The Real Winter Soldiers

Here is an excellent article at The American Thinker about the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth.

Be sure to read my posts among the comments.

Photo(Shop) Interpretation For Dummies - Part 1

The Charge


This is the first of a multipart series examining an incredible act of effrontery and arrogance on the part of the Obama White House.

We all are aware of the low altitude buzzing of New York City by the backup plane to Air Force One ( a VC-25) at about 10:30 EDT on Monday April 27, 2009. The panic that flight caused to about one million residents of New York and New Jersey amounted to an act of domestic terrorism. The response of the White House spokesman Robert Gibbs was roundly criticized and quite tardy. But the most amazing aspect is that the alleged reason for the flyby, to obtain a picture of Air Force One with New York’s most famous sites in the background, is demonstrably false. The single picture the White House released has been Photoshopped!!!

That is in itself a serious charge. And I have taken my time and studied the circumstances very carefully before making it public. But here are the results of my studies. I propose to give you, the public, some lessons in photo interpretation. To make it most understandable, we need a system to identify the relative positions of two objects. I have adopted the clock system long familiar to moviegoers since the release of the classic movie Twelve O’Clock High.

Here is a link to the materials released by the White House on the website of the CBS affiliate TV station in New York, WCBS-TV http://wcbstv.com/local/air.force.one.2.1004904.html . Clearly this station is not a part of Hillary’s Vast Right Wing Conspiracy. There are three official documents.

1) The Photoshopped high resolution picture itself http://static.cbslocal.com/station/wcbs/img/flyover.jpg itself.

2) The White House’s “official review”, AKA the cover up.

3) Former White House Military Office Director Louis Caldera’s (AKA The “Fallguy”) resignation letter.

Additional Evidence

We also have available a lot of real time video from a variety of sources. Here is a partial list:



U S News and World Report Ken Walsh

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsJUcl8H5DM

Fighter South of AF1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMoy8JprKI0&feature=related

ABC Raw Video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=phCRNrqd4f8&feature=related

My Fox NY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYIYSfVS42Y&feature=related

AP Raw Video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWiIkaw9ZVc&feature=related

Schumer FAA Planned Flyby

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVeN5JXOZjA&feature=related

Gibbs Unaware

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVeN5JXOZjA&feature=related

NBC

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oCTPfqd6sEI

Obama It was a Mistake

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3mshMn0uwpM&feature=related

Rachel Maddow

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_kVHTpVLhTY&feature=related

Google Earth Flyby

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xuD9HQr4cAw&feature=related

Still Pictures

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=meeOOoAYczo&feature=related

Lady Liberty Under AF1 at 5 secs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9iWqaksdYo&feature=related

East from NJ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKa4MpHXiD8&feature=related

The Analysis

The first thing that should pop out to the analyst is not totally conclusive, but is highly suggestive. It is that the F-16 fighter is almost never anywhere near the correct relative position to the VC-25 to have taken the picture. It’s time to open the high resolution picture. I’d recommend using Microsoft’s Paint, as it is a standard accessory in all versions of Microsoft’s Windows. You will see that the relative position of the photographer to the VC-25 is to its right and a bit higher, it is about 3:30 o’clock high, and the VC-25 is in level flight. You will also notice that at the instant the photo was taken, the near side of the VC-25 is fully bathed in sunlight. Since the Sun is to the southeast at 10:30 EDT (we’ll discuss this in more detail later, but the sun’s azimuth was 138° True), the VC-25 is apparently heading approximately northeast. It is a testament to how carefully this forgery was made, that the VC-25 is in a plausible relationship to the Statue of Liberty. That also explains why the White House was only able to come up with a single photo out of the whole photo shoot. They couldn’t get different source materials to make more than one.

Now choose any one of the raw videos listed and check to see how many times the F-16 is both at the 3:30 o’clock high position, in level flight, and to the southeast of the statue of Liberty. It is a fool’s errand. The vast majority of the time the fighter is trailing behind the VC-25 somewhere about the 6 o’clock position. The is one scene where the relative positions of the two planes are right, but they are going to the observer’s left and the left side of the VC-25 shines brightly in the sunshine.

But our source video is not totally conclusive. So now is the time to check out the shadows in the background. Go to the high resolution image and put your mouse pointer anywhere over the picture. When you do, a pair of coordinates will appear near the lower right hand side of your screen. At the extreme upper left hand corner is the coordinate set (0, 0), the lower left is (0, 682), the upper right (938, 0) and the lower right is (938, 682). The background has been carefully chosen to avoid shadows as they are an easy key to discovery of forgeries. My years of experience flying past the Statue of Liberty led me to note the problems with shadows, but what I saw was not apparent to my editor, Thomas Lifson, of the American Thinker http://americanthinker.com/ . That led me to seek a way to show a layman what I was seeing. Hence our little exercise using Microsoft Paint.

Look very carefully at the lower left corner of the statue itself at about (525, 508) and you will see the shadow of the right arm of Lady Liberty at about the elbow. Further up and to your left is the wrist (515, 499) and then even further up is the tip of the flame at about (516, 489). Since the shadow is to your left of the statue, by roughly a 30 degree angle, the sun is to the observer’s right, behind him and high, about 5 o’clock high. We’ll come back to this in another post, but for now we can work with the simple statement that Lady Liberty faces southeast, and at the time of the incident the sun was to the southeast, so the sun was actually at her Twelve O’Clock High position. But the shadows in the background of this photo show that at the time the picture was taken, the sun was actually at her Eleven O’Clock High position.

The picture is a forgery. I’ll have more evidence in subsequent posts.

Update - See the comments for additional information on this subject.

What Obama Knew?

Remember Sen Howard Baker's question at the Watergate hearings?

"What did the President know and when did he know it?", a question given him to ask by his counsel and former campaign manager, future U.S. Senator Fred Thompson. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Baker

Mark Steyn's article at National Review Online draws a familiar parallel

“This isn’t the Tony Rezko I knew,” said the senator, in what’s becoming a standard formulation. Likewise, this wasn’t the Jeremiah Wright he knew. And these are guys he’s known for 20 years.

Perhaps we ought to resurrect Fred Thompson's question and direct it (in a somewhat modifed form) to Sen. Obama

"What did the Presidential candidate know and when did he know it?

Pure Water as Air Pollutant?????????

The Attorneys General of 18 states have banded together to ask a federal court to issue a judgment finding pure water to be an air pollutant. http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2008-04-02-states-epa_N.htm “The plaintiffs in the latest court action include Massachusetts' Coakley and attorneys general from Arizona, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington and the District of Columbia, plus representatives of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection and the cities of New York and Baltimore, and several environmental organizations.”

For a group of allegedly knowledgeable wordsmiths, it seems they are unaware of the definition of “greenhouse gas” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenhouse_gas . Wikipedia has it right, “The term greenhouse gas is applied to, in order of relative abundance: water vapour, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, ozone and CFCs.” So it follows that a lawsuit seeking to force the federal EPA to regulate greenhouse gases, specifically carbon dioxide, as being an air pollutant under the Clean Air Act is in reality a quest to use the courts to legislate, as fact, that water vapor and other greenhouse gases are air pollutants. Except those plaintiffs are too ignorant to know that’s what they’re asking, they think they are trying to force the EPA to regulate carbon dioxide only.

So let us try to illuminate their ignorance. That Wikipedia article has an informative series of charts http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Atmospheric_Transmission.png . The top chart, “Spectral Intensity”, portrays the distribution of electromagnetic energy radiated by a body at various temperatures. The 5525K red line (9485 deg F) is a representation of the Sun’s spectrum which peaks about 0.5 micrometers (microns). Light of that wavelength is green (G), the middleman in the solar spectrum familiar to every kid as the rainbow. We can remember the colors of the rainbow by the memory aid ROY G BIV (Red-Orange-Yellow-Green-Blue-Indigo-Violet) though the colors would appear on the chart backwards from left to right (VIB G YOR). The bars in red on the chart depict the sunlight that reaches the Earth’s surface after passing through the atmosphere from Sun to Earth. The difference between the 5525 K curve and the red bars represents the sunlight that is either absorbed or scattered by the atmosphere. The second chart, “Per Cent”, show the absorption and scattering as a per cent of the total radiation. You will see an inverse correlation between the height of the red bars in the top chart and the percent absorbed in the second chart for the various wavelengths.

Now we can turn our attention to the other side of the Earth’s heat balance equation, the loss of radiant energy into deep space by radiation of infrared energy. This is represented by the violet 310K line (98 deg F), 260K (8 deg F) blue line and 210K black line (-82 deg F). The average surface temperature of the standard atmosphere is taken as 59 degrees F, so the violet line is the most representative of Earth’s surface of the three lines shown. However, having the three lines reinforces the concept that as a body gets hotter or colder, its radiant spectrum changes http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brightness_temperature with the peak wavelength getting longer as the temperature decreases. The peak radiation progresses from ultraviolet through the reversed rainbow (Violet-Indigo-Blue-Green-Yellow-Orange-Red) to infrared as the temperature of the source decreases.

Looking at charts 1 and 2, we see how the outgoing infrared energy of the Earth’s radiant spectrum (e.g. the Earth’s infrared rainbow) is affected by the atmosphere. The blue bars represent the energy which escapes to space, while the dark gray bars on chart 2 show where greenhouse gases absorb or scatter the infrared energy, thereby reducing the amount of energy successfully lost by the Earth. Since the Earth maintains a stable temperature over time (the Global Warming Alarmists suggest the planet has heated an average of only one degree over a century), we can equate the incoming sunlight and the outgoing infrared energy into the global heat balance.

