Get the Right Stuff at ConservaGear
« November 2004 | Main | January 2005 »
Tonight, Hugh Hewitt read the linked piece from the blog Training for Eternity. In it, Chaplain Lewis describes his experiences in the recent rocket attack on a military installation in Iraq.
Listening to Hugh read it brought tears to my eyes. Reading it for myself brought more.
All I can say is that my prayers are with those in their time of need, and that the Lord will watch over and protect them.
Yesterday, one of the deadliest attacks on U.S. Personnel serving in Iraq took place, with 24 dead, including 19 U.S. soldiers, and more than 60 wounded. The mortar attack was timed at noon in order to inflict the most casualties.
Over on Fox News, the following excerpt identifies the group claiming responsibility for the attack:
The Ansar al-Sunnah Army claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement published on the Internet. The statement said the attack was a "martyrdom operation" targeting a mess hall.Ansar al-Sunnah is believed to be a fundamentalist group whose goal is to turn Iraq into a tightly controlled Islamic state like Afghanistan's former Taliban regime. In August, the Sunni Muslim group claimed responsibility for the beheading of 12 Nepalese hostages.
It is tragic that we now have another terrorist group hell-bent on ruling Iraq, and stifling liberty that the People of Iraq crave (and deserve). I have no doubt that Democracy can survive and thrive in Iraq and other places in the Middle-East, however, it is murderous bands of thugs like this, who fear giving people Liberty, who will continue to undermine any and all attempts at bringing Western-style freedom to Iraq. The only reason I can think of is that they fear freedom.
A truly free and self-determinating people, with representative government, is the bane of evil and totalitarianism. To them, the shedding of the light of freedom places their way of life into darkness. Where it belongs.
Now that our Armed Forces have cleared out the refuse in Fallujah, it is time to focus on eliminating this threat to Peace and Freedom in Iraq. The sooner these rats are dealt with, the sooner we will see a free and stable Iraq. And a democratic Iraq will be the cornerstone of spreading Liberty throughout the Middle-East.
Over on SciFi Wire, there is a report that UPN has cut back this seasons order from 26 episodes to 24.
A lot is happening in the Army right now. Over on Opinion Journal, the is this editorial, Congress's Paperwork Humvees. It starts off with Rumsfeld answering a question from a soldier as follows:
When an Army reservist in Kuwait gave Donald Rumsfeld an earful Wednesday about inadequate armor for Iraq-bound Humvees, the Defense Secretary responded by paying the soldier the compliment of candor. "You go to war with the army you have. They're not the army you might want or wish to have," he said.
Rumsfeld is right: "You never go to the war with the army you want." If you are lucky, you have enough lead time to fill in some of the shortages, whether it is in the form of personnel or materials, however, even then, you often come up with less than you would like.
The current hot-button issue in Iraq is the shortage of armored Humvee's. There are not enough to cover all of the missions they are expected to be used in, so the armored ones go to the combat missions, while the less/unarmored vehicles are used for routine missions, creating a greater vulnerability to the troops operating them.
The terrorists operating in Iraq know this, and can use this information against our troops, and that's bad. Worse still is our Congressmen who use these facts to attack the administration for personal political gain (also from Opinion Journal):
Figuring it was politically safe to slipstream behind a soldier's question, Connecticut Senator Chris Dodd called Mr. Rumsfeld's comments "cavalier." House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi called for Mr. Rumsfeld to be fired--for only the 10th or 15th time. California Representative Ellen Tauscher vows to press for hearings on supply needs.
Our Military deserves the best equipment and training we can give them, after all, they are putting THEIR lives on the line. It helps to understand the importance of this if you've actually served in the military, and I'm willing to bet, even more so if you served in a combat role (I was in information services, computers, during my time on active duty). This is not to say that those who have not served can't grasp this reality, it just helps a bit.
When you are putting your life on the line for whatever reason the government asks, whether it is to hunt down terrorists like Osama bin Laden, or liberating a people from the jackbooted tyranny of the likes of Saddam Hussein (or Hitler, for that matter), they deserve the best. It could be the key to their surviving a fire fight.
To put this in terms of the computer field, you don't ask your database team to use Microsoft Access to manage a database that will contain billions of records organized in hundreds (or thousands) of tables. You give them a database engine designed to handle that kind of load.
The same is true with military operations. You send the troops out with the best equipment, the best armor and the best training. You don't send them out equipped with spitballs (thank you Zell Miller for that analogy!).
You also send them out with clear objectives, with number one being come back alive and number two being kill the enemy.
Fortunately, some of the shortages may be getting resolved. There is an article over on Military.com on new contracts for humvees.
