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THE VIEW FROM CHAOS MANOR View 337 November 22 - 28, 2004 |
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Monday
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Monday
November 22, 2004 I intend to do a commentary on the Intelligence Bill and the subject of intelligence organizations, with luck in the next day or so. Meanwhile there's a comment in mail on a reaction to my discourse on Jacobinism and Pursuit, and we seem to have saved the Space Bill for now although it still must get out of the Senate.
Does anyone have a copy of, or know where I can buy a copy of, Charles Erskine Scott Wood, Heavenly Discourse? It is long out of print. I would buy a copy, but I would be satisfied to find a copy on line somewhere. It was once a pretty well known book, a 1927 satire with the subtitle "Billy Sunday Enters into Heaven" (that may have been several chapters rather than a subtitle). Another section dealt with an attempt by God to enforce the dictum that "The Stupid Shall Not Enter Heaven" but that had its problems. Anyway I would like to find a copy. (Thanks: I'll have some sources and comments in mail.)
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Monday
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Tuesday, November
23, 2004
Many comments on sources for Heavenly Discourses. I am still working on a piece on intelligence and organization; the short version is that competition is good, and having a czar who controls every intelligence budget is bad. Coordination is good, and having a National Security Council staff group for that is good, but too much sharing compromises sources: Kim Philby is one of the best examples of that. He was routinely shown "NoFORN" intelligence including agent source data by "coordinators" who didn't believe in Communist infiltration of security services, and thought our British Friends ought to know. I can give other examples of compromised sources going through Israel, and through the German intelligence networks. Back in Cold War days the German intelligence organizations were very leaky outfits penetrated to their cores by Stasi, but many in the US refused to believe it. Over here we had Alger Hiss, Harry Dexter White, and a number of other Soviet penetrations of our policy making (i.e. intelligence-using and "coordinating") agencies. More later after my morning walk, but the President's Intelligence Czar is a Bad Idea. If we centralize intelligence, while removing any enforcement of immigration laws, what's the point? The Senate intends to allow enemy agents to come to the US through gaming the sanctuary laws and to give them driving licenses. And centralization of intelligence is a very bad idea; see the letter from Francis Hamit and my reply in mail. Sensenbrunner understands these matters better than Bush. Bush should listen. ========= The new FBI Hate Crimes 2003 publication is at: Aren't we so much safer now that we have Federal Hate
Crimes? ======================== Purple Hearts: I saw a 60 Minutes in which a man who had lost his leg in the crash of a military convoy vehicle, deployed as protection for a convoy from armed attack, did not get a Purple Heart and is not considered a casualty of war for statistical purposes. This in insane. This was no ordinary accident, and although not directly caused by enemy action, took place during a military operation. It's quite different from a car accident while on leave even overseas. It has been a very long time since I thought about such things, but I thought that being wounded in a combat zone while on a combat mission was sufficient for being awarded the Purple Heart. I am almost certain I recall someone who got one because a typewriter fell on his foot while in a field hq. And I don't think anyone begrudged it, although there were a few snickers. Still, compared with getting a small bit of shrapnel in the buttocks, I would think that losing a leg, or even having a foot broken, would be more than sufficient. If we have an expert here who saw that 60 Minutes, I would like an opinion, please. This seems like a very bad idea, to not accord people severely injured during a combat operation but not by enemy action so much differently from those who got hit by their own grenade when trying to destroy enemy supplies. ================ This came up in another conference, in a discussion about daughters... Bitter
Thoughts on Receiving a Slice of Cordelia's Wedding-Cake
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| This week: Monday
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Wednesday,
November 24, 2004 Things are slowing down around here as we build up for the holidays. Happy Thanksgiving.
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Thursday,
Happy thanksgiving
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| This week: Monday
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Friday,
WAS AT LOSCON
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Monday
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Saturday,
November 27, 2004
Off to LOSCON. Check mail.
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Monday
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Sunday,
November 28, 2004 LOSCON all day
This is a day book. It's not all that well edited. I try to keep this up daily, but sometimes I can't. I'll keep trying. See also the monthly COMPUTING AT CHAOS MANOR column, 8,000 - 12,000 words, depending. (Older columns here.) For more on what this page is about, please go to the VIEW PAGE. If you have never read the explanatory material on that page, please do so. If you got here through a link that didn't take you to the front page of this site, click here for a better explanation of what we're trying to do here. This site is run on the "public radio" model; see below. If you have no idea what you are doing here, see the What is this place?, which tries to make order of chaos.
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