Now let us turn our attention to the third chart, “Major Components”, which separates the atmosphere into its constituent parts of the major greenhouse gasses. It is readily apparent that water constitutes the majority of the total dark gray bars. Being a “greenhouse gas” means that the gas absorbs little of the sunlight but a significant fraction of the infrared. An examination of the three charts shows that water actually absorbs more infrared near the peak of the violet 310K line than carbon dioxide does. For the black 210K line, the peak is in a range where the carbon dioxide absorption is much higher. Hence, carbon dioxide has a stronger relative effect on the polar regions where the temperature gets closer to -82 degrees F, than at the Equator. As an aside, you’ll see that “Rayleigh Scattering” affects the blue end of the solar spectrum, hence the sky is blue because the blue light has been scattered by the atmosphere.

So our conclusion is that the most important greenhouse gas is water and therefore if those dimwit attorneys general had their way it would be classified as an air pollutant because it is a greenhouse gas. This is just another example of how our judicial system is being misused to pervert the Rule of Law. Laws mean nothing if the words used to construct them do not have a fixed, commonly agreed definition. If anyone can make up his/her own definition for the words in the statute, the law becomes infinitely elastic and meaningless. That is why every American school child should revere the name Noah Webster http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noah_Webster for creating a common American dictionary from whence we can create a common American system of laws.

But it is unsurprising that the same liberal attorneys general that want to regulate greenhouse gasses, have little respect for the definition of those words. They wish to legislate from their executive branch positions. They are the same kinds of attorneys who can imagine a “gay marriage” when the definition of that word restricts marriage to a union of a man and a woman. It is long past time that the People re-assert the strict definition of our American language. And this issue is a beautiful example of the perversion of the Rule of Law by out of control liberal state attorneys general.

So let us repeat, those liberal state attorneys general who have filed this idiotic lawsuit want to make pure water an air pollutant. We the People should tell them NO!!!!!!!!!!

America's "Original Sin"??????????

The point that jumped out at me from Barack Obama’s speech was his opening comment about “…this nation’s original sin of slavery…” That sounds like an attempt to induce white guilt, not a transcendence of our racial differences to me. The concept of Original Sin derives from the Garden of Eden where Adam and Eve hade been commanded not to eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. But Eve succumbed to the temptation of the serpent and ate of the forbidden fruit. Adam then followed her example and both then knew the difference between right and wrong. They felt shame for doing wrong and covered themselves with fig leaves. The serpent was condemned by the Lord to slither on its belly eating the dust of the Earth forever. Adam and Eve were expelled from the garden. Ever since, mankind has been burdened with the knowledge of right and wrong. It is an eternal burden. But slavery (as distinct from racism) is not an eternal sin. Indeed, in a world where slavery in various forms had existed throughout recorded history, the United States (and Great Britain) would play leading roles in the abolition of slavery. This process had begun by the time of the ratification of the United States Constitution.I have ancestors who came with John Winthrop to America to build what he described as “a city on a hill”. It is that vision which has inspired generations of Americans. Down through nearly four centuries in America, I cannot identify any ancestor who was a slave owner. How am I to be burdened with Obama’s vision of my “original sin”? While slavery was legalized in Massachusetts in the 1600’s, by the time of the founding of our nation there were no slaves. Here is a link to the 1790 census http://www2.census.gov/prod2/decennial/documents/1790c-02.pdf . Skip forward to page 6 and you’ll see the tabulation of the population by state. It shows that out of a total population of 3,893,635 people, Massachusetts had 378,787 people and no slaves, while its Eastern Territories (present day Maine) had 96,540 people and no slaves. It is also useful to note that the Commonwealth of Massachusetts has a state religion, Congregational, up until 1780 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_religion . The United Church of Christ, to which Mr. Obama’s church belongs, was created in 1957 by the merging of the Congregational Christian Churches and the Evangelical and Reformed Churches http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_church_of_christ . It is the direct lineal descendant from the Pilgrims and Puritans of colonial America. At the time it was founded, it was a White Anglo-Saxon Protestant church. By the time when our constitution was ratified, in Massachusetts and Maine at least, slavery had ended. At the behest of Northern states, the Constitution included a negotiated compromise to end the importation of slaves at a future date, with the intent to end slavery nationwide. And when the intent of that compromise failed to come to fruition, the people supported the Civil War during which the Emancipation Proclamation freed all the slaves. As a measure of the sacrifice by those WASPs from Maine to the abolitionist cause, consider the exploits of the 20th Maine Volunteer Infantry Regiment http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/20th_Maine which played such a pivotal role in the Union victory at Gettysburg on Little Round Top. Without that victory, there might be slavery in the South to this day.So where is my ancestor’s “original sin“ Mr. Obama? I'd say that his plan of government succor to the black population is very much at odds with the independence and Protestant Work Ethic of those who long ago began the process to abolish slavery and who thereby effected real CHANGE.

Secularist Death Match - Darwin v. Global Warming

If you want to provoke the global warming alarmists ask them which they truly believe, chemical evolution or global warming. The two don’t fit together well.

It seems safe to say that most people who believe chemical evolution would consider the Miller-Urey experiment a part of the scientific consensus that supports Darwin's theory of evolution. This was an experiment that created organic chemicals (e.g. amino acids) in a controlled atmosphere of water, methane, ammonia and hydrogen (chemically this is a reducing atmosphere as opposed to an oxidizing atmosphere ). It is from this experiment that the popular conception of life arising from a "primordial soup" arises. The theory proceeds to the first formation of life, then the creation of bacteria, followed by photosynthesis which converted carbon dioxide to free oxygen in the atmosphere and ultimately animal life which converted oxygen back into carbon dioxide through respiration. This balance of photosynthesis versus respiration forms part of the modern carbon cycle.

[From Wikipedia] "Early in the Earth's history—about 3.5 billion years ago—there was 1,000 times as much methane in the atmosphere as there is now. The earliest methane was released into the atmosphere by volcanic activity. During this time, Earth's earliest life appeared. These first, ancient bacteria added to the methane concentration by converting hydrogen and carbon dioxide into methane and water. Oxygen did not become a major part of the atmosphere until photosynthetic organisms evolved later in Earth's history. With no oxygen, methane stayed in the atmosphere longer and at higher concentrations than it does today" (emphasis added).

This raises two quite interesting questions.

1) If the primordial atmosphere contained significant amounts of carbon dioxide and/or methane, wouldn't the global warming effect be extreme? They are two of the most commonly cited greenhouse gases.

2) Where was all the oxygen that currently is found in the atmosphere and oceans sequestered in the primordial atmosphere, in carbon dioxide and water?

The presence of free oxygen would break down the organic chemicals of the promordial soup, so the chemical evolution theory does not allow the presence of free oxygen in th eatmosphere. Yet the current atmosphere is 21% by volume (and 23.15 % by mass) molecular oxygen and 0.0383% by volume (0.0582 % by mass) carbon dioxide. The proposed conversion reaction, photosynthesis, has a chemical formula 6 CO2 + 12 H2O + Photons = C6H12O6 + 6 O2 + 6 H2O.

Simply put, the creation of six oxygen molecules required six carbon dioxide molecules (an equal number) in the primordial atmosphere. Today's atmosphere has a sea level pressure of 14.7 pounds per square inch. That means that there is 3.40 pounds of oxygen in the atmosphere over every square inch of the Earth's surface at sea level (14.7 x .2315), or about 490 pounds per square foot! Even where the surface is at a higher elevation, there is still a significant amount of oxygen (at the peak of Mount Everest, there is about 150 pounds per square foot).

The molecular weight of carbon dioxide is 44, while oxygen is 32. So for every pound of oxygen today, there had to be 44/32 or 1.375 pounds of carbon dioxide in the primordial atmosphere.

That means there was 674 pounds per square foot of carbon dioxide (150 x 1.375) then, while there is only 0.0086 pounds (14.7 x 0.000582) today.

That's almost 80,000 times as much carbon dioxide!!! How's that for global warming? The nearest analog would be the atmosphere of Venus, where surface temperatures are high enough to melt lead and water does not exist in liquid form. (If there was methane, the greenhouse effect would be much higher still. "Methane in the Earth's atmosphere is an important greenhouse gas with a global warming potential of 25 over a 100 year period. This means that a 1 tonne methane emission will have 25 times the impact on temperature of a 1 tonne carbon dioxide emission during the following 100 years."

We also know that today’s oceans include vast amounts of oxygen in chemical combination with hydrogen as liquid water (H2O). Each water molecule consists of one oxygen atom (atomic weight of 16) plus two hydrogen atoms (atomic weight of 1 each). So 89% of the oceans water is oxygen atoms. The combination of seawater and atmospheric oxygen means that there is a huge supply of oxygen at the earth’s surface.

Where was all that oxygen in the primordial era?

The Foster Rubicon Plaque

The Vasty Deep Version 1.1

Wicked Witch: I can call spirits from the vasty deep.
Codger: Why, so can I, or so can any man;
But will they come back when you do call for them?
Wicked Witch: Why I can teach you, cousin, to command the Devil.
Codger: And I can teach thee, coz, to shame the devil---
By telling the truth. Tell the truth and shame the devil.


Shakespeare - Henry the Fourth, Part 1 - Act 3, scene 1, 52-58 with names changed to illuminate the innocent.

