Runaway Rubber Duckie

The Runaway Rubber Duckie is on the move again....he really is a world traveler.

...and I thought my life was interesting.

Ernest Goes to Iraq

Flashback...1969

One of my student's blog got me thinking about the television shows we watched as children...and one in particular jumps out. H.R. Pufnstuf was....well...different. If the talking flute was not enough to make you wonder if your breakfast cereal hadn't been spiked, Pufnstuf, the macrocephalic main character was just a bit too peppy.

Ummmm...do you think

"Prosecutors said she was just trying to fit in at a new school but picked the wrong friend."

Got to love that line in this story

The Port Debate

The current controversy concerning the UAE and ports had an interesting addition today when Hugh Hewitt interviewed Coast Guard Rear Admiral Craig Bone the Director of Port Security in the Maritime Safety, Security and Environmental Protection Directorate at U.S. Coast Guard Headquarters, Washington, D.C. A guy who should know whether or not the UAE taking over the six ports in question is real concern or not stated....

"What we have is oversight of all of these operations. The Coast Guard, every single facility, and every single vessel that comes in is required to have a facility security plan in accordance with the Maritime Transportation Security Act. I can tell you that over 3,000 facilities, port facilities have met that requirement and are in compliance, and there's literally thousands of foreign and U.S. flag ships that also are required to have security plans that the Coast Guard ensures are not only in place and complaint, but they're in compliance and they're meeting those requirements."

...First, I had no idea that there was a thing like the Maritime Transportation Security Act of 2002. So I was doubly impressed that we in fact had such a protocol, and also that it was up and running...hmmmm...I wonder why that has not been reported more?

Second, I have not fully made my decision on this issue...but at the moment, due to the lack of worry by those who really should know, I am leaning toward supporting this deal. My reasons are a little more nuanced though.

Kenneth Pollack published an excellent article in the July/August Foreign Policy magazine that discussed an interesting possibility for the eventual pull back that will occur in Iraq.

BACK OVER THE HORIZON
The most conservative approach to Persian Gulf security would be to return to the initial American strategy of offshore balancing. When tried in the 1970s and 1980s, this approach failed because Iran and Iraq were still quite strong and the United States' over-the-horizon posture was not a sufficient deterrent. Today, however, Iran and Iraq are much weaker and are likely to remain so (at least until Iran acquires nuclear weapons). Washington, meanwhile, has repeatedly demonstrated that it will intervene in the Persian Gulf to protect its interests and prevent aggression. So the strategy might work better this time around.

In this approach, the United States would dramatically reduce its military footprint in the region, leaving only the bare minimum of the current arrangements in place. The headquarters of the 5th Fleet would remain in Bahrain (where a U.S. Navy flag has been welcome for 50 years), but fewer American warships would ply the waters of the Gulf. The air force would retain its huge new base at al Udeid in Qatar, again because the Qataris seem pleased to have it there. The army might keep some prepositioned equipment in Kuwait and Qatar and might regularly rotate in battalions to train on it -- if those states were comfortable with such guests. In addition, if a future Iraqi government were amenable, the United States might retain an air base and some ground presence there. Alternately, army bases in the region might be dispensed with altogether, and instead the United States could simply rely on equipment stored on container ships stationed at Diego Garcia, in the Indian Ocean.

I cannot help but think that the UAE would offer a unique location for American pre-positioned equiptment and supplies if the balloon ever went up over Iran, or Iraq needed a new presence in the future. Additionally, I think that in many ways, the UAE having such a responsibility for our ports, will likely be more diligent with safeguarding security, since they, as a nation-state would be the obvious culprit if anything untoward ever occurred through one of these ports, no doubt bringing the full wrath of the U.S. military raining down upon them.

I do think that the current call by Congressmen for a 45-day stall to allow for a full vetting of the company makes plenty of sense though.

Arrests in Toledo

This story has special importance to me, as most of my family lives in the Toledo area. Toledo has one of the largest mosques in North America, as anyone who has driven south out of Toledo can tell you.

An Outrage

There is just no excuse for behavior like this. First, you should never leave the scene of an accident...especially if your friend is still in the car...and second, there is no excuse for killing an Enzo.



...and apparently the Pope would agree....

The Europe Trip

We continue to examine future Europe trips at school, and one of the places that we "plan" to visit next year is Dachau..

A Nice Weekend in San Diego

My wife and I headed to San Diego for the weekend, and had a little time to enjoy one of our favorite cities (we went to college in San Diego during the 80's). We had a very nice lunch at Anthony's on San Diego Harbor, and right next to the Berkeley, where we had our wedding reception.

Saturday, I headed to downtown, and did some walking around Petco Park...I have a thing for ballparks.




Then it was off to the Midway Museum...well worth the effort.






...and then finished the day at PLNU






The rest of the weekend was spent celebrating the 65th Anniversary of some friends....Nice Weekend...Very Nice Weekend.

