Tuesday, July 12, 2005

Frog-march Watch


Picture credit: http://pharyngula.org
Excel web sharing - spreadsheet collaboration over the Internet made easy with BadBlueLeon at RedState neatly ties together the loose ends (hat tip: Ms. Malkin):

  • Wilson lied about how he got to Niger

  • Wilson lied about seeing a report that didn't exist at the time

  • Wilson lied about the conclusions of his own report

  • Wilson lied about what the administration had been told


  • ...[And] in the course of attempting to discredit the ludicrously false claims, someone in the White House (presumably Rove) told the press that Wilson was sent to Niger on dubious premises in the first place (the recommendation of his wife), without giving the name of Wilson's wife, which Rove apparently did not know.

    When this story first broke on the scene, I thought that Rove should properly be banished from the administration team, despite the fact that even at that time it was pretty clear that no crime took place. However, given the serial and politically motivated lies of Wilson and Plame, it's clear that the fairy tale the liberals have constructed in which Plame was the heroic CIA agent unjustly outed by Arch-Demon Karl Rove is totally and completely false - and I won't be shedding any more tears about either of their fates.


    That being said, if Rove violated any laws, he should prosecuted fully and completely. But I wouldn't look for him to be frog-marched out of the White House anytime soon. We still don't know who told Novak about Plame.

    Monday, July 11, 2005

    Marking the End of the 'Covenant of Security'


    LondonistanThe British authorities continue to track the perpetrators of last week's atrocities. A leaked report from Number 10 Downing Street points to some of the possible motivations behind the bombings. And, oddly enough, Iraq wasn't the original impetus in recruiting disaffected British extremists:

    The perception is that passive ‘oppression’, as demonstrated in British foreign policy, e.g., non-action on Kashmir and Chechnya, has given way to ‘active oppression’. The war on terror, and in Iraq and Afghanistan, are all seen by a section of British Muslims as having been acts against Islam.”

    In an interview yesterday, Blair denied that the London terrorist attacks were a direct result of British involvement in the Iraq war. He said Russia had suffered terrorism with the Beslan school massacre despite its opposition to the war, and terrorists were planning further attacks on Spain even after the pro-war government was voted out.

    “September 11 happened before Iraq, before Afghanistan, before any of these issues and that was the worst terrorist atrocity of all,” he said.


    The fact is, using the traditional (but often misguided) equation that tolerance will always yield understanding, the British have ignored a high degree of outrageous, anti-Western speech, as exemplied by this 2004 press release from the organization running the "Londonistan under Islam Rally":

    ...it is a fundamental belief of every Muslim that Islam will one day dominate the world, including Britain, it is just a matter of time. Today we call for the people to embrace Islam and change the law and order themselves – tomorrow an Islamic State may forcefully remove all obstacles in the way of the implementation of Islamic law, as part of its foreign policy...


    That doesn't sound much like peaceful coexistence to me.

    In fact, this July 2004 report from the San Francisco Chronicle described last year's state-of-affairs:

    The presence of militants... has earned the British capital the sobriquet "Londonistan" among diplomats and terrorism experts, who see London as a worldwide center of Islamic terrorism.

    "The Islamists use Britain as a propaganda base but wouldn't do anything to a country that harbors them and gives them freedom of speech," Camille Tawil, a terrorism expert at the Arabic daily Al Hayat, told the New Statesman magazine.


    Whoops! I guess someone forgot to tell the extremists. In fact, commentators like Daniel Pipes have long warned of the folly represented by tolerating hate speech. Such tolerance was, at best, a Faustian bargain, which some termed a "covenant of security":

    ...To the extent the allowing of Islamists and terrorists safe haven on British soil is a conscious decision to keep the UK safe at the expense of others, this is an immoral and despicable policy that must be changed immediately...


    Jamie Campbell, writing in August of 2004 in the New Statesman, offered a more direct warning:

    ...[Hassan] claims [there are] a further thousand Brits who, like him, would subscribe to a martyrdom operation within Britain if given the chance. He knows of five Brits and one American, all university educated, who have left the UK in the past two months heading for a desolate jihadi training camp in Pakistan. Two weeks ago, he met with an autonomous Islamist cell in the UK which possessed large quantities of Semtex, and which was capable of launching an immediate and major attack...


    There is little question that the "Londonistan strategy" of tolerating extremist hate speech was a dangerous game. And, in fact, if such tolerance was an official policy of sorts, it probably violated UN resolution 1373 (9/28/2001 - ironically drafted by the British). 1373 called on states to, "...Deny safe haven to those who finance, plan, support, or commit terrorist acts... and to... [p]revent those who finance, plan, facilitate or commit terrorist acts from using their respective territories for those purposes against other states or their citizens..."

    Just days ago, Pipes wrote:

    Four major explosions in London this morning mark the end of the "covenant of security."

    Internet Instruction Manuals


    Picture credit: http://www.telegraph.co.uk
    chilling video circulating on terrorist websitesThe Telegraph reports that a terrifying video is making the rounds of some terrorist websites: how to make your own, do-it-yourself suicide belt.

    The 26-minute tape gives a detailed, step-by-step guide on how to pack the belt with shrapnel and high explosive, and then detonate it on board for maximum loss of life... A voice-over explains exactly where the would-be bomber should sit on the vehicle in order to maximise the blast...

    ...it is thought to have been shot in the Palestinian territories, where Arab militants have frequently used suicide belts in attacks on Israeli citizens...

    ...The video is among dozens of terrorist self-teaching aids circulating on jihadi message boards and websites, alongside manuals on the manufacture of poisonous chemicals and bacteria, urban guerrilla warfare tactics, and the use of rocket-propelled grenades and missiles.