Google is a Democratic Party Front which is in constant violation of Federal Election Laws which will allow a prosecution by Patrick Fitzgerald to put all those punkass Zillionaires in jail and transfer their former wealth to the taxpayers!

America's Parting Gift to Iraq

Now that Saddam has been legally convicted, the United States should do the Iraqis a huge favor and reassume custody of him. Then, in a proper public ceremony (where his statue once stood?), he should be executed by the Americans. This would relieve the Iraqis of any blood on their hands and allow the beginning of a reconciliation. The ceremony should be done with style. Perhaps Condoleezza Rice could read the indictment and sentence while dressed in her Dominatrix outfit (you know the one she wore when she first went to Europe - the long black skirt and stilletto heels). And Donald Rumsfeld should give the order to his men! Let Al-Jazeera broadcast that to the Arab world. A single, black woman, sans chador, sending the baddest Arab dictator to his eternal reward of 72 virgins!

P.S. Today is the birthday of the United States Marine Corps

SEMPER FI

PHASE 2 (ADDED 11/17/06) - Now for Iran! They say that every woman is an actress. So she now delivers the word of the Prophet! There is good news and bad. First the good. The prophecy that every jihadi will have 72 virgins for eternity is true. Now comes a bonus! The size of every jihadi's penis will grow to that which he imagines it should be! Now comes the bad news. With a penis that size, no slender virgin can accept it, it is too big. So a bigger virgin must take her place. You know the kind, a Crusader Virgin, Sister Mary Pat!

Climate of Fear: From Nuclear Winter to Global Warming

Here is a link to another article published on The American Thinker.

Climate of Fear: From Nuclear Winter to Global Warming

Actual Numbers vs. Per Capita

I received a comment which dealt in a per capita extropolation of the murder rate in Chicago vs. American losses in Iraq. I disagree with the concept because it wasn't consistent in populations. The key here is the actual numbers and the groups to which they apply. Put simply, the comment indicated 2.9 American deaths per day in Iraq (which includes accidents & suicides). Currently Chicago has about 1.3 murders per day. Add in traffic accidents and suicides and roughly as many Americans die violently every day in Chicago as in Iraq. But at least the military deaths in Iraq are part of an effort to build something better for the future. Most Chicago murders are gangbangers offing one another. And we do not suggest giving up and exiting the city of Chicago because of the violence.

Put another way, as many Americans die violent deaths per day in Chicago (with only 1% of the total population), as the whole country loses per day in Iraq. Would the commentator figure Chicago is 100 times more dangerous than Iraq? Should we withdraw from Englewood?

Here are some per capita comparisons that are consistent.

It is about as dangerous per capita to be a gangbanger in Chicago as to be a U. S. serviceman in Iraq.

Per capita, more Chicagoans are murdered each day, than Chicago servicemen die in Iraq.

It is more dangerous to be a Chicagoan than to be an American citizen.

Edit 8/26/06 Here is a related story from the Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/25/AR2006082500940_pf.html

Iran's Electric Power Grid

I have a suggestion for the Iranian people, at midnight April 30- May 1, they should turn on every electric light they own. Why? To answer that question, we need to examine the strategic situation regarding electric power in Iran.

The one undisputed fact is that Iran has inadequate supplies of electric power. The justification President Ahmadinejad gives for their nuclear program is the generation of electric power. Our concern is their potential perversion of a peaceful program into a weapons program. America has supported peaceful generation of nuclear power since Dwight Eisenhower’s “Atoms for Peace” program in the 1950s! There is plenty of common ground. And we have supported the EU3 process, including Russia’s offer to perform all the necessary enrichment on Russian soil. What we cannot accept is an Iranian nuclear weapon. One advantage we have is that it is clear the people prefer the benefits of an American technology, the electric light bulb (Thank You, Thomas Edison!), over the mullah’s medieval philosophy.

So the Iranian people are the key audience for this debate. What is the best way for them to get the electric power they want and deserve? Should Iran defy the United States and the international community by enriching uranium to build a unilateral nuclear capability? Or should they agree to using reprocessing capability in Russia or elsewhere and re-join the family of nations? The question before the world is whether the Iranian people have a real voice in that decision.

Repressive governments try to intimidate their populace into acquiescence. A real people’s hero, such as “The Tank Man of Tiannemen Square”, are quite rare. There is evidence that the people were dismayed by the lack of real choice they had in their recent presidential election. There seems to be a split between what the mullahocracy is doing and what the people want. We need to find a way to encourage ordinary Iranians to seize the initiative and assert their authority. They need to find their courage. This is where the maxim, “there is safety in numbers” comes in. The simple act of turning on an electric light is well within any individual’s power. Yet the sudden illumination of the Iranian night sky would be a clear sign of their collective desires and political power! It would be a vote of the people for international cooperation and a renunciation of nuclear enrichment.

There would also be some delicious ironies in such an act on May Day! The repressive governments in Beijing & Moscow, which have been reluctant to confront Ahmadinejad, would hate to see a resurrection of the civil defiance reminiscent of Tiannemen Square, especially on May Day. The people of Iran could strike a blow for civilization and repressed people everywhere! And it does mark the end of the 30 day period for Iranian compliance with the IEAE mandate to cease enrichment activities. How could China and Russia resist sanctions on a defiant Iranian government if the Iranian people voted for them?

This could be America’s peace offering, the carrot in a carrot or stick choice that Iran faces. Clearly, the stick would entail denial of electric power to a regime intent on developing nuclear weapons. But this is the time to try peaceful means. Let’s give them a chance to proclaim their desire to live in peace.

Spring Has Sprung

I have received some e-mail about my absence. It's simple, spring has sprung and with it sailing season has started. So I have become quite involved with instruction of both adults and children. Our Junior fleet class has 29 kids, mostly between the ages of 6 and 10.

Additionally, I have become interested in the thought of bringing the Bill of Rights to traffic court. I was given a totally bogus ticket for "disobeying a no passing zone" during a snow storm. The officer gave me the ticket while driving in the two eastbound lanes of a divided four lane highway! I am fighting it in court! To make his case believeable to the judge, the cop mis-reported our position by twelve miles. The whole thing stinks, but the conventional wisdom is that, in traffic court, you're guilty until proven innocent. It is an interesting question, how to level the playing field? When I asked for the video from the cop's SUV and that of his backup's SUV, it seems there is none. Once again the cynicism of the public was validated! Court date is July 5.

For those of you with an interest in our science questions, you could look back in the comments section of www.sailingscuttlebutt.com archives in late April for some good questions, such as our favorite about how the Blue Angels fly upside down. Watch some of the world's best sailors make fools of themselves! They never really got the Panama Canal question right, so here it is. Should the Panamanians worry about water usage due to the transit of individual yachts through the Panama Canal? Obviously, they displace much less water than ships do. So is there a problem? (Hint - Is the water in the canal salty, fresh or brackish?)

Washington's Cruiser Flag

Click above for a link to an animated Washington's Cruiser Flag for sale. It owes a great deal to the inspiration of those citizens of Machias who captured the Margaretta & Diligent. Indeed the pine tree symbolizes the Liberty Pole that had been erected in town, that caused Britain's Lt. Moore to lose his temper. The rest, as they say, is history.

A Day's Work For A Day's Pay?

Lots of good stuff over at Regime Change Iran (click above). I have posted several comments on items in Wednesday's daily brief. I suggest dog training Hezbollah for instance. But I think my favorite is the Forward Air Controller (Woman With Cell Phone) - FAC(WWCP). Go there and read it! It's under the Iran-Chavez alliance item.

My editor at www.americanthinker.com did not publish it (he's got all sorts of contributors, so space is tight), but he told me he thinks it's funny. And be sure to catch my idea there "A Modest Proposal" http://americanthinker.com/comments.php?comments_id=1977 . Let's see, I've been picking on Hezbollah, the Mullahs, Hugo Chavez and the Democrats. I guess that's enough for one day!

Ciao for now!

Air Travel Security Basics

I've been kind of busy the last few days, especially with having to replace my car's ignition switch. But I did get some things done. I have been thinking about how we need to take charge of our own security. How about we start arming ordinary citizens with walking sticks? Think about it! When I just logged on, the news said that now we're going to ban cigarette lighters on airplanes. How about putting two walking sticks into every row of seats along the aisle. Then if any terrorists try to take over the passengers can beat them to death!

And in rural counties we do the same thing. Think of the money we'd save by eliminating all those Barney Fife's with next to nothing to do except set up speed traps to fund the county government budget! Put walking sticks on every corner in town. When you see a suspicious stranger, whack him a good one!

DON'T TREAD ON ME!

A Soldiers' Guide To Machias Privateer 2004 Edition

I’ve been a bit busy posting at Blackfive.net regarding Army vs. Marine policies. It seems possible that an army type will wander over here, so I’ve have assembled this list of topics that touched on the U.S. Army in 2004 alone! It will be a quick guide to what I’ve said about them, for very busy people. I have tried not to ignore the fine service of the U.S. Army.
This was my fourth post. It deals with the nature of the enemy we faced in Iraq.
This deals with modern explosives, a subject that would hit the headlines in the election campaign.
This introduces us to The Questing Cat, Combat Life Saver.
This explains my devotion to things naval (it‘s family tradition).
This is my link between Chicago gangs and Iraqi insurgents based on the reports by Annie Sweeney.
This re-affirms my trust in The Questing Cat.
This explains my idea for a South West Asia Treaty Organization.

The "Senior Service"?

