A Poem.

Interesting, HP is now expanding beyond Linux and offering tech support for JBoss and MySQL.

Slowly, one step at a time, Open Source becomes more and more mainstream. Very exciting.

If you've never figured out what the whole Open Source thing is about, you really ought to read The Cathedral and the Bazaar by the way. Free software that changes the world? Strange but true.

They're found buried all over the world.

Rosemary has a moving prayer.

It is certainly the case that, for any military action of comparable size, our casualties in Iraq have been astonishingly light. During the Korean and Vietnam wars, there were weeks in which we lost more people in combat than we have in the entire Iraq war to date. During World War II, there were days, indeed, there were hours, in which we lost more men than we have lost people in the entire Iraq campaign so far.

This, by any rational measure, is nearly miraculous.

And yet each and every one of the fallen is every bit as great as every fallen hero we lost in our other wars. Every one a snuffed life, a family crushed by tragedy. They are no less important, their loss no less keenly felt.

It is important that we remember them all today.

Jeff has some photos you should see.

Tony has memories of World War I, World War II, Korea, and Vietnam that you should read today.

The following is quoted in full. --Dean

May 30, 2004

Thank you all very much. I'm honored to join with President Clinton, President Bush, Senator Dole and other distinguished guests on this day of remembrance and celebration. And, General Kelley, here in the company of the generation that won the war, I proudly accept the World War II Memorial on behalf of the people of the United States of America.

Raising up this Memorial took skill and vision and patience. Now the work is done, and it is a fitting tribute, open and expansive, like America; grand and enduring, like the achievements we honor. The years of World War II were a hard, heroic and gallant time in the life of our country. When it mattered most, an entire generation of Americans showed the finest qualities of our nation and of humanity. On this day, in their honor, we will raise the American flag over a monument that will stand as long as America itself.

In the history books, the Second World War can appear as a series of crises and conflicts, following an inevitable course -- from Pearl Harbor to the Coast of Normandy to the deck of the Missouri. Yet, on the day the war began, and on many hard days that followed, the outcome was far from certain.

There was a time, in the years before the war, when many earnest and educated people believed that democracy was finished. Men who considered themselves learned and civilized came to believe that free institutions must give way to the severe doctrines and stern discipline of a regimented society. Ideas first whispered in the secret councils of a remote empire, or shouted in the beer halls of Munich, became mass movements. And those movements became armies. And those armies moved mercilessly forward -- until the world saw Hitler strutting in Paris, and U.S. Navy ships burning in their own port. Across the world, from a hiding place in Holland to prison camps of Luzon, the captives awaited their liberators.

Those liberators would come, but the enterprise would require the commitment and effort of our entire nation. As World War II began, after a decade of economic depression, the United States was not a rich country. Far from being a great power, we had only the 17th largest army in the world. To fight and win on two fronts, Americans had to work and save and ration and sacrifice as never before. War production plants operated shifts around the clock. Across the country, families planted victory gardens -- 20 million of them, producing 40 percent of the nation's vegetables in backyards and on rooftops. Two out of every three citizens put money into war bonds. As Colonel Oveta Culp Hobby said, "This was a people's war, and everyone was in it."

As life changed in America, so did the way that Americans saw our own country and its place in the world. The bombs at Pearl Harbor destroyed the very idea that America could live in isolation from the plots of aggressive powers. The scenes of the concentration camps, the heaps of bodies and ghostly survivors, confirmed forever America's calling to oppose the ideologies of death.

As we defended our ideals, we began to see that America is stronger when those ideals are fully implemented. America gained strength because women labored for victory and factory jobs, cared for the wounded and wore the uniform, themselves. America gained strength because African Americans and Japanese Americans and others fought for their country, which wasn't always fair to them. In time, these contributions became expectations of equality, and the advances for justice in post-war America made us a better country.

With all our flaws, Americans at that time had never been more united. And together we began and completed the largest single task in our history. At the height of conflict, America would have ships on every ocean, and armies on five continents. And on the most crucial of days, would move the equivalent of a major city across the English Channel.

