Yay for silly!

U.S. Coast Guard Chief Petty Officer Kirk Wylie fulfilled a long-term desire to re-enlist on a captured drug trafficking ship. After the Danny Ivan was captured by USCGC Hamilton, Chief Wylie, a member of the Hamilton boarding party, was given his re-enlistment oath by fellow boarding party member, Chief Warrant Officer Randy Johnson, on the bridge of the captured vessel. Now that he's fulfilled his dream (silly as it may be), he can go on with his 13-year career in the Coast Guard. The Danny Ivan was carrying more than 6 tons of cocaine when it was captured by USCGC Hamilton. [Article link]

To me, silly is fun: it's something to smile at. If people don't have silly goals like this, then life just gets way too boring. Good for him for fulfilling this goal! There have been times that I've had silly goals as well. One of my most recent goals fulfilled is getting myself a coding buddy (a beenie baby Otter). I know it's silly, but like I said before, yay for silly.

Military children go to school, too!

A recent report has suggested that schools should work harder to make new children feel welcome in their new school. This applies very well to military kids because they're constantly moving around to new schools. The article discussed that children who feel connected to their school was half as likely to attempt suicide and are 40% less likely to be violent. Also, "One-tenth of a percent of 'connected' high school seniors have ever been pregnant, compared to 22 percent of those reporting little connection." [Article link (registration required)]

It is a fact of life for a military brat (like myself) that you have to change schools frequently. Sometimes it's a relief to move away, sometimes is extraordinarily traumatic to leave some of your favorite teachers and good friends in the middle of the day before the school year ends because you have to move away, never to return. I know the hurt and the difficulty to work yourself into a new school. School districts will generally have military kids going to one set of schools by districting the base in that fashion. These schools generally have not only special programs that help new students get integrated no matter when they come in (since a child enrolling in the middle of the year is more the norm than the exception in these schools), they also tend to have a completely different culture. In my high school, a sizeable portion of the student body were military brats. As a result, the typical cliques that tend to form in high schools either never formed or they had little political power. There were just the jocks (very low powered; I never noticed them), cheerleaders (not as much power as you would think; most were mean, valley-girl types that most people ignored), and Air Force Junior ROTC (very powerful; probably about 1/3 of all students were enrolled in JROTC, several of those in the drill team). The cliques couldn't form well because the population changes so much. Plus, the lunch tables were round, so unless you found a table all by yourself, you're face to face with someone. The military had an enormous impact on my high school.

Hu's little secret

No one is yet able to determine whether Hu Jintao, the president of the People's Republic of China is a closet liberal or an ultra-conservative trying to solidify his image. This article describes some of the things that Hu has done on both the conservative and liberal side. For instance, he had ended the cover-up about SARS in 2003 and sacked several officials responsible for the cover-up. In addition, a government official (appointed to office by Hu) responsible for state secrets has ruled that casualties of natural disasters are no longer considered state secrets. He even recognized the birthday of reformist Hu Yaobang, the Chinese leader whose death had sparked the Tienanmen Square revolt. Hu has also opened his country's doors to Taiwan opposition politicians. On the other hand, he had three Internet artists imprisoned for speaking out against the Communist party and two journalists for foreign media companies arrested.

This uncertainty worries me. If he's a closet liberal, then he may well be able to avert any tensions rising in East Asia before anything happens. However, if he's an ultra-conservative, he's liable to ignite the next major problem area in the world. If this happens, focus will shift away from the Middle East (which very well might reduce the power of terrorists in the area since they can't get our attention any more) into East Asia. Will the American people want to support Taiwan? Or will they simply say, "go ahead and take it, it's yours anyway"? American businesses are fairly happy right now with China, except for a few economic issues that they are not that eager to press.

In any case, I'm going to keep watching China to see what's happening there.

Dumb question: when Hu sacked the people responsible for covering up SARS, I wonder if the ones responsible for sacking the people responsible for the cover-up were sacked as well...

I won the UK lottery!

This is loads of fun! I found out yesterday that I has won the UK lottery in the beginning of September. I never even knew I was in the UK for any amount of time after 1988! This is an awesomely fun piece of spam that I would like to share with you. It's rather badly written, unless it's wanting you to call this person long distance to get your SSN or something...

By the way, the default encoding for this message is a Chinese encoding when it's supposed to be ISO-8859-1.

