RadioActive Chief

The lyric from the old Rod Stewart song came to mind as I was watching the late reprise of the earlier evening news on Fox News Channel. (since I was busy with school's robotics team earlier). They closed with an absolutely uplifiting video montage of Iraqi people after their election celebrating and literally lined up dancing in the streets.

How some members of the chattering classes in the MSM as well as academia could have been so patronizingly arrogant as to proclaim before the vote things like "The Iraqis are a bunch of primitivistic Arab tribalists who liked it that way, and could never adapt to democracy" is beyond me. I hope the pictures that I, along with the world saw coming out of Iraq sit in their guts like a piece of rotten fish, and gnaws at their built in sense of smug (false) sense of superiority.

Contrary to what you might be thinking about now, and although it almost seems like something from Monty Python, this is a factual science story.

There is a great excerpt in Mudville Gazette from Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon (which I first read several years ago) comparing and contrasting the differences between Athena and Ares in the Greek mythological scheme of things. I greatly enjoyed being reminded of this passage - it has a LOT to say and is well worth the read, so go do it!

I also really like the Gazetteer's closing treatment of this:
"Ares always reemerges from the chaos. It will never go away. Athenian civilization defends itself from the forces of Ares with metis, or technology. Technology is built on science... science flourishes where art and free speech flourish."

"Sounds teleological. Free countries get better science, hence superior military power, hence get to defend their freedoms. You're proclaiming a sort of Manifest Destiny here."

"Well, someone's got to do it."

"Aren't we beyond that sort of thing now?"

"I know you're just saying that to infuriate me. Sometimes Ares gets chained up in a barrel for a few years, but he never goes away. The next time he emerges the conflict is going to revolve around bio-, micro-, and nanotechnology. Who's going to win?"

Who indeed? Take this simple test in your home country: Complain endlessly about the fact that you don't have free speech. If no one shoots you or locks you in jail, you have free speech. If people call you an idiot, they have free speech too.

And your nation is probably Athenian, and you can complain about it to your heart's content. "

The above may not make total sense without going through the preceding parts not quoted here, so again, go check it out.

A comment here from SD Politics citing the Minneapolis Star Tribune saying that under no circumstances is it worth spending any American lives for anything other than direct defense in case of an attack - certainly NOT worth it just to bring democracy to ANYONE.

Several thoughts come to mind - for one, I have to wonder what they said about the Haitian intervention of Pres. Bubba, to say nothing of the Bosnian action. Also, since no liberal would say that it is justifiable to let the world starve, or to fail to render aid to disaster areas, etc. we must be forced to conclude that they have concern for material wants, but no concern for human rights at all is intrinsically dehumanizing - lowering man to nothing but physical existance - anything beyond that is apparently irrelevant and unimportant - certainly not worth taking any trouble about.

Finally, as SDP notes, it is horribly narcissistic and racist - "You aren't good enough to deserve to have any help to have the same freedoms as we do in America"...the 180 degree opposite of Bush's 2nd Inaugural. It evokes a memory of something an editor of the (London) Times said (about 100 or so years back) determined to be criteria for front page coverage of a disaster: it was important if it involved "1000 wogs, 50 frogs, or one Englishman". Ab ugly attitude then, and even more so now coming from the side of those who most vociferously proclaim their concern for the welfare of others.

It occurs to me that the header on this post may well be a redundancy.

Hey Doc Dean - It's nothing personal - we don't hate YOU! - We just totally despise your conduct and how you express your ideology in policy terms.

If he hates everything I stand for as a Republican then he hates among other things:
(a) the concept that government is spending taxpayer's money, not just allowing the taxpayers to keep the remnant that government doesn't seize.
(b) the recognition that it's a hard world, and that there are people out there who want to harm us, and would do so it we are not strong enough militarily, and determined enough to stop them.
(c) the concept of right and wrong; that there are indeed some absolute standards of right and wrong that cannot be subject ot the whim of a majority.
(d) the concept that government, or any other agency for that matter, diminishes and ultimately renders impotent, any who become dependent on material largess independent of any requirement for individual accountability
(e) the concept that government is only a limited tool, not the savior of the world, and that it exists to act within a strictly limited sphere of action, NOT to tell the citizenry what they are ALLOWED to do!

Well, if Dean hates all that - at least we know what we have to deal with - and it ain't a pretty picture!

Volcanoes are REALLY impressive. I had the opportunity to walk across a bridge of hardened lava at Kilauea in Hawaii, and see the lava flowing underneath on it's way to where it hit the sea sending clouds of steam and ash into the air. AWESOME!

Just watched the Discover chan. program on Pompeii last night - the latter part of the program was an update - 750,000 in the immediate area of Vesuvius now (compared to 30,000 at the time when ancient Pompeii and Herculaneum were destroyed in 79 AD.) Now THERE's a disaster waiting to happen!

Sibby notes the Chief coming aboard the Dakota Blog Alliance, and also goes on with a piece quoting NewsMax on the role of blogging vs. the MSM.

Thanks to Sibby for the kind notice.