And all these vast movements of men and armor were directed by one man who could not walk on his own strength. President Roosevelt brought his own advantages to the job. His resolve was stronger than the will of any dictator. His belief in democracy was absolute. He possessed a daring that kept the enemy guessing. He spoke to Americans with an optimism that lightened their task. And one of the saddest days of the war came just as it was ending, when the casualty notice in the morning paper began with the name, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Commander-in-Chief.

Across the years, we still know his voice. And from his words, we know that he understood the character of the American people. Dictators and their generals had dismissed Americans as no match for a master race. FDR answered them. In one of his radio addresses, he said, "We have been described as a nation of weaklings, playboys. Let them tell that to General McArthur and his men. Let them tell that to the boys in the flying fortresses. Let them tell that to the Marines."

In all, more than 16 million Americans would put on the uniform of the soldier, the sailor, the airman, the Marine, the Coast Guardsman or the Merchant Mariner. They came from city streets and prairie towns, from public high schools and West Point. They were a modest bunch, and still are. The ranks were filled with men like Army Private Joe Sakato. In heavy fighting in France, he saw a good friend killed, and charged up a hill determined to shoot the ones who did it. Private Sakato ran straight into enemy fire, killing 12, wounding two, capturing four, and inspiring his whole unit to take the hill and destroy the enemy. Looking back on it 55 years later, Joe Sakato said, "I'm not a hero. Nowadays they call what I did 'road rage.'" (Laughter.)

This man's conduct that day gained him the Medal of Honor, one of 464 awarded for actions in World War II. Americans in uniform served bravely, fought fiercely and kept their honor -- even under the worst of conditions. Yet they were not warriors by nature. All they wanted was to finish the job and make it home. One soldier in the 58th Armor Field Artillery was known to have the best-kept rifle in the unit. He told his buddies he had plans for that weapon after the war. He said, "I want to take it home, cover it in salt, hang it on a wall in my living room so I can watch it rust."

These were the modest sons of a peaceful country, and millions of us are very proud to call them Dad. They gave the best years of their lives to the greatest mission their country ever accepted. They faced the most extreme danger, which took some and spared others, for reasons only known to God. And wherever they advanced or touched ground, they are remembered for their goodness and their decency. A Polish man recalls being marched through the German countryside in the last weeks of the war, when American forces suddenly appeared. He said, "Our two guards ran away. And this soldier with little blonde hair jumps off his tank. 'You're free,' he shouts at us. We started hugging each other, crying and screaming, 'God sent angels down to pick us up out of this hell place.'"

Well, our boys weren't exactly angels. They were flesh and blood, with all the limits and fears of flesh and blood. That only makes the achievement more remarkable -- the courage they showed, in a conflict that claimed more than 400,000 American lives, leaving so many orphans and widows and Gold Star Mothers.

The soldiers' story was best told by the great Ernie Pyle, who shared their lives and died among them. In his book, "Here Is Your War," he described World War II as many veterans now remember it. It is a picture, he wrote, "of tired and dirty soldiers, who are alive and don't want to die; of long, darkened convoys in the middle of the night; of shocked, silent men wandering back down the hill from battle; of Jeeps and petrol dumps and smelly bedding roles and C-rations; and blown bridges and dead mules and hospital tents and shirt collars greasy-black from months of wearing; and of laughter, too, and anger, and wine, and lovely flowers and constant cussing. All these, it is composed of; and of graves and graves and graves."

On this Memorial Day weekend, the graves will be visited, and decorated with flowers and flags. Men whose step has slowed are thinking of boys they knew when they were boys together. And women who watched the train leave, and the years pass, can still see the handsome face of their young sweetheart. America will not forget them, either.

At this place, at this Memorial, we acknowledge a debt of long-standing to an entire generation of Americans: those who died; those who fought and worked and grieved and went on. They saved our country, and thereby saved the liberty of mankind. And now I ask every man and woman who saw and lived World War II -- every member of that generation -- to please rise as you are able, and receive the thanks of our great nation.