The Army entered negotiations with an armor manufacturer Friday in an effort to accelerate production of armored versions of the Humvee to get them to the troops more quickly, Army and company officials said.Army Secretary Francis J. Harvey spoke with officials at Armor Holdings, Inc., based in Jacksonville, Fla., who told him Friday they could increase production by up to 100 vehicles a month.
Although it may not be immediately possible for the armor manufacturer to increase their output to this level, negotiating and pushing for these increases is definitely a step in the right direction.
Right now I am reading the novel The Last Heroes by W.E.B. Griffin. It's about the beginnings of the O.S.S. in World War 2. There are a couple of reasons I picked up this book, first of which I used to know a man who was in the O.S.S. during WW2, and the thrust of the novel is obtaining Uranium for atomic energy and weapons. Energy for the Navy, as that is the main obstacle for naval forces: fuel. Weaponry to defeat our enemies.
This is not meant to be a book review, but some thoughts on nuclear energy. In part, this is prompted by an article this week in Christian Science Monitor on Fusion Reactors.
The article discusses the current state of research and what the near future looks like, and it looks bright.
One of the biggest challenges in harnessing nuclear fusion is containing and controlling an environment where temperatures are 100 million degrees Celsius. That's hot! However, with the tremendous advancements that have taken place in technology, computers in particular, it has become possible to model what such an environment would look like and design equipment to control it.
For years, researchers worried that at the energy levels ITER was aiming for, the plasma would fail to remain stable or that the magnetic fields would fail to keep the plasma bottled up.But since the mid-'90s, technological advances have yielded fresh insights into the way such reactors can operate. They include improved test equipment, new ways to tweak the reactions from outside the reactor vessel, and more-powerful computers that model the conditions in the reactors. "Now we know what we're looking at," Goldston says.
For example, when the plasma grows turbulent, it forms eddies and the plasma cools. Researchers had a difficult time figuring out what determined the size of the eddies and how to control them. With the added computational horsepower and the new instruments, they determined the factors that controlled their size. Just as important, they found that they could apply more push to the flowing plasma than the system would generate on its own, shearing off the eddies almost before they got started.
This, to me, is exciting stuff, as nuclear fusion may soon be moving from the realm of Science Fiction to reality. A limitless supply of clean electricity, enough to supply all the world's needs until the end of time.
This article also prompted me to look back at the current state of nuclear energy, the fission of uranium molecules.
Fission has remained unpopular in the United States for decades, and I have never understood the hysteria against nuclear energy. True, there have been a few accidents involving nuclear reactors, most notable was the Chernobyl disaster in the ‘80s. That particular accident was due to a very bad and risky design, which resulted in the reactor entering a run away reaction that, to coin a phrase, blew the lid off of the place.
However, it seems to be that one of the main drivers is a fear of nuclear proliferation, which resulted, during the Carter Administration, in the U.S. abandoning the reprocessing of spent fuel rods. You see, it turns out that one of the by-products of reprocessing fuel rods, plutonium, as well as residual uranium, can be used in the development of nuclear weapons. This was the driving reason for shutting down the nuclear energy industry in the United States.
There is an additional side effect of abandoning the reprocessing of spent fuel rods: economic stagnation. It causes the costs for running our nuclear power plants to go up as they have to store more radioactive material, instead of transferring these materials to a place where they can be safely reprocessed.
It is interesting to note that there are several European countries, including France, that have fuel reprocessing plants.
France uses nuclear reactors to generate most of its electricity, Germany receives nearly a third of its electricity from nuclear power plants. Not to mention the United States Navy, as most ships and submarines are nuclear powered.
Should the U.S. resume building nuclear power plants? Look at the increase in the costs of natural gas to heat your homes (I have geothermal, so no gas here) and cooking (where people have gas ranges). The prices have gone up, mainly because power generation plants have been switching from coal to natural gas to generate electricity. As the demand for natural gas continues to escalate, especially during the winter months, the higher the price for natural gas.
This is a very good reason to revitalize the nuclear energy industry. By building more plants, and modern designs are far safer than the designs from the ‘50s and ‘60s, we can easily reduce, and eventually eliminate the need for coal burning plants, thus eliminating the "green-house" gases the environmentalists are always up in arms about (and the driver for the move from coal to natural gas) as well as eliminate the need for natural gas in energy generation, thus causing a drop in the price of gas for winter heating.
Sure, the environmentalists will tell you to switch to solar and wind, but electricity from those technologies still costs more than other means of generating electricity, and although it is "green" energy, the process to make the parts needed is not a green process. And it is not cheap technology to implement, nor is it cost effective.
As I mentioned above, I have geothermal to heat and cool my house. Neat technology. I have looked at photovoltaic (solar) and wind, and, yes, I may implement one or both of those as well, just to reduce my reliance on outside sources (going "off grid"), however, it definitely is not cheap.