Acting like one of the famous three monkeys ("See no evil."), a UN report on the situation in the Sudan says in effect, "Genocide, what genocide? We don't see no stinking genocide!". This is in spite of a years long effort of Sudanese Arabs to kill, drive off, or enslave black tribal populations of Christians or animists. Another illustration of some of the peace-loving sons of the prophet Mohammed doing their little thing. Also another illustration of the hopeless impotence of the UN in the face of a difficult situation.

News from across the big pond - from those charming folks who previously brought us the blessings of the 3rd Reich, whether we wanted it or not. What an abomination!

And the libs are always holding up the Euros as being the example of what WE should do? Give me a break.

The Diplomad notes the same thing that the Chief did in a post earlier in the week...a strong identity between the liberal-left drive for socialist society, and genuflection at the idolatrous altar of global warming in the temple of Gaia.

One thing that's really nice, it that he also cites some good antidotes from the Hoover Inst. (here and here) to that particular form of toxic mentality.

A lot of liberal/left bloggers must think that it doesn't pay to get up some days. Sibby has compiled a whole bunch of such links. Some of these folks haven't even gotten over the President's re-election yet, and now they have another election result to deal that has gone contrary to their expectations.

Like John Wayne said one time: "Life is hard. It's harder if you're stupid."

In spite of the noteworthy successes of the terror war, I have noted here, here, and here , areas of convern with administrative policies, especially relating to issues concerning border security (or more accurately, border insecurity). The GOP may well find itself rhetorically out-flanked TO THE RIGHT by the likes of Hillary on this, and some other issues, like a defense of marriage amendment, etc. (Of course, this begs the very different question of Hillary's sincerity on these issues, which on the face of it doesn't exist.)

Here's a further treatment of this question from the GOPUSA site. I can't say that I disagree with the basic point being made - the GOP will be vulnerable to this sort of wedge unless it takes a decisive and more consistant conservative stance. When it does so, it wins (1980, '84, '92, '04). When it goes soft on the core issues, it loses ('76, '92, '96). Fail to remember history, and it'll bite you in the butt every time.

My own view right now the administration looks shaky on a lot of issues except the terror war. Alternatives like the Libertarians, Constitutional Party, etc. are better on those other issues, but fatally flawed in failing to recognize the transcendent significance of dealing with the Islamofascist offensive against the core of Western Civilization. We cannot survive the jihad by adopting the attitude of traditional American isolationism, whether accompanied and justified by ideological purity or not. The answer? I don't know...we need a Goldwater-Reagan type torch bearer - but where are they?

I have been watchin live updates on Fox News about this tonight. This will turn out to be a seriously significant historical cusp - the example of the first Arab country with any sort of openly democratic process has got to have serious impact on the surrounding Arab and non-Arab (i.e. Iran) countries in the region. Salaam to Iraq!

The law of the sea treaty is a piece of ill-begotten spawn from the UN. As noted in an earlier post in another context, among other things, it gives the UN custody of lots of resources, and, levies an extraction tax - payable to the UN. Just what we need, the UN with taxing authority...NOT!

For your further edification I hereby refer you to a World Net Daily article, commenting in similar vein, but with a bit more detail.

This is one that needs to be ACTIVELY opposed, no matter that Dubya and Condie have expressed support for it.

I'll let this report speak for itself. I have nothing to say, since it is about the Air Force base that does not officially "exist".

Here's a report on this in the Washington Times.

P.C. continues to run amok! What next, someone to complain about the Flandreau Indian School (100% native American students) calling it's team the (drumbeat) .... INDIANS!

In today's Brave New World, is there no place for Braves?

Also, what about unfair, stereotyped presentation of Norwegians in the case of the Minnesota Vikings? Especially unfair to the poor Norskis to be saddled with a team that seems to have a long-standing habit of choking on the big ones. UFF DA! Eat some lefse (but PLEASE, hold the lutefisk).

Interesting comment and thoughts on Iran's drive for nuclear weapons. Not much here that I could disagree with. on this issue.

An interesting post on SDP with some remarks from Tony Blair about the inaugural address.

I would be willing to guess that this address will go down as one of the great ones. For it to still be garnering the serious attention it is from some really serious people, it has to have a high substance to rhetoric ratio.

This struck me for some reason. Who can resist a good animal story, I guess.

NAIROBI (AFP) - A baby-hippopotamus that survived the tsumani waves on the Kenyan coast has formed a strong bond with a giant male century-old tortoise, in an animal facility in the port city of Mombasa, officials said.

Find it here, along with a sort of neat picture of the subject pair.

This report up on TCS today concerning the MAJOR model that has been used to rationalize the Kyoto treaty, and sother similarly drastic envirowacko proposals.

The gist of it is - that the original study which showed major temperature changes since 1900 is based on lousy data - in fact a "fudge factor" introduced to the model that could even take random numbers and produce a significant upward trend!

So, as noted in previous posts - no serious effect on global temps. from anything that we do, or don't do.

I keep going back to the Diplomad for the really unique perspective to be obtained there.

In this case, once again highlighting the bloviated confabulation of the UN in hyping its role in the Tsunami relief efforts. This is a relatively long post, but well worth the read.