    Oh, if only we hadn't invaded Iraq! Oh, wait, you say these videos are from the Palestinian territories? And they may pre-date the Iraq invasion? Oh. Forget it.

    Chilling video circulating on terrorist websites

    Sunday, July 10, 2005

    "Iraq has made things worse"


    Picture credit: http://www.foxnews.com
    Excel web sharing - spreadsheet collaboration over the Internet made easy with BadBlueIf there's one thing the MSM/DNC does well (and goodness knows, reporting and analysis ain't among them), presenting a unified front may be it.

    Since the London attacks, there's been a concerted effort on the part of their mouthpieces to force-feed the public a new meme. It is simply: "Iraq has made things worse". Echoed by Franken, Oliphant, Reagan, and many, many others, this assertion is so obviously and provaby false it would be utterly laughable were the consequences not so serious. Even the Times, which calls the global war on terror a "so-called war", is following this intellectually dishonest and ultimately damaging reasoning.

    And perhaps someone could point NBC White House correspondent David Gregory, who seems woefully unprepared to discuss these topics in public, to a couple of old news articles:

    MSNBC: 2 arrested in alleged plot to bomb NYC subway - A U.S. citizen and a Pakistani national were arrested in an alleged plot to bomb a subway station in midtown Manhattan, and possibly other locations around the city, police said Saturday. Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said the men were not believed to be connected to al-Qaida or any other international terrorist organization, although he said they expressed hatred for America.


    Not tied to Al Qaeda? Wait... just... a... second... I thought we were only fighting Bin Laden's crew! But, wait, there's more!

    ENN: Terrorist plot to bomb the New York City Subway System - Members of the New York City Joint Terrorism Task Force... made a raid on a Brooklyn apartment and seized several pipe bombs and arrested three men, described as being "Middle Eastern." [Officials are] now investigating to see if there was a possible plot to bomb the New York City subway system and other targets... ...the [apparent] plan called for an attack on the Atlantic Avenue station, which includes ten subway lines and a Long Island Rail Road terminal...


    Hold the phone! This article is from 1997? You mean this predates the Iraq war? How can that be?

    And perhaps the meme-squirters on the Left could explain the following table (source: WikiPedia), which lists terror attacks by death toll. Here are the first ten:

    FatalitiesTerror Attack
    2,992September 11, 2001 attacks, (New York City, Arlington, VA, Shanksville, PA, United States, 2001)
    344Beslan School Siege, (Beslan, Russia, 2004)
    329Air India Flight 182 (Atlantic Ocean, south of Ireland, 1985)
    299US and French barracks bombings, (Beirut, Lebanon, 1983)
    270Pan Am Flight 103, (Lockerbie, Scotland, 1988)
    2571993 Mumbai bombings (Mumbai, India, 1993)
    2251998 U.S. embassy bombings, (Tanzania, Kenya, 1998)
    220Kerbala and Baghdad attacks [2], (Iraq, 2004)
    2022002 Bali bombing, (Indonesia, 2002)
    19111 March 2004 Madrid train bombings, (Spain, 2004)


    Strangely enough, only two of the ten attacks (#8 and #10) can be connected to the Iraq war.

    And even the London attacks, notes Bill Roggio, are seemingly connected not just to Iraq but also to Afghanistan:

    ...The [terrorists'] statement also warned "Denmark, Italy and all of the Crusader governments" that they will be attacked if they do not withdraw their troops from Iraq and Afghanistan [emphasis added]. The usual suspects will claim the attacks were motivated by Iraq, it should be noted that involvement in Afghanistan was also declared as a motive by al Qaeda.


    In September 2002, al-Qa’ida spokesman Suleiman Abu Gheith stated, "We have the right to kill four million Americans - two million of them children - and to exile twice as many and wound and cripple hundreds of thousands. It is our right to fight them with chemical and biological weapons."

    And US expert Graham Allison, from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, who has studied nuclear proliferation at length, warns, "In my own considered judgment, on the current path, a nuclear attack on America in the decade ahead is more likely than not."

    Yet the single, ridiculous contention emanating from the MSM/DNC is this:

    The root cause of terrorism is fighting against it

    The enemy believes we are locked in a world war. Conservatives believe likewise. Many on the Left claim not only that we are not fighting a war, but that we should also withdraw into a shell, change nothing in the Middle East, and hope for the best.

    Don't tell them that they are utter laughingstocks. You might disturb their delicate balance of hatred for the Bush administration and frustration at their long-running series of election losses. It is a streak certain to continue, at least until their leadership is replaced from the ground up.

    Saturday, July 09, 2005

    The Fate of the Whigs


    Map of Jihad, Jihadist AttacksExhibit A. Here's a very quick quiz: which snippet is the work of a New York Times op-ed piece and which is the product of the Arab News (hat tip: Best of the Web)?

    #1:

    Words of condemnation and solidarity are fine and great in their symbolic value, but they are not enough unless backed by practical measures in cooperation with Britain and the rest of the civilized world to defeat the evil forces of terrorism.

    To win the war against terror, and it must be won, we need to understand the terrorists' strategy and tactics. First they need a motive, second an operational capability to carry out attacks, and third an aim. The last is almost impossible to identify in the case of Al-Qaeda, since it is not clear what constitutes a strategic "victory" for them. . . . Al-Qaeda's terrorists have no respect for human life.


    ...and...

