Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Power Of Positive Drinking
If you know me, you know what's going on in my life, so please think positive thoughts. If you don't know what's going on, drink heavily for me.
Monday, August 25, 2008
The NY Times Chooses Treason Again
Sad to say but the New York Times continues to engage in treason. Tonight they exposed the names of three Swiss atomic scientists who were working as CIA moles to uncover rogue nuclear programs in Libya and Iran. The very paper that endlessly scolded the Bush Administration for “outing” CIA employee Valerie Plame, revealed the names of the three scientists helping the U.S. in diminishing a nuclear threat. Now this father and two-son team has to worry about retribution from sources slightly more dangerous than sharp editorial writers from The Times.
The story began with a trial in Switzerland in which the three scientists were accused of dealing with nuclear terrorists. The scientists did not defend their actions by saying they were working for the CIA, keeping intact an agreement they reached. They were willing to pay the price for their work, believing it to be for the common good. The Times, however, found unnamed CIA sources to tell them about the secret dealings and exposing the scientists to danger and an end to their professional lives – oddly what The Times claimed happened to Ms. Plame.
It has been written in this space before, but it bears repeating: Anyone working at the CIA signs a security document ensuring they will not share classified information with anyone, least of all The NY Times. All employees are well aware of the stiff penalties for violating the security oath.
It is unknown what the reasons were for these unnamed sources to bring out this information, but let’s assess the damage done to our national and international security that goes beyond the personal troubles it causes for the Swiss scientists. It tells our enemies – and we have them, contrary to what The Times thinks – that we have planted moles in their innermost secret programs and suspicions will be raised about others working for the CIA, lessening the chances of information getting to our sources or putting them at outright risk. It will reduce the number of sources we can recruit because, let’s face it, the CIA has a leak problem, and who wants to have their names end up on the front page of The Times?
The exposing of these names to the world has far longer-term implications than the mentioning of Plame’s name to a reporter by Richard Armitage, a State Department official with little affinity for the President and his staff. Plame was not working undercover, contrary to the way the media played it, and took full advantage of her new infamy by posing for the cover of Vanity Fair Magazine and writing a book about her ordeal. Movies are even planned to enrich the lives of Plame and her know-nothing husband, Joe Wilson. I’m afraid these scientists will not be rewarded in such a way. I suspect they will need to spend their money continuing to defend themselves in a Swiss court and, if they have any money left over, have to spend it on body guards for the rest of their lives.
It’s difficult to comprehend the editorial judgment at The Times and it’s puzzling to understand why so many “agency sources” are willing to talk to its reporters. But, in the end, maybe it’s not too difficult to identify the motives of the people willing to continue to leak and report on our national security secrets. Maybe they just really don’t care one bit about security in the country and keeping us a bit safer.
Yes, I know the CIA doesn’t and hasn’t always behaved well as an institution and I am well aware that great challenges to our personal freedoms have been exchanged in the name of national security. However, the leaking of names does nothing to protect those freedoms and does nothing but damage lives and reduces our effectiveness to keep tabs on those who wish us ill. Shame on The New York Times and shame on the unnamed sources, may you get caught and have to answer for your own actions.
The story began with a trial in Switzerland in which the three scientists were accused of dealing with nuclear terrorists. The scientists did not defend their actions by saying they were working for the CIA, keeping intact an agreement they reached. They were willing to pay the price for their work, believing it to be for the common good. The Times, however, found unnamed CIA sources to tell them about the secret dealings and exposing the scientists to danger and an end to their professional lives – oddly what The Times claimed happened to Ms. Plame.
It has been written in this space before, but it bears repeating: Anyone working at the CIA signs a security document ensuring they will not share classified information with anyone, least of all The NY Times. All employees are well aware of the stiff penalties for violating the security oath.
