Archive for 2008
July 25, 2008
July 24, 2008
For an organisation that prides itself on being a well-run administrative machine, the leadership of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards is having a rather testing time. It’s not just last Saturday’s mysterious explosion in a suburb of Tehran that killed 15 people that is causing the leadership sleepless nights, although the nationwide news black-out imposed immediately afterwards does suggest the Revolutionary Guards, the storm troops of Iran’s Islamic Revolution, are rattled.
Details are only now starting to reach the outside world, and it looks increasingly like sabotage was responsible for devastating a military convoy as it travelled through Khavarshahar. The company responsible for moving the equipment, LTK, is owned by the Revolutionary Guards and is suspected of being involved in shipping arms to Lebanon’s Hizbollah Shia Muslim militia, which is trained and funded by Tehran. . . .
In May, officials blamed British and American agents for an explosion at a mosque in Shiraz that had just finished staging an exhibition of Iran’s latest military hardware. Last year more than a dozen Iranian engineers were killed while trying to fit a chemical warhead to a missile in Syria.
A few months earlier, a train reported to be carrying military supplies to Syria was derailed by another mysterious explosion in northern Turkey. It is highly unlikely that these incidents are unrelated, which has only served to deepen the mood of fear and suspicion gripping the Revolutionary Guards’ leadership.
There’s always somebody blustering against the United States: Noriega, Qaddafy, Saddam, whoever. They get a lot of attention, but they tend not to last especially long in that role.
A BIG SALE ON COLLEGE SUPPLIES at Amazon.
WASHINGTON POST: McCain Makes Significant Gains in Key Battleground States.
THE PRESS IS ACTING LIKE an abused spouse.
Why Did the FARC Terrorists Trust the Disguised Colombian Commandos So Completely?
Because they wore the perfect disguise.
They were dressed as reporters.
Indeed.
WELL, THIS HEADLINE WON’T HELP: Obama Scraps Visit to Wounded Troops.
UPDATE: McCain Campaign pounces.
A HURRICANE DOLLY WRAPUP, from Brendan Loy.
CONDI RICE ON THE COLOMBIA FREE TRADE AGREEMENT: Keeping Promises Among Partners. “Colombia has stood by us. We have stood by them. And we have succeeded together. Now is not the time to jeopardize the fruits of our partnership, but to consolidate them. Now is the time to keep our word to Colombia, just as they have kept their word to us. Anything less is no way for a great nation to conduct itself – and no way to repay a faithful partner.” Unless, you know, you want to punish people for being our ally.
HERE’S MORE on the flex-fuel legislation before Congress. “The Open Fuel Standard Act would require that beginning in 2012, 50% of new automobiles, and in 2014, 80% of new automobiles, sold in the U.S. (imported and produced domestically) be warranted to operate on gasoline, ethanol, and methanol, or be warranted to operate on biodiesel.” That’s not too far from the Zubrin plan. You might check out our podcast interview with Bob Zubrin here.
POLL: No bounce for Obama from overseas trip. I don’t think he cares — I think he figures he’s got the election won already, and that this trip is about laying the foundation for his administration’s foreign policy.
UPDATE: That’s the thinking in Germany, too:
Berlin Mayor Klaus Wowereit — who was apparently open to Obama speaking anywhere he wanted in this most international of cities, including the Brandenberg Gate venue which Chancellor Angela Merkel, perhaps prodded by the White House, balked at — had this gushing comment following his meeting with Obama. “He is a very charming and determined man, who has a vision for America and the whole world.â€
The whole world? Hmm …
He’s not running for President of the United States. He’s running for President of Earth.
ANOTHER UPDATE: Word for the day: “presumptuous.” It’s the new “gravitas”!
MORE: Europe and Obama: A Short-Term Relationship?
This, of course, is Europe’s favorite dream: a post-Bush America cut down to size and chastened, a meeker and more modest America, a more “European” (that is, a more social-democratic) America, which at last casts off some of its nastier capitalist habits. An America that is a lot more like us Europeans who have forgone power politics and sovereignty in favor of communitarian politics and integration.
