Two Kinds Who Should Never Rule

One of the hardest, and most important questions in the world, is: who should rule? Ideally we should have some type of anarcho-capitalism, but until that happy day comes (if ever) we're stuck with having some sort of rulers.

The only thing I know beyond all doubt is that there are two types of people who should never be allowed political power: the typical back-slapping, glad-handing politician, and business people. By business people I mean big business. Corporations that thrive under big government.

At the same time as my realizing what politicians are, I was also working for MBAs from Harvard and the University of Michigan. I was surprised at how limited they were in intelligence, knowledge and experience. They were just fine in their narrow little worlds, but just barely. And the "just barely" was because competition was keeping them on their toes. I used to imagine what these guys would be like in the federal government, with no competition, and the conclusion I came to was that they could often be worse than the glad-handers and knee-slappers.

Now I'm seeing the same kind of men in Dubya's administration. People may think that men like Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld know what they're doing, but they don't. Both are businessmen from the same mold as McNamara – humorless, totally serious men without imagination or wisdom. Both are convinced they know what they are doing, to the point where they believe they should completely ignore the public, or anyone who disagrees with them, but in reality they are the blind leading the blind. They think that their experience in running corporations somehow translates into running the government. It doesn't.

Either way, these aren't very good criticisms and they'd only be marginally better if they could be objectively proven.

It also isn't very valid to argue that someone is bad for a job because they are convinced they know what they are doing. I'm convinced I know what I'm doing when I drive to work. Should someone else, who isn't as convinced as I am, drive me to work?

He is right about the last part, but I dealt with that above.

Sooner or later, with the administration's attempts to conquer a fair chunk of the world, things are going to get away from them. These men understand hierarchy and giving orders. They understand the board room. They don't understand chaos and the world. And when things do get away from them, they won't know what to do. Even now, they've conquered one country – Afghanistan – and it's still not pacified. And they don't know what to do about it. What's going to happen when they conquer a few more countries?

The charges of imperialism are baseless in the context of setting up permanent external American States over the objections of the local population as the government sees fit. The reason we are in Afghanistan is because the country once left Al Qaeda free to operate as it wanted and the Taliban attempted to aid the terrorists the US sought in connection to 9/11, not to simply "pacify" the country. That's a gross distortion of reality, and on the same level as the kind Mr. Wallace previously railed against in policians.

I'm not sure if he's being negatively critical about the point of these men "understand[ing] hierarchy and giving orders" but those seem like requisite traits of men who must...understand and give orders to the heirarchy of enablers and employees below them, especially in the case of Defense Secretart Rumsfeld, who has the military forces of an entire nation below him.

In many ways these men remind me of the former rulers of the Soviet Union. They, too, were serious, humorless men who took their responsibilities very, very seriously. But, it turned out, they didn't know what they were doing.

The former rulers of the Soviet Union had it in their minds to conquer what they could. It didn't work. Our current rulers have it in their minds to conquer what they can. It's not going to work, either. And it's not going to be so much that they pay the price, but the American public.

It is also not true that if something goes wrong, those in power have nothing to lose. They risk their reputations, their employment, their personal safety, the safety of their families and friends, and the guilt of doing something which turns out to be disastrous. They may be men of power, but they are still men, even if out of office.

If this is true, I'd say so

Last week Israel's second-class status at the UN was again demonstrated by the defeat of the Israeli candidate for the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child. Yehudit Karp is the committee's current rapporteur. In the past, she had been chosen by fellow members as vice-chair and was a seasoned, well-respected committee member.

Her defeat follows the defeat of the Israeli candidate for the election to the UN Human Rights Committee in September 2002; the defeat of the Israeli candidate and sitting member of the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women in August 2002; and the defeat of the Israeli candidate for election to the UN Racial Discrimination Committee in January 2002. In fact, the only remaining elected Israeli on a UN body anywhere is Mayer Gabay, vice-chair of the UN Administrative Tribunal -- whose term ends in December of this year and who is not permitted by general rules concerning time limits to stand for re-election.

"Palestine, Palestine, Palestine."

"Sharon, Sharon, Sharon."

But of course, other countries (particularly Middle Eastern) don't get the same level of scrutiny.

By contrast, Egypt has members on all six of the UN human rights treaty bodies. In fact, the Egyptian candidate for the Committee on the Rights of the Child was elected with the highest number of votes by the 191 parties to the Child Convention. This is despite the fact that the leading child rights international NGO (based in Geneva) put out an advisory to countries before the vote. It said: "NGOs feel that she is not very knowledgeable nor reliable on the issues ... due to her strong affiliation and history with the Egyptian government." Translation: When countries of interest to Egypt are considered by the committee, an Egyptian government official sits close to the "independent" Egyptian member just to make sure they get it right.

However, it's also in the middle of daily terrorist bloodshed. This is certainly an extenuating circumstance which must be taken into consideration. Government-wise, it is also the most free of the Middle Eastern nations.

Does this matter at all in the UN? Apparently not.

Israel is also the only UN member state denied membership in any of the UN's five regional groups, which elect UN bodies in Geneva. Elections in the UN are normally based on regional representation or slates prearranged by regional groups. Israel qualifies for membership in the Western European and Others Group (WEOG), composed of geographically diverse states including Canada and Australia. But WEOG, driven by states such as France, refuses to admit Israel to its Geneva operations. This has the consequence that Israel cannot be elected to a whole range of UN bodies. For instance, Israel cannot stand for election to WIPO -- the World Intellectual Property Organization. Similarly, Israel is prevented from running for the International Labour Organization's Governing Body.

Lacking UN regional group membership in Geneva means that Israel is the only UN member forced to sit out consultations on draft resolutions and UN Geneva-based business of all kinds. Israel is refused any possibility of participating in the consultations of regional bodies in the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development the World Health Organization. The meetings behind closed doors of regional groups at the Commission on Human Rights negotiate the language of resolutions on all subjects without any Israeli participation. In recent years, Sweden and Co. in the European Union have enjoyed negotiating an agreed-upon level of hostility on the myriad anti-Israel resolutions with Arab states on the commission, before Israeli diplomats got a copy of a first draft.

Even Israel's limited participation in the WEOG regional group in New York is circumscribed by the caveat that existing rotation schemes not be disturbed. The result? WEOG membership in the UN Economic and Social Council has already been tied up until 2021.

As for UN staffers, official lists of the UN secretariat from July 2002 count 24 Israelis and 27 from "Palestine."

Algeria, Bahrain, China, Cuba, Libya, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, and Zimbabwe pass judgment on human rights at the UN Commission on Human Rights. China, Cuba, Egypt, Iran, Sudan and the United Arab Emirates specialize in the rights of women at the UN Commission on the Status of Women. Iran is one of five members on the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention. Libya, Saudi Arabia, and Sudan scrutinize the implementation of labour standards on the Governing Council of the International Labour Organization.

In the meantime, representatives and experts from the democratic and Jewish state of Israel are disqualified, blackballed, or left standing in the halls of UN bodies everywhere.

UT Admins Want Tution Deregulated

They want more control to address their own budget problems

The state's $10 billion budget shortfall will mean hundreds of millions of dollars in cuts for the University of Texas system.

UT administrators want to set their own tuition rates to address the cuts, but students fear their pocketbooks will bear the burden.

HOLY SHIT! You mean...a quality education might be expensive?

Fucking whiney students. I went to UT-Austin for two semesters and yeah it was expensive. My dad saved and invested his money so I would be able to pay for college. Paying for college is a bitch and there is no way I could afford to do it on my own, not now any any rate.

It's fine to complain about unreasonable increases in student fees. However, since UT is a public school system, those fees are unreasonably low to begin with since they are subsidized by the state. Texans across the state help pay for the 50,000 students in UT-Austin, so the costs students themselves pay are far lower than the actual cost of their education. Therefore, it's entirely likely that tutition increases will reflect more on the financial reality of teaching college and housing potheads rather than the political expediency of pandering to students, alumni, and the public.

For years, the Texas Legislature has set a cap on how much public universities can charge their students in tuition. In these tough financial times, administrators at UT want to change that and let their Board of Regents set tuition rates, just as universities in 29 other states do.

It's called tuition deregulation.

"It's an illusion to think we can maintain this place. What will happen is what inevitably happens, the classes get larger, some electives are cut, there are fewer financial aid officers to administer the financial aid. Unfortunately, when you're in a tight situation like this, it's sort of a no-win situation for the students," UT Chancellor Mark Yudof said.

This is such a simple and easy to understand concept. I love the term "tutition deregulation"! Fits so nicely alongside utility deregulation, telecom deregulation, firearm deregulation, transportation deregulation, etc. Freedom means less regulation and more responsibility.

However, some students don't buy it. A group gathered outside the UT tower Tuesday to protest a closed door meeting on tuition deregulation.

"Whenever there are financial constraints within the system, the regents have been inclined to go straight to the students and tax the students' pocketbooks first without exploring other options. Whereas our democratically-elected Legislators are able to explore those other options because they want to be elected by the 180,000 constituents they have going to these schools," UT Student Body President Katie King said.

Notice the "tax" rhetoric used here. It isn't a tax, you fuckhead! You OWE the University for services rendered and requested! Not only that, but you're already getting a prime deal by having others help pay for your gawddamn fees. Sure, it's a public school and we're all supposed to be able to get some level of secondary education there, equality, low-income, yadda yadda yadda...but either the money comes from the actual people who use the services, or it comes from someone else.

