Base10Blog
Friday, December 30, 2005
 
Photo of the Day

bklynbridgepanorama, originally uploaded by base10blog.

Base10 wanted to post at least something before the day ended! It was a busy day at work, but let's not complain. Anyway, this was taken with the Mamiya 7ii using an 80mm lens and a yellow filter on Ilford film. Image scanned and and cropped slightly. Enjoy!


Thursday, December 29, 2005
 
Photo of the Day

stjameschurch, originally uploaded by base10blog.

This is St. James Church in Elmhurst, Queens. It used to be in a very dilapidated state until recently when some Landmarks Preservation money went into fixing it up. St. James is one of the oldest churches in Queens dating back to 1734. There is a little information about it and it's neighbor the Reform Church of Newtown here.

This was a tough photo. It was very flat. When I tried to bring out the clouds, the church was too dark. If I brought out the building, the clouds washed out completely. This was the best I could do. This image was taken with the Yashicamat using, I think, T-Max and scanned using the Epson 4990. I didn't get a chance to spot it, so there may be some scratches. Enjoy.


 
More Camera Stuff

Base10 bought the Mamiya 7 150mm long lens and understands now why rangefinders aren't meant for long lenses. While it is certainly usable, it is fairly hard to focus. I wanted to round out my kit with the 50mm, but was told they were out of stock. As far as the 150mm goes, it looks like a great piece of optics. My only complaint is that Mamiya ships this with a cheesy plastic lens shade. What's the point? You have a tack sharp lens (if the 80mm is any comparison) but you bundle it with a cheap bit of plastic?

The length of the lens and the difficulty focusing underscore this issue in the 35mm realm. Only the Leica M3 can accurately focus a 135mm lens or even a Noctilux wide open. The Bessa is limited to about a 90mm lens (except maybe the Bessa-T). This is fine. Save your SLR gear for wildlife and sports where long lenses are necessary. Interesting stuff. Rangefinders are so different.


 
Good Morning

Base10 feels a bit better this morning after a good night's sleep. (Apologies to Mrs. Base10 for snoring). Base10's experience with flu-like symptoms yesterday persuaded him to take a Theraflu. This concoction is so powerful it makes one wonder why people have to actually buy illegal drugs. When Base10 managed to pull his head down from the ceiling after work, he did manage to catch the Rangers beat the Islanders very badly.

Anyway, its a grey, rainy day here in Gotham and it's likely to stay that way until tomorrow. No matter, Base10 is off next week and looking forward to it, especially the Bowl games.


Wednesday, December 28, 2005
 
Photo of the Day

subwaypiper, originally uploaded by base10blog.

Base10 is a bit under the weather today--hence the absence of entries. Base10 will try to post something tonight, but makes no promises. He just took some flu medicine and frankly feels a bit intoxicated. To tide you over, here is a bagpiper Base10 spotted on the subway the other night. Now that's not something you see everyday, even in New York. Anyway, this was taken with the EOS 20d using the 70-200L lens at about 100mm. Exposure adjusted slightly. Enjoy.


Tuesday, December 27, 2005
 
Well it's a Good Thing Somebody's on Trial!
"Iraqis find another mass grave" - Aljazeera.
 
This is Not Good
"Rockets fired from Lebanon hit north Israel -Army" - Reuters.

This can only serve to escalate Israeli retaliation. Not only is it an attack on Israel, it is an attempt by Hezbollah to foment anti-Israeli sentiment in Lebanon. Let's see how the Lebanese deal with them.
 
Photo of the Day

topofmunibuilding, originally uploaded by base10blog.

This is the very top of the Municipal Building. It is a typical tourist photo, but one taken with a 70-200 L lens! Anyway, this was taken digitally and slightly cropped.


 
So Long, Monday Night Football

Monday Night Football ended much the way it started--with a Jets loss. But hey Jets fans, let's not be too bitter. While we will have football on Monday night on ESPN, it will not be the same as MNF. Men (and women) of my age and aspect grew up with MNF. In some households it was an institution.

Last night's show--if not the game--was pretty good. There were appearances by Don Meredith and Frank Gifford. There was a montage of past celebrities asking out, "Are you ready for some football?"

Base10 will miss MNF. He has cursed it for being on too late, for not being perfectly prescient in the preseason and its consequent failure to predict which games will be exciting in December, and its uncanny ability to recruit gasbag commentators from Howard Cosell to John Madden, but MNF has been fun over the years.

Of course there was one bright spot in last night's game. As Vinny Testaverde and Doug Flutie faced each other in garbage time (surely this will answer some future trivia question about the first time two quarterbacks in their forties faced each other on MNF), Vinny scored a touchdown pass on a nice drive in the final minutes. Not with a bang, but a whimper, perhaps, but nevertheless kind of sweet.


 
Today's Agenda

Base10 is on his way to work on the subway this morning on a chilly December day in NYC. I toyed with the idea of riding the bike in, but it's very windy and let's just say my bike skills are not what they once were.

Anyway, it looks to be pretty quiet at work. There will be some tweaking to the recruit plan--I think they will be graduating tomorrow--but that's not really a heavy lift. The other thing I want to do today is go to Adorama and buy some glass for my Mamiya 7ii rangefinder.

For photo equiptment in NYC there are two sources: Adorama and B&H Photo. Base10 has a slight preference for Adorama but they're both good stores. Anyway, Base10 went to Adorama yesterday all set to buy, but they were closed. Interestingly, when I set out from work on this errand last week I was also stymied by an office emergency. Could this be mere coincidence? Hmm...

Anyway, I want to pick up the 150mm lens and probably one of the wides: either the 43 or 50mm. I'll probably skip the 65mm, for now.

I have to say that I've been taken by the idea of rangefinders. You can handhold them at amazingly slow shutter speeds and there are very high quality lenses available for them, both pricey and not so pricey. They are also quite small and quiet. Using fast film and fast lenses, they also really open up a world of low-light photography.

I'm even considering a 35mm camera--something I never thought I'd do again. A new Leica is out of the question--a brand new MP goes for like $3500 and that's just the body! However, you can get a used M3 for a decent price and Cosina/Voigtlander has some nice and reasonably priced Bessa cameras along with some very, very attractively priced, high quality lenses including some rectilinear ultrawides. This is clearly the shortcoming of digital. A 1.5 frame enlargement pretty much eliminates the ability to do ultrawideangle shots.


Monday, December 26, 2005
 
Photo of the Day

municipalbuildingwreath, originally uploaded by base10blog.

This is the wreath that hangs from the arch at the Municipal Building every Christmas Holiday Season. Taken with the EOS 20d using the EF 70-200 lens at about 100mm. Cropped slightly in Photoshop. Enjoy.


 
Post-Holiday Enthusiasm

Base10 is on his way to work this morning after a pleasant holiday weekend. Christmas is okay. Base10 spent most of the weekend watching sports--generally football--and so thought this was the best Christmas ever.

Plans for the blog this week include:
- a reflection on 2005 and what it's meant to Base10,
- a wrap of the NFL playoff situation,
- a review of the Serenity DVD that Santa left in my stocking, and
- the usual biting satire and witty writing. (Oh, who am I kidding? It'll be the usual crap!)


 
Generation Jets

Base10 is gearing up for thje Jets-New England matchup tonight on Monday Night Football. Tonight's game will be the last MNF game--at least in its current form--and will constitute the end of an era. MNF revolutionized the way football is broadcast and is at least partially the reason that it is so popular today.

Interestingly, the first Monday Night Football game featured the Jets, too. Play hard, guys.

Anyway, Base10 was watching the TV yesterday before the game and watched an episode of "Generation Jets." It is a cartoon that depicts a group of friends in New York who are big Jets fans and have all sorts of adventures around the city. Expecting little more than a crass attempt at selling merchandise to children, Base10 was surprised to learn that the show was quite good. Its main theme had one of the characters excelling in ping-pong. When ever he would win, he would do a garrish victory dance and trash-talk his opponent. He also attributed his success to a high-tech paddle. This brought on another theme about technology vs. Traditionalism and which was better. Anyway, the band of friends has a live action-to-animation interview with Lovernius Coles who tells them that a cellebration after a score should be with teammates because you couldn't have scored without them.