This is the canvas Europeans have been painting with wildly enthusiastic brush strokes. If Obama wins, the reality will be different. Sure, President Obama would speak more softly than did Mr. Bush in his first term, but he would still be carrying the biggest stick on earth. He will preside over an America that is still No. 1 and not part of a multipolar chorus populated by Russia, China, India, and the E.U.
Germans should have read the foreign-policy chapter in Obama’s The Audacity of Hope. There are passages in there which read like pure Bush–on unilateralist action, on the right of pre-emption, on playing the world’s “sheriff.” Obama’s upshot: “This will not change–nor should it.”
Couldn’t have said that better myself.
Some related thoughts here.
MORE STILL: Rasmussen: 63% Say Trip Does Not Make Obama More Fit to be President.
Plus, channeling Superman? Hey, that’s better than David Hasselhoff!
Or even Mr. Cloudo, President of Heaven.
And Professor Bainbridge asks: “Is it just me or is anybody else starting to get a little creeped out by the whole Barack Obama phenomenon? . . . Personally, I find this fervor spooky and creepy. ” Well, maybe. It reminds me of the Bay City Rollers.
THIS IS COMFORTING: “More than three-quarters of bank Web sites have design flaws that could expose bank customers to financial loss or identity theft, according to a University of Michigan study that will be presented this week at the Symposium on Usable Security and Privacy.”
OBAMA AT THE VICTORY MONUMENT: I think the Hitler-related criticism of this venue is misplaced. In modern times, the Berlin Victory monument is much more closely associated with the Berlin Love Parade, a rave/techno event that has far more in common with the Obama campaign than anything organized by Albert Speer. (Though I think the exclusion of Hardcore and Gabba music may have led to a few charges of fascism. . . .) While it’s possible that some of the Love Parade-related images might not win over American swing voters, I think you’ll agree that there’s not much of the Nazi in them . . . . (Possibly NSFW).
UPDATE: Related thoughts from Ann Althouse. “I guess we’re not supposed to think about how Obama wanted and still wants to give up on the Iraq war. Surely, if he’d been there in 1948, he would have said the Berlin airlift is hopeless. He thought the surge was hopeless.”
ANOTHER UPDATE: Tom Maguire disagrees with Ann Althouse. [Link was bad before; fixed now. Sorry!]
MORE: Hitting below the belt: President Hasselhoff?
STILL MORE: David Weigel: “I don’t think an Obama victory discredits neoconservatism. He’s offering neoconservatism with a human face.”
FINALLY: TigerHawk on Manning Up.
DOUGHNUTS: Is there anything they can’t do? “Finally, the scientific finding every man has been waiting to hear: carbo-loading on doughnuts optimizes your lifespan and makes you sexually potent. Too bad the research only applies to crickets (so far . . . ).”
A DOMESTIC TERRORISM CONVICTION: ” A man recruited to join a domestic terrorist cell that was plotting to attack United States military facilities, ‘infidels,’ and Israeli and Jewish targets in the Los Angeles area as part of a ‘jihad’ was sentenced today to more than 12½ years in federal prison. Gregory Patterson, 24, of Gardena, was sentenced to 151 months in prison by United States District Judge Cormac J. Carney. Last month, another man recruited into the terror plot, Levar Washington, 30, was sentenced to 22 years in prison.” If this has gotten much press, I missed it.
THE DANGERS OF INDOOR SWIMMING POOLS: One of my nieces recently got some lung problems (only temporary) from breathing chlorine at an indoor pool. Symptoms were a sore throat and a chest cough.
PORKBUSTERS UPDATE: I can’t say that I’m surprised to hear this: Voters Want Less Pork, Even in Their Own District.
Conducted in late June, the poll surveyed 800 voters and had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.46%. Likely voters were asked the following question: “All things being equal, for whom would you be more likely to vote for the U.S. Congress: 1) A candidate who wants to cut overall federal spending, even if that includes cutting some money that would come to your district or 2) A candidate who wants to increase overall spending on federal programs, as long as more federal spending and projects come to your district?”
