Pot Calls Kettle "Black", Gets it Wrong

I understand that this is a little late as news items go, but in an example of mind-boggling arrogance and stupidity Jimmy Carter recently pronounced President Bush's administration as "the worst in history". You have probably already seen or heard this discussed in the media.

I enjoyed reading a column discussing Mr. Carter's self serving comments by the moderately conservative Christopher Hitchens at the reliably liberal Slate magazine.

Peanut Envy

"Worst in history," as the great statesman from Georgia has to know, has been the title for which he has himself been actively contending since 1976. I once had quite an argument with the late Sen. Eugene McCarthy, who maintained adamantly that it had been right for him to vote for Ronald Reagan in 1980 for no other reason. "Mr. Carter," he said, "quite simply abdicated the whole responsibility of the presidency while in office. He left the nation at the mercy of its enemies at home and abroad. He was the worst president we ever had."

And Eugene McCarthy could never be classified as anything like a conservative.

Here's more;

In the Carter years, the United States was an international laughingstock. This was not just because of the prevalence of his ghastly kin: the beer-sodden brother Billy, doing deals with Libyan President Muammar Qaddafi, and the grisly matriarch, Miz Lillian. It was not just because of the president's dire lectures on morality and salvation and his weird encounters with lethal rabbits and UFOs. It was not just because of the risible White House "Bible study" sessions run by Bert Lance and his other open-palmed Elmer Gantry pals from Georgia. It was because, whether in Afghanistan, Iran, or Iraq—still the source of so many of our woes—the Carter administration could not tell a friend from an enemy. His combination of naivete and cynicism—from open-mouthed shock at Leonid Brezhnev's occupation of Afghanistan to underhanded support for Saddam in his unsleeping campaign of megalomania—had terrible consequences that are with us still. It's hardly an exaggeration to say that every administration since has had to deal with the chaotic legacy of Carter's mind-boggling cowardice and incompetence.

Amity Shlaes at Bloomberg has a few things to say as well;

Carter Takes the Prize Among the Worst Presidents

But it is in the area where Carter assails Bush -- foreign policy -- in which he took the missteps that turned out to be of greatest consequence. By negotiating the soft Strategic Arms Limitations Treaty (SALT) with Moscow, he suggested to the Soviet Union that his administration wasn't serious about protecting American interests. This emboldened Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev to send troops into Afghanistan in 1979. The later Soviet withdrawal led to the chaos that allowed Afghanistan to become a sanctuary for al-Qaeda.

Hostage Crisis

Then came a new kind of crisis. Heretofore, Arab nationalism had dominated unrest in the Middle East. Now Islamic fundamentalists stormed the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, taking 66 Americans hostage. Instead of seeing the attack as an assault on U.S. interests, Carter treated the terrorists as if they were college sophomores staging a sit-in at Columbia's Low Library. His approach involved group-prayer sessions at home and endless negotiations, telling the press that "we are using every channel." This virtually ensured the year-and-a-half-long siege that the hostages endured.

Carter did veer from his passivity to make a half-hearted rescue effort, a catastrophic mission. But shocked by the photos of malfunctioning helicopters, Carter retreated. His handling of the embassy crisis sent a message that the U.S. prefers sanctimony to fighting back against violent fundamentalist Islam. That picture of wishy-washy America is still costing lives today.

As always, read them all.

My Absence

As both of you, my dear readers, have noticed, I have been away for a bit. My employer, Puget Sound Naval Shipyard (PSNS), has assigned me to work on the USS Ronald Reagan at North Island NAS in Coronado California. I will be here for a few months and then return home in late summer/early fall.

The disruption to my normal routine cause me to suspend blogging for a time, but now I shall start again.

Thank you for your patience.

The Easter Sermon of St. John Chrysostom

This sermon is read every year at the end of the services that we celebrate for Holy Pascha. Read this beautiful sermon out loud. It is wonderful.

The Easter Sermon of John Chrysostom

If any be pious and a lover of God,
let him rejoice in this fair and radiant festival.
If any be a faithful servant
let him enter into the joy of his Lord.
If any be weary with fasting,
let him now enjoy his payment.

If anyone has labored from the first hour,
let him receive today his just reward.
If anyone has come after the third hour,
let him now be thankful that the feast is at hand,
If anyone has waited until after the sixth hour,
let him not be anxious, no loss shall be his own.
If anyone has tarried until the ninth hour,
let him draw near also, shedding all his doubts.
If anyone has come only at the eleventh hour,
let him not be fearful because of his delay.

For the Master is bountiful
and receives the last even as the first.
He gives repose to him who came at the eleventh hour
just as to one who labored from the first.
The tardy are shown mercy
and the timely are made whole.
To the one he gives,
on the other he bestows.
He honors the deed and praises the intention.

Let all therefore enter into the joy of our Lord,
(let both the first and those who came later receive their wages)
Let rich and poor dance with one another.
You sober and you heedless celebrate the day.
You who have fasted and you who have not
rejoice in this occasion.

The table is full-laden
let all enjoy the feast.
The calf is fatted,
let no one go forth hungry.
Let all partake of the banquet of faith,
let all partake of the riches of goodness.

Let none mourn his poverty,
for the kingdom stands before us.
Let none lament his failings,
forgiveness has risen from the tomb.
Let none fear death,
for the death of the Savior has set us free.

He quenched death when it had tasted his flesh.
He despoiled Hades when he descended thereto
Foreseeing this, Isaiah cried:
'Hell was embittered when it met you face to face.'

It was embittered for it was made void,
It was embittered for it was mocked,
It was embittered for it was slain,
It was embittered for it was despoiled.
It was embittered for it was led off in chains.

It received a body and encountered God,
It received earth and came face to face with heaven.
It received what it saw and fell where it could not see.

Death where is thy sting,
Hades where is thy victory?

Christ is risen and you are cast down,
Christ is risen and the demons are fallen,
Christ is risen and the angels rejoice,
Christ is risen and life is made free.
Christ is risen and there is none dead in the tomb.

For Christ is risen from the dead as the first fruits of those that
fell asleep.

To him be glory and power forever and ever, Amen.


Translated by Frank Dobbs

God bless all of you.

The Mysterious Commonality in Terrorism

The MSM has been baffled, wondering if there is a common thread in the many acts of terror that have been occurring in the past several years (or decades).

Here is a discussion of the problem;

Iranian Government Failed

In my previous post I quoted Walid Phares who argued that the Iranian government was playing for time in holding the British hostages. Even though they released the hostages sooner than expected he may have been right. How can this be? It could be that they were not going to get what they wanted and they were increasing their isolation as a result of the kidnapping.

The great VDH explains (as he does so very well).

Please Bomb Me!

What should we make of the Iranians' behavior?

Namely that the country's leadership is in deep political trouble. The Iranian government is desperate to provoke the West to win back friends in the Islamic world, and to quell growing unrest at home. Subsidizing food and gas, providing billions for terrorists and building nukes all cost money at a time when the state-run Iranian economy is in shambles.

Because of incompetence in their oil industry, the Iranian mullahs have achieved the impossible: Despite having among the world's largest petroleum reserves, their production is shrinking and they have managed to earn increasingly less petrodollars even as the world price has soared.

While the Iranian theocrats understand that the entire world, including many of their own citizens, is turning against them, they also know that this could change if a Western nation would just attack them. Their strategy seems to be to find a way to provoke someone to drop a few bombs on them, on the naive assumption that such an assault would be of limited duration and damage. Such an attack, they may figure, would earn them sympathy in much of the world.

As always, read the whole thing for background and supporting information.

Iran's Big Plan

Walid Phares explains the Mullah's plan with respect to the British hostages that they continue to hold.

