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October 2, 2004

Book review

Filed under: Society-Culture — Bunker @ 4:46 pm

I finished reading Intellectual Morons yesterday, and have been trying to decide the best way to recommend this book so that it appeals to the sensibilities of those from our entire spectrum of philosophical ideologies. Because, that’s what the book is about.

“There is no baby universe branching off, as I once thought,” Stephen Hawking told a group of shocked scientists this summer in Dublin. Hawking’s theory of parallel universes and energy-destroying black holes, the wheelchair-bound scientist concluded, was wrong.

When Stephen Hawking’s theories came under attack, he rethought rather than retrenched. Hawking

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October 1, 2004

Swift Boats

Filed under: Military — Bunker @ 1:38 pm

I would say that this deserves at least as much attention as the fake ANG documents and Draft email:

The report in question described a mission of five swift boats ambushed by a mine explosion that seriously damaged one boat while the swift boats received heavy fire from both banks. The fire continued for three miles, the report said. Roy Hoffman, the admiral who commanded the swift boats in Vietnam, finds that detail alone absurd. Hoffman, a member of the anti-Kerry swift boat veterans group, says: “There was never an incident under my command in all of Vietnam where my boats were engaged by continuous fire from both banks of a half mile in length, much less three.”

Somehow I doubt Dan Rather, or anyone else in television news will give it a second glance. A commenter once mentioned “It’s in the official reports,” and I asked who wrote them.

I guess we now know.

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WMD

Filed under: International — Bunker @ 10:58 am

The most ancient, and most widely used Weapon of Mass Destruction is famine. It is time for us to take aim at the most pernicious practitioners of this weapon. We already dispatched one–Saddam Hussein–but there are plenty more of them in the world. And their headquarters is in New York City.

I sometimes wonder if the purpose of the UN isn’t to provide a place for despots to gather and compare notes on how best to destroy political enemies within their own borders. Genocide is only the most visible tool in use, but it requires a great deal of effort, and tends to draw attention to the operation. It is much cleaner, and far more profitable, to simply starve your enemies. This brings all kinds of foreign aid which can be redirected to feed your military forces and political cronies.

Ethiopia’s Mengitsu was a great practitioner. He managed to starve thousands during his rule, and received gifts from the US and Europe while doing so. Mugabe has pretty much destroyed what was once Africa’s breadbasket. Saddam had no problem with diverting all the Oil-for-Food dinars into his palaces and claiming the sanctions were killing children in Iraq. While Palestinians live in squalor, Arafat eats well and fattens his bank account with foreign aid dollars and Euros.

I believe we need to declare war on this particular WMD. And we can’t do it in an altruistic manner. We’ve tried that for years. We have to eliminate the tyrants who practice it. It will simply require a slightly different angle in the approach to the GWOT. We can do the same things, but couch it in different words.

The first step is to move the headquarters from NYC to Baghdad.

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Debate scoring

Filed under: Politics — Bunker @ 7:32 am

Larry has the best analysis of the debate.

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Presidential

Filed under: Bunker's Favorites,Politics — Bunker @ 5:46 am

I didn’t watch the debate. I had no reason to. I, like almost everyone else who will actually cast a ballot November 2, have already decided who I will vote for. And somewhere in Texas, an illegal vote will be cast which negates my legal one.

I won’t waste time surfing today because the talk will all be about the debate. As if the words spoken last night have any real meaning. I think I can see these two men quite clearly through the actions they have taken–their records of accomplishment or non-accomplishment. If we view only the most recent three years, it is quite clear which man puts this country ahead of others, and ahead of his own personal future.

People forget how politically dangerous it was for us to go into Afghanistan. All the talk is of Iraq. Bush did what needed to be done, and his political opponents–ones who now would say doing it was right–predicted doom and gloom. Think of that for a minute and try to remember. Today those same people claim going into Iraq distracted us from doing the work they didn’t want us to do in Afghanistan. They would say Bush took a political gamble and won. I say Bush ignored politics and did what he was supposed to do as President.

The same doom and gloom hung over our involvement in Iraq. Millions would die. Refugees would flood the neighboring countries. There would be a human catastrophe. Didn’t happen. And the problems there now are the result of the doom-and-gloomers trying to turn Iraq into the new Vietnam, because they’ve said it is. They want it to be.

Bush may not have a future in politics after November 2. I don’t think he will lose any sleep over the decisions he has made if he does lose. He has been Presidential. Which is what we hired him to be.

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