Cozy Corner

While FODwalking, we find out that:

Because of the military discounts, Bonaventure Discount Golf in Augusta and Gordon Lakes Golf Course on Fort Gordon no longer receive Ping products...Karsten Manufacturing Corp. of Phoenix, Ariz., which has a registered trademark on the Ping brand, discontinued its Bonaventure and Gordon Lakes accounts in August.

In a letter to the shops, Ping said Bonaventure and Gordon Lakes discounted Ping clubs below Ping's "Improved Fitting, Internet Transactions and Price Policy."

So basically, Ping is saying, "No discounts for anyone, anywhere, no matter what." Except I really wonder if they enforce it everywhere, or just on shops that support the troops.

(hat tip: Blackfive)

Posted by Andy at 11:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)

Demonizing Wal-Mart may not be the most clever strategy:

Running against Wal-Mart looks like a losing political strategy. The chain's low prices have made it enormously popular with shoppers, as many as 127 million a week, including many low-income voters.

Yet I wonder why the erstwhile populists keep going after Wal-Mart?

Posted by Andy at 08:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

Apparently, animals have the right to a horrible death, instead of a home with humans:

A fire that killed more than two-dozen exotic snakes, frogs, fish, and other reptiles in a Cambridge pet shop Wednesday night was deliberately set, perhaps by the person who spray-painted the message ``No more exploitation of animals" on the store front, fire officials said yesterday.
...
Store owner Dianne San Filippo took offense at the message. ``One of our largest snakes was found melted in his tank," she said, standing outside her gutted store yesterday morning. ``Is that kind of death better than exploitation? I don't think so."

Posted by Andy at 06:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Treppenwitz compares Islam to an abusive husband:

on paper Islam and the rest of the world should be getting along like any old married couple after so many centuries of coexistence. Y'know, avoiding the relationship land-mines and just sort of getting along based on the stuff that works. But instead, the rest of the world has to constantly be hyper-sensitive to Islam's needs... walking on eggshells in fear of the next outburst... while Islam starts throwing stuff and smacking us around the moment he doesn't like something we've said.

I'm not sure what's scarier - that Treppenwitz came up with this analogy, or that it's so apt?

Posted by Andy at 11:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

This morning, I had a question: is the route I drive to work, which is a straight line across several hills, with lots of stoplights (which makes fuel efficiency painful) cheaper in fuel than a more roundabout approach which crossed no hills?

Now, I assumed that my fuel efficiency is poor because of the hills and stoplights; I normally average about 22 mpg on that route, driving a hybrid SUV. Generally, stopping at the bottom of a hill (and burning your momentum) isn't a way to get good fuel efficiency. So I decided I'd measure the fuel efficiency today, and then take a more circuitous route in a couple of days. But in measuring it today, I decided that maybe the problem has been my driving; not the hills.

You see, there are two ways to drive a hybrid. One way is to treat it like any other car, and quickly accelerate and decelerate. At the opposite end of the extreme is the obnoxious hybrid driver mode - slow acceleration; lots of coasting, and never really getting to the top speed you might otherwise. So today, I drove closer to the obnoxious end of that spectrum, but within reason. And what I noticed was interesting. I have a 4.7 mile commute, and the first mile and a half - going to work *and * returning - sucked: about 16 mpg. The combustion engine just wouldn't turn off. The remaining 3 miles, on the other hand, averaged in the mid-30s for fuel efficiency; I netted 25.7 mpg on the way to work, and 28.7 on the way home (27.1 average).

Clearly, my fuel efficiency is getting killed by that first five minute interval while the engine runs to warm itself up. So my next two experiments are going to be different than the circuitous route. First, I'm going to let the car idle until the combustion engine shuts off, and see if the cost of letting the engine idle is lower than the cost of having the engine run while driving (logically, it isn't, but it's a necessary experiment). Second, if the engine is going to run anyway, I should attempt a trip where I try to cover as much distance as possible in the first 5 minutes of my commute, when I have an inefficiency added in, and then try to be efficient once the combustion engine stabilizes.

More on this later. But an interesting time. I think the biggest drawback is that focusing on efficient driving reduces my relaxation time while driving.

Posted by Andy at 11:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

I agree with Peter Beinart. As surprised as I am to say that, he gets that the West needs to intervene in Darfur:

There's only one way to save Darfur: tell Sudan it can either accept the U.N. force or face war against the world's most powerful military alliance. Though the U.N. can't fight its way into Darfur, NATO can. If it does, al-Bashir could end up following Serbia's Slobodan Milosevic and Liberia's Charles Taylor to a war-crimes trial at the Hague. Confronted with that prospect, al-Bashir might conclude that a U.N. peacekeeping force isn't so bad.

The West has said "Never Again" how many times? It's the Days of Awe, so I will forgive every single person who said it to make themselves feel better, but certainly didn't mean it to apply to black Muslims being killed by Arabs. But it's time to put our lives where our mouths are. Genocide is happening; it's happening on our watch, and we are the last ones who can stop it.

If we choose not to stop it, how are we any better than those who stood by during the Holocaust? In fact, aren't we worse, for having seen it happen in our own lives?

