The Industrial City

On the way to our first stop, Sam explained to me that Jodhpur was one of the newer industrial towns in India and that the city had established a relatively new industrial area that was improving the local economy. I kept looking for large buildings and warehouses, but didn't see any. Eventually we left the hustle and bustle of the city and were on a narrow 2 lane road, hurtling through rock strewn barren fields occasionally inhabited by poorly constructed tents and tin shacks or the occasional herd of camels or stray cows. As usual, piles of garbage would appear intermittently, I could only assume someone had dumped them out here in the middle of nowhere.

Soon we turned off the main road and started seeing some signs of life. We were still cruising through the barren wasteland, except large gated areas began to appear regularly. We turned down a side road and suddenly there were a number of large brown buildings. Rocks and litter covered the road and our driver took it slowly with great care. We turned down a tiny street and stopped in front of a large metal gate.

"Are we here?", I asked.

"This is it", said Sam.

Part of my job is about factory safety and security and I had come to ensure that this factory was compliant with our many safety and security procedures as they had claimed. The gate opened and the guard there checked us in.

The front of the building was a mixture of brown and black, brown being the color of just about every building I saw in the city and black from the kiln drying process they used in the wood there. I was ushered into the office.

The office was a large room with a long table, a number of plastic chairs, piles of paperwork, a couple of telephones, and a single ceiling fan barely turning about 10 feet above my head. The temperature inside the office was barely cooler than outside - somewhere between 100-110 degrees. And the factory manager was in LONG SLEEVES. He was dripping with sweat, as were we, but it didn't seem to bother him. I was having a hard time understanding how anyone could work in heat like this, since there was no AC to be seen anywhere, but when in Rome......

We proceeded to take a tour of the "factory" which was basically giant open rooms with plenty of ventilation and fans in a desperate attempt to keep things cool while various teams of workers assembled furniture.

I would quickly find out the main work to be found in the "industrial area" of Jodhpur was indeed furniture manufacturing. In fact, there is nothing industrial about it, really. In the outskirts of the town, which is just barren rock and sand, they have thrown up large buildings, thrown some equipment in there for sawing and drying, and started making furniture. For a city like Jodhpur, that is real industry, and employs thousands of workers from neighboring villages who would have normally been unemployed and struggling to feed their families. Small furniture manufacturers is not what we in the Western World would consider big industry, but for these people it was a big deal.

We left that factory for another factory right down the street which also made furniture. Again, no AC. This office actually had a computer covered in dark spots from too many factory hands working the computer. I found it hard to believe that the computer didn't crash often from the incredible heat. Again, it was about 100 degrees INSIDE the office.

By this time it was around 4pm and we did not feel we would have enough time to finish the next factory before they closed so my buddy Sam decided to take me to one of the old markets in town, where people had been buying and selling for hundreds of years. I took a couple of pictures, one of them of the old tower that had been there for who knows how long. There were tons of shop owners trying to grab my arm and pull me into their shops, but Sam fended them off quickly. I eventually found a store with hand woven table cloths and table runners and bought one for my parents. The young gentleman who owned the store said he had a lot of American buyers. I expressed skepticism as it seemed that Jodhpur was not the hottest tourist destination in India, although I had seen a few tourists staying at my hotel. He said "no no, not tourists, eBay, eBay". He posts the items on eBay, shipping directly from India to the customers in the U.S. "I can make 2-3 times what you paid from eBay shoppers.", he proudly told me. "eBay buyers are the best because they often bid well beyond what we would already charge tourists and other foreign visitors." Other than a few nice fabric stores, the market was mostly for locals, selling fresh vegetables, grains, cooking utensils, etc. We decided to head back to the hotel.

By this time it was 8pm and I was dead tired, not having slept hardly at all the night before thanks to jet lag. They told me to take a shower and get some rest so we could go out to eat around 10pm, but I told them if I took a nap I wouldn't be getting up again, so they laughed and left me alone, agreeing to meet me at 8am sharp the next morning.

To be continued......

Jodhpur - the beginning of the desert

Flying into Jodhpur all one could see below was a see of dark brown sand, interspersed with sparse settlements and the occasional cluster of green trees. Jodhpur is not actually the desert, but sits on the edge of the beginnings of the famous Thar desert of India. Kind of a no man's land between the moderate climes of eastern Rajasthan (the province/state that Jodhpur resides in) and the harsh western desert that borders Pakistan. Flying in kind of reminded me of flying into Las Vegas, where vast reaches of flat scrub land extend for miles before you reach the city.

Jodhpur is not a small town. More than 800,000 people reside in Jodhpur. Like almost all Indian airports, this one too was shared by the military. Soviet style fighter planes and helicopter gunships lay baking in the hot sun on the tarmac. We came in for a smooth landing, much to the relief of the other American passengers, and we taxied to a small 2 story white building with a single entrance. The ramp was thrown down.

"Is this the gate?", I asked Sam.

"No, this is the international airport of Jodhpur." He replied.

"No, I know this is the airport, but is this the gate? I don't see where the airport is."

"You don't understand. That building IS the airport".

This simple airport building, which was quite nice and appeared rather new, was THE international airport of Jodhpur. It had 1 main entrance out front, 1 "gate" to the tarmac, and 1 luggage carousel. Picking up luggage was easy, it was out of the plane and waiting for me by the time I walked into the building. In less than 60 seconds, we were outside and into the car. Hey! This is great, if only all airports were like this!

Travelling in the hot sun in Jodhpur I realized that Delhi was nothing compared to this. While in Delhi the temperature was at least 100 degrees it was a minimum of 115-120 degrees in Jodhpur. While I was pleasantly surprised at the number of thin green leafed trees in and around the city, anywhere there wasn't a tree planted was barren dirt and sand. The buildings, the ground, and the hills were all the color of rust, a deep reddish brown that seemed to reflect the heat back to you in ever greater waves.

Once again, honking was the preferred method of driving. But in Jodhpur we had to share the roads with camels, carts, bicycles, and pedestrians wandering the OPPOSITE direction of traffic in the middle of the road with total disregard for their own safety. Everyone drove too fast and too close together.

As in Delhi, trash was everywhere, only here it was much worse. Jodhpur is fast becoming an "industrial" city, although not the kind of industry you are thinking of, which I will explain later. Due to this, there is a lot of new construction going on and lots of open fields next to new developments. The fields and roads are often plagued by piles of trash left there by God knows who, and once again the desperately poor are living side by side with the rich and middle class. It is a clash of socio-economic levels, but apparently the locals simply accept it.

I had my first taste of Rajasthan Indian food and I must say it was some of the BEST Indian food I had ever tasted. Absolutely amazing. Spicy, full of flavor, and nothing like what I had eaten before in the states. They also often accompany their meals with a cucumber, onion, green pepper salad that was just delicious.

We eventually made it to the hotel and checked in with just enough time to throw down my bags before heading out to work.

To be continued.....

Welcome to Indian Time

The ride to the domestic terminal of Delhi was much like the one from the night before. My friend from my company's Indian agency - let's call him Sam - was quick to point out the parliament building, the US Embassy building, and other key landmarks. The embassy areas are very nice with tree-lined streets and green lawns dividing the road. With the exception of several grown men openly urinating on the walls, it was a pretty sight.

We made it to the airport in one piece, my knuckles white from gripping the door handles. If I thought the international terminal was a mess, I was in for a shock. The domestic terminal was 100 times worse. Again, for a city of over 13 million people, the domestic terminal had only 4 gates and one tiny entrance. The terminal looked like it had been built during the era of the Wright Brothers and was in bad need of repair, decay was everywhere. The sun was out and already it was over 100 degrees. Inside the airport it was marginally better, about 85. We checked in - our airplane tickets were not computerized, the airline issued HAND WRITTEN TICKETS - yes, that's right, hand written. When we got up to the check in desk - more like a badly beaten metal table with a circa 1982 computer on the top - the gentleman very kindly explained that my ticket had been "cancelled". A heated argument ensued between my Indian friend Sam and the airline agent and finally he accepted my ticket. He did not ask for my ID. We went through security. No one asked to see my ID. There was no place to sit down, all the broken and torn waiting seats were occupied. But luckily they boarded quickly enough. We went outside through one of the 4 gates and got into a bus which took us out on the tarmac to our waiting 737-200. The plane was easily 30+ years old. I looked for the manufacturer stamp which is a habit of mine when I enter into airplanes, but it has been wrenched off. Rivets were missing in certain places and the seats were worn and thin. Some of the plastic tray tables were broken. The inside of the plane was unbearable as we were still on the ground, at least 90 degrees. 2 other Americans were on the flight as well and they look terrified. Finally we taxied down the runway where we could see the second runway being built. They actually had women laborers carting sand and concrete in baskets on their heads! These poor women formed a giant chain of labor from the construction area to the supply area. No bulldozers, no forklifts, no machinery of any kind, it appeared that the entire paving of the new runway was being done by manual labor.

