Revive The Sixties' Paranoid Style

Max Boot doesn't like Seymour Hersh's investigative reporting that much:

It's hard to know why anyone would take seriously a "reporter" whose writings are so full of, in Ted Kennedy's words, "maliciousness and innuendo." That Hersh remains a revered figure in American journalism suggests that the media have yet to recover from the paranoid style of the 1960s.

The actions of the Bush Administration, based on non-stop fanciful fictions, merit precisely such skepticism, however. If the press weren't such a scurvy band of lick-spittle eunuchs, we wouldn't have seen the Plame scandal, or had to read the insidious lies of power-currying Judith Miller and Laurie Mylroie. The press are a target. Paranoia is appropriate! And what does Seymour Hersh say?

...we all deal in "macro" in Washington. On the macro, we're hopeless. We're nowhere. The press is nowhere. The congress is nowhere. The military is nowhere. Every four-star General I know is saying, "Who is going to tell them we have no clothes?" Nobody is going to do it. Everybody is afraid to tell Rumsfeld anything. That's just the way it is. It's a system built on fear. It's not lack of integrity, it's more profound than that. Because there is individual integrity. It's a system that's completely been taken over -- by cultists.

Is that paranoia, or is that an apt description of reality? Speak Truth to Power!

A Better Bumpersticker

Caution - Blonde Thinking

Bumpersticker

Never seen this bumpersticker before:

Choice - What a beautiful right

What can one say? (Tone deaf, for a start....)

Britney Spears

This is the time of day when all my biorhythms crash all at once. I'm barely awake. And for some reason, I'm worried about Britney Spears.

I don't know why. It's silly, of course. It reminds me, when O.J. Simpson was arrested, I read about this shocked fellow from New Guinea who couldn't sleep, thinking about how O.J. had been unjustly accused of murder. Worrying about Britney has just about the same relevance in my life as worrying about O.J. did for the New Guinea fellow.

By why do people say snarky things about her? It's the same kind of snide superiority masking alarm and fear that people showed to Marilyn Monroe. And even though Marilyn showed herself to be an excellent film comedienne and Britney's acting ability has left people underwhelmed so far ("... so ill I had to take a week off work"), at least Britney has time to figure it out. After all, Marilyn studied acting very hard. Marilyn learned her trademark walk from choreographer Jack Cole - it wasn't all natural talent. Like Marilyn, Britney has a tragic weakness: pills in the case of Marilyn: bad knees in the case of Britney. Such a weakness for such a kick-ass dancer!

Anyway, to those people on the 1999 California State Fair midway, who made disparaging remarks when I threw the ball, knocked over the stacked milk bottles, and won the poster of impossibly-fresh Britney, all I can say is:

And it seems to me you lived your life
Like a candle in the wind.
Never knowing who to cling to
When the rain set in.

Big Feedlots and Air Quality

When the cow patties catch fire

In piles so large it's a pyre

What firefighter can aspire

To win in such smoky mire?

More Tales of Sacramento at Night

If the weather is bad when I walk my dog Sparky late at night, I like to wear my dark blue trench coat. The trench coat makes me feel like a winged avenger passing silently through the empty streets of Sacramento, a righteous Druid from the dark side of the Moon, taking strength from winter mists emanating from the Earth.

Yet, I think others see me in a different light.

Last night, the weather was windy and wet (although not that cold) - still good enough for the trench coat. On the way to drop some mail off at the Post Office, I stopped to loiter outside the AM/PM convenience market, speaking loudly through the little security slit to the clerk, who was locked-in the store for the graveyard shift.

An African-American woman approached to make a purchase. Upon observing:

• my wrinkled, mud-spattered trench coat;
• my age-battered wide-brim Australian hat squashed over my head;
• my non-descript jeans and amorphous shoes; plus,
• a friendly mutt, unusually unkempt in the wind;

the woman knew where her Christian duty lay on such a dark night. Sweet thing, she offered to buy me a cup of hot cocoa!

Third Hack Caught!

ANOTHER conservative columnist paid by the government! My, my, my!

Shroud of Turin

The latest scientific finding regarding the is-it-or-isn't-it-real controversy concerning the Shroud of Turin supports the Shroud's claims to great age - sufficient to derive from Biblical times. But what caught my eye is that the New Mexican chemist in charge of the study is disagreeing with the Arizona team of scientists who tested the Shroud previously: the team who were at the University of Arizona when I was there, in the early to mid-80's.

New Mexicans disagreeing with Arizonans: this cannot be! I've lived in both places for extended periods. Both states, the last of the lower 48, were admitted to the Union within a month of each of other, in 1912. If these folks disagree, then parts of my brain will explode! WHO can I trust?

(and if you say trust in faith, Gabe, I will submit you to rigorous Hegelian analysis!)

Cheryl B.-C.

Crossing my fingers for you, Cheryl!

Bush Pushes the "Internets" Again

The White House announced that it will propose that the federal government spend $125 million in next year's budget to test computerization of health records.

What mystifies me is why Bush thinks this is a priority. After all, medical offices DO use computer technology. California's Kaiser Permanente offshored its medical records to India: does he want the U.S. to do the same with a centralized medical registry? I mean, that's the most "efficient" thing to do, isn't it?

Bizarro Weather

Snow paralyzes Algeria and Tunisia!

Oil

Like George Orwell said, the world needs a lot fewer novelists, and a lot more people who write almanacs. For those moments in heated debate, when you need quick information about how much oil comes from overseas, or where the U.S. fields are, here are useful links. (Courtesy of Michael S.D., who is in a ranting mood today!)

Zarqawi

Had him. Didn't recognize him. Let him go.

TNR Keeps Laying Eggs

First, Peter Beinart's attack on Michael Moore, and now this! David Callahan at TNR is still focused on the Gore agenda, and wants the Democratic Party to go after Hollywood and its shoddy values. He defends the concept of an attack on Tinseltown:

Filmmaker Michael Moore recently warned that it would be a mistake for the party to pull away from Hollywood, saying that "this is where they need to come to learn how to tell a story" and that America "likes to vote for Hollywood." Moore may be right on the first point. On the second, he should know better. The perceived elitism of the Democratic Party is now its number-one liability and ties to Hollywood play right into that perception, which is why Bush had such a field day with Kerry's "heart and soul" gaffe. What's the Matter With Kansas author Thomas Frank got it right when he wrote last July that "Hollywood stars are as close as America comes to an aristocracy, and being instructed on how to be kinder and better people by pseudo-rebellious aristocrats can't help but rub people the wrong way."

Callahan is wrong. Even though Hollywood stars make average Americans itch, so do other sorts of millionaires. Gore's attacks on Hollywood did not make him appear to be more of an average guy - quite the opposite, in fact. Limousine liberals like Gore and Kerry are hobbled from the outset from successfully carrying out distracting, demagogic attacks on other limousine liberals in Hollywood. Like Michael Moore, Arnold Schwarzenegger has a better sense of how to do these things: he NEVER attacks Hollywood. Neither should the Democrats! Intra-party fighting should be kept to a minimum. The number-one liability of the Democrats isn't its perceived elitism: the lack of policy ideas and craven deference to Republicans are the main enemies.

Columnist Maggie Gallagher

Another conservative hack getting paid with taxpayer money to push the conservative agenda.

Republican Congressional Corruption

Compared to the Democrats, not even close:

Conference committees added 3,407 pork projects -- never subject to any debate or amendments -- to the 2004 appropriations bills, compared with 47 additions to the final budget passed under Democratic control a decade ago.

My Opinion on Climate Change?

I always thought it was big mistake for the folks concerned about global warming to push a regulatory approach (Kyoto Protocol) as a solution. Unlike criteria pollutants, whose emissions are somewhat amenable to control, greenhouse emissions are difficult to control except by scaling back combustion. In addition, the greenhouse problem is cumulative in nature: scaling back emissions just delays the problem, it doesn't solve it.

Free debate is the best way for contrarians and climate scientists to come to a common understanding. The trouble, of course, is that when government action is under consideration, free debate becomes scarce. Interests speak then. Interests insist on no action. And that is what will happen. Except for opening ANWR, of course.

Regarding global warming, it's likely to happen, and may already be happening: CO2 levels are some 15% higher today than when I was born. Yet, the expression of that warming may be modulated significantly, particularly by cloud cover.

A technological revolution is required. Environmental folks should be speaking the language of revolution: real revolution, not regulation. Hybrid cars, not Kyoto Protocol. The oil interests realize that worldwide oil production is at or near its peak, and they may need to change their approach in time, perhaps largely abandoning oil. Big Oil is ready, or will be ready before too long, to be peeled away from Big Auto, because they aren't dummies, and they need to move on. Big Auto will resist for a longer time. Environmentalists need to change their approach, because regulation won't work for this problem.