Posted by Andy at 10:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Mark Liberman has a nice takedown of a popular myth in today's Globe:

Over the last 15 years, a series of books and articles have told us that women talk a lot more than men do. According to Dr. Scott Halzman in Psychology Today, women use about 7,000 words a day, and men use about 2,000. On the other hand, Ruth E. Masters, in her book ``Counseling Criminal Justice Offenders," tells us that ``Females use an estimated 25,000 words per day and males use an estimated 12,000 words per day." And according to James Dobson's book ``Love for a Lifetime," ``research tells us" that God gives a woman 50,000 words a day, while her husband only gets 25,000.
A bit of Googling easily turns up at least nine different versions of this claim, ranging from 50,000 vs. 25,000 down to 5,000 vs. 2,500. But a bit of deeper research reveals that none of the authors of these claims actually seems to have counted, and none cites anyone who seems to have counted either.
The most recent to join the chorus is Dr. Louann Brizendine, clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco. In her current best-seller, ``The Female Brain" (Morgan Road), Brizendine tells us that ``A woman uses about 20,000 words per day while a man uses about 7,000."

The findings? According to a 1993 review of the scientific literature by researchers Deborah James and Janice Drakich, ``Most studies reported either that men talked more than women, either overall or in some circumstances, or that there was no difference between the genders in amount of talk." The research since that review, including counts from my own research, follows the same pattern.
I haven't been able to find any scientific studies that reliably count the entire daily word usage of a reasonable sample of men and women. But based on the research I've read and conducted, I'm willing to make a bet about what such a study would show. Whatever the average female vs. male difference turns out to be, it will be small compared to the variation among women and among men; and there will also be big differences, for any given individual, from one social setting to another.

Posted by Andy at 10:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

Happy New Year!

Posted by Andy at 09:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

As the former Archbishop of Canterbury lambasts the Muslim world, we see this tidbit:

Since the Pope quoted a Byzantine emperor as saying that the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad were “evil and inhuman”, a nun has been shot dead, a terrorist group linked to al-Qaeda has vowed to kill the Pope, churches in Palestinian areas have been attacked and security at churches and mosques in London and elsewhere has been stepped up.

police officers throughout the city were being asked to step up patrols of synagogues and mosques.

I've finally figured it out. Muslims don't hate Christians and Jews - they're just too damned cheap to pay for their own security. So every few months, they kill one of us, and we provide them free security for a while. Such a deal!

Posted by Andy at 01:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Amid all the usual gems of wisdom you can find at Eteraz, I found this outburst by Aisha that reflects my own perception so well:

Very few of the so-called ‘great religions’ have an unstained history, and I am saying ‘very few’ to be polite. (I think ‘none’ is probably more accurate.) It is convenient to the point of imbecility that adherents of these faiths are so willing to forget their own history as soon as the violence that put them in power allows them to relax and reap the fruits of their conquest. I can promise you that if the jihadis ever did manage to take over the world, the first thing they would do is hang up their guns and ask why the enslaved nations took up arms against their just and peacable rule.

The context is the 21st century. I'll be the first to lambast the Catholic Church for its treatment of my people even unto the 20th century. But in no way do its sins - which involved forced conversions, mass torture and executions, and other villanies - justify the sins of the Islamic fascists. We live in the 21st century. We aren't going to slip back 6 centuries so that the Islamists can have their turn.

Posted by Andy at 09:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Okay, I'm a day behind, but that's the benefit of DVRs (for the record, an eyeTV 500 running on my PowerMac G5).

Did anyone else feel like there were two different games being played? In the first half, the Patriots took the Jets out back, walked them around the block a few times, and left them in a pink tutu. No, really. 24-0 at the half? So wrong.

And then at the half, Mangini must have give the Belichick speech to the Jets. The second half was a totally different game. The Jets gave the tutu back to the Patriots, made them wear it backwards to the prom, but, thankfully, didn't manage to finish the walk backwards around the block. Final score, 24-17.

Much as I like seat-of-the-pants sportswatching, I'd really like to get through this season without needing to go on high blood pressure meds.

Posted by Andy at 10:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The row over Benedict's comments on reason, faith, and Islam should be* eye-opening to the world, and made me ponder the nature of the Muslim world.

After, we keep getting told the radical Islam, Islamic fascists, Islamists have 'hijacked' Islam for their own ends. But I'm really starting to wonder. As near as I can tell, Muslims fall into the following categories:

• Jihadis - the folks who will actively plan to kill non-Muslims


• Instigators - the folks who will tell Muslims that they should riot or kill non-Muslims or "bad" Muslims


• Moblems - the folks who will burn flags, torch shops, stone adulteresses


• Silent Muslims - the ones who might be moderate, but speak naught, for fear of the above three groups


• Abetting Muslims - the ones live in the Western World and provide support to the the first three groups


• Moderate Muslims - the ones who have embraced liberalism and tolerance

* Okay, just go through my blogroll for more links, everyone's talking about it.

