Private Mars Rocket

Fiday Link Salad, Now With Added Content!

Fri, 18 Dec 2009 15:29:18 GMT

Like the title says, links with commentary:

I was channel-surfing the other night, and ended up watching the last half-hour of Death Race 2000 on WCIU, a local independent station. Great Googly Moogly was it bad! Overacted, under-written, horrible special effects, and a plot only a stoner could love (although blaming France for all the evils of the world reflected eerily with the Republicans during the Iraq War).

From The New Republic, an interesting article on how to fix Detroit, "America's Greatest Urban Disaster."

One of the concerns of global warming is the lost of fresh water. For example, Adelaide, the fifth-largest city in Australia, is on the verge of running out of drinking water. Well, some of those dreaded scientists are working on a scheme to desalinize seawater using solar energy. Apparently, it's working in cloudly Vancouver, BC, so moving it to more sun-blessed Australia should be feasible. (Hat tip jaylake)

Also from jaylake, I present the Dornier Do X, a ginormous and sadly underpowered seaplane.

Finally, a bit of humor from The Real MFG:

The Trouble With Stupid, Climate Change Condition

Thu, 17 Dec 2009 20:18:26 GMT

So, over at Simberg's Flying Circus, they are arguing that adjustments applied to the raw temperature data at Darwin, Australia, prove that ~~Soylent Green is People!~~ climate change is a hoax. To say that their are a number of problems with this logic is somewhat of an understatement.

First, finding one "bad" record out of thousands doesn't really invalidate anything. Second, as discussed here, the analysis of the data is flawed at best. Third, as discussed here by an actual climatologist, the history of the Darwin station in particular is problematic. Fourth, the lack of data points in general for northern Australia is a problem - as it happens the only legitimate one.

But here's the real issue. To restate the original rule: The problem with stupid people is that it takes an enormous amount of time and effort to refute their stupidity. Therefore, most people don't bother - so the stupidity just keeps getting repeated with no response from any smart people. And therefore the semi-smart people believe it.

So now, instead of discussing what to do about a warming climate, time and effort must be diverted to arguing about one data point in a sea of data points. You wonder why climatologists get snippy with and about their critics?

ETA Do climatologists falsify their data? No.

Mail Your Gold To Me?!?!?

Thu, 17 Dec 2009 16:48:32 GMT

So, I was channel-surfing last night and ran across yet another ad offering to buy gold. The gimmick was the same as the 57 other ads I've seen - you put your gold jewelry in an envelope, mail it off to somebody and they send you a check.

Am I missing something here? Like:

A) How do I know that they won't claim my shipment "got lost" in the mail? Or just collect some packages and fly away one night?
B) How do I know that they won't short me? "Sorry, sir, there were only two rings in the envelope."
C) How do I know I'll get a good price for my gold? "Sir, that wasn't 14 karat, it was 10."

Either I'm missing something here, or these commercials are yet more proof of the quote attributed to P. T. Barnum saying "there's a sucker born every minute."

If you want to sell your gold jewelry, go to a pawn shop, or better yet two shops.

Not Much To Say

Wed, 16 Dec 2009 17:54:12 GMT

It's damned cold in Chicago, and I spent my morning driving work cars to dealerships for repair. The result is nothing much to blog about, so I won't.

Tea Party Thoughts

Tue, 15 Dec 2009 15:15:15 GMT

Up on POD People, I reviewed Tea Party Revival. The book, written by Dr. B. Leland Baker, is a manifesto of the Tea Party movement. The book confirms at least one of my claims, namely that the Tea Party movement is not a Republican thing. I mean, when Dr. Baker claims that Republican and Democratic politicians have been following Socialism for 80 years, (really? Ike and Hoover socialists?!?!) including specifically "Mr. Bush," you can hardly argue otherwise. Don't get me wrong - Republican activists are attempting to get control of the movement, but it's much in the manner of somebody running to the front of a mob to appear in control of the mob.

Since POD People is not a political blog, I focused my review there on the factual and historical errors of Tea Party Revival. Here I'd like to address a more political point. When reading and talking to Tea Party-ists, they frequently refer to "The Founding Fathers" and typically advocate returning to the limited government of their era.

According to the 1790 census, the population of the United States was 3.9 million people. In 1790, the fastest land transport system was to saddle up a horse. Today, Cook County, Il. (Chicago and the near suburbs) have 5.2 million people living in them, and most Americans own a vehicle with the power of dozens if not hundreds of horses. Why in the world would anybody think that a governmental system that worked in 1790 would work in 2009?

