Miserable March

Call it March Madness, Miserable March, or Murder March if you want. I don't know what has been going on this past month. I speculated before that we were passing through the tail of some kind of murder comet (at least it's not turning everyone into zombies), but these last few weeks have been really violent and depressing.

-Wisconsin hotel shooting
-Atlanta courthouse shooting
-Jessica Lunsford's body was found
-Philadelphia murder spree
-Judge's family executed (technically happened Feb 28)
-Red Lake school shooting
-Terry Schiavo's feeding tube removed

What the hell is going on? I'd bet that on a statistical level, March, 2005 will probably be no different than any other month this year. It just seems there are a lot of spectacularly violent crimes being committed. Can't wait for April.

Man vs. Nature

First off, sorry about the no-blogging for the last week or so. Thanks for coming back. I'd like to say I was busy with work, or working around the house or something (although I did spend 2 weekends fixing my Jeep). No, it was my longtime downfall, computer games. And an old game, at that.

Anyway, last week, I happened to be in the right place at the right time, and saw something that I think was once in a lifetime. My uncle and I were driving back from lunch. It's a nice, scenic drive, a winding road that goes past a dam and its reservoir and park. We drove on past the elementary school, and, just past the trailer park, to the foot of a hill. Near the crest of the hill, about 50 yards away, a herd of deer was running across the road. As a dump truck came over the crest. Our eyes grew wide, the 8 or so deer kicked it into high gear, and the dump truck kept coming. It was really booking, it must have been going 50. The deer flitted across in front of it, it kept coming, a disaster was in the making, we started yelling, "Oh... oh... Oh...... OHHHHHHH!!!" as tail end charlie didn't make it. It didn't just get slapped aside to the side of the road, the deer exploded. Like it swallowed a grenade. It was obliterated. A dark red spray obscured the front of the truck, whose driver I don't think even touched his brakes. Hair floated in the air like dandelion seeds. As we slowed down to pass the carcass, I turned to look at its shattered body, checking to see if it was possibly still alive, while my uncle watched its liver slide across the road.

We're just lucky the truck didn't try to swerve into our lane to avoid the poor doe. Another, smarter deer had waited to cross, and bounded across in front of us to join the remainder of the herd.

T-Day

Unless something happens, tomorrow is the day the doctors will remove the feeding tube from Terri Schiavo, and she will begin to die of starvation and dehydration. Here is a story on it that includes this ridiculous line:

The push, largely by Republicans, has drawn accusations that Bush and the GOP are pandering to the religious right. Some have also questioned whether the campaign runs counter to Republican principles of less government and more freedom.

Options are running out for Terri's parents, who are desperate to keep their daughter alive. The Florida house passed legislation that would save her, but the Senate balked. Congressional action has stalled. The Schindlers (Terri's parents; apt name) have filed an emergency petition with the Supreme Court.

Who knows what will happen between tonight and tomorrow. And it will probably be 2 weeks before Terri starves to death. So there is still some time. If nothing pans out, there's only one thing the Schindlers can do: the John Q option. Bring some guns to the hospice where she is kept, barricade themselves in her room, and prevent the tube from being removed. Wouldn't you do that if it was your child?

Yesterday, I wrote about Ward Churchill urging Americans to commit acts of terrorism, and I thought about that before writing the "John Q" statement. People on many web sites (left and right) casually comment about armed insurrection or civil war when they can't get their way. In the context of national politics and foreign policy, it is an absurd position. Even the state taking away your rights to bear arms, free speech, and own private property has to be stretched pretty far before "it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security."

That all goes out the window when it comes to family. This is a terrible case, and hard cases make bad law. Their are competing interests and claims, and controversy over Terri's mental state. But the Schindlers believe Terri is alive, and aware, and worth saving. Hopefully something will happen, some governmetn agency will stop this. Otherwise, tomorrow a person will go into Terri Schiavo's room to kill her. A father has a duty. I hope he fulfills that duty. I wish him success.

Update: Oops, it's Terri, not Terry. Fixes.

The Online Coalition

In response to the FEC's recent quasi-decision to regulate political speech in the blogosphere, prominent bloggers formed the Online Coalition. You can go there and sign the petition to Scott Thomas, the Chairman of the FEC.