Posted by Andy at 07:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Much better weather today here on the Cape, and we went for some sun and splashing. Behind the fold you'll find better imagery than that coming out of the Muslim world this weekend (what was Benedict thinking, speaking truth to the power of the mob?). Enjoy.

Posted by Andy at 02:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Well, sitting out on the porch at the main house of the cottages we're staying at to get my Internet fix can only last so long. Hopefully the cloud cover will break tomorrow and there can be warm beachtime!

Posted by Andy at 05:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Nice to see that Amnesty International remembered why it exists:

Amnesty International has introduced a comprehensive report accusing a terrorist group of war crimes.In utter defiance of the predominant American left, European and United Nations view that Israel engaged in gross war crimes against civilians and freedom fighters in Lebanon, Amnesty International has announced that in its opinion, Hezbollah is guilty of war crimes. Hezbollah purposefully and indiscriminately targeted Israeli civilians.

The AI report notes that despite Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah’s subsequent protestations to the contrary, he stated publicly and repeatedly during the conflict that he was firing his missiles at civilian areas to make Israeli civilians pay for their army’s actions, and with his uncontrolled Katyushas, an indiscriminate weapon, he killed 43 of them.He had advised Israeli Arabs to leave those areas.He had provoked the war with a cross border attack in which some Israeli soldiers were killed and others seized.

Good for you, Amnesty International! Welcome back to the land of the rational!

Posted by Andy at 05:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

What do George W. Bush, Wal-Mart, and Israel all have in common?

All three of them are demonized and vilified - often by the same group of people - far out of proportion to any actions they might take. As such, I now consider them my touchstones of sanity. One can easily talk about the bad things they're each responsible for; but to many, they have no redeeming qualities whatsoever. Someone who believes that isn't wholly rational.

(and yes, I was thinking about this before being contacted by Wal-Mart's PR firm).

Posted by Andy at 05:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

For the record, I've been contacted by Edelman PR regarding Wal-Mart (I guess I should spell it with the hyphen now). They've asked if they can reach out to me from time to time with information I might find interesting. Since, of course, anyone can do so, using the email address in the sidebar, it's only polite that I give them the same courtesy. No remuneration is coming my way in any fashion for this.

I thought I'd toss this out there before my next post, which touches on Wal-Mart, even though totally unrelated to this outreach.

Posted by Andy at 05:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Cozy Corner is taking a vacation for the next few days. I'm taking the CozyWife and CozikinGirl down to the beach before winter sets in. Blogging will range from nonexistent to bursty, depending on the weather. I'm updating my blogroll, so if you're here and bored, go chase down one of the folks over there - they rarely bite.

Posted by Andy at 11:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

By now you know that Khatami spoke at Harvard. Via Dinocrat, we find the Amir Taheri commentary on what really went on:

The visitor was the former president of the Islamic Republic - Hojat al-Islam wa al-Moslemeen Sayyed Muhammad Khatami. He too, decided to "edit" his name to cut a less outlandish image with his American interlocutors. Gone was the title Hojat al-Islam wa al-Moslemeen ("Proof of Islam and of Muslims") and the sobriquet of Sayyed ("master") used by those who claim to be descendants of the Prophet Muhammad.

Throughout, he presented himself as former president of "Iran," rather than of the Islamic Republic - although, legally speaking, there is no state known as Iran. He also insisted on describing himself as hich-kareh - someone with no official position at all - hiding the fact that he is a member of at least 11 organs of the Islamic Republic, including the all-important Assembly of Experts.

Khatami altered more than his identity: He edited Islam into a lovey-dovey cult that abhors the use of force, is uncomfortable with capital punishment, would never fight except in self-defense and actively welcomes other faiths.
...
He used a vocabulary carefully designed to hoodwink the Americans without angering his fellow Khomeinists back home. The trick was reinforced by the fact that he often said one thing in Persian, while the interpreter said something else in English for the benefit of the Harvard audience.

For example, Khatami would speak of khoshunat, which means "roughness," but the interpreter would translate it into "violence" or even "terror." Thus, the Harvard audience would think that Khatami admits that there may be terrorism in the realm of Islam - while back in Tehran, he would appear talking only about "roughness" and "coercion."

In Persian, he would speak of "sodomy," but the Harvard audience would hear "gay sex." Referring to the leader of al Qaeda, he would say "that gentleman" (Aan Agha) in Persian, but the interpreter would say "Osama bin Laden."

Asked what he thought of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's various outrageous statements, the Hojat al-Islam never mentioned his successor by name. In Persian, he took pains to endorse Ahamdinejad's basic position - but in English he gave the impression that he did not fully agree with his successor.
...
Khatami was practicing an art known as taqiyah, which could be translated into "dissimulation" or "obfuscation." This began as a theological tool to allow Shiites to hide their beliefs in hostile environments - but Khatami used it as a political tool to deceive Americans who obviously longed to be deceived.

And sadly, a lot of folks are going to just eat it right up.