Which means the public. Which means me. And I want no part of it.

Posted by Drizzten at 01:31 AM

Governing By Blank Check

Minnesota's governor lays down the law

"The enormity of the budget crisis we are facing today will unquestionably demand Minnesotans look at their state government is a much different way," Pawlenty said. "The days of a program for every problem and a state government that leads by blank check are over."

The saddest and most enraging thing about the state budget crisis around the nation is not that there is a budget crisis, but that the states have gorged themselves on our money and politicians have used laws to help all manner of people...to the point that something as simple and logical as his statement must be made. It's sickening to hear demands to raise taxes. It's doubly sickening when those who call for those raises don't even question the efficacy of the programs they whore themselves for.

In a letter to state residents, Pawlenty said the state's economy cannot be jump started by raising taxes and held fast to his campaign promise not to raise levies.

"The only way to do this is to rein in the growth in government spending," Pawlenty said.

No shit. When I realize I'm about to go into debt, I don't threaten strangers with jail time if they don't give me money, which is precisely what the opponents of statements like these propose. Instead, I cut my costs and live cheaper.

Pawlenty said he's done his best to shield elementary and secondary education from cuts and actually increased per pupil allotments by 2.2 percent.

[...]

The budget increases student financial aid for higher education by $60 million and maintains the state's safety net for the needy, increasing spending for health and human services by 8 percent. Local government aid increased 6.2 percent for cities and 2.4 percent for counties.

Of course, you can't expect real change any time soon. Pin pricks before public proscription.

Texas Governor Perry is saying basically the same thing.

Perry said too often members of the government forget there is a taxpayer behind every tax dollar that comes in. It would be easy to raise taxes, but that is not what he said he wants to do.

"Tax hikes hit Texas families and small businesses right in the wallet," he said. "If your families and business owners watch the bottom line and prioritize spending, why shouldn't the government?"

The problem in government is not a lack of funds, he said. The problem is the lack of controlled spending.

Writhe, Democrats! WRITHE!

Of course, the demands of politics strip away real-world realities.

As if a war with the powerful and respected Greenspan is not enough of a distraction from the problems created by perfidious France and a Germany devoid of historical memory, Bush also has to adjudicate a dispute between the free traders in his government and the realpoliticians. Despite the fact that the European scientific community has ruled that genetically modified foods are perfectly safe, Europe's agricultural protectionists have prevented the sale of these grown-in-America foods in the European Union.

European Union negotiators admit privately that they have no chance of winning should the United States trigger a WTO review, which the administration's trade mavens are eager to do. But the State Department, striving mightily to keep as many European nations as possible in America's anti-Iraq "coalition of the willing," is forcing the administration to hold back. Freer trade in agricultural products seems to be the first casualty of war on Saddam.

Posted by Drizzten at 12:27 AM

February 18, 2003

Explosion in Gainesville, TX

Cause unknown, injuries reported

A house was leveled in an explosion that rocked a neighborhood, shattering the windows and doors of nearby homes and injuring three people.
No one was inside the house at the time of Monday's explosion, authorities said. The cause of the blast is still under investigation.

An adult and two children were injured by flying glass that struck a passing car in which they were riding. They were treated and released from a hospital, officials said.

Fire department spokeswoman Susan Case said the explosion scattered wood across the neighborhood and sent debris fluttering in the breeze from the tops of trees.

Gas leak? Islamofacists doing chemistry work? Too many trips to Taco Cabana?
More:

The explosion happened late Monday afternoon in Gainesville, which is about 60 miles northwest of Dallas.

The fire chief called it the worst explosion he had seen in 27 years as a firefighter.

Windows and doors were blown out at several nearby homes, turning the street into something that resembled a war zone.

[...]

Several neighbors say there was a foul smell in the area for the last few days.

I'm hoping it's an accident. Texas doesn't need random house-bombers by any measure.

Posted by Drizzten at 03:05 PM

February 17, 2003

Post-Iraq Means Other Countries

Undersecretary of State John Bolton says the magic words

U.S. Undersecretary of State John Bolton said in meetings with Israeli officials on Monday that he has no doubt America will attack Iraq, and that it will be necessary to deal with threats from Syria, Iran and North Korea afterwards.

Given that each of those countries supports terrorism, this is a no-brainer. This was the central point in Bush's "Axis of Evil" speech. Nations that sponsor terrorism (the glaring exceptions being Saudi Arabia and Egypt, due to current politics) are to divest themselves from it, otherwise they will constitute a threat to our interests.

Ya know what's really twisted about today's international political climate? France and Germany's prevailing political moods are almost as hated as those in the two exceptions I mentioned above. Somewhere along the line, while we got all tangled up in getting pissed at each other, we've lost the focus on actually fighting terrorism. While the Big Issues debates we're having now are worthwhile (and long overdue), the more important issue and the one which deserves our full attention and resources is the terrorism that remains a threat.

I think the Bush administration should prepare a presentation which can accurately depict the status of terrorism around the world and demonstrate how much farther we've got to go. A full debriefing on Afghanistan would be very welcome, as well.

Posted by Drizzten at 02:39 PM

Update on Bush Lawsuit

My previous post on the Bush-Schoedinger lawsuit gathered a comment recently.

After talking with the county clerk in Fort Bend, their website is www.co.fort-bend.tx.us -- go to that website, click on quick links, go to county clerk -- when that appears, go to the blue box on the left, scroll down to Index -- click on that, then click on civil suits. Put in Schoedinger in the plaintiff's box and hit search -- she's sued the Sugarland police, the officers, and that case has been remanded to District Court -- HOWEVER, in that suit she made absolutely NO MENTION of rape, beatings, miscarriage and/or President Bush. This woman is certifiable.

Thanks, Daisi.

Posted by Drizzten at 12:14 AM

February 14, 2003

One More Today

There's a cool poll over at CNN asking what you think the most significant events during the last 8 decades are.

My choices:

1923 - Kemal Ataturk becomes president of Turkey
1924 - Hitler writes the first volume of Mein Kampf
1925 - John Scopes is tried and convicted for teaching evolution
1926 - Henry Ford institutes the five-day, 40-hour work week
1927 - TV makes its first U.S. long-distance broadcast
1928 - Penicillin discovered
1929 - Stock market collapses; the Great Depression begins

1930 - Gandhi starts non-violent civil disobedience campaign against British salt tax
1931 - Harold Urey discovers heavy hydrogen
1932 - Franklin D. Roosevelt elected president in landslide
1933 - Hitler becomes chancellor of Germany (tough choice considering the beginning of the New Deal was an option)
1934 - Congress approves establishment of the Securities and Exchange Commission
1935 - Hitler strips Jews of German citizenship
1936 - Jesse Owens disproves Hitler's claim of Aryan supremacy by winning four gold medals at Berlin Olympics
1937 - Britain's King Edward VIII abdicates throne to marry Wallis Simpson
1938 - First major commercial discovery of oil in Saudi Arabia (at the time of this posting, this choice and "Kristallnacht, the night Nazis ravage Jewish communities throughout Germany" were neck and neck in the results, with oil barely leading)
1939 - Britain and France declare war on Germany; World War II begins

1940 - Winston Churchill becomes Prime Minister of Britain
1941 - Japan attacks Pearl Harbor
1942 - U.S. forces destroy Japan's first-line carriers in the Battle of Midway
1943 - German Army surrenders in Stalingrad
1944 - D-Day: Allies invade Normandy
1945 - U.S. drops atomic bomb on Hiroshima
1946 - ENIAC, the first electronic computer, debuts
1947 - India gains independence from Britain; Pakistan is created
1948 - Israel declares independence
1949 - The U.S. and its European allies form the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) as a bulwark against Soviet expansionism

1950 - North Korean Communist forces invade South Korea
1951 - Rachel Carson raises environmental awareness with The Sea Around Us
1952 - First mechanical heart valve used in a human
1953 - Francis Crick & James Watson discover the structure of DNA
1954 - Racial segregation declared unconstitutional in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas
1955 - Rosa Parks refuses to give up her bus seat to a white man in Montgomery, Alabama, sparking the civil rights movement
1956 - The Federal Aid Highway Act passes, creating the interstate highway system
1957 - Russia launches first space satellite Sputnik (no option to pick Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged???)
1958 - The BankAmericard is introduced, which later becomes the Visa card and fosters the boom in revolving credit
1959 - Castro takes over in Cuba

1960 - The Food and Drug Administration approves the Pill for contraception
1961 - Russia's Yuri Gagarin is the first person to orbit the earth
1962 - Cuban Missile crisis erupts when U.S. discovers Soviet Union placed nuclear arms in Cuba
1963 - Supreme Court rules against requiring prayer in public schools (soo many good choices for this year, but the JFK assassination is dominating the results)
1964 - On their first U.S. tour, the Beatles appear to a delirious reception on the Ed Sullivan show (another tough year)
1965 - The Immigration Act ends national quotas, emphasizes employment and family ties instead
1966 - Mao launches China's "Cultural Revolution"
1967 - Dr. Christiaan Barnard performs the world's first successful human heart transplant
1968 - Martin Luther King, Jr. assassinated in Memphis
1969 - Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin are first to set foot on moon