Nuclear energy still remains the most cost effective means of generating energy. Nuclear waste can be better handled by the re-introduction of reprocessing plants in the United States, as well as a move to other, more modern, power plant designs will increase safety and decrease per kilowatt costs.
Over on the Weekly Standard website, the latest column from Talk Radio host extraordinaire, Hugh Hewitt, is well worth a read and comment. He talks about how the campaign for the GOP nomination has already begun, and a front runner is already in position. This will be an election where there isn't an incumbent or vice-president in the race for the first time since 1952. I hadn't noticed this, however, he is quite right on that score.
The main thrust of his column comes from a talk he gave at a recent NFRW meeting in Riverside County, CA. There he conducted what he is calling the first straw poll of 2008, and the result was interesting. Not sure if it is surprising.
I announced the first straw poll of 2008. By a show of hands, I gave the ladies--and a handful of men who were their guests--four choices: Senator John McCain, former NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Senator Bill Frist, and "other." The results astonished me.
Okay, I admit that Condoleezza Rice wasn't on the list, except categorized as "other," however, it is Hugh's poll. I can always run my own on my website, right?
Now, let's look at the recent activities, at least as far as I am aware, of the three he named: Senator McCain, although out campaigning for the Pres during 2004, seemed to be more at odds with W, not to mention the frequent "hints" that he was on Kerry's short list for the V.P. slot. This last, no doubt, will be brought up again in 2008, IF he decides to run again. I don't think he will. Senator Frist, darn good man, and you would think he is a strong candidate. Rudy Giuliani, campaigned heavily for Bush in 2004. I even saw him cruise thru the Minnesota Campaign HQ just before the election (and me without a camera!), with Norm Coleman, and a day before the President made his last Minnesota campaign stop.
I must admit, I wasn't active in the campaign until the last couple of weeks, but I don't recall hearing of any campaign visits in Minnesota by McCain or Frist. Doesn't mean they didn't show up here, and easy to miss. However, Giuliani cruising thru HQ and giving the volunteers a morale boost, that makes me think he is planning on running. No surprise, as that has been the scuttlebutt for months now, that Giuliani would run in 2008.
2008 is still a long ways off, and a lot can happen between now and the primaries, however, it is interesting to look at how things are shapping up this early.
The results from Hewitt's informal straw poll? Go read his column! I believe he is onto something here. And we may not have to wait until 2008 to find out if he is right.
Newsmax has the following article on Hillary's plans for her 2006 re-election bid.
The fund-raising chairwoman of New York Sen. Hillary Clinton's 2006 re-election campaign said Friday that Clinton shouldn't have to pledge to serve out a second full six-year term, leaving the door open for a White House run in 2008."I want to be very honest with you," campaign chairwoman Ann Lewis told ABC Radio's Sean Hannity. "Professionally, this is all about 2006. But if you ask me personally, I don't think Hillary Clinton should be held to a higher double standard, different from people like George Bush - who also ran for re-election in 1998, then went on to a national campaign."
Okay, Lewis has a point, Hillary should not be tied down to a Senate seat that she is elected to, when it is common for someone who is elected to an office to run for a different office while in the middle of their current term. Look at Kerry and Edwards, skipping out on their Senate commitment, to represent the People of their respective states in order to campaign for the Presidency. At least Dole, in his run back in 1996, stepped down from the Senate in order ot campaign.
Although President Bush did not step down as Governor of Texas when he ran for the Presidency in 2000, I don't believe he shirked his duties to the State of Texas.
In 2000, not only did Joe Lieberman not resign from the Senate, he campaigned for his re-election to the Senate, just in case Gore failed to be elected President. Now that's hedging your bets.
This is not to say that I advocate vacating an existing office before running for a higher office; I believe a good leader can balance the needs of both. However, if Hillary (or any candidate) makes a pledge not to run for a higher office as part of their campaign, they should keep that pledge. Such campaign pledges should be kept, as that is one of the things that people use to determine who they want to vote for.
It's like changing party affiliations after winning an election for a Partisan office (local offices are non-partisan, so there is no party affilitaion at those levels).
Senator Clinton will definitely need some watching in her 2006 re-election bid. If she makes a pledge to not run for the Presidency in 2008 as part of her campaign, then breaks it, she will prove to the world she lacks the integrity to lead this country.
I have known some people who devoutly believe that the concept of a "Philosopher King," the ideal ruler with the virtue and wisdom of a philosopher. Not only have I known people who believe that such a ruler would be good for America, some of them even believed they would be that ideal person.
A Philosopher King, it is believed, would be a benevolent ruler, using his "superior" wisdom in determining what is best for his subjects. That means, he would have absolute power in determining what you or I can do and what we can have. If he believes that no one should have any more material goods than any body else, then his will be done, and any transgressors, those who would attempt to exercise their free will in order to better their own lives, well, they would be sent to the dungeon until they learned the error of their ways.
