Good for her. If she lived in the UK, she’d be on her way to prison right now.
(Hat tip to Fark.)
Oklahoma Woman Kills Man Breaking Into Her Home In Self Defense
December 6th, 2009Obama, Afghanistan, and the Pakistani ISI
December 2nd, 2009George Friedman at Stratfor on Obama’s plans for Afghanistan and the parallels with Vietnam. He notes that US/ARVN forces were never defeated by the NVA, but that the NVA won because of their superior intelligence thanks to widespread penetration of ARVN forces by communist sympathizers. He says (and I think he’s correct) that Afghan forces are similarly riddled with Taliban sympathizers, making it impossible for us to win without marshaling similar penetration of the Taliban with intelligence assets.
The problem with this is, the Afghans are already compromised and lack the expertise, while the US doesn’t have the personnel to place intelligence assets with the Taliban. Both of these are also probably true.
His suggestion to fill this gap is to use the Pakistani ISI (the Pakistani equivalent of the CIA or KGB), or at least elements therein. If that is indeed our best hope in Afghanistan, we are totally screwed. He mentions that Taliban has worked closely with the ISI and are already compromised, but that doesn’t go nearly far enough. My understanding is that the Taliban were essentially created by the ISI, or at least Jihadist elements in it, with more than a little help from Saudi money. The degree to which Islamists have been purged from the ISI is open to debate (my gut feeling is very little). They’re not so much a subordinate part of the government as a power player within it, with their own goals and agendas, in an country that not only suffers from ethnic divisions, but is largely an artificial conglomerate created by the post-Independence partition of India in 1947. There’s no reason to believe that Pakistan is any more unified than, say, Yugoslavia or the Soviet Union was in 1990.
My guess is that the United States would be better off creating our own Afghan intelligence service from the ground up, possibly starting with old elements of Ahmad Shah Massoud’s Northern Alliance, assuming elements of such could be scrounged up, and the Tajik/Pushtan divide bridged.
It was almost certainly a mistake for Obama to pre-announce when US troops would start withdrawing. But there are no good choices or easy victories to be had here.
(Just for the record, I had an article called “The Way to Afghan Peace” published in The World & I way back in 1992, so I actually have a long-running interest in the region. But the players, positions, and motivations of what actually goes on there are frequently murky not only to me, but even to far more experienced experts.)
ObamaCare To Cost $6 Trillion
November 30th, 2009New York Times Tells Instapundit to STFU
November 25th, 2009Some The New York Times employee took time out from their busy schedule of losing money and praising Obama to tell Instapundit Glenn Reynolds to “STFU.”
This is indeed amusing. However, I think it’s high time we stopped trotting out the “look at the mighty newspaper taking on the lowly blogger” cliches, even for the sake of irony. The stark fact of the matter is that Instapundit has more readers than The New York Times. If i wanted to reach readers outside the Greater New York Area (and, more honestly, Manhatten), I’d rather get a link from Instapundit than a profile in the The New York Times.
If Obama is the Democratic Party’s quarterback…
November 24th, 2009…then right now his passer rating is a couple of points better than JaMarcus Russell.
Iowahawk Geographic: The Secret Life of Climate Researchers
November 24th, 2009Once again, Iowahawk proves he’s the web’s reigning satire master.
“The Alpha Grantwriter in our hive has been very successful indeed. He has earned three publications, a keynote address, and attracts the attention of a suitor from the symbiotic grant-giving predator genus Lucra Ecologica Hysterica. The suitor’s grant bags are bulging with carbon credits and tax revenues harvested using the hive’s last graphs, and the pair once again engage in their annual cross-pollination ritual. They relax with a cigarette, and return to their respective hives: the Grantwriter with fresh money, the Grantgiver to Washington or Brussels with new carbon tax proposals. The circle of life is completed.”
More Red Light Camera Follies (Chicago Edition)
November 24th, 2009Chicago installed red light cameras in 2007. As always, accidents promptly increased, just as they have everywhere else they’ve been installed.