Date: Tue, 27 Sep 2005 05:51:26 +0200
From: "UK National Lottery Notification"
Subject: CONGRATULATIONS !!!
To:

P O Box 1010
Liverpool, L70 1NL
UNITED KINGDOM
(Customer Services)
Ref: UK/9420X2/68
Batch: 074/05/ZY369


WINNING NOTIFICATION:

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online Sweepstakes International program held on Wednesday 1st of
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56475600545 188 with Serial number 5368/02 drew the winning numbers: 3, 18,
25, 29, 31, 43  (bonus
No.25), which subsequently won you the lottery in the 2nd category i.e.
match 5 plus bonus.

You have therefore been approved to claim a total sum of £684,008 {six
hundred and eighty four hundred and eight pounds sterling}  in cash
credited to file KTU/9023118308/03. This is from a total cash prize of
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Please note that your lucky winning number falls within our European
booklet representative office in Europe as indicated in your play coupon.
In view of this, your £684,008 {six hundred and eighty four hundred and
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offices in Europe.

Our European agent will immediately commence the process to facilitate
the release of your funds as soon as you contact her.For security
reasons, you are advised to keep your winning information confidential
till your claim is processed and your money remitted to you in whatever
manner you deem fit to claim your prize. This is part of our precautionary
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You can go to our online result site to confirm the value of your
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al-Jazeera hires ex-Marine

al-Jazeera has hired an ex-Marine public affairs officer as an American correspondent. [Article link]

I am somewhat doubting the Arab news agency's reasonings for hiring him. If it's supposed to give them more insight into American thinking and politics, then hopefully they're not going to take his words and actions and skew them into something that's hateful. Hopefully, they're going to be properly featuring him and showing the American side of the story on a fair footing. The Marine seems honest enough as a loyal American. If al-Jazeera can be taken at face value (and I hope they can), that part of the world will finally be able to see things from another angle and not have it horribly skewed by propaganda.

General comment about all news media: they're all propaganda sheets, whether it's from a government or from money-hungry, rumor-mongering reporters looking to get their name under the next big headline. The only way anyone can determine the truth is to research the

Giant Squid Spotted

Scientists from the National Science Museum in Tokyo videotaped a Giant Squid (genus Architeuthis) off the shores of Japan. A tentacle from the squid had got caught on the equipment; when it was taken ashore, DNA testing verified that the animal to whom the tentacle belonged was in fact a giant squid. [Article link]

This is an exciting moment in marine biology. For decades, the giant squid was simply a myth. Some sightings, and even attacks, were recorded. However, the giant squid has been verified as true several times over with the recovery of several different species of Architeuthis on beaches. It was even known that some whales eat giant squid. Most of the time, only juvenile giant squid have been found. This is the first time ever that the animal had been videotaped. It already has overturned several assumptions already made about the creature.

A one-fingered salute to insurgents

In an article in the Omaha World-Herald last Saturday, a Marine from an Explosive Ordnance Disposal team attached to a Nebraska National Guard unit was injured by an IED. The Nebraskans didn't want the young Marines in the group, as well as the insurgents witnessing the scene, to see GySgt Michael Burghardt being carried off in a stretcher. So they fixed him up, and when he got to his feet, he flipped off the insurgents who had detonated the roadside bomb. [Article link - will require free registration with the Omaha World-Herald]

New breed of suicide bombers

In a truly fascinating twist, the US military has captured a suicide bomber who had been kidnapped and coerced to perform this act. He "claimed he was kidnapped, beaten and drugged by insurgents who forced him to take on the mission." And medical tests back his story up. [Article link]

As the article suggests, this shows the insurgency is getting desperate. I figured that the major bombings and killings recently were terminal flailings from the insurgency. I bet now, there are going to be more captured suicide bombers who tell this same story.

National POW/MIA Recognition Day

Today is the third Friday of September, National POW/MIA Recognition Day. Here's to all the veterans who have suffered and is suffering through being a prisoner of war and I pray that everyone missing in action is found so that their loved ones can finally have conclusion. Come home soon.

You are not forgotten.

God be with you.

(Comments are for dedications, please.)

Pledge of Allegiance

Several people already know about the ruling in California about reciting the Pledge of Allegiance in schools being unconstitutional. Once again, California has proven itself to be insane. The same guy that tried to get the Pledge declared illegal has his hand in this thing as well. And the judge must have the Hollywood version of the Constitution. Hopefully, the Supreme Court's version is closer to the original.

