Archive for: February 2009

I’m just sayin’ -

 Saint Damien?

Tell me this isn’t for real.

Report Anti-Obama Sentiment by Your Coworkers and Peers Here
Anyone overheard doubting President Obama should be immediately reported to local officials. Make the jobs of local officials easier by posting any dissent you may have …

Denouncing American Obama idol worship..”President Obama is a man of intelligence and some remarkable gifts. He has a great ability to inspire, as we saw from his very popular visit to Canada just this past week. But whatever his strengths, there’s no way to reinvent his record on abortion and related issues with rosy marketing about unity, hope and change. Of course, that can change. Some things really do change when a person reaches the White House. Power ennobles some men. It diminishes others. Bad policy ideas can be improved. Good policy ideas can find a way to flourish. But as Catholics, we at least need to be honest with ourselves and each other about the political facts we start with.”

“Unfortunately when it comes to the current administration that will be very hard for Catholics in the United States, and here’s why.  A spirit of adulation bordering on servility already exists among some of the same Democratic-friendly Catholic writers, scholars, editors and activists who once accused prolifers of being too cozy with Republicans.  It turns out that Caesar is an equal opportunity employer.”

…

“…in democracies, we elect public servants, not messiahs.  It’s worth recalling that despite two ugly wars, an unpopular Republican president, a fractured Republican party, the support of most of the American news media and massively out-spending his opponent, our new president actually trailed in the election polls the week before the economic meltdown. [Then, George Soros. -ed.] This subtracts nothing from the legitimacy of his office.  It also takes nothing away from our obligation to respect the president’s leadership.
  
“But it does place some of today’s talk about a “new American mandate” in perspective.  Americans, including many Catholics, elected a gifted man to fix an economic crisis.  That’s the mandate.  They gave nobody a mandate to retool American culture on the issues of marriage and the family, sexuality, bioethics, religion in public life and abortion.  That retooling could easily happen, and it clearly will happen — but only if Catholics and other religious believers allow it.  It’s instructive to note that the one lesson many activists on the American cultural left learned from their loss in the 2004 election –  and then applied in 2008 — was how to use a religious vocabulary while ignoring some of the key beliefs and values that religious people actually hold dear. “

Spoken well, Archbishop.(This is a test sort of post. Below the fold, Thor.)

Two YouTube videos, The Crisis of Credit Visualized, Part 1 and Part 2, by Jonathan Jarvis, show the mechanics of how banks passed around bad mortgages like hot potatoes until it all blew up in their faces. It’s …

There is, of course news of the other sort. But the bad news is easy to find and usually much more widely discussed. Here instead is a round up of the positive news stories from 5 to 23 February 2009 from Iraq. I focus on this, not only to attempt to balance the scales in the tone department, but to tweak the noses of those who seem to know all about the costs of these endeavors and nothing of their value.
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SECURITY

Multinational Force

U.S., Iraqi Defense Leaders Discuss Iraq’s Future
Source: American Forces Press Service WASHINGTON, Feb. 17, 2009 — Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates met with his Iraqi counterpart at the Pentagon in Washington on 17 February to discuss mutual interests and concerns regarding stability in Iraq, a Pentagon spokesman said. Gates lauded Defense Minister Abd al-Qadir al-Mufriji for his forces’ efforts and success in providing security for the Jan. 31 provincial elections. During the meeting, the defense leaders expressed mutual appreciation for the sacrifices made by troops from both countries. Both agreed that future challenges are approaching Iraq, and a long-term, bilateral relationship between the two countries is necessary for continued stability there, Ryder said.

On the Ground: U.S. Forces in Iraq Train Police, Soldiers
Source: American Forces Press Service WASHINGTON, Feb. 19, 2009 — With U.S. operations in Iraq shifting from providing security to ensuring Iraqi sovereignty, troops there are stepping up their training of Iraqi forces. U.S. soldiers in southern Iraq in recent days have trained Iraqi forces in everything from special weapons and tactics to criminal investigations to mortar firing. And, in one program, they trained Iraqi police to train their own. At Forward Operating Base Delta, soldiers with the 772nd Military Police Company introduced Iraqi officers from the Numaniyah police station to its “train-the-trainer” program. Unlike many Iraqi police stations, Zaldua said, the Numaniyah station is in good shape with trainers. It has three training officers who went to school in Baghdad before they were assigned to the station. “They conduct training on vehicle searches, personnel searches and physical training,” Iraqi Col. Hamid Khanam Kadim Hassan, assistant district police chief, said.

On the Ground: Meetings Pave Way for Continued Progress in Iraq
Source: American Forces Press Service WASHINGTON, Feb. 20, 2009 — Key meetings last week helped to pave the way for the Iraqi navy to assume security responsibility for an offshore oil platform and for the Iraqi government to manage its foreign military sales program effectively. Iraqi navy leaders and their Multinational Security Transition Command Iraq partners met in Baghdad on Feb. 17 to go over plans for the orderly transition of the Khwar Al Amaya oil terminal to Iraqi control. Officials said the Khwar Al Amaya terminal and the nearby Basra terminal handle 75 percent of Iraq’s oil exports, and therefore are critical to Iraq’s future. The platforms are key enemy targets; coalition forces repelled an attack on the Basra terminal in 2004.

Just watched this bloggingheads.tv thing with Jonah Goldberg and Peter Beinart. They dealt with the issue of “the need for a national conversation on race.” Jonah rightly pointed out that such conversations are usually not “conversations” as much as …

A meaningless statistic that’s been thrown out several times by defenders of the Porkulus bill has been that 40% of the total bill was “tax cuts.” On that basis, we’re supposed to change our minds about it.  The original version …

Per Dan, Christopher Hitchens lays waste to his Syrian Nazi attackers.

I mean, Hitch is a hero, man. Move over Chuck Norris!

Update, and Note:this post is one of the ‘missing posts’ of which Pixy Mesa …

There is, of course news of the other sort. But the bad news is easy to find and usually much more widely discussed. Here instead is a round up of the positive news stories from 6 to 20 February 2009 from Afghanistan. I focus on this, not only to attempt to balance the scales in the tone department, but to tweak the noses of those who seem to know all about the costs of these endeavors and nothing of their value.
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Sorry folks.

The server hosting Protein Wisdom dropped dead today.  It was having problems earlier in the day, and I’d logged in to check on it, and was running backups at the moment it died.

I managed to snatch the main PW …