Posted by Andy at 11:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The Counterterrorism Blog posits an explanation for the attacks on the US embassy in Syria which resonates with my own suppositions:

According to well informed Syrian sources, today's Terrorist attack against the US embassy in Damascus is one of the "Machiavellian" Assad operations. Let's remind ourselves that the Syrian regime's senior strategists and intelligence officers were trained by the sophisticated "intox" schools of the former Soviet's KGB. One of the main tactics of this old school, refined by Hafez Assad during his rule of Syria is based on the following concept: If the equation is to your disadvantage, create a new problem, offer to solve it, obtain recognition; and by that you'd change the equation.

Posted by Andy at 02:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Emilio Karim Dabul apologizes:

September 12, 2006 -- WELL, here it is, five years late, but here just the same: an apology from an Arab-American for 9/11. No, I didn't help organize the killers or contribute in any way to their terrible cause. However, I was one of millions of Arab-Americans who did the unspeakable on 9/11: nothing.

The only time I raised my voice in protest against these men who killed thousands of innocents in the name of Allah was behind closed doors, among the safety of friends and family. I did at one point write a very vitriolic essay condemning their actions, but fear of becoming another Salman Rushdie kept me from ever trying to publish it.

Well, I'm sick of saying the truth only in private - that Arabs around the world, including Arab-Americans like myself, need to start holding our own culture accountable for the insane, violent actions that our extremists have perpetrated on the world at large.

Yes, our extremists and our culture.

Every single 9/11 hijacker was Arab and a Muslim. The apologists (including President Bush) tried to reassure us that 9/11 had nothing to do with Islam, but was a twisting of a great and noble religion. With all due respect, read the Koran, Mr. President. There's enough there for someone of extreme tendencies to find their way to a global jihad.

Posted by Andy at 11:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

Steve Sernberg over at USA Today demonstrates his "grasp" of the English language:

America is a nation divided by vast differences in life expectancy, a "longevity gap" that can't be readily explained by race, income or access to health care, a study reported Monday.

They found that life expectancy differences are driven mainly by chronic diseases in young and middle-aged adults.
...
The longest living group, "America One," consists of 10.4 million Asians, with an average life expectancy of 85....That's 27 years longer than the average 58-year life expectancy of Native Americans in South Dakota.
...
The second group, "America Two," indicates that income isn't the key to a longer life span. This group is made up of 3.6 million low-income whites living in Minnesota, the Dakotas, Iowa, Montana and Nebraska, with an average life expectancy of 79.
...
The 214 million people in "America Three," the bulk of the population, have an average life expectancy of 78. Next, in rank order, come poor whites in Appalachia and the Mississippi Valley with an average life expectancy of 75, Western Native Americans, who live to an average of 73, and black middle America, also 73. Low-income Southern rural blacks and high-risk urban blacks, "Americas Seven and Eight," live to 71.

Every grouping he lists is identified by race or economics. I think he isn't able to have one sentence which says, "If you're Native American or black, your life expectancy is shorter than if you're white or Asian." Oh wait, he could have said that. But this is the point that closes out his story, which is his real problem:

Jonathan Skinner of Dartmouth says much of the variation depends on such individual factors as diet, exercise and smoking, not health care. "Yet we spend much of our attention and 16% of our national income on health care," Skinner says. "There's no way that differences in the quality of health care can explain 20-year gaps in life expectancy."

Posted by Andy at 07:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Oops. Forgot to write up the season opener thoughts.

By now, if you care, you've already read about it - the blown pass protection on the first play, leading to a Brady fumble, which the Bills recovered, took 6 yards, and scored a touchdown. Twelve seconds into a game, after receiving a kickoff, and you're down 7-0. Ouch.

It was an ugly game, but one that was fun to watch. After an initial slew of scoring, the Patriots defense finally locks down the Bills. My favorite rookie from last year, Ellis Hobbs, is almost never on screen &emdash; which is a great sign. A cornerback with such great coverage that I think only 2 passes came into his area. I'll give up watching his amusing tackles (watching a tiny cornerback upend large receivers is worth the price of admission) to instead close down one wing of the passing game.

Losman had some amazing luck, with dropped balls and missed snaps just coming right into his hands, but you knew it had to run out. And thankfully, it does, with a Banta-Cain hit and Ty Warren tackle into the end zone for the game winning safety. What an ugly way to win. The Patriots need to shakedown both the offense and their defense for the rest of the season; pulling them out like this is not the path to the Super Bowl.

I'm going to have to pick a new rookie to watch. Obviously, Maroney and Gostkowski are likely picks, but I bet everyone is following them. Willie Andrews looks like he's trying to follow Troy Brown's model of playing every position he can, and he's another Texan, so I could have a rookie theme. I'll have to see.

For some fun stats on the game, check out the Patriots website. Gregg Easterbrook's Tuesday Morning Quarterback appears to have moved from the NFL website to the ESPN Page 2 website, I'll update the sidebar here if I can dig up a reliable link to the column.

Posted by Andy at 06:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

This is a nice tribute, courtesy of some enterprising students:

It is a long standing tradition, and this year, students at MIT also commemorated the fifth anniversary of the September 11 attacks.

On Monday, students mysteriously placed a 25-foot fire engine on the roof of the school’s 150-foot high Great Dome. The phrase “memininum,” which means “we remember” in Latin, appeared on the truck’s side.

