The Cool Blue Blog

Iron Blog: A done deal

The debate on Causes of Terrorism is over. The arguments have been made and the closing statements have been written. All that remains now is the verdict of the judges.

You can view it all the to-ing and fro-ing at the Iron Blog.

You can see my Opening arguments

The Iron Bloggers Opening aruments

My first rebuttal

My opponents first rebuttal

My second rebuttal

My opponents second rebuttal

My closing statement

My opponents closing statement

My opponent was formitable, respectful, and intelligent. More fun you couldn't have with a boat-load of naked women (OK, so I'm lying about that, but it is fun).

For me, it has been a great experience. This is a great way to hold a debate in my opinion.

So those folks over at the Iron Blog always could use judges and challengers. Why not stop by and sign up?

Divine Designs

Discerning Divine Designs

Clerics, Scientists, Architects Connect Neural Stimulation and Faith

By Ken Kusmer
Associated Press
Saturday, July 31, 2004; Page B07

COLUMBUS, Ind.

Why is it that the arches and open spaces of a cathedral inspire faith, yet so do the comfort and familiarity of a small country chapel?

The connection between design and devotion is under study by a group of clerics, neuroscientists and architects who are trying to understand how the mind reacts to the sensations of entering a house of worship. The result, they hope, will be better designs that enhance the meeting of the sacred and earthly.

"This whole quest is more than learning that things do happen -- but why do they happen?" said Norman Koonce, chief executive of the American Institute of Architects and founder of the partnership.

This is how you save babies

1st Cavalry trains Iraqi doctors to save babies

By Spc. Jan Critchfield

BAGHDAD, Iraq (Army News Service July 29, 2004) -- The last of three classes in which 1st Cavalry Division and Iraqi doctors trained local practitioners in neonatal resuscitation was held July 21 at the Baghdad Convention Center.

The course was held to help obstetricians, pediatricians, and family practice doctors in Baghdad to be current on their skills for resuscitating newborns, said Capt. James Wayne, 3rd Brigade Combat Team surgeon.

“The ultimate goal is to decrease the infant mortality rate in Iraq,” Wayne said. “Since the infant mortality rate is so high, there’s a good chance that a lot of the deaths can be averted simply by using proper neonatal resuscitation technique.”

Daily Dish

New efforts to speed reconstruction in Iraq

Released French Guantanamo detainees face judge

Vatican claims radical feminism destructive to families

Showdown over Guantanamo detainee

Moore will film Florida voting

Castro shows "Fahrenheit 9/11" on Cuban TV

Man with 1,643 Disney tattoos says "My love for Disney comes first; that's why I've been through so many wives."

Seven year old girl's lemonade stand brings in $60 a day. And the Phish concert hasn't even started yet.

The Simpsons personality test

Saturday Special: Deeper Well - Emmylou Harris

Self-replicating ideas are conspiring to enslave our minds!

Doug Hofstadter back in 1983 devoted his Metmagical Themas column in Scientific American to the subject of viral sentences and self-replicating structures. The title of this post is an example he used to illustrate a viral sentence.

A generalized viral sentence, according to Mr Hofstadter, would have the form The *villain* is *wronging* the *victim*.

For a self-replicating structure, he offered the following generalized pattern:

System S:
Begin:
S1: blah
S2: Blah blah
...
S100: It is you duty to convince others that System S is true.
End:

The special case of the generalized viral sentence: The whales are in danger of extiction, could be a shorthand version of system S where if you believe the premise, then S100 is implied, and there's probably a villain lurking somwhere.

Another generalized system, he notes, is as follows:

System X:
Begin:

X1: Anyone who does not believe System X will burn in hell
X2: It is your duty to save others from suffering in hell
End

Speechified

Commenting on Sen. Kerry's acceptance speech to the DNC Sissy Willis writes

Other than an odd reference to "the backdoor draft of National Guard and reservists," his promises fall roughly within the Bush Doctrine of making the world safe for democracy by actively encouraging the spread of democracy in strategic geopolitical regions of the world...Kerry's sort of got the idea, but he's a little behind the times. Even as GW and the nation are turning the corner, Kerry is scrambling to get up to the starting line.

Yes.

I personally thought this was one of the worst political speechs given by a Presidential candidate I can remember.

It was rushed, Kerry had no sense of timing (no rhythm baby), and it was crammed with special interest give-aways which belied his committment to reduce the deficit.

What was strangest is that he managed to call the President a liar

I will be a commander in chief who will never mislead us into war.

The Vice President a covert pollution-monger

I will have a Vice President who will not conduct secret meetings with polluters to rewrite our environmental laws.