Kennedy has finally progressed to a place in history along side of Neville Chamberlain.

A few days before the election in Iraq? To come out in favor of US defeat this strongly?

What ever happened to the phrase "AID AND COMFORT TO THE ENEMY"!

In not outright treason, this is at LEAST anti-American sedition.

What a total slug!

This WaPo article notes some well-deserved skepticism from some of the GOP to some of the Presidential ideas.

Down in the depths of the article is specifically noted opposition to the border/immigration non-enforcement "initiatives" proposed by the Pres. One can only hope that this catches on!

Interesting post on South Dakota Politics, with a back link there to Andrew Sullivan who seems to have given up on Iraq altogether. I like SDP's take a lot better - keeps it in MUCH better perspective.

If NYT was reporting today, what would they be making about the USA 1864 election: "The election surely can't be held. Democracy is failing. There's just too much conflict and violence to proceed with the vote. Even though some areas are peaceful, eleven states are out of control fighting against a successful vote, and in effect are boycotting the election!"

This is absolutely nuts! Where is the administration on this one? First, they don't defend the border, now they ignore a blatant attack on our soveriegnty.

I can't help but recall a Claire Wolf (of WOLFSBLOG) quote: "America is at that awkward stage. It's too late to work within the system, but too early to shoot the b-----ds!"

This sort of thing will ultimately prove to be a real political achilles heel to a LOT of Republocratic Legislooters in DC and elsewhere!

If you have ever hear a recording of these creatures, you would have no trouble understanding how they got their name. It seems they are being threatened by a transmissible form of cancer that they pass around from thier habit of incessant fighting.

The idea of a contagious and transmissible cancer is a pretty wierd thing in itself - one can only hope that such a thing cannot be bio-weaponized!

I don't know what path Michael Moore's mind may go wandering off on, but it there were any sense of appropriateness he should be investigating things that affect him deeply on a personal level - perhaps problems of the obese in dealing with the MSM, or the high price of razor blades that prevents some from being able to maintain their appearance. Just a couple of possible suggestions!

The New Europe 

And these are the folks who presume to lecture us? Yeah, right!
Eurosocialism is moving towards Euro National Socialism. I mean with
euthanasia already in place in Holland - for which people were tried at
Nuremburg - along with other events, the trend is there.
Sieg heil Europa!

A good back to basics attitude check here from JWR by Bob Tyrell, ed. of American Spectator.

Amazing! More grist for those who would mill Bill Gates into being the devil.

This is so surreal that I can't even think of any other comment!

Jerry Pournelle, founder of Byte magazine, noted Sci-Fi writer, etc. has an interesting discussion on the phenomena of so-called punitive expeditions, and the contrasting US and UK attitudes towards such things, going back to the days of the Monroe Doctrine and gunboat diplomacy, up to and including the current enterprise in Iraq.

Churning this all up with the earlier today posted "Nuke the Moon" option is a heady brew to contemplate. As I continue to do so, there is one quote from Pournelle I would like to pass along directly:

"The American people are warlike, particularly the Scots-Irish and German populations; but we are also Christian and ashamed of being war-like; so if we go to war, it must be for a Good Cause against an Evil which Provoked Us into War, and thus the Evil must be destroyed By Any Means Necessary. Which is why we could bomb Tokyo and kill over 100,000 with one fire raid, and then send another, but decry the rape of Nanking and the bombing of Rotterdam.

A note to the above. Kipling could write stirring war poetry about the good that the Empire did....America's war poetry is different: we have the Battle Hymn of the Republic. Enemies of the United States would do well to remember that. We play at war, we have debates on the justice of this or that war: until we are provoked and aroused, and the Battle Hymn is sung. Bush heard that hymn in the National Cathedral after 911. So did much of the nation. It was a defining moment."

I had heard about this doom and gloom report on global warming, and the emergency need to IMMEDIATELY implement drastic policy changes, or else we are doomed. I have been following this stuff for a long time, and based on the science of what's happening to the planet overall, in my humble, but rational evaluation , there's more solid evidence that the planet is in an overall cooling cycle and has been since the late middle ages - driven by a net lowering of solar output as indicated by a drastic lack of expected neutrino production. (That's a whole other topic of its own, and very interesting to me in it's own right, but I'm not going there now. )

Also, most of the enviro stuff on this is based too much on overly simplified models using incomplete data to be able to make the sweeping conclusions they inevitably come to. By the way, why is it that the enviros almost uniformly have a leftist if not socialist political orientation...not a coincidence when you consider the type of societal engineering power (which they crave) that would be delivered on a silver platter if the radical enviro program were to be imposed.

I could rant about this at some length, but instead, take a look at The Diplomad for a fun and informative read.
http://diplomadic.blogspot.com/2005/01/fight-global-warming-turn-on-ac-open.html

IMAO has a rather Swiftian proposal for a world peace plan (http://www.imao.us/docs/NukeTheMoon.htm) apparently code-named " Nuke the Moon". It has a very unique combination of ideas, and a truly warped and twisted internal logic that appeals to the left-handed part of my mind. What's scary about it is that it just might work - but you would almost (maybe not almost!) have to become sociopathic to pull it off.