The Mullahs' Next Steps

Since Day One of the planned operation to snatch British sailors from Iraqi waters, the Pasdaran (Revolutionary Guards) "War Kitchen" in Tehran had already drawn multiple recipes for the following weeks and potentially months to come. Indeed the regime, reacting to rising pressures from sectors of its own population and from the American-British-led coalition, engineered an "escalating" incident. The main scenario, as projected inside the minds of the Iranian "Jihadi-cooks," is based on one request from the Khamenei-Ahmadinejad regime: waste time, as much time as possible. To the mullahs and their men in power, it is crucial to win the race between rising internal pressure inspired by the political changes in the region and pressure against the Iranian-led "axis" in the region, directed at the U.S. and the U.K. initiatives in Iraq. In short, Tehran's regime wants to crumble its enemies before they crumble it.

"Catching" a British Navy unit off the shores of Iraq -- regardless of the GPS positioning of the unit -- is the opening play. In ten days, Tehran has already scored one success: The UN is discussing what to do about the 15 British sailors instead of how to shut down the 15 nuclear centers in Iran. The debate has been deflected and is now in the hands of the Iranian cooks. The opening play is followed by the dramatization of the "incident." First, the regime begins showing the captives and swings media attention between details ("were they in Iranian waters?") and outcomes ("will they be tried?") of the phony case. Another psychological victory is scored: The international press follows the Iranian maestro's gesticulations. As usual with the Western mainstream media, the story's details become the devil, and their readers are denied the big picture. Here is how the mullahs' "psych-war" develops and could evolve in different directions.

Read the whole thing to see how this is playing out. Once explained, the shape of it is clear. A sample;

What is also to be expected is the circulation in the media of stories about an "internal struggle" between the good guys and the bad guys in Tehran. Media reports are already talking about two poles inside the military security apparatus, giving some hope to the Western voices calling for calm and diplomacy.

On April 1, the Sunday Times reported that "Major-General Yahya Rahim Safavi is said to have told the country's Supreme National Security Council on Friday that the situation was 'getting out of control' and urged its members to consider the immediate release of the prisoners to defuse tension in the Gulf." Expectedly, the article's headline was "Power struggle in Iran over hostages." The Times adds, "However, Safavi's intervention was reportedly denounced by another senior general at a meeting of high-ranking commanders yesterday. Yadollah Javani, the head of the Revolutionary Guards' political bureau, was said to have accused him of weakness and 'liberal tendencies'."

How interesting to see that this "internal information" was obtained only now by Western (and some Arab) media from "well informed sources." Until this incident, few in the Western press have uttered the names of these Iranian generals. But now, they have become the Good Cop and the Bad Cop of Tehran. And on top of it, it works, because the logical western reaction would be then to wait for the "good guy" to prevail. That is precisely what the astute propaganda machine out of Tehran wants: Time.

There is a lot more, read it all.

Ban DiHydrogen Monoxide!

Penn and Teller are at it again.

Don't think about what you are protesting, just protest!

Tech Support

As it was in the Middle Ages. I found this at a geezer's corner.

The Great VDH Nails It

There is a lot of noise about the political and military relationships between countries of the Democratic West and countries in the rest of the world. Liberals in Europe and the U.S. like to talk about "soft power" as a replacement for military strength. They like using diplomacy and sanctions (well... sanctions for a little while until they start to work) and taking the use of military force off of the table. Indeed, the liberals in Congress want to enact in law the removal of even the possibility of using force against Iran at any time in the future. Of course, such approaches mean that countries using them can be ignored (but we are not supposed to say that out loud).

It also means that the UN, NATO, and the EU are now powerless.

Victor Davis Hanson quite brilliantly makes it all clear.

In Houses of Straw-The EU’s delusions about the sufficiency of “soft” power are embarrassingly revealed. he concludes;

What does the future hold if Europe does not rearm and make it clear that attacks on Europeans and threats to the current globalized order have repercussions?

If Europeans recoil from a few Taliban hoodlums or Iranian jihadists, new mega-powers like nuclear India and China will simply ignore European protestations as the ankle-biting of tired moralists. Indeed, they do so already.

Why put European ships or planes outside of European territorial waters when that will only guarantee a crisis in which Europeans are kidnapped and held as hostages or used as bargaining chips to force political concessions?

Europe is just one major terrorist operation away from a disgrace that will not merely discredit the EU, but will do so to such a degree as to endanger its citizenry and interests worldwide and their very safety at home. Islamists must assume that an attack on a European icon — Big Ben, the Vatican, or the Eiffel Tower — could be pulled off with relative impunity and ipso facto shatter European confidence and influence. Each day that the Iranians renege on their promises to release the hostages, and then proceed to parade their captives, earning another “unacceptable” from embarrassed British officials, a little bit more of the prestige of the United Kingdom is chipped away.

In the future, smaller nations in dangerous neighborhoods must accept that in their crises ahead, their only salvation, even after the acrimonious Democratic furor over Iraq, is help from the United States.

America alone can guarantee the safety of the noble Kurds, should Turkey or Iran choose one day to invade. America alone will be willing or able to supply Israel with necessary help and weapons to ensure its survival.

Other small nations — a Greece, for example — with long records of vehement anti-Americanism should take note that the choice facing them in their rough neighborhoods is essentially solidarity with the United States or the embrace of Jimmy Carter diplomacy or Stanley Baldwin appeasement.

Quite simply, there is now no NATO, no EU, no U.N. that can or will do anything in anyone’s hour of need.

Go read the whole thing for the supporting arguments. They are devastatingly conclusive.

USS Sailfish (SSR-572)

As both of my regular readers know, I love my job at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard. One of the things that I love most about it is the opportunity to look at history moored at the piers and moorings all around me. One cannot walk 50 yards in the Shipyard without seeing an important historical artifact.

I noted long ago, While still on active duty in the Navy, an old diesel submarine moored with the inactive ships. I got tired of being curious the other day and walked into the offices of Naval Sea Systems Command Inactive Ships On-site Maintenance Office (NISMO) and asked them. They have a map of all of the inactive ships moored at the facility. It turns out that the submarine in question is the ex-Sailfish.

She is the last American diesel submarine not sunk or used in a memorial. The guys at NISMO tell me that there has been some interest in taking her and using her as a museum or other kind of memorial, but sadly no one has been able to come up with the required money. She will likely be towed out into the ocean and sunk.

In the photograph above she is shown moored outboard ex-Midway. The Midway is now the San Diego Aircraft Carrier Museum. The Sailfish is now moored outboard ex-Constellation.

The photograph below shows USS Sailfish before she underwent conversion and received the PUFFS Sonar Ranging System (which is visible above).

What an amazing boat this was!

USS Sailfish (SSR-572).

See also;

USS Sailfish (SS572) Homepage

USS Sailfish (SSR-572) (SS-572) Photo Archive

North Korea Nuke Test Result = Failure

The atom bomb test executed by North Korea last October has been judged a failure. Some fission occurred, but the explosion was not what it should have been. It was large none the less. The fault is probably due to a faulty design aquired from Pakistan.

North Korean Fizzle Bomb

March 30, 2007: The U.S. CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) has concluded that last Octobers nuclear weapons test in North Korea was a failure. This came after analysis of air samples, seismic (using earthquake detectors) and spy satellite data. There was a nuclear explosion, of about one kiloton, but it was the result of a improperly constructed nuclear weapon. Sort of a very low grade nuclear weapon that vaporized, rather than detonated, most of its nuclear material. This sort of explosion is called a "fizzle" and was last seen in 1998, when a Pakistani nuclear weapons test produced a very similar result. What's interesting about this is that a group of Pakistani nuclear scientists (the Kahn group) were secretly peddling nuclear weapons technology during the 1990s. This was done for private gain, and one of the Khan groups customers was North Korea. So it may be that the North Koreans used a Pakistani weapons design that was not quite there yet.

