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Friday, December 29, 2006

Flying like a bird at 5,000ft Flying like a bird at 5,000ft


Daily Mail: Flying like a bird at 5,000ft, the winged wonder. Former military pilot Yves Rossy has come close to being able to soar like a bird. He jumped out of a plane with wings attached, and then used four small jet engines to boost him up to about 5,000 feet, maneuvering by shifting his weight around.

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Mike Tyson arrested for DUI in Scottsdale Mike Tyson arrested for DUI in Scottsdale

When I was checking out Drudge for the execution of Saddam Hussein, I noticed this article: Tyson admits cocaine addiction in DUI arrest. I wondered whether they would have enough information for me to recognize where he had been arrested in Scottsdale. And, sure enough, I had spent a number of nights right around there, at Drinkwater and Scottsdale. Also, I expect to be walking next week near his house in the Paradise Valley section of Phoenix. I will be in PHX for the week, and many mornings walk with a friend at the PV mall there. Interesting area of town - some very very expensive older houses (in the millions) mixed into some much more meager houses not that far away.

I do understand why Tyson was booked into the downtown PHX jail, but not quite sure why the Buckeye police were the ones busting him for DUI. My experience is that the Scottsdale police are fairly thick around that section of town, esp. late at night, looking for DUIs.

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Saddam Hussein hanged, says Al Hurra TV station Saddam Hussein hanged, says Al Hurra TV station

As usual, when I want breaking news, I go to Drudge. He linked to this: Saddam Hussein hanged, says Al Hurra TV station:
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - U.S.-backed Iraqi television station Al Hurra said Saddam Hussein had been executed by hanging shortly before 6 a.m. (0300 GMT) on Saturday. Arabic satellite channel Arabiya also reported the execution had taken place.
Matt even had his flashing lights indicating a breaking story.

More from the BBC:
Former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein has been executed by hanging at an unspecified location in Baghdad. Iraqi TV said the execution took place just before 0600 local time (0300GMT).

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Q&A: Mitt Romney responds Q&A: Mitt Romney responds

Robert B. Bluey at HUMAN EVENTS: Q&A: Mitt Romney Discusses Iraq War, Reagan's Influence and Gay Marriage. Nothing too exciting, except that Romney is extremely well spoken. As ususal, he is asked about gay marriage, abortion, etc. He explains how his views have changed, and how he can oppose discrimination against gays, while also opposing gay marriage and civil unions. I remain unconvinced about civil unions, but agree as to gay marriage.

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IRAQ THE MODEL: Counting down IRAQ THE MODEL: Counting down

IRAQ THE MODEL: Counting down until Saddam Hussein is gone. Current estimated time of his demise is 6 a.m. Baghdad time, 10 p.m. EST, and 8 p.m. here in MST. His lawyers have asked a federal judge in D.C. to not allow the U.S. to turn him over to the Iraqis, arguing that he didn't get a fair trial. Apparently, they think that our Bill of Rights applies to foreign mass murderers. The scheme probably won't work though, since the Iraqis have had legal custody over him for quite awhile, while the U.S. retained physical custody.

Apparently, there is a curfew tonight in Baghdad, JIC. A lot of Iraqis seem to be looking forward to this.

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Iran under pressure Iran under pressure

Two interesting articles today about Iran. Victor Davis Hanson in Iran's Ahmadinejad Far Weaker Than He Lets On suggests that it is not in our best interests to deal with Iran right now on its terms. The country is under a lot of internal pressure right now, and Ahmadinejad just lost big in the recent municipal elections.

Jack Kelly in The Looming Regional Mideast War looks at the money angle, and, in particular, at Iran's current and future financial problems.
On Christmas day, the National Academy of Sciences issued a report which indicates Iranian oil production is about to plunge.

Iran currently earns about $50 billion a year in oil exports. Oil profits account for about 65 percent of Iranian government revenues.

But Iranian oil exports could decline by half within five years, and virtually disappear within ten, said Roger Stern, an economic geographer at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.

The effect on Iran would be catastrophic. Thanks to mismanagement by the mullahs, and corruption on a scale so vast as to make even an Iraqi blush, Iran's economy is already a basket case. According to the CIA World Factbook, more than 40 percent of Iran's people live in poverty; the unemployment rate is 11 percent (more than double that for people under 30), and the rate of inflation tops 13 percent. Oil exports are just about Iran's only source of foreign exchange.
I have been saying for quite awhile that time is mostly on our side as to Iran. Knowing this, they have been trying to push us by backing the militias in Iraq and Hizballah in Lebannon.

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United States Central Command web site United States Central Command web site

I recently added the United States Central Command (CENTCOM) web site to my blog roll. It has a lot of interesting stuff about what they are doing right now in Iraq, Afganistan, and the rest of the Middle East and northern Africa.

I didn't exactly stumble upon the site though. Rather, they stumbled upon me, or, more precisely, this blog. One of the CENTCOM PR people sent me email asking whether I would add the site to my blogroll, if I wanted to get their newsletter, and if I wanted to electronically interview military personel in Iraq and Afganistan. I agreed to the first two, and may ultimately do the later, time permitting.

Contacting bloggers like that is an interesting way of getting their story out. Yes, politicians do that all the time. But at first glance, you would think that the military wouldn't need to. But with all the misinformation that we get through the MSM, it is in their best interests to get their side of the story out - and the information they provide, while often self-congratulating, is invariably much more accurate than is seen in most other venues.

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Thursday, December 28, 2006

CENTCOM: What Extremists are Saying CENTCOM: What Extremists are Saying

Interesting reading from CENTCOM: What Extremists are Saying. This is a collection of statements by various Middle East groups opposed to our mission there. Here is an example:
A Message from a Mujahid Urging the Mujahideen of Ansar al-Sunnah, Mujahideen Army, the Islamic Army in Iraq to Join the Islamic State of Iraq.

Addressed to the Mujahideen of three insurgency groups in Iraq: Ansar al-Sunnah, Mujahideen Army [Jeish al-Mujahideen], and the Islamic Army in Iraq, a message has been circulated amongst several jihadist forums since yesterday, Sunday, December 10, 2006. In this letter, the author, Abu al-Ezz al-Najdi, from Kurdistan, urges these groups to join with the Islamic State of Iraq to fulfill Allah’s instruction for victory to not be disbursed, and fight as one rank. The Ummah, he writes, has grown impatient with the lack of unity exhibited by the Mujahideen, and if these three groups do not make this declaration of joining with al-Qaeda in Iraq and the other component groups of the Mujahideen Shura Council under the Islamic State banner, then they will “cry tears of blood after no tears are available”.

Further encouraging the Mujahideen to embrace unity, the author extols such a declaration as more to the liking of the Muslim Nation than “killing one-hundred American infidels and downing one-thousand American airplanes, and better than destroying one-thousand Humvees”.
One thing interesting about CENTCOM articles is that they use: Hizballah, Shi'ite, and Al-Qa'ida, instead of the more commonly seen: Hezbollah, Shiite, and al Qaeda. Obviously the problem stems from the difficulty of translating Arabic into English. Nevertheless, the CENTCOM spellings seem to be more proper.

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CENTCOM: Iraqi Forces Will Improve Dramatically CENTCOM: Iraqi Forces Will Improve Dramatically

CENTCOM: Dempsey: Iraqi Forces Will Improve Dramatically
WASHINGTON – The improvements in the Iraqi security forces over the next six months will be dramatic, Army Lt. Gen. Martin Dempsey said today... He said the Iraqi security forces will reach their manning goals this month. But the quality of the soldiers and police will increase as more intensified training kicks in. “There are lead times in procurements and things and even in training, and those things will come to fruition here in the first six months of this next year,” he said. In June 2007, all 10 army divisions will be under the control of the Iraqi Ground Forces Command. “They will be in receipt of additional armored protected mobility,” Dempsey said.