Click above for a link to a discussion of a new movie about OIF and the debate on whether it will show the Army or the Marines in a better light (this before the movie has been released!). I have received an edited copy of my previous remarks back from the editors of Proceedings, so they may yet get published, but you've seen them already! Here are my comments on the latest debate at BlackFive...

"Speaking as a civilian, I would suggest you consider the difference in style between the way the Marines and the Army entered Baghdad.

The Marines walked in and then brought up their vehicles to help the Iraqis tear down Saddam's statue.

The army sent its armor on high speed "Thunder Runs" down the highway from the airport to the Green Zone. Two years on, that bit of road is still one of the most dangerous in all Iraq.

So in the light of experience, which proved more effective; walking or driving?

As for the Army being the "Senior Service", back when the Continental Army was truly an 'army of one' (the extraordinary Gen. George Washington) the militiamen of Machias captured H.M.S. Margaretta June 12, 1775 (many days before Bunker Hill) and delivered her crew to the general. They evidently enjoyed it so much they promptly went out and captured another, along with its tender! Knowing a good thing when he saw it, General Washington used his own money to outfit six more privateers, known as Washington's Cruisers and gave them their own distinguishing flag, which can still be bought today! So perhaps the Navy has true claim to being "The Senior Service"!

But who cares today, when we're all part of DOD?"

All of you already know this story and that Gen Washington is my eighth cousin eight times removed. But if some Army types should happen by...

WELCOME ABOARD!

Future Queen Camilla's Birthday

Today marks the occasion of the marriage of my very, very distant cousin Prince Charles to Camilla Parker-Bowles. I wish to offer them my congratulations. I particularly wish to honor the bride, who has displayed a traditional loyalty to her lord and liege for about thirty years now, and has done it with a reserve and dignity that can best be described as the traditional “straight upper lip” of British ladies. Such dignity has been sorely missed with the passing of the late Queen Mother Elizabeth, a much beloved figure.

The Weekend Wall Street Journal had an article about the couple which indicated the author, Tunku Varadarajan, thought he should append the honorific “Poor” to Charles' name. Here is what I wrote his editors in response…

“I think you've missed an important point. The Queens Elizabeth I & II did not have the masculine blood lust of Kings. I would hate to be a paparazzi on the day Charles (or his son William) is coronated and no longer subject to maternal restraint! As noted, Great Britain does not have 8th Amendment protection against "Cruel and unusual punishment". One might see the Tower of London restored to its prior prominence, and do you think the public would deny a King avenging his first wife? Revenge is a dish best served cold, and Charles will have had plenty of time to cool off.”

Once he does become King, my advice is to find a British paparazzi who was chasing Diana when she entered that tunnel in Paris and order him confined to the Tower of London for the rest of his life, and he should instruct the guard that if the prisoner should attempt to escape, he should be drawn and quartered! That should help restore a measure of civility to English society! And he should declare that henceforth April 9 shall be celebrated as Queen Camilla’s Birthday with all the pomp and ceremony that once attended the “Queen Mum’s Birthday”. God Save the Future King and Queen of England!

Captain's Quarters Blog

Click above to go to Captain's Quarters for some juicy stuff! I made two posts, one each about Schiavo & Saddam, but check out his ongoing battle with the Canadian government. Those Minnestoans don't take much guff from the Canucks! Go Ed Go!

House Judiciary Committee

My latest thought on the Terri Schiavo case was to contact the House Judiciary Committee (click above for link) and demand they hold hearings asking those involved why she could not get the same level of treatment that we are obligated to provide enemy prisoners of war under the Geneva Conventions. Let's start building the basis for impeachment trials for the judges involved!

A Confession

Click above for today's Regime Change Iran news, especially this post and my comment.

But I must confess, this kicking around of tyrants is quite addicting and fun! They try to puff themselves up and we stick in the needle! SWEET!

June 10, 2005 Will Be Persian Independence Day!

Click above for the latest news at Regime Change Iran. The continuing campaign to reign in the mullahs is meeting with ever more success! Now the opposition has set June 10th as their Independence Day. And 70 million more people will join the Free World!

WELCOME!

The Arcane Art of Machine Politics

Click above for a post of mine that was printed in The American Thinker on Monday. It discusses the changing political environment in the suburbs of Chicago. I'd write more, but I'm so far behind in posting that I'll just put in the link. I'll also update the results of the election later.

Update 3/7/05 4:40 AM - Here is my follow up post at The American Thinker.

My Condolences on the Passing of John Paul II

The Free World lost a fine man with the passing of Pope John Paul II. I offer my Roman Catholic friends my sincere condolences. I would also offer the suggestion that some of their sadness could be lifted by listening to Emmy Rossum sing “Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again” from the soundtrack to the move The Phantom of the Opera. The United States would be well served if we asked her to repeat this outstanding performance at the funeral ceremony for the Pope.
In a powerful combination of the spiritual with a non-denominational sentiment, the song expresses a true emotion. Miss Rossum’s performance is breathtaking and was performed when she was only eighteen years of age, a remembrance of the Pope’s connection with the world’s youth. Be sure to listen to an excerpt from it (track 4 on disc 2) by clicking here and selecting the eleventh sample.

The Impossible Dream

Those of us old enough to remember the Broadway show, Man of LaMancha, know the song "The Impossible Dream". It seems our fight to save Terri Schiavo was such a dream. But the honor is in the effort more than the result. We fought a good fight. We did our best. This is the third time I have been involved in a situation where someone's life was in doubt and I went to the rescue, but failed. Time taught me that lesson. So be of good cheer, all my fellow fighters. That which does not kill you makes you stronger! For the record, here is a copy of my last email on her behalf, written to the publisher of the newspaper, Florida Today...

" When is someone in Pinellas Park going to call 911 for an ambulance to take Terri Schiavo to the emergency room where all the speculation about her medical condition can be answered?

Her husband has failed her.
Her parents have failed her.
The courts have failed her.
The politicians have failed her.
The mayor of Pinellas Park has failed her.
The Pinellas Park Board has failed her.

So will the people of Pinellas Park be the last to fail her?

It is your police department that has blocked aid to her.
It is your ambulance that is legally obligated to take anyone with life threatening conditions to the hospital.

So who will dial the phone? The number is 911!

How can you all be so cruel? The poor woman has been kept cooped up in a room for years. You would take a newly born child, bundle her up, put her in a stroller and take her for a walk in the sunshine. Why can't you put Terri Schiavo in a wheelchair and walk her to the emergency room? Why you'd even take a dog for a walk in the sun, but can't find it in your hearts to do the same for a woman?

DIAL 911!"

Capt. Maynulet's Conviction As Teaching Moment

Over at Blackfive (click above) there is a discussion of the conviction of Army Capt. Manulet. I recommend you go there and read it all. I have two posts, this is the second, written in response to some other comments posted there...

"Every day on America's highways over 100 people die violent deaths. We can infer that police officers find grievously wounded Americans, fated to die. We do not sanction the police officer using his weapon to apply the coup de grace in the name of "mercy"! The question of right or wrong is easy, he was wrong.
But that leads us to the question of why did he not understand he was wrong. Firstly, because the decision he had to make was above his pay grade. That is why he was trained not to do what he did. That is why we have a chain of command. He acted with indiscipline! However, there are many mitigating factors. It seems overly harsh to punish him when ogres like George Felos have widespread public support! So maybe we should make this a teaching moment.
Acting out of some combination of fear and/or anger, Captain Maynulet did wrong. We need to strengthen our training to prevent a recurrence here and in other situations. For example, there is much to suggest that a similar fear and anger based lack of fire discipline, in those early days of the occupation of Fallujah, inflamed the insurgency. The old Vietnam era Army ethos of "Kill them all and let God sort it out" is not yet dead. Many good soldiers have died in Iraq because of this failing of leadership. Let us resolve to improve the training of our soldiers so that they remember their mission is to preserve "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness", not blast everything in sight."

Update 4/5/05 3:54 PM - Ooops! I have fixed the link. Since this original post, I have made several comments at BlackFive. It got to be a very intense debate. You must read it to get the whole flavor, but the inescapable conclusion is that had Terri Schiavo been an enemy POW, the Geneva Conventions would have prevented the removal of her feeding tube! Captain Maynulet has been ordered dismissed from the Army, the equivalent of the punishment in the old Rin-Tin-Tin TV show, where they cut off a guy's buttons and drummed him out of the cavalry.

Let The Sun Shine In!

I have tried a few ways to rescue Terri Schiavo. My latest foray was to email Gov. Bush and ask him to have the state attorney general threaten the mayor and board of Pinellas Park with negligent homocide if they don't call off their police force and send an ambulance to take her to an emergency room. Once she gets to a hospital, she will be given basic life support while her current medical condition is evaluated. If her parents are correct, that should save her life.

In the mean time, I sent them an email asking they dress her up, put her in a wheelchair and take her for a walk! Apparently, the poor woman has not been outside in years! Let her breathe fresh air! Let the sun shine down upon her! Let nature give her life!

Update 3/30/05 11:45 AM - Once they have her wheelchair outside, they should roll her to an emergency room! Let the cops try to stop her in front of the TV cameras! Let her visage shine forth for all to see on worldwide live TV feeds! Push back the forces of darkness & death!

Rioting at Iran-Japan Soccer Match

Click above to get the latest at Regime Change Iran. Today's news (3/25) reflects increasing unrest as the people take to the streets. I've posted a few ideas for a plan of action. Here is an update on the situation
http://regimechangeiran.blogspot.com/2005/03/update-on-protests.html


GO PERSIANS, GO!!