We got into position only to be told by the pilot that we were being delayed for 10-15 minutes. Sam smiled grimly and said "welcome to Indian time, where nothing is on time." We sat in the unbearable heat for more than 1 hour. Sweat streamed down my back and soon the entire plane began to smell funky. Finally we took off and the air conditioning was turned on mercifully. We received a warm sandwich (warm from sitting in the heat too long) which I refused to eat, but plenty of delicious fruit juices. The 2 other Americans on the plane kept looking around nervously, wondering if the shuddering plane was going to fall apart. I eventually fell asleep and an hour and a half later we landed.

to be continued......

It's About Time

Via Yahoo, A quick post on the strong language that the new PM is using against the bombings in Iraq. I really believe that the new government and the work of the coalition forces will do wonders now. I imagine things to begin wrapping up there, though I may be overly optimistic.

good grief what next?

wow, between my compadre's visits to India, my computer's power supply having a meltdown last week, getting it up and running then being laid up with a nasty intestinal virus the next day, to finally feeling better than my new CPU crapping out and leaving windows hanging in the wind(damn you Bill!!), blogging has been far from stellar. My apologies to the loyal readers and visitors to the blog, I'm currently blogging on my wife's university system, as my computer now needs a reformat and re-install, and hopefully the seller will warranty the CPU. Anyone know how to extract the windows files on the hidden partition of an HP Hard drive? anyone?

Welcome to the Third World....

I have been travelling which is one of the reasons for light blogging. I am currently in Indonesia and spent the past week in Western India. This is the first in a series of travelogues which I hope you will find interesting.....

I arrived in Delhi about 9pm off of American Airlines direct flight from Chicago. Immediately coming off the airplane you notice some stark differences from other international airports: the walkway from the aircraft is in poor condition and there are dark stains marking the floors and walls. The international terminal is tiny considering the size of Delhi (13 million+ population) and compared to just about any other airport you have been to. The terminal is supposedly air conditioned, but you could have fooled me as the humidity hits you walking in and the temperature was at least 80 degrees. The bathrooms look like they are 50 years old. Mold stains, broken tile, and dirt spots are everywhere.

The Indian customs agents were extremely friendly and polite and quickly I was on my way to get my luggage. There was no one in the airport but those of us off of the AA flight. I asked one of the Indian passengers from my flight why that was. He said most of the international flights arrive late in the night, around 12-1am, only AA and CO arrive earlier. Once I got my luggage I went out to look for my ride, which had been prearranged. Sure enough, the driver was there with my name on a card.

We walked outside and WHAM! the heat hit me like an open oven. I guess the airport was air conditioned after all! It was humid and hotter than anything I could remember. Even hotter than when I was in Thailand in April 2005, and remember, this is 9pm at night! The air was thick with humidity, exhaust, and pollution from coal fired energy plants. You almost drank the air instead of breathing it. I remember from my travels in Southern China that burning, acrid smell from dirty coal fired energy plants that used to annoy me so much - the same exact smell was here in India, same as I remembered.

They call India a "developing country" but I think that's being a bit over-optimistic. There is extreme poverty everywhere, especially so in the big cities such as Delhi. Entire families, including infants, live on the streets. At every stoplight they rush the cars, banging on the car windows begging for money. You will see large, rich, Indian homes complete with Mercedes Benz and Lexus parked in the driveway and in the empty lot next door will be tents made of plastic garbage bags where the dying poor live. It is a crowded country where the extreme rich and extreme poor live practically on top of each other. While I am sure India has garbage collection services, they either don't get paid much or simply don't work very hard. Trash is everywhere. And I mean everywhere. Not just litter scattered here and there, I am talking mountainous piles of rotting garbage just stacked helter skelter. Sometimes you will see children or the elderly sifting through the piles - in bare feet - collecting scrap pieces of plastic and metal to sell to recyclers. Shiny new building structures stand next to broken decrepit buildings. Welcome to the third world.

The drive to the hotel was terrifying. In India it seems nobody obeys any traffic laws, signals, signs, or even lane dividers. Quite the contrary, as most cars simply straddled 2 lanes. Nobody looks or signals when turning or changing lanes, just flashing lights and horns. Horns, horns, and more horns. Driving anywhere in India is nothing but a cacophony of horns. My skillful driver weaved in and out of traffic, avoiding numerous near collissions and completely ignoring pedestrian rights. He cut through parking lots and gas stations with complete disregard in order to avoid traffic.

Finally we arrived the hotel, fully alert and awake thanks to the insane Delhi traffic. The hotel was beautiful - better be for $200 a night and thank goodness my company paid - and I settled down for a good night's rest before I had to work the next day. Unfortunately, my body was still on USA time and I had a hard time getting to sleep.

I woke up very early, got ready and went downstairs for breakfast. The food was wonderful. Fresh tropical fruits, including mangos, my favorite. Fresh squeezed watermelon juice, different kinds of Indian yogurt, etc. I quickly ate breakfast and checked out of the hotel, waiting for my company's Indian agent to meet me in the lobby. While we had been conversing via e-mail for many months, we had never spoken or met in person before. He was a friendly, but quiet man, all business which I preferred, and we were quickly on our way back to the Delhi airport for our first destination, the desert city of Jodhpur.

Joyyyyy

Got this for my birthday from the inlaws, a very good joystick for the money, if you go to the right places (i.e. not mainstream computer suppliers with stores(translation:Tigerdirect)), good response, and made my flying in Battlefield 2 much much better, once I relearned how to fly without a mouse.

Socialized Health Care

A linky from my counterpart, who, like I, has been rather busy. Regarding socialized medicine. Socialized medicine isn't good because it tries to guarantee too many things to too many people, and everyone loses. It simply institutes government power in places where it never should be, which is in the private, quiet lives of everyone in the sphere of control. You can't escape it when there's this much. Anyways, watch the video for more info. 56Kers beware.

Anti-Social

Here in Britain if they have a thing called "ant-social behavior orders", or ASBOs for short. Basically what they are is if you are a nuisance in some way or basically you get complained about you get one f these, more or less a restraining order, but far looser in the way they give them out. I'm against them being used at all, because it's obviously an admittance that the British have too few police and can't keep things under control so they do these to make it look like something's being done. Additionally, they can be abused so very easily. Well, here's the case of abuse. Yikes and Yikes

What in the World is Going on in British Politics?

My apologies for the delayed posts, but hopefully this one will more than make up for it.

It seems that maybe (hopefully) new Labour, the British ruling party at the moment, may be in the proverbial foul smelling creek without means of propulsion. With the NHS (National Health Service) in crisis, and in many cases rationing care, criminals being released instead of deported due to their immigration status, and now the Deputy Prime Minister has revealed he's been sleeping with his secretary. To be fair, the affair ended in 2004, but not after going on for 2 years, which started at a work Christmas party (does anyone else besides me think that those things re nothing but trouble?).

Firstly, we have the NHS, which is in deep trouble now, completely out of cash. This is a real problem, that could impact the lives of millions. Anyone else out there think that having such a massive government program closely linked to the very life of its people is a bad idea? This is why I am so opposed to the idea of a nationalized health care system. Not because I want to deny people the chance to live a long and healthy life, but because everyone loses. The government loses badly needed funds for other uses, the people get poor coverage (my wife has been dealing with an illness going on 4 years now that has finally been diagnosed, and is still taking months to get treatment for, and the treatment is a prescription), and the workers get taxed heavily. Furthermore, I get so sick of hearing the excuse: "that it's free" Is that why I pay a huge amount of my income to the NHS? Far more than my insurance premium was when I worked in California? And I get poorer service? The response by the health secretary to try and deal with the issue of nursing shortages was so terse she was booed off stage. Seems like Blair picked a winner there.

Secondly, it's also emerged that 1,023 criminals were released from prison, including rapists, murderers, and pedophiles, and instead of deporting them, it let them roam free. Where are they now? Nobody knows. That's what's scary. Where Britain is already reeling with serious crime issues, mounting teenage crime rates, and police hamstrung by PC policies and paperwork, and the citizens hamstrung by an inability to defend themselves, the criminals have a very serious and deadly advantage. Then this happens. Seems like we've got a great home secretary who's got things under control.

Thirdly, we have the Deputy Prime Minister, basically the VP, sleeping with his secretary for 2 years. Now, I know that's probably not a huge revelation, as it seems to happen everyday, and hey our own Presidents have done it. The thing that concerns me is that he most likely was on the job when some or many of their goings on happened. A CEO would get fired for something like that. That's where I get annoyed, when it happens when we're supposed to be worrying about the running of the country.