A Philosopher King is nothing more than a fancy euphemism for tyrant.
Yet it is this concept that attracts many people, predominantly liberals, believing that thru such a leader, some great utopia would be created, where all people would have all of their needs satisfied and there would be no want. Come to think of it, I don't believe I have met a conservative who believes that such a ruler would be good for society.
Ask your liberal friends what THEY would do if they were chosen to be a Philosopher King. What would they do to enforce their will upon the people they rule? Or are they believe that all of their subjects would give up their natural free will? Would you trust such a person with this kind of power?
Then think about what kind of people currently in the public eye might try to paint themselves (or their followers may do this) as this "ideal ruler", who would think of themselves as this mythical Philosopher King. Or Queen, for that matter. Then ask yourself, would you want this person as President of the United States?
It was Happy Hour over at Quark's. Some of us take Happy Hour seriously, and so it was with me, as I sat down at the bar and ordered up a pint of Guinness with a Tribble Sweat chaser. My usual, as it were. I was hanging around waiting for the Doctor to show up when Woof strolled up to the bar and ordered a root beer and prune juice chaser. I looked at him quizzically.
"Prune juice, it's a Warrior's drink," he said, as if to answer whatever question I was about to ask.
"I was wondering about the root beer. That stuff is banned everywhere outside of Federation space."
"I know, that's why I drink it."
"Come again?"
"Because it is so bubbly, it reminds me of the Federation...happy and cheerful."
"Ah." I focused on my Guinness, decided it was time for a second round, so I swigged it down and followed it with the shot of Tribble Sweat. I caught Quark staring at me, and remembered to NOT slam the empty shot glass down on the bar. He hates that.
Quark came over, bearing a second round, and said, "Did you hear who's coming to DS9?"
"Who?" I asked.
"Kern."
"Woof's brother?" I queried.
"My name is Worf!" responded Worf, slamming down the tankard of root beer. Quark winced.
"Easy, my ears!" Quark admonished Worf. At least I wasn't the only one to irritate Quark that way.
Now, of course, I was wondering what would bring Kern out here. It certainly wasn't the root beer. Or the prune juice. So I turned to face Worf and find out more, or at least kill some time. Besides, the Doctor, which ever one was on station at the time, had yet to show up.
"What brings the prodigal brother to DS9?"
"He is coming on a diplomatic mission for Martok, commanding the newest ship in the Klingon Fleet."
"You mean Kern got to command the newest battlecruiser?"
"Yes." Worf didn't look happy. "Why did they have to name it after 'HIM'?" He really didn't look happy. In fact, he looked like he had just learned that the latest battlecruiser had been named after Jean-Luc Piccard, Knight-Commander of the Order of the White Flag. That's the kind of look I would have had that been so. But I knew for a fact that this latest battlecruiser was named for one of the greatest heroes of the Empire, helped beat back the Romulan Empire in the early days when the Rommies had expansionist plans. So, I decided to play dumb.
"'Him' who?"
"You mean you haven't heard?" Worf asked. Quark leaned in closer, as if he needed to with those oversized ears of his, so as the better to hear Worf with.
"No. I was out near Bellatix, waiting for a Super Nova. I'm getting tired of using Wave Torpedoes. What should I have heard?"
Worf looked rather stressed as he formulated his answer. "Kern is in command of the IKV Ronald Reagan," he finally stammered, then quickly slugged down his prune juice.
Quark grinned. I signaled that he should get Worf another root beer, or perhaps a ginger ale. Something soft like the Federation.
"And Kern accepted command of it. Didn't even think twice about the name. How could he!" Worf howled. He grabbed the tankard of root beer, drained it in a mighty gulp. "I thought I raised him right!"
"You did the best you could, Worf, and Kern is a fine Warrior, and he'll do great things with his new command," I said to him. "Besides, it's not like they named it after Admiral Kirk, or that poser, Captain Surrender himself."
"Captain Surrender?" Worf looked puzzled.
Then I remembered that he has always been a poser himself, a Feddie want-to-be, dressing in their pajamas and calling them uniforms. "You know, Piccard. Every time he encounters an enemy, he runs up the white flag."
Quark, more perceptive than I sometimes am, ducked for cover. I realized my mistake a moment too soon, however, my surfer's reflexes kicked in and I easily avoided Worf's fist. The Doctor, on the other hand, who had finally showed up, didn't.
The Doctor, his long, curly locks of brown hair flying, hit the deck with a mighty thud. Worf, realizing he missed, became very distressed and apologetic as he offered his hand to the Doctor, helping him back to his feet. "I am so very sorry, sir," Worf stuttered, "I was attempting to hit the Kahuna, and, regrettably, I missed."