Multinational Forces Iraq officials in Baghdad said the coalition training teams now embedded with all Iraqi units will concentrate on teaching Iraqi commanders and staffs how to plan and execute operations, how to gather intelligence and then act upon it, and how to direct units in the field, they said. The Iraqis will also concentrate on cooperation between the ministry of defense and the interior, officials said.The size and composition of the coalition embedded training teams will probably change, Dempsey said. “I think that growing the size of the transition teams makes a great deal of sense, and also changing their composition,” he said. “If you think about it, when we started down this path of embedding transition teams, the Iraqi security forces were not very well developed, and so we had kind of a minimal approach to the embedded transition teams and we maximized the approach of having a partner unit with it. “Now the Iraqi forces are becoming more capable, and it's my view, and I think it will be our view, that we should probably at this time reverse the paradigm,” he continued. “We should enhance the transition teams and minimize our partnership with them so that they get used to standing on their own. And I think that's where we're headed.”

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The Duke "rape" case unravels The Duke "rape" case unravels

WSJ article: A Dirty Game: The Duke "rape" case unravels pretty clearly destroys the Duke lacross rape case. By all indications so far, the DA, Michael Nifong, stacked the deck in order to get indictments of three Duke LAX players in order to get reelected. This stacking included illegal lineups and failure to provide the grand jury (or opposing counsel) all the DNA evidence that would have made it clear that the suspects had not raped the woman (the DNA evididence apparently indicated that she had had sexual recent sexual contact with three men, just not with any of the LAX players). The major remaining issue seem to be:
  1. Will the DA dismiss the remaining charges before trial?
  2. Will he be disbarred, suspended, or just admonished for ethical violations?
  3. Will the three indicted LAX players win any damages for civil rights violations?
It took me awhile to figure out the civil rights angle, but it appears that the DA, who is white, was running for reelection in a black district. The African-American community pushed him to indict some lacross players, and he did so. He was thus renominated and reelected. Thus, we apparently have a white prosecutor indicting white defendants almost entirely because of their race.

Update: The N.C. bar has filed ethics charges against Nifong.

Update2: Here is the complaint by the N.C. bar. Note though that it concentrates on statements made by Nifong, and not on the exculpatory evidence he tried to hide. Thanks to Powerline.

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Campaign Promises to Keep Campaign Promises to Keep

TCS Daily: Promises to Keep points out that the Democrats partially ran on a platform of implementing the 9/11 Commission proposals, one of which was to centralize authority for Homeland Security in the two Homeland Security committees. Unfortunately, this is not likely to happen with the new committee chairs in both Houses unlikely to give up some of their authority. Worse, Sen. Lieberman is to head the committee in the Senate, and there is still a bit of bad blood there, as many of his Democratic Senate colleages campaigned against him in the last election. In short, another campaign promise that is unlikely to be implemented.

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ScrappleFace: Edwards Launches White House Bid for ‘08, ‘12 and ‘16 ScrappleFace: Edwards Launches White House Bid for ‘08, ‘12 and ‘16

ScrappleFace: Edwards Launches White House Bid for ‘08, ‘12 and ‘16. Apparently though, he is undecided as yet about 2020. And, Edwards has a new version of the Pledge of Allegience:
The former vice presidential candidate quoted the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag, saying America must overcome racial and socioeconomic prejudices to unite as “one nation, underprivileged, indivisible, with subsidy and justice for all.”

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Iraq: The View From Up Close Iraq: The View From Up Close

StrategyPage: Iraq: The View From Up Close offers some more detail about what is going on in Iraq right now. The article looks at three factions trying to reimpose a dictatorship on Iraq: the Baathists, the Wahhabi jihadists, and some Shia trying to impose Shiite clerical rule as is practiced next door in Iran. But all these combined are probably less than 30% of the population, and are at odds with each other - indeed, most of the killing is between these groups. So, the average Iraqi wants us out, but not quite yet.

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Totten: Hezbollah's Putsch Totten: Hezbollah's Putsch

Michael J. Totten in: Hezbollah's Putsch - Day One tells about going back to Beruit five months after Hizb'Allah's war with Israel. As usual, his take on things is interesting and informative. Far better than what we get with the reporting by the MSM.

Totten paints a picture of two Lebannons, one controlled by the democratically elected government and supported by the non-Shiites (primarily Christain, Druze, and Sunni), and one controlled by Hizb'Allah. Interestingly, flags are everywhere, and it is apparently fairly easy to see where you are by what flags are flying all around you: Lebananese flags for the government controlled sectors, and Hizb'Allah flags for the areas they control.

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Iraq: It's Not One War, But Several Iraq: It's Not One War, But Several

StrategyPage: Iraq: It's Not One War, But Several points out what the MSM keeps missing. There are really two (or more) wars going on right now in Iraq. The Sunni Arabs are being pushed out, in response to their domination of the other ethnic groups there, esp. under Saddam Hussein, and, in particular, because of their use of ever increasing levels of violence against innocents in order to try to reimpose their control. Notably, their numbers have dropped by approximately 1/4 since we intervened, and are expected to drop by another 1/4 by the end of 2007, resulting in approximately 1/10 of the population of Iraq (down from 1/5).

The other war is being waged by Iran through surrogates for control of the Shiite portion of the population. But where the two wars intersect is that part of the battle between Shiite groups is being fought out through their success in pushing the Sunni Arabs out.

The other player is Saudi Arabia, which is the home of Wahhabi Sunni Islam, and has a natural allegience towards their fellow Sunni Arabs in Iraq. They have been threatening to intervene in Iraq to protect them, and this has been a worry of mine, as a direct military intervention would almost invariably result in a similar military intervention by Iran. But the article points out that this is unlikely, due to our defending Saudi Arabia. Rather, they will most likely continue to unofficially supply money, guns, and jihadists. Realistically though, this can only slow down the inevitable, with the Iraqi military gaining experience and focussing on the Sunni Arab Jihadists.

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Somalia: Ethiopians Blitz Their Way Across the Country Somalia: Ethiopians Blitz Their Way Across the Country

StrategyPage" Somalia: Ethiopians Blitz Their Way Across the Country. Somalia is potentially the next battleground in the war on Islamic Jihad. The article is interesting since it is in reverse chronological order. So, at the bottom, we see the Islamic Courts' gunmen advancing on the last Transitional Government strongholds. But by the top, the Islamic Courts fighters have been mostly killed or run off by the Ethiopians who had intervened in the middle of the article.

The Ethiopians got a bit of help from us:
The U.S. was apparently providing the Ethiopians with satellite and aircraft photos of Islamic Courts positions. The U.S. has a large counter-terror force to the north, in Djibouti. The U.S. may be supplying Ethiopia with cash (to pay for all the gas the Ethiopians are burning in their operations). For years, the U.S. has been training Ethiopian troops for operations like this.
I, for one, had been a bit concerned that this part of the Islamic world was going unwatched by us with all the resources we have put into Iraq and Afganistan. This is a lot cheaper than what we are having to do in those two countries.

