Pournelle on Vietnam and Iraq

Some good stuff on Jerry Pournelle's site: a compare-and-contrast essay on Vietnam and Iraq. From the essay:

Viet Nam fell, not because we turned over operations to the Army of the Republic of Viet Nam (ARVN), but because the Democratic Congress in 1975 smelled blood in the water and turn on Nixon and all his works; by denying ARVN support in the face of a Russian supplied armored army as large as the one lost in 1972, the Democrats assured North Viet Nam of victory, and we got the shameful scenes of the helicopters leaving Saigon. Democrats can all be proud of that: it was their war from Kennedy through Johnson, and their loss in 1975 when they voted the ARVN 20 cartridges and 2 grenades per man with no US air support -- to face a Russian supplied armored army. Had the US responded in 1975 as they did in 1972, Saigon would still be Saigon, not Ho Chi Minh City. And the Boat People would not have begun their tragic voyages. So it goes.

And now for something completely different I

Could someone explain this to me? It's a group of pictures taken on Oct. 13th of this year at Boise State University. The event was called "The Bra Project." What does this mean, eh, Precious?

I pray that the President gives this speech

James Q. Wilson, professor of Public Policy at Pepperdine University, has written a speech that President Bush should deliver. It appeared in the weekend's Wall Street Journal. An excerpt:

We have created a balance of power in the Middle East in which no regime can easily threaten any other. In doing this, we and our allies have followed a long tradition: We worked to prevent Imperial Germany from dominating Europe in 1914, Hitler from doing the same in 1940, and the Soviet Union from doing this in 1945. Now we are doing it in the Middle East.

And we are winning. Soon Iraqi forces will be able to maintain order in the few hot spots that still exist in Iraq. We will stay the course until they are ready. We made no mistake ending Saddam's rule. We have brought not only freedom to Iraq, but progress to most of the Middle East. America should be proud of what it has accomplished. America will not cut and run until the Iraqis can manage their own security, and that will happen soon.

Now this is more like it!

For those of you wondering whether any Democrat Congresscritter has a lick of sense about Iraq, I give you Senator Joseph Liebermann of Connecticut. His piece in yesterday's Wall Street Journal says it exactly right. An excerpt:

Nationwide, American military leaders estimate that about one-third of the approximately 100,000 members of the Iraqi military are able to "lead the fight" themselves with logistical support from the U.S., and that that number should double by next year. If that happens, American military forces could begin a drawdown in numbers proportional to the increasing self-sufficiency of the Iraqi forces in 2006. If all goes well, I believe we can have a much smaller American military presence there by the end of 2006 or in 2007, but it is also likely that our presence will need to be significant in Iraq or nearby for years to come.

The economic reconstruction of Iraq has gone slower than it should have, and too much money has been wasted or stolen. Ambassador Khalilzad is now implementing reform that has worked in Afghanistan--Provincial Reconstruction Teams, composed of American economic and political experts, working in partnership in each of Iraq's 18 provinces with its elected leadership, civil service and the private sector. That is the "build" part of the "clear, hold and build" strategy, and so is the work American and international teams are doing to professionalize national and provincial governmental agencies in Iraq.

These are new ideas that are working and changing the reality on the ground, which is undoubtedly why the Iraqi people are optimistic about their future--and why the American people should be, too.

Gad! Ted Turner on a roll

I guess if a guy promises to give a billion simoleons to the United Nations we oughta listen to him at least a little. But it's so painful to listen to him! Today he gave the 141st Landon Lecture at Kansas State University. Here is some of what he had to say:

Turner said the situation in Iraq is serious but not hopeless. He raised concerns about global overpopulation, poverty and hunger.

He also called for nuclear disarmament.

He said the U.S. and Russia still have thousands of nuclear weapons pointed at each other on a "hair trigger." He said if he were in charge – making it clear he wasn't and never would be – "we'd be rid of them."

Just like that, eh? I wonder what the Russians will have to say about it? Say! Maybe a well-timed contribution to Vladimir Putin's re-election fund would grease the wheels of disarmament!

He warned that a nuclear war could "kill everything on the planet" and said it could take place in an afternoon.

Well! That was – how shall I put it? – incisive? Pithy? Cogent? Nah! Sophomoric, mundane, and puerile.

Turner said he was afraid someone in power could make the mistake to launch a nuclear war, including President Bush, based on his previous decisions.

"You have to question ... the president on a lot of decisions he's made," Turner said. "He might just think launching those weapons would be a good thing to do. ... He thought Iraq was."

He also has a firm grip on logic: if Bush thought going to war in Iraq was a good idea, he could launch a nuclear strike because that's a good idea. Oh, my word!

Turner said war is an outdated form of diplomacy that has stopped working.

"You would think that we would have learned that in Vietnam," he said.

Need I say more? Clausewitz just had the wrong attitude! Of course, he never experienced Vietnam, which, as everyone knows, is the most important example of war that there has ever been or ever will be.

Turner also said the authority of superpowers of tomorrow will be derived from education, health care, and science and technology. He encouraged the United States to focus it energies on those areas.

And to top it all off, the "authority" of the super powers will be derived from health care. I'm surprised that he forgot to mention day care!

I'm sorry for posting this. I see the error of my ways. I will never post another comment from the pusillanimous Ted Turner ever again.

Are Wives Necessary?

I recommend that you read this piece by James Pinkerton at techcentralstation.com. It delves into the modern-day battle of the sexes as analyzed by Maureen Dowd, Hugh Hefner, and Camille Paglia. My favorite quote from Paglia that Pinkerton cites is:

If civilization had been left in female hands we would still be living in grass huts.

Pinkerton's main thrust is that current sexual mores will lead to a decline in the population of the West:

Now it's time for some additional leadership; social incentives need to be shifted so that women are encouraged to have more children. Since women vote, these encouragements need to be in the form of carrots, not sticks. Because, of course, the biggest stick -- the looming Death of the West -- should speak loudly to all of us.

Religion, equality, and liberalism

I have had occasion more than once to recommend highly Jerry Pournelle's excellent web site, http://www.jerrypournelle.com. Over the weekend there was an email exchange featuring one of Jerry's readers.

Faith of our Fathers revisited

Dr. Pournelle, When I spoke of the "faith of our fathers," I wasn't harkening back to the culture of the Thirty Years War. I was referring to the very strong but moderated Christianity that existed in this country in various forms until the post WW2 era. My older relatives saw what I am describing as a sort of "main street and public square" faith. I am willing to speculate that that sort of faith would provide our society with the courage and identification it needs to face the current realities.

In my earlier post I did not mean to convey that I desired a crusade: just a motivated people engaged in a competent active defense. I think it would help if our citizenry saw their nation as worth defending on every level. Faith and culture can play a role in that. I think a large number of our citizenry still wish to see our nation defended on every level including culturally; arguably a larger percentage of the more secular French and other Euros seem not to care about defending theirs.

I would like to see active border security and military force deployed according to hard military realities and goals. I think nation building in regions with no or at least very limited interest in democratization is a waste of our troops' lives. I also think such stratagems are born of overly secular minds that have not a clue about the real motivations inherent in faith and culture.

Regards, Paul D. Perry Milford, Texas

I understood what you meant, and I agree. But when I was young there were no public ceremonies without an invocation and a benediction, usually both with one by a Roman Catholic and the other by a Protestant Minister. For sufficiently important events there would usually be a rabbi as well. We paid public attention and deference to "Divine Providence" and saw the Hand of God in our works.

The courts in the name of liberalism have thrown all that out. Soon after of course goes most of civility: again I refer people to the Drama of Atheist Humanism, and where it has always led. Yes, there are highly ethical atheists. Some of them tend to militancy, at least among their friends. Marvin Minsky is a great example. But The Drama of Atheist Humanism still plays out in a different way because for every Minsky there will be two Trotsky's and a Stalin.

Today's liberal establishment makes war on religion, which is odd, because the roots of liberalism are in religion. The assumption of human equality makes sense only in religious terms -- surely few of you feel equal to the drooling idiot who camps on your doorstep and shakes the paper cup at you asking for change? Some see the Image of Christ, but that is not a rationalist or materialist position. Some see "But for the Grace of God there go I," but again that is not a rationalist position. And some think thoughts of personal superiority rather than thankfulness for grace. But what rationalist reductionist can see an equal, who ought to have all the rights of citizenship including the vote (which he would sell for a shot of hootch or a line of cocaine)?

But without that assumption of equality, liberalism is in big trouble. As we see: although today's liberals profess a kind of equality in their words, their actions show they believe themselves Enlightened, with a mission to minister to the Benighted. But "minister to" more an more translates to "lord it over."

The Ancien Regime would have none of this equality. Lords were born superior; if well brought up, they had a sense of honor and duty as befitted those chosen. Some became evil. Some purported to reject most of their heritage, but there remained something about them -- see the life of Byron, who except for the doctors who bled him to death might well have become King of Greece. Lord Peter Death Bredon Wimsy was certainly idle rich, but he had his place in that ordered world that is gone and may not return until generations of tyrants and demagogues teach us that there were worse things. Under the old regimes those of great merit could still rise; those with no merit but great ambition born low could still feel that there were reasons other than their own inadequacy that held them back.

