House of the rising Moonglum

I’ve always had this thing for mountain lions. I don’t know why, but I just do. So for some reason I was reading about them the other day when I found out that the cougar (aka mountain lion, puma, etc…) is one of the widest ranging animals in the americas! They range from the mountains to the plains and from Tierre del Fuego to Alaska. The closer they are to the equator they are the smaller they are for some odd reason. And yes virginia, there are swamp cougars!
There are a whole slew of sub-species for the different regions that they come from. I guess that is what breeds are for dogs. They do seem to be pretty good tree climbers. Man would that be scary to see on your hike home.

The last article led me to the Humane Society web site and some videos on the work they are doing saving animals from Katrina and Rita. Very interesting stuff there.

The Navy News Service is really part of the official navy information release system right? They really are calling dolphins the Mk6 anti-swimmer system? And how is that different from the Mk7? And of course the official site.

The pictures are the best.

Then of course there are the mercenary dolphin army of Iran.

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Fareed Zakaria has proven that he and I agree on many things once again. He basically talks about how our government has become larger and larger, while at the same time becoming less and less effective. One quote:

Bush is not the only one to blame. Congressional spending is now completely out of control. The federal coffers are being looted for congressional patronage, and it is being done openly and without any guilt. The highway bill of 1982 had 10 “earmarked” projects—the code word for pork. The 2005 one has 6,371. [...] The U.S. Congress is a national embarrasment, except that no one is embarrassed. There are a few men of conscience left, like John McCain, but McCain’s pleas against pork seem to have absolutely no effect.

It’s short, go read it. And once you are done reading it, go and listen to Obama’s 9/14 podcast. That’s the Obama that I remember. More fiscal responsibility (read accountability), less pork.

Found this from Carneggy. Actually had to take it twice, I realized that a bunch of the questions were surface economic questions that I was thinking about too much and answering at a deeper social level. Took it again with a less critical eye and got the same result on the social axis but a bit more fitting result on the economic axis. Before I was a socialist, but now I seem to be a libertarian, which is funny since the picture clearly shows me on the centrist side of democrat.

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I have been following the elections in Germany pretty closely the past week or so, but haven’t posted anything because I hadn’t found a good overview article, and Marty was already covering the details. Well, CNN has finally provided a good overview. The thing I find most interesting right now in their election process is seeing if they will be able to generate an effective coalition government.

There are many possible coalitions, in terms of parties that would be willing to work together, but to really be effective I would think that the parties would have to have some common ground. That is why the FDP have been good kingmakers over the years, as they are kind of between the SPD and the CDU (the two major parties). The problem is that this time around they barely got enough votes to make it into the Bundestag at all, let alone form a government. (In order to get seats you need to get at least 5% of the vote.) That means that there will have to be a three parties in the new government. The CDU and FPD would make a good government, but to get the third minor party they would have to draw from one of the liberal parties. I could see the Greens going along with it, but how effective would that government be then?

The other option is a “grand coalition” between the SPD and CDU, but I don’t see them being able to work anything out at all.

And we wonder why the Iraqis have trouble creating a government that everyone likes.

In the first major real victory in the war on terror, over half the population of Afghanistan showed up to vote on Sunday. I have always said that Afghanistan was our key battle and that we shouldn’t use any military force elsewhere until that battle had been won. But we moved on and that battle was never won. In face the Taliban has enough of a presence now to threaten to disrupt the current elections. But even so, there is a huge level of excitement in the buildup the the elections. I think that people are more excited about this than the presidential elections because these will be representatives who actually do things that will hopefully better the individual’s lives more directly than the president can do.

There were a lot of problems, including so many candidates that people were pretty confused about who they should vote for, which may have kept the voter turnout so low. But I hope that political parties are able to form from the results of this election and that the politicians can really start helping the people of Afghanistan.

PS: Here’s a much better blog with more references and some nice pictures.

It seems to me like congressional investigations should be used for important things. Let’s see, we got one for 9/11, that was good. They actually did a lot of good things, too bad many of their recommendations were ignored. A problem was seen and actions were taken to see if we could figure out why.

There have of course been other uses for these things. But apparently messing around and lying about it is worse than destroying our national disaster recovery capability.

Motion: To establish a congressional commission to examine the Federal, State, and local response to the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf Region of the United States especially in the States of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and other areas impacted in the aftermath and make immediate corrective measures to improve such responses in the future.

Rejected

It shouldn’t be partisan because the locals (democrats) screwed up as much as the feds (republicans). But that is just an amazing party line rejection of anything that might tarnish the current government. I mean really. There would be plenty of dirt on the dems as well, but the important thing it to figure out how to make sure that it doesn’t happen again. Oh well. At least Vitter, the republican from Louisiana didn’t vote against it. But he didn’t vote for it. Guess he doesn’t like his job.

Another editorial talking about signs that other departments besides FEMA have suffered under the current regime. He has depressingly few quotes, but many of his claims are things that I have read about elsewhere so I am inclined to believe the rest. It is funny to criticize cronyism coming from Chicago, but it takes one to know one as it were.

