Close Enough for Government Work

As it turns out, we had $70,000,000.00 just sitting around, so we gave it to Pakistan to help the country defend themselves from the Taliban Air Force. Maybe it's a codeword for a black-op, maybe it's a nuanced diplomatic deal, probably it's a powder my nose arrangement. Working for a living was obviously the wrong career choice.

Porpoises rescue Dick Van Dyke

No rib, link to story Here

I got your Dak Bulgogi right here

I spent Thanksgiving with some friends, including the two above. For a number of years I had cooked for a group of professionals at a TV station. The idea of re-booting the dinner to reflect a busy upscale lifestyle was in the air. Thanksgiving was shortened to turkey day, then t-day. I'm all in favor of fine dining and stretching the envelope, but Thanksgiving is a day to give thanks. T-day and Black Friday precurser sales don't quite transmit that idea properly. As for the two kids, where the heck do they get all that energy? I discovered that being a human jungle gym has its attractions. (the sudden calm during their nap was pretty good too)

On to the link-dump. First is an article about the party system. Others are weighing in and I've seen some advertising regarding a centrist party. We'll see. I, like most people, think Government has shed its governing function and is acting like a business, i.e. we work for it. If fear sells, sell it. If infantile posturing gets you air time ... and so forth.

• Hyper-Polarized Party System: Still, the unending high-decibel partisan warfare of the past decade has led many Americans to look back with nostalgia on the more consensual, if muddled, party system that persisted until the 1970s.

Followed by two links that call into question the congress critters disconnect from daily life.

• A Message from the Voters: (pdf): A 53% majority of registered voters also think that those who came into power
  campaigning on Obamacare repeal should decline their federal health plan, and only a third think they should accept it. Many Democrats have been pushing Republicans to deny their benefits, but among all voters, the pressure is actually by far stronger with Republicans and independents than with Democrats.
• Where's Mine: Harris, who defeated Rep. Frank Kratovil (D) earlier this month, drew unwelcome attention last week when Politico reported that he complained at an orientation session for new lawmakers upon finding out that his government-provided health care coverage would not take effect until February, a month after he takes office.

The next two are about banks. I'm tempted to mutter something about the power behind the throne, but writing the obvious takes too much time.

• The Best Congress Money Can Buy: ...the financial sector has paid little for bringing the world to near-collapse or for receiving the taxpayers’ bailout that was denied to most small-enough-to-fail Americans. The sector still rakes in more than a fourth of American business profits, up from a seventh 25 years ago.
• What Good is Wall Street?: A few months ago, I came across an announcement that Citigroup, the parent company of Citibank, was to be honored, along with its chief executive, Vikram Pandit, for “Advancing the Field of Asset Building in America.” This seemed akin to, say, saluting BP for services to the environment or praising Facebook for its commitment to privacy.

Oh Lordy. Korea. We're gonna win this one by golly. Mess with us and we'll borrow some money and fix your kim chee. Yeah boy, you be gettin' a stern rebuke when we done with you.

• The Tyranny of Metaphor: In the midst of the Korean War, Brogan was not only commenting on Americans' frustration with their inability to prevail decisively against supposedly inferior Chinese and North Korean forces, but also cautioning against other misadventures in which the United States falsely assumed its superpower status assured a military victory in any conflict it chose to fight. Brogan could just as easily have titled his essay The Omnipotence of American Illusion in an echo of Friedrich Nietzsche's critique of true believers. Convictions, the great German philosopher wrote, are more dangerous enemies of truth than lies.
• Why Are We Still In Korea?: We will stand by our Korean allies, says President Obama. And with our security treaty and 28,000 U.S. troops in South Korea, many on the DMZ, we can do no other. But why, 60 years after the first Korean War, should Americans be the first to die in a second Korean War? Unlike 1950, South Korea is not an impoverished ex-colony of Japan. She is the largest of all the "Asian tigers," a nation with twice the population and 40 times the economy of the North.
• Lunacy His Principal Export: These events may also ultimately be seen as wins for Kim on two other levels. First, the nuclear facility almost certainly required international collaboration. If it turns out that support came in part from, say, Pakistan, already suspected of helping the Koreans develop a nuclear ballistic missile capability, it would be deeply embarrassing and awkward for the United States.
• Stuxnet and N. Korea: While U.S. officials are trying to figure out how to respond to North Korea’s unveiling of a new uranium enrichment plant, there are clues that a piece of malware believed to have hit Iran’s nuclear efforts could also target the centrifuges Pyongyang’s preparing to spin.

And meanwhile we're clearly and decisively taking care of our other loose ends.

• How to Schedule a War: Going, going, gone! You can almost hear the announcer’s voice throbbing with excitement, only we’re not talking about home runs here, but about the disappearing date on which, for the United States and its military, the Afghan War will officially end.

Diplomatic Frolics

Another WikiLeak dump. The president is on damage control again. The fear industry is howling. Between the somebody is trying to ban Christmas stories and the war with Korea / Iran bonanza, they can pretty much coast the rest of the week. The leaks do raise some questions, however. By this I mean the cables themselves, not the fragmented excerpts getting play. You'll need an extra big cup of coffee and a scroll wheel to deal with the current batch.

• Traitors - Incalculable Damage- Full Might of the Law: one might be tempted to comment, "If you're doing nothing wrong, you have nothing to fear." But that would sound as sad as when the government tells it to you. Instead I'll call on my current hobbyhorse and note that the powers that be don't seem to be too pleased by their public pat-down and x-ray. (why yes, I can still spell schadenfreude with the help of my Webster's)
• Secret Stuff: It doesn’t matter how robust your encryption is if you leave plaintext copies around for every Junior Officer, Congressional hopeful, and janitor with some spare time to read. And don’t store them in one place with sequential call numbers. WikiLeaks isn’t some super duper spy org, it’s just a vacuum cleaner that sucks up information that was pretty much in plain sight. The real spy organizations: Israel, England, Russia, China, Liechtenstein, probably had a copy a minute after the cable was sent. No foreign country was really shocked or taken by surprise. The secrecy rubric really refers to the taxpayers.
• Embarrassing Revelations: If you read some of these cables, you would suspect they were written by frat boys on Facebook. Pedigreed ivy league frat boys mind you, but... Some things don’t belong in a diplomatic cable. An awful lot of embarrassment could be avoided if an adult explained to the wonderkinder that they’re on the job, not at a swell party texting their buddy.
• Other countries will question if we can keep a secret: Uh ....yeah! Well, can we? So instead of whining about one guy from Belgium or Private somebody or another, we might want to consider putting the house in order. If following security protocol or setting aside those little side deals discommodes some of the more entitled members of the foreign service, tough.
• The other Arab countries want us to invade Iran: For a definition of getting played refer to our Talaban Commander that turned into a shopkeeper several million dollars later. But they agree with Israel. Sure, as long as we pony up the money and shed the blood, what the heck.

The sad part was contained in a British Minister's comment. He said the lone superpower came off like someone wandering the world and wondering why no one would do as bidden. Coming up next, WikiLeaks on banks.

Thanks Ever So

While I know pointing out other's faux pas is a two way street, it's generally not a good idea to wear slogans on your butt.

Via: Miss Cellania

Happy Thanksgiving

For Your Safety

Picture Link

I'm just going to mumble something about the TSA and let you fill in the blank any way you wish.