Much rejoicing, as the County has approved the plans for the new house, replacing the one burned in last fall's fires in San Diego and Valley Center. Pre-preparations for construction are going on this week: Dad is digging out trenches for the expanded foundation, and Mom is putting in new plantings along the expanded parking area. They are not going to try and do all the work themselves this time; the original house took five years to complete (they had planned on three), but will be constantly on hand to supervise the construction crew. Spare some pity for the unfortunate construction crew, they won't know what hit them.
A friend of Mom's is a professional kitchen designer, so she is going to re-do the kitchen entirely, maybe even to the point where two people can work in it at the same time.
With luck, the house will be finished enough that we can celebrate Christmas in it, even if we are camping out in sleeping bags on the floor.

(Also, I still have CDs of the "Best of Sgt. Mom" Archive, all with pictures, too!
If you would like one, e-mail me for the particulars)

As might be guessed, yesterday's nerve gas discoveries have been the subject of much chatter on the web's BBSs today. And I predicted all the arguments from the legions of emotive thinkers out there:

"Oh, it's obviously a plant, to save Bush and Rumsfeld." Could be - but that will be proven or not by readily available forensic science - so it's highly unlikely.

And: "It was only a trace of Sarin." No, it was a fully capable binary artillery shell. Only a trace amount of the agents actually reacted together, because it was not used as it was intended.

And: "It was from before the Gulf War." So? ALL WMDs were to be accounted for and destroyed.

And: "But it was only one little device." One device with enough chemical to kill many thousands, if released inside something like an airport terminal, a convention center, or a sports arena.

This has really become quite ridiculous. The mobile chemical plants, the buried illegal MiGs (really more of an indictment against Russia), now this. There is enough evidence here to convict in a court of law.

Now, you know what I mean,if you have a garden--- all those books and magazines; all those richly photographed, lushly planted acres, lavish in blooms and help, not to mention an unfailing nursery source of the perfect plant in that perfect color, for that ideal grand scheme drawn from an original Jekyll design for a lovely historic Elizabethan house, owned by someone with bottomless reserves of good taste and money.

You know this, because you have a shelf full of garden porn, too. And if you’re anything like me, you don’t have anything like what is illustrated on those exquisite pages: not the lovely house, bottomless bank account, degree in horticulture, et cetera--- just the strong wish to have some of it growing on one’s personal patch of Paradise.

What I do have is a tiny tract house in a pleasant twenty-year old suburb, surrounded on three sides by a foot of alkaline clay overlaying a layer of caliche which appears to go more or less to the center of the earth, but I consider myself an artist and I work with what I have. The little house is mine, or at least, the company holding the mortgage allows me to think it is mine, and I can paint it any color I like, and plant any darned thing I can scrounge, buy or propagate.

May 17 (Bloomberg) -- A small shell containing Sarin nerve gas was discovered and partly detonated in Iraq today, U.S. Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt said during a briefing televised from Baghdad.

Two members of the ordnance team were treated, Kimmitt said.

UPDATE#1: The Bloomgerg story is updated here, and MSNBC has a story here.

UPDATE#2: Turns out that a Mustard Gas shell has been found as well:

Two weeks ago, U.S. military units discovered mustard gas that was used as part of an IED. Tests conducted by the Iraqi Survey Group and others concluded the mustard gas was "stored improperly," which made the gas "ineffective."

They believe the mustard gas shell may have been one of 550 for which former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein failed to account when he made his weapons declaration shortly before Operation Iraqi Freedom began last year.

Investigators are trying to determine how insurgents obtained these weapons — whether they were looted or supplied.

It also appears some top Pentagon officials were taken by surprise by Kimmitt's announcement of the sarin discovery; they thought the matter was classified, administration officials told Fox News.

From shadowy Big Media cabal member, Newsweek: MSNBC - The Roots of Torture

Indeed, the single most iconic image to come out of the abuse scandal—that of a hooded man standing naked on a box, arms outspread, with wires dangling from his fingers, toes and penis—may do a lot to undercut the administration's case that this was the work of a few criminal MPs. That's because the practice shown in that photo is an arcane torture method known only to veterans of the interrogation trade. "Was that something that [an MP] dreamed up by herself? Think again," says Darius Rejali, an expert on the use of torture by democracies. "That's a standard torture. It's called 'the Vietnam.' But it's not common knowledge. Ordinary American soldiers did this, but someone taught them."