For that is one of the real frights of the egalitarian state with ruthless competition and genuinely equal opportunity: it is pitiless toward who had their chance and failed because there is no excuse for failure.

And there remains the ceaseless striving, with no peaceful end: is it any wonder that bureaucrats form feudal organizations and effectively end the striving and competition? Is it any wonder that the rise of the modern egalitarian state has produced the rise of bureaucracy and rule by bureaucracy?

Enough. More another time. Jerry Pournelle.

An 'independent' viewpoint on politics

In an e-mail group I belong to, a liberal friend of mine posted a link to a page on The Moderate Independent site, where the motto is “Not left, not right, just right.”

I read the linked piece titled “Inside the Fall of the Democratic and Republican Parties.” What follows are some excerpts and my comments:

Notice there is nothing about principles in this. There is nothing resembling confidence. There is nothing resembling boldness. There is only self-interest and the wanting to take advantage of a power structure that has been set in place and is going to work to their personal advantage.

I wonder what this guy would think of Feingold?

And so when, in the early 1990's, the Republican Party, under the initiative of George H. W. Bush, began assembling a lying propaganda network like the ones the CIA Bush formerly led has used around the world, the Republicans felt not disgust but at last some hope. While they knew morally that lying was wrong, and they knew that one-side-promoting propaganda was an un-American tool that never should be trusted - was the standard implement of evil stalwarts like the Soviet Union and Saddam Hussein - their desperation give a Machiavellian embrace to their only hope.

Florid, yet entertaining!

And while Limbaugh and Gingrich were the first gleam of light at the end of a very long tunnel for Republicans, many were still not ready to accept lying and intentionally misleading propaganda.

As opposed to unintentionally misleading propaganda?

Clinton won re-election handily

And, whaddaya know? With less than 50% of the popular vote!

And there waiting for them were the people they had dubbed hateful, disgusting, and undesirable just a few years back, the new breed of Soviet/Nazi-emulating Limbaugh/Gingrich Republican.

I'll just let this one go.

...[Governor Schwarzenegger's] documented past of nude posing, drug use, orgies, and lechery

I thought that Dems didn't mind these things...

America's two major political parties have both fallen into complete demise. The Democrats have entirely lost their principles and ability to stand up for anything at all, standing only for their personal political ambitions; and the Republicans have lost their moral code, sold their souls for the sake of political wants, abandoned principleand conscience for the sake of political expediency.

Can't argue with this too much. It's clear that the author wishes that the Dems would straighten up and fly right, so I can't really accept the “independent” part of his moniker.

I checked out another piece of his, "PAY ATTENTION TO RUSSIA, DAMMIT!" I found this interesting:

President Bush's inept, naïve foreign policy was allowing President Putin of Russia to play our nation and the world and take bold steps, rolling back human rights and democratic reforms and consolidating power and wealth in his hands.

I read through the article looking for what the author felt would be the right thing to do. He fixed the blame on Bush for rescinding the ABM treaty. He goes on:

But even despite that, shortly after September 11 the world came together, and Putin was among the leaders who took the opportunity to stand together with us and work to craft a plan that could make the world a safer place. As reported by CNN (see article: "A New Era For U.S.-Russia Relations?") on November 14, 2001, it was Putin who suggested a massive cut to both Russia's and the United States' nuclear arsenals. It seemed like we were entering a "new era of US-Russia relations" where we truly were allies working together in securing the world's safety against threats by rogue nations and terrorists.

But going to Iraq changed things, and no sane nation felt it could sit by waiting for America to come up with some reason to go after them "pre-emptively." And so instead of this "new era" of positive relations, Russia has done an about face.

So, while we are stuck ostrich-like in Iraq, the real threats to America, actual thoughtful leaders like Putin who realize power is a chess match, not a spitting contest, continue to gain for their nations as America slips and weakens and goes further into debt – the sort of the debt that brought the Soviet Union down to begin with.

What's puzzling to me is how he figured Putin would not go on to do the things he's done in Russia if the U.S. hadn't dumped the ABM treaty. As if Putin's own consolidation of power relied on the ABM treaty being revoked by the U.S. The author blames Bush but treaties are ratified (or ended) by the Senate. I suppose that if the Dems are as spineless as he claims in his other piece, then the vote to end the ABM treaty makes sense. But does he truly believe that Putin would not have gone on to consolidate power?

One not to forget

On election day, November 5, 2002, a letter to the editor of the Appleton Post-Crescent was published. The letter was written by my fellow Neenah-ite (Neenah-onian?), David George. This should get wide distribution:

Here are the top 10 reasons public schooling is better than home-schooling:

1) Most parents were educated in the under-funded public school system and so are not smart enough to home-school their own children.

2) Children who receive one-on-one home-schooling will learn more than others, giving them an unfair advantage in the marketplace. This is undemocratic.

3) How can children learn to defend themselves unless they have to fight off bullies on a daily basis?

4) Ridicule from other children is important to the socialization process.

5) Children in public schools can get more practice "Just Saying No" to drugs, cigarettes and alcohol.

6) Fluorescent lighting may have significant health benefits.

7) Publicly asking permission to go to the bathroom teaches young people their place in society.

8) The fashion industry depends upon the peer pressure that only public schools can generate.

9) Public schools foster cultural literacy, passing on important traditions like the singing of "Jingle Bells, Batman smells, Robin laid an egg ..."

10) Home-schooled children may not learn important office career skills, like how to sit still for six hours straight.

So, does this mean the Bush recession is over?

I suppose that the anti-capitalist pundits will still wring their hands over this report:

Wal-Mart, the world's biggest retailer, estimated that November sales rose 4.3 percent at its U.S. stores open at least a year, a key retail measure known as same-store sales. The figure was toward the high end of its forecast for 3 percent to 5 percent growth. The retailer said demand for the day after Thanksgiving beat its expectations at both its namesake discount stores and the Sam's Club warehouse chain ...

“Friday was a record day for the company and clearly exceeded our expectations. We feel we have good momentum going into the holiday,” said Ken Hicks, president and chief merchandising officer for J.C. Penney.

The same article bemoans the “steep energy prices and rising interest rates.” Could we just get a grip, people? The day that Katrina hit the northern Gulf coast the price of regular gas in little old Neenah, WI, jumped 30 cents, from 2.69 to 2.99. Yesterday I bought regular at 2.26, and it's cheaper elsewhere. I guess that shoots the "blood for oil" theory, doesn't it?

I'd better save my breath. As long as Gore or Kerry aren't in office, no economic upswing of any magnitude will matter to the Bush haters. They'll probably come up with some cockamamie story like the oil companies were "persuaded" to lower gas prices with sweetheart tax breaks. Bah!

UPDATE: This report says that sales for the entire weekend were up 22% over last year!

I love stories like this XXVII

A politically-partisan high school vocabulary quiz? Here's a sample:

I wish Bush would be (coherent, eschewed) for once during a speech, but there are theories that his everyday diction charms the below-average mind, hence insuring him Republican votes.

Did you get the right answer? The Benington, VT, English and social studies teacher that came up with the quiz

said he isn't shy about sharing his liberal views with students as a way of prompting debate, but said the quizzes are being taken out of context.

It does not bother me in the least that this happens in the government-funded compulsory-attendance day-care and matriculation centers. Make mine home schooling!

A news story to dissect

I read the story below and wondered whether I was just being cynical or expecting too much. I mean, the headline says "Oil Company Blamed." All right. Here's a quiz: What's the name of the oil company? Take your time and read the article thoroughly. I'll wait...

Give up? That's all right, because the article doesn't mention it. That was the first thing wrong that I noticed. Then I read a bit more carefully. Do these reporters or editors actually read what they've written?

The first part of the first sentence (emphasis mine): "The Chinese government's decision to cut potentially contaminated supplies of fresh water" compares interestingly to the rest of the article which features not a hint of such a qualifer. Is this a reporting shortcut of some kind? That it, use a qualifier in the first paragraph so that wherever the subject appears in the rest of the article the qualifier is "understood?" As you read you're supposed to say to yourself, "potentially" with respect to the water supply?

The article is a curious blend of tourism notes ("known for its annual ice sculpture festival in January"), dire predictions ("Pollution and contamination have exacerbated China's water shortages, which environmental experts and even senior officials say could threaten economic development"), official sources ("director of the city's water bureau, said on state television, according to the Associated Press"), disingenuous commentary ("The threat of contamination to Harbin is a reminder that with its booming economy, China is facing a huge environmental challenge"), and fascinating, unexplained tidbits ("The local authorities have ordered heating companies to ensure that they have adequate reserves of water from wells to maintain supplies of hot water to buildings"). That last one is fascinating because it implies that the "local authorities" have lots of say-so over the utility companies. One can only imagine what will happen to the heads of those companies if the water reserves turn out not to be "adequate." I say that because of a news article I saw in the South China Post some time back that featured a photo of a group of criminals being led into a stadium in China for public execution. Here's a link to a recent article on the subject.

Then there are the statements like "Specialists say China has some of the best environmental laws in the world, but the sheer scale of development, inadequate planning, corruption and poor enforcement often result in uncontrolled pollution," that just sweep me off my feet! Talk about all of China's problems rolled up into one sentence! I'd love to see more on the juxtaposition of "the best environmental laws" versus "inadequate planning." Hasn't central planning been discredited ever since the collapse of the Soviet Union? Or do people still believe that if only we had the right people in power then central planning would work?

