Archive for April, 2008

Syria, Iran and North Korea

Thursday, April 24th, 2008

Hearings today in Congress may finally reveal what happened last summer in Syria when Israel attacked a desert site. The best summary of what happened is here but it is still mostly speculation based on reports at the time. Now we are hearing reports that video tape exists that shows North Koreans at the site. There also appears to be evidence that it was a reactor essentially identical to North Korea’s Yongbin site. The New York Times hints, inadvertently, why the secrecy may have persisted.

The timing of the administration’s decision to declassify information about the Syrian project has raised widespread suspicions, especially in the State Department, that Vice President Dick Cheney and other administration hawks were hoping that releasing the information might undermine a potential deal with North Korea that would take it off an American list of state sponsors of terrorism.

Why in the world would we take North Korea off such a list if they are providing WMD to Syria and Iran ?  Senate hearings were scheduled   for this week but the information may still be kept secret, at least as secret as anything can be kept once Senators hear of it.

I expect to hear everything soon.

Does Brian Ross ever tell the truth ?

Wednesday, April 23rd, 2008

The latest story about ABC “investigative reporter” Brian Ross is just more of the same lies. This time he accuses the Second Amendment of enabling Mexican drug cartels to obtain automatic weapons. Of course, those weapons have been banned to US private citizens since 1933. His other gun related stories seem to be similarly fact-challenged. His lies are even challenged on his own blog comments, which is why the ABC web master has been deleting comments that don’t agree.

Others have noticed that his stories don’t always hold up.

“We were extremely careful whenever we saw a Brian Ross piece,” said the former producer. “He does some great work. But there were a lot of times that the pieces yelled one thing and seemed to suggest a crisis, and then he would dial it back almost entirely at the end of the piece by saying something like, ‘It’s important to know that the F.B.I. doesn’t take this threat seriously. And there’s no reason for concern.’” The former producer pointed to stories by Mr. Ross on the anthrax attacks and on Dennis Hastert’s role in the Jack Abramoff scandal, both of which received prominent play by ABC, but subsequently failed to ignite.

Maybe because they were not true ?

Just asking.

Some good news from Pennsylvania

Wednesday, April 23rd, 2008

Hillary won by 10% but that isn’t the good news I have in mind. Here it is. Last election, I contributed to Diane Irey, a local county supervisor who ran against Murtha but lost in the Dem sweep. This story is significant for the number of write-in votes that were cast in a primary with very low turnout. William Russell Retired LT Colonel William Russell is now running against Jack Murtha for the Congressional seat in PA. He had submitted petitions to get on the ballot in the Republican primary but a local judge disqualified enough signatures to drop him below the 1,000 he needed. As a result, he had to be a write-in candidate. Impossible, right ? No, he got over 4,000 write-in votes. I once helped a write-in candidate get elected to Congress in 1982 in Orange County, CA. Ron Packard won the general election as a write-in, defeating a terrible Republican candidate and a nice Democrat (but not that nice). He was the first write-in elected to Congress in many decades. Ron served honorably until he retired. Now, we have the chance to elect another write-in candidate.Yes, he has a website and yes, you can contribute. I just did.

UPDATE: Murtha was visited by a group of Marine mothers and he refused to see them, then called the cops. His staff called them cowards.

Nice.

Another surgical innovation ?

Tuesday, April 22nd, 2008

Today, I read about a new approach to abdominal surgery that had never occurred to me before. It is called “NOTES” or Natural Orifice Transluminal Surgery, and the application being described is removing the gallbladder through the mouth. Why anyone would want to do that is a mystery to me. Laparoscopic surgery was a huge advance, both for patients’ comfort and, once the learning curve was behind, for safety and postop recovery. The trans-gastric approach seems awfully difficult. The Wall Street Journal refers to trans-vaginal surgery, which has been a preferred method for some procedures for many decades. Hysterectomy and tubal ligation are two examples.

There are other examples of this sort of approach. For example, the pituitary gland is usually approached through the nose. The maxillary sinus is approached through the mouth going above the upper teeth. Both of these routes avoid scarring and are the most direct. There are also trans-anal approaches to some types of rectal tumors and drainage of pelvic abscess can also be done very easily by that route. Once again, it is the most direct and avoids a big incision. Another major operation done through a natural orifice is transurethral resection of the the prostate, or TURP. This and cystoscopy, examination of the urinary bladder by a scope introduced through the urethra, are the majority of urological surgery.

This trans-oral, trans-gastric approach to the gall bladder seems an awfully roundabout approach for little benefit. Laparoscopic surgery is hard enough to learn. This week I take my students to the Surgical Skills Center and we will see if we can do some laparoscopic simulation. I’ll have to see the other in action before I can get enthusiastic about it.

