Lying by omission...

You should take a look at this fascinating photo essay.

The SF Chronicle ran a picture from an anti-war rally, showing a teenage girl.

Blogger Zombietime happened to take a picture of the same girl about the same time. But his picture had much more, and he is able to zoom out, and out, and out, and show the context that the Chron left out...

...The San Francisco Chronicle featured the original photograph on its front page in order to convey a positive message about the rally -- perhaps that even politically aware teenagers were inspired to show up and rally for peace, sporting the message, "People of Color say 'No to War!'" And that served the Chronicle's agenda.

But this simple analysis reveals the very subtle but insidious type of bias that occurs in the media all the time. The Chronicle did not print an inaccuracy, nor did it doctor a photograph to misrepresent the facts. Instead, the Chronicle committed the sin of omission: it told you the truth, but it didn't tell you the whole truth.

Because the whole truth -- that the girl was part of a group of naive teenagers recruited by Communist activists to wear terrorist-style bandannas and carry Palestinian flags and obscene placards -- is disturbing, and doesn't conform to the narrative that the Chronicle is trying to promote. By presenting the photo out of context, and only showing the one image that suits its purpose, the Chronicle is intentionally manipulating the reader's impression of the rally, and the rally's intent.

Such tactics -- in the no-man's-land between ethical and unethical -- are commonplace in the media, and have been for decades. It is only now, with the advent of citizen journalism, that we can at last begin to see the whole story and realize that the public has been manipulated like this all along...

The sad thing is that the people at the Chron probably don't even understand that they are telling lies. They have a certain ideology, and anything that fits in with it is "the truth."

Thanks to Rand.

Great man...

Charlene and I had a good time tonight at a Federalist Society meeting, with William Rusher as guest.

He had lots of great stories about being the publisher of National Review, and the early days of the conservative movement, and the years when he worked with Cliff White in the campaign to draft Goldwater to run in '64. He said he used to be Janus-faced back in the early days, as the only person among the intellectuals at National Review who actually had any knowledge of politics, and the one person among the political organizers who had contact with the "kooks."

One thing he said that I liked, is that the relationship of conservatives and the Republican Party is like the wine and the bottle. The wine needs a bottle to give it shape and hold it together, and the bottle needs the wine if it is to be of any use....

bitch bitch bitch...

Washington Times: President Bush yesterday made his seventh trip to the hurricane-ravaged Gulf Coast, prompting some Democrats to complain that he was doing too much after initially doing too little.

"The guy's been there enough times that he could register to vote," groused Bob Beckel, a Democratic political analyst. "I mean, enough is enough, OK?"

This week's edition of Newsweek critiques the president's performance with an article headlined, "First, a slow-footed response. Then: hyperactivity." Time magazine complained the president's frequent trips to the Gulf Coast are "making him look too cloying and calculating."...[Thanks to Betsy N]

Gee, it must just be hell to be a Democrat these days. You get your "Bush is too remote from the problems" line out, and the very next day you have to switch to "Bush needs to stay away from the problems--how can anybody get any work done!"

And no sooner have your media allies mentioned for the 10,000th time that Bush is taking a 5-week vacation in Texas (ignoring all the trips and stuff he's been publicly doing the while) than you have to say that he ought to be doing work by teleconferencing!

But it's good news for Republicans, albeit annoying. Petty carping doesn't win elections. And in every recent crisis, one waits in vain for Dems to come up with some actual substantive contribution or better plan.

"You should have higher aspirations for your son"

I don't like Senator McCain. So it seems fair to put up a bit of the pro-McCain case, which was posted by Rich Lowry at The Corner...

McCain is an ardent free trader. I’ve seen him make inroads with some voters who think China/India/Mexico are destroying the country. A mill worker in New Hampshire whose place of employment had closed shop, told McCain that free trade meant his son would never have the security he once had. McCain’s response: “You should have higher aspirations for your son than the same job you had. Trade helps make those aspirations possible.” Tough message. Tough crowd. He was applauded. He thought the steel tariffs were Bush’s first huge mistake.

He’s committed to Social Security reform that includes personal accounts. Were he the President, we’d be under no illusion that Democratic opposition would melt away, but he might have a little more luck making his case to the public and persuading a few Ds to go along.

His tax cut proposal in 2000, while about half as generous as Bush’s, was a half a trillion dollars. He wanted to use the rest of the surplus for substantial defense increases, and help pay much of the transition costs for SocSec personal accounts. I understand that’s not the supply side position. But it’s also not tax-and-spend liberalism....

....He’s a strong believer in robust nuclear energy industry – even beyond the 20% of the grid it now provides (but soon won’t).

He’s solid on tort reform. School vouchers. Pro-life. Against race based remedies. Other than gun-show loophole (not exactly a major move toward gun control), he’s solid on the 2nd amendment and voted against assault weapon ban....[there's more]

That's not bad stuff. The cons are, that's he's a member of the McCain Party, not the Republican Party. And the McCain-Media Movement, not the Conservative Movement. And he's old, and he's a Senator, and has never run anything. CFR is the abomination of our times, and his immigration stance stinks...and can we add Gang of 14...

USS Theodore Roosevelt

I liked this picture because it is kind of science-fictiony and spooky. And I'm always ready for an excuse to do some honor to the troops...

A person from 50 years ago might not even guess this was a picture of a sea-going vessel. It kind of looks like a George Lucas space ship.

U.S. Navy sailors aboard the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt man the rails prior to getting underway from Naval Station Norfolk, Va., Sept. 1, 2005. Nearly 7,500 sailors from the Theodore Roosevelt Carrier Strike Group deployed in support of the global war on terrorism. U.S. Navy photo by Petty Officer 1st Class Gregory A. Roberts

found at DefendAmerica Photo Essays...

"a socially conservative plinth"

This is a quote by Peter Burnet I had copied last year and never blogged...

...And they are right. The market is cold and uncaring, which is why radical libertarianism is bound to fail. Political freedom and free enterprise are proven essentials to a healthy and resilient society, but, unlike socialism, they are not self-contained, comprehensive philosophies that address all aspects of collective life, as Adam Smith recognized. A society that believes only in an atomistic individualism with no obligations beyond basic civility will leave behind the dull, the unlucky, the emotionally fragile, the unattractive, the socially unskilled, the unhealthy and many of those locked into family obligations. That is a lot of us. It is both morally offensive and politically dangerous.