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Tuesday, December 26, 2006

Ski Season (#9a) - Blizzard of 2006 Ski Season (#9a) - Blizzard of 2006

Thinking about the title of this post, I am still a bit surprised that I have managed to ski through the last two blizzards in Denver. In both cases, the road conditions on I-70 made travel from there to the ski areas impractical for most, resulting in those of us lucky enough to be snowed into the ski areas having the ski areas and all the powder to ourselves.

The previous blizzard was more exciting than this one. From Dillon, I couldn't get west to Frisco, Breckenridge, or Vail, but could get to Keystone and A-Basin. The result was that these areas were even less crowded than during the blizzard last week.

And as a bonus, we really did have a White Christmas this year. Indeed, we got another storm Christmas Eve. We had dinner at the University Club in downtown Denver, and the roads were questionable. But since they invariably only do one seating there a night, our being a half an hour late was not an issue. In any case, there was still a couple of feet of snow on the ground at my father's house on Christmas day. A white Christmas indeed.

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In Iraq, Let’s Fight One War at a Time In Iraq, Let’s Fight One War at a Time

NYT: In Iraq, Let’s Fight One War at a Time is surprising since it makes sense, given the paper's rapidly declining reputation.

What the article is essentially saying is that the key to success in Iraq is to qwell the Sunni Arab insurgency. The Sunni Arabs in Iraq brought this upon themselves by attempting to intimidate the Shiites and Kurds back into submission through ever increasing levels of brutality and murder aimed primarily at innocent civilians. This isn't going to work for them, absent a major intervention by Iraq's Sunni neighbors. The Shiites and the Kurds have the guns and training now to protect themselves, in addition to our backing.

So, Sadr's and Hakim's militias, when they aren't fighting each other, are doing what is necessary for peace in Iraq - pushing back against the Sunni Arabs. In order for there to be peace in Iraq, the Sunni Arabs there need to quit supporting the insurgency, and either make nice or move. Yes, the Shiite militias are doing our dirty work for us. That is not pretty, but it is likely to be effective.

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Universal Health Care Universal Health Care

LAT, not surprisingly in an article: Going universal: The American healthcare system is, simply put, a mess, but we may finally be ready to fix it points at the problems we are facing right now with our health care system, but then the author waives his hands and pretends that universal health care is the solution. But it isn't. Given the choice of prompt and effective care, and universal care, most Americans are likely to opt for what they have now, as opposed to the examples of universal care that proponents can point to. Yes, it is expensive. But at least it is available.

The author seems enchanted with utopian dreams that if the proponents are just smart enough, they can prevent the debacles that other countries have experienced. But this is like the die-hard proponents of communism, when faced with its failures, explaining that it just wasn't tried the right way (implying that they and their kindred would and could make it work).

Part of the basic problem is that the demand for universal health care is at its core socialist. It expects that all will have equivalent coverage, regardless of ability and willingness to pay. That has any number of unintended consequences, including short circuiting (even more than now) any price signals in the market. Add to that that without the market controlling supply, demand is effectively unlimited. Of course, supply is not unlimited, so the result is that some other allocation mechanism is invariably required - invariably requiring government planning.

So, the author is willing to trade the best health care system in the world for his utopian socialist dreams. I am not.

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Sunday, December 24, 2006

Ski Season (#9) - Blizzard of 2006 Ski Season (#9) - Blizzard of 2006

This last week was pretty good skiing. I worked for most of the week at Keystone. Wed. and Thurs. were the Blizzard of 2006 in Denver, and the snow was very nice. A bit cold both days, but few on the slopes, so we rotated fairly quickly and didn't stand around as we do when there is a lot of traffic.

Wed. afternoon was somewhat a disaster for us. I had already done a couple of almost non-stops when I arrived at the bottom of Paymaster for Gang Grooming at 3 p.m. The plan had been for the grooming machines to come up Haywood, over the top of the Argentine lift, then down River Run, up it to Spring Dipper, and then over to the "dark side" (the unlighted back). But as the cats were on Haywood, we found that they were going to go up Silverspoon instead. So, I rushed to the lift, jumping in at the front, raced the cats up the mountain, and then skied down to the top of Silverspoon to shut it off. I beat the cats there by about 2 minutes, and was joined a minute or two later by two others. Then, a quick run down the freshly groomed trail, and to the bottom so I could help shut down the River Run access. Back to the top, and helped close Spring Dipper.

Luckily, by Thurs., they had it figured out a bit better, and things went a lot better. They are now doing the full pretzel, which is what we are used to from previous seasons.

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Microsoft tries to stop Vista piracy monster Microsoft tries to stop Vista piracy monster

CNET: Microsoft tries to stop Vista piracy monster is interesting since apparently the validation function of Windows Vista is being hacked before it has been generally released. One method seems to use what MSFT calls a "frankenbuild" because it works by combining test versions of Vista with the final code to create a hybrid version. I should note that I am already getting daily spam for Vista.

My view is that it is a somewhat losing proposition for MSFT, given that there is more programming talent trying to break its security than the company can throw at providing security. It can't stop piracy, but the more it slows it down, the more the company will make.

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Wednesday, December 20, 2006

The Blog Mob The Blog Mob

JOseph Rago in the WSJ writes: The Blog Mob: "Written by fools to be read by imbeciles." He points to the problem with blogs and blogging, but misses the forest through the trees, by concentrating on the weaknesses of the medium, without addressing its strengths or successes.

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Monday, December 18, 2006

Gingrich: Imams should have been arrested Gingrich: Imams should have been arrested

Gingrich: Imams should have been arrested. Not surprisingly, Newt Gingrich is one of the first (now former) politicians to speak the obvious. The "Flying Imans" were stirring up trouble, and no surprise that it worked. They were purposely engaging in behavior that was earily reminiscent of that engaged in by their co-religionists on 9/11.

This is, of course, also why Gingrich is never going to be president. But then, I am happy with him doing just what he did here, as he is most likely a much better bomb thrower than administrator.

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Saturday, December 16, 2006

Problems No One Wants To Talk About Problems No One Wants To Talk About

Strategy Page: Iraq: And Then There Are the Problems No One Wants To Talk About:
The Shia and Kurds also have a secret weapon; hatred of the Sunni Arabs. The Shia and Kurds want revenge. What no one wants to admit out loud is that the Shia and Kurd population are very much in favor of doing a "Bosnia" or "Rwanda" to the Sunni Arabs of Iraq. The Iraqi government won't touch this one, because they know that it would cause their Sunni Arab neighbors to start talking openly of intervention. This is what the Iraqi Sunni Arab terrorists want. This is what all Sunni Arabs in the region want. That's because the Sunni Arabs do not want an Arab state controlled by Shia. For a thousand years, there has been a struggle in the Islamic community between the Shia and Sunni. For the last few centuries, the Sunnis have had the edge. But a radicalized Iran, long the only Moslem nation run by a Shia majority, has been leading a Shia revival for over two decades now. The Arabs fear Iran, not so much for religious reasons, but because Iran has been the big bully in the region for thousands of years. People in the Middle East like to respect tradition, but the legacy of Iranian military prowess and aggression is simply feared.

So the problem in Iraq is not just getting a competent government that will not destroy it's Sunni Arab minority, but also a government that will be accepted by its Sunni Arab neighbors. Never forget that, when it comes to Iraq, there are more problems present, than are talked about openly.

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Friday, December 15, 2006

Noonan on Obama Noonan on Obama

Peggy Noonan asks: 'The Man From Nowhere': What does Barack Obama believe in? Her answer is that he believes in himself and his destiny, and little identifiable beyond that.

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TIME.com: Who Wants to Control the Senate? TIME.com: Who Wants to Control the Senate?

