editor, activist, and reporter on issues from domestic politics to the Cedar Revolution to the war.
I admire him greatly, and have been a prolific commenter on his superbly written (and wonderfully guest hosted when he's off to Libya or Lebanon or just tooling around the country) blog.
Every once in awhile he puts up a post that can only be attributed to reflex.
"I doubt women are the only ones doing a re-think on this one. I voted for Bush last year, but I don’t expect I’ll vote for any Republicans next year. Bush won, as I’ve said before, on security issues not “moral values.” Bush isn’t up for re-election next year so the Republican national security advantage won’t likely exist. He’ll be in the White House no matter what. It will be safe to vote for the Democrats again, at least for one election. I suspect they will do well.
If the Republicans want to keep the swing voters who are willing to cross the center line they are going to have to do something for them. Having Tom DeLay throw bloody chunks of red meat to the Religious Right isn’t it."
I guess that Harry Reid of Nevada, Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco, and Howard Dean currently off his meds don't ever throw any red meat, right?
I posted this response:
Michael -
You've spent a fair portion of the last year immersed in actively supporting nascent democracies - actual, physical travel and labor aimed at understanding the ground level realities of places like Libya (no, not near a nascent democracy, but in flux none the less), Lebanon, and all your work with Spirit of America and Friends of Democracy.
You have written extensively on the Orange Revolution in the Ukraine.
You know better than I ever will the political and philosophical underpinnings of the American (big "L") liberal movement and their party, the Democrats.
And you can tell me that you don't have a problem supporting them, based on domestic politics?
Just what level of compartmentalization do you practice to arrive at that position? The Republicans are doing a poor job in the Congress. They aren't governing like a
I admire him greatly, and have been a prolific commenter on his superbly written (and wonderfully guest hosted when he's off to Libya or Lebanon or just tooling around the country) blog.
Every once in awhile he puts up a post that can only be attributed to reflex.
"I doubt women are the only ones doing a re-think on this one. I voted for Bush last year, but I don’t expect I’ll vote for any Republicans next year. Bush won, as I’ve said before, on security issues not “moral values.” Bush isn’t up for re-election next year so the Republican national security advantage won’t likely exist. He’ll be in the White House no matter what. It will be safe to vote for the Democrats again, at least for one election. I suspect they will do well.
If the Republicans want to keep the swing voters who are willing to cross the center line they are going to have to do something for them. Having Tom DeLay throw bloody chunks of red meat to the Religious Right isn’t it."
I guess that Harry Reid of Nevada, Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco, and Howard Dean currently off his meds don't ever throw any red meat, right?
I posted this response:
Michael -
You've spent a fair portion of the last year immersed in actively supporting nascent democracies - actual, physical travel and labor aimed at understanding the ground level realities of places like Libya (no, not near a nascent democracy, but in flux none the less), Lebanon, and all your work with Spirit of America and Friends of Democracy.
You have written extensively on the Orange Revolution in the Ukraine.
You know better than I ever will the political and philosophical underpinnings of the American (big "L") liberal movement and their party, the Democrats.
And you can tell me that you don't have a problem supporting them, based on domestic politics?
Just what level of compartmentalization do you practice to arrive at that position? The Republicans are doing a poor job in the Congress. They aren't governing like a
Wednesday, May 11, 2005
S Hits T F
The Marines (and some attached Army combat engineers) are wrapping up Operation Matador in northern Iraq, near the border of Syria.
The Green Machine is stacking the jihadis deep or putting the survivors in cages. To my knowledge three Marines have been KIA as of this time.
Wretchard has put up a post exploring the tactics and strategy involved, and the likely strategic objectives, and links to other excellent posts by Bill Roggio and Chester on the subject.
Counter insurgency combat is as much an intelligence exercise as it is one of force on force conflict. The bloggers mentioned above note that Matador is no local operation but rather the logical next step in a long term strategy aimed at cutting the heart out of the human pipeline into Iraq.
