Patriot Act extended

There was a little noise from some civil-libertarian-inclined Democrats about adding some privacy protections before renewing the obnoxious Patriot Act. But when the Obama administration called for renewal, they got in line and renewed it. Now that their party has executive-branch power they're no longer so concerned about excesses and abuses. I'm just sorry the Republicans haven't developed a qualm or two, but maybe at the congressional level they're still enchanted with executive power, surveillance and all the unnecessary excesses the Bushies brought in after 9/11.

Sad for both parties.

Obama, health care losing public opinion battle

In the wake of the so-called health care summit Thursday, Obama seems to be losing public-opinion ground. I noted this in a post on yesterday's Orange Punch blog at the Register, but today's Rasmussen daily tracking poll shows him losing another percentage point, and health care reform, Democrat-style, continues to be unpopular.

The notion that it's a good idea for Democrats to push through a reform proposal that has been unpopular with Americans since about August and hasn't gained any ground no matter what Obama has done, strikes me as surrea -- and most Americans are more worried about the economy and unemployment than the fond dream progressives have nursed ever since Teddy Roosevelt, but they just might do it

Trial balloons for a longer stay in Iraq?

I understand that the military is constantly making contingency plans for things that are most unlikely to happen. But the fact that the top military commander in Iraq, Gen. Ray Odierno, told the press that he had briefed top officials on Washington on contingency plans to keep U.S. combat troops in Iraq past the end-of-August deadline -- after which there will still be 50,000 troops but supposedly not combat troops -- has me a little concerned. Is he launching a trial balloon to see how much resistance there is to the idea because he rather thinks they just might keep combat troops in Iraq longer?

I've been doing some research for a piece to run March 7, the date of the Iraqi parliamentary election, on the political situation in Iraq. It's far from stable, and we're starting to see some ramping-up of violence as the day comes closer. The election commission has disqualified several parties and almost 500 individuals from eligibility to run, most of them Sunni. Remember, the Sunni ran things under Saddam and for a long time before that, and the Shia have grievances. It could take months to form a government after the election and instability is likely to be accompanied by increasing violence. That just might be the justification/excuse for U.S. combat troops to stay longer.

I hope not, but . . .

Quote of the Day

"If, after I depart this vale, you ever remember me and have thought to please my ghost, forgive some sinner and wink your eye at some homely girl." -- H.L. Mencken

Creating a health-care abyss

Apparently Obama thought today's -- yesterday's now -- marathon health care "summit" would give his and/or the Democrats' plan some traction. I suspect -- though public opinion can be a fickle mistress -- that it did the opposite. Here's the Register editorial previewing the event, pointing out that Obama's problem is not so much with the Republicans, who seemed surprisingly calm, although as Tibor Machan pointed out, they can no longer lay much claim to being the party of limited government, but with the Democrats. There are all kinds of stories about working behind the scenes to get enough Democratic votes, but abortion, of all things, may prove the sticking-point. Here's the Register's after-show review. Just to broaden the scope of reacrions, here is one of Andrew Sullivan's roundups and here is another. When I talked to Bob Moffit at Heritage the other day, we discussed the last-ditch supporters of ObamaCare, like those at the New Republic, who somehow seem to think there's a burning desire out there among the public for federalized health care and the Democrats will get plenty credit for going it alone, despite the clear evidence of the polls that a majority of Americans oppose it and wish Obama would do something to fix the economy rather than adding another crippling entitlement. Bob likened them to people at a UFO convention. I think he's about right.

All six deserved medals

My wife Jen said I'm too sentimental, but I thought all six of the girls -- ladies, I guess -- in the final six deserved medals. I don't have a real complaint about the order. Kim Hu Na was clearly the best -- loved the choice of Gershwin music too -- and I loved the orchestration of the Rachmaninov prelude the Japanese girl, Mao Asada, skated to. I'm not sure but what Arcadia's Marai Nagasu wasn't better than the Canadian, Joannie Rochette, but who can begrudge her a little home ice advantage with what she's been through, with her mother dying Sunday night. And she did skate marvelously. No falls, lots of artistry, plenty of fire on ice. I don't know when I've enjoyed an Olympic skating competition more.