These folks at Power Line are obviously good at this - illustrated again by this posting:
http://powerlineblog.com/archives/009317.php I must say I concur with this entirely.

Professorial Inquisition (Again)
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=42539
The latest case of PC censorship. So much for academic freedom! Reminds me all over again why I changed my major from Political Science to Biology - I got tired of downgrading due to having the wrong point of view.

Fourth estate or fifth column
http://www.townhall.com/columnists/thomassowell/ts20050125.shtml
Thomas Sowell is always worth a read, and always contributes something substantial to wrap your mind around. This one is especially enjoyable as it sends a spread of intellectual torpodoes at the convoy of the MSM concerning their Iraq coverage (or, as the case may be, non-coverage). The MSM is noted to have a reluctance to call a "spade a spade", which is NOT something one could ever say about Dr. Sowell.

Bush Approves Oil Drilling in NM
http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=domesticNews&storyID=2005-01-25T191520Z_01_N25329654_RTRIDST_0_USREPORT-ENERGY-NEWMEXICO-DRILLING-DC.XML
Developing our own resources? Shocking, simply shocking! What next?

Senate Debate on Rice Confirmation
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,145325,00.html
Let's see. Debate continues because of Robert KKK Byrd leads opposition to black female nominee. One can only shudder at what the MSM reaction would have been if it was a conservative former KKK member opposing her nomination. As for Dem. Byrd et al, it's free-ride time once again.

I have a real fondness for Britain. Most of my genealogical roots go over there, and having had a chance to vist a few years back, I very much enjoyed the experience. I also started looking at the London Telegraph when I was there - and have continued the habit via their e-edition. It's both informative and instructive to see some of the things going on in their political cockpit. This EU stuff is really something - sort of like a UN on steroids, to the detriment and eventual destruction of any real nationalism on the part of any of the EU formerly soveriegn nations. The same sort of process described here is one that is being used against the US by the UN, so check it out.

Right now the lever being applied against our sovereignty is something called the Law of the Sea Treaty, appropriately acronymed LOST.
(see http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=42528)
This one has been signed under the regime of Pres. Bubba, and has just been slated for submission and support by the current administration according to testimony of Condie Rice before the Senate Foriegn Relations Committee.

This treaty has HEAVY corporate (petroleum) support for its schemes to regulate (translated into plain language meaning "keep out free competition") access of offshore drilling and mineral exploitation. The real kicker is that it levies a tax on such access in international waters - payable to the UN itself, directly.

The same sort of process the Euros are using to try to whip the UK into line is being done by the UN to us. They didn't get away with it in the Kyoto Protocols, and hopefully they won't get away with it with the LOST. It's up to us, to hold the senate's feet to the fire, or they will surely end up holding ours to it, as the deadly precedent of TAXES paid to the UN directly could only be a taste of more such things to come.

There has been a lot of discussion various places lately on the so-called "nuclear option" that would remove the filibuster from the playing field of judicial nominations. A few thoughts on this...
Lots of Dems keep saying as one of their talking points that they have allowed lots of judicial nominations to go through, and that it was a only small number that got hung up by them. This is a question of quality vs. quantity. They don't care about the lower court appointments - it is the higher court appeals judges that have the clout when it comes to the real constitutional issues where the rubber meets the road. It is precisely there where the unlamented former Senator Daschle and Dem. Judiciary Committee chief Leahy focused their opposition.
They know, but will never admit, that they are beaten, and that their liberal idological program can only be implemented indirectly - by mis-identifying themselves and their policies, or through the judiciary which is independent of such inconvenient details like votors.
They know, but will never admit, that the reason they oppose conservatives for these judicial appeals posts, ESPECIALLY if very well respected ad qualified, since they will be then groomed for the SCOTUS - the Supreme Court of the United States.
They know, but will never admit, that this is the last political grasp that the intellectually bankrupt, and historically failed liberal agenda has on effective political power in the United States.
They know, but will never admit, that when - I say WHEN, not if - they lose control of this, they will be looking at a decades long exile from the head table at the political and policy banquet of the American Republic.
I pray that that day comes soon!

This is possibly the biggest Achilles heel of the administration. All the hubbubbery about Homeland Security and defense is virtually meaningless if we refuse to do whatever is necessary to gain control of our borders.

This article notes former Secretary Ridge saying that more technology would be more effective. It might help, but only if there are the footprints on the ground to follow up on what's picked up by the technology. To think otherwise is the same sort of attitude that says you can effectively suppress a guerrillla war from the cockpit of a supersonic fighter.

What IS needed is a dedication to implementing what is one of the Constitutionally mandated roles of the Federal government - defending the borders! So far there's been little except lip service from the likes of Asa Hutchinson (who at least is going back home to Arkansas soon). What we have to get is a shift of attitude to refocus on the essential elements of nationhood: BORDERS, LANGUAGE, CULTURE (in the words of radio talker Michael Savage).