Anyway, is this what "news" has become? A hodge-podge of opinion, hints, rumor, poor editing, and speculation along with a fact or two?

http://tinyurl.com/9nxen

November 24, 2005
Toxic Flow Reaches Chinese City; Oil Company Blamed
By DAVID LAGUE
International Herald Tribune

BEIJING, Nov. 24 - The Chinese government's decision to cut potentially contaminated supplies of fresh water to a major city has highlighted the threat that industrial pollution poses to public health and economic development across the nation.

Almost four million people in Harbin in northeastern China are expected to be without running water until late Saturday after a chemical plant explosion on Nov. 13 contaminated the upper reaches of the nearby Songhua River with toxic benzene.

A 50-mile stretch of the river carrying the benzene reached Harbin this morning, Shi Zhongxin, director of the city's water bureau, said on state television, according to the Associated Press. The contaminated water was expected to take 40 hours to make its way through the city.

State media reported Wednesday that the local government ordered the shutdown starting at midnight Tuesday in Harbin, which is internationally known for its annual ice sculpture festival in January.

China's Environmental Agency confirmed that the river, which supplies the city, had suffered "major water pollution," the official New China News Agency said late Wednesday. But contaminated water had not reached the city, it added.

Before water was disconnected, residents were encouraged to store water in buckets and other containers, while the local authorities trucked in thousands of tons of bottled water. In panic buying Monday and Tuesday, customers stripped supermarkets and stores of bottled water and other beverages.

The airport and railroad stations were reported Wednesday to be jammed as residents tried to leave.

The New China News Agency reported that schools would be closed until Nov. 30, while 15 local hospitals had been placed on standby to handle any poisoning cases.

On Wednesday evening, Harbin temporarily restored water supplies to allow residents to stock up.

The shutdown is a potential threat to heating systems in Harbin, one of China's coldest cities, where day temperatures are already below freezing as winter approaches. The local authorities have ordered heating companies to ensure that they have adequate reserves of water from wells to maintain supplies of hot water to buildings.

The chemical plant explosion, 236 miles upriver, killed 5 people and forced 10,000 others to evacuate, the state media reported.

The threat of contamination to Harbin is a reminder that with its booming economy, China is facing a huge environmental challenge.

The combination of rapid industrialization, a vast population and intensive agriculture has led to some of the world's worst air pollution, widespread shortages of fresh water and soil degradation.

Pollution and contamination have exacerbated China's water shortages, which environmental experts and even senior officials say could threaten economic development. Data from monitoring stations in the country's seven major river drainage zones showed that 44 percent of rivers were polluted.

"Many lakes and water courses contain an excess of nutrients and need treatment before they are suitable as freshwater sources," the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said in a Nov. 14 report on Chinese agriculture.

Senior Chinese leaders, including President Hu Jintao and Prime Minister Wen Jiabao, have adopted environmental protection as a government priority, and they have repeatedly called for China to switch to economically sustainable development policies.

Specialists say China has some of the best environmental laws in the world, but the sheer scale of development, inadequate planning, corruption and poor enforcement often result in uncontrolled pollution.

The right thing to do

Joseph Farah is the editor of WorldNetDaily.com. He very vigorously advocates conservative/libertarian political positions. One of them is very tellingly presented in his column from Nov. 16th, "9th Circuit's wakeup call." In it he urges parents to home school their children. Why?

A three-judge panel of the full court ruled that parents "have no due process or privacy right to override the determinations of public schools as to the information to which their children will be exposed while enrolled as students."

As a home schooler in a state with some of the most liberal home schooling laws in the country, my proper stance should be non-combative, conciliatory, and agreeable. That's because if I start making noise about the superiority of home schooling vs. the deplorable (oops! I mean, "ambivalent") state of government-funded compulsory education, I might make it tougher for the other home schoolers in Wisconsin to stay under the radar, quietly rearing their children as they see fit, not as the bureaucrats see fit.

But, by golly! Farah stirs the blood! Home schooling is superior. Children don't need the artificial and disingenuous (to say the least) approval of their peers. Nor do they need the mawkish, saccharine, and cloying emphasis on self-esteem. Nor the grade inflation. Nor the lock-step progress of a curriculum that stifles the love of learning. Nor the bells. Nor the inculcation of the behavior of sheep. Nor the stupefying emphasis on sports and fashion.

As you might guess, I could go on, but I'll spare you the boredom and my fellow Wisconsin home schoolers the mortification.

It's hard to say it better

I have no way with words like Mark Steyn of the Chicago Sun-Times, so I won't even try. His column of yesterday ( http://www.suntimes.com/output/steyn/cst-edt-steyn20.html ) is very stirring. An excerpt:

One expects nothing from the Democrats. Their leaders are men like Jay Rockefeller, Democrat of West Virginia, who in 2002 voted for the war and denounced Saddam Hussein as an "imminent threat" and claimed that Iraq could have nuclear weapons by 2007 if not earlier. Now he says it's Bush who "lied" his way into war with a lot of scary mumbo-jumbo about WMD.

What does Rockefeller believe, really? I know what Bush believes: He thought Saddam should go in 2002 and today he's glad he's gone, as am I. I know what, say, Michael Moore believes: He wanted to leave Saddam in power in 2002, and today he thinks the "insurgents" are the Iraqi version of America's Minutemen. But what do Rockefeller and Reid and Kerry believe deep down? That voting for the war seemed the politically expedient thing to do in 2002 but that they've since done the math and figured that pandering to the moveon.org crowd is where the big bucks are? If Bush is the new Hitler, these small hollow men are the equivalent of those grubby little Nazis whose whining defense was, "I was only obeying orders. I didn't really mean all that strutting tough-guy stuff." And, before they huff, "How dare you question my patriotism?", well, yes, I am questioning your patriotism -- because you're failing to meet the challenge of the times. Thanks to you, Iraq is a quagmire -- not in the Sunni Triangle, where U.S. armed forces are confident and effective, but on the home front, where soft-spined national legislators have turned the war into one almighty Linguini Triangle.

Tie the can to their tails!

In midsummer, 1981, President Reagan responded to a nation-wide air traffic controller strike by firing the lot of them. I haven't the slightest idea what would have happened if Carter had won re-election. Would the strikers not have struck because there was a Democrat in the White House? Who can tell?

Now comes this story about the latest French strike. This time it's the rail workers:

Unions are striking to protest against any privatisation of the rail network, despite government assurances.

Since the rail workers are, essentially, government employees -- as the air traffic controllers were in 1981 in the U. S. -- I wonder if a mass firing has been contemplated. Or is the union contract so good that the workers can't be fired for striking?

I confess that I don't have much sympathy for the strikers. But it sure would be a kick in the teeth if the strike goes on for a while, commuters figure out alternate ways to get to work, and then, after the strike ends, use of the rail system remains lower than before the strike. Then there'll be layoffs because of decreased usage...or will there be?

J. K. Rowling as Political Observer

There is a very interesting article written by a university law professor and printed in the Michigan Law Review. The link goes to an abstract of the paper (the full PDF file, if you care to download it, is 146 KB) so you can get an idea of what the author is driving at. And that is that the author of the Harry Potter books seems to take a very dim view of government. The author provides a number of examples in the abstract which made me sit up and take notice.

The critique is even more devastating because the governmental actors and actions in the book look and feel so authentic and familiar. Cornelius Fudge, the original Minister of Magic, perfectly fits our notion of a bumbling politician just trying to hang onto his job. Delores Umbridge is the classic small-minded bureaucrat who only cares about rules, discipline, and her own power. Rufus Scrimgeour is a George Bush-like war leader, inspiring confidence through his steely resolve. The Ministry itself is made up of various sub-ministries with goofy names (e.g., The Goblin Liaison Office or the Ludicrous Patents Office) enforcing silly sounding regulations (e.g., The Decree for the Treatment of Non-Wizard Part-Humans or The Decree for the Reasonable Restriction of Underage Sorcery). These descriptions of government jibe with our own sarcastic views of bureaucracy and bureaucrats: bureaucrats tend to be amusing characters that propagate and enforce laws of limited utility with unwieldy names. When you combine the light-hearted satire with the above list of government activities, however, Rowling's critique of government becomes substantially darker and more powerful.

The reach of the Harry Potter books is fantastic. To have children grow up reading them and coming to the realization that most government is part incompetent fumbling, part self-sustaining and self-interested bureaucracy, and part jobs program for social climbers is not at all bad.

Recent commentary: Same sex classes

Should schools be allowed to have same-sex classrooms, and why or why not?

(published 14-Nov-2005, Appleton Post-Crescent)

“Allowed” to have them? You mean locker rooms are co-ed now??!! When I went to Einstein the boys played murder ball and the girls played field hockey. And “health” classes were separate because the boys were shown different stuff from what the girls saw. I mean the boys saw films on smoking ... but the girls? We figured that they saw things relating to various body parts normally kept modestly covered. I don't remember any girls in shop and no boy in the mid 60's would dream of taking home economics! I remember how uncomfortable I felt as a sophomore at Appleton East taking typing, especially since I sat next to an older girl who teased me mercilessly. Maybe I was blazing a trail. You know, like an adolescent version of chaos theory: I take typing in 1967 and a few decades later all the showers in gym class are co-ed!