Interesting thing, is the response to this by my radio station, KXKT 103.7 "The Kat." Yesterday, the morning show called on people to call in and recite the pledge of allegiance with them. On Fridays, they do this CAR-aoke thing, where you sing along with a song on the radio while calling in and you get a prize. Today's was singing the National Anthem. They also had several people calling in giving their two-cents about the ruling, and everyone in Omaha is strongly opposed to the ruling. Even my high school put a little plaque in the cafeteria for all to see with the Pledge of Allegiance (I can almost guarantee that the students did that).

A statement for California: Most of this country IS patriotic. Most of this country considers you to be insane and that most of what you do is not right for America. You're not impressing anyone with trying to make the world "right" by denying everyone else the right to express our faith, our patriotism, or anything else that you may think is "inappropriate." Your idea of seperation of church and state is not in the Constitution, but free speech is; and any abridgement of it, including prayer in school and reciting the Pledge of Allegiance, is DEFINITELY wrong and certainly unconstitutional. California shall not rewrite the Constitution to meet its whim.

Ocean's 13

This isn't a movie, it the name that Nebraska National Guardsmen gave to an operation to recover millions of dollars in cash from a Loomis, Fargo & Co. warehouse in New Orleans. The Omaha World-Herald reported today that a contingent of National Guard troops led by Nebraska National Guard Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Brewer. LTC Brewer estimated the amount of money to be $50 million to $100 million, though the Loomis, Fargo & Co. stated that range was incorrect (they give no indication of the correct range). The Secret Service asked LTC Brewer to help retrieve the cash. The troops were so enamored with the nature of their mission that they could not resist a reference to two movies dealing with "retrieving" large sums of money. LTC Brewer described the scene to be something "like opening King Solomon's gold mine -- bags of (coins), money stacked everywhere." The article was written by Erin Grace, World-Herald Staff Writer. (I'm citing my source like this because this isn't from a website, where you can usually get the info yourself.)

I love these kinds of stories! Omaha, Nebraska, has always been a strong supporter of our troops. After our troops were deployed abroad during our war on terror (I think deployed to Afghanistan, but maybe Iraq), a group of supporters tied yellow ribbons on every tree that bordered the road through Elmwood Park between the north and south campuses of the University of Nebraska at Omaha. Whenever a local National Guard unit returns home, the local news always makes note of the local welcome-home celebrations that are held each time.

Jordan rocket attacks

I know this is a rather old topic, but I didn't have a blog then or I would have definitely written a post. Needless to say, I was quite unhappy (to say the least) about the attacks. So, here are some synopses of articles I researched recently pertaining to the situation.

For those who don't know about the attacks, on August 19, three Russian Katyusha unguided rockets were fired from a warehouse in Aqaba, Jordan. One of these rockets few over the bow of the USS Ashland, a Whidbey Island-class dock landing ship (which support amphibious operations, q.v.); another hit the port of Eilat, Israel. A warehouse and a hospital were hit by the other two missles (one of them was the one that flew over the Ashland). The U.S. was using the warehouse to store supplies bound for Iraq. A Jordanian soldier had been killed and another had been injured when the rocket hit the warehouse. There were no other casualties. (I think the hospital's damage consisted of a broken retaining wall.) After the attacks, the Ashland and the USS Kearsarge, a Wasp-class amphibious assault ship, which was also docked at Aqaba, left for open water. [Rockets narrowly miss U.S. warships in Jordan (Reuters via Yahoo! News)] [Rocket fired near U.S. ship in Aqaba-U.S. official (Reuters via Yahoo! News)] [Jordanian soldier killed in rocket attacks on US ships (AFP via Yahoo! News)]

After the attacks, Jordan arrested a Syrian national who was believed to have been carrying out orders from an Iraqi terrorist cell. Several of the people with which he was working escaped back into Iraq. [Jordan arrests main accused in Abaqa [sic] attack (AFP via Yahoo! News)]

Two groups, both connected with al-Qaeda, claimed responsibility for the attacks. The first claim came from the "The brigades of the Martyr Abdallah Azzam Qaeda in the Levant & Egypt" and the second came out of Iraq, the group believed to be associated with Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Considering the source of the terrorists being Iraq, I put higher credibility on the Iraqi claim, but just about every mom-and-pop al-Qaeda organization likes to claim responsibility for attacks (I wouldn't be surprised if most "al-Qaeda" actually exist only to claim responsibility for attacks for claiming sake). [Al Qaeda claim for Red Sea attacks (CNN)] [Al Qaeda claims responsibility for rocket attack (CNN)]

A little lightheartedness

At my job, we have a little page-a-day calendar that has a weird or stupid comment made by various individual. Here's one for Sunday, a term used by the Massachusetts Department of Public Works: GROUND-MOUNTED CONFIRMATORY ROUTE MARKERS...ROAD SIGNS

Next major step for BRAC

The Defense Base Closure and Realignment Committee has sent its report to President Bush for his approval on Thursday. It has one recommendation removed as per an injunction against moving the fighters from a Connecticut Air National Guard base to Massachusetts. [Article Link]

The article describes Rumsfeld as having reservations about the commission keeping some of the bases he wanted to close. He's debating whether to suggest thatBush pass the resolution or not. That seems more like complaining to me, since he wanted to close all these bases that the commission felt should remain open, and adding some bases that the commission feels should have been on the list to begin with.

Bush has stated that he is going to pass the resolution onto Congress in order to keep the commission's findings non-political. I don't fully understand this logic, but if he wants to pass the resolution, that's fine. The major question, now, is Congress. Many believe that the findings will pass there, but there are a few hurdles. First, several Republicans are somewhat ticked at the situation of closing bases when we need the military the most. And, several Democrats are probably going to vote against what Bush wants "out of principle," since they seem to think that it's more important to raise dissent against Bush and Republicans rather than serve the people.

Canada sends aid

Canada is sending lots of oil and a couple ships and personnel to help with the Katrina effort. Good for them. I'm happy that they're being so generous. Article link.

This article taught me a couple things. First, I didn't know that Canada was our primary supplier of oil. That's somewhat nifty. Also, I had no idea that our relationship with Canada was strained. That's no good. Canada is a good neighbor to have, and we shouldn't allow our relationship to be strained by any means. Apparently, we had charged tarriffs on some wood that we shouldn't have according to NAFTA, and the associated tribunal ordered that we return the money. Unfortunately, the Bush administration decided not to. (Side comment: Sovereignty is pretty cool, isn't it? Only a sovereign state can simply ignore the rulings of a foreign court. In this case, we should have, though. It's not fair and, in any case, strains relationships.)

BRAC court proceedings

Now that the BRAC (Base Realignment And Closure) committee has finished its work, it's all set to send its recommendations to President Bush and Congress. However, since the recommendations include moving the planes out of some Air National Guard bases, several govenors are ticked off. This news report (free registration with the Washington Post may be necessary) discusses a couple court cases which the respective govenors had lost: one lawsuit was dismissed because the state's economy and security were not adversely affected, another was dismissed because the court found that the federal courts had no jurisdiction over BRAC proceedings. However, one court case had already found that the military cannot close national guard bases without govenor consent and another had a temporary injunction placed awaiting a hearing. What this injunction blocks, I'm not sure; I'm guessing it blocks the committee's recommendations from reaching the President, who has already promised to sign it. Massachusetts, in their standard form of weirdness, has moved to sue Defense Secretary Rumsfeld and the BRAC commission to keep one of its Air National Guard bases open, rather than moving to block the recommendation itself.

I don't really find anything against this round of BRAC. It did make alot of govenors and military personnel mad, with NAS Oceana and a well-known military hospital (it's so well-known that I don't know what it is!) being heavily realigned and closed respectively, although the committee's recommendation about NAS Oceana seems more like a threat than a recommendation for moving the major air station aspect to Florida. I'm concerned a little bit about what's going to happen with the closing of Naval Recruiting District-Omaha, since I live near Omaha and I want to join the Navy, but I'm happy that Officer Candidate School is moving to Newport, since, if I join as an officer, I'll be near family (in Fall River, MA).

Should we have gone to Iraq? My comments

I think that implementing Operation Iraqi Freedom was probably a mistake. I'll place joint blame on the President and the CIA. Bush seemed to be itching to finish what daddy started, and the CIA pulled something out of their ass to respond. Bush should have investigated the claims of illegal weapons in Iraq, and the CIA should have acted more responsibly. [Given side discussion, I'd like to restate what I said. It seemed that several international agencies had thought the same thing that the CIA did. Whether that was because we said that or not, I cannot say. My statement about Bush "finishing what daddy started" comes from a statement I had heard on the order of a two-for-one Afghanistan-Iraq deal in the Middle East. I felt strongly against this idea, and later, Bush went with it. My statement was more reactionary than not.]

