15. February 2005 · Comments Off on CBS Producer Threatens Suit To Get Memogate Retraction · Categories: Media Matters Not

This is a hot one! From RatherBiased.com:

Josh Howard, the executive producer of “60 Minutes Wednesday” during Memogate and the only CBS employee who had the guts to suggest that the network admit to wrongdoing before Memogate became a mess is threatening CBS with a lawsuit if it does not sufficiently retract the original Bush Air Guard story and fully come clean about the role of upper management in the network’s stonewall defense.

In a blockbuster story in tomorrow’s New York Observer, TV reporter Joe Hagan reveals that Howard and two other CBS News executives, Betsy West and Mary Murphy, are refusing to go, insisting that they are being made into scapegoats by an “independent” commission designed to protect the corporate brass from damage.

Howard is threatening to sue the network for wrongful termination and is said to be willing to testify under oath and subpoena secret internal documents and emails from his former employers.

CBS disputes these assertions and claims that Howard’s assertions “have no basis in fact” and that he did not raise sufficient questions about the Sept. 8 report which was narrated by Dan Rather and produced by Mary Mapes.

15. February 2005 · Comments Off on Is FNC Too Fair And Balanced? · Categories: Media Matters Not

ChronWatch’s Cinnimon Stillwell critiques Fox News Channel:

     Fox News Network has become a favorite target of leftists these days, who, in all their impotent rage, like to ascribe various sinister motives to what they see as a staunchly conservative news channel.  An entire documentary, Outfoxed, has been devoted to the idea that Fox News is part of a right-wing cabal to control the country.  The left is particularly fond of mocking Fox’s claim to be “fair and balanced.”  Of course, when you’re dealing with a crowd that considers the New York Times to be conservative, your frame of reference is going to be just a tad bit skewed.  But for those who once had hopes that Fox News would actually fulfill such paranoid fantasies, the channel has been a major disappointment.  Fox is certainly a cut above the competition, but as far as providing a real alternative to the liberal agenda of the mainstream media (MSM), many viewers are still waiting.

     The problem is, Fox News has become just a little too fair and balanced.  Where else can you catch such luminaries of the left as Katrina vanden Heuvel, David Corn, and Eric Alterman on a regular basis?  You hardly see these people on television at all, yet Fox has apparently decided to give the entire staff of The Nation a platform to spew their anti-American invective.  The more moderate Juan Williams, Mara Liasson, and the annoyingly plastic Flavia Colgan are also part of Fox’s liberal stable of commentators.  Indeed, every show has to have a liberal guest or two on the panel, lest Fox be accused (horror of horrors) of being conservative.  But is Fox so busy trying to present “both sides” that they’re neglecting their conservative fan base?  After all, liberals still dominate the MSM and already have more than enough outlets for their talking points.  Rather than providing a true alternative, Fox seems to be following suit.

     In its daily news coverage, Fox News essentially presents the same stories as everyone else.  While news is news, the media literally shapes our view of reality by deciding which events to focus on and what slant to give the coverage.  As such, Fox does little to differentiate itself from the crowd.  Often, they go so far as to give voice to the canards making the rounds of the liberal media.  For instance, in the wake of the tsunami disaster when the UN’s “stingy” comment was being repeated ad nauseum by all the other stations, Fox followed suit, wasting an entire week on what was essentially a non-story.  And they do it all the time.  Instead of simply reacting to the left’s agenda, Fox News should be putting forward its own.

[…]

     Such hosts, when they’re not hawking their wares, are blowing it on interviews with easy targets such as Michael Moore.  Instead of skewering them with facts, their egos only permit them to puff up their chests in indignation.  Meanwhile brilliant minds such as Thomas Sowell and Victor Davis Hanson are nowhere to be found.  Former Reagan speechwriter Peter Robinson’s Uncommon Knowledge is one of the few television shows where viewers can hear such intellectuals engage in stimulating political discussion, and it’s hosted by none other than PBS.  When PBS is ahead of the political curve, it’s time for Fox News to take note.

Personally, I’ve never been that critical of PBS, they give voice to left-wing loons like Bill Moyers. But it was also the place to find Ben Wattenberg and William F. Buckley. As for FNC, if it wasn’t for Brit Hume, Tony Snow, and Neil Cavuto, I likely wouln’t even watch.

15. February 2005 · Comments Off on Upgraded To A New Digital Camera? Think Operation Photo · Categories: General

This is a really good idea to help keep our deployed servicepeople close to their families back home:

The e-mails have been rolling in to Mitch Goldstone for weeks since he launched a program to collect used digital cameras to donate to military families.

