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Kicking Butt

Posted by L Gravel on Monday, January 29, 2007 8:11:20 PM
The Washington Times/AP* reports the good guys recently killed a bunch of bad guys.
Iraqi officials said today that U.S.-backed Iraqi troops had targeted a religious group called the Jund al-Samaa, or Soldiers of Heaven, in a weekend battle that left 200 fighters dead, including the group's leader, near the Shi'ite holy city of Najaf. Two U.S. soldiers also were killed when their helicopter crashed during the fighting.
Let's roll.

* http://www.washtimes.com/world/20070129-120919-1097r.htm
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Quote of the Day

Posted by L Gravel on Sunday, January 28, 2007 10:55:33 PM
According to FoxNews/AP*:
[Vice President] Cheney also said he doesn't spend any time worrying about how the public or the media view him. When pressed to react to personal criticism from people with whom he has worked before, Cheney said: "Well, I'm vice president and they're not."
Chevy Chase, move over.

* http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,247862,00.html
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The Army Speaks

Posted by L Gravel on Sunday, January 28, 2007 12:40:08 AM
W. Thomas Smith Jr. in the National Review* shows how the Army votes with its feet concerning Iraq:
The Army’s reenlistment numbers for the past six years break down as follows: For Fiscal Year 2006 (FY06), the Army’s goal was to retain 64,200 soldiers already on active duty. The service exceeded that goal by retaining 67,307 eligible soldiers. In other words, 3,107 soldiers — in addition to the ones the Army had hoped to re-up — raised their right hands and swore to continue defending the nation even if it meant service in Iraq. That’s 105 percent of the goal of re-upping eligible soldiers (Contrary to public perception, not all active-duty soldiers are eligible to reenlist. For example, the Army does not want and will not retain a soldier who is not meeting physical fitness or other performance standards.).

FY06 was not unlike previous years.

In FY05, the Army needed to retain 64,162. They met and exceeded that goal at 108 percent by retaining 69,512 eligible soldiers.

In FY04, the goal was 56,100. The goal was exceeded at 107 percent with 60,010.

In FY03, the goal was 51,000. The goal was exceeded at 106.2 percent with 54,151.

In FY02, the goal was 56,800. The goal was exceeded at 102.5 percent with 58,237.

And in FY01, the goal was 64,000. The goal was exceeded at 101.5 percent with 64,982.
These soldiers want to carry on the fight.  Why don't we let them?

* http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=ZmNhOGRlZmRjMzU2NWFiNmQ1OGQ3NDBiM2ZkNGIzOTk=
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Dire Warnings

Posted by L Gravel on Tuesday, January 23, 2007 11:26:37 PM
The President lays out the stakes:

My fellow citizens, our military commanders and I have carefully weighed the options.  We discussed every possible approach.  In the end, I chose this course of action because it provides the best chance of success.  Many in this chamber understand that America must not fail in Iraq, because you understand that the consequences of failure would be grievous and far-reaching.  

If American forces step back before Baghdad is secure, the Iraqi government would be overrun by extremists on all sides.  We could expect an epic battle between Shia extremists backed by Iran, and Sunni extremists aided by al Qaeda and supporters of the old regime.  A contagion of violence could spill out across the country, and in time the entire region could be drawn into the conflict.

For America, this is a nightmare scenario.  For the enemy, this is the objective.  Chaos is their greatest ally in this struggle.  And out of chaos in Iraq, would emerge an emboldened enemy with new safe havens, new recruits, new resources, and an even greater determination to harm America.  To allow this to happen would be to ignore the lessons of September 11 and invite tragedy.  And ladies and gentlemen, nothing is more important at this moment in our history than for America to succeed in the Middle East, to succeed in Iraq, and to spare the American people from this danger.

Let us strive to win.
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Health Care Sanity

Posted by L Gravel on Tuesday, January 23, 2007 12:26:53 AM
The Editors of the National Review discuss the President's impending health care proposal:

The tax code may not be the root of all evil, but it has certainly fouled up health care. We pay taxes on the wages, but not on the health care, that our employers give us. So instead of asking them for a raise and buying health insurance ourselves, we ask them to buy insurance for us. And it leads us to ask them for insurance that covers even routine medical expenses, rather than just the catastrophic events insurance should cover. Since people don’t pay out of their own pockets for those routine expenses, they have no incentive to keep costs down. So the tax code has underwritten a large share of our medical inflation. It has also increased our anxiety: Under this arrangement, we lose our health coverage if we lose our jobs. Or we may have to pass up an otherwise good job opportunity because it would mean trading a good health plan for a lousy one.

