Same song, second verse

Further readings from The Collapse of the Third Republic: An Inquiry into the Fall of France in 1940

The financial crisis of the mid-twenties had another profound effect on French public opinion which would further divide the citizenry and weaken the Republic.  The bankers, industrialists, and businessmen, and even the more thriving peasants and shopkeepers, came to believe, with a certainty that brooked no compromise, that the political “Left” was incapable of governing the country.  They believed that unless the conservatives dominated Parliament and government, France was lost.  Of couse, they could not see their own shortcomings, above all their selfishness, their reluctance to make a fair share of the sacrifices needed, and their blindness to the need in a modern industrial society of some measure of social security and a more equitable distribution of both wealth and the increasing tax burden.  In social welfare France in this period lagged behind all other nations in the West, and in wages and conditions of labor it was the worst of all. 

A few visionaries urged Poincare to take advantage of the vastly improved situation after 1926 to overhaul the old-fashioned, nineteenth-century structure of French society, modernizing the government and the economy, building new housing so urgently needed, rescuing agriculture from its unmechanized stagnation, encouraging responsible trade unionism and responsible collective bargaining of labor disputes, and instituting a bold program of social security.  In a country where the workers and peasants were just able to exist and a considerable section of the lower and middle bourgeoisie was being proletarianized by inflation and the devaluation of the franc, this would have strengthened the nation for the unseen but inevitable ordeals that lay ahead.

Poincare responded – but only feebly.  The Parliament was not ready for such a far-reaching regeneration.  Finally, on April 5, 1928, just in time for the elections, the Chamber and Senate approved a modest program of social insurance, limited mostly to the sick and the aged, with wage and salary earners contributing 5 percent of their pay, the employers an equal amount, and the state defraying the cost of the operation.  Characteristically, the Parliament provided a delay of twenty-two months in the implementation of the law.  Characteristically, too, the various employers’ associations, having lost their fight to prevent Parliament from enacting the modest social-security legislation, continued their well-financed campaign in the press and on billboards to render it ineffective and to get it repealed.

The Left had its blind spots too in these troubled years of the 1920s.  … like those on the Right they failed to recognize their own shortcomings.  They did not seem to comprehend their own responsibility for the financial mess of the government, which lay primarily in their indecision, in their inability to agree on – let alone enforce – any policy which might have put the government in the black and stopped the financial panic, the flight of capital abroad, and the disastrous fall of the franc. 

In this time the gulf between the Right and Left, between the possessors and the masses, between popular press and its readers, was further enlarged.  More and more, as the 1920s came to an end and the clouds threatening a world-wide depression appeared over New York, Frenchmen faced one another across widening chasm that made hearing over it more difficult and mutual understanding almost impossible.  Each side hardened in its belief that the other was unfit to govern the Republic.

History doesn't repeat, but it does rhyme.

In the context of current "discussions" in DC, I found this startling passage from “The Collapse of the Third Republic – An Inquiry intothe Fall of France in 1940”

Chapter II “Decline – Political and financial chaos, and the Poincaré recovery 1924-1930”

Year after year during the 1920s, whether the cabinet was conservative or radical, the borrowing and the advances continued until there came a time – several times – when the short-term loans could not be repaid when they fell due and the advances from the Bank of France were halted and the Treasury was literally empty.

It seemed obvious that taxes would have to be raised and some financial sacrifices made by those best able to afford them.  But this did not seem obvious to Parliament.  For five years after the war it declined to vote any substantial increase in taxes.  When the Finance Minister of the conservative Bloc National government in 1923 asked for six billion francs in new taxes, he was turned down.  At the beginning of 1924, the Treasury could not meet its short-term obligations and Parliament finally approved Poincaré’s demand for a rise of 20 percent in all taxes, direct and indirect.  This fell hardest on the poor, since indirect taxes on consumption account for nearly half the state revenues, and the income tax – full of glaring loopholes and scandalously evaded by all who could get by with it, the rich above all – for less than a quarter.  The selfishness of the moneyed class in avoiding any financial sacrifice to help put the country back on its feet later struck many French historians as shocking.  The possessors and the manipulators of most of the country’s wealth simply contrived to escape shouldering a fair share of the burden for the war and the reconstruction. 

