Pathetic Earthlings

Cluster Bomb Girl

Here's a profile of some humanitarian do-gooder who hits all your hippie-leftoid stereotypes (except, of course, that she's now in Iraq and the Vaunted Human Shields are in London posting on Indymedia). But lately, she's come to realize something else:

"I'm constantly hitting [the Marines] up for help, and I have learned that for the most part, they are anxious to help," she said. "The Marines have nicknamed me Cluster Bomb Girl because I would hear of places where they had gone off, and I would ask them to help me clear the area."

Here's hoping she'll remember.

Light Posting

I apologize for the light posting. I'll try to make it up with a couple of whisky reviews over the next few days.

Straight Up Now Tell Me

The FBI wants you to be on the lookout for folks carrying almanacs, since they might offer terrorists all manner of useful information.

As we know, almanacs are the one source of information in this world and useful information isn't available on the internet.

Man Trapped Under Mounds of Paper

I hope Cass Sunstein takes heed of this near-tragedy.

Poland's Pittance

Poland's getting screwed:

Poland did have one request - a humble one, in the great scheme of things. Warsaw asked for $47 million to modernize six used, American-built C-130 transport aircraft and to purchase American-built HMMWV all-terrain vehicles so elite Polish units could better integrate operations with American forces. Much of the money would go right back to U.S. factories and workers.

Our response? We stiffed them.

For once, the Pentagon and the State Department agree: No can do. Impossible. Our pocket are empty. Got to FedEx every penny to our favorite dictators.

It's a mistake to over-idealize any nation. But if there's a land of heroes anywhere between the English Channel and the coast of California, it's Poland. Our Polish allies have taken a brave, costly, principled stand for freedom and democracy in Iraq. They desperately want to be seen by Washington as reliable friends in this treacherous world.

The least we could do is to treat them with respect.

Pathetic Earthlings

I suppose I should have category for honest-to-God pathetic earthlings, I don't know. Until then, enjoy reading about these two clowns: San Rafael men exchange gifts, attacks.

Britannia Rules OK

Beagle 2 lands successfully on Mars.

UPDATE: Oh, I guess not. That sucks.

Truth at NPR

NPR has done a three-part series on Halliburton and notes its close ties with President Johnson, which dated back to when he was a rookie Congressman:

The story of Halliburton's ties to the White House dates back to the 1940s, when a Texas firm called Brown & Root constructed a massive damn project near Austin. The company's founders, Herman and George Brown, won the contract to build Mansfield Dam thanks to the efforts of Johnson, who was then a Texas congressman.

A massive damned project it was...

N.B.: (I don't know how to do a screenshot, but it was there as of 4:26 pm Pacific)

Could This Be Industrial Disease?

The British government is going to give £ 210,000 in grants to boost whisky productivity. The government will also impose a £ 300M excise tax on the very same product.

God, I hate industrial policy.

The Death of the Dragee

Well, if you can't find any Dragees this Christmas, you can thank a lawyer for protecting you from your own stupidity:

Procrastinators are in for a shock when they set out to make those last-minute holiday cookies, cakes and gingerbread houses. Store shelves are almost bare of the beloved, tooth-crunching decorations called dragees -- better known as "those little silver balls.''

Because of a Napa lawyer's lawsuit alleging that the shimmery mini-orbs are toxic, stores such as Sur La Table and Spun Sugar are selling off their last remaining stocks, and wholesalers and Internet suppliers simply won't sell sugar decorations filmed with silver, gold or copper to anyone in California.

Here's an earlier report, from the Napa Times:

Even still, there may be dragees left on the shelves of some stores around the state, but because dragee suppliers have agreed not to sell the products, what's on the shelf is all that will be left in the state.

"If you want to put silver dragees on the Christmas cake you're going to have to go out of state to find them," [Napa Lawyer Mark] Pollock said.

And next time I'm in Nevada, I'll do that. And just to spite this bastard, I'm going to eat 'em. Even if I end up looking like this guy.

The Subcontractor

Destroy all Elves.

Via Tim Blair.

Cool!

I just stepped outside to get something from the car and saw what was certainly the single brightest meteor I've ever seen (and I saw some bright ones during the 2001 Leonids) -- I'm guess at its brightest it was about -9, -10 magnitude -- and burned a bright green before it broke apart into two distinct bodies and then each ablated away.

