« April 2004 | Main | June 2004 »
May 28, 2004
HILLARY: LET THEM DRINK GAS
The price of gas seems to be quite the political sore point for some
people these days. Although low from a historical perspective,
opponents of the current administration gleefully point at the rising
cost at the pump as it pushes $2.70 and higher--at least in the tri-
state area. Either Bush is colluding with the Saudis to increase
production to get himself elected--Shame!--or he isn't putting enough
pressure on the Saudis to increase production and leaving Americans in
the lurch--Shame!
While that is all very fascinating, I was interested to read an article
in the New York Post today detailing how the
href="http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/nypost/643755441.html?did=643755441&F
MT=ABS&FMTS=FT&date=May+28%2C+2004&author=TOM+TOPOUSIS&desc=HOLY+CASH+C
OW!+-+YET+ANOTHER+HIKE+SENDS+MILK+TO+%244.43+A+GAL.">price of milk
is supposed to rise to $4.43 a gallon next week. While this is a
supply and demand issue, it also happens to be a supply and demand
crisis engineered by New York's two embarrasing Senators Schumer &
Clinton. A few years back when milk was inexpensive (a good thing,
no?), ineffecient dairy farms got Chuck and Hill to include them in a
Northeastern Dairy Cartel, which prevented consumers from buying milk
from cheaper providers. Incomes propped, northeastern dairy farmers
felt free not to improve efficiency by merging operations or taking
advantage of economies of scale by increasing herd size. Now NY
customers--Chuck & Hill's constituents--are paying for it out of
pocket, dearly. Don't take my word for it. Here's Salon
accusing Hillary of
href="http://www.salon.com/news/feature/1999/07/14/dairy/">selling out
New York families from a few years back. And here's Hillary
href="http://clinton.senate.gov/news/2001/06/2001702644.html">crowing
about it herself.
By the way, the next time you hear either of these anti-family
political hacks complaining about a childhood obesity epidemic, ask
them why they instituted a dairy cartel that now produces milk prices
more than 1.5 times that of Coca-Cola [$4.43 a gallon vs. $2.80 a
gallon]? Too bad gasoline isn't good for growing children. They could
drink that, a bargain at $2.70 a gallon.
Posted by Lexiphane at 8:52 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack
PAYING RESPECTS
If one would like to do more to commemorate Memorial Day than watch war
movies or head to the beach, here is a state-by-state list of
href="http://www.interment.net/us/nat/veterans.htm">National
Cemeteries around the country.
Posted by Lexiphane at 4:16 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack
MEMORIAL DAY MOVIES
If you're at a loss for plans this Memorial Day weekend, one could do
worse than take in some timeless movies on
href="http://www.amctv.com">AMC's Memorial Day Weekend Marathon.
Some of them look skippable, like Navy Seals (with Charlie
Sheen), but most of them are quality films. Here are my suggestions of
ones you'll want to catch if you have some spare time--and others you
should make time for.
Saturday
The Fighting
Seabees - 7:45 a.m. John Wayne stars in this WWII movie about
a construction unit in the Pacific.
The Bridges at
Toko-Ri - 12:15 p.m. William Holden is a Reserve aviator
bitter that he is called back to fly missions over Korea, leaving his
wife and children stateside. Understandably bitter since his wife is
Grace Kelly.
Sahara -
2:30 p.m. Humphrey Bogart and his embattled squad of men hold off a
German column at an oasis in North Africa. A must-see for Bogart
fans.
In Harm's
Way - 4:30 p.m. I haven't seen this movie about the gear-up
for WWII in the Pacific, but it stars John Wayne and Kirk Douglas and
was directed by Otto Preminger.
Sunday
All Quiet on the
Western Front - 6:00 a.m. This WWI classic starring Lew Ayres
as a German grunt in the trenches plumbs the insanity and horror of
modern warfare. The poignant final scene sticks with you.
Twelve O'Clock
High - 8:45 a.m. Gregory Peck plays a no-nonsense WWII bomber
captain who eventually breaks under the pressure of getting his men
home alive after successfully dropping bombs "right in the pickle
barrel."
Patton -
8:00 p.m. George C. Scott gives the performance of his career as the
hard-driving WWII general with the ivory-handled revolvers. "Only a
pimp would carry a pearl-handled revolver."
Stalag 17
- 11:30 p.m. William Holden is back, but this time he's a P.O.W.
wheeler-dealer in a German prison camp suspected of being an informer.
Billy Wilder directs.
Monday
The Young
Lions - 8:00 a.m. Wake up early or set your VCRs/Tivos for
this epic WWII film showing both sides of the war in Europe. Marlon
Brando plays a disaffected Nazi officer in France. Dean Martin and
Montgomery Clift are unlikely friends in basic training and then into
combat. Lee Van Cleef of Sergio Leone fame has a minor character.
Superb.
Halls of
Montezuma - 11:30 a.m. Karl Malden, Jack Palance, Robert
Wagner, Jack Webb, and Richard Widmark are just some of the Marines
slogging through the South Pacific to knock out a Japanese rocket base.
Brutal stuff.
The Longest
Day - 8:00 p.m. Too many names to list in the cast of real-
life combat movie-maker Daryl F. Zanuck's sweeping version of the D-Day
invasion.
The Enemy
Below - 11:30 p.m. Robert Mitchum and Curt Jurgens sweat it out
(literally) as captains of a destroyer and a u-boat, respectively, in
this WWII drama that leaves hope for a common humanity even among men
trying to kill each other.
There are a lot of repeat airings of all of these films and more
during the weekend so check out AMC's
href="http://www.amctv.com/guide?CID=28-4-2004-M--N-EST">full
schedule for the month [scroll down to bottom] to see all times and
listings. Also, Sam Fuller's
href="http://www.us.imdb.com/title/tt0080437/">The Big Red One
is recently out on DVD and it's fantastic. Lee Marvin as a grizzled
vet. Luke Skywalker goes from coward to righteous killer.
And see if your local video store carries
href="http://www.us.imdb.com/title/tt0059518/">None But the
Brave, featuring a war-weary Frank Sinatra. Two groups of
soldiers--one American, one Japanese--are stranded on a Pacific island.
They form an uneasy truce in order to survive, but both know that when
the time comes, they will be forced to fight each other to the death.
Posted by Lexiphane at 3:42 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack
MORE AMERICANS THROWING AWAY THEIR MONEY ON HOGSWILL AND HOKUM
The Washington Post reports today that more
Americans than ever are resorting to alternative therapies such as
herbal supplements and accupuncture to relieve everything from
headaches and anxiety to digestive problems. I am personally
highly skeptical of such treatments and rank them up there with
such historical scams as
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patent_medicine">patent
medicines and
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homeopathy">homeopathy, although
at least patent medicines could get you high.
There is entirely too much
href="http://www.sho.com/site/ptbs/topics.do?topic=am">Bullshit in
alternative medicine and therapies to be disputed here, but I will say
it could have its place.