It's surreaslistically wierd to me, that anyone knowing anything about the background of thei crime could come to this conclusion. Evidently the P.C. fix is in. See previous post on this blog for linked coverage of this crime. (http://kc0am-rmc.blogspot.com/2005/01/current-news-of-note-to-me-anyway.html)

What would have been said if it was an Islamic family murdered similarly? There would have been a major uproar in the entire MSM, led by the NYT ("All the news that fits, we print.") et al.

This also serves to reinforce my assessment of New Jersey as the political armpit of the United States. Even California and Massachusetts have signs of more sanity than NJ!

Now we know what the Islamofascists really think in their own words: the western forms of popular government are satanic! Well, at least it's out in the open as much as Mein Kampf was - the only question is whether we pay more attention to it than we did then. (Other than Churchill and a few others, most ignored, if not praised, the coming to power of the Nazis.)

Just another bit of evidence that we are truly locked in a fundamental struggle that can allow no compromise.

ISLAMOFASCISTI DELENDA EST.

http://www.portal.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/01/24/ntory124.xml

A taste of things to come over here? The popular opinion on this is out there, just waiting to be crystallized by someone or something. If we don't so something to get control of our own borders. I'm afraid that the situation will get so much more out of control that the backlash could be really bad for just about everyone concerned.

From Ft. Worth - This speaks for itself. 'nuff said! 

Picked up this account from Wes Roth (http://www.wesroth.com/) - pretty neat idea! It's deadly, effective, safe for the operator (our good guy!), and gives the opposition (the bad guy) a chance to fulfill his favorite fantasy of losing his life and achieving martyrdom in his struggle against the crusading infidel (our good guy, again). I like it! Also, something to illustrate practical robotics for the robotics team at school that I coach.

Robo-trooper! 

CBS News' 48 Hours tonight featured an extensive report on the islamofascist seizure of the school full of people in Beslan, Russia last fall. It featured some real up close and personal interviews with people on the scene, both outside the school, and being held inside the building as hostages. Also, some previously unseen video from inside, apparently taken by some of the terrs. It was recovered by some teenagers from a damaged cassette, and apparently made its way to CBS.

Very graphic, and moving coverage that doesn't seem to pull any punches. Seeing stuff like this is disturbing, and for that reason it needs to be seen. We NEED to be disturbed, to recognize the ugly reality of terrorisms, and to be able to maintain the will to act and to totally quash Peace-Loving Sons of Islam who perpetrate this sort of thing, whether they are in Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Syria, the Phillipines, Russia, Pakistan, or for that matter Detroit, New York, Amsterdam, and London. It's all the same - Evil in our time - just as the Nazi germanofascists were in our parents (or grandparents as the case may be) time!

Lots of people are in fact sorely oppressed where they live, and Americans, with our own revolutionary past should not immediately think that anti-government forces are intrinsically evil - but - when the primary strategy is attacking civilians and civilian targets, this is not war, revolutionary or otherwise. No Geneva convention need apply. Shoot 'em when they run, hang 'em if they stop! In the words of a Russion Mother in the program who lost a young child: "There's no place for them on this earth." Amen.

Good for CBS on this one! (Of course, this WAS also clearly a case of Rather-not.)

If some Dem (Hillary?) really beat the immigration/borders drum loudly in '08 it could SERIOUSLY wedge a LOT of conservatives away from any country-club RINO (Repubican in name only) candidate, like some who are being touted in the MSM already.

As reported all over the place (starting with the WaPo) the President of Harvard University has managed to draw the deadly wrath of the entire feminazi movement of the country by having the temerity to suggest that there may be differences (on average) in the way men and women think.

So here, during the same week, comes a report of a newly released scientific project that seems to me to demonstrate clear evidence (based on CT scans) that, golly gee, there really IS a difference in how our brains work!
http://www.livescience.com/humanbiology/050120_brain_sex.html

Why am I not surprised? Any husband (or wife) probably realized this long ago - sometimes I still don't understand what's going on with my wife's mind, and I'm sure my wife would say the same about me...or maybe not(?)...

Tech Central Station, again, has a good review-ish article on it focusing on the latest Michael Crichton book, State of Fear, which has its main emphasis on the specious and contrived conclusions that are commonly bruited about that the planet is going to hell in a handcart, and that human activity is driving.
http://www.techcentralstation.com/011905B.html

Having extensively followed the scientific debate on this one, like Crichton I was forced to conclude some time ago that the level of environmentalist rhetoric was far ahead of the actual level of scientific evidence to support it. There's just too much intellectually corrupt genuflection going on at the altars of political correctness - the conclusions on most of the ballyhoo'd UN reports aren't worth the paper they are printed on, except to confirm in one more way the general uselessness of that organization.

It should come as no surprise that the environmentalist horse is hitched up to the same old lefty anti-capitalist wagon that was in the service of the old and new socialist alliances. I mean, if evil corporations and benighted consumerism is ruining the planet, then a pure, clean, unselfish socialism must be the answer, right? (gagging sounds)

Anyway, back to Crichton, he started his book in pro-environmentalist mode, but got mugged by reality, and now is under widespread criticism for daring to take the opposing view. A noteworthy situation, for sure, and a good book to read both for the action and the content.

Author with book. 

