Tomorrowism Blog

Dislike registering for newspaper websites?

Try Bug Me Not. It has all sorts of preregistered names and passwords for various "registration required" websites. Hat tip: Alex.
Alan on 04.29.04 @ 10:22 AM CT [link]

Coach Brown Perseveres for the Pistons

From Chris McCosky at The Detroit News, Coach Larry Brown successfully led Rip Hamilton to the next level:

[...]
Forever considered a one-dimensional player, Hamilton has blossomed into a complete player seemingly right before our eyes in the last month or so.

“I just think it’s more evident now,” Brown said. “I had a meeting with Rip (Hamilton) and Chauncey (Billups) about 25 games into the season and I talked to them about what I expected. Rip right away told me he was going to get it done, and I think he’s really made an effort.
[...]
There was a time early in the season when Hamilton, struggling mightily, came out of a meeting with Brown utterly frustrated, with red and wet eyes. There was a stretch at the end of December and well into January when the team was winning games seemingly in spite of him. He was struggling to get shots and make shots, and the more he tried to force the issue, the more he turned the ball over.
[...]
The light didn’t come on for Hamilton until March 4. The Pistons were on the West Coast, and he had flown home to have surgery to repair his broken nose.

He sat at home and watched the Pistons destroy Portland, Denver and Seattle, holding each to fewer than 70 points. He watched all the things he had heard Brown preaching the previous five months come to life right before his eyes.

He saw for the first time what “playing the right way” really meant.

“When you sit back and watch the team, you actually see what the team needs to do more of,” he said. “I learned by watching those guys. I seen how Lindsey Hunter pressured the ball and I figured if I pressure my guy as much as he does, I can get easy steals and things like that.”
[...]
Again, Hamilton heard Brown’s words echo in the back of his head, “Give it up. The ball will always come back to you.”

Hamilton had 28 assists over the last three regular-season games and has continued to share the ball in the postseason. His reward: He is the leading scorer and Brown has made him the No. 1 option in the fourth quarter.

“Coach has a lot of confidence in me and I have a whole lot of confidence in him,” Hamilton said. “When you understand a coach and understand a system, and understand that his purpose is just to win games, it makes your job a lot easier and you are a lot happier going out and doing it.”

And, it would appear, a lot more successful.

As a team leader, it can be difficult to instill better habits in your team members. Sometimes members resist because they are too stubborn to learn, other times they don't believe that they can succeed. Either way, it is a battle of wills. It is a good thing that Coach Brown was stubborn enough to prevail in this battle of wills.
Alan on 04.29.04 @ 10:15 AM CT [link]

POW Abuse

From Command Post, it seems that US soldiers have been abusing Iraqi prisoners. First, at least our military does something about it. Second, there are complaints about lack of training. One of the sergeants accused of abusing prisoners is a reservist who works as a prison guard stateside. Remind me to never go to prison.
Alan on 04.29.04 @ 09:51 AM CT [link]

Censorship

Via Drudge, it appears (NYTimes link, requires registration) that "G.O.P. Protesters Plan to Infiltrate Convention as Volunteers".

If people want to disagree with the G.O.P., fine. I do so myself on occasion. But to use underhanded ways to silence that opposition is not fine. Our nation is best served when leaders are selected with a battle of ideas, not with a battle of brawn. Censorship is a battle of brawn.
Alan on 04.28.04 @ 10:29 AM CT [link]

Hellacious Firepower

Okay, one last post, then bedtime for bonzo. Via

• Coax and Forkum
  
• 4 Mile Creek and
  
• Facts Of Isreal
  

this infrared video of an AC-130's attack on an Afghanistan terrorist camp, as witnessed by an unmanned Predator. Information about both airships available from the US Air Force.

The video is awesome. And that's the public version.

Alan on 04.28.04 @ 12:51 AM CT [link]

Fallujah revisited

If you want to read about Fallujah from someone who both writes and researches better than me, check Wrechard's latest post. Two quotes:

The enemy would prefer a linear American advance, hoping as in the case of Jenin, to mine buildings and blow them up as Americans occupy them. Not wanting to oblige, the USMC is mounting relatively small probes forcing the enemy to react. The current Marine strategy is ripping up the mobile defense.

and

In the end it is possible that the US will have the worst of both worlds.

Yet another good movie.
Alan on 04.27.04 @ 11:55 PM CT [link]

EMail 1 SPAM 0

Well, at least something went right. I had to spell check "desparate" to get "desperate". In doing so I came across an interesting piece on Isolani.

Friday, August 29, 2003
[...]
email faces a meltdown within six months[....]

Wait -- that's at www.isolani.co.uk -- those must be Metric months.

(All kidding aside, the linked article does make some worrisome observations.)
Alan on 04.27.04 @ 11:34 PM CT [link]

Saddam's WMDs

Evidence of Saddam's WMDs have been found in Iraq. This is too good to excerpt. Items found include biological weapons, nuclear weapon production, unmanned aerial vehicles, and SCUDs. Iraqi scientists were ordered conceal their efforts from UN inspectors. It seems that biological weapons were tested on prisoners.

I do have one semi-paranoid question, along with a possible answer. Suppose Saddam produced all those WMDs and suppose they're still hidden in Iraq in a variety of proverbial spider holes. Suppose further that Saddam's chief lieutenants know where they are and want to keep them hidden. As Coalition troops scour the Iraqi countryside, wouldn't one Saddam's lieutenants blow up some of the WMDs to prevent its retrieval? And wouldn't such an explosion leave some sort of plume detectable by coalition forces?

I don't think so. Chemical weapons resemble fertilizer, so such residues might not show up on tests. And biological weapons do have a shelf life; there wouldn't be huge amounts to destroy.