1970 - Voting age in U.S. is reduced to 18
1971 - Intel introduces the first microprocessor chip
1972 - Eleven Israeli athletes killed at Munich Olympic Games
1973 - Roe v. Wade legalizes abortion
1974 - CAT scan is developed
1975 - U.S. evacuates from Vietnam; Saigon falls to Communists
1976 - Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak found Apple Computer
1977 - Star Wars opens
1978 - Anwar Sadat and Menachem Begin sign Camp David Accords
1979 - Saddam Hussein becomes president of Iraq

1980 - Ronald Reagan elected President
1981 - MTV premiers with the Buggles' Video Killed the Radio Star
1982 - The name AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) is given to a mysterious fatal disease
1983 - Truck bomb kills 241 U.S. servicemen in Beirut, Lebanon
1984 - Run-D.M.C releases its eponymous album and rap enters the mainstream
1985 - Reagan Administration begins selling arms to Iran, diverts money to Nicaraguan contras
1986 - Nuclear reactor explodes at Chernobyl power plant
1987 - Dow Jones Industrial Average falls 508 points
1988 - Osama bin Laden founds al-Qaeda in Afghanistan
1989 - The Berlin Wall is torn down (either this or the Tiananmen Square massacre)

1990 - First World Wide Web page debuts
1991 - The Soviet Union officially collapses
1992 - White voters approve referendum to end apartheid in South Africa
1993 - Congress ratifies North American Free Trade Agreement
1994 - Kenneth Starr becomes Whitewater independent counsel
1995 - Truck bomb destroys Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City
1996 - Taliban Muslim fundamentalists capture Kabul
1997 - Scientists announce existence of Dolly the sheep, the result of first cloned adult mammal
1998 - Clinton is impeached
1999 - World Trade Organization conference disrupted by violent protests in Seattle

2000 - Supreme Court ruling ensures the election of George W. Bush
2001 - Al-Qaeda terrorists hijack four planes and attack New York City and Washington D.C.
2002 - George Bush identifies an axis of evil that will be focus of America's vigilant attention: Iraq, Iran and North Korea

Posted by Drizzten at 04:21 PM

Posting Will Resume on Sunday

Until then, I'll let this speak for itself.

UPDATE (12:50pm):
And this. How freaked would YOU be if you saw the US Marine Corps marching towards you decked out like that? Via Sgt Stryker.

UPDATE (1:22pm):
This report's title, "Alert Partly Based on Lies," is misleading. It doesn't mention that it was the Al Qaeda terrorist who was lying. The direct implication is that the government was.

Posted by Drizzten at 10:14 AM

Iraq Bans WMD

Golly gee willickers!

After almost a year of intense pressure to shape the hell up, Saddam declares weapons of mass destruction are now banned in Iraq.

Saddam Hussein banned all weapons of mass destruction from Iraq on Friday, meeting a longtime U.N. demand hours before chief U.N. weapons inspectors were to deliver crucial reports on Iraq's disarmament.

The presidential decree forbids the production or importation of nuclear, chemical or biological weapons, or of any materials that could be used to make them.

"All ministries should implement this decree and take whatever measures are necessary to punish people who do not adhere to it,'' the decree read.

Excuse me while I laugh out loud.

Iraq's parliament met in an emergency session to consider legislation banning weapons of mass destruction, but Saddam's decree - announced moments before the parliament session began - appeared to make the legislation unnecessary.

No rule of law over there, folks. Dictatorial whims determine the direction of the country.

The parliament usually follows Saddam's direction, although it dissented from his decision in November to let the weapons inspectors resume their work after a four-year break.

What a brave display of oppostition! Maybe they'll "dissent" the next time he tortures to death a few families after their patriarchs tell the truth.

The decree came just hours before the chief U.N. weapons inspectors, Hans Blix and Mohamed ElBaradei, were to report to the Security Council on Iraq's compliance with U.N. demands to eliminate its banned weapons.

This is transparent ass-saving. Bush and Blair will ignore it.

Posted by Drizzten at 09:43 AM

February 13, 2003

The Marines Don't Pack THAT Light

Martin Savidge gets his shipping orders

As one of the news coorespondents with a Marine unit in northern Kuwait, Mr. Savidge must Be Prepared. Thankfully, the Marines were kind enough to provide him with a list.

Items in backpack
• Trousers/Shirt, one set • Field mirror, one
• Belt (as applies), one • Nail clippers, one
• Undershirts, three • Extra eyeglasses, one
• Underwear, three pairs • Gloves, one
• Socks, cushioned sole, five pairs • Sleeping bag (w/ bivy sack), one
• Long underwear, one pair • Entrenching tool (shovel), one
• Knit watch cap, one • CamelBak, one
• Towel, small, one • Funnel (for water)
• Bath sponge, one • Sleeping pad, Isopore mat
• Soap, antibacterial, one bar • Ear plugs, with case, one
• Shaving cream, one can • Extra boot laces, one
• Razor, one • Sunscreen, one
• Disposable blades, 10 • Insect repellent, one
• Baby wipes, one package • Goggles/sunglasses, one
• Hand sanitizer, one bottle • Gore-Tex jacket/trousers
• Laundry detergent bottle, one • Two-man shelters (tent)
• Waterproof bag, one • Prescription meds, 90 days
• Trash bags, two • Doxycycline, Cipro, one
• Shower shoes (aka "flip-flops") • Toilet paper, two rolls
• Sewing kit, one • Neck scarf, bandana, one
• Foot powder, one • Small day pack, one
• Toothpaste, toothbrush, one

Items to be worn
• Kevlar helmet (chin strap), one • MOPP suit (gloves in right pocket)
• Undershirt, one • NBC booties, over field boots, one
• Skivvies, one pair • M-40 Series field mask, filter
• PT shorts, one • NBC meds: Atropine and 2PamCl
• ID (left breast pocket), one set • M291 chemical decontamination kit
• Socks, cushioned sole, one pair • Armor: body, upper torso, one
• Boots (mark left w/ blood type) • Canteens w/ covers, NBC caps, two

First aid kit, one, contents:
• Bandage, adhesive, 18 • Chap stick, one
• Bandage, gauze, one • Povidine-iodine solution, one
• Bandage, muslin, one • Eye dressing, one
• Bottle, snap-on, three • Bottle, water-purification tablets
• Dressing, first aid, field, two • Wristwatch, one
• Instruction card, one • Desert floppy cover (hat), one

He then goes on to say:

Now, on top of this we will have to carry camera gear and broadcasting equipment. Which brings me to the next mention on the list.

"Only bring what you can carry. Marines are light infantry and you must be prepared to go foot-mobile, carrying all of your equipment. (Check.)

Oh those reporters.

Posted by Drizzten at 07:15 PM

General Franks to Rule Post-War Iraq?

Post-Hussein Iraq with Franks in charge

The head of the US military's Central Command, Gen. Tommy Franks, will rule Iraq in the initial aftermath of a US invasion to overthrow President Saddam Hussein.

Administration officials briefed senators Tuesday on postwar planning, stressing that the US goal is "to liberate Iraq, not to occupy it," and last week a US envoy told leaders of Iraqi groups opposed to Hussein about American intentions.

The senators were told that even under good circumstances, it would take two years before the military could fully transfer control to an Iraqi government. As presented, the plan recalls postwar Germany and Japan, where American military occupations paved the way for transfers of power to democratic and constitutionally backed governments.

This is the guy who's been working to improve Afghanistan.

CENTCOM's biography details quite a career. He got promoted to CIC just in time to get lime-lighted for the USS Cole attack. He has been criticized for his conventional approach to war and he's well-known for his distaste for the PR side of the job.

He is currently under investigation for allegedly letting his wife sit in on some classified military briefings and for some minor security infractions involving her.

I predict that by the end of this month, everyone will be doing their best to dig up dirt on this guy.

Posted by Drizzten at 07:04 PM

Response to Hesiod

He says:

Here's what the Democratic position should be:

If you ever worked for the Ken Starr "Independent Counsel" investigation of the Clintons, you will never even SMELL a Federal Judicial appointment. Your integrity has been stained. Your naked partisanship has been exposed. And you have no business soilinig the Federal Judiciary.

Period.

We will filibuster ANYONE who fits that criteria. Regardless of race, creed, gender, ethnicity, disability, or sexual preference.

Find someone else, or nothing gets done.

The Republican position should be to deny any witness who is connected to People for the American Way and Ralph Neas from speaking during a judiciary confirmation hearing.

Gotta love that blind collective punishment, huh?

Posted by Drizzten at 06:19 PM

February 12, 2003

Complete Childishness

Trade sanctions on French products?

Now, I think the French position on Iraq is self-defeating, dangerous, and willingly blind. I think the effort the French government has gone in order to try and prevent an Iraqi war is about as un-allylike as you can get. They don't have to agree with us, but they certainly don't have to actively oppose us and flagrantly break trust with Turkey over NATO protection. The anger in Washington is admirable and I think it's justified.

However, imposing trade sanctions on bottled water and wine is stupid. I disagree with economic sanctions in principle as it constitutes government intervention in the market. It signifies that Dennis Hastert, Tom DeLay, and the Republicans who agree with them don't really take their free-trade positions seriously and honestly. Obviously, they support trade sanctions against North Korea, Cuba, and Iraq (to name a few), so they were never truely serious about free trade...but to use them punitively, out of anger, and in order to punish is immature, unprincipled, and frankly just looks bad.