A lot of people go to see their
doctors for a number of reasons that have no medical solution. They're
getting old and things don't work quite the way they used to; they're
lonely; they're depressed or unhappy; they crave attention. These
people often turn to alternative therapies because the medical
establishment says that it's sorry, but there's nothing really wrong
with them and it can't offer any help. In these particular cases, if
taking an herbal supplement or getting needles stuck in such a person's
face makes them feel better, then God bless the placebo effect.
What I object to is people that embrace the alternative medical system
to such an extent that they ignore the real assistance allopathic
medicine can offer. These are the people that forego chemotherapy in
favor of special diets or new age therapies. In my opinion, the people
that offer such treatments are criminals. Also, there are some
worthless therapies that can be prohibitively expensive and those that
offer them prey on the vulnerable, neurotic, or truly sick to drain
them of cash.
So alternative medicine is a double-edged sword, which is why I think
some insurance companies are looking into it. If it can keep chronic
complainers, hypochrondriacs, and attention-seekers from consuming
expensive legitimate medical care by channeling them to less-expensive
"therapies", it'll save them money. The dangerous edge of that sword
is when these alternative therapies are used in lieu of actual medicine
for people who suffer from treatable conditions.
Posted by Lexiphane at 11:12 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack
PRACTICAL STATISTICS
Anyone who rides the subway at approximately the same time every day
knows that valuable information can be gleaned through close
observation. One such thing is the number of people on vacation on any
given day. Through a complex proprietary alogorithm, this can be
defined as the Subway Seating Vacation Index (SSVI), with available
seating and the number of people on vacation being inversely
proportional. While this would seem to be a fairly linear equation,
there are a number of factors that need to be controlled for. The
tourism coefficient (TC) can skew results since holidays and the number
of tourists coming to the city can be higly correlated--especially
around Thanksgiving and Christmas. Fortunately tourists are easy to
weed out of one's data set through obvious signifiers like matching
windbreakers and entire nuclear families traveling together on a train,
something one never sees among non-tourist riders. The parade constant
(PC) must also be subtracted depending on which subway line one is
riding and it's proximity to the parade route. Complicating things is
the probability of irregular service p(IS), caused by things such as a
police action, track fire, or sick passenger. Irregular service can
cause passengers on the platform to stack up and makes getting a seat
extremely difficult.
Once all these factors have been accounted for, one can observe how
easy it is to get a seat. Impossible (I) would be not even being able
to enter the train and waiting for the next one. Forget It (FI) would
be cramming into a car and having some parts of your body in contract
with at least three different people. Possible With Skill (PWS) is the
level where initially one is standing but can get a seat if positioned
next to someone you know will likely be getting off at the next stop
and you don't care about pregnant women or old ladies. Likely If Fast
(LIF) means that there are a few open seats when the train rolls into
the station and one can get a seat if fast enough to maneuver through
the car to get to them first (similar to musical chairs.) Have A Seat
(HAS) means that there are more than enough seats for the passengers on
the platform and you can pick one at your leisure. Bums' Dream (BD)
means that there are virtually no other passengers in the car and if
one cares to stretch out and lie down for a nap, go ahead, although be
prepared to be hassled by cops. After assigning a number value to each
of these seating levels once can compute the SSVI.
Today was a Friday abutting the Memorial Day weekend, a holiday not
known for drawing out of towners. There are no parades scheduled
today, but it is Fleet Week, a factor obviated by the likelihood that
most sailors were either too drunk and/or hungover so early in the
morning to be riding a train. There were no track delays and both the
local and express lines were running smoothly this morning. The
seating availability could be classified as HAS, or Have a Seat. This
all adds up to a SSVI of about 7, meaning 50% to 60% of office workers
in New York have the day off.
For extra credit, one can examine the differential in SSVI
between one's morning and afternoon commutes and determine the
percentage of workers who took half-days.
Posted by Lexiphane at 10:15 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack
May 27, 2004
KNOW YOUR JAPANESE POETRY
A good example
Of bad haikus can be found
At
href="http://www.dailycandy.com/article.jsp;jsessionid=5DE1AB049A26214E
09776987EE88D801?ArticleId=21499&city=4">Daily Candy
Hat tip to Gawker for pointing this one out.
Posted by Lexiphane at 3:04 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack
EXPLAINING THE RATINGS
Funniest line of the day goes to movie reviewer A.O. Scott of The
New York Times for the postscript to
href="http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/27/movies/27DAY.html">his
review of the climatological disaster movie
href="http://www.us.imdb.com/title/tt0319262/">The Day After
Tomorrow.
"The Day After Tomorrow" is rated Pg-13. Millions ofTagged:
people die, but nobody swears, copulates, undresses or takes
drugs.
Posted by Lexiphane at 2:25 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack
EYE ROLLER
On my way to work this morning I overheard two women talking about
terrorism on the subway:
"I promised my Dad that during the Republican convention
I would only take buses."
Yeah, suicide bombers would never attack buses. Tagged:
Posted by Lexiphane at 11:17 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack
AND HE'S DONE
With his public support slim to none, moderate clerics calling for him
to knock it off, and the Marines breathing down his neck and degrading
his gang of thugs, radical cleric Muqtada al Sadr is
href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A59486-
2004May27.html">now calling for a negotiated truce. He is willing
to end the fighting in exchange for a negotiated settlement with
religious and political leaders about his future and that of his Mahdi
army. How gallant of him. Coalition forces want him to stand trial
for the murder of a moderate cleric killed last year. As attractive as
it would be to accept a negotiated truce with al Sadr now, it would be
better to insist on an unconditional surrender and force him to stand
trial. He's obviously desperate. It would be unwise to let him save
face and snatch a half-assed victory from imminent defeat. Letting al
Sadr hang around as some sort of legitimate figure in Iraq's political
scene would be a mistake. In years to come, his negotiated settlement
would be re-written into a tale of how he bravely fought the Marines to
a standstill and forced them to the negotiating table instead of what
is actually happening, which is him crying uncle. And I think this is
one more unmitigated disaster averted that we can add to what I wrote
yesterday [see
HREF="http://lexiphane.com/lex/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=5
13&mode=&order=0&thold=0">SLOW AND STEADY TOWARDS VICTORY,
5/26/04].
UPDATE: This is
href="http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/27/international/middleeast/27CND-
IRAQ.html?hp">a compromise that I'm sure will cost Iraq in the long
run. American forces agreed to a standstill in operations against al
Sadr in an agreement that will have him and his colleagues take
positions in the new government and keep his Mahdi army intact for all
intents and purposes. It doesn't seem like we had much choice in the
matter:
"The religious leadership passed a strong warning to
the Americans yesterday to end the stand-off in Najaf peacefully," said
Hamed Khafaf, an aide to Ayatollah Sistani. Had the Americans refused,
Mr. Khafaf said, the ayatollah, convinced that the situation in Najaf
was unsustainable, "would not stay silent."
Well, it's his country; if I were trying to maintain my hold on the
Shi'ite population in Iraq, I definitely wouldn't want to leave an
antagonistic rival cleric with a band of thugs behind him and the
backing of Iran's ayatollahs in any position of power. Perhaps this is
a good way for al Sistani to save face, like Iraqis are solving their
own internal problems, which is a good thing. Perhaps he has his own
plans for al Sadr once he's out in the open and vulnerable. Tagged:
Posted by Lexiphane at 10:16 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack
WINGS AND PRAYERS DON'T MIX
Special travel advisory to evangelists: please save your proselytizing
until you've disembarked from your plane. Talking about redemption at
the time of death tends to freak out other airline passengers.