I love stories like this XXVI

I had to sigh when I saw this story. I wish we could see stories about teachers that refused to follow their schools' “zero tolerance” policy. Even one story would do. Here's the meat of it:

Crystal Harris says her 5-year old son was forced to take off his costume, and go through the entire school day with only his underwear on.

The incident happened Monday at Walt Disney Elementary.

School officials acknowledge they have a policy that forbids costumes, and that's why the teacher did what she did.

Recent commentary: What would I do with all that dough?

How would you spend $340 million in Powerball winnings?

(published 24-Oct-2005, Appleton Post-Crescent)

Is this like "Brewster's Millions" where I have to spend umpteen zillion simoleons in 30 days? No? OK, then I could use a new computer monitor; mine's getting fuzzy. Buy the White Album on CD. Buy our #2 son a lifetime supply of Cool Ranch Doritos. Attend St. John's College in Annapolis and take the four-year Great Books course. Take a round trip to the International Space Station. Nah! I can't really do that. I proved to myself on the Tilt-A-Whirl years ago that I am not astronaut material. Say! I could set an example for all those greedy rich people and voluntarily pay more taxes. NOT! Commission Christo to wrap Trafalgar Square and give it to my wife for a day. I'd like the minister and his wife of our church, Oakhaven in Oshkosh, to be able to concentrate on shepherding the flock without worrying about making the mortgage.

Feeling very gravitational today!

I enjoy reading aloud. I've read dozens of books aloud to my wife, Janet. Right now I'm reading Timothy Ferris' book "Coming of Age in the Milky Way." It's the story of how humanity figured out just how big the universe is.

The chapter I read last night was on Newton, the discoverer of the universal gravitational constant. The book describes in a very entertaining way what kind of loony character Newton was. But it didn't describe how Newton figured out that constant, G.

So I looked up the article on gravitation in the 1995 Encyclopaedia Britannica. Sure enough, there was the explanation for how Newton figured out G. He made a guess at the density of the earth (turned out to be just about dead-on) and thus calculated the mass of the earth. That led him to a figure for G: 6.608 x 10^-11 meters cubed per second squared per kilogram. OK! I now knew how G had been derived by Newton.

But I saw that the units used for G in the Britannica looked funny. Not only that, a table at the end of the article showed the correct representation of units.

I checked the Britannica online version of the article and found that the error has been perpetuated. So I wrote the following letter:

Dear Sirs,

There is an error in the article on Gravitation. I first noted it today in the 1995 print edition of the Encyclopaedia. It still appears in the online edition.

In the online article, http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-61466, the phrase immediately following formula (7) reads:

which numerically comes close to the accepted value of 6.6726 x 10^-11 m^3 x s^-2/kg^-1

I've used the caret (^) to indicate a power. The phrase SHOULD read:

which numerically comes close to the accepted value of 6.6726 x 10^-11 m^3 x s^-2 x kg^-1

which jives with the description of the formula found in the table: http://www.britannica.com/eb/table?tocId=9115984:

G (in units of 10^11 cubic metres per second squared per kilogram)

Sincerely,

Steve Erbach
Neenah, WI

I then noticed a second error. That prompted this letter:

Dear Sirs,

After sending my first message this morning, I noticed a second error in the Britannica online article on Gravitation. In article http://www.britannica.com/eb/table?tocId=9115984, the phrase should be changed FROM:

G (in units of 10^11 cubic metres per second squared per kilogram)

TO:

G (in units of 10^-11 cubic metres per second squared per kilogram)

Sincerely, etc.

My 0.03 seconds in the sun...

I love stories like this XXV

Now this is what a public school should be used for!

Klub Layden is open Friday and Saturday nights, and advises its members to bring their own alcohol and contraception. The club provides sheets, bathrobes and locker rooms.

BYOB and BYOC! I love it!

Recent commentary: What has Katrina taught us?

What should we learn from Hurricane Katrina and the aftermath?

(published 12-Sep-2005, Appleton Post-Crescent)

That we're candidates for wet packs for believing that if only the right people were in charge then we'd be better off. Consider: hundreds of New Orleans school buses wallowing up to their windows in water; the Louisiana state government refusing to allow the Red Cross to bring in water and food to the Superdome because it would be a "magnet for more people;" the Houston Astrodome operations people refusing to let volunteers set up a low-power informational radio station; Robert Kennedy, Jr., blaming Mississippi governor Haley Barbour for burying Kyoto thus exacerbating global warming and making hurricanes more deadly. Kennedy's just a nut job, but you see my point! The thousands of NASA employees and maybe one shuttle mission a year; the Department of Education's No School Remains Honest Act; and the Transportation Safety Administration searching my 70+ year old mom, fer cryin' out loud! We're certifiably insane!

A prayer for New Orleans

Lord please guard the people of Louisiana and Mississippi as Hurricane Katrina approaches. Most especially, Lord, watch over those people trying to escape the city of New Orleans. I don't know what will come of this storm in terms of human suffering, but please bring those who perish into your arms. As for those who survive please open the hearts of all Americans and make our generosity overflow. I know that that will be the simplest of your jobs in the next week, Lord. What will be tougher is tending to the immediate needs of the survivors. Their homes will most likely be gone. They will have lost loved ones. They will have a hard time getting medical attention if they are injured or sick. They will have no jobs to go to. Please draw us closer together with them through you, Lord Jesus. Amen.

Recent commentary: HS memories

What's your favorite memory from high school?

(published 22-Aug-2005, Appleton Post-Crescent)

Memories, plural. Getting in on yearbook pictures with clubs that I either didn't belong to or that weren't officially recognized. Scarfing three regular pretzels in less than a minute -- without water -- to get an ‘A' for the quarter in junior trig. Getting to play with a 45 pound Singer-Friden programmable calculator in senior statistics class. This was 1969. Like, no confusers, eh? Concocting smelly esters in organic chemistry class. Going to the Chicago Art Institute by train with the senior art class. Realizing that I had enough credits to graduate after my junior year and that I could fritter away my senior year in self-indulgent pursuits. Cast parties. Hearing about "The Lord of the Rings" for the first time in sophomore English class. Getting kicked out of senior English. Going on dates in my parents' car and leaving footprints on the inside of the windows from ... well, you know!

Recent commentary: Advice to collitch stoonts

What advice would you give college-bound teenagers?

(published 1-Aug-2005, Appleton Post-Crescent)

One word: Wapatuli! College is the perfect laboratory for determining whether you actually CAN mix sloe gin and Mad Dog 20-20. Just don’t come crying to me because a hangover made you miss a final. But I suppose you want advice on college in general. (sigh!) All right. The theory is that you’ve got enough brains to know that high-paying jobs don’t grow on trees and that a Wall Street investment house or top-notch engineering firm won’t hire you because of your wardrobe. Just find the easiest-grading professors you can and remember two words: student evaluations. Don’t worry if you can’t multiply 6 x 7 or write your name in cursive. Most colleges offer bonehead ... I mean, remedial math and English. Hey! They need the tuitions. Oh, and figure out how to pay for your Adderall yourself. Mumsy and Dadsy can’t foot the bill any more. Like, you’re an adult, eh?

I'm sorry, but

...when I finished reading this story my first thought was, "Well, there's a candidate for next year's Darwin Awards."

"Just before it happened he was looking in the air towards the roof. He put the microphone down and crouched down before leaping off the stage which was about a metre high and trying to grab the lighting rig.

"I don't know whether he caught it or not but his momentum carried him forward and basically he went upside down and hit the floor head first. The whole thing lasted about five seconds, it was horrendous.''

Our fearless leaders

You look at this story and you just have to shake your head. I mean, these civic events don't just pop into being in an instant. There are committee meetings and organization and signage and advertising and public hearings...didn't anybody think twice about this before putting out a news release for it?

Miami city leaders are apologizing for a news release that invited summer campers to a “Ghetto Style Talent Show” and “Watermelon Eating Contest.”

The release said that children participating in the summer camp who “know the meaning of ghetto style” would have a chance to “prove just how ghetto they are.”

Biblical retribution?

I don't wish ill of the French. I took French for eight years in primary and secondary school. French historical figures (Lafayette and Napoleon, to name two), French mathematicians (Laplace, Pascal, Poisson, Fermat, Descartes, Poincare, and Hadamard), French wine, French pastries, the Tour de France (since Lance Armstrong began to dominate it!)...mais, oui! But French philosophers (Rousseau, Derrida, and Sartre), French politics, the Maginot Line, French politics, French whining...did I mention French politics?

But I don't wish ill of the French. It's just that a story like this made me think of the increasing ratio of Muslims living in France and the fact that France was a vocal opponent of the war in Iraq while at the same time being heavily involved with Saddam Hussein as a supplier.

So, comes this story and I just naturally thought of the Egyptians and the Jews with a decidely modern twist: "the only insecticides which might make a difference are banned." Can't have locusts dying from deformed mandibles!

France faces drought, locusts

Jul. 17, 2005 at 9:41 pm

On top of a severe drought, France is fighting a plague of hundreds of thousands of locusts.

The locusts are devouring everything from crops to window-box flowers, reported the Observer.