Don't worry, the North Koreans will figure it out and get their bomb and no one will do anything to stop them.

Taste and See that the Lord is Good

Some sights and sounds of the Holy Orthodox Church

USS John F. Kennedy Enters Into History

It was with a little surprise that I discovered that USS John F. Kennedy (CV-67) was decommissioned on Friday, March 23rd.

"Big John" Decommissioned After 38 Years of Service

For more about "Big John";

USS John F. Kennedy (CV-67)

NavSource Online: Aircraft Carrier Photo Archive

John F. Kennedy Strike Group

North Korea Increases Punishments

One may think that the title of this post is an impossibility, but when dealing with the sort of inhuman monsters as those that rule North Korea, it is not. In 2000 the North Korean government decreed that it would be lenient towards anyone who illegally left that country. Of course that means everyone because there are no legal ways to leave North Korea once one is imprisoned there. In late 2004 that decree was apparently rescinded.

North Korea's Cruelty

In an ominous reversal, North Korea has apparently scrapped its 2000 decree that it would be lenient toward citizens who "illegally" crossed the border -- in effect, almost everyone leaving the country -- to China to find food or earn money to feed their families. According to recent border-crossers interviewed by Human Rights Watch, Pyongyang has implemented harsher punishments for those repatriated.

The North Koreans interviewed recounted the chilling language officials use to describe the policies the North reinstated perhaps as long ago as late 2004: Those crossing the border without state permission "won't be forgiven," no matter why they went to China or what they did there, including first-time "offenders."

The hardening policy shows how Pyongyang is violating the obligations it undertook when it signed major human rights conventions in the 1990s.

North Korea is denying its citizens their fundamental rights by preventing them from freely leaving the country; arresting those who make such an attempt; and arbitrarily detaining, mistreating, torturing and sometimes even executing border-crossers who are repatriated. China, too, regularly flouts its obligations under the 1951 U.N. Refugee Convention by labeling all North Koreans "illegal economic migrants" and sending them back.

Many of these North Koreans crossed the border because the state failed them. North Korea claims to have a socialist system under which all citizens receive free food, education, medical care and housing. But the reality is that only the country's elite enjoy such privileges. The rest of the population is left to fend for itself. Undertaking the dangerous and difficult journey to China is a form of self-defense. The North Korean government fails to feed its people but then persecutes them for trying to survive.

For the crime of wishing to eat, an inmate a citizen of North Korea faces horrific punishment that often results in death. Go read the whole piece to learn some individual stories like this one

A 42-year-old woman from Haeju said she was deported from China in December 2003 and served 18 months in a North Korean labor camp. "Every day, I saw someone dying. We were given a fistful of powdered corn stalk, three times a day, and people had trouble digesting it. Many people died after having diarrhea for a week," she said. "They left patients in the hallway outside toilets. So many people died, they wrapped bodies in plastic sheets and buried them in a mountain."

Kim Jong-il's death, when it comes, cannot possibly be painful enough.

Killing Terrorists

Here is a video of the crew of an AC130 Gunship attacking Taliban terrorists who are using a mosque in Afghanistan to build bombs. Note the large secondary explosions.

Bikini Atoll Test - Survival Town - and Operation Teapot

Here is a newsreel of three early atom bomb tests.

Bikini Atoll, Survival Town, and Operation Teapot.

Tour of Ex-Triton SS(R)N 586

Since I first began working in Puget Sound Naval Shipyard as a Test Engineer for the Electric Boat Corporation (and now as I work for the Shipyard) I have been interested in getting onboard ex-Triton SS(R)N 586 to look at that great ship. She is of unique design, having twin propulsion plants and a nuclear reactor for each. She was designed as a radar picket ship and, when that function became obsolete, served as an SSN. Her maiden voyage was a submerged circumnavigation, a feat never before accomplished.

I finally had the opportunity and spent two hours inspecting all areas of the ship. There is a rumor that the reason that she has been moored for so long before recycling because she is hot (lots of radioactivity). That rumor is not true. I was able to walk through the entire ship including both reactor compartments. I stood on top of both reactor containment canisters and had my hands on both steam generators. And no, I was not wearing a TLD.

During my tour I noted that parts of the ship look as if the crew just parked her at the pier and walked away. Of course, that is not true for the entire ship, but I noted the occasional "new" part left in an open box in a work area as if it were about to be used. There are Danger tags still hanging here and there dated on various days in January of 1969. A couple of racks till had pillows on them. The teak decking in the bridge is still intact. There are even two seats for lookouts up there with teak on them. Wow. After 22 years in submarines, it was still one of the most interesting two hours of my life.

She is scheduled for a 15 year hull inspection in October and will probably be recycled then. Sad indeed, she was a beautiful ship.

USS Triton

An article on the history of the U.S. Navy's Submarine Radar Picket program, Radar Picket program SSR AND SSRN

Some excellent photographs and historical information is available at these sites.

USS TRITON SS(R)N 586 Home Page

NavSource Online: Submarine Photo Archive

USS Triton (SSN 586)

Tommy

I was reading a little Rudyard Kipling and rediscovered a favorite poem of mine. Although it was written many years ago in England, it still applies to us in the United States today.

Tommy

I went into a public-'ouse to get a pint o' beer,
The publican 'e up an' sez, "We serve no red-coats here."
The girls be'ind the bar they laughed an' giggled fit to die,
I outs into the street again an' to myself sez I:
O it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Tommy, go away";
But it's "Thank you, Mister Atkins", when the band begins to play,
The band begins to play, my boys, the band begins to play,
O it's "Thank you, Mister Atkins", when the band begins to play.

I went into a theatre as sober as could be,
They gave a drunk civilian room, but 'adn't none for me;
They sent me to the gallery or round the music-'alls,
But when it comes to fightin', Lord! they'll shove me in the stalls!
For it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Tommy, wait outside";
But it's "Special train for Atkins" when the trooper's on the tide,
The troopship's on the tide, my boys, the troopship's on the tide,
O it's "Special train for Atkins" when the trooper's on the tide.

Yes, makin' mock o' uniforms that guard you while you sleep
Is cheaper than them uniforms, an' they're starvation cheap;
An' hustlin' drunken soldiers when they're goin' large a bit
Is five times better business than paradin' in full kit.
Then it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Tommy, 'ow's yer soul?"
But it's "Thin red line of 'eroes" when the drums begin to roll,
The drums begin to roll, my boys, the drums begin to roll,
O it's "Thin red line of 'eroes" when the drums begin to roll.

We aren't no thin red 'eroes, nor we aren't no blackguards too,
But single men in barricks, most remarkable like you;
An' if sometimes our conduck isn't all your fancy paints,
Why, single men in barricks don't grow into plaster saints;
While it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Tommy, fall be'ind",
But it's "Please to walk in front, sir", when there's trouble in the wind,
There's trouble in the wind, my boys, there's trouble in the wind,
O it's "Please to walk in front, sir", when there's trouble in the wind.

You talk o' better food for us, an' schools, an' fires, an' all:
We'll wait for extry rations if you treat us rational.
Don't mess about the cook-room slops, but prove it to our face
The Widow's Uniform is not the soldier-man's disgrace.
For it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Chuck him out, the brute!"
But it's "Saviour of 'is country" when the guns begin to shoot;
An' it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' anything you please;
An' Tommy ain't a bloomin' fool -- you bet that Tommy sees!

Rudy Giuliani On the Non-Binding Resolution

I was just knocking around YouTube looking for something interesting and found the Politicians page. I decided to check out Rudy Giuliani's channel and found him talking about the Non-Binding Resolution recently passed by the House of Representatives. I think that, although he did not specifically criticize anyone, he points out something distressing about the new Democratic Party leadership.