Yesterday, a flight departing Buffalo, NY was delayed when other
passengers got
nervous when a trio of ministers started witnessing to another
passenger that "his last breath on earth would be his first in heaven
if he became a born-again Christian." The fact that these ministers
had names that indicate a middle-eastern or sub-Asian origin probably
had something to do with the passengers' nervousness. This reminds me
of the pilot for American Airlines that
href="http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/02/10/1076388364760.html?f
rom=storyrhs">got on the intercom before taking off and asked all
Christians to identify themselves and told all other passengers they
were crazy for not embracing Christ. I don't think I'd ever want a
pilot that seemed so excited about meeting Jesus.
Posted by Lexiphane at 9:56 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack
APPROPRIATE ACTION
A month ago, I wrote that it was a mistake to allow liberal Western
values regarding immigrant rights and free speech to trump the steps
needed to quell terrorist activities [see
href="http://www.lexiphane.com/lex/modules.php?name=News&file=article&s
id=459&mode=&order=0&thold=0">STORM CLOUDS ON THE HORIZON,
4/26/04]. It is one thing to be virulently anti-war or anti-Western
civilization. It is quite another thing to openly call for sedition
and advocate a terror bombing campaign against your adopted country.
This is what radical cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri was preaching from a
street corner after sponsors of his Finsbury Park Mosque closed it a
few weeks ago. Al-Masri
href="http://www.wnbc.com/news/3351894/detail.html">was arrested by
British police last night and is being detained under an extradition
warrant. As to whether this will have a "chilling effect" on those
advocating the bombing of 10 Downing St. or the murder of British
citizens, this remains to be seen.
Posted by Lexiphane at 9:26 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack
May 26, 2004
SLOW AND STEADY TOWARDS VICTORY
Hey, does anyone remember when Iraq was in total chaos, buildings were
being looted, and crime was rampant? I haven't heard any stories like
that in a while. Remember when we callously let the Iraqi National
Museum get sacked and all its priceless treasures were looted? What a
screwup! Thank God that story turned out to be bullshit and nearly all
the museum's contents were located hidden in the basement or returned
by Iraqi citizens that were holding them for safekeeping. Remember
when we couldn't find Saddam, his sons, or any of his top lieutenants
like Chemical Ali? Lucky break for us that we captured Saddam and his
poison-gassing cousin and killed Saddam's two deviant sons. How about
when the Sunni Triangle was a killing field for American soldiers,
infested with Saddam's crack troops at the beginning of the year? I
haven't read one of those stories in ages. Remember a couple of weeks
ago when the Shi'ites were rising up against us and Muqtada al Sadr's
Mahdi Army pledged our annihilation in the south? Seems like al Sadr's
not too popular anymore, clerics are accusing his army of damaging holy
Shi'ite shrines themselves to generate anti-coaltion sentiment, and the
residents of Najaf just wish he'd head back to the Baghdad rat hole he
crawled out of and leave them alone. And apparently today we captured
one of his key lieutenants. This whole war seems like one big
unmitigated disaster after another averted through patience,
competence, and steadfastness of purpose. What a disaster.
Posted by Lexiphane at 5:09 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack
GORE PULLS A DEAN
Apparently Al Gore pulled a Howard Dean
href="http://www.moveonpac.org/goreremarks052604.html/">"Yeeaagh!"
performance down at NYU this afternoon. Even on the printed page
his remarks seem a little unhinged.
He has exposed Americans abroad and Americans in every
U.S. town and city to a greater danger of attack by terrorists because
of his arrogance, willfulness, and bungling at stirring up hornet's
nests that pose no threat whatsoever to us. And by then insulting the
religion and culture and tradition of people in other countries. And by
pursuing policies that have resulted in the deaths of thousands of
innocent men, women and children, all of it done in our
name.
This really comes as no surprise to me, as the event was sponsored by
the increasingly lunatic href="http://www.moveon.org/front/">MoveOn.org group. Actually,
this could be a smart move on behalf of Kerry's campaign. Al Gore's
political career is finished, so they're using him to fall further on
his sword by making wild and slanderous statements about the Bush
administration. This way Kerry gets all the benefit of negative
campaigning while appearing sober and upright in comparison to Gore.
Or maybe Gore really believes this claptrap. Perhaps he imbued from
his superior in the previous administration that the correct response
to terrorist attacks against military barracks and warships abroad,
murdered U.S. citizens, and bombings of the U.S.'s highest profile city
was to lay low and not stir up any "hornets nests." It's just easier
to let the next guy in the Oval Office clean up after your inattention. Tagged:
Posted by Lexiphane at 4:13 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack
FOR VISITING SAILORS: THE BRONX IS UP AND THE BATTERY'S DOWN
It's Fleet Week in NYC, when the U.S. Navy enters New York harbor in an
impressive parade of ships--occurring as I write this--and the public
can take tours of many naval vessels docked on the West Side of
Manhattan. For a schedule of all Fleet Events, this is the
href="http://fleetweek.navy.mil/soe.htm">official site from the
Navy. For those of you who aren't in New York, but would still like a
taste of what it's like during Fleet Week, I recommend renting
href="http://www.us.imdb.com/title/tt0041716/maindetails">On the
Town. The 1949 musical stars
href="http://www.us.imdb.com/name/nm0000069/">Frank Sinatra and
href="http://www.us.imdb.com/name/nm0000037/">Gene Kelley as two of
three sailors on a 24-hour pass, and shot completely on location in
NYC. The historical verisimilitude may be a little weak, but it's
entertaining nonetheless.
Posted by Lexiphane at 10:54 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack
CLOSING THE SHUTTERS II
The MTA went ahead and gave tentative approval for a
href="http://www.ny1.com/ny/TopStories/SubTopic/index.html?topicintid=1
&subtopicintid=1&contentintid=40174">ban on photography in the
subway system, despite opposition from Mayor Bloomberg. The police
feel that hampering amateur photographers from documenting life and art
in the subways is a good way to combat terrorism. As I mentioned last
week [see
href="http://lexiphane.com/lex/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=5
01&mode=&order=0&thold=0">CLOSING THE SHUTTERS, 5/21/04], any
rationale for banning photography in the subways could just as easily
be applied to pictures taken in public above ground. People witnessed
or suspected of taking pictures in the NYC subway system may now have
their cameras confiscated. Here's a few questions for the MTA: what
does it consider the subway system? Is Grand Central Terminal--owned
by the MTA and a hub for multiple subway lines--now a camera-free zone?
What about shots of subway stops--meaning stairs and signage--taken at
street level? Would these warrant the confiscation of one's
camera?
There is a 45-day period for public comment before the MTA will take a
final vote on making the photography ban final. I've requested
information from the MTA on how to submit public comments and I'll post
that information here if or when I receive a reply.
UPDATE: That was pretty quick. I just received a reposnse from
Doug Sussman's office, at the Community Affairs section of the MTA.