Russia and fascism II

Tuesday, April 22nd, 2008

I have previously posted what I believe to be evidence that Russia is evolving a nationalist and fascist form of government modeled on China, which managed to negotiate the transition from communism to a form of capitalism without collapse. Now, we see the efforts of Russia to regain some of its former “Soviet Republics” by harassment and subterfuge. Georgia and Ukraine are the two large republics that broke free from Russian control in the collapse of the USSR. Maybe we should sell the Georgians a few Predator drones that can defend themselves.

The NY Times and John McCain

Tuesday, April 22nd, 2008

I get the NY Times by e-mail very day and usually skim a couple of articles. Today there was another hit piece on McCain and I began to read it but figured it would soon by “Fisked” and I would wait for that. Sure enough,  here it is. This was a pretty pitiful effort but even poor old George McGovern is trying to get his licks in.

I would say, ‘John, you were shot down early in the war and spent most of the time in prison. I flew 35 combat missions with a 10-man crew and brought them home safely every time.’

I’d say it’s too bad SAM missiles hadn’t been invented in 1944 but there were nine other guys in that B 17 with McGovern.

Somebody Nancy Pelosi should meet

Saturday, April 19th, 2008

Nancy Pelosi has blocked the Columbia Free Trade Agreement from coming to a vote in Congress. This kills it for the year in spite of the fact that it was signed several years ago, then renogotiated to satisfy Democrat complaints. Here is a Washington Post interview with the president of Columbia. Maybe Nancy Pelosi should read it.

Eveyone knows this is an election year kabuki dance that Democrats must perform to satisfy dinosaur trade unions that, having killed off the US auto industry, is now after the rest of our export based economy. Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager, Mark Penn is the latest victim. This is insanity but Democrat politics has its own internal rhythm that does not require logic.

More results of multiculturalism in Britain.

Saturday, April 19th, 2008

I have previously posted about my concerns over the British trends that mimic similar trends here in the 1960s. We wound up with cities that were unlivable and the movie “Death Wish“, which portrayed a man who becomes a vigilante after his wife is murdered by thugs in New York City, was greeted by standing ovations in movie theaters. The movie was so successful, it made a huge star of Charles Bronsan and spawned three sequels.

The Labour government has relentlessly pressed forward with policies that reward bad behavior and with education “reform” that removes the British culture and history from the society. I recently noted an absence of historical knowledge among tour guides at an historic castle in Britain.

The result of the Labour policies has been prosecution of protesters who oppose Muslim influence while Muslims attack government ministers verbally and collect welfare benefits for their many wives.

Although already married with three children and reportedly living off £700 a month in state benefits, the 31-year-old is seeking more wives, with the intention of fathering more than nine children.

The same courtesy doesn’t extend to non-Muslim protesters collecting petition signatures. The new law is called  the Racial and Religious Hatred Bill and illustrates a fact often unappreciated by Americans. Britain has no “First Amendment” free speech rights. The results are now becoming apparent. A new BBC poll suggests that Britons are worried about racial violence.

Certainly they have seen plenty of evidence recently.

The trial of the airplane would-be bombers.

The 2005 Underground bombings.

There are plenty of warnings. Are they being taken seriously ?

The New York Times cannot tell the truth.

Saturday, April 19th, 2008

The Times is so hostile to the Iraq War, and the president, that it has been waging a campaign in its news coverage. One example, is in today’s paper. It says:

There has been heated debate since the start of the war about the nature of the threat in Iraq. The Bush administration has long portrayed the fight as part of a broader battle against Islamic terrorists. Opponents of the war accuse the administration of deliberately blurring the distinction between the Sept. 11 attackers and anti-American forces in Iraq.

I am currently reading the Douglas Feith book, War and Decision in which he discusses what was known and how the decisions were made to respond to 9/11. It is clear that they did not at first know who the planners were but everyone assumed it was Usama bin Laden and al Qeada. They had been at war with us for years and we had made ineffective pin pricks as our only response. As time went on and al Qeada records were captured in Afghanistan, it became clear that Iraq was NOT part of that conspiracy. However, they had to decide what to do with Saddam. He was hostile and had WMD (chemical) that he had already used on enemies (the Iranians) and on his own people (the Kurds). He was evading the cease fire terms that had ended the First Gulf War and  was shooting at US and British planes that enforced the “no-fly zone.

The Times is so desperate to discredit the war we are now fighting in Iraq, they lie about who the enemy is.