TIME.com: Who Wants to Control the Senate? Tim Johnson's illness has threatened the Democrats' majority. But that may not be such a bad thing. The argument seems to be that there are significant disadvantages to "running" the Senate when the margin is a single vote, as it will be whether or not Johnson is able to keep his seat. And it suggests that this may esp. hurt McCain who would become the chair of the Armed Services Committee if the Republicans regain control.

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"Grassroots" organization attacks Wal-Mart' "Grassroots" organization attacks Wal-Mart'

Money article: A grassroots organization protests Wal-Mart's practices details the coordinated attack on Wal-Mart. Never mind that it provides cheaper and more varied goods than the stores that it replaces, which translates into more spending power for the tens of millions of Americans buying at the stores. Rather, the organizers are more worried that the company is non-union, and doesn't provide the subjective level of benefits that they think it out to.

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General: Army Needs To Grow General: Army Needs To Grow

WaPo article: General Says Army Will Need To Grow points out that the problem with surging the military right now is directly attributable to the massive Clinton "Peace Dividend":
In particularly blunt testimony, Schoomaker said the Army began the Iraq war "flat-footed" with a $56 billion equipment shortage and 500,000 fewer soldiers than during the 1991 Persian Gulf War. Echoing the warnings from the post-Vietnam War era, when Gen. Edward C. Meyer, then the Army chief of staff, decried the "hollow Army," Schoomaker said it is critical to make changes now to shore up the force for what he called a long and dangerous war.
In addition,
The Army's manpower dilemma stems in part from current Pentagon policies: Although 55 percent of soldiers belong to the National Guard and the reserve, Defense Department guidelines require that reservists be mobilized involuntarily only once, and for no more than 24 months.
The result is that the reserve units that could deploy, have deployed, and when redeployed can only deploy with volunteers and new recruits. The result of that is that the reserve units now deploying are being filled out with reservists from other units around the country - which is horrible for unit cohesion.

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Thursday, December 14, 2006

Enter the Saudis Enter the Saudis

Varifrank: Enter the Saudis suggests that the Saudis are about to make a move in Iraq - very possibly to officially intervene to protect the beleagured Sunni Arabs in that country from the Shiite militias (of course, ignoring that Badr's Mahdi Army appears to be the primary culprit, and they are not that closely tied to Iran).

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Praise for Pelosi (no kidding) Praise for Pelosi (no kidding)

Dick Morris has: Praise for Pelosi (no kidding). She has declared that the House will meet five days a week and will eliminate the annual cost-of-living increases for House members. Never mind that she and her developer husband already have more money than they could every spend, or that there are a lot of Democrats who live a lot closer to D.C. than do the majority of Republicans. Nevertheless, both ideas have a lot of merit.

But then he takes her to task for allowing Alan Mollohan to oversee the Appropriations subcommittee that oversees the FBI budget, when that agency is currently investigating this Congressman for upping his net worth from less than $500,000 in 2000 to over $6 million today.

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Combating Satellite Terrorism, DIY Style Combating Satellite Terrorism, DIY Style

Popular Mechanics:Combating Satellite Terrorism, DIY Style tells how Space Command is trying to prevent our enemies from disrupting our sattelite systems:
The U.S. military relies on satellites to relay orders, guide precision bombs and direct flying drones. But those multibillion-dollar systems can be surprisingly vulnerable to the simplest of attacks. So, it’s up to the members of the Space Countermeasures Hands On Program—Space CHOP, for short—to find those weaknesses before enemies have a chance to crack them.

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The real purpose behind the imam publicity blitz The real purpose behind the imam publicity blitz

The real purpose behind the imam publicity blitz is passage of The End of Racial Profiling Act. What makes this really scary is that Rep. Conyers is going to head the Judiciary Committee in the House starting in January. He had introduced the bill under the Republican Congress, and it went nowhere. Now it has a chance. One problem is that it would push the security workers at airports to make sure that they didn't check too many Arabs and Moslems. That has to be good for airline security.

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Bitter Pills from Internet pharmacies Bitter Pills from Internet pharmacies

Business Week: Bitter Pills gives us another big reason not to buy drugs over the Internet. You just don't know what you are buying:
From the outside, it looked like any other white-walled, terra cotta-roofed bungalow in sun-bleached Belize, perhaps someone's quaint tropical hideaway. Inside, however, the house's peripatetic occupants didn't act like they were on vacation. Workers in sneakers, shorts, and rubber gloves produced mountains of allegedly counterfeit prescription pills. Hundreds of pounds of raw ingredients came from China via a broker in New Jersey. The drugmakers whipped up their products in a dented mixing machine and blender. Finished tablets—imitations of Viagra, the cholesterol medication Lipitor, and Ambien, a sleep aid—were stored in gray garbage bins before being shipped out in plastic sandwich bags. The pills allegedly were hawked via spam e-mail and sold, without prescriptions, from such Web sites as www.planetpharmacy.bz...

The profusion of fakes puts consumers at risk. Some online drug shipments seized by U.S. authorities have turned out to be near-replicas of brand-name products. But others lack enough active ingredients to do any good, or are too potent. Either way, they endanger users.

Foreign substances sometimes end up in the pills. Phony Viagra made in Thailand has contained vodka; bogus Tamiflu recovered in San Francisco was manufactured with Vitamin C and lactose. Online purchases BusinessWeek made in connection with this article yielded imitations of Lipitor and the anti-anxiety medication Xanax that laboratory tests showed had no active ingredients whatsoever.

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Tuesday, December 12, 2006

IRAQ THE MODEL: Rough Days IRAQ THE MODEL: Rough Days

IRAQ THE MODEL: Rough days... describes this ethnic cleansing of Sunnis from a very personal point of view:
My Sunni uncle, his Shia wife and their children were told to leave because the head of the household is Sunni. His voice was filled with pain as he talked to me, I asked him who made the threat and he said ten cars filled with armed men came to our street shooting their guns in the air and announcing through a loudspeaker that all Sunni people must leave within 24 hours, then they went to the mosque and murdered the preacher's son.
I think that it is becoming ever more evident that the claim of a civil war is not really accurate. Rather, it is very clear now that what is going on is that the Shiites are pushing the Sunnis out. Not pretty, but I think that it would be hard to argue that the Sunnis hadn't brought a lot of this on themselves by supporting the foreign jihadists and former Baathists in their indiscriminate murder of Shiites.

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Sunnis being pushed from mixed areas of Baghdad Sunnis being pushed from mixed areas of Baghdad

NYT: Shiites Rout Sunni Families in Mixed Area of Baghdad is a good indication of part of what is happening in Iraq right now - ethnic cleansing of the Sunni Arabs, in this case, from a mixed neighborhood in north-central Baghdad. Similarly, WaPo article: For Iraq's Sunnis, Conflict Closes In: Mixed Neighborhoods Unravel as Shiite Militiamen Expand Violence. Sadr's Mahdi Army seems to be behind much of the anti-Sunni sectarian violence right now.

But some MSM articles are blaming the whole mess on Sadr. I think that naive, esp. in view of the last four years of increasingly brutal and indiscriminate murder of Shiite civilians by Sunni jihadists, notably al Qaeda and former Baathists. Much of the Shiite community now has had family or friends killed by them, and Sadr is to some extent venting the frustration of the Shiite community. Because of the Sunni on Shiite violence, many in the later community have now decided that the only way to safety is to push the Sunni Arabs out.