So, it seems Blair can really pick 'em. Now, Blair, while I never really liked the guy, has generally got a very impressive ability to spin things on its head when he needs to. He hasn't said much that's impressed me this time, adding that the last time government had such a massive failure, people had 'lost homes and jobs", in reference to the economic failures that happened in 1992 under the conservative watch. Ok, Mr. Blair, true, but when I'm reading that murderers and rapists are leaving our prisons instead of being deported, I'm watching my wife suffer while she waits to get evaluated for her prescription, (something that should take a week or two, not months), and I watched my Wife's grandfather die prematurely because of simple errors made at the hospital because someone couldn't be bothered to look at a damn X-Ray. We're dealing with far more than jobs and homes, we're dealing with life and death. I'm sorry Tony, but the time has come for you to either dump your ministers and get things taken care of properly, quickly, and without the added cost to the taxpayer, or step aside. The nation of Great Britain has gone further and further downhill, and you have appointed bungling morons to do the job of running the country. You may not have created all the messes yourself, but good grief man, you're supposed to at least make them better, not worse and make more. Bring the Great back in to Great Britain.

Shell casing stamps? Let's get real

Found this this morning, seems that the glorious state of California has come up with a new way of combating gun crime. The premise behind it is that when the weapon is fired, it makes a mark on the casing that will identify the gun. The write doesn't go into detail on what the marking is, but say that it will identify the make and model, but if it's going to be attached to a statewide database then it will most likely be serial number as well.
Let's think about this in reality though. I disagree with the inventor's position that the firing pin is unalterable, number 1: where there's a will there's a way, up to and including swapping out the firing pin to an unmarked one, it won't take a brain surgeon to figure out how to make that part. A few points of the article:

"All it takes is a few swipes (on the pin) with a sandpaper or nail file, and (the marker) is gone," he said."

If the pin is indeed hard as diamond, it will take more than a few swipes, but probably not much more than that.

"He called the technology "laughable," saying trigger-happy criminals could outwit police investigators by picking up spent shells at a shooting range and sprinkling them at a crime scene."

Disagree, no guy who just sprayed a few bodies with about 10 rounds a piece are going to stop when they're done, pick up their shells, drop a few other shells on the ground then speed off into the darkening night. When a firearm goes off, you hear it, people look out their windows, and call the cops. They know that and aren't going to waste time.

Nearly 1,800 Californians lost their lives to gun violence in 2004, according to the state Department of Justice. But police make arrests in only 55 percent of homicides due to the lack of sufficient evidence.

The question is, what evidence is lacking? The author doesn't make that clear, letting the reader think that it's the lack of gun evidence. Evidence can be many things, and in my understanding, are only loosely related to identifying the gun's serial number. We came up with serial number and ownership databases for the same reason, and while it has helped, all the lawbreakers did was file off the serial number or buy guns off the black market.
"I question people who opposed something so straightforward," said Griffin Dix, California state council president of the Million Mom March. "You can put an identifying number on every container of yogurt you sell, but not on a gun?"

I get rather frustrated at people who phrase their viewpoints this way, attempting to take the moral high ground in a debate like this. Like the greenies who ask regarding poor environmental legislation: "I questions x's stance on why he doesn't want our future generation to not have to breathe through a mask all the time", All law abiding citizens would love to stamp out crime, especially crime that takes the life of another human being, but the point being, criminals act outside the law, hence the term criminals. They're not gonna go out and buy the latest gun because they wanna go out and shoot someone. They're gonna go to the black market where guns are sold and bought under the radar, not to Tom's Gun and Ice Cream Shoppe. Also, just to be picky, every gun has an ID number on it Griffin, it's called a SERIAL NUMBER.

In wrap up, I don't necessarily disagree with the law requiring ID's stamped on every shell that a gun spits out, just don't think it's going to do any good, and if it won't then why in the world do we waste our time with poor legislation to put on our books? We've got serious issues to deal with, and worrying about putting a stamp on a shell casing is a little lower on the list than others.

United Iraqi Alliance nominates new candidate

For those of you who don't know, embattled UIA candidate al-Jafaari is out and the new guy is Jawad al-Maliki:

Maliki hails from the Dawa Party, the same branch of the UIA that Jaafari is from. The two are close allies and Maliki no doubt holds the same sectarian edges that made Jaafari an undesirable candidate. While there is still no comment from the other blocs, I would not be surprised if they rejected the idea of a near clone candidate. The candidate most acceptable to the other blocs, Adil Abdul-Mahdi, came from the other UIA’s other large party, the SCIRI.

As Omar posted before this decision was reached, this decision seems aimed more at keeping the unity of the UIA than it is at keeping the unity of Iraq. Even months ago independent politicians were breaking away from the UIA’s party line, saying that a Jaafari candidacy was no longer acceptable. The chorus has grown dramatically in recent weeks. Reaching a new consensus on a new candidate, especially after Jaafari won due to a single vote by the controversial Sadrists, is meant to hold them together more than chang their position. The face has changed, but not the message.

Via Publius Pundit. It will be interesting to see if the Sunni and Kurdish political parties accept the UIA's new nomination or not, especially if Maliki isn't much different than al-Jafaari.

Do As I Say (Not as I Do) : Profiles in Liberal Hypocrisy

That's the title of a recent book by author Peter Schweizer of the Hoover Institution. I'll save my own judgement for after I read it, but here's a detailed review you can read now. Excerpt:

Schweizer looks at a number of contemporary icons of the American left, with an eye to detecting hypocrisy. Among his subjects are Noam Chomsky, Michael Moore, Al Franken, Ted Kennedy, Hillary Clinton, Ralph Nader, Nancy Pelosi, George Soros, Barbra Streisand, Gloria Steinem, and Cornel West. He finds in each case a private life markedly at variance with the public persona.

Now, one has to be careful when playing the ad hominem game. A person's intellectual claims are not disproved by his bad character. Commendably, Schweizer doesn't attempt to discredit these pestiferous statists by looking for sexual peccadilloes or substance abuse issues. Instead, he focuses on their financial lives, which seem to me fairer game. To hear John Kerry bash the "rich" for not paying their fair share in taxes, and then to find out that he and his wife (worth $700 million) pay less than 15% of their own income in taxes, or to hear Katrina vanden Heuval denounce efforts to end the inheritance tax, and then discover that she herself is a multimillionaire heiress, is to face a serious question. Granted, as a matter of logic, that their hypocrisy doesn't disprove the principles they espouse, still, which principle should the listener adopt, the one espoused or the one embodied in the speaker's life?

It's also wise to remember that hypocrisy exists on both sides of the political isle. But it seems to me that the MSM tends to magnify incidents on the right while ignoring or glossing over those on the left, leaving it up to the "vast, right-wing conspiracy" of blogs, talk radio, and independent journalists to pick up the slack.

Big hat tip to one of my favorite blogs, Samizdata, for the link and info.

Smuggling my way out of Iraq

Final installment of Michael Totten's road trip to Iraq from Turkey. Great stuff.

On the dark empty highway an armed Turkish military patrol pulled us off to the side of the road. We were never stopped on our way into Turkish Kurdistan. On the way out, though, the army wanted to know who everyone was and what they were doing.

I pulled the car over. Soldiers bearing rifles completely surrounded us. I rolled down the driver’s side window and reached for my passport. A uniformed officer barked something at me in Turkish. I didn’t understand any of it.

“Hello!” I said. “Do you speak English?”

He jerked his head backward, clearly startled, squinted his eyes, and said something else to me in Turkish.

All the soldiers wore deadly serious facial expressions and held their rifles ramrod straight across their chests. We could have been terrorists or gun-runners for the PKK, and they were not messing around.

UN-believable

Via Winds of Change (can you tell I'm reading them right now?):

THIS, folks, is the United Nations at work. So sorry if you're one one of the millions killed or ensalved over the years by Sudan's Arab government - because "The Global Test" thinks capital punishment is just fine for BWB (Breathing While Black). At least, it's fine as long as it's carried out by approved regimes with a UN License to Kill® - which is to say, any Arab or Muslim nation, or anyone with the approved backing of Russia or China.

Yeah, these are the people the US should seek approval from for all war and peace decisions in its foreign policy.

Thursday's Winds of War is up

...over at Winds of Change. Read the whole thing for an excellent round up of the global war on terror.

Civil Rights Victory in New Orleans

Hat tip to Instapundit.

Heh. Also via Instapundit.

The angry right

In my post below, I expressed my disappointment in the "liberal" left.

But I also long ago lost my appetite for the so called "conservative" right:

"On his radio show, Savage told listeners that "intelligent people, wealthy people ... are very depressed by the weakness that America is showing to these psychotics in the Muslim world. They say, 'Oh, there's a billion of them.' " Savage continued: "I said, 'So, kill 100 million of them, then there'd be 900 million of them.' I mean ... would you rather us die than them?" Savage added: "Would you rather we disappear or we die? Or would you rather they disappear and they die? Because you're going to have to make that choice sooner rather than later."

Hat tip to Obsidian Wings. Also the headline from the news article Obsidian Wings links to says:

On April 17, Michael Savage called for "kill[ing] 100 million" Muslims and referred to the alleged Duke rape victim as a "drunken slut stripping whore."