They stubbornly and successfully opposed all efforts of Parliament and government to increase income taxes adequately and fairly or even to clean up the rotten tax structure which weighed so much more heavily on the poor than on the rich.  And in their fanatical regard for their capital and profits, which was matched only by their disregard for the salvation of the country, they spirited their capital abroad to such a massive extent as to make inevitable a fall of the currency, the bankruptcy of the Treasury, and a lack of capital at home to finance badly needed reconstruction and in particular to enable the farmers, the little businessmen, and the shopkeepers to get a new start in the difficult postwar world.  When in the spring of 1925 the Herriot government asked Parliament for a law to control the headlong flight of French capital abroad the measure was bitterly attacked in the capital’s leading afternoon newspaper, Le Temps, organ of the steel trust, Le Comité des Forges, as “rank socialism” which would destroy the capitalist system.  Parliament refused to approve the law, the massive movement of capital abroad continued without hindrance, and though the Treasury was again emptied and the franc fell further France was saved from this sort of “rank socialism”.

But the government was not saved from the necessity of finding money to carry on the affairs of state.  When the debate in the Chamber of Deputies on where to find it began in November 1924, a Socialist leader, Pierre Renaudel, made a suggestion that raised a howl of protest from conservatives in Parliament and the Press.  “You have to take the money from where it is,” he argued.  Indeed, one might ask, from where else?”  But the very idea of asking those who had the money to shoulder the main burden of increased taxation frightened them to death and there was a new exodus of capital to safer foreign havens.  “Above all else,” cried the influential Journal des Finances, “there must be a stop to this worrying of the possessors.”  Perhaps so, though the possessors seemed easily prone to worry.  The worries of the dispossessed were not mentioned, nor was the worrying of the government by hostile acts of the financial community, led by the Bank of France, which in the spring of 1925 launched an offensive against the “leftish” Herriot cabinet with the object of bringing it down and terminating the threat against its moneybags.

The flight of capital itself, in which the great financial houses took the lead, was, aside from the damage it did to the country, a form of blackmail against the government not to raise taxes and especially not to consider a tax on capital.  The banks resorted to other forms of blackmail.  They offered to lend the Treasury money for twenty-four hours in order to cover up the advances of the Bank of France above the legal limit in return for the government overlooking evasions of income tax and refraining from clamping on a control of the export of capital.  Suddenly, at the beginning of April 1925, as the final assault on the Herriot government began, the banks refused further loans, even for a day, so that the surpassing of the legal limit of advances from the Bank of France had to be published.  As a result the franc fell and further panic ensued.

Actually, during the conservative Poincaré regime prior to 1924 the Bank of France had often advanced to the Treasury more than the law allowed.  Moreover it had put at Poincaré’s disposal certain “secret funds” of the Bank, which were considerable.  Now, in April 1925, it denied to the Cartel government what it had been pleased to accord the more moderate Poincaré cabinet.  On April 1 and again on April 6 the Bank of France warned the government that the legal limit of its advances to the state – 41 billion francs – was about to be reached, that it would be illegal to advance more, and that the government would find itself without means to meet its obligations, even the payroll of its employees.  Secretly the Bank leaked the news to the press, most of which, including the large-circulation daily newspapers, had vociferously supported the financial powers in the offensive to bring down the Cartel government.  The influence of the French press, dominated by large business and financial interests, in undermining not only a popularly elected government but – more important – the Third Republic itself in these declining years was growing.

International 20 point grading scale for wine

This is my first attempt at this online database application.  I'm curious to see how or if the results appear.

Online wine scoresheet

Later on, I'll add a search feature to query submitted scores. 

The Historical Significance of My Best Photo

At the Texas Relays in 1985, I was on the infield of the stadium at UT.  I took this picture of Freddie Williams (ACU) with my old Canon AV-1 (aperture controlled SLR, iso 400 film).  I have long said it was one of the best pictures I ever took.

On the 4x400 meter relay, the first leg runs in their own lane.  The second leg runs the first curve in their lane and then breaks to the inside as soon as they come out of the curve.  This is where I was standing and this is what they were doing.  I like the picture because Freddie is in perfect focus and perfect pose in the center, the background is blurred, the other runners are slightly out of focus, and everyone's school name is hidden.  (You can just barely make out Texas A&M on the right.)  It's almost like it was staged, but I actually took this live action shot.

