Helen & Harry Highwater's cranky weblog of news and opinion.
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"News that's not known, or not known enough." Helen & Harry Highwater's cranky weblog of news and opinion. Available in weekly or daily dosage. |
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Petraeus retreats under fire by SirJ Friday, August 22, 2008 PERMANENT LINK Re Shameless by Wig I don't mind if generals endorse books. I DO mind if they endorse a book and then get the author to lie their way out of the endorsement. That is what has happened here. The author claims the two generals' endorsements "were intended for me personally rather than for the general public." Fine. Then the endorsement would read something like "Your book..." and "you wrote...", but that is not what we find when we read the endorsement. This is the back cover of "Under Orders: A Spiritual Handbook for Military Personnel." The second endorsement down is from Brigadier General Mark Hertling. The endorsement reads in part: "Chaplain Bill McCoy's book is inspirational..." Note that the author is referred to in the 3rd person, not the first. If the Chaplain is a Christian, then he knows better than to lie and claim this obviously public endorsement was meant to be kept private. And if the Generals have the balls they should have, then they should know better than to make him lie! Odd that these generals have the courage to confront the enemy armed with guns and bullets, but when it comes to words, they retreat when under fire. Russia's response -- while overwhelming and unjustified -- falls far short of what America would do if, say, Mexican troops invaded San Antonio and killed 1000 people.This analogy fails on two grounds. I believe the Professor is suggesting we substitute San Antonio for South Ossetia, America for Russia and Mexico for Georgia. But while San Antonio is part of the United States, South Ossetia is not part of Russia. To make his analogy somewhat valid, he should pick a city in Mexico instead of San Antonio. The city should have a large American population as well as a large Mexican population. Such a city does not exist. The second problem with the analogy is one of scale. South Ossetia has a population of about 100,000. To argue 1,000 were killed in a few days of fighting is absurd. At this rate, the entire population would be 0 in a span of 3 months. I realize the Russians have been saying 1,000 to 2,000 South Ossetians were killed by the Georgian army, but this also is absurd and even Russia admits it. From theaustralian.news.com.au:
A senior moment for the rich geezer. "The McCain campaign told The Politico that Senator McCain and his wife have 'at least four' homes in three states -- Arizona, California and Virginia." Even his campaign can't count that high! He owns seven. SirJ Have you seen Obama's pretty good response ad ...? Helen & Harry
Ironing out the wrinkles of irony by Herb Ruhs, MD Friday, August 22, 2008 PERMANENT LINK Those who can not do teach. Those who do not understand explain. Those who can not listen preach. Those without faith judge the faith of others. Those without self respect ridicule others. Those who are dishonest attack the honesty of others. Those who can not love live in fear. Herb Ruhs, MD Hope it ain't too disappointing or expensive... Helen & Harry When having to stitch up a toddler in the ER or office I always like to have the parents and sometimes, hopefully, siblings there at the procedure table with their attention fixed on the injured child, everyone tense with frowns annealed to their faces. I take a lot of time cleaning the wound and assembling my kit of string and needles, syringes and scalpels. This approximates in the child's mind the recreation of the mood of a grizzley horror movie. But there is method in my ineptitude. During this time I attempt to establish rapport with the parents by means of small talk about mundane topics, preeminently our cars. Sometimes I can offer to do a hair tie repair and just skip the torture rack stuff and there is no point of crisis reached. If not, when the audience is sufficiently engaged and speaking in a very level unexcited tone, I would do the only really ouchy part, the injection of the local anesthetic. I continue the discussion through the stitching and bandaging. Generally there is no crying at all, and no protest by the child. Rarely I will need to playfully wrap the tykes in a sort of brightly colored strait jacket that we call affectionately a "papoose." In this spirit I recount. Our old '87 Nova that must have cat nature, as it has experienced numerous reincarnations, was pulling a little to the left (after having just added two new rear tires) and there was a little shimmy in the front