    #2:

    That fear has already led to questions about why the British security agencies did not anticipate the attacks, why the wealthy nations have not done enough about the root causes of terrorism and why Al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden continue to function after almost four years of the so-called war on terrorism. Many will wonder why the United States is mired in Iraq while Al Qaeda's leader still roams free.


    Ready for the answers?

    #1 is from the Arab News: Adel Darwish Editorial

    #2 was authored by the New York Times: London Under Attack

    Exhibit B: consider the following snippet from Hugh Hewitt's interview with the towering intellect known as Thomas Oliphant:

    Hewitt: ...do you really think that that bombing would not have happened yesterday...is there a chance in your mind, that it wouldn't have happened yesterday, had we not invaded Iraq?

    Oliphant: Yes, I think there is.


    Exhibit C, from MSNBC's Connected, Ronald Reagan Junior suffers catastrophic punishment at the hands of Christopher Hitchens who patiently explains a tiny fraction of Iraq's links to terror:

    CH: Do you know nothing about the subject at all? Do you wonder how Mr. Zarqawi got there under the rule of Saddam Hussein? Have you ever heard of Abu Nidal?

    RR: Well, I'm following the lead of the 9/11 Commission, which...

    CH: Have you ever heard of Abu Nidal, the most wanted man in the world, who was sheltered in Baghdad? The man who pushed Leon Klinghoffer off the boat, was sheltered by Saddam Hussein. The man who blew up the World Trade Center in 1993 was sheltered by Saddam Hussein, and you have the nerve to say that terrorism is caused by resisting it? And by deposing governments that endorse it? ... At this stage, after what happened in London yesterday?...

    RR: Zarqawi is not an envoy of Saddam Hussein, either.

    CH: Excuse me. When I went to interview Abu Nidal, then the most wanted terrorist in the world, in Baghdad, he was operating out of an Iraqi government office. He was an arm of the Iraqi State, while being the most wanted man in the world. The same is true of the shelter and safe house offered by the Iraqi government, to the murderers of Leon Klinghoffer, and to Mr. Yassin, who mixed the chemicals for the World Trade Center bombing in 1993. How can you know so little about this, and be occupying a chair at the time that you do?


    Hitchens goes on to explain:

    More than 4,000 people have died as Islamic terrorism has spread across the world over the last decade [ed: see illustration above] ...

    Liberals are nevertheless convinced that this latest attack must be due to the war in Iraq. No word yet on the others.


    Consider, then, the mantra of the left: "we would be safer had we never invaded Iraq". The staggering illogic of this meme is well summarized by James Lileks:

    I know the 90s don’t matter at all; I know that nothing we believed in the 90s has any relevance, but you might want to heed a fellow named Osama who declared war on the West, and cited the sanctions against Iraq as one of his causus belli.

    Let us assume then that the Iraq campaign had never taken place. By now either the sanctions that so inflamed Osama’s sensibilities would still be in place, or they would have been removed due to international pressure. Saddam would still be in power, free to spend the Oil-for-Food money as he pleased, lavishing stipends on Palestinian suicide bombers, building up his own weapons programs without fear of international interference, having weekly meetings with Zarkawi. (Who would have been something other than a terrorist, of course. A chiropractor, perhaps. Or a botanist.) The situation in Lebanon would be unchanged; Libya would be happily pursuing its own agenda. And we would be safer?


    The American people, of course, know better. They are not stupid. They are not steeped in illogic. In ever increasing numbers, the country is turning crimson. The states growing the fastest are red. 97 of the 100 fastest growing counties are red. Captain Ed:

    It appears that while Dean rages and foams at the mouth, ostensibly trying to rally the troops, what their interest groups have seen is the face of a long, long time in the minority. Their current leadership may well preside over the steepest decline in recent American political history, and unless the Democrats take steps to change them for responsible voices of loyal opposition soon, they will find themselves not just threatened with generational minority status but possibly with the fate of the Whigs.


    Indeed. A significant segment of today's left appears to be made up of a fascinating combination of demagogues, obstructionists, serial fabricators and plain, old-fashioned simpletons who are incapable of adding two and two. Thankfully, such a combination won't win elections and may, in fact, force their very extinction after a few more election cycles.

    Abraham Lincoln: "We have, as all will agree, a free Government, where every man has a right to be equal with every other man. In this great struggle, this form of Government and every form of human right is endangered if our enemies succeed."

    DJ Drummond: The American Way

    Friday, July 08, 2005

    Confirm John Bolton


    Picture credit: http://www.paktribune.com
    Excel web sharing - spreadsheet collaboration over the Internet made easy with BadBlueIf the London terror cells had been able to acquire WMDs, there's little doubt they'd have used them.

    The anti-Bolton cabal of Chris Dodd, Joe Biden, and tearful George Voinovich are in perilous territory. In April 2004, the UN Security Council passed Resolution 1540, which locks down proliferation of WMDs. 1540 bans A.Q. Khan-style WMD parts-trading networks and is a Chapter Seven action and therefore binding. It requires all member states to create, control and audit export and shipment of any item that can be used for WMD production.

    The Journal's Daniel Henninger comments:

    Mr. Bolton is famous for his views of North Korea, but he is expert in the activities of one other incorrigible proliferator--Iran. Yesterday I asked a high international official, whose job is to develop global anti-terror structures, which states are still actively supporting terrorism. He said, "There are two, Syria and Iran."

    If the U.S. Senate wanted to send a signal of resolve and seriousness to whoever bombed London, Democrats would join with Republicans their first day back to dispatch proven anti-terror warrior John Bolton straight to the U.N. They won't. They'll keep playing political fiddles while London burns.

