Sorry.

I’ve just been wanting to say that since yesterday.

I don’t care if it’s real. I don’t care if it’s fake.

In fact, the people spinning their wheels working to discredit the memo are, to me, as off base as the people trying to tell me that it acts as some smoking gun against the President. It was ignored for so long by the mainstream media because, frankly, it really doesn’t matter; it is only entering public debate because of the unflagging efforts of fringsters who really, really, gosh-darnit, really want the thing to be meaningful.

I just don’t care.

The Rocky Mountain News sums up my opinion on the subject pretty well:

“Bush wanted to remove Saddam . . .” Of course he did. It had been U.S. policy since 1990 to favor regime change in Iraq.

“There was a perceptible shift in attitude. Military action was now seen as inevitable.” Actually, the idea the administration’s attitude had shifted and military action was now seen as inevitable contradicts the theories of those who’ve claimed George Bush came into office determined to oust Saddam Hussein and only seized upon 9/11 as an excuse. No matter. The fact is we have no idea whose opinions Dearlove was relating, let alone whether he did so accurately.

By July 2002, in any case, the media were running many stories about U.S. preparations for a possible invasion of Iraq. Why is it a surprise that some officials, whether they wanted war or not, by then saw it as “inevitable”?

The memo story keeps growing, and I keep resorting to my irritated schoolyard defense: so what?

Read the Rocky’s editorial.

Fully realizing that pedestrians in the crosswalk are strictly off limits, I find myself curious as to precisely what the rules are for loiterers...

Just wondering.

And in other news, Jed is working to protect Colorado’s public shooting spaces. You know I approve.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to finish the design for a brochure.

This is pretty much all you have to read to understand my continuing opposition to a universal health care system in the United States:

Incentives drive any system, and the incentives of a government-financed health care system are contrary to the best interests of patients. In a multipayer system, patients produce revenues for the institutions that treat them. As a result, they are courted and welcomed. In a system of bureaucratically set global budgets, patients are cost centers, drains on resources and thus must be rationed.

Luckily, though, there’s a whole lot more in Sally Pipes’ article today in the Seattle PI. As a transplant from Canada, here experience with the socialized Canadian health care system drove her to share her thoughts with Americans who are eager to try their hand at even more government control and funding of our health care system.

The Canadian health care system provides yet another vindication of the insight that in socialistic systems, everything is free yet nothing is available. Or as two Supreme Court justices noted in last week’s opinion, “access to a waiting list is not access to health care.”

Well worth the read.

The OC sucks.

I mean, it really, really sucks.

Except the hot chicks. And there are a lot of hot chicks.

A few days ago, I wrote an exceptionally long post about debt relief for Africa. Being some 1800 plus words in length it was, of course, soundly ignored by all.

Bastards.

That’s not my point, though. My point is that in it I questioned whether freeing the poor African nations from their debt servicing would actually result in money being directed at health, infrastructure, education, and food. This report from IRIN serves to underline my point rather nicely.

Plans to purchase a US $545,000 limousine for President Bingu wa Mutharika have sparked heated debate in Malawi, which faces yet another year of acute food shortages. 

Finance Minister Goodall Gondwe told parliament on Wednesday that the Maybach 62, made by Mercedes-Benz, was necessary, as the president was without an official vehicle. The car used by former president Bakili Muluzi was involved in an accident last year, and the government intended to pay for the new vehicle in instalments.

The Malawi Economic Justice Network (MEJN) said the purchase was “unnecessary and a waste of money”, given ongoing food shortages in the country. Crop estimates indicate that Malawi’s harvest could drop by around 25 percent this season, with the number of people in need of food aid climbing beyond last year’s 1.3 million.

“It is unfortunate that government needs such an expensive vehicle, at a time when people in the country are facing food shortages. Sixty-five million Kwacha [$545,000] would buy 45,000 50 kg-bags of maize,” MEJN national coordinator Collins Magalasi told IRIN.