It is because of talk show hosts like Michael Savage that I long ago lost any respect for the so called "conservative" right.

I guess that's why I consider myself an independent.

Another one bites the dust

In another hit to the British manufacturing sector, Peugeot is closing a plane in Coventry, and laying off 2300 jobs. That's a shame for all those who work there, and have worked there for so long. I must give credit to Peugeot for at least giving the workers plenty of notice. Seems there's not much auto manufacturing left in the UK, and again, why is the UK so unprofitable for automotive manufacture? Peugeot is claiming that they can make a car cheaper in Paris by a fairly decent margin over the UK plant, which I'm having a hard time to swallow.
Well, if my personal experience is any indication, build quality is a big one killing it. I spent the beginning of last week after I got back from California installing some wiring in a brand new LDV van we are going to be using for a breakdown service. I saw poor panel quality, mis- aligned panels, poor welds (I actually broke one with little effort - oops), the hood catch had stuck and so getting it up required breaking the spot welds on the hood and destroying the hood latch, and so forth and so on. In asking the head of our LDV department if what I saw was typical, he regaled me with more horror stories. I have also seen pictures of Rover engine parts with castings so poor they look like they were cast in the days of Henry Ford.
I think it's a crying shame that these factories are closing, and that the British auto industry is suffering this way, but the seeds were sown for this a long time ago, and the people that mattered, namely, the managers, businessmen, and politicians that could have changed it left their heads stuck in the sand for the rest of it to founder. It's a shame to let the poor workers who worked hard there suffer for the consequences, but it's too late now.

What has gotten into her?

Via Gateway pundit, it seems that the anti-war left seems to be going further and further, just like the energizer bunny. Seems that Cindy Sheehan, the famous anti-war protestor who lost her son in the Iraq war, is now accusing the DOD of treating her poorly when she received her son's body from Iraq. Also seems that many bloggers out there have hit the pavement and done their homework. Gateway can do a much better job of explaining it, so check it out, here. To quote Hawkeye Pearce: "I wonder if she'd speak so loud if she wasn't standing on so many bodies."

Hat tip: Little green footballs, also from Michelle Malkin who got her to open her mouth and spout off on this and give us more of an idea of who she really is. I feel so bad for her son.

Why we must stay the fight.

Iraq the Model recently lost a family member in Iraq to one of the many ruthless attacks the criminals and insurgents continue to wage on innocent Iraqis:

He was not affiliated with any political party or movement and spent all his
time working at the hospital or studying at home and he was dreaming of building
a medical center for his specialty to serve the poor who cannot afford going to
expensive private clinics.We didn't know or anticipate that cruel times were
waiting for a chance to assassinate the dream and kill the future.It was the day
he was celebrating the opening of a foundation that was going to offer essential
services to the poor but the criminals were waiting for him to end his life with
their evil bullets and to stab our family deep in the heart.

Hat tip to Austin Bay

When the Iraq War came about, I was against it. Regardless of my personal thoughts on the matter, once we had boots on the ground in Iraq I have remained steadfast in my conviction that we must see this through. And it is precisely because of events like the above that we must stay the fight. I don’t know if your reasons against going to war were the same as mine or not, but the fact remains that we did indeed go to Iraq, whether you liked it or not, and once committed we should see things through. We can debate all day long about whether going in was the right or wrong thing to do, but in my mind it is irrelevant: we are already there. And we need to do everything in our power to ensure that the Iraqi people have a stable and safe future. That will only happen if we remain steadfast in our support for the people of Iraq and in our operations there. We can not afford to cut-and-run or demand unreasonable timetables for leaving Iraq.

There are good, honest, citizens of Iraq who are doing their best to make their country a better place, hopefully one that will have a free and democratic government, and we can not leave them to the wolves.

And they call themselves "liberal".....

Sigh......it's because of things like this that I abandoned any hope for the so-called "open minded", "tolerant", "progressive", "peaceful", left.

That's not to say those on the extreme right don't exhibit similar behavior, they do, but I find it to be far more pervasive amongst self described peace-loving "liberals", especially when someone dares to have the audacity to challenge their views or call them out on despicable behavior.

Update:
Check the comments section under the "peaceful" link above where a number of commenters have chastised the author for his overly hateful post. But my favorite one, and the one that captures my sentiments exactly:

Some of the comments here prove something I've thought for a while.

America is dead. We have destroyed ourselves from within. We are two tribes, left vs. right, divided by hate so bitter and extreme it seems civil war is on our doorstep.

Think I'll look into real estate on the moon. This planet sucks.

Amen, brother, amen. But don't give up hope yet - there are plenty of us rational types out there who actually believe we can discuss and solve problems in a rational manner with each other, regardless of whether that person is "left", "right", or "center". We may not make for exciting news or charged commentary, but we are out there.

Update:
Sigh....more evidence to support my point about the so-called "liberal" left.....:

The people who held different opinions than I remained my neighbors, family, friends. They were 'good people' -- sometimes we agreed, sometimes not, but that was part of life. We would respect each other's differences and get along - and it never occurred to us to do otherwise.

In the past couple of years that has been turned on its head. I used to think I could never hate anyone. But I am constantly surprised at how much hate I am now capable of feeling for some of my 'fellow Americans' -- it is even hard to write that phrase. And every day it is more. I despise them, I loathe them, I resent that they are even sharing my country. I cannot comprehend how utterly stupid they must be to believe the pap thrown at them which they then parrot back at us. I no longer even want to TRY and get along. I hate them. I don't know if I will ever be able to forgive them for what they have done to America - but I'm sure I will never forget it.

I read a comment yesterday, I forget the exact words, but to this effect: They are eagerly, willingly just handing over their freedoms -- freedoms that generations of Americans (including many of my ancestors) fought and died to give them. And when we object, when we protest, when we try to defend our Constitution - they glance over at us and hiss, 'Traitor!'.

Yes, I hate them to the bottom of my soul.

From an anonymous poster from the same website linked to above.

Real estate agents report problems in the housing market

….by posting anonymously on blogs:

If the secret worries of real estate professionals are any indication, home
prices could be heading for a swoon.
When Brad Inman of Inman News, which
tracks the real estate industry and is widely read by industry insiders,
recently gave real estate agents the opportunity to blog about market
conditions, they almost uniformly described them as bad – and getting
worse.
"Normally, brokers and agents tend to sugarcoat the news; they don't
want to affect consumer confidence," says Inman. "By letting them post
anonymously, we gave them a way to really share their thoughts."
Most
responded with tales of high inventories, slow sales and languishing prices.

Hat tip to RCH.

Michael Yon continues his journey in Afghanistan

Do the 2 Michaels (Totten and Yon) coordinate the posting of their entries? Seems like every time one of them posts a new entry I find that the other one also has a new post up.

I find both of them to be must reads all the time. This is real journalism, folks, done the old fashioned way: on a shoestring budget, on the ground, working and dealing with everyday folks, getting up close and personal in an honest way.
Michael Yon continues his reporting from Afghanistan, although the subject of his post is on Iraq. It’s a long one, but worth every word. Do not miss it. Excerpt:

To a large degree, we earned the cynicism that led to the dire predictions about
the impending failure of the first Iraqi elections. That cynicism explains the
increasingly skewed coverage of the war. Poor performance by the media—abetted
by consumers who refuse to change the channel—was directly responsible for
making the soldiers I had come to know and respect feel like they’d just got
kicked in the head. The fact that I had seen first hand their amazing work in
the field, and the knowledge that people back home were not hearing this kind of
news, led me to stay in Iraq and find a way to get the news out through
alternative channels.

In the “Mission Impossible” dispatch, I wrote about how I thought the world press, and our own, unfairly judged the performance of the military, and by extension the character of the American people:
America has its share of critics, and we make enough mistakes to
support a cottage industry of specialists chronicling our failures and
footnoting our shortcomings. Even the most ardent patriot might concede that we
provide fodder for this with frustrating frequency. We come complete with our
national faults, embarrassments, scandals and scars, and horrors. Reminders of
these can serve a necessary if painful purpose. But fairness alone dictates that
it be balanced by a consideration of our national character.

For every
failed international initiative, we have a dozen disaster relief efforts. For
every indictment of corporate greed, American ingenuity compensates with
countless technological advancements. For every instance when we turn a blind
eye to an atrocity perpetrated by other nations against innocent neighbors or
even their own citizens, we have forests of tombstones marking the graves of our
soldiers who fought and died to protect the liberty of strangers.
Italy, Germany, Japan and others. . . . Modesty and discretion may not be the chief American character traits, but we shouldn’t have to remind our allies about
these as if they were minor accomplishments. After the 5th Symphony premiered, no one asked Ludwig to send a resume and audition tape.