His letter was mostly canned boilerplate about how things have changed
since 9/11 and the need for increased safety measures blah blah blah.
Here is the actual oblique answer to my question about the public
comment period:
Feedback from our riders is important to us. Before
final approval is sought from
the full MTA Board, customers will have forty-five days to comment on
the proposed
changes following publication in the New York State Register -the
official publication
of the New York Department of State. The complete text of the proposed
changes
will be made available on the MTA web site ( mta.info ) during the
comment period.
Comments will be made part of the record and forwarded to the MTA Board
for consideration.
Here is a link to the href="http://www.dos.state.ny.us/info/tocmain.html">New York State
Register. I couldn't find any mention of the MTA's proposed rule
change, but will keep checking back. Tagged:
Posted by Lexiphane at 10:27 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack
May 25, 2004
A TIME AND A PLACE FOR ALL TRUTHS
The normally eloquent and graceful writer Peggy Noonan attempt
s to explain to author E.L. Doctorow why he was booed at Hofstra
University this past weekend for using the school's commencement
address as a venue for an anti-Bush rant. For some reason the pithy
penultimate paragraph made me laugh out loud.
I am a conservative. I have spoken at three collegeTagged:
commencements. Each time I spoke I talked about the students, and the
life ahead of them, and the nature of their achievement. I spoke to
them about them. I didn't tell them Jimmy Carter is a retard or Bill
Clinton is a pig. It would have been wrong to do that. It would have
been boorish. It would have deserved boos.
Posted by Lexiphane at 4:21 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack
TRUE HERO
If you're having a little trouble easing those images of grinning
reprobates and jackasses at the Abu Ghraib prison out of your mind, I
suggest picking up today's Wall Street Journal [available online
to subscribers only] to read about someone I suspect is more
representative of the men and women serving in Iraq. Corporal Jason
Dunham was a squad leader with Kilo Company, Third Battalion, Seventh
Marine Regiment in September 2003, when his squad responded to reports
of other Marines under fire nearby. After someone fired a rocket
propelled grenade at his group of humvees, Dunham began to search a
line of vehicles nearby. One of the drivers lunged at Dunham and two
of his squadmates rushed to subdue the man. They failed to see what
Dunham saw when he yelled "No, no--watch his hand!" What is gathered
from what happened when the insurgent dropped the grenade was that
Dunham placed his Kevlar combat helmet over it and then threw his body
on top of the helmet to contain the blast. Grenade fragments entered
Dunham's skull in multiple places and he died several days later, never
having regained consciousness. He is said to be responsible for saving
two of his squad members' lives and is now being nominated for the
first Medal of Honor awarded since 1993. When Dunham took a trip out
to Las Vegas with a friend and the friend's wife in January of 2003, he
told him that he would be extending his enlistment and staying in Iraq
for the battalion's entire tour. His friend told him that he was crazy
and then asked him why. "I want to make sure everyone makes it home
alive. I want to be sure you go home to your wife alive."
There are those willing to die in order to kill others and there are
those willing to die in order to save others. That is why we will win.
Posted by Lexiphane at 2:18 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack
BANKRUPT FOREIGN POLICY VISION
Presidential office aspirant Sen. John Kerry has repeatedly railed that
the U.S. needs to seek more support from international organizations
like the United Nations and other powerful countries like France,
Germany, and Russia. The utter lack of wisdom in such a blueprint for
action has gone largely unremarked in major news outlets. The U.N.'s
reputation would rightly be in shambles in a sane world, but remains
largely intact in the bizarro D.C.-Brussels-Turtle Bay universe that
finds it unseemly to notice the moral cravenness in any country not led
by a certain Texan.
Take Sudan, a member country of the U.N. Human Rights Commission,
please (to paraphrase Henny Youngman). Human Rights Watch has a
href=http://hrw.org/doc/?t=africa_pub&c=sudan>number of reports on
the sorry state of humanity in that nation. Children--and I'm talking
children, not even teenagers--are regularly conscripted to fight in a
civil war that has the government engineering famines to wipe out huge
swaths of its population. Women are regarded as little more than
chattel and can expect no protection from those that wish to take to
their genitals with broken glass or rusty pieces of metal to save them
from perceived sins of the flesh. Perhaps Sudan's government is too
busy overseeing a campaign of ethnic cleansing and mass murder of its
non-Muslim and minority Muslim sect populations that involves the
bombing and burning of entire cities to get its human rights house in
order.
Meanwhile, British paper The Independent [via
href="http://www.instapundit.com">Instapundit]
href=http://news.independent.co.uk/world/africa/story.jsp?story=524674>
reports that U.N. peacekeepers sent to the Congo to protect
refugees are instead using it as an opportunity to have sex with
desperate children:
Teenage rape victims fleeing war in the Democratic
Republic of Congo are being sexually exploited by the United Nations
peace-keeping troops sent to the stop their suffering.
The Independent has found that mothers as young as 13 - the victims of
multiple rape by militiamen - can only secure enough food to survive in
the sprawling refugee camp by routinely sleeping with UN peace-
keepers.
And, of course, it's the U.N. that enabled the creation of Palestinian
refugee camps and allowed them to fester into an economically crippled
society that stews in a culture of death and hopelessness. Nice
work!
As for our more respectable "allies" that we should have been seeking
approval from before wiping Saddam Hussein's regime from the world's
ass crack--France, Germany, and Russia--it turns out that Saddam was
lining their politicians' and opinionmakers' pockets with kickbacks
from the href=http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110004801>
U.N.'s Oil for Food program. And surprise surprise, U.N. officials
administering the program were in on this scam as well. Incidentally,
this was money that was supposed to be going to all those starving
women and children in Iraq we previously kept hearing about. Throw in
the revenues companies in these countries were generating selling
Saddam's thugocracy luxury goods and weapons, and I can see why they
weren't eager for the gravy train to derail.
Let's ignore for a moment the fact that members of the Axis of Weasels
were too busy getting rich off Saddam Hussein and suppose they were
willing to help Coalition Forces remove a psychotic regime and
institute a cradle of regional democracy in the world's cradle of
civilization. In truth, neither France nor Germany even could
offer any meaningful military support. Their armed forces are
underfunded moribund make-work job programs, with little institutional
tradition of fighting the good fight. And given their historical roles
in the Middle East (Germany in Syria and Iraq, France in Lebanon), I
doubt too many people in the region would be too excited to see their
respective uniforms return anyway. Given the total nightmarish hash
Russia has made out of its battle with insurgents in Chechnya, its
troops can stay home too. I suppose any of these countries could pitch
in to defray some of the costs of rebuilding Iraq, but given their
sclerotic economies facing an oncoming social insurance meltdown
related to demographic shifts, they're in little position to afford it.