Among the most heartbreaking was one from Madeline Letchford. The wife of a deployed Camp Pendelton Marine said she was sad that she’d have to spend her first anniversary – Valentine’s Day – without her husband.

The Marine, was also missing out on “every blink” of their newborn son’s growth, she wrote to Goldstone. Not anymore.

Two weeks ago, Operation Photo handed Letchford a digital camera that she has used to snap nearly 100 photos of 6-month old Jimi smiling, crying and sleeping. She e-mails them to her husband, and posts them on Goldstone’s Irvine-based Web site, a service he offers for free.

“It just means so much to share the silly things that moms and dads get to see,” the Oceanside resident said.

Over the past two months, Goldstone has collected more than 2,500 used digital cameras after asking clients of his 30 Minute Photos shop and online photo-services business to donate digital cameras to military families. Operation Homefront, a Santa Ana nonprofit group that helps military families, is working with Goldstone to distribute the cameras across the country.

Operation Photo

15. February 2005 · Comments Off on Back Problems? Has Your Doctor Suggested BMP? · Categories: Technology

Conventional back fusion surgery is involved, expensive, has a long recovery time, and isn’t sure-fire. This new technique appears to be a massive leap ahead:

BMP Fusion

Dr. Charles Rosen believes there’s a better way. For the last two years, Rosen and about 2,000 other spine surgeons around the country have been using a genetically engineered human protein to encourage the spine to grow its own bone – and leave the poor hip out of it.

In a four-hour surgery, surgeons place bone morphogenic protein, or BMP, in a titanium cage between the vertebrae that need to be fused. BMP acts as a kind of bat signal, calling stemcellsto swarm the site and grow new bone. The body contains its own morphogenic protein in small amounts, but not nearly enough to grow bone at the rate required for surgery, Rosen said.

“It’s the exact protein that the human body produces when it needs to have bone formed,” Rosen said. “It’s synthetic, but it’s exact.”

Since BMP received FDA approval in 2002, 100,000 surgeries have been performed in the United States. That’s a small percentage of the 115,000 spinal-fusion surgeries performed each year, and Medicare doesn’t cover the procedure. But Blue Cross of California and other insurers are recognizing the benefit of the surgery and are starting to pick up the tab, and Rosen expects BMP to become the industry standard.

“We’re getting close to 100 percent fusion success rates, which is unheard of. From my standpoint, it’s incredible,” Rosen said.

15. February 2005 · Comments Off on I Should Be Ashamed Of Myself · Categories: General

Michael Jackson has just been taken to the emergency room. And my first thought was, “wow – perhaps he will die, and save us this circus.”

14. February 2005 · Comments Off on M1911s In Iraq · Categories: Military

Notice that the weapon this Marine is entertaining his new Iraqi friends with is not the much-berated M9, but an updated version of the venerable M1911!

Description of Modifications: “The MEU(SOC) pistol starts out as a stripped government contract M1911A1 frame, as manufactured up until 1945 or so. The frame is inspected, and the feed ramp polished and throated. The entire weapon is dehorned. All internal parts are replaced with current commercial items. King’s Gun Works supplies the beaver-tail grip safety and an ambidextrous thumb safety. This last piece is often thought of as a superfluous device, added on as a derigueur item on hordes of IPSC pistols. Here it has some usefulness. The pistol must fit any operator in the platoon, whether he is right or “wrong” hand dominant. Future rebuild pistols will have a “memory bump” on the grip safety. Currently, many operators are unable to depress the grip safety when having their thumb (properly) on top of the thumb safety. Some, understanding that your priority safety rests between your ears, have taped this useless grip “safety” closed. This is now forbidden, and will continue to present problems until the rebuild pistols are brought on line. Videcki aluminum Match triggers are installed, and tuned to a pull of between 4-5 pounds. Colt Commander hammers replace the standard spur hammer.

Only about 500 of these MEU(SOC) .45s exist, handbuilt by the Rifle Team Equipment (RTE) Shop, MCB Quantico, Virginia. But plenty of shops, like Para-Ordnance and Kimber, are out there, making very fine M1911 derivatives. A weapon like this could enter the general inventory with little more trouble than issuing a purchase order.

By the way, the problems with the M9 are not limited to the military. One of my best friends, a retired cop, tells me PDs across the country have reported similar problems with their 92s (he carried his own Sig-Sauer).