And the Attorney General of having contempt for the Constitution

And I will appoint an Attorney General who actually upholds the Constitution of the United States.

And then has the gall to say

I want to address these next words directly to President George W. Bush: In the weeks ahead, let's be optimists, not just opponents. Let's build unity in the American family, not angry division. Let's honor this nation's diversity; let's respect one another; and let's never misuse for political purposes the most precious document in American history, the Constitution of the United States.

This reminds me of the type of conduct that led the Vice President to, um, rebuff similar advances by the Senator from Vermont in the Senate Chamber.

I am quite sure that the President will not respond similarly even if he would be justified.

As a general observation, I think that the Senator pandered too much to the predominantly anti-Bush crowd and not enough to the voters who will decide this election.

But I could be wrong.

Cast in this unlikely role
Ill-equipped to act
With insufficient tact
One must put up barriers
To keep oneself intact.

Living in the limelight
The universal dream
For those who wish to seem.
Those who wish to be
Must put aside the alienation,
Get on with the fascination,
The real relation,
The underlying theme.

-Rush

1st Cav delivers the beats

Soldiers Produce Beats from Trailer Studio

By Spc. Marie Whitney
122nd Mobile Public Affairs Detachment

CAMP VICTORY NORTH, Baghdad, Iraq— “When it was time to come out here, I knew there wasn’t going to be much going on for the year. And everyone else I knew was bringing their X boxes and stuff. So I took my tax return and bought myself a mixer, a keyboard and microphone,” said Spc. Robert Burke of Headquarters Company, 1st Cavalry Division. Spc. Adrian "Tuck" Tucker of Headquarters Company, 1st Cavalry Division freestyles on the mic in the studio of Spc. Robert "Sticky" Burke, also of HHC, 1st Cav. Div., Tucker, Burke and Spc. Bryan Clark have a rap group called Eclectic that they began while in Baghdad.

With this equipment, Burke set up a modest recording studio inside his trailer, out of which he and some of his friends from HHC, 1st Cav. Div. record music for their rap group, Eclectic.
Burke is the producer for their band, creating beats, recording the voice tracks and editing to create their final products. Turning out a new beat every couple of days isn’t a struggle for Burke, who has been creating beats back home since 2000. “Everything has a certain mood to it,” he said. “One night I was going over the beats I had started in Kuwait and when we first got here to Iraq. You can hear the change in what I was feeling every time.” Spc. Robert "Sticky" Burke, Headquarters Company, 1st Cavalry Division, looks for a good beat to freestyle to from the group of beats that he has created on his computer. Burke is the producer for a rap group called Eclectic.

Burke’s group mates don’t take for granted what he brings to the group in knowledge and talent.
“This guy’s a genius,” said Spc. Bryan Clark, the lyrical master of the group. “Every time we do a track he’ll get on here and find something that could be done better. So our material is always getting better and better.” But setting up the studio turned out to be a little more difficult than the members of Eclectic had originally thought. “We would have had this going a long time ago, but when we first got here we had a problem with the power situation,” said the group’s comic relief, Spc. Adrian Tucker. “We didn’t have a transformer.”

But they soon got a transformer, enabling them to finally set up their studio. Now, all they needed was some lyrics. Burke said that writing the lyrics for Eclectic’s songs is a group effort. “The writing of the songs is a culmination of everybody. But each one of us is naturally good at something too,” he said. “Clark will come up with a lot of ideas. And he can come up with some lyrics in a snap. I’ll be feeling a certain way and I won’t be able to express is through words, so I’ll make a beat for it, and Tucker keeps us motivated.”Spc. Bryan "Diggs" Clark, Headquarters Company, 1st Cavalry Division, goes over his lyrics in his "book of lyrics" before jumping on the mic to record a song.

The members of the group, who have been working together for the last three months, plan to try to put out a CD of their music during their time in Baghdad. They also intend to try to get their music played in the Morale Welfare and Recreation tent on Camp Victory North. And Clark plans to perform at the Equal Opportunity sponsored talent show July 24. To the three HHC Soldiers, creating music is a definite escape from long days at work. “It’s definitely a stress reliever,” said Tucker. But Eclectic takes their music seriously. Every time they sit down to work on their music, they’re trying to improve on what they‘ve been working on for a while already. “Its always a work in progress,” Burke said. “We talk about our lyrical content. We like what we do now, but we think we could come a little bit better from our hearts. It’s not really a matter of if we can do it or not. It’s if we try to do it or not.”

Desks, chairs, books, pencils, paper and computers

Schools get needed supplies

Schools in Iraq are finally getting much needed supplies. Recent projects done by the US and local Iraqi contractors are helping to bring schools up to modern standards.

