House of the rising Moonglum

And now the next in a long line of powerless Palestinian PMs denounces terrorism and calls on an end to suicide bombings. The PMs that they have had have all seems like really good leaders. The problem of course is that they have no power. Qorei, the current one, even recognizes some of the issues. Infighting among the security forces, for one. Of course why is there infighting there? Because they are controlled by different groups with their own agenda, not the government. As long as Arafat has the final say, none of the potentially great leaders that Palestine comes up with will have any hope of living up to that potential. They have what it takes in heart and ideas, just not in the power to carry it out.

(I suppose along those lines our current President has heart and power, just no ideas about what needs to be done. That could be even worse in the long run.)

I have been a little slow in pointing this article out which was recommended to me by Ayman. It is quite long, and contains the history of Al Zawahiri.

So I finally found the time to finish this… He is one messed up dude. I mean he wanted to overthrow the Egyptian government and install a new caliphate from the time he was 15. I’d say he started out pretty messed up. Torture doesn’t help, that’s true, but he was pretty messed up to begin with.

The thing I found most interesting (terrifying?) about the article is how there is nothing in the world that is unrelated. You can sort of follow a chain from one event to the next and connect all the dots to create the avalanche which we are now in the middle of. Starting with Qutb and his misadventures in the US (apparently seeing all the “sin” he was surrounded by in the US was much more formative than the article let on, I gather that many of his writings for the following decade focused on the lack of virtue in the west which was one of the Ayatollah’s big inspirations) to Iran through Egypt and Afghanistan then on to Yugoslavia, Chechniya, Kazakstan, who knows.. All of it is related. Of course in the cold war our hands were tied to some degree (if you want to believe that, and wether or not it was actually true, I’ll give that it at least appeared to be true at the time, especially given the mess we made in vietnam) but that whole time this completely connected, completely hidden culture of hate was forming. That just totally scares me.

I’m starting to think that we had a moment, after the end of the cold war when we could have really effected change in the world. If Bush I/Clinton had really sat down and thought about the state of the world, and our role in it, I think much of the horror of the past five years could have been avoided. But we went on blind to what was happening. And when we did do something it was reaction, not preventative. I’m starting to think that ending the first gulf was the way we did was the start of everything going down hill. If we were doing then what we are doing now in Iraq, the would would be a very different place. The Shia would not have been as bitter and bent on revenge, the Kurds would not be so hungry for an independence they have now known for 10 years. We could have devoted more energy to the problem of terrorism, Saddam wouldn’t have been supporting the families of Palestinian terrorists at the expense of his own people. Honestly the Iraqi people would have been more ready for democracy, they hadn’t been broken under a decade of cruelty.

Reading articles with sweep like that really make me scared for the future. How many more connections are we missing now? Abu Saayf? Jammaea? Will the next Ayatolla be in the island countries? Are we completely missing popular discontent in China? It is so easy to look back and make the connections, but it is so hard to do it in the present. And even if we could make the connections is there really anything that we could do about it.

Yay! They finally got it off! I have been waiting for a successful scramjet firing since I first went to space camp sometime in the 80’s. I always felt that rocket technology was not the correct way to get into space. We live in an atmosphere we should be able to use it to help us get into space. Carrying all that oxyginating agent into space with you is such a waste when it is all around you all the time.

Maybe this will reinvigorate some of that old NASAP energy.

(For conspiracy theorists: The X-30 disappeared just as the technology was ramping up for prototype design and production. This also happened when the SR-71 was canned. Coincidence? Was the NASP turned into the aurora? Seems unlikely, but it is one of my favorites.)

I’ve always figured that the US Japanese relations were pretty good, and that pretty much everyone agreed with that. You know, some minor disagreements in the 40’s and a little spat in the 80’s about jobs going overseas, but, you know, good. Not the sort of thing that we would need to be reminded about on a regular basis. So I was a little surprised when I came across an ad from Toyota on Page 61 of the March 29th Newsweek proclaiming how strong our relationship is. “In 1854, two nations began a friendship; 150 years later it’s still blossoming.” It has a nice picture of the washington monument and the cherry trees. It also has a bunch of text detailing some history of US Japan relations. The 1954 Treaty of Peace and Amity. The trees planted in DC in 1912. Large trade between the countries. Them sending some troops to Iraq. But mostly I’m thinking WTF? Is this really worth a full page as in Newsweek? I guess it is the 150 anneversary, and Toyota seems to be sponsoring a special edition of Charlie Rose which goes into more detail, but you really have to look for it. As near as I can tell it is an ad for the last 150 years of Japanese and US relations. (No mention of 1941-45 of course.)

