Monday, January 31, 2005
Late January 31st
The researchers, from Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston, discovered a genetic ''master switch" in the liver that is turned on when people become obese. Obesity has long been linked to diabetes, but the reason, until now, has been unknown. Joslin researchers found that once on, this switch produces low-level inflammation, which disrupts the body's ability to process insulin, causing type 2 diabetes.Mover Mike
Reasoning that aspirin-like drugs are used to quell inflammation, they successfully used the drugs, called salicylates, to eliminate the symptoms of type 2 diabetes in mice.
Eight more quakes in Andaman-Nicobar – aftershock epicenters moving northwards...
The strangest thing observed is another smaller but very similar quake in Uttar Pradesh (a state in India), which is in the Northern India adjacent to the Himalayas.There were no quakes reported Monday in this area after four days of activity.
When the epicenters of these quakes are joined with a straight line, it seems that the aftershock epicenter is moving along this line. The aftershocks are between 5.2 and 6.2 in Richter scale. After a series of aftershock there is approximately 78 hours of gap before the next series appears.
Mover Mike
Please welcome these new links:
Iowa Geek - The State is no substitute for personal responsibility. Good post on the 29th about How the press originally treated Lincoln after the Gettysburg Address
The Glittering Eye - Caught my eye with his posts on a number of topics.
The Tomo Report - Daily news and reporting from around the world.... Independent, conservative commentary... And links to the stories you won't see anywhere else...
Mover Mike
Freedom is Contagious!
And Tyrants of the world, you can't keep out the images of people voting in Iraq. Your people will be asking the same question, "When shall we exercise our right to select our leaders?"
THE DIVING BELL AND THE BUTTERFLY
THE DIVING BELL AND THE BUTTERFLY BAUBY VINTAGE
I started this book and then something more exciting or pressing came along, and there it sat, flirting with me. Something about that spine caused me to pick it up Saturday, and inside the cover I found this inscription:
For Mike on his birthday. 1-15-03, Bill & Connie.On the next page were these words
The editor-in-chief of French Elle, Jean-Dominique Bauby suffered a stroke that resulted in locked-in syndrome when he was 43 years old. He died just two days after the French publication of his book.I like to think that people and books, ideas or things, present themselves at appropriate times. I started to read and discovered this young man of 43, after his stroke, could only move his left eye and head (and his head only 90 degrees). He wrote this book using a special alphabet based on the frequency of a particular letter's usage in the french language. A friend would read each letter aloud and he would blink his eye when the correct letter was read, thus building a word, then a sentence, a paragraph, and finally this small book.
"Locked-in" he was especially conscious of his memories; the tastes of strawberries, the sour smell of a New York bar, the odor of poverty of a Rangoon market, the smell of french fries at the end of the pier. And then would come flooding back all the memories of events associated with that smell. For me the smell of Emeraude perfume, immediately takes me back to a city south of San Francisco in 1963, while on choir tour with the Willamette Univ. Choir. "She" wore it! She was a painter of landscapes or seascapes, Joan T., who gave me my first original piece of art. Unfortunately, she wanted it back, after our romance was over.
Bauby has time to think about his short life. He isn't bitter, he is positive, but misses being able to comfort his two children by hugging them to him and kissing their forheads. He misses sliding up next to his wife in bed and feeling her warmth. As I sat there in my overstuffed chair in front of the fireplace, I noticed there were two cup hooks and a yellow stick pin in the wood. Cup hooks for the Christmas stockings hand made by Beverly's
Mover Mike
Sunday, January 30, 2005
Sunday, January 30th
2005/01/30 21:39:02 8.25N 94.25E 15.0 5.2 Nicobar Islands
2005/01/30 15:33:13 8.13N 94.09E 15.9 5.6 Nicobar Islands
Mover Mike
STATEMENT BY THE PRESIDENT ON THE IRAQI ELECTION
Today the people of Iraq have spoken to the world, and the world is hearing the voice of freedom from the center of the Middle East...A whole new meaning to "Giving the Finger"!In great numbers, and under great risk, Iraqis have shown their commitment to democracy. By participating in free elections, the Iraqi people have firmly rejected the anti-democratic ideology of the terrorists. They have refused to be intimidated by thugs and assassins. And they have demonstrated the kind of courage that is always the foundation of self-government.
Mover Mike
Arabs Mesmerized by Iraqi Elections And the real fear of the Middle Eastern leaders in Syria (where Iraqis voted by absentee ballot), Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Iran and Egypt
The Egyptian student, Ahmed Abdel Rahman, openly spoke about not trusting U.S. intentions in Iraq, saying the new Iraqi ruler "will be a follower of America."Mover Mike - 4000
But when asked if democracy can grow in Egypt, where President Hosni Mubarak is widely expected to seek a fifth term in power, the 20-year-old looked over his shoulder and said:
"Let's talk about Iraq. Let's stay away from talking about Egypt."
From Iraq the Model this addition
I walked forward to my station, cast my vote and then headed to the box, where I wanted to stand as long as I could, then I moved to mark my finger with ink, I dipped it deep as if I was poking the eyes of all the world's tyrants.Mover Mike
I put the paper in the box and with it, there were tears that I couldn't hold; I was trembling with joy and I felt like I wanted to hug the box but the supervisor smiled at me and said "brother, would you please move ahead, the people are waiting for their turn".
Saturday, January 29, 2005
Pray for the Iraqis!
Mover Mike
Saturday January 29th
Worldwide, MS prevalence parallels the distribution of the Lyme disease pathogen Borrelia (B.) burgdorferi, and in America and Europe, the birth excesses of those individuals who later in life develop MS exactly mirror the seasonal distributions of Borrelia transmitting Ixodes ticks. In addition to known acute infections, no other disease exhibits equally marked epidemiological clusters by season and locality, nurturing the hope that prevention might ultimately be attainable.What if?
Mover Mike
Chrenkoff in Through the Glass Darkly has an excellent post on how those like Slate's Fred Kaplan are part of a "school" that think America is a declining country. In the post he talks about the future of China and I was reminded of a recent (Jan. 14th to the 22nd of 2005) series of articles in the Asia Times:
Part 1) The Great Wall of shopping
But in a country where in 2003 (the latest data available) the average per capita disposable income in urban areas was 8,472 yuan ($1,033) a year, while for farmers it was only 2,622 yuan ($319) a year, who's really climbing the Great Wall of shopping?
Part 2)Selling China to the world
Made in China, move over: make way to Bought by China. The Middle Kingdom is no longer happy to be "just" the factory of the world, inundating us all with low-tech and mid-tech goods, from textiles to cell phones, from computers to toys, from cameras to bedside lamps.
Part 3)The hottest label: China chic
China entered 2005 celebrating a textile Big Bang: the end of the Multi-Fiber Arrangement, with all quotas on textile imports lifted by the World Trade Organization (WTO). Textiles represent 6% of world trade. China's current share of the US market is around 17%; it may soon rise to 50%. China's current share of the European Union market is 18%; it may soon rise to 30%
Part 4)The peasant Tiananmen time bomb
Last October, The Chinese Peasant Study (more than 7 million pirated copies have been sold. The 460-page yellow-bound volume with the title in black characters can be easily found under the counter, even in some bookshops, for 22 yuan {US$2.65}) won the prestigious Lettre Ulysses Award, sponsored by the German magazine Lettre. The gritty, emotion-packed literary reportage depicts economic exploitation, social injustice and political oppression in rural China - as well as some extraordinary tales of resistance. It took three years to write and consumed all of Chen's and Wu's savings. They visited more than 50 towns throughout agricultural Anhui province, talked to scores of senior officials in Beijing and interviewed thousands of peasants to explain how, in its mad urbanization drive, the party not only neglected the lot of 900 million peasants - deprived of decent health care, welfare, education, the right to have more than one or two children - but also treated them harshly, plunging them in a guaiqian (vicious cycle) in which nothing has fundamentally changed a social structure that has been systematically exploiting Chinese peasants for centuries.I suspect the MSM have created another Super Power that threatens the growth or life of the US, much like they did with the Soviet Union and the Economy of Japan and now China. China is undergoing tremendous growth and has put awful pressures on wages and employment of workers here and around the world. However, let's not ignore their problems.
I am always amazed at how this country continues to thrive and create new businesses even with the politicians and taxes and regulations.
Mover Mike
Do You Want Fries With That?