Dohok, Iraq - Part 5 of Michael Totten's trip to Iraqi Kurdistan

Entire post can be found here. Excerpt:

It's hard to convey what it's actually like meeting Iraqi Kurds. Fleshing
out the dialogue doesn't capture the feel of it. Americans and Kurds don't
just get along because we're temporary allies of convenience in the Middle
East. The connection is deeper and personal. Kurdish culture and American
culture might as well be from different planets. But somehow, oddly enough,
Kurds think much like Americans do. Let me rephrase that: Americans think
like the Kurds. We have similar values despite our extraordinarily different
cultural backgrounds. I find it easier to develop a rapport with Iraqi Kurds
than with people from any other country I have ever been to. It's instant,
powerful, and totally unexpected.
Michael Yon noticed something
similar a year ago.
Meetings with Iraqi Arabs sometimes seem more
like talking with the French. We are not enemies. But, generally speaking,
there is no real personal connection. At best, our collective personalities
just don’t seem to “click.” Yet by recognizing the sovereignty and
inevitability of each other, we manage to cooperate toward our common
interests, while not going to war when we disagree. But with the Kurds, like
the Poles or the Brits, there is an easy and audible click. We have mutual
goals, mutual enemies, and, also importantly, we actually like each
other.

Life resumes

Blogging has been light the past few days, thanks to the wife's birthday, and also her family visiting, will resume heavier blogging on Wednesday. I haven't even had the chance to look at anything, and would love to throw up a link before the day's over. So, how about them Bears?

(an oldie but a goodie)

"Liberal" criminals in Santa Cruz

via Michelle Malkin.

You have the freedom to hate gas guzzling SUVs and other similar vehicles.
You have the freedom to preach environmentalism.
You have the freedom to protest fuel inefficient vehicles and machines.
You have the freedom to harbor any opinion you want on the subject.

You do NOT have the freedom to vandalize, attack, or damage someone's PRIVATE, PERSONAL property because you do not agree with their views or buying habits.

That simply makes you a criminal.

Iraq round up over at Winds of Change

And just when I thought my Winds of Change reading was done for the day comes their Iraq Report, a round up of what's going on in Iraq. Read it here.

Monday's Winds of War is up....

....over at Winds of Change. As always, a must read. I highly recommend their weekly round ups, absolute must reading.

Greenpeace founder makes the case for nuclear power.

Big hat tip to Instapundit who provided the link to this Washington Post article where Patrick Moore, who helped found Greenpeace, reverses his position on nuclear power:

Nuclear energy is the only large-scale, cost-effective energy source that
can reduce these emissions while continuing to satisfy a growing demand for
power. And these days it can do so safely.

Read the whole thing.

Yale Taliban Man update.

Instapundit has the details:

This really represented an appalling lapse of judgment on Yale's part

Hugh Hewitt interviews Austin Bay

Austin Bay comments on the criticism facing Rumsfeld as well as dealing with Iran. Read it here.

Excerpt on Rumsfeld:

I'm really not too upset about what they have to say, and as I told your
producer earlier when he called me to ask me if I could be on the show, I said
I'm not a particular Rumsfeld fan. I thought from the beginning that someone
like Rich Armitage ought to be Secretary of Defense. But at the same time, I'm
not by any means a hyper-critic of Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld, either.

Excerpt on Iran:

I think a more answerable format is, do we have the capacity to sufficiently
damage their capabilities to produce nuclear weapons, or chemical weapons. Now
that's the way I would prefer to answer it, to sufficiently damage it. And my
answer to that is yes. We have the U.S. Air Force, U.S. Navy, and then you can
work in some of the Special Operations capabilities of the Army and Marines,
have the extraordinary capacity to both identify where the most likely special
weapons producing targets and damage them. Now does that mean put them totally
out of commission? No. Does it mean setting back their production timetable?
Yes. Now that is a different question, though, from...and this has to be
answered in the political context, from what are the results of that strike?
Again, it is not a guarantee that you will stop it. However, can you put a brake
on their means of building these weapons? And the answer to that is yes.

This can't be good

Found this on Yahoo, seems that the Hamas leadership isn't doing so great, once they've got the undivided attention of the world looking at them. Funny thing is, there seems to be a serious slant pushing the reader to make them think it isn't Hamas's fault they're failing, it's the fact that almost everyone has pulled their financial aid to them, and it's those country's fault, like Israel, US, Etc. Yeah, uh huh, and Hamas lost their money by what? Being a terror group that advocates the killing of Innocent civilians and wiping Israel off the face of the earth? At any rate, it seems that the Hamas leadership is about to topple from within, seeing that people aren't getting paid and civilians rather upset. This will be interesting to see how it plays out.

Lashkargar

Michael Yon continues his visit in Afghanistan.

Back to Iraq Part IV

Michael Totten continues his road trip to Iraq.

University stifles free speech

Via Instapundit "More crushing of dissent?"

More examples of Universities crushing dissent, free speech, and freedom of expression can be found here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.

Just a drop in the bucket. I would link to more examples, but that would take all day long.

Immigration: What's wrong? What needs fixing?

Seeing Immigration seems to be a hot topic right now, and rightly so, regardless of what side of the argument you look at, it's a serious issue, we've decided to begin a debate on it, and will be regularly posting arguments regarding various facets of the issue at hand. Each day we will be taking a different part of immigration and looking at it, arguing the points of it, pro and con.

The first side of the argument I'd like to take:

Amnesty for the illegal immigrants already in the country.


Illegal immigration, first off, lets analyze what that really is. To enter the country without receiving prior authorization from the US government, or entering it under false pretenses(i.e. false documentation). Either one is serious, because they can undermine the security of the United States, and also cause other problems, such as crime, poverty, etc.

The problem is, we have en estimated 10,000,000 illegals in the US right now, and the government seems a bit hamstrung as to what they can do. They clearly want the problem to go away, and what to seem effective. That's one thing I have noticed with this government, they want to be seen doing something, anything more than whether that something is right. I'm not saying that everything they do is like this, only when there seems to be no easy or quick solution.

I am actually cautiously pro amnesty, but not what the government is proposing. I agree with Swizstick, pardoning illegal behavior only encourages more, and so doing that would only invite a massive influx of illegal immigrants in, and create further problems. I also disagree that amnesty alone would do any good at all, amnesty alone would be a major blow to the ability of the US to function properly and be taken seriously as a country that wants to continue with the integration of immigrants into society.

I believe that the response with amnesty would be a 2 pronged approach, but one that would require some decent co-ordination with various US government agencies. First one would be to grant a grace period of about 21 days to those illegals that are already in the country. That 21 days would allow them to get an application to apply for legal status, also combining a major reduction in the fees to process an application. After that time, an illegal caught in the country would face deportation, regardless of how long they've been in the country. One of my chief gripes with the government's proposal is that it grants various "rights" to people considering the length of time they've been here. That only works if we can actually prove that. This would eliminate that problem, and give those who have been here a while a chance. Also, once the grace period has begun, any illegal caught trying to cross the border will be deported without delay.

Obviously, this proposal will need to be implemented with a corresponding increase in border patrols, and also must remove the onus on employers to rat out their illegal employees (many of which are very good workers, and who wants to lose a very good worker?), and place that on an immigration officer who we should have had their numbers increased dramatically. Obviously, the borders will be flooded with illegal attempts so the borders will need to be tightened during that grace period, and watched intently from then on.

After the grace period, any illegal caught in the country without proof that they have applied for legal status, which they should be told that they should keep on them at all times, they should be immediately deported. We need to take a more determined approach to those who refuse to enter this country illegally. Also, it needs to be made clear that we welcome legal immigrants, as they truly are what make this country great. With a softening of the legal process, and a hardening of the illegal issues, I believe we can reduce the issues caused by illegal immigrants, and make the US a great place to live. The solution to the problem is not a simple one, and it will require many approaches to make it work, but simply trying to swoop down and deport all the illegals will not work, nor will making them all legal work as well. As Glenn from instapundit said: our immigration system is porous to illegals, and hostile to legals, we need to work to reverse that statement.

No easy answers on immigration problem

Ah, finally my compatriot has recovered from his jet lag and caught up to all his e-mails, welcome back!

First off, I agree with you that the new immigration proposals being discussed in the U.S. are not real solutions. To me they are reactionary measures dependent on who the particular politician is trying to please. None of them really offer far reaching, fair, and comprehensive solutions to the overall immigration picture. So yes, I agree that most of our elected officials in Congress are missing the issue.

In regards to the Fox News article that you linked to, I must say I am in total disagreement. France’s immigration problems stem from a lack of integration in French society. There is little to no upward mobility and France’s immigrants are marginalized and not readily accepted into French society. It is because of this reason that second and even third generation French immigrants more readily identify with their home country and culture than with France. The new proposal by Sarkozy to make it more difficult for poor immigrants to enter the country will only widen the gap between rich and poor. Rather than allowing entry only to the rich, while ignoring the poor, perhaps France should look at its own economic policies that make it difficult for companies to hire and retain immigrants, not to mention French citizens. But then again, France is not really interested in progressive economic policies that would actually encourage hiring and economic growth, thereby reducing unemployment. So I do not think that France gets it. Their immigration problems are not the same as ours and their proposed solution completely ignores the real issue while fixing little.