The results were unambiguous. Fifty-four percent of general election voters chose the frugal candidate, compared with only 29% who chose the profligate candidate. Republicans overwhelming favor less federal spending, 72% to 17%, with independents close behind at 61%. Only Democrats prefer more federal spending, but only by a plurality. Thirty-six percent of Democrats chose the more fiscally conservative candidate, with 42% choosing the alternative. . . . Voters across America don’t see their elected officials “listening” and “providing.” Instead they see spending that is wasteful, prone to corruption, arbitrary and inefficient.
In particular, the connection between earmarks and corruption — and the use of earmarks to buy votes for big wasteful spending bills — means that the damage done by profligate earmarking is much greater than the earmark price tag alone suggests.
JOHN TIERNEY ON DUBIOUS CLAIMS OF SEX BIAS IN SCIENCE:
You’ll find sweeping assertions of discrimination in academia against female scientists if you read the executive summary of the National Academy of Sciences’ 2006 report, which was issued by a committee led by Donna Shalala. But if you look in the report for evidence of bias, you find studies showing that female graduate students in general (and those without children in particular) are as likely as men to finish their studies, and that they’re as likely to have mentors and assistantship support. According to the report, there were some differences in productivity — male graduate students published more than female students, and tenured male professors published about 8 percent more than female tenured professors — but when men and women were up for tenure, they received it at similar rates. . . .
I was also interested to see Dr. Nelson’s comparable figures for white males, because it certainly looks as if their “millennium of affirmative action†has ended. Dr. Nelson found that white male Ph.D.’s are overrepresented among assistant professors in just three disciplines: chemistry, biological sciences and psychology. They roughly break even in two other fields, political science and sociology. And they’re underrepresented in everything else — 10 of the 15 disciplines surveyed by Dr. Nelson.
Read the whole thing. Meanwhile, I’d like Congressional hearings into the enormous shortage of male teachers at the K-12 level. Not only is the disparity in numbers huge, but there is strong evidence of pervasive bias against male entry into this field, and strong evidence that students — both male and female — suffer from the shortage of men in education at these levels.
THIS IS KIND OF COOL: Ford F-150 hybrid pick up truck gets 41 mpg.
But of course if you want great mileage, it’s not just hybrids that deliver: Consider the Jetta TDI, which also gets a federal tax credit. And, while we’re on the subject of efficient cars, it’s interesting that GM is working with utilities to prepare for the Chevy Volt’s arrival.
STREET-TESTING the new Nissan GT/R. I don’t find the styling very attractive, though.
IT’S THE ANNIVERSARY of Hiram Bingham’s discovery of Machu Picchu. As I’ve mentioned before, Bingham was the Yale professor said by some to be the model for Indiana Jones. On the one hand, it’s mostly Yalies who say that. On the other hand, look at this book cover photo and make up your own mind . . . .
SOCIAL CONSERVATIVE misrepresenting gay conservatives?
SPACE ALIENS IN DERBYSHIRE’S DRIVEWAY? Well, there is a government coverup, you know. In fact, the Iraq invasion was really all about recovering a crashed alien spaceship — everything else was just to fool the rubes. It was worth it, though, for all the advanced technology we’re reverse-engineering.
OF COURSE, AT THIS RATE THERE MAY NOT BE MUCH OF A BATTLEFIELD BY THE TIME IT GETS THERE: Laser Truck Inches Closer to Iraq Battlefield: Exclusive First Look.
In an attempt to shore up its safe havens in the war zone, the Pentagon asked Boeing a year ago to develop a preliminary design for a system that could control a laser beam—but not just any laser beam. This one would come mounted on a truck that could defeat a persistent surprise threat from above. And this week the defense contractor delivered, bringing the Army one step closer to getting what can only be described as a laser truck—one capable of disabling incoming rounds.
No doubt it will find employment somewhere, however.