Maybe for the Bruins?

It's hard to get this in between lady skaters, all of whom have been simply wonderful so far, but I am so pleased with the way the Bruins played tonight. Their characteristic has been inconsistency, so I don't know about Saturday -- Oregon beat the Trojans , who slaughtered the Bruins. But they came out with energy, withstood a couple of runs, and played solid defense,. Tyler Honeycutt looks like a star of the future -- and to some extent the present.

A reminder: cannabis might cure some cancers

I put this post up on the Register's Orange Punch blog as a reminder. I have known for some years about the studies and experiments done by Manuel Guzman, a biochemist in Madrid, that showed injections of THC into the brains of rats with brain tumors lengthened their lives compared to a placebo and in some cases cured the cancers. Guzman has since done subsequent studies that have confirmed the results. And it turns out that similar studies gave the same results in the U.S. way back in 1974 -- and the feds suppressed the results. It is almost impossible to overstate just how cruel and misguided such actions are, how fanatic these drug warriors are. A substance shows promise in treating the most feared disease in America and the drug warriors so everything in their power to keep the information from getting out.

And yet, as you can see from a comment, at least some people in the U.S. prefer to remain invincibly ignorant, to believe in myths and lies even in the face of strong scientific evidence. Marijuana has strong properties to cloud the minds -- of drug warriors and their acolytes.

Follow me on Twitter, I guess

Heaven help me, at the prodding of the powers that be at the Register, I have opened a Twitter account. Now the thing to do, I guess, is to get as many "followers" as possible so I increase my vast influence and power! So I'm making a blatant plea to follow me on Twitter. If you follow me, I'll follow you. If you're not on, it's easy and free to sign up at http://twitter.com. Not that I would coerce anyone.

UPDATE: My Twitter handle is alanwbock.

No subsidized nukes

Since I wrote this Register editorial on Obama's proposal to guarantee loans to the Southern Co. to build two more nuclear reactors, I've become even more convinced that nuclear power at this point simply doesn't make economic sense at this time. Maybe sometime in the future. And to some extent the costs of building and insuring reactors are to some extent due to unnecessarily stringent regulations and catering to the knee-jerk anti-nuke crowd. But while the Federal Financing Bank (i.e., taxpayers) is formally the back-up to private financing, in reality it will be the eventual financer. If a project can't get private financing, that's a pretty good hint that it's not economically viable.

Ice dancing: a strange new appreciation

I don't remember for sure when I became aware of the Winter Olympics. I suspect we watched some as a family in the '50s, but I wouldn't swear to it. I distinctly remember Peggy Fleming, who was the ice princess in -- what, 1968? I fell in love with Katarina Witt even when she was purportedly a Commie. I also remember going to a rink in Palm Desert probably 15 years ago and as I was struggling to maintain balance seeing somebody really showing some form -- and lo and behold, it was Dorothy Hammill.

When they introduced ice dancing to the Olympics I thought it was just an excuse to give more people something to compete in, and it seemed to me that for the first few years it was kind of bland. Then Torvill and Dean taught me that it could be artistic and maybe even thrilling. Now I have turned around completely. The pairs skating at this year's Olympics was nothing but jumps and throws and lifts, which requires a great big guy and a teeny girl, which looks incongruous -- athletic but ultimately not all that interesting. Ice dancing now seems to me more like pairs skating was back in the day -- couples skating together, flowing together, matching one another, working together, with the addition of mostly interesting costumes (the Russians with their lame attempt at an Aborigine outfit seemed misconceived -- though the negative reaction was overblown, done by people who have learned the modern dark art of professional offense-taking). I now enjoy ice dancing more than pairs skating.

