Let's Investigate

Some time ago, during the last financial panic (It was about crooked lending policies at Savings & Loans, remember?), I saw a man-in-the-street interview, with a woman, actually, in which the interviewer asked the interview'ee her opinion of the multi-billion-dollar federal bailout of the crooked lenders. She opined that since it was the fault of the government, the taxpayers shouldn't be forced to pay for the bailout; the government should pay for it out of it's own pocket!
Now, I thought at the time that this was a citizen who had a very limited concept of finance, government, indeed, was pretty much a moron when it came to anything not within her immediate perceptual surroundings.
I've changed my mind now...
Because of this: FBI to Probe Clemens (sounds painful!).

Roger Clemens: Juiced?

Now, I realize that congresscritters have a desperate need to ger their names and their faces on news-at-eleven, but I really believe that in this case the man(woman)-in-the-street referred to previously was completely correct. Let The Government Pay For This. Or, rather, let the neurotically-driven congresspersons and the equally obsessed "fans" of athletic exhibition corporation employees (ballplayers and the like), foot the bill. This kind of thing is not unlike the never-ending-story known as the Inquest Into The Death Of Princess Diana. The media-stoked need of what H.L. Mencken referred to as the "Booberati", to wrest every pointless detail from a pointless story is mind-boggling. Just think though; the tax dollars saved by requiring this sort of anti-social behavior to be self financed would be immense.
It would mean, however, forgoing a large part of the Circuses component of the Bread-And-Circuses function of government.

A Merry-Go-Round

It's becoming pretty clear to me - that when it comes to economics and finance I don't have a clue! And, apparently, neither do the folk who make finance their business: according to a New York Times article (February 19) “People don’t know what’s out there..." Phrases like "dire predictions", "driven by fear", "not supposed to happen", "reduced to rubble"... Yes, a financial analyst who can say things like Not Supposed To Happen! That's not somebody I want to manage my portfolio. A friend of mine used to say that if you want financial advice, you shouldn't ask somebody who's living in his car. Pretty soon, that might be the only place you'll be able to find financial experts!
But Wait! There's a solution. Here's Ben Bernanke's explanation of the problem: 'Last week, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke told Congress that the central bank's most recent survey of senior loan officers at large banks found further tightening of loan standards. "Credit that is more expensive and less available is a restraint on our economic growth," stated Mr. Bernanke in his testimony before the Senate Banking Committee.' (Christian Science Monitor, Feb. 19)
The problem, it seems, is that as the value of our debt goes down, our economy goes down with it. We're suffering from a shortage of debt. So now, armed with this insight, our government is taking action. Increasing our indebtedness - actually, the debt owed by our children and our children's children, by some TBD amount. A Hundred-And-Something Billion. For openers... They'll send you the check, and send the bill to your children, when they (your children; not the Congresspersons) get a job and become good honest hard-working taxpayers. Except by then it will be important to "Let the hard-working people of America keep more of their money in their pockets", and cut taxes for That generation also. And pass it along to Their children and grandchildren, etc.
When you or I try to do this, we get arrested for running a Ponzi Scheme. If We The People do it though, or our dauntless Congressmen-and-women do it; it's legal (I guess).
Caveat: If you try to save this money the government is "giving" you, perhaps to pass along to your children so they can pay their taxes; All Bets Are Off!
Because the whole problem started (remember?), when we stopped getting farther into debt. You must spend this money the government is (say it again) "giving" you. Enjoy the ride?

Is It Possible?

That This Isn't At All What They Want?

Senator Clinton (D. New York)
"Wants To Be The First Woman President"

Senator Obama (D. Illinois)
"Wants To Be The First Black President"

It seems that every news report concerning the Democratic primaries feels obliged to claim that these candidates want to be the first woman/black/anything-other-than-old-white-guy to become president. I'm skeptical
I truly think that their motivation is simply that they want the damn job!
Which, of course is a suspicious thing in itself. Why any sane person should want such a crappy job, I can't imagine. I just haven't figured out which of them is craziest. Sometimes I think it must be Hillary, since she's seen the wonders of the Presidency at first hand. On the other hand, she stayed the course with President Bill, and has managed to be a New York Senator. These are not small accomplishments. Sen. Obama, well, the naysayers are trying to portray him as perhaps naive and unaware of the pitfalls. Well, if Barack doesn't know about hitting in the clinches and all that sort of thing, he'll certainly know about it by November! I personally like his idea of a post-partisan government, but then I also think pigs should be able to fly. This too, falls into the ever-greater number of Good Idea(s) - Too Bad It's Wrong!
I wish them both well, and hope they avoid hitting in the clinches.

For Thousands Of Years...

Old people have tried to keep young people from having sex - with each other, at least. So far, nothing the adults have tried has stopped the adolescents from sexual activity. Just guessing here, but I'd hazard a guess that they think it's fun. Perhaps they're even feeling somewhat driven. One of the methods being given a good try by the moral leaders of the USA is to tell the youngsters not to have sex! Apparently these old guys remember that they listened to their parents and went along with what the parents told them to do. They do say that memory is the second thing to go with age.Rep. Larry Liston (R. Colorado Springs) says here we should shame the "sluts" . I guess maybe that would work, alright. I'd want to check first with Hester Prynne.
Here in Southeast Asia, people have the same concerns. Especially around this time of year. For reasons unknown, Valentine's Day is widely celebrated in Asia. Parenthetically, it seems that the thing-to-do in Japan is to take your sweetie to KFC for a romantic dinner. And they say there's no romance in the East!
Anyway, in Thailand, Jiraphan Pimpan, head of the new Provincial (to put it mildly!) Cultural Council wants to monitor the "love nests", more familiarly known in the West as "No-tell Motels", that apparently surround Bangkok. In case the teens don't know where they are, the article thoughtfully provides a quick guide to the motels, and also other promising sex venues. However, Mrs. Jiraphan thinks that if the authorities will act as Peeping Toms in these places, the teens will give up on trying to be naughty.
As I said in the beginning, nothing that the "adults" have tried in thousands of years has prevented young folk from having sex. If we just keep trying, the odds must soon swing in our favor though!
Or not.
One possibility I don't believe has been tried yet: Neonatal homonectomy. Just remove all the sources of androgens, and see what happens. Hey, it could work.

Then There Were Two - Republicans

I am, of course, a little late getting to here. But now, with the departure of Mitt Romney, two Republican candidates for President remain. Out of a field of (seemingly) thousands only weeks ago. The cull was bound to happen, of course, because the essential bozohood of such as Duncan Hunter, Tom Tancredo, Ron Paul, Rudolph Giuliani, et alia, was impossible to overlook. Now, there's John McCain, and God along with His runningmate, Mike (Huck) Huckabee.
The surprisingly viable candidacy of Sen. McCain has caught many pundits... ahh... by surprise! They declared him roadkill last summer, seemingly well back in the pack, surpassed in the polls by a slew of bozos, led by bozo-in-chief Giuliani. Who, eventually, emerged from the primaries with approximately zero delegates. So much for the pollsters. Now, as the aging Senator savors his ascendancy, here is how he explains his GOP-ness:
'In his victory speech on Super Tuesday, McCain laid out his GOP credentials. "I am a Republican because, like you, I want to relieve the American people of the heavy hand of a government," he said. "I am a Republican because, like you, I believe government must defend our nation's security wisely and effectively," he said. "I am a Republican because I believe, like you, that government should tax us no more than necessary, spend no more than necessary," he promised.'
How he squares this proclamation of a light-handed government with a simultaneous declaration of support for sending ever-increasing numbers of Americans to other countries to lay waste to them, I do not know. Presumably we'll hear more about that later.

