MONDAY through WEDNESDAY, August 29 through 31, 2005

Katrina.  What can one say at this juncture?  A fair amount, if you think about it.  Because, beginning with the Great Flood, life was restored starting with a rainbow.  Looking for that rainbow, we can build a better future only by analyzing the past.

• What do you call a "minor tropical depression" or "minor hurricane" that still has hundreds of miles of overheated seas to traverse, (thanks to global warming): a delusion.  Just ask the people of the Caribbean.
• If you live on America's southern coastlines after Camile and after Andrew, when do you prepare for the inevitable next one?  Immediately, constantly and realistically.  And you prohibit people from building and living so close to those floodplain coastlines.  You don't subsidize their cavalier building and re-building with cheap Federal flood insurance subsidized by all of us.
• What do you do when a Category 5 hurricane is lumbering toward the entire area?  You get out; you are ordered to get out; you are carried out if necessary.  In this regard, the Mayors and Governors of Louisiana and Mississippi may have done their best.  They did well.   But I'm not so sure that they could not have better enforced strict orders, including martial law if necessary.
• What do you do when you have over 10, 000 people herded into a sports enclosure, in the dark for a time,  while a massive storm screeches overhead?  You communicate, early and often.  That evening we learned from the media that those people were receiving no information.  A prescription for riots.  The British learned that early during the London Blitz.
• As soon as the magnitude of this disaster began to be realized, where was President Bush expected to be? Front and center, leading from the front, even if he had little to say at the time.  The various spokesmen of FEMA and local officials are no substitutes.  And what should he have said and done immediately?  Demanded and insured security on the ground, with sufficient National Guard troops (if they were not in Iraq  - wrong place) and with a division or three of Army troops immediately dispached to the scenes.  And the laws of Posse Comitatus need be no barrier, at least in the short run.  Nothing can get done without security on the ground (remember Iraq?), certainly not the ability to provide basic needs for all those people.  Instead, today we are hearing about "lawlessness" and "anarchy" - absolutely unacceptable.
• How do you move hundreds of thousands of people out of the entire area?  By military ground, sea and air power.  In fact, we learn today that the Navy hospital ship Comfort, two helicopter ships (Iwo Jima and Bataan) and three other vessels will arrive in a few days.  A good start, but is that our highly vaunted "rapid deployment force" that the DOD keeps talking about?  Don't hold back, folks.  This event is special in American history.
• Once the people have been taken care of, is the Federal government going to rely on private enterprise, including shady and actually fraudulent insurance and contractor practices to rebuild, as in Florida in recent years.  Floridians can tell you a lot about that, several years into the process.  Instead, this will require a WPA and CCC - type program, manned by every able-bodied single person on unemployment or welfare payments.  The national unemployment rate should drop to near-zero during the next two or three years while rebuilding takes place.  And for another of several very good reasons, a fair draft should be re-instituted.  "Over-Kill"?  You've got to be kidding.
• Some of the reconstruction monies should go to building more refining capacity, already inadequate before this disaster.  Should we drill in the Alaska Wildlife Refuge?  You bet.  And should we get real about Yucca Mountain and also build more nuclear power plants.  Absolutely.  Then will we see a rainbow.

George A. Sprecace, M.D., J.D.

SATURDAY and SUNDAY, August 27 and 28, 2005

With one prominent exception, the offering on  Iraq, all of today's rapid responses will be in staccato fashion, with all sources to be found in today's NYTimes and / or The Day.  Work with me now....

• So the Sunnis don't want to compromise.  Aren't they the ones who - with Saddam Hussein - lost the recent war?  And don't they represent 20% of the population of Iraq? And are they not the source and supporters of the vast part of the "insurgency", aka terrorism in Iraq in the last 18 months?  Alright: press forward with the current Constitution, secure the country with another 30,000 U.S. and allied troops, drawn from Europe, between now and the Fall Iraqi elections...including sealing the borders with Iran and Syria...and thus give the Sunnis a choice between participation and long-term political marginalization - or worse.  That's what we should do.  But what will we do?  Stay tuned.  Meanwhile, the following two articles are very relevant to this issue.
 
Article #1:  ITEM 1: David Ignatius: Playing the Shiite Card
 
washingtonpost.com
Playing The Shiite Card
By David Ignatius
August 26, 2005

America is finally having its great debate over the Iraq war. In that debate, it's worth listening to a young Iraqi Shiite cleric named Ammar Hakim. He speaks for the people who arguably have gained the most from America's troubled mission in Iraq and, to a surprising extent, still believe in it.
Hakim, 34, is the oldest son of Abdul Aziz Hakim, the leader of the Iranian-backed Shiite party known as the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, which is probably the most potent political force in the country today. He now lives in Najaf, the Shiite equivalent of the Vatican, where he helps direct the party's social and charitable network. But he and his family lived 23 years in exile in Iran. To put it bluntly, Hakim represents what might be called the "Shiite card" in the Iraqi poker game.