Some members of Congress are suggesting the United States impose trade sanctions on France and withdraw U.S. troops from Germany to retaliate for opposition to U.S. policies on Iraq, the Washington Post reported Wednesday.

House Speaker Dennis Hastert has told associates he would like to target bottled French mineral water and wine, the paper said.

"France and Germany are losing credibility by the day and they are, I think, losing status in the world,'' the Post quoted House Majority Leader Tom DeLay as saying. "They are walking a fine line that is very dangerous.''

Hastert has instructed Republican colleagues to determine whether Congress should pass laws that would new impose health standards on bottles of Evian and other French waters, the paper said.

[...]

The Post said the speaker also is exploring whether the United States should require ``bright orange warning labels'' on French wines that are clarified with bovine blood.

Such is the idiocy you get when you put humans in charge of institutions that have given themselves the power to impose force on other people's lives.

Posted by Drizzten at 11:23 PM

More Bad News for VW's Recall

[Updates below.]

Automotive News details some of the problems

Following up on my previous post regarding the faulty Volkswagen engine ignition coils, it seems this issue is reaching deeper than I originally thought.

An $83 million voluntary recall of 530,000 Volkswagen and Audi cars threatens the launch of two key VW products, dealers say.

The biggest problem facing dealers is the lack of replacement parts for faulty engine ignition coils. They say the repair is not that big of a deal but dealers are facing backups in their already busy service departments. VW dealers also want the company to soothe affected owners by offering $1,000 off on their next VW.

That's a pretty generous offer, but considering how angry car owners get when their vehicles break down and repairs take time (especially over relatively trivial parts and repairs), I don't think it will do much to quiet their anger. I'm sure some of the owners are thinking twice about getting another VW because of this. That's unreasonable, in my opinion.

Dealers want the repairs - which affect primarily 2001 and 2002 model cars with four-cylinder, turbocharged 1.8-liter engines - completed before the launch of the Touareg in three months, followed by the Phaeton later this year. The Touareg is VW's SUV, and the Phaeton is VW's first U.S. luxury car.

Ack, now that's some crappy timing. This recall is an easy way to dissolve any sort of upper-class brandmaking.

Volkswagen of America Inc. and Audi of America Inc. last week said they are voluntarily recalling the cars because of the faulty coils. Sources say the German parts supplier had problems with the insulation material of the coils. If the plastic becomes brittle, spark plug failure can result.

It's always the small things, eh? I bet those iron-clad German labor laws are getting in the way with this.

Combined, VW and Audi have about 866 U.S. dealerships. That means the average store will have to repair 612 vehicles. Repairs will take 30 to 60 minutes each, meaning volume will keep service bays full for weeks - if not months.

It's not even that time-consuming of a repair. There's just so many of them. That only makes the situation more annoying for the drivers.

"I'm terribly sorry for the inconvenience, Mr. Smith. It won't take long to fix your car."

"Yeah, you shit, once it makes it's way through the two month waiting list! And that's IF you get the parts on schedule! What if it fails before then? Am I supposed to rent a car for two months?"

"Sir, the replacement parts are not very expensive -- only $22 each and I assure you our suppliers are working-"

"Not nearly fucking fast enough."

VW and Audi dealers are no strangers to complaints about how hard it is to get a service appointment. Both VW and Audi dealers have finished below the industry average the past two years in the J.D. Power and Associates customer service index study that measures how consumers are treated by dealership service departments.

I love my Golf, but this is the number one complaint I've heard from other owners, such as the ones on Fred's TDI Club messageboard. It wasn't enough to dissuade me from getting a VW, but I took the comments seriously. So far, I've been treated fine at

Not wanting to lose customers, VW's dealer council has asked Volkswagen of America for $1,000 loyalty coupons that they can give to owners affected by the recall.

The coupons would be good for $1,000 off their next purchase of a vehicle.

[...]

VW says it is reviewing the request.

Hmm, that would take my dream VW firmly "below $30,000."

*laughs*

I can dream, dammit. The R32 is SUCH a wicked Golf.

A tiny German firm, Bremi Auto-Elektrik, supplies the coils. Bremi is working three shifts a day, six days a week to supply replacements, Keyes said.

VW officials in Germany declined to name a second supplier that is helping make the replacement coils.

A Reuters story, citing unnamed sources and written in German, put the cost of the global recall at 85 million euros - $92.1 million at current exchange rates. The Automotive News estimate of $83 million is based on the cost of each coil plus an average hourly service rate of $65.

Bremi's annual revenue is an estimated 40 million euros, or about $43.3 million, said Auto Business, a consulting company in Stamford, England.

Ouch. Methinks Bremi is feeling some ugly heat right now from Gerd Klauss and his counterpart in Germany.

Original VW press release. More can be read here at VWVortex.

UPDATED 8/13/2005 2:51pm
I don't know why the comments are getting screwed up at the bottom. Please use this thread to post your thoughts if it looks like the comments aren't getting posted at the bottom.

Posted by Drizzten at 07:18 PM

Saddamite Wager

Chicagoboyz have a post noting some of the current bets in play regarding Saddam and Iraq.

Gotta love them free markets. :)

Posted by Drizzten at 02:20 PM

Won't Be One of These Folks

Austin singles scramble for Valentine's Day

Bah! Bah, I say!

Austin ranks second among American cities popular for singles. With Valentine's Day just a few days away, many of those singles are coming up with creative ways to meet.

I'm going to creatively lock myself in my apartment.

The forecasted shitty weather is another reason to stay inside. It's currently described by News8Austin as a 70% chance of thunderstorms, an invading cold front, and temperature variations from 72° to 53°. Mmm, perfect Net browsing weather. Just me, a case of Bass Pale Ale, and my PC.

Posted by Drizzten at 01:49 PM

Maine Passes Anti-War Resolution

More wasting of time

After an emotional and lengthy debate, the state House approved a resolution Tuesday night urging President Bush to disarm Iraq through the United Nations and without military intervention.

The resolution, amended twice to address the concerns of opponents who derided it as partisan, divisive and ineffectual, was approved 77-66 and sent to the Senate. The measure says Bush should seek no resolution of the Iraqi threat that compromises the safety of Americans.

I've derided attempts at local politicians to pass resolutions against the war and this is no different. It's bad enough that cities are shooting their wads at this, but now we've got state governments? Looks like they beat Hawaii to the punch.

Posted by Drizzten at 01:49 AM

Entry #200 Means...

Someone buy me this shirt!

UPDATE (2/13 6:00pm):
Well, I'm not sure what happened to the 200th entry. It just sorta skipped from 199 to 201.

*scratches head*

It's a SIGN FROM GAWD that says you should buy the the shirt above!

Posted by Drizzten at 01:35 AM

February 11, 2003

Economists Against Bush Tax Plan

10 Nobel laureates among them

The proposal, which has come under fire from congressional Democrats, will reduce federal revenues by nearly $700 billion over the next decade.

Meaning, that's $700 billion that won't be taken from us. This is actually one of the best ways I've seen a news report describe the budgetary effect of the cuts. It isn't going to cost the government anything beyond the obvious paperwork and manpower needed to implement it.

The economists' statement, is sponsored by the Economic Policy Institute, a liberal Washington think tank.

Not too surprising, considering some of the things it says.

The tax plan proposed by President Bush is not the answer to these problems. Regardless of how one views the specifics of the Bush plan, there is wide agreement that its purpose is a permanent change in the tax structure and not the creation of jobs and growth in the near term. The permanent dividend tax cut, in particular, is not credible as a short-term stimulus.

From everything that I've heard, this is mostly true. Bush's plan doesn't have immediate effects which would stimulate the economy in the short-term of one year. Bush isn't being forthright about the goals of his plan. Either that, or he doesn't understand the way it would work. However, I consider permanent reductions in taxes to be an absolute good thing for the economy. Reducing the financial cost to do business, to invest, and removing distortions in the market are all excellent things.

As tax reform, the dividend tax cut is misdirected in that it targets individuals rather than corporations, is overly complex, and could be, but is not, part of a revenue-neutral tax reform effort.

It should target both. I don't know how complex it is, but tax simplification should be very next goal after tax reduction. The "revenue-neutral" comment belies their true convictions.

Passing these tax cuts will worsen the long-term budget outlook, adding to the nation's projected chronic deficits. This fiscal deterioration will reduce the capacity of the government to finance Social Security and Medicare benefits as well as investments in schools, health, infrastructure, and basic research. Moreover, the proposed tax cuts will generate further inequalities in after-tax income.

So. They would rather save the socialism in the federal government than let the free market handle these things. Their concern for deficits is certainly a valid one and Bush would do well to address it in the best way: take a chainsaw to federal spending. Their remark about income inequalities also belies their anti-capitalistic mentality.

Even worse, the economists don't support any permanent and long-term stimulus effort.

To be effective, a stimulus plan should rely on immediate but temporary spending and tax measures to expand demand, and it should also rely on immediate but temporary incentives for investment. Such a stimulus plan would spur growth and jobs in the short term without exacerbating the long-term budget outlook.

How this works in the country's economic interest is beyond me. Maybe I should study at MIT before commenting, but it seems more useful to offload the tax burden permanently and remove market distortions so people and businesses can make their choices with better information and more money at their disposal. THAT creates jobs and growth, not temporary spending measures and limited investment incentives.

I'm not an economist, but this sounds like bullshit to me.