(AP) _ The McDonald's restaurant in Hermiston, Oregon is outsourcing customers drive-thru meals to North Dakota.I see several problems. The owner would still need someone to do the other jobs that were being done by the order taker. (I can't figure out how that saves any money.) And, if the order taker is in North Dakota, won't my fries get cold, waiting for my order taker to hand them to me? " I am sorry, Ladies and Gentlemen, but your fries will be a little bit late, due to a head wind out of Montana."When a customer drives through, they'll be patched through to Grand Forks, North Dakota to place the order. Why? Because the minimum wage in North Dakota is five-dollars and 15 cents, compared to Oregon's seven-dollars and 25 cents.
Mover Mike
Friday, January 28, 2005
VW is Suing
Well now WorldNetDaily is reporting that VW is going to sue the perpetrators. Come on, VW you just got the best publicity ever for the POLO! See, I remember the name of the car. Isn't that what you want?
Mover Mike
And from Earth Changes TV Unusual Quake Pattern Observed in A-N Islands
Experts today said that there was "unusual earthquake pattern" in Andaman and Nicobar Islands with more than 120 tremblors recorded in the last one month releasing a large amount of seismic energy.Mover Mike
Earth Quakes in India and Sumatra
2005/01/29 20:01:55 8.08N 94.16E 22.2 5.2 Nicobar Islands
2005/01/29 18:20:56 5.49N 94.30E 14.9 5.2 NORTHERN SUMATRA, INDONESIA
2005/01/29 06:10:43 3.30N 93.68E 27.3 5.5 OFF W COAST OF NORTHERN SUMATRA
2005/01/29 05:44:12 13.10N 93.03E 20.0 5.6 ANDAMAN ISLANDS, INDIA REGION
2005/01/29 03:38:01 8.16N 94.23E 16.7 5.4 Nicobar Islands
2005/01/29 02:55:18 5.07N 94.71E 37.9 5.3 NORTHERN SUMATRA, INDONESIA
2005/01/29 01:13:44 7.31N 92.54E 34.1 5.1 Nicobar Islands
2005/01/28 19:18:51 7.99N 94.11E 19.9 5.4 Nicobar Islands
2005/01/28 17:49:40 8.07N 94.14E 30.0 5.4 Nicobar Islands
2005/01/28 17:31:58 8.02N 94.27E 30.0 4.8 Nicobar Islands
2005/01/28 17:26:18 7.98N 94.25E 30.0 4.9 Nicobar Islands
2005/01/28 17:04:53 8.18N 94.45E 30.0 4.9 Nicobar Islands
2005/01/28 12:37:10 8.05N 94.06E 14.1 5.4 Nicobar Islands
2005/01/28 08:47:18 7.98N 93.97E 30.0 5.1 Nicobar Islands
2005/01/28 08:29:46 7.88N 93.99E 20.7 5.3 Nicobar Islands
2005/01/28 07:49:18 8.07N 94.15E 30.0 5.5 Nicobar Islands
2005/01/28 06:13:26 7.98N 94.02E 30.0 5.7 Nicobar Islands
2005/01/28 06:10:31 7.94N 94.04E 42.2 5.5 Nicobar Islands
2005/01/28 03:31:27 8.19N 93.97E 30.0 5.4 Nicobar Islands
2005/01/28 03:26:28 7.95N 94.06E 30.0 4.8 Nicobar Islands
2005/01/27 22:40:48 8.06N 94.09E 30.0 5.3 Nicobar Islands
2005/01/27 20:09:52 5.56N 94.36E 30.0 5.5 Nicobar Islands
2005/01/27 17:40:48 8.05N 94.09E 22.4 5.4 Nicobar Islands
2005/01/27 16:58:51 7.95N 94.07E 30.0 5.8 Nicobar Islands
2005/01/27 13:57:06 7.97N 94.15E 30.0 5.5 Nicobar Islands
2005/01/27 13:54:15 7.92N 94.24E 30.0 5.2 Nicobar Islands
2005/01/27 12:11:55 7.90N 94.33E 30.0 5.4 Nicobar Islands
2005/01/27 11:47:38 8.10N 93.98E 36.6 5.5 Nicobar Islands
2005/01/27 11:44:04 7.96N 94.17E 30.0 5.2 Nicobar Islands
2005/01/27 08:42:17 7.97N 94.29E 35.3 5.5 Nicobar Islands
2005/01/27 08:19:07 7.97N 94.02E 30.0 5.5 Nicobar Islands
2005/01/27 07:20:26 7.97N 94.02E 43.1 5.0 Nicobar Islands
2005/01/27 06:56:59 7.98N 94.03E 41.4 5.7 Nicobar Islands
2005/01/27 05:35:23 13.30N 92.88E 30.0 5.0 Andaman Islands,INDIA REGION
2005/01/27 05:22:19 7.89N 93.96E 37.6 5.3 Nicobar Islands
2005/01/27 03:58:45 8.03N 93.95E 30.0 5.4 Nicobar Islands
2005/01/26 22:46:56 8.05N 94.09E 4.4 5.4 Nicobar Islands
2005/01/26 22:46:33 8.04N 94.08E 72.6 4.6 Nicobar Islands
2005/01/26 22:00:40 2.74N 94.52E 10.0 6.2 OFF W COAST OF NORTHERN SUMATRA
2005/01/26 20:39:18 7.99N 94.07E 10.0 4.8 Nicobar Islands
2005/01/26 17:30:29 8.30N 93.98E 25.8 5.6 Nicobar Islands
2005/01/26 16:50:08 3.23N 96.23E 32.5 5.1 NORTHERN SUMATRA, INDONESIA
2005/01/26 15:46:54 7.99N 94.31E 30.0 4.4 Nicobar Islands
2005/01/26 14:25:53 8.07N 94.29E 30.0 4.4 Nicobar Islands
2005/01/26 11:42:24 7.84N 93.69E 20.9 4.8 NICOBAR ISLANDS, INDIA REGION
2005/01/26 11:39:18 3.62N 94.81E 28.0 4.4 OFF W COAST OF NORTHERN SUMATRA
2005/01/26 08:34:05 4.65N 93.26E 41.0 4.7 OFF W COAST OF NORTHERN SUMATRA
2005/01/26 05:46:39 5.40N 92.90E 47.6 4.6 OFF W COAST OF NORTHERN SUMATRA
2005/01/26 05:14:36 13.49N 92.58E 30.0 4.3 Andaman Islands
2005/01/26 03:38:15 8.01N 94.05E 30.0 4.8 Nicobar Islands
2005/01/26 00:29:48 10.68N 92.49E 30.0 4.3 Andaman Islands
India Daily reports UFO Sighting and Strange Signals reported again in Indian Ocean – sub tectonic experiment?
What is really strange is that during low tide or any time when ocean recedes leaving a wider beach area, the sea birds have a feast on the fishes left in the beach. But these days the sea birds actually fly inland when this is happening. The number of wild animals in the coastal areas also has diminished. Why are animals not coming back to the ocean coastal areas? Are they sensing possibility of another Tsunami?Mover Mike
Thursday, January 27, 2005
Ahh Fashion!
Modern clothes are unwearable and the fashion industry has been disfigured by big business and nudity, says legendary designer Pierre CardinFrom Yahoo today are examples of what Cardin is talking about.
Haute Couture : A model presents a creation by French designer Jean-Paul Gaultier as part of the Spring/Summer 2005 Haute Couture collections presentations in Paris. (AFP/Francois Guillot)
This combination photo shows a model presenting a creation as part of Cavalera's 2005 Fall/Winter collection show during Sao Paulo Fashion Week, January 25, 2005. Picture taken on January 25. REUTERS/Paulo WhitakerMover Mike
Some Kudos and Welcomes
The FT on BW2 free-riding and capital losses on holdings of dollar reserves: A "Hot Rotten Potatoes" Musical Chair Game...
Hugh Hewitt has written in BLOG... how blogs are effecting the MSM. BuzzMachine has an interesting post Advertisers: You have lost control of your message. Get over it. about that VW ad and how advertising is changing, saying the customer is democratising advertising.
CALIFORNIA YANKEE has an update on
House Judiciary Committee Chairman F. James Sensenbrenner Jr. introduced a bill to restrict illegal aliens' ability to obtain and use driver's licenses.
Neal Boortz has a scathing article about a bill in Georgia that like Kelo v. City of New London will take away our property rights.