Syria has been the gatekeeper for allowing foreign fighters into Iraq since the end of the war. The reduction of Fallujah and other cities and towns by coalition forces, plus the gradual growth of Iraqi security formations have pushed the jihadi command and logistic entities out of many of the Iraqi cities they once sheltered in. An argument that the terrorists don't suffer much from this development, based on the seemingly endless litany of media reports of bombings and assassinations, misses the point that the attacks are killing people but not stopping recruitment of Iraqi police, civil service, and army personnel.
And you have to dig deep to find out that the scope of the attacks are actually constricting; most of the country is relatively secure. The enemy is attacking with larger formations and employing more suicide bombers, but the actual area of operations where most of these high-profile attacks are executed has been reduced to the regions on the "rat line" from Syria.
Matador is not reactive - it's proactive. Concentrating on securing the large urban centers with physical assets has not meant that the rat line has been ignored; far from it. Observation of enemy movements, surveillance of their communication, and the development of human intelligence along the rat line has been ongoing. Matador is a logical first step in grinding the cobbles of that particular highway into dust.
The large numbers of foreigners among the dead and captured terrorists, along with their higher levels of training and individual equipment, begs the question "How long will we tolerate Syria's action as the primary facilitator of the insurgency?".
Not too much longer, I would think. If Assad hasn't been presented with a polite note explaining what "We will make no distinction between the terrorists or those who support them",yet, I would be highly surprised. The Iraqi people have already tried to burn the Jordanian embassy because of Zarqawi's role in the murder campaign against Iraqis. The future of Iraq as an independent democracy aligned with the United States should be considered by Syria.
Someday Iraqis will be totally in control of their own foreign policy. They will have all the oil wealth of the old regime, but an army comprised of volunteers, equipped with U.S. weapons and technology, led by an elected civilian government. And they will remember who attempted to keep them from that state. They may decide that Syrian Baathists are an intolerable threat.
I think I know why President Bush is such an outwardly happy guy these days. It has little to do with judicial appointments, social security reform, or the economy. He has just over three years left to finish what he set out to do in Iraq, and that's just too much time for the terrorists to survive.
UPDATE: Maybe so, maybe not.
We can hope.
Via: Captain' Quarters.
The Green Machine is stacking the jihadis deep or putting the survivors in cages. To my knowledge three Marines have been KIA as of this time.
Wretchard has put up a post exploring the tactics and strategy involved, and the likely strategic objectives, and links to other excellent posts by Bill Roggio and Chester on the subject.
Counter insurgency combat is as much an intelligence exercise as it is one of force on force conflict. The bloggers mentioned above note that Matador is no local operation but rather the logical next step in a long term strategy aimed at cutting the heart out of the human pipeline into Iraq.
Syria has been the gatekeeper for allowing foreign fighters into Iraq since the end of the war. The reduction of Fallujah and other cities and towns by coalition forces, plus the gradual growth of Iraqi security formations have pushed the jihadi command and logistic entities out of many of the Iraqi cities they once sheltered in. An argument that the terrorists don't suffer much from this development, based on the seemingly endless litany of media reports of bombings and assassinations, misses the point that the attacks are killing people but not stopping recruitment of Iraqi police, civil service, and army personnel.
And you have to dig deep to find out that the scope of the attacks are actually constricting; most of the country is relatively secure. The enemy is attacking with larger formations and employing more suicide bombers, but the actual area of operations where most of these high-profile attacks are executed has been reduced to the regions on the "rat line" from Syria.
Matador is not reactive - it's proactive. Concentrating on securing the large urban centers with physical assets has not meant that the rat line has been ignored; far from it. Observation of enemy movements, surveillance of their communication, and the development of human intelligence along the rat line has been ongoing. Matador is a logical first step in grinding the cobbles of that particular highway into dust.
The large numbers of foreigners among the dead and captured terrorists, along with their higher levels of training and individual equipment, begs the question "How long will we tolerate Syria's action as the primary facilitator of the insurgency?".