To be sure, the President of Malawi should have a car. But he probably doesn’t really need a car that costs more than half a million dollars. Expect an increase in purchases like this, brand new presidential palaces, and a smattering of self-named football stadiums in the near future.

Just sayin’.

I’m glad you asked.

“Day Tripper” has what might be the coolest sound with its chunky guitar sound. “A Day in the Life” is ambitious and gorgeously messy. I’m a big fan of “The Ballad of John and Yoko,” too. Funny, catchy, and wonderfully pop with a rebellious streak. Their best song, though?

It has to be “Paperback Writer.” Two minutes and eighteen seconds of perfection.

Update: I considered supplementing this with a “Best A-Ha Song?” section, but rejected that when I realized that I would be the only one playing…

Read the Rest...

Via Steve Green, we get a grim (and extremely disturbing) reminder of what real, honest-to-God, no bullshit torture looks like. For everyone who makes the comparison between Saddam’s depridations and what has since gone on in Guantanamo or Abu Ghraib, this small sample really should put the equivalence to bed.

That doesn’t mean that we should excuse any American soldier or agent who oversteps the bounds of what we consider acceptable. Prosecution is the right answer in some cases--but there is no comparison between our camps and either Saddam’s professional torturers or the Soviet gulags.

PS- This fits the conversation well, too.

Michael Dell, rather famously, once suggested that the best thing Steve Jobs could do for Apple’s shareholders would be to “shut it down and give the money back to the shareholders.” You might imagine that I’m not the biggest Michael Dell fan, and you’d be right.

But the times change.

Michael Dell from a recent article by David Kirkpatrick:

“If Apple decides to open the Mac OS to others, we would be happy to offer it to our customers,” Dell wrote in an email. It’s the first time any PC industry executive has openly shown enthusiasm for selling machines with Apple’s software.

Since Apple is still a hardware company, the idea of Dell selling boxes equipped with OS X is probably a good long way off. Apple learned from the failed experiment with licensing that what happened wasn’t an expansion of sales to new markets, but cannibalizing sales from Apple’s current market. If the user base isn’t going to grow significantly, why cede the hardware sale to another company?

Still, it’s nice to see that Dell now recognizes that there might be value in Apple yet.

In response to this comment below from someone who hasn’t visited in some time:

A bizzare blog piece, considering Chavez cancelled the parade due to fear of an assassination attempt. After the 2002 coup travesty, the guy has every
reason to be wary. And by the way, hes not a dictator. He was fairly elected despite US attempts at destabilization. You have Chavez to thank for the highest economic growth rate in Latin America and the Carribbean

I haven’t accused him of being a dictator that I’m aware of, so I assume that you actually want to address that comment to the writer of the post on Babalu, correct?

Thank rising oil prices for economic growth, not Chavez.

Here are some interesting statistics (although I admit that I couldn’t find 2004 data and I assume that the rise in oil prices had helped prop up this economic outlook somewhat):

GDP 2000 5,948
Real GDP 2003 5,100

Unemployment 2000 13.9%
Unemployment 2003 21%

Gov’t Consumption (% GDP) 2000 7.23%
Gov’t Consumption (% GDP) 2003 8.9%

So, a rising unemployment rate, rising gov’t spending, and a decreasing GDP are good things to you? They also show an average annual inflation rate of 21% between 1999 and 2003. You might also want to look at the Economist’s economic forecast, which I would consider anything other than bright.

Next up, you are aware that the democratically elected fellow was a part of two failed coup attempts before he joined the democratic political process, right?

Lastly, as for Venezuela being the brightest light in the region, I’ll leave it to you to decide whether, for example, Argentina with a lower rate of inflation, lower unemployment and a higher per capita GDP isn’t looking a little better than Venezuela.

I was going through a stack of old magazines last night, getting ready to toss them out, and ran across something that I had meant to share with the class. In the January 2005 issue of Mojo, Mark Lanegan (who had Mojo’s number five album of 2004 with Bubblegum)is part of the end of year article, “The Best Thing I’ve Heard All Year.”

I think you’ll see why it made me happy.