It's Good To Know

That the republic is in such good shape that congress has nothing more important to do than "investigate" drug use in professional baseball!
Or - could it be - the lure of the sound bite, the call of the teevee shot, is just too strong for the congresspersons, those servants-of-the-people, to resist?
Here it is! The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform is busily interviewing baseball stars, making very sure there's lots of cameras and writers around to document their avid pursuit of Truth; Justice; And The American Way. Here's what the nation's newspaper,
the Washington Post says.... Alternatively, here's what Franksmaunderings said... in August 2005. I remain steadfast in my belief that this dog-and-pony show is entirely for the purpose of evading any purposeful work by a disgraceful congress.
As long as it's not real, our lawmakers will rush to investigate it!
Kind of reminds one of what Mark Twain said about them: "I truly believe there is no truly American criminal class - with the exception of the Congress". One would wish that the committe on government reform would devote some effort to

Reforming The Government!

Then There Were Two

Isn't it remarkable that suddenly instead of being Yet-Another-Old-White-Guy being a prerequisite for running for president, it's now a liability! Here in the waning days of the Republic, it seems the electorate wants to give some new people a chance. Good idea, seeing as how in some two hundred and twenty one years, every President has been J-A-O-W-G. And for the last several administrations, they haven't really performed very well, now, have they? Ignoring the fact that a lot of misguided , historically uninformed luddites think Ronald Wilson Reagan was a good president; we really haven't had a keeper since F.D.R. Ronnie Reagan, as we like to call him, would have been a great president - in the nineteenth century! But times change, and the sand shifts, and even the writing of the...

Now:

Sen. Clinton was trying to run as J-A-O-W-G, and not doing very well, until she rediscovered she was a woman. Doing much better now. I still think the neo-crazies who'd rather pull down the temple than let a Clinton be in charge would make her presidency pretty awful. Better to destroy the government than allow a Clinton to look good.
Barack Obama, on the other hand, is somewhat protected: if anyone rants against him too rabidly, they'll just get tagged as racist. I savor that! He's also smart and well spoken. Good choice - unless he really does believe in trying to govern from the nice side of town.
I would have liked John Edwards. In 2004 and again this year, he actually took positions on issues, and showed he'd studied and thought about them. He's smart and studious. However, in these backward-to times, he'd have to be not J-A-O-W-G. Either that, or he'd have to be a republican; they're all J-A-O-W-G's.
The Poet Of The Protest Movement; Bob Dylan, got it right - The Times They Are a'Changin. Just a little slower than we thought back then.

What's a License For?

Why do I need a Fishing License?
Answer: So I fish. If, that is, I can find any fish, outside of a fish farm.
Why do I need a Barber's License?
Answer: So I can cut hair and charge a fee for it.
Why do I need a Realtor's License?
Answer: So I can sell property. Not as easy as it was a few years ago, admittedly.
Why do I need a Driver's License?
Answer: So I can drive a car on public streets.

Why do Michael Chertoff and his gang think they should be able to dictate a set of security requirements to be added to these licenses?
Answer: Actually, they only want to require all this positive ID stuff for driver's licenses.
Why not require chips and fingerprints on all the other licenses as well?
Answer: Because we're idiots is why!
Here's the story:
Americans born after Dec. 1, 1964, will have to get more secure driver's licenses in the next six years under ambitious post-9/11 security rules to be unveiled Friday by federal officials. - Associated Press"

Notice this part: "The Sept. 11 attacks were the main motivation for the changes." This is a rather blatant falsehood; The government has been trying for years to find a way to reliably track its citizens. Makes 'em easier to find and detain, for whatever reason "the government", whoever that is, deems sufficient.
This is a simple way to insure that nobody can pass through

Good Idea

There's an event (some might call it a circus) called Annapolis. Actually, Annapolis is a place. A city. The capital of Maryland. And most famously the location of the United States Naval Academy. That's where there's a gathering this week to Make Peace in the Middle East. At first I thought this was a great example of my Primary Working Hypothesis

"Good Idea - Too Bad It's Wrong".

But, umm, that's wrong! Truly, this idea of peace is not wrong at all; it's very right. Extremely right, even. The meeting is an example, rather, of "Good Idea - Too Bad It Won't Work."
The underlying problem is that in the Middle East there are just too many versions of the One-And-Only-God; each with it's own set of adherents, each calling on it's fans, apparently, to rid It's Favorite Place On Earth (rumored to be Jerusalem) of all the fans of the other versions of Itself. This (or those) is (or are) a very violent and self-sentered God (or Gods).
As is to be expected. How can an only entity learn to play well with others? THis (these) God(s) are as a result of this isolation, very poorly socialized. Also extremely needy.
I'd like to think that if only there were lots and lots of Gods, they wouldn't need to be worshipped quite so violently. But when we consider Hinduism, which has more Gods than you can shake a stick at, still the violence; still the killing. Onlly now it's not to establish which one is the true One-And-Only-God; it's to raise my favorite One-Among-Many-Gods in the hierarchy. Give It a boost in the pecking order, so to speak.
Maybe this isn't about God at all - maybe it's about people and the reasons they use to justify killing others.

So Predictable...

Pakistan... Failed State... Military takeover... United States ally... Officials See Few Options for U.S.(New York Times, Nov. 4)
Basically, our brutal thug dictator isn't capable of remaining in power on his own, unlike the brutal thug dictators we are continuously trying to oust. Really depressing isn't it?
Of course, if the President and the Congress paid a modicum of attention to the outside world (that would be different, wouldnt it?), we might not have this problem.
A suggestion: let's stop working the public perception by wasting time and effort on symbolism, and start working on working with real events actually occurring now!
Instead of passing a resolution condemning the Ottoman Empire for genocidal acts (the while pretending that the United States never, oh no never, gave those smallpox-infested blankets to the Indians!). How about working with the people who are alive today? Threaten Iran for trying to make an A-bomb. Suck up to Pakistan, which made an A-bomb. Why? Threaten North Korea, but wring your hands and ask Burma to make nice. It seems to be diplomacy-by-wishful-thinking. Well, for the answer as to why some dictators are acceptable, and some are not, perhaps you'd better ask dictator-wannabe Dick Cheney. Maybe it would be better to ask Fox News (motto: we lie, but we do it with a straight face.) to ask him. Whatever the answer, it's sure to be a love-fest in the studio.

Paranoia Central

"He didn't believe that the FBI would be stupid enough to believe him - when he reported his son-in-law as an al Quaeda agent.

Man angry with son-in-law fingers him as terrorist to FBI

So, of course, the FBI had the man's son-in-law deported. Now he's being sued for libel.
I think he should be sued for naivete. How could he not know about the incredible depths of Institutional Paranoia in the United States Dept. of Homeland Security (brought to you courtesy of crypto-Republican Joe Lieberman [I - Ct.])? Of course, the man is from Sweden; so he hasn't been bombarded by the continuous barrage of scarey news propagated by the fear-mongering Bush administration.

Paul Tibbets: 1915-2007

Gen. Paul Warfield Tibbets Jr. died at home on Nov. 1. He was, of course, famous as the pilot of the B-29 bomber, named after his mother, that dropped the bomb on Hiroshima in 1945.



The event has had a huge impact on the world ever since. For shock value, it's hard to imagine anything greater. The controversy was intense then, and it's still around, though it's been overtaken by newer and more immediate outrages. Some say it was barbaric and killed thousands of innocent people. Some say it ended the war and saved millions of lives. The first is certainly true; the bodies were there to be counted. The continuing effects of the deadly radiation are there to be seen.



I personaly think the second claim is unproven, and unprovable. Japan had not surrendered. The news/propaganda said the mainland was mobilizing to resist an invasion. The army troops on Okinawa had faced violent opposition. Kamikaze planes had damaged and sunk a number of navy ships (it's a good idea to remember here that the amphibious ships were pretty much a one-way thing anyway; "sinking" an LST on the beach counts only nominally). Anyway, The Japanese were armed and waiting; The Troops were battle fatigued. They were also likely watching Movietone News clips showing their comrades coming home from Europe to family, friends, and parades. Would the Japanese have fought an invading force? Yes. Would they have been an effective resistance? I think that's the part that's forever unknowable. Millions of people killed in the invasion? I doubt it. I wonder if people who blithely make the claim have other certainties that are by no means certain.