More info:

• Jonathon Weiss (photos)
• MIT Press
• 
  Erik Nygren (photos)
• A Land of Dreams and Fire
• IHTFP Hack Gallery entry

• BZ Notes
• Trea
• F and F
• Boston Experience
• nHumanities

Posted by Andy at 11:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (1)

Aussie Dave notes the real reason Palestines civilians die during IDF operations:

Most palestinian civilians killed during IDF operations are not killed due to disproportionate force. They are killed due to disproportionate stupidity.

Posted by Andy at 10:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Forkum reveals a useful insight into when 'fake but accurate' is an acceptable standard in referring to the Path to 9/11 ABC movie:

I can't comment on the movie, but if it's essentially accurate in the required summation and fictionalization of events, then the movie should stand whether the particulars match history or not. "Fake but accurate" is not an acceptable standard for journalism, but it is absolutely necessary for art. And this is a movie not a documentary.

Sadly, I think a lot of people won't get this. In telling a story, you may combine a string of boring notes and meetings into one scene which captures the essence of the underlying narrative. In telling the news, you can't make up a scene, and then argue that it is capturing what you "know is true" - either you tell it like it is, or you don't tell it at all.

Posted by Andy at 10:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Alan Dershowitz has an op-ed on Khatami's visit to Harvard:

THE KENNEDY SCHOOL of Government at Harvard University should not cancel the scheduled speech by former president Mohammad Khatami of Iran. Universities must never submit to censorial pressures by individuals or groups that disagree with, or are deeply offended by, a speaker's ideas.

This does not mean that those who invited Khatami to deliver a lecture on the ``Ethics of Tolerance in the Age of Violence" -- a subject on which, based on his lifetime of intolerance, he has nothing to contribute -- made a wise decision. Would they have invited David Duke to lecture on racial harmony or the late Meir Kahane to educate our students on the proper way to protest? I doubt it.
...
Derek Bok, acting president of Harvard, is right when he says that ``a wide exchange of views" is essential to a university. But there are only two tenable positions a university may take in this regard: the first is that they have no substantive standards for who should be invited -- in other words any speaker who wishes to engage in ``a wide exchange of views," and who is invited by any student or faculty group, must be entitled to stand on the Harvard podium. Under this ``taxi cab" approach -- a cab driver must accept any rider who can pay the fare -- Duke and Kahane would have to be invited to speak if there were students or teachers who wanted to hear them, regardless of who might be offended. The second alternative is to have substantive standards -- such as academic achievement or political prominence -- that are applied rigorously and equally, without regard to whether the speaker is left or right, offensive to Jews or to Arabs, etc.

Sadly, Harvard is selective. I recall ROTC cadets having to fight simply to allow their commissioning to take place on campus, simply because any serving military officer was offensive to some groups.

I think Khatami chose the perfect spot to speak from - an intolerant institution.

Update: I see Betsy has much the same thought.

Posted by Andy at 09:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The company I work for is based in Boston. We have a satellite office in San Diego. My boss tells me I should go out to San Diego and get a feel for the office, since we'd recently added it via an acquisition. Now, I grew up in LA, and I've always preferred to fly in and out of LAX. And we had an LA office, so I could plausibly stop in there, and just drive to San Diego.

I prefer to fly on Tuesdays; it's the day with the fewest people, and I can generally get more legroom. And there is a convenient flight from Boston to LA that I've been on a number of times. Flight 11.

My boss is arguing with another VP over whose budget will pay for the trip. September 10th comes, and I'm fighting to get the issue resolved so I can book my flight and go. Then, something comes up, and I end up working until 9 pm, and decide I'll fly on Wednesday.

Tuesday morning I wake up, and drag myself into the shower. My girlfriend (now my wife) is still in bed when my landline, then my cellphone ring, but she doesn't answer the call - we were still a bit stealthy about our relationship. As I step out of the shower, the landline starts ringing again. Still dripping, I race to the phone.

It's the receptionist at work. She tells me that she has my father on another line, and that there is a family emergency and he needs to get in touch with me. I panic. If there had been a family emergency, my mom would be the one to call me - so my dad calling could mean only that it involved my mom. I tell the receptionist to tell him I'll call him right back.

I call my father. The first words I remember him saying, "You're alive." You see, my parents knew I was planning on flying to LA. And my father and I both fly the same flight when we do this, enough that he recognized the number. And when I didn't answer my cellphone, they could draw only one conclusion. But at this point, I'm still confused. What was the family emergency?

My dad tells me to turn on CNN. The first image I see is smoke billowing out of the side of one of the towers, and the caption about Flight 11.

Tragically, one of my co-workers was on one of the four flights. Every so often, a customer will mention it, sometimes because they just heard it, or as a commentary of another sort. It never ceases to startle me, as I had wanted to be on that flight.

Posted by Andy at 09:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Possibly the single most sweeping piece of government reform in the history of mankind passes the Senate:

Tonight I’m proud to report that the Senate unanimously passed S. 2590, the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006.

The passage of this legislation is a triumph for transparency in government, for fiscal discipline, and for the bipartisan citizen journalism of the blogosphere.