I met Hakim a week ago during his first visit to the United States. He made quite a sight when he arrived for breakfast, dressed in his black turban and flowing clerical robes. Some of the other guests in the dining room of the Watergate Hotel seemed to back away a bit, as if they feared the visiting mullah might explode. I'm told he drew some stares when he toured the Pentagon dressed in the same garb.

Hakim is a remarkably articulate man, with the spark of curiosity in his eyes and a presence that we in the United States would call "star quality." Whoever had the good sense to invite him here -- where he met with officials at the State Department, Pentagon and National Security Council -- should get a pay raise.

Hakim had a clear message during his visit, and it's one worth mulling carefully as Americans ponder the new Iraqi constitution and the bitter Shiite-Sunni tensions that have surrounded its drafting. If I could sum up his theme in one sentence, it is that the United States should continue to bet on democracy in Iraq -- which of necessity means relying on Iraq's Shiite majority and the mullahs who speak for it. In essence, he was calling for a strategic alliance between Najaf and Washington.

I told Hakim through an interpreter that many Americans were close to despair about Iraq. We see continuing violence and few signs that Iraq's security forces will be strong enough to maintain order once American troops leave. Here's how Hakim responded: "The truth is, this is a grand plan, and any time you are engaged in a grand plan, you will face difficulties. But we will overcome them. We are now in the final quarter of these difficulties." I'm not sure I agree with him that the troubles are nearly over, but I must say that I was moved by his answer.

Hakim told me he had visited the Lincoln Memorial, and I asked what he had thought as he looked up at the face of the man who kept America together during its own brutally violent civil war. He said the American experience was a lesson for Iraqis "in pooling people of various ethnic backgrounds into one law and order." He added that he hoped future generations of Iraqis would look at their current leaders with the same gratitude that Americans feel when they regard Lincoln.

The young cleric says all the things this administration could want to hear. "President Bush is playing a great role in giving Iraqis a chance to build a democratic process," he insists. The new constitution will create "a stable and balanced Iraq where all sects will be treated justly and equally." Iraqi federalism will allow regional self-government, as in the United States, but "the Shiites are a majority; they have no interest in disintegration."

Well, of course a leading Shiite cleric would say those things, a skeptic might respond. The Shiites have an interest in keeping American troops around as long as possible to fight their battles against the Sunni insurgency. And the fact that the new Iraqi constitution suits the interests of the Shiite mullahs in Najaf doesn't necessarily mean it serves American interests -- or even those of ordinary Iraqis.

But Americans should ponder the argument that Hakim made to U.S. officials. The way to contain Sunni terrorism and stabilize the Arab world is to develop a strategic relationship with Najaf. Powerful Shiite communities exist in all the region's hot spots: Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Syria and above all Iran. An American rapprochement with Iran is essential, he would argue, but the real fulcrum should be Najaf.

Without a measure of Sunni support for this strategy, it's a recipe for permanent religious warfare in the Middle East. But I suspect that even Sunni stalwarts in Saudi Arabia and Jordan might find Hakim's argument for a Shiite-led restabilization intriguing. In a world of bad choices, this one may be the least bad.
davidignatius@washpost.com
© 2005 The Washington Post Company

Article #2:  ITEM 4: Christian Lowe: Department of Measures: The Pentagon Tries to Come Up with a Metric for Success in the War on Terror
 
 Dept. of Measures
 The Pentagon tries to come up with a metric for success in the war on terror.
by Christian Lowe
08/24/2005 12:00:00 AM

CRITICS BEGAN USING the "Q" word to describe the war in Iraq two years ago, well before the Sunni insurgency and al Qaeda franchise-leader Abu Mussab al Zarqawi began inflicting serious casualties on U.S. and coalition forces.

Today President George W. Bush's approval ratings are in the tank and calls for an unequivocal pull-out from the Iraqi "quagmire" are starting to be heard on Capitol Hill. But does this mean that the coalition is actually failing?

The question is not a new one. More than a year ago, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld revealed that he did not know whether the billions of dollars and hundreds of U.S. lives were being spent well in Afghanistan and Iraq. "Today, we lack metrics to know if we are winning or losing the global war on terror," Rumsfeld wrote to top DoD officials in October 2003. "Is our current situation such that the harder we work, the behinder we get?" Nearly two years later, Pentagon officials are still largely in the dark.

Nevertheless, the search is on for a barometer that can determine the day-to-day success or failure in combating extremist movements and eroding the influence of terror.

SPEARHEADED BY THE PENTAGON'S office of Advanced Systems and Concepts, a group of DoD and civilian officials has been struggling to forge a consensus on so-called "measures of effectiveness" in the global war on terrorism. Their work on developing these benchmarks is an offshoot of a larger project sponsored by the Pentagon to explore new tactics for fighting the global war on terrorism.

The "measures of effectiveness" have helped form a framework for evaluating how well alternative tactics to the war on terrorism would work.