I do know that a visit to the Hiroshima Memorial, at "Ground Zero", the old Prefectural Hall, is almost an emotional overload. Such a visit should probably be prescribed to the lot of draft-dodging warriors who are running things in the United States at the moment. And seem bent on starting more and more wars, until they find one they can win.

Has Anyone Considered?

How the human race manages to use (that is, waste!) resources at such a pell-mell pace? Well, consider this example: Four trillion (that's 4,000,000,000,000) plastic trash bags sold annually worldwide (Worldwatch Institute, 2003).
A product whose only purpose is to be tossed onto the midden heap of civilization! Four trillion. Purchased by... WHO? I didn't look it up, but the usual suspect is the famous American Consumer.
Four Trillion-with-a-T divided by 6 Billion-with-a-B comes to about 666 trash bags per person per year, worldwide. That's including the population of the impoverished tribes scattered around Africa and Asia who have no idea what a trash bag even looks like. I suspect they aren't big consumers of throw-away items of any sort. Remarkable! Where do people put all those bags? No wonder the dumps are filling up. Just the bags to put the trash in are going to fill up a lot of space in the local dump. And at whatever price the things are, that's a lot of dollars. Especially with the value of a dollar these days (not very much), and the value of the oil used to make the one-way plastic bags (pretty high). I'd say the marketers have pretty well proven there's many more than one born every minute.

Can Anybody Tell Me

what's going on here?

There's all these Suicide Bombers! They're in Iraq, they're in Afghanistan,they're in Palestine; in fact they appear now to be everywhere. They're showing up now in Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, Nepal. Now, it's pretty clear that the poor and the weak and the poorly armed civilians can't compete with hundred-million-dollar attack planes with star wars-ish Electronic Warfighting capabilities. But still, so many of them! In Iraq alone, "The American military has reported more than 1,400 since January 2004. Before the U.S.-led invasion, there had been no suicide bombings in Iraq." Studies: Suicide bombers in Iraq are mostly foreigners(McClatchy, August 8, 2007)
Now, I'm not about to rant and moan about this situation. That the United States is losing at least one, and probably two, wars, is pretty obvious. The feckless President and his hegemonic sidekicks are fierce believers in military power, and nobody can say them nay. I have long claimed that it's impossible to defeat an enemy that won't stop fighting. All you can do is kill them all. A sort of modern-day Final Solution - one which I hope the world is not willing to accept any more.
But, at long last, to get to the point: There are literally thousands of people who balance their present life against the prospect of blowing themself up - and think that setting off a bomb in their pants is a reasonable thing to do. This is a remarkable decision. Has anybody even thought to try to figure out why they come to that conclusion?
Yah Yah Yah! Brainwashing. Religious Fanaticism. Islamofacism. "Threats Of Hell And Hopes Of Paradise". I don't buy it. All of this can sway people, but it's not going to create a suicide bomber unless the person is accessible to the idea in the first place. What makes someone vulnerable to such a crazy idea? Why are so many so willing to leave this life?
Just asking.

Spotted in a Bangkok Newspaper

...
A poll by ABAC (Assumption University of Thailand, Bangkok) indicating that some 83% of Thai voters think it's perfectly acceptable to accept money in return for their vote in the upcoming election! There has been a lot of shock and awe surrounding this number, in spite of the fact that in Thailand, unlike the food, statistical numbers tend to be rather poorly cooked. Lots of pontificating by farang (foreigners) about the simpleminded rural Thai people not understanding Democracy - as if the citizens of the United States understood it. Which the evidence shows they do not.
In any event, here is a letter (e-mail, really) that appeared in the Bangkok Post a few days ago:

The secret ballot is a truly wondrous thing. You can
sell your vote to whomever you wish, as many times as
you wish. When it comes time to cast your ballot, you
are entirely free to bless the candidate of your
choice. Witness the classic movie "The Great Man
Votes" (John Barrymore, 1938), wherein the hero is
courted, wined and dined; his arrears of rent is paid
up. In the final scene he is driven to the polling
place. He saunters up the steps. He turns to the
camera. He smiles. He winks. The message is clear - he
is voting his choice, NOT the corrupt politicians who
"bought" him. Of course, the audience doesn't get to
know who gets the Great Man's vote; that's not the
point of the movie, is it?
I think it's wonderfully appropriate to accept money
from corrupt candidates. And then vote as you will.
Of course, it all depends on the secrecy of the
ballot. The secret ballot used to be a given in the
USA. That's why vote-buyers were forced to look for
votes in the local graveyards. In some places people
continued to vote for decades after their death!
However, with the wonders of the computer age, that's
being done away with. Now the computer can cast your
vote for you, even decide what choice you will be
making. Progress!
Thank you,
Aj. Frank,
Bangkok

Sorry General...

... You don't get do-overs!

Here's Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, telling us now (No End In Sight) about how the whole Iraq disaster is the fault of his superiors - civilian (that is: The President) and military (that is: OH! Commander Of US Forces In Iraq: Umm, that would be Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez!). The General was quite willing to take the job, and do the will of the feckless President George W. Bush, but when the failure becomes undeniable, the General bails out, denies responsibility (Just Following Orders, General?), and points the finger at everyone else. Sorry General, that dog won't hunt. You took the man's salt, you did the work. If the building you built collapses, you're on the hook for it. As Lt.Col. Paul Yingling eloquently points out here: “If the general remains silent while the statesman commits a nation to war with insufficient means, he shares culpability for the results,”
Now, Gen. Sanchez isn't the only bumbling idiot in this Greek Drama. There's plenty of blame to go around. In fact, just as in the plays of Aeschylus, it seems there's blame enough for everyone - even the Gods. Perhaps, looking at this Tragedy from the outside, it's really more of a Comedy. A wierd comedy, certainly. Maybe it wasn't written by Aeschylus. Perhaps it was Aristophanes'. With the main character wearing a Giant Phallus attached to his fly. If so many people weren't dying from the play, it would have to be called a comedy. Now I suppose we have to await the entrance of Lysistrata.

Congratulations Citizen Gore

And to the
U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
Sorry, I guess the IGPCC (or whatever) is too obscure, or was, to have a logo, unlike The 2005 Winners: the IAEA and it's head Mohamed ElBaradei. But 2005 was a long time ago and for all their work, they never managed to get the United States to waver from it's lies and misstatements about Iraq's WMD; claims the administration is now making about Iran. I don't imagine this Nobel Prize will dent the denial of the President and his friends.
While the IGPCC (or whatever) doesn't have a logo, they do have a few facts on their side. Inconvenient of them, isn't it? Here's one interesting graphic. Submitted by Stanford University Solar Center (which I didn't even know there was one of such a thing!).



As you can see, the measured values track the predicted values pretty well. That's generally considered the mark of a good predictive model. In spite of all the cherry-picking of local discontinuities - generally pointed out by those with a vested interest in (energy) business-as-usual.
Now, as I hear (read, really), there seems to be a new groundswell of support for Citizen Gore to run for President. I have to confess in my innnermost self, I'd really like to see him as President. But, given the toxic political climate of today, I have to think it would be a Bad Idea!
Let's face it; Citizen Gore is too much the gentleman to respond in kind to the sort of attacks the cabal once labelled by Sen. Clinton as the "Vast Right Wing Conspiracy" though, in fact it's really only half-vast, would mount on Candidate Gore. Still, it's a powerful group, and as highly disciplined as the NRA when it comes to attack politics. And the Half-Vast Cabal stands ready to go after anyone who can even be imagined as a Liberal. Al Gore would certainly qualify as fodder for their cannons. As Candidate Gore, he'd be fending off their assaults full time, unable really to do anything important; whereas Citizen Gore can spend his time as he wishes, and need not worry about the perception of the electorate. One could only wish that the electorate of today was ready to vote for an intelligent educated thoughtful candidate. But it seems that what's wanted is a dauntless unwavering bull-in-a-china-shop leader. The President appears to be correct in this; the educational level in the country is a disaster! The people for the most part are completely unable to understand where their own self-interest lies.
I think (hope) Nobel Laureate Gore is too smart and too secure in himself to be willing to put up with it all.
Good luck to the candidates who are submitting themselves to the toxic mud of today's political process.