And oddly enough I don't care a whit about the judging. Let the judges screw things up as they will, I just enjoy them all, My favorites were the Russian couple dancing to Stravinsky's "Firebird, the Canadian couple who danced to Mahler (!) and the Italian couple.

Taliban capture not bad, but strategic?

It certainly counts as good news that one Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, said to be the Taliban military commander and second-in-command to the reclusive Mullah Omar, was captured a week or so in Karachi -- a port city far from the embattled frontier provinces -- in Pakistan. As this Register editorial notes, the war in Afghanistan was and is a bad idea, but any time an enemy of U.S. troops is neutralized, especially if there's a chance of getting actionable intelligence from him, that's not a bad thing. The people in the military don't set policies.

It's fascinating how many different stories about the capture are being bandied about, however. David Ignatius of the WaPo, who has a lot of CIA sources (and on some occasions is something of a shill), says the US and Pakistani intelligence folks had a surefire "no-fooling" tip that Baradar was going to be in that house. On the other hand, the NYT reports that Baradar was a bonus of the raid -- they had no idea he was there and it took them a while to figure out what -- who -- they had.

It's likely that it will be weeks before we have a semi-accurate idea of how Baradar was captured, and there are certain things we will never know. The important things is that it shouoldn't have been necessary and may not be the least bit important to U.S. interests. The only real U.S. interest is al-Qaida, not the Taliban, and being in a military adventure in Afghanistan and working with the sinister Pakistani ISI may well be the worst possible ways to do anything effective about al-Qaida -- which is nowhere near as formidable as our masters want us to believe anyway.

Fuddy-duddies wrecking Olympics a bit

I have really been enjoying the Olympics -- I even watched a bit of curling today and can almost appreciate it as a sport. But the news that snowboarder Scotty Lago has been kicked out of Vancouver comes close to spoiling it for me.

Apparently Lago committed one of those indiscretions that nobody knows are against the rules until the suits interpret things. At a party, after being up 36 hours, he held his gold medal below the waist (!!!) and a girl kissed it. Somebody took a photo and it showed up on TMZ. The suits told him to leave Vancouver now or go through a process that could well have led to him being formally ejected, and possibly ineligible to compete in the next Olympics.

Boo to the suits!!

Ukraine results not so bad

There's been a certain amount of handwringing over the fact that Viktor Yanukovych, generally considered the most pro-Russian of the candidates, won election as president Of Ukraine. It's hard for me to get worked up. There was certainly excitement surrounding the 2004 Orange Revolution when Yanukovych was prevented from stealing the election. But Viktor Yuschenko, who was elected then, proved to be something of a dud, and the Ukrainians dismissed him in the first round of voting.

It is also the case that Russia has traditionally been concerned with what it calls its "near abroad," whether it has sought to incorporate neighboring states into the empire (as the Soviets and to some extent the czars did), and it's not hard to understand. As this Register editorial explains, Napoleon and Hitler both invaded Russia through the flat plains of Poland and the Baltic countries, which offer no geographical barriers to invasion. Extending NATO after the Soviet Union collapsed was a huge mistake in that it made the Russians more paranoid than usual without accomplishing anything useful. NATO should have been disassembled instead. With Ukraine apparentoy in the Russian camp now -- or at least unlikely to cause Russia grief -- Russia might even be a bit less bellicose.

More flawed judging

I don't have a complaint at the top. Tonight -- or last night, I guess -- Evan Lysacek was clearly the winner. His program was better, he skated it more cleanly and with more style than did Plushenko. But I think the judges fell into the trap I identified in my earlier post -- giving scores based more on reputation and past performance than on this particular performance.As a result, Johnny Weir was badly cheated. In fact, this night, taking nothing away from the Russian, I thought he deserved a higher score than Plushenko got and should have had the bronze. But the judges, though recognizing that Plushenko was not quite as inspired in this performance as in the short program, mostly stuck with their judgment from the short program. Somebody ought to be able to skate a possibly substandard short program, then come back and nail the long program and get rewarded for it.