"Our tasking was to come up with some good alternative ideas, and the fact that the ability to measure how you were doing was a good idea was one of the initial things that came out of the game," said Gary Anderson, a former Marine colonel and frequent DoD consultant who ran a series of Pentagon-sponsored war games which examined alternative strategies to waging America's war on terrorism. "We decided to see what would be the long-term indications that you were succeeding," he said.

Starting in September 2004, his group, dubbed the Defense Adaptive Red Team, developed a series of alternative strategies for fighting terrorism. The Pentagon-sponsored team concluded that the war on terrorism is essentially a global insurgency, where discontiguous groups that share a radical Islamic ideology are waging a campaign against the ideologies of the United States and its allies. Therefore, Anderson's team argued, U.S. strategy should incorporate many of the same methods used to counter classic insurgencies, including covert military and police actions; political and economic reform; and the winning hearts and minds.

"Kinetic measures of casualties and body counts never has worked and probably never will work because if you don't know how big the terrorist organization was to begin with, you really don't know how much progress you've made," Anderson says.

Anderson's team came up with a series of broader trends that would allow U.S. policy-makers to see how well their strategies are working to defeat terrorism:

* Terrorist attacks that take place on U.S. territory show a continuous decline.

* The number of states in the Arab and Islamic worlds with representative or inclusive governments that oppose terrorism is increasing.

* Roughly 90 percent of Islamic clergy are preaching against terrorism.

* The majority of Arab language media are editorializing against the use of terrorism and giving negative reportage to acts of terrorism.

* Polling index of Arab/Muslim opinion polls are increasingly favorable.

* Groups previously identified as terrorists but have chosen to adopt non-violent means are increasing.

"We wanted something that if the president got up in front of the American people and said . . . here's what we're shooting for--if we can do these things in the next, 5 or 10 years, we think we're doing pretty good," Anderson said.

With the elections in Afghanistan, the Palestinian territories, Iraq; municipal elections in Saudi Arabia, parliamentary elections in Lebanon, and upcoming presidential elections in Egypt a trend toward "representative" governments in a region associated with terrorist movements--a key measurement of success--could be taking hold.

The nonpartisan Freedom House, a Washington-based democratic advocacy and research group, wrote in its latest "Freedom in the World" survey that there has been an overall gain in freedom around the globe since the attacks of September 11, 2001. East-Central Europe, East Asia and sub-Saharan Africa have posted the most gains, while key countries in the Middle East, including Jordan, Morocco, and the United Arab Emirates, have had overall setbacks.

The number and effectiveness of terrorist strikes worldwide as a measure
of success is equally mixed. Though there have been no attacks in the United States since 9/11, the U.S. State Department's latest statistics show worldwide terrorist incidents rose from 198 in 2002 to 208 in 2003.

Terrorism caused 725 deaths in 2003, 100 fewer than in the previous year--but wounded 3,546, up nearly 45 percent.

And, as Michael Barone recently noted, surveys in the Muslim world now indicate that America's war on terror is far more effective than the body counts and bomb blasts in Iraq would suggest. The message conveyed by these attacks on U.S. forces and the steady progress toward democracy there could be indicative of what Anderson's group is getting at: Success in the war on terror is as much about killing the bad guys is as it is about coaxing others away from an Islamist path.

 Christian Lowe is a staff writer for Army Times Publishing Company and a contributing writer to The Daily

• The "Morning After  Pill" and its relatives cannot be sugar-coated.  It's abortion by another means.  As such, it's wrong and not worthy of this great and charitable nation.
• Students and cell phones and the distractions and disruptions they produce.  Here's something else that should be a no-brainer: no cell phones on in class or in assemblies or during examinations....Or are there no more no-brainers...just no brains?
• Immigration "policy" still eludes us, divided among conservatives and liberals, among border conservatives and business conservatives, and aalways among wet-finger politicos.  Congress would do well to follow the lead of President Bush, and Senators McCain and Kennedy.
• More on public schools.  Life-long educator Charles Frink, PhD. of New London, Ct. has a fine article in today's The Day (Voices and Views, pC3).  Read it and weep for our children and grandchildren.  And still the "educators" and their lackeys don't learn.  Instead, they sue the Federal government over the "No Child Left Behind Law", the only ray of hope to shine in the last three decades.  It's asbestos and tobacco again and again.  Shame!
• While we are referencing The Day (theday.com), when are the childish and mean-spirited political cartoons going to be deep-sixed?  Folks, they are an insult to your readers, whom you should not treat as cretins.
• Atta Boy, John Markowitz.  Great job over the Groton sub base.  I never saw you smile so broadly.  Keep it up.
• :How about the NTTimes, finding a liberal to review the liberal-bashing book by Bernard Goldberg ("100 People Who Are Screwing Up America", HarperCollins, 2005).  The reviewer's insightful conclusion: " Shouldn't Goldgerg's book be '270 Million KPeople Who Are Screwing Up America?"  That's the liberal mantra: always blaming Americans.
• The Army - and the Reserves and the National Guard - are not meeting their recruiting goals.  Now, there's a man bites dog story.  Anyone home at the DOD?
• Utopia and Southeastern Connecticut.  Sure, it sounds good.  But we don't need a shell game from the utopians; and we do need a regional approach to this extremely valuable piece of State property.
• Intuition and numbers - in baseball and in Medicine.  Both are based on the same thing: careful observation; and trained and experienced observers do better with intuition, thanks to the greater integrating power of the human brain.  Regarding Medicine ,  the American College of Physicians recently reported and recommended seasoned clinical practice over strict adherence to "practice paramaters" in treating patients, especially the elderly.