BTW: I am not ready to endorse any candidate yet.



He has also said that he will appoint Supreme Court Justices in the mold of Scalia, Alito, and Roberts. That is very good.

South Korea to Go It Alone

I have already made my feelings clear about whether or not we should continue to maintain American forces at the DMZ in South Korea here and here. It now looks as if we may finally leave South Korea to her fate.

This is a clear case of leftist moonbats in South Korea finally getting something that they want, and it is also clear that conservatives and non-partisan military professionals think that this is very dangerous. They are correct.

A Needless Gamble With Our Nation’s Fate

The defense chiefs of South Korea and the United States have agreed to dismantle the Combined Forces Command (CFC) on April 17, 2012. On that day, wartime operational control will be handed over to South Korea. The world’s fastest, most-efficient and powerful system of war deterrent will disappear, while the fate of the Korean Peninsula will be put to the test for no reason. Last year, when the leaders of the two countries agreed in principle to dismantle the CFC, former defense minister Chun Yong-taek said, “The president has finally made a big mistake.” What else is one to call it now?

Former defense ministers, officers, generals, foreign ministers, heads of police and other officials implored the government to stop the move, pointing out the bad timing of the dismantling of the CFC, saying, “not now when North Korea has conducted a nuclear test.” But this administration simply ignored such calls. The first defense minister, foreign minister, ambassador to the United States and national security advisor of this administration all voiced their beliefs that the CFC should not be dismantled, but to no use. The defense committee of the National Assembly passed a resolution opposing the move, but the presidential office pushed through with the move anyway. Two out of three Koreans (66 percent of all respondents in a Gallup survey last September) opposed the move, but this administration paid no attention. President Roh Moo-hyun even criticized former high-ranking military officers for being “pompous.” He scorned the Korean public for “hiding behind America’s rear end” and for “trembling in fear like the leaves on a tree.”

If (when) North Korea crosses the DMZ to conquer South Korea and unify the peninsula under the murderous government of the monster Kim Jong-il, the United States will come back and reinforce the South Korean army, right?

No.

The reason the CFC has prevented war was the prospect of the sheer volume of U.S. reinforcement troops that would be dispatched to the Korean Peninsula in case of an emergency. Former South Korean Defense Minister Chun estimated that deterrent effect to be worth 1,300 trillion won. The Korean public is concerned that if the CFC is dismantled, then this reinforcement would become uncertain. This administration said a guarantee on continued reinforcements would be achieved during the South Korea-U.S. defense ministerial talks. But in the joint statement following the meeting, there was not a single mention of reinforcements. Various types of joint military plans will also disappear. In the event of a North Korean emergency, all of our channels to utilize the assistance of U.S. troops could be blocked.

As I have said before, let them go. Let this be a demonstration project for the rest of the world. We have had the evils of every tyrant government from the old Soviet Union to Iran projected on us. From Stalin's condemnation of us as tyrannical and genocidal to Hugo Chavez accusing our diplomats of being professional assassins for the CIA and countries like Iran and Syria accusing us of exporting terrorism throughout the world we have been the canvas that other countries have painted their monstrosities onto. Many on the Left™ have called our presence in South Korea an occupation even though that accusation is laughable. In the next few years they may well see that we are a force for good, for security, and against the genocidal designs of maniacs like Kim or Ahmadinejad. Sadly it will take the loss of South Korea to do it, but they seem to have have made that decision for themselves.

Russia's Topol-M ICBM

Russia has been deploying this missile, the RT-2UTTH Topol-M.



More about the Topol-M here.

UPDATE: The video at the link above was removed from YouTube for a "terms of use violation". It has been replaced by another link to the same video.

Atomic Explosions

UPDATE: The above video has been removed from YouTube for a "terms of use violation". Here is a video of the Castle Bravo test, the largest thermonuclear bomb exploded by the U.S.

Room, Board, and Clothing for Life

I have often thought that, here in Washington State where we do not have a death penalty that ever gets used (three out of the four people who have been put to death in Washington since capitol punishment became legal were volunteers), one can get a place to live, food, clothing, recreation facilities, and medical care all for free. If someone cannot find a job and cannot make ends met, why wouldn't they commit a heinous crime?

There is no reason not to commit a heinous crime.

At a lower level, Car thief chooses jail for health benefits.

TACOMA – A Pierce County car thief has decided to stay in jail for the medical benefits.

Melissa Matthews, a 20-year-old woman who has been convicted many times, sits in Pierce County Jail, where she's getting her cancer treatment paid for.

Some see that as a problem with the jail system, others say it demonstrates a problem with our medical system.

"I've been selling drugs since I was 15 years old," said Matthews, who already knows the court system like a seasoned criminal. "I thought it was fun. I was high on meth and I started stealing cars."

Matthews says her parents started her on this path.

"I've been doing meth since I was 12," she said. "My mom gave me my first line of meth at 12 years old."

But if it seems like Matthews never got a break, consider this: On Tuesday she pleaded guilty to her latest crimes: identity theft and possession of a stolen car. She could have gotten out of jail to pursue drug treatment, but she didn't want to because she was diagnosed with cancer.

"If I'm in here in custody, then my procedure at the jail would be paid for," she said.

...

Matthew's story prompted outrage from many KING 5 viewers, among them Karen King, who has since written a letter to Senator Patty Murray.

"I was very angry," said King.

Four months ago, King was diagnosed with a syndrome that restricts her ability to breathe. Because of her illness, she finds herself in a vicious cycle unable to work and unable to afford medication.

"I've never broken the law, I pay my taxes," said King. "I've worked since I was like 13."

A friend had told me, go commit a crime and I'll get all the help I needed. But I'm not going to," added King.

Another person to express outrage was the victim of Matthew's latest crime, a struggling single mother who says the theft of her car brought her to the brink of homelessness.

"She goes and steals my vehicle and gets the royal treatment for being in prison," said Kimberly Wilson, car theft victim.

Liberals love criminals and things are getting out-of-hand here in Washington.

What Abortion Is

Earliest surviving preemie to remain in hospital

MIAMI - A girl born after just under 22 weeks in the womb — among the shortest gestation periods known for a live birth — will remain in a hospital a few extra days as a precaution, officials said Tuesday.

Amillia Sonja Taylor, born Oct. 24 after just under 22 weeks in the womb, had been expected to be sent home from Baptist Children’s Hospital on Tuesday.

Just a clump of cells, eh?



I pray that this child will be well.

North Korea's Missile Threat

This should not come as a surprise to anyone, we have covered this missile before. I wrote on the test failure of the Taep'o dong-2 when it occurred. At the time I said "this is not a long term setback for the North Koreans".

NKorea capable of building a missile that can hit the US: US intel

North Korea is technically capable of building a long-range missile that can hit the United States despite a test failure last year, a senior US military intelligence official said Tuesday.

Lieutenant General Michael Maples, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, said North Korea has probably learned from the failure of its Taepodong-2 missile during a test in July, and made changes to its other missiles.

"I believe they have the technical capability, as we saw by the Taepodong, but they have not successfully tested it yet," he told the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Asked how long before North Korea would have a missile capable of reaching the United States, he said, "I would probably estimate it's not a matter of years."

They do not yet have the technology to reduce the size of a nuclear warhead sufficiently to put it on a missile, but they will figure that out as well.

A Proposal for Eco-Hypocrites

Clarice Feldman at The American Thinker has an idea;

A Modest Proposal to Eco-Celebs

I'm trying to figure out why Norman Lear with a 26 car garage insists we cut our driving and Barbra Streisand from her well-staffed mansion overlooking the Pacific Ocean advises her fans to air dry their laundry outside. And Teresa Heinz and John Kerry, who use a private plane to travel to their 5 mansions and SUVs, warn us all to cut back on our energy use.