And at least our cronyism keeps the streets paved, the garbage emptied, and the recycling … well at least they take it away.

I wonder if this will make people think more about government or if it will just go away when the next thing comes up.

Oh yeah, and I am still mad at the mayor of New Orleans for spreading rumors. At least it seems that the authorities are reigning them in now, and the on air morons are spreading them.

Sometimes disturbing things come up on the iPod. Like today, I was running, and was horrified to discover that “We Will Win” off of the Robotech soundtrack is, in fact, one of the best songs to run to ever. I also find it disturbing that about 20 years after I watched that show I still have an emotional attachment to the music.

My initial finger pointing post went to the mayor of New Orleans. I was much more frustrated with the federal response though than the local one, so I’ve been trying to figure out why I pointed out the mayor first. I just read an interesting editorial that might explain it. The press is giving Nagin and Blanco a free pass. I’m not sure I totally agree with his reasons why, but looking at the articles I have been reading lately, I certainly agree with the premise. Time will tell if this stays true.

The question of wether or not to rebuild New Orleans might become a moot point if everyone decides they like it elsewhere. It looks like many of the poorer people who were displaced from New Orleans are actually having a reasonably easy time finding jobs in their temporary homes. This story makes me really happy, because it involves people doing real things to help people get back on their feet. Especially in Texas where the economy is doing pretty well. I wonder if people are having an easier time finding jobs in cities that aren’t New Orleans. I wonder if people will prefer to live elsewhere after that? I don’t know how I would feel. I’ve moved enough in my life that I am only somewhat attached to anywhere that I live, but I’ve seen a lot of quotes from refugees saying that they had never left New Orleans before. That would be a pretty compelling reason to go back.

Thing the first. I got pulled over for speeding. This being Evanston, getting pulled over for speeding isn’t that odd, but this being me it is very very odd. But I am a terror on wheels so it is a good thing they are keeping me in line. I mean, imagine, going 35 in a 30 zone. Fortunately he let me off with a warning. (My guess is he thought I was a Northwestern Student and was fishing, but saw I was some old guy and kinda backed off.)

Thing the second. I was walking back from my car late this evening and there was a raccoon eyeing me warily from the base of his tree. It was very odd, but he wasn’t hissing or anything, just sort of… looking at me. As if to say, “what do you want?” Then he moved to a car and stopped and looked at me, then across the street and the same thing. It was too dark to get a picture with my phone, which is too bad because he was huge. Bigger than the tire of a car. Just odd to see in the middle of Chicago.

I normally skip anything by George Will in Newsweek, but this week he quoted both De Vries and Hobbes in thinking about the hurricane and its consequences. I’m going to have to make sure to give his articles a second look in the future. It does give one pause though to consider that 9/11 stuck the fear of the chaotic state of nature into everyday americans and allowed the current government to transform into the Leviathan that we now have. Unfortunately the order it purports to impose is just as thin as the order imposed by the less authoritarian previous regimes. Will Katrina help people realize the weakness of the expensive “order” that we currently are trying to impose on our world, or will it scare us into giving over even more power to do even more expensive and ineffectual attempts to control our world, at home and abroad.

In the spirit of Salam Pax and Ginmar, that is to say people blogging where no one with any sense should be, I have been following The Interdictor. He stuck it out for directNIC through the storm and has a very interesting view on everything. He is going around now and grabbing servers for other companies and putting them back online. Amazingly he was online throughout the entire mess, and it is a very interesting read. One thing I really like about it is that it is a simple story of survival, not of placing blame. It is so easy to place blame (I was guilty of some in my last post) that it is nice to see someone just doing what needs to be done to make it through. And in his case to keep their servers running as well. That is cajones.

It is true that the feds didn’t help out soon enough, however my current beef is with the mayor of New Orleans. He was getting his mug on TV and spouting every rumor he heard as fact. Why is this bad? Because in a time of crisis it is hard enough to get the facts straight. Proper communication is crucial to get the help to where it needs to go.

When I was growing up in California we always used to have little survival kits in case there was an earthquake. Food and water for three days, first aid kit, flashlights, radio, batteries, etc. We were supposed to be able to get along for three days without help. We also had procedures in place for when there was an earthquake, get to a protected location, check for gas leaks, make sure we could get to the supplies, etc. Then we would wait for info from the government. The plan was layered, individuals, then local resources, then state resources and finally federal resources. But it relied on accurate information to know what the next step was. The state wouldn’t know where to send rescuers if the locals didn’t tell them.

What does this all mean? Well if you claim that helicopters are being shot at, then a different plan might be needed which doesn’t call for helicopters. Then when it turns out that they weren’t really being shot at after all, well that is a problem. One hopes that the people coordinating the helicopters have their own methods of verification, but I would say that the mayor has a duty to get his facts straight.

PS: more reason for the need for accurate information.

There is plenty of it to be done, but that is for later. For now we pray, and hope, and offer our support.

I have lots of thoughts which I will share later. Now is for giving a helping hand.