Not too much longer, I would think. If Assad hasn't been presented with a polite note explaining what "We will make no distinction between the terrorists or those who support them",yet, I would be highly surprised. The Iraqi people have already tried to burn the Jordanian embassy because of Zarqawi's role in the murder campaign against Iraqis. The future of Iraq as an independent democracy aligned with the United States should be considered by Syria.
Someday Iraqis will be totally in control of their own foreign policy. They will have all the oil wealth of the old regime, but an army comprised of volunteers, equipped with U.S. weapons and technology, led by an elected civilian government. And they will remember who attempted to keep them from that state. They may decide that Syrian Baathists are an intolerable threat.
I think I know why President Bush is such an outwardly happy guy these days. It has little to do with judicial appointments, social security reform, or the economy. He has just over three years left to finish what he set out to do in Iraq, and that's just too much time for the terrorists to survive.
UPDATE: Maybe so, maybe not.
We can hope.
Via: Captain' Quarters.
Tuesday, May 10, 2005
Funniest Title For A Post I've Seen In Weeks
Go here.
Hillary Clinton set up an ad-hoc government agency using taxpayer dollars to try to hijack healthcare. And that was o.k. in the eyes of the same people who got owned today. Media, Leftists, Liberals, various other barnacles on our republic...
Bush and Cheney ASKED some energy professionals for input on energy issues. And that was not.
Who dresses those people in the morning, anyway?
(Via, in a circuitous manner, Instapundit)
Hillary Clinton set up an ad-hoc government agency using taxpayer dollars to try to hijack healthcare. And that was o.k. in the eyes of the same people who got owned today. Media, Leftists, Liberals, various other barnacles on our republic...
Bush and Cheney ASKED some energy professionals for input on energy issues. And that was not.
Who dresses those people in the morning, anyway?
(Via, in a circuitous manner, Instapundit)
Home Improvement
Next time you have to pay $250 to have a custom vanity top made, and cannot be at home to personally inspect the installation, make sure to mark the centerline of sink on the wall.
Yes, be SURE you do that, even if you have a standard medicine cabinet w/mirror centered above the plumbing stubouts.
The new sink is centered on the CL of the cabinet doors - six inches LEFT of any plumbing or the mirror. Nice looking countertop, though.
It's my fault for assuming. Time will tell if the anger I will feel every time I crowd left to shave over the sink will generate another countertop or not. I am not optomistic. No, I can't move the cabinet - it sits between the wall studs.
Time will tell.
It's a rain day. I'm off to caulk my self-rimming Crane sink and install the faucet. I'll be running to the hardware store for another length of drain pipe.
Yes, be SURE you do that, even if you have a standard medicine cabinet w/mirror centered above the plumbing stubouts.
The new sink is centered on the CL of the cabinet doors - six inches LEFT of any plumbing or the mirror. Nice looking countertop, though.
It's my fault for assuming. Time will tell if the anger I will feel every time I crowd left to shave over the sink will generate another countertop or not. I am not optomistic. No, I can't move the cabinet - it sits between the wall studs.
Time will tell.
It's a rain day. I'm off to caulk my self-rimming Crane sink and install the faucet. I'll be running to the hardware store for another length of drain pipe.
Sunday, May 08, 2005
Filter Free
Go here.
Read.
Read more. You can stop ANY TIME you like. Sure you can.
No, dammit, don't blame me. I didn't get my Sunday chores done either, and I've been reading him daily for the last two or three weeks.
To say he writes well is to say that Marylin Monroe was attractive. Holy smokes.
Read.
Read more. You can stop ANY TIME you like. Sure you can.
No, dammit, don't blame me. I didn't get my Sunday chores done either, and I've been reading him daily for the last two or three weeks.
To say he writes well is to say that Marylin Monroe was attractive. Holy smokes.
Parallels, Cliffs, Lemmings
I was driving down the Sam's Club with the wife when I noticed three Chevy trucks in front of us. They all still had their paper dealer plates.
The hourly radio news was talking about Social Security.
