Point Lookout
Musings from the hillside

And this is from Haaretz - Israel News! What better source of information.

So, how “good” for Israel was it? Other than forming a usable if provably unsubstantiated pretext for the Iraq war and much of our hectoring of Iran, that is.

Remarkable that anyone who thinks they’re qualified to lead Israel as Prime Minister would say something so honest and potentially damning of their ally.

The hike to the store this morning had a little crunch to it. Grass in the shade sparkled. Good thing Jordan was wearing his fur coat … I’m looking at gloves.
Jordan is suffering from some dietary indescretions at a friend’s house-party. The 14 month-old twins were dropping copious amounts of random foods and Jordan made sure the lovely rugs were clean. He was a little intimadated by the electric trains and the mob but got more comfortable when the boy of the house took him down to the playroom and put him in his lap and petted him for an hour.

We all chuckled at the NY Times article about the NY emergency radio system failing its first tests ($2B later). No surprises there. This amateur radio license prep class in January is getting more and more interesting. I have more than a couple of professional public safety types signed up. I think some of the locals get it.

Bright and clear and cold again. No rain forecast for Christmas day … though it wouldn’t hurt. Today’s a nap day.

So now the storm drain outlet is leaking. Last year it was the sewer lines. And the footings under the decks are even more sketchy than they were. Sigh. At least they’re going to do something a little more permanent this time.

We got our walk in by way of the Post Orifice. Dropped the Yardley package off on its way. The Jordan package arrived here but the one to Hopedale’s not there yet (as of last report).

Jordan has asked for the rest of the afternoon off. He had two visits from the mailman, a Fedex delivery, and the landlord and friends. He’s exhausted if satisfied all is OK. Rain tonight and in the morning, so we’ll head out in a bit for another bit of exercise. Jordan can nap later if he needs to but there are streets to be inspected first. He’s a little more relaxed now that jury duty is over and the Yardley box is off. He’s still quite up tight about the Hopedale box but that will get sorted soon.

Jordan and I had to make our trek mostly in the dark this morning. We were saved by Starbucks being open so we didn’t have to do the crappy donuts at Safeway. It was raining and Jordan was glad to have the raincoat, for a change. There were a few moments of puppy rebellion and confusion over who was leading the walk (as usual) but all i all it was OK.

Then there was jury duty. The drive up was horrendous. You could barely see for the spray off the road. Got there and left my tea on the package scanner. But I got set up by an AC power outlet next to a window! Then, at 10:00AM a nice young blonde in a judge’s robes came down and told us we could go home! How cool was that. So, by 10:15 I was back in the road spray.

The inch of rain was over by 2:00PM but the clouds stayed pretty solid over Orinda. Jordan and I went out and played with Nelson for a while on the back side of the hill then barked at Duna. As far as he’s concerned, it was a pretty good day.

Pacificon is over for 2007. The post-mortem will be held in a couple of weeks but it’s all over but the paperwork.

We had at least 15% more people attend, maybe 20%. All reports from vendors and the hotel confirm that. Our primary co-conspirator in this, Ham Radio Outlet or HRO, saw that kind of increase in sales. It was terrific.

Of course, that meant the forums (lectures) were 15 - 20% more over crowded and the hallways and exhibit hall were 15 - 20% more crowded. But that’s OK. The one-day license class was as successful as ever. Testing went swimmingly and our 85 year old who struggled with the class passed finally. She went home with a very nice shiny new radio.

The ARRL arranged for Dan Henderson, their rep to the DOD in this PAVE/PAWS saga. Dan’s a good guy with a tough assignment. He spoke three times to packed and vocal rooms and did as good a job as can be done under the circumstances. We tried real hard not to shoot the messenger …

It was interesting. With the increase in attendees we didn’t see a dramatic shift in demographics. It’s like there were just more hams coming out. We didn’t see an obvious drop in age level or change in any other visible change in the mix. But it was lovely to see folks turn out and have a good time.

Meanwhile, there were numerous valuable informal meetings and discussions. The Northern California Cactus Radio Association’s East Bay Hills conundrum looks to be solved (along with some other “challenges”). The same may be true for some of MDARC’s “challenges”. The new wave of emergency radio teams seems to be gelling (we’re somewhere between water and soft jello at this point). It was all good.

The public-minded stuff is happily off elsewhere. This is just the view from Point Lookout. Jordan got tired of the rants

The weight came down into the low 200s and has hung. Lots of reasons, all good. I am such a sucker for wedding cakes, for example. The last ride (Saturday) was 9.75 miles with over 560 feet climbing … I mostly walked the worst of the climb. Bought a bell and new riding gloves but no big tune-up. Was going to ride yesterday but had to go to San Francisco and give Apple a second try at fixing the super-drive. And today it’s raining.

Continuing to grind my way through Kropotkin’s Mutual Aid. It’s very scientific and all that. A major work, I’m sure. Nobody seems to talk about it which comes as absolutely no surprise as it debunks the orthodox view of Darwin. It is a slog, though. I find myself reading how-to books on unicycling for a break.

The unicycle needs to take a trip to the bike shop for a new tire. They sell the nice Torkers so they’ll understand this one. Haven’t gotten up on it (to fall off) again as the tire frightens me. Soon.

In eXile, the War Nerd Gary Brecher answers the question recently asked, sarcastically, in he Senate. The Nerd’s answer is not as sarcastic and is very much on point.

The bottom line: Iran, China, and India, in roughly that order. And it’s hard to argue. The losers? In similar order: Iraq, the US, and Britain. In reality, the biggest loser in absolute value is the US. Iraq is the biggest loser in relative value.

So, this is Ecto talking.

(more…)

In an entry that almost qualified him as a comic, Juan Cole makes a very powerful point. Cable pundits respin issues to distract the public. Nice post!

My favorite? His take on the John McCain singing “Bomb Iran” … that McCain is actually Major Kong (Slim Pickens), the guy who rode the bomb down in Dr. Strangelove. He may be right …

The McClatchy report in the San Luis Obispo paper, Baghdad security plan fails to thwart sectarian violence tells the story in the headline.

Dissembling prolongs this costly and dishonorable post-invasion military occupation and subjection of Iraq to the American imperial will. Dissembling is the Bush administration’s strategy. Dissembling is the Democratic Party’s response. Continuation of the waste of money, lives, and reputation will continue indefinitely until everyone’s angry enough to hit the streets and to refuse to serve.

The word from the new imperial territory appears to be less than attractive. That isn’t going to help them dissemble.