Still, as we continue to whoop the Saddamist's behinds, why have they not resorted to more desperate measures?
Alan on 04.27.04 @ 11:19 PM CT [link]

www.onlylegitworkathomejobs.com

Ho hum. Two more 'job offers' today. Mozilla mail was smart enough to flag them as spam. One 'offer' was for $52,000 per year, the other for $120,000 per year. I have had no personal contact with those making the offers. In both cases, as a condition of employment, I am required to buy the package mentioned here, here, and most recently here.
Alan on 04.27.04 @ 09:16 PM CT [link]

Fallujah Minaret Destroyed

From American Forces Press Service, via Command Post, this sentence from Army Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, deputy operations director for Combined Joint Task Force 7:

Am I going to let my fellow Marines die, or am I going to recognize that that minaret has lost its protected status under international law and is being used as a firing platform and needs to go away?

I really respect when someone makes a concise statement that says what needs to be said without lending itself to being taken out of context.

Alan on 04.27.04 @ 09:04 PM CT [link]

Another Job Offer! (re:www.onlylegitworkathomejobs.com)

Can you believe it! I got another job offer! No interview, no nothing! Just a $27/hour job offer (less applicable deductions). With full benefits and four weeks of vacation after completion of one year of employment (the timing of any vacation is subject to manager's approval, may not carry forward unused vacation).

That I do not meet the requirements (50 WPM typing speed) is secondary. They can always fire me during the probationary period.

All I have to do is get a copy of their "Work At Home Guide" at their web site. The normal cost of $79.95 is reduced to $49.95. I guess I should have accepted their previous offer of $34.95, reduced from $59.95.

Initial www.onlylegitworkathomejobs.com post here; followup here.

So I have two questions.

• Who is the "National Title Company, established in 1987"? I cannot confirm their existence.
  
• I did receive an email titled "Confirmation of subscription to Available Work At Home Jobs email list from Available Work At Home Jobs".
  

  
  Someone (probably you) had requested to receive "Exclusive Work At Home Jobs" emails from Available Work At Home Jobs (Available Work At Home Jobs) to email address [...].
  
  If you agree to receive email messages from this person, click on the link [...] or just reply to this message.
  
  If you disagree, simply ignore it and you won't receive email messages from Available Work At Home Jobs.
  

  
  Should I respond and thus continue to receive these fine offers? I want to say yes, just to see what they come up with. How high will the Work At Home Guide price go? What else will they tell me, sight unseen, I can do? But I think I'll say no. These emails are not being sent to a spam or junk address (as detailed here), they are being sent to my primary email address.
  

Click more to see the text of the more recent offer.
Alan on 04.26.04 @ 11:07 PM CT [more..]

Google drew Strength from Weakness

Want to see the world's most powerful computer network? Go ogle Google. (Yes, I do amuse myself.)

Dr. Cowen links an article.

To paraphrase, google started with a bunch of used Stanford computers. They were slow and unreliable, so Google's founders had to program them to seamlessly overcome hardware failures. They retain that approach today, even with all their success and 100,000+ servers.

Not bad for a spell checker.
Alan on 04.26.04 @ 04:28 PM CT [link]

Supporting the Troops' Mission

Bidding is up to $650 for the first ever to be sold original Cox and Forcum artwork. Proceeds to "Spirit of America, an organization that raises money for Marines to use for humanitarian and public relation purposes in Iraq and Afghanistan (see the site for details)."
Alan on 04.26.04 @ 03:53 PM CT [link]

Fighting Spam

As some may have noticed, I have my own web site. One advantage (or disadvantage) is that real life acquaintances (spell check link: Ukranian travel dating) know it's mine.

But what I really like is the ability to autosort email. I once tried to get free stuff from American Giveaways (I have a vague sense of disappointment). I used the email address "americangiveaways@alanmrobertson.com". Last month, I cancelled my service with them. I still get much email at that address. Anyway, I have email set to that address forwarded to "junk@alanmrobertson.com" so when I download it on my home machine, I get a message "junk has 1 new message".

Spammers have harvested my email addresses from web log comments. I know this because I get spam sent to asmallvictory@alanmrobertson.com, janegaltfan@alanmrobertson.com, ASVVisitor@alanmrobertson.com, HoderReader@alanmrobertson.com, and ScrapplefaceReader@alanmrobertson.com.

Lately though, I've been using "HarvestedFromXYZBlog@alanmrobertson.com. I have not been getting spam sent to that address. Perhaps that is because bloggers are beating spammers.

Anyway, thanks to my spam control methods, messages from identified spammers go straight to the bit bucket (actually, I keep them for future reference, I just wanted to use the term "bit bucket").
Alan on 04.26.04 @ 01:17 PM CT [link]

Planes as Terrorist Missles

From Tim Blair: "Paris blogger Karibu points out that I’m wrong to characterise strong French tactics against terrorism as anything new". What caught my eye was M. Karibu's report that "the objective of the [1994 Islamic] terrorists was the crash the plane in the middle of Paris."

Granted, our intelligence services get a lot of leads, and it would be difficult to derive from that tidbit the 9/11 attacks. So I'll just ask one question. Should we have recognized this threat before or after January, 2001?
Alan on 04.26.04 @ 12:15 PM CT [link]

Nuclear Waste

Alex posted a fine little rant about nuclear power. His post, in full (bad words modified):

Nuclear Disasters

OK, guys, I don't get serious with this thing very often, but today's a big deal. My time to rail on the [dumb] scientists who invent nuclear power and forget about what happens if they aren't so perfect and screw up once in a while. On this date in 1986, Chernobyl blew up and created a "dead zone" in Europe. The result: 3500 people refuse to leave their homes, and only 400 remain. Do NOT, I repeat, DO NOT [mess] with nuclear power or nuclear reactors. Thanks to the genius of science, there's a place that cannot be inhabited for 600 years. Imagine what happens WHEN this thing gets out of control, like when the radioactive waste that the U.S. threw out into BURIED concrete basements and didn't mark them leaks into the ground. Some of the more toxic waste has a half-life of some 30,000 years. The concrete lasts for 100. Do the math. In case you didn't know, it's also completely legal to dump barrels of radioactive waste into the ocean at will. One reason I don't really have an appetite for tuna. That, and the Three Mile Island incident hits home, with me living in PA. I could not have been living where I am today had that thing had gotten any worse. Now my Penn State has a nuclear reactor for its nuclear science people. Yeah, there's still a future in it. I feel so safe. If any disasters of that magnitude occurred in any other industry, it would've been halted IMMEDIATELY. But no. It's science, and science is an excuse to [mess] things up in the name of progress.