Baylor won that year in a meet record time of 3:00.88.  That record stood for 26 years.  It got broken this year by Texas A&M.

http://www.iaaf.org/news/kind=100/newsid=59717.html

Memories of Texas Relays

On my first trip to Texas Relays, I watched a teammate run in the finals of the University Women's 400m hurdles. Lisa Owens was the only white girl in the race and, at 5'4" was the shortest. I remember she got 5th but as soon as the race was over, she walked to the infield, pulled her long blond hair to one side and threw up into a drain on the field. I told her later that I had wanted to go down there with some water, but couldn't cross the track. She replied in that honey-sweet southern accent, "oh that's alright. I always throw up."

On my second trip to Texas Relays, we were scheduled to run the University Distance Medley Relay. It was hot, so we stayed under the stadium as long as possible. There's some debate about who was misinformed, but I remember Coach Groll telling Greg and me that the meet was 20 minutes behind schedule, so we should avoid going down to the track too soon. In any case, as we were walking down the steps to the track, the gun for our race went off. We had missed it. Doug Glover said he had thought about running the first leg anyway and see if anyone else showed up. As I stood there watching them finish the first lap, I looked over and saw the Martin twins from New Orleans in the stands. I sat with them and, maybe because of the mixed emotions of pre-race anxiety and shame, I started crying. Suddenly, Greg came to find me and told me that Coach Groseclose wanted to see me. Grose told me in that raspy drawl of his, "the meet director's a personal friend of mine and I've got you into the invitational mile. I told him you wouldn't let us down. So, you're with the big boys now - but you're one of them." I did OK, but had been warming up for almost 2 hours and had lost most of my kick. I finished 5th in 4:04.

On my third trip to Texas Relays, I learned one of the most valuable lessons of my life. I was anchoring the Distance Medley Relay, which meant I had to wait for the 1200, 400, and 800 meter legs to finish. During the time we were milling around waiting to run, I had a chance to size up the competition. Running for Arkansas was Doug Consiglio, who had won NCAA 1500 indoors that year. Running for Rice was Gawain Guy, who was on the Jamacain Olympic team the year before for 1500m. Running for Stanford was Jeff Atkinson, who would end up winning the U.S. Olympic Trials in the 1500m in 1988. I managed to convince myself that there was no way I could beat these three. None of the others I recognized. Sure enough, we got 4th place. Well, actually, we got 3rd place because Arkansas got disqualified for a lane violation, but those three were the only ones to finish ahead of me. The lesson was this: if you believe you can't do something, your brain will work to prove you right.

Warming down after that race, I caught up with Atkinson on the side track that used to be there. He was warming down, too, so we had at least something to talk about. As we were running along, his teammate Ceci Hopp came bounding up. Ceci was the beauty darling of the running world (Lauri Young had the same distinction in the high jump and the heptathlon).

On my last trip to Texas Relays, I ran, among other things, the 1500m and got out-kicked by perhaps the ugliest dude in track. I won't say where he was from (German Fernandez goes there) - this guy had a head too big for his distrance runner's body, had white white skin but really bad acne on his face, back, and head. You knew he had it on his head because he had a wide mohawk. Whew.

Xiamen Teas

When I went to China in 2009, I found a type of tea that I and everyone I served it to loves. Someone had told me the name of it was (loosely translated) Drunken Susie. So, on my trip back last week, it was imperative that I find some more.

There are, of course, many types of tea there. I learned more about tea this time than I ever knew before. For your edification, here is a rough list of the factors involved in the various classifications.

• The tree variety
• The soil, altitude, and cultivation
• The leaf selection
• Fermentation
• Roasting or drying
• Aging
• Water temperature
• Brewing time

Beyond the first 3 factors, there are essentially three types of tea - black, green & Oolong. These three varieties of tea are distinguished by the amount of fermentation that takes place in processing them.

• Black Tea is fermented, then roasted to produce a dark reddish-brown brew.
• Green Tea is unfermented to leave a greenish, slightly bitter taste.
• Oolong Tea is semi-fermented and produces a milder brew with characteristics of both black and green tea.

Fermentation changes the chemical structure of the tea leaf, allowing key flavor characteristics to emerge. The tea leaves are first withered to remove about 1/3 of their weight through evaporation. They are then rolled and spread on cement or tile floors and tables in a cool, humid room to ferment from 1 to 5 hours. The leaves are then roasted in hot pans or modern dryers to remove almost all of their moisture and stop the fermentation process. They are then rolled and fired. Oolong is withered and fermented in one shorter stage then fired which halts the fermentation when it is about half complete. It is the extent of both the fermentation and the roasting that produce the wide variety of Oolong.  There is also a kind of tea that is intended to be aged - Pu'erh tea.  It is fully fermented, fully roasted, then compacted into a ball or brick and kept in stable condition for years.  (I got to drink a 17-year old Pu-erh tea.  The aroma is much more powerful than the taste).