In an effort to bring him down to earth one of the ping-pong players friends sets up a match with the best player on Staten Island. Our crew has to catch the ferry over to S.I. And we are treated to a mini-history lesson about the ferry. (Did you know Cornelius Vanderbilt made a fortune on the ferry before building railroads?) Once the gang gets there, they play the match and the trash-talker is beaten by his S.I. opponent--who by the way is using a plain old wooden paddle. Expecting to be humiliated, the S.I. Player shakes hands and congratulates him on a great game. When asked how he could play so well with a plain paddle he reminds the gang that it's not the paddle but the player that wins games.

So there you have it: a cartoon that teaches good sportsmanship, a little New York City history and the idea that getting the newest sneakers/skates/racket will not make you a better player. Pretty good show! If Base10 had children, he'd want them to watch this show.


Sunday, December 25, 2005
 
Christmas Photo of the Day

cityhalltree, originally uploaded by base10blog.

Happy Non-Denominational Holiday! Base10 just got back from his in-laws and decided to post this before bed. This is the fountain in City Hall Park. During the Christmas season, they fill it with trees that are decorated by school kids. This was taken with the EF 70-200L lens at 70mm using ambient light. The histogram was adjusted and cropped slightly in Photoshop. Enjoy, and Merry Christmas! Now let's get to bed because Santa is comming!


Friday, December 23, 2005
 
And You Were Worried About Federal Spending
"FDA May Approve Deficit Patch" - AP.
 
Photo of the Day - Transit Strike Edition

subway3, originally uploaded by base10blog.

We're all going back to work now, right? You go transit system! Taken with the EOS 20d using the 17-85 EFS lens.


 
Off to Work

Base10 is on his way to work as he writes this. He is riding the New York City subway system, now completely operational after the strike.

Base10 has some final thoughts on his experience commuting during the strike. Base10 successfully navigated the streets of Queens and Brooklyn to get to work and return home again. Good rides, and I made the trips in less than an hour. Hey, the old guy can still ride! Base10 feels pretty good about it and is very glad he quit smoking. While he may have wheezed and puffed over the bridge, he did make it, and that's the most important part. I think this may be just the thing to jumpstart my fitness program.

About the strike itself, I really get a kick out of the free-market types condemning the strikers. Base10 has mixed feelings about the strike but is sympathetic to TWU's rank and file. Base10's union has to wait three years on a contract (and is still waiting) so maybe this will send a message that business can not continue as usual in delaying contracts. Anyway, if you are a free-market type, why can't labor limit their supply? Why isn't the Taylor law a needless regulation on the free market for the supply of labor? Nobody ever argues this point.

Please note that Base10 is generally anti-union. The exception he makes is for municipal unions who often cannot resort to traditional labor practices like strikes, picketing or slowdowns to get more money or benefits. The argument that since the teachers and police have to wait three years for a contract, that's okay for the transit workers too. That's missing the point. Nobody should have to wait three years. Base10 supports some form of Taylor Law that prevents essential municipal employees from striking, but it should also contain provisions that the municipality involved suffer some consequences for dilatory tactics.

One last thing. The TWU executive baoard expects a contract this week. If the negotiations continue to stall, we could have another walk-out in time for New Year's Day.


 
Christmas Agenda

Christmas being on the weekend this year creates some problems but they are not insurmountable. Base10 will probably get cut loose early today and that's a good thing. Base10 still has to get something for Mrs. Base10 to put under the tree. Christmas Eve on Saturday brings the prospect of a full day of watching football--possibly with the Base10 Brother. Hurrah! Then Base10 will have an evening with his inlaws. Christmas Day is open, so Base10 will probably watch more football and make a ham or other large cut of meat. Don't you love the holidays?


 
Thoughts on Photography

While Base10 has been collecting equiptment, he has not been doing much picture taking. That is partially due to laziness, partially due to the strike and its distruptions and partially due to the fact that Base10 is in a creative funk.

Anyway, in my bicycle travels I visited some locals that I haven't seen in a while. Surely these are worthy subjects. Maybe as I ride a little more, I'll bring along the camera, too.


Thursday, December 22, 2005
 
And Americans Are Worried About the NSA
"Britain will be first country to monitor every car journey" - The Independant.
 
This Piercing Thing Has Just Gone Too Far
"Two more rings discovered around Uranus" - MSNBC.
 
The Strike is Over--At Least for Now
The TWU's Executive Board has just voted to end the strike while still negotiating with the MTA. Good news for commuters. Interestingly, New Yorkers were evenly split on whether the MTA or the union were to blame. Click here for some interesting poll results.

The subway will not however be back to normal until tomorrow at the earliest.
 
NSA Wiretaps
There is a very interesting thread in the blogosphere that suggests that the NSA Surveillance program is not about wiretaps, per se, but more likely about some cutting edge new technology that would enable real time surveillance most likely using some sophisticated sampling and voice recognition system--something only the NSA is capable of implementing. I think this is a really interesting take on the issue, and it sure makes a lot of sense. If this is the case, the revelation of the existence of this technology may be the real issue--and makes it all the more reprehensible that the NY Times published this story. Click here for a link to a Defensetech analysis, and here for a follow-up. Most especially, read this story over at Arstechnica. I think they're on to something and it certainly explains the President's calm but forceful reaction to this.

Orin Kerr has a well thought out legal analysis, but even this doesn't take the tech angle into account. If Arstechnica is right, this activity doesn't fall clearly into the category of a wiretap and may be something else entirely. This is not to say that the technique doesn't fall under FISA or whether it is within the President's Article II powers, but it does certainly make the question more difficult to answer.
 
For This We Need Judges
"Judge Rules Caging Ohio Children Was Abuse" - AP.
 
Saddam Victimized!
You know, you have to wonder about the mindset of the US and indeed the world media. Click here for the Google list of news items about the Saddam Hussein trial. The headlines are focusing on Saddam's ridiculous accusations of torture by US forces while in custody. The headlines do not reflect anything contained in the testimony of Saddam's accusers. They tell stories of people's skin being ripped off after molten plastic was poured on them by Saddam's henchmen. The media once more proves themselves to be pathetic.
 
Yankees Sign Jesus
The Yankees have apparently stolen Johnny Damon away from the Red Sox. They are paying him $52 million over a four-year deal--$12 million more than the Bosox's last offer. It's probably a good deal for the Yanks, Damon is 32, but probably has at least four years left in him and is a great lead-off hitter. To Yankees fans at least, this is probably an indication that the balance of the universe has been restored after the Red Sox Championship two years ago.
 
Transit Strike Update
Base10 is getting ready to leave for work, but there is encouraging news that the strike will end soon. Supposedly, the parties have been meeting overnight in an efort to hash out an agreement. This is apparently to meet a deadlineset for 11 AM for the union leaders to appear in court. We can hope that we'll have service back tomorrow.
 
Photo of the Day - Transit Strike Edition

subway2, originally uploaded by base10blog.

Base10 is getting ready to set out for work on the bike again, but wanted to post this image first. This image was taken digitally with the Canon 20d using the 17-85 lens. Enjoy!


Wednesday, December 21, 2005
 
Kofi Annan Proud of Sudan Genocide
Not exactly, but apparently Kofi Annan's biggest regret is that he did not prevent the Iraqi war, at least according to this Reuters report:
"If I go back in recent years, one thing I would have liked to see ... is for us to have done everything that we could have done to avoid a war in Iraq that has brought such division within this organization and the international community," Annan said.

"And that is one thing that I must say still haunts me and bothers me that, as an organization, as an international community, we were not able to do."

I guess he's okay with overseeing if not participating in the oil-for-food scandal--the single largest financial scandal in history, or the Sudanese genocide, or his failure to do anything at all about the Rwandan genocide when he was the head of UN peacekeeping. This is really the only thing you need to know about Kofi Annan.
 
Transit Strike - Day 2
Base10 rode his bike into work today, but must admit that it started out as a disaster. I left the house about 8:30 this morning and decided to take the road bike today instead of the mountain bike after yesterday's disaster. So I bring the road bike over to the gas station to fill the tires. After tearing apart my bag, I find that I do not have a presta-to-schrader converter. Now I had used the converter in this exact same spot yesterday! After diligently searching my bag, I walked the bike back home. If you're a cyclist, you collect these adapters--mainly because you keep losing them. Anyway, after some searching through the house, I find another one and I'm ready to set off again. Back I go to the gas station. I diligently looses the valves on my tires and low and behold, siting on the ground is a presta-to-schrader converter--presumably the one I had yesterday. Joy.