Free societies must be built on a socially conservative plinth of interdependence of family, community and faith. They will flourish with citizens that see duty to others as the definition of the good life, not “finding the real me”, self-actualization or any of the other noxious creeds touted by educators and pop psychologists that serve only to drive practical and ethical wedges between us. The exact extent of these duties will always depend upon empirical realities and the vagaries of human nature and cannot be defined a priori. But to ignore or evade them will lead to both political instability and a sterile existence wherein life's highest purpose is summed up by that old Yuppie joke: "He who finishes with the most toys wins."

It's kinda scary all the draft posts I have that never got used.

And I feel particularly bad because I'm reminded I haven't blogged the BEST BOOK I've read this year, the Anglosphere Challenge, by James C. Bennett. (Charlene agrees; we were grabbing it out of each other's hands). One of his points is that the nations and groups that succeed are those with a strong "civic society," where groups easily arise other than just the citizen and the state.

But it will have to wait; no time right now...

On the side of the the good guys...

Ed McNamara has lots of pix from the pro-American rally in Washington, DC...(Thanks to PowerLine)

And here's one of Melanie Morgan, who Charlene and I often listen to on the radio here in SF...

The usual bogosity...

Gateway Pundit has lots on the "anti-war" protests: "I thought this was going to be an Anti-Iraq War Rally but it's just a hodgepodge of extreme leftist groups taking turns at a microphone..." (Thanks to Rand)

Of course that's what the "anti-war" movement has been all along. They are utter frauds, and you won't see any of them get up early to protest any warlike violence that's against American or Israeli interests. Them wars are OK.

You also won't see them moving to anywhere where they are not protected by the US military. They all toddle off to their downy beds without worrying about anyone coming in the night to drag them off to torture dungeons. They are protected by the world's finest military, by thousands of nuclear warheads, by 12 Carrier Strike Groups, by police armed with deadly weapons. By the grownups. And then, like foolish children, they say "war never solved anything."

I just wish some of their little upscale neighborhoods could be invaded by "insurgents," to give them a taste of the medicine they are happy to let other people have. If Cindy Sheehan were about to have her head sawed off with a rusty knife, she'd start singing a different tune. "Why isn't Bush protecting us? Where's the army? Where are the Marines? Help!"

What's really disgusting is that the "anti-war" crowd claims to be motivated by "conscience," but they make damn sure it's other people who do all the suffering. They get to pose as moral-beings-purer-than-the-riffraff-who-drive-SUV's, while a few hundred-thousand Iraqis get to be shoveled into mass graves in the desert. Such a deal...

Game, no skill required.

If you are in the kind of mood where you might find yourself just staring into space, you might try staring at this.

If you hit the right spot, you start a chain reaction that's hypnotic...I just got a score of 1746.

Thanks to Zannah,

Mama said there'd be days like this...

SYDNEY (Reuters) - An Australian man built up a 40,000-volt charge of static electricity in his clothes as he walked, leaving a trail of scorched carpet and molten plastic and forcing firefighters to evacuate a building.

Frank Clewer, who was wearing a woolen shirt and a synthetic nylon jacket, was oblivious to the growing electrical current that was building up as his clothes rubbed together.

When he walked into a building in the country town of Warrnambool in the southern state of Victoria Thursday, the electrical charge ignited the carpet....

..."We tested his clothes with a static electricity field meter and measured a current of 40,000 volts, which is one step shy of spontaneous combustion, where his clothes would have self-ignited," Barton said....

Thanks to Zannah.

"How 'Ya Gonna Keep 'Em Down on the Farm?....."

Katie has a good post on the Administration's plan to give vouchers to children displaced by Hurricane Katrina...

...While I agree that Bush should make the program limited and narrowly-tailored to avoid the appearance of capitalizing on disaster to promote a school choice agenda, I don't think that keeping the program limited will help the Democrats much. Even a small voucher program will help build a constituency for school choice.

Based on the experience of other voucher programs, the hurricane voucher families will be happier with their new schools and become new advocates for choice. It will be very difficult to tell them after one year that they have to go back to the public schools--as my mom likes to say, you can't put the toothpaste back in the tube. That's why lawyers defending school choice have always fought for injunctions to keep choice programs running while the legal battle goes on, and that's why the education establishment has fought so hard against any school choice program anywhere. Once people have had a taste of freedom, they won't give it up easily....

We three monkeys...

Apparently the Afghan election didn't get much coverage in the media. Surprise, surprise.

What a disgrace. One of the amazing stories of our times, but I guess it's not "news," because it isn't a violent fiasco. And mostly, because it doesn't make the President and our military look bad.

Once again the Administration's policies have been rewarded with success. You "liberals" can wall yourselves off and pretend it isn't happening. But I suspect the message seeps into your unconscious minds somehow. And that's why you seem so unhappy and act so crazy.

#192: lane management

KRUGMAN TRUTH SQUAD

Tragedy in Black and White (09/19/05) is another mindless, factless, “Bushbasher” of a column by Paul Krugman and it’s starting to look to us as if he’s just “mailing them in” these days. The recycled skreed they contain isn’t worth specific comment.

However, we did take note of a NY Times quote by the black mayor of New Orleans, Ray Nagin, which goes to the heart of the federal/state/local government coordination issues that should be dominating the discussion of the Katrina disaster relief performance.

Noting that Admiral Allen had urged residents not to return, the mayor said: "The admiral's a good man. I respect him. But when he starts talking to the citizens of New Orleans, that's kind of out of his lane. There's only one mayor of New Orleans and I'm it."

“Out of his lane”? Think about that! Here's a mayor who has just had his unevacuated town washed away, who has spent the last two weeks blaming everyone else for his own mistakes, who decided to repopulate the city despite contaminated water and lack of power and who rescinded that strange move only after President Bush pointed out to him that another hurricane was headed toward his area. And he’s worried about who's getting in his lane?

