Why Corporate Media won't show anti-war protests (huh?)

Via a convoluted series of links that began with a web development blog, and moved through a soap-box touting the benefits of XML, with a side-trip to an article about the "Barbie Liberation Organization," I ended up reading this article, entitled "For Broadcast Media, Patriotism Pays."

The referring page used the article as proof that "the corporate media are very reluctant to cover opposition to the war." This obviously-anti-war website seems to believe that vast corporate conspiracies are arising to prevent the proper education of the American public, and if we'd only fix it, the war would end, peace would prevail, and we could make 8% APY on our 401Ks. (OK, I made up that last thing, but I'm in favor of it.)

The funny thing is, I don't get that message from this article at all. My spin cycle must rotate in the wrong direction. Let's break it down, shall we?

Now, apparently, is the time for all good radio and TV stations to come to the aid of their country's war.

That is the message pushed by broadcast news consultants, who've been advising news and talk stations across the nation to wave the flag and downplay protest against the war.

So far, so good. Although, based on my viewing experience, this message has been rather broadly ignored.

The influential television-news consulting firm Frank N. Magid Associates recently put it in even starker terms: Covering war protests may be harmful to a station's bottom line.

In a survey released last week on the eve of war, the firm found that war protests were the topic that tested lowest among 6,400 viewers across the nation. Magid said only 14 percent of respondents said TV news wasn't paying enough attention to "anti-war demonstrations and peace activities"; just 13 percent thought that in the event of war, the news should pay more attention to dissent.

IOW, most Americans support either the war, or the troops, or both.

Magid, whose representatives did not return phone calls, offers no direct advice about what stations should do. However, the research's implied message reinforces antiwar activists' assertion that media outlets have marginalized opposing voices.

"The antiwar movement in this country is far bigger than it was during the first few years of the Vietnam War, but you wouldn't know it from the coverage," said Adam Eidinger, a Washington activist. "I think the media has been completely biased. You don't hear dissenting voices; you see people marching in the streets, but you rarely hear what they have to say in the media."

This is where it gets sticky. Mr. Eidinger is apparently spending too much time blocking traffic and not enough time in front of the tube. But, his RDS ("Reality Denial Syndrome") is not the issue here. The issue is just how anyone can stretch and spin and contort this situation into "Corporate Media Censorship."

See, in my 25+ years of working for one of the 20 largest companies in the US, I never saw any corporate behavior that wasn't driven by the bottom line. Corporations exist for one thing: to make their stockholders happy, and they do that best by doing profitable things. Even seemingly altruistic activities such as supporting the local United Way can be deemed to contribute to the bottom line in an intangible but nevertheless real fashion.

So, if media conglomerates aren't giving wide coverage to anti-war protest (which I don't believe), it's because they understand (better than the protestors) that the majority of their viewers are anti-anti-war protest. If the anti-war protestors have been marginalized, it's because they ARE marginal. The media conglomerates are simply attending to what they do best under our wonderfully efficient system of capitalism: making money for their shareholders by giving their customers what they want.

If anything, some of the media are acting contrary to this logical behavior by seemingly ignoring their constituency. They can get away with it in the short run, but it'll hit 'em where they live in the long run: the bottom line. That's what happens when they try to project their own biases onto their viewers, hoping to change minds by overload. It rarely works.

Geo-rags to geo-riches...

It hasn't been that many years since you couldn't swing a dead cat behind the counter of the local Mickie D's without hitting a geophysicist. Now I see where the two heroes of "The Core" (opening today at a theater near you!) are...you guessed it...geophysicists! It's getting terrible reviews from the "film critics," putting it squarely at the top of our must-see list. Besides, I have a lot of geo-tech friends and it's high time they got a little...um...respect.

Friday wind-down...

...(not to be confused with "melt-down"...

What tha...?! Snow?! It was 87 degreees yesterday; today the high might reach 50, and we're seeing light flurries. These kinds of contrasts are not unusual for west Texas weather, but the snow certainly is. The weather oracles are predicting freezes for the next two nights, which may come as an unpleasant surprise to the many flowering and budding fruit trees around town.

It's hard to sympathize with them; after all, the usual signs that winter has departed have not yet appeared. The mesquite is still bare, and I haven't seen any scissortails. For that matter, I don't recall seeing any buzzards (other than on certain broadcast news programs). The perceptive resident will take note and prepare accordingly.

...

It occurred to me this morning that my posting yesterday on liberation theology is akin to a gerbil discussing Toltecian glyphs...the result is hardly edifying or authoritative. This is the "attractive nuisance" of blogging...holding forth on a subject not from any base of actual knowledge or insight, but simply because one can. Reader discernment is critical. As an "industry," blogging will no doubt mature to where this problem is not pandemic, but those of us who are relatively new to the medium will continue to fall into this trap, willing victims of our own technology-enabled egos.

Ahhh...but what do I know?

...

Perhaps I can achieve partial atonement by presenting for your consideration a new book, called to our attention on today's edition of ZDNet Anchordesk. The book is Google Hacks: 100 Industrial-Strength Tips & Tools, by Tara Calishain and Rael Dornfest (O'Reilly). [O'Reilly continues its string of wonderful page covers with a photo of an adjustable wrench; well, actually, it's a vise-grip...savior of homehandymen and bain of professional mechanics everywhere.]

Nothing needs less confirmation than Google's absolute dominance in the search engine field. Google's occasional missteps only serve to highlight just how good it really is. But most of us aren't aware of the depth of usefulness to be found at google.com. This book aims to fix that. Here are a few of the useful tidbits highlighted by the AnchorDesk article:

• Google has a very serviceable phone number lookup (and reverse lookup) capability. Simply enter phonebook: followed by the number [(xxx) yyy-zzzz]; for reverse lookups, enter phonebook: followed by name and city. The book points out that this feature isn't quite as strong as, say, WhitePages.com, but if you're like me and have the Google search bar available at every turn, it's pretty convenient.
  
  
• Google's popularity, grown out of it's sheer competence, has spawned some interesting (term used loosely) collateral sites. Take elgooG, for example. In a Bizarro-World twist, this site is literally the mirror image of Google...down to the requirement of typing your search term backwards. (But, if they really wanted to carry out this concept, search results would be just the opposite of what you are seeking. For example, a search for "loyal friend" would yield "Jacques Chirac." But, I digress.)
  