 

My favorite is a modern style of a semi-fermented, lightly roasted Oolong known as (no joke) Om Bhuddism. As it turns out, Drunken Susie is actually a brand name of a Xiamen tea company - Cha Shway Tsee Tsuh (Cha being the Chinese word for tea and the rest being the company name). So, I was able to score some more of my favorite tea (Om Bhuddism), this time from a Xiamen company called Sea Dyke (Hi-Dee in Chinese). I also bought a box of Cheng Bay Woda, which is the traditional preparation of the semi-fermented, lightly roasted Oolong.

A Brief History of the Rise of Memes - and why I left Facebook

From Howard Bloom's "The Lucifer Principle"
The Nose of a Rat and the Human Mind

Rats are obsessed with genes. They absolutely love their relatives. In their nests, fathers, mothers, aunts, uncles and children crawl over, under and around each other, seeking constant body contact. But the kindness of rats only extends to family. Rats will mercilessly hunt down members of a rival clan. And if a non-relative accidentally stumbles into their nest, the homey little creatures who a moment before were hugging one another will turn on the guest with the foreign genes and tear him limb from limb.

How do rats know who's kin and who's not? How can they tell who shares their genes? Those guesstimates are based on smell. Each rat household has its own tell-tale odor. And every inhabitant wears that living room perfume. Chances are that if two rats are sporting the same aroma, they're carrying the same genes, since the pair were raised in the same spot--probably by the same mother and father. One scientist removed a rat from his nest, washed the complaining creature off, then rubbed it thoroughly in the shavings of another nest...giving it the smell of a stranger. Then the experimenter put the innocent beast back in its own home, where it should have been safe among its brothers and sisters. Unfortunately, he'd returned home wearing the wrong cologne. His loving family, blind to his familiar physical appearance, bared their teeth and lunged. When the experiment was over, the unwitting animal was dead, killed by those who had always hugged and nuzzled him. Smell had told the brood that their brother was carrying the wrong set of genes.

Rats use smells to determine whom they love and whom they must hate.  Humans use something else - we use memes.  From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meme: 
 

Memes spread through the behaviors that they generate in their hosts. Memes that propagate less prolifically may become extinct, while others may survive, spread, and (for better or for worse) mutate. Theorists point out that memes which replicate the most effectively spread best, and some memes may replicate effectively even when they prove detrimental to the welfare of their hosts.

A population has arisen within the U.S. which self-identifies its members via shared memes.  This population is, not to put too fine a word on it - Conservatives.  Conservatives have a complex collection of memes, which they share.  Like Bloom's rats, Conservatives wallow in their own memes, which combine to produce an identifiable 'aroma' about them.  The more memes they share with others, the more they know they are in the company of a kindred fellow.  Much of what constitutes communication consists of a series of clicks and grunts, with the expectation of a/the correct corresponding grunts and clicks.  Like rats sniffing each other's butts, conservatives will sniff out each other's memes.

One of the reasons I left Facebook was because I saw it had it had become a method for the rats to propagate memes. I found myself encountering old friends and began to notice a change in them.  Since I did not share the memes in which they were wallowing, I became viewed as "an Other" - a non-rat.  I had become the enemy of the rats.

Most rats make the mistake of assuming that all non-rats are united against them.  The rats need to perpetuate this meme in order to justify the actions they are planning.  It is important for them to feel threatened - actually, physically frightened of all non-rats (who are, of course, ALL against them), so that their actions can be rationalized as merely defensive.  They're simply reacting to the perceived threat from everything else in the world. 

Rats don't want to discuss or debate.  They don't even want to be understood.  What they want is agreement.  Rats have to know who's with them and who's not (because "if you're not with us, you're against us").  If you don't agree, you are a non-rat and are therefore one of the others who are, of course, all united against the rats.  It doesn't matter whether or not the meme has any basis in reality or fact.  It truly doesn't.  In fact, the further removed from reality the meme is, the more tenaciously it is believed and defended against the onslaught of any contradicting evidence.