So at least now I'm on the road but I've lost at least a half-hour. I travel up Queens Boulevard but traffic is awful. Even the parking lanes have been cleared and this leaves little room for a bicycle. (I for one do not like riding between lanes. It's very dangerous). So anyway, I decide to take this route to travel to Brooklyn along Grand Avenue in Queens. This will lead me to the Metropolitan Avenue Bridge into Greenpoint then Williamsburg then over the Williamsburg Bridge into work. Well, Base10 is the first to admit that he's not in the greatest of shape, but after much wheezing and puffing, he made it to the East River crossing. Thankfully, the north approach is now open. The southern approach is infinitely steeper. Even so, as I was starting the ascent several kids blew by me. Show-offs! Anyway, it is a long climb and if you don't have the right kind of bike or you don't know how to change gears it is still very hard. These same kids had to dismount at the top of the incline and walk their bikes. Ha ha!

In any event, I didn't get into work too late and I must admit that I enjoyed the ride. Except for the fact that my toes are freezing. My road bike takes lock-in cleats and these aren't really designed for cold-weather use. I have to get a pair of booties. I also have to get a cycling yarmulke. I don't have the hair on top to keep my head warm anymore.

So there's the story of my commute. We'll see how it goes at night going home.

As for the strike, it's still going and is now in its second day. There are a few developments:

First, a judge has ordered the union to pay $1 million per day fines. That's going to add up quick!

Second, The International TWU has distanced itself from the NYC Local. This may be an attempt to avoid being fined themselves rather than a difference in doctrine, but they are pressuring the union to submit to arbitration.

Third, the MTA has declared an impasse and is seeking arbitration themselves. An arbitrator would simply give the union the pattern other city workers are getting, so you know that the rank and file is not going to be happy about Roger Toussaint decision to strike if that is the case.

Fourth, it does not appear that the two sides are even talking. But look at this interesting analysis as to why the union and the MTA may not be that far apart.

More later, in case there are developments.
Tuesday, December 20, 2005
 
Photo of the Day - Transit Strike Edition

subway1, originally uploaded by base10blog.

In keeping with the theme of the Transit strike, Base10 is dipping into his collection of photos of the subway. This image was taken digitally with a Canon 20d using an EFS 17-85 lens then cropped slightly. Enjoy!


 
Sgt. Paul Ray Smith, RIP
Fred Barnes writes in the Weekly Standard about the shameful lack of media attention on a true American hero. Sgt. Paul Ray Smith was just awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor, the highest military award this country can bestow. Barnes describes the incident:
Five days before Baghdad fell in April 2003, Sergeant Smith and his men were building a makeshift jail for captured Iraqi troops. Surprised by 100 of Saddam Hussein's Republican Guards, Smith and his men, some of them wounded, were pinned down and in danger of being overrun. Smith manned a 50-caliber machine gun atop a damaged armored vehicle. Exposed to enemy fire, he singlehandedly repelled the attack, allowing his men to scramble to safety. He killed as many as 50 of Saddam's elite soldiers and saved more than 100 American troops. Paul Ray Smith, 33, was killed by a shot to the head.

As Barnes writes, the media has scarcely given this true hero any attention at all. Every reporter and editor in this country should be thankful that men as brave as Sgt. Smith are out there to protect them.
 
With Allies Like This, Who Needs Enemies?
Germany has reportedly released Mohammed Ali Hamadi from prison. He was serving a life sentence for the 1985 hijacking of a TWA jetliner and murder of a U.S. Navy diver and has been paroled after 19 years. How nice! I'm sure after murdering a US serviceman he has reformed. Maybe he wrote some children's books warning youngsters to stay away from terror gangs.
A spokesman for the Foreign Ministry, Martin Jaeger, said there was no connection between Hamadi's release and the recent freeing of former hostage Susanne Osthoff, a German woman released over the weekend after spending more than three weeks as a captive in Iraq.

It's interesting to note that he was never extradited to the United States because the US has the death penalty. This case just illustrates why we have the death penalty. At least if he was dead, he couldn't be released after nineteen years because some terrorist is holding a hostage and your government is too weak to do anything about.

Germans should be ashamed of themselves and the United States should punish the German government for this outrageous action.
 
Liveblogging the Strike

Late last night, the TWU rejected the "final offer" of the MTA and walked off the job. Base10 took a chilly ride on his bicycle to Flushing Meadow Park to take a bus into Manhattan run by the Department to get to work.

It is cold out. Temperatures are in the low twenties and thw wind is brisk so windchills are in the teens and single digits. And, as luck would have it, the rear shifter on my mountain bike doesn't work and it is stuck in the highest gear. Great.

Anyway, the MTA upped their offer slightly, keeping the current retirement age for new employees but increasing their retirement contribution. You do have to admire the timing of the TWU. They start the strike on Christmas week when its economic impact on the city is greatest. How long will it be before major retailers are screaming at the Governor and Mayor to settle.

As far as personality politics go, this is a loser for both of them The Governor especially appears to lack leadership. He may be trying to curry conservative support for a possible Presidential run by showing himself to be tough on the union, but it's not winning over many people in this city.

As for Bloomberg, he's coming off as a whiner. He won't get involved in negotiation--he does appoint two people to the MTA board after all--and he just keeps droning on about how the TWU should accept whatever is thrown at them. And after watching Bloomberg walk across the Brooklyn Bridge this morning like Koch did in 1980 at the start of the last strike was hysterical. He didn't say anything or take the usual photo-ops. So sorry for the inconvenience. Transit workers probably think it's worth it to lose two days pay just to see the Mayor freeze his ass off. I certainly do.

More later.


Monday, December 19, 2005
 
Photo of the Day - Special Bonus Edition

pearlstreet, originally uploaded by base10blog.

Base10 is actually going to go out and do some photography but decided to leave with this. This was taken with my cellphone on Pearl Street in lower Manhattan on a foggy, rainy day.


 
Speaking of the Times
After the Times was publishing their "blockbuster" story a few days ago expressing outrage that an espionage agency was actually engaging in espionage, James S. Robbins from National Review actually went and looked at the statute authorizing eavsdropping by the National Security Agency. In short, quoting the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) section 1802:
"Electronic Surveillance Authorization Without Court Order." Notwithstanding any other law, the President, through the Attorney General, may authorize electronic surveillance without a court order under this subchapter to acquire foreign intelligence information for periods of up to one year.

 
The UN and Lebanon
The New York Times editorial board reminds us that the international community is ignoring the fact that Syria assassinated its neighbor's head of state.
But I'm sure the UN will do something. Maybe they'll issue a strongly worded statement to be followed by...nothing at all.
 
Demise of FDR Democrats
John McIntyre writes in Real Clear Politics that the Democrats are setting themselves up on national security. He ponders:
With their publicly defeatist language, John Murtha, Nancy Pelosi and Howard Dean reinforce these “soft on security” steroretypes, a weakness that more sober-minded Democrats have been trying to mitigate since the late 60’s and 70’s. Unfortunately, this mentality dominates the Democrats’ political base and more accurately represents where the heart and soul of the modern Democratic party lies than the very tiny sliver of Joe Lieberman Democrats. The Party of FDR, Truman and John Kennedy -- at least on foreign policy -- is clearly no more.


McIntyre continues:
One of the major problems working against Democrats is many on their side appear to be rooting for failure in Iraq and publicly ridicule the idea that we actually might win. When this impression is put in context of the debate over eavesdropping or the Patriot Act, Democrats run the significant risk of being perceived to be more concerned with the enemy’s rights than protecting ordinary Americans. This is a loser for Democrats.

If Democrats want to make this spying “outrage” a page one story they are fools walking right into a trap. Now that this story is out and the security damage is already done, let’s have a full investigation into exactly who the President spied on and why. Let’s also find out who leaked this highly classified information and prosecute them to the full extent of the law. If the president is found to have broken the law and spied on political opponents or average Americans who had nothing to do with terrorism, then Bush should be impeached and convicted.

But unlike Senator Levin, who claimed on Meet The Press yesterday not to know what the President’s motives were when he authorized these eavesdropping measures, I have no doubt that the President’s use of this extraordinary authority was solely an attempt to deter terrorist attacks on Americans and our allies. Let the facts and the truth come out, but the White House’s initial response is a pretty powerful signal that they aren’t afraid of where this is heading.

 
Michael Barone Looks at History
Over in US News and World Report, Michael Barone looks at the foreign affairs events of the last twenty five years and finds that the academic and media elites are in trouble:
What are the lessons of the past 25 years?