Of course, it is laughable.

It is unworkable for most people. We use a lot of energy because it makes us a more productive society and a more productive society is one which makes a higher standard of living available for more people. The technologies we invent make life easier and more productive for the less fortunate of the globe.

Goat herders in the Sahal use little energy but their lives are hard and their way of live unenviable. And they contribute nothing to the rest of the world's welfare and progress.

I think I've figured it out what this naked hypocrisy is really about. It's not just scientific and economic illiteracy on their part: It is a narcissistic desire to widen even further the gulf between themselves and those beneath them on the economic and social ladder, while clothing their desires in some moral purpose. This is nothing new of course. At various times and places throughout the world, what one wore-including colors, fabrics, length of swords, how much the tips of your shoes could curl -were set by law to make sure no one mistook the milkmaid and yeoman for the lord and lady.

Read the whole thing to see the actual proposal.

Moonbats Eat Their Own

I am reminded of Saturn eating his children.

I care nothing for Senator Murray, who I regard as unworthy of her office. She is clueless enough to believe that Osama bin Laden is loved in the Muslim world because he built day care centers. So, it was with amusement that I found this at Hot Air - Video: Peace creeps beg cops to arrest Patty Murray for war crimes.

Watch as mindless moonbats attack one of their own, if you can stand it.

Bolero

I have been playing 'cello for 41 years, sometimes professionally, and I have never seen anything like this.

Day by Day is Back

Apparently I had some old Day by Day code. I went to Chris Muir's site and downloaded the code currently available, and it seems to work fine. If you have any trouble with the page formatting correctly in your browser, please let me know.

Hillary!

Hotair.com has got your Hillary!

New Blogger

I have converted this blog over to the new Blogger. The software is nice and cool widgets are available for me to play with later, but it would not format the Day by Day cartoon correctly, so I have to remove it. If I can figure out a way to get it to work correctly, I will reinstall it.

Conservatives Unhappy with North Korean Accords

Conservatives Assail North Korea Accord

Elliott Abrams, a deputy national security adviser, fired off e-mails expressing bewilderment over the agreement and demanding to know why North Korea would not have to first prove it had stopped sponsoring terrorism before being rewarded with removal from the list, according to officials who reviewed the messages.

John R. Bolton, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, called the agreement -- in which North Korea would freeze its main nuclear facility in exchange for an initial supply of fuel oil -- "a bad deal" that violated principles that were closely held in the beginning of the Bush administration.

And the National Review, a conservative bastion, yesterday slammed the agreement as essentially the same one negotiated by President Bill Clinton in 1994 -- a charge the Bush administration rejects. "When exactly did Kim Jong Il become trustworthy?" the magazine's editors asked. The Wall Street Journal editorial page, normally a Bush supporter, also condemned the accord yesterday as "faith-based nonproliferation."

Make no mistake, the monsters know that if they wait long enough, we will cave.

More specifically, conservatives said, they worry that the administration's willingness to bend on North Korea does not bode well for hard-line policies toward Iran, the Palestinians or other issues. Indeed, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov yesterday called on the United States to demonstrate "the same flexibility, a sensible flexibility" toward Iran's nuclear program.

Read it all to learn what went on in the Bush administration as well as the concerns of Japan.

Here is an annotated copy of the agreement, Deciphering the North Korea Deal

Christianity and the Left

In an effort to befuddle American Christians into voting for Democrats with whom they share no values at all; Speaker Pelosi, Senator Reid, and their minions are trying to convince you that they are Christians to, or at least respectful of Christian beliefs.

Megan Basham at The American Spectator points out that the recent events in the campaign of John Edwards puts the lie to that.

Blogging With Bile

Now that the hiring and subsequent retiring of John Edwards's two anti-Christian bloggers is over, conservative commentators from all corners of the internet have started bidding good night to the Edwards campaign. The public "nyah nyahs" demonstrate that many are still missing the larger picture of the incident: while this may or may not mean the end of the coiffed one's bid for president, it does not mean the end of unhinged hatred for Christianity from a growing faction on the left.

The blogging mischief made by Edward's staffers reveals more than his inept hiring practices and more than that secularists don't like evangelicals and Catholics expressing their faith through their politics. What we are witnessing is a loathing of Christ and of his followers that has never before been expressed so openly from such a large segment of one of our major political parties.

...

How do Democratic candidates contend with a base that would treat Christianity's most basic doctrine so sneeringly, as Marcotte did when she wrote on her blog Pandagon: "What if Mary had taken Plan B after the Lord filled her with his hot, white, sticky Holy Spirit?"

Reveries about the potential abortion of the Messiah go far beyond the bounds of simply not liking right-wing believers. So did her revelation that Rick Santorum's public expressions of his religious beliefs make her want to, "go to a born-again church and scream about how God loves to come in our backyards for our milkshakes." (For those too innocent to untangle that web of putrid pop-culture metaphors, I'm afraid you're on your own.)

What Marcotte wrote wasn't just a complaint against conservative Catholics or evangelicals, it was a screed against God himself. Amongst the secular intellectual crowd, she is hardly alone.

Slate is running a weekly "Blogging the Bible" feature, ostensibly intended to retell portions of the Word in hip, modern lingo -- a caustic Cliff Notes for the Old Testament, if you will. But the flippancy used to characterize God's actions leaves the sneaking suspicion that it's more an attempt to patronize Scripture. As I write, today's entry describes the Lord of Hosts as being "Like a crazy girlfriend, [who] plays a confusing I-love-you-I-hate-you game..." Months ago in Columbus, Ohio, Moveon.org held a rally in front of a church by singing anti-Christian songs, blocking the entrance for the faithful. Hard to get more hostile than that.

Marcotte's partner in prejudice, Melissa McEwen, might have been slightly less wild-eyed in her treatment of believers, but she echoed the feelings of thousands of liberal blogs and websites when she referred to pro-life Christians as "wingnut Christofascists."

Megan Basham goes on to remind those of us who are Christian of something very important that I myself often forget, that Christ said that He did not come to unite, but to divide. We are to separate ourselves from evil, no matter how close that evil is to us if we wish to be one of God's people. That includes our practice of sacrifice, in however small a way, for others (but not for evil).

It is not an act of love to allow innocent people who are going to the market, or to the Church, or even to the Mosque, to be randomly murdered by terrorists. Yet, we now see our own Congress supporting exactly that. It is not an act of love to allow our fellow countrymen to to be threatened by madmen such as Saddam, or Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, or Kim Jong-Il. We have not done wrong to do what we did and are doing in Iraq, or Afghanistan, or Bosnia. I only wonder why we are not defending Serbs and their Churches and Monasteries in Kosovo when they are now the object of ethnic cleansing.

Actually I do not wonder about that at all. The (leftist) UN as well as European and American liberals will not tolerate support for Christians, be they Serbs or Sudanese, or Iraqi. The terrorists are for them the "freedom fighters" (an argument that is a perversion of an idea of President Reagan). Liberals use the language of love and peace to support exactly the opposite. Love women? Then support abortion. Don't think of the child who is being killed because he is inconvenient to the mother. Feel sympathy for the difficult lives of prisoners? Then work to set them free. Think nothing of the people who will be victimized by recidivist criminals.

³⁴"Do not think that I have come to bring peace on earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. ³⁵For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; ³⁶and a man's foes will be those of his own household. ³⁷He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and he who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; ³⁸and he who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. ³⁹He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for my sake will find it.

⁴⁰"He who receives you receives me, and he who receives me receives him who sent me. ⁴¹He who receives a prophet because he is a prophet shall receive a prophet's reward, and he who receives a righteous man because he is a righteous man shall receive a righteous man's reward. ⁴²And whoever gives to one of these little ones even a cup of cold water because he is a disciple, truly, I say to you, he shall not lose his reward."