It struck me that I know nothing about GM's problems and not really much more about Social Security except that it's a racket and going to collapse. Instapundit and many other blogs have been my main source of info on Social Security, but I've been limited to only the MSM soundbites that GM (and Ford, to a lesser extent) are facing a cash crisis due to declining sales of some model lines and underfunded pension obligations. Until now, that is.
I just finished a quick Google of "Social Security GM pension fund" and came up with some interesting results. Jane Galt mentions the different mechanisms at work in the looming challenges facing both programs here, and the resulting thread makes for some pretty interesting reading about how liability and actual debt is defined, and lots of contradictory opinions are represented.
Another site, HoweStreet.com, retells in part the story of how industry practices for funding pensions evolved during the early nineties and up until today:
"Apart from competitive market factors for car sales, foreign competition, rising commodity and labor costs, and rising oil prices, the areas of greatest concern are GM's underfunded pension liabilities and corporate debt. In 2003, GM faced the largest pension fund shortfall of any U.S. corporation - $25 billion, requiring it to float an extraordinary $17.6 billion bond issue, bringing its long term debt to over $300 billion. This still left GM with a deficit of over $50 billion in its health care fund. The magnitude of this becomes more apparent when you consider that GM's market capitalization is now just $16.6 billion.
GM's pension woes are not likely to improve. In a report for The Detroit News Auto Insider Ed Garsten states that GM currently provides health and income benefits to 461,500 retirees and their surviving spouses. As of October 2004 GM retirees and their dependents outnumbered the company's active workforce by three-to-one. This imbalance will continue to grow as more and more retirees are supported by fewer and fewer workers."
Wow. A company liable for pensions of over 400K people. That's a little intimidating. It's not like GM has the power to print money and just keep right on going - this story from Yahoo News was what actually started me thinking about the similarities of the situations.
"The downgrade means that many fund managers might be forced by their investment guidelines to dump billions of dollars of GM and Ford bonds. The two companies account for 10 percent of total US corporate debt."
The U.S. government has ponzied Social Security for decades and has accrued a multi-trillion dollar long term debt in the process. We'd expect the perpetrators of a scheme like this to have been perp walked long ago... except that the U.S. government has never defaulted on a debt.
That's not to say they haven't just printed what they needed, or borrowed even more money to cover immediate calls - but a real business, one that has to conform to SEC standards and market realities - doesn't have those options at hand.
Does anyone know of more articles on this subject? Any opinions?
I think what we are seeing in our auto industry struggles is a preview of 2017's Social Security collapse. We need solutions - fast - and the Democrats seem willing to politicize the issue right up until the lights go out.
I don't expect to see any Social Security, and I'm only forty four. What about you?
(Edited for clarity at 1:22 PM MST)
The hourly radio news was talking about Social Security.
It struck me that I know nothing about GM's problems and not really much more about Social Security except that it's a racket and going to collapse. Instapundit and many other blogs have been my main source of info on Social Security, but I've been limited to only the MSM soundbites that GM (and Ford, to a lesser extent) are facing a cash crisis due to declining sales of some model lines and underfunded pension obligations. Until now, that is.
I just finished a quick Google of "Social Security GM pension fund" and came up with some interesting results. Jane Galt mentions the different mechanisms at work in the looming challenges facing both programs here, and the resulting thread makes for some pretty interesting reading about how liability and actual debt is defined, and lots of contradictory opinions are represented.
Another site, HoweStreet.com, retells in part the story of how industry practices for funding pensions evolved during the early nineties and up until today:
"Apart from competitive market factors for car sales, foreign competition, rising commodity and labor costs, and rising oil prices, the areas of greatest concern are GM's underfunded pension liabilities and corporate debt. In 2003, GM faced the largest pension fund shortfall of any U.S. corporation - $25 billion, requiring it to float an extraordinary $17.6 billion bond issue, bringing its long term debt to over $300 billion. This still left GM with a deficit of over $50 billion in its health care fund. The magnitude of this becomes more apparent when you consider that GM's market capitalization is now just $16.6 billion.