Why I'm a Liberal and Not a Libertarian

In the 2003 gubernatorial recall election, I was a bit surprised at the libertarians (like Ned Roscoe)....they seemed unusually ready to throw in the towel: for example, their willingness not to participate in elections (kind-of rational in one sense, since any one vote has almost no impact, but totally stupid in another sense, since it's the combined impact of many votes that make the difference). Libertarians seemed almost too rational for their own good - like the Jacobins of Revolutionary France (but without the guillotine, of course).

Myself, I'm an unreconstructed liberal. Give me the dead hand of the regulatory state any day! (At least, when it can do any good). Growing up in NM, which, economically speaking, is basically a colony of Texas, and which receives $2 in federal funds for every $1 exacted in federal taxes (2-to-1 being the highest proportion of any state, according to the Wall Street Journal), being a liberal was, for me, the only reasonable ideology to hold. Conservative ideology, with its emphasis on standing on your own two feet, applied to the fragile communities on the bleak highland mesas of the SW, means, more often than not, annihilation.

False Alarm

Yet it was Drudge who PROMOTED this false alarm in the first place ('Boston Street Gang Linked to 'Al Qaeda'")! This was HIS baby! He gets paid to yank the alarm chain, and he gets paid to let go of the chain! What an ass!

Dollar's Day of Reckoning

In the Winter 2005 Wilson Quarterly, Robert Aliber has written a thought-provoking tract called: "The Dollar's Day of Reckoning." Aliber looks cold-bloodedly at the macroeconomics of America's rapidly-growing trade deficit, and he sees imminent troubles. The U.S. trade deficit is growing too large to be sustainable, and the situation will correct itself soon, likely to our sorrow. Aliber's purpose isn't to condemn, but rather to explain:

America's falling dollar and mounting international debt are not, as pundits often declare, the wages of profligacy and sin. They are the inevitable products of dysfunctional international financial arrangements - a system that now appears likely to come crashing down, with alarming implications for the American economy.

Aliber isn't interested so much in the particularities of bursting economic bubbles (e.g.: Japan, 1990; SE Asia, 1997) so much as their similarities, especially since 1970:

The pattern is similar in all the episodes of boom and collapse surveyed here, as well as in Mexico (1994), Russia (1998), Brazil (1999); and Argentina (2001). The growth rate of each country's indebtedness (or the indebtedness of a large sector of its economy) was substantially higher than the growth rate of its GDP, and significantly higher than the interest rates the country paid on the borrowed funds. The difference between the two rates of growth was not sustainable.

The U.S. is in a similar bind today:

Today, the U.S. saving rate remains low because of the continued displacement of American saving by foreign saving. But America's reliance on foreign saving is excessive: The nation's international indebtedness is increasing at much too rapid a rate. The inevitable adjustment will require that American's household saving rate increase as reliance on foreign saving decline. ... [The United States] is engaging in Ponzi finance, and the game will soon be up.

And the outlook?

The primary variable that must change is the U.S. trade deficit. It must decline to between $100 and $200 billion a year from its current level of around $600 billion. ...If the decline (in foreign demand for U.S. dollar securities) is too rapid, the value of the dollar could plummet, while inflation and interest rates on U.S. dollar bonds surge.

It's interesting to think about what his observations might mean for our society. Who will we sell our tradable goods to when everyone else seems to want to export here: the Europeans, maybe? Yet, since the 70's, the high value of the dollar has helped ruin our manufacturing base. Hell, even Boeing can't make a dent anymore in Europe (hello, Airbus!) Will we see mass unemployment? Sky-high interest rates? Plummeting real estate values? And when? Sobering stuff!

Majestic 12

We are all conspiracy-minded these days! Keith at Subway is making a direct connection between Rumsfeld's newly-revealed Strategic Support Board, and a revived 'Majestic 12', the panel of government officials that "helped cover up the 1947 Roswell incident." Interesting speculation!

Chris Landsea Bails on IPCC Process

Chris Landsea senses a deterioration in the political climate at Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), regarding what he sees as poltical grandstanding by Kevin Trenberth:

However, this case is not an honest scientific discussion conducted at a meeting of climate researchers. Instead, a scientist with an important role in the IPCC represented himself as a Lead Author for the IPCC has used that position to promulgate to the media and general public his own opinion that the busy 2004 hurricane season was caused by global warming, which is in direct opposition to research written in the field and is counter to conclusions in the TAR [3rd Assessment Report]. This becomes problematic when I am then asked to provide the draft about observed hurricane activity variations for the AR4 [4th Assessment Report] with, ironically, Dr. Trenberth as the Lead Author for this chapter. Because of Dr. Trenberth's pronouncements, the IPCC process on our assessment of these crucial extreme events in our climate system has been subverted and compromised, its neutrality lost. While no one can "tell" scientists what to say or not say (nor am I suggesting that), the IPCC did select Dr. Trenberth as a Lead Author and entrusted to him to carry out this duty in a non-biased, neutral point of view. When scientists hold press conferences and speak with the media, much care is needed not to reflect poorly upon the IPCC. It is of more than passing interest to note that Dr. Trenberth, while eager to share his views on global warming and hurricanes with the media, declined to do so at the Climate Variability and Change Conference in January where he made several presentations. Perhaps he was concerned that such speculation - though worthy in his mind of public pronouncements – would not stand up to the scrutiny of fellow climate scientists.

Brazucas

Interesting story by Joel Millman in today's Wall Street Journal (I don't have a link), discussing how a better economy in developing countries, plus a more integrated world economy (featuring more relaxed visa policies elsewhere in the world), promotes emigration to the USA, instead of discouraging it. Case in point: the rapidly growing population of 'Brazucas' crossing across the Mexican border into the U.S. It's getting easier all the time for Brazilians to take a shot at entering the U.S.:

Brazilians being held here in El Centro at the U.S. immigration prison say they can get to the U.S. for as little as $1,500 - the price of a cheap ticket to Mexico City and bus fare to the border. Others insist they can travel all the way to Boston for no money down; they don't have to pay until smugglers get them to their destination.

Edjalma Andrade de Oliveira, a 36-year-old taxi driver from the town of Teixeira de Freitas in Brazil's Bahia state, says he traveled on credit when he left home in November. He says he wanted "to maximize my work opportunities" by leaving Brazil, and expected to land a job as a janitor once he reached the U.S.

Scaremongers

Why do I fall for this crap anymore? Here's Drudge whoring for a "Frontline" TV program Monday night on Al Qaeda's activities in Europe:

Al Qaeda's New Front: Terrorist activity in Western Europe.... Developing... High Impact Monday Nite... 'Alarming threat'...

Yet Drudge is what some low-lifes call a 'success.' Instead of whining, I guess I should respect that success and emulate him:

Vixen Vampire Minister of Health and Labor Spontaneously Combusts at Cabinet Meeting ('I have one thing that counts, and that is my heart; it burns in my soul, it aches in my flesh, and it ignites my nerves.') Developing.... Many Dead... Consuming fire spreads ...Camisados strip and become descamisados overnight. Treasury at risk ('I can't stop to count.... I have one thing that counts....') And where is Magaldi? High Impact Friday night...

Meaning, of course, that DMTC's last weekend of "Evita", starring Andrea Eve Thorpe, commences with Friday evening's performance at the Varsity Theater in Davis!



Scared witless, aren't you? Can't wait for more, can you? (I've got to do this more often....)

America vs. American POWs

As a consequence of our having abandoned the Geneva Conventions, former American POWs now find that the U.S. sides with Saddam's regime against their claims!

Yet when 17 of our tortured Gulf War POWs and 37 of their family members said "enough" and joined together to bring a historic civil action to hold their Iraqi torturers liable, they were shocked—having won their case in federal court—to find the Department of Justice seeking to erase their judgment and "absolve" their torturers.

The Imposing Humvee.....Obsolete?

"You go to war with the army you have," as one arrogant fool has been heard to proclaim. Still, it makes you wonder:

Stung by criticism that its Humvees and larger transport vehicles are out of step with fighting an insurgency in Iraq, and with soldiers still being killed and maimed by roadside bombs, the Army this week gathered 44 military contractors here to help remake its transport vehicles.

...After all, the more than 100,000 transport vehicles were designed to move behind front lines, not operate in battle zones with no boundaries.

The officers say they want the next Humvee-type vehicles and larger transport vehicles to be faster, more agile, more fuel-efficient and able to have armor taken on and off like a medieval knight before battle. They want the vehicles to carry more equipment and be much easier to service.