Now, if you press a Party-ist on this issue, they will say "state government." Color me unimpressed, but somehow I don't think they'd be happy with 50 state EPAs or 50 state social security programs. Nor would they be happy with the taxes to pay for any of this.

The Tea Party movement is nothing new. It's simply old-fashioned populism. In the 19th Century, the Tea Party-ists would be Know-Nothings (pre-Civil War) or Grangers (post-Civil War). The astute student of history will note that the Know-Nothings were generally "conservative" and the Grangers "liberal" so this flavor of populism can go either way. Right now, it's "conservative." Either way, it tends to be uninformed.

The Empress of Mars

Mon, 14 Dec 2009 19:50:16 GMT

I recently finished Kage Baker's novel The Empress of Mars. Wow!

Ms. Baker as a writer isn't familiar to me, nor does she have a heavy Internet presence, but she can really write a good story. The Empress in question is a bar, actually the only bar, on Mars, and occasionally the nickname of Mary Griffith, the bar's owner. It's an interesting place.

In Baker's version of Mars, the large Earth governments have ignored the planet, leaving development by default to the British Arean Company. The BAC has made a hash of it, and a handful of misfits are hanging on by their fingertips. The story is both that of the growth of the settlement, along with quite a bit of character growth with Mary and her fellow Martians. Although Kage is (as far as I can tell) an American, she nails the slightly self-deprecating and dry British humor, producing a wonderful story.

A lot of what makes the story interesting is Mary's relationship with her three young daughters, which is at times contentious. Also interesting is Baker's vision of future society, in which Christianity has largely faded away.

Now, The Empress of Mars started out as a novella, but this novel is not just an expansion, but a massive overhaul. I found it well worth buying.

(Disclaimer: I purchased the book at retail - link leads to Amazon Associates account.)

Whisky Tango Foxtrot, X-mas Edition

Sun, 13 Dec 2009 21:10:39 GMT

So, I'm out today at the mall with about a million of my bestest friends in the world finishing my Christmas shopping. While walking down the aisle, a sales clerk for one of those block-the-middle-of-the-aisle kiosks waved and said:

"Can I ask you a question?"
"Sure," I reply.
"What's your name," she asks, moving to shake my hand.
I reflexively let her, and she says "come here, I need to show you something."
I follow (she's got my hand) and in a flash she's trying to buff my fingernails with something.
I got a little pissed, jerked my hand free and walked away, with her saying to my back "I just wanted to show you something for your wife!"

Now, in what universe is shanghai-ing a customer a successful sales tactic?

Fortunately, the Christmas shopping is done, and the Christmas cards go in the mail tomorrow.

Situational Awareness

Fri, 11 Dec 2009 15:17:57 GMT

Way back in October, I blogged about the airliner that flew past its destination. In my blog, I talked about "situational awareness" and suggested that the pilots fell asleep.

Well, Patrick Smith, the aviation blogger for Salon.com, has a more nuanced report. Reconstructing the flight based on blogs and other sources, he comes up with a series of 12 factors that led to the "mishap." It's a litany of simple things - changing to the wrong radio frequency, getting distracted by the "security rigmarole required when opening and closing the flight deck door," and other factors. It's worth a full read.

In my original post, I mentioned that I'd lost situational awareness once or twice in my Navy days. Although no two situations are the same, some of the same factors apply. It is, in short, not just one screw-up but a combination thereof. This multiple screw-up phenomenon is unfortunately a factor in modern life. We live much more complicated lives than our ancestors did.

This greater complexity is frustrating to many people, and the search for simple answers fuel many a conspiracy theory or witch hunt. But the genie is out of the bottle.

Publishing

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 15:16:27 GMT

So, I learn from SFWA Secretary and general all-around good egg Mary Robinette Kowal that somebody's trying to start a new science fiction and fantasy press aimed at young adults. It seems a worthwhile idea, so I have kicked in a few bucks, for which I will get an ARC (Advanced Reader Copy) of a book to review.

You can give too.

Global Warming Thoughts

Wed, 09 Dec 2009 16:16:07 GMT

It may be weird to think about global warming in the middle of a snowstorm, but you blog the thoughts you have, not the thoughts you wish you had. So, apropos of nothing, some random thoughts on global warming.

1) Some of the Usual Suspects are arguing that we might be heading for a global ice age, and CO2 emissions are all that is saving us from this Dread Fate that is Worse Than Death. I find this analogous to the 500-pound man not wanting to go on a diet lest he become anorexic. In either case, the solution to the (probably non-existent) problem is obvious.