While finding solutions to the immigration problem is difficult, I believe it needs to be looked at from 2 sides, both legal and illegal, as our legal immigration policies are as much of a mess as our illegal problems. Our current immigration policies and procedures are ridiculously onerous and difficult to comply with. Dealing with immigration is a nightmare of endless paperwork, insolent clerks, expensive fees, and lots of waiting. You have to be a very patient and understanding person to be able to deal with immigration on your own. There is a whole industry of immigration consultants and lawyers who make a living assisting people with the legal immigration process. As with the IRS and our tax laws, our immigration laws and procedures are so complex and confusing that many people would rather pay a consultant or lawyer to deal with the process than do it themselves. I know I did.

My conservative friends in the world who rail against immigration and continually call for a tightening of our immigration policies obviously don’t know anyone who has been through the legal immigration process. My wife is not from this country. When we decided to get married, I had no idea what I was in for. It took almost 7 months just to get a visa for my wife to enter the country so we could get married. Keep in mind this was just a visa to ENTER the country, not STAY in the country. Once in the country, we had 90 days to get married and apply for a change of status to permanent residency. After nearly 1 year, my wife was finally granted legal residency on conditional status for 2 years. The 2 years already went by and we already sent in yet another application for release of conditional status and a permanent green card. After paying $200 for the application fee and sending in all the paperwork, our check was cashed immediately. However, all we received in the mail was a notice from Immigration stating that they were processing our application and that it would take up to 11 MONTHS TO PROCESS!! So they have no problem taking our money up front, but we have to wait 11 months for them to process the paperwork. Long story short, we have been married about 3 years now and still do not have a green card. When I inquired as to what do we do if my wife needs to leave the country and come back, I was simply told to show Immigration a copy of the letter I had received upon arrival back into the U.S. Keep in mind that each step of the way requires mountains of paperwork and numerous fees.

Illegal immigration is a slap in the face to those legal immigrants such as my wife who are STILL going through the very long and difficult process to obtain a green card legally. I know of very few legal immigrants who support any of the arguments in favor of illegal immigration. Granting amnesty to those who broke the law and entered the country illegally renders the effort and money spent by those who immigrated legally meaningless. Rewarding lawless behavior only encourages more lawless behavior. By granting amnesty to the illegal immigrants already here it will only encourage others to attempt to enter the country illegally in hopes that they too will be granted amnesty in the future. Let’s be clear on this: these people are breaking the law. Some of us may not like the law. But regardless, it is the law, and those that break the law should be punished, not rewarded.

I believe the U.S. benefits from a strong legal immigration policy. There is a reason the U.S. is the number 1 destination of immigrants around the world. They know that our open society and free market economy provide opportunities for integration and mobility within American society. We need to make immigration easier for those who want to contribute positively to our country while punishing and deterring those who seek to circumvent our laws. The difficulty lies in how to accomplish both. While there are no easy answers, many of the solutions being proposed are inadequate. The questions are difficult ones to answer, and while I don’t believe the solutions being proposed adequately address the issues, I don’t pretend to have the answers myself.

Immigration laws still not right

With the latest immigration laws being discussed, it still seems they are missing the issue. With the latest string suggesting amnesty for 10 million illegals, and then tightening the borders down, what in the world are they thinking? Nothing will change, and our borders will still be as porous as ever. I see these things going on as my worries about getting my wife's visa increase, not decrease, with the possibility of new laws on the books. It seems that France is realizing the situation they're in. We still aren't. The demonstrations across the states showing such great "sympathy" for the illegal immigrants that exist there, really miss the point at any rate. We've got a serious problem, and it needs to be addressed. Seems the easiest solution would be to ignore it, or the 2nd easiest, grant everyone legal status and start over. What a joke. We should allow everyone illegal to apply for legal status, and the ones who don't, should be deported. Then, we should start cracking down on border crossings. No walls, but patrols and real plans to make the rules stick. These things need to stop, and stop now.

Back to Iraq Part III

While Michael Yon is in Afghanistan, Michael Totten continues the chronicles of his epic road trip from Turkey to Iraq.

Curious Circumstance

Michael Yon’s latest dispatch is up:

Before coming to Afghanistan, I emailed to Nick Meo, a British journalist whom I
had come to know in Asia a couple of years before. Nick is now in Iraq, but he
had spent much recent time in Afghanistan. I asked Nick for suggestions about
traveling in Kandahar, Helmand, and Urozgan provinces.
He answered
quickly:
Yes. My suggestion is don’t go. They are too dangerous to travel in
by yourself if you don’t know your way around. If you’re going with Steve then
you should be okay, but they are all very dangerous places now and security has
deteriorated massively in the last year. You might just about get away with
driving or flying to Kandahar, and making some trips outside the city—maybe to
Lashkargar. But you will not make it back alive from north Helmand or
Uruzgan.
I did not take his advice, but as of this writing I am still alive.
The journey has begun.

Read the whole thing.

Is the Iraqi’s lack of progress in forming a government actually a silent war against Sadr?

Austin Bay suspects this may be the case in his latest Strategy Page column:

I left Iraq with the impression that Sistani's plan for handling Sadr would be a
python-like squeeze only an Iraqi insider would fully understand.
Following
the January 2005 election, Sadr joined Iraq's political process (though I
noticed his militia kept its weapons). After parliamentary elections, Sadr
gained control of nearly three-dozen seats and positioned himself as a
kingmaker.
But that status appears to be short-lived. One indicator is the
March 26 attack by Iraqi commandos on a Mahdi militia facility in Baghdad. The
predictable media outrage lasted less than a week -- and Iraq's Interior
Ministry pointed out it had acted to stop sectarian vigilantes. Sadr lost
"street face" to the Interior Ministry -- and it appears Sadr's political
position has subsequently deteriorated.
Outsiders -- including U.S.
government officials -- can bewail the Iraqi parliament's lack of progress in
forming a government, but since the middle of March I strongly suspect the
hidden story has been the Interior Ministry and the Iraqi nationalists' war on
Sadr. It's a quiet police and political war waged with the blessing of Ayatollah
Sistani. Creating a strong and stable Iraqi government (the so-called "national
rescue front") is the goal. Sistani has advised Shia leaders to make concessions
to Sunnis in order to establish a "unity government." That's an action anathema
to Sadr.
Has Sistani's python begun its final squeeze?

Read the whole thing here.

Reply to Borders lame form letter from Samizdata

Ouch:

Yes, I've seen this form reply posted on other well read blogs.

There are young americans dying overseas to fight these scumbags. You do not even have the guts to stand up against them on your own turf. By folding you endanger others. You prove that threats work.

You are, to use old fashioned terminology, lily livered cowards with yellow stripes down your back a mile wide and you are being called out on it.

Get some backbone. There is more to life than avoiding risk. Your life has to stand for something.

Borders does not stand for anything except cowering in a hole praying it will be left alone... for a little while longer.

Yes, it is indeed their right to be cowards. It is likewise my right to call them on it.

For further background, check here and here.

Cartoon is courtesy of Cox and Forkum.

Port Security and the DP World non-issue

Over at 3plwire.com I comment on the recent overblown DP World "ports" controversy. A non-issue, politicians and the media alike blew it out of proportion, clearly displaying zero understanding of how ports and terminals work, not to mention insulting and alienating one of our few staunch allies in the Middle East. Read the whole thing here. Excerpt:

Terminals are not ports. Terminal operators are not responsible for
cargo/container security - the U.S. Coast Guard and U.S. Bureau of Customs and
Border Protection are. Although it is wise to be wary, and certainly they are
not perfect, the UAE is not our enemy.