First, that American military power can advance freedom and democracy to all corners of the world. Under Reagan and his three successors, America has played a lead role in extending freedom and democracy to most of Latin America, to the Philippines and Indonesia and almost all of East Asia, and, most recently, to Afghanistan and Iraq, with reverberations spreading through the Middle East. Area experts said, often plausibly, those countries' cultures were incompatible with democracy. Reagan, Margaret Thatcher, and brave men and women in those nations proved them wrong.

Second, that markets work and that lower taxes and less onerous government produce more economic growth than the alternative. About 43 million jobs have been created in the United States since December 1980, while the number in the more statist nations of western Europe is on the order of 4 million. Markets are creating millions of jobs in nominally Communist China and once socialist India.

Third, that politics and effective government can, as Daniel Patrick Moynihan said, change the culture. The crime-control methods pioneered by New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and the welfare reforms pioneered by Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson, imitated around the country and followed up by federal legislation, resulted in huge decreases in crime and welfare dependency.


Barone concludes:
These lessons have been widely learned and widely applied by George W. Bush and also to a large extent by Bill Clinton. But not, curiously enough, by those who see themselves as the best and the brightest, our university and media elites. They would still like to see America's power reined in, as it was in the 1970s. They are insouciant about the costs that larger and more intrusive government and higher taxes impose on the economy. They think that leniency and subsidy are the appropriate responses to deviant and self-destructive behavior. They think our most important right is a right to kill our unborn children. You have to be awfully smart, someone once said, to believe something so stupid. And to be so blind to the clear lessons of the past quarter century of history.

 
Photo of the Day

homesweethome, originally uploaded by base10blog.

Ah, it's good to be home. This is my hallway. Note the slight barrel distortion which is very obvious with the rectilinear lines around the outside of the shot. Taken digitally with the EOS 20d and an 17-85 EFS lens at minimal focal length. Enjoy!


 
Transit Strike?
Two bus lines in Queens went on strike this morning. The TWU is threatening to walk out at midnight tonight if their contract demands are not met. If they do, it's going to be a long week. Here's a link to the AP story if you want to read about it.
 
Speaking of the President...
Base10 didn't catch the President's speech last night. Someone should remind him not to schedule major policy addresses during NFL games. Anyway, here's a link to the video if you missed it. Pretty good speech, I say.
 
President's Press Conference
Base10 is off from work today and he caught the President's year-end press conference. While Bush never does well at press conferences--they simply don't suit his speaking style--he was particularly vocal in his defense of the NSA surveillance program. All in all, a decent performance. Click here for a summary. I was watching on NBC, and Tim Russert had a grin on like the NSA story was blood in the water. Base10 thinks that the big losers in this are going to be the Democrats when al is said and done.
 
This is Terrible!
Drunken Santas appear to be on a rampage in New Zealand.
Sunday, December 18, 2005
 
Photo Stuff
Base10 hasn't been doing as much photography as he would have liked lately. He did run a few rolls through his new 6x9 Crown Graphic, just to see how the images look. He should have them sometime this week. I did organize my gear and experimented quite a bit with flash, but didn't produce any images. Base10 will try to do more imaging during the week.
 
Photo of the Day

surrogatecourtinterior, originally uploaded by base10blog.

This is an interior shot of old Surrogate's Court. This is where Base10's office had its Christmas Holiday party. It is a beautiful space. Picture taken with the EOS 20d and an EFS 17-85 lens at 17mm. Enjoy!


 
Mark Steyn Takes on White-Flag Democrats
Mark Steyn writes in the Sun-Times about how, by opposing the war, Democrats look like losers when ever our enemies are defeated. He explains,
The Democratic Party have contrived to get themselves into a situation where bad news from Iraq is good for them and good news from Iraq is bad for them. And as there's a lot more good news than bad these days, that puts them, politically, in a tough spot -- even with a fawning media that, faced with Kerry and Murtha talking what in any objective sense is drivel, decline to call for the men with white coats but instead nod solemnly and wonder whether Bush is living "in a bubble."

One day Iraq will be a G7 member hosting the Olympics in the world's No. 1 luxury vacation resort of Fallujah, and the Defeaticrat Party will still be running around screaming it's a quagmire. It's not just that Iraq is going better than expected, but that it's a huge success that's being very deftly managed: The timeframe imposed on the democratic process turns out to have worked very well -- the transfer of sovereignty, the vote on a constitutional assembly, the ratification of the constitution, the vote for a legislature -- and, with the benefit of hindsight, it now looks like an ingeniously constructed way to bring the various parties on board in the right order: first the Kurds, then the Shia, now the Sunni. That doesn't leave many folks over on the other side except Zarqawi and [DNC Chairman Howard] Dean. What do the two have in common? They're both foreigners, neither of whom have the slightest interest in the Iraqi people.

And no, I'm not questioning their patriotism. Honestly, who can be bothered questioning anything so footling as Howard Dean's patriotism? If you're a Democratic patriot and you're outraged by my linking your party to the "insurgents," take it up with your leaders: They're the ones who've over-invested the party in American failure. And instead of being angry at me you should be ashamed of them. Your party is regarded as unserious on national security because it got it wrong last time round, when Kerry spent the last half of the Cold War siding with every loser on the planet -- opposing the liberation of Grenada, supporting the Sandinistas in Nicaragua. And at least that little Sandinista guy looked awful cute in his fatigues, like a novelty houseboy Teresa picked up on vacation. It's hard to believe a bunch of crazy mullahs and suicide bombers are going to do much for the lefty T-shirt business.


Read the article for some other thoughts on George Clooney and Brokeback Mountain.
 
While You're at NRO
Among other things, the good professor, Victor Davis Hanson, has some thoughts on Iraq and its effect on the Palestinian problem:
The Palestine problem is not even worse off after Iraq. Actually, it is far better with the isolated and disgraced Arafat gone, the fence slowly inching ahead, the worst radical Islamic terrorists on the West Bank in paradise, Israel out of Gaza, and the world gradually accepting its diplomatic presence. The real hopeless mess was 1992-2000 when a well-meaning Bill Clinton, Madeline Albright, and Dennis Ross still deluded themselves that a criminal gang leader like Yasser Arafat was a legitimate head of state or that you could start to end an endless war by giving his thugs thousands of M-16s.


This article covers a lot of ground. Read it all.
 
Tookie in the Great Beyond
Jack Dunphy has some thoughts on the funeral of Tookie Williams over at NRO. He points out the the far left are definitely their own worst enemy:
[The] Los Angeles Times reads: “Large Funeral Planned for Williams, Friend Says.” The brief story that follows tells of preparations being made by Stanley “Tookie” Williams’s longtime friend and collaborator Barbara Becnel to receive the executed man’s body and stage a large public funeral in Los Angeles. The ceremony, the story says, will be “on a scale of the funeral for Rosa Parks.”

So, in the eyes of Barbara Becnel (and, apparently, many others), a man who murdered four helpless people during the commission of two robberies, and who is sometimes credited with founding a street gang responsible for thousands of additional murders, is deserving of no less a tribute than that given to a pioneer of the civil-rights movement. This is what passes for enlightened thinking on the fringes of the American Left, which for years has lionized such homicidal thugs as Fidel Castro, Che Guevara, and Yasser Arafat, and which now very noisily places Tookie Williams, like convicted cop-killer Mumia Abu Jamal before him, in this pantheon of heroes.


Good stuff.
 
Sports Sunday
There were some pretty good games yesterday in the NFL. (We love NFL Saturdays!) Anyway, New England destroyed the Buccs 28-0 in the early game. I think New England is trying to make a statement by going into the playoffs after having a hot December. We'll see if the win out the rest of the year. In the four o'clock game, the Giants won what was mostly a close game against Kansas City 27-17 bringing the possibility of a Manning-Manning Superbowl that closer. In the late game, Denver beat up the Bills 28-17, although I have to say that Buffalo fought a good fight up until the fourth quarter.

Base10 is hunkering down for the Jets-Miami game as he types it. We hope the Jets can win out and end the season with some level of respectability and be perfect in December.

Clearly, the game of the week is Indy and San Diego. Can Indy stay perfect against a Charger squad that needs this win? We'll see. Another good game should be Dallas and Washington which airs at 4PM. (For the record, Condi Rice predicts that Washington will win).
 