Well, as a matter of fact, we are supposed to have “lanes” in our federal system and “lane management” is essential for that system of shared responsibility is to work. Unfortunately, in Louisiana it did not work, because, as Mayor Nagin and Governor Blanco have convincingly demonstrated, the lane system is not idiot proof. No president is going to sit by and take the blame for the actions or inactions clueless local yokels. So, just as the Department of Homeland Security and the National Intelligence directorate represented large consolidations of federal power in the wake of 9/11, we suspect that Katrina will result in more “lane mergers” and the federal government will end up with the authority to override local governments in national emergencies. As regrettable as this may be, the likes of Nagin and Blanco make it inevitable. Our hope is that the new authority will be a narrow as possible.

[The Truth Squad is a group of economists who have long marveled at the writings of Paul Krugman. The Squad Reports are synopses of their discussions. ]

Time's up...

Beldar points out (thanks to Rand) that the one-year Statute of Limitations is almost up, and it is time for Senator Kerry to sue the authors of Unfit for Command for defamation, or lose his chance. Since the book is full of "scurrilous lies" that have "already been debunked," what could the Senator be waiting for? Perhaps the fact that he was forced to retract one of his own lies might cause a certain embarrassment in the courtroom...

Actually, I don't blame the Senator for hoping the issue will just go away. Any politician would do the same, especially since the various accusations have not been "debunked. But I'm still filled with deep disgust for the way the Old Media automatically appointed itself part of the Kerry Campaign, and instantly went to work to try to hide the story.

Matthew Hoy recently wrote:

...The story that really turned me against the Times was the paper's hatchet job on the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth last year. For weeks, the Times ignored their very existence and the impact it was having on Sen. John Kerry's presidential campaign. Just when the silence reached deafening proportions, the paper ran a 100+ column inch story, complete with charts detailing the vast conspiracy behind the Swift Boat Vets. The Times smeared these men who had served their country through innuendo. It wasn't until the very end of the story -- somewhere around inch 120 -- that the Times bothered to report that at least one of the Swift Boat Vets charges, that Kerry had not spent Christmas in Cambodia in 1968, was true and that Kerry had disavowed that 35+ year old story. Of course, when deciding where to trim their story for an easier-to-handle abridged version for their news service subscribers, the truth of one of the Swift Boat Vets' charges was left on the cutting room floor.

The Times is a once-great newspaper and it would require a sea-change to return it to its former place of respect and admiration. The abandonment of a committment to truth (or at least accuracy) on the editorial pages, is a sign that this turnaround won't be happening anytime soon.

On a lighter note: If anyone from any other newspaper is interested in hiring me to write for their editorial pages, then drop me a line and we can talk....

You're approved

If you are like us, you get a lot of those "pre-approved" credit card offers in the mail.

Thanks to Jason O'Grady, here's a page where you can opt-out!

The importance of tradition...

I suspect, if you were to speak to Democrats about the importance of tradition in American politics, they would stare at you blankly. But traditions are vital. They often arose for good reasons, and can still do their good work even though we may no longer be aware of the reasons. And because our politics tends to be variations on the same few themes, a feel for traditions and what has happened in the past can often guide us.

One of the traditions is that former Presidents do not criticize the President. I suspect that the tradition arose in times similar to this, when one party has moved into the minority after generations of thoughtlessly enjoyed majority status, and is feeling bewildered and as if the world has gone horribly wrong. At such a time people of the minority party are tempted to embrace flaky conspiracy theories, and imagine that the Brownshirts have taken over. It is the duty of any former presidents of the new minority party to resist such temptations, and set an example of self-control.

A lot of people are blogging about the Clinton interview this weekend. PowerLine is very good. I won't try to top them, but just re-post this interview with Barbara Bush...

HANNITY: [Radio host Sean Hannity] I've watched your husband from a distance and I'm sure during those eight years while the Clintons were in office that there were times he was very tempted to come out and say something. But he pretty much remained quiet.

MRS. BUSH: And he should have.

HANNITY; Well, and even your son. The worst that he ever said about the Clintons was "We're going to restore honor and dignity to the White House." But yet Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton are out there almost daily as monitors of almost every single decision that your son is making.

MRS. BUSH: Well.

HANNITY: What do you make of that?

MRS. BUSH: I can't say. We took a vow that we would not speak badly. But that's just - that's just too bad. And it's, well ...

They took a vow that they would not speak badly. That's classy. And traditional.

Good trick, it looks like...

I've been too busy to blog about what seems to me the most interesting debate happening right now. That's the debate among conservatives who like or dislike the President's response to Hurricane Katrina. It's a miniature version of all our recent debates, because the President is missing chances to promote traditional conservative virtues, but is also slanting his remedies towards "Ownership Society" measures. A painful lot of federal spending, but often in ways that give people choice, rather than simply taking care of them. (There is no interesting debate coming from liberals, just the reenactment of tired rituals.)

Here's an example, from the NYT: (Thanks to JustOneMinute)

WASHINGTON, Sept. 16 - The Department of Education announced a plan today to pay 90 percent of the educational costs of students and schools affected by Hurricane Katrina for one year.

But the plan, which seeks $2.6 billion in new hurricane relief spending, came under immediate attack from Democrats and officials of the nation's two largest teachers' unions, who asserted that a major component - payments to families with children in private schools - amounted to a national voucher program.

The department proposed that the bulk of the spending, $1.9 billion, be used to pay states and school districts for absorbing children from the affected areas into their public schools. An additional $227 million would be dedicated to displaced adults with outstanding student loans and to colleges and universities that have taken in students from the storm areas....

The details are not clear, but it rather looks like large numbers of families are going to get school vouchers for a while. That will be, ummm, shall we say, an educational experience? They are going to be dropped into Anytown, USA, with the ability to look around at the local elementary and high schools, and CHOOSE. And with $7,500 per student going to whoever gets CHOSEN, why, a lot of those schools, especially public schools, will look at those students in a new way.

It's not surprising the Senator Kennedy and the vile corrupt teacher's unions are howling. The disaster spending can be a weapon, and Bush is wielding it.

I put a bit more of the NYT article below...

..."The federal government is doing something it has never done before," Education Secretary Margaret Spellings told reporters, referring to a tenfold increase in federal per-student spending. "Our 9 percent investment is going to 90 percent. That's my big news."