100th Post....Seems fitting

The loonies are out, imagining a multitude of conspiracy theories involving the VP's...ummmm....really, really, really bad shooting day. The VP today took full responsibility.

This just in...PETA has decided to sue Randy Johnson for this classic...they contend that Mr. Johnson was obviously gunning for the victim, and was probably intoxicated.

Loonies (an affectionate term, I assure you), both left and right, probably should not be allowed to leave their homes without adaquate supervision.

If you missed the interview with the VP on Fox, there was one really amazing...maybe even stunning moment....when Brit Hume asked this question...

"HUME: And you — and I take it, you missed the bird.

CHENEY: I have no idea. I mean, you focused on the bird, but as soon as I fired and saw Harry there, everything else went out of my mind. I don't know whether the bird went down, or didn't."

Nooooo...he did not really ask that, did he?

I can see the headline now...

Cheney Ignores Details in Shooting Incident

Random Thoughts From a Muddled Mind: Meet Slippery Slope

Random Thoughts From a Muddled Mind: Meet Slippery Slope

Way to step up

With favorite Bode Miller disqualified, the chances of an American gold medal seemed remote, but up stepped Todd Ligety.

I am not much a Winter Olympics fan...I really think the Greeks would be confused by the very idea of playing games in the snow....but this is an inspiring story.

Friends do not let friends hunt with Dick Cheney

Story of the day has to be the fact that Vice President Cheney shot his hunting companion. I wonder if he might hear a few jokes from the President at their next meeting.

But until that meeting takes place, let's try a few ourselves...

-If you go hunting with a man who has had 5 heart attacks, do you really expect to be the one in the hospital at the end of the day?

-That will teach him to do his best Al Franken impression while the VP has a shotgun in his hand.

-CNN Headline: VP criticized for not providing body armor to buddies.

Here is the best of the late-night humorists.

Maybe we should keep these guys out of nature...anyone else remember Jimmy Carter's encounter with the rabbit, or GWB's biking difficulties.

GWB and Philosophy

I have been feeling that my my blogs were becoming a bit too pedestrian (definition #3 for those of you building word bank for Ms. Evan's class), so I have decided to do a fairly regular series analyzing our current President and his administration. I have been quite honest with my classes in stating that GWB was not my first choice in 2000, but that I have warmed to them since that time.
So with that in mind, I take on the above topic. A few months back I read Baseball and Philosophy: Thinking Outside the Batter's Box edited by Eric Bronson. This book, which is part of the Popular Culture and Philosophy Series is written in a way that allows the baseball to gain a better understanding of Philosophy as they read about baseball, or the Philosopher to better understand Baseball as he reads about Philosophy.
Last evening, I was reading an article calledThe Freedom Crusade Revisited, by Leslie H. Gelb, Daniel Pipes, Robert W Merry, and Joseph S. Nye, Jr., in The National Interest, when I was struck by this quote from Robert W. Merry (I earlier mistakely attributed this quote to Joseph S. Nye Jr.)...

"And there it was: utopia. The word popped off the page like the smart crack of a whip. We have a president whose view of the world is distinctly utopian. As Hendrickson and Tucker point out, not even Woodrow Wilson was willing to expand his dreamy desires to salve the hurts and wounds of humanity into a hegemonic vision of the kind that drives this president. That's because not even Woodrow Wilson was willing to venture so boldly beyond this side of utopia."

Utopian? I don't know if that is the term that first comes to mind when I think of GWB, but then Mr. Nye continued...

"Where, we might ask, did Bush get this utopian vision? After all, he is a president who embraces the conservative label. And, as Samuel Huntington of Harvard University wrote a half-century ago, "No political philosopher has ever described a conservative utopia." Bush of course is no political philosopher. But neither is he a true conservative. He is simply a product of his time, a child of the zeitgeist that descended upon America at the end of the Cold War."

Okay...is there a cooler word then zeitgeist? .... but I digress. The Western Utopian worldview is usually ascribed to Hegelianism, but can GWB fairly be called Hegelian?
I invite you to seriously consider this topic, and give examples, both positive and negative that support your point of view on this topic. I do ask that we keep any discussion polite, and know that I will delete any comments that use profanity, or which simply provide a litany of Anti-Bush talking points. If you feel that GWB's philosophy is akin to that of Nietzsche, fine, but provide both anecdotal evidence and intellectual reasoning to back up such a claim.

America's Decline

Finally we may have conclusive proof that our culture is in decline...Barry Manilow?....what is next, will we have ancient rock stars entertaining us at our most important sporting event?

I loved this question from his webpage....

"Have you thought about how fabulous a Barry Manilow ringtone might sound on your cell phone?"

Honestly....No, not even once.

(I did send this post to Hugh Hewitt...let's see if he comments on it today...)

Someone is not paying attention

ABC News is reporting on the CIA's attempts to cut down on leaks from the Agency.