A semi-longish piece on Tech Central Station by Jim Pinkerton on this topic - I like his spiel here, both in his comments on W's speech, and an interesting historical parallel alignment with the McKinley/T.Roosevelt era and the USA emergence from isolationism.
http://www.techcentralstation.com/012105A.html
Worth a read if you are interested in such things.

Well, mixed thoughts on the planned departure of FCC Chairman Powell. One could have gotten the impression that he was in the back pocket of some of the MSM and/or corporate interests. This based on pseudo de-regulation that allegedly opened up the market-place for new technology but ended up having the effect of imploding the market place from having a number of providers becoming cartelized into just a few carriers having a protected position in their chosen niches. Not my idea of free-market capitalism.

This process is happening right now in the TV-satellite broadcast industry, where the "small dish" carriers (Direct TV type stuff) have been combining, and the service providers for programming have been getting frozen out by a gradual loss of access to programming. Oh, by the way the same gang that owns the small dish distribution, also controls the programming channels, and of its face have decided that no one else will get access except for them. That may be bad enough, but the small dish systems, with highly compressed digital signals deliver an inferior product when it gets to your TV. If any of you have small dish systems - your picture quality is very noticeably poorer that that obtainable with the same programming delivered via analog "big-dish" satellite systems, AND you get to pay nearly twice as much for comparable programming than a big-dish viewer does in the more competitive market place of big-dish programming marketers. A lot of this is thanks to policies of Powell's FCC.

Another push from Powell has been for something called BPL - Broadband over Power Lines. This is a method of piggy-backing a broadband computer data stream over your AC electric power lines. Unfortunately, this results in the broadcast of a broadband digital noise "hash" all over the shortwave radio spectrum. In spite of the dominance of satellite and microwave (read cell phones, etc) communications, the short-wave spectrum is irreplaceable to many military and civilian government users, to say nothing of international shortwave broadcasting, and HAM radio, which has repeatedly proven itself a valuable resource in virtually all major disasters world-wide. In spite of these vigorously expressed concerns, under Powell's leadership the FCC has actively promoted the implementation of field testing of BPL. Whenever it has been done, it has been proven to destroy the use of the spectrum for any other users. All this from an UNLICENSED system, which is interfering with LICENSED spectrum users.
To paraphrase O'Reilly - "Who's looking out for who?

P.S. As a rural resident, broadband access IS a problem. Therer are local wireless providers in our area, but my location is in a hill "shadow, and we can't use it. We're too far from town for DSL - the only solution is direct satellite for broadband access, but I certainly don't want to see BPL blanket the airwaves with digital noise to the detriment of any other use of radio spectrum.

Will Powell's departure make any difference on any of this? Who knows at this point. It's hard to be real optimistic at this point, but I hope I'm wrong on this.

The President's Inaugural remarks certainly were on the mark as far as I was concerned.

Referring back to an earlier post on this blog (http://kc0am-rmc.blogspot.com/2005/01/thoughts-on-new-world-order.html) I expressed the concern that any drive towards some sort of world order would not consist of a lowering of our standards of political, economic, and personal freedom to that of the rest of the world.

In essence, I submit this is effectively the same concept as what the president said today:

“The survival of liberty in our land increasingly depends on the success of liberty in other lands. The best hope for peace in our world is the expansion of freedom in all the world.”

Defining our task as spreading the light of liberty throughout the world is exactly the opposite of what the UN and Eurocrats want to do, and I predict that they, as well as most of the MSM will be howling about it like crazy.

In spite of this, I think that this address will ultimately go down in history as one of the greatest restatements of the proper role of the United States in the world since Ronaldus Magnus' (Reagan) image of the "shining city on the hill".

P.S. I see that Peggy Noonan in the WSJ Opinion Journal http://www.opinionjournal.com/columnists/pnoonan/?id=110006184 is all het up that there was too much God in the speech! She used to be a writer for Reagan - I wonder what's happened to her since then - obviously she has lost the vision of what he was all about. Oh well.

For your edification and possible enjoyment, here's a link to a post from Blue Eyed Infidel (http://www.blueeyedinfidel.com/archives/2005/01/barbara_boxer.html) on Sen. Barbara Boxhead grilling Condie Rice. I couldn't describe my reaction to that episode any better than this does, so I won't try to:
"I'd pay good money to see Condi answer one of Boxer's questions with the actual answer,
followed by, "Got it? Bitch?"
Not my first choice of descriptive vocabulary, but certainly well-deserved.

Fox News Channel this evening had a nice interview with Sen. Thune at tonights "Black Tie and Boots" inaugural party. He looked great, and was as articulate as ever. He seems to be becoming one of the media go-to guys for the GOP in the Senate - he doesn't get covered as much as Daschle did, but then, J.T. doesn't have the leadership role either.

I know it's horridly premature for this next bit, but I can't help myself - I think that he would be an EXCELLENT GOP President some day!

I had an occasion to watch the movie "The Core" on our (bigdish) TV satellite feed. Since it's the season for people to focus on film awards, I propose this cinematic wonder (it's a wonder that it's cinema) for an award for "Worst Science Content in Film".