THURSDAY and FRIDAY, August 25 and 26, 2005

Now, prompted by some very good reports in the press, some BIG IDEAS.

• Iraqi leaders and their people may not understand the concept "compromise".  In that case, they will have to fight a civil war.  That's when we get out for sure.  Meanwhile, they are getting their chance from us to do it right.
• By contrast, Afganistan should be a long-term address for America.  The odds of our helping to make that strategically situated country a showcase for democracy in that crazy neighborhood are probably better than anywhere else in the East.  And we do need a presence there for many years to come.
• While the above addresses our military and energy needs, America's economic future is tied to the combined rise of China and India.  As yet, we seem to have no strategy for that tsunami.  An editorial in this week's Business Week addresses the issue.  But even that fails to mention an integral part of any strategem: an American Immigration policy that plays to America's historic strengths in being able to be a magnet for the best, brightest and fittest from the rest of the world.  See "What America Must Do To Compete With China And India", Aug. 22-29, 2005, p144.
• The Sept. 5 edition of Newsweek, already out, surveys "Spirituality in America".   88% of the American population describe themselves as spiritual and/or religious.  And nearly 80% believe that someone of another faith can attain salvation or go to heaven.  So, Hollywood and your standard TV trash are merely unavoidable septic tanks in our national homestead.
• Having ignored the medical aspects of drug abuse, our government has essentially given up in the purely criminal approach to this cancer in our national midst, including chronic alcholism.  A raid here, a bust there.  "A tale as told by an idiot: full of sound and fury, signifying nothing".  See "Smuggling Drugs?  Let Us Count The Ways", by Mary Anastasia O'Grady, WSJ today, Opinion, pA13.  The reason why medical research and approaches continue to get short shrift is because many people in society and also in government are making great amounts of money on the status quo.  This issue, too, needs a Marshall Plan of sorts.
• Now for the more mundane.  Talk about septic tanks.  The French are at it again. See "Lance Boiled", by Geoffrey Wheatcroft (author of "Le Tour: A History of thje Tour de France 1903-2000, Simon and Schuster, 2005), WSJ today, Opinion, pA12.

MONDAY through WEDNESDAY, August 22 through 24, 2005

Lots of interesting issues this week.  Here are some quick comments:

• Whether it relates to bullying in school or to a child (under age 18) attacking another child, parents should be held civilly responsible.  That's where the buck stops.
• Anti-war protesters of today have the same political genes as the isolationist anti-war groups of 1939-41.  They were wrong then...and they are wrong now.
• Religion and spirituality are once again becoming popular topics. News Flash!  The "Intelligent Designer" is GOD.  And a recent poll discovered that 75% of physicians believe in God.  The other 25% believe that they are God.
• The BRAC Commission today took the U.S. Naval Submarine Base in Groton, Ct.  off their base closure list.  This is a victory of facts over military / political chutzpa.  What were they thinking?  What should we think about their thinking?
• And more good news for New London, Ct.  The U.S. Supreme Court refused the request from the Institute for Justice for a re-hearing of the Kelo case.  Now let's get moving...earth.
• Meanwhile, Connecticut should not be proud of being the only state in the nation to sue the federal government over the No  Child Left Behind Law.   See the editorials in yesterday's WSJ and today's The Day regarding that cynical action.
• Pushing pre- and pre-pre school kids is the latest aberration of the ME Generation, about whom it's all about.  Greatly ration TV and video games, read to the kids and encourage their book use, and get them out playing.   That will be responsible parenting, while the kids have a real childhood.
• The Vioxx case is another victory for the trial bar and for a form of jury nullification over the facts.  See "Ambush In Angleton", by Professor of Law Richard Epstein, in the WSJ on Monday.  How much more of this "justice" can American society afford?
• Here's a new book that warrants attention from anyone who believes that the U.S Supreme Court plays a vital role in our governance: "Active Liberty", by Justice Stephen Breyer ( Bertelsmann AG).  From its advance billing, it reminds me of what is called in another sphere "Situation Ethics".  More on this after I have read the book.