    The standard response to all this is that if George Bush and Tony Blair hadn't done Iraq, we'd all be as one in the war on terror. The standard response before September 11, was that if we weren't so close to terror-beset Israel, none of this would ever happen. For 30 years, the standard response to this terror has gotten many of us killed.


    WSJ: 'Close Guantanamo'? Our politics fiddles while London burns.

    Thursday, July 07, 2005

    Confederacy of Cowards


    Picture credit: http://www.paktribune.com
    Excel web sharing - spreadsheet collaboration over the Internet made easy with BadBlueThe geniuses at Air America have pinpointed the cause of the London terror attacks. And, yes, of course: it's the Bush administration's fault. Who else would you expect?

    The business-savvy Al Franken interviews the shining wit *, Thomas Oliphant:
    * Spoonerism

    Franken: ...have we made things worse...

    Oliphant: ...let's assume for a second that the authorities are correct, that it appears to be jihadists, um, were they inspired by the American occupation in Iraq? The middle east situation? What was it?

    ...what I think is so awful, in the short term, is that we don't see, is this culture that lacks acountability in the United States, just fascinates me.

    Franken: You are talking about the Administration?

    Oliphant: Yes!


    Paraphrasing Hugh Hewitt, yes, they are that misguided, as is most of the Democratic party. Which is precisely why they can not be trusted with anything more substantial than a microphone or a keyboard.

    The facts of the matter are simple and, yet, for reasons of intellectual bankruptcy, demagoguery, obstructionism, or plain old-fashioned stupidity, some on the Left blithely ignore the historical facts that sit plainly in front of their very noses:

    *There have been jihadists attacking the West since 1993.

    *If the London cell had had WMD, they would have used them.

    *WMD are being produced by regimes around the world that hate the United States, Great Britain and the west.

    *Eventually those regimes will arm cells with WMD unless we either (a)destroy the cells before they get the WMD, (b)destroy the regimes that produce WMD, or (c) do both (a) and (b).

    We cannot be making it "worse" by killing terrorists in Iraq, disarming Libya, rolling Syria back from Lebanon, and pursuing Islamist fanatics wherever we find them.

    We made it "worse" by doing nothing from 1993 until 9/11.

    There is no other way, and any fool who says there is is simply that, a fool. Worse, a dangerous fool.


    Mark Steyn, on Hewitt's show this evening, powerfully dispenses with the Oliphants and Frankens of the world, who would simply bury their heads in the sand and offer surrender. All the while, these geniuses would assume that their exposed posteriors could magically avoid the hard kicks aimed their way.

    ...when you're dealing with a situation where a guy is trying to kill you, you don't really care what his motivations are. You need to be able to stop him from killing you...

    ...I wonder if [Durbin will] be making comparisons between Gitmo and the tactics of the bombers today in London...

    ...there are already rumors that one of these men involved in this thing, was somebody who was released from Guantanamo. I mean, the fact of the matter is, that all of the guys in Gitmo would like to be out there doing this kind of thing...

    ...These are people who enjoy killing infidels. They enjoy killing schoolchildren. They enjoy killing Red Cross workers. They've just murdered the Egyptian ambassador in Iraq... They enjoy killing. And if you are an infidel, you're a target.


    If the reins of the Democratic party continue to be held by the likes of Kennedy, Durbin, and Pelosi; and if their ideological helmsmen are members of the surrender posse (e.g., the New York Times, Al Franken and the Einstein-like Thomas Oliphant), then they are certain to continue losing elections.

    Echoing the talking points of the Bin Ladens, the Zarqawis, the suicide-bombers, the head-choppers, the Richard Reids, the Muhammad Attas, and all of the Jihadists who have waged a bloody series of attacks against America since 1993 -- and who have promised to kill millions of Americans if they are able -- the Democratic party is simply trapped.

    Fearful of eroding their central, load-bearing column -- the Howard Dean and Michael Moore-inspired hard left flock -- the Democrats have instead chosen to jettison the American people. They will learn another hard lesson in the 2006 elections, assuming the current Democratic structure remains in place. And, from all apperances it will.

    As DJ Drummond says: "There’s a good reason the U.S. hasn’t been attacked on our soil since 9/11, but you won’t hear it from a Democrat."

    Wednesday, July 06, 2005

    Her Majesty's Secret Donut


    Picture credit: http://www.wired.com
    Excel web sharing - spreadsheet collaboration over the Internet made easy with BadBlueIn the next month or so, the 4,000 or so cryptographers and intelligence officials associated with the UK Government move into their new haunt. The agency credited with breaking the Enigma cipher during World War II will be 'oused in a 1.1 million square foot, doughnut-shaped building. The cost? Around $630 million. Some of the features include:

    Armor-Plated Rooftop
    The roof, sheathed in a special aluminum, is designed to withstand airplane impacts.

    Wiretap Central
    A chamber under the interior courtyard shields the computer center, an 1,850-mile, billion-dollar network of fiber-optic cable that monitors email and phone calls around the world. It's surrounded by a series of tunnels and shelters.

    Stuctural Integrity
    The round exterior forces shock waves from explosions to ripple around the building, diffusing as they go.

    Tough skin
    A one-story, 2-foot-thick concrete wall is topped with three stories of blast-proof glass.

    Privacy windows
    A second wall of glass, hung behind the first and composed of panels set at irregular angles, obscures views from outside.