  Then there's Googlism, a site that will allow you to query Google's database for your own name and see "what Google thinks about you." It's just a way of finding some relationships between keywords, but it's fun in a creepy sort of way.
  
  GooglePeople by AvaQuest purports to answer questions in the form of "Who is...?" It doesn't profess to be perfect, and it's not, but it's an example of a potentially useful tool.
  
  And, finally, there's GoogleWhacking, which you've probably read about elsewhere. This is an exercise in wordplay where you try to find a two-word search term that yields only one search result. The rules are more complicated than you might think. As of this morning, over 134,000 "whacks" have been located and recorded, which to me sort of reduces the exclusivity of the fraternity. Still, out of 3 billion webpages purportedly indexed by Google...

I'm sure the good folk over at Google are giddy over all this attention. It's only going to get better, now that Google owns Blogger; look for Google to become "blog central" in many different ways.

...

Last, and certainly least, I leave you with this link to Powers Phillips, P.C., Attorneys At Law in Denver, Colorado. Whoever said that lawyers have no sense of humor hasn't visited this website.

Russian/Iraqi WMD connection...

Just discovered this article in the Commentary section of today's Wall Street Journal (subscription access only), in which Robert Goldberg details the history of Russian involvement in arming Hussein with WMDs.

In 1999 Russia agreed to sell Saddam Hussein $100 million worth of military hardware. The deal involved Ahmed Murtada Ahmed Khalil, the transport and communications minister, who ran the biological weapons program at the Salman Pak facility outside Baghdad, and who knew exactly what Iraq would need in order to rebuild its WMD program after the Gulf War. Under his tenure, Russian involvement in the development of Iraq's WMD program has increased. Iraq's Scud-C or al-Hussein missiles were acquired from high-level military officials and Russian arms dealers. The al-Hussein was retrofitted to deliver chemical and biological weapons with Russian technology. In 1998, the U.N. Special Commission was prevented from verifying Iraqi claims that it had destroyed the al-Hussein warheads. At that time, Russia joined with France and Germany in taking up Iraq's campaign to weaken the inspection authority and opposed the Clinton administration's decision to bomb Iraq back into compliance. To this day, inspectors believe that Iraq retains a stock of chemical munitions, including chemical/biological al-Hussein ballistic missile warheads, 2,000 aerial bombs, 15,000-25,000 rockets, and 15,000 artillery shells. Iraq may also retain bio-weapon sprayers for its Mirage F-1s.

That last sentence caught my attention, as I recalled a CNN crawler from a day or so ago reporting that up to that point, not one of Iraq's fleet of 300 military aircraft had taken to the air. Other than the apparent survival instincts of their pilots, what else might cause the Iraqis to keep the planes on the ground? Could they be saving them for something?

I'm obviously slower than some to figure this out. I hope we're all wrong.

Top 10 Myths...Ritter litter...Liberation Theology...

We went live with the new Buffalo Trail Council (Boy Scouts) website yesterday and I'm waiting on other clients for content, so I've had some breathing room to check out a few things that I wouldn't normally get around to.

• I've seen a lot of links to this article, but I think it's worth a link here, as well. Letterman popularized the "Top 10" list format, and it's put to good use here in describing myths about the war with Iraq.
  
  
• Rachel Lucas takes former weapons inspector Scott Ritter to task for some comments he made about the US chances of victory in Iraq (slim-to-none, in his opinion). While Rachel continues to astonish and amaze her readers with her seemingly endless permutations of adjectives and nouns which incorporate the syllable "ass," I can see a little more room for debate regarding Ritter's remarks. IF (and it's a big "if") Ritter was alluding to the difficulty of declaring victory in a war where the defeated regime will never, ever attend a formal ceremony of surrender (state funerals don't count), then he could be right. If he's talking about a victory declaration that comes only after we verify a free and open democratic election of new Iraqi governmental leaders, answerable to the people of Iraq, I wouldn't argue that it's highly likely.
  
  But, if he really believe that the coalition forces will not achieve a clear military victory — and that the people of Iraq will not be the better for it — then I would have to cast my lot with Ms. Lucas.
  
  
• Jeff Jarvis over at BuzzMachine blogged this morning about "Liberation Theology." I've heard the term before, and knew that it had been generally applied in the past to movements in Latin America, but I didn't really know much else about it. So I googled a few sites in an attempt to get a quick education.
  
  Here's the link to which Jeff referred. In this article, the writer states:

While liberation theology does not encourage violence, it acknowledges the right of people to defend themselves against murderous repression. Uprisings by Kurds and Shi'ites in 1987-89 and in 1991 were put down in large-scale massacres, sometimes with chemical weapons. If they were to rise again, they would have the world's sympathy. Liberation theology would say that the Lord, who breaks the rod of the oppressor, was with them.

Then I found this statement, from the Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center (this organization is apparently working to end the Israeli occupation of Palestine; its mission statment says, in part: "Sabeel strives to develop a spirituality based on justice, peace, nonviolence, liberation and reconciliation for the different national and faith communities."):

When President George W. Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair, who claim to be Christians, appear frequently on TV and talk about going to war, they represent the primitive warrior god of certain parts of the Bible whom we totally reject and find offensive. We believe they are acting contrary to the spirit and message of the Bible. They are not being peacemakers but “warmakers” and this makes many of us Christians ashamed. We want to make it clear that we cannot follow the God of George Bush and Tony Blair. We follow the God of peace who wills peace and who makes us God’s children by virtue of loving, seeking, and pursuing peace.

So, the first two links I visited presented opposing views on what "Liberation Theology" permits (or assumes). On the one hand, war (or, at least, violent uprising) is justified by the proper end; on the other, that war is never justified.

Well, like anything related to theology, the answers are as varied as the answerers, and the issue is not to be dealt with in a few minutes of light webscanning. If you really want to dig into Liberation Theology online, you might start with this article about the philosophy as it relates to Latin America, then move to this one regarding Black Theology, and end up with this one about Feminist Theology.