In Other News

THE SURGE, as described by Gen. Petraeus, has worked so well at suppressing violence in Bagdhad that the civilian overlords administering Iraq are now banned from leaving their fortress, known as the Green Zone. This even though it appears that the bastion of the Green Zone has been built with such poor materials that it's battlements won't withstand even the modest explosive power of the handmade weapons (and the U.S. supplied weapons that have been sold to the insurgents) being used to attack it. Meanwhile, the civilian guard corps known as Blackwater has been banned from operating in the country by the increasingly truculent puppets of the Iraqi government, allegedly for shooting several civilians. This has come as a shock to the U.S. State Department and the DOD, seeing as how Blackwater has been shooting civilians (aka Ragheads) for years now. It's come to be regarded as one of the perks of employment at Blackwater; you can kill and get away with it. Protected by the "Status of Forces Agreement" negotiated between the U.S. State Department and, umm, well, Sate Department employee L. Paul Bremer III, the Supremo-In-Charge of promulgating the laws of the Free and Democratic Nation of Iraq immediately after the occupation commenced.
A new Modest Proposal. It's a given that the soon-to-be unemployed Blackwater soldiers will be hired by Blackwater's replacement, and the Green Zone will have to be renamed in acknowledgement of the fact that nothing green remains in Bagdhad - how about replacing Blackwater with Greenwater, and the Green Zone with the Black Zone, thus saving a lot of money on new letters. Simply swap colors! Nobody will be fooled except George W. Bush and Condi Rice, but they're the ones that count, after all.
All in all, I think things are looking up, don't you?

It Says In The Bible

Do not pray in public as the pharisees do, but pray in private (Matthew 6:1-6)?

Pharisee-In-Chief George W. Bush at prayer

Praying that he'll get credit for "Bringing The Troops Home" perhaps? Like a schoolyard bully hoping to get a student-of-the-month award because he stops stealing the other kid's lunch money? Only difference is, this man deals in death, not pocket money.

A Flash of Hindsight

This has to be the

The Biggest D'OH of The Twenty-First Century.

Or, perhaps, any century. Someone actually measured the actual nutitional value of the latest-and-greatest crops produced by the Green Revolution, and discovered Oh My! that the nutritional value was less per unit weight than those old fashioned plants from the days of yesteryear. Crop Yields Expand, but Nutrition Is Left Behind. Now, I never think of things like this, until somebody else points it out. I'm not very inquisitive, I guess. But, this kind of thing seems so obvious in hindsight, I'm shocked! shocked!, that it never occurred to me that this would be the case.
Question: How do you make something bigger, faster?
Answer: Simplify the process.
Question: How Do You Do That?
Answer: Throw out the complex steps in the process.

It's the Mad Man Muntz industrial method. For those (many I imagine) who don't remember, Earl Muntz (Motto: "I WOULD GIVE 'EM AWAY, BUT MY WIFE WON'T LET ME--SHE'S CRAZY!") Mad Man Muntz Bio. Muntz was a marketeer who created his own products. Like Ron Popeil, on steroids. If you can imagine such a thing. Among other Muntz'iana was the Muntz TV. It was the original cheap TeeVee. How did he do it? Simple. He threw out all those unnecessary circuits, like the V.Hold and the H.Hold (If you don't remember those controls, you're on your own now. Let me recommend Wikipedia to you). Simple. Inexpensive. Easy to make. Everything was fine. Until...
Until a Pigeon pooped on the antenna. Or flew past it. Or, well, pretty much any kiind of unhappy meteorological event occurred. Then the teevee became unwatchable. Didn't have enough vitamins in it's circuitry, so to speak.

Now, I kind of wonder; are these missing trace compounds perhaps an explanation (or partial explanation) of the highly publicized Obesity Epidemic? It's pretty well understood that there's a kind of mental trigger that is supposed to kick in when you've eaten enough food that says: HEY! ENOUGH! Could it be that the trigger isn't reset by volume, or weight, or calories, but by some trace compound(s)? If so, then, in addition to my earlier prescription for preventing obesity: Walk, Don't Drive; there's another way to avoid excess weight. Eat Good Food. If you can find it, that is.
Coming soon:

Energy: Part 3

- which may (or may not) include yet a third way to avoid obesity. Probably Energy: Part 3 will come after Energy: Part 2; but nothing is certain in these uncertain times.

Swimming In Circles

This is a review of Swimming in Circles: Aquaculture and the End of Wild Oceans by Paul Molyneaux.

I cropped it from http://www.orionmagazine.org; which looks like an excellent magazine for an occasional browse. The particular review resonates with me because I too tried to make a living from the sea, but failed. Not entirely because of overfishing and fisheries degradation; but that certainly didn't help matters any. Anyway, here goes:

Swimming in Circles
Aquaculture and the End of Wild Oceans
by Paul Molyneaux

reviewed by Rebecca Goldburg
Thunder's Mouth Press, 2007. $15.95, 304 pages.

Review published in the May/June 2007 issue of Orion magazine

Eighty percent of seafood consumed in the United States is now imported from all over the globe. The crab in “Maryland” crab cakes may come from Indonesia, “Cajun” shrimp from Thailand, “Caribbean” mahi-mahi from Ecuador. Almost half the seafood consumed globally is now from fish farms, or aquaculture, including all or most of the supply of such U.S. consumer favorites as shrimp, salmon, tilapia, and catfish. Acknowledging that the vast majority of our meat and poultry now come from farms, many experts ask, why should fish be any diffrent? In Swimming in Circles, Paul Molyneaux explores this very question.

As a native of working-class eastern Maine, Molyneaux paints a personal portrait of aquaculture, starting with his truck-driving job. Leaving the Maine-Canada border at midnight, Molyneaux rushes an overweight truckload of farmed salmon over icy roads to Logan International Airport in Boston at eighty miles per hour. Receiving only $120 for fourteen hours of driving, he does not have enough funds to bribe the airport stevedore, and unloads the truck himself. Like others in eastern Maine in the late ‘80s, Molyneaux expected the local aquaculture industry to grow. It did at first, but its growth ultimately was curtailed by salmon disease, controversy over environmental impacts, and low-cost farmed-salmon imports from Chile and elsewhere.

Molyneax goes on to detail the explosive growth of shrimp farms along the Pacific coast of Mexico. Following a law allowing privatization, many members of Mexican ejidos, or fishing collectives, sell their coastal land for the development of shrimp farms. But the shrimp gold rush proves ephemeral for many. The spread of virulent shrimp diseases closes farms, and coastal residents are left to seek jobs picking chilies, or in maquiladoras along the U.S.-Mexico border. The parallels between Maine and Mexico are inescapable. And yet Molyneaux describes a well-intentioned United Nations fisheries officer who pursues shrimp-farm development as a means to spur income growth in poor countries. One aquaculture “techno-optimist” even invokes Manifest Destiny as a reason for expanding fish farms in ocean waters.

Molyneaux also chronicles his brief career in Maine’s final “virgin” fishery, sea urchins. He makes a reasonable living catching urchins from a small hand-rowed dory. But other fishermen invest in bigger boats and bigger engines, which require a concomitantly bigger catch to pay for their equipment. When political pressure from fishermen stops the government from placing adequate limits on the urchin catch, the fishery spirals downward in less than a decade. Wild fisheries around the world have experienced the same cycle of decline; fishermen invest in technology that allows them to catch more fish, leading to overexploitation.