SUNDAY, August 21, 2005

• More light is shed today on the Vioxx plaintiff's big victory.  See NYTimes today, p1.  Stupidity, thy name is "cover-up".  There is nothing that will anger a jury more than that.  And now, let's hear more about any FDA complicity in those actions.  Was this another example of the compromise of objectivity by a critical public protector?
• Pope Benedict XVI used precisely the right tone in his lecture to representatives of the German Muslim community yesterday.  See "Pope Talks Tough...", by Tracy Wilkenson, The Day today, pA2.
• The Army has injected a dose of realism into recent political comments about a "draw-down" of U.S. forces from Iraq.  The Army is planning for the same current troop levels through 2009.  And even the political soothsaying includes tough conditions: prompt drafting of an Iraqi Constitution followed by its approval in a national referrendum, and then by national elections for a new government under the new constitution.  Mrs. Sheehan, right cause but very poor timing.  You might also want to read a different point of view from another parent of a fallen soldier, this week in the WSJ.
• Today's editorial in the NYTimes entitled "Walking The Wrong Way", about a planned Freedom Walk on Sept. 11 in Washington, D.C., is generally on target but scatters its shots with the same-ol, same-ol about the origins of the Iraq invasion.  The best comment is attributed to the mother of another fallen marine who "said last week that the president should either 'fight this war right or get out'".
• Regarding the distressing but long inevitable developments in Gaza this past week, Elie Wiesel hits a true sense of tone in his article in today's NYTimes (Op-Ed, pWk11): "The Dispossessed".  Uncharacteristically, Charles Krauthammer missed the mark.
• One important development of recent years that has been falling under the radar is the increasingly close relationship between the U.S. and Australia.  Very wise and potentially very fruitful.  Given the noble actions of Australians in the two World Wars and throughout the 20th century, I can't think of any group of people I would rather have at my side when trouble hits.
• Let's end this on a light note.  This week I had my annual visit with my cardioligist.  In pronouncing that I was a little over-weight, he recommended his ABAD diet: no appetisers; no bread; no alcohol; no desserts.  Now, that is a REALLY BAD DIET...but how could I accuse a cardiologist of being "heartless"?

SATURDAY, August 20, 2005

• Here is a report with which I agree: "Doctors See Benefit From Net-searching Patients", by Tyler Chin (American Medical News - www.amednews.com - Aug. 15, 2005, p1).  "As more people go online for health information, physicians are finding that research can deepen levels of conversation during visits".  So, please surf the rest of this web site, in addition to the Mediterranean Diet site: This is a public service gift...that keeps on giving.
• But there are risks to patients' direct access to frequently raw medical data, not yet peer reviewed, and to pharmaceutical information which is often "mere puffery", not filtered by a "learned intermediary".  The recent and continuing problem with COX-2 Inhibitors, and currently the Vioxx case, are examples...with serious risks affecting both producers and consumers.  SO, "ASK YOUR DOCTOR".
• The Patient Safety and Quality Improvement Act of 2005, recently signed into law andalso discussed on the same page of the above reference, sounds good - but stay tuned.  It may be too good to be true...and still to risky for health care providers to buy into.  More to come on this.
• And to finish this offering on another medical note, this year "just a cold" may not be the right attitude...considering the past and possibly continuing difficulties with getting the flu vaccine, and with the possible arrival here of Bird Flu - God forbid.  Everyone, and especially people with other illnesses, should check with their physician for anything but mild symptoms.  Don't try to "tough it out" this time around.

FRIDAY, August 19, 2005

"Say it isn't so".  Are we entering a 15 month period of lame-duck government while our fearless leaders posture for the Congressional elections of 2006?  There's too much to do for that kind of business-as-usual cop-out.

• An honorable outcome to our actions in Iraq and in Afganistan.
• Department of Defense decisions that will re-formulate and rehabilitate our Armed Forces, as part of the current Quadrennial Defense Review.  See the article published this month by Frederick W. Kagan (Resident Scholar at AEI) entitled "The War Against Reserves".
• An honorable, realistic and workable Immigration policy, something totally absent now as Mexicans and Americans both suffer and die on both sides of the border.
• Completion of Election Reform only partly dealt with through the McCain-Feingold Law.
• A decision on Social Security reform.
• A solution to the health insurance non-coverage of over 40 million Americans.  See "Cover Yourself", by Jack Lewin and Ronald A. Williams, WSJ today, Opinion, pA12.  See also the increasing amount of information regarding Health Savings Accounts, enabled by the recent Medicare Reform Act.