"So I see. Here, have a jelly baby," the Doctor proffered his bag of jellies to Worf.
Worf looked at the bag with suspicion, reached in and plucked out a jelly baby, sniffed it, then stuffed it in his mouth and made short work of it, gulping it down. "I think I need some more prune juice," Worf muttered and turned his back to us.
"Well, not so much as a thank you. That's Klingon manners for you." The Doctor complained, tossing his knit scarf back over his left shoulder.
"Well, at least he still has some of his heritage," I whispered to the Doctor.
"Ah, well, in that case," the Doctor paused, collected his thoughts. "So, you want to see how the TARDIS handles in some really wild surf, eh, Kahuna."
"That would be fun. If the TARDIS is all it's cracked up to be, should be a blast. And after we get some surfing in, maybe we can use it to go get some grub at Milliway's."
"Milliway's? My, that does sound like a good way to end a day of surfing. Ah, Kahuna, I can see we're going to be great friends. What say we get an early start. I'll meet you at Starbuck's first thing in the morning, right after I get my morning Raktajino. Sound good?"
"Work's for me."
Surfing with the Doctor in the TARDIS. I love it when a plan comes together.
Kahuna
On this day, 63 years ago, the Japanese executed a sneak attack on Pearl Harbor. This was the "day that will live in infamy." Nearly 2,400 Americans were killed in this attack, the majority of which were on the U.S.S. Arizona. If you have never visited the Arizona Memorial in Pearl Harbor, then a good place to start is with the National Park Service website for the USS Arizona Memorial.
Despite the "best" efforts of terrorists, including the recent bombing of a U. S. consulate in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, President Bush and the Iraqi leadership continue to move towards a January 30th election, the first FREE election in Iraq.
Fresh of the internet, this article tells it like it ought to be.
"They want us to leave Saudi Arabia. They want us to leave Iraq. They want us to grow timid and weary in the face of their willingness to kill randomly, kill innocent people. That's why these elections in Iraq are very important," Bush said.Yawar, seated beside Bush in the Oval Office, came to Washington with a message that Iraqis want to vote on Jan. 30, and that only "some politicians" want to boycott the elections.
"Right now, we're faced with the armies of darkness, who have no objective but to undermine the political process and incite civil war in Iraq. But I want to assure the whole world that this will never, ever happen, that we in Iraq are committed to move along," he said.
I have no doubt that the majority of Iraqis wish to enjoy their natural rights, especially Life and Liberty.
An article posted on the Clan MacDude newsgroup lead me to a site that describes building a home PC out of a bottle of Ballantine’s Scotch. This is way cool. I want one.
The article is four pages and is a photographic tour of how to build one, and a list of components used.
Check it out.
Over on Space.com, a remarkable article on how Solar Storms have been smacking comets around and disrupting thier tails. It's not a permanent effect, however, it is certainly an interesting phenomenon, and is helpful in understanding how solar storms interact with the inner cosmos.
This book is part memoir, part how-to and part what went wrong. It's all about the Democratic party and where it was fifty years ago versus where it is today. and how it got that way. Miller writes about his upbringing, and how it shaped is outlook on life and Government, as well as the events that drew him into the political limelight, from local office to the U.S. Senate. He is in depth, candid, and honest about his triumphs and failures (of which he has had very few). Why he is considered a Conservative, and the changes he helped bring about to make Georgia a better State.
Miller has held many different offices, elected as well as appointed, during his career, and he touches on all of them. His early campaigns consisted of many local appearances, staying in the homes of friends and supporters while on the campaign trail, and keeping the budget low. This he did all the way up to his runs for Lieutenant Governor of Georgia. When he ran for Governor, he had to change campaign mode, and use the big budget tactics so common throughout the country, raising and spending large sums of money.
During his career in Georgia, he brought about many changes, including (and probably most significantly) reforms to both Welfare and Education. His Welfare Reform in Georgia included helping people become responsible for their own destiny (this would be the teach a man to fish analogy) by providing education and job training to those who needed it and a helping hand to working parents by providing day care for their children. This was the cornerstone of the change. There was also a cap on how long a person could receive welfare benefits, which is critical to reforming the system, and eliminating the perpetual welfare recipient.