Loving others does not prevent us from identifying evil when we see it, and separating ourselves from it.

What began as a slow murmur in film, art, and academia has now progressed to a full-tilt caterwauling on the Left: "We hates him, we haaaates him" (to paraphrase J.R.R. Tolkein's most vivid creation).

At least those of us who take Christ at his word can find comfort in the idea that their very reaction validates his claims -- that he did not, as the milquetoast peace-activists are wont to claim, come to be a unifying presence, but a divisive one. As for what's to be done about this irrational hatred of us and our Savior, there's nothing we really can do. Except what has always been our commission: start fishing.

And perhaps we should pray that Ms. Marcotte experience a Damascus moment -- after all, in God's infinite humor and mercy, the greatest Christ-hater of all time wound up being the very man who planted the faith plaguing her today.

North Korea Wins Again

All one needs to be able to do to understand the strategic situation with respect to North Korea is remember just a little history. That, and a bit of pattern recognition will clarify everything.

John Podhoretz has this ability and notes that while Kim Jong-Il is a monster, he is not a lunatic.

A Putrid Payoff

Since 1985, North Korea has used its reputation for insanity to manipulate not only the United States, but even the Evil Empire to its West. In that year, the Soviet Union agreed to provide the North Koreans with light nuclear reactors if the Norks agreed to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Showing stunning sangfroid against the ruthless bunch in Moscow, Kim's father signed the treaty and then simply refused to abide by any of its provisions. He spent five years refusing to allow a single inspector into the country, and when he did finally allow their entry in 1990, he deceived them and lied to them.

And how did North Korea pay for its recalcitrance? It didn't. In 1991, the United States agreed to remove its short-range nuclear weapons from the Korean peninsula in exchange for a promise from North Korea (and South Korea) not to do anything nuclear.

Our weapons were pulled. The South abided by its word. The North Koreans continued to develop their nuclear program regardless - until 1993, when Kim the Elder announced his nation was pulling out of the Non-Proliferation Treaty. Why? Because, in complete contravention of its deal with the Soviets in 1985 and its deal with us and South Korea in 1991, it had built a nuclear reaction in Yongbyon.

At this point the Clinton administration took over, and at the end of 1994 announced its bribe - the so-called "Agreed Framework."

We know how that whole "Agreed Framework" thing worked.

Read the whole piece for the rest of the history.

UPDATE: Just for your amusement, here is a propaganda video about Kim.

Penn and Teller Speak Heresy!

I have recently written on heresy. Thanks to the Blogfather for posting this;

Deleted. Google has removed this video.

Obama's First Lie

Or is it just a flip?

Presbyterian Church to Split

Christians in the Presbyterian Church (USA) who actually believe in the teaching of the Church have long been frustrated with the refusal of the PCUSA to hold to or teach any basic Christian doctrine. You can listen to a hundred sermons and services and not once hear anything about the trinitarian nature of God or the dual nature of Christ much less the (to them politically unacceptable) teachings about faith and life in the New Testament. I know, I have done it. I used to be in the PCUSA. Paul's Letter to the Romans - Chapter 1? Forget about it.

Many lament the continuing troubles of the Anglican Church. The same is coming to the PCUSA. I do not lament them at all. Orthodox Christians, including small "o" orthodox Christians cannot be in communion with evil. We cannot be in communion with a "church" that holds that abortion, homosexuality, or any other sin is good. We all are sinners, and I have sinned badly only recently. We do not try to make ourselves feel good by denying that we have done wrong, but by confessing our sins and repenting of them. We promise to try not to commit sin again and we beg God to forgive us that we may be able to be with him in eternity.

If you to not acknowledge that you have sinned and confess it, then you cannot ask forgiveness of it. This is spiritually very dangerous.

I sensed the lack in my own experience in the PCUSA without really knowing why, and found my way to the Orthodox Church with the help of my friend "Vinnie the Catholic". Now, many others are also planning to leave.

Dissident Presbyterians Consider Way Out of PC(USA)

Dissident Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) congregations were invited to join a new presbytery within the conservative Evangelical Presbyterian Church (EPC).

At a winter convocation this week, the New Wineskins Association of Churches - a network of over 120 evangelical churches discontent with the PC(USA) but not yet separate - considered the future relationship with its parent denomination and a way out possibly through a merger with the EPC.

...

New Wineskins churches are considering leaving the PC(USA) because of the denomination's departure from doctrinal integrity and scriptural authority, especially around the issues of homosexuality and abortion. At the height of the controversy was the denomination's approval of an "authoritative interpretation" of the church's Constitution, which granted more leeway for the ordination of homosexuals, at the 217th General Assembly.

The PC(USA) boasts over 2.3 million members as the largest Presbyterian denomination in the United States. Theological differences and debates over the last several decades, however, have brought membership down with the exodus of congregations.

PCUSA's lame response - Stated clerk, GAC chief urges churches not to defect from PC(USA) is at the PCUSA's site. It is all about social mission and not at all about right belief or right worship. They are missing the point.

The PCUSA is failing because they will not adhere to any belief, and have abandoned any sense of morality. When I was there membership was over 4 million. It is now 2.3 million. In the meanwhile, membership of the Orthodox Church has grown significantly.

The PCUSA needs to stop confusing the teaching of social policy with worship. Christians help the poor and suffering because that is who we are as a result of what we believe and live by. Helping those who suffer is not the Faith or worship, it is a result of having the Faith and worshipping.

Christian Science Monitor Delegitimizes Israel

Honest Reporting has the story.

CSM: Beyond Recognition;

Questioning Israel's right to exist is one of the most abhorrent means of delegitimizing the Jewish state. Why, after all, should Palestinians and others reconcile themselves to peace with a country that is illegitimate in the first place?

Writing in the Christian Science Monitor, John Whitbeck, an international lawyer based in Saudi Arabia and a former advisor to Palestinian negotiators, advocates just that.

Twisting the terminology behind "recognizing Israel", Whitbeck employs the peverse equation of the Holocaust with Palestinian suffering:

There is an enormous difference between "recognizing Israel's existence" and "recognizing Israel's right to exist." From a Palestinian perspective, the difference is in the same league as the difference between asking a Jew to acknowledge that the Holocaust happened and asking him to concede that the Holocaust was morally justified. For Palestinians to acknowledge the occurrence of the Nakba - the expulsion of the great majority of Palestinians from their homeland between 1947 and 1949 - is one thing. For them to publicly concede that it was "right" for the Nakba to have happened would be something else entirely.

Whitbeck reveals his unwillingness to recognize Israeli and Jewish rights in any context, regardless of borders, when he refers to "the dispossession and dispersal of the Palestinian people from their homeland to make way for another people coming from abroad."

Is Whitbeck unaware of thousands of years of Jewish history in the region as well as the existing Jewish communities resident before and during the period of the British Mandate to which he refers?

Read it all, it gets worse. Mr. Whitbeck holds that the major roadblock to peace in the area is Israel's insistence on her right to exist. He completely ignores the fact that Israel alone tries to avoid harming civilians, has given up the Gaza strip, and has behaved in a generally humane way. I am waiting for the moonbats to bring up the "Jenin Massacre" and Mohammed al-Dura.

And, if that is not enough, he goes on to attempt to delegitimize the existence of the United States.

Independent Thinker Writes Heresy!

There are places where a strong faith is expressed and where people who speak or write of beliefs not in accordance with the prevailing faith are shouted down and punished. This is especially true if the heretic has factual evidence to back up his heresy.

These places are called Universities and Colleges. There are no places on Earth with the same level of intolerance towards deviation from orthodoxy. Examples include numerous cases of conservative speakers being shouted down and not allowed to speak.