14. February 2005 · Comments Off on Are Bloggers Just A Pack Of Hungry Wolves? · Categories: Media Matters Not

They are, according to this NYTimes article:

But while the bloggers are feeling empowered, some in their ranks are openly questioning where they are headed. One was Jeff Jarvis, the head of the Internet arm of Advance Publications, who publishes a blog at buzzmachine.com. Mr. Jarvis said bloggers should keep their real target in mind. “I wish our goal were not taking off heads but digging up truth,” he cautioned.

At the same time, some in the traditional media are growing alarmed as they watch careers being destroyed by what they see as the growing power of rampant, unedited dialogue.

Steve Lovelady, a former editor at The Philadelphia Inquirer and The Wall Street Journal and now managing editor of CJR Daily, the Web site of The Columbia Journalism Review, has been among the most outspoken.

“The salivating morons who make up the lynch mob prevail,” he lamented online after Mr. Jordan’s resignation. He said that Mr. Jordan cared deeply about the reporters he had sent into battle and was “haunted by the fact that not all of them came back.”

Some on line were simply trying to make sense of what happened. “Have we entered an era where our lives can be destroyed by a pack of wolves hacking at their keyboards with no oversight, no editors, and no accountability?” asked a blogger named Mark Coffey, 36, who says he works as an analyst in Austin, Tex. “Or does it mean that we’ve entered a brave new world where the MSM has become irrelevant,” he asked, using blogger shorthand for mainstream media.

One also gets the impression from the article that most of us are part of the “vast right-wing conspiracy.” They give only a brief, anonymous reference to the Gannon affair. Otherwise, it’s all “conservative” this and “conservative” that.

14. February 2005 · Comments Off on Cool New Nano-Tech · Categories: Technology

This from AZoM.com:

Austin, Texas-based Nano-Proprietary, Inc., through its subsidiary, Applied Nanotech, Inc. (ANI), today announced that it has entered into a research and development agreement with Shimane Institute for Industrial Technology (SIIT) to develop a new aluminum alloy using carbon nanotubes that has thermal conductivity 4-5 times greater than aluminum metal. SIIT is a technology organization fully supported by the government of Shimane Prefecture, Japan.

This agreement is a result of international cooperation between Shimane Prefecture and the State of Texas. This relationship was initiated in January 2004 by the Governor of Texas, Mr. Rick Perry, and the Governor of Shimane Prefecture, Mr. Nobuyoshi Sumita, with the goal of enhancing the cooperation in nanotechnology between Shimane and Texas companies for economic development and job creation in both regions.

Under the terms of the agreement, SIIT will pay ANI $30,000 over a period of 6 months to develop and engineer a process to manufacture thin foils of aluminum alloys having superior thermo-conductivity. Applications include any microelectronic device that generates heat, including circuit boards for computers and high powered radar. These alloys can also improve the strength of the aluminum without adding weight.

Of course, any tech-geek knows, better cooling equals faster computers. I’m wondering when we will see this technology in, say, pistons of Formula One cars.

13. February 2005 · Comments Off on More On “Real Journalists” · Categories: Media Matters Not

Fox News Channel’s Brit Hume on who should have access: “The White House press room was always full of all kinds of oddballs.”

LOL, I guess I could qualify.

13. February 2005 · Comments Off on The Republic Of Texas Shall Rise Again · Categories: Ain't That America?

While they have a reputation as a bunch of nutjobs, this collection of Lone Star dissidents is going mainstream:

OVERTON, Tex. – The road to the capitol winds through a landscape of pine trees, rusting pump jacks and a few tidy churches in this East Texas town. Literature in the lobby describes how citizens can apply for passports or enlist in the interim defense forces.

The building is the headquarters of the Republic of Texas, a sometimes militant organization whose members repudiate the authority of Austin and Washington and believe Texas should be a sovereign nation. The group gained notoriety eight years ago when some members took a couple hostage in the Davis Mountains of West Texas, and endured a weeklong siege by more than 100 police officers, after which a follower who fled into the mountains was killed. The leader of the faction involved in the standoff is still in prison.

But after several years of infighting and the expulsion of renegade splinter cells, the group has resurfaced here in Overton under a new leader, Daniel Miller. Mr. Miller, recently interviewed in Houston, said he wanted to distance the organization from its violent past and from its image as a white-supremacy movement. He said his new platform advocates Texas sovereignty without the use of guns or explosives.

“We are not extremists,” said Mr. Miller, 31, dressed in a tailored suit and cowboy boots. “We simply believe we were illegally occupied by the United States in the 1800’s.”

[…]

Brenda Tompkins, a waitress at Granny’s restaurant, said, “One of them came in here and gave me one of their silver coins with a star on it,” referring to the alternative currency the group has minted. “They’re low-profile mostly.”