GM's pension woes are not likely to improve. In a report for The Detroit News Auto Insider Ed Garsten states that GM currently provides health and income benefits to 461,500 retirees and their surviving spouses. As of October 2004 GM retirees and their dependents outnumbered the company's active workforce by three-to-one. This imbalance will continue to grow as more and more retirees are supported by fewer and fewer workers."
Wow. A company liable for pensions of over 400K people. That's a little intimidating. It's not like GM has the power to print money and just keep right on going - this story from Yahoo News was what actually started me thinking about the similarities of the situations.
"The downgrade means that many fund managers might be forced by their investment guidelines to dump billions of dollars of GM and Ford bonds. The two companies account for 10 percent of total US corporate debt."
The U.S. government has ponzied Social Security for decades and has accrued a multi-trillion dollar long term debt in the process. We'd expect the perpetrators of a scheme like this to have been perp walked long ago... except that the U.S. government has never defaulted on a debt.
That's not to say they haven't just printed what they needed, or borrowed even more money to cover immediate calls - but a real business, one that has to conform to SEC standards and market realities - doesn't have those options at hand.
Does anyone know of more articles on this subject? Any opinions?
I think what we are seeing in our auto industry struggles is a preview of 2017's Social Security collapse. We need solutions - fast - and the Democrats seem willing to politicize the issue right up until the lights go out.
I don't expect to see any Social Security, and I'm only forty four. What about you?
(Edited for clarity at 1:22 PM MST)
News From The Road.
Not me.
Jeff Simmermon, of "I Am Not Lying, For Real", has gone blues clubbing.
He's got pictures to prove it.
Jeff Simmermon, of "I Am Not Lying, For Real", has gone blues clubbing.
He's got pictures to prove it.
Thursday, May 05, 2005
VietPundit, Arriving
Please welcome VietPundit to the Purser's List.
He even brought his own boat!
He closes his "About Me" post with this gem:
"What’s my politics? It’s hard to put a political label on someone nowadays, but I would say I’m a conservative with libertarian leanings on social issues. We'll talk more about the issues later in this blog. One thing you should know, though: I love this country dearly, and I am extremely grateful, beyond words, for everything that she has given me, my family, and millions of other Vietnamese-Americans."
When people ask me why I was once a Marine, I tell them it was payback. You can't choose parents or where you are born, but I scored at the top on both counts. Grateful doesn't begin to cover the emotion.
America works as the result of a shared dream. The Magnificent Experiment manifests itself independent of clan, tribe, race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, region, sports affiliation, union membership, or tendency to put anything but branch water in bourbon.
Back when I was visiting all those foreign places on the Gray Ship Tour Line, I always got a variation of the same liberty briefing: "Respect the culture you are about to encounter - they may act or behave in ways that completely surprise you." It was usually delivered by a foreign service type stationed in the area.
Dude - Mr. Embassy man - did you never visit Los Angeles? Or Polish Chicago? Never got a speeding ticket in Macon County, Georgia? There's no country on the planet with more different flavors of people than right here in America. And most of us, if only unconsciously, understand that step one of being an American is allowing elbow room. It costs nothing, and usually keeps things pretty interesting.
Welcome aboard, sir.
He even brought his own boat!
He closes his "About Me" post with this gem:
"What’s my politics? It’s hard to put a political label on someone nowadays, but I would say I’m a conservative with libertarian leanings on social issues. We'll talk more about the issues later in this blog. One thing you should know, though: I love this country dearly, and I am extremely grateful, beyond words, for everything that she has given me, my family, and millions of other Vietnamese-Americans."
When people ask me why I was once a Marine, I tell them it was payback. You can't choose parents or where you are born, but I scored at the top on both counts. Grateful doesn't begin to cover the emotion.
America works as the result of a shared dream. The Magnificent Experiment manifests itself independent of clan, tribe, race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, region, sports affiliation, union membership, or tendency to put anything but branch water in bourbon.
Back when I was visiting all those foreign places on the Gray Ship Tour Line, I always got a variation of the same liberty briefing: "Respect the culture you are about to encounter - they may act or behave in ways that completely surprise you." It was usually delivered by a foreign service type stationed in the area.