It even occurs in science curricula, Global Warming: The Cold, Hard Facts?

Believe it or not, Global Warming is not due to human contribution of Carbon Dioxide (CO2). This in fact is the greatest deception in the history of science. We are wasting time, energy and trillions of dollars while creating unnecessary fear and consternation over an issue with no scientific justification. For example, Environment Canada brags about spending $3.7 billion in the last five years dealing with climate change almost all on propaganda trying to defend an indefensible scientific position while at the same time closing weather stations and failing to meet legislated pollution targets.

No sensible person seeks conflict, especially with governments, but if we don't pursue the truth, we are lost as individuals and as a society. That is why I insist on saying that there is no evidence that we are, or could ever cause global climate change. And, recently, Yuri A. Izrael, Vice President of the United Nations sponsored Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) confirmed this statement. So how has the world come to believe that something is wrong?

Maybe for the same reason we believed, 30 years ago, that global cooling was the biggest threat: a matter of faith. "It is a cold fact: the Global Cooling presents humankind with the most important social, political, and adaptive challenge we have had to deal with for ten thousand years. Your stake in the decisions we make concerning it is of ultimate importance; the survival of ourselves, our children, our species," wrote Lowell Ponte in 1976.

...

Since I obtained my doctorate in climatology from the University of London, Queen Mary College, England my career has spanned two climate cycles. Temperatures declined from 1940 to 1980 and in the early 1970's global cooling became the consensus. This proves that consensus is not a scientific fact. By the 1990's temperatures appeared to have reversed and Global Warming became the consensus. It appears I'll witness another cycle before retiring, as the major mechanisms and the global temperature trends now indicate a cooling.

...

No doubt passive acceptance yields less stress, fewer personal attacks and makes career progress easier. What I have experienced in my personal life during the last years makes me understand why most people choose not to speak out; job security and fear of reprisals. Even in University, where free speech and challenge to prevailing wisdoms are supposedly encouraged, academics remain silent.

I once received a three page letter that my lawyer defined as libellous, from an academic colleague, saying I had no right to say what I was saying, especially in public lectures. Sadly, my experience is that universities are the most dogmatic and oppressive places in our society. This becomes progressively worse as they receive more and more funding from governments that demand a particular viewpoint.

Read the whole thing, there is very much more - such as this sadly true observation;

I think it may be because most people don't understand the scientific method which Thomas Kuhn so skilfully and briefly set out in his book "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions." A scientist makes certain assumptions and then produces a theory which is only as valid as the assumptions. The theory of Global Warming assumes that CO2 is an atmospheric greenhouse gas and as it increases temperatures rise. It was then theorized that since humans were producing more CO2 than before, the temperature would inevitably rise. The theory was accepted before testing had started, and effectively became a law.

It would be nice to have an honest discussion for a change, but that is not possible in a University setting.

Democrats Paint Selves into Corner

When you are in a fight with an enemy, seeking to hamstring that enemy and cause him to fail, you get to take credit when that enemy does fail.

The Democratic Party in the U.S. has set the President up as an enemy and has for years been doing whatever they can to hamstring him in the conduct of war, not only in Iraq, but in Afghanistan and against terror in general. Should we fail in these, the Democrats surely get to take some credit for that.

Irresolution - The Congressional Democrats' misstep.

If Iraq is stabilized this side of chaos, the congressional Democrats will be remembered as the people who fought to prevent it, who tried to kneecap the commander and demoralize the armed forces, and all in all make the mission more difficult. If, on the other hand, the surge is seen to fail, they will be the ones who made it more difficult, demoralized the armed forces, kneecapped the commander, and telegraphed to the enemy that our will was cracking, and we would shortly be leaving.

The Democrats have also given Bush a partial alibi for a possible failure--he tried, but at a critical moment they threw in the towel. This argument would be plausible enough to attract support from a great many people. Had they let the surge play itself out, with best wishes but grave reservations, the Democrats could have gained a reputation for good will in any event, and for genuine prescience in the case of failure. But there is a difference between warning of failure and seeming to want it or cause it, and this is the line they have stumbled over. They have cut themselves off from all share in a victory, bought themselves a half-share in a loss, should one develop, and given the president they so despise an excuse he did not have before this. If a failure ensues, it is no longer his fault, in its entirety. Now it is his fault--and theirs.

New Header Quote

General William Tecumseh Sherman is one of my great heros of history and one of the most widely quoted figures of the Civil War. Some of them are here. I will at some time be using many of these. For now I have chosen one that illustrates an idea that I fear few in the United States, or the World, understand.

One can learn a great deal from General Sherman

Democrats Oppose the War ...

... but do they even want us to win?

There is an evil, cancerous idea amongst those on the Left™ against the war in Iraq, an idea that conservatives (even those who might oppose the war) don't share. Many liberals want us to lose the war. There are probably several reasons why, but the biggest must be that; if we should win, then their ideological opposition to the war might be delegitimized and President Bush at least partially vindicated.

The most recent Fox News/Opinion Dynamics poll of registered voters showed that only 51% of Democrats want the President's plan to succeed and 31% of Democrats want it to fail. Better to have us lose, American soldiers dead, and the Country placed in grave danger than to allow us to win a war.

David Reinhard at The Oregonian (hardly a bastion of Conservatism) has something to say about this, THE WAR AT HOME

Anecdotal evidence, yes, but recently some poll results confirmed this anecdotal evidence. The most recent Fox News/Opinion Dynamics poll of registered voters' views was ho-hum in many respects. Bush's approval rating is abysmal, and a solid majority -- 59 percent -- opposes his plan to send more troops to Iraq. But the pollsters probed further and asked respondents if they personally wanted Bush's plan to succeed.

The results were astonishing. Overall, 63 percent of those surveyed said they wanted the plan to succeed. But 22 percent did not. (Another 15 percent didn't know.) American men and women are going off to fight, and perhaps die, and more than one out of five voters wants them to fail. Sorry, this tells us more about their cankered souls than about the war itself. [and they take pride in their "courageous" opinions! +Photi]

Look beneath the overall breakdown and it becomes clear why Democratic lawmakers sat on their hands Tuesday night when Bush talked about the pursuit of victory in Iraq. According to the Fox/Opinion Dynamics poll, only 51 percent of all Democrats want Bush's new plan to succeed. And a full 34 percent of Democrats do not want it to succeed.

That's not 34 percent of Democrats who oppose to the plan or think the plan will not succeed. That's 34 percent of Democrats who root for failure. That's the anti-war, anti-victory base that Democrats on Capitol Hill worry about.

We are in big trouble.

The FBMs

I spent nearly all of my adult life in (first) Fleet Ballistic Missile submarines, and (second) their newer incarnation, Trident submarines. I sailed, in order, USS Tecumseh (SSBN 628)(Gold), USS Benjamin Franklin (SSBN 640)(Decommissioning Crew), USS Florida (SSBN 728)(Blue), and USS Georgia (SSBN 729)(Gold) and her conversion to SSGN 729.

While reviewing some of my old bookmarks I ran across the Goatlocker. I have linked to a very funny post in the past. On that site is a piece by an old shipmate of mine, The Fleet Ballistic Missile Submarine.

The Left's War on Free Speech

Dan Riehl has a good piece at Riehl World View.

The Left's War On Free Speech

Dan nails it.

Hillary re: Israel's Security Barrier

With the announcements of Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, John Edwards, Tom Tancredo, Sam Brownback, and Bill Richardson as entrants in the race for President, I remembered a time when Hillary was very pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel. That was a long time ago. I decided to check her out on the Security Barrier, and was pleasantly surprised at what I found.

On Hillary's website she has posted a document dated April 1, 2004 urging the (worse than useless) United Nations to change its stance on Israel's Security Fence.