The organization re-established itself here in 2003 with the acquisition of the building that would become the capitol, the first time the group has had an official base. Chief Williams said that since then, there have been a number of confrontations with local officials.

He said his officers have fined or issued arrest warrants for group members. Violations included carrying Republic of Texas passports instead of a driver’s license; driving unregistered vehicles; and redesigning license plates to show a Texas that includes significant chunks of territory in New Mexico and narrow strips of land in Oklahoma, Colorado and Wyoming. Group members say those areas are part of Texas, wrongly wrested away by Washington.

Republic of Texas members have responded, the chief said, by marching into the local district attorney’s office and threatening to fire him, and claiming in lengthy letters to county officials that jurisdiction over such matters lies with their own government, which includes a president, Mr. Miller; cabinet secretaries; and militia-style sheriffs, deputies and rangers.

Much of the group’s ideology is associated with nostalgia for the nine years when Texas was an independent country after seceding from Mexico in 1836. The blue Burnet flag from that time, with a large gold star in its center, flies over the capitol.

Group members believe that Texas’s referendum in 1845 in favor of joining the United States was illegal, as were the settlements of land claims that Texas then had against neighboring Mexican and American territories in the West. They also advocate the creation of an alternative monetary system using minted silver and gold coins. One coin made of one gram of silver has a large Texas star in its center and the word “Overton” emblazoned around it.

The organization’s beliefs are spelled out in the book “Texans Arise,” written by Mr. Miller and Lauren Savage, the vice president.

“We believe independence is an achievable goal,” Mr. Miller said in the interview.

Mr. Miller was vague about how to accomplish this, but he said that establishing a parallel government and performing government functions like issuing passports were essential.

“People feel disenfranchised,” he said. “In Overton we’ve found a quiet area to forward our views.”

Mr. Miller acknowledged that the group was still almost entirely Anglo, although he said he was encouraging factions to look for a broader range of members. He also said he was discouraging activities like armed patrols of the Mexican border to limit immigration. And he said his administration, unlike some splinter cells, did not base its political philosophy on Old Testament beliefs, did not oppose women’s suffrage and did not support a return to a legal system permitting slavery.

But some who know the group’s history in Texas are not convinced that the group’s changes are more than superficial.

“It only behooves some extremist groups to attempt to appeal to a broader audience in order to recruit new members,” said Dena Marks, associate director of the Anti-Defamation League’s office in Houston, which tracks the Republic of Texas and other militia-style groups in the state. “The core beliefs of Republic of Texas, which include establishing Texas as a sovereign entity, have not changed.”

Every oppressive regime needs its civil disobedients.

13. February 2005 · Comments Off on Which Party Will Self-Destruct First? · Categories: General

Glenn Reynolds has an extended post on the growing foreign policy rift in the Democratic Party. While it, and the many items he links to, provide a good read, this really isn’t a new issue. This writer, and the folks at The New Republic, have commented on it extensively in the past. The appointment of Howard Dean as DNC Chairman, coupled with Hillary Clinton as the presumptive ’08 Presidential candidate, does not bode well for resolution any time soon.

But also important to note is the growing social policy rift in the Republican Party, as documented in this new book by former New Jersey governor and EPA chief, Christine Todd-Whitman, followed up by her website. Among Whitman’s points:

  1. Whitman argues that this shift poses a serious threat to the long-term health and competitiveness of the Republicans, a party in which moderates like Whitman, Colin Powell, Rudolph Giuliani, John McCain, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and George Pataki are paraded in public when necessary, but openly opposed behind the scenes.
  2. Whitman refers to those on the far right as "social fundamentalists" whose "mission is to advance their narrow ideological agenda" by using the government to impose their views on everyone else. Though she admits that evangelicals may have helped to win the 2004 election, they have claimed much more credit than they deserve for Bush’s success, and she warns that catering to this narrow group will have consequences.
12. February 2005 · Comments Off on Obstructionist Democratic Leadership Focuses On SS Reform · Categories: Politics

This from the Washington Times:

Some House Democrats favor Social Security reform but are afraid of retribution by party leaders, a Republican legislator said.

Rep. Paul D. Ryan, Wisconsin Republican, was asked at a Cato Institute conference in Washington Wednesday whether he had persuaded any Democrats to back his plan to rescue Social Security from its financial troubles, Allan H. Ryskind reports at www.humaneventsonline.com.

Under Mr. Ryan’s legislation, no new taxes would be needed to pay for “transition costs,” participation in the new system would be voluntary and workers would be allowed to divert a portion of their payroll tax into a mutual fund.

