Random Thoughts and Links

I am gone tomorrow to take my dog to Minneapolis to the university veterinary clinic. Sorry for the light postings this weekend, I've been preoccupied. Here are some thoughts and links:


The thought occurs to me that Obama's cynical accusation that a pediatrician would take out a child's healthy tonsils for money stems from the mindset of a Chicago politician. It would be something he would do.


I was checking the weather online when a banner ad happened to catch my notice. "Obama Asks Moms to Return to School" Huh. It was an otherwise straightforward ad for an online degree. Now, I know that the administration has nothing to do with the ad, however it strikes me that the cult of personality surrounding Obama is beyond absurd. Farcical, even. Can you imagine such an ad with Bush or even Clinton? It would have been seen as patronizing. Patronizing. Good word. It fits Obama.


Imagine a Cash for Clunkers program 40 years ago.... Nope, neither can I. When did we go wrong that the gov't buys people's trade-ins? I just bought a new car, and I - like most everyone else who DOESN'T have a clunker - am getting a raw deal. Not that I want a gov't handout, but this is just a wealth transfer. Like most gov't programs, its being badly run by bureaucrats and keeps running out of money. They can't even handle trade-ins, imagine how gov't bureaucrats running health care and reimbursement. (shudder)


I hope Republicans have learned their lesson: "Stimulus checks" don't win re-election. Good governance does.


Its almost counter-intuitive that drug abuse is a disease of affluence which hurts the poor the most.


How we will win in Afghanistan

War is not complicated. You have to separate the guerrilla forces from the population and kill them until they no longer want to continue. Al Qaeda, dominated by Arabs, is finished inside Afghanistan. The Taliban are Afghans, to be dealt with by Afghans. As he did in Iraq, Gen. Petraeus wants to recruit local forces to protect their own villages. That will expand the Afghan forces to 300,000 and stabilize the situation. On patrols, Afghan soldiers spot the enemy 10 times more frequently than do coalition solders. Afghan soldiers are brave, hardy, ill-disciplined, individualistic, temperamental and trustworthy.

A year from now, coalition forces should be able to gradually withdraw, replaced by robust support and adviser units embedded in Afghan security forces. We shouldn’t make this a NATO war, allowing the Afghans to stand back. We’re outsiders, no matter how many schools we build or cups of tea we drink.

I am all for Afghans running their own country, as long as they don't tolerate terrorists who use the country as a base of operations. If they need help with that, they should have it.


Myths of the Raptor

A lot of really ignorant things are being said about the F-22 recently. One of my favorite false statements is that its "not much use against an insurgency", to analogize: its like saying that during WWII that an Essex class aircraft carrier is not much use against German panzers. (rolls eyes) I guess we shouldn't have bothered building them.


Lets have a lesson about the Broken Window Fallacy.