Do I think there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq? Probably. They're likely now in Syria. Saddam probably put them there while we were being stalled in the U.N. I wouldn't be surprised if Syria's pullout from Lebanon was partially out of fear that the U.S. would find Iraq's weapons in their possession and Syria would likewise be a defined region instead of a country.

Is Iraq better off without Saddam? Without a doubt. He was a ruthless dictator that served to endanger that part of the world more effectively than serving his own country. It's a good thing his sons were killed. He was ruthless, but his sons were crazy AND ruthless. A very bad pairing. Should we have gone in like we did to depose Saddam? Probably not. Is Iraq better NOW? No. It's going to take a good long time to rebuild Iraq and put them on their own feet.

Should we continue to be in Iraq? Yes, until they are able to implement their own laws effectively. Should we be there long? I certainly hope not. I do agree with Bush's statement, that a pullout schedule is detrimental to the efforts in Iraq. I, however, also agree with Senator Hagel that there should be a pullout plan in place to be implemented at the proper time. We've been flying by the seat of our pants in this campaign for too long. It's time to get an act together. When should we pull out? When they're good and ready to take control themselves. I want us to leave as soon as possible?

What about the American servicemen/women lost? I think it's a tragedy for each life lost in Iraq and Afghanistan. In fact, it's a great tragedy when any American military personnel lose their lives in combat, or in any situation. Who should we blame? The insurgents and terrorists who are killing them. There have been times that I almost want to say to the Iraqis, "You don't want us around? You want your country to go to shit? Well, then fine. Let's go. That way, you'll have to work harder to kill us." I dislike insurgents, but at least they're mostly fighting for a cause. We are a foreign force in their homeland. I would be ticked too. Who I REALLY hate are the terrorists. They CLAIM to have an agenda, but it seems to have been lost in carbon-copy, worthless rhetoric, including zionistic stuff and evil-doing in general. I do find it amusing how well they can say the same things in so many distinct ways, though. It's fairly difficult to say potato in more than two ways while still allowing people to understand you.

I am proud of the American people's viewpoint of the military today. I look at Iraq, and I share the same fears that this could become another Vietnam, at least in the public eye, and I see the hatred that the American people had toward the men and women who have sacrificed their lives for this country. I relish every yellow ribbon on cars that I see, and the service flags I've started seeing on people's rear windows. Right now, America, in general, supports and celebrates our troops. I do not want to see that go away.

Should my rant stop? Yea. I can't really think of anything right now. Maybe comments can alter this position, though...

Hu postpones visit

Various news reports have shown that Hu Jintao has agreed with Bush to postpone his visit to the U.S. because of the events surrounding Hurricane Katrina. It's not just his visit to D.C. or with the President, but his entire trip seems to be postponed until the U.N. meeting coming up celebrating it's 60th anniversary. I think it's a little sad that he also canceled his whole trip. Several places, including Seattle, WA, were rather disappointed. This cancellation is understandable, though, considering all the resources needed to guard a foreign dignitary on U.S. soil, especially with the U.S. President around. Our President would probably do the same.

In a related note, PRC has offered $5 million in aid and medical personnel if needed. A very kind gesture. I don't know if Bush will accept, though he'd probably turn down the personnel, since we really don't need them, I think. The American Public will probably raise 10 times that much in a very short amount of time. We tend to do that. PRC's offer is token to say the least, but it's nice anyway.

Hu warns Taiwan

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20050903/wl_asia_afp/wwiihistorychinataiwan_050903184103
Hu Jintao, the president of the PRC, warns Taiwan against breaking away from China, veritably destroying the "One China" idea that both governments expound. This seems to be one speech in a series that Hu is making to solidify his position as the new president of PRC; he's been going around his country with pleas of unity. The linked article seems to state that Hu is asking for diplomatic arrangements rather than an all-out threat against the democratic nation, but PRC's policy concerning ROC (Republic of China [on Taiwan]) has usually been quite tense, to put it mildly. The article further discusses Hu's speech discussing Japan. He is defending China's desire to remember the past over Japan's desire to forget it.

The China problem (PRC v. ROC) is probably going to be the next hot topic on the same scale as WWII and the Cold War. People tend to ignore PRC's status as a superpower, and that is definitely a mistake. People remember USSR being a superpower (which it certainly was) and tend to think that it takes an overt country like USSR to be a superpower. PRC may be subtle, but their military is not something to be ignored. (Sidenote: I find it hilarious that PRC's navy is called the People's Liberation Army Navy.) I expect this to be the next place a war will start, so I'm very interested in watching PRC very closely.