A questioner from the audience, stressing his own Democratic credentials, said Mr. Ryan’s plan should attract members of his own party and wondered whether the lawmaker from Wisconsin had secured any Democratic sponsors. Mr. Ryan said he had been working with friends on the “other side of the aisle” who were favorable toward his solution, but he faced an enormous problem: intense pressure on his colleagues from the minority leadership.

“We were in planning stages” with friendly Democrats, Mr. Ryan said. But each essentially told him: “I like what you’re doing. I like this bill. I think it’s the right way to go. But my party leadership will break my back. The retribution that they are promising us is as great as I have ever seen. We can’t do it.”

Mr. Ryan said he thinks the only thing that can assure passage is an outpouring from America’s grass roots.

12. February 2005 · Comments Off on Milton Friedman A “Utopian”? · Categories: General

Robert Formaini critiques Richard Parker’s February 6th Boston Globe article “The Pragmatist and the Utopian” in TCS:

In any case, Friedman was absolutely right to criticize Nixon for wage and price control policy regardless of whether one calls that criticism “far right.” Has Parker ever read (Nixon’s “price czar”) C. Jackson Grayson’s The Confessions of A Price Controller? Doubtful. He’s too busy listing Galbraith’s term as World War II “price czar” approvingly. I once watched — I think it was an episode of Galbraith’s tendentious Age of Uncertainty — him describe the glee he felt when some poor businessmen came to his Washington office begging for a price increase. The look in his eyes as he recounted the story was like something out of an Ayn Rand novel, and I don’t mean a look one would find on any of her hero’s faces. Perhaps Parker saw that episode as well, his head nodding in liberal approval. All I felt was complete disgust. But for Galbraith, and so many others, to have been young then and pro-Keynesian and in Washington, well, dare I say it sounds almost….utopian?

Parker claims that Reagan’s White House fully accepted Friedman’s monetarist positions for the Fed and acted on them. It’s true that, starting in late 1979, the Fed began to target the quantity of money, seeing at that time a double-digit inflation rate, high unemployment, and a prime rate that peaked at over 22%. (This was all due to the Keynesian fine tuning under Ford and Carter, but Parker and Galbraith want to argue, one supposes, that had only Galbraith been doing the tuning…well, everything would somehow have come out better.) In fact, Friedman’s (or Hume’s….or Mill’s….or Fisher’s….) ideas worked exactly as he said they would: cutting the quantity of money did bring the inflation rate down. But this outcome came at a price: a severe recession. So, according to Parker, the Fed and Regan abandoned Friedman and pursued a policy of “turbo-charged” Keynesian-style deficits to get Reagan re-elected in 1984 even after his disastrous — yes, here it comes again, the worst political cliché in modern economic history — “tax cuts for the wealthy.”

It’s really sad to see people still clinging to tired old Keynesian fantasies in this day and age. Far from being “utopian”, free-market economics recognize such human failings as greed and sloth, and make the best of them.

12. February 2005 · Comments Off on Mooney To Face Charges · Categories: Military

This from Stars and Stripes:

The skipper of the nuclear-powered submarine that crashed into the side of an undersea mountain is quietly being sent before an “admiral’s mast” in Japan this weekend to face charges of endangering his ship, according to several active-duty and retired Navy sources familiar with the case.

Cmdr. Kevin Mooney was slated to appear before 7th Fleet commander Vice Adm. Jonathan W. Greenert in Yokosuka on Saturday morning, the sources said.

[…]

Mooney’s mast, however, comes before the detailed investigation into the accident is complete. And unlike most nonjudicial punishment throughout the rest of the military, sailors from sea-going commands cannot refuse mast and demand a court- martial.

At issue, say officials, is whether charts supplied to Mooney provided any clue of dangerous waters. Officials at the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency in Bethesda, told reporters after the accident that the main maps used by the U.S. Navy did not reveal any obstacle anywhere near the sight of the crash.

Officials familiar with case, however, say another, much older chart was believed to be aboard the San Francisco indicating discolored water several miles away.

Early findings of the Navy’s investigation appear to indicate some level of “questionable” practices by Mooney, according to a Feb. 7 letter obtained by Stars and Stripes to Greenert from the commander of Pacific submarine forces Rear Adm. P.F. Sullivan.

I can understand relieving him of command, and making him fly (or is it “sail” in the Navy?) a desk, until the matter is fully settled. But this seems really premature to me.

Update: Mooney has received a Letter of Reprimand:

The commanding officer whose submarine ran into an uncharted underwater mountain south of Guam Jan. 8 has been formally relieved of his command and issued a career-damaging letter of reprimand at an administrative hearing in Yokosuka, Japan.