Well, let me introduce you to SB5 .. a wonderful little piece of legislation now resting in the Georgia State Senate. SB5 is the brainchild of one Eric Johnson, a Republican from Savannah. Senator Johnson is the President Pro Tem of the Senate. He is also a Republican. Oh ... and I understand that he is a real estate developer. Eric Johnson wants any government entity in Georgia to be able to seize private property, your home, your office, your raw land, and turn it over to a private developer. Your property would then become an office building, a parking garage, a transportation facility, a baseball stadium, a telecommunications facility or any number of other wonderful things. It would then be operated by the developer for profit, and at some time in the future would be turned over to the government that condemned it.
Desert Rat Ramblings has an update on Sudan.
What is being called "ethnic cleansing" by the media is really this:Where is President Bush?
The African people are being systematically killed by their own government and Arab militias, known locally as Janjaweed.
When you hear the word "rebels" in the news, they are referring to the inhabitants of that area that are fighting to defend their homeland, their families...and they are being murdered...muslims systematically murdering 'non-believers'...hmmm...where have I heard that before...???
Doug Petch posts about The Superbowl Ad You Won't See
Eutychus Fell: Becoming Catholic discusses a movie I'm going to rent Wide Awake
Here's Corporate Taxation 101 From On High
I oppose any and all taxes on America's corporations; state, federal, municipal. The reason? We end up paying them.
Gay Patriot's new cause:
There is no reason why a photo ID should not be required to vote when it is required to buy liquor, cigarettes, board a plane, and enter a Federal building. I'm going to make this my cause celebre this year because I think with what we've seen in Wisconsin and Washington State... to not do something would further erode the confidence in our election process.Let me end this post by welcoming:
Duckwriter - (I'm a Beaver, but here's an interesting Duck!
Faneufy's Truth - a proponent of the Loonetariun Philosophy
K A D N I N E - a new blogger from Kentucky who has the taste to put Hugh Hewitt on his Blogroll
Random thoughts . . . - before the gavel falls. The quiet musings of a humble country lawyer in the big city.
The Blog from the Core - Needless Commentary from Small-Town America
Weapons of Mass Discussion - The battle over illegal aliens and homeland security is heating up in the nation's capital, as President Bush is being challenged by fellow Republicans on the best course of action.
Mover Mike
UFO's on Thursday January 27th
Over at Whitley Streiber's website in an article How UFOs Fly
Three French physicists say they've figured out how UFO engines work. The scientists claim they use a combination of electromagnetic and nuclear power and they have built a model UFO engine at the French Astronomical Observatory in Marseilles.Check it, with links to great schematics. I guess this means Flying Saucers are real. Wonder if the Air Force knows?
Mover Mike
At National Review Online Tense Straits, Washington signals timidity toward Chinese bellicosity. By Dan Blumenthal & Randy Scheunemann
China passes an "anti-secession" law and hardly gets a response from the State Department, but
More damaging, outgoing Deputy Secretary State Richard Armitage publicly weakened the decades-long U.S. commitment to Taiwan's defense. Appearing on PBS's Charlie Rose Show, Armitage was asked whether the U.S. would defend Taiwan if China attacked. He demurred that it is "not quite appropriate" for him to answer that question notwithstanding President Bush's answer to the same question in 2001 that the U.S. would "do whatever it takes" to defend Taiwan.A weak or equivocal response only encourages the Chinese on the mainland.
Mover Mike
Wednesday, January 26, 2005
Vox Blogoli: Jonathan Rauch
“On balance it is probably healthier if religious conservatives are inside the political system than if they operate as insurgents and provocateurs on the outside. Better they should write anti-abortion planks into the Republican platform than bomb abortion clinics. The same is true of the left. The clashes over civil rights and Vietnam turned into street warfare partly because activists were locked out of their own party establishments and had to fight, literally, to be heard. When Michael Moore receives a hero’s welcome at the Democratic National Convention, we moderates grumble; but if the parties engage fierce activists while marginalizing tame centrists, that is probably better for the social peace than the other way around.”
Let me rephrase the first sentence, leaving out the emotionally charged words. On balance it is probably healthier if a bloc with differing views is included within an affiliated group than be outside. Without the emotion that to me seems perfectly logical, however in practice, I think the bloc always will be outside, initially. Think of one example from the past. Most believed the world to be flat. Any differing view of the world was simply judged "wrong" by the group. Now the round worlders have to "fight" to be heard. "Fight" can be defined by persuading with a preponderance of evidence to literally fighting involving bloodshed. Suppose you are a Freedom Fighter working to secure liberty from a dictator. According to the Bush Doctrine this country would now support such groups seeking freedom and liberty, and the left, I might add, would support this doctrine. Haven't they supported such groups as the PLO. I don't know how to get around the obvious problem of "the ends justify the means" in the fight, outside the group.
I agree with the first sentence, don't think that's the way life works, and some will do anything to change the groups beliefs.
Mover Mike
Wednesday January 26th
Congressmen Dave Weldon and Henry Hyde sponsored a bill (and signed into law by President Bush) that protected hospitals, physicians and other medical personnel from being coerced or compelled to participate in abortion activities. In fact, the legislation specifically stated that no hospital receiving federal funds shall compel its participants to engage in abortions. The penalty for coercing participation in abortion activities is a loss of the federal funding.Mover MikeIn the lawsuit, Lockyer states that the right to abortion supersedes any other right, including the right of conscience.
Our friend Gina gave us two free tickets to see the sneak opening of Million Dollar Baby last night. I had read many reviews and was aware that many conservative reviewers didn't like the movie for one reason, which I won't mention here. I was prepared to vote for Best Picture either for Sideways or Aviator, and after seeing Being Julia, Annette Benning for Best Actrress.
All that changed after seeing Million Dollar Baby. This may be Clint Eastwood's best work yet. I love the way he squints. I love to look at his face with its lines and wrinkles. The closeups of the actors' faces is rarely in full light, but half shaded as if we are all Yin and Yang. It is a great story told by Morgan Freeman, an ex fighter who was blinded in one eye in his 109th fight. The viewer is not told about the characters actions, but shown. Most powerful of all was the performance by Hillary Swank as a "girlie" boxer. She is all heart, work ethic, and unbelievable power in the ring. I lost track of the fact that she was an actress. I think this movie will be a "KO" when the Academy votes! Thank you Gina for a great evening.
Mover Mike
Tuesday, January 25, 2005
Law of the Sea Treaty
On the campaign trail last year, President Bush said a priority of his second term would be to 'build an ownership society, because ownership brings security, and dignity, and independence.' Sounds good to us," reads a Wall Street Journal editorial today. "But the rhetoric doesn't square with news that the administration may file an amicus brief against property owners in an upcoming Supreme Court (Kelo v. City of New London case concerning eminent domain."Worried that a Bush Administration brief against land owners is in the works, the National Taxpayers Union, the Competitive Enterprise Institute and other free-market groups signed a missive sent to the White House in October. No doubt, Business Roundtable-types are pressuring Mr. Bush on the other side, along with states and localities that feel that private property can be taken and then parceled out to maximize tax revenues. The letter urges the Administration to "affirm its support for property rights and refrain from filing a brief in Kelo." So far, the response has been a troubling silence.Now we have this: From WorldNetDaily
Sovereignty-sapping U.N. accord gets new life
Lugar, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, questioned Rice about the agreement (Law of the Sea Treaty - "LOST) at last week's confirmation hearings.From Insight On the News of April 19th, 2004
Rice responded that the president "certainly would like to see it pass as soon as possible," saying LOST "serves our national security interests, serves our economic interests. We very much want to see it go into force."
As worded, LOST would deny the United States the right to intercept terrorist vessels or proliferators, according to Leitner. The President's Proliferation Security Initiative, designed to battle proliferation of weapons of mass destruction with as little effect on commerce as possible, would be illegal under the treaty. "This U.S.-led, multinational program of high-seas interdiction and vessel boarding is barred by the Law of the Sea Treaty yet it is our overriding national-security interest to execute," Leitner said. "Ratification of the treaty would effectively gut our ability to intercept the vessels of terrorists or hostile foreign governments even if they were transporting nuclear weapons. We must ensure that we are not binding the government of the United States to a legal regime that makes us more vulnerable and trades the lives of our innocent civilians for the sake of participating in yet another unnecessary treaty."Those opposing LOST include:
Even worse, according to Leitner, is what he calls "the creation of yet another international court where the United States or our citizens can be dragged before politically motivated jurists to adjudicate and set penalties."