The budget request also includes $488 million to compensate families with children in private schools, which critics said represented an effort by the Bush administration to initiate a favorite approach to school choice, the use of vouchers.

Over all, more than 372,000 schoolchildren were displaced by the storm and are now enrolled in schools as far from the Gulf Coast as California and New England. The total includes about 61,000 who attended private schools in Louisiana, 50,000 of them in Roman Catholic schools.

Under the plan, children in public and private schools would be regarded equally for aid purposes, with a spending cap of $7,500 per student.

Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts, the ranking member of the Senate education committee, said in a statement that he applauded President Bush's efforts to serve the educational needs of displaced children. "But I am extremely disappointed that he has proposed providing this relief using such a politically charged approach," Mr. Kennedy added. "This is not the time for a partisan debate on vouchers."...

Time to start paying more attention...

Here are a few Avian Flu blogs
H5N1
Avian Flu - What we need to know
birdfluwatch.co.uk

Influenza Pandemic has interesting historical charts of epidemics and pandemics.

Also, I've added Avian Flu to my list of categories. You can click to see other posts...

"booby-trapped dead child"

Quoted in The Corner (From Washington Times)

...Col. McMaster appeared in the Pentagon this week via a video hookup to describe how his 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment, joined by 3rd Iraqi Army Division, routed most of the extremists.

But it was his description of how the enemy occupied their safe haven that got the most attention. Col. McMaster told of beheadings, gunshot killings, a booby-trapped dead child and kidnappings. "This is the worst of the worst in terms of people in the world," he said. "To protect themselves here, what the enemy did is they waged the most brutal and murderous campaign against the people of Tal Afar. ... The enemy here did just the most horrible things you can imagine, in one case murdering a child, placing a booby trap within the child's body and waiting for the parent to come recover the body of their child and exploding it to kill the parents." ....

These are the guys your friendly neighborhood "anti-war" activists and "pacifists" are FOR. These are the charming folk that Cindy calls "freedom fighters," and Michael calls "minutemen." Fortunately, they and the terrorists are losers, and the Americans and Iraqis are winners. And will continue to be.

Mitzvahs...

From the President's speech, at a dinner celebrating the Judaisim's 350th year in America; the first Jews in America arrived in New Amsterdam in 1654.

...One of the greatest Jewish soldiers America has ever known is Tibor Rubin. After surviving the Holocaust and the Nazi death camp, this young man came to America. He enlisted in the United States Army and fought in the Korean War. He was severely wounded and was later captured by the enemy. For two-and-a-half years, he survived in a POW camp. He risked his life for his fellow soldiers nearly every night by smuggling extra food for those who were ill -- it was a skill he had learned in the Nazi camps -- and because of his daring, as many as 40 American lives were saved.

This evening, I'm happy to announce that next week, I will bestow upon this great patriot our nation's highest award for bravery, the Medal of Honor...


Tibor Rubin in Korea, 1950

Here's a fascinating article on Rubin. The reluctance of the Pentagon to award this guy ANY medals is flabbergasting...

...[Sergeant] Watson, who according to lengthy affidavits submitted by nearly a dozen men who served under him — mostly self-described "country boys" from the South and Midwest — was a vicious anti-Semite, who consistently "volunteered" Rubin for the most dangerous patrols and missions.

In one such mission, according to the testimonies of his comrades, Rubin secured a route of retreat for his company by single-handedly defending a hill for 24 hours against waves of North Korean soldiers....

...Faced with constant hunger, filth and disease, most of the GIs simply gave up. "No one wanted to help anyone. Everybody was for himself," wrote Sgt. Leo A, Cormier Jr., a fellow prisoner.

The exception was Rubin. Almost every evening, he would sneak out of the camp to steal food from the Chinese and North Korean supply depots, knowing that he would be shot if caught.

"He shared the food evenly among the GIs," Cormier wrote. "He also took care of us, nursed us, carried us to the latrine....He did many good deeds, which he told us were mitzvahs in the Jewish tradition....He was a very religious Jew and helping his fellow men was the most important thing to him."...

x

Unilateralist Bush occupies NOLA without UN mandate...

Seen in Best of the Web:

Forgotten but not gone, mad mama Cindy Sheehan is still ranting away over at the Fluffington Toast in hope of defying Andy Warhol and scoring a 16th minute of fame. In her latest post, she declares, "George Bush needs to stop talking, admit the mistakes of his all around failed administration, pull our troops out of occupied New Orleans and Iraq, and excuse his self [sic] from power."

Mrs. Sheehan, originally a sympathetic figure, is now merely a pathetic one, and we're inclined to ignore her totally, except that we keep remembering all those Angry Left types who, a few short weeks ago, were declaring that she had "absolute moral authority" and was going to transform American politics. If thinking about that doesn't give you a good, deep, soul-cleansing laugh, nothing will...

I remember. "This time it's curtains for Chimpyburton McBush. We have the silver bullet that will drive a wooden stake through his heart!" I expected Sheehan to fade once people got a good look at what a poisonous little screwball she is, but the speed of the meltdown is surprising. No doubt George Galloway still cherishes her.

And I suppose those criminals and thugs who were terrorizing people in New Orleans when authority broke down are now going to be called "insurgents?" Or maybe "freedom fighters?"

Avian Flu: "This is a right now issue..."

Hugh Hewitt:

...Even as work accelerates along the Gulf, the dangers from terrorism remain, and a new threat continues to approach: avian bird flu. Given that everyone who follows the subject sees the threat of an epidemic as a real possibility, the Adminsitration simply has to have a plan and it has to work. Today's Wall Street Journal's report on vaccine production is thus not comforting. (Subscription required.) Key infromation: The Department of Homeland Security gave Sanofi-Aventis Group a $100 million contract to produce a supply of the vaccine to thwart the killer flu. Other, smaller contracts have been let as well, but the gap between promised supply and obvious need is huge:....

.....Look. This is a right now issue, with Indonesia reporting its fifth case just hours ago. The UN's chief health official is ramping up his warnings, and although the president emphasized the threat at his UN speech, the American public is not aware of the magnitude of the threat, and a plan to produce vaccine for 20 million people in a nation of 300 million when the disease may have as much as a 50% kill rate just isn't "preparedness."