[…]

Skelton said Greenert concluded that “several critical navigational and voyage planning procedures were not being implemented aboard San Francisco. By not ensuring these standard procedures were followed, Mooney hazarded his vessel.”

[…]

The crew, meanwhile, will remain in limbo on Guam until officials decide the submarine’s fate, Davis said.

11. February 2005 · Comments Off on I Wonder If It Ever Gets Indigestion? · Categories: Science!

I thought I could eat fast. But I don’t hold a candle to the Star-Nosed Mole:


Star-Nosed Mole

The star-nosed mole gives a whole new meaning to the term “fast food.”

A study published this week in the journal Nature reveals that this mysterious mole has moves that can put the best magician to shame: The energetic burrower can detect small prey animals and gulp them down with a speed that is literally too fast for the human eye to follow.

It takes a car driver about 650 milliseconds to hit the brake after seeing the traffic light ahead turn red. The star-nosed mole, operating in the Stygian darkness of its burrow, can detect the presence of a tasty tidbit, such as an insect larva or tiny worm, determine that it is edible and gulp it down in half that time.

“Most predators take times ranging from minutes to seconds to handle their prey,” says Kenneth C. Catania, assistant professor of biological sciences at Vanderbilt, who conducted the study. “The only things I’ve found that come even close are some species of fish,” he says.

Perhaps I could enter one in next year’s Philidelphia Wing Bowl. 🙂

11. February 2005 · Comments Off on Fight Is On Over Hercules And Raptor · Categories: General

This from the Trib:

WASHINGTON — Less than 24 hours after the Bush administration announced its plans to save billions of dollars by scaling back two new Air Force planes, a group of senators on Tuesday launched a campaign to rescind those cuts.

Chief among them was Sen. Johnny Isakson, a Republican from Georgia, where 8,500 workers assemble both planes–the F/A-22 fighter jet and the C-130J Hercules transport–at the Lockheed Martin plant in Marietta.

After attending a Pentagon breakfast with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Isakson said the secretary promised that indeed he already was reconsidering the C-130J cut.

[…]

However one interprets the breakfast, it was no surprise that members of Congress stepped up quickly to take issue with the administration’s proposed $419.3 billion military budget. Nor was it a surprise that the Raptor and the Hercules, two projects whose development costs have skyrocketed, would be on the chopping block.

“The F-22 should go away now,” said Winslow Wheeler, a former Senate Budget Committee staff member and author of a book that examines Congress’ role in authorizing multibillion-dollar military projects.

One would authorize buying 179 Raptors, which have been 19 years in the making and only recently were put into production. That would be 96 fewer than the Air Force was expecting.

At one time, the Air Force planned on a fleet of 750. So far, 45 Raptors have been delivered, according to Lockheed Martin, the primary manufacturer.

The second cut would end production of the C-130J next year. To date, 121 have been delivered and 59 more are on order, according to Lockheed Martin, which also makes that plane.

While I like both these planes, I really have to question the wisdom of continuing procurement. I mean, there’s little doubt that the Raptor is a whole new frontier in air superiority fighters. But the Eagle/Strike Eagle are already the best thing in general deployment, and Raptors cost the world. As for the C-130J: it still doesn’t have the capability of the C-17. And, even with some problems with wing cracks, the existing C-130 fleet still has a lot of life left in it.

11. February 2005 · Comments Off on Army To Investigate Camp Bucca Mud-Wrestling Incident · Categories: Iraq, Military

This from the Kansas City Star:

Lt. Gen. James Helmly, commander of the Army Reserve, ordered the probe after the New York Daily News reported that sergeants at Camp Bucca allegedly lent their rooms to GIs for sex parties and arranged a mud-wrestling bout with scantily clad female military prison guards last year.

The investigation will be conducted under Army Regulation 15-6, the same rules that governed Gen. Antonio Taguba in his probe into the torture of Iraqi detainees at Abu Ghraib prison, said Maj. Michael Stella, an Army Reserve spokesman.

Helmly’s order removes control of the investigation from Col. Isadore Rommes, commander of the 160th Military Police Battalion, whose soldiers allegedly organized and participated in the scandal.

Although the incident occurred Oct. 30, Rommes did not begin a commander’s inquiry until Jan. 9 – about three months after the 160th MP Battalion had returned to its base in Tallahassee, Fla., and its members were back in civilian life.

This does seem to me like another example of a breakdown in command. Personally, I’ve got no problem with soldiers getting a bitwild when off-duty, but not on base, or anywhere in a country like Iraq where such behaivor is likely to cause general offense.