I signed, but with some trepidation. Here's an excerpt from the letter:

As bipartisan members of the online journalism, blogging, and advertising community, we ask that you grant blogs and online publications the same consideration and protection as broadcast media, newspapers, or periodicals by clearly including them under the Federal Election Commission’s “media exemption” rule.

In order to ensure that there are sufficient measures taken, we also request that the FEC promulgate a rule exempting unpaid political activity on the Internet from regulation, thereby guaranteeing every American’s right to speak freely and participate in our democratic process.

Finally, we ask that you clarify the rules and definitions related to “coordinated activity” to protect bloggers and journalists from running afoul of Commission rules regarding the republication of campaign materials.

It is a noble effort, that has united bloggers of all stripes, liberal, conservative, and confused. But this is the problem for me: we are asking the FEC to confirm our rights. As if they have the power to take away our right to free speech on the Internet. They don't. The letter isn't nearly defiant enough. But it's a start.

Antiwar Isn't the Same as Anti-American, But...

...sometimes you wonder.

There absolutely is a principled (if, in my opinion, wrongheaded) position to be taken against the Iraq war. One can believe it to have been launched on false pretenses, that it detracts from the pursuit of Bin Laden, that it increases hatred for the U.S. around the world, that it's not worth the human cost, etc. etc. But that position is overshadowed by the anti-American left, who make signs like this one:


This protest took place on March 15, a week before the March 23rd grenade attack allegedly carried out by U.S. soldier Hassan Akbar at the 101st Airborne Division camp in Kuwait in the opening days of the war. Here you have protestors advocating the fragging of U.S. officers during war. Is that anti-American?

Then, of course, there is Ward Churchill. Okay, we all know he is rabidly anti-American. He famously called the victims of 9/11 "Little Eichmanns," and had the video "US Off the Planet," and advocated terrorism inside the U.S., exhorting his audience to bomb Wall Street, etc., etc. And he still has his job. This isn't a free speech issue, anyone exhorting people to commit terrorism should be fired. CU is considering buying him out. Okay, Churchill is out there, and represents only the very far left fringe. Can he be called anti-American? He wants US off the planet!

There was the "attack"on U.S. Army recruiter SFC Jeff Due in Seattle, where protesters drove him off campus and tore up his literature.

Sgt. 1st Class Jeff Due, right, a U.S. Army recruiter, is surrounded by protesters at Seattle Central Community College, Thursday, Jan. 20, 2005, in Seattle. After about a 10-minute standoff during which protesters tore up U.S. Army literature, the protesters were successful in getting Due and another
recruiter to leave their table under escort by campus security officers.

And the phenomenon of the counter recruiters (via No Angst Zone, via Mudville Gazette).

Jim Murphy is a "counter-recruiter," one of a small but growing number of opponents of the Iraq (news - web sites) war who say they want to compete with military recruiters for the hearts and minds of young people.

"I don't tell kids not to join the military," says Murphy, 59, a member of Veterans for Peace. "I tell them: 'Have a plan for your future. Because if you don't, the military has a plan for you.' "

...Counter-recruiters formed a national network at meetings in Philadelphia in the summers of 2003 and 2004. They range from Vietnam War veterans, such as Murphy, to high school students trained to talk to their peers about enlistment.

And military recruiting offices are being attacked (via Michelle Malkin).

These incidents are active efforts to disrupt our military's recruiting efforts. Which has a direct impact on its ability to prosecute the war. You can say that Bush's war is overstretching out forces, creating a "hollow" military which is therefore creating recruiting problems all you want. Acting to exacerbate that problem is hurting our ability to fight, and helping the enemy.

These are left-wing, fringe protesters, perhaps caught up in the idealism of youth, perhaps, as in the case of the counter-recruiters, pushing their religious philosophy of pacifism. They'll be at it again this weekend. Other, main-stream advocacy groups are promoting policies that directly damage our security. Let's look at the CAPPS II controversy. From the Electronic Frontier Foundation:

CAPPS II: Government Surveillance via Passenger Profiling

What's Happening?