Given this troubling background, readers cannot help but ask themselves about the future of fisheries in a global economy. Some organizations, such as Environmental Defense (where I work), are pursuing a range of strategies to change the economic rules of the game. For example, allocating to fishermen a fixed percentage of the total allowable annual catch set by fishery regulators provides them with an incentive to conserve. Such “catch share” programs were recently made possible in U.S. waters by fisheries legislation passed by Congress in December 2006. Similarly, working with corporate seafood purchasers to establish policies that favor seafood farmed using environmentally preferable methods creates an economic incentive for better aquacultural practices. Although such initiatives are not discussed in Molyneaux’s book, they have resulted in a smattering of shrimp farms operated in a relatively environmentally responsible manner.

It is no surprise that Swimming in Circles is ultimately about current economic systems and globalization. What do these forces portend for the future health of the oceans and for the future livelihoods of coastal people who are too often dispossessed? Molyneaux asks a number of provocative and sometimes disturbing questions, many of them applicable to a wide range of human endeavors besides seafood production. But it is his vignettes, from Maine, Mexico, and elsewhere, that ultimately make this book a rewarding read.

Rebecca Goldburg is a senior scientist at Environmental Defense.

What's the Point?

I think it's time now to ask:

What Is It That We Want To Accomplish In Iraq?

If we actually want to stop the fighting, establish a government (ahem), get the place quieted down and subdued, it's really quite simple.
Start now! Start drafting young men. Send 'em to boot camp. Send 'em to AIT (Advanced Infantry Training - a jesting term the Army has been using for decades now). Ship 'em to Iraq. We could put 100,000 men (well, boys) a month through the program. Figure eight weeks of boot camp, 6 weeks of AIT, a month or so to ship the troops to Iraq. By this time next year we could have a million soldiers on the ground, easy!
True, they'd mostly be what we used to call cannon fodder, mostly led by what we used to call 90-day wonders. Pretty much the same kind of army that beat the Germans and the Japanese in WW II. What, is the Sadr Militia better equipped, better trained, a more effective force than the German Army? I don't think so!
So, if we really want to 'Win The War Against Terrorism'; and if Iraq is really the place to do that - I see no other choice. Trust me - it would work.
What, you ask me, about the logistics? How can we equip and supply millions of soldiers in a far away place like that? Easy, I reply. Rationing, and commandeer all the shipping! How can it be that we cannot do today what we did in the 1940's? Unless it really isn't that important to do!
So, do we really want to Win The War, or do we want something different?
Is it that what we really is to keep the pot simmering, so to speak, so that we can continue to transfer massive amounts of money from future taxpayers to present-day war profiteers? If that's what we really want, then we should definitely keep doing what we have been doing for the past 5 years. We can keep sending the usual suspects (the saps who volunteer to go to Iraq - time after time after time), at a total body count of something like a thousand per year; easily sustainable forever. We can keep this up, and keep transferring hundreds of billions of dollars a year to the usual 'Contractors'.
It's a beautiful plan. The only problem, from the point of view of G. W. Bush and his faithful sidekicks, is that the suckers appear to be catching on. There are those who think staying in Iraq is a Bad Idea.
Count me among them.
Then there are the Dying Quail Antiwar Politicians. You read about 'em all the time. 'We should leave Iraq' - BUT - 'We can't leave too soon!' Which is, in my opinion, a lotta BS. The Pentagon abets this with many obfuscations detailing the difficulty of 'Extracting' the troops. That's the BS.
Question: How long did it take to go from Kuwait to Baghdad?

That's How Long We Should Give The President and His Generals To Go From Baghdad To Kuwait!

Work, or Labor?

If you're ever in Newport - no not Newport Beach - Newport - in Oregon. It's the biggest city (well, city... pop. 8,000 or so) on the Oregon Coast. Anyway, If you go down to the waterfront, go ahead and walk past Ripley's Believe It Or Not. Keep going, almost to the end of the road. Where it ends, and there's an intersecting road that goes up the hill. Up the hill to what passes for Downtown Newport (pop. ~8,000). Down near the end of the road, on the waterfront side, you'll come to Newport Shrimp. The biggest fishbuyer in Newport. On the ground floor there's a big picture window. Inside, you can see the big stainless steel table, supplied by conveyor belt with a seemingly endless stream of shrimp. At the table there are a number of workers - dressed almost surgically; apron, gloves, paper cap, mask. There they do their shift sorting shrimp. Sorting them into cagegories. There are 150 ct. shrimp, 120 ct., 80 ct., 50 ct., 30 ct., 15 ct. shrimp. Millions of shrimp- perhaps tens or hundreds of millions of shrimp. At Newport Shrimp the shrimp are landed, unloaded from the boats, 'veined', cooked, sorted, and packed.

At the end of their shift the workers de-garb; de-mask, de-cap, de-glove, de-apron. And then they leave, carrying the aroma of shrimp with them. In ordinary clothing, you can see that they are what in Oregon are called 'Mexicans'. Foreigners. Non-whites. To say that they are a despised minority is to understate the feelings of the more xenophobic of the locals, some of whom like to complain loudly, like Newt Gingrich, that these 'Mexicans' are looting, raping, murdering the good Oregonians.

I never spent a lot of time watching the sorting at Newport Shrimp. I had work of my own to do, and it took no time at all to see that I wouldn't take that job for any amount of money. Not because I don't like money. Simply put, I wouldn't even last one shift at that table.

In the United States we're raised to think of our work as our life, and our life as our work. Career. Job Satisfaction. It's taught by our families, our schools, our peers, our entertainments; everything tells us we need to find satisfaction in our work. With this belief, work such as sorting shrimp, or picking lettuce, or digging ditches, or washing dishes - it all becomes impossible to accept. Incommensurable with our beliefs. The only people who can bear to do such work are those who still have the old notion. Work is for survival, not for satisfaction. Satisfaction comes from family and friends. A circle of friends; something solid and close - not a 'network' of friends; so vague and amorphous.

Simply put; you'll need plain-and-simple workers if you have plain-and-simple work to be done - and you'll have to find them in societies where people still live in extended families, where life satisfaction is not dependent on work, but dependent on family and friends. Where people don't believe work is supposed to be satisfying and fun; where they work for a living, and have fun for fun. Where work is external to life, not integral to it. Where it's still okay to punch a time clock. Where they haven't been taught that work is supposed to be emotionally rewarding.

If you really get rid of the workers who sort the shrimp at the big stainless steel table at Newport Shrimp - you'd better be ready and willing to accept the shrimp shipped to your deli case from China. Because you aren't going to get any shrimp from the inside the closed-border USA. Or Lettuce. Or your yard redesigned. Or service in your local fine restaurant. Don't kid yourself. You wouldn't last a shift on that stainless steel table at Newport Shrimp any more than I could.

I finally decided to take a chance.

At long last I'm going to try to actually write an actual book - you know; one of those things with a front and a back and a lot of pages in between. However, I think its considered a good thing to put smart-sounding words on the pages. For those who have read extensively in this blog, you probably know not to hold your breath for the final result. On the upside, I have a title (sort of): "The Three Seasons". Yes, I know, it looks a teensie bit derivative. But hey, I'm no Vivaldi, so I didn't think I had a shot at more than 3. It's not musical anyway. It's more about the seasons a fisherman tries to get in while keeping his boat from sinking in the meantime. Here's a snippet from the middle of the Second Season (I figure if I start in the middle, then I can write in both directions, and maybe I can finish in half the time).