There is still some work to reconcile it with the House bill. But, for what may be the first time in the history of organized government, every citizen can be a watchdog on government spending. Okay, I didn't research that, so I could be wrong. And I do predict that more money will be moved into classified programs, but not that much, comparatively (how do you classify the Bridge to Nowhere?).

(h/t: Captain Ed)

Posted by Andy at 12:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

President Bush announced today the transfer of some serious terrorists to Gitmo, where they'll await military commissions (to be authorized by Congress), and revealed a little bit about the CIA interrogation centers, and their value.
Here's the text of his speech. It's a good read, all of it. But if you need an excerpt, here you go:

Within months of September the 11th, 2001, we captured a man known as Abu Zubaydah. We believe that Zubaydah was a senior terrorist leader and a trusted associate of Osama bin Laden. Our intelligence community believes he had run a terrorist camp in Afghanistan where some of the 9/11 hijackers trained, and that he helped smuggle al Qaeda leaders out of Afghanistan after coalition forces arrived to liberate that country. Zubaydah was severely wounded during the firefight that brought him into custody -- and he survived only because of the medical care arranged by the CIA.

After he recovered, Zubaydah was defiant and evasive. He declared his hatred of America. During questioning, he at first disclosed what he thought was nominal information -- and then stopped all cooperation. Well, in fact, the "nominal" information he gave us turned out to be quite important. For example, Zubaydah disclosed Khalid Sheikh Mohammed -- or KSM -- was the mastermind behind the 9/11 attacks, and used the alias "Muktar." This was a vital piece of the puzzle that helped our intelligence community pursue KSM. Abu Zubaydah also provided information that helped stop a terrorist attack being planned for inside the United States -- an attack about which we had no previous information. Zubaydah told us that al Qaeda operatives were planning to launch an attack in the U.S., and provided physical descriptions of the operatives and information on their general location. Based on the information he provided, the operatives were detained -- one while traveling to the United States.

We knew that Zubaydah had more information that could save innocent lives, but he stopped talking. As his questioning proceeded, it became clear that he had received training on how to resist interrogation. And so the CIA used an alternative set of procedures. These procedures were designed to be safe, to comply with our laws, our Constitution, and our treaty obligations. The Department of Justice reviewed the authorized methods extensively and determined them to be lawful. I cannot describe the specific methods used -- I think you understand why -- if I did, it would help the terrorists learn how to resist questioning, and to keep information from us that we need to prevent new attacks on our country. But I can say the procedures were tough, and they were safe, and lawful, and necessary.

Zubaydah was questioned using these procedures, and soon he began to provide information on key al Qaeda operatives, including information that helped us find and capture more of those responsible for the attacks on September the 11th. For example, Zubaydah identified one of KSM's accomplices in the 9/11 attacks -- a terrorist named Ramzi bin al Shibh. The information Zubaydah provided helped lead to the capture of bin al Shibh. And together these two terrorists provided information that helped in the planning and execution of the operation that captured Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.

Once in our custody, KSM was questioned by the CIA using these procedures, and he soon provided information that helped us stop another planned attack on the United States. During questioning, KSM told us about another al Qaeda operative he knew was in CIA custody -- a terrorist named Majid Khan. KSM revealed that Khan had been told to deliver $50,000 to individuals working for a suspected terrorist leader named Hambali, the leader of al Qaeda's Southeast Asian affiliate known as "J-I". CIA officers confronted Khan with this information. Khan confirmed that the money had been delivered to an operative named Zubair, and provided both a physical description and contact number for this operative.

Based on that information, Zubair was captured in June of 2003, and he soon provided information that helped lead to the capture of Hambali. After Hambali's arrest, KSM was questioned again. He identified Hambali's brother as the leader of a "J-I" cell, and Hambali's conduit for communications with al Qaeda. Hambali's brother was soon captured in Pakistan, and, in turn, led us to a cell of 17 Southeast Asian "J-I" operatives. When confronted with the news that his terror cell had been broken up, Hambali admitted that the operatives were being groomed at KSM's request for attacks inside the United States -- probably [sic] using airplanes.

During questioning, KSM also provided many details of other plots to kill innocent Americans. For example, he described the design of planned attacks on buildings inside the United States, and how operatives were directed to carry them out. He told us the operatives had been instructed to ensure that the explosives went off at a point that was high enough to prevent the people trapped above from escaping out the windows.

KSM also provided vital information on al Qaeda's efforts to obtain biological weapons. During questioning, KSM admitted that he had met three individuals involved in al Qaeda's efforts to produce anthrax, a deadly biological agent -- and he identified one of the individuals as a terrorist named Yazid. KSM apparently believed we already had this information, because Yazid had been captured and taken into foreign custody before KSM's arrest. In fact, we did not know about Yazid's role in al Qaeda's anthrax program. Information from Yazid then helped lead to the capture of his two principal assistants in the anthrax program. Without the information provided by KSM and Yazid, we might not have uncovered this al Qaeda biological weapons program, or stopped this al Qaeda cell from developing anthrax for attacks against the United States.

These are some of the plots that have been stopped because of the information of this vital program.