Anyhow, I hope you find this site interesting. This woman documents her adventures into the "dead zone."
# randomly splattered on a blog by Alex @ 4/25/2004 11:58:46 PM

Sounds like Pandora and her box.

Frankly, I wouldn't worry about PSU as much as I'd worry about North Korea. I do agree that it is not smart to keep nuclear waste in 100 year bunkers. And don't forget about missing fuel rods.

But we do need electricity. There are only so many places we can build dams or wind farms; only so many places we can erect solar panels. While nuclear power may produce toxic waste, it does produce concentrated waste. Nuclear power does not pollute the air or water. I think we can handle nuclear waste in Yucca, Nevada (geologically stable). I can also understand storing nuclear waste in salt mines (chemically stable) or at the bottom of the ocean (nothing moves down there).

Whatever the case, please realize that politics matter. I like to say that politics is too important to leave to politicians. As you said, political mishandling of nuclear waste could lead to dire consequences. So could political mishandling of North Korea or terrorism.

And also please realize that the last thing in Pandora's box was hope.
Alan on 04.26.04 @ 01:09 AM CT [link]

Spellchecker

I have found this really cool spellchecker. It is at www.google.com. You type in a word and press Enter. If the word is misspelled, google asks if you meant to say "correctly spelled word", replete with a link. As an added bonus, you can see some pages related to that word. Low cost random web surfing.

Anyway, if one is spellchecking "weasel" from work, do not use the "I'm feeling lucky" link. If you look hard enough, some of the pages are decidedly not work safe.
Alan on 04.25.04 @ 10:32 PM CT [link]

Kerry Flip Flops

From a highly biased source, 35 Senator Kerry flip flops. Not quite the t-shirt fodder I was hoping for.

I make tshirts by printing onto a 8.5/11 decal and ironing that onto a tshirt. I was thinking of a design something like:
this space unintentionally left blank

Kerry vs. Kerry
We need to beat up Saddam	Saddam is our friend!
We need to beat high taxes	Taxes are our friend!

I would, of course, add more quotes, format it real pretty, and add attributions. You get the idea.

Unfortunately, I cannot find good, pithy, Kerry vs. Kerry quotes. Not even the GOP can unearth good, pithy, Kerry vs. Kerry quotes. That does not mean that Senator Kerry has never expressed contradictory ideas. Follow the link, he has. Instead, it means that he often refuses to speak directly to important issues. He knows that, for him, being unquotable is the only way to avoid being caught in a lie.

Weasel.
Alan on 04.25.04 @ 10:27 PM CT [link]

Second Saudi Civil War?

From the prespective a Saudi.
Alan on 04.25.04 @ 09:55 PM CT [link]

Iraqi Kurds

And now for the dog that didn't bark. No, this is not a Sherlock Holmes post. This is about Iraqi Kurds.

I have not been hearing anything about them. So I googled "Iraq Kurd". The only story I saw on the first page about Iraqi Kurdistan itself concerned the adoration of coalition soldiers.

It seems that no news is good news.

Those that wish to fact check me can click 'More' to see a cheap copy of the Google page I evaluated.
Alan on 04.24.04 @ 09:44 PM CT [more..]

Finding a Restaurant

Tip for the day, from Dr. Cowen. "2. Look to eat in strip malls, not shopping malls. Low rents encourage culinary experimentation and attract immigrants." Just another cool little tidbit found on the web.
Alan on 04.24.04 @ 02:34 PM CT [link]

Vouchers in Milwaukee

From Crooked Timber's Vouchers in Milwaukee post, via Dr. Cowen:

Caroline Minter Hoxby has just published a paper (available, like all her papers, free at her website) in the Swedish Economic Policy Review claiming that the performance of Milwaukee’s public schools (measured in terms of test scores per dollar of spending) improved quite dramatically during the heat of the battle over vouchers (in the late 90’s), and that the gains of that time do not seem to have fallen back (though they have plateaued).

Her study is not without detractors (follow the Crooked Timber link), and her biases seem to match my own (that school choice is good). So even if this not the be-all and end-all of school choice links, I think it's worth following.
Alan on 04.24.04 @ 02:31 PM CT [link]

Soda Constructor

Via Mindles, the ages old Soda Constructor (Since 2002! Or earlier!). My early favorite is described in the help thread (check (page 2) as "a three point amoeba" where "the muscles are spread out over the wave pallet so they are equally apart from each other" and "tuning is the real key though, gravity and wave amplitude need to be adjusted carefully to get it to "roll" ".
Alan on 04.24.04 @ 01:27 PM CT [link]

Finally, a redeaming quality; Concerns www.onlylegitworkathomejobs.com

Being new at this blogging stuff and not having much of a life, I occasionally (every five minutes or so) check my referers logs. It turns out, lots of people (almost a dozen!) have found my blog via a search for the url www dot onlylegitworkathomejobs dot com, which I discussed here. In short, after receiving the same form letter five times, I chose not to accept their alleged offer of employment by sending them money. I figured if they really wanted to work with me, they'd, well, be willing to work with me. They were not.

Anyway, it makes me feel good that I was able to share my experience with others likely receiving the same email. I would encourage such people establish personal contact before sending any money.