"At the beginning they seem small, insignificant insects but they grow very quickly," said Aveyron region farmer Gerard Laussel. "They eat everything that is green, leaving only stalks, and when they have finished they leave some kind of scent so the cattle do not want to graze on what is left."

The French environment ministry said drought could be felt across most of France, but it mostly impacted from the Atlantic Ocean to Paris.

"There is nothing we can do for the 700 or 800 farmers affected," said Patrice Lemoux, an agriculture official. "The locust has no known predator and the only insecticides which might make a difference are banned."

Can we now shut up about 'tax cuts for the rich?'

The New York Times reports:

For the first time since President Bush took office, an unexpected leap in tax revenue is about to shrink the federal budget deficit this year, by nearly $100 billion.

Mr. Bush plans to hail the improvement at a cabinet meeting and to cite it as validation of his argument that tax cuts would stimulate the economy and ultimately help pay for themselves.

Well, hallelujah! Now the question is, will this shut the mouths of the anti-tax cut weenies, or will they complain that the deficit reduction isn't big enough? Hey! Maybe this could lead to more tax cuts to get bigger deficit reduction!

Democrats looking for their Core Values

The Orlando Sentinel has a story today about the "town meeting" held by Democrat Florida Senator, Bill Nelson. He brought in Senator Barak Obama (D-IL) to lend "star power" to Nelson's campaign. Here's the complete article. The choicest part of the story involves the answer to a tough question from the town meeting audience (emphasis mine):

"I see a Democratic Party afraid to say they're Democrats, who voted for the war in Iraq and voted for tax cuts for the wealthy," said Glenn Anderson of Orlando. "Why should I remain a Democrat?"

It was a tough question. But Nelson and Obama tried to answer it. "The Democrats at times have lost their way," conceded Obama. "We are trying to decide what our core values are."

The criterion for judging the party isn't whether it's to the left or right, "but are we true to our core values," he said. Nobody defined core values.

This is one of those stories where you can almost feel the writer pushing you to a conclusion. I mean, really! Obama says the Dems are "trying to decide" what their core values are, but they're "true" to them, whatever they are -- nobody thought it necessary to cough up a sample.

"Core values:" that's the hottest buzz phrase for the Dems now; maybe that's what Professor George Lakoff came up with as a winner. Doesn't matter if they can actually be articulated or enumerated; as long as the Democrats say the words, everything will be all right.

Just for fun I

From the old book, Felton and Fowler's Best, Worst, and Most Unusual, comes this entry for Worst Commercial:

Oxydol detergent ran an ad campaign in 1965 that included a TV commercial showing black women discussing their wash. This early attempt at representing the black buying public in advertising was marred by an announcer saying, "When it's whiteness you're after..." and at the end, "Colored things come out nice, too!"

Don't forget the Sokal hoax

Nine years ago, New York University physics Professor Alan Sokal submitted a paper to the prestigious cultural studies journal, Social Text, entitled Transgressing the Boundaries: Towards a Transformative Hermeneutics of Quantum Gravity. It was a complete and utter hoax. You can read the paper here. It is one of the best comeuppances delivered to the pretentious academic left ever written. We need to remember that lots of people (especially professors of non-materialist sciences) take themselves way too seriously, and that the Emperor's new clothes really aren't there. Here's a sample of Sokal's paper, which purported to show that quantum gravity is affected by politics:

In quantum gravity, as we shall see, the space-time manifold ceases to exist as an objective physical reality; geometry becomes relational and contextual; and the foundational conceptual categories of prior science -- among them, existence itself -- become problematized and relativized. This conceptual revolution, I will argue, has profound implications for the content of a future post-modern and liberatory science.

Some choice commentaries about the hoax:

http://www.physics.nyu.edu/faculty/sokal/rosen.html
http://www.salon.com/media/media960517.html
http://www.physics.nyu.edu/faculty/sokal/weinberg.html

...and from Sokal himself:

The displacement of the idea that facts and evidence matter by the idea that everything boils down to subjective interests and perspectives is -- second only to American political campaigns -- the most prominent and pernicious manifestation of anti-intellectualism in our time.

( http://www.physics.nyu.edu/faculty/sokal/noretta.html )

An interesting definition

Jerry Pournelle came up with a description of democracy in action that is worth pondering

(paraphrasing) Most citizens are too stupid to manage their own affairs, so we only consult them about running other people's business, but never allow them to run their own.

The Dysfunctional Pooh

I found this once again today, an article from the Canadian Medical Association Journal: Pathology in the Hundred Acre Wood: a neurodevelopmental perspective on A. A. Milne. Pooh has ADHD with a capacity for developing Tourette's syndrome. Piglet has Generalized Anxiety Disorder. Eeyore has Dysthymic Disorder. Rabbit "has missed his calling, as he clearly belongs in senior-level hospital administration." Give it a read.

Recent commentary: Am I my brother's keeper?

Who is responsible for helping the Hmong still in Thailand?

(published 11-Jul-2005, Appleton Post-Crescent)

They are themselves. Oh, there's no doubt that they're in a pickle. Laos doesn't want them. Thailand considers them illegals. But there IS a Hmong insurgency. Good for them! Who's responsible for helping ANY of the benighted people on this mixed up planet? The one million people a year that die from malaria because we're too squeamish about the possible harm to birds from DDT. The victims in the "conflict diamond" trade in the Sudan. Remember when the Hutus went mad and started chopping up a million of their Tutsi neighbors? Americans that contribute to bringing the Hmong to Minnesota or Wisconsin may not be aware of the meaning of "Chinese obligation." Perhaps the Hmong that are already here can teach their Laotian brothers what they've learned about American-style self-reliance and can-do spirit. Just remember what Cain asked God and be prepared to answer the question for yourself.

A few things I've read lately

Some disturbing, some elevating, some amusing, some puzzling. Check out these columns:

Patrick Buchanan on Condi Rice
Remote Mammary Exams?
Astrologer Sues NASA
Could George Washington be a Supreme Court justice today?
Tandem Writing Assignment
Thomas Sowell on Judicial Havoc
Map of the Dead Servicemen in Iraq

Math Follies I

This piece is from today's Wall Street Journal. It deals with the revolting concept of "Ethnomathematics," the idea that math teaching cannot be neutral with respect to politics and culture. This concept deserves pride of place as one of the most ridiculous modern ideas for teaching math:

Ethnomathematics

By Diane Ravitch
June 20, 2005; Page A14
Wall Street Journal

It seems our math educators no longer believe in the beauty and power of the principles of mathematics. They are continually in search of a fix that will make it easy, relevant, fun, and even politically relevant. In the early 1990s, the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics issued standards that disparaged basic skills like addition, subtraction, multiplication and division, since all of these could be easily performed on a calculator. The council preferred real life problem solving, using everyday situations. Attempts to solve problems without basic skills caused some critics, especially professional mathematicians, to deride the "new, new math" as "rainforest algebra."

In a comparison of a 1973 algebra textbook and a 1998 "contemporary mathematics" textbook, Williamson Evers and Paul Clopton found a dramatic change in topics. In the 1973 book, for example, the index for the letter "F" included "factors, factoring, fallacies, finite decimal, finite set, formulas, fractions, and functions." In the 1998 book, the index listed "families (in poverty data), fast food nutrition data, fat in fast food, feasibility study, feeding tours, ferris wheel, fish, fishing, flags, flight, floor plan, flower beds, food, football, Ford Mustang, franchises, and fund-raising carnival."

Those were the days of innocent dumbing-down. Now mathematics is being nudged into a specifically political direction by educators who call themselves "critical theorists." They advocate using mathematics as a tool to advance social justice. Social justice math relies on political and cultural relevance to guide math instruction. One of its precepts is "ethnomathematics," that is, the belief that different cultures have evolved different ways of using mathematics, and that students will learn best if taught in the ways that relate to their ancestral culture. From this perspective, traditional mathematics -- the mathematics taught in universities around the world -- is the property of Western Civilization and is inexorably linked with the values of the oppressors and conquerors. The culturally attuned teacher will learn about the counting system of the ancient Mayans, ancient Africans, Papua New Guineans, and other "non-mainstream" cultures.

Partisans of social justice mathematics advocate an explicitly political agenda in the classroom. A new textbook, "Rethinking Mathematics: Teaching Social Justice by the Numbers," shows how problem solving, ethnomathematics and political action can be merged. Among its topics are: "Sweatshop Accounting," with units on poverty, globalization, and the unequal distribution of wealth. Another topic, drawn directly from ethnomathematics, is "Chicanos Have Math in Their Blood." Others include "The Transnational Capital Auction," "Multicultural Math," and "Home Buying While Brown or Black." Units of study include racial profiling, the war in Iraq, corporate control of the media, and environmental racism. The theory behind the book is that "teaching math in a neutral manner is not possible." Teachers are supposed to vary the teaching of mathematics in relation to their students' race, gender, ethnicity, and community.

This fusion of political correctness and relevance may be the next big thing to rock mathematics education, appealing as it does to political activists and to ethnic chauvinists.