One way to fix the problem would be simply to tax employer-provided health insurance. But that would be a fairly brutal, and disruptive, tax increase, and it is hard to imagine any Congress enacting it. President Bush has proposed another way to fix the problem: He would extend the tax break to individuals who buy their own health insurance. So the tax code would no longer encourage people to get insurance from their employers, but would instead be neutral. He would also change the tax break so that people no longer had an incentive to buy expensive health coverage. Under his plan, the size of the tax break would stay the same no matter how expensive the coverage. A person who buys a plan that is cheaper than the size of the tax break would be able to pocket the difference, and a person who buys a more generous plan would have to shell out for it himself.

YEEEEEEEESSSSSSSS!  Freedom finally comes to health care.  Too bad he didn't propose this when the Republicans were in control of the Congress.
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Ishmael

Posted by L Gravel on Sunday, January 21, 2007 11:55:53 PM
The novel Moby Dick famously begins, "Call me Ishmael."  According to the Bible, Ishmael was the son of Abraham by way of the servant Hagar.  An angel of LORD spoke thus:
Behold, you are pregnant and shall bear a son.
You shall call his name Ishmael,
because the LORD has listened to your affliction.
He shall be a wild donkey of a man,
his hand against everyone and everyone's hand against him,
and he shall dwell over against all his kinsmen.
(Genesis 15:11-12, ESV)
Muslims believe Ishmael to be the father of the Arabs, and that Mohammed was his descendant.
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Protection

Posted by L Gravel on Saturday, January 20, 2007 6:10:48 PM
At heart, I'm a problem solver.  For example, take the Iran problem.  China wants Iranian oil, and makes deals with Iran to acquire the same.  Therefore, the U.S. should sit down with the leaders in Beijing, get out a map of Iran, draw a line between the Chinese zone and the American zone, and invade.  Iranian problem solved.

Now I'm finally reading Mark Steyn's book America Alone: The End of the World as We Know It.  I wasn't going to read it, but Unhinged Substrate did; he thought it was great and lent it to me.  The main idea is that Muslims are going to take over the world as surely as night follows day, because a.) they breed like rabbits and b.) we breed as if every child causes global warming.

From a domestic standpoint, what would happen if our society one day decided that a growing Muslim minority was a threat.  What is the government supposed to do, declare that religion/ideology to be an enemy of the state and deport all its adherents?  I'm sure Mein Kampf could give us a few pointers on how to do that.

Besides, if all those people want to be Muslim, then a society like ours should let them be Muslim.  Is this a free country or isn't it?  On the other hand, do they really want to be Muslim?  I'm told the penalty for leaving the faith is something between ostracization and death.  Perhaps there are Muslims who would like to choose another religion, but don't want to meet their Maker so soon.  In that's the case, then perhaps there ought to be a religious protection program.  Set up an FBI booth in the mall -- if anyone over the age of 18 walks in and wants to leave their faith (whatever it might be), they get a new identity and location.  And given certain religion's domination of women, then the FBI might park trailers right in certain neighborhoods, so the women could run a short distance to freedom.  (Such trailers should be fairly bullet proof.)  Problem solved.
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Spare the Rod

Posted by L Gravel on Saturday, January 20, 2007 5:21:38 PM
FoxNews/AP reports:

California parents would face jail and a fine for spanking their young children under legislation a San Francisco Bay area lawmaker has promised to introduce next week.

Assemblywoman Sally Lieber, D-Mountain View, said such a law is needed because spanking victimizes helpless children and breeds violence in society.

Lieber said her proposal would make spanking, hitting and slapping a child under 4 years old a misdemeanor. Adults could face up to a year in jail and a $1,000 fine.

Uh, Sally, it's not spanking that breeds violence in society, it's a lack of discipline, or a lack of fathers altogether.

And I have just two words for parents with young children: paint stick.  Use sparingly, but spare it not.