The U.S. Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has announced plans to implement CAPPS II, a controversial passenger profiling and surveillance system that would
require you to give your birth date, home phone number, and home address before you can board a U.S. flight. Under CAPPS II, travel authorities would check these and other personal details against the information collected in government
and commercial databases, then "tag" you with a color-coded score indicating the level of security risk that you appear to pose. Based on your assigned color/score, you could be detained, interrogated or made subject to additional
searches. If you are tagged with the wrong color/score, you could be prohibited from flying.

What's at Stake?

Your fundamental right to privacy and your fundamental right to travel without being forced to give up your constitutionally protected freedoms.

Of course, the ACLU was all over this:

"We're focusing on the wrong group of people," Barr said. "We shouldn't be focusing on the law-abiding traveling public."

Barry Steinhardt, director of ACLU's Technology and Liberty Program, said they welcome discussions with TSA on an effective way to secure airline travel but that CAPPS II is not the answer.

"A more sophisticated, more accurate, more useful system for tracking actual terrorists may make sense, but that's not what we're talking about with CAPPS II," he said. "We're certainly willing to have a discussion about what a sensible system would look like, but CAPPS II is not that system."

The opposition was effective. CAPPS II is dead. The "II" implies it is the second such system. Indeed, there was a CAPPS. The effectiveness of CAPPS II could only be evaluated against the effectiveness of the system it was replacing. After all, they both were to do the same thing, i.e., compare all potential airline passengers against a terrorist watch list (CAPPS stands for Computer Assisted Passenger Prescreening Program). How effective was CAPPS on 9/11? From the 9/11 Commission Report:

American 11: 4 out of 5 hijackers flagged:

When he checked in for his flight to Boston, Atta was selected by a computerized prescreening system known as CAPPS (Computer Assisted Passenger Prescreening System), created to identify passengers who should be subject to special security measures. Under security rules in place at the time, the only consequence of Atta’s selection by CAPPS was that his checked bags were held off the plane until it was confirmed that he had boarded the aircraft. This did not hinder Atta’s plans.

While Atta had been selected by CAPPS in Portland, three members of his hijacking team—Suqami,Wail al Shehri, and Waleed al Shehri—were selected in Boston.Their selection affected only the handling of their checked bags, not their screening at the checkpoint. All five men cleared the checkpoint and made their way to the gate for American 11. Atta, Omari, and Suqami took their seats in business class (seats 8D, 8G, and 10B, respectively). The Shehri brothers had adjacent seats in row 2 (Wail in 2A,Waleed in 2B), in the firstclass cabin. They boarded American 11 between 7:31 and 7:40. The aircraft pushed back from the gate at 7:40.

...At the same time [8:14 AM] or shortly thereafter, Atta—the only terrorist on board trained to fly a jet—would have moved to the cockpit from his business-class seat, possibly accompanied by Omari.

At 8:46:40,American 11 crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center in New York City.39 All on board, along with an unknown number of people in the tower,were killed instantly.

United 175: 0 out of 5 hijackers flagged:

Shehhi and his team, none of whom had been selected by CAPPS, boarded United 175 between 7:23 and 7:28 (Banihammad in 2A, Shehri in 2B, Shehhi in 6C, Hamza al
Ghamdi in 9C, and Ahmed al Ghamdi in 9D).Their aircraft pushed back from the gate just before 8:00.

American 77: 3 out of 5 hijackers flagged:

Hani Hanjour, Khalid al Mihdhar, and Majed Moqed were flagged by CAPPS. The Hazmi brothers were also selected for extra scrutiny by the airline’s customer service representative at the check-in counter. He did so because one of the brothers did not have photo identification nor could he understand English, and because the agent found both of the passengers to be suspicious.The only consequence of their selection was that their checked bags were held off the plane until it was confirmed that they had boarded the aircraft.

United 93: 1 out of 4 hijackers flagged:

Between 7:03 and 7:39, Saeed al Ghamdi, Ahmed al Nami, Ahmad al Haznawi, and Ziad Jarrah checked in at the United Airlines ticket counter for Flight 93, going to Los Angeles.Two checked bags; two did not. Haznawi was selected by CAPPS.His checked bag was screened for explosives and then loaded on the plane.

