Steven's blog
Posted at 2:52am on Jul. 1, 2008 Wes Clark caught in own web
By Steven
By now everyone will have heard about retired Army General Wesley Clark's comments regarding Senator McCain's military service. In spite of all the commentary, I have yet to hear anyone point out that Clark's assertion, which was carefully worded to denigrate the presidential candidate's service, actually points out more about Clark's shortcoming's than McCain's, and doesn't do Obama much good either.
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Posted at 7:16pm on Feb. 21, 2008 Israel-Syria Peace Plan
By Steven
Today I attended a talk by Dr. Alon Liel, an Israeli, about the Israel Syria Peace Society's plan for peace between Syria and Israel. The talk was hosted by the Middle East Institute, here in D.C. (http://www.mideasti.org/)
The main point was that the unsophisticated, ignorant US was getting in the way of true peace by refusing to negotiate with Syria, and not letting Israel talk to them either. Instead of dealing with some select Palestinians who, for all their shortcomings, have at least made some concessions to earn a place at a bargaining table, we should get out of the way so that Israel could sit down with Bashar al Asad and sign a peace treaty. Such a treaty, the good Dr. argued, would drive a wedge between Syria and Iran.
Posted in National Security — Comments (0) / Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 8:47pm on Feb. 6, 2008 John McCain - born in Panama?
By Steven
That's what the bios I've seen all say, that he was born in the Panama Canal Zone. How does that square with the constitutional requirement that a president be born in the United States?
Sorry if this has been addressed already, but if it has, I haven't seen it.
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Posted at 7:27pm on Jan. 25, 2008 Meet me in D.C.
By Steven
Although I enjoy the exchange of ideas this forum provides, I maintain that nothing compares with a good old-fashioned get-together.
Since I'm currently a geographic bachelor and temporary cast-away on the shores of this desert isle some call D.C. consider this a message in a bottle, calling on fellow readers/contributors in the area who would like to get away from the keyboard, meet real live human beings, and maybe even smoke cigars with them.
Posted in Miscellanea — Comments (0) / Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 10:02pm on Jan. 22, 2008 A military officer endorses...
By Steven
As an active duty military officer, I'm forbidden from making a public statement for or against a political candidate. That's one of the freedoms military members give up in order to serve.
Still, I can, without running afoul of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, tell you what I'm looking for in a candidate for the position of Commander in Chief. It won't take long; I can sum it up in one sentence.
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Posted at 9:06pm on Sep. 5, 2007 Norman Hsu: Dead man running [Closed and Annotated]
By Steven
[I dislike conspiracy theories, no matter from whence they spring. Show me a signed confession, incriminating video footage, and/or a verified paper trail linking either Clinton to somebody's actual murder and I'll reopen comments. Until then, sorry, this sort of thing is not going to find a happy home here. - Moe Lane]
What do Norman Hsu, James McDougal, Ron Brown, and Vince Foster have in common? All were involved intimately enough in shady arrangements with the Clintons that they could have represented a liability to Bill and Hillary's aspirations.
Posted in Breaking News — Comments (6) / Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 2:24am on Apr. 30, 2007 A Note to Rosie (Or, maybe fire does melt steel.)
By Steven
Our return trip from a camping weekend was altered somewhat today by a gasoline tanker that crashed beneath a freeway overpass. The resulting fire was so hot it caused the bridge above it to collapse.
AOL says, "Witnesses reported flames rising up to 200 feet into the air. Heat exceeded 2,750 degrees and caused the steel beams holding up the interchange from eastbound I-80 to eastbound Interstate 580 above to buckle and bolts holding the structure together to melt, leading to the collapse, California Department of Transportation director Will Kempton said."
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Posted at 1:34am on Jan. 21, 2007 Jimmy Carter - Posterchild for Senile Dementia
By Steven
Mental illness is never pretty, but it's seldom as ugly as when seen in a public figure.
Witness Jimmy Carter's most recent assertions that our detention facility at Guantanamo Bay is a disgrace, and that its continuation presents an affront to human rights and a danger to our nation.