The treaty imposes limitations "on measures we might take to ensure our national security and homeland defense. If, for instance, foreign vessels operating on the high seas do not fit into one of three categories (i.e., they are engaged in piracy, flying no flag or transmitting radio broadcasts), LOST would prohibit U.S. Navy or Coast Guard vessels from intercepting, searching or seizing them," Gaffney testified.
The CATO Institute - Sink the Law of the Sea Treaty
The New American - Bush Continues to Support UN "Law of The Sea" Treaty
Whitten Commentary - Bush Continues to Support UN "Law of The Sea" Treaty, who urges you to contact Congress on this issue.
Light a Candle... - who directs you to Accuracy in Media
We would do well if this treaty got lost. It gives up to the UN/NWO, our sovereignty, rights, and benefits, from our oceans, coasts, and even the Great Lakes!
National conservative leaders -- Senator Jim Inhofe (R-OK), Phyllis Schlafly of Eagle Forum, Frank Gaffney of the Center for Security Policy and myself -- are starting to speak out now on this vital issue. So is Dr. Peter Leitner of George Mason University, author of "Reforming the Law of the Sea Treaty". I intend to do my part to fight against ratification of this sovereignty-destroying Treaty. But it is your voice that your State's U.S. Senators and U.S. Representative will heed when deciding just where they stand on LOST.
Why in the world is the administration supporting the Law of the Sea Treaty? Is it Powell's State Department, and no one else is paying attention?
The Liberty Committee The Weekly Standard
The Bush Administration has expressed interest in joining the International Seabed Authority and has urged the U.S. Senate to ratify the Treaty. However, many of former President Ronald Reagan's original objections to the Treaty--while modified--still hold true today, and many of the possible national security advantages are already in place.This is not a complete list by any means. The Bush Administration hasn't met a spending bill it didn't like. Many of us are unhappy with seeminly little interest, in four years, in limiting spending. Then there is the friend of the court brief against property rights. Now when it seems there may be some impetus to rid ourselves of the UN, along comes interest in supporting a treaty that gives power to the UN over the seafloor to the detriment of our interests. The bush administration should look to the base that brought them to power.
Hat Tip to THE TOMO REPORT
Mover Mike
Monday, January 24, 2005
Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton
At one point, for instance, she drew gasps from some in the audience by mentioning that 7 percent of American women who do not use contraception account for 53 percent of all unintended pregnancies.I haven't gone weak kneed on her, I recognize she is power seeking and needs to convince people that she is reasonable. I think she will also home in on the issue of illegal aliens moving across our borders as chronicled by Michelle Malkin
Writing of Ms. Malkin, her latest post attacks the statistics of Hillary who claimed that abortions have gone up under President Bush.
(note to the NYT, I spelled her whole name out in the lead. I know how fussy you are for accuracy.)
Mover Mike
Monday Afternoon January 24th
...officials confirmed that there were indications that there had been a leak of reactor coolant into the containment area. There were no evacuations at the plant, and there were no signs of any release of radiation.Mover Mike
Power and Control and dougpetch.com both comment on: Humans prevent ice age
"Instead of driving us to the brink of environmental disaster, human intervention and technology progress will be seen as vital activities that have unintentionally delayed the onset of a catastrophic ice age."Mover Mike
Welcome to:
Amish Fight Club - Guns, Sharks, Sports, Politics, Whatever.... Zeb opines that The Trail Blazers may be without a coach after their next loss!
Gus Van Horn - the online diary and political musings of an American man
The Political Spectrum - A thoughtful, intelligent, albeit somewhat snarky view of politics, law, and culture from a group of lawyers, scholars, and other commentators from both sides of the political spectrum.
Mover Mike
Monday January 24th
R.I.P. Johnny! I remember, while in high school, sitting on the floor watching Johnny with the sound turned low, my parents in bed. First, there was the Opening Monologue, timely humor on the days or weeks happening, then a skit, like Karnak. Johnny would devine the answer from a sealed envelope, Ed would repeat the answer, Johnny would look around like there was an echo, and then realize that it was Ed. Finally came the question! The guests came out after a lot of commercials, one by one, sat next to Johnny, chatted and laughed, touted their latest offering and then moved over to the couch. If I missed a show, inevitably the story next day from my buddies was about a young starlet that appeared in a see-through or low cut blouse. There was even the time when a breast fell out and the starlet calmly tucked it back in, so I'm told. How many times did I sit up late, seated on the floor waiting for just such a thing to happen. For this high schooler, Johnny was a window on the world.
Mover Mike
Welcome to:
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MarketRant - Analyst with strong contrarian tendencies and a disdain for sales-oriented analysis
How do you see the world? - 1. 'The world is everything that is the case.' 7. 'Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent.'
People's Republic of Minnesota - Conservative thoughts and musings from the land of 10,000 taxes.
a-sdf - Nullum magnum ingenium sine mixtura dementiae fuit (Four years of Latin - long ago - leads me to believe this means "We are filled with great ideas and a mixture of demented fruit"???)
Mover Mike
Eutychus Fell: Becoming Catholic has a fine post on a show that is becoming a must see (along with Desparate Housewives). Boston Legal is well written, witty and poignant.
Mover Mike
Sunday, January 23, 2005
Sunday January 23rd
So far so good. The book was recommended to me by an established writer who told me that it contains the most lucid explanation of the use of point of view in fiction that he had ever come across. And indeed chapters seven and eight do cover point of view rather well. I have to say, however, that I prefer my own explanation of this subject, which I published in this blog in five parts from 4 to 10 November 2004 (see archives). But other readers may find Ms Le Guin's explanation preferable. It's all a matter of taste. Either way, the use of viewpoint is something that a writer has to master, and it sure ain't simple.
Mover Mike
Welcome to the following blogs:
The Cave - It's scary, I think we think alike
One Clear Call - Thoughts from an average American working woman who understands the only issue that can't wait is our nation's security. "If you would have peace, prepare for war" ~ Ancient Roman proverb
Mandelinople - my city. my rules.
.:. WitNit .:. - BATTLING WORLDWIDE ATTENTION-SPAN SHRINKAGE (wit-nit) v. 1. to closely examine a thing with humor and ironic truth. 2. to take humorous analysis of relatively inconsequential things to a hyperbolic extreme. 3. to engage in silly, extended, self-indulgent rantings. 4. to do things up with which others will not put.
Scylla & Charybdis - A journey through the narrow channel between the Scylla of a controlled press and the Charybdis of effete thugs with immunity.
Mover Mike
Saturday, January 22, 2005
TigerHawk Does Us A Favor
Mover Mike
A Reply to Podhoretz
Despite the inevitable attempts by Podhoretz and his ilk to recast any eventual withdrawal as the fault of the Left regardless of who holds the power, I am somewhat thankful that Kerry lost the election at least in this context. Paraphrasing an earlier post: If the US must pull out of Iraq in defeat and ignominy, let it be the Bush administration's legacy alone, because they are the rightful owners. In some bizarre sense I am relieved by the fact that there will not be a liberal scapegoat in the White House to be held accountable for this failure in policy, if that is what the Iraq invasion turns out to be. I'm not sure how long it would take the Democrats to live down the stigma attached to the "party of retreat" if a hypothetical President Kerry had to make such a decision. Maybe he would realize the strategic blow this would deal his compatriots and thus be inclined to remain in Iraq past the point of no return, in turn causing more harm. This is part of what I meant when I said back in August that if Bush wins, he loses. Let's hope it never comes to that.I love liberals! He has it every which way. In a way the writer reminds me of Kerry and his flip flopping. Imagine the council he would give a President. This Iraq invasion MAY be a failure in policy, and MAY result in pulling out in defeat and ignominy, but we can't pull out for then we would be "the party of retreat" and massive loss of face. I don't read here a concern for what is right for the Iraqi people or for the long term safety of the US or for that matter a "can-do" attitude.
Mover Mike
Friday, January 21, 2005
Norman Podhoretz
The Bush Doctrine has a powerful coalition arrayed against it, and the coalition will fight with everything they have. We see it in the statistics of which Chrenkoff posted: Bad news from Iraq heavy reporting on anything negative in Iraq and little about the positives. According to Podhoretz, the coalition consists of four groups:
The Isolationists both the Paleoconservative right, typified by Patrick Buchanan and slightly anti-semetic; so many of our problems in the Middle East are the results of Israel and the "neocons" who just happen to be Jewish; and the Hard left typified by Noam Chomsky, quick to find fault with America and believes America is bad for the world.