His education policy provided a system of scholarships to all Georgia children who maintained a "B" average to get a college education paid in full from the tax coffers (providing it is a State University). Miller believes that a good education is the foundation of a good economy (he's right on that score) and that as the job market continues to change and demand more and greater technical skills, an advance education is critical to a person's success. He also points out where the Federal Program fails as it provides a tax credit to the student (or parents, if they are footing the bill) as under that program the colleges are able to boost their tuition by the same amount as the tax credit, thus negating the whole point of the program. We'll set aside for the moment that I don't believe that the Government should be taxing its citizens to support these programs (however, I am opened minded), and look at how the two programs, Miller's for Georgia, and the Fed's, function. One is an entitlement, where you get the education paid for by the State, the other is a tax credit for whoever is paying the tuition costs. Tax credits are generally not a good formula for success, as it still locks out the children of low income families from attaining a higher education, the tools they need to rise up out of poverty.
Okay, as I stated, I am generally against taxing Americans to provide for the education of other people's children, since that is wealth redistribution (Socialism). Same is true with Welfare. However, if it is combined with strict Welfare Reform, designed to enable to help people to gain the skills they need to rise up out of poverty, as well as provide their offspring with the tools they need to avoid falling into a never ending cycle of poverty, then the costs will be worth it, and as time goes on, the costs to the tax payer will be reduced as the need for Welfare programs will decrease. Giving a Tax Credit does not do anything to help end the cycle of poverty in America. It's a "I want to feel good" measure for Congress to make people think that progress is being made to help those in need.
Miller also puts forth his "Lessons Learned by Seventy." These are beneficial to anybody and everybody. All of these lessons are good, and I especially liked #3, "Take what you want. Take it and pay for it. You can have whatever you want but it's going to cost you in some way- something. For every action there is a consequence-always! It may be a good consequence or a bad one, but it will come just as sure as night follows day." This resonates well with the philosophy of individual responsibility and accountability. Take responsibility for your actions and decisions.
Miller is in many ways a Conservative, and certainly a Democrat in the mold of Thomas Jefferson and (the real) JFK. The book is well worth reading, regardless of your political leanings, and is a brilliant memoir by a great American who has served his Country, and the State of Georgia, admirably.
This past week, while on my daily commute, I heard a debate on one the talk shows I listen to, and not sure if it was Hugh Hewitt or Sean Hannity, about PEST, or Post-Election Selection Trauma. The guy who was stating that this is a serious epidemic and issued a challenge to google the terms post-election selection trauma and post-election syndrome trauma. So I did. And what a sight, or sites, as the case may be.
The Boca News as an article, keeping it up to date as the story develops.
The AHA's actions come after the Boca Raton News reported Tuesday that Palm Beach County psychotherapist Douglas Schooler has already treated 15 Kerry supporters using intense hypnotherapy. Schooler, contacted Wednesday, said four more people had already set up appointments for the onetime therapy session since the article was picked up internationally and cited on Rush Limbaugh's radio show."The problem is out there and it's not going to go away anytime soon," Schooler said. "Conservatives are calling me to say these people are weak-kneed kooks, but they're not acknowledging that this is a normal psychological response to a severe and disillusioning situation. Any suggestion that this is not a serious problem arises from a political agenda. The Republicans don't want this talked about."
Schooler is right about one thing, PEST is out there, way out there. I'm beginning to think that the acronym is quite suitable, as these people who are "suffering" from PEST, must be exactly that, PESTs, at least for the analysts they are seeing.
Here's another one, over on AlterNet.
This morning at the farmer's market, I spoke with a woman selling handmade cedar soaps. We were having a perfectly casual conversation until she complimented me on my earrings. "Last night I had a dream about earrings just like that," she exclaimed. "Oh," I said, "that's funny. Last night I dreamed I was forced into being a suicide bomber." She gave me a frightened smile and moved on quickly to the next customer. I chalk up the awkward conversation, and the dream, to PESTS -- Post Election Stress and Trauma Syndrome. This new disease, with which I am severely afflicted, seems to be sweeping whole areas of the country, with doctors and concerned friends and family reporting new cases each day. The symptoms vary region to region and person to person, but the general diagnosis is the same: severe disorientation, melancholy, a need to be around like-minded others and a lingering fear that the country is going to hell in a handbasket. Howard Menger, a film technician in New York, woke up with PESTS on the Wednesday after the election. He called his old friend Jerry in Ohio, who'd been the best man at his wedding, and left this message: "Just calling to make sure, for the sake of me and my family and people around the world, that you didn't vote for Bush yesterday. Give me a call and reassure me. "By Sunday, he hadn't heard back. "I have a gut feeling," he says, "that it might be the end of a 10-year friendship."
Now, I am not sure if this column is serious, or poking fun at PESTs, however, looking at some of the other content on the site, I would hazard a guess that this is for real.
The symptoms of PEST are described as:
Feelings of withdrawal Feelings of isolation Emotional anger and bitterness Loss of appetite Sleeplessness Nightmares Pervasive moodiness, including endless sulking Excessively worried about the direction of the country.
Checking further, I found a cure for PEST over on Free Republic. If you can't deal with another four years of Bush, MOVE TO CANADA! Although the Canadians may not want them either. Of course, there is always France.