GS

MONDAY through THURSDAY, August 15 through 18, 2005

• We read and hear now that Secretary Rumsfeld and some others at the Dept. of Defense are trying to sanitize our struggles in Iraq by removing the descriptive term "war".  Having failed decisively to plan for and to provide security for our forces and for the Iraqi people since the defeat of Saddam Hussein, and having presided over a marked weakening of our military forces, especially the National Guard and the Reserves, without any plan to re-establish those forces, these warriors are prepared to declare victory and to pull out.  To paraphrase Mr. Rumsfeld's own words in another context, we now have "old warriors" and "new warriors".   The old warriors, especially Mr. Rumsfeld, should be put out to pasture ASAP.  Perhaps President Bush, that great loyalist, is also getting to that point, since he is having nothing of that idea.  If our national security was the legitimate rationale for our invasion of Iraq, it is all the more the reason for getting it right.
• If you want a lesson in contortions and "spin", check out today's article by Michael McGough entitled "Bad Science, Awful Theology", blathering the issue of "Intelligent Design" (The Day today, Commentary, pA13).  On the same page is a political cartoon by Toles trying to equate efforts to guarantee women's rights in Iraq with Roe v Wade.  Desperate!
• On the other hand, if you want to be vindicated in your queezy feeling about the direction this country is taking, read Bernard Goldberg's new book entitled: "100 People Who Are Screwing Up America" (Harper Collins, 2005).
• One basic result of these "screw-ups"  is what is happening to our younger generation.  Today's crisis-of-the-day is called "the choking game" and is involving pre-teens in a potentially lethal activity.  This is all of a piece with parental absence and actual fear of their children, their enabling drug use by their own activities or ambivalence toward drug use, by allowing too much time before the TV and the computer, by buying into the idea of a minor's inherent "right to privacy" from their parents, and by promoting a fantasy-land upbringing of Harry Potter and video games devoid of reality and personal responsibility.  Who among this dismal parental class will finally get parenting right...and when?

SUNDAY, August 14, 2005

• The Day (www.theday.com) of New London, Ct. is a fine newspaper frequently referenced in this section...and more importantly the regular recipient of many prestigious awards from New England and more distant sources.  Today's edition of Perspective (Sec. C1-3) is particularly good for a number of stories with a lot of inside information as well as reasoned commentary.  See: 1) "Rowland's Tarnished Legacy At Fort Trumbull", by editorial page editor Morgan Mcginley; 2)  "New Southern Strategy: Gun For Yankee Bases", by Walton Jay; 3) "Let's Get Real About The Kelo Case", by Michael Kennedy.  There's much more.  Check it out.  But one item will have to await a detailed response in this section t a later date: "Next Year, Tackle Assisted Suicide", by William Collins, a former Connecticut State Representative and former mayor.
• The New York Times today has a front page article addressing the flip side of "assisted suicide"; namely, whether and when to call it "quits" in a deadly fight with advanced cancer or other fatal disease.  See "Awash In Information, Patients Face A Lonely, Uncertain Road", by Jan Hoffman, pA1.  A response to that will also have to await a proper treatment, including the valid concept of Futility.  In the meantime, the road does not have to be lonely if you have at least one physician who is also willing to be a friend.
• Again, its good to see some professional support for some of my positions.  See "Is The Space Station Necessary?", NYTimes Editorial today, pWk 11.  See also "Two Steps Toward A Sensible Immigration Policy", by David Brooks, ibid., pWk 12.   And also "What Is Free Speech, And What Is Terrorism?", by Richard Bernstein, ibid., Wk 14.

MONDAY through SATURDAY, August 8 through 13, 2005

Sorry about the interruption; family time.  But not too much has gotten by me.

• The new One New London Party announced last week is a definite step in the right direction, if my comments in a recent Rapid Response have any validity.  It deserves some tangible support even if some of its positions are wrong for New London or are incompletely fleshed out.  After all, the Lord had something to say about letting the weeds grow with the wheat...until harvest time.
• There are no such things as "harmless hackers", as some criminal-"yutes" were called after a caper in Pennsylvania.  Give them a break: give them some jail time and community service to inculcate basic lessons that they obviously did not learn from their parents.
• The United Nations...all of a piece with Niger, Sudan, Somalia, the Balkans, "Oil For Food", and opposition to American coalition efforts in Iraq: corrupt, cynical, hypocritical.  Did I forget any appropriate adjective?  See the WSJ Editorial of Aug. 9, 2005 entitled "Oil For Fraud", Opinion, pA10.
• Now here's some good summer reading: "Who's Screwing Up America", by Bernard Goldberg.  The usual suspects, but under a searing bright light.
• Note to NASA: Scrap the Shuttle!  It's time for a new and improved model, before anyone else gets killed.  Of course, you will also have to find new work for many of the Shuttle crews, of which there are altogether too many.
• And what's wrong with teaching Intelligent Design together with the Theory of Evolution?  All you need to do is to witness noted scientists stuttering like school children, as they try to make sense of "The Big Bang" or any other cosmic theory to explain the ultimate origin of all of us, in order to know that only their pride keeps them from acknowledging the obvious.  The ways of arrogance include ignorance.
• Radical Muslims...in the U.S., the U.K. and throughout the world...are crying "fire in a crowded theater" and deserve no freedom of speech protections.  They are terrorists, and if they are citizens they are traitors and must be treated accordingly.  If the vast majority of good, moderate and truly religious Muslims wish to avoid inevitable profiling, they must remove these pretenders from their midst.
• Developments in Iran regarding nuclear development continue to demonstrate that the Nuclear Community has no coherent policy on this issue.  And many other countries are watching this case-study to determine their nuclear future.  Anybody listening?
• Cindy Sheehan, grieving mother of a brave soldier...and unfortunate pawn of deluded peaceniks.  I wonder what her son thinks of all this.
• Even Senator Arlen Specter could not stomach the nasty thin gruel served up this week by NARAL in its hysterical attack on U.S. Supreme Court nominee John Roberts.  Girls, you're losing it.

SUNDAY, August 7, 2005

• Try never to deal with a person without a "reverse gear".  I encountered that earlier in life, when I was part of a dance band working our way through college and medical school.  Our band leader would pick the sequence of songs we would play...and neither hell, high water nor a fight in the hall would make him modify that sequence.  We all know these people.  Now we can add another one: Benjamin Netanyahu, who has just resigned from the government of Israel over its approval of settlement withdrawal orders.  Some call them stubborn.  I call them uneducable.
• U.N. Ambassador John Bolton has begun his term in good order: he marshalled a number of strong national rebukes against Iran and Syria for their part being played in the terrorist activities in Iraq.
• Meanwhile, high-ranking officers in the Pentagon continue to curry favor with their boss, Sec. Rumsfeld, by again suggesting that we might be able to transfer tens of thousands of our troops out of Iraq by Spring of 2006.  Either that interpretation, or: "What are they smoking?"
• It always feels good to get support - eventually - for one's position taken way ahead of the talking heads.  "New Breed Of Critics Fights Wal-Mart In Nation's Capital", by Anne D'Innocenzio (in The Day today, Business, pF2.  That mega-company...or is it now a religion...has become too big to be so arrogant.  And on the subject of Internet privacy and massive data compromise, see: "Europe Zips Lips; U.S. Sells Zips", by Eric Dash (in NYTimes today, Wk, Section 4 p1).
• In America, we are guaranteed Freedom of Religion.  But that is rapidly becoming freedom from religion.  See the article by guest columnist John A. Rodolico entitled: "Free Speech Exists For All But Religion" (The Day today, Voices and Views, pC3).  Whatever our religious persuasion, we must not let that happen in this country.

SATURDAY, August 6, 2005

• The Atomic Bomb.  How do some people go through life with selective memory (or revisionist history) when the facts don't square with their world-view?  Am I describing an ultra-liberal...or what?  In war, do unto others before they do it unto you, which was exactly the case on August 6, 1945.
• Even our friends follow that rule, a point that was brought back to me this week with the indictment of two former officials of a pro-Israel lobby on spying charges...hopefully nothing as damaging as the Pollard case of the 1970's, but all of a pattern.  At least Israel has not sunk an American ship in a long time (since the 1960's to be exact).  With friends like that....
• Iran, North Korea, India...and world-wide nuclear proliferation.  With the risks so great, as exemplified by the dealings of Mr. Khan of Pakistan, can't this country even get a unified policy about that.  Now we are offering Iran one thing and denying it to North Korea, after our recent generosity towards India.  There is only one approach, which must be consistent, that will work...as I have proposed earller in this section: for the non-nuclear countries we guarantee peaceful nuclear power in return for NO Nuclear Weapons.  In the alternative, if they try to build nuclear weapons, we will destroy all nuclear capabilities of that country, in pre-emptive self-defense.  Simple and effective.  Anybody listening?
• On the home front, some American leaders of the Catholic Church seem once again to be acting in arrogant fashion.  Do they remember Vatican ll, with its pronouncements that the laity, the Body of the Church, was to be accorded an integral role in the life and administration of the Church?   All we, and groups like Voice of the Faithful, are told frequently is that "the Church is not a democracy".  Sounds like "taxation without representation" all over again.  It pains me to say it, but some Catholics in positions of authority are not acting like Christians.

FRIDAY, August 5, 2005

Today, we'll stay local...Connecticut and particularly New London.

New London is one of the true garden spots of the world, this from a couple who have seen a good bit of the world and who have lived here, by choice, for over 42 years.  Also, given its wealth of natural resources, you can't kill it with a stick...notwithstanding all the efforts - mainly made by locals - to do so year after year.  Another analogy: New London has all the problems of New York City, but in soluble form.  But what are we to make of the current infestation of problems over and above the usual ones: half of our land mass tax exempt; the social service capital of Eastern Connecticut, thanks to the dumping syndrome practised for decades by our neighboring communities; a political structure born and bred of Democratic incest, with the predictable decline in political IQ.  Now the new problems: we can't make a local decision about "education funds"; we can't divide our tax structure between private and commercial; we are becoming overwhelmed with new school construction in a system that has a constantly declining student base and that has not been a good steward of the substantial monies it has received to date, thanks to the local and national teachers' unions and to "education policies" that often don't pass the laugh test; and most recently, the four year fight over an entirely legal application of a Constitutional right...with an ultimate win being consumed by ignorant hysteria: right cause...wrong case.  And we can't even get a break from the local newspaper, which should be an educator and a leader - but which continues to pander to the hysteria.  See an otherwise fairly good article by Kate Moran which begins with "NLDC Acts To Correct 'Disservice'", where the quoted "disservice" comes from the statement by NLDC CEO David Goebel: "We feel there's been a tremendous disservice done in the way the publicity has been handled."  And then the piece ends with a gratuitous, incomplete and misleading statement about "problems that have plagued the redevelopment effort and prevented the promised benefits from materializing...." (The Day Thursday, August 4, 2005, pA1).  When will New London get a break?  When a large suffering but silent majority starts speaking up...and starts running for office.  Not until then.