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Monday, December 11, 2006

Ski Season (#8b) - good snow Ski Season (#8b) - good snow

It turned out to be a decent day sking. We really didn't get that much snow, but it was nicely groomed. It was a bit cold and blowy, and, as a result of that and it being a Monday, the slopes were fairly deserted.

So, we didn't stand around much today, as we usually do. Rather, we would cycle through on a fairly regular basis. I was averaging one run every twenty or so minutes, though I think I did get one cycle down to about fifteen minutes.

Yesterday, I was on a pair of Atomic Beta Race GS skis that I had bought from my brother. They work very well on hard snow, like we had yesterday, but not as well as on soft pack. Today, I was on my newer Atomic Beta Rides. These are softer and have a shorter turning radius (the Beta Race GS are 22 meter skis, and this pair of Beta Ride are 20 meter skis). I think a nice pick for both days.

Today, with the entire trails to play with, I had a gas. Its pretty easy to get the skis up on an edge, and ride that around. So, I could make big arcing turns at a pretty good speed, back and forth across the trails. Great fun. And I played with a bunch of different techniques. First time this year to Mambo (which uses a full rotation of both arms and poles to initiate turns). I tried standing fairly upright and moving my weight back a bit, feeling the entire ski carve. On the other hand, my higher speed technique requires a lower body and butt. I haven't gotten that one down, as my weight is still a bit forward (which I notice because I am gettinga little slip in the tails).

Finally, again for the first time this year, a modern short-swing, where my body stays in the fall line, but my skis carve back and forth under me at a pretty good clip. The problem though with this is that the classical short-swing would scrub off a lot of speed through skidding the tails of one's skis. As I was working on my carving, I was minimizing that old-style skidding, and as a result, was accelerating instead.

This all got me thinking about why I love skiing. Part of the answer of course is getting out and excercising, often under blue skies on good snow here in CO. But part of it is also that getting your skis to really carve is almost intoxicating. It is such a great feeling, and the faster you go, the better it feels.

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Ski Season (#8a) - trauma Ski Season (#8a) - trauma

In my previous post, I talked about the three life threatening injuries at Keystone yesterday. In my five years working Mountain Watch at the area, this is the most I have ever seen at once, and should not be taken as any indication of the safety of the area. Rather, it is clearly a function of the way that statistics work.

That said, one of the things that makes working in Mountain Watch so rewarding are days like yesterday. Not only did we (and I) make a difference, but the coming together of everyone in this sort of situation is reward in itself. I had been teasing one of the ski patrol earlier, and she hadn't been taking it as well as she had in previous interactions. But then an hour later, we found outselves standing in the same line keeping the guests away from the chopper and moving everything that might blow away. And later, a well done from and to all.

That line though wasn't just red (ski patrol) and yellow (mountain watch), but also dark-gray/red (operations), and dark blue (race team/terrain park). We had lift operators and food-and-beverage jumping in, and, indeed, it was one of the later who yelled the loudest to clear the area for the ambulance, when the chpper was taking off, and the all clear.

Then, back on top, we had the light blue jackets (Guest Services) jump in to help us with the closure of the Spring Dipper run (because Flight For Life was landing a chopper about half way down the run). Everyone, but everyone, pitched in.

And most of the guests were understanding, if a bit curious. That later is expected. But we did have some who bitched and moaned about trails being closed. All I could say to them was that they would like it done for them if they were the one hitting a tree on that slope (I won't know until today what really happened there - the hitting of a tree was a hypothetical), and their survival depended on being in a Level 1 Trauma Center w/i 30 minutes (or Level 5 w/i 5 minutes) of being evacuated.

Update - the person who was airlifted from Spring Dipper did indeed hit a tree. He was airlifted to Saint Anthony's Central west of Denver (the closest Level One trauma center), where he died.

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Ski Season (#8) - trauma and snow Ski Season (#8) - trauma and snow

Three days ago, I blogged some photos of skiers and ski areas. The first one was of Schoolmarm Ridge on Dercum Mtn. at Keystone. Well, this is what it looks like today.

This is looking down Mozart from the top of Dercum's Mountain towards North Peak. Yesterday, I had to ski this, and it was, as usual, horrid.


Usually, we spend our time on the front of Dercum's Moutain when we are working Mountain Watch. But Mozart is within the area that we patrol, so occasionally have to work it. But yesterday had nothing to do with that. Rather, three of us were delegated to ski down to the bottom of it and help with a Flight-For-Life evacuation from the mini-base area there. We never did figure out what had happened. It appears that someone had a heart attack (maybe) on a chair in the outback. Nevertheless, we moved the guests back quite a ways and then the chopper landed, throwing the lighter chairs, garbage, and even a snowboard around with its rotor wash. We then spent probably 3/4 of an hour keeping everyone away from the chopper, while there were comings and goings (including the flight nurse) up to the patient on snowmobile. Finally, we cleared the way, and an "ambulance" (a Tucker sno-cat with a big box on it) arrived from the site, discourged the flight nurse and at least one ski patrol. The ambulance then proceeded down Keystone Gulch with the patient - apparently they were doing CPR on him at that time. The chopper then took off.

At that point, things were a bit jumbled. I couldn't figure out how this tied in with a chopper coming in from C. Springs. But then when I got back to the top, I joined a couple of Mtn. Watch at the top keeping Spring Dipper closed. Apparently, there was another life-threatening injury there, and a chopper landed about half way down there. And, then there was some guy in the A51 terrain park who had gone off a jump and came down upside down (which I saw a number of last year riding the Peru lift over A51). Unfortunately, he came down on his head, and had to be flown out also.

It has to be some sort of minor record, three 10-33's (life threatening injuries) active in the ski area at once. We were only getting bits and pieces of what was going on, because the normal ski patrol channel (1) was closed to all except for these three injuries, and so everyone (including the remainder of the patrol) were on our channel (3). But bits and pieces kept filtering in all day. I even got to talk with the Keystone Risk Management person, who had apparently been pulled in on off of a day off skiing with her husband. And then at the end of the day, the Dir. of the Ski Patrol was pulled off of talking with us about our upcoming party while he ate his belated lunch to going down and reviewing the site on Spring Dipper with his boss, the Dir. of Mtn. Operations.

So, now it is probably time to go back up there, but today should be a lot calmer - it is a week day, and most of those on the mountain won't be skiing that much due to the light snow storm seen in these pictures.

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Sunday, December 10, 2006

Democrats’ New Intelligence Chairman Needs a Crash Course on al Qaeda Democrats’ New Intelligence Chairman Needs a Crash Course on al Qaeda

Jeff Stein in Democrats’ New Intelligence Chairman Needs a Crash Course on al Qaeda makes a lot of good points. The incoming House Intelligence Committee chair, Silvestre Reyes, appears to know no more about who the players are in the Middle East, esp. in their Sunni/Shia allegiances, than do the Republicans he quizzed last summer, nor of much of the Administration. But he really needs to ask the same question about all of the Administrations between Carter and Clinton too.

Actually, though I think that Carter was probably the worst president of my lifetime, the U.S. probably wasn't getting it wrong back then. We were being attacked by the Shiites back then, both by the Iranian students taking over our embassy, and then later when Hizb'Allah blew up our Marine barracks in Lebannon. And much of this can be attributed to our support of the Shah.

