Life in the Atomic Age

Guess where the fault really lies. Go on, just guess.

Go here, read this, get back to me later.

More stories from my my adopted country.

I guess clamping down on political corruption was too big of a task for Martin’s government to tackle. Did anyone not see this coming when the national registration program was initiated in Canada?

People frequently ask me, apparently seriously, if I’m worried about going to live among “Canadian liberals”. I can honestly reply that I’m not too worried, for multiple reasons.

Vectored.

Today’s lesson: Communism

Multiple vectors

US Casualties in Iraq

My only suggestion, look at the 2000 census and do the math for yourself.

that found no operational links between al Qaeda and Saddam? It seems that critical data analysis may not be one of their strengths after all.

Captain Ed also sees a bit of “preconceived bias” in the 9/11 commission’s work.

It’s always easy to play perfect defense with the benefit of hind site. But the fact that Atta and 3 other hijackers were identified by data mining techniques is important - and suggests that there weren’t as many “intelligence failures” as some would like for us to believe responsible for 9/11. Instead, it looks like we have an action failure - where actionable intelligence was ignored because the magnitude of the threat was ignored - or because those responsible for taking the action were too timid/complacent to make the call. Roger Simon picks up a meme first proposed, as far as I can tell, by Dr. Sanity - offering Able Danger as an explanation for Sandy Berger’s bizarre pants stuffing episode.

Others have already documented the multitude of connections that exist between Saddam and al Qaeda (multiple links in this post) that were ignored by the 9/11 commission in their zeal to distance Iraq from al Qaeda. One wonders why Able-Danger was also excised from the commission report, and why their first line of defense was to blame the Pentagon for failing to brief them on the operation, a defense which has turned out to be demonstrably untrue.

Denver is considering converting seven of their public libraries over to a “Spanish focus”. The staff will be Spanish speaking, the books will be in Spanish, and English language books, if available, will be relegated to the back rooms. I find this paragraph, explaining the position of library officials, fascinating:

Library officials counter (opponents to the plan-ed) that the switch to Spanish dominant libraries is an extension of the institution’s purpose. They claim that the Languages and Learning plan will assist Spanish speaking residents in becoming members of their community. Proponents call the plan “cutting edge” and “revolutionary.”

How, exactly, does providing resources in Spanish help immigrants integrate into their English speaking communities? And, as the article points out, what about the immigrants who speak languages other than Spanish - don’t they get their very own libraries to help them integrate?

of this post, I was trying to call attention to this.

“more like the character-assassinating, bombthrowing, humorless Kossacks, every day!” Opined here.

It is disconcerting to watch the rhetoric get ratcheted up by both sides. The hate, vitriol, and just downright meanness does nothing to further political discourse, and decreases the likelihood of true bi-partisan cooperation on important issues.

Of course, we already see this is action on a daily basis now, with both parties (but especially Democrats) choosing to try and score cheap political points rather than seriously prosecute the war on terror. I suppose it will take another slaughter of innocent Americans to convince some that this is not about political gamesmanship. I specifically say slaughter of Americans because, quite honestly, we just really don’t seem to care if others are doing the dying. People like Durbin don’t care how many Iraqis will die because of his comments - comments he subsequently was forced to back away from and apologize for. But the damage is done, Jihadis everywhere believe if they just hold on, they can win, and more Innocent civilians die. However, since they aren’t American civilians, we don’t feel the pain. And the soldiers that die? Well, let’s be honest - there’s a segment of the population that sees every military death as moving them one step closer to their goal, forcing another Viet Nam style withdrawal from Iraq.

Think I’m over-reaching or being hyperbolic? Then why did al-Zarqawi specifically mention Viet Nam in his latest little missive against Britain and the US?