And while I am not a lawyer, I would also encourage epople to watch their words carefully. Statements such as "www.onlylegitworkathomejobs.com are a bunch of scuzzbuckets that prey on the vulnerable among us" can get one in trouble. While I am not making that statement, I am not prepared to disagree if someone were to make that statement. It's just that I don't want to get sued. So I state facts and let others reach their own conclusions.
Alan on 04.24.04 @ 12:11 PM CT [link]

If it wasn't The Captain, then what was it?

Also via the ever so wacky Alex, a wacky tank posture.
Alan on 04.24.04 @ 11:39 AM CT [link]

WMD Search

Via Alex and the sparse Pro Common Sense (no link, his URL has a bad word), this google search.

Look for "Weapons of Mass Destruction" on google. Either use the "I'm feeling lucky" link or select the first option. It yields this page.
Alan on 04.24.04 @ 11:32 AM CT [link]

Iraqi Myths Dispelled

Found via Command Post, Strategy Page dispels Iraqi Myths. Myths include:

• The country is in flames!
  
• American[s] are hated in Iraq!
  
• U.S. troops are fed up with the war and leaving in droves!
  
• The Iraqi Governing Council is despised by most Iraqis!
  
• The U.S. Army doesn't have enough troops to handle current combat operations!
  
• The effort in Iraq detracts from the war on terror!
  
• U.S. Army should be expanded!
  
• Iraqi army should not have been disbanded after Saddam fell!
  
• Iraqi security and army troops, and police cannot be relied on!
  

Alan on 04.24.04 @ 08:21 AM CT [link]

Paris Match Protects Sources

Steven Den Beste "roundly condemned the magazine Paris Match for having reporters observe attempts by Iraqi insurgents to shoot down an American jet using SAMs." (Quote from a later discussion.) In the initial post, Mr. Den Beste surmises "that Paris Match editor-in-chief Alain Genestar is a brazen liar when he says they're not sympathizing with the insurgency."

I disagree. Not so much about Paris Match -- as bad as any bias may be, I am biased enough to think the French care more for leur independence des Etats Unis than for the people of Iraq. But I do think it ok for reporters to cover the activities of our enemies.

Let me argue with a hypothetical example. Suppose one of our enemies calls one of our reporters and says, "We are going to attack your side. Would you like to bear witness?" How should the reporter respond? More importantly, how will the reporter's response affect our enemies? How will the response affect us?

The reporter's decision may affect our enemy. Terrorists attack us because they think we are weak; they think that if we see enough bloodshed, we will get tired of cringing and accede to their demands. They invite reporters because reporters bring their atrocities into our lives. To the extent that bad reports petrify us, we need to change. We cannot continue to grow as a people if we are continually right-sizing our blinders. In the land of the blind, the most glib win elections.

I prefer a society where we recognize that the world sometimes presents uneasy choices, that sometimes short term sacrifice is the best way to achieve long term security and prosperity. Our greatest blessing is our ability to think. Uninformed thinking is mental masturbation. Reporters inform us. Reporters in dangerous, alien situations inform us the most. We need to keep them there.
Alan on 04.22.04 @ 10:30 PM CT [link]

Quote style

For what it's worth, in an effort to emulate my blogistan heroes, I've just changed my quote style. When I excise text, I now place "[...]" in its stead, instead of "...".

We now return you to your regularly scheduled drivel.
Alan on 04.22.04 @ 10:49 AM CT [link]

Barlett's Misgivings

If Bruce Bartlett had to pick a side, Democrat or Republican, I have no doubt he'd be a Republican. Which makes his most recent editorial so damning.

[...]
I have to say that my own feelings on the war parallel those of many others who previously supported the war but now feel deep misgivings.
[...]
In short, President Bush often seems to operate like the character from "Alice in Wonderland" who declared, "Sentence first -- verdict afterwards." Instead of figuring out why and how things should be done before acting, the White House seems to act first and then create ex post facto rationalizations for that decision in lieu of serious deliberation.
[...]

Whatever. I find his arguments unconvincing. I am glad, though, that he can be so civil in his disagreement.
Alan on 04.22.04 @ 10:47 AM CT [link]

No More Blood for Oil

Another excellent post from Command Post.

I wonder howif the mainstream press will cover it.

It is disgusting and disheartening that the U.N. leadership -- which should be a force for good -- was willing to watch innocent Iraqis die just so they could line their pockets with oodles of cash. I am a believer in group conscience. I do believe that "we" are smarter than "me". Usually. If I am in a room full of brutal dictaters and their underhanded supporters, I will make an exception. Saddam Hussein was a brutal dictator. The U.N, France, and Russia are full of underhanded supporters. Not having their support before the war began does not mean the war was unjust. Not having their support now does not mean our current efforts are counterproductive. It just means that people who aren't worth our time took the time to question our worth.
Alan on 04.21.04 @ 01:04 PM CT [link]

Another Iraqi Blog

Via a Tim Blair commenter (posted by Ted at April 19, 2004 at 07:13 AM), Iraq at a glance.
Alan on 04.18.04 @ 04:19 PM CT [link]

WMD use Thwarted

Command Post reports that an Al Qaeda plot to attack Jordan's spy headquarters with chemical weapons has been foiled. The chemical weapons, aka WMDs, came from Syria. It is likely that they got to Syria from Iraq.

I have a twinge of concern about shelf life, but I guess that is more important for biological WMDs than for chemical WMDs.
Alan on 04.18.04 @ 09:50 AM CT [link]

Funny Message

I subscribe to two newsgroups; rec.humor.funny and rec.humor.reruns. Today I got a post in r.h.funny entitled "Call for an Impeachment Inquiry of Bush and Cheney". At first I was upset, these people are hijacking ordinary discourse for their own partisan gain. They use obviously advanced technical skills to spam those of us seeking to enjoy a moment a mirth.