But then we, and the Saudis, started worrying about the Shiites. The difference is that the Saudis saw the Iranians and their Shiite faith as a threat to their own dominence in the Moslem world. And so, they set off to encircle and isolate Iran. This included: funding the factions in Afganistan that turned into the Taliban; apparently helping the Pakistanis with their nuclear bomb; setting up thousands of schools around the Muslim world, esp. seminaries, all teaching their Wahhabi puritan brand of Sunni Islam; supporting Saddam Hussein until he invaded Kuwait, esp. in his war with Iran; support for terrorist groups, including al Qaeda; support now for the shrinking Sunni presence in Iraq, including providing the bulk of the foreign born jihadists and much of the money being spent to support the indiscriminate mass murder of mostly Shiite civilians there; support for the more militant Sunni Palestenian groups; etc.

But one place where I disagree with Stein is that I still think that it was essential that we intervene in Iraq. Besides all of the geopolitical, etc. reasons I have given before, what must be remembered is that 80% of the population there was being brutally oppressed by Saddam Hussein and his Sunni Arab brethern. The level of brutality had escalated significantly after the U.S. under the elder Bush pushed the Shiites and Kurds to rebel against Saddam in the aftermath of the First Gulf War. They rebelled, with the implied promise of help from us, which never came (except in the form of the soon-to-be-discontinued no-fly zones), due to a lot of pressure by, guess who? Yes, the Saudis. The Saudis didn't want then, and still don't want a Shiite dominated Iraq on their doorstep, and, thus, forced us to throw the Shiite Marsh Arabs and the Kurds to the wolves, in the guise of Saddam and his Sunnit Arab brethern.

Another thing that he misses there is that our Iraqi incursion has allowed a lot more intercourse between Iraq and Iran. And one of the benefits of that has been the significant rise of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani in promience and influence in his native Iran, from his residence in Iraq. He represents traditional Shia Islam, as opposed to Ayatollah Komeini's more puritanical, and, thus, more Sunni-like, Shia Islam. And part of this differrence is that Sistani is quite willing to push democratic solutions and is opposed to clerics running a country, as is the case right now in Iran. This philisophical division goes back for decades to well before Komeini and his clerics took over Iran, to when he and Sistani's mentor and teacher, Grand Ayatollah Abul-Qassim Khoei, debated this issue. But until our liberation of Iraq, the Khoei/Sistani position was underground in Iran. No more.

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Democrats’ New Intelligence Chairman Needs a Crash Course on al Qaeda Democrats’ New Intelligence Chairman Needs a Crash Course on al Qaeda

Jeff Stein in Democrats’ New Intelligence Chairman Needs a Crash Course on al Qaeda makes a lot of good points. The incoming House Intelligence Committee chair, Silvestre Reyes, appears to know no more about who the players are in the Middle East, esp. in their Sunni/Shia allegiances, than do the Republicans he quizzed last summer, nor of much of the Administration. But he really needs to ask the same question about all of the Administrations between Carter and Clinton too.

Actually, though I think that Carter was probably the worst president of my lifetime, the U.S. probably wasn't getting it wrong back then. We were being attacked by the Shiites back then, both by the Iranian students taking over our embassy, and then later when Hizb'Allah blew up our Marine barracks in Lebannon. And much of this can be attributed to our support of the Shah.

But then we, and the Saudis, started worrying about the Shiites. The difference is that the Saudis saw the Iranians and their Shiite faith as a threat to their own dominence in the Moslem world. And so, they set off to encircle and isolate Iran. This included: funding the factions in Afganistan that turned into the Taliban; apparently helping the Pakistanis with their nuclear bomb; setting up thousands of schools around the Muslim world, esp. seminaries, all teaching their Wahhabi puritan brand of Sunni Islam; supporting Saddam Hussein until he invaded Kuwait, esp. in his war with Iran; support for terrorist groups, including al Qaeda; support now for the shrinking Sunni presence in Iraq, including providing the bulk of the foreign born jihadists and much of the money being spent to support the indiscriminate mass murder of mostly Shiite civilians there; support for the more militant Sunni Palestenian groups; etc.

But one place where I disagree with Stein is that I still think that it was essential that we intervene in Iraq. Besides all of the geopolitical, etc. reasons I have given before, what must be remembered is that 80% of the population there was being brutally oppressed by Saddam Hussein and his Sunni Arab brethern. The level of brutality had escalated significantly after the U.S. under the elder Bush pushed the Shiites and Kurds to rebel against Saddam in the aftermath of the First Gulf War. They rebelled, with the implied promise of help from us, which never came (except in the form of the soon-to-be-discontinued no-fly zones), due to a lot of pressure by, guess who? Yes, the Saudis. The Saudis didn't want then, and still don't want a Shiite dominated Iraq on their doorstep, and, thus, forced us to throw the Shiite Marsh Arabs and the Kurds to the wolves, in the guise of Saddam and his Sunnit Arab brethern.

Another thing that he misses there is that our Iraqi incursion has allowed a lot more intercourse between Iraq and Iran. And one of the benefits of that has been the significant rise of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani in promience and influence in his native Iran, from his residence in Iraq. He represents traditional Shia Islam, as opposed to Ayatollah Komeini's more puritanical, and, thus, more Sunni-like, Shia Islam. And part of this differrence is that Sistani is quite willing to push democratic solutions and is opposed to clerics running a country, as is the case right now in Iran. This philisophical division goes back for decades to well before Komeini and his clerics took over Iran, to when he and Sistani's mentor and teacher, Grand Ayatollah Abul-Qassim Khoei, debated this issue. But until our liberation of Iraq, the Khoei/Sistani position was underground in Iran. No more.

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Friday, December 08, 2006

Ubiquitous sleaze Ubiquitous sleaze

Ubiquitous sleaze: Reyes latest rising Dem to suffer in spotlight:
Silvestre Reyes, join the club. When Speaker-designate Nancy Pelosi indicated the Texas Democrat was her choice to be the next chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Reyes enjoyed a media honeymoon of perhaps two hours. Then reports emerged detailing Reyes' role in the awarding of a $239 million contract in 1999 for a network of border cameras and sensing devices to International Microwave Corp. Soon afterward, the company hired two of Reyes' children. Soon after that – but too late for a refund – it emerged that the firm's technology didn't work.

This pattern has played out repeatedly since Democrats took the House on Nov. 7: The spotlight turns to a veteran lawmaker up for a key post, and we promptly learn he has ethical baggage.
The reason that this is so hilarious is that the Democrats ran against the "Culture of Corruption" in Congress, and yet are far more corrupt that the Republicans, esp. at their top levels. Why? Much of it can be attributed to gerrymandered majority-minority districts that, for example, allow impeached federal judges easy reelection to Congress. The other dynamic seems to be that the longer someone is in Congress, the more corrupt they tend to become. And there is a basic philisophical difference between many Republicans and their Democratic counterparts. Many Republicans view going to Congress as a temporary job, and then retire and go back to their real jobs. One notable example of this is Fred Thompson, who was a prosecutor, a TV actor, an influential Senator, and is now back to acting on TV where he plays a prosecutor. Many Democrats on the other hand seem to look at elective office as a career in itself, and often stay as long as they possibly can.

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Partisan Fights Likely Over Health Care Partisan Fights Likely Over Health Care

Mort Kondracke points out that Partisan Fights Likely Over Health Care in the next Democratic led Congress. The problem is that the Democrats have nice sound bites for their proposals, but invariably, these suggestions are asinine from an economics point of view. Never mind that, the sound bites got them elected. Not a one of their proposals makes economic sense.