It’s tempting to wonder when officials will figure out that red light cameras harm more than they help, but it would be false. Officials know, they just don’t care. It’s not about saving lives, it’s about making money.
Convicted Felon (Finally) Goes to jail
November 23rd, 2009Lynne Stewart, the radical lawyer who helped carry messages from Omar Abdel-Rahman to his terrorist supporters, finally goes to prison today. There’s really no question that she’s guilty. The real question is: Why are so many in the American left so hellbent on doing everything they can to defend Islamofacism? You might think being on the same side as those who advocate (and practice) the execution of gay men might give them pause, but no. The only question is whether leftists embrace jihadists because they hate America, or because they hate Israel?
Does anyone doubt that, if free, Lynne Stewart would instantly start working on behalf of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed?
Climate Research Center Hacking Update
November 21st, 2009Bishop Hill has dug into the hacked and leaked documents from the University of East Anglia’s Climatic Research Unit mentioned yesterday. The indefatigable John Hindraker at Powerline has also waded into the document morass.
Before the analysis, some caveats:
- Hacking other people’s computers is bad, mmmkay?
- Downloading hacked files is of dubious legal/ethical standing.
- What has been released is purportedly only a small sample of a much larger stash of documents. What has been released has certainly been cherry-picked, and there’s no guarantee that it’s actually representative, hasn’t been altered, etc.
- Anytime you see the inner workings of any organization, there’s going to be distasteful aspects of seeing how the sausage get made, discussion of how to play up strengths, hide or ignore weaknesses, etc. It’s naive to think that science, however lofty tried and true its means or lofty its goals, is going to be immune.
All that said, what is here is more damaging (and damning) than previously suggested. There’s still no smoking gun (i.e. “We all know global warming is fake, so stop crunching those number and join us at the big taxpayer-funded hooker and blow party tonight at Gordon Brown’s flat!”), but there are dozens, if not hundreds, of guns that are at least a little warm.
What these emails show is sustained, coordinated attempts to massage, cherry-pick, and skew data to support a consensus of anthropocentric global warming, and to downplay or ignore any evidence of global cooling over the last decade or, failing that, the significance of same.
In the meantime, they complete institutional investment of certain groups of climate scientists (and their non-scientific followers) in presenting AGW as Sacred Truth immune to criticism is a good reason for continued skepticism, and for all their data to be released. It’s also another good argument (of many) to hold off on expensive, big government boondoggles like the Waxman-Markey “cap and trade” bill until the science can be verified by dispassionate observers (or, better yet, hostile critics).
I’m sure there are a lot more revelations to come.
Climate Research Center Hacked, Data Leaked
November 20th, 2009Among the big news making the rounds is that hackers (or crackers, as certain Slashdot pedants insist we differentiate them) have broken into the University of East Anglia’s Climatic Research Unit, where all sorts of <gratuitous UK slang>boffins</gratuitous UK slang> have been pushing anthropocentric global warming, and the necessity of massive government intervention to combat same, for some time now.
Some who are (like myself) skeptical of AGW are crowing that it’s the smoking gun proving it’s all a fraud:
Conspiracy, collusion in exaggerating warming data, possibly illegal destruction of embarrassing information, organised resistance to disclosure, manipulation of data, private admissions of flaws in their public claims and much more.
Ed Morrissey over at Hot Air also thinks they spell fraud.
My take, given that I’ve only read a small number of excerpts for a small number of documents (see below): Embarrassing and suggestive, but far short of a “smoking gun” proving it’s all fraud.
The CRU information doesn’t appear to be up at Wikileaks yet, so here’s a link to a torrent at the Pirate Bay. (Warning: Downloading hacked/leaked/stolen information from the Pirate Bay may not be legal in your jurisdiction. Or moral given your frame of ethics. Plus some off the ads veer toward the NSFW. Be sure to consult with a qualified ethicist, HR Director, or minister before downloading. Or, failing that, The Magic Eight Ball.) I haven’t downloaded it yet, less out of moral qualms than simply because my Torrent-fu is weak…
Updated: An easier download link from the folks at Slashdot.