Susan Katz-Keating would like a tell-all from George Tenet that really tells all:
We had insufficient intelligence. True, we had electronic surveillance; but we lacked the all-important human intelligence-gathering
It Couldn’t Wait
It’s not quite tropical, but we already have the first named storm of the hurricane season, three weeks before the season is supposed to officially begin.
I hope that this isn’t a portent.
[Update in the afternoon]
OK, why are they naming this storm? Do they name nor’easters? No, they don’t, even though they can have much higher winds.
How long have they been naming subtropical storms? If we’re seeing more named storms now than we used to, I wonder if it isn’t because (a) we literally are seeing more than we used to, because many of the ones in the past decades we never even knew about if no ship encountered them, or they encountered no land, and (b) we are changing the naming rules, and comparing apples to oranges.
I think that we ought to stick to the tradition, and only name storms if they’re tropical. If “Andrea” becomes tropical, then fine, but for now, I don’t think it deserves a name.
It Couldn’t Wait
It’s not quite tropical, but we already have the first named storm of the hurricane season, three weeks before the season is supposed to officially begin.
I hope that this isn’t a portent.
[Update in the afternoon]
OK, why are they naming this storm? Do they name nor’easters? No, they don’t, even though they can have much higher winds.
How long have they been naming subtropical storms? If we’re seeing more named storms now than we used to, I wonder if it isn’t because (a) we literally are seeing more than we used to, because many of the ones in the past decades we never even knew about if no ship encountered them, or they encountered no land, and (b) we are changing the naming rules, and comparing apples to oranges.
I think that we ought to stick to the tradition, and only name storms if they’re tropical. If “Andrea” becomes tropical, then fine, but for now, I don’t think it deserves a name.
It Couldn’t Wait
It’s not quite tropical, but we already have the first named storm of the hurricane season, three weeks before the season is supposed to officially begin.
I hope that this isn’t a portent.
[Update in the afternoon]
OK, why are they naming this storm? Do they name nor’easters? No, they don’t, even though they can have much higher winds.
How long have they been naming subtropical storms? If we’re seeing more named storms now than we used to, I wonder if it isn’t because (a) we literally are seeing more than we used to, because many of the ones in the past decades we never even knew about if no ship encountered them, or they encountered no land, and (b) we are changing the naming rules, and comparing apples to oranges.
I think that we ought to stick to the tradition, and only name storms if they’re tropical. If “Andrea” becomes tropical, then fine, but for now, I don’t think it deserves a name.
The Situation In Baghdad
A very long, but interesting (and encouraging) video interview by Bob Wright with Eli Lake, embedded reporter for the New York Sun, and a major in Iraq.
“The people who think that the insurgents are fighting for a nationalist cause should go to Haifa Street right now.”
“In terms of the Vietnam analogy, these are people trying to seek My Lais every day, and our guys are trying to prevent it.”
Word Of The Day
A lot of ignorant morons call me a “neocon,” and I generally eschew labels in general, but here’s a new one (well, new to me) I just discovered that probably comes as close as any will for me. I’m apparently a neolibertarian.
Fear Of The Bear
Sweden and Finland are acting like they want to join NATO.
Battle Of The Century
OK, I have to admit that this is great stop-motion photography. The choreography is great. But you still have to think–don’t these guys have lives? I’d be a lot more impressed if they were junior high schoolers.
[Via the Star-Trek conservative]
Jacques Chirac’s Legacy
From Anne Applebaum. It’s not pretty:
…it’s a very important legacy: One of consistent scorn for the Anglo-American world in general and the English language in particular, of suspicion of Central Europe and profound disinterest in the wave of democratic transformation that swept the world in the 1980s and 1990s, of preference for the Arab and African dictators who had been, and remained, clients of France. In his later years, Chirac constantly searched, in almost all international conflicts, for novel ways of opposing the United States. All along, he did his best to protect France from the rapidly changing global economy.
With the new president, let’s hear it for Friendship Fries (even if they were invented in Belgium).
Jacques Chirac’s Legacy
From Anne Applebaum. It’s not pretty:
…it’s a very important legacy: One of consistent scorn for the Anglo-American world in general and the English language in particular, of suspicion of Central Europe and profound disinterest in the wave of democratic transformation that swept the world in the 1980s and 1990s, of preference for the Arab and African dictators who had been, and remained, clients of France. In his later years, Chirac constantly searched, in almost all international conflicts, for novel ways of opposing the United States. All along, he did his best to protect France from the rapidly changing global economy.
With the new president, let’s hear it for Friendship Fries (even if they were invented in Belgium).