(For new Persian readers of Machias Privateer, here is the link to the story of the capture of the Margaretta from the British on June 12, 1775) http://machiasprivateer.blogspot.com/2004/10/launching-october-24-2004.html

Terri Schiavo's Last Chance

My suggestion is to prepare a divorce petition for Terri Schiavo and challenge her to make her "X". If she is sufficiently sentient to understand that this is the only way to save her life, we can assume she'll try her best. If she succeeds, she has an argument to make in court. If she fails, then her husband's position that she is not sentient is correct. Let her prove she wants to live!

Update 3/26/05 1:33 AM - It seems the judicial string is played out, unless there is compelling physical evidence that Terri Schiavo wants to live. I hope they try to get her to sign her name and then take the evidence before a judge. If she succeeds, we can rejoice. If she fails, then we can take comfort that her sacrifice will help others in the future. So just as we accept losses of our military men & women in Iraq for a future good, we will accept the loss of Terri. Already, she has made a difference. So whatever happens, Godspeed - Terri Schiavo!

Today's Iran Update

Here is the most interesting post at Regime Change Iran today...

"Intelligence sources claim Iran has developed a new liquid fuel version of the Shihab-3 that can travel significantly farther than previous models and carry a much larger warhead. The Shihab-3A reached a range of 1,700 kilometers, by far the longest distance of the missile."

I added a comment about the "South West Asia Painted Desert of Glass". Got in a reference to Dale Chihuly too ( www.chichuly.com ! This blogging is such fun!

Update 3/24/05 6:33 AM - Added more comments at RGI to the post which begins...

"The EU3/Iran negotiations were supposed to conclude with this final round of talks. Iran had even threatened to restart its enrichment program if the talks didn't produce the results they were looking for. Instead we are told, "The tone of the meeting was positive," said Iran's UN Ambassador and that they are scheduling more talks soon."

I gave them a link to "The Onion" and let them see that the U.S.S. Carl Vinson is on station in the Persian Gulf and preparing to do the will of the President of the United States!

Life Intrudes

Regular readers will note that I've been posting less than normal. Real life has intruded! However, I am mulling a unified theory of cardiovascular disease. I am considering describing blood as an emulsion of a lipid mixture and an electrolyte (sort of like oil & vinegar). Reliable measures of the state of the blood might predict the likelihood of a heart attack and could be derived from viscosity and pH measurements. It is coming along pretty well, but requires a lot of thought, which leaves less time for blogging! If you have any thoughts on the matter, post a comment.

Shah Pahlavi's Revenge

Click above for another great story at Regime Change Iran. It details all the arguments and counter-arguments for war with Iran. Once again I've added two comments. The first deals with our ability to use Standard 3 anti-ballistic missiles on our navy ships in the gulf to counter any future Iranian nuclear attack on us or Israel. The second details with a plan to re-use destroyers originally built for the Shah as our second strike, nuclear counterforce to Iran's nuclear ambitions. They fire just one nuke our way and we turn them into Mullah Flambe Nuculaire!

Update 3/23/05 5:29 AM - Corrected spelling to Pahlavi. Thanks to Tom Lifson of the American Thinker who also linked to this post. Be sure to check today's Regime Change Iran for even more news and two more of my comments!

Iran's Mullah Rats Dig Tunnels, I'm a Terrier!

Click above for an old post at Regime Change Iran. They have a story about how Iran is digging tunnels to protect their enrichment capabilities from "bunker busters". I accidently pulled up this post and decided to make some new comments! I had noted that we could always use a Trident 2 D-5 "silo buster" to defeat the tunnels. Go there and read all three comments. So, just as Scylla & Charybdis was the central bulletin board for Rathergate legal affairs, I've decided to encourage making Regime Change Iran the bulletin board for defeating Iran's mullahs. Keep up the good work!

Update 3/22/05 5:37AM - Corrected date of original RGI post and made a general revision to this post.

Pushing Forward in Iran & North Korea

Click above for the latest negotiating posture of Iran as reported on RegimeChangeIran. Here is an excerpt...

"Iran's top nuclear negotiator, Hassan Rowhani, said the Islamic Republic's nuclear negotiators have definitively and officially told Europeans that Iran will never accept a permanent halt to its enrichment programme."Iran's negotiating team has openly told Europeans Iran will not accept a permanent suspension of uranium enrichment and this is Iran's definitive and official position." Rowhani said Wednesday to the members of Experts' Assembly of clerics who appoint the supreme leader of the Islamic Republic. READ MORE

He asked Europeans not to be influenced by political pressures from the United States and "not to disrupt the confidence-building process between two sides", state television reported.The two sides are to convene on March 23 for a high-level steering committee meeting, and Tehran hopes to see an agreement on "a formula that recognizes the right of Iran to continue enrichment and lifts the concerns over the Iranian nuclear programme", Iran's Foreign Minister Kamal Kahrazi told a press conference on Tuesday."In exchange, the Europeans have to give firm guarantees that open the path towards greater cooperation in the fields of politics and investment," Kharazi said."

Note my comment in the comments section! I have a counter offer for Iran, a Trident 2 D-5! Meanwhile, in best bi-polar negogiating style, I have a "kill them with kindness" offer for the North Korean people to abandon their leader and surrender in return for food, blankets and seeds to grow more food (e.g. Tsunami relief, American style).

WHICH DO THEY WANT, THE GOOD PRIVATEER OR THE ENRAGED PRIVATEER? AND THEY WONDER WHERE THE U.S. MARINES GOT THEIR "YOUR BEST FRIEND OR YOUR WORST ENEMY" MEME!

The Shame of Irish Tribalism

Yesterday, in Washington D.C., we saw two examples of Irish tribalism and how it causes so much trouble! The first was the visit to The White House by the five McCartney sisters of Belfast. Their brother was brutally murdered by the IRA, which has since tried to impose the Irish version of "omerta", the code of silence, on the 70 witnesses present! The world, and even some Catholics in Northern Ireland, is outraged. And support for the IRA in such useful foolish circles as Teddy Kennedy's has dried up.

Meanwhile, Irish-American Mark McGwire was telling a Congressional committee that he would not tell them about other player's use of anabolic steroids. He couldn't do that, it would be a violation of "the code of silence". I did not see the movie, but wasn't that a theme in "The Gangs of New York" where violence and thuggish behavior ruled the day and "the code of silence" was the norm? Well, why don't you take your peasant ways and go back where you came from, because in America we have a legal principal known as misprision of a felony. This makes complying with "the code of silence" a crime in of itself. You become a de facto accessory to the crime. I do not know if Northern Ireland has the same type of laws, but if I were in charge there I'd start hauling potential witnesses in for questioning. If I found someone who was present in the bar, I'd charge them and put them on trial for misprision of a felony before a jury of voters (many of whom will belong to other "gangs" and might like to see an IRA sympathizer rot in gaol)! We'll see how long the "code of silence" holds up under threat of imprisonment!

The Glory Days in Liberal Arts College

A young lady of my acquaintance recently graduated early from college with a liberal arts degree. While she waits for the next school year to begin at graduate school, she is looking for a job. This has left her with time on her hands and a chance to reflect. There’s the rub! She has been asking her friends if they know of any jobs that are available. They have a habit of asking, in turn...

“What do you want to do?"
“What do I want to be? I don’t know. Maybe become a writer,” she replies.
“Have you written anything. Do you have anything in mind?”

These questions draw a complete silence.

The dilemma of a liberal arts degree! After spending her life being subject to the demands of her parents, she went off to college and got her freedom, but at a cost of tens of thousands of dollars per year. Her parents’ and grandparents’ money bought her the attention of all those professors. She was the paying customer, to whom they deferentially paid homage. She was a queen. Now it’s back to reality! To be a writer in the “Real World” she first has to write something and then has to sell it! Oh, those awful corporations aren’t just begging her to allow them to pay her for her writings!
Presumably, a similar revelation is about to hit the rest of this year’s crop of liberal arts graduates. Unlike their science and engineering colleagues, they do not have a clear marketable skill. So they muddle around until they find something they can do that people will pay for. They’ll go into teaching or advertising or low paying newspaper jobs. Anything that will help pay off those college loans. And they will spend the rest of their lives reliving the glory days, when the world was at their feet, back when they were in college!

Iranian Revolution Redux

As usual there is much excitement and news at Regime Change Iran (click above). They note that the OPEC oil ministers are meeting in Iran. I posted a comment with a modest suggestion. The Iraqis should take the OPEC ministers hostage until they get a democratic government!

Yes, I know, it's just the imp in me coming out again! :-)

Banda Aceh Relief Operation Goes Native

Click above for the PACOM article on the departure of USNS Mercy dated March 16...

"U.S. Navy hospital ship USNS Mercy and German military units will leave Aceh, concluding relief efforts in Indonesia's westernmost province, the area hardest hit by the Dec. 26 earthquake and tsunami.
The departure is taking place as the Indonesian government plans to start reconstruction this month in the province, where more than 220,000 people were killed or are missing after a magnitude 9 earthquake unleashed waves that destroyed coastal areas in the Indian Ocean and killed more than 270,000 people in 12 countries.
The San Diego-based hospital ship is leaving Banda Aceh waters today, concluding six weeks of humanitarian efforts and health services ashore and afloat, the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta said in an e-mailed statement today. As many as 19,512 medical procedures, including 285 surgeries were performed on the ship since it arrived on Feb. 2, the statement said."