Posted by Drizzten at 11:15 AM

February 10, 2003

"Dude!" Arrested for Pot Posession

Dell poster boy busted

Actor Benjamin Curtis, who plays the wise-cracking "Steven" in Dell Computer Corp's "Dude, yer gettin' a Dell" commercials, was arrested for marijuana possession, officials said on Monday.

Curtis, 22, was charged with criminal and unlawful possession of marijuana, two misdemeanor charges that carry possible jail sentences of up to three months.

However, at his arraignment on Monday afternoon, Manhattan Criminal Court Judge Ellen Coin adjourned the case for one year and said the charges could be dismissed if Curtis, who lives in New York City, gets in no trouble for the next 12 months.

Nice of her.

Too bad that law is a gross violation of his rights to begin with.

Posted by Drizzten at 06:02 PM

February 09, 2003

USS Clueless on Star Wars & DBZ

Vegeta vs. Dooku!

I've got to admit that after living through years of speculation and all they hype, actual demonstrations of the Force in the movies have been considerably lame. Barring the chilling fight between the Emperor and Luke, the depictions of "real masters" using the Force has been anti-climactic. Lucas should have known, that audiences want more than blasts of light and gravity manipulation. Especially in the post-Dragonball Z world, where demi-humans regularly blow the region they fight in to bits.

What the SW crowd has always wanted to see, in some part of their minds, is a true Jedi Grandmaster shaming everyone who merely thought to take him/her on. Yoda and Dooku were supposed to rise to this challenge and in the end all I took away from the encounter was, "look how cool Yoda can move." Not what we have been looking for. What we got was more of the use-the-environment-as-a-projectile stuff and lightning blasts we've seen since the beginning.

Perhaps this was intentional in order to set us up for a larger display of the Force in the final movie. Perhaps Lucas has choosen to reign in the percieved power of the Force in order to emphasize the human element at work. And of course, there may be more available to read in some of the mountains of novels published, but I've never read any of those and consider the movies to be the main center of contention and attention.

The second movie had the promise of Big Drama due to the nature of the material presented. We got an over-hyped fight between Dooku and Yoda, an embarassing presentation of Jedi fighting and coordinating tactics, and Natalie Portman in tight clothing.

Posted by Drizzten at 11:47 PM

February 08, 2003

Tom Tomorrow's Just Like the Others

Cartoonist of "This Modern World"

"I was not a big fan of Bill Clinton, I thought he dropped the ball on a lot of important issues," said [Dan] Perkins, who publicly supported Ralph Nader in the last presidential election. "But you've got to admit that with Clinton we had a long period of peace and relative prosperity. It's not like that anymore.

That "peace" was broken regularly by Bosnia/Croatia/Kosovo, Northern Ireland, Israel/Palestine, Chechnya, and Somalia. It was also broken by the first World Trade Center bombing, the Saudi Arabian Khobar Towers attack, the attacks on the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, and the USS Cole attack. I'm sure I've missed a few.

Prosperity, yes. But that was the work of the information revolution far more than any real acts Clinton was responsible for.

"I don't know why it is, but people who are critical of this president are so marginalized for just raising basic questions. It's a very twisted debate right now and a total double standard for conservatives and liberals."

They're marginalized because many of those basic questions are either asked in order to score political points ("Have you stopped beating your wife?") or have already been answered and those answers are ignored. The rest of the answers to those questions compromise our national security or, as Perkins says, are dismissed and the questioners marginalized. But it is bullshit to say that dissent is being ignored. The Bush administration has been dealing publicly with that dissent for several weeks now. The opposition is not being marginalized, it is being ignored. Your forums for expression have not been reduced, in fact they've grown in size and volume.

"The conservatives have the Fox Network, Rush Limbaugh and they're in charge of all three branches of government. But they still keep saying how unfair the media is."

C'mon. He mentions Fox and Limbaugh and then acts as if that's clear evidence of serious media support.

"I think there are no good conservative cartoonists. Good humor is about the real underdog taking on the powerful. That's what satire is about. Conservative humor is picking on people who have less than you. That's not satire, that's just mean."

That is one fucked-up way of defining "good humor" and "satire," neither of which need anything to do with the classism he's talking about. His view of conservative humor is just as bigoted as the beliefs he assumes drive conservatives. Typically, he thinks that "smaller government" means "actively discriminate against the weak." It's the most common misconception the Left holds of Capitalists and limited-government proponents.

He's also being a hypocrite here, since a lot of his work is devoted to scathing sarcasm directed at Republicans and conservatives. Straw-men and ad hominems arguements pepper his work. It may be funny, but it certainly doesn't keep his hands out of the mud-slinging.

Posted by Drizzten at 05:10 PM

February 07, 2003

Gotta Love Europe

This story about an Italian court's decision that taking hashish on a school trip isn't a crime because the student in possession was only going to consume and share it with fellow students and a teacher is quite heartening. Apparently, possession of marijuana in Italy isn't a crime, while selling it is. The best part of this criminally-short story? A judge's quote.

"It could easily have been consumed during the many days of the trip," Corriere della Sera daily quoted the court ruling as saying.

As much as we berate the Continent for it's often irritating stances and words, it does offer instances of sanity. This is one of them. Of course, I'd wish they'd go further and decriminalize the free marketization of marijuana.

Posted by Drizzten at 03:27 PM

Time Off...for Religious Services?

Jail drops prayer policy aiding Christians only

The Orange County Jail has nixed a policy of rewarding inmates who attended religious services with time off their sentences because the rule did not apply to all prisoners.

Who's the jackass that made this idea up? Active religious participation means you can reduce your time in jail? The jail system isn't a court, it has no right to decrease a court's punishment so arbitrarily.

"It's a valid criticism of the programming that was there," said Orange County Corrections Chief Timothy Ryan. "It wasn't equitable in the sense that if you were Jewish or an atheist, you should have access to the same opportunities."

Todarian Rodriguez Harvey, a Muslim inmate, for months complained that Christian inmates had ready access to chaplains and Bibles without questions asked. Harvey said Muslim inmates did not have access to an Islamic leader and the Quran, Islam's holy book, on a regular basis.

Several months after surrendering to authorities last June in a 1992 cocaine-trafficking case, Harvey wrote to a national Muslim advocacy group. In it, he decried the jail's "extra gain time" policy by which inmates could deduct up to six days off a month if they took part in one of several Christian-based programs.

Ryan thinks it's valid criticism because the policy wasn't "equitable" to all faiths...but it is a stupid policy to being with! As if being actively religious in a jail-sanctioned way is some objective indicator of someone's commitment to being a better person. There certainly are "born again" criminals who turn to religion to better themselves once in prison, but anyone with a grasp of common sense knows this policy will be abused. The religious discrimination aspect of this makes it that much more vile.

Jail administrators, who say the gain-time policy already was under review, apparently took notice.

Last Saturday the jail officially put an end to a policy rooted in a 1989 county ordinance.

I'm glad to hear it.

Posted by Drizzten at 09:33 AM

Volkswagen Recall

[Updates below.]

Ignition coil failures force VW to recall 500,000+ vehicles

Higher than normal failures of ignition coils in 2001 and 2002 model cars prompted Volkswagen of American Inc. and Audi of America Inc. to recall about 530,000 vehicles, VW said Tuesday.

All 2001 and 2002 models and some 2003 models are affected by a lingering problem that has stranded many Volkswagen and Audi owners on roadsides seeking a tow or emergency road service.

VW and Audi dealers will replace the ignition coils that fail at no cost to owners, and in the coming months proactively replace all ignition coils whether they fail or not. Owners will be offered free loaner or rental cars to minimize inconvenience during repairs.

[...]

Recalled cars include the upscale Audi TT and A4, the VW Golf/GTI, Jetta, New Beetle and Passat equipped with 1.8 liter four-cylinder engines, the Passat V8, all VWs equipped with narrow-angle 2.8 liter VR6 engines, and the 3.0 liter V6 Audi.

Glad I have a TDI.

I was actually quite close to choosing a 2001 4-door Golf with the 1.8T engine back when I was looking for a new car. The 1.8T is a bad-ass little engine. It's too bad it's reputation is being affected by this.

UPDATED 8/13/2005 2:52pm
I don't know what's up with the comments getting truncated at the end down there. Please use this post to continue your discussions if the comments look to be acting up.

UPDATED 1/28/2007 1:25pm
A reader sends in this comment:

There are certainly some nasty problems listed here on the site but some of you are big babies! I thought everyone knew that timing belts needed to be replaced or at least checks after 50k miles? I'm at 62k miles on my 2003 1.8T. I had to replace the coils, my window clips broke in the winter, and I'm currently having a difficult time determining why my driver side blinker intermittently does the fast blink (and this means its not actually blinking on the outside). VW service reps couldn't replicate the fast blink so couldn't figure it out. I'm guessing its something simple, just need to find the bugger of a cause.

All told, some of you seem to have gotten screwed, but I love my 1.8T, and will keep it as long as I can. I don't baby it, I do take care of it, and I drive it hard. The turbo makes it what it is, I'd never drive the base model cuz it definitely putts.

I've seen several other posts about the fast blink, and it isn't the blinker bulb clearly cuz everyone else has also said that this is intermittent. Maybe its corrosion, maybe a loose wire because sometimes if I hit the kick panel with my foot it will go to a normal blink and I can see the external blinker reflected on the car ahead.