When I first read that, it knocked the wind out of my sails. 8 of the 19 hijackers were flagged by CAPPS as potential terrorists. The only consequence is reported with nauseating repetition: The only consequence of their selection was that their checked bags were held off the plane until it was confirmed that they had boarded the aircraft. 1 guy could not have hijacked American 11, especially since their only pilot was flagged. 2 guys would have had a hard time taking over American 77. And maybe that one hijacker on United 93 would have made the difference in the passenger's heroic, failed battle to retake the aircraft.

Let's say that the hijackings of American 11 and 77 would have failed if CAPPS had teeth. American 11 crashed into the North Tower. That came down second, so let's say 1/3 of the 2,792 deaths in New York would have been avoided (I'm assuming most of the casualties were from the South Tower, with was a complete surprise when it collapsed. If my assumption is wrong, it only bolsters my argument). With the Flight 11 passengers, that comes to 961 people. The crash of American 77 into the Pentagon killed 188 people. So 1,149 people would have been saved.

How could anyone be against CAPPS II? Is the privacy of airline passengers worth that much? Sure, the terrorists may change their tactics next time - but only if we close the vulnerabilities that made the most spectacular terrorist attack in history possible. The list of issues the ACLU is wrong on is long. This, to me, is the most flagrant. They are puttin their privacy concerns over a system that was proven to have worked identifying terrorists. Is that anti-American?

Time is pressing, and if you've gotten this far, your eyes are feeling the strain. So I won't go into Human Rights Watch, or the complete inability of military interrogators to apply any pressure whatsoever while questioning suspected terrorists, or the ridiculous lawsuit against Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld, or the judges who want to free Jose Padilla and Zacharias Moussaoui. What is the point of this ridiculously long post (sorry dial-up users). It is to ask a question. Lefties are very quick to get their backs up when they are accused of being un-American or un-patriotic. Conservatives are usually called McCarthyite. My question is, what action can be called anti-American? Where is the threshold? How do we define treason now? Is giving aid and comfort to the enemy an issue of free speech? This is not a recent phenomenon, of course. Jane Fonda infamously went to North Vietnam and posed with communists for propaganda photos. There were no repurcussions for her. Why?

My purpose in asking this question is not to advocate prosecuting people. They are (with the exception of the privacy fanatics) mostly harmless. Or do a small enough amount of harm that we can afford to ignore them in order to preserve the liberties of our society, refreshed as they are from time to time with the blood of patriots. My purpose is not jingoistic, or McCarthyite. My purpose is to initiate a debate. Without rancor or high-running emotions, where do we draw the line, if we draw it at all? What constitutes anti-Americanism?

Busy News Day Today...

...and time for some gloating.
-The Iraqi National Assembly met, holding a celebratory meeting today to celebrate the assumption of their democratically elected posts.
Excellent.
-Judge sentences Scott Peterson to death. Do they still say "May God have mercy on your soul"? 50,000 volts, scumbag.
Hahaha.
-The Senate voted to include an ANWR oil drilling provision in next year's budget. This precludes the use of a fillibuster to stop it. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-Washington) had this to say on what is really a parliamentary maneuver:

Why not expedite timber sales by simply recognizing revenue in the budget? Why not open up drilling on the coastal regions of the country by just recognizing revenue in the budget? Why not open up driling in yellowstone national park just by recognizing revenue in the budget? It's a bad precedent.

Why not... let the majority decide the issue with a floor vote for once?
Update: That last line is a doozy. Heh.
Muwahahahaha... I can hear the caribou lowing. And last but not least:
-Bush picks Wolfowitz to head world bank! Oh, man, I can just hear the moonbats barking. In fact, let's take a little trip over to Democratic Underground, via Little Green Footballs:

I truly fear for the US now in a way I never have before - heck we made it through Nixon and Reagan. But now the malevolence and hatred towards the middle class in the US and the entire rest of the world that is such a strong part of this administration, coupled with the aristocratic disdain, blinkered mentality and unwillingness to compromise of Bush, are overwhelming. I am depressed.