As a science teacher (Chem, Physics, Biology, Geophysical Science currently), I didn't know whether to laugh or cry at the scientific inaccuracy that was richly laced through the entire film, as heavy as the marbling through prime rib. The blithe and casual wholesale repeal of the laws of physics was truly breathtaking. As Asimov noted in one of his books about a similarly foolish endeavor "Such folly smacks of genius, a lesser mind would be incapable of it." I hope that the writers were using pen names other than their own. If not, they have my pity for having this turkey hung around their neck.

The best place for this film would be to showcase it on a rather different venue - the Mystery Science Theater 3000. If you've never seen this show, it's not easily explained - it features a truly schlocky movie of some sort, with the shadow silhouette of three improbable robots and a human shown as though watching the film in a theater, all the while mercilessly maintaining a running satirical commentary on the screen action. It's quite a hoot, at least to some of us. I think the show can still be found somewhere in the wilderness of cable or satTV-land, but alas, I think it's out of production which is too bad, now that it's really needed for The Core!

This morning on the Fox & Friends, one of the segments was an interview with Senator Bill Nelson (D-FL). In the context of what he thought needed to be done to rebuild the Democratic party, he noted the need to avoid both the extreme right, as well as the extreme left. (!)

The first thing that really struck me was the fact that a Democrat actually admitted that there was even such a thing as an extreme left. Other than Zell Miller, it sure looked to me like their attitude was that such a thing as an extreme left didn't exist.

The next thing is, that for a leading Democrat to call something "extreme left", just how far left does it have to be? Does Moveon.org, or soon to DNC Chairman Howard Dean fit the bill? Why not Kerry ? He certainly caused them enough damage! Somehow I doubt that any of these really fit the Senator's definition, sinnce he had nothing to say in opposition to the incipient leadership takeover by the Moveon / Dean axis. Which returns to the original question...is there some sort of crypto Maoist or Trotskyite movement in the wings biding its time that the Senator is worried about? One can only wonder.

I guess his comment on "the extreme right" , remember, in the context of the DEMOCRATIC Party could only refer to Zell Miller. I'm sure THAT's a scary thought to the Dems.

Someone else has noticed the year's set-up on the Fox series "24".
http://www.jewishworldreview.com/0105/thomas011805.php3

From the sound of the NON-fiction book noted in the column, it sounds like the Fox program may not be too far removed from reality - I'm not surprised given our anemic border security POLICIES. It really gets me riled up whenever Asa Hutchinson, head of Border "enforcement" comes out for an interview - on the few occasions he gets asked really pointed questions, he does a real two-step routine to dance around the topic without saying anything serious.

I can really go off on this tangent - but not enough time right now.

There's been lots of commentary on a Washington Post article from over the weekend. Lileks has summed it up about as concisely as I have seen - anyway being a pro writer (Minneapolis Star-Tribune) no doubt helps.
http://www.lileks.com/bleats/archive/05/0105/011705.html

A sample:
Much sport has been had with this piece from the WaPo about the Red Sea. Short version: Three Beltway citizens loaded up their pouches with Elvish bread and headed out to find why people voted for Sauron. Tim Blair applied his usual cruel pith; Insty has more, with links to other comments. Maybe I'm just in a warm happy mood, but I tend to side with those who cut Von Drehle much slack here – he’s a smart guy; he’s from the Big Empty and obviously has some affinity for it. What may seem to some like condescension or confusion strikes me as someone gently explaining to the Inner Party the curious songs of the proles, and why they sing in the first place.

If you haven't seen any of this already , it's worth a look, as is the original subject article from the Post. I found it long, but interesting, something like a safari account or a National Geographic project by the big city guys touring to see the natives of the hinterland.

Like the old song says - "Every picture tells a story, don't it?" Several current headlines:

GUNMEN KIDNAP ARCHBISHOP in BAGHDAD
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20050118/D87M8IS01.html

'ISLAMIC HATE' EYED IN SLAY[ING]S
http://www.newyorkpost.com/news/regionalnews/38704.htm

Muslim Schools Accused of "Undermining our society"
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/

I KNOW it's not acceptable in the MSM to admit it, but why do I still keep getting the feeling that there isn't going to be a solution to the Islamofascist problem until it is dealt with as severely as the Germanofascists were.
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On a different note...in other news from across the pond:
WE'RE NOT BANNING CORGIS - CHECK YOUR FACTS SIGHS EU
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,13509-1445359,00.html

Phew! I was afraid that there was going to be a "final solution to the Corgi problem". That would have given the Eurocrats something else to gripe at us about....and I personally would have been a target of their wrath since we have 3 Corgis! (I am SO relieved!)

Of course we always could have threatened to deport French Poodles and German Shepherds. Hmmm. Maybe not a bad idea in the case of Poodles.

South Dakota Politics blogsite notes an article in THE WEEKLY STANDARD (link in headline of this post) noting that Daschle, like Dracula, is still undead and is planning to continue his opposition to tort reform from South Dakota.