2) There are, if not 57, a number of geoengineering proposals. I'm all for the idea, but, the ideas all share the same problems:
- We don't know if they will work or what the side effects are. We have even less data on geoengineering than on climate change.
- Waiting until we need to geoengineer to find out if the schemes work is like waiting until you're in a gunfight to see if your gun is loaded.
- None of these schemes will be profitable for private enterprise unless government pays for them, either directly or indirectly.

3) If we're going to get serious about global warming, we're going to need nuclear power plants. The single largest source of greenhouse gas is the smokestacks of electrical power plants. Here's an idea - call it the "Dirty Dozen Plan."

We build a dozen CANDU reactors in the US. These reactors are, inherently safe (no meltdowns - loss of coolant = fission stopping).
They can burn waste uranium from conventional (light water) reactors, helping to solve that problem. Each reactor is linked to specific, high-pollution, conventional power plants. When reactor #1 comes on line, specific plant(s) go off-line, and so forth.

Building the reactors are an obvious economic stimulus package, and by retiring high-pollution plants, we reduce our CO2 emissions. It's an obvious win-win.

Four-Link Salad

Tue, 08 Dec 2009 15:28:27 GMT

Rotary day, and snowy to boot, so links in lieu of content.

1) I routinely bust chops at Simberg's Flying Circus, but the proprietor does know the space industry. At any rate, he attended the roll-out for Space Ship Two, the world's first commercial manned spacecraft. All I can say is, "kick the tires and light the fires!"

2) jimchines is in a feisty mood this morning. As evidence, I note his hilarious satire of the year's 7 most notable publishing fails. Go read it - but finish your beverage first.

3) On a more serious note, here's a little reflection entitled Obama to Define the Just War. Apparently, Obama plans to defend his escalation in Afghanistan at his Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech. The money quote: "For a difficult world, peace is not a tenable option in all our interactions. Our job as Americans isn’t to keep peace at all costs, but to secure peace, by blood and iron if necessary."

4) Presented without comment: Americans have come to believe that spending government revenues on U.S. citizens here at home is usually a bad thing and should be viewed with suspicion, but spending billions on vast social engineering projects overseas is the hallmark of patriotism and should never be questioned.

Happy Birthday, Dad!

Mon, 07 Dec 2009 19:00:31 GMT

It's my Dad's birthday today. It's also of course the anniversary of Pearl Harbor. My dad was doing whatever three-year-olds did in Central Illinois to mark their birthdays during the attack. Considering that it was the tale end of the Great Depression, probably not much.

Perhaps fittingly, we gave my Dad a surprise birthday party over the weekend. About 70 of his friends and family showed up at the American Legion in Westville. Some of us, like me, snuck in from out of town and hid out.

We achieved complete surprise, although our surprise was greatly enjoyed by the recipient :-)

Writing Thoughts

Thu, 03 Dec 2009 16:08:45 GMT

Last night, I read the book Family Business by Brett Williams. I bought it based on a review by my fellow POD-Peep Cheryl Anne Gardner. Family Business is really dark - more like "torture porn" and thus darker than my usual reading fare.

One of the reasons I write book reviews is that I am trying to improve my writing. Articulating why you like or dislike somebody else's book can provide insight into your own writing. So, without getting too spoiler-ly, here are technical issues I saw with the book. I note these issues not to bash Brett Williams the author, but for my own edification in my writing. I should also note that fiction is a semblance of reality, not reality. Thus, things that might actually happen in real life don't seem believable in fiction.

My first issue is with the protagonist. At a crucial point in the story, she fails to do something that she should. The only apparent motivation for that is petty irritation at another character. I didn't think that was appropriate for the protagonist, especially considering that the other character had been an ally. More importantly, it was a clear tactical error. I would have bought a "I'll help you reluctantly" internal struggle, but not a kiss-off. Call this a violation of Gerrib's Law of the Capable Protagonist. (Yeah, I just proclaimed the law a minute ago.)

My second issue was that the book appeared to violate Gerrib's Law of the Second Banana. Since I just proclaimed that law, I may not be entirely fair here ;-) but the law is that secondary characters need to act and be treated secondarily. In the book, a secondary bad guy who's been kind of passive suddenly gets unusually active. He dies (and deservedly so) but his death becomes much more of a plot point than I felt it should have been.