10. February 2005 · Comments Off on 48 More Days · Categories: That's Entertainment!

Coming April 1st

09. February 2005 · Comments Off on Eeeeeek – I Must Be Getting Old! · Categories: General

Am I a step or two behind the times because I was totally unfamiliar with Caesar’s Palace’s Jerk It Out before I heard it on the iPod Shuffle commercial?

09. February 2005 · Comments Off on Well, The East Coast Girls Are Hip, I Really Dig Those Styles They Wear. · Categories: That's Entertainment!

I have just watched episode 106 of Bravo’s Queer Eye for the Straight Girl. And I must say, even though the Gal Pals don’t have nearly the charisma of the Fab 5, this show has definite hit potential. But there’s one problem: Hey Robbie, get a clue, dude. Here in SoCal, we like our girls dressed down – no 3″ heels, no plunging necklines (unless they are part of a back-tied surf-top). Stop trying to make our girls look like they come from New York.

Update: Gawd, I’m watching this, and it’s like having teeth pulled. I’m watching this SoCal surf-chick entertaining in what looks like a house-dress. And now she’s out on the beach in a gold-lamet evening gown. belch.

09. February 2005 · Comments Off on E Freaking GAD! · Categories: That's Entertainment!

On Bravo’s Project Runway tonight, Jay has just picked Julia, the model that left him in a lurch last week, again.

The design challenge is a dress for the red carpet at the Grammy Awards. In an analysis before the show, contestant Wendy about has it right: it’s between her and Jay to be eliminated; Kara and Austin are a lock.

More later.

Update: Banana Republic has really fucked off an opportunity, by not moving the story line of their commercial series ahead each week (they’re still on “chapter eight”). They could have had something in the same pantheon as the famed Taster’s Choice commercials.

Update 2: WTF is Robert still doing around? He was eliminated last week!

Update 3: I already know Kara Saun will win tonight.

Update 4: This challenge is a dress for the Grammy Awards, so Austin’s flamboyance may carry the day. But my money’s still on Kara.

Update 5: Wendy’s dress SUCKS. If it weren’t for that it’s on Melissa, I’d barf.. Eek, Jay’s sucks too!

Update 6: EVERYBODY has been raked over the coals by the judges. But, if Kara Saun had done her’s as a dress, rather than a pantsuit, she’d have been a lock. My money’s still on her.

Update 6: Michael Kors about Austin – “We can’t seem to get him out of the box.” Well, he’s CERTAINLY out of the closet. 🙂

Update 7: OMFG, Wendy won! Austin’s out! I have to go lie down.

Update 8: OMDFG, what a consolation prize! Austin just got a commission from judge Nancy O’Dell (of Access Hollywood), for whom they were designing tonight’s dress, to design her gown for the Oscars! Jeezus – fuck Olympus Fashion Week – a thing for the In Crowd. The Oscars are the Grand Prix of popular Haute Couture.

09. February 2005 · Comments Off on What, You Never Saw Cabaret? · Categories: World

We all know German society breeds this sort of thing:

Zoo Uses Aversion Therapy ‘To Cure’ Gay Penguins
by 365Gay.com Newscenter Staff

Posted: February 8, 2005 5:01 pm. ET

(Bremen, Germany) A German zoo is trying “to cure” three gay penguin couples using a form of aversion therapy. The Bremerhaven Zoo is splitting up the couples, and has imported four female penguins from Sweden which it will use to try to “turn” the penguins “straight”.

The three gay couples are part of the zoo’s 10 penguin exhibit. The others are apparently straight and coupled. But, for more than a year zookeepers were mystified why the three couples didn’t have any offspring.

They did the usual courting dances, built nests together, appeared to have sex, and still no little penguins. Finally they did a DNA test to see if there was something genetically wrong. That is when they discovered the three couples were all male.

Zoo director Heike Kueck said each of the males will be given special secluded separate quarters and a female will be introduced. They will rotate the females to see which pairings “click”.

Do you think they were all “just born that way?” 🙂

Update: I’m still chuckling thinking of Joel Gray’s voice coming out of the mouth of a penguin: “life is beautiful … the women are beautiful … and the men are beautiful…”

09. February 2005 · Comments Off on Executive Headhunters In A Feeding Frenzy · Categories: General

The hottest topic today, for the business world’s chattering classes, is the resignation of HP‘s Carly Fiorina. Chief among the subtopics is the matter of, “who will replace her?” And the headhunters are working overtime:

According to a recent survey conducted by Executive Development Associates (EDA), a San Francisco-based executive development firm, General Electric (nyse: GE – news – people ) ranks as the best company for developing talent and is one of the more frequently poached companies for that reason.