Dude - Mr. Embassy man - did you never visit Los Angeles? Or Polish Chicago? Never got a speeding ticket in Macon County, Georgia? There's no country on the planet with more different flavors of people than right here in America. And most of us, if only unconsciously, understand that step one of being an American is allowing elbow room. It costs nothing, and usually keeps things pretty interesting.
Welcome aboard, sir.
Wednesday, May 04, 2005
Recommended By A Visitor
The following is a comment I contributed on one of Neo-neocon's most excellent essays, in this case an examination of the impact of Vietnam and the meaning of that period for her, and on our society. That particular post was an installment of her collection published under the header of "A Mind Is A difficult Thing To Change".
Vietpundit stopped in here and suggested I put it up, so here (though late)it is:
You have written a wonderful series of essays here, neo.
We aren't "privileged". We are successful as a society. Materially, politically, technologically. The people in China or Nigeria may not understand us, but that doesn't stop them from dying trying to get here.
People debate politics. They live life, and do first what they must do to make it to the next day. Here in the evil USA we don't live in fear of the state or tribe or religion every waking moment (unless you are an Uncle Joe, of course), and the mental space provided by that simple reality has made all the difference in the accumulation of wealth and the amount of energy expended by individuals in search of better ways to do things.
War is a horrible thing. By definition it is state directed killing to achieve a goal.
We get back to the predilection of individuals to just do what they need to do as individuals again; in a nation of free citizens going to war must mean that a majority of those citizens recognize the necessity for the action. This is why democracies so rarely fight wars of aggression. Dictatorships or theocracies lack this mechanism.
Our anti-war minority is not the victim of an out of control government, merely their minority status where this issue is concerned.
I'm a Newt Gingrich, Rush Limbaugh listening conservative. For the record, I believe that Democrats/liberal progressive rank-and-file are WRONG about how they go about dealing with issues. Evil implies malicious intent. Failure to recognize basic tenets of human nature and attempting to impose unrealistic statist solutions isn't evil - just ineffective.
I don't think that I've ever heard Limbaugh call liberals "evil" - but he's been speaking off the cuff for fifteen years so I might be wrong. Soundbites are a price we pay for the information age. He calls the situation as he sees it against the backdrop of history, which is exactly how I arrived at my political identity. Wealth transfer doesn't work as a remedy for poverty. Moral relativism warps the fabric of society and community - if there is no good or evil, just what are laws for? And why is it that the last bastions of institutional racism in this country are liberal institutions?
People are people. Free citizens who accept a role as perpetual victims are willfully denying themselves the potential for success inherent in a market society. But since people ARE people, after a certain amount of time passes with no improvement in status or condition as victims, they start to look beyond the promises of their patrons.
That's why Republicans have the presidency and majorities in both houses of congress. People go with what works best for THEM... and as long as elections decide who gets the power to write and enforce law here the better ideas will eventually float to the top.
Vietpundit stopped in here and suggested I put it up, so here (though late)it is:
You have written a wonderful series of essays here, neo.
We aren't "privileged". We are successful as a society. Materially, politically, technologically. The people in China or Nigeria may not understand us, but that doesn't stop them from dying trying to get here.
People debate politics. They live life, and do first what they must do to make it to the next day. Here in the evil USA we don't live in fear of the state or tribe or religion every waking moment (unless you are an Uncle Joe, of course), and the mental space provided by that simple reality has made all the difference in the accumulation of wealth and the amount of energy expended by individuals in search of better ways to do things.
War is a horrible thing. By definition it is state directed killing to achieve a goal.
We get back to the predilection of individuals to just do what they need to do as individuals again; in a nation of free citizens going to war must mean that a majority of those citizens recognize the necessity for the action. This is why democracies so rarely fight wars of aggression. Dictatorships or theocracies lack this mechanism.
Our anti-war minority is not the victim of an out of control government, merely their minority status where this issue is concerned.