I’ll have to keep an eye out for more sesquicentennial events this year. Like really odd ads from Toyota that sound like the ads from the Saudi princes.

Clarke is the first and only administration official to apologize to the american public:

“Clarke began his testimony with an apology to loved ones of those roughly 3,000 people killed in the attacks on airliners, the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

‘Your government failed you, and I failed you,’ he said. ‘We tried hard, but that doesn’t matter because we failed you. And for that failure, I would ask, once all the facts are out, for your understanding and for your forgiveness.’”

I wasn’t sure what to think of him before, because it’s hard to trust the word of someone who left in a huff in the first place. Especially someone who stands to make money off a book he wrote about it. But these are powerful words. Words that haven’t been spoken yet, and I have to wonder why. I’m a big believer in the healing power of coming to realize your mistakes and then apologizing for them.

There are plenty of apologies to go anound as well. He says that the Clinton administration took terrorism seriously, but they got luck stopping Bojinka and you would have thought that would have woken some people up. *sigh* Hopefully we will get a lot more apologies when the comission report comes out. Hopefully the comission report will be unanimous, so no one can claim they are just following partisan politics. And maybe Rice and Bush will talk to the comission instead of just to reporters.

Cleaning up some old e-mail I found a fun math site from Sue. It has the names of some large numbers.

Hard to do news posts from NY, but here goes. This is quick, so not worded too carefully or proofread, I apologize for that.

Right after the war there was some serious anti palestinian sentiment in Iraq. They got a ton of money, the good apartments, and all just to give Saddam a good name in the rest of the arab world. This grated on the average Iraqi. The Kurds were even less charitable, condemning the Palestinians for basically not realizing how good they had it, and said they would be happy to trade places. (The Kurds were gassed by Saddam, and the rest of the world turned a blind eye. The Isralies kill one man and there is international furor.)

So now it has been a while since the end of the war, how do they feel now? Well if you listen to Sistani, an Iranian who has decided that the fate of Iraq lies in his hands, and has convinced a large number (though far from a majority) of Shiites in southern Iraq that he is right seems to be jumping back on to the Palestinian cause. “Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the most powerful Shiite cleric in Iraq, urged Muslims to unite against Israel and restore what he said belongs to the Palestinians.” Oh yeah, that is just what Iraq needs to be worried about right now. Hating the Isralies will always help in the polls I suppose.

But fortunately, if you dig a little deeper, that does not appear to be the sentiment from the more secular side of Iraq. “Mohammed Bahrululum — the current president of the U.S.-appointed Iraqi Governing Council — sent a letter on behalf of the 25-member group to Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat, expressing anger and shock at Yassin’s assassination.” Condolences seem like a much more appropriate response for a country that has its own problem to deal with.

And if you look a little further still, it looks like the “average Iraqi” feels sorry for the Palestinians. In part because of the problems with Israel, but more because they are being brainwashed and used by the powerful men in Palesting. This is something that the Iraqis can surely empathize with.

So I’m sitting in my bed trying to fall asleep, and I decide to watch the Daily Show. It is funny as usual, but one oddity struck me, “Today’s show brought to you by the Army.” Then they jump into this ad about how you can save the world and do good things in Iraq if you join the army. This on a show talking about how messed up our presence in Iraq is. Totally cracked me up.

But then thinking about it later, it is probably not a bad choice on their part. What they really need are educated people with some skill base coming in who may have some sense of cultural sensitivity if they want to do their mission. (See any interview with the Petraeus from the 101 for where I am getting that.) And the demographic for the show is right on, so maybe it is a good idea for them. That involves a lot of interesting thought on the part of the Army’s advertisers though, which I am not sure I am willing to give them.

There are not enough people in the world to buy all the crap for sale between where I work and my hotel. (Broadway, between about 23rd streen and 33rd street). I mean who really buys the three foot long crystal saleboat for sale in the cheapo electronics store?

Look at that hedgehog move! Oh, they hate it when I do this! Watch me stick my finger right up her… oh wait, it’s a hedgehog, can’t do that! Blimey.

(This blog’s for you, Pam!)

So I read Schlock Mercenary pretty regularly. For a terribly violent comic, about people with no morals (mercenaries) it actually tends to be pretty mild, and quite moral. So while catching up on this weeks comics I was a little surprised to see this one. They are having one of those big space funerals where they shoot the people into the sun and all that. Written on the casket:

“Putting the fun back in funeral.”

In order to clarify the second point in the last post:

“ARE HEDGEHOGS INTELLIGENT?
Basically the answer is NO. Although, it does depend on what you mean by intelligent. Certainly they do not seem to have the powers of reasoning and can not be expected to solve problems etc. If a hedgehog does manage to overcome a particular difficulty it is probably the result of trial and error but the solution is unlikely to be learned, remembered and used again. On the other hand, they do seem to have a reasonably good memory for places and will often find their way back to certain places even after they have been away for several months.”