The Superhawks typified by Angelo M. Codevilla and Mark Helprin, who believe we should show no mercy, the Middle East has no history of democracy and thus we will be there for years and years.
The Liberal Internationalists This is the foreign policy establishment members of CFR and the Brookings Institute who believe that negotiations are the best and only way to resolve conflicts and have an undying faith in the UN.
The Realists Prior to 9/11 both Presidents Bush were in this group, believed in the "Balance of Power" pardigm, the soverneignty of a nation is paramount, and force can be used in all its awesome power to repel aggression
I wrote this synopsis of Podhoretz writings to help me keep the players straight and to help me maintain my confidence in the Bush Doctrine, for the Coalition, just like the Democrats, root for our defeat to stay in power or to regain power.
It has seemed eerie to me that on the one hand we are at war and young men are dying for us; and in the streets of America there is no burden except for the one borne by wives, children, and relatives of our servicemen and women. Podhoretz says
This time there is no draft, there are no shortages or rationing, and taxes have not been raised. But on the other hand, we have more cause to be anxious over the safety and security of our continental homeland, which none of our enemies in those earlier wars ever managed to strike.That's why I won't forget where I was on Thursday January 20, 2005. President Bush told us straight where we are going and it will be hard, and it will be worth it.
Furthermore, facing a conflict that may well go on for three or four decades, Americans of this generation are called upon to be more patient than "the greatest generation" needed to be in World War II, which for us lasted only four years; and facing an enemy even more elusive than the Communists, the American people of today are required to summon at least as much perseverance as the American people of those days did—for all their bitching and moaning—over the 47 long years of World War III. Indeed, in this area the generation of World War IV has an even more difficult row to hoe than its predecessors in World War II and World War III.
Mover Mike
Little Earth Quakes
DATE-(UTC)-TIME Latitude Longitude Depth Magnitude Comments
yyyy/mm/dd hh:mm:ss degrees degrees km
2005/01/21 16:46:57 1.61S 80.89W 10.0 4.9 NEAR COAST OF ECUADOR
2005/01/21 16:15:05 1.28S 80.75W 10.0 4.5 NEAR COAST OF ECUADOR
2005/01/21 15:26:37 1.09S 80.68W 52.8 4.8 NEAR COAST OF ECUADOR
2005/01/21 13:45:14 1.12S 80.71W 10.0 6.0 NEAR COAST OF ECUADOR
2005/01/21 04:30:32 1.13S 80.74W 31.1 4.8 NEAR COAST OF ECUADOR
2005/01/20 19:07:17 1.18S 80.98W 32.4 4.6 NEAR COAST OF ECUADOR
Mover Mike
Richard Russell writes today in Dow Theory Letters Inc. (by subscription only)
Today, January 21, we find both the Industrials and the Transports (along with all the other major stock averages) below their lows of December 2004. In my book this is a very ominous situation, and one that does not bode well for either the stock market or the economy in 2005.Mover Mike
Tim W Wood in China Syndrome has some surprising things to say about China, based on his technical analysis
So, my technical work is telling me that odds favor a down turn for China and potentially a significant one. I will add that there is a high likelihood that this down turn is about to begin unfolding and should be confirmed with a break below the October 2004 low.Mover Mike
At the outside I would say that the Hang Seng could perhaps hold on for one more intermediate term cycle advance as the divergence builds even more. But, in either case the Hang Seng is setting up for a major fall. These divergences are like pressure that builds up deep within the earth along the fault lines. The more the pressure builds the greater the earthquake that follows. Unless these technical conditions are corrected China is setting up for a financial earthquake. This quake could occur with a small reading on the Richter scale. But, current indications are that we should expect something of greater magnitude that may just rock the entire world.
I believe that China is about to enter Phase II of the great global bear market. If it’s actually true that China has been responsible for so much of the “recovery” since 2002 then imagine what might happen if they do see a down turn. You have been warned!
Finally, Hundreds of Aborted Babies Buried in Colorado
Hundreds of parishioners have attended the twice-a-year services at their Wall of the Unborn. This year, the parish has invited the world with a news release.Little Earth Quakes
"It impacts all of us," LaVelle said, "and it impacts us to see the quantity of ashes that we bury each time."
Mover Mike
Our New Role and Heresy Update
The great democratic crusade undertaken by this administration is going far better than most observers will admit. That's the good news. The bad news is a development more troubling than most observers recognize: signs of the emergence, for the first time since the fall of the Soviet empire, of an anti-American bloc anchored by Great Powers.Mover Mike
Our first opportunity since The Speech Please help us by preventing from deporting to Burma
I would like to commence by stating that we - those who are presently imprisoned in Port Blair, the Andaman Island of India- are freedom fighters of Arakan and our organization, the National United Party of Arakan (NUPA), including its armed wing, the Arakan Army (AA), is a politico-revolutionary organization that formed on 5 January 1994 to fight the Burma's military regime.And Burma is one of six (6) "Outposts of Tyranny".
Mover Mike
Over at TCS Overcoming the Constraints of Sovereignty by Sidney Goldberg
A chief complaint against the Bush inaugural speech is that he seems to ignore the constraints of sovereignty, which prevent the United States from encroaching on the legitimacy of even the most evil of regimes and proclaims their borders sacrosanct.Mover Mike
But sovereignty often has nothing to do with ethics and one can respect sovereignty and commit ethical crimes in doing so. Was it ethical to abide by the sovereignty of Sudan while it was committing genocide? Is it ethical for us to sit on our hands while millions of Africans are maimed or slaughtered?
Update now from WorldNet Daily Heresy case pressed against Kerry, others
Catholic lawyer widens scope to Kennedy, Cuomo, Harkin
Citing a source in the archdiocese, Balestrieri said Archbishop O'Malley has been unable to address the charges against Kerry due to being overwhelmed by abuse cases against the church and the closure of parishes.Mover Mike
(Marc) Balestrieri(, a canon lawyer and director of the Los Angeles-based non-profit group De Fide) plans to reveal more details of his cases against the prominent Catholic politicians in a news conference Monday at the National Press Club in Washington.
Thursday, January 20, 2005
Friday January 21st
Whether or not the subsidies are eventually revoked, it's a curious message we send to a region absorbing historic amounts of foreign aid. As American NGOs build elementary schools, immunize children, and promote school-feeding for poor Asians, American trade laws are sapping their chances for future employment, closing off markets and crushing industries where Asia has competitive advantages. Development bigwigs can offer a litany of reasons why billions in foreign aid have yielded precious little, but doubling handouts may not be the answer. I'm guessing that the farmers of Vietnam, Thailand, and India don't want to spend the rest of their careers accepting our aid. They just want to sell us shrimp.Mover Mike
Jonah Goldberg says this after "The Speech"
...America itself is a radical nation...Mover Mike
Welcome to:
Bill Cara - Capital Markets & Social Equity...perspective and discussion
Synthstuff - music, photography and more... - Occasional notes from a happily married Mt. Baker Geek and Cider maker...
ir-blog - investor relations, international relations, and individual relations. Some nice quotes about Mover Mike. Has a good post $100 Oil? $750 Gold? quoted by permission from the daily London Irvine Report.
Mover Mike
Pundita posts
If you think the American government practices a double standard in dealings with undemocratic governments, that's a situation you can't do much about if you're not an American. What you can do much about is closely examine your own government's dealings with undemocratic governments; when you find instances of a double standard, lodge protest with your government.It appears the burden is on the citizenry of the US to hold any administration to account, if they deal with countries that don't meet the goals laid down by President Bush.
In this way, many hands make light work of ending oppressive governments.
Mover Mike
More Thoughts on The Speech
What now of the struggles for human rights in Cuba, today, and China in Tiananmen Square, yesterday. If this is now our policy, the world has changed. The change was enunciated today. I will remember this day for the rest of my life!
Today, America speaks anew to the peoples of the world:
All who live in tyranny and hopelessness can know: the United States will not ignore your oppression, or excuse your oppressors. When you stand for your liberty, we will stand with you.
Democratic reformers facing repression, prison, or exile can know: America sees you for who you are: the future leaders of your free country.
The rulers of outlaw regimes can know that we still believe as Abraham Lincoln did: "Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves; and, under the rule of a just God, cannot long retain it."
The leaders of governments with long habits of control need to know: To serve your people you must learn to trust them. Start on this journey of progress and justice, and America will walk at your side.