... "Chazz, lemme tell you, all this uproar about illegal immigrants. Some people say (and way too loud I think) 'What part about illegal don't you get?' And I guess they're right. Although for the most part, if their folks had the same laws when they came here, they'd be illegals too! Anyways, others say something like 'these illegal workers are here because there's jobs for them here.' I kind of go along with that. How much do those chicken farmers think they'd get if Tyson didn't have illegals to work in those chicken flicking plants of theirs
"Closer to home - how much do you think you're gonna get from Newport Shrimp for that boatload of shrimp you just brought in, if they didn't have any of those 'Mexicans' sorting-veining-cooking-packing the little bugs? Or do you figure you'll do it yourself? And please, don't tell me about how 'those Mexicans' are overrunning us 'native white Oregonians'! ... I'm not that smart, but I do believe those 'Mexicans' are gonna have a tougher time overrunning us native white men than us native white men had overrunning the native red men a couple hundred years ago.
"As for us - hey, we got it good. We're just tuna fishermen. The way it works for me now; I sail on out to the Emperor Seamount or someplace like that, put in, troll around, load up, bring 'em into Newport or someplace. The guys at Newport Shrimp offload 'em for me, then onload the tuna to freezer cars 'n send 'em to the railway. They take 'em to LozAngeles and put 'em on a ship. Ship goes to Samoa; leaves 'em off there. The umm... Samoans (Hey, it's Samoa OK? No Mexicans!) cook-clean-can my tuna. Back onto a ship, back to L.A. Back on the train to Oregon, and right onto the shelves at Meier and Frank. ... Man, that's a long round trip!

"I think from now on, I'll just can my own tuna. Cook my own shrimp too. Less trouble."

"Jesus Frankie, what're you talking about? If these guys hear what you're saying, you're outta here! How you gonna do any business with the locals?"

"I know that Chazz - I'm not about to let any of these asshole locals know what I'm thinking. I know I gotta get along on the docks. Can't let anybody think I'm a liberal! I just like to stir up some shit sometimes."

Now, before I break for the time being, and try to add some readable text front-and-back of the above, here's the long-awaited (or not)

Energy - Part II

Part two of N; Part one is here: ENERGY - PART I. Only today, instead of talking about electrons, we'll be talking about hydrocarbons. Now, hydrocarbons are an important part of the World Of Chemistry. In fact, hydrocarbons are the basis of an entire field of Chemistry know as... Organic Chemistry. Organic Chem, as well as being about hydrocarbons, and hydrocarbon-based compounds, is also the primary reason why a lot of Chemistry students switch to English Lit. Chaucer is easier than the Paraffin Series, which is the easy part of Organic. It's all downhill from there.

Fortunately, aside from the word hydrocarbon, we really don't need to know much more about this stuff. As an aside, it's interesting to note that hydrocarbon compounds actually 'own' many electrons! If we could tease them into giving them up, we'd be able to fill our tanks (well, I mean, the gas tanks in our cars - not the Abrams Tanks in the many war zones we have scattered about the Middle East), and then drive happily about using an electric motor! Sadly, it's not in the nature of the Chemical Bond to give us those electrons without a lot of effort! We have Linus Pauling's word for that, and, knowing that he has not one, but two, Nobel Prizes, you can believe he's smarter than we are! He's also deceased, so the whole idea of megadoses of vitamin C might not be as great as he believed.

But that's another story, as they say.

Now, at this juncture in history, when some of the more-or-less prominent politicians are campaigning for President (these campaigns are so unrelenting, it may well be that the next president has already been elected, and we're getting ready to nominate the candidates for 2012), everybody is talking a lot about how they are about to develop a PLAN! A plan that is, to a.) Save The Planet From Global Warmng or b.) Save The American Driver From Big Oil. Some of the more ambitious politicians are, I believe, trying to work both of those Big Ideas into their ahem, Plan.

Sorry, as my motto says; Good Idea, Too Bad It's Wrong!

The basis for all these wonderful plans is to swap out petroleum as the source for the hydrocarbons going into your (fuel) tank, and to use hydrocarbons from another source. A partial list of these sources: Corn; Sawgrass; Sugarcane; Oil Palms; Used Cooking Oil (from MacD et al.); Methane From Garbage; Methane From Cows (yes, cowfarts!); and that old standby, King Coal. Now, this can all be done. In fact, third world farmers have been using animal byproduct (ahem) as fuel for many centuries. Heck, the West was settled by wagon trains that cooked their way across the plains using Buffalo Chips. That was, of course, before they killed and ate all of the Buffalo.

Problem with all this is, nobody seems to want to consider the scale!

Let us consider the scale: About 500, 000, 000 (1/2 billion!) cars. Maybe more. Heck, there's 260 million cars in the USA alone (see below; Everybody's Getting...). The owners of these cars all want to fill their tanks (the fuel tanks, that is) with hydrocarbons. Aside from some not-entirely-unreasonable fear of engine damage, the car owners really don't give a big rat's ass where the damn hydrocarbons come from. However, the total volume, or weight, of all this fuel is staggering to contemplate! Billions And Billions of Litres! (Borrowing here from famous TV astro-evangelist Carl Sagan). All this stuff gets burned, no matter where it comes from. The burning produces CO2, H2O, CO, Oxides of Nitrogen, Ozone, partially combusted hydrocarbons, and small particulates (soot, actually). The operation also produces Heat, Light, Motion, Dented Fenders, and the occasional Dead Pedestrian.

The problem, actually, is that, given their druthers, most people seem to want to travel about accompanied by something like two tons of assorted metal, plastic, glass, rubber, and a smidgen of other stuff. A car is, emotionally speaking, a sort of cross between a Big, Powerful Destrier (Magnificent Huge Masculine Warlike Stallion, that is), and a Security Blanket (Warm, Soft, Feminine, Peaceful, Comforting, that is). It's quite often not the best way to travel from point A to point B; but What If I Need To Run An Errand? It's also not the healthiest way to travel (See: Everybody's Getting Fat Except...); but What If I Need To Pick Up The Kids? So, what's to be done?

I Don't Know!

I Need to Reconsider

My opinion of President Eisenhower. After all, he is the last United States General to actually win a war! Yes, It's been almost sixty-two years now since the USA has come up a winner. We used to think it was easy; a cinch; with God On Our Side, how could we lose? Well, since 1945 we've lost a few and we've had a couple of stalemates. Zero wins. Unless you want to count Grenada - we sure whacked that teensy island! If you're counting that as a real war, I have to think you're one of those desperate alternate reality neo-con knuckle-draggers.
Right now, it's becoming pretty clear we're managing to lose two, count 'em two wars at the same time! Is this what the DOD meant when they said they had to plan to be able to fight two wars on two fronts simultaneously?
I think the problem might have begun when we started hiring out the actual fighting. Did you hear about the problem with the weapons we sent to Iraq disappearing? Losing track of guns,... Kind of reminds me of just after WW II, when we subbed out the war against Mao and his Communist Army; we kept giving Chiang Kai-Shek more guns, and his soldiers just kept selling them to Mao's army. I guess to get enough money to go home. So much for Unleashing Chiang! Now we're doing the same thing in Iraq. Only now we have troops in the way of the bullets being fired from the guns we've supplied.
Well, anyway, I'm re-evaluating my view of Ike. As the last winning U.S. General, perhaps he was smarter than he looked. Or sounded. Imagine, if you will, if we had generals like we have now back then. Or, if we had a President like we have now back then! Depressing thought huh? I donno if I'd be writing this in German or in Japanese. Probably there'd be fighting going on right now, between Eastern Japan and Western Germany, with the battle line somewhere along the Mississippi River.
As an actual winning General, and a President of some stature (a Plus: he appointed Earl Warren to the Supreme Court- a Minus: he said he thought integration should "go slower").
And, if we are going to say that maybe he knew whereof he spoke, as an actual fighting General, and an actual President, then maybe that last thing he said, you know, about the Military-Industrial Complex is something we should pay (should have paid) attention to. At 460 Billion and counting, it's hard to dispute that the M-I C pretty much gets its own way when it comes to congressional pork. It's probably late in the game to try to start the Pentagon on a diet. The last president tried it, and he had some success, but the dogs of war seem to have returned to feeding on the body politic.

Remember When?

We used to laugh and shake our heads at those crazy Russians - with all those commissars snooping into everybody's business? Now, it seems, we have adopted the same zany and ineffectual concept (Senate Passes Bush Terrorism Spy Bill). Only difference; We are using computers, and technology, and gee-whizz electronic devices!
This assures us of Two Things:
1. You can't find a commissar to bribe to leave you alone.
2. The money spent (read: wasted) on all this spymaster hijinks goes to the profit line of big corporations, rather than to working people.
At least the Rooskies had a full-employment program when it came to snooping!