"The director of the CIA has launched a major internal probe into media leaks about covert operations. In an agencywide e-mail, Porter Goss blamed "a very small number of people" for leaks about secret CIA operations that, in his words, "do damage to the credibility of the agency."

Seems like maintaining security within the CIA is an important and necessary task for Porter Goss, a man brought in to reform the agency, to undertake.

Of course the problem is that the story is based on.....you guessed it...a leaked memo.

I sometimes think logic is suspended in D.C.

It's the Baby!

New pictures of the Mad Dog....I couldn't resist posting it.

A scare at the Capitol

Tonight at the US capitol authorites reacted to a scare that turned out to be nothing.

Sadly, scares are nothing new at the Capitol, including the 2001 AntraxAttacks, and the 2005 Scare when a plane violated restricted space over DC....which I always find odd, since planes fly right over the Lincoln Memorial on route to Reagan National Airport.

Voices of Reason

The troubles in the Middle East and South Asia continue to brew over the infamous 12 cartoons, but finally, we are hearing major religious leaders speak out against the violence and threats.
The only questions is whether these moderate voices will continue to be drowned out by extremists.
Much of the problem here is that the majority of those currently engaged in these violent actions are the products of extremism. Many, especially in South Asia (Afghanistan and Pakistan), are the completed product of an education in the most radical Madrassas, while the outbreak of violence in the West Bank seems to have been instigated by Hamas and Hezbollah elements.

On a couple of topics

I understand that many do not want a central figure of their religion ridiculed, but when trying to prove that the group you are a part of is not extreme and fanatical, it seems that you should avoid killing, burning, and kidnapping. The issue revolves around a basic tenet of Islam...but there are way too many examples of such a portrayal of Mohammed, including a South Park episode (sorry, I will not link that one), a portrayal of Mohammed on our Supreme Court, and numerous others. Add in the fact that this seems to have been a time-delayed controversy...and you have a formula for many of us scratching our heads at the current situation.

Super Bowl Recap
Good game, bad halftime, several funny commercials...My favorites



Worst commercial?
Burger King with the creepy King.

Super Bowl Sunday

First, I must admit that while I enjoy football, this day really signifies that Baseball season is approaching quickly (Just over 10 days and 3 hours until Pitchers and Catchers arrive at camp).

I used to obsess with football, but that was from about 1976 until about 1980. I was a Cowboy fan...not an Aikman, Emmit, or Irvin fan, but rather a Staubach, Dorsett, Landry fan....which of course means that the real enemy was the hated Pittsburg Steelers, AKA "The Yankees of Pro Football". Most of my disdain was aimed at Terry Bradshaw. I always felt that anyone could make it to the Hall of Fame throwing to John Stallworth and Lynn Swann, and Franco Harris was as good as anyone. If there was one Steeler I admired, it was Rocky Bleir...a true warrior on and off the field.

I am no longer a huge football fan..the Danny White years made sure of that (He was okay, but wasn't Staubach)...and oddly, I will be pulling for the Steelers today...Bettis deserves it, and I enjoy watching Cowher on the sidelines. I also appreciate this clip which supports the idea that Stupidity Should Hurt.

But mostly, I will will be cheering for the approach of the baseball season...when I can watch my team, and see if they can finally finish above .500.

Unemployment Numbers Down Again

The Jobs Report is in, and unemployment is once again down considerably, currently sitting at an amazing 4.7%, the lowest rate since July of 2001. The types of jobs created surprised some

Job gains were fairly broad based, with employment growing in construction, manufacturing, professional and business services and education and health care. Those employment gains blunted job losses in retailing and government.

For all of 2005, the economy created nearly 2 million jobs — close to the the number posted for 2004, according to annual revisions.

As most economist will tell you, anything under 5% is considered to be essentially full employment. Add in the record tax revenues in December, and the rise in labor costs, and it is easy to understand our continued GDP growth.

This article makes an interesting point

Despite good news on some economic matters, Americans still feel anxious about the economy, polls indicate.

...are we paying attention?

Meet Slippery Slope

UPDATE
The Massachusetts Board of Pharmacies has decreed that Walmart will be required to carry the "Emergency Contraception".....you know, I thought maybe I had used a little too much hyperbole when I used the cliche "slippery slope" in the title, but the paragraph...

"Sam Perkins, a lawyer for the three women, praised the board's decision and said he was prepared to sue in other states should Wal-Mart not overturn its policy. Abortion rights groups and women's organizations have also urged Wal-Mart to change its policy."

...is making my original use seem fairly accurate.

Just how much can the government dictate what Americans can do? That issue is centerstage as this lawsuit raises the issue of whether a corporation can be forced to dispense the Morning After Pill. This is, of course, not the first time this issue has been raised, although the last major case involved the objections of individual pharmacists who objected to the drug, and refused to dispense it.
Compare this with the status of conscientious objectors, who have been able to refuse to act in a manner contrary to their moral convictions, ....If we are being consistent, wouldn't a pharmacist, or a corporation have the right to refuse dispensing this drug on the same grounds?