Then I realized, it fits. These people that think that President Bush needs to be impeached, and that Michael Moore needs to rejoin Ralph Nader. I know one should not laugh at other people. This is an exception.
Alan on 04.17.04 @ 06:54 PM CT [link]

Iranian Unrest

It seems that some Iranians continue to resist the Mullahcracy. According to Iranian students,

A security patrol car was blocked and an agent was shot by an armed group of three young freedom fighters in the Iranian Capital. This news has been confirmed, in an unprecedented manner, in the today's "Ghods Daily" which is an official newspaper affiliated to the paramilitary and repressive Bassij force.
...
the security forces had arrested a young female for non conformity with Islamic guidance. Soon several armed and masked young individuals will attack the security patrol car in order to free the arrested young woman who will be then able to escape from the scene.
...

Three notes:

• There seems to be some difficulty with the English language, saying "will attacked" instead of, say, "proceeded to attack".
  
• These students are still taking risks to defy religious intolerance.
  
• The bad guys decided to confirm the incident. That tells me the movement is too big to keep hushed.
  

I do harbor some doubts as to authenticity; this is not exactly splashed across my hometown newspaper. But I do think this is important, and I want my regular readers (google-bot, yahoo-bot, and MSN-bot) to stay informed.
Alan on 04.17.04 @ 02:55 PM CT [link]

NBA Schedule Peccadillos -- Winners and Losers

In the NBA, not all teams play all other teams the same number of times. Intraconference games are more frequent than interconference games.

What if that were not the case? What if half of all tema's games were intraconference, and half inter conference? How would that change the standings?

Of course, this is a stupid question for three reasons.

• The East has 15 teams, the West has 14.
  
• Because teams do not play themselves, if all teams were to play each other once, there would be more interconference games than intraconference games.
  
• Who cares?
  

Undaunted and with an excess of time on my hands, I proceeded to conduct an analysis. Click more for the resulting table.

• I started with The Detroit News final NBA results.
  
• I figured out how many conference and nonconference wins and losses each team had,
  
• I figured out their conference and nonconference winning percentages. I added those percentages and divided by two. This became their adjusted finish.
  
• I compared thier rank according to simple wins and losses with thier rank according to my adjusted finish.
  

So who, no one asks, came out ahead because teams play more conference games than non conference games? You could click more, and check the lines in green. Teams that played better against the other conference are in red.

• In the East, Milwaukee is a non factor. By playing the West more often, they would not have needed to lose the tie breaker against New Orleans.
  
• Also in the East, Boston and New York switch spots. New York played poorly against the West. Thus, they have the chance to lose to the Pistons in the second round, instead of having to wait for the third round like Boston now does.
  
• In the West, the Lakers and Spurs switched spots. That does not affect seedings, it does change potential second round home court advantage.
  
• Also in the West, Dallas and Memphis switch spots a la Boston and New York. Except, of course, they would have to wait for the NBA finals to lose to the Pistons.
  
• The biggest difference is the last West seed, the right to lose to Minnesota in the first round. Portland, the official tenth seed, played well against the East. With a more even distribution of games (or so the analysis goes), they would have made the playoffs. Denver would be out of the playoffs. Utah is in ninth either way.
  
  
  Of course, this matters more than NBA hoops to me. This is math, and math is fun. So there.
  Alan on 04.17.04 @ 02:28 PM CT [more..]

WMD Quote Roundup

Great 'Spin' in response to a post at Command Post:

WMD Democrats?: Liars!

Note many of the dates on these quotes.

John Kerry: “When I vote to give the president of the United States the authority to use force, if necessary, to disarm Saddam Hussein because I believe that a deadly arsenal of weapons of mass destruction in his hands is a real and grave threat to our security….” (Sen. John Kerry, Congressional Record, 10/9/02, p. S10174)

John Kerry: “[W]ithout question, we need to disarm Saddam Hussein. He is a brutal, murderous dictator, leading an oppressive regime … He presents a particularly grievous threat because he is so consistently prone to miscalculation … And now he is miscalculating America’s response to his continued deceit and his consistent grasp for weapons of mass destruction. So the threat of Saddam Hussein with weapons of mass destruction is real.” (Sen. John Kerry, Remarks At Georgetown University, Washington, DC, 1/23/03)

Ted Kennedy: “We have known for many years that Saddam Hussein is seeking and developing weapons of mass destruction.” (“Remarks By Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA) At The Johns Hopkins School Of Advanced International Studies,” Federal News Service, 9/27/02)

Carl Levin: “We begin with the common belief that Saddam Hussein is a tyrant and a threat to the peace and stability of the region. He has ignored the mandated of the United Nations and is building weapons of mass destruction and the means of delivering them.” (Committee On Armed Services, U.S. Senate, Hearing, 9/19/02)

Al Gore: “We know that he has stored secret supplies of biological and chemical weapons throughout his country.” (“Text Of Remarks By Former Vice President Al Gore At The Commonwealth Club, San Francisco,” Federal News Service, 9/23/02)

Al Gore: “Iraq’s search for weapons of mass destruction has proven impossible to deter and we should assume that it will continue for as long as Saddam is in power.” (“Text Of Remarks By Former Vice President Al Gore At The Commonwealth Club, San Francisco,” Federal News Service, 9/23/02)

Robert Byrd: “The last UN weapons inspectors left Iraq in October of 1998. We are confident that Saddam Hussein retains some stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons, and that he has since embarked on a crash course to build up his chemical and biological warfare capabilities. Intelligence reports indicate that he is seeking nuclear weapons…” (“Threats And Responses,” The New York Times, 10/4/02)

Jay Rockefeller: “There is unmistakable evidence that Saddam Hussein is working aggressively to develop nuclear weapons and will likely have nuclear weapons within the next five years … We also should remember we have always underestimated the progress Saddam has made in development of weapons of mass destruction.” (Sen. Jay Rockefeller, Congressional Record, 10/10/02, p. S10305)

Henry Waxman: “He has systematically violated, over the course of the past 11 years, every significant UN resolution that has demanded that he disarm and destroy his chemical and biological weapons, and any nuclear capacity. This he has refused to do.” (Rep. Henry Waxman, Congressional Record, 10/10/02, p. H7767)
Posted by Jeff at April 16, 2004 11:04 PM

I have not confirmed these quotes directly, but I believe them. I have not seem them all assembled in one place like this before.
Alan on 04.17.04 @ 11:52 AM CT [link]

Improved Pistons

Key stat from The Detroit News:

[Joe Dumars] completed his fifth season as Pistons president and has turned around a franchise few cared about. They were 74-90 his first two seasons, 153-91 the last three.