Anyway, quit whining, cars are all money pits.

- Levi

Posted by Drizzten at 09:11 AM

News Bias

I was reading Patrick Ruffini's post on media bias and was struck by something he said.

I can shut out ABC, NBC, CBS, and the New York Times if I want to — and not miss a beat. This isn't an act of ideological blindering so much as it is a statement that no one media source is indispensable. The news is too important to be left to the media.

As a blogger operating out of my own home, I have to rely on external entities for news, facts, and opinion. Opinion, being what it is, doesn't matter if it's biased or not. However, for the other two, it does matter if the source taints the writing with a bias.

Let me first say that there is a difference between the naturally-occuring beliefs and biases of every person and letting those biases interfere with the truth. I would have no problem if every New York Times reporter and editor were to the left of Ralph Nader. I would have no problem if every Wall Street Journal reporter and editor were to the right of Patrick Buchanan. What I would have a problem with is if those people lied, misquoted, mislead, or otherwise alter their writing in order to align their story with their biases.

Since I base much of what I have to say on the reporting of others, it matters to me that those reports are as factually accurate as possible and don't play games with that data in order to suit someone's viewpoint. This can be as simple as referring to Palestinian terrorists as "militants" as Reuters does or something as pervasive and blatant as the front page taglines Buzzflash whips up. And I feel that for most people, when they watch the news, they want hard fact and not opinionated interpretation. For that, they have talking head shows.

A lot of what people digest as news today comes from the wire news agencies: Associated Press, Reuters, and United Press International (UPI). Spend any time reading news and you'll quickly see how common it is to find the mainstream media relying on their reports. I daresay the majority of news found in local newspapers is from these wire reports. Not to lessen the original reporting done by companies such as CNN, MSNBC, etc, but the wires do the bulk of the news reporting work.

That is why any claims of liberal or conservative bias don't carry much serious weight with me unless they focus on the wire reporting of these three companies. And I'd say that for the most part, these services do a good job of reporting news. Since they are independent, we can corroborate their reports with the others. Failing that, we can then go to the other primary-source news agencies and work from there. Of course, this doesn't address the problem of people limiting themselves to a single news source. I do believe, however, that the percentage of people doing this will drop over time as they take advantage of the Internet.

Being pro-capitalism, it's real easy to take swipes at the media as being biased since they, almost to a point, endorse and support the functions of government that I loathe. Being out on the fringes of the debate colors my perception when in reality, it's just that they represent a broader portion of public opinion...and I find myself regularly disagreeing with that public opinion.

Posted by Drizzten at 01:15 AM

February 06, 2003

International Courts > Texas Courts?

Nope.

An unrepentant Texas said on Thursday it would ignore a World Court order demanding it stay the executions of two Mexicans, a decision likely to create more friction between the United States and its allies over capital punishment.

The International Court of Justice at The Hague on Wednesday ordered the U.S. to stay the executions of three Mexicans and reserved the right to intervene in dozens of other cases.

"An unrepentant Texas." I like that, in some perverse way. I take serious issue with the Court's reservation of it's right to intervene in other cases. It should have no jurisdiction here, it isn't a part of our criminal system, and it wasn't created by Texas or US law.

Two of those affected -- Cesar Robert Fierro Reyna and Roberto Moreno Ramos -- are in Texas and the third, Osvaldo Torres Aguilera, is in Oklahoma. None of the three has an execution date yet.

The State Department is reviewing the order and has not said whether Washington will order Texas and Oklahoma to stay the executions. The U.S. argued the order would interfere with its sovereign right to administer its criminal justice system.

"According to our reading of the law and the treaty, there is no authority for the federal government or this World Court to prohibit Texas from exercising the laws passed by our legislature," said Gene Acuna, a spokesman for Texas Gov. Rick Perry. The state is by far the nation's death penalty leader.

I agree. The Constitution allows the death penalty and grants the right to the states to implement it if they choose to.

Mexico brought the World Court case last month, arguing that 54 of its citizens on death row should get retrials. It accused U.S. police of violating an international treaty by failing to tell the men of their right to consular assistance after being arrested.

If this is the extent of the formal disagreement, then I'd have to side with Texas on this. If there were questions regarding the actual case as it moved through the system, then I'd change my mind. But this seems like a procedural affair, one that doesn't bring any material bearing on the facts of the acusations and defense. The complaint is that they weren't informed that they have the right to speak with their consular officials immediately following their arrest. This is a technicality imposed on us by the 1963 Vienna convention and is now interfering with our right to enforce our legal code.

And what the fuck is up with this Reuters article? Let me quote some asides and adjectives, written to add information to the piece.

An unrepentant Texas...The state is by far the nation's death penalty leader...an inmate is often given a date and is even brought into the death house while last-minute appeals work their way through the courts...Texas, the only U.S. state to have once been an independent country, has long resisted external interference in its affairs and has a history of ignoring pleas for clemency...He was the 296th inmate executed in Texas since 1982, four years after national death penalty ban was lifted by the U.S. Supreme Court...The United States is the only Western democracy to carry out the death penalty.

And yet nowhere do we get to know what these Mexicans did to earn them the death penalty. That seems rather pertinent given Reuters' desire to add all this other useful information, yes?

Posted by Drizzten at 09:30 PM

What's Up With John Derbyshire?

I agree with most of the substance in this piece, but at at the end...

The other day I was on the checkout line at a convenience store. The people in front of me were having a conversation. One of them, a middle-aged man, was talking about his daughter, whose car had just been stolen. The girl was, apparently, inconsolable. Said her Dad: "She just mopes around the house saying, 'They stole my Camry.' The poor kid, she loved that car. It had a CD player with a six-disk changer. Really, she just can't get over it." The man speaking looked to be no more than 45. I can't imagine his daughter was much over 20. And this was the great disaster of her life: "They stole my Camry."

Look at us! Look at the gross vulgar overflowing fat wealth we live amongst! Look at the great cars that 20-year-old kids drive 400 yards to the mall, to buy things they don't need, gadgets to pack into houses already overflowing with gadgets, clothes to cram into closets stuffed with clothes. Look at the work we do, sitting in humming cubicles scrolling through screens full of numbers, numbers that measure our wealth. Look at the bright, airy schools our kids attend, to be taught that their ancestors were moral criminals, their parents are liars, their culture is a sham. Look at our "reality TV" programs, where people with empty heads wallow in infantile hedonism. Look at our fool diplomats, poring over their treaties and resolutions and communiqués, while young men with burning eyes slip silently into our cities with boxes, canisters, cargoes, vials, and suitcases curiously heavy. Look at this proud tower! And feel its foundations tremble.

It's like he's simultaneously channeling Luddite-esque anti-materialistic lefties and cultural conservative "tsk tsk"-ers.

The gal, according to him, is barely out of her teenhood, an age when your car is a very important object. Not to mention expensive. She hasn't lived long enough to have any other "great crisis" worthy of mention in a checkout line by her father...at least none that he knows of. Derbyshire doesn't know the first thing about this woman or what she values. All he has to go on are the comments a father made while chatting in line. Yes, all I have to go on are Derbyshire's reported observations, and they are weak indeed to give birth to such a sermon.

This is a grasping of straws way of letting a rant without a point escape. It sounds vaguely nice, but has no substance.

Posted by Drizzten at 04:46 PM

Anti-War Frustration

How fawning can you get?

Activists in the growing movement in the United States against attacking Iraq are expressing frustration at their inability to deflect President Bush from his course.

Of course they are. Their position is completely at odds with the President's. Such is the friction in a free society. I wish I could chance his stance on the War on Drugs and his annyoing tendency to promote religion.

Despite polls showing public misgivings about attacking Iraq, especially without U.N. authorization, and a string of large anti-war demonstrations across the country, Bush has generally ignored the opposition, apparently confident he will pay no political price.

"It's very alarming. The Bush administration is prepared to ignore U.S. sentiment and international sentiment," said Barbara Epstein, an expert of peace movements at the University of California, Santa Cruz and peace activist herself.

The number of people who agree with you does not change the validity of that belief.

"The president and his advisers seem so convinced they are right that they can't seem to imagine that the American people won't support them once the fighting begins," she said.

There are "American people" beyond the ones you surround yourself with everyday, Ms. Epstein. Don't act as if the US has a supermajority of people opposed to war.

Epstein and other activists are elated at their success in drawing hundreds of thousands of people into the streets for anti-war rallies. They also point to the fact that at least 64 city councils across the country, including Detroit, Philadelphia, Seattle, Baltimore, Chicago and San Francisco have passed anti-war resolutions.

Among religious groups, the National Council of Churches and the National Conference of Catholic Bishops have also passed resolutions opposing military action against Iraq. Peace activists said the active participation of churches and church-goers has boosted their cause and broadened their movement.

The depth of the variety of people who agree with you does not change the validity of that belief.

All agreed the current anti-war movement was much larger than that which emerged before the 1991 Gulf War, even though congressional opposition to that conflict was stronger.

Probably because the anti-war folks would rather wait to see gratuitous physical harm inflicted upon somone (Kuwait) before they would support war. They want proof of Iraq's "imminent danger" to the US and they want a "smoking gun." As others have said before me, a smoking gun means it has already been fired and if you wait to the point where troops begin marching towards you, you've waited for too long.

Bush rarely refers to the antiwar movement but has said that Americans have the right to express their views. White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said on Thursday that protesting was a democratic and patriotic act.