Facebook is still a big petri dish for the spreading of memes and it stinks like a fully infected microbiology project.  I say leave the rats to their own stench.

The truth is a very big picture

I'm stuggling with how to begin this. I don't intend to begin by trying to offend anyone, but at the same time there are some who will manage to be offended no matter what I write here. And that is, in fact, the problem I want to write about.

To begin with, I need to establish a level of understanding of what I'm actually talking about. I'm talking about the frameworks by which we have ccome to view the world and how we understand what we see.

• A piece of information can be true, but it alone is not "the truth".
• What do we call a piece of information that is not true?
• What do we call an incomplete collection of true information?
• What do we call a collection that includes both true and untrue piece of information?
• What do we call someone who spreads information he or she knows to be untrue? (That, in fact, is the definition of a liar.)
• But what do we call someone who unknowingly spreads information that is untrue?
• What do we call someone who has an incomplete collection of true information? Conversely, what do we call someone who has a collection that includes true and untrue information?
• What do we call someone who continues to cling to erroneous information in spite of being presented with evidence that it is false?
• What do we call someone who accepts as true information they receive from a source they have come to trust, even when that source has been proven false?

In his book "Idiot America", Charles Pierce summarizes his conclusions like this:

• In Idiot America, "facts" are what enough people believe.
• "Truth" is how fervently they believe it.
• Anything said often enough and loudly enough can come to be believed.
• The worst thing to be in Idiot America is an expert.

One of the reasons I deactivated my Facebook account was that I noticed it had become a platform for the spreading of untrue and emotionally charged information. People's apparent vested interest in posting information that is unrelated to them personally is really a quest for concensus.

They post their "facts" not as a basis for discussion or debate, but rather in the hope of having others agree with them. The more "facts" they post, the smarter they believe they are. The more people they find to agree with them, the smarter they believe they are perceived. For these people, disagreement is taken personally. It is a threat to their self-perceived standing in a community they have created out of like-minded individuals.

These people believe they are smart. They believe this because they know certain things. The mistake they make is in assuming that their collection of facts constitutes "the truth". They believe they are right. They also dismiss the very idea that they could be wrong. As far as they're concerned, what they know is the truth. What they don't know or don't believe is not the truth for them.

These people will also practice a form of selective ignorance. If someone presents them with information that is inconsistent with or is not in their collection (their basis for truth), they are entirely capable of rejecting it. They do this by 1) simply failing to remember or 2) failing to believe it. If they don't know it or don't believe it, it's simply not true.

The Facebook apps I could ignore. "Facts" posted as personal updates I found harder to ignore, especially when I believed them to be untrue, either partly or wholly. It was troubling to see people I know consistently posting bogus information. I found myself unable to ignore it and needed to refute or correct it. Doing so simply made me a threat to their well-being. It was more troubling to see people I know accepting the bogus information being posted by others.

I committed Facebook suicide

...And nobody noticed.

Over the next couple of postings here, I hope to explain why. When one deactivates one’s FB account, there is a questionnaire asking why and offering a list of options to choose from (“I am spending too much time on FB” or “There are too many apps” or “I have a duplicate account” or “I didn’t find the happiness I was looking for”). None of these come close to my reasons.

Reason #1A– John Poindexter had 5 felony convictions
Who's John Poindexter?
John Poindexter was National Security Adviser under Ronald Reagan, and was convicted of 5 felonies for his involvement in the Iran Contra scandal (one count of conspiracy (obstruction of inquiries and proceedings, false statements, falsification, destruction and removal of documents); two counts of obstruction of Congress and two counts of false statements).
Poindexter was brought back by the Bush Administration to work his magic for them, and didn't even get fired for this crazy idea. He was allowed to resign.

Reason #1B – The Patriot Act, Operation TIPS, The Homeland Security Act, H.R. 1528
In 2002, the Bush administration tried to implement a “Terrorism Information and Prevention System”. The goal of the program was to establish a reliable and comprehensive national system for reporting suspicious, and potentially terrorist-related, activity. Operation TIPS was going to be phased in across the country to enable the system to build its capacity to receive an increasing volume of tips.