..."The way we thought we would use trucks five or six years ago is different than the way we are using them today, and it's different because the environment in which we're using trucks is different," he said. "Our Army as well as the rest of the military was designed to fight on a different battlefield."

Charging for Grocery Bags

Actually, not a bad idea! A small, nominal charge will encourage reuse of the suckers. I know I don't reuse, and I've got too many of them piled up.

Leonard Padilla Eyes the Maloofs

According to Graswich's column this morning, Leonard has a stake in a new arena:

Leonard likes the arena idea but says the deal depends on billionaire Kings owners Joe and Gavin Maloof paying off the $85 million loan the Sacramento City Council made to the Kings in 1997. "They have to pay it, even if it means selling a casino," Leonard said. "If they try some sleight-of-hand business about not paying every cent back, I'll make them pay."

San Francisco Anti-Abortion March

Gabe had some funny stories about participating in the march, and what people yelled from the sidelines. Notable shout-outs included:

• all the men yelling, "Get out of my uterus;"
• the broad-minded fellow yelling, "Get out of here with your intolerant views;" and,
• the fellow yelling, "Get your God out of my Body!"

Plus, the fellow yelling, 'Separation of Church and State! It's in the Constitution!" (the Constitution doesn't actually use that phrase, but it does forbid the establishment of a state church, no doubt reflecting the influence of deists like Thomas Jefferson, who was "author of the Bill for Establishing Religious Freedom instituting separation of church and state in Virginia, passed in 1786.")

Gabe adds:

It was a very moving experience. I was quite amazed by the turnout. We apparently had something like 6,000 to 7,000 people. [The opposition] had something like 3,000 people, according to the story, but it seemed a little smaller than that, but I have NO idea. It was rather peaceful, from my vantage point.

On his brand-new blog, 'Of Mites and Wonder,' Gabe expands on his experiences:

Amidst the obscenities hurled at us and the surreal Disney-like-It's-a-Small-World-After-All chanting from those opposed to our march. I particularly remember three young women chanting "If you don't want an abortion, then don't have one," and others, such as "Not the Church, not the State, women will decide our fate!"

(For the record, I'm pro-choice, but political marches nevertheless make for blogworthy stories.)

Strategic Support Branch

Why is Rumsfeld so determined to keep the Strategic Support Branch such a secret? Is Rumsfeld living a fantasy of total power? Who guarantees the focus of this organization isn't really warfare against the CIA? It's our money and our authority: it's time for an accounting.

A Hispanic Viewpoint Regarding Alberto Gonzales

I heartily endorse this Letter to the Editor in the Sacramento Bee (Jan. 21, 2005):

Ignoring heritage of torture

As a person of Latino descent, I am saddened that, in a time that I should be filled with pride that a fellow Latino has been nominated for attorney general, I am embarrassed by it. Alberto Gonzales' memory seems to stop at our southern border. Our Latino heritage, hence our collective memory, unfortunately is filled with the screams, scars and tears of those from Mexico down to Chile who suffered at the hands of governments whose policies are reflected in Gonzales' legal reasoning.

We cannot allow this legalistic mind to be our top cop, charged with upholding the laws of this truly free nation.

- Julio Hernandez, Citrus Heights

Waist-Deep Powder in the West

Cool! At Park City, just east of Salt Lake City:

...because of the southerly flow from the most recent storms, the base snow depths in Park City and at the nearby Canyons ski areas rivaled those of the legendarily inundated ski areas of Alta and Snowbird on Little Cottonwood Canyon. And, oddly, there is currently little or no snow on the ground in nearby Salt Lake City.

"People get shocked," said Ms. Parry, "because they're driving up from Salt Lake, and suddenly they cross Parleys Summit and it's a winter wonderland."

Greenspan The Chump

The Bush team have played Greenspan like the willing chump he is. Now Greenspan is getting uncomfortable:

The new element is a rising concern at the Fed about the nation's imbalances: the federal deficit, which hit $413 billion in 2004; a low and declining national savings rate; evidence of speculative behavior among investors and consumers; and the country's enormous trade and financial deficit with the rest of the world.

In November, Mr. Greenspan noted that foreign claims on United States assets - essentially the nation's net indebtedness to the rest of the world - were now equal to one-quarter of the nation's gross domestic product. The trade deficit this year is almost certain to exceed $600 billion - nearly 6 percent of the nation's economy, and still climbing.

Too late, Alan! This is YOUR Republican legacy! The Democrats never did anything that could remotely compare to this disaster! I hope Hell has a debtor's prison JUST FOR YOU!

For The Dogs

Someone stole my pooper-scooper. I can't imagine why.

Climate Change

Interests (Big Oil, Big Auto, etc.) love trying to poke holes in the scientific studies of global warming, puffing up their side, no matter how bad the science, and defaming others, no matter how well-founded their opinions are. As a friend points out regarding this interesting discussion:

Unfortunately, in the minds of the contrarians and their supporters, each criticism merely adds weight to their claim that their point of view is being SUPPRESSED. Those who chose to believe the Soons and Baliunases will not be dissuaded by arguments made made by the likes of Mann and Schmidt.

I always thought it was big mistake for the folks concerned about global warming to push a regulatory approach (e.g., the Kyoto Protocol) as a solution. Unlike criteria pollutants, whose emissions are somewhat amenable to control, greenhouse emissions are difficult to control except by scaling back combustion. In addition, the greenhouse problem is cumulative in nature: scaling back emissions just delays the problem, it doesn't solve it.

Free debate is the best way for contrarians and climate scientists to come to a common understanding. The trouble, of course, is that when government action is under consideration, free debate becomes scarce. Interests speak then. Interests insist on no action. And that is what will happen. Except for opening ANWR, of course.

A technological revolution is required. Environmental folks should be speaking the language of revolution: real revolution, not regulation. Hybrid cars, not Kyoto Protocol. The oil interests realize that worldwide oil production is at or near its peak, and they may need to change their approach in time, perhaps largely abandoning oil. Big Oil is ready, or will be ready before too long, to be peeled away from Big Auto, because they aren't dummies, and they need to move on. Big Auto will resist for a longer time. Environmentalists need to change their approach, because regulation won't work for this problem.

Tax Denial Movement

From the New York Times, concerning a new case in the Sacramento federal court:

[Mr. Thompson's] case illustrates some of the reasons that tax evasion is growing, despite repeated statements by the Internal Revenue Service that it is cracking down on those who deny the legitimacy of the tax laws. The Internet, antigovernment news organizations and dwindling law enforcement resources are all factors in the spread of the tax denial movement.

In the early 90's, I knew several of the principle players in the Pilot Connection, a tax denial organization based in Stockton, CA. Presumably, Mr. Thompson is a member of the Pilot Connection, or a closely-related organization.

What strikes me is that the federal government persists in labeling the activities of these organizations as "tax fraud" rather than what they really are: "political protest." Presumably that is because it is easier to misrepresent the organizations' activities as get-rich-schemes, but someday these convenient lies will collide with reality - perhaps as the tax deniers get high-level (namely Republican) political protection. The tax laws of the U.S. need to be written better - perhaps rewritten entirely - so as to eliminate the little loopholes the tax deniers try to take advantage of (example: the lack of specificity of the term 'United States of America' - the states aren't separately listed!)

Free Trade

In this letter to Walt, John has interesting insights on trade as a small, liberal businessman:

Hi Walt,

A few thoughts on free trade. Before the election last year we wrote about which issues we see as critical to our nation and we differed on many of them. Five of my main issues were controlling deficit spending, rebuilding the manufacturing base of the US economy, enacting meaningful tort reform, making health care more affordable and reforming bankruptcy laws. I regard all four of these as being critical to our nation remaining strong economically as well as morally (I am hesitant to use the latter term because it has been used so frequently in recent years as a political tool, but I refuse to relinquish claim of its use to any political party!)

The US has a strong vested interest in having a skilled workforce which can produce consumer products. Some would argue with that assertion but, given a choice between a worker who knows how to build furniture or cars and a worker who knows how to stock shelves it really isn't hard to see which one is generally more productive. And that's certainly not to denigrate the work of those people who stock shelves--it's merely saying that society could make better use of their abilities in many cases.

There has been a wide scale loss of manufacturing jobs to foreign countries, particularly since the early 1970's. I can recall that when my bother, four years older than I am, was in high school and had no problem finding work in any number of factories in the area where we lived. By the time I reached his age in the early 1970's there was nothing. The plants had all either closed or scaled back operations to the point where there were no work opportunities. I took a job for $1.00 per hour at the local dime store which was by that time about on its last leg. The manufacturers moved outside the US primarily because of the lower cost of production and also because of an increasingly difficult environment with workers comp liability, product liability and environmental regulations. The factory in Earlville, which produced electric motors, moved to Mexico where workers were willing to live and work in poor conditions for wages that amounted to a fraction of what the American workers required.