It is unknown what the reasons were for these unnamed sources to bring out this information, but let’s assess the damage done to our national and international security that goes beyond the personal troubles it causes for the Swiss scientists. It tells our enemies – and we have them, contrary to what The Times thinks – that we have planted moles in their innermost secret programs and suspicions will be raised about others working for the CIA, lessening the chances of information getting to our sources or putting them at outright risk. It will reduce the number of sources we can recruit because, let’s face it, the CIA has a leak problem, and who wants to have their names end up on the front page of The Times?
The exposing of these names to the world has far longer-term implications than the mentioning of Plame’s name to a reporter by Richard Armitage, a State Department official with little affinity for the President and his staff. Plame was not working undercover, contrary to the way the media played it, and took full advantage of her new infamy by posing for the cover of Vanity Fair Magazine and writing a book about her ordeal. Movies are even planned to enrich the lives of Plame and her know-nothing husband, Joe Wilson. I’m afraid these scientists will not be rewarded in such a way. I suspect they will need to spend their money continuing to defend themselves in a Swiss court and, if they have any money left over, have to spend it on body guards for the rest of their lives.
It’s difficult to comprehend the editorial judgment at The Times and it’s puzzling to understand why so many “agency sources” are willing to talk to its reporters. But, in the end, maybe it’s not too difficult to identify the motives of the people willing to continue to leak and report on our national security secrets. Maybe they just really don’t care one bit about security in the country and keeping us a bit safer.
Yes, I know the CIA doesn’t and hasn’t always behaved well as an institution and I am well aware that great challenges to our personal freedoms have been exchanged in the name of national security. However, the leaking of names does nothing to protect those freedoms and does nothing but damage lives and reduces our effectiveness to keep tabs on those who wish us ill. Shame on The New York Times and shame on the unnamed sources, may you get caught and have to answer for your own actions.
Sunday, August 24, 2008
Da Da De Da Da Da Da Da Dede De De Dede Da Dede De Daaaa
Like everyone, I have some thoughts on the recently completed Beijing Olympics. First, were you aware U.S. swimmer Michael Phelps won eight gold medals? Could NBC have mentioned it more often? Seriously, NBC owes Michael Phelps a commission for the number of viewers he kept glued to their telecast. Ratings dropped significantly after Phelps picked up his final gold medal, so it seemed NBC wanted to keep reliving the moment with constant playbacks of his dazzling victories.
Of course these Olympics were about many things, but those of us watching got to witness an incredible feat with Phelps, who was the biggest story by far. I remember the dominance of Mark Spitz in 1972. I was a swimmer back then and there was just no way to aptly describe watching one person win every event and win in world record time and what it did to my sport. I do agree with Spitz that had there been a 50 free event in 1972, he would have won 8 gold medals, but I think swimmers around the world have caught up to the U.S. and Phelps had a lot more competition than Spitz did 36 years ago, as the relays demonstrated.
Besides the story of Phelps, there is really only one other story that will linger much beyond this year and it is the story of China itself. Starting with the big question mark on the age of their female gymnasts to a glimpse into their strange society, the legacy of these Olympics may be as much about the host country as anything.
Very few people are buying the canard that their gymnasts met the minimum age requirement of 16. Of course there will be a “formal” investigation, but I doubt the International Olympic Committee will do much more than verify their government granted passports and declare the investigation closed. Just the same, we’ll all know the truth and the weakness of the IOC. This is to say nothing about the skill of China’s gymnasts; for the most part they deserved their medals. But rules are rules and this is far worse than one athlete getting ahead through performance enhancing substances, this took a government to raise these gymnasts.
Instead of a single athlete cheating – and cheating themselves in the long run – for China to pass these girls off as 16 took the complicity of the government and a lot of hiding of evidence. If the rules were broken and the Chinese government was part of it, this is as bad as the East German women in the 1972 Olympics when their swimmers were systematically given steroids for years. Most people don’t know the name Shirley Babashoff, but had it not been for the East German women all juiced up, she would have won five swimming gold medals in the 1976 Olympics and eight in her career. Do American gymnasts Shawn Johnson and Nastia Liukin feel like Babashoff did 32 years ago? Or does this only seem like sour grapes?