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Economic Freedom Wins Again

Posted by L Gravel on Friday, January 19, 2007 11:44:14 PM
The Heritage Foundation / Wall Street Journal's Index of Economic Freedom for 2007 is out:

There is a clear relationship between economic freedom and numerous other cross-country variables, the most prominent being the strong relationship between the level of freedom and the level of prosperity in a given country. Previous editions of the Index have confirmed the tangible benefits of living in freer socie-ties. Not only is a higher level of economic freedom clearly associated with a higher level of per capita gross domestic product, but those higher GDP growth rates seem to create a virtuous cycle, triggering fur-ther improvements in economic freedom. Our 13 years of Index data strongly suggest that countries that increase their levels of freedom experience faster growth rates.

The Democrats are all about restricting economic freedom -- raise the unemployment wage, raise taxes, punish oil companies, coerce the drug companies, etc.  Hopefully they won't do too much damage.
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Pay Now or Pay Later

Posted by L Gravel on Thursday, January 18, 2007 11:54:27 PM
In case you missed it, Bill Crawford again reports in the National Review the oft-missed good news from Iraq.  It's a loooong piece, but well worth the reading.  Here's a snippet:

Iraqi Police in western Ramadi fought through an ambush and cleared three buildings Sunday.

More than forty Iraqi police responded quickly to reports of kidnappings of
university students by Al Qaeda insurgents in the notorious Tameen neighborhood.

As the police force approached, insurgents attacked them with rocket-propelled
grenade and small arms fire from three buildings.

The police exchanged gunfire with the insurgents and entered the buildings, searching them from room to room. An Iraqi Army patrol responded to the policemen’s call for back-up and joined the firefight against the insurgents. Coalition Forces also responded to the call for back-up and assisted with security in the area.

The police, based out of the Al Huriyah Station, searched and secured the buildings themselves while Coalition Forces provided security. The fight lasted for three hours.

One reason this war is so difficult, is that unlike most wars, we are not backing one side against another.  Rather, we are in the middle with the forces of moderation, fighting the extremes.  One historical analogy is the Weimar Republic in Germany, in which a precarious democratic minority attempted to prevent a slide into Communism on the one hand, or Nazism on the other.

Pay now, or pay later.

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You'd Make a Good Dread Pirate Roberts

Posted by L Gravel on Sunday, January 14, 2007 11:54:35 PM
BusinessWeek has an interesting article on the presence of revenge in the business world.  No moral here; it's just interesting:

In our euphemism-laden, numbers-driven, "it's just business" corporate environment, it's easy to forget that the desire to get even is one of those primal human impulses that lurks behind executive behavior. Revenge is at least as old as the Bible ("Vengeance is mine," saith the Lord) and provided a plot line for many a Shakespearean tragedy, but it's also written into the script of many of the most memorable corporate dramas. And in today's hypercompetitive business world, as the spiraling rate of executive turnover leaves behind a trail of ousted managers and as leaders marred by recent corporate scandals try to restore their reputations, it's a subtext of many of the most dramatic recent business stories, too.
 
Which brings us back to [former Oracle V.P. Terry] Garnett. Since getting sacked by Ellison, he has channeled his anger into investing in and building up companies that compete head-to-head with Oracle or Ellison projects. The most recent of these is Ingres, a low-cost, open-source software startup that Garnett hopes will poke a hole in Oracle's high-price database business. Garnett has targeted Ellison's team for several engineers and managers. He has also hired a small army of former Oracle folks to help him torpedo the old mother ship: Of Ingres' 250-member staff, 50 are ex-Oracle, including several top executives and key technologists. Many directors have the Oracle pedigree, too. "The simplest way to create a culture is to pick an enemy," says Garnett. "We have an enemy: It's Oracle."
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Message within a Message

Posted by L Gravel on Saturday, January 13, 2007 2:40:43 PM
I finally went through the President's speech given January 10.  Note the message within the message:
We're also taking other steps to bolster the security of Iraq and protect American interests in the Middle East. I recently ordered the deployment of an additional carrier strike group to the region. We will expand intelligence-sharing and deploy Patriot air defense systems to reassure our friends and allies. We will work with the governments of Turkey and Iraq to help them resolve problems along their border. And we will work with others to prevent Iran from gaining nuclear weapons and dominating the region.