Harry Reid Approves Domestic Spying, Calls for Prosecution of Leak!
Well, maybe not in those words, but he did do it, sort of. On Fox News Sunday, Reid talked about the domestic spying scandal involving the National Security Agency. While Reid repeatedly said he was shocked, shocked that a spy agency well, spied on people, after dogged questioning by Mike Wallace he did admit that he was informed about the program by the administration months ago. Presumably, he decided to wait for a story in the NY Times before he thought to air his Constitutional objections. Interestingly, when confronted by Wallace about whether this leak should be investigated, Reid stated a criminal investigation should be conducted as to who leaked this information. After Valerie Plame, even Democrats must realize that they sound like complete hypocrites is they say anything otherwise.

On another note, Reid and the rest of the Democrats will probably regret the press conference where he bluntly stated that "We have just killed the Patriot Act" in front of the cameras.
Friday, December 16, 2005
 
Big News?
One thing this article fails to mention: it is not illegal for the NSA to monitor SIGINT originating in this country and going abroad. It may be improper to use evidence obtained this way in a criminal proceeding, but that's not what we're talking about here.

UPDATE: Well, you knew the Times was full of it to begin with. Apparently they failed to disclose that the author of this article has a forthcoming book on this very topic. Surprise, surprise! It's not just Senators that are willing to sacrifice national security for cheap personal gain.
 
This is Funny
Robert F. Kennedy (not one of those Kennedys, I think) has an unintentionally funny op-ed in the NY Times today. He is an environmentalist but he is complaining about the proposal to build massive wind farm turbines off the coast of Cape Cod by a company called Cape Wind. A quote:
Cape Wind's proposal involves construction of 130 giant turbines whose windmill arms will reach 417 feet above the water and be visible for up to 26 miles. These turbines are less than six miles from shore and would be seen from Cape Cod, Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket. Hundreds of flashing lights to warn airplanes away from the turbines will steal the stars and nighttime views. The noise of the turbines will be audible onshore. A transformer substation rising 100 feet above the sound would house giant helicopter pads and 40,000 gallons of potentially hazardous oil.
According to the Massachusetts Historical Commission, the project will damage the views from 16 historic sites and lighthouses on the cape and nearby islands. The Humane Society estimates the whirling turbines could every year kill thousands of migrating songbirds and sea ducks.

While Mr. Kennedy obviously has a great love for the Cape, his arguments are completely NIMBY-based and are representative of the hypocrisy on the part of the enviros. If not in your backyard, whose?
 
No Strike Yet

Base10 is on his way to work and all he has to say is, "So far, so good." An unusual development occurred in the TWU labor negotiations. The union--probably realizing the minimal impact of a Friday strike--made a statement that it was not moved by the MTA's most recent offer and instead called for a minimal partial strike on some of the outer borough bus lines. (These buses, if you're not familiar with the situation, used to belong to private franchises but have just been taken over by the MTA). The TWU president called for expanding strikes to "MTA property" early next week unless the MTA opens up their coffers some more.

The situation is interesting. By calling for a limited strike, the TWU is flexing its muscles. Of course, they have also painted themselves into a corner should the MTA stick with the same offer. But it does leave the politicians some time to convince the MTA to--while not giving away the store--up the ante a little. This is essentially what happened last time when the union threatened to strike.

What does this mean? For the average commuter, nothing, because the buses and trains are running--for the most part and at least until Tuesday morning. For the transit worker it means uncertainty.

This is a good example of the unfairness of the Taylor Law. Under that law, certain "essential" are forbidden by law to strike. The stick in the scheme is the ability to seek injunctive relief and massively fine the uinion and individual workers. The Taylor law must be reformed. While it takes the strike away--and I'm certainly not arguing that police and fire unions should be able to strike--it provides no incentive to municipalites to bargain in good faith.

As a municipal employee I never expected to get rich, but I do expect a fair raise from time to time and in a timely fashion. The Taylor law in fact encourages the city to be behind a cycle. The PBA for instance just settled for two years and their contract is already expired. The other uniform unions did four-year deals but even these will expire in 18 months.


 
Playing Politics with National Security
The Senate will not be passing the Patriot Act as currently approved by the House. The Republicans in the Senate could not overcome a filibuster threat by a vote of 52-47.

Republicans congressional leaders had lobbied fiercely to make most of the expiring Patriot Act provisions permanent. They also supported new safeguards and expiration dates to the act's two most controversial parts: authorization for roving wiretaps, which allow investigators to monitor multiple devices to keep a target from evading detection by switching phones or computers; and secret warrants for books, records and other items from businesses, hospitals and organizations such as libraries.

Feingold, Craig and other critics said those efforts weren't enough, and have called for the law to be extended in its present form so they can continue to try and add more civil liberties safeguards. But Bush, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist and House Speaker Dennis Hastert have said they won't accept a short-term extension of the law.


The AP also apparently couldn't resist taking a shot at the President as well:
[T]he Patriot Act's critics got a boost from a New York Times report saying Bush authorized the National Security Agency to monitor the international phone calls and international e-mails of hundreds perhaps thousands of people inside the United States. Previously, the NSA typically limited its domestic surveillance to foreign embassies and missions and obtained court orders for such investigations.


Base10 doesn't think Congress should be allowed to go home for the holidays until they agree on extensions to the act. Shame on you Senators!
 
Photo of the Day

woodhead, originally uploaded by base10blog.

Here is another of Mrs. Base10's "decorative" objects. Actually, I like the way this thing photographs. I might get another shot at another angle. Taken with the EOS 20d using the new 70-200 L lens. Enjoy.


Thursday, December 15, 2005
 
Iraqis Once Again Give The Finger to the Insurgency


Remember folks, this is what we're fighting for. These people deserve better than the likes of John Murtha, Teddy Kennedy and the rest the white flag wing of the Democratic Party. Hey, maybe their giving the Dems the finger, too.

Reports are that voter turnout is very high--between 70 and 80%--even in Sunni areas. There are even reports that polls had to stay open late to insure everyone got a chance to cast their ballots.
 
Another Cold One

Temperatures in NYC had reached a balmy forty-one degrees when I left the house this morning. Actually, it's pretty nice out. Sunny with no wind.


Wednesday, December 14, 2005
 
Good Morning

It is another frigid morning in NYC and Base10 is on his way to work. The Transit workers are threatening a strike when their contract expires on Thursday night. If it comes to that, I suspect they would not go out Friday, but would instead go out Monday morning. Base10 suspected the strike will not happen. Unfortunately, given the lock on collective bargaining, there is no other way to prompt the MTA into settling the contract in a timely fashion. (Base10 has been without a contract for three years--he can't strike). The Transit workers probably will do on Friday is engage in a "rules" slowdown--using rigid applications of work rules to delay service--to fire a shot across the bow of the MTA and make a strike threat more credible in the public's mind. As they up the rhetoric over the weekend, the MTA will be under increased pressure to settle. Whatever happens, Mr. And Mrs. Base10 always have our bicycles. But it's cold out there!


 
Blogging Today

Base10 is happy to report his office party was pretty good last night. Base10 did not get many pictures, however, so that will have to wait for another day.

Base10 has an urgent project to complete this morning, so he will be occupied for a couple of hours. Blogging is likely to be light.


 
Photo of the Day

satanicdoll, originally uploaded by base10blog.

This is one of Mrs. Base10's pieces of crap bric-a-brac. I think it looks quite evil in this light. Taken with the 70-200 lens and the EOS 20d.


Tuesday, December 13, 2005
 
What Do You Want to Do Tonight, Brain?
Same Thing We Do Every Night Pinky, Try to Take Over the World!

"Laboratory mice with part-human brains are created by scientists" - The Scotsman.
 
Frigid New York

It's a frigid day in NYC this morning. It was seventeen degrees when Base10 left the house. Light blogging is likely today since Base10 has to wrestle with the office mail server during the day and then attend the office Christmas party at night. It looks to be a fun time, although I think I may be getting roasted for my retirement. The party is taking place in old Surrogate's Court so hopefully Base10 can get some photos of the beautiful rotunda inside.


 
Tookie's Going Down

To hell that is. If you've been following the story Stanley "Tookie" Williams was executed this morning. Williams was the founder of the Crips street gang and was convicted of four murders in 1981. Now, twenty-four years later, the California criminal justice system is having its day. Yesterday, the Governator denied Tookies plea for clemency and the US Supreme Court denied his final appeal.

Many, many on the left and especially in the entertainment industry have come forward in defense of Tookie. He reformed in prison, they say. He took to writing children's books and engaging in advocacy against gangs.