Oh, the heads of the neo-cons-are-really-a-zionist-plot-to-take-over-the-world nuts must be exploding.
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA...
The stars are aligning.

Local Pennsylvania Stuff 2.A

I guess I understated the issue:

The mayor of Philadelphia urged a crackdown on gun ownership on Tuesday after 18 people died in a week of street violence in the city.

Looks like that we're deeper into the gun-murder-inducing comet tail than I thought. What does Mayor Street want to do about this? Crack down on legal gun ownership:

Calling the rash of killings a "crisis," Mayor John Street urged state lawmakers to amend Pennsylvania's relatively lax gun laws.

You knew this was coming after the last week. Relatively lax gun laws?! No, Mr. Journalist, that's not an opinion or anything. If I go to a range, I can't load more than 3 rounds in my rifle without getting a $100 fine. I can't hunt with a semi-automatic weapon (not that I would really want to, but it's the principle of the thing. I would love to take my M-1 Garand out in the woods, though.). PA does have a CCW program. I guess I better sign up for a permit before they take that away.

Maybe, instead of going after the law-abiding gun carriers, the city should go after criminals blah blah blah...

Mayor Street continued:

"These are not hunters. People should not be authorized to carry weapons on the streets of Philadelphia unless they have a good reason to do so," he said.

How about protecting themselves from all the murdering scumbags? A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed. Operative words being shall not be infringed. By anyone. I guess, like Congress shall make no law... abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, that's not clear enough.

WTF!!!

From CNN, via the Corner,

HOUSTON, Texas (AP) -- A critically ill 5-month-old was taken off life
support and died Tuesday, a day after a judge cleared the way for doctors to halt care they believed to be futile. The infant's mother had fought to keep him alive.

Wanda Hudson unsuccessfully fought to continue her son's medical care. She believed he needed time to grow and could eventually be weaned off the ventilator.

"I wanted life for my son," Hudson said Tuesday. "The hospital gave up on him too soon."

Pardon my French, but that is fucked up. This is, obviously, completely different from the Terry Schiavo case. There, Michael Schiavo, her husband, has the legal decision to continue or terminate care. As controversial as that case is, and I completely sympathize with the parents' position, her legal caretaker wants to take her off life support.

The fact that doctors, or a hospital, can decide to terminate life-sustaining care, when the mother wants to continue it, is horrible. It is Dutch-baby-euthanasia horrible. Maybe little Sun Hudson didn't stand a chance. Miracles can happen occasionally. If it was your child, wouldn't you want to give them every chance possible? That is John Q time.

The Cedars Strike Back!

Today's rally is great news. The Hezbollah rally last Tuesday had me seriously worried that the "Arab Spring" was going to fizzle out as the dictators updated their tactics. But when you read things like this

There were no official estimates of the crowd size, but Lebanon's leading LBC TV station and some police officers estimated it at about 1 million. An Associated Press estimate put the number at least 800,000. Either way it was the biggest demonstration ever in this country of 3.5 million.

That's from 23% to 29% of the population! The Orange Revolution in Ukraine only drew 500,000 or so. Hopefully they can get the government to resign again.

Update: Wow, wow, WOW! All I can say is, WOW!

Local Pennsylvania Stuff 2

The second in an ongoing series in local issues of the great state of Pennsylvania. Most of which deals with bad stuff in Philly:

-There has been a murder spree in Philadelphia, as well as the rest of the country, it seems. 9 people dead in the last 48 hours. Add to that the 7 killed in Wisconsin, and the 4 in Atlanta, and you have to wonder if we're passing through the tail of some murder-comet.
-The Philadelphia City Council is considering a public smoking ban. Much like the ones in New York and Los Angeles, the ban is ostensibly for the benefit of workers and customers. In a local NPR report, the reporter interviewed a New Jersey diner owner who had instititued her own smoking ban. The purpose was to show that a smoking ban wouldn't hurt business. The owner reported that after putting the ban in place, her business increased 10%. Which... sounds to me like a pretty good argument for letting the free market take care of it.
-And, to end on a good note, Mayor Street hopes to create a city-wide Wi-Fi zone by putting antennae on street light poles. Which I think is a great idea. They said they would allow free access for people outdoors, but charge them for in-home use. If it's radio-based, how can they keep people from using it indoors for free? Couldn't they just put an antenna by the window?