I never really took any notice of 16 Horsepower until this year. When I first heard them I thought they were really derivative of The Gun Club, who are one of my favorite bands, and that kinda turned me off. But this year I came across their album Folklore (2002) which I think is absolutely brilliant. It’s kind a mysterious--a concept album about I don’t know what. I’ve also been listening to Woven Hand, which is a side project by 16 Horsepower singer David Eugene Edwards. I’ve gone through whole stretches this year where I’ve genuinely listened to nothing else.

Cool.

By now you’ve heard the claims by former Bush administration staffer, Morgan Reynolds, about his doubts that the official version of the collapse of the World Trade Center is accurate. Tin foil hat aficionados everywhere are doing a conspiracy theory dance of glee over this cat’s baseless commentary.

Of course, to believe that the US government took down the towers to give us an excuse to invade Afghanistan and Iraq, you have to be willing to shelve some serious knowledge. Things like the fact that the conspiracy theory has been well debunked by experts far and wide. Or the fact that while the US gov’t doesn’t have a history of trying to knock down the World Trade Center, Islamic terrorists had actually made an effort toward that goal in the past. You’d have to imagine that our government (which can’t even keep a lie secret like the shameful one about Pat Tillman (and, yes, I do consider the misdirection to be shameful)) could manage to keep people quiet for the last few years about the fall of the towers.

Sorry, folks, but that’s giving way too much credit to our government.

But, as I’ve said before, arguing with the moon landing deniers is always a losing battle. For every logical, reasonable claim or refutation that you can make, they can manufacture secret programs, hidden bases, the “disappearing” of witnesses, or, in truly desperate situations, the intervention of aliens and secret, world-controlling societies of Masons in little, funny hats. Since a conspiracy is a hidden thing, there is absolutely no way to disprove the existence of the conspirators (which someone like Andy would say resembles the whole argument between, say, atheists and Christians--but that’s another topic, entirely).

I like sitting on the 16th Street Mall in Denver or the Pearl Street Mall in Boulder for the same reason that I like to watch conspiracy theorists raving about their pet plot to deceive the world; it’s a fun pastime, and it’s usually harmless.

So, with that in mind, this Reason Hit and Run post and subsequent commentary definitely filled my need for conspiracy theories and tin foil hats.

People who were working at the towers long before 9/11 have testified that they witnessed crews of men working for months in the buildings . . . .refusing employees access to specific areas all the while refusing to identify themselves when asked to do so.

Those same areas were also designated by experts in demolition as the exact areas where it would be necessary to plant and wire explosives to bring the buildings down.

Connecting the dots isn’t just for kids.

The real horrors of the day aren’t enough for some people; they have to manufacture a diabolical purpose outside of the reality that a group of ultra-violent, vicious terrorists took dead aim at the buildings for the second time and knocked them down. It wasn’t the Evil Joooos, it wasn’t President Bush, and it wasn’t a hidden Masonic society.

What, precisely, is it about the marginally insane that I find so entertaining?

1. The g-phrase has a long-standing crush on Denzel Washington. If I keep reading things like this, I might just get my own crush on the gentleman. Apparently, I missed this when it happened, but I’m too impressed to keep it to myself.  Update: Yipee-ki-yay!
2. Congratulations to Craig (and the rest of the family).
3. While I know that we can’t just go around bumping off the nuisances in our society, I am tempted to say that there should be an exception for Fred Phelps. What a pathetic, useless excuse for a human being.

I just noticed a new blog out there (referrer logs are a good thing) that will be joining the blogroll. So, if all y’all regulars would like to go say hi to Cadillac Tight, you might just find something new to read for yourselves.

Update: And while we’re on the subject. Another new entry will be going to The English Guy. It was his very Englishness which won me over, in case you were wondering.

Here is one quick rule for parents who are concerned about leaving their children alone with family pets.

1. If you are concerned about overly aggressive behavior from a family dog, to the point that you lock your child in the basement with instructions to stay put until you return, but allow the dog to freely roam the rest of the house, get rid of the dog.