The result of the movement of manufacturing overseas did benefit the US economy in the short term to the extent that it created a plethora of low priced consumer products which were much more affordable than similar products that were made domestically. But I see that as a short term benefit. In the long term we, as a nation, have paid a heavy price and are continuing to do so.

You wrote that a trade deficit is just an indication that we choose to buy some products from overseas. Fair enough. But the critical word is "some". We now have a trade deficit with China of $300 billion per year and growing. Since 1990 the amount has exceeded $3.2 trillion (figures are from a Christian Science Monitor article last year). Now this represents $3.1 trillion in national wealth that is no longer in the US. And that's just China. The total trade deficit is now on the order of $600 billion annually or more than 5% of the GDP. China has this huge inflow of cash which it using to both build itself into a 21st century superpower and also to make a profit on US Treasury Bonds which are financing federal deficit spending. I cannot see this as a sustainable situation. We, as a nation, are approaching bankruptcy and the creditors are nations which may pose a serious threat to our national security.

I feel that an important step in reversing this problem would be to strengthen the US economy with jobs that produce consumer and industrial products. We cannot, in my opinion, remain a nation with a high standard of living when the population is not producing anything of value to export or consume domestically. It is very much in the national interest to have a skilled work force that is manufacturing such products. The problem is how to accomplish that in the face of low cost labor overseas. For starters, we need tort reform so that every manufacturer would not be anticipating frivolous lawsuits with every product it manufactures. I am intrigued by the "loser pays" system in use across western Europe. That would take a tremendous burden off US manufacturers. It would have the added benefit of cutting the ruinous health care costs that are now such a big factor in the salaries of American workers.

Now there will still be the issue of trying to compete with salaries of pennies per hour in countries such as China and Bangladesh. And that's where I believe the federal government needs to intervene. It seems to me that there should be something of a tiered system for tariffs on products imported into the US. It would be based on the standard of living of foreign countries as well as environmental laws there and whether or not they have tariffs on US made products. It would work something like this: There would be three tiers which a nation could be placed in based on the above mentioned factors. Countries which have a standard of living comparable to or better than the US would be in the first tier, and there would be no tariffs provided that they have no significant barriers to the import of US products. This first tier would include Japan, western Europe and Canada. The second tier would be nations that have a lower standard of living but are improving. It's hard to say which ones specifically would be in that group but I'm thinking in terms of South America and Eastern Europe. Products from these countries should have a small tariff--perhaps 20-30%. The final tier would include countries such as China, Bangladesh, Vietnam and others in that economic category. Products coming from these countries should have a 100% tariff placed on them as they enter the US. They are not operating on the same playing field as we are and their countries are wracked with poverty and pollution which no more advanced nation would tolerate. They can still sell their products to us but they will have an incentive to improve conditions for their populations as a whole in order to reach the next level. It would also benefit the US to the extent that it would help pay off the deficit and create a more favorable economic environment for domestic job creation--which would also help the US economy by producing tax revenue. And it really would not be a tremendous burden on third world manufacturers either. As an example, I'll cite the cost of imported bicycles since that's an area with which I have some familiarity. China can build a good quality mountain bike for approximately $90. Shipping charges add another $20-30 and import duties add a bit more. The domestic shipping charges will add another $20 or so to get it to the wholesaler which makes a substantial markup--on the order of 100% or a bit less--when selling it to the retailer. Most retail bike shops try to get a 35+% margin on bikes (for the record I operate on closer to 25%--which is why I am not too popular among some of my competitors). The net result is that the $90 bike in China retails for around $500 in the US. A tariff of 100% on that bike would add $90 to the cost, but with tort reform the wholesaler would be able to operate on a much lower markup.

This obviously is a very basic outline of what I think should be done. But I do believe that the US needs to move in this direction and do so very soon. It has to be a complete package though. Tariffs will not be effective without tort reform. And though I am strongly opposed to many, if not most, of the policies of the Bush administration, I would glad support any solid efforts to move the country in this direction.

Marc's Response:

There is also a cultural dimension to the problem of job loss: we owe much to our accumulated knowledge of manufacturing. The Industrial Revolution in America was based principally on small manufacturing in New England. Interdependent communities of manufacturers gave New England strength that came in very useful in ultimately defeating the Confederacy: the hasty efforts of the Southerners to come up to speed came to naught. Historians have remarked that had the rebellion occurred in 1850, it would have likely been successful, but by 1860, the accumulated population growth and agricultural and industrial strength of the North could not be overcome.

Even today, when you visit Salt Lake City, a direct descendant of the culture of northern New York, you find block after block of thriving small industry producing all manner of manufactures: quite a contrast to Albuquerque, where everybody stocks shelves.

If manufacturing departs from the U.S., scientific progress will depart with it: there are indissoluble bonds between the health of industry and the health of science. Security will depart too: the bonds between manufacturing and arms production are
indissoluble too. Basically the U.S. will become a second-rate power. We will lose what control we have over our destiny.

Freneau's 1792 Essay

Paperwight's marvellous find describes our political moment well!

Liberal Silence Regarding Bush's Inauguration

What do you say when Darth Vader won't leave your home, despite your protests? Not much to say, really...

Bhutan Banned Smoking?

Good for them! That would never work in the U.S.A., though, home of the tobacco plant! Why, the stuff grows here like weeds!

The Way Intelligence Should be Done

Same as with science: bureaucracies that are organized vertically, not horizontally, do better. Witness the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR) track record.

Annie vs. Kylie

"Come in Kylie, your time is up." Hmmm.... Ill-mannered bravado. The most striking thing about Kylie - well, among 20 or so of the most striking things about Kylie - is her attention to the musical past of pop - her historical sense. Kylie doesn't diss anyone, at least publicly. Annie may be gunning to be Queen of Pop, but her goal will elude her if she doesn't pay attention to the ouevre. Indeed, Annie sounds remarkably Kylie-esque, and as Kylie would certainly understand, that is no accident.

Petty Paris

Petty theft? Paris Hilton? And yet, who can blame her?

"Hook 'em Horns"

Norwegians confuse Bush salute with hailing Satan. No, the Norwegians interpreted that gesture correctly!

Also, in American Sign Language, the gesture means: "bull shit."

Either interpretation works for me.

Black Metal Review

Amusingly dark Review of the "Top 10 Most Ridiculous Black Metal Pics of All Time."

That Idiot Andrew Sullivan Again

Feeble defense:

I never believed and still do not believe that Hans Blix or the U.N. would ever have been able to confirm beyond doubt that Saddam had gotten rid of all his WMD stockpiles or research ambitions.

You can't prove negatives Andrew. We can't prove the Burmese aren't preparing a WMD attack on America. Or Palauans. Or Antarctic penguins.

Frickin' idiot.

Good Cop, Bad Cop

Good ol' Dick Cheney:

"Well, one of the concerns people have is that Israel might do it without being asked," Mr. Cheney said. "If, in fact, the Israelis became convinced the Iranians had a significant nuclear capability, given the fact that Iran has a stated policy that their objective is the destruction of Israel, the Israelis might well decide to act first, and let the rest of the world worry about cleaning up the diplomatic mess afterwards."

"We don't want a war in the Middle East, if we can avoid it," he said. "In the case of the Iranian situation, I think everybody would be best suited or best treated and dealt with if we could deal with it diplomatically."

Huygens News Conference

Excerpts:

Titan's soil appears to consist at least in part of precipitated deposits of the organic haze that shrouds the planet. This dark material settles out of the atmosphere. When washed off high elevations by methane rain, it concentrates at the bottom of the drainage channels and riverbeds contributing to the dark areas seen in DISR images.

New, stunning evidence based on finding atmospheric argon 40 indicates that Titan has experienced volcanic activity generating not lava, as on Earth, but water ice and ammonia.

Thus, while many of Earth's familiar geophysical processes occur on Titan, the chemistry involved is quite different. Instead of liquid water, Titan has liquid methane. Instead of silicate rocks, Titan has frozen water ice. Instead of dirt, Titan has hydrocarbon particles settling out of the atmosphere, and instead of lava, Titanian volcanoes spew very cold ice.

Titan is an extraordinary world having Earth-like geophysical processes operating on exotic materials in very alien conditions.

Recall Alumni At Work

Leonard Padilla and Chuck Pineda, Jr., both 2003 California Recall gubernatorial candidate alumni, have announced their candidacies for late Robert Matsui's Sacramento congressional seat.