It seems terribly old-fashioned to point out that the countries that regularly beat our students in international tests of mathematics do not use the subject to steer students into political action. They teach them instead that mathematics is a universal language that is as relevant and meaningful in Tokyo as it is in Paris, Nairobi and Chicago. The students who learn this universal language well will be the builders and shapers of technology in the 21st century. The students in American classes who fall prey to the political designs of their teachers and professors will not.

Ms. Ravitch is a historian of education at New York University, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, and a member of the Koret Task Force at the Hoover Institution.

Copyright © 2005 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Recent commentary: Women in Combat

Should U.S. women be allowed to serve in combat?

(published 20-Jun-2005, Appleton Post-Crescent)

For years I've told friends about the column I read in the Post-Crescent back at the time of the U.S. invasion of Panama. I don't remember the columnist's name, but I do know that he wrote about our use of women in combat roles when we went after Noriega. He compared men fighting one another to furry animals going at it: fur flies for a minute, then one is hurt. The victor establishes dominance, maybe beats his chest, and then they become buddies and have a beer. Women, however, fight like gila monsters: no holds barred, eyes gouged out, limbs torn off, until one of them lies dead, dead, dead. The columnist seemed to say that women don't have an innate sense of when not to destroy an opponent. That's why women shouldn't be allowed to serve in combat.

Oh, gawd! VII

From an article in the Boston Globe today by Robert "Hand-Wringer" Kuttner in which the author plays the popular game of "Will Hillary Run in '08?":

John Kerry may well give it another shot, as the candidate who came up just one state short in 2004, perhaps due to deliberately contrived long lines that held down Democratic turnout in Ohio.

Which James Taranto neatly skewers in Best of the Web Today:

Long lines mean high turnout. If Kerry lost a state with long lines, that would be because so many people in those lines voted against him.

Read the Bills Act

DownsizeDC.org is an outfit dedicated to, well, pretty much what its name says: cutting the size of the federal government. I subscribe to its newsletter and today I received an appeal to send an e-mail to my Congress critters in support of the “Read the Bills Act 2005,” (RTBA) which was constructed by DownsizeDC. There are times that I'll play along and send an e-mail, and other times I won't. Depends on whether the spirit moves me.

Today Jim Babka, the author of the e-mail, made me look at writing my Congressmen in a new way:

...it is not a waste of time because the lobbyists who want more government handouts are there on Capitol Hill every day and you are not. Congress thinks they can ignore the taxpayer. They believe you have a short attention span and will forget about RTBA. You must prove them wrong.

You must be like the big government lobbyist who is always there, begging, begging, begging for another handout. Only you are asking not for a handout, but for reasonable relief from Congressional irresponsibility. Remember, Congress works for you! Think of something new to say about RTBA and say it. And do it week after week until you get your way.

That is reasoning that speaks to me! So I wrote the following on the DownsizeDC WYC (Write Your Congressman) web site:

I was happy to see Downsize DC prepare the RTBA. I feel strongly that far too many (most? all?) bills are NOT read before passage. If my Representative and Senators insist on adding yearly to the mountain of legislation that is proposed and passed in Washington, DC, then I insist that every single piece of legislation passing through their hands—YOUR hands—be read in its entirety.

P. J. O'Rourke in “Parliament of Whores” posed the question: “So when can we quit passing laws and raising taxes? When will our officers, officials and magistrates realize their jobs are finished and return, like Cincinnatus, to the plow or, as it were, to the law practice or the car dealership?” I suspect that a partial answer, at least, can be found in the ‘Read the Bills Act.’ If our elected representatives must actually read every word of every bill, then they just might cut back on the number of bills they introduce. I hope that day comes soon.

I urge you to write your Congressman and Senators, too. Get your start by going to the DownsizeDC.org web site and pick a bill about which to badger your elected representatives.

Recent commentary: Recommended community reading

What book would you recommend for community-wide reading?

(published 30-May-2005, Appleton Post-Crescent)

Nothing wishy-washy, touchy-feely, or namby-pamby. I think that “A History of the American People” by British historian, Paul Johnson, should be read in every school and library in America. It takes a Brit, an avowed fan of the United States, to get us to stop feeling sorry for ourselves. For those whose education left a black hole where American history should be, come to it, as Johnson did, “completely fresh.” In full disclosure, he describes his approach à la former Vice President Spiro Agnew in his salad days: “I have not...accepted the fly-blown philacteries of Political Correctness.” Johnson's history is a tribute to us, the American people, “thrown together by fate in that swirling maelstrom of history which has produced the most remarkable people the world has ever seen. I love them and salute them, and this is their story.” How could you turn down an invitation like that?

I love stories like this XXIV

I was beaten up by a couple of bullies when I first started to attend Edison Elementary School in Appleton, WI, after my mother moved us there. But my mom never thought of such a wonderful retribution as in this story from the Associated Press!

Irate parent rams van into school

PHILADELPHIA - A woman apparently upset over the treatment of her children by other students rammed her minivan into the front of the Huey Elementary School in West Philadelphia this morning.

No children were injured, but a bus attendant standing inside the school was slightly injured when the van with the woman and three children crashed into the front door of the school, about 50 feet from the street.

There was no major damage to the vehicle or the school building and little more than a bumper mark on the door of the school.

School officials say the woman had been complaining that her children were being picked on by other students since being transferred to Huey Elementary in December.

Investigators say they found signs in the van protesting the children's treatment. Authorities say the woman had threatened to drive into the school on Monday, but police were notified and an incident was averted then.

The three children, two boys and one girl, were taken to a nearby hospital to be checked out.

The mother is in police custody and is being questioned.

VDH on what the Democrats need to do

I highly recommend Victor Davis Hanson's latest piece for National Review. A couple samples:

[T]he Democrats need a little more humility, a notion that the country is not so much an us/them dichotomy, but rather all of us together under siege to maintain our privileges in a tough global world — and at least one spokesman who either didn't go to prep school or isn't a lawyer.

And this one on the issue of race:

An Alberto Gonzales or Condoleezza Rice comes across as proud, competent, and an expert rather than a tribalist, while those in the Black Caucus or La Raza industry appear often the opposite. Would you want a sober Colin Powell or an often unhinged Harry Belafonte and surly Julian Bond in your party? Did Condoleezza Rice, answering acerbic senators without notes, or Barbara Boxer, droning off a prepared script, appear the more impressive in recent confirmation hearings?

And on defense:

[I]f al Qaeda, operating from a sanctuary in Iran or Syria, took out the Sears Tower, how would a Kennedy, Kerry, or Gore respond? Six cruise missiles? A police matter? Proper work for the DA? Better "intelligence"? Let's work with our allies? Get the U.N. involved?

And a fine finale:

When we see Democrats speaking and living like normal folks — expressing worry that the United States must return to basic education and values to ensure its shaky preeminence in a cutthroat world, talking of one multiracial society united by a rare exceptional culture of the West rather than a salad bowl of competing races and tribes, and apprising the world that we are principled abroad in our support of democratic nations and quite dangerous when attacked — they will be competitive again. Since they will not do that, they will keep losing — no matter how much the economy worries, the war frightens, and the elite media scares the American people.

Go read it!

From my brother, Dan, in Iraq

Goodbye, insurgents! And precious! The first deserves this explanation:

The video was filmed by some Air Force Joint Tactical Air Controllers (JTAC) in Tal Afar, west of Mosul. They were with Marine Advisor Support Team - they are attached to Iraqi units and help train their forces on a day-to-day basis - who were in a fairly sustained firefight in the streets of Tal Afar with about 3 Anti-Iraqi Forces (AIF). They set their video camera on the bumper of their Up-Armored HMMWV which they were using for cover. You can hear them shooting back and forth. The rounds you can hear are from the Marines and the ones you hear pinging against the side of the vehicle with no accompanying pop are from the AIF. When the JTACs say they just "fired rifle" that means the aircraft just launched the Maverick. You can hear it come in and see it strike the vehicle the AIF were using for cover.

I love stories like this XXIII

"They thought I was mocking the school," said 18-year-old Lake Geneva, WI, high school senior Kerry Lofy of his $249 disorderly conduct ticket. He came to the prom in a dress:

When Lofy showed up in the dress, a blond wig, open-toed platform sandals, blue earrings and a necklace, teachers turned him away. He said he showed up later with a tan-and-black plaid leisure suit over the dress, went inside and whipped off the suit during a dance-off. A security guard escorted him out, he said.

They thought he was mocking the school. Gad! Doesn't this prove that they deserve to be mocked?

I love stories like this XXII

This article from the St. Petersburg Times leaves me scratching my head:

Hillsborough High School in Tampa earned a D grade from the state last year. And under federal standards, it fell far short.

But on Monday, Newsweek magazine named it the 10th best high school in the country.

In the country.

Would anyone care to explain? Well, there's this:

The Newsweek list is based on a single factor: the number of Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate tests taken by all students at a school, divided by the number of graduating seniors. The students don't have to do well on the tests either. It matters only that they take them.

Test scores? No.

Graduation rates? Nope.

Closing the achievement gap between whites and minorities? Forget it.

Critics say the formula is simplistic. For example, a school's rank can actually improve if it has a high dropout rate.

Beats my pair of Jacks...

I love stories like this XXI

Unintended consequences of the No Child Left Behind Act: New York City 8th graders are failing state social studies exams at very high rates:

The failure rate for eighth-graders on a test that measures students' knowledge of basic history and government has climbed steadily from 62% in the 2001-02 school year, to 76% in 2002-03 and 81% in 2003-04.