So John Kerry's foreign policy ideas hinge on sucking up to
venal condescending Europeans who are both unwilling and incapable of
offering any type of support, coupled with kowtowing to a U.N.
organization with a long history of failure and corruption among its
officials, and brutality by its own peace-keepers. The U.N. really
serves no purpose other than to provide the thinnest patina of
legitimacy and respectability to a majority of unelected tyrants and
loser governments. Someone needs to ask John Kerry why he thinks these
should be his go-to guys when it comes to foreign policy. Tagged:
Posted by Lexiphane at 1:45 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack
May 24, 2004
REASONS TO GO BACK TO SCHOOL
This weekend The Washington Post looks
at other young women who like to chronicle their sex lives, a la the
now-infamous blogger/Senate staffer/prostitute Washingtonienne [see
href="http://lexiphane.com/lex/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=5
00&mode=&order=0&thold=0">D.C. BABYLON, 5/20/04], who has since
been identified as
href="http://www.wonkette.com/archives/washingtons-other-w-twins-
009699.php">Jessica Cutler. The Post's intrepid reporter
ventured ontothe the fair green lawns of my alma mater to see if
she could get the lowdown on how easy college girls are these days.
This makes me wish they had sent a male reporter instead of Laura
Sessions Stepp, just to see how fast this guy would have been pepper
sprayed off Healey Quad.
She and her friends held a contest while sharing aFor those of you keeping score at home, I guess that's
hotel room in Cancun. After each night out, they gave themselves one to
four points for certain sexual behaviors, with four signifying going
all the way. They recorded the points on a poster board and agreed that
the student with the most points would win.
In that one week, she acquired 19 points. And lost the competition.
The winner, she said, scored 20 points -- "seven in one night."
the equivalent of sleeping with five different guys, giving perhaps ten
blowjobs, or letting 20 drunken fratboys cop a feel in one week. Gotta
love the freshmen! But keeping score on a poster board chart? Even
the G'town sluts are type-A nerds. Seriously, this whole article is
less about publicizing one's sex life online than an opportunity for
WaPo readers to indulge their interest in saucy Catholic school
girls getting it on. Keep up the good work Post! [via href="http://www.wonkette.com">Wonkette
]. Tagged:
Posted by Lexiphane at 3:49 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack
MARITIME DAY II
Saturday's Maritime Day activities were an unqualified success,
especially the North River Historic Ship Society's tours of New York
Harbor. I was down at
href="http://lexiphane.com/lex/modules.php?set_albumName=album12&id=img
_1000&op=modload&name=gallery&file=index&include=view_photo.php">Pier
63 on 23rd St. by about 11 a.m. only to find a line snaking from
the
href="http://lexiphane.com/lex/modules.php?set_albumName=album12&id=img
_0886&op=modload&name=gallery&file=index&include=view_photo.php">Lackaw
ana railroad barge into the parking lot of Chelsea Piers'
Basketball City. And it was hot. More than an hour later I was able
to purchase a ticket for the 4:15 tour that afternoon. Trying to stay
on theme, I then made my way uptown to have lunch at the
href="http://lexiphane.com/lex/modules.php?set_albumName=album12&id=img
_0900&op=modload&name=gallery&file=index&include=view_photo.php">Boat
Basin Cafe. I'm not sure who has the concession to run that place,
but it was--hands down--the worst service of any establishment I've
ever visited. But then you're not really going there for the food or
service and the company was excellent. After a nice post-lunch stroll
admiring
href="http://lexiphane.com/lex/modules.php?set_albumName=album12&id=img
_0901&op=modload&name=gallery&file=index&include=view_photo.php">the
architecture of the Upper West side, I dropped my friend back at
her place and it was time to get back downtown.
Pier 63 is not actually a pier, but a former
href="http://lexiphane.com/lex/modules.php?set_albumName=album12&id=img
_0886&op=modload&name=gallery&file=index&include=view_photo.php">Lackaw
ana railroad barge. The lightship
href="http://lexiphane.com/lex/modules.php?set_albumName=album12&id=img
_0897&op=modload&name=gallery&file=index&include=view_photo.php">Fry
ing Pan is moored there, along with the fireboat
href="http://lexiphane.com/lex/modules.php?set_albumName=album12&id=img
_1019&op=modload&name=gallery&file=index&include=view_photo.php">Joh
n J. Harvey. There's a cabana bar/foodstand, tables, and a
covered area with a stage where
href="http://lexiphane.com/lex/modules.php?set_albumName=album12&id=img
_0893&op=modload&name=gallery&file=index&include=view_photo.php">live
music was being performed. And since it's a railroad barge,
there's a
href="http://lexiphane.com/lex/modules.php?set_albumName=album12&id=img
_0887&op=modload&name=gallery&file=index&include=view_photo.php">caboos
e that you can check out, top to bottom, inside and out.
The Brooklyn waterfront tour that I was taking actually was running
about a half-hour late. Two others were being offered. One was of the
North River, which is the actual name of the Hudson River from the
Upper Harbor until about 30th St. in Manhattan or the upper edge of
Hoboken to the west. The other was a tour of Staten Island and the
Kill van Kull, which is the narrow body of water separating New Jersey
from Staten Island. All three tours were limited to the Upper Harbor
and the North River. To the south, the whole of New York Harbor is
completed with the Upper Harbor channeled through the Narrows between
Staten Island and Brooklyn--this is what the Verrazano Bridge spans--
and emptying into the Lower Harbor. The Lower Harbor is demarcated by
a mouth with Sandy Hook, NJ to the south and Rockaway to the north.
Rockaway is part of Long Island and Sandy Hook is a sandbar peninsula
that juts off the NJ coast. Beyond the mouth of the harbor is the
Atlantic Ocean.
The Brooklyn tour began by
href="http://lexiphane.com/lex/m">traveling south down the North
River until we passed the
href="http://lexiphane.com/lex/modules.php?set_albumName=album12&id=img
_0919&op=modload&name=gallery&file=index&include=view_photo.php">southe
rn tip of Manhattan at the intersection of the North and
href="http://lexiphane.com/lex/modules.php?set_albumName=album12&id=img
_0920&op=modload&name=gallery&file=index&include=view_photo.php">East
Rivers. There we cruised past Governor's Island to our right with
href="http://lexiphane.com/lex/modules.php?set_albumName=album12&id=img
_0923&op=modload&name=gallery&file=index&include=view_photo.php">Brookl
yn's waterfront to our left. Brooklyn has several working inlets
and bays that we set out to explore. The first was the
href="http://lexiphane.com/lex/modules.php?set_albumName=album12&id=img
_0930&op=modload&name=gallery&file=index&include=view_photo.php">Atlant
ic Basin, home to a spooky looking abandoned
href="http://lexiphane.com/lex/modules.php?set_albumName=album12&id=img
_0934&op=modload&name=gallery&file=index&include=view_photo.php">Staten
Island ferry and a few
href="http://lexiphane.com/lex/modules.php?set_albumName=album12&id=img
_0929&op=modload&name=gallery&file=index&include=view_photo.php">large
cranes used to unload container ships. To the South is the
href="http://lexiphane.com/lex/modules.php?set_albumName=album12&id=img
_0941&op=modload&name=gallery&file=index&include=view_photo.php">Erie
Basin, which I thought was considerably cooler, with lots of low
href="http://lexiphane.com/lex/modules.php?set_albumName=album12&id=img
_0948&op=modload&name=gallery&file=index&include=view_photo.php">19-
century warehouses and factories. There's a large
href="http://lexiphane.com/lex/modules.php?set_albumName=album12&id=img
_0952&op=modload&name=gallery&file=index&include=view_photo.php">sugar
silo on the shore next to a steel pier that is disintegrating in
slow motion. To highlight the sense of decay, two masts and a
smokestack from a
href="http://lexiphane.com/lex/modules.php?set_albumName=album12&id=img
_0954&op=modload&name=gallery&file=index&include=view_photo.php">sunken
lightship poke out of the water next to the pier. Further south is
href="http://lexiphane.com/lex/modules.php?set_albumName=album12&id=img
_0969&op=modload&name=gallery&file=index&include=view_photo.php">Gowanu
s Bay, with the infamous Canal that stretches inland. Our boat
remained in the Bay, however, which is crowded with an
href="http://lexiphane.com/lex/modules.php?set_albumName=album12&id=img
_0975&op=modload&name=gallery&file=index&include=view_photo.php">old
grain depot and lots of
href="http://lexiphane.com/lex/modules.php?set_albumName=album12&id=img
_0977&op=modload&name=gallery&file=index&include=view_photo.php">fuel
storage tanks and
href="http://lexiphane.com/lex/modules.php?set_albumName=album12&id=img
_0984&op=modload&name=gallery&file=index&include=view_photo.php">gravel
depots. On our way back to Pier 63, we passed on the other side
of
href="http://lexiphane.com/lex/modules.php?set_albumName=album12&id=img
_0994&op=modload&name=gallery&file=index&include=view_photo.php">Govern
or's Island and had some incredible views of the
href="http://lexiphane.com/lex/modules.php?set_albumName=album12&id=img
_0995&op=modload&name=gallery&file=index&include=view_photo.php">Statue
of Liberty and
href="http://lexiphane.com/lex/modules.php?set_albumName=album12&id=img
_0997&op=modload&name=gallery&file=index&include=view_photo.php">Ellis
Island.