    Wired: Her Majesty's Secret Donut

    Anatomy of a Hack


    Protect Your Windows Network : From Perimeter to Data (Microsoft Technology) by Jesper M. Johansson, Steve RileyThe folks at InformIT -- actually authors Steve Riley and Jesper Johansson -- have excerpted a chapter of their security book entitled, "Protect Your Windows Network: From Perimeter to Data". The chapter is an interesting discussion of the pros and cons of penetration testing. In it, they discuss the anatomy of a "typical" hacking attempt and how how black-hats take advantage of typical configuration errors. Their intent? Education in order to protect networks by omitting the most common mistakes.

    InformIT: Anatomy of a Hack - Rise and Fall of your Network

    Monday, July 04, 2005

    Blog Worms


    Picture credit: http://securityawareness.blogspot.com
    Excel web sharing - spreadsheet collaboration over the Internet made easy with BadBlueThe incredible popularity of the PHP web application language has an obvious downside: if a significant vulnerability is discovered, it will take a while to patch all of the relevant systems. Netcraft reported today that just such a weakness has been discovered: the XML-RPC libraries (conventional and PEAR) allow remote execution of PHP code via a failed escapement of quotes. Popular applications such as PostNuke, WordPress and Drupal are vulnerable.

    Such an exploit combined with Santy-style installation techniques (i.e., it uses Google to search for potential victims) could wreak havoc on thousands of servers.

    Netcraft: PHP Blogging Apps Vulnerable to XML-RPC Exploits

    Report: unrest in China a sign of democracy


    Picture credit: http://www.sojo.net
    Excel web sharing - spreadsheet collaboration over the Internet made easy with BadBlueHong Kong newspapers are reporting that growing civil unrest in rural areas of China may signal public awareness of democratic rights. Reports in the South China Morning Post indicate that thousands of farmers surrounded a police station in Sanshangang township over the weekend. The farmers demanded the release of arrestees who had protested the government's recent land grabs.

    Thank goodness for the speeches of Ted Kennedy and Howard Dean, which are certain to have inspired freedom-seekers all over the world.

    A senior Chinese official said increasing unrest in rural China was the result of growing public awareness about democratic rights, a Hong Kong newspaper reported Monday...

    ...In early June, six people were killed and up to 50 were injured after some 200 thugs were hired to beat up farmers in a village in Hebei province for refusing to comply with government eviction orders.

    Although reports of the unrest have garnered international attention, Chen said many other protests had gone unreported.

    "There are at least three million villages across the country and you can imagine how many problems crop up each day," he told the paper.


    Philippine Daily Inquirer: Growing rural unrest in China a sign of democracy

    Honoring Heroes on Independence Day


    Picture credit: http://fightingfourth.com
    Fallen HeroesToday is the day that we celebrate our independence. With all of its foibles and with all its backbiting, caterwauling critics, there is no question but that the United States of America is the greatest force for good that the planet Earth has ever seen.

    Photo
    Remembering Fallen Heroes

    How can I prove that contention?

    Here's an easy test: what country struggles to control its immigration -- legal and illegal -- more than any other? I think you can guess the answer. Yes, it's the U.S. Here's a Google search for "USA immigration." It yields about five and a half million results and numerous advertisements, which are all designed to address a question that interests people the world over: how do I immigrate to the United States? 

    In fact, I decided to do a quick test using Google. I searched for "country name  immigration" and tallied the number of results for each country. The results are in the accompanying table. Certain countries have search terms qualified to omit irrelevant results (e.g., Jordan to remove references to "Barbara Jordan"; all such special cases are noted below with the specific hyperlinks):

    United States29,900,000   Sweden1,230,000
    Canada8,150,000   Iran1,280,000
    UK5,470,000   Egypt1,220,000
    Mexico4,940,000   Vietnam1,180,000
    France4,870,000   Indonesia1,160,000
    China4,700,000   Norway1,110,000
    Australia4,370,000   Thailand1,070,000
    Japan3,800,000   Argentina997,000
    Germany3,830,000   Taiwan943,000
    India3,370,000   Denmark938,000
    Israel2,810,000   North Korea933,000
    Russia2,540,000   Cuba885,000
    Italy2,520,000   Jordan878,000
    Spain2,300,000   Saudi Arabia860,000
    New Zealand1,720,000   Libya812,000
    Pakistan1,470,000   Syria790,000
    South Africa1,440,000   Yemen772,000
    Turkey1,390,000   Sudan767,000
    Brazil1,320,000   Kuwait730,000
    Poland1,290,000   Iceland720,000
    Switzerland1,280,000   Cambodia686,000
    Belgium1,250,000   South Korea658,000


    This, I think, is indicative of how many people are trying to get into the United States. And I think it's safe to say which country -- by a huge margin -- is most desirable.

    In remembrance of Independence Day and the heroes who are fighting and dying to preserve our freedom, I ask you to consider a donation to the Fallen Heroes Last Wish Foundation:

    The objective of this foundation is to grant the last wish of the U.S. servicemembers who have been lost in Operation Iraqi Freedom: to provide for their children.


    Donations are tax-deductible and can be made via PayPal. Dan O'Dowd of Green Hills Software is matching every dollar with two of his own (up to $200,000). So each dollar you donate is multiplied by three automatically.

    Other worthy causes include FreedomCalls, which provides technology supporting communications between soldiers serving in Afghanistan and Iraq and their families, and Soldiers' Angels, a support group for American service members stationed around the world. No matter the specific organization, a donation to any of these worthy causes benefit the soldiers and families who have sacrificed so much for us. What have we done to deserve such heroes?

    Make a donation

    More Noteworthy July 4 posts:

    Captain's Quarters: A Fourth for Remembrance
    Clarity and Resolve: Now More than Ever
    Froggy Ruminations: Words of Wisdom
    Michelle Malkin: Rove-ing Reports
    Outside the Beltway: Critics Call Radio Hosts’ Trip Propaganda Mission
    Wizbang: What if We hadn't Invaded Iraq?