Those articles take on the subject from more of a cultural/sociological perspective. If you care to see more of a Bible-based perspective on the issue, take a look here. In my humble and ill-informed opinion, this strikes closer at the heart of the matter:

So we see Christianity struggling forwards towards its roots.

It is doing so in accordance with the Cause-and-effect Relationship of the Pentateuch. This clearly states that inhumanity, suffering and oppression will increase until people return and follow the laws of the Pentateuch. These laws include its laws of behaviour and its social laws and its social system and these provide fairness and equality, independence and freedom, for all.

It is only when people struggle for a better life, struggle for these laws to be applied and followed, that a better quality of life can be achieved on this planet for all human beings, instead of just for a few at the expense of extreme poverty for the rest.

In other words, spin it as you will, the emphasis on "Liberation Theology" must ultimately land on "Theology" — what does God want from His creation? Peace will come only from peaceful individuals; governments and institutions cannot make it so.

Jesus Christ said "render unto Caesar what is Caesar's and unto God what is God's." We're pretty good at the first part...not so good at the second. And we should be extremely leery about doing anything in God's Name until we're sure that He would approve. And, by the way, it will behoove us to remember that the God of the Old Testament is also the God of the New Testament; He hasn't changed one bit.

So, how does this all fit into the context of the war with Iraq (or vice versa)? Beats me. All I know is that some evil cannot be wished away, or talked away, or ignored away. And if you tell me that we should let God deal with the evildoers in His own way and time, my response is probably going to be something like this: "that seems to be what He's doing right now." Praise the Lord and pass the ammo.

Posted by Eric at 04:25 PM | Permalink

U.N. Commission on Human Rights - situation in Sudan...

The UNCHR continues to meet in Geneva, Switzerland, and continues to present evidence that it is emminently unqualified to represent the oppressed and persecuted. Yesterday, in an address to the Commission our old buddy Dominique de Villepin, the French Foreign Minister, had this to say:

It was true that in Iraq, the Commission had been condemning every year the violations of human rights. If force was the last recourse, it should not be a preventive and unilateral action. That situation could damage the confidence that existed between States, and could lead to violence and war.

Say wha? Force should not be employed to prevent violations of human rights? It might "damage the confidence...between States"? What about the rights of those individual humans which are supposed to be preeminent in "need to be protected" hierarchy?

It's OK with me if Dom wants to live in his own dream world, but he really needs to complete his withdrawal from reality in order to better serve humankind. A tonguectomy would be a good start.

On a related note, I received an email from Deborah Fikes, local activist on behalf of persecuted Christians around the world and in particular in Sudan. She's writing to alert folks about another effort by those zany brothers-in-harm, France and Libya, to further undermine the credibility of the CHR:

The report I received today informed our Sudan coalition members that Libya and France are pushing for a resolution that changes Sudan's status from an item 9 category to an item 19 category which in layman's language means that Sudan will not be a carefully watched country in regards to their human rights abuses and persecution of Christians. This change in status also means that the U.N. rapporteur (monitor) Gerhart Baum, who has done an outstanding job of monitoring Sudan will be dismissed and the radical Islamic regime will have much more leverage to continue atrocities against Christians in this country.

There is evidence that this effort led by Libya and France is designed to further undermine President Bush and his strong courageous stand for our friends in southern Sudan who do not want to convert to Islam or be driven off their land so the radical Islamic regime can explore for oil and use the money to build up their war regime. (Also, France wants to continue exploring for oil in Sudan and the cannot do so if the Sudan rapporteur reports about their "scorched earth" campaigns to drive the southern Sudanese off their land to get to the oil.) President Bush is required by the Sudan Peace Act Law to evaluate the situation in Sudan this April and implement punitive measures outlined in the Sudan Peace Act that will punish the radical Muslim government if they do not stop the atrocities they are committing there.

The Libyan/French effort in the U.N. Human Rights meeting this week in Geneva is hoping to make President Bush look foolish and reinforce their derogatory characterization of him as a "cowboy" if he shows his usual strong support for southern Sudan when he renders a decision on Sudan in April. This has been strategically planned by Libya and France in an effort to take advantage of the U.S. being focused on the War with Iraq.

[As you recall, Libya's representative is the current chairman of the CHR.]

At the same time, there's some evidence - or at least opinion - that the US is not doing all it can to help the situation in Sudan. Read John Eibner's report here.

It would be a tragedy if in our bid to liberate Iraq from its repressive regime, we ended up enhancing an even more repressive regime in Sudan through inaction or inattention.

Miscellany...

Did anyone else see Katie Couric's interview yesterday with Iraq's U.N. Ambassador, Mohammed Aldouri? Talk about a surrealistic exercise...

Couric: How do you know that was really Saddam Hussein on that broadcast (referring to the televised appearance from Sunday)?

Aldouri: Well, because I saw him right there on television.

Couric: Have you had any contact with any officials from your country within the past few days?

Aldouri: Um...yes...I have spoken with the Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Couric: No one else?

Aldouri: I am a diplomatic official. I do not have contact with political or military officials.

Then there was discussion about the impending battle looming over Baghdad, clear evidence that this is a war unlike any other. Have you ever seen an Official of the Enemy appear on American TV and present his view of the war in a relatively unimpeded fashion? I don't think I have, and if he hadn't been such an inexpert liar, I would be concerned about the propaganda impact of such exposure.

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CNN Headline News re-ran a story from a day or two ago about warblogging. This is the same story that Glenn Reynolds was exorcised about. I'm not sure what the big deal is. If the Iraqi gestapo has time to watch and take notes from CNN Headline News, they certainly can google Salam Pax's blog URL.

Interesting that the only other blog they mentioned was that of M.L. Lyke, a reporter for the Seattle Post-Intelligence (note to self: talk about a straight line...what a name for a newspaper!) embedded on the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln. Her postings are for the most part "soft," a condition she laments. However, given her apparent (to me, anyway...read her and draw your own conclusions) anti-war leanings, I'd just as soon she wasn't fed any hard intelligence.

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OK, so it's not heroism of the sort we're seeing on the news, but my already high level of respect for Tiger Woods went up a notch after his performance in the final round of the Bay Hill Classic on Sunday. If you weren't paying attention, he went out on the course suffering from a severe case of food poisoning - running to the bushes after most shots to puke - and managed to turn a 5-stroke lead into an 11-stroke victory. As my wife so aptly observed, "boy, that must have really demoralized the other guys." Talk about an understatement.