One wonders where the French aircraft carrier Charles DeGaulle is at this moment. Last projected ETA was April Fool's Day, so they should arrive about two weeks after the last partygoers went home. If I remember my schoolboy French lessons correctly (it's been over four decades ago) Qu'elle domage!

The National Anthem Project

Long time readers will remember my post of 1/23/05 regarding the complete lyrics to the National Anthem. I’m glad to announce my support for a new initiative, The National Anthem Project. I will be joining some great company:

Honorary Chairperson – First Lady Laura Bush
The American Legion
Girl Scouts USA
National Association for Music Education
The Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History
The History Channel
The Walt Disney Company
And many others.

Be sure to join the project! You can start by clicking for the original post to see the full lyrics to "The Star Spangled Banner".

Re-unification of the Chinese People

It seems the Chinese have voted to try to resist Taiwan's desire for freedom. Click above for the full story. I have a proposed solution, but a little history first. The island was called Formosa and its people the Formosans. After the Communists prevailed in the post-WW II civil war, the Nationalist Chinese moved to Formosa and pushed aside the Formosans in matters of government.

So here is my proposal.

1) The Chinese Communists hold a free and fair election for Premier of China putting up their candidate against a Nationalist Chinese candidate currently living on Formosa. The winner becomes Premier of China! A rematch of the civil war, but at the ballot box not the point of a gun!

2) Formosa holds a free and fair election for Premier of Formosa.

2) The new Premier of China enters into negotitations with the new Premier of Formosa to decide the Taiwanese question. Should they combine into one nation? Should they remain separate nations? Should the Nationalist Chinese return to their native land and leave Formosa to the Formosans?

LET THE PEOPLES SPEAK!

Planning Magic Carpet II

On the wall of the marines' conference room hangs a sign quoting Lawrence of Arabia. "Better the Arabs do it tolerably than you do it perfectly," it reads in part. "It is their war, and you are to help them, not to win it for them . . . . " Abizaid drove home the same point. "The hardest thing your successors need to do is take their hand off the wheel. What we have to do is set the Iraqis in front to fight the insurgency," he told the marines. "The insurgency will go on long past the time we are gone."

The above quote (hat tip Discarded Lies) should be emblazoned on the standing orders of every American in Iraq! We need to plan on the Iraqis succeeding in forming a new democratic, constitutional government in elections this November, and then American forces leaving for home with the intent to be home by Christmas. That should be our explicit plan. We can always modify the plan to extend the tours of our forces there if something goes wrong. But planning on keeping our original war plan will build confidence that we keep to our word, put pressure on the Iraqis to settle their differences while we are still there, and totally undermine the perception that we intend to be an occupying power. It would tend to become a self-fulfilling prophesy.

Operation Magic Carpet was the program to bring our troops home from Japan after the surrender in September 1945. We should begin planning a similar program to bring our troops home from Iraq in late November to early December 2005.

P.S. We can always include an option to "retreat" through Iran, if things don't go well at the UN!

Nobody Asked me But...

The March 2005 issue of Proceedings from the U.S. Naval Institute has an article on pp 92-94 by Lt. Col. Gian Gentile, U.S. Army, entitled "The Army Can Fight Small Wars, Too" with which I have several disagreements. Proceedings has a regular feature column entitled Nobody Asked Me But... Here is my submission to the editor.

"I was quite disappointed by Lieutenant Colonel Gentile’s attitude regarding critiques of the Army’s performance in Iraq. He simply put on a historical rant to deflect criticism from the Army. As a civilian, here are some of my observations.

Attitude - The Marines have a clearly superior attitude toward the men from their officers. This is a natural outgrowth of their historical commitment to being a volunteer organization. The Army is a top down hierarchal organization. In the Marines, it is “Every man a rifleman”. In much of the Army, it is “Rank has its privileges”. To give Colonel Gentile a little perspective, I suggest he compare the disciplinary methods of our Army compared to the Russian Army. He would likely be appalled to have the corruption, beatings, bribery etc, in his Army. Why? Because the Russian army is built on an outdated model of attrition warfare. Our Army has been forced out of that model by the end of the draft. But the future is clear, an all volunteer force with respect for each individual. The Army’s tagline “An Army of One” can’t be just an advertising slogan.

Fire Discipline - Col. Gentile would do well to read Bing West's book, The Road Up, Taking Baghdad with the 1st Marine Division. In it he relates a story of a tanker taking aim on a solitary mujahadeen and dispatching him with a single .50 caliber round. Note that he did not spray him with a full automatic burst or the main gun! Things got really bad in Fallujah when the Army sprayed the crowd with automatic weapons fire. Widespread complaints of indiscriminate fire were common, but undressed. Soon Fallujah became the center of an insurgency. It is also worth noting that it took Marines walking in Baghdad to encourage Iraqis to tear down the statue of Saddam on worldwide television. They only intervened to help the Iraqis when it became obvious that they could use a little help. If you want to win hearts and minds, you need to understand the common desire to say “Please Mom, I’d rather do it myself.” But accommodated such desires is quite difficult if your mindset is a top down hierarchy. And do you want to talk about which service the Abu Ghraib jail guards belonged to?

Creature Comforts- The Marines fought their way to Baghdad. The Army drove largely unopposed through an open desert. The main drama they encountered until they reached Baghdad was a sandstorm. Meanwhile, the Marines had to sit around cooling their heels while they waited for the Army to catch up. Do you think you could afford to travel a little lighter next time Colonel?

Clearance Operations - The simple truth is that the Marines led the way in subduing potentially hostile populations. Who was it that defeated the Sadr militia Colonel? It was Iraqis backed by overwhelming Marine firepower used only when needed. And Fallujah fell when the Marines went in backed by Army cavalry units and Air Force airpower.

Summary - I would suggest to the Colonel that the Army has much to learn from the Marines conduct of Operation Iraqi Freedom, rather than the Marines learning from some ancient army operation in the Philippines."

Update 3/13/05 - Corrected book reference from Gen. Mattis to Bing West.

Dictators Can't Stand To Be A Laughingstock!

Today’s Regime Change Iran has a post “Down With Stability” here is my comment…

“The Onion has an article “Bush Announces Iraq Exit Strategy: We’ll Go Through Iran”. The statement reads “coalition air units will leave forward air bases in Iraq and transport munitions to undisclosed locations in Iran. After 72 to 96 hours of aerial-bomb retreats, armored-cavalry units will retreat across the Zagros mountains in tanks, armored personnel carriers, and strike helicopters. The balance of the 120,000 troops will exit into the oil-rich borderlands around the Shatt-al-Arab region within 30 days.” (Note - The editor has it on the authority of BlackFive that the exit strategy actually includes American troops withdrawing from Afghanistan to the west!)

NEWS FLASH!!!
Washington D.C. - In an effort to beat the U.S. Army in its campaign to liberate Iran, the U.S. Navy announced today at 17:51 EST (2251Z) that it had targeted the Iranian tunnels used for nuclear fuel enrichment with Trident 2, D-5 silobusters and that they are holding the town of Isfahan hostage until the mullahs agree to hold a referendum on ending the theocracy in favor of a democratic government. Until such time as the mullahs agree to this demand, the U.S. Marines stationed aboard the U.S.S. Bonhomme Richard in the Arabian Gulf (nee Persian Gulf) will board and detain any oil tankers bound for China to search for weapons of mass destruction being smuggled back out of Iran & Iraq. All vessels found to be in violation of United Nations resolutions will be impounded, directed to a U.S. port and their cargo sold by authority of the Admiralty Court. Any remaining disputes will be referred to the World Court and the offenders will be put under an arrest warrant. The matter will then be sent to The World's Policeman, George W. Bush for action!

GO NAVY, BEAT ARMY!”

China - Will You Control Your Brat or Will I Have To?

Click above for today's update on Iran at Regime Change Iran. They still seem to be a bit feisty. And elsewhere we heard that China was threatening Taiwan. Well, threatening is a two way street. Here is the text of my comment at Regime Change...

"So Mr. Mullah, now that we've established you cannot force the closure of the Straits of Hormuz, would you like to talk about the Straits of Mollucca? It seems the U.S. has new friends in Indonesia who might be willing to impose a "toll" on tanker traffic destined to China. And the Indonesians could use the money to repay the generosity of their friends in Japan & Taiwan, "The Coalition of the Willing Donors", if you will. and unlike the weak Islamic pirates of old, we could establish a tollbooth police department of a U.S. Marine MEU(SOC) with an Admiralty court to sell impounded offender's tankers (i.e. We'd have a way to "Fence" the stolen oil).So the question to you & the Chinese is, do you think 1 billion Chinese people want to go back to being coolies?"

Now our official policy in peace is open navigation of the high seas with free innocent passage through the straits of the world. But that does not abnegate the rights of a country to its territorial waters entirely. After all, you want to charge tolls for passage through the Panama Canal don't you? And if the Canal were closed, who would be hurt the most? All those shipments of cheap Chinese manufactured goods destined for the American East Coast markets? Why if that traffic were disrupted, we'd have to re-open American factories and provide manufacturing jobs at reduced wages to former union employees who had gotten too big for their britches, but were now willing to take any paying job!

Welcome Home, heroes of Tsunami Relief!!! BZ

Remember F-Troop?How it is possible to become a leader by standing still while everyone else takes one step back? Well the Blue Staters have just handed the Red Staters a victory!

