Day: January 6, 2005

  • Book Meme: Tell Me Your Authors

    From the Llama Butchers (though not originally), here’s the idea:

    You copy the list from the last person in the chain, delete the names of the authors you don’t have on your home library shelves and replace them with names of authors you do have. Bold the replacements.

    Here is their list, followed by mine with replacements.

    1. Evelyn Waugh
    2. Thomas Hardy
    3. Tom Clancy
    4. Jane Austen
    5. CS Lewis
    6. JRR Tolkien
    7. Robert Graves
    8. P.G. Wodehouse
    9. Patrick O’Brian
    10. William Shakespeare

    Gunner’s Contribution
    1. Ken Follett
    2. Mario Puzo
    3. Tom Clancy
    4. Robert Heinlein
    5. CS Lewis
    6. JRR Tolkien
    7. Ernest Hemingway
    8. George Orwell
    9. Joseph Heller
    10. William Shakespeare

    Now it’s your turn.

  • General Sees Permanent 30,000 Increase in U.S. Army

    I see this as pretty much a done deal.

    With the U.S. military heavily engaged in Iraq and Afghanistan, a senior general said on Thursday he expected the Pentagon will make permanent a temporary increase of 30,000 soldiers in the Army.

    The senior Army general, briefing reporters on condition of anonymity, said, “As far as I can see, it will be hard for us to come off of the 30 (thousand).” Maintaining the additional 30,000 soldiers costs $3 billion annually, he said.

    A permanent increase to 512,000 soldiers in the Army would require congressional approval.

    “There is stress in the force,” the general added. “That’s why we asked for the temporary 30-K increase to relieve some of that pressure. That’s why we instituted stop-loss.”

    The Army has issued so-called stop-loss orders blocking thousands of soldiers from leaving the military if their volunteer service ends while they are in Iraq and Afghanistan.

    A year ago, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld authorized the addition of 30,000 soldiers beyond the Army’s approved limit of 482,000, using emergency powers granted by Congress.

    The move came as the Army was struggling to maintain troop levels for the guerrilla war in Iraq that scuttled earlier plans to draw down forces there.

    Both Republican and Democratic lawmakers have called for a permanent increase in the size of the Army — which provides most of the troops for the two wars. Rumsfeld has resisted, arguing that restructuring the force and making it more efficient could reduce some of the stress.

    The general’s comments followed news of a memo by Lt. Gen. James Helmly, head of the U.S. Army Reserve, in which he said the reserve was “rapidly degenerating into a ‘broken’ force” because of dysfunctional military policies.

    With the regular Army stretched thin and crucial specialists like military police concentrated in reserve units, the Pentagon has tapped heavily into the Army Reserve and the Army National Guard to keep up troop levels in Iraq.

    Reservists make up 40 percent of U.S. troops in Iraq.

    “I would not use the term ‘broke,”‘ the senior general told reporters. “‘Stressed’ is probably a much more accurate term.”

    A draft? No. But I certainly advocate an increase in the size of the all-volunteer military, certainly more than just making permanent the 30K temporary boost in this article. The issue is not if we have enough troops for today but rather if we have enough for tomorrow.

  • Jordan Calls on Iraqis to Go to Polls

    Jordan has backed off delaying the Iraqi vote and now is beginning a Get-out-the-Iraqi-vote drive.

    Jordan urged that Iraqi elections proceed as scheduled and called on all Iraqis to seize a “golden opportunity” and go to the polls Jan. 30 to elect an assembly that will write a constitution.

    Jordan had previously backed postponing the elections, but Jordanian Foreign Minister Hani al-Mulqi opened a meeting Thursday of foreign ministers of Iraq’s neighbors by urging there be no delay in the landmark ballot.

    “From this podium, I call on all factions of the Iraqi people, young and old, men and women, to go to the polls to choose their representatives and draw their own future,” Al-Mulqi said. Failing to do that “will leave the door open for others to choose for them.”