...

The Bush administration's emerging approach was that America's enemies in this war were "unlawful" combatants without rights. One Justice Department memo, written for the CIA late in the fall of 2001, put an extremely narrow interpretation on the international anti-torture convention, allowing the agency to use a whole range of techniques—including sleep deprivation, the use of phobias and the deployment of "stress factors"—in interrogating Qaeda suspects. The only clear prohibition was "causing severe physical or mental pain"—a subjective judgment that allowed for "a whole range of things in between," said one former administration official familiar with the opinion. On Dec. 28, 2001, the Justice Department Office of Legal Counsel weighed in with another opinion, arguing that U.S. courts had no jurisdiction to review the treatment of foreign prisoners at Guantanamo Bay. The appeal of Gitmo from the start was that, in the view of administration lawyers, the base existed in a legal twilight zone—or "the legal equivalent of outer space," as one former administration lawyer described it. And on Jan. 9, 2002, John Yoo of Justice's Office of Legal Counsel coauthored a sweeping 42-page memo concluding that neither the Geneva Conventions nor any of the laws of war applied to the conflict in Afghanistan.

Cut out of the process, as usual, was Colin Powell's State Department. So were military lawyers for the uniformed services. When State Department lawyers first saw the Yoo memo, "we were horrified," said one. As State saw it, the Justice position would place the United States outside the orbit of international treaties it had championed for years.

...

What Bush seemed to have in mind was applying his broad doctrine of pre-emption to interrogations: to get information that could help stop terrorist acts before they could be carried out. This was justified by what is known in counterterror circles as the "ticking time bomb" theory—the idea that when faced with an imminent threat by a terrorist, almost any method is justified, even torture.

With the legal groundwork laid, Bush began to act. First, he signed a secret order granting new powers to the CIA. According to knowledgeable sources, the president's directive authorized the CIA to set up a series of secret detention facilities outside the United States, and to question those held in them with unprecedented harshness. Washington then negotiated novel "status of forces agreements" with foreign governments for the secret sites. These agreements gave immunity not merely to U.S. government personnel but also to private contractors. (Asked about the directive last week, a senior administration official said, "We cannot comment on purported intelligence activities.")

I have a completely separate WordPress installation that I've been testing, and the only thing keeping me from completely switching over at the moment is the MT import script's penchant for screwing-up all the authors. For instance, some posts that Sgt. Mom wrote have Sparkey as the author, some posts have a commentor as the author and yet others have no author at all. I've tried breaking the export file into smaller chunks, but no joy. I'm sure as hell not manually moving 3,000 posts and 20,000 comments, so barring a fix for this problem, I'll be looking elsewhere for an MT replacement.

This Weekend's Caption Contest has started.

The June 2004 issue of Road & Track compares 7 six-cylinder "near-luxury" sedans. Conspicuous by their absence are contenders from the Japanese: Lexus, Acura, and Infiniti. Also of note is the fact that this comparo pays no regard to price, with a range from the $34,215 Chrysler 300 to the $54,120 BMW 530i. Indeed, anyone in this market would be a fool not to recognize that he/she could move up to the Hemi-powered Chrysler 300C and still undercut the $43,880 Cadillac CTS.

But this comparo holds two great surprises for the reader. The first is that BMW dropped from it's general first or second place in these sort of tests, all the way to sixth. In recent years, BMW has taken giant missteps with curious styling, electronic driver aids which have gone too far in isolating the driver from the experience, and of course, the much-lambasted iDrive system - which requires far too much of the driver's concentration to operate.

The second big surprise was the first-place finisher - the Cadillac CTS:

One of our testers pronounced it, "The most athletic-feeling of the group, with firm springs, direct steering and a sticky tire at each corner of the body. It's what the BMW should feel like."

Indeed the American automotive industry as a whole is back in the hunt. But the world-wide industry has really transcended national boundaries. The CTS began it's life as the German Opel Sigma. The same chassis can also be found in the Corvette-powered Pontiac GTO, which is actually built by Australia's Holden. And the Chrysler 300 is based upon components from the E-class Mercedes.

My support for Iraqi liberation extends back to 1991, I was appalled at Bush '41 and Scowcroft's abandonment of the Iraqi people. However, the theory that Saddam would lend support to Palestinian terrorists and not OBL is a rather odd conclusion given that history shows all sorts strange alliances, like our alliance with the USSR in WWII. The theory that OBL wouldn't seek or take Saddam's support is, simply put, attributing one's own notions upon the thoughts of the enemy. OBL types will unashamedly use anyone and anything if they feel it furthers their goal, and will betray the same when the time is right. There's no honor amongst fascists.