end, possibly associated with the mechanic advised and pending axle therapy. That I was willing to cope with. It was when the windshield wiper motor gave out during a fierce rain storm that I experienced a brief episode of sanity and turned back (after replacing the motor myself in the Napa parking lot, $110). I identify with the Nova. We both show a lot of external wear and damage and our insides are pretty dirty and broken. We've both shredded a lot of rubber. And in car-years we are about the same chronological age. We are both very high mileage vehicles who have survived much mistreatment. Our model year is increasingly scarce on the street. We both share a negative blue book value, zero value minus the wrecking cost. Technically, according to California DOT, it is an antique. That's my self-image. A high-maintenance undervalued antique with original paint and chrome and some missing glass. I am in for major repairs on a routine basis as well. Now the Nova ("no go" in Spanish) has to wait its turn for diagnosis and treatment since the truck broke down this morning in my wife's work parking lot just after we had dropped the Nova at the mechanics'. The tow truck was able to jump me. Of course we still have the Bajaj sitting there ready to go, but I hesitate to use it in stormy conditions due to its lack of doors. That is a future plan. Get some fabric doors made by an upholstery person. ... In solidarity, Herb Ruhs, MD  Disinformation by Chris D. Friday, August 22, 2008 PERMANENT LINK Re First blood by Bill the Professor Man, I'm downright shocked it's taken this long for someone to launch a false rebuttal concerning the Georgia situation. So far what I've seen in the papers confirmed that Georgia struck Ossetia first in an attempt to re-establish sovereignty over the region after breaking a decade-long cease-fire. They wait until NOW to take that back? That's another thing that's bugging me, why doesn't the international community recognize Ossetia's status as a self-governing nation? They fought a full-blown war of independence to separate themselves from Georgia, something I though Americans would identify with and support. The Soviet Union was the entire reason that Ossetia and Abkhazia came under Georgian control. The regions were essentially merged for easier governance, something the Abkhazians especially resented, meaning Georgia's claim to them stems from the very government they spurned. Chris D. I think the answer is money. Western media is owned by money-making corporations, so all reports are filtered through the knowledge that oil pipelines run through Ossetia. Western powers (and thus western media) want that oilflow under the control of west-friendly Georgia, not the increasingly un-friendly Russia. Putting control of that oilflow into the hands of an independent Ossetia would be playing a wild card, and that can't be allowed until reliable puppet-leaders for an independent Ossetia have been lined up. Helen & Harry
They know what's happening by Sherri B. Friday, August 22, 2008 PERMANENT LINK We're pulling troops from one war to put them in another. But poor Iraq. They don't understand that we're not leaving until WE want to-no matter what any "pact" says. Rice says US, Iraq agree to troop withdrawal timetable
Not "NOW" -- ooh scary! This has been verified by the FBI (their link is also included below). Please pass this on to everyone in your email address book. It is spreading fast so be prepared should you get this call. Most of us take those summonses for jury duty seriously, but enough people skip out on their civic duty, that a new and ominous kind of fraud has surfaced. The caller claims to be a jury coordinator. If you protest that you never received a summons for jury duty, the scammer asks you for your Social Security number and date of birth so he or she can verify the information and cancel the arrest warrant. Give out any of this information and bingo; your identity was just stolen. The fraud has been reported so far in 11 states, including Oklahoma , Illinois , and Colorado. This (swindle) is particularly insidious because they use intimidation over the phone to try to bully people into giving information by pretending they are with the court system. The FBI and the federal court system have issued nationwide alerts on their web sites, warning consumers about the fraud. Check it out here here and here. Sherri B. Hadn't heard of that scam. Pretty clever. Of course, the very best defense against having your credit card information stolen is to not have any credit cards ... Helen & Harry
It's us by Wig Friday, August 22, 2008 PERMANENT LINK Friendly fire may have killed French "We have met the enemy; it is us". Wig |
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