Such activities may matter when Tookie met his maker this morning. But that is not the concern of the living. Tookie murdered four people in particularly brutal fashion. He never admitted to his crimes or apologized to the families of his victims. He never provided law enforcement with any information about the Crips. Shrill cries that he is innocent not withstanding, the evidence against Tookie is massive and credible. Tookie deserves to pay the ultimate price for his crimes. That it took twenty-four years is another issue.

Sometimes I think the left is its own worst enemy when it comes to capital punishment. One can make many legitimate if not compelling arguments against it. (For the record, Base10 favors the death penalty). While I won't go into these arguments here, the one argument you shouldn't count on is making Tookie Williams the poster-boy for the cause. This only serves to allienate those in the mainstream that might be sympathetic to your legitimate arguments.


Monday, December 12, 2005
 
Photo of the Day

Thanksgiving, originally uploaded by base10blog.

Taken with Fuji Neopan 400 using the Mamiya 7II. Scanned with the Epson 4990. Enjoy!


 
Good News and Bad News in Mudville

The mighty New York Jets won their third game of the season yesterday beating the hapless Oakland Raiders 26-10. Fifth-string quarterback Brooks Bollinger actually looked pretty good and the defense--as usual--looked outstanding. Base10 predicts that is this defense unit doesn't suffer too many losses in the off-season they will be quite remarkable next year.

While it's nice to have a win, it does come at a cost. The Jets are virtually out of the running to draft USC running back Reggie Bush should he declare. Base10 has written about this before. He thinks it is terrible for a team to play out the season's end for draft picks. It is far, far better to play to win now and build momentum for next season. An offense that has gelled in December is worth far more next September than a high draft pick in April. And remember, there is no guarantee that Bush will come out this season. He has reportedly taken out a massive insurance policy to avoid Willis McGahee's fate two years ago.

There was also some bad news in Jetsland. Curtis Martin, possibly the greatest class act in any sport, will miss the rest of the season to have knee surgery. Because of this, he will not get a shot at trying for a record breaking 11th consecutive 100 yard season. Sorry Curtis! One also has to wonder about his future with the Jets. I hope the team can find a way to keep him in a backup role if that's what he wants.


 
Speaking of Football

Base10 was watching the pre-game show on Fox and was struck by a segment they did about Jerome Bettis. They showed Bettis on Monday morning and he could barely walk down a flight of stairs. Before he even gets out of bed he has to have treatment for his knee. When you see a future Hall of Famer like that it really takes away some of the glamour of being a pro-football player.


 
A Warning from Mark Steyn
Mark Steyn warns in the Sun-Times that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is not just a clown from calling for Israel to wiped off the map and then suggesting that it be moved to Europe. Steyn thinks he's really dangerous. Base10 agrees and we're not doing enough about it. In the words of Mr. Steyn:
So let's see: We have a Holocaust denier who wants to relocate an entire nation to another continent, and he happens to be head of the world's newest nuclear state. (They're not 100 percent fully-fledged operational, but happily for them they can drag out the pseudo-negotiations with the European Union until they are. And Washington certainly won't do anything, because after all if we're not 100 percent certain they've got WMD -- which we won't be until there's a big smoking crater live on CNN one afternoon -- it would be just another Bushitlerburton lie to get us into another war for oil, right?)

So how does the United States react? Well, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said that the comments of Ahmadinejad "further underscore our concerns about the regime."

Really? But wait, the world's superpower wasn't done yet. The State Department moved to a two-adjective alert and described Ahmadinejad's remarks as "appalling" and "reprehensible." "They certainly don't inspire hope among any of us in the international community that the government of Iran is prepared to engage as a responsible member of that community," said spokesman Adam Ereli.

 
White Flag Republicans?
Ralph Peters thinks the Republicans may be just as bad as the Democrats with regard to the shrill cries for troop withdrawal. He predicts that the troop levels will be below 100,000 in Iraq before the midterm elections regardless of the situation on the ground. And he thinks this is unspeakably bad policy for the Administration. Partisan politics over troop levels are just as odious when used by the Republicans as when used by the Democrats.
Perhaps we'll legitimately be able to draw down our forces below 100,000 by next summer. If so, we'll all be delighted. But if the situation continues to demand 120,000 troops or more, we need to focus on the mission — not on election-year special effects. Defeating terrorists is far more important than defeating Democrats (who are perfectly capable of defeating themselves).

Winning House and Senate seats but losing Iraq wouldn't be a victory for anybody in America — no matter which party gained. If the administration makes troop reductions based purely on political calculations, the Republicans will deserve to lose.

Support our troops and bring them home — when Iraqi forces are on their feet. And not one hour before.

Iraq matters. Far more than the fate of Rep. Grababuck.

 
Lieberman Democrats
If only there were more of them! The editheads over at the Journal have high praise for Senator Joe Lieberman:
When that policy substance was ignored in Washington, the Senator repeated his case last week in the political language the Beltway press corps could finally comprehend: "It is time for Democrats who distrust President Bush to acknowledge that he will be Commander in Chief for three more critical years, and that in matters of war we undermine Presidential credibility at our nation's peril." The media, and his fellow Democrats, seemed agog.

And it's true that in modern, polarized Washington, such bipartisan sentiments are unusual. But as Mr. Lieberman also noted last week, they have a historic parallel from the early days of the Cold War. Then a Democratic President, Harry Truman, was trying to build alliances to resist Communism amid ferocious criticism from many Republicans, including their Senate leader, Ohio's Robert Taft. But a GOP Senator from Michigan, Arthur Vandenberg, stepped forward to support Truman, and the bipartisan "containment" strategy was born. Forty years later it would result in victory under Ronald Reagan.

On the other hand, they have little good to say about his Democratic colleagues:
[I]t's revealing of the party's foreign policy condition that his fellow Democrats are now training their guns not on the enemy in Iraq--but on Mr. Lieberman. "I completely disagree with him," said Nancy Pelosi, the House minority leader who went so far as to associate herself with the isolationist Taft Republicans of the early Cold War years.
"I agree with a Republican Senator, Senator Robert Taft," she said, who "said that disagreement in time of war is essential to a governing democracy." That would be fair enough if Ms. Pelosi were merely arguing over the tactics of how to win the war. But she has joined Congressman John Murtha in advocating a six-month deadline for U.S. withdrawal from Iraq, no matter the consequences. She doesn't want to win; she wants to quit.

Her Senate counterpart, Minority Leader Harry Reid, averred through a spokesman that while the Senator "has a lot of respect" for his colleague, "he feels that Senator Lieberman's position on Iraq is at odds with many Americans." How's that for wartime leadership? Mr. Reid disagrees with Mr. Lieberman's support for the war because the opinion polls do too. Never mind that one reason public opinion has turned against the war is because of the relentless pessimism of the likes of Mr. Reid.

 
The End of Conservatism?
Michael Barone--whom Base10 believes is the smartest guy in American politics--writes in RCP that this is the belief of many conservative intellectuals. But Barone counters:
Uncomfortable questions for conservatives remain. Do citizens in this society, whose economy offers so many choices, want choices in their public services? Polls suggest that young citizens would welcome choices in individual investment accounts in Social Security, but that change was blocked by united opposition from Democrats, while seniors -- the Americans least adept at going online and clicking to get what they want -- grumble about the array of choices in the Medicare prescription drug plan.

And what about the long-term danger of ever-larger entitlement programs? Social Security and Medicare are scheduled to gobble up a larger share of the economy as the population ages and the ratio of workers to beneficiaries falls. Someday, those trend-lines will have to be altered. But that day seems to have been delayed, which means the alteration will be more painful when it comes.

Even so, the character of the society still seems more in sync with conservatism than liberalism, and conservatives, of all people, should know that their goals cannot be achieved by the federal government alone.

Perhaps the end isn't here just yet.
Sunday, December 11, 2005
 
Iraq and the Media
The NRO editheads point out that the mainstream media's biased reporting on Iraq may not be only bias, but may in fact be incompetence as well:
Or, to take a slightly less well-known episode, there is the story of Jimmy Massey, an Iraq veteran who joined the antiwar movement upon returning home and told crowds that he had witnessed American troops committing unspeakable atrocities. Dozens of media outlets, including the Associated Press and the Washington Post, published stories on Massey without questioning the validity of his allegations. Finally, Ron Harris of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, who had been embedded with Massey's unit, took his calling as a reporter seriously and investigated Massey's claims — each of which, he concluded, "is either demonstrably false or exaggerated."

That not all reporters are biased, or that some excellent journalism has come from Iraq, we do not deny. But Ron Harris should be the rule, not the exception. Reporters often defend their refusal to give the military the benefit of the doubt by saying that any good reporter is skeptical. But what Rumsfeld noted — and what stories like Harris's reveal — is that, for many in the mainstream press, that skepticism is a one-way street.

 
Roosevelt Truman Johnson Bush Lied
Morton Keller writes in the Opinion Journal that the so-and-so lied ploy is a frequent staple of American wartime politics.
Variations of "Bush lied" have been part of the political scene ever since America plunged into its permanent overseas embroilment in the Second World War. Reviewing that record won't settle the current dispute over how and why we got into Iraq. But it should remind us that George W. Bush's accusers are hardly walking in fresh snow.

 
Eugene McCarthy, RIP
Former Senator Eugene McCarthy has passed away at 89 years of age. McCarthy occupies a footnote in American political history. He ran in a primary against Lyndon Johnson basically causing Johnson to drop out of the race.

It's interesting that McCarthy's death is getting such press right now. Many are comparing him with Howard Dean today. Democrats, beware! The anti-war left caused the Democrats to lose the White House that election and every election since except for four years of Carter madness and eight years of Clinton moderation.
 
A Radical Plan
Base10 has been a frequent critic of the Central Intelligence Agency--usually for good reason. Jack Kelly over at the Post-Gazette thinks that we should just blow it up. Not literally--of course. He thinks it's time to eliminate the agency and start over. Kelly points out the CIA's pitiful record at predicting geopolitical events:
The CIA could be right (that Iran could not develop nukes for 10 years), and the Israeli intelligence service Mossad and the IAEA could be wrong (predicting that Iran could have nukes in several months). But given the CIA's forecasting record -- it missed the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Islamic revolution in Iran, the warning signs of 9/11 and Saddam's WMD -- that's not the way to bet.

Intelligence analysis isn't the only thing the CIA does sloppily. The Bush administration suffered major embarrassment when it was disclosed that the United States was holding top al-Qaida suspects in "secret prisons" in eastern Europe and North Africa.


Kelly also wonders whether the CIA is at war with the White House:
But if the CIA hasn't been very good at ferreting out the secrets of our enemies, or keeping our own, it has shown a talent for playing politics.

"The CIA's war against the Bush administration is one of the great untold stories of the past three years," wrote lawyer and Web logger John Hinderaker in The Weekly Standard.

The CIA has used its budget to fund criticism of the Bush administration by former Democratic officeholders, and permitted a serving analyst, Michael Scheuer, to publish and promote a book bashing the president.

The principal CIA weapon has been the leak. Reporters for ABC, The New York Times and The Washington Post didn't have to do even the minimal legwork Mr. Laurin did to out the CIA's clandestine "rendition" program. It was handed to them by "current and former intelligence officials."

"So the CIA established policies that it knew would be controversial and would damage American interests if revealed, and then leaked the existence of those policies to The Washington Post for the purpose of damaging the Bush administration," Mr. Hinderaker wrote.

Kelly may be right. The CIA is not working.
Saturday, December 10, 2005
 
For This We Need Historians
"Historians: Past Eras Were Worse" - AP.
 
How About one of These for Christmas...
A friend of Base10 emailed him a link to Cthulhu plush toys. You know, what says "I love you" more than a soft toy made in the image of an evil elder god?

Of course you might have second thoughts about adding a Cthulhu to your soft toy collection. These stuffed animals learned that lesson the hard way.

You might also want to consider the Cthulhu Lego set depicted here. Although be warned that exposure to it may make other Lego figures run away or go insane.

Personally, Base10 wonders if they have a Cthulhu Christmas ornament. Oh wait--I can't say that--I might offend someone who is non-Christian. Let me just say to all of you whether you are Jewish, Muslim or you belong to a cult that worships an ancient elder god bent on world destruction, Happy Holidays!

If you'd like to learn more about the Cthulhu Mythos, click here.


 
So Why Are We Worried About Global Warming?
"Glacial Gains on Emissions" - NY Times.
 
Photo of the Day

img129, originally uploaded by base10blog.

This was taken with the Speed Graphic at maximum lens extension. Note the very nice bokheh and the extremely narrow depth of field. This was taken using a Schneider 135mm lens using Fuji 400 c-41 film in ambient light. Scanned using the Epson 4990.


 
Return to Narnia
Base10 mentioned here that some people were shocked, shocked to find that theologian C.S. Lewis incorporated Christian themes in the Narnia Chronicles! How dare he!

Rich Lowry over at NRO has some comments. Also, Cathy Seipp has some responses.

Here's a link to Gregg Easterbrook's defense of Narnia. (Alas, subscription required).
 
Maybe There's Some Good News in Iraq
Thankfully, many people don't agree with the assessment of the National Journal. For example:

Fred Kagan at the Weekly Standard thinks that we are much closer to victory in Iraq than most Americans think.

William F. Buckley reports that a recent report by the Business Executives for National Security on their visit to Iraq. They found measurable improvement but significant work to do. Buckley concludes:
What is required is the kind of assurance that is generated by the morale of the military. We learn that the U.S. re-enlistment rate is substantially above the goal. What would destroy that morale is any sense that the American government will not stay the course. The operative assumption is that the United States can be relied on until the elections of 2008. The challenge is to restore order in Iraq and to maintain order in the United States.


Via RCP.
 
Be Careful Who You Quote
You can almost take this article seriously. Paul Starobin in the National Journal recasts the "impending" civil war in Iraq as being already underway. You almost take it seriously until you realize that the first expert quoted by the author is Juan Cole!
"What we have in Iraq is an unconventional civil war," says Juan Cole, a Middle East history professor at the University of Michigan and keeper of a well-read blog on events in Iraq. Cole added that present-day Iraq reminds him of Lebanon in the late 1970s, when that country's civil war was conducted largely by neighborhood-based militias.

Of course, all you need to know about Juan Cole is contained in this column by Jonah Goldberg. Apparently, if lies, distortions and polemicism constitute scholarship, Juan Cole can be considered a scholar.
 
The Doctor is in the House!
Victor Davis Hansen has his usual high-quality column up at NRO. This time the good doctor argues that the Howard Dean-John Kerry-John Murtha cabal is the mainstream of the Democratic Party. And maybe only Joe Lieberman can beat some sense into them:
Dean, Kerry, and Murtha are bright and good men who rightly worry that more Americans will die in a far-off place for a cause that they think is now hopeless. But to follow their apparently popular advice would lead to an abject national disaster as well as calamity for their own party. In short, they have become metaphors of why even Democrats are uneasy about voting for Democrats.

More importantly, the Democrats spent the last quarter century, following Vietnam and Jimmy Carter, trying to reestablish their lost fides on national defense (which were once unquestionable in the age of FDR, Truman, JFK, and senator Henry Jackson). If Joe Lieberman cannot save mainstream Democrats from themselves, perhaps the Iraqis who vote on December 15 can.

 
Weekend Sports
Well, the weekend is finally here. Although we have the NFL tomorrow, there are, alas, few sporting events to watch today. There's no big college football to speak of (although Base10 did catch the Division 1-AA semifinals last night and it was a pretty good game--Northern Iowa beat Texas State 40-37 in OT.

Of course, tonight brings the award ceremony for the Heisman Trophy. Pundits seem to place Reggie Bush as the odds-on favorite.

At least we have hockey this year! The Rangers face St. Louis tonight.

The NFL has some decent action this weekend. The Jets face the Oakland Raiders tomorrow at 1PM. The Giants face a division battle with the Eagles at 4PM. CBS gets a double headers today and in the NYC area can show the Dallas - Kansas City matchup, which might be interesting. The Sunday night game is unfortunately a rather low-interest affair pitting Green Bay against Detroit.

Well enjoy the weekend, sports fans!
Friday, December 09, 2005
 
Snow in the City

Base10 is on his way to work on a snowy Friday morning. He is contemplating stopping by Adorama to buy a couple of things (since he got his new Speed Graphic delivered) but will see how the rest of his commute goes. It is snowing, after all.

We got a couple of inches overnight, but it seems to have changed to rain. It looked quite ominous in the early morning hours with snow falling in a red sky.

Snow has an odd effect on New York. Perfectly normal people see a dusting and it makes them act like they're going on a polar expedition. Mrs. Base10 actually asked if we should stock up on milk this morning. Sure honey. The city might be closed tomorrow. We don't even drink milk. This is completely opposite from Base10's experience living in Boston. Boston usually gets socked with way more snow than we do, but the residents are completely nonplussed by it. A two-footer storm is not considered a big deal. Just wear your extra warm hat.