IBM (nyse: IBM – news – people ) came in at number three in the survey. Indeed, many senior executives at IBM have left to pursue CEO careers elsewhere. In the past several years John Swainson left for Computer Associates (nyse: CA – news – people ), Mike Lawrie left for Siebel Systems (nasdaq: SEBL – news – people ), James Vanderslice left for the vice chairman job at Dell and John Thompson left for Symantec (nasdaq: SYMC – news – people ).

Other companies that rank high in executive development, where HP could look to fill its vacancy, include Dell (nasdaq: DELL – news – people ), which just lost vice president Robert Davis to the CFO job at CA, Johnson & Johnson (nyse: JNJ – news – people ), Weyerhaeuser (nyse: WY – news – people ), Procter and Gamble (nyse: PG – news – people ), PepsiCo (nyse: PEP – news – people ), UBS (nyse: UBS – news – people ) and Cisco Systems (nasdaq: CSCO – news – people ).

I find it interesting that I don’t see 3M mentioned. But it should be of interest to everyone that HP doesn’t seem to be considering a promotion from within at all. [incorrect, see comments] This is likely because they so missteped with Carly. She was quite the phenom earlier in her career, but became another example of the Peter Principle as CEO.

08. February 2005 · Comments Off on Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite · Categories: European Disunion

I have just watched Condi’s first foreign policy address in Paris. And I was amazed at the rousing applause she received. Could this be a new beginning to Franco-American relations?

07. February 2005 · Comments Off on Monster Garage Not What It Used To Be · Categories: That's Entertainment!

I’m currently watching the Discovery Channel’s Monster Garage episode, Ultimate Surfmobile. And it is a total disappointment. For one, where is the “monster” element here? For SoCal, this is a run-of-the-mill hot rod. Further, where is the challenge? For this crew, this is a total kit-car build.

Of course, I have some other objections: Like, why, if the wanted the “ultimate woody,” did they not start with a Chrysler? And why didn’t they do it right, and drop the body on a contemporary Tundra, Titan, or F-150 chassis? But that’s esoteric car-guy stuff.

But I think everyone can agree that the production staff at Monster Garage is out of ideas.

Update: They just called it “the world’s only lifted, FWD, surf-woodie.” WRONG. In my life, I’ve seen at least a half-dozen.

07. February 2005 · Comments Off on General Mattis, I’m With You · Categories: Military

I’m watching FNC’s Hannity and Colmes just now. And I’m about to watch a segment about Marine Lt. Gen. Mattis comments last week about “taking pleasure” in killing Islamofascists. I was quite taken aback by Alan Colmes’ comment at the start of the show, to the effect “can you believe some people are actually supporting Gen. Mattis?”

Well, I can believe it, because I do. We need our Dogs of War. We need to maintain their leash; that is the whole idea behind civilian control of the military. But we need to know that, once unleashed, they will not equivocate when it comes to destroying our enemy. I believe we can have absolute faith in Gen. Mattis.

07. February 2005 · Comments Off on Superficial Diversity At Universities · Categories: General

Stephen Bainbridge comments on facilty diversity at UCLA:

I just received a 206 page book from the UCLA Associate Vice Chancellor for Faculty Diversity (I had no idea we even had such a person), which provides a department by department breakdown of racial, ethnic, and gender diversity. The breakdown includes not only raw data, but also an estimate of “underutilization,” which is defined as the “difference between actual number of faculty [in a particular department] of a particular group [i.e. race or gender] and the expected number of faculty based on the availability estimate [i.e., the estimated number of potential faculty hires of that race or gender in that field nationally].”

The data are also available on line.

I’m not sure what I’m supposed to do with this book, since Prop 209 presumably bars me from making use of such data in voting on hiring decisions. In any case, I note that there is no data on forms of diversity other than race and gender, such as intellectual or political diversity. No surprise there. My guess is that the highest underutilization number would be for pro-life female Republicans of all ethnicities.

TPTB at California’s universities have been livid over Prop. 209, and have been doing everything in their power to circumvent it. I’m sure faculities in Ohio are equally chagrined over this legislation:

(G) Faculty and instructors shall be hired, fired, promoted, and granted tenure on the basis of their competence and appropriate knowledge in their field of expertise and shall not be hired, fired, promoted, granted tenure, or denied promotion or tenure on the basis of their political, ideological, or religious beliefs.

Hat Tip: InstaPundit