(Actually, nba.com says they went 50-32 last year and the year before. The Detroit News says the Pistons went 54-28 this year. This makes for an overall record of 154-92, not 153-91 over the past three years. The 74 wins and 90 losses from the previous years check out though.)

Comparing the last three years to the previous two, the Pistons have twice the victories with the same number of losses. Sounds like an algebra problem. Too bad they didn't go 82-82 in 2000-2002 and 164-82 in 2002-4.
Alan on 04.16.04 @ 08:16 AM CT [link]

Liberating Campuses

I got today's Opinion Journal Best of the Web the usual way, by email. The second item is entitled "Razor's Edge". It closes with:

It's a pipe dream of course, but this does make us wish the Marines would liberate a few American college campuses.

Frankly, I wonder how much of a pipe dream it is. I suspect that soldiers have always used the GI Bill to pay for college. Before now, I suspect they would just blend in (as much as older students could blend in), not altering campus debate.

But when today's Marines move from Iraqi battle fields to college campuses, I doubt they will suffer the foolishness of fellow students who denigrate military service. I suspect that even professors will get pushback on their liberal rantings. Indeed, the Marines may indeed liberate a few college campuses by the end of the decade.

Alan on 04.15.04 @ 04:55 PM CT [link]

Firewall Protected Terrorists

From today's version of the link deprived Nealz Nuze:

A specific example is the case of Zacarias Moussaui. He is what people are calling the 20th hijacker. Anyway, he was being pursued on an immigration violation, but as Morris put it, "they couldn't let the intelligence types look at his computer." And just what was on that computer?

The names of some of the September 11th hijackers and the flight schools they attended. Would the 9/11 attacks have happened if the FBI had been able to share that information with the CIA? We may never know, but you tell me..just who should be doing the apologizing?

The information in first paragraph is referenced at News Max. I was unable to find a link verifying the contents of his computer.
Alan on 04.15.04 @ 02:40 PM CT [link]

Other blogs.

Via Alex, an interesting blog ('A pirate walks into a bar, the bartender says "hey there, you've got a steering wheel down your pants". "Aye" says the pirate, "its driving me nuts!".') and another interesting blog ("In an informal discussion between friends, never worry about the topic. Chances are that, within 5 minutes, everyone forgot what they were talking about in the first placce." and "Don't bother trying to change the apathetic. They just don't care.").

But he also pointed me to this disturbing RoommateBlog. I chastised with a comment on his April 8 post.
Alan on 04.15.04 @ 02:08 PM CT [link]

One 9-11 Watershed

From Ann Coulter's column today:

Last week, 9-11 commissioner John Lehman revealed that "it was the policy (before 9-11) and I believe remains the policy today to fine airlines if they have more than two young Arab males in secondary questioning because that's discriminatory."

To me, this is one of those "end of argument" quotes. We cannot blame Bush for 9-11. There was no public support for effectively conducting the war on terror before 9-11.
Alan on 04.15.04 @ 10:14 AM CT [link]

Death Clock

So Dave Barry complainsabout those who complain about his clock. Naturally, the discussion turns to this death clock. Cool. Looks like I won't have to worry about getting anyone anything for XMas that year.
Alan on 04.15.04 @ 10:09 AM CT [link]

Senator Allen Supports Freedom in Iran

From Free Iran mailing list, a letter from Senator George Allen (R, Virginia) supporting freedom in Iran. From the email introduction to the letter:

Prominent "Senator George Allen" (R-VA), former Governor of Virginia and
former Chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, has
declared his firm commitment to supporting freedom and democracy in Iran
in a letter addressed to Aryo B. Pirouznia of SMCCDI.

From the letter itself:

Iran remains a great threat to the United States and their neighboring countries by continuing to acquire weapons of mass destruction.... These efforts to develop intercontinental ballistic missile programs and other nuclear, chemical and biological weapons may destabilize the region and threaten international peace.

Cherry picked from the rest of the letter:

[Iran has] continued to support terrorist groups....The people of Iran deserve to have the right to religious freedom, political participation, free speech and due process of law.... I signed ... an effort to place U.S. foreign policy on the right track and encourage Iranians to strive for a more democratic Iran.

I started to write this post to decry the efforts of a legislative branch member to meddle in foreign diplomacy. I searched the US constitution for a real pithy rebuke like "the conduct of diplomacy shall be reserved to the president and the minoins he so chuses". Instead, all I saw was

• Article I, Section 8, listing the 18 duties of congress, none of which involves the conduct of diplomacy,
  
• Article II, Section 2, stating that the president shall appoint ambassadors with the advice and consent of the senate,
  
• Article II, Section 3, stating that the president shall receive foreign ambassadors, and
  
• Article III, stating that only the Supreme Court shall judge foreign ambassadors.
  

The string "diplo" does not even appear in the constitution.

Please do not misunderstand; not only do I support the sentiments of Senator Allen, I deeply respect his ability to express them. And I further believe that in a free, self governing, society, important issues need to be discussed openly. So while I was going to close with an attempt at my own brand of pith:

But I moreso support the contention that "politics stops at the water's edge." Where politicians tread, politics tend to follow. Politics seems to be getting it's feet wet here.