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Lazy reporting in today's edition of the Midland Reporter-Telegram, concerning the newly-released racial profiling report by the police department. The report addressed the disproportionate traffic stops, searches and arrests for minority groups...but never gave us a baseline reference. Ten minutes with an Excel spreadsheet yielded this:

Sure, the numbers were in the story so that the reader could do the math...but why make us?

Incidentally, if I'm interpreting these numbers correctly, the arrest figures seems to indicate that the department is doing a pretty darn good job stopping (and searching) the right people. OTOH, that conclusion might fly in the face of the recently released Midland crime stats.

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I promise never again to complain about a west Texas dust storm. Maybe we should start calling them "stormlets."

New warblog links...

I set aside some time this weekend to do some badly-needed touch-up work on this site, including getting my archives straightened out (sort of) and finessing my blogroll. I also decided to create a separate blogroll for those sites which are deemed exclusively warblogs. If you get tired of network or cable news coverage, these blogs seem to be even more up-to-date, and provide a good way to stay on top of the chronology of events...something that the non-linear format of a TV broadcast can't (or doesn't usually) do.

[Thanks to Nick Denton for this idea, and for the first two links at right.]

Blogcritics.org is carrying a posting entitled "War with Iraq: Winners and Losers Round-Up," by one Peter Petrisko. I had difficulty with his apparent inability to distinguish between outcomes and motivations (oil service companies may indeed benefit in the aftermath of the war, but implying that the war was started for that benefit is pretty irrational). He also designated non-warblogs as "losers" because of lack of interest in them while the war is going on. Well, yeah...but, so what? Fewer people are watching Animal Planet on cable, I suspect, for the same reason. Anyway, from a personal perspective, I appreciate more than ever the ability to jump over to Dave Barry's blog (or even James Lileks' columns on mundane topics such as margarine labels) as a break from the Real Bad Stuff that rightly takes center stage most of the time.

Rally coverage skewed (duh)...

Just switched on CNN Headline News and saw some coverage of the various rallies in NYC and Chicago. Interesting how the Chicago coverage unfolded. The reporter noted that there were two simultaneous rallies taking place, one across the street from the other.

One is a "support the troops" rally, and, in his opinion, the crowd was "clearly" the larger of the two. Yet the only images shown on camera were those of the anti-war group, including a close-up of an "Impeach Bush" sign. Perhaps that's the network's way of "balancing" coverage: one anti-war image to counterbalance a thousand pro-troop citizens.

Even the ten-second interview with a pro-trooper had the anti-guys in the background, and didn't come close to the couple of minutes spent giving the NYC anti-war protestors a chance to explain their, um, logic.

But, I'm probably just being paranoid.

Grieving mom takes war media coverage to task...

I just witnessed an amazing exchange on NBC's non-stop war coverage. Tom Brokaw interviewed by phone the mother of an American Marine pilot killed in action earlier today. Although clearly devastated, she gave a moving description of how her son viewed his (and his country's) commitment to this responsibility:

Before he shipped out, I asked him if this was really necessary. He told me, "Absolutely...there's so much you don't know, mom, that you'll know someday."

Brokaw gently thanked her and assured her of the nation's sympathy for her loss, but she interrupted his goodbye with a request "to say something."

Here's essentially what she said (not a direct quote, but close enough, I think)...

I just want to let the TV media know that while their technology is great, in its ability to bring us non-stop coverage, but you need to understand that it's killing the mothers and fathers and wives and other family members of the soldiers. We can't leave the TV; we have to watch constantly and every helicopter or tank we see, we have to think, "is that mine?" The technology is wonderful, but don't ever forget what it's doing to us.

Brokaw was taken aback, and - to his credit - visibly moved, and he spoke rather eloquently about the importance of remembering that this war still boiled down to human lives, not technology. The panel of retired military men - Navy, Army, Air Force - then spent the next ten minutes addressing this issue in very emotional terms. The discussion ended with the point being made that this particular action was being undertaken by a force that was 100% voluntary (at least on the American side), making the combatants' dedication to the cause all the more remarkable and laudable.

Just another reminder: the loss of a single human life is still a tragedy, regardless of how noble and necessary the cause.

Conaway's campaign colors, and more...

...and potential website problems...

• As I was walking the dog this morning, I noticed the first yard sign for Mike Conaway's Congressional campaign. I had seen the big signs along Hwy. 191 and it occurred to me that his campaign colors included the darkest blue I'd ever seen...almost black, it seemed. But surely not; after all, redwhiteandblue are the "required official" colors of all those seeking election, right? Well, turns out that it is black, not deep blue. "So what?" I hear you thinking. Well, here's "so what." A campaign built around red and black has got to resonate, at least subliminally, with the Texas Tech fans in the area. And, pray tell, where is the absolute hotbed of Red Raiders located? With me now? Every detail counts when campaigning in the "enemy's" backyard.
  
  So, then, I randomly entered logical URLs until I found his campaign website, which carries through with the color scheme, not surprisingly. What did surprise me is what I found when I viewed the source code for the site (so sue me; I'm a geek). There among the meta tag keywords is the word "Isett," as in "Carl Isett," one of the other candidates for the District 19 seat. "So what?" I hear you thinking. Well, here's "so what." Case law over the use of meta tag keywords makes it clear that one is on pretty shaky legal grounds when using one's competitor's name (or product name) on one's own website. How this might apply to a political campaign is anyone's guess, but if I were designing Mike's site, I'd drop that keyword like an Iraqian accent. (And, incidentally, Isett's site had no such keyword issues.)
  
  By the way, I've emailed Mike about this potential problem with his site (which I suspect he's completely unaware of). I'll post the resolution as soon as it's obvious.

In this edition: Friday unwinding (not to be confused with unraveling)...

• I think I'm going to be ill. OTOH, having the Father of the Internet on our side has to be worth something. Right? Please tell me I'm right.
  
  This does cause one to wonder about the consequences when the two largest Personal Reality Distortion Fields in the universe intersect. Well, the two largest next to that of Daschle's...um... and Chirac's...and, of course, Molly Ivins'. Oh, never mind.
  