While they and their useful idiot friends in the mainstream media were telling us how noble Bill Clinton was to let George H. W. Bush sleep in the only bed on their plane while he slept in his chair or on the floor (Wow, making a tiny sacrifice for an 80 year old war hero!), The Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group returned to its home port of Everett, Washington on Friday (click above for video press release) after flying off her carrier air wing CVW-2 off San Diego. You know the Abraham Lincoln Strike Group don't you?

HEROES OF TSUNAMI RELIEF AT BANDA ACEH!!

WELCOME HOME! WHAT YOU DID IN OUR NAME MAKES ALL OF US VERY PROUD! BRAVO ZULU!

Update 3/10/05 6:28 AM - A picture is worth 1000 words, so here are 2000 words worth of good news.
The Lincoln approaching home port.
The Lincoln safely home!

Iranian Students "Referendum Yes, Elections No"

Here is one post from Regime Change today (with minor spelling corrections - click above for the whole blog)...

"Iranian presidential candidate, Dr. Moein, faced a barrage of protests by students in Isfahan university yesterday. At the beginning of the proceedings, the Islamic Republic anthem was played, but the students instead of singing the official state anthem, stood up and sang the alternative nationalist “Ey Iran” anthem.

Many of the students held placards saying “Referendum Yes, Elections No” which referred to the futility of pre-selected elections in Islamic Republic and what the people of Iran really want, a referendum for the drafting of a new constitution that is compatible with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and all its associated covenants. read more

Other placards, displayed slogans such as “Reform Died”, “Bread, Freedom, Equality”. The proceedings ended without a single display of support for Dr. Moein’s candidacy. In another university in Mashad, North East Iran, the students turned the Student Publications Ceremony Day to a demonstration against the Islamic Republic and even kicked out president Khatami’s Health Minister from the ceremony. More than a thousand students took part in the protest and took control of the podium for more than an hour, expressing similar demands to the students in Isfahan..

Islamic Republic News Agency, ILNA reported the incident and quoted the angry Health Minister, Pezeshkian as saying “These were not real students, they say they want democracy and yet they disrupted the ceremony and kicked me out” Khorasan Daily, reported the incident by saying “Such disruption and controversy during a university ceremony was unprecedented.”

I added this comment...

"Isfahan university? That's Ground Zero for the effort to disarm Iraq's nuclear weapons ambitions! That is the center of the Trident 2 target zone. No wonder the students are feeling the need to rebell against the mullahs. They want to live! Very smart! They must have learned something in school, something not taught in the Islamic schools! That the original American flag read "Don't Tread on Me!" and showed a picture of a coiled rattlesnake!

It's Spinach Time!

There is an unbelievable quote at Regime Change Iran (hat tip Adventures of Chester) from the Secretary of the Iranian Security Council, Hasan Rouhani. He thinks the U.S. does not have the ability to attack Iran!!! Here is the comment I posted there…

“It's spinach time! Everyone who is familiar with Popeye the Sailor knows where we are.

"I've had all that I can stands, I can't stands no more"!

So we should give the residents of the city (surrounding their 1/2 mile deep tunnel for their enrichment centrifuges) 24 hours to get out of "Dodge" and then turn it into a nuclear cinder! Then we can talk. And if the mullahs lack imagination, we can re-broadcast "Indiana Jones" and let them see us laugh as the crazed scimitar wielding, turban wearing nutcase get a .45 slug through the heart.”

It might help if you read my previous posts in chronological order #1, #2, #3 (it's about North Korea but applies to Iran also), #4, #5, & #6. I’ve tried to be reasonable. Even offered “Atoms for Peace”! But the message has not gotten through. So for the last time, I recommend they read the story of Colonel Benjamin Foster and the men of Machias, Maine here & here.

Update 3/7/05 6:17 AM - I noticed that I had failed to include a reference to the tunnel post at Regime Change Blog. Here is the partial text of my comment there (with minor corrections)...

"Impervious to bunker busters? Since Iran is evidently intent on using nuclear blackmail against the whole world as represented by the UN, why not use silo-busters? As in Trident-2 D-5, MARV equipped, SLBMs? Why wait until we face a nuclear oponent while we currently face an asymmetric war with all the advantages?

1)We always end up doing the UN's dirty business anyway.

2)We've already toasted two cities, Hiroshima & Nagasaki.

3)We'll kill fewer people than the Tutsis in Rwanda (or was it the Hutus?).

4)It is easier to ask for forgiveness, than for permission.

5)The number of Americans exposed to hostile fire will be zero.

6) The incremental cost will be zero.

7) And we can always use Iran's oil to buy off the Russians, Chinese & French!"

P.S. The last thing the Iranians want George W. Bush to say is...

"Let's Roll!"

P.P.S. For the unimaginative click here.

"Failed States" Disappearing

A central observation for the success of terrorist organizations has been the plausible deniability of operations in "failed states". Who can we hold responsible if no one is in charge? The Sudan was one such state. And Afghanistan. And Palestine. And now it appears that the Bekaa Valley will be returned to Lebanese sovereignty.

As Queen once put it..."Another one bites the dust!"

Cousin Doug (?) Does It Again!

My likely distant cousin, Doug Hanson, has another brilliant pice in The American Thinker (click above). It seems that the Russians may be deeply involved in all the mischief in Iraq, Syria & Lebanon!

I'm Shocked! Shocked!

The intelligence reports suggest that Russia was the supplier for Saddam's WMD programs, help move them out of the country to Syria and the Bekaa Valley during the early stages of OIF and likely were behind the murder of the Lebanese leader recently, because they feared he had discerned the locations of these WMDs!

Iran Shows Why They're Part of Axis of Evil

Click above for a story (hat tip - Little Green Footballs) stating that Iran has threatened to end all confidence building measures and start processing fuel to make weapons grade material, if the United States succeeds in getting its actions referred to the United Nations Security Council.

What! I thought the whole world wanted the "cowboy" leader" of the United States to act multilaterally through the UN! Why could anyone possibly object? Could it be that they think the HDBTDC Weapon is closer to fruition than they had thought? If it gets used before Iran has a weapon, then they will never get a chance to threaten to "Use it or Lose it". They'll just lose it!

Who's Bluffing Now?

Update 3/6/05 6:23 AM -
I’m going to give my civilian readers a little background on nuclear warfare as taken from the text “The Effects of Nuclear Weapons”, Third Edition, compiled and edited by Samuel Gladstone and Phillip J. Dolan, prepared and published by the United States Department of Defense and the Energy Research and Development Administration…
Table 6.108 on page 267 indicates that a surface burst weapon will collapse “relatively small, heavy, well-designed underground structures” up to 1.25 times the apparent crater radii. Turning to the Nuclear Bomb Effects Computer inside the back cover we discover that the depth of the crater for dry hard rock is estimated at .022 miles (116 feet), the crater radius is estimated at .05 miles (264 feet) and the ejecta radius is estimated at .12 miles (634 feet). So 1.25 times 634 equals 793 feet. (Aside - Does anyone else remember the plan to dig a new sea level canal to replace the Panama Canal with nuclear weapons?)
Now where did that magic 300 kiloton yield number come from? It is the yield for one of the seven Maneuverable Re-Entry Vehicles (MARV) used on the Trident D-5 sub launched ballistic missile carried by the Ohio Class SSBN submarines. Each submarine carries 24 missiles. Way back when the subs were first proposed, the Circular Error Probable (CEP) was 122 meters (400 feet) for the MIRV version. The MARV is more accurate. They weren’t called “silo-busters” for nothing! We could always surface an SSBN close enough for the Iranians to get a good look! Time on target of a couple of minutes!
So here’s the deal. If you don’t want to play nice and you want to defy the whole international community, the United States will volunteer to do the world’s dirty work and shoot the reprocessing equipment out of the bad guy’s hand. It is exactly what you would expect of The Lone Ranger (note the he was a TEXAS Ranger). We know where it is and we have the firepower to accomplish the mission. No bragging here with talk of creating a glow that would let you read your watch at midnight in Teheran! As Joe Friday would put it, “Just the facts”.

Surrender or Die!

Found an interesting letter by Chris Buckley in the American Spectator (click above). Here is my letter in response...

"We should make the grunts of the North Korean Army an offer.

SURRENDER OR DIE (of starvation)!

Tell them they can choose one of the following options

1) Walk home, leaving their posts deserted.
2) Remove their uniform shirt exposing a white t-shirt, walk slowly toward the nearest U.S. or South Korean soldier, and when challenged shout "U-S-A".
3) If they cannot do either of the above, they should find a piece of open ground and arrange some rocks in the form of a "Peace Sign", it sort of looks like a Mercedes hood ornament. We can detect the surrender by satellite.

Once they have all surrendered, we will send in the South Korean troops to take possession and re-unify the country under ROK leadership. Then it is "Miller Time" for U.S. troops, who will be re-stationed in the Good Ole USA! The Korean War will be over. Finally!"

Update 3/4/05 9:35 AM - Added clarifying phrase "(of starvation)" above. The key point here is that we aren't doing anything to the North Korean people that they couldn't resolve by throwing out their dysfunctional government. And they can throw out that government by using their power to refuse to cooperate (think Ghandi, all you pacifists). A small cadre of fanatics cannot control the whole population of the country. So if they hate starving to death, they should turn their hate on the cause of their starvation, their leader!

Bonhomme Richard Group Located!

Click above for Doug Hanson's latest post at The American Thinker (we've decided we aren't second cousins, but probably are distant cousins of some sort).