Facing down Iran

Absolute must read from Mark Steyn. Key excerpts:

That moment of ascendancy is now upon us. Or as the Daily Telegraph in London
reported: “Iran’s hardline spiritual leaders have issued an unprecedented new
fatwa, or holy order, sanctioning the use of atomic weapons against its
enemies.” Hmm. I’m not a professional mullah, so I can’t speak to the
theological soundness of the argument, but it seems a religious school in the
Holy City of Qom has ruled that “the use of nuclear weapons may not constitute a
problem, according to sharia.” Well, there’s a surprise. How do you solve a
problem? Like, sharia! It’s the one-stop shop for justifying all your
geopolitical objectives.
The bad cop/worse cop routine the mullahs and their
hothead President Ahmadinejad are playing in this period of alleged negotiation
over Iran’s nuclear program is the best indication of how all negotiations with
Iran will go once they’re ready to fly. This is the nuclear version of the NRA
bumper sticker: “Guns Don’t Kill People. People Kill People.” Nukes don’t nuke
nations. Nations nuke
nations.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In
fact, if one were a Machiavellian mullah, the first thing one would do after
acquiring nukes would be to hire some obvious loon like President Ahmaddamatree
to front the program. He’s the equivalent of the yobbo in the English pub who
says, “Oy, mate, you lookin’ at my bird?” You haven’t given her a glance, or
him; you’re at the other end of the bar head down in the Daily Mirror, trying
not to catch his eye. You don’t know whether he’s longing to nut you in the face
or whether he just gets a kick out of terrifying you into thinking he wants to.
But, either way, you just want to get out of the room in one piece. Kooks with
nukes is one-way deterrence
squared.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
But
that was always Iran’s plan. In 1989, with the Warsaw Pact disintegrating before
his eyes, poor beleaguered Mikhail Gorbachev received a helpful bit of advice
from the cocky young upstart on the block: “I strongly urge that in breaking
down the walls of Marxist fantasies you do not fall into the prison of the West
and the Great Satan,” Ayatollah Khomeini wrote to Moscow. “I openly announce
that the Islamic Republic of Iran, as the greatest and most powerful base of the
Islamic world, can easily help fill up the ideological vacuum of your
system.”
Today many people in the West don’t take that any more seriously
than Gorbachev did. But it’s pretty much come to pass. As Communism retreated,
radical Islam seeped into Africa and south Asia and the Balkans. Crazy guys
holed up in Philippine jungles and the tri-border region of Argentina, Brazil,
and Paraguay who’d have been “Marxist fantasists” a generation or two back are
now Islamists: it’s the ideology du jour. At the point of expiry of the Soviet
Union in 1991, the peoples of the central Asian republics were for the most part
unaware that Iran had even had an “Islamic revolution”; 15 years on, following
the proselytizing of thousands of mullahs dispatched to the region by a
specially created Iranian government agency, the Stans’ traditionally moderate
and in many cases alcoholically lubricated form of Islam is yielding in all but
the most remote areas to a fiercer form imported from the south. As the Pentagon
has begun to notice, in Iraq Tehran has been quietly duplicating the strategy
that delivered southern Lebanon into its control 20 years ago. The degeneration
of Baby Assad’s supposedly “secular” Baathist tyranny into full-blown client
status and the replacement of Arafat’s depraved “secular” kleptocrat terrorists
by Hamas’s even more depraved Islamist terrorists can also be seen as symptoms
of Iranification.

Read the whole thing. It’s long, but well worth it. Hat tip to Winds of Change.

Michael Totten's road trip to Iraq - Part II

Read it here. Great stuff.

If you missed part I, you can find it here.

New Orleans legislature votes 39-0 in right to keep arms in times of emergency

via Instapundit.

NASCAR-1, NBC-0

I don't always agree with her, but Michelle Malkin has been all over the NBC Dateline vs. NASCAR story.

For those of you who don't know what I am talking about, you can find out more about this story here, here, and here. You can read a copy of a letter sent to NBC by the chairman of the Henry County Board of Supervisors (where Martinsville Speedway is located) here.

Cartoon courtesy of Cox and Forkum.

Michael Totten heading back to Iraq

One of my favorite blogs is MichaelTotten.com. I have been reading Totten's work for over a year now and his coverage of the Middle East is fascinating. If you haven't checked out his work before, do so now.

Michael is headed back to Iraq - I can't wait for more.

Introduction

Hi there. I have been invited by Jarhed to contribute to his quasi-political, UK/U.S. commentary, diesel engine/car freak blog. Apparently he is oblivious to my lack of writing skills, he is far more eloquent than me. I tend to be really good at posting links of articles I find interesting with mono-syllabic commentary such as "read here" or "cool article" or "check this out" - I like to find interesting stuff to read by people whose commentary is more interesting than my own.

With that in mind, hope you like what I have to contribute. Jarhed tends to be far more conservative in the red blooded American, grease monkey, big block engine lovin' kind of way, and yes he lives in Scotland. I am a registered independent living in the Bay Area with a strong Libertarian streak who runs right down the middle of the political spectrum, or at least I think I do. Depending on who you speak to I am either a hardcore conservative who should pack up and move to Crawford, TX or I am a whining liberal who should just stop kidding himself and grow long hair and bang a drum on the UC Berkeley campus. So we hope our differing viewpoints make for some interesting commentary and spice things up a bit, although we strongly agree on many important points.

Well, enjoy this post, because it is probably the longest thing you will ever see me write. Although I could prove myself wrong in the future.......enjoy!

ARMs coming home to roost

an article on the bust that's beginning to happen as a result of the housing boom, on Yahoo news, the lucrative mortagages taken out by peple desperate fora home, only to find that as interest rates rise, so do the problems people are having. Most concerning is the $100 billion price tag being suggested by one analyst for such problems.

ERF's Demise?

heard about ERF and that they are closing their doors very soon, right on the back of Foden's heels. However, for some reason, I can't seem to find a whole lot of news on the subject, so this will be short till I find out some more information. I will say that ERF was trailing Foden by about 25 units sold last year, and after seeing those numbers, I couldn't see that ERF was going to hold out much longer.
Paccar dumped Foden last year (the plant closes in summer of '06, well not close, shift production), after seeing flagging sales and also wondering what's the point of having a DAF with a Foden name badge and yank engine, and MAN is in the same boat with ERF. Once i find more, so will you, but in my head i was wondering what MAN was thinking for holding on to it for so long.

Iraqi News

Good news from Iraq, and some very moving, I highly recommend the letter from the mayor of Tal Afar. I wonder why we never hear about these types of things from the AP and Reuters?

The last British truck, how long?

Saw an article recently regarding the demise of Foden, and how long ERF would last past that. FOund some figures that may shed some light. Before it gets further, the reason PAccar pulled the plug on Foden was new registrations were low, and there's really no point when the Foden shares everything with DAF sans engine. Likewise with ERF, the share MAN's platform, but only with cummins engines. Well, rumor has it Cummins couldn't make Euro 4, which throws the only engine into ERFs either the Cummins CE or BE engine, or MAN engines. Well, the CE and BE are common rail engines that are available in DAF, IVECO, MAN, and most likely more, and only for medium duty work. With the MAN engine the only choice available for heavy work, how long will it be before MAN decides that budgets are too tight to be messing around with name badge engineering, and axe the name that was .1% of total British sales behind Foden, which had 1.2%, or 705 new trucks sold. ERF had 669. If Paccar thought it prudent to axe Foden, would it be equally as prudent to axe ERF? my guess says yes, it does, it would make financial sense, but sad to see the last British Marque die, even if it only exists by name now. See BLB for stats and info.

Oil Scarcity, what's really true

In today's world there seems to be this looming feeling of impending doom as the belief that we will implode under the weight of our own demand for resources grows ever bigger. I've always held the opposite view, seeing oil prices artificially propped up, especially the UK, and more generally Europe and to a smaller extent, the US, by high taxes to try and keep oil usage down, by forcing people to "vote with their pocket books", so to speak, and buy smaller cars, smaller engines, and more costly energy saving features. Looking back to the older generation who always complained that gas was $.25 cents a gallon in my day, and hearing the news that fuel prices have hit record highs, what's the truth in that statement? Well, I've always been skeptical, and haven't really bought into the whole scarcity thing

As Humans, we have an inability to see infinity. We can't see that things will go on forever. I remember an conversation I had with my heavy chassis teacher in Tech school, and I was amazed at the amount of resources that went into making one class 8 truck. I also was reflecting on an article I had read about the same time about resource projections for metals, and how at current production and usage rates we had over 300 years of iron left. The mind boggles to think about the huge amount of metal that exists in the mountains, hills, and mines to furnish the entire world of millions of tons of metal a year for the next 300+ years. My instructor basically said, "why? The resources are there, and they aren't going anywhere, we won't be running out of anything." I doubted him, but if basic economics are true, and history has shown that it is, then he's right.

Which brings me to my current argument. Fuel prices are at an all time high, no one's disputing that. Every time I filled my Firebird with 20 gallons of premium 76 gas, the only fuel it ran cool enough on, I shelled out over 50 bucks. But I began to look deeper, if I can afford to shell out 50 buck at least twice a month, how much of my income was that? The answer startled me, and was backed up by this article, which basically states that oil prices have actually dropped, and it's the oil cartels and other factors that keep it propped up, and artificially so, since it became evident during OPEC I and II that the Saudis need our money more than we need their oil, and they're becoming more desperate to sell it, as increasing competition is making the percentage of oil that we import from them less and less, in short, we are becoming less dependent on them.
As we become more wealthy as a nation, be it UK or US, the percentage of our income that goes to buying essential things like fuel, food, shelter, etc. Actually becomes less, and therefore cheaper for us. Even if the price spikes, it may be a temporary fix to help right sagging energy prices. Looking at the cost of gasoline in the past 50 years, I noticed an interesting issue. If gas costs about $.25 cents a gallon in 1955, how much would it cost in 2005? Using a basic inflation calculator, I plugged in the numbers for that price of fuel currently, and then worked backwards. Using the basic price of $2.18 per gallon in the US in 2005, I came up with guess what? A whopping $.32 a gallon in 1955, a period of relative wealth in the US, being the boom times of post WWII. According to another website, gas cost $.23 a gallon in 1955, which amounts to $1.58 a gallon in 2005. According to the American Enterprise institute, income in 1929 adjusted to 1999 dollars for the average family was $15,745, which, using the trusty inflation calculator, amounts to $2,613 in 1955, and $17,952 in 2005, and in 1929 dollars, $1894. Funny that, considering that is well below today's and 1955's average of average family income. According to Heartbeats, a website devoted to 50's and 60's living, average income was a whopping $1500 more than in 1929, to $4,137. That amounts to $28,422 average family income. Still, well below the current average. According to the US Census, average household income in 2004 was $44,389. Which equates to $6635 in 1955 and $4,219 in 1929. So, as we can see here, our basic income has increased exponentially when compared to 1929 and 1955 values.