I have to be very skeptical of this. Let's see now. Daschle working out of his home in Aberdeen, SD, that his mother lives in, or, Daschle working out of a $2.5M mansion in Georgetown, D.C. that he and his lobbyist wife share. Guess which will be the first choice! I certainly wouldn't vote for Aberdeen on this one!

Saturday night I listened to a rather interesting discussion pm Coast to Coast AM (Art Bell) by Dr. Michiu Kaku - a physics prof. at NYU. He cited a scheme for categorizing the relative development of civilizations proposed by a Russian physicist named Kardashev.
Type I - Civilization has progressed to the point where it has full effective utilization of an entire planetary energy potential. (We arn't there yet! Dr. Kaku thinks we might be there within a century IF we survive long enough.)
Type II - Civilization has progressed to the point where it has full effective utilization of an entire solar system.
Type III - Galactic-level civilization! (Phew!)
He commented further that there were a lot of folks that are instinctively uncomfortable with our continuing movement towards reaching Type I - for instance those who would rather live in the 11th century than the 21st century, like the current Islamo-fascists.

I've thought about the trend towards a global system, which has tended to make me sort of uncomfortable (unerstatement alert here!), especially when contemplating the dog's breakfast that is the UN, to say nothing of the Euros with their now openly stated intent to stage a de-facto revival of the Roman Empire.

In thinking yet more about this, I have about decided that there is really nothing intrinsically wrong with a world government. The problem with the current efforts towards such is that they are based on a movement to the lowest commen denominator, i.e. we should kowtow to China's policies towards human rights for example, instead of pushing THEM to raise their standards of such conduct!

The USA is presently the benchmark for human rights and opportunity (in spite of the kvetching of the lib-socialist lefties, and their ilk) and provides an obvious focal point for this to happen.

Will it happen? Probably not as a result of anything we can do -- however, there is another answer looming on the horizon, at least to those of us who anticipate an eventual initiation of a world system under the direct leadership of Jesus Christ. If you happen not to beleive this, that's OK - your life, your call.

South Dakota Politics, which is a regular read for me, has linked to a Word doc file of an article from the Canadian paper NATIONAL POST. Somebody up there did their homework - a very insightful view of SD in the context of the recent election of Sen. John Thune at Daschle's expense.
It looks like it was up there a couple days ago, and I thought I would pass it along for your possible edification. http://southdakotapolitics.blogs.com/south_dakota_politics/files/national_post.doc

On another note, I surely can't understand what Dubya is doing what with his backing away from the "bin Laden Dead or Alive" and "Bring it on!" comments as being too strong. WHAT'S WRONG WITH THOSE COMMENTS?! Coupled with the release of some really nasty pieces of work from GITMO, one might wonder if the terror war is starting to get mushy - I hope not. I won't even go into the nonexistant border security (that rant will come later sometime - but it's sure there in the wings) now, but it makes a highly disturbing pattern at best.
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Completed week one of the FIRST (http://www.usfirst.org/) robotics six week building season at school this afternoon. We're farther along than last year, but it would sure be nice to find a nice friendly mech. engineer type to work with (which most other teams have). Why we don't? It's a long story, rooted deep in the B.I.A bureaucracy. 'nuff said.

The other night after watching the 2nd night of this year's series, I commented to mi esposa that I would bet that this program would have C.A.I.R. (Council on American-Islamic Relations) up in arms, since it was showing a major terrorist event unfolding that was being perpetrated by an Islamic family (!) who had outwardly adopted the American way of life. The were outraged and shocked that ANYONE would think that loyal followers of the Prophet Mohammed would engage in such nefarious activities!

From the linked article from WorldNet Daily, it looks like I was right. I just hope that Fox doesn't water things down too far. It was enough of a disgrace what happened with the movie version of Tom Clancy's Sum of All Fears, where camel-jockey terrs were morphed by Hollywood into Euro neo-Nazis. (Although come to think of it, there probably isn't too much difference between the neo-Nazis and the Islamofascist terrs!)

Read further down to see some of the gory details of CAIR's links to hard-core mideast terrs.
Check it out at the listed link!

Giving C.A.I.R. credibility on stuff like this would be as if FDR consulted the Nazi German-American Bund in 1939 to get guidance on a proper response to the rape of Poland by the Wehrmacht.

By the way, "24" is the first TV dramatic series to get me snagged into watching it for well over a decade. If you like spy-suspense-action stuff you'll like it. (Are you listening, 007 or Bourne fans?)

Greetings and salutations!

Well, I guess this has to start out with something...and this must be it.

I'm not at all sure how often this thing will be added to, but you all may find out as soon as I do if anybody out there bothers to read this.

I guess I'll just do it, and see where it goes, and what happens.

The title comes from at least three direct connections I have with radio:
· as an active HAM radio operator
· as a Chief Radioman (RMC, USNR, ret.)
· as a radio listening semi-junkie

So, when I close a post with "73", it's an old CW - radio international morse code - abbreviation,meaning "BEST REGARDS" -- sort of like an early form of SMS abbreviations to save the number of characters to be sent via the lengthy process of spelling everything out in code, one character at a time, with a hand telegraph-type key. So there's some telecommunications history for you!

73!