Back on Pier 63, it was necessary to kick back for a few minutes and
soak in some of the briney air and watch the
href="http://lexiphane.com/lex/modules.php?set_albumName=album12&id=img
_1004&op=modload&name=gallery&file=index&include=view_photo.php">sun
descend on the Jersey side of the river. Then I had a quick look
around the
href="http://lexiphane.com/lex/modules.php?set_albumName=album12&id=img
_1009&op=modload&name=gallery&file=index&include=view_photo.php">Fry
ing Pan, a lightship that has spent some time sunk in seawater,
and it shows.
Thanks to the North River Historic Ship Society for conducting such
incredible Maritime Day events, as well as all the staff and volunteers
at Pier 63. I met a bunch of other individuals while waiting on line
or on the boat and they were all really cool and friendly, which is
great considering that we were all standing on line in the blazing sun
and high humidity. I can't wait to do it again next year. Lots more
pictures in
href="http://lexiphane.com/lex/modules.php?set_albumName=album12&op=mod
load&name=gallery&file=index&include=view_album.php&page=1">the
gallery. One of the greatest things about digital photography is
the phenomenal lack of marginal cost in buying and developing film. I
took the equivalent of six rolls worth of pictures Saturday at zero
expense other than the sunk costs of my digital camera and high
capacity SD memory card.
Posted by Lexiphane at 1:13 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack
May 23, 2004
ANTIDOTE
So you like rock music, but you're getting a little fatigued by the
over-produced power-ballad pap crap that bands like Hoobastank [link
denied on principle] that are getting pushed into your skull 24/7 by
Clear Channel. I recommend Franz Ferdinand's
eponymously titled album. It?s the original and creative song writing
of XTC infused with the downtown
drive of The Ramones. Throw in a pinch of
Paul Westerberg's
unleavened guitar sound and you?ve got yourself Franz Ferdinand. Check
them out. Play it loud.
Posted by Lexiphane at 3:30 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack
May 21, 2004
REAL WORLD AND SOUTH PARK COLLIDE
Blogger Stacy Tabb [via
href=http://www.instapundit.com>Instapundit] is objecting to her local
Hooters restaurant running a "Little Miss Hooters" contest:
The sign on the verge advertising the Little Miss
Hooters contest is, however, beyond the pale. We called this evening,
asked for details. The contest is for girls 5 and under, and will
require they be dressed in little orange spandex shorts, and a tied up
Hooters t-shirt.
South Park introduced the concept of tricked-out little girls
selling wings and soda in a Hooters-like restaurant this season in href="
http://www.southparkstudios.com/show/guide.html?season=7&min=2">episode
714, titled "Raisins." In the episode, there's a hilarious
plotline that has Stan contemplating becoming a Goth kid and is told
that all it takes to be a non-conformist is to dress just like the Goth
kids and listen to the same music.
There's a href="http://newyork.citysearch.com/profile/11351179?cslink=search_name
_noncust&ulink=search__searchslot1_520__0_profile_2_1">Hooters in
Manhattan on West 56th and Broadway.
I went there a few years ago with my friend href="http://lexiphane.com/lex/modules.php?set_albumName=Kendra-s-B-
day&op=modload&name=gallery&file=index&include=view_album.php">Kendra a> and her then-neighbor and co-worker Laylani. Only those two could
make a Hooters girl blush. Otherwise, I can't recommend it unless
you're in NYC and pining to be back at a southeastern strip-mall chain
eatery. Tagged:
Posted by Lexiphane at 12:20 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack
BEST REASON TO TURN OFF YOUR TV EVER
According to the New York NBC affiliate's site, its "Live at Five" program
will feature a story on "How belly dancing is getting seniors to shed
pounds and keep active." Chuck Scarboro and Sue Simmons, how could
you? Some producer needs to be beaten severely.
Posted by Lexiphane at 10:27 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack
CLOSING THE SHUTTERS
The MTA is considering a
href="http://www.ny1.com/ny/TopStories/SubTopic/index.html?topicintid=1
&subtopicintid=1&contentintid=39995">ban on photography in the
subway system and on buses. It's taking this step due to security
concerns; it doesn't want terrorists to be able to photographically
stake out potential locations for attacks. Considering how long I had
to wait for the F train at Bleeker St yesterday, they'd better also
rule out oil and canvases. This is a terrible idea. I often take
pictures on the subway, either while waiting on the platform or
sometimes in the car if I see an interesting passenger. The subway is
a down-under repository of NYC's art, grafitti, architecture, and
population. If one can justify a ban on photographing any of that, it
would be just as easy to ban taking pictures above ground. Magnum
photographer Bruce Davidson has a show going on at the Howard Greenberg
gallery featuring his Subw
ay photographs from the '70s and '80s that runs through June 12th.
Perhaps the MTA should rush over there and burn those prints right
quick. Terrorists could be studying them.
Separately, the article linked to above mentions that the MTA is
considering cracking down on people who have unlimited metro cards that
jump the turnstyles and then argue that they've already paid the fare
by virtue of the fact that they possess an unlimited card. This is
complete bullshit. I've never jumped a turnstile before, but I have
considered it on many occasions. I have an unlimited card and
sometimes the damn thing just won't swipe through correctly. Given the
fact that a train might be approaching a platform and that many
stations no longer have on-site ticket booth operators to buzz one
through the security gate, this seems absurd to target riders who want
to take trains they've already paid for.