Doesn't Play Well With Others

On the way back from New York (see below), I heard a story on NPR (my favorite radio station) about the Monterey Aquarium's Great White Shark. I'll probably have to go out soon to see it, not only because my brother-in-law is stationed there, but because my fiance is shark crazy (I mean she is really bloodthirsty about it. If we're ever on a boat, she starts muttering, "Heeeeeere sharkysharkysharkysharky..."). But mostly because Great Whites don't usually survive long in captivity.

This girl has survived a year. But lately she has been getting snippy. She took bites out of two soupfin sharks, who both later died (I guess the Japanese aren't the only ones who find them tasty).

I mean, if you were this badass dwarf-eater:

Wouldn't you just have to take a bite out of this droopy-the-hound looking weenie, just to keep your street creds once you got on the outside?

No soup for you!

During the interview, NPR's Michelle Norris asked Randy Kochevar, a marine biologist at the aquarium, what the shark's name was.

She does not have a name. This is an animal that, if all continues to go well, will only be in our care temporarily. Our hope is that one day we will return her to the ocean, and as such we would really like our visitors to think of her more as a wild animal rather than a performer or a pet. And so we have made a conscious decision not to give her a name.

What bunk. As if naming her Jaws, or Jabber Jaws, or Bruce, or Smiles-A-Lot would make one bit of difference to her visitors, most of whom just want to see her eat something. It is a touchy-feely goofiness, a sort of political correctness of the animal world. Like calling killer whales "orca." As if calling them "killer" is some kind of negative connotation. Come on, that's the reason they're so cool.

It's like if you turn on a show about the American Indians, and they spend all the time talking about how they made pottery, or wove their fabrics, or planted crops. Nobody wants to see that. We want to see how they fought, and hunted buffalo, and hung themselves for hours from hooks through their nipples. These were some of the greatest warriors to ever live. Celebrate them for what they were, not from what we would have liked them to be.

And name the damn shark. How about "Toofie?"

It's a Hell of a Town

Today I had to go into New York for a job meeting. Which turned out to be a complete waste of time, unfortunately, but I got to indulge in some adrenaline-rush city driving. Dodge-taxi keeps all your senses sharp. It was a great day to be in New York, not too cold, sun shining bright, managed to miss the heavy traffic, but there was enough to keep it interesting.

As I came out of the Holland Tunnel, I kind of wandered north (uptown), and east. I drove past this place:

This is the plaque on the left:

Just happened to drive by. Go visit their homepage. Note that not only did these guys lose seven on 9/11, they lost 5 in 1966. Note also the volume of calls they handle.

I had a slice of "famous New York pizza." Big deal. New York's got nothing on Quakertown, PA. Dominick's and Frank's have better pizza than anything in NY. But I digress.

After my wasted meeting, I walked back to the parking garage. As I was crossing a street, a man next to me called out, "Miss! Miss!" He turned around and rushed backwards. A young woman crossing the other way had dropped a letter, this guy made sure she got it back.

So let me compare New York to Philly. If, say, you break down by the side of the road in Philly, no one will stop to help you. In fact, they may throw something (a brick or a bottle, or a snowball if you're dressed like Santa) at you as they drive by, or rob you. In New York, someone'll stop to help you. And they'll abuse you the entire time: "Hey, ya moron, get the heck out of the road. Here, I'll give you a ride. Get in before you get hit. You believe this guy, Frankie?" "No." I lived in Philly for four years, been there many times before and since, and can't remember ever seeing anyone help another person like that letter guy. It's the little things.

New York has a no-cell-phones-while-driving law. Good idea, but what they really need is a no-cell-phones-while-walking law. Every other person was yakking away on one as they walked. I saw one lady stop in the middle of a crosswalk to dial. Unbelievable. Nice place to visit, but...

Comments Fixed

When I flailed through formate editing ("Danger Will Robinson!"), I inadvertently turned off Haloscan commenting. It is now fixed. 2 comments have be re-inserted by me.