From when I first noticed it (I thought it an airplane headlamp coming straight toward me -- I live near Buchanan Field) and it probably plunged through about 12 or 15 degrees of sky, moving from roughly north-northwest to due east. It was due north of Orion, more or less in Gemini, at about 9:00pm even Pacific.

Cool, cool, cool.

To the Shores of Tripoli

Mumar Gahafi's son denies that the war in Iraq has anything to do with Libya's decision this week to open up, and eliminate, its WMD programs:

"In fact, we started the cooperation even before the invasion of Iraq and we decided to announce it, the outcome of that cooperation two weeks ago," Saif Al-Islam Gadhafi told CNN's Andrea Koppel.

"Really it was a long and touch secret negotiation for nine months, and two weeks ago we closed the deal and we said, 'OK, done deal, announce it,'" he said.

Diplomacy has probably more to do with allowing the losing side an honorable -- and sustainable -- excuse for backing down than anything else, so I'm happy to accept Gadhafi's own analysis of the situation. There's nothing wrong with humoring the bastards.

The Libyan leader's son, however, said labeling Libya a sponsor of terrorism was misunderstanding the situation.

Two years before the PanAm bombing, President Ronald Reagan had ordered U.S. warplanes to strike at Tripoli. The bombing killed Gadhafi's adopted daughter.

"In the past, we terrorized our enemies and we have the right to terrorize our enemies because they bombed our cities, they killed our people, they terrorized our people and we have the right to retaliate, but now the story is totally different," Gadhafi said.

"We don't have President Reagan anymore ... therefore we have to change our policy also and now we have a different administration, a friendly policy towards them."

Gadhafi said that "Libya was under pressure, under threat, sufficient American threat" to enter into negotiations.

So let's get the talking points straight: (a) President Reagan was the threat, (b) the story is totally different, (c) Libya was under threat,, and (c) the war in Iraq had nothing to do with it.

The Lion, the Witch and the Corporate Giveaway

Here's some cool news, pre-production for a five-film version of the Chronicles of Narnia is underway in New Zealand, using Peter Jackson's Weta special effects shop.

Not so cool is this:

[New Zealand] Taxpayers will help foot the bill for the film, which will be made using a screen production grant scheme set up by the government this year.

Under the plan, production companies can receive up to 12.5 percent of their total costs back at the end of production.

Over a five film series, that's upwards of $65M in cash subsidies.... to the strategically-important film industry.

The Uzi Fades Away

Israel is phasing out the Uzi.

Tojo and Saddam

Turns out that Japanese Strongman Hideki Tojo had the sack to at least try to kill himself when he was taken into custody:

On Sept. 11 [1945], the Counterintelligence Corps (CIC) of the Allied forces' General Headquarters (GHQ) went to Tojo's home in Tokyo's Setagaya Ward to apprehend him. After Tojo looked out of a window and saw CIC personnel approaching, he shot himself. Tojo survived the suicide attempt and was executed Dec. 23, 1948. CIC personnel entered Tojo's study and discovered the will on the desk in front of the former premier, who had shot himself in the chest. Several other wills of Tojo, some addressed to his family, had been found earlier, but the document in question had been missing after the GHQ confiscated it. Masayasu Hosaka, an author familiar with Tojo's life, has said, ''Considering the assertions made at the Tokyo trial (including arguments that Japan waged war in self-defense), it seems strange that he would attempt suicide out of a feeling of responsibility for starting the war.'' Hosaka also said, ''It is very significant that (Tojo) wrote that his reason for intending to commit suicide was his responsibility for starting the war, rather than for losing it.''

Operation Blue Spoon

There's some noise about Operation: Red Dawn around the blogosphere.

Here's a short piece on the history of operational names, which makes a good point:

As a result, the names would not disclose operational areas. While the code names were randomly chosen, key World War II leaders, such as Winston Churchill, were so fascinated with the art of naming operations that he set forth directives on naming operations.

?After all, the world is wide, and intelligent thought will readily supply an unlimited number of names which do not suggest the character of the operation or disparage it in any way and do not enable some widow or mother to say that her son was killed in an operation called ?Bunny Hug? or ?Ballyhoo.?

Small Government

In Texas, they have small government. So small, in fact, that it will fit inside your bedroom.

Sic Semper Tyrannus

Rasheed al-Osaimi, a 22-year-old Saudi student, said the Iraqi leader should be tried and executed. "Saddam should not be spared, he should get the death penalty, which is the least he deserves," he said.

Makhoul, the jewelry store employee in Damascus who at first did not believe Saddam had been captured, said he had mixed feelings about the former Iraqi leader's arrest.