81%?!?!

J.C. Brizard, the [Education] Department's executive director for high schools, said the real problem was that the 60-question standardized test requires that students be able to read and understand the questions - something he said many cannot do. "They have trouble comprehending what they are reading," Brizard said.

Indeed. Fred Reed said it best:

How is it possible to spend twelve years in school and not be able to read? How? It is beyond me. A sheet of dry wall would be reading in less time.

Recent commentary: Pet peeves

What's your biggest non-political pet peeve?

(published 9-May-2005, Appleton Post-Crescent)

Driving: People who slow way down coming down the on-ramp to merge with traffic on the highway. Fast food: Getting onions when I asked for no onions. Raising teenage boys: Having them complain about taking out the garbage because it interrupts their precious video games — and can someone explain to me the value of a game that costs $40 to $50 but that’s hardly ever played after the first two weeks? Raising a little girl: Seeing her practice pouting in front of the mirror. Household: Family members leaving the jug of milk on the table instead of returning it to the fridge. Wife: The way she has to have everything absolutely perf ... oh! Hello, darling! What? Oh, nothing ... just writing my little blurb for The Post-Crescent. Heh! Heh! Sure, what do you need?

Recent commentary: Negligent gun makers?

Should shooting victims be able to sue gun makers for negligence?

(published 18-Apr-2005, Appleton Post-Crescent)

For negligence?!?! As in, "Hey, Smith & Wesson! You neglected to tell me that a 158 grain .357 magnum slug traveling at 1450 feet per second can lay 737 foot-pounds of hurt on a guy?" [Figures courtesy of www.firearmexpertwitness.com.] As in, "Whoa! You mean you didn't tell that criminal that he shouldn't steal that gun to shoot me with?" What's next? Sue auto manufacturers for making their cars out of metal instead of something soft like, say, cheese curds? Sue liquor manufacturers for making whiskey with – gasp! – alcohol in it? Those barking moonbats who claimed that Bush would have staged a coup d'etat if he had lost back in November are the same people who pooh-pooh the idea that the right to bear arms is the right to resist overweening government – that is to say, fascist government. For you Bush-equals-Hitler fanatics, wouldn't you want as many guns as possible?

Recent commentary: What to ban?

If you could ban something, what would it be?

(published 28-Mar-2005, Appleton Post-Crescent)

Is this thing on? Test! One. Two. Three. OK. Broadcasting live from your newspaper! Today’s Reader Reaction Forum topic: “If you could ban something, what would it be?” First up is Mr. Steve Erbach of Neenah. Steve is a self-employed confuser programmer … What? Oh, sorry, computer programmer ... with something to say about today’s topic. Steve? Thank you, Merv. I gotta say, it’s a privilege to be able to tell the good people of the Fox Valley what they can expect from me in the way of banning the most annoying thing that everybody hates. What an honor! So, here we go! The thing that I would most like to ban is ... What?! I only get 150 words to do this?! Hey, wait a second! That’s not fair! Merv used up a lot of my words! You can’t do this to me! Don’t turn the page yet! Please! Wait! NOOOooo...

I love stories like this XX

For the twentieth version of this topic a story that even I, who have made it a point to seek out stories like this, find incredible. Would you believe that a public school teacher, Wayne Brightly (stunningly ironic name), paid a formerly homeless man with a developmental disability to take the New York state teacher's exam for him? And would you also believe that the homeless guy scored so much better than the teacher did that the state got suspicious? And would you believe that the homeless guy is white and fat and that the teacher is black and slim? Wait! There's more! When the New York Daily News went to Mr. Not-So-Brightly's house to interview him, the teacher claimed that he was the son of the man they were looking for. And, to top it all off, 95% of all NY teachers pass the certification exam. A story rich in delights. It's all here for your reading delectation.

Recent commentary: Renewing the PATRIOT Act

Should Congress renew the USA Patriot Act?

(published 7-Mar-2005, Appleton Post-Crescent)

John Adams said that it's more important "that innocence should be protected than it is that guilt should be punished." That certainly goes against our Judeo-Christian heritage of retribution for crime. Exactly what crimes are we retributing with this monster? The PATRIOT Act contains a lot of language like: "(ii) in paragraph (2)(B), by striking the period and inserting '; and'; and (iii) by inserting at the end the following..." This verbiage amends the federal laws. Therefore you cannot make heads or tails out of it without having that whole lot next to you when you read the PATRIOT Act just to determine whose ox gets gored. I'm with Russ Feingold on this one. The best part of the USA PATRIOT Act is Title II Sec. 224(a): "...this title...shall cease to have effect on December 31, 2005." Take it out behind the barn and kill it with an ax.

I love stories like this XIX

Two stories, actually, from our government-funded public zoos....uh, schools. First, a female high school teacher of physiology and anatomy plunged a knife through a stack of papers on a student's desk. No arrests. No clue where the knife came from, though I wonder if it was a scalpel for dissection.

Second, another grade school child led away in handcuffs. Now, granted, the kid was throwing a fit and knocking over desks and such. He even head-butted his teacher and kicked an assistant principal. But, gosh, folks! He was led away in handcuffs by the police! How old was he? Eight years old. Like, a 2nd or 3rd grader, eh? I wonder if mom and dad had to come to the station to get him. Handcuffs, ladies and gentlemen. On an eight-year-old.

I love stories like this XVIII

[Sigh!] More zero-tolerance in the schools. This story details the pending suspension/expulsion of a 13-year-old boy for tossing a rubber band on his science teacher's desk. The justification offered by the school? He could've shot her eye out!

"They said if he would have aimed it a little more and he would have gotten it closer to her face he would have hit her in the eye," mother Jenette Rojas said.

Rojas said she was shocked to learn that her son was being punished for a Level 4 offense -- the highest Level at the school. Other violations that also receive level 4 punishment include arson, assault and battery, bomb threats and explosives, according to the Code of Student Conduct.

The district said a Level 4 offense includes the use of any object or instrument used to make a threat or inflict harm, including a rubber band.

I love stories like this XVII

Can you imagine yourself in the place of Pfc Rob Jacobs in Korea during mail call? He gets the largest packet of letters from the States and wonders if somebody hasn't made a mistake. No, they're all addressed to him. His buddies kid him about all the girlfriends he's left hanging back home and now the chickens have come home to roost. Very funny.

Now he opens the first letter and reads, "I strongly feel this war is pointless." Who's writing this? Hmmm, the penmanship is like a kid's. It is a kid, a sixth-grader from some school in Brooklyn. What do these others say?

One letter says that because President Bush was re-elected, "only 50 or 100 [soldiers] will survive." Another decries that Jacobs is "being forced to kill innocent people." Still another says that soldiers are "destroying holy places like mosques." Mosques? There aren't any mosques in South Korea!

It was a class project headed by sixth grade teacher, Alex Kunhardt, at JHS 51 in Park Slope, New York. Pfc Jacobs hopes that the kids were coached by the teacher or by their parents. I predict that if the parents are ever interviewed about the letters their children wrote that they'll be proud as can be of the national attention.

Recent commentary: Tax Freedom Day

What special week or day of recognition would you declare?

(published 14-Feb-2005, Appleton Post-Crescent)

A very sad day for me: Tax Freedom Day. A day when I can hardly get out of bed. The day when the average American's federal and state tax obligations are fulfilled. I hate that day. My only consolation this year is that it comes a few days later: April 14th. 2004 was a terrible shock to my system. I had to give up sending money to the federal and state governments by April 11th, the earliest it's been since 1967! You'd think they could give extra money to starving artists in Greenwich Village or something. During the Clinton years Tax Freedom Day advanced from April 20th to May 2nd! A record! Then Bush got in somehow and immediately cut taxes. What good did that do? I feel like I'm letting the National Endowment for the Arts down. I say make Tax Freedom Day a national day of mourning.

Tax Freedom Day

Here's a superb graphic from the Tax Foundation showing the advance of Tax Freedom Day over the past few decades. Tax Freedom day is the day that the average American taxpayer stops working for the guvmint and starts working for himself. Check out what happens after 2000:

Tax Freedom Day, 1963 - 2004



Tax Freedom Day went from a record late date of May 2nd in 2000 all the way back to April 11th in 2004. Note that that's the earliest it's been since Lyndon Johnson's Presidency.

Wiio's Laws of Communications

A blast from the past. These "laws" come from a book called, "The Official Explanations," published in 1980.

1. Communication usually fails -- except by chance. Corollary: If you are satisfied that your communication is bound to succeed, then the communication is bound to fail.
2. If a message can be understood in different ways, it will be understood in just the way that does the most harm.
3. There is always somebody who knows better than you what you meant by your message.
4. The more communication there is, the more difficult it is for communication to succeed. Corollary: The more communication there is, the more difficult it is for communication to succeed. Corollary: The more communication there is, the more misunderstanding will occur.
5. In mass communication it is not important how things are; the important thing is how things seem to be.
6. The importance of a news item is inversely correlated with the square of the distance.

Compiled by Prof. Wiio, Director of the Institute for Communications Research, University of Helsinki.

My kind of guy!