"We settle our differences in this country through elections and through peaceful protest. And the majority will prevail," he said.

Government through majority decision only means the interests of the majority are protected. I disagree with this reasoning. Action should be based on unwavering rational principles.

Polls to show that support for an attack against Iraq drops below 50 percent if respondents are asked if they would still favor a war without United Nations authorization.

Polls this week showed a slight increase of support for war following Secretary of State Colin Powell's presentation to the U.N. on Wednesday. An ABC/Washington Post poll on Thursday found 67 percent in favor of military action, but the figure still dropped to 49 percent when respondents were asked if they would support a war that was opposed by the U.N., while 46 percent said they were against such an attack.

This only shows the disgusting tendency some people show for using the UN as a crutch. The approval of the UN is meaningless regarding how valid a country's actions are, especially when nations like China, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Zimbabwe, and Cuba are given the same recognition as the UK, Germany, Canada, the US, and New Zealand.

Many activists blame the weak and disunited performance of the Democrats for their inability to influence policy. While many Democrats voted against authorizing Bush to attack Iraq last October, all but one of the party's prospective presidential candidates supported the resolution.

"The Democrats are frightened of being on the wrong side of the situation or of being perceived as unpatriotic or soft on terrorism," said Tom Andrews, a former Democratic member of Congress who now serves as national director for Win Without War, an umbrella group coordinating opposition to the war.

What is with this near-pathological reliance on and desire for "unity"?

I do think that some politicans have been unfairly criticised as being soft on terrorism, as well as some in the anti-war community. However, you can only oppose some actions against terrorism for so long before you do become soft towards fighting it. I need to spend more time deciding what being "unpatriotic" is before I comment on it further. It's too ambiguous for me at the moment.

Sally Milbury-Steen, who heads Pacem in Terris, a mainly church-based peace group in Wilmington, Delaware said part of the problem was that the mainstream media was ignoring the peace movement and echoing the administration's position.

This is bullshit. Each one of the large anti-war protests was covered and many of them given frontpage status on Yahoo!. The nation has been talking and debating this issue for months and that simply isn't possible unless two sides of the arguement are presented. I think this mindset is mostly driven by the changing beliefs in the mainstream op/ed sections that war my be necessary.

She said Bush's assumption that opposition would melt away once the fighting began as Americans rallied behind their armed forces was wrong.

Oppostition to the governement means the government has to defend it's policies, which is a good thing. But there is useful opposition and useless opposition, valid and invalid. Too many people feel that opposition for opposition's sake, dissenting just to dissent, is a worthwhile activity.

"If we can't prevent the war, we won't disappear. We will work to stop it if it starts and if we can't stop it, we will just be a constant spanner in the works," she said.

Regardless of how it unfolds and it's outcome?

Posted by Drizzten at 04:17 PM

Lileks on the UN

Zingers ahoy!

The only way a resolution could stop a truly determined president would be if they wrapped it around a rock and threw it at George W. Bush's head.

[...]

Iraq is in material breach. It's a breach-o-rama. It's breacherrific. Cue the Madonna song: The U.N. is immaterial now, and this is a material breach.

[...]

You'd have a better point if the United Nations was moral, august or esteemed. On the contrary: The United Nations is a dim hive of self-interested parties engaged in endless parliamentary mummery, united by a consensual delusion that all nations are equal.

So you have the bitterly risible sight of Libya chairing the U.N. Commission on Human Rights, which is akin to giving Kid Rock control over the New York Philharmonic. You have the 2003 disarmament conference rotating its presidency among a group of states that includes Iran and Iraq. (Perhaps next year the agricultural planning conference will be held in Pyongyang.) You have the shameful performance of the peacekeepers in Srebrenica, looking away while thousands were slaughtered. You have the sex-for-food scandal at U.N. refugee camps in Africa -- if it happened at an American frat house, it would be national news for a week.

Why a large portion of the world can't understand this is simply beyond me.

Posted by Drizzten at 02:49 PM

February 05, 2003

Austin City Council Stupidity

Jennifer L. Gale says

I vote Yes! Peace resolution sponsored by Jackie Goodman, Daryl Slusher and Raul Alvarez ordering President George W. Bush and the U.S. Congress to stop murdering U.S. military personnel and the beautiful people of the Republic of Iraq.

Gale is referring to the anti-war resolution the Austin City Council is pondering. Daryl Slusher authored it.

I WANT TO ANNOUNCE AN ITEM THAT MAYOR PRO TEM GOODMAN AND COUNCILMEMBER ALVAREZ NOW WILL BE SPONSORING FOR NEXT WEEK. THIS WILL BE AN ACTION OR IT'S AN ISSUE OVER WHICH THE COUNCIL HAS NO DIRECT AUTHORITY, BUT I WOULD AND COULD AFFECT AUSTIN AND ALL OTHER CITIES DRAMATICALLY, BOTH IN HUMAN AND FINANCIAL TERMS. I'M TALKING ABOUT THE POSSIBILITY OF WAR WITH IRAQ. WE ARE GOING TO SPONSOR OUR GOVERNMENT NOT TO LAUNCH AN UNILATERAL ATTACK AND TO GIVE U.N. INSPECTORS MORE TIME. WE WOULD JOIN ABOUT SOME OTHER 50 OTHER CITIES AROUND THE NATION, MANY PEOPLE AROUND THE WORLD IN TAKING THAT POSITION. I WANT TO POINT OUT THIS IS A DEPARTURE FOR ME IN A WAY BECAUSE I CONSISTENTLY AVOID DURING MY SIX YEARS HERE INVOLVING THE COUNCIL IN NATIONAL ISSUES WHERE WE HAVE NO DIRECT AUTHORITY OR RESPONSIBILITY. AND WHERE THERE'S NO CLEARLY DIRECT IMPACT ON AUSTIN. I THINK HERE AS I'VE SAID THERE'S A DIRECT IMPACT, ALTHOUGH NOT THE DIRECT AUTHORITY. I REALIZE THAT IT WILL HAVE LIMITED IMPACT, THERE'S OBVIOUSLY TAKING PLACE DISCUSSIONS AT MUCH HIGHER LEVELS. BUT MANY OF OUR CITIZENS WOULD LIKE TO HAVE THE COUNCIL ADD THEIR VOICE TO THE INTERNATIONAL DEBATE THAT'S GOING ON. SO WE WILL HAVE THAT ON NEXT WEEK.

I apologize for the caps, it's a transcript from a TV closed caption log.

Pure statist arrogance. Of all the fucking things the city council could be doing (lessening the burden on local businesses to do business or voting down the proposed smoking ban and the noise ordinance) they choose to waste their time on something Slusher openly admits that will have no effect on anything remotely of substance. The only good this will do is in the addled minds of people who want "international debate."

Now much more time, Daryl? A month? Half a year? You are aware of the persistent history of deception the Iraqi government has enacted over the last twelve years, right? Why would you feel that Iraq will suddenly turn itself around not?

And there is no basis for complaining about "unilateral" US action. Even if the US is acting unilaterally (which it isn't), that alone is no basis for criticism. Whether or not other people agree with you does not determine the validity of your beliefs.

Posted by Drizzten at 04:50 PM

Grocery Notions

I like sandwiches. I tend to choose places like Schlotzsky's Deli, Subway, and Quiznos than a Burger King or KFC.

So when I go grocery shopping, some of the few guaranteed items on my mental list are fixin's like wheat bread, cold cuts, and cheese. Personally speaking, most other condiments are superfluous. My tastes are simple and consequently cheap. All the better to afford the music and anime I wish I could buy.

Anyway, I'm standing in front of the processed meat section last night, wondering what animal flesh to consume over the next two weeks. Scanning, scanning, scanning...boom! there's the Danish ham I want. Scanning, scanning, scanning...boom! there's the smoked chicken breast I liked last time. Scanning, scanning, scanning...boom! that looks like a good turkey variety pack...eh...oh. It isn't resealable. I see.

One of the convergent miracles of technology is the Zip-Lock plastic bag sealing system. We get the perfect kind of perishable food container...it's transparent, lightweight, inexpensive, impermeable...and resealable so we can use them over again and then keep the contents fresh much longer. Store two baggies of roast beef in the fridge, one ziplocked and the other left open, and the roast beef in the ziplocked baggy will taste better and last longer than the open-aired baggy. Perfect for cold cuts especially since they often have juices packed in the meat and those juices stay in the packaging. This liquid won't evaporate away (or spill over your drinks below) and the product won't dry out.

Additionally, the simple convienience of being able to use the original food packaging cannot be overstated. Buy the product, take it home, keep it chilled, use it, put it back. Nice and easy. Cookingly clueless single guys silently rejoice around the world.

So...why the hell do some coldcut companies still sell packages that don't reseal? Is it really THAT cheaper to not invest in a resealing system for your products? Do you enjoy the thought of thousands of frustrated bachelors trying to figure out a way to save their food from the Dustbin of Dehydration? I've tried using chip clips, paper clips, placing heavier items on top of the packaging...none of it works nearly as well or as efficient as a ziplock. To compensate, we have to eat the product quicker, upsetting our meal plans.

"Deli-sliced" packaging is a particularly egregious offender. The best meat, consigned to live out it's life in a sub-par and unworthy container which will only hasten the meat's decline.