Such idiocy would be less painful were it confined to the fluorescent-lit halls of some safe asylum, but the century's most pitiful president mumbled his lines in an unfortunately public event.
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Posted at 4:21am on Jan. 17, 2007 Doesn't anyone enforce the laws anymore?
By Steven
In today's (16 January) Monterey (CA) Herald, an article informs us that Salinas businessmen, tired of used condoms on the sidewalks in front of their stores, have asked that their fair city declare certain areas "Prostitution-Free Zones."
Which begs the question - isn't prostitution illegal everywhere in this state? Apparently it is (unless you're an elected official, but that's a different kind of prostitution)so one would think that such a request, while it might be redundant, would at least not meet with much resistance on the part of law enforcement and city officials.
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Posted at 12:30pm on Dec. 22, 2006 The Air Force will hold Bake Sales
By Steven
You've probably seen the old bumper sticker that says it will be a good day when our schools have all the money they need and the Air Force needs to hold a bake sale to buy a new bomber. You may not realize, though that the day has arrived.
The Air Force is struggling to come up with money to replace its aging aircraft. (On my previous assignment, our aircraft were 40-some years old.) Funding is so tight that 40,000 officers will be squeezed out of the ranks over the next 3 years, regardless of their desire to serve, and regardless of the fact that we're in a war.
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Posted at 3:08am on Dec. 19, 2006 U.S. Soldiers to attack U.S. government.
By Steven
First, read analyst Bill Lind's piece here: http://www.lewrockwell.com/lind/lind115.html
He asserts that, upon returning home, disgruntled U.S. troops will adopt the tactics of the terrorists we've been fighting, and will use Improvised Explosive Devices "in wars against the American state."
The danger, he shrills, is not that the "terrorists" (His quotation marks, not mine.) will come to the U.S. if we fail to defeat them in Iraq (He assures us that the Bush administration has this completely backward - no surprise coming from someone who reuterizes the word terrorist.) but that
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Posted at 3:51am on Nov. 25, 2006 Last-minute thought on Thanksgiving Day
By Steven
I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving, and that you spent a certain amount of it thanking God for His goodness. I know that's not politically correct of me to say, but if you think that's un-PC, you should read what Abraham Lincoln had to say about the matter in 1863:
No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and voice by the whole American People. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to his tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union.
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Posted at 1:37am on Nov. 23, 2006 My Thanksgiving in Iraq
By Steven
My letter home from Iraq on Thankgiving, 2004
Giving Thanks
Happy Thanksgiving. I hope you’re not on the computer today, and that you’re enjoying the company of people you love, eating too much, and thanking God for His providence. I, for one, am doing as many of those things as possible.
Thanksgiving for us began yesterday. The weather turned cold and there was a band at dinner. It was 35 degrees the night before last. My 4th floor aerie was quite chilly, which was a nice change from being sweltering. I like sleeping in the cold, especially when I can scrounge an extra blanket. I burrow down into my rack and arrange the blankets just so – head covered for warmth, but my face exposed to fresh air.
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Posted at 10:04am on Nov. 21, 2006 Janet Reno, champion of Individual Rights
By Steven
Janet Reno, former Attorney General of the United States, was one of 8 filing a motion yesterday in opposition to the trying of terrorists (that's enemy combatants in a war, mind you) outside of the U.S. court system.
Neither Elian Gonzalez nor the charred remains of eighty-some (They were burned too badly to get a definite count.) Branch Davidians were available for comment.
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Posted at 4:10am on Nov. 20, 2006 I agree with Charlie Rangel
By Steven
I support Charlie Rangel in his call for a draft. Clearly, certain elements of our society are missing from the roles of those who serve, while other elements are too-well represented. This is an egregious error, and will cause untold problems in the not-too-distant future.
To rectify the situation, I propose that we immediately instate not only a draft, but a selective one at that.
Effective immediately, I would press into service members of those under-represented classes, and force out many of those currently serving.
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