THURSDAY, August 4, 2005

Perhaps, following the lead of President Kennedy,  I should have declared the following motto long ago...but it is still apt:
"ASK NOT WHY I HAVE ALL THESE OPINIONS.  RATHER ASK WHY YOU DO NOT."

And now, the news...

Iraq. Things are going from bad to worse on the military - security front, regardless of what progress may be being made on the political front.  7 - 14 - 4. These are the number of American soldiers who have been killed in recent days.  As noted many times in this section during the last two years, the Rumsfeld doctrine of "Less is More"  has been shown to be an abject failure, with no other proper response than to have his resignation and to reverse course.  The stakes are extremely high for possible peace in that region and in the world over the next half-century.  As quoted by Thomas Friedman in his most recent article, Jordan's deputy prime minister has said: "But now all the existential threats to the different states are gone. Now the focus has shifted from national liberation to personal liberation, but in all spheres:more equality, less corruption, better incomes, better schools.  Governments are talking differently, but up to now people are still skeptical.  They have heard so moch talk.  The first country or party that really shows results will have a big effect on the whole region because everyone is looking for a new vision."   We in America also need new vision.  In today's The Day (theday.com), Professor Uwe E. Reinholdt of Princeton University, who has had a Marine - son in the Middle East since 2001, reports the obvious: "In U.S., Price Of Patriotism Is Burden Not Shared Equally" (Commentary A11).   He illustrates that it is not shared at all.  I have some ideas about that: 1) Reduce American oil importation by 5%, to start, and impose a rational rationing system on our citizens...just to demonstrate - to ourselves and to the world - that we can do it; 2) follow the suggestions offered by Peter Schweizer of The Hoover Institution and reported in USA Today, Monday, Aubust 1, 2005, The Forum, p11A: "Time To Tighten The Noose On Syria"; 3) institute a fair draft to replenish an anemic U.S. military, and fast - not through cynical traps being used by Democrats to undercut the President, but in a bi-partisan effort at true patriotism; 4) Immediately transfer at least 50, 000 American troops from their current stations in Europe to Iraq (and some to Afganistan), to seal the Iraq borders with Iran and with Syria, and to wreak holy hell on all "insurgents" and on their supporters with bullets and under military and not civil or criminal law.  The second-in-command of al Qaida today "promises" tens of thousands of more casualties in England (and if possible in America) if we do not immediately remove all our forces from Iraq.  The above would be an adequate response, for starters.    President Bush, continue to do the right thing...simply because it is the right thing to do.

MONDAY through WEDNESDAY, August 1 through 3, 2005

• First we complete some old news, which Senator Arlen Spector hyperbolically called a "volcano": the change in the position of Senator - Doctor Frist regarding stem cell research.  Verifying what I thought I had heard from Senator Frist himself in a news conference, he is now essentially in favor of the elements of a bill that has just passed the House of Representatives.  As reported in the NYTimes Editorial on Saturday, July 30, 2005: "A bill approved by the House and pending in the Senate would enlarge the pool by including stem cells from additional surplus embryos that had been donated by patients at fertility clinics who would otherwise discard them.  Mr. Frist had been supporting the President's policy, but he now plans to support the pending bill, with some reservations."  The editorial goes on to say: "That is a step forward, but a pathetically small one."   However, no one has the courage to recognize the truly important part of his position: the honesty of acknowledging that a fetus is a human being.  That is the part that is tragically and hypocritically missing in the ongoing furor over abortion and related subjects that is distorting all of this nation's political life.
• Former President Jimmy Carter, he of presidential notoriety and post-presidency fame, recently announced while in England that America's invasion of Iraq was "unnecessary and unjust".  Within six months of having voted for him for President, I realized my mistake...and haven't changed my mind about him since then.
• Our only chance to encourage democracy in the Middle East is now in Iraq.  The effort, originally for self-defense, is messy and has been frought with errors and miscalculations...but it is a noble and necessary effort.
• We may now see a belated rebirth of nuclear power plants in this country, after passage of the recent Energy bill.  But what about the still unsolved problem of nuclear waste.  If President Bush wants a lasting positive legacy, solving this problem...starting with opening Yucca Mountain...will have to be part of it.
• The Patriot Act has been made "permanent", with a few new restrictions. That's as it should be in a time of war.
• Congress has just passed the long-awaited patient safety bill, The Patient Safety and Quality Improvement Act of 2005.  This is designed to enablea national voluntary system of medical error reporting, with a necessary prohibition to the use of such information in medical malpractice suits.  But does the bill say anything about what State Licensure Boards can do with such information?  It is well known in the medical field that such boards can and sometimes do take draconian action against physicians in the absence of suits...and sometimes even after the physician has prevailed in the suit.  Such an exception would swallow the rule and destroy the bill's impact.  More on that after a little research.