It's time we stood up to this simple-minded aggression! It's time we said "NO!" to obsolete packaging and "YES!" to convienience! It's time we let the world know we will not let this poor user interface design stand! We need to take the initiative and fight back against these callous companies who refuse to acknowledge the idiocy of their packaging! Refuse, resist! Fight! Fight! Fight! Ziplock! Ziplock! Ziplock!

*cue wild cheering*

Now, if you don't mind me, I'm going home for lunch.

Posted by Drizzten at 10:15 AM

February 04, 2003

Ow...

Holy crap does my upper body hate me right now.

Thouroughly humbled by the sight of all the weight machines and the Beautiful People, my first trip to the gym wasn't as bad as I thought it'd be. I found the machines I was looking for, focusing on my arms, shoulders, and chest. My plan is to do the upper body on Mondays and legs and lower body on Wednesdays while jogging Tuesday and Thursday.

As for my diet...

I had Taco Bell for dinner last night.

*shame*

Posted by Drizzten at 09:18 AM

February 03, 2003

Self-Improvement

My place of employment worked out a deal with Gold's Gym to bring TASB employees a discounted price on a Gold's Gym membership. Initiation fee waived and the monthly cost is less than $28, subtracted automatically from my paycheck.

That's the easy part. The hard part is getting off my ass and taking advantage of it. It's been several years since I pumped iron and I've been damn lucky my body hasn't completely disintegrated. I credit my low food intake, an earlier multi-month high-intensity Nautilus regimen when I was in high school, and my refusal to use the elevator at work. Four flights of stairs done four times a day isn't that bad. Better than nothing.

But now it's different. Building muscle requires a diet change and I flatly SUCK at eating right. This is partially because eating right means spending more time and money getting the right things to eat and then preparing them. Laziness and tight finances are hamstringing me. I'm pretty sure one can only achieve so much progress in a fitness program when one's diet consists of mostly sandwiches and microwaved foods.

My motivational propellant is a vacation I'll be taking from late June through mid July. Some Animeboards friends and I are meeting up and road-tripping to Anaheim, California for AX2003. We did this last year, but I'd like to be more fit this time around. Call it a strained relationship with my gut, which has taken on a chiseled-less form of it's own and now uses the US tax code as a growth idol.

Today will be Day 1.

It's time to fight Time and Gravity with Sweat and Swearing.

Posted by Drizzten at 05:35 PM

Several Texas Schools Close

Shuttle debris cause for worry

Thousands of East Texas students will stay home Monday as dozens of schools are shut down while officials continue to scour campuses for potentially hazardous debris from space shuttle Columbia.

The Environmental Protection Agency will remove debris from school sites and recommends keeping schools closed until debris is removed. Gov. Rick Perry ordered Sunday that public and private schools in 93 counties be inspected before classes resume.

"We're probably looking at 100 different school campuses," said state Rep. Jim McReynolds, D-Lufkin, one of several state lawmakers to discuss possible closures. "They'll have to be checked for debris before the kids will be allowed back in school."

A list of affected counties can be found here. I hope those kids aren't confronted with more astronaut remains.

Posted by Drizzten at 09:24 AM

Standardized Testing Rebel

Kimberly Marciniak refuses to take the TAKS test

According to the Texas Education Agency:

As mandated by the 76th Texas Legislature in 1999, the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) will be administered beginning in the 2002-2003 school year. The TAKS measures the statewide curriculum in reading at Grades 3-9; in writing at Grades 4 and 7; in English Language Arts at Grades 10 and 11; in mathematics at Grades 3-11; in science at Grades 5,10, and 11; and social studies at Grades 8, 10, and 11. The Spanish TAKS is administered at Grades 3 through 6. Satisfactory performance on the TAKS at Grade 11 is prerequisite to a high school diploma.

She refuses to take it.

Kimberly Marciniak is not expecting to spark a revolution in testing or even a drastic change in state policy, but she is determined to boycott the standardized test this spring that every child must pass to graduate from a Texas public high school.

The 15-year-old freshman at the North East School of Arts at Lee High School hopes her actions will send a message to her school district: High-stakes testing has stolen her thirst for knowledge and tarnished what she treasures about school ? learning.

"I don't want to be a statistic and I don't want to be a human guinea pig for the district," Marciniak wrote in an e-mail to a San Antonio Express-News reporter.

Firstly, everyone is a statistic somewhere. Being a "statistic" literally means nothing, as evil as some kinds of people have mantra-ized the phrase to convey some lifeless, morally hollow situation. Since the government runs public school systems in Texas, it gets to set the rules for how they operate and educate. The government, like all entities that wish to run effective organizations, needs accurate data on it's operations in order to know what to do next. This data is best expressed, maintained, and crunched as numbers. Statistics. Ms. Marciniak, you are already a statistic on at least a hundred different databases scattered across the business and public sector. Your test scores mean jack squat compared to everything else that has been noted, saved, and collected about you.

I sympathize with the feeling that having elements of yourself stored somewhere so that strangers can access it and potentially do something with it is not neccessarily a good thing. Wishing she wasn't required to take the test is perfectly fine. I have a feeling this may be motivated by her previous education experience.

After attending private schools in Boston, she moved with her parents and young brother to San Antonio in 2001, when she enrolled in Eisenhower Middle School.

She believes the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS) standardized testing system hurt her enjoyment of a subject.

"Higher standards come with a price," she said, recalling her first contact with the state's standardized tests as an eighth-grader at Eisenhower Middle School.

[...]

The freshman student saw how her favorite class ? history ? became a grind because of preparation for the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills, or TAAS.

Marciniak wrote an essay for her pre-advanced placement English course depicting the transformation of a once-fun class into a test academy.

The essay, in which she presents her opposition to high-stakes testing, was given an award as the most persuasive work in the class.

"It was April, and going to Coach Bloomer's third-period history class had become a dreaded task," she wrote. "Since November, he had been systematically destroying my interest in what had once been my favorite subject."

This is one of those "ya'd have to be there" situations, but I do feel it's inevitable that teachers will, out of legitimate self-interest, "teach to the test" as long as there are rewards and punishments assigned to how kids do on them. If teachers keep passing classes that fail the state tests, the teachers and the school get in trouble. This is detrimental to education, which should be one of the most adaptable and fluid services a person gets. Times and knowledge change, and while the effort to abstract the framework of learning an "acceptable" amount of material from the materil being tought is possibly a good attempt at making the school-government-child information feedback loop more efficient, it causes trouble with it's blanket approach and inevitable political meddling.

This isn't to say that all the material testing objectives aren't worthy of knowing, much of them are. But the state wields enormous power over your life by being the issuer of basic education certification (high school diploma/GED). Tying such fundamentally important documents ("fundamentally important" usually because the state ties other things to those documents and private business regularly does as well) to your performance on standardized testing isn't something I agree with.

Ms. Marciniak also has other problems with standardize tests.

"It holds certain biases toward minorities and not rich white puppies like myself," she says.

Her father, Robert, is a doctor and medical researcher at the University of Texas Health Science Center, and her mother, Cathy, home-schools Kimberly's younger brother.

...also saying in the first article

"I believe the test is unfair to minorities and those who can't afford a good education," she said, noting students from low socioeconomic backgrounds typically do not perform as well.

This kind of opposition I have trouble accepting. I really want to see the evidence of actual bias against minorities within the tests themselves. I reject as uninformative the findings of some studies which merely show some minorities doing worse than Caucasians (and often Asians). This is because in any system where you have a flat objective bar which applies to everyone, differences in geo-social, ethno-social, and econo-social methods of each person and their environment will emerge and either give that person an advantage or a disadvantage. Lots of the criticism thrown at standardized tests is that they discriminate against those who don't go to schools that can afford to spend more money on infrastructure, teachers, extra-curricular activities, and such. What the critics want is some sort of "form-fitting" plan which accomodates for those disadvantages...which of course means those accomodations will end up giving those people an advantage over others.

Isn't that what they had a problem with at the beginning of the criticism, that the test isn't "fair" to certain groups?

I don't have a problem with the standardized tests I took while in school. The TAAS test is a pathetic joke academically and I consider it shameful if you are mentally competent and you can't pass it. These tests aren't hard by any fair measure...but they are hard to those students who don't give a shit about learning. If you want to learn, you can overcome the handicap of a poor teacher, weak school study materials, and a bad environment. If you want to suceed, you'll find a way to. While it's the responsibility of the school system to offer the education, it's the responsibility of the student to accept it and build upon it.

I support an objective measure of a student's reasoning, thinking, and analytical abilities. I support it if it means that student doesn't pass the grade and must stay behind. I don't support state-funded education and especially the lame tests it provides, particularly when those tests are gutted in order to actively discriminate against anyone. A test that exposes a trend that Hispanics and Alaskans do poorly in some areas doesn't mean the test should be changed to not expose that failing...it means Hispancs and Alaskans aren't working hard enough to learn in that area.

UPDATE(4/4/2003 11:17pm)
More here.

Posted by Drizzten at 12:01 AM

February 01, 2003

Mourning

Colonel Rick Husband
Lieutenant Colonel Michael Anderson
Commander Laurel Clark
Captain David Brown
Commander William McCool
Dr. Kalpana Chawla
Israeli Colonel Ilan Ramon

Rest in Piece, Columbia.

Oh, and FUCK IRAQ. How petty and inane.

Posted by Drizzten at 04:24 PM