Thus it's not surprising that one can find plenty of documentary evidence that Saddam supported any and all enemies of his enemies, including al Qaeda. Understand that giving material support hardly translates into prior knowledge of operations. But with that saidit looks more and more like Saddam was very much involved with material support for al Qaeda:

Important new information has come from Edward Jay Epstein about Mohammed Atta’s contacts with Iraqi intelligence. The Czechs have long maintained that Atta, leader of the 9/11 hijackers in the United States, met with Ahmed al-Ani, an Iraqi intelligence official, posted to the Iraqi embassy in Prague. As Epstein now reports, Czech authorities have discovered that al-Ani’s appointment calendar shows a scheduled meeting on April 8, 2001 with a "Hamburg student."

That is exactly what the Czechs had been saying since shortly after 9/11: Atta, a long-time student at Germany’s Hamburg-Harburg Technical University, met with al-Ani on April 8, 2001. Indeed, when Atta earlier applied for a visa to visit the Czech Republic, he identified himself as a “Hamburg student.” The discovery of the notation in al-Ani’s appointment calendar about a meeting with a “Hamburg student” provides critical corroboration of the Czech claim.

Epstein also explains how Atta could have traveled to Prague at that time without the Czechs having a record of such a trip. Spanish intelligence has found evidence that two Algerians provided Atta a false passport.

I don't even want to know what Mr. Berg is going through. Having lost both my parents to cancer is bad enough, but to lose a child in such a horrible way must take grief to the nth degree.

Yet, Islamofacists literally rip his son's head off and how does Mr. Berg express his grief? By blaming Bush and Rummy that's how:

"My son died for the sins of George Bush and Donald Rumsfeld. This administration did this," Berg said in an interview with radio station KYW-AM.

Berg described the Patriot Act as a "coup d'etat." He added: "It's not the same America I grew up in."

I find it particularity interesting when I found this name:

Michael S. Berg, Retired Teacher

In case you were wondering Nick Berg's father's name is Michael S. Berg and he just so happens to be a retired teacher.

(Hat tip to Jonah. His comment on Nick's father got me to looking. You can read more about ANSWER here.)

By finally admitting that he "saw both Ratt and Poison at the Ventura County Fairgrounds back in 1987," Matt Welch has effectively destroyed his chances of ever holding elected office. Some things should be left unspoken, Matthew, but I don't think it matters. These startling revelations would've come out in the press sooner or later. I should also mention that any rumors of an extensive Abba and Bee Gees collection in my possession are damned dirty lies spread by damned dirty apes.

You know, I like Jeff Jarvis, I really do. His first 500 posts about Howard Stern were swell, but it's starting to get creepy as it drifts further away from the "Why Can't I Say 'Fuck' On the Radio?" stuff. Most people get paid to suck that much dick.

PhotoDude, Donald Sensing, Respectful of Otters, and Phil Carter are my go-to blogs at the moment, as they're largely free of the usual hysterics common in the blogosphere this year and have provided the best commentary and analysis of Abu Ghraib that I've seen. It's nice to see that the Election Year T-Virus hasn't infected them yet. Mostly.

Polish & Egyptian archaeologists have discovered the Library of Alexandria.

Movable Type is not only going paid, it's also releasing crippleware that I can't afford. Luckily, I've been fiddling with Word Press and a couple of other open source systems as an alternative. This site will not be Movable Type-powered in 2005. But hey, at least I got my $40 out of it.

Susanna points us to this real life Monty Python skit:

Here's the thing... I was called into the HR office today, because one of my coworkers (let's call her Blondie [Not Cpl. Blondie, of course - S]) wanted to file a complaint against me. The complaint stated that I made her feel "threatened".

[...]

Me: "Exactly what was it I said that got her upset?"
Intern: "She mentioned something about medical references, and once you talked about Henry VIII.... it bothers her that she doesn't understand what you're talking about most of the time. Oh, and McGuyver. "
Me: "She's upset because she doesn't know who McGuyver is?"

[...]

Me: "Nothing, nothing.... okay, so basically if I have to talk to her, I should talk slow, use small words, and mention nothing that happened before last Tuesday?"
Intern: "Did you know sarcasm is considered a form of aggression?"
Me: *backing slowly out of the room* "Uh... okay, gotta go, late for my shift... buh-bye now."