I didn't see any echoes of my previous complaints in the bits and pieces of news coverage I looked at, and perhaps nobody else will agree with me on this. But I thought the judging was, if not downright shameful, at least more than a bit flawed.

T.S. Eliot's poem "Ash Wednesday"

Because I do not hope to turn again
Because I do not hope
Because I do not hope to turn
Desiring this man's gift and that man's scope
I no longer strive to strive towards such things
(Why should the aged eagle stretch its wings?)
Why should I mourn
The vanished power of the usual reign? Because I do not hope to know again
The infirm glory of the positive hour
Because I do not think
Because I know I shall not know
The one veritable transitory power
Because I cannot drink
There, where trees flower, and springs flow, for there is nothing again Because I know that time is always time
And place is always and only place
And what is actual is actual only for one time
And only for one place
I rejoice that things are as they are and
I renounce the blessed face
And renounce the voice
Because I cannot hope to turn again
Consequently I rejoice, having to construct something
Upon which to rejoice And pray to God to have mercy upon us
And pray that I may forget
These matters that with myself I too much discuss
Too much explain
Because I do not hope to turn again
Let these words answer
For what is done, not to be done again
May the judgement not be too heavy upon us Because these wings are no longer wings to fly
But merely vans to beat the air
The air which is now thoroughly small and dry
Smaller and dryer than the will
Teach us to care and not to care
Teach us to sit still. Pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death
Pray for us now and at the hour of our death.

II Lady, three white leopards sat under a juniper-tree
In the cool of the day, having fed to satiety
On my legs my heart my liver and that which had been contained
In the hollow round of my skull. And God said
Shall these bones live? shall these
Bones live? And that which had been contained
In the bones (which were already dry) said chirping:
Because of the goodness of this Lady
And because of her loveliness, and because
She honours the Virgin in meditation,
We shine with brightness. And I who am here dissembled
Proffer my deeds to oblivion, and my love
To the posterity of the desert and the fruit of the gourd.
It is this which recovers
My guts the strings of my eyes and the indigestible portions
Which the leopards reject. The Lady is withdrawn
In a white gown, to contemplation, in a white gown.
Let the whiteness of bones atone to forgetfulness.
There is no life in them. As I am forgotten
And would be forgotten, so I would forget
Thus devoted, concentrated in purpose. And God said
Prophesy to the wind, to the wind only for only
The wind will listen. And the bones sang chirping
With the burden of the grasshopper, saying Lady of silences
Calm and distressed
Torn and most whole
Rose of memory
Rose of forgetfulness
Exhausted and life-giving
Worried reposeful
The single Rose
Is now the Garden
Where all loves end
Terminate torment
Of love unsatisfied
The greater torment
Of love satisfied
End of the endless
Journey to no end
Conclusion of all that
Is inconclusible
Speech without word and
Word of no speech
Grace to the Mother
For the Garden
Where all love ends.

Under a juniper-tree the bones sang, scattered and shining
We are glad to be scattered, we did little good to each other,
Under a tree in the cool of the day, with the blessing of sand,
Forgetting themselves and each other, united
In the quiet of the desert. This is the land which ye
Shall divide by lot. And neither division nor unity
Matters. This is the land. We have our inheritance.

III At the first turning of the second stair
I turned and saw below
The same shape twisted on the banister
Under the vapour in the fetid air
Struggling with the devil of the stairs who wears
The deceitul face of hope and of despair. At the second turning of the second stair
I left them twisting, turning below;
There were no more faces and the stair was dark,
Damp, jagged, like an old man's mouth drivelling, beyond repair,
Or the toothed gullet of an aged shark. At the first turning of the third stair
Was a slotted window bellied like the figs's fruit
And beyond the hawthorn blossom and a pasture scene
The broadbacked figure drest in blue and green
Enchanted the maytime with an antique flute.
Blown hair is sweet, brown hair over the mouth blown,
Lilac and brown hair;
Distraction, music of the flute, stops and steps of the mind over the third stair,
Fading, fading; strength beyond hope and despair
Climbing the third stair. Lord, I am not worthy
Lord, I am not worthy
but speak the word only.