The entity Mr. McCain was referring to — Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, also known as Al Qaeda in Iraq — did not exist until after the United States invaded Iraq in 2003. The most recent National Intelligence Estimates consider it the most potent offshoot of Al Qaeda proper, the group led by Osama bin Laden that is now believed to be based on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.

This is true and we have always known it although Zarkawi is known to have lived openly, and therefore with the approval of Saddam, before the invasion. He later became the leader of al Qeada in Iraq until we killed him. He was a Jordanian.

It is a largely homegrown and loosely organized group of Sunni Arabs that, according to the official American military view that Mr. McCain endorses, is led at least in part by foreign operatives and receives fighters, financing and direction from senior Qaeda leaders.

This first clause is not true. The Sunni insurgency is now ended except for a few terrorists who fight for money and not ideology, similar to the gangs that infest Los Angeles. The suicide bombers, the last and most difficult to eliminate, are nearly all foreigners, some exceptions being involuntary such as the mentally retarded women who were blown up in a pet market in Baghdad a month ago.

The Times even   twists its news coverage to emphasize the negative.   Michael Gordon is a respected reporter but his editors in New York decide where, and with what emphasis, his stories are placed in the paper.

Juan Cole is a far left professor who was turned down as a possible department chair at Yale. He is a ferocious critic of the war and therefore a favorite of the far-left. Here he is as the sole authority for the Tmes.

But some students of the insurgency say Mr. McCain is making a dangerous generalization. “The U.S. has not been fighting Al Qaeda, it’s been fighting Iraqis,” said Juan Cole, a fierce critic of the war who is the author of “Sacred Space and Holy War: The Politics, Culture and History of Shi’ite Islam” and a professor of history at the University of Michigan. A member of Al Qaeda “is technically defined as someone who pledges fealty to Osama bin Laden and is given a terror operation to carry out. It’s kind of like the Mafia,” Mr. Cole said. “You make your bones, and you’re loyal to a capo. And I don’t know if anyone in Iraq quite fits that technical definition.”

That is simply not true. The leaders of the Islamists know what the Times is saying and try to help by inventing names to suggest they are correct. They made up a person called Omar al Baghdadi to make it seem as though the insurgency was homegrown. And the Times fell for it. Of course, the wish is often father to the thought.

Anyway, don’t believe what you read in the Times. Maybe that’s why their stock has fallen by 2/3 since the war began.

Time magazine and why I don’t read it

Friday, April 18th, 2008

timeiwojima.jpg

UPDATE: Sandra Tsing Loh has the ultimate putdown for eco-snobs.

And yet there is the exquisite pleasure of eco-stalking those who used to eco-stalk you. “Good news!” I now enthuse to formerly smug Prius-driving friends of mine. “Right this second, a SolarCity engineer and I are studying a live Google Earth picture of your house! Little shade, south-facing — how ’bout I send them over for an estimate?”

It will be about $40,000. Next step ? Loss of interest.

Sniped a scientist friend of mine: “Instead of solar, why don’t you spend the money on something less self-aggrandizing — like offering $50 to anyone with an old refrigerator?”

There you are.

The utter fatuousness of the next Time magazine issue is staggering.     This interview shows just how far gone they are.

“We are experts in what we do.”
Veterans of Iwo Jima are not amused.

I have previously posted on some of the ignorance of economics so clearly demonstrated by the Time editor.

Here is more on the Time cover story that points out how the environmental activists are ignoring both science and economics.   The planet has been warming for the past 60 years but the warming trend may have ended or flattened out.

For example, satellite measurements of temperatures aloft  show no warming trend. Surface warming measurements may be affected by urban heat islands and, while NASA tries to avoid skewing data in the US, there has been a scandal in the placing of temperatures sensors in China. The scientist who was supposed to be ensuring that rapid urban development in China did not affect the sensors, was found to have falsified some of his data.

The data came from only 84 stations, 60% of which had no history whatsoever, and the report claims “details regarding instrumentation, collection methods, observing times … are not known.” Of the 35 remaining, over half had moved large distances (one station moving as many as five times) or had serious, known inconsistencies in the record. The report specifically contradicts Wang’s claims, concluding that “even the best stations were subject to minor relocations or changes in observing times and many have undoubtedly experienced large increases in urbanization.”Keenan immediately filed a formal allegation of fraud against Wang, a charge which is pending investigation at this time.

China is a big place with lots of land area and a rapidly industrializing society. How much did that development affect global warming ? Especially since the measurements were affected by urban heat islands. What we are seeing is a huge extrapolation of data from very shaky sources.

I’m currently reading a book titled The Deniers about scientists who are resisting the lockstep march of the anthropogenic global warming crowd and many who are paying a price.