Reason #1C – TIA
The Information Awareness Office (IAO) was established by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in January 2002 to bring together several DARPA projects focused on applying surveillance and information technology to track and monitor "terrorists" and other asymmetric threats to national security, by achieving Total Information Awareness (TIA). This would be achieved by creating enormous computer databases to gather and store the personal information of everyone in the United States, including personal e-mails, social network analysis, credit card records, phone calls, medical records, and numerous other sources, without any requirement for a search warrant. This information would then be analyzed to look for suspicious activities, connections between individuals, and "threats". Additionally, the program included funding for biometric surveillance technologies that could identify and track individuals using surveillance cameras, and other methods.
Following public criticism that the development and deployment of these technologies could potentially lead to a mass surveillance system, the IAO was defunded by Congress in 2003. However, several IAO projects continued to be funded, and merely run under different names.

Reason #1D – Facebook was Poindexter's Wet Dream

This is a demo

Well, that was interesting

For those who don't know, we're back in the United States. We decided in April to pay our own return trip to Texas. By leaving Ireland, I had to resign from Dell. As it turned out, I found a training job in Austin teaching Dell products and technologies.

Sierra spent the month of May going to a middle school in Round Rock, Texas. It was a bit of culture shock for her to go from a school where she was an "upper classman" at an elementary school that 1) she had walked to for 3 years, that 2) they wore a uniform, that 3) started at 9:00 and got out at 2:30, and 4) where homework took at most 30 minutes to a middle school where she is one of the youngest, and 3) where she had to decide what to wear, 1) she had to catch the bus at 2) 7:30 am, and where they changed classrooms between each class, and returned home around 4:00, and still had to do 4) around 2 hours of homework. Luckily, she had the last month to adjust before it counts for real in the fall.

So, we're not in Ireland anymore. I will probably delete this blog in a couple of months.

Pubish

A Continuation of a Conversation at Austin's Gingerman

Thanks to everyone who showed up at the Gingerman pub last Saturday. It was a beautiful spring day in Austin and I think we had some good conversations.

I wanted to follow up with some of my comments regarding Iran and also to give everyone lots of links to follow and research on your own.

Back in 2003, I started predicting that we would go to war with Iraq. Sadly, I was correct. Sadder still is my current prediction - we are going to attack Iran.

Please take the time to read Seymour Hersh's article "The Iran Plans" from April 2006. Pay special attention to page 2 and the last 6 paragraphs on page 7. The bottom line is this - we're going to attack Iran. We probably won't try to invade or occupy, but we will bomb Iran. Knowing this will help you understand the politics driving the ongoing war in Iraq.

Here's how it's going to play out:
1) We are going to send 30,000 - 40,000 troops into eastern Baghdad. Why there? Muqtada al-Sadr is loosely in control of a large militia there.
2) al-Sadr's militia will attack our troops.
2a) (We'll forget who the enemy is or was before.)
3) Our administration will claim that al-Sadr and his militia are funded by Iran
4) Therefore, Iran is engaging in state-sponsored terrorism AND that terrorism is a direct threat to us. This will be the justification for our attacks.
5) We will attack Iran with aircraft carrier task force and special forces.

"Naturally the common people don't want war; .... That is understood. But after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, ...Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country. " -Hermann Göring

For a humerous educational 'lecture' on the history of the west's interests in the Middle East, check out Robert Newman's History of Oil (Google video - 45 minutes). The video is embedded in my January posting.

Muqtada la-Sadr
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muqtada_al-Sadr

As of early 2004, he was the de facto ruler of the Sadr City section of Baghdad and commanded the loyalty of the Mahdi Army, an Iranian-backed insurgent force making a bid for power in Iraq.

On October 19, 2006, al-Sadr's Mahdi Army seized control of Amarah in the south of Iraq. George W. Bush was stated to have seen a possible parallel between the lead-up to the capture of Amarah and the 1968 Tet Offensive, which was seen to lead to the United States' withdrawal from the Vietnam War. The White House later said the President was not suggesting a similar turning point had been reached, rather that al-Sadr was trying to influence US elections.

On October 24th, the US Army locked down Sadr City while searching for a kidnapped US soldier. During the lock down, deaths dropped by 50%. When Prime Minister al-Maliki demanded the end of the blockade, the muder rate returned to previous levels.

On February 13, 2007, several sources in the Bush administration claimed that Muqtada al-Sadr had fled to Iran in anticipation of the coming security crackdown. On March 30, it was reported that Sadr, through clerics speaking on his behalf, "delivered a searing speech ... condemning the American presence in Iraq ... [and] call[ing] for an anti-occupation mass protest on April 9...." This call to protest was significant in that, since the beginning of the American "troop surge" (which began on February 14, 2007), Sadr had ordered his "militia to lie low during the new Baghdad security plan so as not to provoke a direct confrontation with the Americans."