IV Who walked between the violet and the violet
Who walked between
The various ranks of varied green
Going in white and blue, in Mary's colour,
Talking of trivial things
In ignorance and knowledge of eternal dolour
Who moved among the others as they walked,
Who then made strong the fountains and made fresh the springs Made cool the dry rock and made firm the sand
In blue of larkspur, blue of Mary's colour,
Sovegna vos
Here are the years that walk between, bearing
Away the fiddles and the flutes, restoring
One who moves in the time between sleep and waking, wearing
White light folded, sheathing about her, folded.
The new years walk, restoring
Through a bright cloud of tears, the years, restoring
With a new verse the ancient rhyme. Redeem
The time. Redeem
The unread vision in the higher dream
While jewelled unicorns draw by the gilded hearse. The silent sister veiled in white and blue
Between the yews, behind the garden god,
Whose flute is breathless, bent her head and signed but spoke no word But the fountain sprang up and the bird sang down
Redeem the time, redeem the dream
The token of the word unheard, unspoken Till the wind shake a thousand whispers from the yew And after this our exile

V If the lost word is lost, if the spent word is spent
If the unheard, unspoken
Word is unspoken, unheard;
Still is the unspoken word, the Word unheard,
The Word without a word, the Word within
The world and for the world;
And the light shone in darkness and
Against the Word the unstilled world still whirled
About the centre of the silent Word. O my people, what have I done unto thee. Where shall the word be found, where will the word
Resound? Not here, there is not enough silence
Not on the sea or on the islands, not
On the mainland, in the desert or the rain land,
For those who walk in darkness
Both in the day time and in the night time
The right time and the right place are not here
No place of grace for those who avoid the face
No time to rejoice for those who walk among noise and deny the voice Will the veiled sister pray for
Those who walk in darkness, who chose thee and oppose thee,
Those who are torn on the horn between season and season, time and time, between
Hour and hour, word and word, power and power, those who wait
In darkness? Will the veiled sister pray
For children at the gate
Who will not go away and cannot pray:
Pray for those who chose and oppose O my people, what have I done unto thee. Will the veiled sister between the slender
Yew trees pray for those who offend her
And are terrified and cannot surrender
And affirm before the world and deny between the rocks
In the last desert before the last blue rocks
The desert in the garden the garden in the desert
Of drouth, spitting from the mouth the withered apple-seed. O my people.

VI Although I do not hope to turn again
Although I do not hope
Although I do not hope to turn
Wavering between the profit and the loss
In this brief transit where the dreams cross
The dreamcrossed twilight between birth and dying
(Bless me father) though I do not wish to wish these things
From the wide window towards the granite shore
The white sails still fly seaward, seaward flying
Unbroken wings And the lost heart stiffens and rejoices
In the lost lilac and the lost sea voices
And the weak spirit quickens to rebel
For the bent golden-rod and the lost sea smell
Quickens to recover
The cry of quail and the whirling plover
And the blind eye creates
The empty forms between the ivory gates
And smell renews the salt savour of the sandy earth
This is the time of tension between dying and birth The place of solitude where three dreams cross
Between blue rocks But when the voices shaken from the yew-tree drift away Let the other yew be shaken and reply.
Blessed sister, holy mother, spirit of the fountain, spirit of the garden,
Suffer us not to mock ourselves with falsehood
Teach us to care and not to care
Teach us to sit still
Even among these rocks,
Our peace in His will
And even among these rocks
Sister, mother
And spirit of the river, spirit of the sea,
Suffer me not to be separated And let my cry come unto Thee.