New York does have its charm in the snow, though. The city is breathtakingly beautiful for about five minutes after a snowfall. After that, let's just say the scene tends to degrade in proportion to the time from the storm's end.

Base10 will try to post more later.


 
More on Dean
The editheads at the NY Daily News point out that Dean's remarks about Iraq are, well, nuts:
Dean, the Democratic Party boss with the say-anything habit, has outdone himself with his newest foray into fantasy. As usual, his idea is wrapped in false packaging and sealed with slimy innuendo. Here are a few of the whoppers he recently let loose on San Antonio, Tex., radio station WOAI:

The "idea that we're going to win the war in Iraq is an idea which is just plain wrong."

"This is the same situation we had in Vietnam. Everybody then kept saying, 'Just another year, just stay the course, we'll have a victory.' Well, we didn't have a victory, and this policy cost the lives of an additional 25,000 troops because we were too stubborn to recognize what was happening."

"What we see today is very much like what was going on in Watergate. It turns out there is a lot of good evidence that President Bush did not tell the truth when he was asking Congress for the power to go to war."


The editorial concludes:
Thank God Howard Dean is not President. Virtually every idea in that paragraph is either false or nuts. But this is the gist of the wackadoo wing's big lies - that terrorism is a direct outgrowth of the Iraq invasion and that Iraq was a workers' paradise before we showed up in our jackboots. Fact: Terrorists attacked Americans repeatedly before the war. As for the prewar conditions in Iraq, Dean & Co. should try their rosy vision on the survivors of Saddam Hussein's torture chambers risking their lives to testify against him.

 
While You're at RCP
Take a gander at this article by J.R. Dunn about whether Abu Musab al-Zarqawi can sustain an insurgency. Dunn thinks not, and he has a lot of critical analysis to prove it.
 
Christopher Hitchens Once Again Takes on Ramsey Clark
This time in the L.A. Times:
NOT MANY MONTHS ago, on this very page, a former attorney general of the United States defended his own decision to appear as an attorney for Saddam Hussein. In his article, Mr. Ramsey Clark made the perfectly obvious and indeed irrefutable point that his infamous client — his "demonized" client, as he phrased it — was as much entitled to a defense counsel as the next man.

Nobody disputes this proposition, least of all the Iraqi court that Clark described as illegitimate before it had even opened proceedings. So now, Clark — one of the chief spokesmen of the American antiwar movement, leader of the ANSWER coalition that filled the streets with protesters and compared President Bush to Adolf Hitler — is indeed in Baghdad, seated at the defense table for a client who on Monday terminated the proceedings by loudly comparing his own stand in the dock to the heroic struggle of Mussolini.

Any reporter with the smallest talent could make good copy out of this zoo-like scene. But a core of principle is involved here, and it ought not to be overlooked. Hussein stands accused of some of the most revolting crimes ever perpetrated by any despot. A defense lawyer is (presumably) engaged to acquit him of such charges. Yet before he had even had his credentials accepted by the court, Clark announced that his client was a) guilty of disgusting atrocities and b) justified in having committed them.

Mr. Hitchens, making fun of Ramsey Clark is too easy.
 
Compare and Contrast
Over at Real Clear Politics, Pat Buchanan compares the President's remarks on Iraq:
In his "Plan for Victory" address to the Naval Academy, the president declared: "Against this adversary, there is only one effective response: We will never back down. We will never give in. And we will never accept anything less than complete victory."


With the remarks made by Howard Dean and John Kerry:
To which Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean instantly retorted, "The idea that we're going to win this war ... is just plain wrong."

How's that for a Churchillian, "we-shall-fight-on-the-beaches ... we-shall-never-surrender" moment?

Sunday on "Face the Nation," John Kerry said to Bob Schieffer: "There is no reason, Bob, that young American soldiers need to be going into the homes of Iraqis in the dead of night, terrorizing kids and children, you know, women, breaking ... the historical customs, religious customs. ... Iraqis should be doing that."

After the laughter died, Democratic spin-doctors were out in force explaining that Kerry was not calling U.S. troops terrorists.

Make no mistake, paleo-Conservative Buchanan is pessimistic on Iraq and believes a "Tet moment" is coming for the President, but he is dead on about the Democratic criticism.
 
Photo of the Day

img131, originally uploaded by base10blog.

You knew, eventually, that I would have to post the proverbial bowl of fruit photo. Here it is. Taken with Fuji Archos 400 using the Mamiya 7II and a yellow optical filter. Negative then scanned with the Epson 4990.


Thursday, December 08, 2005
 
Blogging Tardiness and the Staffing Monkey

Base10 has been slacking off in the blogging department for the last couple of days. It is, alas, the busy season for Base10 this time of year. He is working like a hamster in a Habitrail--wait, strike that. Base10 has decided to adopt a new persona: the staffing monkey. One of Base10 does is personnel allocation. He is convinced that this job could just as easily be performed by a trained monkey. (Sort of like that Monster.com commercial). So if some personnel decisions were being contemplated, people would say, "Let's run that by the staffing monkey." The monkey would manipulate his spreadsheets, howl a bit and come up with an answer.

In a way, the monkey would solve some staffing dilemmas. The personnel "pie" as it were is only so big. When one unit is expanded it is at the expense of another unit. As a result, there are always unhappy campers in this process. With a staffing monkey, anyone who complains about the size of his particular slice of the pie would be sent to the monkey for an explanation. The monkey would then hurl feces at the complainer (and perhaps howl a bit more).

Fear the monkey!

Anyway, more blogging after work.


Wednesday, December 07, 2005
 
Photo of the Day

juniperflower4, originally uploaded by base10blog.

I don't think I posted this before, but if I did, I apologize. This is a closeup taken in Juniper Park with the Speed Graphic. Speaking of the Speed, my Century Graphic should arrive tomorrow. I must get a portable meter for it.


 
Busy

It's that time of year again. Not the holidays. It's when the recruit class gets out. So naturally, Base-10 is a little busy these days. (I really have to talk to my boss about work interfering with blogging).

Anyway, Base10 is on his way to work on a frigid morning in NYC. I'm told that we can expect another snow storm over Friday night, so it looks to be more of the same.


 
Politics and Economics

Base10 got into a big discussion with his collegues over the President's fiscal policy. Basically, here's how it goes: You can justify the Bush tax cuts and deficit spending baed on basic Keynsian economics. If you're in a recession (as we were post 9/11), this fiscal policy is not only excuseable but required. Any economist who suggests that tax increases would alleviate a recession are misleading you. While one could make an argument about deficit spending and the negative so-called "crowding out" effect it has on private investment, deficit spending has long been a tool of fiscal policy in rough times. Any one who suggests otherwise, is misrepresenting basic macroeconomic principles.

But this point begs the question. We are no longer in a recession. The economy is growing at a very healthy pace. It is time to curb spending. (I'm not suggesting that we necessarily raise taxes). We're in the midst of a very expensive war overseas. The cost of this war is certainly justified, but somebody's got to pay for it. When was the last time Bush vetoed a spending bill? Oh, that's right. Never.

The other thing that ticks me off is the selective quoting of Alan Greenspan. The NY Times will often run a headline of the sort: "Greenspan warns on deficits." What he has actually been saying consistently for thwe last several years is that deficits will increase dramatically down the road if we don't do something about Social Security and Medicare. This half of the message seems to always be omitted by the NYT headline editors. The other side of this argument is that the deficit now is very large in nominal dollars but is not very large as a percentage of GDP. If the overall strategy is to grow your way out of the deficit, fine. But Mr. President, you could stop spending taxpayer money as if it is a never ending bag of carnival tokens.


 
Photography

Base10 got five 120 rolls back yesterday and he must say that they came out well, overall. I had two rolls of color: one was started in DC in the Speed Graphic and one was shot through the Mamiya on Thanksgiving. The rest were B&W. One roll I shot with the Yashica, one roll went through the Speed at 6x9 and one roll went through in 6x6 using a 65mm Schneider lens I have never used before. The negatives seemed very nice, but I didn't scan too many last night.

My one complaint: I seemed to have ruined quite a few shots through the Mamiya. I thing the ASA settings were set to 1600 by mistake and resulted in gross under-exposures.

All in all, though, I'm happy with the quality and will post some soon.



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