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THE (NOT SO) INFALLIBLE AP THE (NOT SO) INFALLIBLE AP

Robert Bateman pans the THE (NOT SO) INFALLIBLE AP:
THE most powerful media institution in all of human history is the Associated Press. Its news feed is ubiquitous - used, directly or indirectly, by every U.S. newspaper and TV news program and a vast number of foreign ones, too. AP maintains the largest world-wide coverage, and its reader base is nearly immeasurable. Unfortunately, and repeatedly of late, this behemoth has not only been getting it wrong - but increasingly refuses to acknowledge any wrongdoing.

Instead, acting more like a politician or the mega-corporation that it is, the AP crew spins, obfuscates and attacks. Now they're at it again in Iraq.
The place he caught them was in a story about civilian deaths at No Gun Ri during the Korean War. The "decorated" infantryman that they cite turned out to be a mechanic no where near there then.
When I later confronted AP editors with the facts and records that showed their source Daily to be a fraud, they blew me off. What would a historian know about this topic after all, or a soldier?

The AP didn't issue a retraction, or even attempt to reinvestigate; and it certainly didn't withdraw the story from the Pulitzer competition. Instead, it attacked the messenger.

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Why Women Aren't Funny Why Women Aren't Funny

Christopher Hitchens has an amusing article in Vanity Fair titled: Why Women Aren't Funny. His conclusion is that men are funnier because they have to be.

Update: Ann Althouse has picked this up on her blog.

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Ski Season (#7) Ski Season (#7)

Keystone looking across at Buffalo Mtn. and Gore Range, and down Schoolmarm ridge at Dillon Lake (and town). One of the nicer views when skiing. Of course, if you have seen this view as many times as I have over the last 36 years, you do take it for granted.

Keystone Area 51 Terrain Park. Rails to the right, and the side of a decent sized jump to the left. Peru lift to the right ran over Thanksgiving, but won't restart for the rest of the season for another week. Our Mtn. Watch dispatch is at the top of it, probably a 100 yards from where this photo was taken, and life is much easier for us when this lift is running.

Breckenridge Peak 8 half pipe. Note the snowmaking, even now. Terrain parks are voracious consumers of the stuff as manufactured snow is used almost exclusively to make the half pipes and jumps.

Copper Mountain, showing a much bigger half pipe. The remains of this pipe will most likely last into August.

And no, that dark blue sky is not an accident. That is one reason that skiing in Colorado is so nice. It has far more of these cloudless days than do the ski areas on either coast or those in Utah.

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Motorola, Nokia Set Cell Phones Free Motorola, Nokia Set Cell Phones Free

It is finally time: Motorola, Nokia Set Cell Phones Free. Phone manufacturers are starting to sell unlocked phones and the U.S. Copyright Office just announced that cellular providers can't use copyright to lock in their subscribers.

What this all means is that the U.S. cellular companies have long tied sales of phones locked into their networks to usage of their networks. Thus, whenever you switch cellular providers, you needed to buy a new phone. If you had an expensive phone, this made switching even harder. Since the cell companies most often subsidize the purchase of phones, they also charge huge termination fees if a subscriber terminates service before the end of his contract. But for a long time, this locking-in has been strategic, not functional, as the phones work just fine on other carrier's networks (that is why we have standards). The cell providers did this because they made more money this way, and the cell manufacturers went along with it because the providers sold most of their phones and they figured that they sold more cheap phones this way. But it turned the cell manufacturing business into a commodity business, since there was a disincentive for buying expensive phones, and they now see potentially much higher profit margins on selling non-commodity phones.

Of course, there are always die-hards:
As advantageous as unlocking phones may be for handset makers, it also carries risks. Carriers could fight back by cutting back on orders and bolstering ties with suppliers that don't sell unlocked versions. They could cut their subsidies of offending handset makers' phones. And they could refuse to sign up users who have unlocked phones. "We do not activate wireless devices that come from other carriers or directly from manufacturers," says a Sprint Nextel spokesperson, "because we can't guarantee the quality of service."
This later company is the one that charges me (through Qwest which sold its network to Sprint a couple of years ago) for roaming in areas around here where I used to have decent coverage. It is plain silly for Sprint to be using this excuse, given their own lack of quality.

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ICANN reviews revoking outdated suffixes ICANN reviews revoking outdated suffixes

Interesting problem: ICANN reviews revoking outdated suffixes. The Soviet Union is dead, but lives on in the .su high level domain. The problem is only going to get worse, as more of the world jumps into the Internet and countries split, merge, and just get tired of their old names.

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Wednesday, December 06, 2006

Dems split on extent of ethics changes Dems split on extent of ethics changes

USA Today article: Dems split on extent of ethics changes points to the problems that the incoming Democratic Congress is going to have in enacting any meaningful reforms. Of course, the left leaning paper ignores the fact that the only reason that the American people had any hope that the Democrats would solve the problem about corruption in Congress was the constant drumbeat to that effect by that paper and its MSM brethern. The reality is, of course, that the Democrats are far more corrupt than the Republicans, esp. in the House, as evidenced by Speaker-to-be Pelosi's problems getting her leadership team organized. At least at the top there, the Democrats are horribly corrupt, and a big part of this is the gerrymander of all those majority-minority districts across the country that guarantee even the most corrupt Representatives easy reelection. Newly energized Independent Senator Lieberman may be able to get some ethics reform through the Senate, but anything meaningful is DOA in the House under Pelosi's leadership.

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Hillary and the Cat Hillary and the Cat

The New York Observer throws out some indications that Hillary is now running, though, of course, not officially, in: Hillary and the Cat . It has a nice picture of apparently Obama as the Cheshire cat, and Hillary as Alice. He may be telegenic, etc., but in the end, he is going to screw up - he is a novice, and that is what they do. Hillary believes that she can carry all the Kerry states, plus a couple of others, notably Florida and Ohio. She may be right.

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Why We Persevere in Iraq Why We Persevere in Iraq

Major General William Caldwell IV, chief U.S. spokesman in Iraq points out: Why We Persevere in Iraq. It is not a civil war there
I don't see terrorist and criminal elements mounting campaigns for territory. Al-Qaeda in Iraq doesn't use roadside bombs, suicidal mass murderers and rocket barrages to gain and hold ground. Extremist Shiite death squads don't shoot people in the back of the head to further their control of the government. I do see random executions seeking to instill fear and insecurity. I don't see a struggle between armies and aligned political parties competing to rule.

I studied civil wars at West Point and at the Army Command and Staff College. I respect the credentials and opinions of those who want to hang that label here. But I respectfully -- and strongly -- disagree. I see the Iraqi people suffering from overlapping terrorist campaigns by extremist groups combined with the mass criminality that too often accompanies the sudden toppling of a dictatorship. This poses a different military challenge than does a civil war.
He then concludes with:
As the Iraqi people labor to build a country based on human rights and respect for all citizens, they are moving from the law of the gun to the rule of law. Violence will increase before life gets better. Those who know that freedom and democracy offer more hope than anarchy will not give up.

Regardless of what academics and pundits decide to label this conflict, hundreds of thousands of brave Iraqi soldiers, police officers and civil servants will continue to go to work building a free, prosperous and united Iraq. And every day more than 137,000 U.S. servicemen and servicewomen will lace up their boots, strap on their body armor and drive ahead with our mission to support these courageous Iraqis.
Well said.