"This is a great day for the Iraqi people and I share their happiness," he said. "Saddam is a dictator and this should be the fate of all dictators."

Samer Saado, an employee at a Damascus flower shop, said he didn't care about Saddam but felt overwhelming sadness for Iraq and the entire Arab world.

"What the Americans are doing in Iraq and everywhere else is humiliating. There's nothing to say we're not next in line," he said.

No, there's not.

Sic Semper Tyrannus.

In the Rushes, Down by the Riverside

Oddly enough, I was listening to the Grateful Dead when I heard the news:

Sugar magnolia, blossoms blooming, heads all empty and I don't care / Saw my baby down by the river, knew she'd have to come up soon for air.

Tim, You Ignorant Slut

Tim Sandefur, who in appears at first glance to be a normal human being, is in fact a philistine.

A Spitfire isn't a more beautiful piece of machinery than an F-15 Eagle? A Beech Staggerwing a bridesmaid to the Boeing 707? The SPAD XIII a lesser beauty to the Convair 880?

No, my friend, I don't think so.

SDSU Mascot Change

San Diego State University is finally replacing its on-the-field mascot, Monty Montezuma:

Nearly 12,000 students and alumni voted overwhelmingly to replace San Diego State's old mascot with an Aztec warrior intended to be more respectful of pre-Columbian culture than the school's "Monty Montezuma."

University officials announced Thursday the new mascot "represents our affiliation with the Aztec culture in a historically accurate and appropriate way."

San Diego State abandoned its "Monty Montezuma" mascot in 2001 after a coalition of American Indian and Latino students complained it was degrading and offensive. The new mascot emerged from months of discussion among university officials, alumni, students and experts on Aztec culture.

I trust that the new Aztec Warrior will validate the moral character of pre-Colombian Mexico by depicting sacrifice of children a-plenty and the beating of women with straw-filled bags to "make them cry".

In a related event, the SDSU student body voted to continue the important cultural tradition of ceremonial drunkeness during the Aztec month of Teoleco.

Lefty Denied Tenure at Cal

Now here's a twist: a lefty was denied tenure at Cal.

I ain't no Senator's son

The SF Chronicle reports on a local teenager who went back to visit family in Afghanistan last year, where his father has been serving as a regional governor:

On the first day of class this fall, Hyder Akbar's college literature teacher had an idea for an icebreaking exercise. Students would come up with two truths and one lie about themselves. Then the others would try to guess which was the lie.

This is what Akbar wrote: 1) "Although I am 18, I am often mistaken for someone older; 2) I play guitar in a rock band; 3) Three weeks ago I got ambushed by al Qaeda in Afghanistan.''

NPR will broadcast his audio diary of his trip, including his ambush, on Saturday.

Citizens Against Citizens Against Airports

Okay, if there's one thing in this world I hate, it's a crusade I cannot ignore. The Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors are looking to close Buchanan Field, a light aviation airport in Concord. I shall not set out a screed on this subject just yet, but I love airports -- I love airplane noise -- and I'll be blogging about this business regularly.

Mayor's Race Redux

Well, I was wrong about that one. Newsom wins, which I guess is fine; Kamala Harris knocked off Hallinan in the D.A.'s race which is terrific -- I appreciated the fact that he didn't prosecute minor drug offenses -- but he was far more interested in high-profile cases than in the business of prosecuting every day thuggery.

SF Mayor's Race

You can get up-to-date Mayoral (and DA) returns from San Francisco here.

I've wagered one lunch at Rancho Cordova's finest establishment, I [HEART] Teriyaki with on of my colleagues that Gonzales pulls it out. I think that, despite Gore's endorsement of Newsom, his subsequent endorsement of Dean brings out the folks on the further left in San Francisco and wins this thing for the Green Party.

Xrlq's Rubber Meets the Road

Xrlq took a spill on his motorcycle and while he'll make a full recovery, he's got a bit of a concussion. Mrs. Xrlq is guest blogging and is seemingly taking it in stride. Stop by to wish them both well.

Jupiter, Ho!

Plans emerge for our follow-on mission to Jupiter, the Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter.

Go Bears!

While I'm delighted that my Cal Bears, in their triple OT win put USC in the spot that it's in -- and I hate USC in all of its forms -- even I cannot rationalize the shafting they received by the BCS. It's ludicrous.