I'm a Newt Gingrich, Rush Limbaugh listening conservative. For the record, I believe that Democrats/liberal progressive rank-and-file are WRONG about how they go about dealing with issues. Evil implies malicious intent. Failure to recognize basic tenets of human nature and attempting to impose unrealistic statist solutions isn't evil - just ineffective.
I don't think that I've ever heard Limbaugh call liberals "evil" - but he's been speaking off the cuff for fifteen years so I might be wrong. Soundbites are a price we pay for the information age. He calls the situation as he sees it against the backdrop of history, which is exactly how I arrived at my political identity. Wealth transfer doesn't work as a remedy for poverty. Moral relativism warps the fabric of society and community - if there is no good or evil, just what are laws for? And why is it that the last bastions of institutional racism in this country are liberal institutions?
People are people. Free citizens who accept a role as perpetual victims are willfully denying themselves the potential for success inherent in a market society. But since people ARE people, after a certain amount of time passes with no improvement in status or condition as victims, they start to look beyond the promises of their patrons.
That's why Republicans have the presidency and majorities in both houses of congress. People go with what works best for THEM... and as long as elections decide who gets the power to write and enforce law here the better ideas will eventually float to the top.
Touching Base
Wow.
I've missed a week. And one day, as well.
My respect for prolific bloggers who hold down jobs and professions has grown by leaps and bounds as the days have filed past. I began my blog in September of last year, after being a prolific commenter on various and sundry other forums. I wasn't working - outside the house - and the radio was on continuously, the papers got read, and I followed the big dogs from hot topic to burning issue to contentious debate, and I participated with gusto. I was better than reasonably well informed, as much as an outsider could be, as far as the machinations of media, politics, and world events were concerned.
My cell phone works in two stretches of road on my project. Text messages can reach me other places, but all they are used for is to ask me to call in. I can get radio on the way in and on the way out, but onsite the action happens outside the truck and at a furious pace, so if I catch the noon news I count myself lucky. I leave the house at six, and get home after six... on normal days.
Saturday work is going to be the norm for at least the next three months.
The domestic rites of spring include yardwork, swamp coolers, cleaning, and the looming necessity of replumbing/remodeling our kitchen and the bathroom that shares the same wall.
Don't know how I'll fill this space with events worth the time of the occasional visitor. Content probably won't be long on politics, and may well trend to the technical aspects of large project construction surveying.
Anyone can tell you that Ted Kennedy is an ass. Hang out here and you may learn how to slope stake a road. Or why manholes are never more than three hundred fifty feet apart...
This will be the summer of labor that precedes the winter of change. We hope.
Have a fine day.
I've missed a week. And one day, as well.
My respect for prolific bloggers who hold down jobs and professions has grown by leaps and bounds as the days have filed past. I began my blog in September of last year, after being a prolific commenter on various and sundry other forums. I wasn't working - outside the house - and the radio was on continuously, the papers got read, and I followed the big dogs from hot topic to burning issue to contentious debate, and I participated with gusto. I was better than reasonably well informed, as much as an outsider could be, as far as the machinations of media, politics, and world events were concerned.
My cell phone works in two stretches of road on my project. Text messages can reach me other places, but all they are used for is to ask me to call in. I can get radio on the way in and on the way out, but onsite the action happens outside the truck and at a furious pace, so if I catch the noon news I count myself lucky. I leave the house at six, and get home after six... on normal days.
Saturday work is going to be the norm for at least the next three months.
The domestic rites of spring include yardwork, swamp coolers, cleaning, and the looming necessity of replumbing/remodeling our kitchen and the bathroom that shares the same wall.
Don't know how I'll fill this space with events worth the time of the occasional visitor. Content probably won't be long on politics, and may well trend to the technical aspects of large project construction surveying.
Anyone can tell you that Ted Kennedy is an ass. Hang out here and you may learn how to slope stake a road. Or why manholes are never more than three hundred fifty feet apart...
This will be the summer of labor that precedes the winter of change. We hope.
Have a fine day.
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