One of the more interesting interviews during the Games came when He Kexin, the center of the age controversy, was asked if her parents were in the stands. She looked puzzled by the question and then admitted she didn’t know where her parents were and couldn’t remember the last time she had seen them. This made the statement by the Chinese team that the parents of these girls were angry about the allegations more surreal. I don’t think these girls have a relationship with their parents, only a relationship with those on the team, the coaches and the sport itself. When someone asks what’s wrong with girls so young competing in the Games, you had to look no further than these robotic little girls looking like they had emerged from a hidden cave for the first time in years.
There was another minor story that did a good job of summing up what Chinese culture is like. In order to get the Games in the first place, China had to make a number of promises – nearly all broken. One was to allow people to speak out about the government itself. So the Chinese government established a process where people could apply for a permit to speak their minds in a designated area near the Olympic Village. Strangely, nobody spoke out. However, it was reported that there were two women in their seventies who applied to protest about their forced eviction from their homes in 2001. They applied for a permit at the Beijing Public Security Bureau and shortly thereafter were informed they had received a one-year sentence for “disturbing the public order” by China’s “Re-education Through Labor Commission.” So I guess speaking out in China is, on the surface, OK as long as you’re willing to be re-educated afterwards.
Lost in all the coverage of Phelps, gymnastics and women playing volleyball in bikinis were many stories of athletes living up to their expectations and athletes floundering under the spotlight. The American women and men’s 400 meter relays were both disqualified for dropping the baton, looking almost as if they had never practiced the exchange before. But Usain Bolt, who ran to three world records in the 100 meters, 200 meters and 400 relay, went beyond the hype. He was in a league by himself, winning each individual race by an embarrassing distance. Sure he was a goofball, but he’s still the fastest man on earth and deserved to be a bit cocky and clown-around. (There were some in our household who wondered if there were faster people inside the earth, but no matter).
The men’s water polo team, only briefly making it on NBC’s inconsistent coverage, took home a silver medal despite coming into the Games as only the 9th ranked team. They defeated perennial powerhouse teams such as Serbia, Italy and Croatia and were tied with eventual gold medal winner Hungary 9-9 before faltering in the final quarter and losing 14-10. The NBA is back too, winning the gold medal after throwing out groups of undisciplined teammates who found little time for practice. The gold medal match was much closer than expected, but in the end, the U.S. proved its dominance in the sport (but it’s getting much closer).
Women’s softball took only a silver medal after outscoring their opponents 53-1 and then losing 3-1 to Japan in the gold medal round. It was supposed to be the fourth straight gold medal for the U.S. and, ironically, the American women’s dominance of the sport was the reason the IOC had voted to end it following this Olympics. The IOC will vote on re-instating the sport in 2009, leaving conspiratorial thinkers to wonder if they threw the game to get the sport back in.
The U.S. men winning the volleyball gold medal over Brazil was a great story inside a horrific one. Before the Games began, the coach of the team’s mother-in-law and father-in-law were stabbed by a deranged individual, his father-in-law dying from the attack. When his team won the gold medal, the coach was so emotional he had to find a private place under the stands to let it all out. I am sure the victory was bittersweet.
There were athletes and coaches who exceed expectations – Jason Lezak’s amazing final leg to get Phelps a gold medal in the 4X100 free relay and Stephanie Brown-Trafton surprising the world by winning the women’s discus, and there were those who behaved shamefully – the coach of pole vault silver medalist Jennifer Stuczynski telling her on live TV that she, essentially, stunk, and Swedish wrestler Ara Abrahamian tossing his bronze medal and walking off the podium in protest at the judging in his semi-final match.
Beijing may have been the biggest winner (beside NBC and Phelps) as it looked all polished up and ready for the world to get a glimpse behind the Bamboo Curtain. The facilities were remarkable and the opening and final ceremonies were incredible and looked like something that can only be done with 1.3 billion people. Maybe it’s only ironic that China’s national anthem is titled March of the Volunteers. While it’s doubtful anyone volunteers to march, it did appear the Chinese people were ready to put on a showcase for their emerging country and they did it with volume and, perhaps, a little volunteerism.