May God bless you.

WASHINGTON D.C. - On this thirtieth of May, the United States is nearly halfway through an election year pursued while in the midst of a great war. Support for the president has reached an all-time low. He has been compared to a baboon, and called a "syphilitic drunkard." His military experience before gaining the presidency consisted of a short term in the state militia, where he displayed little prowess, and he's now responsible for a war that shows every sign of being bogged down into a bloody stalemate, with little to show besides increasing casualty lists.

As one observer has said "The Republicans harp on cowardice, defeatism, lack of patriotism, disloyalty, and even treason among the Democrats. The also hold up [the challenger]'s record military record to ridicule. For their part, the Democrats emphasize the 'ignorance, incompetence, and corruption of [the current] administration' and counted on war-weariness to get them votes. [The president] has been subjected to almost unprecedented abuse in the opposition press ever since becoming president. During his campaign for re-election, however, [the] vituperation reached new heights."

There's More...

The amount of sunshine reaching the Earth's surface has been dimming for 50 years, apparently.

Some suggest that this has negative implications for solar power, but solar power's always been something of a pipe dream anyway, at least on the Earth's surface. On a clear day, the total amount of energy in solar power is about 100 watts per square meter. That's the total energy there. You can't capture and use all of it of course (you can never capture and use all the potential energy in anything--it would violate the laws of thermodynamics), but even if you could then a 1 square meter solar panel would only have enough power to drive one light bulb. And again, that's on a cloudless day.

This is why solar power isn't as safe or as environmentally benign as people like to think it is. Manufacturing those solar panels requires power and causes pollution, as do disposing of them, and in any case using them for electricity requires use of batteries, which creates a chemical waste issue. Indeed, scientists have calculated that on the whole solar power is a greater environmental hazard than nuclear power, at least when used for electricity. (When used for certain applications that don't require batteries it's not so bad.)

Of course, it's not hard to be more dangerous than nuclear power. But that's another subject.

There does remain one way to use solar energy for electricity that would be highly efficient: orbiting solar power collectors that convert the light to microwaves and beam it down to Earth. That would be a cheap and plentiful source of electricity once the initial investments were paid for. Alas, interest in creating such things has never been very high, and of course some would be frightened of beaming microwaves down to the Earth....

Both of my daughters are bi-polar and I have chronicled our struggle here before. Now we enter puberty and Madeleine, Dean's blog-daughter, is in a particularly rough spot. To preserve her privacy, I'll spare you some of the behavior that's come up. I will say it's serious. This post on her blog chronicles what she sees as the problem. She keeps asking if anyone has responded. Head on over and share some perspective if you can.

Iraq is still going remarkably well and, among people who say they "disapprove" of the way Iraq's being handled, they're as likely to want more force as they are to want to pull out. Meaning that people crowing about Bush's disapproval numbers have failed to notice that many are simply mad that the Prez isn't putting more troops in and cracking heads harder.

Personally I think he's doing just fine. But then, I heeded the President's warnings that this would be difficult, that there would be more fighting and more casualties, when he said it more than a year ago from the back of that aircraft carrier. And when everyone else in the administration said it. Funny how selective some people's memories are. Indeed, I was worried that things would be much worse than they actually are now.

Anyway, here's an interesting question to ponder: could Kerry win by promising to increase our involvement in Iraq, adding more troops and resources to it?

A woman licensed to grow medical marijuana in San Jose, legally according to California law, got an injunction in Federal court to stop harassment efforts by the Justice Department.

A victory for states' rights and for common sense and decency.

I'm doing a little happy dance in honor of her!

Bill McCabe is pretty mad at the Pope. I left him a comment that I thought I'd expand upon and share here:

You have to accept the bad with the good from the Catholic church. This does not make them above reproach, by any means, but let's remember some things:

They were a major force in ending world Communism. They are one of the few outspoken voices on ending the international slave trade (which is still going strong by the way). They run more hospitals, orphanages, and charities in third world countries than any other force in the universe. They speak out about prisoner abuse and political prisoners everywhere. They were instrumental in ending the Apartheid regime in South Africa.

You can pick them apart for inconsistencies, be angry with them for things they stand for that you very much disagree with, call them to task for their sins, but name me a human institution that has stood for two thousand years that won't have those.

The fact that they are somewhat anachronistic is also one of their strengths: They will be here long, long, long after all of us are merely dust--still doing things to infuriate people, but also still feeding the hungry, nursing the sick, and speaking for the voiceless.

Viewed it as a whole, then, my personal urge to excoriate the Catholic Church as a group of evil and oppressive child molesters is pretty low. And my ability to say, "Okay, that's just what they think, I happen to disagree" is pretty good. I don't have to agree with them on everything to respect both their spirituallity and the enormous good they've done in the world. Especially since, with rare exception, they restrict themselves these days to giving opinions, rather than forcing anyone to do anything.

In other words, if you don't like what they say or stand for, there's an easy solution: don't be Catholic. Problem solved.

By the way, I am not now, nor have I ever been, a member of the Catholic church. Although I married a Catholic girl, and am damn proud of it. ;-)

Also by the way, Andrea has some excellent snarkage that relates to this, and folks (other than the Pope) who like to kick America around.

The Washington Post notes that John Kerry's war position is sober and responsible and not, on substance, much of any different from Bush's position.

Although I've written off the possibility of voting for Kerry--I'm too angry with his party on the national level right now--I must say I agree with the Post that this is the responsible position to take.

We have known for a while now that green tea is good for you, in more ways than one, but especially if you're running an infection.

Now comes news that in some applications, white tea is even better. Which leads me to the obvious question:

What the hell is white tea?

* Update * Well, here's the answer to my question, which also tells me more about green tea than I had known before. No idea where to buy it around here, though I am curious.

Have you ever seen such a wildly defensive reaction in your entire life?

I like how they're putting me on trial now.

Also, would anyone like to help me locate a Nazi political cartoon that looks somewhat like something that the anti-war folks have put out? It can't be hard.

Our good friend Paul, who served a good long time in Iraq but is finally home, has some choice words for Chalabi and the Iraqi National Congress.

Personally I was never a big supporter of Chalabi's. He always made me leary, even when he said things I agreed with. He had a habit of talking out of both sides of his mouth. Some said that just proved he was "independent" but it never quite felt right to me.

Our good friend Ben Kepple was on the teevee. He's famous! You can view his appearance directly by just clicking here.

Ben claims he mentioned me and Sheila O'Malley as his favorite bloggers on the show but it got cut off. Oh Ben, I'm sure you say that to all the girls!

Dean has asked me to return as a semi-demi-hemi regular on the weekends, so that I may pontificate on matters scientifical and military-ogical.

I return to my lair, with the refrain from CC & Dance Company's I've Got the Power running through my twisted brain...

Astronomers are being forced to reconsider theories of how planets development thanks to the discovery of what looks like an impossibly young planet circling CoKu Tau 4, 420 light years from Earth.

I think we need a manned mission. Who's with me?

Something odd happens to the psychology of people when they hang out in online chat rooms. And sometimes chat room oddity turns sinister.

Mind you, I don't think chat rooms are dangerous, although I do think parents ought to keep an eye on kids' use of such technology with strangers. It's just a subject I think of often: email friendships, chat room friendships, weblog friendships, they're all real enough, are all what we might call cyberspace relationships. As I say, they are real enough, lthough they're different from meatspace friendships.

If someone hasn't done a Ph.D. thesis yet on this subject yet, well, it's certainly a ripe target.

Tricky business, isn't it?

I hereby take The Jimmie Pledge and officially decree Dean's World to be a Wonkette/Washingtonienne-free zone.

All Dean's World Denizens caught mentioning this ridiculous bit of meaningless political fluffery will be shot without trial. Or at least mercilessly made fun of.

You have been warned.

Allen Glosson, in the comments of Michael Williams' blog, gets off the excruciatingly bad pun of the week.

Bastinado's too good for him. I say nothing less than defenestration will suffice.

We've all held hands together as a nation and gotten through the crisis.

But for how long, people? How long??

Juliette doesn't appreciate being called one.

Gee, I wonder why?

The New York Times is again dismissing the weblog phenomenon as a bunch of insignificant nerds talking to themselves, but Bill Quick provides some figures that demonstrate that the blogosphere has orders of magnitude more readers than the New York Times, and Michele gives even more analysis you should read.

Obviously, weblogs run in all sorts of political directions, and honestly there are as many points of view as there are weblog readers and writers. But looked at in the aggregate, anyone who thinks that weblogs as a whole aren't exerting a large and growing influence on the world is fooling himself.

Some years ago a group of eight climbers died climbing Mt. Everest. It was never clear what happened to them exactly, but recent research suggests they suffocated when the stratosphere lowered itself below their altitude, cutting off their oxygen.

Wow.

(Via Rand Simberg.)

Independent film maker Mike Wilson was about ready to give up on his independent film project about the greatness that is America and the dishonesty that is the basis of multimillionaire Michael Moore's career, until the internet saved the project.

I can't wait to see this one, and to watch his troglodyte fans try to ignore it or spin it away.

As they said in the movie I watched the other night: "It was swell..."

That shows you how old the movie was. It was shot in 1940 and Dick Clark was then only 60 years old.

But now it's time for me to leave and return to my own newly-refurbished blog The Moderate Voice which I do hope you'll visit often during the week and check out. In the meantime, muchisimas gracias to you and Dean.

Stuart Sims has done some reading about Teddy Roosevelt and found a historical parallel to the prisoner abuse in Abu Ghraib. In his blog Always Right he gives the historical context then writes:

Similar to today's problems, the US military "acknowledged 44 cases of documented cruelty, of which 39... resulted in convictions under the military justice system. Aside from these lapses, 'the war in the Philippines has been conducted by the American army, with self-restraint, and with humanity, never surpassed, if ever equaled, in any conflict.'"

Roosevelt dealt quickly and decisively with those in command who participated in the atrocities in the Philippines. Bush could do the same by rooting out any commanders that are to blame for the lack of control at Abu Ghraib and dealing with the as he sees fit. The Gardener Report (which fomented the scandal in 1902) did not hurt Roosevelt politically because of his quick action. There may still be time for Pres. Bush to do the same as regards Abu Ghraib.

Of course, one big change since then was that Presidents were not surrounded by so many handlers trying to figure out how to minimize damage in the polls (a concern of all presidents from the late 20th Century on). Nor did they have to cope with the 24-hour-instant-news cycle, and internet opinion. These two factors have created a kind of distraction when it comes to decision making.

But Sim's intriguing reasearch proves a key point: in politics and government it's important to cut your losses. This story lingers until it is resolved.

It was a story that hit home to me and to millions of others who read or heard it. And now it has a happy ending:

A middle school honor student who was humiliated when his basketball coach gave him a "Crybaby Award" last month was feted at a school assembly Friday with applause from his peers and an apology from the coach.

Ousted Pleasantville Middle School coach James Guillen presented Terrence Philo Jr. with a certificate, a trophy and the first-ever Terrence Philo Jr. Award.

"I would like to extend a special apology to the Terrence Philo family," Guillen told the boy in front of about 250 of his cheering classmates. He blamed his error last month on "my lack of experience as a coach and as a teacher."

There much more here. And you'll see as you read what the coach totally ignored and shunted aside was the fact that this kid was persistent.

What was one of the key factors behind the New York Times' recent apology over much of its pre-war coverage? The stories by award-winning reporter Judith Miller. According to Salon, one of her prime sources was the once-U.S. favorite and now U.S. foe Pentagon favorite Ahmed Chalabi, who is now believed to have given out untrue "information" about weapons of mass destruction. Towards the end, Miller lets you know what she really thinks about her critics. WARNING: Some adult language. It's long but read the whole thing. It shows that if the Times is contrite, the reporter isn't.

The winner of America's Best Bathroom has just been announced. One hint: It wasn't in San Diego. Oh, Pooh...

But will the U.S. news media cover this group that is against radical Muslim cleric Sadr? Blogger Greg Piper has his doubts.....

As we noted in the post here below on airport security, the Homeland Security Department expressed surprise over the dramatic press conference Wednesday by Attorney General John Ashcroft and FBI Director Robert Mueller in which they warned that a terrorist attack was increasingly likely in the coming months.

The surprise was such that it set off a mini-firestorm in Washington today, leading to the inevitable denial of any problem and a revealing Newsweek analysis by Eleanor Clift that seems to explain some of what unfolded this week.

Warning the public of a monster attack is proving to be a double edged sword. There are all kinds of political pitfalls after the Madrid train bombing. We dealt with this issue in this post here on The Moderate Voice.

But a key issue is: the terrorists timed their bombing in Spain right before the elections since there was a huge gap between the ruling Popular Party and the Socialist party on combating internal terrorism and especially on whether to stay in Iraq. There are some differences between Democrats and Republicans here, but NOT along the lines of what existed in Spain.

Indeed, in his most recent speech Kerry vowed to "destroy the terrorists" and work on an international force to speed up withdrawal of U.S. troops. He also says he wants to bring the troops home "as fast as possible" but that the U.S. can't afford to lose in Iraq. And he called for an increase in U.S. troop strength by 40,000, probably for a decade.

Glenn Reynolds, AKA InstaPundit, quoted Kerry on terrorism and wrote:"More like this, please."

So, other issues aside, there is not the gaping philsophical divide between these two candidates that existed in Spain. Yes, it's election year, and each side wants its candidate to win...but the U.S. ain't Spain.

So Ashcroft lept onto a slippery political slope when he warned of terrorist threats in the summer and pointed to how the terrorists tried to change the verdict in Spain (and of course they did). Ashcroft said:

"The Madrid railway bombings were perceived by Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda to have advanced their cause....Al Qaeda may perceive that a large-scale attack in the United States this summer or fall would lead to similar consequences."

He's actually RIGHT, in a statement of fact: they MAY perceive it. But the present context created by columnists, talking heads, and even some GOP insiders who should know better in talking to media types undercurt Ashcroft's statement:

1)Strategist Dick Morris has been widely quoted as urging GWB to heighten awareness of terrorism as an issue since polls show Americans trust him more than Kerry on terrorism. And, indeed, polls do show that (which is why Kerry is out on the hustings talking about foreign policy this week).

2)This ain't Spain. We've had Democrats and Republicans (in the same week) email us INSISTING the gap between the two parties here is the same as in Espana, but anyone with a finger who can punch a keyboard and do a Google search will see smaller differences here. Kerry is underfire in some Demmie quarters for not differentiating himself enough from Bush.

(3)If the warnings are not so grave that other departments were aware of them, then the risk is what Newsweeks' Eleanor Clift notes here, quoting an unnamed Republican Strategist: “The whole point of fighting them over there is so we wouldn’t have to fight them here,” says the GOP strategist. “Are we really safer? Ashcroft seems to be saying no.”

Newsweek also reports a longtime rivalry between the A.G. and Homeland Security Chief Tom Ridge:

An aide to a Republican senator on the Armed Services Committee says, “The divisions between Homeland Security and the Justice Department are as profound as between State and Defense.” In a classic case of Washington intrigue, Ridge reportedly leaked word of the upcoming Ashcroft press conference in order to pre-empt it, then went on the morning shows to assure Americans they should go ahead with their summer plans while Ashcroft is saying the end is near.

But by late today Ashcroft and Ridge were issuing a joint statement, according to Reuters:

Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge and Attorney General John Ashcroft took the unusual step of issuing a joint statement to say they were cooperating to review the threat of attacks by groups such as al Qaeda in the coming months.

"We are working together, and we will take all necessary actions to protect the American people, including raising the threat level or alerting the public to be on the lookout for possible terrorist suspects, whenever warranted by the information we receive," the statement by Ridge and Ashcroft said.

So the issue of issuing a major terrorism alert is a thorny one since it gets mired in politics...just like everything else in an election year.

Some officials seem to believe that Iran was pulling the strings behind the scenes to get the U.S. to go to war with Iraq. Key players in this alleged saga include U.S. officials, shadowy Iranian officials, and the supposed front man doing the Iranians bidding, Ahmad Chalabi. A strange saga...but troubling if it's true...

Weep no more for Michael Moore. His film Fahrenheit 9/11's new buyers are Miramax film studio founders Harvey and Bob Weinstein who've personally bought the rights to the picture from Walt Disney Co. So expect this:

(1)It'll definitely be shown in some U.S. theaters this summer, at the height of the Presidential campaign.

(2)Even more hype about it now being shown and how it won the highest award at Cannes film festival. Due to the controversy over it, review of the film will get top display in newspapers.

(3)A recap of the whole controversy where Miramax funded it, but its owner Disney supposedly refused to release it saying its criticism of GWB on the war in Iraq, 911 performance, and alleged ties to the Saudi royal family were too political. This controversy raged and ended with Disney insisting they didn't try to squelch the film due to fear of political repercussions. Etc.

The reality is: the film WILL be seen, it'll do lots of business, give Moore enough money so he can finally afford some razor blades and maybe even have some limited political influence.

The reason the influence will be limited is because this film is likely to be viewed by anti-Bush Democrats and some swing voters, but is too partisan to attract many Republicans, and it may not be appealing to even some swing voters who hate strong partisanship. So it's actual ability to change minds will be limited -- but it will be one more negative image out there (shown daily) of the Bush administration..

One of the biggest mysteries of the 20th Century: was labor leader and Robert Kennedy nemisis Jimmy Hoffa whacked by the mob (consensus is YES) and where was he buried (who says he wasn't cremated or buried over a span of several miles?), where was he killed and who did it...COULD be on the verge of being solved. Details are here...
UPDATE: Fox News has a good account here of what some believe happened. Didn't I see this on The Sopranos?

Did you know there was a government that banned chewing gum? Now they've lifted their longtime ban...

Due to the latest government warnings and intellligence airport security is begin tightened -- a factor The (bleery eyed) Moderate Voice will personally experience tomorow morning when he hops on a jet (he never got over doing those Kangaroo imitations as a kid) to wing his way from San Diego towards the East Coast.

According to the AP:

The federal official in charge of the nation's airports said Friday security has been "stepped up a notch" in the face of renewed terror warnings this holiday weekend and said authorities are asking the public to be vigilant.

"If they see anything unusual, report it - an unattended package, something that just doesn't look right, even odd behavior in the terminal or on the aircraft," FAA Administrator Marion Blakey said on NBC's "Today" show.

She said photographs of seven suspected terrorists released Wednesday by the FBI "are everywhere" and that screeners have been redeployed to some of the busiest airports in anticipation of heavy Memorial Day holiday travel.

Our rule of thumb that we've shared with fellow travelers: leave plenty of time for check in. We've seen people miss flights who thought it was no big deal to show up an hour before their departure. Airline officials are very unsympathetic to those passengers' complaints and yelling since so much is at stake. We will arrive to 2 1/2 hours early for our flight.

UPDATE: The Homeland Security Department reportedly was surprised by Wednesday's announcement by Attorney General John Ashcroft and FBI Director Robert Mueller that a terrorist attack was increasingly likely in the coming months.

This will be read at least two ways: (1)Poor interagency communication, the exact thing the Homeland Security Department was established to eliminate, (2)Proof (government critics will say) that threats are being hyped for political purposes. Choose your theory according to your world belief...

UPDATE II: Real headline in the Denver Post:"2 suspected al-Qaeda agents dropped in for meal, says Denny's manager in Avon." The Moderate Voice's sources tell him that the two were turned away with a derisive, "Sorry. We don't serve merciless terrorists in here." They threatened to sue the company and Denny's settled...

UPDATE III: Another theory is they ran out of Sarin so they were trying to buy up huge quantities of Denny's Grand Slam breakfasts...

Your required reading for today is Asparagirl on war critics.

There are often these explanations of what's going on in the news media: the news media is trying to sink the war effort (by some on the right)...the media is trying to promote the war effort (those on the far left who feel the news media, far from being a liberal media, is a big corporate conservative media).

But Glenn Reynolds, AKA InstaPundit, writing on his MSNBC site, has the best idea of all: if you truly want to UNDERSTAND what is going on in Iraq, look at some Iraqi blogs. And he offers a host of links here. Reynolds writes:

Of course, the Iraqis who write Weblogs aren't a random sample -- they're literate in English, and they have Internet access. But then, the Iraqis -- or, for that matter, the Americans -- that reporters interview for their stories aren't a random sample either. (Just ask this guy!) And there's no more guarantee that they're telling the truth than anyone else. But they've already broken some important stories that Western journalists missed, and you can learn things from these blogs you'll be hard pressed to find out otherwise.

You'll also pick up an appreciation for what life is like in Iraq, delivered in the first-person way that blogs are known for, that you're unlikely to get any other way. Take a few minutes and read what some of these Iraqi bloggers have written and I think you'll find yourself going back for more.

Indeed, people are so used to reading their usual news sources, and favorite blogs (which often but not always are the ones with which they agree anyway), that they lose sight of the fact that the brilliance of the Internet is that a simple click can instantaneously taken you to a primary source. (The Moderate Voice will be bookmarking Reynold's piece and doing a separate post on these blogs later on in the week.)

They're at it again. Pundits who use the issue of obesity to peddle flabby politically-loaded interpretations of why so many Americans are overweight. They usually take a new study or news story, then embellish it with a batch of political assertions..and no one calls them on it.

Ahhh....but these are the days when blogs are booming. So bloggers did not let it ride when Poly Toynbee, writing in England's Guardian attributed obseity in part to social factors:

The inequality/obesity link is mirrored internationally. America has by far the most unequal society and by far the fattest. Britain and Australia come next. Europe is better and the Scandinavian countries best of all. No doubt there are also social policy reasons for this: the best social democracies pick up family problems earliest and offer most support, putting people back on their feet, preventing social exclusion. But the narrower the status and income gap between high and low, the narrower the waistbands.

Oxblog's Patrick Belton runs a meaty excerpt of Scott Burgess decimating this and other knee-jerk statements that attempt to make obesity a political-social factor. And we do mean "decimate."

The biggest batch of fat is seemingly between the ears of those who try to use obesity stats to support their own political beliefs.

After faltering a bit last season, "The Sopranos" has hit its stride again. The proof was seen on HBO last Sunday and here's why....

The Queen and I will be driving from metro Detroit through Canada to Syracuse, New York a week from today to attend a wedding next Saturday. We'll be leaving to return home on Sunday.

If anybody would like to get together to say howdy, let us know.

Dave Maddox writes the best movie review in the history of the universe and gives his pick for the film that will sweep the Oscars for 2004.

Warning: much foul language.

Singer Pat Boone says that when CBS aired the photos of alleged Iraqi prisoner abuse at the hands of U.S. guards it turned the United States into a target. In a letter to the lively conservative website NewsMax.com, Boone condemned CBS's "irresponsible and unpatriotic behavior" and declared:" The next time America or Americans suffer at the hands of terrorists, thank CBS."

He better not get too controversial or he'll lose his fan.