It just doesn't seem that simple.
Alan on 04.15.04 @ 08:00 AM CT [link]

Iran takes long view of Iraq

Via Free Iran -- Iran has agents in Iraq. What caught my eye:

The strategic aim is to secure its domination of this country. [Iran] believes it has time on its side

And for context:

But NCRI pronouncements have been given some credence since it said in
2002 that Tehran was hiding an uranium enrichment plant forcing Iran to
admit the existence of the plant and allow U.N.'s nuclear inspectors to
view it.

We cannot afford to cut and run in Iraq. We would be ceding a huge pile of oil -- and the futures of millions of innocent Iraqis -- to a bunch of Islamofascists that lied in their quest for nuclear technology.
Addendum----------------------------------------------
Corrected a couple of typos.
Alan on 04.14.04 @ 09:59 PM CT [link]

Fallujah's recently deceased women and children.

Zeyad made a claim, since discredited, that

The body count in Fallujah till now is 518 Iraqis dead (160 of them women, and about 50 children) and 1250 badly injured. Doctors from Fallujah mentioned that a large number of the dead women and children were shot in the head and that they were saving the extracted bullets to prove that they were being targetted by Marines snipers in the city.

I say discredited, Tim Blair doesn't believe it; nor do most of Zeyad's commenters.

The significance of the number of dead women and children is in question. Is that a large number, given the total number of deaths? Are they women and children unsuccessfully used as human shields? Who killed them?

I would ask, the women and children of whom? Iraqis that are working with the coalition? Is this evidence of Islamofacists punishing their enemies? Is this why we are having so much trouble getting Iraqis to stand firm?
Alan on 04.14.04 @ 03:56 PM CT [link]

Subservient Chicken Unmasked

Snopes reports that Burger King is behind the Subservient Chicken.
Alan on 04.14.04 @ 08:21 AM CT [link]

A Russian view of Fallujah

Via Instapundit, this analysis from the Moscow Times:

... Democratic Senator Edward Kennedy said that Iraq had become "George Bush's Vietnam," and declared that the United States needs a new leader.
...
The Vietnam War was a battlefield in the global Cold War that pitted the United States against the Soviet Union and its allies. ... So long as the Soviets were able to maintain a global balance of power, any local war -- in Vietnam, Afghanistan, Nicaragua -- tended to develop into a quagmire.

Today the world is a very different place, and the scope of the fighting in Iraq cannot be compared to Vietnam. The United States lost more than 60,000 soldiers and 8,000 aircraft in Vietnam. U.S. casualties in Iraq number fewer than 500. The nature of combat of Iraq, as demonstrated in Fallujah last week, is also different.
...
The Iraqi insurgents in Fallujah outnumbered the Marines and were armed with Kalashnikov automatic rifles, RPG-7 antitank grenade launchers and mortars. Chechen fighters used the same weapons in Grozny in 1995, 1996 and 2000, killing thousands of Russian soldiers and destroying hundreds of armored vehicles.

Just like the Russians in Grozny, the Marines last week were supported by tanks and attack helicopters, but the end result was entirely different. U.S. forces did not bomb the city indiscriminately. The Iraqis fought well but were massacred. According to the latest body count, some 600 Iraqis died and another 1,000 were wounded. The Marines lost some 20 men.

The Marines are far better trained, of course, but the Iraqis were fighting in their hometown. The decisive difference between the two sides was the extensive use of a computerized command, control and targeting system by the U.S. military. Satellites, manned and unmanned aircraft collected precise information on enemy and friendly movements on the battlefield night and day.

Modern U.S. field commanders have real-time access to this system, allowing them to monitor the changing situation on the battlefield as no commander in the history of war has been able to do. This technology has greatly enhanced the effectiveness of aerial bombardments in the last decade. And now the nature of house-to-house combat has changed as well.

The more accurate historical analogy to the current war in Iraq is not Vietnam but, say, the battle at Omdurman, Sudan, in 1898, when Horatio Herbert Kitchener, a British field marshal, crushed the Sudanese forces of al-Mahdi by bringing machine guns to bear against the enemy's muskets and spears. Today the United States has the capability and the technical superiority to fight and win colonial wars against numerically superior enemies.

But military superiority is not enough. Will the Bush administration -- or the Democrats, should they win the White House in November -- prove better, kinder rulers of the world than the British Liberals and Tories of a century ago?

My main concern is that we not snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. Our two biggest impediments to destroying the enemy are (1) the way we let them hide behind women and children and (2) the way our media is spinning our victories as losses. That may make us kinder rulers. But if our leadership does not persist, are we better rulers?
Alan on 04.13.04 @ 08:46 AM CT [link]

Iraqi Stakes

Via FreeIran Activist chat email list, this from NY Post:

ON Saturday, Iranian agents ambushed an American convoy on the road
between Mosul and Akre in Iraq. The attack did not go as planned: Our
troops responded sharply, killing two Iranians, wounding a third and
capturing two more.

They were carrying their identity documents.
...
Hundreds of Iranian agents and fighters have been confirmed to be in
Iran. The actual number is probably in the thousands. They've swelled
the ranks of Sadr's "Mahdi Army" and stiffened its backbone.
...
Wherever his thugs rose up, our soldiers shut them down. Efficiently,
effectively and courageously.

But now, in the face of a Coalition victory, a cancerous danger
threatens. President Bush is on the verge of making the same mistake his
father made at the end of Desert Storm and that his Pentagon advisers
encouraged him to make last year - stopping half-way.
...
The apologists for terror are piling on, from the hateful rhetoric of
al-Jazeera, which encouraged attacks on Americans all week, to the
corrupt sheiks of the Persian Gulf who are responsible for so much of
the decline of the Arab soul.

If we do not pursue our enemies unto their deaths while we have the
chance, Fallujah will prove to be Bush's Mogadishu. And the forces of
global terror will have won again.

What he said.
Alan on 04.12.04 @ 10:33 AM CT [link]

Woo hoo! I got a job! Kinda...

I got an email. I replied. I got an autoreply.