Yes, interrogation works. Yes, our government has stopped terrorist plots since 9/11.

Posted by Andy at 10:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Go Mitt:

Governor Mitt Romney denounced Harvard University today for inviting former Iranian President Mohammed Khatami’s to speak at the school on Sept. 10 and ordered all state agencies to boycott the visit by refusing to provide state police escorts and other service typically given to former heads of state.

"State taxpayers should not be providing special treatment to an individual who supports violent jihad and the destruction of Israel," Romney said in a written statement, calling Khatami’s visit a "disgrace" on the eve of the fifth anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.

So, I wonder who is going to provide security for Khatami?

Update: I should have read to the bottom; the State Dept is providing it. Maybe he can have Armitage on site.

Posted by Andy at 04:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (1)

Kofi wants to "mediate" between Israel and Hizb'allah:

The United Nations will appoint a mediator to try to resolve the issue of two Israeli soldiers captured by Hezbollah, Secretary General Kofi Annan said.

``Both parties have accepted the good offices of the secretary general to help resolve this problem,'' Annan said at the end of a visit yesterday to Saudi Arabia, according to the UN. ``I will designate someone discreetly and quietly to work with them to find a solution.''
...
``My mediator should be the only mediator,'' Annan said in Jeddah. ``If others get involved he will pull out because you will get wires crossed. It will be very confusing and it will not be effective, so there must be one mediator and effective channels of communications with both parties.''

Kofi, mediate this: You are aiding and abetting the terrorists. 1701 was pretty clear. Tell Hizb'allah to release the Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser, or else. (Feel free to make up an or else like "we'll not denounce the Zionists for two whole months in the UNHRC", since we know you wouldn't be able to back up any other threat.)

Posted by Andy at 12:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Because the African Union can't stop the massacre, and the UN won't:

In a new act of defiance, Khar-toum asked African Union (AU) peacekeepers to leave Darfur by the end of the month, as its forces engaged in renewed fighting that threatened to plunge the battered region into fresh chaos.
...
The Sudanese government had already rejected a UN Security Council resolution passed last Thursday, which calls for the deployment of more than 20,000 UN peacekeepers to take over from the embattled 7,000-strong AU force.
...
Khartoum submitted plans to the UN for the deployment of its own troops to replace AU monitors in Darfur, but the idea was rejected by the US and angered rebel movements. Sudanese government troops "aren't considered neutral," Washington's top Africa envoy Jendayi Frazer, the assistant secretary of State for African affairs, said last month.

That's putting it mildly.

Posted by Andy at 12:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Dog Bites Man:

A lone gunman shouting "God is Great" in Arabic killed a British man and injured six other people yesterday at a popular Roman tourist site in Jordan.

Our hearts go out to the family of the slain Brit, and to all the injured.

Posted by Andy at 12:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

WTF?:

A 12-year-old Jewish girl who was beaten unconscious and robbed by anti-Semitic yobs on a bus has spoken out at her disgust that no-one came to her aid.

The girl, who does not want to be identified, was stamped on several times in a racist attack lasting around five minutes while on board a 303 Metroline bus in Mill Hill, north London.

The fact that there were other passengers on the bus that did nothing? That the driver didn't call for assistance?

All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing

Posted by Andy at 10:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

Daled Amos hosts Haveil Havalim #85.

Posted by Andy at 08:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I filled up my gas tank today. The good stuff - at $2.69 / gallon. That's 70 cents a gallon less than I paid for gas one year ago when we vacationed on the Outer Banks. Hmmm, what high gas prices?

Posted by Andy at 10:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Europe disposes of its junk spacecraft - on the moon:

At 6.42 am [September 3rd], the moon acquired a new piece of space junk when the dishwasher-size Smart-1 probe slammed into its surface at 2km a second at a site on the moon's earthward side called the Lake of Excellence.
...
Smart (Small Mission for Advanced Research and Technology)-1 is Europe's first foray to the moon.

The 366kg (750lb) probe has been observing the moon's surface since March 2005 and testing new spaceship technology, but mission controllers at the European Space Agency opted for a spectacular conclusion.

The probe would have hit the moon's surface anyway, but scientists adjusted its trajectory so that the crash could be watched from Earth. The final adjustments were made last Friday.

The crash will have gouged a 10-metre wide scar and scattered debris over about 30 square miles.

Posted by Andy at 10:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Jonah Goldberg proposes a new name for Islamic Fascism:

Personally, if I was deciding these things, I'd call it "Bin Ladenism." That would account for all the contradictions, provide a rhetorical space for Arabs and Muslims to condemn it (Muslim leaders aren't going to use the phrase "Islamic Fascism" and "Jihadism" has positive connotations). We used Marxism and Leninism pretty efficiently for a long time and Bin Laden's ideology is pretty well spelled out, why not do the same with him?

Something I'll think about. The downside, of course, is that the appeasement crowd focuses too much on Bin Laden already, and overstate his personal importance, and less on the ideology we are trying to focus on. Hard call.