Chuck Pineda's passion is turning juveniles away from gangs and gang violence. It seems to me his interests are perfectly suited for the environment these days in the U.S. House of Representatives.

(Matsui's death caught us all a bit flat-footed: otherwise, more of us might have run for the seat. The 500-signature deadline is Monday, January 24th).

Professionalizing Amateurs

From The Wall Street Journal, January 20, 2005:

To overcome opposition to his program, Mr. Bush will turn to the same hard-charging machine that helped him win re-election. Republicans plan to stage what amounts to a permanent grassroots campaign....

It will be a broad and hi-tech effort aimed at lawmakers from both parties. The centerpiece will be Bush himself....

Republicans are trying to organize activists who were mobilized for the 2004 presidential campaign into a standing political army. Its ranks potentially include 1.4 million volunteers and 7.5 million "e-activists" linked to the Bush team by campaign e-mail lists. They will be urged to call radio talk shows, write to newspapers and contact their elected representatives. In return, activists can earn points, in a system akin to a frequent flier program, which can be used to buy gear from the Republican National Committee.

From Wikipedia:

Vladimir Lenin, leader of the Bolsheviks during the First Russian Revolution and first ruler of the Soviet Union, created the concept of the "vanguard of the proletariat." He believed that a successful Communist revolution could be achieved by professional revolutionaries who would presumably represent the proletariat. Lenin's expansion upon Marx's original theory of communism came to be known as Marxism-Leninism, an ideology that held significant worldwide influence following the successful Bolshevik Revolution in Russia. Under Joseph Stalin the phrase, in practice, also essentially came to be understood as a dictatorship in the name of the proletariat.

Humboldt Squid Attack Orange County

These babies are recent intruders, probably because so many of the big fin fish have been wiped out (LA Times article last year). Strange that they are so far north!

That Ass, Andrew Sullivan

So, Mickey Kaus is picking a fight? Andrew Sullivan lost me when he had nothing at all critical to say regarding U.S. forces standing aside while priceless gems like the Iraqi National Archives were getting torched. What an ass! So much for being some kind of uber-political figure! Like Hitchens, he degenerated into an embarrassing political hack. Unlike George W. Bush, he can still have his moment of accountability, to the blogosphere. Live by the blogosphere, die by the blogosphere!

Equinimity

Taking inspiration from Atrios:

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Bill Thomas (R-Calif.) predicted yesterday that partisan warfare over Social Security will quickly render President Bush's plan "a dead horse" and called on Congress to undertake a broader review of the problems of an aging nation.

(This was where the horse head scene from "The Godfather" was supposed to go, but I changed my mind.)

Getting to the Root of the Democrats' Problem

(Why we need people like George Soros - to help provide the resources to help fill in the role once played by the Brookings Institution in the 1960's.) Amy Sullivan in the Washington Monthly:

This Peters Principle effect of Democratic operatives rising—or muscling their way—up to the level of their incompetence, happens for a simple reason: The consultants are filling a vacuum. After all, someone has to formulate the message that a candidate can use to win the voters' support. Conservatives have spent 30 years and billions of dollars on think tanks and other organizations to develop a set of interlinked policies and language that individual Republican candidates and campaigns can adopt in plug-and-play fashion. Liberals are far behind in this message development game. Indeed, most Democratic elected officials have been running recently on warmed-up leftovers from the Clinton brain trust, ideas which were once innovative but are now far from fresh....

Rosenberg hints at a second Democratic deficit: The party has no truly brilliant strategists in positions of power. Such talent is always rare in both parties and tends to come out of the political hinterlands, often as part of a winning presidential campaign team.

More Tales of Sacramento at Night

When we head out into the foggy gloom of a Sacramento night, Sparky runs with boundless enthusiasm (I rarely have him on a leash), but as soon as he senses we are returning, his walking slows and he begins a dilatory meandering. Thus, while walking back on 21st Street in this morning's wee hours, the man in fatigues, trudging determinedly north with the aid of a cane, was able to catch up to us.

H. was miles from his downtown apartment. His car had broken down near City College. His muttering was a little hard to understand. He bemoaned the accident last year, when he broke his back and slashed his hand. Apparently he tried to scale the sound wall bordering the South Sacramento railroad and light rail line, got tangled at the top of the wall, slashed his hand, fell backwards, and broke his back (all the while, I guess, still caught on the wall?) The only saving grace was that rescue came quickly.

His wife was bound to be worried. She hailed, surprisingly enough, from Rwanda (I'm sure there were stories about that too, but after seeing 'Hotel Rwanda' the other night, I didn't want to press him). Like me, H. kept late hours, which he blamed on the addictive powers of 'mah jongg' games on his PC.

I asked him why he decided to scale the sound wall rather than walk around it. I don't remember the exact answer, but it went something like:

1. it was a long way to walk around the sound wall;
2. the store he wanted to visit was closing soon;
3. he apparently is no longer as young as he would like to think.

I decided to give this fellow a ride to his home. As I dropped Sparky off at my home, and went to get my driver's license, H. cackled at my car's bumper stickers and checked his blood sugar. On the ride to his apartment, he wondered whether his grand niece was working the late shift at 'Pizza by the Slice.' He got out of the car with a bit of a struggle, and disappeared into the foggy Sacramento mist. I hope he gets that car fixed soon!

DMTC

I like "Plan B" more and more. I will pray for "Plan B" tonight!

Hotel Rwanda

Saw Hotel Rwanda just now (along with Gabe). First impression: a really excellent movie that does its best to convey the horror, without actually showing the horror. It's a hard road to walk in these days of the graphic reality film, but in general, the suggestion of horror is more effective than the numbing reality. We must remember that we are all capable of genocide, and it's very instructive to show how even the tremor of people caring elsewhere in the world can save thousands, and how lack of care can also result in the loss of thousands. We are all our brother's keepers.

Graniteville Update

Here is Walt's update (dated January 17, 2005) on events following the big chlorine spill site in Graniteville, SC (Walt lives in nearby Aiken):

This is a follow-up about the January 6 train accident at Graniteville, South Carolina, which occurred six miles from my house. The death toll remains at 9, and only one person is still in critical condition. He has two collapsed lungs, and may not live. Chlorine has been removed from the tank cars, although it is still in the ground, and there also is much sodium hydroxide strewn about. Hazmat people are determining how much contaminated soil will have to be removed. People are returning to their
homes, and taking stock.

All 5400 people living within a mile of ground zero were evacuated from their homes the day of the crash, including the county sheriff's family. Surrounding the 1-mile radius circle was a buffer zone with a dusk-to-dawn curfew. It had the dual purpose of protecting residents in case one of the other two chlorine tankers ruptured, and also made it difficult for looters to enter the circle. I live two miles outside the curfew zone.

Part of US Highway 1, the main thoroughfare between Aiken and Augusta, was closed for 9 days. My wife works in Augusta, and had to take a detour every day. You can imagine the traffic when cars from a 4-lane highway are diverted to local roads. Several 18-wheeler trailer cities have sprung up in parking lots along Route 1 since the accident. They belong to emergency services vendors and agencies. Even the Coast Guard has a trailer here, although we're 120 miles from the coast.

On January 13 and 14, a week after the accident, 3500 people returned to their homes and pets. Today (June 17), maybe 1000 people are still not home. Several returnees were quoted saying they don't feel safe in Graniteville anymore, and plan to move. I don't know how widespread that feeling is. The animal control department has custody of a bunch of pets which they evacuated out of people's yards and empty houses; with all the confusion after the accident, many of them are not documented as to which property they were taken from. Six dogs and cats died after being reunited with their families. I guess they didn't have enough water after their families left, and suffered kidney failure.

It is now confirmed that the cause of the collision was failure of the parked train's crew to reset the switch back to the main track from the siding. Starting about 4 days after the accident, big advertisements from attorneys began appearing in all local newspapers offering legal advice to anyone affected by railroad accidents. At least three class-action lawsuits have been filed, by out-of-state law firms. Some attorneys were escorted by police out of Graniteville; South Carolina has an ambulance-chasing law. After the news media gave wide circulation to the liability releases which the Norfolk & Southern Railroad printed on the relief checks which they distributed to evacuees, the railroad reconsidered and now says that those waivers don't mean anything. Sixty people have gone to the motor vehicle bureau to have the addresses on their driver's licenses changed to Graniteville addresses. The sheriff, who lives in Graniteville, had many of them arrested. The family of a woman killed in an unrelated accident in Graniteville last November, while trying to beat a train to the crossing, has filed a negligence lawsuit against the railroad.