We will use America's full diplomatic resources to rally support for Iraq from nations throughout the Middle East. Countries like Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, and the Gulf States need to understand that an American defeat in Iraq would create a new sanctuary for extremists and a strategic threat to their survival. These nations have a stake in a successful Iraq that is at peace with its neighbors, and they must step up their support for Iraq's unity government. We endorse the Iraqi government's call to finalize an International Compact that will bring new economic assistance in exchange for greater economic reform. And on Friday, Secretary Rice will leave for the region, to build support for Iraq and continue the urgent diplomacy required to help bring peace to the Middle East.
The intended recipients are Iran and Syria.
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Impatience

Posted by L Gravel on Thursday, January 11, 2007 11:56:06 PM
I keep hearing Americans have grown weary of and even angry about the war in Iraq.  And that the President's recent plan is a last, desperate gamble.  Okaaay.  But what is there to be weary of/ angry about?  The monetary cost of the war is certainly bearable -- the President actually cut my taxes.  The deficit is coming under control, and the amount we spend on defense as a percentage of GDP is historically average.

Is it the cost in lives?  Is it that the number of dead in four years might someday approach the cost of one beach landing in WWII?  Is it such a terrible burden to me if a young man wants to risk his life to bring freedom to another part of the world?  That he would rather risk his life to serve a cause greater than himself, than risk peace time military training accidents, civilian traffic accidents, risky recreational behavior, or extreme sports?

Or is it the simple fatigue of hearing about it?  Must we give up and go home, leaving millions of lives to plunge into chaos and death, because it is just too much to hear a bad news report once in a while?  What pansies are we if that's the case.  If we are that lacking in will, after our forefathers spent their fortunes and died to bring this unique nation into existence, and then died by the tens of thousands to eliminate the evil of slavery, and likewise to confront the evils of Nazism and Communism, then we deserve the harshest judgment of history and of our children, that we turned away from such minor discomfort.
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You Better Think

Posted by L Gravel on Monday, January 08, 2007 11:03:35 PM
The Seattle PI/AP reports the Governator is following Mitt Romney's lead by attempting to impose universal health care on the citizens of California:

Under Schwarzenegger's plan, all Californians would be required to have insurance, although plans for the poorest people would be subsidized. Businesses with 10 or more employees would have to offer insurance to workers or pay 4 percent of their payroll into a state fund. Smaller businesses would be exempt.

Among other things, this type of plan further calcifies the link between health insurance and employment.  And that's a bad thing.  That persistent linkage makes it very difficult for those who have a visible propensity for health problems -- such as the overweight, the old, or anyone that walks with a limp -- to find a job, even a job for which they might be well suited.

Think about it: you're an HR person.  You just came from a meeting in which everyone continues to scratch their heads over health costs that seem to rise 7% a year no matter what you do.  You sit down and interview someone for a computer programming job who's obviously 75 pounds overweight.  Did he cough during the interview or just clear is throat?  His voice is a little gravelly -- is he a smoker?  If you hire this guy and he develops something serious or chronic, he could cost your company several times his salary.  Meanwhile, you have a younger, muscled, skinny applicant waiting in the lobby with similar qualifications.  The decision's a no-brainer.

The bottom line: the tighter we bind health care and employment together, the more we are relegating a whole class of unhealthy people to unemployment, and by extension, to a loss of health insurance.  And what's really sad, is people think it's compassionate.
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Beijing Blues

Posted by L Gravel on Sunday, January 07, 2007 11:55:34 PM
Patrick Hoeffel of Colorado Springs refers me to this story by way of his sister living in Taiwan:

Determined to burnish its reputation as a international city, Beijing wants to erase lost-in-translation items such as "fried rice with crap", instead of crab, from English-language menus.

Menus often list dishes that raise a chuckle, including "worm pig stomach", "corrugated iron beef" and "cow bowel in sauce".

Labels and road signs are among other linguistic offenders. Beijing's Park of Ethnic Minorities is signposted "Racist Park", while emergency exits at Beijing's international airport read: "No entry on peacetime".

Patrick's sister's comment:
This is so accurate…my only question is what will they re-name “cow bowel in sauce” to make it sound appetizing to a westerner?

My answer:
Perhaps "hot dog with mustard."
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