Now, here are a few follow up rules for those who don’t take the initial advice.

1. If you have to lock your child in the basement to protect him from the dog, do not try to sell the rest of us on the idea that you didn’t have any worries about the animal’s behavior. That’s bullshit.
2. If your 12 year old child is mauled by the dog because he decided he didn’t want to be locked in the basement, and subsequently killed, don’t, for God’s sake, don’t say something so brutally absurd that it almost drives me to tears to think that you are a parent. “Typical Nicky, he wouldn’t listen to me,” would qualify.
3. And then, please, please, don’t try to make it all okay by saying, “"It’s Nicky’s time to go,” she said in the interview. “When you’re born you’re destined to go and this was his time.”

No, he’s dead because you were a horrible parent. Even if it was just for that hour, even if it was just that once, even if it wasn’t something you would normally do: when he needed you to be a good, judicious, intelligent parent, you abandoned him and he’s dead.

This is on your shoulders.

Poor Nicholas Scott Faibish deserved far better.

Noticed at NRO.

Here’s another little tidbit of information about the “Tropical Trotsky.”

From this point of view, let’s just say that Michael Jackson is lucky that Paul Campos’ opinion wasn’t the prevailing belief of his jurors.

If this is a fair description of the factual situation in Jackson’s case (it might not be, but the point is that many cases will feature this type of dilemma), then the formal rule that governs our criminal justice system required Jackson to be acquitted of this particular charge. 

That’s the formal rule. But every lawyer knows that, in this sort of situation, Jackson ran a serious risk of being convicted anyway. 

I’m not sure this is an altogether bad thing. If you as a juror have some doubt regarding the defendant’s guilt of the crime with which he is charged, but are practically certain, on the basis of the evidence presented at the trial, that he has committed legally identical crimes in the past, is it even inaccurate to say that you’re certain of the defendant’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt? 

After all, part of the calculus of what “reasonable doubt” means could well include whether you’re practically certain the defendant is guilty of this crime, if not necessarily this charge.

While I really don’t care about Jackson or his trial, I have to admit that this line of thinking is intriguing to me. On the one hand, it seems almost offensive to consider convicting someone for a crime that they haven’t been charged for; on the other hand, it seems foolish to let someone walk when you truly believe that while they are innocent of the current charges, they are dead guilty for previous transgressions.

Again, I’m not sure how I feel about that.

Now with Less Guilt!

Now, will someone please prosecute the parents for letting their kids go on sleep-overs with a freaky, middle-aged man?

Does anyone else get the feeling that the price of oil is increasingly being decoupled from the actual production of, demand for, and supply of the stuff?

Or is it just me?

So, Pink Floyd is getting back together to play the Live 8 concert.

For some reason.

The last time they performed together with the almost-original, minus-the-crazy-guy line-up, I was all of ten or eleven years old. Now, they decide to return to preach to the world about how we should all (defined mostly as the United States) be giving more to the poor dictatorships of the world.

“Like most people, I want to do everything I can to persuade the G8 leaders to make huge commitments to the relief of poverty and increased aid to the Third World,” Gilmour said. 

“It’s crazy that America gives such a paltry percentage of its GNP to the starving nations.”

Somehow, Pink Floyd’s reunion gives me the same sense of bemusement as realizing that Mike Tyson is leaving boxing with his tail between his legs: not only did I not know that he had a fight scheduled for the weekend, but who really cares anymore? I mean, aside from his creditors.

Hey, I’ll still break out the occasional Floyd CD and wish I had some chemical accompaniment to make the experience more of what I remember, but I don’t imagine that they have much new to tell me. Hell, they’ve been living off the good will and memories of burned out acid freaks and the amazing longevity of Dark Side of the Moon and The Wall for decades.

At least if Mike Tyson really does run off to be a missionary somewhere, we’ll be well rid of him. Pink Floyd could always decide to cash in on the high-priced has beens touring trend, bringing their extra-special sense of self-importance to a stadium near you soon.