  
• These two were made for one another. Still, the good news is that this has completely undermined any argument that Iraq's [former?] leader has a Muslim religious mandate. I'm not an expert on Muslim theology, but as far as I can tell, Madonna's lifestyle violates pretty much every tenet there is.
  
  In a related son, Saddam's [now deceased?] son Odai has gone on record (no pun intended) as being a big fan of the Dixie Chicks ("...that Natalie is one hot infidel..."), while younger son [now deceased?] Qusai has taken the high road, musically speaking, throwing his support behind Yusuf Islam ("...he's a bro now, plus his infidel name reminds me of the pets I used to love to torture...").
  
  
• Yesterday, I wondered about whether I should be flying my flag in the damp weather. The answer is "yes and no." According to U.S. History.org, "The flag should not be displayed on days when the weather is inclement, except when an all-weather flag is displayed." Fortunately, my flag falls into the latter category.
  
  
• Read in the paper today that the local Hirschfield Steel fabrication facility is closing. This is truly sad news, and not just because of the jobs that will be lost. Up until they stopped sales to the public a year or so ago, this was one of the ultimate Guy's Places. You could buy STEEL there, not in the weenie 3' sections found at Home Depot, but in 16' lengths. You could see dozens of welders fabricating all kinds of exotic oilfield vessels, some of them larger than your average SUV...sparks flying like in a Terminator movie...lots of noise.
  
  As a home-shop welder of dubious credentials (I once set my on pants on fire), I lament this passing of another outlet for testosterone-propelled activity. Fortunately, there's still at least one outlet for steel sales to the public where you can get Big Iron: Midland Iron Works, located at 1601 W. Florida. The atmosphere isn't quite as, um, edgy as Hirschfield, but the folks are friendlier (less of that "professional vs amateur" attitude). Go buy some square tubing today!
  
  
• And, finally, this interesting (well, to me, anyway) report about the increased use of search engines in the past year. While the fact that global SE use doubled over the past 12 months was not surprising, I was a bit taken aback at this statistic: US internet users rely on SEs less than in the other five countries shown in the survey. Wonder why that is?
  
  Could it be that we still have a little of that old "pioneer spirit" in us that makes us comfortable in setting out on our own in the vast cyberprairie, armed only with a mouse, a bottle of ketchup (thanks, Dave Barry) and a glimmer of an idea for a destination URL? (Uh oh...there I go again...another American imperialist rant!) Posted by Eric at 08:31 AM | Permalink
  
  

Axis of Weasels to get tax break from war?

According to an article in today's Wall Street Journal, France and Germany appear to be set to avoid billions (Euros) in EU-imposed budget-deficit-related fines because the war in Iraq is an "exceptional circumstance."

According to the report,

"Until Thursday, the euro zone's two largest countries appeared on course to pay hefty fines for breaking strict rules that cap budget deficits. But just hours after U.S. bombs began falling on Baghdad, the European Union's budget policeman, European Monetary Affairs Commissioner Pedro Solbes, said that the war is an "exceptional circumstance," a ruling that could partly unleash countries from a pact that prohibits deficits from exceeding 3% of gross domestic product.

The more flexible stance would perhaps be of greatest relief to Europe's top adversaries of war. Last year, France and Germany were the only two of 12 euro-zone nations to break the 3% limit and both are likely to do so again this year as the economy sags and tax revenues dwindle. Fines can total 0.5% of a nation's annual gross domestic product -- about €7.6 billion ($8.05 billion) in France's case and €10.5 billion in Germany's."

This whole situation strikes me as incredible. First, I find it amazing that the EU would have such a pact in the first place. Talk about abdicating your ability to control your own economy...

But it begs the question of how, exactly, the economies of France and Germany are going to be "extraordinarily impacted" by a war in which they've disavowed all interest.

Oh, wait...never mind...I forgot about the "non-existent" or at least "insignificant" business ties with the Iraqi dictatorship. This is one gun that appears to be smoking like downtown Baghdad.

In this edition: And so it begins...

This cool, gray and damp morning - unusual for west Texas this time of the year - seemed fitting weather in which to contemplate the event that continues to unfold. War. It's an ugly word, and Edwin Starr asked the right question in his Viet Nam-era song (no, kiddies, it wasn't written at Jackie Chan's request for "Rush Hour"). I don't think he had the right answer, or at least not a complete one, but the question was and is legitimate.

God help us if we ever stop asking the question.

[As I went outside to hang my flag as a show of support for our troops and my country, I was conflicted in the strangest way. "Should I be putting the flag out in the drizzle? Is that proper?" I don't know. I should know. I'm creating a website for the local Boy Scout Council; they all know the proper flag protocol, but I don't. I decided that I would err on the side of patriotism, and hope that any unintended disrespect would be overlooked in light of our circumstances. But I will do some study.]

Doing the right thing is easy when everybody else tells you it's the right thing to do. Doing the right thing when almost everyone else tells you just the opposite is quite difficult; it's not for the faint of heart.

That's the situation our country finds itself in today. We're taking an assertive and proactive approach to solving a problem that hasn't fully revealed itself. We're addressing a situation enveloped by complexity and uncertainty, and doing so in a manner that we would applaud if we were to see it in a James Bond movie or read it in a Tom Clancy novel. In those instances, the protagonist always recognizes the evil and moves against it, even when no one else has a clue.

But how often do we have the courage and perception to do that in real life?

Inevitably, at the end of the movie or book, the real stakes are revealed and the agency/nation/world/society breathes a grateful sigh of relief that someone wasn't duped. I'm not holding my breath for that outcome here, because in real life, people (and countries) continue to be incredibly shortsighted (or intentionally self-deluding). And, in real life, the outcomes are not always black and white.

This is not the war to end wars; there's no such thing, and never will be as long as God allows our planet to continue to be inhabited by His creature, man. In theological terms, we live in a "fallen world" and conflict - man against man, man against God - is inevitable. But, perhaps - I pray - this is a war to prevent the one (or two or...?) that might have otherwise been on the calendar of the Cosmic PDA.

May God protect our troops; may our cause be just; may our demeanor be humble; and may God bless America.