A whole lot of money is about to gush out of the Congress, and while the recovery effort on the Gulf deserves its priority status, the Congress should appropriate whatever it needs to in order to get the supplies of the necessary drugs up and running. A couple of well-publicized hearings on this matter would also be useful.

The buck will again stop on the president's desk, though, and he knows it. I hope he has communicated to all involved that he wants a plan on his desk on the hour by hour response once ABF reaches the US.

Skeptical? Read this. There are plenty of threats in the world (including this terrorist plot that almost got started in Los Angeles, and very few of them can be thwarted just by spending more money. ABF is, however, one of those threats which can be boxed in with planning and budget as it is a question of having and distributing the vaccines and treatments that work...

My understanding is that, no matter what we do, there will not be vaccines to combat the first wave of the pandemic. The flu that hits will be different from what's seen now; Flu mutates easily, which is why it is so hard to fight. and vaccine production takes time. (And the mutations could make the flu less deadly. So this could all fizzle-out, but that doesn't mean the threat wasn't real!)

Just thought you would want to know...

Washington Post: Sept. 14 -- Early tests on the floodwater that covered most of this city do not suggest it will leave a permanent toxic residue or render residential areas uninhabitable for more than a short time, officials of both state and federal environmental agencies said yesterday....

Overhyped environmental catastrophe #96,750....(Thanks to Jerry Scharf)

alone in a bubble...

I'm too busy to blog, but Luciferous put a great comment into the wind-chimes post...

Once upon a time artists made beautiful things and drew from their culture to do so. People in the culture could appreciate the made object. The artist, culture, people, and beauty were connected. But later art became self-referential (Art for Art's sake.) and estranged from beauty, culture, and people. Alone in its self-created bubble it consumed the legacy capital of culture and connection and became deranged and deeply estranged. Now we come to the latest step - antagonism and outright hostility to the ambient culture.

The isolation of artists was never helpful for the culture because it denied it an expression of beauty. But the culture, coarsened, could limp along. Now artists are in direct and overt opposition and will never reconnect to the culture. The have become enemies, and must, for the survival of the culture, be treated as such.

Guantanamo Artist-In-Residence Program?

The world of books is not quite so bad, because many writers are still selling to the wide public. But the same thing exists, with writers joining, say, the "Manhattan literary elite," and never again writing anything people want to read (ie: Mailer)

Actually, you see the bubbles everywhere, if you stop to notice. Just look at the fashion world, chosing models who look like depraved drug addicts. Or judges who let criminals off on crazy technicalities--I have little doubt that in judicial in-groups that's considered wicked cool.

The Wind Chimes of Capitulation...

I didn't comment on the crescent-shaped winning design for a Flight 93 memorial. But I just noticed this, by Michelle Malkin."

Memorial architect Paul Murdoch, whose firm emphasizes "environmental responsibility and sustainability," did not return calls and e-mails seeking comment, but he did emphasize to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that his creation was about "healing" and "contemplation." He is also proud of his idea to hang a bunch of wind chimes in a tall tower at the site as a "gesture of healing and bonding."

Let me guess. Let. Me. Just. Guess. Who needs "healing?" Could it be Islamo-fascist terrorists who murder thousands of innocent civilians? Taliban who kill people for crimes like listening to music or flying kites? Saudi religious police who let little girls burn to death because it would be immodest to run out from their school? People who think gays should be executed by toppling walls onto them? Ba'athists who throw hundreds of thousands of victims into mass graves? Hmmm?

Well, the list could go on and on. But YOU KNOW, and I KNOW, that the wind-chime crowd is not thinking along those lines. Who's sick? Who needs "healing?" I do. You do. AMERICA does. Nasty icky horrid America, that voted for George W. Bush, and thinks people who attack our country should be fought and destroyed.

I'm not even going to speculate what "bonding" is supposed to mean. I already feel like going out and beating up an architect...

My take: It's good

Glenn Reynolds mentions a new book, Flight Capital:

Amazon.com Book Description The best and brightest in America are returning to their homelands in record numbers-and with them is going U.S. technological and economic preeminence. In Flight Capital, we explore this exodus through the personal stories of dozens of successful, foreign-born professionals who are leaving America for opportunities in their native lands. Drawing on their experiences, Heenan analyzes the economic, cultural, and political factors that are driving this flight, as well as the initiatives that countries are using to attract top talent.

This isn't bad, it's GOOD. We want all the other countries to do well, because the only way to do so is to become more like the United States. These people are carrying our "memes," like infectious agents.

They are not going back to, say, India, because they dislike the Rule of Law, economic opportunity, openness in financial markets, tolerance, a "high-trust" culture, etc. They think the old country is moving in that direction, and that there are opportunities because of it. And they will be pushing for more of the same.

Praise this day...

I'm too busy and tired to write, but a comment I saw at this post at Gateway Pundit is just right...(Thanks to Glenn)

larwyn said...

Dear Jim, President Talabani was magnificent at the White House press conference today. He said "Thank you. Thank you, you GLORIOUS AMERICANS!" He credited President Bush for his courage and honored our military. You must get transcript.

It really made tears well up. He was very funny when asked about democracy. He said "We have all kinds of Democracy." He then clarified that to mean new freedoms and rights.

Please get the transcript. The Left Stream Media's take on the whole thing is that G. W. took responsibility for any failures by the Federal Government regarding Katrina response.

When truth all comes out, that will be very small part.

Praise this day. Roberts is slaying each dragon as it engages him.

Wonderful WH Press conference - Bush up to top speed.

Now cut screen shows Pres. Bush, Sec. Rice and that mean Amb. John Bolton entering UN. Kofi kowtowing. Bush magnanimous as usual. Why do we continue to misunderestimate him and his administration?

Bush taking the responsibility for Federal failures in Katrina, and not playing blame-games...He's a real man. The Democrats look like pygmies next to him.

Kinda shakes your faith in representative government...

A reader e-mails:

Hope someone is keeping track of Senator time vs. Roberts time. I think it is running 4 to 1 to the blowhards. And he's running rings around them.

and Pejman writes:

I did catch the whole of John Roberts's statement. It was given without notes and with great rhetorical power and effect. It is easy to see why he was such a capable and successful advocate before the Supreme Court and the quality of his intellect fairly shone through.