This also leaves one to wonder: What will happen in 2008 when they lose again?
Thursday night was Townhall Meetup night for the Twin Cities area. We gahtered at our usual haunts for pints and grub, and lively discourse. The hosting organization, TownHall.com, sends an agenda with with talking points, I don't think we have ever stuck to it.
This was the one year anniversary of this meeting group, which I joined back in June.
Although some 20 or so people RSVP'd, only ten showed up. Okay, admittadly, parking was tight, and people's plans can change at the last minute.
Inspite of that, we had a great time, talking about different subjects, from "Will Hillary run in 2008" and who may be running on the Republican ticket (Rice or Guilliani) to taxes and the proposed Fair Tax Amendment as well as a host of other topics.
This group get together every month is priving out to be a good time. Hopefully we will see a few more people coming down on a regular basis in the future.
The KSD is the result of a brainstomring session with some frineds during a New Year's party for 1994/95. Some of the friends there that participated in coming up with the concept are Sara (who hosted the party), Mary, Kate, Gene and myself. It was all supposed to be a joke, and was heavy influenced by the '60s surf movies. Needless to say, I decided to take it seriously and have a lot of fun with it.
The Kahuna is a character I created at the inseption of the KSD nearly 10 years ago. I began writing about the Kahuna's exploits a few years later, and this is now manifesting itself in the ongoing Kahuna Logs.
Well, Kerry could be construed as a Klingon name, with that "K" sound so popular with Klingons, however, he's a Feddie sheep who thinks he can out surf anybody on the Galactic Surfing Circuit. In reality, Fliiper Kerry is a bigger poser than Capt. Gremmie.
The introduction of Flipper Kerry adds a dimension of politcal satire to the Kahuna Logs, so expect him to stick around for the rest of the election season.
I started this site as a hobby, and it remains such to this day. It originally started out as "Sqotty MacKlingon's Engine Room" back in August of 1995. To the best of my knowledge, I was one of the first Klingon sites (though not the first) on the WEB. It was mainly oriented to the activities of the San Francisco Bay Area KAG ships. Eventually, I renamed the site to the IKV Kowabunga of the Klingon Surfer Dudes and made it more non-club affiliated, although I an active member in KAG, currently on board the IKV Rakehell out of Minneapolis.
Next the site became a news and community forum for Trek and SF fans in general, and Klingon Fandom in particular. After eliminating forums and focusing on blogging, the site became more of a place for my musings, and convention reports.
Election year 2004, the site has taken on a political slant, and yes, I am a Bush supportor today, just as I was in 2000. I am not sure if politics will continue to be a part of the blog, however, since I was recently elected to office, it could happen. I am also becoming more active in the political scene, and being informed on the issues is of great importance. As such, I am using this as a forum to exercise my First Amendment Rights.
To this day, this site remains a hobby. So if you don't see anything new on it for a few days at a time, it's probably because I am busier than all get out with work, the dogs, the house, or pursuing one other interests.
Sure, if you provide a reciprical link on your front page, or on your blog role. Send me an email at thansen "the good ol' AT sign" kowabunga DOT org.
That being said, I won't link to sites that provide "adult content" (porn), and other sites whose content I find objectionable.
Comments should not contain profanity, or make comparisons of American's to evil, totalitarian, mass-murdering dictators.
I've implemented the use of Haloscan for managing comments so as to eliminate the need for readers to register with (and login to) the Kowabunga site.
Comment spamming, in other words, injecting advertising into comments on Kowabunga.org is strictly forbidden.
Trackback capability is provided by Haloscan.com. Trackback is a neat technology to extend discussions on topics around the blogosphere. Unfortunately, php-nuke doesn't have that built in, thus the need to incorporate it using a third party source.
If you want to set up a trackback link, then the you must reference back to the kowabunga.org site. Failure to do so will result in the trackback being deleted. Also, I reserve the right to delete trackback links that contain undo profanity or makes comparisons of American's to evil, totalitarian, mass-murdering dictators.
The Klingon Cup and Daggers was designed by Chuck Elauria (K'Chuck, better known as Slimey, short for Denibian Slime Devil) for my ship, the Kahlua, back in the Bat Area. However, the ship ended up dry docked shortly after Chuck was killed in an auto accident. He was a fine illustrator, and he is greatly missed by Klingon Fandom.
Photos are predominately mine, and I have made some of the other graphics used on the site.
There is a common misconception about the designation of the .org top level domain being only for non-profit organizations. The RFC that defined the original TLDs, including the .org designation, stated that .org was a miscellaneous TLD for any domain that does not fit into any of the other categories. Check out the original RFC-1591 document for details.