Of course these Olympics were about many things, but those of us watching got to witness an incredible feat with Phelps, who was the biggest story by far. I remember the dominance of Mark Spitz in 1972. I was a swimmer back then and there was just no way to aptly describe watching one person win every event and win in world record time and what it did to my sport. I do agree with Spitz that had there been a 50 free event in 1972, he would have won 8 gold medals, but I think swimmers around the world have caught up to the U.S. and Phelps had a lot more competition than Spitz did 36 years ago, as the relays demonstrated.
Besides the story of Phelps, there is really only one other story that will linger much beyond this year and it is the story of China itself. Starting with the big question mark on the age of their female gymnasts to a glimpse into their strange society, the legacy of these Olympics may be as much about the host country as anything.
Very few people are buying the canard that their gymnasts met the minimum age requirement of 16. Of course there will be a “formal” investigation, but I doubt the International Olympic Committee will do much more than verify their government granted passports and declare the investigation closed. Just the same, we’ll all know the truth and the weakness of the IOC. This is to say nothing about the skill of China’s gymnasts; for the most part they deserved their medals. But rules are rules and this is far worse than one athlete getting ahead through performance enhancing substances, this took a government to raise these gymnasts.
Instead of a single athlete cheating – and cheating themselves in the long run – for China to pass these girls off as 16 took the complicity of the government and a lot of hiding of evidence. If the rules were broken and the Chinese government was part of it, this is as bad as the East German women in the 1972 Olympics when their swimmers were systematically given steroids for years. Most people don’t know the name Shirley Babashoff, but had it not been for the East German women all juiced up, she would have won five swimming gold medals in the 1976 Olympics and eight in her career. Do American gymnasts Shawn Johnson and Nastia Liukin feel like Babashoff did 32 years ago? Or does this only seem like sour grapes?
One of the more interesting interviews during the Games came when He Kexin, the center of the age controversy, was asked if her parents were in the stands. She looked puzzled by the question and then admitted she didn’t know where her parents were and couldn’t remember the last time she had seen them. This made the statement by the Chinese team that the parents of these girls were angry about the allegations more surreal. I don’t think these girls have a relationship with their parents, only a relationship with those on the team, the coaches and the sport itself. When someone asks what’s wrong with girls so young competing in the Games, you had to look no further than these robotic little girls looking like they had emerged from a hidden cave for the first time in years.
There was another minor story that did a good job of summing up what Chinese culture is like. In order to get the Games in the first place, China had to make a number of promises – nearly all broken. One was to allow people to speak out about the government itself. So the Chinese government established a process where people could apply for a permit to speak their minds in a designated area near the Olympic Village. Strangely, nobody spoke out. However, it was reported that there were two women in their seventies who applied to protest about their forced eviction from their homes in 2001. They applied for a permit at the Beijing Public Security Bureau and shortly thereafter were informed they had received a one-year sentence for “disturbing the public order” by China’s “Re-education Through Labor Commission.” So I guess speaking out in China is, on the surface, OK as long as you’re willing to be re-educated afterwards.
Lost in all the coverage of Phelps, gymnastics and women playing volleyball in bikinis were many stories of athletes living up to their expectations and athletes floundering under the spotlight. The American women and men’s 400 meter relays were both disqualified for dropping the baton, looking almost as if they had never practiced the exchange before. But Usain Bolt, who ran to three world records in the 100 meters, 200 meters and 400 relay, went beyond the hype. He was in a league by himself, winning each individual race by an embarrassing distance. Sure he was a goofball, but he’s still the fastest man on earth and deserved to be a bit cocky and clown-around. (There were some in our household who wondered if there were faster people inside the earth, but no matter).