Be sure to follow his links

http://newshome.news.navy.mil/search/display.asp?story_id=17181

and you'll see pictures of Bonhomme Richard's LCACs in action. These were the photos you did not get during her tsunami relief operations! These craft were the means to transition from exclusively helicopter operations to larger daily deliveries, what I called UPS (hint- search term "fedex" in Jan archives). This was the middle phase in the Fedex to UPS to Semis transition.

French Commandos to Join Coalition of the Bribed?

Via Adventures of Chester - click above for report of French commandos approaching the Eastern Mediterranean! Will wonders never cease!

"March 1, 2005: Without much publicity, France has moved the replenishment ship Var to the eastern Mediterranean. The Var contains facilities for running commando operations, as well as facilities for about 200 commandoes and their equipment. France apparently believes that the situation in Lebanon is going to get out of control. Since World War II, France has been something of a big brother for Lebanon, especially the Lebanese Christians. This particular relationship goes back some 800 years, to the time of the Crusades. Currently, the Lebanese are out in the streets protesting the continued presence of Syrian troops in the country. If France is going to get involved, it won’t be with a lot of troops. But you can do a lot with a hundred or so commandoes. The Var has previously supported French commandoes operating in Afghanistan."

Detecting Nuclear Materials in Shipping Containers - Yes!

Click above for a Chicago Tribune story (Hat dip - Discarded Lies which once again shows excellent technical skills!) that describes a technological advance which will dramatically improve our Homeland Security through the ability to detect nuclear materials in shipping containers

“Scientists at Los Alamos National Laboratory have developed a muon cosmic ray screening device that can accurately detect smuggled nuclear weapons and materials in any vehicle or container, the nuclear lab reported Tuesday.

The device would provide, according to Los Alamos officials, an enormous advantage over X-ray scanning equipment, which can generate dangerous amounts of radiation and cannot penetrate lead containers and other shielding.

Several test models of the scanner have been built and successfully operated, and work on a full-sized prototype has begun, the laboratory said.

Summer completion expected”

Aside to Evariste - Does she ever slow down enough for you to get a word in edgewise? I never heard anything more about Venice!!!

Red Carpet 2006 - Here We Come!

Click above for Bummer Dietz's "Spun Duckie Woo Woo" post with comments! Here is the text of my comment...

"Hey Bummer! It occurred to me that you must be a "people person" as in "have your people email my people". Does everybody in Hollywood think Amy Lumet is a spun duckie woo woo? Do you know her people?Here's the pitch! She produces a remake of her dad's masterwork - "Network II - The Dan Blather Story"! Starring Jon Stewart as "Dan Blather", Faye Dunaway reprises her Academy Award role as "Mary Japes" yadda, yadda, yadda! So do your "people" thing! Have her people email you as my "people"!"

Hopefully, he'll accept my offer. We could be on the Red Carpet next year. Can you see Amy Lumet with the looks of her mom, Lena Horne, the enhanced bust the whole world saw ("Whatta rack" seems to be the consensus opinion) and an Oscar Winning producer!

Need A Laugh?

Click above to link to a new Hollywood celebrity blog with a sense of humor!

Iran's Rubicon

After linking to yesterday’s post Solving Iran, Tom Lifson at The American Thinker expressed some skepticism that Iran could be so vulnerable to internal forces that it “could withstand a serious American invasion of Iran for only a few days”. That, in turn, caused me to email him with a quite different perspective and ultimately this appeared on The American Thinker. So today, let’s carry on our examination of the situation in Iran.

A key point here is that the United states has been patient with the United Nations, indeed too patient. Just as permissiveness spoils a child, American permissiveness with UN bureaucrats has induced unacceptable behavior and a lack of seriousness at Turtle Bay. The United States has a fine history of advancing the cause of peace there. In a speech there on December 8, 1953, President Eisenhower first proposed an “Atoms for Peace” plan, and in his address he proposed that part of the nuclear stockpiles of the world be donated to an international “bank of fissionable materials”. The result in following years was American lending scientific know-how and some fissionable materials to countries seeking to establish experimental reactors or reactors for generating electricity. What we have gotten for our generosity is treachery! Nations have chosen to pervert the concept “Atoms for Peace” by developing nuclear weapons programs in vainglorius pursuit of power (e.g. Degaulle’s France) or to suppress the will of captive peoples (e.g. the USSR) or to make some cash (e.g. France again) or to settle scores with its neighbors (e.g. India & Pakistan) or to defy the will of the international community of nations (e.g. Iraq, Iran, Libya etc. etc.), or to blackmail others into supporting kleptocracy (e.g. North Korea). The ones using it as a deterrent to aggression are few; the United States itself, Britain and Israel come to mind.
There is a lot of pontificating about “international law” at Turtle Bay. The basic right of a sovereign nation is liberty, especially freedom from occupation. Yet on November 4, 1979, Iranian forces occupied the American Embassy in Teheran. It is still occupied! Indeed, the government of Iran has chosen to make it a “museum” dedicated to the day Iran defied the United States. And just as a rebellious child deserves a good spanking, the government of Iran (the mullahs) need their punishment. Just yesterday, the people of Lebanon showed the world what an energized populace can do in the face of the actions of the insolent mullahs of Iran! One could hope that the people of Iran follow an excellent example, in an effort to appease the citizens of the United States of America. Because that invasion of sovereign territory on November 4, 1979 was a causus belli under international law. There is no need for a United Nations resolution to authorize a response. We can wipe the government of Iran off the face of this earth, at a time of our choosing,. That is not the worst President of the United States currently sitting in the White House. It is one of the best. And those American armed forces currently in Afghanistan and Iraq and around the west coast of the Arabian (nee Persian) Gulf and afloat there and the Arabian Sea are the most powerful war machine in history.
Now it is not in the character of the American people to visit the sins of the father on the son. And it has been a generation since the takeover of our embassy. A new generation has come to maturity in Iran and that generation has a choice. We respectfully submit, they better make the right one.

Solving Iran!

I was stunned to watch the “pundits” on the Sunday morning shows discuss the deal between Russia and Iran regarding the supply of nuclear fuel for power plants. I guess it is necessary to be totally technically illiterate to be a pundit. What they all missed is the quid pro quo in the deal, Iran gets processed fuel from Russia in exchange for a equal amount of burned fuel. It’s sort of like the old soda bottle return programs. Or the old Charlie Chan movies, No tickee, no washee!

How would you like to see a program that
1) Supports the people of Iran at the expense of the mullahs?
2) Builds a path toward eliminating Russia’s surplus stocks of weapons grade uranium?
3) Reduces global carbon dioxide emissions?
4) Increases the supply of oil without additional drilling?
5) Prevents war with Iran?

Does any of that sound attractive? Well, how about throwing the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in the waste bin along with the other Cold War Era arms control treaties and start thinking as if we had entered the 21st Century? The treaty hasn’t been working very well anyway! Would you trade a useless treaty for the list of benefits above? If your answer is yes, this is what you need to support.
1) We allow the agreement to go forward subject to a free election in Iran (That puts the mullahs at a disadvantage, they don‘t want free elections because they will lose!).
2) We allow Russia to dilute its surplus of weapons grade uranium to commercial grade fuel and sell it to Iran which burns it, subject to forcing the material to be shipped and inspected by US & UN entities with each having a veto over subsequent shipments for violations of the agreement. Note that shipping spent fuel for reprocessing is quite problematic under the Non-Proliferation Treaty, which is why it has to go.
3) We encourage Iran to generate its electrical needs with nuclear power in lieu of fossil fuels thereby decreasing the amount of carbon dioxide spewed into the air.
4) Item 3 above allows Iran’s oil to be diverted into the world oil market, driving down world spot market prices.
5) By reducing fuel costs for electricity generation, we provide more of it and thereby a more modern standard of living for the Iranian people, fostering democracy and leading to a more friendly, democratic Iran.

So why do you need to be technically competent to understand all this? Simply because the world is driven by economics and the MegaWatthour-electric (MWHe) fuel cost to burn oil in a modern, combined cycle gas turbine power plant with a thermal efficiency of 60% (i.e. state-of-the-art) is essentially equal to the cost of one barrel of oil. If the price of a barrel of oil is $50, the fuel costs to generate one MWHe will be $50. The last time I saw the fuel cost of surplus fuel from Cold war stocks, one MWHe equivalent cost about $23 for nuclear power plants. Over the life of a power generating plant, the difference in additional capital and interest costs for a nuke over a cogen will be dwarfed by the savings in fuel costs. Economically, the facts demand a switch to nuclear power. What holds it up are the touchy-feely worries of the Ecofreaks about meltdowns and the Non-Proliferation Treaty. If you’ve already indicated a willingness to drop the treaty, are you now willing to risk a meltdown in Iran? Even the Sierra Club might sign onto that list of benefits!
Now does this mean we should build Russian reactors in the United States? Of course, not! We want newer, better technology for our new nuclear power plants! Read about one sample of the choices read here.

Calculations: One barrel of oil is 42 US Gallons. Texas crude weighs about 7.286 pounds per gallon and has a heating value of 19,460 BTU/pound. This computes to 567,142 BTU/BBL. Converting from BTUs to KWH we use a value of 3412 BTU/KWH. The result is about 1662 KWH/BBL. At 60% thermal efficiency, we get 997 KWH/BBL. 1000 KWH = 1 MWHe. So rounding off, we need one barrel of oil to generate 1 MegaWatthour of electricity.

Update 2/28/05 8:33 AM -
Welcome www.AmericanThinker.com readers!
Here are some previous posts you might enjoy based on your interests:

Defining Liberalism
Domestic Policy
Humanitarian relief
American History

So browse around and make yourselves at home!