    Sunday, July 03, 2005

    Training for Improved Stamina


    Picture credit: Scandinavian Boxing Rankings
    Excel web sharing - spreadsheet collaboration over the Internet made easy with BadBlueThe man many observers believe is the finest pound-for-pound boxer in the world -- Floyd Mayweather, Junior -- was on HBO last night. The broadcast was a repeat of last Saturday's pay-per-view event from Atlantic City, in which Mayweather opposed veteran Arturo Gatti.

    I hesitate to call it a fight, though. A demolition, perhaps. Utter domination, certainly. The still-undefeated Mayweather exercised a hand- and foot-speed advantage seldom seen at this level of competition. After three rounds, Mayweather looked like he was hardly breaking a sweat, while Gatti was sucking down water, struggling to stay in the bout. After six rounds, Gatti's corner threw in the towel.

    The punch-stat totals were as one-sided as you can imagine. Mayweather connected on 57% of his punches, compared to a measly 17% for Gatti: 168 to 41. The numbers were even more skewed for power shots: 115 to 10. It is hard to imagine a more thorough annihilation of a proven, experienced boxer by a younger man.

    Why was Mayweather so fast and in such obviously superior condition?

    Announcer Don Merchant let slip an interesting anecdote. During training, Mayweather eschewed the traditional three-minute rounds followed by one minute breaks. He frequently sparred in ten-minute rounds, with a new, fresh sparring partner for each.

    In some cases, Mayweather took ten or fifteen seconds off between rounds, rather than sixty seconds. Combination work came in ten-minute segments and each continuous heavy-bag training session is fifteen minutes long, with no breaks.

    The formula is really quite simple. Training sessions that require such enormous energy expenditures make the actual bout itself a walk in the park.

    The lessons of Roy Jones, Junior

    Another interesting training tidbit relates to former pound-for-pound great, Roy Jones, Jr. Jones was trained by his father, who reportedly pushed his son into greatness through a training regimen that would have felled most human beings. Among his unique training approaches: one-handed sparring.

    Supposedly, a series of sparring partners would be brought in to face Roy, Jr. One at a time, they would box a round with the son, who was permitted to use only one hand during each round. The hand he was permitted to use varied from right to left based upon round: even round numbers got the left, odd rounds got the right. Not only that, but the sparring partners were, say, sixteen years-old while Roy, Jr. was twelve or thirteen. Talk about a rough indoctrination.

    Hard Training

    While great genetics is a primary determinant in the development of world-class athletes, another lesson is equally clear. The best athletes have generally trained harder, smarter and faster than their opposition. Michael Jordan's brutal pickup games and Mia Hamm's outrageous regimen helped build the foundation for improved confidence and mental intensity. And, if you want to be a world-class athlete, it probably doesn't hurt to have a father willing to push you to the limit.

    Saturday, July 02, 2005

    Carnival of Trackbacks


    Picture credit: http://www.parl.ns.ca
    Excel web sharing - spreadsheet collaboration over the Internet made easy with BadBlueI'm in, baby... with a vengeance! Wizbang's carnival of trackbacks is in full swing. In celebration, here are some of my personal favorite trackbacks:

  • Regarding Iraqi Ties To September 11th 2001 from SoCalPundit

  • The Modern Slave Trade as mentioned by the Cassandra Page

  • Ending Identity Theft from Stuart Berman

  • What really happened in Deadwood? from Holy Shmoly

  • Offbeat technical interview questions as linked by XTremeBlog


  • And a bonus double-reverse trackback:

    Froggy Ruminations: Crying Wolf

    Friday, July 01, 2005

    Eviscerating the New York Times... again


    Picture credit: http://www.time.com
    WarThe blogger voted (by me) as the most likely to get a syndicated column is New Sisyphus. Actually, it's unclear whether the blog is written by a group or a single person. Either way, it's not to be missed. In a recent entry, NS brutalizes a New York Times' op-ed piece. The editorial's unnamed, gasbag authors are left holding a shredded canard - but not any semblance of an argument.

    The combination of this piece and a panoply of excellent commentary on Powerline make for powerful, maddening reading. That the leadership of the Democratic party can so willfully ignore their own votes, which clearly stated the rationale for war in Iraq ("Whereas members of al Qaida, an organization bearing responsibility for attacks on the United States... are known to be in Iraq... Whereas Iraq continues to aid and harbor other international terrorist organizations, including organizations that threaten the lives and safety of United States citizens...") -- and that they can do so without any fear that the mainstream media will sound the alarm claxons for egregious duplicity -- are among the more obvious reasons for the blogosphere's ascendancy in audience, importance and quality of analysis.

    We did not expect Mr. Bush would apologize for the misinformation that helped lead us into this war, or for the catastrophic mistakes his team made in running the military operation. But we had hoped he would resist the temptation to raise the bloody flag of 9/11 over and over again to justify a war in a country that had nothing whatsoever to do with the terrorist attacks. We had hoped that he would seize the moment to tell the nation how he will define victory, and to give Americans a specific sense of how he intends to reach that goal - beyond repeating the same wishful scenario that he has been describing since the invasion.

    -- Excerpt, New York Times, Lead Editorial, today


    Liberals, as the whole world knows, are masters of nuance and of complex thinking. It is Conservatives who deal in simplistic ideals... responding to detailed challenges by issuing jingoistic clichés. Bush... is roundly ridiculed in the MSM and the Leftish corners of the Internet for his lack of nuance, his lack of comprehension...