Donald E. Simanek is a professor of physics at Lock Haven University in Pennsylvania. He has a lively interest in pseudo-science, science frauds, flat-earth societies, etc. His web site has a wealth of material on debunking science hoaxes as well as a "Museum of Unworkable Devices." He gave a couple lectures in the mid 90s that I came across today. These lectures dealt with education; specifically its decline. His lectures are based on decades of observation of students in his physics courses at LHU. A sample:

I've even had students ask, with some indignation, "Why must we work so hard in a physics course to get a measly C when we can get A's in non-science courses without ever studying?" I respond, "Why should there be any course on campus you can get an A in without studying?"

I once taught a course where one student scored nearly 100% on every one of my exams, while no one else could score above 50%. Several students got up courage to confront me and complain that I was making the course "too hard for anyone." I pointed out that it was obviously not too hard for the student doing nearly perfect work. They responded, "That's not fair--he studies all the time!" They were not at all happy when I suggested they try copying his method for success.

Well worth your reading.

Fabulous VDH piece

From National Review Online: this rip-roaring column by military historian Victor Davis Hanson, senior fellow at the Hoover Institute of Stanford. There are so many good bits from this column. Here's a choice one (emphasis mine):

Communism and Marxism are dead. Stalin and Mao killed over 80 million and did not make omelets despite the broken eggs. Castro and North Korea are not classless utopias but thugocracies run by megalomaniac dictators who the world prays will die any minute. The global Left knows that the Cold War is over and was lost by the Left, and that Eastern Europeans and Central Americans probably cherish the memory of a Ronald Reagan far more than that of a Francois Mitterrand or Willy Brandt.

Do yourself a favor and read this column.

I love stories like this XVI

It appears that high school students think that the First Amendment is too lenient:

when told of the exact text of the First Amendment, more than one in three high school students said it goes "too far" in the rights it guarantees. Only half of the students said newspapers should be allowed to publish freely without government approval of stories.

And here's the absolute killer (emphasis mine):

The study suggests that students embrace First Amendment freedoms if they are taught about them and given a chance to practice them, but schools don't make the matter a priority.

Prof who stepped in it steps aside

It's interesting to see how quickly things happen these days. University of Colorado professor Ward Churchill wrote an essay immediately after 9-11 in which he said that the people that hijacked those jets and flew them into the Pentagon and the World Trade Center were "combat teams." Yesterday, as a result of the furor raised by the essay -- as well as a number of "credible death threats" -- Churchill resigned his position as chairman of the school's ethnic studies program.

The most interesting thing to me in all of this is that Churchill claimed that the 9-11 attacks were in direct retaliation for the actions of the U.S. in Iraq in the early 90s; specifically the economic sanctions imposed on Iraq and the killing of Iraqi children in a 1991 bombing raid.

So, 9/11 and Iraq ARE connected

At least according to this story about the chairman of the University of Colorado Ethnic Studies Dept., Ward Churchill. From the article:

Churchill's essay argues that the Sept. 11 attacks were in retaliation for the Iraqi children killed in a 1991 U.S. bombing raid and by economic sanctions imposed on Iraq by the United Nations following the Persian Gulf War.

Harry Browne on Social Security

Financial advisor Harry Browne, the Libertarian Party's candidate for President in 1996 and 2000, has a flair for the "Goverment breaks your leg, gives you a crutch, and then tells you you're better off because of them" argument:

Final fix for Social Security

By Harry Browne
http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=23948

The president's Social Security Commission has acknowledged what politicians have been denying for decades - that Social Security has no true reserve fund and that much higher taxes will be required to make good on the promises made to you.

The politicians don't put your Social Security taxes into a "lock box" for your retirement. They give part of the money to current retirees and squander the rest on their favorite boondoggles. Since they've set nothing aside for your rainy day, they can pay you a pension only by taxing your children and grandchildren at higher and higher rates.

"Solving" the Social Security problem wouldn't be as difficult as the politicians and pundits make it seem. But to understand the solution, we must first deal with a few clichés.

Investing for retirement Cliché No. 1: "Some people can't invest properly for their own retirement."

This is typical of politicians' justifying their interference by citing a problem they caused themselves. If they didn't tax interest payments, and if their monetary policies didn't create inflation, anyone could ensure a secure retirement simply by putting 5 percent of his earnings in a bank savings account. No speculation or investing expertise is necessary.

Cliché No. 2: "Some people are too irresponsible to plan ahead for their own retirement."

Of course, some people wouldn't provide for their own retirement - just as some of them won't brush their teeth. But it's wrong to hold the rest of us hostage - to force us into a fraudulent Social Security scheme (or force us to display our teeth for government hygiene inspectors) - simply because some people won't take responsibility for their own lives.

Cliché No. 3: "Social Security would be more solvent if the politicians could increase the system's earnings by
investing the reserves in the stock market."

Social Security brings a new dimension to such concepts as annuities, insurance and retirement. No long, complicated contracts. No actuarial tables to pore over. Social Security operates on a very simple principle: The politicians take your money from you and squander it. Allowing the politicians to boost Social Security's earnings by investing its reserves in the stock market would just give them more money to squander - and they'd still be back soon enough to increase your taxes again.

Cliché No. 4: "Gradually 'privatizing' Social Security will wean people off the system."

The first time the stock market dives, the politicians (both Democratic and Republican) will jump on that as an excuse to take away from you any further control over your own retirement.

The problem and solution Social Security is inherently unsound because it's a political program - run by politicians for political purposes. It will never work. And no attempts to fix it, reform it, or refinance it can make a silk purse out of a politician's ear.

Only a purely libertarian solution can make things right: Shut Social Security down - completely, immediately and for good. End the Social Security tax tomorrow morning and stop making Social Security payments tomorrow evening. Anyone under 50 can have a better retirement putting 10 percent of his income in the bank instead of 15 percent into Social Security.

And what happens to those who are currently dependent on Social Security and those too close to retirement to build a new nest egg?

Have the government make a one-time purchase of private annuities - secure, non-political annuities that guarantee the same income Social Security is paying now to senior citizens.

How will the annuities be paid for?

Sell off assets the federal government shouldn't own anyway - power companies, pipelines, unused military bases, Western lands, oil rights, mineral rights, and the hundreds of thousands of federal buildings that serve no constitutional purpose.

This approach doesn't appeal to politicians, because it takes tax money and power away from them. But the only alternative to it is to resign yourself to having more and more of your income taken from you and poured down the drain.

Three questions

Before we go supporting legislation to reduce human-caused global warming, it would be well if we were all aware of the answers to the following questions:

1. What gas is responsible for approximately 95% of the "greenhouse effect" on planet Earth?

2. Is the United States a net A) Emitter, or B) Absorber of carbon dioxide?

3. Is the global climate now A) Warmer, or B) Cooler than it was approximately 1,000 to 1,100 years ago?

These questions come from a letter on Jerry Pournelles' web site. Here's the complete text.

Here are the answers from the letter:

1. Water vapor is responsible for about 95% of the Earth's greenhouse effect. Carbon dioxide is less than 2% of the total effect, with methane taking up most of the balance, and other gasses responsible for the remainder. But all we EVER hear about is CO2.

2. The U.S., with it's vast forests (more now than in pre-Columbian times) and farmlands is a net ABSORBER of CO2...as opposed to Europe and Japan, which are net emitters.

3. Let's see...they were raising crops of oats in Greenland, and the Icelandic/Viking explorers were calling what is now the chilly area of Newfoundland "Vinland" because of the grapes which grew there. It's an era referred to as the "Medieval Climate Optimum" in old climate textbooks, and was followed by the spread of Black Plague (the fleas of the rats taking advantage of the warmer climate to spread to northern Europe). That period was followed by what used to be referred to as the "Little Ice Age", in which England saw snow in areas never before seen, and the River Thames froze quite solidly on a regular basis. That period ended in the early/middle 1700's, and we've been in a warming trend ever since.

We need to see more like this

The London Times Online published this story today. An excerpt:

One thing not in doubt is that the elections will go ahead and that there will be a result sometime next month. “I think that despite everything, many Iraqis will vote on Sunday,” Fadel Alfatlwi, the head of the Iraqi Institute for Peace and an independent candidate, said. “With the occupation and all the horrible things that have happened, people dream that they will be wealthy and happy. That dream starts with the election.”

We're pulling for them.

You can't make this stuff up!

Man pees his way out of an avalanche after drinking 60 bottles of beer. Oh, man!

It's hard to beat Fred

Fred Reed has a nice rant on education. An excerpt:

How is it possible to spend twelve years in school and not be able to read? How? It is beyond me. A sheet of dry wall would be reading in less time.

How indeed?

Oh, gawd! VI

They're still going. Jesse Jackson and the Democrat supporters of the idea that Bush really lost in Ohio are pushing ahead with charges of vote suppression, intimidation, and fraud. The Dec. 30th MSNBC interview with Jackson is very mild compared to the unbelievable frothing at the mouth on the DemocraticUnderground.com web log.

And, of course, there's more on the book front. Former New Jersey governor, Christine Todd Whitman, has a new book called "It's My Party, Too," in which she

details her many scars and frustrations in dealing with what she calls the "antiregulatory lobbyists and extreme antigovernment ideologues" that she suggests hold too much sway over the Republican party.

according to the Drudge Report.