(h/t: BlackFive)

Posted by Andy at 11:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

As Secretary Rumsfeld points out:

Consider that a database search of the nation's leading newspapers turns up 10 times as many mentions of one of the soldiers punished for misconduct at Abu Ghraib than of Sgt. 1st Class Paul Ray Smith, the first recipient of the Medal of Honor in the global war on terror.

He's right. Paul Ray Smith:

Sergeant First Class Paul R. Smith distinguished himself by acts of gallantry and intrepidity above and beyond the call of duty in action with an armed enemy near Baghdad International Airport, Baghdad, Iraq on 4 April 2003. On that day, Sergeant First Class Smith was engaged in the construction of a prisoner of war holding area when his Task Force was violently attacked by a company-sized enemy force. Realizing the vulnerability of over 100 fellow soldiers, Sergeant First Class Smith quickly organized a hasty defense consisting of two platoons of soldiers, one Bradley Fighting Vehicle and three armored personnel carriers. As the fight developed, Sergeant First Class Smith braved hostile enemy fire to personally engage the enemy with hand grenades and anti-tank weapons, and organized the evacuation of three wounded soldiers from an armored personnel carrier struck by a rocket propelled grenade and a 60mm mortar round. Fearing the enemy would overrun their defenses, Sergeant First Class Smith moved under withering enemy fire to man a .50 caliber machine gun mounted on a damaged armored personnel carrier. In total disregard for his own life, he maintained his exposed position in order to engage the attacking enemy force. During this action, he was mortally wounded. His courageous actions helped defeat the enemy attack, and resulted in as many as 50 enemy soldiers killed, while allowing the safe withdrawal of numerous wounded soldiers. Sergeant First Class Smith’s extraordinary heroism and uncommon valor are in keeping with the highest traditions of the military service and reflect great credit upon himself, the Third Infantry Division “Rock of the Marne,” and the United States Army.

Sergeant First Class Smith is survived by his wife, Birgit, and their children, David and Jessica.

Posted by Andy at 09:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

For those keeping score, this most recent discovery raises the total number of chemical weapons found in Iraq since 2003 to more than 700.

Yup, yup, no WMD here. Only small WMD, that's not the same thing, right?

Posted by Andy at 09:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Despite their vast popularity, McDonald's is discontinuing the McHedgehog:

Fast food just became hedgehog-friendly. McDonald's Corp. said Friday it had redesigned the cups for its McFlurry dessert so that they no longer posed a danger to the spiky woodland creatures.

Posted by Andy at 08:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

It's September 1st, and that means that Boston's roadways stopped working.

Why, you ask? Because we've got an influx of new college students, with their parents driving around town. Other kids are going to new schools, and parents need to figure out the new routes. And, unlike most cities in America, a significant number of Boston's intersections cease to function if people don't follow the rules.

What rules? The ones that aren't written down. Like when people are trying to drive across Comm Ave next to the BU bridge, and trying to get on Storrow drive, pedestrians should stop using that crosswalk. And drivers shouldn't try to pull a fast one from the left lane. Or, when you're getting off I-93S at Storrow drive, you don't race ahead in the right lane and try to merge at the last second. Unless you're competent, of course.

I could race through a whole bunch more (like not driving moving vans on Storrow Drive), but the effect is interesting. For the next few weeks, until people learn their routes, and apply some etiquette to them, commutes are just going to take a bit longer than usual.

I'm sure there is some deep metaphor in there for international social norms.

Posted by Andy at 11:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Gus Van Horn wonders why the Doomsday Clock has stopped:

That famous symbol of the Cold War, the Doomsday Clock (of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists) appears to have become stuck at seven minutes to midnight since some time in March or April of 2002.
...
"Surely," I thought, "What with Iran being so close and so defiant, and with North Korea likely to have the bomb already, the clock has had to be moved."

Well. OK. I lied. For one thing, I know how far to the left many scientists are: I am, after all, the only scientist I know of in my department at work to have voted for Bush and so was outnumbered three-to-one by scientists in my lab who voted for Dennis Kucinich in the Democrat primaries. For another, the first time I looked at this site I noticed the strong tendency to assume the worst of United States policies while only very reluctantly admitting that anyone else might possibliy be, perhaps, up to no good.

Posted by Andy at 10:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Successful tests are good to see:

An interceptor missile destroyed a mock warhead over the Pacific Ocean on Friday in a key test of the nation's missile defense system, U.S. military officials said.

It was the most realistic test of the systems that would be used against an attack, said Missile Defense Agency spokesman Rick Lehner.

We're not done yet, but this is a great milestone. The anti-missile systems still need to deal with decoys and other countermeasures, but a missile kill is a great achievement. Bet North Korea isn't happy with this one.

Unfortunately, we've got this just in time for Iran to start handing out non-missile nukes.

Posted by Andy at 10:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

...it's all Joe Wilson's fault. Guess Valerie ought to sue him, no?

Posted by Andy at 10:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(h/t: Solomonia, who prefers skiing on the icy tundra of the Finnish steppe rather than quaffing a pint in between air raids).

Posted by Andy at 10:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

You knew Clark Kent had to have a day job....

ICE arrests 15 aliens in Roswell working for U.S. military contractor.

Posted by Andy at 01:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)