More importantly, the Cal Bears are in a bowl game for the first time in years -- the Insight.com Bowl (this used to be the Copper Bowl... who knew?) -- against Virginia Tech. Perhaps my favorite Virginia Tech-based blogger would care to make a friendly wager?

Drunken Angels

There's a new Indian single malt entering the UK market, and I need to find me some:

Being an enthusiast for Scotch single malt, managing director Neelakanta Rao Jagdale decided he wanted to compete with the best in the world on its home turf. Market research in Glasgow and Newcastle over the past two years suggests there is an unexploited niche he is now targeting: selling Indian whisky in Britain?s Indian restaurants.

His problem has been that the European Union definition of whisky requires at least four years? maturation. But distillers in tropical climates face a problem unknown in Moray or Islay: while the ?angel?s share? ? the quantity lost through evaporation ? in Scotland takes less than 3% of volume per year, the heat of the Deccan plain means a loss of a third in less than four years. ?The angels in India are drunkards,? says production manager Surrinder Kumar. ?This is very costly. We experimented with longer maturation, but the whisky becomes too woody ? it is better to stop it after four years.?

The first commercial batch of Amrut ? the Sanskrit word for nectar, or drink of the gods ? is scheduled to arrive in Scotland next month, after lengthy delays because of EU rules on whisky imports. With production of 2000 cases in year one, the first target market will be Glasgow as Britain?s curry capital, spreading through west central Scotland, followed by Newcastle and Birmingham.

Alistair Sinclair, Glasgow-based agent for Amrut, said: ?There?s a great desire to have all things ethnic in Indian restaurants. Indian beers ? Cobra and Kingfisher ? are brewed in the UK under licence and little different from Tennents, yet people pay more for them ? We hope to get up to 10,000 cases per year in Britain after four years, through the country?s 28,000 Indian restaurants."

That last paragraph certainly strikes home with me. If I go for Thai food, I will invariable order Singha, even though Singha is not actually good. On the other hand, when Mrs. Earthling and I were in London on our honeymoon, we ate at Chor Bizarre, in Mayfair, and couldn't not try the Indian champagne -- the Omar Khayyam -- and I found it quite delightful.

UPDATE: You can read a bit more about Amrut here.

Liberty Cap

In one of those odd confluences of reality, with the talk of the Reagan dime and my recent discussions with a colleague about the Liberty Cap, I came across an 1835 liberty dime when helping my folks clean out my grandmother's house (Grandma is well, mind you, but at a very spry 90 it was time, at last, to move to a retirement community):

It turns out that the Statue of Freedom, which sits atop the Capitol Dome, was to have worn a liberty cap -- the symbol of a freed slave -- herself, but Secretary of War (and, later, Traitor Jefferson Davis) refused to let it come to pass.

An Everyday Hero

Joe wanted to start an Italian restaurant but couldn't afford an old diner -- so he bought an old bus and started it anyway. No permits, no zoning approvals, no nothing. And now it's the hottest ticket in town:

Joe couldn't operate legally if he wanted to -- there's no fire or health department around that would allow a chef to cook inside a bus on a gas range with people crammed around five tables. He's checked into it.

"The ceiling is too low, the exits are too narrow. The walls are too thin, " Joe said. "I'd have to rip it apart and turn it into something it's not. It would no longer be an antique bus."

Regulations aside, he must be doing something right, because no one has complained, and the lines are getting longer and longer for a seat on the bus.

Fight the Power!

Order and Progress

Police have busted up an Brazilian-South African-Israeli organlegging ring. No doubt the police seized the organs, sold them at a backyard police auction and put the money toward new radios.

Via Freespace.

Korean Whisky Trade

Here's an article about the growth of the Korean whisky industry.

Cardhu Hangover

Tony Blair figured that Her Majesty's Government ought to stay out of the whole whisky business; Scottish National Party leader John Swinney figures the government ought to have the final word:

SNP leader John Swinney today urged a Holyrood committee of MSPs to mount an inquiry into the Scotch whisky industry, amid a marketing row.

He called on the Enterprise and Lifelong Learning Committee to study what should be the definitions of single malt, vatted malt and blends.

MSPs should also study "the big picture" and take evidence from the industry on what is needed to support its global success, said Mr Swinney, who was speaking on the eve of a meeting in Edinburgh that will try to resolve the controversy that erupted when drinks giant Diageo decided to switch its Cardhu brand from a single malt to a mix of malts from several distilleries.