My third issue is a violation of Gerrib's Law of the Smart Crook. This is also newly-minted, but basically is best illustrated by considering Robert De Niro's role in the movie Heat. De Niro plays a professional crook who happens to have fallen in love. Well, at a critical juncture, he is forced to make a choice - get caught or ditch the girl. He ditches her in a New York minute.

One of William's villains, who has a really great character arc with growth, gets put in a moment where a smart crook would just walk away. She doesn't.

The problem here is that crooks, especially William's crooks, are sociopaths. They just don't care about other people. Also, in this villian's case, she'd become a lot smarter and more self-sufficient over the course of the book. Doing what she did lost me.

I'm not sure any of this makes sense to anybody but me, so if I've lost you, I apologize. Warning - comments may be spoiler-ish.

Afghanistan

Wed, 02 Dec 2009 16:08:44 GMT

I watched Obama's speech about Afghanistan last night, courtesy of my DVR. I was going to write my analysis of the speech today, but Jim Wright over at Stonekettle Station beat me to it.

His analysis? Fuckin’ A. Thank you and good night.

If that's too brief for you, here's my "longer" version:

1) We have a defined plan with reasonable metrics.
2) The plan recognizes the costs, priorities and other issues facing America.
3) Adequate resources were supplied, based on an analysis of facts on the ground.
4) There were no illusions about what the end state will be. Afghanistan will not be a "beacon of democracy." It will be a more-or-less stable country, not ran by the Taliban.

As an added bonus, it's consistent with what Obama campaigned on. Funny thing about this guy - he tends to do what he says he's going to do.

Three Random Thoughts

Tue, 01 Dec 2009 17:23:21 GMT

Three random thoughts, none of which are individually worthy of a blog post, but together may make something.

1) I finished reading Gil Adamson's new novel The Outlander. It's an enjoyable read, a Western novel set in 1903 Canada. Thanks to the novel, I learned of the town of Frank, buried in a landslide, and (tangentially) of the North West Rebellion. In general, Adamson's novel is a great read, and highly recommended.

2) There's been more than the usual screaming and whining about climate change recently. I found this article, which is a collection of the seven common myths about climate change, a useful corrective.

3) Somebody discovered that people who buy paper plates are usually doing so for a party or social gathering. They also realized that these parties generate leftovers, and a need for a way to ship the leftovers home. So, adding two plus two, they developed paper plates that fit together and create a lid. Not quite the greatest thing since sliced bread, but a good idea nonetheless.

Westville Thoughts

Mon, 30 Nov 2009 17:48:39 GMT

So, as readers of my blog know, I grew up in Westville, IL and still have family there. For holidays like Thanksgiving, I go back there to visit. With apologies to Jeff Foxworthy, here is my "you might be in Westville if."

You Might Be in Westville If...

... you nearly get run down by a lady driving a golf cart and walking her dog down the street.

... the exciting thing in your day is going to the American Legion post for a mid-day drink.

... at the Legion bar, you order two mixed drinks, enter two drawings, and tip your bartender all from the same $5 bill.

... the local TV news leads with a story about how much of the corn harvest is in.

... the second lead on the local TV news is how many deer have been shot so far in hunting season. (BTW, both deer and corn harvests were lower than they should be at this time of year.)

Don't get me wrong - I like Westville, but it is a small town, and very different from my current lifestyle.

Superfreakonomics, Or, I Have Egg On My Face

Sat, 28 Nov 2009 00:07:33 GMT

So, a few weeks ago, I mentioned that "Facts Matter" and quoted a review of the new book SuperFreakonomics: Global Cooling, Patriotic Prostitutes, and Why Suicide Bombers Should Buy Life Insurance that suggested the book's global warming chapter was badly in error.

Having read the book, I have to at least partially retract that blog post. See, here's the thing - Ray Pierre at RealClimate (who I quoted) wrote that the Superfreakonomics people had badly overestimated the waste heat effect of solar cells. He (and I) implied that it invalidated the whole chapter. This is not so. First, the solar-waste heat thing is a single sentence, and looks like a paraphrase of a quote from one of their sources. Second, the source appears to be arguing that all effects from a carbon-to-solar conversion, including making the cells, doesn't yield the kind of reductions needed in any reasonable time frame.

Now, it's true that the "climate engineering will save us all" chapter is a bit breezily done. It's also true that one of the magic bullets, injecting sulfur dioxide into the upper atmosphere, assumes that adding more SO2 won't have any major environmental costs. That's an assumption provided without a hint of calculation. But on the other hand, the chapter is not nearly as fact-free as I was led to believe. Thus my egg-y face.