Bush speech...Weekend retreat...

I thought the President did a fine job tonight. Anyone who thinks he's taking all this lightly hasn't been paying attention. The stress is showing...as it should. These decisions are not easy, not nearly as easy as the second-guessing. And just because he's got strength of conviction doesn't mean he's able to ignore the implications of the hard decisions he's made and will make.

May God grant him strength, wisdom and protection in the weeks ahead, and - as he said - may God continue to bless America.

I was going to add my $0.02 about Ms. Natalie Maines of the Dixie Chump...I mean Chicks, but in light of what I heard tonight, it just seems like a waste of pixels. We've got bigger fish to fry.

I just returned from a long weekend in the Trans-Pecos region: Fort Stockton, Balmorhea, Fort Davis. We pedaled the Long Bike from the state park up to the visitor's center at McDonald Observatory, and then a few miles beyond. As always, this is a beautiful - and humbling - ride.

It's beautiful because of the sheer rugged immensity of the landscape. This year, the plentiful late fall rains have the grass eye-high on a steer, with the promise of what passes for lush in this suburb of the Chihuahuan Desert if a few more thunderstorms will pass through (like one did on Friday evening as we drove back to Fort Stockton).

Looking roughly southeast from McDonald Observatory

It's humbling for the same reason. Man's relative insignificance is obvious in that setting. We can dynamite a road into the side of the mountain, and build a 432" hexagonal mirror array optical telescope at the top, and peer into the deep recesses of space... and at the end of the day, we still have to admit that we don't know jack about squat.

The experience of bicycling up these mountains is also humbling, albeit from a different perspective. Do this once and you'll never again doubt (if you ever did) the sheer physical prowess of Lance Armstrong in the Tour de France (umm...Tour de Freedom). Of course, he never tried it on a 50 pound bike with a 10' wheelbase (AFAIK).

The Long Bike (Ryan Duplex recumbent tandem)

This weekend also afforded me the opportunity to contemplate the future of the Gazette. I was this close to shutting the whole thing down. Blogging is hard work, harder than I thought it would be. Oh, it's easy enough to throw the spaghetti against the wall and see some of it stick, but it's not art. And, frankly, I've gotten so busy with real work that it's difficult to find time to do this right.

But something came to mind, a distant memory of a book I read when I was a teen (and that's a long way back). I think it was "Stand on Zanzibar," by John Brunner, but I could be wrong. Whatever the book, it was a precursor to the cyberpunk genre, albeit pre-WWW. What grabbed my memory was the author's vision of a networked society where everyone could vote on everything, all the time. Polls were superfluous, as opinions were continually tabulated and displayed in real-time, in sort of a CNN-style crawl on the "vidscreens" that - in that future - were everywhere. Politicians knew where the voters stood (and how they vacillated); there was no guesswork about what was important.

It occurred to me that what Brunner (or whomever) was predicting was the blogosphere, or some variation thereof. We're still in the infancy of being able to index and tabulate, and the market penetration is still in the point.single.digit range, but the trend is apparent. I think it's important to be a part of that. Networked voices that can't be silenced, addressing all sides of all issues...now that's something for a dictator to lose sleep over.

So, without meaning to overstate the importance of this humble blog, there's a lot at stake, and I think I want to play my part. Doesn't mean I'll have any more time (or intelligent things to write), but it's my voice, and I'm going to use it!

I hope you'll use yours, too.

Principle of "just war"...Recommended geek link of the week...

I'd really prefer to be writing about meaningless pleasantries, like the extraordinarily beautiful weather we had last weekend (for March, anyway), or the continually amazing sight of our little Melissa Gilbert all grown up (and out), the latest revelation being at the Screen Actor Guild Awards last night. But life seems to be getting really, really serious, you know?

While the Pope works on a plan which will result in Saddam's exile, Father Richard Neuhaus looks at things from a more practical perspective in an interview about how preemptive military action by the US might fit into the historical Roman Catholic principle of "just war." Interestingly, Fr. Neuhaus, editor in chief of First Things and president of the Institute on Religion and Public Life seems to think that in the case of Iraq, the principle supports war. Here are a few excerpts from the interview:

As St. Thomas Aquinas and other teachers of the just war tradition make clear, war may sometimes be a moral duty in order to overturn injustice and protect the innocent. The just cause in this case is the disarmament of Iraq, a cause consistently affirmed by the Holy Father and reinforced by 17 resolutions of the Security Council.

...

In the judgment of the U.S. and many other countries, he [Saddam] poses a grave and imminent threat to America, world peace and the lives of innumerable innocents. If that judgment is correct, the use of military force to remove that threat, in the absence of plausible alternatives, is both justified and necessary.

Heads of government who are convinced of the correctness of that judgment would be criminally negligent and in violation of their solemn oath to protect their people if they did not act to remove such a threat.

...

Frequent reference to preventive or pre-emptive use of military force, and even to "wars of choice," have only confused the present discussion.

War, if it is just, is not an option chosen but a duty imposed. In the present circumstance, military action against Iraq by a coalition of the willing is in response to Iraq's aggression; first against Kuwait, then in defiance of the terms of surrender demanding its disarmament, then in support of, if not direct participation in, acts of terrorism.

Read the whole interview. His comments regarding the alleged "cowboy attitude" of President Bush and the "moral authority" of the U.N. are a breath of fresh air, and probably irritating as heck to many of his churchly brethren.

Eric Meyer is The Man when it comes to Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) for website design. I refer to his book, "Cascading Style Sheets: The Definitive Guide" several times a week (and, occasionally, several times a day). I defy you to browse any three of the pages on his site, chosen at random, and fail to come away with some juicy new tidbit to try out.

Unless, of course, you don't know what CSS is, in which case...never mind!

Keeping things in perspective... Implications of war/non-war...

Haaretz is a leading newspaper in Israel, published in both Hebrew and English language editions. It offers the sort of up-close-and-personal perspective on daily life in the Middle East that makes our own mainstream-media coverage seem as shallow and condescending as it actually is. Spend a half hour browsing the articles and editorials linked from the Haaretz home page and then see if you're not taking a few things for granted about life here in Midland.