Mover Mike
The Inauguration Speech
For those that want God out of our life, the invocation appealed or referred to "God", "you" or "your" 17 times. Face!
Several lines I particularly liked: "No one is fit to be a master, no one is born to be a slave"
Oppression is always wrong, freedom is eternally right"
Quite a speech!
Mover Mike
Thursday, January 20th
As one insider says, "Black people can no longer be looked upon as monolithic, and nobody understands this better than President Bush. He has quietly made very big strides by getting funds to faith-based organizations because the Republicans have discovered that the black churches are ready to do serious work."Maybe this is why Sen. Clinton urges use of faith-based initiatives
In other words, Republicans have discovered that the morality trumpeted by the evangelicals who were so important to their victories in November is shared by the black church community, which has always been conservative on issues regarding personal conduct.
Addressing a crowd of more than 500, including many religious leaders, at Boston's Fairmont Copley Plaza, Clinton invoked God more than half a dozen times, at one point declaring, "I've always been a praying person."Mover Mike
Warren Buffett sees no way but down for US dollar
"I think, over time, unless we have a major change in trade policies, I don't see how the dollar avoids going down," the world's second-richest individual told CNBC television.Mover Mike
An American in Paris By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN let's us in on a little secret, Europe is the
biggest "blue" state of them all, ...butPeople everywhere hunger for freedom!Funnily enough, the one country on this side of the ocean that would have elected Mr. Bush is not in Europe, but the Middle East: it's Iran, where many young people apparently hunger for Mr. Bush to remove their despotic leaders, the way he did in Iraq.
An Oxford student who had just returned from research in Iran told me that young Iranians were "loving anything their government hates," such as Mr. Bush, "and hating anything their government loves." Tehran is festooned in "Down With America" graffiti, the student said, but when he tried to take pictures of it, the Iranian students he was with urged him not to. They said it was just put there by their government and was not how most Iranians felt.
Iran, he said, is the ultimate "red state." Go figure.
Mover Mike
Wednesday, January 19, 2005
Wednesday January 19th
Mover Mike
Rice targets 6 'outposts of tyranny'
"To be sure, in our world, there remain outposts of tyranny, and America stands with oppressed people on every continent," she said, naming Cuba, Burma, North Korea, Iran, Belarus and Zimbabwe.On January 29, 2002, President Bush in his State of the Union speech declared
The only "axis of evil" member missing from the new group is Iraq.
States like these (Iran, Iraq, North Korea), and their terrorist allies, constitute an axis of evil, arming to threaten the peace of the world.Seems the "Axis of Evil" is expanding with the addition of Cuba, Burma, Belarus, Zimbabwe. What about Syria and Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Somalia?
Mover Mike
Some have argued there was no Iraq, Al-Qaeda connection. I disagree after reading Yossef Bodansky's The High Cost of Peace: How Washington's Middle East Policy Left America Vulnerable to Terrorism.
In Iran's Al-Qaeda Link: What the 9-11 Commission Found let's not forget these details of collusion between Iran and Al-Qaeda, after we include Iran in this war.
Mover Mike
Tsunami-hit Thais told: Buy six planes or face EU tariffs
TSUNAMI-struck Thailand has been told by the European Commission that it must buy six A380 Airbus aircraft if it wants to escape the tariffs against its fishing industry.This is not a good time to get tough with Thailand.
Mover Mike
CBS News Roiling, 60 Minutes Four Refuse to Yield
The trio has remained silent, but all three are consulting with lawyers about the possibility of bringing legal action against CBS News.CBS News president Andrew Heyward should have been gone along with Ms. Mapes.
As critics continue to question how CBS News president Andrew Heyward survived the upheaval that took out his underlings, the gaps in the official narrative of events suggest there may be one or more alternate versions of what happened.
Mover Mike
Tuesday, January 18, 2005
Evening of January 18th
Title 18 United States Code section 794, subsection (b) prohibits anyone "in time of war, with intent that the same shall be communicated to the enemy [from publishing] any information with respect to the movement, numbers, or disposition of any of the Armed Forces ... of the United States ... or supposed plans or conduct of any ... military operations ... or any other information relating to the public defense, which might be useful to the enemy ... [this crime is punishable] by death or by imprisonment for any term of years or for life."This kind of thing has been going on for to long by the press and the politicians against the war. I'm surprised it took so long.
Subsection (a) of that statute prohibits anyone "with ... reason to believe that it is to be used to the injury of the United States or to the advantage of a foreign nation, communicates ... to any representative, officer, agent, employee, subject or citizen thereof, either directly or indirectly, any information relating to the national defense, shall be punished by death or by imprisonment for any term of years or for life."
Mover Mike
Israel blames 'outside forces'
Israel accused Hizbullah, Iran and Syria of being behind the recent wave of terror, with senior diplomatic officials Tuesday night threatening action "both here and elsewhere" against those responsible.Iran and Syria, Iran and Syria, Iran and Syria. Piece of advice for Iran and Syria. I would make sure it doesn't become Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran and Syria!
Mover Mike
This sent a shiver down my spine, Tsunami sparks ghost sightings
Volunteer body searchers at the resorts of Phi Phi Island and Khao Lak have been reported as claiming they have heard laughing and singing on a devastated beach only to find darkness and empty sand.
Taxi drivers at Patong on Phuket island swear they picked up a foreign man and his Thai girlfriend going to the airport with all their baggage, only to then look in the rear-view mirror and find an empty seat.
Mover Mike
Chandler's Wobble Causes Earthquakes, Volcanism, El Nino, and Global Warming
In summary, then, the cosmic factors of the EMS (Earth-Moon-Sun) system are creating changes in the location and motion of the spin axis sufficiently to force a major new trend in the shape shifting of the Earth’s crust in the tropical zones. This shape shifting is pulsed in the frequency of the 6.5 year X Wave and it has directly induced a huge increase (possibly a fourfold increase) in the release of the Earth’s interior heat into the bottoms of the oceans during the past 50 years, most especially in the Pacific. Accordingly, then, the X Wave is causing El Nino and the progressively accelerating drift or shift in the location of the pole is inducing the release of a steadily increasing amount of heat with each El Nino, thusly increasing the severity of each cycle while accumulating as the trend which has come to be known as global warming.Another study that shows that Global Warming is not human based.
Mover Mike
Tuesday, January 18th
Modern clothes are unwearable and the fashion industry has been disfigured by big business and nudity, says legendary designer Pierre CardinI'd like to see my wife in one of those J Lo creations, but not in the weather of this weekend.
Mover Mike
A Call To Arms by John Stephenson SSGT USAF
Why do so many sit aside, holding their anger inside, as activist organizations such as the ACLU assault our religious expression? Why do so many do nothing, as activist judges rule in favor of these anti-Christian organizations? Why do we stay uninvolved?Indeed!
Mover Mike
An emotional holy war broke out yesterday on the streets of Jersey City, where Muslims and Christians clashed and lobbed insults at the funeral for a devout family of Egyptian immigrants who may have been slain for their religious beliefs.
Mover Mike
Global warming through the crystal ball
With the world looking at the wake of South Asia’s devastating tsunamis, Canadian geographers are looking at warmer summers they claim are headed our way--50 years from now.Our weather people in the Northwest can't predict beyond 10 days, but 50 years!
Mover Mike
The United States is headed towards a 2004 trade deficit of $600 billion, which will be about 13 percent higher than the previous record, set in 2003, and comes to about 6 percent of GDP, a figure that many economists say is unsustainable.
Mover Mike
China builds up strategic sea lanes by Bill Gertz
"China is building strategic relationships along the sea lanes from the Middle East to the South China Sea in ways that suggest defensive and offensive positioning to protect China's energy interests, but also to serve broad security objectives," said the report sponsored by the director, Net Assessment, who heads Mr. Rumsfeld's office on future-oriented strategies.Lots of interesting news today or maybe it's because I took the weekend off.
Mover Mike
Monday, January 17, 2005
USD On Front Page Of WSJ
Mover Mike
The Wall street Journal has a page one article As Dollar Weakens,Hidden Strengths May Stave Off Crisis
Just as an individual who spends more than he earns must borrow or sell some of his assets to pay his bills, the U.S. finances its current-account deficit by either borrowing or attracting foreign investment in its businesses and stock market. Lately, it has borrowed heavily by selling Treasury bonds and other IOUs, often to foreign central banks. As a result, the U.S. has gone from having net foreign assets equal to 9% of GDP in 1978 to net liabilities equaling about 25% now. Mr. Eichengreen says there is no historical precedent for such a large economy being so heavily in debt to the rest of the world. Timothy Geithner, current head of the New York Fed, recently highlighted the risks: "We are significantly more dependent today on the confidence of the rest of the world in U.S. economic policy."We know how this will end, we don't know, however, if it will be in 10 years, 5 years, 1 year or next week. We know how it will end because we have already experienced currencies without metal backing; the Continental and the Confederate Currency.