Moving on to my analysis of the book as a whole, I enjoyed it, and recommend it as interesting reading. They had a section on the safety of walking vs. driving drunk, and came to the "surprising" conclusion that driving is safer. This is not really surprising, since:

1) Many instances where walking vs. driving is a reasonable choice are in urban areas, hence more risk of vehicle vs. pedestrian accidents.
2) In vehicle vs. pedestrian accidents, the pedestrian loses, while in vehicle vs. vehicle, the occupants of the vehicles have more of a sporting chance.

In general, the authors of Superfreakonomics point out that people are selfish, and do things that benefit themselves. They argue that any public policy decision that doesn't factor that in will probably fail.

I Love Guitar Center!

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 19:51:17 GMT

As a result of my bank's recent growth spurt, we've had several public lectures and other events. About a week prior to each event, I get told "we need [audio-visual piece of gear x] at the event. You've got that, right?"

Well, usually no I don't. And at that short notice, I don't want to order something, I want to pick it up. This means a trip to Guitar Center.

So, I stroll on in, dressed like a banker ('cause I am one) and get greeted by sales clerks straight out of Central Casting. For example, today's clerk was a young woman, barely in her twenties, clad all in black with some brand new bright and shiny tattoos on her arm. The lady at the door checking to make sure I really paid for my piece of gear had three-tone hair and a piercing half-way between her lip and her chin.

Since I'm frequently wearing my broad-rimmed hat, I wonder if they think I'm starting a country-western band? ;-)

For my American readers, have a happy Thanksgiving! (For my Canadian and other readers, now you know why posting might be light around here.)

Barking Mad

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 22:41:49 GMT

You may have heard that a hacker broke into an email server at the Hadley Climate Research Unit in England and distributed 62 MB of emails and attachments. These emails purport to prove that anthropomorphic global warming (AGW) is a hoax.

To say that The Usual Suspects have gone hog-wild screaming "I told you so" and "file criminal charges" is actually an understatement. Rand himself attempted to argue that, until you actually saw Earth from orbit, you couldn't "prove" it was round, therefore any proof not by direct observation is flawed.

I am not amused.

The released letters don't prove much - some discussion of problems with tree-ring data, snark and bile directed at notable climate research critics, and the occasional beg for money by a researcher. To put it in perspective, this fellow takes a collection of snippets from Issac Newton's letters to (sarcastically) argue that calculus and Newtonian physics is false. In a severe lack of irony, several commenter then argue that "Newtonian physics is wrong - see Einstein." Well, yeah - for certain rather exceptional cases.

One of the "smoking guns" pointed to is an email talking about "tricks to suppress tree-ring data." Although probably a bad choice of words, this fellow points out that the issue with tree-ring data not correlating well with temperature in the immediate past was discussed publicly in textbooks going back to 1998. The gun may be smoking, but it's been so for a long time indeed.

What I find amazing is the extremely legalistic, almost magical thinking, going on with these critics. "Well, if he say X but it's really X+.00001, he's wrong and it's a fraud!" I'm sorry, but even scientists are humans, and make approximations.

I'm also sorry, but part of science is that it's additive. Einstein didn't replace Newton - he added to Newton. If Einstein's theories didn't produce the same observable results as Newton's, we'd never have heard of him or his theory. Even Kepler didn't replace Aristotle - his findings put the planets in the same place as before.

Fortunately, at the moment The Usual Suspects are in the minority, and their very vehemence tends to keep them there.

Two Good Ideas

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 22:22:37 GMT

Two good ideas, both brought to mind by the Sunday paper:

Tele-medicine

This is basically the idea of using high-resolution cameras and other remote sensory devices so that specialist doctors can see and treat patients at remote facilities. Besides allowing better treatment, AKA "not as many deaths," this idea can reduce costs. For example: unnecessary transfers were practically eliminated and medical errors were reduced by 75% using telemedicine, compared with similar cases where advice was given only over the telephone. Several states, including California and Maine, are implementing state-wide prgrams. Gee, using government initiatives to save costs and improve treatment! What a country! /sarcasm/

Fighting Terrorism With Schools

I've blogged before about the Central Asia Institute. This group, founded by mountain climber Greg Mortenson, works to build non-sectarian schools in rural Pakistan and Afghanistan. One of the program's success stories is Aziza Hussain. A graduate of a rural school, she went back to her valley in 2000 as a midwife. Since her arrival, deaths of mothers from childbirth declined from twenty a year to zero.