Here are a few headlines from today's issue, just for illustrative purposes:

• Head of Hamas military wing assassinated by IDF in Gaza
• Hamas says will hit Israeli leaders after senior political official killed
• Couple killed in Kiryat Arba attack; troops foil infiltration into Negohot
• Drunken IDF soldier shoots and kills officer on central Tel Aviv street
• 20-year-old dies of wounds sustained in Haifa attack, bringing death toll to 16
• Rabbi and his wife shot dead in Kiryat Arba terror attack

Local "controversies" such as the JBS Overpass in Odessa and the bus system in Midland sort of fade into insignificance by comparison, don't they?

It's not that such things are unimportant; they are important. And sometimes it's just sanity-saving to be able to focus on relative trivialities in the face of so many other huge things that we can't even comprehend, much less control. But, for the typical Israeli (or Iraqi, for that matter), it would seem to be a huge relief to be able to spend just one day worrying about such trivialities.

While we're perusing Haaretz, take a closer look at a couple of articles. This one, for example, attempts to address the question of what happens if the US backs away from military action to disarm Iraq:

The damage that will be caused by an American pullback without achieving the goals that had been set in Iraq will extend far beyond the borders of the United States and Iraq. A major question is how Iran will react if America turns tail. Tehran, too, suspects that Saddam Hussein has continued to develop weapons of mass destruction over the past decade. And the Iranians have not forgotten how Iraq used poison gas against them in the eight-year war between the two countries during the 1980s. If Iraq is not disarmed, Tehran will have a genuine reason to continue developing its own nuclear weapons. That will set in motion a nuclear domino effect in the Middle East, turning the region into a truly dangerous place.

And, according to the writer, Ze'ev Schiff, even France would suffer in this event:

If the deterrent capability of the United States as a superpower is adversely affected, the countries of the West, including America's rival, France, will be the losers in a variety of spheres. Even if France heightens its sycophantic policy vis-a-vis the Arab and Muslim world, it will not be able to protect itself from the flow of Muslim immigrants into the country.

On the flip side, Zvi Bar'el takes a stab at describing conditions in a post-war, American-occupied Iraq, focusing on the kind of historical "settling of accounts" that our Western culture has a difficult time comprehending:

Beyond the ethnic-religious and social-economic divisions, the commanders of the American occupation forces will have to be especially vigilant in connection with the most complicated division: between those who collaborated with Saddam's regime and those who suffered from it. Kurdish activists and Iraqi exiles say that this will be the most concrete danger that will face any government that will replace Saddam Hussein, whether American or local.

"Don't expect national reconciliation along the lines of South Africa," says an Iraqi exile living in London. "It is going to be festival of revenge, bloodshed, settling of accounts and the ordering of history. Millions will want to restore to themselves the 20 lost years between the Iran-Iraq war and the American occupation. And possibly hundreds of thousands will want to preserve what they achieved during the Saddam era.

"In every family there was someone who suffered, and in every family there is someone who benefited from the regime. Look what happened in Kuwait, where they haven't yet overcome the differences between those who fled during the war and those who remained and suffered under the Iraqi occupation. And there we are talking about just half a year, whereas in Iraq the accounts are very lengthy, and begin with historical disputes."

I recommend reading the entire article, as it also goes into detail about the expected structure of the US-supervised post-war administration in Iraq.

Miscellany...

KSM rats out OBL...Coming soon to a website near you...Trouble in Islamic Paradise?

Well, that didn't take long! Either the PsyOps guys are even better at their jobs than I figured, or Mohammed is a bigger weenie than I hoped, or...he's lying. This is where the real games begin, isn't it?

The Supreme Court ruled yesterday that states can publish photos and other personal information about convicted sex offenders on websites. Showing great common sense, the 6-3 majority ruled that such laws are intended to inform and protect the public, not humiliate the offender (the latter being an inevitable outcome, assuming that such people are actually humiliate-able).

The Texas Department of Public Safety has long provided an online database of sex offenders. However, Ector County has plans to bring this capability into a more local setting. The Ector County Community Supervision & Corrections Department (aka Adult Probation) will soon have a section on its new website where the photos and other information about local sex offenders will be posted for public access. Even now, you can see a list of people who have skipped out on their probation ("absconders," they call them) and notify the CSCD if you know of the whereabouts of any of them. If Midland County has similar resources or plans, I couldn't locate them.

Then there's this great story about the "dialog" between Iraqi and Kuwaiti representatives at a Mideast Islamic summit. One thing you have to admit about folks in the Middle East...they have a certain flair for curses.

Random observations...

...while listening to drying carpet...

• The local blood bank is sponsoring a fund-raising race/walk event later this month. The name of the event is "Bloodgusher 2003." Argh. I realize the name is intended to evoke the familiar scenes of the "awl bidness," (although good business...I mean "bidness"...practices, not to mention the EPA, did away with the gusher decades ago), but all I can think about when I hear "Bloodgusher 2003" is the latest pay-per-view extravaganza by the WWF (and I don't mean World Wildlife Fund).
  
  
• I'm a big fan of James Lileks' blog, as evidenced by his prominent placement in my woefully neglected blogrollette at right. However, I think he dropped the ball a wee bit yesterday as he responded to a publication aimed at helping parents talk to their children about war. He took the publication to task -- and rightly so -- for its omission of any reference to the role the US government plays in keeping the children of its citizens secure and safe. The publication instead chose to focus on the United Nations, World Court, parents and teachers as the source of security.
  
  Where Mr. Lileks came up short was in his omission of the importance of teaching children the importance of spiritual security. The publication couldn't have done this; it is, after all, a product of the public school system, from which the mention of God has been banned. But one of the biggest concerns I have about our society is the apparent abdication of parental responsibility in teaching children about spiritual realities. In the end, that's where the real and lasting peace comes from, at least if your spiritual reality is grounded in Jesus Christ (a choice freely offered to all).
  
  The ability to view world events in an eternal perspective is the key. Some claim this leads only to fatalism; I've found it leads to self-refreshing optimism.
  
  
• This is a rather disturbing report about a newly-discovered security flaw in the Sendmail program, which is arguably the most widely used Message Transfer Agent (MTA). According to Symantec, "Successful attackers may exploit this vulnerability to gain root privileges on affected servers remotely." Fortunately, a patch is available and apparently simple to install.
  