Ran across this brilliant article by Bernard Moon over on the Boston Globe website. He takes the Liberal Elites to task for their ranting about hot the Chritians voted for Bush.
Here's an excerpt from the article:
IN A recent speech at Tufts University, Andy Rooney reflected on the election and said, according to The Tufts Daily, that Christian fundamentalism is a result of "a lack of education. They haven't been exposed to what the world has to offer."Those comments as well as the identification of the "bigoted Christian redneck" after Election Day in various editorials left me wondering: Where do these "liberal elites" get this fictional image of Christians? When did this distorted perspective begin in our cultural history? How can I work to bridge this gap?
Rooney is reflective of the "liberal elite" in America that suffers from an odd disconnect with much of America and those who voted for President Bush. With respect to Isaac Asimov, I have decided to create "The Three Political Laws of Christian Fundamentalists" for the confused "liberal elite":
A Christian is a human being capable of independent, logical reasoning to the highest order.
A Christian is not a mindless entity seeking to obey public religious leaders, such as Pat Robertson, John Paul II, or Ralph Reed, when voting on the future of America.
Moon refers to an article covering a speech Rooney made at Tufts University, so I thought I would go check that out as well. What an eye full.
From the Tufts Daily:
Rooney also attributed voters' reliance on religion in the recent election to ignorance. "I am an atheist," Rooney said. "I don't understand religion at all. I'm sure I'll offend a lot of people by saying this, but I think it's all nonsense."He said Christian fundamentalism is a result of "a lack of education. They haven't been exposed to what the world has to offer."
Rooney said he also could not understand how "men who work with their hands voted for George Bush," and again attributing the phenomenon to a lack of education. "The labor force is conservative," he said. "How in the world did that happen?"
Egads! I guess I must be one of those "uneducated", Christian Evangelicals who has never been exposed to "what the world has to offer." Never mind the fact that I have a Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, served in the Air Force and lived in Spain as well as travelled quite a bit.
Just like so many other the Leftist Elites, Rooney is a man who manages to insult Americans, whenever they open their mouths about their politcal beliefs.
He goes on to mention how it was staff at CBS with a politcal agenda (axe to grind?) that ran Dan Rather's report using forged documents on President Bush's National Guard Service, and that the news industry has been taken over by the "moneychangers."
My question is: Why do we honor people such as Rooney?
Hugh Hewitt continues to take point against The Groningen Protocol and ask the question why the mainstream media has yet to cover this issue. Latest in the struggle to expose this reprehensible practice of euthanasia is this Evangelical Outpost article.
Holland may be the first state to allow such "mercy killings" but it won't be the last. Just two weeks ago I wrote about bioethicist Peter Singer taking his freshman ethics students on a field trip to a hospital neonatal unit.Singer, who is often cited as the "world's most famous ethicist", not only advocates killing terminally ill infants but endorses parental rights to kill newborns for any reason at all.
My history lessons points to Nazi Germany as the first to adopt this practice, and abandoned it when WW2 ended. Thankfully.
The big question is the road this may lead us down: Eugenics. The use of science to manipulate the gene pool in order to "improve" the human race.
When you begin the process of euthanising infants and children who are terminally ill, or have severe birth defects, you begin the process of selecting what children will grow up and become adults and pass their genes on to the next generation, repeating the process of terminating those that doctors and scientists continue to determine as being unfit to survive.
This is pushing me to dig up a book by Glover on the topic of genetically engineering the human genome, manipulating genes to determine the kinds of people their should be. Is this the first (repeat) step on the road to developing the ubermench?
It also brings to mind the Star Trek episode Space Seed where we learn about the eugenics war and the development of a super race that were determined to be masters of us all: super strong, super quick and super smart, they were designed to out compete the average (and even the naturally gifted).
And where will it stop? Once complacency sets in, letting some bureaucracy that "knows what's best" for us determine the fate of our children, will they be satisfied to stop there? Will they find ways to continue to devalue human life until it has no value (in their "better-knowing" eyes) at all, and all that remains is a sub-race that serves in bondage to a "superior" race of super-humans?
Stay tuned...I expect there will be more news on this topic very soon.
Okay, I admit it, it has been a while since I have posted anything worthy of the Klingon community. Time for a change of pace.
Since I am blogging more regularly, I thought I would do a google search and see what other Klingon oriented blogs are out there.
Here's a list of what I have found:
bo logh is a Klingon blog in the Klinogn language.
This next one, qurgh, is not only in Klinogn, but also uses the Klingon character set.
jiqel runs on live journal, also in the Klingon language.
yemqoyad, another live journal in Klingon.
There may be others out there on the web, however, this should be enough to wet you whistle. Just remember, you will need a Klingon/Feddie dictionary to read these sites. Or head over to the KLI for help.
Feedburner