    ...So why is it that liberals persist in claiming to not understand the President’s central argument regarding the War on Terror, the Iraq War’s place in that larger conflict and the role of 9.11 in shaping his strategic worldview that made Iraq a necessary battlefield?

    ...The President’s argument is easy to grasp... The attacks of 9.11 were not simply terrorist attacks — as the attacks on our embassies in Kenya and Tanzania as well as the U.S.S Cole were perceived and treated — but a declaration of war. This declaration of war was readily identifiable as such by the vast majority of the American people, yet carried with it a new and perplexing wrinkle.

    The enemy was not a nation-state or even the agents of a nation-state, but, instead, the vanguard of a wide-spread ideological movement... ...This new enemy shares a common cause not bounded by nationality or a specific grievance, but by an essentially fascist view that only the [ideologues]... are truly human, that [only they] have a holy duty to decide who lives and who dies, that only [their beliefs] are acceptable, and that the unbelievers must be converted by force or be killed so that a return to some romanticized volkish past... in all of [its] historical homelands (this includes you, Spain), can be achieved.

    Thus, after 9.11 the nation found itself at war with an organized ideological enemy. While most of this enemy were non-state actors, some received sanctuary and support from some states, notably the Taliban-ruled Afghanistan and the Islamic Republic of Iran...

    However, at its core, the enemy was not a state or even a collection of states, but an ideology... The central lesson of 9.11 taken away by the President was that if these... “root causes” of terror were not addressed... it would be only a matter of time before the United States was attacked again. And the next attack may well be many times worse, given the state of modern weapons technology and our free and open society.

    Here the President made a judgment as the chief exective, commander-in-chief and the man actually responsible not only for our safety but the safety of future Americans as well. In his judgment, the [enemy's] ideology... rose to prominence... for the same reason the same affliction rose among a good proportion of the world’s Germans a half-century ago: a sick and afflicted political culture has nurtured a violent popular ideology of grievance-fixation, anti-Semitism and murder. Nothing short of breaking the back of the conditions that gave rise to the ideology of fascism would deprive it of strength and recruits, thereby preventing future attacks on the U.S. from a foe that is neither deterrable nor destructible in the classic sense.

    That being the case, once the immediate and relatively easy to identify goal of removing an obvious state sponsor of... Fascism was accomplished in Afghanistan, the President needed to put his strategic vision into action.

    A number of reasons made... Baathist Iraq the obvious choice: it was a once-prosperous, multi-ethnic community in the heart of the Islamic world that had been brutalized by an insanely aggressive regime that not only had invaded neighboring countries twice but had used long-banned chemical weapons in doing so. It also had an on-going program to further develop WMD for its use. It had used WMD against its own population to strengthen its rule by fear. It was still technically at war with the United States, violating a cease-fire almost daily by firing upon American pilots. It had attempted to assassinate an ex-President of the United States. It was supporting suicide bombing in Israel by providing financial benefit to such fanatic’s families. It had given refuge to terrorist groups and terrorist leaders. In short, Iraq was the poster child for the type of dysfunctional political culture that had given rise to the grievance-based ideology...

    Thus, Iraq presented the President with a convergence of strategic sense and tactical opportunity. Strategic, in that a conversion of Iraq to a more democratic and prosperous country would provide a counter-model to that proposed by the [ideologues]; tactical in that its WMD program, aggressive behavior and... links to terrorist groups represented a threat to the United States.

    ...Together, both prongs, along with the aggressive use of law enforcement domestically and abroad, diplomacy, and special operations in remote theatres, make up the wider War on Terror...

    ...it is in 9.11 that the President forged his central judgment: that a phenomenon previously thought to be a regrettable but constant in life—Islamic terrorism—has now shown itself ready, willing and able to represent an existential threat to the United States and that, therefore, it must be fought aggressively, while on the offensive, in a wide-ranging campaign to deny it sanctuary, succor and room for growth.

    Thus, for the NY Times and liberals at large to say that Iraq had “nothing whatsoever to do with the terrorist attacks,” is to miss the larger point the President is making... Iraq is central to the President’s war aims in that he seeks to inject a radical new order in the heart of the Middle East, one that will present an alternative and democratic space [to] deflate the appeal of the fascism that gave rise to 9.11 and similar attacks.

    For liberals to pretend not to understand all this — for them to lose their vaunted sense of nuance and understanding — reveals a profound and distasteful dishonesty on their part... Beyond indicting Bin Laden in District Court for the Southern District of New York, liberals have been without a strategic plan on how to win the War on Terror. In fact, they would deny such a war even exists.

    Such is their right. But their standard-bearer, Senator Kerry, took that argument to the American people a mere 7 months ago and they soundly rejected it in favor of the strategic vision advanced by President Bush and his team...

    Clearly, it’s Bush who has a problem with complex arguments and nuance and not, say, the editorial board of the New York Times.


    New Sisyphus: Eviscerating the New York Times... again

    Thursday, June 30, 2005

    Disintegration of the old-line newspaper business


    Picture credit: http://www.newsday.com
    Newspaper businessThe indispensible PoliPundit points us to one of many stories of circulation fraud plaguing the old-line newspaper business.

    Put simply, the traditional newspaper business is disintegrating faster than a six dollar suit. Newsday, among others, reportedly engaged in a massive fabrication of sales numbers. The bogus circulation game is simple: pump up distribution to keep ad revenues flowing.

    Furthermore, the questionable practices extend to a bevy of major dailies. And, even without questioning their circulation numbers, it looks like the big boys have been heavily subsidizing sales by offering discounts. The accompanying chart, also courtesy of Newsday, tells the discounting story.