Schools in Samarra were flooded with new equipment last week. Desks, chairs, books, pencils, paper and even computers were just some of the items that were brought into the classrooms.

The Director of Education will oversee the distribution of the supplies. Children, families and school administration were all overjoyed at the sight of the new equipment. Many commented that the new equipment would make learning more enjoyable.

The contractor, Hamada, was very pleased to have been chosen to do the project. “The children are the future of Iraq, we need to give them all the advantages possible,” he said as he signed the final contract payment.

The 1st Infantry Division Engineer Brigade’s civil affairs public works team coordinated the contracting of the equipment together with the S5 for Task Force 1-26 Infantry. “Normally this is not the type of project that our public works team gets involved in. However, it was a refreshing change of pace that the entire team really enjoyed. We also enjoyed working with our comrades in Task Force 1-26” said Major John P. Lawlor, Public Works Team Chief.

The supplies were available immediately, and are currently being used in all of the schools involved.

Daily Dish

Blasts reported outside the US and Israeli embassies in Uzbekistan

Pakistan nabs a big fish

President Arroyo tries to convince people she's tough on terroists

NATO tries to obstruct France

US attempts to threaten Iran with UN sanctions. Bet they're scared.

More fighting in Fallujah

China threatens Taiwan, again

al Qaeda issues more threats to Europe

France surrenders

Kerry forgets to mention his days as a war protestor in speech to DNC

Homeland Security gets data on Arab-Americans ACLU has a heart attack

Woman handcuffed for eating candy

Buddhist monks asked to stop misbehaving

Scientists explain why we can't tickle ourselves

"There are some stupid people out there," the stupid man was heard to say.

Tailand's "Monk Battalion" sent to protect buddhists in the South

They liked it but....

The other day I was driving home from Burlington, VT and I had Vemont Public Radio on. It was a call-in show featuring Senator Jeffords as the guest.

Someone called and asked Senator Jeffords if he had seen Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 911" and if so, what did he think about it.

Senator Jeffors admitted he had seen the film and said he enjoyed it very much. That it pointed out very important truths the American public had a right to know about.

The caller then asked about a segment in the film where the Congressional Black Caucus tried to object to the 2000 election outcome on the floor of the House; not one Senator would sign the objections. She asked Senator Jeffords why he didn't sign the objection.

Senator Jeffords answered that Michael Moore's film showed things out of context. He said that by the time that the CBC made this move, Vice President Gore had already conceded the race and it was a done deal. There was nothing that could be done at that time.

So in other words, Michael Moore lied.

But Senator Jeffords thought the film presented important truths that the American people should know about, except the film lied a little.

In an AP report filed yesterday, Yeslam Bbinladin, half brother to Osama bin Laden, also said he saw the film and enjoyed it.

"It's a moving film," Yeslam Binladin, a Geneva-based tycoon and one of the al-Qaeda leader's 54 siblings, said in an interview with the French magazine VSD.

Except for the part about him and his family, which was a lie.

"I even laughed at times," said Binladin, adding, "but a lot less when he states errors or inaccuracies about my family, knowing perfectly well that he's deceiving the public."

In the film, Moore says President Bush tried to cover up his family's longtime business and personal ties to the family of Usama bin Laden and other prominent Saudis (search) because many of the hijackers were from Saudi Arabia.

One of his main points is that the U.S. administration helped 142 Saudis — including two dozen members of bin Laden's family — fly out of the United States two days after the Sept. 11 attacks, even though commercial air space was closed.

"That's false and can be verified by anyone," said the Saudi-born Binladin, who intentionally spells his name differently from Usama, the prime suspect in the Sept. 11 attacks. "They benefited from no exceptional authorization to leave American territory."

The 9-11 panel report confirms Mr. bin Laden's story

A recent 9/11 panel report states that the chartered flights took place starting Sept. 14, once airspace had reopened.

So again we see an individual who liked the film and thought it told the truth, except in the cases where their had personal knowledge of the events being described.

Those events were blatantly false.

It simply amazes me how someone could see a film, know the film lied in parts which refer to events about which they had personal knowledge, but believe that the rest of the film was truthful.

You have to want to believe pretty badly.

Sweet dreams are made of these
Who am I to disagree?
Travel the world and the seven seas
Everybody's looking for something
Some of them want to use you
Some of them want to get used by you
Some of them want to abuse you
Some of them want to be abused

I'm gonna use you and abuse you
I'm gonna know what's inside
Gonna use you and abuse you
I'm gonna know what's inside you

-Eurythmics