Senators Urge United Nations to Reconsider Stance on Israel's Security Fence

Washington, DC - In a letter, today, sent to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton (NY), Orrin Hatch (UT), Charles Schumer (NY) and Gordon Smith (OR) joined with 75 other Senate Colleagues urging the General Assembly to reject the International Court of Justice (ICJ) decision to consider the legality of Israel's security fence. The conflict between the Israelis and the Palestinians cannot be resolved in the ICJ, but rather must be resolved between the parties.

"Israel's fence is a legitimate response to an onslaught of terrorist attacks against Israelis. The decision to build the security fence has been thrust upon Israel by the Palestinian refusal to crack down on terror. The future of the fence should not be a legal matter, and has no place in the International Court of Justice." Senator Clinton said.

"Every nation in the world has a right to defend itself, a right well established under international law," said Senator Hatch. "We're asking Secretary General Annan to recognize that Israel has this fundamental right, and to reject the politicization of Israel's temporary security fence by placing this issue before the ICJ. It would seem to me that, if the U.N. wants to be seen as supportive of the war on terrorism, the Secretary General will heed our concerns."

"The drive to get the international court to rule on the fence is politics pure and simple. Enemies of Israel want to embarrass her at whatever cost, even if it means destroying the legitimacy of the ICJ in the process. And that is exactly what will happen here if the court intervenes and exposes itself as an instrument of the anti-Israel movement. By building the fence, Israel is taking responsible measures to defend itself again Palestinian terrorism, end of story," Senator Schumer added.

Senator Smith said, "Israel's fence is a response to years of unrelenting terrorist attacks that have claimed over 900 lives. Israel enjoys the right to protect its citizens just as other nations of the world, and the security fence plays a part in this defensive effort."

In the letter, the Senator's stress that, "Israel has no less of a right to defend its citizens than other nations of the world, and the security fence is a major part of this defense effort, particularly since the Palestinian Authority refuses to take any action against terrorism. Israel has reiterated the security needs for this fence, has declared that is not to be seen as permanent, and continues to aspire to political settlement with a Palestinian Authority that can credibly deliver on its commitments to security. The GA's request for an ICJ advisory opinion is a blatant attempt to manipulate the United Nations system for clearly political purposes."

The full text of the letter to Secretary General Kofi Annan is as follows:

Go read their letter to the anti-Semite Kofi Annan. I am, as I said, pleasantly surprised.

Mexico Tries to Help?

Perhaps senior members of the Mexican government are getting a little sensitive about the reputation their country has for corruption, hypocrisy, and plain disregard for law and all civilizational norms. Even better, maybe they have come to the realization that we have such a poor opinion of them and a strong desire to seal our southern border. So they have, this once, decided to help.

Mexico Sends 4 Kingpins to Face Trial in the U.S.

Officials at the Drug Enforcement Agency privately voiced frustration with the Fox administration for not extraditing the drug kingpins to the United States, where they would be unable to run their networks from prison. A similar tactic proved effective in Colombia, Panama and other countries where drugs are produced and shipped.

Mr. Calderón and his attorney general, Eduardo Medina Mora, did not immediately say why they had switched course. The attorney general's office put out a statement saying simply that the people extradited had run out of appeals against extradition and that Mexico wanted them to face trial in the United States before the time limit ran out on the charges there.

But all are serving sentences or facing trials in Mexico. In the past, the Mexican authorities have said those were barriers to extradition.

Now these monsters are being brought to the U.S. to face real punishment for their crimes, something not possible in Mexico.

The Latest on SSGN

USS Ohio (SSGN 726) with Two Dry Deck Shelters Installed

OK, so it is a bit old, dated Nov. 15^th, but interesting none the less.

SSGN - A Transformational Force for the U.S. Navy

The newer material is simply added to an older article, but it gives an idea of where we are now with the SSGN program. There is a paragraph of news from the future at the bottom of the piece.

I have said it before and am happy to say it again. With the SSGN conversion you, the taxpayer, are getting tremendous bang for your buck and a truly beautiful weapons system.

One thing that you do not read much of in the press about SSGN is this;

Even beyond its baseline mission capabilities, SSGN offers significant opportunities to develop and test new weapon delivery systems, sensors, and operational concepts that could further transform naval warfare. Two examples already envisioned are encapsulated launch of a variety of tactical munitions and deployment of large unmanned undersea vehicles (UUVs) and off-board sensors. Encapsulated launch will send weapons to the surface for dry-launching, using a standardized buoyant capsule and a common interface for loading and communications. This modular approach to payloads will even allow use of "off-the-shelf" weapons, unmanned aerial vehicles, and decoys in support of joint forces. And, by developing large UUVs that make full use of the seven-foot tubes, they can surpass the range, endurance, and payload of small surveillance platforms and take on new missions - even offensive ones.

This has to do with SACS and was tested during Silent Hammer (an exercise that I was privileged to be a part of).

A Godspeed Wish Seconded

JamesoftheNorthwest at Paradosis is a spy, and he has a couple of nice pictures.

USS John Stennis gets underway in Bremerton on 1/16/07. Photo courtesy of Eye on the Fleet

The Pope and Islam

Every now and then Jamie Glazov at FrontPage magazine.com gathers together people of differing opinions for symposia on various subjects. A recent one is Symposium: The Pope and Islam.

This is a good and interesting read. Thomas Haidon is a Muslim who is forthright about the problems surrounding the practice of his faith. Bat Ye'or is excellent. Sadly, the sole Christian, Serge Trifkovic is marginalized. At the end he give a "no holds barred" explanation of why the God of Orthodox (and orthodox) Christians and the God (Allah) of Islam are NOT the same God, and he is exactly correct.

Trifkovic: Oh, dear: we seem to have strayed not only from the topic but also from common courtesy. So be it, let's get on with it and start with the most important point of all: do we all "believe in the same God"?

Of course we do not.

The formal argument first. It is clear and fairly simple. The Christian God of the Creed is trinitarian: the Father, the Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all things seen and unseen; the Son, our Lord and Savior, eternally begotten of the Father; and the Holy Spirit, the giver of life. This is the orthodox faith, "which except a man shall have believed faithfully and firmly he cannot be in a state of salvation." The doctrine of the Deity of Christ is essential. Unless the Son is truly God and "one with the Father," Christians would be idolaters. If He were but a prophet, Christians would be foolishly entrusting themselves to a created creature in the vain hope of salvation.

Islam, on the other hand, violently and explicitly rejects and condemns the Christian doctrine of God (Kuran 4:171), the Trinity (5:37), and the deity of Christ (5:72, 5:17), and Allah unambiguously condemns Christians as disbelievers worthy of destruction (9:29-30). Muhammad's insistence that there is a heavenly proto-Scripture and that previous "books" are merely distorted and tainted copies sent to previous nations or communities means that these scriptures are the "barbarous Kuran" as opposed to the true, Arabic one. (Let's leave aside for a minute the puzzling question of how any degree of "distortion" of the Kuran could produce either an Old or a New Testament.) The Muslim Tradition also regards the non-canonical Gospel of Barnabas, and not the New Testament, as the one that Jesus taught. To cut the long story short, orthodox Islam teaches that it alone worships one true God that Judaism and Christianity tell lies about - lies for which Christians and Jews will be punished in hell.

"One God" cannot be trinitarian and infinitely transcendent. Christians and Muslims cannot be both right. Their convergent paths do not lead to the same hilltop.

There is much more, read it all. There is excellent material here, and it is good to finally see that at least one practicing Muslim is aware of our problems with his faith.

I'm Back

I have been unable to post for a time, and for that I apologize. In the meanwhile, I have found a few interesting things to share with you.

New posts soon.