Mover Mike
In 'Torture' On Trial The WSJ concludes
Rather than keeping quiet and absorbing all of this political criticism, maybe it's time for the Bush Administration and its allies in Congress to demand some legal and moral clarity for those in the CIA and military who are responsible for breaking the likes of KSM, who did after all plan the September 11 attacks. In President Bush's first term, that task would have fallen to John Ashcroft, who didn't mind bucking the Democratic-media consensus. We hope soon-to-be Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has learned from his own rough confirmation hearings that failing to fight back gets you nothing but more abuse.
Mover Mike
Reflections on the Weekend
Mover Mike
I took the weekend off to celebrate my birthday with friends in Central Oregon. I bought chains Friday for the SUV, and ironically, chained up Saturday morning to get out of Portland then dropped them 2 miles from Sandy, just before the mountains, and drove the rest of the way to Cline Falls Road, outside of Redmond, in 4-wheel drive. No problems for us other than stopping frequently to scrape the ice off the windshield, but did see some cars in ditches on the way.
Our friends live between Sisters and Tumalo. Everything around them was covered in two to three inches of snow. It was 21 degrees and the fog had frozen on the trees, and fences etching them white. We traveled with Amber the Golden Retriever, and the quiet walks of the mornings were only broken by the crunch of our feet on the snow. They say Central Oregon has a population near 150,000, but you wouldn't know it nestled as we were up against the BLM property that is home to wildlife and grazing cattle. For months the coyotes had been edging closer to their home, putting their pets at risk. One day a neighbor shot a male coyote and hung the carcass on a nearby fence. The coyotes have kept their distance ever since.
Life seems less complicated at my friends home. There is no TV, no computer, just lots of books, a warm fire and much conversation, while petting the dogs. I love our life here in Portland "hooked in", running a business and focused on goals. But, in those quite moments in Central Oregon, I took the time to say thanks for good friends, a good dog, and a wife who loves me like no else before.
Mover Mike
Friday, January 14, 2005
Welcome II
CALIFORNIA YANKEE - You Can't Make This Stuff Up!
dehype - CAN WE MAKE SENSE OF IT ALL?
Decision '08 - Because it's never too early...
Kirby's Reports - Bringing you Connecticut's courts... without the filing fees
Power and Control - My guru says the object of every adept ought to be Power and Control
It is mine
Sluggo Needs a Nap - Drooling on the Pillow -- Michael Hill Considers
Something... and Half of Something - Another Woman Blogger!
The Key Monk - Politics, Sports, Law, and occasionally Religion -- whatever you want to argue about.
RoguePundit - Musings from Southern Oregon
This isn’t writing, it’s typing. - But, hey, you’re reading it, aren’t you?
Mover Mike
If you haven't read BLACKFIVE THE PARATROOPER OF LOVE
Aiding and Abetting the Enemy: the Media in IraqBe sure to do so. I am going to do my part to counter the MSM's anti-American take on the efforts of our men and women in Iraq.
By LTC Tim Ryan, CO, 2/12 Cav, 1st Cav Div
Mover Mike
The Middle East is on the Brink of Going Nuclear
The Middle East is on the brink of going nuclear, and the rest of the world is fiddling or looking the other way. The United States is draining its energies in Iraq, the Europeans are fussing over ‘soft power’ diplomacy, and the UN monitoring agencies are dithering.There is alsoAll this has complicated the attempt to deal with the clutch of states in the Middle East that are understood to be rushing headlong down the nuclear route. Who, now, would believe fresh alarums from Washington about another rogue state — a member of the Axis of Evil, no less — that is on the brink of going nuclear? Only the Israelis, it seems.
worry about what might be going on in Egypt, Syria and Saudi Arabia, just three of about 18 countries — mostly Muslim and ore-rich African states — where nuclear scientist Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan(A.Q. Khan, who delivered the ‘Islamic bomb’ to Pakistan) has left his fingerprints.Why did Saudi Arabia purchase
about 50 CSS-2 missiles from China at a price of some $3 billion? Similar missiles in China’s arsenal were equipped with nuclear warheads, but the Chinese insist that the Saudi missiles carry conventional payloads.Why did Syria, Iran’s closest regional ally, possibly acquire
centrifuges that would provide Damascus with the ability to enrich uranium for nuclear weapons?Why is the IAEA finding evidence of secret nuclear experiments in Egypt that could be relevant to a nuclear weapons programme?
I suspect we are in the early stages of this war (WWIV) that will eventually involve all states in the Axis of Evil.
Mover Mike
Thursday, January 13, 2005
GLOBAL WARMING BOMBSHELL: Hockeystick Broke
GLOBAL WARMING BOMBSHELL: Hockeystick Broke
Now we are finding that something we believed to be true isn't!
This plot purports to show that we are now experiencing the warmest climate in a millennium, and that the earth, after remaining cool for centuries during the medieval era, suddenly began to heat up about 100 years ago--just at the time that the burning of coal and oil led to an increase in atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide.Well, well, well. It appears that we haven't had the global warming the famous graph said we did. It was all a mathamatical error. The author still believes in global warming, kind of like Dan Rather and those forged papers, He just can't prove it.But now a shock: Canadian scientists Stephen McIntyre and Ross McKitrick have uncovered a fundamental mathematical flaw in the computer program that was used to produce the hockey stick.
That discovery hit me like a bombshell, and I suspect it is having the same effect on many others. Suddenly the hockey stick, the poster-child of the global warming community, turns out to be an artifact of poor mathematics.
Random Gleanings on January 13th
3) "I root for hurricanes. When, courtesy of the Weather Channel, I see one forming in the ocean off the coast of Africa, I find myself longing for it to become big and strong--Mother Nature's fist of fury, Gaia's stern rebuke. Considering the havoc mankind has wreaked upon nature with deforesting, stripmining, and the destruction of animal habitat, it only seems fair that nature get some of its own back and teach us that there are forces greater than our own." -- James Wolcott, Vanity Fair Contributing EditorMover Mike
Hat tip to Rush
Fossil fuel curbs may speed global warming-scientistsRush asks "What are you going to do now?LONDON, Jan 13 (Reuters) - Cutting down on fossil fuel pollution could accelerate global warming and help turn parts of Europe into desert by 2100, according to research to be aired on British television on Thursday. "Global Dimming", a BBC Horizon documentary, will describe research suggesting fossil fuel by-products like sulphur dioxide particles reflect the sun's rays, "dimming" temperatures and almost cancelling out the greenhouse effect.
The researchers say cutting down on the burning of coal and oil, one of the main goals of international environmental agreements, will drastically heat rather than cool climate.
"When the cooling affect goes away -- and it must do because particles like sulphur dioxide are damaging to humans -- global warming will be much stronger," climate change scientist Dr Peter Cox told Reuters on Wednesday.
Temperatures could increase in the worst case by up to 10 degrees by the end of the century, the researchers said -- much more than current estimates.
Mover Mike
An aside, I have added a RSS Feed so you can be aware of a new update to Mover Mike. This is great. I don't know how many hours I've spent going to each link on my site to see if there has been a new post to your sites. Now you and I can be notified when there is a post. What took me so long? I just didn't understand RSS until I took the time. It was simple to add to my template. What's in the future, maybe Vlogging!
Mover Mike
Wednesday, January 12, 2005
US Set to Strike Syria?
In this regard, DEBKAfile’s military sources note four important points:
1. It will not take place before President Bush is sworn in for his second term on January 20 or Iraq’s general election ten days later.
2. The Americans will not start out with a large-scale, orderly military offensive, but rather short in-and-out forays; small US and Iraqi special forces units will cross the border and raid bases housing Iraqi guerrillas or buses carrying them to the border. If these brief raids are ineffective, the Americans will upscale the action.
3. The Allawi government will formally request the United States to consign joint Iraqi-US forces for action against Syrian targets, so placing the US operation under the Baghdad government’s aegis. In other words, Iraq will be at war with Syria without issuing a formal declaration.
4. It is fully appreciated in Washington, Baghdad and Jerusalem that intense American military warfare against Syria could provoke a Hizballah backlash against Israel. Damascus may well activate the Lebanese Shiite group to open a second front on Israel’s northern border. The Syrian ruler is expected will tolerate a certain level of American low-intensity, low-profile action. But, because of his reluctance to strike back directly at American or Iraqi targets, he will field the Hizballah – and not just for cross-border attacks but to galvanize the terrorist cells it controls and funds in the West Bank and Gaza Strip into a stepped-up offensive against Israeli targets. These Palestinian cells have proliferated over the years, particularly in the Fatah and its branches, encouraged by Yasser Arafat’s cooperative pact with the Hizballah which remains in force after his death.
Therefore, the key Middle East happening in the coming weeks will be US military strikes against Syria. The election of Mahmoud Abbas as Palestinian Authority chairman, his invitation to the White House, the formation of the Sharon-Peres government coalition - albeit on very shaky legs, and the talk of imminent Israel-Palestinian peace negotiations, will prove to be no more than sideshows of the main event.
If the WMD's were moved to Syria, this action will be designed to root them out. It also will be designed to cut the supply lines from Syria into Iraq supplying men and material to the insurgents or terrorists. I believe this war will involve the US against all the members of the Axis of Evil.
Mover Mike
Kelo v. City of New London
"On the campaign trail last year, President Bush said a priority of his second term would be to 'build an ownership society, because ownership brings security, and dignity, and independence.' Sounds good to us," reads a Wall Street Journal editorial today. "But the rhetoric doesn't square with news that the administration may file an amicus brief against property owners in an upcoming Supreme Court case concerning eminent domain.Oregon passed Measure 37, which more than anything is about "takings". In this case, reducing the value of property by our Land Use Planning Laws. I suspect, Oregonians believe in the "good" Oregon is doing for the environment, therefore the ends justify the means. If property owners lose value by virtue of regulations, well that's the price you pay for no urban sprawl."Worried that a Bush Administration brief against land owners is in the works, the National Taxpayers Union, the Competitive Enterprise Institute and other free-market groups signed a missive sent to the White House in October. No doubt, Business Roundtable-types are pressuring Mr. Bush on the other side, along with states and localities that feel that private property can be taken and then parceled out to maximize tax revenues. The letter urges the Administration to "affirm its support for property rights and refrain from filing a brief in Kelo." So far, the response has been a troubling silence.
In some parts of the country, government is taking private property and selling it to a developer, justified by the good it is doing for all concerned (except for those that lost their property). If government takes property from one and sells it to another for development, chances are the property has a lower economic breakeven point than if the developer had tried to persuade owners to sell their property. That benefits the developer, but at what cost to neighboring competitors. Now their are two costs to the taking. Basically, we who are paying taxes are subsidizing the developer to compete against us with lower costs. Another example might be the airlines. One goes bankrupt, restructures its debt or walks away from it, and now has a lower cost structure than competitors, forcing them into bankrupcy.
RoguePundit had some excellent things to say on this topic on October 3, 2004 in Eminent Domain
I urge you to contact the Administration to "affirm its support for property rights and refrain from filing a brief in Kelo v. City of New London.
Mover Mike
Oh! Please!
The two greatest dangers to CBS coming out of the September 8 broadcast were that it would be found that they: 1) knowingly broadcast fraudulent Defense Department documents, and 2) were motivated to do so because they are biased against George Bush and the Republican Party....And it was on those two vital points that the Thornburgh Report failed to come to a conclusion.Why?
...lawyers hired to independently investigate CBS have a lawyer/client relationship with CBS. Presumably, as a senior member of that firm, Independent Review Panel Member Richard Thornburgh also has CBS as a fiduciary client. Thus, unlike similarly named government independent investigations — this one is paid for by, and carried out on behalf of, the target of the investigation.
Mover Mike
Oh! Please, Peter Ames Carlin of The Oregonian!
Once again you have written about CBS and "The Dan Rather fiasco. You say those heads needed to roll for broadcasting a POTENTIALLY damaging story that leans on unverifiable documents (not fakes, as has been proved, but unverifiable. If we weren't under such time pressure, we could have found a way to verify the documents). Then the stubborn defense of its story made matters worse. Then you go on to say
But before we engage in some old-fashioned righteous indignation about the (many) errors made by CBS news employees, perhaps we should take a look at the folks leading the angry chorus.and you list
1)CBS President Leslie Moonves who slashed the news budget.
2)Fake news like the Armstron Williams story.
3)Bush White House producer of political propaganda.
4)"The way the Kerry campaign buzzed around the CBS story." (I have no idea what this means.)
The most dismaying thing, according to Carlin, is that the story was beside the point. Not only did it "bump an investgative piece about the Bush Administration's steps to war in Iraq", but afterall, the NYT had already "richly documented this story(about Bush's ANG lapses) just days before." I wrote on September 21st, Byron York refuted these NYT ANG lies in a story titled
Bush’s National Guard yearsFinally, Carlin you betray more of your own biases:
Before you fall for Dems’ spin, here are the facts
After all, the net result of the CBS National Guard story was that the once-ticklish issue of Bush's Vietnam-era service vanished from the national narrative. The conservatives' just-as-shaky assertions about Kerry's war record continued to be reported, however.Did you read the book by the Swift Boat Vets? Did you devote any of your ink to this story? Did any of the MSM in an investigative way? Did any of you pause to think why over 250 Vets would say these things versus the few who sided with Kerry. Remember the Vet that met Kerry at the Vietnam Memorial. He walked up to him , introduced himself and said "I'm here to escort you away. You do not belong here, Sen. Kerry!" And in response,Kerry gave him the finger. Did you ever investigate why he was so disliked by the Vets? Did you ever investigate how Kerry got away with meeting with the enemy while still in uniform?
Oh! Please, Peter Ames Carlin of The Oregonian. As I told you before, regarding Dan Rather, IT WASN'T BUSINESS.IT WAS PERSONAL!
Mover Mike
Tuesday, January 11, 2005
To Dan Rather
Dan Rather: 'I have read the report, I take it seriously, and I shall keep its lessons well in mind.'
Tue Jan 11 2004 14:56:11 ET
The panel report is part of a process -- a necessary process to deal with a difficult issue -- at the end of which four good people have lost their jobs. My strongest reaction is one of sadness and concern for those individuals whom I know and with whom I have worked. It would be a shame if we let this matter, troubling as it is, obscure their dedication and good work over the years.
Yet good can come from this process if CBS News, and the hundreds of able professionals who labor every day to fill an essential public service in an open society, emerge with a renewed dedication to journalism of the highest quality. We should take seriously the admonition of the report's authors to do our job well and carefully, but also their parallel admonition not to be afraid to cover important and controversial issues.Ê
CBS News is a great institution with a distinct and precious legacy.Ê I have been here through good times, and not so good times. I have seen us overcome adversity before.Ê I am convinced we can do so again. That must be our focus and priority.Ê And we can fulfill that objective by getting back to business and doing our jobs better than ever.
Lest anyone have any doubt, I have read the report, I take it seriously, and I shall keep its lessons well in mind.
Dan Rather
Would you care to let us know what those lessons are Dan? Could one of those lessons be: it is not the job of the press to attempt to topple a president? Could one of those lessons be: to acknowledge our biases that led you to this debacle? Could one of those lessons be: the blogs can be an effective way to police ourselves? Could one of those lessons be: to admit a wrong immediately rather than try to cover up and justify? I am sure you can share with us some of the other lessons.
Mover Mike
Fox News Reports
WASHINGTON — The criminal probe into why former Bill Clinton aide Sandy Berger (search) illegally sneaked top-secret documents out of the National Archives (search) — possibly in his socks — has heated up and is now before a federal grand jury, The (NY)Post has learned.Mover Mike
Fox is also carrying the The Asman Observer by David Asman on Che Guevara's Profile
During the Cuban missile crisis, Che wanted to fire nukes at the U.S. and was furious when Khrushchev (search) backed down. Che also organized firing squads in Cuba to execute hundreds of dissents. Even liberals recoiled at Che’s fanaticism. Columnist Nat Hentoff (search) met with Che in the early ‘60s, and asked if there would ever be free elections in Cuba. According to Hentoff, “Mr. Guevara burst out laughing at my callow naivete.”
Think of that paragraph as you clap and cheer at the end of The Motorcycle Diaries.
Tip of the hat to Free Republic.
Mover Mike