Helene, and her husband were friends of Moms’ at church, the church that we went to in Beverly Hills, a congregation full of movie people and European emigres in a mock-Tudor building full of elaborate stained glass. Everyone called her Lanie, and I remember that she and her husband lived in the Park La Brea Towers, one of the elegant, very high-end tower blocks set in a large park of trees. I may be wrong about the building, but their apartment was as chic, and tasteful as Lanie herself. Lanie and John were a little older than Mom, and there were no children. They were both Austrian, and had known each other as children in Vienna, but John had emigrated as a teenager and lived in New York long enough to loose any detectable accent. Lanie was the epitome of Viennese and Beverly Hills elegance, rather like a Gabor sister with red hair, and more refined taste. They were at our house often, for Christmas, and Thanksgiving, and other holidays when my parents kept open house for an assortment of friends without their own family connections.

From visiting their own apartment, what I remember most particularly was the framed set of drawings on the wall of the living room: three scenes from Smetana’s bucolic and comic opera “The Bartered Bride”.

“A special presentation, you know, “ said Lainie, “And the artist who did this, he put in little jokes--- see, the buffoon under the blankets, those are jackboots he is wearing? And the rooftops, behind the trees in the background… those are the roofs of the huts. He put in the roofs of the huts. Another joke, you see. I have another painting, too, but I can’t bear to look at it. A portrait, of a man--- so sad. It’s in the closet, it makes me cry to look at it and remember.” Her voice cracked a little, and she was tearing up, but she forced a little self-deprecating laugh. “Such a place… you know, I did not even know the trouble I was in, until they took away my coat! My good fur coat, and they took it away! My friend and I, we had never been treated like that, not in our whole lives… we did not believe it, until we were in Theresienstadt!”

And then she served us coffee and little iced cakes, and tea sandwiches on thin bread, and we talked about other things, and in the car on the way home Mom said,
“She was nearly killed over that coat, but for an angel.”
“What sort of angel?” I was terribly interested, but hated to ask Lanie directly. “Why was Lanie in a concentration camp, anyway. She’s not Jewish.”
“Ah, but her grandmother or grandfather was, and that was enough for the Nazis. Lanies’ family were terribly well to do, and she was very sheltered--- from the war, from the round-ups, from everything--- and the coat was a present for her sixteenth birthday. They thought they were only going to be interned, she and her parents and her little brother, and the friend of hers who also had a Jewish grandparent. Suddenly, they were all separated, and she and her friend were in a long line, and the SS men were going through everyone’s papers and things, and suddenly they told her to hand over her coat.”
“What did she do?” I asked.
“She didn’t believe it, at first, and she began arguing with them, she wanted to keep her coat, it was her birthday present, and it was cold, and it was hers! And the SS began getting very angry, and then this man in the line behind her, said very quietly,
‘give them the coat’ He was an old man, a foreign Jew, from Poland or Bohemia, she thought, very ragged, as if he had been a prisoner for a while, and he said again, ‘Give them the coat’, and finally she took off the coat and gave it to them. She really didn’t know then what they could do, and how close she came to being killed. She always thought the old man was an angel, for telling her to give up her coat and saving her life. He was just there, a stranger. She didn’t know him, or ever see him again.”
Mom paused, and shifted gears at the top of the grade, “She never saw her parents or her little brother again--- they were gassed. Lanie didn’t even begin to guess they were in danger--- until they took her fur coat.”

And for the last 24 hours, Americans have been watching the video of a murder, and it maybe that a few more are reminded of the danger facing us all, that of a ruthless and savage foe who wants us all dead, and whom we fear has no limits on his means of accomplishing that.

A typically insightful article by Austin Bay on the emerging democracy in Iraq shows that Bush's grand strategy is working:

...Last week, Iraq's most influential Shia leaders and clerics demanded that rebel leader Moktada al-Sadr pull his militiamen out of the Shia holy cities of a Najaf and Karbala. It's another indication that responsible Iraqi leaders now have the confidence to act against their own local militants.

The Shia leaders condemned al-Sadr for using mosques as ammo dumps. The most telling demand, however, was that al-Sadr submit to Iraqi police. Al-Sadr's "Al Mahdi" militia isn't finished, but its Iranian roots are being exposed. More on that in a moment.