Maybe judging not so bad

My essential impulse, given my general fondness for misfits, eccentrics and troublemakers, especially those who also have talent and skills, was to root for Johnny Weir to blow away Evan Lysacek in men's skating last night. I had to admit, however, that while Weir was very good, Lysacek was close to phenomenal and deserved to rank well ahead of Weir. Actually, I'm sorry Stephane Lambiel of Switzerland had a couple of glitches in his program; he was actually my favorite when it came to style. I'm like many people; I've followed stories about Weir and Lysacek in the newspapers without having seen either of them skate for at least a year -- I just don't follow skating as closely as I do football or basketball and Jen hasn't pushed me to watch. So seeing Lysacek skate was something of a revelation. I had thought that nobody would really push the Russian Plushenko, but Lysacek did.

My previous complaint about judging had to do with judging the final pairs programs, and the essence was that the scores didn't show country favoritism so much as they followed conventional wisdom and scores in the short program. It seems to me that one should be able to have a mediocre of poor short program and still make up ground by doing well -- reverting to one's real ability level in some cases -- in the long program, as I thought Denny and Barrett had done in the pairs. But the judges didn't seem open to that; their first impression seemed immutable, based on reputation more than performance. That could happen again tomorrow night. We'll see.

Another rogue DEA agent -- in Denver

Remember Obama's and Eric Holder's promise that it would be the policy of this administration not to send the feds after medical marijuana users, growers and distributors of medical marijuana in states with medical marijuana laws, so long as they were compliant with state law? Well, the DEA in Denver last Friday raided a home where a guy was growing for patients in his basement. As far as I can tell his "crime" was getting a little publicity. So the thuggish liar Heffrey Sweetin, head of the local DEA office, went after him, repeating the lie the feds are still so arrogant as to think they can make you believe, that "marijuana is not medicine." Maybe they have to convince themselves, but it is such a low lie and anyone who knows even a tiny bit knows it.

I still think that such thuggishness will backfire, that it will only convince more people to support initiatives like the tax-and-regulate initiative that will be on the California ballot in November. If the authorities aren't willing to cooperate in carving out an exception to prohibition for people with cancer, multiple sclerosis and the like, people will be ready just to legalize and take the decision out of their hands.

Evan Bayh the pretentious

Pardon me if I'm not all that impressed with Dem. Ind. Sen. Evan Bayh's explanation of why he won't run for a third term come November. He talked all about the Senate being dysfunctional and hyperpartisan, but he has done almost nothing to bridge any gaps. I suspect he resents the fact that nobody looks to him, the quintessential moderate, to take a leadership position or be the go-between, but I suspect that's largely because he's a bland split-the-difference kind of guy without notable leadership qualities. He seerms like a nice guy and that's about it.

He's also more likely top lose or face a serious challenge in November than he lets on. And there's nothing especially commendable about being a moderate. Most of the time it means you don't have very firm convictions or the courage of whatever convictions you have. Don't let the door hit you in the butt on the way out.

James Fallows issued an interesting challenge. If he's so disgusted by the behind-the-scenes deals and absurd bowing to special interests ad nauseam, spend the rest of his time in office identifying and denouncing them, and naming names. Don't hold your breath. The guy couldn't even face Reid or Obama face to face because the poor dear was afraid they might try to talk him out of it. Profiles in courage.

Olympics mostly quite wonderful

Despite my complaint in the previous post -- and I think it's a valid complaint; I wonder if others will see what I saw -- I have generally enjoyed the competition. As this Register editorial notes, the Canadians for the most part have handled the situation very well -- although not having the ice properly prepared for today's 500m short-skate event was a major amateurish blunder. And BodeMiller -- who is judged by the clock rather than a panel of, shall we say, imperfect judges -- got a bronze in the downhill. Good for him.