Bush's proposed increase was 21,000 US troops, 4000 of which would be Marine Corps focused on the Anbar province while the others would be embedded into Iraqi units to provide security to Baghdad.

12,000 more Guard troops may be going to Iraq
Coming on the heels of a controversial “surge” of 21,000 U.S. troops that has stretched the Army thin, the Defense Department is preparing to send an additional 12,000 National Guard combat forces to Iraq and Afghanistan.

Robert Newman History of oil

Robert Newman gets to grips with the wars and politics of the last hundred years - but rather than adhering to the history we were fed at school, the places oil centre stage as the cause of all commotion. This innovative history programme is based around Robert Newman's stand-up act and supported by resourceful archive sequences and stills with satirical impersonations of historical figures from Mayan priests to Archduke Ferdinand. Quirky details such as a bicycle powered street lamp on the stage brings home the pertinent question of just how we are going to survive when the world's oil supplies are finally exhausted.

The Start of the X-Mas Season

It starts to get dark now before 5:00. The Irish don’t celebrate Thanksgiving, so there’s not a specific start of the Christmas season. Saturday, at 4:00, Sierra’s school sang and played their tin whistles for the Santa parade before the lighting of the Christmas tree and city lights. The weather was cold, but not rainy like today. http://www.dlrevents.ie/events.htm

The parade consisted of the following:
* a formal procession of city elders (including Father Mangan and someone playing bagpipes) most of whom were wearing the red and white stocking caps
* two fire spitters and a juggler,
* a small marching band drum section (about 12 kids playing pretty well),
* 4 larger-than-life paper maché figures,
* a 2-man Chinese dragon (with 4 man drum and gong section),
* a couple of girls in red and white fur short skirts riding horses,
* and Santy riding in the chimney of a small house on a trailer.

They came down George’s street, circled the block in front of Sierra’s school, and then came back to the stage where Sierra’s choir was singing so that Santy could come and speak alongside the mayor.

It was a cute little small town celebration. Sierra woke up with a sore throat this morning.

Happy(?) Halloween

We went to a suburb of Dublin this morning to look at pictures we had taken by a photographer there last week. Clontarf is on the other side of the Liffy river from Dublin. In addition to being the site of a famous battle in the 11th century, it just happens to be the birthplace of Bram Stoker.

There is a Dracula museum near the DART station in Clontarf, which just happens to be built over the house where Stoker grew up. (For those who care, the museum is on the second floor of the largest fitness center in Europe)

The first part of the museum deals with Stoker's life, which is itself very interesting.

Until he started school at the age of seven — when he made a complete, astounding recovery — Stoker was an invalid. After his recovery, he became a normal young man even excelling as an athlete at Trinity College, Dublin (1864-70), from where he graduated with honors in mathematics.

Bram Stoker was born in Dublin in 1847 at the height of the Great Famine. This was one of the most catastrophic events in Irish history, with hundreds of thousands of people dying from starvation and disease or emigrating in 'coffin ships' to America.

The famine may have inspired the visual characteristics of Count Dracula and also his infamous obsession with bloodsucking. His mother would tell him often gruesome stories of her childhood, particularly those concerning the great cholera epidemic of 1832, when humans drank the blood of cows as a source of nutrition.

There was a suicide burial plot in Clontarf, Dublin, where Stoker lived. As a boy the author used to spend hours playing in that graveyard and St. Michan's Church, where the Stoker family had a burial vault.

Dracula comes from the Irish word "Droch Ola", which means "bad blood". Stoker's mother was from the West of Ireland and she told Bram about a cholera epidemic in 1832 when she witness large graves and people being pushed into them with wooden poles while they were still alive.

The second part of the museum was basically a well done haunted house, full of Dracula scenes, that scared Sierra to pieces.

The West Winger to Western Ireland

"West Wing" star Martin Sheen will next month begin studying at a university in Ireland.

The actor, whose mother hailed from the Irish county of Tipperary, has been quoted as saying he wanted to finish his education when he retired from acting as he never got his high school diploma, according to media reports.

Last year NUI conferred an honorary degree on Sheen, real name Ramon Estevez, for both his acting and "his consistent and meaningful engagement with civil society".