Graniteville's middle school is directly across the street from the collision site. If it had occurred during the day instead of at night, with 500 kids present, it would have been an American Bhopal. South Carolina allows Hazmat trains to go through urban areas during the day. What about your state? Tests indicate that there was little physical damage to the school, and it will reopen January 18. The sheriff plans to personally take his son to school, to demonstrate confidence in its safety. In contrast to a certain southern stereotype, our sheriff is not fat, and is very popular. He had an excellent opportunity to mug for the cameras and get on national news, but did not do that.

The big question in everybody's mind now is: what will happen to Avondale Mills? The textile company employs 2,500 people, and is the second largest employer in Aiken County (my employer, Savannah River Site, is the largest). Most Avondale employees have been idle since January 6, although Norfolk Southern is paying their wages. Avondale did receive significant physical damage, in addition to 6 employee deaths. The administrative building was directly in front of the crash, and chlorine gas destroyed the computers, along with company payroll, tax, sales, and inventory data.

Avondale owns about 6 separate mills in the Graniteville area; employees died at two of them, and a couple more are next to those. The mills have an assessed value of about $250 million(!) The public hasn't heard much yet about corrosion to equipment. However, there is much vulnerability, at least for the 2 or 4 buildings nearest ground zero. Copper wiring in circuits and motors are susceptible to corrosion, and power looms use a lot of wire for mechanically manipulating yarn.

The bigger problem is that the textile industry in general, Avondale included, is losing business to Asia. Four textile companies have gone out of business in Aiken County since 1980; Avondale is the only one left. They've run losses of $5 million per year for the past 3 years, out of total annual sales of about $550 million. They can't keep that up forever, but things are getting worse for them; a key tariff on Chinese textile imports expired at the end of 2004, so Avondale would have found it more difficult to turn a profit in 2005, even had the accident not occurred.

Avondale must now be under great temptation to cash in their railroad, insurance, and federal disaster area checks, and shut down some or all Aiken County operations for good. If I owned the mills, I'd sure be thinking hard about that. So far, everybody is putting on a brave front, and the owner, who lives in Georgia, is talking about how much Graniteville is important to him, and how the employees are like a big family, etc. But I don't see how Avondale can avoid closing, unless the state and maybe even the feds waive their taxes. Everybody knows it, but won't say it.

Some Things To Do Before The Inaugural

Making its way through the Internet. For some reason, points 9,15, 20, and 27 are missing (probably mentioned the Patriot Act, Cheney's Energy Task Force, or U.S. plans for Iran):

1. Get that abortion you've always wanted.
2. Drink a nice clean glass of water.
3. Cash your social security check.
4. See a doctor of your own choosing.
5. Spend quality time with your draft age child/grandchild.
6. Visit any foreign country.
7. Get that gas mask you've been putting off buying.
8. Hoard gasoline.
10. Borrow books from library before they're banned - Constitutional law books, Catcher in the Rye, Harry Potter, Tropic of Cancer, etc.
11. If you have an idea for an art piece involving a crucifix - do it now.
12. Come out - then go back in - HURRY!
13. Jam in all the Alzheimer's stem cell research you can.
14. Stay out late before the curfews start.
16. Go see Bruce Springsteen before he has his "accident".
17. Go see Mount Rushmore before the Reagan addition.
18. Use the phrase - "you can't do that - this is America".
19. If you're white - marry a black person, if you're black - marry a white person.
21. Take a walk in Yosemite, without being hit by a snowmobile or a base-jumper.
22. Enroll your kid in an accelerated art or music class.
23. Start your school day without a prayer.
24. Pass on the secrets of evolution to future generations.
26. Learn French.
28. Attend a commitment ceremony with your gay friends.
29. Take a factory tour anywhere in the US.
30. Try to take photographs of animals on the endangered species list.
31. Visit Florida before the polar ice caps melt.
32. Visit Nevada before it becomes radioactive.
33. Visit Alaska before "The Big Spill".
34. Visit Massachusetts while it is still a State.

Bitch Slapping

Senator Barbara Boxer questioned Condi Rice's integrity today at Rice's confirmation hearing for Secretary of State! Imagine! About time someone judged Rice for her lies, cluelessness, and general smarminess.

"I will not allow you to impugn my integrity." Huh? What integrity? Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!

Bankruptcy "Reform" Machine Rumbles Again To Life

Bad ideas never die: they just wait for a new Congress to get seated.

State of Fear

I just received this from a good friend who teaches university-level meteorology and climatology:

I just purchased "State of Fear", the latest opus from schlockmeister Michael Crichton. I bought it because I'd heard that it has something to do with climate change. After reading the first hundred pages or so, however, I was completely baffled. Then, I read the epilogue and looked at the bibliography (yes!) and visited some web sites and I now realize that I have basically wasted my money. Apparently, the plot concerns killer environmentalists who wreak havoc around the globe to further their lies about global warming. Their purpose: to preserve their sources of funding! As is typical with Crichton, there is just enough science to convince non-scientists that he knows what he's talking about. Most of the references in his bibliography could have been selected by the Cato Institute. I'd be worried that his book might influence public opinion, but I doubt that many people will be able to plow through this turgid volume. (I mean, he's actually got graphs in the book, for crying out loud!) Of course, it's being praised by the usual suspects (e.g., George Will) and predictably denounced by others (e.g., any scientist who actually knows anything about climate change.) He suffers from the usual syndrome of the scientific ideologue: he assumes that results that support his thesis are true and that those that contradict it are false. One example: in his bibliography, he cites a paper in which the authors conclude that the contribution of land-use changes to the rise in global mean surface temperature is considerably larger than indicated in previous calculations. Naturally, the more recent calculations must be correct. I mean, they wouldn't have gotten it published otherwise, right?

Still, there's one good thing about the book: it's gotten me fired up about the coming semester!

By the way, here's a good discussion of Crichton's faulty science (a lot of people have written much more thoughtful comments than mine!)

Marc:

What I like is that you've actually read the thing (better than a lot of reviewers do!) I've already heard the Crichton book is a piece of crap. I'm amazed how easy it is to stampede people on these issues: people love to hear what they want, I guess. Even a close acquaintance is always saying that climate scientists in the mid-70's thought an Ice Age was nigh (despite my predictable objection - it was always a minority opinion at that time).

Radiant Sunburst

Who is today's mystery guest on Marc Valdez Weblog?





Why, it's that radiant Argentine sunburst herself, Andrea Eve Thorpe! 'Andee' plays a marvellous, nuanced "Evita" at DMTC this month! What an actress! I photographed her just after Saturday January 15th's performance (which explains the little microphone still attached to her head). Two more weeks of performances - don't miss Andee's tour-de-force!

First Images From Amazing Huygens!


To me it looks like Huygens landed on a cobble-strewn tidal flat! Where are the seaweed and the crabs, the fishing boats and the puffy clouds?

And those valleys, morphologically stubby, usually signify sapping of some sort (with runoff not principally from 'rainfall'), but sapping of what from what is unclear. I thought it was too warm for liquid methane: am I wrong? Ethane or propane, anyone? Porous ice filled with liquid hydrocarbons? When, or does, it rain?

There's some signs of wind erosion too, from the photos last July. What is the role of the wind in shaping the landscape? Is wind more important than rain (unlike Earth)? What are the Saturnian tides like? Does the slow rotation rate make a difference?

And why does it look like the fluids flow away from the 'ocean', rather than into it? Doesn't look like a delta to me (unlike what others have said): more like a decaying a highland area, but am I wrong? Is the 'bedrock' turning rotten from years of sapping, with some fluids flowing in, and others flowing out?

Such a great place to land - so lucky that the area is a transitional zone, and not just one type or the other, not just 'land' or 'ocean'! I always thought the pictures from last July showing the general Huygens landing area vicinity on Titan looked suspiciously like the Mediterranean, with the actual landing spot somewhere in Greece. Here we are in a new cradle of civilization!

It's Not Funny! It's Not Funny! It's Not! Not!

Well, maybe a little bit! (sent by Deborah):

Ignorant Stories

Well, blast it all, my five stories didn't make it onto B3ta's 'Best' page this week. I had fun with the contest, though. B3ta's Question of the Week was:

What astonishingly stupid stuff have you overheard people saying? Tell us, and tell the world.