From a reputable source

First: There aren’t enough people in the world to buy all the crap that is for sale in Manhattan between where I work and my hotel.

Second: For hedgehogs, the little plastic castle is a surprise every time.

Hedgehog eating some food. Note that the pictures are actually mislabeled. There is only one mealworm picture, the rest are all egg yolk. I couldn’t tell due to my bad net connection. Which is the real reason that I put them on the web in the first place. But then I thought, eveyone needs more hedgehog pictures.

I’ll have to change the subtitle for this blog to “Hedgehogs and world politics.”

*Sigh*. I’m in NY again, and forgot to hit post at the appropriate moments for a couple posts over the weekend and on Monday. I had my election help page all done, and I totally forgot to post it! And people were even looking for it! All that work for naught. Oh well, you can see it a bit after the fact now at least.

Assuming that the attack was done by al Queda, as they claim, this might have been the single most effective attack ever. In the past all of their attacks have caused effects generally counter to what they want. True the 9/11 attacks caused a general restriction on US rights, and a number of US invasions, but at least one of those attack would have happened anyway, and there wasn’t a worldwide backlash as they had hoped.

In fact a number of countries, like Spain, sent help even in Iraq. It seems like they want to cause an east versus west war, but it just isn’t happening. So there is an anti war candidate running in Spain, but doing poorly in the polls, then the attacks in Spain because they were helping the US. And guess what, all of a sudden the polls changed and the anti war party won the election.

Now they are going to pull out of Iraq. Because they were bombed by al Queda. Because they wanted Spain out of Iraq. *sigh* I feel for Spain. I understand the desire to make sure that this does not happen again. But I am just afraid that this is not how to do it.

You always hear the stupid “if we stop doing what we always do the terrorists have already won”. Clearly I don’t believe that. But this does seem like a direct victor in this battle for them.

Here’s an interesting article on how they used to use cell phones to catch terrorists. And the Swiss were helping us out! Who knew? I would have never guessed that.

Apparently they are publising it now because the terrorists don’t use cell phones anymore. From the article, “you hit them over the head enough they eventually catch on.”

Well, last time we had an election my list of who to vote for was quite popular, so for your amusement, here is a list of who to vote for in all the silly little things that you don’t care about but affect your life more directly than any of the major political positions.

Note that this came initially from a real interest in knowing which judges I should vote no for. It turns out that once a judge is in, people have to then vote him out, but since no one cares about the judges, none of them are ever voted out. And there are bad ones.

Finally, this list assumes that you are going to be voting in the Democratic primary where I live (Cook County, 9th Congressional District, 46th Ward, etc..) Check out your registration to know for sure where you are and to see a sample ballot.

So without further ado, the list:

President: Wesley Clark [6] (Cuz I like him & to keep Kerry in his place)
Senator: Obama [26]
9th District US Rep: Jan Schakowsky [46] (only choice)

9th Disrtict Delagates: (Again, just to be contrary and thumb my nose at Iowa.)
Thomas M. Tunney (Clark) [107]
Jay “J.B.” Pritzker (Clark) [109]
Ronald D. Jolly (Clark) [111]
Lori Goldstein (Clark) [113]
Patricia Cherry (Clark) [117]
Adelaide M. Rowe (Clark) [119]
Alternate: Jennifer A. Kuhn (Clark) [173]

13th District State Rep: Larry McKeon [211] (only choice)

Metro Water Recliamation:
Xochitl “So-She” Flores [242] (No, not just because her nickname is my wife’s)
Gloria Alitto Majewski [248] (incumbent)
Patricia Young [250] (incumbent)

State’s Attorney: Richard A. Devine [268]
County Clerk: Dorothy A. Brown [274] (but read the endorsement, this is a tough one.)
Conty Recorder: Eugene “Gene” Moore [280] (only choice)

County Judges (five openings): (sources 1 2 3 old?)
Kathleen Marie Burke [308]
Timothy Patrick Murphy [356]
Laurence J. Dunford [332]
(Foreman Vacancy…??? Who? can’t find info on any of them.)
Jeanne Marie Reynolds [346]

8th Subcircuit (two openings):
Mary Lane Mikva [392]
Sheryl Ann Pethers [388] (Some spats)

46th Ward Committee: Tom Sharpe [406] (only choice)

Tax the Rich: Yes [411] *sigh*

Here are some more hedgehog pictures.

It looks like al Queda claimed the Spanish bombing after all. That is especially scary given how high the security was in advance of the elections. And given how many bombs they stopped from going off.