  
• Had an interesting exchange of emails yesterday with Dr. David Hill, founder and director of Hill Research Consultants. He was googling Mike Conaway ("doing research") and ran across my earlier post about Mike's and Carroll Thomas' common church affiliation (it's First Baptist of Midland, in case anyone else is wondering). David (whom I warned was likely to show up in The Gazette), being the good consultant he is, declined to identify who has retained him and for what purpose, but explicity rejected my assumption that he was working for an opposition candidate. Anyone care to take a stab at what he's up to?
  
  
• Oh...the drying carpet thing...? Seems we lost yet another water heater night before last. We caught it in time to avoid extensive damage (been there, done that), but still have 12 square feet or so of slightly damp carpet to dry, before the Dread Black Mold takes hold and Farmer's Insurance cancels me (again). It seems that our water heaters are coming with increasingly short life spans; this one lasted only 3 years (it was therefore still under warranty, which the plumbing company took as a good excuse to jack up the installation fee).
  
  Nothing like the constant roar of fans 36" from your ears, eight hours straight, to convince you to take refuge in the local Starbucks. Which would be an option if they only had an internet connection. Which they don't. And which they have no idea if they ever will, despite having the building wired for it. Another subject for another day.

American missionary killed in Philippines blast...

CNN was late in picking up on the fact that one American was killed in this morning's bombing at the airport in Davao City, Philippines. They still don't have much information on their website.

However, two hours ago the International Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention issued a news release giving details of the death of Bill Hyde, age 59, of Cedar Rapids, Iowa. He leaves behind a wife and two grown sons. Our prayers are with the family.

Miscellany...

USPS digs deeper hole...Ads in movies...Currency trading for the masses...

The Wall Street Journal reports this morning that the US Postal Service is beginning work on yet another rate increase. If approved, the cost of postage would go up next year, about two years earlier than planned.

According to the article, the agency is claiming that it's being forced to increase rates because Congress hasn't yet approved a measure to allow a reduction in pension contributions for longer-term employees. In an interesting twist, the Postal Service actually made higher-than-expected returns on previous contributions to the pension fund, and thus feels that the higher future contributions aren't needed.

Their reasoning seems sound, but their strategy is horrible...too soon after the last increase, and too much in the face of current economic conditions and consumer confidence. If you're like me, you've already cut your monthly postage in half by switching to online bill payments or EFT, and the technology-resistant Average Joe is going to perceive less and less reason not to start doing so himself.
OTOH, maybe the USPS could start offering investment counseling. Compared to the miserable performance Putnam has chalked up on one of my IRAs, I'd be more than happy to give my letter carrier a shot!

Lots of press lately about advertising in movie theaters before the show begins. I don't understand the objections of some moviegoers who seem to feel that the theater should be some kind of Shangi-La sanctuary beginning the moment they set foot in the door.

Face it...the movies themselves are 90-minutes advertisements. (My theory is that's part of the reason SF and fantasy epics are so popular. Even the brightest ad execs haven't yet figured out how to get a Pepsi product placement into a scene populated by Hobbits and Orcs.)

The real key is not whether the ads are shown or not, but how "good" (or "bad," depending on your perspective) they are. This approach could provide the kind of freedom for ad-makers that is currently found only in Europe and some parts of Latin America. (Think Bud Lite mud-wrestling chicks in an R-rated version, to go along with the R-rated movie...I guarantee that the theater would be filled earlier than ever by a certain segment of the American public!)

I can't remember the last R-rated movie I attended (wait...yes I can...it was "Analyze That," a decision I've made a conscious effort to block out), so that's not a big deal for me, personally. As long as they're not interrupting the show for commercial breaks, I'm cool with the concept.

Interesting ad on TV this morning, around breakfast time. Near as I could tell, they wanted me to start doing some foreign currency trading. "Realize profits of $5,000...$10,000...$20,000...and more!" (Neglecting, of course, to say what level of investment was required for these "profits.") Borrowing a page from the gold investment ads, they even had a business-suit-clad young women with a British accent ("you can trust me; just listen to my accent") making the pitch.

Given that the average American struggles to balance his or her checkbook, and likely cannot program a VCR, I'm pretty sure that getting into the fun and wacky world of currency trading is not going to prove to be an irresistible attraction...especially not at 6:45 in the a.m.

But, I'm sure there's a movie tie-in just waiting to be discovered.

Al Qaeda busted...

I don't know how big the capture of Al Qaeda ringleader Khalid Shaikh Mohammed really is — it sounds significant — but I can't help but wonder: is there any place in the world you'd rather NOT be right now than in his sandals? I mean, if ever there was a time to employ the old cyanide-in-the-false-tooth spy trick, it was 30 seconds before he became the sole property of the good old USofA under the up-close-and-personal supervision of CIA PsyOps and the rest of those good folks who have vays of making you talk.

The pop poll of the day on CNN Headline News is "Should suspected 9/11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed be tortured if it helps investigators get more information about planned attacks against the United States?" When I last checked, at around 4:00 p.m. CST, the vote was 75% in the "Yes" camp.

Torture comes in many flavors. I was tempted to write that torture is in the [missing] eye of the beholder, but that's just tacky. There is a wide range of "stimuli" to which one can be subjected that would make one significantly disposed to doing whatever is necessary to ensure that exposure to such stimuli be brought to a speedy halt. Such stimuli need not be so vulgar and crude as attaching a car battery to various delicate extremities or employing a Craftsman Cordless Drill in a way never contemplated by its designers. For some, a few hours of exposure to the "Anna Nicole Show" would have them gushing state secrets like trailer trash talking to Maury. For others, the mere threat of having to listen to Al Gore's speech about inventing the internet would do the trick.

But a fellow like Khalid is bound to be trained to be impervious to such admittedly aggressive, bleeding-edge techniques. We know it and the CIA knows it. This calls for special measures, above and beyond what would normally be within the bounds of acceptable human mores...even for war criminals. Yes, this calls for...Michael Jackson.

I suspect that Mr. Mohammed is singing like a bird right about now. And from my perspective, if this is what it takes...this is what it takes.