Here were my five stories (two previously blogged):

• Rear View Mirror A friend once stated he never uses his rear view mirrors when he drives: he's interested only in where he's going, not where he's been. Same fellow never used a lamp when bicycling at night. Cracked his skull on a similarly-clueless bicyclist coming from the other way.
• Take a Shower Stayed overnight at the old Aladdin Hotel in Las Vegas, once a magnet for the dense. The shower was governed by a big dial: rotate left for hot, right for cold. But how to turn the shower on? No helpful hints. Many frantic calls later, half of hotel management helped me PULL the sticky dial away from the wall. No surprise they finally blew the place up.
• Why Don't Slot Machines Yield More Jackpots? For every slot machine on the casino floor, there is a doppelganger machine hidden above the ceiling, manned by a casino employee, whose job is to fight your crafty spins and keep you from becoming a millionaire (so says a friend, and I believe her).
• Being Retarded When I was but 19, I lived briefly in Englewood, Colorado, USA, a suburb of Denver. If I missed the first bus to work, I caught the second bus, which numerous retarded people also caught on their way to their work. It was a loopy good time, singing songs and sharing stories with these civil folk. One weekend in downtown Denver, quite by accident, I ran into several of my retarded friends, who were busy talking to a businessman. My friends immediately pulled me into the conversation. The businessman assumed that if I already knew these folks, then I must be retarded too. None of my carefully-worded statements shook his considered judgment - he simply responded, in a slow sing-song voice: "So, do you go to a workshop every day too?" It's nice being slow!
• Miniaturization
  A co-worker (male) was explaining the swift turnover of computer technology to the wide-eyed new employee (female): "Ah, you're too young to remember the era of the eight-inch dics."

Cautious Optimism

Huygens appears to have made it onto Titan! The first priority is apparently downloading data, first to Cassini and then to Earth, but maybe later today we'll get to see some images!

Huygens Powers Up

A few minutes before ten o'clock this evening.

Michigan Fog Crash

Sigh. I need to update my list again. Accidents are happening faster than I can log them.

Here's a recitation of some historic fog crashes.

A Rabbit's Work is Never Done


Cloudy says it's hard to be police rabbit.


Evidence of dark, dusty, coarse-haired Pomeranians everywhere!


And the gate-keeping duties. Makes you sneeze. Whew!

The Corruption of Academia

The illness keeps metastasizing. I remember arriving at the University of Utah in 1989, just after its reputation had been effectively destroyed by the 'Discovery of Cold Fusion.' It was clear the university's luckless administrators didn't learn much by their humiliation (although I heard them joke about it privately): the bloodsuckers just kept scouring the campus looking for projects, old and new, to puff up for patents. Arizona State and Univ. of Arizona hadn't been much better than U of U: just luckier.

Administrators and politicians push campuses too hard! Education is education: it won't pay for itself! Open your wallet and get over it!

The Prodigal Woman

So Evita Peron had a role in six movies in about nine years? Sluggish rise that ultimately became meteoric!

Where I'd Like To Be Buried

Except that I'm not a parishioner of San Ysidro Church, or *gasp!* even a Catholic. It's just that I rode past here every single school day on the yellow school bus for, what, 12 years or so?

Let Sauron & Saruman Be Sauron & Saruman

Regarding who is going to lead these Salvador Option death squads, I second funnyman Colin Quinn, and blogger Jesus' General:

He's got a haircut, he's rested, he's written a mountain of bad poetry, did a bit of spider-hole gardening, probably even read Stephen Ambrose's 3-volume biography of Nixon: time to open the jailhouse door and let Saddam be Saddam!

And while we're letting Saddam go free, there's no reason to get too worked up about Osama bin Laden....too much trouble, really.

If Rats Are Multilingual

(From Celia's brother's blog) What about Pomeranians - or lop-eared rabbits?

Death Squad Reliability

I hadn't thought of it, but it's a good point nonetheless: who says the unreliable Iraqi troops that could well staff our Salvadoran Option death squads won't use their skills against our own?

The Advance of American Fascism

An excellent description of the problem.

Huygens Descent - January 14th

The day that some of our most talented and patient space scientists have been waiting for, for decades really, and certainly since launch seven years ago, finally arrives on Friday: Huygens plunges through Titan's atmosphere, and lands on the surface! What will it find? I wonder if I have the fortitude to stay up all night? It's supposed to land at 4 a.m. PST (ouch). I know SOME folks in Pasadena will stay up all night, though!

Bev's Review of Evita

Is out! As annoying and distracting as that little emblem is that keeps flashing up on the corner of the back-stage screen, I kind of like it...there is a certain alienating quality about it, as if the moment is being recorded for posterity - the moment is not just for the living alone. My understanding is that Steve figured out how to make it go away, though......

"Grapes of Warth" Watch

"I think my voice is going Hayward."

Party at the Expense of D.C. Security

Via Talking Points Memo, today's story in the Washington Post:

D.C. officials said yesterday that the Bush administration is refusing to reimburse the District for most of the costs associated with next week's inauguration, breaking with precedent and forcing the city to divert $11.9 million from homeland security projects.

Federal officials have told the District that it should cover the expenses by using some of the $240 million in federal homeland security grants it has received in the past three years -- money awarded to the city because it is among the places at highest risk of a terrorist attack.

..........

A spokesman for Rep. Thomas M. Davis III (R-Va.), chairman of the House Government Reform Committee, which oversees the District, agreed with the mayor's stance. He called the Bush administration's position "simply not acceptable."

"It's an unfunded mandate of the most odious kind. How can the District be asked to take funds from important homeland security projects to pay for this instead?" said Davis spokesman David Marin.

The region has earmarked federal homeland security funds for such priorities as increasing hospital capacity, equipping firefighters with protective gear and building transit system command centers.

Armstrong Williams

Come, on, this is killing me.....who else is on the payroll?

Hailing from the land of the Abanakis, Wampum found this marvelous quote by Armstrong Williams, in 1992:

My father had only a third grade education, but he taught me what I think is the most important principle in business: You don't make money unless you help other people make money.

Zbigniew Brzezinski

...A great deal of what is happening thus far in American Foreign Policy has been influenced by the ongoing conflict in Iraq. Now I would like to say very briefly that in my view, that war which was a war of choice is already a serious moral set back to the United States. A moral set back both in how we started, how it was justified, and because of some of the egregious incidents that have accompanied this proceeding. The moral costs to the United States are high. It's a political setback.

The United States has never been involved in an intervention in its entire history like it is today. It is also a military set back. "Mission Accomplished" are words that many in this administration want to forget.

While our ultimate objectives are very ambitious we will never achieve democracy and stability without being willing to commit 500,000 troops, spend $200 billion a year, probably have a draft, and have some form of war compensation.

As a society, we are not prepared to do that. It does tell you something. The Soviet Union could have won the war in Afghanistan too had it been prepared to do its equivalent of what I just mentioned. But even the Soviet Union was not prepared to do that because there comes a point in the life of a nation when such sacrifices are not justified. . .and only time will tell if the United States is facing a moment of wisdom, or is resigned to cultural decay. This certainly is the challenge.

Chlorine Accident at Graniteville, SC

From Walt, in Aiken, SC:

You’ve probably seen the news story about the train wreck at Graniteville, South Carolina last Thursday (January 6), which killed 9, injured several hundred, and forced the evacuation of 5400 people. The wreck occurred 6 miles from our house.

Graniteville is a small town very close to Aiken; there is only about 1 mile of undeveloped land between the two municipalities. Looking at a map, one would be tempted to call Graniteville a suburb of Aiken. However, it has an independent history, and it is very different from Aiken. Aiken was a vacation resort for much of its history, but Graniteville was and is a company town, built to support the Avondale textile mill. About half of the acreage of Graniteville is given over to a sprawling complex of textile factories owned by the Avondale Company, which makes denim. Surrounding and between the factories are neighborhoods of shotgun houses and other small dwellings; mostly about 100 years old, and perhaps 800 square feet in size. The place reminds me of Albuquerque’s barrio; however, its inhabitants are mostly low-income whites – pizza delivery guys, etc. I walk my dog Maggie over there sometimes, because they have a canal dating from 1845, and many of the small yards have dogs who Maggie can meet.

At 2:40am on Thursday, a 42-car freight train traveling 49 mph collided with a parked train on a siding. It appears that the parked train’s crew failed to set the switch correctly. Several cars carrying chemicals ruptured, including a tanker with 90 tons of liquefied chlorine. The cloud surrounded a textile factory with about 30 people working the night shift, and entered the plant’s ventilation system. The factory has a real fast ventilation system because they use a lot of flammable and toxic solvents. About two dozen Avondale employees ran through the cloud to their cars, but 6 employees didn’t make it and died at the scene, including the supervisor who stayed to see everybody out and to shut off the machines. Three others were killed: a truck driver sleeping in his cab, a guy in a neighboring house, and the train engineer. About 300 people sought medical treatment, about 5 of whom remain in critical condition today. Five thousand were evacuated; many were not able to take their clothes, medicines, or pets. Observers in helicopters could see lots of dead dogs in the yards. As of today – Monday night, 4 days later, residents have not yet returned to their homes. The coal supply in the Avondale boilerhouse caught fire; yesterday it had not yet been brought under control – chlorine supports combustion.