    Surprise, surprise - the list of the ten most discounted newspapers reads like a Who's Who of MSM/DNC shills. Here are the chart's top ten most heavily discounted papers... along with some of their noteworthy personalities:

  • Washington Post - Richard Cohen (or, as I like to call him, "The Goalpost Shifter")

  • Atlanta Journal-Constitution - Tom Teepen ("Dense and intellectually bankrupt is no way to go through life, son")

  • Boston Globe - Thomas Oliphant ("Nickname: The human 'factuum' - a consistent lack of any factual basis to his arguments")

  • San Francisco Chronicle - the city that only syndicates!

  • Houston Chronicle - Cragg Hines ("Puts the 'Cragg' in 'Craggpot!")

  • Los Angeles Times - Ron Brownstein ("The least-read columnist in the largest city in America!")

  • Philadelphia Inquirer - Trudy Rubin ("If there's a Pulitzer Prize for extruding DNC talking points like a Pez dispenser, she's a lock!")

  • New York Times - Maureen Dowd ("Chimpy McBushitler is responsible for all of America's troubles... and my whiney voice!")

  • Newark Star-Ledger - Deborah Jerome-Cohen ("We're evil, empire-building occupiers... with hearts of gold!")

  • Minneapolis Star Tribune - Nick Coleman ("Trying to control envy... trying... trying... failing... YOU POWERLINERS STINK LIKE... SICK... uhm... WEASELS!")


  • Keep up the great work, MSM/DNC op-ed columnists! From all appearances, you're accelerating the destruction of print media, almost singlehandedly. In this case, intellectual bankruptcy is beginning to translate to financial bankruptcy.

    Let's see. If I'm a publisher of one of these papers, what lessons can I learn from this? DNC shills... poor circulation. Hmmm. What can I learn? Constant recitation of DNC talking points equals crappy circulation. What... could... I... change if I'm publishing the paper? Hmmm. I'm not coming up with anything. Anyone? Bueller? Anyone?

    Wednesday, June 29, 2005

    Book Review: Lee Child's One Shot 


    Amazon - One Shot by Lee ChildLee Child's enigmatic drifter, Jack Reacher, is back and this time, he's really ticked off.

    A former Gulf War sniper is accused of a random killing spree in a small Indiana city. Hiding in a parking garage, someone killed six civilians during rush hour by picking them off, one at a time, in the city plaza. And a bevy of evidence supports the contention that the former sniper, James Barr, is the guilty party.

    Rousted out of bed in the middle of the night, Barr has only two things to say: "I'm innocent" and "Get Reacher". Having seen the crime and arrest reported on CNN, though, Reacher is already on the way. Using the classic Child formula of investigative and procedural detail, unbridled criminal brutality, and the thinking man's cold-hearted hero, One Shot is a trip on the express lane straight into the darkest corner of the heartlands.

    I'll be frank, this isn't Child's best novel. Not even close. Try Persuader, Running Blind or Without Fail for the penultimate Reacher stories. But Child's lesser efforts are so far above the typical "thriller" that the term seems woefully misplaced. Simply put, Child is the best action-adventure author in the business today. On my scorecard he's nine for nine. Read any of the Reacher novels, in any order, for a surefire adrenaline rush.
     

    I have seen the future of the newspaper...


    Picture credit: http://davidszondy.com
    Newspaper of the futureI have seen the future of the newspaper, and its name is NowPublic (hat tip: Scobleizer).

    Think Wikipedia as applied to the online newspaper business. Anyone can post a news story, picture, audio or video clip. Registered users edit and vote on stories. More votes will translate to increased visibility: major stories move higher on the page ("above the fold") based upon the votes they've received.

    Anyone can be a reporter, contributor, editor, or just a reader.

    Newspapers of all sizes better get on this concept, lickety-split, if they want to control the future of local news reporting.

    Now that I think about, someone could offer a software platform that would enable local entities to embrace this concept. Say, an open-source, PHP-based application that could provide all of the infrastructure necessary to run this type of operation. Wait a minute... wait... just... a minute... I've got a name:

    "OpenNewsDesk"

    That's gold, Jerry, gold!

    In fact, if Rob Curley gets there first, I wouldn't be surprised if LJworld.com implements it and starts offering it as a product.

    NowPublic

    The wonders of nature


    Picture credit: http://www.vegasretro.com
    Excel web sharing - spreadsheet collaboration over the Internet made easy with BadBlueFrom the miscellaneous items department comes this headline from the Houston Chronicle:

    "Report can't pinpoint why tiger attacked Horn"

    Uhmmm, because it's a tiger?

    Houston Chronicle: Report can't pinpoint why tiger attacked Horn
     

    Tuesday, June 28, 2005

    Oh, those  dangers of outsourcing, part VI


    Picture credit: http://www.touchsupport.com/
    Excel web sharing - spreadsheet collaboration over the Internet made easy with BadBlueIt's one of the first TCO (total cost of ownership) studies of outsourced help-desk support that I've seen. And if follows closely on the heels of various corporate moves to bring help-desk support back to the States:

    Management consultancy Compass conducted a global desktop study over four years to the end of 2004, and found that outsourcing can result in hidden costs through the increasing amount of self-support end users are forced to undertake...

    ...The study revealed self-support costs increase as more desktop support is outsourced, from £214 per user if 10 per cent of the desktop service is outsourced to £672 per user if 40 per cent of the service is outsourced...


    Silicon.com: Outsourcing can triple desktop support costs