What's this got to do with oil? Well, seeing the fuel price in 1955 as $.23 cents a gallon, and the average household earned $4,137, that $.23 is a large percentage of that income. You could buy just under 17,986 gallons of fuel in a year with that price and income. Given today's income at $44,389, and today's record fuel price in 2005 of $2.18 a gallon, that same income could buy you just under 20,361 gallons of fuel, or a difference of 2,375 gallons of fuel difference. This indicates that a smaller portion of our income goes to buying fuel, and this doesn't take into consideration that the cars we buy today are far more fuel efficient than they were 50 years ago. Oil is becoming far cheaper, and the only reason fuel prices are as high as they are is because they are propped up by Oil cartels, and other false methods, such as heavy taxation.
According to the basic laws of supply and demand, prices go down when supply goes up. Even with the burden of heavy taxation and Oil Cartels, oil is becoming cheaper and more plentiful. One could argue that the propping up of the prices by the cartels and taxes are reducing demand and thereby creating more oil availability, but that isn't true. Despite the crushing taxes that are put in place by the various governments we so haphazardly elect, the oil cartels keep their prices up by limiting supply. Looking back simply 7 years ago, we find that oil prices were low, and the cartels were struggling to keep oil prices above $20 a barrel, we were paying approximately $ a gallon for gas. Adjust that to 1955 prices and we see that it is 2 1955 cents lower.

With the rise in the ability for us to extract oil form the ground, more finds in exploration, tar sands, shale oil, etc. We have more oil from more sources than we know what to do with, and being from more locations, less dependent on foreign sources. With a more stable Iraq, which is only 2nd to Saudi Arabia in oil wealth, which, I might add, is estimated with old data, extraction methods, exploration methods, and a former political instability problem, oil will only become cheaper and more abundant. What a wonderful world we live in. Seriously, let's stop living like we need to control everything that has to do with energy, and let the markets do their job. Read the entire article from PNAS, it's worth it.

Mondeo Enthusiasts

Check out www.fordmondeo.org, a site I belong to, and yeah, I know, everyone that hears about this says the same thing (including my wife), there are people who actually like mondeos? Well, actually, yes, they do, and the people you meet there are some of the best I've found in a forum. Enjoy.

Glenn Vs. James

Via Lileks, a great post on the blind rage that seems to be pervasive with today's younger generation and the anti-Christian/western/liberty crusade that seems to be the hot topic on today's media hot list. What's interesting, is Glenn Reynolds seems to think that this type of thinking "betrays a certain lack of perspective." I'm not seeing the lack of perspective that Glenn seems to think, and while I agree with Glenn on many points, there seems to be a severe resistance to anything that has to do with someone telling someone else what to do, as Libertarians seems to have a fear of organized religion, government, etc. For instance, his post on what he suggested about marriage and how it ought to be separated from the state seems to be made somewhat haphazardly. I can understand his point, why should it be up to the government to decide who should marry whom? But the problem is, when it comes to marriage, it affects more than just 2 people, (or in Glenn's case when Polygamy and the like is suggested, as many as you like), it affects the children that come from the union, and their children, and so on. As the family is the core unit of society, and the basic governing unit that has to do with keeping society under control, when you remove the structure that underpins that, society will fall flat on its face. It isn't like putting fuel mileage law's on new cars that are built, cars do not behave on their own accord (well, mostly), but people do, and if we remove how newbies into the world are taught, then disaster looms in the distance. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for keeping the state out of my home, out of my car, and out of my place of business and wallet, but no laws are just as bad as too many, and you end up in a worse place than when you started. Sorry Glenn, can't agree on this one.

Time to wake up

Great article on what needs to happen to Europe, soon, before it's swallowed up in the tide of events that are overtaking it. I fear that Euorpe is faltering, and if it snowballs, they may not have the ability to change it, the brink isn't very far away.

The LA Times

found this on the 'net, a 2005 rendition on the LA Times' Performance of the past year, a must read, filled with great links.

CS Lewis, religious?

Well, I got the opportunity to see the new Narnia movie last night, and i must say, i was very impressed, and enjoyed the movie very much, even though as my co worker put it, it was a bit of a kids film, but having the religious perspective i do, it actually made me really reflect a lot more on the Christ Representation of Aslan the lion. I think the movie did a fantastic job of relating the story of Christ, and I actually gained a little extra insight on my own understanding of the story, and made me appreciate my beliefs a lot more. We got on the subject with the in laws a few days ago about some of the Anti Christian criticism, and it was stated about one criticism heard that said something like "shoving Christ in through the back door". I don't know if that actual comment has been made, as i can't find it, but here's what I feel to say about Christ in the book. I don't think he was put in through the back door. He was full blown right through the front door and on center stage, and I don't think that there's anything wrong with that. In the states we often talk about free speech, but often only when it suits us, especially, it semms, in Hollywood, the controversy regarding Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ was quite heated as well, and I can imagine there were many people who fought against it. So what? don't like it? don't go watch it, no one is forcing you to go and pay good money to sit down and watch it. It's nice to hear other references to Christ other than the ones I hear uttered in vain and crude cursings from my co workers. Go and watch it, very good, and if you get the Christ references, great, read the Bible if you like it, and if not, enjoy the fact it's a decent flick.

Bush Didn't ...... Lie?

Got this from the Chicago Tribune, Seems they set off to see whether Bush really did mislead the country so much, Read the whole thing, very interesting, it's also interesting that this is an actual mainstream media outlet that doesn't seem particularly biased, score a point for the Tribune, and top see that maybe intelligence based on pictures taken from space thousands of miles away maybe isn't the best answer for finding out about things.

Hmm... What next?

The whirlwind life of Scott Peterson continues, as he's now got new counsel for his appeals against his death sentence he received earlier this year. The two lawyers he's gotten are the same lawyers that are representing the Menendez Brothers for the same thing. Seems his high profile case won't get out of the limelight. We'll be hearing about Scott Peterson for a long time to come.

what a waste

I am so sick of reading news like this, as it seems that the thugs that do this have absolutley no regard for life, and it truly is a horrific shame that there is a serious loss of life on the Streets of San Francisco. Sad part is, I really don't think that the handgun ban that will come into effect soon in the city will do any good, there seems to be a bit of a disconnect in believing that banning guns will take the guns away from the evil punks that kill, like they're gonna hand in their guns like any other law abiding citizen. It's a crying shame that these things happen to people, and it makes me sick that I still read about this kind of stuff going on.

Brief return

Been dormant for a while, but decided to get back up, been getting some great material lately, and wanted to post this.
After a brief training session on the new Maxus, one of my co-workers shook his head and said "I give LDV 6 months. Well, LDV has recently been purchased by a private equity group to save the ailing business. The Maxus was set for release a couple years ago, but their joint venture with Daewoo went bust when Daewoo couldnt go through on the deal with their own problems. LDV makes news because it is basically the last genuine British vehicle manufacturer that exists. Foden was purchased by Paccar about a decade ago, and Paccar has announced that Foden production will cease in 2006, due to ailing sales. ERF was purchased by MAN, and I can't see MAN putting the effort to keep ERF afloat much longer either. What has caused the British MAnufacturers to all have such serious problems? One can look to the story of Rover MG for a good answer. Will pursue that angle tomorrow.

Light's on but no one's home?

I stumbled on this site a while ago, dealing with Daytime Running Lights(DRL's), and their supposed evils. I myself, personally, are quite grateful for them and wish they were on all cars, as they have saved my neck a few times, as well as i have had a few close calls with poor lighting conditions where if the driver had his lights on i would have seen him and not nearly put him into the wall of the Webster tube. Also, if it's close to dusk or dawn, and you are driving with the sun behind you, you cant see the cars in your mirror, but the lights from the DRL's shine through and are much more visible. The website really isn't all that fantastic at supporting their claims, actually, they are really poor at doing anything more than just spouting hate towards DRL's and the manufacturers who use them, but give almost no evidence to support their claims. Their arguments are also very easily picked apart by anyone with common sense and a mechanic's brain. I don't know about anyone else, but i like DRL's, any thoughts anyone?