This effort has received a lot of attention, including from the US military. Graduates of these schools are not signing up to be Taliban, and the communities in which the schools are based are not looking to attack America. Don't get me wrong - you can't win a war just by education, but making friends is cheaper than killing enemies.

The Great Filter, or The Death of Science

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 21:54:30 GMT

I've written from time to time of Fermi's Paradox. One of the concepts used to "answer" the paradox is the Great Filter, which is the idea that there is some event that allows few if any civilizations to arise. I'd said before that I don't think peak oil is such an event. But now I'd like to add an event to the possible list of Great Filters. Call it "the Death of Science."

Modern science is so complicated that it is difficult for any one individual to evaluate all of it scientifically. One person just can't know everything. This leads to people evaluating scientific principles based not on the underlying science but on who they trust, or find most believable.

The problem is that sometimes the anti-science folks are seen as more believable. Thus, the anti-vaccination crowd listens to Jenny McCarthy, an intelligent person to be sure but no scientist. Or the anti-global-warming crowd reads a bunch of stolen emails and crows that they prove climatologists are betraying science.

So, in my theory, these anti-science types gain a critical mass in society and wreck their civilization. Perhaps more perniciously, once the civilization is wrecked, one could see that the anti-science types use the collapse of civilization to argue that they were right, thus preventing redevelopment of technology.

It's a variation on the idea that "civilization ends not with a bang but with a whimper."

And I do hope I'm wrong, at least about one particular civilization.

The Original Antivirus Alert

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 20:59:04 GMT

Image here, via Bruce Schneier

Drill Baby Drill

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 20:58:57 GMT

So, jaylake points me to an interesting article by Thomas Friedman. Now, Friedman has a tendency to say things that sound profound but really aren't. However, in this case, he's saying something that actually is profound.

You don't have to believe in global warming to support a carbon tax.

Now, a carbon tax or its kissing cousin, a cap-and-trade on carbon emissions, is a feature of all the climate and energy bills working their way through Congress. These concepts have a simple goal - encourage the development of alternative energy sources by raising the price of carbon-based sources.

The fact that raising the price of energy is the only way Americans will conserve it should be obvious. Remember all the way back to August, 2008? Gas was $4/gallon, and hybrid cars were selling above list price if you could find them at all. Then, more recently, gas prices slumped, as did sales of hybrids. On the electrical power front, coal-fired power plants are always going to be the cheapest kind of power plant to build.

But, you say, if global warming is a hoax, who cares?

Friedman says, "According to the 2006 U.N. population report, “The world population will likely increase by 2.5 billion ... passing from the current 6.7 billion to 9.2 billion in 2050. This increase is equivalent to the total size of the world population in 1950."

Given this, even at current per-capita levels of energy use, we're going to need more energy. Except that there are a billion Chinese and over half-a-billion Indians who'd like to have a car and fly to the beach for the weekend. So, per-capita energy use levels are going to go up.

They are going to buy this energy from somebody. Right now, a lot of this energy comes from Saudi Arabia and other places full of people who don't like us. How much richer do we want these folks to get?

Trials

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 16:36:43 GMT

So, you may have heard that Obama and Eric Holder have decided to try some of the 9/11 terrorists in civilian court in New York. As expected, the Usual Suspects are having a cow about it. A helpful corrective to this are the prepared remarks of Eric Holder given this morning to the Senate Judicial Committee. Key points:

The 9/11 attacks were both an act of war and a violation of our federal criminal law, and they could have been prosecuted in either federal courts or military commissions. Courts and commissions are both essential tools in our fight against terrorism. Therefore, at the outset of my review of these cases, I had no preconceived views as to the merits of either venue, and in fact on the same day that I sent these five defendants to federal court, I referred five others to be tried in military commissions. I am a prosecutor, and as a prosecutor my top priority was simply to select the venue where the government will have the greatest opportunity to present the strongest case in the best forum.

Also:

Three weeks ago, I had the honor of joining the President at Dover Air Force Base for the dignified transfer of the remains of eighteen Americans, including three DEA agents, who lost their lives to the war in Afghanistan.

Later:

I know that we are at war.

Prosecuting the 9/11 defendants in federal court does not represent some larger judgment about whether or not we are at war. We are at war, and we will use every instrument of national power - civilian, military, law enforcement, intelligence, diplomatic, and others - to win.

Monday

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 02:09:03 GMT

I took the day off from work, which proved good in that it allowed me to take a greatly-needed nap. But I did get some writing done.

Word Count for Einstein's War
Complete (9,603) Goal (80,000)
12% complete
Word Count This Session = 1,038