What is it with socialists that they think everything can be improved by a government program? I understand the emotional appeal to supporting high employment sectors like steel or coal or shipbuilding, but if these guys could think of a government program to subsidize a pyramid scheme, they'd do it. ("Would my honorable friend agree that the home-based, multi-level marketing industry is vital to....")

The whisky industry has done fine on its own without government help -- and, indeed, was born in an effort to avoid taxes, god bless 'em -- and will continue to do so, unless the government comes in and screws it up.

Reagan Hagiography

Sure, FDR was put on the 1946 dime and JFK on the 1964 Half, and Ike on the 1971 Silver Dollar, but the Congress waited until, you know, they were dead.

I love Reagan as much as the next guy, but putting a living man on a coin is downright imperial. And I don't approve.

UPDATE: Here's a bit more on the controversy. I'm glad I've got the moral support of Coin World:

The Souder proposal has drawn editorial fire from Coin World, the 80,000- circulation weekly Bible of the coin-collecting world.

"Collectors believe no living person should be pictured on a United States coin,'' said Beth Deisher, Coin World editor.

She said the tradition started with George Washington. As the first president, Washington refused to have his likeness on coins, saying it smacked of a monarchy. The government waited until 1932, the 200th anniversary of Washington's birth, before putting him on the quarter.

UPDATE: Nancy Reagan prefers that President Roosevelt not be removed from the dime.

Law & Order : RAH

A Judge was short of jurors, so the sherriff rounded some folks at the neighborhood Wal-Mart:

GOLDSBORO, N.C. -- The Wayne County sheriff has apologized for misinterpreting a judge's order that he originally said forced him to send deputies to Wal-Mart to find potential jurors.

The order simply required Sheriff Carey Winders to send deputies to a public place. Their search at the discount store on Nov. 26 -- the day before Thanksgiving -- resulted in confrontations with people shopping for Christmas gifts.

"I will accept the responsibility for them going there," Winder said Tuesday. "But we would've had to go to Target, the mall or a public place, like the library, to get them. The bottom line is that he didn't say for us to go to Wal-Mart but to a public place."

"I apologize to the judge," the sheriff said.

Superior Court Judge Ripley Rand issued the order when not enough potential jurors could be found for a murder trial. Deputies found 50 candidates at Wal-Mart, and at least one of them was seated for the trial, which began Tuesday.

No word if the perp was shoved in the airlock and spaced.

Cardhu Crisis Resolved

Diageo has finally conceded defeat and will relaunch Cardhu Pure Malt with a distinctive green label -- but will keep the uniquely-shaped bottle. This ends about six weeks of tussle over whether Diageo should -- or even could -- repackage its Cardhu Single Malt as a Pure Malt (i.e., a blend of malt whiskies, not a blend of malt and grain whisky):

The Cardhu row broke out after Diageo reached capacity at its Speyside distillery.

The company was unable to meet the demand prompted by soaring sales of the single malt.

It decided to change the process and use a combination of single malts, changing the status of the whisky from a single malt to a "pure" malt.

Other distillers were angry that Diageo was continuing to use the name Cardhu while only changing one word on the label.

An agreement was reached at a meeting of the Scotch Whisky Association under which Diageo will continue to use the name Cardhu.

However, the labelling and packaging will be changed from brown to green and the company has promised not to make any similar changes to any of its other single malts.

I never quite understood the trouble -- there are plenty of pure malt whiskies out there already, including Sheep Dip -- but despite threats of government and EU intervention in this issue which ought to be settled without resorting to the folks with the guns and gaols, I appreciate commitment of the the entire whisky industry -- Diageo inclusive -- to producing a quality product.

Slainte!

GOP Power Brokers in San Francisco

In a race between the Greens and the San Francisco Democrats, both parties claim the loyalty of the Republican Party.

Mark Morford, Philistine

It's remarkable enough that this Mark Morford column doesn't mention shoving pyrex up someone's orifice -- cause for celebration, I suppose -- but for a guy who attempts to be so self-conciously distant and urban and worldy, he doesn't know jack shit about scotch.

First, if you are talking about scotch whisky, there's no "e" in it.

Second, Talisker is sold as a ten-year old, not a twelve.

Quayle for the Ages

Did you miss the unveiling of the Dan Quayle bust on September 10, 2003? I sure did! But you and I can catch up on all the excitement right here!

Clark Kerr, RIP

Former University of California President Clark Kerr died today, aged 92. A friend of the true, classic liberal education and a man who knew his priorities:

"The job of a University president is to provide football for the alumni, parking for the faculty and sex for the students."

He will be missed.