From EMail #1:

We are pleased to offer you a position as a Work At Home Personal Assistant Representative beginning April 19,2004 working from home. Your annual salary will be $52,000, and you will report to the Manager of Marketing, John Smith. You will be eligible for a discretionary performance bonus at fiscal year end, up to 10% of your annual salary. You are also eligible for our health, life, and disability insurance. Coverage for these benefits begins on April 19,2004.

We are offering you this position under the following terms and conditions:

Sounds too good to be true.... Later in the email:

As a term and condition of employment you will be required to get a copy of the following documents prior to beginning your employment: "Our Work At Home Guide" for complete instructions on your new career. Please get your copy at www.onlylegitworkathomejobs.com

From the linked site:

Order Now ["Work At Home Guide" image] until 4/25 promotionally priced at only $34.95 Normally this sells for $59.95! Take advantage of this limited opportunity

They forgot an exclamation point at the end there.
My reply:

Thank you for your kind offer of employment. I would look forward to working with you.

Unfortunately, I am unable to purchase the work at home guide mentioned below. Could you please deduct the cost from my first paycheck? With such a mutually lucrative relationship to come, I do not expect this to be a problem.

The response to my reply:

Thanks for submitting your application with our company and for your interest in Work At Home Careers. There are no upfront fees associated with any of our work at home positions. Please be assured that we have received your resume and there is no need to reply to this message. We will review your resume and contact you shortly.


Susan Campbell
Director, Human Resources






If you prefer to not have your address on the Susan Campbell mailing list, please go here.
[link excised]


.

Addendum----------------------------------------------
Having received the same basic email four times since then, I replied, stating:

If you are interested in entering into a mutually beneficial employment arrangement, please send me a personalized response. If you are only interested in selling an employment guide, please resend your previous missive.

Guess what I got in return? My fifth copy of the same email.
Alan on 04.12.04 @ 08:45 AM CT [link]

Google bombing "Jew"

Stolen from Natalie Solent:

An anti-anti-semitic Google bomb. Apparently the top site for the word "Jew" on Google has been coming up as some nutjob screed. Quite a few bloggers are linking to this straightforward, unpropagandistic Wikipedia entry for the word Jew so as to correct the situation. Good idea.

Alan on 04.12.04 @ 07:45 AM CT [link]

PDB

So the infamous Presidential Daily Briefing is out. The legislative branch is supposed to exert oversight of the executive branch, not control. Demanding such minutae as PDBs seems to cross the line.
That said, what did the president know, and when did he know it? From the briefing:

Although Bin Ladin has not succeeded, his attacks against the US Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998 demonstrate that he prepares operations years in advance and is not deterred by setbacks. Bin Ladin associates surveilled our Embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam as early as 1993, and some members of the Nairobi cell planning the bombings were arrested and deported in 1997.

Does this mean President Clinton is culpable for the embassy attacks?

We have not been able to corroborate some of the more sensational threat reporting, such as that from a [deleted text] service in 1998 saying that Bin Ladin wanted to hijack a US aircraft to gain the release of "Blind Shaykh" 'Umar' Abd aI-Rahman and other US-held extremists.

So it's simple. We should have released the Shaykh Omar and we would have prevented 9/11. Unless, of course, interpreting intelligence is not so simple.

Click "More" for the redacted text of the presidential daily briefing from August 6, 2001: From Fox News via Boortz.
Alan on 04.12.04 @ 07:39 AM CT [more..]

Life lessons

From Alex: some humorous life lessons.
Alan on 04.12.04 @ 05:46 AM CT [link]

Iraqi Challenge

There is certainly a lot of drama happenning in Iraq right now. To what avail?

Certainly Iraq is in play. We definitely play a roll in whether or not Iraq becomes a democracy.

I've already argued that this affects Iran. Iran is bankrolling Sadr. I'd also say this affects the entire Middle East. As I write this, I think, duh. I am far from the first to stress the importance of establishing an Arab democracy.

So how should the Middle East's dictators respond? I would expect them to slyly oppose our efforts. They would rather keep their positions of power atop seething cauldrons of anti Americanism than allow any transition to democracy. Again, duh.

Somehow, amid the questions of WMDs, intelligence failures, and cowardly and/or treacherous Iraqis, this larger point has been lost. The WMD genie is itching to get out of the bottle. We are fighting for the future of mankind. We cannot risk having an oil powered thugocracy. We cannot afford to quit.
Alan on 04.11.04 @ 11:32 AM CT [link]

Free html code!

You are a GRAMMAR GOD!


If your mission in life is not already to
preserve the English tongue, it should be.
Congratulations and thank you!


How grammatically sound are you?
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Link thanks to The Princess's Diary
Alan on 04.10.04 @ 08:00 AM CT [link]

Lileks on Rice testimony

Another Lileks gem: (link active 4/9)
Another Lileks gem: (link active thereafter ... I think)

Listened to Dr. Rice’s testimony today.... But the 9/11 commission has changed my view of the administration. I now believe that if Al Gore had been president, he would have invaded Afghanistan right away, fortified the cockpit doors, issued an executive order that made the CIA and FBI share intel, grounded all planes the moment “chatter” started mentioning “a winged victory, like the bird of righteousness,” and subjected all young Arab males to full-body searches in airports. Pakistan would have come around to our point of view right away.

Political proof by contradiction; proving that "Bush" caused "not prevention" by assuming that "not Bush" would cause "prevention" and finding a contradiction.
Alan on 04.09.04 @ 12:17 AM CT [link]

Iraqi added bonus

Just in case anybody stops by, let me make one observation about Iraq's fighting. Lots of 'pilgrims' have been coming from Iran. Sadr is said to be doing Iran theocrat's bidding. Hopefully the current battle in Iraq will drain enough bad guys from Iran to make an democratic uprising of the students possible there.
Alan on 04.08.04 @ 10:26 PM CT [link]