The men’s water polo team, only briefly making it on NBC’s inconsistent coverage, took home a silver medal despite coming into the Games as only the 9th ranked team. They defeated perennial powerhouse teams such as Serbia, Italy and Croatia and were tied with eventual gold medal winner Hungary 9-9 before faltering in the final quarter and losing 14-10. The NBA is back too, winning the gold medal after throwing out groups of undisciplined teammates who found little time for practice. The gold medal match was much closer than expected, but in the end, the U.S. proved its dominance in the sport (but it’s getting much closer).
Women’s softball took only a silver medal after outscoring their opponents 53-1 and then losing 3-1 to Japan in the gold medal round. It was supposed to be the fourth straight gold medal for the U.S. and, ironically, the American women’s dominance of the sport was the reason the IOC had voted to end it following this Olympics. The IOC will vote on re-instating the sport in 2009, leaving conspiratorial thinkers to wonder if they threw the game to get the sport back in.
The U.S. men winning the volleyball gold medal over Brazil was a great story inside a horrific one. Before the Games began, the coach of the team’s mother-in-law and father-in-law were stabbed by a deranged individual, his father-in-law dying from the attack. When his team won the gold medal, the coach was so emotional he had to find a private place under the stands to let it all out. I am sure the victory was bittersweet.
There were athletes and coaches who exceed expectations – Jason Lezak’s amazing final leg to get Phelps a gold medal in the 4X100 free relay and Stephanie Brown-Trafton surprising the world by winning the women’s discus, and there were those who behaved shamefully – the coach of pole vault silver medalist Jennifer Stuczynski telling her on live TV that she, essentially, stunk, and Swedish wrestler Ara Abrahamian tossing his bronze medal and walking off the podium in protest at the judging in his semi-final match.
Beijing may have been the biggest winner (beside NBC and Phelps) as it looked all polished up and ready for the world to get a glimpse behind the Bamboo Curtain. The facilities were remarkable and the opening and final ceremonies were incredible and looked like something that can only be done with 1.3 billion people. Maybe it’s only ironic that China’s national anthem is titled March of the Volunteers. While it’s doubtful anyone volunteers to march, it did appear the Chinese people were ready to put on a showcase for their emerging country and they did it with volume and, perhaps, a little volunteerism.
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Figuring Out Our Energy Policy
So I figured out America's oil policy. It's a long-term policy but our grandchildren or their children will reap all the rewards.
By making sure we don't pump oil in the U.S. and purchase all our oil from other countries instead, we will eventually run all of them out of oil. When this occurs years down the road, we'll be the only country left standing with oil. Then the Arabs and Russians and Venezuelans will have to buy their oil from us. We'll be able to to sell it to them for $500 per barrel or whatever price we want. Someday all Americans will be billionaires and acquire even more obnoxious habits like current oil barons. We'll all be crude because of crude!
There may be only one problem with this theory -- assuming, as I believe, it is official policy. When the other countries finally run out of oil, there may no longer be a need for oil as other energy alternatives may be developed. To stop this from happening, we must buy and bury all alternative energy proposals and we can never, and I mean never, drill for oil for the rest of this century.
I'm pretty sure I'm right on this.
Sunday, August 17, 2008
I Run 5,000,000 Millimeters Uphill!
It’s really all Sladed’s fault. He has been such a sports machine that he’s shamed me into getting off my butt and pushing myself athletically. He’s made me want to try to keep up and got my competitive juices flowing. It’s been a long time since I did anything requiring even a remote amount of athletic skill, so it has been feeling right to something about it.About 10 days ago I returned to the office from an extended trip in which I did very little exercise and snuck too many Kit Kat bars out of the hotel vending machine. Sladed told me there was a 5K run in Solana Beach and, like an idiot not wanting to be shown up by the Adonis-legged Sladed, I said, “sure, I’ll run in that.” I had run three miles – almost a 5K – on a treadmill before so I thought I could do it and not totally embarrass myself.