I Believe

It is spiritually beneficial to turn off your mobile phone for some period of time each day; this to establish in your mind that your existence as an individual does not depend on an electronic umbilicus to the other members of your tribe.
Although, perhaps it really does (depend on it, that is).

Kidnapping & Murder

Equals a 15 year jail term! (Oh: also a "Written Reprimand").
Here's the AP story from USMC Station Camp Pendleton, where Sgt. Hutchins and his squad were on trial. In what the Marines refer to as "The Real World", kidnap and murder carry a mandatory death penalty. That is, however, if you kidnap and kill "One Of Us". It's different if you kill a "Raghead". I guess. And don't forget, the Sgt. got busted to Private, and is getting a dishonorable discharge. The people who still like to brag about how we are bringing Democracy to the ignorant benighted people of Iraq will point with pride to the fact that at least we did have a trial. I think that will not cause the Iraqis to strew flowers in our path though.

By THOMAS WATKINS, Associated Press Writer
2 hours, 6 minutes ago

CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. - A jury sentenced a Marine sergeant Friday to 15 years in prison for the murder of an Iraqi civilian during a fruitless search for an insurgent.
Sgt. Lawrence G. Hutchins III also was dishonorably discharged, reduced in rank to private and given a written reprimand.
Hutchins stood at attention and looked straight ahead as his sentence was announced. He then sat down, briefly put his head on the table in front of him and looked up with red eyes.
His wife, Reyna Hutchins, burst into tears, and other relatives appeared stunned, with his mother slumping in her chair.
On Thursday, Hutchins became the first and only member of an eight-member squad to be convicted of murder in the killing.
He had been charged with premeditated murder, but jurors struck premeditation from the verdict, meaning Hutchins no longer faced a mandatory life sentence.
Testimony from several of his comrades pointed to him as the mastermind of the plot to kidnap and kill a suspected insurgent.
The Iraqi civilian was pulled from his Hamdania home in April 2006 and shot in a hole. An AK-47 and shovel were placed nearby to make him look like an insurgent planting a bomb, according to the prosecution.
Unlike several of his squad mates, Hutchins never expressed remorse, saying he believed he was doing what his superiors wanted.
"I think that had a significant impact on the jury," Hutchins' attorney Rich Brannon said. "We had a tragic mistake, although I think it was command-influenced, and I think it is very difficult emotionally for Larry to deal with that mistake."
Brannon said he would ask Lt. Gen. James Mattis, the commanding general who has jurisdiction over Hutchins, to review the sentence.
Hutchins, of Plymouth, Mass., also was convicted of conspiracy to commit murder, making a false official statement and larceny. He was acquitted of kidnapping, assault and housebreaking.
Testimony showed the victim was kidnapped and killed when the squad couldn't find the suspected insurgent.
Prosecutors previously identified the victim as Hashim Ibrahim Awad, 52. The name, however, was dropped from charge sheets.
All eight members of the squad were initially charged with murder and kidnapping.
Four lower-ranking Marines and a Navy corpsman cut deals with prosecutors in exchange for their testimony and received sentences ranging from one to eight years in prison.
Earlier in the day, a separate jury sentenced a Marine corporal to time served and reduced his rank to private for conspiring to murder an Iraqi civilian.
Cpl. Marshall Magincalda, 24, has already served 448 days in custody and was to be freed Friday.
"I was very happy that I got a fair trial," Magincalda said after his sentencing. "I feel really good, and I feel proud to serve as a Marine."
Magincalda was acquitted of murder but found guilty of larceny and housebreaking, and was cleared of making a false official statement.
Magincalda was not accused of firing a shot but was charged for taking part in the plot.
Because the jury did not give him a punitive discharge, Magincalda will retain military benefits, including treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder and depression that his psychiatrist testified was triggered by three combat tours and confinement in the brig.
He said he wants to re-enlist in the Marine Corps. If he is rejected, he said, he will join his family in Manteca to help his father run a ranch.
The Marine said he'd had a difficult time in the brig, which he referred to as the "Camp Pendleton Hotel," but had received a lot of support from the public.
"It's been a horrible experience out there; I haven't felt good," Magincalda said. "All the support I received ... that kept me going."
Ibrahim Hooper, a spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said Magincalda's sentence would be seen by many as a light one.
"People around the world and people in Iraq will be monitoring these kinds of trials to see if what they regard as justice is being done," Hooper said.
"If there is a perception that our soldiers can commit these crimes and only get a slap on the wrist, that's not going to send a very good message," he said.
A jury last month acquitted another corporal of murder but convicted him of conspiracy to commit murder and kidnapping. According to testimony, Cpl. Trent Thomas of Madison, Ill., had greater involvement in the killing than Magincalda. Thomas was sentenced to a reduction in rank and a bad-conduct discharge but no prison time.
The squad was pulled from the battlefield after the slaying

Piling On

In yet-another-Profile-In-Courage... Former George W. Bush appointee Richard Carmona, Surgeon General from 2003- 2006, proudly averred that he had permitted himself to be censored by the administration's mind police (NY Times, July 10).
What kept this revelation unheard 'til now? Was the good doctor prevented even from saying he was being censored? Or was it Big Payday induced timidity?
I think it was H.L. Mencken who said something about people remaining quiet so long as their paychecks depend on it.
There's a lot of people in government who are like that, it seems(Franksmaunderings, 15 Feb 2005). In business too, I'll warrant. Like all those poor innocent Enron executives who were, just like the rest of us Shocked! when they were told about the blatant illegality of their blatantly illegal activities.
A suggestion: Let's have all the former high-ranking government officials get together and elect one mouthpiece to step forward and (ahem) expose himself (or herself, if you wish). Bear the anguish for all of them. It's really not an edifying sight/sound to hear this same bathetic story endlessly repeated. And in such an obviously self-serving way.

I'd like to call your attention to

The Babel Fish link over on the side bar. Give it a try - let me know if perhaps I read better in another language! Couldn't hurt.

The New, The Improved!...

Seven Wonders of the World!

In a wondrous exhibition of self-promotion, the New7Wonders organization today (07-07-07) announced its selection of seven "candidates to represent global heritage". Seven Wonders. Whose heritage, and why the previous seven wonders were no longer appropriate is not knowable. The point of it all is most likely to try to vector a few additonal feeble-minded tourists to those particular destinations. The self-appointed annointers of the new wonders had a worldwide election. Everyone could vote if they wished. Everyone, that is, with access to a computer or to a mobile phone. As it turns out, the franchise has a pretty steep poll tax The 50% or so of the people who have no access even to electricity, well, you're out of luck.
Some of the new designees were pretty much slam dunks. There is, for instance, the Great Wall of China, the largest structure ever created by man. Apparently, looking at the seven wonders, one requirement of wondrousness is that it had to have been man-made. Creations of God, sorry, don't count. Anyway, the Great Wall, which certainly is Great, wasn't actually built to be a tourist destination. It was built to defend china from Invading Mongol Hordes. As such, it proved a failure, as do all such walls. Perhaps the Great Wall of Israel, which likewise fails in its stated purpose of deterring violent incursions, will someday take its place among the NewNew7Wonders!
Then there's the Taj Mahal. Also a surefire winner. Also winner, Most Phallic Structure Ever Created. From some photos, it's possible to count as many as 17, count 'em 17 penises, all thrusting proudly upward! Clearly, the old Maharaj was somewhat of a braggart. But, after 200 years, who's to say if he was trying to compensate for, let us say, a slight flaccidity in his persona. Perhaps the marblelike quality of the Great Phalli of the Taj Mahal do no more than reflect the upthrusting quality of the man himself. In any case, the Ranee is well serv(ic)ed in her crypt.
All in all, it looks like a good set of wondrous, if man-made, destinations. At the very least, I can hope it'll make the places I go to a little bit less crowded.