A dedicated supporter of liberal causes, Sheen has been arrested more than 60 times for public protests.

National University of Ireland, Galway

I've been to Cork, but not to Galway. I may have to check that out.

Oh yes, we want this war. We really really do.

You're all like a bunch of actors in a bad porno movie over there. Bush is running around bragging about the length of his war and how he's going to use it to continue screwing the country. Half the population is rocking back and forth, faking orgasms, and lying right back about what a great ruler he is.

"I've got a hunk of steaming love for you, babe. C'mon, you know you want it."

"Oh yes, I want it. I love it when you fail. Oooh, make a mess over there, too, baby."

Bush: Anger over war won’t change U.S. policy

President, conceding unpopularity, vows to stay the course in Iraq
“If we lose our nerve and leave the Middle East before the job is finished, the world will be much worse off,”

Get a clue, you moron! The world is worse off. You accomplished exactly what you wanted to over there. You wanted chaos, death, and anarchy and that's exactly what you got.

Death Squads Behind Spike in Iraq Killings

Sectarian violence in Iraq has become the "core conflict" in Iraq and has created a security situation American military commanders believe is more complex than any they have faced at any time since the U.S. invasion in 2003, a sober Pentagon report released today says.

Car Bomb and Rockets Kill 43 in Baghdad’s Shiite Strongholds

The recent surge in bombings calls into question the long-term effectiveness of a joint American-Iraqi security offensive in Baghdad. The security measures are expected to contribute to a relatively low civilian death toll in August, but there are increasing questions about whether that can be sustained.

Bush said opponents of the war in Iraq who are calling for a plan to bring home troops would create a disaster in the Middle East.

If America were to pull out before Iraq could defend itself, the consequences would be absolutely predictable, and absolutely disastrous.

Pentagon gives gloomy Iraq report

In a notably gloomy report to Congress, the Pentagon reported that illegal militias have become more entrenched, especially in Baghdad neighborhoods where they are seen as providers of both security and basic social services.

In response to the Pentagon's report Friday, the Senate's top Democrat, Harry Reid of Nevada, said it showed the Bush administration is "increasingly disconnected from the facts on the ground in Iraq."

White House on 2,500 U.S. Fatalities In Iraq: ‘It’s A Number’

Tony Snow was asked this afternoon if President Bush had any reaction to the death toll for U.S. troops in Iraq reaching 2,500. Snow responded: “It’s a number.”

Bush said last year that history will prove his policy a sweeping success.

because 30,000 Iraqis, more or less, have died as a result of the initial incursion and the ongoing violence against Iraqis.

Bush said 'So long as he's president, we're in Iraq'

Be sure to shrug your shoulders when you say that.

Why I don't worry about threats anymore

I was in a class the day the airline business got turned on its ear a few weeks ago. Being the only American in the group, I got asked a lot of questions. I had pretty much concluded the same thing as Keith Olberman did back in 2005:



Of course, there may be another completely unrelated but equally viable explanation for the "alert".

Another July in Ireland

I'll probably need to change the title on this blog, since it has now been over a year and I'm still here.

I'm alone in Dun Laoghaire as the family has gone back to the states for a summer visit. I plan to stay busy here with work, working out, projects, reading, and studying..

My mom just left the other day, too, after spending a couple of weeks with us at the end of a tour of Ireland.

To convert Celsius to Fahrenheit degrees, you multiply the Celsius figure by 1.8 and then add 32. To go the other way, subtract 32 and divide by 1.8. With that in mind, calculate the Fahrenheit equivalent of 26 degrees. We might get that hot in August. Meanwhile, they're getting a good dose of Texas summer.

My mom got mad at me when she overheard me mentally preparing Sierra for her summer vacation. I had to explain that Sierra was getting ready to leave the peace and quiet of Ireland to return to the madness of America in the middle of mid-term elections. So, here's a sample of news listings you won't hear on Fox News:

Our successes in Iraq mean that troop withdrawls might actually be accelerated.... or not. But that's OK, see, because Republicans really really want another World War. After all, war is good for business. (By the way, the keynote speaker for this event will probably need to be changed.) So, while war means good business overseas, it should also help with the energy crisis, right? Maybe I did the math wrong.

It should be OK, though, because summer vacation is here and the nation's future is in the secure hands of the Republicans

I'm beginning to think this is what the inventor of the TV had in mind