    The vote, he said, is “a golden opportunity for all Iraqi men and women to contribute to putting Iraq on the right track, to build the state of law and return security and stability.”

  • Muslim Link to Anti-Semitism Rise in Europe

    In today’s world, the gist of this story should seem all too obvious, but it is good to hear it blatantly stated by a U.S. State Department source.

    A rise in the number of Muslims in Western Europe has intensified longstanding anti-Jewish sentiment in the region and acts such as desecrating synagogues are likely to increase, the State Department said.

    Since 2000 in Europe, vandalism such as graffiti, fire bombings of Jewish schools and the desecration of cemeteries and synagogues has surged and attacks against Jews “increased markedly,” the department said in a report, which was mandated by Congress.

    “This was a one-time report that calls attention to a new phenomenon. While there is not an explosion of anti-Semitism, it’s a concern that there is a rise of acts by Muslim minorities in Europe,” said a State Department official, who asked not to be named.

    “Unfortunately, the old-fashioned anti-Semitism of skinheads and the like has not gone away and people are also using Israeli and U.S. policies as an excuse to promote their anti-Semitism,” he added.

    Other causes contributing to the rise in anti-Semitism include Israel’s policy toward Palestinians and the invasion of Iraq, led by the Jewish state’s benefactor, the United States.

    Coming just after the State Department official’s quote about Israeli and U.S. policies, Reuters demonstrates confusion between the terms causes and excuses.

    Most European governments regard anti-Semitism as a serious problem and have taken measures, such as introducing legislation and bolstering law enforcement, to combat the trend, the report said.

    But the Bush administration, which has been criticized particularly among Arabs for favoring Israel in its conflict with the Palestinians, predicted new, disaffected Muslim immigrants to Europe will direct their anger against Jews.

    “In Western Europe, traditional far-right groups still account for a significant proportion of the attacks against Jews and Jewish properties (but) disadvantaged and disaffected Muslim youths increasingly were responsible for most of the other incidents,” the report said.

    “The trend appears likely to persist as the number of Muslims in Europe continues to grow while their level of education and economic prospects remain limited,” it added.

    The stories of the problems Europe is facing from its growing Muslim populations are become more and more disturbing. Here and here are looks at difficulties in Sweden.

    Sweden is one of the worst hit countries in Europe of Muslim immigration and Political Correctness. Now, the police themselves have publicly admitted that they no longer control one of Sweden’s major cities. I have made some exclusive translations from Swedish media. They show the future of Eurabia unless Europeans wake up.

    I’ve seen the future of Eurabia, and it’s called ‘Sweden.’ Malmø is Sweden’s third largest city, after Stockholm and Gothenburg. Once-peaceful Sweden, home of ABBA, IKEA and the Nobel Prize, is increasingly looking like the Middle East on a bad day.

    Here is a lengthy look today at several places in Europe, including Germany, Britain, France and the Netherlands.

    The Netherlands, like much of Europe, has made the mistake of long ignoring parallel societies growing in the poor, immigrant neighborhoods. “When you’re not integrated, don’t speak the language, don’t have a job, are living in half ruins–we must not overlook that there is a breeding ground for real violence,” says von der Fuhr. It all leaves young Muslims, even those born in Europe, vulnerable to what he calls “garbage can” Islam.

    We are certainly in a global war for the future direction of civilization, and Europe is shaping up to be one of the battlefields of the future if decisive steps are not soon initiated.

  • Personal Finance D’Oh!

    Bonehead financial move by yours truly.

    I got a call last week from Carmax, the people who have my car loan. Seems I was late on the loan payment. I couldn’t figure how that could be, as I’ve been paying ahead and paying on the same date as another bill. Go back through my online banking records and, apparently, I had indeed missed a payment in October to Carmax but not the other bill.

    I was perplexed.

    Until tonight, when I discovered I have a credit balance from October on my previously zero-balance Capital One (emergencies only) credit card. Damned online-banking drop-down menu. Cap … Car … d’oh!