My brother Tom is
href="http://www.tomhogarty.com/gallery/portfolio/highst2">clearly a
terrorist. Send that kid to Guantanamo!
Posted by Lexiphane at 9:58 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack
May 20, 2004
D.C. BABYLON
An entry-level staffer in Ohio Senator Mike DeWine's office has been
keeping a blog cataloguing the co-workers and public officials she's
been banging--some of them for money--and her site just got very public
thanks to DC gossip blogger Wonkette. It's not clear whether any of
it is true. I am surprised/not surprised that someone would include so
many personal details that the author is virtually begging to be
identified. That said, she'll likely lose her job and any shred of
dignity she might have had after prosituting herself around a town full
of whores. Here's one of her entries:
By popular demand, I have finally created a key to
keeping my sex life straight.In alpha order:
AJ=The intern in my office whom I want to fuck.
F=Married man who pays me for sex. Chief of Staff at one of the gov
agencies, appointed by Bush.J=Lost my virginity to him and fell in love. Dude who has been driving
me crazy since 1999. Lives in Springfield, IL. Flies halfway across the
country to fuck me, then I don't hear from him for weeks.MD=Dude from the Senate office I interned in Jan. thru Feb. Hired me as
an intern. Broke up my relationship w/ MK (see below).MK=Serious, long-term boyfriend whom I lived with since 2001.
Disastrous break up in March, but still seeing each other.R=AKA "Threesome Dude." Somebody I would rather forget about.
RS=My new office bf with whom I am embroiled in an office sex scandal.
The current favorite.W=A sugar daddy who wants nothing but anal. Keep trying to end it with
him, but the money is too good.
Shit. I'm fucking six guys. Ewww.
posted by The Washingtonienne at 2:21 PM
Sounds like a classy lady, huh? They'll be talking about href=http://washingtoniennearchive.blogspot.com/>Washingtonienne
for years to come. Actually, that will probably become a synonym for
young women that go to DC to see how many rich and powerful men they
can screw while barely working their crappy jobs. Tagged:
Posted by Lexiphane at 3:38 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack
MARITIME DAY
This coming Saturday is Maritime Day, a little-remembered holiday
marking the anniversary of the first steamship crossing of the
Atlantic. I recently read Philip Lopate's book Waterfront: A Journey Around
Manhattan, an interesting look at the history and current
condition of what was once a working waterfront being transformed into
places of public enjoyment. This led me to read a collection of Joseph
Mitchell stories called Up In the Old Hotel, that might be
the most fascinating series of stories about New York City and its
residents that I've ever read. Two of the books included in Up In
the Old Hotel are Old Mr. Flood and The Bottom of the
Harbor. These are primarily stories about life on New York's
waterfront and people that work in the harbor.
So with my curiousity about New York's waterfront and harbor piqued, I
was thrilled to see in
=1?>The New York Times today that an organization called the
North River Historic Ship Society will be conducting boat tours of the
harbor that most people never see, mainly Red Hook, Staten Island, and
the Kill van Kull, where the New Jersey waterfront is still a vibrant
center of shipping. The Times article has an attached slideshow
with audio commentary that is very impressive. One can find
information about Saturday's tours and other Maritime Day activities
href=" http://www.hiddenharbortours.com/">here.
Posted by Lexiphane at 11:42 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack
FOR FANS OF NYC
Residents of and visitors to New York may want to check out the new
href=http://www.tribute-nyc.com/>Tribute Museum, located in the old
Standard Oil Building at 24 Broadway, just across the street from
href=http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/medny/halsall8.html>Bowling
Green. Probably less of a museum than a tourist attraction,
Tribute is a multimedia institute that seeks to celebrate NYC. Its
main attraction is a 15-minute high definition movie titled "Remember."
Tribute is open seven days a week and admission is $7. I think I'll
head down there this weekend and see whether this is legit or just 21st
century hucksterism.
Posted by Lexiphane at 10:08 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack
SEINFELD & FRIEND
Seinfeld junkies may have gotten very excited last night if they
were watching NBC and saw promos for a return of the comedian to the
network in what was billed as a surprise appearance. From the few
scenes that I glimpsed in the commercial, however, what NBC intends to
air is an extended ten-
minute commercial for American Express, directed by Barry Levinson
and featuring Jerry Seinfeld and a cartoon Superman character, voiced
by the guy that played Puddy on Seinfeld. So the return of
Jerry is actually only a 10 minute interstitial between re-runs of a
Friends episode and the show's series finale. It begins at 8:42
p.m.
Posted by Lexiphane at 9:30 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack
May 19, 2004
GIVE ME SOME PEANUTS AND WHAT?
"Take Me Out to the Ball Game" won't be quite the
same at Yankee Stadium anymore. Management has decided to stop
selling Cracker
Jacks--the popcorn and peanut snack with a prize in every box--with
Crunch n Munch. The chief
operating officer of the Yankees made a statement that was devoid of
logic and any semblance of sense:
"Cracker Jack is a brand name," Yankees chief operating
officer Lonn Trost told The New York Times for its Wednesday editions.
"We're selling a caramel crunch that is the same thing as Cracker
Jack."
Trost compared the difference between Cracker Jack and Crunch n Munch
to "Frigidaire versus refrigerator, or aspirin and Bayer, or Jell-O and
gelatin."
More like Frigidaire versus SubZero or Bayer versus Tylenol dumbass.
You have to wonder if the people at ConAgra--makers of Crunch n Munch--
knew that the first step in this agreement with the Yankees was going
to be the attempted destruction of their product's brand identity.
Marketing aside, taking Cracker Jacks out of a ballpark almost seems as
stupid as when the Yankees took beer out of the bleacher sections.
Commies. Tagged:
Posted by Lexiphane at 11:13 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack
REHASHING TO WHAT END?
The 9/11 commission held hearings at The New School yesterday, and will
continue to do so today, to discuss the
failings of various public agencies more than two and a half years
ago when terrorists launched a multi-pronged attack against the United
States. From what I've seen on the news, this looks like little more
than public preening by politicians and an extended commercial for
href=" http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/19/nyregion/19RESP.html">The New
School, of which commission member Bob Kerrey is the
president.
One of the main allegations against NYC officials was a lack of
planning for evacuation of the two towers when they were hit by
airplanes. An inability to rescue people from the roof was criticized
(some people were helicoptered off the roof of one of the towers during
the 1993 attack), but anyone who has seen any footage from 9/11/01 can
see that it is quite clear that the volume of smoke would have made
such a rescue virtually impossible. It was also pointed out that many
of the workers in the towers were unfamiliar with the layout of
stairwells and it was insinuated that this hampered evacuation. The
truth is that the vast majority of people below the floors that were
struck by two airlplanes were evacuated before the buildings
collapsed, thanks to firefighters and people like Rick
Rescorla. The 2,749 people that were killed in New York that day
either died in the initial impact of the planes, by the collapse of the
building, or died on the floors above the impact either in the raging
fire or because their escape routes were cut off when the planes sliced
through the buildings. It's difficult to see how additional planning
could have averted any of these factors.