I imagine that there is now much less chance that hostile Senators will actually try to engage Roberts with questions. Instead, they will likely try to hector him with speeches that end with something along the lines of "When did you stop beating your wife?" To do otherwise is to engage Roberts in a genuine battle of wits, which would put some of the Senators at a distinct disadvantage.

A little common sense would help...

I glad to see that the death-toll from Katrina will probably be far lower than estimated. But actually, one could have guessed that just from common sense (no, I didn't do so myself). 10,000 dead means a lot of corpses! Sit down and try counting to 10,000, and you will see what I mean.

There would have been rafts of bodies drifting around in the floodwaters. Log-jams of bodies. And there would have been pictures. All those helicopters flying around? They would have been snapping pictures of the dead. There was certainly demand for them...And it's hard to kill that many people; people are tougher than you think.

It's the same with that widely disseminated figure of 100,000 killed in the American occupation of Iraq. Statisticians have thoroughly debunked the number, though liars are still pushing it. But common sense tells us it's bogus. 100,000 bodies are hard to hide. There would be big piles of them lying around for significant periods of time. You can be sure Kevin Sites would have snapped pictures, and the MSM would have given them all possible publicity.

And 100,000 dead means at least a quarter of a million wounded! In a place the size of California. Where are they? I doubt if Iraq has even 10,000 hospital beds. There would be wounded people scattered everywhere.

Very funny

The BIG AD, for Carlton Beer, from Australia. Not to be missed by fans of Carmina Burana, or of the movie version of Lord of the Rings...

dereliction of duty...

Cliff May at the Corner posted this interesting e-mail...

As a retired structural engineer who has done exhaustive work on bulk liquids retention structures, including dams, dykes and levees; also having audited engineering schematics on the New Orleans levees in the 1994-1996 era, rest assured that federal officials were properly concerned about that situation. The problem was that they were the only ones. We bucked and kicked local officials for years throughout the entire project. The municipality demanded the money, and received millions, but repeatedly, they had more pressing uses for expenditures. The optimal, shear-sloped design for the levee reinforcement was approved in 1995. I tell you truly that in my 40-year career as an engineer, the local authorities in our New Orleans levee project take the prize in the area of callous disregard and their bungling remains notorious to this day. Truly, it was scandalous. Consequently, I find it hard to cast a major portion of blame for this disaster on any other entity than the local representatives of those unfortunate people in New Orleans. The truth is, at least the last three mayors of New Orleans are grossly negligent and in dereliction of duty in regards to repeatedly skimming federal funds allocated for their levee fortification. -- Allan McIsaac

I.C.C. alone justified voting for Bush

This is what you get when you tolerate the sham called "International Law"...

Scotland Yard was thwarted yesterday in its attempt to seize a former senior Israeli army officer at Heathrow airport for alleged war crimes in occupied Palestinian lands after a British judge had issued a warrant for his arrest.

British detectives were waiting for retired Major General Doron Almog who was aboard an El Al flight which arrived from Israel yesterday. It is believed he was tipped off about his impending arrest while in the air and stayed on the plane to avoid capture until it flew back to Israel. Scotland Yard detectives were armed with a warrant naming Mr Almog as a war crimes suspect for offences that breached the Geneva conventions...(Thanks to Bill Quick)

What do you know. An Israeli. Of course. "International Law" is only intended to hurt America and Israel. If they thought they could get away with it, those British "judges" would be arresting Americans too.

And WHO, EXACTLY, gave the British "judge" jurisdiction over Israel? Who VOTED for this? Nobody, of course. "International Law" is not about to give any miserable moronic voters any say in what happens to them.

Almog's crime was bulldozing houses. But you could wait a million years before any "Palestinian" was arrested for shredding Jewish women and children with nails and shrapnel wrapped around dynamite. That's OK, because they are "freedom-fighters." But a Jew who retaliates against terrorists without killing or injuring anyone is a war criminal. Pfui. I can just imagine the leftists who shuddered with indescribable moral disgust at the bulldozing of Palestinian houses. Frauds. What will they say about the Palestinians who just today were looting and burning synagogues in Gaza? Nothing. "Freedom fighters" y'know. They get a free pass.

But hey, the Jew should be arrested; what an evil crime it is to deprive the Palestinians of "martyrs" by not killing them. He's sabotaging the propaganda machine that brings in billions in "aid." He's trying to starve the Palestinians to death! War Crime! War Crime! And, a million times worse than killing some towel-heads, he's depriving the world's lefties of the chance for moral preening and feeling smug superiority—and that's all they've got! He's trying to destroy them! War Crime!

Thank you thank you thank you President Bush for rejecting the abomination called the International Criminal Court. I hope you will consider any such arrests of Americans by kangaroo courts as acts of war, and respond accordingly. Israel should do the same, but of course they are in a position of weakness and must endure such injustices by "progressives" who hate Jews, freedom and democracy.

He'll sleep with the fishes...

A blabbermouth has spilled the truth a bunch of crazy lies about the Republican Talking Points...

...Q. How many other right-wing blogs out there receive talking points? A. I wouldn't know the exact number, but, obviously, most of them do.

Q. How does a blogger get to receive talking points? A. Most blogs were created at the behest of Rove and started out with talking points. I had gained interest from my work as a Republican in college as offered a large sum of money to start a blog to pretend that conservatives are capable of humor (we really aren't). It is possible to start a blog and then be approached by Rove or his henchman, but he seems to like more control over blogs than that.

Q. Do you share the money Rove pays you with the other IMAO bloggers? A. This is "Frequently Asked Questions" not "Showtime at the Apollo," so enough with the jokes.

Q. What happens if you deviate too much from the talking points? A. A certain amount of deviation is expected to make it seem like we're each our own individuals (e.g., hating monkeys is not on the talking points). But the power of the blogosphere is that we Republican shills all act in unison on some issue, so, if one blogger wanders too far off the reservation, then he or she will simply stop receiving the talking points. This will leave the person pointless and having to make things up like Drudge...

(Thanks to Glenn)

More on possible Flu Pandemic...

When I was writing about a possible flu pandemic recently my good wife reminded me to check with my sister Jan. Well, duh. <smack forehead> She's an epidemiologist! (Janet McClure, nurse and epidemiologist BSN, MPH). I still think of her as a nurse, but she's in a doctoral program in epidemiology, and will soon be "my sister the doctor." </smack forehead>

She did not find my alarm in the least bit excessive. Quite the contrary...

...The reason this strain of flu is so worrisome is that it attacks the lung's microscopic air sacs and prevents exchange of oxygen and CO2. Modern medicine cannot solve this problem because ventilators can push air into the lungs but cannot  make oxygen go through lung membranes that are not functioning.

 If you read the letter at the end of the link you provided, you will read a description how rapidly healthly men became ill and died of what is called "air hunger".

The expectation by public health experts is that due to lack of preparation and the nature the most worrisome flu strains, there will be a collapse of the US commercial and healthcare infrastructure as there was in 1918. Many deaths will occur not from the flu but from lack of food, fuel, etc as there will not be sufficient people who are able, willing, and available to provide services such as banking, transportation and sale of  food, gasoline, medication and basic healthcare even for serious existing conditions such as asthma, diabetes, heart disease etc. This is described in academic terms in the attached article p.590-1  " Social disruption, interruption of commerce, school closings, and public unrest are likely when many people are ill at the same time."...[link]

It's time to wake up and get ready! Make preparations. Be wise.

(Oh and by the way, I discovered she is ALSO a Vitamin C enthusiast)

test post

Kathy Kinsley once again proves to be a good resource if something goes wrong with your weblog software...

Liars alert...

The Media Wing of the Democrat Party is reporting widely that the Shaw Group, a major corporate client of Joe Allbaugh, President Bush's former campaign manager and a former head of the FEMA, has received a big FEMA contract!

Quelle scandale!

Of course they don't bother to report one teensy weensy little fact...

...The Shaw Group, a multi-billion-dollar conglomerate, is headed by Jim Bernhard, the current chairman of the Louisiana Democratic Party. Bernhard worked tirelessly for Democrat Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco's runoff campaign and served as co-chair of her transition team. Another Shaw executive was Blanco's campaign manager. Bernhard is back-scratching chums with Blanco, whom he has lent/offered the Shaw Group's corporate jets to on numerous occasions...[Find the details here, at Michelle Malkin]

I'm sure we'll be hearing from Zoomie about the horrid crony-capitalists of the Bush Administration...

There is no room for neutrality...

Look at that destruction, that massive, senseless, cruel loss of human life ... and then I ask you to look in your hearts and recognize that there is no room for neutrality on the issue of terrorism. You're either with civilization or with terrorists.

On one side is democracy, the rule of law, and respect for human life; on the other is tyranny, arbitrary executions, and mass murder.

We're right and they're wrong. It's as simple as that.

-- Rudy Giulani, October 1, 2001

Quoted at the PajamasMedia site

you will forget...forget...forget...

THIS is the war the phony "anti-war" left wants forgotten. Don't expect any giant puppets protesting attacks on America...

THIS is the war the fake "pacifists" didn't oppose. The slaughter would still be going on if they had their way. And there never will be be any "candlelight vigils" crap for the hundreds of thousands of Iraqis shoveled beneath the sands during Saddam's internal war against his own people...they are just dirt to the Bush-haters.

Remember remember remember...

Let's climb in the What If machine...

Politicalities points out, what I hadn't realized...

Because I don't watch television...

There is a news blackout on the fact that the Red Cross was blocked from bringing food to the Superdome!

He's asking bloggers to put on pressure to get this story covered. (Well, my pressure-added is probably negligable, but who knows?)

He has a great open letter...give it a read...

...Why aren't you screaming this from the rooftops? I know why. Because the mayor who so failed his people, the governor who thwarted the Red Cross and the Salvation Army, the chief of police who rewarded his troops with Vegas vacations after they engaged in mass desertion and in some cases joined the looters... these people are all Democrats. That's the reason.

Don't try to deny it. Let's climb in the What If machine and ponder Hurricane LaTonya bearing down on the city of Jacksonville, Florida in a slightly different reality.

Jacksonville sits on Florida's Atlantic coast, just south of Georgia, and has thus far been spared major hurricanes, which means it's due. It's the most populous city in Florida and the 13th most populous city in the United States, about 60% larger than New Orleans. Its mayor is Republican John Peyton, its chief of police is probable Republican Donald R. Cook, and of course the governor of Florida is Republican Jeb Bush [1]. Duval County voted for Bush over Kerry by 16%.....

This was especially interesting because the first thing I woke up to this morning was a comment by the usually-accurate Andrew Cory that was wrong on this point, and the second was the open letter...(Thanks to Lorie)

We in trouble?

The previous post drew a comment from our friend Andrew:

FEMA is part of the Department of Homeland Security.
If New Orleans shows us how DHS responds to a terrorist attack, we’re in a lot of trouble.

Oh right, we're in trouble. The terrorists just need to find a target that falls instantly into squalid confusion, that blocks access to Red Cross supplies and to the people coming to repair the police radios, a place where most of the cops run away and the disaster plan isn't even tried, and a wretched and ignorant population is abandoned by its leaders. In short, something that falls apart at a touch. They will have difficulty finding another New Orleans.

Some terrorist trouble. Pfui.

This was one of the the worst natural disasters to hit America, something no terrorist could equal unless they have real nukes. And America coped very well. We've handled all the problems that came up, and we haven't even strained our economy. The big federal bureaucracies didn't shine, but that's not suprising. Corrupt Democrat-led areas didn't do well, but again, no surprise. Military, cops (except in NOLA), private business and charity all did well. Yet again no suprise. (Notice they are the ones lefties tend to dislike.) A huge swath of territory was devastated, but only NOLA fell into anarchy. And the ten-thousand corpses don't seem to be materializing, much to certain people's disappointment.

No, we are not in trouble. FEMA is not supposed to be the Angel Gabriel come to protect us. It is just a small agency that coordinates the activities of other groups, all of which will still exist without FEMA, and most of which performed very well. And the controversies are over things being done a day or two late. Most countries would still be organizing their efforts a week after the levees broke.

With the possible exception of New Orleans, which was already in deep decline and decay, the affected regions will recover soon, and probably prosper with all of our tax dollars that will be lavished on them. You call that trouble?

And DHS is mostly about preventing terrorist attacks, not responding to them. They confiscate nail clippers, and make sure no one crosses our borders without permission. We are definitely in trouble if they need to be relied on. Fortunately, they are NOT what prevents terror attacks.

Two things keep us from from another 9/11. The first is that we are attacking them, around the globe, and especially in Iraq. They are not thinking about winning, they are trying to prevent us from spreading democracy and freedom to the Moslem heartlands. They are on the defensive. we have the iniative.

And even more important, terror attacks are meant to manipulate people. They are meant to make a country flinch, and retreat, and lose its nerve. They are not a direct threat. We lose 40,000 Americans a year in automoblile accidents. Are we in "trouble?" Of course not. So if terrorists suddenly killed 40,000 of us, would we be in trouble? NO! Not unless we lost our nerve and gave them what they want. And Americans don't do that. What did we do after 9/11? We've launched one of the most abitious projects in human history; an attempt to transform the culture of a entire region. A stupifying response.

So imagine you are an Osama bin Laden type. Do you really feel enthusiastic about trying another 9/11? After what you reaped from the first one? Or do you go look for a softer target, say Madrid, or London. That's why there hasn't been another 9/11.

Real protection...

We should indeed debate and discuss our response to Hurricane Katrina

However, there is one line that I've been hearing that I don't think has much merit. It's the: "But Bush PROMISED TO PROTECT US...whimper whimper snivel whine..." line.

Maybe I missed the memo, but I don't remember any promises to protect us from natural disasters. He did promise to hunt terrorist scumbags around the globe. That's the priority (though the appeasers will do anything to distract us. Like featuring Katrina corpses on TV, but not 9/11 images, or Saddam's mass graves)

Fighting the war is the REAL protection.

THIS is the real protection...

...PROMISED and DELIVERED.

logo-realists

AOG posts: I don't care about his response, I just want him to suffer

I find the whining about President Bush's non-suffering once again a bizarre attempt at sympathetic magic. Somehow (it's never explained) Bush failing to suffer like the victims of the latest disaster makes that suffering worse. Personally, if I were such a victim, I'd prefer to have my leaders in the best condition to make the best decisions rather than putting on some sort of fake humility show about how they're "just like me". But those doing the complaining tend to be logo-realists for whom the symbology of an act is the primary determinant of its effectiveness.

This hair-shirt approach does have the benefit of putting Bush in a no-win situation, where (as noted above) if he doesn't demonstrate his compassion through symbolic visits to the disaster site, he's callous. But if he does visit then he's callous for disrupting some rescue efforts for a photo-op....

I think it's the 'no-win" that is the goal here. The losers are lashing out with any criticism they can find. If Bush somehow were to suffer enormously in the flood they would not be the slightest bit appeased. In fact they'd be delighted, since they are haters. And, by the way, how come we haven't heard any complaints that Gov. Blanco is not suffering with the victims?. (And how come nobody's calling her racist? She's a white person who's presided for years over deteriorating conditions for blacks in NOLA.)

I think the popularity of this sort of argument is evidence that people's brains are rotting in the Age of Oprah. You see the same thing in claims that various conservatives should not be on the Supreme court because they've never been poor. (Liberals get a free pass; they can be stinking rich and still blather about how they feel for the poor.) The people using the argument are cynical frauds, but it's disturbing that such stupidity is not just laughed off the stage.

Good, good...

Washington Post: President Bush yesterday suspended application of the federal law governing workers' pay on federal contracts in the Hurricane Katrina-damaged areas of Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, and Mississippi. The action infuriated labor leaders and their Democratic supporters in Congress, who said it will lower wages and make it harder for union contractors to win bids.

The Davis-Bacon Act, passed in 1931 during the Great Depression, sets a minimum pay scale for workers on federal contracts by requiring contractors to pay the prevailing or average pay in the region. Suspension of the act will allow contractors to pay lower wages. Many Republicans have opposed Davis-Bacon, charging that it amounts to a taxpayer subsidy to unions....

Excellent conservative move. The sort of laws that are supposed to keep wages high and protect workers from wicked capitalists always have one teensy-weensy unintended little side-effect...I'm sure I don't need to tell you what it is...

I'd just put it that President Bush cares about the poor and brown-skinned people of the region. And John J. Sweeney and the Democrats do not.

If so, bury gold coins in the garden...

Jay Nordlinger:

I think of one of my favorite Reagan stories: While governor, he is on one of the California campuses, leaving a regents’ meeting. And a student mob surrounds his car. They are chanting, “We are the future! We are the future!” Reagan reaches for a notepad, scribbles something on it, and puts it to the window: “I’ll sell my bonds.”

"Hoping to dodge a bullet" is not a plan...

...as we have seen recently. And there is a possible disaster on the horizon that could dwarf Katrina.

Our friend Dave recently passed us some links on the subject of Avian Flu. (Read THIS, and this) The possibility of a Flu pandemic really looks like a threat that should be taken seriously. NOTE: You will, when you read up on this subject, find frequent references to the 1918 Pandemic killing 20 million people. That figure is long out of date; historians now have estimates ranging from 60 to 100 million deaths worldwide. The equivalent for today's much larger population might be half-a-billion!

I have one bit of advice to add to what's easily available on the Web. There is, in the world of medicine and health, a large blind spot on the subject of Vitamin C. (I bet some of you are recoiling at this moment, and thinking, "Oh no, another food-faddist." But if you read Random Jottings you probably know that I'm pretty down-to-earth, and don't recommend any Appalachian folk remedies).

Anyway, I've been following the subject for about 30 years now, and I've seen that blind spot often. As one web site put it:

...Many studies have shown that Vitamin C is quite effective in treating and preventing colds. The medical profession is not very interested. The popular media always seem to take the same position. It goes something like this:

• A study shows positive results
• The results are discussed
• The story ends with the warning of taking too much C and that we are all probably better off just eating a proper diet.

It is all such a shame

I think scientists and do