In addition to killing and hurting people and animals, the chlorine also corroded everything exposed to it. Survivors say their wedding rings turned black as they ran through the cloud. The Graniteville Fire Department got their trucks corroded and trashed from the fumes. I imagine many of the residents got their vehicles & houses messed up.

It seems that the Norfolk & Southern railroad is completely at fault here. Just two months ago, five Avondale employees were killed trying to beat a train to the crossing, only two blocks from where last week’s accident occurred. After that incident –even though it was the car driver’s fault – the county government tried to get the railroad to slow their trains down from 50 mph to 25 mph when going through Graniteville. As you might imagine in a 150-year old mill town, buildings sit very close to each other, and close to the railroad too. The railroad declined to slow the trains down, saying “We have not received any request to slow down”; a perhaps contemptuous response.

This time, only two months later, one would hope that the railroad would be generous to the impacted population. So they offered $300 checks to the evacuated people – most of whom are low-income and who live from paycheck to paycheck. The checks had a printed section saying that by signing the check, the payee waives any additional compensation claims against Norfolk & Southern deriving from the accident in Graniteville on 1/6/05. How nice of them.

Marc's Reply:

Here are some descriptions of the Graniteville accident.

Railroads have been sneakier of late regarding safety issues. Unfortunately the NY Times charges for this stuff, but here is one cost-free version of a recent article, plus part of the three-part series last July, where Bogdanich from the NY Times went after Union Pacific:

Back in 1989-1990, for a U of U fog-seeding project, I visited the Salt Lake City Sewage Treatment Plant on a regular basis. I remember the care they took with chlorine safety. They explained that if the alarms ever sounded, we were to run like bats out of hell, and don't dare breathe and don't dare stop. That always worried me, especially if exits were blocked, or if the wind wasn't favorable. Plus all those folks in the Jordan River Valley below!

This sounds like a worst-case calamity. Poor nighttime dispersion. Many people nearby asleep or in an inconvenient position to flee. No applicable safety drill. Large amount of chlorine. Best for the affected folks NOT to cash those checks, and instead file lawsuits. What a calamity!

My Leather Jacket is Back From Las Vegas

But (courtesy of Gabe) not without a harrowing journey in cyberspace first:

Jacket worn by Loser
Owned by Marc Valdez, Failed California Gubernatorial Candidate
Interested? Contact Sinclair Media.

This jacket sucks!
-Right-wing guy

Girly Men only vear this jacket! Ve vear 'North Face' in Salzburg, and Sacramento too!
-Arnold something or other

Hey, this jacket's pretty neat! It probably fits.
-Roseanne Barr

I have a lot in common with Mr. Valdez. It tells me a lot about the common circumstances that enables all of us, no matter what our situations that provides a certain amount of respect for our common individualities to show that we're ready to pass on the gauntlet... (Microphone taken away)
-Senator John Kerry

I'll buy it, but it is really out of date, and needs some restructuring - like that other thingy I am working on...what's it called?
-President George W. Bush

American Monster

Exhibit One: Charles Graner. (Exhibit Two, actually: Rush Limbaugh is Exhibit One, for promoting this angle of defense).

Martian Heiligenschein



All about the shadow of Spirit's 'head' in Image 20 of the MER Top 25 images (25 raw image picks) there is a startlingly-clear dry heiligenschein (the shiny halo). Interestingly, the heilgenschein is displaced slightly upwards from the anti-solar point (which lies directly behind Spirit's head). Is that displacement just an accident, due to the presence of a cluster of better-reflecting rocks on the surface just above the shadow of Spirit's head, or is something else going on?

Are there crystals on the surface of some sort (platy crystals....feldspar maybe?) that are refracting sunlight to some extent, or are there maybe little spheres of some crystalline material on the surface?

There even seems to be a heiligenschein streak trending off to the upper right of the image. Why is that there? The apparent orientation of the rocks is horizontal (they lie on their sides), not vertical, and not trending to the upper right of the image. So why not a horizontal heiligenschein? Is the heiligenschein established just by the accident of the distribution of the rocks on the surface? Why? Why? Why?

(reference: Robert Greenler's Rainbows, Halos, and Glories, 1991 reprint, p. 146-149).

Searchlight of the Solar System

Saturn's moon Iapetus has a bright hemisphere and a dark hemisphere, quite unlike those of any other body in the solar system. Arthur C. Clarke used Iapetus in his book "2001: A Space Odyssey" as a cosmic signal to alert humanity to a superior intelligence's presence (the movie moved the setting to Jupiter, however, because Saturn is just so far away). New pictures from space probe Cassini are provoking renewed debate about what the light and dark sides are made of!

The Salvador Option

It doesn't matter whether the U.S. opts for the "Salvador Option" in Iraq, or not. People forget that what drove the Salvadoran opposition to the negotiation table in 1992 wasn't the U.S. sponsored death squads of the 1980's: instead, it was the implosion of the U.S.S.R., and the loss of weaponry and international support (mostly from a suddenly impoverished Cuba) that resulted. Just as important was the sudden lack of interest of the U.S. in continuing to sponsor its side of the war. Suddenly faced with fickle sponsors, the Salvadoran combatants decided to lay down arms and start politicking again.

Employing the "Salvadoran Option" in Iraq won't work: Kurdish and Shiite hit men don't know their way around the Sunni areas that well. Even if they are successful at their assassinations, that violence just inflames the next round of civil war payback. The whole point, after all, is to quell the fighting, not start another round. There is still a lot of stashed weaponry and money, and plenty of willing recruits, to continue the war, even if Syrian and Saudi connections are broken.

Sponsorship issues are not in play. We are fighting a colonial-style guerilla war against a well-armed native insurgency. To avoid yet more humiliation for America in Iraq, and help avoid an Iraqi civil war, when it comes to the "Salvador Option," our forces have to say: "just fuhgeddaboutit!"

Inconsistent Conservative Carpers

Regarding the U.S.'s incursion in Iraq, Donald Rumsfeld was real canny about keeping the troop number low: the necessary price for Congress giving the green light of war, and for blunting domestic opposition. Rumsfeld and the rest of the Vulcans are so well-insulated from Iraqi realities, however, that they'll never approve a serious increase the number of troops. They have trouble just establishing who their enemy is. They don't learn: they prefer to strike out blindly in righteous rage.

Kevin Drum is right about the inconsistency of conservative critiques (Fred Kagan, Andrew Sullivan, etc.) of Rumsfeld's continued low-troop-level stubbornness. Be that as it may. I have no qualms about impaling conservatives on the horns of their dilemma. Live by hubris and ignorance, die by hubris and ignorance. Couldn't happen to a more-deserving bunch.

Shell Game

So entitlements get the ax (how did NSF get in there?), but everything else runs out-of-control? The big problems are with everything else (e.g., foolish tax cuts), however. It'll be fun to watch the Republicans make these unpopular cuts and try to bamboozle the sorry chumps they call their constituents, while the top income brackets make out like bandits!

George Will, Scourge of Old Age

Prudent Bolshevik George Will goes for broke in his support for careless, malicious Social Security radicalism:

But surely it is prudent to assume the need, and reasonable to rejoice in the opportunity, to restructure a program that was designed during the Depression, when there was excessive pessimism about the prospects for American capitalism and there were more than 40 workers for every retiree.

The political problem is this: Even if the future were knowable and we knew that the Social Security solvency problem actually is smaller than Bush assumes, he would still favor reform involving personal accounts funded by a portion of payroll taxes. He believes such reform would be conducive to civic virtue, as conservatives understand that -- individualism, self-reliance, limited government.

Private accounts do mean self-reliance. Today, you can't outlive your Social Security benefits. With private accounts and long life spans, you are likely to do so. Soon it'll be time to get your bed-ridden, 98-year-old ass back into the work force.

American Fascism Settles In

From American Prospect:

[T]his administration’s belief that it could, without so much as giving notice to Congress and on no greater legal authority than the contrived judgment of the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel, break any convention on how we conduct a war is shocking and unconstitutional. If the Pentagon did indeed advise that "authority to set aside the laws is 'inherent in the president,'" as The Wall Street Journal reported, then the administration -- our next attorney general included -- apparently believes that there are no "applicable laws" in this country, not for those who work in the executive branch of the government.

... The U.S. Constitution makes it clear that Congress "make[s] Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces" and "Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water." Not the president, not the Justice or Defense Departments, not the White House counsel. The Congress.

Yet in total secrecy, the president -- with the best legal advice of his counsel Alberto Gonzales -- decided that, if he wanted to, he could do just that. He could overthrow the Constitution and circumvent Congress without so much as a word.