Then Ber tells me she is running the America’s Finest City half marathon and told me there was also a 5K race as well. She demanded I run in the AFC 5K because, well, she’s a princess and the Ber always gets what she wants, so I signed up for the AFC 5K. Of course the Ber’s race was a 6:45 a.m. start and Sladed’s was at 9:15 a.m. This combined two things I hate: getting up early and getting up early to exercise.
Anyway, I was secretly hoping something would happen that would prevent me from running, like the loss of a limb or painful dental surgery. A few days after signing up, I had an abruptly-scheduled trip to Moscow that would not return me in time to run the event so it looked like I was out of the race. Too bad. But, just as quickly, my trip was called off and I was back in the run again.
Unfortunately my only additional training was running one practice 5K and a two mile run around my neighborhood a few days before the race. I certainly knew that I could do a run/walk and finish the race, but I wanted to do the best I could under my current physical conditioning – somewhere between critical and cadaver.
I woke up at 5:30 to get to the race start, but listened to Mrs. Laz’s advice in pinning my bib number on my back, slowing down my important mental prep time. Of course it was wrong. As all great runners know it goes on the front. I had to make a quick adjustment after we saw 5,000 runners with their bib number pinned on their front. That error in lost time and concentration probably added five minutes to my race time.
At the start of the race, they require that only those given a bib number 1-150 be at the start and everyone else should start at their leisure. You're given a little computer chip that fits in your shoe and marks the time you begin the race and when you finish, so you could literally leave 20 minutes after the official start and it will not affect your actual running time. I started about two minutes after the others had left and wish I didn’t. I got caught up in those who planned to walk the 5k and had to wind my way around people walking and chatting and basically blocking access to the course. It would have been better for me to have left a minute earlier or five minutes later, but it’s something I will learn for next time.
Some key things about this race and the course: the course is all uphill. I know that may sound impossible, but it’s true. You have to run to a peak of about 6,000 feet above sea level and then deal with the altitude. Then you run up a similar mountain peak and find yourself at 12,000 feet with no oxygen tanks! To get back down to sea level, there is no gradual decline. You have to chip away at the glacier and jump from huge heights before rolling down sheer cliffs, avoiding death as best you can. It may be the toughest course in the world!
Needless to say I didn’t win, in part to Mrs. Laz’s error and underestimating the heights of the mountain peaks in Balboa Park. Perhaps my lack of training, physical conditioning, extra weight and non-athletic running style played a small roll.
I was in what most analysts would call the “chase group,” some 15-19 minutes behind the "winners." We were a hearty bunch of walkers, parents pushing strollers, the elderly, kids under 10, the overweight and one homeless guy, although I think he joined the race when he heard the rattle of change in the pocket of the runner in front of me. We were a proud and tight-knit group, striving mightily to the finish line.
I admit I was tired throughout the race, but when I turned the final corner and could see the Hall of Champions (aka, the “Bird’s Nest") where once a portrait of Sladed hung on the wall, I knew I was near the end. Since it was my first official 5K, I did my personal best of 34 minutes, 34 seconds, which works out to an 11:08 mile. I finished 817th out of 1,580 and came in 17th in my 50-54 age group (out of 26).
About an hour and a half later (and ten miles longer) The Ber came running by to finish her half marathon and all of us; Mrs. Laz, The Boy, The Girl and I, were all able to cheer for her completing her first run at that distance.
I was happy to be out running and competing and would like to run more, but I am afraid joining Ber in the half marathon will be long way down the road if it ever happens. My immediate goal is to run another, and decidedly more flat, 5K and see how I do and, hopefully, work my way up to a 10K. The ravages of age and general laziness will dictate if I ever double up on today’s run.
Saturday, August 02, 2008
Twain Quote
All you need in this life is ignorance and confidence, and then success is sure.
— Mark Twain
I think I have been in a few businesses that go by this doctrine. The quote kind of resonated when I read it.
— Mark Twain
I think I have been in a few businesses that go by this doctrine. The quote kind of resonated when I read it.
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