In An Amazing Development...

... Crypto-Republican

Joe Lieberman

announces, in his crypto-message manner "I'm Running For Vice!"
Yes, we know Joe, you're really a "Moderate Democrat" at heart. It's all those bleeding heart liberals, like your former running-mate and stepping-stone-to-the-White-House,


Al Gore
(in his slimmer political fighting trim days);
and former Democratic candidate for your Senate seat


Ned Lamont
Who are causing the problems in this country. The nay-sayers are balking at those obvious steps we have to take to make this country secure. The same actions that, over time, are certain to provide secure borders and a prosperous future for Israel, for example. That is to say; Bomb Iran! And any other country that seems to pose an impediment to the Imperial Republic of America. Just because it hasn't worked so far is no proof that the next bombing run won't fix everything to our entire satisfaction. If not that bomb, then perhaps the next one. News Bulletin: Your Ability To Control Events Is Much Less Than You Imagine! Those @#$% people will persist in disobeying your every wish.

Yes,

hoping to catch the attention of potential Potomac Fever infected and now neo-Independent rich guy New York Mayor



Michael Bloomberg;

Joe (Ain't God Great!) Lieberman announces he is of a naturally independent mind about the presidential possibles in '08. Heck, he might even vote for an independent candidate! Give the man this; he is certainly an optimist! About as toxic a politician as there is, outside the White House, it's completely certain that nobody is going to seek out Lieberman for a running mate. More likely, they'll be lining up to pay him off to NOT endorse them!

Budget Restraint!

From DEB RIECHMANN, Associated Press, June 16:
CRAWFORD, Texas - President Bush warned Congress on Saturday that he will use his veto power to stop runaway government spending.

Some might say it was about time. Others would say "How can anybody's mind work in such a freakish way as to say such a thing after six years of absolutely giving away taxpayer's money to his war profiteer friends?"
Well, let us remember, "This White House creates it's own reality."
And it's definitely not the reality the rest of us are faced with.

Maybe It's Too Subtle?

Last week I went to see Pirates of the Carribbean - At World's End. I expected a fairly mindless but enjoyable comedy-plus-grotesque-creatures movie. Lots of computer graphics. Strange plot. Lots of action. Odd non-sequiturs; like the earlier Pirates. Instead, at the beginning of the movie, I saw the following:

Scene: A line of prisoners, assorted men/women; one child. Dirty and mangy; lined up; being marched to a five-station gibbet (five nooses, no waiting). Just the intro; nothing special. Setting the scene, as it were. But then!

Camera pans. Zooms in on British Soldier (Marine, actually, I think), reading a proclamation. I guess nobody was paying attention yet. I haven't read or heard anything about this. What the proclamation says is:

"To insure the security of the royal colonies the following is proclaimed - 1. The Right To Freely Assemble: Suspended. 2. The Right To Freedom Of Speech: Suspended. 3. The Right Of Habeas Corpus: Suspended. 4. The Right To Trial By A Jury Of Peers: Suspended.

Who knew! George W. Bush was the scriptwriter for Pirates of the Carribbean!
Or, hmmm, maybe somebody just wanted to steal his best lines. See if we're paying attention. Apparently, nobody is.
Along the same line, here's a column by Eugene Robinson, one of the few, the coherent, the knowledgeable, the not shrill(I like that: Fleeting Glory in Albania (Washington Post, Tuesday, June 12)

Yes, George W. Bush, the man who, in a paraphrase of a famous saying from the Vietnam War had to destroy democracy in order to save it! He will, in fact, (direct quote here)...live in infamy.

"Worrisome Situation"

"AP - ROME - President Bush, denounced by tens of thousands of anti-American protesters on the streets of Rome, defended his humanitarian record on Saturday to Pope Benedict XVI, who expressed concern about 'the worrisome situation in Iraq.'"

The president is wandering in the wilderness of Europe this week, looking for approval among his peers. If, that is, he has any peers.
Using the time-tested Bush Presidential Technique, he promised to Do Something about global warming, AIDS, Iraq, Iran, Putin, et. tedious cetera.
One notable thing: President Bush promised to send $60 billion to Africa to fight AIDS. Only two questions in my mind. 1. Will this money mostly (or entirely) go to good Christian organizations to teach chastity to the Africans? I'm pretty certain it won't go to provide free condoms. Those, we know, promote naughty sexual activity. Before condoms, nobody had sex except with their wife/husband. 2. Is this the same $60 billion the G-8 (for G - 8 read Rich) nations promised last year to fight poverty in Africa? Remember Africa Aid last year, featuring Tony Blair trying to find something to distract the voters from his disastrous Bush's Poodle image?

Looking again at the AP caption - Isn't it wonderful how Presidents and Popes and suchlike can find the mot juste? The Worrisome Situation In Iraq." Marvelous!

Modern Times

On occasion, I get a chance to view a teevee with a cable connection. It seems to have disappeared from the offerings here, but I used to be able to get NHK TV - Japanese national television; broadcast in Japanese (sometimes with English subtitles) and in English (sometimes with Japanese subtitles). Altogether, a very satisfying experience. Especially since it appears to be counter to Japanese culture to be shrill and to feign outrage as for instance Fox News, where rational dialog is strictly forbidden. Aside: I wonder how much coaching it takes to get the talking heads on Fox to say "Fair And Balanced" without cracking up?
There is one offering on NKH that's of particular interest - a show that profiles people of some attainment; typically, but not necessarily, something technological in nature. On one occasion they profiled this man:

Daisuke Inoue, inventor of the Karaoke Machine.

In the English dubbing, Daisuke-san was quoted at one point as saying "I never got anything for my invention." Needless to say, I was disappointed to hear that. I personally would have given the inventor of Karaoke something like 20-to-life. I think that's a reasonable reward for enabling pop-singer-wannabes to pump up the volume of their unwelcome noise to new and unprecedented levels. I say, send 'em to the showers! Where the sound is muffled and echoic, the way God meant it to be!
Last year, I went to a friend's birthday celebration. It turned out to be at a club where the patrons were openly committing serial karaoke! It was a terrible sight to behold - or to behear. A few minutes of this caused my innate dislike of noise to coalese around a bitter hatred of karaoke. (Not, however, to this extreme: Man Shot Dead...).
Given all this, as you can easily imagine, I have long been puzzled at the intense fan(atic) respone to the teevee show

a karaoke show set in front of television cameras, and cabled into millions of homes. Somehow, this entertainment-on-the-cheap has captured a huge audience! One can only speculate how truly awful the competing offerings on teevee must be to make a karaoke show such a hit. That, or perhaps the sheer mindlessness of watching people doing nothing-very-interesting, as opposed to doing nothing-very-interesting yourself, is today the very height of entertainment.
Here is a recent also-ran, one whose name I saw almost continuously in major news venues for day after day after day. Now he's a celebrity on the order of Rula Lenska.

Sanjaya, performing on American Idol.

What! You don't know who Rula Lenska was? I must confess, I don't either, really. I only remember that some (well, many) years ago, she, or perhaps some Rula Lenska Lookalike, had her moment of fame (on teevee, of course) which consisted of looking sultrily (if that can possibly be a word) into the camera, and saying, "Hi; I'm Rula Lenska."
Well, it was a commercial, of course, advertising something, I'm certain. I never could figure out what it was about, though. Eventually, I went to the trouble to look up Rula Lenska somewhere. It seems that sometime back in the '50's or '60's, or perhaps the '70's, she was a first-, or perhaps second-runner-up in the Miss Poland beauty pageant.
You see where I'm going here. If I'm going anywhere at all, I guess this is about famous-celebrity as famous-celebrity. Why should one bother with actual accomplishment if one can simply get on stage and pose? It's the new concept of success. Don't work to become a musician; go directly to being a Pop Star! It's all about image, nothing about substance. Sort of like being a politician, when you think about it.
At any rate; good luck Sanjaya! Someday with a little luck, you'll be able to get a gig like Rula Lenska's