One salient point brought up was the lack of cooperation between the
FDNY and the NYPD. Incompatible radio systems deprived firemen of the
forward knowledge cops had that the buildings were collapsing or on the
verge of collapse. As important as this is, however, it was already
well covered and public knowledge when William Langewiesche wrote about
in the final installment of his three-part series "American Ground: Unbuilding the World Trade Center" in The
Atlantic Monthly in October 2002. I discussed it myself in
relation to that article at the time [AMERICAN GROUND III,
9/3/02, (unaivalable in archives)].
So why is this front-page news? What the 9/11 commission seems to be
doing is nitpicking a job of crisis management that was handled
extremely well. I'm all for after-action self criticism in order to
better prepare for future crises, but what I'm seeing is self-important
blowhards rehashing decisions made under less-than-ideal circumstances
with the benefit of 20/20 hindsight. Hundreds of emergency workers
died on 9/11 in order to save tens of thousands of New Yorkers. Public
order and calm were maintained throughout the ordeal. Thousands of
people congregated to volunteer at city hospitals mobilized to care for
the wounded that never came. Armories were quickly mobilized as
repositories for and identification centers of the dead. Overall, I
view it as an entirely competent response to unprecedented disaster.
It would be nice to see that reflected in the commission's hearings.
Posted by Lexiphane at 10:06 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack
May 18, 2004
REMEMBER WHEN PEOPLE SCOFFED AT BUSH FOR INCLUDING NK IN THE
That massive train explosion in North Korea a few weeks ago killed a
href=? http://www.worldtribune.com/worldtribune/breaking_2.html?>dozen
Syrian technicians working with the North Koreans to develop their
chemical, biological, nuclear weapons capability. [via
href="http://www.instapundit.com/archives/015624.php">Instapundit.]
Posted by Lexiphane at 4:45 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack
24 YEARS LATER
Today is the 24th anniversary of the
href="http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0518.html#a
rticle">eruption of Mount St. Helens in Washington State, an event
that killed 57 people and turned the surrounding area into a moonscape
of rock and ash. I went there on a family vacation when I was very
young, a few years after the eruption and the devastation was pretty
complete. From some pictures at the Volcano Monument's
href="http://www.fs.fed.us/gpnf/mshnvm/">official site, it looks
like the flora and fauna are making a decent comeback.
Posted by Lexiphane at 1:23 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack
ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE ON THE LOWER EAST SIDE
While The New York Times features the academically heralded
href="
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/18/nyregion/18stuyvesant.html">Stuyvesan
t High School today, CNN aired a program on Sunday titled "The Gap:
50 Years After the Brown Ruling" that looked at the persistence in
minority achievement despite the end of de jure segregation in
American schools a half century ago. The CNN program, whose transcript
is
href="http://cnnstudentnews.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0405/16/cp.00.html">ava
ilable here, was not generally encouraging, showing a real split in
academic aspirations between white and black students. Towards the end
of the program, however, it presented the achievements of Asian
students and profiled the Shuang Wen
Academy located in Manhattan's Lower East Side. Shuang Wen is
located on East Broadway and has a student population that is 82%
Asian. Its curriculum is based on dual instruction in both English and
Mandarin Chinese for grades Pre-K through 5th. Unlike Stuyvesant, it
is hardly a repository of upper middle class kids. 61% of the students
qualify for the public school's free-lunch assistance program.
According to the CNN program, Shuang Wen is a Title I school, with 70%
of its population under the poverty level. Yet academically, it
carries a sterling record. Out of 1,200 public elementary schools,
Shuang Wen had the third highest math scores in the city, and 97% of
its students met reading standards, versus a city-wide average of only
33%. My nephew is enrolled at the Shuang Wen Academy and judging from
the parents and kids I've met on the playground, this is not
surprising. At age 5, most kids are just kids, but all of the parents
seem highly involved and are actually required to volunteer four hours
each month at the school, and be willing to have their kids attend
school from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. every day.
One thing bothered me about the CNN program and that was comments by
Frank Wu, a law professor at Howard University. He wrote off the gap
in achievements between underperforming minority students and those at
places like Shuang Wen as the result of past injustices.
FRANK WU, LAW PROFESSOR, HOWARD UNIVERSITY: Well,
obviously, the history's different. Asian-Americans were never enslaved
as a group. I'm not just talking about on average.
To my knowledge, there is no example of an Asian-American in the 19th
century being held as a slave. No example of anyone of Asian descent
having their family sold on the auction block.
Well, technically this is true, but I think anyone could acknowledge
that Asians in America have endured significant hardships and
discrimination throughout history. Whether packed into Chinatown slums
across the country or worked as indentured servants to build the
country's railroads, it has hardly been a trouble-free existence for
Asians in America. Even today, Chinese immigrants are smuggled into
the country in appalling--and often deadly--conditions and then forced
to work as indentured servants for years. Also, it discounts the
achievements of the 1/5 of the school that are not Asians, including
blacks (10%), whites (6%), and hispanics (5%). So to write off
differences in achievement because blacks were enslaved in the U.S. 150
years ago is somewhat facile.
Posted by Lexiphane at 9:33 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack
May 17, 2004
OFF WITH ITS MASTHEAD!
The editor of London's Daily Mirror was
href=http://www.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30000-1135256,00.html>fired
today after publishing photos of British troops abusing prisoners
that were eventually proved a hoax. Considering the fact that the
Boston Globe plastered photos of U.S. troops raping Muslim women
[see
href="http://www.lexiphane.com/lex/modules.php?name=News&file=article&s
id=488">MAJOR MEDIA EXPOSED, 5/13/04] on its front page this
week--a week after the photos had been debunked as staged shots from a
porn site--I'm curious to see if the Globe's board of directors
will follow suit.
Posted by Lexiphane at 9:11 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack
MESSIANIC ISLAM
The radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al Sadr, who is currently a thorn in
the Marines' side, is the purported commander of his Mahdi army. Last
night I watched The
Four Feathers, a middling action melodrama set in the 19th
century starring Heath Ledger. In it, British troops are sent to Sudan
to crush an uprising of upstart Mohammedans called the Mahdi. Here is
a
href=http://www.cusd.chico.k12.ca.us/~bsilva/projects/scramble/mahdi.ht
m>brief history of the man who called himself al Mahdi, a religious
nutter who felt he was guided by Allah to purify Islam. I say he
called himself because the word mahdi is an Islamic term whose
Christian equivalent would be messiah. According to
cias.com/e.o/mahdi.htm>this page, a mahdi is not merely one that
wills himself to act under Allah's guidance, but is in fact an
instrument of Allah's will itself. Apparently there are no mentions of
mahdis in the Koran, which would seem to make people who claimselves to
be such somewhat heretical and perhaps that's the current source of
friction between al Sadr and the more moderate Shiite cleric al
Sistani. The fact that al Sadr is calling his forces the Mahdi army
seems to indicate that he's a religious extremist in a land not known
for its laid back approach to mosque and state. In the Shiite
tradition, a mahdi has
bin/dictionary?book=Dictionary&va=eschatology>eschatological
connotations. If he's looking for Gotterdamerung, I say we give
it to him.
Posted by Lexiphane at 9:08 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack