Shame

I read this in the Daily Mail and had to walk away from my computer and right out of my office. When I came back,it wasn't any better.

Soldiers who suffered appalling injuries in Iraq and Afghanistan were verbally abused as they swam in a public swimming pool.

During a weekly rehabilitation class at a council leisure centre, 15 servicemen – including several who have lost limbs or suffered severe burns – were heckled and jeered by members of the public.

One woman was so incensed that the troops were using the pool at Leatherhead Leisure Centre in Surrey that she told them they did not deserve to be there.

She became increasingly abusive, screaming that it was wrong for staff to rope off a lane exclusively for the injured personnel from the nearby Headley Court rehabilitation centre.

The swimmer, thought to be in her 30s, is understood to have said: "I pay to come here and swim – you lot don't."

The abuse was witnessed by 79-year-old Korean War veteran Charles Murrin, who said yesterday: "I could not believe what she was saying.

"The lane was roped off, which they do every week. It wasn't as if the pool was completely closed. Her group had the rest of the pool to swim in.

"She said the men do not deserve to be in there and that she pays money to come in the pool and they don't."

I do not think it is out of place to offer to take up a collection to offer this - for want of a better word - person a refund. So she can go find anther place more conducive to her selfish needs.

I suspect the public pool would be much improved by the removal of certain, unsavory elements. And the wounded soldiers wouldn't have to put up with the vulgar, thankless and ugly trash.

Scary Poppins

When the east wind blows…….. 

Brilliant editing.

Playing Titanic - Update

And the news is that the Canadian eco-tourism cruise ship Explorer has sunk in the waters near Antarctica. (Earlier post here.)

The entire vessel finally slipped beneath the waves Friday evening, about 20 hours after the predawn accident near Antarctica's South Shetland Islands, the Chilean navy said.

No injuries were reported although passengers reportedly endured subfreezing temperatures for several hours as they waited in bobbing lifeboats for a Norwegian liner that took them to a Chilean military base in the region.

"The ship ran into some ice. It was submerged ice and the result was a hole about the size of a fist in the side of the hull so it began taking on water … but quite slowly," said Susan Hayes of G.A.P. Adventures of Toronto, which owns the stricken MS Explorer. "The passengers are absolutely fine. They're all accounted for, no injuries whatsoever."

Throughout the day, Chilean aerial photographs showed the ship listing heavily, its white superstructure and red hull starkly visible against the gray, choppy waters and overcast skies. The navy eventually lost sight of the ship and wreckage indicated it had gone under completely, according to a navy press officer who declined be identified in accordance with department policy.

I am not buying that a fist-sized hole did this. The watertight doors should have limited the flooding to whatever the compartment with a hole that size was in. Something else happened here and the spin doctors are out in force from the company. Earlier reports said that the ship was specifically designed to resist ice. There will be a lot more coming out about this.

Another Thanksgiving Day Dinner That Couldn’t Be Beat….

Yesterday, I roasted a 12-pound turkey for the family. Today we had turkey frame soup. There are still gobs of leftovers. So I cannot imagine how much is left over from this guy's Thanksgiving. He roasted a bit larger turkey.

72 pounds worth, to be precise.

Rich Portnoy roasted his tubby turkey in his 36-inch-wide, chef-caliber oven on Thursday to top the biggest bird his sister had ever cooked by 25 pounds. Andra Portnoy conceded defeat from her Reston, Va., home, but noted that her brother's large oven gave him an edge.

"It actually tastes pretty good!" Rich Portnoy said, gloating a bit after he and two other men pulled the turkey from the oven after 15 hours of roasting……

……This year, Rich Portnoy approached the Minnesota Turkey Growers Association, which helped him find an 85-pound breeding tom that, at 59 weeks old, was near the end of its useful life.

He bought the turkey for $30, loaded the live bird into the back of the family's car and drove it to a processor, where it was made oven-ready at 72 pounds.

I'm a little bit leery about how a monster turkey like that would actually taste. (Portnoy was also a bit cautious, he cooked a backup bird - a midget of only 19 pounds.) Now since this is a family game of one-upsmanship, be on the lookout for his sister Andra in California next year. She'd need a condor to top that thing.

Claus(e) And Effect

In a sign that the times have changed for the worse, the United States Postal Service, which has for many years turned Christmas letters from needy children over to volunteer "Santas" to help the kids out is now requiring all the volunteers to sign waivers. The waiver asks that volunteers release the USPS from any and all liability for, "all causes of action, claims, liens, rights or interests of any kind or type whatsoever."

For nearly 100 years, Postal Service employees have sorted through the Santa letters and passed many on to volunteers, charitable groups and corporations that want to help. Volunteers could call an 800 number to receive information on a deserving child or go online to answer the Santa letters.

This year, for the first time, those volunteers will have to present photo identification and sign a waiver releasing the Postal Service from liability for "all causes of action, claims, liens, rights or interests of any kind or type whatsoever."

There have been no lawsuits or accusations of impropriety.

Some people are, shall we say, less than enthusiastic about the decision:

"This is absurd," says John Andrews, a former president of the Colorado Senate who specializes in tort reform at the Claremont Institute, a conservative public policy think tank in California. "You would think the North Pole is one place on Earth that is safe from the trial lawyers and the litigation experts."

"Operation Santa" has been a voluntary effort by postal workers and people in the community for almost a century. Sadly, I suspect it will go into decline from here on out. Our society is a poorer place because of things like this.

Running Scared In Iowa

The Chicago Sun-Times asks whether Hillary Clinton is running scared in Iowa. Noting the same poll that I did showing Obama very slightly ahead in Iowa, the paper reports that there are signs that the Clinton campaign is becoming worried.

Is Hillary running scared in Iowa? The latest poll from the Washington Post and ABC News shows Barack Obama ahead in the Hawkeye State, slightly in the lead with 30 percent to Hillary Clinton's 26 percent. Although this is statistically a tie — it has been a horse race among Obama, Clinton and John Edwards for the last few months — it is the first poll in months actually showing Obama in the lead.

And Hillary Clinton must be worried.

Over the last few weeks, the New York senator has beefed up her Iowa field staff and opened new offices. She now has 34 offices, compared with Obama's 35.

The difference is Obama started his campaign in Iowa right off the bat, renting dozens of locales for offices and making sure his field workers developed strong relations with the residents in towns and cities across the state. That's the key in this first caucus state, cultivating caucus-goers, making a personal pitch and getting them to sign a support card.

And it was something Edwards understood as the former North Carolina senator started campaigning almost right after the 2004 race, which he and presidential running mate John Kerry lost. Edwards subsequently spent a lot of time in Iowa, visiting all 99 counties. He has been in the cornfield state more than any other candidate, a total of 61 days.

Obama has visited Iowa 33 times; Hillary Clinton has taken 27 trips there, but as Drake University political science Professor Dennis Goldford notes, she already had name recognition. (Goldford is an expert in Iowa caucuses.)

The caucus system is rather different from what most states use, the straightforward primary. Wikipedia describes it thusly:

Participants indicate their support for a particular candidate by standing in a designated area of the caucus site (forming a "preference group"). An area may also be designated for undecided participants. Then, for roughly 30 minutes, participants try to convince their neighbors to support their candidates. Each preference group might informally deputize a few members to recruit supporters from the other groups and, in particular, from among those undecided. Undecided participants might visit each preference group to ask its members about their candidate.

After 30 minutes, the electioneering is temporarily halted and the supporters for each candidate are counted. At this point, the caucus officials determine which candidates are "viable". Depending on the number of county delegates to be elected, the "viability threshold" can be anywhere from 15% to 25% of attendees. For a candidate to receive any delegates from a particular precinct, he or she must have the support of at least that many caucus participants in that precinct. Once viability is determined, participants have roughly another 30 minutes to "realign": the supporters of inviable candidates may find a viable candidate to support, join together with supporters of another inviable candidate to secure a delegate for one of the two, or choose to abstain. This "realignment" is a crucial distinction of caucuses in that (unlike a primary) being a voter's "second candidate of choice" can help you.

Sort of reminds you of a game of musical chairs, doesn't it? Obviously, in such a process, organization matters a lot. This is where Obama actually got it right and Hillary may have been overconfident. That would explain the sudden scramble on the part of the Clinton campaign to rectify the situation.

The Secular Shakers

The Shakers built 19 communal settlements that attracted some 200,000 converts over the next century. Strict believers in celibacy, Shakers maintained their numbers through conversion and adoption of orphans. Turnover was very high; the group reached maximum size of about 6,000 full members in 1840, but now has only four members left.
(Wikipedia, Shakers)

The Daily Mail details the stories of two women in Britain who have decided never to have children - in order to save the planet. They hit it right on the head, obliquely, early on in the article.

Had Toni Vernelli gone ahead with her pregnancy ten years ago, she would know at first hand what it is like to cradle her own baby, to have a pair of innocent eyes gazing up at her with unconditional love, to feel a little hand slipping into hers - and a voice calling her Mummy.

But the very thought makes her shudder with horror.

Because when Toni terminated her pregnancy, she did so in the firm belief she was helping to save the planet.

Incredibly, so determined was she that the terrible "mistake" of pregnancy should never happen again, that she begged the doctor who performed the abortion to sterilise her at the same time.

He refused, but Toni - who works for an environmental charity - "relentlessly hunted down a doctor who would perform the irreversible surgery.

Finally, eight years ago, Toni got her way.

At the age of 27 this young woman at the height of her reproductive years was sterilised to "protect the planet".

Incredibly, instead of mourning the loss of a family that never was, her boyfriend (now husband) presented her with a congratulations card.

While some might think it strange to celebrate the reversal of nature and denial of motherhood, Toni relishes her decision with an almost religious zeal. (Emphasis added)

"Having children is selfish. It's all about maintaining your genetic line at the expense of the planet," says Toni, 35.

There is nothing "almost" about it - it is a religious zeal. It is very similar in nature to the zeal that drove the Shakers. Sure, it does not preach celibacy, per se, but it does deem reproduction as essentially sinful, just against a different God, so to speak. On the bright side, ideas like this tend to die out rather rapidly for obvious reasons. See, there's an upside to everything.

Others taking potshots at this (via Memeorandum): Protein Wisdom (Dan Collins): She’s [Toni Vernelli] a major figure in both PETA and VIVA! (In other words, she is much more of an extremist than the Mail reveals.)

Jawa Report (Bluto): Actually, Toni is protecting the planet - just not in the way she thinks. We already have a surplus of imbeciles.

Hot Air: The greatest gift you can give Gaia is the gift of extinction…

Don Surber: If this keeps up, over time we will rid the planet of people who think of mankind as a scourge. Darwin rocks.

Sundries Shack: At minimum, it’ll certainly be a lot quieter without all the weeping and gnashing of teeth the eco-crazies do so well.

Newsbusters: Quite the contrary, I believe successful members of a species that decline to replicate their genes are being selfish as most of them do it for their own personal interests and not those of the species.

Neptunus Lex: Still, it makes you wonder: If a tree is felled in the rain forest, and there aren’t any greens left to hear about it, are we done reading these kinds of ridiculous stories?

Classical Values: I'm glad this is just another silly idea that's not going anywhere, because I'd hate to think that the people who "voluntarily" complied with this new moral code might get sick of putting up with those who haven't.

Jules Crittenden: Good news! They’re not reproducing.

Steven Taylor: Being a father of three (and therefore an eco-criminal from Ms. Vernelli’s point of view, I guess), I have to say that only someone without children can call parenting a selfish act.

Mommy Life: More good news. This woman is not reproducing:

Colossus of Rhodey: Save the planet - self extinguish the human race.

Crunchy Con: Are children pollution?

Charlie Foxtrot: Anyone want to bet that our girl Toni has a Che T-Shirt somewhere in her wardrobe? (Ed. Note: Well, she certainly has PETA shirts.)

Stand Firm: In the meantime, we should all be having more babies…

Bits Blog: Without question in my mind this is a religious fervor that they view all this with.

Damn Yankee Infidel: "Eissfeldt further concluded that the Hebrew writings were not talking about a god Moloch at all, but about the molk or mulk sacrifice, that the abomination was not in worshipping a god Molech who demanded children be sacrificed to him, but in the practice of sacrificing human children as a molk"

Parsing The Second Amendment

Mike Cox, the attorney general of Michigan, parses the language of the Second Amendment to the Constitution and compares the language to the rest of the Bill of Rights. He makes a very strong case that the right to keep and bear arms is strictly an individual right and cannot be construed as a collective one.

To analyze what "the right of the people" means, look elsewhere within the Bill of Rights for guidance. The First Amendment speaks of "the right of the people peaceably to assemble . . ." No one seriously argues that the right to assemble or associate with your fellow citizens is predicated on the number of citizens or the assent of a government. It is an individual right.

The Fourth Amendment says, "the right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated . . ." The "people" here does not refer to a collectivity, either.

The rights guaranteed in the Bill of Right are individual. The Third and Fifth Amendments protect individual property owners; the Fourth, Fifth, Sixth and Eighth Amendments protect potential individual criminal defendants from unreasonable searches, involuntary incrimination, appearing in court without an attorney, excessive bail, and cruel and unusual punishments.

The Ninth Amendment protects individual rights not otherwise enumerated in the Bill of Rights. The 10th Amendment states, "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people." Here, "the people" are separate from "the states"; thus, the Second Amendment must be about more than simply a "state" militia when it uses the term "the people."

Consider the grammar. The Second Amendment is about the right to "keep and bear arms." Before the conjunction "and" there is a right to "keep," meaning to possess. This word would be superfluous if the Second Amendment were only about bearing arms as part of the state militia. Reading these words to restrict the right to possess arms strains common rules of composition.

Read it all, it is very well written and thought out. One hopes that Mr. Cox will file a brief with the Supreme Court detailing all of his points in legalese. There are real problems that many of the possible rulings by SCOTUS could cause, especially if they take the route of essentially nullifying the Second Amendment. (I do not think that is likely.) But virtually any ruling that does not affirm the individual nature of the right to keep and bear arms would be a serious problem.

Playing Titanic

Passengers on a Canadian cruise ship off the coast of Antarctica got a chance to play Titanic in real life. The Explorer appears to have hit an iceberg and is taking on water rapidly. The captain ordered passengers to abandon ship. They have all been picked up by a passing Norwegian cruise ship but the ultimate fate of the Canadian cruise ship is not yet known.

It was believed that the 91 passengers included at least 22 British citizens, 10 Canadians and an undetermined number of Americans. Earlier, the British coast guard had said 154 people were aboard.

"The passengers are absolutely fine," Hayes said. "They're all accounted for, no injuries whatsoever."

The Nordnorge has enough room to accommodate all the passengers, "so they may very well continue their journey on the Nordnorge," Hayes said.

The Explorer was completing an ecological tour of Antarctica when it struck a chunk of ice that tore a hole about the size of a fist in its hull, Hayes said.

She called the evacuation process "calm," saying pumps were able to deal with incoming water until the Nordnorge arrived.

Still, Hayes said the ship is in danger of sinking.

"It is listing. … There is a possibility we may lose the ship," she said.

The British coast guard said it was told at 12:24 a.m. EST of the incident involving the 2,646-ton Explorer near the South Shetland Islands and Graham Land, an Antarctic peninsula.

Rescue centers in Norfolk, Va., and Ushuaia, Argentina, were taking charge of coordinating the rescue, the coast guard said.

The company that runs the "eco-friendly" cruises may have a bit of explaining to do if the ship does sink. That would not be the most eco-friendly thing, would it? At least the passengers are safe, though. Which saves us from having to see another dreadful movie starring Leonardo DiCaprio.

Sarkozy Ascendant

The Washington Post editorializes on the tough stance Nicolas Sarkozy has taken in France. Despite a history of labor unrest causing the fall of previous governments, Sarkozy is acting aggressively to change the system in France. He shows no sign of weakening.

The French president, having promised a "rupture" from France's years of stagnation, faces the specter of street demonstrations of the sort that brought down French governments twice in the past 12 years. Rather than buckling, he is stiffening his spine. Declaring the other day that "we will not retreat" in the face of the protests, he looks ready to fight for his sensible program of downsizing the national bureaucracy, trimming unaffordable sweetheart pension benefits for some public-sector workers, scrapping taxes on overtime and weaning the French from a mind-set that disdains and devalues work.

Since taking power, Mr. Sarkozy, dubbed "the Omnipresident," has launched a whirlwind of policy initiatives amid a dizzying schedule of travel, speeches and diplomacy. Overseas, he has staked out a bold agenda, the main elements of which are warmer ties with Washington, a possible reinsertion of France into NATO's military command, a fresh emphasis on human rights and environmental concerns, and a tough stance against the specter of Iranian nuclear weapons. By defining French national interests not simply, and simplistically, in opposition to America's, he is making Paris a more relevant player in international diplomacy.

From the wording in this editorial, I presume it was written before the huge news that the French transportation union had caved in and voted to abandon their strike. Sarkozy stood fast in the face of raging street protests and appears to have broken the first union that tried to protect a sweetheart retirement deal better than virtually anyone else in the country has. Having won this round, he looks even stronger going into his next battles. He has a chance to at least make the first steps in bringing France into better economic health.

Row, Row, Row Your Boat, Gently Up Denial

Charles Krauthammer points out the complete and utter state of denial that exists in the Democratic leadership in Congress and among that party's Presidential contenders. Those folks have a huge emotional investment in losing the war in Iraq that they refuse to even admit that there is any progress there at all. Yet the progress is real, even if some artificial benchmarks have not been met. Because no piece of paper has been signed does not mean the actual goals are not being met. The goals of the benchmarks are being met in practice without the theoretical scrap of paper.

It does not have the drama of the Inchon landing or the sweep of the Union comeback in the summer of 1864. But the turnabout of American fortunes in Iraq over the past several months is of equal moment — a war seemingly lost, now winnable. The violence in Iraq has been dramatically reduced. Political allegiances have been radically reversed. The revival of ordinary life in many cities is palpable. Something important is happening.

And what is the reaction of the war critics? Nancy Pelosi stoutly maintains her state of denial, saying this about the war just two weeks ago: "This is not working. . . . We must reverse it." A euphemism for "abandon the field," which is what every Democratic presidential candidate is promising, with variations only in how precipitous to make the retreat.

How do they avoid acknowledging the realities on the ground? By asserting that we have not achieved political benchmarks — mostly legislative actions by the Baghdad government — that were set months ago. And that these benchmarks are paramount. And that all the current progress is ultimately vitiated by the absence of centrally legislated national reconciliation.

In practice, even absent an oil revenue sharing law, the revenues are, in fact, being distributed. Regional autonomy and a de facto federalism is already in place. People are flocking back to Baghdad even more quickly than they left. All the signs point to a real and sustainable progress that proves the worth of General Petraeus' new strategy. Things have changed in Iraq, the course of events has been altered. Yet the Democrats have bet so heavily against America that they seem to be unable to change their course.

So, just as we have learned this hard lesson of the disconnect between political benchmarks and real stability, the critics now claim the reverse — that benchmarks are what really count.

This is to fundamentally mistake ends and means. The benchmarks would be a wonderful shortcut to success in Iraq. But it is folly to abandon the pursuit of that success when a different route, more arduous but still doable, is at hand and demonstrably working.

Denial may not be a river in Egypt but the Democrats appear to have immersed themselves in it nonetheless.

This No Point For Sale

Attention lighthouse aficionados, here's your chance to own a piece of history. Yes, you can but your very own slightly surplus lighthouse. Slightly in this case means the light and foghorn remains functional. The new owner has to allow the US Coast Guard access to the lighthouse at any time to allow maintenance on those. But the new owners get to maintain the structure.

Point No Point, as it's called, is not the type of lighthouse that's featured on postcards, towering nobly over surging waves, surrounded by rocky cliffs and billowing clouds. As a piece of real estate, this one is definitely a fixer-upper.

A century's worth of seagull droppings coats the roof. There are no utilities, just an outhouse hanging off the edge of a deck about a story above sea level.

Complicating matters for any would-be owner is that Point No Point Lighthouse is not accessible by road or even located on land. It rises stubbily out of the Chesapeake Bay more than two nautical miles from the Southern Maryland shore.

So it was that on a recent chilly morning, after the federal government decided to sell the 102-year-old lighthouse, nine prospective buyers gathered at a dock in St. Mary's County. For some, it was their second attempt at a viewing; an open house last month was canceled because of high seas. To see the lighthouse, prospective buyers had to pay a refundable deposit of $10,000.

They strapped on life jackets, climbed aboard two U.S. Coast Guard boats and headed into the bay, water spraying as a crane feeding near the shore faded to a speck and disappeared.

"There it is," passenger Kay Burrell said as Point No Point appeared in the distance, looking like a giant buoy. This, she had been thinking, could be a project for her and her husband, Tom, now that the kids are in college.

As the lighthouse neared, it became clear how much of a project it would be. Before setting foot on Point No Point, passengers were reminded not to lean against railings and were told that they were entering at their own risk.

There are picture at this link. Congress authorized the sale of lighthouses in 2000. I have no idea why. My wife happens to be a lover of lighthouses and she rather thought there was no point in owning Point No Point. I just thought I'd point that out.