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Blankley: Hillary, Barack and All That Blankley: Hillary, Barack and All That

Tony Blankley in Hillary, Barack and All That starts off with:
Our long national nightmare is nearly over. With Barack saying he might run, with Hillary reported to "be making phone calls to New Yorkers," with Evan Bayh and Sam Brownback getting less coy by the day and with Tom Vilsack actually announcing his candidacy (the correct pronunciation of his name "that's vill-sack, not vile sack"), the 2008 presidential campaign is about to start. The nightmare of not having a national campaign to talk about -- now into its hideous 29th day -- is almost over.
He then points at Barack's inexperience, Hillary's ability to wage a war of personal destruction against any and all enemies, and concludes with:
But I'll say this for Sen. Obama. If, over the next 25 months, the young paladin can fend off Hillary's bad boys, Arianna's crazy boys and the GOP's back room boys, he may in fact be ready for the big game against Bin Laden's murderous boys.

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Reich: Democrats In Power, Powerless Reich: Democrats In Power, Powerless

Former Clinton Secretary of Labor, Robert Reich suggests in: In Power, Powerless: Why Democrats, and the public, are helpless to do anything regarding Iraq or the economy. He points out that George Bush is going to be Commander in Chief for another two years, regardless of what the Democrats may want. And, of course, within the next two years, things are likely to calm down there somewhat.

He then goes on to repeat the liberal canard that the economy is lousy due to the huge deficits:
The economy is also out of the hands of Democrats or the American electorate, notwithstanding that most Americans say they don't like the way it's being handled. Because of the huge budget deficits, fiscal policy can't be used to fine tune the economy. The only lever that counts any more is monetary policy, which means Ben Bernanke and the Federal Reserve Board's Open Market Committee are the only game in town. Bernanke said last week that outside of the automobile and housing sectors, economic growth remains solid, and a tight labor market could spur inflation. Translated, this means the Fed won't lower interest rates. It may even raise them.
All this is indication that Reich's economics are mired in the 1930s with John Maynard Keynes. The reality is that fiscal policy may be useful in the short term, but in the long run, it is invariably counter-productive. And his point about the Fed not lowering interest rates shows ignorance of monetary policy. Following Reich's implied suggestions would likely get us back into the stagflation of the Carter years. It was reversing this that finally broke that cycle.

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Hillary can win but mustn’t Hillary can win but mustn’t

Dick Morris suggests that: Hillary can win but mustn’t. Morris is obviously not a fan of Hillary's but is one of her husband. He predicts that she still has the inside track for the Democratic nomination in 2008, and will likely win the general election by energizing single woman to vote their short-term self-interest.

I agree with him about many of her defects. But the one that I think he skips over here (but not in some of his books) is her venality. It should always be remembered that of all the Clinton scandals, his were about sex, and hers were about money and abuse of power.

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We've Been Talking (w/Iran and Syria) We've Been Talking (w/Iran and Syria)

WSJ: We've Been Talking: It's a myth that the U.S. hasn't already engaged Syria and Iran points out that the problem with Iran and Syria is not that the U.S. hasn't been talking to these countries, but rather that they have their own agendas, that include both high level talks to show their national importance and backing Islamic terrorism.

I think that part of the problem is that what we should be saying to them is not the type of stuff that can be said openly. Rather, the real threat to Iran is that the Sunni Arab world, led by Saudi Arabia, intervenes in Iraq to protect the beleagured Sunni Arabs there. There are a lot more Sunnis in the world than there are Shiites, and the Sunnis, thanks to a lot of petro-dollars, probably are better armed too. Should these countries intervene, the losers are likely to be Shiites worldwide, and Iran in particular. Iran can partly defuse the situation by reining in the Iraqi Shiite militias, esp. the ones that it has supported over the years. Then, time is on its side, as the remaining Iraqi Sunni Arabs are pushed out of the country or into defensible enclaves.

Within Iraq, Syria would seem to have much less influence than Iran. But it does have some control over the infiltration of foreign born Sunni terrorists into Iraq. On the other side, it is exceedingly vulnerable, with a minority quasi-Shiite government, caught between the Americans in Irag to the East and in the Mediterranean to the West, and Israel to the South-west. I have always thought that some hot persuit of al Qaeda that accidently strayed into Syria from Anbar Province would get the message across fairly quickly. Syria seems more amenable to this sort of persuasion than do the Mad Mullahs in Iran.

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Tuesday, December 05, 2006

The Shia Revival: Military in Iraq The Shia Revival: Military in Iraq

One of the ways that many have suggested the current Administration screwed up in Iraq was in firing all of Saddam Hussein's senior officers and starting the Iraqi army over, essentially from scratch.

But this misses a big point, in that Saddam Hussein's army consisted of an almost exclusively Sunni Arab officer corp, with Shiites and Kurds comprising the bulk of most divisions, while the Republican Guard was staffed primarily with Sunni Arabs.

The relevance of that is that if we had allowed Saddam Hussein's senior officers to remain, the result would have been again a Sunni Arab commanded army consisting this time almost exclusively of Shiite Arabs and Kurds. BUT, when it became apparent to all what was going on in Iraq, what would the Army have done? Would its Sunni Arab commanders be as willing to go into Sunni Arab neighborhoods looking for terrorists?

The basic problem is that for quite awhile now, the Sunni Arabs have governed over their Shiite brethern. This isn't always that much of an issue, except in cases like Iraq where the Sunni Arabs are a distinct minority, and as a result, had to resort to ever increasing levels of violence and oppression to maintain control.

So, for probably the wrong reasons, the American govt. probably did the right thing there in Iraq, rebuilding its army to much better match its demographics. And, thus, the army is most likely much less likely to be used to brutally impose minority rule over the majority.

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The Shia Revival: How Conflicts within Islam Will Shape the Future The Shia Revival: How Conflicts within Islam Will Shape the Future

The Shia Revival: How Conflicts within Islam Will Shape the Future by Vali Nasris a must-read book for anyone trying to understand what is going on right now in the Middle East, and, in particular, in Iraq and Afganistan.

The problem is that we tend to view the world via the prism of our own world view. But the disputes in the Middle East must first be viewed as a conflict between two quite different strands of Islam: Sunni and Shite. For any number of reasons, the Sunni dominated Islam for the past 1400 years. And, as a result of that, and their philosphy of not fully separating church and state, dominated the region for much of that time. It was only with the abolation of the Caliphate, by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk in 1924, that the tight connection between Sunni Islam and centralized political control of the Middle East was broken. The Shiites on the other hand have spent most of their 1300 or so years since their split with the Sunni as an oppressed minority - oppressed by the Sunni who often consider the Shiites second class Muslims, or worse.

Theologically, there are strong parallels between Sunni Islam and Protestant Christainity. Indeed, Wahabi Islam, the brand of Islam practiced by the Saudi royal family and endorsed by al Qaeda, bears an even more striking resemblence to the religion practiced by our Puritan ancestors. Some of the features that distinguish fairly strict Sunni Islam from Shia Islam is that it is based almost exclusively on the wording of the scriptures (i.e. Quoran); tradition is mostly irrelevant; intercession is unneded; veneration of saints (and martyrs) borders on polytheism and idol worship; and much of the scriptures are literally true.

The Shiites on the other hand have a strong resemblence to Roman Catholics in their beliefs. They are mystical (except, now, in Iran); tradition is a big part of their religioni and provides for much of their practice thereof; saints and martyrs are venerated; the structure of Shiite Islam roughly parallels that of the Roman Catholic church, with the exception that there is no single Pope, but rather, invariably, several competing Grand Aylatollahs; much of their practice is legalistic, with the clergy being experts at the legalisms; and because interpretation is so hard, the clergy are needed to interpret for the masses.

The big difference though between Islam and Christianity in this regard though is that in Islam, the Protestant/Sunnis are the vast majority and have enjoyed teporal control over the less numerous Catholic/Shias for most of the last 1300 years.

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